One of my favorite things in life is the chance to drive an unfamiliar car. Our motto at CC is that Every Car Has A Story, and it’s true. It is also true that every car has its own personality, both for a given model and as a single, unique example. So, when CC’s Jason Shafer offered me the chance to drive his 1963 Galaxie 500, I jumped at the chance. Jason’t Galaxie is fast becoming the most written-about car on CC, but an in-depth driving impression by someone other than Jason might be worthwhile.
The cars of the 1960s might be my favorites as drivers. To me, they represent a combination of performance and driveability that was not reached again until the 1990s, at least for American cars on the bigger end of the spectrum. But to drive an original vehicle of the Kennedy era immediately brings home the advances in design that we have all become used to in the intervening decades.
I have a lot of wheel time in American iron from the 60s. However, much of it was a long time ago (in a Galaxie far, far away?), and very little of it has been since the mid 1990s. Also, while most of my driving was in the class of car that this one represents, most of that driving was in those that were more typically equipped. And what was a typically equipped car back then? It had a base V8, an automatic transmission, power steering and brakes, and a radio.
This Galaxie is unusual. It was the Galaxie 500, which was the nicest trim level short of the seldom-seen XL model, with all of the normal high-trim stuff found on one of these, like full wheel covers, thick carpeting and even a clock. So far so good. But, this car also also comes with manual steering, manual brakes and a three-speed column shift transmission with overdrive. Let’s just say that those last three features were usually found in black low-trim stippo sedans typically bought by your bib-overall-wearing Uncle Clem. So this is, what, two cars in one?
Enough about what it is. What is it like to actually drive? First, Fords of this vintage have a really wide rocker panel/door sill area, so that the seat is several inches in from the open door, necessitating a little more effort than usual to slide in and buckle up. The lap belts take a little more effort than normal to figure out. Front seat belts were not mandatory equipment until 1964 (as I recall) so these appear to be aftermarket units, but ones that clearly were installed long ago. Their dainty little buckles require some attention to connect correctly, but once in we are ready to go.
Modern stick shift cars require a guy to depress and hold the clutch pedal down in order to complete the starter circuit. None of that nonsense here, which was a good thing. The car was on an incline and I did not have enough feet to hold the clutch down, hold the brake down and pump the gas pedal the way Jason told me was necessary. So with the old girl in neutral and a left foot on the brake and right on the gas, it was time to turn the key and make the magic happen. A quick turn of my right wrist and . . . I have just twisted the knob for the cigarette lighter. The ignition key was still on the left side of the dash in 1963, which would be the last year for this feature that had been common on Fords since the beginning of key start ignitions.
I had also kind of forgotten how fuel injection has taken all of the skill out of starting cars. Once upon a time, a guy needed to really be “one with the car” in working the key and the throttle in a bit of choreography that would hopefully result in a brief roar, followed by a nice smooth idle. I was clearly out of practice, or perhaps the Galaxie was still a little sleepy. Several times I got that little isolated cough that would disengage the starter, only to watch the red “GEN” light glow as the big starter motor wound back down. Well, at least it wants to start. A few more of those little near-starts and the old 352 finally caught. Yes, a carburetor (even one with an automatic choke) is still a thing that teaches hard lessons in humility.
This steering wheel is big. And thin. And close. I had a ’61 Thunderbird many years ago, which is probably the one car I have owned which is most closely related to this one. I recall the steering wheel being smaller, and it may well have been with its standard power steering. We were on a little incline, so I never really needed reverse gear. I did need some decent arm strength to work that big wheel around and a like amount of leg strength to stop the car before backing into a car parked behind me. A downward pull on that long shift lever into first gear, and we were off. Off, that is, after one or two stalls and restarts. Hey, that carb was still cold, so don’t judge. This ain’t no Miata.
A nice first gear cruise through the parking lot brought me to our first real street. Another stall. In my defense, I underestimated the reluctance of a cold carbureted engine to go from a loafing idle to the motivating force of a nearly two-ton conveyance. I was also a little reluctant to go into a newby-style 3,500 rpm clutch engagement, which would surely have made this car’s owner wonder if his offer of a drive was such a good idea. But as we got to the main road, the Galaxie and I came to an understanding.
This car says “You need to go somewhere and get home. I’ll take you there and bring you back. I’ll even do most of the work, but I ain’t gonna do all of it. You are gonna have to do your share. If you are OK with that, I’m ready, so let’s go.” And so we did.
This car is nothing like anything modern, short of maybe an F-600 truck. All of the inputs are slow, and many of them (I’m looking at you, steering and brakes) require a significant effort. This car requires movement. The unassisted steering has a slow ratio that requires a lot of turning, and is really heavy under about 10 mph. The column shifter, though nearly effortless, has a really long throw, and the clutch pedal has the longest travel of anything I have driven in a long while. But when you do these things the way the car wants you to do them, it all works just fine.
The 352 (once warmed up, at least) has a lot of torque. But this was, after all, a “Super-Torque Ford”, as the ads used to say. A shift into second and some road ahead of us gave me a chance to explore the overdrive. Paul has written about the Borg Warner Overdrive system before, but I had never personally experienced one. As set up on this car, it will shift into overdrive once, and you can do that in either second or in high simply by lifting off the accelerator for a moment. I had watched Jason use second-OD for a good strong entrance onto a freeway the day before and could see that OD gave second some really long legs. Second OD seemed fairly comfy on this 50 mph stretch of road near the Nashville airport, but a cruiser like this just needs to be in third for a guy to really settle in.
Third OD proved no problem as we hit an unexpected grade, and the old 352 pulled us up that hill without any complaint. Frankly this was always one of my favorite traits of that FE series of Ford big blocks. Even in one of its smaller displacements, it was more about grunt than about revving, although the exhaust note was quite exhilarating while going through the gears.
By the time we stopped and turned onto a main road, I felt like I was at home in this old Galaxie. With the parking and low speed maneuvers behind us, the car settled into the cruise-mode that you just know it was built for. The steering was tight, it went right where it was pointed and with modern radial tires, it rode as smoothly as just about anything could, with no vibrations at all. “This”, I thought, “is why I have always loved big ’60s cars.” The car never lets you forget its age, but it also shows you just how capable it still is when it gets into its element.
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and I knew that Jason had a long (and hot) drive home, so I looked for a place to pull in so that Paul could have a turn behind the wheel. My last little bit of embarrassment was when I underestimated the low ground clearance and soft springing when I came a little hot into a parking lot entrance that contained a bit more of a dip than I first perceived. There was a bit of asphalt/steel transfer as the bottom of the front bumper scraped the pavement. Dammit. Jason may have been wondering why he let this damnfool behind the wheel, but it was all over now, so there was nothing else to be done. It was almost as if this grizzled old Galaxie chuckled at me, saying “you did OK junior, but don’t think you have me all figured out just yet.” And it was right, but we were out of time.
I got in the back seat for Paul’s drive back to the hotel, and was swept back to a childhood that had contained so many hours of riding in backseats much like this one, including the ’64 Galaxie 500 with this exact color of interior and my Uncle Bob at the wheel. As I looked around at the cracked and sun-baked surfaces of the interior, something hit me. In the couple of prior rides I had in the car, I had been thinking about all of the improvements that could be made. A repop dash pad, a headliner, seat upholstery, all of these must be readily available for a car like this. But then it wouldn’t be this car. Time and the elements have done their work here, but those also make this the very same car that came into Jason’s family all those years ago. If a guy wants a perfect Galaxie, the kind that he can take to car shows and compete for a prize, they are out there. But this one isn’t one of them, nor should it be. This car carries quite a few battle scars, and carries them proudly. It is a veteran. And veterans deserve respect instead of some snot-nosed youngster trying to turn it into something that it isn’t.
Some final thoughts. I don’t think I would want to drive this car in city traffic every day. In an environment of close quarters and stop and go, this is a high-effort machine. A man’s car, if you will. For the kinds of driving that I do most often, something that is easier to maneuver is what I prefer. A car of this size could fit the bill, but power steering would be a minimum requirement. However, if I lived in the country where it was ten miles of straight road to anywhere and if my in-town parking were at a gentle angle on a courthouse square, something like this could suit me just fine. If you are in a mood for an isolation cocoon, this is not the car for you. But if you want to really drive a car (and not just steer and daintily tap on pedals), this old Galaxie 500 might just the thing. I know that I had a blast!
It sounds like the choke might need adjustment. My old Ford has a manual choke and I’m always having to tweak it at stops and starts until the engine warms up.
“This steering wheel is big. And thin.” It’s interesting how much difference in comfort the thinness of the wheel makes. I’ve learned to relax my grip and this alleviates the discomfort. Apparently the padded wheels on newer cars encourage a tighter grip.
Great write up. The closest I can come is my ’69 F-100 (which still had the ignition on the left). Manual everything with drums all around.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, Ed, making the ignition key inaccessible to passengers in the days when three across seating was the norm. Ford did the same thing with their radios around 1970, placing them on the left of the wheel, presumably to keep the sound level and music choice solely in the hands of the driver. They had inventive ways to enhance “safety”, or at least the impression of it. That deep dish wheel on Jason’s car is one of them.
It was also handy with Ford’s commonly worn or misadjusted neutral safety switch on automatics, which required the right hand to push the shift lever up a bit while in Park in order for the starter to engage.
We also had a couple of early Falcons and Fairlanes with manual chokes – the left-hand ignition worked well in combination with the choke control on the right.
You’re so right about the misaligned neutral safety switch on Ford automatics – my mother’s early production Maverick had that issue and you had to wrestle the shifter with your left hand while turning the key with your right.
On my parent’s 1963 automatic Falcon you could actually start the engine by having the key at “on” and pushing up on the shift lever.
I do have to push the column shift lever up a bit on my ’64 Falcon with it’s 2-speed automatic. I’ve gotten so used to doing that it’s like second nature to me after owning said Falcon for so long.
Yes, even before 1970…our ’69 Country Squire with the new style (driver-focused panel, not spread out as in previous years) had the radio on the left. My Uncle also had a ’69 LTD, and I remember commenting on this to him, where he informed me that yes, the driver was to have complete control over the radio (whether it was on/off, and the station). I guess I could have told him I could reach over and control the temperature, but neither his nor our ’69 had Air conditioning.
Our ’73 Country sedan had the radio moved back to the center stack…kind of where it is nowdays on almost every car, just above the climate controls (we did have Air conditioning on that car, plus our first car with AM/FM stereo and power locks…no power windows though).
