I bought my first Lincoln in 1976 when I was 16 years old. It was a ’64 convertible from Banks Junkyard, in Dumfries VA that was not running and in very, very rough shape. Arctic white with red interior. I had it towed to my parent’s house, who were mildly supportive of my initiative but mostly aghast at the shape of it and what I paid. If memory serves, I paid abut $600. Quite a bit back then for paper route and lawn mowing wages. My first task, as dictated by my father, was to take down the fence on the side of the house—and into the backyard she went, hidden from view and providing me my first shade tree mechanic experience. I wound up taking almost everything apart and off of that car, and into the basement. Even things that shouldn’t have been taken off! I got fixated on stripping it down with the thought of rebuilding every little piece.
While stripping and rebuilding the convertible, I bought a ’64 sedan that had already been parted of the interior and motor, but had great sheet metal. Free for the taking—so I did. That too came into the backyard where I pulled fenders and quarters with hand tools! I spent hours of tedious labor learning where the factory seams were, working through numerous hacksaw blades and chisel bits as I worked the parts off. The panels and quarters went off the sedan and onto the convertible with rivets (!) and plans of a future purchase of a welder that never materialized. My second Lincoln. Albeit only a parts car…
Back on the convertible, I tore the the motor down to the short block, which got lots of cleaning, in and out. I rebuilt the heads, carb, and p/s pump. Put on a new water pump, fuel pump, hoses, filters, fluids, spark plugs, wires, and points. I also dropped the transmission (and carried it alone into the basement—what!!!) where I opened it up and quickly put it back together, not being able to figure out heads or tails inside it. I cleaned it up, put in a new filter and gasket, and put her back in. Put on new brakes all around and bled the system. Pieced together some exhaust from junkyard components. I vividly remember the first time I fired her up. My friend and I were separately working the ignition switch and carb linkage. I was on the carb, he on the ignition. Multiple cranks, some starter fluid, and a huge ball of flame coming out of the carb. It was alive! Well, sort of. It took us a while, but we got a tip from some father in the neighborhood to check whether the distributor had been marked and re-installed properly. Marked? Hmm. We sorted that out, and in short order had a smooth running engine.
After that, I quickly raced to get the rest of the parts reinstalled: bumpers, window motors, handles, electrics, brakes, seats, door panels. In a few weeks she was ready to go and down came the fence. She rolled, moved under her own power, stopped with her own brakes. Horn worked, lights worked, turn signals worked. Off to the inspection station. Somehow she passed. I now had my own wheels (and didn’t need to share the ’72 Dodge Dart with my mom, my brother, and two sisters). I never got the top working (could lift/close it manually so had a “working” top). I found a beautiful interior from sedan down in Tennessee and replaced the heavily worn out original (only to find out that not all parts swap from a sedan!). I slowly tinkered with this-and-that, learning as I went along, and made incremental improvements as I could afford them, but mostly just drove her and had a ball.

Some time around 1979 or 1980, I came across a low mileage ’64 convertible. It had been sideswiped down the entire right side early in its life and had been put into a barn for storage. Silver blue metallic out, blue leather interior. It wasn’t running, but was in far better shape than my convertible with the exception of the body damage. My plan was to pull parts from my working convertible and put onto this one to make it my driver. I could just pop the panels off my white convertible since I hadn’t yet permanently attached them! Of course my parents wouldn’t allow that to come home, so I found a lot to store it in. My 3rd Lincoln—I was starting to think of myself as a collector
. After finally realizing I couldn’t afford the ongoing monthly storage fee, I struck a deal with Banks junkyard to “hold” my car for free. They could sell any parts off of her that they wanted, but would allow me to take it back when I was ready. I kept the title. That was the last I saw of her 
Sometime in 1980 I saw an ad in the Washington Post for a triple black ’69 sedan. It was stunning and I had to have it. So I did. I think I paid about $1000 for her—well beyond my means (no idea where that money came from). It had most options (except of course the dealer installed right side view mirror—it has taken me another 30 years to acquire three of those). AM/FM stereo radio. Cruise. Rear defogger/extractor. Power vents. Auto headlight dimmer. Deluxe wheel covers. And, the very rare load leveler system. It has a 99 DSO, so it was likely a government vehicle from DC. She was a great car. My 4th Lincoln. I now had a ’64 convertible or a ’69 sedan to drive as my mood fit. Life was pretty good for a 21 y.o kid.

