1974 Mexican Maverick Restoration

hi all

i already presented me and my mav in the new members forum.
(http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=94543)

i bought it in march 2013 and thought its a pretty good car, but it was only from out side...
the pre owner made a restauration mexican style and closed all the rusted throu and open sheetmetal with alot of fiberglass and paste from outside to make it look nice.

i thought it is good and bought it, but as i had to discover its very bad from underneath.
its my first old car and so i have to learn the hard way...

the goal at the beginning was to make a few cosmetic things and then drive and enjoy it.
and when ill go back home to switzerland (im living for 2 years in mexico) i want to take it home with me and have the only maverick on swiss roads...

but in the state it is it doesnt makes sense because it will fall apart in the swiss climate and wont even have a chance to be allowed on swiss roads.

so i took the decision to make a complete restauration and put a hole lot (too much) money in it to fullfill my dream of an american "muscle"! (for a swiss guy all V8s are muscles, haha)

the restauration will be made from a mexican shop which is specialiced on restauration of mustangs, chevys, pickups, hotrods and all that stuff.
the owner is a 73 year old former racing driver who is buylding cars since more than 40 years, so there is a lot of experiance, even if the shop dosnt look so.
its a real mess and you cant imagine how they work if your not mexican or havent seen it in personal before.
but the output is good and they work pretty quick, and compared to european prices its aceptable cheap (still a lot but affordable).

so this is gonna be my project thread to show you the progress.
im open to all your comments, thouths and helps all the way through!

 

this is how the car looked at the beginning when i bought it.

it has a few details but lookds nice from a few meters.
its a 74 with 70 front bumper and cleaned rear without bumper and shaved off side markers.

 

great project. love the hood tach!
i have seen the car before, somebody posted pictures of this car before, somewhere on here...

 

Nice ride!

 

tanks. i like it too, but it doesnt work that good as you almost cant read it.
and when im changing to a grabber hood it has to go...

true, craig already told me that he has seen it before.
the car has been in a song of a mexican band, you might find it on youtube (dont have the link right now.)

 

so first i took it to a small shop which owner himself produced the maverick in the 70ies here in mexico.
i thought he might know and can prepare the car to be save and rideable.

i changed the clutch, radiator, got all the oil and coolant leaks closed, revised the brakes and alot of small things.

but the first big bang came when he took off the oilpan:
there were 3 screws of the mains broken! one on each main.
so one day work for 3 people to get the broken of part out of the block.
lukily the engine didnt broke in peaces before...

it cost me a good bit and now im gonna put in a complete rebuilt engine it was money thrown out of the window. so what...

 

after driving it a while i took the decision that ill have to make a complete restauration if i want a car that is as nice as id like to have it.

i want a clean head turner, with power and attitude, and also i want it to be my project and not the one someone else had made.

so it came to a shop to be born again.



first we took out the interior and carpet to see how it looks underneath.
i already knew that we would have to change the floors, because i have seen it on the lift and it looked horrible...

the preowner changed some of the floor pan, but just welded new bits and pieces over the old and the water kept going in somewhere, so under the carpet it was wet again and started rusting again.



quick decision, cut out everything and put in new floor pans of a 66 mustang.

they made it nice and the floor pans fit with only a bit of cutting.
also the made some seat boxet to put on my bucket seat from an unknown donor vehicle which were in when i bought it.

 

Nice to see you are making some progress.

Here is a little tip for you: The correct spelling is "restoration".

Looking forward to the progress.

 

because i wanted to upgrade the car and make it quick i was looking to change my rearend to a positraction with bigger gears i was searching for a replacement carrier for my DANA 44. Mexican dont have Ford 8", they have the dana axle.
and because i will upgrade the engine to around 300HP i need a stronger rear end as well.

i couldnt find a suitable carrier for the dana 44 and a Ford 9" is difficult to find here (doesnt exist with the gears and posi i wanted, and new carrier is expensive)
so i decided to do the swap to a explorer 8.8". those exist plenty in mexico and many spare parts as well.
the 8.8 brings me a 3.73 posi, 31 spline 1.3" axle shafts, thick tubes with big bearings and as a big plus rear disc brakes.
so i went searching and found a donor car in a small town near my house.
its really especial here in mexico there are alot of small shop who work with cars and have like a lot of small junkyards.
i use them to find parts, but the mavericks near me are mostly parted out.

this is the explorer i took the axle of.
its a 96 with 16300km.



the inside looked good so i bought it and took it with me to the shop.



with the entire axle i bought a second short axle shaft.
because the explorer rear end has 59.5" width and the carrier is not centered i can cut the larger side of 3", put the shorter axle shaft in and get the 56.5" needed to have the maverick stance.

here is a comparison of the dana 44 to the bigger 8.8



so the shop will disassemble, cut and rebuld it in the next time.
but i am a bit unlucky, the rear end has a broken pin screw and they cant get it out with screw tool...
lets see how they will get it out soon and start with the cuting and welding.
ill post more pics when it goes on...

 

thanks Craig i will consider it in the future..
its because im a swiss guy, speaking swiss german/ german as my mothertongue.
i learnt english quite a while ago and im not that well trained at the moment.
now im learning spanish so i might mix up a few words...

how can i change the title of the thread? didnt found that option.

 

nice looking car to start with and with the work you are doing it looks like it will be alot nicer.
Ill have to remember that paint scheme and do that with my paint in different colors.

I would put a small bumper back on the back if it were my car.

 

A moderator can fix the title.

 

thanks, it is nice from out side, but very rusty underneath...
i like the scheme as well and will stay with it more or less.
the side stripes are just stickers now, they will be painted after painting the new car.
the roof im not sure yet if i will make it black again or leave it in car color.
i think the black roof makes the car look more flat and gives it a nice stance.

the bumper is something im also thinking alot about.
i like it without, but i also like the cars with the small bumpers.
at the moment im more on the side of staying without, it makes look the rear more wide and mean.
but im not sure if that will bring me a problem with european street law...

 

I like the looks if your car. Nice color and stripe theme. Keep up the good work and doing worry about mis-spelled words! I don't know a single word of German or Spanish so to me you're doing amazing.

 

It's awesome getting to see this restoration! Always intrigue by the Mexican mavs and how different they were, like they still used smaller bumpers for a couple more years and dana 44s!