Since the post in car-talk about the 64 lincoln on ebay, there were some request for a build thread on the 63 Lincoln vert i'm in the process of restoring. I'll try to post as much info as i can like Terry has done on his Marauder thread.

Since its late, i'll post some quick info/stats on it now and some pics of when i bought the car. Then i'll fill the rest in later.

1963 Lincoln Continental Convertible.
430 MEL Engine
Gross weight ~5600lbs
Overall Length ~ 18ft.
Aftermarket support - extremely limited which = expensive.
Only around 3500 convertibles made in 1963.

I've always been a fan of these cars cause of the suicide doors, plus its a 4 door convertible. I came across this car back in september 2008 from an ad on craigslist. The seller bought the car after watching too many episodes of overhaulin' and tried to do a tune up on the car and screwed it up to where it wouldn't start and then it sat in his leaky garage for the next 5 years. When my and my buddy went to look at it, we where able to get the engine to fire in about 30 minutes, so at least it wasn't seized. He set the points gap to 0 and had some wires wrong on the firing order. The trunk lid was rusted in the common areas and the floors from what i could tell at the time were rusted but not as bad as i later found at, as usual. I saw some bondo on the lower quarters but later found out it was much worse.

I still was living in an apt, with a single car garage, just long enough to fit the lincoln but barely wide enough to fit the car and squeeze by it. Still i was able to rebuild the front of the engine, replace the timing chain, converted the front drum brakes to disc with a dual master cylinder and then was able to get it to fire and run under its own power.

Here are some pics from when i went to look at it. Just goes to show how looks can be deceiving. The best part of this car was despite the rust, and bondo the car was complete and original, there was no hackjobs done to it during its life and had about 80k miles on it. There where still the original markings on the axle, etc. I probably have at least 4-5 more posts to do to get it caught up to present time, and i'll try to fill those in this week.

 

subbed

 

I'm glad I convinced you to create a thread for this beauty

I'm looking forward to the progress you make with it. Are you going to restore it to original condition or do some custom work?

 

This is going to be a mostly stock restoration, but it won't be a nuts/and bolts restoration like terry is doing. The lines of this car are already great, so just a slight drop and maybe a little custom interior work later down the line is in store for it.

The biggest problem with the MEL (Mercury,Edsel,Lincoln) 430 engines where their nylon timing chain. Over time it deteriorates and starts to break down and bits and pieces fall into the oil pan and eventually will clog the oil pickup. So first order of business was to remove the oil pan, and tear down the front of the engine to get to the timing chain. Replaced it with a modern chain and gear set. I then sandblasted and powder coated or painted all the pieces to the front of the engine. I had the fuel pump rebuilt, and then all your basic tune up parts, plugs/wires/cap/rotor. I also replace the points system with a Pertornix ignitor.





Also during this time i had the radiator flushed, painted and pressure tested along with the overflow tank repaired and painted. With the oil pan drop i cleaned that out and painted it. Also installed a new alternator/starter/battery/ starter cables. A couple of the freeze plugs in the block where deteriorated and leaking so i had to replace a couple of those. Also upgrade the mechanical fuel pump push rod with a solid push rod used after 63. Prior they used a push rod with a bronze tip that over time got worn down to where it wouldn't accentuate the fuel pump. Since i had the front of the engine already torn down it was a no brainier to do it.

more to follow...

 

that things needs some FUEL INJECTION

 

Love this car and would love to own one someday. I can't wait to see your process on this build, subscribed!

 

Cool! Looks good

The MEL (the 'ole Bulldozer) definitely has some similarities to the FE. Looks like you're doing a great job!

Here's a bit of trivia for you guys: The 430 MEL, in 1958, was offered as the "Super Marauder 430" by Mercury. What makes it special is it was the first North American engine ever to be rated at the 400 hp mark.




Terry

 

politically correct for you moose's


and i am guessing the relatively high compression at 10.5:1 (even nowadays is still considered a little on the higher side, but iirc was extremely high for back in that era) along with the 3 two barrels

 

Thanks for sharing, and cant wait to see your progress.

 

That is a beauty.

 

Nice project, having to work in that one car garage must be tight to say the least. Good luck with it!

Growing up in the 70's I would pass by a 60's hardtop Lincoln Continental like that every day delivering newspapers. Always loved Conti's and the those doors. Nothing else like it then or today.

 

Linc vert...nuff said...already luvin the 4 door vert action... cannot wait to see the evolution!

 

 

Awesome, Mike! I hope to see this car in person some time!

 

i also meant to say that, unless the pics are decieving, that interior is in "barn find" good shape... I hope I am not wrong!

 

Love it.

 

Yeah the one car garage was very tight, especially trying to change all 4 tires where the space between the car and the wall was the width of the tire itself. At least now i have a 2 car garage since that was my main reason for buying a house last year.

