Looking at the trunk side panels, doesn't it look like two sideways facing bench seats? Like the old country squire wagons with the double-facing 3 seats in the far back? (My old seating position back in the day...hence my expression. And yeah, that's me wearing the cardigan. It's mid-August, 1970 and I had to wear it because one of my mother's aunts handmade it and we might accidentally see her during that vacation trip).

I finally had the sketchy frame repairs that were done 33 years ago properly repaired. These battleships tend to hold water in the rear frame rail kick-out area (same spot as mid-year Corvettes). When the car was repainted back in 1992, the body guy used a stick welder and some metal brackets to make slap on patches which her then welded to each other like fish scales. Worked for three decades.

We have a local shop (50 miles away actually) that does absolutely amazing frame repairs. Their main job is WoolWax undercoating but they have a side business that started when someone posted their work on a Toyota FJ Land Cruiser page. Now they have FJ's from all over the country on a waiting list for the frame repairs. Garden State Undercoating: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?...20undercoating

Contact info: Chris at Garden State Undercoating, 126 Route 46 , Saddle Brook, New Jersey (973) 343-9775, [email protected]

Here's the product page for the woolwax itself. You can buy it from them in bulk. https://www.woolwaxusa.com/

They main welder is a retired Ukrainian tank mechanic. Watching this guy work is mesmerizing. It's like a balloon animal artist at a kid's birthday party. He cuts out the bad area, just looks at the missing space and then miraculously hammers out exact duplicate patches. He's like a human CNC machine.

They repaired/welded/primed and painted both frame rails and one hole in the driver's side wheel well by the rocker panel, in a couple days and then wool-waxed the entire underside after wire brushing and sanding the entire frame.

I'm glad I finally did it because it turned out that the only portion of those areas remaining were the fish scale repair patches. The underlying rusty frame spots had totally dissolved to dust.

Here's the driver's side which was much worse than the passenger side.

Passenger side:

And after the pressure washing, wire brushing and cleaning, they applied the black wool wax. The stuff is a non-petroleum metal preservative. I think it is Lanolin based. They have clear and black. It lasts about two years and then needs to be reapplied. It's mostly for daily drivers in the rust belt areas, but it soaks into the metal and keeps it rust free. The only caveat is having to wear gloves if you are doing anything under the car. That, and waiting a few weeks for it to harden/soak into the underside original undercoating and metal.

BTW, these guys did the frame repair on my 1995 Suburban three years ago. The common rust area in the OBS 4WD truck frames are the sides of the front engine cradle near the steering box, that have no water drain holes. They did an amazing job on the truck so I had them schedule me for the Lincoln, too.

While the Lincoln was there they also had a Pontiac Aztek that they were repairing the unibody frame rails on...and at least a half dozen FJ Toyotas in the staging lanes for repairs. One of them was driven up from Florida for the work. Check out their facebook page and you can see the work they do. Amazing stuff!

Very nice!!

Nice frame work!

This was the front frame repair they did on my K2500 4X4 Suburban in 2023. Just as amazing! Both the inner and outer sections of the frame where the steering box mounts. A completely closed area with no drainage hole but open to water and salt getting in from above. The passenger side (the far easier side to repair) was repaired back in 2016 by another welder who has since retired. I can't say enough about this shop. It is worth the trip if you are looking for someone experienced and actually reasonable in their fabrication rates.

Took the Lincoln out today and visited one of my friends repair shops. He let me use the wheel balancer and I rechecked the balance on all four wheels. I guess they settled a bit after a few weeks and a couple were slightly off by a 1/2 ounce or so, as I was noticing a slight vibration at 60-65 mph. I removed the weights and rebalanced everything and now this Galaxy Class Battlecruiser gets right up to orbital speed with no noticeable change even as you hit the sound barrier at 600+ mph. Did I mention it has a 2.80 rear gear ratio?

More tinkering...I bought a set of KYB Excel-G shocks and installed those this afternoon. Used my vintage set of drive-up steel ramps. It's funny: I've held on to those things for 40+years since buying them at Sears back in the late 1970's. They weigh a ton and no car in the last 40 years is tall enough to go up them without damaging the front or rear valance...but a 54-year-old Lincoln sure does!. No problem. I backed it up the ramps and had both rear shocks replaced in about a half hour. The hardest part was avoiding getting covered in the still wet, Woolwax coating on everything. Same deal with the fronts. Unscrewed the top stud nut and the two bottom nuts and they fell right out! Amazing difference in the ride quality over the original worn out rear shocks and Midas fronts shocks that I had as spares from the Firebird (they use the same part number!) This things just floats now. I should rent it out as a drunk-driving simulator. There is no sensation of any road bumps smaller than a sinkhole. Its truly frightening!

