Episode #191 - Almost Outta Time

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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've got,

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.

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 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 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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Episode #191 - Almost Outta Time

Ford Focuss

Volvo C30

Volvo S40

Volvo V50

Gordon T50

Honda S2000

BMW 525

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes 300

Volkswagen Jetta

Volkswagen Passat

Volkswagen Glis

Chevrolet Camaro

Suzuki Vitara

Nissan Pathfinder

Mazda MX-5 / Miata

About this episode

Original notes