New Year, Same Old Car Podcast
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Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and stronger the car can be.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that people love for going off-road and exploring nature. It's been around since the 1960s and is famous for its cool looks and ability to handle rough terrain.
Term
automatic transmission
An automatic transmission is a system in a car that changes gears for you, so you don't have to do it yourself. It makes driving easier, especially in traffic.
Car
Toyota Camry
The Toyota Camry is a popular car that many people choose because it's dependable and gets good gas mileage. It's a comfortable sedan that is great for everyday driving.
Term
intercooler
An intercooler is a part of some car engines that cools the air before it goes into the engine. Cooler air helps the engine run better and use fuel more efficiently.
Car
Infiniti G20
The Infiniti G20 is a small luxury car that people liked for its comfortable ride and good performance. It was made in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Part
ball joints
Ball joints are parts of a car's suspension that help the wheels move up and down while turning. If they're worn out, it can make the car harder to control.
Car
Galant
The Galant is a car made by Mitsubishi. It's a mid-size car that is comfortable and practical for everyday use.
Car
BMW G20
The BMW G20 is a newer version of the 3 Series, which is a popular car known for being comfortable and fun to drive. It has a lot of modern features and good performance.
Car
Honda Talon
The Honda Talon is a small car that many people enjoy driving because it's fun and easy to handle. It's designed to be sporty and stylish.
Car
Mitsubishi Montero
The Mitsubishi Montero is a type of SUV that is built for both on-road and off-road driving. It's known for being tough and reliable, making it a good choice for adventurous drivers.
Part
bumper
A bumper is the part of a car that is at the front and back, designed to protect the car during minor accidents. It helps to absorb shock and prevent damage to the main body of the vehicle.
Term
fuel injection
Fuel injection is a way to send fuel to the engine so it runs better and uses less gas. It's more modern than older methods that used carburetors.
Car
Volkswagen Beetles
The Volkswagen Beetle is a small, round car that many people recognize. It's known for being quirky and fun to drive, and it has a lot of fans who love its retro style.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a fast and stylish car that many people love for its sporty look and powerful engine. It's a classic American car that has been around since the 1960s.
Term
hot rod
A hot rod is a car that has been changed to make it faster and look cooler, usually by modifying older cars with new parts and designs.
Term
emissions equipment
Emissions equipment is parts of a car that help reduce pollution from the engine. They make sure that the car is cleaner for the environment.
Car
Porsche 944
The Porsche 944 is a sports car made by the German company Porsche. It is known for being fun to drive and has a good balance between performance and comfort.
Car
Toyota Cressida
The Toyota Cressida is a car that was made by Toyota from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. It's known for being reliable and comfortable, making it a good choice for everyday driving.
Car
Hyundai Grandeur
The Hyundai Grandeur is a big car that is comfortable and has lots of features. It's a good choice for people who want a nice car without spending too much.
Car
Mercury Merkur
The Mercury Merkur is a car that was made by the Mercury brand in the 1980s. It was designed to be sporty and was based on a European model called the Ford Sierra.
Car
Mitsubishi Starion
The Mitsubishi Starion is a sporty car made by Mitsubishi in the 1980s. It is known for having a turbo engine, which gives it more power and speed.
Car
Toyota Corolla
Car
Mitsubishi Eclipse
The Mitsubishi Eclipse is a small, sporty car that many people enjoy modifying to make it faster. It was especially popular in the 1990s.
Concept
Caramulo Motor Festival
The Caramulo Motor Festival is a big car event in Portugal where people can see classic cars and enjoy various car-related activities.
Car
Lamborghini Lm002
The Lamborghini LM 002 is a fancy SUV that was made in the 1980s. It's known for being very powerful and has a unique look that stands out.
Term
fuel system primed
When you prime the fuel system, you're making sure that fuel is ready to go into the engine so it can start properly. It's like getting everything ready before you turn the key.
Term
timing retarded
When we say the timing is retarded, it means the spark that ignites the fuel in the engine is happening later than it should. This can make the engine run poorly.
Car
Dacia Duster
The Dacia Duster is an affordable SUV that people like because it’s practical and can handle different types of roads. It’s a good choice for families who need space without spending too much.
Car
Dodge Road Runner
The Dodge Road Runner is a classic car from the muscle car era, famous for being fast and having a cool design. Many collectors love it because of its history.
Car
Dodge Duster
The Dodge Duster is a small car made by Dodge in the 1970s. It's known for being fun to drive and is often restored by car lovers.
Term
Weber carburetors
Weber carburetors are special devices that mix air and fuel for the engine. They're popular in performance cars because they can be finely tuned to help the engine run better.
Car
Mercury XR4Ti
The Mercury XR4Ti is a car made by the Mercury brand in 1989. It's known for being sporty and has a turbocharged engine, which gives it more power. It's a unique car that some people really like.
Car
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra 3 Doors is a small car that was popular in the 1980s. It has a sporty version that many collectors like because it's fun to drive.
Car
Dodge Ram
The Dodge Ram is a big truck that people use for work and play. It's strong and can carry heavy loads, which makes it very useful.
Car
Land Rover Defender
The Land Rover Defender is a tough SUV that can handle rough roads and off-road adventures. It's known for its strong build and has a classic look that many people admire.
Car
Rolls-Royce Ghost
The Rolls-Royce Ghost is a very fancy car that is known for being extremely luxurious and expensive. It's designed for people who want the best in comfort and style.
Term
mechanical fuel pump
A mechanical fuel pump helps move fuel from the gas tank to the engine. It's usually found in older cars and works by using parts that move up and down to push the fuel along.
Car
Mitsubishi Lancer
The Mitsubishi Lancer is a small car that many people liked for its sporty look and good handling. Some versions are even used in racing.
Car
Volkswagen Rabbit
The Volkswagen Rabbit is a small car that people like because it's easy to drive and has a lot of space for its size. It's a practical choice for city driving.
Car
Mazda Rx7
The Mazda RX-7 is a sporty car that is known for being fun to drive because it's light and has a special type of engine. Many people love it for its speed and handling.
LIVE
One thousand cars sir you have a thousand cars I don't think I'd attempt to try this
stunt or we owe this horsepower to Uncle Sam's too big a car like I put my beer belly on
it you can't immediately tell somebody how many cars you have you'll really give those
up in a yuffy something to think about stay on the bar don't go off the bar with your Bronco
1980 Volvo horns what's right man's coolant he's like oh I thought I'd be small it's for a
small car and oh yeah but it's still an automatic transmission they're never gonna be light it's
definitely gonna have to crash starting off with Brad by another car that's the west
internet she knows this is Nigerian oil print I also wish you drove a tan Camry anyways
that's a very horrible podcast content very inside just love to be driven hard
this is the Adobe one right we're in the Adobe all right so I'll watch when we end it that I don't
close it that's right all right you're recording I am recording we are back hello welcome to
autoaf topic it has been a minute and it is now 2026 what's up Brad
I don't feel like it's a day past 2024 it does not we will call back to that comment
when we go over our resolutions that we've failed or made in the best year so we'll see if we're
well this is good because I don't fully remember them so you're gonna test me I guess uh I uh I
took a I took it to the time this afternoon to re-listen to last year's New Year's podcast because
I knew I'm sorry some resolutions and I knew that we probably nailed some and we probably
failed some so let's see how good or how bad we did in 2025 all right who do you want I mean
you already know them do you want to go first you do know them or do you want to make fun of me
let's see me go first I always want to make fun of you but that's okay so all right I listen to the
episode um first things first I just like to say I think it was a stellar episode and I could see
why we have so many people listen to us every week that's all I have to say about that okay
whoops and no it was actually it was a pretty good episode it was a pretty good episode so
I I enjoyed it despite it being my own voice because I forgot everything we talked about
and it was kind of neat to go back to the beginning of the white truck project so
but anyway so as as the tradition goes we generally have a Christmas themed episode
and then a New Year's themed episode but since we took the month of December off
we didn't do a Christmas themed episode this year so uh quick belated happy holidays to everybody
and I wanted to thank you Andrew for purchasing me an RC kit for Christmas
because we have ruined each other's hobby life and have made each other into full-on RC nerds again
so I uh have to build now a to my uh monster beetle so very excited about that actually
I'm planning out a paint scheme that will be different than box art so hopefully it works
out the way I think it's gonna work out cool did you have a good holiday I did uh yeah excellent
good nice relax someone yeah excellent yeah I now have two RC kits to build because I officially
also as teased on previous podcasts that I was thinking about getting into it uh Naomi bought me
a Yokomo Drift chassis to build so she's also supporting the disease so yeah it's a surprise
so it should be plenty and yes I'm aware um and I appreciate the input that you gave her
yeah there was also a gift of vintage Mitsubishi posters like dealership posters that uh was
a suggestion that was sent to her privately from our friend Brian so I appreciate anybody who
does that and helps her along to give me some gifts so I have some sweet old Mitsubishi posters
from the Mitsubishi anniversary when they were talking about their 1910s and 20s cars hmm
and some like sepia tone dealership artwork to hang in the garage so super cool but anyway so
since we skipped Christmas I just want to touch on that real fast we can move right on to New
Year's resolutions uh do you want to make some or do you want to see how you did in the last years
so it did in the last years I guess before I make some all right so for 2024
you know what I think that we should actually make some for this year okay because then if it's
the same that you made it for last year then I have something more to make fun of you with
okay all right have you thought of any resolutions yet this year well
automotive or podcast related or or whatever it could be whatever I mean I bet one of them
was to get the Volvo running and that you know did happen so I haven't driven it yet but it does run
one of them was to get the Volvo running yes you are correct it was the Volvo running and
to source a set of wheels for it and I think that both of those things have been done oh yeah I did
I do have a set of wheels for it um no tires but wheels um and I think I mean did I talk about like
maybe driving the talent more or like putting the intercooler in it that I've been talking about
for the last five years you use the talent intercooler was on your list for 2025
oops I didn't even drive that car also I made fun of you in the 2024 version of sorry the beginning
of 2025 because it was also on your 2023 list oh boy you've missed that resolution now two years
straight yeah it's it's been a it's been a while uh I have it yeah unfortunately I don't know I didn't
