I have been in the business of buying, restoring and selling cars for the past 7 years. It has put me through college. The problem is, I hate restoring mopars, benz's, mustangs, etc. I would work on these cars, and although I sell them for a pretty penny, I just hate touching those cars! I realized one day that I loved to work on my Pinto's. I bought a 76 sedan for almost nothing, fixed the A/C, replaced the whole interior and one day, even thought the car needed paint, some one offered me a boatload of money for it! So I figured....hmmm, restore a pinto for money? Well, I'll give it a shot! I picked up a light blue 1980 wagon for free. Awesome body, blown head gasket, decent interior, but still a pile of crap. What a better candidate! So, here is the story of restoring a pinto all myself for sale (adoption) to the right person. I will keep all of you posted in every step of the cars restoration, maybe one of you is interested or someone you know. This way, there will be a documented step by step of the cars rebirth. If any one wants full size pix or information that I don't mention, please email me at pintopower@hotmail.com. Enjoy!
First step was to pluck that engine out of there and get some work done on it!
mmm, looks great! Turned out the head gasket blew between #2 and the water jacket. Bearing surfaces looked great though, so oil starvation was never an issue with the car. Head was not cracked either.
Motor was totally stripped and sent out to get cam bearing and aux. shaft bearings installed. All parts were wither hot tanked or sandblasted.
All exterior engine components were painted Old Ford Blue individually.
All bearings were replaced, new cam, oil pump, fuel pump, lifters, springs, one valve, seals, freeze plugs, etc. This was a complete rebuild! Only pistons, connecting rods and crank shaft stayed. All torqued to proper settings, I build cars right the first time.
Its a shame to put a timing cover on this!
Here is the engine bay....nice huh? It has a high side power steering leak for a couple years, or so I am told. So the left side of the whole car was a mess.
After some serious degreasing, suspension and undercarriage too, the engine bay was clean.
All engine bay, tunnel and cowl were sanded with 120 to smooth out paint and wet sanded with 220 to make the surface ready for paint. It was shot with a thick primer/sealer to coat the bay. Cross-member and suspension were shot with a low gloss black paint.
The tunnel up to the trans mount was was primered white and will be painted gloss white. From there after, the chassis will be painted low gloss black.
The primer was then wet sanded with 220 to make the surface as smooth as possible for the paint. The car is being painted 1997-2002 Ford Z1 white. Commonly seen on the mustangs. The paint came out great! Now, on to the rest of the body!
Looking good. Keep up the good work
Ol' Bluey now known as Alice made her debut at Fabs Fords this year. Take a gander at everyones posted pics and spot the extremely white wagon. We restored her to original and made her the first (at least I'm pretty sure) pinto with historical plates. The engine bay has remained completely white and should stay that way, both the engine and interior are brilliant shades of blue and look great in contrast to the white. I hope more pictures of Alice are posted in order to make this project complete. I'll bug Pintopower about it. ~Later!
I saw Alice first hand on saturday morning, That has to be the cleanest Pinto wagon I have ever seen!
I saw the Pinto that Pintopower satarted with and let me tell you this car could have been driven just the way it was CLEAN and Lt.Blue.
NO RUST like here in the Mid-West!
Lots of Hrs and Money went into Alice and the work Pintopower did was "ALL" his own.
No paint shop!!! Great job Alberto!!!
From Pintony
Thanks Pintony! I figure I should post some more pix of the car in progress. Here is a shot of the bad side of the body after my sister and I has sanded it back to original paint. I had to repair all of the damage on the whole car myself. On the whole car, there was half a pint of bondo used, and any one that has done body work knows that most of that gets sanded off. The body on this car was a mess, but like Pintony said, no rust.
Here is a shot of the body primered. In the background, you can see the doors and fenders done as well. It took 2 months for my sister and I to strip and prep the body. All hand block sanded.
Here is the body after it was painted in my barn. The exterior color is Ford Z1 white. It is a single stage paint, I used Valspar. The interior colors are Tahoe Blue Metallic for the dash and Wedgewood Blue Metallic fo the rest of the inside. The inside paint was done first and then the ouside was sprayed. I used a base coat without a clearcoat for the inside becasue I wanted a satin finish. I mixed the basecoat with HPC one which gives the basecoat strenght and durability without clearcoat.
Here is a shot of the engine bay after I dropped in the engine. I dont know what I was thinking....A white engine bay? Oh well, the car has historic plates so it wont be driven much. I had to replace all of the eingine wiring. The whole harness was fried. I redid it all with replacement plugs so that it looks factory. All wires replaced on the car have been soldered, not crimped, or my favorite...wire nutted.
Here is a shot of interior. I removed the center console becaused I liked the look of the early cars. It gives the pinto a clean classic dash. I used an early radio and ashtray door (notice handle). The carpet is royal blue, along with the seat faces. The seats are wrapped in Wedgewood blue. Seat belts are all redone (www.snakeoyl.com) and came out amazing. Headliner is a beauty (headliner mart - 817-562-2381) aswell. Carpet is bt 1A Auto (they are on ebay). I have used a dozen of them in my Pintos and they are rock solid.
