Side Vents

I have seen pictures of the side window treatments that double as vents for the engine bay on Pantera pictures I've seen on the Internet. Just like most of all the other projects on this Pantera, what I want to do is so customized that purchased parts just don't make sense.

Since I don't have any of the window pieces in my parts inventory that came with the car I decided that the vent should cover the entire side window space. I also want the vent to be functional. At least one side will be ported to the intake of the Coyote engine I've placed in the car. The passenger side has to have a fuel fill door for access to the fill tube I installed earlier.

The question was how to make this thing and make it look good. It took three tries to get it where I think it's going to work. The first attempt was to cut out a couple wood pieces that fill the space then spayed on some of that "good stuff" foam on the cutout. That's the stuff used to fill cracks in home construction. I then tried shaping the scoop thinking I would fiberglass the final form. Bottom line - not a good idea. I just couldn't get the shape I wanted - Strike One!

Second try I called the Frankenstein approach. I cut out a piece of sheet metal the shape of the window opening. To this I tacked up pieces of metal shaped to make the scoop. After a bunch of cutting and tacking to try and get the shape I wanted I had to stop. This thing was just plain ugly. I'm not sure I could ever duplicate a second piece - Strike Two.

The third attempt was a winner. Here's what I did. I cut another piece of sheet metal the shape of the window opening. Then I a second piece about 1 1/2" smaller all around the edges. Then I bent the curve I wanted for the scoop opening. Now it had to be welded to the flat larger piece that covers the window. But before I did any tacking I had to attach the flat piece to the car. Here's a shot of the flat piece attached with 4 screws.

To make installation and removal as easy as possible I decided to weld the screws onto the flat piece. Even though the body on my Pantera isn't anywhere near being ready for public viewing, I hate welding directly on the car but in this case I had no choice. Here's a shot of my set up with wet towels to try and protect the body from weld splatter.

Here's a shot of the bent pieces before they were welded up to the flat one.

Next I played with the bent piece until I got it to mate up with the flat piece as close as I could. It took a bunch of bending so that the welding could be done as easily as possible. Here's a shot of the tacked up bent metal vent on the flat piece.

The fit was really coming together so I decided to go ahead and make the other side the same way I did this one. When I had both pieces roughed out I did a little more tacking off the car and then did a little grinding off the welds. I used strips of fiberglass to give myself a smooth transition from the curved piece to the flat over the weld spots. Here's a shot of what the rough glassed piece looks like.

Then is was a matter of smoothing out the glass then doing a bunch of bondo work. Once it was smoothed so that I liked the overall shape it was time to make an opening for the fuel fill on the passenger side. I used an existing door from some other car and traced the shape on the vent. I carefully cut it out.

I used a fuel fill door hinge from an old BMW to mount the door back onto the vent. I had to do a bunch of modification to the hinge but once done it opened and closed just the way I wanted it to. Once the door operated like I wanted I then closed the door and bondoed the door completely closed. Crazy, right? I was told by a friend of mine who did a bunch of body work that the only way to get seams as smooth as possible was to bondo them closed then cut them out just like you want them. Once the bondo dried I used a grinder to carefully cut the seam out just like I wanted it to look. This method also gave me a really smooth transition between the door and the vent. Here's a shot of the final product.

Finally I put a little primer on the vents and put them on the car. Here's the driver's side side view and front view.

Here's the passenger side side view and front view with the fuel door opened and closed.

Next I'll work on putting tubing openings on both vents to give me into the Coyote intake. I'm going to wait to do this after I figure out the air filter box and tubing requirements sizes. Check back for more updates later.

Dash Update

I decided that my first dash design needed a bit of updating. The steering column I installed required that I move the gauge holes up quite a bit. Here's a picture of the problem.

As I played with where the gauge holes needed to be I noticed that the dash itself was in the way - part of the gauges would be blocked by the straight bottom part of the dash. I decided to modify the straight part to give more of an arch. It took a little doing but it worked out pretty well. Here's a shot of how it looks now. 

Now the gauges are so much more visible. It looks really good. 

