I think I'll name it Argent.

Project Argent: My '69.5 Maverick

This past winter I started a full tear-down and rebuild on my 69.5 Maverick. I bought it for $500 in North Pole, AK, the summer of '96 before I started my junior year of high school. I drove it home with just over 32,000 miles on the rolled odometer, we replaced the main bearings and tires, and I drove it until I graduated. It followed me to Pope AFB, NC in 1999, came back to Alaska in 2001, then went into hibernation when I left for S. Korea in 2005 and stayed out of sight until 2011. It's now a bare shell and hopefully will be back on the road in early 2013.

Originally it was a gold 2-door with light nugget plaid interior, front bench seat, 200 six, C-4 auto, and the ability to carry 8 members of my high school basketball team a distance of 4 miles. Plans for now include rebuilding the 200 and C4, weeks of body work and rust-removal, disc brake upgrade, and silvery-gray paint over an as yet undecided interior. Plans in the distant future are a Classic Inlines aluminum head, T-5 manual, 9" rear end, and R&C Motorsports IFC.

 

Right now the body is missing most of the paint on the driver's side. I have a dolly made from 4x4s, 4x6s, and casters to put it on so I can move it around the garage and finally access the passenger side. I can finish it once Lowes has more 4x4 ties in stock! I just wish I had room in the garage for a rotisserie.



The body is fairly straight except for the front of the left fender and the left door and quarter panel. There are a few of the usual rust spots, the right torque box and lower quarter panels, but thankfully nothing under the cowl. Right now I'm in the process of stripping the paint and undercoating and hope to start repair/replacement in a few weeks.

 

Nice car, nice dolly. I had a car sand blasted ,primed and some painting done on a car hauling trailer. The trailers middle boards were removable.

 

Looking forward to watching your progress - you car is the same color as mine was originally

I built my own rotisserie out of a pair of 1,000 pound engine stands to turn my own 69.5 over. They didn't take up much more room than where the car say in the garage bay

 

Would like to see that!

70MavMan Congrats on starting on your rebuild/build can't wait to follow your progress!

 

I don't want to hi-jack Argent's build thread - so just two quick photos but I have more in my Gallery

 

Thanks! I appreciate the pictures! Will look at your gallery now.

 

I've been slowly but surely eating away at all the undercoating with a knotted wire wheel on my grinder. I started out with just some glasses and a cheap dust mask but quickly decided a full face shield was in order when laying on my back under the car getting showered with tiny rubber bits!

 

A Propane torch makes it easier

 

You are looking good! Where can i get the pink jack stands ? It would be pleasing for the ladies . :16suspect LOL .

 

I remember seeing this before. looks like a great start.

 

...a year later, wonder where it's at in the rebuild.

 

Not much progress to report. I'm currently enrolled in the "n+1 estimated completion date" program, where "n" is the year I hope to be finished. But I'm perfectly happy with it, here's why. Shortly after my last post in Sept my wife and I found out we were pregnant, actually it was just her but you get the idea. We'd been trying for years so when we got the good news we shifted into get-the-baby-room-and-house-ready mode which left little time and $$ to be spent on my poor Maverick. Little Lydia got here in April and, while newborns are incredibly self sufficient and take almost no effort to care for, she still takes up most of our free time. I've been sneaking down to the garage to do little bite-sized projects while she naps in the mornings, but it's going to be very slow going for the foreseeable future, and I'm OK with that. She just looks like a Maverick girl, doesn't she?

 

Congrat's... In a few years you'll have two more hands wrenching on the Mav...

 

Cars can wait, kids can't! You're doing the right thing. Congrats!!