User talk:RivGuySC
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Hello RivGuySC, welcome to Wikipedia.
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Again, welcome! Chris Roy 03:49, 20 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Good work on the car articles! I've been looking at what you've done; good stuff.
A minor point of Wikipedia style and convention: we tend to avoid links to external sites in the body of the article text, reserving them for an 'External Links' section at the end. Not a hard-and-fast rule, of course, because there are times one needs to. I removed a couple of links you added to Ford Thunderbird - the pointer to a page on the modern Thunderbird was a page in German, and if we need to refer to an external page about it, we can easily find a page in English. I also removed the link to speedycars because (for me, at least) it seemed to be all ads (including popups) and no content.
Thanks, —Morven 17:25, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Glad you liked the car stuff! Thanks for the advice. I just stumbled on Wickipedia recently and I'm still learning the rules.
RivGuySC
Yes, I love my Thunderbird. It's in the body shop right now; some idiot in a Tacoma backed into it in a parking lot, smashed the taillight area up annd stuff. Itching to get it back; there's nothing more fun to drive on the freeway at high speed. —Morven 07:42, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Was the Torino chassis also on the 77-79 Continental Mark V? Given that from '72 onwards, the T-bird and Mark were pretty much the same car but for trim and badging. —Morven 00:57, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Ah, I didn't know that the T-bird and Mark diverged again in '77. To my eyes the later-70s Mark looked smaller than the previous, but maybe that was just styling. My favorite Lincoln Mark is the III, though (of course, the Continental Mark II is excellent, but not a Lincoln). Built on the suicide-door T-Bird chassis, too. I saw one for sale about 6 months ago at the Garden Grove, CA Friday night cruise -- quiet and smooth as a Rolls-Royce despite the 460 under the hood.
I've had the bodywork fixed on my T-Bird but the body shop wasn't able to find the taillight assembly. Fortunately, I have contacts they don't -- the GlamorBirds (67-71) mailing list is very helpful. Everything is the same between the 67 and 68 tail assemblies but for the center chromed casting incorporating the lock cylinder and door -- on the 67, it has small winged birds at either end and THUNDERBIRD across the middle, while in 68 it had just a wide winged bird across the middle. The 68 T-Bird is one of the most incognito cars in existence; it does not have its manufacturer's name anywhere on the outside and has its model name only on tiny script on the rear quarter reflectors, where in most cases it wore off inside five years.
This may also kick my butt to get the sequentials working. They have a tendency not to on 67s and 68s; the sequencer is electro-mechanical, consisting of a motor turning cams that push spring-loaded arms down onto contacts (!). Over 30 years of wear later, of course, it doesn't work. There's someone selling redesigned electronic replacements for about $200, though. And then there are all the vacuum accessories to get working ... great fun! Vacuum power door locks -- what were they thinking ... —Morven 07:19, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)
You might be interested to know the Ford Thunderbird had optional high-level brake lights from 1968 on! See http://automotivemileposts.com/tbird1968optionalequipment.html for a picture. These definitely were available at least through '69 and maybe longer, but weren't popular. This would make the Toronado's use of them in '71 the second usage at least, unless you're talking about them being standard fitment (not sure of their status on the Toronado). —Morven 06:46, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Yes, I got your email successfully -- just getting unexpectedly busy at work. At least two of the guys on the GlamorBirds list (67-71 T-Birds) have the high level brake light option fitted to their cars. They are used as supplemental turn signals too -- coming on with the center of the three sequential lights. Quoting one owner:
- The supplemental stop lamps did indeed make it to production. They were offered beginning in 1968, on all models. In 1969, only the Fordors offered them, then in 1970 they were offered on all models again. I'm not sure if they were installed on the 1971's, I've never seen one with them.
- I have a '69 Fordor with them. To be honest, they're ugly. There is a relay in the luggage compartment that controls them. I usually leave it unplugged. They come on with the brake lights, and they flash in sequence with the center turn signal bulbs.
- The only good thing I can say about them is they are very prominent. Since many of these Birds suffer from "dim taillight syndrome" they are good to have in that respect. At night, they are VERY blinding from behind. They are part of the interior molding and make the rear window narrower than it already is (especially on a Fordor!)
Sounds more of a good idea than execution, and they're one of the rarest options in the years they were offered. Another curious one was the rear light monitor on '68s, which used fiber-optics to embed a miniature version of the tail-lights into the rear package tray where it could be seen in the rear-view mirror. Thus, the driver could tell if his taillights and turnsignals were working correctly. —Morven 20:09, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)
RivGuySC- I see you changed back the dates I edited in the "Lincoln Town Car" page. I am not old enough to have lived through most of the dates I changed, but my source was a book called "100 Years of Ford". Perhaps it has some errors, perhaps not. Do you have a source for the dates that you changed back? I was editing without a username, and represent all 3 I.P. address edits to the page in question.
Wrt Sedans; are the 'window frames' you refer to meaning non-moving part-of-the-door frames? Because my T-Bird windows have thin aluminum frames that roll down with the windows themselves; I have a suspicion that you are meaning the permanently-part-of-the-door variety? —Morven 01:03, 28 May 2004 (UTC)
- You're right, I think; having searched the web and found quite a few 'pillared hardtops'. Just the pillarless variety was much more common, I think. The T-Bird never gets called a pillared hardtop because, I think, Ford had their own terminology; 'fordor landau' was Ford's official designation. I have to do landau and landau bar/landau iron/s-bar articles one of these days, about these 'fake convertibles' that one only sees these days as hearses and occasionally stretch limousines. —Morven 11:11, 28 May 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for the correction at Ford Torino. I was going by a book photo caption which it turns out is also wrong. —Morven 02:14, Jun 19, 2004 (UTC)
Thank you, RivGuySC, for your kind comments about my Plymouth Valiant additions. The first Valiant site linked from the page has some interesting images of the car. It was a very nice evolution of the American design, though on a unique-for-Australia platform (not sure why they needed it with hindsight) and had all the swoopiness and coke-bottle lines of cars like the '71 Dodge Charger and Plymouth Sebring. (Basically: think Valiant and Dart with the Sebring curves.) I think the locals called it the coke bottle the 'hippie line'—not used generally, but only for the Valiant. I enjoyed the earlier contributions of yours that I've found and will be checking out your other pages (and helping where possible). Stombs 10:12, Aug 20, 2004 (UTC)
RivGuySC: I thought I'd mention a little bit of trivia that might be good for the Riviera page—let me know what you think. In 1999, with the Riv nearing the end of its run, GM bosses travelled to Australia to view the Holden Commodore Coupé prototype, which had been worked on by Holden guys in their spare time (and hid from the bosses). Earlier in the decade, the plan for the Australian Holden Commodore sedan (Cadillac Catera on steroids) to become the new Buick LeSabre (or a similarly sized model) had been scuttled by the unions, but one of these GM bigwigs floated the idea of taking the Coupé prototype—which was pretty near production, anyway, being on the existing sedan platform—and taking it to the US as a 2002 or 2003 Riviera. Nothing much came of that plan till Bob Lutz arrived. He saw the car, which had by then become the Holden Monaro, and felt it might be better as a Pontiac. That's how you guys got the new Goat, but it could have been the new Riv. IMO, the styling of the Monaro is closer to the '99 Riviera, but the idea of the Monaro is close to that of the '64 Goat: a six-cylinder sedan with the division's biggest V8 in it. (I don't care if it doesn't look like the '69 Judge!) Stombs 10:21, Aug 20, 2004 (UTC)
Thank you for the note, RivGuySC—I'm glad the above info was of interest and is useful. Stombs 04:27, Aug 21, 2004 (UTC)