In a world with an derby too many shows about cars, this is another Pointless Automotive Podcast.
Welcome back to another Pointless Automotive Podcast.
Another one.
Chadwick and Frank, I timed it perfectly, so he's taking a drink, so he'll just make
a noise.
Guys, welcome back.
We're happy to have you.
Another week, another Pointless topic.
We actually have a topic.
Oh, man.
This has a point, actually.
This one's poignant, if you will.
And it's stressful.
This is a stress-focused episode, because I'm just going to say it, man.
At the time this episode rolls out, when it's released out of the ether into reality,
and it's forged onto a physical world, we'll have about two weeks before the next, wearing
the shirt, Sierra Raleigh.
And I believe we both have to have cars.
I know you said you're not going, but you still are aiming to have a car represent
you.
Yes.
In my stead.
We need to finish these cars.
There's work to be done.
I think that would be an official deadline to have your car project finished.
That's what I want to talk about today, Frank.
We have two weeks.
Look at us.
We're not even trying, not by design, but just because that's how the shit goes down.
It's like every episode of fucking Exit-A-Z Exhibits show, or any of those car builder
shows.
We've got to get it ready for the show.
We've only got 72 hours, and like, sure as shit, we're living it.
Very much living through it, except they do it constantly, right?
So they have nothing but time to throw at it, right?
For me, it's like, oh, cool.
After I'm done with work, I'm going to try to not totally get divorced, murdered in
my sleep.
I was going to go in, but yours is a little sad after I'll take it.
Get fully bobbeted.
Yeah, dude.
Oh, don't go there, dude.
That was the second battle of bull run, if I remember historically.
It was the battle of the not-bolts.
It was Manassas, Virginia, and Bull Run, anyway, history.
So yeah, no.
Two weeks left.
What current status, Frank?
What have you done?
This a lot for you on the fucking spot.
What have you done to your rally car?
What's your rally car again?
Remind us.
Yes.
Okay.
Remind us of your seat.
So back to Brass Tax here.
2004.
Okay.
Ford Focus SVT.
And for those who haven't been following along, which is probably everyone who has an actual
life, myself included, yeah, the whole purpose of this was the next DWA rally, Chadwick laid
down the gauntlet and said, hey, we should buy cars for the next rally that are cool,
max budget all in, purchase price, repairs, maintenance, et cetera, no more than $3,500.
So you bought a car and I bought a car.
And the car I purchased was this 04 Ford Focus SVT.
It's a five door, as they call it, hatch.
It's in, I don't remember, but like magma orange or some big, some really bright, bright
ass orange that's deeply faded.
Six speed manual, I'll say all are, and it has some needs.
Those needs were check engine light is on for oxygen sensor, as I was told.
Needs an axle.
It's got a somewhat leaky valve cover, needs a windshield, desperately needs tires.
And as it comes to find out, I probably should do the thermostat housing.
The common thing on this, this one's leaking a little bit, doesn't seem too bad, but it's
a good while you're in there.
Yeah.
So that's what I've got up against me.
That's the clean slate.
$2,000.
I've got $1,500 to play with to do everything else.
Which is doable, but I got to do it as the problem.
So couple of things.
I did get it to pass smog.
I did not have to change the oxygen sensor.
We updated on this maybe three weeks ago.
That's right.
And I just cleared the code.
I did a couple of proper drive cycles.
The thermostat was being a little sluggish, so it did have a pending code for that for
a little bit.
Okay.
Set all the smog monitors, got it smogged, got it tagged.
That is good.
I've subsequently gotten the windshield replaced, which was great.
The other one had a big horseshoe crack right in front of your eyeballs on the driver's
side.
New windshield, $200 installed for Ford Focus's rule for that sort of thing.
Hell yeah.
That's kind of where I've left it.
I got to do fluids, because here's the thing.
And you'll tell us about your car here in a moment and what you have and haven't done.
I feel like my level of responsibility to make this car right is higher if I'm going
to have someone else drive it than if I'm going to be driving it.
I have a higher pain tolerance for my own pain than me being willing to saddle somebody with
a potential headache.
This whole thing is a potential headache, so that's unavoidable to a certain extent.
But that's why I like, do I have to do a valve cover gasket before I send this thing
out?
No.
Will it cause somebody a problem?
Probably not.
Should I?
Do I feel obligated to do?
Yeah, I kind of do.
Certainly the axle needs to be done.
It's just a blasted boot, but yeah, no.
If there's a dirt stage, you don't want to run it without a total open-axle boot and
then beat the shit out of it afterwards.
So there's some stuff I need to take care of.
The other thing I have done, and we'll get into more of the stress stuff here
in a moment.
This whole thing is a stress.
I can feel the stress already.
Yeah, it's already there, man.
I did buy tires.
I got a set of four tires.
They have not been mounted and balanced yet.
And there's good and bad with this.
Will you, can I vent to you a little bit?
Yeah, you can vent this to me.
Yeah.
Oh, hey.
Look at that.
That is what I've gotten.
I got a set of four Handcook Ventus V12 Evo II, which I got them not because they're particularly
great tires.
They're decent tires.
They're pretty aggressive.
Good tire.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They've kind of been around for a while.
They have?
Not a new design, but it's sticky.
I want to say they're like a 320 treadwear.
Okay, pretty good.
You know, they're not like our compounds, but for the mission at hand, they're more
than adequate.
They're pretty good tire for what we're trying to do here.
Right.
Now, I got a good deal on them, and this is where I need to vent a little bit.
I got too good of a deal on them for me to complain about what I'm going to complain
about.
Got them home.
I drove to San Jose to get them.
So I have kind of a sort of a hookup through a guy who shall not be named, not Voldemort,
but somebody long short is I have access to like a wholesale tire account.
So I was able to get these tires for like $99 a pop.
That's a good price.
Which I think like on tire rack on these, they're like $1.60 each.
That sounds about right.
So 16s, right?
17s.
17s.
They're $215.17.
Okay.
So with tax, it was $442 or whatever.
Great.
Cool.
Lovely.
Got a home.
I noticed the manufacturer date on them, date codes.
Nothing that's, again, for what we are doing, I'm not going to like drive these things back
and return them or whatever things, especially I got a good deal on them.
Here in September of 2025, how old is too old for a set of new tires never mounted actual
new from a tire warehouse, in your opinion?
Probably anything over two years is a little too hanging it out too long.
It's not that I wouldn't run it.
I'd look for like dry rot depending on how, tire row house is good.
Hopefully it's kind of controlled out of the sun.
But staring at the date code looks less perfect.
I'm assuming you're looking at more like four years.
This is the 51st week of 2021.
Holy shit, bro.
So three years and change.
Yeah.
Which, if I, if like, I haven't installed for the first week of 2021, 51st week.
Okay.
So at the end, yeah.
The second to last week of 2021, still, dude, and I was like, God, if this was
a car, I was going to be owning for a huge chunk of time.
Yeah.
I'd be bummed.
I would be like, Hey, we need to fix this, right?
Like, but because it was, they were effectively whatever, 40% off or whatever
the case may be, and they're going to go on a car I'm not going to own forever.
And really the, the, the mission statement is let's beat the brakes off of this thing
in the hands of who got in country, not even me.
And hopefully come out on the other side, largely unscathed.
And then I'll probably, I'll probably move the car on.
Okay.
