The Mark III was a personal luxury car in the style of the day built from 1969 to 1971. It was based on the fifth generation thunderbird and designed to compete with the Eldorado. It had a 365 HP 460 CID engine. This green Lincoln listed on craigslist in Avondale, Arizona sure cleaned up nice. With an asking of $5,650 it sure seems more reasonable than most listings and the detailed description is a refreshing change. It was found in a barn in Nebraska where it had sat for 10 years with only about 82,000 miles . The seller has carefully brought this barge back to life and describes every fault in detail. Most things work except for all but one of the power windows.
The interior, while not in today’s taste, appears to be in impeccable condition. I’m thinking those seats can’t be very comfortable. The dash is in great shape and the gauges work except for the clock.
It still looks a little dusty under the hood around that 460, but everything appears complete and original.
The paint appears to also be in amazing condition. The car was repainted from gold to this, uh, interesting shade of green in the 1970s or perhaps the ’80s.
This Mark lll looks like a pretty well sorted car and a reasonable price. If you can live with the color, wouldn’t it make a great driver? If it’s as nice as described, it’s almost worth the price just for reliable transportation. Some would bag it and add custom wheels, but I’m thinking it would be nice just as it is. I look forward to seeing what you might do with it and what flaws you can spot beyond those described in the listing.
Fly
Asking price now $5200.00
I think its a decent buy and the seller has done an excellent job of describing the car.
If only I had the funds, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Hey, I have a real nice fresh built 383 stroker to trade. Interested? HMU!
I love it! It may be A Land Yacht Me Maties! But yarghhh It Rides Mighty Comfortable!!!
I will never forget my very first driving impression of of a friends new Mark III. He insisted that I would love it. Even though he knew I drove a 1970 Porsche 911. It had all the good driving characteristics of a sponge rubber pillow. It scared me just turning a corner. But, I HAD been spoiled.
This is a great find and a great buy. Wish I didn’t have so many projects.
Buy it now,while gas is still cheap.
I don’t want it,but I’ve always liked the look of
these.
I would bag it but leave it otherwise original.
Since I complain about poorly written ads with blurry pictures, I should praise the seller for the detailed description and high quality photos. I’m sure it took him more time to compose the ad but it will also save him time from not having to answer the same questions over and over.
I love the color and this model, too. Seems like a very fair price.
Love the color, and it’s a great deal in today’s market.
Sent the seller a compliment. I’m so tired of ads that say “Nice car, Must see.” with no pics and on description that I have to admire someone who actually took the time to share so much info. A darn fine example of a ‘car guy’ that I’d probably enjoy having a beer or two with while I gingerly take that lovely beast off his hands.
Beautiful Mark lll ,great example of a vintage personal luxury car of the era. Very fair price.
Looks to be complete and in great shape. Stock these cars ride like a giant marshmallow but do hold the road. A guy who comes to the local cruise nights has a triple black version and although it looks stock drives like a 5,000lb slot car, surprised the beck out of me expecting to feel like I’m sitting on my couch, it felt more like my ’89 Tbird set up for road racing. Over the winter he’s converting it to fuel injection, I’ll get a picture in a few weeks.
My personal opinion is I hope the current owner doesn’t paint the back of the trunk lid white! I’m not a fan of that. The seats may still be comfortable as long as the guy who did the upholstery did a nice job, the new inserts don’t look appealing but they scream 70’s. I’d make everything right, get all systems working properly and drive it everywhere.
I love it.
The issue with the clock is probably related to how the mechanisms of the time worked.
The time-keeping section was in other cars (assumed to be the same here) simply a mechanical device. The spring was wound when it got to a low-power state by an electric motor. That was triggered and energized by contacts which resembled ignition points. As some time during the life of the car, those points might fail to pass electricity via being carbonized, and no winding would occur. The other option which happened was the opposite failure mode: Points would weld together and the winding motor would not shut off after energizing the clock’s spring. Those could result in smoke being let out of the affected wiring, hopefully protected by a fuse letting go before things got too toasty.
Anyhow, the ad has been pulled, so someone must have found the car to be irresistible.
Not only could I live with the color, I really like the color! It’s very different, even for this era car.
I agree , cool color, cool car….
Having done some work on one of these once, i was a bit amazed by FoMoCo’s tech savvy back then re a couple features i hadn’t earlier known were available on a 60s car: Anti-lock rear brakes, controlled by a massive sortof second Booster setup under and just fwd of the front passenger’s footwell and an odd sensor on the pinion of the Differential. 2nd was the kewl-ish fiber-optic-fed taillight/turn-signal witness jewels just above the rear window’s upper interior headliner moulding. So you could check to be sure your rear lights were functioning from the rear-view mirror!! Neato cars, yet-another example of the ‘good ol days’…
Had a ’69 Mark III in the late 1980s and loved it ! It was my daily driver for 4 years when gas was cheap . . .
There are a few major rust concerns with these cars – decklid lip, around window edges under the vinyl roof, rear quarters, and one important place under the car just before the rear wheel opening where 2 or 3 things come together at a boxed joint. Oh, and the back bumper. I paid $800 for a really good one about 20 years ago, probably paid way too much but they are scarce and not cheap when you can find one. They tended to collect dirt and the end parts would rust through. I replaced mine; what a bear that was to do. I’d love to have another one of these if I could find one that was truly rust free top to bottom. BTW the 69 is the one with the strongest engine; in 70 and 71 the power dropped, and rather than keep lowering the HP number FoMoCo just started it out at the ’71’s expected rating. The 69’s engines were supposedly blueprinted, or at lease selected as the best of the best coming down the line.