Here is my high school car. It was an orange 1974 Maverick with a 250 engine. It's top speed was about 80 miles an hour so long as it was going downhill. My folks bought it second hand for me in 1981. I drove it through high school and college and finally parked it in 1997. I kept the registration up for the past 13 years, so I have a continuous chain of title going back to 1981. I started the restoration slowly in 2008 by tearing everything apart down to the frame and having it sandblasted. It's not cheap, but it's really the only way to deal with 30 years of hidden rust. The 250 was replaced with a carbureted 302. The front drum brakes were replaced with disk brakes. My restoration goal is to keep it fairly close to what I was driving back in high school. I'll post more pictures soon. The project is coming along fairly well now. The finish date goal is May. I struggled with pretty much the same issues that everyone else here seems to have dealt with -- cracked dashpad (I send it in to justdashes very recently) headers not clearing the steering box (I bought a custom set from dougthorley.com) There's a couple of issues I haven't solved yet, and I'm sure I'll be asking for some advice.
Just so we are clear. I have not been and am not doing any of the work myself on this car. At first I was trading people services to get the work done on the Maverick. That plan turned into a complete disaster. If you look closely at the attached picture, you will see that the hood was taken down to bare metal! Rule 1 of Life (and Restorations): If you don't know how to do something, either spend the time to learn how to do it correctly, or go to college and get a degree in something and then pay someone else. sandblasting (this was done during the "complete disaster" phase) After almost everything major was stripped off, the body and frame went onto a big holder that allowed the whole frame and body to then be both flipped and turned very easily. All of the sandblasting work was done primarily to the bottom. I remember a few pieces of metal being cut and welded into place. At some point afterwards the front wheels and drive train were reinstalled, the guy who owned the shop was arrested for manufacturing drugs. I barely rescued my Maverick before his creditors came in and picked the place clean. After that, I lost my enthusiasm for restoration for about 2 years. I've been dealing with a reputable restoration shop now for the past 6 months. You probably are more interested to see those pictures. I believe that I'm supposed to start a new thread under "projects". I will try to do that by next week. http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?p=663639#post663639 --link to my pics in projects section--
Hello everyone. I am from Bellingham, WA and bought a 1977 Maverick a couple of weeks ago. It was purchased new here in town and I bought it from the original owner. Very clean and straight. It has a 250 ci six with a c4. It is light yellow with a dark green vynal top. I have put new tires and american tourque thrust D wheels on it. The usual, tune up, lube job. oil change and will be getting new shocks installed by the end of the week. It has power steering and power disc brakes, bench seat and am radio. Oh, and it is a 2 dr. I almost bought one in 1970 when they first came out, but ended up buying a type NW torino instead. I have always liked the 2dr body style and I found this one right here in town. It has always been garage kept where it sat unused for the last year. They had put stabil in the gas so I just needed to hook up the jumper cables and after a few seconds it fired up and I drove it home. There will probably be more to come.
Man, you guys in Washington state must have an old Ford assembly line that just keep pumping out Mavericks. A lot of new Maverick owners have showed up recently in the Northwest.
Welcome all you Washington guys! Oh, I stole one of your Mavericks a few months ago. I bought a white/black Stallion from up there. I didn't figure ya'll needed it.