And so for that mission statement, I think it's adequate, but it's still kind of
shitty.
That's a bummer.
Nearly, nearly four years old.
Jesus.
Yeah.
I don't know.
They look great.
They look great.
I would have never known.
I didn't.
They're probably fine.
But then again, it's like a timing belt, right?
It's like a time belt on a car with no mileage.
I'm like, age is still a thing.
It was on four years ago, but it hasn't been driven in a minute.
Like, I don't.
I think it's fine.
Like you said, I'd still be bummed.
At least he didn't pay top.
Now you pay top dollar for something like that.
Absolutely be pissed.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, what are we doing here?
Yeah.
And you, so you paid like with tax, he said like 450, something to that
effect.
Yeah.
441.
It's a good deal, dude.
Yeah.
You don't need to pay to get them mounted and balanced.
Dude, I used to run those on my Glantz back in like 2006, 2007.
Yeah.
They've been out for a while.
Yeah.
They're good though.
They were always the kind of budget enthusiast tire.
Like if you knew you knew, they were pretty good tires.
A lot of people ran them because they were a good bang for your buck.
I think they still are considered good bang for your buck.
Yeah.
Maybe they just haven't made them in five years.
I don't know.
Jesus.
No.
I know they still make them.
That sucks, man.
That's some back inventory they were getting rid of.
So whatever.
And it sucks too because I drove to San Jose and back to pick them up and I got them home
at the house and I'm like, oh, look at this.
Cool.
Would I have declined them and driven my ass home with no tires?
I don't know.
Maybe I would have seen if they can pick out something different.
But yeah, I don't know.
Biggers can't be choosers.
And they're still going to be kick-ass.
They're still going to be sticky.
They're still going to do what they do.
Oh yeah.
I think they're like a 340, if I remember correctly.
Yeah.
340 for 20, something like that.
That's good.
So that's what I'm up against now.
So absolute must, must, must do's.
Axle, fluids, tires, alignment.
Really should do is thermoset, thermoset housing, valve cover gasket.
Yeah.
Everything else I don't know.
There is a little bit.
I did drive it a little bit more.
It runs pretty well.
There is a little clunking out of the front end.
So I'm going to find out what that's going to be when I'm doing this axle.
Sway bar end link.
That's my, I'm predicting.
I think for the same sway bar end links, that's just like a regular focus like ZX5.
Oh, that's surprising.
So they're ubiquitous.
If I need them, I can get them within 10 minutes.
Like it's not that nice.
So just get out of there and start kicking shit.
You'll hear it.
That's kind of what I'm going to be doing.
Just getting a pry bar on some things and seeing what moves when it shouldn't.
So I need to do that like this week.
Otherwise the sand is going to fall out of the hourglass.
How about you, man?
Like that's what I'm like, that's not, that's not a mountain that's unclear, clearable.
Like in theory, I can knock that out in a day.
Yeah.
At least most of it.
Um, and we'll see.
But that's assuming like nothing goes wrong and nothing strips or nothing breaks.
And have you crawled direct?
Here's my favorite question.
Have you crawled onto that car?
Yeah.
Hell no.
You got more to do.
That's what, that's right.
You got more to do.
It's a 136,000 mile car.
It's going to have some needs.
I don't, it's had a fair amount of maintenance done to it in it, in its past.
But we'll see.
Um, we're going to find out how, how about you?
I know you've got like Tweaker Town, you're, you're playing.
Dude, it's, uh, I love the platform I'm working on because I'm familiar with it
through my C30 and S40 back in the day.
Uh, it's a 2005 Volvo V50 T5, all wheel drive, six speed manual.
Yeah.
Cool car.
It's kind of super rare.
I think it's the rarest of all those Volvos by a lot.
Yeah.
It's a wagon.
Uh, pro, let's do pros, pros, I bought lowering springs, which are pretty
hard to come by.
They're hard to find for that car.
Uh, they're not cheap.
It has an exhaust cutout, which is a pro anicon because right as I bought it, it
had a wire going from the source of power out the passenger door underneath
the door cell and underneath the car.
Perfect.
Absolutely.
Wonderful.
Brilliant engineering, I might add.
Um, other pros like they drew it up.
Yeah.
What are the other pros?
Uh, definitely a con is the passenger seat was cut out in full Tweaker mode
when you could have just unplugged with a dude, you could take the whole
harness because there's a lot of wires.
I sent you some photos earlier.
Uh, these, these, this is a Volvo.
This front seat has an airbag.
This front seat has heating.
This front seat is fully powered.
This front seat has a sensor cut it out, cut it with a knife instead of
removing one Phillips head screw.
And then instead of where the seat, because the seat belt mounts the seat
instead of finding a T 50 Torx socket or, uh, to remove that T 50 Torx
bolt, he just cut the seat belt.
You're Brian Adams fan.
I know where you're going with this one.
There we go.
So good.
And the thing is, I'm like, who would do this?
And then when he cut the subwoofer out when I bought the car and the
spark shot everywhere, I'm like, fucking, here's my knifey guy.
He's a little stabby.
Um, this guy, dude, um, but you know, it is what it is.
I thought like, well, this would be pretty easy to put together.
No, man.
He cut it so close to the harness too that like I have, I might have
to re-pin some of these connectors, but anyway, here we are.
I actually was able to source the part I needed.
I used a junkyard online on eBay.
I actually love eBay for that kind of stuff.
Yeah, really like dump stuff like that.
Like I need a stock air box or I need a whatever.
There's so many records that will, and a lot of the parts of the parts
are cheap, good prices, right?
Or you just throw them an offer if it has to make an offer.
eBay's like really, I love eBay.
Just to tell you the truth, I buy a lot of shit on there,
like video games and like old retro action figures.
I sell stuff on there.
I love it.
I love it.
Gently used, um, uh, flesh lights.
Yeah.
Women's underwear after they've written up a hole like what they did
in the underwear that week.
Yeah, like how many miles on a unicycle they rode, things like that.
God bless them.
Make that money, ladies.
But we're guys, guys, I don't know.
I'll mix it up.
So that was cool to source that, but it's a job, right?
Because I now got to repair all that wire.
That's a lot of soldering.
And you got to do it right because you don't want airbags
to be defective.
Yeah.
You don't.
The seat warmers go to like 2,000 degrees and melt the seat.
Who knows?
So you don't want that stuff going on.
You just create like a plasma reaction within the seat.
This is crazy.
Yeah.
Cool to do.
So I got a good deal on tires too.
So I went with some, I like these tires, Advan, uh, FLEVAS,
uh, Yokohamas.
It's a good middle of the road tire.
It's pretty affordable.
It's 300 treadwear.
So it's not like my 200 Falcons I usually run.
Right.
So I got my mini pretty good for the last rally we went on.
They're good.
They're a good, good kind of like excitement focused tire.
It's not anything that's going to, yeah, it's not going to wow you with it's like, um, road
noise or any kind of stuff.
It's a, it's definitely more focused on sporty stuff.
So, uh, they were having, I always check.
So once I got like my tire that I'm looking at, I just keep going back to tire rack
because tire rack will have killer deals and they had an $80 off when you buy four
tires and I got them all for like 506 bucks with tax ship to me.
Right.
So that's not bad for four, for those kind of tires.
Oh yeah.
Uh, so that worked out pretty good.
Um, I bought a lot of the parts cause I knew what I was going to need.
