My 71 Maverick Grabber Build.....

Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area.....

 

Got a couple hours in on the car Sunday morning..... I stripped and cleaned up the pass side rear fenderwell area..... Also welded the notches up where I cut and rolled the lip under for tire clearance.....

Here's the cleaned up fender well.....




and here's the welded up rolled lip after cleanup.....





This is the driver side rolled lip unwelded to show what the other side looked like before welding.....

 

Frank, you are doing an awesome job on this restoration. Keep up the great work man...watching it progress is just as much fun as the anticipation of seeing it done!

Is your welder a 240vac model, or do you have one powered by 120vac?

- Roger

 

Just a Miller 130XL, 110V.....

 

I have to say it again. GREAT WORK FRANK. I have to get use to looking at a car on a swivel accessory to figure out what's going on. Im use to looking under the car from the ground.

 

Thanks.....

Made some good progress this morning..... Got the whole floor pan from the firewall back to the tail light panel cleaned up considerably, just need to go over the corners and such with a wire wheel..... I also removed the stock brake line retaing tabs that run up the inside of the tunnel beside the drive shaft(what bs they are), also took the e-brake pivot point off the floor since I will not be using it.....

Here's some progress pic's.....








I started to repair the broken shock crossmember, but ran out of gas for the welder so I will finish that after I get the bottle filled.....




Last thing I did was stripp the paint off the driver side fenderwell.....

 

Lookin' good!

 

it never stops amazing me how certain areas of a car can be rotted through and the rest of the car be is such good shape.

 

Thanks.....

Yeah, it seems like there is no rime or reason for where they do or do not rust.....


Well I made some more progress today..... Got the rusty seams at the lower front and rear of the driver side wheel well repaired, basically the same repair as the pass side was..... Also welded up the notched/rolled lip..... Finished repairing the driver side of the shock crossmember too..... Trimmed and welded the seams on the rear end bump sto brackets and ran a wire brush over the entire under side to get all hard to get at areas cleaned up better..... Then I started doing the mods to adapt a new early Mustang fuel tank into the Mav.....

Here's the work in the driver side fenderwell and the rear bump stop brackets.....








Here is the mods started for the fuel tank change..... First I made two new windows in the rear bracket the straps hook into(the top window in both the upper and lower pair are the one's I made/I am moving the driver side strap over a little too, because I noticed in the tech article the driver side strap was on the lower part of the tank and not in one of the notches and I would prefer it was in the notch)..... I also cut the lip off flush where the oval hole is in the trunk pan at the top of the pic because the tank was sitting against that edge and not flat against the floor when in place(I am just going to weld a flat plug in this hole).....




Next I extended the notches the cariage bolts slide into in the rear crossmember that retain the straps.....




Here is the reinforcement plate I made for the pass side clamped in place, then welded..... No need to make one for the driver side since the factory reinforcement extends well past the notch I made.....

 

Nice work Frank....

....are you putting the Mustang style fuel tank in because of your exhaust setup....or because of the rest of the frame re-inforcements demand it.

 

Doesn't it make you feel good that you got to attend to every square inch of this car inside and out?

 

Basically just for the extra exhaust clearance, I like my exhaust tucked up and turned down under the valance which makes for a very tight fit with the stock tank position..... The tank that was in my car is actually extremely clean inside, I will probably put it up for sale soon.....

Yes sir it does.....

 

Today I removed the factory reinforcement plates from the front strap mount bracket, cleaned them up and reinstalled them in the new positions..... I made four brackets to help keep the tank from moving around and welded them in..... I made a bracket to mount the electric fuel pump and welded it to the front strap mount..... I also made a tab and welded it in for a driver side exhaust hanger..... I cleaned everthing up real well and brushed on the first coat of POR15 so I could get in all the tight areas..... Next I will lightly scuff the first coat and spray on a couple light coats to get good coverage everywhere else.....

Here is where I drilled out the spot welds and removed the factory reinforcement brackets for the front strap mount.....




Here are the reinforcement plates clamped in place after clean up, then welded in.....





Here is the fuel pump mount welded in place.....





This is the drivers side exhaust hanger tab I added.....




and here it is after the first coat of POR15.....

 

lookin good!

 

Awesome work!

Let me know if you get bored and want to do this to another Maverick... I might have one you could work on.. if you get bored - lol.