Heat Treated Garage
Heat Treated Garage, the podcast where a group of friends come together to share their passion for life, projects, and hanging out in their beloved shop. Join us as we dive into the world of DIY and explore the stories behind the project and the people who build them.
Heat Treated Garage
Bourbon, Builds, CORE And The Parts Panic
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Brake pads, wiper blades, spark plugs, reman parts… what happens when the household names behind them start going dark? We kick things off in full garage mode with a Templeton Rye tasting and a barrel strength Penelope pour, swapping honest notes about burn, smoothness, and why a high-proof whiskey sometimes needs time (or a tiny splash of water) to open up. It’s the kind of hang where the jokes are loud, the opinions are unfiltered, and somebody’s always trying to justify a bottle purchase.
Then we get into the stuff our off-road friends actually need: sponsor updates, CORE planning, meal logistics, and the latest on votes, cronies, and rigs. We talk through what a more laid-back event looks like, why smaller groups can be better, and how a simple throwdown challenge turns into “do we really put the Astro van on the trail?” If you’re into off-roading, camping weekends, and the community that forms around builds, you’ll recognize the balance between big plans and real-life time, money, and wrenching.
The back half goes deep on the alleged First Brands Group mess and the potential ripple effects across the aftermarket auto parts supply chain. We cover the brands people actually buy, what it means when factories shut down but trademarks get sold, and why core charges, warranty support, and basic availability could get worse before it gets better. We also connect it to junkyards shrinking and ongoing consolidation across automotive and off-road brands, then ask the uncomfortable question: what does this do to everyday drivers and the shops that keep them moving?
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Welcome And Whiskey Tasting
SPEAKER_01All right. Everybody ready? Are you ready, kids? Okay. Oh wait, that's M and M and his daughter. Oh, there's lots of bright lights out there. Okay, I think I'm good now. Everybody else good? All right. Chat, chat, chat, chat. Yeah, I'm good. Kick tires like the fires.
SPEAKER_04Ah.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Heat Troot Garage. Friends come together to share their love of life, creativity, and everything in between. I have been remiss and not mentioned this is in past episodes, this is episode 13. Lucky 13 of season four. Quattro. The quattro. The quadro. So right off the rip, Chad, we did a thing today. We did. What did we do?
SPEAKER_00Wait, there is a uh tasting of Templeton Rye or Templeton products. Yeah. So we got to there's five of them there. I think we all tried three of them because we'd already tried two of them. Yeah, because we I never looked over there what we did have here, but say they had uh Templeton four-year, Templeton Rye six year, Templeton Rye ten year, Templeton Bourbon, and a midnight something like that.
SPEAKER_01Midnight it was like it was mixed with port wine or something.
SPEAKER_00So tasted like ass. We weren't a fan of that one.
SPEAKER_01It was the tenure though, ooh la la.
SPEAKER_00That that was nice.
SPEAKER_01Chad looks at me and goes, You want to split a bottle? I said, sure.
SPEAKER_00And then I decided to buy a bottle of Penelope bourbon for my half.
SPEAKER_01Because they're about the same price.
SPEAKER_00Yep. So it's barrel strength uh bourbon. Uh what is the proof on this? 57.6 proof. Or alcohol by volume, I mean 115 proof.
SPEAKER_01Chad and I are not responsible for finding this. Annie the bourbon hunter, or whiskey spirit hunter, we'll call her, because uh she is on a mission to collect uh good pop. Different um allocated bottles, so not anything that you can get just generally off the store shelf of different ones, and then at some point there will be a Y at a Wyatt's Warriors event, maybe it's meets and beads or something like that.
SPEAKER_00The next be a bourbon raffler.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, too that we'll have a like bourbon raffler bourbon auction where you know these are like average bottle prices $100, $150 or higher.
SPEAKER_00This particular store had bottles that I had never once seen in my entire life going to in any score, any store.
SPEAKER_01And this is local, the local Dyersville Mart, they call it. And I guess show up or not. No, no, I talked to him, I texted him, and I told him, I said, because we thought it was like all different kinds of bourbons. No, it was just Templeton Rye was there, representative was there. So I said, Hey, don't don't worry about making the trek up. And then I was asked about the Doc Holiday that he had shared on the podcast chat, um, because I had it there. Well, we ended up buying both bottles there, one to go on the uh raffle and one for Chad Me to try. Uh this bottle is brought to you by Social Butterfly Media. Thanks, Annie. So, speaking of which, one of our sponsors, uh another one of our sponsors, crawler off-road for all your recovery gear needs. Uh, in about a month, we're gonna see our buddy Ricky. Is he coming? Rick. I shouldn't say Ricky, Rick. We have a Rick and a Ricky. Gotta keep them straight. Uh, as of now, the plan is that he will be coming to core. Hell yeah. Uh looking forward to seeing him. I said last week that we only had one paid sponsor. Uh, we have three committed sponsors now. M and R Automotive out of Michigan, which is Matt Sarah. He was the Red Blazer two years ago.
SPEAKER_02The last time we were had a home a home turf, a trillion turf or whatever we call it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Whatever you want to call it, core. And then crawler off-road, Rick, of course.
SPEAKER_02HCG 10 at checkout, save yourself 10%.
SPEAKER_01Correct. And then UConn. Uh talked to Neil, the head of marketing, the other day, and he says, Complete off-road and UConn have been partners for way too long for us to not support anything you do. He says, We're in. I think they're they are going to be uh pay. Their sponsorship is the meal Saturday night. So all the rest of it's I'm working out some details. There'll be those that are coming, we'll get details this week. Uh, we're doing a little bit of them or low-key, more laid-back, core this year, uh, a few less rigs as far as the overall group. And we're only gonna ever basically it's gonna be everybody, hey, kind of work with your buddies who you're camping with, whatever, for meals other than Saturday night. We'll pay for Saturday night. I don't know if I got to talk to Rich if we're doing Thursday night or not. But the rest of it, we don't have enough sponsors this year. It was kind of we're like a month behind. Yeah, behind schedule. The nice events are nice.
SPEAKER_00You can actually get to meet people and get to know them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. I think the smaller ones are definitely that's got a little bite to it.
SPEAKER_01Not bad. Shallow burn, you want to try it? Okay, quartz. I'm good. Quartz nursing a hangover. A little bit.
SPEAKER_02An accidental one. Accidental, I mean. It was. I mean, I just worked in my garage all day.
SPEAKER_01Kelly was sitting on you, pouring it down your throat.
SPEAKER_02No, it was accidental because I wasn't trying. Oh, I was just working in the garage, cleaning things up. I'd have a beer, I'd clean some more stuff up, and I'd have a beer, and all of a sudden I had all the beers. That happens. I would help with some of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would say that's very comparable to the 10-year Templeton for the burn.
SPEAKER_01But it's a little more bite to it.
SPEAKER_00It it I
Penelope Pour And Sponsor Updates
SPEAKER_00feel down the hatch further.
SPEAKER_01I've the 10-year Templeton I felt was smoother going, but then you had that little burn at the end. So um, and we talk like we know what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00I actually think it would be neat to actually it'd be interesting to go to a quote unquote class where someone's like, All right, this whiskey has that these are the the smells that you're smelling, so that you can sort of kind of figure that out. Start to learn it.
