paint
Although there is no set list or solid criteria we look for when choosing a feature car, we typically know the instant we’ve found one. Sometimes it’s a flawless paint job and subtle body mods that draw us in; other times, it’s a fully built motor loping angrily. Other times, though, we come across a car that is just plain cool—not the fastest, or even highly modified, but the kind of car you just look at and say, “Wow, check out that…” So it was at Goodguys Charlotte this year: sitting proudly in the mist and drizzle was Doug Wayne’s ’66 Galaxie convertible. At Auto Builder, we have a soft spot for large vehicles, and, realistically, Ford is not known for making many great small cars. Even small Fords are big, and if you don’t believe us, stick an early Falcon next to a Scion. But few companies do big as well as Ford, and even from a distance, we knew this Galaxie was as cool as it is long.
We learned that Underground Motorsports in Little Rock, Arkansas, was going to build one fast daily driver, so we thought we’d take a peek and drop some knowledge for you. We were looking for any tech procedures that may illustrate for readers how a car of this sort is built from scratch.
When building a street rod there are a great many facets of the construction process that go into making the car an award-winning creation. First, there’s planning. The planning of the car can and should include attention to each and every area of the car, from concept to reality. Even the most basic of projects should have the proper planning involved, no matter what the final product might be. Once work has begun on the project, countless hours are generally involved in attending to every detail. From making the many modifications to the chassis to attain the desired drive train, to the matching and mating of the different components together, this becomes an involved process requiring a great deal of skill in fabrication and engineering.
