stress cracks?

Start at the top by reading tech info at http://geocities.com/provamo72/

or go directly to http://www.geocities.com/provamo72/Chassis_brace_1.html

The location you describe is not one of the more common areas.

Chuck

ALL Panteras settle the rear suspension, usually cracking the body next to the gas filler (on both sides). Wide tires seems to make this worse- the upper suspension collapses inward while the lower frame rails move outboard from cornering forces, popping spot-welds in the crossmembers that were supposed to hold things together. The stock spreader-bar is useless; I recommend one that has adjustment and, when mounted, jams fully into the welded pockets in the inner ender wells, thus transmitting side forces to a large area of the sheet metal. The bolts should only keep the bar from flying out under cornering, not attempt to transmit all the side-loads. To fix: get the body-putty out and have someone weld the cracks, then add sheet-steel reinforcement plates on top of the welded areas. Your car also needs some pro-attention from a Pantera-savvy shop to get the rear frame & suspension realigned. It sounds like it'll also benefit greatly from one of the vendors' stiffer kits. Yours seems to have more than the usual stress-cracks, none of which are cosmetic IMHO. Its probably had an "interesting" life...

Thanks guys. Yeah Jack, I sort of wondered about its' previous life, and I know I drive the wheels off, or try to. Out of curiousity, is the body filler type 'stuff' original, or is that someone's fix? Also, is there any particular spreader on the market that fits your description? Chuck, thanks for your (as usual) helpful advice!

Some of the filler is "Factory" as is the lead in other areas of the body. The import stations also did some bodywork & added filler to brand-new cars to fix damage from ship deckhands walking on the fenders... You'll likely find the decklid weatherstrip channel heavily filled by the gas tank spout- mine had filler nearly 1/2" thick in there! Hall's cheapest steel spreader bar works best IMHO, as all the pretty aluminum ones I've seen are so short the bolts still take all the load, just like the stocker. A couple of owners have added chunks of alloy on the ends of the aluminum spreaders in an attempt to make them work as well as the cheap steel one. If you do this, I suggest TIG-welding the filler pieces to the spreader bar so the assembly doesn't flex.