Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Pit Stop: What's it like living in a Junk Yard? (Patreon Special Re-release)

Transcript

Pit Stop: What's it like living in a Junk Yard? (Patreon Special Re-release) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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We always have a blast chatting with our guests about all sorts of
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different topics, but sometimes we go off the rails and dig deeper into
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their automotive and motorsports pasts.
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As a bonus, let's go behind the scenes with this pit stop mini sode
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for some extra content that didn't quite fit in the main episode.
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Sit back and enjoy.
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Enjoy, and remember to like, subscribe, and support Brake Fix on Patreon.
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So I heard y'all had a great time without me talking about imported cars
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and whatnot, but I want to know a little more about your car history and something
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Crutch called The Compound, which actually sounds very similar to The Mountain.
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Uh, do you want me to go first or Emily?
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Whichever one!
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Why don't you go first?
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We could get out a 20 sided die if you like and do it.
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Yeah, uh, yeah, I can go.
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Um Do you want me to, like, recount, like, how I got into cars?
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Yeah, that would be fun.
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Or the cars I started with?
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Sure!
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Like, what, which, uh, so I want to segue real quick.
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Because, when I say this, everyone, you know, you'll understand what
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I'm saying, but no one else will.
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Let's talk about the compound.
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Oh.
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Oh.
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We're out of the compound, officially.
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I know, I know, you're out of the We're out of the cars!
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Oh, you got all the cars out!
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All the cars are out!
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It, it was, it was touch and go there for a bit.
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All the cars are officially out of the compound.
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So I think part of my becoming a gearhead story involves the
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fact that I had an enabler.
1:29
I read how many Ford Falcons does he own?
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Sorry, galaxies, galaxies, he's got a shit ton of.
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So he probably has a handful of Falcons.
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We used to live so Nate rented a property.
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from somebody that he used to work with who loved cars and loved collecting cars
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and all matter of decay because that's what most of them were at the time.
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These were mostly non running cars.
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I said decay, didn't I?
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Highly valued replacement parts.
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Wait, so did you, did you Did you live in a junkyard?
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Basically, yes.
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From Google Satellite View, it definitely kind of looks like that.
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Well, if you could see all the cars in Google Satellite View, then yes.
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But most of them were under makeshift cover or had metal on
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top of them to protect, you know, the convertible components of them
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because the fabric had rotted away and had been sitting for so long.
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He didn't want the patina to change.
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Oh, that's true.
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The patina on some of the cars is gorgeous, but still.
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So there's, so the compound is a loving place where, uh, most American
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cars, specifically Cadillacs.
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Ford, Ford and Lincoln.
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Ford and Lincoln, sorry.
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Ford and Lincolns go to rest to be parted out.
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Some Mercurys.
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And some Mercurys go to be parted out and they go there and they stay.
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More cars come in than leave.
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And we lived there for a while.
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For a long while.
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Nate lives there a lot longer and it was a, it was a nice experience to like, make
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sure that you were up on your tetanus whenever you walked around the property.
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Been there.
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We certainly had access to lots of equipment to work on cars, which was
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nice if we could get to the equipment cause there were often cars in the way.
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Yeah.
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The problem, the problem was he, well, he had like this giant,
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Compound shop that had like a seven bay car garage and a paint booth and
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a paint booth and all this stuff.
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And a, uh, transmission tunnel ramp.
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Mostly all that stuff was covered with shit boxes that were rusting apart
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and boxes of parts for those cars.
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But so at one point, I think we had, how many cars?
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10.
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We owned 10 cars at one point.
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We, yes, we had 10 at one point.
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We had 10 cars while we were living at the compound.
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And we've, we've slowly gotten rid of a lot of them.
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Um, well a lot of them meaning we got rid of the one that was, like, I don't
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even know why you really bought it.
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The parts car?
4:00
The parts car.
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The one that Crutch actually helped, helped me get to my house.
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Towed it from Delaware to Central Maryland.
4:08
Yeah.
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It had to be loaded on my trailer with a forklift.
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Yeah.
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So that was, that was an E34 that I got for 300 bucks.
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For the engine.
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So that I could take the engine out of it because it's the M30B35.
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But we kept the whole car rather than just pulling the engine because you know we
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can make money off of the parts, uh huh.
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And it sat.
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And we never made money off of the parts.
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This is starting to sound, this is starting to sound a lot like the mountain.
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This is what the mountain aspires to be.
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No, no.
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What is, what is the mountain?
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We have, we have another member.
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Mountain Man Dan.
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Mountain Man Dan.
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He has, uh, over under 150 Jeddas on his property, it seems.
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And Volkswagen Golfs.
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Holy cow!
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I'm exaggerating, obviously.
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But.
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He, uh, he has There's 10, 20 square body trucks.
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There's definitely north of 30 cars on the property.
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Yeah, there's one Volkswagen.
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No, no, there's the domestic section.
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There's the import section.
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There are two and I like, I have to, I have to specify there is a Mercury
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Sable wagon and a Taurus wagon.
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Do not confuse the two because if you talk about them, he gets upset.
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Also, if you call them donor cars, he gets upset.
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He gets really upset when you show up and take parts from
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his cars when he's not there.
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That's very true.
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That's very true.
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Brad and I didn't do that once overnight.
