BIG MISTAKE? Barn find Pantera parked for 45 years - Will It Run? 

I’ve been working on and around Panteras exclusively for more than 30 years. They are amazing cars. I just spent the last five days packing up another garage find car today in fact. Your car has a mismatched front bumper. The left one has a square inner corner-it’s from a 1971 (through March 1972) car. The March-July 1972 cars used the bumpers with rounded inner corners as this one has. Although the mufflers are original, they are from a different car, a later one with the big bumpers. The tips point straight out the back of the muffler can, rather than tilted upwards as would be appropriate on an early car like this. There were actually three different styles of mufflers used on the chrome bumper cars. The earliest had a much smaller muffler can, the second series had one that was arguably too large, and the third style used the same just-right muffler can as those you have, except with the tips welded at a more jaunty angle. The European GTS variant used nominally the same mufflers, except with larger diameter pipes and proper 4-into-1 headers. They are still available new (all were/are manufactured by ANSA) but are eye-wateringly expensive. Count on $2500-3500 for a full Euro GTS exhaust system. This car deserves it though. The early cars had single adjustable shocks made by Ariston, which were license-built Konis. They are identical internally to Konis and can be rebuilt by any Koni rebuilder. They are really quite good and yours are probably in useable condition without any work needed at all. The aftermarket also has loads of options available. (I happen to have a good original set of 1970s Koni shocks with slighty stiffer springs for sale if you’re interested, although personally I would run what you’ve got for now). Feel free to reach out for free project consulting any time. I’ve driven literally hundreds of Panteras and probably worked on at least a hundred, and I’ve got a house full of parts (and a very tolerant wife who has her own Pantera, making us a two-car family). I was the guy in Jay Leno’s Pantera video which we shot ten years ago (and can be seen elsewhere on RU-vid). My contact info is all over the place so I’m easy to find.

If you do a Redline rebuild I will watch every episode. I promise!!

Shame (but not surprising) about the engine - but the silver lining is you still have an incredibly original and solid early Pantera to work with, and in a GREAT color, to boot! Like others I will watch EVERY episode you produce on this build/ restoration/ however you want to phrase it.

An old boat mechanic taught me that brake fluid eats anything that isn’t metal or alloy. They use it to free up locked or frozen engines. Pour it in each cylinder for 24 hrs. Worked for me 8 times already.

Thanks for showing the reality of taking on these projects. Not always as straight forward as most of the restoration programs make it seem. Thanks for keeping it real and relatable! looking forward to the restoration process videos.

Thanks Davin. I used to make these ready at Holland Lincoln Mercury in Albuquerque NM in 71-72. What fun they were to test drive for a 20 year old. Mike Fifer

18:14 i think you should've put the car in 5th gear and pulled it from the front. Because now the wheels are drive and the engine is driven, 5th gear makes a lower ratio. I experienced this when i was adjusting the valve lash on a Peugeot. Just lifted the car on one side, put the car in 5th and turned the wheel to turn the engine and adjusted the valves. Sorry for my bad english. I speak persian.😅🙏

Can't wait to see how this turns out. Finally another Redline Rebuild! This one is special!

This is one of the most interesting series, Love your work😍

I'm so glad to see this classic Pantera get the restoration it needs. I was very surprised to hear him mention Traverse City at the end! I used to live close to Traverse City. I know the area well. I've been to Traverse many times. I eagerly anticipate the next phase. Thank you.

Personally, I would have rebuilt it anyway. A 351 isn’t a rare engine and aftermarket parts are plentiful and it’s a straight forward job. I’d port the heads or do aftermarket performance ones. An aluminum intake and a performance carb as well. Technology has moved so far forward since this was built, why not take advantage of that?

I remember having mechanics tell me they used Marvel Mystery Oil to unstick frozen engines. If nothing else works, fill the crankcase and also add some on top of the cylinders. Soak for a few days then check.

Don't waste time getting a seized motor to run ! Take it out and rebuild it ! 👍👍👍

Sucks that it wouldn’t start. Great news, we get to see you rebuild it.

