I love Lincolns, really big Lincolns, which, of course, is most of them. I grew up with Lincolns in the driveway. I learned to drive in a giant 1975 Continental. My high school dream car was a suicide door Lincoln Convertible. Based on this pattern, it would only a matter of time before I would own one.

In the summer of 1989, I was driving along Pleasant Valley Blvd in Altoona, PA, when this 1969 Mark III sitting in back of a small car lot caught my eye. Always on the lookout for a "bargain," I stopped in to ask the usual questions. Turns out, it was the lot owner's "project" that got put aside in favor of something else. Wanting to get rid of it, he parked it on his lot to see what happened.

I was not able to test drive the car because it had "starter problem," as it was described to me. Of course, it would have been a windy test drive because the passenger door window glass was laying in the trunk. He was asking $800 for the 77k original mile car. I took a chance and offered him $600, and signed the paperwork on August 29, 1989. Because of the above mentioned "starter problem," I had it towed home, much to my first wife's surprise, and I don't mean that in a "Gee, what a nice surprise !" kind of way.

Once the starter problem was resolved, the car actually did run, but not very well. The front brakes made some really scary noises on application, the exhaust leaked and the windshield wipers didn't work. The very small amount of air that came from the A/C was always hot and rear windows didn't move even though you could hear the motors turn. On the bright side, the interior was complete and in pretty decent shape, the basic electrical accessories all worked, the engine didn't smoke, there was only minor rust on the undercarriage, and once washed and waxed, the paint did have a nice shine.

One by one, I would address each issue as funding, time, and my limited knowledge permitted (this was long before I was in the business of fixing cars). Some things were easy, like the starter problem (the wires on the solenoid were reversed - an easy fix). Others were a little more involved, like the running issue, (I bought a carburetor from a salvage yard and rebuilt it in my shed). Still others required a little more effort, like the windows (the passenger door glass had to be glued into the track, while the rear motors required an "engineered" fix that took me a while to accomplish).

The windshield wipers were especially challenging. Ford's design incorporated a cable activated HYDRAULIC windshield wiper motor. Power for this unit came from the power steering pump, which, itself, was mounted on the crankshaft (i.e. not belt driven). This system actually works quite well . . . until you need parts, which I did. I would quickly discover that parts for the hydraulic motor and crank-mounted pump were available, but the cable that controls the wiper motor was not, (after many hours of salvage yard searching, I finally found one).

I would drive this project car for 4 years, accumulating 15k miles all while continuing to fix what I could with my limited knowledge. After all the work, I had a really great driver that had lots of power, great big comfy seats, a great ride quality, and 17 mpg on the highway (not bad for a 4900 lb car with only 3 gears). It was never anywhere near "showroom condition" during my ownership. But, I just really liked driving the car.

Eventually, the bigger issues would catch up with me, like the oil-fouled spark plugs, increasing amount of rust, (especially in back), and a deteriorating interior. I decided it needed more work than I was capable of providing at the time, and traded it in on April 12, 1993 on a really nice 1987 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe . . .