The Pantera Place
"Your de Tomaso Connection"

Headlight Bucket Locking Mechanism 

By Frank Hardy

One thing I’ve found amiss on some Panteras is the locking of the headlight doors (bucket) when they are in the "up" and lights on position. 

On our Pantera when the doors are open they are not secure, but can rock due to the slack where the drive gear engages the regulator mechanism. I estimate they rocked 3/8 - 1/2 inch (at top of eyelid). I can imagine the lights would do quite a dance on the street and I suspect a lot of owners have addressed this in varying manners, but I found no info on the 'net.

Hardy pantera HL bracket 1.JPG (46144 bytes) Hardy pantera HL bracket 3.JPG (48229 bytes)

View of the locking mechanism before installation

Hardy pantera HL bracket 4.JPG (63431 bytes)

View on lock installed on Pantera 

The lock clamps onto the radiator mount bracket and requires no modifications to the original Pantera parts.  For a detailed design drawing of the part in Microsoft Word format right click and "save target as" or left click and open directly with Word.