even get to drive that car last year um I don't know why I just didn't get to it busy year I don't
remember like what else I did which is weird but I'm like thinking man I drove the Golan a lot more
um is your Golan running on speed density yet no that was one of them you have also failed that one
I think maybe I mean did I talk about like updating the fuel system that was the beginning of last
year or was that the year before I'm losing track now so yes long long when you own cars for a long
long time so you start to forget spoiler alert spoiler alert uh that was also one that you received
a ribbing for last year because running legal out on speed density was also a 2023 to 2024
resolution as well so that's a rather also two years in um you did mention that you did partially
update the fuel system but you haven't gone all the way yet okay okay uh and does the Golan have
a sticky breakout or uh I think I fixed that by okay get it compressing it uh I mean who knows it
it's been sitting again because I haven't driven it since the end of the summer so at least gave
that one some attention I did I didn't because that was annoying and I wanted to drive it more
and I had a like I had like a really nice weekend with that uh in August driving it around
I think I talked about it I made it I went over the Kanganmangus and somehow had no one in front
of me the entire time uh on a Saturday morning or afternoon which was pretty crazy that's unheard of
yeah it was a like a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in August and there was nobody in front
of me in basically the entire way um yeah uh so yeah I really should drive that car more
I didn't get much use out of the G20 either I didn't know zero track days but discovered
so another one of your resolutions was to do more track days oh boy
well I figured out that the ball joints were bad and I do have them I have to replace them
I mean in my defense the silly Subaru's of my mom and Stephanie both needed wheel bearings
and that took up a lot of extra time repairing those cars um and you know I'm sitting here
having a grand old time giving me a hard time for missing pretty much every single resolution
we talked about last year but we haven't reviewed mine yet um so chances are pretty good I might
have missed the mark too we'll have to wait and see though but yeah that was basically yet
your big ones were uh fuel system for speed density talent intercooler finish the Volvo
do more track days and just use the cars more those were your your goals I think you accomplished
the Volvo's not finished but it's close and it's not like you were wavered on that so I'll
give you that one you did get the wheels the Volvo I'll give you that one uh and you did use
the Galant quite a bit this year so well give you 50% credit I'd use the cars more
yeah and I'll tell you this so like I do have once a month on Tuesdays there's the the Marble
Head cruise in that I try to drive one of the cars too and now doing RC drifting the drift
tracks pretty close to the house but that's a good excuse to take a car out on a Wednesday night so
sure once it's sure once the road's all just gone you have a very a very legitimate excuse of having
a schoolage child that takes a lot of your time as well so I will uh certainly let that be part of
the issue with the talent is I don't have backseat so I can't really ride it so everything else has
back seats and it's fine he can totally ride in the G20 the Galant and he does uh which actually
we probably have to get you know talk to Stephanie about how he needs a booster seat now because
the seat that's in the we've been using is like one of the travel seats but it's like a harness
that convertible ones yeah yeah and the rest of his seats are now boosters so
which just makes it even easier because it's just the belt and yep yeah super easy
but unless that's that's a valid reason for not driving the talent as much and not using the
cars as much as you want to because you have family stuff to deal with so I don't say deal
us deal with sounds harsh you have family stuff to deal and and Marco also really likes the
Montero so I end up using that a lot because he's just like sure truck so which at this point is also
a 27 year old car it's a vintage vehicle so yeah it was a vintage vehicle five years ago
no I'm not I'm not a disagreeing I'm just saying it is it's not like you're just driving the
Volkswagen everywhere you are still using a vehicle with a bit of uh
hopefully I didn't talk about the bumper I definitely need to fix the bumper paint
you did not talk about it but all right one welcome to after this year so next year I can
give you a hard time for yeah that's that is the thing I need to fix the bumper paint on that
that failed just poor prep on my part um yeah I need I need to get on my we got distracted
working on the Volvo and then we spent a 10 time fixing the Subarus so I haven't my dad and I have
not gotten to my mom's beetle need to get the bat um and fix it and now it won't even start like
that's the most you know important I feel like that's the most important one because that's not
for you um your mom loves that car so we get to have her be able to use it yeah so we have all
the brake stuff to do uh full just brake conversion which would be nice because the drum brakes are
terrible um but the problem is we were to move it like a little bit ago and now only can start so
we have to figure that out I'm sure it's not a big deal but it's funny though because I did the
webbers on the Volvo now my dad's like well if the if the fuel injection is bad we're just
putting webbers on it okay fair seems like the extreme version for that vehicle I don't think
it needs that I think you can do it my guess is it will be yeah my guess is it'll be something
fairly fairly simple and you'll be able to fix it and be able to use it like normal because
that seems like a car that especially if you're going to use it to like go up to an Hampshire
and stuff you'd probably rather have it have fuel injection yeah a lot of people don't I guess
because it's there's no parts made for them anymore so we'll see we'll see what happens to it we'll
figure out why yeah I I also feel like that's kind of like the the old way of thinking on those cars
and now that we live in a world of like technology and 3d printing and
heart sourcing from other vehicles I feel like there's a way to keep those old fuel injected
beetles maybe still injected I feel like it's one of those things that like if you start taking
into it like yeah the old way of thinking was take off the fuel injection and throw it in the trash
the same way that like a guy building a hot rod Camaro in 85 would take off his tpi and put a
four barrel cowrator on it you know what I mean like fear of the unknown I feel like that's probably
not the case anymore on those beetles because there's such a fine amount of them running around
like California and stuff and those cars out there need to have you know their factory fuel
injection and emissions equipment still working to be registered so my guess is there's something out
there yeah we'll see well I guess so what do I got I gotta I gotta finish the Volvo I guess I mean
this half I half made it smooth enough I mean it's pretty much if it wasn't for the weather you'd
probably be driving it yeah I'd probably be more of it motivated to to work on it it's just been
super super cold and but I mean definitely having it running definitely makes me want to work on it
more I'm like I don't feel as stressed out about it not like it was getting pretty annoying where
hasn't run yet but now it does so we know at least runs the rest is like in my opinion like not a
big deal because it's just like weird wiring that needs to be fixed and it's more like tinkering
now than a big project yeah there's just like you know 10 wires in that car so it's not a big deal
the big thing is like I have sort of have the seats I need to find the bases I need to really
work on finding the part that helps them mount in the car because even just sitting in it to like
start it like those seats are awful so awful yeah um and it's not gonna be fun to go better than like
the video game seat you buy at the dollar store yeah but um yeah so there's that uh
I'm not gonna put the the talent in it cool out in here we'll ignore that maybe I'll just do it
anyways but um I guess the only other thing would be like just drive my car I'm working on it I get
I gotta fix the g20 the ball joints um to be able to use that again it's somehow got a sticker
I don't think it should have but it did so easy for me nice but um yeah what did you have for
resolutions so let's just cap yours real fast so you know what to review next year so your
resolutions are finish the Volvo fix your arms Volkswagen and just use the cars more
yes I feel like you can hit that I feel like you can hit that mostly because you've knocked off
the ones off the list that you haven't completed in the past two years so that's pretty good and
now you can fix those ones if you want to so last year what did I say
um I said I was going to 100% have sold the McCorm
then maybe was going to have sold the 944
I was going to turn the yellow crescent into my daily and sell the eclipse
hmm and I said there would be three cars sold this year
hmm so
it is 100% failure rate on the car stuff because the McCorm is still here
the 944 is still here and the eclipse is still here and the Cressida still does not run
uh you will also be happy to know Andrew that on the end of 23 into 24 episode
yeah I also said I was going to fix and sell the eclipse sell them or core possibly sell the
944 and the yellow Cressida so
it's not out of the ordinary for one of us to go more than two years missing everything we
told ourselves we would do at the beginning of the year so that's where we're at
okay we have failed terribly my other my like my like catch all resolutions last year were to
go to more events uh which I I would say I did that I did a bunch of new events this year
including like Monterey um and to use the garage because at this point last year the
garage was still empty because it did not have doors so I would like to say that oh the garage
wasn't empty but it wasn't usable yet because I had the wrong doors I don't remember um but I
wasn't using the garage yet and now I'm using the garage so I I did pull that one off so
that's uh that's about where we are so I failed miserably you didn't fail as badly as I failed
but uh it's gone down the year has passed and all three of those cars are here and I didn't
sell a single car in fact I added a car which was not so at least I didn't say I wasn't going to buy
a car because I would never say that because you never know but I did I did buy the starry on this
year in July so there was a car purchase this year which is not out of the ordinary there almost
always is a car purchase at some point during the year so anyway so yeah I missed everything last
year too so we're not going to uh I could make fun of you all I want but I class houses right
so nothing we can do about it now only move forward another year so this guy's resolutions
I'm thinking a little less a little less grandeur maybe um I am going to sell some cars this year
I have to it's a financial issue to not so it has to happen so this year I have made two separate
uh resolutions automotive related one of which is the mercure will be sold this year
okay third time's a charm third year's a charm that's going to happen has to happen
the 944 will now definitely be gone this year
okay um this also has to happen
the mercure has been broken for this entire year yeah I only recently started using it again
and uh we'll get into project crop dates later but I have the final part came in last night
so fingers crossed that should be all done before this weekend and I can aggressively
put it on the market I was thinking of using Hagerty's auction site there
but it seems like that is a very slow rolling event because a friend has been trying to put
his car on there and it's been going on for like three months now so hmm I don't think I want to
do that but we'll see what happens I wasn't going to use an auction site but I'd like to just move
the car on now um I haven't tricked any of my friends into buying it so I have to actually
do a real car sale which is never fun so that has to go 100 so that's the big one that there will
