GALAXIE FINALLY TAKES THE HEAT

The good thing about running two examples of the same model - 1964 Ford Galaxies in my case - is that you can contrast and compare by swapping parts around.

- RUN BY Julian Balme

Long before the recent round of work described in my previous report, the black 500 had been running hot; not while moving, but stop for a set of lights and you could watch the needle climb up the gauge. Despite a full refresh of the once leaky cooling system, this situation looked to be even worse, with the pointer in the temperature gauge permanently residing in the upper third.

Nine times out of 10, issues with overheating are radiator-related, so one morning I drained both cars and fitted, along with the fan shroud, the one from the station wagon into the coupe. Out on the road it was marginally better, but I wasn't convinced.

Thankfully, on specialist Ted Booth's next visit he brought a heat gun, whereupon we discovered that under the bonnet none of the temperatures were excessive. However, by changing the new sender for an old one, the gauge reading fell straight away. It is so often the case these days that new electrical components introduce issues rather than prevent them. After running around in the car for a month, including trips to a wedding in Wales, and the Giant Killers hot-rod and custom event in Dorset, I was satisfied that the problem was cured, but before refitting the original radiator, I sought a second opinion. Ted had already alerted me to the fact that the core had been updated at some point and, although made up of three rows, it wasn't staggered.

Not only that, but the cooling fins appeared to be very close together. Peter Mansell at Exeter Radiators concurred, and reckoned that I'd need to blast air through the unit for it to work properly. Having spent the first 25 years of its life in the warmer climate of California, I reasoned with myself that an electric fan wasn't necessary and duly embarked on yet another reassuringly expensive recore.