piazzanoob's 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 seeeedaaan

[piazzanoob]

So with my trip to the USA in late 2016 me and a few others met up with their buddy scott. so after talking for abit and spending some time with him and inspecting a car i liked which had too much bog for my liking we both decided i would leave him some cash and when i found a car i liked that met my budget i would get him too inspect it.

then many months went by searching craigslist couple times a week with no luck.

then a mid 60s Chrysler newport popped up in my price range so had it inspected but ended up needing a full interior and had missing parts all over so that was a no GO

few weeks later a 64 galaxie comes up 

slightly out of my price range but there was nothing else that i liked worth inspecting at that time.

so a deal was done to purchase it.

sent scott some extra coin to get some parts that it needed also along with getting some cherry bomb mufflers.

about a month and half later it started its trip back home starting from 

phoenix AZ to LA 

about 4 months later it arrived into nz and being cleared by maf and customs     

Ready for collection

As i go over to collect it from its secure yard the person informs me the paperwork says its a non runner

what!?

soo it has a flat battery

well after swaping a charged battery into it it fires into life 

meanwhile while i move my car out of their yard and the shipping company (Non reflective) employee moves the galaxie out of the storage lot he starts to crunch a few gears then almost hits the wall a few times trying to park it.

By then i was ready to throw him out of the car.

then he asks the question on how im going to take it away?

well im driving it mate

And too much surprise he replies in shock 

it has no brakeees.

oh yeah algood mate guessing he just has no clue about cars.

so i hop in and brake pedal goes straight to the floor

this is going to be interesting

so i crawl up the road a few kilometers by changing from neutral to drive and trying to use the useless handbrake when needed

soo a right turn comes up that i need to take 

ah not going to make that stop so i keep rolling in the median strip to the next street on my right.

the next T intersection i roll through slowly followed by another right turn

I have now arrived at my old mans workplace to check the brakes out so i can drive it home

 

 

So i top up the empty brake reservoir and bleed the front brakes and we are good to go!

so i cruised on home

 

 

[piazzanoob]

made it home in great condition 

 

so i put the dog in the front with me and backed it out the drive way to turn it around 

then as i pull out clunk!!

drive forward and look whos here 

 

fuel strap decided it did not want to be on no more

although the car is abit long and low in the ass end which makes me have to go on a angle to get in the drive way.

FT my mums not so great camera skills 

so the ol girl is running a 390 FE big block mayte 

with yet to confirm exactly what but i suspect running a cruise o matic trans.

 

 

 

 

[piazzanoob]

also did a two second peeelout on the drive way

when hard for what it is

along with a cloud of smoke.

 

[piazzanoob]

pop on over there mayte

spin some yarns 

[piazzanoob]

so as i noted early on that i had given scott some extra coin to get parts for the car.

well that was like Christmas all over again.

and at that stage i had made a few rockAuto orders for some of my other cars too along with @chris r putting a fuel tank in for his CRX.

 Had also chucked in a few items just for the ride home incase a break down.

so i guess you were expecting a whole bigger load of parts other than this right?

well all scott had purchased for the car in terms of parts was

Cap N Rotor

Ignition Leads

Spark plugs

Fuel filter.

bit slack right

was more bummed i never received any cherry bomb mufflers.

so i sent a friendly message out to scott mentioning about the lack of parts purchased.

well turns out a whole bunch of parts that were purchased for the car had been stolen out of it shortly after their being a monsoon blowing the cover off the car. And this being done while the car was still being stored in phoenix in a secure storage facility but due to the vehicle not being able to be locked anyone had access inside of the vehicle.

which sucks as all of the parts were needed for the car but now need to be sourced within nz as i have hopes of it being wof'd and rego'd before the end of the year maybe not now.

although camera footage has been seen of the parts being stolen from 200 meters away but that was three months ago. plus scott offered to pay for the parts and half the freight cost which is a bonus but dont think it would be worth while bothering getting the parts from the US when i include the exchange rate and import tax on the parts.

but another rockauto order will need to be done for some bits as some items don't include a big freight bill to nz.     

[piazzanoob]

soo with a saga of the parts ordeal going down.

@chris r Turned up to pickup his fuel tank and pine over the Galaxie 

we figured we better start working on the car after a much needed cruise round the block and free included in the deal peelout.

that started with getting a horn going 

so with the horn that i had purchased a couple of days earlier from @tortron

some wiring and nut&bolt and cable ties later it was mounted between the radiator and grill without too much notice 

then the ol girl was screaming

so with now having the galaxie in nz lets just say that the shed is somewhat a bit less walking area.

with more old man moaning about someone taking up shed space.

well sorry mate but this is only half of my fleet of cars 

but this is oldschool right

where ol barry and his boys hoard shitty old cars.

