Text by Patrick Bell.
Ford had a good decade in the 1960’s with a few hits that changed the automotive world. Today, we have a good gallery of sixties Fords you would’ve seen everyday, so let’s move forward with this collection of images from the 1960s-1970s.
We open with a sharp, new looking 1964 Fairlane 500 2 door sedan with curb feelers to keep those tires damage free. But, looking at the front tire, apparently they did not work too well. The 2 door hardtop models sold better in spite of their $150 premium. It also was equipped with the 260 cubic inch V8 and full wheel covers. In the driveway on the right edge was the left front of a 1964 Rambler Classic 770.
Here was a 1960 Galaxie Town Victoria, a top of the line 4 door hardtop model that was showing the new restyle for the new decade. The Galaxie 4 door sedan was over 2.5 times more popular that year, with a base price difference of just $72. Five engines and four transmissions were available, so a little something for everyone.
The compact Falcon was the big news for 1960, and was a big seller. But that was at the expense of full size sales, as total sales for 1960 were slightly less than the 1959 figures.
Shown above was a 1963 Falcon Deluxe 4 door sedan in a 1963 image, which was in its last year of the original style. A convertible model was new for the year, and mid year a V8 became available to supplement the two available six cylinders.
A 1962 Galaxie 500/XL Sunliner was enjoying some sun in an older neighborhood. The XL model was introduced in mid year, and was also available in a 2 door hardtop. They were following the sporty trend with a bucket seat and a console interior. This one appeared to have a New Hampshire license plate, and looked good in that color combination.
A lady and a girl were out on a cool day with a 1963 Fairlane 500 2 door hardtop with possibly an Ohio license plate. Another hardtop model was offered; it was called the Sports Coupe and had the bucket seat interior. The one shown was on the plain side, with a 6 cylinder engine and standard hub caps, but they did pop for the whitewalls.
It looked like a good day for fishing, with at least one person at the water’s edge and a small boat out there as well. The family wagon was a 1963 Country Sedan that was optioned with one of the big block engines. The Country Sedan was in the wagon stable for many years, and was a favorite much of that time. To the right was a 1964 Custom or Custom 500.
Here was the most popular single Ford of 1963, a Galaxie 500 4 door sedan. Over 205,000 found new homes that year. There was no engine call out on the fender, so it was most likely equipped with either the 260 ci or 289 V8’s. Otherwise it was typically optioned with full wheel covers, and had a New York license plate used from 1966-1972.
A two Ford family lived here, with a 1961 F-100 Styleside short bed on the left, and to the right a 1964 Fairlane 500 4 door sedan. This was the first year of the restyled F-series with the unitized cab and bed. The hood emblem indicates it had the 223 ci Six for power, and otherwise was a basic truck in a bright color so it wouldn’t get lost in a potato field. The Fairlane had one of the optional V8’s, and standard hub caps to highlight the whitewalls. It looked close to new, and both of them had sequential 1964 Idaho license plates issued in Bonneville County, where the seat is Idaho Falls. On the left edge was a 1963 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe.
This clean 1964 Galaxie 500 4 door sedan was in great condition for a car that was at least seven years old. It had a Maryland license plate that was used from 1970-1975, and had a military base decal on the bumper. A white 1971 or 1972 full size Ford was in the background to the right of the windshield. And this one was another typically equipped unit, likely with the Challenger 289 V8 for power. Perhaps someone will recognize the mountain in the background.
And the all new full size Ford for 1965. This one was a Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop, and was another one that most likely had the Challenger 289 V8, along with standard hub caps. The big news for the year was the LTD model, along with its advertising that compared its ride to a Rolls-Royce.
Here was another 1965 Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop, and this one had a few more options. You can barely see the engine emblem on the lower fender behind the wheel, which meant one of the big block engines for power. And it had a vinyl roof to go along with what appeared to be a 1968 Ohio license plate. In the garage was a 1967 Buick Skylark with a Michigan license plate issued in Oakland County where the seat is Pontiac.
The full size line had a facelift for the 1967 model year, and this Galaxie 500 4 door hardtop showed it well. It was well optioned with one of the 390 ci Thunderbird V8’s, tinted windshield, remote control mirror, full wheel covers, plus it had a New York license plate. Another one (or perhaps a LTD) in red was parked against the building, and between them was a 1960 Cadillac. And parked to the left was a 6 cylinder powered 1955 Chevrolet Two-Ten 2 door sedan.
