On Saturday, October 14, 2017 about 20 club members assembled for a classroom style tech session presented by John Sailors.  Two of our members, Shelly Roberts and Brent Valentine, actually braved the 40-degree morning to drive their Thunderbirds to the gathering!  Turned out to be a beautiful day – wish I had driven mine!
               John Sailors had put together a fabulous detailed PowerPoint presentation explaining everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask, about the Classic Thunderbird brake systems.  John was able to interject a lot more than just the basics from his own personal experiences working on T-Bird brakes over the years.  Members asked a lot of questions.  Questions were answered by John along with further input from other members adding their years of experienced knowledge to the discussion. 
               Part II of the presentation was about the Thunderbird ignition systems.  Everything was explained, from the turning of the key to the firing of the spark plugs.  He also explained grounding problems with the ’55 and ’56 ‘Bird’s front turn signals, and how best to solve those issues.  The slides that John had assembled and/or created illustrated these systems quite well.  Very informative. 
               With a little time left before our scheduled arrival at the restaurant John put up some additional slides showing early phases and the progress of the frame-off restoration of his 1957 Thunderbird, a car he has owned for fifty-some years.  Following the program we all headed to Rose’s Deli & Bakery in Sherwood for a great lunch and some socialization. 
Submitted by Jim Sweet