Dad's been working on the car all week. Unfortunately he hasn't taken any pics, save one, so this will have to do.....
Dad's 62 Ford Galaxie
- Thread starter Texas82GP
- Start date
Car is beautiful!!!! It's come a long way even from when I got to see it in person! Tell him I dig it! Also MAGA
I have a few more blast from the past pics for you guys. Here's another look at the station wagon parts car.....
And here's a shot of the Galaxie right after Dad shot it with the yellow epoxy. I'm guessing it was about 1994-1995....
And here's a shot of the Galaxie right after Dad shot it with the yellow epoxy. I'm guessing it was about 1994-1995....
the ol' girl is looking gorgeous! from it's history to now is just a testament to how much your dad loves this car, and how much you and your brother care about your dad and spending the time together doing something you all enjoy and bond over. if your GP turns out even half as good as the camaro and galaxie, it'll be one of the top cars on the site! happy that all the hard work is showing in the car!
if my kids and crew can do what you guys did I'd be buying basket cases too to let them turn it into the dream car I wanted....
The car looks awesome, Jared. Thanks for sharing the pics.
Man, having all the trim on makes a world of difference. Just beautiful. Seeing all those years of hard work finally coming to fruition. Wow!!
Man, having all the trim on makes a world of difference. Just beautiful. Seeing all those years of hard work finally coming to fruition. Wow!!
I haven't done a good job of helping dad finish his car. I'm not happy about that. It's mostly been circumstance though. I sought to rectify that some and spent most of Saturday with him.
The project, charging the air conditioning system.....
The system had been down since sometime in late 2017 or early 2018 when Dad had to pull the Heater/Evaporator case from under the dash to replace the heater core and heater control valve (documented earlier in this thread). I helped him put the case back in back in 2018 when I spent so much time with him working on the car. I pulled a vacuum on the system back then but we never charged it as we planned to lenthen the low side hose between the compressor and the expansion valve. The way it was clocked, it was laying on the Driver's side valve cover, which didn't look right and made pulling the valve cover difficult.
We didn't think we could re-clock the hose without lengthening it. Doing so was planned but we never got around to it and the car went out to paint and was gone for a year.
Dad doesn't like driving around with the window down. He wears his hair long but doesn't glue it down to the point of helmet-head like I do. He pretty much prefers to run the A/C year round. He hasn't really been able to enjoy the car since getting it back from paint since the A/C wasn't charged and we've been in the teeth of our summer here.
Sean and I went over to Dad's Saturday morning after the three of us had done our ritual Saturday morning out for breakfast. I started by checking if the system was still holding vacuum. I was pleased to find it was. Next I broke the low side hose loose at the compressor. We had the replacement hose material, a pack of crimp ferrules and the Mastercool manual crimping tool on hand. For grins, I tried to reclock the hose on the car and to my surprise and delight, it was long enough after all. Then I put the vacuum pump on it and pulled a vacuum for an hour. It pulled better than 30" Hg according to the gauge set.
Dad had six cans of R-12 on hand. We've bought it as the opportunities have come along. When it came time to start charging, Dad produced an anchient can tap and hose from his tool box. The rubber at the piercing valve was rock hard and I was worried about wasting a can of precious R-12. I ended up going to the local NAPA and buying a side can tap that works on R-12 or R-134A. I really like it.
I connected the first can and had Dad crank up the car and get the York compressor pumping. After two cans, the low side line had sweated back to the compressor. It was really humid here and the sweat from the evaporator drain was running out of the garage. Initially we just let the car idle but the factory shop manual called for 1500 RPM. By then the 390 was slightly above 195°. We started out with the big fan behind the car pushing the exhaust out of the garage. We had the side door to the back yard closed to keep their dog in the back yard. At that point I put the dog in the house, opened the side door and moved the big fan in front of the car blowing through the grill.
Dad took up station in the car and held the 390 at 1500 RPM. As I was putting in the 3rd can, the car was already blowing 40° out the vents, with the Driver's side door wide open! The under dash air front with the vents was pouring sweat. By the time I had 2-3/4 cans in the system, the sight glass on the high side hose had completely cleared. The shop manual called for 2-1/2 pounds. I stopped at three 12 ounce cans, or 2-1/4 pounds. Based on its behavior, neither dad nor I saw the merit of opening another 12 ounce can to put only four more ounces of refrigerant in the system.
