cost of build and daily driver

hey all

Quick question here. Just wanted to know how much it cost you guys to rebuild your maverick to reliability status and your liking. And how many of you guys use them as daily drivers I'd like to hear your story and what you go through.

Thanks

 

I hope you're not expecting a "quick" answer .. there are some very extensive builds on this forum.
Cometized
(Chip)

 

Lol no i dont need a quick answer. Anything that will help is good enough for me

 

That's a loaded question.. Personally I don't think it ever ends because there's always something that can be changed/improved unless you are trying to restore one back to stock. Once you get it to "as it left the factory" I guess you could park it and it would be done. Disposable money is the only thing holding me up. Cosmetically it looks good but I wouldn't mind a new paint scheme, bigger rear tires, tranny swap, gear swap, sub-frame connectors etc.. That's not even taking into consideration all the little things required to keep a forty-three year old running.

 

We have a 30k budget on our ground up rebuild and hope to hell we stay under lol

 

A 40 year-old Maverick would have to be just about completely restored to be reliable as a "daily driver", and why would anyone spend that kind of money on an old car to daily drive it??

If you don't care about the interior, you still need the engine, transmission, suspension, steering, and brakes to be restored. You also need a good heater for the winter, lights, and good windshield wipers, as well as reliable instrumentation. This adds up to a lot of $$$$, which would be better spend on a modern car for daily driving. Most of us like fixing up these old cars for drag racing, or just cruising around on nice days (usually summer time, depending on where you live), car sows/cruise nights, and not a daily thing.

 

My first maverick was my daily driver for years until I turned it into more of a drag car. It was a great daily driver but then it was only a 10 year old car when I got it. FWIW

 

My first Maverick was also a Daily Driver. Even then I spent a lot of money and had a TON of sweat-equity into it. It ran good, was decent on gas and I could still buy most of the mechanical parts at the local parts store (this was 1998-2003). I often spent the week driving it back and forth to school and work, but also spent many weekends working on the car non-stop. It wasn't a show car, but I kept it clean and it was all there and painted properly.

Fast-forward 10 years: I bought my low-mileage Grabber in 2012 for under $5000. I changed the brake cylinders and flex hoses and pretty much started driving it whenever it was sunny. I drive 100 kilometers (approx 70 miles) round trip to work each day. I put just over 1000 miles on the car in one month before I laid it up for winter. In those 1000 miles, it developed oil leaks, I chased a leaking radiator bowl, and dealt with surface rust on the inside of my tank clogging fuel filters to the point where I couldn't drive the car over 50mph. I now have spent the price of the car and then some on basically restoring it to STOCK, without repainting the car (other than floor pans and engine compartment). If anyone thinks I'm going to start driving this car daily, forget it!

MY Daily Driver is a 2014 Ford Focus that costs me $205 a month and about that again in gas a month. And all I have to worry about is putting gas in it, oil changes and running the vacuum through it once a week. No one is trying to discourage you from building a Maverick. Heck, we're the LAST group of people who want to turn anyone away from that, BUT what you need is an appliance, even though you WANT a Muscle Car. Get something newer and decent, and get through school and get a good career and then you will be able to afford to build a nice car and not have to destroy it by driving it everyday.

Just my

 

My goal is to build a brand new 2015 Maverick Grabber restomod. I'm replacing ever nut and bold and part including a new crate engine, rebuilt tranny and nine inch rear. I paid to have all the body work restored (very little rust) and a show quality paint job. I also paid to have the seats reupholstered and of course bought a 347 cubic inch engine. The last big item I need to order is the nine inch rear end with trac-lock. I'm on track to spend $30,000 but it will be a brand new car. Selling my Comet will help offset some of this cost

 

Even in the 80's my Maverick wasn't my daily driver. I've got over twenty grand in one, that might leave the garage 7 times a year, but I never have a problem with it.

