The VEGA & PINTO Celebration Thread

[1930fordpickup]

Being from a large family we had many Pintos . My dad drove a used 71 or 72 with a 1600 and a four speed, with Firestone 500's on it . Yes the were one of the few good sets of them out there . He drove 90 miles everyday for work . He had the car for 3 years or so and it had well north of 100,000 miles . My brother turned in the tires for his Pinto and Firestone gave him good money for them.WE had three wagons one runabout (see above car ) and a couple other hatchbacks. So yes I would purchase a few kits if they came out .They are to much money on Ebay .

Edited March 15, 2012 by 1930fordpickup

[Nick Notarangelo]

a few years ago I bought from wally world these two in primed metal body and plastic kits,I just might pull the Vega out and see what I can do with it.

[Kris Morgan]

An early (say 72 ) Pinto wagon would be nice.

[Jon Cole]

I had a seventy-something Vega Notchback, similar to this one. It never rusted, because it was painted brown

I tried to do some four wheelin' in it, stuffed the manual trans case into a rock. Drove it home in 2nd gear.

On second thought, it did rust. The rear shocks came up through the trunk. At least one repair place refused to fix it.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Jon Cole

[shucky]

In my stash -

[ratnasty]

Here are 2 pics of my 468 Vega . It runs 9.37 @ 161 mph all motor

Chuck

[novadose71]

My Mom's friend had a Baby Blue Cruisin Wagon when I was a kid, way cooler than my moms white over tan window wagon that she coincidentally traded a Vega in on. I don't know if I can celebrate Mom's after it tried to kill me on a couple of occasions. I remember the passenger door flew wide open on a sweeping left hand curve, I happened to be in the passenger seat, thankfully buckled tight but still scared the heck out of us. I also remember spinning 3 or 4 times into oncoming traffic on a long section of black ice at 50 odd mph, Mom had to pull over on the shoulder for a couple minutes on that one. Donuts and drifting on the gravel roads with Dad was a lot of fun for my friends and I, but It finally munched the timing gears(or something along those lines), stranding us in the middle of Illinois on a family trip to St Louis. Grandpa came to tow it, and us, home. Dad couldn't, or didn't want to fix it so he let us kids finish it off with hammers, baseball bats, what have you as long as we didn't break any windows. That went on for a few weeks before we hauled it off to the salvage yard. Come to think of the 5 or so years we had that car, it was a big part of growing up for me. This was going to be the light blue one, but now I'm not sure which one to build from this?

[Dr. Cranky]

That Pinto Wagon is very cool, and I am assuming it's very rare.

[ldc65]

Here are 2 pics of my 468 Vega . It runs 9.37 @ 161 mph all motor

Chuck

nice to see a fellow Vega owner on here, I was starting to wonder LOL. mine is a 350 with about 450 hp and a Muncie 4 speed. it also has a Mopar 8 3/4 inch rear with 4:30 gears and a locker. I would love to tub it out, but I have owned it for so long and the fact that there is no rust I hate to cut it up. not all Vegas rusted away within a year lol

[Tonioseven]

All I have to offer is this stalled build of a Twister Vega...

I'll probably just glue the hood shut on it.

[Dr. Cranky]

Tonio, I love it. That has to be some of the brightest yellow I've seen on a model car. It looks as if you almost have it wrapped up.

[W-409]

I've built that Twister Vega many, many years ago. It was a horrible kit, interior, chassis and engine were bad, body is the best part of it. But engine is bad quality, AND way too small. In Real Vega, Chevy SBC with Blower, would need big hole for the hood... That engine doesn't come through the hood. Anyways, Antonia has done great job with his Vega, where is that Cowl Induction scoop from?

This is my Monza Build so far, Long Term Project, and it will be built as nicely as possible.

[Lordmodelbuilder]

I have always loved Vegas and Pintos. Built a few as a kid and still have them. Also have a few builders and some in the box. I also have the MPC silver panel/wagon kit. Brad

MPC "Vegarant" 71 Vega.

Pinto builder

Vegabond

Crazy Horse

Poison Pinto

Dyno Don

Edited April 16, 2012 by Lordmodelbuilder

[cobraman]

Thought you guys might like to see a photo of the Pinto panel I bought new in 1977. It was sent to a van conversion shop that removed the rear seat and fabed a frame and turned the back end into a bed. It was fully finished inside including some mood lighting. They also did the custom paint and did murals on both of the fiberglass panels. It was 4 banger with a 4 speed. I know it was only a Pinto but it was pretty cool. No photos of the mods I did including air shocks on the rear to make room for the mags and wide T/A's I put on it. I also had a set of Showtubes installed. All in all it was pretty cool. Also have included some photos of why I got rid of it in a year. It's not a Pinto or a Vega but a pretty rare car. I was taking the Pinto in for an oil change and they had just rolled this Mustang King Cobra off the trailer. I fell in love with it and bought it right then and there. There was only about 5,000 of these made. Pretty much just a cosmetic package but I really liked that car. Wish I still had it. Oh well. life happens. Hope you enjoy the photos.