be at least two cars gone uh probably three and they really will be this year and I'm holding
myself to it and if I don't do it I would like everybody in the discord to harass me until the
end of time if they're not sold the last one is I don't want to carry any long-term projects over
into 2026 so any car that I have that is not running by mid-year so rephrase that any car I have
that come July is a non-running car whether it's a car that I've had for a long time
or a car that I have purchased between now and July if it's not running in July
I have six months to fix it and if it's not running by the end of the year it's gone
I put that July date on there so if a car breaks in November I don't have to sell it in December
I just don't want any long-term stuff hanging over until next year and the only caveat of this is the
two cars in Massachusetts because they might not be here so I can't work on them so
and they both run as far as I know last time I was there at least so I don't want to carry over
any long-term projects if it's not working it needs to go so as of right now that's the 1981 Cressida
the 1980 Corolla the 84 Starion
you think that's it right I think that's it so those three cars right now if they're not running
by the end of the year are just gonna be sold I'm not gonna let them stick around if they're not
fixed okay so that's my that's my goal for this year no huge long-term projects because it's
my my personal goal in life is better mental health and having less giant broken projects
hang over my back is better for my mental health so I think that's the big one come 2026 I'd like
to have just improvement and maintenance projects that's all nothing that needs to be done so
everything else runs I've started everything else in the past
a couple of months the Colt works Camaro works Mercore runs 944 works Merck
the 79 Cressida works the 83 Seporo works and the truck works and the eclipse works
so right now those are not on the chopping block but they even those have a catastrophic failure
by just by July then I only have to the end of the year to fix them when they go away because no
no projects hang over my head so that's from it okay fair enough some July when I've bought
seven cars that don't run you can remind me of this so I might do that biggest one obviously is the
is the Corolla because the engines in part um I don't think the Starrion should be an issue
and I still have just not I haven't touched the yellow Cressida save for moving it since that
trip where you were here trying to help me diagnose it and that was what three years ago
whoa okay yeah and the car hasn't been touched so if I'm not going to touch it I have to move it on
so at this point I'll take a bit of a loss on it but it is what it is so I'm giving myself this is
it it's it's this is the year if not this year then it's gone so for the market for 1982 at a Cressida
just come hit me up a year from now because it'll probably be Brazil
there you go I'd like to fix it but we'll see what happens
so that's my resolution for this year um I failed all last years they were the same as 23s
I failed them then failed them 20 so I failed them 20 sorry 23 to 24 and 24 25 so moving into 26
that's what we're gonna do so we also had a couple of podcast resolutions last year
oh boy
we were going to have more guests we had a couple we did it's a couple we were going to make some
merchandise
mm-hmm we didn't do that no we didn't I did mention last year that I had a giant box full of hats to
sell uh and I didn't sell any of those I also talked about how I'm bad at shipping and how I
owed a box of stuff that I said I was gonna send to Santiago that I did about six months at that
point that box is still here so that's another full year without shipping that does not go so
that's cool uh and we said that we were gonna try to run some more for new events
and uh I don't think we did that either so a bunch of god-name liars
at the beginning I said I listened I know why y'all listen now that we're a bunch of liars
I don't know I am but I trust us or listens to us so nope terrible people so we need to make some
merch we do I need to ship this box to Santiago I need to offer these hats up for sale you should
but that's where we're at unfortunately I didn't uh we did we like like literally like a hundred
failure rate on everything we said so pretty much save for the Volvo which is a big project
so we'll give you good credit for that but everything else lacked so anyway on that depressing note
let's kick off 2026 we'll fix our stuff we'll use our cars and we'll have a good year because
that's what I need in order for my own personal mental health this year
all right I mean that sounds good to me sure I don't see why it wouldn't be I mean I wouldn't say
2025 was a bad year I had a lot of people had dogs living in my house for a good chunk of the year
which is a part of my excuse for not getting things done but they that has not been an issue since
June or July so I've had six months to finish the stuff I haven't finished but it is what it is
that being said we've all done a ton of stuff this year so the failings on these are not exactly
failings on us as car people it's not like we didn't do anything we did a ton of stuff
so that being said what were your favorite events you've done in 2025
let's see favorite events um well what do we do at the beginning of the year anything
there wasn't much because I did go to Japan I did a lot of car stuff there I'll just count
that as one car event okay because I went and did a bunch of car stuff while we're also vacationing
so that was kind of cool yeah I drove I drove on Fuji Speedway so yeah
um pretty epic yeah and then it would be see there was no rally
I missed grid life because I was busy or something I don't know
I did go to Watkins Glen and I saw SPG win that was really cool
also pretty epic that was your first trip to Watkins Glen or second that was the second time
okay I still have not made it yeah and
what else we went to you know NASCAR New Hampshire again
you know that's kind of the same I guess that's not really a top event
it was cool in when I was in Portugal I got to go to a big car festival
at the only car museum in Portugal so that was really that Caramulo Motor Festival that was
really cool that's definitely like a if you're over in Europe or I can get over there to definitely
check that out that was super neat because it was totally by chance too yeah I just I didn't really
plan it it just sort of happened all the time we were there um that's kind of like the biggest
car events we didn't really do I didn't really do anything else oh dear the NASCAR trucks that
walk at Lime Rock that was really cool that never happened before yeah that's rad
yeah that's I think that's everything it's it's bad when you kind of forget because you just get
so busy but I think that was all the races I went to I didn't do didn't do any Imsa races because
we were planning a big trip to Japan so I didn't do any early Imsa races didn't go to Daytona
I didn't go to Indy 500 that was a year before the yeah and then yeah I think that was that's
pretty much it I mean I did uh you know Mark when I went to see Hot Wheels Monster Drugs and that was
kind of like not very good but you know whatever it was for children wasn't meant for me that's why
is this why is this child children's movie not entertaining to me as an adult yeah
uh I'm trying to think that's kind of like it
it actually wasn't a lot of events because that's the thing they don't do Imsa at Lime Rock anymore
I really need to get to I keep saying this every year I really need to get the Watkins
Glen for an Imsa race I'd love to get out to Long Beach and see Imsa and I'd be really
interested to see Formula D now uh I mean I was before and then I would like to see uh
you know Imsa at Laguna Seca and I was pretty jealous that you went to Car Week I gotta figure
out if I can get out there at some point um I well you have a spot because yeah I just I just
reserved my I have my own camp spot this year I know we've got um we do have plans we're going
to San Diego San Diego for the uh NASCAR race NASCAR street race yep that's uh that's a regret I do
have I didn't make the time to get to the Chicago race but also I was talking to Stephanie about
this the other day I said yeah it was kind it's kind of like they were having it like
at an awkward weekend if you're not local to Chicago like I don't want to get on a plane
travel for 4th of July like I like being home for 4th of July it's just an easy holiday to be at home
right so um but they're not doing that anymore so they're going to do it in San Diego at the
Navy base right uh Coronado adjacent to basically yeah it's Coronado Island
I it's on the base partially on the base partially off the base yeah that is what I've heard yeah
so um we've got seats that overlook the bay I figured that would be uh it overlooks the chicane
and the bay I figured we want to look at the water um yeah it's pretty awesome when the cars aren't
going by so yeah that'll be really cool um yeah what I mean so what were your favorite events
well you mentioned one I made it to Monterey for the first time ever
which was wild and I do have my camping spot now secured for this coming year so
pretty stoked on that I do know you don't like camping because you don't sleep in the ground but
we do have a spare cot if you do want to come you can borrow the cot for sure um let's see
one of the freesiest things I did this year event-wise was I rode as a passenger in the
heavy sweep vehicle for the Prescott rally and that was super rad um we didn't have to tow anything
but just to be in the event was pretty neat um especially the fact that we did sweep in a
Lamborghini LM002 also was really cool so that was probably one of my favorite events of the year
just because it was so ridiculous over the top um let's see what else event-wise
those were the two really really big ones I did a bunch of off-roading in my truck
which is something I haven't done in a very long time because I never had a truck
but now that I have a truck that's been a thing did some camping trips in the truck
had a really good time with that um that's really been it for big events
um oh I guess I should shout out my own event we ran the second annual now
Arizona Rising Sun rally and I was nervous that it would not be as good as the first
and it was every bit as good as the first so it was an absolutely perfect event again
so that'll happen again in 2026 and the thing that if you were trying to find a week to come
out here and hang out would be a good one too so there's that um what else I think that's mainly
yet I'm doing quick little scroll through here in my pictures to see what other events I did but
nothing else really stands out as a as a crazy crazy event there were a bunch of car shows a
bunch of cool stuff nothing uh nothing as big as Monterey or doing the rally or
just some of the off-road trips that were uh they were good this year so it was interesting
because last year we talked about the fact that it was the first year neither one of us had been to
Radwood at all and continued that trend in 25 never went to Radwood
so I was going to go to the LA event but they changed the weekend it used to be in November
and they ran it this year in October and it wound up being the same weekend as the Arizona
Rising Sun rally so obviously I was not going to plan an entire event and then skip my own
event to go to a different event so I did not go to Radwood in LA again this year so that's been
two years since I've been to a Radwood event I have not been to one since August of 23 when
they had it here in Phoenix so still kind of wild about that but yeah I just uh continuing to do all
the events I can as far as like little cars and coffees and little car events and trying to get
together with local friends and do small drives and we've had a couple of coffee run nights and
try to keep that going and I think it's going to continue to be more small things like that with
a big event now and again peppered in which is probably the best way to do it I don't have many
big events planned for this year save for the street the NASCAR street race in California
Monterey again and my rally so that's a pretty good number of things I think
so yeah those are my big events so anything else to round out the year with Andrew?
no that's pretty much it
I muted myself because I thought I was barking sorry
how many downloads this year Andrew do you have that stats this year?
