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Why the Ford Pinto didn’t suck

Why the Ford Pinto didn't suckThe Ford Pinto was born a low-rent, stumpy thing in Dearborn 40 years ago and grew to become one of the most infamous cars in history. The thing is that it didn't actually suck. Really.

Even after four decades, what's the first thing that comes to mind when most people think of the Ford Pinto? Ka-BLAM! The truth is the Pinto was more than that — and this is the story of how the exploding Pinto became a pre-apocalyptic narrative, how the myth was exposed, and why you should race one.

The Pinto was CEO Lee Iacocca's baby, a homegrown answer to the threat of compact-sized economy cars from Japan and Germany, the sales of which had grown significantly throughout the 1960s. Iacocca demanded the Pinto cost under $2,000, and weigh under 2,000 pounds. It was an all-hands-on-deck project, and Ford got it done in 25 months from concept to production.

Building its own small car meant Ford's buyers wouldn't have to hew to the Japanese government's size-tamping regulations; Ford would have the freedom to choose its own exterior dimensions and engine sizes based on market needs (as did Chevy with the Vega and AMC with the Gremlin). And people cold dug it.

When it was unveiled in late 1970 (ominously on September 11), US buyers noted the Pinto's pleasant shape — bringing to mind a certain tailless amphibian — and interior layout hinting at a hipster's sunken living room. Some call it one of the ugliest cars ever made, but like fans of Mischa Barton, Pinto lovers care not what others think. With its strong Kent OHV four (a distant cousin of the Lotus TwinCam), the Pinto could at least keep up with its peers, despite its drum brakes and as long as one looked past its Russian-roulette build quality.

But what of the elephant in the Pinto's room? Yes, the whole blowing-up-on-rear-end-impact thing. It all started a little more than a year after the Pinto's arrival.

 

Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company

On May 28, 1972, Mrs. Lilly Gray and 13-year-old passenger Richard Grimshaw, set out from Anaheim, California toward Barstow in Gray's six-month-old Ford Pinto. Gray had been having trouble with the car since new, returning it to the dealer several times for stalling. After stopping in San Bernardino for gasoline, Gray got back on I-15 and accelerated to around 65 mph. Approaching traffic congestion, she moved from the left lane to the middle lane, where the car suddenly stalled and came to a stop. A 1962 Ford Galaxie, the driver unable to stop or swerve in time, rear-ended the Pinto. The Pinto's gas tank was driven forward, and punctured on the bolts of the differential housing.

As the rear wheel well sections separated from the floor pan, a full tank of fuel sprayed straight into the passenger compartment, which was engulfed in flames. Gray later died from congestive heart failure, a direct result of being nearly incinerated, while Grimshaw was burned severely and left permanently disfigured. Grimshaw and the Gray family sued Ford Motor Company (among others), and after a six-month jury trial, verdicts were returned against Ford Motor Company. Ford did not contest amount of compensatory damages awarded to Grimshaw and the Gray family, and a jury awarded the plaintiffs $125 million, which the judge in the case subsequently reduced to the low seven figures. Other crashes and other lawsuits followed.

Why the Ford Pinto didn't suck

Mother Jones and Pinto Madness

In 1977, Mark Dowie, business manager of Mother Jones magazine published an article on the Pinto's "exploding gas tanks." It's the same article in which we first heard the chilling phrase, "How much does Ford think your life is worth?" Dowie had spent days sorting through filing cabinets at the Department of Transportation, examining paperwork Ford had produced as part of a lobbying effort to defeat a federal rear-end collision standard. That's where Dowie uncovered an innocuous-looking memo entitled "Fatalities Associated with Crash-Induced Fuel Leakage and Fires."

The Car Talk blog describes why the memo proved so damning.

In it, Ford's director of auto safety estimated that equipping the Pinto with [an] $11 part would prevent 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries and 2,100 burned cars, for a total cost of $137 million. Paying out $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury and $700 per vehicle would cost only $49.15 million.

The government would, in 1978, demand Ford recall the million or so Pintos on the road to deal with the potential for gas-tank punctures. That "smoking gun" memo would become a symbol for corporate callousness and indifference to human life, haunting Ford (and other automakers) for decades. But despite the memo's cold calculations, was Ford characterized fairly as the Kevorkian of automakers?

