“401 Nailhead” is the engine in the Buick. It’s a classic Buick V8 (401 cubic inches) that enthusiasts like because it has a distinctive design and character.
In this context, the “collar” is the mounting interface on the distributor that helps it seat and clamp to the engine. If it’s too short, the distributor can’t be secured, which can let it spin and cause loss of proper ignition timing.
A distributor is part of the ignition system that helps time the spark to the engine. They’re using an HAI distributor, and the problem was that it wouldn’t clamp tight enough, so it could rotate and mess up the spark timing.
“Hold downs” are the bolts/clamps that keep the distributor from moving. If they’re not right, the distributor can shift or spin, and then the engine may not spark or run correctly.
“Points” are an older ignition-system part inside the distributor that helps control when the spark happens. They switched back to the original points setup and it started and ran smoothly.
“Basic timing” is setting when the spark happens in relation to the engine’s rotation. After changing ignition parts, you have to set it so the engine fires at the right moment.
A clamp is a tool that holds something in place. They’re saying they made one to hold a part, but the fit/shape didn’t match what they needed, so it didn’t work as expected.
The intake manifold is the part that routes air (and sometimes fuel) to the engine’s cylinders. Here, they’re talking about how the distributor fits relative to that mounting surface.
A radiator hose is a hose that moves the car’s coolant (the liquid that keeps the engine from overheating). If it breaks, the car can start running hot fast, so you may need a quick repair to get home or finish the trip.
This is the Nebraska town they made it to after their car problem. It highlights that on a road rally, you sometimes need to find parts and help quickly in whatever town you can reach.
“Limping” means the car isn’t running right, so you drive very carefully and usually at low speed to get to a safer place or a repair shop. It’s basically an emergency, get-it-there mode.
“Classics” are older cars that people think are worth appreciating or collecting. The host is basically saying different people decide what counts as a classic at different ages.
“Powerglide” is the name of an automatic transmission used by some older GM cars. It’s designed to shift smoothly without you needing to use a clutch. That makes it nice for relaxed driving and road trips.
“Straight six” means the engine has six cylinders lined up in a row. Many people like this layout because it can run smoothly and it’s mechanically straightforward. In older cars, it’s often used for dependable everyday driving.
A “fan belt” is a belt that helps run parts of the engine system. On older cars it can drive the cooling fan, so if it’s gone or broken the car can overheat. That’s why they had to scavenge one to keep going.
They tell listeners to check out “Vice Grip Garage” for the full story. It’s basically a recommendation for where to see the breakdown and fix in a separate video.
A Chevrolet Nova is a classic American car that’s popular with hot-rodders because it’s easy to modify. Here it’s mentioned because the speaker had a belt that didn’t fit the Nova correctly.
A power steering belt is a belt that helps run the power steering pump. If the belt is missing or the wrong size, the steering system can’t work properly, and in this case it’s even used to help get a different car running.
Electronic ignition is the system that makes the spark happen at the right time to start the engine. In this story, the car wouldn’t run unless the electrical system had the right voltage.
The Pontiac Firebird is a classic American sports car. In this segment, it’s used to explain a problem where the car wouldn’t start unless the electrical system had the right voltage.
The Black Hills are a scenic mountain area in South Dakota. The hosts mention it because their rally route went through beautiful terrain, not just highways.
The Badlands are a wild-looking, rocky landscape in South Dakota. They’re mentioned because the rally route was chosen for scenery and interesting roads.
This is an Oldsmobile Delta 88 from 1973, and “convertible” means it’s an open-top car. It’s a classic American-style car from the 1970s, and the convertible version is especially uncommon.
The Lancia Delta is a car model made by Lancia in Italy. In the podcast, they mention a 1973 Delta 88 convertible, which is an older version with the top down. It’s brought up because it’s a specific, interesting classic that people can see in a museum or collection.
The AMC Marlin is a classic car made by AMC. The podcast mentions a restored one and says you don’t see them very often, meaning it’s a rare model. It’s being highlighted because it’s unusual and special to spot in good condition.
A fastback is a car shape where the roof smoothly slopes down toward the back, instead of ending at a flat trunk. It’s a recognizable body style you can spot just by looking at the side profile.
The AMC Eagle is an AMC vehicle known for having all-wheel drive from the factory. The speaker likes it because it grips better on slippery roads like ice and snow.
Term
cab over international
“Cab over international” is describing an International Harvester truck with a cab-over-engine design. It’s basically a way to say what kind of truck it is and who made it.
COE means “cab-over-engine.” It’s a truck design where the driver’s cab is positioned over the engine, so the truck looks and drives differently than a more traditional layout.
The starter is what gets the engine turning when you turn the key. “Starter problems” means it doesn’t crank reliably. The host is describing a temporary fix so they can get home, then replace the starter later.
A Ford Maverick is an older Ford compact car that some car people still mess with. Here, the story is about someone trying a weird “lawnmower carburetor” setup on a Maverick, and they mention a 289 engine. It’s basically a funny, DIY-style modification idea.
A carburetor is the fuel-mixing device used on many older engines, and a “lawnmower carburetor” refers to the small, simple carb used on lawn equipment. The segment is about machining and adapting that type of carburetor to run on a car engine—an unusual swap that relies on matching fuel/air flow and throttle behavior. It’s a good example of how carburetion can be experimented with, even if it’s not a typical road-rally setup.