I do have stats let's see
carries of the growth or shrinkage of the of the podcast listening base
we had less than a year over here we missed we're not doing we're not doing corporate
metrics here we're not about that sure I'm just more curious I know what last year's number was
that's why I'm oh okay I talked about it last year so the end of the year
it's a lower number you had to pump those numbers up it will be a lower number
down a lot 4.4
thousand downloads I don't know why that's so 4,400 probably yep that is less than half
yep down 58 percent sweet all right well podcasting is for closers so we're out
yeah I have no idea not that I care listen we talked about last year we're not we're not chasing
numbers every year more and more podcasts come out more and more people are listening to podcasts
but also there's more to choose from and as we talked about last year our podcast is a niche
within a niche right we talk about classic cars but we also talk about obscure classic cars so
we're the only podcast we'll ever hear mentioned an azusa stylus
or a dodge colt or an infinity g20 so if you're into those kinds of cars that's why you're here
if you're into porches and ferraris and Lamborghinis and supercars and hypercars and
formula one you'll find content elsewhere but see it is I'm not worried about it if I do it
core group is here um if I do it the last two years it's much more impressive it's 15,000
downloads root still top episode is from May of 2024 is to let old cars be old
so that's that's the last two years that's top episode so I'll get some tag lines yeah for last
year also trademark trademark trademark because I have a t-shirt design with that t-shirt with that
logo yeah for our merch that we're gonna make sometime yeah but the last top episode we've got
is the vulva gets pistons that's for this year yeah we kind of dropped off quite a bit I don't
know I don't know what happened we think of a lot because we don't have guests
um we don't we have post regularly all the time we haven't been we need to we need to be more
consistent and we need to have some more guests the problem is you're fighting now even just looking
at my current podcast feed it's like people will release a podcast but then it'll be like
10 or 15 minutes long and they release like one every day yeah and that really
juices your numbers and now people are really saying AI podcast right so they're like
you know yeah it's an uphill battle and we're not in this for the money I don't really care
well last year we we started we started the year by complaining about celebrity podcasts
so it's I'd rather have celebrity podcast than AI podcast that is another problem
you've got just celebrities getting into it and corporations getting into it
uh and you know that's what it is we are a small independent podcast
and we don't charge anything like we said you can listen to us for free we don't even have ads
we won't even tell you a t-shirt even though we keep saying we're going to yeah um we really
should do that uh that should definitely be something that we need to look into
it would be nice having some merch and like I've said before the easiest way we'll probably do that
is through the discord because it's easier just to have people say I would like a large
I'd like an extra large and you just order what people need and we don't have to
spend money on extras and that's probably the way we just do it I have more experience now
in this than last year because I did handle a t-shirt stuff for the rally so if we do have a
a page on our website and have people direct people there to say what they want and I can get
those particular ones ordered you know everybody put in their order you know in advance and I can
have the shop that made my shirts for the rally make shirts again so I do have experience with
that now so this is a off-air topic we'll get back into later for sure yeah this is probably
why people don't listen anymore because they just don't but anyway I can't I can't believe
Santiago still listens a year and a half waiting for a one box stuff is I was gonna give him
geez and now it's just becoming wild at this point yeah um so yeah well that's interesting um but
we do have we had most of the downloads of course in the United States 3,800 almost 3,900
now we're the few Canadians some Germans coming in third place United Kingdom in fourth
surprisingly Singapore is in sixth Singapore made the list last year and Turkey was away
but last year too um no Turkey is not there now makes me wonder if there's some sort of like
people using a VPN or something maybe we could make that numbers skewed to weird places
if you're in japan anyway yes so again we don't care necessarily yeah right we don't care
necessarily about the numbers overall but it would be nice to have a little more consistency
out of us for our listeners the ones who do stick around and the ones who do message us every Friday
there's not an episode and wonder where we are wonder where we've been so we also haven't been
posting much on Instagram on both our personal accounts and our podcast accounts at most a
big fall off on that on my end of things so I think it's just been a it's been a tiring year
so I think you try to try to be a little less run down by things in 26 to be fair try to be a
little less talk about some stuff so yeah I mean a lot of people are burned out on social media so
yep that's kind of where that comes from anyway moving on from this depressing note of the state
of things and the podcast and independent media world any project care updates Andrew I think
he had a big one yeah I do sorry I'm playing on my headphones um yeah the Volvo runs
which we now know because you said it before in your new year's resolution but that is
incredibly huge news and I am beyond the moon excited for you and cannot wait for the next
time I'm out there and the weather is good to take her head and go yeah um so my dad and I and
fellow listener and former guest uh chapel who lives nearby we we worked on it a couple
days on our own like two weeks before Christmas uh and got it to fire up and broke the cam in
and it runs decently it definitely needs jetting and tuning but um you know so far there was no
like well I shouldn't say there was no leaks is as soon as I filled it up with coolant it started
to leak out of the water pump and that was like a bit disappointing I was like ah and I thought for
sure that we weren't gonna get it running that weekend but luckily um it's kind of weird the
way the the water pumps are on these old Volvo engines it just mashes up to the bottom of the
head in the front it has two o-rings and the two o-rings are only located by a groove in the
water pump they don't have a matching groove in the head it's literally just a flat surface
on the head uh so you have to like I just when I put it on on the engine stand I didn't put it
up tight enough to the head so luckily we were able to like just loosen the bolts a little bit
and pry it up and retightened it and it's sealed so it stopped leaking that is a win for sure yeah
so that um that was a little bit nerve racking at first and that it took a few tries to get the
fuel system primed we're just running it off gas can because I need to drain the tank in it still
and once we kind of got that dialed and the pressure set we were able to get it to run
but it was the timing was very retarded and even though it looks like the as best as I can tell
we set the distributor up properly and set the oil pump drive up properly where the distributor
matches into and the distributor was pointing at the number three cylinder like all everybody says
for timing but it just like and then the adjustment of the distributor was interfering because there's
like a little oiler button on the distributor that was hitting the block if we turned it too far
and then the other way the vacuum uh diaphragm was hitting so basically we took it out flipped it 180
adjusted where the cap was the number one cylinder and then we were able to adjust the timing enough
and it was running so it's a thing I term or phrase I recently like was made aware of
somebody sent uh it was a link to like a harrier yard that talked about it and then it actually
I have a confession I've been watching road kill garage lately it came up there
Steve bullshit said it you just kind of get it sometimes you just got to give the car what it
wants it just even though it's supposed to be set up this way but it's not working but it works the
other way that's just what it is the car wants it just give it the car just give the car what it wants
that's a pretty big revelation that you can watch your road to the garage because even so
anti that the entire time I've been trying to push it so I feel like I was definitely not
in the roadkill I'm more into a roadkill garage if you went back and watched certain episodes
that so not early roadkill but later on they're very similar in fact there are many roadkill
episodes that are in the same garage as roadkill garage so yeah it seemed like they got they were
just like we're just doing these all different episodes but they're all doing the same place
it's all the same people so it's mostly all the same people yeah and there's
different guests for different things and yeah it's there's some good stuff out there and I'm
glad you I'm glad that you're watching it what is your favorite roadkill garage project car you've
seen so far um I mean the crop duster came out really pretty at the end you know yep and I liked
the well yeah we'll get off topic here I like the
Belvedere was it Belvedere road runner clone so they took the road runner that was wrapped around
the telephone pole and then dropped it into a oh yeah yeah the seat they called it a sea body
yeah because it was turned into a sea yeah yeah yeah that one was super cool it was like a green
a green car they swapped everything into I think right yeah it was a good way to I mean otherwise
that that road runner was trashed like there's no saving it so putting it into that other cars
was making a clone with it it was perfect there was an episode of roadkill where they purchased
that wrapped around yeah they talked about it yeah and uh got it running and drove it laps
around a racetrack with it it was very entertaining so but yeah no I I love those guys I love the way
they build cars I love the fact that they're just about making it fun making it work and making it
usable and not like concerned as much by making it perfect and just like the fact that the aesthetics
just come along with the build as it goes so people would talk about before when I was
doing stuff and making videos and and doing those type of things was that they do show the struggle
there's a lot of tv shows they don't show the struggles that you have
um and they show the struggle so yes it's relatable right they'll show them do the whole
project go out and drive the car and something immediately breaks and they won't like edit
that out so drag it back to the garage and fix it again which is like real life stuff for sure
or it'll just be like uh yeah this isn't working right now we're just gonna cut and we're gonna
figure it out and we come back we'll explain to you what we did and it's like I feel that
there was times when we were trying to make videos and work on stuff and it just be like
can we just cut the cameras right now so we can just like figure out what's going on here
we'll come back we'll do it we'll do it on camera afterwards when we figure it out
we'll explain what we did 100% well I'm glad I'm glad you're in um the crop duster is also
one of my favorite cars they built there's also a red duster they're doing they did more recently
well what was his um was it like a 71 road runner
