Thanks for the compliments guys. I have really enjoyed learning how to build a lot of this stuff as I go. I think the next build will be that much faster as I can just do the better way the first time rather than 4 prototypes and 3 mistakes before getting it right. Lots of spare metal and many grinding disks have gone through my garage these past few years.

And yes, I love building stuff. I have two more ideas banging around in my head for after the Pantera build. Ferrari 288 GTO and a Ferrari 250 GTO or maybe just a really worked over Fiero like some of the others have done on this forum. Maybe a complete scratch build frame up. Who knows what the next few years brings.

I think we need to look at the wider suspension build for your kits with the flares David. The wider stance will make a world of difference.

I tried doing some Photoshop on the roof of one of your pics of your car to see how it would look with a couple inches taken off and I think iit really makes all the difference.

With this chop and the flares, this would be one very nice car to put together and very hard to tell it apart from the original.

Enjoy your trip and keep plugging away at it.

This is pretty much a dead ringer for the flares & front air dam we've been building up the past 6 months. Sure wish I'd had this model during the sculpting phase.

When you look at the side profile, it looks like the major dimensional difference is the distance between the aft door-edge and the gill/scoop location. Or maybe you'd say between the door-edge and the fore edge of the rear wheel well.

So if you wanted to stretch the chassis to have a longitudinal drivetrain or to arrive at more exact porportional dimensions, think along the lines of making a cut as shown below:

This would allow the entire rear clip to move back, including the top portion where the rear clip matches up to the Fiero roofline. Turns out that this is also a good thing, because it appears that the Pantera roof is somewhat longer, front to back, than the Fiero. So you'd just add in the same amount of roof skin that you had added in for your chassis stretch. No need to actually enlarge the actual cab or roof structures, you are just adding the roof skin. Now the roof and what Fiero people call the sail area is more in porportion as well.

Anyhow, food for thought.

David Breeze

Yepp, that was about what I was thinking for the stretching part. Good catch on the roof lines as well. Cut the rear of the Fiero off at the Firewall and put in a custom tube chassis somthing like Bubbajoexx as been doing to his Fiero.

This does look like the right place to cut but the last thing is to also lose 2" off the roof of the Fiero as that will put it right about the same height as the Pantera.

With the extra length, about 5" I think, there should be enough room to shoe horn a small block in it attached to an Audi trans with the front accessories moved to the sides with one of those kits that reduces front exposure on the V8's.

More food for thought David. Now, I just need to get out into the garage and finish putting my current one together so I can clean out that side and start the next one........

Can you get a full side shot of your Pantero and either email it directly to me or post here please? I want to do some Photoshopping to see what I need to do.....

Need a direct at same height side shot though please. Bending over so that the camera is about lower mid level of the side window and far enough back to just get the full car in the picture.

I do know he finished the molds for the flairs and has laid up at least one set so he can have them at the show.

We're also planning to bring the rear body clip which we used as the plug for the rear wheel flares. That way folks can see what a dramatic difference these make in the appearance. We might be able to post pics from the show. If not, Sunday evening for sure.

Once we return from the CFOGi show, all efforts will be focused on completing the choptop Pantero I'm building, and Blackram's roadster Pantero. We hope to have both cars completed for the Carslile kitcar show. We've agreed to continue posting progress on these two cars here, so you will get to see how assembly of the body goes.

The new molds and the first set of flares & airdam produced from them.

Blackrams takes a break from loading the Pantero for the Osage Beach trip. He's holding up a rear flare, and thats the air dam in front. The parts are untrimmed, just as came out of the molds.

We laid the parts up with a sanding primer gelcoat, and 7 ounces of fiberglass mat, hand laid in four layers. Parts are super. Check 'em out at Osage Beach.