A Maverick Weekend

Most of my stories here have dealt with the trials and tribulations I've encountered with my car. Series of annoyances. This story is not like that.

I got a lot done this weekend. What started this furious fit of wrenching was my AC underperformng. It never did all that well at idle, although it worked great once I was actually driving. I had always chalked that up to my low idle speed and the inherent flaws of the stock York style air compressor that everybody hates. But when it started requiring about 3,000 RPM on the tach to do anything, and my manifold gauges showed only 5-10 PSI difference between the high and the low side, I knew I had to do something about it. You might recall I invested a fair amount of work into getting this car air conditioned, so this was annoying me.

Thus begins Saturday morning. Having fallen asleep on the couch Friday night while browsing this accursed time-hole of a website they call the MMB, I awoke to jubilant cries of "Daddy, Daddy!" promptly at 7:00am. This was a very efficient way to start my day, as I was already dressed, sitting up, shoes on, computer in my lap. All I really needed was a cup of coffee, but since I haven't yet passed on to my three-year-old son the time-honored tradition given to me by my father and his father before him, the art of Making Daddy's Coffee, I reluctantly stood up, hugged my boy and shambled off to begin the morning rituals.

Mama and the boy went to go feed my sister's dog since she's out of town. I decide the time is right for sneaking off to the local Pull-A-Part, so that's what I did.

It was hot in the junkyard. I barely noticed though, because I had already acclimated myself to the heat while running the AC full blast on the way there. This had to stop. I combed the Ford section for a compressor. I was pretty sure I needed one, but I wasn't quite confident enough in my AC diagnostic skills to drop a couple hundred on a new compressor only to find out I was wrong. I hated to go back with the heavy York style compressor since everybody says it's night and day when you switch to a Sanden, but I knew I would at least feel a little bit better about it if I could score an aluminum one. Soon I saw a promising candidate in a '74 pickup.

It was aluminum, it looked like a reman, so I did what crude tests I could. Pulled out my drill battery and tested the clutch. Yep, that works. Took a hose loose, put my thumb on it and spun the compressor. Yes, it has suction and pressure. Good. You're goin' home with me. But, I don't have a wrench big enough to take the upper hose off! How could I forget that? Just as I'm about to start cutting the hose, I notice a nice pair of Channel Locks on the radiator support! Great! Been needing some of these! I might have felt bad about taking them, but if I didn't someone else would. This tool was already lost forever to its previous owner. I've certainly lost a few tools in the junkyard myself, it's just part of the Code. The unwritten rules of junkyarding. The Yard giveth, and the Yard taketh away. These are mine now, just as my best 3/8" ratchet became someone else's a few months ago.

Having secured a nice looking compressor, I had one more stop to make before leaving. I had to pay my respects to the the '74 Grabber that has given me so much since it arrived. By "pay my respects" of course I mean "see if there's anything useful I haven't yet looted off it." It's already given me a perfect dash pad, a door panel, dome light, a great pair of kick panels with speaker grilles, many various little hard-to-find parts for spares, such as a good sport mirror, cluster... I even got a factory rear defogger! This time I just pulled the door switches, since one of mine seems to be getting tired, and I left to continue the day's adventures.

My plan for the day was ambitious. In addition to the AC work, I had also decided to give my stereo some attention. Last week my brother gave me some nice 8" subwoofers in exchange for some wiring in his car. I thought, if I'm going to install those, then I might as well take care of something else that's been bothering me:



See how those speakers are mounted on the kick panels? I kinda hate that. You might also notice from the earlier pictures, I've had to replace them and put grilles on because people kept putting their feet through them. I think they look out of place in a 70's interior, and I also don't like advertising my audio equipment to any would-be thieves. Since I now have some stock kick panels with grilles I decided to remedy the situation.

So after the junk yard I hit Lowe's for some fiber board, Wal-Mart for speaker wire, and Harbor Freight for a pneumatic body saw. (I figured neither my jigsaw nor certainly my sawzall were going to fit in the tight space where I would be cutting behind the kick panels.) Then I went to the car wash, popped in a few quarters and scrambled to plug up the hose fittings on my compressor with some rubber gloves once it occurred to me I ought to avoid getting water in there. It cleaned up pretty well. Ended up talking with a guy there who had a nice fox body Mustang and who said he'd been "hoping he'd catch me for months" to look at my car. Pretty cool I thought. After that, one more stop for gas, and I went home. I was surprised at how much I'd already been able to get done before noon! Most unusual for me on a Saturday.

When I got home I noticed a FedEx package had arrived. Excellent. My Comp Cams Magnum 1.7 roller-tipped rockers. That was fast! One more project for the weekend! I wondered if I had time. Better get started...

First, the compressor.



