So I recently went and took a look at this little gem. It's a 1973 Runabout hatchback. It's a recent barn escapee that hadn't seen the sun in over 30 years until just a couple days ago. She's wounded, but the rest of it is so clean and rust free it's worth repairing. Needs a quarter, a taillight panel, a new hatch, a rear bumper, and a rear valence. It's only got 56,247 miles. It's red and has a black interior that is in pretty nice condition except for the head liner has a couple small holes in it and the plastic around the rear wheel well and hatch area is broken from the accident. The current owner has a hatch and a couple little things for it.
The story goes it was hit back in the mid/late 70's and the owner didn't want to fix it. So the guy I'm buying it from bought it with the intention of fixing it and putting a V8 in it. He put it in his horse barn and never got around to it. He ended up getting into Harley's (he has 5, couple real nice ones too) and doesn't have the time or interest to do the Pinto now. I have the interest, the time and the space in my pole barn to do it. So I agreed to buy it.
The plan for the car is several fold. First, I have to repair the damage to the rear drivers side quarter. So the search for the needed parts begins with that. Second, That repair will entail mini-tubbing the car for larger wheels & tires. Third, I want to address the design flaw I feel all Pintos and Mustang II's suffer from. The front axle center line is too far rearward. It needs to be moved forward about 4 inches. In doing this, I will update the front suspension to the '74-up Mustang II/Pinto suspension. It will allow the use of easily obtained suspension parts. Narrow control arms, coil over suspension, etc... I will also add a roll bar. This will address the chassis. Once the chassis is complete, I will move on to the drive train.
The current plan is the car will get a low buck, low tech GT-40P iron headed 302 with a blow-through carb single turbo mounted on the passenger side to allow for a passanger side exhaust discharge. It simplifies plumbing (as opposed to two turbos) as well as eliminating exhaust, steering, and master cylinder space issues.
A nice bonus is it adds power to the engine. I am a believer in higher compression with low boost set ups. You can build a low compression engine and pump a lot of boost. But this is more of a race engine method since off idle and low rpm response isn't as importent at the track with transbrakes and such because off idle isn't really much of a concern. Besides it makes the engine a little doggy on the street. Upping the engine compression ratio increases throttle response and engine effieciency on and off boost. It makes it more resposive on the mean streets and you get more power from less boost.
Here's some pictures.
The good..
The bad...
Worst case scenario once I get it home is I can't find the parts to put it back together. In that case, I will likely part it out so she can live on as a donor. But hopefully I can put her back together.