Ok. It's a Pinto. 2.3L carburated with an automatic. Get the laughing over with. It runs great, gets decent gas mileage, and only cost $600. I have put a couple of hundred more into it, new plugs and wires, a cheap radio, new battery cables, wiper blades, one of the hatch lifts, minor stuff like that. It is running so good I haven't even changed the plugs or wires yet, afraid I will mess something up. Almost new tires, newer brakes, newer exhaust.
I wasn't even looking for one of these. I was looking for a daily driver under $1000 and most of what I found around here in that price range was early '90's stuff that were completely rusted out and would be difficult to work on. Or pickups that were really bad on gas, and I drive about 32 miles each way to work. This car really does run good,am getting about 20 miles per gallon.
It does have some rust but the underneath is clean. No extras to break down like power steering or ac. Although ac would be nice. The heater works great though. I put a smaller foam grip steering wheel on it that I had bought for a previous car that is now gone. Even with the manual steering, it isn't too hard to manuver. Put a Mustang II console in it that was also for the former project car I had, and the color is almost a good match. It just has idiot lights, I have a set of gauges to put in, just haven't gotten around to that yet. The radio was more important. I actaully had a better am/fm/cd stereo to put in it but it doesn't work. Bought that from a guy that did some contract work where I work, but he is gone. $50 wasted. So I bought an older am/fm cassette at a flea market here for $10. It works, not sure about the cassette, but I have XM radio so I am happy. The radio install isn't complete. Electrically it is done, but I need to finish the cosmetics.
Future plans include an 8 inch 5 lug Mustang rear end, so I can put 15 inch tires and rims on. Need to get the 5 lug rotors for the front, but turns out that they are like $85 or so each. So that is on hold. I couldn't afford to change the tires and rims now anyway, so no big deal. Body work eventually, just to fix the rust. Better interior. But for now the plan is to keep it on the road as I have to have this car running at all times.
