I'm 38 years old, and I have the same mentality. I refuse to spend money on anything that I think I can make with miscellaneous junk metal and parts I have laying around. The downside is, i'm running out of space for all of my junk 😂
Same. buying everything isn't a real option anymore at current prices. The cost of doing business and cost of materials has also made it to where 9 out of 10 shops will scrw you over so sending everything out isn't a real option anymore either.
You've really got to curate based on what space you really have. Large items you 'might one day fix' usually should be passed on or scavenged, materials, condense to racks and bins, say, rather than having broken chairs around waiting for you to turn one more spindle to match someday, etc. I hoard the little bits and stock that makes me look like a hero when I can fix or make something on the fly. :)
Not gonna lie, the motorcycle exhaust bit got me. I once met a girl working in a bar, after working in a stamping plant (the whole place reeked of gear oil). Girls boyfriend was a gear head, after smelling me, she gave me a hug and said I LOVE the smell of gear oil! Great memories. Keep working hard brothers.
I'm often amazed at how my generation X just gets passed over. We were there during 8 track tapes...and brought in the tech age. Being from the northeast I went picking coal with my grandparents..something my daughter can't begin to wrap her head around. We are stuck between self absorbed boomers and whiny millenials...the squeeky wheels get the grease I guess.
They get overlooked because more and more of Gen X is turning into the bitter and whining version of boomers that can't even define the millennials they bitch about properly. GenX is starting to largely display all the bad traits of both generations with a propensity for fanaticism and sectarian politics.
Don't forget that the old side of millenials are now in their 40s. Most of the whining you hear right now is from Zoomers. Anyhow, like all middle aged populations, we're now the ones towing the line. We're the primary wage earners, and primary tax payers feeding the ponzi, so nobody is too interested in us and we're too busy to really be too concerned about complaining. We will do this until our kids spread their own wings and we have time to look for the next whipping post generation and they will probably look right back at us. Just as our grandparents were convinced we Gen Xers were going to ruin the world, just as our parents grandparents were convinced their hippie ways and rock and roll would do the same (I'm still taking bets on that one), we shall look to the Zoomers kids when they get here and waggle our fingers at them. It's a time honored tradition. 😆 Gen-Xers have pretty much been the new silent generation as soon as we got out of high school.
@@TheBrokenLife I often say we are analog..but not afraid of tech. I guess we are a little too busy to be worried with horseshit...but I never felt we wete a "look at me" generation. I work with a bunch of millenials for the most part they don't bother me..but other times I want to tell them to just do their job and shut up. We are a very interesting generation in my opinion...and yes it is a possibility that I'm turning into a grouchy ole man...haha
My grandfather had a farm that he took over from his father in the early 1920's. He was born in 1901 and had at most an 8th grade education. He ran that farm for almost 70 years and was an incredibly fascinating man. I spent many summers there and when I was a kid I would spend hours in his "hardware" shed. It had so many nuts, bolts, machine parts, do-hickeys, thingamagigs and bits and bobs. It looked like a bomb had gone off in it, literal piles of stuff everywhere, but he knew exactly what he had, where it was, and what he could use it for. When I was in my late teens I helped him change the drive gears on an old John Deere bulldozer, had to strip the tracks off it and remove the casings, and other than the broken gears that he had to buy, he managed to find things in that pile of hardware to put it back together. He was in his 70's at this point, and I asked him how he knew how to do this job, he just said " I don't, but if I can take it apart, I can put it back together." Except for the delivery trucks, he never bought new,, always bought auction or second hand tractors, balers, and other farm equipment.
I did something similar when I first built my shop. I couldn't afford much at all when I was 20 so I just bought all stuff from the 50s and 60s off craigslist. Everything I bought you can fix with a 9/16 wrench and a flathead screwdriver. The new stuff is awful to work on. That said I did buy a new thickness planer since they tend to get beaten to death and used cost as much as new so there wasn't much point trying to buy a used one.
Farmed for 40 years , never had anything new . Never disappointed with anything I bought at auction, many times got burnt on private purchases . One of my rules of thumb was if I could pay for a tool in one use then buy it just in case
Major corporations have groomed society by offering convenience. The instant gratification you mentioned is spot-on. True hot rodding is rooted in resorcefulness; making the best of what stuff you have and what skills you possess rather than using your debit card. I've made patch panels for vehicles out of everything from old filing cabinets to washing machine lids. I have two 5-gallon buckets of misc. hardware. One SAE and one metric. I seldom have to go to the hardware store.
I tend to use junkyard parts if I can. Got a great deal when I lived in Alaska. We had a junkyard that went out of business and we could grab anything we wanted. Wish I stocked up alot more now because I got more projects now.
So did you make that Road Runner out of a bunch of spare parts and elbow grease you had laying around or did you buy it for pennies on the dollar in 1977-1995 lol? 🤔
That is great! My dad and I rebuilt a TH 400 when I was 15. We made three tools like your press idea. We still have those tools and only used them one more time. I am the same way to this day.
I'm similar but I will also invest in certain tools as well if I know I'll use them again later on. I spent a lot on my fuel line bender and flare tools since the ones at the auto parts store are junk. Cheap tools usually take longer to use than the good ones. I also lend those out to people on my race team since we know they can do the job.
Awesome video, I need to show it to my wife, I’m a Millennial but followed the steps of my grandfather. They complain about our stash until something needs to be fixed and they don’t had to pay anything for fixing it.
Yup. My wife recognizes that I have saved boo koo money on cars. We've NEVER had a car payment, NEVER. no money wasted on interest. I also have Too Many Cars!!
Oh my gosh yes!!! My wife has finally come around to my madness. She now understands why I keep spare parts of everything. I daily drive a 56 year old truck. And I’ve kept that sucker on the road.
I had to laugh. I want my wife to see this video too. Every time I get rid of something I end up needing it within a year or so. Happened again just this past week, and my wife agreed that it's weird how that happens.
Ive always strived to be like my Grand Pa. When I was staying on my GrandParents farm as a kid, my bicycle broke, and my grandpa rebuilt the wheel bearing with shotgun BB's.
This is honestly the most genuine take on the generational divide. I respect your take, but I actually view it as the opposite. You mentioned it in the beginning about how Boomers set us up for what we value. I have just witnessed Boomers being much more materialistic than me as a millennial. I think some of us millennials have a more Depression era mindset due to living through two major Recessions already in our working lifetime.
Agreed This isn't really a terribly accurate take. It's not really a generational divide he's describing it's a class divide. What he's really noticing is that for the most part the only millennials or gen Z folks who WANT to and can AFFORD to own and work on older Mopar cars today are RICH. And If you grew up rich and or are building cars on UA-cam to farm clout. Only buying and using brand new parts/ tools is just normal. The 20 year old's working on early 2000s Honda civics these days aren't exactly throwing out parts.
The annoying thing about Boomers is they pretend they aren't materialistic about cars when they actually are. "I don't care what it looks like as long as it gets me from point A to B" (Always has a nice car no older than 7yrs lol).
@@mikesteelheart I see that a lot. Only up until recently, I dailyed the cheapest running auction cars I could buy. Basically my only requirements were that it had a manual transmission, be good on gas, be easy to get parts for, and not be a rust bucket. I still have one just in case shit hits the fan and I decide to sell my nicer (but still base model subcompact) 2015 Honda Fit. Plus I see it as good practice to have at least 2 cars at all times. At a minimum, one compact and one truck.
Major recessions? Try 1966-1984, that was 16 years of recession. Cities went bankrupt, pension plans failed, In Miami, Eastern, National, and Pan-Am all failed during the Ray-gun administration. While some under 30 folks can live off the grid, most can't live 24 hours without their smartphones. Really, when was the last time any of you went ONE day without the internet? Excellent Video Sir--I hope to see it playing in shop and auto classes in high schools everywhere. We could be at war with China soon. This means no imports from China at all. No smartphones, laptops, tv's medical implants, and so much more. My guess is that you'll get a lot of disagreemnt on this video...but not from me! 👍
As a millennial guy raised by my great grandparents and grandfather, I completely agree with ya. I have around 15 vehicles of all sizes that all run and will drive me anywhere i need to go..so long as i put a battery in it. I save EVERY nut, bolt and washer I find. I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out. I've gotten very creative with my storage space but im runnin out of room now.
@@darksu6947 Lol I already have some say in 829,440 acres. No cap! And full say in 15 acres else where..need to clear it back some more. Not to mention the 3 acres my house sits on and the 2 additional acres I will acquire upon my mothers passing. Good on land my friend
Tony I can relate to everything you’re saying my grandfathers born in 1899 and 1902 and they saved everything. They would disassemble old appliances and save every bolt, nut screw, dial, drums from washing machines, etc. as a baby boomer I’m almost the same way. I come from a one car family usually a pickup truck. My dad would fix all his on flats on those split ring wheels by hand, patch the tubes and go on down the line. I once saw him take a piece of bailing wire and and tied the carb on his truck together because the base of the carb cracked to get us home. We were in the middle of nowhere and he always carried wire and pliers, etc in hi truck and even rolled his own cigarettes by hand while he was driving. No a/c in any car or truck we owned or in the house. I’ll tell you e(at there wasn’t much my grandfathers and father couldn’t fix.
@@domenicscarfo1866 worked our asses off okay time came later. We were assigned chores to do everyday when we got home from school and those chores had better be done
Speak for yourself. I'm Gen X and I agree with Tony. Think of this. Even though I was never a parent, which generation raised the Millennials??? It makes me chuckle how my generation cracks on the baby boomers and yet Gen X has made plenty of mistakes as well!! As a matter of fact our generation has a huge hand in where this country is now along with the young adults who were raised by Gen X. Now this country as well as the whole planet is on a highway to hell!
I’m 38, and I have the older mentality. Just like the kitchen junk drawer I have a scrap metal pile, and my most precious resource-the miscellaneous box of springs.
Tony, this is part of what I love about your channel. You apply great lessons about why we do this. I tell my family and friends all the time that part of what makes this hobby fun is breathing new life into something old - keeping something running and relevant instead of letting it go to waste. Also as a precious metals investor myself, I appreciate that you often throw in a plug for "sound money"!
