(first posted 7/15/2013) I attend, on average, better than 75 car shows and cruise-ins during the summer months. Why? In hopes of finding something different and cool. No, I do not attend to see street rods, 1965 Mustangs, 1969 Camaros and several dozen 2010-13 Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers (come on guys, bring an old car for crying out loud!). Cars like these Pinto wagons are what I love to find.
The Pinto was late to the Big Three subcompact party, but made up for it by undercutting the Vega in base price. Initially available only as a two door sedan with a standard 1.6L inline four, a hatchback (“Runabout” in Ford-speak) model debuted mid-year at the Chicago auto show. Very early ones had the deeper lid and smaller rear window of the sedan, but with chromed hinges and five vertical trim pieces on the lid to differentiate it. Later on the whole lid was redesigned with a much larger backlight, as seen above.
image: chicagoautoshow.com
But we’re here to talk about the wagon, aren’t we? The wagon also first appeared at the Chicago show, in February of ’72. It came standard with the 2.0L four and front disc brakes–optional on sedans and Runabouts. It offered 60.5 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seat folded.
Though you could get your Pinto wagon in plain-Jane form, Ford had a much more luxurious version if you wanted it–the Squire. Much like the gunboat LTD-based Country Squire, the Pinto version boasted Di-Noc wood paneling, bordered by fiberglass moldings simulating birch framing.
When all the boxes were checked, the interior could be just as plush as the exterior, with high-back bucket seats with vinyl bolsters and houndstooth cloth inserts. Of course, an AM/FM stereo, air conditioning and other fancy options could be had.
I photographed the light blue ’73 Squire nearly a year ago at the excellent Maple City Cruise Night in Monmouth, IL. It was the first Squire I had seen in decades, and it looked like it had just time-warped in from 1975. I neglected to post it on CC for whatever reason, but when I spotted this green ’74 at the Railroad Days car show in Galesburg, I knew the time had come for some Di-Noc Pinto recognition!
I struck up a conversation with the ’74’s owner, telling him how cool I thought it was and how I had seen a similar one the previous year. “Was it blue?” he asked. When I answered in the affirmative, he told me he owned that car too, and proceeded to pull out a photo book with pictures of both cars, along with a couple of Pinto sedans and hatchbacks he owned.
I can’t recall the owners name, but I have to thank him for preserving these cars, and keeping the Corvette/Mustang ratio down a bit at the local shows! The Pinto’s presumed flammability notwithstanding (much like the Audi 5000 debacle, in my opinion), I like these cars. Indeed, I would also love to find a Vega Estate at a car show sometime! The 2013 Maple City Cruise Night is only a month away. Who knows…
Not cars I;ll ever see here the few pintos in the country are never seen. Sort of like a US Cortina with lots of crap glued to it fake wood never took off here it was more likely to fall off than regular trim and when Toyota tried it on their Crown wagons the cars disolved under it so Ford putting fake wood all over their cars wouldnt have won fans
Actually, we got Falcon Squire wagons (the Oz built ones) and Mk I Cortina wagons new here with the fake wood exterior. Stuff all left – although there was a nice Falc on tradme recently and a rotten Cortina one last year. I think the mid-80s Toyota Cressida/Crown wagon and the Nissan Cedric/Gloria wagon still had the Di Noc tailgate too.
very nice
I figured I was wrong (what else is new?), but I never imagined the clue was a Pinto wagon! I had completely forgotten about these with the wood grain sides.
Rather nice looking in retrospect, I’d say.
We bought a new 74 Pinto Squire wagon. Ordered it with radial tires, AM radio. It had the 2.0 L engine with a 4 speed trans. We logged 100K miles on it. Good little family car for our 2 small children. Traded it for a 1982 Ford Fairmont Futura .
In her early teen years, my younger sister insisted that a properly lived life would include a big dog and a Pinto Wagon. She never got that Pinto wagon, but has a Jetta Wagon and a Jeep Liberty now (and has had a few dogs, too).
I will confess a minor infatuation with the Pinto wagon as well. I prefer the 72-73 version with a stick. And the wood paneling, of course. I knew someone with a 72 or 73 runabout in that same green. Boy do I remember that Ford yellow-green interior color. It was never a favorite of mine.
