Blue My Mind, 1972 Ford Maverick

[HotRod47]

any progress on this thing lately?

I know I know... I wish I could be moving faster!! Time and money always seem to get in the way. Lately it has been dealing with ordering parts and getting the engine to and from the machine shop. It all takes so much time.

[ProMav71]

I mini tubbed mine also. But I did a tri-ang 4 link rear. Your alot further along with yours than I am with mine. I should be finished with the firewall tonight.

[fodobaggins]

I know I know... I wish I could be moving faster!! Time and money always seem to get in the way. Lately it has been dealing with ordering parts and getting the engine to and from the machine shop. It all takes so much time.

I understand, I wasn't trying to be rude, just checkin. you got me all excited when I saw a maverick build

[HotRod47]

I understand, I wasn't trying to be rude, just checkin. you got me all excited when I saw a maverick build

No offense taken. I wish I could be going faster. Thanks for the interest. Probably won't be anything new for a couple months. I need to build up the funds again.

Glenn

[HotRod47]

I haven't been able to do any work on the car lately. I have been busy doing a couple side jobs so that I can buy parts though.

In the last few weeks I have picked up a new aluminum radiator, new billet grill, new rear sway bar, 2" lowering block kit, got a good deal on a new March Perf. serp set for the 5.0, and a rear body panel from a 68 Mustang that will house the Shelby taillights.

This is a steel unit that, on a Mustang, replaces the stock rear body panel and on a Shelby eliminates the need for the fiberglass panel that goes over the steel panel. Of course it is made for a Mustang so there will be some fab work involved. But I think the Shelby lights will look much better than the stock Mav. taillights!

Pretty soon I will be back on the car

[HotRod47]

I have finally finished a side job I was doing and was able to spend some quality therapy time in the garage working on the Mav. I purchased the new steel repo. tail panel that allows you to install Shelby taillights in a 67-68 Mustang. I new with just a bit of fabrication I could get this to fit nice rather than using a fiberglass one. One way or the other I would have to spend around the same money so I decided to go with the steel panel.

The part itself is made by Dynacorn. I purshased it from Mustangs Unlimited since their Manchester Ct. store is 3 towns over from me.


Here is the back of the car as I started..


After a little trimming I was able to get a better handle on how things were going to fit, Not bad!!


Here I have the stock rear tail pan trimmed and sprayed some weld threw primer on the bare metal..


Got the new panel tacked onto place..


On the sides is where most of the fab work came into play. The stock Mustang tail panel is concave where the Maverick is flat. So I had to cut, trim, slit the metal and hammer and dolly everything to where the transistions looked like it should have been Ford made.



And here is how it is now. I have to finish up some of the welding along the bottom and a few other spots, but, all in all I think it fits and looks great.


It feels good to have been able to work on the car again! It's been way too long..
Glenn

[Roger M]

That looks real good.. almost like it would have come from the factory like that.
Nice work.

[strtcar]

Looking good.

[CruizinKev]

wow nice work! me likes a lot

[streetrods]

what headers are you using with the gt40p heads?

[HotRod47]

what headers are you using with the gt40p heads?

I am honestly not sure yet! My brother in law suggested BBK. I am not near that point yet.

[streetrods]

I am honestly not sure yet! My brother in law suggested BBK. I am not near that point yet.

well they are a pain with the spark plug angle... I bought a set of headers for my 66 mustang and two plugs on the drivers side are a problem... they make p headers for fox body mustangs but they aren't made to fit the older cars..

[HotRod47]

well they are a pain with the spark plug angle... I bought a set of headers for my 66 mustang and two plugs on the drivers side are a problem... they make p headers for fox body mustangs but they aren't made to fit the older cars..

I may be wrong here, but because I am running the new front end in the car I believe I have the room for the Mustang shorty headers?

[streetrods]

I may be wrong here, but because I am running the new front end in the car I believe I have the room for the Mustang shorty headers?

If you do then you will be fine with a p header from ford racing or even some long tube fox body headers like mac will work from what I have heard..

[LMDGUY]

that taillight panel is goin to look awsome when its done!

[streetrod77]

If you do then you will be fine with a p header from ford racing or even some long tube fox body headers like mac will work from what I have heard..

I think so also, but I have a set GT40 heads that i'm not going to use. They make things a little easier.

[HotRod47]

So it has occurred to me that I have not updated this in a long time, so here goes....

Engine assembly.....
Lately I have not made much progress on the Mav. Between work, side jobs to pay for the Mav. and doing a little work on my 47 I haven't been able to spend much time on the car itself.

What I have been doing lately is putting together my first engine build myself! I have had my brother in law guiding me through the process, but I have done everything myself, and it feels good. I have done engione work here and there before, but never a complete build. On this car I wamted to be able to say that I built the entire car. The only other thing I will have to farm out is the seat upholstery.

So here we have a 1989 Mustang 5.0. When it came out it was a really good clean strong running engine. It had 192k on the clock. But during disassembly we were quite impressed with how clean it was inside. It must have been a very nicely taken care of car. I did send the block and the crank out to be checked. The cylinders only needed to be honed, and the crank turned .10. I have added GT40P heads, an E cam and a 94-95 Cobra intake. I also picked up a March Serp. system for it.

The long block is all ready to go. The water pump and pulley set up are just mounted up to check it all out and see how everything fits together. I am now beginning to reget the Cobra intake as I am just now learning that the throttle body I have doesn't fit a 94-95 intake. Can you hear that sound..............that is the sound of more money flying out the door

Looks good I think so far though!!

[HotRod47]

Having installed the R&C front end and cut out the shock towers I was left with quite a mess in there. I did weld one of the included panels to fill the big gaping hole where the shock towers were. The problem I have with that, it has different bead rolls than what the factory has. Not only are they different shapes, they also go in different directions. They just don't look right to me.

So last week I stopped at a Fabrication shop and talked with the guys there. He says that if I get him good patterns he will make me perfect replacement panels for around $200. I spent some time today making patterns. I think they look good. I plan to bring them to the shop this week to be bent up for me. I will include pictures as the process rolls along.

I am basically replacing both sides from the firewall forward. Ok, so the patterns are all made up now. I cut off the old engine aprons completely today. Before I did so I welded a bar from side to side to keep the hood hinge mounts right where they belong. I also put a down tube to make sure it didn't in, out, up or down!

I spent a little time cleaning up the area. This week I am going to sand it all down, tape it up and spray a good epoxy on it all. I am hoping to have the new aprons back by weeks end. As soon as I do I will epoxy those as well. Then weld them in.

[HotRod47]

I got my panels back from the fab shop on Wednesday. Today I took a few hours fitting them. They did a great job and they look really good. But making a piece of steel that perfectly matches my poster board template was probably expecting too much. For the $200 I think they are perfect.

I had to assemble the nose of the car to make sure that everything was going back where it belonged. I didn't want to weld it all together to find later on that things didn't line up properly.

Tomorrow I am going to prime them as well as the crossmembers and frame rails with DP Epoxy. Then I will weld them all in place.

[HotRod47]

I just ordered a set of Cal-Trac bars and the rear disc brakes from Vintage Venom. I hope to have it all in my hands some time next week. I can't wait to get to a point soon where I can actually have a car with suspension in it! It's been since November last year when I pulled it all out.

I spent a bit of time Saturday getting everything sanded down and masked off. I got it all sprayed with black DP90LF, let dry for a few hours, then sprayed 3 nice heavy coats of DPS3057 primer surfacer. Looks good I think.
Things are happening....it's so exciting! I still have a long way to go, but when some of these mile stones happen it feels so good.