In late 1980 I finally gave in to my parent’s demands to go to college, so I wound up selling the triple black sedan to a local collector. He already had a couple ’67 convertibles in his collection and really wanted that car. I hated to part with her, but needed the cash and realized I really couldn’t maintain her at the level it needed anyway. I wound up buying her back four years later when I graduated from college—using most of my first paycheck and then some. She was a great car. I later sold her to Hugh Leslie from the LCOC when I moved overseas in 1989 because I didn’t want to see her sit in the driveway and rot. Wonder how she is now…
My father told me I could borrow his ’69 sedan (medium aqua metallic, no vinyl roof, aqua leather interior) to drive during college—if I could get it operational. Heck yeah! He had bought it new as his car, but it quickly became the family vehicle taking us kids to sports practice, hauling the family on cross country vacations, and picking up groceries. And while I remember there were many good things about that car, I also remember it having many issues. Batteries, alternators, brakes, mufflers, tires: it was always in the shop. It was problematic from the start and my dad was constantly bringing it back to the dealership. I have a raft of correspondence from him and Lincoln corporate as they tried to hash out fixes and compensation. And more than once it broke on the side of the road, stranding the family.
That ’69 sedan was fantastic. I think it had about 90k miles on when I got it, which was considered alot back then. But it was tight, reliable, and fast. I loved that car and instantly realized I was a sedan guy. She ferried me from Northern Virginia to college in southwest Virginia many weekends for most of that year, and she was always the car of choice for road trips which everyone was happy to fund with gas money. Unfortunately, I learned a bit about physics and speed when I wrecked it at >100mph into a railroad trestle. By the grace of God, my passenger and I were unhurt (but boy was I sore the next day). I did get it back semi-operational, dreamed if fixing her back up, but had neither the money nor time…so it went off to a local farm as a “farm vehicle”. Every once in a while I’d swing by to drive it in the pastures and sometimes on the country roads, but ultimately I stripped her bare of all I could before abandoning it in the corner of the farm. Bye bye aqua beauty.
I quickly found a ’66 coupe listed in the Washington Post classifieds and hitchhiked up to Northern Virginia over a weekend to see it. It was arctic white with black leather interior and black vinyl roof. I bought for $250—a fair price back then. It ran rough, but made it back down to college without mishap. I got her running smoothly and reliably with a tune up and some carb work. ’Twas another great car, looking back on it. I only had it for about 4 or 5 months and really liked the heavy feel of those super long front doors. But, ultimately I couldn’t afford to keep her and wound up selling it to a college townie for a couple hundred more than I paid, and was glad to have the cash. That was my 6th Lincoln.
So, down went the fence and back into the wild came the white/red ’64 convertible. I drove that for the the next two years, even driving it to TX and back for a summer session at UT Austin. It was reliable transportation, but the fenders rattled and it really was quite atrocious looking. However, I had an LCC and I was happy.




