(first posted 2/19/2013) For those of you out of the loop, I have a thing for 1950s to 1970s “big old American cars” in aqua. Whether the bright turquoise of a 1955 Thunderbird or the light-metallic aqua of a 1966 Olds Ninety-Eight, I will go out of my way to check it out once spotted. And if the car has a white or aqua interior, well, just try to drag me away! So when I saw this lovely boat of a Lincoln on eBay recently, I had to share the joy.
According to the auction listing, this car is all original and only has 67K on the clock. Being a ’79, it does have the 400CID V8 and not the more desirable 460, but still–what a car!
Paul recently shared a mammoth 1973 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 75, but that was a limo. This Connie is just a sedan. But what a sedan. What space, what style! What a car! New Lincolns, you say? MK-what? Sorry, not the same. Not by a long shot…
Besides the obvious luxury one of these cars provided–space, comfort, a cosseting ride–you also had a wide palette of colors to choose from. In addition to this one, in beautiful Medium Turquoise Metallic, you had such cool colors as Crystal Apricot Metallic, Midnight Blue Metallic, and Cordovan Metallic, not to mention the other 15 available colors.
Just look at all those colors. Quite the difference from today’s silvers, grays, black and whites, eh? And that’s not counting the many different vinyl roof and interior colors that were also available.
But that’s not all! No, this Connie is not just aqua on the outside! We also have plush aqua velour with wall-to-wall aqua carpet inside. The only thing that would make this better would be if it was leather instead of velour. There’s a scent to vintage Lincoln leather upholstery that I just love. I remember it well from Grandpa Bob’s ’77 Mark V and ’87 Continental.
The only demerit I have on the 1978-79 Continentals is that sparse instrument panel. The 1970-77 dash was much, MUCH cooler looking. This one is more of a gilded LTD dash than a Lincoln’s, though I do dig the Quadrasonic stereo with 8-track this one has.
The 1978-79 dash does look appropriate for a big brash American luxury car, though, with all the simulated woodgrain and chrome “Lincoln Town Car” script above the glovebox. If you got a basic Continental, the script said, appropriately enough, “Lincoln Continental.” Interestingly though, the top-of-the-line 1979 Collector’s Series Continental was NOT a Town Car, despite having the Town Car seat style, albeit in “Kasman II luxury cloth” instead of velour.
The back seat, if anything, has even more room than the front. With the ride this Lincoln provides and the acres of aquaness, you could be forgiven if you thought you were out to sea while riding in the back. Perhaps on a trip to Europe on the QE Blue?
Well, I can say with authority that this is the coolest thing I’ve seen on ebay in months. Hope it goes to a good home. For the Broughamic-minded, what could be better than this?
All images are from the original ebay listing.
Absolutely beautiful. Just seeing this brightened my morning. Thanks, Tom.
Set the cruise control and point it towards a warm sunny destination
Be prepared to saw the steering wheel to keep it going straight, tho.
You can steer this with one pinky.
I take joy in going through this particular ebay seller’s frequent car listings. The cars are always in great condition and they always post professional photos of every angle you could want.
Wow! What a car. What a color.
The wide array of paint colors available is great. I think if manufacturers offered more of a variety today, they would sell more (it’s next to impossible to find a -red- car anymore!).
The interior, however? Ick. Black leather would look great with this color.
I blame dealers for the lack of color. Every dealer’s favorite color is “unobjectionable.” When the buyer only finds one or two cars on the lot with the features he or she wants, the dealer wants to make sure the cars are painted in a color the buyer won’t object to. Like silver. Or metallic gray. Or pearlescent metallic gray. Or winter storm. Or Lake Erie In January.
Ugh.
It’s not the dealers it’s the buyers. Too many worry about “resale value”. The few times a dealer does stock something other than black, silver, grey, beige or white they sit and sit on the lot.
Red is about the only “color” out there nowadays. After the post on the new Dart a few days back my son and I played a game on our drive to our FIRST robotics meeting. It was count the cars that weren’t black, grey, white, silver or beige. We happened across over a dozen red cars and only two or three blue or greens. The dozens of others were of course black, grey, white, silver or beige.
This Lincoln just makes my heart go faster! Looking out the window of my Luxembourg office right now I can see exactly 23 parked cars out there. ALL of them but one (a little Peugeot in aqua green – bless it!) are either black, silver or white. Thank God I’m not suicidal.
Lately I ordered a Ford S Max as our next famliy mover and, as you point out, red was the only available “color” (and it costed extra). Of course I picked it up. The Italian-born dealer thought it was cool to sell a red car for a change. Must have brought back childhood memories from when cars still had colors.
I am in love right there with you, Tom. I am an admitted turquoise car freak. Although my 66 Fury III sedan was white, it was turquoise inside, in pretty much the same shade as the outside of this Lincoln.
