Wilma, the 79 Pinto...

[reiRei]

So, I'm not going to lie.. I'm a little afraid of going out on a limb here to post a build thread... because:

a) It isn't a honda

and b) it's an old ford.

but, since I've started my Pinto Project, I've been having some fun, and I think it'll be something neat to show off and chronicle as we (husband and I) go through the paces.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/pinto.jpg

This is Wilma, I bought her off of a very nice and chatty man in Enderby, BC.. who said she was in Classic Car condition and took very good care of her.

The paint was very faded, but the interior is immaculate, and the engine isn't going to matter in the next few months.

Did a bit of clay barring and polishing on the paint, and got the car decent enough to show off at a show this past weekend

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/wilma.jpg


(Flame-suit on)
Now, here's the question everyone's going to ask:
Doesn't the Pinto explode? Isn't it dangerous? Why the eff would you buy a Pinto?

so.. here we go:

1) Doesn't the Pinto Explode?

The Exploding Pinto was more of an urban legend as far as anything else, most documented cases were extreme situations that would cause the car to explode. The model that I have as it is a 79, has the re-called fuel tank with a protective rubber blanket to prevent any type of "Explodey" situations.

2) Isn't it dangerous?

A Pinto is no more dangerous than any car from that era.

3) Why the eff would you buy a Pinto?

I had the same thought when I first bought the car, but the more I work on it and the more I cruise around in it, I feel like this car is exactly what I was looking for. It's lighter than a Miata, under $2000 dollars, Rear wheel drive, and very... very unique. It's not everyday that a guy in a big muscle car will roll up next to you and say "Holy crap, is that a Pinto?"

The more and more I learn about the car, the more I find out that many people have a connection with the Pinto, and I can't help but enjoy seeing the smiles on people's faces when they see the car and have a fond memory of a first car, or a parents car.. and that really cements the project for me.

... anyways.

tl;dr: This car will be fun, unique and not explode (hopefully!)

Current Plans:
- a Ford 2.3 Turbo engine from a Thunderbird is en route (should be here wednesday)
- A heftier C4 Automatic Transmission
- As well as a bigger rear end to handle more power
- Cragar Wheels are also en route, 4 for the car and 2 for a custom teardrop trailer to be built to match the car.

Thanks for reading my massive post lol!

[OU812]

:thumbsup: x2

Good for you doing something original and unique.

Cant wait to see what it becomes

[Abeo]

For a second I thought this was the orange pinto that put down some crazy numbers at the dyno day... what are the chances of two orange turbo pintos in town? :nut:

Looks like a clean car to start with

[gretz]

When you figure out a name for it, i'll do you up a couple emblems if you'd like (donation for a fun / different project)... I need to see progress though lol...

[reiRei]

Thanks for the response guys :)

Abeo - Unless I travel to Calgary, there won't be 2 orange turbo Pintos in town

Gretz - I'll keep you posted on the progress. She has a name already, her name is Wilma (named after Wilma Flintstone, and because my other car's name is Betty)

[gretz]

Originally posted by reiRei
Thanks for the response guys :)

Abeo - Unless I travel to Calgary, there won't be 2 orange turbo Pintos in town

Gretz - I'll keep you posted on the progress. She has a name already, her name is Wilma (named after Wilma Flintstone, and because my other car's name is Betty)

lol... love the name > if you think of something creative for an emblem/logo for her, let me know...

[masoncgy]

That is awesome! What a great find!

I have always had a thing for the Pinto coupes. They are such a cool looking little car.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Very cool! What axle were you thinking of upgrading to? An 8.8" from a '90-'92 4.0 Ranger should be quite close to the width of the stock Pinto axle, assuming the Pinto's is the same as Mustang II's of a comparable year. The 8.8 should be able to handle anything the 2.3 can throw at it, provided you're not making ridiculous power.

[morpheus256]

What we're ideally looking for is a 8" rear end out of a Pinto, Mercury bobcat, or a Mustang II.

The 8" rear's are strong enough for what we're planning on doing to the car, and they're a direct bolt on. It also allows us to keep the same bolt pattern (4x108) as what we have upfront.

