Turbowomble

Update time, finally.
I saw the car in person for the first time on Monday. I was momentarily given a lump in my throat by the fact that the thing I’ve been obsessing over these last couple of months, receiving pictures and spending modest* sums of money on parts and bits was now sitting in front of me, very tangible and very real. Pics of the car as I first saw it:


New floors all sealed up and looking sharp:




 

 
To say it’s “shagged oot” is probably the understatement of the century: this is a project and a half. However, the potential to be something magnificent(ly shit) is great, so with that in mind there’s been some solid graft done this week. I’ll have to split it across a couple of posts, as I’ve hit the upload limit fairly easily.

In the meantime, there has been some progress Galaxie-wise:
- the bonnet has had some of its rust holes treated. The worst areas were ground down and then filled with body lead. Don’t have a picture of the finished article, but here’s some in-progress pics:
I knew the bonnet was fairly scabby, so I wasn’t surprised to see just how bad it was. New stock-looking bonnets are like hen’s teeth, so I was keen to get this one saved; the main alternative seems to be the ‘Thunderbolt’-style teardrop-scooped hood, which I’m not that keen on in this instance (plus the Thunderbolt was based on the Fairlane, so the teardrop scoop would be an anachronism to have on this car).
- the floors have been cut out and new floorpans have gone in. Galaxie-specific floorpans are a king’s ransom, so I’ve taken a more cost-effective option and have chosen to slot in a floorpan set from a same-year Mustang - the floorpan style is effectively* the same between the two cars, but the Galaxie’s are extended due to the wheelbase. Again, I’ve no pictures of the finished article, but here’s another in-progress shot:


That’s all I have to date on the Galaxie - there should be a great deal more progress within the next 2 weeks, so keep your peepers peeled.

Update time, of sorts:
I have arrived state-side and will be getting stuck into the car from next weekend - I’m currently in Florida and working remotely, so won’t get up to North Carolina until the weekend.
As I’m staying with my grandparents in Florida, I’ve been given the use of their vehicles to get around whilst I’m here - originally, I was going to be let use their ‘good’ car, a very typical Floridian pensioner cliche:

A 2016 Cadillac CT6, the last full-size Caddy saloon* you could buy - this one’s a 2L turbo-4 with 260hp, which has adequate performance but a most inadequate noise under load, which the engine most often is and detracts from the overall Cadillac experience I find. It must be relatively base-spec, as I was surprised to find no adaptive cruise or other trickery, and it has heated seats (which I assume are standard, as who in their right mind would spec them in Florida?) but not cooled. Very 1st world problems, I know.
However, I remembered they had a different car, which I was surprised they still had, and so binned off the Caddy in favour of…

This. It’s a ‘93 Eddie Bauer with the 351W/5.8L, sadly not white-on-white, it’s peppered in rust blisters, it has 3 different colours of leaks, a recently replaced tailgate that hasn’t been painted yet and it gets 10mpg while offering absolutely nothing to justify its fuel consumption.
So, naturally, I was like a moth to a flame.
It’s got a hole in the exhaust so it has an absolutely biblical cold start, and the driving position is second to none in terms of that high-up ‘king of the road’ feel. If I knew my grandfather still had it, and I hadn’t just plowed a pile of money into the Galaxie, I’d’ve bought it off him and shipped this instead.

Front-end clean up:
Before the new engine gets dropped in, the front chassis rails and all the steering/suspension bits were absolutely caked in rust and decades-old mud and crud. Exhibit A:

 
So, I set about it with a wire wheel (ended up tanning 4 of them through the process) to get all this shit ground down to a point where it can be treated with OSPHO to flash off the excess and then it’ll get resealed and repainted with truck bed liner for a bit of weather proofing.
First pass with the wire wheels ended up as below:


EDIT: and then a second go, once the wire wheel stock had been replenished:

A bit more Protestant-looking than before.
The car has drums all round, and the plan is to recondition the rears while binning the fronts for discs. They’re some of the biggest drums I’ve ever seen, and also some of the worst:


