1969 Galaxie 500 - high school/college kid budget build

more action pics haha

While you can find almost anything on the internet, a pic of the bolt-in engine perches for a 460 in a full-size Ford car is VERY hard to find.  I bought what I thought was the correct parts on ebay, but nope, they are for an intermediate size Ford.  I fiiiiiiiiinally found a pic of them in ScottyJ's 12.99 LTD build thread over on 460Ford. I should have started there instead of all the Galaxie and other Ford sites. Armed with a pic of the correct parts, I went out to a local yard at lunch and poked around.  To my surprise, there were quite a few big cars with the correct parts, and many with the 460 still sitting in them.  We are going to go grab a set tomorrow.

n spite of the ridiculous wind we are having here, Judd and I went and grabbed the perches. I took the cordless angle grinder with us and we just cut the nuts off the bolts. It worked great as I doubt we could have accesed the backside of the top 2 on each side. They are tucked back up inside the frame behind the lower control arm. We also found a throttle cable in usable condition. All for a whopping $15. 

What did we do before cordless power tools. I used my DeWalt to take my front end off easier than pulling the air hose around

I cleaned the disgustingly filthy transmission crossmember and the transmission lines. The pic is after cleaning. It was a blob of goo before I started. The air shock lines are installed and the 390 engine perches are out. Judd started engine assembly on Sat afternoon. Camshaft arrived yesterday so he has all the parts to complete the engine now. Judd lapped valves last night and is ready to assemble the heads.

Judd installed heads, rocker arms and pushrods. It is starting to look like an engine again. The engine stand is not a happy camper.

While monkeying with the brakes I managed to break a master cylinder stud off. Great. I just went ahead and ordered him a new booster. Probably a better choice.

Good day in the shop yesterday! We bled the brakes, rolled it out and pressure washed the engine bay, then Judd spray bombed the engine bay black. He also put on the water pump, oil pump, tstat housing, and then painted the engine. I cleaned our gigantic mess and organized stuff in the shop while he was doing that. We also stuck a slick back on it to determine what backspace wheel to get for it.

We can't wait to drop that 460 in there!

More pics.

Dangit. On a hunch, I thought I should double check to see if the truck front sump pan is the same as a car front sump pan. Nope. I dropped the pan in the chassis to check the fitment. Nope. The truck sump is longer front to rear so it will smack the cross member. The drain plug is also at the rear vs. on the side for a car pan.

$70 later, a new pan is ordered.

Judd was out of school today so he came to the shop and knocked some more things out. He painted the valve covers, pulleys and throttle cable mount. He also installed the Z-gate shifter, fuel pump, harmonic balancer and oil pan. His new oil pan came in so we made a baffle for it out of sheet metal and welded it in. We ended up cutting a half-circle out of it to aid in installation.

Once that was all done, he grabbed the welder and welded the engine mount perches to the frame. He did as good or better job than I could have.

All four tires and two wheels were also delivered today. He went with a 205/75-15 front and a 275/60-15 rear. The front wheels are 15x6 Torque Thrusts and the rears will be 15x8's. Of course we had to test fit a wheel.

It is really starting to come together!

more pics

And it's in! We encountered a few snags, mostly related to finding hardware, but in the end it dropped right in smooth as butter. Judd started wiring up the line lock and a tachometer and I made a simple alternator bracket (because I couldn't find the stock one!) We will be running a GM style 1 wire alternator on it because we have one.

With that major hurdle cleared, Judd has a lot more things he can work on now!

Sometimes, you have to go backwards to go forward. The information we had was that these Hooker headers could be installed with the engine in place. That might be true if you own a lift, but it is definitely not true for those of us working on the floor. The passenger side header slipped right in, but we could not rotate the driver's header down far enough to wiggle it up and in. After several "let's try this" attempts, we pulled the motor mount bolts, lifted the engine up and forward and laid the header in. Then we put it all back in. They fit nice once they are in, but that back bolt on number 4 has to be tightened from under the car.

More pics

Next major hurdle is the transmission crossmember. The headers are pointed RIGHT at the crossmember. These headers are for a Torino which has a double hump crossmember. We are looking at modifying the stock double hump out of Greenbean to fit the Galaxie.

I had to modify the front cross member at the radius arms on my truck for the headers that I have on it. I had to make room for the collectors. I need to remove the transmission cross member also and modify it for the 3" exhaust pipes they are bumping a tad idling in gear.

BigBlockRanger wrote:More pics

It's coming along nicely keep posting the progress pictures?In that last picture is the brake line far enough away from the header IIRC on my LTDII i had with the 466 in it the brake line looks like it was in the same place as the Galaxie?

Good catch. We'll check into that.

For such a big car, the engine sure seems to sit high. Hood clearance is going to be an issue I think....

Personally,,,
I think you are way past the budget of someone in high school.

BigBlockRanger wrote:Good catch.  We'll check into that.  

For such a big car, the engine sure seems to sit high.  Hood clearance is going to be an issue I think....

Just add a Boss9 scoop!

rmcomprandy wrote:Personally,,,
  I think you are way past the budget of someone in high school.

Kinda depends on the high schooler I suppose. Judd is a go-getter and worked 2 jobs this summer and 1 job during the school year. Granted, I had some core parts available that he has made use of, but he has funded 99% of the stuff for this project. Only things I bought for this car were stuff I broke or stuff I told him I had on hand, but either lost or misplaced, like the harmonic balancer and brake booster.

He's a good kid, and has received appointments to the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy (hasn't picked which one yet and it's killing me!). He has to report to either at the end of June so we'd like to have it running and driving well before then.

BigBlockRanger wrote:Good catch.  We'll check into that.  

For such a big car, the engine sure seems to sit high.  Hood clearance is going to be an issue I think....

My 78 LTDII i used motor mounts from a 72 Thunderbird IIRC that had a 429 or 460 in it.I had a Weiand 8012 on my 466 in the LTDII and had no hood clearance problems with a drop base air cleaner but don't remember how tall the air filter was!!

He wanted to use the HEI distributor (for simplicity) and it is a tall sucker. He put a 2" spacer under the car and a flat base air filter to clear the distributor. We might be able to wiggle stuff around and get a shorter spacer and a drop base in there. We didn't think it would be an issue, but it doesn't have to have a hood to start up and drive!

Headers are a little tight to the transmission, particularly if you are running a B&M shifter like we are. We are currently modifying the trans crossmember to have humps to clear the exhaust.

Not our car, but this is exactly what we are dealing with.



Oh, and Judd chose the Air Force Academy over USNA. His brother will be a senior there next year, so they will have one year together.

Saturday, we mostly worked on details. Wiring the reverse lights, neutral safety switch, line lock and tachometer. I managed to get the transmission dipstick tube wiggled into place and make a gauge mount that attaches to the steering column.

The power steering pump is now cleaned, painted and installed. We also bent up a steel fuel line from the pump up near the carb feed line.

Crossmember is basically done. Good enough to stick under a car and never be seen again. We'll shoot some paint on it.

Crossmember is in and fits good.