brought home the 1977 24. pics inside!
 

here it is fellas. just got it home tonight. it's going to be an awesome project as it has been stored inside and unmolested.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera007.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera010.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera003.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera004.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera006.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera008.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera009.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera018.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pantera015.jpg

that thing is cherry!!!!!!! great score!!!!! cant wait to see the progress of getting it up and running!!!!

nice looking rig Rob

Please check your PM.

What Year Is The 5.0 In The Backround? Any Mods To That?

1991. i'm the original owner. it's an 11 second drag setup right now but over the winter i'll be putting the full race tune (new heads, kooks headers, race intake etc....) it should easily run mid tens next spring. :coolcowboy:

it's a 347 stroker, naturally aspirated.

you have good taste! i have 2 87 gt's 1 is a t-top. the t top is a 302 stick on the spray and the other is a windsor c-4 car. now hurry up and get that boat done spring will be here before you know it!!

cool beans. mine is a c-4 with a transbrake. lots of fun!

Holy sh! T is that unrestored cond?
Nice

yep. it's a bit rougher than the pics show but all in all it's a great start to a project.

That boat brings me a LOT of memories!
It seems like it was yesterday, I met Carl Wenger from the original South Florida boat trader. I believe that is Pantera #2,
the #1 was a black hull that I raced in Production class that year.
It does not get any more original than that, from the teak door, upholstery, rub rail, lifeline, cleats, and the Pantera sticker on the Target trailer!

Good luck w/ it,
rgds,
pepe @ pantera.

thats one of the coolest things about a owning a pantera boat.... the owner of the company chimes in and knows the history of the boat .even one from 35 years ago. check any other forums on here and you wont see that. super cool in my opinion.

thank you so very much for your reply! it means a great deal to me to hear from you. i am very happy to have had an opportunity to buy the boat.

the vin is wcw72002.

have a great night, rob :party-smiley-048:

Id clean that m.f. up and keep it as original as possible. 1977 #2
$weeeet

!977? That looks like a P&D, Excalibur 24 deck. When did the deck change? Hull #2? Wasn't hull #1 built in 1974/75? Help me out Jo or Pepe. Great find! LOVE THE ORIGINALS and the Target trailer! 24 Pantera's are the best! Keep that baby under cover.

WOW! Neat boat! the hull looks just like a 1976 24' Superboat that my friend just sold.

((according to pepe it's number 2. (maybe number two of the '77' model year?) pepe commented in my other thread regarding the hull identification number. i asked him about the rounded deck and i hope he replies. the "hin" starts with "wcw" so we know it's a pantera.

i'm going to start a restoration thread on the project. the boat is quite a bit rougher than the pics show and while i wish i could leave it "unrestored", it just needs too much work.

i'll be documenting every step with quite a bit of photos and commentary (and a bunch of questions as well).

on a side note....i know both the original owner who owned it for two years and the second owner who owned it up until last week when i took possession. cool to have provenance with a project like this.

have a good day all.

rob :coolcowboy:

I met a guy last spring in NJ , who's father back in that time frame , purchased a 24 from Pepe with a 330 trs deal. From what I understand He and his buddy showed up just as it was ready and drove it away. Miami to New Jersey! The gentleman passed away unfortunately before I met his son. The guy was a real enthusiast, I wished I had met him.
Just thought you guys may enjoy the story as it was told to me 1 week after I was at the Pantera factory lookin at a boat.

It's a good story maybe Smarty can find it on here. His father knew how to make a boat RUN.

Good people.

You know if i hadnt already seen pictures of the first pantera 24 i would be convinced that was an excalibur.. the deck is almost identical.

There has to be some reason why the early pantera and excalibur decks are so similar??

Does anyone know?

Add Cheetah, Panther & Lancer to the mix also. :party-smiley-004: The M-77 was my 1973 Cheetah I raced back in the day. Panthers were made around 1977 in California.

So who originally designed and built this deck?

Hi Vintage/c All i can say is wot a lovely looking 24 , you must be well pleased and itching to get stuck in to the restoration have fun and the very best of luck.

Great Find! Good Luck w/ your resto plans!

When I bought mine [Cheetah] in 1974 I was told it was a Don Aronow designed boat that he never produced ??????? If Pepe would chime in he might be be able to best answer this.

here's a couple of pics of me taking it apart and starting to assess
the situation.

all in all, it's pretty solid with just a little bit of rot in the bulkhead between the bilge and the gas tank.

the area where the gas tank goes looks bad but it was dry and all the crap in the picture is old foam.

i'll keep you guys posted.

have a good night, rob.

i was told that the hull design is aronow and pepe designed the decks.

hopefully pepe chimes in and lets us know for sure.

Any updates? are you putting a new tank in?

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

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.

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

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