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1965 Ford Galaxie Street Racer


beeRS

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THIS IS A RE-BOOT OF MY OLD THREAD. I first started work on this Galaxie in 2013. The thread for that can be seen here. I hit a problem with the body paint and put the kit back on the shelf… until now! Unfortunately, soon after I put the kit away, Image Shack started charging for their image hosting and all my pictures on that thread were lost! This is why I'm having to re-boot the thread.

This kit has always had a special place in my memories. I built a Barris 'Cruisin USA' kit when I was a kid - it was one of my first models I ever build. It came out pretty well (by my standard of the day). I wish I had kept it, but many years down the line I have no idea what happened to that model (but I a few of the parts have turned up in my spare parts box!).

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I found a more recent re-issue of the Galaxie on eBay. It has been started and is missing the engine. I thought it would be great to do this kit again - only this time, I'd like to think I have a better set of building skills. My intention is to build a 'tough as nails' street machine with modern day 'real-world' upgrades. I'm thinking lowered suspension and monster V8, standard bodywork with simple de-badging and plenty of detail.

The first area needing attention is the floor/chassis...

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Well, that's as much as I can add in one post. There are over 100 more pics chronicling the build right up to the body paint stage - where it all went wrong! I will try to get this thread up to the current stage by posting a batch of images at a time (as I find them). With a little encouragement from everyone out there I hope to rekindle my enthusiasm in this build and finish it off.

Edited by beeRS
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  • 2 weeks later...

Here are some more pictures...

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Door handles are being removed, to be added back later after the body is painted.

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Because this is going to be a street racer, the trim and badges have been removed too.

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One of my pet hates with models is moulded in wipers. I've seen other builders make such a good job painting/foiling them, but when I do it, it always look wrong! I'll probably add some PE wipers, or separate kit ones from the parts box later.

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The kits grille and bumper are one-piece in the kit, but the 1:1 Galaxie has a separate body panel in-between them. I've separates the grille and bumper at the front, and and added the panel in at the front and the rear.

I've also added a lip around the inside of the trunk opening.

 

Edited by beeRS
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The floor with exhaust removed is still a work in progress at this stage. There are a lot of scratches that will be ironed out later. A coat of primer helps to show them.

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A lot of different engine choices were considered. In the end its going to be the 428 from Revell's 70 Boss Mustang - at least the block will be. I like the idea of using a 1/24 scale engine in a 1/25 scale body. It just makes the engine look like a monster motor.

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The firewall detail is just roughed out at this stage. A lot more work need to go into this part.

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I hope folks like where this is going. Please let me know your thoughts.

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Wow. Nice workmanship. 

The PE wipers seem too thin to me. Maybe a set of Thunderbolt wiper would be in order? 
 

Also, your floor looks great so far. I know what you mean about the scratches. I’ve added a couple layers of putty on mine so far. I’m not sure what exhaust system you plan on using, but maybe the new system might hide a few marks left from the old cast in exhaust? 
 

This is going to be one nice 65!!

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Unfortunately, due to circumstances I can't control, my '65 Galaxie won't be finished until long after you and Brutalform are done with yours, but I love the fact that you're comparing notes and looking for ways to improve your builds.

I don't know if you saw what I posted in Brutalform's thread, but one of the biggest issues with this kit is the headlights.  Someone at AMT really got the bezel area wrong as there are "rings" that are a scale 1/2 inch high around each headlight opening.  As you can see here, the actual item does not have them.

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For the sake of accuracy, I recommend fully drilling the headlight holes out and getting rid of the rings.  

I look forward to seeing your future posts and following your progress. 

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17 hours ago, Shambles said:

Very nice work. And hought some of MY projects were ambitious

Thanks John. Sometimes, I feel my ambitions outweigh my abilities - so nothing gets finished!

17 hours ago, Lowlife ! ! said:

 

Looking good Sonny , lots of little tips n' tricks included in this !

I like the chassis work, hate it when you find molded in exhausts etc and I like the way you made the engine mounts too !

Should look great , I like the new door panels too , great stuff ! 

Thanks Martin. After removing the exhaust on this one, I vowed that if I ever come across another kit with moulded in exhausts, its going to be built curbside. The engine mounts were inspired by doing 1:1 stuff on cars. After building models for years with their over-simplified engine mounts, I realised that real engine mounts don't look anything like the kit ones!