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Now, not at all.
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No, not at all.
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So yeah.
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So it, the ratio right now is like one car per acre.
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So, you know, Hey, whatever, but you know, we're getting there.
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So, yeah, the compound, uh, uh, my, my landlord's hoarding habits,
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uh, rubbed off on me a bit.
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And I started with my, uh, Saab 9 5 and then I got the Volvo Amazon.
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And then when I found out that the Volvo Amazon that I bought
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was so rusty and the rear axle needed to be replaced and all that.
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I ended up finding another Volvo Amazon out in Tucson, Arizona.
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That was rust free that I got shipped across country using Uship.
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And then, uh, it showed up with, uh, with no, uh, with no, no running gear.
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So just, just the body, no front or rear suspension, but thankfully my
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landlord on the compound has a forklift.
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And of course this car was on a, what is that?
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Like one of those big.
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Uh, mobile parking garage trailers.
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The one with all the weird angles that can tilt and double decker,
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double decker car trailer thing.
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We had a forklift.
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It came off, but it was, how did they get it off?
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They had a forklift.
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The car was put on a big homemade wooden pallet and then.
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Forklifted onto the top of this, uh, car moving trailer thing.
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Then my landlord had a forklift and I used the forklift to forklift
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it off and then, uh, got it on the property on the compound.
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That one we were actually able to keep undercover for a while.
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So that, that one was nice and protected and remained rust free.
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But the compound certainly contributed to other habits because That you had
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those two cars plus your other car.
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So you want to talk about the Mercedes?
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Oh, no, not yet.
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Oh, do you still have the Mercedes?
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I do.
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Well, technically not right now That's it.
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That's another fun one.
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So why don't we just talk about the Mercedes?
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Well, let me set this up first.
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It was a Mercedes station wagon No, no, no, we'll come back to that.
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With rear facing back seats All of your dirty laundry for cars is coming
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out because I have to live with you.
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So, this is about the time when we started living together.
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And I have two kids and he has two kids, so that's six people.
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That's a lot of people if you want to go some place as a family together.
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So, this is This gentleman over here decided, well, we should get
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a vehicle that can seat all of us.
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Okay, cool.
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Well, I've been looking at this Mercedes W124 station wagon for
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a while and I think that's it.
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And then, hey, I found one for sale on eBay.
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What do you think?
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I don't know why we're buying a car right now.
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Well, there's this one and it's only like, I don't even think we
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were talking about buying a car.
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I think I was just showing you the car.
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What do you think of this?
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That's the way it looks.
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I did not at all allude to buying a car.
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That's where it gets even worse.
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Is he showed it to me and said, what do you think about it?
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And I said, it was fine.
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But I was not under the impression that we were buying a car.
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We took the kids to a park that day.
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And then the next words out of his mouth as we were sitting on
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the bench together was, oh shit.
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I'm like, what do you mean?
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Oh shit.
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I bought a car.
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What the fuck are you talking about?
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You bought a car.
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Remember that Mercedes wagon I showed you?
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I bought it.
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Can we go to New Jersey and pick it up on Thursday?
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So this car was listed on eBay and when I saw it, it was a fairly low price.
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I think it was like, I don't know, like high, high, like 1, 800, 2, 000.
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Uh, and I'm like, oh, that's pretty cheap, so let me put a bid on it, and then, uh,
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not thinking that I would actually win it, like two days later, uh, I actually won
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it for like twenty eight hundred bucks.
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The moral of the story is don't put them in on a car unless
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you're actually ready to buy it.
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So he ended up buying it and we ended up making the trip to New Jersey and
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the trip up was lovely and then we got To the shop where the car was
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and then we learned about the car.
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I think the trip overall was lovely It was lovely until you learned
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about the car What was it the?
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fuel gauge didn't work
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What else did we found out that the fuel gauge sender was actually missing Was
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there a hole in the tank because of that?
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The guy who sold it to me just said the fuel gauge didn't work and then when we
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actually got it home and dug into it there was no fuel sender in the tank at all.
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Like somebody had like, it had probably broken at some point.
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They had taken it out and just put the lid back on.
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It was gone.
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Uh, so the fuel, the fuel gauge didn't work.
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I feel like something else that, Oh, the locks.
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Yeah.
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So we pick up the car, we buy the car, uh, we, we, uh, drive it away and go
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to some parking lot where we can like actually check it out after we bought
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it and figure out all the things.
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We went to White Castle.
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Um, and after we checked it out, we then went to White Castle and then we were
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in like some shady part of New Jersey.
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As every White Castle is.
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As, as probably where every White Castle is located.
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And the locks didn't.
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I've been there.
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We're like car, were you way up the, were you way up the turnpike?
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What were you, way up the Jersey turnpike?
11:02
Yeah.
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It was like right outside of New York City.
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I've probably been to that same White Castle.
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Yeah.
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You don't wanna be there without locking your doors.
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Yeah.
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So we're like, okay, we need locked car.
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We get outta the car and I lock the car and like the alarm starts going off.
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Um, and so then I had to unlock the car and the alarm
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thankfully stopped going off.
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But, uh, the Mercedes, at least the W124 and probably some of the earlier models
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used a vacuum actuated locking system.
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So, uh, don't buy a car with a vacuum actuated locking system, please.
