[DeTomaso] Things to do while the engine is out?

Daniel C Jones daniel.c.jones2 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 25 18:59:05 EST 2012


Some things I'm doing while I've got the engine out of the white Pantera:

 1. Strip and repaint gas tank.  Gas tank had no rust inside tank so I'm not
 going to coat it.

 2. Cut out cross-member and weld in pick up points for Byars chassis
stiffening
 kit.  Also make parking brake bracket removable.  Lower rear brace from Byars
 kit replaces cross-member under oil pan.  Upper brace replaces stock brace and
 uses the extra set of pick up points.

 3. Weld in jacking pads front and rear.  Made from flat bar stock and tapped
 for tie-down eyelets.

 4. Cut off pressure tank bracket.  Pressure and overflow tanks will
be replaced
 by one of Kirk's twin cap bifurcated tanks located in the overflow bracket.
 This will greatly improve access to passenger side plugs and valve cover.

 5. Cut off air conditioning hose brackets and hide air conditioner lines.

 6. Cut off bend tabs and replace with screw-in insulated hose clips.

 7. Fill (weld in filler pieces) and smooth various cut out holes in engine bay.

 8. Strip and repaint engine compartment, including filling spot welds and
 smoothing welds.

 9. Strip undercoating from wheel wells, repaint with SEM rust shield and cover
 with 3M undercoating.  OEM undercoating gets hard, lifts from body and can
 retain moisture, promoting rust.  Undercoating can also hide pinhole rust.
 3M undercoating remains pliable.

 10. Test fit for Fontana aluminum block engine.

 11. Install taller fifth gear in ZF.

 12. Use hole saws to open up drain holes.

 13. Trial fit Fontana aluminum block high port headed engine.

 14. Replace various fasteners with stainless, have others re-plated.

 15. Clean aluminum engine stands and install new rubber mounts.

 16. Strip and re-paint coolant tubes and tanks.

 17. Have Kirk Evans stop by and notice that certain spot welds are missing,
 indicating the presence of body filler that may cover a prior repair or
 rust.  End up stripping engine bay, drilling out the factory spot welds
 to reveal rust on driver's side, The engine bay structure is formed from
 two layers of sheet metal.  Kirk says the factory didn't do any sort of rust
 prevention on the inside surface of the sheet metal and there's a shelf at
 the top with no drain path so the structure rusts from the inside out.
 The shelf was cut to provide a drain path and the drain holes opened up.
 The rust scale was removed with rotary wire brush wheels and the surface
 treated with phosphoric acid to neutralize any rust in the metal pores.
 In a couple of spots, the rust was cut completely away and filler panels
 welded in.  After the surfaces were prepped, they metal was painted with
 POR-15 rust preventative.  Kirk then made templates and hand-formed
replacement
 panels which have been fitted and welded into place.  The passenger side was
 also de-skinned but it was lighter surface rust.  I was planning on doing a
 more detailed report when I can spare the time but have uploaded pictures
 here for the time being:

  http://www.bacomatic.org/gallery2/v/hidden/dan/dan-cars/album28/engine_compartment/

 Click on the thumbnails to see a larger size image.  BTW, Kirk says they
 all more-or-less look like this inside, unless they have been treated or
 repaired.  The extent of the rust caught me by surprise as the rest of the
 car appears rust free.  I had previously cut out the floor pans to install
 dropped pans and the pans were completely rust free.  The original plan was
 to simply fill in the spot welds and have a local shop paint the engine
 compartment while the engine was out.  Kirk just happened to be coming
 through town to drop off a ZF I had purchased from him for my other Pantera
 so I changed plans to have him do the engine bay painting.  Lucky for me
 that I did as a local shop certainly wouldn't have had the experience to
 know what to look for.

Dan Jones



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