I have a certain sentimentality about old cars that keeps me from selling anything; it’s more than a mere foible, but it’s who I am and I’ve learned to live with it. Unfortunately, that means that I’m stuck buying things I like and finding places to put them (there are worse problems to have). This also requires discipline, because if I do buy something, it has to be something I want to live with ’til death do us part, so to speak. One of the cars on my dance card is a 1940 or 1941 Lincoln Continental, such as this one that T.J. found on Marketplace in Henderson, Nevada. I have been playing the long game because I prefer the Cabriolet and prices have been coming down steadily for the last several years. This solid Coupe is a good example of why my patience may pay off in the end; the paint is failing, but it is priced at $19,000. Maybe I’ll get there yet.
Another thing I have going for me is a complete lack of perfectionism when it comes to old car paint. Honestly, if this picture is an indication of the overall health of the finish, I would be inclined to leave it. If I weren’t, single-stage black is a color that is relatively easy to spray for a home painter (as long as the bodywork is straight, and the pictures indicate that it is). The seller has not included any pictures of the engine (I’ll never understand that), but they say it’s the original V12, a 292-cubic-inch, 120-horsepower engine that was often swapped for something else in the 1950s. Continentals were considered classics almost from new, but as time wore on, people were less than enamored with the flathead 12, so Cadillac, Chrysler, Lincoln, and Oldsmobile V8s found their way into many of these engine compartments. Many Continental fans over the years support the V12, however, saying that you can build a reliable unit with plenty of power if you take your time and follow the instructions.
The interior is handsome with its harmonizing deep red upholstery. Another Continental feature I’ve always liked is the gold-colored trim on the dashboard, just another sign of the owner’s opulence. There are several pictures of the interior, and there are few red flags that I can see.
A mere 850 Continental Coupes were produced in 1941, but a good number of them have survived. Like many of you, I’m a car geek through and through. I’ve seen plenty of these cars in the flesh, and every time I do, I walk around and get to know the details all over again. Not everyone likes early Continentals, and they certainly aren’t gaining in popularity as the years go by, but that means that those who have loved them for years may get a crack at one someday. Maybe you’re one of those people; maybe now is the time for you.
Glorious cars, with a commanding presence.
Good choice, Aaron. Classy but relatively easy to work on.
But take it from us FROG’s, Aaron-don’t wait so long that you can’t fully enjoy it for what it is.
Good advice, and I have a good feeling I’ll follow it. :)
I’m an 80+ year old sales guy/small business owner that needs a new ride. This one would fit and since it hasn’t been butchered is a definite plus. Yes, I dreamed of owning an original Continental after seeing my first one in the 40s.
Seriously thinking.
As the great Wayne Gretzky said-“I miss 100% of the shots I don’t take.”
Go for it sir, and give us a after action report if you get it!
Handsome automobile. I would much rather have a Lincoln Mark III though..Sorry.
These Lincolns are absolutely beautiful cars. The interior looks terrific, and really other than some paint issues the exterior looks solid too. Hopefully somebody buys this, and actually gets to drive and enjoy it. Very nice find Aaron, and I hope you get yours one day.
These cars are BIG compared to a modern “car”, but not an Escalade. The V 12 has the best exhaust note of anything, in my opinion. I walked to school in 7th grade and was passed by a ’46 – ’48 every morning. It was a maroon convertible, always with the top up. I have wanted one ever since.
Aaron, don’t feel alone, you’re not the only one who can’t get rid of anything. I had to move from a beautiful home, that I had spent 44 years improving, just to have room for all of my cars, boats and other old stuff ( junk to normal people) that for some weird reason I can’t part with.
I went from a 400 sq ft garage to a 2000 sq ft detached plus a 1350 attached 4 car and a 100 ft shed and I still could use more storage space.
So, I’ve got the disease in a bad way.
Oh, and I still want more. So of course I’m going to advise you to buy this Lincoln.
You’re living the dream, Phil! I’m certainly at the point where I need more land.
I do understand 12 years ago I bought a 3000 square-foot home attached to a 14,000 square-foot warehouse that used to be a bowling pin factory. I gutted most everything and redid everything myself, all new wiring six breaker panels new gas and water waterlines, windows(36), everything and it’s still full.
“He who dies with the most toys wins.” You really took that to heart, Cadillac kid!
