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The State of the Repair Industry and What's Next with Christopher Delprete
The State of the Repair Industry and What's Next with Christopher Delprete
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About this episode
Christopher Delprete joins the Jaded Mechanic Podcast to discuss the evolving landscape of the repair industry, sharing insights from his extensive experience in heavy truck repair. The conversation touches on the challenges of keeping up with rapid technological advancements, the importance of training the next generation of mechanics, and the value of hands-on problem-solving skills. Delprete also highlights the significance of fostering a supportive work environment and the need for more women in the trade. With anecdotes from his career and personal stories, this episode provides a thoughtful look at the future of automotive repair.
Topics:
repair industry trends
technological advancements
training young mechanics
hands-on problem solving
supportive work environments
women in automotive
heavy truck repair
personal anecdotes
industry challenges
future of automotive repair
Cars:
Chevrolet Bel Air
Chevrolet Blazer
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Chevelle
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Impala
Chevrolet Nova
Chevrolet Volt
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Charger
Ford Capri
Ford Escape
Ford Mustang
Jeep Wrangler
Lucid Air
Volkswagen Bus
Volkswagen Jetta
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In this episode, Jeff welcomes Christopher Delprete, lead tech at Ace Truck Body and Trailer Repair in Georgia. Christopher talks about growing up in a family-run business in Massachusetts to his current role in heavy truck repair. He emphasized the rapid evolution of truck technology and the need for technicians to continually update their skills. Together, they discuss the critical role of mentoring and training the next generation of technicians, highlighting the importance of supporting young people and women in the trade.
00:00 Guiding Brother's Biggest Bass Catch
06:50 Waste Management Business Collapse
10:47 Classic Car Memories
16:36 Women Excel in the Heavy Truck Industry
26:04 Brand Variety Keeps Job Exciting
29:22 "NPR Frame Swap Process"
33:46 Commitment to Quality and Safety
39:22 Mutual Expertise Acknowledgement
45:22 Truck Idling Workarounds Insights
52:16 Montreal's Aggressive Drivers' Reputation
56:36 Old Trucker's Tales
01:00:50 Mechanic Video: Embracing Mistakes
01:05:30 Highlighting Professionalism's Evolution
01:09:55 OBD2 Tech Evolution Insights
01:19:06 Widening Income Gap Motivation
01:22:28 Toolbox Purchase Regret
01:25:10 "Open-End Wrench Debate"
01:30:48 Growing Up a Hot Rod Enthusiast
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Filter:
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
"...ell us stories about the cars he had. From his 68 Camaro to a 70 Chevelle. And then the family vehicle whe..."
Car
Chevrolet Blazer
"...he family vehicle when we were kids was this 1972 Blazer. You know, so it's. And so it was. I was born and..."
Car
Chevrolet Chevelle
"...about the cars he had. From his 68 Camaro to a 70 Chevelle. And then the family vehicle when we were kids wa..."
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"...d they, they pulled a camshaft out of a 300 horse Corvette and stuffed it in that car. And then a two speed ..."
Car
Chevrolet Impala
"...oor. Like it would have been a Bel Air, it wasn't Impala, but you know that kind of trim line with three, ..."
Car
Chevrolet Bel Air
"...65 Chevy car, two door. Like it would have been a Bel Air, it wasn't Impala, but you know that kind of trim..."
Car
Lucid Air
"...h a landfill, they get dumped out and you blow an airline, you know, you got to get out of there. If yo..."
Car
Volkswagen Bus
"..., she's doing a Series 60 swap on a, on a Prevost bus, like, like £130. You know this, she's been on th..."
Car
Ford Mustang
"...she'll bring her own car. She's got a really nice Mustang. And she'll come in, she's like, is it okay if I ..."
Car
Volkswagen Jetta
"...0. When I go in tomorrow morning, I've got a 2012 Jetta sitting there that, amazingly enough, is not that..."
Car
Chevrolet Volt
"... ago I sat in a Texas heavy form and they said 48 volts coming. So be prepared. Everything's changing to..."
Car
Ford Capri
"...race the other day because she's like, I saw this Capri Tools, it's like a no brain. I'm like, get them. ..."
Car
Chevrolet Nova
"... you know, Chevelles and Corvettes and, you know, Novas. I was a Chevy guy back then. I, until I worked w..."
Car
Jeep Wrangler
"...till know it's a Jeep, right? Like, I'm talking a Wrangler. Like, you look at it and you can still see the h..."
Car
Ford Escape
"...hat's a Mustang. You know, like it. That's a Ford Escape. Like, I'm sorry. That's what it is. Like, it's j..."
Car
Dodge Charger
"...lost touch and Dodge. When the. I didn't like the Charger. I like the 300. The charger. I said, that's a jo..."
Car
Dodge Challenger
"...s too many at doors. When they finally hit with a Challenger, I was like, yes. Now, there you go."
Guiding Brother's Biggest Bass Catch
Waste Management Business Collapse
Classic Car Memories
Women Excel in the Heavy Truck Industry
Brand Variety Keeps Job Exciting
"NPR Frame Swap Process"
Commitment to Quality and Safety
Mutual Expertise Acknowledgement
Truck Idling Workarounds Insights
Montreal's Aggressive Drivers' Reputation
Old Trucker's Tales
Mechanic Video: Embracing Mistakes
Highlighting Professionalism's Evolution
OBD2 Tech Evolution Insights
Widening Income Gap Motivation
Toolbox Purchase Regret
"Open-End Wrench Debate"
Growing Up a Hot Rod Enthusiast
Select text to request an explanation
I still get asked, what's a stock switch? You know, it's like, okay, you know, my wife's Tahoe has 42 modules in it. We didn't have all that back then.
It's. It's gotten a little excessive.
But at the same time, we need you to stay current of where we are now, moving forward, because the changes are coming so fast. You got to be able to keep up.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, but welcome back to another exciting episode of the Jaden Mechanic podcast. It's a sunny Sunday evening, and we're just sitting down to. I fished all day. We're just having a little conversation with a. Somebody I don't know too well, but I'm hoping to get to know Chris Delpriet. Chris, how are you, buddy?
I'm awesome. Jeff, man, how are you?
Very good, Very good. I'm a little sore from fishing. I do a lot of casting, and as a mechanic, your shoulders. Right. Miles on them, and, you know, so it's a. A lot. But we had a good day today, so.
Oh, good.
Yeah. Yeah. I put my brother on his biggest bass that he's ever caught in his life, so that was pretty cool. I caught nothing but tiny fish. And so when I take my brother out, I play mostly just fish and guide. Like, my boat, all my. All the baits, all the rods are all mine. And I literally, like, tied the bait on this morning before we went out.
I pulled up to the spot, I said, take this rod cast there. You'll probably catch one. And he caught a four and a half, so it's a good fish. So good day for him. He was happy. So that's. That makes it more fun. Really?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, you want to see others succeed. That's. That's that mentality. You want to push others up, and you want to see them succeed because that's. That's where you. You should shine.
Yeah, he's. He's waiting for a hip replacement, so he's very incapacitated physically. Like, he can't. It's a lot for him to get in and out of the boat and even move around the boat.
Yeah.
So. So that makes it a lot more fun when. When he actually gets a decent fish. Like, he. Normally, he doesn't go out and get skunked, but to get his biggest he's ever got today made it a lot worthwhile. He's in a lot of pain, so the hip is very serious thing, so.
Yeah, no, for sure, it's your. That's your core.
Yep. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you spend your weekend?
You said you're this weekend. Let's see. You know, I. I didn't work. Finally, I actually took it easy and getting caught up on just washing a few vehicles. Gotta wash the wife's vehicle, my vehicle. Teaching my son how to use the power washer. What's not pushing him over because he's only 11 years old.
He's a stick figure like dad. So, you know. But yeah, just simple things. This weekend, it was actually really nice. I didn't do much, which is a shock.
Yeah. And you're down in Georgia?
I am. I'm in. I'm in North Georgia. I moved here four years ago. Originally from Massachusetts.
Oh, that's a good.
Yeah, I try to. I try not to play into the. The accent too much, you know, so if you hear me drop a few eyes here and there, you know, it's like. It does come out.
Yeah.
But I. I try, I try. Try to hide it a little bit.
Yeah. Do they use conversations when that comes out once in a while down there?
I'm sorry, do they give you a.
Funny look when you drop it down there?
Yeah. Well. Interesting. My. My boss, I can always tell it's a female. I have a female boss, by the way, and she's phenomenal. My first conversation with her, it went about three minutes. Within the first minute, she was holding her mouth, trying not to laugh at me, and I was just like, okay.
I just kind of shook my head. It's okay. Let it out. I'm like, I know. I'm a northerner. I'm not just a Yankee. I'm a damn Yankee. I moved from the north to the South.
So, you know.
So tell us about where you work.
I work for Ace Truck Body and Trailer Repair in Norcross, Georgia. It is owned by the great Jamie Cole. She's owned it for just over 10 years, I think about 10 years now. And she's amazing. She's. She's no slouch to the business. She actually knows the business well. She was an old dirt track girl from back in the day.
Her dad treated her like a son. So she was out there hunting, fishing and, and driving, you know, so she had a tow business before coming to and buying out Ace and having her own. Having the business, which. The business has been there since 1981.
Very cool.
And she took over, I think somewhere in 2014 or 2015.
Now, is that like a truck repair kind of shop?
It is a heavy. It's a. The Heavy in the heavy industry. It is a. We have a trailer shop. Four bays of trailers. Well actually it's more like eight. Four on one side, four on the other.
We have a full body shop. You can drive a full tractor trailer into our prepay. You can drive a full tractor trailer into our, our spray booth. And we have an engine shop where I am and we have a parts department. So it's a, it's a. For an independent shop. It's a, it's quite a big one.
Very cool. So that's like. And so you're doing engine re and rebuilds on all that kind of series 60 and Cats and Cummins and that kind of stuff.
We do. I, I did. I have rebuilt the Max Force. We don't see much in the way of engine rebuilds. No, honestly no. Back in its heyday that's all that was there. I mean series 60, 550 cat. I mean the old NZ, early ISX and box Cummins they were, they were constantly doing it.
Now it's, it just seems to be strictly electrical diag and regen. Regen issues that come in the door and it's all across. We take everything in. So it's from Hino Isuzu and just the power plants are pretty much the same. You're going to get a, a Cummins, an ISX or I mostly isb. From a Freightliner to a Ford to a Western Star. I mean it's, it, you know, same engine, different, different truck, you know, DD13, DD15 from a Mac and a Volvo or some Freightliner, you know. So it's cool.
Very cool.
Yeah.
I kind of dabbled, stuck my toe in that little side of the business for a little while. And there's, there's pluses to it. I liked it. The shop I worked at was more predominantly like suspension and springs.
Yeah.
