Ford Galaxie - spray time: Our shed

Date: 15.11.2011

Spray time for the Galaxie

Spray time for the Galaxie

Spray time for the Galaxie

Spray time for the Galaxie

Ponch's aircraft carrier missed out on his holiday, but got a spray job instead

Staff cars: Spray time for the Gal

Ford Galaxie

So, as you can tell by what you see before you, my three-week break didn’t quite go according to plan.

The idea was take the ’63 Galaxie up to Sydney to meet my mates and then to Newcastle to visit my folks, but as D-day grew closer, I knew there was no point rushing what is such a big job on such a sizeable beast.

As it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise. I scored a Hazard Yellow SV6 Commodore Ute with air-con, cruise and an iPod thingy, and with a tray loaded with holiday crap, I cranked tunes and sang my head off for eight hours and that was that. Chilled, relieved, content.

Back in Melbourne, the Gal saga continued. Miles Johnson, acclaimed acrylic spary-painting legend, decided to remove the bumpers and just about every piece of body chrome and respray the whole bloody car. Along the way, being the perfectionist that he is, he couldn’t help but file out every dent he discovered too, which is actually fine by me!

As I write this, the Gal’s turret has been painted and clear-coated and the rest will be completed over the next week, boiling-hot weather notwithstanding (the paint has been drying mid-air). And what I’ll end up with is near show-quality paint on my survivor. Thank Christ it’s Corinthian White, not black!

The Koni shocks and blood-red seatbelts I bought a few months back are all in, waiting to be road-tested, but the wheel choice has changed again – this time to 16x8-inch Superlites, which isn’t an off-the-shelf size, apparently.

But we’ve sourced a set of substitute rims to borrow for the Hanging Rock show, just in case. One little cyclone and my 16s might be at the bottom of the ocean.

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