Okay, I'll play too
Mine is the Red 1980 Pinto for the month of May (also happens to be my birthday month).
The car is a 1980 Ford Pinto ESS, born September of 1979, with a 2.3 Liter & 4 speed manual trans, and originally was Red on Red
The car came into my family's possession in the fall of 1980. My dad bought it used from a body-shop with roughly 3k on the odometer. He was concerned it had been hit, since it was at a body shop, but there was no signs of repair, collision, crumples etc, and the shop said that it had no damage.
So my dad bought the car, and drove it until 1985 (when my brother was born). In those 5 years, he put roughly 125k on it. Him and his buddy would just go out driving for fun and would put over 1,000 miles on the car a week or more. He also did a few mods, including Racer Walsh front lowering springs, a Racer Walsh Stage 3 solid-lifter cam, Offenhauser stepped intake, Holley 390 4-barrel, Rallye Pinto front air dam & rear 3-piece spoiler, 13" Crager Slots with BG Goodrich Radial TA's, the rear-window louvers, and converted the interior to black using parts from his 1976 Pinto Stallion that he had just recently wrecked
In 1981, my parents were married, and took said pinto on their honeymoon. We actually have pictures from the wedding with the car.
Also, in roughly '81 or '82, my dad and mom went to New York with my aunt and uncle to a car show (now the Adirondack Nationals in Lake George) and had the pin-striping done, by hand. To this day, the guy who did the car is still up there at the shows hand pin-striping the cars at the show.
So fast forward to 1985. My dad and mom were married for 4 years now, and my brother was born. My brother was actually taken home in the pinto, and my mom complained about how difficult it was to have the kid in the back-seat, and it was hard to get him in and out. My dad was working at a car dealership at the time, and picked up a beautiful 83 or 84 Thunderbird (AKA Aerobird). He put the Pinto on the lot, but due to the bad reputation they had for "blowing up", the car never sold, so my dad put a cover on it and put it away in storage.
Over the next few years, the car sat, and my dad tried a second time to sell it, but nobody bought it, so back into storage it went.
Fast forward to when I was a thigh-high, roughly mid-to-late 90's, and my dad takes the car out. We were going to a car show, and he wanted to run it a little bit. My mom drove my dad's '76 Bronco to the show, and my dad took the Pinto, with me in the passenger seat. We got to the show, and we parked the two vehicles and started walking around. We kept watching the Pinto to see how people liked it. Not 1 person knew what it was expect for this one older couple. The guy walked up to the car, and said "Look Hun, its a pinto!"
From that day on, I fell in love with the car, and every year I would ask my dad to pull the car out and "redo it" to get it back on the road. Every year though, things would come up and it never got done.
Fast forward to 2010. My dad comes home one day and says "So you wanna do the pinto this year?". I nearly jumped out of my skin with excitement. We sat down and talked about it and came to a deal that if I bought the parts, then he would give me the car when it was done. So the deal was made, and the car came out of storage. We pulled it out, and started to make a list of what had to be done. I literally spent a week buffing, clay-barring, waxing and detailing the outside of the car, all by hand. The paint on the car is still the factory paint, and it shines like new. We did a few other mods to the car, like rebuilding the motor with new gaskets, rebuilding the carb etc. We put in an 8" Ford rear-end out of a Mustang II Ghia. It is still sporting the factory motor (though with mods), and the factory, unmodified 4-speed manual trans. We upgraded it to 5-lug, and put on the 11" brakes on the front with all new brake lines (just for safety reasons). We also had to put on new wheels, now 14" slots, as the 13" wheels had no good tires out there.
We finished the car in mid-august. I had to learn to drive stick, in that car, in 2 weeks, as we had planned to bring it back to Lake George for the car show, after not being there for almost 30 years. I was driving the car back and fourth to work and out to run errands, trying to get use to the car. I ended up driving the car up to Lake George with no issues, though it was nerve racking to say the least.
Now, in 2012, I am still driving the car, and still loving the car. It's actually funny, because I drove the car into work today, so it's kinda fitting that I post on here. The car will never leave my possession, and the connection I have with the car is so great. My dad and I spent many late nights, sometimes to 2 AM, out in the garage together working on the car, and much blood, sweat and tears went into it. The only plans I have for the car is this summer will get a motor rebuild. The motor now does have a slight oil leak, and the RPM power-band is roughly 4,500 to 6,000, much too high for normal driving, as this car does not get raced or anything. So almost 30 years later, and a generation later, Racer Walsh will be getting another order.
Sorry to make such a long post guys (and gals), but the history this car has with me and my family was just too much to "skim over".
EDIT: If you guys have any questions regarding the car, feel free to ask!
