1966 Lincoln Continental - Jay Leno's Garage

all kinds of power it's manhood so different from the car I have and it's so American this couldn't be from any other country now this is Detroit's best time yeah, it's like driving your pool that's how I feel, you know episode of the Jay Leno's Garage once again my favorite category of original and unrestored cars this is my fascinating

1966

Lincoln Continental story I wasn't looking for one of these but one day I got a call from an older lady, let's say she lived in Beverly Hills. Her sister had been Mal Monroe's roommate in the '40s and '50s I guess, she bought this car new, it was only three miles from my house, I had never seen it, she owned the car since

1966

, she probably drove about a thousand miles per year, although it's taken a couple of little knocks from shopping carts and stuff, it looks like it's five or six years old, but it's actually 1966, so there you have it, it's pretty amazing, the original leather interior, Original paint, works as if it were new.

I just had to buy it. I went and looked at it and was amazed. I had never seen the car before and that's why I bought it. When you have a car like this, these cars are incredibly complex, probably the most complex in America. cars ever built and every time you buy a car like this you have to find the guy you remember from the book Fahrenheit 451. I mentioned this before. It takes place in the future and they burn all the books and there are guys walking around. Men and women and they just memorize a book and that's all they know and they keep that knowledge with them.

When you buy a car like this, you have to find the expert. You have to find the guy who called the Lincoln man. He is a friend of mine. His name is John Cashman, he literally travels around the United States working alone on this particular model, there it is so complex because when they are perfect they are amazing, when they are bad they are amazing and he can tell you how to get one that works properly. John, come on, how are you? Jay, it's good to see you. Oh, this guy saved my life with his car.

It wasn't perfect when I had some little things, but in the end it wasn't a bad car. Hey, you got a winner? Yes, there are only originals once and this is what I call a real time capsule survivor. Now tell us about your interest in these cars, so for the last thirty-eight years, that's all you've done, that's your job, right? I have specialized in Lincoln Continental convertibles for thirty-eight years, they were made from 1961 to 1967 in seven years and twenty-one thousand three hundred and forty-seven of them were made during the seven years in terms of cars, that's not a lot, that's not a large production of Lincoln convertibles.

It's a unique car, it's all one piece, it's a unibody car, even the front end doesn't come off like a normal car, it's all one piece and once they get hit in an accident, you gotta have a man who be a real specialist, right? Well, that knows what he's doing. This was the last production car to have lead. This seam here is driven with that. Well, yes, and it's all a unibody car. Were made. This is the suicide door. The Lincolns were from '61 to '69 and the four-door convertibles were from '61 to '67 and are probably the most complex production car to come out of Detroit.

Let's explain what unibody means, that means there is no chassis. Most cars up until the '60s had a chassis, you put a body on it and bolted it on. If you dent it, you might be able to straighten the chassis, but this is literally like stamping it. It's one piece and it's a very strong car. This carleeee weighs approximately 5,800 pounds. This is the most interesting feature of these cars. He says it's a four. convertible door, which is really fantastic. There was a TV show here in America called Antara Entourage that featured one of these and suddenly everyone is looking for them and I'm glad they're finally getting what's coming to them because they would see these things. in junkyards and hulls, oh they look like mastodons lying in tar pits, you know, the front parts sticking out in the air and the rear part sticking out of the ground, but they are just fantastic and I meet people all the time who are incredibly put off because they buy. one of these they don't have a guy like you who knows them and they send it to people who spend their money learning how to fix it and in the end they do it wrong because you found some things wrong with it, right?

Yeah, I wouldn't make much money if all the cars I worked on were like yours. Here's a winner with this one. Most of them need a complete overhaul that takes ten or fifteen hours to fix the problem. Complex convertible top consisting of ten relays, five reverse motors in approximately 13 minutes, which depends on the year. We'll show you how this ceiling goes up and down in just a minute. It's fantastic to see. You can bring it. refuel by standing to the side and putting a key in what looks like a key to close the gas cap is actually what makes the top work properly yeah yeah and the engine is 462 cubic inches which is at 340 horsepower, it was built at 340. horsepower the engine came out in 1958 with the 430 engine and the 430 was used until 1965 then they bored it and stroked it and called it the 462 right, they got about 40 more horsepower when they bored it and they stroked it they called it 462 over the 430, the four barrel carburetor was put on the 430 in 1963 and the way the Lincoln works is the 61 62 and 63 is the first group or the first family, right, they are very similar 61 Of course, it was the first with a final single front but then in '64 they stretched the car giving more space to the rear seat passengers, they stretched the car 4 inches and always in the back seat and the '64 and '65 Lincolns are very similar but they changed the dash from '61 to '63.

