Hello everyone, first time post after browsing for a long time.

This is my 1972 Pinto. It appeared on eBay last April, and I was the lucky winner. I actually won the bid from Afghanistan when I was deployed, I am glad my initial bid I placed won it, because I sure did not have time or means to watch it!

The man who sold it to me was kind enough to coordinate with my parents, and he even delivered it himself free of charge.

It has the 2.0, which I think I will have built and tune up for the moment while I clean up and upgrade the rest of the car. I hope to eventually swap another Ford engine (seems the 2.0 pinto is really dropping off in the states) once I can find something unique and fitting to pair up with her.

Planning to begin autocrossing this Spring with it, I think with the 2.0 and some modding we will do alright.

Nice to meet all of you.

PJ-
Nice ride! Looks like this one has the outlaw wheels- Good steady feet,

Be safe over there, post more shots when you get a chance!

Nice car for sure... Do like those little smooth bumpers You can still get most parts for the 2.0 especially across the big pond. Couple day wait period but no biggie. Check out www.burton.com. Plenty of good performance parts there for sure.

So are you back home to enjoy your new ride?

PJO I run the 2.0 in my 23 T and enjoy it very much. I have multiple set ups for it as well. 2 carb set up.. 4 bbl setup ...zoomies and other little stuff. You might have to hunt around for certain items, but that is half the fun of owning a Pinto!

Oh yeah, Welcome Home!!!

Love it! I know you heard it before but to be honest we can't tell you and everybody else enough, "thank you brother" I love the freedom that your sacrifice provides! Glad you are home, safe and enjoying your family. Looking forward to the upcoming pictures/video! God Bless, Brent and Tammy

Finally made it home during Christmas to get her running. However, can't find the good pictures so for now here are some fairly generic ones.

The engine is really strong, which is good. Did not take too much to get it running well. The valves were really out of tolerance and the plugs were very, very old.



I love how large of tires you can fit on the rear with these.





This is my college car that I sold to my brother. It is still sitting at home, waiting for him to get back from overseas. I worked on cars and mopeds (yeah with the pedals) to make extra money when I was in college, so I gutted the inside in order to haul everything around. Came in handy getting the tires all over the place in order to be mounted.



This is a jankity temporary measure. I just could not get the carb to idle correctly, it was pulling too much air. Had to paste up the busted up air filter housing a little to give it some restriction. The air fuel ratio at the exhaust pipe was still correct at 3k rpm, so for now I will keep it like this. Engine is going to be pulled asap anyway to be rebuilt.



The defrost works.... slowly at least.



The back bumpers are very dented, almost like someone was trying to reform them into a different shape or something.

In two weeks I will be trailoring it down to where I live, and begin tearing her down. It is still sitting about 3 hours north of me, so all I can do for now is part search and wait.

The body is super solid, although it has suffered a lot of hackjob mechanical repairs over the years (I suppose I have now contributed with the airfilter). I think I am going to go for a period correct-ish rally build. Granted there were not a ton of Pinto's rallying around, but her British cousins with the same powerplant did it in abundance. I figure if I stick with Ford parts, ford colors, and build everything with quality parts it will be a fun ride and I won't have to feel guilty like if I were hacking it up.

Hoping to make it to the 2013 stampede!

Thanks for the reply Cossie! Appreciate the parts insight, I am going to have to call some of them then.

Right now I am gathering parts, and you may be the perfect guy to help. I have the ak miller exhuast manifold, as well as an aftermarket intake manifold that I am going to run a holley tbi kit off of for a blowthrough setup. I guess I am going semi authentic haha.

Now I am trying to find pistons and rods. Not sure if I should import cossie rods and pistons or find some forged low compression std pinto pistons. I know you have the cossie experience, any thought?  With my math I am looking at 12 psi right now.

I am a lucky man, I think I have one of the few new copies of this book.



I actually got this book for Christmas from my wife, I still do not know where she found it. It has been a great read thus far, however I always like to draw from some more real world experiences from people who may have some insight.

That indeed may be a bit rich on the pegasus rods, but it is still good to know they are available.

Definitely a lot to learn, but it is a fun journey. Tomorrow I am going to start taking some trim and things off of the car, so there should be updates fairly regularly.

Thank you for the info again Paul.

TGIF!