Looking at these reminds me of how Ford hit this market much better with the Pinto than it did with the Maverick. The Pinto’s dash had a proper 70s-style up-market look in the nice version, something the Maverick could never say. Plus, Ford figured out how to put a glove box in from the start.
Fabulous finds, Tom! And I agree with you – finding something like this among all of the modded Camaros, Mustangs and Corvettes is like finding the little plastic toy inside the huge box of cereal. Cars like this are what keep me going to the occasional show.
I, too, have a thing for the Pinto wagon. I know of one one moldering in a driveway here in town…
I never saw a Pinto woody before,what a cutie!Wallpaper woodys never really caught on in the UK although my Art teacher had a Mk1 Cortina woody.As Bryce said the fake wood was a rust trap and I remember he got boys in metalwork to patch it up til there was nothing left to patch to.I like to find unusual cars at shows too,thanks Tom another great read and photos
Worth good coin now a MK1 Woody Cortina but try finding one they all evaporated.
I would SO drive that green ’74.
There are times I wish somebody would do a “Low Buck” vintage car show/cruise in. Very strict rules for getting your car in the venue:
1. No V-8’s under any conditions.
2. No top of the line models.
3. 25 year old minimum age (no exceptions!!!).
4. Extra points for rubber floor mats, three on the tree, plain vinyl seats and lack of armrests.
5. Absolutely no muscle cars. Pony cars allowed only if they’re the six cylinder “secretary’s specials” with hub caps. No alloy wheels.
I feel we need to have at least one show a year like this, if only to show those too young to remember these cars when new that Detroit did build stuff that wouldn’t fit on the set of “American Graffiti”. Just one show a year that is dedicated to what all these boomers actually drove when they were teenagers, not the cars they’d like you to believe that they had.
Regarding the Pinto: Despite the permanent reputation as a car bomb, back in the day the Pinto was reasonably well thought of (says something about the level of the competition), at least a definite improvement over the Beetle in everything but assembly quality. For someone who wanted to do B-sedan autocross on a shoestring, they were the prime answer. Get the 2.0 liter engine and four speed, swap out shocks and tyres, add swaybars, and you’d have a car that could have a BMW 2002 owner seriously wondering (during the runs, anyway) if he hadn’t been a bit foolish in his spending.
Count me in…in five years, when my stripper ’93 f-150 XL will qualify under rule 3 (three), as posted above.
As I’ve probably posted before, it’s fun to alternate my driving duties between a fully loaded sedan full of technology and a simple, bare-bones truck. Keeps me honest, as I like to say.
I agree 100%.
My first two cars were both bombs. A light green 1952 Chevy Deluxe and a black body/white top 1961 Chevy Bel-Air. Both were two-door sedans, and as it turns out, the ’61 was and is a rare model.
As far as rubber flooring goes, I hope the 1961 Bel-Air would count – it had rubber flooring, BUT believe-it-or-not, the hump in front and rear was CARPETED!
The interiors of both cars was gray, FWIW.
Zackman – my stripper ’61 Pontiac Catalina was the same way; matching color rubber bolsters, carpeted inserts except the ‘hump’ was the colored rubber . . .
I don’t know about the no-V8’s and no top trim levels thing. A muscle car can be interesting too, as long as its not a restored to the hit trailer queen in resale red, I would like to see more suvivor muscle cars, and 1966 GTO that looks like it did in 1977 would be interesting too.
I’d agree to Zack’s stipulations.
Why? Because SBCs, OEM or converted, are everywhere. Likewise the Ford/Chryco equivalents. Same old same-olds….ho-hum.
Do a show with the WORKADAY cars; the cars nobody appreciated in their time but that are now gone from the planet for the most part. Like a Beauty Drudge contest.
Workaday cars had V8’s too ya know?
A clean little old lady Biscayne with a 283 wouldn’t be interesting?
A Joe Friday Fairlane sedan with the 289?
A clean 74 Imperial?
All those are un-common and interesting, and they all have V8’s.
Or a first-year Fairlane 221, or a ’63 Tempest 326, etc…
Yeah…but at some point they have to be narrowed down.
You start including Biscayne V8s…next you know, Impalas…then Camaro SBCs…and then NEW Camaros…retro theme, dontcha know. Then the HHR starts showing up…and the show is a waste of time.