My current car has manual transmission (but it is my first with power steering, believe it or not, as I’ve owned small cars) but I’ve never driven 3 on the tree, or as you allude to , have enough feet to brave driving a manual transmission car with a foot pedal parking brake…on the other hand I guess you really just have to work the release lever, which is probably hand operated, but I’m really used to the lever operated parking brake between the seats when I’m stopped at the bottom of a really steep hill to keep me from rolling back. I always wondered how they did it with a foot operated parking brake and manual transmission (must have to play with the brake release lever on a hill, or have really good coordination of your feet to apply enough gas not to stall out after releasing the brake and clutch)
Yes, the release on a pedal operated parking brake was by a pull handle above it. You would hold the handle out with your left hand while pressing with your foot, disengaging the parking brake ratchet as you would on a hand brake by holding in the button. I’ve stopped a few old cars that way in my time… when I should have reconditioned the hydraulic brakes but was too lazy to do so. The perceived advantage to that setup is the amount of force one can apply using leg muscle vs what you can muster with your hand.
Back in 1985, a guy that I worked with bought a brand new fox body Ford LTD. First day at work with it and quitting time rolls around and the poor bugger had set the foot pedal parking brake and neither of us can figure out how to release it. We dig out the owners manual and on that car the brake was released when the shift lever was put in reverse. It was the only car that I ever saw that set up on.
“We dig out the owners manual and on that car the brake was released when the shift lever was put in reverse. It was the only car that I ever saw that set up on.”
It was a feature that first appeared on Cadillacs around 1960, and something I always associated with that make.
Power park brake release was a feature mainly on the high end models from the late fifties on through the early nineties as far as I know. I had a ’59 Mercury Colony Park, an ’81 Deville, and a ’81 Thunderbird that were equipped with it. If remember correctly, it was standard in Cadillac’s, Lincoln’s, and Imperial’s, and available on the lesser models, but not often ordered. The Deville and the T-bird I had both had a manual release lever under the dash in case the automatic unit failed. The Mercury did not, or at least I never found it as I had to cut the emergency brake cable when the auto release did not work. They were commonly vacuum operated, so if the engine was not running there was no vacuum to release them.
Nicely done, J.P. You took the “driving impression” from Special Interest Autos magazine to the next level. Younger readers might not be able to imagine what it’s like to navigate a true American Liberty Ship. The more grizzled among us need to be reminded that when we yearn for a simple, open-plan vehicle of our past, we should recognize the size of the steering wheel as a portent to the real world experience of living with one. Not a few of us have plunked down cash for a 50 or 60 year old Platonic 500, which, after the first blush, turned out to be inappropriate to its task. Your impression reminds us that factoring in the street conditions of our locale can go a long way toward ensuring the old iron we buy gives us the pleasure we imagined it would.
I do enjoy reading this story over again. Among other things, it’s a friendly reminder not to forget that enjoying old cars means taking off one’s rose-coloured glasses when driving them. Esp. when it comes to letting them ‘warm-up’ in the morning. Otherwise the issue of stalling out rears its ugly head!
Opinion: Motoring around in a classic car will teach you patience whether you want a lesson or not!
Wow, this is almost like being there!
One I will add about the steering….any curve taken at higher speeds, such as ramps on the interstate, can be a little unsettling the first time or two. You have to turn the wheel much more than what most of us are accustomed to doing and you think you’ll be hitting the ditch. However it quickly becomes second nature. Driving this car makes you adjust your approach to many things.
That picture with me standing behind the car would be ideal if you cropped me out! While my posture isn’t always the greatest, it’s never been that bad! I think I must have been in the process of leaning forward.
Terrific article, and I’m glad you and Paul were able to drive it. Having been driving the car on-and-off since I was 14, I am simply too familiar with it to give it a driving review of the same high caliber you have done. Thank you.
Re: taking curves… It’s even more fun with bias-ply tires!
Isn’t that the truth. I don’t miss them one bit, radials are so much better even on a car not designed for them.
For entertainment I put the set of cross ply /bias belt tyres I have that my Minx came back on the car just to see what it drove like, nice and smooth? yep, quiet? yep, traction? none, cornering ability? scary, on radials it drives better than many modern Jappas, I did try the cross plys in the rain and that was the day they came off again, originality is nice on a museum exhibit but I drive that car as a spare, auto choke? no it has manual everything except self cancelling indicators which are mentioned in the brochure, I enjoy friving my classic its the polar opposite to my daily car though the same size and by the same manufacturer PSA bought the remains of Rootes from Chrysler.
KiwiBryce:
Aspects of wheel alignment were different for
bias-ply tires as opposed to radials. Modern
alignments, with aggressively positive caster
and negative camber all around, and
particularly the toe, would not translate well
to the way bias-ply reacts under equal
conditions/maneuvers.
Nice to see that some still get this .
.
I’m lucky living where there’s no salt and little rain so I can drive oldies year ’round.
.
My recently acquired 1959 VW Beetle shickles me titless every time I get behind the wheel ~ stock, 6 volts etc., tiny engine etc. I love the bare bones driving .
.
Bis-Ply tyres are worthless, dangerous and stupid .
.
-Nate
Not if correct alignment is used. Look for
wheel alignment specs on cars from the
bias-ply days, and compare to typical
specs for a modern car with radials.
A lot of bias-ply cars ran negative caster
due to the way bias-ply tires flexed
compared to the way radials flex. Align
properly for the type of tire, and there
shouldn’t be a problem.
Um,
_no_ .
Bias-Ply tires are very different .
Yes, proper alignment is critical (and rarely done) but basic physics show that they’re worthless in comparison to Radials .
-Nate
Then how come so many of our parents drove
on them(or were driven by their parents on
them) and miraculously survived to bring
us all into this world? I’m not at all saying
bias-ply were better than radial ply, just that
surely they were not the “death traps at
each corner” they were made out to be!
Then how come so many of our parents drove
on them(or were driven by their parents on
them) and miraculously survived to bring
us all into this world?
Do you realize how dumb of a question this is? You should address it to those that had family members injured or killed because of them, rather than those that didn’t.
The variations of this same question are regurgitated endlessly: “How did we all survive without seat belts, air bags, disc brakes, crumple zones, etc. etc. etc.?” Do you have a clue how many fewer deaths there are from motor vehicle now compared to the past?
Bias ply tires may not have been the worst of the issues, but then it’s also harder to pin down just how much of an improvement good modern radials have made, as there are no statistics on the specific numbers of crashes caused by tires.
But ask anyone who lived through the bias ply era; about their crappy handling at the limit, and their propensity to blowouts. Modern tires have made a huge improvement in safety, performance and trouble-free motoring. Anyone questioning this vast improvement clearly has little or no real-world experience with them.
Nate,
Let’s see some pics of the Beetle! Are you still tinkering on the Morris?
Of my six oldies, only the ’53 Buick has bias ply tires, and that thing follows every dip, groove, and crack in the road. The only reason I have them is because wide white radials are ludicrously priced and I rarely drive the car faster than 60.
When I was 17, I drove my ’65 Mustang around on old Road Hugger F70-14s with snow tires on the back for about two weeks before putting radials on, and there was no comparison. Radials do require a different alignment setting (they don’t tolerate nearly as much toe-in or camber without wearing the tires’ edges), but even with a bit of misalignment, there’s no arguing that a car drives better with them. With radials, I set toe-in as close to zero as I can manage, and camber too. I’ll crank in as much positive caster as I can, but it’s usually not that much.
I do feel that an old car looks better with a set of original bias-plies, but if you’re going to drive it often, well…
Yes of course, other than being more absorbent of bumps at low speeds everything about bias ply tires is way worse. Including that in a car like the Galaxie they lasted about 10K miles, and had higher rolling friction, reducing the already terrible mpg a mile or two per gallon.
” Anyone questioning this vast improvement clearly has little or no real-world experience with them.”
.
Thanx, Paul ;
.
I spent decades in Bias-Ply tires and know *exactly* what I am talking about .
.
-Nate
Oops ~ .
.
I cannot edit my comment, what I meant to include was : the clueless question about how your parents (and I) survived isn’t ‘stupid’ necessarily but it sure is clueless .
.
Not knowing or understanding a thing isn’t stupid .
.
Refusing to learn, is .
.
-Nate
Ok Nate: School me. I am a prisoner of my era!
I’ll share my impressions on bias-plys, then you can weigh in which are correct, or misguided, or whatever.
I have read a lot and heard a lot: “Constant correction of the steering wheel, at 30 or 60mph”, “breaks mad loose at limits”(of their adhesion). Some bias ply tires needed negative caster(axis tipped forward) as opposed to positive, due to differences in the hysteresis(flex) of bias and radial tires.
I have seen many old movies that employed the old driving trope of the driver sawing the steering wheel back and forth and bouncing in their seat, all to imply being in motion, while the car is parked safely inside a sound stage with a projection screen behind it showing the receding road.
So, how much of the above is true, false, and what else should I know? Remember, I was born in 1970, meaning I didn’t start to drive until the mid-80s, when bias ply tires were probably already extinct on passenger vehicles.
Thanks!
I’ve had radial tires on my ’64 Falcon ever since I got it in 1989. I’ve never thought about replacing them with the old-timey ‘bias-ply’ tires. (The original spare is still in the trunk; it’s a ‘Remington’-brand tire).
“That picture with me standing behind the car would be ideal if you cropped me out!”
You were at least looking away from the camera, so I was ready to go with “curious onlooker” before you outed yourself. Me, I’m stuck with that lead picture, with no plausible deniability at all. While driving, I sort of fancied myself looking like that guy in the 7th picture that RLPlaut noticed. Guess not.
The only decent picture of me taken in the last five years was at Halloween a few years ago. I had on bib overalls, an Hawaiian shirt, a striped tie, and had a cigar dangling from my mouth. Wouldn’t you know?
I understand the feeling one way and it not really being the case.
And thank you for the compliment on the quality of the review. I would like to do more of these, but will first need to find some nice people with interesting old cars who would be willing to give me a turn behind the wheel. 🙂
C’mon by and you can drive the VW 🙂 (no brakes yet though, or seat belts, or high beams, or…)
I would like to do one on my drive of that splendid ’67 Corvette, but my camera was maxed out on memory from the 400 some shots I took at the museum. Did anyone take some nice shots of it in the morning in front of the Lane?
I only had one, and just sent it to you.
I may have some…I’ll send you what I have tonight.
Paul if you need any pics I can send whatever shots you would like although they would not be from that day.
Rob, that would be great. I don’t need a large number; just some nice shots with the top down, and a one of the interior, dashboard, and the engine, of course. Thanks.
