Today’s group of Curbside Alleyside Classics have been a fixture downtown for some years, sitting catty-corner between an alley and a local body shop. I used to pass them regularly driving to work. Back in 2012, I finally broke down and parked. Yes, these photos have been aging in my computer for a while, but today they will finally get their ten minutes!
First up is this 1977 Continental Mark V Cartier Designer Edition. “Oh Tom, you are so hopelessly biased; of course a Lincoln gets the spotlight first!” Yes, ’tis true, but at least I’m upfront about it!
The Designer Series Lincoln started in 1976 with the swan-song Mark IV (1976 Givenchy CC here). Come 1977, the Mark V replaced it, but naturally the high-fashion couture Marks were front and center. Like the ’76, the ’77 Cartier featured dove-gray paint and interior with dark red pinstriping.
This one is actually in rather sound shape–with the exception of where the landau vinyl roof once sat. Moisture and vinyl tops do not mix. They mingle, they date, they get married, and then have a whole heap of rusty children! But at least the interior is still nice.
This one features Majestic velour, in oh-so-Broughamy floating-pillow style. Leather was also available.
Designer Marks usually came with the classic Turbine alloy wheels, so I am rather surprised to see the aftermarket wheels on this one. How can you improve on the Lincoln Turbine wheel? Ah well, that can be easily corrected.
Adjacent to the Mark was this 1967 Charger. A fastback, “personal luxury” version of the hardtop Coronet 500, the Charger was meant as a stylish coupe and featured bucket seats front and rear–at least in 1966. Starting in 1967 a bench was available, helping me pin down this one.
Here’s how they originally looked new, thanks to my 1/64 scale Mini CC Charger. A bit polarizing perhaps, but I like them (full-scale CC here).
You have to use your imagination, but this must have been a handsome example in its day. It appears to have been painted Turbine Bronze with a matching interior, with bench seat and column-mounted TorqueFlite.
And here’s another Mark. A Markchero! Or is that MarkVChero? Whatever it is, it sadly seems to have suffered an interior fire at some point in time. There was absolutely nothing left of the interior. Sad to see, as it appeared to have been in good condition before the blaze.
That spare tire is obscuring it, but the partition between the bed and the cab is still there, so a fair amount of metalworking must have been done. No fiberglass plug here. The tailgate is AWOL, leading me to wonder if it had the Continental spare tire hump or not.
It has a trailer hitch too! Whitewalls, wire wheel covers, a (once) plush, Broughamtastic interior, and 460 CID/C6 FoMoCo motivation. This would have been a great Prairie Schooner* ute for someone who valued comfort–and didn’t worry about gas mileage or making a hard left at 90 mph.
*copyright Canuckknucklehead
Yes folks, we have not one, but two 1966-67 Chargers. This one is a little less (okay, a lot less) complete than Charger #1, but hey, at least it still has one whitewall!
These cars, like all old cars, have a story to tell, and there are some indicators to the life they led, but we’ll never know, as the late Paul Harvey oft said, “the rest of the story.”
Yes, the interior is a bit sparse, but the steering wheel still looks pretty nice.
Looks like the rust monster was munching on this Mopar’s flanks, and the missing door, hood and front fender lead me to believe this was a parts car. It would have struck quite a pose new, with what appears to be factory-applied red paint. If it had a white interior, I would have been all over it new!
Looks like it was rather well-equipped when new, with factory air.
As Phil Collins once said, “time slowly passes, one day you look around, you hardly recognise what you see.” Such is the case with these old cars. They may be past their salad days, and may soon end their time on planet Earth being recycled into Amana refrigerators, but it still brightened my day to see them, to ponder how nice they were new, and to hope for the best in their future.
Will these poor Chargers and Continentals ever get some love? I don’t know; they are pretty far gone. The Mark V Cartier is probably the best candidate for restoration, with the rusty rear half of the roof being the worst spot. The Markchero? I don’t know–it might take more to bring back that cool Wixom pick ’em up than even the Chargers, especially if the fire was hot enough to warp the frame. For now, though, they sit.
Such finery that has deteriorated into, well, ten minutes of fame.
It’s likely a safe bet the Charger parts car came from mine and Jana’s neck of the woods. Poplar Bluff is down in Swampeast Missouri; their mascot is the Mule.
I miss Paul Harvey. R.I.P.
