Amazing what you find when you're not looking for it, yknow? I "found" this 1963 Ford Galaxie parked in the transmission shop across the gravel lot from my office in bucolic Youngstown, Ohio the other morning and I made a mental note to take a closer look at it later in the day when it would hopefully be a little warmer. That I did despite the temperature hovering around forty god-forsaken degrees.
No sooner had I started snapping these photos when the very friendly owner of the shop, he called himself "Duke", came out and told me to make an offer on it; apparently the owner wants it gone.
I didn't ask what they would want for it but seeing how hyper-inflated the market is right now I'd venture to guess it would be north of ten-grand. I told the guy that if it was a '63 Impala I might make a serious stab at it. That was pure b.s. but it kept the conversation going and got me a tour of the inner workings of his shop since he's a Chevy girl himself.
If I just told him I was only interested in this Ford it to blog about it I think he would have told me to beat it. Thrown a socket at me and called me a geek too.
He had just finished "freshening" the transmission so he's been all over this thing. He said the frame is solid which is amazing seeing it's allegedly spent it's fifty-eight years on earth here in road-salt encrusted N.E. Ohio. The body does need a little work, though and the yellow-ish paint does the lines of this thing no favors. A fresh coat of white would do wonders and would play off the navy blue-convertible top that's in pristine shape despite being twenty-some years old.
Interior's kind of rough although it does have buckets and a console in a lovely shade of blue. Seats need to be redone and that can get pricey. And no, it's not something I'd do myself; I know my limits and working on upholstery is not in my wheel house.
No idea what happened to the rear bumper. Darn thing probably couldn't withstand a twig falling on it without denting anyway. Good luck finding one affordably and in good enough shape it wouldn't need to be "re-dipped"?
Playing off of America's facination with space at the time, Ford first introduced the world to a "Galaxie" in mid-year 1959. It was their new range-topping trim-package above the Fairlane 500. When Ford switched the Fairlane nameplate to their new intermediate range for 1962, all big Ford's became "Galaxie's" and that was the case through 1966 when the LTD became the top-dog Ford.
For 1963, there was the base Galaxie, the Galaxie 500 and the Galaxie 500 XL like our tranny-shop find here. "XL" standing for either "extra-luxury" or "extra-lively". There was never a "XXL" or "XXXL". Four-X, anyone?
She's got an "FE" (Ford-Edsel) 390 cubic-inch "Thunderbird" V-8. In the late 1950's and through a good chunk of the early to mid '60's Ford sprinkled Thunderbird pixie dust on many of their models. A pox on me for not getting pictures of the engine it when I had the hood open. I also thought I got more pictures of this thing too before Duke introduced himself.
My phone rang halfway through my tour and Duke and I parted the closest of friends. These old Ford's are not my cup of motor oil but I'll take any excuse to get outside in the middle of the day. Making new friends over old cars making it so much the better.
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