2nd pic shows all the caked-up shit I couldn’t get at before, which got cleaned off when the drums were removed.
The front discs are off of a ‘73 Torino, because the spindles to hold them are a bolt-on item for these full-size body-on-frame Fords across a 15ish year span, so it’s a very easy swap. They got cleaned off with the wire wheel and sprayed black, so are now very shiny and ill-fitting with the condition of the rest of the front end.
In the process of removing the old spindles and refitting the new ones, one of the holding bolts on the lower ball joint on the passenger side cross-threaded itself, and also they’re not in the best of shape being nearly 60 years old, so we’ve popped on a new set of of these as well.
EDIT: with the new ball joints ready to go on with the spindles, today we gave it a blast with the OSPHO and then sprayed the whole thing black:

 
And finally, a close-up of the new ball-joints and spindles (the spindle bolts are only hand-tightened for now, that’s a Tuesday job along with getting the calipers on):

Another side-on, to give you all a wide-on:

I’ve had a bit of a crisis upon turning 30 (I’m loathe to refer to it as ‘mid-life’, as that seems a pessimistic guess of my life expectancy, however the amount of sausage rolls and Guinness I go through on a weekly basis is helping that dream become a reality), and so decided that I needed one last automotive hurrah, preferably one with a big lumpy V8 and was old enough to be tax- and MOT-exempt and low enough insurance to justify the eye-watering fuel consumption.
Enter: this clapped-out ol’ hog:

A 1964 Ford Galaxie 500, held together by its own corrosion and some misplaced hopes and dreams.
Found on FB for the princely sum of $1,500 (so about £10k at the exchange rates I paid) this has been owned by the same chap since 1974, when it was parked in his cattle shed about 30 years ago and then moved out into the paddock about a decade later when the cattle needed more room. A North Carolina car its whole life, it will live there in my father’s workshop until I get over and am able to spend a couple of weeks getting it into shape and stuffed into a container, destined for the UK and eventually NI.
The plans for it include:
- a 347ci stroker motor with some go-faster bits like an Edelbrock inlet manifold, Holley 650ci carb, GT40 heads and other odds and sods; hoping that this combo will be good for 350hp or so.
- an AOD 4-speed slush-o-matic with some 3.55 rear gears, which should hopefully* make it sprightly enough in its first 3 gears while making for a decent cruiser in its 4th.
- painted black (I’m currently undecided between gloss and satin; this will be dependent on the standard of the bodywork, as satin will hide the multitude of sins better than gloss but I feel gloss will look less ‘thuggy’ than a matte satin finish), set off with some painted steel wheels and white-line tyres
- some other creature comforts in the form of a Bluetooth stereo, maybe cruise control and a ‘knee-cooler’ A/C unit.
I don’t have much else to add right now - I’ll mainly just be making a list of what’s needed and getting all the parts delivered (while also trying not to get completely fleeced by the exchange rate). But I’m excited by this and just wanted to share with the rest of the parish.
One final pick for how it sits now - these won’t be the final wheels for it, however they’re definitely growing on me:

(Part 2 of close-up pics)


Rear bumper is completely shat:



 

Engine & Drivetrain
This car originally had a 289ci from the factory, so the decision was made to pop another SBF in as it would be a straight swap, instead of having to source the bits for a big block.
The engine that’ll be going is as follows - the build spec is what I’ve been told is in it/going on it, as the bottom end was already built before I got it:

- a 302 sourced from a Fox-body Mustang, stroked out to 347ci (which I understand is achieved by both boring the cylinders by 0.030” and also with a different crankshaft). EDIT: now in a fetching shade of Ford blue (this is not the final oil pan, there’s a fancier ribbed item going on to match the valve covers)

