Off topic. I just bought the last great American made luxury land yacht

Gather App
Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support AutomaticWasher.org:

58limited

58limited

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 27, 2006
Messages
2,209
Location
Port Arthur, Texas
They downsized all models in 1980. Cadillac and Chrysler downsized in 1978.

This is a 1978 Lincoln Town Coupe: 21 feet looooong, 6500 pounds, 460 V8, 160,000 miles. It has new tires, brakes, belts, and hoses. The front end is tight and it floats down the road like a dream - at 12 MPG. I won't be driving it much. It needs a little work, the previous owner tried to "fix" things but made them worse. For instance: he installed the ignition switch 180 degrees off, the key can't be removed. He couldn't figure out why. It took me one time trying to turn it on to figure out it was backwards. He went to the trouble of installing a push button start switch instead.

Amazingly, the cruise control still works. This often was one of the first things to break on these cars. Its a good thing that my first car was a '78 Mercury, as I already know how to fix most things, including the vacuum leak that ALL late 70's Ford products have in the A/C control panel.

4-22-2007-23-19-13--58limited.jpg
 
I had a '79 Town Coupe years ago and it was one of the best cars I've ever owned------never gave a bit of trouble.

Interesting to watch as more and more of these wonderful old cars surface on the for-sale market. I am sure the price of fuel is playing a big part in it.
My biggest concern is that the next "fuel crisis" might not be so much price as it will be availibility---remember back in '74?

Well I hope you enjoy your Lincoln, from the looks of your other treasures this one will look like new in no time!
 
Thats a beautiful Lincoln!

And I don't believe they(cars) came much bigger than that one anyway!
Just curious, how big is the gas tank? How much $$$ to fill 'er up?

Gas is now $2.95 a gallon here in the Chicago area, it cost me $45 to fill my Grand Marquis up yesterday!
 
The gas tank is 24 gallon, gas here is about $2.64 per gallon.

~Its like driving a living room around...

That is a pretty good description. My '78 Mercury handled differently than this car, it is also different than my big '58 Buick. I had to basically learn how to handle it while I was driving it home.

Your Lincoln in nice too, Veg-o-matic.
 
Gas is $2.70ish at Costco, $28o else where. Nice lincolns by the way.. Whats the red lettering on the door??
 
And now we're back

After almost 30 years, we are back to those weights and mpg. Look at the weight of our large SUV's like Lincoln Navigator or Cadillac Escalade.

Fun car, though.

Martin
 
~Whats the red lettering on the door??

That was a magnetic sign the previous owner had for his A/C business.

~I used to dream of having a town coupe even more so than the Marks.

The only one I want more is a convertible. These were special order through dealerships. The car (Town Coupe or Mark V) would be sent from the factory to a conversion shop. The cost was $15,000 to $20,000 over the car price. About 30 to 50 were made each year: 1977-79. There is one on ebay right now, and it is ROUGH. Would cost $1400 to have delivered to me, plus the price of the car. Too many rust issues if you look at the pics closely, and the seller wasn't forthcoming when I e-mailed him. There are also two Mark V convertibles on ebay.

~How's the interior, any chance of a pic or two?

Here are pics of the interior. The driver's seat is toast. Passenger side has wrinkles. Back seat is nice.

4-23-2007-19-27-48--58limited.jpg
 
Ahh, a friend of mine used to have one of those (well her folks did) and they let me drive it a few times.. white on white 4 door. They had a white Persion cat that would ONLY ride in that car!! Guess she felt she blended well with the interior. Great car, I know they put over 200,000 miles, mostly trip miles on it. My old next door neighbor had a 77 Grand Marquis 2 door, the same color as your Lincoln, only went out for trips, last time I saw it about ten years ago it had 46,000 miles on it. Mark and Gary also have some really nice older Lincolns, I love how they ride down the highway.
Enjoy it!

Someone mentioned weight of SUV's and such, true, my Super Duty truck weighs about 6600 pounds, but it is used for towing and the lighter truck I had before was torn up trying to tow. It also gets about 13-14 mpg around town.
Scott
 
The final step up...

...the Lincoln Continental ad tag line from the 1970s and 1980s...

And it's gonna be fun to see how this one turns out!

Congrats, bro'!

Charlie
bongobro
 
I'm going to keep this all original even though my friend's sons want me to put 20 inch plus wheels on it. However, I think this would look cool going down the road with neon underlighting, but I doubt I will do that either. If I end up having to work on the engine, I will give it a performance upgrade, but it runs fine now so I'm leaving it alone.
 
