May 22, 2021 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about why he fixes cars with a story on the 05 Mercury that did his hand in last week : takes a call on a 21 Toyota Tacoma pickup where the caller questions the 10,000 mile oil change interval : takes a call on an 03 Olds Alero where the fuel pump needs to be replaced : and talks with Joe Rutledge, a real gearhead that Ron is friends with about - cars.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following program has been prerecorded Ron Andanian. You ever
see those cartoons where they're cutting down the trees and
the character is sitting on the tree limb and he's
saw him off the limb. That was the Car Doctor.
And as I was sitting in the emergency room at
quarter to four, I'm thinking, yeah, is where they say
four o'clocks the witching hour and to repair shop. Welcome
(00:21):
to the radio home of Ron and Anian, the Car Doctor,
since this is where car owners the world overturned to
for their definitive opinion on automotive repair. If your mechanics
giving you a busy signal, pick up the phone and
call in the garage orders are open, but I am
here to take your call at eight five five five
(00:42):
six and now running what a maroon? It really was
a maroon moved there cutting my hand open last week
in the seven stitches, which you're healing nicely, by the way.
I know everybody have gotten a lot of well wishers
and and and you hope you feel better stuff. And um,
I'm on the road to recovery and I have to
(01:02):
be listening. I have to I had to be in
the shop monday to fix cars and you know, I
think that's where this week's show is gonna start. We're
gonna talk about fixing cars, because you know, when they
asked me, why why do I do it? Why did
I do it? I think it's gonna be for reasons
like this. The O five Mercury that we're hanging the
exhaust on. The system is really badly rusted and rotted.
(01:25):
And this isn't a conversation about is it worth fixing.
It's somebody's means of transportation. She's almost ninety one years old.
This is her last car. She loves this car. She
understands this card fits her. You put her in something newer,
it's gonna be all electronic, all computer and completely obliterator
and prevent her from wanting to drive because it does
get to be confusing. So we've got to fix Mary's Montego.
(01:46):
And it was going well in the exhausted once we
got past the part where I cut my hand open,
and you know, now we're down to We've got to
change the two front catalytic converters which have rotted out,
and three of the four bolts came right out. Gee,
we're on our way, hooray. And then we got to
that fourth bolt snap, and you know, we heated it
(02:07):
and I worked it, and I worked all of them,
and you know, my usual bag of tricks was working,
and I got three of the four out and then
that last one somewhere around halfway and it just started
to lock up. And you know, it's funny. Metal does
this funny thing where it starts to grab and snag
and you can't turn it the other way, you can't
turn it this way, and all of a sudden snap
(02:28):
and you're done. So now you have to We're underneath
the car. I'm underneath the car and I'm I have
to drill out a bolt that's in an exhaust manifold
that I have to lay over the top of the
cross member that I can't reach, and I'm at about
a forty five degree angle off center uphill at another
compound angle. It's like in the worst possible spot. Listen
(02:51):
to do you ever break an exhaust manifold? Stud in
a good spot? Somewhere around this time, as I was
sorting through it, my friend Jeff walked in the door.
And Jeff is a character unto himself. He's he's sort
of like the uh, you know, he's just he's just
He could tell you how many gear teeth were cut
into a clock made in eighteen ninety two, and the
(03:12):
angle of the tooth of the clock that was at
the Lincoln Tunnel that you know, welcomed people with the
Chevrolet banner underneath it. I mean, he's one cylinder engines
and the farm engines and just just a um, I'm
trying to think of the word, but Jeff is Jeff
is a mechanical savant, I think is the word when
I think of Jeff, Right, real old school, real, you know,
(03:34):
nuts and bolts, mechanic Jeff. So what I was going through,
Oh we we're gonna so now I've got a help her,
all right? But you love that, right, It's sort of
like at the carnival where it's you know, hey, Rube,
and everybody comes running and then out of the blue,
Chuck shows up. Chuck is almost eighty one years old.
He's the gentleman that painted the hot rod. He painted
black too, some ten years ago, and it's been a
(03:55):
it's been a love love relationship with Chuck and I
for the past ten twelve years, as long as I
know him. And naturally, you've got the three guys that
you know worked on the hot rod together, and now
we're together again under this mercury, solving more problems. So
you know, we had that Monday morning confab conversation about
how are we gonna do this? And you know, for
(04:15):
all the tools I have, I just don't have enough.
And I found that out on Monday. I didn't have
an air regulator to adjust the air speed on the
right angle drill because we wanted to go into a
real slow speed. So we had the right bit. We
had a nice co bolt bit, a left handed twist,
and we just had to slow the air speed down.
(04:39):
So I grabbed the air hose and I pinched it shut.
Jeff drilled. I'd pinched the hose. He would hold the
drill at wide open throttle, and I would regulate the
speed by opening and closing the air hose to put
more air to it. And Chuck sat there with a
dixie cup filled with cutting oil that we use on
pipe threads, and every once in a while Jeff would
turn around. We put a little oil on the drill,
and five minutes later the the bit was out and
(05:01):
good and clean. And that's the kind of stuff that
makes order repair. Exciting. That's the kind of stuff that
makes you sit there and say, this is why you
do it right, to do the impossible. But the teamwork
and the camaraderie, and you know what, at the very least,
at the next couple of cruise nights over over an
adult beverage and a slice of pizza, we'll have something
(05:21):
to laugh about. How it it came together again and
we made it work. Of course. I turned around then,
I said, you guys ready to build another car? And
that's when they left. Let's let's kick the garage. I
guess I don't know. I just you know, why do
all these things happen? They figured it was safe. I
had already hurt myself the week before, so all the
danger was gone. Let's get the phones going today as
we kick this hour of the car doctor open, Let's
go to Bruce in Kentucky Toyota to coma. Bruce, what's
(05:44):
on your mind? How can I help? Welcome upboard? Hey? Hey, ron,
um Oh, I bought a new uh Toyota TA coma
nice truck. Uh it really is, I mean the first
new vehicle I ever owned. Um. I took it to
(06:06):
the dealer for the five thousand miles service, which I
thought was going to be an oil change, but it
turned out to be tire rotation, inspection, tightening different things
up and checking torque on things. And uh when it
was done, they you know, picked up the truck and said,
(06:27):
oh you're I'll see you back in uh. Uh five
thousand miles and made an appointment. And uh, I said, uh,
did you change the oils? And said no, said the
oil is good for ten thousand miles. It's synthetic oil.
And Uh, I've listened to your podcast for years now,
(06:48):
and I'm concerned about the gent thousand mile oil change.
I am too. Brother. Let me ask you a couple
of questions. Do you own it or lease it? No,
it's it's it's I own it, okay. And then who's
paying for the service the five thousand mile service? Who
paid for your Toyota? No, it's it's Toyota. The first
(07:10):
first two years of services free. Uh Huh. So what
your question to them? You know? And I listen. I
think it's nonsense. I really do. I would change the
oil every five thousand miles. There's there's there's no magic
fluid in the world anymore. Uh. You know to the
point that not only is the the oil uh you know,
good synthetic oils today or five to seven thousand miles,
(07:31):
but then there's also whose oil filter is it. I
don't know of a manufacturer's filter that safely goes to
ten thousand miles. Maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't read
the report. I haven't seen anything anywhere. You know. When
I talk to my guys at Toyota and you know, listen,
mechanics talk, we're we're just you know, we're we're gossip organization.
(07:52):
I guess to a degree, how did you do this?
How do you do that? What's new, what's changing, what's different?
And still still still else? Still the mechanics, I know
they're all changed. There were all every five thousand Toyota filters,
Wicks filters, whoever filter it is, it doesn't matter. I think.
I think the key is because you're getting it for free,
(08:14):
and this is what they're gonna stand behind. You Gotta understand,
all right, Um, the dealership is and listen, they're they're
following Toyota's lead, but they're kind of going along the
lines of the vehicle doesn't need any maintenance, It will
never break it'll run a hundred thousand miles. Oh, by
the way, Bruce Ninity new truck. You know, it's got
a hundred thousand miles on it. It's starting to burn
(08:35):
a little oil. You didn't really take good care of it.
