Bought my first car this week!
 

My internship this summer proved fairly lucrative so I decided to put the bulk of my earnings in to finally getting a car of my own. My radio silence for the last ~month was my way of squeezing enough time out of the busy schedule my college classes demand to do some car shopping.

While I'd have preferred to buy something from the 40's or 50's the only options in my budget would have either been complete basket cases or would have left me with no gas/insurance money. So I went with (to me) the most appealing available car in my budget a 1978 Lincoln Continental Mark V.

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With just under 58K on the clock of the 460ci(7.5L) V8 it runs quite well, and the interior is in good shape. It is quite interesting getting the hang of driving such a large car. It has a lot of nice options: sun roof, heated side mirrors, full power seats, vanity mirrors in the sun flaps, digital miles to empty gauge (a historically interesting feature), auto dimming brights (the last two could use some work). One option it does not have that I wish it did was the optional Quardasonic 8 track radio option....Although in researching it I found that a stereo 8 track car radio without any makers marks I have had kicking around for several years was actually one of the factory options for the next model year:thmbsp:, and now I'm seriously considering installing it (if I don't buy one of the quad units). If I keep it more than a year I'm probably going to have the vinyl top replaced and the body repainted as the paint is a bit worn in places and there is some surface rust forming at the bottom edge of the vinyl (which is especially bad on the passenger side).

It was built in October of 1977 so there is a 1/21 chance it was built exactly 14 years before I was born (assuming a 5 day work week).

There is something about late 70's Lincolns I've always liked. They have a sort of anachronistic opulence that in the case of the Mark V mixes with muscle car and pimp mobile vibes in ways no other car could pull off half as well.

Those are nice cars, 78 was the for last year the big Lincoln with the 460. I have two of the 8-track radios that fit that car, one of them says its the quad, they probably need work, but you can have them if you want them.

Sweet!
Can you give me a price/shipping quote on the quad unit? My zip is 53072.
I'd almost ask for the stereo unit as well, but then I would have two, and that lingering crazy idea I had about equipping the riding lawnmower with a car radio might start keeping me up at night again.:D

I have a healthy collection 8-tracks (including a few quad cartridges), and some cassette to 8-track adapters...And I've been pondering what else I could potentially play if a popped a 1/8" phone jack to cassette adapter into one of those cassette to 8 track adapters.:scratch2:....I seem to recall a 70's sony reel to reel with a 12V power input laying around in the basement.

HA HA HA ! ! ! You can imagine me reading your description and reasonings for chosing
that car with a really big smile ! ! ! It sure does say " You've arrived ! ! "

Under the dash near the radio it looks like 2 red toggle switches...... They
don't by chance raise and lower the suspension....?..?...???

A shovel in the trunk ??? WOW So when we gunna go crusin in dat ??

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i cut my teeth on lincolns.smoothest ride,unlimited power and well engineered.i saw an episode of fast and loud that had a 72 mark.the alleged"master mechanic" cut and bagged it for a "better ride and nasty stance".idiot!how could you change anything on a lincoln?nothing needed,an almost perfect piece of
american engineering and manufacture.beautiful car!

Glad I brought a smile to ya. Them red things are wire nuts...I gather that whenever one of the previous owners accidently cut a wire they repaired it by using two wire nuts to splice another short piece of wire in. There is another repair like that in the trunk on the wire that moves with the lid hinge...Otherwise' ignoring a newer looking horn, the electrical looks unmolested.

As much as I can see someone else installing a hydraulic/pneumatic suspension on one of these, It is not really my thing...I like most cars better stock. About the only cosmetic changes I could see my self doing are to maybe repaint it a different factory color and change it's wheels to the factory optional turbine rims (that I think look better).

No shovel in the trunk since I ain't been asked to "whack" nobody in ages...Though if business picks up I suppose I could transport two or three at once in that trunk...:smoke:

As fo dat cruise, I probably won't be visiting nu yak or texazz anytime soon since I'm wanted there (okay time to turn off the fake mafia accent (though I'm part Italian so it ought to be convincing)), rather I'm scared of ElectronicBola...If it comes to Milwaukee EVERYONE at my college will get it as no one stays home sick if they can still move and come close to rational thought.

