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Finishing the Galaxie - A Way Over Due Production

22K views 224 replies 46 participants last post by  AlBeezy36 
#1 ·


Intro:

So I've wanted to do this for quite some time, and I figure now is a good a time as ever. I've started working on the car again, I've been taking pics as I go, I love reading other people's builds, so why not share mine. Please step in and correct, comment, berate, or encourage whenever you want. If there is enough attention, I'll continue to post and it should be fun. I can use all the motivation I can get! :beer:

The car is a 1964 Ford Galaxie 2 door hardtop. Some people call it a fastback, but I think hardtop is more correct. There are no B-pillars which makes for extra awesome windows down action. It is a 500XL trim package car which means bucket seats, center console with floor shift, and some upgraded exterior trim pieces mostly. It was originally equipped with a 390FE rated at ~320bhp and a Cruise-o-matic trans. This is essentially a Ford-o-matic, or an FMX - it's a 3 speed auto that starts off in 2nd I think if it is not put into low. The engines technically aren't big blocks and not small blocks. The FE's are in a category of their own and I've even heard them called midland. All in all it's not a muscle car per se, but it is a big cruiser with a big motor, and I think they look damn good.

These cars are body on frame construction with upper and lower control arms, coil springs in front, and leaf springs in the back on a solid 9" axle. Steering is power assisted parallelogram with an idler and pitman arm. They might as well be trucks. The power assist is wayyy over the top and you can essentially drive the car with one finger. Pretty scary at speed. Brakes are manual 11" drums all the way around, but I've upgraded to a 11" 4 piston discs up front with a dual pot master. OE is a single pot death trap.

More backstory:

Bought the car when I was 19. I'm 32 now, so I've had this thing for too long to not have finished it yet. I was in trade school at the time studying autobody collision. The car was sitting in a garage in West Seattle and I had it towed the .5 mile back to South Seattle Com. College were I was taking classes. While in trade school, I took the body off the frame, blasted the body, painted and rebuilt the frame, and then proceeded to refinish and reassemble the body panels. That's where it sat for the next year or so until I was ready to go off to college.

It is my 2nd '64 Galaxie, with the first being a 4 door hardtop that I painted and threw a rebuilt 352FE motor/ CoM trans in for my senior project. Not sure how I got away with that but I must've had some cool teachers :)

Here is the '64 Galaxie from the HS days:



I sold it to a guy in the Ballard area when I was 18 and I think he still may own it.

OK, on to the progress. Pictures will be of varying quality. I don't have a nice camera, so bear with me. Some will be digicam, some will be potato. The white balance will be off on all of them.

During Trade School:

These pictures were taken on a disposable, printed, and scanned, so I apologize for the quality. It was roughly 2002 at the time and digicams were still too expensive for a 19 year old ;)



Body just off the frame - on cloud nine as I was actually beginning my first real project. My instructor's Dakota R/T when it was brand new and kind of a hot truck.



Shot of me spraying the roof. I'm shooting my SATA gun that I worked all summer for.



A shot of the frame after painting with POR-15, replacing all wear items including springs, and upgrading to front discs.



Pic of the car outside the booth rolling around on the body cart that some really cool guys in class helped me build.

It took me roughly 8 months doing this by myself. Taking the car apart completely, and getting it put back together to a painted, but gutted rolling chassis. I took autobody from 7am-12pm every day, went to class till about 2pm, then came back after normal classes and worked on the car for another 2 hrs almost every day to get it done in time (before graduating). I was learning how to do autobody at the time so things moved a little slow.

OK, so at this point we're going to fast forward about 12 years. I have tons of pics from the body restoration if people are interested in that stuff, including some patch panel work, but they'll need to be dug up and scanned in as they're all in a photo album - yes a physical photo album.

So once I was done with A/B school I went on to finish a General AA, which took about another year. The car sat outside under a car cover until I was ready to ship off to a university. Luckily, once there I had a garage to store and work on the car in. During this time I rushed the car together. I wasn't totally sure what the end goal of the car was, and what style I was trying to achieve. I thought about drag car with black steels on the back and torque thrusts or cragars on the front, but I couldn't really nail anything down. I was on an extremely tight budget being a student, and I didn't really have too much knowledge on the mechanical side of things. I put it together the best I could and got it running for a few years. The interior was never done, and frankly, just about everything I did in my college years was done pretty subpar compared to the time and effort that went into the body. It was time to go back and do things correctly...