Credit Syke with those stipulations, not me, I just agreed with him!
My first two cars were six-cylinders, a 216 & 235.
My buddy up the street’s dad, however, bought a car for the kids to share: a 1965 Chevy Biscayne two-door sedan with a 283 and Powerglide. One wickedly fast heap – and loads of fun, too!
I fully recognize the 283 Biscayne, etc. as being in the same family as a slant six Valiant, etc. My stipulations against V-8’s is due to supercar creep. Start with a bare bones Biscayne two-door with a 409, four speed, rubber floor mats, and dog dish hubcaps. Next show, based on that being allowed in, comes a ’64 389 GTO. By the third show, it’s muscle car mania, and by the fourth show, all the strippers have been forced out by sheer weight of numbers.
Yeah, some of my categories are arbitrary and somewhat unfair (Zackman, I remember the rubber floor mats and carpeted tunnel – that would pass in my system), but their nasty just to keep the show from turning into yet another cruise night.
Did I ever mention how much I hate “American Graffiti” for what it’s done to the vintage car hobby?
Your rule would also ban all of the 62-64 stipper Savoys, Belvederes that have had 413s stuffed into them like the drag racers back in the day. For which I would be thankful. Try to find a plain stock vanilla 62-64 Plymouth or Dodge at a show – good luck.
My old ’77 Chevelle still wears the fading Chevy Blue paint applied back when Carter was still president, and still breathes through the stock 2bbl carb, and wears its faded out original metallic green paint, and the original full wheelcovers.
I’ve entered it into shows not expecting to win anything and it’ll almost always come away with a trophy over meticulously restored cars in its class. Lots of people check it over carefully since not many 73-77 cars attend shows, and its about the only four door that people see.
Course I entered my stock as stock can be ’95 Explorer once as a joke and won first place in its class out of 4 other ’90s trucks.
Those are well-run car shows.
None of my 12 cars are restored. All are clean and daily driveable, but with 35 plus years of wear and tear. I like your attitude. I’m the same way. And you have to remember that those 70’s cars are ALL I have. Nothing newer. They are my go to work daily drivers. I even drive ’em on Vacation’s.
I would generally agree. Detroit sold an awful lot of V-8 cars that were not muscle cars by any stretch of the imagination, and if I were organizing the sort of car show I’d like to attend, I wouldn’t want to exclude folks like the person around here who has an early Chevy Caprice with a factory original L72 427 and four-speed. (It’s not a rod or an engine swap, it was a special order that probably caused the original dealer a lot of head-scratching.)
What I would specify instead is that the car must have its original engine or a replacement engine of the exact same type and tune (e.g., if it came with a 283-2V, the current engine also needs to be a 283-2V).
Or even the seldom seen 260 V8 Mustang?
yes, exactly, your telling me you wouldn’t want something like a clean 72 Grand Safari clamshell wagon or a nice Ambassador sedan or even an elusive Citation X11 at “your” car show because it has a V8 or a top trim series or alloy wheels?
I like the idea of the low buck car show, especially here in the midwest. I’d maybe modify it to just “No Mustangs, Corvettes, F-Body’s, Mopar Muscle Cars, or Street Rods”. Those cars are 99% of most shows.
Hell, how about an exception specifically only allowing Mustang II’s, no “real” Stangs…
a friend of mine has a 64 1/2 Mustang with the 260, 3 speed manual. I need to borrow it sometime and take it to shows. He’s nearly 80 and doesn’t like to drive it as much anymore.
According to Syke’s criteria, even these Pinto wagons should be excluded since they’re top of the line Squire models.
Yes, it would be a shame to exclude from the show a survivor Studebaker Lark just because someone got the 259 V8. This rule would also exclude 98% of C body Mopars, which would be a sad, sad thing. 🙂
I restored a 59 Vw beetle for a friend and installed a 72 1200 engine to try keeping it stock The original engine was there but VW parts are horrendously expensive and a rebuild was out of herv price range.
Actually, American Graffiti has some pretty mundane/average and unusual cars too, the slightly customized 58 Impala is not that standard tri-5 go to car, Ron Howards girlfriends Edsel Pacer sedan, the Beetle convertible, Richard Dreyfuses 2CV?
