March 9th

I’ve joined the Panther Owners Club now.

This gives me access to their library of the history of the marque, parts lists and owners manuals plus a lot of other Panther specific information which will be useful as I progress with the rebuild.

They also have a members spares scheme where many of the specialised Panther parts are available which will be very useful.

This club has a web-site up at <http://www.pantherownersclub.com>

One of the things that needs doing is to rebuild both wheels and that’s not a job I want to do myself.

I’m lucky in that there is a good wheel-builder about 4 miles down the road from here so it’s a case of going and having words with him.

Problem is that new rims will be needed and the spec is for the rim centres to be enameled in pale green with a pinstripe and the outer parts left in chrome.

Only “standard issue” rims with painted centres I’ve seen  on offer lately have been with a black centre so it’s looking like I’ll have to get the rims, mask them up and then etch, prime and paint them myself, typical and the big problem is that Tekaloid is no longer available in the old formula so I’ve to find and get a suitable alternative.

Fortunately the fuel tank is paneled are the same colour so at least I won’t have to buy a litre of paint just to do the two rims, going to be a load left over though, suppose I can use it round the house but it seems a shame to use a high quality coach finish for domestic use.

Come to that, wonder if I could use sign-writing paint for the rim centres, you can get that easily, it comes in a fair range of colours and it’s in small tins, Hmmm, worth looking into.