Uh, so obviously doing spark plugs cause I, he did, it was weird.
So he was a tweaker, but for some reason he was a tweaker, but he did like the
timing about water pump like two years ago and you have a receipt for this.
Yes.
Receipt from the shop.
And I opened it up and it's a continental belt and all the writing on the belt
still looks perfect.
Okay.
Now that always wears off over time.
That's the other big thing that gives up time belt away, but all the accessory
belts look brand new.
So clearly that work, that's huge for me.
I'm not having to do a water pump time belt, but things that need to do
obviously the tires need to repair that seat.
Uh, there's a bunch of other little things.
Uh, obviously air filter, oil change, that kind of stuff.
The brakes for one, still the hardest thing, Frank is I'm actually
doing the series just started the series spoiler alert on YouTube, but
it's like, I always pop off like a wheel.
I'm like, Oh, these are the brakes I'm going to do.
And on this, I'm like, I have a budget.
These brakes look like they're at 50% health.
We're going to keep them.
You know, it's so different.
That's an interesting way.
And honestly, it is, but I think it's, it's almost for a lot of
people, potentially more useful, right?
If someone's watching and be like, Hey, what are needs?
What do I, what can I, what can I do?
What do I have to do today and what can I do tomorrow?
Sure.
Yeah.
That's kind of what you're looking at.
Yeah.
And a lot of it from your perspective is going to be like, it's not
just like, Hey, can I commute on this for six more months?
It's like, can I beat the, can I just absolutely take the
thing square in the dick for 800 consecutive miles and not
break it.
It'll be okay.
Yeah.
Which is a different, different use case, but I think
that's good.
Cause it's like, if you tell people, Oh yeah, I'm going to
beat the shit out of this thing for, you know, umpteen
hundred miles and it'll be okay.
Then yeah, you on your like commute to, you know, whatever,
Pawtucket, it'll be all right.
Yeah.
And it's, uh, it's weird how you weigh, like what's
important because yeah, it's, you want to do all your
reliability maintenance things that would be good for
reliable daily, but also this is a rally car.
So I want to do things to improve the driving
experience and I kind of add some more weight to those
things versus like regular maintenance.
Like I'm skipping some maintenance that I would normally
do to put a elevate rear sway bar in, which is like
one of the best way bars you can get.
Yeah.
And it's going to transform how that all wheel drive wagon
handles, which I think is going to be worth every
God day and penny.
Um, I imported, I'm telling you, all my top secret
weapons for this rally, uh, but I got that super thick
25 millimeter, uh, strut tower bar that only came on
European diesel B 50s that I bought from England.
Uh, so that came, I've got all these kind of like
fun things I'm throwing at it.
Uh, maybe a new turbo bypass valve.
I don't know.
We'll see.
Just to get up to a duck call.
Yeah.
It's good.
No, it's going to be like a liquid fart.
It's going to be like every time I downshift and get on it.
Uh, but no, it's, it's just like fun stuff.
And it just like, it is like reprogramming my mind.
Cause usually when I get a car, I just go over everything.
Like even if it's questionable, cause I don't, I'm not the
guy that likes to do a car over and then fix stuff forever
and ever.
Right.
So I always front load that, but now I have a fixed
budget to operate on.
Uh, so it's causing me to make some weird decisions.
And I am trying to, you know, cause it's like, what?
It's the, uh, the sense of occasion is the boy was like
to toss around.
Uh, so, and I think handling, I think the exhaust cut out.
I think if I get a little more turbo noise, I think those are
all things that add to that and make a car more exciting.
Um, but yeah, that's, that's the big stuff, man.
Um, how much more of it do I have to do?
I don't know.
All of it.
Every single bit of it.
Yeah.
Every fucking single piece of that I need to do.
Man.
And that's the thing too.
It's like there's an added wrinkle to this that I'm going to
have to do here for, for my situation, which is, I don't know,
man, I also have to find someone to drive the goddamn thing.
That's a big, I've got a short list.
I have some people that have volunteered to distribute that
reached out to either me directly or, um, did we have
someone, I can't remember if it was the APA pod Instagram or
my own, where somebody, a couple of people have reached out as
well and been like, Hey, like, you know, I'll do it.
And like, is that thing available?
And can I get some seat time and stuff like that?
So, um, that might be, you know, part of it was like, I'm not
going to be there.
So this thing could be the village bicycle for as far as I'm
concerned, um, just as long as it stays four wheels on, I
think we'll be all right.
So yeah, I do that.
That's another thing is just like, I kind of need to get
this done like yesterday because for someone to be like,
because I haven't like tapped anyone on the shoulder and be
like, you're in, because I want to make sure the car is in
first, right?
So as long as the car, once the car is done, then it's like,
okay, but I can't have it done like two days before and then
be like, all right, you're in and like find someone to drive
it and they're like, they've already maybe they're taking
a car or they're already going to go to the bunny ranch
or they're going to, um, I don't know, they're going
to be doing other things.
And so I need to find a hero sheet to pilot this
thing, um, as well, which is a whole different ball of
wax.
Yeah, you got to get it finished because they're probably
going to want to try it before the day of the rally or the
day before the rally.
So and maybe go get a hotel room and like find something
like there's other shit that needs to happen.
Like I, I have a space.
The car has a space.
Um, and so that's taken care of, but as far as like, I guess
you could sleep in it, but it's probably not recommended.
Um, they're bunking with you Chadwick.
Hey, come on, I got a wagon.
We could just sleep in that and save a bunch of cash.
That's true.
The shagging wagon.
Um, or do you have a co-pilot?
Are you taking a co-pilot?
Nope.
Solo baby.
Okay.
All right.
Well, um, I was expecting to go against this felt hot
hatch.
So, you know, I was trying to save all the weight I could.
This is true.
Yeah.
I think there's like a six hundred pound, uh, weight
differential.
I know there's a power difference too, but.
Cause that's, that's doing what two, two 40.
What's the horsepower on that?
On your 218 and then 236 pound feet.
So like an extra handy over where you're sporting their
big guy, but like, yeah, again, 600 pounds.
It should power to wait still favorable, but you know, I
got to do something to make it dance a little bit.
Yeah.
I mean, you've got the, you've got the exhaust cut out.
So you got that sorted out.
Out the door around the corner.
Um, so this will be, this will be really interesting.
And, and, um, what I might try and do is later this
week, I'm supposed to, like in three goddamn days, I'm
supposed to go and do a photo shoot on like a low
mileage BMW, uh, one M.
That's a great C ranch.
So up in Mendocino coast.
And so part of it is like, oh, I'll take the S 2000, but
I might take my studio shrubs with me.
And if I do that, I want to have the S 2000.
And I was like, boy, it'd be great.
I've had a fun hatchback to drive up there.
And so if I can at least get the axle done and the tires
mounted and the alignment done, um, I, I could just, that
could be like my, my test run is I can run it up highway
one up the Mendocino coast.
It'd be like three hours in each direction.
Good shakedown be killer shakedown.
A lot of fun.
Assuming it doesn't blow up, um, or my, my four
year old tires don't turn into go four year old
new tires.
Right.
Like, uh, like, like when someone decides they want
to like take their, uh, their Jordan twos out of
the box and they've been in their garage for their
whole life and they just turned the, the rubber
just disintegrate.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, um, we'll see.
So that might be my shakedown.