25 years old. No V8s. No high trim level.
1988 Lesabre Custom is good to go!
I take my old hillman to car shows well one so far and its the only one of its kind around. Beaters from new their reliability was their downfall people just drove them to death and saved none.
No V8’s? Rubbish!!! How about my Malaise Era ’78 Fairmont with its awe-inspiring 130hp 302? And a red velour interior? When was the last time you saw a Fairmont with velour???
Nice! I like the blue one best! I never knew the interiors of these could be optioned to nearly LTD Country Squire luxury. I know woodgrain Di-Noc is cheesy, but I still love it!
Except for the automatic transmission, that blue 1973 could have been mine.
That, and heavy paint burn from the Texas sun, Blazing Saddles, as I named it, was exactly that shade of blue…blue interior…top-line trim…air conditioning when it was an extreme rarity on a car that size.
Oh, and the K-mart simulated wood…badly, badly faded. Even the sham birch trim…turned white and the glue-on cellophane layering partly lifted off. This allowed rainwater to seep in the center groove…and grow some impressive algae. Nothing to do but go along and slit the lifted cellophane…which made the appearance worse.
Pulling it off would have left half-inch holes all along the perimeter where the blind-side fasteners held it. AND…that faded fake-wood…the glue never weakened on THAT! You’d need a chemical lifter to get that removed.
I missed the clue. Because, my memory was…the sham wood had black line-stripes to simulate planking, the length of the sides. I could be wrong; but I thought it was lined the way earlier Country Squires were.
The simulated planking thing was more of a Mercury touch, sure it wasn’t a Bobcat Villager?
Carmine…I lived with that car for four years. Part of that time I had nothing…broke as a church mouse. I kept that thing running with dime-store tools and sheer will…I had neither shop nor knowledge nor resources; and when I got it it had been neglected a long time.
That sucker was a Pinto. I lived with that thing like some live with their wives.
Now…what I’m thinking was that there was probably more than one plant building Pinto Squires; and perhaps the Di-Noc they procured varied somewhat in specs. OR…my memory was the Mercury Di-Nocs didn’t HAVE the planking-stripes; just as they didn’t have the birch outline, using chrome trim instead. Suppose some went out the door with Bobcat-Squire paneling on it?
Sudden-recall time: The Mercury Bobcat didn’t launch until 1974. So there is no way my 1973 could be anything but a Pinto. Not that I hand any question on it… (c;
Who knows?
Maybe even dealer installed?
Already replaced once by the previous owner?
Bobcat memories: my sisters Lisa and Beth and I drove to high school in a white Bobcat wagon with the fake wood siding. The car had tight steering, sat low, and had enough power to drive the speed limit. It was favored over the Monarch and LTD II.
It’s a like-able affordable car….when you’re nostalgic and inexperienced with car ownership. Wish I had that car for new rims and fatter tires.
The tight steering, yes. Remember the joys of Ford True-Numb power steering? No road feel; and about a 5-degree dead spot at center. You drove a big Ford like you herded a cow – if either veered left, you yanked right and verse visa.
The Pinto broke that mold. Power steering didn’t even MAKE it to the Pinto until the late 1970s; and the manual was rack-and-pinion. Moderate effort but as precise as you wanted it.
In a family that had Galaxies and Torinos and Mavericks with power-overboost string-tie steering…the Pinto stood out. Probably why I remember it with as much love as I do.
I briefly owned a ’73 Squire which had been my Uncle’s from new. The 2.3l had bricked, and I think he gave me the car in return for helping him replace the front clip on their ’72 Torino wagon after it had been in an accident.
I bought a junkyard engine ($400 if I recall right) and swapped it out in the driveway, then gave the car to my youngest brother who was moving out to my Dad’s in Texas (parents were divorced by this point in our lives).
I drove out with him in the Pinto, and it kept overheating all the way there (we drove through the night, so filling stations were mostly closed). It was truly an epic trip.
I remember the Pinto looked like a much nicer car than it actually was. It was finished out much nicer than the ’73 Vega Kammbacks we owned, but that was about all it had going for it. It rattled and buzzed and was slower than the Vegas, too (all were automatics).
