Safer Mavs...Unsafe Mavs

Hello,

"Just put some '73-'77 doors on your car and they will fit. You'll also have the benefit of the internal side-impact bars, which were first offered in '73.

I read this quote on another thread. Thought it was a great upgrade. I suppose you could weld supports in the older doors. "Driver door impacts in older cars are 100% fatal above speeds of 35 MPH." This was a quote from an instructor of a Defensive Drivers coure about 20 years ago.

Also, Are the steering columns in these cars dangerous. Should we be considering newer style collapsable columns.

Disk brakes...huge difference.

What else should we do? Some of you guys have built rockets. Probably faster than Mavs were meant to go.

How about hearing from some of you guys who have smacked up their Mavericks. Anything grab you as being particularly dangerous or of interest?

Dave

 

I believe all the Mav steering columns are collapsable. This was a big thing Ford promoted about the safety features of the Mavs.

 

Indeed, the steering columns in all Mavericks are collapsible. The change from solid steering shafts occured some time in the late 60s...

 

Actually I think the beams were put in the doors starting in 71. I know the 72 has them.

 

Yep, I think you are right because my 72 Grabber had them.

As for the safety of a Mav, Many moons ago I was in a head on 55mph accident when a guy veered into my lane. I was slightly injured but walked away. It was a big bumper '74 and I was amazed when I saw the car that anyone could open the door and get out of a car after something like that. Built Ford tough. Those big ugly bumpers might have saved my life?

 

Interesting. 55 head on's pretty hard. Ouch! Sounds much better than I would have expected.

 

When my '74 Mav was totalled, the official police report determined it had rolled half a dozen times - 4 barrel rolls and twice end-over-end. Both occupants (myself and the idiot I allowed to drive it) walked away without so much as a scratch. That's got to attest to a certain level of safety in my opinion. The car itself was such a mess that when I went in to deal with the insurance claim, everyone looked like they'd seen a ghost.

 

MapleMav,
I've always liked the Sprints. Definately worth your effort. I'm anxious to see you finish it.
Is your interior Blue/Blue or White/Blue. Your car would look great with white buckets and blue dash and accents.
Dave

 

Dave, thanks for your comments, and seeing as how you hijacked your own thread here I guess it must be OK to respond. The interior is the standard white/blue with red piping that came in the Sprints. Buckets are cool, Mavaholic has a nice set in his Sprint, but for now I'm really liking the stock 50/50 split-bench seat.

 

I rear-ended a camry when I was 16 in my mav, just hit her with my fender. I'd like to the Toyota vs. Maverick the Mav would win, but I was on the brakes hard and my car was kinda low anyway. Result was My bumper didn't do anything, the top of the fender hit first and destroyed my fender, only broke her taillight.

So I can only imagine what it'd be like hitting an SUV. There's no crash protection above that little fender and on some of these cars we've got it way too low to matter.