Stay tuned!
 
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#82 ·
I think you're making this overly complicated. It sounds like you have fuel getting past the check valve in the fuel pump if it drains back. Short of rebuilding, there are two approaches. First is to simply install a check valve in the flexible line leading to the tank. That's the least expensive route. You just need to know the fuel line size. The second approach would be to install a low-pressure in-line pump with a filter. If your regular fuel pump is working, but just not holding the gas in the line there's absolutely no reason for the electric pump to be on at all while the engine is running. I simply use a momentary-contact single-pole push-button 12-volt rated switch. That way your car never has the pump on, except for starting. All of my cars, and the cars that I build for others, are set up that way. Some have had me use toggles, but I prefer pushbuttons. Old-time starter buttons work great and are available from most restoration suppliers.
 
#83 ·
I'll let the experts in relays and whatnot figure out the best way to time/sense the electric pump, but I question the mechanical fuel pump if it's that hard after a week. It sounds like you're either leaking back through the pump and the fuel in the pump/carb is going back to the gas tank or you're leaking through the diaphragm and the gas is getting into the oil.

Does this fuel pump come apart or is it crimped together? I fully rebuilt mine when it started giving trouble (parts are available to rebuild them) and it performs much better, though I still question the check valve in mine, and now yours. If you can't rebuild or at least dismantle and inspect it perhaps a simple check valve run in-line would cure your ills? It might be worth a shot.

If we were talking about a month I wouldn't sweat it, but a week seems too short. Also, is there a hint of gasoline smell in the oil? You might not smell it on the dipstick, but check it the next time you change oil. :beer:
 
#86 ·
If we were talking about a month I wouldn't sweat it, but a week seems too short. Also, is there a hint of gasoline smell in the oil? You might not smell it on the dipstick, but check it the next time you change oil. :beer:
I hadn't thought of that, but that much fuel would end up showing on the dipstick over time.

Many people think they fuel in the bowl evaporates, but that takes an incredibly long time. Typically, what happens on some carbs is that the float keeps the needle-valve closed. The seal is not perfect, so if enough fuel is lost in the bowl the float drops as if it's asking for fuel so the bowl gets emptied down to the level of the needle valve seat. The reason you have trouble starting the car is more that you have no fuel to give it the initial push of fuel needed to start the car. If there's no gas in the bowl you'll just run your battery down.
 
#88 ·
Good advice everyone. Thank you!

I do get a small bit of gas smell in the oil, A&W. Not sure what a normal/discrepant amount is though, so I think I've always chalked it up to 'this is what carbed cars do'.

Is a slight gas smell in your oil normal? It's certainly not overwhelming.

Sounds like my to-do list should be:

1) Rebuild pump (I believe it's 15 years old with minimal usage)
2) Re-diagnose, and install check valve as needed
3) Install inline pump to help prime after above is done and problem persists.
 
#111 ·
I'll be ordering a full carb rebuilt kit today. After further review last night, the carb to spacer nor spacer to manifold gasket are leaking, but just about every other interface in the carb assy is. I took some pictures to show you guys, but photobucket was misbehaving last night. I'll try again tonight.
 
#116 ·
**** I skipped a bunch:

I brought my SATA NR2000 out a 15 year retirement with a $150 rebuild kit. I used a 2 dollar nylon washer and guess I'll just have a spray gun that will last me for the rest of my life now. All good, because it's awesome. Even at 15 years old.




Euro clear and shed kill rooms :thumbup:





I even used that German rattle can epoxy primer which has the hardener in the bottom. Give it the legit 4 minutes shaking and it's pretty damn good. Ends up very hard as you'd expect with an epoxy. So far :thumbup::thumbup: For a small part why not.



Apparently no pics of painted part :banghead::(

It turned out great despite the environment and my rustiness. Seriously, couldn't be more pleased.

Reproduction front bumper. It'll work. I have the original still and local shop wants $850 to replate it.








Check out that corrosion. Pretty sure it's dissimilar metals and grounding through the bumper bolts. I also noticed some drainage problems when I took a close look. I added a weep hole in each to try to keep it down in the future.