Some time around 1982 I picked up another ’69 sedan—dark orchid metallic with black leather interior and black vinyl top—from one of my parent’s neighbor’s down the street. We agreed on an affordable $75 price—they were ready to send her off to Bank’s junkyard. It wasn’t running but had a fantastic interior. The paint was faded and it had a fair share of minor dings/dents. I rebuilt the carb and got her running and drove her a bit. But then the motor threw a rod (she had never really been taken care of) and I parked her in my parent’s driveway planning to some day rebuild the motor. Really wish I had that one back. Would be such and easy restoration and the dark orchid is a stunning color (tough to pull off dark purple ride though). After a few years in the driveway, never being able to pull together enough money for the rebuild, I had to succumb to my parent’s demands and have her towed off to Bank’s junkyard. Also with the hope I’d have free storage and get her back when I could afford it. Sad. My 8th Lincoln.
In 1984 after I graduated from college I bought back my triple black ’69 sedan. My 9th Lincoln. I moved to Annapolis MD for my first job and had my platinum and triple black ’69 sedans. Shortly thereafter, in 1985 I came across a maroon ’68 sedan with black brocade interior that I wound up buying to fix up and sell to a friend. He sold it back to me after a year, realizing it was more than he bargained for. ’Twas a good car but had that blasted issue with the exhaust manifold leak that I couldn’t fix with the tools/space I had and I couldn’t get it past inspection without that fix. So I needed to get rid if it. Plus, ‘68s were not my year. A local band wanted it for their “gig car”. I didn’t want to sell it to them, because I was sure were going to molest it, but they had cash in hand and off it went. My 10th Lincoln.
In 1986 I found a yellow (mikado) ’69 sedan, with dark ivy gold vinyl roof,and light ivy gold interior that was a real steal. It had front end damage which had taken it off the road and into storage. It was very low mileage and otherwise in great shape. I could tell someone had really taken care of it throughout most of its life. I used the skills I developed pulling fenders off my ’64 convertible to pull off the RF fender, doing the same for a front front 1/4 I bought from a junkyard. I dry-fitted them myself, then drove to a body shop with vise grips holding her together where they did a great job of welding it and matching the paint. I was now driving around in my choice of platinum, black, or yellow ’69 sedans. I was a prince! And had my 11th Lincoln.

In 1987 one of my sisters ran across someone who was driving a gorgeous palomar blue/white top/aqua interior ’67 convertible and passed along my name. We talked for over a year before he sold me that car. At the time it felt very expensive, which was why it took a year to negotiate. I think it was $3000. Musta been more—that just sounds too low. It really was stunning. I used that on nice days
. Now I had four cars to chose from on any given day. A king? Truly was a good time. At this point I was living in Fairfax VA and commuted about 60 miles each way to my job in Annapolis MD so was able to get some good driving in every day. My 12th Lincoln.
In 1989 I took a job with my company in Switzerland and moved overseas. At that point I had 4 cars: my platinum ’69 sedan beater, my triple black ’69 sedan for special occasions, my yellow ’69 sedan that I used when the weather was nice, and the aqua ’67 convertible for cruising. And the medium lime metallic, well…parts car, I guess. Five cars. I wound up selling all (essentially giving them away) including all the parts I had hoarded over the years
. I gave away the lime parts car to someone local who had a ’69 and wanted her for parts. The platinum and yellow sedans, along with all my my parts, went to a gentleman in Tennessee who committed to me that both would be fully restored. I sent the ’67 convertible out to my brother in TX for safekeeping, and parked the triple black sedan in my parent’s driveway. After the first year overseas I decided I needed to get the black sedan under cover so I sold it to Hugh Leslie from LCOC. My brother drove the ’67 convertible for a few years, but I had to sell it when he moved and couldn’t take it with him. The convertible went to an LCOC member in Dallas who still has her and has done quite a bit of work on her. So, a good home. I was now Lincoln-less.In Switzerland I drove some kind of Mazda econobox…think it was a 626 equivalent…five speed and was kinda fun Being without a Lincoln was tough but I had other things to keep me occupied—the job was good, I enjoyed traveling Europe, and I made some good friends. But every few months I’d head to the kiosk to to buy the new issue of Hemmings and read about all the great great cars over the ocean. After a few years, I couldn’t stand it any more and decided I had to have another Lincoln, even if I couldn’t drive it. I found an ad in Hemmings for a ’69 sedan that sounded ideal. A cameo (light green in ’69 parlance), 70k mileage, two owner vehicle that sounded like it was all original, had all documentation, and had been properly maintained. I called up the owner, listened to him describe the car and why he was selling it, and made a deal over the phone, sight unseen. I then called up a buddy who drove down to pick it up and drive her back to Northern VA for me. I saw it a few months later during my next trip home. It was in great shape. My 14th Lincoln. Initially I wasn’t thrilled about the color combo, but it was mine and I loved her, and over time I’ve really come to love the color. I found a good indoor storage for her, set my sister up with a 4x year driving routine, and waited to return stateside which I did 5 years later. Every time I would come back to the States, I’d have the taxi driver drop me off at the storage lot and I’d drive my own Lincoln. A friend named her Pistachio, which I’ve kept.

