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From July 2007 to August 2008 I amused myself by restoring a 1968 Beetle that was donated to Wheels4Hope, a charity where Walt and I volunteered for several years.

The restoration was fun but I had no interest in owning or driving a Beetle. It reminded me of my lawn tractor.

So, I needed another project. I had been looking for a few months when I remembered a Ford Maverick that had been sitting in a friend's side yard since I knew him. It was blue and white with red pin stripes and some US flag badge decals on the rear quarters. Looked around on the Internet and learned it was a Sprint. Ford did Sprint decor options for the Maverick, Mustang and Pinto to celebrate the 1972 Olympics. Inerior is white with blue dash, arm rests, and bule cloth inserts in the vinyl seats. The Sprint package included color keyed dog dish hub caps and chrome wheel rings. This one has the 302, AT, PS, air and AM radio. It was a complete and unmolested original with 58K miles with some rusty areas showing and others to be discovered. Here's how it looked after we towed it to my house and, with Walt's help, cleaned some of the 19 years worth of dirt off of it.

The Sprint was purchased new by my friend's father-in-law. My friend acquired the car when his father-in-law died a few years later. Friend drove it till 1989 when he parked it ON DIRT in his side yard. There were large Oak trees in his hard and EVERY tube in the car was packed full of mouse nests and acorn shells.



The mice apparently attracted lots of snakes because we found a few skins shed in the hood and grill.

Sitting on dirt, under Oak trees for 19 years created some pretty severe rust damage. I'll include pictures of the rusty areas and repair actions in later posts. Jim

Looks like an interesting project, and might be worth some money when you are done. Did you get production numbers on the Sprint edition? We need to know if it is rare.

I didn't get production numbers on the car. Can get a detailed report for $50 but there are too many other things it needs. There is a registry of Maverick Sprints. Mine was the 16th one registered. I know of one other Sprint in North Carolina. There's a BEAUTIFUL one in Maryland. The owner got it when he was in high school.



Another in Georgia. And others on the Maverick/Comet Forum. There's an enthusiatic, small following for Mavericks. Over 11,000 members on the Forum and lots of non-member watchers.

My plan is to take it back to the mostly original look with some bolt on "improvements", e.g., Mustang wing and Mach 1 scoop. So far I've got a 600 Holley (with two spares thanks to Paul), Edelbrock Performer manifold, E7 heads which I'll port, Mustang fuel tank (allows for dual exhaust), 3-row aluminum radiator, and '88 Camaro bucket seats from Carlisle. (Thought they were Mustang seats when I bought them. THAT'S why they were only $30 ) Still need to find headers, exhaust system, mild cam/lifters/springs, and double timing chain. If the tranny works OK I don't plan to change it or the rear. I expect I'll get the dreaded one-wheel burn outs with my 3.00 open rear, street tires and stock converter. Hoping this stuff will get me into the low 14s. If not, I'll probably do another round of "improvements".

Tranny may need work. Here's what I found when I dropped the pan.



I cleaned it up, changed the fluid and ran it with wheels off the ground. At least have to reseal it (another learning experience) 'cause fluid leaked real bad. If its still not right I'll consider rebuilding it (more education) with a performance converter and shift kit. Alternative would be to swap to T5 but that's a pretty big deal.

For the car to be worth real money, Mavericks would have to get a lot more popular. There was a really nice Grabber (sporty trim package) at Carlisle with asking price down to $9K. Don't think he got it. I like the car partly because it's unusual. Think its under-appreciated.

More later.

Jim

I don't think you restore a Maverick for the money. I do love how unique these cars are, but I like Pintos too...

I love when you wrote "The restoration was fun but I had no interest in owning or driving a Beetle. It reminded me of my lawn tractor." That's good stuff.

-BP

Most Ford guys will know about rusted out cowl vent chambers on 1960s and '70s Fords. The Sprint had it. Debris accumulates, blocks the drains and the floor of the chamber rusts thru. That allows rain to get into the cabin, soak the carpet and rust the floors. Solution is to remove the hood and front fenders, drill out 100+ spot welds, remove braces that connect the fender aprons and the cowl, and remove the cowl cover panel. This is NOT what you hope to find.


Nor this. The corner was rusted on all three sides.



You can buy new panels for Mustangs. The only sheet metal that's repoed for Mavericks is rear quarter skins. (That'll be another post when they are done.) I fabed patches for the outside surface, front surface, and cowl vent floor. Those aren't 30.06 cartridges -- they're Clecos. REALLY handy for assembling panels where you have to put them on and take them off 30 times to make everything fit.







