{"id":42584,"date":"2025-04-02T21:50:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T18:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usmotorworks.acuweb.dev\/?post_type=car-builds&p=42584"},"modified":"2025-04-02T21:50:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T18:50:42","slug":"that-raw-lincoln-by-exile-fabrications","status":"publish","type":"car-builds","link":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/car-builds\/that-raw-lincoln-by-exile-fabrications\/","title":{"rendered":"“That Raw Lincoln” by Exile Fabrications"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it\u2019s always exciting to see finished products getting a\u00a0SEMA Show<\/a>\u00a0unveiling, it\u2019s especially cool to get a peek behind the curtain at in-progress builds, especially when they\u2019re as mind-blowing as Mike Ledbetter\u2019s \u201863 Lincoln Continental.\u00a0The one-man-show behind the car is California\u2019s\u00a0Exile Fabrications<\/a>, AKA Mike Jones. \u201cWhen we first started the project, he wanted to build the wildest Lincoln ever built,\u201d Mike says. \u201cSo that\u2019s where I came up with the plan of using my background in off-road and street race car building to build an elegant, race-inspired, street machine Continental.\u201d\u00a0Starting in 2018, Mike gutted the luxo-barge to a point where just the body and part of the front chassis section remained. \u201cI wanted to keep it unibody,\u201d he explains, \u201cso I kept the front rails in. I built a full plate frame rail from the firewall back, and a full rollcage.\u201dThere\u2019s hydraulic cantilever suspension, allowing the car to hit the deck while retaining full adjustability via QA1 coil-overs and a HydroShox pump and valves.\u00a0\u201cI built custom plate upper and lower control arms with one-off spindles that house Wilwood Pro hubs, 16-inch rotors and six-piston calipers,\u201d Mike says. The four-link rear holds a Spidertrax diff housing and more fabricated bracketry.\u00a0Yet again, the intake plenum, intercoolers and piping are custom bits, fabbed by Mike using Vibrant Performance components, and there\u2019s a billet-topped fuel cell packing Aeromotive pumps.\u00a0Power comes through a Maximum Transmissions-built 4L80E, consisting of a Reid billet case and internals and a manual valve body.\u00a0Body mods are extensive, with the rear cowl panel pushed back five inches to allow the tubs to almost touch the bottom of the rear glass, while retaining the factory seal boot. \u201cI also did flush glass and a drip-rail delete,\u201d Mike says. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of work on a Lincoln, because the trim houses and seals everything, so there\u2019s lots of sheet-metal work to make the new glass surrounds.\u201d The rear glass was remade by AM Hot Rod Glass.\u00a0Continentals were built with a front-hinged bonnet, which Mike is doing away with. \u201cI hate reverse-opening hoods; they\u2019re impossible to work on and hard to show off, as people are forced to lean over the fenders to see inside,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I mounted Eddie Motorsports hinges from an AMC. I still have to mount the hood to them, and the plan there is to have two hood scoops and filters for fresh air.\u201d\u00a0Tucked bars on both ends are also on the agenda, and Mike will to dip the car in a classy Brandywine red.<\/p>\n

The Lincoln\u00a0features a Derale Performance Brushless Powerpack with Built-in PWM control\u00a0to help it keep cool.\u00a0Also features Two 11 Row Hi-Flow Coolers for cooling the transmission and coolant fluids.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":42586,"template":"","class_list":["post-42584","car-builds","type-car-builds","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/car-builds\/42584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/car-builds"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/car-builds"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/car-builds\/42584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42591,"href":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/car-builds\/42584\/revisions\/42591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmotorworks.com\/mx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}