Article Archive

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Trivia Question (answers below)

What was the first year in which the name ‘Galaxie’ was used to designate a Ford model?

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Trivia Answer

The name Galaxie first appeared on a full-size Ford in model year 1959

Half a century of cleaning and detailing show cars, and half a decade managing one of the largest detailing shops in the metro St. Louis area qualifies Bruce Kunz to offer you his

Detailing Tip of the Week:

The Big, the Bold and the Beautiful Ford Galaxie

photos courtesy Jim Smart, Modified Mustangs and Fords magazine (more image below)

Fin Man Fan David Bales (I’m assuming he’s a fan– he reads my column every week) of Clayton, Missouri, writes, "In my youth I had a 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 7-Liter, 4-speed, 428 cubic inch... the whole enchilada." He said his dark green coupe could "jump off the line to beat anything I came up against in those days." (Dave, was that you that blew the doors off my English Ford on Hall Street on that warm Saturday night back in 1966?) (They should have spelled that ‘Haul’ street, for a couple of reasons.)

Big, bold and beautiful were all fitting adjectives for the new 1966 Ford Galaxie 500s when they rolled onto showroom floors on October 1, 1966. But, to that list, you could add one more... ‘bad’, this being reserved exclusively for the limited production ‘Galaxie 500 7-Liter’ models.

I’m not sure where Dave got his production figures of 1844 units, but according to more than one reliable industry source, Ford built 8,705 7-Liter coupes and 2,368 7-Litre convertibles for model year 1966. Totalling a mere 11,073 units, 7-Litre production represented only 1.3 percent of the over 800,000 full sized Fords produced that year.

Full-sized Fords for ‘66 included six, count ‘em, sub series. To help you get the stars aligned, they are, in order from cheapy stripper to glitzy plush:

• Custom
• Custom 500
• Galaxie 500
• Galaxie 500XL
• Galaxie 500 7-Litre
• Galaxie 500 LTD

All 7-Litre Galaxie 500s were equipped with the ‘Thunderbird Special’ V-8 which produced 345 horsepower. Ford’s 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic was standard fare, but one could opt for a four-on-the-floor manual set up for no additional cost.

7-Litre models were offered only in coupe and convertible body styles and all were trimmed out nicely with thin shell bucket seats, full length floor console and a simulated English walnut steering wheel with drilled spokes... ala Mustang pony package. In order to stop this powerful two ton machine, front disc brakes were also included in the base factory price of $3,596.00 for coupes and $3,844.00 for drop tops.

Dave went on to say that, like a fool (those are his words not mine), he "never took a single photo of the car". Well, as all of us baby boomers know, film and processing could get very expensive back in those days. Isn’t digital photography wonderful?

Incidently, the ‘dark green’ which Dave referred to was known to Ford folks as ‘Ivy Green’ and was one of a modest selection of sixteen colors on the palette for model year 1966.

From the FIN MAN’s ‘did-ja-know’ files, did you know there was a short-lived rock band called ‘Galaxie 500’ that produced a number of singles and albums from 1987 to 1991? Neither did I. Then I’m sure you didn’t know that when they formed the group, drummer Damon Krukowski didn’t own a drum set, so he borrowed one from his Harvard U classmate Connan O’Brien. Ahhhh, the things you learn on the inter net. For the full story of Galaxie 500 the band, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxie_500.

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