“Dynoed” means they tested the car on a special machine that measures how much power it makes. They did it before and after changing parts so they could see the difference.
Hot Rod Power Tour is a big car road trip event for hot rods and custom builds. People drive their cars to different stops, so it’s a real-world test, not just a lab test.
A “spite video” is basically a challenge video made to prove someone wrong. The host is saying this person responded to criticism by testing carburetors and showing the results.
A “carb cheater” is a gadget that helps a carburetor run more correctly. It uses an O2 sensor to help the engine adjust its fuel mixture instead of relying only on the carb’s fixed settings.
An O2 sensor checks the exhaust to see if the engine is burning fuel too rich or too lean. That information can be used to help the engine adjust the fuel mixture for smoother running.
The Ford FE engine is an older Ford V8 family that a lot of people use for hot rods. In this segment, they’re talking about how much better it supposedly gets on fuel with a specific setup.
The Ford Mustang is a sports car made by Ford, usually a coupe or convertible. People often talk about it because it’s built to be fun to drive. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as what the speaker is driving while they transition to other stories.
Car
Jeep
Jeep is a car brand that makes rugged, off-road-friendly vehicles. In this story, the host is talking about problems with his Jeep and how the driving experience (especially the manual) is part of the issue.
A manual transmission means you have to change gears yourself. You usually use a clutch pedal, and it can be harder at first if you’re used to an automatic.
“Shift on the fly” refers to being able to change gears while moving, without needing a full stop or a traditional manual-style clutch-and-shift routine. In the context of go-karts, it’s usually about easier, more beginner-friendly driving.
Windshield brackets are the metal pieces that hold the windshield onto the Jeep. If they’re broken or missing, the windshield can’t sit tight and secure, and the car can feel loose and rattle.
They’re using “project” to mean a car you’re actively working on—fixing, upgrading, or rebuilding it. Their main idea is that it’s more fun to stay interested when you can actually work on the car.
This means taking the car apart down to the main metal structure (the frame). It’s a huge rebuild, and the host says they’d get bored because they wouldn’t be able to drive the car for a long time.
LIVE
Okay, tonight we're going to talk about Mav and Kaley's trip up through the Black Hills.
What?
We are?
Okay, who's going to top it for tonight?
We could talk about distributors.
No.
We've had a hate-hate relationship with distributors this weekend.
Oh, that's fair.
Distributors are like the hosts of this show. Some are advanced.
And some just don't work at all.
You know it's bad when you resort to putting back in the points.
Yeah, that was actually the answer was to put back in the points distributor.
What?
No kidding.
Episode number 338.
If you would like stickers for your toolbox, your car, or any other place,
send us your mailing address and we will send you some stickers for free
because everybody loves free stuff.
B Squad is, at its core, a roundtable discussion of the four of us
who are admittedly rank amateurs in the car world,
trying to figure our way into hot rodding.
Four states, three time zones, two sets of brothers,
once a week of a meet and bolt of hot rod.
For B Squad hot rod, this is Lefty.
This is Train.
This is Hollywood.
And this is Woodchuck because A Squad has a TV show.
Legal disclaimer, if you try anything we talk about, that's your fault, not ours.
So the quick rundown of the story, the 63 Buick with the 401 Nailhead in it,
I'd put in a HAI distributor and the collar was just a little too short
so you couldn't get it to clamp down and hold tight.
It would always spin on you, no matter what.
So I recently bought another Buick Nailhead that had another distributor in it
and so we looked at that distributor and said,
okay, there's another HAI, let's put that in, make sure it works, and no spark.
So I took it back out, changed out the internals, stuck it back in, got spark,
but cannot get it at the time.
There's something in that distributor broken.
So we've had now this distributor in and out, figuring out the hold downs and everything,
about 12 or 13 times.
And finally I just said to heck with it, went back, grabbed the old original distributor,
points it all, stuck it back in, and did a basic timing on it.
And I said, okay, we're going to be lucky if this starts
and it fired up on the first shot and just ran smooth.
Points are staying in this car, it tells me that.
The car is speaking to me.
And don't get me wrong, the in and out multiple times also included
the four different hold downs we have and two sets of bolts we have
to try and make something that would actually clamp this down
and hold the distributor from spinning, not just having it zip tied.
We've even built a clamp that clamped around the shaft.
Yeah, we used to call it in the machined out parts.
This is the part of this that has me befuddled.
You made a clamp, but the clamp wouldn't hold it?
Well, okay, the clamp would hold it.
Okay, the broken distributor has more height between the color
that sets into the intake manifold and the bottom of the distributor.
The one that works has a very short height between the bottom
of the distributor and the top of the intake manifold,
to the point that you have to partially pull the distributor
and feed the bolt in and start it before you set the distributor
all the way in place or you can't get it in.
Okay, so the broken one, if the working one had the same height,
we probably could have made it work.
It was a comedy of errors.
I'm just happy to know every once in a while,
you two do slump it down here on B Squad with the rest of us.
I mean, at the end of the day, and it was a day,
it's the end of the day, it's running.
Yeah, it did run.