Do you have any, do you have any shakedown
plans or is the rally going to be the shakedown?
Fuck, I don't, my time, like I just, I
don't have the time right now to throw at it.
Like I've got the tracker I'm wrapping up.
It's just, it's going to be like, get it done.
Hopefully drive it maybe to work one day or
something.
Does it see if it works?
Yeah.
But, you know, the seat is going to be time
consuming.
Uh, first off, just that, that seat weighs like
85 pounds as it, as it should in a full
production.
It's just, yeah, but just fucking trying to
get all those connections and I have limited
wire to work with and I'm under a seat on
the side of a vehicle.
So I've got it up a little bit on the lift,
but it's still like, it's still not a
comfortable place to work, dude.
Have you considered just like getting a knife
and just like cutting shit?
Someone beat me to it.
Um, but yeah, no, it's that's going to be
time consuming.
And then there's a ton of like the
maintenance stuff.
You know, it all adds up, right?
It's like you said, like you could do it
all in a day if you had a day.
Um, but yeah, I got, I got to get on it,
man.
I just really, I really got to focus and
just get this thing done.
That's yours focus, but I just need to
like really just get into, I think it's
like settling in now that I need to
have this car ready because I fully,
when we had this conversation, what,
like two months ago, I was like,
yeah, I got so much lead time for this
project.
I could do a bunch of bullshit.
Layup.
Yeah.
Well, that's the thing, right?
Like that's kind of, you know, and,
and we opened and I was joking about
the whole, you know, um, reality TV
show, a vacation of this of like, we've
got the deadline and the clock is
ticking and like, honestly, if we
had like, if we bought these cars
with two weeks, we would have figured
out a way to get it done.
It's like, it doesn't matter.
We would have used up as much time
as we were given, no matter how
long it was, right?
Sure.
If it was six months from now, we'd be,
we'd be having the same conversation
in five and a half months.
I was like, oh my God, we've only got
two weeks and, and, you know, I haven't
even, you know, whatever done anything.
Right.
So there's going to be a lot of that,
but, you know, the good news is, I
mean, it takes a village.
There's going to be other people on
this rally show, if shit does go
a little bit sideways, you know,
we've got a lot of compatriots who
will help write the ship, hopefully
not literally, but like mechanically
anyways, if something's sideways,
that, that happened with me in the
sprint turbo behind me.
And, and so hopefully it doesn't come
to that, but I feel pretty good.
I mean, these are two fairly,
you know, Ford products really, two,
two, very much, you know, pretty
stout objects.
I'd say, yeah, both of them are
pretty reliable, good performers for
what they are too, different, you
know, hot hatch versus like all
well drive wagon thing.
And how many miles are on yours again?
188.
Oh, shit.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's good.
It's good.
You know, I think it's going to be
fine.
It's a, they're well built machines.
Pretty, pretty rugged.
That T5.
I mean, you're pretty fucking
rugged.
And you're going to, I mean,
you're spending money on like go
fast bits.
You're not even like, you're not
even doing, you know, I'm not
scared, bro.
I haven't really done the math yet,
but I think, let's just say
once I get the tires mounted,
mountain balanced is, let's say
that's going to be 600 for all of
that.
Maybe another 150 bucks for an
alignment.
So that's 750.
All the other parts I have.
Right.
All the other parts I have to
install is like another couple
hundred bucks.
Nice.
Let's say, then as for the
axle, the thermostat housing
and stuff, I have all that
shit.
An oxygen sensor I don't need
because I bought a nice
motocraft one for like 70 bucks
and it turns out, oops, I don't
need it.
And then 200 for the windshield.
So I'm in,
I'm going to be, I'm going to
be in like 30, 100 bucks.
Okay.
So I'm going to have 400 bucks
to play with.
But, you know, they're still
unknowns, right?
I might blow up a ball joint
getting this, getting this
axle swapped out or I might
need those sway bar end links
or oops, it's actually a lower
control arm that's bonked in
the bushing is bad at the
subframe.
Like there's going to be,
there's going to be some
wallam in theirs.
You know, but I did buy, I bought
like a PCV valve and I got the
valve cover gasket and I've got,
I've got all the things.
I got wiper blades.
I've got air filter,
a cabin filter.
I have all that like,
I might have got a fuel
filter.
I don't remember.
But like I have all the
things.
So I really,
barring anything scary.
I should pretty, I should
coast under the budget.
Knock on fucking wood.
Like aggressively.
Yeah.
I'm pretty, I'm pretty close
for budget.
I've kind of looked over the car.
I did a really good inspection.
So I don't think I'm going to
have too many more surprises.
I have like a couple hundred
bucks to play with.
I am going to sell the,
so I have like the Han Cooks.
They're all seasons,
which are the soulless ones,
which are actually really good
passenger tires.
Sure.
And they have like a 1500
miles on them.
So I have a set of four.
Yeah, that's the tires.
I could sell those.
That's the tires I put on my,
when I had the,
the Civic Hybrid Manual.
Yeah, perfect.
The tires I put on it.
Perfect.
And they were like last like
40,000 miles or more.
So I could easily sell those.
I'm guessing like 75 to 100
on the used market.
They're like, yeah, they're
fucking brand new.
So if I can get like 100
for those,
I'm going to recoup that cost.
And I'll have a little more
to play with.
But yeah, it's my
performance stuff really is
just the,
you know, the sway bar,
which I actually got to deal
with Elevate,
which was cool,
working with those guys.
And then the thing I got
on eBay was insanely cheap.
It was like the last one
available.
I don't know how I scooped it,
but the guy was just
getting rid of it,
his partner's diesel V50 out.
And I'm like,
that thing is so sought after.
And I made an offer
and I was like,
he's just going to ignore it
or come back like
closer to his asking price.
And he went for the price.
I'm like,
was like, thank you so much.
Yeah, around that.
Yeah, what was it?
Hell yeah.
Oh, it's somewhere on here.
Oh, it's a little more than
that.
It was like 75 bucks.
Oh, boy.
It's super rare though.
Like people pay like,
I think it goes transaction
usually is like 200 bucks.
Damn.
So it's a thick.
You know, you know.
It's an OEM Volvo
strut tower bar.
So it's like,
right.
Oh yeah.
That's the voice fetches more cash.
I know it's thick.
It's a veiny.
It's so veiny, dude.
It's pulsating all the time.
Actually keeps the car
from pulsating,
but apparently
once you,
once you put the rear sway bar
in it kind of like
tightens up the front end.
So your turn in is a little crisp
and the rear comes around
even more.
So it's like a great,
these things handle quick
just a few mods.
So yeah.
Hell yeah.
I'm pretty excited.
I'm pretty excited, man.
I think I balanced out
like the maintenance stuff
and thank God time about water pump.
I probably wouldn't have gone,
you know, crazy with the suspension stuff.
Yeah.
Mine timing belt,
water pump were done.
It's fine by miles,
but it's like right at
like the 10 year mark.
Oh wow.
Okay.
Which like it's,
you know,
I think it's got like
on paper,
it's got like 40,000 miles left
in the belt,
but like.
Yeah.
But that time, yeah.
Yeah.
That's their old rubber over here.
Yeah.
I mean, thankfully it's,
it's, it's, it's seen constant
limited use the entire time.
So it's been like started
and driven around every week
or two and whatever,
like supermarket and back.
So it's not like it's been sitting
in a garage for seven of those years.
