I'm just getting started on my 1963 Ford Galaxie, The car will get a 575" Big Ford backed up with a 2 Speed trans with a trans brake. The rear rend will be a 9" with 4.56 gears and a spool. The car will be street driven with some track time. I am going for an early 60's Super Stock Look/Light weight clone kinda deal. Steel Wheels without hub caps. I will use fibergl*** Hood, Deck Lid, Bumpers, and Doors. This is where the car started, I drug it out of a body shop with the winch on my trailer. Those mustang wheels are too deep and were locked up on the front A-arms when the lug nuts were tightened so it had to be pulled all the way up onto the trailer dragging the front wheels. (I eventually figured out why it seemed so heavy.) Starting the tear down, I pulled everything apart and pressure washed all of it. I even lifted the car up with a large forklift and cleaned the under side. The cage showed up from S&W Race cars. It is a really nice 8.50 cage for the price, around $500 I think shipped to my house. Got the cage installed with one of the swing out bars done. Seat is pretty snug in there but it fits just fine. I brought the windshield bars through the dash and filled in around them with Silicon Bronze so that everything would be easy to shape. The dash is completely empty, The cluster is in the car with no guts in it, the radio face in in there also but the guts have been cut out of that also. Installed a dual master cylinder setup with a balance bar for the Wilwood disk brakes i will be using, the original brakes will be a bit sketchy with the power the 575 will make. Has anyone done a 460 swap into a 63 Galaxie? I found some mounts that might work or i may just use motor plates. I will post up more pictures as I move further along. Ill put up some pictures of the 575 my next trip to the machine shop.
I'll be watching this one. Going to be a cool car but with big motor, 2 speed trans, 4.56 gears and a spool, it's not going to be too streetable but it will be fun tearing around town! What size rear tires are you going to run? What suspension mods? Did Ford ever make a 2 speed or you going with a modified Powerglide? Going to run a bubble top hood? I'm doing my '63 in an NHRA Jr stocker style as well but won't be anywhere as radical as yours. With a 450HP 390, 4 speed (maybe a 5 speed conversion) and 4.10 gears, no cage and XL interior it will be more of a (sort of) fast cruiser.
Crites makes motor mounts, headers for that swap. Bit of a pain having to weld to the frame instead of floor plates to be legal. Looks good, I've got a 514 in the 57 in my avatar.
The 575 should be a good time, It is 13.7:1 with 810 lift on the intake and 805 on the exhaust. Yea its a pain cutting the floor out to weld to the frame but its all done correctly I want it to be as safe as can be. I am not a big fan of Crites mounts and the headers will not work for my motor, I will build my own fender exit headers in 2.25" primary tubes with a 4" collector.
I’ve done 2 big block swaps in 63-64 Galaxies. One I used with a C-6 and the other a toploader 4-Speed. Crites motor mounts, in my opinion are junk. I used them on the C-6 one, also had to move the transmission crossmember back 3”. On the 4-Speed I used later model 390 mounts and redrilled a hole or two in the mount. I think I have a pair of Crites mounts if you’re interested in them. I used FPA headers, on the 4-speed we had to rework the driver’s side to clear the clutch linkage. On the C-6 they fit fine.
Crites had an issue with one of their line items a few years back. It seems that their machinist quit and took the part drawing with him... Easy enough to make your own mounts anyway.
Here are some pick of the 575 mocked up in the car. I borrowed a block from a friend of mine. The cylinder heads are the Blue Thunder SCJ heads that I will be running along with the tall aluminum valve covers. The Milodon front dump oil pan fits exactly how it should and the TransDapt motor mounts are going to work perfectly. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Same oil pan as I have in my 57 Custom. It's like it was made for a 429-460 swap. Are you using an Eliminator or Ford racing block to get 575 cubes?
I love it. I remember when I was about 10, Dad had one. He got smashed and let us boys drive it around the campground in the snow for hours. No one else was around lol. We would back it into all the campgrounds looking for the deepest snow drifts. We would get it stuck, then we get out and push on it while the driver would hammer on it to get it unstuck. I learned to drive at a very young age. Dad was laying back at camp doing snow angels.
Drunken Snow Angel ! Ha ha , I have been there myself a few times years ago . Snowed to heavily to get home from work on the old hand jammer . “ I’m just goin into the local beer joint for a beer and look for a ride .” Well next thing I knew , I fell on my azz in the snow and maybe it was closer to a beached whale instead of a snow angel , I just don’t recall anymore . Great story to recall memories , next day after 10 hours on the air hammer , snow was cleared enough , that the old dude lit on the 4th stroke and home I went , head swelled up the size of a TV set , but boy was that fun ! Amazes me how some of us made through , life as we call it .
The Jalopy Journal