Perhaps not. In 1991, A Rutgers Law Journal report [PDF] showed the total number of Pinto fires, out of 2 million cars and 10 years of production, stalled at 27. It was no more than any other vehicle, averaged out, and certainly not the thousand or more suggested by Mother Jones.

Why the Ford Pinto didn't suck

The big rebuttal, and vindication?

But what of the so-called "smoking gun" memo Dowie had unearthed? Surely Ford, and Lee Iacocca himself, were part of a ruthless establishment who didn't care if its customers lived or died, right? Well, not really. Remember that the memo was a lobbying document whose audience was intended to be the NHTSA. The memo didn't refer to Pintos, or even Ford products, specifically, but American cars in general. It also considered rollovers not rear-end collisions. And that chilling assignment of value to a human life? Indeed, it was federal regulators who often considered that startling concept in their own deliberations. The value figure used in Ford's memo was the same one regulators had themselves set forth.

In fact, measured by occupant fatalities per million cars in use during 1975 and 1976, the Pinto's safety record compared favorably to other subcompacts like the AMC Gremlin, Chevy Vega, Toyota Corolla and VW Beetle.

And what of Mother Jones' Dowie? As the Car Talk blog points out, Dowie now calls the Pinto, "a fabulous vehicle that got great gas mileage," if not for that one flaw: The legendary "$11 part."

Why the Ford Pinto didn't suck

Pinto Racing Doesn't Suck

Back in 1974, Car and Driver magazine created a Pinto for racing, an exercise to prove brains and common sense were more important than an unlimited budget and superstar power. As Patrick Bedard wrote in the March, 1975 issue of Car and Driver, "It's a great car to drive, this Pinto," referring to the racer the magazine prepared for the Goodrich Radial Challenge, an IMSA-sanctioned road racing series for small sedans.

Why'd they pick a Pinto over, say, a BMW 2002 or AMC Gremlin? Current owner of the prepped Pinto, Fox Motorsports says it was a matter of comparing the car's frontal area, weight, piston displacement, handling, wheel width, and horsepower to other cars of the day that would meet the entry criteria. (Racers like Jerry Walsh had by then already been fielding Pintos in IMSA's "Baby Grand" class.)

Bedard, along with Ron Nash and company procured a 30,000-mile 1972 Pinto two-door to transform. In addition to safety, chassis and differential mods, the team traded a 200-pound IMSA weight penalty for the power gain of Ford's 2.3-liter engine, which Bedard said "tipped the scales" in the Pinto's favor. But according to Bedard, it sounds like the real advantage was in the turns, thanks to some add-ons from Mssrs. Koni and Bilstein.

"The Pinto's advantage was cornering ability," Bedard wrote. "I don't think there was another car in the B. F. Goodrich series that was quicker through the turns on a dry track. The steering is light and quick, and the suspension is direct and predictable in a way that street cars never can be. It never darts over bumps, the axle is perfectly controlled and the suspension doesn't bottom."

Need more proof of the Pinto's lack of suck? Check out the SCCA Washington, DC region's spec-Pinto series.

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My Somewhat Begrudging Apology To Ford Pinto

ford-pinto.jpg

I never thought I’d offer an apology to the Ford Pinto, but I guess I owe it one.

I had a Pinto in the 1970s. Actually, my wife bought it a few months before we got married. The car became sort of a wedding dowry. So did the remaining 80% of the outstanding auto loan.

During a relatively brief ownership, the Pinto’s repair costs exceeded the original price of the car. It wasn’t a question of if it would fail, but when. And where. Sometimes, it simply wouldn’t start in the driveway. Other times, it would conk out at a busy intersection.

It ranks as the worst car I ever had. That was back when some auto makers made quality something like Job 100, certainly not Job 1.

Despite my bad Pinto experience, I suppose an apology is in order because of a recent blog I wrote. It centered on Toyota’s sudden-acceleration problems. But in discussing those, I invoked the memory of exploding Pintos, perpetuating an inaccuracy.

The widespread allegation was that, due to a design flaw, Pinto fuel tanks could readily blow up in rear-end collisions, setting the car and its occupants afire.

People started calling the Pinto “the barbecue that seats four.” And the lawsuits spread like wild fire.

