Steve Allen's 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 - A Case Of Destiny

Steve Allen first noticed a certain 1967 Ford Galaxie when he married wife Becky and moved to the town of Easley, South Carolina. A small suburb of Greenville, Easley was home to a local service station owned by the brother of said Galaxie, JL Stephens. For years, Steve saw the car parked there at the station until it was sold to a cousin, never to be seen again.

In 2003, after two years of searching for a similar Galaxie, Steve happened by a local motorcycle shop where he ran into an old friend. After a few minutes of friendly conversation about each other's Mustangs, he mentioned that he was looking for a '67 Galaxie. The look on his friend's face said it all-he just so happened to have one for sale. That afternoon, Steve dropped by to have a look at the Galaxie for sale, and, lo and behold, it was the JL Stephens 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 that had eluded him since first laying eyes on it years ago at the Easley service station. With cash in hand, a deal was struck and the pink slip to the Galaxie was finally in Steve's hand.

An auto shop owner by trade, Steve knows his way around the engine compartment of a classic automobile, but he knew this particular build was going to take some tremendous effort and skill. To fulfill that role, Don Jacks of Street Metal Fabrications was tapped to help out on the build. Steve knew it was necessary to start from the ground up to realize the image he had in his mind's eye, so a frameoff build was in order.

With the body removed from the chassis for the first time in nearly 40 years, the chassis first received a thorough cleaning before being fitted with Air Ride Technologies shocks and big Baer disc brakes at all four corners. A Ford 9-inch rearend was installed out back, while the stock A-arm suspension handled the bumps up front. A set of American Racing Torq-Thrusts in 18- and 20-inch diameters was wrapped in BFGoodrich rubber before being installed. To handle the steering duties, the stock steering box was retained and hooked up to an ididit steering column and topped with a Billet Specialties steering wheel. Between the framerails, a 428ci Ford FE engine was installed, built by the owner and Kenny Jackson, and features plenty of go-fast goodies from Edelbrock and CoMP Cams. Behind the big Ford powerplant is a Ford C6 automatic with a B&M shifter.

The two-door hardtop was then handed over to Don Jacks who shaved all the trim and door handles, blocked every square inch to perfection, and blew the Spies hecker Midnight Blue Metallic paint. Don also added the white center stripes before spraying the entire package in plenty of clear. When the paint was dry, a quartet of 2007 harley Davidson Sportster headlights replaced the stock units and all the freshly chromed bits were returned from Paul's Chrome Service and reinstalled.

Don also had a hand in fabricating the custom dash. Wanting something a little more hot rod oriented, Steve opted to replace the entire unit with a custom one housing the Auto Meter instrumentation, as well as the Vintage Air climate controls and stereo headset. With the fabrication complete, the car was brought to Paul Atkins, where Paul worked his magic stretching a few hides of gray leather over the interior.

With a span of nearly 30 years stretching between the first time Steve set eyes on the old Ford and the finished product, freshly reworked and in his hands, it's hard to imagine that the whole situation could be anything but a case of destiny.

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