Seat Covers & Data Plate Breakdown

[juuraslahti]

Hello I am new to the board. I have just purchased a 1959 Fairlane Galaxie 500. I was wondering if there is any place out there that sells seat covers for this car. I have searched quite a bit and have so far found nothing.

[YellowRose]

Seat Covers

Hi Juho, and Welcome to Squarebirds.org. You are in luck! We have an Advertisements Forum and in it is listed SMS Auto Fabrics located in Oregon. They make many seat covers for many different cars, including Fords and the Fairlane 500 Galaxie! Go down to the Advertisements Forum and you will find the link there to their website and you will see your car listed there. There may be other companies that carry them also, but this is the company that makes many of the seat covers for our Tbirds, other Ford cars, and many other makes of cars as you will see by their listing. They have been in business for quite a few years.

[juuraslahti]

Thanks so much for the quick response, I will definitely check out their website.

[YellowRose]

Seat covers

We are fortunate in that our Webmaster, Dave Dare ~ simplyconnected, is a retired Ford Plant employee and the owner of 2 Full Size Fords, a '55 Customline and a '59 Galaxie! He knows Fords and other cars inside out. He should be a great help to you, as others can be, if you need additional assistance. I am glad you found us, for as you can see, we are not just a Tbird Forum!

[juuraslahti]

Glad I found this place too. I looked at a Fairlane board and a Canadian Ford board but they were not very active.
My Galaxie is a Canadian model. I think they are the same as the American ones. Though I would love to get my vin decoded, haven't found a resource for Canadian vins yet.

[simplyconnected]

Juho, welcome to Squarebirds.org. I see we share a common love for the '59 Ford. Mine actually is my wife's. As soon as she saw it she said, "Buy it!" Later on she decided she wanted an automatic transmission so I changed it for her to a 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic.

1959 was the very first year for Galaxie. The badges on this car is very confusing because Ford carried-over the trunk lid from 1958 to save costs. As you know, the trunk lock is the middle number of "500" and the trunk clearly says, "Fairlane". It is not a Fairlane and it is not a 500. It is simply a Galaxie. Galaxie 500 debuted in 1960.

If you look on your Data Plate it will have a line that shows- Body, Color, Trim, Date, Trans & Axle.

My body code is 54A. If you look in the Ford catalogs, 54A is a Galaxie Town Sedan. None of my badges say 'town' or 'sedan' but that is what the car is because it has four doors.

The script, 'Galaxie' appears on both quarter panels and on a small rectangular badge on the glove box.
<--click on the picture to see Robin's '59 Galaxie.

Let us know what your data plate says and send me pictures of your Galaxie to: simplyconnected@aol.com. I will post your car because we would love to see it. - Dave

[juuraslahti]

Thanks for the info, now i know what the car is actually called. I emailed you some pics.

[YellowRose]

Seat covers

Hi Juho, I am glad that Dave posted and introduced himself. We are fortunate to have as a Webmaster someone who really knows his stuff, not only regarding being a Webmaster, but fixing cars, electrical stuff, and much, much more. He is Jack of all Trades, and Master of All. Hopefully, he will post your pix in the Our Rides Forum so we can all enjoy your Gorgeous Galaxie! Send me a Private Message with your VIN # and I will see what I can do to break it down for you.

[YellowRose]

Seat Covers &amp; Data Plate Breakdown

Juho, I have had partial success in breaking down your Data Plate and VIN #. However, I have not been able to come up with a complete breakdown. Here is what I have so far. Perhaps others can help.

Canadian VIN # 1959 Galaxie

665AK59- (I left out the Serial #)

Engine F2
Trim 17
Paint 4LS

VIN # Breakdown - According to a 1960 Canadian VIN Identification (Serial Code Plate). Could not find one for 1959, nor the Data Plate Engine, Trim, or Paint breakdown).

6=Ford 65A=Galaxie Tudor Hardtop (do not know what the K stands for) 59=1959 car year 5XXXX=Consecutive Serial Number of the car. In the US, our Tbirds start with the #1, In Canada, yours might start with the #5?..

That Engine F2 code is probably for the 272/292/312cid engine. What does yours have in it? Here is a list of 1959 engines that were available.