I also cut in vent holes for the defroster flow to the windshield. The vents came out of a mid-90s Ford Escort. They were the small vents on the front of the dash. They were just the right size for my design. There's one more vent you can't see in this shot all the way to the right side of the car. Here's what it looks like all primed. 

Also I did a little grinding to get the A/C vents to work properly. Here's a couple shots of the front of the dash with the vents installed. There's another vent on the driver's side that isn't shown in the pictures below.

Now the dash is ready for texture and final paint. I also need to to design and install venting behind the dash. More on those projects in future posts.

Exhaust Pipes and Mufflers

I knew I wasn't interested in paying the high price for anything remotely close to stock. After doing a bunch of measurements I finally decided that the 12" glass packs from Van Pelts Sales (www.vanpeltsales.com - Part Number FMT-1218G). They measure 12" for the muffler and are 18" from end to end. Total cost $35 per muffler. I bought 4 of them to give the Pantera exhaust that double tip look sticking out of each side.

Next step was to turn the two mufflers into one. I simply welded them together and made my own Y-pipe using various pieces of stainless steel pipe I have around. Here's a shot of the muffler assembly.

After positioning the muffler in place, at the angle I wanted it to sit on the car I was able to start to see how I needed to bend up a piece of pipe to connect the muffler to the header. Immediately I found that the collector on the header was sticking too far back for me to make something fit. Out came the cutoff tool for some modification to the header. Here's what the new collector looks like.

Here's what it looked like before a bit of grinding and welding.

Then came a bunch of cutting, bending and welding. It took about 10 or more cuts to get the pipe to zig zag to where it needs to be so that it goes from the header to the muffler. For all you purist out there, I know that the non-mandrel bends isn't as efficient, but I don't care. I just wanted to get this thing done and this was how I could do it on my own for VERY low cost. Here's a shot of the finished pipe off the car.

This series of shots shows the entire assembly on the car.

You can see that I used the original hanger in the stock location. Here's a shot from the back of the car with the exhaust completed.

Here's a shot of the back of the Pantera with both exhausts completed.

I have a set of chrome tips that I will install as I get closer to completing the car. Not a bad result for less than $200! Can't wait to hear it start up.

Steering Column with Detachable Pantera Steering Wheel

I have been thinking long and hard about what I'm going to do about making my steering column do all I need it to do with turn signals, horn, etc. Frankly I haven't been too excited to take this project on.

One day I was at the local pick-a-part yard looking for something for another project when I came across a really weird looking two door hatchback. It kind of looked like a Mustang but not really. I couldn't find any badges on it (other than a Ford badge). I ran the VIN and found it was a 1984 Ford Escort made for sale in Canada.

I just so happened to look at the steering column and saw that the ignition had the key in it. Not something you see to often at this particular pick-a-part place. The turn signal and windshield wiper switch both felt solid, as did the ignition switch. I really liked how it was all built in a relatively compact way around the steering column. The other thing I liked about this set up was the fact that the horn is located on the turn signal arm itself. I really didn't want to try and figure out how to get a horn working on whatever steering wheel I ended up using on my car. I decided to take the assy apart and check it out as to how it might fit on the Pantera.

It came apart really easily. I took with me the entire plastic cover and the steering shaft itself. I ditched the steering wheel and all the couplings since I had plenty to choose from from the parts I have from the Pantera. Sadly I elected not to take the windshield wiper motor and before I could get back there the car was sent out to be junked. The entire steering column assy cost less than $45! I figure that if something fails to work it should be a part that can be purchased from the local parts store for a decent price.

I knew that the current steering shaft would need to be heavily modified to make this assy work if it was to work at all. When I got the parts home I started marking up what needed to be changed. I decided to use the steering shaft from the Escort and weld on the end of the old Pantera's shaft to enable it to be attached to the original couplers. Here's a couple pictures showing that process.

This first shot shows the two shafts. The Pantera shaft is the one on the bottom. If you look close you can see a black line showing where I need to cut the shaft to weld it to the bottom of the Escort shaft shown above the Pantera shaft.

