Car Shows - Drives, Or Last minute prowls ?

-          Chuck Huber (Pantera Owner’s Club of Arizona)

The following modifications are intended to provide the owner lasting value.  These mods should result in either an immediate, or future reduction in labor, or perhaps an increase in convenience or situational awareness in the condition of your car.  So without ado….

1)      An Old Racer’s Trick – Petcocks in the Block:   When you need to pull your heads off, or drain your coolant, having a pair of petcocks in the block will give you a simple way to drain the coolant level to below the height of the head coolant passages.  Both sides of the 351C block have ports into the water jacket.  Typically, these are sealed with small, square-headed threaded pipe plugs.  Replacement of these plugs with a pair of appropriately fitting petcocks can save you a lot of energy and trouble if you need to reduce the coolant level in your engine / cooling system.  This mod is best if your cooling system is already drained.  (Kudos to Wade Musil, and Steve from Fair Oaks, CA)

2)      Formed Heater Hose Between the Engine Bay Cooling Tubes and the Water Pump:   Once your engine is out, and you are replumbing the engine bay (or even with the cooling system drained), you will find hose routing from the water pump to the two steel tubes running into the cockpit is challenging.  To minimize the effort, prebent hoses are available from DAYCO (Part Numbers 80417 or 80418).  These hoses have a sharp 90 Degree bend at one end of the hose, and then a long run of straight hose.  These hoses are perfect for the heater tube installation, as they can be trimmed precisely, and provide a very compact, non-kinking routing from the rear of the passenger bulkhead, up to the water pump.  The hoses are available from Amazon, or your local parts store.  (Kudos to Wade Musil)

3)      3M PPS Cups to Fill the Holes Around the Dzus Fasteners in the Engine Bay:   The majority of the Panteras of today are missing the small plastic cups that went behind the trunk tub dzus fasteners.  These cups have the function of preventing water from the rear tires from spraying up into your engine compartment when driving your Pantera in the rain.  The caps from 3M PPS Paint fit perfectly into the holes in the bay, and they look stock.  In addition, they are a beautiful white color, and don’t require any scrubbing like it takes to clean the old ones, (if you are lucky enough to still have them). These are equivalent to P/N 18129C (Plug Assy, Dzus Fastener Plate), that may (or may not) be available from the vendors.  Another Ford Part Number is D36Y-6345408-A from the TSB #7, August 3, 1973.  (Kudos to Rick Pacinda, Green Valley, AZ)

4)      Inexpensive Voltage Monitor:    I wanted the capability to monitor the voltage of my charging system.  A quick search on eBay in the “Vehicle Electronics and GPS” section for “Clock, Alarm, Temperature, Voltage” turned up a number of small form factor battery monitor units.  Mine was very simple to wire, and it gave me voltage measurement capability, a clock, an alarm (with a snooze function!), and an in cockpit and outside temperature gauge.  This system was very lightweight, and easy to mount to my dash using hot glue (no drilling of mounting holes required).  This is about the best $15 (including shipping) I have ever spent – and it looks cool too.  As an even less intrusive suggestion, buy one of the $10 Voltage Monitors packaged in a pod that plugs into your cigarette lighter.

5)      Additional Engine Ground Strap:  A trip to your favorite parts store will provide a 12” – 18” ground cable (black, with large eyelets on either end).  This cable is perfect for that additional ground needed from the engine (Starter Mounting Bolt) to the vehicle frame.  A longer cable can go to the ground point in the engine bay below the passenger side motor mount.  I ran mine to a cleaned off / bare metal section of the body on the front of the passenger side engine bay brace.

6)      Special Bonus Tip (No Additional Charge) – “Pantera / DeTomaso” Logo Retainers:  If the logos on the back of your car are loose, like mine were, you can give yourself a small additional margin of safety by pushing the logo back against the paint and hitting the studs on the inside of the bay with a big dollop of hot glue.  The glue will solidify around the stud and help to retain your logos.  Don’t be like I was, checking the prices for replacements on the internet (I did, they are ~$80), TAKE ACTION NOW!

I hope these tips are found to be useful.  The intent of this article is to describe easy-to-install updates that any Pantera Owner can implement.