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.

Areas with Cracks Already?

I haven't even painted the car and I've already got cracking!  What gives?  Well, I don't know completely, but I'm going to dig in and find out.  Here are some pictures of the offenders:

Passenger side rear corner where the body necks down by the gill.  You can see more by clicking 

Comparison of Two Cars

A recent post on the Pantera International forum showed the difference in size of the Pantera and modern cars.  Here's a couple of my Pantera versus my 2000 Nissan Maxima.

The Pantera doesn't have an engine, transmission, or much else, so it sits about 4" too high already.  

It mat not look it, but the Maxima really dwarfs the Pantera

I aligned the front of the car, and here's the back ends

The front end, in case you didn't believe me.  

Hood trade

After a short discussion on the Pantera International Forum, I was contacted by a fellow Pantera owner about the possibility of a trade.  The fellow said that he would be willing to trade straight across if we could work out shipping.  We let it simmer for several weeks while I talked to the body guy who would be painting my car and I found that the steel stock hood would be a better fit for the car.  I arranged to have the hood shipped for free through my brother's company, and the steel hood picked up at a specific location.  I don't know who got the better deal, but the hood I picked up is in decent shape.  There is a depression near the driver's side upper corner, but it isn't bad and should be easy to remove.

The good thing is that I sent all of the pictures I took to the fellow, and he decided to still go through with the arrangement, knowing that the finish and fit of the carbon fiber/fiberglass hood wasn't the best.  I sometimes wonder if he realizes that he only lightened his car by 5 or 10 lbs since the fiberglass hood doesn't save that much weight.

Front hood

After a month of craziness at work, I got a break.  I should be able to post more frequently now.

I bought the car with a carbon fiber overlaid fiberglass hood. When I went to see the car, the one thing I hated with the car it was the ill-fitting hood.  Who in the world made these so crappy?

You can see the obvious finish issues.  Notice the wavy appearance, but pardon the dust.

The hood doesn't conform to the fender very well either.  

The main reason I hated it is for the front fit.  Actually, it turns out that the body was the issue and not the hood, but at first, I was convinced that it was the hood.

You can see the bow in the hood.  I think this is intentional to compensate for eventual stress relaxation, creep, and sag.