Ford Galaxie brake upgrade: Our shed

Date: 25.10.2011

Galaxie brake upgrade

Can you really stop a Galaxie?

Staff Cars: Galaxie brake upgrade

Ford Galaxie

It’s been a month since our come-one, come-all Our Garage shoot, which means it’s also a month since I last drove my Galaxie. And not because I haven’t wanted to – especially on some of the beautiful days Melbourne has produced in between its usual cold misery.

The reason for all this is the brakes. The piffling drums that Ford thought acceptable in 1963 just aren’t my idea of how to restrain a 1750kg V8 sedan – not the way I usually drive anyway.

So Miles Johnson from Thunder Road in Keilor in Melbourne’s outer north-west – the bloke and the place where I sourced the Gal from – set about finding new ventilated front discs from a later-model Thunderbird, along with an appropriate power booster. Cue a comedy of errors.

The brakes were ready to rock weeks ago, but no one was sure whether the mounting bracket for the front calipers was the same for both a ’63 Galaxie and a ’65 Thunderbird. As Phil pointed out, "I’ll bet my left nut they’re the same", but not wanting to have his manhood damaged, we waited for the dude who did know to confirm one way or the other. And we waited...

Two weeks later, the word came back – "Yep, they’re the same". You bloody beauty! In the meantime, Miles sourced a larger brake booster/master cylinder than the first one he showed us and everything was set to go. Or stop, as it were. But the box of brake bits failed to include the hardware to attach everything. And so the waiting game continued...

Long story short, as we put this issue to bed, the Galaxie was on a hoist somewhere up in Romsey, 50 kays north of Melbourne, having just had its disc set-up installed. Purists might cringe at the loss of the old master cylinder the size of a tin of baked beans, but why celebrate something so crap?

Next step is decent-sized wheels and I’m thinking 15x8 steelies. Here’s hoping she’s all done soon.

Unique Cars magazine Value Guides

Sell your car for free right here

SUBSCRIBE TO UNIQUE CARS MAGAZINE
Get your monthly fix of news, reviews and stories on the greatest cars and minds in the automotive world.

Subscribe