CBoz

Thanks -- I do need to write up a comparison sometime, keeping in mind that the Zephyr was restored about 7 years ago while the K has just been fixed as needed. Quick impression -- the Zephyr is much higher revving,much nimbler, but no where near the torque and power. The K is huge (nearly a ton heavier), a bit more to steer at low speeds, but the engine so smooth you can barely hear it at idle and the power just builds.

Nice weather, so I took both the big brother classic K and little sister Zephyr out for short drives today. The resemblance is obvious, although the K is *much* bigger (caveat: the Zephyr actually has the more spacious interior). Some day I'll do a more thorough comparison, but suffice it to say they are *very* different cars, each with their pros and cons.

The weather is clear and earlier rains have washed any remnants of salt from the roads, so I thought I'd take the '37 coupe and the '38 K out for a spin. Parking them by each other you can see the resemblance, although the K is *a lot* larger. Interestingly, besides the '36-'37 headlights, the '38 K has '37 Zephyr dash knobs and '38 door handles and window cranks, but that's about all they have in common. I'm obviously biased, but the styling of the late 30's Lincoln line-up is hard to beat

I'm curious if this was true as late as '38, re reserving the LeBaron tag for cars finished by Lebaron. My car has a LeBaron tag but I had assumed Lincoln did the paint and interior.

Both the person who chose this color and the one who actually did the paintwork should have been beaten with a tire iron.

You are correct that the fork and blade V12 was only available as a KB in '32 and 33. My understanding is that the 381.7 cid V-12 introduced in '33 was not at all like the KB, but once bored out to 414 cid in '34 matched the bigger fork and blade version at 150 hp. I'm not enough of an expert to give you the pros and cons of the two different styles of V-12s.

Hey K8096, thanks for the musical score, but where exactly do you expect my wife to sit (see above pics)?

K8096 - Yeah, it's not very practical and the steps break up the lines some, but it's still a pretty interesting feature since it was such an anachronism by that time.

Alsancle --That's the last time I'm getting in that thing. I'm *directly* behind the wheel from now on!

The answer: At least 6' 4", 330 lbs. But getting in and out is another story My wife said I'd fit; I said "no way." But this proves her right.

The answer: At least 6' 4", 330 lbs. But getting in and out is another story My wife says I'd fit; I said "now way." But this proves her right.

Thanks for the follow-up; I should have mentioned that the box does say "commercial" on it. I was thinking it would be a cooler plug, but the dimensions don't suggest that. Obviously I'll be doing more research before I stick them in my engine.

The specs for my 1938 Lincoln K call for Champion 7 plugs. Champion 7 COM ("commercial") plugs seem much more common and cheaper, so I was curious as to what the difference was. As you can see in the first pic below, they look virtually identical. The one noticeable difference is that the COM plug has much beefier electrodes. While this might cause the spark to be *slightly* deeper in the cylinder, I can't imagine it making much difference other than a longer spark plug life. It would seem that the COM would be the better plug; am I missing something?

Thank you, Edinmass - few people have such deep experience with these cars. Too often we hear people share cliches that have been passed down over the years, when they really should say "I don't know."

...or you could move to North Carolina, like me. Drive all year long ...

I thought for sure it was the accelerator pump until you got to that part in your description. Do you have access to an automotive boroscope? I'm thinking it might be worth taking a peek into the gas tank.

I did. Only two digits away from mine; probably were worked on at the same time.

My plans are to harvest what I can -- it has the complete drivetrain from radiator to rear end, so they will be nice spares. Also, I'll keep the wheels and drums and axle components. Not sure the shocks can be saved, though.

Hello Craig -- I think it was the Ford records that were lost. Evidently they kept Lincoln records in a different part of the building.

The only pieces they had left were the door posts (aluminum), badly rusted hood sides and top aluminum panels, which weren't in very good shape. The rest of it was long, long gone. if I had to guess, the car suffered major road salt damage and was stripped decades ago.

It was here in NC so I kind of couldn't pass it up. Pretty toasty but the engine still has the original two-rib plugs suggesting reasonably low miles and with any luck the tranny will be solid. What I can salvage but can't use, I''ll pass on ...

We will put as much of this car to use as we can, but this 1938 Lincoln Willoughby Tourer deserved a better fate. I'm also attaching pics of a restored one so you all can see how far this one has deteriorated.

Love those Packard and Lincoln Dietrich coupes.

That's what you get for buying one of them fancy-schmancy furrin' cars;) Seriously, I hope it works out ok in the end. I'm sure you can't wait to get it back on the road.

I haven't decided yet. Ideally I'd like to find a matched set to replace it (not necessarily NOS, but some good pieces that have worn together). I would think with today's manufacturing technologies someone could scan it, check the dimensions and make corrections, and CNC one if absolutely necessary, but I definitely don't want to have to go that path.