AMT's 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL: WIP

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

Here is AMT's 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL. This kit can be built a couple of different ways. It comes with a nice set of Cragar SS wheels and some racing slicks. Also provided is a dual quad high-rise intake manifold with a cold air system. Oh, and side pipes! Given those options, I've decided that I want to build this one as a mostly factory mild custom. Kind of a COPO build for a young guy with more money than time who likes to spend weekends at the strip.

 

After a couple of build sessions, I have an engine ready to install. A dual quad 427 by my reckoning. There's also a cold air system and air cleaner being prepped for installation during final assembly. I even fabbed up a bracket for the alternator!

 

 

I've selected the color for this build, Tamiya TS-37 Lavender over black primer... hence the black primer.

 

Wow! That makes three I currently have on the ol' Work-Shelf. It looks like I'll have plenty to keep me busy in the coming weeks.

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions or observations you may have.

David G. 

Edited May 16 by David G.
typo

[TarheelRick]

Love the 65/66 Ford body styles, looking forward to what you do with this one.

[Bob Ellis]

This is a great kit. I built on in 1965 and this issue in 1975. I wish AMT didn't remove the clear red tail light as they did for tons of their older kits

[FoMoCo66]

Cool project! Thats my favorite year of the stacked headlight galaxie. Speaking of young guys with 65 galaxies that was my grandfather's first car. And also the first car he wrecked (if it's ok with you I'll get some pictures later).

[LennyB]

David, these build up nice and actually have a somewhat decent chassis. I’m actually stealing the chassis for an upcoming project, not yours of course.  I find it funny how this kit and a few other AMT kits of the era use the convertible interior when it’s a hardtop. Not sure if the original HT had the right interior and it’s only the reissues that have the conv🤔. Something I need to investigate.  The 66 Mustang reissue was another they did that with.  

[Monty]

I'm looking forward to seeing your take on this project.  While this kit does have some nice features, there are a few areas that truly need to be addressed.  The most egregious (to me) are the headlight bezels,  specifically the raised rings which, according to the instructions, are where the headlight lenses go.  Any good reference picture shows that these rings don't exist on the 1:1 car.  

Also, the exhaust system is molded to the chassis, which is a huge pet peeve of mine but may or may not be a big deal to you.  It can be painted and look OK for the most part, but around the rear axle area it's very thick and needs more work to achieve best results.  

Hope to see pics as this goes forward.  

Edited May 17 by Monty

[David G.]

18 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

Love the 65/66 Ford body styles, looking forward to what you do with this one.

 

18 hours ago, Bob Ellis said:

This is a great kit. I built on in 1965 and this issue in 1975. I wish AMT didn't remove the clear red tail light as they did for tons of their older kits

The kit does seem to be a pretty good one so far Bob. There are a couple of things I wish they had done differently but it should look good in the ol' Display Case when it's done.

 

15 hours ago, FoMoCo66 said:

Cool project! Thats my favorite year of the stacked headlight galaxie. Speaking of young guys with 65 galaxies that was my grandfather's first car. And also the first car he wrecked (if it's ok with you I'll get some pictures later).

Thanks Ace. I've always liked this Galaxie body style too. My father had one in dark blue when I was very young. Based on what I remember of the shape of the tail lights, it was probably a '65 too.

 

13 hours ago, LennyB said:

David, these build up nice and actually have a somewhat decent chassis. I’m actually stealing the chassis for an upcoming project, not yours of course.  I find it funny how this kit and a few other AMT kits of the era use the convertible interior when it’s a hardtop. Not sure if the original HT had the right interior and it’s only the reissues that have the conv🤔. Something I need to investigate.  The 66 Mustang reissue was another they did that with.  

I noticed too that the interior was for a convertible. Which puzzled me as I don't recall seeing a convertible version of this kit offered. I agree that the chassis is nice, I just wish they had done the exhaust separately.

 

9 hours ago, Monty said:

I'm looking forward to seeing your take on this project.  While this kit does have some nice features, there are a few areas that truly need to be addressed.  The most egregious (to me) are the headlight bezels,  specifically the raised rings which, according to the instructions, are where the headlight lenses go.  Any good reference picture shows that these rings don't exist on the 1:1 car.  

Also, the exhaust system is molded to the chassis, which is a huge pet peeve of mine but may or may not be a big deal to you.  It can be painted and look OK for the most part, but around the rear axle area it's very thick and needs more work to achieve best results.  

Hope to see pics as this goes forward.  

Thank you Monty. While doing my prebuild perusal of the directions I did notice that the headlights are to be glued onto the grille casting in what seemed to be an odd way. I agree with you, that won't look right.

Do you have any suggestions on how to correct this? 

And the exhaust system is a bit of a disappointment. There are side pipes offered in the kit which I'd like to use. Unfortunately with the molded exhaust and what AMT offers to accommodate the side pipes, there's just no easy way to make everything look like it would work in real life.

I've thought about making it look like there were cut-outs for the side pipes. But the side pipes aren't really great and to me it's just not worth the effort. So I kind of gave up on that and I'll detail paint the exhaust as it is and move on with the build.

Thanks again,

David G.

[FoMoCo66]

1 minute ago, David G. said:

Thanks Ace. I've always liked this Galaxie body style too. My father had one in dark blue when I was very young. Based on what I remember of the shape of the tail lights, it was probably a '65 too.

Here's a picture.

[David G.]

1 minute ago, FoMoCo66 said:

Here's a picture.

Aw, that's a heartbreaker. I assume that everyone came out of the wreck okay?

David G.

