Pantera # 5357 - Rocky's 1973 L model

Hey Rocky,
Looks fantastic man. Really first rate.

Rocky;
Like the engine "bubble" cover. Was trying to figure how I wanted to do the same. See you left the upper horizontal upholstered section intact.
I like that.

Thanks, Jag -

If you look at page 24, you can (sort of) see how I cut the hump off the big panel.

I was able to do the upholstery on the big panel myself, but the removable "bubble part", with the curved seam was too much for me. That part cost me $150.

I did use the two vertical metal "attachment strips" (with nuts) on the edges of the bubble to hold the material down. Don't throw those away!

Rocky

Jag, cutting the firewall bubble loose is something racers did in the '70s. The Gr-3s came that way, I'm told as running a factory 4-point roll cage meant the panel could never be removed unless the cage was first removed. Its quite simple: the leatherette upholstery is done separately on the bubble and the main panel. By unbolting the two metal strips and pulling on the bubble-upholstery, it comes off.

To cut the thin fiberglas, use a fine- tooth wood saw. Leave about 1" across the top. When the bubble is cut free, trim it until there's about a 1/2" clearance all around, and re-glue the removed upholstery back onto the cutaway bubble. Stretch & wrap the main upholstery as far as possible around the main fiberglas panel and touch up visible cut edges with semigloss black paint (or even a Magic Marker) so when the two panels are back together, the cuts are invisible. Two strips of velcro will hold the cut-free fiberglas bubble to the underlying steel access panel.

This has been the subject of several illustrated articles in the POCA Newsletter during the past 10 yrs, all done at home. It is also the first step in self-constructing a flat-firewall Pantera.

Thanks Rocky, Seems to close to retail pricing for me.

So just to keep the team up to date....

Fixed my 700 CFM Carb Issues...

Several other minor corrections applied... like wiping off the rear cross bar, and adding an additional hold down screw to my radiator cover panel. Oh, I also cleaned my windows yesterday.

Once these cars are set up, they seem to run pretty well.

Just got back from a run to Mount Lemmon with the Cobras. It was fun.

Only one minor issue - one of the Cobras hit a rock, it kicked up, and whacked into the Tranny, and put a big hole into it. The Cobra pulled in to the parking lot STREAMING tranny fluid.

I just learned the T56 (I think) Trannies use ATF...

Here's a picture of the carnage... If you look close, you can see a trail of ATF leading to the car's final resting place....

The poor guy "isn't mechanical", so needs to "take it to somebody".... (That's gonna hurt).

Lots of ATF coming out of the side, too.

Chuck, GM started switching their std trannys to ATF (a 0-wt hydraulic oil, not a load-bearing lubricant) over 2 decades ago. I found it full to the brim in an '82 Z-28 4-speed that seized 2nd gear to the mainshaft at an event, even though the gear was submerged in ATF. Most of us suspect the switch was done to gain about 1 mpg in their gov't D.O.T. CAFE rating; too bad about your warranty claims.

Most savvy car owners immediately switched their boxes back to 80 wt gear lube with zero problems from the 'thicker' lube. A few of my autocross friends lost gearboxes in new Corvettes from lack of proper lubrication of the transmission gears.

It's been a while since I posted (here)....

I was poking around through an old POCA Profiles, and what do I find....

My Car, second in the '88 Concours in Costa Mesa, CA. Very cool.

Neil bought the car in 1985 (I have his cancelled check). It's nice to know the history.

Here's a picture of Neil and I at the 2016 Fun Rally at the Shelby operation...

So I'll help you, if you help me!

Here's a picture of a really slick little petcock that I got from Ace for $9.99. I am using it as a radiator drain - it threads right into the 1/4" NPT threads in the drivers side front of the radiator.

(I am not so sure about it's classification as a Valvula Recta, though!)

Anyway - It has a solid attachment point for a short piece of hose so your antifreeze doesn't pour all over everything.

It is 100x better than the crappy petcock on the right in which the little "wing nut/hose bib" came loose on me.....

It looks like it will work great.

Here's what I need -

What's the trick to routing the wires so that they aren't crossing all over each other?

Or if they must, how do you make it look like they are "supposed to be that way"?

Mine look like crap with all the criss-crossing!

Thanks -

Rocky

One more -

Anyone have an Everco, Ford or anyone else's part number for this little fitting?

Threaded on the top (you can see the teflon tape).

It goes into the water pump (lower silver fitting in the picture with the wires, above).

Thanks -

Rocky

Rocky, when I loom up a set of custom wires, I imagine the distributor cap as 2 halves, split along a front to back line. This would be where your cap clips are in your photo. Route 4 wires to the left and 4 wires to the right. Take the wires (2 from each side) that have to cross over to the opposite bank, and route them behind the cap. I'll see if I can take a pic.

Can't help you with the pump fitting though.

Thanks, Rodney -

A picture would be great.

It's like a puzzle!

A local engine builder did something unusual for spark plug wiring and my buddy Bill helped me really dress it up nice. When I get my car back I'll take a picture or two. Basically with the distributor in 180 degrees OFF, two wires no longer cross. Looks really nice. You just need to remember the OFF part. ;-)

Thanks, Rick -

Bill was talking about this mod. I am assuming you guys are not running vacuum advance?

Of course I'd love pix.

Regards -

Chuck (a.k.a Rocky)

Rocky, here are some pics. I kind of mocked this up on the engine stand; took me a bit to find the box with the dizzy in it.









Rick's post reminded me of something; you can put the dizzy in any way you want by just re-assigning which post is #1. The order doesn't change, just the starting point. Doesn't matter if you have vacuum advance or not.