Not only do I go gaga for turquoise cars, I also go gaga for these 70s Lincolns. I have shared before that my favorite car of any that my father ever had was his 78 Town Coupe. His white exterior/cordovan velour interior was not bad, but had it been this color, I might have tied myself to one of the front wheels to prevent him from trading it.
I will share your gripes about the dash and the 400 V8, and will add that I always considered these wire wheelcovers particularly unconvincing and unattractive. This car just screams for the turbine wheels.
I hope you appreciate that you have ruined my morning, as I will think about this for the rest of the day. Let’s see, I wonder if I can find a Sinatra 8 track somewhere . . . .
I agree that the turbine alloys would be an improvement, though I don’t mind the wire wheel covers. When I was a kid, our neighbor across the alley, Bill Yokas, had a perfect ’79 Collector’s Series Continental sedan in white with navy velour. It had been his brother’s car and Bill only drove it to the Greek Orthodox church on Sundays. I was very impressed with that car!
You would probably have liked his daily driver back then, a black 1982 Cougar wagon with a dark red interior and wire wheel covers. Before that one, he had a giant bottle green 1971-72 Pontiac Safari.
Purdy. The interior is pretty eye-scorching, but it’s nice.
Nice colour,this can make or break a car.I see a navy blue town car a lot and it’s just another big Yank.This aqua makes the car look classy
One of the chiropractors in town here has 2 or 3 of these 70s town cars, there is a butter yellow one pretty close to this 79 that I would love to buy if he decided to sell, so classy.
We had a neighbor who had a Collector’s Series, too. Hers was solid navy blue with leather, a car/color combo that is on my list of “Cars to Own Before I Die”. I see so many on ebay/Hemmings all the time. I can’t afford to buy something and just let it sit around as a big, expensive toy.
As much as I love these, if I remember correctly, they started looking a little antiquated next to the DeVille/Fleetwood/Electra/98 bodies of ’77-’79, imho.
The 1979 Lincoln Continental Collector’s Series: (wallpaper)
The Collector’s Series in white: (wallpaper)
The 1979 Lincoln Continental Town Car in Medium Turquoise Metallic with optional turbine-style cast aluminum wheels: (wallpaper)
Oh yeah! The turbines do look a lot nicer.
Well then, what you do is buy whatever you want, then swap out the wheels. I have a feeling you could easily find the turbines, as popular as they were.
The Lincoln turbines are some of the most timeless wheel designs ever.
can you guys find me a nice red town coupe for my wall paper – preferably with a fixed moon-roof like the cc above
Look up The Brougham Society on Facebook. One of our members has a beautiful red Town Coupe featured there.
Here’s one in Crystal Apricot. This was for sale on ebay a few months ago.
WOW! MAGNIFICENT! This was the color I would have ordered in 1979. Triple aqua, YES! I would have ordered the Town Coupe. Around $ 11K or 12K. I believe in the 79 brochure, a very classy lady sits in the driver’s seat. (I had the brochure, got thrown away when cleaning out my mother’s house 8 years ago.)
Tom Selleck, Magnum, was in the brochure. Sitting in the Collector’s Mark. I think the Mark had a nicer dash.
Gee, I wish I had ordered one back then. Did some have small fender skirts in the back?
Like this one? I actually saw a Town Coupe about ten years ago at the QC auto auction just like this one, right down to the wheel covers. It was in pretty rough shape, but all there.
I have that ’79 Continental brochure in my collection; it’s a very nice piece, but not as fancy as the ’77-’78 brochures, which had heavy-stock covers and onion-skin pages.
I think the Town Coupe is more handsome in this model, because of the slope of the roofline and the absence of the oval opera window; the latter does not work well with the other lines of the car (it somehow looked better on my Dad’s somewhat sleeker 78 Mark V).
And here’s the lovely lady you mentioned…
How long since anyone made a car where a lady can cross her legs while sitting in the driver’s seat?
It seems like yesterday, when I took that test drive in the Mark, and studied those Lincoln brochures.
I think her name was Krystal Apricot.
“The only thing that would make this better would be if it was leather instead of velour.” Disagree. The Queen of England rides on nice fabric in her limo while the chauffeur sits on leather. Good fabric much nicer than hard leather.
Amen, brother. I just bought a car in October, and I would have preferred cloth seats over the “leather trimmed seats” I got. It’s just that if you want any options at all, like, say, an AM/FM radio, you’ve got to pick a trim level that includes leather. And I didn’t get a luxury car; I got a Focus.
There’s a reason they call them “leather trimmed.” Only the faces of the seats are leather. The other sides are covered in vinyl. Can’t tell the difference? Neither can I. I probably wouldn’t hate leather seats so much if the automotive-grade leathers didn’t all feel like vinyl.
