To appease my father i to request your opinions

So my dad told me i don't need to spend my money on a maverick. I need to get a real car. Debate debate debate. Ok maverick is find but lifting it to make a little monster truck is stupid. So i agreed to leave this open for discussion. Which would be better. 4x4 maverick or 350 maverick on the s10 frame providing i make it look factory made. Feel free to debate. I'm using chevy parts cause they are all too easy to get here meaning really cheap.

 

Personally, I think if money is a premium or this is going to be your only driver, I would keep it as stock as possible. Meaning 302, with some mods. If it's a toy to play with, and you can afford to have it down while you're working on it, then do whatever you want. I, myself, am not a real fan of 4x4 cars.

 

Its been my experience that yes chevy parts are cheap but in the long run you spend more by replacing them a few times,, So around here it is not uncomon to see a Firebird or Camaro leaving with a Ford drive train,, Build the Ford once and just enjoy driving it,, using chevy parts you will get plenty of practice to get it rite after a few times of fixing it,, besides if a chevy owner does not have his hood up twice a month,,,He isnt Home,,

and dont let some of the chevy owners tell you that puddle under the car is not an oil leak,,, its just sweat from all that horse power,, Or it runs so hard it just puked a bit,,Lmao

Have fun with your project,,,, and remember its your toy,,, your Money,, and your time,,, so do it the way it makes you happy,,:bananaman

Joe

 

I figure wouldn't hurt to give you some background to the maverick on this one. Was my uncles. Front end is trash meaning he took a corner into a tree and might as well have ripped the front end off. So here i am with a body and nothing to work with. All the Mustang 2's i have found have been spoken for. If you have and other ideas feel free to shoot but i would rather make it a bow tie held together with bailing wire before i let it rust away. S10 frame had the closest wheel base so yeah

 

I suppose i could always drop in a toyota motor in it. Would be different. Don't suppose anyone here has a hampstep powered car

 

To begin with let me tell you things about dads. When I was younger I wondered how my dad lived to be that old and be dumb as a bag full of hammers. The older I got I realized how smart he really was. I always wondered how he got that smart in such a few short years. I'm sure a lot of members on the board feel and think the same as I do about their dad. Your dad is right...you need a reliable car to get to work everyday. The Maverick is old and parts will be needed replaced when they wear out. It's an expensive (but fun) hobby to have a classic car and to keep them on the road. When my first car, my Falcon, got to the point of taking more time and money to keep it reliable I bought a new ’76 Cougar. I hung on to the Falcon until I could afford the money to throw at it. Well actually it was worth only $150 at the time but it had a new battery, starter and tires, (about $150 worth of new parts)

As far as 4X4. 350, or S10 frame…that’s a lot of fabricating to make things work. It’s not a bolt-on job. It looks easy to begin with until you start getting deep. You need to be an excellent welder and have the tools to fabricate metal. This is something that you can’t do in the driveway with hand tools.

Hindsight is 20/20. I cut my Falcon rear wheel well out to fit fat tires back in the 70’s, now I wish I never cut up my Falcon. But I also never though that I would still be driving this car today. You never know what the future will be. Someday a Maverick in stock form will be worth millions…a cut up maverick won’t bring that kind of money. But then again… its your car do what you wanna do.

 

change out the frame mounts so you can run a oldsmobile motor, then you'll be fine



but honesly, a maverick body on a lifted truck frame isnt something that i can really say that excited about... but thats just personal taste i guess

a ranchero would be cool though and probably a little more fitting

 

Hold up. Miscommunication. Daily driver is cavalier cause it gets good mileage. Maverick is project. His real cars are Camaro's Gto's Firebird's ect...

 

I think for the amount of money you'd put into making a 4x4 or a re-bodied S10 you can buy a Maverick that doesn't have a trashed front end, and used your busted one as a parts car. Or if your Mav is in good shape from the firewall back, buy a parts car or get a front clip from a junkyard. Then if you want something wild and different, put a big Ford motor in it. Or if you're hell bent on Chevy stuff, (I don't think GM is the devil myself, although I wouldn't Chevify my Mav) then go that route. There's no reason the unibody couldn't have a Chevy motor bolted in with the right mounts, shouldn't have to put a frame under it. Although a Vega would make more sense than a Maverick for the Chevy stuff, and get more respect than a bastard car.

 

Always did feel sorry for those vega's. Right after that is the gremlin.

 

I have the same opinion. There are a few Mavericks for sale in OKC that you might check out.

 

What. I only found one. When i called it was gone

 

All Mavericks for sale in OKC:

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/search/cta?query=maverick

 

Know for a fact the 71 is gone. Called on it sunday. Call on the 74 soon as i'm off work

 

Ok I get it now. Since you already have a reasonable daily driver, do whatever you want with the Mav. It's a project and you might as well have fun with it.