I went to straight glass, the '65 is probably the most popular of the bunch because the show's entourage did a lot for its popularity and in the last seven years the popularity of these cars has increased as a rock. I like the 66 and 67 because they have disc brakes in the front. Disc brakes came out. The 1960s car was purchased with two passengers. It's safe to say that this car weighs three tons and yes, it weighs six thousand and five and what I like most is that they actually boast about the mileage in the manual. You'll get 8-11 miles per gallon like, oh man please stop killing me.

I mean, really maybe it means 11, meaning it's the best you'll ever do, that goes downhill quickly with a hunger strike or driving around naked hitting the thing. with this big toe that's the lightest it's ever been and you're getting 11 miles on it. In fact, when I drive this and watch the clock and fuel gauge move simultaneously, it just looks funny, but it's a wonderful drive. the car is extremely comfortable, you can literally touch it with a finger all the way, it is the complete absence of a line, you feel like you are literally driving the couch in your living room, it is a couch with a V8 and it works like a motel room, but said this.

It's a very elegant car, you know, people forget that. Certainly, in the late '50s and early '60s, a lot of cars with some style, you know, Cadillac had huge fins, it was pretty sober, right? It was very tastefully designed since the 50s, the 50s were the flashy Lincolns, which were what we call the pagoda era, right, they were huge and in 1961 the car was reduced in size, it went to a much larger platform. small, sedans sold many, many many sedans compared to four-door convertibles and they did. a coupe I almost bought a coupe I was tempted to buy a coupe Buyers looked at the coupe when this I just got an unexpected call This lady heard that I liked older cars and what I would be interested in, okay, but you know something, whatever.

I hear there are cars for sale in Beverly Hills. I always go to see them because they were usually owned by wealthy people who knew how to take care of a car and if they didn't know how to take care of a guard they certainly had a

garage

where it was kept and it wasn't a car that had boxes and suitcases stacked on top of it so looking for cars on Rich communities are probably where you'll find the best car, that's one of the tips I always tell people. You know, if you go to a rich area of ​​Palm Beach or something, Palm Springs, you have to find these kinds of cars there because older people drive them.

I don't drive as much anymore and they put them away. I mean, the lady stopped driving it because it's years old and the fact that she drove it, I mean, I drive this and I try to back up acting like I didn't actually put glass in to see what the back of this thing is like. . It's so big that I don't know the fact that it barely has any bumps. It's amazing because this lady really wasn't much taller than this and she drove this everywhere. It's just fascinating to me, it's so much fun. I find the highest concentration of the nicest Lincoln Continental convertible, so here in Southern California, a lace and an iego, and this area is the nicest, nicest original cars.

I like tasteful hubcaps, those are very well made, yeah, you know, it's not a big white wall, it's a subtle form of white wall. you want to start first you want to stand under the hood you want to put the hood up what do you want? Let's talk under the hood. Well, I'll go ahead and pull the lever there. All these cars have a security lock. here and the reason they did it was to get you away from the road side of the car they wanted you to be on the curb side of the car to open the hood now this is the 462 engine it's the first year of the c6 transmission it's a three speed transmission that came out in 1966, they used that transmission until 1979 and beyond in some trucks, yes my dad had it in a big 7 liter galaxy, it was kind of Ford's answer to the torque flight of a transmission Big and powerful, it takes all kinds of torque and all kinds of power, as you can see by looking under the hood of this car, it has not been restored at all.

You can see that there were some insulation melting issues and some others. It's very original and things are basically in the same state. right in the right place, one of the unique features of Lincoln Continental convertibles is that the power steering pump is mounted at the front of the engine, their crankshaft does not have a belt like a normal car and they used that system from the 50's to 1969 and something like that. you advised me and I changed it quickly, it was to get the correct fuel pump, yes, because come on, go ahead, tell the story, back in the day when they had hundred percent gasoline vapor lock, it wasn't such a problem big as it is today.

Ethanol Fuel Ethanol fuel vapor locks much more easily than one hundred percent gasoline, even in the past they had a problem with a car's vapor lock because the fuel pumps at the hottest point of the engine are at the top at the hottest point of the engine and has a special valve that sends fuel back to the tank to cool the pump properly, so it requires it to be the right fuel pump, many people put the wrong pump in and then They stop and... go into traffic on a 90 degree day and wonder why the car shuts off and won't start due to a condition called vapor lock.

