63 Galaxie, Bye Bye Screw Posts

[FoMoCo66]

This is amt's long running 63 galaxie kit, specifically the Prestige release, the one with the foil and the display base. I've always loved the 61, 62, 63, and 64 galaxies. I plan to build all of them eventually, starting with this one.

My least favorite part about these early annual kits is the screw post on the radiator support. I have filled these on my 65 falcon awb, time to do it again. Drilled them out with a 1/8" bit and filled with 1/8" piece of styrene. Shaved them down with a dremmel tool. I then added the top raised piece with some plastic stock.

The fan shield was made from evergreen and the raised piece was stolen from the kit radiator.

There is also some little ears on the back side to hold and locate the radiator so of course I made some.

The last thing I have done so far to clean up the engine bay was shave all the wires off of the fire wall and patch some of the holes.

The next thing I did was build and detail the engine. The kit engine is not horrible, the one glaringly obvious thing is the big hole in the block for the metal axle. That had to go. Now this won't happen when you fill it with oil.

After that it got detailed, fuel lines run and plumbed to the filter and pump. The ignition was also wired in the correct firing order, I try to do this on all of my builds but sometimes it just depends on my mood that day.

The overall body on this, well, not the worst thing I have ever seen, worst part were the sink marks in the trunk. No problem that a little spot putty can't fix.

My favorite part about this is the stance and wheels. The wheels and tires are the ones from the revell 32 ford.

The stance was achived by drilling another hole above the original then putting some evergreen 1/8" tube into it, I then covered that with some flat stock to add some support and hide the original hole.

Here's a moch up of the engine bay and over all car.

Thanks for looking, comments are appreciated.

Elliot

Edited Thursday at 10:14 PM by FoMoCo66
Image location.

[FoMoCo66]

For reference, here's a before image of the engine bay.

[johnyrotten]

Great work on the radiator support. That is a huge improvement. You nailed the stance, she's sitting perfectly. 👍👍

[Zippi]

Your whipping the ole 63 Galaxie into shape Elliot.  Nice work man.

[ksnow]

Very nice work. Thank you for the step by step.

[bytownshaker]

Love the stance!! definitely following your build.

[customline]

Great work on that radiator support, Elliot. I'm stealing that! 🤓

[FoMoCo66]

7 hours ago, johnyrotten said:

Great work on the radiator support. That is a huge improvement. You nailed the stance, she's sitting perfectly. 👍👍

Thanks John!

3 hours ago, Zippi said:

Your whipping the ole 63 Galaxie into shape Elliot.  Nice work man.

Appreciate it Bob!

2 hours ago, ksnow said:

Very nice work. Thank you for the step by step.

Your welcome Kyle. With how much work I have been doing to this, I felt like it deserved one.

[FoMoCo66]

2 hours ago, bytownshaker said:

Love the stance!! definitely following your build.

Thanks for following Edgar, hope you like it.

1 hour ago, customline said:

Great work on that radiator support, Elliot. I'm stealing that! 🤓

Hey, teacher, he's copying my homework 🤪. Seriously, glad I could help!

[dino246gt]

That is SO cool!

I'm on a kick of building some old AMT kits and "refining" them, like you're doing, it's so much fun and rewarding!

You MUST drill out the chrome headlights, and possibly try to thin the tail light chrome surround, something I regret not doing.

I did drill out the headlights though.

[FoMoCo66]

13 minutes ago, dino246gt said:

That is SO cool!

I'm on a kick of building some old AMT kits and "refining" them, like you're doing, it's so much fun and rewarding!

You MUST drill out the chrome headlights, and possibly try to thin the tail light chrome surround, something I regret not doing.

I did drill out the headlights though.

Yeah, I am definitely going to do the headlights. I did notice that the tail light surounds are a bit thick, haven't decided on doing that yet. Now that im thinking about it, probably going to. Btw, nice 63 and 64 on the left, my next galaxie build is going to be a kitbash of the starliner and 64 galaxie.

[Bainford]

Looking good, Elliot. I agree about the stance; it's killer.

[gtx6970]

Cool,

I like the 63-64 Big Fords 

I have  few of ea on the shelf ,

 

And they make great looking race cars.  so maybe someday here soon

Edited Friday at 04:01 PM by gtx6970

[slusher]

Great work on the start of your project, perfect stance!

[espo]

Vast improvement from what AMT offered at the time. Like the engine details as well. 

[TarheelRick]

Great work on Ford's second-best designed car, the 40 Coupe being #1. Stance looks just right. Bring on some more updates.

[stinkybritches]

Sweet looking ride so far.

[FoMoCo66]

Thanks for all the comments guys, I really appreciate them! Today I got some much needed chrome work done. Those chrome headlights had to go, took the dremmel with these 3 bits and grinded them out.

Heres where I started grinding, the plastic behind it was pretty thin so I had to go all the way through.

I then used a hole punch to cut out some evergreen styrene. I then rounded them out with the butt of a paint brush and glued them to the back. Also ginded a 64 grille because i had the dremmel out, didnt need to use the backing technique with it sence it had more material.

I then painted some chrome in them with a molotow marker and set them in the dehydrator.

Last thing was to throw some parts box lenses on, blackwash the grille, and paint the emblem.

I also took Dennis's (dino246gt) advice and thinned down the tail light bezels. Then I detailed the lenses with the little crosses and the reverse light.

Now to the chassis and engine. On the chassis I carved out the space inbetween the frame rails and leaf springs to give the ilusion that they are Seperately applied springs.

I wanted some long tube headers to make it a little bit more of a hot rod. They are modified ones from the amt 69 gtx.

Thanks for looking every one!

Elliot

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:44 PM by FoMoCo66

[dino246gt]

Awesome progress on the big Fords, I personally think that the '63 and a half Galaxie 500 fastback is the most beautiful big Ford out there, I love the style, '64 just a little less.

'62 was pretty great looking too, '61, also sweet................ stop me! LOL

[FoMoCo66]

I didnt want to do much to the interior but I did want to do one thing. Amt annuals always had the one pice seats that were leaned too far back. Starting point... 

First thing was to lean the seat forward. Cut off a lot of material at an angle to get this.

The difference in the interior. Modified in back, stock in front.

Now the trim is at a funny angle. I took a dremmel with the conical shape bit and ran it along. Then I removed some material at the front and rounded the cussion over. And heres the finished seat.

Now the problem was the mounting pins were off, so I decided to remove them all together.

And here they are sitting in the interior. A vast improvement to the early seats.

Also added some custom Iowa license plate "406 GALX".

 

Thanks for looking!

Edited Sunday at 03:46 AM by FoMoCo66