I have been a car guy for almost as long as I can remember. It started with a cylinder head gasket replacement on an AMC Pacer back when I was in the 6th grade. After that anything to do with cars I was all over.
So I was at a Ford invitational at Carlisle Pa. I was helping my friend with his Bonneville salt flat Merkur XR4Ti. There were a few Pantera's there just across the isle. When I had a break from answering questions about the Merkur I got to go talk to the owners.
I had decided long ago that either I wanted a GT40 kit car or a Pantera before I was 30 years old.
My wife for some reason liked the Pantera looks better so I had been focusing on Panteras for awhile and looked at a couple at various locations.
So it turned out this guy, Ken Brown, had 8 of them and owned a Pantera restoration shop that he was in the process of retiring from. I was looking for a project car but one rust free. Ken happened to have one that had been abandonded at his shop that for many years but managed to get it retitled in his name due to abandonment.
2 weeks latter I was driving down to Denver Pa from Mi. This is about an 11 hour drive, so I was pretty committed.
Here is how it looked when I saw it.
Did a complete investigation based on all of the information I had been reading and did not find any major rust in any of the key areas.
This is how it looked after I got it home and gave it a bath.
Flash forward a whole bunch of years - a job change,, international business travel, the birth of our twins, my wife's breast cancer ordeal, a sinking house foundation, and all the other things life throws at you - to Jan. 2011 when I finally decide this is the time to start this thing.
My Dad and I are going to to be working on this together SLOWLY as we have time, money, and talent to get this thing moving to my final vision.
