This car has all the telltale signs of being a 1970 Ford Maverick Grabber other than having a 302-cu.in. V8, which wouldn’t have been available until December of that year as a 1971 model, but with a different/snorkel hood. Nonetheless, this project Maverick Grabber can be found posted here on craigslist in Sumitt, Illinois, just southwest of Chicago. The seller is asking $5,800, here is the original listing, and thanks to Tony P. for the tip!
Despite the visible rust in the photos and the seller telling us that there’s rust in the floors, at $5,800, this Maverick Grabber could be a bargain if a person can do their own welding, and then paint it, and straighten the front bumper, and, and, and… Ok, it’s not a $2,500 car as it may have been a couple of decades ago. Hopefully, our resident Ford expert, Bob_in_TN, or another Ford expert can fill in the blanks on this one given the seller’s description and the photos.
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, that appears to be a custom tail light treatment and it almost looks like a factory design of some sort, or maybe another country’s version of the Maverick Grabber. The seller doesn’t mention it at all. The Maverick was made in 1969 for the 1970 model year, until the 1977 model year in the U.S. and slightly longer in other countries. The Grabber was available in mid-1970 through 1975, but with only two six-cylinder engines available in the first year. I mean, not both at once. Although a V12 in a Maverick… hmm…
The bench seat looks perfect, as does the rest of the interior as far as I can see. We don’t get to see the floor rust but be prepared to wrestle that bench seat out, fix the floors, and then put Humpty back together again. This one has a three-speed Cruise-O-Matic transmission and column gear selector as seen in the above photo. The back seat looks even better than the front seat if that’s even possible. This sure seems like a bargain to me even with the visible rust.
The standard engine would have been a choice of six-cylinder units in the first year. The seller says that this is a 302-cu.in. V8 and we don’t know any more about it than that. A 1971 302 for the Maverick Grabber would have had 210 horsepower but we don’t know anything about this one, other than it looks pretty nice in the photos and it runs and drives. Any thoughts on this Maverick Grabber?
Thanks Scotty for the shout-out and for the write-up. I don’t claim to be much of an expert on the Grabbers. Beyond the nice upholstery, this example is rusty and probably a big project. That it is a 302 transplant is reasonable; dig those yellow valve covers. Otherwise, I’ll just quote myself from the last Grabber Scotty wrote up, almost three years ago:
I think Scotty has analyzed this Maverick quite well. The Grabber package provided a sporty look for what was already an attractively styled (in my opinion) basic economy car. Simple, yes; basic, yes; cheap, yes; high-performance, no; but they sold well and have a following today.
When I think of Grabber Mavericks, I see the Grabber Blue models (including a V8 1971 my small-town dealer had).
Not too bad, the taillights are from Mercury Bobcat. Seems like Ford just put 2 Maverick taillights together. Those are a rare find.
It has the extra taillight option too
Those are not an option, and they are not the Brazilian taillights. Those are two sets of standard lights put back to back. You can see the bolts holding them together 🤣
Was just a little sarcasm Frank
I would try to swap in late 60’s Shelby Tailights.
Google –> Mexican Shelby Maverick
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51776962593_1c30d43e8c_b.jpg
Nice cheerful cruiser. Keep it mild.
You really have to be a Maverick or Ford lover to want this as to me the Maverick just looked like a utilitarian vehicle with or without the grabber stripes. Whereas the Nova or even the Duster for that matter looked like a car you really wanted to own.
For you maybe
Not many of those Ford Mavericks left . This one is well worth a nice restoration ! 1970 is the first year for the Maverick so this one should be restored as it’s already a collector item . 1977 was the last year for the Maverick , as it was replaced by the Ford Fairmont in 1978. Happy Motoring !
I had a regular maverick and it was nice but you better watch that rear end in a high wind if you are going over 50 in a curve
Yep. If the back end broke loose, you were just along for the rest of the ride.
In my 65 mustang 289 the back would fish tail all the time. in FL with the sand on the road made it worse. I would get in the fish tail and turn the wheel the other direction and punch it it would get me out without overcorrecting.
Yep. My sister hit a stop sign on the passenger quarter because she lost control of the car. I was about 7 and was in the front with no belt on of course. I laughed and she cried. Good times.
For you maybe
I used to own a 1970 Maverick that started out with a 170 straight six,it was red with black interior.Mine had bucket seats.In 1997 when i did my 302 swap it was hard to find the frame mounts and sourced a pair from Canada.Built a 275hp 302 with a C4 trans.Installed a B&M z-gate shifter,long tube headers,14 inch chrome wheels.Had a curb weight of roughly 2600lbs.The only year with 4 lug wheels as well.The engine bays in these cars are the exact same dimensions as pre-67 Mustang.
C2 Corvettes with an added third rear stop light for each side was a cool california custom made popular in the day. This addition of 2 more factory Maverick tail lamps to fill out the rear looks……….unfortunate!
I’m loving the Calypso Coral orange, which looked great on the Boss 302’s in 70. It looks great here. The price is ambitious, but I’m picturing this Grabber decked out in all the factory Ford performance gear going on in their engine compartments back then. Dare I say, a real Boss 302 V8 (if it’ll tuck in there!)
“Couple of decades ago a $2500 car”? Not sure that much. More like a $500-$1000 car then….because that’s what I would see them for…in similar condition or better if it were grandma’s car.
Agreed for a base model, but any Grabbers around here were always fishing for a premium price.
