Okay, I recently acquired a pea-green '75 Pinto wagon. The body is in reasonably good shape (no dents, plenty of rust). I intend to modify it to resemble the "Poison Pinto" die cast Hot Wheels car from the late 1970s (lime green, engine sticking up out of the hood, blanked windows, etc). Unfortunately my job has prevented me from having an opportunity to get the car to my own shade tree, and where it sits I haven't had much of a chance to look over the mechanicals to see what's what.

Soooo....

Although I've rebuilt and replaced engines and transmissions, my "expertise" with auto mechanics is replacing part A with another part A, this is my first attempt at a conversion. Basically, I need to know the following info:

0) Is the Pinto mechanically/structurally any way similar to the Mustang II?

1) What modifications (if any) will I need to make to the front end to support an '85 302? (I did catch the King Cobra mount PNs from another post, thanks!)

2) Will a C5 tranny mount up without major rework or is there a different manual tranny that I should use?

3) Does a 9" rear end bolt right in, or does this require significant modification?

4) What is the easiest 5-hole hub conversion?

Yeah, I realize all these are old-hat mods for some of you, but it will help me significantly to have these main points in one place to refer to.

And, yes, I'll post some before/during/after pics once I get the little gem out of the field where I found it.

Thank you for your time and your help.

sounds like entertainment!  C5 tranny is an automatic, a decendant of the C4. For a 302 you want a T5 standard tranny from a 5 liter mustang, make sure its from a 5 liter when you find one!

8 inch rear out of a mustang II  ('74 to '78)  5 liter mustangs have 7.5 in earlier '79 to '85 ish later ones '86 to current have 8.8  they are a completely different animal!

yes the 8 inch is a stout piece when set up correctly (my buddy tom has run 11's with his 351w and a 4:11 geared 8 inch) the 8.8 should fit, its 1/2 inch wider on each side that the 8 inch, but it was meant for coil springs and a totaly different mounting arrangemeant. You would have to cut off the coil perches and mounting flanges and add on some leaf perches in the proper area. Gears.....depe nds on what tranny your running and what you wanna be able to do with the car (highway driving, racing, local cruising) if you go with a T5  5 speed you can go with a 4:11 and still be able to cruise out on the highway with ease!

DAY 4 (May 19): After much poor weather and late hours at work, I get a chance to work on the wagon again. Decide to pull the rear end. Unfortunately, the U-bolts that hold the axle to the springs are bolted on too tight for anything I've got. A good dose of WD-40, followed by a drenching in PB Blaster and still not one will budge. I pulled out the 1/2" breakover drive with a cheater pipe. Nada. So I unbolted the rear spring bracket and pulled the shock on the driver's side. Got to the front spring mount and that bolt didn't budge.  

Anybody have a suggestion what I can do to drop the axle? I'm about ready to just cut through the U-bolts.  

DAY 5 (May 20) Well, I gave the threads another soaking over night (this would make the 3rd night's worth), and hit them with the propane torch...yet again (even though I've repeatedly tried heating/soaking, I still want to thank Boss for the suggestions). No luck.   This is what gets me: I work on an oil well service rig. I'm used to dealing with big honking bolts that are rusted from years of exposure (and neglect). I'm used to spraying penetrating oil on the threads and I know all about heating up the threads with a torch (or a hammer). So why I nearly pull the car off its jack stands and can't get a single bolt to give confounds me. I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't something else I need to do first. I've never had this much problem with a rear end before.

Anyway, I dropped the rear spring brackets and shocks on both sides. Now all that's left is the front mounts on the springs. Guess I'll wind up replacing the springs along with the axle.

Just for good measure, I pulled the roof rack. At least I have some feeling of accomplishment for the day.  

I have a 2" OD pipe that I use on stubburn bolts. It loosens the nut or breaks the bolt. I did have to cut a couple bolts that had rounded heads or nuts.

Oh yeah the pipe is six feet long and fits over a 1/2 " drive perfectly.

