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1966 Lincoln Continental convertible sedan
Soon after
I sold the gold ’66
I am about
to fall off the deep end again. I was in
Chicago in June to see my niece graduate from Northwestern, and received a
forwarded email from a friend in Richmond.
An acquaintance of his sent out a notice that his family had a ’66
Lincoln convertible for sale, and he asked if I knew anyone in the Lincoln club
who might be interested. My response
was: “Yeah, me.” I spoke
with the seller, and learned that the car is currently in Florida. The images attached to the email made the car
look good enough that I scheduled a one-day trip to West Palm Beach to look at
the car.
When I got there, I found a nice
15-to-20-foot car. The good stuff: the sheetmetal is
straight, the doors hang square, the major electrical systems (top, windows,
and climate control) function properly, the interior is extremely nice, and the
car feels good going down the road. The
not-so-good stuff: there are several mechanical issues that require attention,
and the car does show some rust. This is
not unexpected, given that the car spent the last couple of decades less than a
mile from the Atlantic Ocean. And the
car has one really scarce option: a right hand outside mirror…
This was one of “Dad’s
toys”, and was kept at the winter house in Boynton Beach. After Dad passed away, the car was titled in
the name of the family trust. That meant
that the paperwork had to be pushed across the country and back, as the second
trustee lives in San Francisco. She is
now reposing at Lincoln Land near Tampa for a while, and I will get to write a
few more checks. I’ll keep you
posted.
Based on the paperwork, the car was
driven less than 50 miles during the past three years. Therefore, part of what I asked Lincoln Land
to do was a complete re-commissioning.
This included changing all the fluids, filters, hoses, and belts. The brakes have been serviced (including
installing a ’67 brake master cylinder), the shocks and exhaust hardware
have been replaced, the cooling system serviced (we got a new radiator core
here), the suspension re-bushed, and a number of steering components
replaced. And no, this isn’t the
entire list.
The folks at Lincoln Land have been
busy these past few weeks. The car is
now running, and I told Chris Dunn to take her out and shake her down. Here she is somewhere near Clearwater Beach,
and on the road.
The car
finally made it up here in early October, and I drove it to Hershey. A couple of weeks later, I was digging through
the glovebox, and found a thick envelope full of
paper. Among the receipts, I found the
original window sticker for the car. In
addition, I found the original hand-written new car sales order, and the typed
selling invoice.
