[DeTomaso] 73 Pantera L for sale in Redwood City

[Garth Rodericks]

Following are my findings after two inspections of this car...
   
  Inspection of Redwood City Pantera for sale
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/car/181777022.html
  
The car:
73 Pantera L (vin #5229, body service #51040, motor #4439)
63,679 miles
$25,000
   
  My photos of the car (Note that many of the dings, chips and scratches are not visible in the pics): http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/garth_rodericks/album?.dir=/e073scd&.src=ph&.tok=phX0dMFBEmwC7Bqd
   
  It’s an L-model Pantera with a 2-pod dash. It appears to have all other correct L-model features – driver’s side fuse panel, rubber front bumper, single rear bumper, fuel filler in finned panel behind driver’s side quarter window, L-model engine screen, and map light on dashboard. I’m no expert in L-model features, so if there are other things I should have looked for, I wasn’t aware of them. It is the original engine, and the engine id matches the id number on the engine id tag in the engine compartment. The car has Campy 7’s and 8’s and wears Goodyear Eagle VR tires which are in nearly new condition. 
   
  Seller’s son is selling the car for his father. It was supposedly a California car its entire life. Seller is the 2nd owner. He purchased the car in 2000 from the original owner who was a friend of his. He was planning on making it his retirement toy, but has lost interest. The seller has supposedly spent $5,000 in service on the car over the last 6 years. I was originally told he can produce receipts for all work done, although I did not review the receipts on my first inspection since I was meeting with the seller’s son. When I asked what his father had done to the car for $5,000, he thought it had a “new” cooling system and had “clutch work.” The cooling system is NOT new. It has an original style radiator, which may have been replaced at some point, and original cooling fan motors with Cortina blades. The driver’s side fan is missing one of the blades and the fans sound like they’re making contact with the shroud. Also, the radiator is missing the air deflector that
 covers the fans to insure all air entering the front of the car goes through the radiator (IMG_2672 & IMG_2674). On my second inspection of the car, I asked the seller (the father) for the receipts and what clutch work was done. The clutch has only been “adjusted” and the seller cannot product receipts for any work done. He claims he might be able to find a few, but consider that there are no records with this car.  There was a Loma Prieta Pantera plate riveted onto the inner fender in the engine compartment, just below/behind the Emissions Info and Engine ID plates (IMG_2680).  I forgot who ran (or was) Loma Prieta Pantera, but I’m sure some PCNC folks would know. Maybe a potential buyer could find some record of work from Loma Prieta Pantera. I couldn’t find evidence of $5,000 of work on this car.
   
  First Impressions:
The first thing I noticed as I drove up was the unique Muira-like louvers on the rear deck lid, similar to the Mindtrain louvers that were available for Panteras back in the 70’s, but with a lip that rides on top of the side rails of the decklid (IMG_2702). Overall, the car looks rough. It has not been detailed to sell, so there was no attempt to cover any flaws. LOTS of dings and chips in the paint, and a small dent on the rear corner on the passenger side adjacent to the tail lamp (IMG_2663).
   
  The Details:
The car definitely needs paint and body work. Lots of dings and scrapes, including the aforementioned dent next to the rear passenger side tail light (IMG_2663). The front grill is also dented in and will need to be hammered out or replaced (IMG_2688, IMG_2689, IMG_2690). The grill and it’s stainless frame appear to have been painted in “rattle-can” black at some point, although it’s probably not an issue since it needs replacing anyway. The lower front valence is dented near its center, as if it hit the corner of a parking block, and the wire mesh is torn (IMG_2666). But, I did not find any cancerous rust in the front valence. 
   