I moved back to the States in 1994 and drove Pistachio as my primary vehicle for about two years. Then I picked up a nice ’84 Mercedes 300TD to use as my daily driver and keep the miles off Pistachio. I still own Pistachio now, having put over 70k miles on her. Truly reliable and still looking good, wearing original paint, original interior, and the original motor. In addition to being original, I have virtually all of the documentation on the car: the order sheet that the original owner filled out at the dealership ticking off the options he ordered, the original dealer invoice, a postcard from the factory indicating when the car was scheduled to be built on the assembly line, the notice to the owner that his car was built and ready to be picked up at the dealer, the window sticker, owners manual, various Ford/Lincoln brochures about the radio/safety/driving, tags explaining about the nature of leather having flaws and how to care for the leather, every VA state inspection sticker from 1969 through to 2008 (when I decided to switch to antique plates and agree to limited use of the car), and almost every service record! She’s original and still looks/runs great to this day.






In the late ‘90s, I’d travel to the SF Bay area quite frequently and would always be on the lookout for nice cars. One day in the late ‘90s I saw an ad for an aqua ’69 sedan—trimmed out exactly like the one I had wrecked while a freshman in college. It turned out to be a black plate original, which was one of about a hundred cars a collector had in warehouses in Vacaville CA. I drove out to see it and met the collection’s curator who snaked me through dozens of beautiful cars to see her. I was told the owner purchased the car because it was so special—low mileage/great shape—but that he wasn’t a luxury car guy and was trying to skinny down his collection to just muscle cars. We agreed on a fair price, and I now had a ’69 sedan on the West coast. My 15th Lincoln. I parked it at my company’s garage in the Bay Area, and would drive it monthly when I was there on business. She was sweet. Had about 40k miles if I recall. Reliable, no rust, a few small dings, original paint in pretty good condition, great chrome, and just a smooth driver.
I kept her in SF for about four years, and then was convinced by a buddy that we needed to bring her back East on a cross country road trip in 2002. I had her sent to a local shop for a run-through, then flew out with my friend for a drive back. We drove from SF up the PCH, to Vancouver Canada, then east through the rockies to Banff, then down south through Glacier National Park into the US. It was a great drive. I think it was about 3000 miles. Was an epic drive.
Unfortunately, as we were on our way to Mt. Rushmore, we were rear-ended by a Chevy 1500 pickup that an older couple was driving, near Colony Wyoming . We were slowed down to a crawl on a highway behind some large construction trucks and the other driver just wasn’t paying attention and drove right into us. I’ll go on record to say that I wasn’t driving this time. But two beautiful aqua sedans had been totaled under my watch—tough to take. It was truly sad. The car took the full brunt of the pickup truck’s force with only about 15 feet of skid marks evident before impact. There was significant trunk damage and buckling of the unibody all the way through the roof. I was devastated.
Of course we were now stranded in North Dakota and my friend had to get home (he was married with obligations, I had only myself to answer to). We dealt with police. We were both fine but ambulances came and took the elderly couple away with a broken collarbone on one and broken forearm on the other. I hope they’re OK. I arranged to have the car towed to a lot and we flew home from Rapid City SD. I wound up getting a full settlement for the car from the other insurance company, more than I paid (little consolation but at least they valued the car as a collector/classic and didn’t try to undervalue it). I bought the car back from the insurance company with a salvage title without a clue what to do with it. The thought of that car sitting in the cold North Dakota tundra was too much. I called up Chris at Lincoln Land who said he’d love to have her, so I sent the title and keys. Chris had her hauled down to Clearwater and parted her out where she lives on in other cars. Thanks Chris—my hero! A nice enough end to one of my greatest disappointments.



