Blue My Mind, 1972 Ford Maverick

[spoilersbyrandy]

Glenn, I just found your build thread. Wow lots of work you are doing. looks good.

[HotRod47]

Glenn, I just found your build thread. Wow lots of work you are doing. looks good.

Randy,

Thanks, I am doing my best with great hopes that it comes out as planned. Love your product and hope that everything works out with your abilities for the Maverick community.

Glenn

[HotRod47]

This weekend I decided it was time to see how the engine and transmission fit in the car. I know this may sound pretty basic, but when I was given the car it was missing the original set up. Add to that the fact that this car had a six shooter and now I am adding a 302 and an AOD. I want to mock it all up, figure out what holes need to be drilled and where so that when I prime the car next time I can take care of any bare metal areas then.

So here is where I started the day:


I uncovered the engine for the first time in quite a while.


The freshly rebuilt AOD:


Sliding the assembly into the car. This was much easier without the radiator support in the way. When I do it for the final time after paint it will not be anywhere near as easy.


It took a little while to get everything bolted in place. Non stock engine and trans, front cross member and trans crossmember meant that a few curses were in order for a little while. But eventually it all went together.

I will have to clearance the floor support right here above the trans.


I only slid in two bolts for now, but it fits.


And for the first time I have an engine and trans in the car! This was huge for me. I was so happy.



Checking for header clearance on the passenger side. Looks good here.


And on the driver side. Looks good here as well.


They fit. Although it looks like an ear on the transmission will need to be trimmed back for the exhaust to mount up cleanly.



I clamped the radiator support in place to check that and mounted the radiator to see how that fit everything as well.




Also checked for clearance to the master cylinder mount. Is there really room here for a booster? Doesn't look like it to me? Only 4.5" from the center of the large hole in the firewall to the valve cover.


I had wanted to mount to the hood and check for clearance above the fuel injection. I will not be able to run the spacer I have as the hood hits. Even without the spacer the top of the injection is close to the hood, but it does fit.

Look at all that wiring!


Final shot of the day. And I can honestly say I am really torn as to whether I am keeping the injection or selling it all with the harness and getting a carb and intake for it. I know the injection has nice drivability and runs great. But there is such a mess of wiring and "stuff" that needs to be under the hood. I really like clean and simple, and I don;t get that with the injection. Very torn right now. And I really need to decide before I drill any holes for the wiring and associated hardware. Decisions, decisions..........




Glenn

[GrabberGT]

Any plans for down bars or chassis stiffening in the front end? With that intake, there will be no way of running any kind of triangulated "shocktower" style braces.

[streetrod77]

That looks sick (in a good way). I can't wait to see the end result.

[HotRod47]

Back at it today. Although not as much time as I would have liked to spend. I really need to find a career that will let me work three days and have four off! Do you know of any? I need more time in the garage!

Anyway, I started off by cleaning up the garage. What a mess it had become!

With my dads help I pulled the motor and trans to get them out of the way. Back on the stand and all wrapped up now they are safe. I finished welding the support brackets on the cowl top after running out of welding gas a couple weeks ago.

I then trimmed the motor and bracket on the power windows so they go up and down nice and smooth without that Bang! noise from before. Both sides are good now. I then stripped the doors and removed them from the car.

I then moved on to the radiator support. With my new fender aprons the passenger side doesn't meet up with the support because of where the factory battery box was.

I cut the offending area out.

Made a new panel and shaped it to fit. Had to do this twice as I cut the first one too short when trimming it for a close fit. Really pissed me off to have to start the entire patch over again.

Here is the patch all tacked in place. I will finish welding it during the week. I have a friend with some dimple dies and am going to use them to put some fresh air holes in this panel. I need the air for the injection. I also need to fill in where the tape is now. I want to close up around the radiator for better looks and to direct the air into the radiator.

Once this is done, I will get the entire car stripped and spray on four or five coats of the CRE epoxy primer. Then it will be time for body work.

[HotRod47]

I started the day off wanting to finish where I left off with my radiator support. I finished welding in the patch I made. Then moved on to filling in the areas right next to the opening for the radiator. I don't like the big gap that was there. So I made up some patches to close it up. I also had some rot on the bottom right corner that I cut out, made a patch for and welded it all beck up again.









Once that was al done and ready for primer I moved on to the body. I had a helper, my dad, came out to lend a hand. He da stripped the roof and both quarters while I ground all the welds from the quarter panel replacement, the cowl repair, and the rear body panel replacement. Lots of grinding!!





Roof and quarters stripped!!!






That's it for today. Tomorrow I need to finish grinding some welds. Then he and I will finish stripping all the paint off the door jambs and rockers as well as all the little nooks and crannies.

More updates tomorrow!

[HotRod47]

Today brought on more of the same from yesterday. Sanding and grinding followed by more sanding and grinding. Sometimes I would grind then sand just for fun! Lol....

I have to really thank my dad for his help this weekend. We both put in 6 hours Saturday and another 6 hours today. That's 24 man hours in one weekend on the car! At 69 years old he is still happy to jump in and give a hand when needed.

We now have the car 98% stripped to bare metal. Still some little nooks and crannies to work on during the week, but nothing major. My goal/plan is to load it into my trailer on Friday after work and bring it to the booth that I use. Saturday I will blow it all out really good, mask it up and then bury it in high build epoxy!

