1992 Lincoln Towncar

[Rusted Pistons]

So, as much as I loved the Mk1 Cavalier, that whisked me across 11000 miles of road over 18 months, it was time to say goodbye. I've wanted a V8 for as long as I can remember, and aside from attempting to fit a Rover V8 into my old Mazda B1800 (unsuccessfully) I've never managed it.

I knew that whatever replaced the Cav as my next daily must have 8 cylinders. I fancied an XJ8 but it wouldn't have hit the V8 sweet spot (too quiet and refined, I'd want to mod the exhaust, and that just wouldn't have been right on an XJ) so stopped looking at them.

Long story short, this Lincoln popped up on one of my many eBay V8 window shopping evenings. At this point i knew nothing about Lincolns, all i knew was it had a Mustang V8, MoT, and I thought it looked awesome! It also didn't look massive, as in for an American car, so it might fit places....

I very nearly missed out on it, a last second panic bid secured me the win and the collection plan was set!

Unfortunately, it was about 5 hours away. We were supposed to be going to London to see family that weekend so I tied it in to that thinking we could get it on the way home. Ahem. 4 hour detour and we were back home at 1am!

Anyway....pics!

At the first service station en route home, as you can see -Ii was wrong about it 'not looking massive'... It's bloody huge! 18 and a half feet long to be precise.



And at the petrol station hours later:

[retrotoe]

love sound off v8 my late mate used take his v8 rover sd1 out for long runs used sounded awesome.bet it loves a drink lol,

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Haha! A towncar surely is a smal car for town use, right?

Awesome! If I was tu buy an american barge, it would be a Lincoln! Don't know why, but these just "do it" for me

[Rusted Pistons]

The next day I got to have a proper look at it.

More pics!



I wasn't kidding when I said it was big!





The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed the LPG filler - it's gonna be a daily - so the conversion was an extremely welcome modification!

A little bit of back story. It was taken over to Saudi Arabia and spent a lot of its life over there, which accounts for minimal rust. The guy who owned (and loved it by all accounts) moved to England and took the Lincoln with him. When he eventually sold it, the next owner decided that 16mpg around town was not his thing, so paid an awful lot of money to have it professionally converted to multi point LPG injection.

The guy I bought it from lightly recommissioned it, which included restoring the air suspension (brand new pump) and various bits and bobs. He loved it, but was selling up to move to Ireland, their car tax system has something to do with engine size, so he had to say goodbye! Then I bought it!


Plans?

Well, as much as he loved it, the previous owner barely used it - he was rarely in the country, so it covered around 1000 miles a year. As such, the interior was full of cobwebs, the canvas roof a lovely mix of manky green and bird poo white. Brake dust encrusted alloys and paint that was begging for a cut and polish. It had green ming in all the door shuts, boot shut, window rubbers and small hedge like growths coming out of the seams of the roof!

First plan.... deep clean!

[Rusted Pistons]

Jun 20, 2015 7:30:21 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

Haha! A towncar surely is a smal car for town use, right?

Awesome! If I was tu buy an american barge, it would be a Lincoln! Don't know why, but these just "do it" for me

"....and the award for the most ironic car name goes to...... the Lincoln Towncar!"

[Rusted Pistons]

So, pre cleaning session pics:

Literally years of dirt and grime needed to be removed.

Exterior ming:

[Rusted Pistons]

Interior ming:









I stocked up on cleaning great, including a canvas roof cleaner, and got stuck in!

The roof took a lot of this sort of thing:



..but it's still not much good!

[qwerty]

Fantastic. Its great to see one of these thats standard length and isn't full of drunk middle aged women!

[Rusted Pistons]

Much later...











Much betterer!

[charliecroker]

The term 'brush up well' comes to mind. Very well done, looks great now.

[SmokeEm]

Bookmarked.

My next buy will also have 8 cylinders I hope.

What are the plans after the clean - delete some silencers?

[V8Vitesse]

I got stopped for speeding in New York, driving one of these once (a few years ago, I doubt they are Hertz-fodder these days!). The cop was all mirrored shades, big hat and black Camaro....carry on!

[dubbelduwwel]

What a beaut!

[Rusted Pistons]

Jun 20, 2015 15:43:57 GMT SmokeEm said:

Bookmarked.

My next buy will also have 8 cylinders I hope.

What are the plans after the clean - delete some silencers?

Cheers guys

Yeah - removing the silencers is a top priority!

There are a few bits that I want to sort. The camber is way out so I'll be trying to sort that, there are a few bits of paint to tidy here and there. The seat controls have dissapeared inside the door so I'll dig them out and fix them back in. The LPG gauge has been fitted by a butcher, so that needs tidying, and i want to give it a service asap. The canvas top is tatty around the seams so I'm gonna have a go of doing that myself, I'm going to get a pro to deep clean it though, as i just can't get the green splodges out of it!

[vulgalour]

If the green splodges are just moss you may get results with white vinegar. It shouldn't affect the canvas and should help kill off whatever the lifeforms are, dry them out and allow them to be removed more easily.

[PistolPete]

What cleaner are you using for the roof? Autoglym do a kit, cleaner and conditioner. Very good from what I remember. Not cheap but good.

[Rusted Pistons]

This one! improved it, but it still looks rubbish sadly. There's a bloke who will literally spend the entire day working on canvas roofs, so I'm going to leave it with him soon.

[Rusted Pistons]

[PistolPete]

I'll grab my coat...

Looking forward to the progress

[generallee]

Is the canvas top just a strange, Yank version of a vinyl roof, or is it a weird convertible? That interior looks like a lovely place to be.