For 1962, the Galaxie name was applied to all of Ford's full size models, as the Fairlane name was moved to a new intermediate model and Custom was temporarily retired. New top-line Galaxie 500 (two-door sedan and hardtop, four-door sedan and hardtop, and "Sunliner" convertible) models offered plusher interiors, more chrome trim outside, and a few additional luxury items over and above what was standard on the plainer Galaxie models. Base Galaxie models were available in two- and four-door sedans as well as the plain Ranch Wagon. Base engine was 3.7 l 223 cu in "Mileage Maker" 6-cylinder. The 500/XL came with a 4.8-liter V8. XL's interior and exterior were sportier.
This is the story on the Ford Galaxie 500!
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I don't think there's too many people out there that either haven't owned a Galaxie 500 or knew somebody that did.
My buddy Tim had one when I was living in Georgia my last year of high school. We put many miles on that sucker, driving the back roads of Ft Benning, smoking dope, drinking cheap whiskey and listening to music.
The reverend Horton Heat wrote a great song about it.
ReplyDeleteGreat song. I dig the Rev.
DeleteI had an uncle that had a 62 Ranch Wagon Galaxie 500 with a 406ci engine and a $:10 limited slip rear end. He would drive it to work when there was rain in the forecast otherwise he road a motorcycle. The car was used to pull a camp trailer. He drove it almost 20 years with the only problem of worn valve guides when unleaded fuel became mandatory.
ReplyDeleteMy first new car was a 1962 Ford Galaxie Sunliner convertable. 396 ci , 3 speed manual on the column. The only regret I had was I ordered it in that shit dark shit brown.
ReplyDeleteMy high school friend Bob had a sano two door with a QUADROPHONIC stereo system. Great car.
ReplyDelete"sano" now there's a word I haven't heard in decades. 60's slang fer shure.
DeleteGot up close and personal with a light pole in one 54 years ago.
ReplyDeleteMy first car was a '59 Fairlane 500 Galaxie. My second was a '63. The '63 remains one of my favorites of all the cars I've owned! I bought it in '79 for $150.00 from an old lady in Southern California. It was beautiful and EVERYTING WORKED! It had the 390 engine, power brakes and steering, and even power windows! It also had the then-dealer-installed option of AIR CONDITIONING! That A/C unit would literally blow snow at times! The engine was so smooth and quiet that when at stops at idle I occasionally had to check the idiot lights to be sure it hadn't stalled!!! Damn, that was a good car... The only downers of the car were that the gears in the power windows were prone to failure, and the generator was stupidly mounted near the bottom of the engine making it prone to dirt and such getting between the brushes and the armature. Lincoln Continentals used the same window motors and gearboxes, and could be had for $10.00 at the local junkyard. The generator could be disassembled, cleaned, and put back into service most of the time. I must have pulled that thing out a dozen times during the time I owned the car... 'Didn't matter though. I LOVED that car!
ReplyDeleteWe had two of them, great cars. Wish I could find another.
ReplyDeleteMatt
Had an early '70's Galaxie. During the last year of my high school summer job, I decided to use a daily long and lightly travel stretch of straight away to see how fast it would go. Got the car up to 110mph and then gradually brought the vehicle to a stop. Besides the speed rush from the on there was a tap tap tap sound from the engine, which increased as the vehicle speed increased.
ReplyDeleteMy first was a 62 Chevrolet Impala, 3 on the column and no power assist or a/c. Loved that car.
ReplyDeleteJD
Wow, I didn't know so many people other than myself loved them. And again, my first car was a 1971 Ford Galaxie 500. The strange thing is, it had a 351cc V8 in it, with I seem to remember a Cleveland block. It had all the power you could ever want, but the main thing about it was that it almost floated down the road, it was so smooth.
ReplyDeleteI drove it 40 miles to work, each way, for about a year, in 1978.
Then I got a 1973 Ford Gran' Torino from my uncle who bought it new. I got that car in 1978, and he was the type who kept all of his service records, and had the factory do everything, including oil changes, etc. It also had the 351 V8, but I don't know much else about the engine, except that it was FAST from a dead stop.
You won't see anyone 40 years from now talking about their first car this way. While it is sad, I have to admit that cars today are mechanically much better than the cars of old. They don't need tune ups, often they will get over 100,000 miles on a set of spark plugs. They are safer, etc. But they just don't have any sex appeal like the cars of old.
Our '71 Galaxie had a 351 Windsor in it. Later picked up another with a 400 Cleveland.
DeleteYour '73's 351 was most likely a Windsor. I had a '72 Gran Torino Sport with that engine in it. It was my first car and I miss it.
Delete64 Galaxy was my first real car. Paid $375 for it if memory serves me right. Had a 352 under the hood but a lot of parts books didn't list that engine in that model year, but I had one. Still the best car I ever owned.
ReplyDeleteYep. I remember rollin' back in the day in a Galaxie. Good times sure don't bother me.