The “leather trimmed” front seats in my ’12 Escape are of such horribly bad quality that I would have preferred all-vinyl (like the rear seat) instead. They are so over-plasticized that no amount of conditioner can make them supple; unfortunately, the Ford cloth was even worse, like burlap.
LOVE the Town Car.
Tell me about it. When I bought my ’12 Escape last year, the dealer wanted to put me into a Limited with leather, but I just wasn’t impressed with the leather quality. I ended up having them find me an XLT in Steel Blue with black cloth. Yeah, the cloth is far from luxurious, but it does the job. I did specifically request the dark interior because EVERY used Escape I looked at with a lighter colored cloth interior had stains, and they could not be removed!
At least with the black and some Scotchgard, they should look good for quite a while, which is good because I am hoping it will be a long-term keeper.
I actually like the cloth seats in my Volvo wagon–it is especially rare in that it has cloth interior AND heated seats.
In the Lincoln’s case, I just don’t care much for crushed velour. The broadcloth interiors in the ’60s Imperial LeBarons, however, were quite nice.
absolutely right! nothing beats fine velour for proper luxury seating.
i really don’t get why anyone is so mad about leather? leather makes you sweat in summer and freeze in winter, and does not feel even half as nice in between. no wonder its much less expensive to replace (lesson learned here …)
I had a dark metallic turquoise 1965 Dart 270 2-door sedan that had the same interior color as this car. Of course it was done in a much more utilitarian fashion. And of course there was the turquoise and white 1957 New Yorker with much the same interior.
Studebaker had an interesting deep greenish turquoise color in the late 1940’s – I saw a Land Cruiser in that color on a car lot in California a couple of years ago. It looked just about like the car in this photo I found online.
While I appreciate its malaise era broughamness, I really prefer the built to last forever austerity of a contemporary Mercedes W123.
Back on topic, the last Turquoise Ford I can recall was a 92-93 Ranger pickup my wife wanted to buy, but when we actually bought one at the end of the 93 model yearthe only ones we could find were metallic Green.
It looked great until the dash…..ouch, that LTD dash and generic Ford wheel, along with the black “Pinto-grade” air vents sink the interior for me, not to mention no 460. If it was 1979? I would slide into a new Eldorado Biarritz.
These Lincolns were nice cars, but they just seem so dated after 1977, and lost all interest in them when they really started to cheap out the dash.
I’d like to be that dude in the picture for a minute.
I’d like to be the dude in the picture for the night. I’ll bet he woke up smiling.
If you don’t like cheap dashes, I am not sure I would use a 1970s Cadillac as your comparison. 🙂
I have always wondered why Lincoln did a new cheapened dash for the last 2 years. I have hit on the idea that maybe they had an idea of what the dash was going to look like in the 1980 restyle (much like in the 1979 Grand Marquis), and decided to slowly move buyers into that same look in advance of the smaller car. Just a thought.
I personally love the Cadillac dashes from 1974-on, plastic or not. The 77 dash is particularly fetching. Although it seems like I might be the only one…
Personally, I was never crazy about that dash that lasted from 1977 to nearly eternity. The teeny little black speedo, the plastic pieces that never seemed to fit together quite right, and the little “unleaded fuel only” plastic blank that filled where the digital clock went in the very early models. Don’t get me wrong, the 78-79 Lincoln dash is no great work of art, but at least the silver-faced speedo with back-lighting through the numbers gave you a little eye candy.
You’re not. I always thought that Cadillac dash style was classy. The newer-style ETR stereos looked awful in that dash though they did sound better. I forgot what year Cadillac started changing over…maybe 1985 or 1986…
I like the 77-92 dash especially 79s and the 90-92s. The 79s used a one year only butterfly walnut that was appealing while the 90-92s used a nice translucent panel.
The 1980 Lincoln dash was a radical departure from earlier models. Of the 1970s cars, Chrysler has the best most functional dash.
Say what you want, the steering wheel in Cadillac and the steering wheel in a Vega were never confused for one another. Same for the a/c and radio, power windows, locks.
I like the 1977-1990 dash too, the clock was lost after 1980, when all the radios went to a digital display, the cars also got the larger Delco 2000 series radios in 1987. It got even stranger in 1990 when they added the digital dash and an even larger radio.
Also, in 1990-92 the center dash vents went from being horizontal above the radio to vertical and flanking the radio.
Actually, these TC’s shared the dash with the Marquis. Yes, it had a lot more plastic, but the ergonomics were vastly improved.
I peruse eBay motors daily. I look for RWD GM luxury cars from the 70s-80s. Although there are plenty for sale, few are in this kind of shape, with low miles. But man, are those gems stunning.
