Lots of Fords this week, but at the grocery story yesterday afternoon, I ran into – no, not that way – this very pristine ’72 Ford, a Galaxie 500, no less. I first saw it from the other side, and wondered about the strap on the trunk. Here’s why: ouch; that hurts. Too bad, because this is one cherry old grandma’s car otherwise. Wait ’till you check out the interior.
Love that pattern! I remember it so well, during my days as a car jockey. I can just feel that subtle texture on my fingertips.
Yes, as jpc knows all too well, these are my all-time favorite Fords (not). But it hurts even me to see one end up like this. And how much would the insurance pay for one of these?
Its fixable, but not cheap, depends how badly you want to save it, the insurance company may total it though, I hope not.
It is a shame when a bit of normally fixable damage takes a really nice old car and makes it impossible to sell – the buyer has to get it for virtually free to make it worth fixing, and the seller would have to basically give away a car that could bring much more in parts. Sad.
I experienced this a couple of years ago – found a really, really nice 71 Dodge Polara sedan. The problem – a big dent in the trunk lid and a big crack in the windshield. The owner had the car outside and a storm picked up a piece of play equipment and tossed it onto the car. No comprehensive insurance, of course. I was willing to live with the dent, but the cost of a windshield made the deal fall apart.
Aaaaahhhhhh!
My 1971 LTD had damage in the left rear even worse than this, due to it getting hit while parked in front of my house, by a teen-aged driver who was trying to adjust the radio and had fogged up windows. The impact pushed my car down the street about 30 feet and knocked the ashtray drawers out of the dashboard (really glad I wasn’t in the car at the time, but this was the final nail in the coffin on my plans to finish restoring the car). The collision totalled the Toyota Camry that the girl was driving (her dad paid me I think $300, and I was too nice and didn’t report the accident either which probably was a mistake).
You have to use your Yankee engineering on this one like I did. I took the stock bumper jack and placed the base against the front side of the trunk, with the jack hook on the trunk lip. “Kalunk-click, kalunk-click, kalunk-click.” Move jack over a few inches and repeat. Got the bottom latch pin pushed back out far enough that the trunk lid closed normally. I even used my soldering gun as a hot-melt plastic repair tool and got most of the original taillight lens pieces back into place. It looked hideous but cost me only an hour of repair time.
I had left front damage from an earlier accident (my fault, another story for another day), so combined with the left rear damage, that car entered traffic as though Moses was parting the Red Sea! That was awesome, but the unwarranted attention by the local police while driving around town was extremely annoying.
I didn’t at all like the front and rear styling changes between the ’71 and the ’72 LTD, especially in the rear. At least the interior stayed the same, so the view from the driver’s seat was unchanged. And the car pictured above still appears to have the stock AM/FM radio (or AM/8-track, those were the only two choices, cassette wasn’t offered yet) which is quite remarkable.
No a hard fix at all, but is it worth it?. Love that interior,but it looks like someone has had that steering mast apart. It looks like someone has picked parts of a green one. Oh and blue seat belts!
The steering column (which is a non-tilt BTW) is all stock from what I can see. That soft plastic trim ring at its base has molded-in color (as opposed to being painted) and they tend to fade out with UV exposure more quickly than the painted pot-metal column parts. The missing paint on the side is of course from other keys on the key ring.
The seat belts are black, and stock issue as well. This is a Galaxie 500 which is two trim levels below the LTD Brougham that I had. I recall that Ford offered the “premium” belts which were color-matched and had smaller buckles, above a certain trim level or as an option in other trims.
It was not unusual for the lower trim series cars at that time to have black seat belts while the deluxe trim cars had color keyed ones, this is an example of that.
This vintage big Ford reminds me of the brown LTD that Sal had in The French Connection.
Great DIY project-if your a professional bodyman
Only a New Englander would get this…But this seems like the sort of car that aunts/uncles/grandparents drive back from Florida in the spring…stopping off at the New Hampshire State Liquor Store to get big handle jugs of Seagram’s and Gordon’s, along with a few cartons of smokes. I read that sentence and just don’t know why the image makes me smile so much.
Thats a nice old Ford pretty easy repair a couple ot pushes xwith the portapower some hammer and dolly a little bondo and paint good as new Ive fixed far worse than that and I aint a professional panel beater. A new bumper will be required but the rest will pop back out.
Well said, Bryce, a little portapower love and that quarterpanel will be ready to tap out and bondo. Even the back bumper is salvageable because it doesn’t have any radical kinks–take it apart, lay it down on a couple of sawhorses, and whale on it with a wooden block and a hammer. A good bodyman could work it out by eye. Hell, I could do it. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be plenty good enough.
Can these still be rechromed, or has that become another EPA-forbidden lost art?
As I see it, the problem isn’t the labor – it is what it is; insurance mostly will take care of it – but with the parts.
Which, after forty years, are NOT available. Not at ANY price. Were this a tri-five, the odds would be better; but I never heard of a following for a 1972 Ford full-size.
For want of a panel, the Galaxie’s lost. Too bad, too sad…but these tragedies happen every damn day of the week. Dry up, deal with it…another casualty or parts-car.
A porta-power or come-along with a couple of sturdy anchor points car pull that quarter back out. The bumper can be straightened with an arbor press and a couple of 2/4s.
You’re right, an arbor press would be better than freehanding it on sawhorses. But it’s definitely doable.
I agree, the ’72 taillights weren’t as nice as the ’71’s, especially the LTD with its center unit with the 2 center bulbs being also the brake lights too.
My Dad had a ’71 Custom 4 door sedan that came from a Gov’t auction and I bet it had the base V8 in it, no AC or radio of any sort.
It was pale army green and he had it a few short years in the late 70’s to around 1980 or so and sold it to a friend of my youngest sister and they took it to Panama and lived there with it for several years, selling it there before moving back to the states about 10 years later (they moved down in the early to mid 80’s). When they left Panama, it was, to their best knowledge still running around down there.
Friends bought a light blue ’72 Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop used in the mid to late 80’s for one of their sons and I’ve ridden in it and they rode nice but were quite big and not so easy on the gas though.
As the 70’s big Fords go, I like this body style the best.