[piazzanoob]

so seen as it was a long weekend last weekend 

@chris r come round on the monday and gave me a hand with the wiring side of things

dam american's and there twist and tape method or just don't plug it in or run a wire.

got some new wire for the battery leads and new terminals too help with starting.

  

so out with this hori wiring

so now has nice new cables running from the starter and earth leads along with some new battery terminals 

 

so heres a photo of the ol 390fe big block she's running.

and if you look not very close you can see how shit the battery leads were along with all the other wiring witch needs a good tidy up.

[piazzanoob]

also took the ol girl out of the shed before disassembly of the brakes.

gave the cooling system a good flush out with the hose.

also didn't realize at the time that it also had a tap on the block to drain out of.

but have added some coolant into the system and will run that for abit then give it another flush out.

but more importantly i need to get the temp and fuel gauge going.

so have ran a wire to the temp sensor as it had nothing.

and just need to wait for my dash cluster voltage regulator to arrive to also help with the non working gauges 

[piazzanoob]

So after flushing the cooling system and placing it back into the shed i set about fixing the R/R door not opening or the window rolling down.

for some reason the door card was rubbing on the body of the car so i suspect its too big and needs trimming.

so i pry'd the door card off to one side to get the door open.

then removed the door card

also did remove the window and its tracks.

but man that glass is thick!

The two guides were also seized so free them up and applied rubber grease on them. 

 

 

And as you can see that the Arizona dust has settle itself on the tracks.

so spend some time with a wire brush and cleaned it all off.

then applied Rubber grease on all the tracks.

reinstalled and now rolls up and down fairly smoothly.

but now just need to get an imperial tap and die and clean up the thread on the limit stop

and trim some of the door card off so while its on the door can open and close.

 

also gave the fuel flap some alignment.

bolts weren't even tight

 

 

just need to buy some rubber bump stops for the flap now but will get that some other time after compliance. 

 

 

[piazzanoob]

so seen as i already broke this car getting it out of the driveway

i may aswell fix it some more.

seen as the fuel strap come off i figured i would pull the other one off too and clean up the thread

so out came the tank too

 

And drained all of the petrol out of it too had about 30 litres in it.

so i also pulled the sender out of the tank to test and check its condition and to check the inside of the tank.

well it has quite alot of shit in it.

but seen as the last rego tag on the car says 2013 its been doing some sitting around causing the fuel to turn into a solid form.

so whipped in some rocks while the tank was dry and shook them around.

then shook all of that out

 

I then added some smaller rocks with water and spend about 20 minutes shaking it all around. Ended up getting alot of the crap out of there but the remaining surface rust was left. But at some point in the future i will be pulling the tank out again and giving it the por15 tank treatment to seal up all the rust.

but after the 20 minutes of shaking it i must of spent the next hour trying to get all the rocks and crap out by shaking it and flushing it with water and some shitty old petrol i had lying around. was not a fun experience at all.

so a bit more cleaner. but i will need to add a filter somewhere in the line to stop it getting to the carb.

also gave the top of the tank some por15 to treat some of the rust it had on it.

and removed the rubber pad off it too and did underneath as well.

so now your asking why i didn't do the whole tank?

i did it as the compliance inspectors don't like new paint as it tend to to show its hiding something underneath.

so just did that piece as you shouldn't be able to see it when the tank is in place.

but again will do the whole thing in por15 and respray over that in silver like the factory to prevent any further rust.

[piazzanoob]

so while i was doing the fuel tank i had all the brakes disassembled to see what was the go there.

turns out quite abit of the parts were fucked.

 A couple of broken springs in two of the four wheels 

All the brake hoses were no good.

And all the wheel cylinders were leaking.

the front ones however had leaked on the shoes and drums so they needed to be replaced.

also disassembly required some heat to remove some of the parts and alter some

 

made myself a brake adjuster tool.

so it sat here for a week while i got the parts.

new 

brake hoses / wheel cylinders / spring hardware kit / brake shoes / And 2x new brake drums which came with the car.

All the old brake drums were way out of there maximum thickness.

so while i was waiting for parts i gave the hubcaps a polish too

  

And after

[piazzanoob]

Have also been waiting on my rockauto parts too.

and to my surprise i had ordered it on the friday evening here and it arrived on Monday at work

 

if only all my rock auto parts were in that quick...