[bobss396]

9 hours ago, Monty said:

I'm looking forward to seeing your take on this project.  While this kit does have some nice features, there are a few areas that truly need to be addressed.  The most egregious (to me) are the headlight bezels,  specifically the raised rings which, according to the instructions, are where the headlight lenses go.  Any good reference picture shows that these rings don't exist on the 1:1 car.  

Also, the exhaust system is molded to the chassis, which is a huge pet peeve of mine but may or may not be a big deal to you.  It can be painted and look OK for the most part, but around the rear axle area it's very thick and needs more work to achieve best results.  

Hope to see pics as this goes forward.  

Ugh... I have removed them on stock car builds. A ton of work. I used the '66 Galaxie chassis, from the firewall back on one I did. I wanted to retain the steerable wheels.

[FoMoCo66]

12 minutes ago, David G. said:

Aw, that's a heartbreaker. I assume that everyone came out of the wreck okay?

David G.

My grandfather had the door handle go into his Leg and the glass shattered into his face. But other wise he was okay.

[Zippi]

That'll be a nice build Dave.  Looking good so far.

[David G.]

30 minutes ago, bobss396 said:

Ugh... I have removed them on stock car builds. A ton of work. I used the '66 Galaxie chassis, from the firewall back on one I did. I wanted to retain the steerable wheels.

I did consider a chassis swap just so I could make better use of the side pipes. But yeah, that's more work than I wanted to do on this one Bob.

 

23 minutes ago, FoMoCo66 said:

My grandfather had the door handle go into his Leg and the glass shattered into his face. But other wise he was okay.

That's good to know. As cool as those old cars were getting in a wreck with one could be like falling into a large box of knives and hammers at 30 mph.

 

16 minutes ago, Zippi said:

That'll be a nice build Dave.  Looking good so far.

Thank you Bob, I'm glad to know you're following along.

David G.

[Pierre Rivard]

3 builds side by side? I can barely handle one at a time.

You definitely got my attention! Lots to follow.

[David G.]

22 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

3 builds side by side? I can barely handle one at a time.

You definitely got my attention! Lots to follow.

Yes, there's this one, the 1966 Chaparral 2D Coupe and the 1955 Lincoln Futura. 

I usually have at least two builds going simultaneously. That way I can I can be getting the suspension prepped for paint on the Galaxie while the paint is curing on the Chaparral. Then while the paint dries on the Galaxie's suspension, I can start sanding the putty I put on the Futura body the day before. By then, the Chaparral is ready for polish and decals.

Doing this also helps to keep me from losing interest in a build. Sometimes, for any one of a variety of reasons, I just need to set one down for a few days. A kind of "cooling off" period. Having other builds to occupy myself provides a good distraction while I sort out some details and let my attitude reset itself.

I find that this works for me.

Thanks for your comment Pierre.

David G.

[slusher]

Just found your build Dave, llooking forward to following along..

[David G.]

11 hours ago, slusher said:

Just found your build Dave, llooking forward to following along..

Thanks Carl, welcome aboard!

David G.

[Kenmojr]

Is not this one of Jay Leno's favorite cars? Gonna be a cool thread, I can tell...

[David G.]

23 hours ago, Kenmojr said:

Is not this one of Jay Leno's favorite cars? Gonna be a cool thread, I can tell...

Thank you Ken.

Hmm, could be. I don't know much about Jay Leno other than he's a comedian with a passion for collecting cars.

David G.

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

Thank you all so much for your interest in this project. It makes the work of taking and editing the photos and writing the captions worth while.

(03) The first two colors have been masked and shot on the chassis. I hate molded-in exhaust.  

 

 

Detail painting the molded-in exhaust.

 

 

Installing the rear chassis section (the trunk floor insert) I discovered some clearance problems. I've indicated a gap showing where the locator tabs are supposed to mate with the depressions in the side rails on the main chassis. The interference is coming from the exhaust pipe and the fuel tank both wanting to occupy the same space. I've already started grinding and filing the exhaust pipes.

 

 

This is a view from the other side of the chassis. Circled, are the depressions where the tabs on the trunk insert are supposed to fit. The arrow shows the two exhaust pipes that need ground down to allow clearance for them to do so. Once these adjustments were made I had no trouble getting the trunk insert to fit between the frame rails as it was supposed to.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to comment if you wish.

David G.

[LennyB]

David, looking good. It's odd how they made this chassis. And it gets even odder in the following years. I think starting in '67 they modified it and cut out the whole belly and exposed the bottom of the interior tub and the exhaust was completely separate. Then by '69 they put everything back and molded the exhaust and axle in place again.

[Keef]

3 builds at one time? Oh how I wish!! 😂🤣

[David G.]

17 hours ago, LennyB said:

David, looking good. It's odd how they made this chassis. And it gets even odder in the following years. I think starting in '67 they modified it and cut out the whole belly and exposed the bottom of the interior tub and the exhaust was completely separate. Then by '69 they put everything back and molded the exhaust and axle in place again.

Thank you Len.

That is a strange series of changes.

 

9 hours ago, Keef said:

3 builds at one time? Oh how I wish!! 😂🤣

Wow Keith, that's impressive. And I thought I was organized by keeping my current builds on my Work-Shelf.

 

You take organization to a whole different level... multiple levels!

David G.

[slusher]

David, you always seem to work out your problems that come your way..

[David G.]

On 5/22/2024 at 5:25 AM, slusher said:

David, you always seem to work out your problems that come your way..

Thank you Carl! I do pride myself on my problem solving abilities.

David G.