Do you have my e-mail? If not: curbsideclassic@gmail.com
The building on the right side of the picture is also leaning. I think that this is some artifact of the lens used and the angle of the camera. Wide angle lens can do odd things on the edges.
I noticed the same thing. It’s a distortion in the fabric of space-time caused by the FE big block.
My third-grade teacher got one of these at the autumn of 1963 and she talked about it in class. The lesson was you can save money by buying at the end of the model year but don’t be too picky about what you get. I suspect that’s not part of the current curriculum, but maybe it should be given the alarming financial illiteracy rate. I can’t recall much else about third grade, but I will never forget Mrs. Delson’s 1963 green Ford Galaxie.
“It’s a distortion in the fabric of space-time caused by the FE big block.”
Now that’s classic!
I have the FE 352 engine in my ’65 Galaxie; agree that it is more of a “Torque Monster” with much less on the top end. Which works for me. How many of us rev an American V8 engine above 2800 rpm in normal driving?
Even with multiple, careful, finicky automatic choke adjustments on it’s 4 barrel carburetor; it will still occasionally stall when cold.
Reading this article gave me a new appreciation for the power steering, automatic transmission and factory air conditioning in my Ford!
The overdrive is still pretty darn neat, IMO. I’ve always wanted a car with a similar OD set up.
Thank you for this JP. Somewhere in the back of my mind I keep long buried memories of the heavy and slow unassisted steering, hard brakes, balky chokes, and long “warm-up periods” of former old cars. This article reminded me once again of the true nature of the good old days. Good indeed, but old.
Must be the camera angle or the way the light hit you, but you look like a movie star in that 7th photo.
Or is that Jason?
Or maybe Paul.
Hard to tell.
That’s Paul. He’s telling the driver beside us to go ahead and make his day.
So did that punk feel lucky?
And had he fired 5 shots or 6?
I hear you about the low speed maneuvers. A friend once asked me to “move” his 64 Malibu out of a crowded and busy city lot on a cold January day after the car had been sitting awhile.
Getting it to start and not stall when I put it into gear and to maneuver with manual steering and brakes with a long line of cars trying to get in and around me was quite an ordeal. At least it was an automatic.
I’ve also had the opportunity to drive it on curvy roads in the country. Hard to believe people drove cars like this everyday. Taking tight turns in a short amount of time took some getting used to.
“Hard to believe people drove cars like this everyday.”
Gym memberships were unheard of back then. Cars like this gave you your daily workout.
That’s a rather astute observation. Along with everything else in today’s world, all the creature comforts of the modern automobile, while making driving easier and more pleasurable, has made us softer, as well. No wonder there are so many workout facilities.
In the UK, non-powered car windows are known as “keep-fit windows”.
When I was younger people used to ask me if I worked out. I told them I had a job that by working on the job it paid me money and I got the body as a fringe benefit. Also all my cars and trucks for years had no power anything. FF 40 years my cars have power everything and I am retired, bald and 40-45 lbs heavier than I was in my younger days. There has to be a correlation here.
My first car in high school back in the 90’s was a ’60 Bel-Air. Like this car the steering wheel was much larger than modern cars and took more input to steer. I don’t recall how many revolutions it was lock-to-lock, but if I remember right it was almost double a modern car at the time. Unlike this one though I never found it all that difficult, just annoying because it took so much sawing at the wheel to go around a corner. When I took 90 degree turns in town after I would get around the corner I would just let go of the wheel and let the car straighten out itself, which it would mostly do most of the time. Eventually I did tire of it though as a daily driver and bought a more practical Mustang.
I did an autocross recently where it was a challenge to wind the steering quickly enough to make some of the tight, close together gates, and that was with a 16:1 (I think) steering box!
Great stuff JP! Did the soft suspension make the car feel slow to react on corners?
I will have to write up a drive of a 1961 Hillman Minx, also a column shift which I’m not a fan of because even when they are in reasonable adjustment there still seems to be so much vagueness. Or should I say I nearly got first gear instead of third a couple of times…
I (briefly) owned a ’64 Plymouth Fury, 318 and “three on the tree” manual transmission. It’s collumn shifting action was easy and tight shifting, as long as you didn’t try to shift it too quickly.
My Father owned a low mileage ’66 Ranchero, 289 and manual collum shifter. It was vague and sloppy.
If you didn’;t make a pause into neutral while up or down shifting into second gear the dayum thing would lock up on you! Luckily it had enough torque that holding first gear slightly longer than normal and going directly into third gear was possible.
I didn’t find the suspension overly soft. It is my recall from those days that Ford took the middle road, with Chevys being softer and Mopars being more firm. It is, however, much softer springing than is common today. I found the car pretty pleasant once up to speed, though I was on mostly straight roads.
Where the front suspension failed me was a really odd situation. I was making a left turn across two lanes of oncoming 50 mph traffic to get into an office building parking lot. I didn’t want to risk stalling and erred on the side of too fast to get through the intersection, and only then did I notice how sharp the dip and rise were where the lot met the edge of the road. I’ll bet a lot of cars have scraped their chins doing that maneuver into that lot.
The column shifter was one of the nicer ones I have driven, at least for smoothness. Because the throws were so long (and so was the middle part of the “H” between 1 and 2) there was no danger of finding 1st gear instead of 3rd in this car.
Yep thats why my toy now has floorshift even after overhauling the tree shift it wasnt nice, the difference with Jasons car would be manual everything except indicator cancelling and Hillmans respond well on turns, I have a spare floorshift conversion kit here including the selectors if you want to spanner them in.
Like you, Dad used to ‘ let go of the wheel and let the car straighten out itself’, but I found out the hard way that you don’t do this if you want to pass a driving test.
Old Pete wrote: “Like you, Dad used to ‘ let go of the wheel and let the
car straighten out itself’, but I found out the hard way that you don’t do
this if you want to pass a driving test.”
I wish modern cars would self center that way!
Today’s steering is too soft and light – for my
twitchy driving style anyway. I prefer more
weight build up when moving that wheel away
from 12 o’clock. But wider lower profile rubber
wants to go where it wants.
Great article, I hope to catch a ride in the Galaxie some day.
Modern driving certainly gives you less time for slow high effort driving inputs. I always figured when driving my old manual-everything Ranger that at least I have big steel bumpers…
A ride would be great.
Agreed on the bumpers…the crumple zones on the Galaxie appear on whatever it may hit.
Thanks J.P., and Jason, for putting us inside this wonderful old Galaxie. You made me feel as if I was there. Your impression of driving this car reminded me of how similar to this driving my 1964 Olds Dynamic 88 Sedan was. Although my 88 has an automatic transmission, power steering and brakes, the shape and feel are the same. Starting and getting it underway was also very much like it is for this car. Like this Galaxie, my Olds always went where I pointed it and it’s 394 V8 pulled it along effortlessly, which was typical of large V8 powered ’60s cars. I’ve driven a lot of cars, but that Olds is one of the most enjoyable cars to drive that I have experienced. Like you said, J.P., these cars are in their element when they get up to cruising speed. Because of their square bodies and large amount of glass, you know exactly where you are in the road and you can see absolutely everything around you. I find that very comforting when I’m behind the wheel of a car like this, and I miss that feeling. Thank you so much for bringing it all back.
The thing that strikes me is how cramped Paul looks in that car. Doesn’t seem to be nearly as large inside as it first appears, and quite a bit smaller than my ’60 Chevy was.
I don’t believe any of us adjusted the seat. Paul is several inches taller then I am, and I suspect that the seat still had some room to move back. I would be surprised if there is much difference in interior dimensions between your 60 Chevy and this car.
I will say that I sat up higher in this car than was the case in the 62 Bel Air that my college roommate owned. But the tradeoff was that the Ford’s seat was so far in from the sill that it took some real stretching to get in or out. I would not imagine that short women would have liked entry or exit from this car at all. I wonder if this was a factor in the big Ford falling so far behind the big Chevy in sales in the early 60s.
Chevvies of the early ’60’s were known for their low seating position and collapsing/bottoming out front bench seat. I cannot recall sitting/driving a pre-1967 Bel-Air/Impala of this time period that didn’t feel like it needed a Sears & Roebuck catalog and a wad of foam padding inserted under the driver’s seat bottom cushion.
Fords were better.
Mopars were the best of “The Big Three”. They had the firmest, most upright driver’s seating position of this time period.
Yes, I did sit rather low in my ’60, although I didn’t find it unusually so at the time. It looks like Paul’s hair is brushing the headliner.
Re: seating position.
It was easier to steer these big boats, and much easier to park them, if you sat closer to the wheel, where you could put your shoulder into the turn. That might be why Paul and J.P. didn’t adjust the seat. After a turn, you had to let go of the wheel as it straightened out, The normal style was to disengage your hands, letting it brush your fingers. Then, if you had to change inputs suddenly, you just grabbed. In those cases where you went to full lock, you might find yourself pulling your hands in to your chest to keep from busting a knuckle on a spoke as it flashed by… particularly if the car had a horn ring. It’s one reason Americans thought the European (Italian) straight armed driving style so odd. You couldn’t really do it on big cars in town.
You might think that cars with power steering would have smaller steering wheels, but not necessarily so. The PS of those days was pretty numb, especially on Mopars, and a smaller wheel would have amplified the sensitivity of the system and fatigued the driver. I once put a ‘90s wheel on a ‘60s Plymouth that had power steering in order to get a fatter wheel. It became harder to control instead of easier. One day, a woodchuck crossed my lane and couldn’t decide which way to go when it saw me. The quicker input due to the smaller wheel sent me out of control and I nearly sideswiped an oncoming car.
The earliest cars had fat wheels similar to what we have now in many ways. It may be that bigger, skinnier wheels became useful as instruments were moved from the center of the dash to the driver’s area, but the skinny wheel became almost a parody of itself in the early ’60s, a symbol for “fingertip” steering done by glamorous women wearing arm length evening gloves.
Guess I’m the opposite – I liked the ‘cushy’ feeling
of early-mid-60s GM benches & buckets! Guess
most heavier people today wouldn’t feel much
of that give; they’d just bottom the cushions right
down to the frame and feel like they were in
one of today’s cars church pews.
Paul didn’t adjust the seat. He’s also about 6’4″ whereas Jim and I are both around 5’11”.
I didn’t adjust the seat. I’m (relatively) flexible (all that yoga), and really don’t mind being a bit cramped in a car, which is why I never mind crawling into the back seat of some little car. I actually felt pretty comfortable up there, but then it wasn’t along drive. If it has been, I would have pushed the seat back.
