Finally, pictures of my inherited '72 Grabber

although i like to agree with dave on this one, he did state he is not good at welding. maybe someone who is awesome at welding could save it though.

 

To my standards you have a great car man. and i wouldn'y worry about the welding. you'll be a great welder by the time your done with the car. definately alot of good things about the car.

 

Clear but with the pattern, not like the early grabbers

 

I realize that probably almost everything will need to be replaced on this car. I also am well aware that with project cars, you're better off financially to buy one from oneone who's already done a bit of the work, as you'll never get close out of it what you put into it. However, there is a bit of nostalgic value to this particular Maverick though - it was basically my father-in-law's first car. I'm going to try to get some better pictures of the rusty spots to see what you guys think.

 

Welding is an art. You have to practice to get good at it. The good news is that if you do screw up a weld, you can always grind it down and do it again until you get it right.

By the end of your project you will have learned a marketable skill!

 

the turn signal color can go either way. there was a big thread on it awhile ago...

 

Another way to tell that it's a 74. It has the Emblem on the grill. And it doesn't have FORD script emblems, i think 75 was the first year for those.

 

I've got the pictures of the absolute worst of the rust. There are some other spots of rust on the car, but it doesn't quite look like metal would have to be replaced. Some agressive sanding and thin putty and I'd be good. I'll have to admit, however, that I know very little about quality body work. I've done some hack jobs on beater cars just to get things looking decent, but I'm going to want this looking crazy when I'me finally done.

Pics:

Driver's side, rear


Driver's door


Driver's door, front


Passanger door, rear


Passanger side, rear


Sorry, this one got turned upside down. Battery tray:

 

You may want to pull the carpet and check the floor pans.

 

Oh
So far, you need doors, fenders, quarter panels..and repair the battery apron.
Anything can be fixed...I'm feeling sad now...

 

Sorry....I see a parts car. I bet the floors and torque boxes are gone as well.

That car needs both rear quarters, both rear outer wheelhouses (impossible to find), both doors, both fenders. I would say it is safe to assume it need another hood as well. That just means only the trunk lid and roof are the only original parts of the car. Add on top of this that everything will need rebuilt: engine, trans, rear axle, all brakes, all fuel lines, gas tank, shocks, springs, etc. Entire wiring harness will need to be gone through. Add on top of this a complete new interior. Throw all that on top of all the paint and body work. Now, you said you have very little experieince in restoration work. I would say, realistically, you will be looking at $30,000 for a reasonable restoration of this car....$50,000 if you want a top notch show car.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but you can get all this done (or already done) on a Maverick for around $8000 easy.....probably even less for a daily driver type.

 

This car needs to have a lot if nostalgic value if you want to restore it. If it has a lot of sentmental value to you why not put it in dry storage, go out and buy a nice car you can drive for a lot less, or for the same amount of money the restoration would cost buy 4 or 5 cars.

 

I'm with the other guys here ... the car is not rare enough to put the kind of work into it to bring it back.

The positive side of all this ... it may be a parts car, but you have the kind of parts car that a lot of us dream about finding.

V8 motor and mounts, stick trans and all the V8 hardware to go with it, sports mirrors, bucket seats and tracks, and a perfect dash pad to boot. This stuff is all hard to find at this point.

There are still solid bodies out there, but you will probably have to drag one in from outside of the rust belt ... swap in all the goodies you have there, add a Grabber rear spoiler and disc brakes and call it done.

Restorations are not easy, but you have some of the toughest stuff behind you already. So ... cheer up...

 

Well, I'm still kinda on the fence on reviving this one, or taking my losses and moving on. In either case, I need to get the car up on some blocks and take a look under the car to see what the rust looks like down there. The body work seems a bit of a big problem, we'll see though....

 

Move On

I agree w\ most of the other comments. Im not a body man, but, I can see there's more rust than car. I wud look for something else and cut my losses. If the floor pans are solid "which I doubt"; sentimental value makes sense only to a point. JMO