Responding to my blog, a Ford (“I would very much prefer to keep my name out of print”) manager contacted me to set the record straight.

He says exploding Pintos were a myth that an investigation debunked nearly 20 years ago. He cites Gary Schwartz’ 1991 Rutgers Law Review paper that cut through the wild claims and examined what really happened.

Schwartz methodically determined the actual number of Pinto rear-end explosion deaths was not in the thousands, as commonly thought, but 27.

In 1975-76, the Pinto averaged 310 fatalities a year. But the similar-size Toyota Corolla averaged 313, the VW Beetle 374 and the Datsun 1200/210 came in at 405.

Yes, there were cases such as a Pinto exploding while parked on the shoulder of the road and hit from behind by a speeding pickup truck. But fiery rear-end collisions comprised only 0.6% of all fatalities back then, and the Pinto had a lower death rate in that category than the average compact or subcompact, Schwartz said after crunching the numbers. Nor was there anything about the Pinto’s rear-end design that made it particularly unsafe.

Not content to portray the Pinto as an incendiary device, ABC’s 20/20 decided to really heat things up in a 1978 broadcast containing “startling new developments.” ABC breathlessly reported that, not just Pintos, but fullsize Fords could blow up if hit from behind.

20/20 thereupon aired a video, shot by UCLA researchers, showing a Ford sedan getting rear-ended and bursting into flames. A couple of problems with that video:

One, it was shot 10 years earlier.

Two, the UCLA researchers had openly said in a published report that they intentionally rigged the vehicle with an explosive.

That’s because the test was to determine how a crash fire affected the car’s interior, not to show how easily Fords became fire balls. They said they had to use an accelerant because crash blazes on their own are so rare. They had tried to induce a vehicle fire in a crash without using an igniter, but failed.

ABC failed to mention any of that when correspondent Sylvia Chase reported on “Ford’s secret rear-end crash tests.”

We could forgive ABC for that botched reporting job. After all, it was 32 years ago. But a few weeks ago, ABC, in another one of its rigged auto exposes, showed video of a Toyota apparently accelerating on its own.

Turns out, the “runaway” vehicle had help from an associate professor. He built a gizmo with an on-off switch to provide acceleration on demand. Well, at least ABC didn’t show the Toyota slamming into a wall and bursting into flames.

In my blog, I also mentioned that Ford’s woes got worse in the 1970s with the supposed uncovering of an internal memo by a Ford attorney who allegedly calculated it would cost less to pay off wrongful-death suits than to redesign the Pinto.

It became known as the “Ford Pinto memo,” a smoking gun. But Schwartz looked into that, too. He reported the memo did not pertain to Pintos or any Ford products. Instead, it had to do with American vehicles in general.

It dealt with rollovers, not rear-end crashes. It did not address tort liability at all, let alone advocate it as a cheaper alternative to a redesign. It put a value to human life because federal regulators themselves did so.

The memo was meant for regulators’ eyes only. But it was off to the races after Mother Jones magazine got a hold of a copy and reported what wasn’t the case.

The exploding-Pinto myth lives on, largely because more Americans watch 20/20 than read the Rutgers Law Review. One wonders what people will recollect in 2040 about Toyota’s sudden accelerations, which more and more look like driver error and, in some cases, driver shams.

So I guess I owe the Pinto an apology. But it’s half-hearted, because my Pinto gave me much grief, even though, as the Ford manager notes, “it was a cheap car, built long ago and lots of things have changed, almost all for the better.”

Here goes: If I said anything that offended you, Pinto, I’m sorry. And thanks for not blowing up on me.

Is there a demand for 71-78 Pinto dashpads?????

Started by sscmustang, July 01, 2009, 08:38:27 PM

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popbumper


So, my thought? Demand? YES!
Will any one buy one? NO.
[/quote]

I warned Scott of this principle - when people start stepping up and saying "I'll pay $50 for one", it sure takes the "wind out of the sails" in the effort. For better or worse, restoration costs real MONEY. I know, because I feel like I have ALREADY spent too much money on my car. It does not matter - I'm not doing it for a Jackson-Barrett auction, or a Concours judging effort; I am doing it because I want it to be as perfect as it can be.

