What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

[Zep5.0]

Picked up my personalized blackout license plates. Hopefully take a picture with them on Friday if things go well

 

[Jae 'Bird]

...speaking of which, how does one get the smell of gasoline off one's hands?

This stubborn yet not entirely unpleasant scent emanating from my finger tips reminds me of the days, in my teens, when I was dating a girl.

In all seriousness I use this and it works amazing at removing any gas or oil smell

I also find that any gojo orange and pumice hand cleaner does the trick cause the citrus oils that smell good and kill fuel odors, home depot and princess auto.. errr.. I mean Harbor freight, would carry this stuff

 

[CDsDontBurn]

In all seriousness I use this and it works amazing at removing any gas or oil smell
View attachment 15139
I also find that any gojo orange and pumice hand cleaner does the trick cause the citrus oils that smell good and kill fuel odors, home depot and princess auto.. errr.. I mean Harbor freight, would carry this stuff

I'm going to take a wild guess at what influenced @Zep5.0 to his username

 

[MadMikeyL]

In all seriousness I use this and it works amazing at removing any gas or oil smell
View attachment 15139
I also find that any gojo orange and pumice hand cleaner does the trick cause the citrus oils that smell good and kill fuel odors, home depot and princess auto.. errr.. I mean Harbor freight, would carry this stuff

This is what I use at the shop. Although I buy it in gallon jugs.

 

[Zep5.0]

I'm going to take a wild guess at what influenced @Zep5.0 to his username

It's a funny story, but you're kind of correct. I worked at a car dealership in my college days as a detailer. We used Zep products, and there was an old guy who couldn't say Seth correctly, so he called me Zep. Not long after the technicians in the shop started calling me that and it stuck. Since those were the years I drove the cougar it seemed fitting.

 

[Grog6]

I took the radiator brackets off Lazarus; today I'm swapping the fuel rail over to the red cougar, as its rail is full of mud, from dirt dobbers; I missed the connections, but I got the other openings. I'll wash it out for reuse. I've got to rework the brackets to fit the cobra radiator.

 

[CDsDontBurn]

It's a funny story, but you're kind of correct. I worked at a car dealership in my college days as a detailer. We used Zep products, and there was an old guy who couldn't say Seth correctly, so he called me Zep. Not long after the technicians in the shop started calling me that and it stuck. Since those were the years I drove the cougar it seemed fitting.

LOL, that's awesome!

I'm pretty sure that all of us here have a story with our usernames.

Mine. Well, in my early 20s, I used to work for a regional computer repair shop named PC Club with a sales component. Think of it like Best Buy alongside Geek Squad. The company eventually expanded out of state and went as far as PA.

So I worked the sales side of the shop and would help customers with their items, answer questions, markups, etc.

One day, this older man comes in and is looking for a CD-ROM drive. I show him the drive and then show him the CD Burner right next to it for not much more, it was less than $10 more. He begins asking about the CD Burner and we eventually walk over to the register, me explaining to him the differences. Meanwhile, this older man just still isn't understanding the differences between the a CD-ROM drive and a CD Burner drive.

At this point, we've been at the register for a few more minutes, I'm still trying to explain the differences, and this man still doesn't get that CD-ROM drives don't burn CDs but CD Burner drives do, how it works, or what the differences are, and I'm frustrated at this point. In my frustration, I yell across the room to our lead tech and say, "Hey Chris! CDs don't burn, right?"

Not yet realizing what I had just said, I doubled down on what I said and repeat myself to the lead tech, "CDs don't burn, right?"

It was at that moment that everyone has eyes on me with glaring confusion. You could tell that the visible expression of confusion on the lead tech's face was that of, "WTF?"

The lead tech then replied with a, "That's right, CD-ROM drives don't burn CDs, but CD Burner drives do".

I don't remember if the older man bought the drive or not, but I remember that after he left and the store was empty of customers, everyone started poking fun at me and started saying, "Oh hey. It's Mr. CDs don't burn!" whenever I walked by or were looking for me.

And so yeah. That's my story to how I came up with my username

 

[Irv]

I'm pretty sure that all of us here have a story with our usernames.

I don't. I think I should have chosen more wisely.

 

[MadMikeyL]

My high school math teacher called me Mikey L. And at 17 years old, when I first registered for the old forum, I drove 100mph everywhere all the time, and my cousin said I was a madman behind the wheel. I also loved the movie Mad Max (more specifically the black XB Falcon), so combining that together came up with MadMikeyL.

 

[Jae 'Bird]

Now that we are all sharing stories, my parents would and still do call me Jae Birdo, or Jae Bird. Then when I took on caring for my T-bird, and joined the forum, the name seemed very fitting for two reasons and it stuck

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Ok, I'm starting to feel self conscious about my utterly boring screen name.

