Well, look at my avatar, my favorite car in the world! Plus a I have a wagon to match and three two door parts 65 Galaxies. Bones
Not exactly a Galaxie but close enough. I'd love to have this car with a cammer swap. One more not quite a Galaxie......
Hello, A year out of high school brought a lot of changes for most of us. We met new people from different schools and areas of Long Beach. My friend with the black/white 55 two door Chevy sedan introduced us to his cousin that just bought a new 63 ½ Ford Galaxie with a 406 ci motor from Mel Burns Ford. It was black, had a big motor, was fast and looked so cool with all of the windows rolled down. When hanging out at the drive-in restaurant parking lots, and had all of the windows down on the Ford hardtop, it was very roomy inside. It was so roomy, that we could actually eat our hamburgers and fries inside of the rear seats, even with the trays. The Mel Burns Ford Dealership was where our friend bought his new, black 1963 Galaxie XL 500 hardtop sedan with a 406/4 speed was in our local cruising grounds. Our friend just bought the black Galaxie XL 500 in the Spring of 1963. It was one of the first 406/4 speed black Galaxies in the whole Long Beach cruising area at the time. similar... but, not the exact one A couple of big football players in the back seat had plenty of leg stretching room for the cruise up to Bixby Knolls, Oscar's in Lakewood, Hody’s in Southeast Long Beach, and even up to Harvey’s. It certainly was a roomy, fast, street cruiser. The hardtop version was very air cooled, as the wind just came into the whole cab, including for the back seat passengers. It was roomy and as teenagers go, joking led to bantering that led to bets, etc. So, with all of the bantering going on during those cruises, the topic of waterskiing was brought up. That activity was something that I only saw at the Long Beach Marine Stadium while staring in awe. The teenage bravado conversation was that since I was a good surfer, I should be able to water ski on one ski. A six pack plus picking up the tab at the next drive-in was the wager. Accepting the challenge, I said I could do that once I got everything ready with my teenage mind set. They all laughed at the absurdity of that reply. The 63 ½ Galaxie was so comfortable to cruise, even being in the back seat, that thoughts of upgrading my 1958 Impala did cross my mind. Despite the 63 409 Bel Airs, this Galaxie just looked rather cool streamlined look and not boxy like a 63 Chevy Impala. It had tons of power, too. How about a new direction, with a Ford, not a Chevy? It also had almost 400 hp from the factory. The Galaxie had a 4 speed, but could not order any A/C for some reason. We all heard rumors about a 427 version, but it was not around during this time period in So Cal dealers. Jnaki We had an Easter Vacation 10 days of activity planned. One was to take a trip to the Colorado River near Parker Dam. We would be on our own, camping and waterskiing all day. So, it was planned and we all had our stuff ready to go on the long drive. As comfortable as cruising around with all windows rolled down, we were not expecting an odd occurrence during the long water skiing road trip to the Parker Dam in Arizona. Around 2 a.m. it was hot outside on the Interstate 10 and Highway 62 near Vidal Junction… (how could anyone forget a name like that?) All of the windows were rolled down with the swirling air coming in to cool us somewhat. The 1963 Ford Galaxie was towing a big block Ford powered 18 foot Howard Hull Speedboat. The boat was white with red upholstery and trailed the Ford Galaxie quite well down those empty stretches of highway. Since it was a long drive, we traded off driving the Galaxie. Then one of the most unusual things happened to us inside of the Ford two door hardtop Galaxie. When a giant diesel truck of any kind, came whizzing by on the opposite side of the road, an odd thing happened to all of us. The air coming inside swirled at least 10x more powerful and pushed us back into the rear seat backs. That was ok as it cooled us a little more. But, if two giant diesel trucks were coming towards us, the wind multiplied by a lot. A lot of swirling wind did something we were not prepared for… the hardtop sucked in and dropped down a little, with a clunking sound. We were stunned and pushed it back up instantly, laughing at that incident. The top did not dent or make creases, but just plopped down like a round ball was sitting on top. It was the most unusual thing and at first, we stopped to assess the damage and popped the round depression back to normal. It was the topic of conversation and ways to prevent the top from doing the same thing, again. When it happened again near Vidal Junction, we were prepared with our feet up, holding the roof in place. We had never heard of such an incident, but were confused it actually took place. The swift fast moving diesel trucks were like a wall of air being pushed forward, until it hit an opposing force. Being teenagers, we all laughed, had a great time at the Parker Dam River Scene for the week long water ski trip. The top of the Galaxie was as good as new and on the way home, did not experience any of those “top plops.” 1963 Ford Galaxie XL 500 I did water ski on one ski the first time I tried! But, almost ran into huge tree branch on the shoreline on a u-turnabout move. No one told me that by hanging on tighter and pulling the lines, I moved faster in a centrifugal force move on the ski. The harder I pulled, the faster and more of an outside circle move happened. I missed the gnarly tree/branch by inches when I let go of the lines.
My '63.5 project. Engine, trans and chassis all new and ready to go. Body is ready for paint. Just have to decide what color to go with. I could stay with white but man, these cars sure look good in black. What ever I go with, has to work with my XL interior.
The Jalopy Journal