This is what people used to refer to as "Sage Advice" The spirit of what you are talking about was passed down to me through my Grand parents who were beginning their teen years when the Great Depression hit. I cherish the lessons they taught me. It has allowed me to do far more than I could have had they not taken the time to show me these things, and the WHY of the philosophy. Great lesson here Uncle Tony, as we used to say in my youth, Right On Man!
I'm part of Gen-X, and I feel like I may have gotten caught in the middle of this... I hate putting old crusty hardware on parts of the car I'm fixing and cleaning up.... yet I couldn't toss all the old parts that I replaced with newer items... I have everything that originally came on the car still... You never know what you might need later! I do also tend to horde old hardware... nuts, bolts, washers, screws, random bits of metal, etc.
I'm a Gen Xer too. I keep things that are of historic value to the car with the intention that they stay with the car, but if we're talking busted shocks, saggy springs, and fouled plugs... off to the dumpster they go. That's the kind of junk my Dad and his Dad before him would keep around and in most cases it simply is just junk.
@@TheBrokenLife True most of the stuff I'm keeping in case I (or someone) wants to try and put the car back close to 100% stock at some point. Generally I don't keep consumable items like brake pads or the like, unless they still have life in them -- then I might stash 'em for a just-in-case. I also try to get rid of the things that I know I'll never-ever use again as it just takes up space for no reason in that case, but I tend to error on the side of caution when tossing stuff out! I've been called a packrat before...
Actually last night me and pops were chatting. He's retired, has a 5000sq ft airplane hangar and I'm up there all the time. I've gotten us a lathe and mill and a nice snap on tire machine and balancer. Next we need a lift,we both are tired of crawling on the ground. He's pretty much my best friend at this stage of my life. Funny how that happens, when we were teenagers we knew it all and our parents were stupid, and now I realize how stupid I was back then. It's like when you're a teenager you can't wait to get away from them, but when you get older you can't wait to get back to them. So we hang out like 3 nights a week at the shop for 2-3hrs a night , and like 5-6hrs on weekend nights. I've got like 3 cars , he's got a plane and a couple motorcycles. He's not into building cars ,he lives that part thru me. Doesn't matter what we wrench on , could be a widget on a lathe for a buddy ,replacing the wife's laptop battery or fixing a mower. He's 79, gets around just fine but I keep getting slapped in the face that he's not gonna be here forever.
went up to the community dump when I was 8 and pounded out nails so I could build a bike park, grandpa was a depressions kid, passed it on to my dad and I'm trying to keep the line at 27, love your videos man
You nailed it! I too am a baby boomer generation but I feel as my father and grandfather did about saving parts and fixing verses tossing things. What you said is so true that the world we live in has become a throw away generation. No one fixes anything anymore but going along with this is that manufactures know this and build products that are now throw away too. Years ago things were meant to last a lifetime or be serviced now they just wear out. "Planned obsolescence" is the state of things. FYI - just as a point of reference. My kids went to the same high school as I did. When I went to open house I went down to the auto shop and it was completely different. I remember when it was the bays were full of muscel and old cars ... 67 GTO, 70 Chevelle, 65 MG, and more. Kids were building hotrods and learning how to build motors and work on cars. I asked the shop teacher : "What happened" all I see is a testing unit, robotics, and desks ????? He said things have changed. Instead of how big is your motor or how fast is you car now its how big is your harddrive and how fast is your PC. WOW! times had changed. My sons generation, (in general), really dont care about cars anymore. Look at car shows ... old people like me are there who own, drive, and care. Young ones are there because they came with us but it is not there cup of tea anymore. Sad but this is what I see. My grand kids had no interest in my 67 Amphicar or 75 Bricklin. Now I have a 65 Sunbeam Tiger ... No interest at all. Me when I was that age would be going crazy!
I sympathise with you my kids have no interest in my 69 SS or the 55 chevy or the 65 vette.. I'll be buried with my damn cars before these vultures get and sell them!! These wolves have had insurance inspections done and appraisals while I was in the hospital. What the fuck is wrong with this generation????
I am 35. We are probably seeing the last of guys that appreciate and build ice cars. When I go to old hot rod shows and car shows I mostly see 60+ year old guys. Not to mention the hobby isn't cheap to do it right. Even working in the field and being able to do your own work/restoration you're looking at a lot of money for an pre 70s car.
We care for our now 94 year old aunt born 1928. We often are amazed by 5he amount of boxes, bags, etc. that she has collected over the years. All part of that same mentality that came with their generation.
I am a Millennial, My dad taught me the save a lot of crap. So, when you throw some crap away very soon you are going to need said crap and you go to the store to buy that crap again. I want to save, but then it is like, well I have not use this in over 5 years so you throw it away knowing damn well you will probably need it. The problem is, the space runs out and it turns into a hoard. Then you need to buy a bigger property to put the hoard in. Its a cycle. Or a mental illness. Either way it is fun to collect stuff.
I'm 39 years old and I know exactly what you are talking about. I'm like you I don't throw good stuff away and I don't spend money on crap I don't need. I think a lot of it has to do with all the time I spent around my grandmother as a child. Great Depression era. And my parents were exactly like how you say pissed money away on junk.
I (tail-end millennial) always try to keep and repair what I can. Parts that get removed or replaced get stored. But I have access to something many my age don't: space. Most of my friends live in apartments or smaller houses because that's all they can afford. They can't store anything, there's no room. They can't work on their own cars, apartments won't allow it. I have access to garage space, a storage shed, and a lift...at my (boomer) parents house. My parents have a good-sized garage, lots of storage, and a big backyard. For many in my circle those are luxuries. Luxuries I myself probably won't have for many years. Till then, I lean on my parents generosity.
You may be a boomer, but you're one of the most wise boomers I know. The amount of information you've posted is extremely valuable to young guys like me.
I totally agree Tony, this is a throw away society. I grew up in a family that had no money. My dad had a bad heart issue when he was young and couldn't work and was only getting a government disability pension, which as you know isn't much, so he held onto things that he felt he could use later, make something he could sell for a little extra money. He would go to auctions and would buy the $2 box lots at the end that no one else wanted, because he knew he could do something with something in it. And I have lived my life that way after his example. I hold on to a lot of stuff, I will buy something cheap that I saw other uses for beyond what it was originally intended. I have bought tools that were on ridiculous cheap sales, with my wife thinking I was nuts and declaring I will never use it. But I have used those tools saving myself a ton of money from taking a car to a shop, and have made money using those tools to fix things for other people. Its definitely a mindset of different generations and upraising. Thankfully my daughters see the value in things and not have the throw away mentality.
I have learned over the years that the more confident you are in what you are doing the more comfortable you are in reusing parts. newbies often equate new and shiny to reliable.
Great advise vid! Thanks Part of the problem now is storage for stuff is being squeezed out of our options. $$ for storage along with smaller housing, apartments and accompanying storage space.
My grandfather was a waterman on the Potomac river. You would pick up a piece of rope a foot long off the ground and been run over thousands of times. He would say save it may need it one day. When he died we found boxes and boxes of pieces of old rope. When you went to your pile of stuff that reminded me of that and I smiled. I still have a piece of the rope from one of the boxes I made a key fob for my keys. It finally got used I guess.
Our family trucking company has parts and pieces ,some brand new, for trucks we haven't owned for 30 + years. When a truck is broken on a Saturday night and has to be on the road Sunday morning, something on the shelf or in the scrap piles can be made to work.
I moved "out of town" 7-8 years ago, 45 minute round trip to the nearest hardware store or auto parts store. It got old REAL fast driving 1-2 times a day when working on something for parts or supples. Now it seems my goal is to fix stuff with what I have on hand. Nothing too crazy, but modify stuff to make it work, fasteners from the scrap bolt bin, make a thread chaser from a nut.
Iam 39 years old raised by my grandpa and grandma who were born in 1917 i don't throw anything away and I am a auto technician for a living, the times the stuff I have saves our shop or my butt is amazing . Best video yet
Being a Gen Xer caught in between sometimes, it seemed we sometimes were making the most of what either sort of 'culture' left over, 'If you want something nice, you can't often buy it, gotta fix it.' But stuff was still fixable or made of good stuff. People were throwing stuff out too soon even in the Nineties, but nowadays, so much is unserviceable/junk coming out the door. And on tools, you can learn a whole Hel of a lot improvising, but I get all the tools I can. The right tool for *that* job is often my price when I'm fixing poorer peoples' cars, if that's what it takes, and I might turn around and improvise fixing... say, a washing machine, with *that.* But I'll point out that younger generations than say Boomers often can't afford ....a barn to keep all that stuff, even, or whatnot. Space and stability are the scarcities, most of the time, and people tend to have to curate what they got. And...less is repairable or generally-applicable. As we find out now, even buying things new doesn't mean it's not crap anymore, but that doesn't mean even Gen Xer here got to keep things. (Certainly some of the cars I had and couldn't keep when they were only worth three digits but much nicer than you'd find for thousands now, I wanted to shove in a time tunnel for a hopeful later, but....) Definitely I always kept fasteners and fittings, but bigger stuff just couldn't come along in an unstable life and situation. Sometimes the culture represents the practicalities, especially when people grew up in em. Rather than so much the other way around. The people that taught *me* a lot of things were Boomers and older, (and they thought we were all wrong cause you could no longer buy a house and have a family on one regular job, like realizing that made one a 'slacker.' ) ...but by the time someone's a Millenial they don't even know what it *is* to expect a Walkman to last twenty years even if you're sticking match-ends in the volume pot. :) And the furniture Yuppies put out on the street then was ....good wood and stuff you could refurbish, but the 'modern' stuff that replaced it, ...mostly trash ...not something you'd even think to treasure. On another track, a reason younger generations like four-doors is cause (a they're bigger) and B It was a rarity to spend teen years with an individual car for them, they'd be piling a bunch of friends into one aunt's hand-me-down, instead of necessarily driving to meet people and going from there. I don't think that's some cultural opinion they had, it's just the two doors didn't fit how they lived so well. Gen X would be more like, 'Less bloat and maybe wheelbase and less hinges and windows to squeak and rattle and be heavy and do contortions to lock and unlock and .... most of all Not Mom's Car. ' :) Anyway, pathological hoarders aside, Gen X does remember pick and pull yards and thrift stores with decent quality clothes even if you had three similar things in the closet depending what outfit might conceal what stain, but the 'throwaway culture' of the upwardly mobile back then isn't the same as the 'Most stuff isn't worth keeping' realities of a lot of what is sold in this century, at least if kids can get it. Hoarders tend to be hung up on acquiring and keeping 'things' they will *never* be capable of fixing, and a number of old Boomers and pre-Boomers seem to be all about *owning status things even if there's too many to look at properly and it's all too precious to ever use or enjoy for anything even at the end of life.* I think the general crisis of material culture squeezes out in many ways, including cars and houses being accumulated but out of reach by people that just want to 'own.' Kinda can't blame the kids for not wanting the same mode. And it's stunning how few own a proper flashlight or household tools.