SPEAKER_01I I'm I'm weeding out the how many chats I'm in and that, but I know here in the last few days there was one, or maybe it was on over on the on the rocks where I listen to them, but I know at some point somebody they talked about getting together and it not be wheeling.
SPEAKER_02That was at YS Warriors event.
SPEAKER_01That's okay, that's where it was.
SPEAKER_02That's where it was.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I think Kentucky is kind of central for a lot of us. Um, they did that for Adam's Bachelor Party, and I I could was supposed to go and I had stuff going on, I couldn't make it, but just go down there, get an Airbnb, everybody just hang out. We're not gonna worry about trying to go wheeling or nothing, but we'll go hit like Buffalo Trace, some of those. And yeah, and even people that don't necessarily drink whiskey or bourbons, it's neat to see the places, it's just historic process historic in a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_02There's the buildings are cool that also opens up to people that don't have something to go wheeling with that want to participate, you know, and hang out.
SPEAKER_01It anytime we talk about that, we're gonna go wheeling. Most of the time, if you let us know ahead of time, somebody's gonna have an open rig if you want to try wheeling. That's a good I just came to me, but uh wrapping up sponsors here quick is Bearded Customs. Uh, we just hanging out with Art yesterday on a rainy Saturday morning for a cars and coffee, but still had a decent turnout. Yeah, so not bad for the weather. We only have two left. September, October.
SPEAKER_02November, you see.
SPEAKER_00Jamal got a lot less negative side eyes this time.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Jamal just looks badass. I love it. You were following us back out of town yesterday. I thought it was a little so funny.
SPEAKER_00The only reason I knew it was you is because of the plate.
SPEAKER_02Because of the plate, yeah. I uh you hadn't seen it yet, had you? No, no. I had to uh I waved at you at the four corners, but I didn't know if you seen me or not.
SPEAKER_00I didn't see you. I I didn't notice you until we got to uh the other stop light. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So I can't you can't miss Jamal.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No. That's why Jan hates it. Shit.
SPEAKER_01Uh and then I guess unofficially always been a sponsor, but I have been using HTG10 at checkout over at Complete Off-Road, mostly for people that aren't, I know are not a listener of OTR. Yeah. So because I I kind of spread it around. But uh you know, complete off-road kind of cuts us some brakes and some good some good deals. So we gotta shout them out once in a while. Uh back to core real quick. I think I know all the public voting is done.
SPEAKER_02I think we're pretty much done with the crony voting. And the crony voting is if you look at the if you look at that chat, it's done. By just by using it and the votes that have been received.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um there is a possibility of there being two sponsor rigs.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Because I haven't talked to Crawler yet, and I haven't talked to Rich yet.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01Or I'm sorry, I haven't talked to UConn yet. Um but that I know of for sure. Nope, I'm gonna wait.
SPEAKER_02We'll wait till next week because I'd announce that on the complete off-road page.
SPEAKER_01Well, okay, we'll go with the public votes. That's already been announced.
SPEAKER_02That's done. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's out. So Mark Trepdo. Help me out here. Um the samurai. The samurai, Alex Grunder, and the Dodge. The Dodge, Dan White. Which I don't know if Alex or Dan listen. I'm sure a month from now they better listen. But uh, I know it's tight running for the crony slash sponsor votes, but those people get notified probably tomorrow, and then we'll talk about that more. But Mark had me a little worried there yesterday, and so he was his voting was pretty tight. Well, not the voting was awesome. Being tight like that, explain Chevy versus Ford like that. Um, Joe's got a great rig too.
SPEAKER_03Though they were both super cool, right? Like you you couldn't go wrong with either one of them. They're both great builds.
SPEAKER_01They're but he after after he had the win, yesterday he was out working on it, and he's like, I said, just make sure you got all the all the requirements, man. He's like, Hey, can you text me the requirements?
SPEAKER_02I was like, Oh, you had the names wrong. Dan White, Mark Chepto, and Alice Gunnar.
SPEAKER_01I had those names.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you said Dwight.
SPEAKER_01No, I said Dan White.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I heard something else.
SPEAKER_01Probably my mammal. But so it's shaped up to be a pretty good. Um Should we tell them who the cronies are? Everybody's been wondering.
SPEAKER_02Everybody knows who the cronies are.
SPEAKER_01I don't think they do.
SPEAKER_02You could tell them.
SPEAKER_01So official cronies are Cody.
SPEAKER_02Uh with the ego ego killer. With the heartbreaker. Is that the heartbreaker? Heartbreaker. Whatever you're calling it.
SPEAKER_01Uh he may be looking for a ride. There may be some uh scheduling conflicts that he may not have a rig.
SPEAKER_02He can rock the rental Jeep.
SPEAKER_01Uh he's already been offered a maroon one. I think she just wants somebody to screw it up so I have to rebuild it. But she's never offered me when mine's broke. I mean, she didn't offer mine's broke and she didn't offer me to take hers, but she's like, oh, Cody can take mine. So um Rick Eacox, former winner, become a uh a valuable asset in the crony ranks. And the gentleman to my right, Big G, so is I don't even have a ready. Yours is in process, but uh you bring a lot of coordination to the you and Cody keep a lot of it straight. I just say, hey guys, what about this? What about so that's those three have kind of been the plan and crew to help me keep things going, figure things out, and Ian. Um and Ian boys. So Ian always provides the uh outside the box thoughts because he's you know he's seen it from Ultra Four racing and the other sides of the of off-roading, so that's kind of been the core four cronies. Um and of course you have the other four that are you know you just say hey yeah, I need you here at this time, and and they're there, and that's Dave and Dustin, Doss Child, and the dude.
SPEAKER_00So also known as Rich's bitches, Rich's bitches.
SPEAKER_02No, I don't know how that t-shirt anymore. I don't still do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because Rich doesn't have see that year you could I you could fly, but Rich hasn't had a thing to do with it this year. Yeah, so Ricky was talking the other day, and Ricky started referring to it as the crew, captain and crew. So I think we're going. I I always like cronies because everybody just kind of relates that to Ultimate Adventure, which is no more.
CORE Plans And Meal Logistics
SPEAKER_01So um, but that's that's gonna be your your hosts. And I think of all the cronies, there's only one for sure rig gonna be there. Rig's the only one that's gonna have a rig for sure. I mean, you'll probably have the rental.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, mine won't be there. No, but you'll have your rentals. Yeah, the flex, rocking the flex.
SPEAKER_01You're not gonna bring the forerunner over?
SPEAKER_03No, right now, right now it's got two-wheel drive. The flex has more wheel drive than the forerunner. Need a drive shaft? Or half shaft? Uh the the uh remember that left front CV shaft busted on it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's easy to fix. We have that fixed easy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't, I mean, take an hour.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there has so as long as we're on core talk here before we move into other things, there has been a throwdown. So a a sponsor did reach out via Annie with his glove and shmack Chad on the face and say, I challenge you that there should be a certain blue van, a certain blue Astro van on the trails.
SPEAKER_00So I'm not saying no, but I gotta be selective.
SPEAKER_01And he he says, if he takes, and this is where it's like, come on, you're this isn't this isn't a fair fight. He's like, if he takes the the astro van on the trails, I'll put the gladiator on the trails. So but Rick, Rick and the sponsor, when I talked to them, trying to figure out who their their pick was, he's like, We need to see a certain dark blue Astro van on the trails. And I sort of laughing, and Andy said something back to him.
