1968 Ford Galaxie 500 Convertible

390 V-8 Automatic Transmission Power Disc Brakes Power Steering Power Top Factory Original Color:  Lite Green           Black Interior Factory Top Color:  White

This is the car as I bought it.  This was my "first car".  I paid $250 for it.  It was wrecked in the front and hadn't been driven for 2 years.  I had the car towed home on a wrecker truck.  All it took was a new set of points to get it running.

In the picture above is the good side.  The driver's fender, hood, grill, headlites and other front hardware was missing when I bought this car, so I had to go search the junkyard for these pieces.  The car was also FULL OF BONDO, but when you are 15 and you are dreaming of nights cruising in a convertible, who cares if it is full of bondo and doesn't run....it was only $250, which was my life savings at the time.  You can actually see how wavy the bodno is in the picture above.  There were holes large enough for a basketball to go through!!  Well, time to get to work.......

Well, I quickly got a job flippin burgers and this is what I did with my money.  I actually had a body shop paint this car for $500 and I bought the paint.

I spent $100 for the wheels, had a new top put on, and my generous Dad sprung for the new tires (actually, I think he was scared I would drive around on those old baldies!!).  The above picture was taken my Senior year of high school on Daytona Beach, Florida.  Two friends and I DROVE the car there!!  We left at 8 o'clock on a Wednesday nite and we were there by Noon the next day.  I had never done anything to the drivetrain except for the set of points and a new timing chain since I had bought the car 3 years earlier. I never drove the car in the winter.  The paint job looked really nice, and it lasted for 13 years until I sold the car in 1995.  Even today, the same paint job is still on the car.  The body shop was able to smooth out what bondo was there...and add more...and it still holds up today.  That was the best $500 paint job I ever had!! Over the 13 years I owned the car, the car was featured in many parades and car shows.  I added a factory 4 barrel and intake, a cassette player, rebuilt the transmission, had the seats recovered along with new carpet, and switched to the original wheels and factory style hubcaps. I had serious thoughts of restoring the car, but that would have required new quarter panels, and new NOS chrome, grill, tail-lights, etc.  It also had some rust in the floorboards, so that would have required pulling the car off the frame.  Basically a frame-off restoration.  We were talking BIG BUCKS!!  I decided it would be way cheaper to restore a car in better condition.  It was then that I decided to find another Ford Maverick. Below you can see what it looked like when I sold the car in 1995 to help pay for the restoration of my 1970 Ford Maverick Grabber that I bought.

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