PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Shiny is Good! => Your Pintos/Bobcats & Racers => Topic started by: nnn0wqk on September 16, 2011, 01:32:23 AM
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I am the original owner of this 1974 Runabout. Car has 229970 miles. I got this the year I graduated from high school. I started to restore it after my 30 year class reunion but as sometimes happens with projects I got side tracked. My stepson graduates this year from high school and needs a senior project. He wants to become a mechanic and last winter we worked on a Toyota Celica for him and installed a motor and transmission. So now he wants to help get the Pinto back on track and going. So only seems fitting to make it a graduation project again. I have most all the original paper work for the car. Only thing missing is the window price sticker. Found the build ticket when I pulled the carpet. Have the original newspaper add it was a weekend special for $3158.58. Regular price was $3569.00. Oh to be able to buy a new car for that price now. Only part that failed during the warrenty period was wiper switch. Out side of brakes once or twice and timing belts every 60000 or so and carb cleaning a couple of times it is as it left the factory. The starter failed the day of the 30th class reunion!! Brush spring broke and would not make contact. Not bad for a cheep car. This is a California emission car out here in Idaho. The neigbors had one that looked the same and was with the exception of the moon roof in theirs. About 100000 difference in serial numbers but also California emission car. Both have the 2.3 engine with 4 speed. I bought it and plan on using the engine out of it for now. Mine has a burnt exhaust valve. In time I will rebuild mine and reinstall into car, but this will help keep cost down for now. So plans are to rebuild back to stock condition. I am adding factory A/C, heated back glass, and remote mirrors. A/C because I always wanted it, glass and mirrors for safety. One of the items I need to find is a source for seatbelts as my driver belt is bad. I would like to find the body molding that goes in the rear wheel wells. So this will be the winter project with my son. I think we are both looking forward to it. Maybe me more so then he but then I am a ASE tech so know what fun we can have! I am going to farm out the quarter panels for replacement as I just do not have the time right now to do them and we want to start on this before long. The only rust that I could find in the car is back of the rear wheels and when I got it stripped just to the left of the dimmer switch. Floor pans and doors looked very good as did front fenders. If the picture post my car is the one on the right. Left is neigbors. Guess they could be called double trouble. Dennis
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Very cool! I can't wait to see the project that awaits! My 78 Sedan was my mothers and my dad and I have worked on the car a lot together. I've done more work on it myself, but he still enjoys helping me when he comes home from out of state. It's nice to see another Pinto that is family owned and restored!
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people are always amazed to see a pinto. Some day you could take the pair to a show and blow everyone's socks off.
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Well it was off to the body shop this morning to get new quarter panels sectioned in. Son John was able to help since his school runs a four day week. Body shop thought they would get started this afternoon so maybe in a couple of weeks we will have it back and can get started on painting it. I farm and trying to get crops in yet so I just do not have the time right now cut out rust and section in new panels. Body shop felt this car was a very good canidate for restoration. They were amazed how little rust damage there really is for the age and miles. John is tying down front of car. Dennis
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My first Pinto was a solid orange '74 Runabout with the 2.3L/4 spd. combination! I got mine new during my Junior year of high school and it cost $2900... of course mine didn't have the Sports Accent Group like yours. What a bargain! What a neat little car! Those were the days!
Best of luck with your project! Hope you and your son have a ball!
Dwayne :smile:
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OK so the body shop called today, they have it opened up some around the quarter panels. They found some cancer that we were hoping would not be there. The outer section of the inner fender panels need some attention. So question is what have others done to repair this area? Body guy was not real crazy about making from scratch but it may come to that.
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Got a break from work so John and I made a trip to the body shop to check on the progress. They had the right inner panel in place and the cancer was gone on the left front corner by the dimmer switch.They were starting on the left inner panel and had found some more rust but I got the impression they were going to fab what was needed to repair that rust. So it is coming along.
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John and I tackled the drivers seat last weekend. This is the only seat that was showing wear and tear. I purchased NOS seat material several years ago and after getting that then I ran across the correct seat covers for the car. We installed the covers and will keep the seat material for possible future repairs. This was Johns first time working on seats and he did a wonderful job. We found the seat pan was broke in one cover so traded it out with the parts car. Thought the finish job looked quite nice.
