Kids will come up with the darndest names. When I was in high school, a classmate had a ’64 Ford Galaxie 500, two-door hardtop, red with a white roof – just like this example but with a fixed roof and not a convertible – it even had the same powerplant. The car was known as “Wacker’s low-rider”. The owner’s name wasn’t wacker, not even close but how he got that nom de guerre is unknown to me and I wasn’t about to speculate. The low-rider part was easy, the springs were shot and he usually had half a dozen other kids in the car with him so it was permanently dragging, front to rear, everywhere it went. Anyway, this Galaxie is truly a do-it-yourself project so let’s see how far along this Ford has gone and try to determine how much further it has to go. This convertible is located in Dekalb, Illinois and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of $3,250 with thirteen bids tendered as of this writing.
This is one of those deals where the seller has dismantled the car, completely, and now wants to move on from it because, as he states, “due to time constraints and needing to do projects that make me money vs doing projects that cost me money“. Fair enough, but stepping into a project that has been started by someone else can be a tough row to hoe. The seller adds, “it’s about 75% disassembled, all nuts and bolts are bagged and tagged. It’s a complete car, I wasn’t missing anything. I’m not sure but I may have thrown away the gas tank“. A gas tank is pretty big, if you can’t remember what happened to that, what about much smaller, more innocuous stuff? The seller adds that the frame is actually a replacement and the floors and trunk pan need to be replaced – and that’s where he stopped. The body, as it’s currently extracted from the frame, doesn’t look bad but the seller refers to it as a ten-footer and suggests that the quarters need to be replaced due to shoddy patch panel work.
This Ford was claimed to be a strong runner before it was torn down as it is powered by a 250 HP, 352 CI V8 engine driving an automatic transmission. The mileage is listed as 89K miles, so if it is the actual mileage, the engine should still have some life left to it. The seller states that this was his grandfather’s car so he probably has pretty good knowledge of its past.
The interior is listed as being original with possibly some redo by the seller’s grandfather. What can be seen presents well. The seller also mentions that the convertible top is about ten years old and the working mechanism is all there and included.
Now as an interesting turn of events, the seller advises, as of Wednesday the 3rd, that he’s going to try to reassemble the car and turn it into a roller – apparently, he’s had a lot of requests on that front (though he thinks he may have pitched the rear leaf-springs). It seems that the work performed so far has been done by one who knows what he’s doing and the car appears to be domiciled in a professional body shop. And if that’s the case, the seller probably would know best where all of the parts are and how to reassemble them. That action will make this car a much better sale candidate even if the floors and trunk pan are still in poor shape – it doesn’t need to be framed off to effect that repair. One final thought would be to pull this listing down and then relist this Galaxie when it’s in a completed roller status, I think he’ll be happier with the auction results. So, have any of you ever ventured into buying a car like this when it was in pieces? And if so, how did it turn out?
Unless you like putting puzzles together, I suggest you “Run, Forrest, run!” Too many seeming inconsistencies in the seller’s description. Everything is “tagged and bagged”, but then he can’t remember whether or not main components have been discarded! Since this is taking up space in a business, I don’t think that there have the passage of many years to aid the memory vagueness. Just my opinion. Good luck to seller and to the adventurous buyer! :-)
I bought a completely disassembled 65 Mustang. Brought it home by the truckload. It took months to put it back together with the help of an assembly manual. I wasn’t to concerned about strict originality, so some liberties were taken with fasteners and components. It was satisfying to drive it the first time. I am a professional auto tech but an older car such as this is not that complicated. Any proficient diyer could pull it off. Patience and perseverance and an assembly manual. Good way to save money on a project car in this day of inflated hobby car prices.
I agree 100% with you Moparman, it looks like a BIG! Jigsaw puzzle with several pieces missing. Like, the gas tank, the rear springs, and several other parts. Like the article states, the ad should be pulled down. After the puzzle/Galaxie is a car again, it could be re-listed. Then, with only a few pieces/parts left to find, it would more than likely sell. If only it were a “… 1957 Chryler named… CHRISTINE !!!! … it could rebuild itself … ~~~“` da na na na na na … Bbbbbbbbad to the bone … Bad to bone … ´´´~~~
This looks like a great project for the right ’64 Galaxy enthusiast. The only things in pieces I desire to put together are puzzles and my Lego Ford Mustang.
It doesn’t make any sense to sell something completely disassembled.
Seriously, you went that far and won’t finish and will take a financial hit….
There may be exceptions, but there is most likely a reason why it is being sold this way….likely to pass….
