Hello from Vista Ca

Hello, I am new to the group.  I am long time Ford fan and have been around the SBF scene for a while up until recently.  I have a 1963.5 Galaxie 500 Fastback that I am building.  The car currently has a 390FE in it with a Crui-o-matic behind it.  It also has the tubular 427 exhaust manifolds on it as well along with a factory aluminum 4 barrel intake manifold.  I have put the Ride Tech 4 link rear suspension on the car with their coil-overs. The front has Fatman Fabrications tubular control arms with a 1 inch sway bar and Ride tech coil-overs as well. For the Brakes I am running a Wilwood master cylinder and prop valve combo with 13 inch rotors and 6 pistons brakes in the front and 12 inch rotors and 4 piston calipers in the rear.   I am currently building a 521 Stroker with Scat forged internals and CP pistons. I am planning on running the Kaase P-51 or SR-71 cylinder heads on it.  I have yet to decide on a Cam for the engine but that will come very soon.  I have a built C-6 to go behind the 521 with a 3K stall 10 inch converter.  I look forward to learning more about the 385 platform here and sharing my build with everyone.




Nick

Nice car! I have a 64 Galaxie but 63.5 is my favorite. Welcome to the site.

Welcome Nick!!
Very nice ride you have there!!
My father had one very similar to it....same color and blue interior. His was a Galaxie 500 (not the XL) with a bench seat and 390/ 4 speed combo.

It’s like you copied my build!!!

It’s like you copied my build!!! I have a white 64, originally blue interior now gray tweed, ride tech 4 link with Viking DA’s, Fat Man front ctrl arms, QA1 coilovers, rack n pinion steering, AFR headed 547 build in process, TK0600, etc.......

What size and backspacing are those wheels?

wickettoby1 wrote:It’s like you copied my build!!! I have a white 64, originally blue interior now gray tweed, ride tech 4 link with Viking DA’s, Fat Man front ctrl arms, QA1 coilovers, rack n pinion steering, AFR headed 547 build in process, TK0600, etc.......

What size and backspacing are those wheels?  

Did those Fatman arms make a big difference?

It's kinda hard to say, I changed the control arms, added coilovers, and switched to rack n pinion all in one shot so it's hard to say what did what.

I also deleted the offset shafts at the same time.

Thanks.

wickettoby1 wrote:It’s like you copied my build!!! I have a white 64, originally blue interior now gray tweed, ride tech 4 link with Viking DA’s, Fat Man front ctrl arms, QA1 coilovers, rack n pinion steering, AFR headed 547 build in process, TK0600, etc.......

What size and backspacing are those wheels?  

What Rack and Pinion setup are you running? The wheels are Weld RTS s71 wheels. The fronts are 17x8.5 BS 4.2 and the rear is 17x10.5 BS 5.7. I am running M/T ET Street 305/45/17. I did not have to cut anything just a little massaging with a hammer on the inner fender well. I am not very happy with the Ride Tech coil over spring rates. They are way too soft. I am going to be adding some different springs soon. I also updated all of the suspension all at the same time so I cant say what the front control arms did except for getting rid the crank bolts and some weight savings. They said they corrected some geometry on the arms. The cars drives way way better than before with the stock suspension on it. Wickettoby1 do you have any pics of your car?

My rack n pinion kit came from Unisteer. I'll try and upload a picture tonight.

After I had to make new axle side upper control arm brackets for the ridetech 4 link setup I didn't figure that id try their coilovers which is why I went with the double adjustable Vikings.

wickettoby1 wrote:My rack n pinion kit came from Unisteer. I'll try and upload a picture tonight.

Did you go with the power steering setup or the manual rack and pinion? I want to put that setup in my car as well. I was planning on doing that when I do the engine swap. How was the install for that? Pretty easy? Or did you run into any issues? What headers do you have on the 547? Did you go with Mad Dog or FPA or custom ones?

I went with a power rack with the idea of potentially adding hydroboost down the road. The install was pretty straight forward. I had a set of Mad Dog's on it that I hated from the first time I put them on. When the 547 is done (the engine was formerly just a 466) it will have a set of custom headers on it.

Here are some shots of the progress on the big block swap!

I have been dealing with some major fitment issues with the steering and engine and trans fitting into the car.
I converted the car to a Brogeson steering box that was supposed to be for the car and didnt fit at all. I ended up having to modify the steering column and all of the steering linkage in order to get the Borgeson box to work.  The engine mounts for the conversion didn't work out either. The engine was sitting way to high and the trans was crashing into the tunnel on the car. We ended making our own mount and to clearance the tunnel on the car to get everything to sit in there the way we wanted.  The engine is supported with some temporary mounts until we finish building the engine mounts.

What did you do for headers?

I got a set of headers from Maddog Headers. They are 2 inch primaries with 3.5 inch collectors. They fit in there nicely. Since I had to move the engine around a little bit I am going to have to massage them in a few places just so they don't rest on anything, but other than that they are nice. I had major issues though with the steering box fitment. Super frustrating. I called Borgeson and sent them pictures of the box mounted up and it did not line up at all. In the end they admitted that they shouldnt be advertising their steering box to work with the 63-64 Galaxie platform. I had to modify the column and steering shaft extensively in order to make things work.

I applaud you for going back at Borgesen like that, with the low # of Galaxies that are getting built we need to be able to trust parts suppliers.

It looks like those headers fit really nice. Do you happen to have the part # from MadDog? Do you happen to have any more pictures of them on or off the car?

Here are some shots of the steering. I am definitely not happy with Borgeson.  They gave me the run around first and a friend mine owns a mustang restoration shop and uses their stuff all of the time gave them a call as well and spoke with their management and that is when they came back with answer of that they shouldn't be selling that steering box for the Galaxie.

The Maddog Header Part number is
Either 6004 or 6064. I dont remember off of the top of my head.  I spoke with them over the phone and they asked me all about the car before the order was placed.  Super nice people and communicative as well.

Wow, that steering box should not be advertised for a 63 or 64 Galaxie.

The steering box shaft is supposed to line up in the center of the hole where the steering column comes through the firewall. Not even close when you look at it. We cut the column back and fitted with a bearing to support the steering shaft and then made bushing to go into the bearing for the steering shaft to go through. We also supported the end of the column with a 2 piece clamp that got welded up under the dash. Then another $200 worth of universal joints and couplers and the steering works nicely. Just have to make the plate to fill in the hole in the firewall now.

With my rack n pinion setup I had to make a filler plate and support for the end of the column.

There were other issues with the drag link as well. Borgeson recommends that you run the manual steering drag link with their steering box. I got a new manual drag link from Dearborn classic's when I had ordered everything. When we were test fitting everything and had the drag link mounted to the idler arm and pitman arm it was way off. It did not sit horizontal in the car when the steering was straight. The drag link was at an angle because the power steering pitman arm is too long. I ended up having to modify the pitman arm because trying to find a manual steering pitman arm for a 63 Galaxie is a needle in a hay stack man. Just had to modify everything to make it work. In the end it came out nice, but it was just a bunch of work that I was not expecting to have to do.

Which Rack and Pinion setup did you go with? Flaming River or UniSteer?