1973 Ford Galaxie Interceptor Restoration

Ok some of you may remember the car I got a few years back, a '73 Interceptor with the 460 PI engine...

Its been sitting in the same spot since I got it except for pulling the engine to use in the barge I have done nothing with it... I did end up bonking the front trim piece and core support when i pulled the engine...
Anyway, the car originally came from the DSO near New Orleans... And judging from its paint scheme I think its a New Orleans Police car...

I dont have a Marti report on it so I can't verify, and NOPD was no help... I did contact a retired NOPD detective who was a beat cop at the time and he said it sure looked like an old unit.
Well doing more research I found out in January of 1973 there was a sniper at the Howard Johnson's downtown... And he killed a few officers... So I felt I needed to restore this car to its former glory as a tribute to those fallen officers.
The car has sat up for a very long time... Interior was stripped out... But it has the original miles... 78k... It looks like it sat up because the water pump froze and blew the driver side head gasket... Guess the guy meant to get around to it eventually but never did... Sold it to the guy's brother I got it from... Who basically stripped the interior out and then died...

Anyway, I got a '76 LTD cheap to use as a donor to get this '73 rollin again...

It was a grandpa car... Manual windows... Mirrors... Bench seat... Only upgrades was the fm radio (long gone) and passenger side mirror...
It has a 351m with a new holly carb... New radiator... FMX transmission... And an odd 7.5 rear end... The vinyl top caused it to leak so the carpeting is shot... Headliner isnt much better... But it was fun to tool around in... Until the FMX took a dump... Now its life as a sedan is over... Time to restore the '73 for a more nobel cause...


Anyway stay tuned for further updates as I will post as I go along... Feel free to comment, critique, like or dislike...

For further reading about the New Orleans Howard Johnson's sniper, pick up a copy of the book "A terrible thunder"

 

I can attest, this is a worthwhile project, especially when we went to remove the old gas tank, only to find someone had drilled and riveted it to the trunk when they went to fix the trunk floor....

 

That '76 looks pretty cool. Are you going to use the dog dish hubcaps on the '73? I think I actually like the '76 front end a little better, but I understand the vibe you are going for. Does the '73 still have its original speedometer? Does it have any original auxiliary gauges?

 

Hah the dog dishes on the '76 came off the '73! The original hubcaps that were on the '76 one was missing when i bought it and then another flew off somewhere on the highway on the trip back with it.
Yes the '73 has its original equipment (sans motor at the moment) when we pulled the tank it had its long dead electric fuel pump still in the tank... It still has its oil cooler underhood... Has air conditioning... 90 amp alternator... And factory overflow bottle... Even has the hook for the police radio
Honestly i think it died sometime in the 80s and sat... One of the tires we pulled off was a late 70s bias ply.

 

I think its a great Idea, I am finally going to get started on my 71 Freeway Enforcer that I picked up 5 years ago. Mine won't have the history yours does as it came from a mid size town in PA. Chambersburg.

Good luck with it and keep us informed please.

 

From the retired NOPD detective I need to lay my hands on a federal signal pa20a (same siren used in adam-12) and a federal signal twinsonic... The radio they used was a 4 channel GE (he thinks) was definitely 4 channel... New Orleans to this day is laid out in 8 districts and it was two districts per channel... And yes i do plan on painting it back to the NOPD colors and insignia with full lights and siren... Lucky for me in this state i can have blue lights all day long... Its red i cant have... If anyone finds any of that stuff for a good deal let me know... Ebay used to allow people to sell it but they got more restrictive on police equipment.

 

Sounds like a pretty cool project Leadslead. And now that you have Andrew around to help, I'm sure it will get done twice as fast!

 

Hah! You so funn-neee!

 

Ok... Well... Went to tow it around to the front to put the engine in from the '76 and.... The brakes locked up... So... We decided to unlock the rears... Which wouldn't unlock... So we decided to pull the drums...
Found they were the original factory drums with the clips still on...
Unfortunately the drum on the passenger side would not come off no matter that we could get it to turn or how much we beat on it with hammers...
Finally had to cut it off with a grinder

And of course it could have been turned and used again...
The internals were a bit crusty...

And the shoes down to the rivets...
Anyway after ordering new parts and installing them... We tried to get the new drum on and found the hub had some dings in it that had to be filed down... Then after finally getting everything situated to bleed... Pump on the brakes... Hold... Open the bleeder... Nothing... Found out the flex line was bad... Full of rust... So we stole the one off the ltd even though its a different axle and different bracket... Find out the ferrule nuts wouldnt work with it, so back under the ltd to get the lines...
Anyway after all that we got the brakes to work... Except the fronts need attention but they should be direct swap with the ltd so no ordering parts there.
Gotta love crusty cars that have been sitting for decades

 

I hope you are correct on the front brakes being a direct swap from the LTD, on my Pontiac Enforcer I found 13" front Disc's & 12" rear Drums installed on it. The Largest Brakes Put on a Pontiac of the era were 12" Disc's & 11" drums. By looking at them you could tell they were Standard GM Parts, but after a P/N search I found out they are Cadillac Fleetwood Parts, so off the shelf parts but designed for a car 500 to 800 lbs heavier!
So don't be surprised if you find some Lincoln parts on that Interceptor!

 

The interceptors used the station wagon rear brakes, but I'll be confirming rotor diameters and caliper piston sizes before swapping them over. I wouldn't have minded Lincoln/Mercury rear discs and Trac-loc on the rear axle.
Good news, we got the 351M in it, for now, until we've dealt with the PI engine. Over the next week, I'll be dealing with the Duraspark wiring, the alternator wiring, and we'll be bolting everything else up.

 

Wow, those are beefy brakes. How did they manage to fit those under 15" wheels? I can just barely fit Cobra 13" brakes under certain 16" wheels.

I was surprised when I swapped the rear end from a wagon into my Crown Vic that my car originally had the regular smaller rear drums and the wagon rear end had the larger drums.

 

They just fit, they also used the 15 by 8" wheels from the Cadillac. I have also never seen an 8" wide Plain Steel wheel on a Pontiac before.