L@@K !!!  It was time  to update the 1969 Galaxie 500 Sportsroof.  It has been over a year or more since I added any new information regarding the Galaxie 500 Sportsroof ! NEW photos

Many questions have gone unanswered and I would like to apologize to all I missed. Lost password and started a business Photographing Dragracing so the site was left to the wayside. Since then the Galaxie has had more upgrades done to her.

WE finally found the orignal 8-track player she was ordered from the factory with. It was in working order and we re-installed it. It sounds just as bad as it did in 1969. But it works! The offically turned 40 years old last October seeing it was built in 1968. Happy 40th to her!

The car has been timed on an 8th mile dragstrip driven by a pro drag racer in Virginia at the Old Dominion Dragstrip this past summer. She has a 429 Thunderjet 4V with 2:80 rear gears so she is not fast off the line. But a 9.85 was not bad for a solid stock 4500lb car. The picture is posted of her running there.

We are preparing the car for the Carlisle Ford Nationals this coming June. However since the car won 2nd place in 2006 and won the class 1st place in 2007 we decided to sit out 2008. This year we are trying to get her into the invitational show where she would no longer sit in the field, but be placed indoors on display.

Last year the car was invited to the Washington DC auto show with a group of antique and late model Fords. She was a great hit with spectators and many remembered their cars and the era long gone of the BIG Ford Muscle Cars.

The Galaxie has won numerous awards including 1st place in class the AACA show at Sully Plantation in Chantilly, Va. The car also went back to shown where it was sold to it's first owner at Kip Killamon Ford in Tysons Corner Va.. The Galaxie again won 1st place in class, the dealer name had changed from what was Herriman Ford in 1960-70's. But a nice homecoming for her.

Own a car such as this one is a joy and sometimes sad, because I have yet to see another one. It is not an XL model. She is a strip line model Sportsroof Coupe that was special ordered from the factory with the 429 4V package, thus the numbers are below a thousand produced. 641 were made. How many are left I am often asked? Who knows? But if you have one send me a Photo of it. There has to be one more out there that evaded the crusher!

Here is her story below of how I found her, who had her and the details of a long journey of friendship and love for a car that was destined to ride strong again with pride and honor her previous owner.

I purchased the Galaxie 500 Sportsroof on October 13th, 2003. This was 9 years to day it was last parked. I had seen the car accross from my mother's house where I had spent my childhood. I knew of the car but never really paid any attention to it. When I first looked at the car it was in sad shape. The drivers door was crushed in where a deer had struck the car some years earlier. It had a rotting interior with holes in the floor boards and the trunk had a foot of water in it and you could not see the bottom. The paint had algae growing on it and years of dirt and pine needles all over it. Mice had made a condo out of the engine bay, with crickets living in the air cleaner. There was one thing that made me see that there was something special about her it was the 429 fender emblems on the car. I knew that that engine was quite sought after. It was also a 4V car and I did not know til later that the car was very rare and that I just got the deal many dream of. I paid $60.00 for the car. Yes $60.00!! It had 80,502 miles on it. It was complete matching numbers and original.

The man who owned the car has Parkinsons disease and I wanted to start and finish her restortaion before he passed away.(He has not died and he has seen his old girl and his health is OK, for now) He is like a father to me and had many times influenced me with my muscle cars as a teenager. He used the Galaxie to haul race cars to the track.

When I got the car home I took a pressure washer to the car just see what was under all the years of crap. the paint was quite dead, and rust found its way into many places. Nothing too serious and that a welder could not repair. That is what we did, no bondo all new metal in many places! I have taken the entire car apart,; however we did not take her off the frame. I have done my best to bring the car her back to her former glory.

After 4 1/2 years of detailed work inside and out I can say she was worth all that I put into her. The engine was never removed and runs strong as ever. The interior was replaced in January 2007 and I added a 10 CD changer that was placed into the trunk. The Galaxie is pure stock, no modifications other than an Edlebrock 750 CFM carb under the hood. It has dual 2 1/2 pipes from the engine. It has flowmaster mufflers. The wheels were changed to a more stylish Ford Magnum 500 with red caps.

The car will surprise many because it does not say Ford anywhere on the body, only Galaxie 500 on the rear fenders. People ask What is it? She appears to be a long large boat, but when challenged at speed she will eat you alive! It has a stock 280 rearend which is a highway gear ratio so off the line you may get her but once at speed she climbs and climbs ever faster. I have been told she will probably do 160 MPH on the open road by a friend who is a retired police officer that remembers these cars when they were abundant, you know I believe it. Not bad for a pure stock car! Sorry! I am 45 years old now and 160 MPH sounds fun, but I will not try it anytime soon.

Enjoy the pix and all comments are welcome. Please do not ask me to sell her. I have parted with too many muscle cars in the past as many foolish young men have done. This car will stay right at home in her garage.