Built by: Tory Mucaro in Howell Township, New Jersey

This project began when my long time friend and fellow model maker Jim Dahl sent my son a very large carton of model car kits he found while cleaning out his garage prior to a move. In among these was a Monogram "Pinto Street Rod" kit, complete except for the body. I examined the rest of the parts and realized that this kit was basically a (poorly) re-worked Poison Pinto, one of my favorite Tom Daniel designed kits.
 
So I went about trying to find a way to obtain a body. Realizing that my good buddy Dave Young had recently finished his own Poison Pinto, his was the first place I shopped. Well it is said that timing is everything, and he told me that he had just gotten rid of the leftover Pinto bodies he had kicking around. So the project was put on hold for a while (I just moved on to one of many other projects always in queue).
 
A few weeks later, I receive an email from Dave saying that he had just bought a bulk lot of built model cars and among them was a very poorly built but fairly complete Poison Pinto (see photo below). He asked if I was still interested, and I told him yes, so he shipped it off to me.
 
When I received it, I carefully disassembled it and stripped the paint. I sent Dave a bunch of parts that needed to be re-plated and he added them to a bunch of parts he needed done, and off to Chrome Tech they went.
 
A couple of weeks later he sent me back some beautiful shinny freshly plated parts that rivaled the finish of the original kit plated parts.
 
I had just begun painting and assembling my Pinto when a certain Roswell Rod resin kit opportunity presented itself. So not wanting to miss out on this great opportunity, I shelved the Pinto to address the Roswell Rod project (see my previous submission). There the poor little Pinto sat idle for nearly six months. Then a couple of commission jobs came along that needed to take priority, and again the Pinto sat.
 
Finally, after months of distractions I found myself in a position to finish the poor little neglected Pinto.
 
And so, here it is, finally complete.
 
I deviated from the stock kit by painting the model silver (a Honda color - lacquer) instead of the original green (or red depending on which issue). I thought it would have a more sophisticated look about it. I also eliminated the nerf bumpers (since I didn't have them anyway) and replaced them with amber directionals in the front and clear back up lights in the rear.

The decals are reproductions of the originals made by Slippery Arts, with the exception of the legend on the back of the spoiler which I custom printed on the computer. The Body was clear coated with two part urethane clear coat. Engine wiring was represented with some very fine copper wire I had saved for just such an occasion. Everything else is box stock.

And so, I now have my very own Poison Pinto, raised from the ashes of a glue bomb and a Pinto Street Rod.

"Hi Ho Silver…Away!!!"