1964 Galaxie as first muscle car?

First off, hello to all - I've lurked around here for a bit and it seems like a pretty active and knowledgable community. Let me introduce myself - as my screen name suggests, up till now my "gearhead" time has been in offshore boats. Now that the Mrs and I have a couple of young'uns, we've got less time for boating, not to mention the expense (Q: How do you increase the value of a Phillips head screw by 600%? A: Put the word "marine" in the description...)

I've always wanted a muscle car or hot rod of some sort, and a guy I work with (who is a HUGE car guy) offered me a project car that he just doesn't have time for - a 1964 Galaxie. The car is in primer and has most of the trim missing, but the body is all metal with *zero* rust. The mill is currently a 289 of undetermined vintage; not sure if it will turn over or not. Interior will need replacing / recovering / etc. The price definitely reflects all of the above, so that is not an issue.

My intent is generally to to have the trim holes filled, shave the door handles, and replace the old 289 with a mild 460 torquer backed with a C6(?) and a 9 inch rear end. Nothing showstopping, but a good solid summer cruiser that makes the right sort of noise and make things interesting. I don't have a huge amount of time or desire to try to eek out the last 2 hp out of motor, I'm more a fan of reliability. From what I've read, it should be relatively easy to get 420-450 hp and 500+ lbs-ft of twist out of a 460 and still have it run happily on pump gas.

So, what do you guys think? Does this sound like a reasonable first car project, with the understanding that I've got semi-professional help and will hire out the technical stuff to the experts (I'm old enough to know that writing one check up front is cheaper than writing one once I've screwed the job up! )

More (hopefully) to follow....

Welcome to the board Dockrocker.

Sounds like to me you are pretty much a hands on guy. You should do fine. I have asked many question on this board and everyone that I have delt with has been really good about answering questions I have had. The good thing about these cars is there is not so much electronic stuff on them. This tends to make solving problems a lot easier to fix. As for your horsepower rating on a 460 I could not tell you. There are many on this board who would tell you if it is a realistic goal.

I've worked on Ford vehicles all my life, from early 1960's to present. I would hate to see someone become frustrated with the hobby on his first project. The one difficulty with Galaxies (although you're much better off with the 1964 than other years) is the difficulty of finding car-specific parts, and the frequent need to custom fabricate stuff particularly when you're putting in engines and transmissions, etc. that weren't there to begin with. Are all these problems surmountable? Of course, but as a relative matter, you will have a much easier time working on (and getting someone else to work on) an early Mustang than a Galaxie. For example - you can purchase reproductions of just about any part on an early Mustang (new fenders, new chrome, etc). Not so for the Galaxie. Some is available, some is not, and you will have to hunt for some of it only to find that it needs further work before it can be used. Another example - while companies like Crites make engine swaps easier, you basically have them as an option or custom fabricating stuff (e.g. headers, mounts). When it comes to Mustangs, you have many options for these parts. Same with suspension, wheels, glass, etc - there's just alot more stuff out there that you know will work on a Mustang without experimenting. Not trying to push you away from this project, but it's definately something to consider.

One of the nice things about this particular car is that the body is sound, so I'm not worried about stuff like repo fenders (and that is a consideration). And my co-worker has a shop with a couple other guys, and all they do are custom cars (things like a '53 Buick that was bagged, converted from 6v to 12v, new flame paint, etc etc), so I had planned on them doing the hairy work.

I do appreciate the advice, and I'm trying to be objective. Of course, objectivity is not really something that coincides with mucking around with a 40 year old car And I'm kind of partial to the Galaxy because 1) it's big as a house, and 2) you see a Mustang on every street corner up here in Detroit.

I'm planning to head over to the shop and pitch my ideas to the guys for a reality (and price!) check.

First, welcome to the forum!
If you aren't afraid of a time consuming project it sounds good to me and '64 parts are a little more easier to find than the other years. I'm partial to '64s so I'm all for this being your first!
I won't bother with stuff already mentioned. The 460/C6 transplant has been done a lot and really doesn't require that much fabricating other than to fabricate the connection for the emergency brake. They do sell a motor mount kit for this but if you do some research here on the board, not sure about 289 to 460 but with 390 at least, you can use the 390 mounts and I believe you need to drill different holes or something. Some don't like the "kit" because it puts the engine a little higher than it needs to be and depending on intake and carb it might not or barely clear the hood. Just click on the "search" right above where your name and private messages are and search "460 swap" and should come up with a lot of info from previous posts.
Ironhorse makes a point on the Mustang, all a person would need is the frame and they could build one from the catalogs available. I personally don't care for the Mustangs for the most part and consider them belly button cars cause everyone has one. But ease of finding parts etc is a undeniable.
To me it's a matter of wanting something "everyone" else has and is fairly easy to restore, or something that's different and not so common but a little more effort involved to find parts etc.
I have a hangup with being different, to a point anyway I guess. LOL
One bit of advice if you do get the '64 or any other is *always* check the local parts stores first for your parts. The classic car suppliers are great but many times, if you aren't going for the as new version which you aren't if you are shaving doors etc, the parts are a little more costly. Not in every case but still it's good to compare the prices with both. I have kicked myself a couple times for buying from a classics supplier and then find out I could of got it from autozone for less or instead of rebuilding I could of bought already rebuilt.
Enjoy the forum, great place to find answers to most questions and a great gang of people here also!

Deb

Welcome to the Galaxie pages.

You've got a few things going for you with this project. First it sounds like you do some wrenching. This will get you far with a project car. Secondly, you mentioned that this car would be coming from a co-worker and hopefully friend. This should give you a great resource both for answers to questions and with wrenching.

I know in my experience, getting a car from a friend usually means that the friend has a good interest in seeing the car finished. Hopefully, that will be your experience too!

Thanks, I'm really leaning toward doing it. Of course, the project has yet to be greenlighted by the CFO (or even run by her, for that matter ) so that could pose an issue - though she just picked up her new 2008 Cadillac CTS on Friday, so daddy might get a little consideration out of it

I only have this for you:
460ford.com :: Index

If you want to know how to build a 385 (429/460) series engine, thats the place to go.

hope your rear bumper is ok unless you want to run fiberglass. Just about everything else except steering wheel you can buy. If you dont care about original equipment theres nothing that can't be made to work. I think you've made a great choice

dockrocker,
Welcome to this forum, IMHO this place is home for me and I could not have completed my car without the awesome folks that are here and ready with advise, I have done the swap of a 64 Galaxie with 289 and C4 to a 460 and C6 and have many posts here and some have me cussing and some have me smiling. The bottom line for me is I love my car now that I am finished with the mechanical end of it. Many people have come up to me at car shows and stop lights and said to me "I had one with a 390 way back when" and they always wish they had another. This body style is as classy as any thing to come out of Detroit in my humble opinion. Good luck with your 64 if you decide to "build it they will come"
Bill Biley