You know, maybe we should have changed the oil a
little sooner. You know. It's it's funny how those conversations
seem to change. I bet they'd be willing to change
it if you wanted to pay for the oil change,
and you probably would, right, Um, yeah, I mean, uh yeah,
don't don't have a problem with that. I just you know,
(08:58):
I've always thought that when the manufacturer says, um, you know,
at thirty thousand miles, you do this service. At you know,
fifty thousand, you do this, and and so forth, and
uh so, I guess I'm trying to follow the being
a good, good customer doing what I'm told. You know,
(09:21):
I want to drive this truck miles. Yeah, yeah, right.
And you know, so motor oil has a finite life.
You know, pick a flavor, okay, pick anybody's oil. They
all put their own additives in it. They're all engineered
for this and that, and they're all going to design
to make it go the distance, all right. I know
(09:44):
of no oil manufacturer that's going to tell you no,
changing the oil more often is bad for it. I've
never heard that. They might say it's a waste of money.
They might say you're you're, you're doing something that's not necessary.
But my argument has been, and listen, my my mantra
is based on forty five, almost forty six years of
(10:05):
order repair, and I think I've seen it all until
I get and see it the next day. And my
experience has been the guy that changes oil on a
regular basis based on the type of oil and the
type of environment it's operating and is the guy that
gets that vehicle to three hundred thousand. I would just
I would just pay for an oil change bottom one.
I would just you know, I would just you know. Listen,
(10:27):
Tom Ray, my producer, His twenty fifteen Escape has two
hundred and eighty five thousand miles on it. He's changed
the oil every five thousand synthetic oil. His other four
Escape has I don't know, two hundred and fifty uh
(10:47):
to sixties something like that. He's changed the oil every
five thousand miles. That car runs so well that he's
given it to his daughter, Sarah, Dr Sarah. We now
have to call and she's gonna she's becoming a veterinarian
doctor this weekend. And you know it's oil is still
the cheapest thing. And you know, here's the other thing.
And here's where I'll leave it, Bruce, Okay. And I
(11:08):
would go back to Toyota and ask them, is the
oil filter they're putting on the car for the ten
thousand mile oil change interval the same as the one
that they used for the three four and five thousand
mile oil change interval. Have they improved the filter? Because
I don't think they have. And if they haven't, then
what are they trying to do. They're just trying to
follow a manufacturer's guideline to go buy the book, and
(11:29):
taking care of a car by the book usually means
the book falls on you and hurts your foot when
it hits it. All right, But I'll I'll I'll leave
it here, Okay. Go to them and ask them, could
you pay for an oil change synthetic oil Toyota filter.
I guarantee you they'll say yes, all right. And the
fact that you're taking better the fact that you're taking
(11:49):
better care of it now, will pay dividends later on.
The worst that happens is you do an extra oil
change or two a year and you drive the vehicle
to the three thousand mile mark. All right, My experience
has been the ten thousand. My oil change in most
cases doesn't work. Somebody out there proved me wrong. Thanks, Bruce.
I appreciate the call, and if you need anything else,
(12:10):
I'm here for your brother. I understand your pain and
I'm sorry you're going through it. Zero zero zero, Ronald
the car doctor at your service, back right after this.
What's more fun than listening to ronalading in the car
(12:31):
doctor and getting that car fixed? Right? A five five
five zero zero zero given a call? Now back to Rod,
you know, and I and I should point out right
all the fun of cruising and hot rods and and
summer nights under the warm under the warm air, and
things like that. Coming up at the bottom of the hour,
we're gonna be joined by Joe Rutler's. Joe is the
(12:51):
ultimate gearhead, a car officionado like you can't believe, who
probably has more information stuff than his head about hot
rods and performing than anybody you've ever met. Joe's just
a great all around car guy. We're gonna talk to
a little bit about you know, summer cruising and and
waking up the hot rod and things you can do
for performance on on new and old cars. Joe's knowledge
all about all of it. We were talking to Joe
(13:12):
down around the bottom of the hour with about that,
and then at the top of the next hour we've
got We've got some great interviews as well, Chris Lewis
from a t G and Chuck Wanna Maker from the
Waldwick car show that goes on every year. I'm gonna
talk about hot hot rods and cars there too. So
we've got the very diverse hour coming up your way. Um,
let's go over and talk to Dan Minnesota in the
(13:33):
all three oh three old Allo. Dan, Welcome to the
Car Doctor. How can I help Hell? Yes, so yeah,
it's my niece's car two thousand three Oldso, Um, we've
discovered that it's got a bad fuel pump. Quit on
your w What we can do is you can be
down the gas sting with the ball teen or rubber
mallett and turn the key and it will fire and
(13:55):
run and soon you stop it. Quich Okay. So we're
gonna pull the fuel pump right and check that out.
But the tank is full of gas. And I've tried
other than well, I don't know how to get to
drain the tank. I've tried siphoning. There's some sort of
a block in the line to prevent that. To try
different size hoses, Yeah, you're gonna find because there's all
(14:19):
kinds of baffles down in the tank. So unless you
can get something thin enough down there and start a siphon,
you're really not going to be able to obviously, you know,
the tank has to come out to do the pump right.
The other trick I looked at is there's a Streder
valve on the fuel line and the supply line to
the engine. Um, it looks like they may use that
(14:42):
for checking fuel pressure like that. And I can take
that that core out and I can I can pull
on it with suckygana with a hose, and I can
get a little bit of fuel in there. But it
won't stay. I won't get it. There's not enough there
to right. So let me ask you, this is the
pump completely dead? Uh? Only it's dead as long as
(15:04):
you beat on the tank with a rubber mallet. It'll, it'll,
it'll pump, but it so you have to keep beating
on the tank to get the pump to move, To
keep keep beating on the tank, Brother, what pain? You know?
I was gonna say if I was gonna say, if
you just ran a power and ground to the pump
connection and banged it once and it would run. Just
(15:25):
run it and siphon it out that way. You know,
short of short of that, you've got to drop the
tank and on your back. That's no easy trick. And
I'm just wondering, you know, I've never I can't say
that I've seen a fuel pump fail where you have
to bang on it like that to get it to
to get it to run. I'm wondering if the fuel
is somehow contaminated or something else is in there. But
(15:47):
I guess you'll find that out when you get the
tank down. Do you have a floor? Jack, Dan? Okay?
How about how about if you get the how about
if you get the tank secure? Okay? Uh, you know,
get the vehicle secure, up in the air, get yourself
as much high as you can. You know, Jack stands
and all its work safe. And if we made an
(16:07):
improvisational you know, gas tank handler out of a sheet
of you know, three quarter inch or in thick plywood
bolted to the top of the floor jack. Take the
straps off, use the floor jack to lower it and
at least get it down so you're not laying this
gas tank with you know, twenty gallons d and fifty
pounds on your chest and then you can kind of
wiggle it out from underneath. Right. Yeah, That's That's kind
(16:31):
of where I'm at with it. I'm thinking this weekend
I'm gonna media giving it a giving it to try.
I've had a couple of different ideas, but I found
a found a fuel pump, a fuel transfer pump that
I was going to try to hook to that fuel
pressure line, but I don't know if that's gonna work,
and otherwise it's going to be the brute force method
(16:53):
of lowering the tank and hopefully not dipping it in
dumping gas everywhere. I mean, if instead of pulling out
through the strader, if you've got a transfer pump that
will pull, that will suck. How About we go to
the quick disconnect for the fuel line, which will be
at the back of the engine, and you know the
disconnect it go down to your local Loto parts store.
(17:15):
You've got an a Rallyotor Parts near you. Oh yeah, okay,
go in there and tell them you're looking for a
fuel line connection for that particular car, but you're looking
for the opposite of whatever the line is. They make
fuel line repair kids. Dormant actually makes fuel line repair
kits with the couplings. So what if you what if
(17:35):
you disconnected at the injector rail, hook the line up
there the opposite of whatever you take apart, going towards
the tank and hook your transfer pump up to that
nylon hose with the fitting on it. Right, You're not
gonna hurt anything on the car. You can reconnect it
and then you've got the ability to pull on it
and maybe get the fuel out. Listen, it'll cost you
(17:58):
probablys for the for the fuel line connections. If it works,
it works. If it doesn't, you know, it's back to
the on the floor jack, right uh and you know,
just yeah, and just one last thing. You know, you
looked in the trunk. You're positive there's no access plate there, right, No,
there's no access Actually, um looking behind the under the
(18:23):
back seat because sometimes they hide him. Sometimes the procedure
says one thing and it does another. That's where you're headed. Dan.