Ever since I saw the extra spark plugs on a flathead V12, I have been a fanboy. The legend of Edsel and these cars is also part of the story. This seems a great purchase for someone so inclined.
Would LOVE to own and drive it (if only I could…)
Ya know, guys, gettin’ old really sucks. Put it off as long as you can because the older you get, the faster the aging process gets.
It takes forever to get to 21. Takes about 6 years to get from 21 to 41. Takes about 20 minutes to get from 41 to 51 and then stuff starts to happen real fast.
My fondest memories of the pre-war Lincolns are of the ’31 Model K, 4-passenger convertible. I owned one of the 60 made. One of the most beautiful cars on the planet. Would pass anything on the road except a gas station. Rode and drove like a truck. Hadda allow 20 minutes to stop from anything over 60 mph and another half hour to give the brakes time to cool down. The ’41’s roadability was much better than previous issues; truly a “modern” automobile, quiet, smooth and comfortable.
My regrets are debilitating. I should be in jail for selling either one of them.
And we’d all be there with you for the ones we all let get away.
I don’t know why these always wind up on beautiful car lists. The roof has always looked like it was borrowed off a checker cab to me.
Ah the roof. The ’38 Caddy 60 Special, and this, and the ’39 Mercury coupe, fortold the “hardtop” of the ’50’s, with a slim to no B pillar, as did this Lincoln. What has always bothered me is the flat windshield. As a little kid I had 7 small toy cars (we were not rich) one of which was a ’46 -’48 Continental, red rubber, aluminum painted trim. I never saw one in person until I was 12, then every school day. I still have the Hudson Hornet taxi with a meter that rolled around on the roof, a Ford van, and a 47 – 49 Studebaker Starlight Coupe, and a ’40’s Buick Sedanette, with the front fender that went all the way to the back fender, made out of some irridescent blue plastic which even years later smelled of that plastic, real ones of which could be found in my neighborhood, except the taxi meter on the roof of the Hudson. They do not take as much room to store as the real thing. And, acquired much later, a ’54 Corvette 1/24 model, two ’93 Allante models, one plain, one with decals like an Indianapolis pace car. A 1/24th scale 1950 Studebaker, given or sold, I don’t know which, by the dealer when my father bought the Studebaker, when I was 9, had a good windup motor, alas, is gone.
If this car was originally in Henderson, Nevada in 1941 and spent a few years around that area it would be wise to check it out with a Geiger counter.
Hence the oddly-patterned paint fail.
Regrets? I still dream about the 1936 Chevrolet Master Deluxe 4 door sedan I bought for $100 in college in 1968. Plenty of surface rust, but no body damage and good glass. Original interior in good shape, no tears or stains, even the headliner. Ran, drove, and stopped, but not inspected or licensed. Sold it to pay college expenses for what I paid for it. I dream that I still own it, tucked away in a garage somewhere…
My favoite aunt had that model, she sold it in 1954 and bought a used ’51. I rode in it from birth in ’41 until she sold it. It was solid when sold, orginally was the metalic brown, Chevy had one metalic color/year in the late 30’s on the Master Deluxe. At the time of sale it had been repainted, but not very well, and just plain brown. A college student bought it, and drove it from Hartford to NYC the next day. Manual choke and throttle on the dash, three on a long thin lever on the floor, but crank vent windows, front and rear. Had the starter crank on the back seat floor, “just in case”, but never saw it used.
I feel your pain. Most of us had something similar….mine a ’47 Chev Fleetline Aerosedan I bought for $60 in 1964. Good college car, but alas it threw a rod after a few years. Guess I learned a few things about maintaining cars.
Love this Lincoln….beautiful car.
On that 36 Chevy, I replaced the leaky fuel pump using just a screw driver. So simple. And I replaced the muffler and the rusted exhaust pipe with parts ordered from J.C. Whitney. Easy. The thing I couldn’t fix was the knee action suspension, which leaked fluid down over the front wheels. That didn’t help the brakes do their job. Rebuild kits are available now, but I don’t know if they were back then. With little prospects of getting the car past state inspection and road worthy, my parents persuaded me to sell it. Reluctantly, I did.
Is it just me or does anyone else find a 1941 model with no running boards at all, just a shiny metal strip running along the bottom to be not OEM?
