Hey everyone, Dragonbird is in a new challenge with a BEAUTIFUL 71 Mustang. This is Dragonbird's 1st challenge with her new paint job. The 71 has an AMAZING paint job too :) So to all who has time, come on by and show us both some love :)

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Ok, since I can't seem to get my video to show up in the video section, I thought i'd go this route. You know how the sayin goes "There's more than one way to skin a cat" :D Ok, it's nothing fancy just some pics of the old and new Dragonbird in the vid that my hubby Mike put together :) At 1st there's no sound, but after a few seconds Dragonbird's song will start to play Oh, and for some reason youtube added another minute to the vid and Mike had made it where the music fades at the end of the video, but once it got uploaded to youtube, it just stops instead of fading. Other than that, not a bad tribute vid Oh, and you will get to hear Dragonbird sing a little :) just go to youtube and type in 01dragonchick in the search bar. The 2 videos on top are both mine. One is titled "Baddest Chevy Cobalt at the Bristol Street Fights" and of course the other is titled "Dragonbird!!!" Actually whoever reads this, if you have time, check out the vid of the Chevy Cobalt. I bet it'll put a smile on your face :D

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Ok, yesterday evening after me an Mike got off work, he headed on over to our painter's shop cause we knew the airbrushing was done :D I had been so excited all day, and because of that the day went slowwwww, lol. Well anyways we get to Alan's shop walk in the door, and several people are standing in the room where he does his paint prep, one of those people was the man of the hour, Quack. I was glad I got to meet him, I did get to talk with him on the phone the day before, he had wanted to make sure he understood what I wanted. After I gave him the ideas I had in my head, I told him to just do what you think would look good. Believe me, this is a man you don't want to confine, you just have to let him work his magic. Well anyways, Mike had already looked in the door in the paint booth at Dragonbird, but Alan wouldn't let me look. He told me to close my eyes, and I got led into the paint booth, in front of the car, he says open them........OH MY!!!!!.....WOW!!!!!!.....THIS IS FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have to understand, Quack free hands, he don't believe in stensils or vinyls, as a matter of fact he plainly said vinyl is for houses, lol. Dragonbird now is most definatly one of a kind, there is not another one out there like it. Me and Mike will be going back up to the shop Friday to see what it looks like with it being cleared, I can't even begin to imagine, it looked SWEEEEETTTTT with just the base coat :D I'm not gonna post pics of the bird until after Bethany's (Firebirdfest) show, so if you wanna see it you're just gonna have to come to Mebane, NC on the 18th and 19th :D I have posted up 2 teaser pics though :D Oh yeah, what ever anger I had in me....it's not there anymore, lol.

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Ok, first let me start off by saying that now I realize I shouldn't have gotten so mad at the original airbrush guy. Had I known he had not shown up because he had a family emergency I wouldn't have gotten mad, so now I'm mad at him for making me mad at him, lol. Now for the great news :) Dragonbird is getting airbrusehd as I am typing this now :D and yes, the guy who was origianlly suppose to do it, is doing the airbrushing. I know it will be worth the painstaking wait that i've waited. This guy IS REALLY REALLY GOOD. It's just hard to get him to do the job when you want him to do it though. I have no idea what his real name is, but everyone calls him Quack. Me and Mike will probably go to my painter's shop tommorow evening to see what he's done, and of course I would think the airbrush guy would like to get paid too, lol. But everyone, please still keep me and DB in your thoughts, cause it ain't over until she's home with me :)

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It seems that just when I think things are gona be alright, I get done wrong :( The guy that's suppose to do the airbrushing on Dragonbird straight lied!!!! He said he'd be there yesterday (Friday) to do his part, of course he didn't show, he didn't even have the descency to call and say "Hey sorry, but I won't be able to make it today" I have no idea why he didn't show, maybe he forgot, I don't know. But i'm getting so sick and tired of gettin treated like this. When I say i'm gonna be somewhere at a certain time, i'm there, and if I can't make it, or if i'm gonna be late, I call that person and let them know. I just don't leave a person hangin. I go by the golden rule "Do unto others as you want others to do unto you" So if i'm treating people nice, why do I keep getting treated poorly? Because of this, I won't be able to have Dragonbird at the Pontiacs in Pigeon Forge Car Show :( I have tried my best to be patient and have a positive attitude through all this, but my patience is wearing dangerously thin. Sorry i'm being so negative, but I just gotta vent.....

