nash510, your build is way cooler than mine the fabrication alone is crazy cool. Not in my skill set or fabrication skills. Mine is very amatuer build its purpose built using old school Stock car images of the real car as the model to build my driveable clone. If I had the funds and equipment I would have gone full bore welded roll cage to frame, removed body off frame and welded flat floor pans. The HM Parts are unobtainable of course so the best my budget could do was give it the looks, and some home made creativity to give it the Stock Car vibe for the street. I am shooting for early May for the painted on graphics it wont be as slick as yours but it been a fun build so far cant wait to get it on the road it will stand out in a sea of "Trailer/Garage queens" and I will be pretty confident I wont pull up next to one at a local Cruise In/Car Show or Stop light
Don't sell yourself short and don't look too closely at the pictures of mine as you will see it is not as slick as you might think. I think the way you are doing it is just right and what I had originally planned before things got out of control. I'm sure you will enjoying yours long before mine will be road worthy. Looking forward to more progress pics!
hey u guys , stacked and nash, both your builds are cool and creative, not many people do cars like this !keep going tintop
Well I got the TACH pulled out yesterday and shipped back to Autometer today, hopefully it wont cost as much as a new one tight funds right now. The shoe-string budget is about stretched out. Got a call from the Pinstripper / Sign Painter to check in that he was working on the outlines files, told him I am pushing to have his $500 ready by the end of the month so we can get started in May on the painting. Just an FYI on my screen Tag it was created due to my fondness of the 65 Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop Stacked Headlights, I had owned two of them. When I was showing my factory double black 390 AT I was contemplating getting a black t-shirt made with the front grille and headlights view on the front, and on the back it would say "I like'em Stacked".
April 21st new images. Got the floor pan wire loom done, cleaned all of the overspray off the glass inside an out, got the reverse lights connector wires soldered up and heat shrinked so the switch works good. Did some cleaning on the interior floor pans got a lot of dirt and crap on them while working in the car. Please diregard the hole in the dash cluster that was the TACH I pulled and shipped to Autometer for repair. Forgot to add i resprayed the seat in SEM Black its looks good and no cracking so far. Decided to take some new pictures all four corners and interior shots for you guys to see the progress to date, I am still shooting for first week in May for painted graphics cant wait to much white for me right now. I figured you would get a kick out of my FL Tag "MPG-HAHA" I have had this for years and its has fit every car so far we dont drive them and worry about MPG do we... I know I have a had a few request for daylight close up pictures hopefully these will do. Thanks for following the build.
We have tons of Galaxies that would make great project cars here in Grand Junction....Really like this thread the vintage stock cars are great....If interested hit me up with a message we have plenty of Galaxies and Mercury's as well.
Some more work today to check off the "to-do" list. Went to Home Depot and picked up two 3' long looks like 1/8 thick by 1" wide aluminum strips for the rear/front window tabs. Measure 3-4 times then started cutting the rear window slats to length, the fun part was making the bends with my vise covered up with a rag so I didnt scratch up the aluminum, got the pieces cut then bent, drilled out the holes sanded them with wet sand 400 grit installed them I used the large race car style big rivets. The front took longer to bend each peice, i drilled out the original front window trim holes to accept the larger rivets, then cut and drilled, added electrical tape on each front window tab so it would not be metal on glass like the orignal race car had. I Added six tabs versus the orignal two on the Dan Gurney race car. Before pop-riveting anything I added a dab of paint in each hole to prevent rust on bare metal. Think the tabs look cool and give it the race vibe as intended. Thanks for all the positive feedback, hopefully in 2-3 weeks I will have painted graphics on her
I was gonna say too bad FoRd didn't build one like this, but they pretty much did. Were the exhaust manifolds on there when you got it?
Dang, this is one cool build! Keep it up! The only thing I have to say is that wouldn't a dual master cylinder be a good upgrade?
s55mercury66, yes the manifolds were on it, I beleive when the motor was replaced they built a perfomance engine 406 crank, 406 heads with those headers date coded ealry 1963 looks like they came off a doner 406 engine as a set heade/headers as they still have the bend over tabs over the bolts that mount to the heads, from the research on Block casting numbers its identified as a 1963 390 Police Interceptor Service replacement block. Shaun1162 Yep you are correct a Dual MC is in the picture for conversion may go with the 72 F250 drum/drum unit its larger than the 68 Galaxie drum/drum unit I used on the wagon, its not to hard to do and its safer in the long run, I also have the orignal e-brake pedal installed just in case. She's coming along looking forward to driving her soon. Thanks for the feedback.