And I was playing with the spare clock I bought on ebay 4 years ago. I started looking on youtube for repair tips and it turns out the best tip is to use brake clean and spray away all the solidified factory oil on the pivot points. I did that and used my old points file and cleaned the two contact points. I then used a tiny needle applicator and applied gun oil to the pivot points very sparingly. I set it up on a battery and then set a stop watch. It runs beautifully. It was a consistent 55.7 seconds between the audible click when the points would contact and snap apart, thereby winding the mainspring for another minute. It got kind of addictive after a while: 55.79, 55.72, 55.75 seconds... for 25 minutes straight. It wound up being more of test of my thumb reaction time on the lap counter at that point. I left it overnight hooked to the battery and this morning it s right on time (actually a little under a 1 minute fast as compared to my Iphone). And the battery was still registering the same 12.7 volts as the day before, so there isn't much of a power drain after all with these factory electric clocks.

It's gonna be a major project to install that new clock since the dash is so complicated in terms of fasteners. I found that out when installing the factory AM/FM a couple years ago.

I received the ORIGINAL invoice from Marti Auto. They have the original invoices from specific assembly lines and will sell you your original document as long as you provide them with a copy of the title or registration to prove you have the car. Look at that window sticker price: $8,585 !!!

Here's the preliminary Marti Report. I ordered the Elite version which comes framed with a window sticker and other stuff. Due to be delivered in a couple months.

I spent the afternoon installing the working replacement clock and ran into some interesting finds.
1) original clock doesn't work
2) original clock is deep fried
3) Portions of the printed dash circuit relating to the aforementioned deep fried clock are melted.

Here's some photos. I am constantly thanking my grandfather Simon for buying all the factory repair manuals for this car back in 1971. It listed the steps taken and fasteners that needed to be removed to get the dash pad out and then the lower gauge cluster. Very informative in terms of instructions! Compare that to the similar vintage Mopar manuals which would say something like: Step 1: Open car door. Step 2: Remove gauges. Step 3: Repair gauges. Step 4: Reverse procedure. Step 5: Close car door.

Once I got the original clock out and saw that it was toasted, I temporarily installed the new clock but it was not getting any power. So I pulled the entire gauge pod and found out that the printed circuit was melted in at least three places along the "hot" route to the clock. It is nice of Ford to list their part numbers on everything on this car. Very helpful: D0VF-10C956. Of course there aren't any out there but I'll start looking anyway. I did see a guy selling the entire dash instrument panel for $1,400 on ebay. LOL. When I looked at the close ups I could see similar burn marks on his printed circuit as well.

My solution was to disconnect the original bad clock terminal ends on the printed circuit and cover them with electrical tape. I then routed a hot wire and a ground wire from the gauge terminals to the fuse box and the dash frame, and the clock immediately started running and keeping accurate time, clicking every 55.7 seconds to rewind. While I was in there I checked all the dash bulbs and miraculously, they were all still good.

Nice repair. Those early printed circuits are scary.

That was a frightening discovery. Luckily it didn't fry the entire car. It happened at least 34+ years ago because the clock never worked as long as we have had the car (circa 1991).

YAY! My Holy Grail parts arrived today. I actually found a set of NOS rear tail light/bumper upper and lower moldings for the car. The original lower molding was badly damaged by the giant "J.C. Whitney" rear bumper guards my Grandfather had installed for battle in Manhattan back in the 1970's. He retired undefeated (except for the self-inflicted, crush wounds on the aluminum molding.)

My next project will be removing the entire rear bumper assembly (all 100+ lbs. of it!) to swap out the moldings. The upper one screws in from the outside, no problem. But the lower molding is installed from behind and below and is completely concealed from access when installed on the car.

I can't say enough about Will McDonald Obsolete Parts in Rockport, IL. https://mcdonaldparts.com/. I found him through a search of the part numbers and after falling down a rabbit hole of links, was able to find his website. I emailed him and within 10 minutes on a Tuesday night, he responded that he had the lower molding and sent me "proof of life" photos that verified he had the right piece. He told me a reasonable price $125 plus shipping in a PVC pipe, (an idea he actually recommended even before I had to).

While I had him on the phone, I asked if he had the upper molding as well: If I'm doing the surgery, I might as well replace both. (The two curved side moldings are fine, so I don't need those). He did a quick check and found the upper molding in his inventory as well for another $110. He was able to combine them in one 4'x4" PVC pipe. It just arrived today.

I can't tell you how long we have been looking for that lower molding. At least three and a half decades at last count! The puzzle was solved when I was able to stumble across a parts diagram last weekend that was mislabeled as a 1973 to 1979 bumper diagram and that was how I found the part numbers: D1VY-17C796 and D1VY-17C772. (1970 to 1973 used the same rear bumper).

While I'm at it, I might as well fix that one pesky tail lamp socket that keeps blinking in and out of service, since you also have to remove the bumper to pull the tail lamp housings.

