'70 Maverick

[TerryH432]

What part of Arkansas are you from I live 15 minutes from Fort Smith.

Cool! We live in Springdale.

[TerryH432]

Cool video of the Maverick from my friend Craig's channel Fueled Up.

[TerryH432]

Winter '26 projects are primarily on the inside of the Maverick. Correcting things that have bugged me since day 1 with this car. Mismatched colors and finishes make me insane. First up is to go from the gloss black on the dash to satin black. Absolutely no fun painting a dash in the car but it is the lesser of the evils considering how the dash comes out.

Once again with the interior out of this car.







Came out pretty wll considering it's just satin Trim Black ultra spray bomb.






Bunch of other fixes while I'm this far starting with the wiring under the dash. Really nice that the car had a Kwik Wire 14 spot ATO fuse box and complete new harness but the install that was done previous to me getting the car is sloppy. Spent hours up side down under the dash trying to make sense of it and I have the zip tie tails to prove it. lol...



I also remade the harness in the console to simplify getting it in and out of the car. That's on me from last year's winter projects. Lesson learned.



New speedo cable ran up and out the top of the tunnel to get it inside the car to get away from the header that melted previous cables. Even when the cable was heat wrapped. Wrapped the new one just in case but hopefully this solves the issue.



Finally getting everything back together. Got some billet knobs that are machined very similar to the other billet knobs on the turn signal and tilt lever. Replaced the original headlight and wiper knobs along with the Vintage Air knobs to finally have continuity.





Pretty happy with how all of this is now. New custom door panels and painting inside the doors satin black is next up.

[TerryH432]

Moving on to making the custom door panels before I paint the inside of the doors satin black to match the dash. I found a pic that I liked for inspiration so on to cutting th 1/8" Baltic Birch plywood layers. Sort of like making your own jig saw puzzle pieces. Lots of band sawing, jig sawing and sanding. So far I'm liking it.







The inspiration. We'll have a much simplier arm rest but you get the idea.

[TerryH432]

I'm sure at some point in the future I'll look back and say that I enjoyed building these door panels but for now I'm just happy that my part is finally done.

[LS1-IROC]

Looking good, this has to be one of the cleanest Mav's around!

[TerryH432]

Looking good, this has to be one of the cleanest Mav's around!

Thank you! Killer IROC! We had a blue one back in '87. They are such cool cars. Must be a bunch of fun with the turbo LS and th 6 speed.

[TerryH432]

And on to the next thing. I have diligently searched for a 12" oval air filter element that is blue to no avail. Finally someone started making them. The second I put it on all the red stuff under the hood looked wrong. Soooooo, more disassmbly and more painting. Pretty amazing that in today's world my PPG distributor can put the correct Mopar PCL Blue Streak pearl blue in single stage urethane in a spray can for $20 but a pint of DBC base is $200. Go figure. So all these parts are done completly with spray cans. Single stage sealer, the aforementioned urethane blue and KBS Diamond Finish single stage clear. The spray can is a dead on match for the ridiculously expensive PPG base/clear.

The battery cover is the DBC base and 2021 clear. The battery is the spray cans.



The victims after becoming blue.



In some sort of M/T valve cover flash back, you have to be an old hotrodder to get that reference, I sanded to top of the MSD 6AL with 80 grit on a block to expose the aluminum. This makes me giggle like a 5 year old at Chrsitmas. So cool looking.



And everything back on the car.

[TerryH432]

More color matching fun. Brake calipers and such this time. Stupid amount of work for these little pieces.

[TerryH432]

My amazing upholstery buddy covered the door panels and arm rests for me today. So cool to see what I saw in my head and worked on so hard become reality. Really happy with how these came out.

[jaybee]

Love your eye for detail.

[TerryH432]

Love your eye for detail.

Thank you, John.

[TerryH432]

The interior revamp is in the books. I'm happy with the color and sheen changes to the dash and the doors, the new billet knobs that actually match, the new door panels, the new door handles and shifter knob. Still a couple more small projects going on but just about to the end of the list...for now. Pic of the old interior at the end just for comparison.

[TerryH432]

Finishd up the engine compartment with a little bedazzling of the Wilwood master cylinder lid. Crusied around and grabbed some pics today since it was an amazinly clear day. I love this color in the sun.

[TerryH432]

Can't leave well enough alone...as usual. Decided that I'd get the max tire and wheel on this little turd. I realize all you guys got them 345's or whatever but I'm not ready to do what that takes and likely won't ever be so I'll settle for the 275/40-18's. Trust me, that is all that's going to work without major surgery. Got a set of custom Raceline 2 piece billet's on the way also.

Current 255's vs the 275's.



It's tight but it's right.





And now we wait on Raceline. I will say they were awesome to deal with.

[TerryH432]

I am taking the car down to central Arkansas for a full stainless custom exhaust next week. Arkansas Performance Exhaust will be doing the system. Really excited to get that under the car. But for now... Waiting for the wheels. Super fun.

[TerryH432]

Moving on. Me and my best buddy Steve delivered the ole' Maverick to Zach at Arkansas Performance Exhaust in Sherwood, Ar Monday morning for a major exhaust update. Up on the lift and a bit of discussion and we were headed back on the 3 hour trip home and Zach went to work. There is very limited room under this car and he is doing a masterful job of tucking the exhaust into the tightest of spaces. Here's the pics so far. I'll add more as he sends them to me. Scheduled to pick the car up on friday afternoon.

I love the old school Flowmaster 40's so I bought 2 more just in stainless. Unfortunately they only do 409 and powder coat them all black. I had the powder blasted off and I put in the time and work to get a decent brushed finish on them. I'll be adding some sort of clear to help protect the not so stainless stainless.



Heading out early with the car in the box and a beautiful sunrise.



Getting up and over the torque arm crossmember is key to making the plan work.







And this is why. H's don such an amazing job of getting verything tucked up.







The other test was to get up and over the left side of the rar end. Super tight but he made it.





I'll add some more pics tomorrow when he sends me some.

[TerryH432]

More pics. The fab work is done and Zach has disassembled the system so he can take it to his home shop and zen out to do the 59 individual welds totalling 38.5 feet of tig. Can't wait to see it in person hopefully tomorrow.







How many V bands can you put in one system? All of them. lol...

[Ammoholic909]

Wow, that exhaust work is clean and tight! They do some great work!

[TerryH432]

Wow, that exhaust work is clean and tight! They do some great work!

Thanks! I'm honestly blown away with the quality of what they've done. Especially in the super tight places. I'll post more pics tomorrow after we pick it up but here's a few I got today.

Probably my favorite spot. Curving the pipe out and around that bracket for the Mumford links on the 9" is next level. That one little section had to have V bands on both ends just to get it in there.







I totally dig the tiny H pipe with the V band and it's in a crazy place above the torque arm crossmember.



Super tucked.