After owning the car for four and a half years, it's finally time to start my build. A little bit of background: It's a 74 with the 250/C4 combo. Bought it with roughly 120,000 miles on it for $1500 running and driving when I was 17. Since then, I added 1994 Ford Windstar Minivan seats, a glasspack muffler, battery disconnect switch, 15" wheels and tires, and I replaced the distributor last winter. I've been steadily buying parts over the last year or so, having collected most of what I need for the build by now. Here she is after the new wheels and tires four years ago: Here's a rough idea of my end result: The plan is a white with black accent (or stormtrooper if you prefer) look with effectively zero chrome minus the lip on the wheels I'm looking at. The spoiler will be a custom taller grabber style (I've got a grabber spoiler to use as a base). 17x8 wheels, BilletArt's billet grille, small bumper swap, halo headlights, Corbeau GTS II seats, disk brakes, grabber hood, Sound Ordnance powered audio, power locks, AC to be converted from a different model car, T5 swap, and possibly the unisteer rack and pinion. The best part? I'M KEEPING THE 250. After extensive research, many personal debates on pros, cons, and cost, I've decided to keep it and build it. I'll be going all out with all of the Classic Inlines goodies, to include the aluminum head. "But you could get a 302 crate motor making 300hp for less than what it'll cost you in parts!" Yep, but like my motivations for many of my choices (the maverick in general, the paint scheme, bringing the modern touch to it, etc) I'm doing it because it's different. For a while I was just thinking of a grabber clone and keeping it stock looking, but that's by far the most common route in this community. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, but not really my style. My goal is to have this completed this summer. It's ambitious, yes, but with no job this summer and no girlfriend to sap my time and money, I've got a lot of time to devote to this. Bottom line is it needs to be done before I graduate college and commission, because after that I won't have the time, resources, or space to be able to build it once the army pulls the reins in on me. I've got access here at home to basically any tool I need, my dad has a lot of shop space and a lot of equipment. Plus he has the knowledge I need to get this thing done. I took a few auto tech classes in high school, but I am by no means a wizard with this stuff. He has the hands on technical skill and I've got a lot to learn. I began by pulling the interior, removing lights and bezels, and pulling off a lot of the trim. Then I pulled onto the four post lift we just installed and took the bumpers off. Here she is after I got her lifted up. And here she is as she sits now: I'll keep you all posted as we go!
Subscribed so I can watch your great progress. I love when 6 cylinder stays with the car and is worked to make more power. Not everything has to have a V8
what did your mav have in it when you got it? you didn't have the 6 cyl option when you built (building) your car...
I'm also diggin' the "hot-rodded 250" theme and I love the brazilian style stripes. Daring to be different makes for interesting results that sometimes get more attention than the mainstream cookie cutter versions do.
Exactly what I'm going for. I was initially thinking of doing the inverse of the common grabber blue and black scheme by having a black car with grabber blue stripes, but I already own a black car and it's miserable in the summer, even with AC. I know the purist crowd won't care for it, but I think it'll be really slick when it's done and hopefully will inspire other people's builds.
Update time. Got more of the interior stripped out. Pretty tedious project for one person unscrewing all of the little odds and ends in there. Dash pad was especially fun, but I got that out plus the air ducting and the gauges. The old dash speaker was crumbled to bits and had no wires connected to it (I've always just been content listening to the car/my thoughts as I drive). If anyone wants my old gauge cluster, PM me. And then there's this in the passenger floor pan. Could be worse, but I'll likely replace both sides because while the driver's side doesn't have any holes, it doesn't look promising.
very nice. keep it up. are you going to go with repop mustang floor pans, or are you going to do little patches?
Pour a gallon of water into your cowl vents and see if it comes out under your dash and onto your floor - could be a leaking windshield gasket but worse case is rusted out cowl vents - find the source of why your floors rusted out before you put new ones in
Cool project, but the 250 is a waste of time & money. You'll get smoked by 4-cylinder Honda Civics, not to mention it'll never sound good.
Cool project! I'm interested in seeing a 250 build. I agree with Frank (71gold) and Bob (mav1970), and suggest you test your cowl. BTW, your dash pad job may have been easier if you had removed the dash completely. Looking good, though!!!
I'll test for the leak source today. My interior had some bad moisture damage, the carpet pretty much rotted out in some places, there's surface rust under the dash, etc. I'll probably have to do mustang pans. Crazy Larry, while the power per dollar amount is nowhere near as cost effective as a 302 swap, I'm building this up to be a daily driver, not a Sunday cruiser or a street/strip car. If done right, I'll be in the upper 20mpg range and not be a slave to the gas pump the way I would be in a V8. Plus, the built 250 will be the motor to look at in a line of V8 cars With dual exhaust and glasspack mufflers, it'll sound solid too.
I ran a 250 for about 20 years. It was fully rebuilt with a Weber DGAV and headers. I never got better than 18 MPG on the highway. I put it in with the impression that I would get good gas mileage. It never did. Average was 13-15 in town. I should have put a 302 in it back then and that is what I am doing right now. Larry is correct. These straight 6's get bad mileage. Mom's stock 1980 Fairmont with a 200 gets about the same as the Maverick did and it has zero pick up. Unless you do something like an Australian cylinder head. You will not get good mileage in my opinion. These things were designed in the 50's when efficiency was not an issue. Unusual is cool, but sometimes it is just not worth it. Micah