60's LINCOLN CONTINENTALS LETS SEE EM

Ok. Now I really wish I'd bought that thing.

 

two of my favorite cars combined, i dont know if i like it or hate it.

 

WHAT ABOUT MARK III 's ?ANY COSTOMS OF THOSE ?

 

I think Elwood Engle was given credit for the '61 design, (originally done as a proposal for Thunderbird), and John Najar for the '59, (it was huge). Many great memories of driving a black '61 in '63. Always a beautiful luxury sedan in my view. Good to see continued interest in keeping some on the road.

 

i think the car from the movie The Car was a mark III and it was customized by Barris? cant remember.

 

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One we did a few months back
Used Homeinct's brake system on it worked great.

 

This one has the potential to be really sweet. I'd love have one for top-down cruising.

 

This is a shot I took a few weeks ago of Elvis' Lincoln that is currently up on a rack in a storage warehouse in Winnemucca, NV. @ The Flying A Garage. It is destined for display @ America's Car Collection when their museum is finished next door. We were given a private tour of their storage facilities and I was absolutely blown away... You will need to see it to believe it. This car/hot rod parts/automobilia collection is going to be world class !!!

I will also include a YouTube link where you can check out some videos of some of their cars such as Tommy Ivo's Wagonmaster Rivera 4WD drag car, Tony Nancy's 22jr roadster, Don Tognotti's "Avenger" Deuce coupe built in 1960, etc. etc. ...

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=AmericasCC&p=r

Hope you enjoy the YouTube clips !

 

I just picked up a 58 Premier for my girl. Factory pink car. Granted, it's a 58, but it's similar in design to the 60 at least. I'll get some pics up soon.

 

Here is a Lincon we did for Robert Gallery a while back. All we did was air bag it and run the exaust out the back up light holes for now but when we get a little more caught up it will be comming back for body and paint plus a few more custom treatments. Scott

 

just curious what is he running for exhaust on this thing? I have seen him around town and this thing sounds damn good.

 

Just a couple smittys. He says he drives it all the time do you see out much?

 

I had one I was the 3rd owner. loved it, was built like a brick ---- house. but it had too much vacuum problems. Classy car, actually smaller than a Cad.It was a Unibody was actually designed to be the new T bird, but Henry II wanted it for the Lincoln, so they squeezed in 2 shortened suicide doors. Uses T bird windshield.

 

Excellent fuckin ride, man

 

saw this one draggn at billet proof last year!! the color combo is great I tried to find the owner to see if it was all orig.. but no luck

 

This is a sharp Lincoln. Lets see some more pics of other Lincoln Continentals.

 

I've got a 60 Mark convertible and in case that wasn't big enough, a 59 Hess and Eisenhart Limo. They make a garage really small really fast.

 

This one is pretty sick. It's for sale, right off PCH. Anyone recognize it?

 

I simply adore the paintjob on this slabside and will most certainly have this in my mind when I'll paint my 55 chebby wagon.

 

MercMan, I have to say that you are perceptive, yes I have written for the media but I did not write for the automotive media that most of us (here on the hamb) would relate to.
And that was a long time ago.


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The price of parts (up where) is and will always be more than what you guys pay, Usually it's inflated by %140 to %175 range and although the dollar is good right now, it wasn't always that way.



I owned both of these cars in the 80's....

I Bought the Continental for $600 in 82 from a local school teacher (?? $500 + a Sony Home Stereo Cassette Player).
It had 56,000 miles showing on the clock but Mrs. Cohburn assured us that the odometer had already been rapped around once.

Me and the wifey made the Lincoln our regular transportation for +/-3 years (we called it The Love Boat) before we sold it to a collector out east. The new owner drove it the 2500 miles into Northern Ontario (Apsley? Aspley?) were it was eventually restored. You see, by 1984 the body was already for paint mostly due to the many rough winters it had driven....
Plus the power steering needed work and on the 462's, the power steering is integral with the block.
(During the time that we spent as the Continentals caretakers, we had discovered that the car was a late model 65 and was one of the first to get the new 462).

Besides a starter, I had at one point put Thrush Hush mufflers in place of the resonators (way out back) and it sure sounded dam sweet even as it drove away from the old cedar log house on Virginia Street that fateful day.
-I can still here it pulling onto the highway and picking up speed as it headed on it's way to another province.

That was a tough car to let go. Sure miss the Suicide doors, the vacuum door locks, the power steering driven wipers and the reverse opening hood. Sure miss the Style. ....But Back then, few others cared for these land yachts as they were just another big old car that nobody really wanted or needed and honestly, I was darn lucky to get a measly few hundred $$$ for during those times.







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I Bought the Coupe Deville for $900 from the elderly wife of a car dealer. She had 3 Lincolns and 2 Cadillacs to get rid of when her hubby passed away. She sold the 3 '36 Lincolns for cheap, -less than $2000 for all. Unfortunately that was before I made the scene.

