I don’t know if I remember seeing so many Pintos being for sale twenty years ago as we have seen recently, or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. This 1972 Ford Pinto has a few things going for it, one of them is being in storage since 1980 which has seemed to preserve it in what looks like outstanding condition. It can be found here on craigslist in Simi Valley, California and the seller is asking a healthy $9,750 or best offer. Thanks to Pat L. for sending in this tip!
I’m not sure if I have seen a two-tone white and orange Pinto before, and with an orange vinyl roof, too! That’s very unique and the visual condition of the exterior of this car is impossible to argue with. Well, there is one thing wrong, there is a portion of the grille that appears to be missing, maybe from being in storage for so long something hit the grille and broke out those pieces. It doesn’t appear that this example has the $116.75 sunroof.
But, wow, this car looks like new other than the broken grille. It really has a unique look to it and there’s a good reason for that, it was a special edition, or an option called the Sports Accent Group. I have to admit that I’m not a fan of the wheels at all and the seller says that they were a dealer-installed option. Give me the regular factory wheel covers every time, but that’s just me. I know that most of you would want the wheels that are on it now. This special edition, or option group, also came in avocado green which would be my choice. Or, both!
The seats have a nice fabric insert which would be more comfortable in either hot or cold weather than all vinyl for sure. The carpet looks either dirty or faded or both, but that wouldn’t be hard to clean, dye, or replace. Thankfully, this car has a 4-speed manual transmission rather than an automatic. I expected to see an automatic on the hump there rather than a stick shift, very cool.
It has the optional 2.0L inline-four which had 86 hp and actually had a reasonable 0-60 time of around 11 seconds. The seller says that it was put into dry Southern California storage in 1980 and just taken out and refreshed recently. There isn’t one word on how or if it runs but we have to assume that it runs great since they list the condition as excellent. Have any of you heard of the Sports Accent Group on a Pinto?
Nice example of a car that filled a needed nitch in the day. They even made pretty good race cars. Wouldn’t pay the asking price but one in any sort of good condition for the right price might be fun to own.
Show up at Cars & Coffee with this eye-catching Pinto and be prepared to be met with smiling faces and a barrage of “my _____ had one of these, only it was ______ ” comments. For me that is a fun part of the old car hobby. Many people (including me) have a connection with a Pinto, and it will bring back memories. I enjoy seeing basic, simple, throw-away cars which have survived; this one fits the bill.
I remember the Sports Accent Group, including the avocado ones, but I haven’t seen one in decades.
The Craigslist ad is kind of humorous. Instead of telling about the condition of the car, the seller instead repeats the over-the-top verbiage from the sales brochure. At least there are pics.
I think I prefer the orange over avocado, but I would take either. I also would want the sunroof, but that’s just me. I like open air motoring.
If I were in the southwest already, with my legal issues behind me, I wouldn’t mind having this as a daily driver.
I don’t even want to hear about how much of a death trap this is lol, so is my Harley.
My cousin had one of these in this color, but I think it was a couple years newer. Interesting color combo. Brings back good memories.
Fuel tank is an interesting point. There is still a fuel cell you can buy that fits the Pintos. Piece of mind might be served on this car considering as many folks that are driving around with their nose in a phone.
A UT fan will end up with this- same color scheme.
The ad says it was parked in 1980 however, the plate it bears is also from 1980 and it has a red sticker on it. That might be a 2021 sticker.
It is odd that somebody would get new plates just to park it.
No DMV record. 1980 decal was dark orange.
Will not like the cold climate without the heat riser not connected to the exhaust manifolds and looks like heater hoses have been removed. Not much luxury when you have no heat or no a/c.
The Pinto/Bobcats were unique looking cars. Their lines are nice to look at. I had the 78 Bobcat featured here once. The really big issue I had was starting it even after I had the 2.3 engine rebuilt on it with a Ranger head, and replaced the carb with a refurbished one. The bowl seemed like it just wouldn’t hold the fuel or? It was always difficult to start on cold startups. The new owner never mentioned what he did to solve that issue. Sold it for 3k couple of years back. I was 3700 in on just the engine rebuild alone, and I hardly drove it. But it was a cool little ol’ car to drive with 4spd stickshift.
Many hobby cars with carburetors have hard starting problems from not being driven everyday. A lot of people will wire in a small electric fuel pump to fill up the fuel bowl quicker to improve starting.