Im starting to work on my Pintos rear today. I staeted soaking the bolts a few days ago. I got my springs from JCWhitney for $138.00 shipped in a few days. They look good.

they can also bend from overtightening! (yes iv'e done it)

Well... I wish I had the ability to cut metal with fire. Instead I had to use an angle grinder with a cut off disk.

Me too. I'm going to call a welder to bring his service truck to my house and cut the bolts for me...provided I can't get the front mounts undone.

I had to cut all the u bolts off. They were bent and the plates are bent upward also.

Hmmm....you sure you're not working on my car?

DAY 7 (MAY 27): Wow...two days in a row to work on the ol' Pinto! Today's chore was to remove all the interior plastic panels in order to sand and prep the interior steel for a medium gloss black coat of paint. The plastic panels along the back half unscrewed easily, although I must say that whoever tried to put the 9" speakers in the back had to do possibly the worst installation job in the history of the automobile.

Then I moved on to the door panels. Which made the song lyrics "What was I thinking?" keep running through my mind as I wondered who stamped their seal of approval on the door panel design. If you've never removed a Pinto's interior door panels, DON'T! The vinyl is wrapped around a stiff cardboard backing held in place by archaic metal clips in the door. No matter how carefully you attempt to wiggle/slide/pry the door pannel loose, the cardboard tears away. While I can still use my door panels, I'm thinking of alternate solutions because I really don't want to get into dying the vinyl black to match the car's soon-to-be interior color.

After the door panels, I moved on to the dash. I removed the gauges with no problem. I was amused by the "wiring" on the back of the gauges being similar to a computer motherboard. Ooooh, so high tech! I popped out the air duct vents before proceding to the dash pad from underneath the dashboard. The (hidden, barely accessible) locations of a few of these nuts gave me pause to consider the Pinto as Canada's grand joke on the U.S. (mine was manufactured in the Great White North, as I suppose many/most/all were). I managed to get the driver's side half of the dash pad unbolted before it became too dark to find the nuts.

I do plan to post the promised pictures sometime this weekend. And, as I posted yesterday, will pull the engine and tranny Sunday.

Until next time, happy motoring.

After the door panels, I moved on to the dash. I removed the gauges with no problem. I was amused by the "wiring" on the back of the gauges being similar to a computer motherboard. Ooooh, so high tech!

Have you seen a newer car's dash wiring?  I was kind of surprised how similar the Pinto's dash pack looked to my '95 Probe's.

BTW, is it my imagination, or does the hood show signs of an engine fire?

This is a rough (very rough) mock up of what the finished car will look like.

As I've stated earlier, it's based on an old Hot Wheels car. The car will have the alloy 5-spoke factory rims instead of hub caps.

DAY 8 (May 30): Disconnected the engine and transmission mounts as well as all the wires, cables, and hoses that run between the car and the engine and transmission. Pulled the engine/transmission forward in the car about 6". The fan is up to the front frame crossmember and the front of the bell housing is up to the axle. It took me about 3 hours to do that, which was good time, in my opinion. I gave it a break at that point because I'm not in any rush to get the engine/tranny back in. It'll be two weeks to a month before I get the T5 tranny that's going in. I'll readjust my hoist chain and pull the engine/transmission out, tilting it back as I go tomorrow.

If you've done an engine swap in a Pinto, this will all sound familiar. If you haven't done one yet, but are planning to do one, this information may be of use for you.

For all the alleged design problems in the back half of Pintos, the front end/engine compartment is remarkably well designed for the shade-tree mechanic. It's almost as if the Ford designers *knew* that the car would be serviced at some point. And worked on in less than ideal conditions, at that. As long as you have the car on jack stands at least a foot off the ground, the bolts are easily accessible—even the bolts for the exhaust pipe at the manifold—something I'm not used to when "under the hood!" While I could have loosened the bottom nut on the exhaust pipe connector at the manifold, I chose to lift the engine and support it with blocks and jacks to gain easier access to this nut.

While speaking of exhaust, my car is a '74 model manufactured in May, 1974. The exhaust line has the factory setup. It does not have a catalytic converter. I relate this information because I read a thread a while back asking about what years had the converters.