Added actual ground to each this time. Just a small homemade wire and a pull rivet. Put in with dielectric grease all over.









There's a painted part pic. Color is very slightly off. You can see 1/4 of the part with the bumper covering it.




I trimmed the hood after painting it back in the day. It took me 15 years to touch it up.



Sorry that's my best artistic over engine shot.

:beer:
 
#129 ·
Welp, you certainly got a better quality unit. Didn't even think to check out Russell. Mine are just barbed or nipple connections. I just searched around for 3/8 fuel check valve. I'll see how the Dorman unit holds up. Easy enough to swap out if it fails.
 
#130 ·
A few different things after looking through the replies from today.

First, quote from comp cams website on the XE274H

http://www.compcams.com/v002/Pages/389/XE274H-10.aspx
Manifold Vacuum: 11" Hg @ 800 RPM & 14" Hg @ 1000 RPM w/ no load.

Getting decent vacuum booster operation with that is going to be tough, can always try and switch over to a dual diaphragm booster which would help a little, but you're probably going to want to go in a different direction.

The electric pump brake booster set up is one I put into a 1947 Cadillac we built at work, and (it's not the manufacturer shown earlier) once we got a set up that didn't leak from the pump/accumulator block, the thing is wonderful. It's fairy quiet and unobtrusive in it's operation. Traditional hydroboost tied into the power steering tends to be noisier and causes affects idle RPM depending on how hard you press on the brake which I find distasteful on a carburetor fed engine.

Lastly, I just finished installing an FiTech 400hp setup on a 429 powered Mercury today, and I have to say that I am impressed. I know it's already been shot down as an option, but that is a seriously nice piece of equipment for the price.
 
#131 ·
Comp Cams came back and said expect 9-11 inches. I don't think it's going to be possible to turn 12.5Hg into 15Hg with this carb rebuild, but we'll see.

A few different things after looking through the replies from today.
Thanks for all that info, Nash. It's great to see one person who has experience with each of the options like that. You and Patrick have kind of leaned me towards the electric booster option. It's more expensive but cleaner overall, and the capacitor deal - it provides 10-15 full power stops even with the engine off. The other options leave you back with manual breaks. There's more than that, but that's cool and would be great in an emergency situation in this hog. I'd be dead (inside and out) if I stuff this thing. Hydroboost was next closest, but I don't like the reports of sensitivity, noise, pulsing, and that clutter.. Lots of junkyard options out there too for cheap.

Parts came in the mail:

Fender birdies in correct(incorrect) flavor


I bought some of these inner fender aprons to cut down into control arm covers. Not sure how I feel about them yet.




Found a NOS passenger side headlight trim piece and got my carb rebuild and check valve in.



Spending the day at home today, so I'll see if I can get a few things done ;)
 
#133 ·
:)

I got the carb rebuild done. Pretty easy.

Ready for its bath.



Good wipe down of exterior before tear down.






Couple hours later and it's ready to roll.

Look what I did..



Hope that came out the other side OK :laugh:



I took the opportunity to scrub down the intake and get a correct open gasket for the bottom. It's all buttoned up but I've run out of gas. That was a head scratcher for a second there. Perfect opportunity to stop. I'll hit it again later this week :wave:
 
#135 ·
I've done many motorcycle carb rebuilds. Best thing to do to make it easy on yourself is have a clean, well lit area to spread the parts out, take your time so you don't mar any screwheads or jets, if a screwdriver is too small, get the right size or just stop. You can really mess things up with a too-small screwdriver.

If parts are stuck, stop and look for a hidden screw, a locating pin may be gooped up and tight, or the gasket is holding things together. Gentle tapping with solid plastic (screwdriver handle, etc) will usually break things loose.

With complicated carbs, as you disassemble, look at the diagram to help relate the picture to reality.

OP, I like what you're doing, can't wait to see the result!
 
#140 ·
No new pics this morning, but engine runs again with rebuilt carb. Had another what-tha moment wondering why my bowls weren't filling, but turned out the float adjustment were set too high so the fuel level was above the sight glass. Luckily it started seeping out of the float valves so I caught it before flooding everything too badly. Quick adjustment later and I was on my way.

