Like your favorite pair of old shoes – the ones that you’ve had forever and have more wrinkles than they should and your spouse won’t let you wear them in public – that’s sort of the situation with this 1979 Lincoln Mark V Bill Blass Edition. The seller has this well-worn designer edition luxury car listed here on eBay in Yucaipa, California, there is no reserve, and the bid is $2,620.
This car looks almost perfect if you whip through the first few photos fairly quickly, but then reality sets in when you see the detailed photos, and then all bets are off. Restoring this car would not be inexpensive but Hagerty is at $25,600 for a #2 excellent condition car so maybe it’s possible. They’re at $5,400 for a #4 fair condition car and that’s maybe where this one is, at the most.
There were several Designer edition Lincoln Mark Vs made from 1977 to 1979 including Pucci, Givenchy, Cartier, and Bill Blass as seen here. This car appears to have the optional full vinyl roof rather than the half-vinyl carriage roof. The 1979 Bill Blass editions all came in this color combination with white over midnight blue and a padded vinyl top, either half-top or full top. This car would sure stand out today among the 90% of silver, white, or black SUVs on the roads.
Here’s where your worn-out favorite pair of shoes theme comes in, those white leather seats have seen better days, sadly. They could probably be cleaned and dyed to look great in photos as you flip this car to the next buyer…, but those buckles on the ends of the faded blue straps appear to be rusty. The dash is also cracked about as much as any dash could be. The back seat looks good but the headliner is toast and it looks like rust is appearing up there, too. On the flip side, the underside looks solid so there’s that.
The engine should be Ford’s 400 cubic-inch V8 which sadly was as low as your worn-out shoes at a mere 160 horsepower. This one starts and runs well but the seller says that it’s due for general maintenance. Any thoughts on this special edition? Is it worth restoring or would you drive it as is?
Any Ford Duraspark system is bound to disappoint sooner or later – and why does the coil wire look like a tapeworm?
Good job Scotty. These Marks in good shape aren’t very expensive, so restoration probably isn’t a viable course of action. Maybe this one could have some upgrades, otherwise it would work as a cruiser or even a Cars & Coffee participant. For sure you won’t see yourself coming and going.
Sharp car Scotty, my manager had one just like it back in 1983. It was already going in for it’s first repaint after four years of Toronto’s winters.
From the ebay ad:
“Any questions or concerns? My name is John, please give me a call 702-683-6862 pacific time.”
What time other than pacific time would I call John? (He is located in California).
So many people in the East and Central time zones have no clue that there are other time zones. I work with quite a few. It’s so fun to get calls and meeting notices for 6 A.M. when it’s 9 A.M. for them.
Don’t even get me started about the difference between Standard and Daylight time. I’m in AZ where we don’t Fall back or Spring forward. No need for an extra hour of daylight when it’s 110 degrees.
End of rant
Before retirement, in my job in telephone customer service for an insurance company I was always aware of time-zones when making any out-bound calls. When someone called in and gave me their telephone number, for me to call them back, and they were near the border of a time-zone, I would ask them what time-zone they were in. It was hilarious to me when they did not know and replied with their current time. Imagine not even knowing what time-zone you lived in. LOL.
No restore, just go galore that’s what has been done before and what it was made for…sorry I’m no poet.
My dad bought one new and it was a beautiful head turning car.
Pays to buy a better one.
I had to look up who bill Blass was and wondering why Lincoln would make a car theme for him not sure how this one compares to jus a loaded mark V
My father was a Branch Manager for Ford Motor It had one of these for his company car.
That 400 c.i V-8 was a stone dog. That engine alone makes this a $2500 car. I’ve always wanted a Mark IV, but only with the big block 460. Preferably a 1972 or ’73.
Auction update: this one sold for $6,100!