[kvg]

my friend used to have a 351 pinto. cool car:thumbsup:

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by morpheus256
What we're ideally looking for is a 8" rear end out of a Pinto, Mercury bobcat, or a Mustang II.

The 8" rear's are strong enough for what we're planning on doing to the car, and they're a direct bolt on. It also allows us to keep the same bolt pattern (4x108) as what we have upfront.

Fair enough! The 8" should be a solid upgrade from the 6 3/4". Keep an eye on the online inventory for the Kelowna Pick 'n' Pull, they usually have a decent number of oldish Mustangs kicking around.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Sweet! Unique build!

[revelations]

Very original.

PS. "Wilma" was the most powerful Atlantic Hurricane on record... haha

[DonJuan]

2.3 Turbo? 302 that at least! Neat car

[reiRei]

Originally posted by DonJuan
2.3 Turbo? 302 that at least! Neat car

Yep, a 2.3L Turbo right out of a Thunderbird. It's more along the lines of what the car is, I've seen the Pintos with the big block swaps, and they're cool.. but I want something that will still be able to handle corners like a go-kart.

With the added weight of a bigger engine, it loads the suspension differently than an engine of an equivalent size. I don't really want to mess with the handling of the car, especially because we have such fun corners to go around in Kelowna

...also, gas isn't cheap :( (but I'd still have to put premium in the tank with the 2.3 turbo)

[reiRei]

Just a bit of an update!

Got a surprise the other week from my husband, he found a pinto sport steering wheel on ebay.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/steeringwheel.jpg
(sorry about the cell phone pic :()

A few weeks ago we managed to fit this in the trunk of my lancer...
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/rearend_lancer.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/rearend2.jpg

the rear end from a Mustang 2 (straight out of Lethbridge) is now sitting in my car port
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/rearend1.jpg

and then, on the long weekend, we picked up a package from across the border...

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/cragars2.jpg
1, 2, 3.....
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/cragars1.jpg
4, 5, 6, 7... Cragar SS rims

.. and then today, I found this on my driveway..
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/thunderchicken.jpg

We plan on taking the ThunderChicken apart, parting out the engine to the Pinto and the rear axle to my Husband's mustang project... I'm sure there are other compatible parts, but ultimately the shell will end up at Pick N' Pull..

[D'z Nutz]

That's freakin awesome. Keep the updates coming!

[ianmcc]

Send me a PM once you start parting out the T Bird-interested in the front brake calipers plus some other parts.

[reiRei]

Originally posted by ianmcc
Send me a PM once you start parting out the T Bird-interested in the front brake calipers plus some other parts.

Sounds good, I will let you know for sure

[95teetee]

Originally posted by kvg
my friend used to have a 351 pinto. cool car:thumbsup: weird- I almost built a 351C Pinto back in the '80s. Had the car, the motor, the plan to move the firewall back a foot or so and turn it into a two-seater...just no way to actually do it.


oh, and reiRei-:thumbsup:

[reiRei]

Just a small photo-less update for Wilma (I'll likely post up some photos in the next week or so)

- Some new parts have arrived:
- C4 Bell housing
- New Carpets and Floor Mats

We are currently working on rebuilding the rear diff that we had pulled out of the Mustang 2, it was pretty rusty so we cleaned up what we could of it and are painting it black, When we took the diff apart, it looked pretty clean so no worries there :)

The thunderbird is still sitting on the driveway ready to be parted out, hopefully when the weather clears up, we'll be taking the engine out of it and it will hopefully be a viable transplant for the Pinto.

Looking forward to this summer, I'm planning on insuring the car for a few months and running around town with it, should definitely be a fun little cruiser :D

[reiRei]

So with the nice weather and the extra long weekend, we took the opportunity to do a few little projects on Wilma.

We decided to remove the 13" studded winters and mount the Cragars on, the tires were still so new that they had the extra rubber from the molding process on the tires.

However, in the process of swapping tires, we found out that one of the brake rotors had a nice gouge in it, likely from a rock being stuck in the brake pad for a long time.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8946_resize.png

We also surveyed the suspension, and it looks like we will need new struts, shocks and of course new pads and rotors for the brakes.

That said, the rims look pretty awesome on the car, they're almost nicer than the ones I have on my lancer.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8964_resize.png

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8967_resize.png
Having the car underneath a car cover does not help it stay clean, the car is dusty as hell, I'll be detailing it over the next week or so.

