Our 73 Mav Project- Roof repair

Greg,

Great job. Between you and Corbin you guys have inspired me! I have felt at times that I wondered if a pretty sound car other than the roof could be saved, well you guys have shown that it can be done! Thanks for sharing the pictures of your process. It is one thing to hear about, but it really helps to see it. Can't wait to see the finished product. I can't wait for warmer weather, to start on mine. Congratulations!

 

Very nice!! Looks awesome. Did you buy a universal type hood hinge kit, or did you make it yourself? Either way, very nice. The tower mods would be helpful even with just a 302 if you choose, as spark plug changes are pretty tight. Tightening header bolts are also a chore with the full towers. The brace for the power disc also makes it fun! I wish I had made the mod like you did for the future, but too late now. Luckily my plugs are new, and the headers are tight.
-Corbin

 

Thanks guys. No, I'm a poor boy, I don't buy it if I can make it. I made the hinges for the hood and am working out the plans for the inside hood release mounted above the brace mounts on the firewall. I'm also working out some flush mounted tailights and gas cap for the rear. I don't know now how it will finish out but I'm trying a lot of new ideas I haven't tried in the past. The Hot Rod Power tour is supposed to finish its trip in Arlington, about 15 miles from here, and we hope to have the car finished for that event. We finshed the first round of block sanding yesterday, man we must have a warped mind to be trying to straighten out such a warped car. Later guys.

 

Making them yourself is more admirable! Way to go. I wish I had the resources, and place to make things my self. The tail lights and gas cap sound cool, make sure to post pics when you're done. Speaking of hood locks, has anyone been able to make/adapt a cable operated hood lock for these cars? I would love to do that myself, but I was just wondering of others had done it.
-Corbin

 

Very nice! I assume the tabs welded on the top of the firewall lip are to latch the hood. Are you going to have any interference with the firewall to shock tower braces? Also, when I went to perfrom the Shelby drop of one inch, the upper control arm shaft ends would not clear without widening the tower slightly. Have you measured this out yet? Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks. Yeah your right about widening the tower out for the shelby drop. I had to use the old heat and beat strategy to clear the upper ar shafts. It kind of surprised me that I had not read about that part before when the shelby drop on a Mav has been mentioned. I am still working on some tubular, adjustable shock tower braces. I will have to make the firewall mount either inconjuction with the hood release or around the hood release.

 

Greg; Thanks tons for the pics. They are a great help, and an inspiration. As I mentioned before, my car is at about the same stage of completion as yours is, but it's been there a long time. Seeing and hearing about your progress encourage me to get back out to that cold garage!!! Please keep us up to date on that Shelby drop. It sounds like there are a few of us considering this modification. Thanks again. John B.

 

Thanks John and your welcome for the pics. Like they say a pic is worth a thousand words. School is closed today so I just went out to the shop and did some more block sanding. I also looked over the shock towers again. In addition to widening the towers for the Shelby drop, there was some bracing the was interfering with the down travel of the upper control arm. I mounted the upper arms in the lower holes and figured out where it was hittiing and torched out just enough of this bracing to enable the control arm to have full travel. Like I said before, I have read a lot about people doing this mod but I did not read about all of this heat and beating and cutting. I wonder if my Mav is different or if I didn't research this enough to begin with. I'm going to go to the shop now to get a current pic of this to post. This is a pic when it was just cut to widen but not for the Shelby drop. I'll post the current pic in a minute.

 

Here's the driver side.

 

Here's the pass side.

 

I can tell you that my experience with the Shelby drop is exactly like your experience. I never heard of anything except a straight bolt in mod, which it is not, by your & mine's experience. You're not alone here!