New interior for the Gal

[BruceS]

Hi All, a little update on my Galaxie.  Over the last couple years I've got it running pretty well mechanically with all systems now up and running including the AC for these hot Texas summers!  BP fixed me up with one of his 482s and we decided to dress it up with a shirt and tie for nice street manners. 

A little over a year ago I decided to take the plunge on the interior and made my order with SMS Auto Fabrics. All new seat materials and door panels.  I ordered in May 2020 and got all the materials last March.  Still waiting on the door panels but they've told me they're going to run them this month (fingers crossed!).  I really wanted to go original with this one because it naturally has lots of "bling" and has a rare trim code (71).  The 1 is supposed to indicate the first deviation from standard.  In this case Ford must've run out of the regular 63 cloth material and substituted material intended for the 64s.  That makes some sense in this case because the car was built in Dallas in the last few weeks of 63 production.  I finally settled on a local shop here to sew it all up, Dooley and Sons Hot Rod Shop, and I think they did an outstanding job.   

[WConley]

That Gal is super cool!! 

I keep thinking of that Dusk Rose '63 R-Code fastback that Ray Paquet had for sale years ago.  That would have been a hell of a car to restore.  Woulda, coulda, shoulda!!

[Gaugster]

Great restoration/upgrade! Enjoy that new car feel and smell!

[galaxiex]

Very nice!

[My427stang]

Beautiful!

[AlanCasida]

That is beautiful. I love the OEM bench seat patterns on the old Galaxies, especially the cloth. When I had the interior done on my '66 Galaxie 29(!) years ago they got the material from SMS too.
 

[Rory428]

Those seats look fantastic! I really wanted to get the factory seat materials and door panels from SMS, for my 59, but just the 3 different materials for the front and rear seats was over $1100., then you had to pay somebody to convert the raw material into seat covers, as well as repair/replace the 60 year old foam, burlap and padding. The door panels they showed for my 59 looked absolutely dead nuts perfect, back after hearing about guys waiting over a year for door panels,  from SMS,scared me off.  Maybe I should have ordered the door panels  a year or 2 BEFORE the car was finished.

[mbrunson427]

Wow, I have never seen that interior pattern before. Really neat.

[BruceS]

Thanks all for the compliments!  It was a long wait for the material but I knew that when I placed the order.  When the door panels come I'll post those too.   

Bill, I didn't know about Ray Paquet's R-Code being for sale at one time but I do see others in various conditions come up from time to time.  Yes, Dusk Rose is a pretty color and with matching interior will be a knockout!  I'm very nostalgic about these old Fords; my Dad was a career Ford man and started with them around 1947 at the SoCal assy. plant which was located on Terminal Island near The Port of L.A. 

Alan, your interior looks like pure luxury!  Such beautiful designs and colors available in those days. 

Mike, you can see my material on SMS's website under the 64 Galaxie.  Also, you can see the standard cloth of the same color intended for 63.  I believe one reason why their deliveries are long is that in many cases they have to set up and weave the material special for that order.  And if you look at some of the door panels, they're pretty ornate!  Rory's 59 Galaxie is a perfect example. 

[Rory428]

Actually, my 59 is a base model Custom 300, SMS does show the door panels for my cars, in all 3 colors available, and although not really cheap, I would have had no problem buying them if SMS could have delivered them in anything even close to a reasonable amount of time. I did buy my headliner and windlace from SMS, when I ordered those, they never said anything about there being significant delays of those parts. I have seen numerous posts concerning door panels from SMS, a common complaint is very long delays with zero communication from SMS, although I have yet to hear that anyone was unhappy with the quality, once they finally did arrive. You would think if they were that backed up, that hiring more employees would be justified, no?

[turbohunter]

Rory is spot on. I’ve had an order in with them since at least Dec. ‘20. I asked in January what the delay was as my previous order came quickly. I was told that they were out of material and would be making new. Should be done by end of Feb. April came and I emailed again. Kim said she would find out what’s up and get back to me. Nothin. I have a string of emails one to two months apart that say, I’ll find out and get back to ya.
Of course I’ve been moving since July but I sent another email out today when Bruces’ thread reminded me. Nothing yet. I’ll let you know. BTW, it’s paid for.
And Rory here is a guy that is not very happy with them. On my 66 Country squire front seat the OE way to do the decorative center stripe was that it was a separate piece sewn onto the seat. That’s the way I bought it from them as a separate stripe to be sewn on. What I got was material that was embossed with a fake center stripe. Should have sent it all back but I was busy and not doing a historic restoration so I let it slide but IF I was accurately restoring the car I would have been pissed. Also ran out of material with a carpet but that’s small potatoes and easy to fix.
So upshot is be very careful with them if you care about historical accuracy.

[katink]

Beautiful car, inside and out.  That color scheme works very well for the car.  In 2006 I hesitated on the price for SMS interior door panels, called a competitor and asked how faithful to original were their products?  He answered "well we aren't SMS".  I bought the SMS door panels.  Mine is the black vinyl interior which is not a stretch but still.