Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns

Don't get traffucked - it's up to people who think, who see, and who comprehend to deal with the state of cars and trucks around us (instead of being ground into quivering sheetmetal jelly by the incompetence of the four-wheeled troglodytes and chuds who seek to drag us down to their level of base idiocy). What makes it worse, bad bureaucracy compounds the failings of the flabby halfwit shoveling breakfast into her face in the hybrid in the next lane by adding ineffectual laws, dysfunctional lanes and obsequious lemminglike expectations like a blanket full of smother. The Garage Hour is here to help, though - we'll point out the landmines, be they Sunday drivers on a Monday, dominant mergers, aggressive sloggers, lane splitters or local crashers.

Lest we forget the icing: 4Runner shocks for boingless 'froading, cars that are too fat, bourgeois Jeeps, hardcore construction equipment and so much Snail (all "Feral", all the time).

Don't get traffucked - it's up to people who think, who see, and who comprehend to deal with the state of cars and trucks around us (instead of being ground into quivering sheetmetal jelly by the incompetence of the four-wheeled troglodytes and chuds who seek to drag us down to their level of base idiocy). What makes it worse, bad bureaucracy compounds the failings of the flabby halfwit shoveling breakfast into her face in the hybrid in the next lane by adding ineffectual laws, dysfunctional lanes and obsequious lemminglike expectations like a blanket full of smother. The Garage Hour is here to help, though - we'll point out the landmines, be they Sunday drivers on a Monday, dominant mergers, aggressive sloggers, lane splitters or local crashers.

Lest we forget the icing: 4Runner shocks for boingless 'froading, cars that are too fat, bourgeois Jeeps, hardcore construction equipment and so much Snail (all "Feral", all the time).

The Garage Hour does good interviews (whether or not Hostus Maximus Justin Fort is any good at interviews), and we did a semi-sneak beer attack on Chris Hefty at the eponymously named Hefty Fab last month. Unfortunately, with the hillclimb and about a gajillion client to-dos on the front burner, we're a little late with the upload. Sort'a sorry! No matter: it's worth the wait - we puzzle out the doin's of keeping a serious shop going when times get tight (as our hero Hunter S. once opined, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."). Chris details the art of shifting the lift when retail production took a hit post-Scamdemic, the intense and varied demands of the "Please make my truck work" customer, and what it takes to chase the market when the market takes a left turn at Albuquerque.

Because it's the Garage Hour, we've got more: bicyclists who just don't get it, whether cleaning soap is a procedural singularity, Nate's efforts to reinvent the Brady Bunch, how you can ruin a good message with too much creativity, the Hefty Internet Café, and dropping $40Gs for serious parts that don't get serious use. There's also shock rebuilds, F-150s, Cherokees, an F-350, 80-Serieses in a big pile, Miatas versus S2Ks, and of course, 4Runners.

The Garage Hour does good interviews (whether or not Hostus Maximus Justin Fort is any good at interviews), and we did a semi-sneak beer attack on Chris Hefty at the eponymously named Hefty Fab last month. Unfortunately, with the hillclimb and about a gajillion client to-dos on the front burner, we're a little late with the upload. Sort'a sorry! No matter: it's worth the wait - we puzzle out the doin's of keeping a serious shop going when times get tight (as our hero Hunter S. once opined, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."). Chris details the art of shifting the lift when retail production took a hit post-Scamdemic, the intense and varied demands of the "Please make my truck work" customer, and what it takes to chase the market when the market takes a left turn at Albuquerque.

Because it's the Garage Hour, we've got more: bicyclists who just don't get it, whether cleaning soap is a procedural singularity, Nate's efforts to reinvent the Brady Bunch, how you can ruin a good message with too much creativity, the Hefty Internet Café, and dropping $40Gs for serious parts that don't get serious use. There's also shock rebuilds, F-150s, Cherokees, an F-350, 80-Serieses in a big pile, Miatas versus S2Ks, and of course, 4Runners.

You can't get this kind of goodness without a prescription (or a warrant) - it's a roundabout look at the upcoming 2025 Pike's Peak International Hillclimb [PPIHC.org (or .com - choose your adventure)], with everything from drivers, racecars (because racecar!), viewing (in-person or on TV and online), spectating (because you're not going to choke on race fuel fumes in your living room - probably), course info (best turns and, well, there are no worst turns here), and a little bit of history (because you can't do 100+ years of racing without having something historic happen). Also, Hostus Maximus Justin Fort makes up a few words, describes a few things, and hits on a few highlights from the upcoming JF Summit #3.

What's more? A head's up on an upside of the "big beautiful bill" - seems there is a little good tucked in this monstrosity for shooters, hunters and Second Amendment fans. Also, backgrounds and full-on Euro club-hop weirdness from "This Is Everybody Too".