So we did a lot of that. And that, that sucks. From a physical standpoint.
Yeah, it's, it's heavy on the body because before this I was with my family's rubbish business.
Okay.
And we had 40 pieces of moving equipment from tractor trailers, which is just the division I ran to Roloff, which my brother ran and my younger sister, she was in residential pickup, curbside pickup. And so we had four towns of residential rubbish. We had roll off contracts, we had long haul tractor trailer contracts for multiple transfer stations. And that's what that was, a division I ran with six trucks in its heyday. And then it just kind of came down and fizzled down the two and I actually, the business folded in 2015.
Okay.
And it wasn't really, wasn't really my dad's fault. It just, it's kind of a long story, but. But I. We had all kinds of trucks. So I was working on everything then from 2001 until I left in 2021 for Georgia.
Wow.
So I, I went part time with my dad after his business folded in 20. His. No, sorry. I went part time with him in 2013. I saw the writing on the wall for the business. So I was working for the town of Hingham as their mechanic, fabricator, welder driver, which was Thursday through Sunday. And then I worked for my dad Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So I did the seven day a week shuffle from 2013 up until the point I left in 2021.
That's a lot. That's a lot. That's. It is.
It was a lot. And I still look back and try. I'm still trying to figure out how I did it because I turned 50 this year. Yeah, I mean, and it was, I was busting my ass on that stuff, you know.
So was your dad a tech?
Yeah, he. I can't, I can't really call him a tech. He never had an outside job besides working for his family. Because if I take it way back.
Yeah.
My family moved from Italy 1926. So my great grandfather got a piece of property. He ended up opening a. A general contracting place with business. It was a farm basically. And he had two companies there which his two sons ran, which it was called DNF Maintenance. And they also had a second business in there called Twin Elm Farm. So Twin Elm Farm did rubbish, garbage back in its day in the 50s.
And. And they also did, they were the general contractor for street repair, for building houses. They did everything. So. And that's where my dad started at an early age of 10 years old. So. And then he went right from that to owning a trucking company. So he's never, he's never worked for anyone.
Right.
You know, so. And then after his business folded, he had made so many friends, he actually had to get a job at 72 years old. And now he, now he drives a, a brand new Volvo in a dump trailer. And he calls me every once in a while, says, hey, I got a code. And I'm like, I showed you how to check it by the dashboard. Give me the numbers. Yeah, I gotta pull over, you know, somebody. Which is funny, but.
Yeah. Dad got his, his crash course into fixing trucks way back.
He.
He lived and breathed by 6011 rod when he was Welding? Yeah, like garbage rod but you know, it wasn't worth much. But you know, he stuck a lot of crap together as a farmer. You know, he got the job done also.
Yeah, just learn, learn. You go right? Yeah.
That's it. That's it. And my brother, my older brother and I, we picked up on it and you know, we, we were suckers for cars because my dad would tell us stories about the cars he had. From his 68 Camaro to a 70 Chevelle. And then the family vehicle when we were kids was this 1972 Blazer. You know, so it's. And so it was. I was born and raised into trucks.
Blood, eh? Like it, those, that kind of, it's the same thing. Like I, I grew up, my, my stepdad's a farmer and always had, he drove when he was a teenager. It was like a 65 Chevy car, two door. Like it would have been a Bel Air, it wasn't Impala, but you know that kind of trim line with three, seven and they, they pulled a camshaft out of a 300 horse Corvette and stuffed it in that car. And then a two speed power glide and you know, like it was, it was a quick car and they lived everywhere. It was dirt roads and like the, the stories you tell me of going around a dirt road corner at 78 miles an hour, you know, 80 miles an hour in that car. Big boat of a thing, right?
Yeah.
It gets into your blood. You get addicted to that. Right. Like it, it doesn't. And it doesn't matter where. Like, I always chuckle. I meet so many of the people from North Carolina down south and it's all about, you know, NASCAR and dirt track and everything like that. But that kind of obsession that we get with like, you know, old V8 engines and power and, and the smell and the sounds and everything.
It's all over the world, dude.
Like, it's incredible. Yeah.
It's what ties us all in. And I think that's how this industry gets us hooked because we like, you know, we have a knack for it. We think it's going to be really cool. And then you get in, you're like you're working on a garbage truck or you know, you're on something completely unrelated. But it's a good skill set to have, right?
It is, it is. It teaches you, especially in the rubbish business. Anyone who does rubbish, and they'll agree with me, you have no choice sometimes and you have to use what's around you to get home. So if you're in A landfill. And you know, they dragging you through a landfill, they get dumped out and you blow an airline, you know, you got to get out of there. If you, if you know anything and you got a set of tools with you, you're going to look around the landfill, you're going to find a way to shove a stick in an air tank and block off some of the air so you make it home. Or you're gonna zip tie off an airline and cage a break and you're gonna make it to wherever you need to go.
Yeah, it's. I can remember when I first started in the industry, like back in 99, the what some of the truck drivers knew how to do to the truck.
In order to get home from.
I mean like every one of them I knew back then they wired their own CBs in like they wired their own lights. Like they did all that. Now some of the connections weren't great, but I mean they knew how to like find the blown fuse in the truck. Like they didn't if it came in really broken. It wasn't a blown fuse, was something worse.
Yeah, it was something they couldn't fix with the tools they had in the bunk or under the seat or behind the cab or whatever.
All box, you know, bice grips, channel locks, like. Yeah, all that stuff. They, all of them could cage brakes. All of them could cage brakes, adjust the brakes, check the brakes. Like they, They're a different type of driver then than they are now for sure. You know. Steering wheel holders now. Right.
And they are.
That's it. The day of the trucker has been dead for a long time, you know. And I, I got about, I don't know, somewhere in the 3 million range on me, you know, before I retired. I, I call it retired from driving, but back to spinning wrenches. Yeah, it was, I kept a, I kept a cage bolt beside my seat. You know, it's one of them. Go prepared. You know, you get a three quarter inch wrench.
Yeah.
Right beside it. Just, just in case something was going to happen. Because it was going to happen. That's no to is about it. That's. That's trucking. And you know that. I, I have an expression I used to tell my dad all the time.
I said there's a problem with getting comfortable and trucking. You get comfy and trunk. You get comfortable, comfy and trucking. Trucking comes for a. Yeah. So don't do it. Don't get comfortable.
Yeah. It's such a weird industry, eh? So what's your day to day, you said you talked about, like, if your dad calls you up with a code or you, like, are you kind of steer more towards diag in the shop, or you can do it all.
Yeah, I'm everything from A to B, from start to finish. I'm their A tech. I'm their lead tech. I don't know the floor. Floor guy, everything. So, yeah, we have three scanning platforms, and I work. I got the. I got an IDSS for Isuzu.
I have JPro, I have Texa, and I kind of float between all three. I have two apprentices I have under me right now. One 17, one's 20. I have this, a young girl, Grace. She's 20. She's amazing. She came to us last year, and I tell you, she just. I asked her for two things.
She showed up on her first day. I said, just show up. Give me a good attitude. Those are the only two things I want out of you. That's it. You give me that, I'm gonna give you everything. I know.
Yeah.
And I, I. She did. She doesn't just change oil, you know, I, I give her a lot of regen, a lot of regen issues. And I had her on. I was doing the diag, and I was having her take them apart, and it was kind of like a Karate Kid moment where she's finally like, I'm sick of taking these out. I said, okay, come on over here to the scanner for a minute. Let's go run through this.
Yeah.
And I'm showing her. I'm like, all right, the. I'm having a problem with the delta pressure sensor. Where is it? She's like, oh, it's right over the dpf. I'm like, why? Well, it's got to read one side or the other. I'm like, huh? Really? Let me know when you get sick of changing parts. Like, yeah, I can bring you up here because I put you on them so you'd understand where everything is.
Yeah.
So, you know, from doc, dpf, decomp tube to the scr, I need you to know all. All those parts and pieces. So when you get to a tech, or even close to it, and you're running some. You're running diagnosed, you know, where all your parts are. You're not gonna, you know, and that's on the coming side. You get to a one box on a. On a freightliner, and, you know, they're different, but they're still. It's still running the same parts.
They're just at different locations.
Yeah.
You know, so. And she's gone. She's come real, real far. I'm real proud of her.
So I've seen a lot of girls that seem to go, or ladies, young women go into the, the heavy truck side more so than the car thing and they're killing it. Like my good friend Megan, we were just talking the other day, she's doing a Series 60 swap on a, on a Prevost bus, like, like £130. You know this, she's been on the show before, you know, attractive middle aged blonde lady and she's just killing it. Like she's just, and you know, when she's not doing that, she's in the middle of like updating software and Allison transmissions and diagonal programming Allisons. Like she is, she's just, and it's like I've met guys, you know, that have been in the business 20 years, they can't do what she does. And you know, she's, she's got this very much like, you know, you may look at me and, and make an assumption and judge me and I'm going to prove you wrong kind of attitude. And she doesn't come across with a chip on her shoulder. She's just like, when she knows she's right, she's right.
And I, and I, I resonate with that, right. I'm like, yeah, that's my kind of people. So, you know, she'll call me with gas stuff like, you know, we got a gas motorhome here and it's not running right. Could come down, take a look. Sure. Yeah. But I mean like she's way, way above where I was when I was tinkering with, with these, with, with those trucks. Way farther than I ever thought about being.
Like, she's, she's awesome.
That is awesome. I think a lot of the, the reason why I don't, I don't have a problem with females in the shop is my younger sister drove truck. She's all of five foot one now. She's a few years younger than me. She's in her 40s. She still has her class A up in Massachusetts. You need a hydraulics license to run equipment. She has it, she can run anything and it with or without wheels.
The girl is amazing. So in my dad's business we had, she wasn't the only female. We had seven other drivers that were females. I mean granted, you would get the phone call, Chris, my truck's making a noise and I'm like, oh, what's it doing? And they'll go, I'm like, okay, okay, that's not what I. What did. Is the check engine light on?
No.
It's making a noise. All right, Go check the tires. Like, does it still run and drive and stop? Yes. Is it making any noises like an air leak or anything? No. Okay. Where are you? You know, either I would have to go find them, my brother would go find them, or my dad would go find them. You know, depending on where we were, where I was around the seven states that I hauled to, or wherever my brother was or my dad was, so. But it was.
We were the three mechanics for our. Our fleet.
I think women bring, you know, so much more to the. To the industry. We don't talk about it enough. Right. And, I mean, I met some really cool shop owners, female shop owners. You know, even when you go to the conventions, like, you see some. Some female texts, they're sitting in the classroom or whatever, but, I mean, they're still so outnumbered. But sometimes, like, they just bring sometimes a different perspective about how to even approach some of the problems.
