My '62 project

[JonW]

It happened quicker than I thought it would, but I scored a donor car for my resto-mod project. It's the perfect year and perfect color combination and I'm quite happy with it. It's a '62 in Silver Mink with black interior, CA car so no rust, straight body and good interior. It has the rare power antenna and power vent windows, factory a/c, and front disc brake conversion by Baker. It's only a couple of hours away, and the builder that's going to be doing the project is going after it tomorrow.

I have some mechanical skills, and I may tinker with the small stuff, but I don't have anywhere close to the skills needed for this project. What I want to accomplish is to have a dependable, powerful, comfortable car that I can take halfway across the country if I choose to do so and still turn heads.

Here's what I have in mind at this point, which is subject to change as we proceed:

1) Keep the body stock except for shaving the hood ornament and emblems. Media blast it to bare metal and refinish it in the stock Silver Mink color. Convert all lighting to LEDs.

2) Keep current suspension but upgrade/replace all bushings, shocks, etc. Wheels will be 20".

3) Re-do interior to factory specs. May swap out front seat, don't know yet. Add modern a/c, hidden stereo, cruise control.

4) Replace drive train with current Ford 5.0 V8 and 6-speed automatic, 420 HP, 390 torque.

I know some of the purists will scream, and I can appreciate their position. I was there once myself. But I'm at the point in my life I just want a cool car and have some fun. I'll post updates as the project progresses.

[lincolnfanatic4life]

just DO NOT shave the door handles...

[sauceman]

just DO NOT shave the door handles...

^THIS^ Suicide doors and their handle locations are the most defining feature of these cars, shaving them off totally kills the looks.


Also have fun and keep us informed of the project!



cheers

[JonW]

No worries on the door handles. They define the car and they have to stay.

[JonW]

I got to see my car today. It's really nice. Very clean CA car with zero rust. Interior is very nice, dash is excellent, body is very straight, chrome and trim good, everything works but the lock and power antenna.

The Coyote 5.0 is going to be too daunting of a task, and I'm not a Chevy guy, so the power train is going to be a modern 5.7 Hemi with 5-speed auto. I just sold my 2006 Charger with that combo after 50K trouble-free miles.

Hopefully by the end of the month my builder will have started stripping it and we'll know more about what we're working with. He estimates it will take most of the 2 years I've allotted him.

[briven95]

Why not just rebuild the motor and trans that's in the car- they were good for 100k miles when new- just need to do the normal maintenance of tune-ups and oil change, and much cheaper and simpler than a complete power train conversion. It's such a nice looking original car, I'd keep it all stock. Plus, the stock A/C, if properly running with R-12, will freeze you out of the car! (I have a very big soft spot for a Silver Mink 62- my first Lincoln)

[JonW]

Here's a few more photos that the builder shot when the car arrived in his shop. He drove it down from Kansas City (3 hours) and said it drove great. I thought Silver Mink would be more silver than blue, but this car is definitely more on the blue side.

[suburban_gorilla]

Because you mentioned you are going to 20" wheels, are you going to sell those wheels on it right now?

what kind of condition are they in? I may be interested in taking them off you hands if the price is right....

Let me know, no rush.

Best,

[JonW]

Omar, have someone interested in the wheels. If that doesn't pan out, I'll let you know.

[Steve K]

Such a nice car. I agree why go through the huge expense and waiting time to retrofit such a nice one when rebuilding what you have could have you cruising in short order?

But I know to each his own so will look forward to the project. What kind of a budget does it take to do that drive line change?

Ugh two years?

[sykolincoln]

I like your 302 idea.... I initially was going that rought with mine and boy was everyone screaming but I didn't care... my car my ideas and everything else was just constructive criticism... good luck!!! . my only suggestion... keep the hood ornament!! I love mine being a sight rolling down the freeway

[JonW]

Scored an engine today. It's a brand-new 6.4L HEMI. 470 hp and 470 torque. That ought to move the her through the gears quite nicely

[sauceman]

Scored an engine today. It's a brand-new 6.4L HEMI. 470 hp and 470 torque. That ought to move the her through the gears quite nicely

Nice! I had a SRT8 with the 6.1, that thing should move!



cheers

[JonW]

Not a lot to report, but was out visiting my car the other day. The original motor and trans are out of the car, and just from eyeballing it, it appears that the Hemi is going to drop in much easier than we originally thought. It looks like the oil pan is going to clear the factory engine crossmember just fine, so hopefully we can just fabricate some engine mounts and drop it in. There is some slight concern over hood clearance, but we won't know for sure until the engine is bolted in.

After reading the posts in another thread about converting to electric wipers and how difficult that would be, we decided to keep the hydraulic wipers. We're going to have to run them off a GM power steering pump. The Chrysler PS pump puts out way too much pressure.

[twistngo]

I converted mine to electric wipers took about a day, I have pics in my thread for my resto-mod project.