June 2006 Pictures

Passenger side work, showing some filler at the door and no front fender.

Rear quarter panel.  The decklid from #6650 is shown on the car.  I don't have any sheetmetal parts from #6650, and I have a flat decklid.  Both #6650 and #1998 were yellow from the factory. 

The previous owner painted the inside of the door as well as the frame.

Passenger side view of completed door skin.  The front fender hasn't been installed yet.

Rear view.  I think the previous owner wanted to see it with a red taillight mockup or something. 

Drivers side view, nicely finished.

Naked front end, but the passenger side fender is back on the car.

View showing passengers side fender on the car.

Drivers side fender is now on the car.

Removal and replacement of the valance.  I know that the valance and radiator support were both repaired or replaced.  Johnny Woods supplied the valance according to receipts and emails that the previous owner provided.

First trial of the headlight bucket.  Apparently the 1974 fender opening for the headlight bucket is different than the 1971 fender opening.  The car has the original fender on the passengers side but has the fender from #6650 on the drivers side.

The original bucket opening didn't fit, so a new opening was fabricated.

The bucket fits better now.  I didn't realize this, but the bucket openings are not perfectly fitted to the buckets themselves in the first place, so if this is slightly off, I'm the only one that will notice it. 

Fenders complete and painted.  The previous owner even installed the gills, probably in an effort to mock up the car look.  Luckily he saved the right gills.

Notice in this picture that the hood is a carbon fiber unit from Precision Proformance (according to receipts).  The hood doesn't fit at the lower lip, and could have been fixed.  I don't understand why he didn't fix this, as I now have to fix it.  The hood curve at the bottom lip and the body curve don't work together, and the better Panteras out there have flawlessly curved hood and body transitions.  By no means am I critical of the previous owner; he probably did what he could here.

Notice the body filler on the passengers side indentation as the hood and fender meet, righ near the headlight bucket.  The hood doesn't fit here either, and I can't figure out why there's so much filler.  Well, this is part of the major hood fitup issues I have. 

November 2004 pictures

November 2004 might actually be August 2005, but I can't tell.  After these two pictures, there's a gap of about 1-1/2 years before the next pictures. 

Passenger side door being skinned.  I went to test-fit the door handle tubs on this side, and it appears that the handle tub opening is too big at the side closest to the jamb. Otherwise the skins appear to fit pretty well.

Drivers side door skin being installed.  I found receipts for these skins from PI Motorsports.

Big post and lots of pictures coming soon.

More Intermission: Amerisport Engine Pictures

Kirk Evans has been very helpful to me as of late.  I bought a set of heads and a Parker Funnel Web intake manifold with port stuffers from him for my 351 Cleveland.  I want to stroke the engine to 393 cubic inches using a Scat stroker kit, use a large hydraulic roller cam, and do something like this:

Notice the effect of the red engine, cast aluminum silver, and polished black engine compartment.  The engine and transaxle are emphasized in the black paint, and it looks stunning to me.  The heads are stock quench 4V heads with port stuffers and a Funnel Web intake manifold.   Kirk topped it off with a custom-made engine screen and offset the air cleaner to work with the stock decklid.

Notice the extensive use of braided stainless lines, the red highlighting paint on the manifold, etc.  I realize that the air cleaner obliterates the rear view through the decklid, but

Photos courtesy of Kirk Evans.

More October 2004 Pictures

I missed a few pictures from October 2004, so I wanted to show the previous owner's progress a little more.  The previous owner didn't take pictures of everything.

Finished and primed firewall, looking through the front windshield frame.

Backside of finished firewall.

Finished wheelhouse.

I can't make this stuff up

The previous owner really did all of the work you see in the pictures.  I can't make this stuff up.  Yeah, the welds aren't the best, but when I bought the car, I realized that I would be an amatuer welder as well, and may not do as good of a job.

I love a good challenge.  I'm wired that way- I have this innate bug to figure out everything I see.  What do I do at the amusement park?  I look at the motors, the safety devices, even down to the grade of bolts they use.  It's just a nasty habit after many years of doing what I do.  I love the idea of building up this car using the stuff I want.  More importantly, I have a budget to stick to, so I compromise on the stuff that doesn't seem to matter or can be changed easily in the future.  I won't compromise on the bodywork.  I want the best I can get, and I want to fix a few things that bother me in the process.

More pictures are coming tomorrow.

Intermission- Misc. Pics

 I like the silver cast-aluminum-painted trim on this car, photo courtesy of Kirk Evans.  I was considering blacked-out trim, but this look is nice and would compliment a nice set of aluminum wheels. 

Caution: the next few pictures are spoilers, so if you don't want to spoil it, just wait.  For those of you who are dying to know, click on the "read more..." link below to the left.

October 2004 Pictures

If there's ever any confusion, I didn't have anything to do with this process.  The previous owner worked hard.

Well, both wheelhouses were replaced.  You've seen the driver's side, now let's see the passenger's side.

Passenger's side wheelhouse, cleaned and primed.

Old wheelhouse on the car.

Old wheelhouse removed.  Note the rust.  A post was initially used, but later removed for some reason.  

End of frame rail where the rear sway bar mounts.

Patch steel fabricated.

Frame rail primed.

Frame rail painted.

Wheelhouse fitted.

Another view of the wheelhouse fitted.

Rear quarter panel fitted.

Rear quarter panel welded up

View of #6650's door.  The previous owner liked these doors better given the stiffening rail on the skin for better crash performance.  

Door stripped and waiting for a new skin.

Stay tuned for more...

June 2004 Pictures

One thing I didn't also say in my last post was that I believe #6650 had roof and A-pillar issues from the wreck on the passenger side.

The previous owner removed the frame rails under the cabin for some reason, probably due

Why save #1998 and not #6650?

Cutting #6650 up to save #1998 wasn't my decision, so I can't comment on why the previous owner didn't save both.  However, I can comment on what was wrong with each:

1.  #1998 had the rust bug in the wheelhouses, front valance, quarter panels, rocker areas, jambs, underbelly frames, etc.  You name a typical area, and it had rust there.  I've only touched about 1/4 of what was done to #1998.

February 2004 Picture

New hood mount crossmember steel in February of 2004.  Fenders are missing and modified on the passenger side. My hood doesn't fit the new steel hood mount.  The curve of the new steel doesn't fit the curve of the hood.  I'll have this part cut out, reshaped, and reinstalled unfortunately.  Honestly, this is one of two major areas of ill-fitting panels, so I'm not upset about it.  I'm sure the previous owner worked hard to get the car this far.

June 2003 Pictures

Driver’s side wheelhouse from #6650 in June of 2003.  Great shape!



Driver’s side transmission mount, showing that metal is in good shape/little rust.

Bracket made to brace the back sheetmetal. 

Chassis #1998, showing surgery to remove the driver’s side wheelhouse, June 2003.  Note the condition of the passenger’s side wheelhouse.  Undercoating still visible and not removed. 

Appears to be the driver’s side wheelhouse from #6650, grafted into #1998.

Chassis #1998 with a new wheelhouse. 

Test-fitting of the driver’s rear quarter panel.  Note the ribbed decklid from #6650.  I’m not a fan of the ribbed decklids nor of the color.

Finished rear quarter panel and wheelhouse.

Chassis #1998 stripped to bare metal on the outside.  Remnants of yellow paint still remain. 

April 2003 Pictures

Rocker panel fitup and interior stripping to bare metal in April of 2003.

I can’t tell which car this picture of the rear suspension is from.  All photos are from the previous owner.