dmanton300,
By "lowly ex-precision machinist" I feel you do yourself a disservice - the F4 was one of the last of the precision machined fighters in the pure sense - none of the plastic and composites so evident in today's structures. It was probably the fact that the engineering was possible to understand and so basic and rugged that made it in every way a rewarding machine to fly. OK, there were 'black boxes' and a few plastic knobs and dials but when you climbed into it the cockpit felt like a real heavy engineering job built for large texans. I still have an outer wing locking pin that served for many years as a paperweight and it is a fine example of the machinists' skill.
Having flown the best fighters made in Britain from 1938 to the F3, I have to say the F4 ranks among the best and the people who shared that experience will probably agree.