And it only took them a day, so they're definitely not slumping it with us.
Yeah, you totally got kicked right back off.
No longer on B Squad.
If someone would get it running or push it out of the shop
so that we could get the car in front of it out.
Or take one of the other 98 vehicles.
Including one specifically meant to haul around other things.
I couldn't have test driven the Comet,
which we had also done work on to see if it was better.
It was the Comet that was trapped.
Yep, but as far as the trip goes, yes, we did take it.
We went on the cruise last week, got back a week and a day ago
with Derek Beary of my script garage.
He and Jess and their team put together a phenomenal event.
I can't say enough about just how much fun it was,
how much it was everybody helping each other.
Nobody was there.
There was no one upmanship.
Hey, my car's got this.
Hey, your car's got that. That's cool.
It was very much everybody friendly.
It was the type of cruise that you just want to go on.
And it was just utter blast.
They did limit this year because he's trying to grow it slowly.
And they will be having it again next year.
Probably in the south.
Ooh, we like it down here in the south.
That's always a good drive.
Yeah, but you can see our car doesn't have air conditioning though.
Yeah, but the south has sweet tea.
Absolutely.
Because the only thing, you know,
biscuits and gravy and sweet tea and that's a full meal right there.
Nothing else in life.
As far as our actual cruise,
we had one minor mechanical issue.
We actually lost a radiator hose about 10 miles south of Gehring, Nebraska.
And it limped into Gehring with the help of some folks at a tractor store
who let us, you know, get some water and then the O'Reilly's there in Gehring.
Those guys were just awesome too.
We came up with enough parts to get a fix in it
and it lasted for the entire run.
And, you know, that was kind of just the theme of it.
It was just, everything was mellow.
You know, we ended up helping a couple people with cars.
Other people helped other people.
It was just utterly and phenomenally a blast.
And people were really cool with no matter what you brought.
There were a couple of very high-end show car kind of things.
There were a lot of the things, the kind of cars you would expect with Vice Grip Garage,
where they're going to town cars or, you know, maybe not.
And there were a lot of people, a surprising number of people who brought their daily drivers,
who their project didn't get done or they had failures shortly before the cruise
and they ended up bringing their daily drivers, I would say a quarter, maybe a third.
That wasn't quite that, but yeah, it was a lot.
People literally, okay, maybe I have, there are people who consider things classics that I don't
and I think of as daily drivers.
You get into the 90s, I think of them as daily drivers.
Don't you be hating on an OSB.
Don't be hating.
I don't hate them.
I'm that kind of an age.
Anything that was like a new car when I was in high school is not a classic in my head.
It probably is.
They just don't register that way for me.
Embrace the fact you are a classic.
It's okay.
But no matter what people drove, everybody was cool with everybody.
There was no snobbery.
There was no, I can't believe you brought that.
Everybody was really friendly.
Well, I think that's a testament to how much people wanted to be there,
not just have a car there, right?
They wanted to be a part of it.
So they're like, well, my plans didn't work out, but we'll go.
We'll fire up the Honda or whatever their daily driver was and make it.
So that's awesome.
And it was a lot of the camaraderie that you would expect from car culture.
The third day of the cruise, we hung out with what I jokingly refer to as the Nova guys,
because literally until the end of the third day of the cruise,
I didn't know what either of their names were, but they were driving a Nova.
So they were the Nova guys from Pennsylvania.
They drove a straight six power glide 73 Nova from Pennsylvania.
Top speed was 65 if they were lucky.
And they drove it all the way from Pennsylvania to do this tour, cruise.
That is some dedication.
Well, we cruise with them most of the third day.
And I thought it was really funny because literally I didn't know their names.
So they were just the Nova guys.
And that was what we called them.
And then I found out later that they referred to us as convertible Jim and Yale,
because we took the convertible.
We did do the entire trip top down.
The entire cruise top down.
Nobody wants to see you with your top down, Jim.
It's okay. It was only the car that had its top down.
But yeah, you know, people were just great.
One of the guys running with Derek the last day broke down at the 1880 town,
which was 25 miles short of the last stop.
And so we stopped and the guy from Poppy's Bettina stopped and Derek was there.
And you would think with five cars worth of spare parts,
somebody would have the right fan belt.
No.
So we actually ended up scavenging the fan belt off Derek's Nova that he was driving,
which if you want to see the story about that, check out this week's vice grip garage.
But he was driving this Nova because I had one that was half an inch too short.
And then we had, of course, we had the two sizes too long and too short.
And so we kidnapped the fan belt off of his, the power steering belt.
And so that because the guy's Firebird wouldn't had an electronic ignition would not run unless I had 12 volts.
So we got that on and Derek had to go in real quick for the final stop.
So he ended up leaving and the rest of us put it together and still beat him there.
So one of the things they did was the entire route was planned for backgrounds.
They were very easy going about it.
There was like one checkpoint a day to complete the tour.
But there's they highlighted a bunch of cool tourists stuff along the route and suggested all of these back road approaches as compared to interstate.
After, after fixing that car, the like four cars that were still there were a little stressed about the fact that we were supposed to have checked in 15 minutes before.
The last time to check in for the end of the cruise was 15 minutes before we were leaving the location.