[Dr. Cranky]

Wow, love the VEGABOND! Nice kits.

Niko, I like your start there.

[59 Impala]

Here are a couple pics of my Twister Vega that I built when they first came out.

Thanks fer lookin. Dan

[tbusch]

the Chevette kit suffered from the limitations the 1:1 car had... Chevrolet never gave it ANYTHING like what it gave the Vega in terms of trim options, dress ups.... even the T1000 Pontiac was almost a stillborn. funny thing, though... i saw Chevettes on the road for YEARS after the last Vega i saw vanished into the sunset..... and there's at least ONE local guy running a Pinto wagon daily here....

Last friday was just weird saw 2 Suzuki X-90's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_X-90) which I had never seen one before. Then at the grocery store is a Chevette in the parking lot, Then I come on this board and you are talking about Chevettes and other small cars.

Their is a Super Gas vega down the road at a local garage, he pushes it out every day to work on customer cars

[ldc65]

I never did understand that "so called" Twister vega. that front end (grille and bumper) is not a Vega, it's a Monza front end from about 1979. no Vega ever had that front end, but the 1979 Monza station wagon did. here is a pic of my 1979 Monza wagon

[Rob Hall]

I never did understand that "so called" Twister vega. that front end (grille and bumper) is not a Vega, it's a Monza front end from about 1979. no Vega ever had that front end, but the 1979 Monza station wagon did. here is a pic of my 1979 Monza wagon

Not sure why MPC then AMT called it a Vega, it is a '78 Monza S, which was a one year only model--the Monza S had the '77 Vega hatchback body w/ a base '78 Monza nose. MPC did an annual kit of it, then that kit was retooled into the Twister Vega...

Edited May 8, 2012 by Rob Hall

[ldc65]

Not sure why MPC then AMT called it a Vega, it is a '78 Monza S, which was a one year only model--the Monza S had the '77 Vega hatchback body w/ a base '78 Monza nose. MPC did an annual kit of it, then that kit was retooled into the Twister Vega...

thanks for sharing that pic, I have seen several station wagons with that front end and I knew they made the hatchback version, but couldn't find a picture of it. I have owned 15 Vegas and 4 Monzas over the years but have only seen two of the bodystyle Monzas pictured. they must be pretty rare by now

[Rob Hall]

thanks for sharing that pic, I have seen several station wagons with that front end and I knew they made the hatchback version, but couldn't find a picture of it. I have owned 15 Vegas and 4 Monzas over the years but have only seen two of the bodystyle Monzas pictured. they must be pretty rare by now

They were pretty rare then...supposedly only 2000 built.

[Dr. Cranky]

You know looking over all these models, I wonder how many, if any, of these vehicles are left . . . I think most of them were junked because they were not worth anything . . . at least that was the attitude.

[larrygre]

I have a feeling you may see the Dyno Don Pinto and Grumpy's Toy IX Vega Pro Stocks in Round2's new "Legends of the Quarter Mile" series.

As for the wagons, MPC did the Pinto wagon with its "mini-van" side panel option in 1977, and AMT, from 1971 through 1977, did the Vega Kammback wagon but only as a Funny Car. The body width on AMT's wagon was a LOT wider than that of MPC's hatchback - back then I wanted to do a stock Vega GT wagon by kitbashing both, but wasn't that good at "plastic surgery" so the idea got shelved.

Anyone for a Motion Super Vega with its LT-1 smallblock - likely one of the most dangerous muscle cars ever produced???

All told, it would be nice to have stock versions of both cars back again. Preferably pre-1974 editions.

[larrygre]

Not sure why MPC then AMT called it a Vega, it is a '78 Monza S, which was a one year only model--the Monza S had the '77 Vega hatchback body w/ a base '78 Monza nose. MPC did an annual kit of it, then that kit was retooled into the Twister Vega...

Only around 2000 of the Monza S were produced. Likely they were conversions of leftover '77 Vega hatchbacks, according to most reports.

[1930fordpickup]

You know looking over all these models, I wonder how many, if any, of these vehicles are left . . . I think most of them were junked because they were not worth anything . . . at least that was the attitude.

You can find Pinto's for sale on Ebay and in the autotraders every few months. They just had a cross country tour for pinto's last summer. As for the Vega's the only examples around here are all drag cars that weren't driven in the snow much.