Got it.
Um, so it's just going to be
kind of a send it situation
because I'm not going to have
an opportunity to get it done.
I could probably get it done on
budget,
but apparently those,
those cars are pretty
persnickety when it comes to
OEM timing sets.
Yeah.
There's a tensioner on them is,
is I guess,
like twice as much tension on
the timing belt on these
compared to the regular Z tech
motors.
So that's what my fear is with
like when it comes to time,
it's not so much the belt,
it's the tensioner.
I'm always worried about a
tensioner that's just been
in there for a long time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's always,
yeah, I was wondering,
that's why if it's like,
if it has,
if it's been sitting,
then I worry more.
Yep.
For both the rubber and the
tensioner and everything else,
seals, cam seals going,
and so it's sat,
and now that cam seals wasted
the moment where you put 20
miles on it.
Yeah.
So it comes up to operating
temp.
Yep.
Yep.
Then you bathe your timing set
in,
in sketchy oil or whatever,
like a lot to go wrong.
So I feel,
I feel pretty okay,
just not a ringing endorsement,
but pretty okay.
So we'll see,
but I think it's,
I think it's going to be fun
for whomever drives it and
takes a rally.
And it's going to,
it's going to look good.
I'll be really excited to see the,
see the photos and hear all the
shenanigans.
I've already had some people
tell me that they've got some
highly questionable
plans for my absence,
which is,
which is always good to hear.
So yeah, it's appreciated.
I'm pumped, dude.
I think we did,
I think we did pretty good
with these cars,
even though we're like super
stressed and up against it.
I think it'll,
it'll come out just fine.
I just did everything I could
to make the wagon
exciting.
I mean, well, sporty wagons
are always fun,
but just to wake it up a little
bit,
loud exhaust and,
you know,
good handling.
It should be,
it should be a proper little,
little go fast car.
And I saved some,
I did spend a little money
on some aesthetic upgrades.
So those are my secrets.
I'm not going to show.
Oh, there's going to be
up until day of,
yeah.
That's secret stuff right
there, buddy.
So yeah,
I'm pretty pumped.
I am pretty pumped about this
car.
I love these cars.
They're super expensive.
I was to try to find a clean,
you know,
V50 T5 all-wheel drive.
That wasn't like gone over by
maniac.
It would cost a pretty penny,
right?
No, it would.
It really would.
And it would be,
it's funny because I just saw
there's a guy who's got a
dealership on the peninsula,
I know,
and he's got one that's like,
it needs some paint work and
stuff.
And he's asking it with a
manual though,
V50 manual.
He's asking 8,500 bucks for
it.
Is it an all-wheel drive?
I don't know.
Most of them are front-wheel
drive.
Yeah, it might be a front
driver.
And even then,
yeah.
Even then, yeah.
Even the manual's super rare.
And then getting the all-wheel
drive with the manual is just
like outrageously
crazy nuts rare,
apparently.
Yeah.
It's,
it's cool.
It's,
I don't know.
It's really cool.
It's rare.
It's got,
it's got the right
transmission.
And yeah,
I'm in support of your choice,
my friend.
Yeah.
Should be,
should be fun, man.
Should be a good time.
But yeah,
we got some work to do.
We do.
We do.
We've got,
just a little bit.
Just a little bit.
Just a little bit.
Any,
any,
any parting shots
besides us stressing out?
A lot of sleepless nights
coming out.
I do want to,
my thing too is
I,
I want to finish this car
and give it a good
shakedown
because I haven't,
it's like what I,
and I have a problem
doing that
when I bring a car
in the operating room.
It stays there.
I do everything.
I don't like
take it out and do it
in between.
It stays on a lift
the whole time.
Right.
Um,
I do want to get
some shakedowns
and uh,
with this car
because that's quite a
thing to open up to,
you know, to start off with just like,
welcome back to the world
of the living,
what's going to rally?
And the car's like,
fuck me.
I'm left head to own me, dude.
You gotta take it easy.
Yeah, exactly.
Be careful, man.
Yeah, I just,
yeah, it's um,
spills some water on the car.
It's like even mine too.
Mine too is like,
the owner was actually
a really good dude
and quite the opposite
of your person.
Um,
and,
and really had his wits
about him and,
and,
and looked after the car
and was a good shepherd of it.
I believe he's only
the second owner.
Wow.
Um,
but,
you know,
it's just,
it's,
it's a hundred and
almost 40,000 mile
Ford product
and not like a,
like a cheap Ford product.
Yeah.
Which,
you know,
what's really funny is
because it's got like
the recaro,
the leather recaro's
for the fronts, right?
And they're nice.
They're decent.
They're,
there's two,
the seam,
one of the seams
is torn in the seat of,
the bottom of each seat.
Not bad,
but it's split.
And then you go in the back,
garbage bags.
Trash bag.
Yeah.
It's,
it's,
it's the least convincing vinyl
you've ever touched.
It's like the night trial lowest quality.
Yeah.
In the garage.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know exactly what it is.
It's like stretchy and shitty.
And it's like,
oh, they were not fully anybody
as far as the quality of the,
the,
the pleather back here.
Cool fucking car though.
It is.
Yeah.
Cool,
cool car,
good color,
even when,
when clapped.
Salmon.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Fully never go full salmon.
But yeah,
it's,
it's,
it's interesting.
We'll see.
I'm bummed I can't go,
but I'm,
I'm actually truly excited for
mystery driver to pilot it and kind of,
especially if it's someone,
because I've had some people reach out
that have been on the rally,
on rallies before and they're,
they're rally,
at least semi-regulars or,
or were in the past.
And then I also have some other people
that are,
you know,
that have reached out,
that have never been on a rally.
Oh, sick.
And so I think somebody getting their
own rally experience could be really cool.
I got to make sure they're up for the,
the hustle and the bustle.
And the car is up for the hustle and bustle.
Sure.
Right.
And so yeah,
I've got,
I got a notice of the grandstone this week.
And yeah,
I don't have a choice.
We got this.
We got it, baby.
Yeah.
Something like that.
It's,
yeah,
something like that.
Something just.
Reach out.
If you,
if you,
if you were a loved one,
would like to participate on the next rally.
I don't know how I'm going to like,
I don't know how I'm going to like choose.
I think there's like rules around sweepstakes.
So I think we can't like have a sweepstake.
There's like legal, legal.
Oh, bummer.
Or like what lucky,
you know,
one lucky entry,
like it ends up complicated.
So we'll just,
I don't know.
Well,
depending on how much work you get done on the car,
it's lucky or not.
Yeah, exactly.
If it burns to the ground in my driveway,
then like,
you know,
that solves that problem, I suppose.
Right.
But yeah, it'll be,
it'll be cool.
It'll be fun.
It will be a thing.
Nice.
Hopefully.
Hopefully.
Hopefully in two weeks,
we have a better report.
Yes.
We're going to find out.
Do you want to,
do you want to play a game?
Always.
Yes.
I treat life like a game,
but yeah,
let's do this thing.
I believe that's a segue.
We'll count that as a segue.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We will.
We are rolling out
our automotive print ad game show.
It's wonderfully creatively named.
And it is what it is.
It doesn't promise any false,
you know,
bullshit.
It's,
it's,
it's no,
it's,
it's all bullshit.
The ads are complete bullshit.
Let's be honest with each other.
There's no factual information
to any of these advertisements.
