Hank Watson's Garage Hour podcast

Order, schmorder - this much gearhead goodness doesn't need "order" (especially when an episode at the junkyard had to hit beforehand)... This episode is in good Garage Hour form: reporting from the industry (the stupid stoplight shutoff feature that nobody likes and does literally nothing beneficial is no longer necessary - kind'a like that belt buzzer from the '70s), musings on interesting/weird/underappreciated automotive trends (hypermiling, anyone?), warnings for idiots (about idiots?) about driving in the fog (because "smart" cars just make soyboys and bullygirls dumber), a couple recalls for bad manufacturing, and a few ideas about not being a psycho liar when you get pulled over by Johnny Law (and advice on how treat the fuzz and NOT to get a ticket when you do something adventurous in your vehicle). Then it's the usual awesomesoup: sheetrock sucks, string cheese and scamorza at Mollica's, the neighbor chick caught pickin' her nose again, why CO2 is just great, why Scapa Flow in particular and shipwrecks in general are just interesting, why you should never plant the mystery seeds, PPIHC 2026, phones not in your bedroom, and COC, Contagion, the Blues Bros., Tom Waits, Dire Straits, and Dog Fashion Disco.

Don't shy away from the junkyard when it's time to find a part. Whether you're a hardcore salvage builder looking for a door skin or it's your first time and you just need a head rest, outfits like Best Foreign Used Parts are ideal - lots of stock, lots of knowledge, and lots of tetanus shots. Hostus Maximus Justin Fort and Ryan The TBD may be a little biased (It's in there!), but there's a lot to learn from this episode: what parts move fastest, the cars that junkyard shoppers like the most (and where), what to do first when you're heading to the junkyard, and a little bit about this business as a whole. There's also Dodge R/Ts (Dakota and Caravan), Toyotas, Panteras, Typhoons, Cyclones, Renaults, an MG and a Volvo 240, cars with guns, 'fridges, violins and money, and so many Subarus. The master of this demonstration of disassembly at Best Parts (Don), also has excellent stories from four decades in the business - crazy finds in the 'yard, what goes on after the gates close, airbag "testing", walking catalytics, hail (No!), junkyard magic, the price of steel, and structural recycling. Soup for you: The Allman Brothers, faces for radio, Colorado Springs and Gold Hill history (schmistory!), R-rated junk car finds, and Johnny Cash's forgotten song about Deloreans. ...And don't trust your lyin' eyes - the Garage Hour is always PG, so the "Explicit" rating that occasionally appears on episodes is just some 'bot that was too drunk to do its job.

Do You Need Some... serious information about the world we drive in from a professional gearhead? Don't worry, it's a fun romp through the junk we all come up against as thinking people (ie: the geek set). Hitchikers: do you? When and where? Are you protected? ...What about the little girl who begged for a ride to a homeless shelter and then killed the guy who showed some kindness? Cold-weather remote-start: what happens when the bureaucrats (Germans, in this case) think they have the right to tell the manufacturer (Toyota, in this case) to take away the feature you bought to "save the environment"? ...Smells more like a flex than giving a f*ck about the planet - a sign of statism, whether it's VW, Tesla, China or your thermostat and your 'fridge conspiring to steal your wallet. "Life, Liberty and Property" were not meant to be a throwaway - this is what we're about: ceramic insulators (neato vintage tech), burgers on toasted muffins (yummo), "Pattern Recognition" (Gibson), "Hitch" ("Road Games"), and '90s funk-metal from Mind Bomb (Yes, have some.).

Some Garage Hours are on the gearhead nose, and others (ahem; this one?) start lost in woods and get even loster. This episode is heavy on the 2A and stupid human tricks, with tales of Big Gov't trying to truncate your right to bear arms, drones being weaponized by faceless white-collared tweakers, and some fool bastard in France with a WW1 shell jammed up his Peugeot. What else? A bunch of snowmobilin' outdoorsmen gather forces to rescue a lost pony named Mouse, an inquiry of what your privacy is worth, and a deluded twit in China who thought it would be a good idea to take a selfie with a hungry leopard. You were warned... What's more: English accents ain't what they used to be, Virgina won't be worth much for long, laws that ain't worth what they're printed on, and about four tons of Puny Human.

