I have a ROUGH 1971 Maverick Grabber, that I bought originally to possibly restore, or to part out. After a lot of thought, and going back an forth as to what to do with it, restore or part it out. It comes down to the fact that I don't have the time, skill, or funds to do this car the justice it would deserve to restore it. I have been collecting parts for it, but it is hard when you have more than one project at a time. I orginally bought my 1969.5 to restore (solid little runner), and since then I haven't done much with it. It's a better candidate for restoration than the Grabber, so I am leaning towards abandoning the Grabber. It sat for 10 years before I bought it, and now it's been another year and half sitting at my place. Long and short of it, would you part it out or try to sale it whole? All the inner fenders in the engine bay would have to be replaced, the cowls need repaired, both rear quarters shot, tail panel rusted, doors rusted, some rust on the floor pans, the interior would have to be restored. Could it be restored yes in the right hands!!! But not your average restoration, it would take someone with a lot of heart and money! The good news is the car is an original Grabber with a 302, bucket seats, deluxe door panels, and a color scheme I have only seen one other time. For me the struggle has always been the rare color scheme. The car has a later 71' model year built date, that was special ordered with the upcoming 72' color scheme. Has a six digit DSO Number. I started it up last summer, and was fuel starved so I bought a new fuel pump, but never got it on the car. Sorry so long, tell me what you think? Here are some pics of the very rough Maverick that I own, and a picture of someone's 1972 Grabber that has inspired me to try to restore mine to it's original glory. I have been talking to Jean and Dale Doll for about year about having them do some of the work for me, but since I just bought a clean restored 1970 Grabber, I am ready to settle into just one project and that would be my 69.5' Maverick. Once again sorry for the length, thanks for your input.
The 6 digit DSO definitly makes it a special order car. How are the rear frame rails? What about the torque boxes? Those are the things that help determine it's fate. What about using the parts for your 1969.5? If you part it out yourself....you have to consider you might have to store parts for years before somebody actually buys them. Do you have room for that? Do you have room to part one out?...as in: someplace it can sit and be parted out and not offend the neighbors. If you sell it "whole"....then you don't have the hassle of disassembly, storage, etc. Just things to consider. Tell us about this 1970 Grabber you just bought.
Dave for me I would look at it this way.....how many of the parts off of it do you need for your 69.5?? now how much would you have to pay for those parts?? now how much could you realisticly get out of it selling it whole to someone else?? and from there is where I decide.....I know that I have parted several cars here at my place......and I will most likely do several more. I have found that I make alot more from parting them out and to be honest thats how I have funded alot of my car. Now I'm sure that several people cringe at this thought but hey, it's the only way I can afford to work on my car. So I will just leave you with those thoughts. Best of luck...and I will ask if The 70 Grabber you purchased was Craig's old one from Tom??
You might be surprised if you listed the car here for sale. Might get what you need out of it, and not have the work of parting it out. Dan
David, I should have mentioned the fact that I don't have a title for the car. I bought the car from someone here on the board, and he gave me a bill of sale for it, and he told me how to get a title. There are a couple of companies around that help you get titles for older cars like in a case like this. I checked it out, and then called the local title office at clerk of courts, and everything checked out. I didn't mentioned it before because, I really wasn't posting the car for sale. I was just looking to get everyone's opinion. The previous owner had the car for about 10 years himself, and with the intentions of restoring it, but he came across a nice original condition Grabber, and he abandoned this project with the intentions of selling it to someone who would restore it. He was in the same sitituation, he realized he could have easlily parted it out for more than he was asking, but he wanted to give the car a second chance. That's where I came in at. The bottom line for me on this car is that I don't really want to part it out. I have room etc. to do it but, I would rather see it restored to it's formal glory. I love the uniqueness of the color scheme, and it's a real plus that it's a original 302, and bucket seat factory Grabber. I would love to restore myself, but as mentioned earlier I just purchased the 70' Grabber from Tom, and I don't want to see this car sit, and if I kept it that's what would happen. It would have sit for another 2-3 years before I could start doing anything with it myself, and I know how rust is time's best friend, and I don't want to see this car's condition degrade any futher. David PM me your phone number if you are interested in talking about it. Everyone else, please keep your opinions going! Thanks!
Sold!! it will have a new home going to pick it up soon :bananaman :bananaman then time to start working on it thanks Dave
It's always a happy ending when one more Maverick is saved, like they say . . . it's not like they are making new ones anymore!
