I’ve owned a lot of cars. The total is up to a slightly embarrassing forty two. Most of them are of the low end variety with little chance of losing too much money even with the worse case scenario. That said when I shop for cars I tend to view them with heavily rose tinted glasses that see potential rather than pitfall. For better or worse here is one of the rare cases when I passed on a car.
I’d seen this Ford Pinto a few years ago in a back alley. It had obviously seen better days but featured a nice period color and overall it had an appealing mini muscle car vibe. Or maybe a budget race car vibe if you squint hard enough. I made a casual mental note of it as something I wouldn’t mind having and left content with just my photograph. Fast forward a few years and I came across an ad for a Ford Pinto of unknown year and condition with an asking price of just $250. I emailed the seller who had inherited ownership of the car when he moved into the house. He wasn’t a car guy and wanted it gone but to his credit he didn’t merely call the scrapyard to have it towed away. He gave me the address and said I could poke around as much as I wanted.
Peeking at the VIN I quickly discovered it was a 1978 model with the 2.8L V6. The Cologne V6 has a sixty degree angle between the cylinder banks would have produced 102hp and more importantly 138lb-ft of torque when new. It had obviously been sitting a while with some cobwebs here and there. More worryingly there were random parts missing like spark plug wires and air filter housing. Obviously I couldn’t count on the engine being a runner but I reasoned that a Ranger 2.9L or 4.0L V6 could be reasonably close to bolt in with a nice increase in horsepower as a bonus. Even retaining the automatic gearbox a 4.0L V6 powered Pinto would be a hoot and handle much better than a nose heavy V8 swapped example.
If the engine condition was worrying then the interior could only be described as alarming. The list of missing components started to add up; steering wheel, keys, front seats, door cards and radio. On the plus side the grill was where the passenger seat should have been but sadly it was cracked in half. My optimistic nature reasoned that I could glue the grill back together as well as find a set of second hand bucket seats to bolt in and fabricate some flat door cards. A closer look turned up a jammed hand brake and broken transmission shifter.
The rear portion of the interior was full of all sorts of treasures. The missing 15″ alloy wheel was back there bringing the car to a full set. The drive-shaft had been removed, probably for towing, and looked in good shape. The back seat appeared to be complete but disassembled. Although the photos don’t show it well but quite a few of the interior panels had been painted either a light or dark metallic purple color. While my optimistic side was starting to feel a little backed into a corner it desperately tried to make a case for an auto-x car. It was partially gutted already!
The body and chrome was in remarkably good shape with only a few rust bubbles at the rear. This Pinto badge complete with tail was almost worth the price of admission by itself.
Around the back the rear bumper was missing as well. I was starting to get an inkling that someone had used it as their parts car at some point. My photo from a few years ago confirmed that this Pinto had at least lost its seats recently. As I was mentally creating a replacement parts list then adding it up I finally figured this car would be too expensive to resuscitate. Reluctantly I decided to walk away but it haunted me. I wanted to save it. An email a few days later from the frustrated seller stated he was tired of time wasters and would take the first $150 for the car. Would a hundred bucks change my mind? It was down at scrap value so I went back to take a second look. This time I even took along my spare Mercedes-Benz 220D rear bumper to test my theory that it could be adapted. Surprisingly it would have fit beautifully with some work on rear brackets. Still my internal optimist was drowning from the flood of components needed to get this Pinto drivable again; keys, steering wheel, shifter, hand brake lever, seats, tires and that is even with the best case scenario of the motor being fine. While I could have parted out the car for a tidy profit it would have been sad to cut up such a solid shell so I walked away with my $150 still in my pocket. My wife sighed in relief that another junker wasn’t coming home … this time.
My cousin bought one as a new car. Hers was a Ford family. The V6 Pinto would reliably stall in intersections, leaving her helpless. I believe the engine had to be REMOVED to tune it up.
It was an auto and got 18 mpg, maybe. Super slow too. She never bought another Ford again. She then bought a new 1982 Cavalier.