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Are you saying they suck?
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No, they don't
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That's the problem.
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Well, when, when mice invade a car and let, that's an chew on the hard plastic
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vacuum lines, and they then they know.
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So let, let's talk about the mice in the car minute.
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We live with a compound.
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We're, we're in a rural part of Laurel.
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and mice have been attacking this vehicle.
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And you'd think that at this point the mice have probably vacated the
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premises, but no, they did not.
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We found more mice or evidence of mice in said Mercedes and then
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all of a sudden we didn't start.
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Seeing any more mice.
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We were kind of curious as to why there's no more mice in the car because we
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didn't really do much to get rid of them.
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Well, we were working on the Mercedes.
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We were, what, changing the oil.
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We, it has, it has a protective cover underneath of it.
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So we're both laying on the ground.
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We're removing the screws to pull the protective cover off of the bottom of it.
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And this coil drops down.
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And we're like, that's really weird.
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And then the coil moves.
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Where did this hose come from?
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Where did the hose come from and why is it moving?
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It was a snake.
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So we both, like, roll away from the car, across the asphalts, at the compound,
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and there's a snake in the engine.
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I'm like, how the fuck do we get the snake out?
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So I put on gloves and long sleeves, and I ended up pulling the snake out
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of the engine as it tried to drive back into the chassis to get through
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to the cabin, which is not fun.
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I got bit.
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It's not poisonous.
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But that was the first snake in the Mercedes.
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There was another snake, which he's outside doing an
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oil change on the Mercedes.
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And all of a sudden he comes hauling ass into the house.
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And this is not the first of problems with Mercedes.
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This is the second.
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Several of them.
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Tom Holland asked in the house.
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She's like, Oh my God, I found a snake.
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What do I do?
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And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.
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I scared the last one.
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The snake had decided to coil up on the oil containment.
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It was in an oil pan.
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Yeah.
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It was in an oil pan.
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So that one I ended up killing because we didn't know what kind of snake it was
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and I was not willing to get bit again.
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That one was a much smaller snake.
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It was a baby, but it was smaller.
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The first one was like massive four feet long.
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It was huge, but this is all.
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After we got the Mercedes back.
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So this genius just like, no, no, no, no, all the, all the dirty laundry.
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So this genius, we get the Mercedes and we need to get it through the inspection.
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So what does he want to do is he wants to replace the aluminum strips on the door.
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So, because they didn't look quite right.
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This wasn't related to the inspection.
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It was related to the inspection, getting it ready to go to Wolfson.
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We had to get it through the inspection first.
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So he's out in the garage, by the way, compound, large area, multiple
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out buildings, he's down at the back part of the property in another
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building at night after driving what eight hours to take your son
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to your parents and then back home.
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And he's, he's scraping away at the aluminum.
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So molding with a brand new exacto knife and decides to slice open his So
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we made a trip to the emergency room.
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He has a lovely scar to show for it, but we had what one week to get the car past
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inspections and now he can't work on it.
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So this, this was my, uh, Hey, honey, can you help me?
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Can you do the brakes?
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Can you do the rotors?
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Can you do the emergency brake on the Mercedes?
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That way it can just pass inspection.
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That's how I learned how to do brakes and rotors was this guy with a bum hand.
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Oh, how about the transmission needed to pass inspection?
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The thing that I sliced my hand open on is certainly not at
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all related to the inspection.
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Priorities that are important.
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I like, I like the car to look good.
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I seem to also remember stories of the transmission in that car too.
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So there, there were a lot of stories.
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So she, she had jumped all over the place, not keeping the timeline.
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So we'd go get the car in New Jersey.
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We, it doesn't have a working fuel system or fuel gauge.
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We get it back.
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Uh, we, we go to white castle.
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I mentioned that we go to the, Uh, we go to the, what's the, Statue of Liberty?
15:51
Yeah.
15:51
We take the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty.
15:53
Yeah.
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It was a good road trip for a random purchased car on eBay.
15:57
That ended.
15:58
Um, that, that has, that has had a long tail of maintenance
16:04
and car support tied to it.
16:08
It's like a bad windows install.
16:10
So we, we, we had to do a bunch of things to get it to pass inspection.
16:13
Uh, the shocks were completely blown.
16:16
It drove like, like, uh, like a, a donk just bouncing down the road.
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Um, yeah.
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Uh, so just, so we put H& R lowering springs, um, and, uh, it looks lovely.
16:32
It's, it's, it's quite beautiful.
16:34
Like, so we, we, we.
16:36
We borrowed Crutch's, uh, what is it?
16:38
Fender flaring?
16:39
Fender flaring tool.
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So we, we rolled the fenders so that we could put the
16:42
nice, the nice new wheels on.
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They look lovely, especially with everything lowered.
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Fixed the, uh, grille on it so the grille is nice and shiny.
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Had to pull parts off of a couple of different ones that
16:55
was nice to put together.
16:56
Thankfully Mercedes made a shit ton of the W124 models.
17:00
So they're always in the junkyard when you need to go find parts.
17:03
But it eventually got to the point where we, when we drove it back from
17:06
New Jersey and a couple of times after that, we didn't realize that
17:09
the transmission fluid was low.
17:12
No.
17:13
So we did all that work to get the car ready to pass inspection.
