Pulling the engine down

I tore apart the 351 Cleveland that came with the car over the last few nights, after my children went to bed.  It was messy and stinky, but really fun for a gearhead like me.  I've taken many engines apart, but never taken a V8 apart.  I was actually surprised at the amount of force required to loosen the main cap bolts.

Tasks Prior to Paint

I have many tasks to complete prior to the car going in for paint.  The official date is coming quickly, which is December 26th.  I hope to get most of these done. 

1.  I bought a new decklid latch assembly and upper sheetmetal latch bar from Panteras by Wilkinson when they had a special on the pair ($40 for both!).  I need to buy some nuts and hardware to test how the new decklid latch fits since my car is essentially a basket-case other than the rolling chassis, brakes, suspension, wheels, etc.

2.  The stainless window trim has a few small dents that I'd like to pound out before paint.  They will be painted black like the rest of the trim.

3.  The aluminum gills are attached to the car using studs and nuts from the inside.  Several studs are missing and it appears that the previous owner drilled them out.  I plan to get some stainless heli-coil kits to repair the missing studs and threads.  One gill has a corner taken off, but I'm probably not going to fix it.  I'll let Todd look at it.

4.  Remove right door window mechanism and vertical front door glass rails. 

5.  Purchase appropriate chassis braces.  I'll explain this one in a future post.

6.  Cut headlight buckets according to the instructions for Amerisport headlights.  I like Kirk's headlight conversion. I haven't purchased the conversion kit just yet, and I have a really good reason, direct from Kirk.

I would like to get a gasketless windshield from Panteras by Wilkinson, so I need to call Steve to talk about what I need to do.

TK Customs

I went and finally talked through "the deal" with my chosen body guy yesterday.  Todd Kerby with TK Customs will be repairing some cracks, installing chassis braces, and painting the car.  I've been to his shop before, but this time we sat down and looked at some of the amazing work he's done and also discussed logistics, schedule, costs, and visits by me.  I would call him an artist more than a body shop guy.  He airbrushes some amazing stuff.

We discussed chassis reinforcement and chassis braces, but that's a post for another day.  I'll post again with some info on what I see instinctively among what is being marketed for the Pantera (being a structural engineer) and what I like personally.