1964 Lincoln Continental : Buying the car

Fast and furious be damned. Cool and slow is the way to go.

This 1964 Lincoln Continental rolled of the assembly line at the Wixom plant on August 30th 1963. It is the 796th 1964 Continental built. It has DSO #53, meaning Oakland. I was able to track down the previous owner through the Californian title that came with the papers with witch it was imported into the European Union, port of Antwerp. I wrote him a letter and got a response:

"I just received you letter via mail and was shocked to hear about the car. I am glad it ended up with a classic car enthusiast. I bought the car from my great aunt after my uncle passed away a couple years back. The car had been sitting in the barn for roughly 10 years and I picked it up, got it running, and did a couple little electrical things to it and cruised around during the weekends. I do not have any receipts or past history of the car. My uncle most likely purchased the car brand new, drove it, and parked it until I got ahold of it. Sorry I couldnt be more help regarding the history of the car. Best of luck to you!"

I bought this '64 on April 7th 2006 at a classic US car dealer near Antwerp, Belgium. It is an honest survivor imported from Fresno, California with almost no rust, nice straight chrome and stainless trim. The car has been repainted by a previous owner in a colour that's close to the original 'Desert Sand' colour (light beige metallic). The interior has also been redone at some point in time. Immediately after I bought the car I drove it home all 200 miles to Amsterdam. No problem at all (however, a lot of time and effort has since been spent on it. You can read about this on the following pages).

The identification tag reads: 53A T 64 30H 53 1 4

53A = 4-door sedan
T = Light Beige Metallic (sales name 'Desert Sand')
64 = Trim Scheme 'Beige and Beige'
30H = August 30th
53 = District Code for Oakland
1 = axle ratio 2.89:1
4 = twin range turbo drive transmission

The following four months were spent on getting the car ready for an inspection for registration purposes by our country's civil servants. Early August 2006 we tried for the first time (on the hottest day of the year: 36 degrees Celcius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit). They found three small things wrong with the car. Three weeks later we tried again and passed inspection (on the wettest day of the year). I finally received my Dutch registration and was able to cruise.

Shot in super 8 film

Here's a list of the most important repairs I've made prior to inspection:
- European approved headlights were fitted
- indicator switch and relays were replaced
- two refurbished exhaust manifolds were installed
- three of six core-plugs were replaced
- new tires: Goodyear viva 2 235/75R15
- 'cold' thermostat has been fitted
- a circuit breaker or 'kill switch' was fitted
- two of four mufflers were replaced

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How to make your land yacht look like a boat? Remove the wheels! We had to bleed the brakes and check if the wheel cylinders were okay. They were. The rest of the drum brake assembly also looked good.

We did have to replace the brake master cylinder (and brake light switch) because it was leaking inside right into the brake booster assembly. From it I actually siphoned out half a litre of braking fluid! The brakes improved after this but not enough. The diaphragm in the booster had been eaten away by the brake fluid. So that had to be replaced too. You can replace the booster without removing the dash but it is a very difficult and uncomfortable job..... The vacuum lines leading from the booster to the vacuum reservoir in the front left wheel well also had to be replaced because the brake fluid had gotten in here as well.

6 way electric seats, electric windows, electric antenna etc. Not options... standard equipment.

Two Saturday afternoons of cleaning the carpet were well worth the effort. Most stains and spots came out after two rounds with a spray can foam you have to bristle in to the carpet and wipe off when you're done. I also spent a few hours cleaning the vinyl seat covers and door panels with a mild all-purpose soap. I never knew the vinyl was that dirty. I had to make three clean buckets full o' suds before the job was finished.