1971 Ford Galaxie 500. Not the actual car, but very close.
Welcome to my first Cars of a Lifetime post. I truly have been blessed with a lifetime of cars (20+), and it is with pleasure that I will be sharing them with you over the coming weeks and months.
I have been a car person all my life. Chances are if you are reading this you are too. You also know that we are not like other people. However, I don’t think you will find better exemplars of this than my extended family. I am of Germanic descent, and a third-generation engineer in a family full of engineers. Automobiles are in my blood. I know this sounds stereotypical, but I reassure myself that it is not a stereotype if it is true.
My family’s fixation with automobiles goes back at least as far as my great-grandfather Lawrence Halter. A well-to-do businessman and socialite in Akron, Ohio, he was already financially successful from other enterprises before opening up a car dealership in the 1910s. He sold Haynes, Chalmers, Maxwell, and Briscoe cars, and purportedly had a large personal collection of autos. To this day, when we speak of my great-grandfather, he is remembered best not for the City Laundry that he owned for decades, but for the car dealership that he only briefly owned. The picture below is taken from a book titled Men of Akron in Caricature published in 1919.
In my family, we mark time by cars. While others may look at old family photos by looking and people and fashions to discern the age, I immediately go to the cars. An encyclopedic knowledge of who owned what car when is to me the most accurate way of dating a photo. Cars form the pages of my mental calendar, and that of my family. While reminiscing about a life event such as a wedding, you are more likely to hear someone say that “That’s when you were driving a piece of crap ’66 Ford” then you will hear a comment about the actual event.
I have no doubt that there is a genetic component to this, as demonstrated by my own earliest memories. I have the fortunate privilege of (barely) remembering my dad buying his first new car, a 1971 Ford Galaxie 500. It was what they used to call triple white: White exterior, white vinyl interior (it would be decades before I knew there was such a thing as leather seats), and a white vinyl roof. He bought it for the same reason people have bought new cars since time immemorial: To have safe, reliable transportation for his growing family. It was a good start for his family, and a good start for my Cars of a Lifetime series.
A portrait of the author as a young boy (on right), hanging out of our 1971 Ford Galaxie 500. My brother Andy is on the left.
For 1971, full-sized Fords were available with no fewer than seven engine choices, from the fleet special 240 Big Six all the way up to the 429 4-barrel V8. The vast majority came with the sensible but sufficient 351 Windsor V8, providing a decent balance of power and economy. This is most likely the engine that was in Dad’s Galaxie.
Surprisingly, a lot of digital ink has already been spilled about the 1971 full-sized Fords here on Curbside Classic (here, here, and here), so I don’t have a lot more to add, especially for a car I never drove. The consensus seems to be that the 1971 stylistically is not as strong as the models that preceded it, with particular scorn reserved for the “Bunkie Beak.” I however always found the Bunkie beak of this era (both here and in its application on the 70-71 Thunderbird) to be quite attractive, long before I even know what a Bunkie beak was.
The much-maligned Bunkie Beak
The 71 Galaxie had a smart-looking stainless panel between the brake lights with some nice “Galaxie” script attached to it. However, I soon noticed that some versions of my Dad’s car had tail lights where ours made due with the aforementioned ornamental filler. These cars also said “LTD” instead of “Galaxie” (which I always viewed with embarrassment as a misspelling of the word “Galaxy”). You don’t even have to leave the Curbside Classic site to see examples of each, as I did when creating the composite image below.
Which would you rather have?
I instantly grasped the automotive pecking order and the relative position of my Dad’s 71 Galaxie in this pecking order (closer to the bottom). This was also my first introduction to the knockout panel, broadcasting to the world the options that you were too cheap to buy.
At the time, my Dad was working at Aeroquip in Van Wert, Ohio as a plant engineer. Since this was decades before remote access and working from home, he frequently needed to stop by the plant after hours, and sometimes dragged me and my brother Andy along to give Mom a break. I didn’t mind too much, as the route to the office went past the local Lincoln-Mercury dealership. I used to stand in the back seat (no child safety seats then) to catch a glimpse of the Continentals and Mark IVs parked on the neatly terraced lot in front of a gleaming showroom. With their opera windows, hidden headlights and huge chrome grilles it was obvious even to a 4-year-old that I was looking at the pinnacle of the automotive pecking order. I didn’t have to ask my Dad, as no explanation was necessary.
