I think there are enough posts to start a restoration forum.What do you guys think?it would be great to see all the resto work done on the cars in one area. Thanks Sam
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Hey Sam! Nice to see you are still at it. Have you started the resto yet? Think you will be on the road this summer?
Where would the restoration forum live? General Tech Topics? Photo Galleries? I think info pertinent to restorations is already covered by the existing topics and would create another place to look for what I my be seeking.
The exception might be if the "Restoration" topic were dedicated to concours restoration type info only. Examples might include location and color of factory paint daubs on various suspension components and what they represented in the assembly process, correct paint codes for original Telstar or Ariston shocks, retrofitting new gas charged rear decklid shocks into the original housings to maintain the original appearance, etc. Any other info in a restoration topic might be redundant to the existing topics.
My 2-cents anyway. YMMV.
Cheers!
The exception might be if the "Restoration" topic were dedicated to concours restoration type info only. Examples might include location and color of factory paint daubs on various suspension components and what they represented in the assembly process, correct paint codes for original Telstar or Ariston shocks, retrofitting new gas charged rear decklid shocks into the original housings to maintain the original appearance, etc. Any other info in a restoration topic might be redundant to the existing topics.
My 2-cents anyway. YMMV.
Cheers!
I like the idea, but, I think everything we are doing to ours cars is restoration at this point. The cars are old enough that most of us are just in fix and replace mode when something goes wrong or wears out. i.e. we are restoing to use. Thanks for putting the idea out but it really isn't different enough if you think about it.
Hi
I just thought that it would be great to look in one area and see some step by step progress on others cars and maybe provide a place for the do-it-yourselvers to use as reference.Something like what Johnny Woods did with his site.Many people want to know particularly where these cars rust and this may provide insight. Thanks Sam
I just thought that it would be great to look in one area and see some step by step progress on others cars and maybe provide a place for the do-it-yourselvers to use as reference.Something like what Johnny Woods did with his site.Many people want to know particularly where these cars rust and this may provide insight. Thanks Sam
Sam, sorry for taking your post off-topic. I've deleted the off topic stuff and we'll get down to answering your question.
the place to find photo documentaries of work progressing on a Pantera is in the DeTomaso Automobile Photo Gallery. Every member is encouraged to start a gallery about their car, and to update it from time to time, thereby creating an on-line photo journal about their Pantera, as work is performed, changes are made, etc. This journal can span years of ownership.
A photo essay on how to perform a particular job will be found in the appropriate technical forum.
The forums as they exist today are the result of a lot of experience, experimentation, thought, trial and error. Mark and I truly want these forums to be as good as possible for the benefit of each and every member of the DTIC. We really appreciate your input, your suggestions are always welcome, and I think its bitchen that members from time to time want to make suggestions that help make the DTIC a more user friendly bulletin board.
There are several issues at hand regarding adding or deleting forums, changing the scope of existing forums.
One is the member who logs on regularly and just wants to find what's new. For this person, the more forums there are, the harder it is to find what they're looking for. Searching 20 forums takes twice as long as searching 10 forums.
Then there is the member looking back historically for old posts on a topic. This member must be able to find all of the posts on that subject in one forum, and the topic must not get lost amongst other topics in the same forum. This points to having the forums fairly narrow in their scope.
Hand in hand with that issue, is making the forums easy for members posting new topics to figure out which forum he/she should post in. This is where getting too narrow in scope makes problems.
Some examples:
A rusty interior floor pan, is that a body topic, or an interior topic?
A window that doesn't roll up or down, is that a body topic, an interior topic, or an electrical topic.
What is clearly the proper forum to you, may be just as clearly another forum to another member. This is why the general technical topics forum covers as broad a spectrum of issues as it does. If a certain topic is spread in several forums, then it will be impossible or very inconvenient for you to find & read all the posts on that topic. If it is unclear where to post a topic, it will also be just as unclear where to search for the old posts on that topic. So there is a balance needed between having the forums too broad in scope, and too narrow in scope.
In considering your request, I look first at the forum covering your subject as it exists at this time, the general technical topics forum. This forum covers the following topics:
(1) charging and electrical systems (including gauges, wipers, headlights and power windows)
(2) heating, ventillation and air conditioning
(3) paint and body
(4) interior
(5) car care
(6) restoration and production/historic topics
I assume what you would like to do is separate body work topics from everything else in that forum. The searcher's consideration, is it difficult to find bodywork posts in that forum as it is now configured? The truth of the matter is, there aren't that many posts regarding body work, this forum is mostly about electrical problems. The fact that the body work posts are so far & few between is probably what makes finding them so difficult. The poster's consideration, would that make it more difficult to figure out where to post new topics. I've already cited an example where separating bodywork from electrical would pose problems for members trying to determine where to post new topics.
I can't see how to break this forum down any further withour creating problems, but I'm open too any ideas that I might not be thinking of.
take care,
George
the place to find photo documentaries of work progressing on a Pantera is in the DeTomaso Automobile Photo Gallery. Every member is encouraged to start a gallery about their car, and to update it from time to time, thereby creating an on-line photo journal about their Pantera, as work is performed, changes are made, etc. This journal can span years of ownership.