Frank is going to read
an advertisement
from a printed publication,
usually a magazine.
This advertisement could be
from the 80s,
90s,
mid 2000s,
mid 2000s,
the odds,
let's be real.
It's an automotive ad.
He's going to omit anything
that gives the car away,
make, model,
anything glaring,
usually.
Sometimes we spoil it.
I have three guesses
to figure out
what the hell he's talking about.
Yeah, it's,
it's,
I've been,
I think I'm on a two,
two week losing streak here
or two episode losing streak.
So hopefully I can redeem myself
with something less spicy or
maybe it's hard and I get it.
Either way,
three guesses.
Every time I fail,
he gives me a hint.
10 minutes will be on the clock.
Frank,
roll that beautiful.
Please goddamn be beautiful.
Bean footage.
We will.
I am,
let's see.
I have multiple options
for the same vehicle.
Shit.
And I'm trying to figure out
which one we're going to do.
This is like Russian roulette
in every gun
has at least a bullet in it.
Kind of a favorable.
You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to do
some of five rounds.
I'm going to do this one
and I might have to,
I might have to give you,
I might have to give you
some extra hints here.
But.
That sounds horrible.
Yeah.
We're just going to,
we're just going to run with it.
The problem is,
I'm trying to forget,
like,
can I get this in a format
where I can actually
freaking read it?
Dude, that's the worst.
Let me try this one.
That's actually worse.
Okay.
So we're going to do this.
I'm going to have to like,
because I can either like
have it unzoomed in
and it's hard to read
or I can zoom in
and it's like,
I have to like scroll.
It like zooms in too much.
There's no middle ground.
So all right.
This is,
and that's all of this
is very much a me problem.
And not it,
not in anyone else problem.
But okay.
So here it is.
It is a one page
advertisement here.
It is,
it's showing,
it almost looks like an illustration,
but I'm pretty sure it looks
like a highly stylized photo.
Okay.
Of the vehicle in question.
From the passenger side,
like broad side.
It's on a road at night.
There's fireworks going off
in the background.
There's an almost full moon.
It is heavily waxing.
How can you tell by the photo?
It's a waxing moon.
It's not waning.
It is not waning.
It is wax on Danielson.
Wax his world.
Okay.
It is.
And there's like an outline
of a little bit of a,
some sort of a logo
within the moon.
Jesus.
So it's logoed the moon here.
Okay.
And then there's also a sign,
like a street sign.
And it says,
you can barely make out,
it says Berlin.
Okay.
Wow.
And above it,
it says blank blank,
the German reunification
of economics and exhilaration.
Okay.
And then we've got more script
underneath.
I hope so.
These are exciting times
to be driving in
as the world watches
the price of other European
driving sedans soar beyond reach.
Blank blank breaks down the wall
in revolutionary style
in a competitive test drive
of eight Euro sedans
that pushed the limits
from Death Valley
to the Sierra Nevada's.
Ignore that Berlin sign,
I guess.
The editors of road and track said,
quote,
on the twisty bits,
the blank takes a back seat
to no one.
The grip of its tires
size 195 60 R 14
is good.
And the steering has a fast ratio
and a great connected to the road
feel that someone say blank
and the blank is their tagline
of this era.
Blanks German engineering
makes for an exhilarating
driving experience.
It's precise,
negative steering roll radius
patented track
track correcting rear axle
and four wheel independent
suspension give you a remarkable
sense of control.
It's compact exterior
contains a spacious cabin
seating five adults comfortably.
In fact,
you'll find more cubic feet
of passenger space
in a blank
than in a sob 900
Volvo 740
BMW 525
or Mercedes 300.
Adjustable front and rear seating
six speaker stereo system
and air conditioning are just a few
of its standard amenities.
Road and track concluded, quote,
adept at hauling a family
around in spacious comfort
yet willing to do a little cut
and thrust on back roads.
It's a fine value.
What more timely statement
than that?
Except perhaps that there's never
been a better time
to test drive a blank
for the dealer near you
or a catalog.
Call 1-800-44
and then a name I can't say.
See felt safe lives.
And then there's a tagline at the
bottom that I'm not going to read.
You're going to have to play the
process of elimination game here.
I got some stuff to chew on
but no motor transmission.
No tech specs.
The tire size is what you get.
Get the fuck out.
Get incident.
You said incident.
Incident allegedly seats five
adults.
Wow, that's a really original
sedan there.
And you kind of have to go on the
fact that they cannot stop talking
about how German it is.
Multiple Berlin wall references
and reunification.
And the fact that they just talk
shit to like all of the rest
of Europe.
And so you have to assume they're
not talking shit about themselves.
Right.
And so it's not as old as when
the Berlin wall fell clearly.
I feel like we're more modern than
that.
I don't know, Mr. Gorbachev.
You named Mercedes and BMW 525 and
300.
So those are the German.
So it's German.
It's definitely German.
So what's left?
And let's lose.
We lose Mercedes.
This is not a Porsche because we
said sedan.
So Volkswagen and Volkswagen
is the only by default.
Right.
Blank blink.
Breaks down the wall in revolutionary
style.
So no, no drive.
We didn't get like front wheel drive
all the driver will drive.
Even though sedan was said many
times and small.
Small but seating for five adults
comfortably.
In fact, you'll find more cubic
feet of passenger space than all
those other cars.
Right.
So we're not talking about a
Jetta because there's no way a
Jetta has more interior space than
the 525.
No goddamn way.
So I'm thinking.
It could be Passat, depending on
what time period we're in.
What was the pre-runner to the
Passat?
The V begins with the V.
We already did that one.
So I can't think of the quantum.
Quantum.
It can't be the quantum.
That was before we already did
that one.
So that's not even fair quantum.
Passat could be, could be Passat.
There's nothing that rules it out.
Five door or a five seater four
door sedan with good space.
Early Passats were pretty spacious
actually the big greenhouse.
But is that what we're talking
about?
Fast ratio and great connected
to the road feel.
Horrible, horrible writing.
And that's fun.
The steering has a fast ratio.
It's like a pad on the back.
It's really, it's quite.
What is the, I think of the used
car stickers from back in the day
like zipporty spirited, you know,
zesty.
I think it's a Passat.
I really think by, by you said,
like you said, process of illumination
this has to be a Volkswagen.
And it has to be Passat.
So it's going to be like a 94.
Volkswagen Passat.
I don't think the trim was
mentioned because it didn't say
it had like an engine, any kind of
engine.
So I'm just going to say base model
Passat.
Final answer.
Talk about Farfegdugan.
That's, that's, that's, or sorry,
did somebody say Farfegdugan?
That was one of the things there
in the middle.
This is indeed that first generation
Volkswagen Passat.
This is a, the specific ad is 1992.
Okay.
But it's the model that launched in
91.
Got it.
Which was that first generation Passat
with the kind of flat,
not much of a grill front end.
But yeah, that's what it is.
You got it.
It had to be like the, the Mercedes
in Vietnam.
Yeah.
But without like no tech specs.
No.
It's a car I've been wanting to do
for a while because it's like,
talk about a car you don't see
anymore.
Yeah.
But if this was dude, if this was
like topical like Berlin Wall just
collapsed, then it wouldn't have
been a Passat because we'd be
way off.
That's what my only concern
is.
I know it was Volkswagen, but I
didn't know what time period,
but it did read more like a more
90s car.
