1972 Maverick Grabber Resto/Mod for my Dad

I may have missed it from before but what is the history of this car to want to do all these repairs on this car?
great work you and your bro are doing...:Handshake

 

Great work can't wait to see the finished project

 

Looks like it is really coming along nicely. Looking forward to seeing more as it progresses.

 

Looking mighty fine

 

I like it! Keep us posted. Really like the pics...

 

At this point we decided that there was not enough room in the garage so we moved the Maverick to a shop that a friend of mine owns.

It also takes some of the worry that my dad might stumble onto the car when he visits.

After the Maverick was media blasted we found out that it was once hit on the right hand side. We decided that we would replace the damaged rocker, right rear quarter, and the outer rear wheel well.

This is a big task but we hit it head on and the results were pretty good.

The first thing we did was to cut out the right rear quarter panel.



We then worked on replacing the right side rocker panel. I missed a few pictures and only took a couple after we got the new rocker installed.





After the right side rocker was replaced we replaced the right outer wheel wheel. I concider myself really lucky to find an NOS right outer wheel well. I was on ebay looking around when I found a guy who just posted one up. I thought how lucky could I be. Then I noticed his listed location was in town. I immediately sent him a message and he call soon after. After getting directions I realized that he was located 1/2 mile from the shop the maverick was currently at. We made a deal and I picked it up 30 minutes later.





I picked up the new quarter from AutoKrafters. I was not to bad but we definately made the right decision to keep the original corners on the car and cutting the new quarter down so it fit the cut out. It took some time to get the quarter welded in. We took our time to make sure we did not warp or deform the panel. It came out pretty nice.

 

We started to prep and install other panels on the Maverick to start getting the body lines lined up. We already had the the right door installed so we could make sure the new quarter lined up before we started to weld in the panel.





We then started to hang the panels on the car.





As you can see in the pictures we decided not to use the two fenders that we had media blasted. We found two other panels that were in better shape and did not require as much work. The panels we are using will be media blasted soon.

 

I'm enjoying watching your progress very much

I have to re-do my own roll over mounting brackets and can see that your's pivot the car at the tail light and head light levels. That will be good you know when I redo my brackets. I was pivoting at the bumper mount levels and the car was top heavy - now it has a full cage so it will certainly be "different" when it goes back on the stand for the finish work. Thanks for the pictures. :Handshake

 

With the right rear quarter done. I decided that we would attack the left rear quarter. The only area the needs work is the rear lower section.

We taped out the area that need to be cut out and removed that area.





When I ordered the right rear quarter I also ordered the left rear quarter from AutoKrafters. It was a large expense that I decided to spend so I had a section that would match the right side. We were able to fix the body line around the wheel well so there was no need to replace the entire quarter. So we cut the lower section out of the new quarter to use to replace the lower portion we cut out.





The lower portion of the outer wheel well and the inner wall also had rust so it was cut out. We used portions of the left over sections of the left rear quarter to fabricate the replacement pieces.

 

I can only commend your justification for your efforts on your build! OUTSTANDING! Nearly finished with my Bronco for my father-in-law, (I have no parents), but did not have to experience the complete break down that you have on your project. I certainly appreciate your tenacity and dedication exhibited by your photography/documentary of this, and am learning through you. So keep up the great work! You will discover the depth of gratitude your father will have; the pictures will be priceless on the day he receives it!

 

Did you use a reproduction rocker panel? How was the fit if you did?

 

I did us a reproduction rocker panel for the right side. It fit pretty close with little adjustment. We just had to cut the back portion to get it to fit well with the rear wheel well panels.

 

Incredible build! Looking forward to watching it grow, and hopefully meeting the car and yourself!

 

The next area we addressed was the floor panels. I removed the areas that had signs of pitting and rust. I fabricated the steel box that is located under the toe area on the drivers side. I appoligize that I can not find pictures of the floor with the areas that was cut out. I know I took pictures but can not find them.

Here are some pictures prior to the pitted and rusted areas were removed.

 

I used floor pans from a 1964 - 1968 or 69 Mustang. I had to located the pans outward on both left and right sides, rebend the outer lip because of removing the original lip to move tehm outwards. I also had to hammer and dolly areas to get the stiffening channels to match up with the new mustang floor pan and the pre-existing floor pan in the maverick. It took a while but was well worth the time if you do it right. I also fabricated portions of the toe pans to make sure I got all the rust that was starting to show.

Here is the floor pans during the cut down and fitting process.







Once the repair pieces were cut and bent so they fit well. We started to tack them into place. After working back and forth on both sides to prevent to much heat build up, both sides were welded up.