my favorite drink is synthetic oil

CHRISTOPHER MCKITTERICK

1964 LINCOLN CONTINENTAL

Photos: 12/18/2002

So one afternoon, the sun was just about to set, and I realized it was the perfect time to take a bunch of photos of the car: It looks really great with the contrasting, ruddy colors of sunset. I didn't quite make it to the field near our house before the sun got really low, but these are nice shots, anyway.

SLOW CONNECTION WARNING: I've loaded a LOT of photos here, because I knew that potential buyers across the country would want to see every detail before coming to Kansas and discovering the car isn't quite what they expected. I want only an overjoyed buyer! So here you'll see the car at just about every conceivable angle. I'll post another page like this soon, with more noonish sunlight and some longer shots of the car.

Let the shots load to see the car in its full glory (approx. 700 seconds at 28.8kbps, less than a minute at DSL speed).

A few shots at the end were taken a few days ago, but everything looks the same as now. The last shot is especially appropriate now, as I have sold this car. Sigh. I hope its new owner loves it as much as I have.

Here's my baby from about 12 feet away, doors open. Note how far back I've positioned the front seat: I have a 34" inseam and can stretch my legs all the way out!

Here's the car from the other side, doors gaping.

The front. Very straight body, with only a few little ripples here and there which you can't see unless you're right on top of it! Chrome is very nice, as is the stainless, except for a few scratches or dings as noted on the for-sale page.

Just noticed that I haven't removed the old plate from the front! Kansas only requires a rear plate; I should remove this one...

In our garage right at sunset. Stains on the floor aren't from this car, but from previous resident.

"Suicide doors" wide open on both sides. Note that I've removed the weatherstrip from the rear-inside of the front doors, because it was pretty much useless. I have new weatherstrip ready to install.

All door handles and other hardware is in great shape and very pretty.

Rear view from above. Those doors are like big wings! All the windows are trimmed with brightwork, which goes up and down with the glass.

Rear view from low. Note that the exhaust is perfectly clean (car was idling for about 10 minutes while I took these photos).

Note the faint greenish tint of the glass, which is a little darker at the top of the windshield.

Front passenger corner. Note that I'm running on the spare in this shot -- the valve stem needed replacement (the car does have all 4 wheel covers). Good tread on the spare!

The lights at the corners of the bumper center section are driving lights, which come on at the headlight control's half-position.

This shot of the front driver's corner shows the scratches to the bumper and trim just behind it. I wouldn't want to have been the object on the receiving end of this car's bumper! Note that the wheel covers are nice, just not perfect. Grille and headlight rims are in great shape.

Rear driver's-side corner. I love the rear-end trim at the bottom of the trunk and top of the bumper, the black-and-stainless checkerboard.

Rear passenger's-side corner. You can see a little ding in the bumper's checkerboard-trim.

The driver's door controls. The right-most (front) two control the vent windows, the next two control the front door windows, the rear two control the rear door windows, and the rear toggle allows the driver to turn off the power door locks, which are controlled by a lever on the dash. The handle in the well slides front-back to open the door. The door pulls are in beautiful shape, as are the door upholstery pieces. 

The driver's doorsill. The front doorsills have these labeled pieces, while the rear ones are simpler. I replaced all the screws with stainless pieces. The heavy rubber floor doorsill-covers (with the Continental logo) are in nice condition, as shown here -- not in #1 show-car condition, but certainly nicer than most cars on the road!

The rear, passenger-side door as seen from the front. Weatherstrip here is good, but I have extra weatherstrip for the rear doors for some day down the line.

The driver's door, close-up, as seen kneeling on the ground beside the driver's seat. You can see the stainless trim at the top of the door is excellent, as is the rest of the trim. That black stuff at the top of the doorsill isn't rust or any fault in the paint, just some rotten weatherstrip that I've neglected to remove -- boy, it's humbling to see these things! Must clean doorsill...

The shiny bit just to the right of the doorsill is the parking brake. It automatically releases when you put the car in gear; I don't know why every car doesn't do this. The lever just above it is the hood release.

