Me

About Me:

I was born and raised in Connecticut, and have always been a ‘car person‘ and interested in building and fixing things. Before I graduated high school I had already joined the Air Force (delayed enlistment). While in the military, I was an aircraft structural repair technician and was responsible for a bunch of ancillary duties as well. During that time I also volunteered as an Emergency Medical Technician, taught CPR, First Aid, and Basic Life Support with the American Red Cross, and I did (still do) other volunteer work for other not-for-profit organizations. After 20+ years of military service I decided to ‘retire’, and become a Realtor. Helping people with their real estate goals is great because it goes hand-in-hand with a few of my favorite things: meeting people, helping people, and to some degree, teaching.

Why Pintos?

We have been asked that more times than I can remember. Truth be told, I grew-up as a “Chevy person”, and my wife Connie with Mopars, so it becomes an interesting little story; I guess the best ‘one word’ answer I can give is “people”.

Here’s how it all came about:

In the mid 90’s, I had gotten involved in two different things (in my spare time), one was racing at a local circle track in a ‘4 banger’ class, and the other was restoring a late 60’s Mustang.

About the racing:

I was given a few cars by different friends. Included in those was one given to me by neighbors (and good friends), was a “4 cylinder 4spd ‘something’ for free” that I got because of the price (FREE). It turned out to be a 1979 Pinto Sedan; PERFECT. It had been sitting in a field for almost 10 years at that time, and was home to a BUNCH of mice and at least one snake. The snake greeted me the first time I opened the hood, but was never seen again. I prepped the car and took it racing. I ran the car for one season and halfway into the second, I was wrecked, bad. The car barrel-rolled and was history. I started looking for another Pinto to build, and a different friend told me about one he saw for sale. This Pinto had 32K, a new battery and radiator, and having my truck and trailer with me when I went to look at it, I bought it on the spot. It was when I was looking at the car that I first had doubts about it’s fate as a racecar. It did not take too long to decide to put it on the street, at least for the short term.

About the Mustang:

It was a 1968 V8 convertible with factory A/C that belonged to a very good friend of mine. I got a call one day and was asked if I wanted to buy it; I said yes. With that, my wife and I spent almost 4 years (part-time) restoring it to “very nice driver” condition. It was from the factory with the aforementioned options as well as Acapulco Blue Metallic paint. It was in rough condition when we got it. As much as we love working on cars we like to show them too so when we were ‘done’ with the restoration, we took the Mustang to as many shows as we could. We were always disappointed at the response that the car received; next to none. It seemed like the attitude toward it was “it’s just another Mustang….”.

How it all came together:

We got a ‘temp’ registration and started driving the 77 Pinto. I think the very next day was the day of the cruise night that we normally went to with the Mustang, but the Pinto went instead. That night was a major change for our lives; we could not believe the attention that this little car received and how much fun it was to drive. It had a crowd around it all night. This was what we looking for: meet people, talk to people, have fun, and have it about cars too.

Still not 100% sure what we were going to do with the car for the long term. At first, doing a V8 swap came to mind, so I started gathering all the parts I THOUGHT I needed to (with all the miss-information out there, and I hope to clear that up), when another friend mentioned swapping an engine from a Turbo Coupe (2.3T). I have to admit, I really did not know much about the 2.3T. Oh sure, I heard of the SVO and Merkur, but never knew all the details.

It took a while, but the EFI 2.3T was installed, then other changes, then even more modifications.... Along the way we found a few other Pintos and Bobcats, and one of those is now Connie's 78 orange and white (Sabrina Duncan's Charlie's Angels car), and new to us is a 1971 Runabout that we are working on restoring to full factory stock.

This Site:

I had moderated and been an admin on a couple of other sites, but I wanted to put together a Pinto AND Bobcat site, and have it tailored my local area (Connecticut). This, in NO way means that it’s ONLY for Connecticut residents, nor is there a requirement for the members here to even own a Pinto or Bobcat. I have met, and WILL MEET great people from all over that will always be welcome here.

In Closing:

I regret racing the 79 sedan, but if I had not, I would not have found my 77, would not have found the hobby that my wife and I enjoy so much, and most importantly, I would not have met all the great people!

Bill