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We went Friday to check on Dragonbird, and with the exception of sanding a few small places, she's almost ready to be sprayed :D Alan already had all the little dings and dents fixed and primered and even rebuilt that piece that is between the t-top and back hatch. It looks so smooth now. That is one downfall of a t-top car that has some HP under the hood, unibodies will twist. Subframe connectors are in Dragonbirds near future :) But anyways i'm so excited!!!!! I'm hoping I get to bring her home no later than this Friday. Everyone please just keep your fingers crossed and pray really really hard that the airbrush guy will show up. If he don't, i'm not waiting for him. It's time for Dragonbird to come home now, but I really hope he shows because I really want my bird on the hood :D

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Ok, my painter, Alan, finally got the vehicles that was ahead of Dragonbird finished. So now he can focus all of his attention on her :D He started sanding on her today. So far no big issues, nothing we didn't already know about, so that's a good sign. The preping part will be easy, it's the paint that's gonna be a pain. Black is one of the hardest colors to get right, but I know Alan will do a great job :) There's one issue I'm kinda nervous about though. He got ahold of the guy who is suppose to do the airbrushing, he was suppose to come by and look at the car this past Tuesday but he never showed. Sometimes it can be difficult to get him, but DANG! he does great work. I JUST GOTTA HAVE MY BIRD ON THE HOOD!!!!!! And i don't want a sticker, it MUST be airbrushed. I'm getting really excited cause now the ball is rolling :D

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On Friday March 5th I took Dragonbird to my painter. He told me he wouldn't be able to start on her right away because he still has one more car to finish, but that it would be okay to go ahead and bring her, so that when he finishs he can get started on her. Yesterday, March 12th, I brought him a few pics of birds and dragons to show to the guy he's gonna get to do the airbrushing for me. There was this one pic of a hood bird that really stood out, and we're gonna go with that as a basis. I had taken the pic at the '08 T/A nats from a 4th gen T/A with a ramair hood. Whoever done that bird did a killer job :) I don't have any progress pics yet, but as soon as I do, i'll post :)

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Well, a few weeks ago we had a bit of a warming spell. We had highs in the low to mid 50's which gave me and my husband a chance to do some preventive maintenance on Dragonbird. We did an engine flush w/ oil change and a radiator flush. Now that she's got all clean fluids in her I wanted to drive her some. So tuesday after work I drove her to the local car wash (she needed a bath bad) well i got her all cleaned up and headed back for home. I was hoping to open her up a bit, but i got stuck behind a car doing 35 in a 55. When i finally saw my chance to pass this slow poke up, I put her down into 3rd and proceeded with the pass. i didn't stomp the gas but I wasn't easy either. I wasn't paying one bit of attention to the speed gauge as my focus was more on the rpms, I wanted to get her up to 5,000 before shifting into 4th. Well as soon as I put her into 4th I looked over at the speed gauge and was like OH SH....!!!!!!!! To my very much surprise she was doin 110mph!!!!!!!! I was not expecting that as she did not feel like she was going that fast, i thought maybe i'd see 85mph. I was just glad the blue light special wasn't around, lol. I'm one of those people who pretty much stick to the speed limit, but the one time I decide to have some fun, i'm busted. Of course this incident put a HUGE smile on my face :D I LOVE MY BIRD!!!!!