223 cu. inch (3.7 L) OHV I6
272 cu. inch (4.5 L) Y-block V8
292 cu. inch (4.8 L) Y-block V8
312 cu. inch (5.1 L) Y-block V8
332 cu. inch (5.4 L) FE series V8
352 cu. inch (5.8 L) FE series

Here are the available trannys for it in 1959.

2-speed automatic
3-speed automatic
3-speed manual

Here is a list of 1959 paint colors for the Galaxie. I could not find that 4LS Code.

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?manuf=Ford&year=1959&con=ym&model=Galaxie&rows=50

[YellowRose]

Seat Covers &amp; Data Plate Breakdown

Juho, our good friend, John Rotella, who runs the Tbird Registry, www.tbirdregistry.com also runs the Love Fords Forum. http://www.lovefords.org/

One of the features of that Forum is doing VIN# research, which, I gather, includes Canadian built Fords. I have just posted the VIN # and what data plate information you have provided me, to him. Hopefully, he has the information on the 1959 Canadian Ford Data Plate breakdown and can tell us more about that Data Plate. As I said in the other post, we already know the breakdown of the VIN #, except for that letter K in the 665AK section. I could not find that, and I hope he can.

This may take awhile for him to research it and he might not have the information, but I will see what John has to say. I will let you know as soon as I hear something back from him.

[YellowRose]

Seat Covers &amp; Data Plate Breakdown

Juho, John Rotella came through with some additional information, though he was not able to find all of it. If you can, take a photo of your Data Plate so that all the info on it can be read and email it to me at yellowrose@squarebirds.org. Here is what John said he was able to find and what to do to find the rest of the information.

"The K stands for Oakville Assembly plant, for cars with left-hand drive. (So now we know what that K in the AK means!)

I have not been able to come up with a definitive answer about how the last six of the VIN begin. It seems that different years start with different numbers. (Perhaps, unlike our USA Ford numbering system that starts with a 1, maybe the 5 indicates 1959?)

I don’t know what F2 means but of course, whatever is in the car if it is original, is the F2. I don’t know what transmission it has either. (What engine and tranny is in the car? If you know they have never been swapped out, then whatever the codes say on the Data Plate will correspond to what you have. If they have been swapped out, maybe Ford of Canada can tell you what it left the factory with if you can give them the codes.)

As far as the color goes, we have another mystery here. 4 means the Styletone Paint combination (color 1 – color 2 – color 1) L means Blue Ice Metallic. and according to this book, S means Satellite Red, which of course makes no sense. So he is misreading the plate, or the plate is in error, or the book is in error, or the least probable thing is that it is 2-tone blue and red. (As before, perhaps Ford of Canada can give you what those codes mean. Also, if you contact them, see if they will tell you where they are getting the breakdown of the 1959 Data Plate information from and if it is available online.)

This book I have does not decode the trims, either. Your friend can write (or call) to Ford of Canada, I understand that they have a good customer service department which will try to look up this stuff. We have to remember that detailed records were not kept for a lot of this stuff. Ford and other car manufacturers never anticipated the need to know details like this down the road 50 or 60 years later.

John"

[simplyconnected]

Here are the pictures we've all been waiting for. Sorry for the delay in posting them. - Dave

[YellowRose]

Seat Covers &amp; Data Plate Breakdown

Great pix and she is a beauty! According to what I have read, this car, a 1959 65A was called a Galaxie Club Victoria.

From the looks of the paint job it appears to be Wedgewood Blue & Surf Blue?

I wonder what is stamped on the engine block? From the looks of the Data Plate, there seems to be a tiny Y stamped right above the word "is" in that 8 cylinder engine no. is stamped" statement.

Here is a color code chart for 1959 Fords.

[juuraslahti]

Thanks so much for the info, i really appreciate it.
I have the six cylinder with an automatic transmission. I just bought the car a few days ago on ebay. I have yet to pick it up, it is safely in storage and there is snow everywhere here. So i dont have a pic of the engine area data plate and i am not sure if it is a 2 or 3 speed. i imagine a 2 since it is paired with the 223 engine.

[Dan Leavens]

Juno as you may know the Ford Oakville plant is just next to Mississagua (Toronto ) and is still operational today. Kind of neat that you are in B.C. and you purchased a Canadian made Galaxie. Cool Let us know when you take possession.