Shelby Mav phantom; suggestions wanted

I am in the process of building my Maverick as a phanthom of the Shelby Mav, as I think it would have turned out if it had been built in L.A., alongside the Shelby Mustang. I am looking for your suggestions as to how to best create a car that would be a convincing example of the Shelby Maverick that was never built. Any ideas re; grille, grille and taillights, scoops, instument or other interior details would be appreciated. So far the car has a Shelby style rollbar, and will bw getting a "Shelbyized" 302. The fuel cap is being replaced with an aluminum Aston flip-top fuel filler, an exact copy of that used on the Cobras, but just a bit larger that the stock Maverick cap. As for taillights, I am considering going with '70 Torino lights since they give the impression of the wider width lights seen on Shelby Mustangs, but have a turn-down on the outside ends, in keeping with the shape of a stock Maverick light (this is supposed to be a Shelby Maverick, not a Shelby Mustang). The one problem I am struggling most with is how to "scoop" the car (hood, roof sail panels, sides) in keeping with the Shelby tradition, but in a manner that looks integrated with Maverick body lines. To scoop, or not to scoop; that is one of the questions too. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. John B.

 

...scoops

The lower scoops that came on the '65-'68 Shelby GT's were fitted into the areas that were recessed, of which there are none on the Maverick body. IF you were to insist on some type of scoop, I would look at eliminating the roof rails, and possibly filling in the pop out windows with a fiberglass panel with a scoop similar to the '67 & '68 FB Shelby GT's. I just came up with that one in my head so I am not sure exactly how to make that work.
Question is would you want to make them functional?
It may be possible to blend the 67 or 68 scoop into a standard hood.

Seth

 

There really was a Shelby Mav built but it was in Mexico. If you wanted it to look like a Shelby I would put on the comet hood with the gt scoop like the one in the autoshow pics. I think it even had a hood mounted tach kind of like the some of the GTO's had. It is a pretty cool idea.

 

shelby?

Maybe somehow you could aquire some body parts of a shelby stang and hold them up to the mav and see what is involved with mounting and fitting them to the maverick? Dennis had a good idea with some firebird scoops on the side of a mav behind the door area??? The louvers wouldnt look too bad either!

 

As far as the hood scoops go we thought about adding some twin scoops like the Olds 442. They could be cut right into the front of the hood at the front of the stock hood bulge. Here's a pic.

Greg

 

fuel cap is being replaced with an aluminum Aston flip-top fuel filler, As for tailli

.

 

Hey Runum, that is actually a cool idea for the standard hoods, if I didn't have a grabber hood I would totally do that. John B, weren't you the one who originally found proof of the shelby mav? Somewhere in the photo gallery there is a mav that is done up like the batmobile, ugh. Page 12 or so (don't hold me to that though) Anyhow, it looks like there are scoops on the sides, you might want to check it out.

 

Here was my attempt at this idea. Full racing stripe running from the hood bulge, over the car, and down the back. Bobcat tail-lights with chrome trim seperating the light "shelby style".

 

re;proof

Rudy; Yes, it was me that "found" the proof of the real Shelby Mav's existence, however, I can't take too much credit for it, since it was always right there, under our noses, if we would have just asked for it. One email to Rick Kopec of the national Shelby club, asking if he had anything on the subject, resulted in him forwarding the pics! I guess they weren't of enough interest to the Mustang owners for them to broadcast the fact that these pics existed. Thanks to all for the suggestions so far.
Runum, that slotted stock hood actually looks very much like tha hood used on, I think, the '68 Shelby Mustang.
Nice job sticking that Aston cap, Bmcdaniel.
I considered the Bobcat lights Craig, but have been unsuccessful in finding a decent set. I will keep an open mind on that idea, especially with flea market season coming up again.
Once more, thanks to all, and feel free to add any further ideas> John B.

 

Hey Selvey...

Is that your latest project? It seems like you were working on an orange Grabber. Got any more pics?


Seth

 

That is actually a picture of a car I had about 15 years ago. My new car will be similar in that it will also be orange...but it will have a Grabber stripe scheme.

 

F.Y.I. and a "heads-up"

The Lemans stripes of the Shelbys (Mustang at least) were tapered at the front and back. If I see a car with Lemans stripes and something doesn't look quite right, I'm guessing the painter didn't taper the stripes.

I plan on doing a similar stripe scheme (tapered Lemans) to mine when it gets painted.


A great source for stripe dimensions (for a start): http://www.thecarsource.com/shelby/restore/stripe_specs.html

Also see:

"Tapered stripe kits are fashioned after 1965 Shelby Mustang. Ford tapered these stripes to give a racier appearance and a more aerodynamic styling. Straight stripes look 'FAT' at the front nose of the car." at http://www.graphic-express.com/n350.htm states

 

442 style scoops

it would be tricky to actually cut the scoops in the front of the hood like was suggested in the picture, and have them be functional. The problem comes from the fact that the core support is in the way of the air flow. I done a mock-up by drawing where the holes would be in the hood... in the nice oxidized ford blue paint with my finger when i first got my 71 parts car. It could be done, but it would definitely take some careful planning. Best of luck man.

Kyle B.

 

Hey Jerry I certainly meant no offense in using your car as an example without asking. That picture is one of the few I have seen that is taken pretty close to right in front of the car. Most views are 3/4 side views. Anyway that pic and some others got me thinking about cutting slots in the hood. Kyle is right in that there are other obstructions to consider to make the scoops functional. We were too far into our project to include them in this car. Maybe later. I also was not sure how a Mav would look with the scoops in real life, so the computer is the closest to simulate it without cutting. Remember what it was like before computers? Maybe taking polaroids and using markers to eyeball new ideas. The idea is out there now, maybe someone else will try it out before us. Thanks for being cool about using the pic Jerry. Good luck with your cars guys.

Greg

 

The Shelby De Mexico also used the Ford accessory hood mounted tach. Those things are going for $600 to $1200 on ebay. I've got a couple of them, but they don't look good on the 72 Grabber hood. It's too busy & it seems out of place. I took the fender snake emblems from the 2000 Cobra Mustang(stick ons) & placed them on the front fenders where the Maverick script usually goes. I was real happy with how that came out. Additionally, I replaced the front grill emblem with the Shelby snake decal(same size) & mounted it inside the clear plastic of the original Maverick emblem. It came out pretty good, but it still remains to be seen how long it will last. I also bought a repop 65/66 Shelby gas cap. What I really like about that is it comes with the attaching cable. Just some thoughts...