It went really well. It was one of those great car days. Dad was thrilled.
We did notice the A/C belt jumping a bit and we're out of adjustment at the compressor. We ordered a mathing, old stock Gates green stripe belt an inch shorter. That was my best guess. We went with old stock to match the rest of the belts on the car and since I've seen it mentioned on here that the v-belts available these days are bad about stretching and require re-rightening several times. We'll see how that goes.
Sean and Dad went out for a spin and saw 38° on the thermometer so I'm calling the charge good. More to come....
The project, charging the air conditioning system.....
The system had been down since sometime in late 2017 or early 2018 when Dad had to pull the Heater/Evaporator case from under the dash to replace the heater core and heater control valve (documented earlier in this thread). I helped him put the case back in back in 2018 when I spent so much time with him working on the car. I pulled a vacuum on the system back then but we never charged it as we planned to lenthen the low side hose between the compressor and the expansion valve. The way it was clocked, it was laying on the Driver's side valve cover, which didn't look right and made pulling the valve cover difficult.
We didn't think we could re-clock the hose without lengthening it. Doing so was planned but we never got around to it and the car went out to paint and was gone for a year.
Dad doesn't like driving around with the window down. He wears his hair long but doesn't glue it down to the point of helmet-head like I do. He pretty much prefers to run the A/C year round. He hasn't really been able to enjoy the car since getting it back from paint since the A/C wasn't charged and we've been in the teeth of our summer here.
Sean and I went over to Dad's Saturday morning after the three of us had done our ritual Saturday morning out for breakfast. I started by checking if the system was still holding vacuum. I was pleased to find it was. Next I broke the low side hose loose at the compressor. We had the replacement hose material, a pack of crimp ferrules and the Mastercool manual crimping tool on hand. For grins, I tried to reclock the hose on the car and to my surprise and delight, it was long enough after all. Then I put the vacuum pump on it and pulled a vacuum for an hour. It pulled better than 30" Hg according to the gauge set.
Dad had six cans of R-12 on hand. We've bought it as the opportunities have come along. When it came time to start charging, Dad produced an anchient can tap and hose from his tool box. The rubber at the piercing valve was rock hard and I was worried about wasting a can of precious R-12. I ended up going to the local NAPA and buying a side can tap that works on R-12 or R-134A. I really like it.
I connected the first can and had Dad crank up the car and get the York compressor pumping. After two cans, the low side line had sweated back to the compressor. It was really humid here and the sweat from the evaporator drain was running out of the garage. Initially we just let the car idle but the factory shop manual called for 1500 RPM. By then the 390 was slightly above 195°. We started out with the big fan behind the car pushing the exhaust out of the garage. We had the side door to the back yard closed to keep their dog in the back yard. At that point I put the dog in the house, opened the side door and moved the big fan in front of the car blowing through the grill.
Dad took up station in the car and held the 390 at 1500 RPM. As I was putting in the 3rd can, the car was already blowing 40° out the vents, with the Driver's side door wide open! The under dash air front with the vents was pouring sweat. By the time I had 2-3/4 cans in the system, the sight glass on the high side hose had completely cleared. The shop manual called for 2-1/2 pounds. I stopped at three 12 ounce cans, or 2-1/4 pounds. Based on its behavior, neither dad nor I saw the merit of opening another 12 ounce can to put only four more ounces of refrigerant in the system.
It went really well. It was one of those great car days. Dad was thrilled.
We did notice the A/C belt jumping a bit and we're out of adjustment at the compressor. We ordered a mathing, old stock Gates green stripe belt an inch shorter. That was my best guess. We went with old stock to match the rest of the belts on the car and since I've seen it mentioned on here that the v-belts available these days are bad about stretching and require re-rightening several times. We'll see how that goes.
Sean and Dad went out for a spin and saw 38° on the thermometer so I'm calling the charge good. More to come....