EDIT: One extra witicisim to make ya laugh. I've concluded given that the 460 continued to be deployed in pickups and 12,000Lb RVs into the 90's, it weighs 4600Lb (according to what I've read), it's nearly 20' long (a good portion of that being hood), and it's black...It all adds up to a simple realization: That Lincoln is basically a pickup truck in a tux!

Make sure you get the application for your own zip code sent in right away.

:)
Chip

That car is totally you.

I would keep an older car stock as well. The 8-track stereo on the right I believe is 1973 only, the first year for AM-FM 8-track. I have six (!) Ford AM-FM 8-track stereos, none of them quad though. I'm picky about what they look like and always liked those with AM - FM - STEREO - TAPE on the tape door. Manufacturing of Ford AM-FM 8-track stereos changed hands a couple of times and they were made simultaneously by different companies depending on the model.

Love it!
I had a 78 Town Car which I miss to this day.
However... and not sure if it was MY car specifically.. but it was the WORSE handling car in the snow. I nicknamed mine "the spinning car of death". I wasn't worried about me.. but the look of horror I'd see on the other drivers faces if it went into a spin and was heading their way. I was lucky and never crashed it tho. Yours hopefully will get better gas mileage than mine did. Mine was a bit underpowered as it had a 400. Mine got 7mpg in town and about 11mpg on the highway.

I agree completely, Those cars were smooth and quiet. Great choice. If you don't push that 460 too hard the gas milage wouldn't be horrible. Does it have the Holly carb or the Autolite?
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This was the '79 Continental 4 door I had back in 2004. It was a Sunday cruiser, used to take the family out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and everyone would almost fall asleep on the way home with full tummies :) .

Mine had a 400 2 barrel, which was I guess Lincoln's temporary answer to the high gas prices until the smaller 1980 models came out. The one thing I loved about the car were the brakes. Instead of working off engine vacuum, they worked off the hydraulic power steering system (hydroboost). They had such a cool yet luxurious feel to them. It was definitely in a class of its own.

Ended up giving the car to a friend in Ohio who hit hard times, his engine blew in his car and he'd just started a new job. Only problem those cars had en masse (around here) was rear frame rot. Lots of Lincolns around missing their rear bumpers....

"Its Evidental, I LOVE my Continental"... Altho I prefer the ones w/the funny doors, the LAST series of Jumbotron Lincolns had a certain charm to them, as well. "Pickups w/Tuxedos"... Very apt description. My '67 Pervertable Sedan, the suspension components on it CERTAINLY would NOT look out of place on a modern F-350 tonne Super Duty... There's enuff metal in the HOODS of these things to hammer out a couple, maybe 3, Smart Cars.. Modern motors really don't impress too much-Sure, they're getting 2, 3X the horsepower that these emissions strangled 400s & 460s put out.... But they have to run RPMs that sound like they're SCREAMING to do it, & one suspects the old mastodons were HIGHLY underrated-You want MORE power, Jasper ? No problem, just stomp on the "Loud" pedal a little harder.... We'll handle the rest..

It sure sounds like a newer smaller engine is screaming when it is putting out it's top
power, But you gotta remember they are aluminum, thinner walls, Sound penetrates
the walls much easier, tuned intake and less flow restricted exhaust, and often
multi-valves per cylinder. Many of those older engines had a top rpm limited
by the moving mass of the parts, and poor breathing capability of the intake and
exhaust. A lot of the older engines made a lot of noise, very cool sounding noise,
but from the factory, poor performers compared to today...

And I think 4 valves per cylinder was the biggest thing.... Can you imagine the old
302 v8 with 4 valves per cylinder...HOT ! ! !

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I love the loud noises the old 1.6 Liter Mercury Lynx engine makes. There isn't much low-end torque, but whatever.

It's more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.

The Aussie Falcon in my avatar, 351 Clevo powered.