And three-on-the trees always tend to interfere a bit with my long legs.
Phil L:
These are car interiors based on anthropometrics
(human average dimensioning and range of
motion studies) standards dating back to WW2.
The average male back then was 5’8″(now 5’10”),
and weighed between 20-40lbs less than now.
This makes it a challenge to do period movies
set 50 or more years in the past, because people
in general are noticeable bigger today than were
their ancestors.
Case in point: That Titanic prop James Cameron
produced for his “TITANIC” movie was several
inches wider and taller, so modern actors would
appear to scale walking up and down the
promenades on the ship, or sitting in her first
class dining saloon. The lifeboats for “TITANIC”
would actually be too long to fit in the davits of
the original Olympic-class liners!
To save on costs, Cameron did cut at least
80 feet off the length of the prop as compared to
the originals.
BTW: it is predicted that the average adult male
might not even be able to safely fit into a 1953
Corvette on that ride’s 100th birthday, at 6’0 and
195lbs. By 2050, women will also be expected to
average 5’7″, 155lbs. Beds of pickups will be sized
to accommodate 5′ by 9′ panels of plywood or
sheetrock(the 4×8 no longer standard), and block
by block of neighborhoods will see dozens of
mid-20th century houses modified or demolished
to accommodate the taller/bigger generation being
born now and into the 2020s.
Sheesh, I’m feeling small already, having lost
half an inch of my youthful 5’8″ back in the 1980s,
LOL!
Please stop making your comments so narrow and therefore long. It’s completely unnecessary, and up huge amounts of space on the page, It’s quite affected and you’ve been told before not to do it here.
Discussed in private, duelly noted. It’s a habit I developed from my correspondence on Usenet newsgroups via Google Groups. Some Usnet users are reading via an old ASCII browser this
wide. !
Which cuts off the wide html-based interfaces that Google(and Facebook and Curbside) uses. I have gotten as many complaints from those traditional usenetters urging me to limit my column width as I have on here about how narrow and long my posts are.
Guess I just can’t win no matter where I go! smh! lol
Great pic of that old bloke who talked to an empty chair,remember that?
Nice account which takes me back in time. I have to add though there are few sensible and not outrageously expensive mods which can be done to cars like this to make them a whole lot more palatable under modern conditions. Things like disc brake conversions, uprated springs and shock absorbers or even more direct steering are available on the aftermarket at reasonable prices and are not difficult to fit; to me they would not mean destroying the car’s character given that what you would be doing is building an upper-spec car (as was available back then, too).
Disc brakes weren’t available on these full-sizers for a few years yet although the aftermarket is full of alternatives for a disc conversion. The shocks were replaced in 2013. Given how much of a workout it gives at low speeds, I’m not too worried about doing anything with the steering as my low speed maneuvers are only in taking off and stopping!
That said, I’ve waivered greatly on what to do with the brakes. After my panic stop in St. Louis, it confirmed to me that drum brakes (if adjusted properly) will stop a car just fine. Only once have I ever noticed fade with these brakes, and that was when descending a long, steep (about 9% grade) hill. But the thought lingers.
In the big scheme of things, it isn’t that hard to drive in modern conditions but it does require being more alert. The only pitfalls I have found are the sharp radii at drive-thru’s and in tight parking lots. Otherwise, it’s no big hoopie.
Agreed on all counts. And the truth is that different steering and power disc brakes, etc. would change the the car’s character. This is what it was like to drive in 1963. If one wants to experience that, one has to leave it alone and compensate for that.
I wouldn’t bother with swapping out the brakes. You don’t tow trailers or drive it in the mountains. You also don’t put many miles on it. Also, I have heard that non-assisted disks tend to require even more effort than non-assisted drums, because the drums have a self-energizing effect that disks lack. If it were mine, I would swap in a power steering setup (both for its lower effort and its faster ratio) or an under-dash a/c unit before I messed with the brakes. And in truth, I probably wouldn’t do any of those things to it, because it is so fascinating the way it is.
Agreed, it is what it is and it’s interesting because of what it is. If that makes any sense.
I can confirm that non-assisted disks are horrible, my 88 Ranger was so equipped and it required a mighty strong leg to stop. I’d take four wheel drums over unassisted disks any day.
If you think it required some effort on a compact Ranger, try a full size truck. Front disks were standard on ’71 GM trucks, but power assist was optional, I think only for that one model year.
My C-10 was a stripper fleet model with three on the tree, no power steering or brakes. I got a good workout driving it. At least the Saginaw three speed was synchronized on all gears by then.
Jason, if only for the avoidance of doubt, this was not meant as critique of your views but more as a suggestion for those (like me) who love these old cars but want a little bit of peace of mind on today’s roads; I was also thinking about things from the PoV of someone living in Austria, where roads are probably more crowded on average than the US, and those roads which aren’t have, errr, curves in them and/or go up and down mountains. I am fully aware of the capacity of drum brakes to stop very hard but hate the fade. PAB kits are available, so that having to stomp on the pedal need not be an issue. But I can see your point and as long as it does not take away from your driving pleasure, it really don’t matter:)
PS: In case anyone with one of these full-size Fords considers a conversion, see here for a company I heard good things about (my understanding is they will advise you on servos if you want one, too): https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=65&product_id=86
No worries, I didn’t take it as a critique.
Yes, I would imagine roads in Austria are more crowded on average. My panic stop was on an interstate at (or just above capacity) and I also hit stop-and-go, bumper-to-bumper traffic in Nashville. It isn’t something I would want to do everyday in any car!
I live in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, a very old range that has degraded with its advanced age. Let’s just saw the overdrive provided excellent engine braking. 🙂
Sigh of relief:) I must confess I like to drive fast (at times) and that’s another reason why I’d modify any 60s car. And for those who question the logic of driving a 60s land yacht fast, these Galaxies were the cars that finished Jaguar racing in the early 60s in Europe, and with the right bits and drivers were capable of winning even the Nurburgring. More here: http://www.galaxie.com.au/racing.html
This is worth watching – still winning in 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXyw9cUuRmU
Jason: So you live in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. Do you listen to the Ozark Mountain Daredevils when cruising around town? 😀
Just something I’ve never been able to comprehend: Expression of steepness of a grade or of banking(“superelevation”) as a percentage.
Percentage of what – the height of the feature, the width?
I prefer to use degrees: Daytona speedway banking = 31deg. Bristol = 36deg, etc. Interstate highway banking in an average turn: 1-2deg.
Straight to the point.
It’s rise over run. 9% = 9 feet of vertical change for every 100 feet of horizontal distance.
All three of your examples are in reference to edge of pavement to edge of pavement (or edge line to edge line, if you will), not the change of centerline elevation. The tangent sections of Daytona and Bristol are likely at 0%.
I’m a civil engineer; using a percentage for grade for tangent sections of roads is standard practice. Curves, which you reference, are a slightly different critter. Besides, a grade percentage is even found on road signs out west warning of grades when descending mountains as they warn of your descent, not how sharp the curve is.
9ft rise for every 100ft.. Doesn’t seem steep to me. 20 or more ft per 100, now we’re talking steep! lol
You might reconsider that statement. Interstates are limited to about 8% and railroads rarely go steeper than about 2%.
If you think 9% is no big deal, I would encourage you to find a treadmill and walk three miles at 9%. And, don’t forget, there are runaway truck lanes in areas having downgrades of only about 8%.
Very interesting to someone without much if any experience piloting large 60’s cars. I guess the closest was my old ’71 Chevelle Wagon but I didn’t really think about that older cars didn’t always have power steering and brakes, that wagon was a one-finger steerer and didn’t require a firm braking leg either.
That Galaxie is going to outlive us all, now that the waterpump is fixed there is nothing left to go wrong.
If you want to try out a sixties car, go for a full-sized one. Don’t dink around with any Falcon, Valiant, or Chevy II; those are go-carts in comparison.
The throw-out bearing is making itself known these days, but that is much easier to work around than a water pump. The only thing she really needs is removal of the carpet as it has a musty smell. Maybe some Febreeze will cure that…
Nooooo !!!! That musty smell is like catnip in an old car. Think of it as your car’s “bouquet”, much like exterior “patina”, Jason !!!
I tend to agree. Once you do the carpet, you’ll start looking around at the rest of the interior, and before you know it you’ll be into more work that you ever intended, and that patina will be endangered.
+1.
Nice write-up. I have a 1965 Galaxie and can attest that power steering and power brakes make these a whole lot easier to drive in town. The power brakes still require additional stopping distance vs. modern cars and trucks, which requires that the driver be very vigilant about keeping some car lengths in front in stop and go traffic. With upgraded disc brakes, power steering and automatic transmission my car makes a plausible in-town ride, but I whole-heartedly agree that a two lane highway is where these come into their own.
As I mentioned above, my ’65 Galaxie has power steering, but not power brakes.
I recall my Mother darn near launching me thru the windshield more than one because of the over boosted power brakes of her beloved ’66 Country Sedan wagon. I started wearing the seat belts because of this! Thunderbirds of this time period were even more “Tip Toe Touchy”; if that was possible.
I don’t find the gone thru (new: shoes, brake hardware, master brake cylinder, adjusted “up to the top”) manual brakes on my ’65 unpleasant or hard to modulate/stop quickly with at all. (‘Course I am 6-1, 230 pounds and have retained some of my weight lifting muscle mass from the past.) I do admire it’s brick firm, no free play at ALL pedal “feel”.
Definitely true that power brakes make a big difference, especially on a car this size with drums all around.
Some time in the mid 90s friend of mine bought a ’65 Galaxy convertible. He was very particular about whom he let drive it. I managed to talk him into letting me use it to run an errand. I had driven old beaters of my own, so I had no trouble getting it on the road (it helps that it was an automatic).
But it was a different story once I started approaching a red traffic signal. I put my foot on the brake pedal, and nothing happened. I applied more pressure, still nothing. I kicked into it with all my strength, and it gradually slowed to a stop. Until then I had never driven anything nearly that large without power brakes. At that point, driving Chris’s Galaxy was out of my system. I was happy to return the keys to him when I got back.
If I had to choose one thing about new cars that’s superior to old ones, modern brakes would top my list.
coincidentally i had a 63 galax and a 67 convert, 2 cars pictured in the article. funny when i read the driving impressions today while mentally juxtaposing yesterdays commute in a 21st century vehicle. never occurred back then what a death trap these were or how much effort it took to pilot from A to B. you just got in and drove. similarly i went to the library to look up information or wrote a letter to the editor if i wanted to express an opinion.
