Back in 1986 when I was 16 I began thinking about getting a car for myself instead of driving my parents' car. (A 1981 Caprice station wagon with a 350 and 4 barrel carb..was actually fun to rag on...er...drive ) I knew my grandmother, who lived in northern Minnesota, had a car in her garage that my dad's sisters would drive around town, but she never had a driver's license and didn't drive herself. It was a yellow-green '74 Comet, drums all around, no power brakes or steering and a 200-6/C4. She agreed to sell it to me for $150. We made the trip from Michigan in 1987 to visit and I got the car on July 4th, 5 days from my 17th birthday. I helped (mostly watched) my dad get it ready for the 900 mile trip back. It had an AM radio, so I went to Radio Shack and bought an FM converter to listen to on the way back home. Thinking back, I'm amazed my parents let me drive it home all that way following them. The car was a pretty big piece of crap with sloppy steering and crappy brakes. When we got it home my dad investigated the wandering steering and discovered that the frame on the driver's side was badly rusted, so he welded in some angle iron to support it. Once it got cold out I learned about failing batteries, voltage regulators and icing carbs...fun! I drove that car until February of 1988, when the braced frame let go on a low speed turn as I was going to pick up a friend on the way to school. My dad gave me a choice: He knew a guy that had an early 80's "x"-car (like a Chevy Citiation...my dad worked for GM at the time)...or we could look in the Trade-in times for a Maverick or Comet we could use for a shell and then swap in the motor from the Comet. This was a pivotal decision...I chose the Trade-in Times route. If I hadn't done that I probably never would be posting on this site let alone still own a Maverick. We found a '77 with a rod through the block of it's 250-6 and dragged it home. My dad drove the tow vehicle and I steered the Mav...I remember he had a tow strap we used and while going through a busy intersection the strap got cut in two somehow, but fortunately I coasted through before any cars came my way. Since then we've always used chains instead. We swapped the motors during a long weekend off from school with a borrowed cherry picker. I remember driving to school the following Tuesday thinking how amazing it was that we pulled the motor out of the old car and plopped it in the "new" car and I was actually driving it! A heater hose ruptured sitting in traffic...but other than that it was a success. Then came the 302 swap on Thanksgiving Day 1988 (another donor car) and the conversion to small bumpers/'72 Grabber parts (another donor) in 1990, the junkyard EFI conversion in 1992 and so many other mods and other memories that there's no way to list them all here. I can honestly say I learned more about vehicles and how they work and how to fix 'em in my dealings with Mavericks than anything else. I bought my current real '72 Grabber in northern Alabama back in 2000 and dragged it home with my dad's help once again. Before discovering other Maverick/Comet people on the Internet my passion for 'em almost died, but now I'd say I'm hooked forever. Unfortunately the '77 found it's way to the junkyard in 2003, but my '72 will never be lost to rust like countless other Mavericks and Comets as long as I have a say, living it's life away from the salt and snow and other nasty Michigan weather when I'm not driving it.
Here's the story my mom told me that made me love my dad's old Maverick even more. He's since sold it because hauling 3 kids back in the day with 2 car seat in that tiny back seat was impossible. The sotry goes like this: My mom was pregnant with my brother and on her way home in my dads suped up Mav. I don't recall exactly what he had in the thing but I do remember the blower stuck out of the hood a good 4-5 inches. Anyways, my mom was driving home in it during a rainstorm and she ended up getting a flat near a firehall. A fireman came out to help her move the car off the street and onto the grass so that it wasn't blocking traffic. My mom warned him when he got into the car, she said "Tap the gas, just tap it. Don't press down too far, trust me" the fireman kind of smirked and told her that he'll be carful, but obviously didn't take her too seriously. so with his big clumpy fireman boots he presses the gas, and the car shoots off the street and up the hill, the fireman panicked because his big boot got stuck on the gas pedal and suddenly he's reaching the crest of a hill where on the opposite side is a steep cliff and a ravine about 1 feet below. Luckly he was able to dislodge his boot and stopped the car about 5 feet from the top of the hill. Knowing my dads car was that bad-ass as a kid made me want my own ever since, this was in 1985, although he owned it far before my parents met (he's my step dad really) . Last year I was online looking for a car on Autotrader in the price range of $500-1500 and found an ad for a 1977 Comet. I didn't realize that a Comet and a Mav were basically the same car with some cosmetic changes. When I showed my dad the add he immediately picked me up and we went out and bought it. It's needed some work, not much. and it's been a great car because my dad and I were never that close so he's been helping me replace and tune up everything in it. It's brought us a nice common bond because I seriously love my Comet. Togeather so far we've replaced and painted the hood, replaced the radiator, fiddled with the spark plugs and carb (previous owner left the choke wide open on it, causing my car to stall all the time), replaced the heater motor and just recently the winshield washer fluid motor. Come summer time we're using the old hood for steel to fix a couple small rust spots on the body and eventually painting the whole car a nice flat black. My dad has more plans for it than I do when it comes to the engine, he basically wants to replicate what he did with the Mav he had but that will have to wait, I'm still a new driver haha.
I went to work as a "line mechanic" at a Ford dealer a week after graduating from high school in '72.The dealer that summer wanted a bunch of us to drive some new cars to a display at a local country fair,we were to drive them around a horse track and stop and let the people look at them,then we could take them back to the dealership or keep them for the weekend and bring them back Mon. I picked a red with black vinyl top 72, 2 dr 302 auto Mav.,my buddies and I probably put 500 miles on that thing that weekend and those 6.95-13s would smoke for a hundred feet after power jacking,we beat that poor thing to death! I loved that thing! It was really fast because it was so light compared to all the big cars of the day,I tried to buy it (it was new) but they wanted 2300.00 and I offered them 2100.00 and they wouldn;t deal,I kept driving my '67 Failane 500 convertible 289 4sp car until later that year changed jobs and went to work for a different Ford dealer where I bought my Black '71 Grabber off another mechanic I worked with because he wanted a '73 with A/C,there was actually two of us at that dealership that had black with silver stripe 71 302 Grabbers,one was stick with buckets,one auto with bench,little did we know at the time how rare that combo was,and two at the same time and place...love my black!!! These cars just look so good with a little work..
i was looking for my first car and my dad convinced me to look for older ones. so i went looking for older cars. Looking at the popular ones first. Mustangs, Novas you name it. then searched for galaxie, falcons, Roadrunner,but anyways someone told me to look for a maverick. I look for a couple minutes went to see it in person and we bought it the next day!!
