Starliner tagged posts

You’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, you’re ready to dive into classic car ownership and for you none other than a FullSizeFord will do. Be it a Galaxie, a luxurious LTD, a bruising Mercury Marauder fastback, or even a sweet suicide door Lincoln Continental, one of Ford Motor Company’s full size offerings is tugging at your heartstrings.  Maybe even the oft-scoffed Edsel would be the car of choice to fill that lonely void in the garage. Here are a few helpful tips that will help you locate that FullSizeFord of your dreams.

First of all, you’ll want to decide what level of FullSizeFord you want to get into and also come up with a reasonable price range you are comfortable with. Be realistic...

Well we’ve finally had enough with that puddle of 90-weight gear oil puddled on the shop floor under our Starliner’s rear end. The seal was so bad that oil would actually run out when the rear pumpkin was filled up. While we’re at it we are going to install new axle seals, ARP  differential mounting studs, and a new differential gasket as well. We started by jacking the car up and placing jackstands under the frame, letting the rear hang down. This job is much easier to do if you have an automotive lift, but alas we are relegated to the shop floor for the time being. After removing the rear tires and brake drums, marking the drums with chalk so they are re-installed in the same position, we removed the four nuts which retain the u-joint retaining straps...

This is the latest addition to the FullSizeFord project stable. A 1961 Ford Galaxie Starliner. This car originally left the factory with the Z-code “Thunderbird Special” 300HP 390 cubic engine and 3-speed OD manual transmission. We initially though there was a chance that this was a 401HP tri-power car, but thanks to some factory Hi-po specialists we have been able to determine with a reasonable degree of certainty that it is not.  As the story goes, the original 390 was stolen while out of the car for a freshening up. The decision was later made to install a 460 and C6 automatic transmission donated from a ’76 Lincoln.

The car still retains it’s original 9-inch Equa-Lok rear but the 3.56 rear gear was swapped out in favor of a 3.70 ratio...