SPEAKER_03It's not you. Yours is more green than blue.
SPEAKER_00It's blue in the title. I don't know what color to call that thing.
SPEAKER_03It's kind of faded, and then like when most of the time, at least when I catch the light, it looks more green than blue, especially since it's been polished, it's it's greenish.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I know on the picture like on Facebook and that it kind of has a blue look to it.
SPEAKER_00I think it depends on the sun. It just I think it's a lot of but fleck in it.
SPEAKER_01So we could find like just a nice mile trail for the astro, the forerunner, and the gladiator to go meander alongs.
SPEAKER_00We have a good month to try to get a winch on it.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I know what and build a bumper. And and maybe a back bumper. Back bumper and take a couple hours.
SPEAKER_01Back bumper is super easy. I already got that all planned out. My head, it's the front one I'm not sure about tying everything in and getting a winch tucked in and not having to hang out too far.
SPEAKER_02So's off.
SPEAKER_01I yesterday I was so tempted.
SPEAKER_03Uh Chad doesn't meet the tire requirement either. True dad.
SPEAKER_01But if a if a sponsor throws down here, what, 31s?
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01Technically, you don't, but this could be a special event.
SPEAKER_00I guess I we'd have to be very selective about what one or two things we try with it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. North Ravine, buddy. Oh yeah. Backwards? Backwards. North ravine up.
SPEAKER_03You hit it, you hit it fast enough off the off the drop, you'll make it a ways. North like you just freaking hammer down, just if you hear crunching and glass breaking, don't look back. Just keep going. Don't lift. Hammer down.
SPEAKER_01If uh I haven't been down in North Ravine since that the tree fest tree thing.
SPEAKER_00The giraffe thing.
SPEAKER_01Giraffe thing got stuck in there. So it could be just a walk in the park this year. I don't know. We'll have to wait and see. But and we don't know where the the first day property is gonna be. So Cody's working on that one yet.
SPEAKER_03So but either way, I said Friday I won't be there until supper time. Same. I'm planning on taking the day off. As long as I can. I'll have my hammock set up on the trailer by the time you guys get back.
SPEAKER_01Don't the the trailer has proven to be uh a safer place to hang your hammock. It has you won't have a waterbed. Cord had a water bed Saturday night at 3R.
SPEAKER_02Unfortunately.
SPEAKER_01So um I didn't do much sweet. I got the van, the Ford van, the candy van running. It I drove it down the road. I put a mile on it.
SPEAKER_00You should just ride on the side free LS parts.
SPEAKER_01I I was trying to get it running yesterday because I wanted to go over to Corch and pull it and be like, you want some candy? Because I knew they were even out cleaning and and uh it fought me. I 11 o'clock, I ended up stealing the I had a spare battery. I have a keep a spare battery around. Put that one in, it would barely power on, barely crank. Put the booster on it still barely cranking. I'm like, what is going on with this? There is a second battery down on the frame rail on the passenger side, about three quarters way back. So fight those rusted bolts, get that down out of there, and then it's like, all right. So I put my spare battery in there, and I'm like, if I have to buy a battery, I'm buying a new battery for the scout. So I took the battery out of the scout, put it under the hood, crank, crank, crank, fired right up. I changed the oil, I drained the fuel. I was looking at that, I'm like, how am I gonna drain this fuel? They put bottom sumps in these diesel tanks all the time with a drill bit. So I had it on the hoist kind of at an angle anyway, so drill bit, drain everything out. I had one of those double, like they put for the bottom sump, A infitting, put that back in it with a cap. Now it's got a fuel drain on it. It fired up. It cleaned up actually pretty nice. I should look at it like ah, that rust looks terrible. So I taped off the bottom 12 inches and painted it black. I should do the upper part black and then put like MF, you know, MPD on it or something. Drive it around. But nope, cleaned up nice. I do have to uh pull the metal, the big metal drawers out. So previous owner asked if he could have those. I said, Yep. I wish you would have said something sooner. I wouldn't have to unload them. But then I actually thought about I would have had to unload them because they are heavy when they're loaded. Yep.
SPEAKER_03But I think each one of those little bins held five pounds of screws. Oh, yeah. I think that's what they were designed for was a five-pound box of screws.
SPEAKER_01Because and he had every size of Torx construction screw and the copper or the gold coated ones, and I know because I had a scround around for Ziploc bags and inch and a quarter, inch and an eight, or whatever, you know, all the quarter, half. Three quarter and then baggie'd them up. And that, if you look out there, that big wood crate down there is full of all the stuff that he had in the van yet.
SPEAKER_02Can the skid loader pick it up?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Yeah. Skid loader moved it. I had it parked right by the back of the van so I could unload it. Found a monstrous uh mouse nest as it hit me in the face. Had everything pulled out. I was like leaf had the leaf blur blown out, and I went up to like those long cubbies and it blowing down one and it wrapped around and came back up the other and bah all chewed up uh paper towels and everything else.
SPEAKER_00I'm like
Voting Results And Cronies Revealed
SPEAKER_00but so now that it's been mellowing out a little bit, what do you think of it?
SPEAKER_01I'll tell you in a second, I've been talking too much.
SPEAKER_02Court, what'd you do? Uh so basically this week and Friday after work, I started cleaning the garage. It was gross. You couldn't even walk through it. So I moved the refrigerator and freezer down because I needed a parking space for Kelly's new purchase.
SPEAKER_01I was just gonna say, your wife, I mean I didn't do anything. My wife didn't got something that made her smile more than you ever have.
SPEAKER_02Probably, yes. So she got she got her Wrangler, so she's got her Jeep now, and it was very it's always been crowded when you right by the door where the freezer and stuff was, so she has to plug this one in. She doesn't have to, but she can plug it in. Yeah, and so then there was a cord to trip over right there by the refrigerator, and it was it was crowded. So I slid, I just reorganized my whole garage basically, slid all that stuff back farther, and then I'm like, well, I while I started, I'm gonna just gut this thing. So I basically took everything out of the garage and rearranged it. Did you do it the way I told you to do it? I did not. No, I did not, but I did get it.
SPEAKER_03But he did spend most of the night yelling at Caleb while I was there. Well, he was only there for a very short time. I took it because Corda cleaned the bench up, Caleb would go make a mess on it. Corner cleaned this up, Caleb would go make a mess on it.
SPEAKER_02Well, he was he was saying about Friday night you texted or something like Caleb, where's my and why I was included, I know, but you were asking about where your name is Caleb, but Caleb's name was on the chat that you and me are in.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that when he get when he sends us the Facebook ads and that, yeah, okay. And it I'm trying to clear, I said it's easy, just lower the low lower the tractor bucket and push.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I got it all. So basically, I've got Rocky shoved clear against the back wall. You know he's gonna want to work on it now, probably, but I've got Icky in in front of it. So if Icky's bumper is touching the frame rail of Rocky, there's like an inch, maybe two inches behind the rock or behind Icky for the garage door to do it.
SPEAKER_03Rocky backed up right against the wall, the grill's just touching the frame rails, and the garage door just closes. Just closes.
SPEAKER_00Just tape one of those screaming chicken squeeze toys to the frame rail with the stock table there.
