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Messages - Thunder Chicken

32
Lounge / So what can we do...
I just haven't had the time to do much lately - it's deer season, and I'm typing this at the cottage on internet that is barely above dialup speed but less reliable. I will say this about the suggestion to update the forum to a more phone-friendly version: Have any of you ever seen what makes a website "phone friendly"? Because any time I visit a forum on my phone it is ab-so-lutely POLLUTED with advertising. Mobile-friendly seems to do nothing except take a perfectly cromulent website and turn it into clickbait. One thing we admins have been pretty adamant about with this forum, right from day one, is that it would never become one of those annoying places full of ads, and I have that same belief still.
33
Lounge / So what can we do...
Quote from: V8Demon;467214
Ahhhhhh yes.......

That happened RIGHT around the time my desktop computer in the basp00get decided that the hard drive was no longer needed and it wanted to see the afterlife.....  I lost a TON of informative photos that I used to post here. I've found almost all of them again through other sources and whatnot, but to host them now is a pain.    I'll just link the direct source if there is one.....  And even those are disappearing....

I have a Flickr account which is awesome, but hosting from it onto a web forum is a bit of a bitch.
Anyone remember the old Fordfuelinjection site?  Thanks Ford corporate for effectively destroying one of the greatest information sources for enthusiasts of cars with the EEC-IV.  Really; Thanks.....

Photobucket was bound to do what they did simply because I joined photobucket about a week before they did it. It was all because of me
34
Lounge / So what can we do...
The reasons for this forum (and many others) shriveling up has pretty much been covered here: Facebook and the relative rarity of the cars. A lot of people have moved on, myself included - I sold my white T-Bird back in 2010 and my "toy" now is a 2015 Mustang GT. Some day I hope to get into a nice four-eye Bird with vent windows, but that is way, wayyyyy down on the list-o-priorities. I still check on this forum daily, but since I don't have one of the cars anymore I generally don't have much to say. I've even floated the idea of signing the forum over to someone else, perhaps Eric or Baxo or Chuck, who at least still has one of these cars.

Facebook has been both a boon and a bust for car fans, but it has definitely put a big hurt on forums. It's good because it allows you to post questions that get answered quickly (and also allows you to answer questions), and it is easy as hell to post pics without worrying about attachments or third party hosts. It's also easy to use on mobile devices. It's bad because information quickly gets buried and the same questions get asked over and over. It's also pretty much unmoderated.

I think one thing that has done a lot of damage to forums of all kinds was the great Photobucket debacle. At the flick of a switch millions of photos all over the internet disappeared and were held hostage by Photobucket, who was now demanding money, and not a small amount of money, to let you share them.  Countless Tech articles, user rides, projects, junk yard find threads, etc, suddenly became useless. That drove a LOT of people away from forums and onto social media. Photobucket has since reversed that move, but it's too late. People have lost their trust of the service and won't rely on it anymore.

I think most of the "hangers on" to forums, including this one, are long time users who check in frequently because it's like visiting old friends. I haven't met any of you personally but I've known a lot of you guys for over 20 years. Some of you were teenagers when you joined, some were even too young to drive.
36
User Rides / Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.
Quote from: Tbird232ci;466798
I did take the car out for a drive. Haven't driven it in a month or so. I always forget how shiznitty these cars are. I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get where I'm happy with its performance.

I experience this on a daily basis. I work at a shop that specializes in European cars. 90% of the work I do is on modern BMW's, Benz's, Volvos, Land Rovers, etc. Every once in a while, though, I do some work on a classic European car. Might be an old Land Rover Defender, might be a Triumph, Might be an Alfa Romeo, might be a Fiat. There have even been some old Volvo PV544's & 1800's, plus some air cooled VW's. These cars all look incredible, but driving them really, really sucks. They are awful. They feel like they're falling apart. About the only ones that feel solid are the old Benz's, but they have absolutely no road feel or handling, they just feel like tanks.