While they may have been lacking class (and in some cases taste), there is no denying that these 70’s luxobarges had presence. I wonder if the pecking order of today’s lookalike cars is as self-evident to a 4-year old as they were to me in the early ‘70s? This would, of course, prove to be highly influential later in life, but I am jumping way ahead of myself.
My dad teaching me good car detailing skills on his 1967 Cutlass
Dad also had a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass that he had purchased used before buying the Galaxie. I always preferred the Galaxie, since it seemed more modern to me with its flush door handles, ventless windows, and hidden wiper blades. The Galaxie also had air conditioning, a feature that was lacking in both the Cutlass and our family home, and would be hugely influential on me later in life.
Other than that, I don’t remember much about the Cutlass, so I won’t be writing up a separate COAL for it, but I did want to include it here since I uncovered some snazzy pictures of me and the car.
That’s it for now – stay tuned for my next COAL, where we will start covering cars that I have actual wheel time with.
Nice post. You have a great way with words. I’m anxiously awaiting your next submission.
Welcome to the club of COAL writers! That’s a very nice introduction. It makes me look forward to the many cars and COALS that will follow.
Holy shit, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for another Bunkie LTD. Thank you Tom, you just made my morning.
Tom, Welcome to the CC COAL club. I’m looking forward to your series.
The cars of our fathers are very much part of our automotive lives. I too started early on the washing, waxing, and tune ups (remember them?) done with, and under the careful watch and tutelage of, my father.
I wasn’t aware of the term “Bunkie Beak” at the time but it certainly was a common sight in the day. Below, my son Chris in 1983 inheriting my parent’s well used and beaked T-Bird.
Welcome Tom. I look forward to reading your stories and getting to know you through your cars!
Tom, welcome aboard!
This hits home. As you aren’t but a few years older than me, your statement about seeing the new cars and automatically knowing the pecking order hits home quite resoundingly.
Also, kudos to you. You have started off a new year at CC with one of Paul’s all-time favorite cars outside of Peugeots. 🙂
+1
In addition, his statement about telling the age of a photo by the cars in it hits home resoundingly with me.
Great article, Tom. Looking forward to your next one.
I miss the differentiation between trims as well. Hard to tell an “up-market” version of anything these days.
They seem to have larger wheels and special bulbs in the turn signals and that’s it.
Personally, I love the look of a “stripper” : purposeful and honest.
AFAIC, the much maligned Bunkie-beak gets a bad rap. It wasn’t ‘that’ bad and, supposedly, the nose of Bunkie’s Fords and Mercurys was the rationale behind the federal 5mph bumper requirement, which was much worse than the problem (if there actually was one).
While it’s true that Bunkie’s front ends might have been a bit excessive on a couple of models, when done with some restraint on the standard full-size Fords (like the feature car), it was okay. In fact, it might even be construed as the revenge of the Edsel in that regard.
Bunkie’s bigger mistake was making the 1971 Mustang the size of an aircraft carrier. Conversely, it’s forgotten how he improved Iacocca’s trend-setting 1969 Continental Mark III with the Mark IV without diluting the original, successful formula one bit. It’s just another one of those ‘what might have been’ if Bunkie had only knocked before entering Henry Ford II’s office.
Thank you, Tom H., for a cheery writeup that checks off my Ohio/Akron/Ford extended-family roots and also dating family photos by the cars, which I understand 100%. I suppose I’m about half-a-generation older, which isn’t all that much looking back 45 years.
(Are you old enough to still remember when you could smell the rubber/tire production in Akron 24/7?)
Happy New Year to you, and to all at CC.
“. . . I reassure myself that it is not a stereotype if it is true.”
Hey, stereotypical and true aren’t mutually exclusive! 🙂
Looking forward to the series. With 20+ cars, I assume it’ll be a good long one.
The 71 impala put this car and the 71 fury to shame style wise . I can appreciate this car now , but I didn’t like back in the day They also rusted very quickly
Nah. The Ford has style. The Chevy was derivative….
Different strokes I supposed.
Great leading post, Tom. And I too, like the ’71 full size Fords. I must have, because I remember fall 1970 when I was a senior in high school, and the driver training car showed up across the street from our house for students to practice parallel parking. I admired the styling from my 2nd floor bedroom window. At the end of the model year, a doctor down the street purchased a new ’71 LTD coupe, and I always liked the clean, taut lines on that car as well. I thought the Ford looked better than the contemporary Pontiac.
I look forward to the rest of this series.