We then proceeded to put in a "new to us" FM radio in the Pinto. This would allow us to put in a CD changer as well. The goal will be to keep the install as "stealth" as possible, so everything looks era-correct.

AM Radio on top of Dash, new FM radio in dash
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8995_resized.png


FM Radio in dash.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8991_resized.png

Then we took on the carpet, we found only 1 rust hole which was very lucky, we didn't bother cutting it out and welding a new piece of sheet metal in it as it has not rusted through, but it will likely be on the menu for a project later on down the line.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8958_resize.png

With all the seats out, you can now see how sunburnt the carpet was.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8972_resize.png

We also managed to find the build sheet for the car underneath the passenger seat.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8961_resize.png

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8975_resize.png
Carpet comes out, and all the padding and metal underneath looked pretty minty

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8981_resize.png
New carpet in, looks awesome!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8987_resize.png
New carpet and Steering Wheel


We've been having problems with the Carbed engine in the car, so my husband did a few tests on it and figured that the engine was pretty much running on it's last few legs. We've got a carb kit on order to see if it helps, but with a few vacuum leaks and poor compression, the Turbo Engine may go in sooner than later.

Next we'll be installing the CD changer and updating the single speaker in the dash as well as a few more maintenance type things, and then we'll go from there!

[sr20s14zenki]

:thumbsup:


get that 2.3 in there

:D

[ianmcc]

Looks great-mnow to add some power to the mix!!!
If you are interested I have a complete SDS standalone system for the 2.3 Lima listed in the Marketplace.

[KRyn]

Awesome project, hopefully you get that engine swapped ASAP!

[Canadaslowest]

Who did you get the carpet from? I need carpet for my pinto.

[Chantastic]

Is Betty the Lancer? great project!

'the more I find out that many people have a connection with the Pinto, and I can't help but enjoy seeing the smiles on people's faces when they see the car and have a fond memory of a first car, or a parents car.. and that really cements the project for me'

I have had this same experience with my '92 240SX. Though it isn't nearly the same age as Wilma, I've had several people approach me and tell me tales of when they used to have the same car, some even told me about the end of the line.

One older gentlemen said his brother had a 240 and they went ripping around a blind corner that they knew very well... except this time there was a team of firemen there trying to stop a fire hydrant that had exploded. The water pressure was enough to force the car right off the road. Total write-off. The firemen backed his brother up though when he told insurance what had happened

Keep this project going (and away from exploding fire hydrants)! :thumbsup:

[reiRei]

Originally posted by Canadaslowest
Who did you get the carpet from? I need carpet for my pinto.

Just saw this post, we ordered it from here: http://www.accmats.com/

I also got the hatch carpet as my 2nd wedding anniversary gift (lucky husband has an easy wife to buy for :D), but the fittiment was off, so that's going back


Originally posted by Chantastic
Is Betty the Lancer? great project!

'the more I find out that many people have a connection with the Pinto, and I can't help but enjoy seeing the smiles on people's faces when they see the car and have a fond memory of a first car, or a parents car.. and that really cements the project for me'

I have had this same experience with my '92 240SX. Though it isn't nearly the same age as Wilma, I've had several people approach me and tell me tales of when they used to have the same car, some even told me about the end of the line.

One older gentlemen said his brother had a 240 and they went ripping around a blind corner that they knew very well... except this time there was a team of firemen there trying to stop a fire hydrant that had exploded. The water pressure was enough to force the car right off the road. Total write-off. The firemen backed his brother up though when he told insurance what had happened

Keep this project going (and away from exploding fire hydrants)! :thumbsup:

Betty is my lancer, she's black while Wilma is orange (kind of funny how that ended up happening)

We've taken Wilma to a few shows this year and people come up to me and share their Pinto stories, they still bring a smile to my face.. I've been tempted to set out a little book for everyone to share their memories, I think it's neat how a car can remind someone of a good time

A small update on the car:

- We updated the audio in the car by replacing the single 5x7 speaker with two small 2 inch speakers, sounds worlds better than it did before (no pictures because we did it randomly one night lol)

- We found a Merkur XR4Ti at PnP locally which was already set up for the Automatic transmission that the Pinto had, so we now have that engine sitting in the shop and that may go in the car vs. the engine from the turbocoupe. (We currently have 3 2.3L turbo engines floating around the house now...)