...Eventually I Sold the Coupe Deville to a local collector who never put more than a few hundred miles on it.
He stopped by in 96 or 97 and he asked if I wanted the car back. It still hadn't passed 52,000 miles in all the years he owned it.
I think he sold it thru a broker into southern California a year or so later. It had a super clean all original body but needed a lot of (expensive) maintenance as well as many electrical gremlins to deal with . I think he got good money for it at the time as you would have been hard pressed to find a nicer body on what is usually a pretty rusty car (especially way up north where we live).



It's not like either car was miled out or left for dead when I owned them but the costs of parts in Canada, especially for an "obsolete" Cadillac could and would break the bank -even back in the 80's. It came down to a non-needed car plugging up the driveway or a new house so the Cadillac was sold. I was lucky to get a picture of it when Tony stopped by with the hope of selling the car back to me. But times were tough then and I couldn't afford to buy back the Coupe Deville.




Today I would buy either car again -in a heart beat- But maybe even more so would I buy a 65 Continental.

-But it's not like nice originals come along for a decent price anymore... but back in the 80's you were hard pressed to give them away.

I sold the Lincoln with 175,000 miles on it for 5 or $600. The Cadillac was sold in the late 80's for $2400 which was good money I thought.




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Sometime in the late 80's I was offered a '67 Stretched Continental Convertible that had somewhere around 30,000 miles on it. There were apparently 6 or 7 of these built for the Queen to ride in during her extended stay in Canada (Expo '67 and Canada's Centennial).

This particular Continentals had about a foot of stretch added between the front and rear (suicide) door at the B pillar. The stretch allowed the Queen to stand comfortably on the floor (in the rear seat area) while waving to the crowd during parades (in a select few Canadians cities).
There was a handle attached to the back of the front seat for her to hold onto and a gold plaque on the dash announced this Continental's historic role for 1967.

This type of stretch differed from the Presidential Lincoln Convertibles in your country. The 63 that Kennedy rode in was stretched behind the rear door and for all intents and purposes, the front and rear door looked, operated and closed normally into the center 'B' pillar.

I lost touch with the owner, -he was a Chrysler Dealer in the big city.
But I did see the car advertised in the local Bargain Finder newspaper several times. The last time I saw the ad was probably in 1987 or 88 when he was asking $3500 for a -one of a handful- stretched convertible.
And as the ad stated "this car has history".


-But back then nobody wanted or appreciated these land yachts, not even stretched convertibles with or without "history".


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I guess it's nice to see that these luxury land yachts have found favor with the younger crowd but I'm not so happy to see the price driven out of this tight wads range.

If I ever did acquire another land yacht I would probably do the same thing as you guys do today, -drop it on the pavement and flame it in a 'ghostly' way.
Sheit, Either car is highly desirable today but my favorite will always be the suicide door Lincolns.

jmho


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I gotta say I really like this color,

Looks like A Chrysler Medium Red, perhaps it's the 'Iridescent' Red that they used on/off, and up until the 80's+ ???

-Love this color and love it when old threads come back to the top.

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I had to fix the top on a 64 convert years ago that a friend bought. The top didn't work at all, so I had to figure out why and make it all work again. Unlike today's cars, everything in the Lincoln was electric or electromechanical-nothing electronic. Everything works off power-activated (not ground activated) relays, screw motors, limit switches, and a big rotary switch. Relays behind the right kick panel, behind the right side of the rear seat, and ia two row bank of relays in the trunk. The rear door windows drop 6" when the handle or door button is pushed so they won't hit the front door windows if both close at the same time. It's not bad to work on once you understand the system, but I'd bet the parts are really expensive now. Twenty years ago they were available rebuilt or exchange from a guy on the east coast, but I don't know what's out there now.

 

Here's some pics of my dad's work in progress 62 vert


The tops on now and the fronts been lowered a couple of inches

 

SpoockTacular!

 

Damn your dad's '62 is clean underneath!

My current car is a 1964 Lincoln Continental sedan. I intend to keep it as original as possible. It has been resprayed at one time. The interior has also been redone. I bought it in 2006 and after a few months I found out the motor was in a bad state. It needed a complete rebuild because the rod bearings were knocking under load and one of the pistons had overheated and was now rattling in the cylinder. I decided to park the car (in order to avoid doing more damage) and made a reservation with a reputable mechanic who owns his own shop rebuilding American motors. During the rebuild process I did the engine bay and all things therein. Also did the leafsprings, bushings, electrical work and a lot of little jobs. After a lot of work I now enjoy the car during nice (and dry!) weekends in spring and summer.

 

Damn I love that!!!!!!! Guess I gotta get my search on for one of those now

 

That is a killer paint job on the Lincoln!

 

This is the replica of THE CAR that I had a hand in building for George Barris to show;


....and this is my '66 Lincoln;



-Matt

 

That thing is not as clean as it looks.The whole roof has been cut out and has a cheezy plexiglass insert.