Did you know there was a recall of the Panteras exported to North America circa late 1971?
Ford tested the Pantera AFTER it had begun importing them, delivering them to dealerships, and putting them up for sale. They found one glaring problem, the HVAC system barely blew any air. They also found several areas where they believed improvements should be made.
They implemented revisions to the Pantera in the assembly process back in Italy. The revisions consisted of wrapping the fuel tanks in fiberglass, modifying the front upper A-arms, welding gussets at various points in the chassis, improving the welding at certain places in the chassis, adding support to the steering rack, replacing the alternator, re-working the cooling system expansion tank, and reworking the air conditioning system.
Those Panteras built prior to the changes being implemented were modified after the fact by Ford's contractors (Bill Stroppe, Holman Moody, and a third in Detroit).
Various documents and people have been quoted, without thorough explanations, thus various numbers have been tossed around. This impacted some 500 Panteras on the low side to possibly 700 Panteras on the high side. Chassis numbers affected began with the first pushbutton import, chassis number 1286, and extended at least through chassis number 1777, possibly through 1994. I'm not sure if the Panteras already shipped to dealerships were modified at the dealerships or if they were returned to the re-work centers. Those Panteras which were already sold to customers were recalled (affected about 92 to 94 cars). A few Panteras were actually reworked at customer's homes.
My only information on the subject is an article from Motor Trend magazine, March 1972, titled "Mr Ford Wants It Right", plus mentions in Wally Wyss' two books "De Tomaso Automobiles" and "De Tomaso the Man and the Machines". Wally Wyss alludes to documentation provided by Ford to provide guidance for the folks performing the revisions. I've never seen this documentation.
-G