That Markchero is terrifically funky! I love it.
Any photos of that kit car thing next to the 1977 Continental Mark V?
So either that first Mark V has a really good vacuum system, or it gets started regularly-ish. Or, I suppose the headlight covers may just be stuck shut.
I thought the same thing about the rusting green LTD next to the GP in Keith’s latest Junkyard Outtake.
Ironically, the partially/fully opened headlight door ‘winking’ issue didn’t come up with the ’66-’67 Charger’s hidden headlights. Unlike the later vacuum operated doors whose hoses were prone to leakage with age, they had electrically-operated motors and ‘flipped’ to show the headlights, similar to ’63-’67 Corvettes.
I think part of the Ford design was a safety feature, to have the doors be spring-loaded so the “default” position was open. What happens in the electrically powered setups if the electric motor fails?
I vaguely recall someone saying there was a way to manually operate the headlight doors (maybe a small manual knob in the engine compartment) into the open position on those cars with the electric motors.
Years later, I believe that’s how it was done with the hidden headlights on Mazda’s sports cars, too.
The ’73 Monaco I had back in HS had electric headlight doors too. There was a small knob under the hood that one would crank in they failed to open.
hmmm is that blue connie a Diamond Jubilee?? it has blueish looking bumper guards- I know that the hubcaps aren’t correct but perhaps they were replaced.
Great finds. Always love to come upon an early Charger. It had one of the coolest dash gauge displays ever. Too bad the dashes in these were in such challenged condition.
Yeah, those electroluminescent gauges in the Charger are really some of the best. It would be worth having one of those cars just for that reason, alone.
That Mark V with the fire damage has to be a Flower Car. No photo of the plastic car next to the first Mark V?
I can’t believe that Mark IV interior. It looks like it was designed with the Pillsbury Dough Boy and the Michelin Man in mind. I would be afraid to sit in it, for fear of being swallowed up. Mind-boggling.
Yea, but what a way to go!
It really is a crazy interior. It looks even crazier in Dark Red: Holy Poofy Upholstery, Batman!
My tastes run more toward the Lipstick Luxury Group interior in red and white (from eBay).
What’s going on with the armrest there? It looks like the front has fallen down a few inches
Are those the remains of a Testarossa next to the Lincoln?
just what I was thinking …
Fiero with a Testarossa body kit.
Yep, a Fiero-rossa is what it was.
The whole interior of that 77 Lincoln deserves to be re-purposed as furniture. Build an oak frame to support the back seat cushioning maintaining the seat back angle and you’d have a very nice love seat.
I think all of these cars are probably too far gone to save, unless someone was really a fanatic with seriously deep pockets. Shame about the Mark V ute – that’s, by far, the best use for one that I’ve seen.
Here’s the entire story of the 2nd Charger: it lived a boring life for 10 years then a 17-year old saved up all his McDonalds paychecks to buy it. Fast forward to an icy high school parking lot, Milwaukee’s Best 6-pack, “wheels in the skyyy keep on turninnnngggg” on the radio, “hey, watch this!”; slams into lightpost. Sits in kid’s parent’s side yard for 10 years, kid says he’s gonna fix it up one day, until his folks get sick of looking at it and have it hauled off. It’s saved from crushing at the last minute by an eccentric man who fancies early Chargers and Mark Vs and has sat in this spot for two decades.
I love them too, in fact I kinda like them even better than their successor. The dash and 2+2 seating are the coolest. Later Chargers might’ve had the looks, but they didn’t have the same high quality and intricate detail that these did.
I looked at a red 66 Charger when searching for my first car in early 1977. If it had been in better condition, my Mopar-love might have gotten an earlier start. Like you, I am in the minority as preferring the 66-67 to the later ones, even by just a bit. It’s the fold down rear bucket seats and foldover rear console that call out to me.
I’m with you on the ’66 Charger. This may also explain why I’m charitable towards the Marlin.
I know its infuriating to some people, but an alley like this is – to me – like taking a walk through the Colisseum or Pompeii. Not every historical artefact needs to be presented all shiny and new, the aesthetic of duration (as a good friend once called it) has a beauty of its own. Nice article, Tom, and a fantastic header pic.
Thanks!
“Majestic velour”
Lincoln’s Talisman? I don’t think I’ve seen this before. Not a big fan of the Talisman, not a fan of this. Make mine simple and leather.