ABOVE: The 1958 Lincoln Continental Mark III “Cool Continental”

Originally published in the September-October 2005 (#266) issue of Lincoln & Continental Comments magazine.

WEBMASTER NOTE:  This is only an excerpt of the full article found in the issue.

Some of the greatest Lincoln customs (he calls them ‘“Kustoms”) of all time have been created by John D’Agostino, who was bom in Pittsburgh, California, and now resides in Discovery Bay, California. John D’Agostino has built legendary custom Lincolns, plus famous customs of many other makes. His childhood hometown of Pittsburgh provided his earliest inspirations because it was near Antioch, where cars built by Barris, Bailon, Winfield and others showed up at the local Hazel’s and Panther drive-ins through the fifties and sixties.

[This] car was a Mark III two-door named Cool Continental. It was customized by Acme Custom Cars in Antioch. Darryl Hollenbeck painted it in shades of a custom mix of DuPont Ice Blue Pearl. Bob Divine stitched the hand crafted white and blue interior. As is so characteristic of John, the car retains most of the 1958 Lincoln Continental styling cues including the wild front bumper treatment, quad headlights, and sculpturing around the front wheels, but he turned the reverse slanting rear window into a turtleback window.

ABOVE: The grill is a new interpretation of 1940-41.  The total effects is F-117A Stealth Fighter.

From Carolyn Burke, Lincoln-Mercury Public Relations
Introduction by Jim Farrell.
Originally published in the May-June 1996 (#210) issue of Lincoln & Continental Comments magazine.

Prologue:  The Green Hornet Rides Again.

Last year, sources with ties to Ford’s Design Center reported that the aero/elliptical look of current Ford products was about spent and that new styling directions were on the horizon. What are future Lincolns going to look like? Planes are still one of the major influences on car design. The latest look in airplane design is the Stealth. Stylists at Ford’s Design Center describe their translation of the stealth look as “new edge” design.

The newest Lincoln concept car is the 1996 Sentinel. It was introduced to the public January 8, 1996, at the Detroit Auto Show. From its angular lines, it appears to have been heavily influenced by the F-117A Stealth fighter. To old car enthusiasts, the Sentinel may also evoke memories of “Black Beauty”, the modified 1937 Lincoln Zephyr used by the Green Hornet in the 1940 movie of the same name.

In March, 1996, after the Sentinel was shown at several east coast auto shows, the color was changed from black to charcoal gray. The stylists apparently felt that in black, the Sentinel looked too sinister. In present form, the Sentinel is a fiberglass “workout”. It has no drivetrain and no interior except for a steering wheel, the tops of the seats and the top of the dash. The doors, hood and trunk do not open. It is, however, designed to have suicide doors, (stylists call them “French doors”) Currently a new 7/8 size Sentinel is being built for display at the Pebble Beach Concours. The stylists also apparently felt that the sizing of the Sentinel as originally designed was too big. The new 7/8 Sentinel will be a fully operational vehicle. It will be built on a Jaguar platform and it will have “French doors” like the 1961-69 Lincoln Continentals.

A word of caution; just because a particular look is being considered for one of the Ford products in our future, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will come to pass.

Public reaction to the Lincoln Sentinel will be gauged carefully and in a couple of years, when we see the new Lincoln look —whatever it is—we’ll then know if Ford’s stylists have been able to translate the Stealth look into something the car buying public will take to. Jim Farrell.

The Lincoln Sentinel, a full-size, four-door, rear-wheel-drive luxury concept car, embodies what may be the wave of the future in automotive design.

Ford’s latest example of New Edge design, Sentinel makes its world debut at the 1996 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Sentinel blends classic Lincoln styling themes with the Ford-inspired New Edge approach.

The blade fenders and high belt line with minimal chrome trim (above) harken back to design themes Lincoln used in the Sixties.

Sentinel retains the recognizable elements of traditional Lincoln exterior styling, such as classic proportions, a crisp silhouette, simple, unadorned body sides and high, linear belt lines. But New Edge’s “shape-upon-shape” technique results in edge highlights where curved planes intersect.

“The result is a strong, almost brutal shape that suggests strength,” said Jack Telnak, vice president, Corporate Design. “In this way, form contains function. The skin is wrapped tightly over the mechanicals, almost like shrink-wrap. The result is not only improved aerodynamics, but also improved fuel economy as well as head-turning styling,” Telnack said.

New Edge is not a new concept for Ford. The GT90 sports car, which was introduced last year, is one of the first applications of Edge design in a car seen by the public.

“The GT90 captured the feel of the original GT40, but with a distinct difference,” Telnack said. “It is a contemporary iteration that uses styling cues from the ‘60s in a whole new way—a three-dimensional ‘90s interpretation.

“So, New Edge is not a retro style. It is a true forward application, but one that pays homage to the past. New Edge is but one of several emerging design concepts. It is a harbinger of things to come, but it is not the only path.

“Like the breadth of our car and truck lines, we have a similar breadth in our design philosophies. There are other equally exciting design avenues we are pursuing,” said Telnack.

Lincoln enthusiasts will recognize a new interpretation of a 1940s-style Continental grill set into the Sentinel’s metallic black exterior. The clean side profile, blade fenders and high belt line with minimal chrome trim are typical Lincoln design themes that are reminiscent of early 1960s Lincolns and still are clearly visible in today’s Town Car.

