My '80 Lincoln Continental Mark VI Coupe "White Lightnin"

[rick99601]

All the dew wipes, and window run channels, are still in excellent shape on this car, and really don't need replaced. Must have been a garaged car, for these to survive so well over the last 30yrs. I'm pretty happy right now. I Love this car!

that mint dash pad is what gave it away for me, we know what the sun does to them..

and where are those pics with the interior out?!

i love that car too, hopefully ill see it at ScottF or SouthernF sometime soon.

[LTDMan83]

Build Sheet

Found both copies of the Build Sheet today. Under the springs of the rear seat bottom. Still in perfect shape! 1st one I've ever gotten out of one of my cars that was still in good readable shape. Now if I could only find a website that would help me decode this thing.











The car drew first blood on me today. My hands were under the seat trying to get the electrical connections loose, didn't even feel anything cut me, next thing I know I look under the seat and blood is all over everything. Something had sliced open the back of my middle finger without me even feeling it. Strange thing is there was nothing under the seat that I could find that was sharp enough to cut me. Maybe the car is a vampire, lol. This car definitely spent some time in NY/NJ at some point, found lots of receipts and old bills in the interior with NJ addresses on them, probably around $20 worth of NJ bridge tokens as well.

[LTDMan83]

that mint dash pad is what gave it away for me, we know what the sun does to them..

and where are those pics with the interior out?!

i love that car too, hopefully ill see it at ScottF or SouthernF sometime soon.

Thanks mang. Pics of the Interior out are coming soon. I'm still fighting with the Rear Seat back Torx bolts. One of them refuses to come out. I've already broken 2 brand new T-50 bits trying to get the damn thing out. I soaked it in 3in1 oil before quitting today, so hopefully it will give up next time.

I might show up at scottfest someday with this car, who knows. My life is far too busy at this point to even consider it though right now.

[87gtVIC]

1/2 drive definitely helps if you are not using one.

The build sheet looks in perfect condition. I found two as well in my car but under the front seats.

[gadget73]

Nice.

If you haven't, get under the car and spray the back side of the bolt with some pb blaster. It should help break it loose. Heat also helps, but generally those bolts are just a bitch to get out. I've snapped a couple bits myself.

[LTDMan83]

I've removed quite a few box seats in my time, but have never had this much trouble with one of the Torx Bolts. This even trumps the time I was out in the middle of the junkyard pulling the F/R seats out of an old rusty '89 Towncar SS for my Mercury. Even those rear torx bolts gave up once the leverage of a 3ft pipe was applied. This one torx bolt here is holding so tight, that I bent the entire 3ft pipe, warped my 6in 3/8 extension piece, and broke 2 T-50 torx bits right in half, trying to get it off. I refuse to half-ass things, so there is no way I am gonna cut the rear seat back lower mounting bracket, to get the seat back out. This torx bastard is coming out one way or another, even if I have to break out the torch.

Otherwise, I have all the lower trim out of the car, and can now pull the carpet for a good thorough Shampooing/Pressure Washing today.

I also found the time to wash the car yesterday evening, and man did she shine up really nice! All the stainless pieces on this car are still like mirrors. Don't even need to be polished. Pics to come of that when I get the time to take them.

[85crownHPP]

all the CFI related stuff pulled out cleanly and thrown in the trash where it belongs.

That stuff is worth some money, not a whole lot, but even as used/untested it will still sell. Ive sold a few of those EEC-III MAP sensors for ~30 bucks.

[gadget73]

yeah CFI3 stuff is hard to find and extremely expensive new.

[LTDMan83]

I didn't save the CFI stuff because I thought there would be little to no market for it. Everyone always wants the 86-91 SEFI stuff. Tis all gone now except for the 351 CFI ECM which is still in the car. Oh well.

That rear seat bottom Torx Bolt fought me tooth and nail, kicking and screaming. Nothing helped to get it out, not even heat. Finally sheer torque stripped out the inside, so there was no choice left but to drill off the head. I got the damn thing off, and the seat back/belt out cleanly, but the stud is still stuck inside the hole, so next time I get to drill that out and re-tap the hole, fun. Never had any bolt fight me as hard as this one, even on highly rusted cars.

On a lighter note, my floors are 100% solid and in excellent shape, only a few light spots of surface rust around the front floor board drain plugs, which is standard. Had to remove and junk the stock Jute w/Mass Backing that was under the carpet though, as it was soaked, moldy, and one big fat mat of rot the floor out. I will replace it with new stuff in the future at the same time I replace the carpet.

[MattsLincoln]

dont get rid of that ecm. i may be interested in it sometime.

[LTDMan83]

Interior Progress

Got the Interior removed, except for the headliner, as there was no reason to remove it, yet. The floors are nice and solid, with only a few spots of surface rust around 3 of the body plugs. Lincoln definitely used a thicker gauge/higher quality sheet metal than the Ford/Mercury boxes, to make this car. I also had spent around 3 hours at this point removing the remnants of old window Tint/Adhesive from around the edges of all the windows. Someone had removed old purple tint off the windows at one time, and did a seriously shitty job. They pretty much ruined the rear window defrost lines. Next step is to repair the Rust around the Body Plugs, which won't be hard to do. Thanks to my resto shop, I have a large stockpile of Por15, in all colors, and all the needed prep products, at my disposal at all times.

Here's the pics.

























They actually installed a screw strip on these cars for attaching the door sill trim, instead of just screwing them straight into the floor like they did with the Ford/Mercury boxes. I always hated that. A big thumbs up to Lincoln for that.








Problem Areas:

Closeups of the rust problem areas around the body plugs. I got off easy here.









Also found that on the PS door, the tack welds that attach the window frame to the door, have long since broken, and started to rust out and stress crack that corner from the inside. I will have to cut that small corner out and weld in a new piece of metal there to secure the frame to the door again. I will go to the junkyard and harvest some Lincoln sheet metal from a Towncar to fix that area. Won't be a problem for me.









Next up, that floorboard rust will be taken care of, and then the Interior re-installed and detailed.

Stay Tuned.

[LTDMan83]

dont get rid of that ecm. i may be interested in it sometime.

Yea, I'm gonna hang onto it for awhile, until someone wants it. It is still in the car filling the hole in the firewall right now.

[87gtVIC]

I like the screw rail as well. Much cleaner than screwing right into the floor.

I have a question Brandon. Can you get some pictures of the piece of weatherstripping along the bottom of the doors? What do you think their purpose is? I have had in mind to install some on my car..just never had an opinion on them or detailed pictures about them to decide for myself.

[gabegt90]

great job so far brandon I really enjoy your updates

[gadget73]

the screw rail must have gone away at some point. My 86 doesn't have one at least. I dipped the screws in RTV before screwing them in in an effort to seal things up a bit.