Results 1 to 20 of 89
Thread: 71 Mad Max Maverick
-
10-17-2022 #1
71 Mad Max Maverick
Story: So this is my first car a 1971 Ford Maverick Grabber. Originally was a 200inline with a c4 trans, had tan interior buckets seats and a sweet floor shifter. Needless to say the engine came out and a 351W was shoehorned in with the shock towers having to be cut back and some headers got "Adjusted" with a BFH. I originally wanted to redo all the suspension and make the car handle better and upgrade the brakes. There were not that many kits at the time for a Maverick so I thought i could just build a custom frame and suspension. Well I got a frame built and the body mounted then...... Our house burnt down with my Maverick inside so that sucked but I tried to save her the best I could with my garden hose until the fire department showed up, but I did get married to my wonderful wife that year so good things happened to. I always say best way to start a marriage is homeless. So the car sat for about 5years and I finally got the garage reset and checked the frame needless to say it got warped pretty bad, so this is the start of round 2?
Build: I wanted to keep the main body stock for the most part so everything had to fit within the stock fenders and wheel wells. My idea is to build a Madmax survival car, something that can take abuse and keep going and I wanted something unique and I've always loved the movies so why not right. Alot of this car is going to be overbuilt and I wanted easy of replacing parts so that mainly steered my choice in what parts to use. Now the engine doesn't follow that but I wanted something not done and I really wanted an inline 6 but I didn't want to make the car a crossbreed. Its still Ford so it counts right?
All the suspension and frame design is my own. The hubs and brakes are 5x4.75 Grand National hubs with 4piston calipers. All the suspension is made to be adjustable as much as I could. The frame this time has changed since the original design mainly for the drivetrain, Ride height is set at 6inch with a slight rake. Because of my hub and spindle choice I was forced into using corvette wheels for the offset and bolt pattern.
The List
Frame: Custom 2x3 .120wall tubing
Engine: BA Barra 4.0 Inline 6 Forged built engine shooting for 750rwhp
Trans: Tremec T-56 Strongest manual trans for the money
Axle: Ford 9inch with 31spline axles 4:10 gears
Suspension: Front: Double A-arm Rear: 3-Link with Torque link Locator: Watts Link
Suspension
The Front upper A-arms have slugged mounts and just standard circle track style arms. The lower arms will be custom made out of 1.25inch DOM with adjustable rodends debating on weather to do a true A arm vs a strut rod but haven't decided. Spindles are sweet manufacturing ford the grand national hubs. The Rear suspension will be a 3-Link, lower links made out of 2inch with johnny joints and standard bushing on the otherside. Top link can be solid but why when you can get a torque link which will also have a johnny joint and a std bushing. Im trying not to use hiems because I live on and around dirt roads and I dont know how much feedback they give. A watts link will locate the rear axle nothing really fancy there.