I have sold my beloved "Bob" He is moving from Denver to Phoenix. As my health diminishes I spend less and less time with "Bob" He has not left the garage in months. After 21 years of building, driving, and showing "Bob" I am unable to do that anymore.     Phoenix is good. With warmer weather and no snow, He can be out doing what he does best. Bringing people joy. He gets attention where ever he goes. He has been my daily driver. When I leave the house I always get complements. I can't go anywhere with out gathering attention. Sometimes I come out of a store to find a crowd of people looking at and photographing "Bob" It isn't right that he has been sitting all alone in the garage. I will be in and out of here for another week, but I will be moving on to something else. It has been a good run. I have never met any of you but do feel like I have friends here....Bill Fallert.....AK A joebob
 

We live in the Phoenix area with our 1978 Pinto. Hoping 'Bob' will be as well cared for as you cared for the car.  Maybe we'll even see the car at car shows around here!
Do you know the suburb where the new owner lives?
I suspect it's only a matter of time before we will be in the same situation where we'll need to re-home our beloved Pinto. Bought her on Ebay in Sept. 2005, she now has 32,000 miles.  My family knows that the car cannot be sold until after I'm gone.  it would be too painful for me to say goodbye while I'm still on this earth.  The Lord understands... .
Will miss your updates.....I miss everyone who has passed on or no longer post on this site.  Life is a series of losses, it seems.

I know I did the right thing, but I feel like I betrayed him you can't sell a member of the family. The separation will be difficult for Bob and me. I know my life is coming to an end, but Bob is getting an opportunity to move on to a happy future.

They are coming on the 27th with a trailer. I bought Bob because a I had a repeat dream in 1999. I would go to my garage and find a car with a tarp cover. When I pulled the tarp I found I still had the pinto I bought in 72. I was all happy but when I woke up I was sad it wasn't true. I bet this happened 100 times. So I watched Ebay for 2 years to find a car worthy of buying.The new owned didn't have a dream, but watched ebay for 2 years to relive his youth. I am thrilled we both have a similar story. I will learn more on the 27th.

They are coming on the 27th with a trailer. I bought Bob because a I had a repeat dream in 1999. I would go to my garage and find a car with a tarp cover. When I pulled the tarp I found I still had the pinto I bought in 72. I was all happy but when I woke up I was sad it wasn't true. I bet this happened 100 times. So I watched Ebay for 2 years to find a car worthy of buying.The new owned didn't have a dream, but watched ebay for 2 years to relive his youth. I am thrilled we both have a similar story. I will learn more on the 27th. 

Bill, you will be missed.  Your story of your recurring dream is very similar to the dreams that led me to spend nearly twenty years trying to find an orange 1974 Pinto Runabout with black interior.  In fact, that's how I found my way to this site and joined.  My very first car, purchased brand new when I was sixteen, was a 1974 Pinto Runabout, orange with black interior.  I was one of the few kids in high school with a brand new car, but my dad was insistent that I not  squander my money on someone else's problem... my car had to be new.  Considering that it only cost me $2900, he probably wasn't wrong.  I drove it a couple of years, then traded it in on something "nicer" but then suddenly, maybe five years afterwards, I started dreaming that I'd stumbled onto it (never under a tarp... just setting there sparkling like new) after somehow leaving it there and forgetting all about it.  I discovered it in the basement, in the back yard, at my place of work.  You name it, in my dreams it could show up anywhere!  I put up with that for years with great frequency and the idea of looking for it in real-life started to form in my mind.  Actually, I knew that was impossible because it had been demolished in a fatal accident with its second owner, but it didn't take me long to realize that there were bound to have been others like it and, as I said before, I launched into a nearly twenty-year search for the right car.  When I finally found and bought it, my dreams went away.  Other than its automatic transmission, the car is identical to my original.  One of these days I hope to convert it to a four-speed manual, and if it's meant to be, it will eventually happen.  Thanks for sharing your story.  Best wishes!!!