Not a mistake by any means.The body is in great shape , its just the engine which needs help.Looking to see this car done up. What a lovely mating of Italian style and a Ford V8 ,its a marriage made in heaven.

I used a large screw driver on the flywheel to get an engine that was locked up. That was eight years ago and she still runs good.

Love this series. Rescuing the car getting it going. That's awesome. Keep on the good work. I am doing the same. I found a 1980 Mustang 4 cylinder turbo 4 speed car with 33,000 miles on it. A lot of fun

I've always wanted to find one of these gems. Beautiful car.

Great series of episodes on one my favourite cars. And the colour is absolutely perfect! Sucks to find out that the engine is locked up, but I'm selfishly excited to see the Redline Rebuild, and the Masters of Time Lapse do the voodoo they do better than anyone else.

Really looking forward to the redline rebuild on this unit!!!

Davin is the perfect mix of pleasant media personality while still maintaining his authentic mechanic grumpiness. That Pantera is beautiful. My friend has one and he let me drive it. I found the pedal configuration quite unbearably tight. Maybe if you took your shoes off?

Thank you guys for your videos. No criticism from me, how many of us will ever pull a Pantera into our garage and restore or update one. Beautiful. Thanks for allowing us to be part of something that otherwise we could never experience.

Redline rebuild -- heck yeah.

Ahh man thats gutting to see. Hope the rebuild goes well and you can see where it was sezied.

If the engine is seized, it's likely the top of the ZF is rusty as well. You'll need to crack the case the inspect it thoroughly. There are very few guys in the 'States who know how to rebuild a ZF and the bronze syncros are unobtainium.

The engine has the most mechanical advantage in first and reverse gears. If you are trying to turn the engine over by dragging, the most mechanical advantage is in fourth. Rocking the car back and forth in 4th gear might have worked.

My dad and his business partner ( they owned a construction company building houses) purchased a 1971 Pantera that was built as a race car but had a blown motor in it and it was locked up. Luckily, there was no critical damage to the block and they bored it and rebuilt it with high performance parts. They raced it for many years on road courses and between 1976 and 1978 they had quite a bit of success. They ended up semi- retiring it and just doing vintage races with modest success. They bought the car in 1975 and it was raced until probably 1980 or so. They sold it in 1982 to a gentleman who had 5 Pantera's. He absolutely loved it. I heard that he passed away in the early 2000's. I don't know what happened to the car as I moved to another state as did my father so I lost touch of where the car was. I sure miss that car it was a BLAST to drive!!!! It has always been one of my favorite exotic cars!!!!!

Time is now to be innovative and aggressive in rebuilding the 351, unless of course the goal is to keep it stock and original as possible. Keeping the vehicle naturally aspirated is probably recommended but, some internal upgrades would definitely add some spice to this Pantera pie. Balancing the engine components will provide the foundation for an ultra smooth and powerful driving experience. Looking forward to see what is in store for this amazing Barn Find!

This is the most interesting rebuild you guys have done in a while. I really can't wait for the next episode. I want to see every step of rebuild and detailing process.

I like this series with both channels. Should do more with this. Thanks 🤝👍

That should be a pretty straight forward rebuild. Plenty of OEM available for those 351's.

So how about pulling it forward in a higher gear? I've done that with siezed jeep engines before.

From the look of the bottom of the car it was neglected long before it was parked. Nows a great time for the owner to detail the bottom of the car along with the engine bay. Also rebuilding the braking system that probably need all new lines along with everything else.

Awesome! Love Panteras. I just put up a video chemically dipping a red 72 Pantera! It was in amazing shape.

Loving this series. Can’t wait to see the damage when the heads come off!

Hope you can save the block. When I hear water came out of the coolant lines, I probably felt as bad as the owner. I've always loved Pantera's, can't wait to see more of the progress.

