To that end, we had to figure out how to get a car seat in the Pantera for all the road trips we went on. Of course, you know that space is tight in a Pantera and the thought of adding a third person to the mix probably doesn't sound too good. As far as we were concerned, where there is a will there is a way. You just have to be willing to compromise. We found out that there was more space than we thought.
I started out by purchasing a baby seat with a great 5 point seat belt system on it from Toys R Us. As I recall it was manufactured by Evenflow. Oh, better tell you right now that I did this all 15 years ago so there might be an even better seat made nowadays.
As you can imagine, trying to place a car seat on the Pantera console behind the shifter would be nearly impossible to make work. Even if you could get the seat to fit on the console, how could you shift the car? Well, I came up with an idea there too....you get the BABY to shift! That idea didn't pan out as well as the next idea I had.
My thought was, if you RAISE the car seat up, there is plenty of room for your right hand to shift. What I needed was a platform for the car seat to sit on! I placed the car seat in the Pantera and rested the back of the car seat against the bulkhead between the seats. I then slid the car seat up the front of the bulkhead until the top of the car seat was touching the headliner. At that point, I could see how much space there was below the car seat base and the top of the console in the Pantera. I had Cynthia hold the car seat in that position while I took measurements from the back of the car seat base to the rear of the Pantera console and from the front of the car seat base to just behind the shifter.
By the way, I did design the base to work with the cigarette lighter removed. I didn't remove the entire lighter housing, I just pulled out the lighter itself and set it aside when we installed the car seat.
I took some cardboard and made a template of the top of the Pantera console behind the shifter to the front of the bulkhead. This would be the pattern for the bottom of the base of the platform. I made another template from cardboard of the base of the car seat which would be the top of the platform. At that point, all I needed was to attach two "legs" between the top and bottom of the platform.
I went to a local hardware store and bought some flat steel (I can't recall the gauge, but it was fairly stiff stuff
) and I cut the metal to the shape of the top of the console and then bent it in a vise to get the right height at the back. I placed two aluminum "L" stock under the front to get the height I needed. I pop riveted the aluminum to the steel and painted the whole platform a satin black color.I placed a small plastic panel in front and attached a Detomaso decal for the "factory look".
I purchased a spare seat belt assembly from a local Auto Parts store and attached the belts to the seat belt mounting bolts up by the rear window of the Pantera. When the baby seat was installed, you simply slipped the new seatbelt straight through the back of the car seat and pulled it tight.
When the car seat was installed, it was a very solid fit. Having the seat rest against the roof gave it added stability.
Cynthia and I were pulled over one time by a sheriff while traveling in Colorado with Joshua in the Pantera. The sheriff was a bit surprised to see Joshua sitting between us and even checked the seat to see how sturdy it was. It passed his exam with flying colors.
Joshua logged more than 15,000 (Yes, fifteen thousand) miles in that car seat. What both our children liked so much about it was they could SEE out of the car! When they were in the car seat their eyes were almost exactly at the same level as the passenger or driver. Talk about contented kids! Our kids NEVER traveled in another vehicle that kept them as contented as they were in the Pantera. That is no joke.
When Joshua was just about 4 or 5 years old, I took him in the Pantera on a trip to Idaho. We left our home in New Mexico at about 4:00am and arrived in Boise, Idaho at around 6:30 that same evening....1011 (one thousand and eleven) miles later. It's our personal world record for the most miles traveled in our Pantera in one day. I would NEVER have attempted that journey in a mini van!
The photo below is of Joshua, about one month old in the Pantera car seat. For whatever reason, I didn't take very many photos of the kids in the car seat!
Now for the disclaimer:
Apparently, these days you are required to have the child facing rearward while seated in a child seat. I am sure you could make that position work with some modifications. Our kids LOVED looking forward through the windshield.
We never had to "test" the structural integrity of the car seat platform....thankfully! It sure seemed sturdy enough but I was glad we never had to find out if it worked right or not.
As far as the police are concerned as to whether a car seat is legal in a Pantera....your mileage may vary.