- an Edelbrock F4B intake manifold, which was an original 60’s/70’s performance item and so should be period correct for this car. The main benefit of this intake is the higher-rising inlet and exhaust plenums, along with the actual Venturi outlets for the carburettor being 2 large open rectangles instead of 4 individual holes so the carb should flow a little easier as well.
- a Brawler 650cfm double-pumper carburettor.  Brawler is a budget* sub-brand of Holley and uses all the same designs, so the only difference between this and a genuine Holley is the nameplate (or so I’m told). The double pumper set-up combined with the big intake should make for decent throttle response and an eagerness to rev.
- GT40 cylinder heads from a late-model fuel-injected car. These came on a fair few 5.0s over the course of the 90’s, and originally it was thought that the ones for the Galaxie would’ve been sourced from an Explorer. However, in a keen twist of fate, it appears the heads actually come from a ‘93 Mustang Cobra, as they were equipped with Crane Cams rocker arms from the factory. So that’s nice. EDIT: these are now back from the machine shop with humongous valves. I also sourced a period set of valve covers, repainted them and polished the ribs:
 
- a Trick Flow TFS1 camshaft, which to be honest I know very little about but based on reading some forum posts and watching some YouTube comparison videos I’ve concluded it should give it not only a nice lumpy idle but should also encourage it to rev as well.
- Keith Black pistons; same as the camshaft, I don’t know a massive pile about these but online research suggests that these are the go-to for a 347 build.
All the gaskets have been ordered and are mostly delivered (still waiting on exhaust gaskets I think), so we should be able to complete the engine assembly and drop it into the car this week hopefully. I’ve no idea what a final power figure will be, but my dad and his machinist have built and dyno’d hundreds of engines over the decades and tell me that this combination would be estimated to have c. 400hp at the crank, which would be swell.
Also sitting awaiting installation is the transmission, an AOD sourced from a (different) Fox-body.
 
We’ve dropped the rear differential, cracked it open, cleaned it out and have these sitting ready to be popped in:
 
It’s a 4.11 final drive, which should give it some oomph off the line (not that it’ll get put to the test…much). A new driveshaft will also be needed, as the one that’s in there is rusted to buggery and is also fairly weedy looking, surprising given the size of the car and the powertrain that was in it before.

Update time, finally.
I saw the car in person for the first time on Monday. I was momentarily given a lump in my throat by the fact that the thing I’ve been obsessing over these last couple of months, receiving pictures and spending modest* sums of money on parts and bits was now sitting in front of me, very tangible and very real. Pics of the car as I first saw it:


New floors all sealed up and looking sharp:




 

 
To say it’s “shagged oot” is probably the understatement of the century: this is a project and a half. However, the potential to be something magnificent(ly shit) is great, so with that in mind there’s been some solid graft done this week. I’ll have to split it across a couple of posts, as I’ve hit the upload limit fairly easily.

(Part 2 of close-up pics)


Rear bumper is completely shat:



 

Engine & Drivetrain
This car originally had a 289ci from the factory, so the decision was made to pop another SBF in as it would be a straight swap, instead of having to source the bits for a big block.
The engine that’ll be going is as follows - the build spec is what I’ve been told is in it/going on it, as the bottom end was already built before I got it:

- a 302 sourced from a Fox-body Mustang, stroked out to 347ci (which I understand is achieved by both boring the cylinders by 0.030” and also with a different crankshaft). EDIT: now in a fetching shade of Ford blue (this is not the final oil pan, there’s a fancier ribbed item going on to match the valve covers)

- an Edelbrock F4B intake manifold, which was an original 60’s/70’s performance item and so should be period correct for this car. The main benefit of this intake is the higher-rising inlet and exhaust plenums, along with the actual Venturi outlets for the carburettor being 2 large open rectangles instead of 4 individual holes so the carb should flow a little easier as well.
- a Brawler 650cfm double-pumper carburettor.  Brawler is a budget* sub-brand of Holley and uses all the same designs, so the only difference between this and a genuine Holley is the nameplate (or so I’m told). The double pumper set-up combined with the big intake should make for decent throttle response and an eagerness to rev.
- GT40 cylinder heads from a late-model fuel-injected car. These came on a fair few 5.0s over the course of the 90’s, and originally it was thought that the ones for the Galaxie would’ve been sourced from an Explorer. However, in a keen twist of fate, it appears the heads actually come from a ‘93 Mustang Cobra, as they were equipped with Crane Cams rocker arms from the factory. So that’s nice. EDIT: these are now back from the machine shop with humongous valves. I also sourced a period set of valve covers, repainted them and polished the ribs:
 