 

Mine isn't finished, but I'm getting a lot closer. And I would drive it daily if I didnt drive like 100+ miles a day for work. I've got a 306 out of an 85 mustang that was taken to a shop and bored out for cheap ($125) New performance Holley fuel pump, new starter, battery, alternator. Used rebuilt Holley carburetor, a ton of stuff has been rewired. I need to just break down and do a new harness. New starter relay. New shifter, used transmission, new upper ball joints and lower control arms. New tie rods. New sway bar bushings. Probably a month or more in time sanding/osphoing/replacing metal/body work. I think I'm in about $4-5k over the course of a year and a half. I don't have a ton left I wanna do. I would like to get the back seats re done(out of the car now) new rear end gears and an AOD. Or if we're doing a super wish list, a 4 or 5 speed manual transmission. And I have a really sweet idea for a decal. I'm sure I'll get it on the car sooner or later...

 

This will be one of the long replies
I was actually quite shocked when i put this list together, don't tell my wife about this LOL
Bought the car in 2010 for $3000.00 99% rust free, great interior.
Motor build in 2011
"77" 302 $300.00
Machine work to block $800.00
Aluminium Heads $775.00
K/B Pistons $450.00
Intake/Carb/Headers $680.00
Cam/valve train $625.00
MSD ignition $459.00
Bearings,nuts,bolts,Ect $400.00
Cosmetic stuff $300.00
torque converter $350.00
Trans Beef up & rebuild $800.00
Richman gears $275.00

Body work and paint 2013
removed trim package and
holes welded up $250.00
paint and body work $1750.00 (my son and i did the body and paint)
hood scoop $210.00
spioler $70.00
Rims & Tires $850.00

Miscellaneous forgotten stuff $1500.00 (at least)

2014 project
MII front suspension $2750.00

Total so far $15464.00

Keep in mind, with the exception of the block machining and the welding, me and my son did all the work our selves.

 

well on my comet gt I bought it for $2k then I spent $500 on dynomat disk brakes I had laying around for the rear but did have to send like $30 for new pads the rearend with all new usa gears and a 355 posi cost me $1000 another $30 for rearend oil one tire $20 $100 for used from buckets in better shape than what was in there. aluminum radiator $100 rebuilt transmission with shift kit and stall converter $2k I put in a cam intake hei dizzy valve covers and edelbrock card that was on my old motor that blew up I bought all of that new except the intake so cam and lifters $380 the valve covers were like $60 dizzy was $150 I think intake was free the carb was like $350 I just bought new KYB shocks at $52 each for the rear I had to buy all new rubber brake lines for it at around $15 each (I forget what they cost really)
so far Ive spent over $5000 and its nowhere near done. in fact it has a LONG way to go even though I can drive it everyday

heres where the BUT comes in
the car still needs upper and lower ball jionts every single bushing and gromit are all dried up and or missing
the trunk lid has something going on where it wont line up with the latch the hood latch is bent I bought a used one but cant remember what I paid for it and lets see what else .....oh yeah the motor is just plain tired it leaks power steering fluid it groans and complains all the time its embarrassing when the power steering starts groaning I just recently broke something in the exhaust I can hear a thump thump thump on the passenger floor board when I rev the engine. it leaks oil it smokes when I get on it it stinks to high heaven when driving it from exhaust fumes I think maybe blow by.
the all wheel disk brakes work okay but nothing like a modern car the upper ball joints on the drivers side are so dry it squeaks all the time
this is just my driver comet

so with most of these cars there is a fortune to spend just to make them reliable


with my other omet I have $13100 spent on the motor alone and that doesnt count any of the $ Ive spent on the rest of the car thats not done

 

best way to save on daily is spend the extra on a rust free body. my opinion for a daily suspension is the first replace everything I know there is a daily maverick down in south florida for 9.5k gets 22mpg

 

So far i think i would have spent around 30k on my car over the last 15 years (mostly in the last 7-8 years) so i explain to my wife that it works out to only 2k a year which is cheap. I'm not that mechanically minded so a fair bit of that is paying someone else to do the big stuff. I get told by a guy at work that i could have brought a BMW like his for that kind of money and i tell him every time that i see 2 or 3 cars like his every day on the way to work," when have you ever seen a car like my on the road here",that shuts him up pretty quickly.