I had a 1973 maverick grabber it was the grabber blue with hood scoop and mild tail fin. The car your looking at in that picture looks to me to be a mercury comet. Same year and speaks slightly different logos and minor differences in tail lights.
Where are the scoops on the hood if it is a grabber?
The ’70 Grabber didn’t have scoops
I knew a guy that had a 70 vette and put the grabber scoops on the hood,it looked really cool,like they were made for it!never seen another one like it again
My brother and I had a 70 maverick in the late 70’s. 6 cylinder with a 3 speed. We drove it like that till one of us smoked the clutch, then we decided to upgrade with a 289 out of a fairlane that I was driving around the farm. He got the frame mounts from somebody local and that car was scary to drive after that. The heater never worked right the cables were screwed up. Our BIL slid her into a light pole and shoved the passenger door into the seat. Got a junkyard door and put it on and we had a big hole under the door where the rocker was shoved in. Even scarier to drive then and the heater problems were made worse. Didn’t take to long to find something else to drive after that, can’t remember what replaced it, been way too long
Had a 71 grabber,was my mother’s car.250 automatic tall back bucket seats. Red with black n yellow stripes. No rust car. Transplanted a 30 over 302 3 speed manual transmission. Went from a road hugger to a rocket. As you can guess, wrecked the car lost interest after that. Let the body go for nothing, didn’t know they were that popular. My goof still regret it.
That 302 was a tight fit. .But it did manage to go in .Lots of late nights with the boys .
It was a real fun car to drive . Mine you I was only 18 at the time .
Thanks for the memories.
I had a 76 302 C4 Maverick and a 72 Comet, but my oldest brother bought an almost new 70 Maverick 200 6 cylinder 3 speed and later sold it to the next oldest brother who swapped in a 302 and he sold it to the next brother who built up the 302 enough to get it into the high 10’s — not bad for a daily driver. It was one of the quicker cars in the area. Sadly it rusted out severely and ended up getting parted out.
In 1992, I bought a ’73 Comet. 302, deluxe interior, halo roof, no rust, and 60,000 miles for $700. No one wanted these cars, 2 decades ago. Now? A rusted out Maverick for $5800. Seems reasonable. LOL
“….looks pretty nice in the photos…” If you can see that much rust from the topside…..
Grabber your wallet and run.
If this car has spent its life in the Chicago area, chances are the rust underneath is extensive. I think the city has been trying to transport the Bonneville Salt Flats to Illinois one truck load at a time. The buyer definitely will need to have some serious welding skills.
You are right about fish tail. I did a burn out in a school parking lot in my ’70 Grabber around 1972 and ended up hitting a teacher’s camper with no damage to the camper but a dent in my 1/4 panel. Lost my licence for 3 months. I was 16.
I Always saw these cars as a cheap alternative to the mustang of that time. As a classic it has the 302 that can look stock on the outside but have added power with newer internals. It also has an engine bay big enough to drop in something even bigger. Abetter suspension with bigger anti roll bars , coil overs maybe. Bigger rubber maybe even drop in a mustang ll front end. Or keep it stock but at that price point its a great place to start if you want a classic Ford project car.
Anything wider than a 302 and you’ll be modifying the shock towers
I believe that a 351W will fit if you have headers custom made. All that aside, I love all the comments. Some useful, some silly, some cruel. By golly this is fun. What in the world did I do before I got this cell phone?
True. The 351 is the biggest small-block in the Ford catalog, so that will fit, but anything bigger from Ford means a big block, and the big block won’t fit without the aforementioned surgery to the shock towers. You might be able to find a bigger small block from the GM catalog, if you don’t mind putting a Chevy motor in your Ford, but such a travesty is frowned upon by each marque’s respective fan base.
Once you cut the shock towers, you’re redesigning the front suspension, to replace the attachment points for the front shocks and upper control arms that you just cut out of the car when you cut the shock towers. An aftermarket frame will do the trick, but that’s major surgery to the Maverick, a unibody car.
Those tail lights are from a Pinto. The stock one on the Maverick were from the Pinto stock from the factory and it was somewhat common to just add another set to the rear of the Maverick. Poor mans Shelby tail lights.
True, but I never cared for that look. To each his own, of course, but the double taillight look just never appealed to me. Just my two cents worth.
This is a scam, I found the same Ford Maverick on a post from 2021 not legit
I am really starting to like the early Mavericks and Comets.With the 302 option they make excellent daily drivers.Mine is a 1973 Comet GT with a 302 and I added a toploader 4-speed transmission.I have a lot of fun with it.
5800.00 for piece of rusty junk.
Not sure how to go about this, But I have an original Maverick hood scoop in grabber orange if anyone’s interested.
I was just curious, how much work is it to make the non-functional scoops in that hood functional? The originals had plastic inserts blocking the holes in the hood, so removing the inserts and cleaning up the holes sounds like a doable project for someone with the metalworking skills and tools. The problem for me is that I don’t have either the tools or the skills to use them, so I can’t do it, I’d need to hire someone to do that. The harder it is to do, the more it would cost, so how many zeros would I have to add to the number on the left side of the decimal point?
This one has had the dash swapped in from a 1974-80 example, as the 1970-73 versions had a package shelf under the dash instead of a proper glove box. Even with A/C, the package shelf was standard, as the the outboard A/C vents replaced the fresh air vents in the package shelf until a proper glove box came along in 1974.
I’d go with bucket seats and a factory floor shifter with a console in place of the column-shifted C4 automatic, and make sure that the stock four-wheel drum brakes had been upgraded to front disk brakes to handle the extra poke provided by that V8 upgrade.