My brother didn’t stay in TX long – Dad’s fairly strict, and that didn’t set well with a rebellious (at that time) teen. He drove back to GA, and within a few months had pretty well trashed out the Pinto. I eventually got a notice in the mail that it had been impounded (apparently he never had the title changed), which I ignored.
I never noticed how the from fender “Squire” trim really doesn’t follow the wheel well, it just sort of follows the line. The Pinto wagons were safe from the whole “explosion” malarchy due to the different placement of the gas tank on the wagon versions. The wagon version of the Pinto is the only really balanced looking Pinto, I always thought that the hatch/sedan versions looked like a car with the rear end cut off.
My earliest school memories include car pooling to school with the girl next door, her mother had an orange Pinto Squire, 77-79 vintage, and her father had a silver Cordoba!
Wow – you got the whole 70s experience in a single school year!
Count me in. also. These are indeed the cars we grew with.”Syke” has nailed it. Six cyls, rubber mats,crank windows bring them on.
Love the Pinto, and the fact that someone took the time to either,restore,or maintain it in that condition.
I’m sorry, but I had to laugh at a sentence in the post.
Do the words “luxurious” and “Pinto” belong in the same sentence…???
Maybe if it’s the Pinto Squire Brougham with Interior Luxury Decor Group or the Pinto Town Coupe Landau. A Pinto with Twin Comfort Lounge seats with dual 6-way/6-way power adjusters.
Or something like that…
The brother of one of my high school friends wrapped his ’68 Mustang GT around a tree in late 1980. My friend Jay had a ’73 Mach 1. His Dad had Pinto wagon of roughly 73-75 vintage. Inspired by the numerous Vega V-8 conversions infesting my school’s parking lot, they put the ’68s 428 SCJ in the Mach 1 and put the Mach’s 302/tranny in the Pinto wagon. That thing would hall butt.
This is a great reminder for everyone who believes that “LOADED” compact/sub-compact cars are a new phenomenon.
Well, you could make these nice, but they never were, “loaded”, a/c, ps/pb, automatic and whitewalls, we really didn’t start seeing small cars with the availability of big car options until the 80’s, the 1982 J-cars for example could be had with everything from power windows, cruise, a 6 way power seat, tilt wheel, power windows, locks and a power trunk popper, all things you couldn’t get at all on their H-body predecessors.
Yes.
Detroit has always been pricing to size…but the cost of building a small car is almost exactly the same as building a big one. And, as Dr. Ruth and Hugh Hefner have taught us…size MATTERS. Bigger is better.
So, selling a small car priced the same as a big stripper, is a bigger struggle.
And selling small cars is now required. CAFE. Not then; but Detroit was responding to a demand for small cars, some of it artificial by public-interest agitators such as Ralphie Nader.
So…there must be small cars. But they must pay; or else the road taken was Studebaker’s. So…small cars must be offered with loads of attractive but high-margin toys and geegaws.
Hence the LDO and whatever GM called its packages. Small-car bling.
When the 1972 Pinto Runabout hatch door got a larger rear window Car and Driver said in their new car issue that “now you can see even better where you’ve been”.
Extended family member had a final-year (1980) wagon; no woodgrain, but a tough little car (with the over-engineered “Lima” 2.3L) that ran forever, delivered good mileage, and hauled lots of stuff. Oh, and it would *always* start, even down below -20. If I found a solid one on eBay now, it’d be a tempting runabout I could easily would work on. Part of the mileage bonus was the weight: darned close to Ford’s target of 2000 lbs., which is 700-ish lbs. less than, say, today’s Focus.
I don’t think I have ever seen a Pinto sedan. Only the wagon and hatchback.
The Pinto sedans were ones with just a trunk opening under a small rear window. Then they went with the hatchback and larger rear window, which improved luggage capacity, especially with the rear seat folded down. I bought a used 74 Pinto hatchback for only 300 bucks because of left rear end damage. It was a stick shift with no second gear. So you really had to wind it up in 1st then shift to 3rd. especially going up a hill. Only had that car for a year and replaced it with a Datsun.
Pinto wagons are legit vehicles for singles and couples, but they are not really family vehicles since their back seats were very useless.
Anyone seen a Pinto van (“Cruising Wagon”)?
I had a white 78 Pinto van with the goldfish-bowl side window in the late 80s.