A lot of the problem is the trash ethanol gasoline. It is formulated for cars that are fuel injected not carbureted. It is very prone to quick evaporation from the carb. Use ethanol free if you can get it. If not lots of Sta-Bil ethanol treatment.
My brother’s first car was a few years newer – 1975, I think – in the Avocado (yellow green) trim with white. Other than a rust bucket (car was about 6 or 7 years old – Iowa salted road winters), I think it was decent.
This eye-searing orange and white looks quite nice, and would be a treat at a Cars & Coffee in the Midwest
2 liter with a stick is the only combo to have! I like the dealer option wheels but not the vinyl roof.
The grille is difficult to find, I wish someone would re-pop them but the customer base is too small. over 3 million sold, now a Pinto is a rare sight.
your right and if your needing a 2.0 try to find a 71 model For changed wrist pin location to lower the compression for 72 moleds. 71 2.0’s had 101 hp. You can’t get 71 pistons and rods, they are all 72 model. Also Ford made a hot cam sufix (BB) that was supposed to run with the Cosworth Vega but never use it, but was available thru Ford Parts. It was so strong it would break motor mounts, Had to chain it down and hit a bad as lick. would eat a built SBC on 1/8 mile.
Thanks for finding this Scotty. This is exactly what my brother owned minus the rims, except his was a 1975. It was his first brand new car after years of clunkers. I don’t think these were overly popular even at the time. He bought his in 1976 after our small town Southern Ontario Ford dealer had it sitting on their lot forever. Even though I’m 11 years younger than him and was just a kid, I was already a car guy thanks to our Dad, and I noticed cars. There was not another orange Pinto anywhere in our area, and the only other one I remember seeing in the late 70’s was near our Aunt and Uncle’s house in Pennsylvannia when we’d visit for Canadian Thanksgiving. 45 years later, even though my brother has owned some nice cars, I still think his orange & white 4 speed Pinto was the coolest car he owned.
I had one in the avocado in the early eighties. Already well used and kind of a beater when I got it, gave me a couple of years and about 30k miles before the rust go so bad I was afraid some day I’d hit a bump and fall through the floor. I sold it to a rancher in the Nebraska Sandhills who used the motor for several more years to power an irrigation pump.
The early Pintos with the small bumpers sure looked better than the later cars.
My Mother ordered a Pinto the final year of production which was 1980. She let me order it and I selected the appearance group( which included dual color keyed mirrors, chrome grill and wheel lip moldings, and tu-tone paint job which was dark blue over a light blue body. We lived an hour north of Detroit, and I only saw 1 other Pinto with that color combination. It became mine in 1983, I put in a sunroof so big that the guy who installed it told me it took him twice as long to install because it barely fit the roof. Added a stereo with 4 triaxial speakers and a 500 watt amp. The acoustics in that car were awesome. Never did anything besides basic maintenance, washing and waxing. I put 180k on that car and it never let me down in any season. Lot of good memories in that car and one of the most dependable cars I have ever had.
I had a 71 that was orange with black vinyl roof and white interior. Only comfortable position in it was with the passenger seat back tilted forward and lay on the back of it. I can home one sat. night of partying and blocked my father in, so he decided to just take mine the the store. When I got up about half asleep he ask me in front of my mother how the foot prints got on the headliner. I was SO embarrassed. I was 17.
My buddy had one of these back in high school, but it was the green and white combo and it had a “hockey stick” stripe similar to the Boss 302 Mustang’s had.
Is it ok to leave the timing belt exposed?
Surprised the dash pad isn’t orange.
Amazing the CHOICES on even Ford’s least expensive car back then – today i bet u cant get an orange interior even on a GT-40, let alone anything else – except maybe Rolls Royce.
Surprised firebird III was “restored” with a black interior, instead of the proper/original orange colored one.
Choices — that blows my mind too. For example, I was recently looking at a brochure for late 60’s Ford pickups which noted there were something like 150 different two-tone paint combinations available.
For whatever reason, the orange Pinto interior (and *only* the orange one) came with a black dash pad across all years it was offered.
They were prone to breaking timing belts, It just mad it fast to replace on the side of the road
I wouldn’t leave it exposed. The cover saved me. (And I made it to LA, CA. From north of Sacramento.) The timing belt tensioner bearing was failing. You should have seen the inside of the timing belt cover. It was so shiny from the belt trying to jump off. Of course, it got fixed before I returned home.