- a Trick Flow TFS1 camshaft, which to be honest I know very little about but based on reading some forum posts and watching some YouTube comparison videos I’ve concluded it should give it not only a nice lumpy idle but should also encourage it to rev as well.
- Keith Black pistons; same as the camshaft, I don’t know a massive pile about these but online research suggests that these are the go-to for a 347 build.
All the gaskets have been ordered and are mostly delivered (still waiting on exhaust gaskets I think), so we should be able to complete the engine assembly and drop it into the car this week hopefully. I’ve no idea what a final power figure will be, but my dad and his machinist have built and dyno’d hundreds of engines over the decades and tell me that this combination would be estimated to have c. 400hp at the crank, which would be swell.
Also sitting awaiting installation is the transmission, an AOD sourced from a (different) Fox-body.
 
We’ve dropped the rear differential, cracked it open, cleaned it out and have these sitting ready to be popped in:
 
It’s a 4.11 final drive, which should give it some oomph off the line (not that it’ll get put to the test…much). A new driveshaft will also be needed, as the one that’s in there is rusted to buggery and is also fairly weedy looking, surprising given the size of the car and the powertrain that was in it before.

That’s all I’ve got for now - once the oily bits are sorted, then we’ll deal with the cosmetics. The patina-lickers among you will be discouraged to hear that the plan is a full repaint, sitting on a set of gloss black steels and keeping the original cream interior colour scheme.
Also, someone please remind me in the next day or two to go back and add more pictures.

Engine & Drivetrain
This car originally had a 289ci from the factory, so the decision was made to pop another SBF in as it would be a straight swap, instead of having to source the bits for a big block.
The engine that’ll be going is as follows - the build spec is what I’ve been told is in it/going on it, as the bottom end was already built before I got it:

- a 302 sourced from a Fox-body Mustang, stroked out to 347ci (which I understand is achieved by both boring the cylinders by 0.030” and also with a different crankshaft). EDIT: now in a fetching shade of Ford blue (this is not the final oil pan, there’s a fancier ribbed item going on to match the valve covers)

- an Edelbrock F4B intake manifold, which was an original 60’s/70’s performance item and so should be period correct for this car. The main benefit of this intake is the higher-rising inlet and exhaust plenums, along with the actual Venturi outlets for the carburettor being 2 large open rectangles instead of 4 individual holes so the carb should flow a little easier as well.
- a Brawler 650cfm double-pumper carburettor.  Brawler is a budget* sub-brand of Holley and uses all the same designs, so the only difference between this and a genuine Holley is the nameplate (or so I’m told). The double pumper set-up combined with the big intake should make for decent throttle response and an eagerness to rev.
- GT40 cylinder heads from a late-model fuel-injected car. These came on a fair few 5.0s over the course of the 90’s, and originally it was thought that the ones for the Galaxie would’ve been sourced from an Explorer. However, in a keen twist of fate, it appears the heads actually come from a ‘93 Mustang Cobra, as they were equipped with Crane Cams rocker arms from the factory. So that’s nice. EDIT: these are now back from the machine shop with humongous valves. I also sourced a period set of valve covers, repainted them and polished the ribs:
 
- a Trick Flow TFS1 camshaft, which to be honest I know very little about but based on reading some forum posts and watching some YouTube comparison videos I’ve concluded it should give it not only a nice lumpy idle but should also encourage it to rev as well.
- Keith Black pistons; same as the camshaft, I don’t know a massive pile about these but online research suggests that these are the go-to for a 347 build.
All the gaskets have been ordered and are mostly delivered (still waiting on exhaust gaskets I think), so we should be able to complete the engine assembly and drop it into the car this week hopefully. I’ve no idea what a final power figure will be, but my dad and his machinist have built and dyno’d hundreds of engines over the decades and tell me that this combination would be estimated to have c. 400hp at the crank, which would be swell.
Also sitting awaiting installation is the transmission, an AOD sourced from a (different) Fox-body.
 