Good luck to you, and like I said, be safe,
work safe. I'm running Eating of the Car Doctor. Coming
up next, Joe Rutledge, a really great car guy and
a whole bunch of fun to talk to. I've known
Joe and talked to him over the years, and that
we're looking forward to this conversation. Come on back and
join us. I'm running Eating the Car Doctor. We'll be
(18:44):
back right after this. Welcome back, running any of the
(19:08):
Car Doctor. You know, back in the day when dirt
was invented, God was young and the car doctor was
just learning how to fix cars. Good mechanics were created
by the guy that you know worked on his car
and tuned his car and modified his car and made
it run better and made it handle better. And that
hasn't changed in the million years since I was a youngster.
(19:30):
I've just seen the industry evolve and grow to the
point and I'm talking about the automotive aftermarket, to the
point that today it seems like you can modify anything
and make anything run better. And as we're getting into
the summer cruising season, right we're all coming out of
this pandemic. We're all looking to take our cars out
if we've got one, or maybe get one and do
something with it. I thought I'd go to a friend
(19:51):
of mine and an industry expert. I considered Joe probably
one of the most knowledgeable guys for after market performance,
and that we can even get them to walk on water.
Since I'm building them up, are not getting even more nervous?
And uh, welcome aboard, Joe. Thanks for taking the time today,
No problem, Thank you for having me. Are You're very welcome? Joe.
The first car. I always asked this the car guys
because I think it's an interesting story for the listeners. Um,
(20:14):
the first car you modified? What was the first car
that lit Joe's fire? Well, my first car I had
embarrassed to tell you it was an eight fifty at sixteen,
but that didn't last very long because, unfortunately, was in
an accident. But then the second car I ended up
acquiring was a sixty A MX. I was very fortunate
to find one locally person gave up on it. I
(20:35):
was able to grab it and put it back to life,
you know, change some stuff on it and made it
a really nice car. Yeah, and what was it? About
that car. Was it the budget or you just like
you looked at that car and said, boy, I gotta
have it. Actually I chased it. What happened was the
gentleman who owned it gave up on it and was
kind of like a project that got you know, stranded,
and I was able to after many weeks of convincing,
(20:57):
I was able to buy the car for a price
that I could afford. Obviously, so he was very kind
and I was willing to let me take the car
from him, and I was able to grab the car.
And you know, it wasn't really that bad. It just
needed some tender, loving care, good set of tires, a
good set of wheels, and then one thing leads to
another and you end up modifying them. Do you see
that a lot, Joe? You know that people start projects
(21:17):
and and they kind of get in over their head.
You know, you see it a lot anymore, just because
of the fact that, you know, things get in the way, right,
Life changes, they change. People buy a car and they have,
you know, big dreams. One thing I think that's really
helped is crazy to say that, but the pandemic has
brought a lot of life back into some of the
projects have installed for many years. You see more and
(21:38):
more people now digging the old project out of the
car the garage and and trying to finish it. And
it's been really exciting to see those cars come out
on the street. Now. Yeah, maybe it's just they wanted to.
You know, the pandemic has definitely brought families closer together,
but maybe after a while, So this is a little
too much. I'm going out into the garage and he'll
see in a couple of hours, you know, maybe it
became that Uh no, and I think you know, people like,
(22:00):
like you said, families, you know, there's not a lot
going on right now, right, you can't. There wasn't a
lot going on last year, I should say, and uh,
you know, people found different things. And you know, you
see now a lot of my friends have younger sons
that haven't been in the really into the car scene.
But now because there's not a lot going on, they
kind of followed that in the garage. Next thing, you know,
you've got a couple of new new fans and hopefully
it'll you know, perpetuate our industry for another you know,
(22:23):
twenty or thirty years. Joe, you know, you just said
something that really hits home, and it's it's how mechanics
were made. Right forty years ago, fifty years ago, they
followed dad or they were you know, the dads were
doing performance and then the younger kids got into it
and there was no handheld phones. There was no more buttons,
you know, with the buttons. You know, as we say
(22:44):
that everybody's walking, everybody walks with their head down with
a phone in their hand going. But you know, it's
it's there's something about that connection when you fixed a
mechanical problem or in this day and age, and electronic problem.
And in a way, parents can might define a kid's
career path taking them to a car show or modifying
(23:07):
a car with them, or giving them the nudge in
a direction that perhaps something that they'll enjoy the rest
of their lives. Right, you know, you're absolutely right. I mean,
you know, my son happens to be an engineer. He
was and he you know, I think because of my
involvement in cars, and look at his father, Joe, I
can understand that, right, Look look who his father is.
So uh, well play when you have the ambition like
(23:30):
that and you have people that are around you, I
think you find things that are different. Right, So cars
became something that was second nature to him, but it
became a love of his two and you know, he
became an engineer because of some of the things he
started finding out, Like you know, he wants to know
about gear Ray, who was very inquisitive when they're younger.
So it's really easy to kind of get them into
different things. And if you're you know, if you're if
you're into cars, there's a world of information there that
(23:53):
you know, becomes electronics. You can become an engineer, you
can become mechanic. I mean, there's so much that you
can learn from being in the automotive industry or even
around cars, right and just and just I've always had
some of the best mechanics possessed the most common sense
in the world because they look at things like that,
why you have have broken They understand it. Yeah, it makes you,
(24:14):
you know, learn about other things. I mean, there's a
lot you can there's a lot of knowledge when you
start to find something. I think that the sense of
achievement once you get something fixed or you be able
to improve it, I think that becomes a sense of improvement.
And I think it's it makes you feel like you've
you've accomplished something, right. It gives you a sense of
self worth it. You know, you can hold your head
up and look what I did. So you know to
(24:36):
that point, Joe, you look at modern day muscle cars
the Factor is making it seems like it's not except
for the price tag on some of these cars, it
seems like it's ninety nine all over again. You know, Challengers, Camaros, Mustangs.
Can you modify those cars like we modified them back then? Yeah,
you can. It's just the industry is obviously evolved, right,
(24:57):
you know, the factories have given us some really great platforms.
I mean, you know years ago you who would ever
dream that you get buy a car from the Factor?
You would have seven hundred horse power and a lot
of people say, like, why do you need more in
the a car guy? All these benser Because you can, right,
I mean, it's just you want to personalize that car
for what you like, and not everybody has the same paste.
Like it's you know, some guys like chrome wheels, some
(25:19):
guys like black wheels. It doesn't matter as long as
you're making that car what you feel and what you
want to be seen. And I mean everybody has that
image of what they like, of what they want to
be seen. And I think you know, our industry, you know,
fortunately gives you that those choices. You know, do you
do you see guys making big changes to these seven
horsepower cars or seven horse power fast enough? You know,
(25:42):
it's funny, it's never enough, right. If you're a car guy,
I think what happens is a lot of people get
that car and they think, oh, I'm never gonna do
anything too, and then one thing leads to another. You're
on the internet, you you know, you see your buddies car,
you see a cargo passed and then you say like, well,
I'd like to have those wheels. Or you go to
a car show and guy opens a hood and go like, wow,
that's a really nice you know, cold there and take kid,
or hey, where'd you get that exhaust system? I think,
(26:04):
you know, one thing always leads to another. When you're
a car guy, you find your your views are off
of the car is different, right you start to look,
you notice things more and more about your car that
your own, and you always want to make it different
and make it your own. So in our industry, that
gives us the ability to change it and make it
what I consider better, right, because yeah, yeah right, it's
it says you. Um, you know it says you. Hey, Joe,
(26:27):
we're gonna pull over and take a pause. When we
come back, I want to tell you a story about
my friend Jimmy Shelby, as he calls it Blue Blue
is always trying to kill him as he drives it.
And then we'll kind of reference that to newer cars.
So sit tight if you would please. I'm running any
of the card Doctor here with Joe Joe Ruttledge. Sorry
about that, Joe. I'm here with Joe Rutledge, all around,
good car guy and a personal friend. We enjoy talking
to Joe from time to time, and we'll both be
(26:48):
back right after this. Don't go away, Welcome back the
Car Doctor. We're joined this hour by Joe Rutler, roll around,
good car guy and Joe and are just chatting up
about you know, hot rods, old and new and and
(27:08):
things you can do, and things that he's done and
what he've seen people do. Joe. When we pulled away,
I was I was thinking about my friend Jimmy. Jimmy's
got an original sixty six Shelby GT uh three fifty.