It had some minor cool style, but was a hideous thing to drive with a sluggish automatic transmission.
Visibility to the rear quarters was so bad, the only way to semi-safely change lanes was to signal for a long time and speed up (not an easy thing to do in itself) to hopefully get forward of whatever Greyhound bus was lurking in the blind spot.
Electrical problems did it in around 70k miles.
Comparing this to my friend’s Accord put me off American cars to this day.
About a year ago, I was visiting relatives out in rural Ohio, and was driving down a county road. Some guys were in a driveway with a Pinto Cruising Wagon on a trailer. Not sure if they were loading it on or off, looked fairly rough from where I was. I did not have time to stop, unfortunately, and have not seen another since.
I saw this one several years ago.
I like the blue ’73 a lot more than the green ’74 because ’73 was the perfect year for Pinto bumpers. The overriders were a little less tall than in 71-72 and they pulled the front bumper out a tad for the regulation.
The green wagon looks good too with the original front styling (I didn’t care for the two facelifts) but man those bumpers are really big. The bodyside molding is wrong on the green car, it did not go in front of the front wheel and behind the rear like that.
Great finds and I completely agree about how these would be more fun to see at a show than another classic Mustang or Camaro.
In addition to making the front bumper stick out a little further it was backed by a thick aluminum extrusion and had energy absorbing mounts. Very strong for the time but unobtrusive.
Ford has build some great looking cars over the years and IMO theses Pinto’s fall right into that category. Too bad Ford never seems to sweat the details…one good reason to fear the Fusion , todays great looking Ford. Will it be rust , poor engineering, or cost cutting $1.00 here and there? Time always tells the true tale.
My mom carted my older brother and me around in a 1975 Pinto Squire wagon, up until I was about 7 years old (traded in on a Volvo 240 in the Summer of ’83). That Pinto took the whole family on a long (and slow) road trip from South Carolina to Minnesota and back in the sweltering summer of 1980. I much preferred riding around in the ’78 Mercury Monarch we also had at the time, mainly because the Pinto didn’t have a front bench seat and folding armrest for me to sit on like the Monarch did.
So, to recap, one of our rides growing up was a Pinto, and the other car allowed me to ride around the country with my head 6 inches from the windshield (remember, no car seats really existed back in those days once you reached the age of 4). And I lived to tell about it.
Wow, this is the second time in two weeks that a near duplicate of one of the cars I owned has been featured here. Previously it was the red ’75 VW Rabbit, this time the blue ’73 Pinto wagon. Well, mine didn’t have the paneling, and it was a stick rather than auto, but otherwise the spitting image.
That light blue seemed to be slapped on every second Ford back in the day; aside from my Pinto, my parents’ ’66 Squire, and a company runabout ’71 Galaxie wagon that I drove were all the same shade. Unfortunate, because the inevitable western PA rust really showed up on them after a few years.
Always thought the wagon was the best looking Pinto variant, and pre-’74 the best styled, so a double hit there. Thanks.
Now, anyone happen to have a piece on a ’54 Buick Super hardtop in the pipeline?.
“No, I do not attend to see street rods, 1965 Mustangs, 1969 Camaros and several dozen 2010-13 Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers ”
No doubt! I attended the Fabulous Ford show at Knott’s Berry Farm this spring, and of the 4,000 + cars in attendance, over 2,000 of them were Mustangs!
The show did have a wide variety of Pintos, with 2 door sedan, 3 door hatbacks and wagons all present. All told, I think there were about 12 Pintos (including a Bobcat or two). Contrast that to the Mustang II section- 4 cars total, less than one for each year the car was offered.
I drove a 1972 Pinto back in High School- 2.0 liter, 4 speed manual trans and manual steering and brakes. Based on my experience, it’s no wonder they still show up at car shows. They are dead reliable, simple to service, and have a cheerful aura about them. Of course, they are also agricultural, tinny, and crude, but you still gotta love them.
“Of course they are also agricultural, tinny and crude.”
But compared to most of the other offerings in the class at the time, I’m looking at you Toyota, Datsun, and Honda, they were substantial, solid, smooth and sophisticated.
I’d have to disagree- After I graduated high school, Dad offered to sell me the ’72 Pinto 2 liter, or his 1973 Toyota Corolla coupe (a TE-27). I believe the asking price was the same for both.
