PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Welcome to FordPinto.com, The home of the PCCA => General Help- Ask the Experts... => Topic started by: JoeBob on August 31, 2015, 11:23:50 PM
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I got this 76 pinto. I think the owner gave up on because of the instrument panel. The white frame that holds everything in place crumbled to dust. I went to the junkyard looking for a replacement. I thought a pinto is a pinto so I got a replacement. I found that the wiring plug has at least 2 different sizes. I bought the wrong one. I went back and got another the right size. The plug is right but wiring is wrong. When looking for the replacement I found several cars with the same crumbling problem. Is it possible that 76 pintos have this problem but not other years? I can go back and look for yet another panel from a 76 so my wiring works. Perhaps no 76 panel survives. Anyone else with this problem? What year car had the problem?
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I found the same thing over the years , rear cluster turning to dust , the pintos were made here and Canadian pintos had the crapy cluster parts, look on the door striker by the ID tag you will see a round blue sticker saying that it was make there, next you use the back cluster part you just brought and use the printed plastic board from your old one, if it still does not work your proble may be to other plugs or switches, mostly the ign switch, part of it gets burned out or over heated if your car has A/C and the fan motor is drawing too many amps and heats it up, yes it may crank up but other thing like turn signals , warning lights ,etc will not work , hope this helps you , later Blaine
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When you do find a good one, do what I do to keep it that way. Mix up a small batch of clear urethane paint and spray the stripped housing to seal it from the air. If you don't have the ability or tools needed, take it to a body shop and I am sure they would not change very much to do this for you. You don't need a lot of paint on it just enough to seal it up.
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it might help some but if it is crumbling now its to late, those had a bad batch of plastic in those , also found the same on some pinto wagons rear tail lite bulb holders , the same white pores plastic , along with the side marker lights , one reason I do not throw away anything for a pinto, even the small stuff , because one day it might turn dust :-\
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it might help some but if it is crumbling now its to late, those had a bad batch of plastic in those , also found the same on some pinto wagons rear tail lite bulb holders , the same white pores plastic , along with the side marker lights , one reason I do not throw away anything for a pinto, even the small stuff , because one day it might turn dust :-\
I don't think it's just pinto's. I've encountered the same degradation on quite a few other vehicles too. I don't think it's even just ford, for that matter.
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I don't think it's just pinto's. I've encountered the same degradation on quite a few other vehicles too. I don't think it's even just ford, for that matter.
The one on my 62 Nova is pretty much unsalvegable too..
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I went to the salvage yard and looked at five 76 pintos. All had bad instrument panels. The other years seemed fine. It appears that the circuits were printed on a different color plastic depending on what changes were made. I have a blue, green and red one. The red one was on a 76. I took the red one off of the dissolved 76 and put onto a panel from another year. I hope it works.
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joebob, I don't know if this any help or not but looking at craigslist the other day and I saw a listing for a complete dash insert but it's probably for a Mustang II and it doesn't say what year. Does anyone know if a Mustang II dash insert is the same as ours, I'm not at all familiar with the mustang II stuff I just know that some stuff works for Pinto's.
https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/pts/5174531342.html
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other than front suspension, rear axle, and the consoles pretty much nothing is the same. Some can be used, but lots of work. The two cars really are not even close to being the same. Nothing of the dash is really swapable.
I used to have one of each at the same time.
Russ
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Honestly the plastic was changed I believe for the 74 and up cars. What ever they changed it does not age well at all. The 73 and lower ones hold up awesome. I got one from a 72 with the wire harness at a junkyard a few years ago. What I just did for my 76 was put in the cluster from a 72. Easy enough swap just splice in the new plug and put it in. Gets rid of the annoying seat belt light too. I can create a wire color chart for you when I get the chance, the next time my cluster gets pulled out.