None of the ’41 Lincolns or Chryslers had exposed running boards, the Caddys mostly had “concealed” running boards by making the door bottoms extend outwards over the running boards. Lesser cars, like Dodge still had them. It was a transition year for things like that.
Yes, I can picture the Caddy now – But looking at online images of the 1941 Lincoln SEDAN I see them with the “concealed” running boards too – it’s only the coupes that show consistently w/o running boards – BUT one thing I DO see on EVERY 1941 Lincoln Continental Coupe, whether a convertible or the Zephyr, etc.?
Rear wheel fender skirts.
Sooo, where are those for this car?
I find a dignified beauty with this car, and I would feel proud to own and drive it. Though I hadn’t thought of the possibility that it might be radio-active. To peter howe: there are worse, more sucky things, than getting old (for instance, not living long enough to do so). 51 is so far back in my rear-view mirror, that I no longer think much about being that age. I still own and play all the many records I bought during the 1940s and 1950s — but I lost interest quickly in the 1960s; besides, I couldn’t buy new 78s any longer. So now I listen to stuff that nobody else remembers. If there is a “sucky” aspect, it is in being alone, in visiting your friends’ graves because none of them are alive now, in hearing nothing on the radio or watching nothing on television that remotely relates to you — to be terminally-obsolete. That is one joy in coming here — where the cars I remember are valued and loved, not culturally discarded as “old” or simply displayed in museums.
You’re not obsolete – You’re rare, SUNDAY DRIVER!!!
To Edward Sel: So, I’m “rare”; am I? I guess that’s ONE way to look at it. But I drive EVERY DAY of the week — not just on Sundays (smile). My older sister still does well, at just shy of Dick Van Dyke’s age. And my very much younger brother, still caught in the last of his seventies, is as wild as ever (almost — his wife and daughters have mellowed him out somewhat… maybe).
Well, as I recall, “Sunday Driver!” is what guys would yell at slow(er) drivers as they passed them, (way back when) and I’m pretty sure you know this, but for others –
>>>The phrase “Sunday driver” is a commonly used idiom that refers to someone who drives slowly and cautiously, often causing frustration for other drivers on the road. While this phrase may seem like a modern-day expression, it actually has its roots in early 20th century America.
During this time period, cars were becoming more common on the roads, but not everyone was comfortable with driving them. Many people only drove their cars on weekends or special occasions, such as Sunday drives. These drivers were often inexperienced and lacked confidence behind the wheel, leading them to drive at slower speeds than other motorists.
As car ownership continued to grow throughout the 20th century, so did frustration towards these slow-moving drivers. The term “Sunday driver” became popularized as a way to describe these cautious motorists who would take leisurely drives on weekends. <<<
So I was kidding you a bit, but also you might enjoy a book I just finished recently called, "The Last Convertible" about your generation which you can look up on "the Google" and might enjoy.
My Dad would cuss at them and call them a “timid soul”. He, frankly, was a far too aggressive driver.
IMO the shape up to the A pillar is nice, then from the A pillar back the style clashes, the front half is rounded, then it all goes square. Not my cup of tea. But for me the Lincoln Zephyr is all style.
That’s why I prefer the cabriolet; it meshes better with the lower body. Even though you have an unbelievable blind spot, the added “heft” is more proportionally appropriate, in my opinion.
To Edward Sel: Thank you for explaining — but I already understood the reference. I don’t garner speeding tickets, but neither do I delay an entire line of traffic. But your account made me smile, because I vividly remember a 1953 drive through Vermont, where the speed limit was 40, but we were all doing about 23 in a line behind a green 1949 Pontiac. One by one, as opportunity presented, we passed this slow-moving four-year-old car — even a 1940 Oldsmobile whizzing by. And when I got to pass, I saw a “little old lady” driver (probably younger, actually, than I am now), with her chin jutted forward, and her head so low in the window, that she clearly had trouble in seeing out over the hood. That was the problem with post war cars: if you were short from the hips to the neck, you couldn’t SEE, unless you put a Manhattan telephone directory under you! I find that few people in my generation are particularly slow drivers — it’s not the way that it was 70 years ago — the ones who concern me, are the 90+ drivers who are LEADFOOTS and go well OVER the speed-limit!
“Get A HORSE!”
I was thinking the same thing. “Where are the skirts.” Then I looked closer at the pictures.