My first buggie, 73 mustang with 351C was much louder once I put on a 7200VV from
Ford, but with lower top speed.... The noise did not represent any kind of power....
It was just intake noise....

Anyway EM Good luck with the yacht.... It sure is a beauty.....
Whoever had it took good care of it for ya-
Like those Audi commercials "I'm gunna own that car after you."
Someone put in a good word for the second owner of your car...

By the way.... Keep those old hub caps if you get the others you want. I did not care
too much for stock '89 Prelude hub caps when I got my second car, but now that I have
seen a few in "original" shape, with the factory covers, they are more sharp looking
now in that "retro" rear view mirror..... Again good luck, and happy boating....

.

You GOTTA wonder what a GM 455 or a FoMoCo 460 could do w/modern OHC-or even DOHC- tech, w/4 valves per cylinder, fuel injection, turbosupercharging, all the little tricks we have nowadays...I'm betting we'd see power approaching 1000 HP, w/all the low-end "Grunt" these mills were famous for. Might even skunk that over-wrought Volkswagen, the Bugatti Veyron W-16... (grin)

Ford came close with the 4.6 v8 I think the one they stuck in the Mustang after the 302.
One version of that engine had OHC, I think it also had 4 Valves per cylinder but I'm
not sure.... I quit following mustangs that close after I got my Preludes..... One thing
limiting power remember was rev limiting because of all the mass of the moving parts..
You just can't move all that metal above 6k rpm without stuff wanting to move away
from center and not come back....

My 351C 1973 was rated at around 160hp if I remember right.... My prelude 1959cc
engine 4V/cyl. DOHC 135 hp so it did almost all the 351 could do at half the size...
That is impressive in my book...... Plus I got more than 2X the life out of it and still
going...... And no rebuild.... Oh, yah.... 2x the gas mileage.......

The 70's cars were fun.... I personally would love a '72 slant 6 dart for fun... And I
really loved my mustang, but today's engineering got them beat easy for daily use...

I'm pretty sure they would not build a 1,000 hp engine for daily use.... The thing would
have to be over 8L in size or it would tear itself up..... The 3.8L Super charged v6 in the
'89 Thunderbirds use to kill the crankshafts cause it put out too much power for what
it was originally designed for.... I think it was '89....

I would however get a kick out of cars today stalling like they did years ago, combined with cell phone texting....


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The 6.8 L V-10 in The Mighty Valdez is pretty impressive, its only SOHC, doesn't have multivalves, turbo, none of that, & is RELATIVELY small, at only 413 CID, but it will pull the Valdez-a 2000 7500 lb 4X4 Excursion, at about ANY rate of speed I wanna go.. And I HAVE embarrassed a couple backwards-cap wearing, "Slammed" Accord pilots w/it.. Gotten a few kicks over the years of popping the hood of my '73 Fleetwood Brougham Caddy, & showing the Slammed Honda crowd what a REAL Amurrican V-8 looked like.. Their l'il motors would barely serve as a starter motor for the big Caddy 472..

I like it. There's one of those at the end of my street, at a body shop, that has been sitting there for years. The outside looks perfect, but there is no interior at all. No dash, nothing. I wonder if it was a flood car or something.

The young crowd has a different outlook on cars as us older all steel 4" 6-pack+ piston
driven' dudes. Don't forget they racin' others with basically the same cars. Like we raced
a gm v8 against a ford v8.... It wasn't a ford v8 vs a honda VTEC something. And they
already have a computerized almost maxed out engine from the factory. We had squat,
and tons of potential, the old stuff had detuned cams, detuned intakes, and "Y" piped
single exhaust systems holding back the stuff we had as kids.... Most of what kids do
today is lower the car, we jacked up the back, most engine stuff they do does not
improve performance until you add a supercharger. We could replace a cam, intake, and
exhaust and nearly double the power..... Today's kids also have this strange hangup with
mobile earthquake recreation. And those fart cans..... I don't get it....

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I've often wondered, if gas had stayed at 35 cents/gallon, how big would have American cars gotten? I wonder how hard it would be to fit the fuel injection/engine controls from a 90s F-series 460 to that Lincoln?

