Pinto Car Club of America
Shiny is Good! => General Pinto Talk => Topic started by: Reed on July 13, 2008, 12:03:09 AM
I am still learning Pinto lore, but I was wondering (a) if Ford ever did a recall to address the gas tank problem and (b) what the fix was. I am cutrious because onmy 71 there is a hard piece of plastic mounted between the front of the gas tank and the rear axle that looks to serve no purpose other than to be a shield. Was this the Ford correction to the explosion problem?
I apologize in advance if this has been covered elsewhere. I am still getting the hang of how to ue the eatures of this board.
That plastic shield is part of the recall fix for the 71. According to the dealership guy that handled my recall, when the Pinto is rear ended hard, the gas tank gets pushed in to the rear end. The plastic shield is suppose to prevent the sharp edges of the rear end from puncturing the gas tank and spilling gas. Also part of the recall fix is a longer fill pipe. The longer fill pipe is less likely pull out of the tank when the tank moves forward, again avoiding spilling gas. There are a couple of past threads that go a lot deeper in to this topic and should be locateable with the search function.
I have seen crash test footage of a few early Pintos, but I have never seen one "EXPLODE".
This might be due in part to what could really happen to most any car if hit hard enough: The gas tank might get ruptured, leak, and then have a POSSIBILITY of ignition of the spilled gasoline.
NO CAR IS SAFE!! DON'T DRIVE!!
http://www.fordpinto.com/smf/index.php/topic,5283.msg31842.html#msg31842
Bill
Thanks! I feel a bit better (safer) now. I will search more and try and find those other threads.
Well, I found 77turbopinto's previous post (http://www.fordpinto.com/smf/index.php/topic,5283.0.html) with its links to all the other threads about recalls and exploding gas tanks, and I feel fine about my Pinto now! I have been a fan of 60s and 70s cars for years and have driven them without fear, and i will now do the same with my Pinto. My Pinto does have the recall parts installed so I am set. 8)