1967 Country Squire code name (Doc)

I have never blogged before and I am 2 years behind on updating my project. But I figured I would start today as it’s better late than never.
The project at hand is my 1967 Country Squire. It is a full size Galaxie based wagon 390 2bbl car. Owned originally by a local Dr it is very well equipped factory Ac/Ps/pb/pw/pl/cruise control/8 track/roof rack/10 passenger. Burnt amber over saddle. Basically DR B’s 67 Squire twin. This car has an extremely well documented albeit troubled past. Purchased new in Flint Michigan the Doc traveled up around Md and to his new residence in Ks. An ARMY Medic just like myself he was stationed in Panama and traveled through Mexico with the car where it spent several years. This first installment will be of the day Doc and I met. I will post each day until we are all caught up, attempting to recall some setbacks and some wins along the way. And while it will still be some years before I’m behind the wheel I am not one to give up on a project. Again I am new to blogging and to creating threads and posts so bear with me, here’s a moment where your advice will be very helpful. I once saw a Galaxie from afar unawares of what year it was. I had to stop and ask the year. From that moment on I was in love with the 67, I mean would you just look at it! Found a good tag to use, an original Ks 1967 tag. Today we call it “Flexing” Cruise control switch broken. That’s gonna cost me yikes! Driver rear door damaged in storage, I found a NOS door skin on EBAY on day one. It was the first part ordered. L. Rear quarter rust R. Rear quarter see the spare tire well? Later it’ll do a magic trick. 8 track/Comfort and convenience panel I’ll close out today’s post with an image of Doc in 1968 taken upon arrival in Panama. I don’t think he was expecting this when the luggage rack was ordered. Lol. He said the trailer broke an axle and they were told it could not be left behind so on the roof it went.

 

The first car-top carrier! Who knew?

That sure has a lot of potential. Where I live, there is a collector yard in South San Antonio, and Leadslead, who bought a '66 Monterey Breezeway, as well as owns a '73 Colony Park, and myself have pulled a great many Unobtainium parts for both of those cars, and my '79 Ranchero. There are several '66 and '67 Galaxies in that yard (though no wagons for either Ford or Merc), so if you want, I can snoop for a CC switch. There's also a '66 with power windows and maybe locks. Let me know if you like for me to look for anything, but bear in mind, they're only open 3 hours a day for three days a week.

 

If you are out and stumble across a solid switch I could be game. Possible donors are most late 60’s FLM products. I believe this year a reproduction part has become available at west coast cougars with a hefty 500.00 cost. At the moment I am unsure of other parts I’ll need. But I’ll reach out for sure when the moment arises. Thank you for your kind words and input.

 

Today’s episode we’ll call it “I might have your keys”.

Lucky for me the roll back was able to drop the car right into my Garage as the car had no brakes and for some reason no parking gear. I pondered on how I was going to push it out into the drive without creating a run away wagon. My solution was to mount a winch to the head of my garage. This has served me well making the chore of moving this behemoth a one man job.

Next the kids and I power washed the car, ripped out the carpet,seats,headliner,glovebox, and anything else to ensure nothing was still living inside. We found the original build sheets and a maintenance log from the original owner soaked in urine. Disappointing but the original owner had a surprise for me just a few years away stay tuned! found a set of custom wheels off a Mustang thanks fb marketplace! one of my kids manning the power washer. one rust hole in the floorboard under the brake pedal. Could be a good sign. removed the headliner one bow at a time keeping them in order. the third row was stored in the down position over the last 3 decades protecting them from sun damage. Now she is all cleaned up and ready for some work. Where is the keys? The guy gave me a handful of keys not one of which belongs to this car. Looking around the car I stumbled upon a hide a key stuck to the drivers inner fender. Inside was ball of flaky rust yet the key was perfectly intact. Well that handles the ignition but what about the tailgate? I resolved that by removing the glove box lock and taking it to a local locksmith who used the numbers on the cylinder and voila I had a full set of keys and spares!

 

Looking forward to watching this story unfold!
Check out the history of my project in the link below.

 

Me too! Is the engine the code 'H' 390-2V?

 

It is indeed. Thank you for following along the journey. I’ll try to keep it interesting showing some of the obstacles I have faced and how or if I overcame them. And when it is all caught up to present day some of the folks here may be able to help me to continue my journey.

 

Leadslead's '66 Monterey Breezeway also has that engine, and it runs pretty darned great with the Holley aftermarket 2-barrel we put on it. 3000 miles from Washington to Texas, and he averaged 13-16 MPG, even in elevations as high as 8000 feet in Yellowstone NP.

 

Of course, we have a couple things to address, such as installing an external filter, and either a manual choke cable, or an electrical choke assembly.

 

As am I.

 

Today’s episode “The tune up gone wrong”.

Now that Doc has had the first bath in 35 years we can now see with fresh eyes. The original owner the one who turned over the title decades ago wasn’t tough to track down and I gave him a ring. we met for coffee and discussed some of the life surrounding the old car. He said he was always fond of Doc but couldn’t remember the circumstances surrounding why it was put in the storage unit only that it was. Although the storage unit was clear across town it turns out the Dr and I were practically neighbors, in fact both of our kids attended the same school albeit several decades apart, a fact that was discovered while cleaning we discovered a parking sticker for my kids high school. He was really happy to see someone would resurrect his old family cruiser.