  The body showed no signs of rust or paint bubbling, save for a very tiny bit of paint flaking beneath the driver’s side of the windshield just ahead of the rubber gasket behind the vent gill (IMG_2710). The car appears to be wearing most of its original paint, but it has been hit in front. There are minor wrinkles in the inner-fender sheet metal in the radiator compartment, possibly remnants of straightening the front end. There is body filler visible on the front leading edge of the front passenger fender, and the paint on both front fenders does not match the hood or the cowl panel ahead of the windshield. And the headlights do not close all the way, but appears to merely need adjustment at the limit switches. The rubber front bumper looks like it is drooping or sagging on the driver’s side when viewed head on. I checked if it was possibly loose, but it’s anchored firmly in place. It just looks wrong and I couldn’t pinpoint why – looks like there’s a slight twist in it.
 The front trunk hood also is misaligned with both fenders and the cowl. It could be simply a matter of needing the hinges adjusted or it could be an artifact of the accident. The sheet metal just behind the passenger side front hood hinge shows damage. It appears as if the hinge was driven into the sheet metal. The seller cannot explain any flaws on the car.  Also, the rear deck lid color does not match the rear fenders (IMG_2662). There was also a crappy bondo-patch job just ahead of the rear passenger side wheel well. No idea what happened there, but it looks like hell and will have to be straightened out properly (IMG_2664 & IMG_2711). There is also a crack in the paint in the passenger side door jamb (IMG_2700) which appears to come from beneath. I’ve never seen one of those before, so I don’t know if it is cause for concern. It may be that a factory seam needs to be re-welded when the car gets new paint. The passenger side door has also suffered some kind of damage
 (none according to the seller), evidenced by the body filler on the jamb side of the door that completely smoothes the area where the door skin should wrap around and mate to the door, and the solid mass of the door below the door handle where it should sound like a hollow tin can when tapped with a finger nail. 
  The car also has marks in each front fender on top of the wheel arch (IMG_2687 & IMG_2709) where paint is coming off. The seller’s son didn’t know what caused them. Upon my initial inspection I thought someone got too aggressive with a power buffer and burned right through the paint at that spot, but my second inspection revealed that both front tires have been driven up into the underside of the fender, apparently at speed. This was evidenced by the polished contact patches on the inner fender where the undercoating has been removed by the tires, which is directly beneath the sections of the wheel arches missing the paint. The front fender lips have been partially rolled, albeit poorly, and after they’ve obviously been snagged by the front tires. Also, the down-tubes in the rear of the front fenders have each been flattened by tire contact, and the inner chassis structure also shows shiny from tire contact.
  The splash shields in the rear wheel wells are the full height versions and appear to have done a fine job of keeping moisture and debris out of the cavity between the gas tank and the body as the panel there appears to be in excellent condition. Close examination of the fuel filler shows that the rubber hose connecting the filler neck to the tube into the top of the gas tank is disconnected. It appears to have slipped off at some point. Don’t know how that would happen, but it’s not connected now. Exercise extreme caution filling this tank or driving the car with a nearly full tank.
   
  The front and rear trunk both need new felt, although the rear tub fiberglass appears to be in excellent condition. The car has an upgraded brake master cylinder (IMG_2673) with an aluminum adaptor, but the seller’s son who was showing me the car didn’t know anything about it. It looks like it came from one of the Pantera vendors.
  The interior looked pretty poor at first glance, largely due to the cheesy cheapo silver stereo missing the inner knobs (IMG_2705), aftermarket speakers missing their grills mounted in the door panels (IMG_2667), and torn upholstery on the passenger seat (IMG_2704). The driver’s seat looks pretty good, but the vinyl is pulling out at the back base of the seat. Also, there is a spring in the middle of the driver’s seat that sticks right in your back. The seats will need to be reupholstered. The dash appears to be in great condition (IMG_2705 & IMG_2703), with no signs of the vinyl lifting. The instruments look brand new and appeared to function correctly; although I couldn’t honestly say whether or not the ammeter gauge was working properly. The window switches have been replaced with what appear to be the Bosch replacement switches the vendors sell and the windows went up and down smoothly, although slowly like on all Panteras. Chrome trim is flaking off of the bezels of
 some of the other switches.  I didn’t try the courtesy light switch or the extra switch though – I got busy asking about other things and just plain forgot. The headliner has been replaced with a black headliner, which is now sagging (like my original headliner), and the passenger door has a rattle when being closed, like something inside was loose – maybe related to the accident damage noted above. The fuse panel door in the driver’s side foot well is missing most of its hinge screws so the entire door is loose and barely held on. Also, the carpet on the door has pulled through the rivets that secure it (I didn’t/don’t think they used rivets to secure the carpet to this door) and the knurled know is missing. The passenger seat belt is broken and will need to be replaced. The emergency/parking brake holds the car on an incline, however the button is recessed into the handle – it does not stick out the end of the handle as it should. Makes it rather difficult to release as
 you need to hold the handle up with one hand and use your other hand to insert a finger into the hole to press the button. Also, the A/C does not work - the car still has the original Ford compressor.
   
  The engine compartment is coated in HEAVY undercoating that’s cracking with age (IMG_2678 & 2684). The heavy undercoating in the engine compartment is not factory, but was probably done by dealers or owners concerned about rust - Zebart (Z-Bart?) was a popular undercoating treatment on Panteras in the 70's. I would definitely clean/scrape all this stuff out of the engine compartment and re-spray it with a proper application of undercoating or a spray-on bed liner for pickup trucks. The engine is the original and according to the seller it has never been rebuilt. The paint looks pretty good for a 30+ year old engine (IMG_2677 & IMG_2686), especially on the head by the exhaust manifold. Seller claims it’s because it’s only a 60,000 mile car. The engine started right up and sounded great. The transaxle has not been safety wired. I still can’t figure out what the seller could possibly have spent $5,000 on. There is no evidence of this car being improved or cared for.
   
