02.25.25: Yuge Explosions (& the Gearheads Who Love Them) - When One Megaton Ain't Enough: Texas City, Beirut, Halifax, West, Henderson, Mine Gas, Nuclear Testing, Rabaul, St. Helens, Krakatoa, + A Few Bombs that Didn't & the SS United States
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
Release Date: 03/11/2025
05.05.25 (MP3): Hefty Fabulous Shop Raid w/ Chris Hefty - The State of Off-Road Bumpers & Custom Fab, Market Trends, Four-Wheelin' Customers, Neighbor Shops (Keeping Each Other Going), + Bridging the Gap Between Bolt-On & Custom Goodness
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
The Garage Hour does good interviews (whether or not Hostus Maximus Justin Fort is any good at interviews), and we did a semi-sneak beer attack on Chris Hefty at the eponymously named Hefty Fab last month. Unfortunately, with the hillclimb and about a gajillion client to-dos on the front burner, we're a little late with the upload. Sort'a sorry! No matter: it's worth the wait - we puzzle out the doin's of keeping a serious shop going when times get tight (as our hero Hunter S. once opined, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."). Chris details the art of...
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05.05.25: Hefty Fabulous Shop Raid w/ Chris Hefty - The State of Off-Road Bumpers & Custom Fab, Market Trends, Four-Wheelin' Customers, Neighbor Shops (Keeping Each Other Going), + Bridging the Gap Between Bolt-On & Custom Goodness
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
The Garage Hour does good interviews (whether or not Hostus Maximus Justin Fort is any good at interviews), and we did a semi-sneak beer attack on Chris Hefty at the eponymously named Hefty Fab last month. Unfortunately, with the hillclimb and about a gajillion client to-dos on the front burner, we're a little late with the upload. Sort'a sorry! No matter: it's worth the wait - we puzzle out the doin's of keeping a serious shop going when times get tight (as our hero Hunter S. once opined, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."). Chris details the art of...
info_outline
06.16.25 (MP3): Pike's Peak Hillclimb Pre-Race - Cars & Racers, Tales of Woe & Stuff We Know, History & Schmistory, Turns, Straights, Pavement & Drop-Offs, To-Dos & Planning, Go-Tos & Don't Dos, + a Total 2A Aside - Good News for SBRs & Suppressors
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
You can't get this kind of goodness without a prescription (or a warrant) - it's a roundabout look at the upcoming 2025 Pike's Peak International Hillclimb [PPIHC.org (or .com - choose your adventure)], with everything from drivers, racecars (because racecar!), viewing (in-person or on TV and online), spectating (because you're not going to choke on race fuel fumes in your living room - probably), course info (best turns and, well, there are no worst turns here), and a little bit of history (because you can't do 100+ years of racing without having something historic happen). Also, Hostus...
info_outline
06.16.25: Pike's Peak Hillclimb Pre-Race - Cars & Racers, Tales of Woe & Stuff We Know, History & Schmistory, Turns, Straights, Pavement & Drop-Offs, To-Dos & Planning, Go-Tos & Don't Dos, + a Total 2A Aside - Good News for SBRs & Suppressors
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
You can't get this kind of goodness without a prescription (or a warrant) - it's a roundabout look at the upcoming 2025 Pike's Peak International Hillclimb [PPIHC.org (or .com - choose your adventure)], with everything from drivers, racecars (because racecar!), viewing (in-person or on TV and online), spectating (because you're not going to choke on race fuel fumes in your living room - probably), course info (best turns and, well, there are no worst turns here), and a little bit of history (because you can't do 100+ years of racing without having something historic happen). Also, Hostus...
info_outline
05.25.25 (MP3): Enable Your Functionality w/ Some Gearhead OCD - Matching Your Toolbox to your Brain, a Place for Everything, Screwdriver VS Plier, Being a Better Human (Fixer of Things), & Red Adair, Dad's Toolbox, CA Basements + Ether Martinis
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
Tools are for humans (and super-smart animals, apparently), garages are for cars, countertops are for food, and rollaways are for organizing! This esoteric episode is all (mostly) about embracing the perfectionist - just a little - and making your tools and shop space match your intellect and style. Because so many good projects and necessary repairs get hog-tied by bad organization, and a lack of operable tool enhancement can be submarined by a lack of organization, we want you to scratch that itch and embrace the OCD (if just long enough to put the nut drivers in the correct...
info_outline
05.25.25: Enable Your Functionality w/ Some Gearhead OCD - Matching Your Toolbox to your Brain, a Place for Everything, Screwdriver VS Plier, Being a Better Human (Fixer of Things), & Red Adair, Dad's Toolbox, CA Basements + Ether Martinis
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
Tools are for humans (and super-smart animals, apparently), garages are for cars, countertops are for food, and rollaways are for organizing! This esoteric episode is all (mostly) about embracing the perfectionist - just a little - and making your tools and shop space match your intellect and style. Because so many good projects and necessary repairs get hog-tied by bad organization, and a lack of operable tool enhancement can be submarined by a lack of organization, we want you to scratch that itch and embrace the OCD (if just long enough to put the nut drivers in the correct...
