Door personalization

[Silent Thunder]

I remember when I bought my first new Lincoln in 1978 there was a coupon in the back of the owners manual and you would send away for your door initials. It was a plastic three block rectangle that you initials would come in. One to be placed on the passenger door and one for the drivers door. They did this over several years in the 70's. You could even have the passenger side different for your wife. Funny thing is I have never seen a Lincoln with those still intact or anyone ever offering them for sale. Same for the dash plaques with your name on them that the factory would send out. I wished someone sold them I would get them just to make it authentic as it was in the day. Anyone remember??

[jaydee]

Yes, our family had a couple cars with owner's initials on the doors, as you described -- and the dash plaques, too.

A few years ago, I managed to pick up a couple door plates on ebay with my intials. What were the chances?!

Maybe you could set up a regular search on ebay and see what comes up.

Good luck,

John

[76MarkIV]

Yes, our family had a couple cars with owner's initials on the doors, as you described -- and the dash plaques, too.

A few years ago, I managed to pick up a couple door plates on ebay with my intials. What were the chances?!

Maybe you could set up a regular search on ebay and see what comes up.

Good luck,

John

Or you can take the quick and easy way and go to a luggage specialty shop or any place higher dollar brief cases are sold and simply buy what you want and stick them on the doors. That's basically what was done by Lincoln dealers in the '70s when that was in vogue.

[Silent Thunder]

Yes, our family had a couple cars with owner's initials on the doors, as you described -- and the dash plaques, too.

A few years ago, I managed to pick up a couple door plates on ebay with my intials. What were the chances?!

Maybe you could set up a regular search on ebay and see what comes up.

Good luck,

John

Or you can take the quick and easy way and go to a luggage specialty shop or any place higher dollar brief cases are sold and simply buy what you want and stick them on the doors. That's basically what was done by Lincoln dealers in the '70s when that was in vogue.

No actually they were sent from Ford. The dealers had nothing to do with what I'm mentioning.

[76MarkIV]

Yes, our family had a couple cars with owner's initials on the doors, as you described -- and the dash plaques, too.

A few years ago, I managed to pick up a couple door plates on ebay with my intials. What were the chances?!

Maybe you could set up a regular search on ebay and see what comes up.

Good luck,

John

Or you can take the quick and easy way and go to a luggage specialty shop or any place higher dollar brief cases are sold and simply buy what you want and stick them on the doors. That's basically what was done by Lincoln dealers in the '70s when that was in vogue.

No actually they were sent from Ford. The dealers had nothing to do with what I'm mentioning.

Okay, tell you what those things are 2-5/8" X 1/2" and had three positions. The first position was the individual's first initial, the second the Lincoln emblem, and the last position was the individual's last initial. The frame was chrome plated cast pot metal or possibly aluminum and had two vertical separators between the three segments. They were affixed to the vehicles with a double sided tape. Dealer's did stock the frames with letter's to make them up and I suppose if a car was special ordered they might have come from Ford after the fact directly to the purchaser ready to be affixed to the doors. Since you seem to have difficulty in understanding those things were from a standard engraving supply house or trophy supply somewhere and the only thing unique about them was the Lincoln emblem which any engraver can create using a printed example I'll locate a source for you. You may have to have a local engraver duplicate the Lincoln emblem segment.

[jaydee]

Hey Silent Thunder,

Here are a couple pages taken from the 1977 Lincoln Continental owner's manual talking about the monograms.

As you mentioned, these were ordered directly from FoMoCo by mailing in the page from the manual. In fact, I did this on my father's '76 when new and my mother's '77.

Also, notice you could get 3 initials or 2 using the center blank with the Lincoln logo.

The one style was free while there was a second, fancier style, for $15.00.

Attached is a pic of my ebay purchase. The plate is quite heavy for its size, so must be something other than aluminum.







Great stuff back in the day!