And you know, Jimmy calls it blue because she's blue.
She's blue with white stripes. Remember those cars, And and
you know, I say, Jimmy, you know, what is it
(27:29):
about Blue that's so exciting? If they're you know, he's
had the car since nineteen sixty nine, that's how long
he's had Blue. And he said, you know, when you
take Blue out, she's always trying to kill you if
you're not paying attention. She says, look at that telephone pole.
I can put you right into that pole if you're
not careful, because you don't respect the horsepower and the
steering or the lack thereof, or the stopping ability or
(27:49):
the lack there of, because it's an original GT car.
And you you look at those new Mustangs Shelby's that
are what six seven hundred horsepower and you can drive
him one finger, you know, a hundred miles an hour
with you're conditioning on the stereo blasting. And is that
a problem? You know? Yeah, I mean, like when you
get a car that has that kind of power, obviously
(28:11):
you know you have to prepare for it. And the
new Mustangs and and pretty much any car, like for
Dodge ORSCHEV. I mean, they're all coming out with some
pretty pretty high horse power cars as you know, as
we know them, and they make them really well right
so that they've prepared good steering, good breaks, and I
think that's always important when you have a car with
that kind of horse power. It's good to go fast,
but the best better be able to stop when you
(28:32):
when you can, and you know, all that stuff is
is really important. And you know, there's they've made it.
They've made the car so nice and so drivable that
it's almost scary to think that they have that kind
of horse power and it's it's it's and I guess
my point become not I guess I know my point
becomes that the new cars are just as fast, but
(28:52):
they may not have that same bark and bite feel,
but you can make them even faster. You know, are
there simple bolt on if you want to imp of
the performance in handling of let's say that that that
new car that rolls out of the show room. Is
there anything you can do to it quick and easy?
There's there's lots of things you can do, but you
also have to remember we have to do it legally
today because you know there is some things that you know,
(29:14):
there's regulations like anything, and you know, E p A
has been very active lately and we have to all
be careful with that because we do want to preserve
our planet for the future, right So, but there is
a lot of the companies now that have come out
with parts, Like you know, there's tuners that you can
buy that can make the drive ability of your car
much much better than it was when you first bought it.
You can change you know, tire as well. When you
(29:35):
change tires, you change the phenometer, the tuner can come
back and readjust that for you. And it's legal. Like
the tunes are e p A approved in most cases,
and you can buy those and install them yourself and
your driveway. You don't have to have, you know, a
dinal cell like we would have back in the day
where you have to find out how much horse power
it is. The tuner is already pre programmed for you
and you can do that. There's a cold air kits
(29:57):
that are you know, emission certified. All that stuff is
basically bolt on that you can do it in your
driveway and you know, you feel that sense of accomplishment
like you've like you did when you had your old
sixty nine car six and you've made that car of yours, Right,
you've made that car yours. That's your that that car
says Joe. In a sense, it's taken on your personality.
(30:18):
And there's also you know, we look at wheels and tires.
It's probably the most visual part of the car that
you would change. Right, everybody looks when they get a car.
The first three things that's the most popular today is
a set of wheels and tires, usually followed by an
exhaust system, and then immediately followed by a cold their
kit and maybe a tuner. Top it all off, and
then you've really made some really nice improvements on your car.
(30:38):
That's fun, legal and you can pretty much do it yourself.
How how big of a business, Joe is the aftermarket
parts industry? You know? Can we is there a dollar number?
Do you know? At the top of your head, it's huge, right,
I believe in the aftermarket industry. But but I've seen
as reports is about forty billion dollars and they see
they feel what it's going to grow in the next
few years. So I can see that because with all
(31:01):
the new cars coming out, and you know, the cars
you're seeing that have come out of the garages lately.
I could see it being you know, continuing because they
always have given us some good platforms to improve on,
and I think that's there for the future. And and
suffice it to say, Joe, as we wrap it up,
you can have performance today, you can meet emissions levels.
And you know, in other words, it really doesn't pay
(31:23):
to disable emission controls because it's unnecessary. You're hurting the planet.
You're not making the car any faster. In a lot
of cases, the cars run faster with all the emission
controls on them, right, right, And that that's the nice
part about you know, the first thing is you want
to have your car legal right, because that's the main thing.
The worst thing you can do is take a beautiful
car that you's just been you know, fifty sixty sev
(31:44):
for and find out that the guy who tuned your car,
you know, put in the legal tune in and then
you you know, you have all kinds of different problems.
The best thing is to do a little bit of homework.
Get on these forms, like you know, Ford Mustang forms,
there's l S forms, there's you know, the Chrysler forms,
all those in from all the sources are information that
you can compare your notes, do a little bit of
homework and talk to the guys that in your local areas.
(32:06):
Go into your speech shops and you're you're out of
parts stores. Find out what's legal and then you know,
come to guys like you that you can do it
work every day and find out what's the legal parts
that you can do. You know, Joe, I couldn't have
said it better. Listen, my friend. I want you to
get out there and do some cruise in this summer. Um.
I want you to go have a good time. I
appreciate your taking the time today and appreciate having me
(32:27):
listen anytime, and you're always welcome back. Can I can
I get you to promise one thing as you see
the next new and exciting thing, because you'll be one
of the first to see it, you come back and
tell us about it in the fall. Maybe you got
you got my promise? Okay, thanks Joe, we appreciate it.
You take good care. I'm rotating the card doctor and
we'll both be back. I'll be back right after this.
Don't go away. Welcome back Ron and naming the car
(33:02):
doctor once again. Thanks to Joe. Was always good to
talk to Joe. We finally got him up here on
air and just some real good solid information about cars
and how things have changed. And you know what, as
much as they change, they stay the same. You can
tune your car, whether it's new or old. There's just
ways to do it. I want to just finish up
the hour talking about a letter I received this week
in email from Mike who wrote, in good morning, Ron,
I'm taking a few moments to enjoy a good cup
(33:23):
of coffee and listen to your show. A retired lady Colton.
We had a woman calling last week if I were
to venture to get from Illinois with a Lincoln that
needed an engine, the O eight Lincoln MKZ. I think
it was that the engine had seized and she needed
to have an engine installed in the car. And Mike
goes on to point out she questioned you as to
having her car tow to another place for her second opinion.
(33:43):
Basically your response was not to do this, as she
would just get the same advice she had originally received. Ron.
Frequently you bring up physicians and the relationship they have
with their patients is a similarity of mechanics in a
relationship they should have with their customers many times in
medical world, and second opinion is valued and quite frankly needed.
Didn't no offense to the original physician. Absolutely agree, I'm
(34:03):
no master mechanic ron. However, I would say any major
engine work or engine replacement would be similar to heart
surgery or heart transplant. I would never in a million
years go for the heart surgery or transplant with only
one doctor's recommendation. I realized the retired lady had stretched
fund for perhaps another mechanic may have found a different
route to take that would be more cost effective for her. Nowadays,
many people seek second opinions from any different types of
(34:24):
procedures in the medical world. I myself would also take
the same route of my vehicle. You need to have
major work done, and although I have a great relationship
with my mechanic, I would do some research and find
another mechanic that has a great reputation and take my
car to him or her as it would be for
a second opinion. I'm not sure you'll agree with this. However,
after hearing your show, I thought I'd throw my hat
in the ring and put this out there is food
for thought. Thanks for all you do, Mike. You know, Mike,
(34:45):
I take no offense, and I'm really happy when I
get emails like this. I'll tell you where in my
mind was at the caller, and I can't recall her name.
I just remember the car because that's I guess what
I do. I remember the car didn't have a relationship
with a mechanic. It was remember talking to her and
she had taken it to one shop. I asked her
who did the oil changes? It was quick loops. It
was this garage. It was that garage to keep piece
(35:07):
that's missing from that puzzle to make it successful. She
had no relationship with a mechanic, and I think that's
something everybody's going to need going forward, a better relationship
with a mechanic, so that I know what they're told,
they can count on it, and maybe they don't have
to get that second opinion and spend more money. Something
to think about. I love the questions, Mike. Thank keeping coming.