So we all knew we were late. Derek had literally left just as the, you know, cut off time was happening.
So we jammed it on the interstate along with the other four, all four of us jumped in on the interstate and then got there before Derek did because he had taken the back road, the official path that was advertised.
But, you know, we went through the Black Hills, we went through the Badlands, we went through just lots of beautiful terrain.
You know, I think they said there was 250 some cars there as an interesting statistic that we found out there.
It's 173 or 176 cars per mile.
bumper to bumper traffic is 176 cars per mile.
And they specifically ended up talking with Kerry Strange, who didn't have any name recognition for me at that particular moment.
Have sense realized that she's married to Tim Strange.
And what did you have this show where they would take a viewers ride and redo it on the old power block series?
I know he is very well respected in the custom world. I don't know what shows he has done.
They have a cold podcast now that's strange motion way.
But Kerry has started doing of all things and this is the kind of environment it was.
One of the stops for the night was in Deadwood.
One of the hotels down the hill and what block and a half walk, there was a cool coffee shop.
Then a custom glass, not like car glass, but artistic glass, glass blowing glass, sculpture kind of stuff.
That and the coffee shop are the same place.
And somebody had posted on the Facebook group about this cool coffee shop and it was a good place to stop.
So a bunch of people went there that morning for coffee and there were probably 25 people and that's a lot for the size of this coffee shop.
It's an old garage.
And it was another couple who literally were there on vacation, go to Deadwood every year.
I was talking with her, she's like, it was the weirdest thing because none of these people are regulars.
But everybody's just standing around talking to each other like they know each other.
Because 20 of the people in the coffee shop at that moment were from the cruise and had met each other the day before.
And we're in response.
So everybody knew that that's what you were.
I ended up talking with Terry Strange, who among other things, she does this, I think at this point professionally.
She handles registration for events and car cruises, including she is the person who does registration for her, which is how we got into this conversation.
And I was really amused to discover that it's 176 cars per mile.
And she knew this fact because that's what they plan for on how our power to work.
But Derek had contacted her when starting to just set this up for the Going to Towns tour.
He had contacted her because she does this professionally, essentially.
And she is the one who told him that.
She said, you want to do it in the Black Hills.
You want to keep this small because some of these towns, Urto is a classic example.
I don't know what the actual population was, but they had two restaurants.
You don't want 6,000 cars on a cruise where the town is only two miles long.
If you have 176 cars per mile and some of these towns are only two miles long, you really want to limit this so that you're not overwhelming these relatively small communities.
And it was interesting.
She had a lot of, I had a great time talking to her, the staff that ran the cruise.
Or there at the beginning and end, they were cruising along as well, but they tended to make pretty good time because they needed to get there for the next evening.
But they were super friendly and very interesting to talk to because they had a whole different perspective.
I don't know.
I had a great time hanging out with the staff in addition to all the other people who were on the cruise.
I think the rest of B Squad missed a golden opportunity here because that sounds like it would have been.
Well, you told us it was a lot of fun and nice scenery, great people.
I think we missed out, boys.
I concur.
Yeah.
So the final stop could get a day off.
And that was, it was announced not with a lot of advance notice, partially to keep the numbers down or to keep people from having hurt feelings because they couldn't go because it closed.
But yes, that was actually intentional.
So the final stop was an awesome place to go if ever you're cruising through South Dakota.
And we may be setting up something to talk to these guys for the podcast too because they're looking for word of mouth advertising.
It's called the Pioneer Auto World Famous Pioneer Auto Show.
I did put this link in the chat as well.
And it is, and Steve, you may want to put this in the show notes.
This place was awesome.
22 buildings of classic cars, classic tractors, car memorabilia.
It was just phenomenal.
One of the actual Dukes of Hazard cars from the show was in there.
It was just huge motorcycles.
If ever you just want, I would suggest this is a place we could go, but I don't think we want to do this in the winter.
That is fair.
Heading to Vegas in the middle of winter is one thing.
Heading north towards Canada is something else.
Yeah.
But it was just a phenomenal place to go to.
They were great people.
And just down the road from there was the 1880 town.
That's a really cool one too.
So the 1880 town is like what a prairie town, and that's part of what the prairie auto show has, is 1880 town is specific to what a town would have looked like in the 1880s in South Dakota.
So it would be sort of like your, actually, it almost looked like a set from a movie.
Actually, they did use it for some movies.
The big one they used it for was dances with wolves.
That's why there was all the advertising around for it.
And some of what Pioneer Auto show has is a bunch of that sort of early, or Old West, early settler memorabilia or items.
But I think they had 300 plus cars.
Yeah.
It was a pretty cool place.
And remarkably inexpensive.
To get in was $14.
Sounds like a heck of a time.
You're making me jealous.
Most of the things they do make me jealous.
Amen.
Amen.
All right.
So favorite car that you saw on the cruise, didn't even have to be in the cruise, but favorite car or vehicle you saw.
So the amusing one is we were there in the 73 Delta 88 convertible and we got to the Pioneer Museum and they're like, oh, you're in that convertible.
There's another one in building 22.
They had a 72 convertible in building over there in building 22 and they wanted to make sure we saw it.
As far as on the cruise itself, though, what was so cool was just people, there was no specific car.
