Wayne's GT5-S rebuild

Here a shot of the side covers, camber bar cover and a small filler piece used to cover under the latch---ready to finish prime and paint.

How about this hick-up---The transaxle move back slightly after the real-deal engine was installed and just touched the new shroud---bummer! So I had to figure out transaxle clearance and this was the fix. I cut the end off a 2" 180 deg. U-bend, found the correct location of the clearance needed and installed the tube section.

Here's a close-up of the trans with the clearance piece installed.

The box in primer---boring stuff I know just thought maybe a few of you maybe can use the build techniques.

Here is the final rendering of the fan shroud and cover. The center cover the fan hub.

Here is a side view of the assembly---bad reflections---sorry. You can see the gearbox intruding into the shroud divot. $#It happens but I'm just glad it wasn't painted before the clearance issue was discovered.

Here is a valve cover view which is how/why the rib spacing was used on the air box and rear fan shroud. Motorsport covers were OE on the AmeriSport assembled cars.

Beautiful work Kirk!

I really like this thread.......

Mark

This is just beyond an immaculate build. Great work Kirk. Half the time I don't even know what I'm looking at, but it is always gorgeous!

quote:

Originally posted by DeMopuar:
Beautiful work Kirk!

I really like this thread.......

Mark

Thank you Mark. I appreciate the support.

If any one reading this thread have any questions, ideas, likes, don't likes, suggestions, or even the "what were you thinking" opinion, please, please, please post your thoughts.

quote:

Originally posted by A Hudson:
This is just beyond an immaculate build. Great work Kirk. Half the time I don't even know what I'm looking at, but it is always gorgeous!

Thank you---If you're curious or do not recognize something, please ask and I'd be happy to explain better. Sometimes I look at the pictures and don't know what it is---and I built the stuff so no worries.

quote:

Beautiful work Kirk!

I really like this thread.......

Amen brother!!!

Top notch work Kirk! Can't wait to see pics of Howard's car soon.

Cheers!
Garth

Hey Kirk, are those bumpers on the black car like mine?

Robert,

They are similar but S fronts are body specific. Yours are fitted to the early fenders like the picture below. The rears are also different--the inboard surface is fitted to the AC opening hole and are designed to go better with the front splits.

Overall view of the early split bumpers mounted.

Here is a shot of the rears being fitted to Wayne's car.

Full shot of the split rear bumpers fitted and mounted. The paint stripped air box at the top of the picture was the original one installed in 1986---quite a difference from the new one.

Here are the bumpers painted and installed just after a bath.

On occasion the Pantera can act like the Wicked Witch of the West---but I have never yet seen one melt so yes I do hose beat them with the water when needed.

How about this bumper for what I had hoped would the 1991-92 Pantera. Another trip down memory lane. This 3-D master model still sets in the corner of my shop waiting for the right customer.

Maybe you'll read this and call----Of coarse I'd like be become a Ninja to---probably won't happen.

This was the first late model engine compartment I finished---done allot of early ones. The undercoating was extremely thick---thicker than even the 72 cars. Here's a shot of the stripping process. I use aircraft stripper---many coats and lots of scraping. This is a job Americans will not do so I have to pull out my Italian passport when the stripper flies.

Here it is freshly sanded and ready for DP-90 epoxy primer. I do not use filler on bare metal any longer---always over epoxy which eliminates any rust devolving and bubbling the filler.

Had to skin coat the entire surface to make it straight.

Here it is with 2 coats of Rust Defender primer. Bottom coat is baby poop yellow and the top coat is primer gray. This way when you do the initial blocking with 240, you know when you need to slow down as you cut/sand into the yellow coat. Next is a black color coat and 400 wet---ready to seal with DP, base-coat with DBU black and clear with 2021 PPG. Sounds easy but not so much painting inside the compartment up-side-down.

Here it is sanded and ready to shoot.

Very fresh base coat and clear.

Now for the hard part. First we sand with 600 then 1200 then 2000. Now comes the many hours of buffing to bring it back. You can see some of the buffing just started on the left.

Here it is---freshly buffed and ready to start the assembly. That's all tonight---my grandson Alex is calling.

I am not worthy!
GREAT WORK!!!

How many hours in that engine compartment refinish?

quote:

Originally posted by larryw:
How many hours in that engine compartment refinish?

several weeks Larry. The biggest problem was trying to make it side-to-side symmetrical. The car varies so much detail shapes of equal proportions were tough. The stitch welds had to be ground and some of the sheet metal needed to be persuaded. Here is a shot of the inner fender ground and DP-90d ready for the filler.

Here's a better shot in primer---you can see the challenge. One of the more difficult areas was the taillight panel and AC shroud mounting surface. To mount the new shroud to the existing straps, I had to raise the left side by 7/8" and build a mounting bar to keep the upper shroud visually straight with the top of the inner taillight mount panel. Sound simple---not so much.

This area was tough to match side to side. Later I removed the dryer mount studs and installed it into the right rear wheel well after the new rear condenser shroud and side cover panels were built. The condenser mount tab in the picture was at the right location---the other was very low. Frankly I surprised the condenser mounted without fracturing from the twist stress---good thing the shroud was plastic instead of tin.

A better detail

This area is always a pain to make nice.

Here it is with blocking black color ready to be sanded. Remember the body paint was original which made this work much more difficult to do---always keeping the outside protected. It's like trying to build a house from the top down outside in.

quote:

Originally posted by TomCat:
I am not worthy!
GREAT WORK!!!

Thanks Tom? 2 great stories--one about the F-14 shot. I was driving east to west in June through Colorado or Utah and crested a hill on the expressway to see an aircraft sitting in what appeared to be a field. As I got closer I could clearly see it was a F-14 so being a big war-bird fan I quickly grabbed the off rap and chased down the big old girl. Sure enough it was sitting in a small park alone, engines pulled for all to see. Interesting the caps were off the holes and you could crawl into the after burner holes.

Second is about the "I am not worthy!" I have a good friend who has a somewhat famous rocker background and he is a Pantera owner from 1972---with his original car. He and one of the other band members had to introduce either Aerosmith or Tyler (can't remember exactly) at a function---maybe was their Hall of Fame induction. Back stage right before they walked out to do the introduction, Craig said we have to drop to our knees after the intro and say "we're not worthy". It was the funniest part of the night.

Wayne and I had dinner with him Saturday before Wayne left---lots of laughs!

Thank you for the nice complement.

Kirk

Here are a couple of details showing the new twin cap tank. There is a pressure cap which fill the system and the main storage overflow cap which keeps the system full. This eliminates the two tank requirement and is a bolt-in to the overflow location so you can remove the wheel-well mounting bracket and add a shield to mirror the gas tank shield and keep the header heat off the fire-wall electrics.

You have to modify the thermostat and lower pipes to mate without the pressure tank. This is how they look.

Here's a shot of the gauge cluster off the box. The stainless braided cover is for protection of the internal lines and wiring needed to light the gauges and lights.

This is how it the other end or the gauge cluster lines look as it connects to the engine. Various lines going to oil pressure, fuel pressure, vacuum, water temp and electric. The wiring hanging on the air-pump belt ultimately plugged into the wiring that fed through a grommet-ed hole just above the shifter rod and connected to several locations in the dash.