[DeTomaso] Pantera carcasses

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

Gary Hall was the only one I know that attempted to reproduce major body 
panels. Due to the hand-built nature of the car and DeTomaso's penchant for 
never throwing anything away, plus there were several welding jigs used at the 
Factory (all slightly different and individually modified over their 4 year 
lifespan) and the fact that after driving a while, the body shells take a 
'set', Gary caught so much grief from people who bought his panels and 
couldn't get them to fit "right" on their particular Pantera, he stopped making 
them.   Most other vendors took note of this and stayed away from body panel 
reproduction. 
Nowadays, take-off panels from wrecks and maybe Johnny Wood's valence panel 
are the only sources that I know of. The vendors laboriously drill out 
hundreds of spot-welds to salvage panels. But a removed '71 fender still won't 
necessarily perfectly fit a '72, '73 or '74. FWIW, on all-welded Porsches, 
Ferraris and Lambos, NONE of the major body panels fit without major rework 
and they tell you that up front. It's still better than starting with a 4'X8' 
sheet of metal & a hammer. Good luck- J Deryke