Everybody had their own and they all had a story and they all had the history and that was way cool.
Most unusual one.
And I feel bad for the guy who had this one.
He got there and then had to go to the hospital.
So he was there on the first day and the last day in a very nicely restored AMC Marlin.
And you just don't see those real often.
No, that's got that weird back glass angle.
Yeah, it was a fastback.
It looks a lot like the first generation of chargers.
I think the one in favorite might be the wrong thing, but the one that amused me the most, the one that I was impressed.
Somebody brought an AMC Eagle.
I love those things.
I want one so badly.
I had one when I was in college.
They're ugly.
They'll not get me wrong.
And this one was bone stock.
It was like they had been driving it since it came off the factory floor.
Those things are amazing cars.
They run great forever.
I own four wheel drives and that thing is better on ice and snow than anything I have ever driven.
And it was a guy and his daughter and their dog.
And I just love that they brought it.
And I mean, technically it's a classic, but Kevin knows nobody thinks of them that way.
I think it wasn't the coolest car, but I think that was the one that really impressed me that somebody had brought it.
Yeah, there's actually somebody who just posted a YouTube video a couple days ago of all the cars at the final stop.
He did a walk around of them.
And you can see there was some nice stuff on the cruise.
And a huge variety.
Like I said, it was all over the board as far as finish level.
Did you appear in the video?
That's the question.
The car started.
The guy was, it seemed to me at least he was actively avoiding catching people in the video.
He was just doing the cars.
I think Mav is looking up the link for it.
He's typing.
He's giving me all the work to make sure all you can see it when you're listening to this.
Oh, never mind.
So we'll, we'll make sure we put links to the going to town rigs tour as well as the vice grip garage episode on there and the pioneer auto show museum and everything.
So you guys can click around the, how does Derek say it, the, the face webs or the face space?
The face space.
Yep.
Got to pay homage to him on his event.
So yes.
And, and, you know, in case I don't say this enough times in the app and solicit of this, we did, we did give him the squad stickers.
So he knows we exist.
And there's just not enough thank yous for him and the job he did.
He was everywhere every day.
And, you know, just one of those truly awesome people too.
And they did all that works.
That was way cool.
Completely friendly.
Never too busy to have a brief chat.
I mean, he would, if somebody stopped him or whatever, he literally cruise with everybody else.
He would say, Hey, this is when we're leaving from where if you want to stick with us, you know, there are some challenges with.
Doing that because they're stopping to make content, but come along.
And there were people who literally were in his group all three days.
We caught and ran with that group a couple of times, but there was some road construction and things that made it difficult to stick with them.
Unless you were really far up in the pack.
But I, if you watch the video, they had some car trouble on the way there.
And so Derek was relatively late getting to his own event.
I was walking out to the parking lot to go look at a 54 Chevy because I hadn't registered that it was a 54.
I thought it was a 55.
Anyway, let's go in to look at it.
I'm walking back in and Derek and Jessica and three other people I didn't know are standing in the foyer of the hotel where the registration is getting the organized really.
And somebody else had had hit him up for a selfie.
And my only comment to him was, do you have time for another selfie with a short person for a second?
He's totally friendly about it in spite of the fact that he had somewhere to be and something to do.
Took a selfie with them.
And then three hours later as registration is finishing, they're selling merchandise and he's autograph.
He's doing a meet and greet basically.
And we waited in line with everybody else.
And as it became our turn and we started to walk up,
he recognized me and acknowledged the fact that I had met him.
I mean, this was a 15 second interaction when he was in the midst of doing other things and actually remembered me from that.
I was surprised.
I was impressed.
He seems to be genuinely the nice guy he comes across has on YouTube.
So sometimes it's okay to meet your heroes.
That is absolutely awesome.
I don't know about you guys, but when we head out to SEMA,
we're always trying to get ready to interview with some people who have much busier schedules than we do.
And we're trying to line all the stuff up and make sure we get fed and out to the show and have our badges.
And aren't pulling any giant B squad moves to where it's going to ruin the weekend for us.
And that's stressful enough, let alone having all that pressure on top of you.
It's your event.
You're putting it on and you're the face of it.
And you still have time to basically stop and say hi to everybody who wants to.
And Derek's kind of out there in the car world.
He's relatively a big deal.
And people want to stop and say hi.
So I don't know how he does it, but that is awesome.
That's how I felt meeting John Schneider.
Sometimes it's just really good to meet your heroes.
It makes them human and you realize they're just good people.
Just another quick plug for him here.
One other thing that I don't know if you guys saw the vice grip lodge,
but he has now purchased a 1940s Chevy car dealership and they're going to move the museum over to it.
So that is way bigger, way bigger than the little one that he had going.
So it's going to be.
I'll be honest, watch that episode on my drive back.
Okay.
And sometimes I'm just astounded by how well he tries to hide his exceptional business acumen.
Oh yeah.
Because that dude is sharp.
Most definitely.
Impressive.
He's a good old boy.
And I think that's a very real part of his personality.
But yes, he is a very astute businessman.
Yes.
Yes.
That is true.
Another one of the stops on the run was at Roger's Wifels up there.
People are looking at arts and stuff.
He is a great guy to go and see up in Piedmont.
Like spewix.
