My 71 Maverick Grabber Build.....

Last picture is of the Electric fan mounts?? Smart idea to cover up the rad fins with cardboard.

 

Those are the trans cooler mounts, and yes you gotta protect the radiator when welding near it..... I was actually showing when the nuts are tacked under the top of the care support for the radiator mount.....

 

Today I put a hole in the core support for the trans cooler lines to pass through, a hole in each side of the upper firewall for the wire looms and a hole in the lower pass side for a battery cable bulkhead..... After that I welded the new tower plates to the tower in the outer fenderwell area.....

Here's the hole for the trans cooler lines in the core support.....




Here's the grommet hole and battery bulkhead hole in the pass side of the firewall.....




Here's the grommet hole in the driver side of the firewall.....




Here's the welds in the pass side tower.....





and here's the welds in the driver side.....





Just need to clean up the edges on the engine conpartment side of the towers, then weld that edge, do a final clean-up and grind a smal radious on the corner of the towers.....

 

Got the block welded on the fuel cell this week and mount it in the car this morning..... Then I did the rust repair on the upper rail on the pass side when the fender mounts..... I also ground and welded the seam around the edge of the pass side thower, then ground it smooth and added a small edge break all the way around the face of the tower.....

Here is the fuel cell mounted.....





Here is the 2 area's I made the rust repairs on.....







Here is the tower welded and ground with edge break.....

 

Very Nice! as usual!!
Almost gives me enough motivation to get out to the garage...but I'm beat, I installed a furnace everyday this week, maybe by Monday (It's a holiday for us) I'll get out there.

 

Hey Frank,
Everytime I come to check out your progress, I always come away impressed, awesome work!!. It got me to thinking, how long before this thing might be finished? Any time set in your head? Will it see any street action? As always keep up the good work

Bossed

 

I Didn't really feel like doing anything this morning either, but I made myself go down for a couple hours anyways..... I got the rust repair done on the driver side.....

Here is a before and after from this morning.....

Yeah the plan was to be driving it by January earlier this year..... Well, that didn't happen and I have no real time frame for it to be done at this time..... I am just not spending enough time on it to make enough real progress right now.....

It is definately a street/strip car and will get driven most places it goes.....

 

I like they way you did the rust repair, I have to do the same on my 74 someday. I've been lucky with my 73's they are both pretty clean there. I really like your shock towers...I want to compared the cost of the parts to the Rod & Custom kit..but I'm leaning towards something like that.

 

Thanks, I like the AJE stuff just because it's newer technology then the R&C is..... As far as cost when I was looking cost was pretty close, but I found a great deal on the AJE from another member.....

 

Today I got the inside edges of the driver side tower welded and cleaned up..... Next I plugged the holes up in the top of the towers so ther is now a proper hole pattern for my caster/camber plates..... After that I plugged the 2 big holes in the rear wall of the towers where the brake lines went through before, also plugged some of the holes in the fron aprons..... I get the rest of the holes in the aprons and core support tomorrow.....


Here's the tower after inital clean up, welding and after final clean up.....






Here is where I closed up the holes in the top of the towers before, during and after..... I also opened the center hole a little for better clearance on the caster/camber plates.....








and hole plugging.....

 

Great attention to detail/finishing/astheistics. I guess u go thru a lot of grinding/abrasive disk? I see ur a man of patience. Ur build is definitely THE one to watch.
If I had that kind of skills/patience when I finished the car, I wud be afraid to drive it.

 

You put us all to shame dude!

 

As always Frank....your work is a thing of beauty....I wish I could weld like you.

 

Thanks, it's not worth the effort if you don't get to drive it.....

I don't know about that.....

Thank you.....

 

Sunday morning I did manage to get the rest of the holes welded up in the core support and fron aprons..... Just need to put one small patch in on the driver side apron where there is a small rust hole, I would have done it Sunday but I ran out of gas for the welder..... No pic's mostly because there's not much too see.....