17:17
And because we were going to take a road trip to New Hampshire
17:19
to take it to Wolfscart.
17:21
Uh, so Wolfskart is this, it's actually a, a Volkswagen, uh, focused, uh, car
17:27
show up in Vermont, in Burlington.
17:30
Uh, it's a fantastic car show.
17:34
So we're going to take the, so we took the, we took the Mercedes up there on
17:38
our first big road trip after buying it later that same summer, um, it got
17:42
up there with, with no problems really.
17:46
Um, and then the night before the show or the morning of the show, we go out to
17:52
breakfast, get some breakfast burritos, come out to the car, there's a puddle
17:57
under it, there's a puddle of oil.
18:00
Underneath the car.
18:01
Not a drip, a puddle.
18:03
You could swim in it.
18:05
Puddle.
18:05
Uh, so we, we drove down to the nearest like auto zone or uh, advanced auto parts,
18:09
I forget what it was, to buy some oil.
18:11
I think it took like two quarts of oil.
18:14
It was a lot.
18:15
I mean the engine takes like seven, so it wasn't, it wasn't
18:18
like completely down on oil.
18:19
This wasn't the trip that we had to replace the alternator, right?
18:22
No, no.
18:23
That was a second, separate trip.
18:25
There have been lots of trips where things broke.
18:28
So, uh, Added oil, bought some extra cans of it, did the rest of the, the
18:33
show event in Wolfsgard fine, and then kind of drove, drove back to Maryland.
18:40
And on the drive back to Maryland, we noticed that the car squealed when we put
18:46
it in, when we tried to put it in reverse.
18:48
It's a, it's an automatic, and didn't think to check the transmission fluid.
18:53
Probably should have.
18:54
Always check the transmission fluid.
18:56
Uh, we, we got home and, uh, Turned out the car was super low on transmission
19:03
fluid, running it low on transmission fluid, caused the, uh, torque converter to
19:08
heat up and then spin the bearing on the oil pump in the front of the transmission.
19:14
Um, and that's what, that's what caused all the problems.
19:17
Along that same point in time.
19:19
We also noticed that there was oil in the coolant reservoir.
19:23
Not a good sign.
19:24
Drain the oil, and we had like a full oil pan of like chocolate mix soup.
19:29
It was really gross.
19:30
Oh, it was nasty.
19:32
Uh, so, uh, the car ended up having a head gasket problem.
19:36
Don't say it.
19:37
I mean, it probably had a head gasket problem when I bought it.
19:41
We ended up pulling the engine and the transmission out and neither of us having
19:48
done an automatic transmission rebuild decided, Hey, let's try it on a Mercedes,
19:54
not any of the other German or Swedish cars in the history that he has worked on.
20:00
Certainly not that I've worked on.
20:03
So my, my car history has been a whole lot of firsts and usually my firsts involve
20:08
learning hard lessons and then watching a whole shit ton of YouTube videos.
20:13
You've also just described most of our professions too.
20:20
You gotta learn from somebody.
20:22
Somebody else has gotta screw it up first so you can just screw it up less badly.
20:26
So we sent the head off to a shop to get the head resurfaced.
20:30
We did a, uh, we did a redneck rebuild of the block.
20:36
So, uh, rings and bearings and seals and all that.
20:39
And we tried our hand at rebuilding the automatic transmission or at
20:44
least disassembling of the automatic transmission to figure out.
20:48
What was going on?
20:49
And that's, that's, that's how I found the, the spun bearing on the, on the
20:53
front oil pump, it was, it remained disassembled for a while in the house.
20:58
By the way, we, we rebuilt that transmission and the engine in the
21:02
house during the winter, during the winter on the compounds.
21:07
I cleared out space on our porch.
21:09
So we had a porch.
21:11
It was a covered porch.
21:12
It was an external cold area.
21:14
So it didn't have heat going to it, but we had already had car parts
21:18
lined all the way around the porch for the other cars that we had.
21:22
So I had to reorganize the porch.
21:24
So we had a clean space to rebuild the transmission because you
21:27
can't rebuild a transmission.
21:29
If you've got crap everywhere, it has to be clean.
21:33
Is Eric starting to realize why I said we need to have this conversation?
21:38
Well, this is the entire pit stop right here.
21:40
I'm just going to cut it out.
21:43
So, so yeah, the nice thing about the compound is there's
21:46
plenty of room for cars.
21:48
The not so nice thing about the compound is that none of
21:50
that is indoor heated space.
21:53
Uh, so, so we pulled the we had to lift the engine into the house.
21:59
And do the rebuild inside the porch area.
22:02
And then carry the engine back out of the house.
22:05
Same thing with the transmission.
22:06
So we, we ended up rebuilding the transmission.
22:09
We found first gear because we didn't have first gear before then.
22:13
But then we lost a gear when we did the rebuild.
22:16
So, Well, let's see.
22:18
It's, it's, it's a, I remember, I remember all these with reverse
22:24
going into the transmission rebuild, reverse didn't work coming out of the
22:29
transmission rebuild, reverse worked.
22:31
But fourth gear didn't.
22:34
And we, we were, we drove it like that for a while and then decided we should
22:38
probably just pay somebody to do a proper rebuild on the transmission.