He's a big deal.
If you're into fifties, I don't think there is a better place to try and find parts.
Certainly junkyard parts.
So maybe a kindred spirit there for me, but you know, we'll go with it.
All right.
You need to catch me up the vice grip museum.
I didn't know we had a museum, but I haven't watched nearly vice grip to be healthy lately.
Okay.
So about three years ago, he bought a building that was basically condemned there in a town
near his house.
And he was going to turn this into the vice grip museum, a place where people could gather,
do car shows, stuff like that.
Rapidly found out it wasn't big enough, so he bought the property next to it and then
bought the two condemned houses next to that to make into a parking lot.
And he was going to expand it.
And then he found out that because of where a water main is and because of where some city
ordinances, he can't make the building any bigger.
So the plan was to have 15, 20 cars in the museum and a commercial space where you can
buy all the merch that he sells.
Well, they figured out it wasn't going to be big enough.
So a friend of got him in touch with this 1948, I want to say, building
that was a Chevy dealership.
So it's got all the space out front where they would be displaying cars.
It has the bays where they would work on cars.
They had the indoor showroom and sales room.
They have offices.
They have storage area upstairs for parts.
And so, yeah, he did the announcement that he had bought that on a vice grip lodge.
Nice.
That's exactly what Matt on Iron Trap Garage just did.
So I can follow that pretty clearly.
Yeah.
So does that catch up, Steve?
That catches me up.
Yep.
I just had not heard that.
Like I said, I've been out of the loop on vice grip garage here recently.
He's hoping, well, he says March, May sometime mid next year, he hopes to have it open.
That's what he said in the video.
I don't know if that'll actually happen.
Maybe in the coming years, we need to have a B squad trip down there.
We could do that.
For some of you, it would be a short trip.
Yeah, just put in the plug for him because the guy, and he's working all the time and
he's just, heck, those are the kind of people you want to put in a good word for.
Yeah.
Like Gale said, sometimes it's okay to meet your heroes.
And I think that goes a long way because usually it's that let down, right?
They're never as good as you think they're going to be.
But it's always awesome to find that one that kind of represents himself completely honestly.
And it is what it is.
And it's all good.
So I am a, like I said, I'm jealous.
You guys got to go on that.
I'm very happy for you, but still a little bit jealous and be on.
I'm super glad that it was just, just an awesome event.
You know, gives gives me hope for the world, hope for humanity.
So I had to look it up.
Episode 13 was our first interview way back in the day.
We had a guy named Jake on.
He had a podcast called regs to races.
It's, it's long since gone, but his tagline was there are no strangers in racing.
Only friends you haven't met yet.
And it sounds like this event was very much one of those deals.
Most definitely.
The, there, there was pre-registration the night before the cruise and for like a couple hours.
And people got registered.
And then a decent number of people sat out in the parking lot in long chairs, drank beer and talked.
And that was a recurring theme every night.
There were a bunch of people who didn't leave after the cruise ended.
They didn't leave that night.
They stayed at one of the two or three motels in Murdo.
And same thing would pull that lawn chairs and sat in front of the hotel room and hung out and talked.
It was, it was very much about camaraderie.
And hopefully, you know, South Dakota doesn't have anything about open container.
I don't know.
And never asked.
Allegedly.
Yeah.
Heard from a friend once.
Well, and I think to a point it was, it was a very mellow crowd.
People were conscientious about presenting it well so that it would happen the next year.
So that these towns wouldn't get a bad impression of car culture.
And don't get me wrong.
There are people in these towns that have cars.
First night was in Rapid City and literally a guy in a, oh shoot.
I don't remember what it was now.
The Pontiac, I don't remember what.
Anyway, he literally was driving by the motel on his way home and went, what the heck is going on?
Because he saw all of these cars in the parking lot and stopped the car because he had, he
lives there and he had no idea it was going on.
So there are people, there are people in the car culture that are in these areas, but they're
relatively small towns.
And so the people on the tour were careful and conscientious about giving a good impression
so that it supported the community and the car culture, not put a bad face on it.
Um, Monday, the video I posted, you will like the cab over international that's in there?
No, nice COE, huh?
About what year is it?
Uh, it was a, it's a...
It's a custom...
Yeah, but we didn't know what the guy, most of the trip, you know, off and on throughout
the trip, stayed at all the same hotels with him with a 63 international trip.
Nice.
Maybe it was a 64 series.
And he made the whole trip in that.
So, well, that's what, you know, originally these vehicles were designed across the whole
country.
All you got to do is take care of them and they'll still do it.
Yeah.
I mean, you guys are living proof of that.
Okay.
Here's, here's a stretch for you two.
Did you learn anything about cars specifically on the trip?
Jim learned that points are better than...
I thought that was post trip.
I didn't know.
I mean, some of us on B Squad, we learn everything, we learn something every time something happens,
right?
It's a daily occurrence, but you guys have seen your fair share of stuff.
So, I'm curious if there was anything interesting you learned along the way.
Car trivia for me.
Different bits and pieces I picked up on some of these vehicles that I didn't know or don't
know that well.
And that was, that was a lot of fun to pick up some of the things that, like the Marlin,
I didn't know that that year, how few of them were made.
