Fellers we are going boating. Every time I finish a resto project I swear I'll never buy another full-size vehicle again but here we are. What you see is my humble 1964 Ford Galaxie 2dr hardtop (fastback). Originally equipped with a 289 and a 3-speed column-shifted transmission this rig was destined to cruise. I bought the car from an older guy who had it parked in his yard with a for sale sign on it in late 2021. No marketplace or Craigslist. Here it is the day I bought it. It drove all the way from Brookhaven to the shop middle GA. I was still living in Roswell at the time and would take it out on the occasional Sunday cruise. Thing was a hit with the older folks in town.
The photo above makes it look really nice but is kinda deceiving. It was a pretty solid car but needed floor pans upon initial inspection. It was also missing carpets, headliner was in tatters, and there was some bad rust in the deck lid seal channel (very common). I drove it down to the shop and immediately dug into rust repair.
There were a couple of pinholes that I could see around the rear glass. No worries, I'll just zap them real quick and good as new! Shoulda seen that coming.
Once the rear glass busted I got pi**ed off and just left it in the field for a long long loooong time. Basically built the entire F250 in my signature during my hate break from the car but now that the truck is running and driving... I just might give the boat the second life it so deserves.
So five years (ish) have passed from the point of purchase to now but I'm getting there. Couple weekends ago I decided it was time to strip the car down to the bare shell.
I finally found a good use for the free Mercedes wagon that's stuck in 2nd gear, too. Pretty luxurious for a storage unit.
The most pressing issue was the deck filler panel. The photo below makes it look worse than it was since the spot welds are already drilled out, but the upper channel for the trunk seal was toast. lower window channel was also pretty pieced up.
Much hammer and chisel later, behold:
Everything was wire wheeled and sprayed down with phosphoric acid to stop any rust and then hit with a red oxide primer which I didn't take a photo of. No joke there are probably 60 spot welds on this panel, my drill bits weren't happy about it.
We are quickly catching up to today's progress. Primed the trunk lid and fenders since they were easy to pull off and didn't really need any work.
New deck filler panel zapped into place, welds mostly dressed. There is obviously some filler work that has to happen - this seam was originally leaded which I melted out. The lead is fine but just like modern filler it's prone to rusting underneath. The leadwork was also pretty shoddy on the driver's side from factory.
Can't see it in the below, but I also cut out the driver lower corner of the window channel and replaced it with fresh metal/blended it all in so all it needs is primer and no filler. That's the section 23 year old me thought he could just fill in with the wire welder five years ago which caused the window to bust.
Went ahead and checked the fitment of the trunk lid against the new filler panel - gaps aren't perfect but are workable without more welding.
Decided my next move will be handling the firewall/engine bay area. That whole area is going to go back to the original satin black. Went ahead and pulled the engine out. Not sure what engine will go back in at the moment. We have a stock 302 and we also have a very rowdy 410 with o-ringed heads, 11:1 compression, the whole 9. Honestly may go with the 302 for now as I don't feel like a high strung smallblock is the recipe for this car. A 427 FE was mentioned in the truck build thread but unless someone is taking up donations I don't think that's in the cards. Also yes, my brother and I bent the bumper trying to pull start it with a fourwheeler lol.
went to town on this thing with the pressure washer and degreaser this weekend. since this car is in pretty good condition and i'd like to drive it this decade, i won't be subjecting myself to every nut and bolt.
then i hooked up the sand blaster since so much of the surface area is irregular and not really doable with a grinder/strip disc
i've mentioned it before, but the $30 sand blaster attachment for a pressure washer works pretty ok considering the cost of real sand blasting equipment. the results aren't bad albeit more akin to vapor honing than sand blasting. the only real downside is that the panels will tend to flash rust, but you should really be hitting everything with a scuff pad before painting anyhow.
and viola, 2k gloss black. came out pretty well aside from some loose blasting media that got into the paint in a couple of places. it's good enough for who it's for. i'm not after a perfect restoration with this project, just something i can get done within a year or two of free weekends. not pictured, but i did blast and paint the frame rails about halfway back. the back half of the car will be done later. probably.
got a little more primer on the galaxie this weekend. finished body working the quarter seams, cleaned up the underside of the hood where the old liner was glued in. spent most of the weekend cleaning up downed trees after the storms that came through georgia but happy with the progress i made!
another pretty big weekend for the yacht. loads of sanding. i’m definitely over the heat - my 4th of july is gonna be indoors i think. 80 grit on the DA to do the heavy lifting in preparation for the first coat of primer plus a little bit of glazing putty:
and then guide coat + blocked the entire thing with 180. uncovered a couple of dings i didn't notice with the first coat of primer. fortunately i think the next coat of epoxy will solve remaining issues. i went around and marked any questionable low spots with tape so i know where to focus. i would have liked to get another coat of primer on it but the heat really took the wind out of my sails. coming right along though!
my dad and i are also talking about working out a trade for a drivetrain. his mustang has a pretty sweet 408w with a forged rotating assembly, o-ringed block and heads, and tko 5-speed that’s just too much for that car. i might build him a 331ish cid in exchange for this setup. tbd though. here’s the mustang in question:
Love it, Nice work. I hate rust repair but this car is worth it. I was going to say that some Mustang guy might like that 289 and the parts like the generator but I see you are familiar with early Stangs so you already know.
