Saw this Pinto runabout today

[Steve9]

Daily driver to Seattle’s Lake Union area. Super clean, later Ford wheels. Amazing survivor.

[keiser31]

Nice little ride!

[Guest]

Living in Seattle in 1971, I remember my father bought a new Mercury Marquis. A huge car by today's standards. He needed to drop it off for a service issue where they kept the car for 2 days. Gave him a Pinto just like that one for a loaner. Man was he pissed when he pulled in the driveway with it.

😄

[Lebowski]

What's up with the "Student Driver" sticker on the back? 

[John S.]

My aunt bought one in 1976, and within the year it was staring to rot. 

[padgett]

Hertz had a lot of them and I rented many in California, did exactly what I needed to do particularly once they removed the screw that was too long.

[TAKerry]

Pintos werent bad cars. My brother in law had a pretty good job when he graduated HS. He bought 2 brand new cars at the same time. '72 Gran Torino that was his date night car, and a '72 Pinto hatchback that was his dd. Pinto was a 4 speed, light green colour. Then my sister got a Pinto (no hatchback, had a small trunk), it was dark green, automatic. I took my driver test in that car.

[Harold]

Around 1978, my co-worker's brother was told by the local gas station that his '71 Pinto needed both an engine and a transmission.  I could have the car for scrap value, which was $25.00 at the time.  I bought the Pinto (a really clean one at that) and drove it home, running rough and not shifting.  It turned out to be missing a 3" section of rubber vacuum hose that fed vacuum to the transmission modulator.  With the hose back in place, the Pinto ran great and shifted smoothly.  I kept it for a couple of years then sold it for $700.00 to finance my next purchase.

[RansomEli]

My parents owned a 1600cc Pinto. 4-speed. Light metallic green. Really liked the car. Wasn't real fast but was rock-solid reliable. Wouldn't mind owning a similar Pinto again. 

 

Later on they produced a 2000cc Pinto. Test drove one and thought it was a powerful beast.

 

 

 

 

[1912Staver]

Inside my Lola beats the heart of a 2000 OHC Pinto.  Seriously, the sport 2000 class { sports cars } , and the Formula Continental open wheel class mandate a stock , blueprinted Ford Pinto engine. It only weighs 900 lbs. and moves right along quite nicely.

Using a standardised engine keeps things relatively cheap and fair to people across the income spectrum. Driver skill counts for more than the ability to buy a no cost spared engine.

Greg

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by 1912Staver (see edit history)

[Mark Wetherbee]

One of my favorite car stories...

 

I had a student co-op job with Digital Equipment Corporation in the early 80’s and a $75.00 1972 Pinto Hatchback that barely had any floors left. The job was near Concord Mass and I lived in Worcester which was a little over a half hour drive most nights. On one very slushy night after working 3-11, I was coming home going about 45 MPH Up I-295 when the front edge of the rusted floor was grabbed by the slush heap in the center of the track on the road, and acting just like a snow scoop put me up to my bellybutton In salted slushy wet sh** which was DAMNED COLD and nearly caused frostbite in a particularly sensitive area. There’s little to be done at this point so I kicked out what was left of the floor pan on the side of the road, scooped out what I could and drove home with no floor. It was the recipient of a pop-riveted torch and hammer Floor that following weekend. 
 

The only good part of this story is I was able to borrow Moms car which was a Maverick with the 289 in it. A sleeper with a 4-barrel - too bad it was an automatic.

[Ed Luddy]

This is a sad but true story. My Uncle Wayne had a real Boss 302 1970 Mustang. Yellow, black stripes, black interior. Typical Canadian car, zero options. Camshaft broke at under 10,000 miles. He was a Ford trained mechanic, so no big deal. Changed jobs to work as a Diesel mechanic about 50 mile further commute daily, but a better job with more opportunities. He traded the Boss 302 in on a 73 Pinto base stick shift before he gave me the chance to buy it. I watched the Boss pass thru 3 owners and bleed rust for the next 10 years and several body jobs. People now call this B.S. But back then fuel mileage was king after the OPEC embargo. Muscle cars were dirt cheap, and few of us had money to buy and stash due to 18% interest car loans.

 

[Guest]

43 minutes ago, Mark Wetherbee said:

 ....and acting just like a snow scoop put me up to my bellybutton In salted slushy wet sh** which was DAMNED COLD and nearly caused frostbite in a particularly sensitive area.

 

In the words of David Niven:

"Cazzo gelato!"

😆

[JamesR]

5 hours ago, Lebowski said:

What's up with the "Student Driver" sticker on the back? 

 

Probably one of Ford's early safety proposals when the public found out that Pintos blew up when hit from behind.

[54vicky]

a rubber snubber on rear (pan hard bar?) solved it.

[zepher]

Back in the early 80's a friend had a 2 door Pinto wagon with a manual trans.

Completely gutless but the thing was dead on reliable.

He only really had one issue with the car and that was when the thermostat stuck closed and he over heated on the freeway.

Said he felt something not right so he started to get off the freeway, at the bottom of the ramp the car decided to empty the entire contents of the cooling system in a cloud of steam.

It was then that the Temp idiot light came on.

