I had to take a few pictures of my new (to me) Pantera for the insurance
agent and thought I'd share them here:
http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery/album28
Purchased this car up late last year and just got it historic licensed
and insured. I didn't intend on buying it for myself but it was a local
car and was just too nice to pass up, particularly at the price. It's a
'74 L model and odometer shows 15,000 miles which I'm inclined to believe.
Previous owner purchased it 5 years ago from Nevada with 13,000 miles.
Interior and front trunk are perfect (front trunk must have been
recovered). Paint and exterior is in excellent condition (one spot on
the lower black trim needs to be re-done where it fell off a jack but
that will be easy to do) and there's absolutely no rust anywhere on the
car (had it up on stands and looked it over closely). I've spotted a
number of updates so far:
17" Weld rims with Michelin Pilots (225/45/17 and 335/35/17)
PPC Weber Long-style pressure plate and clutch kit
polished stainless steel slave cylinder, aluminum clutch master
and stainless braided line clutch line from Panteras East
Weber clutch and pressure plate from Pantera Performance Center
safety-wired ZF ring gear bolts (kit from from PPC)
logo floormats
aluminum shift handle
rotary air conditioner, new hoses and reciever/dryer (has cap
over connector)
headers and quad glasspacks (appear to be Hall big bores)
Edelbrock Performer 351C-4V aluminum intake manifold
Holley 0-3310S 750 carb, vacuum secondary with electric choke,
silver finish, carb linkage bracket
Ford Motorsport polished aluminum Boss style valve covers
Ford Motorsport black and gold air cleaner
smaller aftermarket steering wheel
thicker radiator with aftermarket pusher fans (very low profile type)
Gates green stripe hoses
aluminum shift knob
electric antenna (nearly flush, mounted at rear of driver's front fender)
blue MSD spark plug wires
shiny (chrome?) pressure tank
The car had been sitting for a year and has a leaking caliper and I
had to replace the fuel hose before I could take it for a drive.
Drives well, the structure seems tight and the ZF shifted very well
until the trunnion bushing popped out. I've replaced that with PPC's
stainless steel shift rod and rod end. The clutch had been recently
replaced but wasn't adjusted properly. I swapped over the 7/8" rear
bar from my red Pantera after installing 1" bars on it. Passenger
side needs a door seal. The rubber suspension bushings are dry-rotted.
The car cranked slowly but that was traced to a loose ground. Looks
like the voltage regulator has been replaced (replacement has a light
blue cover and appears new). It has a Blaupunkt AM/FM stereo with
little box speakers under the dash. The door panels have not been cut
but I may have to do that to install some decent speakers when I put
the flip face CD player in.
Though I'll never do it, the car came with most of the parts to put it
back to stock, including the original Campy rims, C60- and H60-15
Goodyear Arriva tires and space saver spare. Other original parts that
came with the car include intake, carb, air cleaner, steering wheel,
shift knob, ring gear bolts, clutch slave and master, air conditioner
compresser, etc. What didn't come with the car, I have from my other
Pantera. The seller also tossed in a number of new and spare parts
including a complete spare 351C-4V engine on a stand, a spare set of
4V open chamber heads, stainless braided brake lines, rotors, new brake
pads, manual and wiring diagram, bronze window gear, etc.
The stamped block number matches the body tag and the engine appears
to be the original. Still has a points distributor though it is
different than the one that came on my red Pantera (cars are only 53
serial numbers apart). The Holley was jetted way rich. I jetted it
down, checked the plugs, and welded in an O2 bung for the wideband 02
sensor. Carb will need to be converted to a 4150 before I can replace
the secondary jets. I pulled the valve covers off and the valve springs
still sport the OE dual yellow stripes. Heads also have the dreaded
loose fit keepers and 2 piece valves, in addtion to the big plastic
valve seals. That'll have to change but I'm toying with plans to
build up a 408C using my spare XE NASCAR block, C302B high port heads
and A331 intake, along with a SCAT 4" stroke crank. It runs cool and
is surprisingly strong for such a stock motor. I recently got a super
deal on another set of A3 high port heads and have had thoughts about
mounting them up with the matching intake, headers, a new timing chain,
and electronic distributor just to see how much difference it woud
make on a stock cam and short block engine.
Dan Jones
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