Big Boned - 1964 Ford Custom Galaxie

[johnnysuede23]

Hello all,
Here is my 1964 Ford Custom Galaxie. It's big, it's heavy and it is perfect for autocross and track days.:lostmarbles:
http://i63.tinypic.com/2w4ekr4.jpg

I bought it in Arizona in 2003 as little more than a shell and set out to make it road worthy and pretty enough to use for a wedding getaway car. After that it sat neglected while I was building and driving a Factory Five cobra.

http://suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/009/Suede-Speed-Ford-Galaxie-Wedding,medium.2x.1531411021.jpg

Everything came full circle again in 2012, my wife and I had our first kid and the family no longer fit in the cobra. I really didn't have much of a plan besides doing big burnouts and ruining tires with it. That hasn't changed much, although I'm having fun autocrossing it.

http://suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/008/Suede-Speed-Ford-Galaxie-Street-Machine-Challenge,medium.2x.1531411019.jpg

I will get into updating this tread as time goes on, I'm hoping to make some significant handling upgrades over the winter. If time / money permits. Thanks for taking a look!

[awr68]

Very cool story! Have fun with it!

[rustomatic]

Awesome car--I love the pic with the just-married couple under a sign that says "liquor store open." That is perfect timing!

I was just watching video of the Goodwood Festival yesterday (mainly for the fire-breathing Holman-Moody Fairlane) that included a couple of really fast lightweight Galaxies. It's great stuff, if you haven't seen it.

I have the mini-version of this car!

[fleetus macmullitz]

Great name for it. :thumbsup:

[CurtiSS 69]

Love it. Throwing that tank around the cones...That's fresh. Looks like fun! Can't wait too see what you'll do to it. Bring it on.

Regards

CurtiSS 69

[johnnysuede23]

Thanks for the encouragement guys, it is much appreciated.

Here are some photos of the front suspension I was running this past year.
http://home.suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/052/20150607-124441-zpszcicbc08,medium_large.1519163419.jpg
http://home.suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/053/20150607-124510-zpswsvzz5hu,medium_large.1519163420.jpg

In the rear a roll bar as well as Viking double adjustable shocks were added. Suprisingly 17/35/315s fit with little to no modifications. I'm hoping to do a 3 link with watts bar setup.
http://home.suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/255/20150501-100351,medium_large.1519237136.jpg

[WSSix]

Welcome to the site! Looks like a fun project. Good luck with your plans.

[johnnysuede23]

I don't have allot of progress to report. I have 6 different spindles in my garage and have finally found one that I think will work. After attending Ron Sutton's class and learning about roll centers and scrub radius and many other things i had never thought about. I realize how much more there is to suspension then I could have imagined. I'm a beginner.
I've decided I'm going for a best effort autocross car. I'm not ready to put a cage in it and as such road course duty is out of the question.

Here are my goals for the front suspension.
-Lower car 2 inches currently 6
-Move wheels out 2 inches on each side (current setup DEEP in the wheel well)
-18x11 inch wheels on front with 6.6 inches back spacing (common mustang rear wheels)
-Minimize body roll I don't know enough about this yet to have a specific goal.
- optimize caster, camber gain, ackerman, bump steer.

[LuxurySportCoupe]

Nice Galaxie! Are those the fatman control arms? Also, I'm interested in what offset, etc you're running to fit 315's? I have 275's on mine (although with a narrower wheel 15x8 and more sidewall bulge) and they barely clear.

[johnnysuede23]

Nice Galaxie! Are those the fatman control arms? Also, I'm interested in what offset, etc you're running to fit 315's? I have 275's on mine (although with a narrower wheel 15x8 and more sidewall bulge) and they barely clear.

Sweet another Galaxie! Nice looking car.

I am running the fatman control arms currently, I'm working on replacing them with a longer lower and adjustable upper.

The back wheels are 17x10.5 i want to say 1.1 inches of + offset. They are a really common and cheap mustang wheel (94-2004?) I also have a spacer installed. Sorry I'm going off of memory here it has been a while since i worked on anything back there. The tire is about a half inch from hitting the leaf springs. I have had some rubs in the wheel well on the outside while autocrossing. that was "adjusted". There is probably a good 1.5-2 inches of space between the quarter panel and the wheel well.
here are a few pics, I want to say that this was with a 1.5 inch spacer and I think I'm running a 1.25 now.