And here we are at Fabulous Fords. I finished her 2 weeks before the show and asided from a weird ticking noise coming from under the car every now and then, she's all Done!! The Pinto came to my house a pile of crap and left done. I am very happy with the way the car came out, it is not perfect but I really dont care. My sister (SIrHugh) and I did the whole thing ourselves and for once, I did NOT get screwed by a crappy, poorly masked paint job mixed with a badly built leaking motor. All and all I can say that we are all proud of the cars outcome. BTW, I was going to sell it, I mean the car cost 5K in parts alone but I doubt any one will give me a fair price for my time. Ah well....Alice....welcome to the family.
P.S. The name Alice was derived from the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabdit:" A. The car is all white, B. Alice in Alice in Wonderland is wearing a white and blue dress. C. Lewis Carroll who wrote "Through the Looking Glass" was on opium while writting the book. Any one who would restore a car used for parts, sitting in a dirt feild for 10 years with no valuable options or redeaming features must be tripping on opium to envision what the car could become.
I have a couple of updates with Alice. I am going to sell my 78 Cruising Wagon because for the life of me, I cannot justify 7 pintos. I really want a CW but I just cant keep buying cars so I have decided to make Alice into my favorite CW, the 1979 White CW. So far I have prepped the panels and will primer them in about 5 min. Then they will be painted and installed on to the car. I don't know if I will do the sport gauges in the car, I love the interior as it is now. I will be installing my last Mustang II center console though. This is my favorite Pinto CW bellow:
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2543/4115559243_2a173afa67.jpg)
This is how Alice will look (but with a roof rack and minor trim differences)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2726/4116327278_c94188dc78.jpg)
And this is what I am selling if any one is interested. I can send across the country too! Comes with correct wheels.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3001/2552148108_45454f83e4.jpg)
I'll keep you posted!
Ok, the panels have been primered and wet sanded. Tomorrow, they will get the final coat. I have had these panels for 12 years stored in the garage. That is just how crappy they looked when I got them (that is my cat Fiat, btw) :
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3362/3487349237_6ac2ab555d.jpg)
Aren't these amazing colors? Does any one know if any one had one of these CW's in this color scheme?
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3566/3488164476_4062696e3e.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2722/4116356994_c423cc7e91.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2683/4115589231_13b5c2f912.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2517/4115589269_a2d044e6ac.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/4115589425_f6e880a81d.jpg)
Tabby looks less than excited about the whole thing.
She's not a fan of the Pintos. She came from a Fiat repair shop, they are her favorite!
PP what are you asking for the car and does it come with the rims as pictured? I love that style rim but for the life of me I cannot find any... Any idea where to get them if you are not selling them with the car.
I am asking $500 for the car, since that is what I paid for it. The BBS wheels were never on the car aside from that picture that I took as a mock up when I bought them (the wheels) to see if they would fit the car. I might sell them but they cost me a mint and I shouldn't have bought them in the first place.
so they are BBS wheels. wonder if they still sell them
Enkei and Riken also had a similar basket wheel.
Alberto, your orange crusing wagon looks almost the same as mine. What color interior does it have? Motor and trans? Just curious
Tigger, the orange wagon is a 78 with a 2.3 and a 4 speed and nothing else. The interior is the exact same color as the outside.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26161002@N03/sets/72157605439449409/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/26161002@N03/sets/72157605439449409/)
That looks like a nice solid car. With exception of the 4spd and the bumper guards, it is a carbon copy of mine. Too bad you are not going to do that one. I am sure it would come out perfect as the rest of your fleet. Good luck on the sale.
Thanks Tigger. I really did want to build it but when I brought home my Bobcat, I decided that something had to go.
Ok, I painted the panels and color sanded and buffed them. I installed them and just installed the inside panels today after I made new cardboard panels and wrapped them in the same carpet as the rest of the car has.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2497/4151696145_0e18f5241c.jpg)
Test fitting
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2622/4151695987_dab285b1df.jpg)
I had problems with the drivers side rain gutter. I think something happened to this car and it was repaired. Took some doing but I got it to fit nice!
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2553/4151695837_9abc0530ce.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2783/4152455460_f3832679de.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2502/4158927935_5034d3a8da.jpg)
Panels installed inside!
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2512/4159686710_91173b5e76.jpg)
Next I will take some nice pix of the car. The decals will be a while. I need to find a place competent enough to make them correctly. That will be quite the challenge.
I got around to taking some pictures of the car all finished! Soon, I will address the decal package.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2553/4165093671_cfaf37cd8e.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2551/4165092995_0d3e9bff7e.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2491/4165851438_ea8b64f517.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/4165093479_1805d953f7.jpg)
The conversion was seamless and problem free. I am thrilled with the outcome and look forward to the graphics.