Or I think it's like, because, you know, we're predominantly men, you know, we think everything is muscle and get in there and get it apart fast. And they seem to, like, just do the checks the right way, the first way before they start to get in there and tear everything apart, because, I don't know. I can't. How do I say that? I guess, you know, we don't think of the physical limitations. Not that they have any. Right. But what may be a little bit easier for us would be harder for them because a little bit difference in strength level. So I think it's just they approach it sometimes from a.
A much more efficient manner because they look at it, like, with a little more finesse and pizzazz, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. So we. We need more women in the trade, for sure. 100.
Absolutely. I. I fully, fully agree. And, you know, and there's nothing wrong with having a female tech, like, at all. I. I enjoy having. Having Grace there, and I enjoy having a female boss because she'll come in and she'll bring her own car. She's got a really nice Mustang.
And she'll come in, she's like, is it okay if I borrow a couple tools? Mine are all at home. I just want to change the. Change the brakes. And I'm like, oh, do you want me to do it? And she just looks at me and she's like, did I ask you to do it? And I'm like, well, no. She goes, then just I just want to get away from the office for a while. I want to get my hands dirty. And at first. The first time she asked me for it, I was just like, no, this crazy.
That's what you pay me for. You pay me to do this crap. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. And then finally I realized she just wants that break to go get her hands dirty because she. It's a break from what she's doing. She needs it. Just leave her alone.
Just open your box and go away. Yeah, if she has a question, she'll ask you, you know? So I just. I'm like, all right, Mike. Yeah, I'll give you whatever you need. Box is open.
Yeah. She just wants to reconnect with her roots. Right. That's pretty.
That's it.
That's it.
So I just leave her alone most of the time now. And unless she's. I'm like, do you need me here? Are you sure? No, no, I want. You can go. It's fine. And I'm like, all right. You know, her fiance is a pretty good. Pretty good mechanic, too, so.
Yeah. Right on. So this shop, is it a lot of fleet work or like, is. Does she own a fleet as well of stuff or.
No, it's. It's kind of broken up. We have. We do have fleet customers. We have. I don't want to start naming them off right off the top of my head, but we. We do take in a lot of. A lot of owner operators, and we do have some fleet customers.
The fleet customers are nice because it's like, just let me know when it's fixed.
Yeah.
You know, versus the. I want everything estimated. Do I really need that?
Yeah.
Okay. You know, and you got to kind of not play the game, but just. Yes. To make your truck safe. I mean, do you need a DOT as well? Because I'll tell you right now, everything I put on your list is on the dot, and you're not driving out of here. You know, I can't. I can't sign my name on this because I'm liable. I'm liable.
So. I know. You know?
Yeah, we have that up here with. With anytime a car gets changed ownership in Ontario, like, I essentially have to inspect the car and. And deem it safe, you know, go through the process. There's minimum specs, all that kind of stuff. And it's like, you know, we can see where we have some. You know, sometimes some people think, oh, that. You know, and it's a new program. It's only been out for this year in a way that we now have to do it with a tablet.
And you're actually logged in with the government, and they're. Everything's being recorded. All your pictures, your screenshots that you take of the car is kept in a file per car. Right. Because they can pull up a year, two years, four years from now and look at. And go, well, what was it in this condition? You know, if something should ever happen. And I think people are like, well, last year, that would have passed. Yeah, last year, it would have passed.
And this year, when they. When they sat everybody down and kind of said, okay, these are the new standards. Like, you can't. If you've got a hole in the rocker panel, it's an immediate fail. Rocker panel has to be fixed, you know.
Yeah.
All that kind of stuff. And I mean, people are like, well, it's just a rocker panel. You know, it's. It's considered a structural member now. Right. Like before. And. And I'm not every car is a structural member, like my Jeep, but still has a frame under it.
So, you know, could you make the argument it's a structural member? No, no. But it still fails. You know, It's. Yes. And that. And that's. I like that because it's like, it's. It gets some crap off the road now you see some crap still that you're like, well, they've been driving that thing for six years.
You know, like in. In six years ago, it probably should.
Have been, you know, retired.
Russ is such a pain in the ass for us up here. It's just like, it takes, well, 10 or 11 years old. When this starts to come in at the resale and we start to look at it, we're like, oh, shoot, like, I'm doing a 20. When I go in tomorrow morning, I've got a 2012 Jetta sitting there that, amazingly enough, is not that rusted, but it's like, it's already pre sold before the inspection's even done. It's got a really bad misfire. Needs both springs, needs brakes all the way around. Tires all the way around. Like, it just.
We'll have $5,000 into this thing before we even get it out the door. Like, it's. It's crazy. You know, someone drove it all the.
Way to the limit and then traded it in and got rid of it.
Yeah. And. And, you know, I. I laugh because it's like the salesman. I'm new to this job. I've been there just over a month and the salesman was starting to get to know what I'm like and what I'm, what I'm about. And you know, what I kind of cars I like. And I'm like, you guys don't understand, man.
European customers are a different lot. Like, they, you know, they're like, oh, well, she bought the car brand new and it's only got 170, 000 kilometers on it. Yeah. And they spent no money on that car. And not like the time, like, you know, it's just all the original brakes on it, they're rotted right off. Like, it just, you know, misfire. Somebody put really cheap ignition wires on it. I went and looked at it real quick.
One of the two wires at the coil was swapped, so they're not even hooked up right in it. The oil change sticker that you see in the window is, is a relatively known cheap shop locally to us. It's just like, that's. That to me is a typical Eurocar driver up here, Steve. Like, and I just like, I don't want any part of it, you know, but they sell good. They sell good. Like, you get people still calling every week. It's like, you got a Volkswagen.
It's like, are you hitting the head? Like, why do you want to use Volkswagen?
Like, is this some tick tock trend? I don't know about that. Everyone has to have a Volkswagen now.
It's spooky, man. It's really. I, I like it because it's like a lot of exposure to a lot of different brands. That's what I've always. That's probably the only thing that's kept me in this industry is learning new things all the time. Because if I got bored on a brand, I was just like, you know, let's go fishing. Like, I don't want to fix this. But you know, you start to see like that, that joke in the Netflix shows tires where they're talking about, oh, I can tell what kind of car that person's gonna drive by, who they are, you know, national.
It's a true thing, man. It really is. Like, it is, you know, it's pretty cool. So I don't mind the Volkswagen stuff. I like it better than a BMW or Mercedes.
Mercedes. Yeah. Fully agree.
Yeah. How do you like the Hinos?
I, I don't, I don't mind them too much. You know, they're honestly, the J08, it's, it's a pretty straightforward truck. They, they do really well. You know, it's Toyota based, so it's we see them for oil changes every once in a while. It's. You might maybe like I have actually have one right now I have to do injectors on. But yeah, that's. It's got 280, 000 on it.
And it's. You know, it's just. It's time.
Yeah.
Time for. And this one just happens to have a problem in six. Number six. But my manager who actually is in charge of our shop, just like I won't put one in it. It's going to get all. It's going to get all six because I'll put one in and then three will go out. I'll put three in and then five will go out. This truck will forever be here.
I want six injectors and that's how we're going to do it. Okay. So we're waiting for him to come in and probably do that this week at some point and put six injectors in this thing.
Yeah.
But I actually really enjoy working on Isuzu's. One of. One of my favorites. I was. I got. I showed up to ace a year later. They sent me to Isuzu school in Pennsylvania and I went the year after that again for another week. And it was just.
The training is so good and they want to give you so much. I have dealer level software. So if you buy in and you get idss, that's exactly what the dealership has. So I can program anything factory. I can do anything that the dealership does. I can do it.
Yeah.
You know, and it's. It's. They're actually really. They're kind of fun to work on. I'm not gonna lie. I like them. I've done cab swaps on them, frame swaps on them. It's man.
And I was actually told someone if I had a. If I had my way, I would probably grab like a 2500 series Chevy and I'd put that 4 HK in the. In the truck and drive it.
Yeah.
People think I'm crazy, but I love that engine. It just. It just runs so well. How much? I mean, for me they do.
Yeah. How much time do you give yourself for like a cab swap kind of job? Like is that a three, four day, like a two week kind of thing or.
Honestly, those cabs come right off. Like if you're. If, if, if you're doing a. Well, I don't see a loaded cab. It's the interior stuff that takes the most time physically getting the cab off the truck. Yeah, you can have it. You have it off in a few hours. There's really not much that, not too much to them.
You know, besides draining the AC and brake lines, everything unplugs from the front of it. You got two bolts on a tensioner, and you can basically lift that cab right off and undo the steering, of course, steering box. But yeah, it comes right off, you know, and everything's exposed. You know, I, I have some pictures of a frame swap I did on an npr. And did you see my, you saw my. Do you see my United Rentals? I did the, the frame swap I did. It's recent. It's on Tick Tock.
And I just started doing it and I'm like, you know, I should do more of these. And my boss is for it. She's like, do it good. Put it up. I don't care. Yeah, she's all for it. I'm like, okay, it's, it's kind of neat.
Like, that's, that's the kind of jobs, those levels that you feel really satisfied, like you did something at the end of it. Right? Like.
Yeah.
I mean, we get that little, that little kickoff of everything that we do with the exception of maybe like a set of tires or oil change or something like that. Right. Like, that's so rudimentary, that. Yeah. But when you see something like that and like a bigger job and you're like, it's done, you feel accomplished. Like, that's. I think that's the dopamine that keeps some of us addicted to doing this. Right.
Even though the, the job is so hard. And, you know, it's not that the job is so hard, it's just like, like we talk about, right. We're aches and pains and 50 year old mechanics are, you know, we, we walk differently. We make funny noises when we try to stand up. You know, like, it's just the way it is.
I thank God my ride to work is 40 minutes because that's how long it takes for the ibuprofen to kick in. So I can walk from the car to the building and then stretch around, you know, stretch out a little bit, open the doors and. All right, what are we doing in the heat today? Yeah, you know.
Yeah. Is your shop air conditioned?
No.
Oh, see, yeah. Mine's not either. And everybody jokes. Like they think up here that it's Canada, it's cold. But we had 101 several days in the shop. You know, that's, that's. Yeah, it's tough, you know, six bottles of water.
Yeah. A minimum, you know, and I gotta say, my. The boss puts boxes of freeze pops in the freezer for us, so we abused the hell out of them things. You know, just make sure you're. Make sure you're having them. You know, I'm putting them in there. I want to see this box gone by the end of the day. So what, she.
She don't care?
Yeah. That's a good boss.
Oh, she's awesome.
Yeah.
And I can't, I can't speak any more highly about her. She's really good to, really good to her employees. She's. She's good to just all of us, you know, and she holds us accountable, which is important. You know, she doesn't screw around with it. So, like, there are certain things that need to be done and she goes and solves problems and she knows what every part on a truck is. So it's, it's. You can't, you can't baffle her with, let's put it that way.
