My '72 Grabber build thread

I am starting this thread to ducument the restoration of my 1972 Maverick Grabber. I bought the car on August 6th 2011 from an old neighbor who had moved away. The car actually has low miles but it was sitting under plastic tarps for the last 10 years and the moisture from being under the plastic and the mice have done quite a bit of damage. The interior is completely shot. The body on the car is extremely solid with very minimal rust except under the cowl. These pictures show what the car looked like when I brought it home. The engine didn't run but turned over. The duraspark had been wired wrong. It had a weiand manifold with an adapter and a Quadra-jet carb that spewed fuel from the vents.

 

The fuel tank fuel lines and fuel filter were all filled with rust. It's a wonder the fuel pump even worked. Between the time I brought it home and 8/13 I swapped the carb for a holley 600 vac sec that I had reworked for a previous car with center hung floats and secondary metering block. I filled the carb through the vent tubes and it ran much better. I had to run a jumper wire to the duraspark module but at least I know it runs! I used to own a maverick that I raced from the mid 80's until around 93 or 94. I've been poking around on this site for several years because I really missed my maverick and I wanted another one. The car in these pics has been my inspiration for the last few years.

 

I got a free parts car from a friend from which I got a manual steering setup, disc brakes, jaz racing buckets, and a whole bunch of other stuff including a set of Bobcat taillights. Cleaned up the floor. Welded a few small holes somebody drilled for seats and fixed a couple of very small rust holes and sanded down some surface rust before giving it a coat of POR15.

 

Got a new tank from Advance Auto Parts and welded in a competition Engineering sump. After removing the lower dash and air conditioning/heating box I could see there was some rust damage to the cowl that needs to be fixed.

 

Drilled the holes for the Bobcat taillights on 9/7. On the weekend of September 10-11 I got teh disc brake conversion done, door hinge bushings and pins on both doors installed, and drilled out 130 spot welds to remove the upper cowl panel. There were some huge mouse nests in there and a whole lot of rust. I guess I will have to modify a mustang cowl repair panel for the passenger side and just patch the drivers side. I honestly think removal was the hard part though. I also pulled out the power steering linkage and installed the manual linkage.

 

Here are some pictures of the cowl.

 

Looks like you have made some good progress, but that cowl area is going to be a project itself.....

 

A little more info on the car. It's an automatic but the trans doesn't work. Its full of fluid but the car doesn't move. I want a manual trans anyway so I'm just going to swap it out now. The parts car had the pedals, bellhousing and frame bracket. I picked up a z-bar from someone in the classifieds on this site. I have a flywheel and disc and I just need a pressure plate. I also have a toploader 4 speed trans. I am putting Hooker 6901's on the car because one of the exhaust manifolds is cracked (good excuse anyway!). I really want one of those 9" housings a guy on here was selling. I have a nodular case, 28 spline and a 31 spline traction lock units and a few sets of gears of varying ratios to choose from. I bought a complete weatherstrip kit from Auto Krafters. I need a windshield. The rest of the galss is in very good condition. The car had a vinly roof but I welded in the moulding holes and i'm not putting vinyl back on. For the engine I may swap on a set of ported and shaved 72 heads with larger valves and screw in studs. I have a solid lifter ford motorsport cam I may put in it just for the sound effect. Basically I am just throwing parts I have laying around onto this car to get it running and driving. I want to paint it and have it running before winter. Then I will drive it until my falcon project is finished. After that I want to cut the shock towers out of the maverick and install a mustang II front end and a 4V 351 Cleveland and more modifcations. That's my plan.

 

Hey Frank, the cowl is probably two more days of work. The drivers side will be easy but the passenger side will be a bit of a challenge. I've done this before on a mustang but it was easier because the repair panels are made for it.

 

Oh, trust me I know..... I have repaired the cowls in a few early Mustangs, as you said not too bad because all the panels are made..... I repaired the cowl area on my 71 Grabber a little while back..... I used early Mustang repair panels for mine, it took a little tweaking/modifying for them to work but not too bad at all.....

 

Yeah I read your whole build thread, incredible! Wish I had a shop like that tO work in. Hey do you think I could put my car on a rotisserie with the front suspension still on it?

 

One thing I don't understand, does the water that fall into the cowl suppose to sit there and evaporate or what?

Btw, good progress! Wish I had your skills and determination oh and pockets. Cleveland, top loader, grabber, all things I want but can't find (for a decent price). Can't wait to see this done

 

There is a drain on either side of the cowl that lets the rain water run out into the inside of the front fenders (of course causing other problems). These drains get blocked up with leaves causing the water to lay inside the cowl and not drain out unless the level reaches the height of the vent rings. Then it drains out onto the carpets. The biggest problem is that Ford never coated the inside of this cowl with any rust protections and we all know what happens with bare metal and water. The bottom of the cowl vent rings rot out and there is no stopping the water at that point from getting inside the interior. Next thing you know is your floors are rotted through. I also removed my outer cowl and used aftermarket Mustang panels that I tweaked to fit my repairs.

 

Went to the garage and looked thru my air vents and noticed the passenger side vent ring looks fine except for one small spot. The driver side vent ring is a different story. Looks bad but not as bad as john's. Gonna poor some water and see if the passenger side is still good or not

 

Got any pics of your repair? How did you seal moisture out of the pinch weld area after you welded it back together?