Pantera spare wheel

In all honesty, you probably should have just saved your money.

It will serve nicely as a get-some-points item at a Concours where originality matters, and will fit nicely in the round recess in the rear tub.

BUT YOU SHOULD NEVER INFLATE IT !!!!!

Do not even entertain getting an air canister to allow the use of that spare. Do not ever fill it with an air hose.

If Oz rules demand you have a spare and demonstrate its serviceability, seek out one of the later-model car spares - the ones that look like motorcycle tires.

The original spare tire's safety was at best questionable when they were new. That tire is now over 35 years old.

Clean it up nice and pretty, put some wax on it, and leave it home in the garage unless you are showing the car.

What to do for a spare? Most of us here carry a cell phone, a AAA auto club card and if really paranoid, a tire plug kit and some fix-a-flat cans or small 12 volt compressor.

Larry

P.S. - YOU SHOULD NEVER INFLATE IT !!!!!

So I WON'T INFLATE IT!!

Got it.

Am I right in presuming that the outer band must stretch as the sidewall folds out? Really weird design eh. Ford used these on some Mustangs also didn't they.

These flat spares were not in Euro spec cars were they?

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Am I right in presuming that the outer band must stretch as the sidewall folds out?

Logic dictates that it must, but I have .... never inflated one.

They were quite common on the Mustangs, and are highly sought after for proper originality.

Other makes used them, not just Ford.

Reproduction canister labels are being made, but no one is doing a repro on the tire, as far as I know.

No idea what, if any, spare was fitted to Euro market cars.

Larry

Do you have a canister or good photos of one?

I presume it has an outlet where a schraeder valve goes, and maybe a charge port?

Did they come with a transfer hose or simply push the canister tip against the valve?

I've seen the labels on evilBay, but the pictures of canisters are not good at all.

I was considering making a canister, using an old fire extinguisher and getting a label for it and keeping it with the spare for 'show and tell' days.

quote:

good photos of one?

and

Ah, so it sits in/on the jack which all goes in together. Never seen where the jack goes.

If we have this nice area in our luggage tray, why do many people put the spare up front?

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Ah, so it sits in/on the jack which all goes in together.

That is a Mustang photo.

OUR jack was part of the tool kit.

I have yet to see ANYONE carry a spare up front.

Larry

Thanks Larry,

The spare tire is just for vehicle regulations in the 70's. The spare will work on the front but not on the rear.As a spare on the rear, if you use it for any lenght of time you will ruin you ZF trans.Two different size tires on the drive axles doesn't work. The early P cars had the spare tire placed in the front compartment, till they figured out in a front end collision the spare tire became a missile
and ended up in the cabin. I have heard stories of the air cannister exploding from the radiator heat. Larry put me in the paranoid group , my P car road side emergency repair kit weights about 40 pounds! Chuck

Nothing wrong with paranoid Chuck.

You want to know paranoid, drive from Adelaide to Darwin. Two capital cities in adjoining states, and 3700kms between them with towns spaced at 500km intervals.

No AAA out here mate!!

Funny thing about that repair kit. In five years the only tool i have used is a small allen wrench... on someone else's P car in Las Vegas! Chuck

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I have yet to see ANYONE carry a spare up front.

That's where mine lived from day one until a couple of years ago. Now it lives in the garage.

John

I carry around a tire plug kit, a pair of pliers and a small air compressor. I've had to plug many tires because of nails or screws. Had to do it in the parking lot at work or at the store. Always got me out of a bind. Doesn't work if you manage to cut/slice the tire, but you can deal with a puncture easily enough.

I agree, that photo must be from a Mustang. The consensus is that the wheels on Pantera spares have two white stickers, not the widely reproduced yellow stickers for Mustangs. Note the similar (same?) 4 dabs of paints on the edges of the wheel- Pantera spares have these too.

Mine is orange with a white sticker, although someone may have painted 'safety' orange over black as there is definate overspray around the centre.

AMC used the same compact spare as well.
One side of the rim painted orange, the other black.
At one time guys were buying AMC spares, "restoring" them to all black Mustang spares and double and tripleing their money.

