The Galaxie…

For as long as I can remember, Tardel has had a thing for Galaxies… So, it was no surprise when I got the text this past Saturday.

“Hey man, what are you doing on Monday? Wanna go look at a ’63 1/2 near Dallas?”

So early on Monday morning we headed north. Some three hundred or so miles later, we found ourselves pulling up to a little country property littered with Fords of every generation. Towards the back of the property and under a make shift car port, sat a 1963.5 Ford Galaxie.

The original owner of the car passed away a few years ago, but we were met by his daughter in the driveway. She explained that her father was a devout car guy with a very short attention span. Quite often, he would buy a car only to drive it for a few thousand miles and then park it out back when the notion hit him to buy something else. This Galaxie was able to hold his attention for about 7,100 miles before it was sent to pasture.

That’s right.. SEVEN THOUSAND ORIGINAL MILES. Now, it’s not rare to find a listing on eBay or some other venue claiming such oddities without documentation. Whatever the odometer reads, the owner tends to believe as true. And who could blame them, right? So, Tardel and I approached the Galaxie with real skepticism. But the more we looked at the car and our surroundings, the more legitimacy the story began to hold.

It was obvious the car had sat outside for a long time. The paint has a deep patina to it and the trunk seal was missing, so there’s considerable rust around the spare tire location of the floor pan. There’s also some hints of sun exposure on the door panels. But beyond those few things, the car looks and feels showroom fresh. The doors open and close with a click. The seems are perfect. The body itself is as straight and as rust free as any car manufactured in 1963 that you will ever see (not a single door ding). And aside from typical rubber degradation, the engine compartment looks as new. Oh, and the interior? It literally looks and feels brand new.

At this point, we were beginning to believe our host’s story. Then, we took a look around and noticed that there were a number of other cars sitting around in a similar state. There was a ’65 Thunderbird, ’71 Thunderbird, an 80’s turbo Thunderbird coupe, and many others in a very similar state with low mileage and signs of long term outdoor storage.

Frankly, we were sold. Keith handed over his dough and the original owner’s daughter handed over the original title issued in 1963 along with plates that showed the car was last registered in 1966.

Of course, the smart thing to do would be to load the old Galaxie on a trailer and head for Austin. Instead, Keith and I decided an adventure would be more worth our time. We decided to drive it the three hundred miles home regardless of the fact that the car hadn’t really been driven in almost 50 years and that it hadn’t been registered in almost as long. Safety and legalities be damned…

So, off we went… and went… and went… Incredibly, the little 289 didn’t skip a single beat and the longer we were on the road, the better it ran. We made four stops on the way home – two for photo ops and two for gas. That was it.

Anyway, Keith has big plans for the Galaxie. I’ll cover it all here… In the meantime, I’ve included a little photo gallery of our adventure. Unfortunately, I exposed my roll of film and lost most of my shots but was able to save these:

Editor’s Note: While uploading these photos, I noticed something I missed in the story. The car did have one fault on the way home. The dust cap fell off into the hubcap. Keith banged it back on with a friggin’ hatchet.