Stinkin… Like A Rose
From Soil To Oil
There’s a concept that “how you do anything is how you do everything.” Consider John Lyman’s original career, landscaping. He mowed lawns while in school. That led to working for landscaping firms during summer vacations. The next step was enrolling in a college where he studied horticulture, residential landscape design and construction, and business practices. He graduated Penn State with a Bachelor’s degree in 2007 and worked for prestigious companies caring for high-end Pittsburgh area homes. He was methodical, dogged, hardworking.
Running parallel with dirt and grass was oil and rubber. John’s father taught collision repair at a vo-tech school. He grew up with his dad’s 1967 Buick Skylark but was “knocked out” when he first saw a ’67 Lincoln Continental coupe at age 12. He liked its size and uniqueness and the echo of the Buick Riviera’s roofline. He mowed more lawns, saved up, and then the car disappeared. His parents found it later and surprised him with it when he was all of 14. From the start of high school, through his learner’s permit and into college, he tinkered, explored, learned. The car’s insatiable need for parts and work focused John and, somewhat by accident, led him to start his business.
A Cascade Of Continentals
The car needed a lot and John hunted for parts. The internet hadn’t made the process as simple as it is today but he was a good scavenger. Demolition derby cast-off were $200 and some were rich with usable items. A parts car here, a stash of NOS there. Other cars followed; another ’67 right after college for parts, then a ’66, another coupe, another 4-door, and a ’64 in better shape than his prior cars.The quality of what he acquired improved. He began flipping cars and parts in his off-hours. His inventory grew.
This arc stretched from high school through college and John’s landscaping career.After nine years of designing landscapes and patios and managing projects, his chosen profession wasn’t delivering the satisfaction he experienced in his off hours with Lincolns. Between the frequent calls from people wanting to buy from him and being surrounded with a storehouse brimming with Lincoln bits, it dawned on him that he had a ready-made business. In 2016, around the time his second son was born, he left landscaping behind and turned his attention to Lincolns full time.He found a large multi-bay garage near his home, parked his personal Lincoln indoors and started filling every square inch of space not occupied by cars with rack after rack of good used 1961-69 parts. The same methodical approach that served him well in landscaping, the doggedness applied to parts discovery and the hard work of brake jobs and carb changes grew Lyman’s new business and reputation.
Between car owners who already knew him, Facebook and Instagram accounts, and visits to car shows, both the supply and demand sides of John’s businessexpanded. The sources for parts are NOS, used, and reproduction. NOS is the gold standard for parts that don’t deteriorate over time, but unicorns in terms of rarity. Repros are wonderful if they are of high quality and fit properly (which isn’t always the case). If you have a Mustang or Camaro, the selection is substantial and we’re lucky with our Lincolns to have some serious repro manufacturing and growing availability. But there’s a vast territory in which the only option is a used part and the trick is to find one that works and takes little or minimal polishing, re-chroming or other refurbishment. En route to that, dealing with someone who will represent the part accurately to you over the phone or in photos is priceless.
But where do these parts come from that we so blithely order online or with a phone call? Who scours the globe for them? It’s great to be able to call Lyman or one of the other parts specialists and get a sun visor, already in the correct color that doesn’t need to be painted, hit it with some vinyl cleaner and put it on your car, but how did it get to that dusty storage rack in Freedom, Pennsylvania in the first place?
How Big A Barn?
“Barn finds” are all the rage these days. I know a ’63 under a tarp five miles from my house and many LCOC members have similar stories. John goes for something bigger. He’ll take that single car covered in hay next to a tractor and feed bags, but his preferred target is the whole barn, filled with a driver quality car, plus a “ran when parked” car, plus a parts car, plus a spare engine, some seats, at least one transmission and boxes of spares. As he’s accumulated his stash he’s made friends, developed an intelligence network, gotten calls, traded information. Here’s what people know: given a fair price and good quality, John Lyman will get in his truck, pull his trailer, show up the same or next day anywhere within four hours of Pittsburgh, pay cash money and whisk that jumble away pronto. Lyman has knowledge, liquidity and decisiveness. That carries the day, and now there are sun visors in desert sand and ivy gold, not just black and burgundy.
