A Lesson Learned - Ford Galaxie Club of America

A Lesson Learned
by Mark Reynolds - Harrison, Arkansas
Time date, Milky Way Galaxie, planet Earth, owners log May
15th, 2012 . . . I’m remembering back when I was living in another
part of the world and took my first trip after purchasing a site unseen
1964 Galaxie that I found in Hemmings Motor News.
We were staying near Colville, Washington, at the time and
I had just recently become a member of our club. This was 1993. Not
even thinking about having another member look at this car, I went
ahead and sent the owner a down payment for the $6,000 sale price.
I was convinced I was getting a good deal. I flew into Louisville, Kentucky, and the owner picked me up and drove me to where the car
was stored. A pretty nice looking “Skylight” blue Galaxie was sitting
in an enclosed garage. (I call it Smurf blue.) But being the amateur
that I was at the time, I missed a lot that might have made me try to
figure out another way home than I had planned—which was to drive
this car about 2,800 miles back to Washington, AFTER going to Jefferson City, Tennessee; Falling Waters, West Virginia; and Branson,
Missouri.
Well, what the heck! I really DID like the car, and got to really know it that first two weeks of ownership. So I paid the guy the
rest of the price and jumped in and took off! My first stop was Burger
King because frankly, I was famished. I came out to take off and well,
guess what? Problem #1 . . . I needed a BATTERY. The battery, even
after driving 50 miles had not taken a charge. There was an auto
parts store next to Burger King and they checked the system and
said, yes, you need a battery. So in goes the new battery and off to
Jefferson City, Tennessee, I go. When I get to Jefferson City I meet
with an old friend at his house.
The next day I head up to Falling Waters, West Virginia,
where I had been asked to sing at a Gospel gathering. On the way,
while passing through Mechanicsburg, Virginia, I decide to stop and
have a loud exhaust noise checked out. Seems I had a rather nasty
exhaust leak, so much so that it was giving me a headache while driving.
What I found out next gave me more than a headache. It
gave me the urge to . . . KILL! It seems my so called honest owner
was a crook and a liar and he really couldn’t care less about stranding someone close to 3,000 miles from home. Oh, what a surprise! It
turned out that the exhaust manifold donut was loose. Not worn, but
loose. After he went ahead an tightened up the pipe to the manifold
the noise went away and another one that it had been hiding became
apparent. A low end ROD KNOCK. Oh goody, here I am 2,500 miles
from my home in Washington with a car that has a rod knock. So I
managed to make it to Falling Waters, and then back to Jefferson
City, Tennessee.
My good friend, Joe Kinney, came over and did an oil pressure test. WONDERFUL! 5 POUNDS at IDLE! And 12 pounds running pressure! GREAT! Lots of load going up mountains on the way
home and I am supposed to drive to Colville like this? Well, another
friend, Bill, who I am staying with says, “let’s drop the bottom end and
fix what is wrong.” So for the next four days in his spare time and with
me doing what I can when he wasn’t there, we dropped the lower end
out and replaced the crank, main bearings, and rod bearings. Put all
back together and varoom . . . 50 pounds of pressure. No smoke and
now I can head home.
I headed out and stopped in Branson for a conference and
then drove one good days drive away for the night. The next day I
drove straight through to Colville. The last couple hundred miles was
Mountain Dew time! It kept me up and pretty alert to say the least.
Along the way, I had to replace the drive shaft unions, what
Galaxie
do they call those things? Oh, yeah, universal joints. I lost a wheel
cover and found out that the rear fenders were not steel but rather
thick plastic where the wheel cover knocked off a chunk. When I get
to Washington and start looking really close I find the trunk pan is
really rotted out all over the place, the gas tank was leaking from a
hole that was in the top, both inner quarter fenders were toast and
both of the rocker panels were rusted out badly from the water that
got trapped in them. Both of the outer fenders were solid bondo, at
least a gallon would have been my estimate.
I guess $6,000 wasn’t such a good deal after all! SURPRISE! So what else was wrong? How about a single speed wiper
that was wired to a toggle switch? Why was it wired to a toggle
switch? Because the wiring harness was TOAST! How about a carburetor that was shot? Boy was I getting to hate toast. Kept finding
one thing after another that was TOAST! So I dragged out the dash
board, had it repainted and rewired it. In the meanwhile I painted
the heck out of the inside of the trunk area with silver POR 15 and
at least kept it from getting any worse. I found a decent gas tank
and cleaned and lined it. I made it through a couple of more winters
and became the director of our club. That was sixteen years ago.