[blue04.5]

Great car.

[johnnysuede23]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIxLFC-sOAw

[E.rodz]

nice job this weekend Mark looks like your changes are going the right direction! I thought I was the only one dumb enough to build a boat of a car and decide to autocross it too. lol. car looked great for such a tight track you are definitely getting it dialed in looking forward to another rematch .

[johnnysuede23]

nice job this weekend Mark looks like your changes are going the right direction! I thought I was the only one dumb enough to build a boat of a car and decide to autocross it too. lol. car looked great for such a tight track you are definitely getting it dialed in looking forward to another rematch .
Thanks Eric, I still have alot to do to stiffen things up. We really need a CAM sedan class! I was suprised at how well the tiny course flowed. looking forward to Powercruise in a few weeks, I need some nitrous to keep up with you!

[johnnysuede23]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-jPpmXJWgI
Hill climb this past weekend. Pretty happy with taking 7th place. I ran into some trouble with my cooling system so I only got 2 timed runs in.

[jasonf]

Searching through old posts and found this one. Not a lot of Galaxies so it's a shame the pictures don't work anymore. . I wonder if this is another dead project.

[johnnysuede23]

Searching through old posts and found this one. Not a lot of Galaxies so it's a shame the pictures don't work anymore. . I wonder if this is another dead project.

Not dead by any means. Photobucket is dead though. I moved most of the photos to www.suedespeed.com

[jasonf]

Not dead by any means. Photobucket is dead though. I moved most of the photos to www.suedespeed.com


Thanks, I will check out that link. Photobucket in deed sucks.

[johnnysuede23]

Were back! After the photobucket disaster I lost interest in keeping the forums updated. Found a decent way to host pictures.. on to the fun stuff.

Galaxies are not the lightest cars, You probably won't see it on Lateral-G list of best autocross platforms. To continue to improve performance the car needed to go on a serious diet. It didn't take long to find places to shave a few pounds. I built a hood which resulted in a loss of 25 lbs, then a front bumper and brackets, which was another 45 lbs savings. And I bought a trunk lid which was around 20 lbs savings.
http://suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/011/Suede-Speed-Ford-Galaxie-Fiberglass-hood2,medium_large.1531418168.jpg

http://suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/012/Suede-Speed-Ford-Galaxie-Fiberglass-hood,medium_large.1531418169.jpg
http://home.suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/258/IMG-20170617-094328241-HDR,medium_large.1519238578.jpg

We managed to win the Minnesota Autosports Club CAMT championship in 2017. I made it out to Goodguys in Des Moines, IA to see how it is done on a national level. All in all a good year. I plan on running the car in 2018 as is and hoping to get my other projects done for 2019.

[egoman]

Do you have any pics of making the molds or pulling molds from the car.
I also will be needing to reduce weight in large chunks when I start my build(FORD BASED).

[johnnysuede23]

Do you have any pics of making the molds or pulling molds from the car.
I also will be needing to reduce weight in large chunks when I start my build(FORD BASED).

I watched a few hundred hours of youtube videos before deciding to give it a go.

[gofastwclass]

Do you have any pics of making the molds or pulling molds from the car.
I also will be needing to reduce weight in large chunks when I start my build(FORD BASED).

There is a DIY guy from Oz on YouTube with the username WJP004 who has several fiberglass videos covering exactly what you are looking for.

[egoman]

Thank you

[johnnysuede23]

There is a DIY guy from Oz on YouTube with the username WJP004 who has several fiberglass videos covering exactly what you are looking for.

Definitely a good resource, his approach is more realistic for the do it yourself-er. If you get tired of watching his fiberglass videos he has a series on how to build a house. Yep the whole thing. :cheers:

[johnnysuede23]

It's been over a year now. Getting ready for this season.

Have to share some media attention on Bangshift
https://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/awesome-1964-galaxie/

been working on this hood for a bit now.
http://suedespeed.com/storage/cache/images/000/027/20190315-182508,large.1553545024.jpg

[waynieZ]

I love those hoods on Galaxie's