'71 Mav

Purchased this car in the spring of 2018 after a couple years of searching for a Maverick that wasn't totally rusted out (I live in Wisconsin after all) or way out of my price range. This car came from New York but was purchased by someone in Wisconsin and driven back to Wisconsin several years ago. It was bone stock when I bought it. Has the 200 CI 6 cylinder with a 3 speed automatic. Manual steering and brakes with drums all the way around. I have big dreams to make this car special to me and build pro touring type of car.

Since purchasing, I have done a Wilwood brake conversion on the front drums and put 5 lug American Racing wheels on. Right now, I only have the front done but have had it on the road and call it my mullet car due to the very different wheels and tires between front and rear (business in the front party in the back). I have lowered the front end by cutting the coil springs down. I hope to do a full coil over conversion in the front eventually.

As for the heart beat, I still have my first car which is a 1988 Mercury Cougar with a 5.0. I am hoping to rebuild that as a 347 and drop it into the Mav. I would like to convert to a 5 manual as well. The rear end in the Cougar is an 8.8 with limited slip. I may put this rear end in the Mav as well.

My dreams are way in front of my wallet and time right now but I hope some day that this will come to be.

11/11/19
Not sure if this is where I would keep a log of what is going on and what I am doing but this is where I am going to start. Its 13 degrees out side and it's only early November. We have had our 3rd significant snow storm of the year already. The car is in the garage so it is out of the elements and I can try to work on it. I got Digitails LED tail lights for my birthday and have begun the process of installing them. I took the original tail lights off and cleaned up the lenses and bezels. I ordered new gaskets for the lenses and housings. I have taken the rocker panel cover off to start planning out how to route the needed new hot wire for the tail lights. I also have a couple of rust spots to clean up on the tail light panel.

I also decided to bite the bullet and see what was lurking below the vinyl top. It was in pretty good shape with 1 small rip starting to form on the right rear pillar. I started there and just started pulling until I could get all the black off. I had to do some scraping with a plastic putty knife. I also used a razor in some spots to cut the top. I now have an all metal top with a bunch, I mean a lot, of glue on it. The roof metal is in really good shape with no signs of rust. I had always planned to not keep the vinyl and just decided winter was a good time to see what I have and start the process. I removed the trim from the rear quarter panel area as well. I will not be putting this back on so I will have to plug the holes that the trim used to mount in.

4/17/20 - It has been a while since I updated but progress has been slow with cold winter months and no heated garage. I got the tail light panel blacked out and got the tail lights finished up. Most of the glue is off the metal roof from the vinyl top. Just need to finish cleaning/sanding it smooth and decide how to temporarily paint it. Eventually, I want to have everything stripped down and painted so now is just something to make it look better.

8/6/22 - have plans to do a rear end swap but summer is getting short and I want to at least drive it this year. Got 4 to 5 lug wheel adapters to mount matching wheels in back as up front. Since the spacers pushed the wheels out so far, tires where rubbing fenders. Made an extra long shackles for back of leaf springs to raise the car up in the back some. This worked. The wheel spacers and modified shackles are temporary to just get a few miles in this year. it also makes the ride height in the back higher than I want but gets the job done for now. Also painted up the grill and head light area and installed led headlights. I really like the way the front looks now.