16 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said:

You're doing some really cool stuff on this one. Especially digging the engine and bodywork. Are you close to a point you could do a mockup so we can see stance and such? 

Thanks Craig. I know I did get some mock up shots done, before I mothballed this project. I got the exact wheel/tyre combo I liked and the stance was perfect. I've got to go find them in my disorganised photo files. Watch this space!

14 hours ago, Brutalform said:

Wow. Nice workmanship. 

The PE wipers seem too thin to me. Maybe a set of Thunderbolt wiper would be in order? 
 

Also, your floor looks great so far. I know what you mean about the scratches. I’ve added a couple layers of putty on mine so far. I’m not sure what exhaust system you plan on using, but maybe the new system might hide a few marks left from the old cast in exhaust? 
 

This is going to be one nice 65!!

Thanks Tom, I agree that some of the photo etched wipers look too flat, but then I've seen others that require folding and look amazing when painted. I've never tried bending photo etched parts and I believe there's a special tool to do this. On the other hand, the Thunderbolts wipers is a good idea. 

The exhaust system will represent a 'DIY build' as you might find on a 1:1 modified car. I like looking at Summit Racing's website and dreaming about all the after-market stuff I would fit if I were building a real '65 in my garage.

14 hours ago, peekay said:

Nice work so far, specially intrigued by the interior mods.

Thanks Peter.

11 hours ago, Monty said:

Unfortunately, due to circumstances I can't control, my '65 Galaxie won't be finished until long after you and Brutalform are done with yours, but I love the fact that you're comparing notes and looking for ways to improve your builds.

I don't know if you saw what I posted in Brutalform's thread, but one of the biggest issues with this kit is the headlights.  Someone at AMT really got the bezel area wrong as there are "rings" that are a scale 1/2 inch high around each headlight opening.  As you can see here, the actual item does not have them.

628482421_65Galaxie.jpg.68f5a64b8a9f702c81d3aa2fffaceb8a.jpg

For the sake of accuracy, I recommend fully drilling the headlight holes out and getting rid of the rings.  

I look forward to seeing your future posts and following your progress. 

Thanks Monty. Don't assume I'll be finished before you. This model is already nearly 7 years in the build! I was not aware of the headlamp rings, till I saw your post in another thread. I think AMT put them there to help locate the positioning of the lenses in the correct place, but they do look wrong. I'll be taking your advice and drilling them out. I'd also like to add some good looking 'bowls' behind the lenses, as I always think they make the finished headlamp look so much better.

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This is some beautiful going on here!

Do put some working suspension in it .. pleeease!  My Dad had a '65 Galaxy that I borrowed when I first got my license. I thought it was going to roll on it's side on the first corner from my house. I turned around and parked in our driveway. That was the last time I drove that scary thing and it convinced me to never buy an American car! It did have a beautiful metallic turquoise paint and was a good looking car.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone. It’s been too long since I posted here, so here’s some more pictures I’ve found and somehow managed to put into date order. Remember these pics are work that was done about 6 years ago. 

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A scoop found from the parts box.

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It took for ever to scrape the underside of the hood flat, leaving just the outer frame. This hood is going to represent a GRP item in the 1:1 world, so the majority of the frame is not required. If I were to do this again, I would flatten the complete underside and then add the outer frame – it would have been a lot easier.

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A quick mock up using some Cragar mag wheels from the parts box. This is the kind of wheel/tyre size I’ll end up with and the stance (hopefully!). I won’t be using these particular wheels, but they’ll do for the mock up.

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Again, a whole lot of scraping to get the underside of the boot lid to look right.

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Hinges are roughly cut from plastic sheet.

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Tacking the four hinges together makes it easy to file down and ensure they are exactly the same shape. Once shaping is complete they all get split apart…

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The hinges are complete. To be fair these are not truly in scale. These are the limitations of using plastic. I still want the hinges to be strong enough. One day I’ll figure a way of doing this in brass and then they can truly be to scale.

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Using a brass rod here to ensure the hinges are properly aligned.

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Boot (trunk?) lid hinges done and working with a satisfying precision. 

More pics to follow soon. I’ll get this thread up to date and then push forward with getting this one completed.
 

Edited by beeRS
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