Pinto Car Club of America

Just found the site...there are some neat cars here. This is going to make me get to work it looks like!

Way back when, my parents bought a '72 trunk car new. It had a hard life...took on a deer head on within first two weeks of its life...and then a few months later my sister wiped it out trying to catch the school bus that I had missed. After it was repaired that time...it managed to live a slightly more gentle life.

In the summer of '73 we moved from Ga to Tx and my Dad was determined to buy all new cars with A/C for the trip. First he bought a '73 Pontiac Grand Ville with a 455 in it...and then we went Pinto shopping. My Mom and sister were there too and were really wanting a blue automatic car. My Dad wasn't too enthused about it, but let them test drive it. While we waited, the two of us spotted a red 4 speed hatchback with Pony mags, A70x13 Goodyears and black interior. Now THIS was the Pinto for us. After a quick test drive my Dad made the deal. Seems like the sticker was around $3000 on it (somewhere I still have the sticker). With trade in there was around $1400 difference. My Dad dug out some folded up $100 bills from deep in his wallet. Turned out he had been rat holing a little at a time since he was in Vietnam and finally decided it was time to use some of it!

The Pinto became my Dad's work car for a year or so..then my sister moved back to Ga and he let her take it. When she came back home a year or so later the tires were bald and he chewed her out pretty good. Especially since he had sent $$$ to buy new ones and get it aligned. He took the car back as his driver. At this time I was around 15 years old or so.

For father's day I bought him an Appliance header from the JC Penny catalog and we installed it along with a Thrush 2.5" muffler turned around backwards. Man...that dude had a unique sound at about 4000 RPM!

Later the Pinto became my daily driver in high school. Did I ever have fun with that thing. This was in 1977-1978. The *hot* cars at time were new Z-28's and Trans Am's. Since I lived in TX there were quite a few pickups around too. A buddy had a Vega that was awful slow...and another had a big bore VW with dual carbs etc etc. We raced weekly and the Pinto always won!

The mods to the 2.0 litre engine and car were:

Header
Milled head .070"
Melling cam- .450" lift??
4.11 Zoom gears
B50x13's on some wider rear ET slot mags
Traction bars
Tried the Holley 390 and Offy Dual port...stock Holley/Weber was better.

That's really about it. The little sucker ran 14.60's in the 1/4 mile at the old Hallsville dragstrip in Tyler Tx which was flying at the time. I could regularly spank those new Z's and Trans Am's and 350"/454" pickups. Especially on the street from red light to red light. Launch high enough to keep the tires spinning so it wouldn't bog...shift at 7000+ rpm and let it scream!

Only breakage issues I ever had were transmissions. This was in my football playing days so I *might* have been a little hard on those 2-3 shifts. Pretty regularly the shift rail would flex enough to jump the interlock pin inside the trans and lock it in neutral....requiring me to pull trans.


I've got so many memories and stories about that little car it's insane...but just know that we always had a great time together! My Dad gave me the title for graduation and it was always the car I could count on to get me anywhere. Over the years I went through many, many Musclecars that were a lot faster ( I currently drive a pump gas, all motor 9 sec 540" '67 Vette on the street)...but when one was down..guess what got me to work everyday??

I've still got the car sitting at a buddy's house. Now that I see all of these cars and stories, it looks like it may be time to bring it home and see how it looks.
This could be fun!!


Thanks,

JIM

great story jim sounds like its time to get back to work.  ;D sends some pics for us to look at

Quote from: 540Hotrod on December 23, 2009, 08:43:34 PM
Just found the site...there are some neat cars here. This is going to make me get to work it looks like!

Way back when, my parents bought a '72 trunk car new. It had a hard life...took on a deer head on within first two weeks of its life...and then a few months later my sister wiped it out trying to catch the school bus that I had missed. After it was repaired that time...it managed to live a slightly more gentle life.