What if the seller rolled a not as strong coupe chassis under the car?
Who does he think he is, Johnny Cash….? If you know the song, you get the joke.
So no rear springs either. Guy is jamming it onto the frame to make a roller of it. Me thinks he should have paid a bit more attention when the junkman came by to clean up. Lots of unknowns here, too bad. GLWS Dude.
I bought a completely disassembled 65 Mustang. Brought it home by the truckload. It took months to put it back together with the help of an assembly manual. I wasn’t to concerned about strict originality, so some liberties were taken with fasteners and components. It was satisfying to drive it the first time. I am a professional auto tech but an older car such as this is not that complicated. Any proficient diyer could pull it off. Patience and perseverance and an assembly manual. Good way to save money on a project car in this day of inflated hobby car prices.
64 is my favorite year for these Galaxies. When I’m in the market for a car I won’t buy until I find exactly what I’m looking for. This car falls way short, first he says the gas tank is missing then later it’s also missing rear springs, makes me wonder what else suddenly comes up missing. No thank you. If it were an XL then maybe I might take a chance. In this case you have a car in need of mechanical, body and electrical work. This is going to be a long term project with a lot of head scratching and bleeding fingers and more than likely plenty of profanity. When it’s all said and done if you’re married now, you’ll probably be divorced when done.
God bless America
Definitely not original seat covers. The car pictured on the trailer looks prtty good. Whole thing makes no sense.
Well, yes I did buy a car in pieces one time. I had been told about a 1970 Camaro Z28 RS for sale. The owner was a body man and painter. He had disassembled this car in hopes of painting and restoring it. I never did know the reason he was bailing out on the project but he wanted to sell in pieces as is.
So I went to look at it. A friend of mine went with me since we all know four eyes are better than two when it comes to buying old cars, especially one in pieces. He met us at the body shop where he worked first to see the body of the car and the state it was in at that point. The body was in primer but was beautiful and rust-free. He had even removed the entire front end so he could paint it inside as well as outside. Being satisfied with what I saw there, I asked if we could see all of the parts he had removed. I knew that would be the hard part. It’s impossible to know if everything is there just by looking. Right?
He said the parts were all at his house, a few miles away. So we followed him there to look. He lived in a beautifully restored, large, old farm house out in the country. He invited us in. We walked down a long hallway. He made a left and opened a door to a room. It was a huge room. He had laid quilts/furniture pads on the magnificent hardwood floors. And on those quilts, he had all of the parts for that Z28 lined up in perfect rows with the parts being in order from front to rear. And all of the parts were either excellent originals, restored originals or NOS! I have never in my life seen someone so organized as this guy was with these parts. It made it so easy to know what was there and I didn’t see anything missing.
I had thought his price on the car was high until I saw how nice the body of the car was and the amazing array and display of parts he had for it. So after some minor negotiating, I bought it. Over the next few months, I had the car painted and then my friend and I re-assembled it. It was Cranberry Red with black Z28 stripes and black and white houndstooth interior. The car was incredible when finished.
I kept the car for a while before selling it to a man in Nebraska, 2000 miles away. He and his friend flew here and drove that car back! And he said it was a blast.
Neat story Larry!
Thx,
JO
He should be selling as a rolling parts car, that’s all I see when I look at the pictures. Should settle on something between 500-750. By the time he gets all the missing pieces he’ll be 4 grand in and a long way from being finished.
Retired? Got nothing else to do? MAYBE a G.
These OLD CARS sure do come apart easy.
It’s that “Puttin Em Back Together” part that a REAL PITA!
What’s it worth?
What’s it WEIGH???
Look at it another way. Suppose an older person took car apart and suddenly they passed away. Now, there is still value to the car even tho it’s scattered all over the garage. The trick is knowing how much it’s worth and enjoying the project as you move along. Had many, many of these type projects brought to my shop over the years.
“I’m not paying you to clean out your garage” a quote from a buddy as we walked out of a sellers garage full of disassembled cars. My buddy got the cars for free, 3 months later. My lesson learned from that is never bail on a project after you’ve started disassembly.
He’s pulled it down and discovered everything is worn out and seen big dollars at least he’s done some of the work for the next owner
In my late teens early 20’s I had my second 64 Galaxie and this one was an XL 390. It was my favorite car EVER! My buddy and I used to cruise all over town sitting way low in the seats and always wearing our raybans. People always called us The Blues Brothers. This is the one I truly miss….
Cars are worth what someone wants to pay for them , sometimes you pay to much and sometimes you get a deal . This galaxie is definitely worth $4000.