Ultra Rare - 1968 Ford LTD 428-4V 4-speed Manual is a True Sleeper!

When Ford introduced the LTD in 1965, little did it know that it was really going to touch off something all new in the automotive marketplace. For never before had a maker of the low price 3 really tried to break into the upper echelon in terms of price point as well as luxury. And that's exactly what the LTD did when it was introduced in 1965. In that inaugural year, the LTD basically was a dress-up package on the Galaxy 500 and provided buyers with a far nicer interior. An interior with beautiful, it's going to sound oxymoronic, but it's true, beautiful faux wood grain on the door panels, lit door panels, little pocket lights on the door panels. That was just something that was not seen on cars in this particular price class. Now by 1968, the LTD had become really a household name and was well recognized. And this would be the last year of the first generation LTD that would run from 1965 to 1968. And also the first year in which it would get hidden headlamps. It also got this great front end that has so many different elements that I think give it a distinctive flair. It was uncommon in the low price three. You have the hidden headlamps that I mentioned, but you also have this beautiful grill texture with the texture within a texture, kind of the rectangle within a rectangle. And at least on my copy that you see here of the 68LTD, the doors are perfectly aligned for the headlamps with the remainder of the grill. So you actually can't really see where it opens. Then you have this beautiful hood with a shoulder that looks like it's pushed up from underneath and a crease running down the middle of the hood and these pointed fenders. It's just a neat look overall and I think a very clean look for the 1968 LTD. Now we're going to take a better look at this 1968 LTD. This is a factory two-door 428 four-speed car. And that was just a super rare combination. There were a decent number of LTDs that were Q code LTDs, meaning they came equipped with the 428 under hood. But many of them were equipped with automatics and so few were equipped with four-speed manual transmissions. But this is one of those cars and it's a low mileage original. Now what you can see also from the side in terms of the design is you have this beautiful crease that runs the entire length of the car right at its midsection. And absent that, I think this car would look pretty plain. It doesn't really have any complicated surfacing. In fact, some things are kind of weird. Take a look as an example at that crease that runs just behind the turn signal up front of the front fender and then terminates just ahead of the front wheel. I don't quite know what that's doing. It's not continued anywhere else. It just looks a little bit strange in this photo. And then you have the drag section lower that is in between the front and rear wheel that kind of forms that rocker area. Very typical of Ford during this time frame and something that you'd see across the lineup. Now one other thing that you're going to note from this particular photo of the body side is the roofline. And for 1968, the LTD coupes got their own roofline kind of similar to what the Chevrolet Caprice would get for 1966. Remember the Caprice was actually response to the LTD. That's why it came out partway through the 1965 model year. It was only available in a four-door configuration in that first model year. And then in 1966, you could get a two-door. And the two-door had a unique roofline that was a more formal roofline like you see here. The c-pillar was more upright. And I think it's a bit of a shame because frankly the 1967 LTD coupes had a one-year roofline. And I love the roofline on that car. For 1968, there would be, as opposed to that fastback style roofline, this more formal roofline. And interestingly, Mercury would continue in 1968 with the fastback roofline. But Ford would get rid of it. So I wonder if in fact the Ford was more expensive to build than the Mercury. You had the hidden headlamps and all the activation associated with that. And then you had a unique roof that was a one-year only roof. Because remember the car was redesigned for the 1969 model year. So this had to have been a costly car for Ford to build. And like I said, I'm really surprised that they would have spent the money just to do that for one year. But they did. And in this view from the other side, you can see that formal roofline a bit better. You'll also notice that there are these haunches, almost like a little bit of a four fender theme going on here. Notice that the quarter panel, there's a shoulder that really starts under the rear quarter glass. And then there's also one that terminates on the door, kind of partway through the door. That's a continuation of the front fender. So some interesting styling that was going on here. But I will also say that, take a look at that rear overhang, the overhang on these and the Mercury's was pretty humorous. Now the Ford's wrote a top 119 inch wheelbase. The Mercury's wrote a top 123 inch wheelbase in this generation. So the Mercury's, you got a little bit longer car. And this was back during the timeframe that the more expensive the car, the bigger the car. At least that's what customers kind of thought. When they were paying more, you had to get more cars. So going from the Ford to the Mercury, you got a longer wheelbase. Same from the Mercury to the Lincoln. But I have to say the Ford, I think looks good overall. Although the rear overhang does look a little bit longer than it should perhaps in this photo. And maybe that's just because all cars today seemingly have the wheels pushed out to the corners as opposed to having some overhang like these older vehicles did. Now, as we rotate to the rear three-quarter view, you can notice that that grill texture motif is really repeated in the trim that runs cross car on the deck lid. That kind of texture within a texture, those rectangles, and a little bit of it is repeated perhaps in the reverse lights as well. Now you do have the crown motif and the big LTD badge out back. And notice that LTD badge looks very similar to the sheet metal formation where you have the tops of the quarter panels as well as the crease that runs down the middle of the deck lid. But overall, you can see from this particular photo, the body size don't have a heck of a lot of sculpture from, let's say, or significantly different philosophy than a lot of the General Motors cars of the era. I do think that this is a handsome car and perhaps a very masculine car, and overall good looking. Otherwise, I wouldn't own one. It's just a different styling philosophy when you think about Ford from General Motors. One other styling feature I'll point out from this view is take a look at the vinyl roof just above the backlight there, and you'll see this little rib. And that was kind of a holdover of something that was very popular, particularly with General Motors cars and their designs in the early 1960s that really had faded out by this particular point