You know, she knows, she knows her ass from her elbow.
That's good.
She knows what a good weld looks like. She, you know, she knows her parts under the hood. She's no slouch. So.
Yeah, that's, that's important because that's the thing. Sometimes, like from, from my side of the the scenario. Sometimes, like, you're talking, you're dealing with people that don't know. Like, I've worked with lots of service advisors that were really good, soft skills, right? Good with people, good sales, but they had no clue, like, about how the fluids in an engine worked or what they did or, you know, like, you remember one telling a customer that was like the coolant moved in the engine, you know, didn't move all that fast. And we're like, well, explain that. What do you mean by, like, doesn't move that fast? Like, how did you come to that, that conversation with the customer? Like, it's just, it's.
Where are you looking? Like, where, where did you see it not move?
But she's getting, you know, and that's what happens sometimes is they get asked a question, and I think it's like panic mode sets in. It's like, what do I do?
Right?
And it's like, shoot, like, I, I guess I should look competent. And I have always said, like, if you don't know, go get somebody and ask, you know, because everybody now with a phone is gonna, hey, you know, Siri, explain this to me. And AI is gonna put back, you know, a very accurate, pretty good answer. And then you're Gonna look like a fool right in front of the person. So just like, just if you don't know, say you don't know, you know.
And that's, I've, I've said that so many times to people that have come to me and I, I get guys from our trailer shop, guys from our body shop, they come over to me and they ask me questions and if I don't know, I have to say I don't know because they're going to take my words to heart and if I'm wrong, they're not going to come to me again. And that job might not come, might not get fixed, right? And that's not something I can live with, you know, because it has to be right when it leaves our shop. If it's not right, I take it personal. You've got to have that truck. It's someone's life, someone's livelihood, you know, and, and it's may not, may not be their, their bread and butter. They own the truck, but they're certainly driving it. And you, you've got to know that the vehicle you're putting out is going to be on the road with other families and other people and you got to make sure that truck is, is safe. It's, that's, that's, you got to do that.
And also coming from the owner operator standpoint, on my dad's side, you know, we, we had trucks that broke down and my dad would be like, all right, it's got to go out tomorrow. You staying? Yeah, I'm staying. I got to get up at 1am to go back to work. But, you know, I'm here at 10 o' clock fixing the rubbish truck for my dad, right?
I mean, otherwise, like, how long does the day become when you're down a piece of equipment, right? The next day if it's down, somebody is working overtime to get it done, right? You're putting more hours and more miles on another piece of equipment to pick up the slack. And it's still broke. Like, it's still broke. You might as well. And that's, it was hard for me when I, when I bounced back and forth between, you know, the heavy truck side and the automotive side is. Because the automotive side, like, it's like these people and it's like, well, I'm going to drop that car off. I've got another car at home, right? Like just whenever it's a beautiful. You know, we had a couple fleets that, they had some spare units.
The, the paramedic fleet that I worked on they had spare units. But like the rest of the time I'm just like. People are coming in sometimes and complaining about the, the, the strangest things. To me that would be like you would want to be without your vehicle because of this. It's odd to me, you know, like, I mean, I would not want to be without my vehicle because like, you know, when I put all four kids in the car, one kid's cell phone won't link up to the WI fi. Like that to me is like not even worth a visit in. Right. Because if you and I that worked in these vehicles that make money, you don't down it for that.
You don't down it because the radio doesn't work. Right. Like, you know, the wipers, the horn, you know, all the safety stuff work. Yep. Roll on. Like, like get going.
Start singing to yourself.
People, you know, pull a car in for. I just, I'm still trying to. Thirty years in the industry later, I'm still trying to grasp why some of it, like, it just doesn't make sense to me. I don't. My own vehicle, it could, you know, if it's, you know, working, I don't want to be without it. You know, if it starts to make a little bit of brake noise and it's Thursday and I plan to fish on Saturday, it's not getting looked at till next week.
You know, what's a little bit of break noise between friends fish?
You know, like, it's just. But I can appreciate that the, the fleet side was always like, you know, okay, well we'll, we'll schedule that in to get it done, but I need it back tomorrow morning. Yes sir, right away. You know, it was good. So when it was catastrophic. Yeah, they were like. But yeah, that's what I thought. Are you having a hard time finding young people.
Text in general there, there. There was nothing coming through the door. And in our shop, it's, it's still small. We have, was it four, three long bays that can fit trucks back to back. And I have a three quarter bay, I call it. It's. It's basically one, one big truck that's. You could probably nose something in if you had to run diagonal and just to get yourself out of the sun or if it's going to rain or whatever.
But it's just me. I have a senior tech, he's in his 60s. Great, great B Tech. I can't feed that guy enough. Like lift gates, suspension work, heavy stuff, engine swaps, you know. And we do take, we do have a fair Share of just. We had a run of ISB engine swaps for Penske. We had 10 engines we needed to swap for him, and we were getting them down pretty.
We get some good hours on them. So, yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun, but he's a phenomenal, phenomenal bee, but I can't. I can't put him near a computer. Yeah, he's. It's. He'll even tell you. He's like, ah.
I don't put. I don't want to. I don't want to. Don't put that thing in my hands. Don't do it. Okay, okay. But it's just me, Terry, who's my senior tech, and I have Grace and Peyton, who are phenomenal, and they're. Again, both of those guys are killing it.
I'm so proud of both of them, you know, and I'm just. I'm pouring into them as much as I can. I just don't want. I don't want this knowledge to go away, you know?
Yeah, that's. That's something. When you think about it, like, I. And, you know, I can say that I enjoy working with younger people because there's always. It seems like every day, at least one opportunity to show them, you know, kind of a, you know, a core moment, a core principle. You know, you get one of them a date. In my shop now, I have one tech that he works with me. He's 59, and I'm 50, so he's 59.
I'm not. There's not much I'm gonna show him. You know what I mean? He's already seen, unless it's, like, diag on a car brand, because he hasn't worked on as many different things as I have. A lot of people haven't. So there's some things I'll show him that I'm familiar with that he's not. But it's not like I, you know, I have to teach him any kind of fundamentals or. Or processes or anything like that. He's got it all down.
He's got his own, you know, which is. I miss that with the young people, because there's, like, so many things. Whether it's like, here's how you check that ground, or, you know, here's a. I can remember the old trick, and somebody's, you know, an alternator sitting there running, and they touch the back of the screwdriver and the magnetic force, and they're like, okay, the alternator's doing something.
Working. Yeah.
Teaching me that 20 some years ago and going, hey, that's pretty cool. Now I don't get to teach that stuff to people, right? I miss that.
So it's, it's it. I like taking the. Taking a few minutes. Like, as many regen systems. I put Grace on, I'll. I'll be checking a truck and if I see it, something up or out, Kelly, I'll bring her over and be like, hey, I want you to take a peek in this and tell me what you think. You know, I'll get a code, a 117 code. I'm like, so, what are your thoughts on this? And.
And she's like, you've showed me this before. Oh, and you know, she'll sit there and something with the, the deaf injector. And I'm like, yeah, keep going, keep going. She's like, I'm like, like, come on, you get. You're almost there. And she's like, it's covered over. I'm like, yeah, it's covered over. There you go.
So she'll pull it, scrap, sell a filter, you know, and possibly send it back on its way, you know, so down the road, hopefully the injector itself, well, you check it for, you gotta check it for pressure and all that. Do all the tests and, and check your three circles. It's supposed to shoot out at you, but I mean, for the most part, you know, send it on its way. Pretty good.
A problematic system, eh? Like I can remember, who's I talking to? I guess it'd be about a year ago and there was something and they could not get deaf quality sensors for half of the trucks that were coming in. Like, there was Cummins.
Yeah, it was the Cummins. And they programmed them out and they just recently got busted by the, by the epa. Yeah, yeah. And I had, I had a truck that had to get programmed. And I remember the truck getting programmed and we told the lady, don't come back and have it reprogrammed. Just drive it. Just don't, just, just keep driving. She's like, are you serious? I'm like, yes, yeah, just, just, just ignore it.
And you just keep driving this thing and don't come back. Don't take it the wrong way. And she still drives. She comes in foil changes. It's like, you know, but it's, it's, it. She still runs that truck to this day, and it's still running good.
Isn't that funny, though? And frustrating at the same time from a technician standpoint because it's how many times we had to go down that road of diagnosing that system. And all of a sudden, because a part is obsolete or unavailable, we just release a different set of software and completely take the problem away.
Yeah, it's like the magic problem with the regen system. It's like, well, if you just put more research done a little more. I mean, I look at that whole system itself and my. All right, you got a bunch of temp sensors. It's. You're either going to heat it up and it's going to throw you at a higher ohm rating, or you can heat it up and it's going to. It's going to drop down. I'm like, they only work one of two ways.
I mean, it's nothing that hasn't been put into a vehicle already. The part number is only the length of wire in the plug. It plugs into. It's the same sensor. It. There's no difference to it. You know, it's. It's.
Yeah, it's first one of these things. Yeah, it's frustrating.
It really is, because, I mean, even like, you and I know that, like, those trucks, when they're detuned and, and, you know, whatever, you know, compromising those systems, they're reliable as hell. Right. But like, they just come in all the time with those kind of. Those kind of systems. And I'm not saying, you know, trucks should be eliminated. I'm not trying to say that.
Oh, no, no, no. I know what you're saying about it, but.
But it is customers. Like, one minute it's working, in the next minute the sensor goes down and they're derated. And, you know, all these warning lights come on like it's just they. And for us to try to explain it to them has always been very.
Hard, you know, and it's almost like anyone who buys a diesel needs to sit through class and understand. Listen, you don't put water in your def. System. That's right. Don't do that. All right? You don't. It's.
It's.
I know. It's 90 water and you think you're doing yourself a favor and it's just 10 urea. Don't do that. Yeah, like, you need to understand if it's in a region and you're somewhere and you want to shut your truck off, just spend an extra few minutes and let it run. Just let it finish. You see the heat lamp on. On the dashboard? Let it finish until the light goes out. Give it an extra couple minutes, then shut the truck off.
Because that chrysalis is now 6, 700 degrees. You know, on its way down. If it. And you crash, cool this thing without cooling it slowly, you're going to end up with bigger problems down the road. It's like, you know, it's like, oh, I just shut it off. Like, no, don't.
Don't shut it off.
I mean, that's the biggest thing with. I don't. When I worked for the town of hingham, they had a Volvo loader and it. It never ran right. I finally went over there. I'm looking at it. Volvo kept showing up, kept showing up, kept showing up. And they're like, well, there's nothing wrong with it.
And look at the guys. And I'm like, is that little. See that little heat lamp? Is that on? Yeah. Stay in it. Just stay in it until the light goes out and then shut the key off. Oh, okay. They started doing that. They didn't call.