SPEAKER_02That's not going to be its permanent spot, but I still have the rental jeep at my house that I need to get cleaned up. So it's been raining, so I didn't want that. I didn't want either one of those vehicles sitting outside. So I've got the rental Jeep in the middle stall, the other two vehicles in the third stall, and then Kelly's is open for her stuff. But that cleaned out the whole storage shed. That thing was disgusting. I have a whole pile of YJ parts that need to move over here. Didn't get that done today like I wanted to. But they're all in the yard getting washed right now. That's fine. So it'll be a year or so before you use them. Probably got there's two hoods, two doors, two soft doors, two doortops, a dash. There's a whole bunch of shit. YJT's gonna be kitted out. It's gonna have a bunch of stuff. So yeah, other than that, that's that was my weekend pretty much. Did Cars and Coffee yesterday, did signs this morning, then took a nap and did some meal prepping and just hung out.
SPEAKER_00Nothing crazy. When do you start your uh new role? Uh officially the sixth. So I knew it was coming up soon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so that's gonna keep me busy for a little bit, doing some traveling, all that kind of fun stuff.
SPEAKER_01I'll interject real quick because he said new role. It made me think of we we alluded to it last week. I can officially say it this week as well as got a new job. Sweet. When did she start? One more week at the school. Okay, and then um then the following week she starts at the new place, rub line marketing. Uh, you guys have heard me talk about Chase and the White Rabbit. So he owns rub line marketing. Um he is he had interviewed for a job with them two years ago?
SPEAKER_03Probably. Probably right after she graduated.
SPEAKER_01Right, right around after she graduated, and then it came down to but he had sold the business and they and the people that bought it put a hiring freeze on, so she took the job with the Cedar Rapid School District. And Chase has been since ever since Chase bought the business back, because the other guys that's a whole story. Chase ended up with a business back, and he's been like I think he needs to come work for me. I need her on the team. I need her on the team. And he finally he finally got her done. He's he's I don't know who's more excited, her or him, but I think she's gonna sound like it's gonna be a good partnership. It's gonna be a good partnership. I think she's gonna be able to use her creativity a lot more.
SPEAKER_00And she's gonna have more of a voice.
SPEAKER_01She's gonna have more of a voice and she's gonna be she's gonna be able to be herself. Yep. Because let's be honest, she didn't hate the job at the school, but she often had to watch what she said because it's a school environment. Yeah, so just her the people she worked with and their views versus her views. We'll just say that. So I'm happy for her. I'm excited. I mean, she's got a drive now, but once she gets up and rolling, she will be able to, she has the work from home option part of the week, so it bounces out. He pays the health insurance, so that's what's good.
SPEAKER_00That's that's huge, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I'd go work there, but they don't need a washed up mechanic, grumpy mechanic. So I love the I wouldn't say what I was gonna say. I wouldn't say washed up grumpy mechanic. There's anymore. It's like I don't want to work on anything.
SPEAKER_02I love him to fill that role.
SPEAKER_00It sounds like there might be some uh room for growth opportunities down the road, too.
SPEAKER_01Yep, the way she talked sounds like down the road there might be some opportunities. So we'll wait and see. I don't know if this will affect. I've been trying to have Chase be on here on the podcast because he before he started the company where he was he's probably listened to us and was like, eh. He actually listened, has listened to us and quit listening because we weren't talking about off-road stuff. I said, Well, what what episode did you listen to? I don't remember. He's probably back listening, so I'll get it I'll get a message from him. Actually, the rabbit's got to come back anyways. We'll put a new transfer case in it. Upgrades. So in that 241. Getting rid of the 241. Getting rid of the 241? Doing a rock track or whatever that was 243 R O R or whatever. It's the Rubicon box. So find them a deal on it from through our friends in West Virginia. You know, meeting those guys has really worked out good for a lot of people. I guess we can officially talk about that too. It's official. It's been officially announced.
SPEAKER_02I'll let you explain it. So basically, Wyatt's Warriors has a West Virginia chapter chapter of affiliate. I don't know, probably more of an affiliate chapter. Basically, they're gonna they're gonna do their own thing underneath the Wyatt's Warriors. Um I asked Annie earlier licenses or documentation or whatever you call the the that kind of thing. I guess Annie is it's so stuff.
SPEAKER_01Is it is this like we're starting a bike gang now? We got chapters. When do we get clubhouses? Oh, we need vests. We need vests. Big little WWs on the back.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, so that's kind of exciting. I'm looking forward to see what those guys do with theirs. They got their board figured out. Maybe we should have those guys on remotely to discuss.
SPEAKER_01I think we will, spam. Remotely, I think we should go see them and do it in live. Okay, I mean live in person. You want to take a three-day trip?
SPEAKER_02We can do that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it takes you said it's only 14 hours down there. It's three, it's three days to Indiana, 14 hours to West Virginia. Yeah, something like that. So but uh maybe next year. We'll have them on before that.
SPEAKER_02We should probably we'll have them on sooner.
The Astro Van Trail Challenge
SPEAKER_02Definitely.
SPEAKER_01So Geyer, Chad. First week back in school. It's wore Geyer out, apparently. So uh that was more today that's got me all worn out.
SPEAKER_00Ugh. I'd say for the most part, it was a pretty good week. I don't feel like I was treading water so much as just trying to get my ducks in a row.
SPEAKER_01Yeah? On your dash?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01They do that for Astrovans? Yeah. Do they?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I haven't seen any Astro Vans dash, that's on the dash.
SPEAKER_03They're not gonna just figure they just put bottles of Astroglide on or something.
SPEAKER_01I was thinking asteroids, like, how would you do it like an astro little rock?
SPEAKER_00Or when's the last time you've actually seen a lifted dashrovan?
SPEAKER_01Been a while. Earlier today. I'm I'm kind of jealous. I mean, yes.
SPEAKER_03Every time I look at it, I mean I saw one yesterday.
SPEAKER_01Technically this morning. I'm like, every time I see that that wasn't mine.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you didn't specify that. Have not seen one. You might have the first one.
SPEAKER_01I looked at his because apparently the the tech that did the alignment might have I don't know if it reverted back or something changed, but I think it's reverted. Both tires look like they're going this way. That's not good.
SPEAKER_00So in other, I don't know if it's because it was downhill it looked like that, but just different times it looks different. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_01And if if the calibrated eyeball says it looks like it's leaning, I mean sometimes when you're not sitting on level ground, they do goofy things. Yeah. He said the other day he was on level ground, it looked like the one. So I told him, I said, Well, just meet me after work, we'll throw it on the rack and look at the because in the text defense, he's only gonna have factory specs. I told Chad, I said, Maybe reach out to some of the other guys you talk to that have lifted after what do they have their set to? Because it's gonna be different.
SPEAKER_02It should be different. I mean, that's the hard part about going off of factory specs.
SPEAKER_01Just as a comparison, factory Jeep is three degrees caster. We put two and a half inch lift in it, we we shoot for five to seven, and they drive good then some, but one meat under the belt, guy. What's that? One meat under the belt. Uh I guess we haven't talked about that. You're head coach now. Some unfortunate circumstances, not gonna get into it, but guy is the head head coach of the girls, was deliver girls cross-country team. Yep. So how was the first meet? Like how how they ran. Decent? Good for first out?
SPEAKER_03Uh half of the girls that ran there last year, half of them were faster. Yeah, half of them were a little slower.
SPEAKER_01Did you get a run last year?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we ran there last year.
SPEAKER_01It seems like about every other year it's canceled for.
