Passenger Door Fitting

The passenger door didn't really fit so well on the Pantera. It had been reskinned and the lines were never checked or properly fitted. The front of the door caught the front quarter panel when you opened the door. If you didn't have a scraper handy to help guide the door past the quarter panel you would experience a real nice pop as you forced the door open.

To fix this I took a ruler and measured the driver's side door gap between the front quarter and the door as well as the rear quarter and the door. I traced out a line on the passenger door that would match the gaps on the driver's side.

I then removed the door. This has always been a real scary prospect for me in the past. I'm use to large cars (my 66 Galaxie for instance) where the door weight about 100 lbs and removing it almost guarantees you will never get it adjusted correctly again.

Two things about the Pantera doors I really like. One - it is light - I mean really light. I was able to hold the door up with just my foot propped up under it as I removed the screws. Second thing is that the screws holding the hinge to the front quarter panel are not adjustment screws like on other cars I have worked on. They simply hold the door onto the car! What a good idea. That means that when I put the door back on it will line up just as it did before I removed it. WOW that's the way it should be with all cars!

So after taking out the six bolts holding the door to the car, I took the door over to the work bench and carefully ground down the edges to the lines I measured out on the car. This eliminated the rolled edge of the metal in some places that needed to be trimmed pretty aggressively. Once all the cuts were made I pulled out the MIG welder.

I slowly and carefully welded up all my cut edges. Being careful not to heat warp the new skin, I was able to lay a decent bead where the raw edges were before. I then took my grinder and used a 60 grit sand paper "flapper" designed pad. This is the pad that has 20 or so flaps of paper molded into a pad that attaches to the angle grinder. This allows me to carefully remove the weld without taking off too much metal at one time and minimizing heat to the skin.

After 20 or so minutes of careful grinding I had a really nice edge. Some filler and you will never know it was welded in the first place. I cleaned up some surface rust spots and sealed the bare metal with Rustoleum. I also took the opportunity of having the door off to clean up the mounting surface and the door latch surface and seal that too. I tall came out looking nice.

I rehung the door and wouldn't you know it, the lines look great. I was thinking this job was going to be pretty taxing but found it to be amazingly easy due to how De Tomaso designed the door hinges. Loving this car!

More Color

Finally I had some time today to work on the Pantera. I continued working on sealing up the body. I decided to tackle the back two panels. WAY too much work for the small amount of time I had. I ended up painting into the evening.

It was nice to have the gloss on the top and the back boot. I was able to see a couple small low spots on the top of the car that I took time to fix today. I smoothed a couple places on both the passenger and driver side rear quarter panel. After applying the gloss I can see a few more spots on both panels that I missed. I'll tackle those spots another day.

The gloss really helps me see those spots that will need additional work. Best of all my wife walked out today and took a look at the painted section and said - "You can really see the lines of the car so much better with the black paint." The Pantera has such great lines. The fact that my wife recognized this is a real testament to how paint helps the overall look of a great design.

I ended up mixing too much paint so I used the extra to finish painting the interior floor pans and kick panels behind the dash. It all is looking pretty good.

I'm really liking the black. I think I will have it painted black when it comes time for the real paint to go on.

Next I will need to work on the passenger side door. It was reskinned and there are some fit issues that will need some grinding and rewelding. That's for another day. Here's some pictures of how she looks now.

Adding Color

I took my friend, Victor's advice to sand down the surface rust that is on the Pantera and to seal it with Rustoleum. He suggested that I mix the Rustoleum 50/50 with Lacquer Thiner. This mixture sprayed really well.

I began the day by sanding down the top and rear boot. I want' interested in taking the entire thing down to metal, just wanted to concentrate on the spots that I knew were problem areas (like in the middle of the roof). Here's before shots.

I used 120 grit paper on a Random Orbital sander to take down the primer where it needed to be removed. I was able to easily remove the surface rust and carefully look for any other damaged areas that needed immediate attention. Here's what it looked like sanded.

Then I pulled out my spray gun, hooked her up to the compressor and sprayed a 20oz or so of Black Gloss Rustoleum cut 50/50 with lacquer thinner. The extra paint I had I used to put a quick coat on the inside floor pans and will continue to do this as I tackle additional panels in the near future. What I like about this paint is that I get to see how the Pantera might look in all black - a color I'm thinking I want the final product to be. Here's where I stopped today. 

Nice part about the gloss paint is that you can see the spots that need some additional attention (dents and high spots) that weren't visible in the primer. 

Got To Start Somewhere

That elephant was looming again. It is amazing how disappointed I can get facing a big project. I just want to get it done and know the time I have here and there to work on it is way short of what is needed to get it all done. One bite... one bite... that's all I can do to stay on track.

The other day I had an hour or so to work on the Pantera. I decided to tackle a couple of rough spots on the back boot and just under the driver's side tail light. I sanded down the primer to see what had been done before and it was all good except for one spot in the corner of the passenger side boot lid. There were two small holes of rust through the outside skin. I cleaned it up and did a quick metal repair. Then a quick, thin coat of bondo on the two places I wanted to repair. Here's a couple pictures of how I left it.

After two days of rain I finally got a chance to work on the car. I decided to smooth out the bondo and finish up these spots. It came out really nice. I was able to stop a couple places of rust and smooth out most of the tail. There is still a couple really tiny spots that need attention but that's for another day. Here's how I left it today. 

Some Tear Down

Even though I was sick as a dog, it was just too pretty of a day to miss working on the Pantera. I had just returned from a trip to LA for the week and have been thinking for many days now what to do to start working on this project. Today, as I stood over the car I got that overwhelming feeling I usually get when the project is just too big. As I always have, I reminded my self over and over again - You eat an elephant one bite at a time. Same goes for a Panther!

Today I decided to take out some of the modifications the previous owner had installed in the Pantera. It isn't that I don't like the work he did, the door panels and center console are excellent. And the dash that he started, though was heading in the right direction, isn't exactly what I have in mind for the interior. He was going for more of the race-car minimal look. I want something more complete and refined as a daily driver.

Here's some before and after shots I took today.

Dash View Before

Dash View After

 As you can see the way the roll will interfere with whatever dash design that I install. It remains to be seen what I will need to do to make it look the way I want it to.

The door panels that the previous owner put on are pretty nice. I wanted to remove them to see what the metal looked like under the panels. I want to make sure I tackle any rust issues that might have been missed. The handles you see were made by the previous owner. He installed a window mechanism from another model car. We will see if and how this will work with where I want to take her.

Door Panel View Before

Door Panel After

Inside the door panels were really good. Not much to contend with at all. The passenger side door had been re-skinned due to some damage on the passenger side rear quarter and door. Both look to have been repaired very well. The door will need some trimming and adjustment to get it to open and close properly. I think I'll put in some sound deadening in everywhere to help protect the metal and to help manage unwanted noise.

That's the extent of the work I did on #3854 today. There is a ton of things to do - the list is way overwhelming. But one bite - that's all I need to worry about. More to come.