Barn finds are all the rage, so I thought I would share. This is the story of a 1965 Galaxie 500 convertible. Actually a garage find. Pretty typical story, with a twist or two along the way. Warning: this is going to be long.
This is the outside of a suburban garage in central CT. Pretty standard house for my area, usually housing some kind of family hauler SUV. You wouldn’t know there was a cool car in here.
We car folks often wonder how a classic car ends up neglected for years. Did the owner die? Is it a victim of an overly ambitious restoration project? Is it one of those “I’m going to restore it some day” stories? Maybe the owner watched too many TV auctions and thinks it is worth a fortune? Whatever the cause, it’s heartbreaking to think of such a car sitting neglected for years. At least this one was inside, protected from the elements.
As it turns out, this Galaxie fell victim to a variety of distractions. A fairly simple mechanical problem took it off the road. Then the owner was busy raising kids, and coaching their sports like soccer, softball, baseball, and basketball. A demanding job required long hours and a lot of travel. Then came time caring for elderly parents and in-laws. Next thing you know, eight years have gone by in the blink of an eye. And the classic car has become a storage shelf.
By now you’re thinking, “let’s see the car already!” Here is the Galaxie as found in late 2018. Sorry for the blurry photo - I must have dropped my camera one too many times. This poor classic was left neglected behind a variety of tools, toys, etc. Even worse, it was buried under a bunch of boxes and other garbage.
So, how did I find this car? Was it during my daily search of the local Craigslist? Ebay? Local swap meet? Tip from another car guy? None of that. I simply walked out the back door of my house. You see, that suburban garage is mine, and I’ve had this Galaxie since 2007.
My car has been in that spot since 2010, when the water pump went bad. I could have spent $60 and a couple of hours to replace the pump. But I guess I thought that was too easy. In future posts, I’ll show the detail of what I did instead. Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those dead end project threads that stops part way. This project is actually done and I’ll post a bunch of photos I took along the way. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting.
- John
This is the outside of a suburban garage in central CT. Pretty standard house for my area, usually housing some kind of family hauler SUV. You wouldn’t know there was a cool car in here.
We car folks often wonder how a classic car ends up neglected for years. Did the owner die? Is it a victim of an overly ambitious restoration project? Is it one of those “I’m going to restore it some day” stories? Maybe the owner watched too many TV auctions and thinks it is worth a fortune? Whatever the cause, it’s heartbreaking to think of such a car sitting neglected for years. At least this one was inside, protected from the elements.
As it turns out, this Galaxie fell victim to a variety of distractions. A fairly simple mechanical problem took it off the road. Then the owner was busy raising kids, and coaching their sports like soccer, softball, baseball, and basketball. A demanding job required long hours and a lot of travel. Then came time caring for elderly parents and in-laws. Next thing you know, eight years have gone by in the blink of an eye. And the classic car has become a storage shelf.
By now you’re thinking, “let’s see the car already!” Here is the Galaxie as found in late 2018. Sorry for the blurry photo - I must have dropped my camera one too many times. This poor classic was left neglected behind a variety of tools, toys, etc. Even worse, it was buried under a bunch of boxes and other garbage.
So, how did I find this car? Was it during my daily search of the local Craigslist? Ebay? Local swap meet? Tip from another car guy? None of that. I simply walked out the back door of my house. You see, that suburban garage is mine, and I’ve had this Galaxie since 2007.
My car has been in that spot since 2010, when the water pump went bad. I could have spent $60 and a couple of hours to replace the pump. But I guess I thought that was too easy. In future posts, I’ll show the detail of what I did instead. Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those dead end project threads that stops part way. This project is actually done and I’ll post a bunch of photos I took along the way. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting.
- John