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.