It's 'rare' to find one of these cars that Doesn't have some kind of issue at the cowl area.. I've found TWO in the last 15 years . If you ' DO ' have a leaky cowl area .. there are several ways of dealing with it on the forums. It sounds like you have some skills in the body work department.. that always is helpful ! Cometized (Chip)
Well, looks like I may have thrown a monkey wrench into my build. I have another Maverick on the way that looks to be in better shape than what I have started on and it already has a healthy 302 4 BBL and a 3 speed od transmission installed. I guess I will assess which is better when it arrives, so everything is on hold until then. Looks like I will have a lot of spare parts to sell when it's all said and done.
Second Maverick showed up today, Although both cars have there +'s and -'s, I think the car I bought first is the winner. Overall more solid. But, with that said, I now have a good 302, 3 spd AOD, dual hump transmission cross member, belly bar, good sport grill, a good grabber hood, and too many spare parts. The V8 engine frame mounts I had bought earlier are now spare and will be going up for sale along with a bunch of other stuff. First things first, gotta get both motors pulled from both cars, figure out what I can sell that is extra to recoup some cash and go from there. I think I may remove the power steering set-up from my build car and go with the manual steering set-up from the now parts car. Any opinions on that? I'm keeping the power disk brakes though since it already is there.
Wow, It's been smoking hot these last few days, but I'm making some headway. The six cylinder is about ready to be pulled, and the 302 is about ready to come out of the other car. Both are pretty much down to starter, trans bolts and motor mount bolts. Kinda been jumping around a lot though, worked on combining two grills to make one really good one, and got busy doing the body work on my grabber hood. (the last two I worked in the shade in my back yard). Boy I wish I had a lot bigger garage, but I guess I have to work with what I have.
Chrish64: Been reading your posts .. When your engine is pulled out and you have plenty of room .. It may be a great time to deal with the Leaking Cowl ..You'll be able to stand in the engine bay and work unencumbered . Just a suggestion. I repaired several in that manner and I didn't have to worry about grinding sparks, or welding flash. Cometized (Chip)
Ya, I'll be looking into it, I'm just working on getting down to one car first, then I will concentrate on repairing the rust issues in the floor and looking into the cowl area.
Oh my, just when you think you've seen it all. Doing some tear-down again today on my parts car when I found this. Looks like my decision on which car to use was the right one. Wood blocks for spring spacers. This is not the first really jerry rigged thing ive found so far.
Looks like some of those ' nuwood' spring spacers ! At least they don't RUST ! Looks like it may have been installed by asinine engineering corporation. ( Cometized ) Chip
After many hours, I am finally happy with my grabber hood. It took much longer than I had anticipated, but I'm a bit on the perfectionist side of things. It had been hit in the front and squashed inward, but you know how hard it is to find an undamaged rust free original hood, so you gotta work with what you can get your hands on sometimes.
Looked at the cowl on my parts car, you could have dropped a dinner plate through that hole. That would have been really fun to try and fix. Glad it's just a donor.
Did some more work Sunday before it got to be 100 degrees. Cut out patch panel for my build car (much bigger than I need, but you can't uncut metal!) and the motor is only held in by gravity. (word done after the pic). Just waiting for my friend to swing by with the hoist. Slow progress, but it is progress.
Well, two cars, no engines. Got both engines out this weekend. The 302 is up on the engine stand and the 6 cylinder has gone to a new home. A few more items and the parts car is off to the scrap yard.
Well I have been checking out your progress, you have lots more ambition than me. I dont mind the cutting and welding part or painting its just the body work part that I dread, I need to find a friend that will teach me the tricks of how to get the body straight after using bondo when I do it as it usually ends up wavy. I will keep watching so keep posting
