My Pantera Restoration Story

This is the story of my 7 year De Tomaso Pantera restoration. I have been passionately interested in exotic cars since I was a small child, and spent more school time playing Top Trumps, than listening to the teacher. The Pantera trump card, is still etched on my mind to this day.When I left school at 16, the first thing I bought was an oxy/acetylene kit and a Mig Welder, with which I soon set about restoring my 105E Anglia. At 17, I bought 1969 Jensen Interceptor, and spent the next 2 years restoring it.

At 20, I decided it was time to start researching the De Tomaso marque, so I joined the club, attended every meet, and bought every book on the subject ever published.

After 2 years of saving, I sold my Interceptor and started looking for an early Pantera GTS. I could only afford a rough one, and after looking at several cars I found one I liked. A 1974 right hand drive GTS held together with rope, horse hair and tree sap!

I started the project with the intention of improving on the standards I had set during the previous restorations, and with the intention of doing as much of the work as I could myself.

After stripping the car I realised just how bad it really was - to start with, the entire monocoque was rotten to the core… I decided the sills would be a good place to start, so I shimmed my jack stands to get the car sitting absolutely level in both planes. I then welded cross-bracing bars from the dash to the rear bulkhead panel, to make sure nothing could move whilst I fabricated and replaced the entire inner, center and outer sill structure on both sides.

Very rusty inner sill. Where do I start!

Rusty Inner sill structure

Inner sill cut out.The jack in middle and the steel tubes, stop the car bending

Inner sill under construction

Fabricated inner sill. Exact replica of original, except this one is properly rust proofed

Fabricated center section. Holes cut out with a hole saw and then flanged over an old disc brake

To make the new sills I needed a 7 foot sheet metal folder, so I went to the scrap yard and bought a pile of 20mm plate steel and some large lengths of angle iron. From this pile of trusty metal I built myself a sturdy folder which worked very well - it has been in constant use ever since!

After doing the sills, I turned my attention to the rear body structure and suspension mounting points. This was also absolutely rotten, so I painstakingly reproduced all the factory box section pressings from the lower A arm up to above the rear wheel. From there I continued forward to the B post, and then on down to the sill. I had to do this on both sides, and went to great lengths to make it look completely original in every detail. After this area was finished and painted in primer, friends would look into the wheel house and say nothing. This was precisely my intention - it looked like it had never been touched.

Rusty rear wheel house and suspension pick up points

Fabricated rear suspension pick up points

Fabricated outer sill. Note hand formed water drain pressings on bottom edge

I then fabricated the left and right floor pans. To reproduce the original unique pressings, I cut the shapes out of 5mm plate steel and then clamped sheet metal over the resultant former. The new panels were then hammered out using wooden punches.

Fabricated sill and floor. Note hand formed pressings in floor

At the same time I reproduced most of the box section pressings under the floor, and as far forward as the front suspension mounts. At the front I made a new cross member and all the surrounding sheet metal. Every fold and every pressing was reproduced exactly as per the original, and everything was butt-welded and the welds polished down.

Rusty front cross member cut off. New metal let in, ready for new one.

 

Fabricated Lower front cross member

Fabricated bracket & front towing eye

Fabricated front cross member. Pressings hand formed with steel die and wooden punches

Fabricated cross member

Fabricated front valance

With the basic structure completely rust free, it was time to start on the body panels. The lower 6" of the doors were made entirely of filler, so I fabricated new sections and butt-welded them in. Getting the doors to fit perfectly took some considerable effort, but in the end the gap all the way around was within one millimetre.

New section made for bottom of door.

The rear quarter-panels needed the bottom 10" replacing. This panel has a compound curve and folded edges that need shrinking. I did not have a mechanical shrinker, so I bought some jaws and made the rest by copying the basic design of one I had seen in a catalogue. To stretch the metal I beat it into a sandbag with wooden hammers. This method worked OK, but I was not really happy with the results, and after finishing one side I decided I needed a wheeling machine before starting the other.

Fortunately about a year previously I had found a defunct swaging machine with a large floor-standing cast iron frame down at the scrap yard. Armed with a 9" angle grinder and a stick welder, I converted this pre-war swager into a wheeling machine. For the top wheel I used a massive bearing, and for the lower wheels I found some iron castors with rubber tyres and built in bearings. I machined off the tyres and then cut the appropriate shape onto the surface of the iron wheels.

Getting back to the body panels, the rear panel from the bumpers down was rusted out. I fabricated this piece in three sections, and made another steel former to reproduce the pressings. In the engine compartment, there was a similar story. I fabricated most of the sheet metal in there and then made the rear part of the deck-lid, and butt-welded it in place.

Rusty rear panel cut off

Back of deck lid fabricated. Later seam welded

Repaired rear wheel house

New bottom section of rear valance made with former

Fabricated left rear panel. Don't let your panels go rusty before you have finished making them

Fabricated right rear panel

Moving to the front of the car, I made the lower sections of the front wings, both in front and behind the wheels. I then made the lower front valance and the front part of the bonnet with the aid of yet more formers.

Rust cut out of front wing

Fabricted front valance

The pop-up head lights were also rusted out, so I redesigned and completely re-manufactured them to accept a lightweight rectangular head lamp. I also fabricated the top as a separate piece (instead of being welded to the bucket). The top is now mounted on little adjustable pedestals, so it is infinitely adjustable - there is nothing I hate more than a car with pop-up head lights that do not fit the car perfectly!

Complete new headlight pod made from scratch. Top is adjustable independently from bucket.

