My 71 Maverick Grabber Build.....

Being sharper doesn't have alot to do with it, I have been building these for over 20 years..... It just a bit of a messy job, I have all the parts to do mine so I figured why not get it out of the way..... Mine actually only had 6 or 8 passes and some street driving on it, all clutches and bands didn't even look used..... I am just making a couple more upgrades this time around.....

 

Put my C4 back together..... Then bolted an extra case, tailshaft, bellhousing and pan together for a light weight mock up trans..... After that I put everything thing away and cleaned up some crap, then got the rearend back up on the cart..... Next weekend I will be able to get back to work on it.....

My C4 back together.....




The mock up trans.....




Ther rear back on the cart.....

 

Went to the shop for a little while tonight after work..... Made the hole for the fill/inspection bung and welded it on..... Then I welded a set of 1/2" lowering blocks to the perches on the rearend.....

Here's the hole for the fill/inspection bung, then welded on and then one with the cap in place.....






Here's one of where the lowering block is welded on.....

 

As usual, excellent workmanship. I like the fill/insp. opening "it shud have bn put there frm the factory". The 1st. time I have seen that setup.

 

Those blocks look like they will really strengthen that perch, too.

 

Thanks.....

I don't think those perches need any strengthening, those are from Calvert Racing and they at atleast 3/16" thick and completely boxed..... The main reason I welded the 1/2" lowering block to them is I don't like the possibility of them squirming around..... I am going to use 1 block on each side that I am not welding so that I have the ability to mill a slight angle on them, if I need to change the pinion angle once the the car is all together.....

 

Good job....

 

Thanks.....


Once again I went the shop after work and did a little work the last couple evenings..... I drilled and tapped the housing for a vent and brake line retainers..... I also got a drain plug in the bottom of the housing..... Then this evening I got the housing painted with a fine/medium texture finish to help hide the imperfections in the housing, it is also a very durable finish.....

Here's is the the progress.....

 

What kind of paint on the housing?

 

Thanks.....

POR15 Chassis Black.....

 

Is the POR 15 chassis black single stage, as in do you need to topcoat it like regular POR 15? How is it applied, brush or spray?

 

It is one of the things you can top coat regular POR15 with, it is not UV sensitive like regulat POR15..... You can brush it or spray it..... I sprayed it and them textured it on this application.....

 

So can you use it over bare metal or rust or do you have to use regular POR 15 first? Is it sprayed with a gun or aerosol cans. How do you texturize it?

 

Yes it will go directly over bare metal, but if the metal is poris or rust pitted I would treat it with POR15 first..... It comes in regular paint cans, I sprayed it with a gun.....

To texture you need a gravity feed of pressure pot type gun..... First you basically paint normally to get a good coat of color..... After letting it dry for approx 20 minutes, I turn the air pressure feedint the gun down to around 4-5 lbs and open the fan very wide( doing this basically makes the gun spatter/spit the paint out which will cause the textured effect)..... I spray the part with 2 to 3 light coats with the gun set like this which creates the testure..... I used to do some industrial medical cabinet painting, this is where I learned how to due this.....

 

Today I got all the new hardware in the rearend housing..... I was not not happy with the way the outer bracket that retaing the front of the leaf spring bent in when tightning the bolt, so I got a few large diameter hardened flat washers to use as side shims to keep it from bending(it was also causing some drag on the front Cal-trac bracket keeping it from pivoting freely)..... I ended up putting 1 washer on the inside of both front spring eyes, everything aligns great and the drag is gone on the left Cal-trac bracket..... Next I put the housing in the car and got the rest of the Cal-tracs assembled.....

Here is the rearend housing ready to go in with all new hardware in it.....





Here are the washers I used for spring eye side shims.....




This is what the tweaked spring evy bracket looked like before shimming.....




and here is the housing/Cal-tracs all bolted in the car.....