Mav1970's Insane 69.5 Street Project

Something else finished

The crazy looking set of removable front covers I made for access to the front heim joint of the top suspension link. They had to be built offset like that because of the bolt head being flush to the bracket on one side and the large nylock on the other side. Also made out of 14 gauge hot rolled steel.

 

Very slick and professional, Bob!

Does that bar going the width of the car get tied to the two parallel bars heading front to back?

 

It is connected between the main rear hoop and then the 2 bar set of door bars runs between the front and rear hoops. It just kicks down to make the rear seat usable. The door bars idea came from the tuner crowd.

I know some have mentioned that this cage is not NHRA legal but it's not built for the drag strip. The cage's main function is to take the place of the missing front shock towers with having the Cleveland sitting up front. It is also a full overhead halo cage which picks up the down bars from the front frame and then ends up at the rear bumper brackets

 

If you wanted to make it NHRA legal, you could add some removeable swing out door bars pretty easily. Use them at the track, take them out for the street.

 

Is the project insane, or the owner?...?.... Either way, it's going to be an amazing car!!

 

I believe an insane owner began an insane project

 

Both rear covers over the top links are now fully welded and in primer. The rear seat bottom had been cut in 4 different places to fit over top link covers of the 4 link rear. All new bracing has now been welded into place and the seat frame fits like a glove into it's original floor locks. The original center piece that arced over the transmission tunnel was also removed and replaced with a 1/4 inch piece of steel round stock rolled to follow the top of the driveshaft hoop that now sticks through the floor. This 1/4 inch round stock was actually taken from one of those political signs that one of these goofs stuck into my front lawn - finally found something useful coming from a politician

 

Actually...it could be legal. All the NHRA rulebook says about the door bars is that they must pass midway between the drivers shoulder and elbow...and it looks like those may do that. Not sure I'd take it to Indy or anything to tech in lol...but it could still be technically legal...

Per Section 20, Page 19 ".....Sidebar must be included on driver’s side and must
pass the driver at a point midway between the shoulder and elbow.​

Swing-out sidebar permitted...."

 

Very nice work. What did the engine and transmission come out of?

 

The Q code 351 Cobra Jet Cleveland, top loader 4 speed and the N case 9 inch center section all came out of my 1972 Gran Torino Sport that was my daily driver for 4 years. The quarter panels and inner wheel well rot got the best of me though and at that time no one reproduced any replacement parts for this year Torino to help me restore it so I scraped it and kept the drive train

 

Its too bad the gran torino body style hasn't gotten alot of love in the past but they're slowly starting to get some attention.

 

Beautiful work sir.................

 

Thank you very much

I just have to get back to it again. I never finished the detail work on the interior of my garage after it was built so that is what I've been working on lately. I've been finishing up some storage areas because I got tired of falling over things that never had a place to store them away

 

Finally some progress!

Well, after spending the last month or so, cleaning up my garage/creating storage spaces, so I have room to move around again, I finally got back to making some progress on the Maverick. Both of my original 69.5 doors had lower skin rust through so I wound up buying 2 used early model doors. I stopped stripping the paint from the passenger door when I hit bondo. After talking to Dale Doll yesterday, to make an initial plan to get this car painted, I got to work on removing the remaining paint and all of the bondo. I found a surprise under the bondo on the passenger door. I guess it took a side swipe and has some scuff damage on the bottom but not deep at all. There is an area on top where you can see that it was pulled out to some degree before the bondo applied. As it being rust free, I think it is worth fixing once again before paint. The bondo that I removed, wasn't very thick, and you couldn't see it as a repair when I originally got the door so we move onward

 

Now for the driver's door

This replacement door had -0- damage on it but apparently the drain holes in the bottom of the door were blocked for some time while on the original donor car. There are 2 rot through areas on the front skin that will need to have patch pieces welded in but are just flat and there is good metal not too far from the rot. The inside panel also has some lower rot through issues and also needs some pieces replaced but it gets a little more artistic with these pieces. There is also a crack where the lower hinge mounts so time to break out the welder and cut some pieces from my spare doors