30 plus years in the barn!

[MEZLAW]

Pulled out of the barn today after 30plus years!

Pulled it out today for the first time. Where to go from here??????

[William]

It is yours, right? Galaxie 500.... What engine? It definitely needs a bath and hopefully the critters did not destroy stuff under the hood and interior. And now the project begins.

Bill

[MEZLAW]

Factory 390 4V with a 3 speed column shift.

I used to enjoy driving this car.

[electra225]

Nice car, very solid specimen to start with. Solid and straight, both good traits when choosing a car to restore. What are your plans for the car? Our banker back home, Mr. Hedden drove a Ford, his wife drove Cadillacs. He told me one time that his LTD's drove better and quieter than the wife's Caddy. Does that have a flat-valve cover 390?

[William]

I thought that badge on the fender was a 390 badge, and with that engine your Galaxy should really haul down the road.

Bill

[electra225]

Cars with 352 engines had a similar badge, so you can't really tell from a distance what engine it had. Chevy was decent enough to add more flags on their fender badges so you could tell a 327 car from a 283 and a 348 car from a 283. In 1968, Chevy put their engine badges in a square with numbers, much like Ford had done......

We had a teacher, Mr. Thompson, who drove a '66 Ford Custom two-door sedan, moonie hubcaps, 289, three-on-the-tree, black, blackwall tires, El-cheapo. Kept that baby absolutely spit-shined. The 289 cars didn't have a fender badge for engine size....

When I first met Mr. Thompson, he drove a '60 Falcon with a 144 six and three on the tree. Black, two door sedan, the cheapest thing he could get, again spit-shined, still like new when he traded it off for the '66. He thought that 289 was a Hemi in comparison to the Falcon six. He was a bachelor, kind of a well-put-together sort of a man. His little farm was immaculate, not a weed or a blade of grass out of place. I was never in his home, but I was buddies with his nephew Sammy, and he said his house was just like his car. He was dating a lady, so he wanted a larger, nicer car than the Falcon.......

[danrclem]

That looks like a really nice car to start with. A Galaxie with a 390 and a 3-speed seems like an odd combination. If I guessed without knowing I would have thought, it would have an automatic transmission.

I've always liked the body style of the 1966 Galaxy cars but haven't ever owned one. I thought they looked a whole lot better than a 1965 Galaxy. My older brother owned one that was a convertible and my younger brother owned the 7 Litre version. That is one I wouldn't mind having. You'd think that a 428 would be fast but he said it wasn't.

Good luck with getting it going again.

[MEZLAW]

Greg is correct about the engine badges. No badge for 289, 390/352 badges were the same shape but different color.

This is a super straight and super solid car, original car down to engine. trans, and factor color. It should be an easy restoration. I also owned 2 1965 Galaxie 500 XL's but always like the cleaned up lines of the 66. It's not an XL, but I like the engine and trans combination. The wheels are off of a Ford Range truck just to get it out of the barn. The barn will be torn down in a couple of weeks. Not sure what I will do with it, too many projects and getting too old to do the work. A plain 428 4V did not perform any better than the 390. I do have a Ford factory 3X2 complete intake and carb setup if I want to go in that direction.

[MEZLAW]

A Galaxie with a 390 and a 3-speed seems like an odd combination.

It is very odd and that is one of the things I like about it.

[electra225]

Unless you can do the work yourself, or have wheelbarrows full of cash, full, accurate restorations are almost a thing of the past. Parts can be a nightmare, common engine rebuilds approach ten thousand dollars. Restoration always separated the men from the boys, but it is too rich for my blood anymore......

Government is doing what it can to put old cars off the road. Common parts like water pumps and things like that are like hen's teeth around here, at least. Finding a shop that will change the oil in my Buick was a three-year ordeal, after Art died. Restoration shops want to charge "time and materials" which, in my mind, is an excuse to gouge. I never charged time and materials. I broke the job up into segments, estimated each segment, that way the client knew where he was going to be when he was done. I told clients to figure what it will cost, double that, then add ten thousand dollars. That sum will get you pretty close. I spoke with a nice retired schoolteacher at a car show who had recently spent $160,000 to have a '65 Mustang Sprint restored. A Sprint is a six-cylinder, el-cheapo, bargain basement model. White with blue interior. 200 cid six with three speed on the floor, no air, no Pony interior, just a blah, who cares Mustang. She bought it new, nostalgia clouded her judgment. I did a rotisserie body off restoration on a '61 Buick LeSabre four door sedan, tan with a white top and white interior. As nothing of a car as you could imagine. The guy was good as gold, loves his car, proud as if it was a '53 Skylark, so there is no accounting for taste. The other side of that coin are rat rods and restorods. You can show junk and be proud of it. And LS engines. Even the Pontiac guys are putting LS's in GTO's because nobody know how, nor can anyone afford, to rebuild a 389. Doing a job half-way just because it's cheaper grinds my grits. I'll get off my soap box now......

You wouldn't believe me if I told how much a local restoration shop wanted to "wheel" the paint on my Buick then apply ceramic on it. They were terrified of a 30 year old paint job. The price was almost a "phone number" if you get my drift.....

$2800......

The guy asked me what kind of paint was on the Buick. DuPont Centari "99A" "the blackest black" synthetic enamel. "I wouldn't put that stuff on a broom handle. When was it painted?" I told him 1995. Spend the money on paint and bodywork. It always pays, it always shows. Put the bumper with the worst chrome on the front. Put the hubcap with the dent on the left front. Show judges always look at the rear bumper and the right rear wheel......

[danrclem]

A friend of mine has a 1974 Barracuda and he had it painted and got it back earlier this year. He said it cost $25,000 to get it painted and I thought that was crazy but maybe it isn't. I thought it looked pretty good before the paint job, and I haven't seen it since, but he says it's almost perfect. When Tim is satisfied with something I know it has to be really good because he always wants perfection on everything.

I haven't ever driven a Falcon with a 144 cid six like Greg was talking about but from what I've heard they're a very weak engine. When they increased the displacement to 200 cid they weren't all that bad when they were put in a light vehicle. My brother had a 65 Mustang Fastback with a 200 3 speed, and he was pretty pleased with the performance.

[electra225]

We had a '63 Falcon with the 144 engine. Its forte was snow and slick roads. You couldn't kill a 144. the 170, 200 and 250 were larger versions of the 144. Ours had a two-speed automatic, which is not its friend. Three-on-the-tree would have been better. You drove a 144 like you had stole it, with your foot on the floor. A good 144 driver could transfer to driving a Detroit Diesel, the method was the same. My wife liked the 144. Hers had a manual choke, didn't use a drop of oil, got great fuel mileage on truck stop gas if that's all you could get. It started great in cold weather. It wasn't fast. If you were in a hurry, drive a Buick. The 144 was a sturdy engine. It was okay in a Falcon, but you didn't want an Econoline van powered by a 144. You didn't want an Econoline van in a head wind powered by a 144. You didn't want a heavily-loaded Econoline van in a head wind powered by a 144.....

Our old Falcon was good for maybe 50 mph steady, but it would do that day in and day out. It sounded like it was going to blow up, but it never quit and it never used oil nor did it overheat. I covered the radiator with cardboard in winter so the heater would put out heat. I made a two-blade fan we ran for awhile. The 144 wasn't weak, it was just little.