Hi all!
it's been a while since I had a Pinto to play with. My second car was a '72 Coupe that I customizes, and autocrossed, back in 1980. A trusty steed that finally gave up it's life many years later when my sister rolled it. Our family had a few Pintos back in the day, and lately I've been thinking of another one as a project (I only have a few million project ideas for differnet cars, s, and not a whole lot of time...). I currently own a couple Pintos, but instead of being here in Baltimore with me, they are back in Allyn/ WA at my folks house (I had told my dad that I was thinking about buiuldig a Pinto again, and he promptly went out and bought two at a local impound auction... I have no idea how to get two non-running cars across country cheap enough to make sense...).
Anyhow, I'll post pics of my old pinto later, and maybe show some of the ideas I have for a new project.
A little background:
I've been playing with cars for the last 25 years. I've been building customs, show cars, race cars, street rods, etc. I've owned over a hundred cars, from most major manufacuters (and a few minor ones...). I had a shop for many years, and built hundreds of customs and race cars, as well as doing crash repair on sports cars.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cvetters3/porsche1.htm
I've been autocrossing for a couple decades, as well as doing driver instruction in SCCA and BSCC. Iv'e crewed on a few road race teams, including an IMSA RS Mazda RX3 team that also campaigned a rotary powered Formula Libre. I've helped build a few national championship winning SCCA autocrossers and road racers (like Greg Fordahl's national championship winning Porsche 914s and Porsche GT3s). I've driven hundreds of different cars on the track, from cheap basic cars to Porsches, Ferraris, and a couple Lotus' (from an old Elan to a newer Esprit V8).
The largest single type of car I've owned is custom air cooled VWs (over 30 of 'em), but I've had everything from big block Chevelles to rotary powered autocross cars.
My last, most famous car on the internet was my V8 powered RX7.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cvetters3/rex1.MPG
My current collection includes the family car: a 2002 5 speed touring edition PT Cruiser that my wife and I autocrossed for a season (netting third place for the season in H Stock). I also have 2 '86 Jaguar XJ6 Series III (you have to have two in order to keep one running...), an '81 Fiat 124 Spyder I'm driving right now: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cvetters3/fiat_spyder.htm
I've been itching to do a different version of my V8 RX7. I was starting a 460 powered BMW 6 series project, but life got in the way, and had to sell it. I'd duplicate my RX7 but I don't want to deal with emissions issues here in MD, so I'm turning to older cars, and it comes back to wanting to do a Pinto like I had wanted to back when i had my last one. Very fast, excellent handling (it would have to be a competetive SCCA E-mod class autocrosser as well as a street car, just like my RX7 was), and radical enough to get noticed at any kind of show I wanted to go to, as well as reminding younger enthusiasts that there were "hot hatches" around before the current crop of imports...
So, since I can't reasonably get my old Pintos across country, I'll need to find an early one over here...
Ok, here's a shot of it right before I gave it to my sister (that's her in the car). I'd say this was about 1984...
I had made a steel rear sppoiler that looked like a larger version of teh stock '70-71 Torino GT tail, and used a '70-71 Torino GT taillight assembly. Unfortunately, I dont' have any pictures of that anymore...
Nice car. I like the way a few owners of hatchbacks have played with the tail light panels (ie: Torinos and Comets). Did the Torino panel fit right in, or did you have to do some mods? From what I've seen (I don't own a hatchback, only a wagon) the Pinto's lights were the same as the Maverick (which is why a Comet tail light panel would fit right in).
Oh, yes...Welcome to the site!
That's a really cool paint job, I LIKE it!
Sounds like you've got the skills, experience and the tools/infrastructure to make a nice Pinto. I hope you can do it.