- Ordered all the parts the rebuild the suspension on the car, as well as pulled another rear diff from a Mustang 2

.. more progress to come!

[Sentry]

What computer and injectors are in the turbocoupe, and how much? :D

[reiRei]

Originally posted by Sentry
What computer and injectors are in the turbocoupe, and how much? :D

Don't think we're selling anything off of the turbocoupe quite yet... my husband is also working on a 2.3 Turbo Mustang as well (hence the silly amount of 2.3 turbo engines in the house), we'll likely part out the turbocoupe after his project is done though

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Looking good so far! I can't wait to see the 2.3T go in!

[WhippWhapp]

I like it, now someone needs to do a Gremlin.

[reiRei]

It's spring time, so it's time for an update on the Pinto!

Started doing Autocross with the Pinto: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151609444426335&l=3618279029185656539

She is very slow with her 88hp, and my inexperience with driving a RWD car. That said, I'm getting better at it.. and have not yet hit any cones in my runs.

As far as updates to engine and the car:

- We swapped out the stock 30 year old pulley on the car with a lighter and smaller pulley, we'll see if we can gain anything from that at AutoX. The old pulley was quite the b*tch to remove, we had to remove the radiator to gain access to it, 30 year old coolant is quite disgusting (so is a 30 year old rad).

- Swapped out the rusty shocks in the car for fancy new shocks, she definitely handles better in the corners.

Upcoming:

- Swapping out the slider cam in the car for a Rocker cam out of a Ford Ranger

That's it for now, hopefully I can remember to take photos next time we work on the car!

[gretz]

Originally posted by gretz
When you figure out a name for it, i'll do you up a couple emblems if you'd like (donation for a fun / different project)... I need to see progress though lol...

I'm a man of my word... car is being driven, let me know if you want anything...

[reiRei]

Originally posted by gretz


I'm a man of my word... car is being driven, let me know if you want anything...

Can do! I'm not sure what I want, what can you make me? :D

[gretz]

I'll do billet aluminum custom emblems... What they are/say is up to you

[reiRei]

Originally posted by gretz
I'll do billet aluminum custom emblems... What they are/say is up to you

Awesome! I'll send you a PM when I think of something :D

Originally posted by reiRei


However, in the process of swapping tires, we found out that one of the brake rotors had a nice gouge in it, likely from a rock being stuck in the brake pad for a long time.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/DSC_8946_resize.png



If you recall those brakes, and how lovely they were... we've now upgraded the brakes to these!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/20130601_124823.jpg

and the benefits really showed at AutoX this week:

9MtxnuIkZpE

[reiRei]

wow! looks like I have not updated this thread in forever :(

Life took a bit of a turn for the unexpected in the past couple of years, ended a long term relationship so it was time to pick up the pieces.

Picked up the car from the ex's place over the weekend and am putting the car into storage for a while until I can get a garage to work on her again.

I'm on the fence as to what exactly I'm going to do, the car is in fantastic classic car condition so I may maintain it and keep it original for a while, or go nuts and acquire a ford ecoboost engine out of a Focus and make it a pretty neat sleeper.. but until that point, she sleeps in a seacan.

Managed to get a picture of her next to her new little sister - a 2016 Fiesta ST:

http://i.imgur.com/wOTvuA0.jpg


Updates when I get her out of storage and decide what to do next.

[ExtraSlow]

This is cool, you are cool. Best wishes bro.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

You make me want to pull mine out of storage. Too bad the vinyl roof is a wreck.

[revelations]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
This is cool, you are cool. Best wishes bro.

Shes not a bro .... lol

[ExtraSlow]

is she a dawg?

[reiRei]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
is she a dawg?


Well, most days I'm human.. of course, that is if I have caffeine in my system. If I don't, I'm not sure what I am..

[ExtraSlow]

I use all the bro/dawg/dude words pretty interchangeably for all genders/identities/orientations.

Anyway, cool car, you are cool, sorry to hear your life has been turbulent, best wishes.