January 2009
Cousin, John Lambert called to say there was a '59 Galaxie for sale in Royal Oak.
Robin & I drove only three miles to see it.  She fell in love with it right away so I
bought it for her..

The only drawback is, the car is a three-speed stick (on the column).  Robin likes
automatics.

First off, I have NO business buying this car.  I'm in the middle of my '55 Customline
project, I don't have a place to store it, and snow is ready to fly.  Johnny kindly
offered space in hishorse barn for the winter. He's an hour north by expressway.
This '59 Galaxie drives nicely at 70-mph and it looks gorgeous.  I even splurged
on a new battery.

Two weeks after purchasing the car, I found a man on eBay, parting-out his '59
Galaxie.  His was an AUTOMATIC!  Within a few minutes, I bought his 292
Y-Block engine, his Cruise-o-matic, brake pedal support, steering column,
driveshaft, all the linkage, and the shift indicator.  He threw in a "Town and
Country" wonder-bar radio.  Everything was, "sight unseen."

Finally, two pallets arrived by truck from Massachusetts.
Time for me to go to work, but it's still winter in Michigan and I don't have a
heated garage.  In the mean time, I can amass more goodies:
New 7" two-stage diaphragm power brake booster with a dual master cylinder,
'Swift-Sure' brake pedal, front power disk brake conversion kit, hefty front &
rear sway bars, & rack and pinion gear.

I am rebuilding the 'new' 292 and tranny to drop in as a complete unit, just after
the August,Woodward Dream Cruise is over.  It should take about a few days to
pull the old & install the new.

Soon as the weather breaks, it's 'Engine Tear-Down' and 'Clean-up' time.

July 2009
The weather is nice now, and these are the improvements so far:
*  New electric interval wipers (the original Trico vacuum motor didn't work),
*  New front disk brakes,
*  New dual master cylinder and two-stage 7" power booster (now we have
power disk brakes with new brake lines plumbed-in.  I used my old Mustang
proportioning valve and a ten pound residual valve for the rear shoe brakes).
*  New radial tires, on new Cragar S/S (15" X 7" w/4" back spacing) wheels
(to clear the calipers).
*  New trunk and quarter panel script ('Fairlane' on the trunk, and 'Galaxie'
on each quarter).
*  I also added a trunk light.

I bought new turquoise carpeting w/matching mats, but I have floor metal to
replace first.  The new engine and transmission will be installed soon.