Post a picture you took today

Clearly my mind is warped, lol.

I saw it and thought to myself, "Is it a Chevy that wants to be a Kia? A Kia that thinks it's a Chevy? What's the difference these days anyway?"
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
Fun fact: The Trax is manufactured in Korea.

Side note: They (Trax and Envista) drive exceptionally well for the price.
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Oh, that's an X not an M. I read that wrong. I couldn't quite make it out in the picture and I sure as hell wasn't going to take the time to look it up. :LOL:
 
XR7-4.6 said:
I can barely tell Traxes, Equonixes and current Blazers apart, they all seem to be the same boring crossover with different names
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What's worse is you mean the trail blazer. Which is now smaller than the blazer. FFS how many cross overs do we need?!
 
Zep5.0 said:
What's worse is you mean the trail blazer. Which is now smaller than the blazer. FFS how many cross overs do we need?!
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I know! All I see in the rental car lots these days are these tiny little subcompacts shaped like crossovers. Every MFG. is turning their vehicles into crossovers.

I currently have a KIA Sportage that I picked up last night in Pittsburgh. It was the best of what was on the lot at the time.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
I know! All I see in the rental car lots these days are these tiny little subcompacts shaped like crossovers. Every MFG. is turning their vehicles into crossovers.

I currently have a KIA Sportage that I picked up last night in Pittsburgh. It was the best of what was on the lot at the time.
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It’s sad that was the best car available.
 
Kidd-7 said:
It’s sad that was the best car available.
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Yeah, without getting an upgrade that was it. There were a lot of cars on the lot but not many crossovers or larger SUVs. Lots of small Chevys, Honda's and small Toyotas, and a smaller KIA than the Sportage - I don't recall the model. This is with Hertz.

We used to use National which is a MUCH better rental car company. I used to get Audi's with National. The best I've been able to manage with Hertz on a semi-regular basis is some Volvo's. I did get lucky at Houston-Hobby one time and landed a Mercedes C300 as my rental from Hertz.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
That’s brilliant! Very accurate. Fee things I would have labeled differently, but fantastic for a 10 YO. What was the source and inspiration to draw that?
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He's very technical for his age, IMO.

What's his inspiration? He likes to know how things work. Like, he's probably at a point where he can design an engine and transmission on his own, lol.

Trunk Monkey said:
a smaller KIA than the Sportage - I don't recall the model. This is with Hertz.
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The Kona
 
20250107_125229.jpg


A diesel powered aircraft 500 amp gpu we got for free. Been sitting in a hangar for a couple years so will need to go through all the maintenance items but you can't beat the price.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
I can barely tell Traxes, Equonixes and current Blazers apart, they all seem to be the same boring crossover with different names
Click to expand...

Ok...I don't disagree entirely. I'd wish they offered me a Monte Carlo instead. However, I think GM deserves some credit for the Trax. They went from this egg-shaped thing:
2017-Chevrolet-Trax.jpg
...to this tall wagon-esque car and kept pricing steady:
013-2024-chevrolet-trax-side-profile.jpg

Trax also comes with a conventional automatic and probably the widest tires in its class. Having test driven Trax (and Envista) myself, they feel remarkably solid and spacious. Nobody needs more car than this.
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
Ok...I don't disagree entirely. I'd wish they offered me a Monte Carlo instead. However, I think GM deserves some credit for the Trax. They went from this egg-shaped thing:
View attachment 9595
...to this tall wagon-esque car and kept pricing steady:
View attachment 9596

Trax also comes with a conventional automatic and probably the widest tires in its class. Having test driven Trax (and Envista) myself, they feel remarkably solid and spacious. Nobody needs more car than this.
Click to expand...

It looks exactly like the Blazer lol

1736312628555.jpeg
 
On certain days, when the sunlight hits the interior just right, the wood grain really pops!

...but it also makes me think I haven't come up with any new mod idea in a while. I'm slowing down a bit due to the cold, plus I want to focus more on maintenance and overall mechanical health rather than appearance. I still have some ideas though, to be tackled later in the year: I'd really like to move to a column shifter, replacing the floor shifter with a storage cubby; new headliner would be nice; and I think I might want a Thunderbird cockpit arc, albeit not in black.

20250108_143918.jpgScreenshot_20250108_182503_Gallery.jpg
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
On certain days, when the sunlight hits the interior just right, the wood grain really pops!

...but it also makes me think I haven't come up with any new mod idea in a while. I'm slowing down a bit due to the cold, plus I want to focus more on maintenance and overall mechanical health rather than appearance. I still have some ideas though, to be tackled later in the year: I'd really like to move to a column shifter, replacing the floor shifter with a storage cubby; new headliner would be nice; and I think I might want a Thunderbird cockpit arc, albeit not in black.

View attachment 9600View attachment 9601
Click to expand...

Believe it or not I wholeheartedly support this idea! Should be pretty straight forward too, our column is shared with Crown Vic’s and in fact has provisions for the column shifter cast into it. I’m not sure if the mounting holes are tapped though. Fun fact, the 83-84s came with a console standard and a column shift standard. They just filled the shifter hole with a little rubber storage pad

IMG_6191.jpeg

Floor shifts on automatics are for poseurs anyway lol
 
Plus it'll put the O/D button at the end of the shifter, so I can push it without taking my hands off the wheel.

Challenges I see:
  • No hole in firewall for shift cable
  • No bracket on bell housing for shift cable
  • Column shroud from Panthers may not fit with MN12 dash bezel (our shroud has sort of a downward kink)
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
Plus it'll put the O/D button at the end of the shifter, so I can push it without taking my hands off the wheel.

Challenges I see:
  • No hole in firewall for shift cable
  • No bracket on bell housing for shift cable
  • Column shroud from Panthers may not fit with MN12 dash bezel (our shroud has sort of a downward kink)
Click to expand...

Yeah that’s probably the challenge, they have the kink but it’s further forward, so you might have to cut a hole in the stock one to make it work, IF the shifter clears the bezel.

1736380779080.jpeg


Not sure about the cable routing path but the bellhousing doesn’t matter, the cable attaches to the transmission the same way as the floor shift cable does, the bellhousing (case) is identical to ours
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Not sure about the cable routing path but the bellhousing doesn’t matter, the cable attaches to the transmission the same way as the floor shift cable does, the bellhousing (case) is identical to ours
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This bracket. We don't have that (I think?). Also, on Panthers the shift cable attached above the neutral safety switch, not below as on our cars.

labelledtranscase01-vi.jpg

XR7-4.6 said:
Yeah that’s probably the challenge, they have the kink but it’s further forward, so you might have to cut a hole in the stock one to make it work, IF the shifter clears the bezel.

View attachment 9604
Click to expand...

Damn...
I may have to spend a day at the junkyard and swap columns between Panther and MN12 and see what it looks like.
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
On certain days, when the sunlight hits the interior just right

View attachment 9600
Click to expand...

Oh yeah as pretty as the golden hour sun is, it wreaks havoc on the manual climate control face. The red pigment Ford used to print it isn’t lightfast so it tends to fade to pink/white. I was looking for one when I was tossing around the idea of converting after having some SATC issues and almost every used head I came across was faded. Happens to the heat button on SATC heads too but less commonly
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
This bracket. We don't have that (I think?). Also, on Panthers the shift cable attached above the neutral safety switch, not below as on our cars.

View attachment 9605



Damn...
I may have to spend a day at the junkyard and swap columns between Panther and MN12 and see what it looks like.
Click to expand...

They don’t have the bracket but the bell housings all have the holes to attach it

1736381962991.jpeg
 
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