What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

Dropped all of the glass of at the tint shop. That way the glass can all be installed after the body is cut/buffed. Going 20% on all but the windshield. I'll inevitably get some tickets, but it's worth it
 
Tint is one of those things you wonder why the hell you didn't get done sooner after you get it. Living in a state with restrictive tint laws would suck.

I also went 80% on the windshield. It doesn't do much in terms of darkening which is good, but it significantly cuts down on glare and heat transmission and stops UV damage.
 
We're only allowed 35% on the side windows, nothing non-factory in the windshield. I've seen a trooper hand some one a razor blade, and tell them,"you remove it,or we tow it and remove it." We have these wonderful driver's license checkpoints occasionally. :)
 
They changed it a bit ago in TN. Windshields can be tinted with non-reflective film either 6" down from the top or down to the AS1 line, whichever is lower.

The 35% rule only applies to sedans and coupes. SUVs / wagons / trucks can go down to 35% for the front door windows and 5% for the rear doors and windows. Red and amber colored films are not allowed.
 
It's only State troopers that give tickets around here. Town cops and county sheriff don't care. I have 20% on my truck on all but the windshield and them have 5% on the windshield down to the AS1 line. I never cared for that look but it's super functional. Remember when most cars had 6" of tint on the windshield?! The 80's we're great. Of course I was on grade school but it sure felt cool back then
 
We had a trooper got killed in the 80's, by a guy with a van with limo tint, as the cop walked up, he hit him in the chest with a sawed off shotgun; thru the window. Supposedly the last thing he said was about the window tint.

EDIT: Talked to relative today at Easter dinner, and he said it was 100% reflective silver film. It's illegal everywhere now, iirc.
:(
 
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Grog6 said:
We had a trooper got killed in the 80's, by a guy with a van with limo tint, as the cop walked up, he hit him in the chest with a sawed off shotgun; thru the window. Supposedly the last thing he said was about the window tint. :(
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If that's the argument, then it should be illegal on all windows. I could also argue that a van with no rear window could be hiding a dumbass that pops the foor open and.... Same result.

Fact of the matter is bad guys do bad stuff wherever they are. Tint isn't changing an outcome of a bad situation. I have lots of law enforcement friends that agree with me.
 
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Yup. I also have a hard time believing that we knew a Trooper's final words in the days before bodycams or even dashcams.

And assuming that he pulled the van over for tint, well I hope the outcome was worth it for him.
 
Dude was a drug dealer; trooper was talking on the radio when they shot him. I can't find an article about it; I knew the guy that shot him. He got the death penalty, iirc. This was in the late 80's, about the time all the cocaine hit the country. There was backup there; dude fired thru the window withno warning, as soon as the trooper walked up. They had a van full of coke. That was when TN passed that 35% law. My contour had dark tint on it; you couldn't see shit at night, lol.
 
Ya, if u have 5% on side windows you might as well remove the side view mirror as they are worthless at night.
 
Cleaned and waxed the 1996 bird.
Looks like a cat went ice skating on the hood. My friend went to college for spraying cars, I am trying to catch him before he moves away. We'll shave off away the tiny rust spots and get rid of sun damage on the top.

That 96' brochure shows Black Clearcoat and not anything like Ebony or Charcoal Black. Whats the part number for Black Clearcoat?

Thinking about adding a subtle bit of purple if it's not much more expensive
 
I saw a candy apple red vette the other day, and would love to do that to my red cougar. I have neither the skills nor the money, lol.
@Vicinity ; you can throw metalflake into the clearcoat. Couple of coats of CC, flakes, more CC looks phenomimal. You can buy metal flakes from Eastbay. We ordered a shitload once for a glitterbomb, lol. We had a practical joker on staff, that didnt work in our building. :) Never piss off an entire R&D department, lol.
 
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I put full coverage back on the T-bird yesterday and had it on on the roads for the first time "officially" this year.

The parts I ordered for the brakes on the Mark VIII arrived today and I got everything installed. Rotors and pads for all wheels, plus new front calipers. I also swapped the winter tires out for the all-seasons.

Guess it really was time to do the brakes! :eek:

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Cleaned and treated the rubber trim and moulding with Gummi Pfledge Stift. It's a German solution that cleans and protects. Found it in a Google search and it's used by a lot of Corvette guys (gor better or worse). Supposedly was a Porsche thing first. Looks like it's doing well.
 
Today, I opened the hood, looked at the engine.. shook my head and slammed the hood closed.

Monday I head to the junk yard to pull parts.
 
Spent a couple hours today putting back together the puzzle pieces of what used to be my dash trim. First I taped the pieces together on the show face with painters tape, then I used 5-minute epoxy to glue strips of old T-shirt over the crack. Some joints look better than others. Some are hardly noticeable. After installation I don't think they will pull off in one piece again. I hope I don't need to!
 
Today got around to changing out upper control arms, previous were some rando brand. Got these at oreilys, brand was precision, but the look exactly like like the mevotech supreme line on rock auto. Even has the lil casting marks.





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Also made another cheapy underbody cover, corrugated plastic board from Home Depot double it up since it’s kinda flimsy. Julian Edgar on YT has a in-depth explanation of how these work. Don’t our cars have some plastic that goes there?

Also made a super cheap upper radiator cover like the new edge mustangs have. What do you guys think about this in particular? I’ve read they help flow through and rad.

https://youtu.be/L9WCVlWPcys?si=A36aGWAmQgM4Vz74

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That one doesn't look dragged repeatedly, or run over! :) GLWS; those do help cooling, and supposedly mileage.
 
Where's the power steering cap?
 
@ 1997ThunderbirdLXV6
I would think in your JY visits that any and all caps (oil ect.)/ dipsticks would be sellable items that would be needed by someone. Same thing with the interior knobs.
 
Green T said:
@ 1997ThunderbirdLXV6
I would think in your JY visits that any and all caps (oil ect.)/ dipsticks would be sellable items that would be needed by someone. Same thing with the interior knobs.
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:unsure: hadn't thought of that. Good idea.

Sale of junkyard items is effectively my only budget source to work on my own car, so I'm always curious what people need.

Making the whole thing worthwhile is tricky though. First it's time-consuming to remove certain parts; then I need to find items that the junkyard sells cheap, yet they have some value; then there's the difficulty of shipping bulky items... It quickly becomes a headache.

But yeah, I love junkyards. Unfortunately, MN12 have been rare recently, and the few I've seen were very worn examples.
 
Chingon1 said:
Also made another cheapy underbody cover, corrugated plastic board from Home Depot double it up since it’s kinda flimsy. Julian Edgar on YT has a in-depth explanation of how these work. Don’t our cars have some plastic that goes there?

Also made a super cheap upper radiator cover like the new edge mustangs have. What do you guys think about this in particular? I’ve read they help flow through and rad.
Click to expand...

I would really encourage you to start a dedicated post for your aero mod experiments.

I too would like to play around with ways to measure the gains of these things.

I also like your upper radiator/ header panel cover. when done in aluminum or plastic it could really clean up the under hood area.
 
The Marks came with a radiator support cover.. I think we put one on a Tbird once but it's been so long I can't remember how well it fit in there.
 
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