People ARE cheap. Pintos are SCARCE. That formula alone means that a parts repro groundswell for Pintos will never truly get going as much as, like stated, Mustangs, Tri-fives or Corvettes. I am >not< discouraging the effort at all, just being real. I don't think you are a pessimist at all.

Chris
Restoring a 1976 MPG wagon - purchased 6/08

Pintopower

Ok, yes, there is a demand BUT people are CHEAP! The only people that ever spend money are Corvette people, mustang people and, well, that's about it. I have been selling Fiat, Renault, and Pinto parts for years and have discovered one thing: No one will pay anything for anything! Example, I made factory replacement transmission cooler lines for the 2.3 Auto pintos. They are 316L Stainless steel. They work perfect! I have them on two of my Pintos and a couple NON-cheepo buddies of mine have them on theirs. My cost is $360 a set and I sell them for $400. How many have I sold? Zero. Why? well, Pinto, Fiat, MG, Vega, Corvair, etc people would rather use a chunk of 5/16 hose to patch their trans lines together instead of replacing the line. Period. There have been dash pads available forever from Just Dashes. I had the one on my Fiat 131 done ($1200) and the one on my pangra done ($400). If this company makes the dash, much like... say... Dearborn Classics, the dash, which is about 40% smaller than a 72 Ranchero dash should cost about 40% less, right? Well, a dash for a 72 Ranchero there was about 650 when Lovepants72 bought it for his 72 ranchero. PLUS shipping. Well, knock %40 percent off that and you know what you have? A price that 3 people will spend and thats it. There is no need to have them made, because they already are! No one will pay and that's it. People want to spend $100 bucks on one, not what they really will cost to make. Sorry if I am being a pessimist, but I have been there people. I have tons of remade parts for the pintos, my fleet is FULL of new pipes, trim, SS screw kits, etc., and all I ever get when someone calls is "Oh, really? $65  for a (BRAND NEW, mandrill bent stainless steel) V6 heater pipe? Well, i'll just duct tape mine together."

So, my thought? Demand? YES!
Will any one buy one? NO.
I have many Pintos, I like them....
#1. 1979 Wagon V6 Restored
#2. 1977 Wagon V6 Restored
#3. 1980 Sedan I4 Original
#4. 1974 Pangra Wagon I4 Turbo
#5. 1980 Wagon I4 Restored
#6. 1976 Bobcat Squire Hatchback (Restoring)
...Like i said, I like them.
...and I have 4 Fiats.

75bobcatv6

goo dill be mailing mine in tonight when i get home

r4pinto

We'll see what happens. Just sent it to that new address & so far, no bouncy bounce
Matt Manter
1977 Pinto sedan- Named Harold II after the first Pinto(Harold) owned by my mom. R.I.P mom- 1980 parts provider & money machine for anything that won't fit the 80
1980 Pinto Runabout- work in progress

sscmustang

I posted a new topic but also wanted to post here as well. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Dashes Direct is having trouble with their website and it is affecting incoming e-mails at the address I posted earlier. Even if you already sent an e-mail to the other address, please do so again to damiang@dashesdirect.com and put "Pinto dashpad" in the subject line. They have not received any e-mails at this point to the other e-mail address. The damiang@dashesdirect.com definitely works. SO RE-SEND THOSE E-MAILS AND LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN!

entropy

Why, yes....I'd demand a 71-78 Pinto dashpad!  Thanks for asking!
1972 Hoonabout
SBF swap
-308 cid
-CNC ported Brodix heads
-Edelbrock Super Victor intake
-QuickFuel 750 double pumper built by Siebert
-Single stage NOS Cheater system
8" rear 4.11 posi
G-Force 5 Speed
10 point rollcage


450-ish rwhp on motor.....something a bit more than that on the spray

71hotrodpinto

Well i sent off my email. Hope this works out!


