Survivor Resto--JoHan '70 Maverick Pro Stock

[Snake45]

Couple months ago at the local Toy & Train show I bought this built but mainly complete JoHan ’70 Maverick Pro Stock, early Eddie Schartman issue. Of course I originally planned to strip and rebuild it, but the more I looked at it, the more it started to grow on me. I felt a certain kinship with the Original Builder—almost certainly a teenager at the time (as I was),  I’d be willing to bet he was reading the same magazines I was—Car Craft, Hot Rod, Super Stock & Drag Illustrated, maybe a couple of the east coast rags like Speed & Supercar, too. Thought it might be fun to try to restore the thing to its original glory, staying as true to OB’s vision as possible.  I thought the guy actually had a pretty good handle on what an early ‘70s drag car should look like.

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It disassembled easily and cleaned up nicely in soapy water. The glass even came out with no hassles. The biggest problem with the body was several areas of tire damage from having another model stacked on top of it, perhaps for decades. On the roof and the front fender tops, tire vinyl had eaten into and “puddled” the blue paint, in some places right down to and even into the bare white plastic. There was similar damage on the wheel openings, too, where they’d touched the kit tires.

I carefully wet-sanded these areas (red circles) down as flat as possible, and touched them up with a brush and some Rustoleum metallic blue paint, the closest thing I found in the Snakepit. It’s not a perfect match, but for the purpose, it’ll do.

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I cleaned and touched up the interior a little, but didn’t do anything major in there. I’ve left the engine, which seems to be some sort of 428 CJ with a homebuilt tunnel ram, out for the moment (I wonder what the OB used the kit’s 429 Shotgun in? Was he kitbashing a Boss 9 Mustang?) to concentrate on getting a nice-looking shell for my shelf.

Other work included:

*Overpainted a bunch of silver “details” on the chassis with black.

*Retouched the thin red taillights (typical for JoHan) with clear red.

*Painted headlight bezels Testor Steel.

*Touched up the edges of the black on the grille, and some worn chrome with Silver Sharpie

*Painted front turn signals.

*Painted front side marker lights white, then Turn Signal Amber (they were red).

*Did the windshield, backlight and side window “chrome” trim with Silver Sharpie.

*Sanded all four tire treads.

*Touched the Spyder wheel centers with black, and the chrome with Silver Sharpie and Testor Chrome, as necessary.

For a little bit of gloss to the finish, I applied one coat of Future with a wide, soft brush.  I also brushed Future on the flat-black seats to make them look more like vinyl.

The OB had classified the car as “C/MP” on the windshield with white paint. I think a 428 CJ in a Maverick would class a little higher—at least B, and probably A—but decided to leave it on there. I did clean up the edges of the white letters a little by scraping with the point of a wood toothpick.

It’s not perfect, but I think it’s still pretty darn cool. And I’ll bet the OB would think so, too, if he could see it now.  It’ll fit right in on my late ‘60s/early ‘70s dragster shelf.

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Edited December 19, 2016 by Snake45

[tbill]

fantastic resto, looks beautiful.

[vintagercr]

Great save!

[falcon wagon]

Very cool

[cobraman]

Looks great ! How cool would it be to have a Maverick kit back on the shelves again ?

[Snake45]

Whoops! Just realized I uploaded raw, uncropped, uncorrected "After" pics. Just corrected that with better pics.

Thanks for the kind words, all!

[AC Norton]

Whoops! Just realized I uploaded raw, uncropped, uncorrected "After" pics. Just corrected that with better pics.

Thanks for the kind words, all!

........you know you should send that to me for xmas, you've already cleaned it up for me too......merry ho-ho and I'll be waiting for the mail to arrive.......your favorite bro, the Ace....lol..lol.....

[Sixties Sam]

Good save! It looks a lot better with your touches! Nice work!

Sam

[Snake45]

........you know you should send that to me for xmas, you've already cleaned it up for me too......merry ho-ho and I'll be waiting for the mail to arrive.......your favorite bro, the Ace....lol..lol.....

No problem, just send Sofia Vergara or Megan Fox to pick it up. I'll be here waiting.

[AC Norton]

No problem, just send Sofia Vergara or Megan Fox to pick it up. I'll be here waiting.

is that all........I thought you'd hold out for something really good........the Ace...

[NYLIBUD]

Very cool car..

[Zoom]

Fun and a nice save!

[Mr Stock]

Now that is a great save!, very nice work Snake she looks awesome.

[PARTSMARTY]

Home run !!!

[shoopdog]

Looks great ! How cool would it be to have a Maverick kit back on the shelves again ?

I agree!

[donb]

Looks great. You did a real nice resto on that kit.

[bogger44]

Nice save Snake, you got that little Maverick looking pretty darn good again.

Edited December 20, 2016 by bogger44

[sflam123]

Heck of a save!  Nice job!!

[doggie427]

Great conservation Snake ! 

Edited December 20, 2016 by doggie427

[slusher]

Looks great Snake

 

[TooOld]

Nice save Snake !  Somebody did a decent job originally and obviously knew what it should look like .  Your restoration has brought it back to life ! 

[disabled modeler]

Really nice save Snake....I like the Mavericks...have a old promo that needs parts and attention myself...they represent the 1 to 1s well. 

[DumpyDan]

Wow awesome, really great work on the resto

[Snake45]

Looks great ! How cool would it be to have a Maverick kit back on the shelves again ?

I've seen a fairly nice inexpensive 1/24 diecast '74 Maverick (big bumpers) at Walmart the last couple weeks. All the ones I've seen have been school bus yellow (Grabber Orange?).  If I wanted/needed a Maverick for a project, I wouldn't mind TOO much starting with that.

I'm pretty sure somebody is offering complete resin Mavericks, too, but can't remember who.

[madhorseman]

It cleaned up real nice, Rich!!

Think I would have been tempted to at least change the graphics, so.....

Great work!!