Ralph Price's unrestored 1971 Grabber

Ralph was kind enough to invite me over today to check out and take pictures of his 100% unrestored 1971 Grabber. He ordered and purchased this car brand new. As you can tell it is a beauty ... it has been in storage most of it's life. This has to be one of the nicest Grabbers out there .... restored or original.

Thanks Ralph!

Notice the fan shroud ... no caution decal ... and Ralph said it never had one.

Pictures:


Ralph Price's 1971 Grabber

 

Thats REEEL pretty. Definately in prime condition

 

Also notice the starter Solenoid ... This is a St. Thomas car ... looks like they used a different version ...

 

WOW, thats a nice car, I really like to color combo. Who's service van is that?

 

Nice pics

It is interesting to see an original car like that. Do you know if
the painting of the taillight panel varied greatly? I know the big
bumper cars did not have the blackout going up to the trunk seal.
I had to tell my paint guy where I wanted it when I switched bumpers.



Funny looking fisheyed paint on that qtr. extension as well. Factory imperfection?


It looks like the original belted style tires on that car. Notice the
flat spots in the pic. How many miles are on it?



Has he ever changed the hoses/belts? Great interior shots.
Damn I am giddy over those pics.
Seth

 

I was looking at my 74 which is a St. Thomas car, and the taillight panel has the same paint treatment on the taillight panel (curved) as that car, and my 73 is from Kansas and the style is different it goes straight across.

 

He wore out the original tires but I believe he said he replaced them with just about identical ones to the originals... yes they are PolyGlas and he said the do get flat spots easily when parked. The Spare is the original. It came with GoodYear tires .. not Firestones.

I took a picture of the blackout mask on the rear panel since it was not blacked out like mine but this is all original ... again a possible St. Thomas difference since most cars we see are Kansas City including mine.

Notice the factory stripes on the rear spring ... that i why I took that picture.

The hoses are all original ... one belt was replaced. The other is original and still has the D1ZE Autolite stampings on it ... I belive the replaced one was stamped D4ZE ...

Also notice the late model Maverick medallion in the Comforweave Door panel. I had seen this once before and assumed the owner had changed them. Ralph said his car was a June build so apparantly at some point Ford ran out of 70/71 medallions and switched to the later model 72/77 medallions that were used on panels with the wood grain.

 

Thank you Dan for posting these pics and it was great meeting you. Nice to talk to another Maverick enthusiast in person!!!

Answers to some of your questions guys.....

It has Goodyear Polyglas tires that are identical to the originals, purchased in about '76 when Goodyear was still making them, they have about 5,000 miles on them. The car has 78,000. The paint on the quarter extension is orignal and there is even a paint run on the front lip of the hood that came that way from the factory so I have left it that way, never buffed it out.
All the hoses are original . I replaced the alternator belt with a repop but the PS belt is original with the Autolite # heat stamped into it. The wiring is also all original, including battery cables and spark plug wires, dist cap etc. I have replaced the filters of course but with new Ford stuff. I have tried to keep as original as possible, so it really does look like it just came off the line.

The service van is just someone repairing my next door neighbor's AC.

Thanks for all the compliments!!!!

 

Taillight panel....

...I forgot that the big bumper Grabbers did not have the circular trim around the taillight panel-so your body color taillight panel paint would have gone all the way to
the decklid trim. Comet GT's had the bright trim surround, so the blackout
stopped at the trim.

Grabbergreen-nice car. Thanks for allowing Dan to document some of the unique pieces of an original car. I am going to study the wiring routes and
hose routes under the hood. Are they as they came?

Thanks, Dan.

Seth

 

Seth, yes the hoses and wiring are as they came from the factory. The only wiring I would not guarantee is the spark plug wiring order, some of them may be swapped at the connector holding them together over the valve covers, I know the 5,6,7,8 bank are not supposed to be in order, should be something like 7,5,6,8 to keep 7&8 from crossfiring.

 

nice looking car. unfortunately my 71 grabber will never look that way again.it had been raced when i got it so i didn't feel too bad about going a little further with it.

 

Wow..what a NICE car

 

Awesome looking car. I did notice the starter solenoid and didn't know that style had been around since 71.

 

One word. Awesome!. Great to see such a nice sample of Maverick greatness. Thank you for posting the photos and thanks to Ralph.

 

THAT IS TOO COOL!!!!!!! I love the interior. I had no idea you could get color combinations like that.