Work and life got busy and I was content with Pistachio. In 2005 I got married which sapped my Lincoln focus—at least temporarily. My wife doesn’t get the Lincoln fascination, but obliges the obsession. In 2010 I saw an ad for a nice light gray metallic, black vinyl top, black leather interior ’69 sedan in Rochester NY. Had bucket sets, tons of options, and looked good in photos. I talked to the owner who had owned it for a few years, had his fun, but just wanted to sell it. I bought it for about $5000 if I recall, and had it shipped down to VA. My 16th Lincoln. It had been repainted, but had received horrible prep. Lots of overspray all over the place. The trim had been taped off instead of being removed. The paint had been laid on thick and looked odd up close. had some bad bond repair to the dog legs. It seemed solid, and looked good from a distance, but just wasn’t the original, unmolested, well-cared for type of car I liked or was expecting. Also, it had crappy undersized tires. It needed brakes, exhaust, windows, A/C, etc. I kept it for about a year while I wrestled with what to do with it, and wound up selling it to a gentleman in Houston. I accurately described the car, and he said he wanted it—color, options, etc. were just what he wanted and he planned to fix ‘er up. I checked in on him a couple years later and he had the body stripped and painted and was working on windows and was very happy with her. That’s what it needed, and he was willing to do it, so I was happy. He told me he ran the car’s history and found out it was originally assigned to the United Nations (another 99 DSO car). So, an interesting pedigree. Glad it has a good home (assuming he still has it).

My most recent purchase, my 17th ,and perhaps my last Lincoln, and my current obsession, is a dark blue metallic ’69 sedan with town car interior. One day in 2012 while performing the obligatory eBay search I came across her: a 40k miles, all original, dark blue, black vinyl top, dark blue town car interior ’69 sedan. My unicorn. I had seen town car interiors a few times before, but they were rare and I never had the opportunity to own one. This one was beautiful in pictures. I had to have it. I remember trying to track down the seller, having only an eBay user name and city location. I came across a possible match with some internet searches, used google maps, and saw her sitting in the driveway! More google searches and I found a phone number. I called up (to his astonishment) and begged him to take down the ad in order for us to enter into negotiations. He said he was ready to pull the ad anyway because there were too many people responding from overseas who he felt were ready to rip him off—he was really stressed. We talked about the car, he sent me photos, we agreed on a price, I wired him money, and she was mine. I couldn’t believe it. He worked with me to get the car on a trailer and shipped out to VA.
Here’s the original eBay ad.