This shot shows the two shafts welded together. I used angle iron to help center the two shafts together (with some shims since the Pantera shaft was about 0.030" smaller in dia than the Escort shaft) and to keep them as straight as possible. It came out pretty good.

By using the Escort shaft I was able to use the Escort's turn signal switch canceling feature. I had to cut the Pantera's steering shaft housing to fit the Escort's ignition switch internals. Basically two slots had to be cut into the housing to help secure the ignition switch. I also had to lengthen the steering column housing by about 1 5/8" to fit everything into place. Also, two sets of tabs had to be welded onto the Pantera's steering column housing to mount the assy from the Escort. It came out amazingly good. Here's a few shots of the assy with a Grant, quick release, removable steering wheel.

I then took the assembly and went to bolt it up into the Pantera. I already knew that my custom dash was going to have to be modified to make this thing fit. Turns out that the previous owner had mounted the steering column in a manner that made the steering wheel closer to the floor pan of the car. This in turn made me position my gauge holes and the entire gauge face too low for the car.

Out came the angle grinder and cutoff wheel. After a few whacks I had the assembly ready to fit into place. I will need to take out the dash face and relocate the gauge holes up at some time in the future. I found when I mounted the steering column assembly that the back end of the Escort electronics were hitting my dash and the wiper switch arm was way too close to the dash panel as well. I decided that I needed the steering column to come closer to the seat by about 1/2".

I welded some tabs to the back mounting holes on the steering column tube and drilled out new holes on the front tabs. This enabled me to shift the entire steering column assembly out where I needed it. Here's a shot of the modified steering column mounting assy.

After bolting it all up I took a long hard look at that Grant steering wheel and didn't like what I saw. I have an original Pantera wheel - in rough shape to say the least but still an original one. I really like the size of the original wheel and know I can get parts to make it look good from different vendors. I really like, no I think I really need the detachable wheel option that the Grant wheel offers given that I'm 55+ and 6'5" tall. Getting in and out of the Patera will really be expedited if I could remove the steering wheel.

As I sat there looking at the two wheels I decided to modify the Panteral wheel to make it detachable using the quick release mechanism from the Grant wheel. To modify the existing Pantera wheel I cut off the bellows part of the wheel that mounted to the steering column, leaving only about 3/16" of an inch protruding from the back of the wheel.

I then made a bracket with three holes to mount the quick release mechanism out of sheet steel. I used the existing quick release brackets as a template to lay out the mounting holes. I cut the sheet steel in a circle to fit just inside the remaining small piece of bellows on the back of the original Plantera wheel and welded it all up. Here's a couple shots showing the fabrication process.

The wheel now snaps in and comes out like a breeze. Here's a shot of what the wheel looks like attached to the shaft using the quick disconnect feature.

Here's a few shots of the entire assembly installed in the Pantera, with and without the Patnera wheel in place.

In that last shot you can really see how much adjustment I need to make on the holes I cut out for the gauges on my instrument panel. That modification will be discussed in a post later on.

OK - Here's an update on the column. As I was working on moving the gauge holes up to where they need to be (see post on dash manufacture to read that update), I saw that I needed to so something with the big open space behind the steering wheel. I just didn't want to be looking inside the steering column as I drive the Pantera. So - time to make something. Here's a shot of the problem.

The steering wheel just isn't big enough to cover all the stuff crammed inside the steering column. I started the process by cutting a piece of round metal sheet the size of the opening in the column. I put a hole in the middle of the round plate that enables me to slide the plate over the mounting nut of the removable steering wheel. The plate will be screwed into the cast and tapped guts of the column itself. Here's two shots showing the plate in place.

You can see that I tacked a piece of exhaust pipe to the plate so that it would mate up to the quick disconnect part of the steering wheel. Now I want to taper that insert so that it will look better when mounted in place. To do this I use a great tool - Great Stuff sealer. See the shot below.

I love using Great Stuff as a base for shaping parts that I'll be making with a fiberglass top coat. The Great Stuff expands and fills all the gaps on metal or wood. It also expands to where you can shape it when it dries. It takes about 3 hours to be ready to work with. When it dried I was able use my wife's good bread knife (shhhh - don't tell her) to cut it with the taper I wanted to make this hole in the column look right. Here's a shot of the part at this step in the process.

