Basic restoration items
- Go though the car to make sure it is mechanically safe to drive and do
what ever fixes are required
- Steam clean the under side and motor
- Verify condition of motor to see if it needs any major work after 180K miles
- Replace motor mounts, transmission mount, body mounts and any other similar parts as needed
- Rebuild door hinges
- Replace rear window gasket (it leaks)
- Replace windshield gasket (it leaks)
- Replace/fix dashboard top cap (best if windshield is out at the time)
- Paint trunk area and get trunk padding
- Replace carpet (it is well worn and faded)
- Replace or dye kick panels
- Replace/fix door panels (if not practical then replace speakers)
- Attempt to do body work
- Replace any missing Maverick emblem's and get new reproduction tags and stickers
when possible for all the sticker on the car that are easy to see.
- Get car painted stock color (6C) and install new Grabber decal's
If I have a little extra money
- Have the Grabber stripes painted on instead of being decal's
- Rebuild the motor
- Upgrade to point-less ignition
- Add an under dash air conditioner
- Rebuild the transmission
- New radiator with electric fan(s)
- Rebuild the rear end
- Install a external oil cooler
- Install a external transmission cooler
- Install a
Dynamat type of sound & heat shielding
- Upgrade after market gauges to be
MSD laser gauges.
- Paint the engine block the color of the car body. The heads in the same
black color as the Grabber stripes.
- Convert motor to run with a serpentine belt system. Looks cool and saves weight
- Lots of engine chrome
- Water hoses upgraded to braided steel or other cool looking option
- Install a hidden audio system keeping a vintage 70's radio look
- No BOOM BOOM radio. I want something that sounds good at low volume and
does not eat up all the trunk space. Cool if IPOD worked with it
After I win the lottery
- All of the above
- Replace the motor with a fuel injected create motor (if it would fit).
Otherwise, a new carb driven create motor (nothing crazy, just a nice new
motor)
- Replace the transmission with a new one.
- Upgrade to RRS disc breaks
- Change to some nicer wheels. If possible find something that keeps the
spirit of the current hub cap & beauty trim look but more modern
- Create a custom rear end look, say a different style tail lightslight with a
pop open gas cap so people can not steal the Maverick style cap
- Do a frame up check book resto-mod. The type where I drop off the car,
I write a check. I pick up the car 100% done.
- Park car at our new house with 4 or more car climate controlled garage
(like I said, this would be after winning the lottery)
Random thoughts and ideas
- The stock color would look cool in either a metallic or better yet, a
perl
- Not sure how much it work it would be, but it would be nice to fit in
Mustang Mach 1 style tail lights and maybe "rear grill".
- I also saw some sequential T-bird tail light put on a Mustang (some DIY-
Network show) that looked real cool.
- Paint the current air cleaner housing the color of the car and put a
Grabber stripe around the side
- Make the hood scoops functional and modify the air filter housing to
take air from the scoops
- Smooth out the body by shaving the door handles and all the Maverick
emblem's except for the one on the front grill
- The only Maverick I ever seen on a TV car show was a Grabber clone
on My classic car.
It was yellow and the guy painted all the chrome around the rear window and
windshield black. Might be neat to see how it looks painted to match the
black used on the strips (put electrical tape on it to see how it looks)
If done this would need to be powder coated
I also saw one that
had done that at the
2007 Knotts Berry Farm all Fords car show .
I am thinking that would look cool in a "black-chrome" paint or powder coating.
- A wolf whistle would be cool
So much for the plan(s).
Click here for a progress report
A couple of nice things I have found. Many of the parts for this car can be found
at Autokrafter's site. Also, quite a
few of the parts are common with the Mustang's and other Fords and are available from stores and
sites that deal in restoration parts for those projects.
On the Maverick/Comet Forum
a guy is starting to reproduce some more parts for these cars. I hope his plans come to reality.
Last updated: 12-06-07 18:58