It is important that they have the correct three port fuel pump. There are some idiosyncrasies with Lincolns that are like that. They are a detail that is quite important and was the first thing we changed everything else under the hood. We were trained. We changed a lot of vacuum hoses because this car has a lot of vacuum running accessories. Yes, I would drive here. whistling at me even though that happens and the holes are literally when I reach under the dash he grabs a hose and it literally crumples in my hand because it's been there since 1966 well that's the kind of thing that happens over time yeah but okay, no.

It doesn't matter about that, because I know where the hose went. You know, a lot of times people modify and block a hose and you have no idea where it went, so we were able to replace those hoses, yeah, pretty easily, like on the Lincoln. The 66 and 67 models are the last group or the last family and this car is completely different than the 1965 and 64 models. It has a real glass window in the convertible top that we will show in just a minute when we put the roof on. but the whole design of the car and the running gear and everything was different than the 64 and 65 Lincolns as far as drivability, the latter group really has it better than the previous group with things like correct disc brakes and the engine 462 stronger, the c6 transmission they had better. protection against rust and corrosion in group 66 and 67 compared to the previous group.

I have a very slight leak in my exhaust manifold II. I can only do it if I turn on the radio, it disappears, but I turn on the radio, yes, I need to do it. The need to fit new guest manifolds where the exhaust manifold bolts to the head is a very common problem because exhaust gases leak through that area. Movement: These cars need the manifold removed, repaired and redone, that was aweak area of ​​the car. let's close the hood, something else I needed to call John about when I bought this car, it has heat and an air conditioning system that is so complex it's pretty much the same thing.

I turned it on, it was cold and I turned on the heating, but it was not there. I am not getting heat from the vents only from the bottom and then I was playing around turns out the heater only works on the bottom the a/c only works on the top right this was the first year they offered auto temperature . Automatic temperature control was a five hundred and twenty-five dollar option starting in 1966. It was a very complex system using three sensors and a master control unit. It is a very complex unit with vacuum tube potentiometer. It is a complex unit and all 66 Lincolns were recalled. when the 67 automatic temperature control system came about because it was a simpler system.

We looked at the main control unit and it was updated. What it does is it expels heat from the floor when you ask for heat, it expels conditioned air from the... it ventilates when you ask for air conditioning and it detects the room temperature and automatically switches between heating and air conditioning to keep you as comfortable as possible because this is a car luxury and it's all about comfort and that was five hundred and twenty-five dollars you said five hundred and twenty-five dollars and if this was Chrysler you wanted the Hemi option remember the big Hemi engine, the most powerful engine produced, it was a four hundred something color option, that'll give you shows what expensive cars running just the air conditioning system was more than the price of the heavy Hemi engine in one of the Chrysler products, what else can we let me get the key for?

Another thing I think is cool is that you can operate the top from either one. or from this key here and those are 66 and 67 only they had the key there, group 61 to 65 you had to use the switch on the dashboard, but this way you can open the trunk and you can stop the cycle anywhere of the cycle. Whether that or the switch on the dash, well, here's the fun part about these cars: put the top on and let it seal and show you how it closes and then when we come back, we'll start and stop along the way. you can point out some of the problem points, this is the most complex, the fact that this works is amazing and the fact that it works after 50 years is even more amazing to me, okay here we go, you put the key here, So. that you don't get in the trunk with a dead battery in the Lincoln and it's a good idea to have the car running, yes, turn on the alternator and turn off the power when you're working on the convertible top because it currently draws about 45 amps.

The hydraulic system right now is exerting the equivalent of two tons of force to lift this heavy top frame out of the trunk and up, and it takes two growing men to lift these top frames when they're on the floor of the car because they're very tall frames. Very heavy, it lifts and locks automatically, unlike a normal convertible that you reach in and unlock, the Lincoln automatically locks, then the bed retracts and the trunk lid closes. It's a series of about ten relays and it screws down and when it clicks, yes, it's down. I could watch this all day.

This makes me laugh. I don't know why he does it now. Something else is great. I'm going to raise the windows to demonstrate this so I can use the bypass. Can? Yeah, yeah, if you hold it down to keep the windows from rolling up, to give you power, you've seen how the convertible top works, but actually the windows on this car I think are more complex than the convertible top, let's show people. what we are. Speaking of here now, when this window is open, if you were to get into the car when you go to open it, press to make the window go down so that you don't automatically roll down the rear window when all four-door convertibles go down about four inches when you open the door when you close it, it will come back up now just to do that. this window has six relays yes, yes, also, here is a knife switch, yes, here is a latch actuator switch, it is a very complex system.

