(first posted 10/5/2017) I’ve always had at least a passing interest in astronomy. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a city with its own planetarium, the Robert T. Longway Planetarium in the Cultural Center district of Flint, Michigan. My elementary school was located only a few blocks away, and I remember several walking field trips to the planetarium. It was in this aqua-colored dome and in the classroom that I learned to identify the proper names and configurations of many constellations.
To this day, and when I’m able, I seek out Orion, Ursa Major (the “Big Dipper”), and the seven sisters of the Pleiades (part of Taurus) in the dark of the night sky. Anywhere I am and in any state, it’s comforting to see their familiar shapes and dots of light against the inky canvas of the sky, knowing they were in existence long before me, and also that they’re so much bigger and more permanent than any momentary issue I may be experiencing.
F. A. Bower Theater & Longway Planetarium. Flint, Michigan. Friday, July 10, 2009.
I think the introduction of the “Galaxie” name by Ford for model year ’59 was a really neat tie-in with this country’s growing obsession with outer space in that so-called “Atomic Age“. I never even really minded that “Galaxie” was misspelled. After all, lots of fabricated trade names were coined at that time. One needs to look no further than a period photograph of the detergent aisle of a Safeway supermarket for a good sampling of such product names, like “Biz”, “Duz”, and “Su-Purb”. I’ll bet marketers of the day had such fun naming products back then.
I was on my way somewhere on a Sunday afternoon in a ride-share car when our featured Galaxie 500 passed by slowly on the left. I had happened to have my Canon SLR camera with me, and my driver, heeding my enthusiasm at spotting this classic Ford, willingly positioned his car where I could at least attempt to get a few, decent shots of it. I was pleased to see its owner / driver wearing a formal suit and hat. This got me thinking of how the Thunderbird-inspired, formal roofline of the ’62 Galaxie 500 2-door (“Club Victoria” denoted the hardtop coupe) eventually gave way to the sportier, quasi-fastback Sports Hardtop that arrived mid-year 1963. Both types of roof were still available for the remainder of the ’63 model year, but by 1964, the squared-off roof was gone.
Much like concurrent popular music tastes for many continued to evolve from vocal pop standards to more youthful, rock- and Motown-oriented sounds (among others), the greenhouse of the volume-seller Galaxie 500 was also morphing into something sportier and a little less buttoned-down. I like the looks of both rooflines, but combined with the classy attire of its driver, the razor-edged roof of this ’62 Galaxie made this once-mainstream Ford look more than a little debonair. This example was one of about 87,500 Galaxie 500 Club Victorias sold that year – the second-most popular Galaxie 500, behind the standard four-door. About 404,600 total Galaxie 500s found buyers in ’62, out of about 704,800 full-size Fords in any bodystyle or trim level.
Just as a galaxy is made up of many stars, this Galaxie 500 is rife with eye-pleasing details. I especially like the ribbed, horizontal trim along the full length of the bodysides, as well as the detail where the C-pillar meets the “shoulder” at top of the rear quarter panel. The airy greenhouse and slightly-concave backlight make the cabin look like a very comfortable place to spend time. There are Ford’s simple, attractive and trademarked round “afterburner” taillights, and also the stylish typography of the chrome “Galaxie” badges. (Around what point in time did cursive font start to lose popularity?) In fact, all of the chrome on this example simply sparkled, as would befit a celestial body of twinkling stars.
As I observed this gentleman enjoying what looked like a casual, pleasant, Sunday afternoon drive in this classic Ford, I could think of few activities that would have been more suitable for the end of a warm weekend in late Spring. Seen against the backdrop of St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church, this Galaxie gave me a brief, Alfred Hitchcock-ian moment, as if I could almost hear the strings of a tension-filled movie score. Just as Hollywood is like a galaxy of stars of the big screen from both past and present, this southbound Galaxie 500 must have been one of the brightest spots on Lake Shore Drive on this particular afternoon.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, May 31, 2015.
