Dad's 62 Ford Galaxie

[Texas82GP]

Jared,
Dad did what he had to do. I was kind of cringing reading through the process. But sometimes you have to grab the bull by the horns and go for it. It was necessary and he wasn't quite satisfied being unable to reinstall the gutter trim. I think something like that would gnaw at me as well.
I'm glad to hear that it was a successful endeavor.

Thanks Jack. Yeah, Sean and I were cringing too bud Dad pulled it off. I think gnawing at him is a good way to say it. I'm proud of him. He was patient and got through the tough times and got it done.

Dad sent a few more pictures last night......

Looks pretty awesome from here!

 

[Longroof79]

I always enjoy seeing the progress going forward on the old Galaxy. What a cool car. I enjoy seeing old cars brought back to life that would've otherwise been lost forever. I commend you, your dad, and Sean on a job well done and of course your dad's perseverance. Kudos to you guys.

 

[Zeus785]

It is very nice to see family pulling together for a common goal. Awesome car looking great!!!!!

 

[Texas82GP]

I always enjoy seeing the progress going forward on the old Galaxy. What a cool car. I enjoy seeing old cars brought back to life that would've otherwise been lost forever. I commend you, your dad, and Sean on a job well done and of course your dad's perseverance. Kudos to you guys.

It is very nice to see family pulling together for a common goal. Awesome car looking great!!!!!

Thank you both for the kind words. They are appreciated. Here are a few pics of the car out in the sun with the gutter trim installed......

 

[Max Headroom]

That swiss cheese pulling your dad did came out pretty well and is a whole lot better than slapping in a whole can of filler. I was raised in Stamford, Ct. and that year model was more popular in town than the 65. When I was in high school (Jesus and I used to skip school together), there were four of the 62s with different engine builds. I always liked that body style in a lighter color. I think it shows the rounded body lines to much better advantage. Anyway, it is an awesome ride and it's base that the same car has been in your family for so long.

I just saw the finished pics and have to admit the darker color doesn't take anything away from how it looks!!!

 

[86LK]

Thank you both for the kind words. They are appreciated. Here are a few pics of the car out in the sun with the gutter trim installed......

if Dad ever wants to help out on another project (aka, "my buddy does all the work"), he can come by my place and work on the 67 Impala convertible. got all the parts and everything.....

 

[Texas82GP]

A few Saturdays back, Sean got the Camaro out and Dad had the Galaxie out as usual for the ride to breakfast. I got to ride in both the same morning. It was a good day. I got some good pictures.....

Dad had cleaned up and detailed the wheels the week before and it really shows in those pictures.

After breakfast, we did some measuring of the operating angles of the universal joints...

So we have about a 0.5° operating angle at the back and about a 4° operating angle at the front. We were considering putting in 2° leaf spring shims to bring the pinion closer to parallel with the output shaft but that would increase the operating angle at the front joint to somewhere close to 6°. To remind everyone, the powerteam was dropped substantially at the transmission mount to fit the GearVendors Overdrive unit in the tunnel without substantial tunnel mods. The car doesn't vibrate at any speed but we were looking at the driveline angles because the clutch has a tendency to chatter/shudder in reverse. To optimize the driveline angles, the powerteam really needs to come back up at the transmission mount but that would require removing most of the interior and performing surgery on the tunnel. It can be done but will be a huge project.

A year or two back Dad got some Traction Master traction bars from his wife for Christmas.....

We decided to move forward with installing these and see if they helped with the clutch in reverse or not. Last weekend I went to Dad's and we got the car back up on ramps and installed the bars at the rear. We cleaned up the welding surfaces at the front mounts and got them clamped up....

initially, the plan was for me to do the welding at the front but that was going to take some time as I was going to want to get some material to practice on and I was going to need to practice. Also, our 110V welder was marginal for this job since the steel on the car is 5/16" and the steel on the traction bar brackets is 11/32". I figured we could chamfer and pre-heat and get by but in the interest of just getting it done, we got a professional welder out there today. It worked out great. The guy is a life long friend of a friend of mine. He's a car guy and is a welder by trade. He welds pipeline casing for a living. He showed up with his truck with his welding rig on it at Dad's and knocked it out. He stick welded it. I assure you, it's not about to fall off......

Dad is going to clean up the area and touch up the paint and then he'll get the car down on off the ramps. Then we'll see how the car is with the bars and take it from there. I guess that's it for now friends.

 

[Texas82GP]

Dad finished up the Traction Master install last week by cleaning up the welds and touching up the paint. He did his usual detail oriented awesome job. First, excellent prep.....

Paint....

Untape.....

Back on the ground. Project complete.....

Now for the best part. The traction bars eliminated the clutch chatter! I can't explain it. The rear springs were re-bushed when the car was built. The car has Station-Wagon five leaf springs on the rear (regular passenger cars had three-leaf springs). I don't how there is really any slop back there but the undeniable truth is the rear axle was twisting at least some when the load was put to it. Dad said clutch chatter was a characteristic of these cars back in the day (I can't say new, he was driving these in the mid to late 60's). These cars have a reputation for bad wheel hop and these bars have a reputation for eliminating it. We took the car to breakfast yesterday and the bars transformed the car from the perspective of clutch chatter. They didn't seem to add any harshness that I could detect. Dad got hard on the gas and let the 390 eat. There was no vibration like before. It's a big win! We didn't think we'd be able to see the bars once the car was on the ground but it turns out, if you aren't up on top of it, you can and they look cool. I guess that's it for now friends. Thanks for following along.

 

[Longroof79]

Another job well done. Traction bars definitely served a purpose back in the day.

 

[64nailhead]

I’ve never dealt with leaf springs in a car (thank god), but have watched enough videos to know what is occurring.

Anything to eliminate the axle wrap. Glad they worked well, and I’ll keep this in my pea brain - that looks like a relatively straight forward install.