SPEAKER_03Since they moved to the new location, they've had great weather every year. Oh, it's not around the school anymore? No. Where's that now? It's out at their sports complex. Oh, I didn't it was always a confusing course when it was by the school, so they overall for first run out, average room for improvement, but yeah, but like the girls that were ran a little slower, uh, it wasn't much slower, but the girls that ran faster, a lot of them ran way faster.
SPEAKER_00There's definitely some bright, shiny moments.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we had two of our sophomores ran three and four minutes faster than they did last year. So then a freshman was your number two. Yeah. Freshman was number two. I think she probably could have run faster if uh I think some of it was, you know, nerves. The girl that was right in front of her was uh, you know, team senior team captain, you know, four three time state qualifier, all conference runner, and you know, sometimes the uh freshmen don't quite have the conf you know the confidence to it's it's a struggle.
SPEAKER_02Coming into the new the freshman coming into the newer class. What'd you do today? Hero hustle today. Hero hustle today. Triathlon today. Was it over before the rain started? Uh we were in the middle of awards. Middle of awards today. I figured I figured most people were probably off of the course by the time rain started.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, there was still a few out there when the thunder and lightning hit, but in the rain. Um, but we had to clean everything up in the rain. Yeah, that sucked. But it only rained hard for a little bit, and then once it was just a sprinkle, that was fine.
SPEAKER_02So good turnout for that. So not bad. What's so interesting on everybody's phones?
SPEAKER_01I can't say. I can't say Adam just messaged me.
SPEAKER_00How do you as long as it seems like it would be a good vehicle and nothing is terribly wrong, may as well get it.
SPEAKER_01To the one you've been talking about in Directorville? Maybe. Yes.
SPEAKER_00So I told him what I say, maybe my hand's working. Me and Chris will take a look. There's lots of options out there.
SPEAKER_02You want to get rid of the old Prius, Izzy?
SPEAKER_00I I I just gave you gave me the option to say, is it more important to you that you have something that gets a lot of miles per gallon or something where when you turn 16 you can go out and go hunting and get off-road and do whatever you want. And he's like, I kind of like that idea. Why wouldn't you? So there's a there's a couple XJ's out there and you know that those types of vehicles. So might see what we can find. I know it might be my winner beater this this winter, and then he can take over after that.
SPEAKER_02I know the the jeep thing is Caleb's been watching like all the off-road things and sending pictures. He's for some reason wants to to dabble in the jeeps. Caelan drove Kelly's tonight for the first time. She's like, ooh, I kind of like this. So it it might uh continue growing. We'll see. Fun times. Guy won't be able to drive any of his vehicles in my house because he'll catch jeep. Get the jeeps, they'll get the jeeps.
SPEAKER_03Well, the forerunners are immune to it, you know, but the flex, they get a little nervous too. Yeah, get a little nervous around the jeeps. It hasn't uh it hasn't had all its immunizations yet. Yeah. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00If you if I park uh Jamal next to it, it might send some fluid right down its wheel. It might. There's lots of vehicles out there right now that need a little bit of work or there's something not quite right with them or whatever. And yeah. Lots of I shouldn't say that. Three or four four-door jeeps, and you know, just a lot of grand cherokees and that kind of stuff that are you know, I think 2500 or so.
SPEAKER_02I think we need to take a grand Cherokee and do something similar to how the heap was, just mild lift, some rock sliders on it, and have maybe a little more comfort for daily driving around, but then still have the ability to we've watched Rick with his like tear some shit up with it. I mean it'd be fun.
SPEAKER_03That's not a bad deal for 550 bucks. The whole lot of it.
SPEAKER_02Uh oh, we're we're shopping on marketplace now. What'd you find on Marketplace? Live from the studio.
SPEAKER_03Uh flash, it's an M lot of M12.
SPEAKER_00It looks like an M12 flashlight.
SPEAKER_03It's all M12.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And a bigger like square light, hacksaw, little vacuum with an attachment for like a floor sweep. I don't know if it's a quarter inch or three-eighths ratchet.
SPEAKER_03I think that's a little air compressor, I don't a lantern.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it looks like an air compressor, maybe. Uh four dock charging station, drill.
SPEAKER_03Like that blower you've got, Chris. Yeah, and a radio.
SPEAKER_01550 bucks. That's not bad.
SPEAKER_03And another and a speaker. That Bluetooth speaker I've got.
SPEAKER_00How many batteries come with it?
SPEAKER_03Gotcha, bitch.
SPEAKER_02No batteries.
SPEAKER_00No batteries. For me, when that Penelope kind of mellowed out a little bit. It was better when it mellowed out.
Garage Wins And New Vehicles
SPEAKER_00It didn't burn the whole way down. It was just like on the front of your palate. It's just high enough proof it needed to breathe just a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Does that help it? Like when it just got to be a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00When it's high proof, the the big guy say, I'm I'm gonna let that mellow for 10 minutes and I'll come back and give it a taste test. It's just a little too too much burn.
SPEAKER_02That's one of the things with the whiskey I can't get. I just I don't know. It doesn't take a lot of water.
SPEAKER_00Add just a little bit of water and it gets rid of the burn. Yeah. It mellows out the flavors enough where you can actually taste some of the different parts of it. I didn't add any water to this.
SPEAKER_01I didn't either.
SPEAKER_00As long as you really sipped on it versus took a big swig, it was pretty good actually. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What was the at some point there was a conversation in one of the groups about I was just trying to bring that up and then I got a text that I had to respond to.
SPEAKER_01Um the parts?
SPEAKER_02Yes, the parts, the parts company that's going under. That's gonna be huge.
SPEAKER_01That's what I was trying to look up. So it's I know Cardone is one of the let's ask the chat GPT. Chat yep.
SPEAKER_02Tell me it was some big names going down like Frams, Rebestus, like huge names. All in this one big conglomerate that are basically going bankrupt. So it's gonna really affect parts stores, aftermarket, all of it.
SPEAKER_00I was thinking that a lot of people are you know fixing their cars versus buying new, but they must have kind of flipped again and what started buying more new.
SPEAKER_01No, I think it's still people are buying and fixing, but so I know as I wait for this to well, that was the economy, I think. It's hard to do is well look at what trade-in values are. You just had, I mean, you argued how long with the to get the traded you wanted.
SPEAKER_02And I still didn't get everything you wanted, but I we came to a deal that I was happy with. But the first number they gave me, I'm like, well, give me my keys. Thanks a lot, I'll see you later.
SPEAKER_01And they came within 500 what I wanted, but it so I have the information now, and it backs up what I was gonna say, it confirms what I was gonna say. So Cardone was one of the brands of First Brands Group. Um, it is in is first brands group is at the center of the alleged multi-billion dollar fraud Ponzi scheme. Um, first Brands Group bought Cardone Industries in 2023. It also controlled familiar aftermarket brands such as Fram, Trico, Fram filters, Trico wiper blades, Autolite, Spark Plugs, Ray Bestus Brake Parts, and others. I know um Bulldog is what another one of their big ones. There was there's some BFG is under there.
SPEAKER_02You know, um some big names that are in that wrapped up in that that might be no more.