Got good news from the AutoMeter Service Team, they are going to replace the TACH no charge Should get it back next week to install. Thanks for the feedback so far on the build, its been challenging, fun, frustrating, sometimes limited funds but its getting close to completion to the level i can afford now. Maybe this summer if I get some extra funds my re-build the front suspension and add larger sway bars. The project build Dollars excluding the car purchase has been 4-5K spent on mostly new parts, paint /primer /body supplies. I am not a body man, mechanic etc. I know enough to get me in trouble I am an amatuer with good skills and not afraid to try to keep getting better or research it and figure it out maybe with a little help from friends. I feel anyone with a good running car like my Galaxie could build one just a cheap It would be cool to see a new trend started "Stock Car Drivers" not just stickered up cars get it close to real as possible under a budget. Just my 2Cents. Thanks for following the build.
Awesome! I've been following this build and it just gets cooler with each new pic posting of the progress updates. Can't wait for the lettering! Jim
What a great build !! Your car replicates the exact build standard that was the norm, " back in the day" ..I know there were some high-dollar teams building then, but there were lots of cars built in small,no-funded shops and dirtfloor garages.. Not all cars of that era were like some of the restorations out now...Good to see a car like yours ,that is just like it was for the majority of the original racecars. Great job !!! I want one !!!
Dude, this thing rocks big time. The only thing I was a little disappointed in maybe is......you took the trailer hitch OFF...lol. Nice.
I always wanted to build a old stock car why? because it is just way too cool! Actually i found a 64 galaxie 500 hardtop but dam i always find something when the funds aren't there.
RICKY RICARDO Yep I get it, I have been down that road many times back in 2000 I had a 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport fastback like in "Gran Torino " the movie, it was a project i spent 3+ years on an off replacing sheet metal found fenders/doors in Atlanta $1000, had $3500 in brand new parts from Dearborn Classics in boxes, had $3000 in the motor, $600 new front suspension, to many parts but ran into a financial pinch had to sell it lost my ass and hated every minute of the sell it was my first project and I loved that body style Over the years cars have come up for decent prices but with a family and bills guess what came first. It has taken me about 10 years of back and forth trading until I could get a cash sell on car to get enough "non-bill /family" money to buy the Wagon, sold it to buy & build the 63 1/2 which has been a dream of mine for about 5 years as no one has done that locally plus I dig the mean race car look who cares if its loud and one seat / roll bar and no heater AC / no power steering /brakes etc. It will be head turner when its done and done on a DIME with DIY and some inginuity. So keep the faith brother your "Stock Car" ride will come around when you least expect it and if I can help just hit me and I will be glad to share any ideas or things I have done on my ride. Whats good about Galaxies what ever you remove someone will want it these are getting hard to find parts for so you can re-coup some funds to put into the build. Regards, Tony
Just stumbled on this build, I love it! I'm working on the same thing, however mine will most likely end up not being street legal. Plan on taking it to open track days and scaring the Miata people. www.fullsizeford.com
jhooch , looks like its going to be cool build "purpose built". I would have liked to built it for mild racing but the roll bar would have required some prefessional work at a cost to meet the race regulations, also would have meant better brakes, suspension, etc. not in the budget. I felt the build I am doing gives it the look, sound and feel of a real earlies 60's Stock Car but could be converted to a bench seat car for a passenger and the gauges will go into the factory cluster with the Boese Engineering kit I originally purchased (billet 4 pod center pice to replace the sweep speedo, left /righ round pods hold the Tach /Speedo other things could be returned if needed Heater/blower assembly, radio, clock as I kpet all of the orginal wiring intact. This morning started out good went to my local u-pull-it looking for Drum/drum proportion connector got lucky as old cars are not available very often. Found a 68 Mustang coupe six banger rotted to the core but it have the "DrumDrum manual dual master cylinder set up so I pulled the connector cost me $2.31+ $2.00 to enter so for under 5 bucks i aint complaining, swung by O'Rielys and picked up my 68 Galaxie Dual MC $18+$11 for the core+ taxes $31 bucks, then by Car Quest to get a three way splitter ($4.00) for the front brake line as to adapt the pressure switch easy to do, we just take the pressure switch and cut new threads and it goes into the three way center hole fine. Also picked up a roll of brake line $26.00 to flare nad replace all of the hardlines I like new versu 50 year old lines. All of the flex lines and moving parts are new. So I got about $60 in materials which is cool with me, hopefully the brake pedal rod is the correct length the last time on the wagon we had to weld 3" onto it as the pedal was to low. Not sure I will start today or tomorrow as It is time consuming to flare/bend lines.
The Jalopy Journal
