CharlieCroker

I think he bought the car with standard 15" excel wheels on the car, don't ask me how come, I don't know, but he loved the 80s look and wanted them as a split rim for a big tyre and bigger discs/caliper. I know the maker is not going to produce them again but would make any design if anyone had something in particular that they wanted. As long as those wheels remain unique he'll make what ever you need.

At least have a look at the condition of the upright thread, any signs of corrosion, change them. In all honesty you're in the middle of exactly the process I had to do after the upright failure, may as well do it now before you suffer the same misfortune.

I managed to get a puller on my bolt, leave the nut on so the point of the puller has a good place to stay and won't fly off, place the grippers of the puller firmly in place on the lower control arm, then just turn it and the bolt should easily push out.

It should be right there just in front of the diff, spin it around to find the grease nipple. Are you going to brush of the surface rust, I did all mine, makes a hell of a difference both for looks and when working in and around the rear end?

Wrapped. The wheels are custom made designed by a mate on solid works, then manufacturered in Spain, the barrels are made in the UK. They're unique customs and won't be replicated, however if anyone wanted a design made 'I know a guy, who knows a guy' said in my best Itailian/America gangster accent, baddabing baddabomb!

Few photos of the show at Ragley Hall today. Met up with the owner of the Alfa V6 powered air ride esprit, lots of interest in both cars, they make for quite a pairing. Check out the one off custom wheels on the esprit based around an excel wheel work done by a mate of mine, same guy who is looking at the reproducing a stronger upright for me.

Make sure you have some adjustment movement front to back on the motor, as well as threaded bar to adjust the pods. You can fix the motor to the floor of the shell as there will be an existing hole from when you remove the old bellow. I cut slotted holes on my brackets to get that movement, it really helps enable fine adjustment as even with threaded bar the pods seem to have a mind of their own and want to close where they prefer and not where you want. Expect a few hours of adjustment to align the pods in tje up and down position. My build thread has photos if you want to see my conversion. I mounted my motor with the manual adjustment knob to the top, that way I can open or close them with my hand with the bbonnet open, I see above the motor is mounted towards the floor, would be hard to manually raise/lower?

Awesome, in some weird way I kinda like the overall look! I've come across this car several times in my web browsing but never knew thing about the car, nice to see and hear the history behind it, well done, happy racing!

60psi - drive height 1 - firm comfortable, no worries. 50psi - drive height 2 - Slightly less firm comfortable, start to think. 40psi - drive height 3 - Still firm very comfortable, but eyes out. 30psi - drive height 4 - Less firm, ass starting to squeak a bit. 20psi - f'king low! 0psi - touchdown.

Someone on the Retro Rides forums is currently looking at modifying one, started asking me loads of questions on how to put it on air, sent me diagrams and everything. It could be done but would need a hell of a lot of fabrication as they don't use a spring in a conventional way, needes a pivotal system. Anyway I did this photoshop for him.

^^ Haha, made me chuckle that! Ragley hall this weekend, possible that all 3 cars will be present, that volvo, the panther and the v6 alfa esprit, worth a visit me thinks.

Have a little looky, great feature. http://www.superfly-autos.com/features/mustard-mouse-volvo-1800es/

Cheers Ant, definitely getting my confidence back especially after a couple of long 2 hour runs, it's nice to know everything is now new upfront. That P1800 has just been featured in a well known web blogg, very cool car, mostly original and looks so cool in the flesh and that gold! Not much left to do with the Panther now, just keep it on the road maintenance.

Latest photos chaps, show at Rockingham race curciut, arrived with a mate of mine in his awesome air ride volvo p1800, great day out and to top it off all four wheels remained in place!

I have photos somewhere on my photo bucket on how to replace the studs, I never had to buy new, easy fix for pennies.

I tried to cover the top of the cover, too bloody fiddly, looked shite in the end. Better off finding the piece in the colour nearest to your headlining material.

That black one on ebay is already getting near 5k, elites are definitely on the rise, hold on to it, could be a winner in a year or two.

Thanks, this is what happens if you don't look after your trunnions. It's obvious that water has got past the seal and steadily eaten away at the thread weakening the upright, but without taking it all apart how can you tell before your flipping wheels fall off?! Joking aside, it's a serious problem and has knocked my confidence a bit so for anyone with doubt on theirs I would get them looked at straight away.

Cheers lads, the encouragement will help for sure, I suppose it's much like a racing driver after an incident, get back in the car as soon as possible don't give the demons time to fester in your head. Honestly anyone who has a single doubt about the upright and trunnion on their car, GET THEM CHANGED and the only way to really check is by taking them off the car and inspecting them, I'll post a photo of my knackered upright, if your threads look anything like this, change it. Also oiling not greasing is the way to go, and actually very easy to do with a grease gun, clear the old grease from the canister, fill it with e80/90 and go as normal on your grease nipple, wait for it to flow over the top, very easy and satisfying to see them done. I've also changed antiroll bar bushes, greased the hell either side of the trunnion, make sure that moves with minimal drag and cleaned everywhere possible, calipers, pads the lot. Practically a new front end now, just have to keep telling myself, 'all new, all new'

Cheers JW, just been for a couple of shakedown tests, and I have to say my confidence has suffered a little, really didn't want to push her too hard, but after a few long straights and a couple of round-a-bouts all in all seems to be fine, tracking has moved slightly so a couple of turns needed to pull that back. What a week, glad that's out the way, running all over the place for parts, (massive thanks to Dan once again for hooking me up so quickly) and hard graft in the garage and we're back rolling again. All the best, Charlie ;-)

Just like the 6 million dollar man, the panther is back, better, faster, stronger.

I used the plastic type. If you don't want any visible fixings you'll have to stick with spring clips.

I'm loving that, I could quite happily watch you work your way through the build hopefully you'll get both the elite and pontiac back on the road soon.

Nice one, thanks.

Look fine, in period modification, d'you know they do 15" replicas, easy to get tyres for.