For this automatic drop and return on the rear windows, every Ford or Lincoln convertible made this feature, they had various engineering changes of course etc, but they had to do this because if the front glass was up it would be hidden behind This weather. It pulls to the right and also the glass would hit the convertible top here if it didn't fall and when we close it it automatically goes back up and turns off. Good morning Mr. Bond, I mean, I love it, I mean, but I think if I bought one of these used you would and it was broken, you would just find that you would be pulling it and you would damage the top or it would hit right here or you would damage the top Right, it needs to work, but that's not something that Would you know if you found one of these uses and it didn't work?

You just think it's a horrible way to build a car. You know you wouldn't have known that it was necessarily designed at one time. A client called me. This was years ago and he said when I opened the back door the window rolls down and he wondered what was wrong with the car and I said well things are working properly yeah well oh you give the classic everyone does that , yeah, yeah, that's my favorite thing, hey, this is making a rattle, everyone does it, that rattle was designed in Yeah, I mean, it's very complex and the fact that this made it to production with all this theatrics It's just amazing to me, they had a lot of changes.

As they went, all of these cars were built at the Wixom assembly plant. Wixom is about 40 miles west of Detroit. It was a fairly large assembly plant that opened in 1956 for the production of the Lincoln Mark 2, the Lincoln Mark 2 and also the Continental right, which was now Continental and fifty-five six seven which was a separate brand, right, it's not Lincoln Continental, it's a

continental

type like Lexus in Toyota or Acura and Honda, was a premium brand, but it had only lasted a couple of years. correct years, it became Lincoln Continental, I think with the correct model year 1961 because that was a completely different direction for Lincoln Continental, model year '61, the Wixom assembly plant closed in 2007 and that's where all the Lincoln Continental and Thunderbirds.

So much complex electronics, something I didn't know either until John pointed out that you have a bypass switch where you can raise and lower the windows without having the key in it. Yes, you know that gives power to the windows. The keys are in the house. and the storms are approaching and you want to roll up the windows, which gives it power. It came out in 1965 and was just another convenience option. Around 1964 they started to have a lot more options on these cars. I had a lot of options for the 66 67 model year, well the lady who bought it from me ordered almost every option except she didn't get the power side windows which was a $52 option i.e. 1515, who has that kind of thing, you know, that's how he was going to get the price, like you told me FM radio was, I think, $75 and in 1960 he said we didn't know if FM was going to last and he didn't want to buy something that wouldn't be here in a couple of years, so he just went with direct AM.

I don't want to go with the FM option because it's one of those newfangled things that you know what it is so it only has an AM radio. Well, let's go behind it, we'll open this up and show people how it all works. kaleidoscope of gears and again this is before computers, they are all relays, everything is done by limits, which are the little limit switches, they are the brains of the operation. Each cycle has a limit switch to start the cycle and a limit switch to end the cycle. the brain and then, because the motors are high consumption motors, they use relays which is basically a switch so that this window goes down now, I lowered the top no, the windows are completely separated from the top, they don't know where is the top are completely separated from the top the top could be fully retracted that window would still do the automatic drop in the automatically going this way I'm going to put the wit now I'm going to lower the top but just To be sure, I'm going to lower this rear window again.

Put on bypass. It's a good idea to roll down the windows slightly when you're putting the top up or down. The manual even says to have the car on level ground. running up and roll down the windows slightly now watch these screws turn you'll see this they screw into the base here and they'll keep turning until you hit a limit switch that tells them to turn off properly and the flap panel spins. When you get here, the contacts are repositioned on this rear upper panel limit switch, which is basically the brain of the entire roof operation and which tells you to unlock on the windshield now, if your roof stays smashed for more than four hours, call John. and he'll come out and fix that for you, okay, now let's show when this.

I don't know why this makes me laugh. I feel like I'm in the McLaren and it's the, you know, it's the brake flap to stop. Now look. this thing here this goes up it just looks like a big bird over there now well boom there you go now you can see some of the countless switches and gears and all of these have to line up perfectly this is the motor that drives the cable this is basically like a speedometer cable that goes to this auger and this way - yes, and the little limit switches there is one here next to this this receiver head turns a light on and off yes, there is one there next to that hydraulic cylinder that is the platform open limit switch this is the rear top panel limit switch this is the brain of the entire top operation when I bought that switch new from Ford back in the day it was part number c56040 I thought it was the part number and it is the most common Failed part on cars, yes, change it right there, that's going to be the death of me, yes, but being a nice original car, it hasn't been fooled by many hobbyists who work on these cars, they don't know what they are doing and They are important and here you have plastic hoses that, of course, can deteriorate over the years.