In the summer of '73 we moved from Ga to Tx and my Dad was determined to buy all new cars with A/C for the trip. First he bought a '73 Pontiac Grand Ville with a 455 in it...and then we went Pinto shopping. My Mom and sister were there too and were really wanting a blue automatic car. My Dad wasn't too enthused about it, but let them test drive it. While we waited, the two of us spotted a red 4 speed hatchback with Pony mags, A70x13 Goodyears and black interior. Now THIS was the Pinto for us. After a quick test drive my Dad made the deal. Seems like the sticker was around $3000 on it (somewhere I still have the sticker). With trade in there was around $1400 difference. My Dad dug out some folded up $100 bills from deep in his wallet. Turned out he had been rat holing a little at a time since he was in Vietnam and finally decided it was time to use some of it!

The Pinto became my Dad's work car for a year or so..then my sister moved back to Ga and he let her take it. When she came back home a year or so later the tires were bald and he chewed her out pretty good. Especially since he had sent $$$ to buy new ones and get it aligned. He took the car back as his driver. At this time I was around 15 years old or so.

For father's day I bought him an Appliance header from the JC Penny catalog and we installed it along with a Thrush 2.5" muffler turned around backwards. Man...that dude had a unique sound at about 4000 RPM!

Later the Pinto became my daily driver in high school. Did I ever have fun with that thing. This was in 1977-1978. The *hot* cars at time were new Z-28's and Trans Am's. Since I lived in TX there were quite a few pickups around too. A buddy had a Vega that was awful slow...and another had a big bore VW with dual carbs etc etc. We raced weekly and the Pinto always won!

The mods to the 2.0 litre engine and car were:

Header
Milled head .070"
Melling cam- .450" lift??
4.11 Zoom gears
B50x13's on some wider rear ET slot mags
Traction bars
Tried the Holley 390 and Offy Dual port...stock Holley/Weber was better.

That's really about it. The little sucker ran 14.60's in the 1/4 mile at the old Hallsville dragstrip in Tyler Tx which was flying at the time. I could regularly spank those new Z's and Trans Am's and 350"/454" pickups. Especially on the street from red light to red light. Launch high enough to keep the tires spinning so it wouldn't bog...shift at 7000+ rpm and let it scream!

Only breakage issues I ever had were transmissions. This was in my football playing days so I *might* have been a little hard on those 2-3 shifts. Pretty regularly the shift rail would flex enough to jump the interlock pin inside the trans and lock it in neutral....requiring me to pull trans.


I've got so many memories and stories about that little car it's insane...but just know that we always had a great time together! My Dad gave me the title for graduation and it was always the car I could count on to get me anywhere. Over the years I went through many, many Musclecars that were a lot faster ( I currently drive a pump gas, all motor 9 sec 540" '67 Vette on the street)...but when one was down..guess what got me to work everyday??

I've still got the car sitting at a buddy's house. Now that I see all of these cars and stories, it looks like it may be time to bring it home and see how it looks.
This could be fun!!


Thanks,

JIM

Great history Jim,
  Welcome to Our corral and bring on the campfire tales as you build that ride again!

Pintosopher

Jim i think its time to treat yourself with a 347 and a big set of meats.  ;D

 :welcome:

Nice story, parts of it reminded me of my own Pinto's tale. My mom got mine for her college graduation and about 5 years later my dad used it as a car to get to work, and a winter driver. Got mine for my highschool "graduation" present (homeschooled).

Can't wait to see those pix!!! :D

Thanks guys...

It's currently at my buddy's house. It's been stored there for years. I stopped by there yesterday to visit for Christmas..but didn't go out to look at it. He used it for transportation for a while too.

Not sure what shape it's in...it's been sitting a LONG time. But it was running fine when it was parked. We'll see. Probably be a few months before I bring it to my shop...we live about 150 miles apart now.

Now just need to think about what direction it should take.

Rebuild to High School glory?
Build an insane turbo 4 cylinder to pick on the Ricer dudes?
Do a V-8 swap?

I don't see cutting it up for tubs or anything like that.....but it definitely needs a 9" or an 8.8" under it and 5 lugs. I remember that *tall* tires used to just look right and fill the fenders well. I'm thinking of 15" Cragar's and like H-70 15's on the rear maybe? Maybe some 14" Cragars on the front for a little rake.

Not even sure where I could find B-50x13's anymore!!

What would you do???


JIM