 

At the time I was driving my '72 Datsun 521 Pickup that was also equally gutless.

We used to race each other up hills.

I think we got passed by a guy on a ten speed once.

[padgett]

I liked the Magerick Grabber (could tell one by  the snorkels) until you opened the door. Had to be the most useless dash I ever saw. And almost all small V8s of the period were 2bbls. One reason I have never owned a Ford (though had the use of a few).

 

That said there were some 400-500 cfm 2 bbls around, just had to find them (Rocheseter 2GC with 1 3/8" venturis).

[Dandy Dave]

Pinto. Yeah, I recollect that's what them pony express riders rode back in the day. 😀

[8E45E]

On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2020 at 4:43 PM, zepher said:

Back in the early 80's a friend had a 2 door Pinto wagon with a manual trans.

It was then that the Temp idiot light came on.

If I remember right, it was a dual-purpose "Check Engine" light that monitored both temperature AND oil pressure.

 

Craig

[zepher]

2 hours ago, 8E45E said:

If I remember right, it was a dual-purpose "Check Engine" light that monitored both temperature AND oil pressure.

 

Craig

 

Since my post I have looked up some Pinto dash assemblies and you're right, there is just one Engine light.

So maybe it only came on because oil pressure dropped to zero when the engine died and not because of the temp?

[Zimm63]

On 6/19/2020 at 9:33 PM, plymouthcranbrook said:

And really who among us ever expected muscle cars to ever be worth anything again?  Fuel costs climbing, OPEC planning to rule the world.  People driving farther to work as suburbs expanded.  The future looked like Chevettes and Escorts.  Not to forget as Ed said, most of us needed whatever we could get for our old cars to buy a new one.  And then durability, don’t even start with that.

 

I was a teenager and sure that the car world was ending.  My wife's first car was a 78 Chev Monza 4 cyl auto.  What a POS that car was.  Essentially a Vega with an iron motor that made about 32 HP.  

[1950panhead]

[1950panhead]

[zepher]

That looks like plenty of fun for those Pinto owners. 👍

[8E45E]

2 hours ago, zepher said:

So maybe it only came on because oil pressure dropped to zero when the engine died and not because of the temp?

No idea! 

 

I wasn't there to see it die by its own hand. (Lucky me!!)

 

Craig

 

 

[Hudsy Wudsy]

When struck from behind by a vehicle traveling 30 MPH or above the rear of the Pinto would collapse in such a way that gas tank would travel forward nine inches and strike bolts on the differential, be penetrated and burst into flame. The body collapsed so badly enough that the doors wouldn't open, thus causing the passengers to be burnt alive. Nasty. This image is from a research paper on the subject:

 

[Buffalowed Bill]

No car is either all good or all bad. The Pinto had some nice features like it's rack and pinion steering, helped make it a pretty good handing car in the era of large wallowing cars and Japanese econo-boxes. The little reliable but lack luster four cyl engine was used for the basis of the later 2.3 L OHC turbocharged SVO Mustang and the TBird Turbo Coupe of the 80's. It always seemed to me that Ford never wanted to have to "reinvent the wheel."

 

A friend had one that was given to him by his parents, which he took with him when he moved to California in 1982. He drove the car for the next twelve years with no major issues. He drove the car until there were no others left on the road. He would be driving the Pinto, and on several occasions people waved him down to tell them of their stash of parts-and just give them to him. He had accumulated so much that he told me he could dive the car forever if he chose to. He was unmarried at the time, and one day confided to me that driving the car had gone from economical transportation, to saying something about him. Believe me in California you did not want to be singled out in that way, if you are trying to make a good impression. I wasn't surprised when shortly thereafter he was able to pass it all to someone who didn't care. Like owning a boat, the two best times are when you buy it, and when you get rid of it.

[Ed Luddy]

Don't want to be stuck behind  a 1972 Pinto and in front of of a 1982 Audi 5000!

[padgett]

Particularly when the Audi throttle sticks open.

[charlier]

When I was in high school my cousin had a dark green Pinto like the one in the original poster's photo. I rode in that back of it a few times and didn't think much about it.

 

Another friend of mine had a Barracuda back then. Was riding in the back of that once when we were rear-ended at a stoplight. The car that hit us locked their brakes and skidded for 50-60 feet and still hit us pretty hard. Lucky for us no one was hurt. The rear glass didn't break but there was a small pile of rust on the road afterwards and the car needed some body work.

[NailheadBob]

I had a neighbor that owned a Pinto, and would not start, no starter motor action, he replace starter, then the solenoid, then a 2nd starter, and the owner of the auto parts store told him that was his last starter he would warranty as that was not fixing his problem. He asked me to take a look at car, the rust was so bad on the body, that it was loosing ground. I added a heavy cable from the negative battery cable end at battery to mounting bolt on starter, now the car cranked over and started great.

[D Yaros]

All I can say is m 1976 Pinto had a mere 185K on the odometer when I passed her on to owner #2!

 

Yes, I did have to replace the front floor pans in it during that time.  Had  a sheetmetal guy do the jobb!

 

It used toilet paper oil filters during the entire 185K mile lifetime with me.