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This '64 Galaxie 500 XL had an original scheduled build date of March 24, 1964 at the Pico Rivera, California assembly plant. The car was originally purchased by the Moffit family in Southern California and featured a special I.D. tag on the console power window delete plate that read: "This car was specially built for the Moffit's". It appeared to be a tag that the selling dealer would have installed. During the five month restoration of this car the original tag was destroyed so a new plate with our name was done in the same fashion.
In 1998 my parents wanted to get rid of their '95 Crown Victoria due to the high monthly payments so they decide they wanted an old car. I asked the two of them what kind of vehicle they wanted and they both agreed that they wanted a '63 Country Sedan like the one they had in the late 60's. I told them that the '63 Country Sedan would not be an easy find and asked them if there was another car they might be interested in. Again they both agreed on the same thing....a '63 1/2 or '64 Galaxie 500 XL. I then told them I now have something to work with.
The Galaxies seemed to be far and few for the one they wanted. My mother decided she needed power steering, power brakes, automatic, and air conditioning. My father on the other hand agreed but added his two cents worth saying he wanted a Vintage Burgundy car and had to be a 390 V-8. With this in mind I knew I was looking for a needle in a haystack. The only cars I was coming across were small block or many fake 427 cars. The one decent car I found was Pagoda Green with a black vinyl top that matched everything they wanted minus the color. Dad refused to buy a vinyl top car and passed on it.
A friend of a friend knew we had been searching for a Galaxie with certain options and contacted us about a parts car that he had for his '64 XL convertible. It had everything my parents wanted so we scheduled a time to see it. It had been sitting in Desert Hot Springs for 10 years in a field and basically burned the paint and helped in removing the original vinyl top. I thought that this was definitely going to be a dead end. We saw the car and in that 10 year time period the car was never started. The owner got the car started on the second try with putting fuel in the tank and carburetor and hooking it up to power. I was impressed as were my parents. The car was definitely a parts car...it looked good on three sides with nothing but surface rust here and there. The passenger side was creased in from about the door to the rear edge of the fender. It looked like it was going to be too much work. My parents fell for it and decided they wanted it so we picked it up about two months later.
We got it home and got it running decent to take on small outings and cruises. Then after about six months of ownership my dad started in on it. I helped out with everything sometimes doing some of it myself. We got it ready to send to the guy doing the body work and paint in his own garage. He loved to do dark colors and made the car turn out really nice. The paint issue came up...Vintage Burgundy never turns out looking right when re-painted for some reason. I have seen it come across in many shades of dark red to brown. I told dad to just match the color to something newer and don't do the metallic. This now allows us to easily repair the paint without trying to match the metallic. I asked about the original black vinyl top...go or no go. He of course said no so he decided to have the top painted Wimbledon white which makes for an excellent contrast to the burgundy. The original vinyl roof top bow on the rear crease was left in place which gives it the look of a convertible. The non-metallic color came out to match 1980 Volvo Maroon. It takes on several shades depending on the light but has helped this car win many, many trophies in the four plus years of showing the car. The restoration was finished in five months with us performing everything but chroming, seats, paint, and body work. We taught ourselves many things about restoration as this was the second car we have done with five others left to do.
Brian Lawler
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