Remember the Ford Pinto?

[themechanic]

Borrowed from the FEBO.

 

[hemi446]

I worked for Ford at the time. The fix was a plastic shield under the gas. I was doing 15-20 a day. I don't know if it worked or not but we all thought NOT.

 

[wagonman]

I worked for Ford at the time. The fix was a plastic shield under the gas. I was doing 15-20 a day. I don't know if it worked or not but we all thought NOT.

Yup Me too. Lots of Cams and followers too.

 

[peabodyracin]

That kind of started a lot of churning about gas tanks in general.

I recall someone doing an expose on square body GM pickups, claiming they'd do the same thing in a side impact. Seems like they crashed 3 or 4 of them on film without any fire.

The next time they used some kind of an incendiary device to make sure it burned. Unfortunately a member of the film crew went to the press with the story and that was the end of that claimed issue.

I often wondered if Ford was behind it because they made a point of mentioning Ford pickups had their tank inside the frame rails.

 

[dadsbee]

Only when the left turn light was on...

Put a 302 in a Pinto in '77, was a screamer...

 

[Sahara]

I always wanted a V-8 Pinto. Two years ago a low mileage cherry hatchback shows up in town. Beautiful. Was for sale for a while for $3500, more then I wanted to spend. One day it was gone.
Was at daughters fiancé’s place of work last summer. It was parked outside, beat to rat **** and partly stripped. Turns out the current owner offered $1000, the guy accepted it. He then just totally smurfed this poor car up, beyond redemption. Had I known he would have accepted a grand I’d be driving it now. Aaargh!

 

[DeltaV]

That kind of started a lot of churning about gas tanks in general.

I recall someone doing an expose on square body GM pickups, claiming they'd do the same thing in a side impact. Seems like they crashed 3 or 4 of them on film without any fire.

The next time they used some kind of an incendiary device to make sure it burned. Unfortunately a member of the film crew went to the press with the story and that was the end of that claimed issue.

I often wondered if Ford was behind it because they made a point of mentioning Ford pickups had their tank inside the frame rails.

Yes, they rigged the pickup with one or more Estes model rocket motors (black powder).

Here is the "apology". Glad it cost NBC some money.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-10-mn-1335-story.html

 

[33 IMP]

Right here is where we need the clip from "Top Secret". If I knew how I'd post it.
A friend has a nice pinto with a 351 stroker in it. It's a bit faster than stock.

 

[WileE]

Aaahhh, yes. The sizzling seventies. Literally, what the Pinto was all about. You could get that flame job on your Pinto for free. There are some cars you could give to me for free, and I'd refuse. This is one of them.

 

[Ron H]

Well - my wife wants another backyard flower planter...maybe if I made one from a Pinto she'd never ask again..

 

[F4R/T]

Sadly the plastic fuel tank thingy is about the same they used on the crown vic cop cars, but not on the normal crown or gran marquis or the town car.. I never understood that as they all would explode like the pinto when hit like that as the rear diff blows out the tank.. I worked for Ford years ago and recall those.

 

[barbee6043]

I bought a new one in what 1975 or 6? Wife got rear ended stopping to get the mail...did not flame!!
I bought it to drive for the company for mileage. Drove it couple years and sold it as we were moving 1000 mi away.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

I owned several of them over the years. I put a 2.9L out of my wrecked Bronco 2 in one. It was not a screamer but ran much better than the 2.3L

 

[MoparLeo]

I was in the tire business throughout the 70's and beyond.
When a Pinto came into the lot with the original Firestone 500 radials on it, we would plug our ears and run.
More then a couple of people jumped out of their cars and did the same not knowing the joke of an exploding spare tire in the trunk of an exploding Pinto. Told them the spare tire would act like a fuse. You could get away with more things back in those days.

 

[hemi446]

Yup Me too. Lots of Cams and followers too.

Cams and followers where good to. How about the hose clamps on the driveshaft to fix the vibration problem. The whole time I worked at Ford I drove my 440 68 Road Runner it would burn there *** every time. No one had anything for that car. The good old days

 

[33 IMP]

What I remember from the early V8 pinto swaps was the odd headers that swept all pipes forward before going down below the car, cause there wasn't room to route them like normal headers.

 

[Ron_M]

Growing up in the 1970s, these two always floated my boat

 

[65Bel]

 

[65Bel]

 

[65Bel]