Engine runs better than ever. Adjusted both carb and timing using my ears and vacuum gage. Idles nicely at 750rpm pulling about 11-12Hg of vacuum. I turned the idle down hence the slightly lower vacuum reading. At closer to a 1000rpm I can pull 14-15Hg, but I'd prefer this thing to be more sedate on the street. I'm going to look into buying an ABS electric booster setup this week :thumbup:

Pat - regarding check valve. After rebuilding the carb, I got the car running, but didn't tune it. The next day I came downstairs to tune it, put key into on position, pumped pedal to floor once to reset choke, turned key with no throttle - BAM! Fired to life immediately. It has literally never done that. I figure that is a win for the hard starting check valve camp :)
 
#141 ·
Pat - regarding check valve. After rebuilding the carb, I got the car running, but didn't tune it. The next day I came downstairs to tune it, put key into on position, pumped pedal to floor once to reset choke, turned key with no throttle - BAM! Fired to life immediately. It has literally never done that. I figure that is a win for the hard starting check valve camp :)
Glad that worked out.:thumbup:
 
#144 ·
Thanks, dubdaze. Glad you're sticking around to see it get wrapped up :)

Patrick, I put my order in for the ABS Brake system. About 1300 shipped. Not thrilled on price, but excited to finally have some stop as powerful as the go.

I'll post some un-boxing and installation when it shows up.
 
#147 ·
i think your math checks out
but id back up a couple steps and say - does it matter that its not charging at idle?
if it starts to charge not too far off idle, and it sounds like it does, and youre not regularly in the habit of using this thing in the middle of a cold (heater fan) rainy (wipers) night (headlights) in stop and go traffic (@ idle) for hours on end, i dont know that id worry about it...
 
#154 ·
This is EXACTLY why I suggested the 3g conversion earlier in this thread to you. My fox did the same exact thing and when that old taurus fan kicked in she would almost turn the lights off it felt like haha. Granted now I moved to dual contour fans which pull less initial fireup juice but all the lights are bright and happy at idle at a light with the fan kicking. I tried all those other High power aftermarket alt. and never had luck with them. I know you want to keep it stock appearing but this is more of a safety update.
 
#155 ·
This is EXACTLY why I suggested the 3g conversion earlier in this thread to you. My fox did the same exact thing and when that old taurus fan kicked in she would almost turn the lights off it felt like haha. Granted now I moved to dual contour fans which pull less initial fireup juice but all the lights are bright and happy at idle at a light with the fan kicking. I tried all those other High power aftermarket alt. and never had luck with them. I know you want to keep it stock appearing but this is more of a safety update.
I didn't ignore ya. I did see that powermaster makes a 3g in small ford. I already had my setup complete and wasn't done troubleshooting it, that's all :)

Problem is, if we were to compare my alternator to powermaster's with the same pulley ratio, I believe I'd be in the same boat. Underdriven at idle. The powermaster benefits from its higher output, but it also comes with a 2.00 pulley, which would increase your at idle output. I've emailed back and forth with powermasters since your post trying to get one of their pulley's if it'll fit my .642 alternator shaft. So, thank you for the reminder. If not - as dumb as this sounds, I'm going to ask around about machining my pulley down or possibly reaming up the ID of a 2.00 pulley and bushing it to have a .642 ID. The only 2.00 pulleys I've found so far are around .669 ID.

I'll keep hunting. Now to find a machinist with some spare time on their hands :beer:
 
#149 ·
Well, if the bulbs are dim in the real world then perhaps LEDs would fix the symptom.

I've seen some hot rods that even had an alternator on the driveshaft, which obviously didn't charge unless the car was moving. While not ideal from a charging standpoint they did charge on a fundamental level.
 
#150 ·
The math is certainly right, but then you have to wonder if overdriving the alternator could do any damage. I could see slightly faster bearing wear and some additional heat as negatives. But with occasional use such as this car would see it should't really be an issue, just make sure your voltage regulator is doing its job.
 
#151 ·
This is what I'm thinking. It's tough to get a gauge of how fast you can spin an alternator, but I've seen numbers like 18,000 rpm max. You would obviously expect shorter bearing life, etc winding it out that far for extended periods of time like on the track or drag racing, but this is a street car. It'll put around town with the occasional WOT fun.

