pre-purchase advice

Don't look at the car alone. You definately do not want to buy one of these cars on impulse. From my understanding there are a lot of basket cases out there that may look like cream puffs. If you can, pay to have it professionally inspected and or appraised.


Good Luck

I agree. I think rust is the single biggest factor. When I bought mine, I thought I had inspected it closely (and knew there was some door skin & rocker panel rust), though it always got lots of compliments, a very sharp car. I was given an estimate by my BODY SHOP of $4,000 to strip the lower 6" around, correct what they expected needed correction, and repaint with basecoat/clearcoat job. We ended up stripping the car in & out, to do a color change & refurbish the whole car. As it turned out, the forward inner wheelhouse areas were shot, inside the rockers were shot, lower portions of the door latch pillars no longer existed, a door was in bad shape, and we're redoing the floorpans. It will end up being about $14,000 in body work,plus the $1,200 in plastic media blasting to get there. Take a very experienced Pantera owner with you. I suspect many other cars are in a similar boat and don't realize it. I looked at several cars obviously worse than mine when I bought. It's definitely more cost effective to buy a well-sorted-out P-car from the get-go (though you learn your car very well doing it as you go).

I would join a pantera club poca and PI they will help you alot plus the opportunity to get a good car is better most would rather sell to a pantera club guy and most know the history of the car and free advice abounds.

1)- not just Panteras but 100% of ALL European cars of the early '70s had metal corrosion problems. Buy and learn to use a Bondo-meter, available at paint & body supply shops for about $25. It measures paint & Bondo thickness by external contact, warning you of areas where there's no steel! The really critical corrosion-prone spots on a Pantera are the rocker panels and behind the drivers door ahead of the fuel tank. There are structural members in there that cannot even be accessed until the engine, transaxle and fuel tank have all been removed, itself a monumental undertaking for an inexperienced shop (at $70 an hour).
2)- a ZF that won't shift into ALL gears, easily and without grinding is gonna cost someone big buckss! Ask if the ring gear bolts have been safety-wired or if the lube has been changed recently. Then ask where the fill plug is; if the seller can't point to it (under the shift-shaft box on the drivers side), you'll know that this $6-8000 part of the car is probably still running on its original fill- now some 30 years old. Look underneath- if the bottom of the cases are wet with 90-wt, not much of the original fill may even be left. A ZF overhaul is about 2 months of time, about $5000 at best, and certainly screws up any plans you might have for actually driving the car any time soon, after spending a bunch of money.
3)- formally join POCA and/or PI. Get to know where the local Pantera chapters are in your area. Meet some folk that are already experts and ask for help. In direct contrast to most other car clubs, Pantera people will go out of their way to help a new guy. Total strangers will invite you into their homes and go with you to view & drive a likely car, which they may know of intimately- good or bad. And stay in touch!