Car Features: Glenn Sinon and His 1972 Ford Maverick
Glenn Sinon
Glenn Sinon was the winner of our first-ever RJ Virtual Car Show, we wanted to get to know Glenn and his Maverick, so we asked him how he got into this hobby and some background on his beautiful car.
A couple of years ago I had a guy say to me, “So I hear you are a Car Guy”. The comment made me laugh a little. Calling me a “car guy” is a giant understatement.
I grew up in a household full of fun cars. My dad has been into hot rods and customs since he was a teen. There were always cool cars coming and going when I was younger. Some kids follow in their father’s footsteps by going into the same trade, taking over the family business or going into a certain sport because that’s what dad did. Well, I did the same thing. The “car bug” was passed down to me at a very young age. Like my father, I am not brand specific. I love all the older cars. To me, if the car has The Look then its cool.
With this type of interest in cars, it was only fitting to work on cars for a living. So after doing some body and paint at home with dad, I went to a trade school and have spent the last 25 plus years in the autobody industry in one form or another. I have pulled wrecked cars into the shop and onto a frame machine, done restoration/custom work, worked with customers writing estimates, and even spent several years as a technical rep for a local paint supply jobber store. All that has led to a position with PPG Automotive Refinish as a training instructor where I teach roughly 800 shop owners, painters and preppers a year how to best use our products from both a cost as well as a production perspective. I LOVE my job! Passing on years of knowledge to fellow technicians is a thrill.
I have had many hot rods over the years. In 2009 I was just starting to think about the next project when a friend of mine that had just recently gone through a divorce was telling me that he needed to get all his future project cars out of the garage because his ex got that house in the divorce settlement. So with my car trailer and his, we went to get them out. Sitting in the far corner was this 1972 Ford Maverick. He purchased the car in 1990, he pulled the engine/trans and yanked the nose off and pushed it in the corner where it had sat for 19 years now. I expressed some interest in it, I can’t really say why, but this car was calling on me to breathe new life into it. I liked that it was an outside-the-box car. Not something most people were looking to build. Which, if built right could make it a neat standout. So we pushed it outside where it saw daylight for the first time in 19 years. He gave me the car on the condition that I build it, not just flip it.
The original plan was to build a cool little driver for my youngest daughter Hannah. I honestly estimated about a $5k build. An engine/trans, some paint and make a neat little driver out of it. I know, I know. Don’t all hot rod projects start that way and then turn into a major undertaking? Well, I blew that budget in about six months! I still planned on it being her car for sure. But little by little I kept going deeper down the rabbit hole making the car nicer and nicer. The whole, “while I’m here I’ll do this, and I should do this now because” just kept going. In the end, I have roughly 2000 labor hours in my back yard garage playing with it. I personally have done everything on this car myself except for the transmission, exhaust and interior. Those are the only three things I farmed out to friends. I wanted to build as much of this myself as possible. Heck, I even built my first engine for this car.
The project turned into a whole “What if” concept. What if Ford built this car with more style and better performance. What if someone built a Maverick with more of a Street Rodder eye and style. I am very proud to have built this car that has started a trend with them, and with styling cues that had never been done to one. Some those design elements have now been copied or even enhanced on several other cars being built around the country. I’m proud of that.
Starting at the front you might notice the custom made lower valance I made. It takes parts from a 69 Camaro valance, and some of the stock Maverick valance and meshed them together to get this cleaner looking valance with driving lights. The sidelights are from Hagan and are flushed into the fenders/quarters for a clean look. Most people might have just shaved them off completely. That would have been easier. but I like having the sidelights there and keeping the car legal. The drip rails have been shaved and then I continued the factory reveal that runs along the top down the A-pillar and around the quarter glass. Door mirrors are from Vision Hot Rod Concepts, door handles from Ring Brothers, carbon fiber Grabber hood and trunk with extended and flushed spoiler by Maverick Man Carbon Fiber Products. I swapped out the stock tail panel for one from Dynacorn made for a 68 California Special/Shelby. The fuel filler is a flip type and is from Alan Johnson Hot Rods. The rear valance was moulded in and cur to make openings for the exhaust. After all that was done, I made my own custom color I call Venom Blue using PPG Envirobase (water base) and used D8152 glamour clear.
