Anglia4’s Galaxie Wag

[anglia4]

The Youtube channel is still catching up to real life.

There's not much more to show in photos, imagine the above, but with the rest of the front drums re-assembled, and the right rear drum rebuilt with new shoes and cylinder (hint: it looks the same from the outside).

Here is the latest video, enjoy:

S

[anglia4]

I have been slowly chipping away at jobs on this.

i got the brakes back together a few weeks ago and put it back on the ground.

One thing I noticed while poking around underneath, was that one of the trans cooler lines had a hole in it… 

I patched it up with some hose and clamps as a temporary repair, and checked the oil which had the correct level, but was suspiciously clean…

Nevertheless, it was time to attempt movement under its own power. I fired it up, got the whole family out to watch, and put it into D. Nothing happened…

I gave it a rev, and as the rpm came back to idle it lurched forward and started to drive.

I managed to get it out of the shed, which was good cos then I could give it a proper warm up and run for a while. Sorted a couple of leaks and then backed it back into the shed with the same rev-lurch approach.

So yeah… I’m thinking the transmission might be a bit stuffed.

I gave it another good warm up yesterday and checked the fluid and topped it up a wee bit. Then managed to drive a lap of the cul-de-sac! It seems to be really shitty at selecting gears, so I’m wondering if the valve body needs some attention.

Proof that I drove it, it’s the wrong way round in the garage.

Edit: photos are failing from my phone. I’ll come back and finish this on my pc!

[anglia4]

Today I took the day off work with the plan of pulling the engine and box, but that plan fell through, so I shifted it outside and took the opportunity to give my shed a decent sweep out for the first time this year.

Then I spent the afternoon getting all the windscreen adhesive off. What a shit of a job. It’s resting with some rust treatment on the surface rust at the moment. It’s in surprisingly good shape.

Next on the list is to tackle the dash pad.

[anglia4]

Nothing too exciting here, just the video to go with the post above.

 

[anglia4]

I’ve been spending some time locked in my garage with a heater running and some strong aerosol paint fumes this week.

Primed it, smoothed out some pitting, primered again, and sprayed white. Don’t let me forget the clearcoat… I only remembered that as I’m writing this…

It’s nearly ready for the windscreen to go back in.

I also fitted the roof rack. It’s a proper wagon now.

 

[anglia4]

The paint match is not even close 😅

Not a drama though as it will all be covered by the glue and chrome.

It was a good test for the rust repair I have to do though. For that I might have to take the fuel door off and get it paint matched by the laser paint matcher thing.

[anglia4]

Windscreen is installed. Thanks to Taranaki Windscreens.

Now, FINALLY, I will be able to give it a wash. When it arrived from the states it got pushed straight into the shed, then had no suspension, then no window, now its ready for a bath.

 

[anglia4]

Following on from the post above, I got the beast outside and gave it a thorough wash. It was then apparent that it was covered from end to end in greasy marks and hand prints, so I gave the whole thing a wipe down with some Wax & Grease remover.

It looks so much better! The whole car being complete and mobile is really starting to look very cool.

Next on the list was to do a filter and flush on the transmission to try and get it shifting better.

There was plenty of sludgy rubbish in there, but nothing that screamed "problem", so I pressed on. I've never done a trans service before, but shit it was easy. I'll do my mustang next I reckon.

It shifts into gear much more reliably than before, and doesn't seem to slip. It still seems to take a little while to get itself into gear some times, and when you slow down to round an intersection, it will lose drive for a few seconds and then shift into gear again. Not sure if it might be an oil pressure issue some how. I'm hoping that it will get better as I use it more. That may be wishful thinking, but I'll give it a nudge as it means I get to drive it more.

So with that came the maiden drive!

I've had it around my cul-de-sac a few times, but that is at the top of a hill, so leaving my street meant committing to:

1.  Being able to stop the car for the intersection at the bottom of the hill.
2.  Having enough drive to get back up the hill home.

Dodgey trans, and completely freshly rebuilt, not bedded drum brakes were not in my favour here. I did many laps up and down the cul-de-sac until I was confident to take the leap of faith.

The brakes were terrifyingly shit, but I managed to get out the street, around the block and home again. FUCK YES.