For anyone who's interested, if you must keep the stock type compressor, it is worth your time to find one made of aluminum! With the clutch, the iron one weighs 40 pounds! The aluminum one is 28. Still heavy, but what a difference! My son helped me with the final cleanup and painting, as well as the install. I chose to paint this one with some aluminum caliper paint I had, since it's heat resistant and since I knew it would adhere well to the metal. Plus I was hoping cosmetically, by breaking up the continuous stream of black components, that whole compressor/bracket assembly might not look so huge. I don't know if I accomplished that, but I think it looks better than the black one did:




Most importantly, at 600 RPM idle, my vent temperature is 48 degrees on a hot May afternoon in the south. Not bad at all. A quick test drive told me this is going to work better than ever.

With that out of the way, I turned my attention to the stereo. I decided to do all the cutting first. I was still making good time, but I thought I'd better focus on getting the "loud" parts out of the way in case I ended up working on this into the night, which of course I did. So with my son's help, I measured and cut a fiberboard panel, then marked and cut the holes, covered it with felt and vinyl:



It met with the boy's approval. Before we mounted the speakers in it, while we were still marking and cutting, he said, "Daddy the windows for the sub look awesome! What are we gonna use to make the periscope?"

After pausing for a minute to think about where in the world a three year old learns words like "periscope" I explained to him that these subs were a type of speaker, and that sounds travel from the radio, through wires, and out through speakers. I let him touch one of my 6.5's in the front while some music was playing so he'd get the idea. He understood, and quickly got over any disappointment he might have had about not building a submarine.

After finishing the sub panel, I set that aside and began mounting the front speakers.

Now, say what you want about Harbor Freight tools and I'll agree with most of it. Many of their tools are crap, but occasionally I find a real gem, and this is one:



I only needed it to work once, and it did. We'll see if it continues to perform so well, but for this first project, man it zipped through that sheet metal like it was nothing. It made a total mockery of my jigsaw, this thing is evil. I made the cuts exactly like I wanted with ease, and then I was able to mount the speakers flush. I don't have any pictures from this phase, but I do have a shot of the finished panels:



...Sorry, it was dark by this point. I was very pleased to have those old kick panels and speaker grilles out of there.

Progress paused while we took the boy out for pizza. Afterwards it was bath time, then bed time. He told me he had a lot of fun working on the car with me, and hearing that made my day as much as anything else that got accomplished.

After bed time, I went back out to the garage and started running wires. The old Kenwood amp which had been powering my 6x9's in the rear would now be set up for the subs, so I needed new wires run for the 6x9's. Done. Then I got the wiring ready for the subs, and bolted those in:



Again, it was dark, sorry. I'll post better pics later. And one of these days I'll get around to finishing that trunk with some carpet or vinyl, but for now the subs are about the only thing in there that looks good. It was somewhere around 2am at this point so I didn't get to test and adjust the stereo like I wanted, so I just opened the hood stared at my engine bay and started arguing with myself.




I yawned. Do I really wanna start taking all that apart right now? Well yes, of course I do. Man up, Nancy.




...And then I got tired.

But I knew I had done the right thing. As hard as I worked Saturday, I was going to be worn out on Sunday. By tearing into the engine before I went to bed, there was no way I could talk myself out of installing those new rocker arms, because I would need the car the following day.

Sunday I went right back out to the garage and got to work. I decided I should go get a set of pushrods, so I jacked the Mom Mobile and rode out to my local O'Reilly. They didn't have 'em, but they sent me to their bigger store downtown which did. I'm glad I got those. With all the rockers torqued down, the lash seemed to be dead on, best I could tell. I put it all back together with ample amounts of assembly lube, fired it up, and it sounded great! The 1.7 ratio brought my valve lift up to about .485. The overall cadence and "lope" of the engine remained about the same but it seemed to "hit" harder. Definitely a deeper sound. Just to make sure it wasn't my imagination I asked my wife about it. Of course she gave me that cute look she gets every time I ask her something, that look of utter bewilderment that seems to say, "I love you dear, but what the hell kind of question is this, how should I know, and why do you care?" but she did humor me and in her own words described the same thing.

I couldn't wait to drive it. But I did wait. I let it warm up, revved it a little and listened closely. Previously there was some occasional clatter in the valvetrain which was now absent. That was enough for me. Time for a test drive.

Nope! Not yet! "Not wivout me!" says the boy.

So I strapped him into his seat, thinking this is for the best anyway. I'm not going to go stand on the gas and rev to 6k with my son in the car, and I should probably give the valvetrain some break-in time before I do that anyway. We drove around for a little while and tested out the stereo to our satisfaction. He told me he could feel the music in his tummy, which was "neat."

Then we hit an on ramp, traffic was light and I decided break-in time was over. Once the ramp straightened out I slowed to about 30, put it in first and let it go to about 5500 before shifting back into drive. It pulled harder than ever and it sounded out of this world.