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Interesting, As I stopped in at my local Winn Dixie on St. Pete Beach. There was one of these sitting in the parking lot sideways with the engine running. I could tell by the sound it made it was not stock. There was this Bearded Millennial sitting in it and a baby in a carrier in the back seat. I was pretty sure it wasn’t a get-a-way car so I pull up beside him and started talking. It seems he and this car started out with a straight 6 but that wasn’t working out, so now it had a 351V8. I did not have time and I did not want to be rude so I did not get a photo but it was original paint kind of of beige, tan and pink color. It sure sounded sweet. It was one of the nicer looking cars of that era but then again most of the Detroit Autos of that era looked good, before the federal government decided that they could design cars better than anyone and ruined the american car industry.
Yep, we should all drive one of these steel death traps made before the federal govt required safety features.
Bit melodramatic there, Larry? What utter rubbish.
Rubbish? The vehicle fatality rate in 1962 when this Ford was new was 5.08 per million miles driven. Today it’s 1.13, almost five times better. Federal safety mandates (and the threat of such), as well as mandatory seat belt laws and serious drunk driving legislation are largely responsible.
Love this ’62 Ford but with no seat belts, solid steering column, undersized tires and sharp interior projectiles everywhere, even a low speed collision could have deadly results.
I think you’re mis-understanding my point a little bit. Just because a car is old I don’t believe automatically makes it a “steel death trap”. There is such a thing as driving an older car sensibly; understanding that it’s not going to respond like a late-model vehicle. It’s not a difficult thing to do. I didn’t have any trouble
I have no issue with drunk driving laws. I just don’t see what those have to do with what model year vehicle one is driving? Are folks more likely to get bombed on booze if they own a ’62 Ford as opposed to a 2012 BMW?
“Are folks more likely to get bombed on booze if they own a ’62 Ford as opposed to a 2012 BMW?”
This one is too good to let pass :
Go looking at what’s parked in the trailer park favored by down and outs then answer this question your ownself =8-) .
-Nate
That’s awesome. I love chance, parking lot / gas station sightings like the one you described, and consider it even better if I can exchange a few words with the owner / driver. Like you, I always feel a little hesitant about asking for a photo, but more often than not, asking has paid off. 🙂
Joseph Dennis: Great car! I have the Mercury Monterey version w/ the 390. Lots of torque, smooth and quiet, rides and handles very well. Solidly built. Do CC readers like the ’62 Ford or the ’62 Mercury version better?
You have a beauty there (bonus points for a hardtop), but I’d imagine in ’62 I’d have gone with the Ford over the Mercury. The Ford seems much more modern, the Mercury has some very 1950s touches.
For me, 62 Ford or Mercury is a tough question to answer. As I comment further down, I prefer the wagon of all the models of Ford for 62, but I am a fan of Mercury and could easily live with any model/body style of the 62 Mercury.
Tough choice. I would happily own and drive either one.
As the song says “I’m Crazy about a Mercury, cruise up and down this road” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDC_WAiu18M
I’d take the Mercury. Cool fine-patterned convex grille and those rocket taillights.
I’m a sucker for early 60s Mercs…
The Ford was one of those designs that could be identified from a half mile behind in the dark. The Mercury, though distinctive, not so much.
Poindexter, your car is a beauty!
I can’t speak to my preference at this moment, but looking at your Monterey, it dawned on me that the stretch of concave, chrome trim at the back resembles the concave taillamp design of the 1969 & ’70 Cougar. I wonder if there was any “heritage” design inspiration there from the ’62 Mercury…
Parents had a ’62 Monterey S-55 2 door hardtop, bought used in 1968. Beige with tan and brown interior, 390 auto, bucket seats, floor shifter, factory under dash AC, tons of chrome and stainless steel in the interior. I actually like the Galaxie body styling a little better, less droopy looking especially in the back. It was a nice car, even had safety package with 4 lap belts, padded dash and sunvisors, not common in ’62 on a lot of cars. Today I’d want the Mercury over the Galaxie, rarer and we had one when I was about 13. It was the first car I got to “borrow” for a quick blast on the still under construction 210 freeway.
In 1970 dad traded it in on a puke green 4 door ’67 Monterey that was a toad. Not a happy day.
Your car looks great, once again Joseph comes up with a great find.
I may be a small fan club, but I really like the ’62 Ford hardtops and convertibles. As much as I like fender-skirts on some cars, the after market jobs on this car don’t work for me, but the color is fantastic.