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WOW! Very nice. You're hired for mine! lol ;)
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Still waiting on the body to get back from the repair shop. Been busy looking at other parts of the project. Going over the wiring harness's making needed repairs. We had a little time tonight so broke out the soda blaster to see what it would do to a fender. Need to get some HoldTight 102 to wash down the metal after cleaning and it is an item I can not find locally so probably will get off EBay. My other experience with soda blasting was mixed, did a wonderful job of taking paint off and not damaging metal but as soon as you washed it it flash rusted before your eyes and that was a pain to deal with. HoldTight is suppose to stop that so will see. Now to deal with the rust that was under the paint around the side maker light and behind the wheel well at the lower end. Probably will do some very light sandblasting in those areas. We are adding sports mirrors to the project and I cleaned up the right side. That went very fast and got into all the tight corners with no harm to the base metal. I did not get a picture of that.
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Well the car is back from the body shop. Now to finish the quarter panels and strip the paint off the rest of the body.
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The bondo work on the quarters is nearing the finish line. The car is about half stripped of paint at this point. Found some minor rust in the rear corners of the doors. Nothing in the outer skins that I can see so that will make life easier. Welded up the passenger door this afternoon and when I get paint off the other door will repair it too. At this point it is a rolling tub. Heater sure was easy to remove once dash was out of car. Anyone interested in a complete heater assembly let me know as I am going back with factory A/C.
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Cool! I cant wait to see more. I love when I hear about original owners that still have their cars. As for seat belts:
http://www.ssnake-oyl.com/ (http://www.ssnake-oyl.com/)
They will rebuild your original units. I have used them in my following cars with many belt colors: '74 Pangra in black (which like your '74 has the double retractors), '80 Pinto wagon in light Wedgewood blue, '77 Pinto Wagon in tan, '76 Bobcat in bronze, my sisters '78 Pinto in palomino, '80 Toyota in brown, 1980 Fiat in saddle, along with many friends cars that I have recommended which are from Ford Pintos to Mercedes and Datsuns. They are expensive but if there is one place you should not skimp, it is your safety. I think they run about $100 per retractor (which is a downfall of the '74-'76 since there two per side). They try and add things like re-chroming and painting but I always decline it. They do sensational work. All original colors are available as well. I have seen after market ones installed but the belts don’t go across the driver properly, they are ugly and I don’t really trust $40 seatbelts.
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Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything here. Son is so busy with school he is not sure which end is up but we are making progress. Found more rust issues than I was aware. We take care of them as we find them. Need to find a new lift gate, when I got the glass out the bottom was rusted through in several places. When I got the drivers door stripped found much rust hiding under the paint and several holes. Will make a trip tomorrow to look at the parts car I have and see if it is any better.
Have the A/C installed in dash. Tonight we were working on getting the heated back glass out of the frame it was in. Yes it was rusted out too. I have two questions as it has been about 5-6 years since I pulled these parts out of a car in the salvage yard. Where does the pilot light go in relationship to the switch? I do not recall if it was to the left or right of the steering. On the back glass where the wires attach there is a plastic clamp. How was that fastened to the glass frame? The frame the glass was in does not show anything. It is possible that the wiring came out of one car and the glass frame from another as I looked until I found a glass that was not burned out. Would anyone have a picture or two that they could post showing this? We are about ready to lay some paint down and will try and post pictures as we do that. May is getting here much quicker than we need.
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My how time can get away from a person. Been way to long since I posted on progress which has not been a great deal. Son graduated from HS and is off working on his own now. Wish we could have done more while he was home but grade 12 was very busy for him. Anyway I am working on tilt steering right at the moment. Took the idea off the Mustang 2 site. Finding out the Pinto is a little different but I think we can make it happen. Finding a steering column was a challange all the yards wanted to sell me a non tilt which really did not fill the bill. I found that to fit the Pinto ignition switch required modifing the Granada rod by cutting and rebending the hook to match the Pinto switch. The other issue is changing the wiring on the T/S switch. I tried to use the Pinto switch but it does not fit this column. The Granada switch uses a lot short harness so I will have to either make a jump harness or splice in to get to the required length. There are some other minor issues to deal with but I think it will work out. I will post some pictures of the issues I ran into if there is an interest.
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can you share a little more on the column, what year and model you poached it from?
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Doing a great job.