Mostly because they weren’t, 5. Trillions of miles were driven of all different brands in cars like these. They essentially moved the nation. That’s not to discount the safety advances in modern cars, just that millions of people went back and forth for years in these cars and lived.
It is only in retrospect that they seem like “death traps”.
But when everybody else around you had similar cars with similar parameters (brake performance, etc.) it was no problem. Other cars would behave much like yours, and (almost) everyone drove accordingly.
Remember when aftermarket power brake boosters appeared, and cars so equipped had a “Power Brakes” sticker on the rear window to warn following drivers that the car in front would stop so much better than yours – or was that just an Australian thing?
Brings back memories. In the mid 90’s I drove a ’63 Galaxie 4dr myself. It had a 289, 3 speed with OD and – power steering. I rebuilt the engine in it for the owner, so of course I had to test drive it for a couple of days. What surprised me the most was how well that 289 moved the car, granted, it was a new engine. And I’m not sure if power steering was a blessing or a curse. Road feel was non-existent; maybe it would be better with a FE over the front wheels.
Thanks for the driving impressions, JP (and Jason, and Paul).
Other than a size difference and an autobox, you could have been describing my ’64 American. Huge steering wheel, what felt like 27 turns lock-to-lock, and power nothing. Right turns in the city were a study in flailing elbows. Mine actually handled quite well with gas shocks and radial tires; sometimes you just couldn’t turn the wheel fast enough.
Was first gear synchronized on this year manual transmission equipped Galaxie?
(Not that it’s as big a deal as it would be on smaller engined cars; I am guessing that “torque monster” 352 could smoothly pull second gear past 2 mph?)
No. Ford went to an all-syncro box in ’65 or ’66, but if you ordered the overdrive, it came with the old B/W T8x series box, which did not have syncro on first.
My ’66 F100 originally had the Ford 3 speed, with synchronized first gear. I swapped in the B/W 3 speed w/OD. At first I missed the syncronized first, until I learned to drive with OD activated, which means free-wheeling and easy shifts into first, even when moving. The free-wheeling acts like a second clutch, so the gears are happy to shift before coming to a full stop.
My dad had a 62 Galaxie 500, which is essentially the same car featured here. It had factory under dash A/c and radio, 352 and Cruise-O-Matic, but was equipped with manual steering and brakes. He didn’t trust those fancy power assist gadgets. It was indeed a chore at low speeds, but at about 10 mph the steering lightened up and was quite direct as I recall. Brakes were of course drum and required mighty effort at times. It was a very good car and served us well.
Thanks for the great article, J. P. It really takes you back. I started driving in the late sixties, and the main car I cut my teeth on was my parents ’65 Belvedere with a slant six and all manual. Then in ’71 I went to work for a used car lot and got to experience all kinds of cars and trucks. Today I am still in the car business (collision repair), and dream about the days when these cars were common. I do have a ’70 Chevy C10 with manual steering/brakes, so I do experience the ‘good old days’ every time I drive it.
I’ve often thought that if cars were still like this today we wouldn’t have a driving while talking on the phone problem. They require both hands and feet to operate, and you could often use a third hand or foot if it was available.
You wrote that you have to be ‘one with car’ to even start one, that somewhat applies to the maintenance required to drive one every day. Annual tune-ups and coolant flushes, regular brake and clutch adjustments, finicky carburetors, 2-3000 mile oil changes and chassis lubrication are the parts of the ‘good old days’ we forget the easiest.
Jason, you have a treasure here, thanks for keeping it alive and sharing it with us. As you know, it was once literally a ‘dime a dozen’ car, and I appreciate your efforts to keep it what it was meant to be. I had lots of experience with these back in the day, starting with my next door neighbor who bought a new ’63 Country Sedan. They were a staple on the used car lots that I worked at. My second car was a ’64 Galaxie 500XL coupe. Later while still in high school I had a Galaxie very similar to yours with a 289, automatic, power steering, burgundy exterior and same interior as yours. Both of these stayed with me for just a few months each. Being in the used car business I bought and sold often. I had a brief fling with a ’64 Country Sedan with 352 and all manual (no overdrive). I have always liked the ’63/’64 style, a full sized car before they started on their bloat mission. I would drive one everyday if I could make it work, but I don’t have what it takes to keep an antique on the road.
There’s nothing like driving a classic American car. Although I’ve always owned and driven (relatively) modern Japanese cars, namely Toyotas, whenever given a chance, I have on occasion, driven an American car. The oldest car I got to drive was a 1960 Studebaker Lark VIII 4 door. It didn’t have anything fancy, no radio, all drum brakes. The only thing the car had were seat belts, and power steering. I still enjoyed riding in the car and driving the car. Its exterior colour was an oxydised blue. I found it more attractive than anything produced today. I’d drive it again in a heartbeat. I’d prefer the car to have at least a radio, and more seat belts for the rear seat passengers. Its relative simplicity is what I liked about the car. It had no electronic gadgets. No Bluetooth. 🙂
Thanks Jim for the nice write-up. For me, it was particularly interesting comparing it to my ’66 F100, which I drive almost daily in the summer. The key differences:
The steering in the Galaxie is somewhat heavier. That might be because of that big FE engine, or maybe my truck has even slower steering which would lighten the effort. Or maybe it’s because I’m just so used to my truck. Also, my posture in my truck, with the seat all the way back, probably gives me a bit more leverage. But the Galaxie’s steering is fine once under way, and like all of these old cars, is preferably to the numb PS at speed.
The Galaxie’s shifter works very nicely; better than I would have imagined. My truck was converted to a Hurst floor shifter before I got it, and frankly, it’s pretty terrible. It was a bit better on the original Ford 3 speed box, but the mechanic had some trouble getting it to work right with the Warner T87 in it now. I’m almost afraid to let anyone else drive it. Sometimes getting into first at a stop light is a real problem. Maybe the shifter linkage is also worn.
The overdrive in Jason’s car still works like it’s supposed to, meaning it shifts into OD by lifting up the gas momentarily above 25-28 mph or so in second. And then when shifting into third, it’s already in OD. My truck is set up manual, which means I have a little toggle switch on the dash. And I go from 2-OD to 3-direct, before 3-OD. I have more control, but it’s nice to not have to think about it so much.
Needless to say, the Galaxie’s 352 V8 is a whole different animal than the 240 six in my truck. It pulls very strongly in the mid range, and makes wonderful music through its (non stock) dual exhaust. But my 240 six starts instantly, cold or hot, while the 352 was a bit balky to start cold or hot. I hate to say it, but that was a characteristic of these FE engines that I noticed way back, and was one of the reasons I specifically wanted a six in my truck. I’m not sure if that’s a fair representation, but in my memory it seems I used to notice them struggling some in starting and transitioning to running. But once it’s running and warm, it runs like a dream.
The brakes on Jason’s car felt quite good; a bit better than mine, although they are identical ones. Probably his are just in a bit better condition or…I know; he has all-new lines; mine are original, and even the flexible rubber parts that connect from the rigid section to the brake drums. Mine really need to be replaced!
Jason’s car is a much better cruiser at speed, mostly because it’s quieter and rides better. My truck cab is all bare metal (and some holes in the floor), and the window channels are shot, so the glass rattles. It’s really noisy at speed. But the ride in my truck is not bad, thanks to the all-new suspension that arrived in ’65.
It was a great fun to drive the Galaxie (and ride in the back seat, which is very roomy). Thanks Jason for sharing! 🙂
“FE”, “FE”! What the sam-hills is F E?
signed,
-acronym-challenged throwback
“Freaking Excellent ” .
.
-Nate
Paul N, please!
FE = Ford-Edsel
Thank you!!
“TY” for those who speak “Acronymian”.. smh
Starting procedure, mid ’60’s & ’70’s Mopar: Press accelerator ONCE to the floor, turn key, start car. If engine is cold,let the high idle run a few minutes , then blip the throttle once to drop the rpm.
Mid ’60’s GM: Press accelerator a minimum of three times, turn key, start car.
Early ’80’s GM (Carb) V-8, same as above, blip throttle upon starting to drop rpm.
These are the procedures for the vehicles that I have/had. 🙂
2012 Honda Fit Sport: Insert key, depress clutch, turn key..fire it up!!!! 🙂 That’s all folks!!
Yes, I remember that Mopar starting instruction where even a part throttle would set the choke, unlike with my early GM experience. I think that part of my problem in getting Jason’s Ford started was in my experience of having a a couple of cars that flooded easily, which instilled in me a lifelong bias in favor of too little pumping instead of too much. It is always easier to pump more gas in than it is to dry out flooded sparkplugs. 🙂
Anyone ever tried to start a 1985 Austin Metro? Accelerator, choke, shouting, pleading, swearing – different permutation every day!
Mine started faultlessly every time, yours must have been cursed by Prince Lucas:)
Starting procedure for 1979 Malibu with well-worn 267–press accelerator ONCE to the floor and release, turn key, press a second time to the floor WHILE the starter is firing. Any deviation from this will cause a no-start.
Getting it to stay running until warmed up was heavily dependent on the outside temperature, and a whole ‘nother ball of wax. On particularly cold mornings I’d have to sit there and hold the pedal at part throttle for a good three to four minutes just so it wouldn’t stall while idling, and then leave it be for another five minutes or so until it wouldn’t stall at the bottom of the driveway.
That starting procedure sounds like a built-in alcohol interlock!
Great description of manual everything + old carburetor quirks. My ’70 C10’s 200 gross HP 307 had a 2 barrel which I converted to manual choke due to the troublesome auto choke and plugged up heat riser. I wound up not using the choke at all as time went on, eventually the cable rusted up and seized up anyway. I did have an electric fuel pump which helped starting as the carb bowel would be full even after sitting for a long time. 5 or six pumps, hit the starter, pump like mad as the engine sputtered to life, then a pump every two or three seconds as the engine started to warm up, once it kept running without pumping you were good to go. But it took a double pump to take off and at every gear shift two or three pumps to keep the engine from gasping or backfiring through the carb for the first couple of miles until the temperature gauge began to move up.
From the day I bought it the flywheel needed to be surfaced, so if you tried to slip the clutch you got a bumpy and jolting start. The solution was to fully release the clutch at idle and hit the gas at just the right moment for a smooth start. I went through several clutches, each time looking at the blue spots and later on the hairline cracks in the flywheel. I did once try to remove the flywheel for replacement or surfacing, but the bolts would not come out with my hand tools, so I just used the flywheel as is for the 3 or 4 clutches I went through in 30 years, At least I had lifetime parts, so after the first replacement clutch the parts were free. I had a system down where I could do the job by hand, the tailshaft resting on the parking brake cable and the input shaft resting on the top of the bellhousing so the trans never had to reach the ground.