which one is it watch them challenger the red the red one that they it was actually once they
polished it like they cut and buffed it it was like a really nice car that was a road runner
like a 72 or 73 yeah that's but there's another duster there's another duster they did I don't
know if you caught that far yet in the later episodes they bought it with a barely running slant
six and drove it and drove it from where they bought it to back to dulcet's farm in the swapped
in on 383 or 38 dm I remember by 383 and it's still a ratty but it's super cool they just
actually listed it for sale but unfortunately it's well out of my budget so all the muscle trucks are
cool yep yeah they're all cool the Dodge truck the Chevy truck they're they're all super rad
they just again I've always I've always liked it there's no secret there we've always disagreed
with that so I uh well I'm glad to hear you're at least watching some of the content that I
promoted in the past I'll tell you this it it makes me feel a little better about the Volvo
and the fact that I put a really nice engine in to a car that's like meh like looks meh
harpset like they they put some really nice engines into some cars that are like
meh but yeah they really aren't that bad they just like don't look great but like they're like
that's what's cool about it that's I'm building a completely fresh motor for my radial Corolla like
it's I'm fine with it it's gonna have fresh motor and fresh suspension and the rest of it just looks
like a 50 year old Corolla so 45 Corolla because like I said like the cars look good from a
certain distance and then but you can actually drive them and use them because once you start
painting stuff maybe the car personality yeah you don't want to use it so um but yeah
so yeah we got it running um it runs decent it needs uh it definitely just needs adjustments
now it needs to probably be uh another friend of ours um commented on my instagram post about it
he's got a couple cars that have little webbers he said that they seem to like a little more
timing at idle so I'm gonna adjust the timing up a little bit from like 10 degrees to like 12
I've got sitting next to me on my desk here I have new jets for it and new chokes um because it
it's not like a race engine it just has nice carburetors on it it's basically just a stock engine
so I think sure the the chokes that come in there which are basically the Venturis sort of
it's basically your webbers are funny because they they call these things chokes um because they
really just like choke down the barrel that's inside we're strictly plate racing basically um
but what comes in the ones that are in I think what's in there right now
I've always all written it's either either 30 or 31 millimeter so these are uh dcoe 40s so the
total barrel diameter could be up to 40 which would be crazy huge if you had a full race
engine you'd want a ton of air at high rpm so you'd put the the full bore in there
but for a street car you don't want that you actually want to choke it down and I'm actually
going to go to like 28s because two things you'll get less air and more velocity for the air so
hopefully they'll make better vacuum and better torque for driving around town so um and then I
have some jets to hopefully help adjust with that so unfortunately this stuff is expensive to get
into this country now but it is what it is um it's interesting because they have like online
calculators and they've kind of been updated over the last year I was like kind of keeping trying
I had like screenshots of what I did like earlier in the year and then recently and they like updated
the the calculator to compensate for alcohol and fuel so like I kind of looked at what the suggested
one was I looked at what I had what came in the carburetors and then I looked at what the original
setup sheets for of all the 20 were and sort of picked some jets kind of guesstimated based on
those things kind of you know airing on the more conservative side of performance because the engine
is not like doesn't have a ported head doesn't have oversight valves or anything don't have an
aggressive cam it's the original cam make sure it's not too lean or too rich it's the original
style cam yeah and the o2 sensor the y-band o2 will help that actually works really great that um
you know once we had the car running uh that was not inexpensive I maybe I talked about that unit
being like about 300 bucks um but it connects perfectly to your phone via bluetooth and it seemed
the refresh rate seemed really fast and it seemed very accurate and it was right on your phone showing
it um so you could do like a I think it data logs I need to double check but you could also just do
a screen recording while you're running it if you really want to go back and look
while your phone so though that is a really cool thing I really recommend that for like
carpet cars that you want to do tuning on it's $300 is a lot less than billion new motor
it's performance electronics wideband so I would definitely look into one of those
um that's definitely something you can add to your Corolla build
before you're ready to get it going I intend on it um it was easy to put you know you just weld it
into the header and yeah it you give it 12 volts uh with ignition on and it just automatically
turns on and sends out the bluetooth signal and it I mean it connected so fast it was great so
that'll be a help for tuning um you know of course we've also got the little vacuum thing you
use for Weber's uh that was helpful but really it's just we got to play with the
adjustment of the throttle bottle flies to make sure they're all synced and then play with the
idle screws because the the big thing with Weber's is you do most of the tuning
with the progression holes you know they say like it's like 90% of Weber's is at idle
through mid-range is what those um idle jets will do so once you kind of get those
everything else kind of falls in line and then the thing with Weber's is once they're kind of tuned
they really don't go out of tune very easily they'll usually hold their tune really well so
there's not a lot of parts that move that are adjustable because that's all like hard parts
right yeah and the cool thing is you're basically uh it's a carburetor per cylinder
because there's dual so each cylinder gives its own little there's two basically two carburetors
inside each Weber so you've got I've got four carburetors so unfortunately that makes it expensive
I had to buy four sets of jets uh no
four jets two for each carburetor not four sets and two jokes for each carburetor so
yeah that's and then the other thing that's will be with that car is fixing the rest of the wiring
so all the wiring in the front of car has been fixed except for I mean all the broken wires have
been fixed everything works everything lights up the headlights are being funny um they're kind of
on all the time uh and I don't think that has anything to do with the LED conversion
uh those are actually really nice parts um you know those maybe I talked about installing
those but lighting them up they're really really nice they fit really well I highly recommend
getting one of those kits um but what happens is you turn the ignition on and the low beams are on
and then you turn it to start and it switches to high beams without touching anything else
so that's a little funky we're gonna figure that out and there are no brake lights either
so you have running lights but no brake lights and then there's a bunch of loose wires in the
cabin that I need to figure out and I also have maybe I talked about it I have the fuse block
panel I need to switch out for regular bladed fuses to get rid of the old ceramic fuses
that we talked about you talked about that yeah but that's really the next big thing
and what we'll probably do I probably won't do a lot of tuning or trying to get it running right
now because it's so cold out and even though the garage is heated you have to open up the doors
because you can't be running the thing inside well you're also not going to be driving the car
in this weather exactly you want to kind of tune it in more of springish to summer weather
when you're actually gonna be driving it just so I'll probably like maybe swap the parts over
we'll see but I'm gonna focus on the next time I go to work on it we'll just be like cleaning up
the wiring and trying to figure out what's going on those lights so it's all ready to go
and then maybe I'll probably even wait till it's a little warmer out
and bleed the brakes and and flush the gas tank but yeah that's um
other than that like that's it's having it running is absolutely absolutely we've talked about this
before it's it's absolutely motivation to work on it more because there's no you know it runs
and this again right and it's funny because I'm watching this roadkill show I'm like
this is kind of the way I've always done cars I didn't really be like I don't I feel like I didn't
get this idea from watching roadkill I'm like this is just kind of the way our philosophy has always
been for working on cars kind of just get them running and then you can figure them out after
maybe that's why it resonated with you so much I'm like you like watching it and I guess
it's why it's it's it's always just been it reminds me of what we do you know they don't go crazy on
everything else until the car functions and the first thing they do in every car is power wash it
so it's like yes give me a hard time about cleaning I don't give you a hard time I don't
give you a hard time I do the same thing you do yes the discord does for sure so but I always
clean things before working on them it's it's much nicer to work on something that's clean that is to
work on something that's also dirty like why not clean it first that's why I spent like 20
plus hours cleaning the interior that's staring on before I even like dug into what was wrong with
it because I wanted to see what I was working with you know like I wanted to scrub under the hood
scrub the interior clean up any spiders that we're gonna throw any kind of stuff and I now have the
car up in the air and crawling underneath it and it's superbly clean under there it's like
it's so nice to work on a clean car I crawl out of the car I don't get greasy and dirty and grimy
and covered in years of mud so always clean the cars speaking of yep my project car stuff I don't
know I talked about pulling the tank out I'm pretty sure but they also might have been on the lost
episode I think it was I'll do a quick coverage of it um I pulled the tank out of the car we
initially had thought there were two holes in the tank and it was leaking onto the ground and it was
empty without the car jacked up I don't remember if I told this or not so bear with me if I did
I'm just gonna go over it quickly jacked the car up looked a little closer at it realized there were
no holes in the tank but yet it was still dripping on the ground from what looked like two holes in
the tank what had happened was the tank was full like completely full like over full and as it sat
for as long as it sat gasoline expands and contracts I guess I don't know the specifics of it but I
know the fumes and the vapors make things like you put a gas can outside and it blows up like
that blows up but like expands so the fuel somehow moves around inside the tank and it wound up
underneath the sending unit and it seeped out around the very hardened old rubber seal
and ran down the side of the tank and it pooled in two places that pulled the undercoat off the
tank and it looked like a perfectly square pickaxe hole well it wasn't it was just the undercoat
and the fuel leaking from the top of the tank so obviously I realized this when I'm under the car
trying to take the tank out and then realizing the tank has got like 12 gallons of fuel in it