As a gen x'er, I do like my phone that replaced that pesky flashlight that I'd always lose. Haha high tech smartphone ,and the best feature is the built in flashlight.
My grandfather was a farmer in his prime in the 30's. He had a John Deere 50. When the water pump would go out, you didn't just toss it and put a new one on. He rebuilt the old one. Same with starters and alternators. You repaired it or did without.
Makes sense. I’m a hoarder to a degree. But sometimes I go the “modern” route. If I can buy a starter for 60 bucks or a rebuild kit for 40 I buy the whole starter and keep the broken one for later haha.
One the main reasons I love your channel is that you share and school values. Which is in dire need in todays generation of young people people. Thanks god for guys like you.. 🤜🤛👍
As a millennial, here's my take on the collection of screws and things. My dad has a dresser full of bolts and screws and washers and stuff. I would love something like that, but it's not practical because I cannot afford SPACE. I have my bike projects, they're squirrelled away in a storage unit where I'm not allowed to work on stuff, and I've only lived in apartments and rented rooms where, only some of the time, I can get away with working on something in the driveway in daytime on weekends. Nowhere in this equation does a stockpile of spare parts and fasteners fit. The whole budget goes into a place to put a bed and a place to put the bikes. The parts and things to build the project are much cheaper than the garage space which boomers generally had fairly easy access to, and now in older age have MUCH easier access to. So I'll go to the hardware store and spend $20 on bolts, because I'm saving $10,000 a year not having a garage. Of course it doesn't help that all garages come bundled with a pile of extra bedrooms and bathrooms and lawns that I don't care about, but if I want to change my own oil I need a $400,000 mortgage. The fact that I own a couple bikes and two cars is NUTS in my generation, since it's well understood that it's impossible to own anything until you're well established with a wife and two solid careers and so forth. You're "supposed to" start out owning nothing, but putting your paychecks into a nice apartment and a nice car, with which you're supposed to attract some girl, and then accidentally start a family, and eventually make your way out into the suburbs in your 40s, acquiring a project car during the midlife crisis. You'll find a thousand luxury apartments cheaper than the first ratty moldy house with a garage. Garages are for rich people, leased BMW 5-series are for poor people. It's disgusting. At least that's how it seems here in the PNW - maybe out in Corn Country things are different.
This is one thing Boomers don't take into account. Most Millennials do not have the space to hoard things. There are far more of us than there were boomers and we are now the backbone of the working class, surprisingly enough. The thing that sucks is there are too many people and not enough houses on the market. Renting sucks because you're throwing money away into thin air for something you'll never own and it's insanely hard to find a house you won't be paying for until you're dead at this point. Housing prices are insane. Comparatively, land and building homes was much cheaper 50 years ago when boomers were working and there was far more land and far less people. Housing really is our crux. We can't seem to really get into the home ownership market as easily as previous generations because of the debt-based economy. Banks want you to rent. They want you to get a mortgage that you pay until you're dead, then foreclose and finance it for the 10x the price they sold it to you for 30+ years ago. I got lucky and my uncle, with no children died and my aunt, who lives thousands of miles away inherited the property but didn't want to deal with it and I got my house on the cheap and should be done paying for it before I'm too old. The only way Millennials get property is by someone dying, buying it for them or taking an unused property from their parents, etc. Our options for home ownership, for the vast majority of millennials, is really limited. That's not to say it can't be done, but if there's one thing I will agree with, Millennials have it WAYYY harder finding/buying/owning property.
Early Gen Z here. I've noticed that a lot of my ilk tend to WANT to live in the city where everything is overpriced. That being said, space these days is at a premium. I am fortunate that I was given a new car by mom and dad, though I really don't need one until I graduate... it's funny. I have that "hoarder" mindset while my parents have that "convenience" mindset. I have enough cash and cojones to do a project car. Space is at a premium because there's so much crap in my garage that my parents don't use and refuse to throw out. That may change sooner or later though. Space really is at a premium, gone are the days when you would pool money to buy a car with your friends and go fix it up/racing with it. Insurance is a bitch too, seems like they want to punish you for doing anything besides getting drunk and playing video games.
@@husky3g Whenever I hear of people struggling to afford a house or rent I wonder if they get any support from their parents. I'm not a parent but I feel like in this day and age, family has to try and support family. But I am from a different culture and this mindset is very much a cultural thing.
Great video, I can relate to so much you said. I am Gen X but grew up with my grandparents (born 1907 & 1913) and share their Great Depression values. I learned the word "improvise" very early.
It’s all about the way you’re raised. I’m a millennial raised on an old set of values, and by extensions don’t share the same consumer mindset as most of my peers. I see a lot of folks here relate to your video as well. Nice to see not all millennials and gen Xers fit their stereotypes. Hell, I even know a few gen Z kids that break the mold. But those are REALLY rare.
UT, I was raised exactly like that. Born 1971, guess I'm Gen-X. I save ALL usable hardware and material too. It's amazing the uses you find for stuff that most people would throw away. Another great video buddy. Keep em coming. Thanks man.
Rebuilding a 390 for a 70 f250 currently. Reusing everything I can. Unfortunately the other thing is labor costs. Many things are cheaper to buy than have refinished if you can’t DIY.
Im a millennial, when I started rebuilding motorcycles and now my truck, most of my parts came from the salvage yard. Yes, there are some parts that you need to buy new and I do. But I prefer going to the salvage yard and finding what I need whenever I can. A lot of my tools are older than me, I get them from antique stores, yard sales, pretty much anywhere and everywhere. Heck, I had an old dryer that I took apart, cut up the metal into large flat sections that I use for fabricating patch panels because its the same gauge metal as the body panels and floors as my truck. I didnt grow up poor, but I didnt grow up with a lot of money either, so I made do with what I had around and its carried me into how I am today. I also worked very hard to get out of debt and do not plan on going back into it if I can help it, the only thing I own on is my house.
Tony, I understand totally. My Dad had one wall in the back of his shop full of bins of nuts, bolts and all sorts of fasteners that I don't have a clue what they are and I mean bins floor to ceiling. I'm 73 now and my Dad has been gone for over ten years but I still sneak in there for stuff. There are even tons of DPCD Bolts that I am using on my 65 Valiant when I can find the right ones. My Daddy was Depression era and a WWII Navy vet and he never threw anything away.
Im 27 and relate with you more, just this summer I got a 64 valiant that was abandoned behind my parent's house and the pure joy i had only having to replace one $13 wheel cylinder, a real cheapass victory lol. When I was younger i did buy a lot of new unnecessary parts, but it was more that I wanted to try them. But I even went as far as making my own exhaust and even made my own mufflers, no way was I paying $90 for one muffler lol. I also grew up with no money tho, during highschool it was buy gas or lunch. Lol I do the exact same thing with scrap metal.
You are so right mate, I am putting my Restomod 57 pontiac together with a lot of used repurposed parts from Hondas, chevy , ford, It is amazing how much money and more so time saved in using something that is already formed and built for you which you just so happen to have lying around. My Pontiac is a budget build so it’s working out great for me.
I'm 42 or 43, who knows. But anyway. I grew up poor. I don't care what it is, if I can use it, I save it. My wife hates it and calls me a hoarder. But when I have to fix something. I go dig out the parts and make something work. Rarely buy anything. But she still doesn't care. She says throw it all out. We'll buy it if we need it. I refuse. Every time I throw something out. I need it a week later. I can't take it
I'm 64 and have been a mechanic forever. I've learned with the younger guys it's hard for them to relate to my generation which is fine. I can suggest ways to do a job and without fail they will go there own way. Cool. When they are in a bad situation that they can't figure out they will come and ask me. It's fine.
As long as they don't ask first, then ignore the advice, and then want bailed out too... I have a coworker who does that to me frequently and I just about lose my mind every time it happens. _"Hey, is that fire hot."_ *Yes, yes it is.* _"So... I went ahead a badly burned myself on that fire you told me was hot. Can you give me a ride to the hospital?"_ *No... No I can't.* 😆
Thanks for making me feel better about being EXACTLY the same about it all. some of mine only can be made to run well enough to move under their own power.
Wow! I get it. I have a stash of “custom” purpose-built tools that I’ve made for over 4 decades. I have a clutch puller I made to fix my neighbors Chevy A/C compressor in the ‘90’s. Have used it twice. Lots of other stuff. My dad did the same thing. He had me straighten out bent nails with a hammer when I was 5. We wasted nothing, he didn’t have a high paying job, but we didn’t do without, because…… same reason!
I know exactly what you mean. I recently sold my house and when I was cleaning out my garage I couldn't bear to throw away my stash of catch all. So I packed it all up and it's coming to my new place! Over the years my stash has saved me time and money while working on a vehicle at all hours of the night.
I've been driving the same rusty old truck for 20 years. I grew up poor, but now I have money because I don't spend it. Some people are consumers... they'll be consumed. Some people are survivors... we will thrive.
Same. I’ve only owned 3 vehicles that were daily drivers my whole life (I’m 48, all trucks). Two of them are still in my driveway and registered daily drivers, the newest being 25 yrs old. I take care of my stuff and don’t like throwing stuff out. 😂
I'm the same way, Tony. I have plastic storage boxes with original, correct head marked bolts for restoration and repairs. So much cheaper than buying the repo marked bolts.
