You take the dishes
while you’re at it, take my soul
but things ain’t so bad
‘cause I got a Galaxie 500. ~Reverend Horton Heat

Step on up to the flaming barrel and warm your hands, Fiends. It’s that time of the week when we go back in time to a less complicated place. You know the one — where the Big Three jostled for cubic inch domination instead of pennies out of Uncle Sam’s piggy bank. That’s right; it’s time for Domestic Bliss. This week we take a look of one of the most stylish rides to roll out of Dearborn under the FoMoCo banner, the 1966 Ford Galaxie 500. Hop on over the jump to hear the tale.

The Galaxie name actually cropped up in ’59 as a gussied up version of the ever-popular Fairlane. The car sported a different roof line than other Fairlanes and could be had with one of the very first retractable hard tops. For Americans used to trunks large enough to haul the family living room, the idea of a hardtop mechanism consuming valuable acreage outback wasn’t as a crowd pleaser, so Ford ditched the Skyliner RHT model after only three years. If you’ve got one of those suckers sitting in the chicken coop out back, give us a ring.

The Galaxie name, on the other hand, stuck around. The car saw several mutations through the early ‘60’s, including ditching the rear fins for the famous dish taillights of the ’62. One constant theme was a variety of healthy V8s under the car’s sizeable hood, including a three-duece 390 ci model. Rumor had it you could park that car at the pump, leave it running and those three double-barrel carbs would drink as fast as you could fill the tank. Who knows whether that’s true or not [Ed Note: let's say not], but what a terrifyingly awesome image.

By the time 1965 rolled around Ford unveiled an all new style for the Galaxie. The car sported what would become its iconic double-stack headlights up front and a low-slung roofline that slipped seamlessly into the rear trunk deck. Like most of the competition, this Ford didn’t even think about a B-pillar to screw up the open window front to back. Speaking of out back, those gorgeous rectangle tail lights dominated the scene. All cool, but the car’s mechanicals stayed largely the same from ’64 to ’65. All that changed come 1966.

For 1966, Ford bestowed the almighty 428 ci V8 on the sexy Galaxie and branded it the 7-Liter. Seriously. People pray to this motor, and with good reason. The 428 is politely referred to as the “velvet hammer” due to its massive amount of smooth yet brutal torque. The engine developed a respectable 345 horsepower but an epic 462 lb-ft of torque. The 7.0-liter would eventually evolve into the infamous Cobra Jet, but that was a ways down the line still. Couple that 428 to an automatic three-speed tranny and you’ve got a car built to consume mile after mile of interstate bliss.

Thankfully, Ford didn’t sentence the Galaxie to the same ‘80s bastardization so many megacars of the sixties and seventies suffered. The Galaxie name hung around until ’73 when Ford wrapped all of its full-sizers into the LTD mark the next year. Doing so spared the car the embarrassment of front-wheel drive, stupid huge rubber bumpers and anemic motors, but it killed off one of the coolest cars, well, ever.

I’m in my own Galaxie
yeah my own Galaxie
you probably would have wanted this too,
but it’s not air conditioned. ~Reverend Horton Heat