Make: | Lincoln |
Model: | Continental |
Trim: | Convertible |
Year: | 1962 |
Mileage: | 68,000 |
VIN: | 2Y86H409764 |
Vehicle Title: | Clear |
Item location: | West Linn, Oregon, United States |
Hi There,
Thank you for viewing my auction.
I’ve sold a few of the cars out of my collection on eBay in the past. If you’ve come across those auctions, thank you for coming back. If it’s your first time, here’s a little background on me.
I’m a fastidious collector out of Oregon. My previous car auctions have been more along the lines of Concours level / full restoration / show quality / nut & bolt builds. This auction is for something a little different.
About 5 years ago I got tired of the trailer queens and the car show scene. I started to move out of the 100pt restorations in favor of well preserved survivor quality cars. My criteria being great traceable history with solid paperwork back to the original owner, low documented miles, great door gaps, nice original interior, mechanically sound and every bit as reliable & driveable as they were when new, etc. I found these types of cars to be more fun in general, and was able to enjoy them and not feel bad by racking up a few miles here and there.
With this in mind I started a search for the “right” Lincoln convertible. Not easy to find a great survivor convertible. After 3 years of patiently looking at a number of candidates, and discussing with the lincoln experts from coast to coast, I found this beauty.
This particular car has a wonderful history, and checked off all the boxes in terms of what I was looking for. If you’re in the Lincoln Club you probably know this car. It was formerly owned by a Multiple time Grammy award nominated celebrity out of Hollywood, CA.
When I bought it in 2015 it was a great driver quality survivor car, all original and unrestored (still has the original vinyl top which is unheard of and a testament to the pampered life it lived) with one exterior only repaint done many years back.
The previous owner had the car mechanically restored by a lincoln aficionado out of Los Angeles, CA. The motor, transmission, front end, brakes (front upgraded to discs for safety but still allow fitment of the original wheels), oem exhaust system w/ new hangars, fuel pump with rod, etc.. were all rebuilt.
The top system (lines and pumps) got the full treatement by John Cashman. It folds up and down effortlessly and has the remote option if you want to open / close the top while standing outside of the car. This is a nice option, especially at a restaurant with a crowd around it. A few jaws will drop.
I have 25k in receipts verifying all of this work with date and mileage noted. This lincoln starts, runs, stops, and shifts like it did the day it rolled off the showroom floor. The previous owner needed the car to be 100% reliable and sorted out. And it is.
The one item that I thought was lacking was the exterior repaint. It didn’t quite match up to the quality of rest of the car. In 2016 I had it taken down to bare metal for an exterior only high quality respray. The door jambs / trunk / engine bay were still beautiful original paint and we decided to leave those as is. The Royal Red Poly (2 stage PPG / DBC product line) repaint is a dead match to the original color. It is breathtaking. If you’ve had a continental painted before you know it’s not for the faint of heart or your wallet, they are a time consuming project and require a lot of material from primer to sandpaper to paint materials, it’s thousands before any labor has started. The decision to go bare metal drives the cost up even more. It’s a lot surface area. The result speaks for itself.
One interesting discovery that was made during the bodywork phase was the mystery of the repaint done sometime back in the 1960s. There was a light scrape uncovered on the driver’s front fender. Likely not from a traffic accident, but rather something that had scraped down part of the fender up by the bumper. It looked like the Original Owner got too close to the garage door opening when backing out. Back then it probably made sense to do a quickie bondo repair, and budget full respray and send it down the road. That area was metal finished and is now perfect.
I also had a leather expert based out of Beaverton, OR perform a preservation on the front and rear seats. When I got the car the leather felt a little “stiff” from age. They are now soft and supple as they should be. He uses a product called Leatherique (Google them if you get a chance, they are great people with a unique system - 3 step process, incredible results when done right) and was able to really breathe some new life into the original leather upholstery.
The veneered wood is in great condition, original carpet is fantastic for its age with only slight fading, door panels are the nicest originals I’ve seen in this era lincoln and I’ve seen several including the cars on the lawn at Pebble Beach in 2015, I could go on and on. Everything electrical works, including the flashing “Brake” indicator light on the dash when the emergency brake is on and the electric powered antennae.
The cruise control system was disabled by the previous owner due to a safety concern. Best I can tell all of the parts / pieces are there if you’d like to get that working again.
Tires are the correct width white wall for a 1962. They are from coker. Spare tire / wheel / tool kit is still the original. I don’t think the spare tire has ever hit the ground.
My interest in cars is changing / gravitating towards modern day exotics. I’m going to sell a few collector cars in 2018 to free up some space. Will probably post my 1949 Merc this summer (factory black / 2 door / never chopped / show car back in the 50s / killer provenance) after the lincoln sells.
Any questions just let me know. I check my email daily.
I have 100+ pictures posted in an online gallery, am happy to send that link to anyone interested.
I have this car listed locally and reserve the right to end the auction early. Thank you for your understanding.