Projects Got A Really Rare & REALLY Rough '57

Get Morrison to whip up a bolt in replacement chassis and start with a solid foundation. I know it is against Hamb law to restomod but that is probably where this one should head, modern chassis with classic custom sheetmetal and interior touches.

 

I don't know the differance between 55,56,57 but there was a nice one at our local get together last week. It had those valve covers ,same a/c controls and had a/c vents in the headliner. it was a 56,000 mile car. Pretty nice driver. It was an original car.

 

I guess its just me but isn't the cool part, the fact that you can't just buy them at Walmart so every other car doesn't have a set. I remember thinking Olds Rocket stamped covers, Y-block T-bird, and Edelbrock 348-409's were cool until the same thing happened. They are awesome covers and would really stand out on a hotrod project why ruin that?

The Lincoln is cool, at one of the shops I used to sub at, we sadly did a body work in a can job on one in similar shape. The owner brazed patches in it many years ago successfully warping every panel but the roof to the point that it should have been a custom instead of a resto. He was very proud of his job on it and only would pay us hammer it out straighter so we could repaint it black. The car looked nice when it was finished but it got there the wrong way.

One other thing is a few of these cars came with a padded canvas top. He decided to add one at the last minute but all the shops he went to claimed the roof was too domed for it to be canvas and it couldn't be done at any price.
The shop I worked at was mostly for body and paint only, our bread and*****er were bone stock Model A restorations for local A club members, the guy didn't know I had done limo, and convertible tops for years, so he made me a bet that made the job more profitable...

 

Thats right its not really a Lincoln I forgot that.

That sounds cool but unless something has changed recently without a cage or serious support of some kind, some Morrison's frames bend quite easily. The steel is too thin once its been mandrel bent, it looks nice but the 55T-bird we did with their chassis all you had to do was step on the thing and watch the rear rails bend before the suspension would even give. The shop owner didnot want to mess with the return for some reason so we braced it up to take the load. Others were not that bad as there was less kick up and there for less stretch to the steel tubing but they were in need of more help than anything you could pay a good shop to scratch build for the same price.

This would be cool to make one handle real well while looking stock, imagine passing some yuppie in his new Vette in a Continental through a set of corners. The look on the guys face would be priceless...

 

I agree. The original frame is unrecoverable from the engine crossmember back. I'm gonna try to post pictures sometime this weekend of the underside damage.

There's a congregation of HAMBers capable of taking this car, a suitable frame, and coming up with a dream car.

I've had fantastic luck in the five years since I retired and began full-time pursuit of decent project cars that I can sell reasonably and still make enough to augment the retirement pension supporting me and my also-retired spouse of 35 years.

I picked up a '55 Pontiac Chieftain two-door station wagon and two Ford Econoline pickups...'61 and '64 three-windows...at the same auction at which I got the Continental.

I'm presently studying the feasibility of recovering a '50 Packard...flathead eight with three-speed manual...from a pasture south of here.

 

I've always considered the '53 Studebaker coupe, the '55 Nomad, and the '56-'57 Continental Mark II to be the three most beautiful American cars from the Fifties.

Imagine one done up with suspension along the lines of a current Lincoln Town Car.

Here's (part of) the story behind the Continental Mark II:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Mark_II

Ryan wrote about it here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=1368

Pictures:
http://images.google.com/images?q=%22Continental Mark II"

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

Thats wild Bill!

 

Sell me those valve covers then after that whatever you do don't part it out. Those valve covers kinda gave me wood, I guess I need to get out more.......

 

Can I get some of them metalworking skills at the local supermarket or maybe over at WalMart?

What about using a later model chassis such as an 1980/90s Town Car or Crown Vic?

 

Here are the promised views of the underside deterioration.

The engine cradle and front suspension look fair, but everything went to hell to the rear. The rear axle stayed on the ground for the first foot upward movement of the lifter forks, and I could watch the fore-and-aft engine/transmission angle change as the weight of the car was placed on the center section of the car.

In the sixth picture, you can see how neatly the exhaust pipes were routed between the rocker panel and frame.

BTW, I have several friends up in rust country...Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania...who have thoroughly educated me on the definitions of "rough", "rusty", and "too far gone".

This car meets the criteria for the first two adjectives.

 

dont part it out...........sell it to someone who will fix it to its former glory!

 

I've now found the Continental's VIN to be absent from all Texas MVD record repositories, so there is no obstacle to obtaining a****le through a tax-collector hearing.

The****le will be issued about the middle of August, and another of the '56s will officially return to documented existence. I'll be moving to sell the entire car, including the finned valve covers and Holley bug-sprayer, after that point.

 

I am so jelious i've always wanted to chop up une of those and you have areally nice candidate

 

It looks just like the kind of cars I'm famous for buying...even though it's already been said, cool find!

 

Jim Sibley could have that car on the road by this weekend.

 

Cool car! Put in Abone's hands for a bit, should be a cakewalk compared to the Merc he just did!

 

Well, after exhaustive research, I must correct two of my suppositions about this car.

I found enough VIN info to determine it to be a '56 Continental, rather than a '57. Another tip-off is the Holley carburetor, standard on the '56s, while the '57s had Carter WCFB carbs.

I based my paint identification of Gainsborough Blue on the original paint remaining on the interior of the door shell. I now know that Continentals didn't share the Lincoln paint schemes, and the list of paint codes specific to '56 Continentals show this car's 05 paint code to identify the exterior color as dark green poly. Exposure altered the appearance of the original paint sufficiently to make me mistake it for dark blue.

I've pretty well determined what I'm going to ask for the car as a whole, and I'll post it in the classifieds when I get the****le.