22:43
So we ended up, so we had put the engine and the transmission back in the Mercedes
22:49
and then we ended up dropping the, our personal rebuild of the transmission out.
22:54
I still remember Being under the Mercedes when it was jacked up and you're like,
22:58
are you sure you want me to take this out?
22:59
I'm like, yeah, I got this.
23:01
Just drop it.
23:02
And I'll shimmy it out from underneath.
23:03
And he couldn't believe that I lift the transmission out from
23:06
underneath of the car like that.
23:08
And that's how we got the new one back in was the same way, because
23:12
you know, we didn't have a lift.
23:13
We, we, we had to build these, uh, these cribbing blocks out of two
23:18
by fours, uh, to, to jack the car.
23:21
Like, Very two and a half feet up in the air, but they're, they're
23:25
super sturdy and they're super easy to build just a bunch of kind of two
23:28
by fours, kind of like Lincoln logs.
23:31
Um, so, so that when we got all that fixed, we thought the Mercedes
23:34
problems were going to stop.
23:36
And then you found a hole in the muffler recently.
23:40
That's the reason why there are other Mercedes problems.
23:42
There were, but we're, we ended up replacing the alternator on a hill
23:46
in a parking lot of an auto zone.
23:50
On a road trip.
23:51
On the way to the vintage.
23:52
Without any tools to do it.
23:55
If you've seen the alternator on a Mercedes W124.
23:59
It's a pain in the ass to get out.
24:00
And it is a pain in the ass to put back in.
24:03
So if you have.
24:05
If you are an individual.
24:06
That is interested in working on cars.
24:08
Make sure you have a friend.
24:09
With narrow fingers.
24:11
Good finger strength and happens to have crocheted hooks and knitting
24:15
needles nearby because those things come in handy when you're trying
24:18
to get stuff out or put stuff in.
24:20
And that's what we ended up doing when we drafted it.
24:23
We had to jack up the car but it was on a hill and we had to, you know,
24:26
It was just, it was so hard to do.
24:28
We were there for a few hours.
24:29
I think, I think, I think that was before, that might've been
24:32
before we lowered the Mercedes.
24:34
Oh yeah.
24:34
And so it was actually possible to like get the alternator
24:38
out without jacking it up.
24:40
Yeah.
24:41
Um, but hole in the muffler.
24:43
And rather than decide to fix the exhaust on the Mercedes and sell, you
24:48
said something that made me think, uh, if you like working on cars,
24:53
buy a Mercedes, because you'll be able to work on them all the time.
24:58
So, the 1 time that he decided to not work on the Mercedes
25:03
and take it to a shop, we've.
25:04
We've moved to the country.
25:06
We are in north northwestern Maryland.
25:08
We have a garage now.
25:09
We have a garage.
25:10
It's a wonderful three bay garage.
25:12
Two stories.
25:13
Not tall enough to put a four post lift in.
25:15
But you know, we're, we're talking about plans that we
25:17
can, I I'm just, I'm basically around the corner from you, Eric.
25:20
Yeah.
25:21
. So, you know the country and you know, the kind of trucks that drive
25:24
around the country with the exhaust.
25:26
And so, by the way.
25:27
By the way, I'm the idiot with the European spec golf wagon running around.
25:32
Oh, nice.
25:33
Yeah, and I know the guy with the, with the bright orange VR6 right hand.
25:37
Oh, the right hand drive one?
25:39
Yeah, he used to work, he used to work at the Starbucks.
25:41
He also has a cabrio with the VR6 swap in it.
25:44
Oh, nice.
25:45
So, yeah.
25:47
I probably should have asked you for an exhaust, uh, an exhaust shop
25:52
that's decent before I did what I did.
25:54
Or I just call Mountain Man Dan down from the mountain and he'll do it.
25:59
I usually do all my own work.
26:01
And in a, well, he welds.
26:03
So it's, it's a beautiful, well, I have a welder.
26:05
I know how to weld too.
26:07
I went to, I took a class at Anne Arundel Community College years
26:10
ago to figure out how to weld.
26:12
It was great.
26:13
But, uh, but in a, in a, in a, in a bit of weakness, I decided, ah, I don't
26:19
wanna deal with this hole in my exhaust.
26:22
I'll take it to a shop and I'll just let them do it.
26:25
And, uh, they've had my car for about a month now.
26:30
We went and we got it back after like two or three weeks.
26:33
And, uh, it sounded just like all of the other trucks that come down the road.
26:38
And it's a Mercedes.
26:39
It sounded like a diesel pickup truck.
26:41
Nice.
26:41
It sounded like the TT that one time.
26:47
So I, I call, oh, and they also cut my catalytic converter off,
26:51
even though I didn't ask for it.
26:55
That's what they pay for.
26:56
So that's still the shop getting fixed.
26:59
So we talked to the shop.
27:00
Wait, is it at the Mercedes?
27:01
Is it at the Mercedes shop across the road?
27:03
No, no, no, no.
27:04
He did not take it to the Mercedes shop.
27:06
He took it to an exhaust place.
27:07
Is it the exhaust place across the street from the Rofo?
27:11
Yes.
27:13
I'm getting it fixed.
27:15
They're, they're very nice people.
27:17
So we're, hopefully it'll be done this week.
27:19
So that, that's the latest on the Mercedes.
