The 71 Mav Grabber finally made it to me today...

That being said, I am sorely disapointed. The car is heap of rust. I'm really not sure if it is worth the efforts to restore it. I called a few Restoration shops and they think I will be north of $30,000 to get it restored.

That being said, that includes everything including engine, body work etc...

So my question to you folks is, is it worth it? Should I invest that kind of money into the Maverick? I know this is a Maverick message board, so the vote will be swayed a bit, but in all reality should I do this?

I paid $900 for the car. I will part it out if I don't do the project. So I could potentially have a Grabber Hood, Trunk Lid and extensions, Sport Mirrors and even the Grabber wheels if people are interested.

The rest might have to go to the old junk yard.

 

It all depends upon what the car needs, are the floors gone? torque boxes? cowl?
I thought you said the guy you bought it from was a bodyman? He should have know if it was worth restoring or not....
Mavericks are a tough sell, I know there is no way I'd ever get out of mine what I have into it, but I built it for myself, not to resell.

 

i defintly wouldnt put 30 grand in a maverick just to restore it. it wont be worth half of that when its done. post some pics. it sounds like a good parts car. now just find a clean 6 cyl car to put your grabber parts and v8 into.

 

He was a parts guy but he had it at a friend's body shop sitting. He claimed it was restorable fairly easy. When it got to my body shop, he asked me if I was really sure I wanted to go down this road.

The key word that everyone uses is, "is it worth it". I guess it all depends on if I think it is worth it. I think it would be a fun car to be honest. But it's not a Mustang, its not a Camaro and its not a Hemi Charger or Challenger. So I know I won't be able to sell it to get my money I invest into it back.

To be honest with you, I'm torn and I don't know what the hell to do with it. I can't do a damn thing with it until my 07 Mustang GT sells regardless. So right now it is just going to sit there. I'm tempted to just sell the hood and other Grabber parts to someone else and say screw it.

Very disappointed right now......

 

Where are you located? I would find a nice base shell and transfer the parts from the Grabber to it. If your looking to get that kind of money out of it later your looking at the wrong car.

 

If your doubting yourself already, just get out of it while you can, you'll probably never be happy with it.

 

Nope, not looking to sell it. Just not sure I want to drop as much money into it as might be required is all. I could just transfer the parts, but it would be neat to have it be an actual Grabber Car. It's a 3 speed on the floor too which makes it even cooler in my opinion.

Ah, screw it, I think I'm going to give this thing a try. I just need to get the Mustang sold!

If you have $34,000 and want a 1450 mile 07 Mustang GT with a Whipple Supercharger and a ton of other mods, let me know! I have it on Ebay. So we'll see what happens.

 

Whatever estimates you have now......double it and you will be close to what it will really take.

Will it every be worth it in a monetary sense: No WAY!! Not even close.

If there is any rust....I would suggest buying a rust free car or shell and work on that. A true rust free Maverick will probably cost you way more that $900....but will save you tons of money and aggravation in the end.

 

Ok...Just how rotten is it????Up here it isnt rotten till you find a stray cat sleeping on the front seat and you know the doors and windows were closed.Pans can be repaired/replaced...not very difficult.Cowl can be fixed any number of ways...labor intensive...yeah...Torque boxes and rails are gone...towers are rotted...well...then its done...find a clean shell.Quarters can be replaced...good doors/fenders can be had for not alot of green.First evaluate what you have...then decide if its a lost cause.Figure out how much you can do on your own and what you will have to farm out.dont give up...just be realistic...You should be able to build a nice driver for around 10K As long as you dont go nuts with the engine/drivetrain.(That figure is of course if you do it ALL your self).No these cars are not worth near as much as most of the unobtainium alloy stangs/camaros out there but...How many Mavericks have you seen at the local cruise lately????... Thats where the value is in these cars.They are not common as belly buttons...Every one and or their uncle has owned one at some point in their lives(makes for great conversation).If you like to shoot the breeze at car showes and make new friends.(This is the car for you)They are too simple a car to work on/modify.Resto parts on the other hand...not so available.There is stuff out there for em....Autokrafters is one source and this forum is the other and best(IMHO) source for parts.Soo.. dont despair.Evaluate it,decide what you want it to be when done and go from there.These cars are better/more valuable once modified than 500 point concourse restored.Its up to you...I guess value is in the eye of the owner in our case...not the belly button crowd.Good luck!!!!

 

There are certainly some nice Grabbers popping up that can be bought between the $10,000-$20,000 range lately. And no, you cannot build some of these cars for what they are selling for. You might wanna consider buying one already built, or a nice unrestored mint condition one and modify it as you want. Either way you go, you'll likely always wind up with more in it that you can sell it for. But like Dave said, whatever you do, build it to keep, not to resell. (And don't keep the receipts) Maybe you'll never know how much you have in it like me. Don't wanna know and don't need to know. It's not going anywhere.

 

Get us some good pictures of it.

 

My advice would be to find a car already done. These cars dont sell for big money. A decent resto will never see its value when sold. Theres a nice 302 Grabber on Ebay right now and I'm sure it will go for a lot less than 30g's. Even if you payed 10 or 12 grand for a really nice car your still ahead of trying to build one for that money. By the the time you buy a good shell/drive train etc. then get into the body and paint your over 10 grand. Even a rust free shell like mine that we stripped would cost about 7 grand plus from start to finish in our body shop. Luckily being a mechanic at a dealer we did it on our own time after hours with a ton of help from the body men and painter. I couldnt and wouldnt have done it at retail cost.

 

I assume this is the Maverick you are talking about?

http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=52412

You should have really got some comments and opinions on here before buying ... I would guess the only way 99% of us would have taken that car is if it were free ... sorry ...


My Guess is the $30K+ estimates is code for ... we don't event want to touch that thing ...

 

Yep, that's the one. Well, is the hood and deck lid worth anything as they are?