There was only like 1100 of the bodily ad made.
And the fact that he had two of them was pretty impressive.
But, you know, learned a lot of little trivia about them.
As far as mechanical, they're really, to be honest with you, there weren't that many
breakdowns.
There just wasn't anything that was, they really needed that.
Everybody was just kind of cruising along and their cars were holding together.
And, you know, the one, the one Hudson kept having starter problems, but it was a 350
Chevy in it.
And he was like, yeah, I need to replace the starter.
I'm like, well, I got all the tools here if you want to do it.
He's like, now I'll just keep tapping on until we get home or it gives out all the way.
And then I'll replace it when I get home.
So, I don't know if Gail did it or not.
That was my impression.
Yeah, there weren't that many breakdowns.
There were a few, but not many.
I think the one that I had never heard of, and apparently this is fairly well known.
It's from several years ago now.
One of the guys on the cruise has a YouTube channel.
And at one point, as it started as an April Fool's joke, had posted on Facebook the
machining that you would need to do to run a lawnmower carburetor on his Maverick.
Oh, that's right.
That's 289.
Yes.
He had done it as a joke.
It would totally work.
The engineering was good, but he did it as an April Fool's joke and people apparently
got all up in arms about it.
So, he got mad and did it.
And then, literally, dynoed his car before and after it went from what, 600 horsepower
with a regular carburetor to 48 horsepower with a lawnmower carb on it.
And then took it on Hot Rod Power Tour.
And the power of spite is really amazing to me.
I mean, Ford versus Ferrari, that all happened because Ferrari was mean and Ford thumbed their
nose at him.
This guy, and he was a really cool guy, actually.
We talked to him for a while.
Yeah.
Did you see that intake he did that was like eight feet tall for that carburetor?
Oh, no.
He was running a regular carburetor and by the point he was on this tour with the same
car, by the way, just with a normal car bonnet again.
But I thought it was interesting that, one, he'd done the engineering just for the heck
of it and then had not started with any intention of building it.
So, the whole thing happened because people got mad about it and he was like, fine, I'll
prove my point.
Yeah, his last video was actually a spite video where somebody was talking to him about
how he didn't know enough about carburetors.
So, he took a bunch of them apart and showed them the different things that you could do
to him and dynoed it before and after to show he actually knew what he was talking about.
So, yeah, spite is big with him.
Yeah.
But talking to him, that was not his way of viewing it.
His thing was, he knew it would work and they argued with him so he did it to prove his
point.
To me, it came across just like Ford versus Ferrari, it came across as, fine, I'll prove
my point.
I don't think he'd use it as spite.
That is definitely not the type of personality he has.
He has a set of wrenches out right now that it's metric and it's billed as Americans
will use anything except the metric system and like one of the wrenches is like 12 RCHs.
I'll let everybody figure out what that means because we all know but still, you know, it's
just, that's the kind of sense of humor he has.
Yeah.
They're called dingus wrenches, dingus brand wrenches.
We have one of the pieces of swag as far as I work with dingus.
Yeah, it's a sticker that says I work with dingus.
In fact, one of the wrenches in our, they gave everybody a wrench as part of the swag
and it's marked in 18 or eight sixteenths and on the other side it's 12.7 millimeters.
Right.
Yeah.
I almost bought the wrench set but Liz told me I have enough tools and I'm still on a tool
diet.
The other one, he's really big and I had one of my coworkers point out this one to me
and I'm starting to, you know, read up a little bit more on his carb cheater.
I don't know if you guys have seen that one or not yet.
I just remembered his name.
It's Luke.
Yeah, but carb cheater basically you can keep your carburetor and have it self-tuned with
an O2 sensor and stuff.
He shows that on the videos all the time.
It looks really cool.
So when is he coming on as a guest?
I'm sure we could get him.
I got his, I got his card.
I can drop him a note.
Yeah, I discovered him.
That would be awesome.
Dylan McCool's pod, I guess Dylan McCool's channel, he came on and they were doing a
Ford versus Chrysler thing where they were just trying to get as many cars running as
they could in a junkyard in a day.
It's really fun to watch.
That really means you need to pick your project carefully.
Yes.
Why is that?
Right, never mind.
Well, otherwise we end up like me and Steve where nothing runs.
They're saying they're getting three miles per gallon better out of a Ford FE engine,
which is like six.
That's double the mileage.
It's official.
Steve needs to build another FE just to test it.
There we go.
Actually, he just needs to use the one he's already built.
Bingo.
But the whole big reason for this cruise, just to backpedal a little bit was to promote
people getting out there and actually doing things with their cars.
Get out and actually drive them.
Get it out.
Get it out and actually run it.
And it is so, such a point because if we help give a positive view of this car culture,
then people are going to keep going with it.
The cities and towns and stuff are going to keep letting it happen and not have people
being stupid.
But just get your car and get it out there and get it running.
Derek's famous for your car won't work unless you do.
But there's also the whole theory of get it running.
Don't worry about getting it right, right away.
Get it running and get it on the road.
And I can say from somebody who's been doing it wrong for his entire life, I 100% agree
with that.
So what I heard from that was that, you know, since you got to be respectful and nice and
drive cautiously and all that stuff to put out a good image of car culture, I'm not
invited.