She never bought another Chevrolet again.
I suspect that if you slid the hand brake’s grip down the lever a couple of inches, you would have been able to press in the release button and put the lever down.
Cheap titleless cars always get my mind ticking. But this one would have been a little bit of a head scratcher.
2500lbs, plus it has aluminum rims… at $150, to simply tow it to the junkyard (around here / at this time of year) would be a break-even proposition. I probably would have passed unless there was something there I needed – but then, I’m not up on what Ford parts are/aren’t valuable.
Is there much demand for Pinto parts? For all I know it could be a gold mine (doubt it).
We don’t have titles here in Alberta and this one still had active registration so wouldn’t have been a problem in that sense to get back on the road. Scrap for vehicles are only $50-100 here so I would have been out a bit in the worse case scenario. Probably the front suspension plus rack and pinion steering would have been the most valuable bits as it as very similar to the Mustang II hot rodders use.
With that nice clean body it would make a nice mini-stock racecar. The 2.8 would have to be replaced by a Lima 2.3 tho.
I was thinking the same thing about putting in the Ranger V6. The design on these Pintos, which I felt was inferior to the Vega when new, has aged better in my book. Recognizable at a glance, a nice hood and roof line and the stance has always been rather good. I can tell you have regrets about this one David, it seems to be haunting you!
Somebody dropped the turbo four from the tbird into one of these a few years ago. Buzzy to say the least but a real surprise when he dropped the hammer.
I have always looked at body, interior, mechanicals. Two out of three really ought to be in good condition for me to proceed. One out of three makes for a dicey proposition. Here, you had zero out of three. I think you made the right call. Even in a best-case scenario, you would have ended up with – - – - a Pinto. I would have needed more of a payoff at the end to take the risk.
I fully concur. The drivetrain and interior are too far gone IMO.
Even when new, the Pinto had a weak interior.
Always found their dashboards looked especially cheap,
even when compared to the Vega/Monza/Chevette.
The seating position in the Pinto and Maverick left much to be desired.
Yeah, you remind me of something a guy who had a V-8 Vega said to me: “It’s still just a Vega.” As I am not a Ford Guy at all, I didn’t even know that you could get a Pinto from the factory with a V-6. Seem like it would be a bit front heavy, and also it would still just be a Pinto. Glad to hear Mr. Saunders dodged this particular bullet.
IINM, the V6 was introduced in Pintos for ’75 (a year after it had made its debut in a U.S.-built car in the Mustang II, and the same year V6s began to appear in some of the GM H-bodies) and dropped midway through the ’79 model year (when Ford experienced a supply problem getting the 2.8s from Europe; the Fox Mustang switched from the 2.8 to the 200 CID inline six at that time). I don’t think V6 Pintos were ever produced in very large numbers.
What were you smoking to have even considered this dog?
A sleeper…
42, huh? Got you beat by one. I did not even realize that the Pinto was available with a 6…
Probably the right decision to walk away from this one.There’s a lot of work to make it run and look OK
As a friend of mine told me many years ago, the amount of work you have to put into a $100 car is more than you’d have to put into a $1000 car to make it roadworthy. Sure, $100 is tempting, but about $1500 later and countless numbers of labor hours, you will regret your purchase.
Good decision to walk.
Very solid and likely true advice. Maybe one of these days I’ll actually use it!
In a way it reminds me of the 53 Studebaker Commander hardtop I bought for $100 off the back row of a car lot in Tacoma in 1961. It had the engine and transmission out and the engine apart with parts everywhere in the car, mostly in the trunk but a lot in the back seat. But that car had a decent body and interior, and I had an ace in the hole, which was a complete 51 Stude Land Cruiser that had been in a minor wreck but had a good V8 engine and automatic transmission and was available for $150.
102 bhp!. The euro version got 140!. ouch. This is the same hp as the cologne 23.3 v6.
I wonder if you could fit an EcoBoost into one of those…