Don’t know why but they show most of the pictures without the skirts. There is one picture that shows the car with the right side skirt on. There is also one or two pictures that show the skirts off of the car and sitting next to a wall.
I do wonder about the seats being original. They almost look too perfect.
Needless to say this car has gotten everyone’s attention.
Phil De Graves –
Finally a rational car-centric response beyond arm wrestling with Grandpa (Smile) – you must have transitioned to the original “commerce: FB listing to see the “what is”.
I also live in Southern Nevada, so, presumably they have the skirts set aside and they will be included with the sale. Frankly I have spent WAY too much time in buttressing guys who self-identify as “obsolete” while actively denying anything that might be related to the denial of same.
Harry is a sick dude playing a sick game, which is probably why everyone around him is dead, and HArry “NOW” attests to his daily activeness.
Tell it to your KIDS, Harry – I was just having a bit of fun with you, not wanting to engage in a conversational tit-for-tat whereby you were negating, point -by -point, why my JOKE didn’t – and COULDN’T apply to you – while you still tried to DUMP the image of your visiting the GRAVEYARD of those you HAGGED to death on those of us who simply like well-designed cars.
Your family is IRRELEVANT Harry, and yes, you are obsolete – but only because of your OBSTINANCE and “Conversation as Competition.” YOU are a 78 RPM, but only because of your CONTENT.
Get A HORSE.
I have the same disease but I’m poor, live in apartments and quite often have to part with many things I’d keep forever otherwise. I had a collection of 1/18 scale die-cast cars. Over 500 of them. I finally had to sell most of them as I just didn’t have the room and couldn’t display them. Just boxes & boxes in storage. I sold everything but the Cadillacs, Lincolns, Imperials & some defunct brands such as Hudson, Studebaker, Packard, DeSoto. Of course with GM defuncting Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn & Hummer, & Ford getting rid of Mercury, Chrysler getting rid of Plymouth, I’ll probably have to add moee….. eventually. A gentleman in Vegas lost his collection in a fire so he replaced a lot with mine. Then of course there are the real cars had to depart with in my divorce.
I grew up on a small farm in NJ with about 10 outbuildings & my father growing up in the depression never threw out anything. I inherited it from him.
Your dad, as did many of our folks, grew up in a time when an onion and butter sandwich was a feast yet you gave something of great value to you to someone that had lost all.That speaks volumes of you.
Your dad mentored you well in that respect.
Good for you!
To Edward Sel: sorry that I offended you. I am Autistic — and one thing THAT means is, I often cannot tell when someone is joking. But the rest of your castigations were rather cruel, unless I again misunderstood. I do have one friend on the other side of the country who might have the beginnings of dementia — she is forgetful lately — I need to telephone her to-day: it’s her 94th birthday. She retired recently, after a more than 55-year career, because of memory problems. I am sorry if I upset anyone. My only defence is, Autistic people take words LITERALLY, because irony and sarcasm are lost on us. So, please forgive me if I don’t “get” it sometimes. It don’t TRY to annoy people. And what I text reflects how I am reacting in that moment. I make no claim to being correct. By the way (I don’t blame you, because I had not told you), but I am HARRISON; I utterly DESPISE being called, “Harry”! As far as I know, I never “hagged” anyone to death, and I was not playing a game. I have lost so many friends to death, simply as a function of my age: had I died earlier, then they would have lost me. At least, for me, as time goes on, I am always caught off-guard by the losses, and I mourn them. Of those whose records I have, only Ray Anthony (age 103) is still with us. Feeling “obsolete” referred to what I hear on the radio and in stores where I shop. The music I loved in my younger years is GONE, replaced by something I don’t recognise. Perhaps, Edward Sel, you are younger than I am, and this has not hit you yet. I’m still getting used to it — and my expressing that is not intended as a “game” (“sick” or otherwise). I’m GRATEFUL that my “elderly” siblings are still living and well: that was not intended to offend anyone. Edward Sel, your attack caught me totally off-guard, because I never sensed what must have been your increasing annoyance. I’m sorry.
To Angel_Cadillac_Diva: What a beautiful and generous thing you did! I wish I knew you personally, because you are very worth knowing. I’m poor, also, not that it matters. Thank you for being the person that you are, and your Dad for raising you with that appreciation. Kudos!