They hold up pretty well yes there are high quality nylon hoses and unless they pinch them they hold up pretty well sometimes the cylinders leak and are replaced with new ones and what we use here ATF yes they say this one system has automatic transmission fluid that makes the hydraulic system, there is a hydraulic pump motor unit for the deck lid which is located in the left quarter panel area and there is a hydraulic pump motor unit Up here, we are the convertible top with two separate pumps and that was an improvement over the 61 to 65 Lincoln which had one pump on the right side panel running everything and they directed the floor fluid in the 61 to 65 Lincoln with a so

leno

id. valve, they direct it to the platform system or the upper system using so

leno

id valves.

I think this system is a small improvement over the previous group because they are two separate hydraulic pumps. They were the same guys who designed the retractable Fairlane when Ford came out with 57 and it had the roof that folded and lowered, yes, and that was the first time, at least in the postwar period, that the French had one in the 50s, but It was not automatic, it was well made by hand, that's the same guy who said. They were not the same designers, the theory was similar in that Skyliner that was made in 57, 58 and 59 it was a hardtop and when it retracted it was made with a half horsepower screw motor, not with a hydraulic system, okay, All the pieces are different, they are not. shares some parts with this car, yes the theory is basically the same but it is a completely different animal and it was a hardtop and the roof retracted back into the trunk with a folding third of the roof in the front that folded down and screwed on. with augers similar to this on the windshield, okay, let's put this here, let's put this so you notice how the glass folds down and this top part goes down.

One of the things this car needed was this bracket right here, the first time I saw it. We had to replace this bracket and that was due to lack of maintenance. This car is very important. Maintenance is done to avoid problems in the future. There are a few things I do that are preventive maintenance service points. There is a set screw that adjusts this. Of course it was never adjusted and broke. I replaced it the last time I saw Jay, but service, maintenance, and fixing things before they get too out of adjustment is the key to this and the good thing is that the top locks on those two. slots there are three limit switches up there of course the limit switches are the brain and they tell it to go to the next cycle and of course here we have more fluid and that's in the back here's the pump, the reservoir of the convertible top pump. hydraulic system and below there are eight of its total of ten relays that work, the two upper relays are behindof the back seat and eight are there and the two behind the back seat were placed there in case this didn't open in case for some reason there was a malfunction limit switch or whatever, if it doesn't open you can remove the back seat and there are two relays back here, that is, Dec unlock the screws and Dec open so you can send 12 volts directly to these motors bypassing the two relays back here in case it doesn't work and that ditch here to fix the problem when you started doing this the old people are about the age we are now was anyone your mentor?

There was a factory guy there who passed on the knowledge to you. Just understand all this. on your own no, I learned more I was always a gearhead I played I didn't play with normal toys I played with I went to the army navy surplus yards and took apart transmissions and old army jeeps and all kinds of old cars and early In the late '70s I bought a '67 Lincoln sedan and I thought it was the cat's meow, yeah, and that led me to a Lincoln convertible. I learned a lot of this through trial and error, but the best thing I can learn is junker. or a parts car take it apart to see how it's done and in those days people sometimes gave me a junker for parts, now what sent you to bond because at that time you were a young man, I would have thought the Mustang Corvette was something more for all.

I was making the links, I was a lost leader, yeah, there weren't many people specializing in Lincoln and I ran ads on old cars from Hemmings Motor News weekly in various automobile publications and I realized there weren't many people specializing in Lincoln and I had pretty much all the business I could handle and in a market for parts I was getting out of cars in the 80's, I separated a lot of Lincoln's, the joke is we'd send a convertible to the crusher if it had a tear, look, the bumper too dented wouldn't it worked, but that was a long time ago, yeah, I mean, you must feel like oh, I should have held on, I should have held on, but yeah, I mean, they were so complex that there was no one. who could fix them a lot of people were afraid of this car for years they took a look at it oh look at all this see I don't want one of them I'm afraid I'm afraid of him and and also another The downside when this car was in the showroom was not a cheap car, it was six or seven thousand dollars with the options that you have and a normal car like an Impaler or a Galaxie was about $2,000 and one type of person who bought this car wanted to take a vacation or something, well, no.