We’ve dropped the rear differential, cracked it open, cleaned it out and have these sitting ready to be popped in:
 
It’s a 4.11 final drive, which should give it some oomph off the line (not that it’ll get put to the test…much). A new driveshaft will also be needed, as the one that’s in there is rusted to buggery and is also fairly weedy looking, surprising given the size of the car and the powertrain that was in it before.

Front-end clean up:
Before the new engine gets dropped in, the front chassis rails and all the steering/suspension bits were absolutely caked in rust and decades-old mud and crud. Exhibit A:

 
So, I set about it with a wire wheel (ended up tanning 4 of them through the process) to get all this shit ground down to a point where it can be treated with OSPHO to flash off the excess and then it’ll get resealed and repainted with truck bed liner for a bit of weather proofing.
First pass with the wire wheels ended up as below:


EDIT: and then a second go, once the wire wheel stock had been replenished:

A bit more Protestant-looking than before.
The car has drums all round, and the plan is to recondition the rears while binning the fronts for discs. They’re some of the biggest drums I’ve ever seen, and also some of the worst:


2nd pic shows all the caked-up shit I couldn’t get at before, which got cleaned off when the drums were removed.
The front discs are off of a ‘73 Torino, because the spindles to hold them are a bolt-on item for these full-size body-on-frame Fords across a 15ish year span, so it’s a very easy swap. They got cleaned off with the wire wheel and sprayed black, so are now very shiny and ill-fitting with the condition of the rest of the front end.
In the process of removing the old spindles and refitting the new ones, one of the holding bolts on the lower ball joint on the passenger side cross-threaded itself, and also they’re not in the best of shape being nearly 60 years old, so we’ve popped on a new set of of these as well.
EDIT: with the new ball joints ready to go on with the spindles, today we gave it a blast with the OSPHO and then sprayed the whole thing black:

 
And finally, a close-up of the new ball-joints and spindles (the spindle bolts are only hand-tightened for now, that’s a Tuesday job along with getting the calipers on):

(Part 2 of close-up pics)


Rear bumper is completely shat:



 

Update time, finally.
I saw the car in person for the first time on Monday. I was momentarily given a lump in my throat by the fact that the thing I’ve been obsessing over these last couple of months, receiving pictures and spending modest* sums of money on parts and bits was now sitting in front of me, very tangible and very real. Pics of the car as I first saw it:


New floors all sealed up and looking sharp:




 

 
To say it’s “shagged oot” is probably the understatement of the century: this is a project and a half. However, the potential to be something magnificent(ly shit) is great, so with that in mind there’s been some solid graft done this week. I’ll have to split it across a couple of posts, as I’ve hit the upload limit fairly easily.

Engine & Drivetrain
This car originally had a 289ci from the factory, so the decision was made to pop another SBF in as it would be a straight swap, instead of having to source the bits for a big block.
The engine that’ll be going is as follows - the build spec is what I’ve been told is in it/going on it, as the bottom end was already built before I got it:

- a 302 sourced from a Fox-body Mustang, stroked out to 347ci (which I understand is achieved by both boring the cylinders by 0.030” and also with a different crankshaft). EDIT: now in a fetching shade of Ford blue (this is not the final oil pan, there’s a fancier ribbed item going on to match the valve covers)

- an Edelbrock F4B intake manifold, which was an original 60’s/70’s performance item and so should be period correct for this car. The main benefit of this intake is the higher-rising inlet and exhaust plenums, along with the actual Venturi outlets for the carburettor being 2 large open rectangles instead of 4 individual holes so the carb should flow a little easier as well.
- a Brawler 650cfm double-pumper carburettor.  Brawler is a budget* sub-brand of Holley and uses all the same designs, so the only difference between this and a genuine Holley is the nameplate (or so I’m told). The double pumper set-up combined with the big intake should make for decent throttle response and an eagerness to rev.
- GT40 cylinder heads from a late-model fuel-injected car. These came on a fair few 5.0s over the course of the 90’s, and originally it was thought that the ones for the Galaxie would’ve been sourced from an Explorer. However, in a keen twist of fate, it appears the heads actually come from a ‘93 Mustang Cobra, as they were equipped with Crane Cams rocker arms from the factory. So that’s nice. EDIT: these are now back from the machine shop with humongous valves. I also sourced a period set of valve covers, repainted them and polished the ribs:
 