I’d never consider buying any of these disposable luxury machines with over, say, 70k miles unless the owner was meticulous. After 100k miles, the steering gets looser, the suspensions are less compliant, electrics stop working (or worse, the slow power window) etc…too much of a pain.
But the ones with 10k 20k, 40k miles are pretty incredible time capsules. And seeing that they rarely, if ever, sell for more than $15-20k, they are cheap, fun classics.
IMO, any 20+ year old car needs a full suspension rebuild. They’re either going to be worn out from regular service or every piece of rubber will have deteriorated from the car sitting and being “pampered”. The beauty of old American tanks like these though, is that there’s lots of interchange and thus a large supply of service parts still available. Body/chassis condition and interior are my biggest concerns at that age and mileage. A torn seat here, a damaged/missing trim piece there and next thing you know you’re being nickle and dimed sourcing heavily marked up NOS parts or restoration.
I followed the exact same criteria for buying taxi cabs; as long as the body and interior as straight on old American sleds, everything else is cheap and easy to repair/rebuild.
I don’t disagree at all. Just the thought of figuring out how to repair cracked dashboards, steering wheels or door plastics, splitting seats, etc is enough to scare me off. At least the idea of replacing a car’s rubber seems less daunting. And converting the inevitably non-working a/c to R134a.
What a beauty! Absolutely love the color! However, that dash is a bit of a turnoff. The downsized cadillacs had a nicer dash, in my opinion (I am biased though, as I own a ’90 brougham). But dash or no, I still wouldn’t mind owning that brougham era lincoln.
Yikes. After looking at that interior, I feel like I ate an armful of bright blue cotton candy.
So I couldn’t pull off a car like this. But I love these Continentals/Town Cars in the navy blue with matching leather interior. They’re the only reasonably-priced Lincoln I’d like to see in my garage. (Non-reasonably priced Lincolns? The early suicide-door Continentals and the Mark II.)
This one was on display at our local Lincoln dealer last fall–probably more your style!
Bingo! Especially with those wheels.
Sadly, I was kidding when I said I’d like to see one in our garage… at best, it would be “mostly” in our garage. It would stick out at least three inches. (Yes, I checked: we were recently in the market for some big American iron, so we measured… no Continentals or Electras for us!)
Same with me. My dad offered me his 1977 version of the car pictured above (460, milk-thermometer speedo, etc) and I turned him down,as it wouldn’t even fit in my garage, and it would have been a crime to leave it parked outside, underneath trees, in the Seattle area. If I lived out in the country and had a shop or large garage, I would have it right now. Oh well . . .
Wow, Tom, you made my morning, you must be in gunboat heaven, your descriptive terms are positively gleeful! I couldn’t agree more, today’s Lincolns (MK-whatevers) pale by comparison, this leviathan may be brash and in-your-face, but it was the last of its kind, and a fitting monument to the Brougham era. I have never seen so much crushed velour, just imagine the seat of your corduroy pants sticking to this stuff. Great color, though, miss that in contemporary cars, as everyone notes. It was unfortunate that Ford cheaped out the dash and steering wheel, this doesn’t look much more substantial than the ’77 Granada I once had as a company car. And did anyone notice that the speedometer only goes to 85 mph? Come on, you know this engine is far more capable than that, but I guess the idea was that if you only saw 85 as the max speed, you would think that was it, and keep it down to the gas-saving 55 mph limit. Or not!
At the time, I disdained these overgrown, clunky looking successors to my parents’ much more lithe looking ’71 coupe, but somehow the years have softened my outlook. “What a car,” indeed!
Don’t blame Lincoln for the 85 mph speedometer. Believe it or not, it was the law of the land. You could not have a speedometer that read over 85. You also had to emphasize the 55, either by making it a different color, or circling it. That’s why so many early ’80s cars had their speedometers marked by 5’s, to make that easier. This was overturned in the mid-80s and you started to see speedometers going to 120 again.
Wasn’t that Carter’s idea?
No that was from Nixon. Most of the crap from the 70s came from Nixon. I remember chasing down seat belt interlocks on 74 Cadillac that wouldn’t start unless you buckled up but sometimes didn’t start anyways. Eventually we just looped it out.
I just looked it up on Wikipedia. Nixon was responsible for the 55 mph speed limit, while Carter was responsible for the 85 mph speedos. Shared stupidity, perhaps; or, more likely, the same bureaucrats running NHTSA during that entire era crafted both blunders.
Nothing scream American excess than these Lincoln Continentals. When the GM full size cars were downsized for 1977, while those turned out to be popular, Chrysler and Lincoln did register sales increases from those that saw the writing on the wall.
