Hi Gang…
Several weeks ago I brought you up to speed on the story of our Maverick Sportster – a car we’ve teamed up with Tom Chandler and Company of Elkader, Iowa to restore and show. Click here to review the first story on this Maverick Sportster from October, 2014.
Well as summer turned to fall, Tom hit the ground running and has made quite a bit of progress on the Maverick in several critical areas. Here’s what he had to say in his most recent update.
Hi Geoff,
Some pretty good days on the Maverick. Quite a few areas on the body are getting near ready for the initial sealer/priming. Some good progress on the windshield frames. Hope to have the castor look at them in the next week or two. He will let me know if we’re ready to try casting (in aluminum).
Hoping to have some high build primer on before Christmas. Of course everything always takes me twice as long as I think it should so who knows! I have been giving the dashboard some thought. When I have some viable ideas I will share them. I will keep taking pictures as there are visible changes.
Tom
Let’s take a look at the photos of the Maverick Tom shared:
Summary:
The Maverick Sportster has really started to come together under the artful wing of Tom Chandler. Tom had to do quite a bit of work to fit pieces properly onto the body given some warping that had occurred to the fiberglass over the years. Besides strengthening overall, he also rebuilt the door completely ensuring that the operation, design, and fitting is as perfect as possible.
Another challenge is the windshield, and to this end this will be our first time taking a piece from concept to design to pattern (wood in this case) and then to casting – something Tom alluded to in his comments above.
It’s exciting to see this process begin, and it’s hard to hold back our excitement, at times, as we see Sterling Gladwin’s (founder and designer of Maverick Motors) dream from so long ago take shape once again. Way to go Tom, and keep those updates coming 🙂
In the next story on our Maverick Sportster, we’ll explore some of the design challenges and issues we considered with the precision and design eye of Raffi Minasian and the sophisticated illustration and 3-D rendering talents of Dan Palatnik.
Hope you enjoyed the story, and remember gang…
The adventure continues here at Forgotten Fiberglass.
Geoff
She is starting to look like the car I remember.
Glad to see that beauty is finally getting the restoration that she has always deserved.
That windsheild looks terrific! The car has a very late 1930’s look to it with the LaSalle grill and the boat tale. The Cadillac frame is really appropriate, however it really looks like it should have somebody’s V12 or a Duesenberg 8 under the hood. The OHV V8 Cadillac engine of that vintage is a very good engine and can give good horsepower so it is the wise choice. I’m at the same stage doing a re-restoration on my 1952 MG, so I know a little of what you are going through. If anyone finds an Atlas/Cisitalia body, I could see myself putting it on an Mg TD chassis.