New Guy, New Project, project " George" ( 66 Galaxie 500 Fastback)

[zombiekiller]

Hi Everyone,

I'm going to attempt to introduce myself and my project, in hopes of documenting the whole process. There wont be any subframing or custom chassis builds to speak of here. The large majority of my project will be completed in my dinky one car garage at my own hands ( with some help from current friends or maybe some new ones!)

My current project is a '66 Ford Galaxie Fastback. Project " George" was coined after my father in law, who worked for ford for 53 years. He was one of the senior engineers responsible for the Falcon in both the US and Australia. He passed away about 10 years ago. This car is being built with his memory in mind. Various parts of it will be re-engineered in the spirit of all of the wacky stories that my MIL has told about him tearing brand new cars apart to get them how he wanted them.

When it came to choose a car, my wife and I chose a 66 Galaxie as my father in law and mother in law had one of the first Gals off the line in 66.

I got the car about 5 months ago from a older gentleman who had owned the car for about 8 years. for the most recent 3 years that he owned it, the car sat due to medical issues. The car however is rust free ( other than surface) with a solid frame and body aside from a dime sized rust spot on the passenger door. it was never wet sanded after its repaint 10 years ago, so the paint is a little rough. The interior was baked in south carolina for almost 40 years, so its pretty crispy and needs to be redone completely.

After the initial base-lining, I've been driving it in its stock form on almost a daily basis. Its a 289/c4/3.00 open car with manual drum brakes and a single bowl . I needed to get a feeling for how it handled and what it could do before I made one change to it. After driving it for 4 months, I think I have a handle on what I want out of the car and what it can do, so my build begins.

Here's George as he sits.






So far to keep the tired 289 running, I've done an aluminum intake, 600cfm edelbrock carb, petronix ignition, plugs, wires, wire looms, 140A alternator, new fan, new water neck, new thermostat, powermaster starter, new shoes, cut drums and wired in some cheapo guages to keep me at least a little informed. I also polished up the engine a bit by putting some valve covers and a new air cleaner on the lump.

I've just recently started ordering parts to get george on the PT path. In the coming weeks, the car will be getting:

Front discs ( leaving the rear drum until I figure out what rear end i'll be doing)
New brake lines
power brakes
Electric Vacuum pump
Proportioning valve

CSS Springs ( 2" drop, 20% stiffness increase)
RCD Shocks
Addco front and rear sway bars
Spohn Rear Control arms and Panhard

New 3/8" fuel lines
Electric fuel pump
New Fuel Filters
Cleaned and sealed gas tank

All new wiring ( still deciding on what kit to order, the PO and his mechanic butchered the harness and put a terrible car alarm in it)
Dynamat
New carpet
new headliner
new Marshall guages
new dashpad
new package tray
new dash panel


c4 is getting a performance rebuild ( by my own hands)
Lokar floor shift with LED shift indicator

Ididit steering column
Grant Wheel
Ididit rag joint
New TRES
New pitman arm
new idler arm
new balljoints
new control arm bushings ( until I either fab new arms or work with a vendor to have them made)

Headers
Dual exhaust with H pipe

18x8 front wheels
20x8.5 rear wheels
( i'm thinking of Boss 338s)
Rubber to go with them.

The maintenance items that I'll begin shortly on are:

Removing surface rust and painting frame.
Removing pitted/ dented chrome parts, doing body work on them, then painting them a bright silver to match the stainless trim.

Planning out what trim deletes that I'm going to do.


After all of this business is completed, I'll then begin:

Planning out my interior.
Planning my rear axle ( thinking a currie 9" with LS , 35 spline axleshafts and disc brakes)
Researching gas tanks ( for a baffled road racing design)
finding an appropriate body shop/painter

And the big ticket decision will be on the motor. I've not yet decided which road I'll go down. My choices are:

a very healthy small block ford stroker build

a coyote motor



a 3.5L TT Ecoboost motor out of an F-150.

The coyote and Ecoboost lumps would be contingent on my finding a good donor wreck to source out of. Right now the crate and salvage options would put me about 3 grand over budget on the motor/trans combo and my wife has already " approved" the budget that I set for the build.

I have a 2011 f-150 with the ecoboost and It would be awesome to transplant one into a car that is 2000 lbs lighter with a stout c4 behind it and some retuning. My truck hauls ass as it is. Plus maintenance on 2 of the same motor would be much easier ! ( at least thats what i keep trying to sell my wife on) .

Everything but the wheels/tires has been ordered and is on the way, so i'm starting to get really excited. Y'all should see some pretty speedy progress on this build. The remaining bits ( wheels/tires, motor, Rear axle, paint, interior) will get decisions after I get the ride height, handling and braking dialed in.

If anyone can recommend someone, or any of the sponsors can lend their hand with the front control arms, i'm happy to be a guinea pig as i'd love to run a 255/30r20 front tire with a 265/30r20 Rear tire. But that front tire is just too wide with the projected ride height to dive into corners as I'd like with stock arms.

