C'mon, we all need a Pinto, right?

DBMaster said:
When I was in high school we used to call the Mustang II the "Pinto Plus." The two cars shared a platform. Someone in my school did put a 302 in one. Great sleeper.
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Mustang II was really a better chassis than the FOX platform that came later. Those fox body's handled terrible. Drag strip straight line ONLY.
Even The original mustang was based on the lowly ford Falcon econobox. So they all have a history of being tarted up pedestrian cars.
 
ARCOgraphite said:
Mustang II was really a better chassis than the FOX platform that came later. Those fox body's handled terrible. Drag strip straight line ONLY.
Even The original mustang was based on the lowly ford Falcon econobox. So they all have a history of being tarted up pedestrian cars.
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I forgot about the Falcon connection. One of my coworkers drives a 64 Falcon and it does have a lot of mechanical similarities to the original Mustang. A friend of mine had a family hand-me-down 76 Pinto as his first car and my ex-wife had a 1980 model when we were dating. They weren't actually that bad.
 
DBMaster said:
I forgot about the Falcon connection. One of my coworkers drives a 64 Falcon and it does have a lot of mechanical similarities to the original Mustang.
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the first gen falcon had a very long life in south america, production ended in 1991


Ford-ARG-Falcon-blue.png
 
I bought a new one in 71 as a second car. Served its purpose with no problems whatsoever.
 
DBMaster said:
When I was in high school we used to call the Mustang II the "Pinto Plus." The two cars shared a platform. Someone in my school did put a 302 in one. Great sleeper.
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Good thing. Cobra models had a weak 302 and not even based off the 289 as I remember.
 
wpod said:
My mom had a 1968 or 69 Pinto she kept is the a long time it was a very reliable car. I as a teen drove it often. It was faster than a Vega.
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Maybe '78 or '79 but they didn't start production on the Pinto until '70 for the '71 model year. In '68, '69 the Falcon was the bottom of the barrel Ford. I think they made a few new body style Falcons in '70 that got phased out and replaced by the Maverick. Best I remember the Maverick went by the wayside in the later '70's and the Escort came on the scene in '80. The Escort stayed around till I think '03 and was replaced by the Focus.
 
My friends Mom had a Mercury Bobcat, seemed like a nice car (it was fairly new) to 14 yr old me.
A few years later I had a bright orange Mustang II with a 302. Headers, intake, Holley carb, and parallel duel exhaust with blue bottles. I had blond hair to my shoulders and actually got noticed by girls in that car. No looks whatsoever now with my short gray hair and driving the Buick 😄
 
No one has noticed the Wagoneer behind the Pinto....much more desirable!!

I used to ride to school in a burnt brown Pinto in Elementary school. That was enough for me, not that I recall much about it.
 
My friend had a Mercury Bobcat clone back in High School. We called it the Flintstonemobile as the floor had multiple large rust holes where you could see the asphalt below.
 
Pintos must have ended up in the junkyard fast due to rust. It is one old car I’ve only seen once or twice growing up.
 
manicrodder said:
Good thing. Cobra models had a weak 302 and not even based off the 289 as I remember.
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I had a '76 Cobra II with the 302. Yes, it was based off of the 289, but the stock 289 had much more horsepower than the '76 302. When I was done with mine, it had forged Boss 302 internals and forged TRW pistons. ( I was fresh out of automotive tech school and had nothing better to do) But in reality, you were driving a Pinto dolled up to make it look like a Mustang. The big compromise with this car was trying to get speed parts in a Pinto. I had the headers modified twice to get them to fit. The dual exhaust was a compromise because both mufflers had to sit on the passenger side because of the gas tank location. The engine oil pan sits really tight next to the engine and had no room for a windage tray. The C4 tranny uses a small diameter torque converter and bell housing that was used in the V8 Mustang II cars only. Also, I'm 6'5" and just driving the car was interesting.
The only redeeming value to that car was that it was a chick magnet. You can't believe how many gullible women wanted to get into the car just because Farrah Fawcett drove the same car on the "Charlie's Angels" TV set. You gotta remember this was 40+ years ago and I was an invincible teenager.
 
Kruse said:
I had a '76 Cobra II with the 302. Yes, it was based off of the 289 but the stock 289 had much more horsepower than the '76 302. When I was done with mine, it had forged Boss 302 internals and forged TRW pistons. ( I was fresh out of automotive tech school and had nothing better to do) But in reality, you were driving a Pinto dolled up to make it look like a Mustang. The big compromise with this car was trying to get speed parts in a Pinto. I had the headers modified twice to get them to fit. The dual exhaust was a compromise because both mufflers had to sit on the passenger side because of the gas tank location. The engine oil pan sits really tight next to the engine and had no room for a windage tray. The C4 tranny uses a small diameter torque converter and bell housing that was used in the V8 Mustang II cars only. Also, I'm 6'5" and just driving the car was interesting.
The only redeeming value to that car was that it was a chick magnet. You can't believe how many gullible women wanted to get into the car just because Farrah Fawcett drove the same car on the "Charlie's Angels" TV set. You gotta remember this was 40+ years ago and I was an invincible teenager.
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Sounds pretty hot. Always liked their looks at least the Cobra. The 289/302 is responsive to mods and many saw their taillights.
 
That is actually in really good shape for a junkyard find. Glass and trim intact, and seems to have very little rust.
Would make a great project!
 
I would rather fix up that Jeep Wagoneer parked behind it. On a positive note the body looks good on the car and I picture it with a late model 5.0 V8 with an automatic transmission and a heavy rear end. It would probably run a low 13 second ET at the dragstrip and be a blast to drive. I don't have the patience for all that work but some people do. I would definitely repaint it a different color. When I look at cars like that I see nothing but a headache waiting to happen but some mechanics have the fortitude to tackle it and I commend those type of builders. It's not for the weak at heart that's for sure.
 
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