I have RACV Total Care, even when I did my trip Melb to Canberra last week, I just put a std spare in the parts car that was following me ( had to put my luggage somewhere ! )
Or as they said a spacesaver in the rear trunk.
Personally I wouldn't.
But then I prob wouldn't do Darwin to Adelaide in a Pantera either !

There you go, a genuine AMC spare.

Where did I stash that gloss black spray can?

Another option,

There was a fella that made spare tire mounts that picked up a couple of bolts (from the bellhousing I believe). You could carry a spare matched to the diameter of your rear tire. However, it can not accomodate your luggage tray.

Kelly

The original spare in my '71 has a yellow sticker. It is on the front (outside) of the wheel. There are two sets of paint marks on the back side of the wheel, about 180* apart. They are white and purple.

John

Here's a pic of my original '71 sticker.

In my pic above, direction #4 leads one to believe that just deflating the tire might collapse the tire to its original (before inflation) state.

John

They were inflated at low pressure from the cannister. People were killed or seriously injured when inflating with a normal service station hose pressure. I read that the cannisters would sometimes blow up when they got hot from the pressure.

THere was a recall on the original 14" x 6" BFG collapsible spare back when the Pantera was still in production. The second version was safe to use and are still available fror wrecking yards in Ford & GM cars. A good tire shop can mount one on any wheel you want to run. It came on a stock 6x14" steel Ford wheel identical to those in Galaxies, station wagons etc. The rear tub has a boss in the center with a molded-in steel insert for a long threaded rod with a big conical washer to hold the spare firmly in the tub's depression.
The spare will fit in the front trunk even with a stock battery position. Ours has been there for decades, but I drilled the front trunk floor for a safety hold-down rod. The drilling goes thru the floor and the steering-rack mount fabrication so the 3 layers of steel are strong enough to retain the wheel in case of a crash.
And as far as the inflater can exploding, thats true but only for those aftermarket ones that are filled with PROPANE as the propellant! Such cans are really hand-grenades that have 'cooked off' in both front and rear trunks from heat, causing much hood/decklid damage. If your inflater can label says 'DANGER-EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE!', put it gently far away from your car and get one that does NOT say 'flammable'. Finally, the inflatable spare will re-collapse to its original size after use, but being a sort of two-ply inner tube with tread, its only useable for maybe 50-60 miles. Your Owners Manual says, '50 miles distance at 50 mph or less!' It fits either end in an emergency but because of its non-matching diameter, used in the rear the limited slip clutches in your ZF differential will rapidly wear away. On the front, handling will be "interesting". I have run nearly 100 miles on one (porous Campy, on a Sunday) and while we got home, we also lost the ZF's limited-slip function. Finally, NO full-sized tire/wheel front or rear will fit in either trunk if you have a problem. Carry a couple of bungee cords to retain the partly open trunk lid as you crawl home. Or convince your passenger to share the 2nd seat with the tire/wheel....

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The original spare in my '71 has a yellow sticker. It is on the front (outside) of the wheel. There are two sets of paint marks on the back side of the wheel, about 180* apart. They are white and purple.

I didn't notice that in the picture above, but the 4 paint dabs should be on the back and the stickers on the front, at least for Panteras

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I didn't notice that in the picture above, but the 4 paint dabs should be on the back and the stickers on the front, at least for Panteras

Correct, as noted in my post. I didn't have a pic of the rear where the paint dabs are located.

John

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The rear tub has a boss in the center with a molded-in steel insert for a long threaded rod with a big conical washer to hold the spare firmly in the tub's depression.

But not on the early Panteras.

John

Late model Corvette's have a Tire Inflator Kit.

I found this one on eBay. It has a bottle of sealant and an air compressor. I carry this and a tire plug kit.

That looks exactly like the kit that came with my Mazda RX8 (which doesn't have a spare tire).

When I take my Pantera out for more than a few hours I always toss that in the front trunk or behind a seat. Fortunately I have never had to actually USE it, so I can't vouch for its effectiveness, but I can say I FEEL safer having it along for the ride. I also carry a couple of cans of Tire Saver goo, just in case.

Mark