Very nice, David!

Except for the driver's seat, the interior is in good condition.

I hope you have a good time with it.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
The Big Tomato

I have bored you all with my love of Town Cars and driving them to 300,000 before trading them. I owned three of this vintage. The first was a 1975, purchased from a friend who was an engineer for Ford. The second was a 1978 with Moon roof and crushed velour upholstery. I could never muster the love for it I had for the 75. Then I had an 1980 Mark with design by Givency in the Cabellero series. The variable ventry carbs were a pain, so I traded for another 1978. It had every option Ford offered, leather interior, sun roof and was the clear winner for my favorite Lincoln. I kept it after it's active life as daily driver was over and the kids used it for a couple years. All of the 70's Lincolns had the 460 although a 400 was available. 16 miles per gallon on the road in pure Detroit metal laden luxury. My friends said, "riding in your lincoln is just like taking a trip in a ripe tomato!'
 
Another Lincoln lover here

I've had four big Lincolns, and I love them!

I had a 1966 stretch limo, a 1970 with 50,000 miles on it, a 1976 with crushed velour interior in pretty good condition (VERY pimpy!), and now I drive a 1993.

I'd never own an SUV, but I sure love the big sedans. And I still get about 20MPG, which is better than a lot of the beasts they're selling today.
 
Well, now that you have a fabulous Lincoln, the next obvious thing to do will be to join the LCOC, the Lincoln and Continental Owner's Club! There are over 4,000 LCOC members who can help you restore that beast back to it's original beauty and drivability. The Lincoln Forum is the "forum" for the club, and it's a gold mine of information, parts, vendors and friends! http://www.thelincolnforum.net

I am a member of and volunteer for the LCOC; I'm the chairman of their Website Committee. The LCOC is the best one-stop place for Lincoln lovers and owners. I'm the owner of a '73 Town Car, and every week, I feel like I open up the trunk and throw a handful of $20 bills in there, never to be seen again!

http://www.lcoc.org
View attachment 4-24-2007-17-00-0--drhardee.jpg
 
Here's a frontal pic of the great beast, that fabulous 70's color is called " Light Ginger Moondust Metallic", AKA "babyshit brown". It really is a pretty bronze color when it's waxed and the sun catches the metallic paint. I'm no size queen, but she's 229.9 inches long and features a 128" wheelbase. She weighs in at a healthy 5,260 lbs, and sips premium fuel at the rate of one gallon every 12 miles in town. But, there are only 10 of them (1973's) registered in the LCOC database, and I doubt seriously if I'll ever see myself coming down the road!

4-24-2007-17-05-23--drhardee.jpg
 
Drhardee,thanks for the links. Your '73 is awsome. It looks basically like mine except with the wider grill.

As mentioned above, I'm interested in the 1977-79 convertibles. I saw some pics on the forum page. Do you know anything about those cars? I've heard that they were dealer promotion cars - the dealer had it sent from the factory to a conversion shop; and I've also heard that they were factory authorized. I called Lincoln's archive division about 10 years ago and they didn't know anything about them.
 
Great Cars~
Unless you can't drive them..Or you are 100 and are 4 foot and can't see out of it. Liek teh lady who tried to cremate me in her Blue Town Car eairler
Although we have had many issues with the car we bought from them, Leith Lincoln Mercury seems to always have 4 or 5 of these big cars for sale used..

http://www.leithl-m.com
 
I have the last of its kind

a 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, bought last June 30th in Sedalia w/157k and the coveted all cast iron LT1 Corvette engine (which is what got me hooked in the first place) Gas is $2.65 in CoMO and Western MO, $2.74 in KCK. I have a 23 gallon tank and it costs me $38-45 to fill up with a 1/4 tank left. Part of me wants to get rid of it, but one part wants me to keep it cause it may be a classic soon and I can't find a decent fuel efficient car with 21 cubes of cargo room and enough juice to get up the brutal highway hills of Calloway County!
 
alexb1186

Keep it. It probably gets better mileage than most SUVs and many full size trucks, plus in will probably start attracting collector attention when it hits 25 or 30 years old like my Lincoln.

If you have room, look for a deal on a little fuel efficient car for running small errands that don't require all that cubic feet, unless your entire area is hilly - in which case you need something with a little power.
 

Latest posts

Sponsored
UnlistMe
Back
Top