1990 Lincoln Town Car

[tjc78]

Yes, that's what I thought by the seats. Just like the boxes, the Sig seats are pillow tops. Nevertheless, still has many options and a very sharp car.

[79lincolnlover]

Nice buy! How much $ are you planning to spend for the paint job?

[TecNickal]

Oh wow.

So I got my buddy to do a carfax for me. Got some interesting history...

This car has a different front driver door. The grommet in the B pillar is missing.

This car is a theft recovery from Michigan in 1991. It was made actually late April 1990.

This car was a FoMoCo corporate car. It was with Ford for awhile, until it was stolen - August 1991. It was recovered November 1991.

April 1993 it started hopping around Ohio to different dealers until August 1994 when the prior owner's Grandma bought it in Youngstown OH, and took it home to New Castle PA.

Then she and Granddad towed it behind their camper to use in FL during the summer, otherwise, it stayed parked in the garage during snow/ice time back in PA.

Son brought it down April 2011 to Charlotte NC to drive full time. After a lot of money, I bought it.

You all are right about this car...it's not matching what you'd expect from a signature.

It looks like its missing the keyless module in the trunk. It's missing the standard keypad (yet there's a sticker 5 digit code in the car). It appears to have "Base" 90 seats (no Executive offered for 90). Signature seats look a bit classier and have a rear grab handle on the seat.

The driver door has been replaced - maybe from the theft recovery cause that vin only showed 6 mo of history for a black base model town car in Nebraska with 20K mi built May 1990 , and ODO reading from DMV at december was 20K miles. I Think the theft recovery involved a replacement door for some reason.

The C pillar windows say Signature series. The VIN on the dash and all other body panels ties to a signature (M82) - so I have a signature with what look like "base" seats. Wonder if theft recovery meant replacement of that as well as the missing leather wrapped wheel - a vinyl one now...odd. Signature/Cartier also two toned which mine has too.

Re: paint - i will repaint the bad portions black. My friend is a body man, so I'll help sand and reshoot the car

[DerekTheGreat]

...Nice score though. Known history is certainly a force to contend with. I'd much rather have miles on a clean car with maintenance records than a mess with low miles and no clue what I'm getting. I bought one of those already, and it was extremely expensive.

Yep, ask me how I know.

Oh wow.

So I got my buddy to do a carfax for me. Got some interesting history...

This car has a different front driver door. The grommet in the B pillar is missing.

This car is a theft recovery from Michigan in 1991. It was made actually late April 1990.

This car was a FoMoCo corporate car. It was with Ford for awhile, until it was stolen - August 1991. It was recovered November 1991.

April 1993 it started hopping around Ohio to different dealers until August 1994 when the prior owner's Grandma bought it in Youngstown OH, and took it home to New Castle PA.

Then she and Granddad towed it behind their camper to use in FL during the summer, otherwise, it stayed parked in the garage during snow/ice time back in PA.

Son brought it down April 2011 to Charlotte NC to drive full time. After a lot of money, I bought it.

You all are right about this car...it's not matching what you'd expect from a signature.

It looks like its missing the keyless module in the trunk. It's missing the standard keypad (yet there's a sticker 5 digit code in the car). It appears to have "Base" 90 seats (no Executive offered for 90). Signature seats look a bit classier and have a rear grab handle on the seat.

The driver door has been replaced - maybe from the theft recovery cause that vin only showed 6 mo of history for a black base model town car in Nebraska with 20K mi built May 1990 , and ODO reading from DMV at december was 20K miles. I Think the theft recovery involved a replacement door for some reason.

The C pillar windows say Signature series. The VIN on the dash and all other body panels ties to a signature (M82) - so I have a signature with what look like "base" seats. Wonder if theft recovery meant replacement of that as well as the missing leather wrapped wheel - a vinyl one now...odd. Signature/Cartier also two toned which mine has too.

Re: paint - i will repaint the bad portions black. My friend is a body man, so I'll help sand and reshoot the car

I noticed it didn't have the pillow seats but saw the signature script in the window. My quess was someone swapped the seats out but they were probably stolen when the car was. I wonder who did the body work, you think they'd put a keypad door in the car to match it. I never cared for the two tone though, would look sweet all black.

[tjc78]

Your statement saying it was a corporate car says it all. Some big wig had them make a custom job for him, I'm sure it happens all the time.

[gadget73]

also possible the interior was wrecked while it was MIA, and it was in an accident that ended up sacrificing a base model as a parts car to fix it. Can't imagine a big wig would have said "gimme the mid line model, but take all the cool stuff out and give me the cheaper interior and remove the keyless entry".

[TecNickal]

Ohhh more plot thickeness. I found the VIN label differed on other doors.. So I have a driver door VIN from a wrecked black 90 BASE (no keypad!) from Nebraska w/20k and a Denver DSO...a rear driver and rear passenger door from a car that was most definitely a corporate Ford car: 1LNLM82F9LY656300, both of those doors trace to a car that was made Nov 1989...and no further history

The salvage theft/recovery suggests this car was stolen, had all 4 doors, and the front/rear seats jacked. The hood and trunk have the original VIN. The steering wheel was jacked too and the column has suffered some damage, it feels like the steering wheel is loose, but its more than that.

