I owned two 1973 Pintos....a bright orange automatic Runabout with white vinyl top and a yellow-gold 5spd wagon.
Here's the straight story on the explosion problem.
1. The basic coupe and Runabout were the only models that had the design flaw. The wagon did not have this flaw at all and was excluded from the recall. The flaw involved two protruding structural bolts in front of the tank facing backward, and a rigid filler neck between the gas cap and the tank. Were the car struck from the rear, it could push the tank forward into the bolts, which would puncture it, while the rigid filler neck would snap off, causing gas to spill everywhere.
2. The factory recall on the coupe and Runabout involved removing the tank and the filler neck, installing a big polypropylene protective block between the bolts and the tank, and replacing the filler neck with one more flexible that could handle an impact without snapping. A new gas cap finished the job. This was an expensive recall, on the order of $500 per car in the mid 1970s.