Tom, welcome to COAL. I had to chuckle when I saw the first picture at the top of the article; it probably isn’t really true but sometimes I think that at least half of the full size Fords of this era were painted that pale, “landlady” green. The 1972 four door version that my grandmother owned was that color, and I remember seeing others as well. I know that many look down upon these cars as examples of wretched excess but for the most part they accomplished the mission set out for them, inexpensive and reliable transportation. I emphasize the reliability because U.S. cars of this era would (generally) tolerate years of deferred maintenance and still run.
Welcome to the Contributoriat(?)! Great intro to your COAL series; can’t wait for more! Also jeeeeeez a lot of us have had Galaxies
You act as if there is something wrong with that! 🙂
Welcome, Tom! I grew up somewhat close to Van Wert, OH in the 70’s.
My dad bought a brand new ’73 Mercury Monterey from the L-M dealer in Delphos, OH (Hanshumaker Motor Sales).
The t.v. Cops shows and big screen movies from the seventies must have wrecked half of fords big car production from that era. What wasn’t crashed fell victim to massive early rust thru. Super rare to see a survivor in the midwest.
Quinn Martin had to be in bed with FMC….
WELCOME .
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Nice post, well written .
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I too like the ‘ Bunkie beak ‘ in many of it’s applications although I didn’t back then very much .
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-Nate
welcome tom!
I burst out laughing at your “car memory” identification system.
I am famous(or infamous) with family and friends for doing that.
someone will list name, family, address etc to place somebody and it is all a blur, but mention the car they drove and I can probably give you details down to their shoe size!
one of my stock in trade comments is “I may not remember a name or face, but I never forget a neat car!”
+1 My family thinks I am nuts for doing that. My friend, a car guy, understands it just fine.
I like this new style of COAL, with the “prequel years” covered, it gives perspective as to the mindset and influences of (on?) the author. Of course, having a variety of actual pictures of hand as you did here certainly improves that immensely!
Thanks for an entertaining and informative read, like the others above, I’m looking forward to more!
Very, very much prefer the 71/72 to the 70 myself. This was a delightful amuse bouche. Cheers
For some strange reason when it comes to the 1971-72 big Ford’s I’ve thought the 1971 had the best looking front end yet the 1972 had the best looking rear end which makes it hard for me to decide which year I liked better between these two, I often end up liking the 1971 more because it had a better power train and performance, I do consider 1972 to be the last great year of the classic full sized Ford’s.
Your parents Galaxie appears to have the very rare bucket seat option. Although the XL was gone after 1970, its seat option remained for one more year.
It did indeed have bucket seats! I remember the hoop shifter handle between the front seats very well. Unfortunately, I don’t have any better pictures of the interior.
This reminds me of an evening in September 1970. I drove over to my girlfriends house to pick her up for a trip into town and her father handed me the keys to his brand new ’71 LTD 2 door hardtop. He said “take this into town”, so we did.
Four things I remember about the car. It was triple brown, had 87 miles on it as we left her driveway, had very sensitive power brakes and it was huge (compared to anything else I’d driven up to that point).
The COAL articles are always some of my favorites on CC, and it’s great to see a new series coming down the road. Welcome. As for the big ’71 Fords, I would have loved to see one of these in our driveway back in 1971. I’ve always liked the Fords of this era – Bunkie beaks and all. However, my dad was a GM man for many years, and at the time we owned a ’67 Beaumont – a blue 2 door sedan with a straight six and Powerglide. It would be a few years before a shiny new ’73 Impala came along. A nice big Ford would have added some much-needed variety to our driveway.
Let me tell ya, for my money the 71 full size Ford range is the BEST looking design of the 70’s. When they went to the egg crate grill and front bumper crossbar on the 72’s that totally ruined the look for me. And I am just like you in that my mental calender is also wrapped around the car’s being used at the time. Like now, I’m coming up on 30 years of knowing my good friend Bill because I first met him (although he had been dating my best friends Mom since the summer of 86) when I went over in my new 87 F150 and pulled a tree stump out of the yard for them. That’s how I know when I first met him. If your lucky though, that’s the only character trait we share!
Wait Guy ;
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Did you just say you both dated your best friends Mom ? .
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=8-) .
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-Nate
No Nate..did not date best friends Mom…Billy was….
“. If your lucky though, that’s the only character trait we share!”.
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=8-) .
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Just yanking your chain Guy, please don’t be too upset .