It was just for a couple of seconds. Conditions were safe, I didn't exceed the speed limit and at no time was anyone in danger. But nonetheless I felt quite guilty about it.

I looked in the rearview mirror at my boy. He was looking back at me, and he clearly had something on his mind. He very quietly said,


"Um, Daddy?"


"Yes Reilly?"


"Do that again."

 

Sweet! (but I only read half way) I have one of those air saws, and I'm amazed at how good it works for $10. Maybe I'll revisit again later, when my eyes recover!

 

I got robbed then, I paid $17. Still well worth it though!

 

Wasn't there a coupon in Hot Rod, I've seen it a few times...

 

Your a cool dad,
wish my dad was cool like you
I cant get him to take me to his work so Maverick Maniac can come pick me up (stripping down mavericks and comets, learning the trade)

 

I remember when I was little and we had our '65 Mustang with the 302 in it (that engine is going into my Mav soon ) and we went down this hill that comes back up so the suspension gets pushed hard at the bottom... I remember she nearly bottomed out and I remember hearing my dad say "Hot damn she's runnin' good!" Heh... then the hill comes back up to a stop sign, which we nearly skidded past. Good thing the previous owner put discs on it... Ah, memories. Of, like, 10 years ago. Heh. Anyway, I wish my dad wasn't so old and tired so we could get lots of work done like you do XD

 

Thanks guys. I'm only 30, and he's only 3. Give me some time and I will have a lot less energy... Give him some time and I'll be a lot less cool.

I hope my son thinks I'm cool when he's older. Somehow I doubt it though. That's just the way it usually works. Soon there will be teenage rebellion. He'll want nothing to do with me, might even hate my guts for a while, so we're enjoying the good times together while we can, and hopefully building enough good memories that the bond will be strong enough to last through those tougher years.

Having a son has opened my eyes so much about my own dad too. Guys, make sure your dads know you love them. Nothing's gonna break my heart more than the day my little boy stops wanting to hang out with me.

 

It's funny. I have lots of memories working on cars with my dad and I'm 15... I still love him And I don't think I'll ever not think he's cool.

 

As usual, great read... went well with my first coffee.

Got me motivated to get out and get some stuff done on the Comet before going out to work.

 

You are a great storyteller! It is a gift.

Enjoy your time with your son and it will be your legacy. My son and I became best frends because of these old cars. He just graduated from UF with an MBA and started his new job yesterday in Tampa. We still stay in touch and he calls me regularly (something I failed to do with my parents because we were never that close). The experiences we had together with the old cars was the glue that bonded us together.

I find I take more naps when I work on the cars than I did before.

Again, great story!


Jim

 

"Son, one day this will all be yours. You can thank me later."
​

 

You know I think our generation (I am 41) is a little different than out parents. I was pretty dang close with my Dad and I always likes hangin out with him. Got in a few pretty serious arguments but nothing tragic, but ye there are times when I remember hating him but more time that I remember the good stuff we did together and I think Our generation is even closer to our kids so I don't really ever see my son (13 now) not thinking I am a cool dad.

Even when I correct him for stuff he has done wrong I always try to explain why I am mad about him doing something dumb and he always seems to understand why I was yelling. With my Dad when we were doing something cool together it was great but when he was yelling and correcting you os whooping yor arse, he didn't explain too much and I can remeber thinking he was a real JERK. With my son like I said I try to explain why I am yelling and correcting him and he almost always tells me when it's over that he understood why I was mad at him or understands what I was mad about.

So I bet your son will always think you are a cool Dad too...

 

Good story. Want to be my dad??

Oh wait. I'm more than twice as old as you.

We always wonder if the grankids will want to stop coming over to be with us. They'd rather live with us than be at home.

 

If you are anything like you sound they will be coming over well into their late teens.

My Son is 13 going on 14 (going on 25) and he still goes up and spends the weekend with MY Grandmother (his great-grandma) he has been going up there since he was about 8 months old and even after my Grandfather passed away and it is just my son and Nan and Nan doesn't drive he still goes up almost every weekend. sometimes only for one day sometime for the whole weekend depens on if he has things to do with his friends but he tries to make time every weekend and if he doesn't go one weekend he is always anxious to go the next weekend and makes sure he keeps his schedule clear so he almost never misses two entire weekends in a row.

I have actually seen him turn down his friends to go stay with Nan. If he has told my Grandmother that they are planning on doing something special, (him making her dinner or on special occasion they call for delivery) but he will actually tell his friends "No I can't this weekend I am spending time with my Nan."

 

any tips on replacing the stop/brake light switch in a 76 maverick? i'm trying to fix my son's car, he's 17 and i'm a newbie but can figure a lot out from books and great people willing to share information. i found the switch but it's inside a cage thing that i can't open or remove. any suggestions?