Pro Street Lives: This Twin-Turbo Galaxie Is Anything But Bare Bones

The sound of the 427 Cammer is what sold Jim Ring on the radical powerplant for his Galaxie.

Sometimes people struggle to find their niche in life. Other’s have an innate calling that is apparent from the beginning. Such has been the case for Jim “Bones” Bassett at Bones Fab. He’s a gearhead who really thinks outside the box. We recently had the pleasure of taking a trip to his shop in Camarillo, California. As we pulled into the parking lot, we could tell it was going to be a hell of a good time.

We met Jim in the back of his shop where his 6’4” silhouette was outlined by the glowing blue light of his welder. Jim and his team at Bones Fab are true craftsman, which is what brought us out to his neck of the woods in the first place.

It’s clear that they aren’t slinging brake jobs when you see all the toys he has in the parking lot. An LS swapped C10, Pro Street Nova, Shelby Cobra, and his radical turbo diesel powered short bus, all sat basking in the sun.

Big tires out back, twin turbos under the hood, roll cage, and license plates…Pro Street is here to stay–with a modern twist.

However much we wanted to stop and chew his ear off about each one of them, we were there for a specific car. A particularly wet-looking ’64 Ford. We first spied this sinister Galaxie at the LA Roadster Show a few weeks back, and we just had to track it down.

From the wicked stance, wide tires, and the cage, to the unique motor and turbo combination, everything about the build screamed over the top, and we we’re all about it. Unfortunately so was everyone else at the show. So much so, that we could barely see it fully, let alone get any good photos.

With a teardrop hood, turbo inlets where the hi beams used to be, and a custom fabbed opening where the license plate once was, the devil’s in the details for this Galaxie.

The Galaxie is owned by Jim Ring, a collector of all things four-wheeled and cool. While he has been a luxury and supercar fan for a long time, he has  also had Jim Bassett build and work on several classic cars he owns. He knew he wanted to do something wild with the Galaxie, and he knew exactly who was crazy enough to pull it off, the guys at Bones Fab.

Surrounded by gorgeous coastline, and rolling hills, tucked away in an industrial part of Camarillo you can find Jim Bassett’s shop. With heavy rock and roll playing in the background, Basset and his team did everything on the hellacious Galaxie. The only things they didn’t do were the motor assembly, dyno, upholstery, chrome, and polishing. Originally, it had a 390 and a 4-speed.

The ’64 Galaxie isn’t exactly a small car, and the space under the hood is ample, but Bones used every piece of real estate, and then some to get the cammer between the framerails.

Talk about shoehorned. To make over 1,000 horsepower, the 482 and it's two friends had to be stuffed in there along with a custom sheet metal intake manifold and plenum. It sure is attention grabbing, and if you can believe this, it will all fit under a stock hood. Jim Ring opted for the iconic teardrop, however. And we wholeheartedly back his decision.

What sits in there now is a monstrous, twin turbo, 482 SOHC engine with a Robert Pond block and heads as it’s base, backed by a 4L80E GM trans. Internally, it sports a Sonny Bryant crank shaft, forged Carillo rods and pistons, Comp cam and springs, T&D rockers, and a Holley EFI ignition system.

All of that to allow a pair of Precision 76mm turbos to feed an insane amount of air through the massive plenum and twin 62mm Ford Racing throttle bodies. According to Bassett, the turbos are capable of producing 2000 hp. The intercooler is made by Bell Intercoolers, while the plenum was fabricated by Jim Bassett in house. In fact, there pretty much isn’t a thing that Jim didn’t have his hands on over the 2-year build process.

If you’re cold, so are they, bring them inside…or at least wrap them in a blanket, like these ones from DEI.

Bones is a thoughtful guy. When building the car, no detail was overlooked. Jim even took it down to the color of the silicone boot on the inside of the turbo inlet. He chose red because he was concerned about small children sticking their hands into the turbo impellers…and he didn’t want to have to clean up the blood, or so he said. We think it is just because it looks wicked, but you never know. Jim is funny like that, and it speaks to his personality.

