I just stumbled across this forum. I have an early 1970 Maverick that I have owned since 1974. I needed a car to go to college, some of my high school buddies and I had planned an end of summer trip before going off to school and I had saved $700 for a car. Because I had driven my parents "extra" 1970 Maverick all thru high school, I wanted one of my own. Some time I will tell you why you don't race your Mom's Maverick against your brother's go cart in reverse on a narrow gravel road!! Anyway, a college student in Houston had this white 2 door 170 ci Maverick advertised for sale in the paper for $750. At the time, most others were going for around $1200. When I called and asked him why he was only asking $750 he said, "That is all that I think it is worth". Because I was headed off on my summer trip, I asked my Mom to go look at it and take it for a test drive and if it seemed OK to her, to buy it. So she bought it and fronted me the extra $50 and when I got back from vacation, I had a set of wheels. Because this car had spent most of its life in college parking lots, both sides looked like they had been beaten with a tomahawk along the door panels where they come to the highest point in the middle. In doing laundry, they had allowed bleach to spill on the back seat which ate thru the fabric. I met my wife in this car and it was still my daily driver when I got out of college. In college, I joined the Ford club where Jay Biddle (JBA headers in CA) was also a member with his 67 or 68 Shelby 500 KR. Obviously, he didn't want to run against my 170 cubic inch inline 6 with the Cherry bomb muffler!! Anyway, it wasn't long before I yanked out the 6, had a 302 with 351 Windsor heads built and a Edelbrock F4B dual plane high rise added in its place. With the Lunati cam and TRW pop up pistons, it sounded great with uncapped Headman headers. Many years later, the car sits patiently in my garage waiting for the funding tree to sprout green everywhere so that I can do a complete restoration. My wife gripes about the car but I remind her that I owned the car prior to our marriage and that it isn't community property. When I croak, she can dig a hole, turn on the Beach Boys, and bury me in it! When we lived in Ogden, Utah in the early and mid 90's, I used to go out to the salvage yards and pull parts off of old Mavericks. So, someday I will go thru my boxes of clutter, clean them off and see if any of these parts are worthy of a restoration project. During that time, I never did run across a Grabber but I did see one Maverick that had a white interior and white kick panels, I would guess there weren't a lot of those. So, I guess you can say that I have been around a Maverick since 1970. I have to admit that in the recent Mustang and Modified Ford Magazine with the green Grabber, it has stirred my desire to restore my car. What a beautiful Maverick! All the Best, 70TexMav
from another early 70 owner in Northeast Pennsylvania Man, can I relate to you Is your key switch on the dash or on the column?
:HandshakeWOW! Ogden, Utah huh? You still won't see many if any Mavericks or Comets here. The mid 80's was my last memory of seeing the two, in the late 70's early 80's they were plentiful with their drooping rear ends and rusted quarter panels.
Early Mav My key lock cylinder is located on the dashboard. Do you know the cut off date that Ford switched to column cylinder locks? I have to admit, when I lived in Utah, it was like going on a treasure hunt visiting the bone yards, looking for Mavericks and their hidden treasures. One that I found was a matching blue, perfect, no cracks dash pad. Getting it off was another story. All the best