It's not every day our gearhead behavior comes under threat from the local oaf - it's usually Big Gov't or badly behaving bureaucrats. In this case, the pepperoni-armed beta boys and their unhappy wives are acting in ways that tee up pending geek doom for the smart set. ...This means everything from sabotaging our cars to exploiting our Second Amendment rights, as well as attacking our friends and neighbors with their vehicles, their delusions, and their bathing habits. Don't take it - support law enforcement and remember: the basest reason for laws is to keep some rando's freedoms from interfering with yours and mine. What's more: tire repairs and all-wheel drive, the Standard across from Brown's Chicken, steam whistles and some good tunes: KMFDM, Sugar Ray, The Melvins, Union Underground, Puny Human, Monster Magnet, and Marylin Manson, with a special appearance by Godzilla.

It's cold out and we're in - the gearhead goons have got gripes, and you're in the front row: the risk of snow on your roof (Don't be a Carl), the risk of snow on your walks (because shovel already), the risk of salt on your driveway (Bye bye, plants and pavement), the risk of freezing in your garage (H20 in everything), and a little bit of detail on those electric snowblowers. There's also a look at the Major Screwup (Sir!) by Costcos in Colorado, which just put diesel fuel in their gas tanks, Jeep following Ford's footsteps and ending production of the electric Wrangler, and Redhead Frankenstein's advice to remembering to laugh (and not bring a cougar to a party). Also, a reminder to take care of the folks who take care of you, because you never know when they'll not be there: an Excellent Weirdo R.I.P. for Dale the Parts Guy from Larry Miller (ne Corwin) Toyota. More: Awesome Ann and her snow shovel (because neighbor!), Jeff Bagby and his kegs, plus Dick Dale, The Professors, Man or Astro-Man and Rob Zombie's Halloween Hootenanny.

Gearheads do things and make stuff because they're doers at heart. Just add tools and bolts and wires and parts (it's all ball bearings anyway) and fixing happens, no matter where we're pointed. Make your house happy and point yourself at some walls and ceilings for an hour - it's more fun with wiring. What's more: multimeters, wire nuts, 10-minute crashing guitar murder, dikes and strippers, and blaming hippies. For fun: massive blackouts in first-world countries show they can't even subsist at third-world levels, laws to protect 'froaders, campers, bikers and hikers from wolves, and a little ditty about making your kids gun-safe instead of making your house crime-friendly. More in there (because space metal): Masters of Reality, Failure, Monster Magnet, Farflung, Kyuss, Snail, Man or Astro Man, Orange Goblin, Clutch, The Sword, Soundgarden, the wonderful McRib, and a peachy wheat sip (and some tales) from Breckenridge Brewery.

So much show, show little time. ...Still uploading episodes from 2025 - this one was close at hand. It starts with a look at distilleries like Jim Beam and others which are having a hard time coping with market movement, and how it's an analog to brewery behavior in years past (including outfits now and gone like Manzanita, Butcher's, Ballast Point, Breckenridge and more), and then overrules it all with the potential alien invasion loaded up on an "asteroid" named 3I/Atlas (perhaps they like beer). Curveballs continue with extra arms and prehensile tails, and then there's the tale of a mechanic from Normal, America, who has been pardoned for helping diesel truck owners avoid destructive government policies and parts. Because racecar, the gearhead goons also noticed that the world famous Targa Tasmania was running - right now - and that's good news for drivers who like honest tarmac action and the go-fast community. Don't worry, we got lost too: Kalifornistan continues to make life hard for its citizens by driving refineries out of the state; and don't throw the baby out with the bath water: a good idea like storing cheap electricity in batteries shouldn't be ruined by a few bad batteries that got hung on a wall (and then caught fire).