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well after patiently waiting thru the holding period that my bank put on my insurance check (they do this on all insurance checks) me and my hubby got to go pick her up on friday oct,2. it was a 2 1/2 hour trip that was well worth it. i handed over my down payment and they handed over the keys! :) it was the sweetest drive home i've ever had!. of course we are still learning things about her, and still have some things to figure out. the previous owner had done a few mods on her, like after market headers and 3 in exhaust the whole way. she sounds great, and has an awesome throttle response :) if my hubby can get a few days break from the rain he's wanting to put the flowmasters on this one, we both agree that they have a bit more rumble than what's on her. we also believe she's got an aftermarket axle, cause she's got positive traction. unless they come from the factory like that, i'm not sure, but she handles like a dream :) oh and we will be putting the SLP cold air induction that's on the white one onto this one. it'll work even better because this one has a true ramair hood (never got around to making the hood fully functional on the white one). she came with a big 12" sub in the back but it had to go, it looked horrible! the pioneer radio that was in her was pretty cool, but we wanted to try to put her radio back to stock because we both love the monsoon system. well mike took the radio out of the white one and for some reason the cd player wouldn't work, he had the battery unhooked but maybe the anti theft system still has something to do with it. so he put the pioneer radio w/cd player back in. oh and the black one pretty much had after market speakers throughout the car, but for some reason a few of them wasn't even hooked up. i'm thinking the previous owner tried to do it himself but really didn't know what he was doing. but anyways, mike took what monsoon speakers he needed out of the white one, and put them in this one. so we still have that great monsoon sound with a pretty cool radio. and yes i have allowed my foot to get a little heavy on the throttle, i mean i've got to have a little fun ;) eventually next year i'll have to take her down the dragstrip at bristol :) there is still alot of work to be done to get her as clean as the white one was but it ain't nothing me an mike can't handle, and he will also be busy with the engine swap. taking the best of 2 cars and putting them into one will make for one awesome ride! DRAGON BIRD HAS RISEN AND SHE IS BACK IN BLACK!!!! :)

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i got the call saturday, and i am approved!!!!! now i just have to wait for my insurance check to clear, it will take a few days ( if they change their mind about what they settled with me for i think i might lose my mind and do something stupid). i'll get to draw the money out thursday, but i'm not going to go pick her up until friday, because we don't get off of work until 4:30 and it's a 2 1/2 hour drive to where she's at. but she is worth it :) the only problems she has is that she's got few minor places in her paint, and she needs a driver side tail light lens, but with the awesome deal i got i don't care about those minor faults. i got her for over $2000 under blue book value, i did my research :) and using the idea that ramair1 suggested, dragonbird's new theme song will be AC/DC's back in black :)

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well, i got the final verdict today on dragonbird's body. not good. it is not salvageable :( deep down i knew it was to far gone, but i still held on to hope. but don't worry dragonbird will still rise again, she will just have another body. whatever car i get it will get her engine, transmission, driveshaft, axle, slp cold air inducton kit, flowmasters, seats, door panels, and many other items that didn't get destroyed in the wreck. right now me and my husband are looking at a 2001 black T/A WS6. the body is in great condition, i talked them down from 12,670 to 10,323. i'm willing to put down 5,323 so that would just leave 5,000 i have to get approved for. i would think it would be no problem to get approved for that small amount, but with how the banks are today with this economy who knows. but i'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping and praying. me and my husband are probably going to keep the car black cause i think with what dragonbird got put through, that would be the perfect very angry attitude color for her :) me and my husband had discussed before about whether we would switch dragonbird's vin number over to whatever body we got for her, but that would only make sense if her body came from a V6. if we get approved for the black one there is no way i'm switching vin numbers, especially since it has the WS6 package. but like i said b4 it will still be dragonbird even though the vin number will be different. it will get dragonbird's engine and all the stuff i b4 mentioned, one big reason is that my engine has less miles on it. a little over 58,000 verses a little over 84,000...a no brainer. if we get the black one her engine will not go to waste, it will go to my 67 chevy truck that i have been wanting to start on probably her front seats too. but until i have that car settin in my driveway, i can only dream right now. hoping the dream will become reality and i can get dragonbird back on the road. dragonbird will rise again!!!!!!! :)

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some of you have already heard, some of you haven't. me and my husband took our dragon bird up to the 25th annual trans am nationals in dayton ohio. what a great time we had! until monday morning around 9:30 am.....CRASH!!!!!!!!! my husband was driving, i was in the passenger seat. we had a solid green light (no arrow) my husband was waiting to turn left onto interstate 75. several cars drove by, then he desided to go, because the truck that was coming was in the turning lane to turn right onto the interstate, so my husband new he would have plenty of time to get across. well, after he pulled out into the intersection the guy in the truck desided to switch lanes and keep straight. he never gave a signal. my husband got full blame. he got wrote a ticket for failure to yeild. yes i agree that it was partly his fault, but i disagree that he should have gotten the full blame. if the other guy had used his signal to indicate he was gonna switch lanes, mike never would've pulled out. we're hoping dragon bird is rebuildable. we don't know yet. if we find out she is not, then we will take all the good parts out of her and start on another one. it will be called dragon bird 2. most importantly me and my husband come out with only minor bruises. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had his hand on us!

