I was in Virginia for the past several days and, since my Mom lives
about 15 miles from Fred Thomas, I invited myself for a visit. Fred was
more than willing and, as a matter of fact, as I was on my way out the
door, Fred called back to ask if I had ever seen powder coating done. I
had not, so he said he'd wait until I got there to do it. Very
thoughtful and appreciated.
Fred and I spent several hours discussing Triumphs, restorations, parts
suppliers, etc. As those of you who have seen it will attest, he has a
BEAUTIFUL '59 TR3 as well as a '78, I think, Spitfire. I got a powder
coating demo, a demo of what can be accomplished by buffing a rather
rough looking dashpot cover (none of his looked nearly as rough as
mine!), got to see his hydraulic lift in action (about 40" lift, as I
recall) and his grease pit! Yes, friends, he has a 3'x10?' pit in his
garage floor!
Since I was incommunicado, he even logged on to his email to show me how
many posts resulted from my MAXI-Mini thread. Come to think of it, that
was probably an object lesson on what NOT to do to the list. (My
apologies for starting THAT one...and no, I didn't stop in Baltimore on
my way through to look at the "51" Mini.)
While at Fred's, I also got a chance to look at his '56 T-bird, '68
Mustang and '31 Model A (okay, so he likes Fords...)! He took a look at
the photos of my two '60 TR3 rust-buckets. Not much of a trade, but it
was the best I could offer! (Fred, I didn't BUY them - they were free,
except for the flatbed charges. As it's turned out, that was way too
much! I think you were right - even Brad would've turned these down!
Live and learn.)
Anyway, it's always nice to meet fellow enthusiasts and Fred proved no
exception. A very enjoyable afternoon.
[By the way, the invite to The White House was legit...just that it was
my WIFE who was invited, not me. She's involved in Arts Education and
was invited to attend the presentation of the National Medal of Arts and
National Humanities Medals. Bill and Hillary presented these to the
likes of Gregory Peck, Roberta Peters, Gwen Verdon and Arthur
Schlesinger, among others. They got the awards, my wife got to watch and
I got to stand outside the gate and wait.]
--
Michael Ferguson
Vernon CT
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