Like to tell you about my plans with the Pinto Wagon. I must first say that I was pretty surprised to find an American Pinto at less than 10 miles from my house. They almost never get imported, I think there’s four in the official Dutch government car registry.
There were two reasons for me to pick this one up, first the price, it was much less than the total amount in bills for buying and shipping the thing overseas, and second, this car presents an interesting mix of American and European technology which makes restoring and updating (hopefully) a little easier around here.
American advantage; all kinds of silly parts like lock cylinders, window rubbers, turn signal cancel switches etc. are not uncommon to be available new for American cars of which millions were built, not so with typical European working class cars. And the family connection with the Mustang helps too.
European advantage; The 2.0 Pinto was fitted in all kinds of European Ford’s, in passenger cars till 1988, in vans I think till 1991. They were also raced a lot, so there is a significant aftermarket industry for speed parts.
The car I have is an original 4-speed, converted to automatic, but they did that without changing the diff gear ratio, so I think that is the reason why it is revving its heart out at 55 miles an hour. So no freeway driving in this configuration…
I want to mix an early Pinto car with the latest possible Pinto 2.0 technology to create a nice 21st century drivable (tax exempt) old-timer on a budget. I’m not trying to kid myself, fooling around with old cars is a hobby, and hobby’s cost money. Cheap transportation is found elsewhere.
So the first big job was to find a complete running Ford Scorpio (Merkur in the States) with a Pinto 2.0 EFI and 5speed T9. Why a complete car? Because I want all the parts I need in one go, and be sure that everything was in working order before dismantling. Almost nobody wants these cars here anymore because last year the government changed the tax exempt status for old-timers from over 25 years to over 40 years old.
An 85 Scorpio was found and turned into a shell and a big puzzle, see photo’s, now I’m having to take care of some other work around the house, so the project has a few months rest. In the meantime I’ll order some gaskets and other stuff that I’ll be needing for the transplant.
Have a good Christmas everyone and fun in the garage in 2015.