dagwood

iTrader: (5)

Is there no more Car Of The Month?

WildCard600

Good question. I've been away from the forum for a while busy with other things and hadn't noticed.

JT

iTrader: (1)

Alan stepped down from doing the CoTM and gave us some advance notice. He had recommended you (you were also recommended before Alan) but the first time I reached out to you about it you said you didn't have the time. This last time, I didn't get a response.

I like to think of the CoTM on a hiatus. Maybe someone will step up, or we can do something like where we have different months ran by a few different members, or we can do something different in its place.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

dagwood! dagwood! dagwood!

I'll do the cheer but don't ask me to wear the miniskirt.

dagwood

iTrader: (5)

I don't have a computer at all, and I don't think it's something that I'd want to do on my phone....otherwise I would probably sign up. I think it's a super cool thing that was going on!

JT, I guess I don't recall being asked about it a second time? I surely would have replied?

I am looking at getting a laptop, so I'd probably be interested in doing it if I go that route.

dagwood

iTrader: (5)

Nope you can keep your pants on, please

skinny z

Personally, and from casual observation, I would think that the COTM had run it's course. At least for the time being.
It looked to be difficult to find "high quality in a finished state" prospects as some months had maybe three candidates?
Don't get me wrong, the third gen to me is a beautiful car and that consensus is growing (as are the values). When I first laid eyes on one in 1981, my first thought was that would make a cool hotrod one day. That day has most certainly come.
That said, and again this is a personal point of view, the stockers don't hold a lot of cachet for me. I found it a little tiring to see the same old over and over. I liked the threads with the racers. The project threads were interesting too although the latter was generally shot down because "we" didn't want the cars represented in an unflattering light.
I'll bet though that there are far more third gens that are works in progress than there are finished museum pieces.
As I said, maybe a rest is good for the breed.

I think JT said it best.
I'd like to see what you all are up to. They're inspirational and always provoke comments and interest.
​​​​​​
EDIT: If Dagwood ( or someone else) is interested in taking on the COTM duties, then have at it.
​​​it. All of the previous editors did commendable jobs for sure.
Sometimes new blood is all it takes for rejuvenation!
​​​​​

WildCard600

You raise some good points, IMO. At this point in my life I find project cars saved from the scrap heap al la the Roadkill General Mayhem or Vanishing Paint much more interesting than low mileage survivors or full concourse restorations. The cars dragged out of fields and junkyards have stories to tell and are much more relatable to me than a car someone bought in 1983 and then just basically parked up for 40 years. I still like OG survivors and full restorations because I think they are important to the history of the third gen, but like I said, not relatable to me.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

If you want your project car to be COTM then finish it....

If you want people to oooh and aaaah over your project car then make a build thread because everybody loves a good build thread! And it will tell your story better, be more interesting, and stick around longer and have more views than any COTM thread.

skinny z

I KNEW there'd be that person in the crowd that would say that.
I've no interest in being COTM. My project will never be in that required state. At least not for long. It's always developing.

And to tell the truth I don't think the third gen F-body has reached that state where it can be a "rat-rod" as in some of the suggestions above like Vanishing Paint or the General Mayhem. A beat up third gen, in my eyes, is just that but I get the concept all the same. But if what you're working on is a work in progress, then I'm all eyes.
I'd like to see more of the same.

I appreciate what you're saying Mr. Q. but it's not my deal. Your beast is shiny and happy and also a monster underneath. I can't say I'd cast a vote for COTM status (but I may have) but I really really dig the science and development of your Bird. Witness my contributions to your posts. I want to know! Keep posting. Your radial racing street tire insights have me re-thinking the next iteration of my coupe, which by the way has a fresh 357 just about ready to drop in .

By the way, the picture below IS in a finished state. And probably COTM worthy but I didn't advertise (circa 2014). My preference is to expound on the details with some tech. Plenty of interest generated there. Check out the D44, LS brake swap, 700R4, (etc and so forth) threads. That's where I reside.
FTR, it didn't take long for that finished state to get crushed by a mini-van. Goodbye driver's door. Goodbye COTM worthiness. My car is a driver. I'll bet I've put on more miles on my heap than just about anybody. Records to support that too. What was once a full scale car model quickly became a vehicle that looked like it had just completed the 24 hours of Lemans.

