1967 Lincoln Continental in St. Louis

[smeeluv]

My buddy was not able to come over to help with the upper links this weekend so I moved back to the front. I cut out the wall for the shock mount on the driver's side and got that in there. Also had to wait for a fitting to get here to test my bags, want to make sure they didn't leak before I put them in because it looks like it would be a pita to try to correct a leak issue after the fact. Anyways, that fitting did not arrive until late saturday so not much completed. I do plan to get this front put together here soon.

[darrylqmiller]

Wish I was closer so I could come and help you meet your completion date so you could show off to your friends! One of my best days was helping fellow car club member pull an all nighter the day before Good Guys so he could get his bagged truck to the meet. We were wiped out but made it there and had a blast!

[smeeluv]

Darryl, I appreciate the thought! That would be awesome! Also glad you can tell I'm not going to meet my deadline Haha, it's all good, it was for volleyball regionals and my team had to pull out of it so it kinda worked out. Plus, I didn't want to rush it, a lot of money spent here and the last thing I want is for it to be all jacked up. And while it's takin longer than I expected, I have learned a ton and it's been a fun project. I started painting some of the other parts like strut rod and sway bar, they looked gross. It will also give us time to paint the differential now so I am excited about that. I will have some time on Sunday to work. The weather is getting nice here so I can open the garage up and get some sunlight in there.

[drdvldog]

keep it up!!!

Just take your time, you have a fly ride coming together quick...I know the rushing feeling, but you always want to get her right and make sure you don't have to worry about anything once you start driving her around!!

[smeeluv]

Okay, finally got our upper links tacked in...I think we are good! I will post pics after this. The one curious question I have is do both links have to have the same degree/angle? So, for example, the link on the driver side is at -3, however the link on the passenger side is like a +2. The tie rods for each are at the same angle front to back but they are different between the two links. If anyone can chime in on that, that would be great. I think we are fine but others' agreement would be good to have. Next up is to cut the tunnel out and then we can raise the axle all the way up and see how we are looking! If no bag rubbing then we can disassemble and weld everything up.

[smeeluv]

Awhile back I got the passenger side shock mount...

[smeeluv]

Here are the upper links tacked into place. Once we figured out the one side, we just made the same adjustments/cuts of the link brackets on the other side and it lined up really well.

[smeeluv]

I really hope there is enough clearance!!

[darrylqmiller]

Looks good from here! Well done.

[smeeluv]

We cut the tunnel out last night. I'm really confused because the axle does not go up as far as I've seen others. The driveshaft is htting the tunnel further up and even the u joint is hitting. We can cut a little more but that will not give us much room. It's almost as if I need to adjust the pinion angle to where the axle is pinioned further down and that would give us more room to raise it. Any thoughts are welcome. Here's a picture of the tunnel cut out.

[smeeluv]

Got the strut rods hooked up today, here's are trouble spots in holding us up from going lower in the rear. Ordering new steering components next week, my steering is terrible and it just makes sense to get that done while it's up on the stands.

[smeeluv]

Just ordered a new steering linkage kit from PST. I went with them with the upper ball joints and liked how those looked and the price was good. Got the center link, tie rods and the idler arm. Those should get here next week and that will finish up the front. I believe we are ready to disassemble and fully weld. We will confirm this on Sunday and get to it if it checks out.

[66continentalefi]

PST seems like a good company I emailed them about shipping to Canada and they were right on it and very reasonable pricing. I hope you get the air ride figured out I wanna see it all laid out!!.

[smeeluv]

Yeah, PST seems legit! Here's a pic of the center link with the tie rods on. So we got the axle to hit the bump stops which was my goal. Axle also went up and down very smoothly with no binding. And we have plenty of clearance with the upper links and the bags so we disassembled everything and are going to weld it all up tomorrow after work! We will probably end up being 4 inches from the ground with 22s so that's not too bad and I could probably get it a little lower if I removed the bump stops...right now, we are just going to get rollin again! The one mistake we made...when we tacked the upper links in, we had the bolt on the inside, the bolt now hits the differential and cannot come out. So we have to cut those and get a new set of bolts because of course we did both sides the same...oh well!! More pics and progress to come.

[smeeluv]

Welding is all done, center link installed. I have to relocate gas pump, run new gas lines and run rear airlines. Planning on painting the rear axle with POR 15 since I am painting my trunk with that as well, mine as well knock that all out in one shot. Then we are ready to reassemble and get this thing back on the ground. Here's some pics of the welding.