At age 73 I have traveled the road you describe, was a time for a few decades that I saved everything, made or tried to make everything. There is a limit to this mentality. You need space, lots of it and you need to be extremely well organized because if not you will spend so much time searching for that part you just know you have that it drives you nuts and actually wastes precious time. Trying to make do and build your own stuff can be fun but unless you are real good at fabrication you most often end up with a second rate product and for me I found I just could not live with those results. It is easy to get caught up in making things for the car or whatever and that becomes the journey rather than making your car or some other piece of machinery.
I have honest to God watched my Dad (just about your age) sift for _hours_ to find a specific nut or bolt among the disorganized pile that was what he inherited from his Dad. To this day, 30 years later, it's not much better now. The insult to injury is at almost exactly that same time a new hardware store opened up about 5 minutes up the road with what is still one of the best nut and bolt selections I have ever seen. At some point, life is just too short for some of that stuff. I wish my Dad would see the light, but...
58, same mentality. That said, I’ve laughed at Eastern Europe videos where they make homemade tractors and stuff and think, man you wasted how much time cobbling together a cement mixer from motorbike parts, we just go buy a harbour freight one for $250😂😂😂. I’ve also spent a day filing and cutting and making a widget that I could of bought for $3 too🙄🙄🙄
I'm a gen x guy, but use the same methods as you Tony. I reuse, save and repurpose everything I can and pride myself on building a car for as cheap as possible
My brother and I would discover my Dad running plug wires we threw away months earlier, lol! I'm glad he taught me to be resourceful with this old stuff. I keep a few parts cars and shelves of pull offs I frequent for supplies. Can't rely on the world any longer.
Hey Alpha, excellent video, spot on. I also have trouble ditching anything I could possibly find a future use for. I miss your hearing your astute commentary on societal shifts in person back in 'the grind' era. I distinctly remember your analysis of me personally when you stated I viewed money not for it's value, but as a means to an end. Again spot on. Be well amigo.
I think we are similar in age, and I can relate to your video. The funniest part , and the short explanation of your whole perspective is when you talk about spending $40 on dinner and describing it as “splurging”!! I hear and keep making great videos!
UT, I'm with you. I'm 47 and now that I have my own place (after having to buy a place with a double garage to house the cbody i bought with your inspiration haha) I'm now using hardware etc on the house that I've had stashed since I was 15!
Yeah I hear you Tony, good pointers, also have a few older trucks and cars, and alot of Older Harleys, which keep me busy, great idea with some XLCH fumes. Always imteresting watching your treasures and ideas, Love that Sporty, perfect Patina.
Hey Tony, You are 100 percent right about our era and saving things. Even if I replace a part that is starting to ware out, I can't throw it out cuz I might need part of it to make something else work. I have stuff that I grabbed from here and there cuz I may need it some day, and I just can't throw it out. If I do throw it out I will need it in a week or two (always). By the way I was born in 1954 so you know what I mean. It makes me feel great and powerful if I can make something work longer then it should. I bought a new bearing for our dryer cuz it was making noise, but I didn't install it until it broke. And I have the money to replace stuff but why, It still works - And no I'm not lazy. Later
Dad was a mechanic all his life. I cannot tell you the number of bucket of nuts bolts washers and such he had. Spare carb floats, points, starters. All for things to fit his truck of course, but the nuts and bolts thing; we never had to make a trip to Lowes for a bolt....
There's definitely a dopamine hit from the instant satisfaction of just buying things, but after 3 generations of dealing with the older generation's stuff (with my Dad, an older boomer, currently hording tens of thousands of pounds of it from his dad and grandfather) I'm much more likely to get rid of things if I don't have a use for them in a reasonable amount of time. I'm a "young" Gen-Xer who is now middle aged and is going to be dealing with the giant pile sooner than later... You also have to appreciate that you are in the extreme minority of hording boomers who have huge fleets of vehicles that are actually operational. Most guys have "I'll get around to it" cars and the piles that may or may not go with them, often burying them, that aren't doing much good. They hang on to the stuff with the mindset that they're going to do what you do, but very few actually do it. So, we younger people have been conditioned that thinking your stuff is just junk... because a lot of the time it simply is. You've no doubt seen this yourself when trying to buy cars. I remember one particular Firebird I looked at that the owner simply didn't know was sitting in standing water for 20 years because he hadn't actually seen it in that long. The garage was dry when he parked it there and started piling crap on it. There was nothing left of it. Anyhow, I think the bigger issue with at least the perception of the JJ guys is that they were handed a bag of money, a free car, and a place to work on it. They had what for most of us was a 10-15 year boost right off the bat. I'm not surprised they spent a bunch of money in odd places. I would have too given that much freedom and the wisdom I had when I was just getting started. I don't believe it's so much about what was valued, but about what had suddenly become possible.
There is a fine line between hoarding and saving parts. Sometimes it’s more expensive to store them than pitch them. If it’s an original part off a classic or specialized fastener/hardware I’ll keep it. Otherwise it goes into the pile for the scrappers.
Totally agree with the mentality. I'm a millennial but, I was out on my own pretty early and really didn't have anyone to fall back on. I had to learn to fix all of my own stuff since I couldn't afford to pay anyone, and didn't have any help. I learned to be frugle with many things. Even now, years later I save and reuse fasteners and materials and save scrap metal. The skills I've learned from all this has got me out of jams a lot of times. I really appreciate all the builds using common and stock parts and I'm looking forward to the 318 project.
I certainly got something out of that Tony, thank you for sharing your thoughts and the differences. I've just turned 40 myself, so technically a millennial, but my thoughts on not throwing things away if they are useful is much more like the boomers. In regards to tools, if I can make it easy enough I will make the tool, unless I can buy it quick enough and for a good enough price it's worth buying. As much as you can make just about any tool, you have to weigh up the money to buy it VS the time to make it from junk. Is it worth your time, or are you better spending your time on something else? I stopped counting my car's at 10 ( got plenty more, and the wife also has 4 of her own), most run, drive and are registered, and I've never had a car payment, or a car under 13 years old. As much as there is a few new or newish car's I"d like to own, I can't see the value in huge car payments to own them, while they are also declining in value. Thanks for the Video Tony, keep them coming!
All of my grandparents were born either just before or during the Great Depression. I'm also from Appalachia where until recently in a lot of places we were seemingly 20 years behind the rest of the country if not more. I'm glad I picked up my family's hoarding.
I was born in 1977, I got the tail end of it...im glad I did, I see that the younger generations were coddled, and really they are nuts, and afraid of everything. Afraid to get hurt, scared of a little cold and flu...idk what the future holds
All I know is the lack of productivity coming from that generation, due to video gaming, watching sports instead of playing them, and combined with smoking weed, has put our whole country at pause. And then I have to ask, why a McDonald's cheeseburger price should triple, when we get less courtesy when it's handed to us, smashed in a bag, half wrapped? But you're right, there are some that strive, and kudos to those that do.
Also, seriously, every generation says that about the next one/s. We've got the same kind of litanies in Cuneiform and like Plato's discourses, so that's all throughout history. This doesn't mean they weren't tryng hard to nerf the world for kids your age in some ways. Doesn't mean all the crazy was good, either, though.
I think a key thing to keep in mind is a lot of millennials and zoomers might not have the space to just keep stuff kicking around. When i lived with my parents i kept EVERYTHING (my closet and under my bed was just filled, not to mention the garage and shed). Now that ive moved out and live in a much much smaller space (all i can afford, down payment requirements are crazy) i wouldnt have the space to keep stuff
I picked up a 30" ariens snowblower cheap it had a popped engine gas in the oil I had a parts engine on the shelf from a generator I found in the trash don't toss anything with an engine on it I grew up with my grandparents too
Another way of looking at peoples perception of value when it comes to automotive parts or services it's kind of like this back in the depression people had literally next to nothing and because of the depression we had the war and because of the war within had people coming back from the war And that gave us hot rods and the way that the hot rods came about was simply people that had absolutely nothing and then they seen people lose it all through the whore of war and then they come back to basically nothing again and they had to build things from scratch they literally invented hot rods when they come back from the war which means every nut and bolt every panel every tire every engine combination they could get their hands on literally meant everything to them because it was all they had to work with and when you have all you have the work with and nothing more you appreciate what you have a hell of a lot more than people adjust pay for things when you actually build something from scratch with all you have to work with either through materials as of parts or mechanical ability when you actually build something you appreciate it much much more than the new generation that just orders it off the Internet and send it out to the shop to get rebuilt to totally different approaches and two different mindsets
The most versatile tool I have is a T-bar drive wrench I made myself. Allows precision control (low torque) by turning by hand at the "T" and using the end as a drive, or massive torque by holding it at the end and using the "T" as the drive wrench, plus it's more compact than a normal 1/2-inch wrench. I know it won't break, and I can even use it as a drift.
Tony, I'm a "Boomer" too brother. You should be proud of what you have done for those guys and this hobby of ours. Yeah, they are spending some money, but you got them excited about something other than video games and putting on lipstick. It's great to see these younger guys out there wrenching on some old iron for a change. We need more of this kind of enthusiasm in the world nowadays.
As a Gen-Xer I've had to watch as the Boomers caused us to go to a consumer based economy. Very frustrating. The across the board motto of the Boomer generation has always been "GIMME THAT ITS MINE!" 😂 But, yes, very well put Tony. And I can see the pendulum swinging the other way back towards things we buy having value. I've been frustrated for a long while because of this very reason. It seems that everything we buy is disposable, in that it will likely wear out and no longer function after a short amount of time. Then just toss it in the trash and go buy a replacement that does the exact same thing. Back when things were built to last, even if it got broken beyond repair, it was still made from metals which could be repurposed or sold for scrap. Things we pay hard earned money for loses any monetary value immediately after you buy it. So now we and the Millennials have to try and navigate our way through it all, while the aging baby boomers are busy driving their RVs all over the country from casino to casino, blowing the hell out of any inheritance we might have otherwise received. 😁
Multiple old guys have told me the value of holding onto hardware. One of my employers had what he called "the magic box" because whatever you needed would appear in it. When the hardware store was closed and I just needed a nut and washer to fix my snowblower, my personal "magic box" saved my butt. I've even been known to strip the fasteners, switches, and small brackets out of appliances before I junk them.