Hey, jumps are okay.
You just need a closed course.
Right.
Everybody was very pro doing it, just not, you know, where there's kids standing around,
you know.
Hey, I'm driving Mustang, man.
So to kind of segue into my Jeep woes, I ran into that.
My daughter's kind of been back and forth on this Jeep.
I don't know if I want a Jeep.
And some of it's because it's a manual transmission.
She's used to driving things with an automatic transmission.
Most go-karts now are automatic or automatic enough.
You can shift on the fly kind of deal.
Hollywood came up this weekend.
We put a stereo system in her Jeep.
And so last night as the sun's going down, I'm like, all right, Raelyn, you got to come
out here and check this thing out.
And she's like, did you get it done?
I want to see.
Like, yep, radio's right there.
Watch this.
And of course, it's the Bluetooth radio now.
So I had queued up Taylor Swift on my phone because she's a giant Swiftie.
Hashtag girl mom.
Yeah.
No girl dad, but yeah.
I stand by my statement.
He had Taylor Swift on his phone.
Yeah.
I did have to search it.
It wasn't on speed dial, but yeah, no, I made it happen.
And she is just jamming out there in the seat.
Now I had broken, literally broken the windshield off of the front of this Jeep
because the hinges cracked and rusted out.
And so I'm looking for windshield brackets at the moment.
And this thing is just torn apart.
It runs, but it's, you know, now everything rattles because not only is it a Jeep, it's
all, you know, the dash is loose and there's no windshield and the whole deal.
But she is just having a heck of a time just sitting in that thing, moving the steering
wheel like she's driving, you know, it's at this point, it's half in and half out of
the garage and she's just jamming out in it.
And it's like, you got to do things in your car.
So I'm, what you said, Mav, it just, it really resonated this past weekend with my
daughter.
And it's like, yeah, it's got to be, you got to be involved because having a project
to work on is different than having a car that moves, that should work on.
And it's, most of the TV personalities have put it way better than I've said it, but
I 100% agree.
One of the things we figured out a long time ago is if we can't drive it, we lose interest.
And so we plan projects, we plan purchases sometimes and we plan projects based on what
we can get running because I don't have, I'll lose interest if I'm going to spend two years
tearing it down to the frame, painting everything and then reassembling it from scratch.
I'll lose interest because I can't drive it.
So it, at least for us, scoping things so that you can get it running periodically and
so that you can actually have fun with it is really important.
I'm just sitting here going, I'm impressed that people stay as focused because I'm
clearly the ADD squirrel of the group.
Cause I'm like, oh no, I'm worse.
I mean, I don't have 98, but I got a crapload of cars and vehicles, but I also have a crapload
of hobbies.
So I give you all major props for being so focused.
Yeah.
Usually I say, Hey, Daniel, you're, you're pretty good.
You're on right.
But when you start describing yourself as ADD, I've, I got to jump on that boat.
Sorry.
I think you got that one nailed.
Yep.
It's a thing.
It's a thing.
But on the upside, right?
You also have a lot of other cool hobbies that once in a while you drag the rest of us
into.
So it's, we do appreciate it sometimes.
Hence the reason I know so many people that do so much strange shit all over the country
that, Hey, we can make fun road trips just visiting people I know.
Oh, all right, kids.
We're about ready to put a pin in this because this, this big bald Kansas boy needs to go
to bed here sometime soon.
Hey, that's usually my line.
You're not bald.
No, but I'm usually the one that says it's time to go to bed.
So.
Well, if you're offering, but you know, and we're stopping the show right here.
Yes, I do know where you live.
Yep.
We're stopping the show right here.
Thank you for listening to B Squad.
See all you hot rod heroes next week.
If you want to help us out, subscribe and review us on your podcast app of choice.
Don't find us on social media.
We're on Facebook and Twitter at B Squad hot rod.
Also, emails go to host at B Squad hot rod.com.
Just about to poke Daniel and see if he's still planning on coming.
There also may be some background noise.
The girls have had a long exhausting weekend and it's the bill is due for lack of a better term.
Hi.
When Jake was much, much, much younger, we there were what I referred to as baby hangovers.
I like it.
Yeah.
I might change that to minor hangovers, but yeah.
There's Daniel.
Ever have a minor hangover?
I was talking about the fact that when our son was very young, he had what I referred to as baby hangovers.
You know, you run them hard for two days over a weekend and they're just cranky.
He was moving the bar on the age up to minor hangovers.
I mean, in all fairness, the worst hangovers I've ever had is since I quit drinking.
And it's generally when I realize I'm way older than I used to be.
About this episode
Road-rally planning and real-world troubleshooting take center stage: the hosts swap distributors, chase no-spark causes, and even keep a run going after a radiator hose failure and a missing fan belt. Along the route, they talk about scenic back roads, check-ins, and overnight stops like Deadwood—plus how organizers size crowds (e.g., “176 cars per mile”) to avoid overwhelming small towns. The vibe stays friendly, with plenty of car culture, museum stops, and practical “get it running” advice.
With Jim and Gail back from VGG's Goin' to town tour, we're talking what a road rally is like adn what to expect. But don't worry, we still have more orange cone diversions than a guy doin' a walk around on his rig, bought sight unseen.