John

[Silent Thunder]

That's it and how I remembered it. Now if we could only find some or a source to order something close. Just the final touch when either doing a restoration or keeping your car stock as I do.

Great news! Just went to Ebay and found a set! The letters are wrong but I can have new ones made at the sign shop. Wow! Thanks for everyone's input, without your thoughts I would not have this item! Thanks!

[LINC400]

The door initials and dash plaques were usually the first thing removed from the car when it was purchased by a second owner. Why would you want someone else's name and initials on your car?

I purchased my Cartier from the original owner. We fought over who would get the dash plaque. He wanted it to remember the car by, and I wanted it because I had never seen one still on the car, and figured I would eventually get it re-engraved. Never did. Even though the car was totalled, I pulled of the dash plaque (and a few other things), and still have it.

Unfortunately, I now have a Givenchy with no dash plaque. Haven't seen any of those on Ebay.

[Linmk56]

I purchased three new FoMoCo products in the 70's. A 76 Thunderbird, 77 Mark V, and 78 Mark V Emilio Pucci. Each one, I ordered the door personalization. The Thunderbird had a white background with a soaring bird in the center. The Marks were just like those pictured in the above post. I still have the special dash name plate from my Pucci. I'm looking at it on my desk as I type this. Once you sent the post card in, the plates were sent rather quickly. On the DJE Mark, the dealer received a box before the cars got to the dealership. In the box were the leather cover for the owners manual, the tools and leather case, the umbrella, and a group of self sticking script letters. These letter were supposed to go in the gap in the pinstripe on the doors. To be honest, I don't recall a gap on the pinstripe on the CS Marks.

[Silent Thunder]

That is when you bought a car and felt special. Today you buy one off the lot and you are just another sale.

[bob sandercock]

About twenty years ago I picked up a 1979 coupe and the order form was in the glove compartment
On the off chance of Ford still supplying the letters I contacted them only to get back a reply that they had stopped this program a few years earlier
Bob

[Silent Thunder]

Worth a try.

[venitoami]

Well, what are the chances of this.......I am (almost) 31 years old, and right after I was born, my grandparents bought a 78 towncar (new). It had the engraved name plate on the dash with my grandfathers name. This car kicked off my LOVE for lincolns, and for as long as I can remember, I wanted a Mark V. well I bought one on ebay last year! I knew it was gonna be a project because the man told me it had been and still was sitting in a field for over 11 years. So I get my trailer, and head up to pick it up outside of nashville. Believe it or not, I put a hot battery on it, poured some gas in the carb, pumped it a few times and it fired up right there in the field. I actually got to drive it up on the trailer. Seals in the tranny were fine, brakes, all of it worked great. Not really knowing much about it, I soon found out it was a Collectors series. After I got it home, and drug my grandparents out to see it, My grandad suprised me and dug out his original name plate from his towncar that was long gone, and gave it to me to add to my car. The cool part about it is, he is James T the 3rd, my dad is James T the 4th, and you guessed it, I'm James T the 5th. So not only do I have a name plate, It has my name on it.

I did see a " blank" one on ebay a while back, and I almost bought it, but never did. Kinda wish I would have now. Not sure if it was authentic or not, seems like it would have been engraved if it was real.

[JimFreeh]

Both my 64 convertible and my 71 MKIII had the original owner's name engraved on the dash plate.
Not too much of a stretch, as I was the second owner of both.

I found a trophy shop, the owner was a car guy and he made up new plates with our name on them.

Reglued the "III" emblem for the MKIII, and the Continental star for the 64.
Eventually, the 64 one fell off, and I'm sure it's still in a box somewhere in the shop......Along with that bag of NOS window switches I bought back in the late seventies.

Jim

[Silent Thunder]

Problem when you have a sign shop do them is it is a thin piece of brass or gold colored metal. Very thin with a sharp edge to them. The ones from Ford were thicker and had an edge because of the thickness was no sharp.