This sure made my day....
Ever since I have had access to the the world wide interweb, about once every 6-8 years I would do a search in an attempt to find the 1962 Lincoln Continental Coupe that I got from it's builder.
This is the only one of it's kind in existence.
A classic and antique car restorer, Tommy Means, with an amazing set of skills was working for Atlantic Towing in the auto body shop where I drove tow trucks in my late teens.
Tommy built this car by cutting the whole thing in half between the front and rear doors. He then cut it again behind the rear doors and scrapped the whole rear passenger area except for part of the roof sheet metal from which he cut a couple pieces to weld to the front and rear of the roof to bring the non-matching sections together. He bought the remaining back up forward to meet the front. Then he spent many hours gas welding the 2 sections of the car together to form what became the only true 2 door Lincoln Coupe in the early 1960's. It wound up 4 inches shorter than a 1962 Corvette!. He hand formed the roof to somewhat mimic the shape of the 1957 Lincoln Mark II roof line. Still, much shorter than the Mark II roof which house a back seat. This car had no rear passenger area and the distance on the roof from the windshield to the rear window was not much over 2 feet. I asked Tommy if he had any concerns about his gas welds coming apart. He said not a chance and and that when he was done the seams would be stronger than the rest of the car. He removed the Lincoln bench seat and replaced it with a white leather seat out of a 1971 Mercury Marquis. Tommy also removed the chrome pointed ridges that ran the length of the car along the top of the fenders, doors, and rear quarters and he filled in making a solid peaked ridge that would be painted the same as the rest of the car. He also removed the front grille and bumper and replaced with the grille work from a 1961 Lincoln Continental which strongly resembled the Ford Thunderbirds of that era.
Fast forward.... after untold hours....The car was finished.
At the time I had 3 Austin Healey 3000 Mark III's. I had bought them all at a salvage auction. Two of them were wrecks I had acquired to make one good one with some body parts from the other. Tommy expressed a strong interest in my white with red leather gut 1967 3000 Mk III. He offered me an even swap for his freshly minted one of a kind Lincoln. Since I already had a real good Mark III 3000 to drive, and offered a unique car that needed no work to be enjoyed, I accepted the offer.
I don't recall who I eventually sold the Lincoln to and I wondered many times over the next 45 plus years what became of it.
This morning I did a google image search.... a search that coughed up nothing for me 8 years ago except a couple photoshopped what if type pictures. This time I found the car...!!!
It has been repainted a light tan golden metallic period correct color. I found it first in Barrett-Jackson 2012 auction records with photos and again with it's present owner who has it for sale.
The true history of this car was never properly passed down through the years.
Barrett Jackson offered it as seen here:
Lot #713 - Believed to have been built by Derham Body Co. Derham Body Co. was a high quality custom coach builder who built bodies for cars including Duesenberg, Packard and Cadillac. Derham survived through the 1960s building custom bodies for various firms. In 1962 it built two prototype coupes on the Lincoln Continental chassis. The wheelbase of the original 4 door Continental has been drastically shortened by over 2' to just 98", 4" shorter than a 1962 Corvette, and made into a unique 2-seat coupe. It has been appropriately carefully preserved over the last half century.
How's that for embellishment.!.?.!.?
This morning I also phoned the present owner, shared the true history with him and secured his permission to use the photographs here.
Finally as my fingers are getting sore,
Here are some pictures.
Enjoy,
Gil
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Now that's a great story, and can't believe you found it after so many years! Any idea what it brought at Barrett-Jackson?
So........
When does it arrive back in your driveway!
crazydoug
Good car! I once had a neighbour with a 1964 convertible (not shortened, though) and he once let me drive it. What a great land yacht!
That's really quite a great story Gil - I can see why it brings back the memories after so many years.
that was a very interesting read Gil, thanks for sharing it with us. I think that guy did an incredibly slick job on that, what skills he must have had ! I can't even imagine all the modifications that went into that build.
This is a very cool story Gil.
What a “player” you were cruising around in this one. 🤠
Pure style!
Gil ... my minds eye can definitely see you behind the wheel of this uniquely classy vehicle!
Love those Lincolns!
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