They have a trunk when the top is down, so that was an inconvenience when the car was new, you could put a soft carry-on bag or a set of golf clubs back here, but there was no luggage. Space was an issue and if any of these limit switches were off by even 30 mils, it could cause you to not go to the next cycle in the next phase and then it would have to be something mechanical or have me on the other end of the phone telling you what to adjust. and so on and how often should I lubricate these points where things move, these are more or less this is the flapper gear that drives the assembly that lifts it up and down there's really nothing to do here this has an upgraded bigger motor here the factory put a small motor here that was good for the 61 to 65 Lincoln which had a smaller fin the 66 and 67 group has a much larger fin but from the factory they didn't put a big enough motor in here and that's why We put in this upgraded, what I call, high torque motor to make the heavy fin go up at an acceptable speed, yes, people tried to lower the top while I was moving at like 20 miles an hour, well, when this was when it happened. did this, they had a neutral safety relay here that prevented, oh, Joe, you idiot, from flipping their top switch and the cars running, the top switch had no power. they thought of everything, not that someone would do that, but they thought they put a lock there so the top switch doesn't have power when you're in Drive, let's go ahead and watch them bolt into the car, it just makes me laugh to see them spin now they go into these right here and the alignment of that is critical if a car has been completely disassembled.

It's a challenge to get everything adjusted correctly, put the trunk lid on right now. Look at my instinct. it's when it goes down, just let it go when you hear it click, click, that's actually fine, right, that's fine, they made it idiot proof by tightening the ratchet, that's fine, because you know, I would think when it starts to turn, oh , it's too tight and you would know it. it's okay to hear it rattle, it fits really well and it's, uh, it's a completely different car with the top down with the top up it's just a big car but with the top down it's very airy to drive and my favorite thing about the car is it has four ashtrays and a fourth lighter everyone is going to smoke all the time you know, God forbid, you have to borrow someone else's lighter, so you have your own, you know, smoking, not smoking, no, these are all smoking sections, the entire car is for smoking. section that everyone has and you have these giant ashtrays, you could have hundreds of seats for ashtrays and lighters, you had to be able to start your Lucky Strike in the '60s, that's right, I mean, this was the crazy car, you know the Mad Men television show. about the guys in the '60s, it really was, this is just the height of luxury and you know, I think they're just as good cards as the comparable, at least at that time, Mercedes-Benz or even Rolls-Royce because you had features that these functions.

I hadn't even thought about it yet, like this top, I mean, my God, and there's all kinds of space inside, you know, you can carry everyone, you know, it's Co luggage, six people comfortably, yeah, six, six people, It's cool, you ready to go out for a ride, yeah, come on, I'll show you what we're talking about and you'll see how quiet and smooth it is and come on, let's try it, make a powerful sound of power now when people look at this car. , they think it has two radios, but actually this is the correct temperature control and all the flow is high to fog and ice and you don't have to use the air conditioning.

If the temperature drops, the air conditioning will do so. activates correctly, if it goes higher it obviously gets hot, simply select the fan speed either low or high, the right one automatically selects heat or air conditioning depending on the room temperature. I love the fact that she changed the antennas to raise it and has an antenna switch to lower it again, as you can see, 64,000 original miles, which is actually a little over a thousand miles a year for every year the lady owned it , it's a very, very low mileage on an invertible mile, a very low mileage that they designed, this way to be symmetrical, yeah, and to match it, this is what the trunk is open, you have one for the tailgate open, you have oil pressure and you have to adjust the water temperature, as well as a hot light, yeah, just like A hot light that was kind of should have had an indicator, but you have four air conditioning vents on the dash and air ducts. heat for rear seat passengers and an up and down switch right here.

I think we're ready to go. Beautiful day for a ride in a Lincoln convertible, we have to go to the country club and pick up Buffy and Kyle, and that and taking a ride seems like a winner to me, all kinds of power, it's a very different vanity of the car. I have it and it's so American, this couldn't be from any other country, no, this is Detroit's prime, yeah, and they built these and the Wixen plan was always a special plan when they made the Continental first and then it was built the Wixom assembly plant. 1956 for the new Lincoln Mark 2, which was a very expensive car, it was a hand-built car and it lasted three years and they built the Thunderbirds at the Wixen plant.

