Customs I am thinking about buying a 1955 Lincoln Capri tomorrow..

Bought and in Las Cruces!

Drove it from the dock to my house and my son "had" to drive it home..

I will get it back ad clean it up tomorrow...

 

Nice..!
If I saw that Lincoln..in Sierra Vista..only 75 miles from my home..it would have been HERE..!

Very nice..

I need to check the ads down there more often

 

judging by the pics, you don't have any work to do,it looks great

 

Looks awesome!!!! Congratulations.....drop and roll.

 

I already commented on here, but man, I love those tail lights too!

 

It is going to need some kind of work on the left rear quarter, something "wrong" is going on there. At this point otherwise the car SEEMS to be very, very sound. The paint is a long way from ideal, but looks good from a few feet. Mechanically the car seems to be clean and tight.

It looks and drives great. I will start restoration on this oe as soon as I get the 39 out of the garage, hopefully in May. With a little luck I will mainly get by with new paint and some upholstery work.

I do want to drop it a little, and I will be looking for some ideas on a few subtle "custom touches" to really set this thing off.

In the meantime I am going to put a new carpet in and DRIVE that Lincoln as much as it's condition will bear, which will be A LOT I hope.

I am kind of torn about the color, I kind of dig the sky blue, but I find myself picturing the car a different shade of blue, I guess I will work through that in time... and I am open to opinions..

For those who will bear with me I plan on cleaning it up some and getting some daylight pictures tomorrow so I can show it off here a little more.

(If you haven't guessed, I am pretty stoked about this one...)

Thanks for all of the offers of help, tips, and the compliments. I am sue I will be sending out some PM's to take some folks up on the offers for help and info!!!

Viva le HAMB!!

 

SWEET.
You now own one of the very, very few cars that can actually look good with wide whitewall tires.
Enjoy it.

 

Let's get those photos up! Looks like a great car! (PS: Keep the sky blue.)

 

That's a good looking car. I've always liked that model. One of the few cars in '55 that didn't adopt the wrap-around windshield.

 

Yes, keep the blue. I love those cars and you don't see many of them...sorta remind me of a full custom '54 merc.

 

I have a 54 Lincoln Capri that needs work, mainly body and interior work. The engine runs ok, and the rest of the drivetrain is good. The big difference between the 54 and 55 is in the middle. 55 was the first year for Turbo Drive trans, which is a beefed up Fordomatic/Mercomatic. Not a performance trans like the hydramatic was in the 54's. It will give you good reliability if you take care of it. The other difference is the 341 V8 vs. the 317.5 engine. Both are good Y blocks. One other difference is the availability of dual exhausts. Other than those, not much difference between 54 and 55.

 

Great looking car, Congrats!!

 

Nice! Good to see another Capri on here. Not many around, which is nice to stand out a little.

 

If a person wants to stand out, this is a great car for standing out!

My son and I drove the car around town today getting insurance, registration, a new battery, and just B.S.'n around... in an hour of driving we had 4 people unroll their windows to ask what we were "drivin"... "is that a Premiere", "what year is it"... lots of double takes and thumbs up..

Very cool.. the car drove great right up until the car fell dead twice due to fuel starvation... It seems as if the fuel pump was working and the needle valve on the "teapot" carb must have been stuck closed and TIGHT....

Once I "figured" that the float bowl was way up high in the carb, I had to really knock the hell out of it to get fuel again...

I need to figure a solution. I was thinking of making an adapter to fit an Edelbrock carb, or possibly even a Autolite 2 bbl might be the best...

Any thought on this... I don't have the patience to go looking for a truck manifold... and gaskets.... I NEED to drive this car everyday starting tomorrow...

 

my buddy has just brought one of these babies in melbounre australia ,are you going to leave it six volt ?has anyone done a 12 v conversion on one as my friend is running a 351 cleveland in his (put in by previous owner)and wants to know which would be the best way to do this cheers great buy looks awesome great tail lights

 

I am planning on leaving it 12 V at the moment.

I am heading to the garage to change the fuel pump, there was one in the trunk so that might be a hint of the problem.. The carb service manual lists this as the "first cause" of a "lean condition"...

So I want to give that a try, I want to drive it!

 

Just my opinion but I think the 55 Lincoln is in third place behind the 56 Lincoln and the 55-56 Ford Crown Victorias of all the cars Ford Motor Corp ever produced. The taillight treatment in particular is metal art.

 

Well,,, I got ready to install the fuel pump that was in the trunk, and I figured out why it was in the trunk.... It was "similar" but smaller and a little different than the one on the engine...

