Before I begin, I will let you know that both my wife and I are fine. Last Friday evening I was rearended while driving my '78 Pinto wagon. The car is still driveable, but for all intents-and-purposes, it is totalled. I picked up my wife from work and was on the onramp to the freeway, which is a metered onramp (controlled by a signal light, for those not familiar). I stopped for the red light and, I don't know what made me do it, but I looked in my rearview mirror and saw an F-250 Super Duty or F-350 pickup bearing down on me. There was nothing I could do! I didn't have enough acceleration to get out of his way, so I jambed the brakes on hard so I wouldn't get knocked down the embankment or into another vehicle. By his own admition, he didn't touch the brakes until the last second. His truck is equipped with the tow loops that stick out through the front bumper. He hit me in the left rear with the right front part of his truck and the tow loop cut right through the bumper! The impact was so great that it pushed the left quarter forward between 1/2"-1" and wrinkled the sheetmetal both externally and internally. The left door will close, but the door window frame will no longer fit into the body. The right door opening was also tweaked as there is a gap between the door frame and the window frame on the door. The rear so-called frame portion where the rear spring shackle mount is was pushed forward and removed a lot of the movement capability of the shackle, but then the bumper mount was pushed into the shackle, which removed any possibility of the shackle being able to move. Makes for a very jouncy ride from the left rear!! Funny thing is, the car actually tracks pretty straight! Anyway, I'm going to sell it and get rid of it. It has a V6, C4, 8" rear, PS, PB, and has all the factory AC components except the compressor. It has the deluxe blue interior with the low-back seats. The seats and door panels are in good shape. The door panels have not been cut for speakers and the seats are not all torn up. I'll be posting details in Pintos For Sale. If no one is interested, I'll just scrap it.
WOW!!!
Glad to hear you and your wife are OK.
From Pintony
Glad you didn't get hurt. Will you be looking for a replacement?
Thanks guys! Actually, I won't be getting another Pinto for a replacement. I've decided that my '79 Panel will be my only Pinto and my only project car. It was just getting to be too much to have two project cars, my daily driver and my panel. The collision just sealed it! A friend of mine had a '93 Mitsubishi Diamante wagon in great condition for sale with only 96K on it, so I've bought that for my driver and will now get to work on my panel.
Same here...glad no one was hurt. Reminds me of a simiilar crash may sister was in years ago with my father's '76 2800 V6 wagon. Unfortunately, even though she had enough horsepower to move, she didn't see the uninsured kid bearing down on her while she was stopped on a local road waiting to take a left. Sustained a case of whiplash that still bothers her from time to time. The Pinto's back end was buckled down, frame was bent, wouldn't track straight. Totalled.
79panel,
Darn it! I hate to hear of pinto's getting totaled. Sorry to hear of the wreck, but thankfully you guys are ok. I wish folks were just a little more cautious out there. Gosh, don't they know that they have to watch out for our pintos? ;)
It's not fun to read a story like this & I found myself feeling quite sad that we are loosing an owner, but it's completely understandable,
The really good thing is that you are alright, Pintos are Pintos, your life is paramount,
You know Brien, thank god it was just ther car. I'm glad you guys are ok. I'll be in touch about the rest of the car.
Hey Brien, I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I too am glad you and your wife are ok. If you havent installed the delayed wiper stuff you got from me, I might be interested in buying it back. I might be getting a pinto to put on the road and if it doesn't have the delayed wipers, you get the idea. This really s ucks man, your car was coming along really well.
Ok, I went and read the for sale post, and realiized that it wasn't your baby that got hit. ok never mind about the wiper switch. If I wasnt on the other side of the continent I would buy the 77 and 78 from you in a heartbeat.
Thanks for all the replies! Hey Scott, you're not losing an owner! I still have the '79 Panel that I now intend to devote my free time to. It will be much easier to focus on one project. It will allow me to do a better job on it and I'll only have one vehicle that I'll be buying parts for. Having limited resources, it will just make things a whole lot easier. As soon as the two wagons are gone I can rearrange the garage and get to work. I'll take photos of the project in motion. But keep in mind, as all projects go, sometimes there will be a lot done and to show and other times there won't be much at all. Take care all!