I will order the Marti report for this car, see what it can tell me (USING THE DASH VIN!)

Is that connector on the left hand side, 4 pin/4 wire for the keyless entry?

I replaced all 4 door striker bushings this evening so doors don't rattle/click anymore from an 09 Crown. I Lexol'd the seats (clean and condition). Hope with repeated applications some of the dryer/hardened spots will fix.

I doubt I'll ever find black 90-94 signature seats :-( I'd love to put it back to factory spec.

Oh yea installed brass TV grommet

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Ohhh more plot thickeness. I found the VIN label differed on other doors.. So I have a driver door VIN from a wrecked black 90 BASE (no keypad!) from Nebraska w/20k and a Denver DSO...a rear driver and rear passenger door from a car that was most definitely a corporate Ford car: 1LNLM82F9LY656300, both of those doors trace to a car that was made Nov 1989...and no further history

The salvage theft/recovery suggests this car was stolen, had all 4 doors, and the front/rear seats jacked. The hood and trunk have the original VIN. The steering wheel was jacked too and the column has suffered some damage, it feels like the steering wheel is loose, but its more than that.

I will order the Marti report for this car, see what it can tell me (USING THE DASH VIN!)

Is that connector on the left hand side, 4 pin/4 wire for the keyless entry?

I replaced all 4 door striker bushings this evening so doors don't rattle/click anymore from an 09 Crown. I Lexol'd the seats (clean and condition). Hope with repeated applications some of the dryer/hardened spots will fix.

I doubt I'll ever find black 90-94 signature seats :-( I'd love to put it back to factory spec.

Oh yea installed brass TV grommet

Wow. Sounds like the car's early life certainly was exciting enough. Stolen, stripped, rebuilt, and sold and existing that way to date. I can only imagine what went through someone's head after it was recovered to say, "Let's rebuild this." I guess with the TC's redesign being so new at the time, the car still would have demanded reasonable money if put back together.

It's an interesting thought that the Aero TC was only around for about two model years at that point and someone stripped it down that much. Wonder what type of money was demanded for the parts at the time. Maybe the sadder part of that thought is whatever car the parts wound up in has most likely already met it's fate with the crusher.

I'll keep an eye out for the early black Signature seats should I come across any.

[DerekTheGreat]

I wonder if the engine is original... A two year old 5.0 would've been great to sell and turn into whatever else they wanted and seeing as a two year old car still has value to insurance companies (and the bank) that would help explain why it was fixed. Whoever did it f'd up with the door though, way to pay attention to detail. Why used??? It's not like they couldn't have ordered the damn thing direct at that time. Makes me think this or something else could've happened later in it's life. Cue in the unsolved mysteries guy. I'll have to look into this marti report thing. All the cars I see on CL that brag about it seem to bump their car's value by 5k or more whenever they drop the Martini report line.

[gadget73]

I think the keyless connector is 6 or 7 wires. Should be a common plus a return for each of the 5 buttons. Not sure if it is one or two wires for the light. If its one, then the common wire for the buttons must also serve as the ground for the light.


Marti reports are mostly useful if you have something particularly rare and want to prove it. They'll break it down by options, so you might see X number of this model made, X number were painted black X number of those had black interior, X number of those had whatever wheel, X number with all of those things had the stock CD player, X number with all of that were blessed by Father Guido Sarducci, so this car is one of 7 made with this specific set of options and whatnot.


For a '90 Townie, the standard Ford production report would probably get you all the proper info. That will list date of manufacture and factory-fitted equipment. Its also free if you contact Ford, though frankly I don't have the address to get it bookmarked anymore.

[TecNickal]

Unfortunately the free one from Ford now costs money....$40 or so.

But true on differences.

[TecNickal]

Major water in headliner. Back of headliner shows a lot of water. Driver rear floor soaking wet. More to fix..

Having the factor moonroof doesn't help diagnose the issue...

[gadget73]

usually its clogged drains in the moonroof if you get water intrusion. Hopefully someone hasn't done something dumb and managed to poke a hole through the drain tubes.

[Mainemantom]

I used to buy theft/recovery vehicles from the salvage auctions. Wrecking yards or body shops got them and used whatever parts they could get cheap, then flip the car. Cars were normally great deals if you did not care about resale as no dealer would touch them. I prefer them over reconstructed wrecks. Take your time with it as you will find some strange things as you have noticed, which give it charm. Nice car!

[TecNickal]

Once it stops raining I'll examine the track and drain tubige. At the moment - it's too wet to bother.

I did 2 applications of lexol on the seats. They need a lot of love.

Wonder if I should get some Signature series 90-94 cloth seats instead of leather...there's some nice ones at the junkyard I could die black.