I'm naming the car doctor until the next time. The
(35:27):
mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
The following program has been prerecorded Ron Andanian. You ever
see those cartoons where they're cutting down the trees and
the character is sitting on the tree limb and he's
saw him off the limb. That was the Car Doctor.
And as I was sitting in the emergency room at
quarter to four, I'm thinking, yeah, is where they say
four o'clocks the witching hour and to repair shop. Welcome
(00:21):
to the radio home of Ron and Anian, the Car Doctor,
since this is where car owners the world overturned to
for their definitive opinion on automotive repair. If your mechanics
giving you a busy signal, pick up the phone and
call in the garage orders are open, but I am
here to take your call at eight five five five
(00:42):
six and now running what a maroon? It really was
a maroon moved there cutting my hand open last week
in the seven stitches, which you're healing nicely, by the way.
I know everybody have gotten a lot of well wishers
and and and you hope you feel better stuff. And um,
I'm on the road to recovery and I have to
(01:02):
be listening. I have to I had to be in
the shop monday to fix cars and you know, I
think that's where this week's show is gonna start. We're
gonna talk about fixing cars, because you know, when they
asked me, why why do I do it? Why did
I do it? I think it's gonna be for reasons
like this. The O five Mercury that we're hanging the
exhaust on. The system is really badly rusted and rotted.
(01:25):
And this isn't a conversation about is it worth fixing.
It's somebody's means of transportation. She's almost ninety one years old.
This is her last car. She loves this car. She
understands this card fits her. You put her in something newer,
it's gonna be all electronic, all computer and completely obliterator
and prevent her from wanting to drive because it does
get to be confusing. So we've got to fix Mary's Montego.
(01:46):
And it was going well in the exhausted once we
got past the part where I cut my hand open,
and you know, now we're down to We've got to
change the two front catalytic converters which have rotted out,
and three of the four bolts came right out. Gee,
we're on our way, hooray. And then we got to
that fourth bolt snap, and you know, we heated it
(02:07):
and I worked it, and I worked all of them,
and you know, my usual bag of tricks was working,
and I got three of the four out and then
that last one somewhere around halfway and it just started
to lock up. And you know, it's funny. Metal does
this funny thing where it starts to grab and snag
and you can't turn it the other way, you can't
turn it this way, and all of a sudden snap
(02:28):
and you're done. So now you have to We're underneath
the car. I'm underneath the car and I'm I have
to drill out a bolt that's in an exhaust manifold
that I have to lay over the top of the
cross member that I can't reach, and I'm at about
a forty five degree angle off center uphill at another
compound angle. It's like in the worst possible spot. Listen
(02:51):
to do you ever break an exhaust manifold? Stud in
a good spot? Somewhere around this time, as I was
sorting through it, my friend Jeff walked in the door.
And Jeff is a character unto himself. He's he's sort
of like the uh, you know, he's just he's just
He could tell you how many gear teeth were cut
into a clock made in eighteen ninety two, and the
(03:12):
angle of the tooth of the clock that was at
the Lincoln Tunnel that you know, welcomed people with the
Chevrolet banner underneath it. I mean, he's one cylinder engines
and the farm engines and just just a um, I'm
trying to think of the word, but Jeff is Jeff
is a mechanical savant, I think is the word when
I think of Jeff, Right, real old school, real, you know,
(03:34):
nuts and bolts, mechanic Jeff. So what I was going through,
Oh we we're gonna so now I've got a help her,
all right? But you love that, right, It's sort of
like at the carnival where it's you know, hey, Rube,
and everybody comes running and then out of the blue,
Chuck shows up. Chuck is almost eighty one years old.
He's the gentleman that painted the hot rod. He painted
black too, some ten years ago, and it's been a
(03:55):
it's been a love love relationship with Chuck and I
for the past ten twelve years, as long as I
know him. And naturally, you've got the three guys that
you know worked on the hot rod together, and now
we're together again under this mercury, solving more problems. So
you know, we had that Monday morning confab conversation about
how are we gonna do this? And you know, for
(04:15):
all the tools I have, I just don't have enough.
And I found that out on Monday. I didn't have
an air regulator to adjust the air speed on the
right angle drill because we wanted to go into a
real slow speed. So we had the right bit. We
had a nice co bolt bit, a left handed twist,
and we just had to slow the air speed down.
(04:39):
So I grabbed the air hose and I pinched it shut.
Jeff drilled. I'd pinched the hose. He would hold the
drill at wide open throttle, and I would regulate the
speed by opening and closing the air hose to put
more air to it. And Chuck sat there with a
dixie cup filled with cutting oil that we use on
pipe threads, and every once in a while Jeff would
turn around. We put a little oil on the drill,
and five minutes later the the bit was out and
(05:01):
good and clean. And that's the kind of stuff that
makes order repair. Exciting. That's the kind of stuff that
makes you sit there and say, this is why you
do it right, to do the impossible. But the teamwork
and the camaraderie, and you know what, at the very least,
at the next couple of cruise nights over over an
adult beverage and a slice of pizza, we'll have something
(05:21):
to laugh about. How it it came together again and
we made it work. Of course. I turned around then,
I said, you guys ready to build another car? And
that's when they left. Let's let's kick the garage. I
guess I don't know. I just you know, why do
all these things happen? They figured it was safe. I
had already hurt myself the week before, so all the
danger was gone. Let's get the phones going today as
we kick this hour of the car doctor open, Let's
go to Bruce in Kentucky Toyota to coma. Bruce, what's
(05:44):
on your mind? How can I help? Welcome upboard? Hey? Hey, ron,
um Oh, I bought a new uh Toyota TA coma
nice truck. Uh it really is, I mean the first
new vehicle I ever owned. Um. I took it to
(06:06):
the dealer for the five thousand miles service, which I
thought was going to be an oil change, but it
turned out to be tire rotation, inspection, tightening different things
up and checking torque on things. And uh when it
was done, they you know, picked up the truck and said,
(06:27):
oh you're I'll see you back in uh. Uh five
thousand miles and made an appointment. And uh, I said, uh,
did you change the oils? And said no, said the
oil is good for ten thousand miles. It's synthetic oil.
And Uh, I've listened to your podcast for years now,
(06:48):
and I'm concerned about the gent thousand mile oil change.
I am too. Brother. Let me ask you a couple
of questions. Do you own it or lease it? No,
it's it's it's I own it, okay. And then who's
paying for the service the five thousand mile service? Who
paid for your Toyota? No, it's it's Toyota. The first
(07:10):
first two years of services free. Uh Huh. So what
your question to them? You know? And I listen. I
think it's nonsense. I really do. I would change the
oil every five thousand miles. There's there's there's no magic
fluid in the world anymore. Uh. You know to the
point that not only is the the oil uh you know,
good synthetic oils today or five to seven thousand miles,
(07:31):
but then there's also whose oil filter is it. I
don't know of a manufacturer's filter that safely goes to
ten thousand miles. Maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't read
the report. I haven't seen anything anywhere. You know. When
I talk to my guys at Toyota and you know, listen,
mechanics talk, we're we're just you know, we're we're gossip organization.
(07:52):
I guess to a degree, how did you do this?
How do you do that? What's new, what's changing, what's different?
And still still still else? Still the mechanics, I know
they're all changed. There were all every five thousand Toyota filters,
Wicks filters, whoever filter it is, it doesn't matter. I think.
I think the key is because you're getting it for free,
(08:14):
and this is what they're gonna stand behind. You Gotta understand,
all right, Um, the dealership is and listen, they're they're
following Toyota's lead, but they're kind of going along the
lines of the vehicle doesn't need any maintenance, It will
never break it'll run a hundred thousand miles. Oh, by
the way, Bruce Ninity new truck. You know, it's got
a hundred thousand miles on it. It's starting to burn
(08:35):
a little oil. You didn't really take good care of it.
You know, maybe we should have changed the oil a
little sooner. You know. It's it's funny how those conversations
seem to change. I bet they'd be willing to change
it if you wanted to pay for the oil change,
and you probably would, right, Um, yeah, I mean, uh yeah,
don't don't have a problem with that. I just you know,
(08:58):
I've always thought that when the manufacturer says, um, you know,
at thirty thousand miles, you do this service. At you know,
fifty thousand, you do this, and and so forth, and
uh so, I guess I'm trying to follow the being
a good, good customer doing what I'm told. You know,
(09:21):
I want to drive this truck miles. Yeah, yeah, right.