Think of it this way. The body of the dizzy will only fit in certain ways. It is limited by obstructions, the vacuum can, access to the cap clips, and so on. The cap is keyed to the body, and only fits one way. But the dizzy shaft, rotor, reluctor (or points cam) can fit in many ways. I don't remember how many teeth are on the gear, but it will go in that many ways. I don't know if this will really help with looming the wires. I would think it would cross just as many as it would un-cross, but maybe so. I'd have to play with it and see.

Also, don't get carried away with looming the wires really snug; you can make the cap really difficult to get off.

Thanks, Rodney -

The wire holder trick on the back side is a good one. Thanks for the pictures - I will go out and give it a shot!

I see what you are saying about the rotor... That makes sense now too...

Regards -

Chuck

Rocky,

Here is what I did. Notice #1 location.

Steve

These wire holders sourced from Summit mounted upside-down due to the Blue Thunder valve covers having raised mounts.

Under side

Driver side

Thanks, Steve -

Your setup looks good, as does your motor!

Not sure how I missed this for so long.

I like the idea on moving #1... I need to think that through, but it looks like a cleaner setup....

Thanks, all for the ideas!

Here's my latest mod, - Stainless bungs TIG'ed up on the bottom of my cooling tubes. With my new petcock in the radiator, and Steve's "old racer's trick" (petcocks in the block), I won't make a huge mess draining down the coolant....

Installed - the next picture will be in focus....

Rocky

It's Alive, It's ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!


How I got started this morning....


After a few minor mis-steps...


Finally - The euphoria sets in....

You Tube - Frankenstein

You funny guy!

I know I haven't posted in a while... My car is "done" (Ha-ha-ha!)

Anyway - here's a shot of my new bumper getting prepped for paint. It will match my original black "faux" Cougar Sport Mirrors that are also getting shot by Rick P. at Duval Body and Paint.

I am sure the ensemble will look very cool.

Rocky

Ready for pick-up!

was there any "blemish" with the old bumper?

did you get new glass for the mirrors?

The old bumper was wiggly on top, and had had a couple of "hits" on it. The PO had tried to have it refinished, but it didn't stand the "test of time".

I just pulled the glass out of the mirrors, and will re-install in the newly painted shell.

On the faux Cougar Sport mirrors, underneath the mirror body, there are two vertical phillips screws. Remove them, and the mirror and adjusting ball slide out.

Easy!


Rocky

I think I have the same mirror and glad to hear the glass came out easily.

I was thinking about seeing if I could get "image is closer" glass. not as great as most passenger side, but enough to help see better

This is much better:

Rocky,
Did the glass bumper fit properly?
I have one and when I test fitted it a couple of years ago the fit wasn't very good. Bad enough that I wouldn't put it on the car. Put the original back on and the glass one is on the shelf waiting it's turn on the to do list.

I was just curious if the body shop had to modify yours at all before they painted it?

Thanks,

Doug M

I will find out very soon.

Test fits were limited to "eyeball assessments".

Rocky

Rocky/Joe

All the sport mirrors use the same glass (Mustang, Mustang II, Pinto, Cougar, Torino, Montego, Ranchero, others?). Standard replacement glass for the right hand mirror is easy to find. If you need make & part number let me know.

In my sport mirror equipped Mustangs, and my Pantera, I used 3" round "stick-on" convex mirrors to improve rear vision. I would like to find convex replacement glass for the sport mirrors, I'm sure it once existed ... the sport mirrors were used in so many applications. A convex replacement would look better and perform better than a simple 3" round stick-on mirror. Several years ago I spent perhaps an hour looking for convex replacements to no avail ... but I haven't pursued that issue further. I keep busy.

The other dream is to replace the remote adjustable mirror assembly for the left hand mirror with a standard mirror from the right hand side. I haven't put any time into assessing the possibility of doing that either.

If you guys have info on either subject ... please share it.

Got my mirrors and bumper back today - all the parts look great, thanks to the Duval Body and Paint Team (Thanks, Rick P.)!

I reassembled the mirrors and got them mounted up. It's hard to get a good picture of a black mirror on a bright yellow background!

Anyway - take a look.

The bumper is disappointing - the finish is great, but - in the same vein as Doug M, the fit on the bumper is bad - it is too narrow, and none of the studs line up with the holes in the body.

I surely should have test fit it before proceeding to paint - in fact I should have test fit it the day I received it.

Makes you wonder... Used bumper advertised as a Hall Pantera bumper (never finished / never mounted). It's impossible for me to know the backstory. Disappointing.

Rocky

Working on a back-up plan with the bumper. Will keep the forum posted on progress.

Happy to help Rocky.... Any time!

Chuck,

Mirrors look great. Talk to Kirk Evans about the bumper.


Ron

I am quite sure that those fiberglass bumpers are manufactured and supplied by Kirk Evans.

I am using one. It IS from Hall Pantera.

I would not say that it fits poorly at all. It just fits differently then the original crash bumper does.

I can't say either that the mounting hole locations were any kind of a problem.

It is SO MUCH better of a part then the original, it took me five minutes to decide that I love it.

Of course we don't have that intense heat, sun and all those rattle snakes hiding in the sand traps on the golf course, so maybe that's the difference.

I get sun burned on a cloudy day. I know. Strange. That's life here in NY. Strange is normal. You don't want to really know what we think is strange here. You would not come out of your room and you would be hiding under the bed all the time.

I'm not worried. I've got big guns too with PLENTY of ammo. They don't fit in the Pantera though? The car is too small. What amendment is that again?