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I purchased a very nice 63.5 Galaxie 500 last summer. The car is totally stock with 352 four barrel, cruise-a-matic, factory air, ps , and dual exhaust. The car is white with red interior. I was at a cruise-in a while back and a gentleman there had a equally nice 61 Sunliner with the 390 engine. They parked me beside him. As soon as we saw each others car we began a conversation. I looked inside his and it appeared to be a three on the tree manual with a chrome pull knob under the dash which I was pretty sure was for overdrive. But the owner informed me that the car was a four-speed and the underdash knob was for engaging reverse. He went on to say that first gear was where reverse is on a normal column shift manual trans, and then straight down for second, and then up thru the H-pattern for third, and then straight down again for fourth. I'm almost 70 years old and have been a gearhead since about 10 years old and I never heard or seen this. I asked him to show me this and he declined saying the car had a broken motor mount and he didn't want to drive it. I then asked him to start it and then put it where he said first gear was and just barely ease out the clutch and let me see which way the car went and he also refused to do this and started to get a little upset, which I guess I can understand, but if he was being truthfull, I could not see why he would not show me and several more people that had gathered around by now. It was a really nice ,well taken care of automobile. He raised the hood and the 390 had the six-barrell set up with the correct air cleaner that he stated was dealer installed and I believe he was correct there. Everything looked correct and in really good condition. Have any of you guys ever heard of a 61 Ford with this kind of trans? Or any 60's Ford with a four speed column shift? Anyway, he left shortly after, but had he stayed, I believe he would have won a trophy, it was that nice. Do any of you think I was out of line to ask him to sort of prove what he was telling us? If the car did have a factory shift like this there's no telling what it would be valued at. But, I believe if he had done what I asked, I believe the car would have went backwards.
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What would be gained by catching that guy in a lie? How would he benefit from trying to make anyone believe something that wasn't true? I think that if someone has an outrageous claim, or some crazy contraption, or configuration, just be thankful for the story and enjoy the show. I'd say 'thanks for the interesting information as it was something I had not heard of before and it is great to see the car at the show'. I do think I've heard of a column shift four speed before, but I couldn't say if that is a false memory, or a real thing right now. Glad to hear you are enjoying your Galaxie.
I found this video that may be like what you saw.
Last edited by 70XL (March 8, 2018 4:40 pm)
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The video seems to verify what the gentleman was telling us. The outside of the car is not shown, but the dash looks to me like a 60 or 61. If the guy did in fact create that from scratch and made it function and look so much like factory he needs to take credit for work like that, on the other hand if it is indeed a factory install, it has to be close to a 1 of 1.
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A quick Google search will show that there were a number of four speed column shifts once upon a time. Renault even had a column shift five speed in the 80's, I think it was.
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