Hello,
My name is George Hewitt, from Baltimore, Md. And a newcomer to the world of Pinto and their enthusiasts. Mind you, not a newcomer to cars by a long shot! Let's set the record straight right from jump, about me...I am a confirmed car nut! ANY REAL AMERICAN CAR OR TRUCK! I like 'em all!  You could call me a Chevy (oops, sorry,dirty word there!) Guy, if you judged me by my collection of vehicles.(8 alltogether 2 Fords, 6 chevy's.) But, my main passion is this little Pinto that I have, so here we go! The Pinto has always had a soft spot in my heart, even from a little kid on.But time went on, and they slowly started dissappearing from the roads here in Maryland (East coast rust-belt) one by one. I had always had the thought that if I ever found one I would grab it up. Well, in the fall of 2001, I was granted my opportunity. I had opened a auto repair shop, and got a call from a little old lady from Pasadena (Maryland, that is. LOL!) about a old car she wanted to sell. I asked her what kind of car it was, and it was a 1979 Pinto Coupe! She had bought the car new, and had it around as a back-up car for years. Well, it came time to teach her granddaughter how to drive, and upon her maiden voyage behind the wheel, she promptly planted the poor little warrior's right front into the back of a garbage truck! Nobody was hurt thankfully, (except the 16 year-olds pride, maybe.) but the Pinto had a crunched right front end. No front tub damage though. I arranged to meet with her to look at the car, and what did I find, but this almost pristine, 1 owner, 45k original mileage car! She even broke out the original bill of sale, warranty card, with the metal copy plate of the V.I.N., and the owners manual to boot! It was a done deal as far as I was concerned! She asked me what I would offer her for the car, I offered $500.00, she said "No way!" I began to sweat a little, as she gave me this steely stare... I thought I had insulted her with my offer! I quickly retracted that offer, and rebounded with a offer of $750.00. This time, her frown turned into this wry little smile...and she said to me, "That's WAY too much for this old car! How does $300.00 sound to you?" I was totally floored! Here I was, ready to embark on this Barrett-Jackson bidding spree with the "Little Old Lady From Pasadena", and she dumps the price! Well, needless to say within 10 minutes, the transaction was done, and my new baby was on the rollback headed home with me! Well, I ended up sitting on the car, untouched for a year and a half while i accumulated the necessary body parts to repair the damage. I got lucky, and found a junkyard  on the Eastern Shore, that had what I needed.I put the car through Inspection to tag it, and it only needed 2 tires, new shocks, parking brake adjusted, and 2 warning lamps in the dash replaced to pass. I couldn't believe it! I tagged her up, and took her home and put her in the garage. Life ain't always peaches and cream, you know? I have had incredulous luck so far with this little car,things were going great...maybe too great. The first day that I took it out for a drive, (Drove it to work actually, to show it off..go figure.) I made it to work without incident, but that particular day it was my turn to make the shop lunch run. I proceeded to hop into my new baby, and on my way to the Chinese carry-out I merrily went. As I pulled out of the shop's lot, I stopped to allow 2 cars to pass before I entered the street. the first  car was a mid-90's Volvo 740 or something, and the car behind  was a 1995 mercedes C550. I know this seems unimportant, but stick with me for a min.... There is a stop sign at the end of the little side street that our lot exits onto. The stop sign is at the entrance to a 4 lane (with middle divider/turn lane) major thoroughfare, VERY busy road. The Volvo  is waiting for a break in traffic, to make a LEFT across the 4 lanes, signal on waiting patiently. Now,the young girl in the Mercedes behind him (in front of me), ; who is having a VERY animated conversation on her cell phone, becomes obviously VERY impatient and decides that she is going to go around the gentleman in the Volvo to make her RIGHT turn, ON HIS DRIVERS SIDE...JUST AS HE IS STARTING TO MAKE HIS LEFT TURN ACROSS 4 LANES OF 2-WAY TRAFFIC! Screeching brakes ensued from 3 directions, but no collision. She nonchalantly flips him off, and continues on around the bewildered Volvo driver (finishing the full execution of cutting him off, and stopping traffic in 3 lanes). only to go about 200 yds to a red light! Now, after seeing this transpire, I wanted to stay as far away from her as possible! So I waited for her to become absorbed and stopped in the 2 right hand straight-through lanes, before I proceeded to make My right turn and then go to the MIDDLE LEFT TURN LANE(You're following this right? Got the visual?) Which I did, and I had the arrow left lit...mind you, traffic straight through has a red light on my right and they are stopped in line at the light on my RIGHT(Same direction of travel...still with me?) I have left turn green arrow. I see her in line,in the lane to my immediate right...stopped dead in-line...thankful that she is...she can't drive...almost past her...OH *%#@!!! BANG!!! For some inexplicable reason, she decides that, just as my front bumper was about to pass her rear bumper...that she's gonna whip the wheel hard left and pull into the left turn lane...In the milliseconds that this took place in...I was forced to make a choice, Continue straight on my now unavoidable collision course with the "Midday-Mercedes-Mayhem-Girl", or veer left to attempt to miss her, and hit an oncoming Ambulance in the opposing lane...      