As the youngest child of depression era parents I identify with you. Dad could make anything he needed. My brothers and I watched him and knew if our car didn't run we walked. My place is a catch all for my son's projects, parts and currently my shop is my 14 year old grandson's work area. My son was raised with a work ethic few kids had. He was 13 when his "job" was repairing or changing forklift tires from 8.25x15 to 9:00x20. All were split rims and he made sure to get his tires done BEFORE going to school. I was a millwright in a sawmill and he was in my pocket to train when he turned 18. He spent about 15 years as a millwright. He is now 39 and is still a ball of fire. Cars people give him that won't run, he fixes and gets a couple years out of. Now his son is now doing the same stuff we do.
I can remember back in the pre AMD days guys would figure out all kinds of ways to fix rusty cars. I remember a great magazine article how somebody had figured out that 2 door L body door skins could be used for charger quarter panel patches.
I’m planning on taking my truck across country with my 8 year old son. 1978 f250 4wd 351 Cleveland. I might try to drop by. You are an inspiration and of my salts. I’m aiming for Dollywood. Coming from Oregon
Hey uncle Tony, really appreciate your channel. I learn a lot of stuff. I’m a boomer as well. I’ve got three hot rods out in the garage. I think old school is just ingrained in our DNA my space is just chok full of goodies aswell
Here goes my Old Man rant, this generation in my experience is intellectually incurious, see everything not from their generation as corrupt or corrupting, and expect someone else to fix the world to be to their liking, without having to lift a finger to make it happen. What they expect is instant gratification in a disposable world, all I can say in their defense is that businesses, corporations have set them up for failure in a system that rarely offers value and quality, and who's main motivation is GREED and not offering quality and value for the ridiculous prices of EVERYTHING.
I have every roller cam. I can can build 5 FEs out of my shed and I can give a lot of stuff away and I do. I am a hoarder. 62 years old and my wife and son think I am crazy.
@@wonka4 how old are you? Lol. It was the engine in the GT40 that won LeMans in the mid 60s and handed Ferrari his ass at his home track. And it was in NASCAR winning despite being at a disadvantage to the Hemi, they still won a lot of championships. Their Hemi was banned because it was SOHC. Fine engine!
@@Bbba724 Sounds great. Im 35, never cared much for cars until these last couple years. So its all chinese to me lol. Plus im from south america, so car culture might not be as much as a big deal here as it is in the US, where people drive everywhere all the time and such. Im eager to learn though :)
As a 16 year old fan I agree completely with the arp bolt thing. I know a guy who put all arp hardware on his sbc 350 even the valve cover bolts. I just couldn't understand why you would need that. I had to break down and buy a set of arp con rod bolts because the bolts came loose in the rod. I take engines and parts from many of the older guys in my area and love when I get bolts, brackets, and other parts. I don't have to pay anything other than the time to clean it up
Lol, that was friggin' great. Well spoken Uncle Tony. I have ALWAYS felt blessed to have grown up with Grandma and Grandpa close by. Grandpa was born in 1901, I was born 1961 that should tell some of the (my) story. Starting the Scoot in the house. I did this just yesterday. Warmest part of the day I ran a couple of the cars in the garage with the door only open enough so I didn't die. Lit a smoke and let thermostats open. Came in with sweatshirt smelling like exhaust and finished my chores.
I'm 38 years old, and I have the same mentality. I refuse to spend money on anything that I think I can make with miscellaneous junk metal and parts I have laying around. The downside is, i'm running out of space for all of my junk 😂
The way things are going it would be wise to save certain hardware, scrap iron, tires, lumber, etc.
I'm running out of space for junk too, will end up cutting down more trees.
Absolutely. My wife rolls her eyes at me some times but I have spare parts and extra pieces of broken junk for EVERY situation.
Same. buying everything isn't a real option anymore at current prices. The cost of doing business and cost of materials has also made it to where 9 out of 10 shops will scrw you over so sending everything out isn't a real option anymore either.
You've really got to curate based on what space you really have. Large items you 'might one day fix' usually should be passed on or scavenged, materials, condense to racks and bins, say, rather than having broken chairs around waiting for you to turn one more spindle to match someday, etc. I hoard the little bits and stock that makes me look like a hero when I can fix or make something on the fly. :)
Not gonna lie, the motorcycle exhaust bit got me. I once met a girl working in a bar, after working in a stamping plant (the whole place reeked of gear oil). Girls boyfriend was a gear head, after smelling me, she gave me a hug and said I LOVE the smell of gear oil! Great memories. Keep working hard brothers.
I'm often amazed at how my generation X just gets passed over. We were there during 8 track tapes...and brought in the tech age. Being from the northeast I went picking coal with my grandparents..something my daughter can't begin to wrap her head around. We are stuck between self absorbed boomers and whiny millenials...the squeeky wheels get the grease I guess.
You are not alone
They get overlooked because more and more of Gen X is turning into the bitter and whining version of boomers that can't even define the millennials they bitch about properly. GenX is starting to largely display all the bad traits of both generations with a propensity for fanaticism and sectarian politics.
Don't forget that the old side of millenials are now in their 40s. Most of the whining you hear right now is from Zoomers.
Anyhow, like all middle aged populations, we're now the ones towing the line. We're the primary wage earners, and primary tax payers feeding the ponzi, so nobody is too interested in us and we're too busy to really be too concerned about complaining. We will do this until our kids spread their own wings and we have time to look for the next whipping post generation and they will probably look right back at us. Just as our grandparents were convinced we Gen Xers were going to ruin the world, just as our parents grandparents were convinced their hippie ways and rock and roll would do the same (I'm still taking bets on that one), we shall look to the Zoomers kids when they get here and waggle our fingers at them. It's a time honored tradition. 😆
Gen-Xers have pretty much been the new silent generation as soon as we got out of high school.
@@TheBrokenLife I often say we are analog..but not afraid of tech. I guess we are a little too busy to be worried with horseshit...but I never felt we wete a "look at me" generation. I work with a bunch of millenials for the most part they don't bother me..but other times I want to tell them to just do their job and shut up. We are a very interesting generation in my opinion...and yes it is a possibility that I'm turning into a grouchy ole man...haha
@@creeksidegarage852 yeah I’m 54 and it’s like it Never was our era. 🤣
My grandfather had a farm that he took over from his father in the early 1920's. He was born in 1901 and had at most an 8th grade education. He ran that farm for almost 70 years and was an incredibly fascinating man. I spent many summers there and when I was a kid I would spend hours in his "hardware" shed. It had so many nuts, bolts, machine parts, do-hickeys, thingamagigs and bits and bobs. It looked like a bomb had gone off in it, literal piles of stuff everywhere, but he knew exactly what he had, where it was, and what he could use it for.
When I was in my late teens I helped him change the drive gears on an old John Deere bulldozer, had to strip the tracks off it and remove the casings, and other than the broken gears that he had to buy, he managed to find things in that pile of hardware to put it back together. He was in his 70's at this point, and I asked him how he knew how to do this job, he just said " I don't, but if I can take it apart, I can put it back together."
Except for the delivery trucks, he never bought new,, always bought auction or second hand tractors, balers, and other farm equipment.
I did something similar when I first built my shop. I couldn't afford much at all when I was 20 so I just bought all stuff from the 50s and 60s off craigslist. Everything I bought you can fix with a 9/16 wrench and a flathead screwdriver. The new stuff is awful to work on. That said I did buy a new thickness planer since they tend to get beaten to death and used cost as much as new so there wasn't much point trying to buy a used one.
Farmed for 40 years , never had anything new . Never disappointed with anything I bought at auction, many times got burnt on private purchases . One of my rules of thumb was if I could pay for a tool in one use then buy it just in case
Major corporations have groomed society by offering convenience. The instant gratification you mentioned is spot-on. True hot rodding is rooted in resorcefulness; making the best of what stuff you have and what skills you possess rather than using your debit card. I've made patch panels for vehicles out of everything from old filing cabinets to washing machine lids. I have two 5-gallon buckets of misc. hardware. One SAE and one metric. I seldom have to go to the hardware store.
I think you nailed ot
. I have two 5-gallon buckets of misc. hardware.
I tend to use junkyard parts if I can.
Got a great deal when I lived in Alaska. We had a junkyard that went out of business and we could grab anything we wanted. Wish I stocked up alot more now because I got more projects now.
So did you make that Road Runner out of a bunch of spare parts and elbow grease you had laying around or did you buy it for pennies on the dollar in 1977-1995 lol? 🤔
@9:02 That heat shield would be perfect for an episode of “Uncle Tony builds a custom hand guard for custom AR-15”
That is great! My dad and I rebuilt a TH 400 when I was 15. We made three tools like your press idea. We still have those tools and only used them one more time. I am the same way to this day.
I'm similar but I will also invest in certain tools as well if I know I'll use them again later on. I spent a lot on my fuel line bender and flare tools since the ones at the auto parts store are junk. Cheap tools usually take longer to use than the good ones. I also lend those out to people on my race team since we know they can do the job.
Awesome video, I need to show it to my wife, I’m a Millennial but followed the steps of my grandfather. They complain about our stash until something needs to be fixed and they don’t had to pay anything for fixing it.
Yup. My wife recognizes that I have saved boo koo money on cars. We've NEVER had a car payment, NEVER. no money wasted on interest. I also have Too Many Cars!!
Oh my gosh yes!!! My wife has finally come around to my madness. She now understands why I keep spare parts of everything. I daily drive a 56 year old truck. And I’ve kept that sucker on the road.
I had to laugh. I want my wife to see this video too. Every time I get rid of something I end up needing it within a year or so. Happened again just this past week, and my wife agreed that it's weird how that happens.