I’ve been a bit smitten with the ’62 since seeing the ’62 brochure cover. This could have been my parents – the coats, her heels, the white umbrella. But, you’d have to down scale it a bit. Just one car, and make it a Falcon Futura coupe.
With you 100% on both the skirts and the color issues.
That metallic reddish-rust color has popped up every once again for decades, only to quickly disappear after it has (again) proved to be not very popular. For me it would give turquoise a good wrestling match if I were given the choice. The copper-rust interiors that went with these were beautiful too.
Ford called the color Chestnut. A lot of the ’62s that passed through our Ford dealership were that color. I think it was a popular choice on ’62s, not so on ’61s or ’63s though.
Chestnut was pretty popular in 62 and 63 in northern IN when I was growing up. In high school I briefly had a 63 Fairlane in that color and a friend’s mother had a 63 Sunliner convertible in Chestnut (loved that car). Another schoolmate’s parents had a 62 Thunderbird in Chestnut with a vinyl top in parchment: beautiful. I didn’t know it was available in 61 as well – never saw one in the color.
According to paintref.com it was 62 and 63 only. I had forgotten that it was offered in 63, I am struggling to recall ever seeing a 63 with that paint.
Great color!
Had a ’62 Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop back in the early 70’s. Had a 352 2 barrel in it. My ex father in law, gave it to me when ex-wife and I married. Nice car, but those Pa. winters and road salt played hell with it. The straps holding the gas tank actually rusted through one night and dropped the gas tank. We where driving at the time! Then the car in rapid speed started falling apart. Smoking, lost reverse, PS pump, etc.. Within 2 months it was toast. Oh and I don’t like the fender skirts either. AT least he didn’t put a continental spare on it 🙂
I agree, Mr. Dough. Those fender skirts don’t do the car any favors from a ‘looks’ perspective. The car is quite attractive otherwise.
Dave, thank for posting that fantastic brochure shot.
The skirts on this example aren’t my favorite. Typically, I like it when cars look factory stock. With that said, I think the skirts would have looked better in the same color as the body, rather than chromed. Body-colored fender skirts would have at least provided some continuity with the lines of the car.
I have never understood the chrome fender skirt thing.
Ford in Europe sells a Galaxy (yeah, they spell it correctly over there), but it’s a “minivan”. It has a pretty good rep among its competitors.
Last night while scanning Craigslist I ran across a 63 Galaxie 4 door that really caught my interest. The 63 Ford and Chevy big cars are about equal in my book, but the 62 Ford is the better looking car… inside and out, than the Chevy is.
But if I was to buy a 62 Ford I’d want a station wagon.
I still remember the day in the late 80s when I was out driving my 61 Thunderbird. In traffic I saw a maroon 62 Galaxie 500 convertible with a V8 and a 3 speed. It was in about the same condition as my car (if not a little better) with faded paint, some body rust and a top that looked far from weather-tight. Traffic separated us but I spent the rest of the day wondering if the owner would have traded with me.
More than most other cars, each year of Ford from 1960-64 seems to have such a distinct personality that is not shared with any other year of that series. The 62 is pure conservatism, but in a way that is elegant rather than dowdy.
While I agree, to some extent, that each year of Ford from the 60-64 has a distinct personality, what strikes me about those years is that the 62 and 64 look so similar.
I’ve often thought that someone mixed up the engineering drawings and the progression of models would be 60, 61, 63, 62, 64. The tail lights on 61 and 63 are quite similar in appearance and ditto for the 62 and 64 with their slanted tail light surrounds.
On the inside, the 61-64 instrument cluster/dashboard is nearly the same for all years while the 60 looks like a “trial run” for those next three years… that is, vaguely similar.
The 60 dash always struck me as more similar to the 61-62 dash. While the general layout of the 63-64 dash was similar, it did have more changes. Perhaps the biggest change for users was the relocation of the ignition key from Ford’s traditional left hand location to a more industry standard right hand location on the 64 model. Somehow Ford’s left handed key managed to survive several years beyond the introduction of automatic chokes.
