Chapter 1

When I was nine years old my parents purchased a brand new 1974 Ford Maverick from a dealership in Miami, Florida. It was the coolest car in the whole world, or at least in my nine year old world. The car was ice blue with the biggest, brightest bumpers I had ever seen on a car. It was a 2 door, so I immediately assumed it was a sports car. At the time, any 2 door car was a sports cars to me. My joy was overflowing in 1980 when my parents decided the car was to be mine.  All Mine.

By then, at the ripe old age of six; the Maverick or "Mav" as we called it, had begun the show it's age. It had body cancer (rust) in the back, a huge dent in the middle, an oil leak in the front, and sun damage on the top. It was a mess, and I loved it. The first step was to replace the driver's side door which had a dent the exact size of the front end of a Ford Cougar. During this procedure, I discovered that 30% of a Maverick's total weight is in the doors. If you were to remove the doors from these cars, it would weight less than a motorcycle. Next I removed all the rust from the area behind the rear wheels until I could unpack my trunk trough the holes in the side of the car. After several coats of fiber glass and Bondo, my car's weight was now 30% door, 30% Bondo, 20% Bumpers and 20% other stuff. Since the 1974 Maverick had the new improved "Federal Bumpers" (with optional bumper guards); this sports car was now a tank. In 1982, the car was rear ended by a Jeep CJ7 as I sat at a red light. The impact broke the Jeep's engine mounts and the fan ate the radiator; the Maverick had a bent bumper guard.

When the tires wore out, I replaced the stock wheels with Keystone style mags from a Mustang and the "D" size tires with "G" and "H" tires from a Cadillac. The Caddy also donated a set of air shocks and battery. Did I forget to mention that I worked at an auto salvage yard at the time? When the car was complete, it had about 18 inches (or 1 adult possum) of ground clearance. In photo 1 you can see my wife's red Maverick with the blue Mav behind it. At this point the car had new wheels and tires, but not air shocks and it was already really tall. It was the worlds only all-terrain Maverick, and was illuminated by no fewer than eight forward pointing accessory lights.

By now the "Ice Blue" paint looked dangerously close to "Powder Blue", so the whole car was painted a nice shade of "Arctic Blue" which resembled the original color quite nicely. Along with the paint job came the obligatory racing stripes. The only other photo I have shows the interior of the car along with the instrument package (i.e. radio and stuff) that I installed in the car. For an good outside view please visit Stefan Thibeault's site his 1974 Maverick could be my old car's twin if it had bumper guards, and was 10 inches taller.

Alas, in 1984 the Mav succumbed to the ravages of time and committed Hari Kari at the intersection of Bearss and Nebraska in Tampa, FL. At the time, I was following my friend Glenn to his house when all 50 quarts of transmission juice spilled out from beneath the car. Glenn thought the car had stalled as usual, so he left me there in a lake of transmission fluid. After pushing the car off the road and walking 2 miles, I got to his house and Glenn towed the car to where he would declare the verdict. The rear main seal on the transmission had given way; which equated to "He's dead Jim" in Star Trek terms. Looking back, I could have fixed the transmission, but the 200 cid engine was now up to a quart of oil per week. And the idea of dropping in a 302 big block V8 engine immediately prompted my parents into helping me afford a different car. Thus the Mav was towed off into the land of used cars, never to be seen again.