[piazzanoob]

Alot of the exhaust on this car was currently being held up with a bit of wire in multiple places

 

along with it rubbing on the leaf springs and rear shocks

along with this mount and many of the other rubber belt mounts that had broken or snapped.

I cut them or modified them to suit again other than needing some bolts so have really just hori up what it already had as eventually it will get a full need exhaust system done but that can be done after compliance.  

[piazzanoob]

One of many jobs that can be ticked off the list now

this car had a power steering leak (Yes it does have it)

which happen to be the power steer ram so off she went

 

removed all of the seals and the circlip etc

then bought this rebuild kit from my local transmission parts wholesaler

  

Then gave the shaft a good clean up so no burrs could rip the new seal 

1000 grit wet & Dry sandpaper and spun the shaft up on the drill while resting the sandpaper on the shaft.

works mint

then for the assembly time i found abit of pipe the right size and cut the length to suit the application 

this was used to carefully install the new seals without damage by hitting them in with a hammer and all the new seals were applied with rubber grease for assembly purposes and done in this order.

 

Also take note that before i assembled the new seal kit i made sure that i flushed out the ram of any remaining debris / dirty fluid using a eco friendly parts cleaner which is safe on all materials incl hands. Not that really matters.

 

I used this ^^ ozzyjuice stuff along with the machine which heats the fluid up to warm temperature to help with cleaning.

good machine and all just super spendy with the fluid and filters and the machine by itself.

with that all done i put the power steer ram back on the car and bleed the steering system of any air.

now no leaks and works as it should. 

[piazzanoob]

So the parts for the brakes ended up taking just over a week to get sorted.

ended up getting the brake hoses and spring kit from http://www.northwesternford.co.nz/ who just deals in old ford stuff.

pricing also seems to be reasonable rate. which is a bonus

And the wheel cylinders and shoes got sourced from sterling clutch and brake.

also the car came with two new brake drums so they ended up on the front while the best two of the old four went onto the rear. although they are all way worn out past there service limit.

also removed all the brake assemblies off all the wheels and gave all the brake parts and backing plates a good scrub down.

 then fitted the front with new shoes and wheel cylinders and a couple of new springs.

also put on the new front brake hoses and pumped through some of the old brake fluid through to the back.

man that brake fluid was dirty.

then put on the new rear brake hose and gave the brake system a bleed 

And ended up having to teach my mum the brake bleeding procedure which slowed the process down abit.

then took the car off the stands to give the brakes a good bed in.

Drive went okay apart from a grinding noise under braking on the R/F.

So up on stands again with the wheels off to diagnose that.

And some smart person in america decided they would put the wrong size brake adjuster on the car which let it to grind a mark in my new drums.

This is the L/h one which was the one i needed.

And this one was one that i had ordered from http://www.northwesternford.co.nz/ but is the same size as the one on the R/F thats grinding on the drum.

so that one will be going back to them as it will not work.

so i stopped into sterling clutch and brake to find an adjuster and walked out with a free one in my back pocket. cheers mayte

otherwise the plan was to run the big one on the lathe at work down to the right size then grind some notches so the adjuster retainer will hold it.

 

 

so now the brakes do not make any noises it shouldn't.

And now stops the old slug after you get a dead leg. 

  

[piazzanoob]

So this old girl still had its old points ignition system 

so out came the old distributor to get a pertronix kit to suit.

went to my local v8 parts shop being STA parts.

walked out with a brand new electronic dizzy for 135incl gst

and this was still cheaper than the pertronix kits i had seen advertised online.

but the only problem being with this new electronic dizzy is it is much bigger than the old one.

 

 so i had to get my map torch and heat the coolant expansion tank then give it a massage with a panel hammer to clear adjustment for timing the distributor.

Also these distributors only have a one wire hookup being a 12v supply with a coil built inside the cap which is why the cap is soo big

And one terminal to hookup if you are running a tachometer. which i will put one in one day.

also another different thing with these distributors is the cap style lead terminals.

so i bought the right terminals and boots 

And a crimp tool.

 

cut old lead end off

cut some of the insulation off the lead by placing a knife and spinning the lead.

 

 

then before you do this^^

place the boot on! makes it quite hard to put on once the terminal is on.

so for fitting the terminal you need to flip the wire underneath so it is resting on the metal terminal.

then place the terminal and crimp tool like the photo above and close them together using a vice.