Why not finish the year with a geek-strength pile-on: we've got everything from robot cars freezing up in blackouts to electric Jeeps blowing up in garages, rich fat girls getting high and running over the NYPD, the importance of being prepared for your adventure (whether at sea in your sweet fishing boat or on-trail in your busted up rock rig), and electric school busses that can't keep kids warm (let alone work on hills, in the cold, with a load, or in any municipality's budget). There's also a maddening report on the ongoing inability of bureaucrats to make the Dem's watermelon nightmare of electric everything actually work (stupid physics always getting in the way). More: another way that pinko Chinese manufacturing is destroying the free world, and some analysis of the problem posed by folks who think the Second Amendment is a second-class right (or don't even have one in backsliding nations like Australia) and that bans on guns will stop the evil in a man's heart (when it just stops law-abiding citizens from defending themselves). Going for broke: a rare exception to the Good Soundtrack/Bad Movie Rule, an Excellent Weirdo R.I.P. for Gil Gerrard (Buck Rogers his own damn self), some Morty & Rick, and music from the Chemical Bros., Prodigy, Bio-Mechanical Degeneration, Josh Wink, Naked Funk, Soul Coughing, Poker Face, Mirwais and Korn.

Everything Christmas from Where the Gearheads Are (with a little Judiasm and Islam thrown in), we've got a fun Xmas Day analysis of what's up in OUR world. Why is it important to focus on being the giver? How can you put all the phones away - if but for a day? How do you overcome the challenge of shopping for a geek (shooters, gamers, gardeners, stereophiles and makers worldwide need apply)? Why is "Sleigh Ride" the best Christmas song (even if it's 70º and sunny)? Can a Xmas turkey (chili) satisfy all comers? Is untraditional (or is it non?) Xmas music suitable for old peopled? Why are old school, classical decorations always better? ...Same for presents - how are over-the-shoulder throwback gifts always going to hit better than shiny new stuff? There's also family movies, lost-and-found Xmas tunes, essential fireplaces, the Yule log, helping out the oldsters with their decorations (the effort matters), and lighting for a barbed-wire wreath. More/merrier: Christmas music from Brian Setzer, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Burl Ives, Boston Pops, Sepultura, Mannheim Steamroller, Louie Armstrong, Holst, Louie Primo, Guns 'N Roses, Steve Bennett, Dean Martin, with a little bit of James Bond on top.

Got some gifting goodies for the gearhead in your day (a little late, we know...) - tap in while Hostus Maximus Justin Fort and The Walkin' Dude get together in BFE for a night in the garage and a list of ideas for your last minute shopping. Most of these are pretty easy, too, so you really CAN do it today. Everything from tools (themed upfitting, anyone?), training (welding, driving or wiring?), preparedness (ready for your next disappearing act?), lighting (but not blinding!), gifts made in the U.S.A. (easier than you think!), chemicals (is it empty?), period-correct movies (getting back to your roots...), surveillance (because The Woods!), injectors (because 4Runner...), a disco ball and a Z06. You can even help the Garage Hour out and find Justin and Dan what they want for Christmas. Dig in: trail electronics, Rain-X, ammo, flannel, Sea-Foam, vampire clips, heat shrink, razor wire, good tape, Maglites, Jaime's articulated loader versus 12' of snow in Mammoth, vintage snowplows, Chuck Norris, the X-Files and Fortean logic. Because we promised: Miller Lite, Charles Fort, a JF Summit #4 update, blinding Jaime (as witness in our first-ever upload-only Garage Hour), Rodney Dangerfield, Johnny Carson, the good Baldwins, Dr. Evil versus Space Chick, plus Dick Dale, Link Wray, Slayer, Pulp Fiction, Usual Suspects, and an Excellent Weirdo R.I.P. for Peter Greene.