This is the first engine pull I've done where I've removed the front fenders. I must say, I like it much better this way! I get in closer to the work, saving my back and being able to apply more torque on the hardware. Plus, when I crawl around underneath, there's more light. Oh, I didn't have nearly as much dirt dropping down into my face, and I didn't knock my noggin once getting under and out from under the car, either. I highly suggest anyone doing an engine pull go ahead and remove the fenders.

The radiator pulls out normally and easily, but to get the A/C cooling grid out required removing the hood latch mechanism and central grille brace, disconnecting the 3/4" nuts on the A/C hoses and sliding the grid down and out under the car. It's not a big deal, and you'll figure that out on your own once you get to that point. It's just that I don't like taking a bunch of extra parts off a car to get to the parts I need to remove. You can disconnect the A/C compressor and it's mounting bracket from the engine block and push it to the side, clearing room to do other chores around the engine block. I also suggest removing the battery seat, taking advantage of the fact it is bolted and not welded on.

Everything else about the engine/tranny pull is extremely straight forward. So, if you've done an engine pull on any rear-wheel-drive (front engine) car, this should be a piece of cake. If you've never done an engine pull before, the Pinto is an excellent car model to cut your teeth on; just find a manual that details the general removal steps and follow them. If you can't find a Pinto (or Mustang II) manual, any Ford manual for vehicles from the 70's and early 80's will have the same steps—even one for F-series trucks (these will be the easiest to locate since the trucks are still common on the road and auto parts stores keep the manuals in stock).

Until next time, happy motoring.  

hey poison do i have the hotwheels car of the poison pinto?  just wondering...

Do *you* have it? I honestly can't say....  

However, I have 2 of the Hot Wheels Poison Pintos; one redline and one black wheel. Both are the green car with the yellow graphics. I originally was thinking of blanking out the windows and running the graphics all the way up the side like on the HW car, but decided against it. I'll just heavily tint the back side windows and keep the graphics mainly on the quarter panel.

I do want an engine sticking out of the hood like the HW car. Obviously, it won't be as overstated, but Weiand makes an intake that increases the engine's total height and will give the car the basic look with dual carbs.

I'll take a picture of my HW cars and post them sometime.

HW also made the Poison Pinto casting in a chrome version and in a Marvel Comics scheme that was blue with, I believe, "The Thing" graphics on it.

The Poison Pinto was one of my favorite HW castings from my childhood. When I saw this wagon sitting in a field, I decided to pursue ownership with the intent of customizing it to resemble the HW car.

DAY 9 (May 31): Finished pulling the engine/tranny, which took all of 10 minutes. Did some piddle work readying the car for the next step: bodywork.

As I've said earlier, I won't get much more done mechanically on the wagon until I have some expendable $$$ to pick up the tranny and rear end. So now I'll sand down the interior and exterior in preparation for the new paint job.

lol... Do i have itlol i didnt even notice that typo lol....    yeah i have both the "thing, and poison pinto, i also have the shutout johnny lightning dragster..  but that one is a new manufactured car..  but i have the 2 old hw's  thanx for the info i was ust wondering if u had them lol   what other pinto hw were there?  were there alot?

what other pinto hw were there?  were there alot?

The panel van Pinto wagon is the only HW casting I'm aware of. And the "Flying Colors" (Green with either redlines or black sidewalls), "Superchromes" (Chrome with black sidewalls and maybe a few with redlines), and "The Thing" (Blue with black sidewalls) are the only releases of that casting I know of.

Wouldn't it work as well to just put the unlit candle against the hot bolt?  I would think the wax would still melt and find it's way into the threads.

In most instances it would, but this is the horizontally mounted bolt that runs through the front spring mounting hanger, so it's a looooong bolt and there's the rubber spring mount in there, so I highly doubt it would. I think, in all honesty, now that the entire rear-end and springs are on the ground and connected to the car only by the front spring mounts on either side, I can hacksaw through the top of the U-bolts and use a hammer and chisel to force the cut bolts to the side of the axle and drop them down through the plate.

The bad part about that is that it resigns me to pretty much using the old springs unless I cut through the mounting bolts as Glassman did on his wagon.