so that became a little bit more of a job than I was anticipating but thankfully a good friend
of mine Chris probably know him on instagram is angry bird gti came over here he lives in the
neighborhood and helped me wrangle the tank out of the car full of fuel got it on the ground
and drained the tank with a siphon a siphon pump and it took multiple five gallon buckets
because there was a lot of fuel in it very old fuel but it was in there and the good news is
is that the inside of the tank other than having a bunch of like gunk on all the baffles and everything
is in really good condition there's no rust there's no issues there's no problems there's
no holes I do not need a tank so I'm able to just clean that tank probably recode the undercoating
where it's damaged put some new seals on the sending unit so it doesn't leak out anymore
and then just reinstall that tank back into the car so that seems to be the plan
um before I do that I'm going to upgrade a couple of things in the fuel system
because I've been doing a bunch of research and there is a company now that sells a ecu
for the starion that's basically a plug-and-play unit that allows you to tune the fuel in the engine
based on parameters that are tuned through I forget the name of the software but it's one of the
more regularly used tuning softwares because the ecu and the starion only controls fuel doesn't
control anything else so you're able to modify it pretty simply with this little kit but I do
want to put a nicer fuel pump in than just a factory pump and it looks like there's a company
that makes a drop-in hanger for the tank and I can put like a Bosch 040 is the pump to use now
it looks like that will flow enough for what I want to do and uh make the car future proof
so I don't ever have to bolt a tank out again is the hope so that's going to be the big the big
upgrade on that one but that's where it stands right now it's still up on jack stands um tank is
still out of it I need to finish cleaning the tank the holidays came and then stuff got moved
around because we host thanksgiving and christmas eve here so stuff was kind of pushed around
different places now getting back into everything now that we're all cleaned up from all the holidays
and can get back into working on stuff pretty heavily so theoretically that car should run
not too long from now and then obviously once I have it running I will look into making
modifications to the car because I have big plans for that car so we can do a whole episode just on
that car alone I think based on all the parts that are available now but that first step is
going to be that ecu and that same company that makes that ecu also does a distributor
close ignition for the car that uses coil packs um so that once you have the distributorless
ignition it runs on a like hall effect style sensor on the crank so it kind of also makes
that tunable with that same software so basically it takes this old 2.6 and makes it a modern
modern running engine sort of so that's hopefully the plan make it deadpan reliable and more power
so that's coming up next in that car other project car updates the mccore has a door handle
that was broken for a while I also took apart the speedometer cable to find out what the situation
was with why I had no speedometer or odometer it worked for most of the time I had the car
it broke about a year ago and I have not driven the car much because I don't want to put a bunch
of miles on without the odometer because it is not a total mileage tmu car not total mileage
unknown I'd like to keep it as an accurate mileage car so a couple of things it's an 89
and 89 mercore xr40is with the five speed are supposed to have a box in the firewall
that has a little eight inch cable that runs from that box to the speedometer
and the other cable runs from the other side of that box down to the transmission and inside
that box is the speed sensor for the cruise control my car has never had functioning cruise control
I've never looked into it to find out why because I never really cared that much
but in doing digging and taking this car apart which by the way taking apart a 1989 mercore
interior pieces are basically made out of very thin glass almost impossible
thankfully I got everything apart without breaking anything putting it back together though
I am nervous so we'll see what happens but the cable in my car does not have that speed sensor
box and is one cable that is 108 and a half inches long that goes from the back of the
speedometer directly into the gearbox with nothing in between so it's like what happened here
um digging into it a little bit more it looks like the car might have been converted at some
point from an automatic car to a manual car which not a big deal it's done well enough
that I never noticed till now but it just means it will never have functioning cruise controls so
um I couldn't find a cable locally the way this cable is set up it has the standard like
spring like speedometer cable inside the rubber sheath and then it has an end that clips into
the back of the cluster and an end that plugs into the transmission was square ends on either end
so you can find the correct one I eventually did find the correct one and the only car part
that matches this that I've been able to find is uh Ford Sierra RS500 which is the hot rod version
of the Sierra of the McCore XF40i available only in Europe in like a six-figure car nowadays
so I was a little bit lost as to why that was the right part but then also my car has RS500
headlights and it has an RS500 hood vents that I have brand new in a box so at some point somebody
bought RS500 parts for it and maybe when they did the transmission conversion maybe that's what the
part came out of who knows but I was able to find thanks to Patrick in our discord helped me I think
it was Patrick helped me find a universal part that will fit inside the original sheath that I have
and then one end has a square end on it and the other end has a little adapter you put on that
you crimp into place and it turns it into a square end on the other end and you cut it to length
so I can cut the thing to be 108 and a half inches fit inside the factory rubber sheath
and work as intended so I have the whole car apart I just got that part late last night
it came here like delivered at like 8 p.m. so oddly enough so hopefully by this weekend I'll
have that car all back together and as far as I know that's the final step before I put the car
up for sale so if you're looking for a 1989 Mercore that has 88,000 miles on it and at one
point was not a medic I think but it's now a manual and done well enough that it works just fine
that car after this should be fully fully fully sorted it won't need anything I mean other than
cruise control it won't need anything and it'll be for sale so hit me up on that one so that's that
project like Ferrola hasn't gone anywhere the engine still sitting here in my garage I have not
brought to the machine shop yet again holidays that whole thing work the machine shops on the
open ground work hours it's just been a whole thing I need to get that down there hopefully this
week I can go into work early one day so I can start so I can get out a little earlier and maybe
take a ride at the machine shop so that's the plan for that one and let's see
oh the other thing I've been working on is the Mitsubishi oh sorry the Dodge Ram
Power Ram 50 or the Mitsubishi Mighty Max 4x4 if you are a regular listener you'll remember
that our friend in Nebraska got found a fender local to me that had the factory stripe package on it
also a straight bumper also a straight balance panel and hit me with the address of where it was
I went over there immediately and purchased everything I think I told the story on the
podcast about that when Naomi and I went a weekend out of it finally this weekend I hung that fender
on the car and I can't even believe how perfectly the stripes match up so they must have been some
kind of template when they put these stripes on because it's my understanding that these stripes
were a like not factory installed but port installed package or dealer installed package
so the fact that they line up like perfectly is shocking but also amazing so the new fender
is on the truck and it looks it looks like it was never ever a problem yeah so it's uh
that's a go once in a lifetime find defined defender you can just bolt on that has all
the right stripes all the right matching in the right color so on a 40 year old truck
correct me right that was that truck entirely happened this past year right
I picked the truck up in September of 24 okay didn't start working on it until December
and finished it in January all right so it was December to January to get the car running again
I would say I've just been using it all year yeah that truck was our best win I'll take credit
for it to our best win of 25 yeah actually last time you were here I think I had it but it wasn't
running yet no it was gross and under your your tree that drops all the stuff and birds live in
right but the but I'd already already cleaned out like under the hood and stuff you saw
you start after I had discovered everything I needed to discover but hadn't started working
yet I don't think so but yeah I started working that in December we went away for like a 10 day
trip in January which as much as I love the trip all I wanted to do was go home and work on the
truck uh-huh because I had it just running when we left I think without driving yet
you know I came back I got it driving there were two setbacks it's come home on a tow truck twice
both of them fuel related the first one was when the original mechanical fuel pump gave up the ghost
and the second one was when the electronic fuel pump that I added to replace the mechanical fuel
pump failed after like two months and I replaced that with another one of those fuel pumps because
it was warrantied but at the same time I purchased another style of electric fuel pump that's been
recommended by like a hundred different people and I put that in the glove box and I put a little
couple lengths of wiring and a cheap set of crimpers and ends in the glove box so that if it ever
happens again if the other one fails again at least I have a replacement ready to go so I
hopefully won't go home on a tow truck again but yeah that truck's been uh 2025 was definitely the
year of the mighty max pickup so and I added the cap this year too so and I got a windshield this
year hello kinds this out this year it went to the big Williams show which is my favorite weekend
of the year locally but it's 7 000 foot of elevation climbing and did that with all our camping gear
so it's been it's been a good year for that truck it took a lot of my my energy to getting of the
year but it was fully worth it because it's gone all over the state done a bunch off-roading a bunch
of camping it's been a good time so now this time next time you come out here I'll have to take the
truck off-roading so you can experience the no longer languishing under a tree covered in bird
crap moment to an actually functional vehicle so hopefully it'll be 100 done by then because I'm
still looking to do uh so it's radio and some interior work and meet some minor stuff but
it runs and drives and I drive it all the time so it's kind of been I won't call it my daily
because the eclipse is my daily but it's kind of been used a lot so and then the final project are
update slash down date is the eclipse I failed emissions
first time in my life ever failing emissions
so I don't know what to do
what I've seen a couple of places my knocks is too high by almost double
which is interesting because the whole top end of the motor is fresh
it's been recently gone through everything else seems fine and last year or two years ago last