I once owned a 1978 Mark V, I have driven several Continentals like this, but never owned one. My two complaints were: A) Terrible fuel economy, yes you don’t drive such a vehicle if fuel economy is a major concern. With that said, even my 1976 Cadillac returned 12-13MPG city 17MPG highway while the Mark V was lucky to get into the teens under any condition. Almost everyone that I have talked to that has owned one of these has commented about the dismal figures. B) Again, while no one really buys these cars for great handling, IMO they are the worst of the big three between the Chrysler New Yorker Brougham and the 1976 (old body style) Cadillac Fleetwood.
These cars seemed to look best with the turbine vane wheels which most of them came with although the chrome plated steel wheel is also attractive.
I do like cloth interiors, while leathers are nice, nothing screams total baroque and pimp than deep pile velour seats and carpets. They tend to hold up better over the long term and are more comfortable in more extreme temperatures.
Town Car in an attractive red color with the chrome plated wheels.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/6153821293/
Very well preserved example, hopefully it finds a good home. That said, I really do not like these cars. The downsized Cadillacs of the late 70’s were light years ahead in my opinion. For whatever reason there are a ton of 75+ Lincoln Conitnentals locally that have been preserved by old men. Many are up for sale now, but there are few takers for a car that makes a pickup truck seem fuel efficient.
A neighbor of mine had one of these Town Cars as a Oregon Storage Unit complete with blue tarp!!! She replaced the TC with a 2000 Catera she thought it was a good low-mileage car! (another story). I just went to take a photo of it but it has now gone on to other adventures! C’est la vie.
My family was into Buicks and Cadillacs during this era, but these Lincoln’s had sooo much more curb appeal!
Ford has always done aqua/turquoise the best of any manufacturer.
Even today, Ford has a similiar color (‘Frosted Glass’) available on the Focus/Escape:
I bought a car from this seller, the 1979 collector’s series with the fixed glass roof. (The one that says sold to PA), He was a pleasure to work with and the car was in great cosmetic shape, but there were a few issues. The “glass top” had been broken at some point, probably during the repaint and was replaced with a Plexiglas copy that wasn’t secured to the car properly and flew off during a drive, however the seller really stepped up and paid in full for the proper repair. The vehicle was also in need of a valve job (puff of smoke on startup) that i decided to turn into a full blown rebuild (shaved deck and heads, .30 bore, sealed power pistons, total seal rings, balanced crankshaft, 3 angle valve job, straight up timing chain, and comp cams 252h cam). The other 2 issues are an inoperable left rear window and a quadrasonic that, while still sounding great is actually a tri-sonic, (driver’s door speaker has no sound). All of these will be addressed in the spring. Other than that the car is an absolute dream to drive, the rear springs were replaced and all shocks were replaced with bilstein comfort series shocks that still maintain an ultra soft ride while taming all the unwanted body motions. Thanks to living in PA I only get to drive her on weekends for about 5 months out of the year, but I love it every time I do.
Do you have any Quadrasonic tapes? I have one or two Quadrasonic stereos but no Quadrasonic tapes. Before I die, I want to hear one of these systems playing all four channels separate.
make sure you buy the ford quad demo- awesome introduction + you can use it to test out all your speakers
– it has an audio track that explains how quad works- so the sound is briefly separated for each speaker- goes from Left front, then Right front -etc
I’ll have to keep a look out for one on the bays of E, most of the eight tracks I’ve come across have been damaged so i got a cassette convertor.
Once when I owned my 76 Cadillac with 8 track, as a joke, I found an 8 track to cassette adapter that still worked surprisingly well. Then I used a cassette to mini jack adapter and was able to use my iPod with decent results. It was somewhat funny looking sticking about 6 inches out of the dash…
There’s no telling how many of these demo tapes wound up getting thrown out at the Thrift stores. I used to work at the Alabama Thrift Store & would occasionally stumble across Chevy demo cassette tapes & various owners manuals.
I was surprised how much stuff hit the dumpster instead of being put out on the floor and priced because some knucklehead in the back figured nobody would buy it.
Had a 77 white on white w/ Burgundy Velour Upholstery and the Chrome Wheels. Had it from 87 to 98. Wish I could have it back. Sold it with 160,000 miles. A friend of mine called it my “Deep Ride”. The 77 had the generic ford steering wheel but the much cooler looking dash with the mercury speedometer. Also liked the full fender skirts better on the pre-78’s. I always felt that the open skirts where added to give the illusion the car was smaller than it was. What a car and I love the turquoise color.
re the skirts:That’s what I always thought too, they were trying to ape the ’77 Caddy skirtless look.
Beautiful car. The exterior detailing becomes more impressive every year. What I remember most about this vintage of Lincoln was the interior smell. It was a sweet, pungent and probably toxic aroma that new cars don’t have any more. A fine place to sit and play with the electric gadgets. The sound of the power door locks and power seats was quieter than on Cadillacs.