I originally was contemplating going air ride, but decided against it as i couldn't justify the added weight and the additional expense is something that I couldn't justify before I have my powerplant, interior and paint done.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to be working on my project and hanging out amongst some of the incredible rides that I've been lurking at over the past couple months that belong to PT forum members.

I'm really hoping that next summer i'll be ready to compete in some events and maybe do the Hot rod power tour.

- Dave

any critiques, comments or otherwise are encouraged and welcomed. This will be my first full scaled PT type build. Any insight from everyone will be much appreciated




After this is done, I've told my wife that I need a use for the 289 that is coming out of George, so a follow up, custom chassis, TT 289 Falcon build should follow up the Galaxie

[RicerwannaB]

Awsome build man, a coyote would be killer in there!

[Nessumsar]

Dave, great post! Sounds like George will be a great car when he is done. Have you thought about the 2.0L Eco, should be easier to find and they are dirt cheap!

[zombiekiller]

Dave, great post! Sounds like George will be a great car when he is done. Have you thought about the 2.0L Eco, should be easier to find and they are dirt cheap!

I'd like to stick with the 3.5TT out of the trucks. So far in my research it seems like it would be the smallest headache. my decision will be made easy if i come across a 2wd f-150 ecoboost. :-)

I know I could massage about 425 hp/ 500 ft lbs out of the TT 3.5 out of the trucks. For a car this big, I feel like 400 HP is a good goal so it will get out of it's own way since i don't really plan on anything other than steel panels and bumpers. I'm going to be saving some weight going with DOM arms & Links and at very least dumping aluminum heads on.

I also think the 2.0 might sound terrible coming out of my car.

[zombiekiller]

well i did some shopping today. I was looking for wheels to slap on the car while i save for something lighter.

Found a local shop that gave me a price of $620 (rims) and $850 ( tires, mounted, balanced ) $1470 out the door for :

Boss 338 20x8.5 rear wrapped in 265/30r20s
boss 338 18x8 fronts wrapped in 255/40r18s


What do you guys think?

I'd be going with the gray center, polished lip color.

I figure they'll look pretty good and give me brake clearance for the time being.

The wheels that I want to end up with are more each than the whole set of boss wheels!

I was hoping that I could run a 20 x 10 rear, but i think the 6.8" of backspacing just wont work.

I did some measuring today and I believe that i'll be good to run with the tire sizes i selected. I may have to mess with the sways just a tad.

[OldMechanik]

I love it....my buddy had a bright red one in the 80s!

[cheapthrillz]

Check out the summit legend wheels also... that's what I went with.

[zombiekiller]

Check out the summit legend wheels also... that's what I went with.

I ended up getting the Boss wheels.

They were $103 less than buying comparable summit wheels. I also got out of paying tax.

Got a great deal on Nitto nt555s.

$775 out the door, mounted, balanced, with lugs.

$1425 out the door for wheels and tires that I can get a couple years out of is good for me.

My Spohn rear control arms and panhard came yesterday.

Now i'm just waiting for my springs, shocks, rotors, calipers, fuel line, fittings, fuel pump mount and por15 gastank cleaning kit to arrive.

My Engine selection also has been made.

A friend of mine really wants the wheels, tires and hubcabs that i'll be taking off. He just so happens to own a wrecking yard.

I'm horse trading my stuff for a 2001 ford explorer 302 with 62,000 miles on it.

I'm going to tear it down, put some ARP fasteners in it, make sure everything is in spec, then run it carb'ed for a while.

I'm going to twin turbo this beast!

I have a set of shorty 302 headers that i'm going to flip, then weld t3 flanges to.

So the motor rundown will be:

2001 302. ARP head studs and a cometic head gasket.

the internals will stay the same if it checks out.

Twin t3/t4 50 trim turbos

Split subaru WRX STI intercoolers ( I have these kicking around too!)

I'll do all of the tubing/piping.

BOVs, wastegates...

Holley commander 950 ECU with the fancy LCD.

Manual boost controllers.

I'll be shooting for a very very conservative 7-8Lb of boost at first. should be good for 475-500HP. I should be able to get the motor done for 2200-3000 depending on how much of the stuff i make myself. Not bad!

I'll run it like that until i get boost addicted and need to tear down the motor and beef it up for higher boost levels.

[dslwizard]

I love the Galaxy. It's really a beautiful car and has great lines. Twin-screw, wow! Keep us posted.

What does kind of famous mean? lol

thanks
mike

[zombiekiller]

I love the Galaxy. It's really a beautiful car and has great lines. Twin-screw, wow! Keep us posted.

What does kind of famous mean? lol

thanks
mike

I love the galaxie lines too. I cant wait to kill some cones with it!

My wife is a singer, by kinda famous i mean, she's been written up in just about ever music mag on the planet and her last song was on an album that debuted at #15 on the billboard charts.

If you watched nfl football last season and caught any of the "red zone" commercials, that was her voice :-)

[zombiekiller]

For a reference point for future PT Galaxie builders, as I couldnt find anything when shopping.

Boss 338 20x8.5 with 5.25" backspacing wrapped in 265/35r20 NT555s fits nicely on the rear of a 66 galaxie lowered 2".

