Hello from a new Maverick owner in Vancouver, WA

Maverick Dude · May 24, 2015

Doug McBride said: ↑

Last weekend my wife and I purchased a 1972 Ford Maverick for my son for his first car.

He loved the idea of having an older car that he could actually learn to work on and we debated at length about this decision considering the lack of standard safety features the newer cars have compared to the benefit of all steel construction.

We decided we'd just go take a look at some old cars while we still hadn't made up our minds... low & behold he found a Maverick and totally fell in love.

The car is an automatic with a straight 6 - 200 and it runs and drives great and the body is in really good shape with very little to no rust anywhere. He's only 15 years old so his plan is to fix it up for the next year so he's got a really nice car by the time he's actually driving. Hopefully, with the blood, sweat, MONEY and likely some tears, he will take better care of this car than most teenagers do.

As his Dad, I'm excited to get the chance to help him learn and to spend countless hours working with him on this car but to be honest, I'm no mechanic. I could really use as much advise as I can get to make this project as painless as possible.

Although this is not a Grabber, he wants to add as many Grabber features as he can afford during this restoration. We're still working on a list of items to take care of but I could really use some tips on the following:
1. The best source of used parts or aftermarket parts, preferable somewhere here in the Northwest (Washington State or Oregon). I'm sure we're going to need an assortment of items but for sure at this point, it looks like he might need to replace the Power Steering Assist as it leaks power steering fluid. We also need to figure out how to replace the lights in the gauges as they don't work (which made an interesting ride home at night with no way to see the speedometer).

2. The most reasonable way to cover or restore the front split bench and back seats (I'm a bit concerned that most seat covers won't work on a split bench well or won't quite fit right making it look ridiculous).

3. Sourcing for items to make this car look like a Grabber such as the hood elements & duck tail.

4. Everyone's recommendation for the best Maverick Service Manual so he and I can actually start to do some mechanical stuff.

I'm really excited I found this site and any and all recommendations or advise would be EXTREMELY appreciated.
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Hello Doug. I noticed a similarity as I just picked up a Maverick from Vancouver, BC. Two useful sources of information regarding mechanical work are as follows: Mechanically, the Maverick is quite similar to early Mustangs. Pick up a Haynes manual on early Mustangs. (Mid sixties to early 70's.). Also, google the type of repair job and there will be a video on You Tube going through the process. Again, if you can't find much info under he Maverick banner, use the Mustang name. I find it very useful to watch the videos before tackling a job. Hope that helps. M.D.

Maverick Dude · Jun 13, 2015

Hi Doug. To get free access to a Chilton Maverick repair manual, Google Repair Manual for Maverick. An old posting from this website comes up dated April 13, 2011. It has a link to a site that gets you into an electronic Chilton a manual. For some reason this posting is no longer on our forum. Could it be a bootleg copy? Check it out!

MD

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Hello from a new Maverick owner in Vancouver, WA

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Hello from a new Maverick owner in Vancouver, WA

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