[DeTomaso] On the importance of chassis drain holes....

[ProvaMo.com]

This opportunity had a great possibility of being a very memorable event
and a story in the making, too bad it didn't happen... In typical Mike Drewsaster
fashion...

Claude Dubois, the largest DeTomaso dealer in Europe, and famous race car driver
(who even raced the infamous Jaguar D-type...) took the wheel to deliver a customer
car only 400+ miles away.  ...During the largest storm of the season, and with the
road closed for snow, Claude & Mike set off.  Soon they were making record time,
Claude driving like a man possessed, and driven to set a new time record for this
leg...

Now with the advantage of the CHP closing the road, reducing traffic to zero... Claude
was making great time, once passed the mere obstacle of the closure blockade, running

flat-out.  Well he tried to keep the revs under 6 grand... After all this was a
customer car, and the mechanic Mike Drew, riding as passenger, had expressed his
reservations, as he yet again wiped the inside of the window with his sleeve to clear
it...  The hum of the engine at speed almost lulled them to sleep on California's
Autobahn.  Mike was pleased that he had mapped out a route to include some of the
famous back roads... now all just a blur in his memory as the miles ticked off like
the staccato of Bott's Dots under the tires...
What were they in such a hurry for?  Well nothing really, except that Claude just can
not drive the pace of the local zombies...

Then a quick puff of smoke appeared from behind the amp gauge... Mike comments, "You
know Claude, I thought we should have looked at that wire before..."  Then suddenly






Hi guys,

I've spent today working on #3535, the very original one-family-from-new blue 
'72 Pre-L that sold for a bargain price on E-bay last week.   The seller was 
somewhat near to me, the buyer is down in Orange County, and I have to go down 
there routinely anyway, so I volunteered to serve as delivery agent.

My original plan was to drive it down there yesterday with Claude Dubois.   
But with the entire state getting hammered by an extremely powerful storm, and 
with this car being a relative unknown to me, except that I knew both the 
heater and A/C systems were inoperative, I decided discretion was the better part 
of valor, and so I stayed home with the Pantera and Claude rented a car and 
made his way down there (more on that in a second, separate post).

With an unexpected day off today, I decided to fiddle with the car and try to 
tackle some small problems.   An inoperative passenger window was initially 
diagnosed and fixed by replacing the obviously blown fuse (!), but then it 
would only go down, not up, due to a typically defective factory switch.   I have 
some good factory switches in my stockpile, so I got that sorted temporarily, 
although I've ordered a proper Bosch replacement (the driver's side was 
already changed, so now they will match).

I also removed the redundant shifter centering spring, which is done as a 
matter of course.   That did improve shifting, although it's still pretty crappy, 
as the original stock trunnion bearing has never once been lubricated.   I'll 
attend to that shortly.

I put the car in the air to inspect for rust, and found it to be among the 
most very rock-solid cars I've ever been near.   However, it didn't have the 
chassis drain holes that the factory failed to provide, but all knowing owners 
create themselves.   So I got out my drill and went to work, and got soaked in 
the process!   The car had been brought here in the rain, and the chassis tubes 
were filled with water.

This just goes to show the importance of these holes; had I not drilled them, 
the water would have just sat there until it evaporated, which might have 
taken a long time; all the while, the bare metal would be rusting away.

If each of you don't have these holes in your car, you are wrong!   Get it in 
the air, get out your drill, and get to work!

Here's a photo of the affected area (the inner wheelhouses, in between the 
mounts for the lower rear control arms), with residual water still dripping from 
the holes!

http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=4043

Mike


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