Here is my 1962 Galaxie 500 Club Victoria Q code that has only travelled 9600 miles. What is a Q code? It’s a 390 solid lifter rated at 375hp with a single 4bl carburettor. This is a HiPo as it is also fitted with big front brake drums, solid brake lines up to the cross member under the radiator. It has the big fuel pump and the big fuel lines. This car also has the Warner T10 4sp which in my car had some issues that needed to be taken care of. My car does have the 3x2 Holley factory setup and is plenty stout, the 427 long cast headers were in the trunk when the car arrived in Aus and was part of the deal I am hopeful one day of finding out about the car’s full history; it was in the Fontana, Riverside, Upland area from about 1988, prior to that is incomplete. The car was raced, as it has a blowshield as well as a vintage Ansen scattershield. As when and where it was raced I am still tracking down that information. A long time has passed when original owner died. It would be great if this thing could talk. Coming back from getting some new tyres fitted, disaster struck, it jumped out of 2nd gear with a big bang and ground to a halt. Pulling the trans out and sending it out to a local guru and doyen of all things in the T10 world. I got the good news, bad news, the trans had all the factory tags and was unmolested, it had not seen a lot of duty, however, what it did see, it was quarter mile at a time. The mainshaft had not been heat treated properly and the case hardening had come away and caused havoc. The parts that were damaged, were replaced, the box was reassembled and installed back into the. The rebuild was not cheap, but I wanted the car to be faithful to its origins. The condition of the car is pretty good considering its history; the body is straight and rust free. The stainless is all straight and will come up with a good polish. The paint is shot and will need to be taken car of. After taking stock of what need to be done, the brake wheel cylinders were replaced and the master cylinder was rebuilt and now the stops straight and true. Being a HiPo car, power brakes were not an option and neither was power steering. A “To Do” list was made along with long with a list parts that would have to be replaced and that was mainly the interior castings along with B pillar mouldings were to badly pitted to be refurbished. The parts were ordered, including seat trim, headliners, interior handles, carpet and now the deconstruction would commence with careful removal of the side trim in order for the paint stripping to commence. You can see at the bottom of the quarter panel that condition of the body is pretty darn good, The pic below shows why the paint will have to be stripped back to bare metal I had hoped when I bought the car that the paint on the topside was as good on underside, then again, if it was, I would not have got the bargain that I did. I would have liked to have had the soda blasted, the quotes that I had got were horrendous, so decided to go the chemical strip method. My wife Sue donned some old cloths and chemical gloves and gave me a hand to strip the hood. It went pretty well, the roof was more difficult and the trunk lid was a breeze just like the hood. When it came to doing the sides of the body, no matter how much of the stuff was put on, it just did not want to bubble or blister. The hood was fine and would have to be treated, etch primer filler would need to be applied. So it was off the local hardware store and I bought some sanding discs that had a plastic like media that would take the paint of without building up heat on the big panels. After a couple of weeks when the weather was hot and dry, the stripping continued on the weekends, I did not want to annoy the neighbours so dare not do anything too noisy after work. The front fenders were removed to last of the stainless trim and as you can see, there is no rust where you would expect it be. The fenders went back on the for the priming My wife wanted me to clear coat the car, damned nearly talked me into it.
However, that idea was put to bed as I already spent money on the etch primer filler and paint. It was hit with primer and put a guide coat on so we would know that it would be sanded back properly. In the meantime I was looking for some wheels to replace the Centerlines, some vintage Torq Thrusts turned up on Aus E**y and I was the only bidder! 14 x 7s and 15 x 8.5s needed some TLC and with some elbow grease will come up nice. After some consideration, I moved the car up to my brothers place, where he has a big garage, would not be annoying the neighbours when it was time to apply the color. So with the car in his garage and the tedious task of rubbing back the acres of panels would commence at a good pace. After knocking the top off with 240grit it was hit 400 wet and dry, the roof took a nice sheen which would be a nice surface to hit with color, The front and rear glass was popped out, actually it was a 5 hour marathon and the window rubbers were hard as a rock and were chiselled out! The doors, trunk lid and hood were removed to rub back inside the jambs, under the hood and truck lid. These panels were then primered They were rubbed back and prepped for the first of the color coats to go on the car. We spent a lot hours in the prep, the weather was hot and would have to use retarder to slow the drying process. The results should speak for themselves.
