Today was the first day of working on the Thunderbird which I uncrated yesterday, and it has given me new insight into how valuable this forum really is. The bike is somewhat of a mess, to be truthful. No dipstick, no keys, paint pretty chipped up, speedometer a piece of junk - all torn apart inside. Well, you get the picture. I started in on it about 7:30 this morning and had a great time. A couple of times I remembered some advice here on the forum, washed up my hands and came in and found the topic. The dipstick is missing too, so I found out about how much oil I should use, I'll put that in and make my own dipstick until I can obtain one. I remembered some of Thumper's ideas and got rid of a lot of sheet metal and all gauges, indicator lights, etc. I'll bet I have a pile weighing about 10 to 15 lbs that I won't be putting back.
What I'm saying is that what I've learned on this forum gave me real confidence, the work went smoothly and I think I may yet make something of the old dog.
I'm very glad I bought the new one, though. Then I can keep it up and maybe even improve it and it will be great having something of real value like that. Having the two bikes, one sort of a fixer upper that I can experiment with, the other more of a classic that I can just maintain, best of both worlds, I guess.
Yep, this forum is very useful.
Larry