Sanders' new turdenburd v. nearly done

[GhEttOrAiD]

the interior looks surprisingly modern and high-end... pretty

Originally Posted by RazorWind

And yeah, we need more pics, and video with good sound and tits.

tsrh

[Colonel Sanders]

Filmed with PotatoCam: (yeah my crappy internet can't handle video uploads so I have to use my phone which limits the quality to "poopy")

[tegandje]

Originally Posted by Colonel Sanders

I gotta get it properly registered first, but I will.. more pics though







The car is so awesome that it has TWO head units... (the lower/stock one is just temporary until I can find a cubby or something to fit in there)

That is a good shot

Those pedals look god awful.

[Colonel Sanders]

Actually after screwing around a bit today I've adjusted to them and it's quite nice for heel-toeing, not as nice as it should be but way better than I first thought.

[RazorWind]

Originally Posted by Colonel Sanders

Filmed with PotatoCam: (yeah my crappy internet can't handle video uploads so I have to use my phone which limits the quality to "poopy")

That it s a wicked cool turn signal stalk.

I'm diggin' the sound, though. There's a lot more whine and a lot less exhaust noise than I expected.

[DopefishLives]

Sounds great, like a mini-Terminator.

The transmission will benefit from Mazda's prowless for gearbox design only so much. In their up-scaling to suite the needs of a small truck they added a bit of 'clunkiness' to them that I liken to the many Tremec 5 and 6 speed boxes that have been behind most American V8 cars for the last 20 years. The 5spd gearbox used in the Miatas, RX-7's and all the way back to the RX-3 have been largely similar and felt amazing in a way I've only ever experienced in small Japanese RWD cars. I've never had the privilege of driving a manual SC, though I hope to one day, I imagine the transmission still works well despite any arguments I've seen on forums due to the Mazda origins.

Seeing such a well-cared for example makes me appreciate the earlier 89-92's even-more than the 93-97's of which I'm more familiar. The interior at first glance may appear a bit more 'dated' but looks to be of higher quality than the ones that followed, thus aging better in the whole.

[Colonel Sanders]

I feel like the 89-93 generation (94 is when they updated the body and interior) was designed by a team who really wanted to break the mold at Ford and do something that was above and beyond anything Ford made at the time. When 94 came along, it's like upper management told the Thunderbird team "it needs to fit in with the rest of our lineup," so they basically Ford-ified it with the big clunky steering wheel from the Mustang (and some of their other cars,) the interior design with the long sweeping curves (again, just like their other cars) and the rounding and tapering off of all the edges on the exterior that looked so good on the 89-93 SCs.

That's why I'm so happy I found this car, which really is (to me anyway) the high point of the Thunderbird, with most of the technical improvements that were made 94-95 cars but with the better looks and design of the 89-93s. And it's in my favorite color combo as well. Oh, and it's also fully loaded with every factory option except the JBL sound (which is fine because that was a POS system that fell apart on every car anyway.)

[DopefishLives]

Gah, hate when I get years wrong.

[Colonel Sanders]

I spent spent 30+ hours over the last few days doing a full paint correction on this thing... omfg it was backbreaking, by the time it was done I basically wanted to curl up into a fetal position I was so sore (even though the Porter Cable does the actual polishing "work".) But yeah, it turned out awesome I think

Before:



After just one quick pass of Meguiar's M105:

[GhEttOrAiD]

Shit.

Friend offered to loan me his... I really gotta follow up

[Colonel Sanders]

[GhEttOrAiD]

[GhEttOrAiD]

*

[lopoetve]

very nice...

[Colonel Sanders]

More PotatoCam fun!!