Flush glass all around and compact, vertically stacked projector headlamps add to the uncluttered look of the exterior. The placement of the flush-to-the-body, massive, 20-inch wheels ensures a minimum of body overhang and adds to Sentinel’s clean lines. The car’s overall length of 218 inches is just one inch shorter than a 1996 Lincoln Town Car.

“The Lincoln Sentinel is an exploratory look at keeping Lincoln’s traditional styling themes fresh for future generations,” said Claude Lobo, Ford’s director of Advanced Design.

“But the Sentinel also is helping us to identify important issues in auto design, such as determining the benefits of a New Edge approach. Improved road holding and interior space are two more areas that may benefit from this kind of design approach in the future,” Lobo said.

The rear treatment is completely new. While some o f the styling cues go back to classic Lincoln Continentals, the entire car breaks new ground in automotive styling.

ABOVE: Dated August 9, 1940, this 1941 Lincoln V-12 engine is illustrative of the powerplant in the author’s Continental Coupe.  Photo courtesy of Continental Comments # 95.

By Dr. Charles Burton.  Submitted by Richard Koop
Originally published in the May-June 2020  (# 354) issue of Lincoln & Continental Comments magazine.

Recently I had a near-catastrophic occurrence with my 1948 Mercury Convertible’s fuel system, which is very similar to my 1941 Lincoln Continental fuel system. One afternoon, I drove my car hard up the mile-long road to our home and parked it in the garage attached to the house. The next morning, my son come over for coffee, and after raising the garage door and coming into the kitchen, he said: “there is gasoline on the floor in the garage.” My reply was that “all old cars smelled after being driven.” He said, “no,” I went and looked, and there was a large puddle of gasoline that had flowed from the engine area out from under the car. There was a large freezer less than four feet from the pool. I opened the other garage door and turned on a fan to blow the fumes out of the garage. I then used paper towels to absorb the gas that was not under the car. Looking under the car, I did not see any gas dripping. I called my expert old car mechanic, and we agreed a carburetor leak would not have produced such a large amount of gas overnight. Looking in the engine compartment, there did not seem to be any evidence of a leak.

Because of the pooled gas under the car, the Mercury had to be moved outside. Using a heavy rope attached to my truck, I pulled it out into the driveway. Since the driveway is up a hill out of the garage and with the front of the car pointed downhill, gas started dripping from around the engine oil pan onto the pavement. I put a container under the engine and cleaned up the garage puddle. inspection under the car revealed gas coming from the oil pan, where the oil tube attached. The gas was floating on top of the oil in the pan. The Mercury’s fuel pump is attached to the oil filler tube. It was clear that the rubber diaphragm inside the pump developed a tear. The auxiliary electric fuel pump had helped force gas into the oil filler tube and then into the engine. I have used non-ethanol gasoline since I’ve owned the car, but the previous owner had used ethanol gas, which is destructive to older rubber products. Our Lincoln’s stock V-12s don’t have an oil stick, and gasoline in the crankcase cannot leak out. However, some owners have converted their cars to Ford V-8s, so this is a genuine possibility for them.

My expert mechanic had an engine explode and burn. A similar scenario that caused that disaster had also happened in my Mercury. A new mechanical fuel pump should be rebuilt with ethanol-resistant components. You may reduce your chances of a catastrophe by using only the electric fuel pump and bypassing the original one. If you continue to use the mechanical pump, replace it if you have used ethanol gasoline. Turn off the auxiliary electric fuel pump when not needed, and pray this will not happen to you and your car. I am blessed I did not lose two vehicles and my home.

Dr. Burton is a retired 83-year-old surgeon from Macon, Ga. who practiced for 40 years. The 1941 Lincoln Continental was his dream and he purchased it in the 1970s from the original owner’s family.

ABOVE: A 1947 Mercury Convertible Coupe, similar to the author’s 1948 model.  From the Old Car Manual Project.

ABOVE: The Bloodworth Massacre.  The crusher was brought right to the property.  Of the 230 plus doomed cars, this one is a circa 1947 Lincoln five-passenger coupe.

Written by Charles “Murph” Schneider of Roswell, Georgia.
Originally published in the November-December 2004  (# 261) issue of Lincoln & Continental Comments magazine.

It took about 35 years for over 230 Lincolns and Packards (and parts) to be accumulated. But it took only a short time for all these cars and parts to be loaded on a slow boat to China. Right now, as I write this, many are coming back in containers full of barnyard fence posts, gates, barbeque grills, brake rotors and calipers, fenders, axles, and ad infinitum. The Lincoln genes still exist in the molecules of many new steel products stamped “Made in China”.

Several years ago, a story was in Continental Comments showing Bennie Bloodworth’s Lincolns resting on his 67 acres in Lutherville, Georgia, which is 60 miles south of Atlanta. Now they are all gone. Many of our fellow members’ cars are running and showing with parts from Bennie’s land.

This past April, my wife Jan and I spent a week with Bennie to help him organize the “crushing” massacre of these cars. We actually wept to see a 1969 Mark III being reduced to 12 inches in height. (Rusty 30s and 40s Lincolns much less.)

Bennie ran ads in LZOC and LCOC publications and Hemmings for over a year offering rock bottom prices for parts and whole parts cars from $100 each to about $300 each. There were not many takers. Due to his health, Bennie had to sell his land. But it had to be cleared of all cars, parts, automobilia, by June 3, 2004, as a contingency of the sales contract. Now Bennie has one Lincoln, a 1941 Continental Cabriolet, totally restored, that he bought in 1957 as the second owner.