1962 Monterey dash: adds a brushed-gold panel and more chrome!
“Somehow Ford’s left handed key managed to survive several years beyond the introduction of automatic chokes.”
Perhaps because they worked so nicely with that terrible neutral safety switch that required you to push the shift lever up every time you started the car. That task got really awkward on the 64.
Hmm . . . when I start up my ’64 Falcon the transmission is in ‘Park’; is that something one must do — putting the tranny in ‘Neutral’ — before attempting to start a ’64 Ford with a manual transmission?
I don’t think the smaller cars had this issue. In the big Fords the mechanism would get some slop and even though the lever was in Park the neutral safety switch was not making contact. The driver had to either move the lever to Neutral or else push the lever up just a bit in Park to get that switch to close. I figure that there was probably something that could be adjusted but I never bothered with my 61 Tbird. With the left hand key it was no problem to just skootch that lever up with the other hand.
I see. I didn’t know that about the automatics in the larger-sized Fords from the early ’60s. Thanks for the info, J P. I’ve never driven one of the full-sized Fords from that era. By the time I was old enough to drive no one I knew had one — or has one in running condition to this day.
The fellow who cuts my hair, who’s 77, has a 1964 Galaxie and he’s mentioned to me it has loads of options . . . except he also mentioned it needed to be re-wired so he might be 85 before his Galaxie hits the road again!
It’s not about you causing an accident or being drunk. It’s about someone else being drunk and flying through a red light and T-boning you. Or someone texting and crossing over into your lane and front-ending you. Or…..
Look at the Aston Martin I just posted. If someone had hit it from a different angle or head-on or faster, the guy might well not have survived.
Driving defensively is all well and good, but don’t think you can avoid them all. I think about this every time I get into my ’66 F-100.
“Driving defensively is all well and good, but don’t think you can avoid them all. I think about this every time I get into my ’66 F-100.”
_THIS_ .
Old cars are fun and I prefer them and luckily I live where rusting is minimal so I can drive them every day but I have no illusions of how safe they are ~ I vividly remember my 1964 Malibu Sedan stopping when the non breakaway light standard embedded into the passenger’s side of the dashboard ~ had it been a V8 or the driver’s side, I’d not be alive now, as it is I’ll have pain from that 40 MPH wreck until the day I die so don’t kid your self about how badly people used to get injured in what are now walk away collisions .
I’d rock this 1952 Full Size Ford Coupe but they didn’t handle well and had marginal brakes back then .
-Nate
Mr. N, I’ve not been able to avoid them all. March 2, 1994 on my way to Palm Beach Atlantic College (now University) to take an Old Testament Bible exam. I never made it.
My one and only ticket came that day for ‘careless driving’. I walked away from it a little banged up and annoyed at myself. I had the Falcon fixed up and it went back to its Daily Driver status until January 1999 when I began using an ’86 Thunderbird as my DD. For about a year I did that. The T-Bird’s time as my daily driver ended abruptly on Jan. 11, 2000.
It was an issue on Falcons too. My parent’s ’63 Falcon with Fordomatic eventually needed the lever to be pushed up farther in Park for it to start. Pushing it a bit harder made the starter go and the engine to start without having to bother twisting the key past ON. Hard to see how that could work but it did.
Galaxie was a good name, but by the 70’s it meant “too cheap to buy an LTD”, unfortunately.
Name debasement. 🙁 I’m with you – I think “Galaxie” is a great model name. I much prefer it to “LTD”.
Imagine if the “Galaxie” model name had hung around long enough for the “Star Wars” craze of the late-’70s, along with all the other outer-spaced themed movies and TV programming of that era.
I always loved the ’62 Fords. Ford products of the time always struck me as better built and finished than comparable Chryslers and GMs. My father had a Galaxie 500 sedan in white with black cloth upholstery, 292 V-8 with Cruise-O-Matic. Comfortable? Oh, yes, and the visual formality suited its intended clientele very well. The hardtops were the best lookers, though. The black Club Victoria in the ad could find a home with me anytime. I do wish some these fabulous car names, like Galaxie and Invicta, could be revived.
As JP mentioned, it is remarkable how each Ford of the 1960-1964 era had a distinct character, despite the actual differences being mostly quite modest. The 1962’s front end is almost the same as the ’61, yet the car exudes a very different character. The ’61 body works well with the Starliner roof, but the ’62 works very well with that formal roof. The same goes for the ’63; it looks great in the Sport Roof version. But the ’62 coupe has a Thunderbird-esque quality that is appealing.
The ’63 rear looks like the ’61 without the fins. I used to think they were a year apart, instead of 2.
I’ve often imagined that perhaps there were two competing stylists at Ford in the 1961-64 era. To keep the peace, Designer ‘A’ got to do the 1961 and ’63 models, and Designer ‘B’ the 1962 and ’64. The cars look like they evolved in that manner, rather than from their immediate predecessors.
Personally I’m a fan of Designer ‘A’, who I think likely had input into the ’65 as well.
The 1962-63-64-65 Fords were sort of a peak of my devoted adolescent FoMoCo-family study, and picking a favorite would feel like what I suppose “picking a favorite child” is like.
I see some customizers tucking bumpers in a little closer to head/tail lights, sometimes shaving them to do so. In doing that to a ’62 you’d lose something in protection, but might one gain a little bit in style—making it look a little less “droopy”? (Somehow, the 63-64-65 cars don’t strike me the same way.)
In any case, I’m happy to see one of these on the streets with a devoted owner. I’ve heard about tough times in Flint, and so nice to see the streetscape photos not at all looking like the worst of Detroit’s withering.
p.s. As a followup to the Ford-in-Flint pics, maybe someone can shoot some ’60s GM cars in Dearborn sometime……
Hi, George – in the interest of full disclosure, on the shot of the Longway Planetarium was taken in Flint (back in ’09). It pretty much looks the same in 2017.
The car was spotted in my neighborhood of Edgewater, here in Chicago. 🙂
Flint does continue to reinvent itself, slowly but surely. I look forward to another visit “home” this fall before 2018.
I’m one of those who prefers the “Thunderbird” roof. And while I know I’ll “catch hell” for this, I think the standard 61-64 Ford is better proportioned than the contemporary Lincoln, A much as the Lincoln is a styling landmark, The greenhouse is too small and “tight”. (although not a bad as the gunslit greenhouses of today). The question of cursive disappearing on cars, I’d say that it really kicked in during the 80s. (Think 1984 Park Avenue script vs the 1985 version.) This also corresponds to the time that having a computer at home became mainstream. More people than ever before were typing, now less writing. I don’t even know if cursive writing is even taught today.
The ’61-’64 Club Victoria seems like it was the precursor to the car that is widely credited with ushering in the brougham era, the 1965 LTD.
This may be of interest to somebody then ? wish I could find a 64 Caddy in this condition at this price….
http://classiccarvalues.org/index.html?1=1&VID=34368973
@cocobolo: Thanks for sharing this one! The photos at the website show what a wonderful “survivor” this is, and I’ll bet underbody photos would be equally impressive. At just a notch under $10K, it’s *almost* gift-to-myself tempting….
The 1962 Hardtop will always be my favorite 1960’s Ford .
This survivor is the same color as my all original ’62 two door hardtop I scrapped when it threw a rod bearing in 1977, it was a freebie to me and no one else liked the beautiful, conservative lines it has .
For the price, if the AC actually works this strikes me as a decent price .
Too bad the original seat covers didn’t make it .
-Nate
Cursive script, definitely out of fashion during the 1960s and sure plenty of answers can be found here – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/
Nathan, thank you for that reference. I just looked this up on the internet, and it looks fascinating. Much appreciated.
“Seen against the backdrop of St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church, this Galaxie gave me a brief, Alfred Hitchcock-ian moment, as if I could almost hear the strings of a tension-filled movie score. ”
It brought to mind Howard Browne’s detective novels. They are set in earlier decades, but I can see Paul Pine either being that driver or tailing them. Given the church in the photo, Halo For Satan is probably the best fit.
That’s a great looking car, and I always find seeing something like this, in regular use doing ordinary stuff, quite reassuring.
My Dad turned one of these up back in 1975, and it was the first car that fifteen year-old me bought with my own money. It cost $100.00. For that sum, I got an off-white hardtop coupe with a red interior, a largish V8, and a radio that lit up and stank when turned on, but didn’t produce any sound. My Galaxie was rust-free and had no dents or dings. I tuned it up, changed the oil, cleaned it inside and out, learned about rubbing compound, and gave it a good coat of wax. I sold it a few weeks later for $500.00. I am a fan of the styling, as well, and I still enjoy seeing them today, although they have become thin on the ground. This one brings back lots of fond memories.
Big handsome beast. I’d like a black on red without fender skirts. With a 390 four barrel. Rode around in a ’62 deep maroon Monterrey as a kid. Love the sound of an FE block. We had a ’69 F-250 of (maybe?) the same color with the 390 (with the fender flags!) that I was enamored with.
My best friend’s first car was a ’62 Galaxie. White with an odd blue interior. I don’t remember what engine it had in it, but it was a V8. It’s major issue was rust. By 1973, it was pretty well shot. I put my hand through the front quarter one day when I just leaned on it slightly as I got off the driveway after we tied up the dragging exhaust pipe. About 3 months later, the trans blew up while in the Allegheny mountains going to his family’s farm. It never made it back to Toledo, it was judged unsafe to keep on the road, so it got scrapped. His next car was his mom’s Orange Gremlin, which was totally bulletproof. He hated it, so his cousin bought it from his mom and he ended up with a Triumph TR-4A, which made the Galaxie look solid. It didn’t last long. He went from the TR-4A to a really fun car, a ’71 Corvette. Since then, he’s basically been driving Porshe and BMW cars, but an Audi A6 made a disastrous change of pace for 2 years. What a load of crap that car was.
It’s so interesting to put into perspective that while your friend’s ’62 Galaxie was 11 years old when he had it, in 2017, an 11 y/o Ford (say, a 2006 Fusion) would still be kickin’.
About the Gremlin, isn’t it always the way, that the cars we’ve owned that we’ve liked the least had a way of being the most indestructible? 🙂 . Of course, that wouldn’t apply the the ’84 Ford Tempo I had inherited (formerly the family car). That car stalled all the time and was hardly bulletproof.
(I actually like Gremlins, but I’ve never driven one or sat in the back seat of one, IIRC.)
It was seriously rusted, like an old Toyota pickup’s bed used to rust. If the trans exploding hadn’t been a killer, it wouldn’t have lasted long as the frame, about where the rear suspension was attached, was like cardboard. I remember getting under there to help install the new exhaust on it, and it was raining dustlike rust particles. We had goggles and the rust still got through the little holes on the sides. I told him, “You car is a POS!”, but he insisted the rust was “Not that bad”. He was wrong. I drove the Gremlin a few times, manual steering and no power brakes along with a stick made it a totally different driving experience than my Cutlass was. One time, my Beagle had a stroke, and my friend drove me to the vet’s office in my car, and he about put me through the windshield the first time he stopped. None of the cars his parents owned had power brakes. BTW, the dog recovered completely, but his personality went from a sort of timid, wanted to avoid trouble with other dogs to a “don’t mess with me, I don’t care how big you are” deal with a death stare that a lot of dogs couldn’t take very well. He was in a lot of fights and was called “The Scrapper” by his vet. He won many fights I was sure he would lose, just because he wouldn’t back down and used a screaming Alien face hugger technique. He would simply wrap his front legs around the other dog’s neck, clamp on and start screaming, and not let go. I usually had to pry him off.
I love this! While I’m sorry “The Scrapper” had a stroke, I like that he didn’t just didn’t care after that – that he was, quite literally, the “underdog” and just went for it.
I love your shots!
Thank you so much, tbm3fan.
My first car was a ’62 Ford Galaxie 500 Club Victoria 2 door hardtop in Corinthian White with a Ming Green roof. I still have it. It needs a full restoration but is 98% complete. I also have another ’62, a black 2 door hardtop that is missing the engine, transmission, drive shaft and front seat. Hopefully one day I’ll have both of them back on the road. The 1962 Ford is a very scarce car these days. I’ve had mine since 1989 and I can count the number of ’62s that I have seen since then on both hands.
need roof drip rail moldings for 1962 ford galaxie can you put me in the right direction.for these patrs