I slammed on the brakes, and took the Mercedes. The look on her face was priceless...Cell phone up to her ear in one hand, the other palming the wheel in her final swing of her ill-fated maneuver, and that gaping, circular, "OHHHH--NOOOOOO...MR BILL!"  mouth-thingy going on, right before the air-bag blew in her face. Thankfully no one was hurt, but EVERY SINGLE PIECE I HAD JUST REPLACED WAS SMASHED WORSE THAN WHAT I STARTED WITH! And, It got the hood corner, and shoved the front subframe back & over 2 1/2 inches too.The pass. side tire was now slightly rubbing the rear of the inner fenderwell, and the fender was bent in on the tire, but didn't pop it. This was a approx. 30 MPH -- 0 MPH dead stop type of hit, i was mortified...my baby...oh damn...I was avoiding her...I even waited for her to be gone...GRRR!!!  Then I turned around and looked at the Mercedes...WHOA MAN!! The whole driver's side front half of the door & the fender were completely  crushed in, the hood was buckled up like an Elvis kind of sneer, the strut & spindle were snapped off at the strut tower, right out of the uni-body; took the sheetmetal right out with it. The wheel was bent,tire flat,and her radiator had busted, and was puking it's coolant out like it was bleeding out. In other words..TOTALLED, TRASHED, UNDRIVABLE.
      The police arrived on the scene, and asked me if I needed a tow truck, I responded,"No,thanks anyway,But mine is still driveable."  And I proceeded to grab the crunched fender, and pulled it off the tire! I picked up the scattered pieces of my front end (here's a laugh... the pass.side headlight popped out of the adjuster springs/screws upon impact, and bounced across and underneath 2 lanes of moving traffic, and came to rest propped up against the curb about 50ft. away, and didn't break!) And got into my once again wounded soldier, and drove off. I was not even remotely happy about what had just happened, but I did have to give a good belly laugh to the fact that a "Raggedy old piece of American junk" that is worth "only" $1200.00, had just ANNIHILATED a $47,000.00  "Finely crafted,German luxury car" beyond any further use! And my little beater just drove away! German engineering my butt! Fast forward to 2005, I have again found the parts to fix the body damage, have had the car put on the frame machine and pulled straight again. It went back into shape perfectly (whew!), have had the tiny bit of rust around the rear  wheelwells replaced with new metal welded in. It's looking real good again, even if the bent bumper is still on it, and the fender and hood are not yet installed.The resto-purists are gonna hate me for where this is going...but she's about to come completely apart! My idea originally was to find a clean Pinto, and stuff a 351W in her, but when I saw the HOT ROD article about Joe Morgan's 2.3 turbo Pinto my plans drastically changed!  I had always liked the Turbo Coupes too, but thought they were too heavy, this was a marriage made in heaven! But I'm going a step above and beyond his...fully back-halfed & tubbed & caged. I've already bent your ear about something that is in the early stages with no proof to show yet, long enough. I only have this one picture of her to post right now, but I will add more as work progresses. I may add pictures of the whole fleet if anyone wants to see them too. I am glad I found this website, the people that I have talked with share the same passion for these Little gems as I do. I thank you for taking the time to read this... The Origin Of A Mini-Monster, and my personal introduction to you, fellow pinto enthusiasts.
          Enjoy your Pinto/Bobcat , I know i will!  George Hewitt AKA, Poison Pinto 79 Turbo
What a sad but fun story, I am happy for you and your pinto. Is the tranny going to be part of this project? And why is it that folks cannot restrain from talking on phones? They answer the phone during dinner, during sex, during a movie.....weird. I HATE phones. People talk on them too much!!!! Cell phones, what a freaking pain in the booty! I hope she got a nice fat ticket for hurting your little pinto.
Poison Pinto 79 Turbo:
Enjoyed your story, the headlight part is a hilarious! ;D
77Pintocw
Pinto did a 2 step with a Mercedes & won?