I looked at it for a while, I was thinking that I could rebuild the stocker with parts from the new one, nope, different size diaphrams, most everthing a little different. The mount up is the same, same general shape and construction, looks like I might be able to bolt the new on in in it's place except that the lever arm that rides on the cam is the wrong length and angle.

I mull it over for a while and decide I don't have anything to loose so I decide to change the old lever arm into the new pump, In the past I have tried similar act of desperation and they SELDOM work, but against my better judgement I plowed ahead....

Well, dsmn,,, it actually worked... So far so good the car is running great. We have driven it about 30 or 40 miles or so with no breakdowns since the install...

 

Hello found this site while looking for stuff for my 55 Lincoln capri I need help finding parts the interor is gutted all I have are seats that used to be seats lol. Is there a place to look for these also is there a ford that intertwine with this model to find some things like I need the tail light lens. Thanks in advance

 

The Lincoln Y blocks were used in big trucks up into the early 60s and had 4 bbl carbs which will bolt on your motor and if you find one that does not have a governor grab the distributor too as it will help in getting that motor to run better and have the newer style points.

 

don't worry... Mom will set yer clothes out...
everything is goin' be good in yer life..

 

A little late but...

On the good side, 55 Lincoln was one of the best road cars of its time. Ace car tester Tom McCahill drove a 53 Capri hardtop which he chose because of its size (big but not too big), performance and handling. His was equipped with solid lifter cam and Mexican Road Race heavy duty suspension.

Did you know Lincoln won the Carrera Pan Americana in 1952 53 and 54? Look it up for some awesome racing stories.

They are also a great looking car, comfortable, and rare enough to be interesting even to those who have "seen it all".

On the bad side they are a pain in the neck to repair or maintain. They had the first ball joint suspension in the US and they used a unique ball joint that is not longer available. Engine is tough and long lived but a nightmare to work on. Oil filter is a canister type, under the engine and tucked into the frame so it is impossible to take off without getting a quart of boiling hot oil up your sleeve. Distributor at the back of the engine impossible to get at. Generator under the engine, also impossible to get at, but you must give it 2 drops of oil to each bearing at every oil change or burn out the generator. Battery under the passenger seat floor boards, under the carpet and under a removable panel. Transmission Turbo Drive 3 speed auto made by Ford. First year for this transmission after they switched from the GM Hydramatic.

I suppose we have gotten used to such things and it is no worse than a lot of newer cars especially luxury cars in fact not as bad. When I first started working in a garage one of our customers had a Lincoln and I hated it.

 

Don't let Rusty's sour memories of his youth scare you off : they are no harder to work on than the same year Ford/Mercury cars : the canister oil filter is the same unit as the Ford Y-Block, so it can be easily changed out to the modern Ford spin-on/ the distributer is also Y-block(it does have a different gear, but easily changed)/ The original generator can be changed to a newer one with sealed bearings(or, even better, to an alternator)/the "unique ball-joint suspension" is the double A-arm that was common until the 'Strut' design came out(the ball-joints can be replaced with other ones, even if not original, just as we've made other adaptions to get the drive train we want)( the original Lincoln Double A-arm suspension was one of the strongest made, & was later bought by Checker to use in their cab units.)

 

Well they are not easy to find parts for ,but you can find them. There aren't many ford parts that will work. Certainly not the taillights. Have fun.

 

Another good point : the '54-'57 Lincolns all shared 12"(!!!) brakes, so parts are sort-of available; at least they're not one -year-only! These can also be retrofitted to the '52-'53 models for improved braking! As a side note : the back spark plug on the driver's side is difficult to reach(an understatement!!) from the top ; But, if you turn the wheels all the way to the right, you'll see a hole in the inner fenderwell (behind the tire) that is directly in line with that plug! (& yes, it is factory!)

 

I didn't say unique ball joint suspension. I said unique ball joint that is no longer made.

Thanks drtrcr I forgot what a pain in the neck spark plugs were on those cars.

Having said all that about how hard they are to work on, they are only hard compared to other cars of the same time or earlier. Newer cars are even worse to work on so I suppose we have gotten used to it.

Being able to let it sit overnight so you are not working on a red hot engine helps a lot. A luxury you don't have working in a garage.

 

They are nice cars and they are a rich man's merc.

I think there is one for sale in the classifieds here now, I would be all over it except someone took it apart for a resto and those are always a nightmare.

Oh while I am thinking about it, when you decide to put an SBC in it so that you can drive it can I have the old undependable Y block?