Back at home I began to prepare the car for start up. First I put some marvel mystery oil down each cylinder and let that soak a few days. I then checked to see if the engine was locked up, I was able to turn the motor over just pulling on the belt! I figured man this thing wants to run. Lol. I changed the oil, repaired the battery cables installed new cap, rotor, plugs, wires, condenser, coil, set the points, and gave it a few short cranks without the coil wire I was getting ignition and felt it had enough to prime the oil. I poured some fuel in the bowl and it was time to let it rip. Doc turned over again and again without fuss yet something was not right. It just didn’t feel like it was building any compression. Out came my compression tester and I was getting readings all over the place. A couple 80’s a couple 15’s a couple 60’s. Aside from some dead cylinders they were all very low. I had a hard time believing the engine was worn out with less than 80k miles. Talking with an old school buddy I was describing the issue, he said with a certainty, almost as nonchalant as pass me the butter, “it’s jumped time”. A fact I had not considered. I recall thinking is it that easy? Is it really that possible to diagnose without actually laying hands lol. Is it true that we should listen to our elders… I’ll save you the agony, he was spot on! Yep that’s right folks there is some real knowledge out there if you are willing to listen. I’d done a couple of late 70’s and early 80’s ford small blocks and knew they used nylon gears I just wasn’t prepared to see it in my 67. I guess Doc got hungry and ate every one of them gears. Now I could have slapped on a new gear set and gave it a go but those missing teeth were like devious little monsters, in my mind I was imagining all the fun they were about to have trying to plug up my oil pick up, so I dropped the pan and eradicated those little buggers. Now folks. You know that moment when your brain says stop but your curiosity is yelling as loud as possible? Give it a look, it said, check them out it’ll be soo cool. Nope not cool at all! Darn my curiosity. And so my hopes of a “Roadkill” style first start were dashed and out she came. I was really hoping I would get lucky but I guess maybe on the next project.

 

Which CFM is your carb? Mine was a 1.23 I was considering the Holley but things changed as you’ll soon see.

 

I'd have to look it up, but it was too much for the 351M it was on, and works perfectly for the 390.

We pulled the '66's engine on Independence Day, because the oil pan got crunched the day we were scheduled to leave, and had to delay one day to pound out the oil pan, bend the pickup, and reseal the pan rail, because it was leaking like a hole in the block. Fortunately, it was just the intake end. But we went ahead and replaced the water pump and timing set because preventive maintenance, as well as resealed the intake, and gave it a new thermostat and valve cover gaskets. It's good you found the problems, but I'll tell you, this engine has been rebuilt, and it has around 70K original miles. But it looks great inside and has 50+ PSI hot. Your 390 can also have that.

 

Today’s installment “The Vision”

This could be the shortest installment yet and equally it could be the longest. Truth is I’m super indecisive, never a good thing when spending 10’s of thousands on a project car. As you know by now Doc has seen much of the country and traveled the PanAmerican highway to the southern tip of North America and my goal is to complete the journey north to Alaska. Maybe some day some of you will join Doc and I on our journey north! My wife and I have discussed dragging a travel trailer around the country when we retire as well, so a bullet proof mill is paramount. That said the build consists of the stock rotating assembly with hyper pistons and a mild cam sourced from comp a 268h grind to comply with vacuum requirements and a low end torque curve. The crank was cleaned up the rods reconditioned and the block was cleaned and checked. Next the machinist began decking the block when a bit of Docs past began to come to light. The block took .015 to clean up as you can see it looks as though someone has used a grinder during a headgasket job at some point in Doc’s life. Next the block was torque plated and the engine mocked up. We discovered the pistons were still .010 in the hole so it was decked again to 0 deck. The original heads were going to cost a fortune to rebuild and I was fortunate for find a pair of NOS Ford remans on eBay. The plan was to run the Holley sniper 2bbl on the factory manifold to maintain the original look while giving the car some modern reliability and maybe some additional mpg. Around this time I began to notice Doc was going to look like just about every other restored 1967 squire. While great looking, I wanted something different and so began the restomod journey. From here forward the plan is to bring the car up to modern standards in looks, performance, and reliability. The plan is air ride suspension, 4 wheel disc brakes, modern efi, updated cooling, overdrive, and some body modifications to bring the car a bit more up to date. Remember that magic trick? I won’t be dragging the spare tire well pulling into my drive way. And I now have a place to install the air ride. I know I’ll need a spare tire but I’ll figure that out later. The most drastic change will likely upset a few purists but that’ll be much much later. I will be hyper focused on keeping the car subtle blending new and old paying homage to Doc’s origins with a new lease on life.

 

If your retirement only plans for you and your wife, may I suggest the rear well? Since no one will be riding back there, go ahead and remove the seats, then place your spare, jack and tools in there. That'll give you a lot of room in the old well for the air ride components and storage. When you find your trailer, make sure the hubs have the same bolt pattern and spacing, so that your spare can also fit it in an emergency.