And now, for a car that is a classic by any definition: this 1933 Lincoln KA is located in Winter Haven, Florida, and is listed for sale here on Hemmings for $12,000, negotiable. Many thanks to Boot for another great tip!
The Lincoln K-series was introduced in 1931 and was created to compete directly with the most luxurious automobiles on the American road: legendary marques like Cadillac, Packard, and Pierce-Arrow. Unfortunately, the beginning of the Great Depression was a less-than-ideal environment for a new line of luxury cars, and with a price tag of up to $3,200– around $64,000 in today’s dollars– cruising past the breadline in a shiny new Lincoln might have seemed a little gauche. This example was discovered in a citrus warehouse in Florida, where it had been parked by the original owner.
So, first the bad. The car is missing some items that are difficult to replace: these include three door handles, the greyhound radiator cap, and the right spare tire cover. On the bright side, everything on this car is difficult to replace, and yet here it is, mostly complete and in better shape than any 90-year-old neglected piece of metal has any right to be. The underside of the car looks better than most cars a quarter its age. Even the running boards may be salvageable. The interior seems to be complete, with all its gauges– though I would have loved to have seen the condition of the seats. The engine (a 6.3-liter V12) is present, the glass is flat… in all ways, it seems to be a solid candidate for a frame-off, meticulous restoration.
These cars were praised both for their looks and their engineering. The 110 on the speedometer isn’t just for show– the larger V12 Lincolns were among the few consumer vehicles of the day capable of hitting 100 mph. In this four-door we have an amazing piece of rolling history, ready to be returned to its former greatness. Carefully restored, this car would stand as a profound example of American manufacturing ability in the midst of what was, economically, our darkest hour. Welcome at any number of concours events, it would buy membership in a very exclusive club for its latest owner, just as it did for its first.
I was thinking that this car looked much earlier than 1939, per the headline…
I know exactly where this car is! It’s parked in the W. G. Rowe warehouse not
far from the Taco Bell I used to work at.
Heard a lot of stories about it being there and I guess they were true. I used
to talk to friends of mine who were
mechanics at the repair shop across the
street from my restaurant who knew of
the car’s existence and most of them
would’ve restomodded it had they gotten their hands on on it. I was told
by them that the owner parked it because there were no mechanics at
that time who knew how to service a
car like this. In Polk county, this car
would be considered to be exotic and
therefore unserviceable. This was true
of Packards as well. A friend of mine
who lived in Ft. Meade his entire life told
me how the whole town turned out to see a Packard 120 when it pulled in to
get gas. If it didn’t say Ford, Chevy, or
Chrysler on it, you couldn’t get service
on it.
This is a 34 Lincoln. I think it would make a beautiful street rod.
The linked ad says 33, but the hood sides say 34.
NO WAY! It deserves a proper restoration. Money shouldn’t be an object for this project!
Restomod? Rodded? NO NO NO!!!
This piece of aautomotive history MUST be saved. She deserves to be back on the road again
Had a 34 McLaughlin Buick, looked exactly like this one including dual side mounts but a straight 8. 39 looked more modern. Think it may be 34 also.
Restored it would be a beautiful car. But, like the dog that chases cars, what would you do with it if you caught it? $$$ to restore and probably not saleable for those $$$ afterwards. And, relative to inflation, most ’30’s and 40’s cars are dropping in value, and ’50’s cars are sure to follow. Sad. But on the other hand, $4 million for a Plymouth?
THis is a car to hang onto and maybe pass it to more generations of a family or maybe a REAL CLASSIC car museum.
A car like this will have a less uncertain future than, say, Grandad’s ’28 Buick that he lovingly restored because his Uncle Henry had one just like it when he was a kid. This was a beautiful, stylish, high-end machine in its day, and once it’s operable again it can be driven in modern traffic with few concerns. As I plunge headlong toward antiquity myself, I find myself thinking that a car like this, a real gem from the early decades of the automobile, would be a great retirement project. Not that I don’t have several lifetimes’ worth of accumulated projects already.
Yes, it would keep up with modern traffic at 70 mph, but would it stop? Some big 30’s cars did have assisted brakes, maybe Lincoln did, but given Henry Ford’s aversion to hydraulic brakes I wonder if this had mechanical brakes. Conversion to “juice” brakes would be period correct, though. It is a handsome car, granted, for its day, and deserves to be restored, but a labor of love, not for capital gain.
One of the photos in the Hemmings listing shows the power assist canister for the mechanical brakes.
This is a nice car.
Money isn’t the only thing to think about.
Believe it or not many people enjoy creating, problem solving and giving back.
The World will be just a little bit nicer because someone saved this from the crusher.
A few years ago, less than 10, I read a story in some car magazine about a guy who drove his ’34 big Buick 8, with overdrive, and modern tires, 80 mph for hour on end, in the Southwest where the speed limit was flexible, and remember the Buick Century in ’39 or so, was named that because it would do 100 mph. So if this Lincoln had a brake booster, big wheels, and lots of brake lining surface area, I bet it would stop!
Smaller headlights, aluminum heads, a ’34