Our pal Jason Lewis is back with another video update on his wild Viper V10 powered Ford Maverick project car and this one has a twist. The large monkey wrench that has been thrown into the works is a bitchin’ 1966 Ford Ranch Wagon that was given to Jason after the passing of his friend and awesome wrench Mike Fennel. The Maverick project has gotten kicked out of the shop it lives at temporarily as those guys have landed a huge contract to fabricate all kinds of neat stuff for a big move that is going to be made, soon. When the work comes in the hot rods go out, naturally.
This situation has brought Jason to a bit of a crossroads. He’s looking at the Maverick and taking realistic stock of what will be needed for money and time to finish it and he’s now looking at the wagon as a complete running driver that he can tweak and improve upon and have a bitchin’ sled for pretty short money…especially as compared to the piles he’ll need to finish the Maverick. This is a classic car guy conundrum. Do you follow the dream project at all costs, or look at reality and go to plan b? Pretty much all of us have had this internal debate with ourselves at one point or another. Whether it was to fix a car we loved, buy a car we wanted, or invest what we needed to get a stalled project rolling again.
This is another great video from Jason! We don’ think he can lose either way as the wagon is totally neat and the Maverick is totally insane.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO AND THEN TELL US WHICH WAY JASON SHOULD GO! MAVERICK OR WAGON?
If the wagon was comparable to your favorite beer . . . I say, drink it while it is cold and enjoy every drop. Then save the scotch for after dinner, or even a future day . . . scotch only gets better with time.
Hey what other kind of comparison would you expect from DTB
As long as “Plan B” doesn’t totally derail “the dream,” it’s better to have something to drive NOW.
A cheap build that respects what the Ranch Wagon actually is would be a great interim driver (i.e. simple bolt-on suspension (none of that unnecessary, high-buck “pro touring” fabricated stuff), home-fabbed eBay/truck turbo system on the OEM FE (no engine swaps or nervous race car insanity), streetable hydraulic cam, aluminum heads, seat covers, some wider “steelies” . . . .)
“Plan B” could be a good temporary plan, if some restraint and intelligence is employed.
Do the wagon man. Drive the snot out of it and use it. Make if fun, SAFE and reliable. It doesn’t need to be a corner carving car. It just needs to be fun. Forget the autocross. For wussies anyway. Go out and do something else with it. You want to have fun do One Lap America with it. You want win but you’ll have tons of fun. Do the Ohio Standing Mile. Here again it won’t be fast but it’ll be fun. Make it a Rally car and dirt road that thing. Seriously though enjoy it. I’m tired of the guy who thinks his car is a Corvette or Porsche. And if some day down the road you finish the Maverick and sell it which that’s what will happen more than likely you’ll still have the wagon. You’ll take that little bit of money and build the wagon into an extremely cool car that is like no other.
Keep em both,upgrade that wagon a little and lose the white letter tires.
White letter tires RULE!
ranch wagon = parts chaser/ daily driver. mav keep on pickin away at it . have both and have no regrets
Finish a project, Kid…any project…sell one, finish the other with the money…or sell them both and buy a taco truck…you’ve just wasted 6+ minutes of my life I’m never going to get back whinging about your inability to FINISH a project…
Tighten up the suspension, get a set of Torino GT wheels, get a horn ring off e-bay, and for the price of 1step of Maverick-build you will get thumbs up gratification every day you drive the wagon. You can also get rid of your current CUV or econo box and save a ton of money on insurance premiums, thereby allowing further spending on the long term Maverick build. Never give up, never drive new.