And you know, so motor oil has a finite life.
You know, pick a flavor, okay, pick anybody's oil. They
all put their own additives in it. They're all engineered
for this and that, and they're all going to design
to make it go the distance, all right. I know
(09:44):
of no oil manufacturer that's going to tell you no,
changing the oil more often is bad for it. I've
never heard that. They might say it's a waste of money.
They might say you're you're, you're doing something that's not necessary.
But my argument has been, and listen, my my mantra
is based on forty five, almost forty six years of
(10:05):
order repair, and I think I've seen it all until
I get and see it the next day. And my
experience has been the guy that changes oil on a
regular basis based on the type of oil and the
type of environment it's operating and is the guy that
gets that vehicle to three hundred thousand. I would just
I would just pay for an oil change bottom one.
I would just you know, I would just you know. Listen,
(10:27):
Tom Ray, my producer, His twenty fifteen Escape has two
hundred and eighty five thousand miles on it. He's changed
the oil every five thousand synthetic oil. His other four
Escape has I don't know, two hundred and fifty uh
(10:47):
to sixties something like that. He's changed the oil every
five thousand miles. That car runs so well that he's
given it to his daughter, Sarah, Dr Sarah. We now
have to call and she's gonna she's becoming a veterinarian
doctor this weekend. And you know it's oil is still
the cheapest thing. And you know, here's the other thing.
And here's where I'll leave it, Bruce, Okay. And I
(11:08):
would go back to Toyota and ask them, is the
oil filter they're putting on the car for the ten
thousand mile oil change interval the same as the one
that they used for the three four and five thousand
mile oil change interval. Have they improved the filter? Because
I don't think they have. And if they haven't, then
what are they trying to do. They're just trying to
follow a manufacturer's guideline to go buy the book, and
(11:29):
taking care of a car by the book usually means
the book falls on you and hurts your foot when
it hits it. All right, But I'll I'll I'll leave
it here, Okay. Go to them and ask them, could
you pay for an oil change synthetic oil Toyota filter.
I guarantee you they'll say yes, all right. And the
fact that you're taking better the fact that you're taking
(11:49):
better care of it now, will pay dividends later on.
The worst that happens is you do an extra oil
change or two a year and you drive the vehicle
to the three thousand mile mark. All right, My experience
has been the ten thousand. My oil change in most
cases doesn't work. Somebody out there proved me wrong. Thanks, Bruce.
I appreciate the call, and if you need anything else,
(12:10):
I'm here for your brother. I understand your pain and
I'm sorry you're going through it. Zero zero zero, Ronald
the car doctor at your service, back right after this.
What's more fun than listening to ronalading in the car
(12:31):
doctor and getting that car fixed? Right? A five five
five zero zero zero given a call? Now back to Rod,
you know, and I and I should point out right
all the fun of cruising and hot rods and and
summer nights under the warm under the warm air, and
things like that. Coming up at the bottom of the hour,
we're gonna be joined by Joe Rutler's. Joe is the
(12:51):
ultimate gearhead, a car officionado like you can't believe, who
probably has more information stuff than his head about hot
rods and performing than anybody you've ever met. Joe's just
a great all around car guy. We're gonna talk to
a little bit about you know, summer cruising and and
waking up the hot rod and things you can do
for performance on on new and old cars. Joe's knowledge
all about all of it. We were talking to Joe
(13:12):
down around the bottom of the hour with about that,
and then at the top of the next hour we've
got We've got some great interviews as well, Chris Lewis
from a t G and Chuck Wanna Maker from the
Waldwick car show that goes on every year. I'm gonna
talk about hot hot rods and cars there too. So
we've got the very diverse hour coming up your way. Um,
let's go over and talk to Dan Minnesota in the
(13:33):
all three oh three old Allo. Dan, Welcome to the
Car Doctor. How can I help Hell? Yes, so yeah,
it's my niece's car two thousand three Oldso, Um, we've
discovered that it's got a bad fuel pump. Quit on
your w What we can do is you can be
down the gas sting with the ball teen or rubber
mallett and turn the key and it will fire and
(13:55):
run and soon you stop it. Quich Okay. So we're
gonna pull the fuel pump right and check that out.
But the tank is full of gas. And I've tried
other than well, I don't know how to get to
drain the tank. I've tried siphoning. There's some sort of
a block in the line to prevent that. To try
different size hoses, Yeah, you're gonna find because there's all
(14:19):
kinds of baffles down in the tank. So unless you
can get something thin enough down there and start a siphon,
you're really not going to be able to obviously, you know,
the tank has to come out to do the pump right.
The other trick I looked at is there's a Streder
valve on the fuel line and the supply line to
the engine. Um, it looks like they may use that
(14:42):
for checking fuel pressure like that. And I can take
that that core out and I can I can pull
on it with suckygana with a hose, and I can
get a little bit of fuel in there. But it
won't stay. I won't get it. There's not enough there
to right. So let me ask you, this is the
pump completely dead? Uh? Only it's dead as long as
(15:04):
you beat on the tank with a rubber mallet. It'll, it'll,
it'll pump, but it so you have to keep beating
on the tank to get the pump to move, To
keep keep beating on the tank, Brother, what pain? You know?
I was gonna say if I was gonna say, if
you just ran a power and ground to the pump
connection and banged it once and it would run. Just
(15:25):
run it and siphon it out that way. You know,
short of short of that, you've got to drop the
tank and on your back. That's no easy trick. And
I'm just wondering, you know, I've never I can't say
that I've seen a fuel pump fail where you have
to bang on it like that to get it to
to get it to run. I'm wondering if the fuel
is somehow contaminated or something else is in there. But
(15:47):
I guess you'll find that out when you get the
tank down. Do you have a floor? Jack, Dan? Okay?
How about how about if you get the how about
if you get the tank secure? Okay? Uh, you know,
get the vehicle secure, up in the air, get yourself
as much high as you can. You know, Jack stands
and all its work safe. And if we made an
(16:07):
improvisational you know, gas tank handler out of a sheet
of you know, three quarter inch or in thick plywood
bolted to the top of the floor jack. Take the
straps off, use the floor jack to lower it and
at least get it down so you're not laying this
gas tank with you know, twenty gallons d and fifty
pounds on your chest and then you can kind of
wiggle it out from underneath. Right. Yeah, That's That's kind
(16:31):
of where I'm at with it. I'm thinking this weekend
I'm gonna media giving it a giving it to try.
I've had a couple of different ideas, but I found
a found a fuel pump, a fuel transfer pump that
I was going to try to hook to that fuel
pressure line, but I don't know if that's gonna work,
and otherwise it's going to be the brute force method
(16:53):
of lowering the tank and hopefully not dipping it in
dumping gas everywhere. I mean, if instead of pulling out
through the strader, if you've got a transfer pump that
will pull, that will suck. How About we go to
the quick disconnect for the fuel line, which will be
at the back of the engine, and you know the
disconnect it go down to your local Loto parts store.
(17:15):
You've got an a Rallyotor Parts near you. Oh yeah, okay,
go in there and tell them you're looking for a
fuel line connection for that particular car, but you're looking
for the opposite of whatever the line is. They make
fuel line repair kids. Dormant actually makes fuel line repair
kits with the couplings. So what if you what if
(17:35):
you disconnected at the injector rail, hook the line up
there the opposite of whatever you take apart, going towards
the tank and hook your transfer pump up to that
nylon hose with the fitting on it. Right, You're not
gonna hurt anything on the car. You can reconnect it
and then you've got the ability to pull on it
and maybe get the fuel out. Listen, it'll cost you
(17:58):
probablys for the for the fuel line connections. If it works,
it works. If it doesn't, you know, it's back to
the on the floor jack, right uh and you know,
just yeah, and just one last thing. You know, you
looked in the trunk. You're positive there's no access plate there, right, No,
there's no access Actually, um looking behind the under the
(18:23):
back seat because sometimes they hide him. Sometimes the procedure
says one thing and it does another. That's where you're headed. Dan.