time it went through emissions it passed with flying colors like wasn't even close to failing
and this year it's more than double the normal so there's a couple of things that people have
suggested but I look into I haven't had a chance I actually had to do an emissions repair on a
failing embers 05 Lancer this weekend I put a catalytic converter in I shouldn't say I did it
I supervised as I taught him how to do it and get a wonderful job so good on him but
I got a little greasy a couple times but overall was all him but anyway speaking to my friend Josh
who has had many Mitsubishi's that have failed emissions and he said to go to the part store
and buy two bottles of heat which is the basically gas antifreeze but it's also
like an alcohol product and a water remover and that supposedly should
clean enough of the fuel burning to burn off the knocks so I did that I went to auto zone
bought two bottles of the yellow heat put it in the tank drove it about 60 miles all on the highway
to get the cats up the temp went back to emissions so it's parts per million I think
it's 4.5 is what it's at has to be at 2.5 sorry oh you're around you know that's it
because it has to be at 2.5 and it's at 4.5 so I did all that drove it like 60 miles went back
ran it again and it went from 4.5 to 4.2 but still well above acceptable so it did something
just didn't do enough so I have to check timing make sure the timing is set make sure maybe we
didn't screw something up terribly it's the timing is way advanced because that can also
cause knocks to be up I guess and then the third step is to check the EGR system and make sure
it's fully functional and cleaned out so I haven't got there yet but all that's happened is I've
failed and I tried the the quick easy method of putting alcohol in the tank and hopefully
sneaking through but it did not work so we shall see it's frustrating because I can't the car is
now not registered that I can't register it until it passes emissions so
through my project cars that's the quick quick overview of what we've missed in the past month
which yeah actually is a pretty lot it's a good amount of stuff it's been been busy around here
all that with the holidays so and tons of RC car stuff and that's really the big 2026 thing
Andrew is going to be our like continued foray to RC cars a well a well down the rabbit hole here
of RC drifting I started 2025 with no RC cars purchased in a very very long time
by the end of 25 there were four new IC cars here yeah so I've been playing with and tuning
my Yocamo chassis just doing small stuff here and there the first mod was an alignment rack
for RC car which will work with very cool all the RC cars all the touring cars it's on my list
even the back because you basically you want to be able to set the alignment
you a lot of people do it by eyeball in my field but I'm like I kind of want to know what the
numbers are so I know it's even and then I started actually writing notes down on it
and how it drives in an attempt to try to make it drive better I'm trying to do
my plan with this Yocamo chassis they're basically all plastic
and I don't want to change any parts that come on it stock I want to see how far I can go with it
and how well I can drive it as an out-of-the-box
RD2O so most people say that that's entirely possible with that car and the only thing
people wind up playing with is the electronics and shock absorbers yeah I'll use the shocks until
they blow out yeah you'll basically just start leaking and I have decent electronics in it so
um yeah I'm curious to see how far I can push it and if I can get good enough
driving to maybe do a competition with it
so I mean that's the goal right yeah with anything just get good at it enjoy it as long as you're
enjoying it who cares I think you know I was like I don't know about competing but I mean
like I could probably try to compete because it's not like this isn't like a physical thing
so much like I don't have to run really fast or be in super good shape that's a more skill than
dollars thing like you have to actually know what you're doing whereas like the RC racing racing
was always a dollar a game like oh this guy's got two ran wrapped up in motors and batteries so
obviously he's gonna win every time yeah and people have some ridiculous chassis
but it's more about how well you can drive them and it would be pretty fun to push this stock car
as far as I can just to say I did it um you know I'm kind of looking at I'm like it's not worth it
in my mind the way I'm looking at now I'm like the amount of money mods cost
or or or hop up parts I'm like it's not worth I'll just keep driving it the way it is
and if I want a better chassis Yokomo sells a next version up that comes with all the aluminum parts
all those parts already yeah yeah it's a better deal than buying them all piecemeal
like just just run the expensive stuff yeah the expensive stuff really is electronics anyway so
yeah I'm like yeah which I could just transfer and just hang the chassis on the on the on the wall
when I'm done um build a show body for it you put it in the put on the shelf yeah exactly
but for fun for fun stuff I did buy I've always wanted an M chassis car
that's the short wheelbase to Maya yep um I've never had one and there's a new chassis out
it's called the mbo one around a couple years ago it doesn't get a lot of love a lot of people are
upset with it because the way it's set up it's very modular you can change the wheelbase on it you
can change the drive from like front wheel drive rear wheel drive and like mid engine
and like rear kind of engine or rear motor um and it uses the same like front suspension
arms as a TTO2 so what the arms that can steer but it also uses them on the rear
okay I guess it it makes it it seems like it has a lot of slop I guess but I'm building it right
now it doesn't feel it has that much slop I think people are maybe overblowing it and
well I think people are comparing it to like a Yokomo race chassis or a TRF to Maya race chassis
like yeah I don't know it's a hobby great it's a hobby great but it's not a professional great
it doesn't even come with oil shocks it's got friction shocks so the long story short here is
that I bought a conversion kit for it from matrix racing club to make it into a drift car this is
which is not the way you want to start drifting do not buy a drift conversion and then try to
convert a Tamiya chassis because it's way more expensive this is totally a passion uh Tamiya
Tamiya nerd project uh sure the way to do it is what I did which is buy the Yokomo chassis and
that's why I advised Naomi to get that one for you for Christmas because that's like the way to go
that's the entry level one it's definitely the cheapest way to get into it yeah and without buying
a Rage Runker and the Yokomo chassis comes even though like I said it's all plastic everything
is adjustable on it it has it's almost adjustable turnbuckles yeah it's you can do a lot with it
it doesn't even though it's entry level it doesn't feel cheap so but anyway this Tamiya
um I'm like halfway built the chassis I did put entry level because I want to experiment with
electronics I put entry level Yokomo electronics in it so it is brushless but they're um it's not
even that much they're not even that less expensive than the hobby wing um but they're slightly less
expensive and they're pretty wired I don't even need soldering and interestingly they come with a
Tamiya plug on them but I had to get an adapter because the ESC is set up for lipos not nickel
metal hydrates um so that should be pretty interesting just to try it and I bought a base
Yokomo gyro because that's it I'm like I want to feel the differences in these electronics and
understand why some are better than others um because that was a big revelation driving the
Yokomo chassis is that I put $150 servo in it and I was like oh I get it like it's quiet and it's
faster than a $20 cheap basher servo so
well let me know how the mid-level stuff works because I gotta purchase some stuff too and
if I could save some coin I'd love to supposedly the ESC is pre-programmed
it's a drift ESC but it's pre-programmed to be with good throttle response for drifting
and then I bought this weird no-name drift servo off of AMA and that was only 50 bucks
I'm gonna try that out um what's the brand name of it it's like digital racing it's like something
random I've been I've been watching a lot of youtube videos about the electronics and what the
combo of things is that's like budget friendly but also like good because I don't want to spend
a ton of money if I don't have to but
apparently the spacebar mutes this um yeah I the screen went down I get spacebar out of
hold back up and I muted myself um I don't want to spend a ton of money on stuff I don't need
but I don't want to spend not enough money on stuff that's not good enough either so I think
that's my whole conundrum is I'm much like anything in life I'm overthinking the purchase
process and like looking at all these different things and I've watched there's a few pretty
detailed youtube tutorials on like building these cars and going through them and you know if you
want to get into it I'd recommend you watch some of shredcraft's videos yeah because he is uh he's
very dry which is good he's not like one in your face like hey guys he just he's very like about
the stuff he just tells you about what's good and what's not good and he's been one of the guys
I've been watching and a couple others too but he's the one his name I can remember that's been
pretty consistent with good advice it seems so he has a he has a yokomo rd 2.0 that he's building
to a budget level and uh been watching a couple of different videos where he's you know I purchased
this part and it wasn't good enough so I switched to this part it's like that's that's exactly what
I want to see yeah somebody came who knows what he's talking about purchasing cheaper stuff and
saying what's good and what's not that's sort of what I'm trying and I actually am trying to do
little videos of this because it's on the workbench it's easier than doing it out at a car sure I'm not
I'm not trying to hustle to get a car fixed and also do a video I can just leave it on the bench
and walk away so I'm trying to get myself into making more videos that way that's another thing for
2025 and then I'll try to put these on the scale autocast and stuff um but yeah I've got uh that's
the other thing you can also buy you stuff like I'm I'm tomorrow night when I go to the drift track
I got a guy he's getting rid of a basically brand new hobby wing the drifty you see for like 50 bucks
less than what it costs yell 10 whatever like twice and he just didn't want it whatever and I I picked
up a um the guy that runs the track he was like uh I got this Yoko mo uh I think it's an MD10 or an
st10 it's a it's a low transfer special so it's a roll car they call it so it's the weight is up
high and really soft suspension so it actually rolls and moves like a real car sure and that's like
almost a $400 chassis and he was just like uh I'm just going to sell it for half price anyone
local that just wants to get it running as a roller so I got it for like 170 bucks it's basically
brand new what chassis is that low transfer special LTS Yoko mo LTS that's Yoko mo as well yep
but basically I like I like watching those ones work I need yep yeah it's a basically you know
it's basically a I think it's based on a yd10 um which shares a lot of parts of the rd10 now we're
now we're really losing people but yeah 100% yeah but it the battery basically the motor is in the
back drift the diff the transmissions in the back it puts the battery up above the motor on the chassis