Another New York car here, a 1968 Mustang Hardtop. It apparently was purchased at Kenmore Motor Company, and the only option I see were the wheel covers. Sales had dropped since the early years due to more competition, but were still very respectable with nearly 250,000 hardtops sold that year. In the background appears to be a 1961 Oldsmobile.
Now we are viewing a 1968 LTD Country Squire from California that was playing in the snow. This was the year the Squire overtook the Country Sedan as the most popular Ford wagon, and it held that title until 1973, when it was overtaken by the Pinto wagon. It had a luggage rack, tinted windshield, remote control mirror, deluxe wheel covers, and droopy headlight doors.
A man was looking over his shoulder at the photographer probably wondering what he was doing. He was behind the wheel of a 1969 XL SportsRoof with a vinyl roof and a Missouri license plate. The XL’s best years were 1963 and 1964, but after that they dropped off. That is until 1968 when it and the LTD received the new hidden headlamp front end treatment. Sales rebounded somewhat, but soon fizzled out again, and 1970 was their last year.
To the right was a newish looking 1973-1975 International Scout with Deluxe Exterior, white vinyl side panels, and a load on top.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Nice collection of Fords. In photo 11, with the 1965 Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop, shows a driveway that tapers as you get farther from the garage. The builder saved almost nothing on cement but every homeowner ended up with either tire tracks on the lawn or mismatched extra cement added to one or both sides. A driveway should widen as it nears the street! Sorry about the blast on a pet peeve but this rarely shows up in anything but an arial shot. Nice Galaxie though.
My first house had a driveway like that, except it was a double carport then a one car gateway at the front, inexperienced backers ended up on the grass or nearly hitting the front left corner of the car on a post.
This is “peak Ford” for me–the years when I studied the brochures and knew all the options, drivetrain combinations…and maybe even the color names. Thanks for some great time-travel today!
The picture of the 1964 Galaxie from Maryland looks like it was taken at Mt. Rainier National Park (which looks a bit different than the city of Mt. Rainier in Maryland!). It was taken in the parking lot of the Paradise Visitor Center – now named the Jackson Visitor Center.
The only Google StreetView available of this location was unfortunately taken on a cloudy day, so the mountain isn’t visible, but from other photos, the mountain’s characteristics as visible from the Visitor Center match the vintage shot. And the outcrop in the foreground matches too.
Then-and-now comparison and StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RdG7YHqPtwqQrdN7A
To follow up on that Maryland Ford (a Galaxie far, far, away….) IIRC, that license plate is sporting a sticker with red characters on a white background (perhaps a look at the tags to come!) that was issued as the expiration for 1975 (and back then, it was always 3-31 of the year, so 1974 is likely, with 1975 at the absolute latest.
“a Galaxie far, far, away” Good one, there!
Good catch on the license plate sticker. Looks like it was ’74 that had the red-on-white stickers. 1972 did too, but I’m not sure that Maryland got up to K-series registrations by ’72, since the white-on-blue plates started at AA for 1971. (Not really sure about that, but my guess it that it’s a 74 sticker)
Either way, that’s an impressive road trip for a 10-year old car.
You got me!!! I should’ve gone to Rick’s Plates for verification of my flawed memory!
Good eye on the “K” series, which would have been later in the game. My Dad’s ’68 Chevy Impala sported “CK-7008” which he would have had since the tags switched over from the previous white with blue letters (that number I forget, sadly). To get all the way to “C” on the initial replating makes sense. K on the other hand would have come a couple of years later I agree.
Thanks Eric!
I just checked Rick’s Plates, and he says that 1972 Maryland plates went up to the L series, so it might have been a ’72. I guess they blasted through the first half of the alphabet in 1971 since the whole state got new plates that year.
I noticed that too, Eric. I also recall this, and it makes sense now. Maryland likely underestimated how quickly two letters and 4 numbers, by then an annual tradition, would run out stretched over multiple years when the 1970-1971 replating occurred. When we went to the white with red letter plates in 1975, we went to a 3 letter and 3 number format allowing for more combinations.