I’m surprised to see a leather wrapped steering wheel on the feature car. The big Lincolns usually had a super skinny hard plastic rim which took what little confidence you had in the handling feel and tossed it out the window. How appropriate for all the old folks who drove these!
All us old guys put those lace over steering wheel covers on our cars. They used to come in all colors, so a close match was a cinch. I bought a new one last year, all I saw was black. The check out girl never saw one before, and asked me about the difficulty of installation.
Since 1972, I’ve had them on all my cars, except for the few cars that had the factory leather.
I remember those. Was there ever a more functional and stylish accessory than the lace over cover? Could instantly make an old barge feel one size smaller. Back in the day if you saw a nice looking pony car with slotted mags chances were it had a lace on cover inside. So durable too, they would last forever.
A shame the young lady didn’t know what it was and it only comes in black now. She is growing up on something as stupid to me as carpeted floor mats, the glossy wood steering wheel. It’s like history keeps repeating itself.
Ha! My ’73 Bonneville Beater has one of those and it complements the interior, don’t you think?
Absolutely. And what a testament to the durability of those covers. Despite a no doubt constant assault of sun and hands over the years the one in your car looks like new!
Those GM PDLs were noisy, but also very durable. The system in my Cadillac sounds like four nail guns going off whenever I lock the doors. Growing up it was embarrassing when we were going through a rough part of town and Mom would hit the power door lock switch, always it seemed when we were stopped at a busy intersection.
I miss the sound of old power seats, the ones in new cars barely make a sound, but I love the old KHACH..ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…..KHACH!.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, from the power seat motors.
Don’t forget the cannon-like power door lock solenoids on the earlier GM stuff. Those things are strong!
An early Chevelle advertisement actually called out the fact that the power door lock option was loud on purpose (even though I’m sure it wasn’t designed to be loud).
Yes! The ones on my Estate Wagon KLACK! with an authority that implies that the units may have once been used as finge breaking devices.
We had a Ford LTD (when they were still called that) which had power locks that apparently had heavy-duty solenoids operating them, when you locked or unlocked you would see the lock button go up or down quickly followed by a loud electromagnet clonk sound. It also had the trailer-towning package and you could hear the clicking of the turn signal relay extremely well (my father who originally owned this car is now going deaf (probably due to being in the army and firing howitzers when he was a young man finally catching up to him) and he doesn’t seem to be able to hear when his turn signals are on (I think they should make a “senior citizen” option with amplified turn signal sound since he often doesn’t notice the light flashing onthe dash either)…if he still had the LTD, wouldn’t be a problem.
The other thing I thought was neat on this was the “night light” mounted on the “B” pillar (it probably has a fancier name like “carriage light” but I like to think of it as a night light)…guess it came on with the headlights? Our LTD of course didn’t have them.
This is such a beautiful car: the interior is dazzling. I still like the dash of this car even if it is more Marquis-level than Lincoln-level. The silver faced speedometer is a nice touch but you’d think Lincoln could have silvered-up the clock to match it though.
I hope the future owner keeps it pristine as breaking any non-mechanical piece on this car would be bad news. Can you imagine finding an uncracked original steering wheel?
Thanks Tom for showing pictures of the interior and instrument panel — those are usually my favorite shots — it’s neat seeing what this car was equipped with.
In terms of cosmetic parts availability, these are not exactly 69 Camaros, lol, my rim is holding up well, but I’m on the lookout for a good center section.
I really need to start paying better attention to these when I visit the scrapyard. They’re only attached by two philips screws anyway. I walked away from a perfect ’73 Thunderbird unit yesterday and it’s still bugging me.
This car looks very, very similar to my grandfather’s ’78 Mercury Grand Marquis – the badge engineering is extremely evident even to my (25+ years) memory of that car. The dash, steering wheel, rolling number clock match almost exactly less the orange needle on the speedo and the radio appears different. On the outside, the styling is slightly more squarish but his steel grey tank (with the 460 IIRC) had the flip up headlamps, turn indicator lamps and similar design cues.
However, his vinyl grey interior couldn’t hold a finger to this turquoise. I love this interior. If anything every happened to this vehicle, I hope someone would keep the seats and make them into easy chairs and sofas.
They were close but no one would mistake the oval windows for nothing but a Lincoln.
Just awesome!
I know I’m running against the grain here, but yecccccchh! These were just a shadow of Lincolns of the not too distant past, and that color is relentless. It gives me a headache just looking at it. No thanks!
Absolutely Beautiful!!!
I so have to post this at The Brougham Society!!!
Great eye Tom!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBroughamSociety/
I don’t mind the exterior color, really — not my thing, but at least it’s not teal — but the interior hue makes me a little queasy. I grant that the fabric looks comfortable, at least as long as you don’t look at it.
