Abandoned Spaceship

IN A GALAXIE 1 HOUR & 20 MINUTES AWAY . . .

I was leaving a diner in Danbury when I saw this massive rump sitting right in front of me:

All I need are the amazing taillights to identify this one! This is a 1959 Ford Galaxie in Tu-Tone Colonial White over Surf Blue. In my opinion this is the high water mark for Ford rear-end styling from the moment they started production in 1903 to the present day.

There's subtlety in adding styling cues during the Space Age, and then there's this; naming your car the Galaxie and making the back look like a rocket ship! This car was an overt (and successful) attempt at capturing the magic surrounding the Space Age, ushered in with the launch of Sputnik.

Ford launched this car in 1959 to replace the top trim level designation of the Fairlane 500. For the model year this car wore both Fairlane and Galaxie badging. When you think of the fins Cadillac was rocking in '59 (think Ecto-1) you can appreciate how understated this car is.
I briefly owned a '59 Edsel Ranger 2 door and I can tell you that this is the sister car to it. The roofline, glass, and basic bodies are identical.

I love this swooping chrome spear on the side.

Inside is so destroyed that it doesn't even have a dashboard! With the column shifter at such a high position I'm guessing that this is a 3 on the tree manual transmission.

What we would call patina in the back gives way to a primer/rust nightmare in the front.
The wipers are hinged on the outside edges on this car, meaning that the area they can't reach is the center of the windshield!
*My Edsel had a small pedal to the right of the gas pedal. I pressed on it out of curiosity once and it made the wipers turn on for one swipe! Awesome design footnote I didn't know existed.

I guess there's at least 1 tire on the passenger side. I can't imagine that finding a grill, bumper, headlights, signals, and inner fender wells will be cheap to replace on this beast.

That was all I'd seen of this slab when I shot it last year. Imagine my surprise when I saw it pop up on Craigslist for sale recently! (You mean people don't typically look at 1905-1975 cars for sale "including local areas"?)

1959 Ford 2 Door Rat Rod - $3850 (Danbury)

1959 Ford 2 Door Rat Rod. Needs work... Has Thunderbird Motor in it. Runs and Drives. Automatic. Has to go.... $3850.00 OBO. 

Runs and drives! I really didn't see that coming.

I guess if you want serious patina and couldn't care less about headlights or legality this is the ride for you!

Upstate blacked-out droptop ready to scare children

UNBELIEVABLE UPSTATE FIND!
I was driving around upstate with a friend of mine last year when we passed this angry beast sulking in a driveway. Making an immediate u-turn was a no brainer!

This evil looking angry bastard of a car is a 1969 Ford Galaxie 500 convertible in what might have been Presidential Blue or Acapulco Blue. When you look at this thing it is BLACK. However in 1969 that horizontal bar in the middle of the grill matched the original body color, and this one looks blue to me. *That hood scoop is not original by the way. The power headlights are vacuum operated so too bad if you have a slight hose leak. You could easily end up with one eye open.

This is a full-size car weighing in at around 4,400 lbs. As a convertible it achieves full cruising status with room for 5 lounging adults and multiple 6-packs. I mean, it's 1969! Seat belts were only mandatory the year before this came out.

The lines of this barge are pretty straight and clean. That gas filler door is open because you might as well just leave it that way as mileage was around 9-12 per gallon.

Okay please people leave the GT steering wheels alone! They're like a pricey version of fuzzy dice in that both do ZERO for your ride. The bones of this car are awesome though; wrap around dash and gauge cluster, console with a sweet slapstick shifter, just enough faux wood to let you know the '70s ought to be here any minute.

Wait a minute; this changes everything! Yes even as big as this car is that little 429 badge means there is a fire breathing 360 horsepower engine within producing a massive 480 lbs of torque! Being a '69 means that this motor is breathing free and guzzling all the leaded gas you can dump in it. You could just stomp the pedal to the floor and the car would probably burn its tires right off the rims.

Rough, dirty, painted spray can black with a chintzy scoop slapped on, and freaking bricks laying on the hood all mean nothing! This car is cool as hell and I want it want it want it. It was autumn in Amenia when I passed this and I have no idea what I would do with this monster in the city during winter (if it even started, etc etc etc). However this is what I believe muscle cars from the late '60s should be; a slightly too big, too powerful, convertible demon ready to eat up every one of your dollars. Viva la Galaxie!

3 legged pony

3 LEGGED PONY

Something caught my eye while I was riding past a little side street the other day:

Aww look at this hobbled punk! This is a 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 LTD in Caspian Blue Poly. She's certainly seen better days.

The Galaxie was named during the Space Race craze when it was introduced in 1959. By 1965 it had all the typical styling cues of the day; boxy, straight-line design, stacked headlights, very reserved amount of chrome, etc.

There are crests and badges all over this car. The one above is a stylized version of an English crest from the 18th century. Why? Who knows?

The hood ornament consists of 3 royal-looking lions that were also gleaned from that crest. Curiously these emblems were only on cars intended for North America. Fords throughout the rest of the world had no logos whatsoever!

Big car with a big engine but drum brakes is all you got back in '65. There's a pretty substantial shiny spot under the rear of the engine too.

The 390 V8 was an option this year and it put out plenty of power. This emblem has a stylized Thunderbird in the middle of it to denote that this was the same motor that came in the T-Bird.

Even though this is just a 2 door hardtop it weighs 3,700lbs. With the 390 it was still good for 125mph but you really needed to plan your stops with those drum brakes!

The vinyl roof was torn off of the rear I suppose to address any rust that was starting. The patina on the trunk is pretty righteous.

This was the first year for the LTD which was a top-of-the-line trim option for the Galaxie before becoming its own line in '67. I always thought it stood for limited, but it seems a good percentage of the Ford community thinks it means Luxury Trim Decor.

The interior is a disaster. The entire dashboard has been ripped out and the horn is missing, not to mention wires are visible everywhere. We can see however that it has some options such as air conditioning, pushbutton radio, and the Safety Convenience Control Panel. That last one is the small box hanging under the dash above that radio lying on the floor. It consisted of 5 idiot lights to warn you when your door was ajar or locked, fuel was low, seat belts weren't in use, or flashers were on.

Single Georgia plate on the back is all it takes to park this on the street with 3 freaking wheels and never get a ticket.

Ford had great continuity across all of its lines in the '60s. This taillight looks much like that of the Thunderbird and Falcon of the year.

Just sitting there near the curb, it's all good.

I applaud this little piece of trim for sticking it out! Pretty soon it's gonna look like the kickers helmet in the NFL.

Up close every inch of this beast is rumpled.

I couldn't resist taking a couple more shots of the inside.

I like this choice of wheels as it does make the car look tough.

This car was a massive hit when it came out. The years previous were lower and seemed wider due to the side by side headlights as opposed to the stacked ones. Since it's an LTD 2 door with the 390 it's certainly worth restoring.