  The underside of the car looked good, although the lower body panel where it rolls from the side of the car to the underside is damaged just ahead of the driver’s door. It appears as if someone tried to jack the car with a floor jack on the body rather than on a frame rail. Needless to say, it crushed the panel upward and created a perfect looking jack pad. The forward mounting straps for the front sway bar are intact, and there were no apparent signs of rust on the chassis or frame rails. The car still has the original spring spacers, and the original shocks appear to have been painted black at some point, unless they came that way in 73. The L-model experts could comment better on this. It appears that the original undercoating is still present, along with the usual grease and oil that seems to find its way to the underside of a Pantera. On my second inspection I jacked the car up on all sides and sneaked a Phillips screwdriver underneath with me. I say “sneaked”
 because the seller seemed to not want me to jack the car, and made some comments about how I’m going to have to pay for it if it falls off the jack. Anyway, I smacked the frame rails sharply with the screwdriver and all appeared solid, although I did not hit it with a hammer. All wheels bearings appear to be pretty tight. There was no bearing play in the front wheels, and the play in the rears was almost indiscernible. The steering rack needs to be rebuilt as the passenger side wheel can deflect 3-4 degrees in any direction just from rack movement within the housing. Also, the driver’s side tie rod need to be replaced as the driver’s side wheel deflects 1-2 degrees in either direction due to the sloppy/bad tie rod end. This is not something that can be corrected by tightening. Plan on new tie rod ends and a rack rebuild at a minimum.
   
  Driving Impressions:
The seller’s son, who was showing us the car was not knowledgeable about Panteras.  He did not let me drive the car on my first inspection so I’ll first list my riding impressions, then I’ll list the driving impressions from the second inspection.
  The car starts right up cleanly and idled smoothly. This was a cold start. The engine sounded great, and it didn’t blow any smoke upon starting or idle. Since I did not drive the car, I did not get to check for smoke upon rapid acceleration or deceleration. When I rode with the seller’s son, take offs from a stop were not smooth at all, although I could not tell if it was the son’s poor ability to manage the clutch, or if there was a problem with clutch engagement. Every shift throughout our ride was clutched poorly, save for two!  This guy doesn’t know how to drive a stick! I did not notice any clunks or squeaks while riding in the car. The temperature remained consistent throughout our drive and never went over 190 (hash mark on the gauge), and it was at least 90-degrees outside. Again, I didn’t get to drive the car so I can’t comment on how strong or smooth the engine was. It sounded good, but the guy driving didn’t push it and couldn’t shift. 
   
  On my second inspection of the car, I still didn’t get to drive it. But, my friend Scott who’s looking for a Pantera drove it. It’s a story in itself, and I’m gonna tell it. The seller’s son drove as they left the neighborhood. A short (and I mean short) time later they return up the street and the seller’s son is still behind the wheel. Apparently he let Scott drive the car for all of 3 blocks (never managed to get out of 2nd gear) before he insisted Scott pull over and they switch places again. WTF?!  Needless to say, as soon as they returned Scott let the seller (dad this time) know that he can’t consider a car he can’t drive. The seller then let Scott drive, but there was first a brief exchange of words and looks between father and son (the sellers). It struck me as unusual. Anyway, Scott found that the clutch does not engage until the very top of its path of travel. He said it feels like its just engaging, but then you’ve run out of pedal travel. It’s questionable
 whether it is engaging all the way. The car did not track consistently and steering was unpredictable through turns and bumps, as might be expected from the rack and tie rod issues. Did I mention that I can’t find any evidence that the seller has spent $5,000 maintaining or updating this car?
   
  The Seller:
All contact information on the listing is for the seller’s son who is supposedly selling the car for his father. But, we found the son has no authority to make decisions or sell the car on behalf of his father. We were told the asking price was “$25,000, or best offer.” After my initial inspection we were told they would entertain offers between $22,000-$23,000. Based on that information, my friend Scott flew up from SoCal to inspect the car himself. When he tried to make an offer the seller told him the price was “firm” at $25,000. Seller was unwilling to discuss alternatives and bid him “goodbye!”  
   
  Each one of my interactions with this seller has left me feeling uneasy. In light of the misinformation about the availability of documentation, lack of disclosure about the car’s history, the seller’s concerns about jacking the car for closer inspection, his son’s unwillingness to let us drive the car, and the misunderstanding between father and son about the car’s price, I would caution anyone to be aware that they may not be dealing with an ethical seller. At a minimum, they'd be dealing with an interesting group of personalities. Definitely not someone I would do business with.
   
  Summary:
A neglected Pantera. It appears to be a relatively rust free car, but there is a lot of risk associated with all the damage and unknown history – especially the front end damage. At the right price, this car could be a great platform to build the L-model of your dreams. But, there are also a lot of unknowns. If you’re interested in this car, I would strongly encourage you to take it to a professional body shop for an evaluation of the front end damage. There may be more work needed there and on the passenger side of the car than is readily apparent. Or, it may need nothing. I’m not a professional body man. There are no extra parts that go with this car, and there is little or no documentation. I’m not a price expert, but I think $25,000 is high for this car.
   
  Partial list of what this car needs, at a minimum

- Correct front end damage, passenger door damage, dent in rear, jack dent on driver’s side, filler in front of passenger side rear tire, other dents and dings in body, etc.
- New lower front valence panel
- New paint and body work
- New upper front grill
- Address front bumper sag issue
- Rebuild steering rack
- New tie rod ends
- New cooling fans
- New carpet
- Reupholster seats
- Reupholster center console
- Strip and paint engine compartment
- Replace hoses (couple green stripe, many are generic) and clamps
- Replace stereo
- New fuel filler hose
- New felt in front and rear trunks
   
  Feel free to email me off-list if you have specific questions.
   
  Cheers!
Garth
   

 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com