They haven't called Volvo since. I haven't been there since 21. Like, it's a simple system. It actually works when you. When you don't screw it up as a human. Like, just.
Well, it's so hard to train operators to understand that kind of stuff. Right. Because a lot of them don't care and. Right.
Like, I'm in a hurry.
Yeah.
It just has to work.
Yeah. I'm not, you know, if it's halfway through a region and they're supposed to be clocking out at 6, you know, they're not sitting there to 6:15 to wait for it to finish. They're shutting the truck off or walking away and leaving it or whatever they do. And then, you know, the. The anti idol stuff that I saw put into trucks. Like, I saw what guys would try to do to get around that. And I'm just like, oh, my God, man. Like, you know, I understand in the wintertime up here, it sucks.
So, yeah, the trucks are. And. And I get it. But, you know, there's. I've seen so much fuel wasted for trucks that just sit there and run and run and run, run. And you're like, that's. I don't even care about the fuel being burned. It's not good for the truck.
Like, yeah, really not good.
It really sucks is that thing will sit there and idle and you go to take off, it starts a regen process and you're like, no, no, not now. Not now. Now. Yeah, you had to do that now. I've. I actually. When I. I drove a Mac when I first started with my dad, I put 1.7 million on that truck.
And I got out of it and I got into a 2011 W900 Kenworth with a 55018 speed, 8 bag air ride. I mean 240 wheelbase. Just a pretty, pretty day cab. And I was hauling, hauling the hell out of some, some fuel. Fuel, yeah, some rubbish. And there's a few times on my way home, I would be about 20 minutes from where we parked the trucks and the regen would start and I could hear it. I'm like oh. Because out of nowhere my truck would boost to 45 psi.
And I'm like man, this thing's making some juice. What are we doing tonight? And I'm like woohoo. You know, so I, I just call my dad and like hey, I'm gonna be late. Why? I thought you were coming home. Truck just went into a regen. He's. You got to be me. I'm just going to make a couple loops.
I got to give it 40 minutes and I'll be in, you know. And by the time I get back the heat lamp will be on. It should shut off by the time I park it and tomorrow will be fine. All right. You really have to do that? Yeah, yeah, I really have to do that. I just want it to finish its process because it's working and I want it, I want it to keep working. So you just let it keep working. It's.
And that's like that was key. I kept that kept that truck out of the dealership.
What was your experience like with that when you had to take a unit in when it was under warranty or go to the dealer?
Well, because there we didn't have a scanner at my dad's place. So if it was electronic we only had, we had a few trucks. I had a T800 with a Cummins in it and I had my W9 with a Cat in it. So if there was something coming on, usually the regen system, the engine ran fine. Nothing wrong with the engine ever. I'd go over there and they all knew me. I'd drop off, hand them the keys and be like is it done yet? They're like I know, I know. I'm like I have another truck to drive.
But just yeah, you know, it was it. I couldn't wait to get it back. You know, it was one of them things. But I was really thankful there was a bunch of great mechanics where I brought that truck. And again they knew me because it was, I was a, we were a well known company around that area. So the guys that worked there knew me well. And I had actually back in. I don't want to date myself too much, but.07, I started a YouTube channel.
Okay. And I was actually getting kind of popular. There's another trucker out there, Mike Gaffin, Boston trucker. He's actually. He tours around the United States going to truck shows. Rotella sends him around the United States to go to truck shows, and people love him. His. His channel took off and I had to stop mine.
I was having kids and, you know, it's. I. I slowed it down, but it was. Everyone knew me from YouTube. So when I came to the dealership, they're like, I know you. Hey, I know you. I know that. I know that truck.
It's. I see it on YouTube, you know, so it was. It was kind of cool. Like, YouTube famous.
I joked like, 10 years ago that when I retired, I was going to drive a truck. And now.
No, don't do it.
I have no interest. No.
Yeah, no, that's. That smart. Dumb phone has made people. So they're just the idiots on the road.
Yeah.
You know, the race.
I have a friend that he runs from. Like, I'm in Kingston. He runs Kingston to Toronto and back all day, every day. Just a day run, you know, I'm not sure what he's hauling, but that's. And, like, that stretch of highway between Kingston and Toronto is so. And into Toronto. Parts of Toronto is known to be full of so many stupid people. Like, he just.
He. He's got a video posted on Facebook every day. He films from the cab of somebody, you know, cutting in front of him, pulling the brakes on or just like that. Right. And it's just like 10 years ago. I thought that'd be a really cool way to see the world and, you know, or at least see the continent. And now I can't. I can't sit in traffic in my Jeep without, like, coming unglued, you know?
Yeah, well, there's no shortage of stupid people, that's for sure. We're not having a shortage there.
My brother, every time he rides with me, like, I'm. I'm kind of a lead foot. And so the light turns green and there's somebody in front of me, and the light turns green and they don't go. I honk. Yeah, absolutely. I'm one car behind the person or four cars back. I'm the one honking. You're going to know it's me.
And I finally. So I didn't deliberately get up to him, but the next intersection he goes left and I pull up next to him and at the intersection there's the young kid looking at his phone at the red light. And I'm like, there looked over and said, see, that's why he didn't, wasn't paying attention when the light went green. Like it's just a courtesy thing. Like to me it's like you're, you're holding up the people behind you. It's a split second. I get it. But like, you know, if I get down to the next intersection because you were not paying attention, I've got to sit through that light and you get through, I'm going to be pissed to hell.
Be angry because that's another two minutes I can't get back today. It's so crazy right when we say it, but that's what's on in everybody's mind when they drive, right?
You know what's funny? When I move, I moved from Massachusetts down to Georgia. It was the weirdest thing was I'm like, why is the, why are the lights in Georgia so long? Like the way it turns, it turns red. You can literally look at your phone for three and a half minutes. And I'm like, three and a half minutes. That's a long, that's a really long light. It's usually 40 seconds. Like, you know, small town where I came from, I guess it was all small town stuff but like, man, I don't ever remember being at a light this long. And I drove a truck for a living.
Like I didn't sit through a light this long ever. You come down to Georgia and like you spend a good four, four minutes at a light. So I understand when, when people gun it, when they see that thing turn yellow, it turns red, they still go through it. As long as they're in a up top, they're gone, you know?
Yeah. So that's, that's how they do it in Quebec too. In Montreal, like is famous for if you've ever been, but it's famous for the drivers in Montreal or some of the, they call them the worst in Canada, but they are, they're easily the most aggressive for sure. And then like some of the crap that they drive around is what's really scary. Like you. I can remember still the last time I was in Montreal following like this is a three, four year old Mercedes and I'm following it and the wheel is going like this waving at me and I'm like, just like I gotta get around this car as fast as I can. And yeah, they're Just completely oblivious. Driving in, in four lanes of traffic, you know, 65 miles an hour, the wheels going like this.
And I'm behind him. Well, I gotta get around this lady. Like. Absolutely.
I've been to Canada, but on a snowmobile. Yeah, I went up to Jackman. Jackman, Maine. It's right there at 201, right at the Canadian border. And I went up there with my old bosses. I started in gas first, so I know we're kind of taking it back. I graduated high school 93, four years of vocational school. I went right into the trades.
I was at a Goodyear certified place called Sullivan Tire. I was there about a year. Ended up moving through and moving to another place called Autotech in Whitman, Mass. The Shadley brothers, they actually build really awesome motorcycles. And their best friend is Dave Perowitz, who's world renowned bike builder.
I know him.
So I. I got to spend time with Dave. His son Jesse, who was named after his best friend Jesse James. His daughter Jody, who now runs Perowitz.
Yeah.
But yeah, I get to spend some good quality time on. In the gas. On the gas side of things. Before moving over to Diesel. The only reason I went there, actually, my dad had his business since 83. He was going for back surgery and I had to. He's like, hey, I need a driver. I really need you to come work for me.
And I. I told the Shadley brothers, I'm like parting ways, guys. But after I parted ways, they asked me, hey, we're going on a snowmobile trip. Do you want to go? I said, sure. So we drive up the Jackman, stay at the Jackman Inn. And you know the. In my boss, one of my bosses, because it's Mark and Paul Shadley. Paul says to me, do yourself a favor, Go across the street with all the sleds, put your credit card down and buy everyone fuel before we get into Canada.
Yeah.
Oh, okay. He says, trust me. Trust me. Okay. So I bought fuel and put my credit card down, pay for everyone's fuel. There was eight of us that went. So I bought everyone's fuel. And my boss, Mark comes out.
He's like, you lucky little. What, because Paul tell you to come in here? I said, yeah. He's like, now I gotta buy in Canada. Me not knowing, I didn't, I didn't know. So I was just like, okay. We got into Canada for a fuel stop. And I'm like, how much is gas? Like, how, how much is. Oh, my God.
And he's like, yeah, you little. I'm Like, Mark, I didn't know. He's like, yeah, I know. It's okay. It's all right.
It's. It's around six bucks a gallon, though.
Yeah, it was. And that was 04, 2004, when I had gone. But yeah, I. I spent some time on 55 through the backside of. Through Canada and went through. Went to a couple of strip joints, made the rounds, kind of made my way back. But it. I was.
Every time we stopped, I'd be pissed because I'm like, I just want to ride. I came up here to ride. I came up here to ride. And they're like, have you had a Labat blue yet? And I'm like, why do I want to drink a Le Bat blue? They're like, trust me, drink it in Canada, not in the naughty United States. Like, that makes no sense to me. And then it's different and it's so much better in Canada. And I couldn't believe it.
That's like when I drink. When I go down in the stateside and I drink a Coors, it's good up here. Kurz is crap.
It's no kidding.
But down there, Coors is good. So, you know, it is what it is.
All right, what's.
So your dad at 72 is still working.
That's. And then he's how old? You know, his birthday was Friday. I should. I'm a bad son. He's 75 now this year. But yeah, he's. He's still driving track the trailer. He's still running a dump trailer.
He's. They put him in areas that he knows because he'll. He'll bring people in, train people, they'll ride in the cab with them and, you know, he'll give him the old man jargon and tell them, well, I went over here and back when salt used to come off the pier in Boston, and we used to bring it out all the way out down to Route 2. And Route 2 used to be a single lane road. And everyone would be stuck behind my Mac, going uphill and, you know, so you'd have the old man rhetoric. And I was with him as a kid, driving all those roads, hauling salt and hauling logs to Maine. And you know, so it's. He's.
He's still killing it.
It's working because he wants to. Loves it.
Loves it. Yeah, he, he's got a. That man, I think, I think he's got about. He has to have over 7 million, 8 million miles under him. He retired. God, he retired his first R model his 74R model and it had four and a half million on it. Two engines, one transmission. You know, I retired mine 1.7 million with one engine, two transmissions.
Yeah.
