1969 Galaxie 500 - high school/college kid budget build

Rear wheels arrived today and Judd didn't waste any time getting the tires mounted! Maybe I can get it our and take a pic of it later.

I was a little *meh* about his wheel choice at first, but now I think he nailed it.

Pics

One more

Looking good with the new wheels and tires damn that car is pretty clean and doesn't look like it would need much body work to put a nice paint job on it!!Although it does look cool the way that it is now!!

Judd likes the worn look. Kinda gives it some character.

I still can't believe he only paid $1300 for it.

Long week ended in dropping Judd off for BCT at USAFA. Gonna miss that guy.

Started piecing together a new fuel supply setup using stuff I had lying around. -8 is a bit overkill but it will be fine. I was going to use an old Duraspark distributor I had, but it really seemed sloppy, like the bearings in it were just worn out. I also had to put a gear on it (robbed the old gear off it years ago) but ended up breaking the gear when putting the roll pin in. Great. So I went ahead and ordered a new one from Rockauto for $45. The peace of mind is worth the cost. I will measure the slot, calc the advance and see if it need to be welded up.

Easiest exhaust system ever. Haha.



Everything works! And I can still hear!

https://youtu.be/tekVUBaJPDc


I thought this thing had a huge header leak so I slipped the headers down and put header gaskets in it. This was probably the easiest car to put header gaskets on that I've ever experienced.

Great. I finish up and then fire it up and it still has a huge exhaust leak up by the number five cylinder. What is going on?? It sounds like it's right behind where I mounted the coil. So I popped the coil off and lo and behold the core plug for the thermactor port is rusted out!

Now of course Ford could not use a normal size plug like 5/8 or 3/4 or something like that they had to use an oddball size that basically nobody has. But I got lucky. I went to my local O'Reilly store and asked for a core plug and the guy pulled out a book and started looking up part numbers and found a part number that would probably work. Not in stock. Closest one was in Kentucky. Boo. He checked another part number that was slightly larger and amazingly enough, he had three in stock. I bought all three.

I took them back to the shop, cleaned out the hole, and pounded the new one right on in. Win. No more leak!

BigBlockRanger wrote:Easiest exhaust system ever. Haha.



Everything works! And I can still hear!

https://youtu.be/tekVUBaJPDc


I thought this thing had a huge header leak so I slipped the headers down and put header gaskets in it. This was probably the easiest car to put header gaskets on that I've ever experienced.

Great. I finish up and then fire it up and it still has a huge exhaust leak up by the number five cylinder. What is going on?? It sounds like it's right behind where I mounted the coil. So I popped the coil off and lo and behold the core plug for the thermactor port is rusted out!

Now of course Ford could not use a normal size plug like 5/8 or 3/4 or something like that they had to use an oddball size that basically nobody has. But I got lucky. I went to my local O'Reilly store and asked for a core plug and the guy pulled out a book and started looking up part numbers and found a part number that would probably work. Not in stock. Closest one was in Kentucky. Boo. He checked another part number that was slightly larger and amazingly enough, he had three in stock. I bought all three.

I took them back to the shop, cleaned out the hole, and pounded the new one right on in. Win. No more leak!

I had one of those pop out driving down the road when i had the 466 in my LTDII and i was like WTH was that!!Sounds good with what looks like Flowmaster Mufflers!!

Pic of 390 frame perches for an interested feller.

BigBlockRanger wrote:Pic of 390 frame perches for an interested feller.

Howdy there! I'm the guy that's wanting to buy them. I'll take it!

Judd has been collecting a few parts for the Galaxie. He picked up a Weiand Stealth intake manifold, a Brawler 850 double pumper and a big Speedway aluminum radiator.

Yesterday, he brought it up to the shop and he and his buddies from HS started installing the radiator. It was good to see them all hanging out in the shop together again.

Hood clearance is going to be interesting.

Looking good with the new intake and carb FWIW i had that Intake on my LTDII with a 460 in it and don't think i had any hood clearance problems!!

Good to know, thanks!

Hood closes with a little thinner filter element!

Judd and Josh finished it up yesterday and took it for a spin around the parking lot. Seems to run strong, but he didn't get too froggy because it is really low on transmission fluid.

​Judd had an oil leak at the back of the motor. We thought it was the plastic oil pressure gauge line, so he put a copper line on yesterday. Nope. It's the manifold to china wall leaking. He is going to clean it up and and try to seal it up today.

He took it on a drive and he was very happy with how it ran. Water temp stayed low and consistent and he said he drive it kinda hard. I can attest to that because I could hear him.

I have not figured out how to embed Youtube shorts.....

