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Thunderbird Club

#198,921
Stealth57 said:
The other issue is the metal content. They add copper to the aluminum to made it less abrasive to the stamping dies but that also makes it softer as a body panel. Nothing like a steel panel from the 60s and 70s. I could throw a baseball off my dad's 66 Galaxy 500 and use it as a pitchback.
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The days of jumping on the hood of a car are long gone. Do it now and the body shop says: "Sir, you're going to need a whole new dog house."
 
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#198,922
25 degrees and sunny in Seattle this Wednesday.

CHTV8u0.jpg
 
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#198,923
Miles_ONeal said:
A hailstorm hit Austin the summer after I moved here. It totaled a lot of cars. I couldn’t even find a ding on my 1983 Honda Interceptor. 10 or so years ago, I got caught in a hail storm in my Miata. Got the ragtop up just in time. The hail was deflecting that top 6-8”. I just ducked down as low as I could until I ended up under on a church porch under a roof to wait the storm out. Gold ball to softball sized hail. Not a dent on that 2001 Miata, although I suspect it hastened the demise of the roof. And yes, I made sure the porch was clean when I left!
I’ve ridden through a hailstorm on that bike, as well, tucked in behind the mini fairing with hail bouncing off my helmet, boots, and knuckles. Thank God I couldn’t find my summer gloves that day and had worn my thick winter gloves! (70mph tight traffic on 285 in Atlanta, no safe way to pull off under an overpass.)
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That's the only time in my life I've encountered hail like that. We make up for it in a lot of other ways though. I love snow though and miss it.
 
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#198,924
JIO said:
Good story Miles! :thumbsup: I drove from Chicago to Iowa City in early August mid '80s to ride their annual RAGBRAI (did it twice) in my '66 122s Volvo estate wagon. (loved that car!) I left late on a Friday night to arrive for the Saturday morning start. It was raining in Chicago when I left - hard. At a certain point on the journey, my drivers side wind-screen wiper flew off! (whoosh - gone!) It was monsoon-level rain and luckily I was able to (as you referred to) pull under an overpass safely. I put the passenger side wiper on the drivers side, waited for a lull, and continued into the rain. Got there in the early AM and snoozed in the car until dawn. I made a fabric covered foam insert for the full cargo space (with rear seats folded down) in the wagon which was actually very comfy to sleep on. I took the bike out of the car when I got there as I was in my friends safe IC drive-way.

Also - I was on a Sunday group-ride on near-north Chicago roads when the temp dropped radically and we (all in short sleeved jerseys) on the way back were pummeled with cold hail! We just laughed as it was so extreme!

Raced (road bicycles) in the rain, won a UCF RR in the rain, and had epic training-rides and centuries in the rain. Those days are over - no more rain rides for Geo...

I've also been on my VFR in the rain here in the Bay Area - at night (!) lane-splitting and having cars attempt to squeeze me as I pass. (door-slamming A-holes) Oh well... chalk it up for life as a dedicated 2-wheeled road-warrior I guess.
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I was living in Burlington VT for a few years during the 1990's, one day I decided to take my bike back to Worcester, Mass (Millbury actually) to visit my parents (approx 200 miles). It was a beautiful summer day when i left about noontime, no jacket, nothing, I think i had a tank top on. As I went along I noticed the sky was starting to get cloudy, then it started drizzling then the temp gradually dropped to the low 60's by the time I was halfway to Worcester. I got so cold between the drop in temp and the rain I had drive down the break down lane going probably 15- 20 mph, FREEZING. I finally got a mile from my destination and got a flat in my rear tire. I left my bike there and walked the rest of the way. That taught me to always be prepared :laugh:
 
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#198,925
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#198,926
d52c72fb806aa70e4ac1f34464471d81.jpg


Do any of you fine Thunderbird players have a line on where I might obtain an Orville truss rod cover?

I found an Orville (or possibly Epi Japan) Thunderbird being sold as a Greco. It looks so much like my first (76) Thunderbird that I kinda fell for it. It has a small, repaired (but visible) headstock crack and no TRC (so it sold relatively cheap), and I'd like to clean it up and make it pretty when it gets in. I actually like the Japanese copies so I don't want to hide its provenance with a Gibson TRC. Thanks for any help or ideas!
 
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#198,927
GBassNorth said:
Got it. Wasn’t aware it was a barrel jack.

There is a special wrench that grips the external knurled portion of the jack to hold it in place and keep the jack from spinning while you tighten the nut inside the control cavity. I have one of those wrenches I can loan you, but don’t recall where you can buy them.

I’m assuming you have easy access to the nut on the cavity side so you can use an open end wrench to tighten it down. I checked all my Eppi and Gibby barrel jack birds and they are easy nut access.

If your nut inside the control cavity isn’t easily accessible you may have to use needle nose pliers or possibly even a small flat blade screw driver to turn the nut.

edit: just found this at stewmac and it might work for the knurled portion of the jack if that’s your issue…
Adjustable Toggle Switch Wrench - StewMac
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That looks like a handy tool to have in the guitar toolbox. Leave it to Stwemac. They have some great specialized tools. But you certainly pay the price for them.
 