I'd love to have a 3x2 intake from the super marauder on the lincoln, but they are so rare and expensive when they do show up. Edelbrock made an aftermarket 3x2 called the l300 but it is actually taller than the factory mel 3x2 and wouldn't fit under the hood of a 60's Lincoln without cutting the hood and putting some sort of scoop on it. But the stock mel 3x2 from 58/59 should fit without hood modifications. Once day she'll have it. But in 63 they added the 4bbl and bumped the compression back up to i think 10.3:1 where as 61-62 where lower and had a 2bbl carb. I think 63 stock hp was 320 and torque was over 450.

 

Yes, interior is in good barn find condition for both the front and rear seats. The dash pad was cut up and shot and the door panels where screwed up by the guy i bought it from who had no clue what he was doing. The seats were re-upholstered years ago in black vinyl not the correct leather. But after just a good cleaning it is in total driver quality condition. The plan is to go with a nice deep blue metallic or pearl paint, ford white vert top(already have), blue carpet(already have), blue dash(already have), white door panels with blue piping along with white leather with blue piping.

 

...that will look amazing! In custom rides, a dark carpet makes those lighter skins on the seats and door panels just pop!!!!

 

Thanks for starting a thread.

 

So after putting the engine back together, it was on to the fuel tank, sender and lines. So i dropped the tank to empty out the old gas and check for any leaks, holes, scale etc. The inside of the tank was pretty clean, only needed a good flush and a new sock for the fuel sender unit. I did need to source some tank straps since the ones where rusted out and snapped when taking the original straps off. New rubber lines and the fuel system was ready to go.

After i got it fired up and timed it ran pretty smooth for a 40+ year old engine. Next was onto the breaks. I decided to do a front disk brake conversion on it as well as replacing the single master cylinder with a safer dual master cylinder. I also sent the power booster out to get rebuilt. That was fun trying to get out of the car. Had to hang upside down under the dash to get the 4 bolts that hold it in out. Had to do some minor modifications to the disk brake brackets to get them to fit, but that wasn't too bad. Also replaced the wheel cylinders and flex line in the rear, new shoes and adjusted the drums.

 

with making it safe (some old cars, just should not be out on the road anymore, because of like shit brakes and such)

 

With all the major mechanical stuff taken car of, the car was finally able to move under its own power. Was able to drive it around my apt complex parking lot and in and out of that small garage. This is about august '09 and i decided to buy a house, since i needed a real garage plus with the market it just made financial sense. So not much was done on the car until about april 2010. The down time was spent on the new house, fixing the garage in order to be able to work in it, getting a new compressor hooked up, lines run, electric run and finding more parts as i search for them. This included making a weekend run down to Pittsburgh, pa to get a mint dash out of a 63 sedan parts car along with a pair of rear floor pans, some door wiring and other misc parts. I source the front floors from DVAP in AZ, they ended up sending me an entire front floor clip of a parts car, complete with frame rails etc which i ended up having to use some of it since the floors where worse than expected.

So now its onto the body work. Starting with the floors. I gutted the interior and also cut out the rusted exhaust since it was easy to access with no floors. Pictures speak for themselves, but pretty much had to replace a lot of the floors using the sourced floor pans and fabricating some patch pieces out of 18 and 16 awg steel. Also used flap discs and grinding wheels to strip all the metal down to bare metal in order to weld. After the welding was done, all the welds where ground down, and seam sealer was applied on top and underneath. Then a coat of rust-x was put down to seal it all and convert any lingering rust.

 

After the floors where done, it was onto the quarter panels. At first i was just going to replace the lower bottoms that where rusted out on both sides, but after further research it was easier to just replace the entire quarter panels. Most places/people would sell the full quarter for the same price as just a lower patch panel since that was what rusted out always on these cars along with the dog leg near the rear doors. After starting to strip down the quarter panels it was clear the whole drivers side needed to be replaced anyways since it was all bondo and some sort of fiberglass resin, the only original metal left was at the very top. And so started the search for rust free quarter panels. i got burned on one out of DVAP in AZ it ended up having bondo on it as well in the usual places. But i ended up finding them from a member on the lincoln forum out in CA. Also i sourced a 62 vert trunk lid a complete front door and some other misc parts from another member in st louis. Vert trunk lids are different from sedan lids since they have extra bracing and open in the opposite direction. Also 63 was a 1 year only trunk lid, but a 61-62 lid does fit, its just not year correct. But after looking at it i like the lines that a 61-62 trunk lid gives. In 63 they changed it in order to add extra luggage space and IMO messed with the lines.

