1968 Galaxie 500
1968 Galaxie 500
The car above is my last project. She had 58,000 original miles when I bought her and the only major problem with her was the fact that she sat for 11 years. Because of this, the engine (390V8) was frozen up. I started rebuilding the engine in February 1998 and I finished it in April.
When I dissassembled the engine, the #5 piston was corroded so badly that I had to use a sledge hammer to knock it out. The cylinders had to be bored .040" over size (which increased the engine displacement from 390 to 398 inches)and the cam shaft had to be replaced. The crankshaft needed polishing, but the rest of the lower block was OK. The heads, however, needed to have hardened valve seats, new rocker arm assemblies, and new valves. The machining and valves was going to cost $500 plus $330 for the rocker arm assemblies. I rebuilt the rocker arm assemblies my self for $170 and bought rebuilt heads for $65 each - the shop had two heads with the same casting numbers as my original ones. I removed the transmission (C-6 Automatic) with the engine and had it rebuilt for $350.
Above is a picture of the car's interior. It is in good shape except for a cracked dashboard and a few small tears in the passenger seat. The next picture shows the car on ramps just before I removed the gas tank to check for rust. I got lucky here because there was about five gallons of gas in it, but it was clean inside. I had to totally redo the brakes on the car. Luckily I didn't have to replace the brake drums, but I had to replace the master cylinder, all four wheel cylinders, the brake shoes, and some of the brake lines. I still need to replace most of the steering linkage, but I'm going to wait until I have more money before I do this.
Here is the finished product. I started the engine on April 5th, 1998 and I have put about 12,500 miles on it since.
I am now in the process of repainting the car. I have repaired several dings and dents and I am going to paint the car a dark green metallic (also a 1968 factory color) instead of going back with the light green metallic. I'll post some more pictures later.
Updated June 3, 2001