in time. That's that fake carriage bow that gets disguised a little bit here because of the vinyl roof. But again, something that had really left the industry by this point, but Ford, I guess for whatever reason, was hanging on. And I just thought it was an interesting vestige of the past there to have this fake carriage bow on the roof when a lot of other automakers had really done away with that styling cue that, again, was very popular admittedly, but years before this particular car was released. Now, as we switch to the interior of this particular LTV, you can see the four-speed that is on the floor there. This is not a bucket seat car, one with a console. It's just a good old-fashioned bench seat four-speed car. It doesn't get much better than that. Now, you'll notice some of the things that I was mentioning that were introduced to the 1965 LTD, which is that copious use of wood grain there on the steering wheel, the door panels, the instrument panel. You do have this beautiful theme to the instrument panel, very simple mid-century modern-esque theme with the driver-centric gauges, the radios there in the top right to the right of the speedometer. The only thing about that, as I own an LTD, is it's a little bit hard to turn the radio knob and the volume knob if your hands are relatively large. Your knuckles kind of scrape the upper portion of that IP. It needs to be a little bit taller than it is, but regardless, it looks clean, and that's really what's important. 1968, you also have this two-spoke steering wheel that was ubiquitous among all four products, although they did change the horn. I shouldn't call it the horn pad because this is a horn ring, but that center pad and the design of it, but really the wheels were pretty much the same, and that was a one-year only design for 1968. It was something that would change for 1969. And from this angle, you can see the four-speed shifter a little bit better, as well as some of the other option contents on this particular LTD. Namely, just above the transmission tunnel, you'll see four lights. That is the optional visual check panel, and it has lights for things like low fuel or door ajar or the brake is on. So, kind of a handy thing to have, although the placement is far out of one's eyesight when you're sitting in the driver's seat. Notice that fake burl wood grain all the way across the dash. I will give Ford a lot of credit, though, because when you're sitting in the car, it actually looks, I won't say real, but it's pretty convincing. It has a texture to it, as opposed to GM and Chrysler often just had like a taped-on sticker. This is far, far better, and Ford did a great job with its fake wood grains during this time frame. Yes, I know that seems odd to say, but I think it's absolutely true. You'll also notice that this car does not have air conditioning. There's no vents that are on the passenger side. I think it does have what Ford called, at least in the Mercury's, the comfort stream setup, because there are those vents that are in the driver's side IP when you can pull a particular lever, and it'll direct the air to come out through those vents. So, you do get a little bit of air in your face, if you will, as opposed to just the kick well vents to open or knee cooler vents in the kick wells. So, that was kind of a poor man's air conditioning, if you will. You just got a nice little fan that could blow in your face, and those vents are really interesting. They rotate. You can flip them, and that's really what changes the direction. A little bit different than how other companies did it. Now, under hood, we really have the heart of a lion here. You have the top optional 428 cubic inch Q-code V8, making 340 horsepower, topped by a 4 Venturi carburetor. And as I was mentioning, this car does not have air conditioning. You can see that there is no air conditioning compressor there on the driver's side where it would normally be. I guess it provides a little bit better serviceability. Now, interestingly, this car does seem to have some pollution controls on it. So, I'm not sure if it was a California car or something like that, but in any case, it's a really, really awesome engine to have under hood here. There are some things that are not stock. That coolant overflow bottle, at least that appears to be what it is, that's kind of tacked on to the radiator support. That was not something that came on these cars. If you overflowed the radiator, it didn't go into an overflow bottle, it just dropped out on the ground. So, one of the things you want to make sure that you do if you are filling the radiator on these cars is don't overfill it. There's actually a mark on the radiator where you fill it when it's cold, and it's probably a couple inches from the top. You want to leave a little bit of room. Don't fill these all the way to the top. That's not what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to leave a little bit of space in there. Now, you can get a whole host of engines in your LTV as well as the Ford Galaxy, everything from the six-cylinder to the 302 V8 to 390 V8s in two-barrel and four-barrel form to this 428. This was the top engine that you could get, and I have to say they were definitely peppy. I don't think that they were quite as peppy as some of the Chrysler and GM engines, and I don't think that's a fault of the engine. I think it's a fault of the carburetor. This four-barrel carburetor that was employed on these just was kind of boggy and didn't really work all that well in a number of cases, but the 428 and the FE engines, the Ford Edsel engines, they really are excellent and smooth and just really a joy to drive. I have a number of cars with the 428 or the 390, and they are quiet and powerful, although I have to say maybe versus the 390, I like the Pontiac 389 a little bit better of the same time frame, but the 390 regardless is a great engine, and the 428 is even better that you have here. So that's a look at this particular LTD, kind of the gentleman's hot rod or a real sleeper. The only thing that would connote the power that's under hood is that 428 badge that's behind the front wheel. Other than that, a unsuspecting motorist might think that they're going to be able to out-drag race this particular vehicle, and well, at least it would be a challenge. These weren't the fastest cars on the road, but they certainly were relatively peppy, and particularly when paired with that four-speed transmission, really got some power to the ground, and you didn't have the slush box kind of C6 that was typically behind the 428. You shouldn't call the C6 a slush box, but it certainly robbed a significant amount of horsepower. I think that they took about 40 horsepower to run, so you have a bit more efficiency with this manual transmission, and hey, it's more fun after all. Isn't it kind of a shame that manual transmissions have all but disappeared from cars? I think that was one of the things that made these vehicles great and so much fun to drive. In any case, thanks again for watching. Until next time, take care.