info_outline
05.15.25 (MP3): Big Speakers, Old Stereo Equipment, Fresh Four-Wheeling Plans, the Value of a Good Repairman, the Threat of Spies in Modern "Connected" Electronics, & Some Excellent Weirdo R.I.P.s for Joe Don Baker, George Wendt & Bruce Glover
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
Catching up with the backup - it's a timely episode of the Garage Hour (not to be cornfused with the usual when-we-can upload freakout). There are still a few more further-behind units to be kicked into production, so don't worry - you won't miss a thing. What's in this 'un? Good electronics versus new, "dumb" appliances versus robot vacuums conspiring with the 'fridge, and the importance of having a good TV repairman up your sleeve. There's a stint with the inevitable: electric cars and why taxpayer dough makes them soft and flabby (and inevitable losers); a possible...
info_outline
05.15.25: Big Speakers, Old Stereo Equipment, Fresh Four-Wheeling Plans, the Value of a Good Repairman, the Threat of Spies in Modern "Connected" Electronics, & Some Excellent Weirdo R.I.P.s for Joe Don Baker, George Wendt & Bruce Glover
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
Catching up with the backup - it's a timely episode of the Garage Hour (not to be cornfused with the usual when-we-can upload freakout). There are still a few more further-behind units to be kicked into production, so don't worry - you won't miss a thing. What's in this 'un? Good electronics versus new, "dumb" appliances versus robot vacuums conspiring with the 'fridge, and the importance of having a good TV repairman up your sleeve. There's a stint with the inevitable: electric cars and why taxpayer dough makes them soft and flabby (and inevitable losers); a possible...
info_outline
04.04.25 (MP3): Pure Garagesound - Maintenance Cleaning VS Show Detailing, Truck Bumpers & Trail Tires, Grenadiers & 4Runners, + Old Stereo Equipment, Lousy AI Ad Reads, Karma to Burn, the CA Car Duster & JF Summit #3
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
If you've got a year's worth of 'froading fun (ie: dirt) crammed into every corner of your truck, reaching a "perfect" clean might not be a thing. Instead, aim for "maintenance clean" - the body is rinsed off, the two-bucket method is in overdrive, the dirt is gone, and the rig is neat enough that you can go back to work fixing what you broke on-trail (or wash it again to a state of "show detailed"). The Garage Hour discusses how. We also chat about the need for a good fabrication guy, and why a good can of Krylon can be essential to your truckly appearance. There's also fun times...
info_outline
04.04.25: Pure Garagesound - Maintenance Cleaning VS Show Detailing, Truck Bumpers & Trail Tires, Grenadiers & 4Runners, + Old Stereo Equipment, Lousy AI Ad Reads, Karma to Burn, the CA Car Duster & JF Summit #3
Hank Watson's Garage Hour - Cars, Trucks, Beers & Guns
If you've got a year's worth of 'froading fun (ie: dirt) crammed into every corner of your truck, reaching a "perfect" clean might not be a thing. Instead, aim for "maintenance clean" - the body is rinsed off, the two-bucket method is in overdrive, the dirt is gone, and the rig is neat enough that you can go back to work fixing what you broke on-trail (or wash it again to a state of "show detailed"). The Garage Hour discusses how. We also chat about the need for a good fabrication guy, and why a good can of Krylon can be essential to your truckly appearance. There's also fun times...
info_outlineHostus Maximus and sometime savant Justin Fort goes full brain-dump on the kind of history that makes pre-teen kids deep-dive science for all the wrong reasons. Obviously, when folks die because a ship full of ammonium nitrate or radical WW1-era explosives goes kablooey in the harbor, it's a damn shame, but you can't help but marvel at the sheer magnitude of serious industrial accidents (be they jet fuel, fertilizer, munitions or just leftover mine gas). It's not just manmade disasters, though - Mother Nature (or Father Nature? Turnabout and all...) has a pretty good market for things that go BOOM too, like whole mountains and entire islands. Join the show for an hour of train-of-thought goodness (and a reminder that mailboxes are federal property, "because you can" doesn't always mean you should, and if you want to blow stuff up, go pro and do it for a living).
To max out the spicy, we've got the mine in Mike's basement, the legitimacy in Stephen King's short stories ("Langoliers" and "Night Flyer", for instance), some WW2 in Europe and the Pacific, submarines & "Das Boot", the return of the D2HIE1WHCII rule, and enough Monster Magnet to explode a horse.