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According to the invoice from the yard it came off a 1980 Granada. It was a column shift, I tried to find a floor shift model but never did locate one. In fact one yard told me they did not believe Ford made a floor shift model for the Granada. I never saw the car, it was in Indenpendance, Mo I had it shipped here.
The only item that I have not figured out how to reinstall is the lock out button that stops the key from going into the lock posisition. Column shifts used the gear shifter to accomplish that and what the Pinto used will not work so I am leaving that out. The original lever for the T/S will screw into the Granada switch, on at least this Granada the wiper switch was part of that lever. I had aftermarket cruise control on the car so I may try and find a cruise switch out of a Jeep or Scout of that vintage as they were on the end of the lever with the wires going through the lever. Since Ford levers screw into the switch I never did try and make a lever in times past and I did not like the look of wires running down the outside of the column. With this new column I can run the wires like Ford did for the wiper switch.
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It is to bad that work gets in the way of fun. Back on the project after a few years on hold. Son graduated and moved on before we got the project done. He is married now and living in Arizona so doubt he will be back much to help. Anyway started back together. The engine and transmission are back in. The A/C system is complete in the engine compartment. I have pumped it down and it holds a vacuum so should hold pressure when I get to that point. Found out that I did not have everything to install the A/C system. Needed compressor clutch pulley for a California car as the air pump drives of the A/C compressor. Located a NOS on and it was even marked Pinto-Calif. Thought I had the correct crank pulley located but when it arrived it was the same as the original one. So not sure if the parts book has a wrong number listed or what but the answer was to cut the grove for the A/C drive belt on the lathe. The A/C drives off the grove that the air pump originally ran on. Air pump belt is 1/4 inch and A/C belt is 1/2 inch in width. The pulley is cast iron so plenty of metal to work with. The engine compartment is about done at this point. The radiator has to be installed yet. I need to repaint the air cleaner. I have got the main wiring harness run from the back to the front.
Thought I had taken lots of pictures on tear down which I did however I missed a few things so it does take so research at times to discover how it was originally built. In the next few days I plan on getting the dash back into the car. Plenty to do yet but at least I am back working on the project.
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Glad to know after 4 1/2 years, you're back on the project! Welcome back!!!
Dwayne :)
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A few new pictures. Cleaned the wheels still look good after 44 years. The factory A/C system install. Always wanted A/C when the car was new and now we have it. This unit came out of a station wagon. After working out the belt issues for the compressor and air pump I have concluded the donor car was a 49 state emissions system which would have been more the norm for this part of the country. Bead blasted the rear drums and gave them a shot of high heat black paint. The shoes were probably close to 80% new on lining but I did replace the wheel cylinders. The front calipers have been rebuilt. The master cylinder is new as are the front brake hoses. I still need to order and install the rear flex hose. At that point the brake system should be to a safe condition.
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Everything seems to be coming along nicely. Given the quarter panel replacement you did it amazes me that the floor look so nice. Everyone thinks So. Cal. cars are rust free but my experience is that (with the older collectible cars) about 80% of them have enough floor rust that it needs attention. The problem isn't like in the rust belt where salt works from the outside in. Here rain get in through doors/windows/vent system, gets under the carpet and rots the floors from the inside out. Whenever I buy a car I always take a screw driver and undo the sill plate and then look around under the carpet.
Question for you; up in post #5 the first picture (included below) is a shot of the internals forward of the rear wheel. Any clue as to why that are always seems to rust? On my car it is NOT from any wheel well damage. In your case it looks like it might have begun externally, but not in mine. Thus I'm left to wonder if it is the seal for the flip out window hinge, or the trim that sits horizontal just below the windows (I have a wagon). This seems to trap water and the mount holes provide a pathway for water to accumulate down below. I need to do repairs in this area, but even more so, I want to make sure it doesn't re-occur.
Just a little tip (for anyone). I had rot in the lower corners of my doors. It seems the drain holes are about 3-4 inches back from the corners and if the car parks at an angle water will accumulate. Therefore I drilled holes at the back/front of each door at the extreme ends. After the repair I POR-15-ed the door internally about 2" up. Now when water gets inside the door it will have an exit pathway.