 

[anglia4]

I have also been chipping away at reconditioning the dash pad. I haven't taken any photos of that as it looks embarrassingly shitty at the moment. Its so far beyond fucked, but I'm determined to save it...

The next job that I've been putting off has been to get the tailgate open. You see, this has the magic tailgate, which can swing open like a door, or fold down like a tailgate. Its also frame-less, so the window has to go down before it can do either of those things. And the window would not work.

And I seemingly couldn't fix the window, because the door was shut...

I tested the relays, fixed a bad ground there, and could prove that I had everything functioning correctly to the point where the wires went into the tailgate. Bugger. That means the problem is in there. The 1967 Galaxie Wagon facebook page had conflicting arguments as to whether you could get the interior panel off, and whether there was a row of screws below the floor level that you can't get at.

I have access to some original Ford parts manuals from the 60's, so checked the exploded drawing. No bottom row of screws, so I got in there and did battle with the cover. I had to remove both interior side panels, the window pillar panels, all the screws, and then fight and fight with it but eventually if lifted out.

After some pissing around inside the tailgate, I established that everything was working as it should, so I hung a tape measure on the toggle switch for the window, and went about "helping" the window down with my hands. Once it broke stiction, it took off into the bottom of the door perfectly!

I opened up the door and a bunch of old wasps nests fell out onto the ground 

It was pretty clear this thing hasn't been opened for a very long time, but after some lubricants and freeing up all the mechanisms its working not too badly.

The next few jobs are under the car again, so I wanted to get it to my dads place to use his hoist.

I put everything back together, fixed a vacuum leak on the brake booster with some bicycle tube and cable ties, loaded up my 4yo and off we went for the biggest and most ambitious drive yet. The 6km to my parents house.

Obligatory first gas stop photo:

Proof that I managed to get it all the way outside the environment:

I'm stoked with it. The transmission is still not perfect. But the car drives so nice. Even with all the weather stripping seeming to be stuffed, and no carpet, its so much smoother and quieter than my Mustang.

The 390 is an absolute torque monster.

I'm loving it. So stoked.

[anglia4]

 

[anglia4]

 

[anglia4]

Well I’ve put a few kms on it now and the transmission still hasn’t fixed itself…

So last weekend I got myself set up on dads hoist and took a day to take out the transmission.

While I was poking around having a bit of a pre-start, I found a vacuum hose leading to the transmission. My mustang C4 doesn’t have that, from memory, so I asked copilot what it was: it’s a vacuum modulator, which controls how the transmission shifts.

Copilot also confirmed that the symptoms of a vacuum leak are the same as I was experiencing.

Lightbulb.

When I did the fluid and filter on the transmission, which resulted in an improvement, but not a fix on the the shifting issues, I had also closed up the worst of the vacuum leaks to try and get some brakes working…

So instead of dropping the transmission, I spent the day finding and fixing all the vacuum leaks (there were plenty…)

And then took it for a drive…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and it’s still no good…

so today I have got everything undone and am ready to drop the box when I’ve got someone around to give me a hand.

 

Mythical Galaxie unicorn ^

I also dropped the kids at school with it the other day and managed a reverse parallel park, in a spot that didn’t look big enough, right outside the gate, in one swing.
That got me some comments from the nearby moms 😎 

[anglia4]

@alfalfa came around last night and helped me take the trans out.

Ive just dropped it off to Automotive Automatics. It’s definitely going to take a weight off my shoulders knowing that it’s had a once over.

 

[anglia4]

Pictureless update. Sorry not sorry.

So the transmission went in for the recon. From the problems I had been having, the trans guys were expecting it to need a handful of seals and maybe dressing up the valve body...

What they found...

• Sprag springs collapsed/broken
• Bands stuffed and friction material crumbling
• Clutches burned
• Valve body springs collapsed/broken
• TC pump scored

Balls.

So the costs on that have blown out, which sucks, but at least I'll know its totally mint once I get it back.

I had been planning to get most of the panel work outsourced, but the budget being stuffed now is making me think I will DIY some of that.

I have welded up a little crack in the front guard already, and made my best attempt at straightening out all the sill lips. Still got some rust repairs to tackle, and some dents in the floorpan.