95' 302,Forged Pistons,Polished rods
B303,1.7 Rockers,beehives
'68 port/polish heads                   
Coated Must II headers
Edelbrock Airgap
Holley570,Msd dist,CraneHI6
Mil

sscmustang

My e-mail still didnt kick back and I keep scanning for new e-mails. Let me know if you continue to have problems. I know their website had crashed awhile back and they were getting a new company to re-do it. But to my knowledge their e-mail hasnt been affected as I have been in constant contact with them thru e-mail. But again, let me know if you keep having trouble and I will check into it.

r4pinto

Quote from: sscmustang on July 07, 2009, 08:40:33 PM
Trust me. This is not a second rate company. No matter what company out there does any business at all there is gonna be one guy who has a bad experience. Im telling you that seeing this console lid firsthand I can attest to their product. And this is the first prototype. The Mustang II dashpad that was sent out was actually pretty much okayed by the tester they sent it to,but they werent happy with it and are making changes to make it better. This is a good outfit. Do you think Ford would trust them with all their old tooling for the older Mustang dashes if they werent a respectable company? These guys know their business.

I actually did some looking after reading of the complaint & to one complaint there were many more compliments. I'd feel comfortable with a dash from them knowing that.
Matt Manter
1977 Pinto sedan- Named Harold II after the first Pinto(Harold) owned by my mom. R.I.P mom- 1980 parts provider & money machine for anything that won't fit the 80
1980 Pinto Runabout- work in progress

r4pinto

I sent two emails & they both came back in a matter of seconds when I refreshed outlook express
Matt Manter
1977 Pinto sedan- Named Harold II after the first Pinto(Harold) owned by my mom. R.I.P mom- 1980 parts provider & money machine for anything that won't fit the 80
1980 Pinto Runabout- work in progress

sscmustang

How long was it taking for e-mails to kick back? I sent one but so far nothing came back.

sscmustang

Trust me. This is not a second rate company. No matter what company out there does any business at all there is gonna be one guy who has a bad experience. Im telling you that seeing this console lid firsthand I can attest to their product. And this is the first prototype. The Mustang II dashpad that was sent out was actually pretty much okayed by the tester they sent it to,but they werent happy with it and are making changes to make it better. This is a good outfit. Do you think Ford would trust them with all their old tooling for the older Mustang dashes if they werent a respectable company? These guys know their business.

r4pinto

Thanks for the update Scott.

I agree with you that any vendor will have atleast one complaint. It's always said that you can't please everybody. Especially since that complaint was from 2004. Only thing I know of is the emails & that is an issue.
Matt Manter
1977 Pinto sedan- Named Harold II after the first Pinto(Harold) owned by my mom. R.I.P mom- 1980 parts provider & money machine for anything that won't fit the 80
1980 Pinto Runabout- work in progress

Scott Hamilton

OK, guys.. let me contact Scott Cluck...

I don't see an issue with one bad report however.. any vendor will get a couple if not a few...

Lets keep an open mind here...

Stave off the emails currently...  I'm pulling the banner News on the front page- while I'm doing an upgrade of the site...
Will post here when I know more...

Thanks,
Yellow 72, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
Green 72, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
White 73, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
The Lemon, the Lime and the Coconut, :)

Scott Hamilton

Yellow 72, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
Green 72, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
White 73, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
The Lemon, the Lime and the Coconut, :)

hvyeqop69

Drive the good ones. Derby the rest!
I buy Pinto Spindles.

r4pinto

Houston, we have a problem!!!!

The email I sent just bounced back. "This address no longer accepts mail." was the message I got back. I tried it twice & it did the same exact thing.  ???
Matt Manter
1977 Pinto sedan- Named Harold II after the first Pinto(Harold) owned by my mom. R.I.P mom- 1980 parts provider & money machine for anything that won't fit the 80
1980 Pinto Runabout- work in progress

r4pinto

Thanks for the email address. I have done my part by emailing them, and hope everyone else on here will do the same to show how desperately needed this part is.
Matt Manter
1977 Pinto sedan- Named Harold II after the first Pinto(Harold) owned by my mom. R.I.P mom- 1980 parts provider & money machine for anything that won't fit the 80
1980 Pinto Runabout- work in progress

sscmustang

I have the go ahead to "set the hounds loose".  :) Step up and be heard. If you want to see dashpads reproduced for 71-78 Pintos then send an e-mail to dashes@dashesdirect.com with "Pinto dashpad" in the subject line and tell them you want to see them made. This is your chance. I have e-mailed Scott H. directly as well and he is gonna use his resources to get the word out there. I cant stress enough that this is your chance. The company is fully willing to develop them if there is demand. And please only e-mail them if you are willing to pay a fair price for one. I can tell you it wont happen for the $50-$100 range. So please only e-mail them if you are serious about purchasing a repro pad. Good luck guys. I really want to see this happen for you guys if you truly want it. Heres your chance. I have done all I can do. Its your turn to be heard. MAKE SOME NOISE!