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-Nate
Nate, my sense of humor runs along the lines of Don Rickles…I have also spent my adult life with family and strangers alike looking at me and saying “what the hell is wrong with you!?”. So I doubt you could offend me. In fact I laughed when I read your comment. No offense taken…
O.K. then;
If you like Don Rickles (it took me a few years to ‘ken’ him) you’ll maybe forgive this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xR5GIVUgUs
-Nate
Oh yeah..that’s my kind of satirical music
A few years ago, at a classmates reunion, the talk turned to the elementary school years, and whereas the girls were remembering teachers, the guys were referring to them by their cars! For example: “remember Mr. Neely’s 64 Thunderbird? How about Mrs. Hardeman’s Polara, and then, there was Mrs. Webb, who had a 62 Gran Prix; from which the bucket seats were stolen, and it took months for replacements! So yes, I can refer to people via the year/make/model of car they drove too! Great COAL! 🙂
Great intro COAL. One note though, these Fords could be equipped with a 351W or 351C, both only as 2bbl and had the same VIN code. Typically, more 351W’s were installed in the fullsize Fords while it seems more intermediates got the 351Cs.
Hard to believe the variety of engines one could get back then. Were there any functional differences between the Windsor and Cleveland V8s?
Yup..351C was supposed to be a higher performance engine…although in 2bbl form I doubt you’d see any difference. But 351W only had a 4bbl option in 69, 351C had it until it was dropped at end of 74 model year..plus 4bbl 351C had different cylinder heads with bigger ports and valves , although exhaust flow is poor on both 351 models.
The Windsor and Cleveland 351’s were quite a bit different. While they both share bore spacing, and head bolt patterns, and bore and stroke dimensions, there is little else in common. The 351 Windsor is part of the same engine family as the 260-289-302 Ford, commonly called the “Windsor” or small block Ford (originally called the Fairlane V8 by Ford). The 351W uses a unique tall deck block compared to the other smaller displacement engines in it’s family. The 351 Cleveland is part of the 335 series engine family, which also includes the 400 and the 351M.
The 351 Cleveland had a canted valve design, similar to the Big Block Chevrolet. It also used much larger ports and valves than the comparable 351 Windsor. The 351W has a better designed oiling system and larger main bearing diameter. Each block has different deck heights and are unique castings, as the 351C has a cast in timing chain housing. Further, the 351C engines use a “dry intake” and no coolant flows through the intake manifold unlike the 351W,
There are more differences, but as you can see these were pretty different engines. The 351C was originally designed with high performance and high RPM usage in mind. Although it did have smaller ports and valves on the 2V (2-barrel) heads, they were still significantly larger than the 351Ws. My personal preference has always been for the 335 series engines. I think that these engines were some of Ford’s best work.
Yup. I remember before the aftermarket hit, the “thing” to do was put Cleveland heads on Windsor blocks. In fact the Boss 302 was a Cleveland style head with the Windsor water flow.
I don’t think any Cleveland-series head (including the Boss engines) will fit any Windsor-series, and vice-versa. The bolt patterns might be the same, but I’m not sure the water passages would line up. I guess it’s theoretically possible, but it takes work and is not simply a matter of bolting them on.
However, putting better breathing 351W heads on a 289/302 might help performance and they ‘will’ bolt-on.
As others have stated this head swap has been done and Clevor is the term for these engines. It does require modification to the coolant passages. With the much greater availability of aftermarket heads for the 351W it doesn’t seem to happen as much anymore. FWIW Tim Meyer is currently in he process of manufacturing new Cleveland blocks called the Track boss. They may be in limited supply but these 335 series engines have a strong and dedicated following.
http://www.tmeyerinc.com/category-s/1902.htm
There are cottage industries around now which modify the water outlets on Cleveland heads to fit Windsors. The resulting combination is known as a Clevor, nothing to do with Beaver.
Considering it’s probably a whole lot easier and cheaper to get hold of a Windsor-series block (esp. a 302) than a 335-series these days, using modded Cleveland heads makes sense.
And ‘Clevor’ sounds better than ‘Windsland’, too (but not by much).
Getting to this late, but looking forward to more. I remember falling hard in love with the 71 Ford when I first saw it, especially those 2 doors with the hugely thick C pillars. In LTD trim, they seemed like they would go toe to toe with any GM B body in terms of class and luxury. They did not age so well, unfortunately.
It is “small world day”, as I just visited relatives in Van Wert yesterday. Did your Ford come from Bushong’s in Van Wert? That was where my father got his 70 and 72 Lincolns. There is still a Ford dealer there, though under another name.