ReplyDeleteMy first car was a 1966 Galaxie 500 with a 390ci V8. Second car was a 1967 Galaxie 500 with a 390. Third car was a 1968 Country Sedan station wagon, also with a 390.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest brother had a Galaxie, light blue but with dark hood and front doors (replaced after an accident.) He'd pull up real fast on all the stoners just to freak them out thinking they were being busted by the cops. Nice car. His girlfriend killed it unfortunately.
ReplyDelete1966 Ford Fairlane 4 door stock 289….
ReplyDeleteHand-me-down from Dad….
It allowed me to play football and track in 11th and 12th….
which got me college athletic scholarship….etc….etc….etc.
Ed357
My Great Uncle had a Galaxie 500. He was a retired Ford dealer so I bet he optioned it out. After that he had a Gran Torino, which he gave to my Mom when he stopped driving. She foolishly let my younger brother drive it and he crashed it.
ReplyDeleteHere's one for you: What pocket do you carry your keys in?
ReplyDeleteIn the '50s, you could always tell the guys who drove Fords because they carried their keys in the left pocket, because strangely enough that was the side Fords had their ignition on.
My Mom had a '69 Galaxie 2-door, white with black vinyl top, and a 429. She certainly liked it.
ReplyDeleteI drove it a couple of times, but I felt so isolated from the road I wasn't comfortable with it.
My first car was a 66 Galaxie in Wimbledon White with 3 on the tree. I had it from when I was 16 to 23. If I could get back any car I ever owned it would be that one, and I owned an 86 Testarossa. No contest.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Ford's side-oiler FE block. 336, 352, 360 (truck engine), 390 and the great 427. They would pass everything but a gas station. Had a 67 Mustang and a 70 LTD with 390's. Great power, 12 MPG no matter how you drove them. Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteGreat cars, but I get fed up with things like "came with a 4.8-liter V8" in a review. People in the USA in 1962 had no idea what a fucking liter was. The engine was a 289 V-8. You didn't even have to say cubic inch, cause that's how we always measured them. Jeez. 4.8-liter my dying ass. Fucking commie metric system.
ReplyDeleteThere's 2 types of countries in the world, those that use metric and those that have been to the moon. Period. And we sure as hell can't do it now after halfway converting to metric.
I actually had a 1966 Ford Galaxy with a 289 V8 and a three on the tree manual transmission.
ReplyDeleteThe interior was huge. We could easily get seven into my car.
We could pack in the partiers and drive out into the country to drink and get stoned - guys and chicks. I had half barrels in the trunk a few times.
I got like three years and 40,000 miles out of that $175 investment.
I've been many miles in the Galaxie. They were a great car.
ReplyDeleteI had a '63 Galaxie in high school. It had an anemic 260 ci V8, but still fun on dates as most land yachts were. I then moved up to a '67 Galaxie with the LTD badge with a 390 ci mill. Fun cars.
ReplyDeleteWow...brings back memories. Learned to drive in a 1962 Galaxy and had many memorable high school dates in that car with the 289.
ReplyDeleteI was a child, standing around, listening to my father and uncles while they discussed the reason the 62 Ford overheated on the way home. My grandmothers brother, Martin Morris, bought the car from a dealer and drove it 14 miles home. Martin was born in the 1800s and was told the car had an 'automatic' transmission that changed gear by itself. Uncle Martin knew how to drive. He knew that you start out in low gear so he put the car in 'first' and drove home.
ReplyDeleteYour uncle was lucky. I wrecked the engine in a 1965 Buick by pulling onto the freeway with the shift lever in "2" rather than "D". I guess it slid one notch too far when I started up at a gas station, and I was too busy watching traffic to look down at the indicator card. I got it up about 55 or 60, then it threw a rod.
DeleteI had a '65 that I ordered with a 390 and straight shift. I wanted dark blue but they wouldn't let me have a black interior so I went for dark green. My uncle worked at the Ford plant in Hapeville, Ga and with a relative there you could get things like extra undercoating and maybe they would tighten all the bolts, unlike my '67. But mine didn't get the extra attention because it sat outside waiting for the three speed, not a common option my uncle said. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteMy Great Uncle, whose family had a Ford dealership since 1914, got a new car in 1963. He would have gotten the Thunderbird but it sat to low to be easy for him to get in an out. He got the Galaxy 500 XL. It had the 390 Nascar engine, 2 door, bucket seats, air conditioning, electric windows, spoked wheel covers. I was 3 but I remember riding with him, he died Christmas 64 and my father drove the car until I was 13 when he sold it.
ReplyDeleteThat angered me, but my father then wanted to buy a new car, he went to a Mercury dealership and had picked out a black Pantera (of course I was drooling) my father ended up buying a Capri with a 4 cyl, auto, air-conditioning, it was so slow it couldn't get out of it's own way and actually paid 200 more than the Pantera.
I still have the special order window sticker from the 63 Galaxy, the color was "Corinthian White" with black interior.
63/64 Fords had some of the nicest interiors.
ReplyDeleteMy 390 Galaxy had it under the hood
ReplyDeletehoo,