The Interior features a smoothed out dash. I custom made from sheet metal a new gauge bezel that now holds a full set of six gauges from New Vintage. I also custom made mounts to install an Ididit tilt column. Instead of the normal lower dash shelf that these cars had, I made a dash extension of steel that goes from end to end and wraps around the steering column. That panel allowed me to move the ignition, headlights, wiper switch and radio down low and off the dash for a clean look. On the inside of the doors, I put a Ford script logo. That is a funny thing that most people don’t see right away, but when they do they look around and point it out to all their friends as no car company did anything like it. And yet it looks factory stamped. The front seats are 98 Mustang GT, knee bolsters and all. For the back seat, my upholstery guy and friend Ken Nadaeu made a comment wondering aloud about how cool it would be to make a rear bench, but make it look exactly as the from seats. So I ordered a set of matching seat foams. He then glued them together and shaped them to maintain a top and bottom like a typical bench seat. Yet have all the bolstering and even those same knee bolsters like the front seats. While at it, he and I made new kick panels that now house speakers, and then he wrapped them in the same material as the seats and also wrapped the rear side panels. Not an easy task as these were normally just molded plastic and have many contours. But if anyone could do it I knew Ken could. We then made trunk panels and upholstered the trunk to match in the same black and white houndstooth and black leather.
The drive train consists of an 89 Mustang Gt 5.0 that I tore down and sent out for machine work. Then with guidance from Rich Pierce, I built it up using the stock crank, Ford Motorsports E cam, GT40P heads, Edelbrock RPM Airgap intake, Edelbrock 650AVS carb, and the ignition is from Compu-Tronics and is a “distributorless” style as there are coil packs painted to match and mounted on the firewall. This all goes to a Ford AOD trans, and aluminium Ford Motorsports driveshaft and an 8” post rear with 3.80 gears. Front suspension is a Mustang II-style from Rod & Custom Motorsports that features coilovers, dropped spindles, rack & pinion steering. Brakes front and rear are from Engineered Components and are 13” drilled and slotted all the way around. Wheels are 17” front and 18” rear Billet Specialties Vintec Dish mounted on BF Goodrich tires. The new front suspension allowed me to get rid of the typical Ford spring towers that take up so much engine bay room. I then made some templates and had Prior Brothers fabrication bend me up a couple new fender wells with some bead rolls. I then welded brake tubing to the opening for the upper control arms to clean the look and stiffen them up. I still had some tweaking, but soon enough I was able to weld them in place and make them look stock. The entire engine compartment was painted body color and I then used a matte clear.
So when all was said and done the car came out way better than I originally intended. But I am happy with everything I did. I built the car how I wanted it. My first time out was the Boston World of Wheels ISCA show where I was absolutely blown away by peoples reaction tot he car. Including the judges, that liked the car so much I walked away from the awards ceremony with Five awards! That was March of 2018. I then spent all that summer driving the car and towing out to some big outdoor Goodguys events where again the car was very well received. Then in the winter of 2018/2019 I sanded and buffed the car again, detailed the crap out of it and did some final touches for a couple of upcoming indoor shows. Finally, I towed the car from Connecticut to Detroit for the Autorama. I have been twice as a spectator and always said it would be cool to have a car worthy of showing there. So, check that goal off the bucket list. Sadly dads health doesn’t allow him to leave his house much anymore. I would have given almost anything for him to make that trip with me, see the reactions to the car. And then on Sunday night to not only win my class but to also receive one of only four Outstanding Paint Awards. Of the 800 plus hot rods in attendance! Two weeks later I brought the car to the Piston Powered Auto Show in Cleveland, Ohio. There I proudly took a second in class to a stellar car. But once again took home an Outstanding Paint award. So of the three ISCA shows I attended, I took home nine, yes nine awards for this back yard owner-built Ford Maverick. And yes, I still consider this car a driver. And drive I have been doing as much as the weather in CT allows me to.
So the question I get most is, “so how does Hannah like her car?” Well…..dad got so carried away she won’t drive it. She is afraid of being the one to damage it or something like that. Of course, she is only 18 and as I am writing this still in high school. But I hope she dean come to enjoy the car someday. But her interests have also changed. Somewhere along the line, she realized she is a truck Girl. After about a year of pointing to every square body pick up she saw. My wife and I finally surprised her with an 87 pick up. But this one was a little rough. So I have now spent this winter redoing it for her, I’m not 250 hours into it and not quite done. But I will be for graduation in June!