This is why some day, when I find a four-eye Bird and am actually in the position to buy it, I don't car what it's got for a drivetrain, because it's all going into the harbour. The car would be stripped to the shell and rebuilt the way I want it. It'll have modern suspension, brakes, drivetrain, etc. The interior would remain as stock appearing as possible but it'd get all modern infotainment and instrumentation. I'm at the point now I don't even know whether I could be happy with a Windsor engine. I think I'd have to go with a Coyote.
39
Lounge / No more Ford smalll sedans
Quote from: mcb82gt;465902
About 15 yrs ago, When I had my 82 Mustang GT (5.0 badges).  Pulled into a ford dealership, just checking things out.  Salesman walks out and said "nice 5.0.... is it a V8??"  He was dead serious.  LOL, he was about my age or older. I was in my 30's at the time.


Nobody will know our cars in a few more years, and I like it that way.  Mustangs are rarely seen and they are a dime a dozen compared to ours.
When I bought my Mustang I originally wanted Grabber Orange. Nobody had any, but one of the dealerships told me they had one coming in with the 2.7. I said, "you mean 3.7?", he said "No, it's a new 4-cyl Turbo". I said "You mean the 2.3 Ecoboost?", He said "No, it's a brand new engine". Didn't buy my 5.0 from him
40
Lounge / No more Ford smalll sedans
Nobody's buying sedans anymore. Everyone wants crossovers, SUV's, and trucks. The sales of almost all sedans from all manufacturers are in the toilet. Chrysler/Dodge pretty much already did this (300, Charger, Challenger, are the only cars left from those two, plus the 500 if you count Fiat), and Mitsubishi is doing it as well. Sedans have become the new station wagon, the new vehicle nobody wants (ironically, being replaced by jacked up station wagons). Others will follow.
41
Lounge / 350 (?) swap makes your rusty Thunderbird worth more
It's got black window trim so it's a Sport, which means traction lock. And that's about the only thing it's got going for it.

If it's a 6.6 and a Chevy, it's a 70's 400 small block. They weren't performance engines and were known for overheating because their large bore meant siamesed cylinders. The highest rated example was in the mid 200's for horsepower and they were meant for trucks and large cars. They were kinda Chevy's answer to the Ford 400M and Chrysler's 400 (though the Chevy came first) - mid-displacement emissions choked torgue monsters but not good performers, and with little aftermarket support. I doubt it has the four bolt mains as well, because such engines are quite rare.

I only know this stuff from back when I had my Firebirds and wanted a 400, because, as we all know, bigger is better :hick: Little did I realize back then that the LT1 I had was far more powerful and far more valuable than any 400...
43
Lounge / 88 Thunderbird with 20k miles, asking $15K
Quote from: V8Demon;463825
My car is on it's 2nd motor, 3rd transmisison, has had at least 3 paint jobs over the years, and has just under 230K on it. I've never done anything with regards to the floor or k-member which are original to the car (other than washing and occasionally waxing). Mine look a shiznit ton better than that.....  Goes to show you just because you don't drive it, doesn't mean you can just forget about it and expect it to last.....

I've found that not driving a car is worse on it than driving it, especially if it's kept outside or in a cold, damp barn. Around here you can almost watch the rust form on unprotected metal. It literally takes a half hour or so for a freshly machined rotor to start turning orange. Without regular driving that rust becomes much worse. Even brand new cars suffer from "lot rot", where the brakes need replacing if the car has been in inventory more than a month or so
44
Lounge / Who has guns?
Quote from: Tbird232ci;463453
You guys do have it rough. Are you guys limited to 5 round magazines up there?

I think that only applies to semi automatic rifles. Doesn't affect me - aside from the shotgun everything I have is bolt action, and the shotgun is limited to three shells. This is more of a wildlife conservation law than gun control - shotguns have been restricted to three shells for as long as I can remember, to prevent people from taking down whole flocks of geese, ducks, etc.
45
Lounge / Who has guns?
Quote from: Tbird232ci;463433
Being as I live in Maryland, this really isn't a topic I partake in.

Gun laws in Maryland suck testes.
Dude, I live in Canada. I know all about restrictive gun laws