And just. We just wore them out doing heavy hauling, you know, 105. Well, what I consider heavy hauls. 105, 000, you know, two axle tandem trailer. Tandem truck, you know, but some. Yeah, it's just. And he's still killing on a dump trailer.
Do you, do you want to follow his footsteps or to that kind of age or. No. No way.
Yeah, no, I'm, I'm teaching. I'm teaching right now. I'm having a lot of fun teaching. So I'm gonna. And my position is coming up as a manager because my manager is going to be retiring soon.
Okay.
Within the next couple of years. So my boss can't wait for me to step into that role. And that's awesome. I'm gonna, I'm gonna kind of change it.
She.
She doesn't know I want to change it, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna change it and be more of an active manager than a. Just, Just paperwork and stuff. Yeah, he does. He. My manager now steps onto the floor. He helps out. But I want to do something, I want to try something a little different and see what we can. We can't change, you know, change the industry, as they say.
You know, what do you think the, what do you think the industry's got to do to get more young people interested in it?
You know, I have, like I said, I have these two young guys. I can't say guys and girls both. I gotta be careful. That. And talking about training seems to really, really spark their interest. So in, in I've brought up the fact like Asta, I went first time last year.
Yeah.
And that's actually where I found your show.
Yeah.
And I binged, by the way, I binged your show. I don't want to fanboy on you too much, but I've listened to every single podcast that you've put out and I binged it. So I didn't, I didn't. But I found you there.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I gotta, I gotta listen to his podcast. And that's kind of where I found you. But I've told them, I told those two, like, if you're really, if you're serious about this, like, we're gonna build you your tools, we're gonna build you your training. Like, it's not just about building a toolbox full of things. You can, you can Tangible you can touch. It's about the intangible things. It's the, it's the things that in your head, understanding mechanically how they work, having, having that mentality going for training and seeing exactly how the pros, you know, we'll call them pro, the pros do it. You know, sitting through like Sean Tipping's class, that was amazing.
I sat through his class last year and blew my mind. You know, Dennis Wall over the Mercedes class, that was fantastic.
Yeah.
You know, and then finding Scanner Danner, you know, I can't, I can't not sit through your podcast, not say his name because every, everyone says it. And I had to throw it in there because he's, he. Is he finding his channel on YouTube. YouTube was just, he just what he does. I went out and bought a pico because he was running stuff and I'm like, I have to have one, I gotta have one. I don't know, it just like he's just so down to earth and just like, yeah, hey, let's, let's try this. Hey, that didn't work. Guess what? Now we're just going to keep on moving.
We're going to figure this out.
That's the beauty of the video that he just released yesterday. Like, he shows how the fact that it was like, you know, he tells Pete just put a downstream oxygen sensor, well, it was broken wire right at the connector. Like it didn't need the oxygen sensor. Like he, he doesn't cover up the fact when he makes his mistakes, he shows them to us just like everybody else. And that's, I think that's so important now because what really irks me sometimes is the people that are not in the industry that watch so much of the content creators in the automotive space, right? And they watch them just to like talk crap at them. That dropped me up the wall because it's like why I, There's a lot of people that I don't like that do things as a career, right? Like I, I don't follow them. Like, I don't want to be exposed to. If you hate mechanics so much, what possesses you to go on and subscribe to their channels just to talk shit at them that they cost too much or they, you know, or they're inept or incompet.
Don't give me that, like I, I can't use up that energy, right? People, you know, like, so he's so relatable because when he makes a goof like that, he completely puts it out there and shows people go, look, I'm Human too. And this is exactly why. And he's like, you know, I'm 52 years old. He says, like, that's hard for me to see that wire right there broken because, you know, I need to put my readers on. Like, we all need to be a little more human. And. And that's. That he's been so effective at.
Right. Is because some of the guys are so polished and it's a good class and there's lots of information stuff. But, like, his is the most realistic in the shop. Candor atmosphere. Everything that I see every day, it is the most. By far.
I agree. I agree with you. Because he's. He really is amazing. And you know, and I. I think him. And I love watching Oscar Gomez.
Oh.
And I. I mean, just wizardry. Wizardry. You know.
And the two of them are so, like, you know, they're professional educators. Like, they have.
Yeah.
Seat time teaching other people. They're just phenomenal at getting the point across. You know what I mean? Like, because we see technical trainers and they're like, I've had them with NAPA and cti and it's like, you know, you're talking to a technician. Right. Like, they're. They're. They can teach the stuff to you, but they're not the most effective educator. And then you're around Oscar or Paul and you're like, they know exactly how to get the subject matter into your brain.
It's. They're. I've been lucky to spend a lot of time with both of them. And I never take it for granted when I'm hanging out with Paul or Oscar because it's like, people fanboy about me and I'm like, listen, I am nobody. Don't fanboy over me. Like, fanboy over those two. Like, don't. Fans.
Guys are really. Yeah. I mean, there. I gotta get. I really. I'm trying to get back to asta, but I have other. Other commitments this year. It's not going to work out, which I'm really, really bummed about.
But I am. I think. Or I was supposed to go to tmc. Okay. In Tennessee. I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but it just. I got a scheduling thing going on that. And I'm kind of taking more time.
My kids. My kids are in their teen years now, and I'm getting to that point where my oldest now is going to start driving soon. She's going to be graduating high school. I got to spend some time. You know, I still got to be dad.
Yes. So those destination events, I keep saying it every almost episode it seems, but they're like so paramount. I've seen so many people like check Engine Chuck. Chuck Engine Chuck's a smart dude. He is, yes. He goes to ask the last year first event he'd ever been like two in his life like that. And now he can't get enough of those kind of destination events. Like, he wants to know when they're all happening, can he make them go? And I'm just like, he's like, he's a smart enough guy that he could teach a class.
You know what I mean? I want to go to these events and meet the people and learn the stuff like it. There's so many, there's so many people like Chuck in the scope and the realm of stuff, of the automotive space that are coming to ASTA this year. It's like, it's gonna be the year to go. It's gonna be Sloan. Yeah, Brandon.
I was. I always like to just quickly take a picture with each, each one of them and you know, I'm like, hey, I'm a fan. I love your content. It's helped me a few times. I mean, I don't do much in the, in the gas world, but, you know, the few tips you've given me, it helps because I, I'm still on a can line. A can lines, A can line. I don't care who you are, it's still the same. It doesn't matter, you know, if you're, if you need to do diag.
It doesn't matter the size of the vehicle. It's still, it's still the can line.
So what I, what I love about it is that there's, there's so many of us out there now that are giving light to what it is. We've always done what you and I have done since the 90s, right? Like I started in 97, like you started back then too. Like, there's so much that we've always just done and now there's so many people out there putting it out there, what we do day to day and, and glorifying it and showing in a professional manner and a much more realistic. Like we're, we don't all look like, you know, we're covered in grease and, and you know, cigarette hanging out of our mouth and you know, like we grouchy and old and yelling at one another. Like we show ourselves a professionals. That's so important. And I mean, I think that's key because the young people now that want to come in. I was joking.
My bro was in the boat and I'm like, you know, it's so funny. Like we're talking about my grandparents generation and it's like just the way they talk to each other was yelling and he's like, yeah, it was so different. I'm like, why do you think that was? And I like, you gotta remember Greg, back then I said everybody was either a vet or a lot of the people that they worked for. The boss at the factory, he might have been a vet, right. He had been a search. So the drill sergeant mentality way of communicating. Manto man, drill sergeant. You yell, I tell you to do this, you do it now as fast as possible.
That's the way it was. Now we're seeing people that are much more effective communicators putting it out there. And in a way that is just like. So the young people coming in, they absorb it so much faster, I think, because it's like it's delivered in a much more effective manner is what I'm trying to say. And I just, like, there's no ceiling to it. Like, it's so fascinating to me. I see some of the women that are in the scope of the car repair online, they're so much better at like, how do I say it? Not teaching it, but just making it look cool. And I don't mean from a sexy standpoint.
I mean they make it look really interesting to want to do this stuff, you know, like it's. I'm.
I hope it continues. I hope it, I honestly hope it continues because we just. We need, we need people. We need people in the industry. We need them.
So it's trades, period. But I mean like our trade, especially like Mike Rowe, I saw a post today and I put up on my Facebook and he's talking about how there's such a massive shortage for electricians and welders that the next. The submarines, they don't even know if the U.S. you know, naval is going to be able to build the next contracted submarines that have to be built because they can't find welders and electricians. And then he goes and he says, in the auto repair industry is even worse off. And I'm like.
Yeah, amen. Yes.
Which is why we keep having these conversations about how do we make young people want to do this instead of being a welder or being, you know, like, you know, because if you can, you want to do both, go be a mechanic, because we do both. But I mean, I think the only way we get the kids to, to really want to do this is fix the industry so that it's not so toxic when they come into it, so that it doesn't seem so expensive to get into. That's the other thing. And then we have to make that really cool again. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, sure, working on a guy is not the most fun thing to work on.
No, no, no, It's. It definitely stinks. And in more ways than one, it stinks. But. Yeah, but if you think about it. But you think about the industry and how it changed in the simplicity of what we were working on. Like, I got into it in 93, so everything's just not, you know, pre OBD 2. Yeah, it was a simple system, pretty easy.
Injection was still coming along, like when I was in. I went into high school in 1989. I'm going to date myself. 1989, they were still teaching carburetion and they were teaching injection. So I got the set of points, you know, the, the condenser charged to put on my seat and didn't see it. Sat down on it and got, you know, shocked.
Yep.
You know, so. But it was, but that was the turning point because the following year when the freshmen came in, they did away with the carburetor, the carburetion program. It. It wasn't taught. Is they. They said there's no need for it. It's like, oh, okay. So we were.
The last year that we got a little bit of it. I mean, a lot of your freshman year was all tools and basic stuff, but. Yeah, but we saw me and you, we saw that entrance to OBD 2 and we saw the systems expand. So we got that hands on as it was coming in and as other techs were learning about them, kind of like a regen system as it came in. We started learning about them little by little, and we're getting better and better and more, More information is coming out on them, how they're changing. It's. It's the same thing as when OBD2 hit. And then Mercedes Benz pioneers the.
The can line in the 90s with their car they called Unstealable because they were using the, the. The head instrument cluster as the bulkhead module. You know, it's like, we look at, I look back at it and we're like, that was so simple. But now it's like, oh, it's crazy. Now you get the LIN bus, can bus, zero, everything. You get to make sure. I still get asked, what's a stock switch you know, it's like, okay. You know, my wife's Tahoe has 42 modules in it.
It's like, you know, okay, like we didn't have all that back then.
Yeah, it's, it's gotten a little excessive.
So we, we've come up through it and that's where we need to bring people up to speed. Not we have to take them back, bring them forward. But at the same time we need you to stay current of where we are now, moving forward. Because the changes are coming so fast. You've gotta, you gotta be able to keep up. Like having a set of hand tools almost as a necessity anymore. Like, can you run dyac? Great. Don't even bring a toolbox in.