- a Trick Flow TFS1 camshaft, which to be honest I know very little about but based on reading some forum posts and watching some YouTube comparison videos I’ve concluded it should give it not only a nice lumpy idle but should also encourage it to rev as well.
- Keith Black pistons; same as the camshaft, I don’t know a massive pile about these but online research suggests that these are the go-to for a 347 build.
All the gaskets have been ordered and are mostly delivered (still waiting on exhaust gaskets I think), so we should be able to complete the engine assembly and drop it into the car this week hopefully. I’ve no idea what a final power figure will be, but my dad and his machinist have built and dyno’d hundreds of engines over the decades and tell me that this combination would be estimated to have c. 400hp at the crank, which would be swell.
Also sitting awaiting installation is the transmission, an AOD sourced from a (different) Fox-body.
 
We’ve dropped the rear differential, cracked it open, cleaned it out and have these sitting ready to be popped in:
 
It’s a 4.11 final drive, which should give it some oomph off the line (not that it’ll get put to the test…much). A new driveshaft will also be needed, as the one that’s in there is rusted to buggery and is also fairly weedy looking, surprising given the size of the car and the powertrain that was in it before.

Update time, finally.
I saw the car in person for the first time on Monday. I was momentarily given a lump in my throat by the fact that the thing I’ve been obsessing over these last couple of months, receiving pictures and spending modest* sums of money on parts and bits was now sitting in front of me, very tangible and very real. Pics of the car as I first saw it:


New floors all sealed up and looking sharp:




 

 
To say it’s “shagged oot” is probably the understatement of the century: this is a project and a half. However, the potential to be something magnificent(ly shit) is great, so with that in mind there’s been some solid graft done this week. I’ll have to split it across a couple of posts, as I’ve hit the upload limit fairly easily.

Engine & Drivetrain
This car originally had a 289ci from the factory, so the decision was made to pop another SBF in as it would be a straight swap, instead of having to source the bits for a big block.
The engine that’ll be going is as follows - the build spec is what I’ve been told is in it/going on it, as the bottom end was already built before I got it:

- a 302 sourced from a Fox-body Mustang, stroked out to 347ci (which I understand is achieved by both boring the cylinders by 0.030” and also with a different crankshaft). EDIT: now in a fetching shade of Ford blue (this is not the final oil pan, there’s a fancier ribbed item going on to match the valve covers)

- an Edelbrock F4B intake manifold, which was an original 60’s/70’s performance item and so should be period correct for this car. The main benefit of this intake is the higher-rising inlet and exhaust plenums, along with the actual Venturi outlets for the carburettor being 2 large open rectangles instead of 4 individual holes so the carb should flow a little easier as well.
- a Brawler 650cfm double-pumper carburettor.  Brawler is a budget* sub-brand of Holley and uses all the same designs, so the only difference between this and a genuine Holley is the nameplate (or so I’m told). The double pumper set-up combined with the big intake should make for decent throttle response and an eagerness to rev.
- GT40 cylinder heads from a late-model fuel-injected car. These came on a fair few 5.0s over the course of the 90’s, and originally it was thought that the ones for the Galaxie would’ve been sourced from an Explorer. However, in a keen twist of fate, it appears the heads actually come from a ‘93 Mustang Cobra, as they were equipped with Crane Cams rocker arms from the factory. So that’s nice. EDIT: these are now back from the machine shop with humongous valves. I also sourced a period set of valve covers, repainted them and polished the ribs:
 
- a Trick Flow TFS1 camshaft, which to be honest I know very little about but based on reading some forum posts and watching some YouTube comparison videos I’ve concluded it should give it not only a nice lumpy idle but should also encourage it to rev as well.
- Keith Black pistons; same as the camshaft, I don’t know a massive pile about these but online research suggests that these are the go-to for a 347 build.
All the gaskets have been ordered and are mostly delivered (still waiting on exhaust gaskets I think), so we should be able to complete the engine assembly and drop it into the car this week hopefully. I’ve no idea what a final power figure will be, but my dad and his machinist have built and dyno’d hundreds of engines over the decades and tell me that this combination would be estimated to have c. 400hp at the crank, which would be swell.
Also sitting awaiting installation is the transmission, an AOD sourced from a (different) Fox-body.
 
