Dad's 62 Ford Galaxie

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Dad's got all four power windows working at this point. I'm a little behind on updates. Here goes....

I was over at his house the Saturday before last (3/5) helping him with some small wiring details. By then, he had the harness from the driver's door pulled across under the dash and hooked up. He had to pull the cluster, the glove box and the dash speaker and grill to get this done....
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By the time I left, the three power windows that were in were working only when the key was in the "RUN" or "ACC" position and the few minor wiring repairs he needed help with were done. He still had some details to finish up on the driver's side like connecting the left front glass to the power regulator and installing the upper and lower stops. While he had them out, he cleaned the stops up, painted them and plasti-dipped them to get them to, I would say, better than original condition.....
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Here he has the left front window buttoned up....

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And here, the window is down and he's installed the door panel light....


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From there, he moved on to cleaning up lubing the right front regulator and motor....

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Rinse and repeat. Window propped up and manual regulator removed....

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Hole in the leading edge of the door for the wiring enlarged.....

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Wiring pulled through and the wiring shield reinstalled....

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Power regulator in....

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He said he did the right front in one day. He has lots of detail stuff to button up. He sent the clock off to be refurbished (again) and he's waiting to get it back before he goes back in with the cluster. In the meantime he'll finalize the adjustments and be working on finishing up the replacement of the carpet on the door panels and getting them back on.

It's pretty cool that 40 years after this system was removed from a car in the junk yard that it is back in a car and functional. It's pretty cool that the car has power windows and Dad did a really nice job putting them in. It's pretty close to how the factory did it.

That's it for now friends. I'll update when he gets a little further along on buttoning everything up. Until then, thanks for the interest and the feedback.
 
Last week, Dad got the clock back in the cluster and got the cluster back in the car. He picked up Sean and I in the Galaxie Saturday morning and took us to breakfast. All four windows are power, are adjusted and are functional. They are fast and smooth. The lockout switch on the console master switch locks out the rear switches. It functions as designed. Dad wants to fine tune the adjustment of the vent window assemblies to work on a little wind noise and that could require a few more minor window adjustments but after that, he'll be ready to put the door panels back on. No progress to report on those. He still has to finish replacing the carpet on the rears. On the fronts, he has to replace the carpet and do something about the hole where the window crank was. On the rears, the switch goes there but on the front, there are no door switches. Instead, there is a master switch in the console. I don't think it's been a year yet since he bought the power window system for the car and it's in and working. I need to take a video of the windows for you guys. Those big motors move that glass fast! Sorry no pictures on this update. Dad sent me a few when he got the clock reinstalled and got the cluster back in but I accidentally deleted them. I wanted to go ahead and get the update done. That's it for now friends.

Edit: I'm a dum-dum. I did have the pics.

Clock back in the cluster from the back....

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Clock back in from the front....

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Cluster back in....

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I'm behind on posting updates on pretty much all of my threads. Time to catch this one up!

Dad is nearing completion on the power window project. All four windows work flawlessly and Dad is done with the window adjustments. He's been working on re-doing the door panels. Part of the reason for doing this is to replace the carpet that was on them, that didn't match the carpet on the floor of the car. Dad took it a step further and ended up building all new door panels. Here's the story in pictures.....

Here you can see the old door panel is in bad shape where the clips go. These panels were built in the early to mid 90's. Dad's fixed them a few times but the base material left much to be desired....

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Here, Dad is bending the pins to remove the chrome trim....

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Here the chrome trim is off and you can see the carpet, more suited to one of our cars, that is going to be replaced. The carpet used on the door panels is the cut pile type whereas the carpet in the car, and what belongs on the door panels, is the loop pile type....

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Carpet off....

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Vinyl upholstery off....

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Laying out the pattern for the new panel....

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Cut out....

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Clips installed....

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Test installed on the door....

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To be continued--->
 
Back together with the new carpet....

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It took some trial and error for Dad to get this far. Note how he had the new carpet bound along the edge. He had previously had my neighbor, who is quite a seamstress bind the edge with vinyl, similar to how it was previously done but that didn't work out. It wouldn't lay down on the panel like Dad wanted it to. Dad also accidentally cut two Driver's side front carpet pieces and had to get more material, which was an adventure. He has all four panels rebuilt at this time....

