Have you seen that one meme: “If you park your car and don’t look back at it as you head inside, you have the wrong car”? That’s the feeling I’m getting with this 1973 Ford Maverick. Look at this sucker…it is wrong in many ways but damn, is it right. And that’s before we dive into my bias for these Falcon-based buckets of 1970s nostalgia. The photography is awesome…in some angles you have a beautiful blue Maverick sedan that seems to have aged amazingly well, sitting on aftermarket wheels cleaned up and ready to go out and be the cheerful little car that Ford hoped it would always be. Then you get another angle and I’m right back into 1988, with mag wheels, a rear end that is sitting up a bit versus the front of the car, a peeled vinyl roof, and the promise that if nothing else, whatever is taking up space under the hood is loud and will sound badass.
The engine is a newer 5.0L, and after that you are left to pretty much guess what’s going on here. There’s some rust in the lower front fender that needs to be patched up, and the roof needs to be either re-skinned or coated with bedliner to provide a nice, thick texture to mimic a vinyl roof. Inside, it’s not bad but there are details to address, and if it was us, we’d be hunting for a set of Cragar S/S wheels that match the current wheels’ dimensions.
At the threshold of good versus bad, this car sits. You could clean it up and make something really neat out of it. You could drive it as-is and have a ball. Either way, you can’t lose in a car like this Maverick. Even the four-door body works here. You remember Gapp and Roush’s “Tijuana Taxi” Pro Stocker, don’t you? First person that bitches, just remind them that there is precedence for a fast four-door Ford and let them stew.
I’m digging this thing more than I should. Are you?
The wheels are a pretty fair approximation of the Gapp and Roush car. Would look into converting to the earlier bumpers if it were mine.
Squeeze in a Coyote motor, return it to bone stock appearance then fit banded stock wheels with uprated brakes and suspension for the ultimate sleeper.
Geordie just made sense… I’m out!
He’s on a role today – his idea about using a Focus RS as a U2 chase car also seemed spot-on. I’m not sure what’s going on, but he seems to have had an unexpected attack of sanity lately.
Oh Geez. That is the exact year and color combo of my mother’s Maverick we got for her in 1976. She hated that car. The AC fan squealed no matter how many times it was replaced. Thankfully, dad upped his game and got her a 1980 Eldorado a few years later.
$4500 over priced.
I had a 72 2d with the 302, and it was a fun car. I’m convinced the front end parts were made from playdough, but I got good at replacing them (it was the first time I saw what happened when a spring compressor slips off a coil spring). Terrible drum brakes, spartan interior.
It was a great hot rod. Mav’s are underappreciated.