'63 Lincoln Continental suicide door convertible

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Just watched "Kalifornia" - and was stunned bythe main actor of that movie... A '63 Lincoln Continental 4 door convertible. With rear suicide doors. How awesome is that?
















This is not the car from the movie, but it looks like it's advertised here.

[akku]

They are things of beauty for sure. I almost bought a red and white hard top version of that car years ago, twice, but damn it was full of filler and the bumpers had been painted etc. but it was still a spectacular car. £1200 IIRC, back then.

[Deleted]

Beautiful car and a beautiful colour.

[camerashy]

With rear suicides...and a soft top...is the floor pan braced to the heavens then? or is there a half pillar between the doors? i see the half pillar, but it still seems scarily 'flexible'

[akku]

I assume it's full frame. Nuff bracing? :-)

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Wikipedia says unibody... ;D Well I guess it's not build to win a race...

[akku]

Jesus that's got to have some bracing then lol

[cavman]

Jan 10, 2012 0:12:23 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

Wikipedia says unibody... ;D

must have more gussetting than Vanessa Feltz on date night!!

[79cord]

Gorgeous, especially the earlier examples.

I think I remember reading somewhere that there wasn't actually much additional reinforcing for Convertibles compared to the sedans !... though there were references to substantial lead weights added to the corners of the car to counter balance the weight in the middle
But you can't claim they were underengineered.. Lincoln introduced a class leading warranty & lots new of production quality checks with this model. The curved glass of the hardtop side windows meeting in the middle as the doors were closed apparently meant they had to wind themselves down slightly so they didn't collide with each other if the doors were opened/closed at the same time.. '64? sedans sadly dumped the curved glass & dramatically tapered roof for a more squared roof & more "headroom".

[TurboDieselWeasel]

That would be a - well - properly pragmatic american solution. So to speak ;D

But just imagine cruising with this along the pacific coast on sunset, roof down... Would it realy matter how it's build?

[akku]

The price those things were when new... yes... you'd expect (and get) almost Rolls Royce build quality. It was a phenomenal luxury car in the true sense, as removed from the Continentals and Town Cars of the 80s and 90s as the Rover P5 is from a Rover 25...

[PandaSelecta]

Would hate to take this to the RR Gathering - 2 minutes of driving onto the campsite field and it would be a twisted heap ;D

[Paul H]

I do like these early versions of this shape Continental. Very much a design classic!

[AB car pix]

Jan 9, 2012 23:08:28 GMT akku said:

They are things of beauty for sure. I almost bought a red and white hard top version of that car years ago, twice, but damn it was full of filler and the bumpers had been painted etc. but it was still a spectacular car. £1200 IIRC, back then.

For that money who cares?!

[akku]

I guess I cared LOL

It was for sale in Mansfield IIRC then a while later somewhere out towards the East Coast

I suspect it got bangered. Last time I saw it was on eBay looking very ropey and "barn stored" still in that same awful red and white livery like my '73 Olds. At one point most nasty close-to-death yanks were painted that way.

[ToolsnTrack]

No one watch "Entourage" then?

[poweredbyhopealone]

Gotta be the hardtop for me, not that I will ever get the choice. Mostly due to the Marilyn Manson Tainted Love video, but I couldn't find a picture of that. So have this one

[akku]

the one I was talking of was actually a '61

like this



but significantly down at heel