Just sit here in front of this computer. Can you do programming? Because I got a bunch of modules I need you to do. You know, I mean, and big truck world is behind the automotive world right now. But it's coming. Everything's changing. Last year's not last year. Two years ago I sat in a Texas heavy form and they said 48 volts coming. So be prepared.
Everything's changing to 48 volt.
Yeah.
All right. Still kind of waiting for it to happen. 2032 emissions are coming. Like understand the changes are coming. Freightliner introduces a couple years ago that. Well, more than a couple years ago. They have their, their Cascadia has lane detection and all this, all the, all the, the bells and whistles, you know, and it's going to be more, there's gonna be more electronics for us to do to figure out to move it moving forward. It's not just, hey, we're changing brakes today, you know.
No. Where this guy's got more of a, more of a problem than just stopping his truck.
Yeah. And when you think about that. So when you think about how many trucks we've seen that the fairings are a little banged up and smashed up and you know, like the headlight aiming. Right. The big truck is kind of a. Yeah.
Flopping around going down the highway.
Imagine now when we start adding ADAs into that. You know what I mean? Because I can remember how many trucks I can remember seeing like the ABS light was on and it had been on for years. Years wasn't fixing it. Trailer, same thing. Right. You've seen the trailers where it's like two sets of. Where you plug in and it's like you plug into that one and if it's got a short in it, there's a redundant side plug into that. Now you can drive on down the road.
And I'm like, that's a neat idea. But wait a minute. That's a loophole now that they're going to be able to use. And you know, it scares me to think about how many trucks are going to run down the road with an ADAS system that's not functioning. Because there's already a ton of cars right now running down the road where the ADAS system's not functioning. Right.
So yeah, Bendix just changed over their, their whole system. Volvo has it out right now in the 20, 26. Volvo is, it's all electronic. The brake pedal, the air, air powered brake pedal. It's electronic with a redundancy of air. But there's less airlines, less moving parts. They put your compressor on the can line, they put your air dryer on the can line, they put everything on your brakes on the can line. Now it, now if you're, if, if it sees a grade, you're climbing uphill, it's not going to turn the compressor on until you level off.
Like it, it's working in a smart manner. Like, all right, well I hope it's not low enough. And it's got to kick it in. What if he's got an air leak and it's like, and you're, you're trying to climb a hill and you got an air leak and all of a sudden, oh, it's going to shut off on you because you're climbing a hill. Like really? Okay, okay, that's great. Perfect. Yeah, but you get it. They're adding, they're adding more and more to the system in this year.
In September, Bendex is going to their own scanning system. So you just can't go and click on their little icon and get it for free and go change zero out the steering angle sensor. You've got to buy in once a year it's 500 bucks. You get a, you got to get their system now to, to go and do that.
And that drives me nuts because it's like I've had a couple Nissan's brand new like 23s and 24s that if I want to do the rear brakes, they lock parking brake. The EPP EPB behind the secure gateway there.
There's so much that's terrible. Yeah.
Because now it's like I don't have my own auto off. Like I don't have my own auto off membership. Right. Everyone else I ever worked for till I got to this place had one. So my scan tool just immediately logged in with them.
Bang.
My using my My Zeus, no problem. Now it's like, oh, here's another Nissan. Now I gotta jump power and ground to the, you know, to the caliper and back it up. Do I like doing it? No, it's a pucker for me every time. But I've done it like a few times now, had no issues. I tell them flat out, I am not attempting this on, you know, on, on a, on anything that I feel like might go a Euro. Not happening, you know. Oh, there's a Volvo there.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Good luck.
You know, we haven't launched, but it's the same thing. They're starting to. And I, I get the secure gateway thing, I really do from a standpoint of security. But the parking brake has got zip to do with whether the car gets stolen or not. Like that's just BS to me. They're just doing it to, to, to be, to be jerks.
Right. And it's, I understand that everyone with like locksmiths have, are going through a lot right now. What's the, what's the code? You gotta, you gotta have a license or they're trying to push a license or, or something like that. Jesus. Why did, why is his name escaping me? He's on the board.
Keith Perkins.
Keith Perkins. He's on the board over there. And, and I know he's kind of advocating for, for others and I've actually taken a liking to key programming and everything. Not that it's, it has nothing to do with big trucks. I mean they're really not doing that yet. Hopefully they won't. But it's, I've still, I still have this love for ignition, for locks, for, for. I don't know why I've been, I used to pick locks as a kid for fun, you know, so it was.
I just have this thing for keys, I guess.
But also in the heavy truck, we're going to see exactly what we see in the automotive hit there.
Yeah, it's just going to be years away. Yeah, we just gotta. But without our knowledge, it's hard to get young, the young guys on board. It's good to have that vast knowledge, not just from you came in at this date and you know, from here on, I mean you got to have some, some got to get some street cred. You gotta, you know, let's take it back, let's take it back to the old days. Let me show you the brick. You know what the brick is? You know, it's. I drag that thing out.
I gotta, I have a brick. The snap on and it's perfect. Like, it's in it, has all the keys in it. Everything's in it. It's beautiful. Every once in a while I'll drag it out and like, what's that? Like, like, that's. That's a scan tool. That's a real scan tool.
You do that thing. You want to get confused, put that in there.
It's a real scan tool. Like, you know, you gotta squint to read the numbers now. Yeah. Like, and we've come so far. Like, that's what's so amazing, right? Is we've come so far in, in. In my generation, your generation. And yet when we, When I see what's ahead, part of me is like, man, I'm so glad to be getting out soon. I say two in like 10 years.
10 years, 15 years.
Right.
But then also the part of me is like, I'm gonna miss it though, because I really enjoy.
You do.
Seeing the challenge come along. Right? And that's. That's the thing we got to sell to these young people is the challenge. Like, yes, you're gonna make good money now. We're gonna see to that, that the pay is finally coming up because it just has no choice. Like, they have to pay now. There's just not enough applicants out there. But the, like, you have to get off on solving a problem.
Like, if you don't get, you know, a real jolt from doing it, it's not the industry for you, you know, like, it's. And I, I think that's what people are, are missing is like, we had so many people that were just really good with their hands, but they weren't necessarily like problem solvers. Like your, your senior guy that you speak of, right, where he's like, keep that computer away from me. I'm just want to do the heavy line, right?
Yeah.
I don't think there, there's going to be a place for them always, but they're like, yeah, it's going to get very vast, the difference between the two people in the class, because it's like, they're going to be down here and they're going to make money, but they're not going to make the kind of money that these people up here are going to make. And I think that that's good because I think it's been. Because of the two levels have been so close for so long, there hasn't been a whole lot of motivation to go higher except for that personal satisfaction when we finally get the, the compensation up here. You want to be $180,000 a year as a technician. You know, you go to problem solving, you want to make six figures. You stayed here. That's the only way we're going to be able to incentivize them to do it. It's nothing to do with how many hours they produce.
It's like, what can you actually, like, solve? You know, what it. I'm excited to see where it goes. I really am. I, I sure. You know, I see the changes happening right now, and some of it is begrudgingly, like, the people are just resent the fact of what they have to pay sometimes to get people in. You know, I can't believe that I, you know, we're paying them 18, 19, $20 to start. Like, that's what I was making, you know. Yeah, I get it.
You know, now they're, they're paying them 24 to start somewhere on some of the shops around here. And it's like five years ago, that's what I was making as a license tech, you know, as somebody with 15 years of experience. And I was making 24. And now we're starting them at 24.
I was 7, 25 when I got out of high school.
It's crazy, isn't it?
Yeah. And my tool, my tool bill was vastly higher than what I made per week. Week.
Oh, it's. I saw somebody talking today. I don't know if you've seen her, Val. Tools on, tick tock, valve tools.
Yep.
Dependent. Right.
Just because her and stuff Snap on. Yeah.
Yeah. And everybody's like, oh, that's going to be the death of her. This. And I'm like, are you crazy? My own Matco dealer right now is going that same route of going independent. And because the smart tool truck drivers realize that there isn't a whole lot of future driving a tool truck anymore. Like, I know so many mechanics that never, never even walk on the tool truck. They order everything online, buy it all, shift to their house, Amazon done. Right.
They never walk on a tool truck ever.
Yeah.
And so good honor that she's, you know, gone that route and she's figured out that, like, I'm just gonna sell because, I mean, yeah, she's selling snap on. But like, if you sell for Cornwall or Mac matco, you're selling 75% of it's rebranded anyway.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, what's wrong with a set of gear wrench? You know, what's. Oh, my God. It's a great, it's a great set. You know, you can honestly, you can still get. I just bought a quarter drive shallow set of sockets. They were 23 bucks, like, okay. And they're still great. So you're not snapping a quarter drive socket off on it in an impact guns.
It just. And I was telling, I actually told this to Grace the other day because she's like, I saw this Capri Tools, it's like a no brain. I'm like, get them. She's like, really? I'm like, listen, no one's going to fault you for getting these tools. I'm like, but he's like, you have a snap on box and you have a Mac box. I'm like, that snap on boxes bought in the 90s?
Yeah.
Okay, that's a long ass time ago. And I shouldn't have bought it. But I bought it because I was in a shop that had all snap on in it and if they told me if I wanted to fit in, I needed a snap on box. And so I went on the tool truck and that and I'm like, how much is a new toolbox? And the guy who sold it to me goes, 20 bucks a week. And I went, what? 20 bucks a week? 20 bucks. Are you sure? Yep. And then right behind it was my, my lead tech is behind me. Then he says, for the rest of your life?
Yeah.
You know, I was just like, but it came with a free jacket. It was so cool. You know, the flames on it. Snap on. Yeah.
So yeah, but then I, I'm glad to see that going away sometimes that brand stigma, you know, of, of you like, oh, you gotta have that to fit in that. No, that's gone. You don't, it's gone. And you just have to have the tools that you need to do the job to fit in. And I don't, I don't care if you buy them at Harbor Freight. I don't care if you buy them up here at Princess Auto. I don't care if you buy them at Canadian Tires, Sears, Cobalt, like Lowe's. I don't care.
I just care that you're like, you're not in there breaking stuff, making more work for yourself or somebody else because you don't have the correct tool. That's when you come and borrow the correct tool. And I don't. This, this attitude even of busting these kids, you know, in the head every time. It's like, oh, that's three times. You got to buy it now get heavy like that anymore because it's like, I know how expensive this stuff is. We were talking, it's like two grand to buy two sets of snap on wrenches. A standard set in a metric set.
I was talking with, you know, a friend of mine, his young person wants to buy that and I'm like, I never spent that much money on a vehicle until like.