Some rust stabalizer, POR15 and brushable seam sealer and its as good as new. Actually better. Think the only paint Ford applied to the chamber interior was overspray.


Then its time to replace the cowl cover and apron braces, plug weld all the drilled out spot welds and enjoy a couple of brewskis.



Some guys try to fix this problem by putting a cover over the cowl grill or even welding a patch over it. Won't work. There are drains from the windshield area into the cowl vent chamber. The floor of the chamber is sealed to the body, not the cowl cover. They'll get less water on the carpet but it'll still get wet.

Next post will cover the floor repairs.

Jim

From really ugly to really sweet!

When did you do all this work, and where is the engine?

Fred32v wrote:From really ugly to really sweet!

Thanks, Fred.

MostMint wrote:When did you do all this work, and where is the engine?

I've had the car since last Fall. I'm REALLY slow, so the cowl repair took a few weeks.

The engine is sitting in front of the car on Walt's engine stand. I vascilated about pulling the engine. It ran fine. Nice and quiet once the lifters got pumped up. Cowl repair would be a little easier with the engine out. Deciding factor was a $10.50 winning eBay bid for some never-installed Hedman headers. (Can't get the exhaust manifold bolts out without pulling the engine.) Unfortunately, the guy wouldn't honor the auction so I'm still looking for headers. Anyway, by the time I found out the headers weren't coming, the engine was out. It'll make clean up, intake manifold, and cam (and now E7 heads) work easier.

Walt and I pulled the engine and trans with Walt's engine lift and Walt's engine lift bar.



Did I mention I'm using Walt's MIG welder for all my welding? At one point I offered to take the car to Walt's garage to save him hauling all his tools to mine.

While I'm on the welding subject, I'm having fun with that. I have an oxy/acetelyne outfit but never did any MIG or arc welding. Tried doing some practice seams on sheet metal with the torch and a tiny tip. WAY too much warping. Tried brazing. Still too much warping. That's when Walt offered his MIG welder. So, I tried doing some MIG welded beads on sheet metal with really ugly results. Used up a tank of gas and a spool of wire trying to get a decent bead. No luck. The breakthru occured when I stopped trying to do beads and just did a series of spot welds. Instead of holding the trigger and trying to move the puddle, I'd just hold the trigger for a second or so, move down the seam, and do another little spot weld. I didn't kjnow it, but I was using a well known method called stitch welding. Works great as long as you have a lot of time. No warping. No holes. Can either run the spots together or leave space between the spots.

I'm currently working on the rear quarter panels. I mentioned before this is the only sheet metal that's repoed for the Maverick. If smaller patch panels were available, I could have used them. Repo inner fender would have been VERY helpful. For the other side, I'll see if a Mustang inner fender would be helpful.
I didn't take any pics before I cut the old panel. I cut more than was bad so I could make the seam under the body line where any flaws would be harder to detect. Here's the "before" situation after the bad areas were cut out.

Front of wheel housing.



Glad to see solid metal under here.



Inner fender rust.




Area of quarter and inner fender behind the wheel had been pushed in by a hit-and-run. Previous owner banged it back out some with a baseball bat. It presented the double challenge of replacing rusted areas and getting the new inner fender positioned correctly.




Replacement pieces were fabed for the rusted and deformed inner fender. Then welded to the inner fender. The tabs in the first pic were trimmed to fit the new panel after it was in position.





Notice the discolored area? Didn't get the curve just right so had to apply some head (edit: HEAT, not head. That would hurt!) and persuade it into shape.





The new panel was cut 1/2" extra to slip in behind the old panel. Eastwood crimping pliers were used around the perimeter so the two panels would be at the same height when the new panel was installed. That left a nice little valley for welding at the seam.

Here's the new panel welded in place.









And, now with filler and ready to prime.







Hope you guys like pictures. Tell me if I'm overdoing it.

You should host a TV show!

Looks great...

-BP

Basement Paul wrote:You should host a TV show!

Looks great...

-BP

Thanks, Paul.

TV show?? They'd want it finished in one episode. Could only do a show every year or two.

Love the pictures, keep it up.

Pictures are great. Uploading them is the easy part. Doing all the work is the hard part. At this pace you'll need another project by the end of the summer.

WOW, Impressive fabrication work.
Hope ya find the headers you want.