A time or 2 when towing my 29 ft fifth wheel trailer I caught a light on a steep hill. Even with 3.73 rear end I would have to floor the gas, slip the clutch and then pull the parking brake handle to avoid rolling backwards. The truck would lurch and buck in protest and you could smell burning asbestos as it got moving. I’m glad I only had to do that a couple of times.
Over the years I must have put on 6 or 7 lace on steering wheel covers, was they would wear out I wrapped the old cover in electrical tape and put the new covers over the old. Eventually the truck had a thicker and nicely padded rim, which really helped to grip the wheel with the armstrong steering. When I let it spin to straighten out after turning, I quickly learned (painfully) to keep fingers away from the steering wheels spokes.
3 on tree was replaced with non granny 4 on floor Saginaw which really helped going up hills. I never have driven a vehicle with overdrive like the Galaxie has, need to put this on my bucket list. I really can relate to this write up. The first 4 years I daily drove the truck in stop and go LA bumper to bumper traffic, finally when gas hit the magic one dollar a gallon I started driving VW’s as daily drivers and used truck as a back up, I only put 90k miles in 30 years on it, in addition to the 67k miles that were on it when I got it in ’76.
When I drive my power everything Titan with auto and power steering, 4 wheel disc ABS brakes and AC, I think about the old truck and feel a little guilty, things are just too easy now.
Good stuff, thanks for sharing. Jason is a cool guy for letting folks drive his car.
I can remember well when I began driving in the 80’s how every car that you drove required a “pre-trip” lecture from it’s owner on how to get her to start and run. It varied with temperature, season, humidity, and state of warm up of course. I was freaking amazed when I had my first fuel injected car in the 90’s and just had to turn the key, regardless of temperature or season.
Most cars these days don’t even require you to keep track of cracking the engine, hit the button or just turn the ignition to “start” and HAL does the rest. I have memories of my elderly grandparents “starting” their cars that were already running. It makes a very interesting noise, usually followed by a word a little kid rarely heard from their grandparents. Good times!
Perhaps my philosophy is 180 degrees of what would be seen as typical, but with an old car it is all about the experience. How else can one get the experience without driving it? Riding is dandy but it is still a voyeuristic experience.
Thus, I’ve been sharing the experience with a limited few people.
On my newer cars, not so much. That experience is easy to find.
GREAT writeup ! .
.
I spent lots of seat time in these and owned a ’62 Ford Ranch Wagon with 289 and two speed (crap) Ford-O-Matic slushbox tranny , AM radio and clock , nothing else it was a fun car`, very reliable and rode softly because all the springs were worn out , it looked like a low rider .
.
I keep trying to explain about those huge steering wheels and the need to wind them constantly when keep your fingers out of the way as they unwound , spokes in a blur…
.
VERY good cars these ! we towed a house trailer with it and my then Russian girlfriend who was barely 5′ tall , never had any troubles steering it nor braking it with the un assisted drums .
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Radial tires made for slightly heavier steering at parking lot speeds but few ever bothered to run the proper inflation pressures , making it much harder then necessary .
I miss these cars .
.
-Nate
If it was the original engine, it was the 292 Y Block, not the modern 289, which first appeared in the ’64s.
The original Ford-O-Matic was a three-speed; it just started out in second unless one forced it into Low.
I think Nate is referring to the second Ford O Matic (that was probably the same unit that was in your family 62 Fairlane). That transmission was the “economy” automatic in big Fords beginning about 1959 or 1960, sort of the way you could still get a PowerFlite in a Plymouth through 1961. I think the 2 speed Ford O Matic was terminated in the big cars after 1962, along with the 292.
The Original Ford O Matic was very similar to the Studebaker Flight O Matic that appeared on the 1956 cars after lowered sales volume made their exclusive use of the previous DG250 impossibly expensive to continue. The Stude version was a second gear start as well, at least in the V8 cars.
Right; I forgot that it was also offered on the big cars as a cheap alternative. I thought it was just a small light unit designed for the Falcon and its derivatives.
If you think the 2 speed Ford-O-Matic was a slushbox behind a V8 engine, try it behind a 144 six cylinder in a Falcon station wagon, loaded down with 2 guys’ dorm room equipment, straining with the added burden of a dealer add on, huge compressor A/C unit!
“Acceleration” was too strong of a word for this gutless bow-wow.
It took EVERY inch of Interstate 10 on ramps for this automotive dog to noisily sluice up to the 60 mph merging speed.
I’d reach down and turn back the A/C’s thermostat (to disengage the compressor) in order to gain merging momentum, then repeatedly slap the top of the dashboard while loudly pray to the “Holy Mother of Acceleration”. My dog’s Mother was mentioned quite often.
My dorm room mate just pulled tight on the dealer add on seat belt and closed his eyes. And it was HIS car!! He didn’t want to drive it, loaded down as it was.
Oh yeah Mark ;
.
In the mid 1970’s I lived at the very top of a steep hill in Highland Park Los Angeles (Anan Terrace) and some old lady died and my shop got her 1961 Mercury Comet two door , same engine and tranny ~ it couldn’t make it all the way tp to top of the street unless I locked it in low at the bottom of the hill and pinned the foot feed , then it’d be barely going when I entered my driveway .
.
NOT fun because the street leading to my street (Anan Way) was narrow and curvy so i had to buzz through it too damn fast , pissing off the neighbors and worrying there’d be some little kid playing in the street.
.
On the freeway it’d howl in over speeded protest at 60 MPH .
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Not fun times , I sold that clean , white with red upholstery P.O.S. as fast as I could .
.
-Nate
I cannot believe that station wagon didn’t overheat with that combination of equipment! Holy Cow!
One of the things I noticed motoring around warm ‘n’ toasty West Palm Beach, FL, for years in my ’64 Falcon 2-door sedan (with its ‘170’ engine and 2-speed auto) was how speedily my TEMP gauge went from ‘C’ toward the center . . . and then I get stuck by a freight train for 5 to 7 minutes and watch the gauge mosey on over to ‘H’. Thankfully it never overheated, but I’d always keep some anti-freeze with me as I never knew when the little engine would gobble up all the anti-freeze I’d put in it. Seems I could not check it enough.
Carter: That automotive mutt would cruise on Interstate 10 with the water temperature gauge between half way and 3/4 scale. It never got all the way to the “H” indicator. The A/C was noisy, power robbing……but quite effective. Perhaps one has to live here in the swamps to understand my obsession with air conditioning? The one/two punch of Heat and Humidity can be quite wilting.
Every time my roomie and I took his Falcon station wagon somewhere I would automatically go to the hood, open it and check for proper antifreeze and oil levels. (He NEVER did!) The 50 mile run from our suburban area to the ollege often required a 1/4 gallon of antifreeze needed the next morning.
JPCavanaugh wrote: “The steering was tight, it went right where it was pointed and with modern radial tires, ”
What a review for a *modern* car(2000-present) should read
like! (face palm..)
Today’s mfgs should be embarrassed: turning out product that
earns reviews of “numb”, “vague”, or “twitchy” steering, even on
some upscale models.
Love this!
I drive my classics daily, mostly my 1971 Satellite with a 318, power steering and brakes, and working R12 air conditioning, but my previous DD was a /6 1973 Duster with no air and manual steering and brakes, and that car was no fun to drive in town. I gave up a 2002 Durango 8 years ago to drive my classics daily and don’t regret it. Other than a couple of Mustangs, I haven’t driven any 60s Fords but I cant imagine there is a whole lot of difference between a Galaxie and other American cars from those years.
There is a world of difference between driving a classic car with manual steering and power steering. While those big old steering wheels make it a little easier, the manual boxes tend to be a slower ratio and certainly as these cars are 50 years old, they are worn. You know when you watch a movie from the 60s or 70s and the actor is driving a car and constantly shuffling the steering wheel? That’s not for dramatic effect, you need to constantly provide steering input to those cars.
Does the Galaxie have a sway bar? That can also make a world of difference.
The Galaxie has manual drum brakes, I’m sure? I don’t mind drum brakes, Ive never had any real world issues driving in traffic with them as long as they are adjusted properly and I actually prefer manual brakes, but a dual reservoir master cylinder is a must-have,
I’m 6’2″/270 and find that the bench seats never travel back far enough but cars with bucket seats seem to have more travel, and it sounds like the Galaxie is no different. At least old cars are easier for me to get in and out of since I often bang my head on the swept-back A-pillars of modern cars.
I’ve never had a single cell master brake cylinder reservoir fail completely, unexpectedly on me; to the point of the pedal sticking on the floor boards and having no brakes at all. (Or a dual cylinder model, for that matter.)
There has always been plenty of warning signs (fluid leaking down to the brake pedal/floor mat, brake pedal slowly sinking at long stop lights).
The pedal suddenly flapping on the floor and the car screeching out of control around corners and running into someone’s front yard is Hollywood movie crapppppppp.
But there are other components that can fail, like popping the flexible brake line near the wheel. Mine are looking very old and a bit cracked. I’m feeling the urge to replace mine.
And the steel lines can get rusty and blow on a panic stop. The issue is that if anything is going to blow, it’s going to be during a full-on emergency braking, when you least want that to happen. It’s my biggest nervous-making factor on mine. Well, that and a raft of missing safety items like shoulder belts. 🙂
There really was a reason why the industry switched to dual-circuit brake systems. Yes, brakes can fail.
Panic stop not needed.
Steel brake lines can blow driving little old ladies to church at 20 mph in their 1985 or 6 Cadillac Eldorado 4.1 liter yellow over yellow over yellow that they no longer can drive. When that main steel line goes that’s it. No pedal, no nothing.
I think it had dual brake lines, but that did not help.
It left a nice puddle in front of the church and I drove her home (about 2 miles) using the transmission, emergency brake, and the memory of my brakeless 57 Olds.
When I told her we had no brakes, she said “What did you hit?”
Picture below shows me charging it once a week because of an electrical leak. Horrible car; I can’t think of anything nice to say about it.
I had a brake line let go on my 63 Cadillac when I was driving the 60 miles home from college. When I got to the edge of my destination city (the far edge, unfortunately) the brake pedal felt really funny. It turned out that a rusty rear brake line gave way. It also turned out that I was driving one of only two 1963 cars that used a dual circuit brake system. The 63 Rambler Ambassador was the other. I drove with front brakes only (and very slowly) the rest of the way home.
All ’63 Rambler Classics & Ambassadors had dual circuit braking system.