Wellllll... Don't blame we - holidays came quick this year and nothing's getting done beyond Christmas trees and gifts for Mom. There's a high-q Garage Hour for you right here, though (found time between wrapping and trimming), with a sleigh load of gearhead goodness. Subaru's trying to extra-distract you while driving by piping ads through the silly screen in the dash, Jaguar's trying to save itself from the 95% fail of their woketarded rainbow-sprocket rebrand by firing the guy who green-lighted it, the Trump administration is trying to save Americans from terrible and unsafe cars by loosening C.A.F.E. standards, the U.S.P.S. is finally bailing on its electric-breadbox delivery van experiment, and technology is still trying to kill us with spy glasses and artificial stupidity. Also, we've got good cats versus bad kitties, the S.D.P.D. versus the C.H.P., and Thanksgiving versus your plumber. We've got the rock, too - not just more surf guitar and So-Cal tunes, but Fun Lovin' Criminals, Hum, Five-Horse Johnson, Fishbone, Alice In Chains and an Excellent Weirdo R.I.P. for Booker "T" & the MGs guitarman and American rock guitar genius Steve Cropper.

Some shows are just a pile of shiny stuff passing over the electrodes in the hosts' brains, and this one's some of that: a rant about how much damage your pressure washer is causing (your cars and your homes), the things living in the woods and what you're doing to be prepared for them (bears in Japan, more bears in Europe, wolves in Colorado, and rioters in your front yard), Vanagons, Synchros, Dude Food, the lethal levels of fail in statist electric car manufacturing and ownership (and the lethal levels of stupid in their owners' brains), and some pretty-far-into-the-Dead-Guy-ales history of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald (notwithstanding his confusion of Lake Michigan with Lake Superior...). On top of all that goodness, there's a fine assortment of surf guitar from the Los Straitjackets and the Torquays (though we forgot the Professors and Dick Dale).

How about a high-Q blowout from Other Ryan's garage, where the ongoing parade of attempts to get a junkyard manifold to align with a junkyard 5.9 (hey, $400 with a set of equal-lengths can't be all bad) turns into a great piece of show. From tales of how the usually dependable 5.9 lump could go from power to just POW, Freiburger's motorhomes and Péwé's Jeeps, professional drivers and drifters, and tanks buried all over Europe, to Nayr Zedlav and Nutsij Trof's thoughts on getting the dissimilar surfaces in an engine to mate up... You'll probably learn something - sorry about that. In addition, there's the return of Pizza Port's coincidental Chronic Amber, some weird rock from "The Shining", frosty mugs, Hugh Mearns, Edgar Allen Poe and Ed Gorey.

Between so many interruptions - the politicking and the Chinese food, phone calls from friends and parts percolating in the garadtch - White Mark the Diversity Hire and Hostus Maximus Justin Fort were lucky to get through this one at all. What's in it? Skyrocketing values of old 911s and the cost of our buddy the Doc's new pistachio GT2; strange new clunks in the new Grenader; comfortable old clunks in a 300K 4Runner. Then it's all about the sauce: the Real Dill's Bloody Mary mix, Pizza Port's Chronic Amber Ale, Stone Brewing in Pt. Loma, and the return of Gilark Bourbon with batch #6 (vanilla and maple and oh so smooth) Then it's the fun outside interestingness that makes the Garage Hour more than human: Mark's pal Adam Duce of MachineHead, Justin's pal Jaimz of Off-Road.com, Dennis Combs (the Luckiest Man in the World) and tales of brine shrimp and junk bonds, plus Sen. McCarran versus Harry Reid, warthog moats, JF Summit 4, Fatso Jetson and the Truckfighters.

Some marginal catching up going on here; more episodes in the queue...  What's in it?  Car fads like the BMW 3-Series, Audi 5000 and SAAB 900s versus electric cars, and how the electric car fad is coming to grief over its feasibility issues (couldn't help ourselves); a microcosm of plug-in car failures in the Volkswagen Buzz (and why no one's buying the hype because it doesn't match the myth - or reality - of the original VW Bus).  There's curvy road fun (and failure) with Colorado's fabulous, famous and frightening 550 - a nice job by Zebulon Pike - and why you shouldn't try to mess with your phone when a right turn starts with a 300ft curb.  We also take a somber moment to discuss being safe with your ATV because it's easy to get yourself killed on a quad or snowmobile, even when you've got the money of a Lending Tree CEO or the skillset of a Ken Block.  Risk takes brains and skill, and even that ain't always enough (...'Tis better to hit the deer than miss the road). There's more about Big Boy 4014's plans for a coast-to-coast run in 2026, sunken treasure from Florida's Treasure Coast, Blackbeard, Tommy Thompson and the S.S. Central America, the French pick a winner with the Guardian of Liberty, a new door kills an old finger, plus Amon Tobin rolls tracks throughout; with details on albums and soundtracks (just "Like Regular Chickens").

