After "The Kid" and I setup the camper for the first time. Took it up to the Old
Hibbing campground on a sunny Sunday afternoon to check it out.
Cool! there is a tarp/shade with poles to go over the top but didn't have everything required to set that up too.
Setup the camper is shorter than the Pinto...
and a few feet wider, decent sized.
Enter the camper in the rear
Have 1 mattress only
the other is long gone... I'm thinking air matterss perhaps? or 5" memory foam? for replacements
Couple cabinets and enough room to stand up/move around, bigger than I thought it would be.
Now For The Pinto! 1977 Pinto Runabout.
2.3L Motor with C3 Automatic and 54,xxx miles
Hatch and cargo area in great shape, carpet is faded but I have good used replacement the same color.
Original Paint, close to rust free - couple small bubbles, some door/parking lot dings, appears to have
been undercoated and looks great underneath, even has rock guard on the bottom edge.
Deluxe Interior and Seats
Has working AC and cruise control!!! Yes!!!
1970's GPS installed with AM Radio
The wheel lip chrome is pretty beat up and will need to be replaced...
I love It! This is going to be so Cool! Trips, Camping, Car Shows... I also hope
to setup some of the other Pinto's to tow the camper as well, the green 1978 Wagon
would also be a perfect car to haul it around with.
Update! 30 days after buying the Pinto... it was decided it needed to go
to the Route 66 Mother Road Car Show in Springfield, Illinois September 25 thru
the 27th. Pintony convinced me it was the one to bring, with the camper of course. I
had not even really driven the Pinto since I got it home, still on the original gas, I was saving the "work"
it needed for the long winter months to come.
So the Mad Scramble Starts! what was I thinking... Pintony! What did you get me into! I had
less than 10 days to get it ready and there was a lot to do and inspect. I started
with a rear brake job, complete trans flush and fill and u-joints replaced. The motor needed
a tune-up - plugs, cap, rotor, fuel filter and a little work to the carburator.
I changed the timing belt, thermostat, altinator, voltage regulator, water pump
as well as some cleanup of the engine compartment. A new valve and timing cover
were painted and the valve cover gasket was changed. I installed new wheel lip all
around, swapped some nice hub caps on and installed the NOS white mud flaps I had
with "Pinto" in red to sharpen up the appearance. The hitch for the camper needed
some welding to fix a problem so that was done, repainted and reinstalled. I them
moved on to the interior replacing the rear cargo carpet with a good spare after
it was cleaned up. I then detailed the interior, cleaning the carpet, seats and vinyl.
To add a final touch to the interior I needed something better than the AM radio
for the trip. I didn't want to "hack" out the original AM radio so I found that
I could slide one of my spare AM/FM/CD players and it would fit snuggly in the coin tray.
I wired it up, finished it off with a little black carpet I had over the top and
hooked up a vintage set of Radio Shack Realistic car speakers I had behind the seats.
The audio setup sounded great and much better than expected. Nice thing it is easy to remove for that "stock" look.
Now for the Camper... to get the camper ready
was much easier... cleaned the hub caps and vinyl cover. I tried to buff out the paint
but that didn't help so I left it as is. After all said and done I felt like I did 6
months of work in less than 10 days. I filled the gas tank and took it for it's 1st
official test ride 3 days before I was to leave, 130 miles with no camper. The next
day was another 70 miles with the camper hooked up.
I was ready! I hoped! all that work paid off and the little Pinto didn't disappoint.
We made it! 1,400+ miles round trip without any problems. Damn! I think I'm getting
the hang of this "Pinto Thing" and getting them ready to ride. Check out the video below from the trip.