I plan on getting a 5250rpm (or close to) chip for my 6AL. If I get to a 3:1 ratio with a new pulley, it would mean the alt. would be spinning at 15,750rpm when I'm bouncing off my 6AL rev limiter. I generally grandma my stuff. If it ever does get wound out, it would be for seconds at a time. I think I'm gonna go for it :)

Voltage regulator is working good. Needle stops moving up at 14v.

EDIT: I guess the assumption I'm making is that nominal ratio is 3:1. If I get to 3:1 then my bearing life is nominal as well if that is typical from the factory. As-is at 2.36:1, my alternator will last till I'm eleventy-two.
 
#157 ·
Something to think about with the charging system is to make sure the alternator is grounding efficiently. Quick test have the car idling with the headlights on and take a jumper cable from the alternator case to the battery ground post (if it's under the hood) or on the battery ground where it comes off the engine block. You can get some weird voltage readings with some of the bracket set ups. Even the stuff that looks like just regular aluminum can have some clear coating on it that can insulate the alternator.
 
#158 ·
I've actually never had a 1-wire alternator, but I assume that's what you're talking about. One wire comes off to battery and ground is handled through the bolts and brackets..

Mine is externally regulated, so it has it's own separate ground wire to chassis. Your point is still valid and made me go back and double check my wire gages.

After reviewing, I'm going to up my gage for both battery and ground off the alternator to 6ga. for 90Amps :thumbup:

I have a 1.92dia. pulley on now with a shorter belt. Leaves me at about 17,500rpm alternator speed when my 6AL hits its new 5300 rev limiter. Once I've installed my bigger wires I'll give it another try. This is about as good as my charging situation gets without going up in alternator output, which I don't really need or want.
 
#159 ·
I think he's talking about a good engine-to-chassis ground strap and possibly another for the alternator-to-engine, as the 1 wire setup is only the positive wire and it grounds through the brackets like every other alternator. He's just saying if you're running something like an aluminum alternator bracket (or coated steel for that matter) you might not have a good ground between the alternator and the engine, reducing voltage.

In extreme cases I've heard of a throttle cable welding itself into place because the engine was grounding through it instead of a proper ground strap! :eek:
 
#161 ·
No I gotcha. That all made sense. I'm just not sure that even applies to me as my alternator has it's own ground stud which is wired to my chassis ground. Any additional grounding experienced through the bolts would be gravy on top of the alternator's installed ground wire. The voltage regulator mounted to the side of the engine bay also has it's own ground. Still valid and very good info :thumbup:

Concerning the engine ground - I didn't include a write-up about it, but I went back earlier and made sure my engine/trans is nicely grounded as well. The scary part is when I first got the car running years back, it had no ground strap from engine to chassis. I feel lucky I didn't burn this thing to the ground considering all the other garbage found.

Stay tuned as I fumble through more automotive systems knowledge with only the internet to guide me :laugh:

I have some 0 gauge welding cable I just bought for a project if you wanted to test with/use it.
Thank you man, but I think 6ga. will be sufficient. 6ga. is recommended for up to 100amps constant, and my alternator is rated at 90amps. I also have 00ga. currently running from my starter relay under the hood to the battery in the trunk. The battery has it's own 00ga. ground to chassis in the trunk (neg lead). The starter relay has it's own ground as well, but Nash's comment got me thinking more - hence the up in size to 6ga. grounds, etc. Everything should be properly sized after I believe :)

You guys are great. Thanks for watching :wave:
 
#162 ·
Working through this and finding more places to make car safer.

Any of you have a relocated battery and have installed a fuse or fusible link on main battery cable? Looks like people use 250A/300A here.

Something like this:



Was considering a fusible link on the alt (+) wire and (+) to dash wire as well.
 
#165 ·
If you are actually using the ground point on the alternator just make sure everything is clean and you should be good to go, I've seen way to many cars that just assume the thing is good grounding through the alternator bracket to the engine and then never checking it. We had a Cougar that had a serpentine set up by Concept1 and the charging was all over the place as the alternator was only case ground through the coated brackets and was dropping almost 2 whole volts through ground.
 
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