| Death and Life of #6659 |
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| Rod bought a red 1974 Pantera. It had a powerful motor, with NOS, and lots of torque. On one of the first drives, while making a turn, he gave it too much gas. He ended up scraping the driver�s side against a utility pole. Even for experienced drivers like Rod, this is an all too common occurrence with the Pantera. Rod settled with the insurance company, and as part of the deal received the car back. |
| Soon thereafter, he found a Pantera in much better condition, and brought the white car home vowing not to make the same mistake. Rod decided that he would offer the red car to anyone that wanted to bring it back, as the damage didn�t look that bad, even though the insurance company considered it a total loss. I tried to find someone to take the whole car, as it pained both Rod and myself to see the car �gone forever�. We know the right person could easily, and correctly restore this car, but time was ticking. Rod did receive an unscrupulous offer for the whole car, which was ridiculously low, so he decided he would part it out himself. He has plans to make a GT40 kit, and thus could use the engine and ZF, but the rest of the car would go. He decided that he would offer the car�s parts to PCNC (Pantera Club of Northern California) members at cut-rate prices, as he wanted to help the club members. Parts soon were flying off the car, and with the help of the internet many needy cars were getting pieces of ol� Red 6659. |
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| The left lower A-arm had been broken away from the frame, perhaps from the towing. Other than that all the damage was limited to the bodywork on the left side. This car does have rust demons, but not enough to scare away some potential buyers. The car was originally �Army Tank Green� as you can see from the right door frame. |
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| The NOS equipment, and some other odds-and-ends were removed by the �tow and storage� process, Rod never did learn where some things went. |
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| The plan was to strip off parts where anything better would go into upgrading the white one. In the first image is the �Red� master brake assembly and master clutch. In the next image is the �White� assembly. Thus the red brake assembly and footbox plate became available. |
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| Here Rod installs the better clutch slave cylinder into the white car, one of the few parts that was actually better on old Red than new �White�. Worthy of note is the exhaust tips, or more importantly, the Ansa Logo. |
| As my car was recovered from a �vendor� missing many, many parts, Rod offered me first choice. Next, parts were pulled to fill immediate orders, while other parts were pulled for the swap meet in San Diego in July. I was going there anyway, as I had a car to rebuild, and it was a great opportunity to deliver parts that had found new homes. This next image is special to me. Of all the money I have paid to Gary Hall, here I am, at the famous San Diego Swap Meet taking money from Gary ! |
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