1956 Mark II Barn Find!

[Lee]

Thanks for the compliment, but it looks best from about 20 feet away. It’s great to have that history. I ordered my ‘41 info years ago from the Benson Ford Center, but somehow managed to misplace it when we moved. Oh well, it wasn’t a terribly interesting story.

Are you planning on a driver, or Pebble Beach? Or somewhere in between?

Aiming for a Pebble worthy car! But really we just want it to be correct and reliable. Probably do more touring with it than showing, but we will see as we get closer to finishing it up. I’ve got a restoration thread going for it over on the Mark II forum, perhaps I need to post it here too!

I’d encourage it! Not a lot of Mark II (or Mark I, for that matter) traffic here, but there’s a pretty good contingent of Lincoln lovers.

[papawayne]

Lee, that's a beautiful 41 and I love the grille. And I thought the 42's were just 41's until everyone went to war! 42 would be a rare car, because it was only a partial year, correct? Wayne

[Lee]

Yes, Wayne. Only 334 Continentals total for the 1942 model. The lines all stopped on February 22nd. To their credit, they didn’t reuse the ‘42 grille when production resumed in ‘46, but it was just as barge-like. They were emulating Cadillac, IMO

[TonyC]

Unfortunately, they did re-use the 306-bored V-12, but they learned early on in '46 production that it was a deathtrap and resorted back to the 1941 specs. At least they didn't revive the LiquaMatic.

I actually wondered what the breakdown figures were for '42, for the Continental, the Zephyr (which would just become a base Lincoln in '46), and the Custom.

Anyway, to me the Mark II was the best-looking American car to come out of the '50s. It looked slimmer than anything else offered save for the Chrysler products starting from '57, even though it was heavier than nearly all of them; and it was elegant as opposed to extravagant. The only appearance flaw I see is the flat side glass; but that was the standard for cars back then, until Virgil Exner Sr. spearheaded curved side glass on the '57 Imperial.

---Tony

[papawayne]

Tony, do you remember when the Chrystler 300 came out? Do you remember telling yourself, "That looks more like a Lincoln than a Lincoln does"? I sure do... Wayne

[TonyC]

Do you mean the recent ones, Wayne–the ones Chrysler started about 2005 and discontinued this year? If so, then yes, I was thinking exactly that. Those cars did look very Lincoln-like, almost like the Continental concept displayed about that year, which should have been made for production in my opinion.

---Tony

[Mike]

I can only guess you're talking about this one otherwise I'm not seeing it.

[papawayne]

Mike and Tony, that's the one, to me it sure does look like a Lincoln should. Wayne

[TonyC]

Dittos! Lincoln should have made that a production model, with hardly any production changes. They could very well have given upstart Chrysler a what-for!

---Tony

[Dan Szwarc]

OP hasn't posted since the first post in this thread. He hasn't even been back to read the posts.
I hope he's OK.

[Lee]

Dan, you know we never let lack of OP input stand in the way of a good thread!

[papawayne]

It would be nice to see why people post once, and don't even come back another time to see if we answered. I don't remember what this post was about, but I'm sure we tried to answer it. Then we went astray. I'll look when I'm done here. I think wondering what happened to somebody is a legitimate concern. I worry about the young kid who was on here who had cancer, but who was also restoring a Lincoln. It seemed like he was trying as hard as he could. I hope I'm able to say, "Sorry guys, but I won't be back." Wayne