So yeah.
92.
And you said like 525,
which I think
yeah.
Yeah.
And that's what it was.
It was all about like, can you,
can you just do the process
of elimination and figure out like
who they're talking shit about?
You know, very clearly it was
German.
Unless you're going to be like,
is it NSU?
Like, I don't know.
Maybe.
But yeah.
A car.
Well done.
Those are cool.
Let me send you a link to the
Yeah.
Let me see it.
But they, what color was it in?
Black.
Okay.
Let's see.
I have.
Where'd it go?
No.
Oh my God.
Why?
Here we go.
But no, that's really cool.
I would like to,
I like Volkswagen's from this
period.
I like the Jetta a lot too.
The early Jettas are cool.
Yeah.
This although I like the
second gen better.
That'd be like what?
The beginning of the Mark III?
90, would you say 92?
I said 94.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ooh.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
There you go.
Nope, that's not it.
Whoa, dude.
What?
You shouldn't spread it that far.
Oh God, oh fuck.
Exactly.
I'm just like,
it's all fun and games
so you accidentally go,
personally goat see your co-host.
Live.
Exactly.
All right, let's see what we
got here.
But they're cool.
And you can get a VR6
with a manual.
Oh, this is a killer ad.
Yeah.
And the TDI and the wagon.
The green house is amazing for
these.
I remember that.
Yeah, they're cool.
When's the last time you've seen
one like moving under its own
power?
And if you do, it's like
slammed and stanced and
those guys kind of,
I mean, they have pretty,
they have pretty poor
reputation for reliability
to begin with.
What did these have?
They didn't have the two-point
slow, did they?
Yeah.
I think you got
either the two-point slow.
Yep.
Or you can get a TDI.
Cool ad though.
It does look like an illustration
versus an actual photo though.
Looks like a cartoon.
And I think you could get,
in this gen,
I think you could get a VR6.
I just don't know when,
like where in the world.
Because that's what the B3,
I think that was.
That would have been like
the early, yeah,
the early, early VR6.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know when,
when you got it.
But yeah, that would have been.
What did they launch that car in America?
The 91 or was it earlier?
The Passat?
90.
Yeah.
I want to say maybe,
maybe this was,
you said 92,
this might have been it.
Maybe.
Might have launched in 92.
I don't know.
I think it was maybe 91.
I don't know, whatever.
But yeah, I think it'd be rad to get,
get one VR6.
Well, that makes sense.
91 model year 92.
That makes sense.
That tracks.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're killer.
I like them.
It was an interesting design.
I do.
I think it makes pretty well.
I think I like the,
the late 90s Jetta better.
Overall.
Sure.
It was going to pick one.
That's not a gulf, right?
So you're talking like,
like 90 set,
like the mark and end of the mark
three, like the key.
No, I think it's the mark four.
So like the 99.5.
The new Jetta.
99.5 and newer when they rolled out.
I still think they look cool.
I mean, that was peak Volkswagen, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
You had to say like 2001-ish.
With the red and,
the red and blue gauge cluster.
Those are great.
You can get those.
Or Passat.
Yeah.
Those GLIs were dope.
With the Recaro package,
six-speed manual.
Yeah, those are fucking dope.
The kind of the two stripes.
Yeah, it's like stripes.
This is Recaro.
I thought those were,
and they came with like BBS wheels.
It was a fucking killer car.
Yeah.
Well built.
Yeah.
Well, good job.
Good job on the end.
Thanks, man.
I need to recall a little bit of ego repair right there.
Yeah.
No, it's okay.
You limped me into the Camaro last week.
So, good job on this one plane,
the process of elimination game.
Yeah, I usually don't like it when you're limped,
but I took it tonight.
Yeah, you know, sometimes you just gotta push rope
for the homies.
What, how do you want to celebrate?
We basically just did an entire PCP episode.
I know, right?
You got anything else you've been,
you've been working on a little bit?
Yeah.
So, well, my episode was talking about
how I have future PCP for the,
for the Volvo coming up,
but I actually worked on the Tracker a fair amount.
The exterior overhaul has been completed.
I sent you some photos.
Overhauling.
Yeah.
So, the big thing was the wheels.
This came on steelies,
not really exciting looking.
They get a little bit of a,
kind of not rust,
but you know,
any little nick becomes corrosion
on those kinds of steelies.
So it just looks shitty over time.
The saving grace for mine was they did have
the awesome Geocenter caps
perfect in perfect condition.
That looks so sick.
But since it is a red car
with white lettering on it
and a white top,
I thought,
let's do some gloss white wheels.
Hell yes.
Let's just,
because it just nothing screams
like 95,
like gloss white wheels.
So, you know,
you got to have the belt
match the shoes, right?
Oh, hell yeah.
Dude,
to the,
to the carpet.
To your car.
What is it?
Yes.
To your pubes,
match the drapes.
Yeah, I think that's how you
should actually just,
just come out and say it.
Just come out and say it.
Please tell me about your pubic hires.
Fucking creeps.
Absolutely.
I mean, we know,
we know like 90% of the,
that creeper population
that are listeners of the pod.
So we appreciate your listenership.
Continue to creep on.
Your sirs and madams.
So, you know,
taking those wheels down,
you know,
obviously scratching them all up
with some sandpaper
is the first step.
I love it when guys try to paint
their wheels without doing that.
And they just like it just
runs and bubbles and separates.
And then you hit it.
I just do a light coating of primer,
couple little light coats of primer,
just to promote that adhesion.
And then of course,
just put some gloss white wheel paint,
let it like 30 minutes,
then you put some real good wheel
clear on there to put up a thick coat.
They look so cool, dude.
I love them.
I like it brings so much personality.
So good with the white top.
Yeah, it's so,
it looks so cool in real life now.
And then I restored,
I was actually pretty successful.
No clear coat failure on the car,
but the paint is faded in some spots.
It's got like pinkish on the hood.
It just happens.
Is it even two stage?
I don't think those were,
I think those are single stage.
Yeah.
But it comes back though if it's red.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
So I'd rather deal with that
than having a clear coat failure car.
So you don't have to worry about that.
But still like the problem with that is
the clear coat doesn't take the heat.
The paint does.
So you get a lot of discoloration.
Foie glossed up like rubbing compound polish
and then wax.
I put it actually,
I went stupid and put a ceramic coat on it.
But anyway, it shines so well
and it looks fine.
It looks great.
But the new white top is almost,
I'm so scared that a bird's going to shit on it.
I have rag top cleaner,
which you have to use on something like that.
But just dude,
it looks so good with the white wheels.
And I got the tire cover for the back
that has the white tracker logo on it.
Yes.
As a total package,
it looks fucking good.
I say a couple of photos.
Yeah, no, it looks really sharp as fuck, dude.
For what it was.
So I put some time into it.
It's looking good.
I still got a couple of things I need to do to
shore up that rig.
Dude, what a clean example
because a lot of them aren't that pretty anymore.
Next week it'll be ready for me to take pictures of her.
Oh, I think so.
We should definitely get something going, dude.
I want to think of somewhere fun.
I almost want to do a place like with a mural
in the background because it is such a bright and fun car.
But also somewhere cute and fun, you know?
Yeah, like I was thinking when I'm done with the sprint here,
photo shoot, I was like,
oh, I want to go to like a tiny horse farm.