SPEAKER_01What a l and again, allegedly, because nothing's Finalized, but and this is off chat GPT, but I asked it because I've read a bunch of different articles and honestly, I can't keep it all straight. Um, but what allegedly happened is federal prosecutors say first brands executives, Patrick and Edward James, kept the companies the company operating by fault, fraudulently obtaining new financing. The alleged methods included creating or inf inflating customer and supplier invoices, selling the same receivables receivable to multiple financing companies, pledging the same collateral to two the same collateral through two or three times, hiding roughly billions in off-balance sheet debt, routing borrowed supplier money back into first brands to cover operating expenses, interest, and existing obligations, moving hundreds of millions through accounts controlled by Patrick James and related entities. Not dude. So how bad is it? When first brands entered bankruptcy in September 2025, it reportedly had approximately $5 billion in annual sales, more than $1 billion in liabilities, only $12 to $14 million in corporate cash, billions in distributed and potentially fraudulent financing. I heard one report that that $9 billion number is $9 billion per brand of like three or four brands. Oof. I don't know if that's they have pleaded not guilty, of course.
SPEAKER_02Um have they stopped production and shipping? I've heard that I've heard materials or how are like where are they at in this that part of it?
SPEAKER_01So for Cardone, because Cardone's one of the ones people a lot of people know they make all kinds of different repair parts. Um for a repair shop, the immediate concerns are reduced or discontinued availability, questionable future warranty coverage, difficulty obtaining cores or core credits. I know cores become a huge thing. There's some things that the core is almost as much as the part. What was the other day we ordered and the core was as much it was $50 cheaper than the part itself. I think it was a power steering box. Which is gonna get worse with this kind of situation because these if the in these plants all these cores are gonna be set there and it's all gonna be tied up with it's all gonna get pitched.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's not gonna get pitched, it's gonna get auctioned off or scrapped or the Astro Van had a enormous core charge to it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was what that was what it was. It was huge core charge. Yep. Um scandal doesn't mean that existing parts are defective, it probably concerns the parent company going on, but I have uh let's just do this. Are there brands that have closed operation?
SPEAKER_00Because I heard I heard there was a stuff like that's gonna make keeping things like Jamal on the road hard.
SPEAKER_01That's gonna be exactly it. It's gonna be hard for us to get parts to keep mid-2000 Jeeps on the road.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Which that makes you like, is this more of a conspiracy? You know, is like are they driving, yeah, getting rid of all the.
SPEAKER_01So that's where I wanted to go in here in a minute.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01Um so to answer my question, yes, several first brand operations have closed, but the situation varies by brand. Card donut industries, North American operations were were wound down beginning January 26th, 20, January 26, 2026. So this has been going on for months. A year almost. It's uh almost a year, it just breaking. Um production stopped after first brands failed to secure financing to find a buyer. So that's that explains why some of the stuff's getting hard of out of stock on when I'm going to try to find parts. Autolite, North American Spark plug operations were wound down at the same time. Existing inventory may retain may retain or remain available, but first brand production stopped. Brake Parts Incorporated, manufacturer operations stopped. This affected several brake brands, including Rebestus, Centric Parts, StopTech, Pozzi Quiet, C Tech, GCX, and Carlson brand hardware.
SPEAKER_02So it's gonna push you back to the OEM for a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Brands purchased, but not necessarily restarted. Some break trademarks and engineering assets were subsequent subsequently, so it's a right Ray Bestus was sold by Friction, was purchased by Friction One. Centric stop track motocar bought those. But that that they bought the name.
SPEAKER_02But they're not gonna buy a name that's wrapped up in a like Yeah. They're gonna want to do they're gonna want to bring it back or do something with it, not just buy the name that's no, they wanted the electric, but they wanted the intellectual properties, right?
SPEAKER_01So the patents, the the mechanical drawings, the you know, all that stuff is what they that's what they're buying. They're not gonna use they may or may not use the name. Yeah. Um, how are uh okay, how are these buyers acquired? Primarily the brand names, catalogs, engineering information, and intellectual property. Not the f not the old first brand factories or operating companies. So they bought the they bought quote unquote the blue sky.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01They didn't buy any of the machines or
New Jobs And Wyatt’s Warriors Growth
SPEAKER_01any of that. Um, therefore, the filming the familiar names may return on newly sourced products, but that isn't the same as the original manufacturer operation continuing. Motor car parts of America acquisition announcement. Yeah, I can click on. I'm not gonna other first brand names, brands such as these continued longer while first brands looked for buyers. So these were here's the ones that I a bunch of recognize that are they were still going, but they may not know. Fram, lube refiner, trico, anco, carter, airtex. Anco? So that's two big two big wiper companies that supply OEMs, even right. Uh AirTex, Strong Arm, Reese, trailer hitches, yeah, draw tight trailer hitches, Tikenosha, brake controllers, Fulton, Bulldog, Hopkins. That's a bunch of your trailer parts. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um I think I bought a trailer. Price is gonna be going up.
SPEAKER_01They're in chapter seven liquidation as in August 2026. So that's why it's all coming out now. Yeah, they're in liquidation. So um so with that all in mind, back to what you were saying, Court, I I jumped to that too. Was because there's been some stuff come out and some podcasts talk about it. I haven't brought it up because I didn't think it was eh, maybe, maybe not, but now I'm starting to wonder, and with things like this, is have you heard about all the good all the junkyards that are catching up?
SPEAKER_02We talked about that one night.
SPEAKER_01We did mention it a little bit, but we didn't really dive into it. There was just another big one.
SPEAKER_02You're getting rid of all the parts for old vehicles.
SPEAKER_01Well, that that is their new their their electric buy electric head kind of fell off. So I now this is a Ponzi scheme by two crooks, right? Two guys that um so I we got two things here. We got parts are gonna get scarce, the used park, the used buy it out of the junkyard market's getting smaller.
SPEAKER_02Plus, a lot of the old boys that run those are retiring, they're dying, they're their kids don't want anything. They're gonna take them over like you know, local. I'm not gonna say names or anything, but I mean that one's going away. Going away. Like this weekend was the auction they sold off.
SPEAKER_01Like how many, yeah, so how many how many guys that did builders bought from him? Right. What are they gonna do now?
SPEAKER_02That's that's gonna be one of the issues because I mean that for the area that was a driving fire. Sunline is about wiped out an eighth of what it used to be. They're they're crushing all stuff after that was so old because if it's sitting around and people aren't buying parts off them, and I get their side too, they're running out of room. Yeah, and there's recycling to be done in that, but but you need to be selective on what you're smashing, right? In my opinion. I mean, you don't have to be, but you know, I'd like to see the older stuff stick around, but unfortunately, like Jamal, are they gonna save an Astro van that's like in the shot? Probably not.
SPEAKER_01You looked for quite a while until you found that little fender piece you needed.
SPEAKER_00Um I couldn't even find one local by you know calling junk urgency, and some guy get down in Kansas City just off of one of the forums. Like, I I think there's one down by me, I'll I'll check tomorrow. So he he bought it and shipped it to me. That's awesome. And that's I had to pay him for everything, of course. But still, yeah. Just I just to have that kind of research. Go find it. Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think that's what you're gonna see more of. And we do it amongst our friend group and the off-road stuff, is you're gonna see more of that networking of the guys, oh hey, I got one of those on the shelf. Yep. I mean, I do it all the time.
