1971 Maverick - Finally Making a Build Thread

Hi all,
I joined the forum back in November of 2014 when I bought my Maverick, I made an introduction post, but never got around to making a build thread. I documented a lot of my progress on my instagram(@_metionic_) and decided that it was about time I shared some of that with the community here. My car is a 71 2dr Maverick with a 302 and a C4. I was 16 when I found the car on craigslist and knew I couldn't pass it up. When I got the car it ran, the motor is a 302 Roller motor out of an 85 Mustang HO, the previous owner had put that motor in after having it rebuilt and then he said the project took a back seat for a few years prompting him to sell it to finish other projects. It needed work in the floor pans and cowl area, but having taken welding that year in school that wasn't an issue. Plus the car had 66 mustang patch pans I was able to cut to make fit for both the pans and the cowl. The car was originally a blue on blue car, which I didn't plan on sticking with so one of the first things I did while i was waiting for parts since the dash and windows were already out, was repaint the dash and interior panels matte black. I also did away with the front drums since the wheel cylinders were junk, and swapped to discs using Granada rotors and calipers off of a 1975 Impala(I know I know boooo chevy parts on a ford) but the impala calipers have a much bigger piston than the Granada ones. I made the caliper mounting brackets out of some dirt track rear axle caliper brackets for the Gm style calipers. I used a 74 Maverick disc-drum master cylinder and the whole swap cost around $200 ish to complete. I ditched the manifolds and dragging exhaust with a bent downtubes for hooker headers that I exhaust wrapped. The cars wiring was a mess when I got it and so in April of 2015 I was at Pate Swap Meet in Fort Worth and picked up an EZ-wiring harness and re-wired the whole car, which worked great after I got through cutting off the gm style clips EZ puts on their "universal" harness and replacing them with my original maverick ones. I also picked up a set of 69 Mustang Mach 1 buckets at the same swap meet, that the frames were in good shape but the upholstery had had it. I ordered TMI's Mach 1 Sport R seat foam and upholstery and after watching a few videos on recovering seats, decided to tackle it myself and I'm proud of how they came out, although my hands were raw for a day or two from pulling vinyl haha. I bought the sport wheel from Craig Selvey, I've actually gotten a few parts here an there from him. I picked up some Brazilian Maverick GT taillights off of ebay. The project had kind of slowed down the second half of my senior year of high school(I graduated in May) as well as this past summer because of college apps, registration and orientation. Thankfully my schedule this semester, has allowed me to get back after it, and I started body work a few weeks ago. I'm going to throw up a bunch of pictures in the next post that I've taken that goes with the things listed in this post from when I got the car to now , but I'm missing some pictures currently because my phone bit the dust and I haven't finished digging through the backup yet. This first post turned out to be kind of a text wall, but hopefully the pics make up for that fact.

 

After I got her Home.

After I repainted the doors

The headers vs the exhaust that was on the car when I got it, the other downtube got crimped pretty much closed getting off the trailer so I figured it gave me a reason to order headers

The cowl after I got the top off and had to survey the damage

The cowl after I got it patched up, por-15'd and the top back on(excuse the format of these pics I couldn't find the originals, this one was formatted for instagram)

Just a pic of the Maverick I really liked when I took it

The Dash repainted, sport wheel installed and converted to B&M Star shifter

Before and after of the front disc brake swap(I hadn't put the pads in yet when I took this)

I really like the look of these Brazilian Taillights, its a shame ford never used these in the US market. And the previous owner hacked up the grabber spoiler and put bolts through the back of it to attach it when he broke the original mounts, I'll be fixing that soon.

Some Pics of the Maverick next to my Jeep

A before and after on my swap meet mach 1 seats, I think they came out pretty good, especially since that was my first attempt at recovering seats

I'll post bodywork pictures soon, the pictures of the body work are too big for the media gallery, so I may need to make a photo bucket account or something to get them posted here

 

Your car looks great keep up the good work. What color are you going to shoot it?

 

I plan on shooting the car in some shade of orange, I've always liked Calypso Coral Orange, but I've been learning toward a paint shade similar to Mopar's Go Mango orange.

 

Your car is looking terrific

Some of my parts are painted orange and my choice was 69 Camaro Hugger Orange - "kind of a stab you in the eyes orange"

 

I knew when I started this thread I'd end up neglecting it for months on end... but I'm back! Being done with college courses for the semester helps free up my time to post about any progress on my car. I've gotten a fair bit done since I started this thread.
One thing about old cars that always bugs me is skinny stock tires, so because I was getting ready to sand the car down I decided it would be a goo time to fit rear tires to see whether or not I was going to need to roll the fender lip or not..

I knew I wanted 275/60r15 and knew that some people have been able to fit them on their cars on the forum So i figured I'd go for it, plus I've has the 15x8 and 15x7 cragars sitting around for about a year after scoring them cheap on craigslist

195/70r14

275/60r15

I really love the look they give the car and with a 1/4 spacer they don't rub the springs! the only spot I had to trim was the bumpstop tab, Probably going to roll the fender lips as soon as I get my hands on the tool to do it.

I started sanding the car down not too long after this and after discovering the car had been resprayed at least twice from the layers on blue it revealed, I decided I was going to take the car to metal rather than put paint on top of 3 layers of old

This was a picture if the my shop after I had cleaned up some before sanding on the car... needless to say it became a huge mess REAL quick, not that it ever stays this clean for long...


I had more pictures throughout the sanding process, but I have no idea where they went..
Hours with a DA were definitely well spent, although by the time i got to where I had just one door left to sand I was REALLY sick of sanding haha.

Oh and at some point in there I did get a Dynacorn replacement fender and it fits really well, I was impressed, I posted some pics of the fitment in the thread about the fenders being released, but I can repost them in this thread if anyone would like me to. I was glad to finally get the car to metal, the drivers side quarter needs some attention, it looks like it was repaired some time in the late 70s to 80s based on the fact its brazed in. Don't mind the blue on the door in the last pic I took this before I was totally done sanding. Hopefully I'll get to get some primer the car sometime later this week. I don't want to leave it bare for too long. I've managed to find a paint and body shop near me that is willing to work with something this old, because I'm definitely no painter, I hope to learn some day though!

 

What primer will you be using?

 

more info. on the ... Dynacorn front fender...please.

 

I plan on using Z- Chrome Primer, at the recommendation of the guy who I plan on having paint the car

 

I posted tons of Pics in thread Frank, let me know if there is anything else not mentioned in this thread you'd like to know!

 

"I posted some pics of the fitment in the thread about the fenders being released, but I can repost them in this thread if anyone would like me to."

I couldn't find it so I didn't see that post...

 

huh... I thought I put the link in that reply.. My mistake
http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/new-reproduction-fenders.109238/
here it is! sorry about that

 

thanks...
fender looks great...

 

So it's been a while since I've gotten much done on my Maverick but I got something I've been planning for a while done today... My car now had a Torino Shaker Scoop! I measured about 16 times, cut once and I'm so happy all turned out well, measured afterwards and it is dead centered. Still have to clean up the edge of the hole with a die grinder and make it a tad bigger so the trim ring will fit perfect. I felt like it was definitely better for the hole to be a bit small and slowly buzz down the sides for the trim ring than have a hole that was too big and a botched hood.. All in all , this is something I really wanted for the car and seeing it actually on the car resulted a great feeling! I also think I've found a paint shop that will actually work out, so hopefully thats what's next.

 

Looks Awesome