I was really interested in the pedigree/lineage of the car so started doing some research. I bought her from a someone in Lincoln Nebraska (yup). The owner’s manual had the name and address of the original owner in Oklahoma City. I just needed to connect those two end points. I searched obituaries and found the original owner. She was born in 1900 (making her 69 y.o. when she bought the car in 1969—so the proverbial little old lady. Her obit made frequent references to the church she belonged to. So. I’m going with “owned by a little old lady who only drove it to church”), and then passed away in 1992. From her obituary, I found the name of her her one son. Another search showed he passed away in 2001. From his obituary, I saw he had three children and tried to track down each. I hit it lucky when I located one of the sons and called him up. Yes, that was his grandmother’s car! He remembered it fondly—it was her pride and joy. He explained that when grandmother passed, the car went to his father, who had been the true caretaker of the car over all the years. When his father died, he, the grandson, got the car—although he never driven it He explained that he was in Iraq at the time, so the car went immediately into a shipping container for storage where it sat for 8 years. In the ensuing years, he had gotten married, started a family, and was finally convinced by his wife to sell the car and stop paying the monthly storage fees. He donated it to the VFW where it wound up at Copart. Back to google for a search. Bingo, found the Copart ad (below)! Found another reference to the VIN that it had been for sale at Estep Motors in Sargent Nebraska, so I called them up. I spoke to Brett Eastep—he said his dad had bought the Lincoln from B&D Auto Sales, who had picked the car up at auction (and was purely a purchasing agent). The son said his dad was a collector with a small hoard of nice original cars all stored in a warehouse. He said that it was rarely driven, like most of his dad’s collection. At some point he convinced his father to sell a bunch of cars, so the Lincoln went up for sale and was purchased the young man who I bought it from. He saw it on the lot, talked to his father, and they decided to pick it up as a father/son project. They had it for a year, tinkering here-and-there, but realized it was more complicated than they wanted—plus they were Mopar guys—so they put it up for sale on eBay. I had tracked down the full lineage of the car (unfortunately not the one-owner story I’d rather have).
Here she is being offered for auction at Copart.
Here’s the internet ad I found for Eastep’s
1969 Lincoln Continental in Sargent, Nebraska
Price: $14,995
Price: $14,995 Seller: Date/Time:14 Feb, 02:29 p.m. EST Type: Cars
State: Nebraska City: Sargent Category: Cars Cars in Nebraska
This ad is older than 2 months. View similar ads: Cars, Cars in Nebraska
1969 Lincoln Continental - 14995 Eastep's Wheels Phone: (800) 610-4511 3900 N 27th, Lincoln, NE 68521 Website: Family owned and operated since 1979. No pressure and it doesn't take all day to buy a car. Asking Price: 14995 Retail Price: Mileage: 39000 Stock : 859790 VIN: 9Y82A859790 Body Style: Classic Exterior Color: Blue Interior Color: Blue
For years I had heard about the magic that Rich Liana performs on 60’s Lincolns. Fortunately he’s only a four hour drive from me so I decided to take a drive down to see him and talk about the car. He explained his process, and that he had a three year waiting list. His shop was clean as a whistle, he spoke with experience and authority about Lincolns. And he explained how he'd go about doing my car. I thought about it for about a month, and then sent him a check to reserve my spot. This past August, I heard from Rich--three years later as he indicated. He was ready for my car—was I still interested? I wasn’t sure I was. I had gotten used to the minor dings, scrapes and poor paint. Plus, I really didn’t want a trailer queen and was afraid what I’d do after investing so much into the paint & body. I thought about it for a week and decided life is short, I’ve been driving Lincolns for 41 years, it was time to have a truly nice one, and this was a great candidate. I nervously called Rich and said was in.
I drove her down there with a friend (same friend from the fateful cross country trip--and no, he did not drive). We talked about the merits of a full concourse (ouch) vs. something less. I was leaning towards something less. Rich said to let him get into it a bit and see what’s there and then he’d advise me as we went. Sounded fair--who knows what's behind 48 year old paint?
Rich is well into it. He's been calling every week and sending photos. I've gone down once to see her after the paint was removed. I'll be heading back down this next weekend. Here are some of the photos Rich has sent so far:




And the doglegs. True artistry. Brought tears to my eyes...




I’m expecting to get her back in the next month or so, and will update this post with new photos and progress as I get them, and then some nice shots of the finished product.
I had fun writing this narrative (but it was a true pain to post onto TLF). I’d forgotten how many Lincolns I’ve owned over the years (really, 41 years ??!!!). I went back and forth writing this as I remembered that I had skipped or forgotten about one Lincoln or another. I think I’m set now with my Pistachio and Blue Velvet. I’ll continue to habitually and reflexively scour eBay, Craigslist, and other sites for the next great opportunity because you never know when the itch will strike again or luck will present another beauty.
Thanks for reading.