The picture (if this works) is a sample of the awesome Mustang II console lid that they just sent me to test fit. Its a winner the first time. Just wanted to show you what they are capable of. I have alot more pics if interested. Just e-mail me.

discolives78

If ever there were a part...

The dashpad is it.

Every Pinto I've gotten close to needed one. I recovered mine with vinyl while I worked at the upholstery shop. My boss said he would charge $250-300 for that if he had to pull the pad and re-install it, or about $150-200 if it was out of the car (he based his removal labor on the fact that I got my dashpad out in less than 1/2 hour, of course I've had practice disassembling Pintos). This doesn't duplicate a factory pad, me and Chris (popbumper) have talked about this. I think if a new one came in at $200 it would be reasonable. I saw a NOS blue one on e-bay last year that went for over $400. They don't come up for sale often. Keep in mind that it's NOS, meaning New Old Stock. That means an original wouldn't benefit from new tech in plastics regarding U/V protection. Your NOS pad could be trash in 5 years if left in the sun on a regular basis. As far as color, neutral grey for an easy dye job seems ideal.

Chuck :afro:


A virtual version of my last Pinto. Was Registered Ride #111. Missed every day.

Scott Hamilton

Spoke with Scott 'sscmustang' today on the phone- his resource could be a winner for us all with our dash pads. I have pledged FordPinto.com's help in generating 'noise' toward the manufacture so we can assist Scott in getting these to market.

Post your support here as we join in this endeavor...

Let me know about what we talked about on the phone Scott, I stand ready,
Yellow 72, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
Green 72, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
White 73, Runabout, 2000cc, 4Spd
The Lemon, the Lime and the Coconut, :)

71hotrodpinto

Well now that sounds like a great thing to be happening!
I have to say Thanks A Bunch!
Ive had the hard plastic cap on my car for about 15 years and its been great. However i can say that im kind of a purist when it comes to certian parts for my car. So if i could find an original nos cap id spend at least 150 for it. That is whats reasonable. Lets face it guys i know that our pintos are "cheap cars" and they were ment to fall apart after 5 years. So to expect reproduction parts to cost relative to the type of car we have is unrealistic. Our cars are a limited interest and i like that however a pain to deal with.
  Back to the topic at hand. I saw about 2 years ago a Black NOS dash pad on ebay that went for if i remember over $400. I bid what i could afford and was outbid very fast. Is it worth that in todays bad economy market?? I dont know.

I do know that you can have your original dash redone perfect by some recovering company that literally rebuilds it to as new conditon. However they are seriously expensive. I think in the 1000 range.

So to recap id feel that 150 for a good quality made in USA rebop cap is waaaay cheap and id buy one when i could afford to get one. Realisticaly id say that near 200 is more likely.

I just checked California Mustang and they have caps that are anywhere from 200 to over 400. So id say that your supplier is going to know that and say , "200??? youd better have an order for 500 of em!!"

Heres hoping!!

Oh and when is someone going to make the side quarter window and back window sedan rubber seals.. God i want some new ones. Mine are only 40 years old LOL!!
I have another 300 that id spend on those. Again when i could get the money together. Not if id want to spend the money.


95' 302,Forged Pistons,Polished rods
B303,1.7 Rockers,beehives
'68 port/polish heads                   
Coated Must II headers
Edelbrock Airgap
Holley570,Msd dist,CraneHI6
Mil

sscmustang

Gas tanks will definitely be a reality along with the fuel senders for those 2 Mustang II style tanks. As mentioned before, between the 2 styles of tanks, they should fit 75-79. And Im assuming that since they fit 79 that they should fit 80. Is that right? My parts books are from 73-79. But 75-79 or 80 non station wagon Pintos.