Yes, I can see how rust and corrosion can be an issue for you way-up-north-past-Baton Rouge Yankee boys.
Here in the Heat & Humidity sinkhole of the country AKA New Orleans, LA we worry more about water leaks and competent air conditioning than decades of under chassis rust & rot and corrosion.
🙂
After my ’65 Galaxie was delivered I made 8 or 9 increasingly severe hard braking/panic stops on deserted roads, at road speeds between 20 and 60 mph, testing the Ford’s overall brake system.
Like JP, I found the combination of modern radial tires and drum brakes satisfactory for my needs.
I never had a brake line blow, but once did pop a rear wheel cylinder on my single circuit ’64 VW Squareback and lost all brakes. But it had a good handbrake and I made it to work downshifting and hand braking. My master cylinder went out on the dual circuit ’70 C10 while sitting for a few months, all the fluid leaked out and the pedal went right to the floor with no braking at all. But I saw the leak before I tried to drive it so no drama.
The C10 did have mountings for shoulder belts, and I installed them.
Great write, and good to read of something that is not a stereotypical big American car.
Also, I buy into the observation about the condition of the car and not changing it – the “patina of authencity” is usually worth keeping
This was a very enjoyable read, JPC. I really enjoy your writing (read your blog). Sure brings back lots of memories about techniques required to start and drive cars during that era. I also recall lots of cars with manual chokes, actually facilitating cold starts in many cases.
That 63 Ford is one handsome car. In the 60’s the mother of one of my HS classmates drove a 63 convertible in that copper metallic – always loved that car. It had the 390 and she had one heavy foot. Good times.
Back in the day thrifty Midwesterners often bought cars equipped like this – no power steering or brakes and three speed manuals – even in higher end models. My uncle bought three new Chevrolet sedans – 60 Biscayne, 63 Bel Air, and 66 Impala – all six cylinder, three-on-the-tree, no PS/PB. The Bel Air and Impala were factory-ordered and my aunt’s daily drivers to work. She thought nothing of cranking the manual power steering. I remember one day her boss – who always bought fully equipped cars – borrowed the Impala for errands at lunch and came back flabbergasted with the effort to steer and park that thing. My aunt laughed and told him (and us later) that he was a total wuss:-)
Thanks for the compliment, CA. And thanks for reading my other non-automotive stuff, which I have never pimped here on CC. Until now, anyway. 🙂
When I was in 6th grade, a friend’s mom had a 63 Galaxie 500 sedan in turquoise with a white roof. It was a V8/auto, so it was white bread in every way in 1971-72, but I would admire its lines every time she dropped Joe off at the curb on school days.
CA Guy knows the truth! My mid-western Father bought a progression of cars (’56 Chebbie Bel-Air, ’58 Plymouth Fury, ’65 Plymouth Fury Suburban station wagon) without power steering, power brakes or factory air conditioning. Each car was bigger and heavier than the previous model and harder to steer around Suburbia.
When they decided on Mom’s beloved ’66 Ford Country Sedan, Mom put her foot down (in a polite, “June Cleaver” way). My shocked Father reluctantly agreed to power steering, factory A/C (not that he would ever used it very often, but Mom surely did!) and power brakes, “For your Mother”.
What a fantastic read; it really transported me back to the sixties. The row of identical knobs. The thin steering wheel rim. Aftermarket seat belts. The starting procedure. The…..
Your car must be rather unusually equipped; I’d have thought that most buyers of the Galaxie 500 would have gone for the power brakes and steering. While you could upgrade, that would lose what makes the car such a standout.
Thanks for a very interesting read; for a few minutes I was transported back into the sixties, a time when my knees didn’t hurt, I still had all of my teeth, etc. As numerous people have stated above, there was definitely an art to starting a carbureted car and keeping it running until it warmed up. My 1961 Ford had a manual choke and that was a big help as the car sat outside year round; for me it was just SOP to pull the choke about two thirds of the way out before I even turned the key. I never found the slow steering of these cars to be a hindrance in any way, I knew they weren’t built for the twisties and drove them accordingly. Compared to a friend’s 1959 Chevy Bel Air I thought the steering in my Ford was actually fairly light.
I enjoyed reading this story about the ’63 Ford Galaxie as much as the one from the prior week. I learned something, too: The ignition switch was to the left of the steering wheel on ’63 Fords. I dig learning new things about old Fords.
That is a sharp-looking Galaxie. It impels one to pay attention to it on the modern highway. As far as safety goes my experience as the best way to stay safe in an old car is to be an alert driver and keep the brakes tuned up. I’ve never viewed ’60s cars as death traps. Not at all. When you get to the early 70s and the era of the sub-compact I’m not sure, however. What to do? Stick with beasties from the ’60s!
Ever since seeing that car at the meetup and hearing about it (especially about being in Jason’s family for so long), I have been eager to read more about it. Thank you for the nice write up.
In 1964 I was 16 and my family went on a Wisconsin to Washington state round trip in one of these. After the 4 day trip back across the Canadian prairies (which I did in a Hyundai YESTERDAY) my dad traded the car in for a Mustang over the phone! There was no AC, no seatbelts or smartphones. My Hyundai has every option and it was still brutal. I guess I’m soft. Please feel sorry for me as rest up in this Banff resort.
I wonder if the ethanol fuel is making these old cars harder to start, especially if they sit a week or two between drives.
I recall as a kid the the grown ups had to let the car warm up before driving off, and not because of the outside temperature. It was just a thing that one had to do if the car was cold. Let it idle and stink up the area for a few minutes, before one set out on the journey.
Ah, the smell of unburned hydrocarbons. I very closely associate that with the family cars of my childhood and teenage years, the Malibu in particular. Carburetors and their characteristic difficulties… The first fuel injected car we had in the family was the ’86 Audi 5000 that we owned from ’94 to ’98, and after that one went away, the next was the ’91 Crown Vic I owned in 2001.
Jason, a lot is known about your car but there is one thing I am curious about. Do you still have the single pot master cylinder in your car or did you change it out for a dual? I see the question has been asked. Also one noted they have never had one fail. I had one fail the second week I had my new to me 65 F100. Right at a 4 way stop.
By the way nice safety pin in the headliner.
Oh, and just for the heck of it I took the family to a drive in movie, My first since the 60’s while they have never been there. Pulled up and the three young women in the ticket booth have big smiles while leaning out the window. I took the 67 Park Lane which is what they were staring at. I ended up among a sea of trucks and large size SUVs. It was a jungle.
I will note that my wife pissed me off a bit when she turned towards my 7 year old son and said your father likes old stuff and is stuck in the 60’s. I park and get ready to leave with my son for a little playground fun and my wife says why don’t you park over there as I close the door and say maybe next time.
Stuck in the 60’s huh?
Hey, I represent that remark!
And a 1967 Park Lane? Nice car.
It’s still a single reservoir, but I do have stainless steel lines. I rebuilt the entire brake system a few years ago with everything between the pedal and brake drum being new.
This review of the Galaxie fits right at home with me. My first driver was a 64 Galaxie 500XL with a 352 and cruise-o-matic that my Father still has (ignition switch on the right). I now have a 71 F250 Camper Special with a 390 (ignition switch on the left). Both of these cars have the Autolite 4100 carb.
My cold start procedure… step on the gas to set the choke and fast idle. Start the car. Let it warm up for a few minutes then you’re good to go… provided everything is working just right. Sometimes the linkages get a little wonky so you have to pop the air cleaner off and move the butterfly valve then it’s good to go. Finicky old car and truck, but that’s what makes them a joy to drive.
The car has drums without power assist and a single reservoir master cylinder. It came with power assist drums but the booster failed in the early 70’s so Dad took it off and never put it back. Those brakes are in good working order and stop the car just fine. The F250 on the other hand has power factory disc brakes (available on the larger trucks). It’ll put you through the windshield if you aren’t careful.
One thing with the power steering… the Galaxie has it but it has some feel to it. The F250 also has it but it does too good of a job. At highway speeds it has no feel but is really easy to turn in a parking lot.
Chris wrote: “One thing with the power steering… the Galaxie has it but it has some feel to it. The F250 also has it but it does too good of a job. At highway speeds it has no feel but is really easy to turn in a parking lot.”
Sounds like good ol basic constant-pressure
power steering. As I described in my reply to
calibrick, I thin that variable-assist, or “speed-
sensitive” steering, would be the best
compromise, and should be relatively easy to
implement in this day and age – no excuses,
mfgs! 🙂
What a great read, JP Cavanaugh! You’ve really conveyed what it’s like to drive one of these cars.
It’s interesting how many new cars in the 1960s were still bought without the features we take for granted today, and how it was a big deal when the new car had one of those options. During the 1960s and 1970s, each successive car my parents bought had one more feature, which my mother generally demanded.
Their 1959 Rambler Six wagon, bought used to replace a 1953 Studebaker Champion Starlight with a stick shift, had an automatic transmission. Power steering came with the 1965 Chevrolet Bel Air wagon that replaced the Rambler. Power brakes came with the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 Holiday sedan that was bought in mint condition when a neighbor traded it in 1972. Air conditioning finally came with a 1973 AMC Gremlin.
By the time they bought their 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale hardtop sedan, the big new feature was…an AM/FM stereo with a power antenna.
I will echo what others have said and say your writing gives you the feeling of being there JPC. Jason’s does too and that’s maybe why I used to confuse you guys. There are plenty of places on the internet to read about old cars but none with the quality of writing you find here.
Not sure there was ever a more transforming feature than power steering. You can get used to starting a car with a carb, manual brakes and even manual shifting but heavy steering is a buzzkill. Never heard anyone describe an old Cadillac as “truck-like” even though the full frame and live rear axle are the very definition of truck. But I have referred to small unibody cars as truck-like from their heavy steering. Makes them so much work around town and work is never fun.
Love your Galaxie Jason and wouldn’t change a thing except to look into the musty smell. Not because it’s off-putting but because there could be a water leak that is causing metal to rot somewhere.
calibrick wrote: “Not sure there was ever a more transforming feature than power steering. You can get used to starting a car with a carb, manual brakes and even manual shifting but heavy steering is a abuzz kill.”
I’ve driven everything with power steering, from a 1971
Chevelle to a 2016 Versa Note. And the steering on them
has been *anything* but “heavy”.
“Never heard anyone describe an old Cadillac as “truck-like” even though the full frame and live rear axle are the very definition of truck. But I have referred to many small unibody cars as truck-like from their heavy steering. Makes them so much work around town.”
