'77-'79 Lincoln Continental Convertibles

 Lincoln stopped making their factory Continental convertibles in 1967, but in the late 70s they seemed to have a bit of a renaissance, on the '77-'79 bodystyle. By the late 1970s the full size American convertible was basically dead, as the Big Three had eliminated most of their convertibles by 1976. Perhaps Ford saw a niche market that could be filled, and chose their biggest, best, and most expensive cars, figuring that many Continental buyers had the money to spend twice as much as they would on a regular Continental 4 door to get the Convertible. There were indeed buyers willing to fork over the cash for one of these things, and hundreds (but not thousands) were sold. In any case, the way it worked was, coachwork companies like AHA (among others) would take your standard 2 or 4 door big Conti, factory fresh, and turn it into a droptop, then the dealer would get the car back and sell it on the showroom floor. Many of these conversions were "factory authorized", meaning that Lincoln dealers got permission from Ford to have cars converted and then put them out in the showroom for sale, with a full factory Ford warranty. A non authorized conversion would normally be done by a coachbuilder after a new car had been sold and driven off the lot. The ad below from Fox Valley Lincoln Mercury shows what appears to be a '77 Continental gone topless. There were some Mark Vs converted as well. The production numbers of these cars were very low, I'm not sure of the exact numbers but needless to say they are a rare beast. I have yet to see one on the road, although occasionally they show up on craigslist as project cars. These days they are a forgotten part of Lincoln's history. The 60s Continental convertible is the one that everyone thinks of when you put the words Lincoln and convertible together, but these cars deserve an honorable mention because they were the last of the truly full sized convertibles offered by Ford, even if they weren't factory built as such. As the values of the late 70s Continentals are starting to go up, I would think that these will end up being among the most valuable.

The '71 (I think?) custom convertible at the bottom is more my style, especially with the horns on the hood. It has an Eldorado vibe to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. To me the early 70s body style is sleeker and  has more flowing lines/curves, which really lends itself to the convertible body style.