One of my absolute favourite cars. I was wondering why you didn’t try turning the engine in a high gear on a rougher surface. ATF oil and acetone 50/50 is a great rust release. The acetone makes the solution penetrate and then evaporate. Looking forward to the next episodes

Saw the first Pantera at a local Lincoln-Mercury dealer and I fell in love. That bodyline was wonderful.

Designed by the great Tom Tjaarda, who also worked for Pininfarina. A couple of his other designs were the beautiful little Fiat 124 Spider and the Corvette Rondine concept.

Anyone that's ever had to push-start a manual trans car knows to do it in high-gear to get the most leverage on the engine. It's no surprise it wouldn't turn over in Reverse.

love my 1971 Pantera that I’ve owned since 1998. Learn more about the Pantera at Pantera Place.

I have '72 that I bought in '82. Road hard and put away wet (eg 40punds of bondo). This rebuild reminds me of all that I have learned in 40 years of ownership. Be sure to replace the u-joints in the drive shafts. Mine broke at 2 MPH and were a big-time disaster. At speed it can be catastrophic.

Couldn't you use the flywheel teeth to attempt to turn the engine over? There is a lot more leverage than your ratchet / cheater bar. Also Autolite/Motorcraft used to supply a plastic feeler gauge with their points that gave a much more accurate point gap than a metal ackward feeler gauge like you were using. A match book cover would be more accurate than that metal feeler gauge. The plastic gauge you would place between the contacts, (rubbing block on the high side of distributer cam lobe), (hold down screw snug, but not tight on points) open the points gently / slowly till the plastic feeler gauge fell over and then tighten the hold down screw. Don't forget to use cam lobe grease on the distributer cam, drop of oil on the felt pad for the advance shaft, ( it's in the center under the rotor) and suck on that vacuum hose to the distributer advance to make sure the diaphram is not ruptured.

If a motor is locked up that strong it needs to be taken apart and fixed properly.

Well, we know where this is going...Time-lapse engine rebuild! Thanks for the episode, everyone!✌️❤️🙂🇨🇦

Always love these programs.

The problem for repair this car is the strees for the time and the final product. It's hard work in a litle space. Grate job

Certainly one of the coolest car designs in history, and, historic collaborations. I am looking forward to watching this rebuild.

Looking forward to seeing this taken apart!

Great find. I absolutely LOVE Panteras

Thank you for sharing, always a pleasure watch your project, I learn a lot 👍👍👍👍

I worked on a few of these in my career, lots of rust and overheating issues. Don't see many in this color, mostly red or yellow. I also recall one or two with Windsor engines. Supposedly Ford was out of Cleveland engines towards the end of the Ford/DeTomaso relationship

Again, very excited to see the next episode.

At the NY auto show , the year the Ford GT was being displayed , as soon as you walked in the convention center was a older man ,displaying his silver Pantera ! The rear hood open displaying and i kid you not it had a polished and chromed out shiny engine full blown 671? super charger with twin turbos feeding it ! Wow blew me totally away ! One of a kind monster ! These cars were fav;s of rock stars in the 80's ! Many of them crashed them driving drunk and or high !

I would rather pull the engine than risk damaging driveline by dragging any car with a seized engine.

The time lapse where the guys are fading around is super cool. As a I loved these cars, never the Lamborghini. Thanks for saving this one.

I love Panteras and I love Davin videos. This series is killer!

amazing gentlemen thank you for this.

Gotta love the DeTomaso Pantera brother

I've had a similar problem and along with the endeavor you've put into trying to move the engine I used a few hard wooden dowels smacking at the pistons shocking them free.

Hope to see more on this build!!

Okay, so there are some setbacks but that is what comes with barn finds. You have one heck of a Pantera there for sure. At least it's mechanical and not bodywork, LOL. I'm getting popcorn ready for the future episodes! 🙂

I got an MGB that had been sitting outside for years, and managed to get the seized engine to turn by jacking the car up, putting a pipe wrench on the driveline with a long cheater on it, then lowering the car. It actually ran after that!