I have often wondered that too !

35 cents a gallon, and no EPA pollution rules WOW the Hummer would be looked
at as if it was a tin can by now as it gets bypassed by bigger and bigger models
every year.....

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I find it funny that some of the average cars of old get about the same mileage as the average cars of today. I drove a 65 fury with the slant 6, and it got a rock-solid 20mpg. In town, or on the highway, always 20mpg. I know because the gas gauge was broken, so I had to drive by the odometer and my gas-station receipt ;)

That car was so long I about had to hit the back wall of the garage just to get the door to close behind it!

For the most part it comes down to physics..... Wind resistance, engine size,
and vehicle weight, a gal. of gas will push a weight with rolling resistance, through
the air and deliver this much economy.....

The funny thing is that when they actually make progress, the typical car line
does not realize greater mpg, instead it gets bigger both as a wind drag, and
gains weight.... Look at pickups, even the smallest entry models you need
a step ladder to get into, and the Accords, gaining weight, and getting big...
I think the new ones do about the same as our '91.

Popular Science use to do several speed - mpg tests on cars in the 70's and
a lot of the cars back then got the best mpg at around 45 mph... I'm guessing
it's because the rpm's were around 2100 and wind resistance was pretty low
at that speed....



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Yep. The Mighty Valdez weighs in at 7500 lbs, empty, so w/any load at all, you're right at 8000 lbs. That's 4 TONS...Even if I yanked the V-10 out & transplanted a 300 6 in, I doubt if it would help matters all THAT much, & drivability would suffer.

@ Jon A: If I decide to get rid of my stereo 8-track car stereo I'll have to mention it to ya. I like the quad units mostly because I've been fascinated with the different formats it was issued on, and obtaining them (aside from my CD4 decoder needing repair I can play all formats marketed in the US and record all tape formats)...I wanted to hear quad through tubes bad enough to start building my own quad tube amp (because it was cheaper than getting two more mono blocks) a year and a half ago (it is the best thing I've built to date).

@ jstout66: I hope mine don't spin in the snow. Despite new tires I did have an issue on friday...I was at a light during/immediately after mild drizzle trying to turn on red, and it was inching along with the (seemingly sufficient) gas I was giving it. With the window to get out of the way closing I gradually applied more gas until suddenly the tires audibly spun and it started to actually move...Granted it was at a light and the conditions were right for a surface oil-slick to form on the road.
If any traction issues develop I'll probably leave some kitty-litter or other ballast in the trunk for the winter.

@ Paul Knaack: Not sure. It's hard to tell there even is one under the enormous air filter enclosure (you could serve a turkey on that thing).
Is there a easy way to distinguish them from each other? I've heard of the Autolite carbs being stock, but I've not seen the Holly mentioned...Were those an option or a popular aftermarket mod?

@ Kamakiri: Nice continental. A year or two ago there was a sky blue one for sale in an area I frequently went past, which put put that era of lincoln back on the map for me (when I was a kid there was IIRC a black Mark V in my neighbor hood).
Yours had the coolest (in my book) of the car radios available in those cars. If that radio was not normally 200$+ on fleabay I'd be trying to buy one. There is something that feels out of place seeing a early digital tuned radio with a built in quad 8-track deck...it would be like a LCD TV with SuperBetamax built in.
The Marks seem to have bolt on frame extenders that the rear bumper mounts to, and one of them on mine is not in particularly great shape compared to the other (and the rest of the under carriage seems in better shape compared to them).

I'll comment on more of your comments later tonight after I get home.

UGH! I hope it will get around for you okay, I always cussed mine, and said if a bird pooped overhead and one of my tires met it, it would send the car in a spin. I had a 75 Olds 98 Regency before the town car that acted the same way. I had always wondered if it was the brand of tires I had on it (Coopers). I always put new tires on a car after I buy it, and after the Towncar, I swore NEVER to buy that brand again. I got a 66 Plymouth Valiant after the town car that I had Uniroyal tiger paws on it, and that car was like a GOAT in the snow. That damn car would go thru anything. Good luck on yours.. I bet Tim *Kamakari could chime in on some tips. ( he's the car guru)

Nice find in that condition, Tom. If I had room for maybe ten cars, a Mark V like yours would be the "cruise ship" of choice, nothing else is nearly as cool.