Can I take pictures with your tiny horses
and just have like this car with these tiny horses
just like mess with people's like perception of size?
Oh, hell yeah, dude.
The anti-banana for scale thing.
I'd love to park in front of an old roller skating rink
or something with a lot of neon and stuff with that tracker.
I think that would be like kind of the backdrop for that.
Yeah, let's think of some ideas
because I'm down the clown.
Like I think we could do something.
It's such a cool truck, too.
I probably, dude, I probably,
that top is not coming down for a while.
I'll tell you that right now.
That would have pain in the dick.
I had to do like chin-ups to get the zippers close enough
to it's such a pain in the dick
because it will stretch over time.
But do with the top down, it was fun.
I drove it a few times to the top down.
It's sick.
But yeah, no, it looks so cool, dude.
It looks so good.
So yeah, somewhere fun.
Yeah, no, I think it'll photo nicely.
I think we could have a lot of fun.
Oh, for sure.
Yeah.
And I think, I mean,
we all probably get to do some photos with the top off.
But I think with the top up specifically on that thing,
it looks so goddamn good.
Yeah, the white top looks great.
The interior, that's the other thing.
The interior is so strong on this one, dude.
Like no seat tears or anything.
It's all original, except, dude, it has,
oh, this is the other funny thing.
It has like a Bluetooth stereo.
It's not garish.
It's just like a single, single unit
with a little microphone in the gauge cluster.
So you can make, it's how I call my wife.
I'm like, I'm calling you from 95 Geotracker land.
And she's like, you sound crystal clear.
I'm like, holy shit.
Like that's such a killer bonus.
And it's Bluetooth, like hook your phone up,
play your tunes.
The speakers suck, but you can put
there's plenty of sound system options for these things.
The speakers in my Vitara, same deal.
They're just the worst paper speakers possible.
But they're so cheap to replace.
Like, and it's like the tires.
I have all seasons on there.
I don't want to put off-roaders
because maybe the next person wants to put it
like a more street.
So I always leave that stuff open.
But dude, it's so good.
They're so fun.
They're so fun.
Yeah.
And really, I mean,
that's the only the update I've got on my end
is I did get the top in and put it on yet.
But on the Vitara, I do have the top.
It's in black, which is a bummer
because they're unobtainable in white.
I swear I bought the last one.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, I mean, yours is the different gen.
Mine's like five piece.
Yeah, try to find the older ones though.
They're like all dried up.
The only reason I found that
is the guy had it sitting in his garage
and didn't want to use it.
Yeah.
Like, you know, he sold the vehicle
or something and had an extra one.
Yeah, perfect.
So it was like 200 bucks for this one.
And it'll be fine.
I need to get it on there though.
And then I can like get the car detailed
and cleaned up.
I'm going to do the timing belt on it, I think.
Pretty easy timing belt job.
It looks like anyways.
It doesn't look too scary.
Oh, hell no.
Yeah, it's easy.
And yeah, it's going to end.
And then.
It's probably not too.
I'm waiting on the title.
Too different than mine.
You could watch a good video series.
That's what I heard.
Time about water pump.
Yeah.
Maybe I have already.
Who knows.
Oh, I know.
But yeah.
It's pretty straightforward.
It's pretty straightforward.
Literally, literally a tensioner poi.
Yeah.
And a water pump.
Yeah.
Mine doesn't even have AC.
So like you pull the radiator out
and it's like you've got nothing.
There's just like wide open wide open spaces.
Oh, yeah.
So yeah.
So we'll do that title.
I'll probably have the title in a month.
So, you know, I got to finish the focus first.
That is going to get the all of my focus
for the next couple of weeks.
And then I'll be back in Vitara
and all my Suzuki products land.
But nice.
And then also too.
Maybe when I come to you for the photo shoot,
I can bring you a certain Lexus product.
Oh, you should.
To leave in your.
To leave in your.
You should bring my review testing equipment too
that I left in your fucking turbo sprint like years ago.
Oh, yeah.
I think that's still in there.
Please, please.
You should totally put that out
because that stuff's hard to get.
Yeah.
Yeah, I should put it somewhere
where I know where it is actually.
All right.
All right.
Well, any last parting shots?
Good, sir.
No, I just wish you the best of luck
getting your focus ready.
We're entering official crunch time,
I'd say at this time.
So we kind of need to get these cars sorted, bro.
Peanut butter crunch.
Yeah, we're doing it.
All right.
Well, and or we'll all fail miserably.
And then you guys can laugh at us
and mock us publicly
because we would have earned it.
If you want to continue,
if you want to like have a front row seat
for our failings,
continue to listen along here
and bring in, spread the word.
We're going to be in like punching distance
of 200 episodes here.
Wow.
Yeah, we're getting there.
And I really do think
like as we get closer to that,
like I want to do,
I bought a new computer
to record this stupid podcast on.
And so that's like one grain of sand on a beach
that is hopefully us getting better
at all of this continuously.
So thanks for putting up with us.
Hide your kids, hide your wife,
tell your friends about the podcast.
Check out all of the stuff we don't post
on our Instagram,
which is at APA podcast.
Rank, review, message,
all the things wherever you listen to podcasts
that is helpful.
And like, I don't know,
stalk us digitally if you want.
I'm the photographer's garage at things,
but really bug us more on the podcast stuff
because that's where we want to develop.
How about you, sir?
But what do you, where can you be stalked?
Yeah, definitely check Frank out on Instagram
as photos are absolutely nuts.
And he's on YouTube.
Check out his stuff.
I just watched your Vittara video
and I watched that Pathfinder one,
which I wish I wouldn't have watched.
That was a nice, it's a nice.
It's so nice, dude.
That's exactly why I don't like it.
Either way, check his stuff out.
I am the auto obscure garage.
Check it out for your reviews,
rescues, restorations,
all that good stuff.
Tracker content just coming,
coming out bust now the seams, guys.
So I'm trying to do a pretty good series.
It's actually got a lot of traction,
which I think is interesting
because people like track trackers,
apparently inside kicks.
So I think they're having like a,
they're having another resurgence
in popularity there.
They've really showed little rigs.
They really serve it.
They're so fun.
It's impossible not that fun.
It's kind of like a Miata before
Miata's get expensive.
Yeah.
It's like a Miata of Jeeps.
It is a hundred percent.
But anyway, yeah,
swing by, check that out.
We appreciate you joining us here, guys.
And as always, take care.
We love you a ton.
And we'll catch you in like a week.
Yeah.
Don't, don't lick anyone you don't know.
I challenge that viewpoint.
But okay.
Goodbye.
Peace.
About this episode
Chadwick and Frank dive into the stress and excitement of prepping their budget rally cars—a 2004 Ford Focus SVT and a 2005 Volvo V50 T5—just two weeks before the event. They discuss repairs, tire choices, budget constraints, and the challenge of finding a driver. The conversation also covers their passion for car projects, maintenance priorities, and the thrill of rallying. The episode wraps with a fun game guessing a vintage Volkswagen Passat ad and updates on Frank's Geo Tracker restoration, blending humor, car culture, and real-world project struggles.
Only a couple of weeks until the DWA rally, and the boys still have lots of work to do on their Sub-$3500 rally machines. Will Chadwick be able to unmeth his V50 with an accidental SRS deployment? Will Frank be able to stay under budget and find a human to drive it on his behalf? Will X to the Z himself show up to save the day?