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Good question about the inner fender panels. Actually I had never noticed that until you pointed it out. I would assume that the water gets in around the trim holes. In my case the windows do not flip out so that should not be the source. This car has been parked inside all of it's life so I am sure that has helped with the rust issues. The twin car which is a donor had the moon roof option. The floor boards are gone on it as it sit out for many years and the roof did not seal well. Good point on the door drain seals. When I get back to them I will make that update. Had not thought about filling with POR-15 but will do that. I did run them through an electrolysis process which should have gotten rid of most of the rust but that would be a good follow up to make sure. The other part of the car that had rust issues was the back hatch. Both cars were bad. I did located what appears to be a good hatch and it has been soaked. Now that you have mentioned the POR-15 I may see if I can get some in the drain holes and let it sit.
I should have been working on this all along but I let life get in the way for a few years. So a little more of a challenge now as I have to search once in awhile for fasteners although most I put in baggies and did label at the time of disassembly so that certainly helps. Like last night I was looking at the pedal assembly where it bolts to the firewall. Could see daylight through to small holes. Looked like a 1/4 inch size metal screw hole. Parts book confirmed that. It had been so long since I had pulled that apart that those two screws had been forgotten. Anyway thanks for the comments. Will post more as I go along.
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Inner rear wheel wells? Well i seen that and figured condensation build up on the inside causes surface corrosion from inside out. Could also be from trim holes not sealed allowing water in. Im in same situation too though
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Just about have the engine wrapped up. Need to install the oil sender yet. I in years past had installed a Stewart Warner mini gauge set which I plan in reinstalling. I have to find the water and oil senders for those gauges yet. The water sender may still be on the original engine and it is stored about ten miles from here. Not sure about the oil sender as I have the tee and one sender but not sure where the other sender is at the moment. So need to make a trip out and look at that engine one of these times. Need to find two tower style hose clamps so I can finish the heater hose connections and the radiator has to go in yet. New radiator which I have had for many years however when I pulled it out of the box it looked like maybe one tube had been damaged so I have it at a radiator shop being checked out before I put it in the car. Other than getting fluids back into the engine I think it is about done at the point. Went through the gear box on the wiper motor and have that back in the car before the dash goes back in. Car was built in Jan of 74 and the wiper motor was stamped Jan 14 74 so it went right into the car at the time without any delays. One item I forgot to install on the engine before I dropped it back into the car was the EGR tube that runs around the back of the motor. The original heat wrapping was pretty much shot. Got some new wrapped off EBay which showed up today. So tonight I found out that yes you can install that tube with the engine in place. Had fun getting the screw back into the clamp that is at the back of the block but finally got it started. Maybe an inch of room between the engine and the firewall. Next time I will remember to install that tube while everything is easy to get to. I have been waiting to put the drive line in not knowing if I was going to have to pull the engine again or not. So that can go back in now too. Slowly the garage is getting bigger as the pieces get put back on the car. So as the mechanical part of the project is coming to an end I will have to turn my attention back to paint work. I also picked up the new windshield from the glass shop today so will have to find some place safe to store it until I am ready to install. $205.06 with tax so thought that was a reasonable price.
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Robertwwithee at the time I did the rear quarter panels I was able to get NOS inner panels from Green Auto Sales. Think they were $100.00 a side. That was about 6 years ago so hard to say if they would have anymore or not but would be worth checking with them if you need them. I am guessing that the water damage on this car in that area came from trim holes. I do not recall that there was any sealer in the holes. This car has the bright trim around the windows and also the body side trim so two areas water could have entered.
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The dash install is about complete. Original dash and still in great shape after all these years.
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Took time tonight to install new bulbs in the instrument cluster before it goes back into the car. Need to get one new socket, when I pulled the bulb out one ear broke. Actually I ended up taking the cluster apart and cleaning it up. Not sure why this has not turned to white dust. It is in great shape with no signs of age. Did find one bulb that was dead so it was a good time to replace.
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Wow, has this been a 4 year tear down nuts and bolts project? That's what I see from the posting history!
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Actually it goes back to 2004. Life got in the way for a few years. At least it is headed the right direction now.
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Found the time today to apply so undercoating to the front fenders and wheel wells while I had easy access. Will hit them again once everything is back on the car.
