Blue My Mind, 1972 Ford Maverick

[HotRod47]

Today was a great day here...Christmas in September.

UPS dropped of the Cal-Tracs from Calvert Racing, then not 10 minutes later Fed-Ex pulled in with the rear disc brakes from Vintage Venom!!

I am beginning to think I should have named this project "Empty Pockets"!!

Lately I have sold some extra stuff on Ebay that has enabled me to buy a few things. I now have the whole front end in primer. I am going to paint the crossmember and frame rails soon so I can put the front suspension in the car finally. Now that I have the boxes that came today I will be able to put the rearend together and be able to put the car on the ground and make it roll!


I bought an IDIDIT tilt steering column for the car. So for the last few weeks that has been my focus. I had to fabricate a new column mount both at the dash and the floor. They came out nice. Because I am modifying the dash I didn't even try to make the stock mount work. I could have, bnut it would have put the column lower than I like. So instead I bent a piece of steel strap around the column, put two 90 degree bends in it, drilled a couple holes and it now mounts right where the two bolts that hold the brake pedal arm and the support are above the column. It really fits nice there. At the fire wall I took a piece of sheetmetal and cut it to shape where the stck column goes through and the foam seal are. I drilled the hole for the column, bolted the metal in place, slid the column through the hole and tack welded it in place. I have since removed the assembly and welded everything up nice.

A you can see in the pix I have made a lower dash extension. I don't really like the look of the stock shelf. I welded some threaded studs to the bottom of the dash, drilled the appropriet holes and can now just unbolt and remove it as needed. If you look you can see that I added a piece of exhaust tubing to "frame" the column. I think it gives a nice look to it and finishes it off. To the left of the column on the lower extension will be the wiper switch as well as the headlight switch. To the right will be the ingnition and the radio.

I have also been playing with ideas on where and how to mount the gauges. I am not sure what I want to do here.
Here are some pix for you.....thought I had pictures of the column on the computer but don't. I will take some tomorrow and update the post.

[HotRod47]

I recently purchased a new heater blower motor, and beacause I have finally chosen the color of the car I spent some time yesterday painting the motor. Today I finished the reassembly of the heater unit. Now I can put the sub assembly in the basement ready for the car to go to the final assembly stage.

I painted the heater motor because I will be painting the entire engine bay the body color. The color doesn't show it's true color in the pix, but close. This isn't the same color I was thinking of before. Similar, but different.

I love getting these little projects finished, feels like something is getting accomplished.

[HotRod47]

Here is what I have been spending most of my time on lately, the dash. Several things are going on here. Number one is that I like a clean looking dash. I grew up as a street rodder and always liked the look of a nice, smooth, clean and uncluttered dash. I don't really care for the factory Maverick shelf either, so I eliminated it. I got some steel bent up for a lower panel. It is now drilled for the new headlight and wiper switches on the left of the steering column cut out. On the right of the column will be the new ignition switch and the radio. As you can see on the dash I welded up the holes for the headlights and wiper as well as the ashtray. I was really really unsure of what to do with the gauge layout until I saw what a member on another forum did with his. Anyway, he made his out of fiberglass which may be the way to go. However I work with steel, so that's what I did. Here all the parts are down to bare metal waiting ntil tomorrow when I will epoxy them and then spray on a few coats of nice high build primer surfacer. Then the mud work! All in all I am really happy with the way it all came out.

[HotRod47]

Since my last update I have taken the dash parts to the booth for a coat of etch primer, followed by several coats of a high build epoxy primer. I let them sit for a week and then started block sanding everything. Then the mud work. They are now in a urethane primer and bolted back into the car. I think it all came out good.

You will notice in the dash that I welded up the headlight and wiper switches as well as the ash tray. They are now all smoothed off and looking clean. The lower panel is drilled for the headlights and wiper to the left of the column and the ignition and radio to the right.





And here is how she sits right now....

[ProMav71]

She's looking good man! My mav is on the backburner till I finish up the Pinto. Cant wait to have mine that far along.

[A .]

what kind of hood are you using??

[HotRod47]

That is a stock Maverick Grabber hood... well not stock because it is carbon fiber. But a good reproduction of a stock hood.

[HotRod47]

Every time I look at the front of a Maverick I see the opening below the bumper and the valance. I really don't like it at all. Not a big fan of the turn signals either. I started thinking about what could be done here. One day on another forum I saw a pro touring 69 Camaro. It was a beautiful frontal picture from way down low. I loved the look of their front valance. The car owner had even changed the stock turn signal lights to driving lights. So $45 later on Ebay I bought a new repop front valance.

In these pics you can see where I have cut the ends of the Camaro valance off. I have it pinned in place to see how it looks. With minor tweaking and some filler panels where the white poster board is I think it will look really cool and unique.

[2blownstangs]

Love em too!

[Fast68back]

Thats gonna look sweet!

[GrabberGT]

Really cool idea with the lower valence. It looks great already.

[csx4766]

I agree, great idea on the lower valance.

Morgan

[Dalamar]

nice progress, that is looking great

[HotRod47]

Thanks for all the compliments. The positive feedback helps to fuel the progress!

[HotRod47]

My new plates arrived today!!!


Unruly, Adjective: disorderly, wild, uncontrollable, unmanageable, rowdy.

Yeah, that sounds about right!!!!

[Bryce]

Nice

[supermav]

great job on the sprint

[Motown 454]

The valance is going to look great. Nice project.

[HotRod47]

Today is the first time since September of 2009 that my Maverick has had the sun shining on it! I made a dolly for the car to be able to make it mobile. It is now off the lift and able to roll around. I still have some bracing to do on it, and finish up some welding. But it was nice to push it outside and finally be able to stand back and have a look at it from a distance.

I have been working on making the rear Grabber spoiler taller. More of an aggressive look. As you can see in the pictures I have made progress on the rear spoiler. I am probably only 50% done. This was the easy part, now comes the tedious nit picky part, making them look right. The spoiler is a full 2" taller than the stock Grabber height.

You can also see on the front that I have had to suspend the progress on the front valence. Since I got boned by a seller on another board for five weeks waiting for a front bumper that didn't come. I need the bumper to make sure everything will fit nicely together.

[craigs73]

my first time seeing this project and i like. your doing great i like the shelby tail panel and what you did with the valance. i have always liked these mavricks and have been a chevy mann my whole life cant wait to see more progress