As far as the dashpads, its up to us to somehow prove a demand and I mean serious demand. You have to somehow get as many Pinto guys together on this one and heed what Chris(popbumper) said. Its not often we'll have a chance like this.  And again, just like with the Mustang II dashpad, once they are made there will have to be enough demand of an individual color for them to make a full days run of it. This is the big business of manufacturing. They cant just make 1 or 2 of a color. It has to be a full day run to be worthwhile. For the Mustang II dash they were guessing around 15-20 of a single color. And that may change because as of right now they still havent gotten the Mustang II dash finalized and test fit to make an actual production run of it. Again, I am not familiar with all the Pinto forums to know where to find all the Pinto owners. Thats why Im looking to you folks. Now is the time to try and make something happen. I have the NOS dashpad for them to use. They will only work with a good NOS unit.

75bobcatv6

When they do decide to market dashpads, I will definately Chip that 200 if thats what it costs, but I have to be able to pick color. thats all i ask for. =) and Gas tanks would be freaking awesome I need a new one.

Pinto1600

Good afternoon folks,
            A supplier for the dash pads is a most welcomed person. I've looked at alot of Pintos with the idea of buying them,but the interior/engine compartments are a deal breaker for me. If the dash is shot(and they usually are)most upholstery shops really can't do a good job of recovering the dash pad. Pricing is important but the supplier can't lose money...$150.00 to $200.00 is a fair price. Scott welcome to our web site. Hope you keep us informed on your plans!
Happiness is..Driving a classic Pinto

popbumper

All:

  I spoke with Scott recently and tipped him off about the dashpads. I wanted to understake the effort myself and work with him to do it but he chose to drive this effort direct to the group here.

  I concur that there is no way these will be done for under $100, it simply is not possible. A $50 offer won't cut it. I think one of the greatest challenges to Pinto repro parts manufacturing is twofold: one, there's not enough interest, and two, people don't want to spend the money.

  Please step up and be heard. If we don't collectively make an effort, parts won't get made. Cars are disappearing at a record rate, and even moreso, because they are being used as parts resources, making the restoration pool even smaller. Support the manufacturers that are making the effort, because there are not many of them.

Chris



Restoring a 1976 MPG wagon - purchased 6/08

sscmustang

Im gonna be honest and say I dont see dashpads happening for under $100. If I had to guess I would think in the $200 range but cant even say that for sure. We still have not even gotten the pricing on the Mustang II dashpad as they are still working out the final product. Once they get it perfected then they have to make a full day run of it and see what they have in labor/materials,etc and then factor in the tooling costs. There can be quite an expense in tooling. In the Mustang II dashpad they have plastic and metal inserts and tooling has to be made up for each of those. Most likely black would be the color to start with or a neutral gray so it can be dyed. They would have to see how many they can run in a full day and then they need to see that many commitments to any given color to be able to run them. They have to have a full day run to make it worthwhile.

As far as the fuel tanks and senders....the last I heard they just said the tanks should be ready "within a few months". Thats it. Nothing specific. I hope they can work on the senders as soon as they receive them but I just checked tracking and they havent gotten them yet. If we are lucky they will have the senders ready when the gas tanks are released.

hellfirejim

I would definately be interested in a real dash pad as mine is toast being an AZ car.  If possible I would like to find out when those gas tanks and senders would be ready?  I have a 75 runabout. :smile:
jim
It's a good day to be alive!
PCCA Pinto Number #385


phils toys

Scott, Great  to see you  abord our site it has been a pleasure  getting and helping others get parts from you . thank you for the opertunity to get even more parts in the works. if it would help reduce the cost i am sure many of us could supply a core  for the dash pad. i do have the plastic cap  and it is ok but i would much rather have a more original pad. once again price being the issue i have seen companies that redo dash pads but they start around $300 and go up closer to $700  the plastic cap was about $75 so i would expect the cost to a bit more  but hope fully not a great deal more. if it would help any i can supply a steal frame for the tooling ( then maybe the would not have to destroy your pad)
phils toys.
2006, 07,08 ,10 Carlisle 3rd stock pinto 4 years same place
2007 PCCA East Regional Best Wagon
2008 CAHS Prom Coolest Ride
2011,2014 pinto stampede

blupinto

I would pay $50 for one. Hopefully you can reproduce them in those classic colors like avocado green and saddle (my '74 has saddle interior and I swear it has a metallic sheen in the vinyl. Thank you Scott!

P.S. It is my fondest hope that I can rescue a '74 Mustang II. I've always loved those too.  ;D
One can never have too many Pintos!