Funny part is that they don’t see and you can’t say anything about their make up drawer, closet etc etc 😆
Took my city girl a while to catch on to what those buckets of stuff were good for .
Ive always strived to be like my Grand Pa. When I was staying on my GrandParents farm as a kid, my bicycle broke, and my grandpa rebuilt the wheel bearing with shotgun BB's.
Lead?
@@ramtrucks721 Probably, but it worked
This is honestly the most genuine take on the generational divide. I respect your take, but I actually view it as the opposite. You mentioned it in the beginning about how Boomers set us up for what we value. I have just witnessed Boomers being much more materialistic than me as a millennial. I think some of us millennials have a more Depression era mindset due to living through two major Recessions already in our working lifetime.
Agreed This isn't really a terribly accurate take. It's not really a generational divide he's describing it's a class divide. What he's really noticing is that for the most part the only millennials or gen Z folks who WANT to and can AFFORD to own and work on older Mopar cars today are RICH. And If you grew up rich and or are building cars on UA-cam to farm clout. Only buying and using brand new parts/ tools is just normal.
The 20 year old's working on early 2000s Honda civics these days aren't exactly throwing out parts.
living through two major Recessions already
The annoying thing about Boomers is they pretend they aren't materialistic about cars when they actually are. "I don't care what it looks like as long as it gets me from point A to B" (Always has a nice car no older than 7yrs lol).
@@mikesteelheart I see that a lot. Only up until recently, I dailyed the cheapest running auction cars I could buy. Basically my only requirements were that it had a manual transmission, be good on gas, be easy to get parts for, and not be a rust bucket. I still have one just in case shit hits the fan and I decide to sell my nicer (but still base model subcompact) 2015 Honda Fit. Plus I see it as good practice to have at least 2 cars at all times. At a minimum, one compact and one truck.
Major recessions? Try 1966-1984, that was 16 years of recession. Cities went bankrupt, pension plans failed, In Miami, Eastern, National, and Pan-Am all failed during the Ray-gun administration. While some under 30 folks can live off the grid, most can't live 24 hours without their smartphones. Really, when was the last time any of you went ONE day without the internet? Excellent Video Sir--I hope to see it playing in shop and auto classes in high schools everywhere.
We could be at war with China soon. This means no imports from China at all. No smartphones, laptops, tv's medical implants, and so much more.
My guess is that you'll get a lot of disagreemnt on this video...but not from me! 👍
As a millennial guy raised by my great grandparents and grandfather, I completely agree with ya. I have around 15 vehicles of all sizes that all run and will drive me anywhere i need to go..so long as i put a battery in it. I save EVERY nut, bolt and washer I find. I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out. I've gotten very creative with my storage space but im runnin out of room now.
The plight of the gearhead.
@@VinnyMartello yep. Pretty much lol
If you were truly frugal you wouldn't have 15 cars LOL
Buy more land
@@darksu6947 Lol I already have some say in 829,440 acres. No cap! And full say in 15 acres else where..need to clear it back some more. Not to mention the 3 acres my house sits on and the 2 additional acres I will acquire upon my mothers passing. Good on land my friend
Tony I can relate to everything you’re saying my grandfathers born in 1899 and 1902 and they saved everything. They would disassemble old appliances and save every bolt, nut screw, dial, drums from washing machines, etc. as a baby boomer I’m almost the same way. I come from a one car family usually a pickup truck. My dad would fix all his on flats on those split ring wheels by hand, patch the tubes and go on down the line. I once saw him take a piece of bailing wire and and tied the carb on his truck together because the base of the carb cracked to get us home. We were in the middle of nowhere and he always carried wire and pliers, etc in hi truck and even rolled his own cigarettes by hand while he was driving. No a/c in any car or truck we owned or in the house. I’ll tell you e(at there wasn’t much my grandfathers and father couldn’t fix.
Sounds like a real cool guy
@@domenicscarfo1866 worked our asses off okay time came later. We were assigned chores to do everyday when we got home from school and those chores had better be done
@@domenicscarfo1866 play time came later after our chores
I STILL LIVE LIKE THAT!!!
I do food reviews while I’m super high on my UA-cam channel lol
Meanwhile, those of us in Gen X think both Boomers and Millennials are nuts.
Gen X is objectively the worst, most Fd up generation though lol.
🤘😺🤘 Gen X
Different era, different world.
Speak for yourself. I'm Gen X and I agree with Tony. Think of this. Even though I was never a parent, which generation raised the Millennials??? It makes me chuckle how my generation cracks on the baby boomers and yet Gen X has made plenty of mistakes as well!! As a matter of fact our generation has a huge hand in where this country is now along with the young adults who were raised by Gen X. Now this country as well as the whole planet is on a highway to hell!
@@UFC_Buffalo Nope. Gen X is the most sane gereration.
I’m 38, and I have the older mentality. Just like the kitchen junk drawer I have a scrap metal pile, and my most precious resource-the miscellaneous box of springs.
Tony, this is part of what I love about your channel. You apply great lessons about why we do this. I tell my family and friends all the time that part of what makes this hobby fun is breathing new life into something old - keeping something running and relevant instead of letting it go to waste. Also as a precious metals investor myself, I appreciate that you often throw in a plug for "sound money"!
This is what people used to refer to as "Sage Advice"
The spirit of what you are talking about was passed down to me through my Grand parents who were beginning their teen years when the Great Depression hit. I cherish the lessons they taught me. It has allowed me to do far more than I could have had they not taken the time to show me these things, and the WHY of the philosophy.
Great lesson here Uncle Tony, as we used to say in my youth, Right On Man!
I'm part of Gen-X, and I feel like I may have gotten caught in the middle of this... I hate putting old crusty hardware on parts of the car I'm fixing and cleaning up.... yet I couldn't toss all the old parts that I replaced with newer items... I have everything that originally came on the car still... You never know what you might need later! I do also tend to horde old hardware... nuts, bolts, washers, screws, random bits of metal, etc.
I'm a Gen Xer too. I keep things that are of historic value to the car with the intention that they stay with the car, but if we're talking busted shocks, saggy springs, and fouled plugs... off to the dumpster they go. That's the kind of junk my Dad and his Dad before him would keep around and in most cases it simply is just junk.
@@TheBrokenLife True most of the stuff I'm keeping in case I (or someone) wants to try and put the car back close to 100% stock at some point. Generally I don't keep consumable items like brake pads or the like, unless they still have life in them -- then I might stash 'em for a just-in-case. I also try to get rid of the things that I know I'll never-ever use again as it just takes up space for no reason in that case, but I tend to error on the side of caution when tossing stuff out! I've been called a packrat before...
Actually last night me and pops were chatting.
He's retired, has a 5000sq ft airplane hangar and I'm up there all the time.
I've gotten us a lathe and mill and a nice snap on tire machine and balancer.
Next we need a lift,we both are tired of crawling on the ground.
He's pretty much my best friend at this stage of my life.
Funny how that happens, when we were teenagers we knew it all and our parents were stupid, and now I realize how stupid I was back then.
It's like when you're a teenager you can't wait to get away from them, but when you get older you can't wait to get back to them.
So we hang out like 3 nights a week at the shop for 2-3hrs a night , and like 5-6hrs on weekend nights.
I've got like 3 cars , he's got a plane and a couple motorcycles.
He's not into building cars ,he lives that part thru me.
Doesn't matter what we wrench on , could be a widget on a lathe for a buddy ,replacing the wife's laptop battery or fixing a mower.
He's 79, gets around just fine but I keep getting slapped in the face that he's not gonna be here forever.
went up to the community dump when I was 8 and pounded out nails so I could build a bike park, grandpa was a depressions kid, passed it on to my dad and I'm trying to keep the line at 27, love your videos man
You nailed it! I too am a baby boomer generation but I feel as my father and grandfather did about saving parts and fixing verses tossing things. What you said is so true that the world we live in has become a throw away generation. No one fixes anything anymore but going along with this is that manufactures know this and build products that are now throw away too. Years ago things were meant to last a lifetime or be serviced now they just wear out. "Planned obsolescence" is the state of things. FYI - just as a point of reference. My kids went to the same high school as I did. When I went to open house I went down to the auto shop and it was completely different. I remember when it was the bays were full of muscel and old cars ... 67 GTO, 70 Chevelle, 65 MG, and more. Kids were building hotrods and learning how to build motors and work on cars. I asked the shop teacher : "What happened" all I see is a testing unit, robotics, and desks ????? He said things have changed. Instead of how big is your motor or how fast is you car now its how big is your harddrive and how fast is your PC. WOW! times had changed. My sons generation, (in general), really dont care about cars anymore. Look at car shows ... old people like me are there who own, drive, and care. Young ones are there because they came with us but it is not there cup of tea anymore. Sad but this is what I see. My grand kids had no interest in my 67 Amphicar or 75 Bricklin. Now I have a 65 Sunbeam Tiger ... No interest at all. Me when I was that age would be going crazy!
I sympathise with you my kids have no interest in my 69 SS or the 55 chevy or the 65 vette.. I'll be buried with my damn cars before these vultures get and sell them!! These wolves have had insurance inspections done and appraisals while I was in the hospital. What the fuck is wrong with this generation????
@@datasecure5790 that is horrible
I am 35. We are probably seeing the last of guys that appreciate and build ice cars. When I go to old hot rod shows and car shows I mostly see 60+ year old guys. Not to mention the hobby isn't cheap to do it right. Even working in the field and being able to do your own work/restoration you're looking at a lot of money for an pre 70s car.
We care for our now 94 year old aunt born 1928. We often are amazed by 5he amount of boxes, bags, etc. that she has collected over the years. All part of that same mentality that came with their generation.
I am a Millennial, My dad taught me the save a lot of crap. So, when you throw some crap away very soon you are going to need said crap and you go to the store to buy that crap again. I want to save, but then it is like, well I have not use this in over 5 years so you throw it away knowing damn well you will probably need it.
The problem is, the space runs out and it turns into a hoard. Then you need to buy a bigger property to put the hoard in.
Its a cycle. Or a mental illness. Either way it is fun to collect stuff.