Just beautiful. Never saw one in that shade before. Just a real beauty.
Love the cruise-liner exterior, but yeesh, that upholstery. Looks like something your great-gran knitted for your birthday once, and now you have to pull it out every Christmas even though you look ridiculous and are sweating bullets in it.
This car is up for auction by a classic car dealer in Florida.
In 2000, I found one of these (a 78 Town Coupe) with 5K miles that had sat in a garage for 20 years after the husband passed away – wife didn’t want to drive it. It was beautiful in cinnamom metallic and still had the new car smell. Had to sell it when I was assigned overseas. Couple thoughts;
– Town Cars were built at Ford’s Wixom plant from 1958 until the last few years of production (they moved to the Crown Vics St Therese plant for last three years). Wixom was one of Ford’s best plants and the workers always put out a quality product.
– The 460 was (and is) a superb engine, but the 400M was a good engine in this application also. It was based on the 351 Cleveland block and while it only put out 166 hp, it had 320 ft lbs of torque. Many Lincoln mechanics I’ve talked to preferred the 400 as it was easier to work on.
– These cars are still inexpensive – and a nice one will be at most $15K – and if you just want to drive it instead of showing it, they’ll run forever. Get one on the expressway and they just glide…..
The final TC’s were assembled at STAP, St Thomas Assembly Plant next to their lesser cousins the CV and GM.
I love the color, and especially the matching plush interior. Looks so comfy, makes even an S-class’ interior look severe and cold. Why don’t they offer upholstery like this anymore?
From a slightly earlier era, my dad’s ’64 Continental was also metallic aqua inside and out. That was the first time I saw leather finished in metallic matching the exterior of a car. It was gorgeous. Mom had a thing for turquoise/aqua in the 1960’s. The walls, carpet and upholstered furniture in our living room made you think you were under water.
i am really interested in an aqua car…love this 64 lincoln… is this for sale????
That thing is highly dope. All that’s missing is me with my top hat and cane.
Love the colour but that’s as far as I dare to go. ?
A coupe for sale
http://classiccarvalues.org/index.html?a=1&VID=44252752
and a sedan
http://classiccarvalues.org/index.html?a=1&VID=43167722
less than $10k
and the coupe
Gorgeous car, gorgeous colour! I much prefer it with the velour interior, never liked leather in cars.
I still miss my 1967 Imperial Crown triple aqua turquoise that I my idiot sold 4 years ago…
One doesnt come closer to a rolling brothel than this…
OMG that’s a beautiful car! The Nixon sticker is icing on the cake.
Inside.
Aqua metallic leather. Be still, my heart.
Rear
I saw somewhere recently that the velour was an extra cost option – an upgrade from the leather! – in Lincolns of this era.
Great article and photos! What a beautiful example of the American Luxury Car. I do miss these. I was 5 at the time when this was new. Here is a nice example in dark red with a white vinyl top.
These late Lincoln boats all seemed to have half vinyl roofs, and now I see why. Those A pillars! Fat even for this century.
Here’s another example of a 1979 Continental Collector Series without the opera window. I like these with and without the quaint window, but as long as the car has my fav. factory coach lamps – it gets my interest!
My father in law just pulled a 1979 town car, turquoise, out of a garage he uses for storage…he is the original owner, less than 10,000 miles, been in garage forever!!…any idea of the value?
Update to this post – it is a 2-door, it has less than 1500, yes 15 hundred, miles on it. It does seem to need a new fuel tank as the fuel has leaked out (been parked in same garage since 1980). Any idea on value would be helpful as he is 87 and if he hasn’t driven it in 40 years, he’s certainly not driving it now! Thanks!
Tricia, it is impossible to say without some really good pictures or better yet an examination.
I would suggest contacting the Lincoln And Continental Owner’s Club (LCOC). They should be able to put you in touch with a member in your area who might be able to either talk to you about it or maybe take a look at it.
A car that has sat for that long will likely have numerous issues to address, and factors like humidity can play havoc with chrome plating. I would absolutely not try starting it until fluids have been changed and possibly some oil has been allowed to soak in the cylinders. Good Luck!
JP: I totally agree. Although super low miles cars are “fun” to find and see, I tend to stay clear of them. Mostly for the exact reasons you list and more. It’s my belief that a well cared for car with100,000 miles is better to buy than a storage car that has been mostly neglected. Most of the older cars I’ve purchased over the years have been 60 to100K and been quite good. The lowest miles old car I’ve ever purchased was in 2004 and it was a 1985 Eldorado Biaritz in triple white with 1,800 miles. It was well cared for and didn’t need a thing, but I was afraid to drive it anywhere. More recently, I picked up a 1986 Cadillac Seville from the daughter of the original owner. The car was loved till he died and it stayed in the garage covered till I purchased it last year with 23,400 miles. I’ve had to do a couple minor things, but have gotten lucky on this one.
