Putting a Lincoln badge on a pickup truck may seem almost anachronistic. Ford’s luxury brand didn’t officially venture into the truck business until the early 2000s, with models that stayed very limited in number. Yet there exists a 1924 Lincoln L Series truck, very real, that still rolls more than a century later.
Born as a full-size luxury sedan, this 1924 Lincoln L Series was transformed over its life into a true utility vehicle, in the style of a “1924 Lincoln L Series truck.” A strange fate for one of Lincoln’s earliest cars, at a time when the brand had barely clawed its way out of bankruptcy and faced rivals like Packard, Cadillac, or Rolls-Royce. Seen from today, this unlikely truck resembles an early version of a Blackwood, the luxury pickup Lincoln never dared to mass-produce at that era.
1924 Lincoln L Series truck : a luxury chassis in 1920s America
The Lincoln Motor Company was founded in 1917 by brothers Henry Leland and Wilfred Leland. Five years later, the company went bankrupt and Ford Motor Company bought it. The first mass-produced Lincoln, called the L Series or Model L, arrived in 1920. Built in Detroit, it stood at the top of the market, facing models from Packard and Cadillac, but also European makers like Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce.
Like many prestige cars of the era, the Lincoln L Series was mostly sold as a bare chassis, later bodied by specialized houses such as Brunn & Company, Fleetwood, or other American craftsmen. In 1924, the model received a few visible updates: standard nickel-plated headlights, a taller radiator with vertical fins, and wider fenders with a smoother, more fluid design. The complete chassis with mechanicals, front apron, dashboard, and fenders started at $3,600, about $70,000 in 2026 dollars, at current exchange rates roughly €65,000. A fully bodied car could reach $6,400, about $124,000 in 2026 dollars, or around €115,000.
How this 1924 Lincoln L Series became an unlikely truck
The specimen we’re looking at rolled out of the factory in 1924 as a four-door sedan bodied by Brunn & Company, Lincoln’s close partner at the time. Most of that elegant bodywork disappeared during its conversion into a truck: the front passenger-side section remains, but the rear gave way to a utilitarian platform. It’s impossible to know exactly when or why this conversion happened; no specifics are given. The host of the video dedicated to this vehicle simply notes that the transformation dates back “years ago,” per the host of the YouTube channel What it’s like, cited by autoevolution.
Inside, the contrast with the car’s initial mission is striking. The door panels are now bare wood, stark and simple, and the front bench is covered in a burlap-like fabric. This utilitarian treatment starkly contrasts with what one would expect from a Lincoln of that era. The cabin, however, is all-wood and remains in surprisingly good condition for a century-old vehicle, and you can still find the original Lincoln gauges. The truck even retains the cigarette lighter, once considered a luxury feature.
From the 1924 Lincoln L Series truck to the Lincoln Blackwood and Mark LT
Under the hood, this 1924 Lincoln L Series truck has not abandoned its luxury-car origins. It still houses the period V8, a 359 cubic inches engine, or 5.9 liters, rated at 90 horsepower. Through 1927, all L Series used this block, later replaced by a 385 cubic inches V8, about 6.3 liters, with the same official horsepower. On this truck, the engine designed to carry dignitaries in comfort now serves to pull and transport, a striking change of role.
Even though it does not correspond to any factory configuration, this Lincoln-based utility vehicle stands as a full-scale design exercise, a “what if?” applied to the idea of a luxury pickup. That said, a few 1920s Lincoln chassis had already been converted into work vehicles, such as a 1924 Lincoln Search Light Truck listed by a vintage-truck club. It shows that the idea of a Lincoln-branded utility vehicle isn’t entirely new, even if it remained on the fringe and off the catalog for a long time.
When Lincoln officially embraced the pickup: Blackwood and Mark LT
It took until the late 2000s for Lincoln to really dive into the pickup market, with the Lincoln Blackwood. This model, derived from a Ford F-150 and the Navigator SUV, borrowed the cabin from a Ford F-150 SuperCrew, but turned the bed into a luxurious closed cargo box with a motorized lid and dark-wood paneling. Despite this dramatic approach, the Blackwood was a commercial failure. Produced for the 2002 model year, it was pulled from the lineup after barely a year, with the last units sold through 2002, totaling about 3,383 units.
Yet Lincoln tried a second time with luxury pickups, the Lincoln Mark LT, offered from 2006 to 2008 in North America. Still based on the Ford F-150, it addressed several of the Blackwood’s shortcomings by offering a true open bed and four-wheel drive. The Mark LT got off to a stronger start, selling around 10,000 units in its first year, even outselling the Cadillac Escalade EXT. North American sales ended after the 2008 model year, but a second generation remained in the Mexican lineup from 2010 to 2014. In the meantime, much more conventional 1924 Model L cars, restored as limousines or phaetons, now fetch roughly $15,000 to $100,000 depending on condition and bodywork, i.e., about €14,000 to €93,000, giving a sense of the heritage value of that chassis—even when it became a very singular truck.
