What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

Ordered a new brake booster and master cylinder just to be safe. There was some rust I would have had to touch up on the booster, so I decided not to be a cheap ass and order one. Almost ordered the intake, but I'm to cheap today. Tomorrow might be the day for that.
 
It's supposed to be 50 today, so I'll be out installing a radiator. :) It snowed yesterday, but it was so dry it didn't stick. But it was 32 last night. Kaatu hates it when I don't let him out nights,lol.
 
Swapped out my LR knuckle w/ one I snagged at JY a few weeks ago. Damn hub was shot. I'll probably get some imported replacement and pop in the new timken bearing and swap back. Noticed the top control arm bushing was powdered. Damn is there anything that hasn't worn out yet? I noticed the compensator arm bushing looked thin. Well I guess I can start planning for a spring rebuild of rear suspension since shocks are shot🤔
 
I did not work on the car today; I spent the day making fireworks. Some things are still legal. :)
Grilled burgers outside, awesome day for december. But of course, it's supposed to be 20 tonight, and possible snow. :roll:
 
Generalee0527 said:
Swapped out my LR knuckle w/ one I snagged at JY a few weeks ago. Damn hub was shot. I'll probably get some imported replacement and pop in the new timken bearing and swap back. Noticed the top control arm bushing was powdered. Damn is there anything that hasn't worn out yet? I noticed the compensator arm bushing looked thin. Well I guess I can start planning for a spring rebuild of rear suspension since shocks are shot🤔
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The toe compensators don’t actually have bushings, they’re essentially ball joints, and like ball joints when the dust boots go bad grit can get in and wear them out

I feel your pain, I lost a genuine Cobra hub in the summer. Moreover my Focus needed motor mounts, throttle body, valve cover gaskets, plugs, ac condenser, front and rear sway bar links, new brake rotors(again!) washer fluid pump, even the stupid hood prop bushing failed! Things have a way of cascading with old cars
 
Dropped the trans pan, wiped it out and cleaned the magnet. Chased one bolt hole. Someone had put a 13mm headed one in there for some reason. It wasn't even tight. It had four slots in the first five treads, which were tapered down. Poor man's tap? One of the other regular bolts threaded in ok after the chasing but I didn't tighten it as much as the rest of them.
Drained and filled the supercharger, too, so I'm good for a while there!
Chandar8 said:
Recovered shitbird today from the car theif and got a gift from them.
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Any new stains? 😯
 
Ericv8thunderbird said:
Another step closer, but the link bar on the right side is hitting my console top, I guess I’ll have to trim the link bar a little bit.
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I had to reshape my linkbar when I switched from the manual SC console to the 97 console, same issue where the straight bar wouldn’t clear the auto top anymore

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I need to get out in the garage and dig out the cougar grills I have, and make a mold out of it. I'm going to make a mold and cast one out of metal. I also bought some high temp molding clay, that might be ususable in a thermite process; a Ti grill would cost about 100 for materials, chromium about 50. Aluminum I could melt and pour.
 
Speaking of Cougar grilles…

I was getting some junk out of the crawl space yesterday and completely forgot I did this in like 08 or 09ish??? before realizing “naaaah”

BMW later copied it :BMW:

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As far as what I did, I took the battery and brought it indoors since the car’s parked for the season, threw it on the trickle charger since I’ve activated the interior lights a few dozen times since parked. 4/18 on the date label 🫣

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It's pretty easy to measure the condition of a lead -acid battery Do a good overnight charge, then let it cool. A well charged one, after cooling to room temp is 2.25v per cell. as long as that's good, the other test is internal resistance. I use a old sealed beam headlight. It draws ~15A. Open voltage-loaded voltage/current=batt internal resistance. If it drops a volt at 15a, that's not bad; a200A start stays above 8V, which our eec needs to start and run. (Internal regulator is 5V, but it needs 3v of 'headroom to work, so 8v minimum) 1/15=0.06 ohm times 200a=starting volts drop.12.6-drop=starting voltage .
If you want to measure capacity, leave the load connected until the voltage drops to ~10v.
How long it takes is the reserve capacity. A couple of charge discharge cycles can bring one back from high internal resistance.
 
They're the same chemistry; they just overheat in places if you charge or discharge them too fast.
They should measure the same.
 
Grog6 said:
They're the same chemistry; they just overheat in places if you charge or discharge them too fast.
They should measure the same.
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And that’s the good news. I killed my last redtop trying to start the engine with it very low, this one I’ve babied… nonetheless it is 6 years old and holy crap it doesn’t feel that long ago!
 
I was going to suggest 300 pounds of bracing. :)
Something useful would be longtubes for v-8 cars,lol.
 
Been talking to my wife about getting the T-Bird in the garage! I just need Christmas and all it's crap to be put back in their boxes and away in their respective storage spots in the garage AND for the old dining room table to be get sold or given away or something.

White Lincoln said:
I bought a mig welder today. Now what do I do?!
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Ericv8thunderbird said:
Subframe connectors would be nice! 😬
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This. Right. Here.
 
I still have a set I bought from jl 15 years ago for the red cougar.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Connect a ground lead and make a stack of dimes! Geez it’s not that complicated! 😆
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Ah your too nice XR! Yeah, I plan to make my own damn hitch for my car since this one (my fault) I thought was made for my car. Maybe a bike rack for the hitch since the one I bought was just friken scary how unstable it was on the hitch reciever. And people drive cross country with these racks? YIKES!

As mentioned, I want to seal my exhaust when I get it installed instead of using clamps. I need to learn how to make a good weld before I start buying a lot of metal to make stuff with. Frack, if Simon the Ford Man can make a wench frame for the front of his F250, I can make a bike rack for my Town Car!!!

"Let it be written, so let it be done."
 
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