27:23
So I have a couple other questions, some fun questions for you guys, since we've,
27:27
we've talked at, you know, at length about this Volvo, but now that you're a car,
27:32
car people and Emily's always been one, even though she doesn't want to admit it.
27:37
Top three favorite cars of all time?
27:39
Yes.
27:39
I have a list and you can't say the four 80 . She's, she's prepared.
27:44
I have a list.
27:46
So I like the Triumph Herald, the M-B-G-G-T, the 2002 MR two W, uh, W 10.
27:54
So the earlier models, the, not like the, the, the later models that are curvy.
27:59
The, the Toyota MR two W 10.
28:01
Yeah, he said 2002.
28:02
Sorry.
28:02
Toyota.
28:03
MR two.
28:03
Sorry.
28:04
I'm just excited.
28:05
The BMW 2002 touring specifically in 1973 model, 1986 Volkswagen Golf
28:12
GTI Mark 2, 1990s Peugeot 205 GTI.
28:17
Sorry, I have like four more.
28:18
No, go ahead.
28:19
Um, you're on a roll.
28:21
Uh, pretty much any Gremlin.
28:24
Uh, there was one for sale on Bring a Trailer that was gorgeous.
28:27
It was purple and lime green and had a lovely, lovely paint job on it.
28:31
It went for cheap.
28:32
It went for cheap and we didn't get it.
28:33
1974 Datsun 260Z.
28:37
Renault R5 GT Turbo, the Studebaker Lark, the two door wagon model, and
28:41
now the brand new Nissan Z Proto.
28:44
I've been eyeballing that one.
28:46
The 400Z?
28:48
That looks amazing.
28:49
Aside from the rectangular front.
28:51
We have a, we have a member that is Contemplating getting rid
28:55
of his F Type Jag for a 400Z.
28:58
So we're going to see if that's going to happen.
29:00
Um, he says he has to sit in it first.
29:02
He needs to know if he fits.
29:04
So, so wow.
29:06
That you're, and yet you're not a car person, you know, or whatever.
29:13
That's a very, and that's a very specific list, like 1986,
29:17
mark two, not in 88 or a 92.
29:20
It's like, it, it's gotta be in 86.
29:22
It's like, what?
29:23
So I, so I, being around him long enough, I've started to spend time
29:27
reading through the history with some of these cars and noticing the changes
29:31
in that are made across model years.
29:33
And like some of 'em are very specific, like.
29:36
If you're going to get a year, this is the year that you're going to get because
29:39
it has the least amount of problems.
29:41
It has the, the styling that everybody is looking for.
29:44
So there's, there's a return on investment if you're getting them.
29:47
I don't really care about the return on the investment part of it.
29:50
Like around the BMW 2002 versus the, uh, square light.
29:54
It's more about like what I like.
29:56
I don't care what other people like.
29:58
I like.
29:58
Specific styles.
30:00
I like the 1980s boxiness.
30:02
I like the weird cars.
30:03
I like the ugly cars that a lot of people don't like.
30:07
I still think the Aztec is absolutely horrid though.
30:09
And I think, oh, just wait.
30:10
Just wait, wait.
30:11
Hang on.
30:12
Our ugly cars episode comes out.
30:14
It's a doozy.
30:15
, what do you think of the HHR?
30:17
I don't think I've seen it.
30:19
The Chevy.
30:19
HHR ugly.
30:21
It is the, it's the Chevy PT Cruiser.
30:23
Cruiser.
30:23
Oh.
30:24
Oh.
30:25
No . Oh, no.
30:28
Best car ever.
30:29
So now we'll flip the coin and go to Nate.
30:33
So if you had a top three cars and you can't be the Volvo 480, what would it be?
30:39
Huh?
30:40
I, I, for a long time have lusted after a Porsche 911.
30:44
I kick myself every day for not getting one like 10 or 15 years ago.
30:51
Is there a specific year like Emily?
30:53
Like it has to be a 1972 E model.
30:56
I do have a specific year, uh, mainly driven based on potential affordability.
31:04
Um, I like the, uh, like 86 to 89 911 Carrera.
31:09
Right when they switched from, uh, what was it?
31:11
The, the, the old gearbox, the new one.
31:14
They went from the 915 and it's got a 3.
31:16
2 liter.
31:17
Yep.
31:17
I'm a little bit of a Porsche person.
31:19
Yeah.
31:20
So I would love one of those.
31:22
Um, but the prices are still, oh, they're only going, they're only going up.
31:26
They're only going up.
31:28
I really love the Renault R5 Turbo 2.
31:32
That, again, is way out of price range for, like, ever affording.
31:36
Uh, so I would settle for a Renault 5, R5 GT Turbo.
31:41
Kind of looks like the R5 Turbo 2, but it's not rear engined.
31:44
It's normal front engine front wheel drive.
31:46
A Peugeot 205 GTI.
31:49
I kind of like hot hatches, uh, but here's a weird one, a Lotus Esprit Turbo.
31:57
Which version of it?
31:58
The original one or the later ones?
32:02
The, the, the mid 80s ones.
32:06
Yeah, because the Esprit came out in like the late 70s, so it all depends, you know.
32:11
Uh, although I know that car would be a horrible car to own.
32:13
Yes.