Anyway, I'm following here to see what'll happen next.


Finished state. Enter minivan...

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Yes, and that's because I learned from being COTM Editor. It all boils down to this.... There are two objectives with COTM:

(1) The first and primary objective is the site leadership wants to showcase high quality 3rd gens to the world on the front page of the site. These must be cars with excellent fit and finish. This is what gives COTM life, a permission to exist if you will.

(2) The second objective is to make it an enjoyable event for members.

The COTM Editor is accountable to deliver on both. People see #2 in action every month and maybe don't realize #1 even exists, but the COTM Editor does, and they're accountable to deliver on it. And if they don't, then the whole thing is done, cancelled, finito.

That's why there will never be a "project" COTM event, or any other COTM with cars that don't pass through the filter. The closest thing that ever happened was the COTM d'Non-Elegance (13th month) that I ran at the end of the year when I was COTM Editor. People had fun with it but that car did not go on the front page, and I also delivered on my commitment that month with a real COTM for the front page.

I did several things no other COTM Editor has ever done. What I was best at was pulling people out of the woodwork to play.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Scratch that. The closest thing that ever happened was the first ever COTM winner with no windows and half an interior.
The first pancake off the griddle is never quite right, you know.

WildCard600

I don't think anyone is suggesting that we should change the expectation that COTM cars be anything less than prime examples. And I apologize if my posts came off that way.

I'm here for the technical knowledge and to see other peoples projects that are relatable to my own car. The rise in popularity of cars like the General Mayhem seems to indicate more and more people are less interested in cosmetics and more about whats "under the hood". As these cars continue to age out a rise interest of the platform is going to bring more and more people along with rougher and rougher examples getting a fun car to hot rod and are just looking for info and not spending a lot of time browsing glamour shots. These people might not even have any real connection to these cars when more were even in good OEM condition.

I don't know if that's true at TGO, but it might explain the apparent decline in interest/involvement as skinny z pointed out.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Heck yeah! I'd love to see a build thread, I absolutely will follow it!

skinny z

Unlikely as collating all the bits from nearly three decades of assembly and disassembly would be a mammoth task. But never say never. (See? You're coaxing out of the woodwork still !)
But, on a similar note, has it ever been considered to create a Build Thread forum? I think the idea was tossed around a couple times with folks commenting that the various threads are here there and everywhere. Collecting them all under one title would make for handy reading.

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

How would that be different form the members rides? I'm seeing fewer build pages popping up on here and more on YouTube, probably because of (at least the chance of) income.

skinny z

Interesting Tibo. I had to ask myself, members rides? Where is that? I had to do a little digging and then I recalled that it's buried in the Auto Detailing and Appearance forum. That's a pretty obscure location for a build thread and I think that may have been mentioned previously.
Maybe something that the moderators will have a look at.
I understand the need to make the third gen all shiny and happy but I'll bet the vast, vast (vast) majority have stuff in the works just like mine is, was and is again.
So, I say, give it it's own forum.
Member's projects.
I'll bet it goes to number one on the viewed chart.

As for YouTube, the often poor quality of both cameramanship, editing and hosting often turn me off of any given video after about 10 seconds or so. Just before the number of views hit kicks in.
Besides, these forums with text and pictures are about as close as we'll get to the old days of holding a paper copy of some tech in your hands. RIP car mags.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Skinny is spot on. I see a subject matter like Detailing And Appearance with separate sub-folders of Camaros and Firebird and I just assume it's people sharing a bunch of pictures of their Camaros and Firebirds. Not my cup of tea so I never looked at it. I was here for many many years before I realized people have build threads in there.

People on this forum know Detailing And Appearance is a hangout hub for a lot of members, but it's not where mechanics and builders naturally migrate to.

And there's no galactic law that says you can't have build threads in multiple forums tailored at the kind of things people do with their cars. LSx forum is an example of that working well, lots of full car builds there.

vinny R

One thing I think has made this forum what it is the nice mix of the "show crew" and the "gearheads". Both of you guys lean towards the mechanical side but as Qwk mentioned some like to hang out in the auto detailing forum. We had mentioned adding a "social" thread awhile back. My point on this is maybe it is time to update this forum, meaning the sub forum titles and better categorizing them. Better location of build threads with more emphasis on projects that all of us do, to Skinny's point on how his is always evolving. Consolidate or eliminate regional boards as those get very little traffic and really are the social part of this. There is a thread here, "what did you do to your third gen today" This thread is off the chain and keeps going ang going. This should be a Sub Forum on it's own!

