[DeTomaso] GT5-S Conversion
JDeRyke at aol.com
JDeRyke at aol.com
Wed Mar 7 03:51:24 EST 2012
In a message dated 3/6/12 12:17:20 PM, rfmccall at comcast.net writes:
> Does anyone have first hand know led ge of the quality and fittment of
> the GT5-S body panels that are currently available for converting an eary
> Pantera ?
>
I can't answer the question directly since the single conversion I worked
on was done with Hall panels available 15-20 years ago. Dunno whats available
nowadays. But it's almost unimportant how well they "fit' since a good half
of a donor car will be cut away: all 4 fenders and most of the nose go
away. Gary Hall once brought a '71 shell to 'Vegas that had been converted, for
a show-and-tell. The car was in bare metal and I estimated that there was
roughly 20 FEET of meticulous TIG welding and panel grinding that had been
done. So IMHO it depends mostly on your bodyman's expertise. I certainly
would measure a half-dozen times before cutting the OEM panels, though! Cut OEM
panels have some value from restoration shops repairing crash damage so you
might even get a few bucks back! Some L.A shops that specialize in this
stuff are still around, too.
Once you accept the massive amount of welding and panel work required, a
conversion has several advantages. First, the early chassis seems stronger
than the late one- having benefited from Ford engineering and bracing, and
secondly with the amount of welding necessary to attach the kit, its almost an
afterthought to seam-weld every part of the car to enormously stiffen up the
monococque. Rust repairs will be trivial to do as a matter of course. This
all should improve the handling measurably, as guys with narrow-body cars
converted to racers say the improvement in handling from seam welding in place
of 40-year-old spot-welds was the best single thing they did to the chassis.
You being a racer this should appeal to you... Good luck- J Deryke
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