B3R Garage: Lifting the Carb

A whole lot has happened to the the Mad Scientist's Ford Maverick this weekend. First off, the Mad Scientist went ahead and sprung for a 1" carburetor lift plate in order to raise the carburetor scoop up height enough to avoid resting on the HEI distributor. I am not going to lie, putting the lift on his intake was significantly more of a task than I had doing the same process on my Capri. However, in just about an hour we were able to raise the roof on the newly installed street/strip carburetor scoop.

If you have been paying close attention to the pictures of the '87 truck block dropped into the Maverick you might have guessed that the Uni belt pulleys on the Edelbrock water-pump and crank might cause an alternator issue. And you would be right. So the Mad Scientist took it upon himself to drop into the nearby Pick-it-yard (takeapart.biz). He climbed up in an old Ford and walked out with a handy dandy uni-belt pulley, some hood rubbers, and window trim clips. He then went ahead and swung by the nearby NAPA and bout a new alternator, and had the employees put the used belt on it so that it would work with the current pulley setup. Pretty crafty huh!

The Mad Scientist even went so far as to acquire a handy dandy band new radiator cooling fan. Unfortunately, the fan requires that it be put on the front of the radiator (behind the bumper). As it turns out there is not a log of room there. The room that is there is currently occupied by a trim bracket. Bummer! But don't worry everyone! The Mad Scientist and I are no stranger to chopping off unneeded pieces (check out the shock tower chopping section) and/or fabricating what we need. So, hopefully the new radiator fan will be going in this weekend.

The only thing that still seems to be missing is the exhaust. The Mad Scientist has his eyes set on a pair of Lake Pipes from Jegs.com, but he may just throw together some of the spare pipes with a couple of over-the-counter mufflers just to be able to roll down the road a little earlier.

If you are interested in the Mad Scientist's 1970 Ford Maverick, be sure to keep checking in and occasionally check his Squidoo page under the Maverick tab above for more information and videos to come.

B3R Garage: The Capri gets a Scoop too!

Sorry if we have not been keeping everyone up to date with B3R happenings over the past two weeks. The Mad Scientist and I have had our fair share of issues placing the last few pieces of our cars back together. In fact, both of our allegedly good transmissions have turned out to be needing rebuilt. But that is another story for another day. Today, I want to inform everyone/(anyone interested) that I will be chopping a handy dandy hole in my hood in next few weeks to make room form a brand new carburetor air cleaner.

Check out the Capri's new Air Cleaner.

B3R Garage: Just A Little Bit Closers

Over the weekend the Mad Scientist and I were able to spray the maverick down with its final coat of primer and hit it with its first coat of color. Awkwardly enough it took much longer to mask the car than it did to actually spray it. Unfortunately, the color did not come out exactly the way we wanted it to.

This is what the Maverick looks like now. 

 

B3R Garage: The Maverick Gets a Scoop and More

The last month and a half have been pretty rough on the wallet for me. Because of this the Mad Scientist and I have decide to focus exclusively on the 1970 Ford Maverick in order to get one car out of the garage. Currently, the Maverick has been outfitted recently with an awesome triple core Champion Radiator, a 16 gallon 2” sump fuel cell (conveniently mounted on the (top) inside of the old fuel tank.), and super shiny 4.5” tall carburetor scoop.

That’s right, every carbureted car needs a good are cleaner and filter in order to run just right. However, the Mad Scientist took drastic measures to ensure that the carburetor scoop he chose would set his Maverick apart from the rest.

Check out the Maverick's New Scoop Below!

B3R Garage: Champion Radiators

With the Mad Scientist's Maverick nearing completion there are only a few essentials that still need acquiring before the beast can take to the streets. One such essential is none other than a radiator. Conveniently for my Capri, I was able to simply pick up a radiator relatively cheap. However, the Mad Scientist was not so lucky. Years ago the Mad Scientist was not opposed to sporting a significantly larger truck radiator-with no hood-in his Maverick if it meant he could race on the weekend.

However, the Mad Scientist and I decided that we would like to keep the mechanicals under the hood for this particular Maverick. So instead of buying whatever radiator we could jam into the car for the cheapest price the Mad Scientist decided to go another rout. The Mad Scientist Went ahead and dished out a few hundred on a Champion Radiator straight out of California. (note: California has a high fraud warning so don’t be surprised if you purchase something from California and have your card declined and froze until the transaction is verified by your bank.) Conveniently the radiator showed up only a few days after purchasing it and simply bolted right up.

B3R Garage: Primering up the 1970 Maverick

Finally the Mad Scientists’ 1970 Ford Maverick is getting a little dash of primer. The Mad Scientist shot his Maverick with primer from the cowl to the trunk this last weekend. Surprisingly, only a little time was spent in skimming tiny pinholes and dings in the body with filler. On the other hand, the use of an air file made sanding down the Maverick a whole lot easier. Needless to say it was a bit of relief to see the car in a single color for the first time even if it was primer.

If you are into doing body work on cars the Mad Scientist and I would HIGHLY recommend you get yourself an air file. The air file literally took out a huge chunk of time we would have originally spent handing sanding the car. Instead, the air file sanded the car so well that we could have probably hit the car with color and been done with it, but we are trying to go for a specific look. 

B3R Garage: Ford Maverick-Preparing For Primer

Although the 1970 Ford Maverick still requires a little mechanical work, the Mad Scientists and I have decided to simply move on to doing a little body work. Conveniently the Maverick only requires a little body work in order to get prepared for primer and paint.

Currently the paint already on the Maverick already contains a luxurious shine in many places. However, there are yet some areas of the car such as the driver-side door, and rear quarter panels that still require a little skimming of body filler and smoothing before the primer. This weekend the Mad Scientist and I will be busting out the sand paper and foam blocks in order to get the Maverick ready for its first coat of primer.