With this said I still would like to see COTM be a part of this. I am one of many here that are an in between crowd, I use the technical side for my projects but as I am going along I refinish everything before I put it back together. COTM fits both of these. Qwk your car and there was a member here "Seven something" who built a badass TA with monster HP and wow did he do a great job on fit and finish. I also really like the fact how the winners get the cars posted on the homepage.

So let me ask you guys, how much time do you have to dedicate to being the moderator of this sub forum? I do have some limited time I could spare and I have been a part of COTM since I joined (voting, nominating and being nominated) and would like to see it continue.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

I didn't know there were full build threads in there. The LS conversion is one in which I have no interest, so I never go in there.

skinny z

Exactly.
A Project of the Month doesn't look to be in the cards despite what I think about it being popular. But as stated above, perhaps a location that's more front and centred. It doesn't have to be on the home page (which I also never see as my bookmark takes me directly to the message boards).

chazman

iTrader: (4)

The best thing about COTM is that it showcases cars and owners and gives you a chance to get a detailed look at a specific car and it's story. I'm not sure it needs to be a competition anymore.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

427seven
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...-way-they.html

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

It's the major hub of the forum where the performance street car crowd gather to talk. It started as an engine swap tech forum, but people that do engine swaps tend to be doing full car builds so I guess that's how it happened.

It has slowed a lot like much of the forum, but it seems more builds are high end builds now. The 3rd gen owners are getting older and gettin' into some money.

skinny z

You notice too that even though it's a COTM, that creation of 427's keeps progressing too.
@@427seven

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

What I've been doing to help is making subject matter tech threads about topic matters I can contribute towards. And I'm doing it with the help of others, not by myself. If you make the best damn tech content on the web, then it's going to go to the top of a Google search and people will find it and come. The people left at this forum are very smart. We might complain about quantity of active membership, but the quality of membership has not suffered.

This is already top hit on Google search for LS connector part numbers. Just watch, in a couple years that will have hundreds of thousands of views. And it's only at thirdgen.org
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...lectrical.html

LAFireboyd

iTrader: (3)

COTM has been due for a hiatus for quite some time. Interest and participation have been fading since before it was handed-off to Alan. Most months seemed to be a struggle just to get up to 3 nominees, and Alan often had to nominate the 3rd himself. After a break in the action, and people's longing, I suspect it will return as strongly as ever. Its loss having been brought to attention here has already done some good. And a nice way to reintroduce it when it returns and give it a fresh luster might be to have a formal "Car of the Month" forum.

Do we need a "Member's Builds" forum? No. There's already an engine build forum with subforums. And it was pointed out in the thread for an "Open Discussion" forum(which is also not necessary), that the subforums for "Member's Camaros" and "Member's Firebirds" were created for members to show their cars in whatever ways they choose, whether with comprehensive build threads or more general "My car" threads, so builds are already covered. I do agree, however, that those two subs should no longer serve as subs and deserve to be broken out into individual forums of their own, to receive better, more appropriate attention.

It's also true that many comprehensive build threads are in the existing "Engine Swap" forum and subforums, and that's appropriate too. I'd think it's gotta be easier for such threads to be all inclusive in one forum or another, rather than trying to manage multiple threads that would most likely contain most, if not all of the same information.

Seems to me that everything is already covered, that nothing completely new needs to be created, except for maybe a COTM forum, and that it's simply a matter of minor rearrangement of what we already have.

skinny z

The latter statement sums it up.
If some of the old timers here weren't aware of these sub forums, namely Members Camaros and Firebirds, then it might be a safe bet that they're overlooked by others as well.
Bring them front and centre.

FWIW, having just looked for and checked out the Members Camaros subforum, I see that a lot of my subscriptions are sourced there. Just goes to show that the forum often doesn't enter the picture as the subscription replies take you where you need to go. But otherwise, I'd never think to look there for the threads I've participated in.