Junkyard Find: 1967 Lincoln Continental
The 1961-1969 Lincoln Continental, with its suicide doors and slab sides, is recognized by most as the styling pinnacle of the Lincoln brand in the postwar era. Very nice early examples are worth pretty decent money, but a ’67 in beyond-basket-case condition is worth whatever scrap cars are fetching per ton. Here’s a thoroughly used-up ’67 that I found recently in a Denver wrecking yard.
This car appears to have spent many years bleaching in the High Plains sun; there’s not much Michigan-style rust, but the interior is completely baked. It’s hard to imagine that Richard Nixon’s plush limousine was also a ’67 Continental.
Yes, the upholstery is dry as Moon soil.
Likewise, the vinyl top.
It has a great big 462-cubic-inch MEL engine.
Hey, some sort of primitive cruise control!
Thermostat-controlled HVAC systems were super-high-tech in 1967.
Watching the wind rustle a torn plastic-bag “window” in a once-proud luxury car while The Crusher clanks ominously in the background… well, it tends to remind you of your own mortality.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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To think this car once looked like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Lincoln_Continental_Heck.jpg/800px-Lincoln_Continental_Heck.jpg (except better, since it had the white interior)
Nice highway car