Watch your fingers kids, that red ain’t for visibility…ouch.

All told, the aluminum 482 is making 1,067 hp at 11 pounds of boost on 91 octane pump gas. Pump gas! The way Bones figured it, why install an engine thats only tuned for race gas if the owner probably won’t want to go to the trouble. We get it, make it run on pump gas, and let the driver have fun with it. When it’s time to hit the track, up the boost, and dump in that sweet ambrosia we call 105 octane. Mmm race gas.

Four headlights is overkill anyway. We say let it breathe!

Jim Ring knew from the start he wanted a big tire car. Pro Street was what he was after, but the powerplant he wanted to use was a Boss 429. At the urging of Bones, he conducted a quick Google search of, “427 Cammer,” and the rest is history. It is this point in the right direction, that keeps Jim Ring coming back to Bones Fab.

The fact that this is a 1000 horsepower street car is insane enough, but it is still a street car, and a very manageable one at that. We got to take a ride in the Galaxie, and for a car as wild as the shop that built it, it is very mild-mannered in terms of street handling. Of course, that’s if you can avoid the enemy of all performance cars, the ever nefarious speed bump.

Speedbumps be damned! 3 to 4 inches of ride-height adjustability with the power of hydraulics is great, but they’re still a mountain for the Galaxie.

The comparatively luxurious ride can be attributed to the JRI hydraulic coilovers which allow 3 to 4 inches of vertical adjustment. We say, “comparatively luxurious,” because in most Pro Street cars making over 1000 horsepower, you typically feel every bump in the road, and they’re usually followed by all sorts of squeaks, creaks, and clunks. Not this Galaxie.

In fact, the Corbeau carbon kevlar race seats are quite comfortable since they’re wrapped in Ferrari leather. Did we mention Jim Ring is a luxury and supercar fan? He likes amenities, and the Galaxie even has a dash cam with built in backup camera integrated into the rear-view mirror. The center console was custom made at Bones Fab to hide a slew of switches, and allows the driver to monitor all the system operations via Dakota Digital gauges.

Modern amenities and comfort are great, especially when you're sitting behind a thousand horsepower behemoth and wrapped in a cage and Ferrari leather.

The Galaxie also features a triangulated 3-link out back surrounding a shortened 42-inch wide Currie 9-inch rearend, stuffed with 3.70 gears, and a 35 spline Detroit locker. The rearend had to be shrunk to fit the massive 20×15 American Legend wheels, wrapped in the biggest tires Mickey Thompson had to offer, a pair of 33x22R-20 Sportsman S/R.

The biggest tires that Mickey Thompson makes, for this monster…yeah, thats Pro Street.

When you’re making the kind of power Bones Fab is known for, being able to slow down is probably a good idea. To do that, Jim opted for Wilwood 14-inch rotors in the front and rear, with 6-piston calipers of the same make doing the stopping.

Not exactly skinnies up front, but for a street car, they’re perfect.

With such a hellacious street machine, it would only make sense the paint is equally as striking. PPG black and charcoal adorn the ’64, and it looks like something from a Venom comic book. The thing is dripping in black. While we’re sure it’s a pain to keep clean, it’s more than worth it to achieve such a tough-guy look.

When Bones Fab got the Galaxie, it was already in pretty good shape, with only minor rust and the usual old-car issues. Since then it has gone through an epic transformation. So much so that it won the Pro Street class at the Grand National Roadster Show in January and was a show car at SEMA last year.

Dust magnet? Maybe, but there’s no tougher color than black.

Future plans for the Galaxie include more shows for the next couple of years, like- Cruising For A Cure, and eventually it will see some track time. The Bones-built Galaxie is a perfect melding of classic Pro Street style and new school performance, and its been giving us all sorts of ideas. We’re anxious to see what kind of quarter mile time the Galaxie will produce. Until then, we will keep an eye out for it on the show circuit, and you should too.

About the author

Vinny Costa

Fast cars, motorcycles, and loud music are what get Vinny’s blood pumping. Catch him behind the wheel of his ’68 Firebird. Chances are, Black Sabbath will be playing in the background.
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