It'S crazy. And I haven't replaced any of my wrenches since the 90s. It sounds horrible. I still have it. I love my, I still have my first set of SK wrenches. Long pattern standard in American. But I forget the guy's name. He was, he was a real old guy.
He had no neck muscles and he had to walk around like this and he held his head up like this and a little scratch pad of paper and drop his head. He would. What do you need to write it down? You want him in metric? Okay, I'll have him next week. But he was the greatest. He's like, oh you're new, let me, I'm going to give you a discount on your, your first set of your tools. And I was shocked. And he was just like I'm really glad you're here. And that was 993 when I bought those wrenches.
Yeah.
You know, and he, I'll never forget him, but he put me in, he put me on the right, on the right path for tools and stuff.
And the whole, the whole wrench thing for me is so laughable now because it's like every, the test that they show one is superior to the others using the open end of the wrench. Like when you go in tomorrow, are you going to grab anything when you open ended wrench, wrench? No. You know, what do we, what do we do with open. Well we hook up, you know, lines with an open end. Right. The rest of the time we're using the box end. Like it's just a stupid comparison to me to say. Like I know I'm never putting my knuckles and trusting any brand of wrench, no matter who.
Because I'm not, I'm not. It's not the distrust of the wrench, it's the distrust of the damn fastener. That's what I know is fail. Like it's got nothing wrench. It just pisses me off that they snap on. Corporate thinks it's totally okay that $2,500 buys somebody two sets of wrenches to start out in this industry. Like that's just, that's horseshit. It's horseshit.
It's absolutely lost complete not accountability. But they cannot relate at this point to the people that they're selling the tools. I 100% the corporate level at Snap on, if you're listening, you guys have lost touch and absolutely.
I, I don't, I don't buy anything Snap on anymore. I'm done with them. I'm done. I, I just don't even care.
My scan tools, pretty much the only thing that I, I make payments on now is my Zeus and the subscription because the rest of the time, like, I walk out and a, I don't need it. You know, I don't need it. I have a, a full tool set and B, like that's 200 Canadian for a 3, 8 ratchet.
I'm all set.
I'm gonna drive across the border and go to the closest harbor freight and I'm gonna buy the icon and I'm gonna be happy with it.
You sure will. You sure will. Yeah, I still, I still make my way to, to Home Depot to go get myself the. I've broken a few 30 millimeter wrenches, you know, and when I do, I cut it in half, you know, whatever end I break. Because usually a lot of the heavy duty bolts on like rear ends and springs and stuff are 30 millimeter. So I've broken a few with an impact gun on the other side, I'll cut it in half. Now I got a short pattern. Yeah, I'll throw it in toolbox.
I've done it with a few wrenches, you know, my 22, my. 24 cut in half. Yeah, they've. They come in handy all the time.
You know, I, I've always kept a set of cheap wrenches in my toolbox that have heated up to get an oxygen sensor out. Like put a bend in it to get around the pipe instead of like all that kind of. We've all done that. Like, I've had them where I've had to grind the flats off to get in lines to tighten up the hose or whatever. Like, we do that. You know, my.
Can I tell you my, my favorite thing to do? You know, little. The little stupid screwdrivers you get for Christmas off the tool trucks if you don't have a few of those bent in different positions. Yeah, I mean, they're, they're genius. And it's like, oh, you want one of them? Like, what are you gonna do with that? And I'm like, you have no idea. I'm like, I have these bent in all different angles to get around things in loops, in hooks, I mean, to get clips off in certain areas. You just can't. They come in handy. They come in real handy, you know, Turn them into a pick.
Yeah. You know how many times we've all rolled underneath a truck with a pair of slip joints and two crescent wrenches and walked back out, you know, a couple minutes later with the, with the valve in hand or the part in hand or the hand. And you know, and did it like. Because why you didn't take a hammer because you got a crescent wrench. You know, you didn't take a socket because you got a slip joint and a crescent wrench. Like you just did that with a QR valve.
Just, just did one. Just. Just did one Friday with. It brought minimal tools. I think I brought three things with me out.
And we have to go to teaching these kids how to do that. Right? Like improvise, adapt, overcome. Right. The, the. The military adage. But it's the same thing. We have to do that every day. You learn how to use what you have.
I think that too many times now we've said, oh, yeah, if you don't have this, you can't do the job. No, come on.
Yeah. That's not true. That's not true.
Not at all.
There's always a will is a way.
What's your closing thoughts? What do you think? Where do you want to be in five years?
Well, we didn't even dabble into the hot rod world I was in for a while. I really like to teach when I can at work. If I can't get to a certain level of teaching, I might end up trying to retire to a school to teach. I really want to take my love for hot rods a little further. And I gotta build in my garage right now. I got a rat rod. I'm building from scratch. I got a rockaway cab.
Okay.
And I got a homemade frame with a four link rear air. Air ride suspension. With a front is a 1940 Ford Cross Spring on hairpins. So it's. It's cool. But I'm gonna redo the whole thing again and do it over because I always. I know we didn't talk about it, but I. I spent, God, my teenage years with my best friend who owns a hot rod shop up in New England.
And I worked for him after my dad's business went down. On my off time from. From Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I was his fabricator and that's all I did was. He just kept feeding me camaros like 67, 68, 69, 70s. I feel like that's all I did is just cut Camaros apart. Because, you know, Massachusetts, we live in the. We're rusty.
Everything's full of rotten rust. So I was doing floors, trunks, drop offs, rocker panels, cab corners, on the square bodies, you know, Even in the 90s, trucks, just, just whatever, you know. But I have that love and passion for, for hot rods. And I just, I really want to start putting some stuff together.
I do too. I mean, I grew up and it was like. Well, I remember I had pictures of the California kid. The roadster that Pete Shapiris built for that, you know, well, he didn't build it for the movie, but, you know, resurrected it for the movie way back. And the, the eliminator car that boy did for ZZ Top and you know, like all the boy's stuff, I used to have posters of like when I was a kid. Like I was, I was a hot rod kind of guy. And then when the rat rod stuff came out, I was like, that's really cool. And then I got in, at least in the Salt Lake stuff and like, it was just like, yeah, belly tankers and all that kind of stuff.
And that's where I really got my, my love for, for this industry was through that. I, I, that's what I wanted to do. And you know, it just took me in a different direction. Like I was all about fast, you know, Chevelles and Corvettes and, you know, Novas. I was a Chevy guy back then. I, until I worked with the first mentor that I had that was an mopar, not, I thought Mopars were like ugly and stupid and like my dad.
I know where you're coming from. I understand completely because I kind of thought, I thought the same thing. Being I was a Chevy guy. I was still am. But, you know, we came home from.
The hospital, my brother and I in a dart swinger with like a slant six. And you know, and it was, it was a puke or brown color that had a metal flake in it because my dad was a bodyman. He'd done that. And I can like a cream upholstery in it and like a slant six. And I don't know, they sold that car. It had high miles. Never blew it up, right. Like he couldn't blow a slant six up.
My dad.
I can't. I can still hear that starter. I can still hear it if it missed. And you just, you get that ball bearing starter, just go and go and go and go. And you couldn't restart it until it was done. You had to wait because if you did, it would miss and you would hear it hit the, the flex plate. Go.
They drove it to all over the country, like on the trip and stuff before we came along. And he's like, you take that car anywhere as long as you kept a bellows resistor in a glove box.
Was it behind the headlight in that one? It was on the firewall.
It goes on the firewall.
On the firewall, yeah.
Oh, it's like. And I mean, I was so young, the car was gone by the time I think I started school. So probably like by the time I was five, the car was sold. And I can't remember what he got after that. We had always had a square body Chevy in the, in the driveway right up until like I was in high school. He was still driving Chevy trucks, 88s, 92s. Like. But you know, at one point I can remember like two of my cousins, three of my uncles, my grandfather on both sides, my mom's father and my dad's all had square body Chevys.
It was just like, so that's the truck to have. Yeah. You know, it's like when somebody said, oh, dad had a Dodge. I'm like, your dad had a Dodge?
That's terrible. I'm sorry to hear that. Like, did he get rid of it? I hope so. I can't, I can't crap on Dodge though. I really, I really can't. Because it's like you get the big three against electric right now, you know, so we're all family, all the big threes. So.
And I love, I love mopar for what they were like, obviously the.
Yes.
I mean all the time. But I mean, because they're the last holdout for like unapologetic horsepower.
I agree.
Last one. You know, and now if the, if the Hemi is coming back, like they're talking about it and like, because the V6 trucks don't sell for shit, nobody wants one.
Like it's unsellable after 150,000.
Yeah, I know.
Garbage.
I hope that, you know, we turn, we turn the corner, we kind of get back to some sensibility.
Because I can only hope. I can only hope. So, you know, it's, it just seems like I watch GM take a turn and I'm like, they're letting their five year old grandson designed their vehicles for them. I'm like, that is just ugly. I'm like, can you guys just do a throwback, please? Just do a Dodge did and just get smart. Do a throwback, do a new with the old. Pull that 71, 72 nose off from the Blazer and incorporate into something new and give us the truck. Everyone Wants just love a God.
People make fun of Jeep, but really, like, it doesn't matter. When you look at a Jeep, you still know it's a Jeep, right? Like, I'm talking a Wrangler. Like, you look at it and you can still see the heritage and lineage going back, you know, know 70 years, right? When you look at a Mach E Mustang, you don't look at that and see, oh, that's a Mustang. You know, like it. That's a Ford Escape. Like, I'm sorry. That's what it is. Like, it's just, you know, they.
They've lost touch and Dodge. When the. I didn't like the Charger. I like the 300. The charger. I said, that's a joke. It's got four doors. There's too many at doors.
When they finally hit with a Challenger, I was like, yes.
Now, there you go.
Yeah. You know that electric thing that they have? Like, it looks okay. Just, you know, fake exhaust noises out.
The sound. Yeah, I was about to say the sound. Really? Come on, come on. Cut it out. You know, Killing me, Killing me. Smalls.
Yeah, Chris. I'm gonna let you go, brother.
All right, brother.
Well, it's nice talking to you, so.
It was great talking to you, Jeff. Finally getting on with you and it feel. I feel like I had a thousand things to say, but I'm glad we had this conversation.
We can come back and do it again for sure.
Love to. Yeah, love to. Love to. Love to.
What do you got waiting for you tomorrow, do you know?
Oh, I have a one that's been kicking my butt, so I have a PX7, which is basically ISB waiting for me. It's been. I gotta. I gotta get through it, and I'm gonna kick its ass. Well, it's been kicking mine, so well.
I'm gonna go in and tear this Volkswagen apart and get to the problem of the why it's misfiring and. Yeah, so that'll be mine. Morning. So. All right, brother, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, everybody.
Jeff, thank you.
Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise, and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the AESAW group and to the Changing the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say in this industry. You get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter. And we'll see you all again next time.
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