And so starts the process of drilling out every spot weld on each quarter panel as well as melting away the factory lead used in the door jamb and dog legs in order to access the spot welds. I went through at least 5 spot weld drill bits from Harbor freight, good thing they are cheap. Since i had to do this on the donor quarter panels as well as on the car itself. Right now i have the drivers side done, and the passenger side is off the car and ready for that one to be hung after winter. Also with the quarters off i laid down a coat of rust-x in those areas. Also had to do some patch pieces along the lower inner quarters and wheel wells.

 

The drivers door has a huge dent in it and also has typical rust areas, so i'm just going to replace that with a good rust free door i got from st louis. The front doors are interchangeable between sedans and verts but the rears are not. So the rears are hard to source. You can convert sedan doors to vert doors but its a long process. Before the end of october this year i was able to start fixing one of the rear drivers doors. I reused the good metal off the original quarter panels i had to take off the car.




And then winter kicked in. So once i get the lighting in my basement finished i'm hoping to rebuild the power front seat mechanisms and also finish refurbishing the dash i got out of PA. Then its back to the body work come spring, finishing the quarters, and doors. Then its strip, prep and paint i hope this summer.

I will keep this thread update as i get some winter projects started and finished over the next couple months.

 

Looks like a pretty intensive restoration. Subscribed

 

but a good one though



also OP, how old is that house (woundering if when the car had been bought new, that that garage could have been there when the car was bought)(basically the boards on that back wall, look to be older )









also:


is that a WOOD floor , also nice car in the back ground

 

ha, the house is older than the car. The house was built in 1915, the garage has to be almost as old since its a carriage style garage with a high roof, the 2nd part of the garage was added onto at some point in time and is a lower roof but has a concrete floor. When i bought it, i had to rip out all the old molded insulation, and dry wall they had in there. Also had to replace two windows and actually put a garage door on it since someone at some point had the bright idea of boarding up the entrance to the garage an putting a house door on it. So i had to tear that down and frame it in for a new garage door.

Yeah also have the beater in the background there too ('93 s10 long bed 5speed)

 

so is the house haunted at least then


but yeah i would prefer an older house in most ways, but electrical outlets are going to suck ass though (unless it has basically been completely rewired recently (ie: gutted basically)



also we need more pictures of said house too, for the nostalgic look

 

Looks very nice! Isn't steel work fun? I think maybe I'm being a little sarcastic. It's a good thing you found replacement parts for it.

I know what you mean by about getting panels that aren't exactly as originally represented. I've gone through that a time or two myself. Now I just end up making my own if I can.

BTW: How is the convertible mechanism? I've heard they can be a real bear.

Keep up the great work!






Terry

 

House has been update electrically, 100amp fuse panel 3 prong outlets etc. Not haunted, at least nothing i've seen so far, haha.

Vert top wasn't working when i bought it, but i think that was mostly due to the main relay not being present and the switch had wires cut to it. I have a replacement relay panel for the trunk in case some are no good. The main pump looks like it was replaced recently and i have source some good working trunk cylinders since mine where leaking. Everything is there though so once i go through it all i think it won't be as bad as it could be. But that ks something that is going to be near the end of the restoration since i could always drive it with the top down in good weather

BTW terry where do u source your steel from? I'm done buying small expensive sheets from HD or the local hardware store.

 

100 amp breaker is small fyi, 150 or 200 is standard nowadays


as far as steel, i know there are a couple of steel places around me, so maybe look them up (idk what you ook it up under in the phonebook though )

maybe try and searching for steel along with your zip code (or city), something might come up

 

I buy it in 4' by 8' sheet from a metal supply house. It's usually stocked in larger sizes and have to be sheared for a 4'x8' sheet. I've had good luck with places that sell commercially. Usually there are a couple steel places that will accommodate you. My last piece was $80.00 for 18 gauge. I've also had good luck getting small cut off pieces from the same places. They consider it scrap, but will usually sell it for a few bucks for several pieces.





Terry

 

forgot about that bit, may be some odd sizes and such, but might save you a bit of money though, if you can find one that will work for you

 

amazing amount of work... looks awesome....

I once went into a cow field to look at a car... it was an 1964 Impala vert... all rusted out...sitting in a shed with a couple other rides, but the roof frame went up and down smoothly and the car still started up... kinda crazy seeing it out there like that...

 

Revised from the dead, 5+ years later, finally got around to painting and putting it back together..
can follow my 40 day/night challenge to myself over on "the Lincoln forum"
Pics show from as it sat Day 1 through last night (Day 17) of 40.
Painted Porsche Aqua Blue Metallic (M5R)

 

Here are some pics of the work that i did on and off between time i got it in 2008-now... Also did a bunch of mechanical work thats not show in pics previously.

 

That blue's going to be hot! Can't wait to see it done. MOAR posts as you go along, please.

 

 

Stinkin' Lincoln!!!