[DeTomaso] Unpainted Bodies

[Dan Mixon]

In the book DeTomaso Pantera by Jan Norbye, there are some pictures of the
Vignale Turin assembly line on pages 61, 63 and 83. The bodies are painted.
A picture on page 63 shows them buffing the paint. The caption for the
picture on page 83 reads "Bodies were painted and dried at the Vignale
works, which had ample storage."

Brooklands Books - Pantera Gold Portfolio, which is a collection of Pantera
magazine articles, has pictures of Pantera construction in the Vignale
plant. It has pictures of "Wet sanding by hand before body receives final
coat of enamel" and "Paint spray booth - each Pantera receives 2 coats of
primer and 3 coats of acrylic enamel".

All these pictures are in black and white so you can't tell what color they
are but it does appear the cars are a similar shade.

I've seen the picture of the bodies sitting out in the weather in Modena but
if I recall correctly, they were post Ford era cars.

There are still impromptu worker strikes in Italy.
  

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 7:33 PM
To: jtaphorn at kingwoodcable.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Unpainted Bodies


In a message dated 5/28/08 4:24:25 PM, jtaphorn at kingwoodcable.com writes:


> I have always been curious about the supposition that  "It is true that
for
> a period of time, unpainted bodies were allowed to sit
> outside at Vignale"  How do actually know this?  Do we know the dates and
> serial numbers of the Panteras affected?
> 

I don't remember the exact timeframe, but Italy was racked with national 
strikes throughout the years of Pantera production, and the assembly line
would 
shut down periodically as a result.   Don Coleman mentioned that being a
problem 
during his short tenure as the head of the program in 1971.

I've seen a photo of a whole bunch of bare-metal unfinished bodies sitting 
outside the Vignale works, but I can't remember where I saw it?

Mike


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