Fred´s Ford in light frost

[kjohan]

Slightly frosty morning today
Photos of one of my first builds during the pandemi

Finish not the best but nice kit, only real problem was the large decals were prone to cracking, particularily "28" on the roof

Additions to the box kit

- a little exterior foiling.  actually my first try with foiling, obviously not very good but anyway it´s there now
- some cabling in the engine bay
- battery with cables moved to the right side of trunk
- fuel filler cap added and filler pipe in the luggage compartment to the tank
- cut away the moulded exhausts/mufflers ( hence the underside a little grubby)
- seat belts of own manufacture
- in the kit there was a fairly long/large part with a number of instuments
  according to instructions an accessory thing
  cut away the area around the regular instruments and inserted this part, fitted well
  gave at least a better rendition of a NASCAR panel.
- "THINK ! W.H.M.?" on the right side of the instrument panel

 

 

 

 

[kjohan]

forgot to mention it is the AMT kit of the Galaxie -65 / Gunnar

[Zippi]

Nice looking Ford.  Great job.

[David G.]

Nicely Done!

David G.

[Tom99]

Looking good!

[cobraman]

Well done, great looking model.

[Modlbldr]

 Nice build of a very famous car. Great job!

Later-

[papajohn97]

Boy that car look’s familiar! Just saw the car below last week at a drag racing museum in LA, I assume this one is the real thing?

 

You did very nice job on your build, particularly the big decals which are never easy to do without damage or bubbles. Makes me want to build a ‘60’s stock car, nice!

[slusher]

Very nicely done…

[TransAmMike]

Very nice real  stock car. Great work Gunner👍

[kjohan]

2 hours ago, papajohn97 said:

Boy that car look’s familiar! Just saw the car below last week at a drag racing museum in LA, I assume this one is the real thing?

 

You did very nice job on your build, particularly the big decals which are never easy to do without damage or bubbles. Makes me want to build a ‘60’s stock car, nice!

I think this might be the intermediate sized Fairlane, driven in -66, perhaps also in -67, the kit I built was the full-size -65 Galaxie.
If I have understood it correctly, they in -66 also used a Galaxie, which actually had the engine, frame, chassis transferred from the -65 car.
The reason for the swap of only the body/ maintaing the underpinnings, was perhaps that Ford wanted to have the newest body visible on the tracks.
But this is (somewhat uncertain) understanding from me, sitting very remotely from the actual centre of action and knowledge.
Perhaps other forum members can bring further clarity/understanding ?

[kjohan]

Three more comments

1) When I "trawled" on the net for information before building my model, I also got the impression , that, in -65, more than one Galaxie was used, perhaps two or three (?)

2) Thanks for encouraging comments from all of you

 3) Like the NASCAR-cars from this era. Very expressive also in thetable-top  scale, and still with stong connection to the actual stock cars
     Imagine these large cars crusing at 150 mph, a couple of years later considerably faster.

[Misha]

I do believe that the that is the 1966 full size Galaxie that was superceded by the Fairlane with the front clip from the Galaxie.
Cheers Misha

3 hours ago, papajohn97 said:

Boy that car look’s familiar! Just saw the car below last week at a drag racing museum in LA, I assume this one is the real thing?

 

You did very nice job on your build, particularly the big decals which are never easy to do without damage or bubbles. Makes me want to build a ‘60’s stock car, nice!

 

[kjohan]

The -66 Fairlane having a Galaxie front end was interesting and new info for me, had not seen that before.
Explains why i have had difficulties to understand/ differentiate which -66 car was a  Galaxie, which one was a Fairlane.
Hence my obviously erratic comment on John´s photo above.

Sorry for that John and thanks for your fine photo and kind words

Also thanks Misha for your help with clarification

/ Gunnar

 

[Kah puts]

You choose a great time of day to photograph your Galaxy, looks fantastic. The second car is a 66 Galaxy also a groovy ride. 

[crazyjim]

Very well done.  Fred Lorenzen used to live in Elmhurst, IL and we'd ride our bicycles to his shop and watch them work on the race car.

[ewetwo]

Nice build. I envy your abilities with decals. 🙂

[PappyD340]

Looks great!

[kjohan]

16 hours ago, Misha said:

I do believe that the that is the 1966 full size Galaxie that was superceded by the Fairlane with the front clip from the Galaxie.
Cheers Misha

 

Second thoughts coming:

What was the reason to put the larger Galaxie front end clip on the presumably smaller Fairlane in -66 ?

And how was that accomplished ?

Assume the Fairlane dimensions (narrower) were intact from the fire wall and rearwards,
but what about the difference in width in front of the firewall ?
Guess some "transitional modifications" could be done on the front structure to get the fenders in the right position.
If the front bumper from the Galaxie was a little to wide probably did not matter so much
But the hood and the grille ? 

Edited November 27, 2021 by kjohan
spelling

[Andrew McD]

A very nicely done rendition from the (to my mind at least) golden age of NASCAR.

[Scott8950]

Very nice job

[james220]

You are correct the picture is of the 66 Galaxie. Of course yours is a 65. Late in 66 Ford was allowed to run the Smaller Fairlane which used what was called a half chassis car. Fairlane rear and Galaxie front end from the front of the firewall up. I do believe the Galaxie front end was narrowed to fit under the Fairlane. Ford tried everything it could to make the big Galaxies competitive, slopping the front fenders over the front wheels, laying the windshield back, Junior Johnson even produced the so called "yellow banana" took most of these things to the max and raised the rear end also It was allowed to run only one race. These improvements helped a little but on the big tracks the hemi was just too powerful. If you ever try to build another 65 you may want to use the 66 chassis under it, no molded in exhaust and the 65 springs and such fit under the rear with little modification. You can also graft the 65 front end on to the 66. the front suspension on the 65 is way better. sounds like a lot of work but so is getting rid of the molded in exhaust and mufflers on the 65. You did a really nice job on the Galaxie. In one of Bill Coulters books about building stock cars they show how to build a Fairlane using AMT's 66 Fairlane and a 65 Galaxie kit. 

[kjohan]

Thanks James for interesting info on the "hybrid" Galaxie/ Fairlane

Question(s): When did the "tube front end structures" come into use in the NASCAR cars ?
I have impression the cars in the late ´60s hade that kind of structure
So : what kind of front structure did the´65 and ´66 cars have?
The standard type made from pressed steel sheet metal? Or tubes ?

To build a ´66 "hybrid" car is certainly an intriguing idea
Hmmmm .....

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[Mattilacken]

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