Find a parking lot with "compact car" spaces, then park your car and open both doors wide. See if you can take up FOUR spaces! :) (Then move it-you do not want anyone to get angry and retaliate.)

Better yet, park it across the spaces. :D Then, open the hood to make it look like it's about to eat the import next to it and snap a photo. I agree, move it afterward though.

One bit of work it needs is some exhaust repair. Me and a friend are hoping to find time to do that soon. I've heard it suggested elsewhere that if I were to convert it to dual exhaust I could tack on a few more MPG...If that is the case it might be a good idea to just do it while I'm under there changing out the exhaust.

@ Bgadow: The potential compatibility of the 90's truck fuel injection/engine control had me asking the same question. But I have to wonder if there would be significant benefit in fuel economy or power without one being at the expense of the other? If it would merit doing, and there are no major stumbling blocks it could make for an interesting summer project.

@ Jon A: ROTFL :lmao: :lmao: That is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. If mine was a 500$ junker (it's not), I'd try to find a smart car to park on the hood like a doggie treat...

@ jstout66: Well if it does like to slide I can always keep it parked when the roads are bad...Or take it out to a vacant un-plowed lot and have some fun trying to drive it sideways. :D

@ senior squirrel: Speaking of yachts, the last owner of mine was so slow in getting back to me I was looking at other cars, and considered buying a 79' Bill Blass edition lincoln Mark V...Now that version, which is white with the side panels painted navy blue, SCREAMS land yacht much louder than mine can.
Funny you mention loud engines and the Prelude. My friend had a 90's Prelude until this year and it exemplified loud high RPM modern engine. When he would try to accelerate it would quickly comply with a LOUD whiney roar. I've never particularly liked fast noisy little cars. I get the same feeling being in a car that has to really rev to accelerate as I do running a tube radio that hums louder than the audio coming through. And small+fast does not equal safe in my mind. If I'm going to be tempted to go fast I like the idea of something that has some real mass to it surrounding me.
If the old Lincolins are as sturdy or better than the new ones then it is probably as good as driving a tank. My friend was cut off by a Lincoln SUV in his prelude while I was with him which totaled his car, the SUV...It had some scratches, and a side reflector popped off...
I've never got my generations obsession with whiney engines, fart cans, and stereos with ridiculously excessive often distorted bass. Also most modern cars lack the sense of bold style of days gone bye, and the simplicity of design and construction that says "we took the care to make it so that if you want or need to fix it your self you can".
Cars to an extent have the same feel as TVs of their time...Older models have better style and a feel of craftsmanship to them, and while not as densely packed with technological marvels have the benefit of being much easier for the owner to be deeply familiar with, where as more recent cars, engineering marvels as they are, feel like they are made to impress, break and stay broken else live on as crippled horses.

[QUOTE=Electronic M;3117990]Sweet!
Can you give me a price/shipping quote on the quad unit? My zip is 53072.
I'd almost ask for the stereo unit as well, but then I would have two, and that lingering crazy idea I had about equipping the riding lawnmower with a car radio might start keeping me up at night again.:D

You have no room left in your pm box…

...

I always like to put dual exhaust on my cars, I don't know if I'll ever do it to the 03 Grand Marquis I'm currently driving, but I did it to my 72 Impala and 72 Buick.

They were designing OHC big block V8s in the late-60s / early-70s. Buick and Olds had an OHC big block V8, Cadillac had an OHC V12 in the works. They never made it into production. I'm a big fan of the 71-74 GM cars (tend to think of 75-76 as kind of lesser versions of the 71-74), but think the 77-90 were such a disappointment compared to what might have been.

Similarly, I think Ford and Chrysler made their big cars through 78. And I think there were still some big Lincolns in 79 - but not with the 460. And Cadillac still made the full-size Eldo with a 425 instead of the 500 in 77-78.