Fabricated headlight top. Beaten out on sand bag, before I made my wheeling machine

I bought one panel from the De Tomaso factory in Italy - this was the R/H door jamb B post. It's a very complicated panel to make one-off, so I decided it was worth the £170.. Wrong!! It did not fit the car at all, and I had to heavily modify it to make it fit. This was the first and last panel I ever bought from De Tomaso.(!) After the B post's were installed, I lead-loaded the area as per the factory method to make sure it never cracks. (I have since created left and right steel formers for reproducing the outer B post panels. And unlike the original panels, mine fit the car perfectly.)

Lead loading put into B post, as original. 5 years on, no cracks no rust

Sheet metal fabrication finished... Now for the suspension, I wanted to sandblast these components, but did not have a sand-blaster. So I went back to the scrap yard for more sheet steel to make one from. I bought the blasting gun and after about a week's work I had a large blasting cabinet that seemed to work quite well.

All the suspension bushes were replaced and rear hub carriers got new bearings, etc. I took some advice and modified the front top A arm to gain some extra castor. De Tomaso got it wrong originally, and this modification increases the stability of the car at speed and dials in some self-centring. I also rebuilt the steering rack with a new phosphor bronze bush.

Front top A arm, before modification

Front top A arm after modification. Ball joint moved back 19mm to gain caster.

As for the engine, this is one of the things that attracted me to the Pantera in the first place. A muscle car engine in an Italian chassis. A Ford 351 Cleveland mated up with Italian handling makes for style with American brute force!

The motor was very tired and proved to be ready for an overhaul. This was my first unassisted engine build, however, I made sure that I got lots of advice from the experts over the phone before starting work. I did all the spanner-work myself, with the exception of the re-boring and crank grinding.

A friend in the Pantera club had a baffled racing sump for his Cleveland which he kindly lent me whilst his engine was in bits. I then got some sheet steel together and copied it, which saved me about £300.

Fabricated baffle sump, with trap doors

Fabricated Baffle sump

Fabricated sump. Note swage lines to stop drumming

I chose to drive my cam with gears instead of a chain and sprockets - this is unnecessary, but the wining sound made by the gears is just great!

Fabricated oil pick up

Retrimed console rear box

Engine on stand

Cleveland completely rebuilt by myself. Fabricated engine stand

Other than the crank, rods, heads and block, everything was new. I now have a 100% turnkey 350BHP engine.

Now for the paint, I am ashamed to say I paid a body shop to do this. If my workshop was bigger I would have built an oven and had a go myself, but I simply did not have the room. This task was undertaken by a friend in Leicestershire. He had the car for 12 months, and during that time I travelled the 460 mile round-trip 9 times to check on progress. After a year of my pestering them, the chaps in the body shop were sick of me, and said I was the most fussy customer they ever had! It cost me a Kings-ransom, but they did a fantastic job. I did manage to make a small heated spray-booth with extractor - with this I painted the wheels, engine, gearbox, suspension, and all the trim parts.

The interior had been poorly re-trimmed at some stage in some awful shiny leather and as a result looked ghastly. I had never used a sewing machine before in my life, but decided it can't be any harder than making body panels. I looked around and in the end I bought an old Viking semi-industrial sewing machine from my mate's mum. Unfortunately, I found it did not have the power to go through 4 pieces of leather at once, so I got a much bigger motor and geared it down with pulleys. This allowed me to make it go very slowly so that I could achieve the perfection I was looking for. I also made some unique stitching feet for the machine at the same time.

I started out using vinyl until I got the hang of it, and after 4 attempts on the first arm rest, I was happy with the results. I then started on the Connolly leather - it did not matter how long it took, or how many hides I went through, I just kept doing it until every French seam was perfectly straight, and every surface was taught and crease-free. The dash board alone took 3 weeks! I left the seats until the end, and started by dissecting an old leather seat with a scalpel, to see how it was sewn together. After finishing the seats, I made a complete carpet set and bound it with leather. In total the interior took 12 months.

Bare center console sanded smooth, ready for covering

1.5mm thick neoprene glued to center console

Recovering centre console

Finished centre console

Recovering seat

Retrimed console rear box

Dash block sanded smooth, then 1.5mm thick neoprene glued into place

Recovering dash, Very difficult

Restored instrument panel

Aluminium button made for hand brake. New leather boot sewn up, replaces ghastly rubber one

Recovering bulkhead panel

Door panel. Foam glued to leather, then cotton glued to foam, then pattern drawn on cotton

Finished dash

Dash nearly finished

Finished interior

I even drive it in the rain!

Finished door panel. Note machined lock bezel

One of the chrome heater controls was missing, and I could not find a new one at the time, so I filed one from a solid piece of brass and had it chrome plated.

In order to reduce weight, throughout the rebuild I drilled holes in everything and replaced all the steel splash shields with plastic ones. I replaced the steel alternator bracket with an aluminium one of my own making and replaced the iron intake manifold with an alloy one. I also replaced the starter with a small reduction drive unit and replaced the conventional battery with a tiny dry-cell Odyssey version. I then replaced the crappy Girling brakes with 6-piston Wilwood's and much bigger rotors - these had lightweight aluminium hats.

Wilwood 310mm rotors with 6 piston calipers

Restored felt and servo. New brake pipes

To further lighten the car, I removed the air-conditioning equipment - I would rather be hot than heavy! I replaced the old steel blower-fans with light weight sucker units. My next job is to throw the old iron cylinder heads in the river and get some aluminium replacements. More money needed, methinks! With half a tank of petrol, the car currently weighs 1330kg (2926lbs). I'm hoping the aluminium heads will knock this down substantially, and to help get more weight off, I have lots of other ideas up my sleeve...

During the course of the restoration, I had a job in a factory where I worked 4 days on, 4 days off - this is how I had enough time to do so much work on the car. Since its completion, I have covered 10,000 miles - when it's not being driven, my Pantera lives in a dehumidified bubble, which is yet another thing I made myself!

Johnny Woods