Your COAL is outstanding. I remember going through the same consciousness of autodome’s image hierarchy. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ford dealers offered a simple 2-sided sheet of paper called the “Armchair Estimator”. It gave retail prices for every Ford car and option. I relentlessly calculated the MSRP of various Fords of my dreams, and would mercilessly hound my father to buy one. After years of dismissing me as being nuts about cars, Dad finally relented in late 1971. He bought a 1972 LTD Brougham 4-door pillared hardtop. It replaced our 1967 Galaxie 500 4-door sedan. Both cars were bullet-proof. They delivered us through several cross-country family vacations (not as eventful as Clark Griswald’s).
As a young adult, I started shopping for a 1971 or 1972 LTD Brougham of my own (I was lustful for the high back seats). Ideally, it’d be a 2-door hardtop, but I could accept the 4-door pillared hardtop. Dad advised me that a co-worker was selling a 1972 LTD and that it was in my price range ($1200-1500). As Dad had much more auto buying and selling experience than me, I agreed to the purchase (unseen). But I had one caveat… if I didn’t like his co-worker’s LTD, I’d buy dad’s and Dad would drive his co-worker’s. I was not a good sport when Dad came home with a dark blue Country Squire. I nit-picked every flaw, including the infamously faded fake (dinoc) wood grain. Dad learned I was very particular about cars, and I learned not to degrade a car that I wanted Dad to take. So, Dad stuck me with the Griswald-like Squire, and I spent the summer cleaning it up for resale. I also learned the market for used family vehicles (no minivans or 4-door SUVs in the market then) was much stronger than the market for used coupes and sedans. I made a little money and acknowledged my status as a car nut.
For years, the various big Ford levels had differing tail treatments. But, reality is it did cost more to stock all the panels, lights, trim, etc. So, the 75-78 LTD line all had the same fancy trunk trim. Even the one year only [USA] 1975 Custom 500 “recession special” had this trim.
The market was very different in the 50s and 60s. There were much fewer nameplates and segments, but more body styles and trim packages within a nameplate. The Galaxie rear appliqué and the LTD rear center lamps existed for series differentiation. Similar differentiation existed in the front and side trims.
One of the areas of differentiation was hardtop vs. framed door glass. Higher series trims came as hardtops, whereas the fleet/salesperson basement trim (Ford’s Custom, Chevy Bellaire) came with body-colored, framed upper door glass. Mid level trims like the Galaxie had bright stainless-trim for these frames.
As the industry moved to “limo” door designs in the late 1980s, mainstream and higher end models would black-out the upstanding pillar portion of the doors’ window opening… to give the appearance of a higher spec hardtop look. Whenever I see a low spec Corolla or Cavalier, I think CHEAP and speculate about the other areas of the car that probably have cost cutting (e.g., sound insulation).
Then there South-of-the Border variants, such as this Mexican Galaxie 500 with the pillared-hardtop LTD body.
Wonderful! We had a 1971 LTD Brougham 4-door hardtop for 30 years – I’ll have to do a writeup on it someday. I used to be out in the driveway a couple of times a year with my dad and the tune-up kit, doing plugs/points/rotor and setting the timing in the dark, repeatedly having the distributor cap off and tweaking the point contact spacing.
I remember dates by what car I had at the time as well. And on the LTD, my dad bought supplies for it so often that I can still tell you exactly which plugs and filters we used on it:
Champion spark plug RBL-13Y
Fram air filter CA324A
Fram oil filter PH8A (say what you will about Fram oil filters, but the 400 engine made it to 230K miles without a teardown, before developing a lower end knock)
I also remember the hierarchy of car models quite clearly: Custom / Galaxie / LTD (with some added ‘500’s in there to further split the levels). In first or second grade we watched a film about auto manufacturing, and what do you know, they were showing the Ford assembly line on which they were making a run of taxicab-yellow 1971 Ford Customs! I had never seen in real life such a stripper model – the framed side windows, the dog-dish hubcaps, and of course the center taillight blanked out, and almost no chrome trim.
Yessir. BOUGHT a ’71 Galaxie 500/bucket seat option IN triple Wimbledon white/vinyl top delete, with 35,000 actual miles, in June 1984 from an old woman named Eileen Oser’s niece, here in corpus christi, in very nice condx. I junkyarded ’til Jan ’85, when I took it in and had all the garage rash removed and resprayed in the original Wimbledon white, added VERY-CLOSE-TO-FORD-like, dual sport mirrors (body color), and 4 pioneer speakers, and (very carefully), Ford-original dome/map light combo since car already had light-group option. Sold it around June ’86, with still-low (52,000 miles).. GAWD! That car was a real HEAD-TURNER