While it is on the hoist (*kind of...) I have also been under the back looking at bushings. Most of them are stuffed too, and turns out very hard to find. It has taken me ages of trawling through parts manuals to find the part numbers, and then scouring the internet for aftermarket equivalents, but I've finally found some lower control arm bushings. The uppers seem to be expensive and unobtainable, but I also think are less fucked, so might just leave those.

The panhard bushings are stuffed, and do not exist, so I'm going to have to pull them out to measure and find some universal ones.

The freshly rebuilt rear brakes, have somehow had the self adjuster on one side come loose and drop the lever into the bottom of the drum to be eaten. So I've got a new one of those coming too.

1 step forward, 2 steps back, but slowly slowly getting there (and going broke)

* - Kind of on the hoist, because it hangs out the garage door. So I have to put it back on the ground and push it forward about 10" every time I finish working on it. Its so fucking heavy, it takes my straight back to rugby scrum training days trying to get it back in the door.

[anglia4]

So while I have had it on the hoist I’ve been looking at other things that might need doing.

I found one of the engine mounts was looking pretty sad, so decided that while the trans is out, it will never be easier to whip the engine out and clean all the sludge off everything.

 

Who knew the engine was blue!

While I’ve got it out I’ll do some jobs that will be much easier with it out of the car.

I’ve got a new water pump, fuel pump, gaskets, thermostat, plug leads and power steering hoses.

 

[anglia4]

I’ve just spent an hour on the scraper, degreaser and scrubbing brush and have removed a silly amount of shit.

unfortunately the paint seems to be missing from the chassis once the dirt comes off…

so I’m going to get in here this weekend with a steam cleaner and get it clean enough to bomb some paint at.

Any recommendations for what to paint the engine bay with that’s quick and easy and black and isn’t going to mind a complete lack of prep? 
 

[anglia4]

I got in there with the hot water blaster today. It was amazing how much greasy shit I managed to clean out. 
It definitely does need painting now though.

[anglia4]

Restored.

I decided to only paint the chassis rails, as the inner guards didn’t really lose any paint during the wash-down, and there was no way I was going to make that look nice without major work.

I reconditioned the brake master while I was there with the brush

Like a new one, only worse.

[anglia4]

I took the day off work today so dad and I could put things back together.

I found a burnt wire in the engine loom that had melted its way out of the loom. It was disconnected at both ends but always worried me that it might have damaged other wires in the loom. So I started the day by stripping it out and re-wrapping the loom. It’s nice and tidy and I have peace of mind now.

The engine and trans went in with no drama, welded the exhaust back together where I had to cut it, hood back on and a few other small jobs ticked off.

Its starting to look like a car again!

I also found a huge rats nest in the heater box, just by chance as the fan resistor block fell off while I was taping the loom and revealed a mess of carpet underlay and grassy shit.

 

 

[anglia4]

I took another day off yesterday to finish getting this thing together.

I started the day by making up the new hard lines for the transmission, installing the radiator and the new hoses. It was a bit of a session of archaeological discovery. The lower radiator hose that was on it was a real bastardized thing with a joiner in the middle of it, and the hard lines for the transmission had been cut and joined with rubber hoses and 11 (!!) hose clamps holding it together, eleven of them!! 

The upper radiator mounting clamp was bent, and always annoyed me, so I whipped it off and straightened it. Then it didn't fit any more 

Aha! Its not the original radiator! Obviously in the past someone has had to replace it, and found one that is similar but not quite the same. This also explains why there is no fan shroud, cos the shroud on the radiator probably didn't fit the car, and the shroud on the car probably didn't fit the radiator.

The mounts have all just been bent till they fit, the transmission lines have been joined to the 2 inches of remaining line that came with the radiator when it was cut out of some other car etc.

So I re-bent the mount, which has of course made it look worse than it did before. And my new radiator hose doesn't quite fit 100%, but it fits 90% so it will do for the short term, its just a little more stressed than I would like.

Hard lines are made and installed:

All the ancilliaries, carb etc are back on. It fired up beautifully with the new fuel pump. I managed to get 9 of the 11 litres into the transmission before one of the new flare connections started to leak  But of course it was tucked in behind the hot exhaust so I couldn't tighten it up.

Hopefully, its only about a half hours work away from being able to drive out of the shed now!