I probably wouldn't buy the whole shell since I'm building Comets and mine are in decent shape, but new quarters and cowl panels would be on my purchase list! -Scott H.
Love the misuse of that term RUST FREE no such thing IMO these cars had so much bare STEEL on them they were rusting before they reached the dealers. Any rust free cars in CANADA or any snow belt states would be more than rare. Not one single cowl panel had any factory protection. So a virgin Body to start with would be a Real rust free car. And where did the 12,000.00 dollar price come from beats me no price was mentioned and don't matter if your not a buyer !!!!!!!!!!
Man, you love to pick apart everything I say.. I have had 2 Mavericks that have been pretty much "Rust Free" (surface rust, isn't a big deal, you restore cars you should know) and neither of them were Canadian cars, Us Canadians do have the means to get cars from other places in North America..We don't live in igloos... Mavericks & Comets were E coated from the factory, dipped in tanks to protect the metal (it might not have worked like they wanted it to), but I have the proof from the Ford engineering manuals that backs this up. How do you know I would not buy one? Other people have money, and NOS parts. Get over it and move along.
Considering the highly produced and desirable Mustangs and Camaros NEW body shells are $12,000....it is fair to assume the less desirable and less produced Maverick NEW body shells would be at least $12,000.....but probably way more since less would be made and sold, and the tooling costs would have to be made up on the fewer units sold.
Heres my 2 cents. You can buy a REAL nice Mav for 10-15 grand that someone else already took the hit on financially. So why start a build from a new shell??
I really don't know why this discussion is even going on. We can't get floor pans made for our cars! Does anybody really think they will ever reproduce an entire body one day??? It ain't gonna happen! Period. :16suspect
never say never..... If I won the powerball lottery there would be Maverick parts out the waazoo!!!!!!!! but yes this thread needs locked
Craig is exactly right here. NOTHING done in short runs can sell as cheap as things produced in high volume like for Mustangs and other more popular cars. As Craig said, the Mustang body shells sell for around $12,000. You would have to figure that realistically a Maverick body shell would have to sell for well over $20,000 each in order to even HOPE to recoup tooling costs. And since I have dealt with many, many companies over the years trying to have parts reproduced, I can tell you tooling costs and costs for small initial production runs can be outrageous. All anyone has to do is look at the failure of the recent effort put into producing a variety of parts for the Maverick. I speak from over 20 years of experience that the volume is simply not there to sustain such efforts. A few parts were tooled and produced; the demand wasn't there; obviously no real profits were made; and therefore there was insufficient capital to continue the effort. I put out some notices on here a while back about the cost of getting some small items repopped, asked for some pre-orders, and had virtually ZERO bites. It's one thing to SAY you'll buy something, and another to actually shell out the money. One buyer won't cut it - or five - or ten - or even 50. It takes alot more demand than that, and all right up front or as soon as the part is released. Without that kind of support, it's almost impossible to get stuff made. For our Mavericks and Comets, it will only happen when enough people are willing to pre-order to cover some or all the tooling costs, like when I did the Maverick finned aluminum valve covers. I got enough pre-orders to cover the tooling costs, and still I took a big chance that my costs on the initial run wouldn't be covered. I was lucky, I broke even and made a few bucks, but I wasn't even able to sell the initial run in a reasonable time period. I had to relinquish my exclusive rights back to the manufacturer so they could sell to AutoKrafters (and any other retailer) so they could get rid of the initial run. And there's only been one more small run done of them that I'm aware of. So if people want to get any parts made, not just bodies, they have to be willing to invest up front with pre-orders. That's the only way it will ever happen.
I like mavericks but there is no way I would pay 12k for a body shell. These cars are cool but they don't hold their value. Around here a nice 2dr maverick with a 6 cylinder is a 3k car at best. The main thing I like about these cars is they are cheap, work and look good. As far as value they will never hold the same value as early camaros or mustangs. I think reproducing these bodies but it would be a terrible fiancial decision. I doubt if anything would buy a maverick body for 12k and that covers this and all maverick forums. If I were going to reproduce parts it ould be floors, quarters and stuff that would actually sell