for a tonneau and has um super soft long travel shocks and so like the Japanese
would call them roll cars because it literally pitches and rolls yeah I've seen videos of those
cars working in there super neat looking yeah and I was like after that price I'll just buy it and
I'll do it slowly I'll build it up like I found this local guys got the usc for cheap I'll buy that
next month I'll buy a motor I'll just put it together slowly sure if it's in good shape so
you know the guy pat was like I just want to see somebody use it with the track I was like yeah
I get the uh four door Ken Mary body it's a little okay the only problem with the vintage bodies
they're a little bit narrow I guess um so it might be a little challenge to get it to fit with the
wheels yeah I'd notice that some guys have like way too much track in the front and the wheels are
like 100% outside defenders now I'm like yeah nope you lose me because it's not scale yeah so I'm
going to try to make it as scale as I can and throw that body on it and it should look cool like
rolling and moving around but it's rad so yeah it looks like um the RC drift track here also does
Wednesday night stuff so I gotta head down there and check out some stuff and see what's
available for sale possibly for electronics down there yeah it's the type of hobby where guys are
always buying and selling stuff you always pick up used stuff yep and I I also picked up uh a
TTO2 drift chassis from Tamiya so uh the reason why I bought it this it's uh
when drifting started it was full drive cars with just plastic tires for sure so that's
that's what this chassis is it has no gyro or anything but you can't run that anywhere I can't
run it anywhere but I'm going to convert it to a real drive oh okay got a matrix racing club
conversion kit for the TTO2 because I've seen a lot of those videos of them running TTO2s and
they look really cool and it works my nerds Tamiya nerd um but the reason why I bought this one
it's the one of the red rx7 on it because it was only 140 bucks and it came with ball bearings
and it came with the rx7 body and it came with a lighting kit
so I was like that's worth it right there
and an ESC yeah it's got the original factory ESC and the brushed motor
which that's one of the ones I'm gonna send off to our friend Brian who's getting back we got back
in RC because now I've got several extras of those I'll save those for other you know basher
projects but I've got one extra set I can share um so yeah that's worth it I thought just uh you
know and if I I'm kind of looking at it I'm like well I'll try the electronics and the MBO one and
if I like those I'll either swap them over to try the other one or I'll get another set of those
or I'll see what I want to do I'll wait see what kind of electronics I want to put on it
I'll try some different videos you don't have to have all of them fully built all the time you
can transfer stuff around because you can only drive so many at once yeah exactly uh and there's
some interesting you know if your tech's getting into drift stuff they have a drift ESC they have
a drift motor that's 380 size but has the bolt pattern to fit in a 540 area so that's kind of
interesting like it's like lighter um but has the power of it you know so it's like that's
interesting to try like you know maybe it doesn't work maybe it works well who knows but I'm willing
to experiment so that's I don't know that's I've definitely I don't know this is like a really
fun hobby it's just you actually get uh I have a place to use the cars um you know you get kind
of get feedback from driving them you can tune them a little bit um in the long run it's definitely
less expensive than real cars you know oh yeah for sure I'm not gonna stop playing with real cars
but I don't really need to build any more race cars you know eventually on the long-term horizon
yeah I'd love to do a track day car a real one but um in the meantime I can just do
basic track days of the t20 what's that teaser teaser comment here I'm about to ruin my financial
future by owning a race car so okay yeah yeah that's yeah exactly yeah um also I have all the
I'm actually building shelving for RC cars in my garage so yeah I'm just looking at my workspace
area I need to add some shelves to display stuff but it's and it's uh you know as Marco's getting
a little bit older he'll be able to do it with me too you know it's like that'll become a lifetime
obsession to him as well yeah you can it's not like you know carding is pretty cool that's also
super expensive for a family yep it's a lot of work but this is like a little bit more manageable
you know you can have his own car maybe you can get decent at it so you probably will
be decent at it because kids are good at this kind of stuff yeah so I can do it I mean
sweet I'd like to I'd like I'd definitely like to compete and maybe see how far I can go I think
it's possible to be decent at it I could be completely wrong but we'll see I'm sure you'll
be fine I'm looking forward to it to getting into it I'm looking forward I'm a little
envious of the proximity of your track to you compared to me to my track but it is what it is
even the owner of the track is he's like you're closer than I am nice but the vibe there is
he's all about like making everybody faster and drive better and like when there's a bunch of people
there they'll they'll be like all right train time and everybody like gets in tries to run in a big
long train and they try to force everybody to be better at tandeming like non-competitively just
like well the good thing about this too is that you can learn the tandem stuff unlike in a real
drift car where like the stakes are way higher yeah it's like sand bodies they just pop back out again
yeah I've definitely had a couple a couple of wrecks with people and it's like
oh the car not broken all right roll good carry on sweet well I think that is a good first episode
of 2026 and it is
all right so I mean we'll try to post more to social media um floor short we'll try to post
more pictures of the fun things we're doing with cars I think we should my challenge to you Brad
maybe do a couple of little short videos while you're working on stuff just throw them on Instagram
that's all you have to do it doesn't have to be fancy just like what I did with the Volvo right
where I was like doing a little tour around the engine bay while I was working on stuff
why don't you do that with that it's that comfort zone level that's what we're talking about here
yeah but it's like it doesn't have to be more than a minute you can just be like yeah here's what
it's funny I was trying to figure out how to crimp the end on this bomber cable and there are no
videos that teach you how to do it I would imagine it'd be like a bike cable no sort of kind of
but there's this weird little tool that comes with that's a disposable crimper
basically you set it in like a bench vise and crush the crimper onto the part and it crimps the thing
um I don't have bench vise though it's the problem oh but you have a bench right I was like oh let's go
buy a bench vise turns out bench vises very expensive so yeah I'm a free
uh yeah they weren't cheap I mean I have like a tiny little dumb one that doesn't
do very much but um yeah they're not I guess I can get I don't know that's also like something
that would be good used like Facebook marketplace look for a vise yeah I guess I don't need like
a really big one no I don't need the professional level $1,500 one from Ranger no what is I'm afraid
of oh let's see I'm looking at a real fast they have a five-inch swivel vise five inches enough
is it the width of the jaw I assume so yes
yeah that's 60 bucks
yeah so maybe they don't work you still need a bench or a half inch for $29 have a bench
you can bolt it to my bench it's totally fine all right maybe I'll buy one there you go we'll see
so yeah do do some short little videos and stuff and uh I'm gonna try to do the same um
well attempt I'm just not as comfortable doing the video and uploading the video as I am at
doing pictures or when somebody else does a video I actually did a probably hour-long video for a
local guy who makes YouTube videos hasn't come out yet but just a tour of my he's being
the vintage Japanese stuff so I kind of there you go tour of the Japanese stuff and collection
or some of it we did about half the collection so cool but uh other than that come join us on
the discord it's fun yeah it's the easiest way to get ahold of us the other thing I think we
work on too is uh and we're we're doing rc stuff but maybe we should fit in a
a couple of model challenge builds get me to build I was actually just thinking about that
just thinking about that yeah we should pull that off I would like to get pulsing back out
you know I started the other day on one but only did a few things that broke away but
I would like to get back into that too yeah always so much time in the day unfortunately
yeah exactly I even had my 24 scale Montero RC kit I need to finish up too
because that'd be that's a cool thing to to just uh show off with the drift track because
people are into it that's the other thing they added a scale crawler course so it's it's cool
that I have one of those already so everybody's into that too when you you'll break from drift
and you go over there's a corner where the guy's does landscape and you brought a bunch of extra
rocks built a cool crawler course so if you like the rc drift guys are into scale and that's why
they're also under crawlers yeah so that's why we fit in anyway as we heard level of thousands
spiral here at the end um yeah all right end of the enter we are on out off top of the instagram
that's probably the best place I can even talk about the other places uh scale autocast on instagram
I'm racing our instagram rad we're gonna find you they can also find me at instagram at tsi
ss 350 I also post on our own podcast accounts and obviously on the discord in order to find the
discord message us on the instagram we'll get you there we'll get you a link all right cool as always
keep your eyes analog private club cool people only keep your eyes analog and aim for the roses
About this episode
Reflecting on the past year, the hosts dive into their automotive resolutions, discussing successes and failures in their car projects. They share updates on various builds, including a Volvo that finally runs, and the challenges of tuning it. The conversation also touches on their experiences with RC cars, highlighting the joy of the hobby and plans for future competitions. With a mix of humor and camaraderie, they set new goals for 2026, aiming for improvement in both their automotive endeavors and podcasting efforts.
automatic transmission
ball joints
bumper
Caramulo Motor Festival
emissions equipment
fuel injection
fuel system primed
horsepower
hot rod
intercooler
BMW 3 Series
Chevrolet Camaro
Dacia Duster
Dodge Ram
Dodge Road Runner
Ford Bronco
Ford Sierra 3 Doors
Hyundai Grandeur
Infiniti G20
Lamborghini LM 002
Land Rover Defender
Mazda RX-7
Mitsubishi Eclipse
Mitsubishi Galant
Mitsubishi Lancer
Mitsubishi Montero
Mitsubishi Starion
Porsche 944
Rolls-Royce Ghost
Toyota Camry
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Cressida
Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Rabbit
Original notes
Hello listeners, we are back from our holiday break. We've got project car resolutions. Project car updates and some scale project car talk.
Thanks for hanging in there and sticking with us.
Please Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening platform. Comments, Questions, complaints; email us at [email protected]
Join the Discord, message us on the socials for a link.
Keep your cars analog and Aim for the Roses!
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