PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Welcome to FordPinto.com, The home of the PCCA => General Help- Ask the Experts... => Topic started by: wedge446 on August 12, 2013, 08:15:31 PM
-
Im going to be cutting the firewall out and moving it back on my 75 wagon to get a little more weight on the rear of the car and to give some more room for a V8..
Im also thinking of removing the inner fender wells..
Has anyone done this before that can give me the benefit of there experience.
-
Reeves has undertaken this project to stuff in both an '02 boss and another to rit a tall deck motorsport 351w and has a lot of good pictures here
http://www.fordpinto.com/your-project/ugly-yellow-72-pinto/
-
Thanks
That's a start but Im wanting to move the engine back about 10" or more
Im going to be using a rear sump oil pan and stock heaters
I have have to revamp the front cross member to do it but I think it will be worth it
I plan on making a new heat/AC box
My goal it to have a 50/50 static weight distribution min so it will dead hook on any surface plus I want A/C these past few weeks in the Florida heat proved that I need A/C
-
Why bother messing with a swiss cheese unibody if that is the plan. Break out the chromoly, chop saw n mig and just throw down on a full tube chassis. Dice out the firewall and floorpans with a plasma cutter and give it a suit of pinto . aluminum footboxes firewall and floors are a lot more straight forward than trying to not fold up a modified stocker. You never mentioned rear suspension and there is a whole lot more to hooking it up than weight bias. Incidentally this opens up some nice options. get a rear irs conversion kit for a factory 5 cobra. it comes with the cradle, narrowed control arms and cv shafts. add your own center section and bearing hubs. put pickup points on your chassis and bolt in a complete irs subassembly. Sticking with the giant girder and leafs, build a set of custom caltracks to fit. this is probably one of the most effective things you can do to the back of a leaf spring car. Guys can hook ,get consistent 60's and run 8's on a set of caltracks.
-
I agree with that last post. Once you start talking about 10" relocation of the firewall you have essentially appointed yourself as engineer. You have no room for instrument panel at all then. Once the front end box extended like that it will no longer be as strong as it was before, easier to simply start tubing that sucker up. Unibody can only be slightly modded, a major one like that is going to have some grief there unless you are really really good.
The 50/50 isn't squat. Pintos don't launch because they have no rear overhang too and 50/50 doesn't touch that issue. Or how the rear 50% is located front or rear of rear axle. Rear end force work is more productive there, I've seen 50/50 cars that simply skated every time the power was applied. No bite at all. If the suspension really works well you change the bias closer to 50/50 for a second simply by working the suspension. We found ourselves often trying to KILL bite on our 10 second AMXs and they had no add on traction device of any type and no where near 50/50.
-
I agree with amc49. If you move the firewall back 10" there will be no room for anything let alone A/C. I think the seat(s) would need moved back & a longer steering column etc etc etc. Have you considered moving the Rear Forward like on the 'Old Time Altered Wheelbase cars?
-
Yep, when you talk firewall and 10 inches you are talking about a lot more than just the firewall.
I had this somewhat eccentric drag racing buddy who actually put a 454 fatblock in a VW beetle, he ended up sitting in back seat area. (yeah, like there even IS a backseat in a beetle!) Car ran pretty hard and consistent too.
-
Back in the 70's the guy that owned the shop where we took the company vehicles for service put a 428CJ in a bug and the hood closed, unless you took a close look at it you'd never know it had a V8 in it, I think the car is still on the road today.
-
I moved mine back 4'' and hope that having a wagon and 4 bar set up will hook. Have QA1 on all four corners, trying to get as much adjustability as I can. Two batteries and a 15 gallon fuel cell all the way back, can adjust a little w/gallons in the cell.
-
I agree with amc49. If you move the firewall back 10" there will be no room for anything let alone A/C. I think the seat(s) would need moved back & a longer steering column etc etc etc. Have you considered moving the Rear Forward like on the 'Old Time Altered Wheelbase cars?
I wonder how funny that would look on a wagon. Maybe someone with photoshop can work on it.
-
Just wanted to give my two cents, on my 1971 coupe I moved my firewall back 7" to put my 460 with a c-4. the firewall now sits below the windshield weld as before it was at the edge of the hood. I have a 4-link and subframe connectors. the car will launch good without wheelie bars, the weight is not near 50%. front is at 1600# and rear at 1100#. I did use a ford stock rear sump oil pan and relocated the crossmember and reinstalled the rack. springs are mustang II with a 1/2 coil cut off. One thing I don't think I did well is brace it when you finally start cutting out the firewall, make sure you stay square. I also used a floor mounted brake pedal because my headers were in the way, my seat is bolted in the stock location but I adjusted it all the way back. Have fun. :)
-
We used to have a 460 Pinto guy at the strip too. It was kind of a dog though (absolutely no insult intended there!). He ran a pretty much dead stock motor and individual zoomie exhaust pipes; it sounded like crap. He loved drag racing though and that's all that matters....... .............o ne of those guys who never broke, just showed up every single weekend. Like a high elevens car. The VW mentioned above was more like a high tens car.
-
I had planed on moving everything back, seat, pedals shifter... I also planed frame ties and a cage but plans change.
Moving the rear axle forward would be nice but with the wheel base being short already I think it will make a pinto unstable at speed...
Thanks for all the input
BTW, the wagon is going up for sale.
-
Just wanted to give my two cents, on my 1971 coupe I moved my firewall back 7" to put my 460 with a c-4. the firewall now sits below the windshield weld as before it was at the edge of the hood. I have a 4-link and subframe connectors. the car will launch good without wheelie bars, the weight is not near 50%. front is at 1600# and rear at 1100#. I did use a ford stock rear sump oil pan and relocated the crossmember and reinstalled the rack. springs are mustang II with a 1/2 coil cut off. One thing I don't think I did well is brace it when you finally start cutting out the firewall, make sure you stay square. I also used a floor mounted brake pedal because my headers were in the way, my seat is bolted in the stock location but I adjusted it all the way back. Have fun. :)
Holy crap....I always assumed that was a chassis car....