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#198,928
69'Vette said:
View attachment 4596821

Do any of you fine Thunderbird players have a line on where I might obtain an Orville truss rod cover?

I found an Orville (or possibly Epi Japan) Thunderbird being sold as a Greco. It looks so much like my first (76) Thunderbird that I kinda fell for it. It has a small, repaired (but visible) headstock crack and no TRC (so it sold relatively cheap), and I'd like to clean it up and make it pretty when it gets in. I actually like the Japanese copies so I don't want to hide its provenance with a Gibson TRC. Thanks for any help or ideas!
Click to expand...
Give a shout out to @Engle he did a fantastic job creating my Greco truss cover.
39876A77-4E4F-4E8F-8168-EC08A2133C99.jpeg
 
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#198,930
Larry V said:
I'll tell you the difference and it's just amazing what my industry has done with sheet metal stampings.

I've got 37 years in die engineering, 32 with GM and back when I first got in the business, car panels could be over 2mm in thickness. Over the years that thickness has been pared down for lightening the overall weight of the car. I remember all the incremental changes through the years. 2mm went down to 1.5mm. Then 1.5 went down to 1.2 and 1.0 and today, all these years later, an unbelievable .5mm sheet metal thickness for some panels.

The hood panels on my computer as I type this are an outer panel and its inner panel running simultaneously in a single set of dies. The outer panel is .6mm thick and the inner panel is .5mm. This is both an amazing accomplishment for the steel industry to make malleable sheet steel this thin that can be formed into car panels and likewise for the die forming industry that would've told anyone they were crazy for trying to make car panels out of sheet metal that thin not so many years ago.

All this to say that your '95 Roadmonster is/was a beast with very thick outer panels whereas your '09 probably had .8mm or .75mm outer panels. Thick compared to today's thicknesses but nowhere as durable as your older Buick.

Car panels today are replaced instead of bumped and filled when damage needs to be repaired since they are less able to be worked by hand due to their thinness. That's not my center of expertise but that's what I've been told.
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Which is one of the reasons your’re paying so much for car insurance.
 
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#198,935
JIO said:
Good story Miles! :thumbsup: I drove from Chicago to Iowa City in early August mid '80s to ride their annual RAGBRAI (did it twice) in my '66 122s Volvo estate wagon. (loved that car!) I left late on a Friday night to arrive for the Saturday morning start. It was raining in Chicago when I left - hard. At a certain point on the journey, my drivers side wind-screen wiper flew off! (whoosh - gone!) It was monsoon-level rain and luckily I was able to (as you referred to) pull under an overpass safely. I put the passenger side wiper on the drivers side, waited for a lull, and continued into the rain. Got there in the early AM and snoozed in the car until dawn. I made a fabric covered foam insert for the full cargo space (with rear seats folded down) in the wagon which was actually very comfy to sleep on. I took the bike out of the car when I got there as I was in my friends safe IC drive-way.

Also - I was on a Sunday group-ride on near-north Chicago roads when the temp dropped radically and we (all in short sleeved jerseys) on the way back were pummeled with cold hail! We just laughed as it was so extreme!

Raced (road bicycles) in the rain, won a UCF RR in the rain, and had epic training-rides and centuries in the rain. Those days are over - no more rain rides for Geo...

I've also been on my VFR in the rain here in the Bay Area - at night (!) lane-splitting and having cars attempt to squeeze me as I pass. (door-slamming A-holes) Oh well... chalk it up for life as a dedicated 2-wheeled road-warrior I guess.
Click to expand...
It was cold this morning, but no ice. So the DRZ was my commuter tool. That's pretty normal.
 
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#198,936
Larry V said:
I'll tell you the difference and it's just amazing what my industry has done with sheet metal stampings.

I've got 37 years in die engineering, 32 with GM and back when I first got in the business, car panels could be over 2mm in thickness. Over the years that thickness has been pared down for lightening the overall weight of the car. I remember all the incremental changes through the years. 2mm went down to 1.5mm. Then 1.5 went down to 1.2 and 1.0 and today, all these years later, an unbelievable .5mm sheet metal thickness for some panels.

The hood panels on my computer as I type this are an outer panel and its inner panel running simultaneously in a single set of dies. The outer panel is .6mm thick and the inner panel is .5mm. This is both an amazing accomplishment for the steel industry to make malleable sheet steel this thin that can be formed into car panels and likewise for the die forming industry that would've told anyone they were crazy for trying to make car panels out of sheet metal that thin not so many years ago.

All this to say that your '95 Roadmonster is/was a beast with very thick outer panels whereas your '09 probably had .8mm or .75mm outer panels. Thick compared to today's thicknesses but nowhere as durable as your older Buick.

Car panels today are replaced instead of bumped and filled when damage needs to be repaired since they are less able to be worked by hand due to their thinness. That's not my center of expertise but that's what I've been told.
Click to expand...
My wife's little Toyota has body panels that feel like gum wrappers. It's a great little car, but it is wrapped in an eggshell.
 
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