While the Pinto may have been a bit quicker, I didn’t think twice, and bought the Corolla. It handled better, rode better, shifted better, came with a 5 speed transmission, and included full instrumentation and reclining front seats.
In comparison, the Pinto plowed through corners, POUNDED over railroad tracks, shifted OK, only offered a four speed, only had a speedometer and fuel gauge, and the driver’s seat only reclined because I had removed some spacers between the seatback and lower seat frame.
Not exactly a sophisticated ride. In fact, the Pinto was so cheap, the oil pressure light and temperature light were combined into one idiot light, marked “engine”. I used to joke that it came on when your engine fell out.
This is my first visit to this site. Talk about a stroll down memory lane…
I took my driver’s test in my mom’s 1975 Pinto Squire. It was gold with the (German Capri?) 2.8 liter V6 and auto. Nice, practical wagon, but that trans gave us lots of trouble. Now to find an Olds Vista Cruiser site….
Love the Old Pintos !! Here is a pic of my slightly modified 1973 Pinto Wagon !! A Blast to Drive !! 1969 Bronco chassis 302 4V C4 auto 4.11 gears front and rear 33 -12.50 BFG’s with 10 inch wide Eagle Rims!
Built this in 1983 Still Going !!
And Me and my Cousin built one for him, too !!
Four Wheelin down the Beach in 1973 Pinto !!
More Pinto Pics !!
I drove a brand new 1974 Pinto Wagon Company Car. It was white with the wood sides, like the Lt Blue one and the lime green one shown above. It had the 2.3 Lite inline four with a four speed stick shift. It had tan vinyl seats with the white and black houndstooth insert. It had Michelin X tires. My previous Company car had been a 1973 Ford Galaxie 500, all black with black wall tires, tan inside. It was a good looking car, but it was slow and it got 8 mpg during the gas crisis when gas stations were closed. I ran out of gas at least three times in that car. The car before it was a Silver Galaxie 500 with a 351 V8 and it got decent fuel mileage and it was a very fast car. It was Silver with a tan interior. It tell you this because the Pinto was exactly as fast as a big American V8, such as a big block Mercury wagon, or a Pontiac Bonneville. I always drove as fast as I could. If I got the jump on a V8 they could not catch me. Americans became ENRAGED that they could not catch the Pinto. That Pinto was a lively car. Drove my wife and two daughters down to Miami from Chicago. It was cold in Miami so we continued on down to Key West where they called us Touristas, it was the week before Xmas. On the way home, with Nixon’s 55 mph national speed limit, I taught myself to read a book on the steering wheel. That is not easy and still be safe. I read Burr, by Gore Vidal, it is very thick book. Try it, bet you wreck. The old car you young folks need to get is a PV544 Volvo with B18 engine. Look up who won the East African Safari in 1964 or was it ’65. That Volvo weighs 2,200 lbs and the engine can be made to make 170 hp.
I had a 73 Gold Pinto Squire Wagon & I have to say it was one of the most Fun driving cars I have ever had!! All the Pizzazz loaded into my lil Golden Wagon, revving up when I stomped the peddle, jerking us all around as she shifted thru her gears!! Loads of room in the back, nice thick seats, the Tune Box a Jammin away!! Those were the Fun days for sure!! Yes, to see a Pinto-any flavor is a hard thing to find & reading this article made me smile!! Thanks for adding a lil spark to my day here in a Good way!! 🙂
So much of that interior found its way to Australia. The steering wheel, auto shifter, seats & front armrests are familar to any one who’s into early 1970s Australian
Frods ( not a typo, either)
In 1976 I bought my first legit car…a ’73 green Pinto Wagon following graduation from college and drove that beauty from Ann Arbor to Kansas City for my first job. It was packed to the max with all my worldly possessions…everything. I loved that car but finally had to sell it in 1986 while our family was bursting at the seams and needed a new minivan. Not ashamed to say that I shed a tear or two as I watched it drive away with its new proud owner. Amazing car for sure.
My grandmother purchased a brand new 1977 Pinto sedan (trunk model), 2.3l 4 speed for me in high school, and I was thrilled. Sure, it wasn’t a “cool” car, but as a 17 year old, I had a new car, and loved it to death!!