We moved from Washington to Arkansas and dragged
along the unrestored 1964. We had managed to squeeze it on a
U-haul trailer to get it here. (It did scuff off some paint, by the way)
I had left behind a nice 1964 parts car that I had sawed
the back off of from the back doors to the bumper area. I guess it
was about half the car. And I finally got LUCKY! Can you believe it?
Well actually, it was the power of attraction for any of you who have
ever read “The Secret.” Yes, I was becoming obsessed with trying
to figure out a way to get that half of a ‘64 to Harrison, Arkansas,
because I had found a body shop that was reasonable and the guy
who owned it was a master at fixing body problems. When I told
him what I had back in Washington he said that he could make my
convertible look as good as new if I could get it to him. I mean that
back half was from a desert and had NO rust at all. It was if it had
been in a time capsule. BUT it was sitting 2,300+ miles away in my
old back yard up in Colville. One day a friend calls, mentioning he has to go get a
trailer load of belongings for another friend who lives in, GUESS
WHERE? Would you have guessed COLVILLE, WASHINGTON?
Yes, so what are the chances unless Rhonda Byrnes is correct,
which by the way I believe she is. He actually went to where the
back half was at, put a 2x10 in front of the trailer on the tongue and
then strapped the rear of the ‘64 to the front of the trailer resting it
on the tongue. I only had to give them $150 to help cover some gas
and trailer rental to get it from Colville to here in Harrison.
Seriously folks, what are the chances? Now for the good
part. I took it to the body shop and for $1,500 he literally cut one big
huge piece out of that back half and the same out of my convertible and swapped. If YOU can tell what he did, you are way better
than anyone else who ever looked at it! So the next effort was to
get it painted. Why didn’t I just let him paint it? Because he said he
underbid the body work and so he wanted $4,000 to paint it. I said
no way am I going to overpay for the paint because you underbid
the body work.
Next, I took it to a guy who used to work in body work but
was now a postal worker full time. He did body work on the side
and did the final finishing and painting for me. I talked to him about
pulling the body from the frame and doing everything and thought
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all I had done is talked about it. One day I go to his shop and see a
Galaxie frame sitting out side. Hmmm . . . that’s strange, I wonder
where that came from? WHAT? Here I go inside and there is the
body sitting on a homemade contraption with rollers. I guess he
thought I said take it off. Oh well, it is now! So I took the frame apart
and had every piece of it powder-coated in the correct semi gloss
black.
Then I had the engine overhauled and found out the factory block was cracked. Fortunately, I had another block so we made
it into a 390 wit a standard bore, Edelbrock heads and intake, Edelbrock carburetor, and a few other goodies and here it is all put back
together and on the road. The only thing it really needs now is seat
covers, carpet, and the elusive 1964 convertible sunvisor brackets.
Oh, did I tell you? She is a “swingaway” steering column
car with a column shifter, because that is what activates the swing
away. With a blank plate on the console. I also had a new top put
on which we did an article and video about 10 years or so ago. We
drive her around a bit. We call her our “Land Yacht”. I mean she is
about as big as one!
We had a rocker arm assembly break on the way to the
2008 nationals in Branson last time and had to take it home, but
this year we are going to make it! Some folks ask me, “well how
much do you have in it?” To which I respond, “as much as was
needed.” I really never kept track and really don’t think I want to
know myself. I just know that she is beautiful, runs good, still has a
Galaxie
couple of bugs I need to take care of. She gets lots of thumbs up
wherever we go. Did I forget anything? Oh, yes, there is a magnetic
“sticker” on the console door. It says: WARNING, DRIVER ONLY
CARRIES $20 WORTH OF AMMUNITION!
Now if I can only get the seat covers and carpet done she
will look like the $10 million dollar car she is. Our Galaxie. The only
one like it on the planet. 1986 Ford Taurus blue, custom Cragar Tru
Spoke wheels, Goodyear Tires, 390 engine backed up with an Art
Caar C-6 transmission. Power steering, power brakes (well sort
of—I plan on discs eventually), Edelbrock heads, Edelbrock Performer manifold with the matching carburetor. She’s not much off
the line, thanks to the 360 truck timing chain (one of the bugs I need
to fix) but she gets up and goes when she is hammered! Oh, and
one other thing . . . SPINTECH mufflers. Those are the coolest mufflers you can buy. The faster you go, the quieter they get. I mean
who NEEDS a headache? I put her in the centerfold because I think
she deserves it. Sorry about all the ‘64 stuff lately, but it seems like
everyone else forgot to send some stuff in. I’m using what I get and
in this case I figure after having a car in the magazine two other
times in 16 years that maybe she deserves her place in Galaxie
history. And who knows? Maybe it will give me some incentive to
finish the Rum Runner!
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~Mark Reynolds
Gazette