I would looooove to know just what small cars you
have driven that had “truck-like” steering. Please list:
year, make, & model. My last car was just totaled
in a crash last week and I might be interested
in something on that list. 😉
Before giving you examples let me say that I am very picky about steering assist and feel which started back when I would steer the car from the passenger seat as a kid whenever someone would let me.
The worst car ever for that was Mom’s ’65 Sedan Deville which was a hand me down from granddad. It was over-assisted, vague and had that skinny steering wheel to make things, I dunno, even more frightening.
My uncle had a ’70 Maverick with manual steering and that car was a joy to steer because, compared to the Cadillac, I always felt in control. Then the same uncle got a Mustang II V6 with PS and that was better still, easy to control and less work than the Mav.
The chorus of light steering = bad, heavy steering = sporty, which was beat into us by the car magazines, did the industry a real disservice in my opinion. Ever drive a first gen BMW X5? Ridiculously heavy power steering. Maybe they were worried about rollover with anything lighter but more likely than not they were trying to make a “sporty” SUV.
I mean who takes the stairs if there is a working escalator right next to them? No one.
The small, sporty car that I’ve talked too much about hating is the ’78 Datsun 280Z that I owned in the mid-80s. The main reason I hated it was the heavy non-assisted steering which made it feel like a truck.
I’ve never driven a truck with manual steering so what would make me think and say that? The term came from my dad who used it during a test drive of a ’70 BMW 2500 with manual steering. There is your second example.
A friend of Dad’s had a big-block ’65 Stingray which he converted to power steering because before that, you guessed it, it drove like a truck. There is example #3.
Nothing beats a well-executed power steering system for easy of use and fun. Not needing to work so hard adds to the fun in my book. Best PS of all time has to be the ’96 Audi A4. Delightfully light yet crisp and responsive. It was rare in that it married low effort (high assist) with a quick steering gear.
The steering in my ’86 Fleetwood Brougham is pretty outstanding too and a far, far cry from what it was like on Mom’s ’65 SDV. Barko and LTDan made some excellent comments about steering above.
Not sure what your budget is but from the sound of it you would be very happy with the manual steering on a Z-car, C2 Corvette or pre-Bavaria BMW E3. They are all small and have buzzkill steering.
calibrick wrote: “Ever drive a first gen BMW X5? Ridiculously heavy power steering. ”
Aaah, I think it’s how you’re phrasing it.
Power steering, by itself, does not make
anything ‘heavier’. In fact, add it to anything,
and steering will become lighter. By how
much is determined by the amount of boost
the specific vehicle’s unit provides. In
conventional systems, this is in hydraulic
pressure PSI. In electric, I suppose it’s
watts. Someone else here can elaborate on
those details.
Another factor determining the ‘heft’ or lightness/
numbness of power steering is the degree of
basic alignment parameters(Caster, Camber,
Toe, SAI(kingpin angle) etc.) Especially Caster
and SAI angles(the stability numbers) Build
enough of those into the vehicle, and it will
always feel heavy, depending on steering ratio.
I just looked up BMW alignment specs, and
typical caster for late 1990s early 2000s models
is between 6-7degrees positive. The most
caster I’ve ever driven is 3.75deg, the nominal
specified for my 2008 Kia Optima. And that
felt ‘heavy’ to me compared to my previous
rides.
My current rental, a 2016 Nissan Versa,
actually nails it as far as electric goes:
hyper-boosted in parking situations and under
20mph, and progressively less assist(heavier
FEEL) above 20 and up. It’s still lighter than
I’d like, but still relatively fun to drive. It does
say variable assist in the brochure. I will
definitely be test driving larger Nissans and
more recent Optimas to see how it is on
them.
6-7 degrees of caster is huge, never saw a factory setting that large. I took my Caddy Brougham up to around 5 with its last realignment and that gave the steering a more secure feel on the highway with very little increase in effort at parking lot speeds. My experience with caster is that it can help lighten or heavy up steering but not by that much.
It has more to do with valving in the system than anything. Our local steering guru said I could add a valve of some sort to my Brougham to give it Pontiac Trans Am level heft. I was thinking of going for a little less assist and a quicker steering gear but decided the car was perfect as it was.
I like a good variable-assist power steering system like TOPS (twin orifice power steering) on older Nissan products. It worked well but must have cost quite a bit extra because you only saw it on higher end models.
It was a vehicle speed sensitive system. There was a more simple type back then called engine speed sensitive which was primitive. I’m guessing on the highway the car knew the engine was turning over slowly and made the steering heavy? But wouldn’t the RPMs also be low at most parking lot speeds?
calibrick wrote: “6-7 degrees of caster is huge, never saw a factory setting that large. I took my Caddy Brougham up to around 5 with its last realignment and that gave the steering a more secure feel on the highway with very little increase in effort at parking lot speeds. My experience with caster is that it can help lighten or heavy up steering but not by that much.”
Huge? To us Americans maybe. Remember, we’re
talking folks who like to drive, not do it just because
they must. Another factor is these W I D E R tires
as stock equipt. nowadays. Take a narrow 70- series
tire and a fat 50-series, given the exact same alignment
settings, the narrower package will feel tighter/heavier
behind the wheel every time – Just one more item
to consider.
“It has more to do with valving in the system than anything. Our local steering guru said I could add a valve of some sort to my Brougham to give it Pontiac Trans Am level heft. I was thinking of going for a little less assist and a quicker steering gear but decided the car was perfect as it was.”
Yeah, Heidt makes a pressure relieving valve
that can be installed on most conventional
steering systems no later than the ’80s, but,
the mechanic on line I asked about it said,
better to see if caster shims are available for
my late model.
“I like a good variable-assist power steering system like TOPS (twin orifice power steering) on older Nissan products. It worked well but must have cost quite a bit extra because you only saw it on higher end models.
It was a vehicle speed sensitive system. There was a more simple type back then called engine speed sensitive which was primitive. I’m guessing on the highway the car knew the engine was turning over slowly and made the steering heavy? But wouldn’t the RPMs also be low at most parking lot speeds?”
That second system, as you described it, sounds
like a disaster! lol. Better to have it tied into the
speedometer than into engine RPM.
“I mean who takes the stairs if there is a working escalator right next to them? No one. ”
.
Speak for your self ~ I may be old, fat and crippled but I’ll go down fighting it .
.
I also make a full stop _every_time_ even when I’m in the middle of the desert and clearly can see NO ONE for 50 miles .
.
I *always* use those damn turn signals too because that’s part of being a better driver: all these little things become automatic .
.
-Nate
Nate wrote: “I *always* use those damn turn signals too because that’s part of being a better driver: all these little things become automatic .”
Tell that to all of the light truck drivers(vans, pickups) and patrol officers in my area that NEVER touch a blinker! smh
Nearly clipped a squad car I was following some years ago that slowed down suddenly and whirled off on to a side street. No turn indication! Models for society?
That’s a fair cop ~ I’m always hassling patrol Cops when they do stupid shit like run red lights, fail to signal , speed to the doughnut shop etc., etc….
.
I roll up on the and ask ” how the hell am I supposed to get my Foster Boys to obey the laws when you’re jerking off like this ?! ” .
.
It doesn’t win me any brownie points but fully _half_ the time they look sheepish and say ‘ sorry ‘ .
.
-Nate
Thanks for a great read! I’m just a few years too young to have spent much time behind the wheel of this kind of car, but spent plenty of time in the back seat … or “way back” if it were a wagon. No belts, of course. I don’t think I’ve driven three-on-the-tree since the F100 work truck I drove every day in the summer of 1975. Six cylinder, no P/S, but a dual master cylinder which saved me when the front brakes failed on a downhill dirt road. Fortunately the truck bed was so heavily loaded that I got decent rear wheel braking even with the grade, plus I was in first gear. I can’t say I’d like to own a 3 speed column shift vehicle, but I can still recall the feeling of sweeping that long lever through nearly 90 degrees from 2nd to third. Your hands certainly stayed busy; I guess that’s why the headlight dimmers were on the floor.
JPC, I’ve no idea how I missed your DriveReport originally. Really brought me back to some good memories of my own Gal and other old cars I’ve driven (how the HELL did full-size cars get away with no PS? I’ve driven a 66 Chevelle with manual steering and I think my shoulder is still put out from it). Nice work and glad to see it up as a Best Of. -m
JP, is the ’67 convertible with the “JPC” front license plate yours? If so, any write ups on it? It looks awesome and I’d love to hear its story.
Indeed it was. Here’s some information about it and another ’67 Ford.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1967-ltd-the-forgotten-ford/
Yes, my very first car. I really do need to start my own COAL series.
I had two 63 galaxies. they were my first cars-at 25. and in the early 80s, they were nearly the same age as i was. we had a 63 wagon growing up and my dad was a ford guy, and a packrat. still had the hulk in the backyard. figured a decent looking daily driver at $800 would be a good car to learn on and it would likely need work i could do with my dad’s help. first one was a beige/beige 4d hardtop. 3 spd column std. with non power steering and non power brakes. am radio and clock, too. vintage lap belts that worked like vintage airline belts. wasn’t till i bought the 2nd one for a “winter car” to protect the 4d from salt that i learned how varied these were from car to car. the 2nd was a 2d automatic with power steering. and immetiately you did notice that the steering wheel had a 1.5-2 in. smaller diameter. also quickly realized that the manual steering car was often easier to parallel park. sure the PS made it easy to palm the thing, but when you were using significant arm power with non power steer, you FOCUSED, and got the turns correct the first time. a zen experience.
the winter car had a weird issue when I bought it. auto trans was behaving weird took to 55mph to shift into 3rd.. after trying all sorts of peripheral work, dad realized the thing was behaving as if it was downshifted all the time. a look at the downshift linkage and some lube . presto, a relaxed shift to hi at 30. his storehouse of spares came in handy, too. starter bendix started to misbehave. he had a rebuilt starter, never installed . sitting on the basement steps for a decade. my problem quickly solved. same with a heater core replacement. good cars to learn on, and an active driving experience. a machine you operate, not a appliance you point down the road. thirsty, tho.
Aaron ;
I have plenty of pix on the ’59 DeLuxe Beetle but here is not the place I shouldn’t think …..I don’t have a blog thing but I’ve been writing service notes W/ photos as I go along ’cause many of the Fellas like to read about my works and driving fun .
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Every time I come back here to read a new comment I am reminded of my ’62 Ford Ranch Wagon with manual everything, the spokes of the steering wheel blurring as they wound back to center after a sharp corner when I stamped on the throttle, my girl friend yowling in the passenger’s eat .
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-Nate