Steve - some of the guage repair/restoration places will fix the old printed circuit boards if you can't find a suitable replacement.

Anyone you recommend?

I've used these guys before as they are local to me - they have my original Chevelle gas tank sending unit now for restoration. They fixed the cicuit board for the Chevelle as well in addition to numerous clocks.

https://www.clocksandgauges.com/

if you google "automotive printed circuit board repairs" there are others that come up that me be more specialized

Clock install update: After a week or so, it's about 15 minutes fast but still ticking away! Success!

Will they self adjust if you keep correcting the time?

I’ve never heard of that. How does that work?

I thought some of the older electric ones would make respective adjustments (faster/slower) if they kept getting moved in a particular direction (forward or backwards)..........maybe an urban legend?

A WiTcH!!!!

I finally had a few hours today to install that NOS tail light/bumper moldings. That was fun! Especially after having the car wool-waxed underneath last month. My arms were completely covered in the black stuff. I looked like an oil field worker after a well blowout. But hey, this battleship ain't gonna be rusting any time soon after that procedure. I wasn't able to remove the rear bumper and had to reach under and around things to get the couple of molding nuts off the underside of the lower molding. Luckily 35 years ago when we had it painted, someone neglected to install all those original nuts back on (me), so it worked out well!

I was also able to chase down that pesky non-functional tail lamp socket. Turns out it was not the socket but a defective 1057 bulb that had no internal ground connected. When I switched another working bulb into that position, it worked fine. And when I moved the funky bulb to a new spot it didn't work there. So in the trash it went.

So far I have almost 500 miles on this baby since getting it out of storage a couple months ago. It's about to roll over to 87,000 miles! Only another 2,000 miles and I'll be at the oil change due date on the Lincoln dealer reminder sticker stuck on the windshield back when my Dad had his last oil change done back in 2000. That was right before the dealer (Crest Lincoln Mercury in Woodbridge, CT) offered to help him junk it for a tax deduction because they got tired of trying to work on it. (Yes, I still hold a grudge about that) :tongue:

I had the paintless dent removal guys come out today and have a go at the Lincoln and a couple of our other daily drivers as well. Simply amazing is all I can say. It's like watching a magician/balloon animal artist at a birthday party. These guys do magic right before your eyes!

In a matter of minutes the father and son duo had all the dings and dents out of the Lincoln that my father had made over the years by storing his lawn and garden tools on top of, and leaning his shovels/rakes/axes against and even opening other cars' car doors into.

The son worked on the Lincoln as he arrived in a separate truck before his dad did. He removed around 90% of the dents. Some of them were in areas that there was body filler evident so he couldn't do anything about those but what they did remove was astonishing. He finished so quickly, that when his dad arrived a half hour later, I had him attack a hood and fender ding in my son's daily driver and then two giant dents in the hood of my father-in-law's 2019 Honda (that we just bought for our daughter) that was the result of him running over a mailbox a year or two ago. The dents were so deep that the he said there's no way he could remove them...and then proceeded to remove 95% of them and shrink the metal back up into place so now it looks no worse than a factory flaw. Simply amazing.

Here's their info in case you're in the PA/NJ/NY area and need some work done. Richard Adelman, National Hail & Dent Removal (267) 446-8560 [email protected] www.nationalhailanddent.com.

I can't say enough about these guys. True artists. I was genuinely sorry I didn't have more cars for them to work on at the time. (my daughter currently is borrowing my wife's car until the Honda is registered, and was an hour away so we couldn't get that worked on.)

Next up is getting the paint detailed/buffed out by someone who knows what to do with old single stage paint jobs. Any recommendations?

In case you were curious, here's the before and after of the 1/4" deep dents in the Honda's hood:

GOOD PDR people ARE magicians.
When I worked for Centerline, they rented a stall to a guy during the winter and inclement weather during the summer too. I had him do quite a few things for me over the years. I miss that connection and we live too far apart now for him to come to me.

I had a dent removed from the top of the right fender on my '69 Camaro. It was pretty deep, but the only way that you can find it now is with a bright light looking very closely. There are some very fine cracks in the clear coat, which is the only thing that you can see.

Look at the back of their trucks: they each had at least a hundred different prying tools that look like giant torture devices used by your dentist during teeth cleanings. Things that curve this way, and that way to maneuver around obstructions. Simply amazing.

This ^^^^^

Following the "recommended 99 minimum octane" factory instructions in the owners manual, I threw 6 gallons of 100 Octane leaded avgas in the tank yesterday and took the old battleship for a cruise to a cars and coffee around an hour away on I-95. She really likes that leaded 100 octane! Noticeably smoother running and the idling exhaust smell was wonderful. Brought back some memories of the olden days.

Here's what the Autolite plugs looked like after I got back:

(BTW, all that gunk on the threads is the silver anti-seize that I liberally apply to all tapered seat spark plugs.)