The dimensions of the tire/wheel combo is 27.3 tall x 10.6 wide. No modifications to the wheel well were necessary.

i "Think" the 20 x 10 6" BS Boss wheels will fit with a 275 or 285 tire on them, as there is a little more than an inch or so of clearance between the framerail and the tire.

I'll snap some pics after I get my car rolling again. I have to get the fueling system buttoned up this evening so I can move it.

[Greasy63]

WOW.........

great project!

keep the pics coming!!!

[zombiekiller]

another wheel fitment reference.

On a stock spindle with stock brakes, the boss 338 18x8 4.5 BS wheels contact the lip on the upper control arm. My new front brake setup should push the mounting surface of the wheel out a half inch, so I shouldn't have to grind the control arm down. I may trim 1/4" off or so just to be safe. 20" front wheels would most likely clear without issue. a 20" front and 22" rear were just too visually big for me and too damn heavy. Once my ride height is finalized this setup should look nice. These cars have wheel wells that can swallow a whole lot of rim/tire combo. Anything smaller than an 18 looks damn dinky.

Tomorrow is finishing the fuel system, cleaning up the other rear wheel well and starting the tear down of the front end. I was able to fab my fuel pump/filter mount for the trunk tonight. Just have to run the Lines tomorrow.

hopefully by next weekend George will be back on the road with power disc front brakes, new bushings, new balljoints, tres, pitman arm, idler arm, rear control arms, panhard and new shocks & springs.

Once that's done, it's on to a new steering column, rag joint, steering wheel, floor shifter, soundproofing, carpet, and headliner.

Doing all of this work in a stone driveway sucks!

[devwil68]

good luck my man...guy down the road has one of those sitting in his drive way just asking to get restored! always liked the lines of the 500!

[NJSPEEDER]

Killer project.

As for the motor decision, if you can grab an ecoboost along with the associated OD trans that would be killer combo. You would have solid power and great drivability plus it would get all kinds of looks when you popped the hood.

-Tim

[zombiekiller]

Well I got the fuel system done!

For now I have a Holley 7 psi carb pump in the car. Once My motor is finished, I'll swap it to a higher flow pump. I made everything easy to disconnect. It took me a while to make the mount, but it is 3/16th stainless. It has a tray on the bottom to catch any errant fuel whenever I change the filter.



I also still need to install the firewall that I made for behind the back seat. Now that the fuel filter and pump are in the trunk, I think its a good safety measure. It will also give me the chance to put dynamat on a hard barrier to enclose the trunk as the electric fuel pump is LOUD!

I painted the trunk too after scraping all of the rust out of it.




I've had the car on jackstands for the past 3 weeks , which has both me and it a little grumpy. I love driving my gal, so i opted to go grab some 5/16th spacers, bolt the wheels on, and take "george" out for a spin and a bath before I tear the front end apart and he's under the knife for another few weeks.




The ride height isnt finalized yet, The back should come down about 3" and the front another 1".

this week and next weekend I'll be putting the booster and dual bowl master in, installing the wilwood prop valve, converting the front to disc brakes and wiring up the vacuum pump. Thrown in there somewhere will be installing different springs, new shocks, control arm bushings, new sways, new rear control arms, new rear panhard, new TREs, pitman arm, idler arm and adjustment sleeves.

I need to make sure that when I install the rear control arms, I adjust them to center the wheels int he rear wheel well.

hopefully I'm only another month or so out from digging into the motor. Beyond the above mentioned work, I need to swap the steering column out, install my floor shifter & indicator, dynamat the floor and roof, install new carpet and headliner, install headers, run a dual exhaust with an H pipe and visit the junkyard a couple times. THEN, I can focus my attention on the motor.

I'm most likely going to grab some bucket seats from the junkyard. I'm also going to be looking for a center section with a little deeper gears and a posi.


The overall plan is to keep driving "George" during the makeover. Once I have everything situated and built out, I'll move to a tear down phase, then body, paint and reassembly.

[zombiekiller]

Another update:

I have finally collected all of my Brake parts for my swap to a dual bowl, power brake setup with front disc and rear drum ( for the time being)

I didn't have a huge budget to get spendy on brakes with, so I opted to hodge podge a disc brake setup that I could get parts for at any major parts chain.

I test fit my set up this afternoon. I'll be running SSBC dual piston front calipers, powerslot rotors, an 8" booster and a dual bowl master with a wilwood proportioning valve.

I'll be running new lines with nicopp and doing all of my own fittings. I'm using scarebird brackets and the ssbc calipers fit great. I'll probably end up using the same on the rear axle as well.

I wish I had the coin to go all out and custom fab brackets, turn my spindles, etc etc, but I have plenty of other things to address shorter term.

[Hotwhilz]

You project sounds cool, and the name is familiar! Hopefully it won't look as My George, 7 months old english bulldog, he is built the opposite of your galaxie!

Cool ride, the TT as always bugged me for a couple years now!

[racedaddy]

great looking car

[jfreakofkorn]

The wheels make the difference.....