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

Mechanics soap, like big orange or similar.

 

[Zep5.0]

Ok, I'm starting to feel self conscious about my utterly boring screen name.

How about Junkyard Bird?! Or JYB for short.

 

[Irv]

How about Junkyard Bird?! Or JYB for short.

28 Shift Knobs Later

Just when I think I'm being snarky, I come to realize right now that they released 28 Years Later earlier this year. Now I have to add that to my watch list because I really enjoyed the first two in the franchise and I'm not even big into the horror genre.

 

[KevinVarnes]

When I was born my parents named me Kevin. Varnes just kind of came with being in the family. Over time, I began having to use both to identify myself.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I had the chance to change mine to XR7Matt but I didn’t want to confuse anyone

 

[CDsDontBurn]

I had the chance to change mine to XR7Matt but I didn’t want to confuse anyone

Don't you still do, technically?

 

[Derphound01]

We have hounds and they are derpy. Boom.

 

[XR7-4.6]

Went back to working on the tune. Been procrastinating because of the 15-20 files saved on my computer only one made in early June idles happy and even more crucially returns to idle happy. I flashed it about 10 times before I found it, but I found it…after an hour.


Weirdest part is the last time I attempted to revisit the tune situation (August) was simply to shut off the rear o2s since the new exhaust doesn’t have them, and also set the adaptive switch to 0 to work on the trims later. But OMG It would just CONSTANTLY die when I put in that tune, and figured I must have made changes to one of the bad tunes…. Of which I had little desire to sift through so I reloaded the one that worked and sent it. But then I looked at the history tabs and the changes line up with the now known good one, and it idles and drives fine



Get SCT PRP they said, it’ll be fun they said….

 

[Grog6]

While sifting thru the trans tune, I flashed it so many times The last one in walmarts parking lot killed the batt, and put it in limp mode, from a failed flash. I bought a cheap battery, put it in. and was able to reflash. Expensive lesson.

 

[XR7-4.6]

While sifting thru the trans tune, I flashed it so many times The last one in walmarts parking lot killed the batt, and put it in limp mode, from a failed flash. I bought a cheap battery, put it in. and was able to reflash. Expensive lesson.

I have to say I only put a volts gauge in my little autometer cluster to fill space but it’s proven itself very useful for times like that. I’ve heard forever that you can irreparably corrupt a PCM if you lose power in the middle of a flash

 

[Grog6]

I've heard that too. It didn't kill mine, but it barely ran,and only had 2nd. I was afraid it was toast. I programmed it again, and it worked.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I've heard that too. It didn't kill mine, but it barely ran,and only had 2nd. I was afraid it was toast. I programmed it again, and it worked.

That’s good, I took that disclaimer so seriously for so long that at this point I subconsciously take steps not let it happen (be it flashing only after a drive or hooking up a charger during the tune if not), but happily never had to deal with whatever happens if it did.

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

Since my exhaust is all 1 piece. I’m currently having it flanged so I can unbolt the mid-pipe, which will make it much easier to drop the trans.
Making an adjustment to the exhaust tips too, they’re slightly off and it drives me nuts.

 

[CDsDontBurn]

Man, that lift looks sexy AF.

I'd love to have one.

 

[Rodeo Joe]

Since my exhaust is all 1 piece. I’m currently having it flanged so I can unbolt the mid-pipe, which will make it much easier to drop the trans.
Making an adjustment to the exhaust tips too, they’re slightly off and it drives me nuts.

How did it come out?

Joe

 

[theterminator93]

Since I've had it the Mark it would always end up about 1 quart low on oil between changes. Over the last month or two I've noticed spots on the driveway and it's already a quart low with 1500 to go before it's due for a change.

So I finally crawled under the car and cleaned up a few handfuls of oily, dirty covering the K-member so I can try to figure out where the leak is coming from. Seems to be coming from the area near the P/S pump or filter adapter, but I replaced that gasket a couple years ago and the area above the pan seems dry.

Oh what fun... though better now than in February!

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

How did it come out?

Joe

Came out great! I’m excited that it will be much easier to remove the transmission now.

I had the tips slightly angled to match the cutouts in the SC bumper.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Can't remember the before, but this looks very good!

 

[theterminator93]

So I finally crawled under the car and cleaned up a few handfuls of oily, dirty covering the K-member so I can try to figure out where the leak is coming from. Seems to be coming from the area near the P/S pump or filter adapter, but I replaced that gasket a couple years ago and the area above the pan seems dry.

Took the car out today and was able to pinpoint the source of the leak. Turned out to be the oil pressure switch. No more leaky linky.