Holy frijoles - mind the gap and pardon the delay.  Too many doins are afoot and we owe you a few (episodes).  Right here's another one from the pile, with a caffeine rodeo on the back of projects getting done.  Point is, figure the next step and do it - dudes do, after all, and geeks get it done.  There's tales of fine woodworking, failing lithium-ion deathpods, a decent beer 'n burn, and when it's all done, strategies for a righteous nap.  Plus that up with a Garage Hour Reload that digs back into the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan and why T.I.G.H.A.R. and Gardner Island probably still hold the key.   But wait: Kipple's back, Mt. Dew and Hostess apple pies never left, someone's messing with beer, China's messing with Burma, real eatin' with some proper Dude Food, and real messaging for fake meat (and why a veggie burger ain't as bad as one of those new fake-meat cancer patties).  Also, how about a classy sendoff for Dr. Demento?

...Getting to the episodes left over from this summer - so much to mix.  The Garage Hour's trying to keep you from being a Carl (TM) with everything from keeping spacers off your 4Runner to keeping you from making the cold-snap sprint (TM again...).  Add to that the lady who killed cones (which hand was on the wheel?), the reporter who ruined the story about what could actually be a problem with electric cars (duhhh), the dude who destroyed his roof rack (by not attaching it to his roof), the carmaker that stepped on its reputation by not making products that work (ahem, Toyota, you've got a reputation to maintain), and folks who just don't get how traffic works, and you've got gearhead talk radio (TM some more). While we're at it: Civic versus Jersey barrier, automakers versus connectivity, power grids versus centralization, 4Runner versus Jeep weights, and David Bowie on "Earthlings".

You can't let time erase history, because without knowing where we're going we're just a spec in time.  You're just a piece of starstuff if you don't have a vector - got to know where we've been.  9/11 was one of those points in time that everyone has/knows/remembers, and without that memory (and comprehension), so much of what is afoot now (from warfighters and conflicts in the Middle East to Big Gov't miseries and threats aplenty) makes no sense.  Get a grip, people, and help those who've not come to understand what 9/11 means grasp its consequence - and the loss of it all. Join the Garage Hour in a little bit of remembrance this 9/11: thank a veteran, pat someone in law enforcement on the back (not by surprise, though), and pour one out for those who aren't with us anymore.  While we're at it, how about some Megadeth - this may be a somber day, but a little thrash metal makes everyone feel better.

There's some strange things afoot at the Circle K, amongst them some sideways situations for American firearm owners and Second Amendment supporters (which means everyone, in a fashion).  What's going on with the unintended acceleration from M18s?  Did Sig Sauer make a mistake or is this something worse?  What's better for our fighters to carry - an M18 or an M14?  Did we have these problems when US warfighters carried their 1911s cocked and locked?  Do all off-roaders carry a sidearm?  How about a frontarm?  Meanwhile, what's afoot and ahand with the underlying argument about craziness in the transmission crowd, and how American gun dealers are unintentionally making the case against dudes in the girls' locker room (ie: You can't blame the hammer for crooked nails.).  Meanwhile, let's all watch how the NRA negotiates this one (and how long is their game - Go Doug, go!). Here's talking at you: an F-35 conference call, polymath versus psycho, Leo Gordon, Bruce Lee Jr., self-defense spatulas, Sam Peckinpaugh, an Excellent Weirdo Sendoff for Graham Greene of "Maverick" and "Longmire", the Spiritual Beggars, Pelican and an Excellent Weirdo Sendoff for Dave Mustaine and his monster, Megadeth.