24 cars blue sky: Junkyard Find: 1962 Ford Galaxie Coupe

21 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Today's Junkyard Find isn't the first '62 Galaxie we've seen in the series. Yes, we had this '62 Galaxie with the very rare Harlequin paint option more than three years ago. The second-gen Galaxie sometimes gets overlooked these days, because the Chevy Impala of the same era has become so iconic, but it's a very good-looking car. Unfortunately, even a fairly straight two-door hardtop Galaxie with big-block isn't worth restoring these days, so this example ended up in a San Francisco Bay Area wrecking yard late last year.
16 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Some dealership, or maybe the junkyard, tried and failed to sell this car for $1,999. Look, "engine runs good."
11 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Typical of California cars of this age, there's no cancer in the wheelwells or fenders, but the areas where rainwater builds up under trim pieces have rotted.
07 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin The last year that car radios were required to have the CONELRAD atomic-attack-alert radio stations (640 kHz and 1240 kHz) was 1963, though I owned a '69 Toyota that still had the CONELRAD marks.

So, the driver of this brand-new Galaxie would know when he or she had to duck and cover.
03 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

03 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

Of course, some later owner installed this Field Expedient Engineering cassette deck under the dash.
02 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

02 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

The interior is pretty much toast, which is the main reason this car wasn't worth fixing up.
23 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

23 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

The engine is some member of the Ford FE family, which in most cases isn't worth rescuing from the wrecking yard.
25 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

25 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

The Thunderbird valve cover should indicate that it's a somewhat desirable 340-horse 390 instead of the scrap-metal-value 352. Heck, maybe it's even the 385-horsepower 406!
26 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

26 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

But then the regular FORD valve cover on the other side argues for the 352 or low-performance 390. These cars had so many engine swaps over the years that the only way to tell what you've got here is to scrape off the mung and look at block and head casting numbers.
13 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

13 - 1962 Ford Galaxie Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin

By the time you read this, today's Junkyard Find has already been crushed, shredded, and put in a container at the nearby Port of Oakland.

I couldn't find a '62 Galaxie ad, but this one for the '61 gives you the sense of class Ford was shooting for with these cars.