1973 Ford Maverick 2-door
This was the second Maverick I ever owned. I bought it while I was in college to use for two purposes: Driving to school and for delivering pizza. It was Medium Yellow Gold in color, with a Ginger interior. This is how it looked when I bought it.
-250 6 cyl
-Automatic Transmission
-Power Steering
-Originally a Factory Radio Delete car
Well......even though I only paid $200 for the car...I decided it needed a little work....so I started with a little body work. This consisted of sheets of metal, some pop rivits, lots of bondo, and cans of spray primer. Oh...I found a set of Fenton Mags along the way for $50....got the front ones on. Some of the side trim I removed for this "restoration"....some of it I just decided to mask off.
I thought a black "Shelby" type stripe would set if off nicely, so 3 cans of 99 cent gloss black later...it had one. Keep in mind, I had to drive this car every day...so any bodywork or painting had to be done in time for me to drive the car. The black stripe only required the removal of the rear bumper and masking off the stripe.
Well.....after all the body work....it was time for paint. I had a week off of work, and it was the summer time, so I was out of school. First...pick a color. I went to Napa and looked at all the colors of tractor paint they had. At $19 a gallon....I couldn't beat the price. I picked orange. I sprayed the car in my uncle's garage. After the paint dryed, I brought the car home, added more stripes to the bottom of the car, and put a set of customized Mercury Bobcat tail-lights on the rear. The trim I removed was put back on the car with sheet metal screws. The lower stripes said 302 G.T. Right next to the Maverick emblems on the roof pillars I put vinyl letters that said shelby...all lower case. (Yes...the car still had the 6 cyl motor) I had traded two of my Fenton mags for actual Cragars...which were a little wider....and mounted those to the rear. I had also found a set of bucket seats that I spray painted with vinyl paint to try and match the rest of the interior. A week later....I had the car done. From about 20 feet away....it looked pretty good!!! ...or at least I thought so!!!
Well....after the car was painted...I continued to drive the car everyday......rain or shine....snow or ice....it didn't matter. I would put different rims on in the winter time. Soon, a rod starting knocking, so I put a junk yard motor and tranny in the car.....my first engine transplant. Soon after that...the motor blew a head gasket, so I pulled off the head and had it rebuilt. Then the tranny went out. Luckily I was close to home and I drove the car backwards 3 blocks home. I then had the tranny rebuilt. After that....I burned up the tranny again....and this time I decided I had enough. Some of the bondo and pop rivits was really starting to show, so I parted the car out and called the junk yard and they hauled the rest off for scrap. All of these repairs took place in the span of about one year. What can I say...driving a Maverick to college everyday, then delivering pizza's at nite is hard. It really takes a toll on a car.