I see this is an old post but maybe someone can help me! I just picked up this cars twin. What is the name of the color/paint code? I saw the paint codes above and have found others but nothing seems to quite match!?
I saw this aqua town car for sale about a year ago in MJC classic cars and wish I had bought it. Anyone know if it was sold??
OMG…I have a very close cousin of this car! Absolutely love it to the moon & back 🙂
Even though I am more of a Cadillac man, I really liked this generation of Town Car. Beautiful color on this one too. The ’79’s were not as desirable as the ’78 and older Town Car’s highly regarded 460 was replaced by the anemic 400. I wondered if the actual fuel economy was any better as it seemed the accelerator pedal spent a lot of time on the floor in a 400 cube Town Car. Making matters worse was the contemporary ’79 Fleetwood Brougham was lighter than a Town Car and the Caddy’s 425 made about 40 H.P. more than the Lincoln’s 400, making the Fleetwood quite a bit faster. Nonetheless, the ’79 Town Car was a fine automobile. The 1980 Panther-based Town Cars to me were always a bit underwhelming compared to these.
Out of 20 available paint colors, 15 are not on the greyscale. This is not a 2024 model…
The ’75-’76 was peak ’70s Continental (all a single generation though with two major facelifts and a few minor ones). I like the more subdued grille before the ’77’s fake R-R style, and as many here have noted the Lincoln-specific dashboard was replaced with an LTD/Marquis dash in ’78, and the 460 was dropped in ’79. Still, these Connies (and the Mark V) were your last chance to buy a really humongous new American car – although the “downsized” Cadillacs, Chrysler New Yorkers, and Town Cars that replaced them by 1980 still seem huge by today’s standards.
I like how the belt webbing matched the trim codes then, not just generic black for everything.
It’s hard to believe in this era of luxury CUVs, a car this huge ever existed.
Of course, there’s always the Lincoln Navigator ‘L’, I suppose. It even comes in green with a green interior!
I briefly had a ‘mint ’75. Lovely car but unless you’re almost always on the Interstate they’re just TOO big. And this coming for one who loves big cars and had ’74 and ’76 Olds 98s and a ’75 Cadillac SdV. The GM cars’ handling made their big cars feel smaller than they were. Not so the Lincoln. Too much of a good thing.
What a stunning car. Having been 11 years ago, I wonder where this lovely car went and if it’s still looking that good.
As a young boy, my uncle owned a small used car lot about 4 miles up the road from our farm in NW Illinois (he was just over the line in Wisconsin). He always loved driving big luxury cars from Cadillac, Lincoln, Buick and Chrysler and it always gave me joy to see what uncle Al would be driving next. One day they pulled up in a one year old 1979 Continental Collector Series sedan in dark blue with matching blue leather. That was the day I fell in love with Lincoln. Too bad Lincoln is such a nothing brand today.
Beautiful car with real presence! There were some nice Lincolns in the 80s and 90s, but I don’t think they’ve even tried to make something as imposing since, or that managed to look like a truly rich man’s car – that wouldn’t look humble parked next to a mix of Mercedes, Rolls, Bentleys, etc. The 400 is a good motor, but doesn’t make sense in this car. It’s like buying a mansion and keeping the heat and AC turned down to save on the utility bills. I love the color for the exterior, but I have to say I’m not sure I’d appreciate the interior for the long term – still, I’m glad they offered that kind of thing for the people who could live with it.
Lincoln of today (and most mainstream makes really) won’t even think of such a controversial interior: if only 5% of buyers would consider it, it’s a no-go, and it doesn’t matter how much those people would love it. I feel like Lincoln is assuming Mercury’s role these days, and is just there for the Ford man who aspires to something fancy. All they need to do is build a new body-on-frame car (they’ve already got all the components – just hit the F-150 parts bin) with their (relatively) new 7.3 OHV, and make it look pretty much like this. Oh, but the interior CAN’T share anything you see or touch with a Ford, and it can’t be a mass of screens! The instrument cluster in particular should remind you of a Swiss watch. I just looked at some new Lincoln interiors – UGH! Real luxury isn’t the biggest touch screen and most seat adjustments and heat/cool features! It’s the best quality materials and bits and pieces you see and touch, tied together ornately, while not overdone. That’s where this Town Car stumbles rounding third base, but overall it belongs in another league compared with today’s Lincolns; I guarantee the guy who bought this one has more taste than the guy buying a new Lincoln.
Where’s my napkin…?
However, for a new Lincoln I would need an amphetamine.