Once that was finished the dash and the inside of the Dash-Cap were sanded with medium grade sandpaper and the silicon adhesive (included) was applied with a bead size of a pencil as per instructions included with it. After letting it sit on the dash, with paper towel rolls to "clamp" it and apply pressure between it and the windshield, for four hours it came out beautifully!

and some full shots of the inside from both sides.

The new Pioneer DEH-P3900M deck was somewhat difficult to install. The Pinto's stock AM radio originally is secured to the dash by the tuner and volume knobs, following up with a screw on the back. I had to fabricate a mounting bracket for use with modern CD decks, which is screwed onto a 3/4" thick pieces of wood, then bolted to the dash from the bottom. the pressure from the cut radio bezel pressing down on the top of the radio keeps it from moving around.

It still needs a bit of work and some bezel work, but it came out pretty good for a 1 hour job!

The face plate comes off which I can place inside of an the old Pioneer deck's padded plastic face plate carrier. The deck also came with a remote so I don't have to strain my arm every time I want to adjust the audio!  :cheesy_n:

Thanks turbo toy! Still a few more posts to go but I'm still pushin.

Last but not least, I installed the new brake rotors. The new rotors came with bearing races installed, however I removed them using a transfer punch and a mallet. I figure it'd be best to play it safe and use the matched races that came with the new bearings, instead of possibly ruining the new bearings and having to disassemble the new rotors all over again in a short time.

After about and hour of work removing the stock races, I installed the new bearing races with the aid of a tool my dad manufactured while he worked at Hewlett-Packard. He used a professional lathe to form this tool out of a wide aluminum dowel. He used the lathe to grind down sections of the dowel to the exact size of the bear race seats so new races can be installed by hand, with the ease and convenience of an open end wrench and a ratchet handle. Basically, tightening the nuts on each end presses the race inward, depending on which side's smaller press is going inwards.

And some creative shots of the logo and passenger's side of the car (front to back).

 :amazed: WOW  :amazed:

Fantastic! Looks Great!

Thanks guys!

Deffinately. With all of the things I purchased for the car restoration this year, I also got a set of round collapseable window shades. I'll be sure they are always up in the summer and that I part the car in the shade.

If worse comes to worse, I could (as could you), go to the scrap yard and pull a dash off an old pinto of the same year. Even if it's trashed, a new dash cap will fit over it perfectly if you cut down the high spots!

Hey Dave... look what I found on Ebay 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-Pair-Ford-Logo-Keys-for-1971-1980-Ford-Pinto_W0QQitemZ230224973897QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230224973897

Here is some of the original literature that came with my car back in 78 when it was new.

The Owners Manual. Notice the production date on the back. 

The Warranty Identification Card. This was used to quickly process your information when your car required service within the warranty period. The fields would be filled out (blurred due to it containing my mother's past information and signature), and the aluminum plate would be stamped with your vehicle's identification number (VIN has been blurred) and a few other numbers. It also contained the Ford Dealership Number and the date that your vehicle was put into service (purchased). I haven't ever seen one of these before and I find it very neat that it was still in the glove box when I got the car.

I have updated the post of the new stereo. There are now a couple pictures of the stereo in the dark.

http://www.fordpinto.com/smf/index.php/topic,7356.msg54457.html#msg54457

Here, as well, is an updated picture of the trunk. The only big difference is that I have painted the interior sides black, as well as around the seal where the lid covers.

I managed to find myself a rally steering wheel and a distributor dust cover off a Mustang II at the local pick-n-pull! I will have pictures up soon.

Probably was! Good to hear you found it though. It really gives the car some personal value knowing you have some of the original documentation and information from the dealership!

So I had the day off and decided to do my back dash since it was rattling badly when I had my bass up. My older brother who originally redid the dash back when he repainted the car, used 1/4" plywood with a good thick layer of Bondo to fill in the flat surface that shows towards the front of the car.

I took it a few steps further and used his plywood dash as a template and cut a new dash from 1/2" particle board. Much stronger and will not bend when the speakers are excessively torqued down. The old dash bowed up at the ends due to this reason, which is what prompted me to redo it. That and extreme vibration which I believe was a bi-product of the bowed thin plywood.

First I took my older brother's dash and drew a template onto a large sheet of 1/2" particle board. I used a cut off saw to cut the ends, cutting them at angles. After that I used a Rotozip to cut the arch at the back of the dash (about 1/8" away from the drawn line), finishing up with an electric radial palm sander to sand the excess material down to the line I drew from the original dash template.

After cutting the dash's initial shape, I did a test fit but it would not slide into place. This is due to an overhanging lip underneath the rear window which the stock dash slid under, and served as a hold down mechanism. (Picture 1)

So to fix this, I used a router bit on the Rotozip to remove close to 1/4" of the material inward and 1/4" deep into the wood, giving it a small lip around the arch so it would slip underneath the overhanging lip under the rear window.

Well it turned out that I trimmed too much material inwards and I had to pull out the Bondo to fill in the entire area that I trimmed. However, it came out better than I had planned because I filled it all in with a beveled edge, so it was more wedged into the overhanging groove under the rear window instead of pinched. (Picture 2)

Once that was complete the rear dash fit nice and snug! (Pictures 3 and 4)

Cutting holes for the speakers was the easy part. I cut them with the Rotozip, 1/8" away from the template line, then used a drum sander to remove material down to the line. I continued to sand down the speaker holes until the speakers rested in their positions without any friction, test fitting after 1/16 of the material was sanded off around each hole.

After that it was time to paint it and put a layer of clear coat on it. The clear coat is matte, which is all I had available at the time, however I plan to use a gloss lacquer on it soon.

The dash is held down by the lip of the rear seat and the groove under the rear window. The screws which pass through the speaker grills and the speaker mounting holes go straight through under the back panel and are secured with bolts which help to hold the board down tight and reduce vibration from music with a lot of bass.