By the early Sixties, a Ford dealership had most of what we'd now consider a full-range model lineup. When the 1964 range debuted, a customer in a Ford store could choose among the sporty Thunderbird personal luxury coupe, the compact Falcon, the mid-size Fairlane, and the full-size Ford, which came in Custom, Custom 500, Galaxie, and Galaxie 500 trim levels.
In the photos above is a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Sunliner convertible in Skylight Blue. The '64 was the last model year for the Space Race-inspired lines of this generation, to be replaced for 1965 with a far more sharply-creased looking design
The base engine in the Sunliner was Ford's 223 cubic inch Milage Maker OHV inline six, rated at 138 SAE gross horsepower. Additionally, a buyer could opt for a range of V-8s: The Challenger 289 2-bbl rated at 195 horsepower, the 2-barrel Thunderbird 352 putting out 250 horsepower, the Thunderbird 390 four-barrel FE big block at 300 SAE gross, and the top of the range dual-quad 425 horsepower Thunderbird 427.
Going by the badges on the rocker panels and the dual exhausts, the convertible in the photos came with the 390 V-8. The transmission could have been a 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic, or a 3- or 4-speed manual.
Motor Trend tested a '64 Galaxie 500 XL hardtop sedan with the Thunderbird 390 motor and Cruise-O-Matic and got a 0-60 time of 9.3 seconds and a 17.6 quarter mile at 82 mph through the traps. With a cast iron drum at each corner, hauling the two-ton sedan down from 60mph took 163 feet. The convertible was only about a hundred pounds heavier than the hardtop, so the numbers should be similar.
Check out those rocket exhaust taillights! You can easily picture some dude driving this thing to watch the first NASA Gemini mission launch.
This one was driving to Fresh Market in August of 2024, and not Cape Kennedy in March of 1965, and it was photographed with a Nikon D300S and 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens, which would have been alien space magic tech when this car was new.