SPEAKER_02I will but you but even we're talking about getting rid of some of the hoarded stuff that we've got. It's like, okay, it's time to get rid of this stuff. Right. Is it a good idea? Or you know what I mean? Like certain things, you gotta kind of look and see what's what's worth holding on to, but if it gets to a point where everything's not available, everything's worth holding on to. Right. You know, that's that's that fine line of what do you what do you keep around. Then on the you're doing that on a 60 by you know, 40 by 64 space, not a whole junkyard. Yeah, you don't think you need a little bigger building decisions, they're making harder decisions than we are. Yeah, you know, you got a pallet shelf where you're trying to decipher what you're gonna keep. Right, like fucking. They got a whole fucking what I gotta figure out what I'm gonna keep. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And like you said, the kids don't want to do it, they don't want to be a part of it anymore, you know. And that's the sad part of it, too. Uh but then you got the other side of it, is when are they gonna stop letting these companies buy up so much of the other companies? I just got Rich just sent me today. Um grab that text message.
SPEAKER_02How much government intervention do you want with your I'm not I'm not saying government intervention. Well, that's I mean, that's who would have to intervene in the situation, unfortunately. Well, kinda, I mean it's kind of government intervention.
SPEAKER_01It's basically sort of creating a monopoly, but they're not they're not slowing any of it down because this look how the big this gets and then it collapses. Um what was the other one that happened a couple years ago? It was that way that it collapsed and it created this huge vacuum. Uh blah blah blah blah blah blah. Where'd it go? It was just Best Top just bought another brand.
SPEAKER_02Uh, what'd they buy? I just I just watched something on that. Terraflex.
SPEAKER_01Yes, well, they bought several brands. Terraflex is one of them, right? Teraflex Falcon. I get too many messages every day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there were some big ones they just bought.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right here. So Best Top acquires Ready Lift, Terraflex, Falcon, Logicue, Suspension Brands, plus Smitty Belt. Well I feel about Smitty Belt, about the way that some of our listeners feel about Rough Country.
SPEAKER_02About all those, about all those brands. Like, I probably won't put them on my personal vehicle anyway. But they're at least options. There's options, yeah.
SPEAKER_01The Falcon, uh honestly, there's some Smitty Belt stuff that's not bad. Price point, get you by type things, makes you look cool at them all type things. Um, I'm I don't know what logic log IQ or whatever it is. Uh Terraflex, I got a Jeep coming back that the customer bought a Terraflux track bar. We did a bunch of other work, we put it on for them, and now they're mad at us because they were 300 miles from home and started getting death wobble because the Terraflex bushings failed. Brand new bushings, but they're mad at us for it.
Parts Brands Collapse And Scarcity Fears
SPEAKER_01We didn't sell it to them, right? So, you know, but I'm dealing with that. Ready lift, uh, they make some decent spacer lifts. Yeah. And I don't care who who makes the spacer lift as long as it's welded together or cast good. There's not a lot, there's no engineering to that.
SPEAKER_02But same stuff.
SPEAKER_01Um Falcon Shocks, I've never had anything but problems with Falcon Shocks. I know there's a lot of people that are in the 07 and newer Jeep era that think that Falcon and TerraFlex are the best ever. That's why Best Top probably bought them. Yeah. I won't and that's the weird thing, is I would I don't like installing any of those other brands, but I won't we won't sell or install anything but a best top software.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, for sure. I mean, best top supplies OEM.
SPEAKER_01So are they buying the name for the notoriety and then they're gonna make it better or not? Smitty Belt was a trans-american brand, and you know, they got bought up by Polaris, and then Polaris basically took what they wanted out of, gutted them, and then sold it off. So but and you even we even see this going on at a local level. Um I won't say the name of a certain large dealership chain in the area. They bought a successful motorcycle dealership, and then gutted the people that made it successful, just basically gutted the whole employee base, right? And then the place wasn't making any money. So then wondered why it didn't work, and the previous and the previous the previous owners just bought it back along with two other locations that are fairly local and are bringing bringing it back around, but they made money selling the company and then they bought it back. I mean, Chase he did the same thing with Rebline. Yeah, he bought it, it cost him a lot to get it back, but the people that bought it. I mean, if you're gonna buy a company, buy a company because you're gonna make it better or at least keep it going the way it is. Don't it happens all the time.
SPEAKER_02A new manager comes in, they want to hire their buddies that down the street, so they can't everybody knows what the hell's going on. Yep, bring their friends in and then wonder why the service isn't the same service it used to be. Right. Happens all the time, everywhere you go. And I don't care what industry it is, it happens, happens everywhere.
SPEAKER_01But I mean, you see in any industry, oh, this company's buying up this country, and they're buying up all these other ones. Okay, it's great you're buying those up, and it's great for the guy that he started his garage and he worked 20 years to build it up to this big company and then sold it off so he can retire. His kids are set for life, whatever. But what about all that? I would have a hard time if I worked for 20 years and then I sold the company and I made and then you watch it and then watch it crash apart.
SPEAKER_02I you know, I'd rather just almost close it up and be like, okay, we're done with this. Now your name's not attached to it anymore.
SPEAKER_01And and I know people that have done that. That they instead of selling their company, they decide I'm gonna hold on to it. If I have to shutter it for a while, I'll shutter it for a while, but at least I'm not gonna watch it fall apart. Yeah, I'm good. It's destiny, destiny is in my hands.
SPEAKER_02Yep, 100%.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure it's hard to ignore some of these. It's hard to ignore that. So we walked in and starts writing zeros. Yes, it's really hard to ignore that. But what's it gonna do to us as consumers if we keep letting these get so big and then they fall, and then all of a sudden we got this power, this vacuum of I can't get brake pads, I can't get wiper blades. I mean that's shit everybody needs. I don't care. Yeah, not everybody. There's a bunch of people that just would rather no, everybody needs it because you know if you don't want to own a vehicle, you want to have an Uber, you want your Uber driver to be able to see, you would hope. So and and somebody'll be like, oh, well, I'm just gonna use the the self-driving cars. They still need brake pads.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to watch how it how it goes over the next like just electric cars, they just use the electric motors to slow them down. So that's one of the features on Kelly's Jeep, the max regen. It is it was trippy as shit at first, but now they got used to it. Like I almost reared in someone with my tundra because I let off the gas and then put my foot on the brake because I'd been driving the item.
SPEAKER_01You're still gonna have to have yeah, I'm on a brake for sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but it it helps do you it helps quite a bit.
SPEAKER_03The regen doesn't stop it comp at least art, but it but it could if it was programmed to, it could absolutely stop it.
SPEAKER_01But then you just go right down the line. Now, there's this company buys this, this uh these three other electric companies because they want to buy up the market so they can control the market on the on the electric motors or the the little microchip of that, and then they get so big and then they're getting greedy, and they're telling this company, oh yeah, we're worth this much, and we're they're telling because they want to keep dragging all this money in, and then they've they collapse. I mean, it's a cycle.
SPEAKER_03You're you see, I get what I get what you were saying. I was just for that example. I was like, right, newer car what some of these newer electric cars they don't need brake pads.
SPEAKER_00I think they still require them, though.
SPEAKER_01I see. I bet there's I bet there's a federal highway requirement for them.
SPEAKER_03I'll bet you there'll be a time when they don't, though.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, future problems.
SPEAKER_03It's just people don't trust it right now. Maybe I know our Prius, unless until you got below seven miles an hour, it did not use the the friction brake pads at all. Unless it was like a panic emergency stop and they needed extra stopping power. But under normal braking, it just used the hydraulic brakes just for that last little to come up to a stop.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you can got good enough gauging where it means you could probably stop at a stop sign.