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eTtSUoYjHVk?si=a24C1X-xtE4p7UsC​

BigBlockRanger wrote:​Judd had an oil leak at the back of the motor. We thought it was the plastic oil pressure gauge line, so he put a copper line on yesterday. Nope. It's the manifold to china wall leaking. He is going to clean it up and and try to seal it up today.

He took it on a drive and he was very happy with how it ran. Water temp stayed low and consistent and he said he drive it kinda hard. I can attest to that because I could hear him.

I have not figured out how to embed Youtube shorts.....

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eTtSUoYjHVk?si=a24C1X-xtE4p7UsC​

Sounds good about what my 466 in my LTDII sounded like with a Lunati Bracket Master II 00097 230-230 Duration@.050 .554-.554 Lift and 9:5.1 Compression TRW 2404 Dished Pistons Dove-C heads i also had the Stealth Intake with a 850 Holley DP!!

Bad ass!

Mark Miller wrote:

BigBlockRanger wrote:​Judd had an oil leak at the back of the motor. We thought it was the plastic oil pressure gauge line, so he put a copper line on yesterday. Nope. It's the manifold to china wall leaking. He is going to clean it up and and try to seal it up today.

He took it on a drive and he was very happy with how it ran. Water temp stayed low and consistent and he said he drive it kinda hard. I can attest to that because I could hear him.

I have not figured out how to embed Youtube shorts.....

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eTtSUoYjHVk?si=a24C1X-xtE4p7UsC​

Sounds good about what my 466 in my LTDII sounded like with a Lunati Bracket Master II 00097 230-230 Duration@.050 .554-.554 Lift and 9:5.1 Compression TRW 2404 Dished Pistons Dove-C heads i also had the Stealth Intake with a 850 Holley DP!!

I have that same Lunati, Old Part number and all. It will likely go into my 472PI and I use one of the bigger cams on the High Compression 466 with better heads.

Those wheels look like SS Craigers. Nice.

supervel45 wrote:

Mark Miller wrote:

BigBlockRanger wrote:​Judd had an oil leak at the back of the motor. We thought it was the plastic oil pressure gauge line, so he put a copper line on yesterday. Nope. It's the manifold to china wall leaking. He is going to clean it up and and try to seal it up today.

He took it on a drive and he was very happy with how it ran. Water temp stayed low and consistent and he said he drive it kinda hard. I can attest to that because I could hear him.

I have not figured out how to embed Youtube shorts.....

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eTtSUoYjHVk?si=a24C1X-xtE4p7UsC​

Sounds good about what my 466 in my LTDII sounded like with a Lunati Bracket Master II 00097 230-230 Duration@.050 .554-.554 Lift and 9:5.1 Compression TRW 2404 Dished Pistons Dove-C heads i also had the Stealth Intake with a 850 Holley DP!!

I have that same Lunati, Old Part number and all. It will likely go into my 472PI and I use one of the bigger cams on the High Compression 466 with better heads.

Those wheels look like SS Craigers. Nice.

That cam worked pretty good IMO and yes those were Cragar SS Wheels the LTDII ran a best of a 13.26@101 mph with that cam not bad for a 4,420lb. car with driver back in 1996!!

BigBlockRanger wrote:Bad ass!

Thanks that car was probably the most fun car i've built so far even though it was the slowest it was always driven to the track and back home except for one race that was 90 minutes away!!The picture i posted wasn't from 2020 it was a picture of a picture probably 1995 or 1996!!

Mark? What Gears Convertor and Heads/Portwork did you have? Sorry for the derail 83.

supervel45 wrote:Mark? What Gears Convertor and Heads/Portwork did you have? Sorry for the derail 83.

3.70 Gears,C-4 with a 10"TCI Street Fighter Converter,DOVE-C Heads can't remember if they were ported or not if they were they had very little work done to them and they Had SSI Valves Stock DOVE-C Size!!

Judd and I did a little Raceweek-fail recuperation last night at Amarillo Dragway. Judd brought the Galaxie out and made a few passes. This is only the second time it's been to the track. It was the longest trip he's made in it so far and it got pretty warm. We had some issues with fuel percolation and delivery, but we had a good time.

I made the mistake of thinking it would launch fine on the Nitto drag radials I have. Nope. First hit was a wheel spinning/hopping/dirt falling out launch. Oopsie. Car noses over about the 1/8th.

Next time Judd eases it off the line and it runs better. Still noses over but he manages to run a 14.93 @ 82

I didn't check the DA, but I reckon it was 6000-6500 feet last night.

My guess going into the evening was mid-14's and it has plenty of 1/8th mile to do that and more.

The best part though, was that it put a big ole smile on Judd's face.

The Galaxie is looking good and mid 14's in that heat and DA is pretty decent IMO!!It must be nice having a 1/4 mile drag strip in the town you live in!!How far is the track from your house?