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And as of yesterday, he had both of the front panels installed....

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This morning, he brought the car over and I helped him get the back seat bottom pulled loose up off of the hooks that hold it down. When he left here he was planning on installing the rear panels. He said the car was much quieter with just the front panels so I'm really looking forward to riding in it with the rears installed. I got to see the front panels in person this morning and let me tell you, he's done a beautiful job. The rebuilt panels are so much nicer than what he had and the new carpet on the door panels is a dead match. Nice work Dad!

That's it for now friends. I'll follow up when Dad has the rears buttoned up. Thanks for following along.
 
I'm behind on posting up the progress again. Dad has the car all back together now. When I last posted he still needed to finish up the rear panels and install them. Here it is all done....

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Power window project complete. It's been less than a year since he got the system. Pretty impressive, in my book, considering he had to pull the entire interior out of the car. The power windows are very cool. I don't think there are many 1960-1964 Galaxie's out there with power windows. Congratulations Dad. You did a beautiful job.

I think having the headliner replaced is next on his agenda. He had a new headliner installed but it was a total butcher job. He has another new headliner and he just got a new rear window gasket. He thinks he's found the right guy to do the work. I'll update when something happens. I've got maintenance on my mind. It's time to drain and refill the cooling system, change the oil, change the fluid in the GearVendors and flush the brakes.

That's it for now friends. Thanks for following along.
 
Sean and I went to Dad's this morning. We drained and refilled the cooling system. We drained both sides of the block and the radiator. It's a 20 quart system and we got nearly 4 gallons of new mix in it. What came out looked great after 4 years. I can't believe it's been 4 years since we finished the GearVendors install, resealed the intake, etc. I'm sold on the yellow long life coolant. Dad said he thought it looked a bit more orange than what went in. My guess is it had a little Dexcool in it. I don't remember draining the block when the intake was off four years ago.

We also changed the oil today. Dad says it's been a year and a half. We had that Penn Grade 30W in it and that's what we put back in it. I'm sold on that stuff too. You wouldn't believe how much quieter the valve train is with that oil compared to the Summit 30W break in oil we had in it before. Cold idle, the oil pressure gage shows 80 PSI.

It was a good morning. We're planning to go back soon and flush the brakes and service the GearVendors. Because pics, or it didn't happen, here is a pic of my enormous carcass under the front of Black Beauty.....

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Sean, Dad and I go out for breakfast on Saturday. We've been doing this for 15 or more years. Now days, if the weather is decent, Dad picks up Sean and I in the Galaxie. I snapped this pic from the back seat. I thought it was a good one so I wanted to post it.
 
I went to Dad's last Saturday (8/20) to service the GearVendor's Overdrive. Dad and my Step-mom are driving the car to my Step-mom's family reunion in Mineral Wells next month. We were supposed to service the GearVendors after the first 500 miles. This has long been on my mind. I was sure we were behind but it turned out we were about 750 miles past the 500 mile mark. The round trip to Mineral Wells should be around 600 miles so I wanted to be sure we got this done before it. Thankfully, the fluid looked fine and there really wasn't much on the magnet. I cleaned the magnet and the filter screen, put it back together and filled it with nearly a quart of fresh Dexron III.

Here's a look at the bottom of the GearVendors unit with the cast "pan" and filter screen removed....

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And a look at the "pan" and the filter screen off of the unit....

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Here's an old pic from when we were installing the GearVendors. In it, you can see the 'pan' installed on the unit and can see the bracket I made to guide the E-brake linkage and keep the equalizer from rubbing the 'pan'......

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Not a big project but took a few hours. I'm glad to have it done. At this point the oil and oil filter, the coolant, and the fluid in the GearVendors have been changed. It should be good to go for the trip. I talked Dad into buying a Weathertech (Made in USA) rubber trunk mat (to keep stuff from sliding around) and a small 2-ton trolley jack in a blown plastic case for the trip. They should be in good shape. After they get back, I want to get with Dad and flush the brakes and then we'll be caught up on the routine maintenance. Then there are several projects lined up after that. There just isn't enough hours in the day or more importantly, days on the weekend but time spent with Dad working on the Galaxie is time well spent. That's it for now friends. Thanks for following along.
 
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