The Art of Aging Gracefully, the Ford Way
This past weekend's Fabulous Fords Forever show (Missed our coverage? Get caught up here and here) was a feast for the eyes, and today we bring you some of the older Fords featured at the show. If this is what aging gracefully looks like, then we'd like to be transformed into one of these vintage Ford beauties, pronto!
Falling in love with this 1940 Lincoln Continental? We did too. Owners Elliott and Linda Jones provided great insight into this vehicle...
This Cabriolet is the 24th Continental produced in 1940 when 350 Cabriolets and 54 Coupes were extensively hand-built including hand-hammered body panels. The sleek profile was created by making it 3" lower and the hood 7" longer than the Lincoln Zephyr.
Its trademark is the short trunk with the externally mounted covered spare tire. Edsel Ford had the prototype built for his special long, low and rakis one-off personal convertible for his Florida vacation in 1938.
This car has been in the Owner's family since 1957 and was owned by his sister-in-law's Uncle from Danville, PA. The Owner has personally restored the car to original specs, doing everything except chrome and upholstery. The restoration was completed in 2003. What you see is a car exactly as it left the factory in December 1939.The original base price for this car, with a 292 V12 engine and a 3 speed manual transmission, was $2,916.
This 1932 Ford 3W Deluxe Coupe has my absolute favorite story of the show. Owned by John and Debby Farrar, John purchased the car in 1953 for $135 and pait it off at $5 a week.
He was too young to drive, but worked on it with his dad, then later drove it on high school dates and camping trips. Imagine being a little kid and already owning the vintage car of your dreams... and having a dad cool that was cool enough to help you do so!
This is one of 22, 416 Deluxe Coupe Model 18's (V8 versions) out of 223,763 V8's built in 1932. The "Baby Lincoln" body with the legendary grille was designed by Edsel Ford and build by Murray.
Colors are original Winterleaf Brown, dark, black fenders, and Tacoma Cream pin stripe and wheels.
It is equipped with a built-in cigarette lighter, ash receiver, glove box, and optional rumble seat and roll-down rear window.
This early serial number 116 was manufactured within the first few days.
Ford startled the world with his first low priced V8, designed secretly by Henry Ford and hand-picked engineers. This car started the hot rod craze.
Everywhere we looked, fabulous early Fords were to be found. Special thanks to the owners of these fine Fords for their stewardship of these graceful beauties, and their willingness to share their passion and stories with us!