The Last Post

The one hundredth post and it's the last one. Coincidence or clever planning? Who knows?

The Galaxie is finished, from this



To this,

in 100 posts and 22 months.

She is on the road and it won't be long before I get a ticket. I just can't stop blowing past nasty euro boxes at 80mph whilst showing off my 63 tags, a proud piece of American history and engineering.

Was it worth it? You bet your sweet ass it was.

Peace out,

David

Sunvisors et al.

During the course of the last 20 months Gene has donated many many parts for the Galaxie and in addition countless nuts, bolts and screws. I am (and will always be) truly grateful. Of course having so many parts around, occasionally they get a little mixed up and the faithful reader will doubtless recall the tragedy with the front bumpers. The faithful reader will also recall the struggle I had with the sunvisor brackets. Now lest you think that I am an ungrateful, whining misery let me once again praise Gene for giving me a set of brackets to replace my missing ones and then point out that the bracket he gave me bore no relation to 1963 Galaxie brackets. Once I realized this (by looking at Gene's car) I was able to swap them out with another set from Gene's stock and then find the mounting holes. After that the job was a doddle.

Check out the cool mirror, the dice and how flat the roof liner is. I also fitted the new glove box,

I know it is only a glove box but look it now contains my registration and insurance.

I also fitted the steering wheel center.

That was about it apart from visiting the man who is going to fit the exhaust system. Whilst he has the car he will give it to his old school tuning man who will adjust the timing and carburation. All of this will be done during the week so hopefully next Saturday I will bring her home and the following Saturday our first cruise in.

On the road.

As you can see I had a successful trip to the DMV on Friday and got my 1963 tags assigned to the Galaxie. There were a few jobs to do on Saturday but the main task was to wash off about an inch of pollen.

The only outstanding real job is to get the exhaust system fitted and the rest is just fine tuning.

The timing and carburation probably need a tweak but I suspect that having the exhaust fitted
will change the set up so that can wait.

So with some sense of trepidation I gave her a shake down run around the back lanes of Henry. I had to get gas and I knew that there was a roadside store that sold premium.

As I was gassing up a local wandered over and said "Got yourself a real slick ride there man".

That made the last two years all worth while.

Nearly on the road

Well I thought that installing the rest of the interior was going to be a bear but as is often the case jobs that one views with trepidation turn out to be a cinch. As you an see I trimmed out the carpet and fitted the sill plates. I got the kick panels in, trimmed out the doors and got the window winders on (not the easiest task in the world Mr. Ford). The only slight disappointment was that not only could I not fit the sun visor brackets, I could not even find the screw holes! Oh well they must be there. Now here is the scary part, I think that I am ready to put her on the road. This week I will get some insurance and then a trip to the DMV to put the plates on and we are legal.

Outstanding tasks ;

Wire up the spotlight
Fix radio
Fix clock
Fit bumper guards
Install exhaust pipes
Repair broken wire on overdrive unit.

Then drive around town to the admiring gazes of my fellow man, and woman.

Another giant leap.

After waiting about 6 months the spot light guy turned up out of the blue and installed the spotlight. The guys that know say that a Galaxie is dressed up when it has a spotlight and bumper guards, now I am halfway there. Actually I should just mention that as a result of some dealing I now have a complete set of bumper guards and they will be installed once I have finished the interior.

Now talking about the interior I have made some huge progress. The carpet is in (although not trimmed out). The back is complete and the front seat is in. Finally I can drive it without falling over backwards. I still have another days work to complete the interior but I was pretty happy with the progress I made. I still have to trim the carpet (I don't quite understand why having spent all that money the carpet was not made to measure but whatever). The rear courtesy lenses need fitting as does the sill plates. I have no idea how I will find the screw holes for the accelerator pedal which are hidden by the carpet and I will have to cut a huge hole in the carpet for the headlamp dimmer switch. Next week I am going to murder some clay pigeons but I will try to do some more work during the week. In the meantime enjoy the pictures.

The Brakes

Here is another tale from the stupid mistakes department.

