Hi everybody. My father has a 1972 Maverick Grabber (250 six cylinder automatic) he bought brand new back in the day that he currently has sitting in his basement. After visiting him today I asked him what he ever planned to do with it and he told me that if I could get it running I could have it. Seeing as I've been driving a 89 Dakota I bought eight years ago when I was sixteen I'm pretty excited to get such an awesome car for more or less free. The car is all original except for the seats (he still has the original seats but they need to be reupholstered) and the engine block. It only has around 2.5k miles on it since the engine was rebuilt. Body wise, the car is in good shape. It needs to be repainted, but thats fine with me as I'd like to take it back to the green it originally was and put the grabber stripes back on it. Engine wise is another story however. As I said, he rebuilt the engine and drove it a little, but then he parked it in his basement and thats where it has been sitting for the past nine years or so. It hasn't even been cranked up once during this time. While I've always loved cars (this one in particular I've admired since I was young) I never learned much in the way of working on them. While this looks like a good chance to learn, I'm not even sure where to start. I was hoping someone here could point me in the right direction of what I need to be doing to get this car on the road again. One other point is that I've had some trouble finding what the value of this car would be. I wouldn't mind dropping a more powerful engine in it, but was unsure what this would do to the value of the car. So would it be a big deal if I were to soup this car up a bit down the line or would it hold more value being left original as possible? Here is a quick image I snapped with my phone today: http://img27.imageshack.us/i/20101219092137759.jpg/
You are a very very lucky Boy!!!! Almost every 250 I6 car I have bought, and that is many, has started up with a fresh battery and gas. But others here will give the best way to start an engine that has been sitting. Rick
Welcome to the board. Most Grabbers came with the 6 cylinder engine. You would probably find that it is worth more with the 302 v8 in it. Do a search on here for the v8 swap and you'll get lots of info on it. Looks like you got a great start on the Maverick already. Looks nice.
I remove the spark-plugs and put a little oil in each cylinder. then rotate the engine by hand to make sure oil is all over the cylinder walls. then put spark plugs back in and put in a new battery, use fresh gas (use a Jerry can with some fuel line to supply good gas to the fuel pump) make sure it has clean oil in the engine. prime the carb with a small squirt of gas, and turn the key. our cars are not worth a ton, but they are not free either. go ahead and pull the motor, replace with a v8 (do a search here. there is lots of info) make sure you record everything you do to the car. we love to see other peoples projects come together. post vids on youtube. link them here. post pics in your gallery here. welcome to the forum.
Cool story!!! I would think the car is worth more with a properly done V8 conversion. Short of fuel system issues I would guess that 250 will fire up just fine. 9 year old fuel is a bad thing.
Thanks for the welcomes and the advice everyone. I'm gonna try and get the car running sometime next week, I'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes.
