Thunderbird Club

[TerribleTim68]

I'm kind of in awe here. That can't have been cheap. Eons ago when I worked in a saw repair shop, we had a round surface plate (somewhere between 24" and 30") on bearings. It was one of the most expensive bits of gear we had until the shop really took off.

That's the best part, I traded for it. It was one of those road plates they place over construction holes for cars to drive over. I had this old racecar chassis that I was trying to sell, nobody wanted to buy it, and then another racer calls me up and says "Hey, you wanna trade that chassis for this surface plate I've got?" I jumped on it! That plate has been one of our most used tools! Right now it's got my new racecar build on it -

This is another old chassis that we tried to sell, but nobody wanted, so we drug it out of the weeds, stuck it on the surface plate and started going at it.
Race season starts in April, I better get my butt in gear!

 

[MCF]

I'm super super spoiled in that regard. The shop is a 40x42 building at my brother's house where we house my racecar, his 2 racercars, his daughter's racecar and our friend's racecar. We have a huge surface plate, this 1.5" thick steel plate that is about 10'x14' and about the most level surface you could ask for when you need to reclip a front subframe on these things. The shop also houses an insane amount of tools, welders, torches, plasma cutter, chop saw, band saw, tubing bender, a 3 foot stomp sheer, a 4 foot box brake, sand blasting cabinet, a nice sized steel rack that we keep a decent inventory of "stuff we use a lot" and so on and so on. There really isn't much in the way of steel fabrication that we haven't gathered up over the years, so we're pretty set at this point. As for my "skills", it's an ongoing learning process. But I've gotten to where I can cut an entire front or rear clip off and put a new one on. The front clips we buy already fabricated, so it's a matter of welding them on in the right location. The rear clips, bumpers, right side door bars, interior tin work, dashes and that sort of stuff I build from scratch. Here's a dash I put in his daughter's little racecar, because I just couldn't handle how the gauge cluster was just zip-tied in there when he bought the car -
View attachment 3706464
It wasn't fancy, it's a $500 racecar. Just a little time with the stomp sheer, the brake and the shrinker, but it was a huge improvement over what she had. Probably took me 4 hours total to get it where I wanted it. Luckily those are the times that my brother just steps back and goes "You do whatever you want."

Years ago when the Mears Gang was getting into development of NASCAR trucks, I knew Roger a bit and got to tour the shop. An amazing place. They even had one of the old Indy cars in it. Cleaner than my house. More tools than are on a sub tender. No pictures allowed though.

 

[Nocturnal]

Locusts and reality show politicians come to mind

Aren't all politicians "reality show" politician anymore?

 

[RedVee]

The new to me NR is quickly settling in. I’ve put about eight hours on it and love the neck. It feels like the 1.5 on the ‘15, although the reach is a tad longer due to how it hangs on my body. It will be tied with the ‘15 as my #1. I’m loving it so much that I decided “what the heck.” I just ordered a Babicz that is set to arrive Saturday. While the three point is working fine, the bit of screwdriver wear on the bass and treble bolts was bugging me. And the bottom string wraps were on the saddles on the E and A which I never like but didn’t seem to be causing an issue. Rather than cleaning the bolts up and painting them, I’m just going to do now what I knew I’d be doing eventually. I learned my lesson re ordering as I’m still waiting on the Hipshot for the Silverburst. There were two available through Amazon Prime so I went that route rather than trying to save a few bucks.

Happy THUNDERBIRD Thursday!
View attachment 3706433

have you played them through a Marshall ?

 

[TerribleTim68]

Years ago when the Mears Gang was getting into development of NASCAR trucks, I knew Roger a bit and got to tour the shop. An amazing place. They even had one of the old Indy cars in it. Cleaner than my house. More tools than are on a sub tender. No pictures allowed though.

I'm lucky enough to have known the Cope family. We live in the same town as Derrek, and my in-laws are literally blocks away from his brother Darren's house. I've raced against Darren's girls, Ashley and Amber. Currently one of them is still trying to make her way in the NASCAR world, you can look her up by Googling "The Ruch Life", they are currently doing a docu-series on Youtube about her life. Personally, she's a bit of a spoiled drama-queen, but who am I to judge? I will say, she hugs quite nice. The embrace I got when I showed up at the hospital during her dad's heart attack was well worth the time spent driving across town.

I once got the chance to chat with Tom Sneva when he brought his super modified to the local short track I was racing at. Fastest thing I've ever seen on that tiny little track! Broke the overall track record and I swear it was literally parking at the center of the turns. Just so much horsepower down the straights! I asked him "Does it feel like it's as slow in the turns as it looks?" He said "Well, oval track racing is just two drag strips with a corner at each end."
God only knows how fast it would have run if he ever got it to turn good!

 

[MCF]

have you played them through a Marshall ?

Yep, as a matter of fact I have! The little 60 watt/12” used combo I got a couple of weeks ago with the tube preamp. It’s the master; the Carvin 100 watt/15” (with something gone wrong in the compression circuit) is the slave. Sounds thunderous in the practice room.

 

[MCF]

I'm lucky enough to have known the Cope family. We live in the same town as Derrek, and my in-laws are literally blocks away from his brother Darren's house. I've raced against Darren's girls, Ashley and Amber. Currently one of them is still trying to make her way in the NASCAR world, you can look her up by Googling "The Ruch Life", they are currently doing a docu-series on Youtube about her life. Personally, she's a bit of a spoiled drama-queen, but who am I to judge? I will say, she hugs quite nice. The embrace I got when I showed up at the hospital during her dad's heart attack was well worth the time spent driving across town.

