Took my Maverick to the muffler shop to have a new H-Pipe and Spintechs installed. It was the ole good news bad news call... The mufflers sounded great but the car no longer has reverse. It was a fluke, but the reverse band broke while at he shop and the trans will need to be replaced. This unexpected problem has led me down a road that I was not planning to travel... To remove the transmission I had to take off the headers. To get the headers off I had to raise the engine which led to me to just remove it entirely as the engine bay needed some detailing. I ended up removig the hinges, tower braces, latch supports, and other items and glass beaded them and properly refinished the components. It looked so good that I painted the engine which was a fairly fresh rebuild but not well detailed. The motor looked good afterward but needed some new chrome to go with the coated Hedmans so I refurbished some old school Mickey Thompson valve covers, installed some chrome pulleys, chrome alternator, aluminum 3 core radiator, electric fan, and MSD ignition. I had previously posted that I purchased some new carpet and had planned on putting that in when I got it back from the muffler shop. When unhooking the original trans shifter I just decided to remove the carpet and get that project completed also. It led to buying new retarctable seat belts and a cable operated floor shifter. I have made really good progress over the last two weeks and plan on putting the motor and trans back in the car on Tuesday. I am very hopeful that I will have the car back together and am able to make it down to Dearborn for a day at the roundup. I would really enjoy getting a chance to meet some of the fellow Maverick/Comet owners that have posted many helpful threads that have assisted me with my project. Wish me luck!! Here are a few pics I took last week; I will post some more pictures later this week so you all can see how it is coming together. Take care - Mike
Just keep chanting: ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.....ROUNDUP.......ROUNDUP You can do it. Hope to see you there either way.
Funny how getting exhaust leads to everything else you just did ... you sound like me ... except getting more done than I have lately. I'll be at the Roundup ... flying in ... and unless Avis has a new "Rent-a-Mav" program, I'll be driving something newer ... Hope to see yours there ... the cut shock towers will remind me of mine. Sounds like a thrash .... Go Get 'Em!
Getting closer to having it back on the road............ Few more nights and I think I can have it ready for Dearborn.
Well, I did not make it to the round up as I had planed but the car is getting closer to being back on the road. Tomorrow I will route the plug wires, add the fluids, and attempt to get it fired and test the new transmission. The carpet was a little tricky as the tunnell on the 70 is quite narrow. After building a raised shifter mount and adding some additional padding I am happy with the outcome. I added new retractable 3 point seat belts as seen in someone elses thread but I am not real happy with the posistion of the shoulder harness as it rubs against my neck a little. Not sure what I am going to do about that yet but they are far better then the previous lap belts. I included a couple of pics of my new H-Pipe with Spintech mufflers that started all of this additional work. They do sound great and much different then most mufflers I have heard. I will post a video with sound this weekend if everything comes together as planned. Wanted to thank everyone here on the website as many of the upgrades came directly from ideas and information available in other posts. I can tell you even though it is taking longer then expected, I saved allot of time by not having to "recreate the wheel".
I saw one of the belt kits that had an...extention strap...to relocate the belt just for that reason. I think Earls set in his car has this...