These pictures probably look very similar to yesterdays bunch. But to me there is a huge difference.

[85coupe50]

That is a hell of a job you have done so far... Keep it up and it will be done before you know it.

[HotRod47]

Today for the first time in a long time I pulled the car outside into natural light. I loaded it up to bring it to the booth for the high build epoxy primer.

I could have done this at home. But since I have a booth available to me, I figure why not? Why get the garage a mess? Why have it smelling like crap for months? So off to the booth I went.

More pictures later in the weekend......



In the driveway getting ready to load into my enclosed trailer.




And at the shop just about to release the straps and put it inside.

[HotRod47]

Friday night I trailered the car over to the booth and got it all unloaded. Saturday morning my dad and I pulled it outside where I sandblasted a couple areas I wasn't happy with. Nothing major, more for piece of mind than anything. Blew it all out, seamed to take forever to blow everything out of all the little areas.

Here dad is once again helping me out. He wiped it all down with DX330 wax and grease remover one last time while I mixed up the epoxy primer.

Here are the last shots of it in bare metal. I hope to never see this car like this again!




Dad got a couple action shots of me priming the shell.......the suit makes me look like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man! Lol....




All done, five coats in all....




I also spotted in the primer where I had fixed the radiator support.



That was all Saturday. Today I went back in and started sanding the "rough" areas of the floor. I am soaking them overnight with a rust converter. Then I will clean it up, the metal will look like new and I can spray the entire inside with DP90LF epoxy.




This is what I am using...and what it looks like while soaking.




More tomorrow.....

[HotRod47]

So now that the fabrication part of the project is over and the car is all primed. It is time to start the tedious task of sanding. Followed by more sanding, etc, etc.....



I am going to start todays update with the radiator support. In a previous post I showed where I had welded in some metal to close in around the radiator more. Here is after the primer is cured, sanded and with very little filler applied to make it look good. Next step for this side is primer. I still have the other side of the support to do.







Here is the bottom of the passenger side quarter where I welded in a new side running light. I blocked the area and had to apply just a skim coat of filler in the area to make it perfect. This is now ready for primer again as well.




Here is the front A pillar all set and ready for priming once more as well.




Here you can see where I did the filler work around the welded perimeter of the new Shelby tail panel. It didn't take very much here at all to get it smooth as well. You can also see where I have reinstalled the trunk lid and am checking it to the quarters.




This last few pictures may need some explanation. I was once asked what I was going to do with the raised area above the drip rail now that I have shaved them off. To be honest I wasn't sure, until I went to the Detroit Autorama last weekend and saw a car with a treatment that I fell in love with. I am now stealing their idea. The funny thing was, I had looked at this car three times before I noticed this one detail. I love those kinds of hidden things.

Here is what I saw....





And here is what I did.....







I still have some refining to do here on the passenger side, but it is getting there. I hope to get it all in primer this week, and then start on the driver side next weekend!

[GrabberGT]

That looks really good. I just recently painted my 'boomerangs" body color and installed them. I really do not like that entire area. Kind of like an armpit. Really not worth seeing.

[ent72olds]

Looking awesome Glenn! Nice to see your "pops" helping out! Memories you will have forever......I always liked the Maverick/Comet twins! My first "real" muscle car was a '68 XLGT w/390/C6 buckets and console. A/C car. One car I have been trying to relocate for 20 yrs now....

[drechsla]

Really cool car, I've always loved the maverick. Keep up the good work

[chetly]

Im diggin the subtle body mods youve done. I might have to use some of them myself...

bitchin car

[craigs73]

how did you make those body mods behind the quarter window

[HotRod47]

There isn't much exciting to post this week. Lots of sanding. It doesn't look like much has gotten done, but one step at a time it is moving forward.

I fitted the trunk to the car, then installed the stock Grabber spoiler set. The spoiler pieces don't fit each other very well. So I ground down the ends of the center section to better fit in line with the end caps. I have now filled across the three parts for a smoother transition. I like it much more now.



The driver side quarter has the most filler of anywhere else in the car. It may look like a ton of filler, but it is really fairly thin. This NOS quarter had some damage from being passed around all these years. Not too bad though.



Driver side quarter now blocked out for the first time, still a couple low spots to take care of. I did start the precess of filling the seam where the quarter meets the roof also.



The roof is now completely blocked as well. Only two small low spots to fix. Then ready for a reprime.



It is getting there. Still so much to do though. I hope to get all the initial body work done so I can reprime the entire shell the weekend after next. Time will tell.

[Motown 454]

Nice work! I like that detail around the roof and quarter window.

[HotRod47]

I still have not been able to get done what I would like to with this pain in my neck. But, last week I did get out and sand down the door shells after having them blasted. Hung them up and sprayed two coats of Epoxy on them.

Today I installed the NOS door skins on both doors. :clap: I love forward progress!

All these pictures are of the drivers door, but I also did the passenger door. Now it's time to sand it down, spray a couple coats of epoxy on the outside of the door, then do my bodywork.


Blasted door shell.





Driver side door shell ready for new door skin.



NOS door skin ready for installation.



And done.