1965 ford galaxie 500XL 4 speed
Make: |
Ford |
Model: |
Galaxie |
Type: |
Coupe |
Trim: |
500xl |
Year: |
1965 |
Engine: |
390 Fe |
Transmission: |
Manual |
Drive type: |
RWD |
Vehicle Title: |
Clear |
Item location: |
Elk Grove, California, United States |
1965 Ford Galaxie 500xl Additional Info:
Hello, the listing is a two car package. I will not separate.
The red car is pretty rough but its the UNICORN. A factory 1965 500XL 390 Fe 4 speed car. The engine is a beast. Purchased from the former president of the Nor Cal Galaxies he had it sitting the side of his house for a few years in response to some rough treatment from his daughter hence the ill fitting front clip on her now.
After I freed her from storage I took her directly to Tom at Fe Specialties to be revived the right way. Check him out Tom is THE guy for Fe motors in Nor Cal he does all the AC and Mustang Cobra stuff up here. Tom did a compression test and oil change and new plugs then brought the oil pressure up before finally firing and tuning the motor to wake her from her long slumber safely. Tom Also serviced the breaks yes she has factory power disc breaks and the original Kelsey Hayes system is still on the car. While in his possession I had Tom verify that the door tag is accurate and yes this is a true 4 speed car the car. The car appears to have been converted by a ford dealership to automatic when the original owner got tired of rowing gears. All the mounting points and pedal and linkage mounts are reportedly still where they should be to put her back to 4 speed. After getting her back from Tom I drove her daily to and from work the 390 pulls hard, and the automatic thats currently in her shifts smooth as silk, she will push you far back into your seat and never seems to run out of steam. If your so inclined the 390 has more than enough grunt to turn those back tires into smoke. Tom was also able to verify this is the original as shipped high performance 390 with 4 barrel carb and performance heads. I only stopped driving her due to a short in the ignition.
While I was driving her I started collecting the parts to put her back to a 4 speed. I have the original 1965 bell housing. I mention this specifically because this bell housing is super rare due to being a one year only design and specific to this car. I was also able to track down an original set of manual trans pedals Talk about rare as hens teeth, thank god for the internet, while I was collecting parts I happened to be having some chrome for my 66 galaxie redone at Sherms Chrome here in Sacramento (best in the business) and had them fix a crack and re chrome the original 1965 galaxie 500 xl script. If your into 65s you know this script is nearly impossible to find and this set is now Sherms perfect.
During my preparation for her restoration I determined the red car had more rust than I'd thought. I have taken pictures of all the known rust spots. luckily the trunk is the only part of the floor that is bad the rest is in the roof and trunk lid gasket area. the doors, frame and floor from the trunk forward underneath is solid as it gets. The plan was to cut the roof at the factory attachment post in the "A" pillar then drill out the spot welds attaching the rear quarters to the door jam and then cut the back half off of both cars and swap the donor yellow cars rear over in one big piece keeping the door tag and 4 speed specific floor panels in place. The front clip and trim on the yellow parts car is much cleaner and would have been swapped over as well. its all here and ready to go together. If you happen to be a TV show looking for a cool project you can't get much visually cooler or deceptively impressive as swapping two big chunks together instead of cutting and finishing in a bunch of little tedious patch panels.
I got lucky when scored the yellow car. Its basically everything I needed in one package. A nearly perfect sheetmetal shell with no engine trans or interior. Its got every single metal part that you'd need to bring the red car back to life and includes tons of extra trim as well as a set of 1965 500XL door panels. While the cardboard is shot the aluminum panels are nearly perfect, try and find 1965 interior door panel aluminum trim!! These guys alone are damn near impossible to find and I have a whole spare set. you'll notice there is a chevy HD hood covering the rear window hold on the yellow car as the back window was missing when I bought the car. I did however come across a 1965 galaxie coupe rear window and it will also be included with the sale.
the only major part I don't have yet is an original four speed and thats because I was debating going 5 or 6 speed instead. I build my cars to drive and having one or two overdrive gears to help with milage sounded pretty good to me.
Theres no question this is a project but all the hard to find stuff is there anything else you might need can be ordered from a catalog including a completely new interior. Good luck finding another 1965 500xl 4 speed car this cheap. if you could it'd probably be in worse shape and you can bet it wouldn't come with a WHOLE PARTS CAR THAT HAS EVERY MISING PIECE YOU NEED!!
I have way more money in just the extra parts than the reserve but I have picked up another car that I want to focus on so this one has got to go.
please don't hesitate to ask any questions or make an appointment with me to see the car if you'd like. No I don't need help selling and first guy to my door with the right amount of cash gets it all!