We’ve dropped the rear differential, cracked it open, cleaned it out and have these sitting ready to be popped in:
 
It’s a 4.11 final drive, which should give it some oomph off the line (not that it’ll get put to the test…much). A new driveshaft will also be needed, as the one that’s in there is rusted to buggery and is also fairly weedy looking, surprising given the size of the car and the powertrain that was in it before.

(Part 2 of close-up pics)


Rear bumper is completely shat:



 

Update time, finally.
I saw the car in person for the first time on Monday. I was momentarily given a lump in my throat by the fact that the thing I’ve been obsessing over these last couple of months, receiving pictures and spending modest* sums of money on parts and bits was now sitting in front of me, very tangible and very real. Pics of the car as I first saw it:


New floors all sealed up and looking sharp:




 

 
To say it’s “shagged oot” is probably the understatement of the century: this is a project and a half. However, the potential to be something magnificent(ly shit) is great, so with that in mind there’s been some solid graft done this week. I’ll have to split it across a couple of posts, as I’ve hit the upload limit fairly easily.

Update time, of sorts:
I have arrived state-side and will be getting stuck into the car from next weekend - I’m currently in Florida and working remotely, so won’t get up to North Carolina until the weekend.
As I’m staying with my grandparents in Florida, I’ve been given the use of their vehicles to get around whilst I’m here - originally, I was going to be let use their ‘good’ car, a very typical Floridian pensioner cliche:

A 2016 Cadillac CT6, the last full-size Caddy saloon* you could buy - this one’s a 2L turbo-4 with 260hp, which has adequate performance but a most inadequate noise under load, which the engine most often is and detracts from the overall Cadillac experience I find. It must be relatively base-spec, as I was surprised to find no adaptive cruise or other trickery, and it has heated seats (which I assume are standard, as who in their right mind would spec them in Florida?) but not cooled. Very 1st world problems, I know.
However, I remembered they had a different car, which I was surprised they still had, and so binned off the Caddy in favour of…

This. It’s a ‘93 Eddie Bauer with the 351W/5.8L, sadly not white-on-white, it’s peppered in rust blisters, it has 3 different colours of leaks, a recently replaced tailgate that hasn’t been painted yet and it gets 10mpg while offering absolutely nothing to justify its fuel consumption.
So, naturally, I was like a moth to a flame.
It’s got a hole in the exhaust so it has an absolutely biblical cold start, and the driving position is second to none in terms of that high-up ‘king of the road’ feel. If I knew my grandfather still had it, and I hadn’t just plowed a pile of money into the Galaxie, I’d’ve bought it off him and shipped this instead.

Another side-on, to give you all a wide-on:

(Part 2 of close-up pics)


Rear bumper is completely shat:



 

In the meantime, there has been some progress Galaxie-wise:
- the bonnet has had some of its rust holes treated. The worst areas were ground down and then filled with body lead. Don’t have a picture of the finished article, but here’s some in-progress pics:
I knew the bonnet was fairly scabby, so I wasn’t surprised to see just how bad it was. New stock-looking bonnets are like hen’s teeth, so I was keen to get this one saved; the main alternative seems to be the ‘Thunderbolt’-style teardrop-scooped hood, which I’m not that keen on in this instance (plus the Thunderbolt was based on the Fairlane, so the teardrop scoop would be an anachronism to have on this car).
- the floors have been cut out and new floorpans have gone in. Galaxie-specific floorpans are a king’s ransom, so I’ve taken a more cost-effective option and have chosen to slot in a floorpan set from a same-year Mustang - the floorpan style is effectively* the same between the two cars, but the Galaxie’s are extended due to the wheelbase. Again, I’ve no pictures of the finished article, but here’s another in-progress shot:


That’s all I have to date on the Galaxie - there should be a great deal more progress within the next 2 weeks, so keep your peepers peeled.