They built the Lincoln fuse in Wixen. plant and closed in 2007. I toured on three different occasions. Yes, I thought it was a very modern, state-of-the-art assembly plant, but what do I know? I'm old school. This is the very definition of cruising. This is a cruise. If there was ever one thing that impresses me about this car Jay, it's that the vacuum door locks are bad, okay the vacuum still works, yes they work to lock and unlock like they should, yes, and the manual says you have to hold down. the door lock button down until the vacuum is transferred to all four doors no, okay, they went electric in 1970, what's the star? the hood ornament.

I'm not exactly sure the hood ornament had dots until 1968 and 69 model years, no I don't have a hood ornament because those dots were considered a safety hazard and the hood ornament came back in 1970 without the dots . You get a lot of looks on this card. I know everyone checks it. You also buy and sell them. I used to do it. I already used to buy and sell cars. Of all the work I could do doing the electrical part of these, the magic of this car is these complex electrical systems that we discussed earlier and my Nisha is the convertible tops and power windows, mainly on my service truck. when I make a service call I have all the electrical relays limit switches pumps hydraulic motors pretty much anything I need to completely overhaul those systems in a 10 hour day any type of modern relay you know of electronics that can replace it there are some modern parts on the that I do what I call a sex change and I take a modern part and adapt it to fit these some things have been reproduced a limited amount of things have been reproduced and then the best is a car with organ donor parts for many not new things available this is the perfect car for the hilarity of southern california it's wonderful to ride in the

lincoln

convertible on this beautiful southern california day that's every day in southern california that's why we're here now You know, I usually hate white upholstery and white on white is the least effective, but for some reason it looks good on this car, it does, and white usually doesn't go down well because I'm always greasy.

I'm clean. today, of course, yes, exactly heated, shows every stain, but you know the fact that this is the original up close, it holds up remarkably well, it's in very good condition and it's only original once, right, I mean, this one thing literally floats down the road, it just makes me laugh and it's actually quite comfortable. You can go over an obstacle in this car and not even feel it. Now you can run over a police car in this thing. Even another unique feature that appeared in 1966 is the barrel filling speedometer. As you speed up, it came out in 1966 and was used until 1977, yes there is a barrel back there about 2 inches in diameter, the turns and optical corrector make it look like it's filling correctly, it's really a unique speedometer because it memory.

Buick had something similar, but it changed color the faster you went to the right, so if you got to 80 it would be red and it had a thing called a safety alert where you set it and when you reached the preset speed or went forward, it gave you a warning. audible because most and it says in the brochure a blessing for safety teaches teenagers not to talk Yes, right, like you're just not going to set the thing to the highest speed. It was so funny now in 1967, that's the pedometer. it turned red after 70 miles and it turned red and on one of my personal cars I painted it with model paint so between 60 and 70 it was yellow when it turned red because you normally cruise between 69 and 70 at least when you get in. in the countryside outside of Los Angeles, around Los Angeles, you're going to be between 15 and 25 years old.

I never felt like they were attracted more, that bump there, Lou, this may be, yeah, and I'm sure the shocks on this thing are probably 30 years old in At least they were a pretty heavy duty hydraulic shock and I don't hear any noises or noises or nothing, so now this is a car you always want to restore to stop. You know, I need guys who want to fix an ls6 or something. a lot of those cars are doing all that customization on our cars that are actually parts cars that the back end brought back from the dead and you know okay I work on all types of cars from original to highly customized.

A lot of times they don't think about when customizing a car, it's accessibility to services, have you ever had a car that you took out? This is irreparable, there is nothing you can do here, very, very, very rarely, that I can count on. For one thing, the cars that I have that I've worked on over the last few years, most of the cars that I work on are on site. I travel to the car and fix it at someone's house or

garage

or wherever and people. get me for a day and on that day I check electrical systems, convertible tops, power windows and most cars I can fix in a day, if they are a real basket case it moves on to the second day, but themost of them I do. in a day and when I worked on this one you didn't keep me busy for long because this nice surviving car I didn't realize that the previous ones were actually four inches shorter, you know, they lengthened the car in 1964 and it was all in the back seat because 61 to 63 is a little tight in the rear sound and they wanted to give more room to the rear seat passengers right in the 70's the car became even bloated, bigger and longer and went back to a body frame construction .

The Lincolns of the '60s were, of course, unibody construction and there was once a Lincoln convertible after '67. I don't know when, the last Lincoln convertible was the 1967 model year. They made two thousand two hundred and seventy-six of them in 1967 and then they were made, Ford Motor Company lost money on these cars. Lincoln convertibles were not a profitable car for Ford Motor, but sedans were and the coupe came out in 1966 and was an instant hit selling approximately 15,000 units right into the '66 model year and we. After that, you'll be successful as a huge refrigerator, washer, and dryer combo that goes down the road when there's a white light and remember to leave 15 minutes of extra time wherever you go in this car because of all the attention it generates and all the questions that you receive.