Dwayne

I never have dreams about my cars, only real life nightmares. Is it something you guys eat?

I never have dreams about my cars, only real life nightmares. Is it something you guys eat?

I've never had a nightmare, but I have had a lot of car dreams.  I guess that's part of being a car nut... which I have been ever since I was old enough to know what a car was!
I never experimented with anything that would have been liable to cause weird dreams.  Do you think I missed out on something?

Dwayne

Hello,
My name is Brent and I bought Bill's Bobcat off of eBay. At the time, I didn't associate the listing with Fordpinto.com having seen the listing posted on a Pinto/Bobcat group on facebook. Anyway after the auction I talked with Bill and he mentioned this site and I was like, I joined there in 2018, back when I was interested in finding a Bobcat Wagon...hence my profile name. Long story short, I had dropped the idea of a wagon years ago, but was still interested in finding a 4 speed lift back as that was what I learned to drive on when I was 16. I drove it, it was my parents car, for about a year to work until I saved enough to buy my own car (73 Gran Torino). 

Having bought Bill's car has been exciting for me and I can't wait til it arrives hopefully next week. Bill is a great guy and I feel for him having to sell his car for health reasons which I totally understand as I'm sure a lot of you on here know...getting old sucks (I'm 61 with my own issues for sure). It's been a  pleasure to learn about the car and hear Bill's stories and I look forward to communicating with him in the future about "Bob".

Rest assured the car is coming to a good home with plenty of car shows to attend! Not sure what the next chapter for Bob will be just yet as far as changes, but I'll do my best to live up to showing it love as Bill has done while it was in his care.

Hope to meet some of you all here. I understand at least one of you live in the Phoenix area and hope to meet up with you in person one day. Oh, don't worry, I'll change my Avatar picture from the Cougar head soon...lol Just had that on my profile since I joined.  Take care and Happy New Year!

I'll take a look at your thread on the Hybrid, sounds interesting. 63 huh? Dang that's old! lol 

West Valley huh? I pretty much grew up in Glendale. Moved there as a kid when my Dad got stationed at Luke in '73. Went to Apollo HS and learned to drive a stick shift in my Mom's Bobcat in the West Valley Mall parking lot on Northern Ave! Got my driver's license in it and drove it for almost a year to work and a couple desert parties way out on in the desert at 59th Ave and Union Hills! lol, All city now.

This will be the first Mercury I've ever owned, but I've had plenty of Fords in my lifetime, but not exclusively. First was my '73 Gran Torino (bought in 1979). Later Fords were an 82 Mustang, a 69 Mustang Fastback, a different '73 Gran Torino and finally a '63 Econoline Van.

I'll start a new thread when "Bob" gets here to Az. But here's a picture of my Torino History all taken in the townhouses when my parents used to live at Northern and 49th Ave. White GTB (Gran Torino Brougham) was my first car, couldn't find it again unfortunately after years of looking so I bought my second GTB. Kind of set it up like my first one and then after having it for 10 years, gave it a more modern and muscle car look. 

WOW...how cool are these photos!!  Aaahhh....the passage of time.....bitte rsweet.

Love the re-enactments!  We should have all done this, but never had the foresight to even think about it. 

Air Force...I'm retired Air Guard.  AGE Troop.  Originally Navy ASM (GSE).  Same job, different branch.  What did you do it the AF?

I never had a Torino...I was (am) a Mustang guy.  In July I will have had this one for 30 years.

The Torino and Mari have held up well over the years!    Says this gray, balding 66 year old.   

I agree about Mari too. When we met in 2009 I was single and wanted to start dating her again, but she was in a bad place with a controlling ex and kids, so I stayed my distance. Then in 2022, she wanted to get back together and I was engaged to my now wife. It just never worked out for us.

Also yes the Air Force was great for me as it was a lot of people. Certainly the highlight for my life career-wise.

"Hutch" is gone...