I had a 72 wagon, a bare bones 2.0 4 speed. I'd love to have it now. Drove it every workday from Gaithersburg Md. to Arlington Va. for years. Bought it to fix up, lower, Minilites, some engine mods. Never got around to it. Sold it and bought a 78 Fiesta S.
My high school girlfriend drove a '74-ish Pinto wagon in a weird pale light green, with a green interior. 4 cylinder with a 4-speed manual transmission. Her parents got her a base Starlet with a manual trans when we graduated in 1982.
I think the wagon is pretty cool. Get one!
RossD wrote: I thought they were basically a Mustang II? How bad could it be?
Horrible
I get it as well. My grandfather had a Pinto wagon as his "golf car" for going to the country club. It was brown. And a 4 spd. Honestly, I don't think I spent much time in it, but I still remember it.
If you need someone to... you know... take that Miata off your hands to make room... 
In reply to Ian F:
I don't think the Miata would cover it.
When I was growing up, my next-door neighbors had a Pinto wagon panel van with a porthole window in the side.
EDIT after some searching, it was the "Cruising Wagon". I don't remember if theirs had the stripes. It was silver.
Girlfriend in '73 or thereabouts had a new hatchback with automatic. We drove it to the NC mountains. It didn't take much of a grade to cause the transmission to hunt for gearing. I didn't enjoy the car a bit.
I can enjoy any street car capable of 8 second quarter miles.
I read somewhere that the post office kept track of cumulative dollars per mile of all their vehicles and the Pinto is still the record holder for cheapest car to drive.
I wonder how hard it is to fit a 351 in a Pinto?
G_Body_Man wrote: I wonder how hard it is to fit a 351 in a Pinto?
From Hot Rod Magazine, May 1988:
“The ’74-’80 Pinto is a close relative to the Mustang II, so the stock parts used to install a V8 in the latter car will work. Required are V8 Mustang II Motor insulators, brackets, oil pan, oil pump pickup, and accessory mounting brackets.First position the engine, then drill the required mounting holes. Nevertheless, it’s still a tight fit. The typical protruding lip at the firewall-to-floorpan intersection point may need to be laid back or trimmed.
Finally, OEM Mustang II V8s used a special reduced-diameter C4 torque converter housing, with corresponding downsized 148-tooth flexplate, block plate, dust cover, and torque converter; these can still be installed on “normal” C4s if the existing housing still hits. Manual trannies used behind Mustang V8s were weak downsized boxes not suited to performance use. If you’re installing a heavy duty manual trans or C6 automatic, the firewall and floorpan require modification.
D6ZZ-6028-A: BRACKET, Front Support, RH
D6ZZ-6029-B: BRACKET, Front Support, LH
D7ZZ-6038-A: INSULATOR, Front Support, RH
D7ZZ-6038-B: INSULATOR, Front Support, LH
D5ZZ-6375-A: FLYWHEEL ASSY.
D5ZZ-6622-A: SCREEN, TUBE & COVER ASSY., Oil Pump
D5ZZ-6675-A: PAN ASSY., Oil
D5ZZ-7007-A: PLATE ASSY., Engine Rear
C5DZ-7986-B:COVER, Converter
302: Hollander Interchange No. – Mustang II Converter (D7ZZ-7902-A No longer stocked by Ford)
695: Hollander Interchange No. – Mustang II Converter Housing (D7ZZ-7902-A No longer stocked by Ford)”
mndsm wrote:patgizz wrote: are you guys getting cabin fever already? it's only december. what will you be into in february when the real madness sets in?Someone's gonna attempt to dd a biturbo again.
There's a $1200 biturbo within about a block of where I used to live. No pictures, but I can see it in my mind's eye even now.
It needs interior work and has "some rust," which is Kijiji for "some metal."
I have always had a soft spot in my head for these little cars. 74 Mustang that I drove for 230,000 miles, Cobra that never ran faithfully and my favorite was the evolving Pinto! Began life as a street car until it developed a water leak so it was a yard car until we finally blew up the engine. We had a spare 292 Y block so we just stuffed it in and crushed the front suspension. Well at 17 years of age we found a straight axle from a 58 Ford truck that kinda worked...had to use the rear end too with everything held together with a bunch of welded oil field scrap metal.
Did not even have to cut the body as the tires were way outside the wheel wells. Only the front brakes worked, windows and hatch were long gone as we installed a hoist in the back to lift engines, wood and heavy stuff for hauling. Brother tried to jump over a pond and it took 2 days to pull it out (durn near made it though).
Finally dropped it in a wash while backing over brush with the 1/2 in plate blade welded to the 10 inch pipe bumper on the rear. First big rain and it washed about 150 feet away and after the next big rain it was gone! Kinda think the State removed it before it got downtown near the park.
Currently I have a 2.3 turbo from a Thunderbird and a dream!
Bruce
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