1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL Fastback: SOLD!!!!

3/1/15 Update: SOLD

This car took a long time to finish. We'll admit to that. But we had a great reason for it. Our customers. Due to a very high volume of customer work in our shop, we pushed this shop owned builder to the "back of line" to make sure our customer work stayed on schedule. We kept in mind, that if the right buyer came along she could be ready to roll within a few weeks and could even be finished to buyer specifications upon request. Her future owner called us in March of 2015, saw the car online (we never listed it, just had it on our website) and wanted to know more about it. Well, one thing led to another and she found her new home with a Ford collector in the Virginia area. 

1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL Fastback

The project started with 2, pretty rough cars owned by a collector in the Eastern WI area. He had left the Galaxies out in the weather to fend for themselves.

However, this story has a pretty happy ending....




 

1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL's #1 & #2 at their previous home

2 1965 Ford Galaxies: 1 with a 390 under the hood and a good frame(the red & rust colored car). The other Galaxie came with some classic custom flames(they looked even worse in person, we promise), red and white XL interior, extra trim parts, and a ROTTED frame. 

1965 Ford Galaxie Project cars

This one would become our finished project

Sounds promising right? Lucky for us, it worked out pretty well. From the bones of both cars, several catalog orders for new parts and a few junkyard picks for good measure, we were able to stitch together a fully restored 1965 Galaxie 500XL Fastback that rivals the best original cars you can find, anywhere. We'll be the first to admit, we haven't seen one anywhere. Have you? Although rare is often good in terms of value, Galaxies are only just now getting popular. And a 1 year only body style makes parts searched much more complicated. Builder Beware!

Moving on.

1965 Ford Galaxie Builder

We selected the car with the solid frame to be our builder and the white car with flames defaulted to our parts car. Unfortunately they both had rotted quarters, so we had to do a lot of our own metal work despite having 2 of them.


  
After extensive structural overhauls (see our gallery for photos) the fastback now has 2-tone paint. Red on the body and white over the top. That's a little easier to look at than the white with orange flames or the color of "rust" the builders showed up with.

Every bolt and part, no matter how small or hidden, was gone over and refinished. The 390 was re-built, all the suspension, brakes, fuel line and steering components were replaced and new electrical harness installed. That's the long way of saying that this is now a new car, that just happens to have been "born" in 1965.

Fully restored 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL

Interior of the "builder" car

 The interior was another animal entirely. It was mostly present in the parts car we used, but much of it was beyond repair. This Galaxie now has an aftermarket, walnut steering wheel and a few added gauges. We re-finished the original gauge cluster, dash, and center console, installed a couple speakers in an inconspicuous location and wired it up to a radio/cd player.

The completed interior for the 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL

All the seats and door panels have new, red vinyl upholstery and the correct finishes. We did not go so far as to create a resto-mod but we installed a few creature comforts on the inside while preserving the integrity of the cars styling. Fresh carpet, also in red, covers sound deadening pads which will make for a comfy, quiet ride. 

We took this Galaxie out for a few test runs before we had all the parts installed.

Although it took us a while to complete this project, the results were worth the wait (see the restoration gallery). She is now rust-free and her shiny paint shows off the straightness and correctness of every panel. They didn't leave the factory this well built, but we think they should have.

View the test run 390 video in on of our previous posts.

65 Galaxie being loaded into Intercity Lines transport truck

We said goodbye to this 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL in April, 2015,  as she was loaded on the truck and shipped to her new home joining a Ford collection in the Virginia area.








 


Looking for more information? Visit us at www.drivenrestorations.com, email
drivenrestorations@gmail.com or call 608-609-5041