I asked about this because many people are not familiar with the Lincoln and have never seen it. One of the best comments I heard was WOW, did you build it yourself? It's a custom car and I said no, that's how the factory made them. It is a unique car if they had not made a very complex car, Ida. Ida had to have a normal job, but I've made a living doing these for 38 years and it's been very interesting and it's a real pleasure to spend the day with you driving. Around you know the only thing wrong with your shop on so many cars is that people make fixes on fixes, someone adds their own stuff and then someone doesn't notice the next guy gets it and thinks why did they do this and you don't realize anything.

It was that way, I tell my clients that they really need an expert to work on this car, someone who knows the car because the mechanic who worked on Toyota in the morning and on all kinds of cars is not necessarily familiar with the intricacies and the idiosyncrasy of the Lincoln convertible another unique feature on these cars are the hydraulic wipers, those wipers work with the power steering fluid, they used that system from 1961 to 1969, the sales brochure said the wipers were powerful with infinite speeds, three intermittent.the intermittent wipers came out electrically in nineteen working with the power steering fluid, they have implemented childish speeds just to adjust in the dash, so when it stopped accelerating they would hesitate, no, they would stay pretty, there is even a shock absorber there, but The fluid blooms, right?

So they were quite powerful and quiet running wipers. It's like driving your pool. That's what I feel. Know. A very smooth and comfortable ride. These Lincolns also have weight in the corners of the car. It's a weight on one arm. The weight is supposed to absorb any wayward vibrations in the car. They wanted this to be as smooth as possible on those cars, all the components are balanced correctly, but on these cars they had absorbent weight and what it was supposed to do is absorb any vibration from the road in the car. I have driven cars with and without them no noticeable difference so the hood ornament on a 66 is stationary in 1967 it became spring loaded and the 68 and 69 sedans didn't have a horn even the month it came back.

In 1970 it didn't have the points because they were considered a safety hazard and many safety improvements came in the '67 model year. Now I realized that the Thunderbird for example had the adjustable steering column, it's an option. The '64 and '65 Lincolns had a tilt steering column, but the whole column went up and down, the whole column moved, it ran on vacuum, it didn't really become popular until about '66, yeah, and the 66 steering columns were made by General Motors from the General Motors Ford fair system, they also bought the headlight dimming systems, which was a type unit, which is so funny I never looked at them until I looked at the one this lady had and at times it seemed to be sitting in cars. sit on the side, it's down, riot riders, there's something that just had poise and I thought it was okay and the fact that the dashboard panel hasn't been okay now, let's touch on it right away, the car was always broken because if this car was in the sun for a couple of years they had a crack right there.

The gray radio speaker is not cracked tells me the car always had a crack in the garage. Are there any very common problems with these cars, especially the '67 model? It generally cracked with about two years of sunlight. I just walk by a very fun car to drive and a nice, driver-friendly car. It's the definition of hugging the road. Wait. Oh, and the power seat has every level imaginable from top to bottom. Very few Lincolns have a throwaway seat, although they were offered one. The six-way seat was an option but I would say 95% of Lincoln production got the six-way seat and then the last option was the bucket seats, you get bucket seats with a console and each separate seat was a seat six-way seats, not many cars have bucket seats.

I'd say probably only about 3% of them. The auction, like I said, gave me this video. When you buy a car, you have to find a guy who you know our girl might be, but most of the time he's a guy. and they just dedicated their life to keeping them on the road and John Cashman, he's my guy, he just does a wonderful job with these, you know, owning your car, this can be a pleasure or just a complete nightmare, being very Frustrating and if you try to crimp and do it the cheap way it will cost you twice as much money now that you have access to every part of these cars electrical system.

Yes, I have done this for so long. I know what everyone needs. and I have access to all the parks, all the relays, electrical limit switches, hydraulic cars, you name it, unless they are a total disaster. I have parts in stock, Murray, you know, take this to a regular convertible top shop or one of these places and they'll spend a week trying to figure it out and you'll pay for 40 hours, have John come do it and however long it takes, that It's time consuming, but it won't be a waste of time. done right and I can't thank you enough for making this car offend what could have been a nightmare just a wonderful car John thank you my friend Jay it's been a real pleasure a pleasure Yoshi go.