Late Advice

Under the category of information that I could have done with yesterday I am reliably informed that you do not cut the headliner to fit. Rather you staple it and then roll up the excess which is hidden behind the trim. Well the new one is ordered so it is only a matter of time before I am once again Master of all I survey, although at $99.99 it was an expensive lesson to learn.



On a more positive note I have, for the longest time, been looking for a RAC badge for the Galaxie. (For the benefit of my colonial readers the Royal Automobile Club is the English equivalent of triple A but you have to admit Royal Automobile Club sounds far more classy). Finally I got one and I know that you will agree that it adds a certain Je ne seus quoi as we say in Serbo Croat.

Good News, Bad News

The driver's door lock has been bothering me for the longest time. It is all pretty straightforward just long rods and levers that push a bar up on the door handle to stop the button opening the door. It seemed like the rod was out of adjustment so I prised it out and started to adjust the length of the actuator, which was when it sheared off. Another one of those "crap, what now" moments. Fortunately I still had the original stoved in door and the rod was intact. Realizing that adjusting the screw was not an option I just fitted it to the door and it worked perfectly ! High five me. Also a small piece of dashboard trim has been missing since forever but I found one on Ebay and that got fitted as well.

So the big project was the headliner as once this is in then I can finish the rest of the interior and the project is done. Now before I start this tale let me explain that around the roofline is a strip of hardboard know as the tack strip. The purpose of this is so you can tension the fabric and staple it into place before fitting the trim which hides the wood and the staples. Well we got the rods into the fabric and the rods mounted into the holes in the roof. We stretched and stapled and stretched and stapled and when we were finished it looked like crap. So we had another go and by the time we were finished it looked very, very good. I then started to fit the trim and realized that there was a major problem. It wasn't long before I discovered that I had mounted the tackstrip above the fixing mounts instead of below, that is to say way too high. This meant that the staples all showed. Even sadder I had cut the material to the strip so there was now an inch gap all around. Disaster indeed.

Well I have always believed that when life hands you a lemon you should find a friend with some tequila and get wasted so looking on the bright side I now know that I can fit a wrinkle and sag free headliner and as soon as I can buy another one, this is what I will be doing.

BTW I got this email from a car mag. Happy days.


Hello David,Thank you for sharing your story! Very nice work on the Galaxie! Keep me posted on the progress. Your car would be perfect to be featured on one of our collector magnets.

Another step closer

As you can see the trim is on, doesn't she look sweet? Of course every silver lining has a cloud and I forgot to take the pinstripe tape so I didn't quite finish



Anyway the outside is pretty much done and with the black stripe on the brightwork we will be rocking. As I am sure you will appreciate it is hard to write a blog about spending all day fixing trim to a car so perhaps we will leave it there and I will allow you to admire the photographs.

Talking of which the pictures of late have all been a little less than perfect. There are two reasons for this. First off my digital camera has for the last few weeks been showing increasing signs of douchiness. Every time I decide to dump the bastard it springs into life again and having spent $10,000 on this car project I am understandably reluctant to drop a few bucks on a new camera. Secondly for the last month Gene's old Mercury Colony Park (who on earth comes up with these names) has been having an engine transplant right behind the Galaxie. Well that nonsense is all done now so I can finally get her out into the sunshine.

Tuesday night will be clean her up night and then Saturday I will get the headliner in, I hope.

More Trim

Well it is only a small step in the right direction but I got little more trim on both sides and the clips on for the mouldings so hopefully I will get all the trim affixed on Saturday and the outside will be pretty much finished.

The only outstanding problems are that I need three hands to screw in the defroster vents and for some reason the driver's door will not lock. Apart from that we are now entering the home straight.

Getting there (slowly)

After the fiasco with the front bumper and as part of that miserable day I didn't feel much like mentioning that the front left light didn't work. This Saturday feeling much better I decided to fix it. So what with the parking light and the turn signal not working logic dictates that there must be a common cause and what could be more common than a ground fault? So I gave it my best shot but just could not get a decent ground. Eventually I took the whole thing apart and discovered that when I had replaced the bulb I clearly twisted too hard and broke the seal between the glass and the holder. Thus the first time I turned it on the filament oxidized and burnt out. Who would have guessed that the bulb could be common? Anyway here is a picture of the working light.

and because I love the lines of this great car here is another pointless and gratuitous picture

I also fitted a genuine 1963 mirror, no big deal but it is historically correct.