The car ultimately was “taken over” by my mother, and in 1982, my grandfather gave me his white ’79 Pinto wagon (2.3l automatic) and I loved it even more. Fog lamps, mud flaps, rear window liners, B70 13’s in front, B60 13’s in back, slotted mags, supertrapp muffler and a header, this car was constantly and meticulously maintained, washed and waxed, and required so little maintenance.
Years later, in 2008, the bug bit hard, and I bought a mechanically and cosmetically shot 1976 Pinto Wagon, “MPG” model, 2.3l 4 speed. It looked reasonable, but after I brought it home, I realized how awful it really was….hidden rust, leaking windshield perimeter,
leaking gas tank, brake system shot, rusted floors, leaf clogged cowl and heater box, etc., etc., and started a complete disassembly.
Now after eight years of intermittent effort, with a complete mechanical rebuild, the car is in primer, fully running and driving, and ready for a new interior. I’ve added power brakes, factory A/C (it had dealer A/C which was a mess), an 8″ rear end, hood blanket, a rear hatch light, “fatmat” sound deadening throughout, and NOS Cragar S/S wheels (70’s front, 60’s rear).
To be added are a plethora of NOS parts, including AM radio and speaker, dash pad, door handles, bumpers, wheel moldings, rocker moldings, condenser, bumper to body filler panels, tail lamps, grille, dash heater/AC control bezel, and a variety of other small pieces.
I can’t wait to finish my pride and joy, and have people at car shows get a wonderful surprise amongst the sea of “same-same” Mustangs, ’57 Chevies, and other standard ephemera that, to me, are a dime a dozen 🙂 Here’s a pic as she is now!
I wish your pic would’ve come through, its hit or miss with this commenting system. Great story though!
My mom had one very similar to the green Squire station wagon. Except, she had the 4-speed trans instead of the auto. I used to love getting into that car because of the new car scent from the 70’s. I wish I could have bottled it. Thanks!
A silver Mercury Bobcat ‘Villager’ wagon with rally wheels, appears a couple times, in the excellent 1975 ‘Spooks for Sale’ episode of The Streets of San Francisco. The Rally wheels being an improvement over these standard steel wheels and hub caps. Tires also get chirped. (17:55)
https://youtu.be/m6CELerRMYM?t=1075
Must have missed this earlier as the green 74 is an exact doppelganger for the 74 my mother had. Three words some up that car: What a dog!
From a 68 Satellite wagon to that. Big mistake.
Pinto sedans and station wagons are actually good looking cars. And they were extremely popular too!
Indeed, say what you will about the craptacular mechanicals of domestic cars from the seventies, but they at least looked good. One of the worst cars ever built, the Vega, even had a kind of mini-Camaro vibe to it (which I’m sure was intentional).
There is always the best year/model/options/color of any given line of cars, and IMHO, that light blue 1973 Pinto wagon is just about it. The only thing I would change is the transmission, to a manual box.
The wheel and tire combo (with the hubcaps) is exactly the way a Pinto should look. Those wheels and tires are a Pinto signature of sorts.
I’d like a 77-80 Pinto. They had a bit more sound deadening in there by then.
I have to wonder about the timeline of the Pinto body style launches; 2 door sedan only in fall ’70, hatchback at midyear probably means the original program was those two. No wagons until midyear ’72 tells me Ford “The Wagonmaster” was caught flat-footed by the Chevy Vega wagon’s early success and engaged in a crash program for a subcompact wagon of their own.
I remember these, they were sturdy and cheerfully did yeoman duty for many American families and companies, CalTrans bought a whole slew of them in….?1980?, two doors and they lasted and lasted .
Maybe not cool but very good cars for that time .
I remember that green in particular seemed to be the default color on the strippers .
-Nate
I had a ’74 Pinto Squire wagon like the green one in the article, except mine had a 4-speed. Got hit head on one evening by a…. wait for it… another Pinto wagon.
I had a 1972 Pinto Squire Wagon (stick shift) in college; a well maintained hand-me-down from my Dad who was a mechanical engineer. I loved that sporty fun wagon and to this day it’s my favorite car of all the vehicles I have owned. When I moved to NYC in 1982 to a tree-lined neighborhood in downtown Brooklyn the car was stolen 😢