[DeTomaso] Pandora's next 15 minutes of fame...

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/17/10 11 23 52, kenn_green at yahoo.com writes:


> VIN 2324 is an early 72 (single rear ZF mount) and has a flat deck.  But 
> I've heard that changes were not allways orderly and later cars could have 
> earlier parts if they found some paying around.
> 

Often said, rarely proven.   Mostly it's the other way around--older cars 
were often completed with newer parts, especially for the European market.   
That's a well-known and -documented scenario, especially with pushbutton 
Panteras in the Euro market.   Pushbuttons completed in 1972 were normally 
fitted with rounded bumpers, Dash-2 gearboxes etc.   Those are cars that sat 
around the factory waiting to be ordered by the various European distributors, 
as they couldn't be sold in the USA due to lacking fundamental structural 
integrity needed to pass the US crash tests.   Rather than tearing the 
partially-completed cars apart to bring them up to snuff, instead apparently De 
Tomaso just shoved them to the side until an unwitting European would want a 
Pantera, at which point they were rolled the rest of the way down the assembly 
line.

Stephane Bergeron's #1256 falls into that category, as do numerous other 
French pushbuttons.   The ones I'm referring to were all completed late in 
1972, and sold/titled as 1973 models, even though their build dates state April 
1971 or whatever.

With respect to the decklid question, the Ford parts book states 
definitively that the decklid was changed (to the ribbed style) starting with #2638.   
However, it fails to define which style #2638 actually had.

Mike