I am not too sure what else I did but I do know I put in another 8 hours so I must have done something else.

Tomorrow I am driving the original front bumper to the electro plate shop as well as two rear bumper guards that I acquired. I have no doubt at all that the price of chrome will have gone through the roof so brace yourself for a whining bleating blog soon.

Galaxie Advertisement

I found this 1963 Galaxie advertisement, so I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy.

A small step for Mankind

It's only a little thing (that's what she said) but behold, a genuine 1963 authentic original (reproduction) Galaxie antenna. I love this stuff.

The bumpers (part II)

These are the photographs the somehow didn't get taken last time. You have got to admit that she is looking slick.

I just need to put on the side trim and the outside is finished

Even the photos make me smile

After my hideous Saturday ended and I looked back after walking away I noticed that the rear bumper was not level. (I hid that fact from you in the last blog, my bad). Well I got it straightened last night and Gene noticed. Apparently some of the guys mentioned this on Monday. So it appears that when I am not there the good old boys are inspecting the Galaxie. I am, I must confess, rather proud of that. Anyway here is the evidence (previously withheld) that the rear bumper is now aligned. Oh and BTW the tag light also works. High five me.

The Bumpers

So I got the newly rechromed bumpers set out at 10:00 am and we were away. The first step was to mount the parking lights and for some reason the holding brackets would not sit rights and it took about an hour of messing before the lights were fitted. The next step was to fit the brackets and once again nothing would fit and I spent an eternity twatting around. I had a look under Gene's Galaxie but that didn't really help and then Gene suggested that I go to the back of the yard were he knew there was a Galaxie front bumper with the brackets attached. There I found my old front bumper. (I knew it was mine as it still had the old tag on it). Somewhat puzzled by this unexpected find I hauled it to the workshop and laid it next to mine. It was instantly obvious that these were different bumpers and when I called Gene over to see the color drained from his face and he mumbled "I don't want to see. I don't want to see". Well he did see and told me that I had spent $475 on replating a 1962 bumper. This was not my happiest hour and I still do not see how I managed to put down a 63 and pick up a 62. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth Gene pointed out a bumper hanging from the rafters in the shop. It was, apparently rechromed 20 years ago and was there in case Gene ever hits a deer in the Galaxie. (Gene has a thing about hitting deer in the Galaxie even though the car has only been used twice in the last year). So I now have a "borrowed" front bumper that has to be returned on demand, and that is a fair deal. So I pulled this 50 lb monster down and it looked like a pile of Satan's faeces. However I did notice that as my (copious) tears hit the bumper they washed away 20 years of crud and underneath it almost possibly looked nearly bearable. So I washed it with hot and soapy and it looked quite reasonable with a song in my heart I cleaned it with some thinners and guess what? It looks like new, not quite as good as my 62 but nevertheless perfectly adequate and after a tickle with some chrome polish I think we will be in business. So I took the lights out of the 62 and reinstalled then into the 63 (they fitted perfectly, natch) and installed the brackets and at 4:00 I was ready to install the bumper having spent the last 5 hours achieving precisely FA.
The rest of the story is just nuts and bolts except for the fact that my camera decided to come out in sympathy with Galaxie and although it gave the illusion of taking 9 images it actually took only one, here it is.

So my only option is to put the 62 bumper on Ebay to see if I can recoup some of my ill spent wedge. I am not too hopeful as, to be frank, the 62 was a piece of crap when it was new and no one could possibly be daft enough to want to restore that piece of dog dump.

I tell you if this car does not turn out to be the best skank magnet in four counties I am taking it to the shredder and doing a Christine on it.

More trials

Last night I decided to put on the valance plate which would then complete the front of the car. After considerable twatting I discovered that the valance should be the first piece to be installed, not the last. So off came the hood release ornament, followed by the grill and the headlight covers. Sometimes I think that I have squandered my existence for a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises. All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and it's bollocks to the rest.

Anyway I got the front finished and that is important because now I am ready to install the front bumper and that will be mega. Actually I am now ready to install both bumpers and come hell or high water that is what I am going to do on Saturday. So check back on Sunday and you are going to see many photos of a beautiful classic car.

Have a nice week