First of all, unless you are really bored you may want to just keep clicking on the pictures in the galleries. My Maverick Story: Anyhow where to start. It was 1970 or so and I was just entering 2nd grade at 7yrs old. My dad traded in our old 4 door Buick for a brand new gold 1970 Maverick. It was pretty traumatic for me. I cried for our old car. We had went through a lot together. When I was 3 my mom had put my t-bird pedal car in the huge back seat and I rode in it all the way home. It also had enough room in the window shelf for me to lay down. (Safety was optional in those days). I really liked our old car and at the time wasn't too keen on this new small car. Anyhow, one of the things that I remember the most about all of this was my mother crying because I was having trouble reading. My dad askes her what was wrong, and she tells him. My dad says to me "what do you mean you can't read?" "Come here boy". He proceeds to sit down and teach me to read some words from some books and magazines laying aroung. One of those being the Maverick sales literature. I had been able to read or sound words but I don't remember everything clicking until then. I realized what the words were good for. One of the harder words I remember was airconditioner, which was not one of the options my dad took for this new car or any other for that matter I bet my mom brought that up a lot Around 1978 at 15 my dad sold me this car or I actually traded all of my lawnkeeping equipment which include a 10HP Sears Craftsman tractor, a push mower and various tools for the car. This was all of my equipment that I had bought with my own money by doing yardwork. I think this is probably the last point in my life where I had any money. It seems after cars and later girls it became scarce. While I liked the looks of the car but being a kid I hated the 6 cylinder and my dad said that I couldn't change the motor until that one was shot. I tried my best to abuse that motor so it would die. It never did. My dad did conceed one day to help me put a new motor in it. We installed a bored over 250 6 cylinder in it. Arrgh! In 1981, after I turned 18 I bought my own V8 maverick. The love of my life. A 1971 with 302 and floor shifter. I bought it from a junkyard in Boyd where the guy had put the drive train from a 1970 Mustang in the car. He blew up a tire and it messed up the right rear quarter panel. I paid 500 for it and I had the quarter panel replaced. It was the ultimate sleeper. It was half primer and many different colors due to me replacing parts from different mavericks being different colors. I had this car in very good condition and had saved the money to paint it but then I totally totaled it one night the weekend before I was to take it in to paint. I then bought a 1970 6 cylinder grabber and changed the drive train to the 71's drivetrain. That bright popsickle green and black scheme. Due to another tragedy, I had to replace that motor with a modified 302 motor with one of those twisted intake manifolds and headers. It was pretty strong but just didn't have the low end of that first Mustang motor. It ran very good though. As I got older I had to work more and I ended up putting that motor in my pickup truck and I traded the body to my high school and still best friend Dan for a motorcycle. My friend Dan put a motor in it and moved to Washington state, driving the car there and restored it to a very good condition. He also built a motor for it and I hear it was one bad mav. Unfortunatly, when moving back his new motor messed up and he didn't have enough money to fix so he just gave it to a junkyard and took a plane back. If he would have asked me I would have traveled to Utah just to haul him and it back. He is always too proud to ask for anything though. To say the least both of us now many years later really miss these cars. We have been talking about it lately and you will never guess what happened. Saturday, I purchased an original but rough Maverick Grabber. I am very happy but broke. I am really anxious to get my car this coming Saturday and look forward to restoring it to a daily driver condition. Thanks for providing this place to talk about Mavericks! Tony
Thanks! I really like your car. Did you make those Tie Rod looking struts for the engine bay. I am very curious about that. It certainly improves the looks. It also looks like you use another set to keep the motor stabilized.
Welcome aboard Tony. Great story...glad to see you get another Maverick. Let us know when you need parts or info. We'll help where we can.
Welcome from Azle! I saw your car on ebay and even posted a remark about it, My grabber was orginal same color combo, yellow with red and orange stripes, there is a girl named Sarah on this board restoring one that color !
Great! I didn't even notice anyone with a Mav that close to me! Yellow is not my favorite color (dark blue is) but it seems that's what what vehicles I find. My jeep is yellow too. I do like the yellow and red scheme though. I see you have an old crown vic too!
Nice story and welcome to the community from your neighbor in Roanoke. I hope to your Maverick cruising around the area soon.
