Today’s Fan Car Friday is brought to us by Lucy and her 1956 Continental Mark II. Fan Car Friday is a segment where we want to share with the world the automobiles that our fans have. We have absolutely no affiliation/relationship with the cars, the build or the owners. This post was made with written consent from the owner.

Lucy came to own this car after falling in love with it when she was in her teens. When she worked as a cocktail girl at the local golf club, she would always see one proudly parked at the club’s front entrance in the 60s. She could never afford one herself when it was new, she was too young, she wasn’t even allowed to drink at the time! But it instantly became her dream car. It was the pinnacle of luxury, and she knew she had to have one. But as time goes by, your interests change and so do your dreams.

It wasn’t until the mid ‘70s that she fell in love with the car again after reading of an auction for a Continental owned by a high-profile individual. This ignited that same passion and love in her once more for the vehicle. It was something she couldn’t stop thinking about day to day. So over the next 10 years she worked weekends at a local bingo hall to slowly save up for the car she knew she had to have. Having more patience than most, she saved up not only for the car but also enough to start working on it. When the day came that she could finally call it hers, she feverishly began replicating the look of the Continental she saw for sale in the ‘70s.

A number of things were done to the car to get it in the presidential quality you see today. Every piece of chrome was taken off and meticulously prepared for triple plating by an American chrome shop. The factory air conditioning was completely repaired and will now hold a charge for 3 months before it begins a slowly leak. Lucy completely disassembled the clock to clean and rebuild it herself. She admits it was a much more difficult process than she imagined, but it now keeps time accurate to 7 seconds a day (Just a few seconds off that of a Rolex). The gauges read accurately without bouncing and the radio sounds clear & full.

Given the fact that it’s a Continental it had every power option you can imagine and it all works without hesitation. The windows, the locks, the seats, the hood & automatic lights and even the signal seeker. Oddly enough, it was the power antenna that gave her some of the most difficulty, but it now operates as smooth as butter. On the exterior, the car was painted a gorgeous blue after hundreds of hours went into refining the body lines and curves.

The car doesn’t roar, but it still has a presence all its own that will turn any head around town. With the 368 MEL only being rebuilt once, the car has no problem moving the 2 door, 5,000lb behemoth around town. The exhaust has a nice, classy note to it. Enough to make you smile, but nothing like that of a muscle car. What Lucy is most proud of though, is how even at highway speeds she has managed to eliminate all road noise. A combination of Dynamat and using only lead to fill all gaps/seams to make a tight cabin.

Lucy admits her hard work doesn’t produce a flawless result. Everything works well, but that doesn’t mean something wont go funky every few months. It’s a 60 year old car, in great shape being a New Mexico car, but “at 6 decades old even you will have achy joints no matter how well you exercise and eat right” as she puts it.

She says her favorite thing about the car is her sense of pride. How hard and how long she had to work to get the car, then how hard and long she had to work to get it where it is. “I have raised wonderful kids that I’m proud of, this car is a different sense of pride altogether”.