J-Bonz

iTrader: (3)

Looks like a fun project! What side of Cleveland are you on? There is alot of us on here from that area...
Jr.

vintage chromoly

iTrader: (3)

i'm thinking i will have to bite the bullet and buy a brand new tank. i was going to try to find someone to fix the corrosion but i've now decided to just replace it. (too hard to get back out if the "fix" fails)

i'm from the westpark area of cleveland but i now live between oberlin and wellington in lorain county.

i usually put in at rocky river, avon or vermillion.

i'll start a ful blown restoration thread as i've been busy every evening working at the project. i'm making great headway already. i figure, the more i get done this fall the better off i'll be come spring for painting.

have a good night all, rob.

bobo1

Heya Vintage..... I used to live in west park also, now i'm, in North Ridgeville. Would love to see your resto in this upcoming spring. I just ran into a guy who has a 79 24ft on Engle road in Brookpark, it needs a resto as well. Jeff

Smarty

The story about driving the boat new Pantera home from the factory is now pasted below, it was my father and with a reply from Pepe Nunez. Wish I had the coin for a new 28' Pantera TS with a set of LS small blocks, that would be an awesome boat.

Vintage Chrome., bottomline, Pantera builds a great boat, it should be great when your done your restoration.

Here is what happened:

[I]"The other story was when he bought a brand new 24' Pantera, it was 1978 or 1979. He paid for it at the dealer up here in New Jersey; that dealer sold Pantera and Carrera boats then. The boat had not yet been built, my father ordered the boat. He and two friends scheduled a flight to Florida to pick up the boat because Pepe Nunez (owner of Pantera) said it would ready when they get there; when he got there the boat was not even close to being ready, the bottom was still in the mold. My father and his two friends were planning on driving the boat back to New Jersey by water, through the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW). So, they waited while the boat was assembled and at least he got to see the build process, and which made him feel good about the purchase he just made. Now if you ever met my father he did not like anything built half-ass. Pepe must have had his A game going-on because my father liked Pepe Nunez, and my father always said Pantera builds a good boat.

Well, the boat got built. They filled the tank up with gas (the first of many fill-ups for this trip), and off my father and his friends went on their journey from Miami to New Jersey in his brand new boat, with zero hours of run time and zero hours of test time. Mechanically everything worked great, but because of the late start (waiting a few days), waiting for the boat to be completed (I am not sure how many days he lost because the boat wasn't built on time) me and my Mother had to drive to the lower Chesapeake to pick-up him and the boat up since a storm was coming up the coast.

This was the last boat he owned that my mother rode in and enjoyed boating in, here's why. It had a new MerCruiser 330hp/TRS package and was a low 60 mph boat, and the boat had the Vee windshield which was a taller-effective windshield since it was a Special Edition version model. He did not race much (mother never enjoyed racing other boats, but tolerated racing other boats for my father's sake and for my sake) with that engine package because the boat was a slug. Once the warranty was done, out came the 454/330 in went a LS-6 (454 cu.in. BBC) that made the boat come alive, so did his spirit when it came to looking for races, LOL.

I never met another hot-rodder who has had a similar experience like the Pantera story, driving the new boat home from the factory on the day of completion, but maybe this will inspire another performance boater to give it a try. I will surely miss my father. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers,

The Jones Family



Smarty,
Very sorry to read about your Dad! May he rest in peace.
You can not imagine how many times I have told the story about your Dad going "home" by water! The best part is that most of the people I have told the story to, think that I am exagerating.

I remember going for a sea trial w/ your Dad in the bay, I had not known of his plan, I was ready to put the boat back on the trailer, and he said "No need to" I am going home by water!
Can you imagine the surprise that I got? I said to myself,
Boy this guy is nuts!!! Just a short time previously, I had set a new record from Miami to New York in a 24' Pantera, I said to myself, It would be something if he breaks my record.

Best regards,
pp."[/I]
The link from where and when this was written:

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/p...era-owner.html