Mark Dixon bids farewell to his Galaxie

1963 ford galaxie country sedan

If you’ve been wondering why you’ve not seen anything of the Galaxie in these pages for a while, it’s because, in a moment of weakness, I sold it last summer. But I held off from ’fessing up in the hope that the new owner would let me have a drive, once he’d got it UK-registered and properly sorted. And early in 2018, the call finally came through.

I was very pleased that the Galaxie’s new owner, Robert Haynes Brown, totally ‘got’ my idea of a rat-rod approach and proceeded to do just what I had been planning. That is, to leave the body untouched other than preserving it with Owatrol Oil, have the wheels refinished in gloss black and secured with stainless nuts, and cover the tatty seats in Mexican blankets. Otherwise, all the car needed was a good mechanical going-through. How easily those words trip off the tongue.

Very wisely, Robert decided to hand the car to professionals for this work to be done. Ashridge Automobiles, based near Aylesbury in Bucks, is probably best-known for the restoration of pre-war Rileys, but they have a flair for hot rods, too, and they relished the challenge of the Galaxie. ‘We could have sold that car ten times over,’ enthuses Ashridge’s Phil D’Archambaud. ‘Everyone who saw it just went “Wow!”

‘There was nothing majorly wrong with it,’ he continues. ‘We ended up doing a fair bit to the engine because the rocker oil feeds were clogged up, and one cam lobe had been damaged. The carb was also flooding because an O-ring on a float chamber valve had dried out and contracted; and the rear crank main seal was leaking. But it was nothing too serious and the engine is now silky smooth.’

Meanwhile, Eddie Fisher worked on the electrics, swapping out incorrect bulbs and fitting some nifty LED conversions for the Galaxie’s distinctive ‘rocket’ tail-lights. Available from Bright Light Customs, www.brightlightcustoms.co.uk, they suit the car, well, brilliantly.

Seeing the car again outside the Ashridge workshop was a bittersweet moment. Robert met me there ahead of driving it home to Kent, and very kindly suggested I take the wheel first.

The Galaxie is a mobile cliché of how you’d expect a ’60s American car to drive. Light and feel-less power steering, punchy V8, marshmallow suspension and lazy slushbox – it has it all. But what a piece of rolling sculpture! Robert emailed me later to say that his three-hour journey around the M25 was brightened by some approving horn-toots and thumbs-up from fellow sufferers.

For me, the withdrawal pangs have been severe. So much so, that I’m already hatching a plan to alleviate them. More on that next month.