I kind of liked the 91-96 GM full size models, and the Ford big cars 92-11 (I like the 03 Grand Marquis I have now - it has a small 281 ci OHC V8 and still drives a lot like the older cars) Whereas (Ford 79-91, GM 77-90) were just smaller, slower and boxier looking than the earlier 70s cars, (91-96 GM , 92-11 Ford) were a a bit of an improvement over (Ford 79-91, GM 77-90), a little faster, a little sleeker looking. Now nobody makes a full size rwd V8 car, and all of the cars look way out of proportion to me (too high, not wide or long enough).

To me the real golden age of auto manufacture was (57-)59-74(-79). Looks peaked with the 59-60 GM models, mechanically cars peaked around 71-74 when you could get a full size car with one of the larger big block V8s: 440, 454, 455, 460, 472, 500 (without too much of that smog crapola tacked on yet), and most cars came with AC and all the other various power accessories.

Yeah, an unexpected PM grabbed the last slot...I've cleared up some space so it should work now.

The Cad V-12 program dated from the early Sixties. By 1963, they were far enuff along w/it to have drawn up a picture of a likely 2-passenger coupe', w/swoopy 1968 Corvette style midsection, & 1963 production Caddy grille & back end. The hood was impossibly long. They even cobbled up a wood block prototype full-size mockup, & I think had a "Boilerplate" rough-running ACTUAL engine. But, in late '65, the project was killed.. The V-12 was not sufficiently THAT much more powerful or smoother than the ENORMOUS V-8s planned-the 1967-68-The 472- to justify production. The Eldo was sposed to get the V-12, but it was never to be. Rumors have circulated from time to time ever since of a V-12 Caddy supercar, but have as yet remained strictly rumors. One would think-HOPE-that with the incredible success Caddy has had in the Chinese market, that THERE might be a hope for a Caddy hypercar to give the Germans something to think about-There are likely more S-class Mercedes now in Beijing than there are in Stuttgart, & the "Nominative S-Class customer" is no longer a 60 yr old dentist from Omaha, but a 30 yr old oligarch from Beijing. We can HOPE, I guess...

I have not heard that term before... does it refer to a prototype engine? Or perhaps one that is actually fabricated from sheet metal (like the early Crosley CoBra engine)? Or something completely different? :scratch2:

jr

Ford was building Aluminum block, 32 valve, DOHC engines in the early 40's.
Sadly they never put them in any cars, at least not here.

This looks like the ancestor to the Duratec engine used today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5uSx3eFYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2ghTjFtNPo

From what I recall reading, it was a "Toolroom" prototype, sort of a "Proof of Concept", more than anything else. The full-size wooden mockup was made to give the engineers an idea where they could mount the alternator, exhaust manifolds, distributor, A/C units, etc. I've seen a small picture of it, & it was pretty lifelike.. The actual running motor, I don't recall if it was cast, machined, or like the Crosley "Cobra" motor, built up. But I DO remember there were a couple of variations of it, an OHV version, & an "OHC" version. I bet they STILL spent a bundle on it, even for back then.

Haha, gotta love it. That sounds like a fun Photoshop project, especially if made into an action shot.

I would have to try the vacant lot thing given the opportunity. I had never heard of "snow drifting" before. :D

I've been wanting to do that too...Since this is my first winter with a drivers license I can go out alone and try that without being told NO(!)...:nono:

There is an old family legend that many years ago in a neighborhood in Chicago, during a bad snowstorm, one of my uncles was with some friends (alcohol may or may not have been involved) and made a bet that he could drive his car sideways from one end of the un-plowed block to the other. As the story goes he had no trouble collecting on that bet...:D

As a kid one sledding hill I used to go to had a good view of a parking lot...I remember one night I stopped and watched someone in a minivan repeatedly come around the corner of the school building that lot circled, hit the brakes(?), and do a real good skid...They stopped IIRC either from either almost rolling it or hitting a curb.

If I knew how to use Photoshop (and if it was freeware) I'd have to try making that picture or animation.

Wowww I love that car!!!!

Your PM box is full again...