If they were military, car could have “MD”, plates and may never have been to “MD”. Used to work with a lady whose husband was active duty.
They always had “OR”, plates. Hadn’t been there is over eight years when I knew her.
I was going to say that looks like Mt Rainer, but the license plate had me second guessing myself, since it was from so far away.
Trust me, NONE of the mountains in Maryland look like that! LOL.
That “full wheel covers” on the beautiful black 1963 Galaxie had me fooled for a minute until I did a little Googlin’. I could have sworn they were 1963 or 1964 Bel Air or Impala wheel covers. See the picture below.
Of course, the last car (The ’69 XL is a favorite of mine, BTW) has its own Chevy aping wheel covers. They look a lot like the (I called them Volcano Hub Caps as a kid) wheel covers my dad had on his 1966 Impala.
The 1969 XL from Missouri has a dealership badge from Wilkerson Ford in Ash Grove, which is about 20 mi. northwest of Springfield. Ash Grove has a current population of about 1,500 people, so a small place for a new car dealership, but Wilkerson operated there from the 1920s until 2002. A new owner took over for a few years (renamed it Village Ford), but closed shortly afterwards.
It’s been mentioned before, but how could Ford style the handsome ’64 Fairlane and then proceed to make it dumpy in ’65. Change for the sake of change.
lol That “65”, anomaly was always a curiosity. One was an older man’s daily driver where I grew up, He was still using it round “75ish”. Was faded, but surprisingly in “ok” shape.
Kind a gold, color/ brown, inside, if memory is firing today.
I believe he worked for a printing company that I now forget the name of.
I owned a ’62 Fairlane 500 coupe for the first two years I went to college. I commuted 20 miles one way. It was a real nice dark blue. A year later my brother who attended the same school, bought a ’65 Fairlane 500 coupe in a similar dark blue. It was a V8 and mine was a six. Mine shined really well but his, although only 2 years old, had kind of a dull finish. His served him well all 4 years until he graduated and traded it in on a new ’72 Maverick with V8 and optional floor shifted 3 speed manual. I traded mine in on a ’64 Galaxie after 2 years because I got tired of blowing up the weak 170. The Galaxie turned out to be the worse car I have ever owned. Anyway, my brother and I were always amused at the fact that people thought we shared a blue Fairlane or couldn’t tell them apart. It, of course was obvious to us and our friends. Mine was better looking but his was a better car.
Good point. I was so thankful we didn’t get this one in Australia. We got the ’64, then the ‘locally-asembled 66. I was too young then to figure the hows and whys behind skipping ’65. Why reskin the car for one year? Makes no sense, and even less when it’s ugly.
The Corinthian White ’63 Country Sedan is a clone to my folks car ’63 to ’70, then it became my first car in college. I’ve posted it here a couple of times, including hauling our MFG boat. The boat anchor (352 V8! lol) hauled that boat 500 miles for the family every summer from MD to VT for our vacation and later got a lot of abuse from me but it never missed a beat. Only thing I ever had to do to it, besides tires (remember recaps? Hey I was a poor college student!) was replace the transmission vacuum modulator, about $30 iirc.
The ’62 rag top gets my vote .
BTW : those windshields are “shaded” not “tinted” as tinted is the entire glass area .
-Nate
Thanks, Nate. I always enjoy your comments.
I do understand the difference between shaded and tinted windshields, as I was in the collision repair business for many years. The reason I called tinted is because that is what Ford called it, as seen below in a Fairlane brochure.
My mom had a 63 Fairlaine 500 Sports Coupe in Wimbledon White with a red interior. It had a 260 V-8, auto, and power steering. My dad was relegated to driving the penalty box stripper Falcon station wagon with a three-on-the-tree. I don’t remember all the details of that vehicle, but there was a hill and he always threw the clutch in and free-wheeled it down the street. Big thrills for a 5 year old! Poor guy was forced into trading in a 1950’s drop top British sports car because I came along. After that, he always drove the older vehicles. Good memories.
The 1960 Galaxie, with that unique grille and the gold accents, just stands out. Of course I love the 63-64 Fords and Mercs the best (and the 65 falcon, just a fan of side by side headlights), but I occasionally search for one for sale.