I am truly beside myself, I wonder what the actual damage costs to repair?
Glad to see you have the old gal back puttin, the turbo idea is one of the best ways to accomplish your screeming goals. There are several here that have gone down that path & could help.
Good to have you about!
Yes the tranny will be part of it's powertrain (after I sink the better part of $2800.00 into it to beef it up and a new converter! thanks again Tiffany! just let me know!
Thanks 77Pintocw, you had to have been there, even the officer had a chuckle on that one!
Thank you for the welcome Scott! And you can thank Joe Morgan for turning me on to this site! I wish I had pics of the Mercedes, you'd die laughing! I don't know what her damage cost. (I do know they totalled it, at first they tried to deny fault, but my whole shop was standing in the bay doors, and watched it happen, so there was no contest!) So far, my re-investment into fixing it, with me providing the parts to my friend Jerry at his body shop, and his labor has been approx. $600.00, once this stage of body REPAIR is finished, it is going to be totally disassembled( interior,glass,wiring,drivetrain,etc.with Jerry's help in the evening's after hours) so it can be sent to Autofab Racecars (Elkridge,Md.) to have the 4-link, Wheel tubs, subframe connectors, and 8 Pt. cage installed (Haven't gotten a firm price from them as of yet, I may supply the kits myself, or allow them to provide them ,looking at maybe $2500.00 for that...) Then it will return to Jerry's while apart for the mods to the core support for the front mounted water to air intercooler, and trial fittment of the drivetrain. After this is accomplished, it will then be put up on a rotissere, and sanded & prepped for paint, inside & out, top & bottom! After painted, we will reassemble the car, install the narrowed 9" Fab 9 housing in her,and bring her home as a roller. The remaining work,(I.E., wiring the E.F.I.,Plumbing the fuel & nitrous systems, gauges,etc.) will be done here at my garage at home. With my hands on help/tools at Jerry's he is only charging me $1700.00 for all this work! He's a great guy, and has taken a big interest in helping me with this project, as you can tell! And that is including paint! (PPG or GLASURIT, my choice.) By the way the Ins. co. paid $1200.00 for the damage to my Pinto (After I slapped them with the NADA guide value sheet, when they tried to lowball me with a $450.00 offer!) So I guess I'm not too bad off after all. Body shop pics on the way soon ! Thanks again!
George Hewitt (AKA, Poison Pinto 79 Turbo)
P.S. this pic is actually after the accident! I had tried to get haggerty to insure it afterwards, and tried to sneak the good side picture to them! If you look REALLY close, you can see the passenger side fender sticking up a little where it buckled up! Well,just for the record, they will not even cover our little cars, as THEY feel as though theyt do not have "collector value" Hmmmph!
George,
I do not see your picture, can you try to post it again? Or are you referring to the pic in your profile on the left and the one in your initial post?
I only received $1200 for my totalled pinto too. But, this forum may help us to start receiving a higher price for our little gems. They are more rare each day and that makes them worth more each day. Blue book value on a totally restored pinto (when I went to get new tabs/plates for my girl in June '05) were $7400, if I remember correctly. This info may help someone who is trying to get a larger price out of their totalled pinto. $1200....who are they trying to kid? That barely fills the gas tank!! :o
The moral to the insurance gme is "RECIEPTS" If you keep your reciepts they cant argue.
My 77 C-Wagon caught fir while I was driving it and the insurance company tried the low ball and I slapped them with 5000.00 worth of reciepts.
I got 3000.00 in the end and I bought the car back for 600.00
I had it back on the road 2hrs after recieving my check.
I need to thank the anonomus sender of the wiring harness to fix my flaming Pinto.
From pintony
Yes, the picture in my profile. I will be adding more soon!
That would have been great,
If I actually had any reciepts to show at the time! I had only paid $300.00 for the car(screaming deal) and had maybe another $250.00 in it to get it through inspection & tagged up when she got creamed. Remember, I only got to drive it that ONE day! So, in my case only having that little to show invested into the car, producing reciepts probally would have hurt me! But I totally agree with you, you need to able to show EVERY penny invested into your ride to assure that you will be re-imbursed in case of loss/fire/theft/accident. That is why I will be accquiring a "Stated Value Coverage" policy this time around. I will have substantially more into her by the time she's done, so if the unthinkable were to happen, (again!)I will be covered lock,stock & barrell. Not only for the car's value itself, but for any additional investments I have made into aftermarket/racing parts as well. It is worth it, and believe me she won't see the street this time without it!
George.