Now, all this expediency comes with a downside: his shop is, let’s say, densely packed. Photos work best with wide-angle lenses, or periscopes. Racks full of parts groan under the weight. A practiced eye sees organization and logic but the initial impression elicits a startled cough. The separate storage locker up the hill contains his beloved, pristine ’64 and a much cleaner set of boxes. The junkyard behind the shop has room to turn around in. To his credit, he knows how it appears at first glance. He’s been negotiating for more space; the most promising is several acres, with a structure or two he’d preserve but mainly room to build. There’s an asymmetry: he’s quicker to acquire new “hoards” of parts than he is to procure the space to inventory them neatly. There’s a quote about land: “they’re not making any more of it.” But they aren’t making any more 1960s Lincoln parts, either, so it’s a race between the two.
Every Car Has A Story
As we tour the shop and the parts cars, John fills me in on where they came from, when, and how. There is no such thing as just a “blue ‘65” or a stack of hubcaps. It’s the car he discovered when he was on his way somewhere else, the differentials that turned up when he thought he was only buying tail light lenses, the clue he got from a friend, the assortment he heard about, thought he lost, then was offered when the first buyer’s check bounced. You could spend a long winter’s night just asking “where’d those three parts cars come from?” then sitting back and hearing the answer. It’s a throwback to a simpler time when stories were more woven through us than in today’s point-and-click culture. Moreover, if he has this much connection to a carburetor or derelict coupe, imagine how protective he’ll be of a customer’s running car.
Parts are his bread and butter and service is its natural compliment. He can’t takeall comers due to space and staffing constraints. The name of his business has a down and dirty quality to it, and that’s reflected in his niche. At present, concoursrestorations aren’t his focus, it’s repairing flaws and making cars roadworthy and
safe. “My only goal is to help preserve and get as many Lincolns back on the road as I can.” For now, he’s doing that mostly by selling good quality parts, both every-day and rare, to keep these cars alive, helping to fill a void where reproduction doesn’t exist. So far, the maintenance side is limited to renewing or upgradingbrakes, tending to the steering, making everything important work, then getting the car out the door without breaking the bank. Top-end engine work, mechanical systems, basic electrical, yes. Audio, A/C, upholstery or paint, no – at least not yet.
What’s Ahead?
Over the past year, John has gotten deeper into convertible top mechanisms, probing their legendary complexity. The shops that can reliably work on them are few and geographically dispersed. The western part of the Northeast is a bit of a void, and Stinkin Lincoln can fill it as its portfolio broadens. He recently acquired a 1956 Premier as a personal car, which will likely lead to him offering parts outside the 1961-1969 “slabside” era.
John has a good grasp of the economics, both for the buying and selling price of a power antennae and the overall distribution of his time, services and focus. For now, a lot of parts and a little service. After the move, a proper website for parts, a wider range of service offerings. With more space, staff and experience, a path from quick and easy mechanical work to more extensive stock and resto-modification and eventually full service for cars headed to concours d’elegance.
My visit nearly concluded, John apologizes about taking a phone call. It’s the third time the person has tried him that day and he’s concerned it might be an emergency. It turns out to be impatience, not crisis, but he walks the caller through some issues in an even-tempered, reassuring voice. “Yes, that’s a problem; no, that’s not as big a deal as you feared; maybe, but hard to tell without looking at it. The other thing sounds like such-and-such: call this fellow who can diagnose over the phone.” John sees many Lincoln suppliers as colleagues more than competitors. “After the diagnosis, call me back for parts X, Y and Z if he says that’s what you need. You’ll be fine and have a car you can enjoy.” The short call is a usefulwindow into Lyman’s approach. He’s calm, precise, open about sharing resourcesand the caller is left with a pleasant experience in place of dread. Concrete next steps instead of bafflement and doubt.
The confluence of stock restoration and preservation-class owners with the anything-goes resto-mod crowd is keeping established shops healthy while enabling the emergence and growth of relative newcomers like Stinkin Lincoln. Other marques aren’t so fortunate. Warren Buffett said “Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.” John Lyman has a blizzard of parts and at 37 years old, a pretty long hill.
©️2023 David Moyer
This article originally appeared in the issue #366 of Lincoln and Continental Comments, the print magazine of the Lincoln and Continental Owners Club.
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