For some time I have been suffering from a strange syndrome with the Galaxie brakes. It seems like the brakes would start to bind and then get worse and worse until the wheels were just locked up. The last time I worked on the car it took all of the engine's 300 hp just to move her back into the garage. My task for last Saturday, therefore, was to fix the brakes. Now logic dictates that if all the wheels are locked the common denominator has to be the master cylinder so I removed the one from the Thunderbird and for the Galaxie to compare and exchange them. As soon as I looked at the Galaxie cylinder I realised what the problem was. A new cylinder has plastic plugs to keep dust out and I had overlooked to remove the plug for the brake rod. So the rod was pushing on the plug and the plug was pushing on the piston. The plug however was preventing the piston from retracting. Remove the plug and the brakes worked fine. All in all it took about 15 minutes. Of course I had expected it to take all day so I didn't bring any of the interior parts needed. With nothing else to do I was home by midday.

Another big leap forward

On Monday, here in Virginia, we had a blizzard, on Saturday we had 75 degrees and let me tell you after 2 months of doing squat it was mighty good to be working in the sunshine. So today's task was to trim out the headliner, fit the sailboards and put in the rear parcel shelf. (Actually I am not sure that you colonials call it a parcel shelf but it is the piece between the rear seat and the rear window). As the faithful reader will recall due to a cock up by Dearbourne Classics I ended up with a surplus of sailboard material and this I used to cover the parcel shelf and let me tell you that it looks damned sharp. Now back to the story.

I had anticipated that this was not going to be easy (nothing is for team Galaxie) and sure enough the first hour was spent in a rage of frustration, tears and Lord's name taking of in vain. After all of this I had achieved.

One piece of trim and five screws! Then I worked out for myself Gene told me that if you used a ice pick you could not only find the screw holes which are all hidden behind the cloth but you could also use the pick as a lever to align the trim to the holes. After that everything went swimmingly. Of course I was still at it all day but I was now singing a happy little song in the sun.

Here is the sailboard and parcel shelf installed and the rear window trimmed out.

and here is the front quarter. Lest you are worried the gap at the top is where the sun visor bracket screw in. There are a few wrinkles that I couldn't get out but you know I don't care. I shall hold my head up high and tell people that no professional restorer touched my car.

So next week (unless we have another blizzard I shall install the courtesy lamps and the sun visors, then rear panels and the rear seats. Maybe if time permits the carpet and the door panels. It is sure good to be working again. Now if you will excuse me I am off to sing a little John Denver number. Sunshine on my shoulders make me happy (yes it does).

The head liner is in !

We looked at the forecast and Tuesday was going to be the best day of the week so I made the decision and we pulled it off. Utilizing the knowledge gained in our first attempt my good lady and I (believe me folks it is a two man person job) got that bad boy in. So why, are you asking, are there no photographs of our magnificent achievements. Well I still have to put up the sailboards, the courtesy lamp bezels and all the trim. I also have to cut off the excess material. This you will doubtless recall was my earlier mistake when I decided to cut off the excess first.

The net outcome is that it all looks a touch pikey at the moment but it is up and tacked in and wrinkle free so today I am spending all day basking in the glow of my overt manliness

Nothing to report

Since the debacle with the headliner, nothing much has happened. I was going to work a little on the car last weekend but on the day before someone organized a shoot on the adjacent property and that was too much temptation for me. I did clear out the trunk and install the side panels and the trunk mat which looks very sharp. My old buddy Red noticed that the jack hold down screw was incorrect but he has a spare. He really is a great guy. This week the replacement headliner arrived so I should be fitting that this weekend. I should but I won't because something else has turned up. For some time I have been looking for my next project and this week I found it, a 1963 Thunderbird. So this weekend I am off on a road trip to Atlanta to haul it back. I won't start restoring it until the Galaxie is completed but I am more than happy to have it sitting in the barn for a few weeks. Wanna see some pics? Of course you do.

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

Slow Going

No pictures today as nothing changed on the car. Despite the service manual promising me that changing the ignition lock was going to be a cinch it ( natch) turned out to be a 3 hour nightmare. I won't bore you with the details but it got done in the end. I also installed the door seals which although tedious actually went quite well. That was the sum total of my day. It rained all day so I was in the barn and I gave up at about 3.00 pm. However I still find myself grinning like an idiot every time I look at the car so I guess I must be having fun.