It’s the ear-to-ear grin and the toothy smile that prove Dale Williams loves his 1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V.
Williams, along with his wife Kathryn, decided to get rid of the pickup that he drove on a daily basis and replace it with a low rider that they could both work on and both share pride in.
And there definitely were things that needed to be done in order to turn it into the street machine it is today.
Those problems included:
•fixing a wiring problem common in Lincolns of that era.
• pin-striping the side of the abnormally long luxury car.
•adding a new 400 cubic inch motor and a transmission that can handle it.
When all of the parts were added up, installed, and completed, they jumped into the car and headed down to Bakersfield for the Low Rider Nationals – the biggest low rider car show of its kind.
For Dale and Kathy, it was their dream come true. They navigated more than 200 miles of roadway on 13-inch tires and eventually into their position for the judging that took place throughout the contest.
“It took us about $130 is gasoline to get down there and back,” Dale Williams said. “This is something that my wife and I tackled as a project, and it’s just fun to do.
“She likes driving it as well, and she beautiful when she’s behind the wheel. That’s part of why I got into this.”
Once the judges got their chance to give “Kathryn’s Dream” the once over, the Williams’ were handed a second place trophy for the best street division low rider they had seen that weekend.
All of the work was finally recognized and appreciated by somebody else. It gave Dale the big toothy smile that comes out whenever somebody appreciates what he has done with his car.
“What I really love about the car is him, because his eyes just light up like a kid in a candy store any time he gets a chance to do something that he’s been wanting to do,” Kathy Williams said. “And when he’s happy, it makes me feel really good because that’s our project, and it’s something that we can do together.”
Now he’ll have something to put on the mantle as he prepares to bring in other cars to his LayMLow car club – reaching out to people in Manteca who might be passionate about lowriders.
“If anybody out there is interested in getting into our club – we have members that are scattered all over the country including East Palo Alto, Bakersfield, and even Florida – and we have friends here locally with Aztecas and the GoodFellas, they should send me an e-mail,” Dale Williams said. “We brought that trophy home to Manteca, and we’d like keep that going.”
To contact Dale Williams, e-mail francois.kathy@aol.com.