I'm 39 years old and I know exactly what you are talking about. I'm like you I don't throw good stuff away and I don't spend money on crap I don't need. I think a lot of it has to do with all the time I spent around my grandmother as a child. Great Depression era. And my parents were exactly like how you say pissed money away on junk.
I (tail-end millennial) always try to keep and repair what I can. Parts that get removed or replaced get stored. But I have access to something many my age don't: space. Most of my friends live in apartments or smaller houses because that's all they can afford. They can't store anything, there's no room. They can't work on their own cars, apartments won't allow it. I have access to garage space, a storage shed, and a lift...at my (boomer) parents house.
My parents have a good-sized garage, lots of storage, and a big backyard. For many in my circle those are luxuries. Luxuries I myself probably won't have for many years. Till then, I lean on my parents generosity.
My grandparents both raised me on this same exact belief and I still hold myself to the same ideology of using what you have and fixing what you can
You may be a boomer, but you're one of the most wise boomers I know. The amount of information you've posted is extremely valuable to young guys like me.
I totally agree Tony, this is a throw away society. I grew up in a family that had no money. My dad had a bad heart issue when he was young and couldn't work and was only getting a government disability pension, which as you know isn't much, so he held onto things that he felt he could use later, make something he could sell for a little extra money. He would go to auctions and would buy the $2 box lots at the end that no one else wanted, because he knew he could do something with something in it. And I have lived my life that way after his example. I hold on to a lot of stuff, I will buy something cheap that I saw other uses for beyond what it was originally intended. I have bought tools that were on ridiculous cheap sales, with my wife thinking I was nuts and declaring I will never use it. But I have used those tools saving myself a ton of money from taking a car to a shop, and have made money using those tools to fix things for other people.
Its definitely a mindset of different generations and upraising. Thankfully my daughters see the value in things and not have the throw away mentality.
I have learned over the years that the more confident you are in what you are doing the more comfortable you are in reusing parts. newbies often equate new and shiny to reliable.
Great advise vid! Thanks
Part of the problem now is storage for stuff is being squeezed out of our options. $$ for storage along with smaller housing, apartments and accompanying storage space.
My grandfather was a waterman on the Potomac river. You would pick up a piece of rope a foot long off the ground and been run over thousands of times. He would say save it may need it one day. When he died we found boxes and boxes of pieces of old rope. When you went to your pile of stuff that reminded me of that and I smiled. I still have a piece of the rope from one of the boxes I made a key fob for my keys. It finally got used I guess.
Well, pieces of old rope and some tar means sealing something clinkerbuilt, I guess. :)
Our family trucking company has parts and pieces ,some brand new, for trucks we haven't owned for 30 + years. When a truck is broken on a Saturday night and has to be on the road Sunday morning, something on the shelf or in the scrap piles can be made to work.
I moved "out of town" 7-8 years ago, 45 minute round trip to the nearest hardware store or auto parts store. It got old REAL fast driving 1-2 times a day when working on something for parts or supples. Now it seems my goal is to fix stuff with what I have on hand. Nothing too crazy, but modify stuff to make it work, fasteners from the scrap bolt bin, make a thread chaser from a nut.
Iam 39 years old raised by my grandpa and grandma who were born in 1917 i don't throw anything away and I am a auto technician for a living, the times the stuff I have saves our shop or my butt is amazing . Best video yet
Being a Gen Xer caught in between sometimes, it seemed we sometimes were making the most of what either sort of 'culture' left over, 'If you want something nice, you can't often buy it, gotta fix it.' But stuff was still fixable or made of good stuff. People were throwing stuff out too soon even in the Nineties, but nowadays, so much is unserviceable/junk coming out the door.
And on tools, you can learn a whole Hel of a lot improvising, but I get all the tools I can. The right tool for *that* job is often my price when I'm fixing poorer peoples' cars, if that's what it takes, and I might turn around and improvise fixing... say, a washing machine, with *that.*
But I'll point out that younger generations than say Boomers often can't afford ....a barn to keep all that stuff, even, or whatnot. Space and stability are the scarcities, most of the time, and people tend to have to curate what they got. And...less is repairable or generally-applicable. As we find out now, even buying things new doesn't mean it's not crap anymore, but that doesn't mean even Gen Xer here got to keep things. (Certainly some of the cars I had and couldn't keep when they were only worth three digits but much nicer than you'd find for thousands now, I wanted to shove in a time tunnel for a hopeful later, but....) Definitely I always kept fasteners and fittings, but bigger stuff just couldn't come along in an unstable life and situation.
Sometimes the culture represents the practicalities, especially when people grew up in em. Rather than so much the other way around. The people that taught *me* a lot of things were Boomers and older, (and they thought we were all wrong cause you could no longer buy a house and have a family on one regular job, like realizing that made one a 'slacker.' ) ...but by the time someone's a Millenial they don't even know what it *is* to expect a Walkman to last twenty years even if you're sticking match-ends in the volume pot. :) And the furniture Yuppies put out on the street then was ....good wood and stuff you could refurbish, but the 'modern' stuff that replaced it, ...mostly trash ...not something you'd even think to treasure.
On another track, a reason younger generations like four-doors is cause (a they're bigger) and B It was a rarity to spend teen years with an individual car for them, they'd be piling a bunch of friends into one aunt's hand-me-down, instead of necessarily driving to meet people and going from there. I don't think that's some cultural opinion they had, it's just the two doors didn't fit how they lived so well. Gen X would be more like, 'Less bloat and maybe wheelbase and less hinges and windows to squeak and rattle and be heavy and do contortions to lock and unlock and .... most of all Not Mom's Car. ' :)
Anyway, pathological hoarders aside, Gen X does remember pick and pull yards and thrift stores with decent quality clothes even if you had three similar things in the closet depending what outfit might conceal what stain, but the 'throwaway culture' of the upwardly mobile back then isn't the same as the 'Most stuff isn't worth keeping' realities of a lot of what is sold in this century, at least if kids can get it.
Hoarders tend to be hung up on acquiring and keeping 'things' they will *never* be capable of fixing, and a number of old Boomers and pre-Boomers seem to be all about *owning status things even if there's too many to look at properly and it's all too precious to ever use or enjoy for anything even at the end of life.* I think the general crisis of material culture squeezes out in many ways, including cars and houses being accumulated but out of reach by people that just want to 'own.' Kinda can't blame the kids for not wanting the same mode. And it's stunning how few own a proper flashlight or household tools.
As a gen x'er, I do like my phone that replaced that pesky flashlight that I'd always lose.
Haha high tech smartphone ,and the best feature is the built in flashlight.
@@MrTheHillfolk Well, there's a lot of situations where you might want to use a flashlight a lot and also not drain your phone battery.
The end, yes! That was awesome! The smell of exhaust and gasoline should make those shirts double in value! True authentic gear head apparel.
My grandfather was a farmer in his prime in the 30's. He had a John Deere 50. When the water pump would go out, you didn't just toss it and put a new one on. He rebuilt the old one. Same with starters and alternators. You repaired it or did without.
Or perhaps that guy across the way that owns a JD50 might have one he wants to bargain for....
Makes sense. I’m a hoarder to a degree. But sometimes I go the “modern” route. If I can buy a starter for 60 bucks or a rebuild kit for 40 I buy the whole starter and keep the broken one for later haha.
One the main reasons I love your channel is that you share and school values. Which is in dire need in todays generation of young people people. Thanks god for guys like you.. 🤜🤛👍
AGAIN - NOTHING FINER THAN MAKING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING. LOVE THE VIDS TONY.
My dad taught me like this. I didn't like it as a kid, but man do I appreciate it now.
As a millennial, here's my take on the collection of screws and things. My dad has a dresser full of bolts and screws and washers and stuff. I would love something like that, but it's not practical because I cannot afford SPACE. I have my bike projects, they're squirrelled away in a storage unit where I'm not allowed to work on stuff, and I've only lived in apartments and rented rooms where, only some of the time, I can get away with working on something in the driveway in daytime on weekends. Nowhere in this equation does a stockpile of spare parts and fasteners fit. The whole budget goes into a place to put a bed and a place to put the bikes. The parts and things to build the project are much cheaper than the garage space which boomers generally had fairly easy access to, and now in older age have MUCH easier access to. So I'll go to the hardware store and spend $20 on bolts, because I'm saving $10,000 a year not having a garage. Of course it doesn't help that all garages come bundled with a pile of extra bedrooms and bathrooms and lawns that I don't care about, but if I want to change my own oil I need a $400,000 mortgage. The fact that I own a couple bikes and two cars is NUTS in my generation, since it's well understood that it's impossible to own anything until you're well established with a wife and two solid careers and so forth. You're "supposed to" start out owning nothing, but putting your paychecks into a nice apartment and a nice car, with which you're supposed to attract some girl, and then accidentally start a family, and eventually make your way out into the suburbs in your 40s, acquiring a project car during the midlife crisis. You'll find a thousand luxury apartments cheaper than the first ratty moldy house with a garage. Garages are for rich people, leased BMW 5-series are for poor people. It's disgusting. At least that's how it seems here in the PNW - maybe out in Corn Country things are different.
This is one thing Boomers don't take into account. Most Millennials do not have the space to hoard things. There are far more of us than there were boomers and we are now the backbone of the working class, surprisingly enough. The thing that sucks is there are too many people and not enough houses on the market. Renting sucks because you're throwing money away into thin air for something you'll never own and it's insanely hard to find a house you won't be paying for until you're dead at this point. Housing prices are insane. Comparatively, land and building homes was much cheaper 50 years ago when boomers were working and there was far more land and far less people.
Housing really is our crux. We can't seem to really get into the home ownership market as easily as previous generations because of the debt-based economy. Banks want you to rent. They want you to get a mortgage that you pay until you're dead, then foreclose and finance it for the 10x the price they sold it to you for 30+ years ago.
I got lucky and my uncle, with no children died and my aunt, who lives thousands of miles away inherited the property but didn't want to deal with it and I got my house on the cheap and should be done paying for it before I'm too old. The only way Millennials get property is by someone dying, buying it for them or taking an unused property from their parents, etc. Our options for home ownership, for the vast majority of millennials, is really limited.
