Suspect Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 I found a couple cars I liked on cragslist, 1957 Oldsmobile 2 door, 1956 Ford Fairlane 4 door, and 53 or 54 Chevy Fire Truck. I then realized that they were all owned by the same person about 30 miles away from me. I was real interested in the fairlane and the olds. The guy was showing me around, broght me over to this 68 Galaxie, sat in it and hit the key... just took right off. I don't have any real money so I offered him the Suburban I drove out there. I was alittle surprized he took it but after looking over the car some I realized why. The galaxie is a 390 car with automatic. Its a 2 door no post but not a fast back. The body is in fairly decent shape considering it was bought new in Indiana, and I just bought it in Michigan. The frame bottom under both doors is rotted out but the top and sides of the frame is still good. It does need its work, but hopefully the motor is good in it. After I traded I headed to my sisters with it to help her move, just was a few houses down. After that I had a 40 mile drive to home base. About 1/2 way home I saw this flicker under the dash, it honestly looked like it was on fire. It turned out to be the oil light was flashing and then came on solid. I checked the oil, was 1 qt short, added a quart and proceeded home. The oil light would flicker every time I slowed down. I hope it is just old broke down oil and after an oil change everything is good.... i hope. This car looks to need some work but I have high hopes of driving it to my friends wedding 580 miles away. I have about a month to get everything right. Anyways here is some bad pictures of the car, hood scoop is off my friends rx7 and is just sitting there on the hood. Quote Link to comment
yenpit Posted March 31, 2012 Report Share Posted March 31, 2012 Hey Dave, I think my buddy owned that car for a year or two!! The frame rot sounds exactly the same, same year, same color. Small world!! I like big old Fords. Get that frame fixed, and drive that thing as is!! Another buddy & I did a 63-1/2 Galaxie rat rod...........all new suspension, custom ultra wide black steel wheels for that classic Nascar look, freshened up the 302, rebuilt the FMX trans, BUT we left the chaulky faded red body & paint alone.............rarely even washed it. That was a cool ol' cruising machine!! Quote Link to comment
Suspect Posted April 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2012 I've been looking around for parts here and there. I was looking for manifolds but I think I just found some. It looks like I have to rebuild the motor or at least freshen it up some. I have a cylinder thats oiling the plug bad enough it isn't firing on it. It also seems to lose oil pressure even with new oil. This car has a dealer sticker on the back from Elkheart Indiana. I bought it in Lawrence and that guy bought it in Betton Harbor 3 months ago. Quote Link to comment
flyerdan Posted April 2, 2012 Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 I had a '67 Ford with a 390 that had the same pulsing oil light at idle, new crank bearings cured it. It was a fogger as well, carried a 2 gallon can of Standby 30w in the trunk. At teardown found all the oil rings carboned down, it was like they weren't even there. Quote Link to comment
Suspect Posted April 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2012 Some daylight pics.... Quote Link to comment
Suspect Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Well I was about to pull the heads to have sent to the machine shop. I thought it had a bad valve. It was smoking like a train, knocking, and I thought it had no oil pressure. Well it turned out to have 50lbs oil pressure down the road and 20-25 on idle. All the cylinders but one were 150+ lbs of compression. The other one was 25. As soon as I pulled the valve cover, I noticed a pusrod missing and with a magned I recovered it in two pieces. I managed to find a 390 in a truck at the junk yard, pulled a few pushrods, droped one in and that seemed to fix all the problems. It don't knock anymore, don't smoke, and its hitting on all 8 cylinders. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoDpsGnnY80&list=UU-zbm22MCKB9WndSWzFD0Mw&index=1&feature=plcp Quote Link to comment
Suspect Posted June 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2012 Not to beat a dead post back to life, but I did some more work on the car. I was in a scramble because I had made it in my mind that I was going to drive this thing to Missouri. Well I did, and without any problems. I got 9 to 17 mpg depending which state I bought gas from. It was a great trip, other than my idiot friend was getting on my nerves. That might have been his last long distance trip riding shotgun. New things done to the car interior is aftermarket gauges installed, different front bench seat from a 1973 Ford LTD, cd player hung under the dash, MTX 6X9's on rear deck, 4X10 cheapo in dash, 6X9 pioneer under dash, and removed horn pad because it was just too ugly. Under the hood is basically the same other than replaced the manifolds, added a fuel pressure gauge, brand new radiator, old chrome air cleaner I had laying around, and wired a 2nd fuse box to a 2nd accessory outlet under glove box just so my idiot friend wounldn't overload the the original one with his shit. On the exterior I rattle canned it Deep Forrest Green by rustoleum, put 18X9 Torq Thrust rims on it, and had an exhaust shop rip me off installing a used flowmaster muffler. Quote Link to comment
bonvo Posted June 4, 2012 Report Share Posted June 4, 2012 car looks great ill trade ya my subi for it :P Quote Link to comment
Syncro Posted June 5, 2012 Report Share Posted June 5, 2012 any photo's of the interior? walk around? Quote Link to comment
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