You can't get this kind of goodness without a prescription (or a warrant) - it's a roundabout look at the upcoming 2025 Pike's Peak International Hillclimb [PPIHC.org (or .com - choose your adventure)], with everything from drivers, racecars (because racecar!), viewing (in-person or on TV and online), spectating (because you're not going to choke on race fuel fumes in your living room - probably), course info (best turns and, well, there are no worst turns here), and a little bit of history (because you can't do 100+ years of racing without having something historic happen). Also, Hostus Maximus Justin Fort makes up a few words, describes a few things, and hits on a few highlights from the upcoming JF Summit #3.

What's more? A head's up on an upside of the "big beautiful bill" - seems there is a little good tucked in this monstrosity for shooters, hunters and Second Amendment fans. Also, backgrounds and full-on Euro club-hop weirdness from "This Is Everybody Too".

Tools are for humans (and super-smart animals, apparently), garages are for cars, countertops are for food, and rollaways are for organizing! This esoteric episode is all (mostly) about embracing the perfectionist - just a little - and making your tools and shop space match your intellect and style. Because so many good projects and necessary repairs get hog-tied by bad organization, and a lack of operable tool enhancement can be submarined by a lack of organization, we want you to scratch that itch and embrace the OCD (if just long enough to put the nut drivers in the correct drawer).

While we're at it, there's Jerry Reed and "Amos Moses", Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Ninja Tune and Funkungfusion, Electronic Excursions in Hi-Fi and Meat Beat Manifesto, and more "Kashmir' covers than you can shake a two-headed guitar at.

Tools are for humans (and super-smart animals, apparently), garages are for cars, countertops are for food, and rollaways are for organizing! This esoteric episode is all (mostly) about embracing the perfectionist - just a little - and making your tools and shop space match your intellect and style. Because so many good projects and necessary repairs get hog-tied by bad organization, and a lack of operable tool enhancement can be submarined by a lack of organization, we want you to scratch that itch and embrace the OCD (if just long enough to put the nut drivers in the correct drawer).

While we're at it, there's Jerry Reed and "Amos Moses", Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Ninja Tune and Funkungfusion, Electronic Excursions in Hi-Fi and Meat Beat Manifesto, and more "Kashmir' covers than you can shake a two-headed guitar at.

Catching up with the backup - it's a timely episode of the Garage Hour (not to be cornfused with the usual when-we-can upload freakout). There are still a few more further-behind units to be kicked into production, so don't worry - you won't miss a thing.

What's in this 'un? Good electronics versus new, "dumb" appliances versus robot vacuums conspiring with the 'fridge, and the importance of having a good TV repairman up your sleeve. There's a stint with the inevitable: electric cars and why taxpayer dough makes them soft and flabby (and inevitable losers); a possible breakthrough in small trucks (because it's simple), the spy on the counter, the spy in your solar panels, the spy in A.I., and how Carl Sagan called this 50 years ago (and Asimov did 100 years ago). Add on a few thoughts about the freedom to roam (and boat, when you're in Florida (man)), and more from JFS3, and you've got a show.

While we're at it, this episode's got a few Excellent Weirdo R.I.P.s for some high-Q fellows who left us (and it's not okay): Joe Don Baker, George Wendt and Bruce Glover. Make it more: music from Karma to Burn, KMFDM, Deadbolt, Fatso Jetson, I Mother Earth, Dire Straits, Rev. Heat, Clutch, the Allmans and Fun Lovin' Criminals.

Catching up with the backup - it's a timely episode of the Garage Hour (not to be cornfused with the usual when-we-can upload freakout). There are still a few more further-behind units to be kicked into production, so don't worry - you won't miss a thing.

What's in this 'un? Good electronics versus new, "dumb" appliances versus robot vacuums conspiring with the 'fridge, and the importance of having a good TV repairman up your sleeve. There's a stint with the inevitable: electric cars and why taxpayer dough makes them soft and flabby (and inevitable losers); a possible breakthrough in small trucks (because it's simple), the spy on the counter, the spy in your solar panels, the spy in A.I., and how Carl Sagan called this 50 years ago (and Asimov did 100 years ago). Add on a few thoughts about the freedom to roam (and boat, when you're in Florida (man)), and more from JFS3, and you've got a show.

While we're at it, this episode's got a few Excellent Weirdo R.I.P.s for some high-Q fellows who left us (and it's not okay): Joe Don Baker, George Wendt and Bruce Glover. Make it more: music from Karma to Burn, KMFDM, Deadbolt, Fatso Jetson, I Mother Earth, Dire Straits, Rev. Heat, Clutch, the Allmans and Fun Lovin' Criminals.