Good luck to you, and like I said, be safe,
work safe. I'm running Eating of the Car Doctor. Coming
up next, Joe Rutledge, a really great car guy and
a whole bunch of fun to talk to. I've known
Joe and talked to him over the years, and that
we're looking forward to this conversation. Come on back and
join us. I'm running Eating the Car Doctor. We'll be
(18:44):
back right after this. Welcome back, running any of the
(19:08):
Car Doctor. You know, back in the day when dirt
was invented, God was young and the car doctor was
just learning how to fix cars. Good mechanics were created
by the guy that you know worked on his car
and tuned his car and modified his car and made
it run better and made it handle better. And that
hasn't changed in the million years since I was a youngster.
(19:30):
I've just seen the industry evolve and grow to the
point and I'm talking about the automotive aftermarket, to the
point that today it seems like you can modify anything
and make anything run better. And as we're getting into
the summer cruising season, right we're all coming out of
this pandemic. We're all looking to take our cars out
if we've got one, or maybe get one and do
something with it. I thought I'd go to a friend
(19:51):
of mine and an industry expert. I considered Joe probably
one of the most knowledgeable guys for after market performance,
and that we can even get them to walk on water.
Since I'm building them up, are not getting even more nervous?
And uh, welcome aboard, Joe. Thanks for taking the time today,
No problem, Thank you for having me. Are You're very welcome? Joe.
The first car. I always asked this the car guys
because I think it's an interesting story for the listeners. Um,
(20:14):
the first car you modified? What was the first car
that lit Joe's fire? Well, my first car I had
embarrassed to tell you it was an eight fifty at sixteen,
but that didn't last very long because, unfortunately, was in
an accident. But then the second car I ended up
acquiring was a sixty A MX. I was very fortunate
to find one locally person gave up on it. I
(20:35):
was able to grab it and put it back to life,
you know, change some stuff on it and made it
a really nice car. Yeah, and what was it? About
that car. Was it the budget or you just like
you looked at that car and said, boy, I gotta
have it. Actually I chased it. What happened was the
gentleman who owned it gave up on it and was
kind of like a project that got you know, stranded,
and I was able to after many weeks of convincing,
(20:57):
I was able to buy the car for a price
that I could afford. Obviously, so he was very kind
and I was willing to let me take the car
from him, and I was able to grab the car.
And you know, it wasn't really that bad. It just
needed some tender, loving care, good set of tires, a
good set of wheels, and then one thing leads to
another and you end up modifying them. Do you see
that a lot, Joe? You know that people start projects
(21:17):
and and they kind of get in over their head.
You know, you see it a lot anymore, just because
of the fact that, you know, things get in the way, right,
Life changes, they change. People buy a car and they have,
you know, big dreams. One thing I think that's really
helped is crazy to say that, but the pandemic has
brought a lot of life back into some of the
projects have installed for many years. You see more and
(21:38):
more people now digging the old project out of the
car the garage and and trying to finish it. And
it's been really exciting to see those cars come out
on the street. Now. Yeah, maybe it's just they wanted to.
You know, the pandemic has definitely brought families closer together,
but maybe after a while, So this is a little
too much. I'm going out into the garage and he'll
see in a couple of hours, you know, maybe it
became that Uh no, and I think you know, people like,
(22:00):
like you said, families, you know, there's not a lot
going on right now, right, you can't. There wasn't a
lot going on last year, I should say, and uh,
you know, people found different things. And you know, you
see now a lot of my friends have younger sons
that haven't been in the really into the car scene.
But now because there's not a lot going on, they
kind of followed that in the garage. Next thing, you know,
you've got a couple of new new fans and hopefully
it'll you know, perpetuate our industry for another you know,
(22:23):
twenty or thirty years. Joe, you know, you just said
something that really hits home, and it's it's how mechanics
were made. Right forty years ago, fifty years ago, they
followed dad or they were you know, the dads were
doing performance and then the younger kids got into it
and there was no handheld phones. There was no more buttons,
you know, with the buttons. You know, as we say
(22:44):
that everybody's walking, everybody walks with their head down with
a phone in their hand going. But you know, it's
it's there's something about that connection when you fixed a
mechanical problem or in this day and age, and electronic problem.
And in a way, parents can might define a kid's
career path taking them to a car show or modifying
(23:07):
a car with them, or giving them the nudge in
a direction that perhaps something that they'll enjoy the rest
of their lives. Right, you know, you're absolutely right. I mean,
you know, my son happens to be an engineer. He
was and he you know, I think because of my
involvement in cars, and look at his father, Joe, I
can understand that, right, Look look who his father is.
So uh, well play when you have the ambition like
(23:30):
that and you have people that are around you, I
think you find things that are different. Right, So cars
became something that was second nature to him, but it
became a love of his two and you know, he
became an engineer because of some of the things he
started finding out, Like you know, he wants to know
about gear Ray, who was very inquisitive when they're younger.
So it's really easy to kind of get them into
different things. And if you're you know, if you're if
you're into cars, there's a world of information there that
(23:53):
you know, becomes electronics. You can become an engineer, you
can become mechanic. I mean, there's so much that you
can learn from being in the automotive industry or even
around cars, right and just and just I've always had
some of the best mechanics possessed the most common sense
in the world because they look at things like that,
why you have have broken They understand it. Yeah, it makes you,
(24:14):
you know, learn about other things. I mean, there's a
lot you can there's a lot of knowledge when you
start to find something. I think that the sense of
achievement once you get something fixed or you be able
to improve it, I think that becomes a sense of improvement.
And I think it's it makes you feel like you've
you've accomplished something, right. It gives you a sense of
self worth it. You know, you can hold your head
up and look what I did. So you know to
(24:36):
that point, Joe, you look at modern day muscle cars
the Factor is making it seems like it's not except
for the price tag on some of these cars, it
seems like it's ninety nine all over again. You know, Challengers, Camaros, Mustangs.
Can you modify those cars like we modified them back then? Yeah,
you can. It's just the industry is obviously evolved, right,
(24:57):
you know, the factories have given us some really great platforms.
I mean, you know years ago you who would ever
dream that you get buy a car from the Factor?
You would have seven hundred horse power and a lot
of people say, like, why do you need more in
the a car guy? All these benser Because you can, right,
I mean, it's just you want to personalize that car
for what you like, and not everybody has the same paste.
Like it's you know, some guys like chrome wheels, some
(25:19):
guys like black wheels. It doesn't matter as long as
you're making that car what you feel and what you
want to be seen. And I mean everybody has that
image of what they like, of what they want to
be seen. And I think you know, our industry, you know,
fortunately gives you that those choices. You know, do you
do you see guys making big changes to these seven
horsepower cars or seven horse power fast enough? You know,
(25:42):
it's funny, it's never enough, right. If you're a car guy,
I think what happens is a lot of people get
that car and they think, oh, I'm never gonna do
anything too, and then one thing leads to another. You're
on the internet, you you know, you see your buddies car,
you see a cargo passed and then you say like, well,
I'd like to have those wheels. Or you go to
a car show and guy opens a hood and go like, wow,
that's a really nice you know, cold there and take kid,
or hey, where'd you get that exhaust system? I think,
(26:04):
you know, one thing always leads to another. When you're
a car guy, you find your your views are off
of the car is different, right you start to look,
you notice things more and more about your car that
your own, and you always want to make it different
and make it your own. So in our industry, that
gives us the ability to change it and make it
what I consider better, right, because yeah, yeah right, it's
it says you. Um, you know it says you. Hey, Joe,
(26:27):
we're gonna pull over and take a pause. When we
come back, I want to tell you a story about
my friend Jimmy Shelby, as he calls it Blue Blue
is always trying to kill him as he drives it.
And then we'll kind of reference that to newer cars.
So sit tight if you would please. I'm running any
of the card Doctor here with Joe Joe Ruttledge. Sorry
about that, Joe. I'm here with Joe Rutledge, all around,
good car guy and a personal friend. We enjoy talking
to Joe from time to time, and we'll both be
(26:48):
back right after this. Don't go away, Welcome back the
Car Doctor. We're joined this hour by Joe Rutler, roll around,
good car guy and Joe and are just chatting up
about you know, hot rods, old and new and and
(27:08):
things you can do, and things that he's done and
what he've seen people do. Joe. When we pulled away,
I was I was thinking about my friend Jimmy. Jimmy's
got an original sixty six Shelby GT uh three fifty.