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if you can you should undercoat inside of the doors if you can , found most doors rust from the inside out , clean them out real good to make sure no road salt is inside and a two part etch primer followed by a good grade under coat , done mine and it also make the car much more quit ,
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Thank you. Yes I hope to do that when I get to the doors. Been mostly waiting for the weather to warm up a little to get to those types of projects. The garage will stay at 50, I need to add some sort of heat to be able to get it into the 70's for painting. Just did not have the funds for that this winter. The electrical has been check out. Waiting on a relay for the heated back glass, the timer was gone in the old relay so it would not allow the relay to turn on. Once that arrives I will wrap up the dash area. I am not going to install the instrument cluster until after I get the right door hung. I am adding the sport mirrors to the car and it looks much easier to route the cable and get it into the hole it belongs in with the cluster out of the way. Have replaced all the lights on the cluster and the housing seems to be in great shape yet so lucked out there. Just do not want to stress it anymore than needed by taking it in and out two or three times. The goal is to have the car on the road again by July 2019. That should be when the next class reunion will be and since I bought it the year I graduated from school I am hoping to be able to attend the next reunion in it.
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As summer comes upon me I find less time to work on the car. These pictures were actually take last winter probably in March or April. Anyway I am adding the remote mirror to the right door and was wondering which grommet hole was originally used for the cable. Years ago I ran a wiring harness in as you can see if a couple of the pictures. I am a amateur radio operator and have both a hf and 2 meter radio in the car. Plan on putting both back in and actually have the 2 meter mounted now. The hf rig seats in the back of the car. Anyway that is the reason for the extra relay in the engine compartment. My luck and I have a 50% chance is the wiring harness is using the mirror hole. Now would be the time to switch it if I have it wrong. The last picture shows the Stewart Warner mini gauge panel that I installed years ago. Used to be under dash to the right of the steering wheel but had to relocated due to the mirror adjustment knob that will be there now.
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I am the original owner of this 1974 Runabout. Car has 229970 miles. I got this the year I graduated from high school. I started to restore it after my 30 year class reunion but as sometimes happens with projects I got side tracked. My stepson graduates this year from high school and needs a senior project. He wants to become a mechanic and last winter we worked on a Toyota Celica for him and installed a motor and transmission. So now he wants to help get the Pinto back on track and going. So only seems fitting to make it a graduation project again. I have most all the original paper work for the car. Only thing missing is the window price sticker. Found the build ticket when I pulled the carpet. Have the original newspaper add it was a weekend special for $3158.58. Regular price was $3569.00. Oh to be able to buy a new car for that price now. Only part that failed during the warrenty period was wiper switch. Out side of brakes once or twice and timing belts every 60000 or so and carb cleaning a couple of times it is as it left the factory. The starter failed the day of the 30th class reunion!! Brush spring broke and would not make contact. Not bad for a cheep car. This is a California emission car out here in Idaho. The neigbors had one that looked the same and was with the exception of the moon roof in theirs. About 100000 difference in serial numbers but also California emission car. Both have the 2.3 engine with 4 speed. I bought it and plan on using the engine out of it for now. Mine has a burnt exhaust valve. In time I will rebuild mine and reinstall into car, but this will help keep cost down for now. So plans are to rebuild back to stock condition. I am adding factory A/C, heated back glass, and remote mirrors. A/C because I always wanted it, glass and mirrors for safety. One of the items I need to find is a source for seatbelts as my driver belt is bad. I would like to find the body molding that goes in the rear wheel wells. So this will be the winter project with my son. I think we are both looking forward to it. Maybe me more so then he but then I am a ASE tech so know what fun we can have! I am going to farm out the quarter panels for replacement as I just do not have the time right now to do them and we want to start on this before long. The only rust that I could find in the car is back of the rear wheels and when I got it stripped just to the left of the dimmer switch. Floor pans and doors looked very good as did front fenders. If the picture post my car is the one on the right. Left is neigbors. Guess they could be called double trouble. Dennis
Wow, you outdid me! In 1976 my parents bought me a used 1973 for graduation. I've owned it ever since. I disassembled and mothballed it in 1995, but now the restoration is nearly finished. That car gets more attention at car shows than any I have taken!
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... That car gets more attention at car shows than any I have taken!
Recently I've had similar occur with my '73 wagon. Somewhere between a driver and a beater it was typically ignored. But the last few trips to Cars & Coffee people with nice cars are noticing and commenting on it! A lot of them say, "I haven't seen a Pinto in a LONG time."