Close-up of the dash, showing current mileage. The previous owner says this is accurate, and I tend to agree. If the mileage were this plus 100, the interior wouldn't be so nice. Note the excellent oil pressure at idle.

The big triangle to the side of the speedometer is the blinker indicator, which flashes green indicating left (same for the right blinker, just to the right of this shot).

Full instrumentation: Out of frame is temp, similar to the oil gauge; then charge (discharge to charge, here showing a slight charge as expected); then oil, and then the fuel gauge (note that it registers about 1/2 of the actual -- here, it shows empty while it still has a few gallons remaining), with a red indicator below the range which comes on at reserve of about 2 gallons.

View of the interior from through the driver's window. The leather is in beautiful condition, with the rear seats almost perfect, and the back of the front seats super nice. Note the courtesy lights on the rear pillars; passengers back there can turn one or both of these off by pressing the big parallelogram just in front of the lights. Also note that the rear seat has just as huge of an armrest as the front.

The driver's seat, close-up. I drive it like this even though I have near-perfect replacement leather for two reasons: 1) I think it's pretty as-is, and replacing the leather takes effort <g> and 2) I didn't think it was necessary to perfect it until I decide to show the car. If you make your seats perfect and then use them, well, they get less-perfect.

There's a tiny tear at the rear, below the sun-lit stripe (not a stain), and plenty of wrinkling. Otherwise, what you see is what you get! Nicer than most 1990's cars.

Seat belts work great, but they didn't have shoulder belts back in 1964.

The controls on the side of the seat adjust height, angle, tilt, and front/back via powerful motors.

Love that two-tone steering wheel!

The front passenger's seat. Wrinkling here, too, but no cracks. A couple of buttons are missing, but I have replacements.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Install sound-proofing insulation to the underside of the trunk, in the large flat spaces. Trunks this huge need protection against condensation, and this also quiets the rear of the car. I spent many hours cleaning up the surface rust from those areas now protected from condensation; wire-brushing, sanding, priming, and painting. If you're restoring your Lincoln, make sure to do the same prep, and then install the insulation using a solid base of contact cement appropriate for the insulation.

Note that I store the spare in the huge space at the center-bottom of the trunk, with a terrycloth cover. The stock location is the center-top, where you can see the hardware and the two brackets. Keeping it where I do makes a flat bottom to the cavern back here, plus it lowers your center of gravity a little.

You can't see them very clearly in this shot, but two tensioned spring-bars cross the front of the trunk, levering the trunk hinges and keeping it open even during wind storms. They make it easy to lift the huge mass of steel, plus lock it in place when fully open. It rises high enough that I can't bump my head (I'm 6' tall).

The white lights at the corners of the bumper center section are back-up lights.

Trunk's passenger side. You can see a tear in the side liner material, near the rear.

I keep a portable tool set in the trunk of all our cars, especially the old ones! Doing the same can save you headaches if you ever need to adjust something during a trip. Cheap insurance.

I also have a set of trunk weatherstrip. The current weatherstrip works fine, but it has nicks and such, which you can see here.

Driver's side of the trunk. The gray flap on the side lifts to reveal the jack equipment.

Jack in its position in the trunk. You can see the original instruction sheet attached to the liner.

Engine compartment as it looks now. Note the radiator-overflow tank on the driver's side: Originally, cars of this vintage just dumped their overflow on the ground when you parked (from the yellow tube on this side of the photo). Service stations refilled your radiator whenever you filled up. Hazardous! This tank closes the cooling system, so it fills when parking and then empties when the radiator cools and draws back the coolant.

Note also the fuel-pressure regulator at the end of the braided fuel line, right beside the new voltage-regulator. A nice touch is the stock rubber shield above the voltage-regulator, which protected it against rain seepage. I left the stock, mechanical fuel pump in place just in case of electric pump failure; all you need do in case of emergency is hook up the (included) fuel lines in the stock configuration, and you can drive normally, though the stock pump won't supply all three carbs!

The engine is described well elsewhere, so I'll move along.

Looking out the front from the driver's seat. Pretty view!

I love how this car stands out at night. I get plenty of attention during the day, but at night especially people really notice this car.

And for a final shot...

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