SPEAKER_01Even at that fact, you can't upfit everybody to an electric vehicle that has an electricity.
SPEAKER_03No, it'd just be for I'm just saying for newer ones that are coming out. Right. Yeah, I mean but you know you don't have to have brake pads. There's billions, there's billions of cars out on the road that are gonna need them. And when you have that's why I said I get what you were saying.
SPEAKER_01I was just when you have a company like that all of a sudden Anco and Rebustus are going under two of your biggest names and brakes and wiper blades, and they're shuttered. Yeah, there's inventory out there, but we're not making anything else right now.
SPEAKER_03Someone will fill it in.
SPEAKER_02So but there's still gonna be that that gap, and someone's gonna take the risk, but yeah, someone someone else's gonna pick it up.
SPEAKER_03Somebody will pick it up because someone's gonna be like, oh, well, that's a way I can make money.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Because people need brake pads, okay.
SPEAKER_01But like you weren't here for I know you had to step out, you weren't here for part of that. Is several of the brands got bought for the lend intellectual property, not the manufacturing. That's pretty common. And it's just, hey, we're buying it up, we get all their information, we may or may not use their name, but now that's one less competitor out there, so now we can bump that price up. That's that's the end goal of it. Because in the end, all they they have to answer to their shareholders and make their shareholders a we've been we've been around and rounds with that that one. So it's free market society.
SPEAKER_02I'm not saying they don't support it, but at some point, some of these companies gotta say, nah, I'm not selling to you because I'm gonna it breaks it breaks down to personal ethics, and unfortunately, that's getting weaker and weaker.
SPEAKER_00And the the people owning those companies are getting older and older, so that's and their kids, all their kids.
SPEAKER_01Well, what is it? Who what's that song? Uh talking about the generations and selling the land.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I know, I know what you're selling about. You know what song I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's that's a perfect example. Yeah, the kids are like, Well, I don't want to own, I'm not gonna own a company that sells to mechanics because mechanics are gross. So this guy's gonna give me all these this this check with all these zeros on it, and I can just go sit by a pool all day and have my tithes brought to me. They're gonna jump on it. And then down the road, all of a sudden they're gonna be like, Well, I can't get a ride to the airport to go to my my beach house because well, no, you can't, because the roads aren't fixed, you don't have brakes on that car, you don't have electricity to charge the car, whatever.
SPEAKER_02You don't know how to fix the car anymore.
SPEAKER_01It's it's a cycle that I hope I'm gone before it hits really it gets bad. So I I never used to be that way until the other, you know, you said about the world, what you said it yesterday, Court. The world can't handle err. The world what was someone having grandkids and the world's world's not ready for another goose. That was someone's comment. That was that was somebody else's comment, but Core was like, this world's too shitty to Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's at this at what point do you like, hey, is it worth like do you want your kids to deal with or your grandkids or the shitty way? We've watched what it's done in the last 40 years. What's in doing 40 more? But like my dad always says, you didn't know any different. But you know, every generation says, Oh, it's so much worse than it's not. It's all going to shit. And then the next generation just is it's their normal, and then it continues getting shittier, but
Gratitude Notes And Patreon Pitch
SPEAKER_02it's just a little bit shittier for them because they don't remember the 90s. Right.
SPEAKER_03I think it's a lot of it's just the world's got so fucking greedy. Yeah, that's 100%. The world's got especially the government's gotten so greedy.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah, we should shut it down now because it's an hour in and this could turn into a shit show.
SPEAKER_01Well, we got a Patreon to go, so we could we could kick it over there. Uh final words. Get a good nap in. Yeah. I'm gonna use one that I uh the other day I heard it, and I'm like, it's awesome they're saying it. Why the hell do we say it?
SPEAKER_02Say it up, I don't have anything.
SPEAKER_01No, it escapes me because I thought I overthought it! It's like saying the intro. Don't overthink it. But uh get other new stuff. Go see people. And uh don't be too busy making a living to not have a life.
SPEAKER_03Be grateful for the little things. Yep. I was just talking to my I tell you guys talking to my students the other day. Like, be grateful for the little things. Like, right on, there's over two billion people that don't have access to fresh, clean, safe drinking water. And we have so much of it we shit in it.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03We literally shit in it. Or if oh, that's a little warm, dump it out, go get some colder stuff. Yeah, that's a good point. We freeze it and make smoothies with fucking kale in it.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's just weird.
SPEAKER_03Like way to ruin some fucking water.
SPEAKER_01We don't. People do, yeah. We don't, others do. So, I mean, we do good things with water, like make piss and shit in it. So uh, I think we were gonna try this other bottle over on the Patreon. Yes. So, if they want to know more about the Patreon, what do they need to do?
SPEAKER_02Uh, it's five bucks. Every month, sign up. It's cheaper than the daily habit.
SPEAKER_01But you gotta give them more money if you want to get like a giveaway.
SPEAKER_03You get like four, you get it at four hours, an extra four hours of content a month for your five. Mark Trepto, I'm calling you out right here.
SPEAKER_00I mean, if they are a paying member where they can get into the the contest, they have like a five percent chance of winning.
SPEAKER_01They do. Yeah, the the chances of winning are better. We gave a guy the buy round for being a faithful Patreon, and then he turns around and gives me shit that well, you know, yeah, it's five dollars a month to listen to you, but it's gonna be ten dollars to get a giveaway.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, it's five dollars to listen to the podcast, it's another five to get free shit.
SPEAKER_01And and the beef is that you know, our other friends, it's five dollars a month, and you and you get the you get in on the the giveaways, yeah.
SPEAKER_03But you're I mean, look like it there's no there's no competition in the quality of the content.
SPEAKER_01That's true.
SPEAKER_03Like, that's not even fucking close. I mean, they drove all the way up here to just be on this podcast, and and like we've got continuity, same four guys going on four years. What awesome. Like, they've been along the ride for getting building a house, getting shot in the ball sack.
SPEAKER_01That was all early. We haven't we peaked early.
SPEAKER_02So gave us something to start with.
SPEAKER_03We've had some crazy freaking guests on. Um, we uh they've been with us for some of our drunkest nights.
SPEAKER_01There there was, I guess you were present for it. There was a uh uh throw down challenge about completing a rig in a month, like we did with a scout.
SPEAKER_03Ugh, I don't want to do that again. How much money are they putting on it? I mean, if they put up enough money, I'd pull small nighters. If the bet was like 10,000 bucks, you can't get it done in a month. Fuck you. We'll get it done in a week.
SPEAKER_01It'll be driving, it'll be driving. I I don't think Cody's got 10 grand. Plus, she probably shut her mouth because she got it, she got her own little buggy this weekend.
SPEAKER_02So I'm not I'm now you put it all together, right? I'm following you now. I'm following you now. I was I was gone for a little bit. I was like, I don't know what the fuck he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01Check though. He doesn't he I try to slow roll those pitches to him. Hit him out of the park. At least guy are swinging at him.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's not a ball player, dude. Like he's sports are dumb. You can't you can't throw him a meatball and expect him to hit a home run with it. No, he doesn't even know what a pitch is.
SPEAKER_01This is true. This is true. All right. Love y'all. See you next week.
SPEAKER_02Peace. Talk to you next week.
SPEAKER_01We might see him. Ta-ta. We could we could do a live one of these days.