And you know, Jimmy calls it blue because she's blue.
She's blue with white stripes. Remember those cars, And and
you know, I say, Jimmy, you know, what is it
(27:29):
about Blue that's so exciting? If they're you know, he's
had the car since nineteen sixty nine, that's how long
he's had Blue. And he said, you know, when you
take Blue out, she's always trying to kill you if
you're not paying attention. She says, look at that telephone pole.
I can put you right into that pole if you're
not careful, because you don't respect the horsepower and the
steering or the lack thereof, or the stopping ability or
(27:49):
the lack there of, because it's an original GT car.
And you you look at those new Mustangs Shelby's that
are what six seven hundred horsepower and you can drive
him one finger, you know, a hundred miles an hour
with you're conditioning on the stereo blasting. And is that
a problem? You know? Yeah, I mean, like when you
get a car that has that kind of power, obviously
(28:11):
you know you have to prepare for it. And the
new Mustangs and and pretty much any car, like for
Dodge ORSCHEV. I mean, they're all coming out with some
pretty pretty high horse power cars as you know, as
we know them, and they make them really well right
so that they've prepared good steering, good breaks, and I
think that's always important when you have a car with
that kind of horse power. It's good to go fast,
but the best better be able to stop when you
(28:32):
when you can, and you know, all that stuff is
is really important. And you know, there's they've made it.
They've made the car so nice and so drivable that
it's almost scary to think that they have that kind
of horse power and it's it's it's and I guess
my point become not I guess I know my point
becomes that the new cars are just as fast, but
(28:52):
they may not have that same bark and bite feel,
but you can make them even faster. You know, are
there simple bolt on if you want to imp of
the performance in handling of let's say that that that
new car that rolls out of the show room. Is
there anything you can do to it quick and easy?
There's there's lots of things you can do, but you
also have to remember we have to do it legally
today because you know there is some things that you know,
(29:14):
there's regulations like anything, and you know, E p A
has been very active lately and we have to all
be careful with that because we do want to preserve
our planet for the future, right So, but there is
a lot of the companies now that have come out
with parts, Like you know, there's tuners that you can
buy that can make the drive ability of your car
much much better than it was when you first bought it.
You can change you know, tire as well. When you
(29:35):
change tires, you change the phenometer, the tuner can come
back and readjust that for you. And it's legal. Like
the tunes are e p A approved in most cases,
and you can buy those and install them yourself and
your driveway. You don't have to have, you know, a
dinal cell like we would have back in the day
where you have to find out how much horse power
it is. The tuner is already pre programmed for you
and you can do that. There's a cold air kits
(29:57):
that are you know, emission certified. All that stuff is
basically bolt on that you can do it in your
driveway and you know, you feel that sense of accomplishment
like you've like you did when you had your old
sixty nine car six and you've made that car of yours, Right,
you've made that car yours. That's your that that car
says Joe. In a sense, it's taken on your personality.
(30:18):
And there's also you know, we look at wheels and tires.
It's probably the most visual part of the car that
you would change. Right, everybody looks when they get a car.
The first three things that's the most popular today is
a set of wheels and tires, usually followed by an
exhaust system, and then immediately followed by a cold their
kit and maybe a tuner. Top it all off, and
then you've really made some really nice improvements on your car.
(30:38):
That's fun, legal and you can pretty much do it yourself.
How how big of a business, Joe is the aftermarket
parts industry? You know? Can we is there a dollar number?
Do you know? At the top of your head, it's huge, right,
I believe in the aftermarket industry. But but I've seen
as reports is about forty billion dollars and they see
they feel what it's going to grow in the next
few years. So I can see that because with all
(31:01):
the new cars coming out, and you know, the cars
you're seeing that have come out of the garages lately.
I could see it being you know, continuing because they
always have given us some good platforms to improve on,
and I think that's there for the future. And and
suffice it to say, Joe, as we wrap it up,
you can have performance today, you can meet emissions levels.
And you know, in other words, it really doesn't pay
(31:23):
to disable emission controls because it's unnecessary. You're hurting the planet.
You're not making the car any faster. In a lot
of cases, the cars run faster with all the emission
controls on them, right, right, And that that's the nice
part about you know, the first thing is you want
to have your car legal right, because that's the main thing.
The worst thing you can do is take a beautiful
car that you's just been you know, fifty sixty sev
(31:44):
for and find out that the guy who tuned your car,
you know, put in the legal tune in and then
you you know, you have all kinds of different problems.
The best thing is to do a little bit of homework.
Get on these forms, like you know, Ford Mustang forms,
there's l S forms, there's you know, the Chrysler forms,
all those in from all the sources are information that
you can compare your notes, do a little bit of
homework and talk to the guys that in your local areas.
(32:06):
Go into your speech shops and you're you're out of
parts stores. Find out what's legal and then you know,
come to guys like you that you can do it
work every day and find out what's the legal parts
that you can do. You know, Joe, I couldn't have
said it better. Listen, my friend. I want you to
get out there and do some cruise in this summer. Um.
I want you to go have a good time. I
appreciate your taking the time today and appreciate having me
(32:27):
listen anytime, and you're always welcome back. Can I can
I get you to promise one thing as you see
the next new and exciting thing, because you'll be one
of the first to see it, you come back and
tell us about it in the fall. Maybe you got
you got my promise? Okay, thanks Joe, we appreciate it.
You take good care. I'm rotating the card doctor and
we'll both be back. I'll be back right after this.
Don't go away. Welcome back Ron and naming the car
(33:02):
doctor once again. Thanks to Joe. Was always good to
talk to Joe. We finally got him up here on
air and just some real good solid information about cars
and how things have changed. And you know what, as
much as they change, they stay the same. You can
tune your car, whether it's new or old. There's just
ways to do it. I want to just finish up
the hour talking about a letter I received this week
in email from Mike who wrote, in good morning, Ron,
I'm taking a few moments to enjoy a good cup
(33:23):
of coffee and listen to your show. A retired lady Colton.
We had a woman calling last week if I were
to venture to get from Illinois with a Lincoln that
needed an engine, the O eight Lincoln MKZ. I think
it was that the engine had seized and she needed
to have an engine installed in the car. And Mike
goes on to point out she questioned you as to
having her car tow to another place for her second opinion.
(33:43):
Basically your response was not to do this, as she
would just get the same advice she had originally received. Ron.
Frequently you bring up physicians and the relationship they have
with their patients is a similarity of mechanics in a
relationship they should have with their customers many times in
medical world, and second opinion is valued and quite frankly needed.
Didn't no offense to the original physician. Absolutely agree, I'm
(34:03):
no master mechanic ron. However, I would say any major
engine work or engine replacement would be similar to heart
surgery or heart transplant. I would never in a million
years go for the heart surgery or transplant with only
one doctor's recommendation. I realized the retired lady had stretched
fund for perhaps another mechanic may have found a different
route to take that would be more cost effective for her. Nowadays,
many people seek second opinions from any different types of
(34:24):
procedures in the medical world. I myself would also take
the same route of my vehicle. You need to have
major work done, and although I have a great relationship
with my mechanic, I would do some research and find
another mechanic that has a great reputation and take my
car to him or her as it would be for
a second opinion. I'm not sure you'll agree with this. However,
after hearing your show, I thought I'd throw my hat
in the ring and put this out there is food
for thought. Thanks for all you do, Mike. You know, Mike,
(34:45):
I take no offense, and I'm really happy when I
get emails like this. I'll tell you where in my
mind was at the caller, and I can't recall her name.
I just remember the car because that's I guess what
I do. I remember the car didn't have a relationship
with a mechanic. It was remember talking to her and
she had taken it to one shop. I asked her
who did the oil changes? It was quick loops. It
was this garage. It was that garage to keep piece
(35:07):
that's missing from that puzzle to make it successful. She
had no relationship with a mechanic, and I think that's
something everybody's going to need going forward, a better relationship
with a mechanic, so that I know what they're told,
they can count on it, and maybe they don't have
to get that second opinion and spend more money. Something
to think about. I love the questions, Mike. Thank keeping coming.
I'm naming the car doctor until the next time. The
(35:27):
mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
Host
Ron Ananian
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