My 71 Maverick Grabber Build.....

Now you went and done it!!!!!

 

Nothing a little duct tape can't handle.

 

With Duct tape I can go 200MPH right ?

 

nothing a torch, a welder, lots of time and money cant fix !!

 

Cut out the rear floor today

 

Be careful....don't scratch the paint!

 

Ran into my first issue with the drag car build.

My donor car has an aftermarket front suspension in it




The maverick has a front brake hub to brake hub outside measurement of 54.5 inches.

In order to make this A-Arm suspension system I already have work in the maverick and be able to tuck the front tires under the car 3 inches on each side my frame rails need to be 15.5 inches apart in the front ( measured on the inside of the rails). So my issue is that 15.5 seems too tight for the big block im planning on using. I guess its time to look at a strut front end but right now its out of my budget. The MNRA race is at Bradenton today...maybe I can find something at the swap meet? Stay tuned.....

 

So what you are saying is that the outside hub to hub measurement, on the Nova, with the aftermarket suspension, is 60.5 inches? Where exactly is that big width difference located between the 2 cars? Is it the bolt on components that are too long? If so, could you bring the front tires inboard by using shorter A-Frames? I would like to see more photos of the Nova front end if you have them.

 

you want to sell any parts off of your donor car? my cousin has a deuce and needs some stuff. looks like yours right now. is yours 4 link or ladder bar set up?

 

Sorry all the drag parts I need for the Maverick are coming off the Duece for the Mav build. This car will get restored in a few years with more streetable parts. I bracket raced this car since the late 80's up to 2005 when I took it apart. Franktf was there in 1990 and 91 when I backhalfed it using some of his old parts.

I updated some of the car in 2006 but never finished it and it sat like this ever since. As far as what it has that is being transferred to the Maverick is a Currie 9 inch housing , a Strange chunk, Mark Williams 40 Spline axles and Aerospace brakes. The rear suspension was all upgraded in 2006 and I installed some ( at that time ) prototype Chassis Engineering Outlaw Ladder bars that adjust kinda like a 4 link. Its a real cool ladder bar that only CE makes. I was a speed rep at that time and I went to Chassis Engineering to inquire about them after I saw a set at the PRI show and they gave me a set to try out. I never got the car back on the track...life got in the way.

So Im keeping all the parts from the Duece either for the Mav or the Duece rebuild.

 

CORRECTION the frame rails would need to be 17.5 not 15.5 apart...My bad


I never measured the Duece hub to hub...i measured from hub to inner frame rail and got 15.5 inches since its already assembled and easy to get final dimensions for planning. So if you double that 15.5 per side which is the A-arm, spindle, hub and framerail you get 31 inches of real estate the front end parts need in total.

FYI...the Nova has an APPLIED RACING TECHNOLOGY Mustang 2 style A-arm suspension that I built from one of their kits. You can see where the extra width comes from in the pic below.



I took the 54.5 inch hub to hub measurement off the Maverick before we removed the AJE suspension Frank kept. So if you take 54.5 subtract the 31 inches for the new suspension set up from the Nova and then another 3 inches a side for tire tuck you get an inside frame to frame of 17.5. Im not sure if 3 inches a side is enough for tire tuck but its a guesstimate right now.

I also have a Jegster front end crossmember that I took a picture of earlier in the post and that may have a better stack up to allow me to narrow it and not have such a confined engine area. I need to call Jegs and get some dims on their a-arms to make sure im on the right track.

I really need the framerails to be around 22-23 inches to work with my plan.

 

17.5 inside to inside on the frame rails is really tight since the stock Maverick is something like 26.5. I can see that the lower control arms are really long. Any way to change over to something closer to stock lengths to make up the 3 inches per side? The length of the top A-frames look OK but the mount is on the outside of the frame in order to "reach" out and meet those long lowers - maybe just add a mount to the top of the frame as the R & C kit do

 

I agree ...17.5 is too narrow.

The Jegster front end I have may be the way to go. I dont have the control arms to verify all the dims but I can make some calculations with just the crossmember I have and go from there.

 

I figured out that my jegster crossmember wont work either. Strut front end is inevitable but NOT in my budget.

After some figuring I came up with a theory that a set of Nissan 300ZX struts would be a cheap alternative to the high dollar racecar struts.

These have the same 5 lug bolt pattern as a Ford and with an Ebay coil over conversion and a few upgrades I will have a strut front end for 1/3 the cost.

Later I can upgrade the brakes and save a few pounds but for now this concept is what I will go with for a front suspension.

 

I will certainly look forward to watching you with this conversion and installation.