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well this incedent happened on new years day so i know i'm a little late on tellin this, but anyhoo my husband was in the process of taking an old waterpump out of is suburban and he had 2 bolts break on him. so we fired the bird up and took a drive to harbor freights to get an excrusion set to get the bolts out. well we get 2 town and of course get stopped at a red light. there are 3 cars in front of me. light turns green we all go, i just go ahead and get in the left side lane on the by-pass cause the store we're goin to is on the left. the speed limit is 45, i'm goin 50. the 1st 2 cars i pass, guess they're just slow, but i'm goin the same as the guy that was in the very front. i look in my rearview and there is a cop car comin up pretty fast. i ask my hubby "hope he ain't comin after me, i'm just goin 50 and so is the guy next 2 me" he said sometimes they just get u for goin 1 mile over. of course on come the blue lights, so i say "guess he's got me" so i pull over. mean while the car beside me just drives on. i get my registration and all that good stuff ready for the officer. he's a nice fellow, got a smile on his face, he said i was sittin behind u at that redlight back there, when u pulled out and passed up those cars i clocked u doin 62. 62!!!!!!!! now i know my speedometer is not broke. i told him if i was goin 62, which i wasn't cause my speed hand was on 50, then the car that was beside me was goin 62 also. he said "well sometimes when u see a police car in ur rearview u slow down without realizing it and then look at ur speedometer. i told him i knew what i was goin b4 i even knew he was back there. (i didn't even know he was behind me at the redlight). he then just asked for my information and told me that he was gonna run it, and said just because he pulled me over doesn't mean he's gonna give me a ticket. (hm, that's a good sign) he comes back says everthing checks out good (well of course it does) and the next thing he said was what really got me. he said u didn't turn out to be the type of person i thought u would be. with the looks of ur car i thought u was just some young punk redneck kid tryin to race. "not hardly" i told him. so it's funny thinkin about it, but also disturbing. am i gonna have to put up w/ gettin pulled over, bein told i'm goin faster than what i know i'm going, just because the officer thinks i'm some young punk redneck kid? just because of the car i drive? everytime i'm out driving, i'm going the speedlimit or a couple of miles over, i get passed by mini vans, pick-up trucks, suv's goin probably 20 miles over the speed limit. never see 'em get pulled over. of course i know officers have 2 be ready for anything and can't let there gaurd down, and i have the upmost respect for them and what they do. but it's still funny and disturbing at the same time. oh yeah, he didn't give me ticket, and he was actually a very friendly police officer :)

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well i'm a couple of weeks late on bloging about this, but i haven't really had alot of time. but anyways i went to the bristol dragstrip on the 3rd of july to try and see if i could meet my goal of getting my car in the high 13's. well at first it seemed that that night was gonna be the night. it was still daylight when i took it down the 1st time, i run a 14.2. i was pretty excited about that run, then i waited for a bit and took it down again (it was still daylight just a little after 7pm) i got a 14.2 again. i was really excited, i've usually been running a 14.5 in the daylight so i just knew my chances of getting in the high 13's was really good. so it got dark, i got in line, get to the tree, last yellow light i gun it too hard have some traction trouble that causes the traction control to almost kill my engine, so i don't get a good time a 14.6 as a matter of fact OUCH!!!!! so i'm not happy with myself at all. so i get back in line, my last run for the night, so now i'm settin at the tree, last yellow light i don't gun it as hard and i'm pretty satisfied with the take off. i get my time slip and to my surprise another 14.6! now i know there is nothing wrong with the car cause it's still running great. but i'm not giving up on my goal. i'll just blame it on driver error, i goofed up somewhere.

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Last night I went to the Bristo drag strip for the Thurs. night street fights. I was wanting to accomplish 2 things, 1-to get in the high 13's in the 1/4, 2-to make it to 100mph in the 1/4. Well I didn't make it in the 13's :( I made it in 14.030, darn! so close! But I did make it to 100mph, 102.25 as a matter of fact! So i was well pleased. I have come from a 14.65 to a 14.030 and all that is done to the car is flow master exhaust kit, slp cold air induction kit, k&n air filter & oil filter, bosch platinum +4 plugs & bosch wires, and I use castrol full synthetic oil. In my opinion that ain't to darn bad. I have also greatly improved my reaction time too, I've come from over a sec. (bad connection in the wires between my brain and foot, lol) to a .16. Yep, I'm very satisfied.

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