Love Tom, Carter, very happy for her son. Brian can’t wait to watch the rebuild on red line rebuilds if the block is good. If the block is no good, can’t wait to see what you all come up with to put in it. If all else fails, I have a 70 to 351 Cleveland out of a Mustang that is in my 69 bronco it’s a great running powerful motor that I went through several years ago it probably only has six or 7000 miles on it since the rebuild. I would consider pulling it out of my bronco if the price is right and it worked for you.

That floor is the worst place to try to drag turn the engine. Super smooth and looks like water or oil coated in areas. Take it outside on some real cement.

Dream car when I was a kid. Looking forward to seeing the rest of these.

That's the best way to get to know your classic car.

Glad to see im not the only one using a jack handle for a breaker bar

Love the rims, amazing look

Good luck Brian, beautiful car!

Great video! Can't wait to see the progress!

Is it a 'special parts' Ford small block or just a garden variety? If not numbers matching doesn't seem like such a big deal

Subscribed for the rebuild 👍

It's not an iron pipe, it's a ferrous based tubular torque amplifier.

Love the Pantera!!! Only car you don't wish you had a correctly located Ford distributor though. Great series. Davin, you're living my dreams!!!! Warm regards and best wishes!!!

Great find.

Buying or restoring a Pantera is a dream of mine! Watching it be done by this awesome crew is the next best thing.

This is going to be a good series!

This will be an interesting series to watch!

Panteras have some australian history as well, after cleveland production stopped in the US de tomaso began using the australian built cleveland. The last of these beasts had bogan engines in them!. Glad to see that engine will get rebuilt.

Looking forward to watching the rebuild always loved these cars they are awesome looking

Great effort in trying to turn that 351 Cleveland over...you left no stone unturned in doing so, now on to the Rebuild!

local dealer had one here when I was in high school ,man I loved that car, always thought the engine came out from the bottom

Oh I'am liking this project. Cheers 🇨🇦

Been jonesing for a redline rebuild! Will definitely watch! Seen every one thus far. Currently have a chevy 350 that I'm rebuilding as well as a dodge transmission that's coming out, so my hands indefinitely ARE dirty.

Great one! Happy to see Davin's dirty hands😂 Go hard and fancy new with this RRebuild!💪

Good ol' Loyd makes an appearance! Love it!

This engine rebuild is going to be EPIC!

Love the modell trains on the shelf❤

This was kinda of a given though, wasn't it? The thing hasn't moved in 40yrs or so.. I wouldn't have even bothered testing any sort of method. Pull the hatch and pull the engine staight away. Regardless, intersting to see what the outcome will be when you finally get in there and do a proper rebuild. 🙂

🔥 interesting... Amazing Project

Probably for the best anyway. The new owner will have the peace of mind of a freshened engine at the least. Additional peace of mind comes from knowing (and therefore, being able to *trust* ) the fella doing the rebuild. Lord knows, old cars give you plenty of other things to spend your time on even if they're running/driving, eh? - Ed on the Ridge

16:30 i like how they replayed the same audio clip twice 😅

Looking forward to the engine rebuild videos.

Oye, we're left hanging with the Pantera progress? Really anxious to see the outcome. My dad worked at Ford and had access to many models, including a Pantera in '72, and brought it home for a week. I was 8 at the time and was pumped just looking at it. Knick-knacks on the mantle rattled when he pulled up the driveway. Going for a ride left me laughing and eyes big as saucers. It truly was an incredible experience!

Can't wait to see how this turns out. )))

Very cool, so is the motor staying factory true? Aluminum heads? .020 over?

Some of my fondest teenage memories are with my Uncle Teddy and his 72 Pantera.

Me personally I would have pulled the oil pan and you probably can see which cylinders has oil bypassing the rings down the Piston skirts. Then I would have loosened each rod cap and just lightly tapped up on the Pistons and see which ones were free.

Yes!!! Well actually no - not great for Brian, it would have been better for him if it started... But great for us! In the end probably great for Brian as well, as he'll get some great time working on his car.