32:15
Yeah, the only thing good about those cars is the transmission
32:18
and it's a terrible trans.
32:19
So I do like a lot of the Volkswagen, uh, type three styles, like the
32:28
fastback or the square back ones at 411 to get like a, a square back and
32:34
like rest of mod it with, uh, like a Subaru engine or something in the back.
32:38
Well, obviously you need to shove a W12 in there somehow.
32:41
1.
32:42
8 turbo.
32:43
I'm just saying.
32:46
Anyway, well that's cool.
32:47
So, okay, let's, let's do the, the million dollar man question, right?
32:52
Which is, if you had all the money in the world, and you can only
32:56
buy one car, what would it be?
32:58
Um, I'm not sure.
33:01
That's a hard one.
33:02
Well, if we're talking about all the money in the world, There were no r5 gt turbo.
33:06
No, that's her turbo too.
33:08
The real one the real one rear engine Yeah, I think that would be it because
33:12
it's all the money in the world and those cars are pretty expensive And it's really
33:17
cool to look at yeah, I They're yeah I think that would be the one for me.
33:23
Um Trying to think of something we might have seen at Oh, what was that?
33:30
The classic remis Uh, so what was it last year, the year before,
33:37
I don't know, it's been so long.
33:38
We've been married for two years.
33:40
So let's start with that.
33:41
So two years ago, we went to Germany and we went to Classic Remise.
33:48
Uh, so in Berlin, there's this amazing old train station, train depot.
33:54
It has been converted to workshop.
33:58
Slash collector car storage museum slash museum.
34:03
Yeah, and it's free to the public to walk in and there's workshops
34:07
around the outside edge of craftsmen working on doing like pristine nut
34:12
and bolt restorations on old Ferraris and Mercedes and things like that.
34:19
And then there's cars there in storage.
34:22
Uh, they, they had one of the, what was that?
34:26
Uh, Volkswagen electric car from the 2000s or the, what was it called?
34:32
The, Oh, no, that's the one, the one was that it was also that it was, it
34:39
wasn't the three wheeled one, right?
34:41
I don't think so.
34:42
Okay.
34:42
It was, it was like the center seat.
34:44
Really sleek one.
34:46
They had one of those there.
34:48
Uh, they had really old Lamborghinis and Porsches.
34:52
They had the Lancia Stratos.
34:57
That would be a pretty cool car.
34:58
If I had all the money, they had one of those there.
35:01
Speaking of Lancias, I, when I was looking and buying my Volvo Amazon, looking
35:07
for old car that was weird and cheap.
35:11
And met those requirements.
35:12
Uh, I came across a Long Sia beta.
35:18
Some guy had like three of them down in Virginia and they were all rust buckets.
35:23
Oh yeah, so over here they sold the Scorpion and they
35:25
sold the Beta Monte Carlo.
35:27
They're both betas basically.
35:28
They're, they're, you have to like that Panda, I call it the Panda front
35:32
end because it's got that, that ring around the lights, kind of like a
35:34
DeLorean, you know, that whole deal.
35:36
Yeah.
35:36
But uh, yeah, they're interesting little cars.
35:38
The last time I saw one of those that was running is when I watched
35:42
Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.
35:43
So yeah.
35:46
But uh, but at any rate, yeah, no, so that's.
35:50
That's kind of cool.
35:50
That's interesting.
35:51
I mean, we get answers from all over the place, but one of the ones that
35:54
Brad usually likes to ask is in your opinion, the sexiest car of all time.
36:00
Cool.
36:02
Volvo 480.
36:06
Okay.
36:06
So, so I'm going to say this because so Nate probably knows that I'm going to
36:10
say, I believe it's the mark two Stingray, the one that's got the hips for miles.
36:22
And I say that lovingly, like it's the curves on that car are just beautiful
36:28
for the era that it was made in.
36:30
It was, it was very not practical.
36:32
And that's, that's my opinion.
36:34
What makes those cars beautiful.
36:35
It's not beautiful by modern standards for car design.
36:39
What did we see recently that Doug was talking about?
36:42
And it was, it was beautiful.
36:44
Yeah.
36:46
I cannot remember, but that was the one that's stuck in my head right now.
36:48
Yeah.
36:49
It's it's, it's going to kill me, but Doug DeMuro reviewed a car recently.
36:54
That was just wonderful.
36:56
Was that two?
36:58
Is it 2020?
36:59
Right?
37:00
No, we'll figure out what it is.
37:03
Like later tonight, wake up in the middle of the night and like scream it.
37:06
Eventually you might hear it, but yeah, I, I like this thing.
37:10
Right.
37:10
I think they're beautiful.
37:12
I like.
37:14
I like the old Porsche 356.
37:20
I think those are some of the most beautiful cars.
37:23
Yeah, we'll, we'll flip it on its, on its nose.
37:26
And you guys already kind of, you've kind of served this up in some respects,
37:31
but the ugliest car in your opinion?
37:34
I don't think the Aztec is the ugliest.
37:37
I think it is very ugly, but I do not think that it is the ugliest.
37:41
I know.
37:42
I'll go first.
37:43
Yeah.
37:43
Um, I think one of the ugliest cars is the Nissan S Cargo.
37:51
All right.
37:54
Looks like a snail.
37:56
Yep.
37:57
I don't know.