 

and this is the end result.

this is a lengthy process but saves max $$ this way.

and at the end of it test all of your leads using an ohm meter to make sure they are all within range.

Also another thing with that bigger distributor was the air filter was no longer able to fit due to it being a low mount base type filter.

so out again to STA parts to sort this.

unfortunately they were out of stock of the high mount base,

so a complete new air filter base was purchased.

   

still is quite close to the leads and cap but i did not like the look of the smaller diameter filters

so same size but high base mount type.

but looks much better than old setup i think.

just need to polish the rocker covers to help with a cleaner look. 

 

    

[piazzanoob]

Also put some shocks in the front too

As it had none nice bouncy ride it was.

 

these were a bargain at only 15 USD each 

but they required some modifying to fit on the bottom.

 

cut that bit out and fitted them with a flat washer and spring washer on the bottom.

another job done.

 

[piazzanoob]

been abit slack with updates on this thing.

just been super busy trying to get it ready for compliance.

had to sort the play in the idler arm.

so i removed it and cleaned up all the bearings and parts

 

then refitted it and regreased it. 

now have minimal play in the steering.

i also replaced the front wheel bearings as i found one was ruff.

so i ordered them from rockauto as they were super cheap.

also cleaned and refitted with new grease after doing this for the second time as i did this when i did the front brakes but didn't realize one bearing was no good.

also had to put another new wheel stud in as i had hit one out when doing the wheel bearings and when i put in back in the spline had stripped.

this was a much easier way than using a jack and axle stands.

[piazzanoob]

so as some of you already know the old girl went through her compliance.

so the morning i dropped her in for compliance the guy there found an issue within a minute 

the shipping agent in the USA made the bill of sale but they didn't spell my last name correctly but to make it worse they wrote it twice on the papers but with two different wrong spellings.

duh!

so i dropped the car off at my old mans work and went and saw a JP (justice of the peace) and got the paperwork sorted stating that they spelt it wrong etc. then the car went the next following week after nzta gave the okay on the paperwork.

she went through and failed on a whole bunch of stuff

lights/rear wheel bearings/power steering leaks/ headlight aim/seatbelt type/rear brake specs to be confirmed/weight of the vehicle/check engine numbers/brake imbalance.

And some rust and a previous repair on the chassis to be redone.  

so at the moment most of the mechanical repairs have been done. so i popped her over toady for the recheck only to have another inspector check it and find more shit they want done.

now they want a rego lamp lense/ a high stop fitted (doesn't by the virm need one) but you cant argue with them. and the seat belt mountings LVV certified.

but ive also had the repair certifier come and inspect and document the repairs that need to be done so now i can start work on that.

so it needs R/H floor pan repaired cut out and new patch welded in.

Trunk floor pan cut out and replaced with new steel.

and R/R chassis rail cut out tidied up check it is all square etc then welded back in.

and clean up sills from previous jacking and leftover bog from repaint.

so all of this will be done by myself and my old man.

And i have till the 27th of feb for it to be done by.

so now i need to find someone to make me a rear trunk pan. was going to use a person who made me a piece for the starlet but he went on holiday in November to ozzy and im unsure when he is back so will need to find someone else. 

    

[piazzanoob]

2 steps forward one step back.

as some of you know already from spam this old girl broke down on me last monday on the mangere bridge which is a motorway and this old bus stopped in the bus lane.

had been over at work aligning the headlights and getting some other bits done and was going send it back for its recheck. 

but ended up getting frustrated at the car and calling it quits and taking it back home to sit in the corner. 

and running the headlamps caused the battery to go flat so i jump started it and off i went. only got 5 mins walking distance till she died.

 

so got my AA cover to come pick me and the car up and drop it at home. was lucky enough that none of the 3 cops that went past didn't stop as the towie said it would of been impounded as no wof or rego and 400 bucks in fines.

got her home and charged the battery up and she fired up without an issue as i knew it would.

but the carb on it is some no name 50$ napa auto parts POS.

have had it off to seal a leak it had and have given it a good clean out but trying to tune it with this carb doesn't get me anywhere and still has a flat spot. so when some money is available that doesn't need to be used for compliance shit a new carb is going on it.

was thinking an edelbrock 650cfm 2 barrel with electronic choke. was told edelbrock's are much easier to tune than holley's which i would believe.

     

 

trunk floor that needs replacing

has a few holes in it that could be reapired but the metal is pitted and its easy to just get another piece made.

and this is the R/H front floor piece that needs replacing

fairly simple shape so will start making it and weld it in.

cheers mayte