IMG]http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=16805&pictureid=177138[/IMG] The fenders came again to paint some critical areas and when back on again. Now it was onto final prepping and masking off some areas to prevent overspray. In the meantime gotta keep the battery charged up. The first coat of color is going on to the body and I and now starting to see that this car is going back to its former glory. After a couple coats of Apollo Blue acrylic lacquer, things are really now starting to progress and after a marathon session and a late Sunday night, well, you be the judge. Attention is now turning to the interior steel trim, dash and steering wheel. These are rubbed back, the steering wheel will need some serious attention. The steering wheel is in very bad shape and I am starting to get real impatient, I located another wheel that I could use and it will give some time to refurbish the original. Primer was applied to the dash, steering wheel and trim that surrounds the windshield and tops of the doors and rear quarter trim. The instrument clusters surround. The primer was rubbed back and now the first base coat is applied. Now I know some of the restoration purists are going to be P15Sed off, bur, this being a site that is about rodding and customs etc, this is where I decided to stray The color coat is going on and waiting it to tack off for the next stage.
. Yup, your saw flake! All the trim was treated to 3 coats of HOK Kamen Blue miniflake followed by 8 coats of clear! The new headlining was installed by Paul, a nearly 40 veteran of all things fabric natural or otherwise. I am glad I did not do that job as it was complicated and tedious. 7 hours later here is the result. The bumpers have been rechromed, I had the radiator rebuilt to a thicker core and should be able to take on the 100 plus degree summer days even though the pilot will not. I started this project on Saturday 26th September and have worked on it only on the weekends. My wife Sue, my brothers Adam and Vin, have been an immense help particularly Adam. He has been my guide in the paint, he has laid on most of the color and had somehow managed to summon up the courage, the will and 4 decades of applying stunning paint to overcome his blindness in one eye and less than 30% and no peripheral vision in the other. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, this weekend I will be reassembling the dash and may be putting the front and rear glass in. There is no timetable because I want this car to be done right. I wanted to restore it, then I thought what the heck, I diverged on some of the paint, it’s not something that cannot be undone.
Thought it would be a good idea to show some of the pics that were sent to me asking me whether I would be interested to buy the car. After doing some quick checking on the net basically closed the deal within 24 hours of requesting some more information. Here is a shot of the spare, it has never been on the car. A shot of the 427 headers, still have not decided what to do with them, they way 45lbs each The rear seat area, pity the seat covers were badly heat affected and have become hard and brittle The trunk lid was almost as badly cracked as the hood. The door trims are in pretty good shape and have cleaned up nicely. Don't have worry about having to go to the repop route Here is the 3 duece set up
Great looking Galaxie. You boys are doing a fine job wih it. Last year I redone a '63 galaxie 2 dr sedan. It has a 390 stroker motor, toploader 4 speed and a 471 posi 9 in. These cars are two tons of fun. I just drag race my galaxie but it's a ball just to run it down the quarter. Keep up the good work. You are going to have a beautiful car when you are finished.
Thanks for the good words and encouragement, I am now starting to enjoy the process as some of the jobs are being completed. Here are the wheels that I scored off E$%y, the price was right and they were in OK condition. After trying out various metal polishers, I settled on California Customs http://www.californiacustom.com/purple_metal_polish.html Purple which does not require the effort of most of the brands, The results have been ok on the first wheel. The metal polishing has been giving me something to do in garage where a man can be at peace with himself.
Awesome! I would have been tempted to leave it original but I like what you have done so far. I'll take those headers off your hands if you want to pitch them out...
awesome car ! all the right stuff on it ! those long tube cast headers would command a premium if you dont run them and decide to sell em ! i'd run em though tough as nails !nice job on the car so far
Very nice progress! I love that blue. I have every single thing to convert that car to power steering, in case you ever decided to go that route. Was going to do it to a 62 Gal that I had but never got around to it. Everything is still packaged up.
I was going to leave it, the problem was the where the paint cracked,the metal was deeply etched. The old headers will probably go on the car just to hear what it will sound like.
Love your '62 Galaxy. Owned three over the years. one "G" code 406 ( owned this one twice), one "B" code 406, and one "M" code 390/401. Good luck with it; nice find.
Today was a big day, could not wait for the windscreen guy to do the job so Gluefoot and I installed all the glass. Polished the dash and the interior metal trim and installed that as well. Will post some pics tomorrow night when I get home.
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