Now comes the messy part - fiberglass. When I first lay the glass it looks terrible. Here's a shot of the next phase the process as the glass dries.

With a little sanding and some bondo the mess above turns into something really different. Check out the shot below - doesn't even look like the same thing as above.

Here's what it looks like in place on the column.

After a little extra grinding to get it all to fit in place I was ready to prime the new part. This is a quick way to finish off parts that are being modified to fit something it wasn't designed for in the first place. Not a bad result, even if I do say so myself.

Clutch Master/Slave Cylinder Project

Because of the custom bell housing required to mount the ZF transaxle to the Coyote engine I had to make my own bracket to mount the slave cylinder for the clutch. I was able to catch three bolts on the bell housing itself to secure the slave bracket.

I made the bracket out of pieces of steel plate welded up and drilled to fit the space I had to mount the slave cylinder. I made the base of the bracket pretty big so that I would have some options to move the mounting holes should I choose a different slave cylinder.

I happened to have a perfectly good 7/8" CNC slave cylinder I used on my Galaxie for a short while. I made the bracket to fit that slave. Here's a shot of the slave cylinder attached to the bracket mounted on the bell housing.

I ended up using a clevis pin I had for the Galaxie as well to attach the slave cylinder to the clutch arm off the ZF. I adjusted the throw-out bearing  to be just a slight distance from the clutch itself and secured the slave cylinder to the clutch arm.

I ended up changing the location of the inlet and bleed valve from the position shown in the picture above. I will be using a -3an fitting and line to attach the slave to the master.

For the master cylinder I used a 5/8" Wilwood cylinder, again from the Galaxie. I ended up having to elongate the mounting holes on the bulkhead piece that holds the master cylinder. Other than that the cylinder fit in like a charm.

I routed a -3an line from the master cylinder to a -3an to barb fitting under the car. From there I clamped up a rubber hose that fit over the original steel line that ran from the front to the back of the car. On the other end I reversed the connection to go from the male steel pipe through a rubber hose to a barb/-3an fitting. braided steel lines were used from the connection from the master to the steel tubing and from the steel tubing to the slave.

After bleeding the system I quickly found that the 5/8" master is way too small. The volume of fluid just wasn't enough to give me the stroke necessary to release the clutch on the slave. After a bunch of calculations, I think a 3/4" master will give me the approximate travel necessary. More on how this turns out when I get this cylinder mounted.

Fuel Tank Fill Neck

August 2019 Update

I completely redesigned the fuel system for my Pantera. Although what I had done below was a pretty slick set up, I didn't like how difficult it was to do maintenance to the fuel system. I decided to move things to where it is easier to access the various parts of the system. Please see my post on the Updated Fuel System here (https://johnspantera.blogspot.com/2019/08/updated-fuel-system.html).

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After a lot of thinking about where to fill the tank I finally settled for the passenger side window. I will have to come up with some kind of scoop or door to hide the fill tube but for now this will do. Here's a shot of the finished fill tube from the outside of the car.

I pulled the actual fill nozzle from a pick-a-part in Oceanside CA. I believe it was from a 90's Ford Escape. I then cut out some cardboard to shape the sheet metal pieces I welded together to mount the fill neck. I ended up resetting the fill tube a bit to help hide it away inside the window. I left open the bottom 1/2 of the window hoping to be able to add a cold air intake inlet here to feed the Coyote I have mounted inside.

Here's a shot of what the fill neck looks like from inside the car.

I cut and welded up some 1.5" dia stainless steel tubing I had laying around to turn the neck down from the passenger window down towards the tank opening. I then attached the welded tubing using 1.5" fuel line with clamps to make it all snug. You can just see a vent opening I left in the top of the fill neck to help regulate tank pressure. I will attach a rubber tube to the vent opening and route it down behind the back wheels at a later time.

I'll make another post later showing the scoop ideas when I get going on that project.