My father used to build A4 Skyhawks at the Douglas plant in Long Beach. He had a bumper sticker on his car that read “A4’s Forever.”
A few years ago I was driving past our local airport when an jet flew over me- dang if it wasn’t an f-4 phantom! It was painted only in primer, and looked exactly like an old pickup being rebuilt by a cheap redneck!
At the rate they're soldiering on he may well be right.