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1957 Lincoln Premiere


TexRiv_63

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I posted this on the general forum but thought I should also put it where the experts are. I just bought another car from my bucket list, a 1957 Lincoln Premier 2 door hardtop. I've never owned a 50s Fin car and this model has always been one of my favorites. I don't have it yet, need to ship it from Washington state to Texas. It looks like a good driver with potential for more and it has the factory air setup in the trunk with the plexiglas tubes coming out of the package shelf. I'd like to hear from anyone who owns a 56 or 57 Premiere and can give me any tips on the car, potential problems, or just your experiences with it. Here are a few pics:

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I had one of these myself and it was an excellent car...a desert rose ( pink) and white Landau. My buddy refered to it as the "big pinky". The only trouble I had with it was a leaking front tranny seal. The metal on the sealing journal of the torque convertor had deteriorate to a point that I had to install an off-set seal. There were some odd styling themes with the '57's. The headlight system wasn't a true dual system and the rear wheel tear-drop fender openings didn't match the theme of the front wheel openings but those bladed fins did set it apart.

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In my view, this would be the ultimate 1956 Lincoln Sedan.

These photos were taken at the LCOC Lone Star Regional meet in Salado, Texas, April 2011.

What appears to be a very nice 1956 Lincoln sedan is sitting on a late model Town Car chassis!

The best of both worlds.....

Full photos of that meet can ve viewed at:

Salado, Texas, April 16, 2011 pictures from car shows photos on webshots<O:p></O:p>

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Edited by Phil Knapp (see edit history)
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Don

This forum won't offer too many experts on the 57 Lincoln. May have to check out the Lincoln clubs and try to locate the 56-57 Lincoln technical advisor.

I think your car is eye candy though and I have done a lot of research on the 57 Lincolns and gone after a couple in the past 5-7 years. Purchased the Collectable Automobile magazine that featured these cars and have purchased a couple of Lincoln books as well.

I think the best thing about them is their restraint of chrome and clean lines.

The power trains were in their 3rd or 4th year and so some bugs were worked out. Your car looks pristine so it's hard to say what the common failures might be. Good luck, thanks for the photos and keep us updated.

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Thanks Bryan, I have started lurking on a Lincoln forum and will join the LCOC once I get the car. It looks good in the few photos I posted but is far from pristine, I'm hoping it will clean up better in the flesh. It appears to have potential as a great cruiser which is what I am looking for, but I'm sure I will have work to do as always...

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest joe hill

You may want to call Bob Hardisty at 817-251-9265.He owns a 1956 and a 1957 Lincoln Convertible. He is our local expert on these Lincolns.

Joe Hill LCOC,LZOC North Texas Lincoln Club 817-481-

6850

1960 LC Convertible

1942 LZ 3-window coupe

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Kingoftheroad
I posted this on the general forum but thought I should also put it where the experts are. I just bought another car from my bucket list, a 1957 Lincoln Premier 2 door hardtop. I've never owned a 50s Fin car and this model has always been one of my favorites. I don't have it yet, need to ship it from Washington state to Texas. It looks like a good driver with potential for more and it has the factory air setup in the trunk with the plexiglas tubes coming out of the package shelf. I'd like to hear from anyone who owns a 56 or 57 Premiere and can give me any tips on the car, potential problems, or just your experiences with it. Here are a few pics:

Today I saw a pink '57 Lincoln Premier while I was out driving around, it was sitting in front of a repair shop.

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Guest Jim_Edwards
Sacrilege to some, but very interesting to others....

You may find yourself thinking other than Sacrilege after a few bouts with the idiosyncrasies of the 368 "Y" block in your '57. Not the least of which will be summertime vapor lock issues, which Lincoln/Mercury saw fit to continue forward with the MEL block engines. On the other hand, I personally believe in keeping a car as close to they way it was the day it rolled off the assembly line, now know issues or not.

Your '57 is a fantastic example of a luxury car that in my mind was overall more outstanding than the competition, and I own a '57 Caddy that I frequently make disparaging remarks about for valid reasons having to do with the engineering of the vehicle.

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Jim,

I only drove the car a couple times in hotter weather and did have some idle problems which made me think vapor lock but it turned out to be the idle speed set too low. I'll have to see how it goes in the next set of 100 degree days. The 56 and 57 Lincolns have always been favorite styles but I also think they benefitted from all the engineering that was done for the Continentals. A lot of these advances do not currently work on my car but I hope to remedy that...

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Guest Jim_Edwards

Don,

I'm not sure of what engineering advances of which you are making references. The biggest thing that went on with the Continentals was the bench running of each engine for 50 hours, disassembling and measuring strategic components for wear. Those showing any degree of wear were relegated back to common Lincoln production. Those passing were re-assembled and put into Continentals. The car mags published articles in both '55 and '56 on the subject. I recall seeing more than one photo of basically a clean room with a couple of dozen engines going through the 50 hour test.

The Arizona proving grounds at Yucca, Arizona (a bit West of Kingman on I-40) was where Continental engineering was put to the extreme test. that facility was sold to Chrysler in 2007 when Ford moved to a new facility a bit North of Phoenix. You can find a lot of info on the Continental project and the lead engineers involved on the web. Of course by the time 1957 production began in July of 1956 the 368 "Y" block was already a dead duck with production of it's replacement, the 430 MEL block actually beginning around March of 1957 for 1958 production. The Continental was a dead duck at the end of the '56 model year. Those few cars actually called '57s were actually left over '56s. Iona Body, which produced the Continental bodies, never produced a body for '57 production.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Lincoln experts - I need to do some brake work on this car but I am not having any luck so far getting brake parts, apparently the brake shoes are unique enough to not cross reference to more common Ford listings, same deal with the front wheel bearing seals. The only thing I have found so far are the wheel cylinder kits. I am actually surprised that this is a problem. My old standard local NAPA opened all the books after the computer came up empty but had no listings. I have looked on Ebay but see no brake shoes and only a few very pricy NOS seals. I would prefer not to deal with Kanters, can anyone recommend other sources or help with a cross reference?

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  • 3 years later...
Guest stuna

we have a 1957 Lincoln coupe coral pink with white roof it is very original we had to get the brakes and suspension fixed it is a real head turner here there is only a about 6 of these 1957 Lincolns in Australia post-108228-143143032587_thumb.jpg

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You may find yourself thinking other than Sacrilege after a few bouts with the idiosyncrasies of the 368 "Y" block in your '57.

I had trouble understanding this statement. In the mid-1970's, I drove a 1957 Mark II as my everyday car for 3 years. Living in both Oklahoma and south Mississippi, I drove it in lots of hot weather. Never once did it vaporlock. I wonder if the nature of modern gasoline is a factor in that concern for vaporlocking. BTW, except for the brakes, which were dangerously inadequate, I loved the car and put over 100,000 trouble free miles on it.

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  • 4 years later...

Hi.  I used to have a 57 premiere.   I do however still have the factory repair manual for it.    In those days you had a 56 manual with a 57 supplement for anything different.    I'll put them in a box and ship for 65.00.   They are 60 years old but very useable condition.  

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/19/2011 at 12:07 PM, joe hill said:

You may want to call Bob Hardisty at 817-251-9265.He owns a 1956 and a 1957 Lincoln Convertible. He is our local expert on these Lincolns.

Joe Hill LCOC,LZOC North Texas Lincoln Club 817-481-

6850

1960 LC Convertible

1942 LZ 3-window coupe

 

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  • 2 months later...

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