37:57
I can't really think of one right now.
38:00
I don't know.
38:01
I, cars have to have character, and if it doesn't have character,
38:05
it's, it's not really a car.
38:08
Like, a lot of people think of cars as just something to get
38:10
them from point A to B, and they should really be more than that.
38:13
So, if you don't enjoy looking at it, and you certainly don't enjoy driving
38:18
it, it's not going to be a pretty car.
38:20
It's going to be an ugly car no matter what, from the inside out.
38:24
Well, and that's as an automotive enthusiast, it I die a little
38:30
inside every day because so many people just want an appliance.
38:34
And so we just, the market gets flooded with an, with appliances, you know,
38:38
other than the, the halo cars or, or some low production models, there aren't
38:45
that many truly sexy vehicles anymore that you can just walk in and buy.
38:51
They're all fairly bland.
38:53
Um, I, I think the Nissan 400Z is like the, one of the most recent
38:57
cars that I've seen that actually Has a fairly attractive styling to it.
39:03
'cause it seems like all the other car makers have just been trying to
39:06
outdo each other with like way too many lines and, and giant grills.
39:11
and then things Oh, well what, like, like every new BMW these
39:15
days, the M three, M four.
39:17
Have you seen the, the picture that takes an X seven grill and
39:20
puts it on the front of an E 30.
39:21
That's, that's a new F four.
39:22
Yeah.
39:24
Well, and then, and then it has an evolution of that that takes
39:27
the X seven grill and just makes it the entire car with, yeah.
39:31
I think the other thing that I dislike about current car design is that because
39:39
of the popularity of SUVs, probably also due to the ever increasing safety
39:45
standards and everything, cars just become bigger and heavier and like every car
39:51
these days is kind of a crossover in look.
39:54
They all look like.
39:56
A car that was put into a photocopier and put on 150 percent zoom, like enlargement.
40:04
I don't call them crossovers.
40:05
I call them compromises, you know, pretty much what they are.
40:09
So I'm going to be in the boat where we're probably buying our
40:12
first crossover here very soon.
40:15
But it will be unique.
40:18
Uh, because we, we are looking at buying one of the first
40:21
release ID force by Volkswagen.
40:24
So.
40:25
It is a crossover style.
40:27
I mean, I've, I've other than, you know, the trucks and SUVs I've had for towing
40:31
and the truck I had right in college, everything else I've owned has been a
40:35
sedan hatchback or wagon I've, I've never owned something in the crossover segment.
40:39
Dude.
40:39
Once you go van life, that's it.
40:42
It's over.
40:43
Um, another car that I am really fascinated about and, uh, disappointed
40:50
that like we don't get a lot of cool cars here in the, in the U S.
40:54
Being a kind of hatchback lover, you don't get a lot of cool, small little cars.
41:00
The, the Honda e?
41:01
Yeah, that's it.
41:02
Yes!
41:02
The, are you familiar with the Honda e?
41:05
I am, and we just talked about this on the fourth episode of the drive thru.
41:10
And my sister is a big fan of European hatchbacks as well,
41:13
but she's in the Fiat camp.
41:14
And so recently there was a comparison between a rendering of Of the Fiat
41:19
126 electric and the Honda e and I hate to say the Fiat wins every day.
41:27
I don't think I've seen that one.
41:28
I'll have to look it up.
41:29
Brad might be able to find a picture of it.
41:31
Oh, he's got the escargot there, but I do think the Honda e is pretty cool.
41:37
Um, I'd like the, the front grill headlight area.
41:40
I like the fact that they've kind of made this the dashboard.
41:45
And cluster kind of the seamless, uh, screen that goes across the dash.
41:50
Yeah.
41:50
They, they tried that in the nineties, they tried that in
41:53
the nineties with the prelude.
41:54
So, you know, and then integrated the side mirrors as cameras, uh,
42:00
built into the screens on the dash.
42:02
I think that's pretty neat.
42:03
So I'm looking, I'm looking at a photo of the Hyundai right now.
42:06
It looks like a movie robot from the early two thousands.
42:10
Like it has that front end.
42:12
It looks like it belongs in Wally.
42:14
Yeah.
42:15
Yes!
42:15
Just straight out of the movie.
42:17
It's a friendly car.
42:18
Children will love it.
42:19
It's different, you know.
42:20
Uh, another cool, uh, EV is the Peugeot E Legend.
42:26
Have you seen that one?
42:27
It's pretty.
42:28
That one's really cool.
42:29
Yeah, you guys want a nerd on EVs, I gotta connect you with my sister
42:33
cause she She goes hog wild on that.
42:36
When we do the drive through, it's like, Oh God, there's like a 10 of them
42:39
we got to talk about, you know, it's like her favorite is the Bugatti baby.
42:42
Two 45, 000 for a kid's toy.
42:55
If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
42:58
be sure to check us out on www.
42:59
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43:01
org.
43:02
You can also find us on Instagram at grand touring motorsports.
43:05
Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can
43:09
call or text us at 202 630 1770 or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
43:17
org.
43:18
We'd love to hear from you.
43:19
Hey listeners, Crew Chief Eric here.
43:21
Do you like what you've seen, heard, and read?
43:24
Great, so do we, and we have a lot of fun doing it, but please remember, we're
43:28
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