I once got the chance to chat with Tom Sneva when he brought his super modified to the local short track I was racing at. Fastest thing I've ever seen on that tiny little track! Broke the overall track record and I swear it was literally parking at the center of the turns. Just so much horsepower down the straights! I asked him "Does it feel like it's as slow in the turns as it looks?" He said "Well, oval track racing is just two drag strips with a corner at each end."
God only knows how fast it would have run if he ever got it to turn good!

I’ve seen pics of the twins. You da’ man Tim if you got an embrace from either one or both of them.

 

[RedVee]

I would have put money on it that you would have said melon.

no, you must have mistaken me for our Canadian friend.

mind you, I am slowly becoming a stereotypical Aussie. I bought my first Akruba last week.
I already have RM Williams boots and jeans. Next I’ll have Slim Dusty in my playlist..... oops

 

[GonePlaid]

View attachment 3706404

 

[dagrev]

I totally get it. Part of why I stick to stock car racing is because I can build them cheaper than I can buy them and I can still get in and out of them. Some of my stock cars over the years -
The early years:
View attachment 3706110 View attachment 3706112 View attachment 3706109 View attachment 3706111
Then things started getting expensive:
View attachment 3706115 View attachment 3706108 View attachment 3706113
And she was on the cover of a magazine once too:
View attachment 3706114

"Let's go racin' boys!"

 

[dagrev]

Locusts and reality show politicians come to mind

There you go. You were way too narrow.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I’ve seen pics of the twins. You da’ man Tim if you got an embrace from either one or both of them.

Will it help any if I tell you it was one at a time, and then both at once? Some days are better than others.

 

[dagrev]

Thursday?
View attachment 3706195

Warming up for a windmill?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

There are some great deals right now on Classic Pros. Yeesh.

 

[dagrev]

The new to me NR is quickly settling in. I’ve put about eight hours on it and love the neck. It feels like the 1.5 on the ‘15, although the reach is a tad longer due to how it hangs on my body. It will be tied with the ‘15 as my #1. I’m loving it so much that I decided “what the heck.” I just ordered a Babicz that is set to arrive Saturday. While the three point is working fine, the bit of screwdriver wear on the bass and treble bolts was bugging me. And the bottom string wraps were on the saddles on the E and A which I never like but didn’t seem to be causing an issue. Rather than cleaning the bolts up and painting them, I’m just going to do now what I knew I’d be doing eventually. I learned my lesson re ordering as I’m still waiting on the Hipshot for the Silverburst. There were two available through Amazon Prime so I went that route rather than trying to save a few bucks.

Happy THUNDERBIRD Thursday!
View attachment 3706433

Perfect display for the living room I'd say.

 

[gaffster]

I had a 69 Camaro. Fun car. I destroyed it. But the kid next door got a hand me down battleship of a Buick. Maybe it was an Olds. The air cleaner was like 3 feet across. There would be 14 kids crammed in that thing. Go over the railroad tracks at 50mph and 2 miles later the thing was still bouncing. One time he tried a high speed turn. It just didn't. Turn. My dirt-bike fit in the trunk. Eventually it was left in the woods. We used to shoot the crap out of that thing.

 

[JJR58]

Cars......

 

[TerribleTim68]

So my sad car story is this:
The old lady that lived across the street from us had a 1959 Cadillac El Dorado convertible and a 1968 Chevy Camaro in her garage, both in immaculate condition. She was well into her 80s at the time, I was around 16-17 and me and my dad would go over once a month and pull the two out of her garage, fire them up, let them run for a bit and then put them away for her. Her grandson turned 16 one year and she gave him the Camaro, which he promptly crashed into a phone pole that very day. Hit it hard enough they scrapped the whole car, it was just junk. As a 17 year old kid I really can't remember ever being that angry in my life.
Eventually we moved away and I have no clue what became of the Caddy.

There are some great deals right now on Classic Pros. Yeesh.

So what's "great", and where?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

(Inspired by @MCF)
I've had the VP that I bought from @DWLANG for a few weeks, and while I *really* liked it out of the box, it's grown on me. The .23" (~.6cm) narrower neck makes my hands even happier than the neck on the standard IV. I don't get quite the thunder by default, but EQing gets me close. I still plan to try Cobalt flats on this when I restring the std to BEAD[1], but the RS66s are growing on me, and finally not bothering my fingers much. We'll see how the CF silks do with the bridge spacing.

Even with the larger headstock, the weight isn't bad and there's not much dive.The body feels and looks great. Thanks again to all who recommended the VP. She's already my main bass squeeze.

[1] It's a great sound, but I don't need an angry piano too often right now.

 

[Gaolee]

Well at least it's not a lemon.


I don't know about you, but I'm 62 and my body feels like it's aged decades in the last ten years. I have pains in places I didn't even know I had.

I just turned 60. Everything still works fine. Proof there's a God who likes the entertainment.

The main difference is that I don't feel the need to cause mayhem all the time so much any more. Pain hasn't been much of an issue, but then I'm fairly used to the random painful body part. So long as it's not big and constant in one place, and it doesn't stop me from doing anything, it's perfectly OK.