A photo essay on how to perform a particular job will be found in the appropriate technical forum.
The forums as they exist today are the result of a lot of experience, experimentation, thought, trial and error. Mark and I truly want these forums to be as good as possible for the benefit of each and every member of the DTIC. We really appreciate your input, your suggestions are always welcome, and I think its bitchen that members from time to time want to make suggestions that help make the DTIC a more user friendly bulletin board.
There are several issues at hand regarding adding or deleting forums, changing the scope of existing forums.
One is the member who logs on regularly and just wants to find what's new. For this person, the more forums there are, the harder it is to find what they're looking for. Searching 20 forums takes twice as long as searching 10 forums.
Then there is the member looking back historically for old posts on a topic. This member must be able to find all of the posts on that subject in one forum, and the topic must not get lost amongst other topics in the same forum. This points to having the forums fairly narrow in their scope.
Hand in hand with that issue, is making the forums easy for members posting new topics to figure out which forum he/she should post in. This is where getting too narrow in scope makes problems.
Some examples:
A rusty interior floor pan, is that a body topic, or an interior topic?
A window that doesn't roll up or down, is that a body topic, an interior topic, or an electrical topic.
What is clearly the proper forum to you, may be just as clearly another forum to another member. This is why the general technical topics forum covers as broad a spectrum of issues as it does. If a certain topic is spread in several forums, then it will be impossible or very inconvenient for you to find & read all the posts on that topic. If it is unclear where to post a topic, it will also be just as unclear where to search for the old posts on that topic. So there is a balance needed between having the forums too broad in scope, and too narrow in scope.
In considering your request, I look first at the forum covering your subject as it exists at this time, the general technical topics forum. This forum covers the following topics:
(1) charging and electrical systems (including gauges, wipers, headlights and power windows)
(2) heating, ventillation and air conditioning
(3) paint and body
(4) interior
(5) car care
(6) restoration and production/historic topics
I assume what you would like to do is separate body work topics from everything else in that forum. The searcher's consideration, is it difficult to find bodywork posts in that forum as it is now configured? The truth of the matter is, there aren't that many posts regarding body work, this forum is mostly about electrical problems. The fact that the body work posts are so far & few between is probably what makes finding them so difficult. The poster's consideration, would that make it more difficult to figure out where to post new topics. I've already cited an example where separating bodywork from electrical would pose problems for members trying to determine where to post new topics.
I can't see how to break this forum down any further withour creating problems, but I'm open too any ideas that I might not be thinking of.
take care,
George
George
Thank you for the explanation and your points are 100% valid.I agree changing posts at this time would get very confusing and probably better left alone.It was just a thought and when I start my repairs on my pantera I plan to show progress as I go.So I will post pixs on the appropriate post regarding the subject.
Thank you for the explanation and your points are 100% valid.I agree changing posts at this time would get very confusing and probably better left alone.It was just a thought and when I start my repairs on my pantera I plan to show progress as I go.So I will post pixs on the appropriate post regarding the subject.
As my project is slow going I like to keep up on others projects and it can be challenging. I use the search function a TON and save the topics in categories in my favorite places file.
This makes it easier to reference topics on a given car.
The searching is the real work. For example, I have been following Comp2's build on his car. He is moving at light speed compared to me but if I want to find info about his engine then I have to look in the Engine forum at old posts and not in his main project thread in Pictures Forum. If I want information about 1quick72's car I have to forum hop also to get all the info about his engine, wheels etc.
The key is getting familiar with the search feature this forum has.
Ask the right question get the right answer.
This makes it easier to reference topics on a given car.
The searching is the real work. For example, I have been following Comp2's build on his car. He is moving at light speed compared to me but if I want to find info about his engine then I have to look in the Engine forum at old posts and not in his main project thread in Pictures Forum. If I want information about 1quick72's car I have to forum hop also to get all the info about his engine, wheels etc.
The key is getting familiar with the search feature this forum has.
Ask the right question get the right answer.
Sam,
I've taken your request seriously & didn't forget about you. I've spoken & been in contact via e-mail with a few other members of the forum, Pantera owners, and friends. Everybody has convinced me we can separate the electrical & HVAC topics from body & interior (coach) topics without creating confusion. A consensus among those I spoke with was that by taking one "general topic" forum (which looks like a junk drawer) and creating two well defined topics in its place, that it will be less confusing, and make the forums look more professional. So we'll give it a try.
Let me know what you think.
George
I've taken your request seriously & didn't forget about you. I've spoken & been in contact via e-mail with a few other members of the forum, Pantera owners, and friends. Everybody has convinced me we can separate the electrical & HVAC topics from body & interior (coach) topics without creating confusion. A consensus among those I spoke with was that by taking one "general topic" forum (which looks like a junk drawer) and creating two well defined topics in its place, that it will be less confusing, and make the forums look more professional. So we'll give it a try.
Let me know what you think.
George
George
I think the forum looks great and I suspect it will get very busy.Thanks for taking it seriously,it actually came as a shock I did not expect it at all.
Sam
I think the forum looks great and I suspect it will get very busy.Thanks for taking it seriously,it actually came as a shock I did not expect it at all.
Sam