A buddy of mine and I about a year and a half ago started playing around with the thoughts of a maverick after watching bull run, we were thinking of entering but wanted a car that isn't a common thought to the muscle era that would stand out, yet handles agile enough to compete in the show effectively. Since then, i have drooled over mavericks and finally one morning on my way home from work, my buddy calls. "Hey, i found a maverick for you!" i was ecstatic, so i went to look at it, after seeing a couple at shows all with the I6 all factory i was expecting a car with rusted out rear quarters and the stock i6 ready for a re-do. To my surprise we got there to look at the car and low and behold, not much rust at all, biggest was the spot about the size of a coke can on the roof that was just surface rust! So, we toyed around, peeking in windows like a kid with a new toy and i got brave, and threw the hood. That's when i almost fell to my knees... tucked between the stock shock towers was a 302... Looks like someone started projecting the car and dropped it. Has some old chrome valve covers, Edelbrock Torker tall intake (says Torker 299 on the firewall side of the carb), 2bbl carb, power steering, the whole kit and kaboodle. I almost fell to my knees at the happy sight and had to look under, to see if it was an original sub frame or a fabricated... and it's original.. So we walked in the junkyard main office (the car was sitting out front) the whole way i was just muttering, there's no way i can afford this car... there's no way i've only got about a grand to my name i can't afford it. And we found out, they only wanted a measly 800 bucks for it! So we talked to the guy that had it, was a tow truck driver and was ready to unload the lil car quick. I then found out that there was a guy who was looking at it just to put it in a demolition derby... and my heart sank... he was supposed to be by at noon to pay for it and pick it up. So i ran to the ATM, pulled the money, went and had her signed over by 11:30... and noon rolls around, i'm stading by the car and he pulls up. He got out of his ricer equipped with kiddie lights and a fart can, and proceeded to try and talk me out of my treasure. Eventually he got pissed because i wouldn't sell him the car, spit on the hood and drove off. Since then, i've brought her home, cleaned her up and started to fix things that were wrong... like the starter solenoid... we had to hot wire the damn thing to get it home, using a lamp cord from the +'ve battery terminal to the coil and bypassing the solenoid... haha But since then, i've fallen deeply in love with my mav, went to the ford dealer and they engine coded the car and found out, that it's still a numbers matching survivor. Whoever had it before me i'd love to just take a tire iron to, because the interior was painted with a spray can... just masked off the seatbelts and seats, and shot this crappy blue metallic **** everywhere... and the exterior, was done with what looks like wal-mart blue and white spraypaint, white racing stripes that run hood to under back bumper between the tail lights, ii hope to have pics up of her soon so you guys can see the steal i found. Was surprised, in the trunk was a paint can of rustoleum in blue, and wouldn't you know it, that's what they dumped on the floorboards... so when i drop carpet in, i'm just gonna leave it, heh Still working out little issues, getting her used to being run again, dropped the tank and cleaned out the fuel system and rebuilt the carb... just trying to find things like vacuum diagrams and such to get things together. I'm excited and every time my mom walks by, i gloat... "i got my maverick!" My uncle had two when he was a teenager, first car was a comet that he totaled, then had a 72 mav and then a 75... all three he tore the hell out of but they took the abuse with charm and minor repairs. (the comet had a built up motor and he ripped the planetary gear set out several times being a kid) I drive her like a cruiser, and get all kinds of looks at the gas station... i love that she's a big bumper mav, after all, don't wanna get nailed and explode or anything.. Gonna get her all fixed up and shoot her back to her factory black with silver side stripes that wrap around the tail lights... the grille was all beat up but all the chrome trim that goes around windows and such were well preserved... was all in the trunk and the only pieces that have a bit of pitting are the bottom straight trim that goes in by the rear windows. Planning to re-wire it, tune her up, drop some nice Cragars and tires on her, and have a beautiful car. Already lined her up runnin' like crap against my buddy's 70' charger and left him in the dust... hates that he got beat by a ford... haha I appreciate all you guys on the forums, the posts and such have been wonderful, and i hope to learn a lot from you guys when it comes to the ol' mav. ~Cowboiup1979 ~Same S/N on yahoo
I like that term, getting them "used to being run again". I know what that's like. Good luck with your project. To post pictures, simply go to the gallery and hit the upload button up at the top of the page. Pretty self explanatory from there.
welcome to the board.. thats a steal!! did you say factory black with silver side stripes? could it be a stallion?
Thanks guys! Stallion, dont' think so, has chrome trim aroudn windows and the grille is grey instead of black, from what i've seen i don't think it was, but had a similar scheme, the striping you can see where the flecking is gone, i think it was striped, and the trunk under the injsulator pad is black... for sure Don't think she was, but according to title and guy i got it from, 55k original miles... though i don't know if that's true or not, but title isn't marked as "exceeds mechanical Limitations" for mileage... so legally... it's only 55k miles... hmm... who knows? Feels like she's got probably 155k on her anyway
Dude...that was a long post. I almost couldn't read all of it. But you know what? It shows that you are totally STOKED with your car, and I really like that. I almost lost that stoke this summer, and now that the weather is cooling down, I am getting it back. Good to hear you have a cool project! Keep on it, post pics, and have a good time. Oh, yeah...and thanks for reminding me why I have this 3000lb chunk of iron in my garage Yay! on the Cragars. YAY! on the V8 score. And YAY!!! on the Torker 289 intake. It is 289, not 299 (at least I don't think they made a 299) but that is the coolest intake I have used of the 3 or 4 I have had access to. It is a screamer
Welcome to the board. That is a great story. It's good to hear you were able to save your Maverick from such an undignified death.