Mine was a 72 station wagon with the roof rack. The small bumpers. A 2.0 L, and a manual 4 speed tranny. It had factory air so it came with the larger radiator and a six blade fan. I drove it from 1977 to 1994. It had 250,000 on it and I parked it running. It needed an exhaust valve replaced. Otherwise it ran like a champion. I want to find one just like it.
I had a 78 Bobcat and a 76 Pinto both manuals. The pinto I flipped and made about 1g. As for the Bobcat, I had a shop rebuild the engine (supposedly that’s what they did), and I put new ball joints and shocks on it. I sold it for lack of use.
Of course it’s a manual transmission, a Creamsicle *has* to have a stick!
My buddy had a 72 2 litre hatchback, it ended up with a Racer Brown cam with an adjustable timing gear, an aluminum Offenhauser 4 bbl manifold, 390 CFM Holley carb, exhaust header and a Mallory Unilite distributor. With a set of Koni’ shocks, a front/rear sway bar setup, a set of the ubiquitous aluminum slotted wheels wearing Semperit radials, it ran strong and handled pretty really back in the day. The only real downside was in the transmission gear ratios… it was after all designed as an economy car. It ran strong in 1st and second gear, but the rpm’s dropped way off in third gear, it took a bit to get back into the power band. It was a fun car to drive.
I had a cam from Ford in mine. it would do 101 mph in third but only 95 in fourth. but from 0 to 100 mph you better get out of it way!
My first Pinto had this package. It was a ‘73, dark brown with a white top & bottom, tan interior. By the time I got it, it was badly rusted, when the frame broke, it was replaced with a gold ‘73 that was still solid, since it had spent most of its life being towed behind a motorhome. That one was a gem, 1.6L, 4spd, but all drum brakes. Rock solid dependable and fun to drive for a college student in central Michigan
That is interesting 1-Mac. I’ve owned a few carbureted cars over the years. I had one carb rebuilt and one replaced. The other carb cars worked fine for the most part. On some of the them they seemed to develop a hesitating issue. I have one carbureted vehicle now that gets vapor build up in the gas tank which seems to give it a slight hesitation on a warm start and at intersections sometimes on hot days. Sta-Bil ethanol treatment maybe?
LOVE the colors, especially the interior.
A few memories of the unsafe body design.
rear impact..A bolt protruding + facing fuel tank would peirce gas tank + result in fire.. ford recalled to install plastic protective plate..
A hard front end hit drivers would be decapitated..from poor hood design
Find a better car 😁😁
You see cars from the 1950’s that had steering columns that would spike through your heart if you rear end someone, yet people don’t make these negative comments on them every time one is posted. Yet somehow every time a Pinto is posted, someone always has to bring up the exploding gas tank in these. No one ever seems to mention that if you ride a motorcycle and get hit by a car, you could be injured or killed. We all know the reputation these have, yet some of us like these. Just like some of us like older cars that will spike through our vampire hearts lol, and just like some of us like to ride vehicles that only have 2 wheels.
People that are so critical of older cars might want to consider haunting a different type of website. Being this critical of vintage cars is like going to church & talking about how great the devil is lol.
& 1 should be careful today in buying inexpensive aftermkt steering columns for popular late 60s cars – many are not collapsible – but the originals were!
It’s kinda cool but for $10k I can think of a LOT of things I’d rather drop a stack like that on!!
It’s worth $5k
I bought a Pinto exactly like this one except the trim was green instead of orange. My first brand new car at 25 years old. Are you ready $1,900 sticker price.
4 speed was fun to drive. Traded it for a 74 Pinto wagon because we had our second kid.
Also owned a 76 Bobcat wagon (Mercury’s Pinto).
We bought a brand new ’73 Pinto, just like this one, during the gas crisis. It was the Sports package. White with orange vinyl roof, orange trim, interior had a wood-look trim, orange steering wheel, orange SHAG carpet, seats were the same orange, black & white houndstooth pattern material in the center with orange vinyl trim around the edges of the seat. It was mostly an orange interior. I wish I had a pic of it. A fun car to drive, got great gas mileage. It was totaled in an accident in ’75. Our other car at that time was a ’74 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ, loaded, black with black interior. Loved that car!