1964 Ford Factory A/C Galaxie 500 Convertible

[toysanyone]

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This listing is for a very restorable 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 convertible. The serial number stamped into a sheet metal tab on the engine side of the right side of the firewall is 4J65X155431. I was told that means this car originally came with a 352 V8 engine, 4 barrel carburetor and dual exhausts. This car is missing the engine and transmission at this time. This car has a very unusual color combination that is very desirable in my opinion.

Since I first listed this car here a few days ago, I removed the power top hydraulic cylinders, lubricated the folding joints and folded the top down easily and without breaking anything on it. I then installed the original top boot the best I could since it is over 50 years old and has shrunk a bit.

There is an air conditioner evaporator unit mounted under the center of the dash. It says SELECTAIRE on it and the research that I have done makes me believe that it came from Ford and may have been either factory or dealer installed. The condenser and plumbing that is mounted under the hood looks to have been factory installed rather than added on after this car left the factory. The back of the condenser has some smashed fins from a fool doing a sloppy job removing the engine. Please help me out here with more information regarding whether this air conditioning unit is a genuine Ford factory or dealer installed item or not if you possibly can.

The previous owner told me this car supposedly came from Arizona. That makes sense because almost nobody would have ordered air conditioning in a convertible like this here in Montana back over 50 years ago. Most people here back then figured that if it was too hot outside, you could simply put the top down and have the blowing air cool you off.

I believe the factory options on this car included:

The higher output 352 4 barrel V8 engine

Dual exhausts

Automatic transmission

Power convertible top

Power steering

AM radio

Back up lamps

Full wheel covers

Dual horns

And perhaps other lesser items

The previous owner also told me that someone spend a lot of money fixing up this car and then left it outside where the top went bad and let it take on water for several years. It appears that the exterior paint was redone with a base coat clear coat system at one time. I believe the seats and door panels were redone using a red cloth material rather than the original vinyl material. The previous owner probably preferred to sit on cloth rather than hot vinyl when driving this car with the top down.

The body on this "gem in the rough" is still very solid and the doors still fit and latch as they did when they were new. The frame appears to be in excellent condition with no rust out issues or any thin spots anywhere.

I removed the front and rear seats and removed the carpet in order to be able to see the exact condition of the floors and get good photos of them. The floor in the passenger compartment has several holes in it and the rear sear foot wells are weak enough so that they may not support someone stepping in them. The angled foot board under the dash appears to be fine as does the floor running from the middle of the rear seat back.

That main floor panel that runs from the angled front foot board up front to the middle of the rear seat is a one piece stamping and should be replaced with one from a sedan if they will interchange. If you happen to know if the convertible and sedan floors interchange or if anyone makes a replacement floor panel, please let me know.

The trunk floor has a few holes in it and is borderline whether it could be saved or replaced. I would recommend replacing it. The bottom outer front corner of the driver's door is starting to blister but the rest of the door appears to be fine. The passenger's door is rusting through on the bottom front corner of the inner panel so it should be replaced.

Both of the front fenders appear to be fine but the rear quarter panels will need some attention in front of the rear wheels. There is a lot of body filler in the driver's rear quarter panel in front of the rear wheel so there must have been an accident that damaged that area at one time. I believe the driver's door was replaced many years ago. Consequently, the body trim tag that was riveted to the back of that door is missing. If you know of a source to have that tag remade, please let me know.

This car has a lot of rusted sheet metal but it definitely is not a "rust bucket" that is beyond repair or not worth fixing. Please remember that cars like this rust from the bottom up in many parts of this country due to the salt that was used there in the winter time. Those cars are very expensive to repair and often not worth fixing. This car came from a dry part of the country originally and was neglected here in relatively dry Montana where it rusted from the top down rather than from the bottom up.

I have a couple of boxes of loose parts which include the original AM radio, many door handles and window cranks and several other minor interior parts. The aluminum trim piece that goes on the gas filler door is present in the photos and setting below where it goes. I do not have the steel part that is used to attach it to the gas filler door. The side window in the passenger's door does not go up and down but a spare regulator is included.

The last photo shows an extra right front fender and nice grille that are included. They came with this car and were included because of the damage located on the front of the right front fender. Both the front and rear bumpers are good driver quality or would make excellent cores for rechroming. The exterior chrome plated die-cast or "pot metal" parts are still very nice with very little if any pitting on them. Some of the interior chrome plated die-cast metal parts are fine while some like the trim on the air conditioner evaporator unit are starting to show some light pitting.

I have not yet attempted to lower the convertible top but I plan to when it stops raining here. Most of the parts of the top mechanism still have most of their original black paint on them and still look fairly good. There appears to be no rusted out spots on the top of the sheet metal front header. Both of the chrome plated die-cast metal latches that secure the front header to the top of the windshield frame have some pitting on them.

This car did not have the correct original wheels when I bought it as you can see in the photo of the left side with the sun shining on it. I found 4 of the correct wheels and they are now on this car. Three of the wheel covers are original Ford items while the one on the left rear wheel is a cheap reproduction that was chrome plated rather than made from stainless steel as the Ford covers were. The 3 original wheel covers and not great and are only of driver quality.

My friend that I bought this car from mentioned that the right rear wheel bearing is bad and is coming apart. That problem can cause the right rear wheel and tire to rub on the inside of the right rear fender. it is not rubbing now but I needed to let the new owner know of that potential problem.

I can store this car here in Bozeman for free for a few months if you are planning a trip to beautiful Montana at a later date. I have a lot of friends in the collectible car, truck and tractor hobby that travel throughout the country so one of them may be able to economically and safely deliver this car to you depending on where you live and how soon you want possession of it.

I have a lot more photos I can email to you if you call me and give me your regular email address. Please do not ask or expect me to email them to you here through the eBay email system. That system drastically reduces the size of the photos and only allows me to send 5 per email. I have started the process of obtaining a good Montana title for this car and should have it in about 2 weeks or so.

As long as I receive a $500 deposit to know that you are serious about this car, you can hold off paying the balance until I send you a copy of the new title if you prefer. Thanks a lot, Bob Woodburn - phone 406-799-1847 in Bozeman Montana USA