That's not to say it can't be done, but if there's one thing I will agree with, Millennials have it WAYYY harder finding/buying/owning property.
Early Gen Z here. I've noticed that a lot of my ilk tend to WANT to live in the city where everything is overpriced. That being said, space these days is at a premium. I am fortunate that I was given a new car by mom and dad, though I really don't need one until I graduate... it's funny. I have that "hoarder" mindset while my parents have that "convenience" mindset.
I have enough cash and cojones to do a project car. Space is at a premium because there's so much crap in my garage that my parents don't use and refuse to throw out. That may change sooner or later though. Space really is at a premium, gone are the days when you would pool money to buy a car with your friends and go fix it up/racing with it.
Insurance is a bitch too, seems like they want to punish you for doing anything besides getting drunk and playing video games.
@@husky3g Whenever I hear of people struggling to afford a house or rent I wonder if they get any support from their parents. I'm not a parent but I feel like in this day and age, family has to try and support family. But I am from a different culture and this mindset is very much a cultural thing.
Great video, I can relate to so much you said.
I am Gen X but grew up with my grandparents (born 1907 & 1913) and share their Great Depression values. I learned the word "improvise" very early.
It’s all about the way you’re raised. I’m a millennial raised on an old set of values, and by extensions don’t share the same consumer mindset as most of my peers. I see a lot of folks here relate to your video as well. Nice to see not all millennials and gen Xers fit their stereotypes. Hell, I even know a few gen Z kids that break the mold. But those are REALLY rare.
UT, I was raised exactly like that. Born 1971, guess I'm Gen-X. I save ALL usable hardware and material too. It's amazing the uses you find for stuff that most people would throw away. Another great video buddy. Keep em coming. Thanks man.
Made me think of the broken lawnmower blades i save incase i need the steel
Nailed that one right on the head UT! I love what you do man, keep on jammin brother
Rebuilding a 390 for a 70 f250 currently. Reusing everything I can. Unfortunately the other thing is labor costs. Many things are cheaper to buy than have refinished if you can’t DIY.
Good message. Have deep respect for Depression era people.
Im a millennial, when I started rebuilding motorcycles and now my truck, most of my parts came from the salvage yard. Yes, there are some parts that you need to buy new and I do. But I prefer going to the salvage yard and finding what I need whenever I can. A lot of my tools are older than me, I get them from antique stores, yard sales, pretty much anywhere and everywhere. Heck, I had an old dryer that I took apart, cut up the metal into large flat sections that I use for fabricating patch panels because its the same gauge metal as the body panels and floors as my truck.
I didnt grow up poor, but I didnt grow up with a lot of money either, so I made do with what I had around and its carried me into how I am today. I also worked very hard to get out of debt and do not plan on going back into it if I can help it, the only thing I own on is my house.
Tony, I understand totally. My Dad had one wall in the back of his shop full of bins of nuts, bolts and all sorts of fasteners that I don't have a clue what they are and I mean bins floor to ceiling. I'm 73 now and my Dad has been gone for over ten years but I still sneak in there for stuff. There are even tons of DPCD Bolts that I am using on my 65 Valiant when I can find the right ones. My Daddy was Depression era and a WWII Navy vet and he never threw anything away.
Im 27 and relate with you more, just this summer I got a 64 valiant that was abandoned behind my parent's house and the pure joy i had only having to replace one $13 wheel cylinder, a real cheapass victory lol. When I was younger i did buy a lot of new unnecessary parts, but it was more that I wanted to try them. But I even went as far as making my own exhaust and even made my own mufflers, no way was I paying $90 for one muffler lol. I also grew up with no money tho, during highschool it was buy gas or lunch. Lol I do the exact same thing with scrap metal.
You are so right mate, I am putting my Restomod 57 pontiac together with a lot of used repurposed parts from Hondas, chevy , ford,
It is amazing how much money and more so time saved in using something that is already formed and built for you which you just so happen to have lying around.
My Pontiac is a budget build so it’s working out great for me.
I'm 42 or 43, who knows. But anyway. I grew up poor. I don't care what it is, if I can use it, I save it. My wife hates it and calls me a hoarder. But when I have to fix something. I go dig out the parts and make something work. Rarely buy anything. But she still doesn't care. She says throw it all out. We'll buy it if we need it. I refuse. Every time I throw something out. I need it a week later. I can't take it
about 10 pallets could make shelves...and your space will be organized..my 66 van and 76 van are treasures to me...
I'm 64 and have been a mechanic forever. I've learned with the younger guys it's hard for them to relate to my generation which is fine. I can suggest ways to do a job and without fail they will go there own way. Cool. When they are in a bad situation that they can't figure out they will come and ask me. It's fine.
As long as they don't ask first, then ignore the advice, and then want bailed out too... I have a coworker who does that to me frequently and I just about lose my mind every time it happens.
_"Hey, is that fire hot."_ *Yes, yes it is.* _"So... I went ahead a badly burned myself on that fire you told me was hot. Can you give me a ride to the hospital?"_ *No... No I can't.* 😆
@@TheBrokenLife I've had that too, Especially with the wife.
@@michaeledge8905 Ut oh... That one's a razor's edge to walk on for sure. 😂
Thanks for making me feel better about being EXACTLY the same about it all. some of mine only can be made to run well enough to move under their own power.
Wow! I get it. I have a stash of “custom” purpose-built tools that I’ve made for over 4 decades. I have a clutch puller I made to fix my neighbors Chevy A/C compressor in the ‘90’s. Have used it twice. Lots of other stuff. My dad did the same thing. He had me straighten out bent nails with a hammer when I was 5. We wasted nothing, he didn’t have a high paying job, but we didn’t do without, because…… same reason!
I know exactly what you mean. I recently sold my house and when I was cleaning out my garage I couldn't bear to throw away my stash of catch all. So I packed it all up and it's coming to my new place! Over the years my stash has saved me time and money while working on a vehicle at all hours of the night.
I've been driving the same rusty old truck for 20 years. I grew up poor, but now I have money because I don't spend it. Some people are consumers... they'll be consumed. Some people are survivors... we will thrive.
Same. I’ve only owned 3 vehicles that were daily drivers my whole life (I’m 48, all trucks). Two of them are still in my driveway and registered daily drivers, the newest being 25 yrs old. I take care of my stuff and don’t like throwing stuff out. 😂
I'm the same way, Tony. I have plastic storage boxes with original, correct head marked bolts for restoration and repairs. So much cheaper than buying the repo marked bolts.
At age 73 I have traveled the road you describe, was a time for a few decades that I saved everything, made or tried to make everything. There is a limit to this mentality. You need space, lots of it and you need to be extremely well organized because if not you will spend so much time searching for that part you just know you have that it drives you nuts and actually wastes precious time. Trying to make do and build your own stuff can be fun but unless you are real good at fabrication you most often end up with a second rate product and for me I found I just could not live with those results. It is easy to get caught up in making things for the car or whatever and that becomes the journey rather than making your car or some other piece of machinery.
I have honest to God watched my Dad (just about your age) sift for _hours_ to find a specific nut or bolt among the disorganized pile that was what he inherited from his Dad. To this day, 30 years later, it's not much better now. The insult to injury is at almost exactly that same time a new hardware store opened up about 5 minutes up the road with what is still one of the best nut and bolt selections I have ever seen. At some point, life is just too short for some of that stuff. I wish my Dad would see the light, but...
58, same mentality.
That said, I’ve laughed at Eastern Europe videos where they make homemade tractors and stuff and think, man you wasted how much time cobbling together a cement mixer from motorbike parts, we just go buy a harbour freight one for $250😂😂😂.
I’ve also spent a day filing and cutting and making a widget that I could of bought for $3 too🙄🙄🙄
I'm a gen x guy, but use the same methods as you Tony. I reuse, save and repurpose everything I can and pride myself on building a car for as cheap as possible
🤘😺🤘 Gen X
My brother and I would discover my Dad running plug wires we threw away months earlier, lol! I'm glad he taught me to be resourceful with this old stuff. I keep a few parts cars and shelves of pull offs I frequent for supplies. Can't rely on the world any longer.
Hey Alpha, excellent video, spot on. I also have trouble ditching anything I could possibly find a future use for. I miss your hearing your astute commentary on societal shifts in person back in 'the grind' era. I distinctly remember your analysis of me personally when you stated I viewed money not for it's value, but as a means to an end. Again spot on. Be well amigo.
I think we are similar in age, and I can relate to your video. The funniest part , and the short explanation of your whole perspective is when you talk about spending $40 on dinner and describing it as “splurging”!! I hear and keep making great videos!
UT, I'm with you. I'm 47 and now that I have my own place (after having to buy a place with a double garage to house the cbody i bought with your inspiration haha) I'm now using hardware etc on the house that I've had stashed since I was 15!
Yeah I hear you Tony, good pointers, also have a few older trucks and cars, and alot of Older Harleys, which keep me busy, great idea with some XLCH fumes. Always imteresting watching your treasures and ideas, Love that Sporty, perfect Patina.
Hey Tony, You are 100 percent right about our era and saving things. Even if I replace a part that is starting to ware out, I can't throw it out cuz I might need part of it to make something else work. I have stuff that I grabbed from here and there cuz I may need it some day, and I just can't throw it out. If I do throw it out I will need it in a week or two (always). By the way I was born in 1954 so you know what I mean. It makes me feel great and powerful if I can make something work longer then it should. I bought a new bearing for our dryer cuz it was making noise, but I didn't install it until it broke. And I have the money to replace stuff but why, It still works - And no I'm not lazy. Later
Dad was a mechanic all his life. I cannot tell you the number of bucket of nuts bolts washers and such he had. Spare carb floats, points, starters. All for things to fit his truck of course, but the nuts and bolts thing; we never had to make a trip to Lowes for a bolt....
I ordered a "this is sketchy even by my standards" shirt last week. I'm definitely going to see if it smells like exhaust when I get it!
There's definitely a dopamine hit from the instant satisfaction of just buying things, but after 3 generations of dealing with the older generation's stuff (with my Dad, an older boomer, currently hording tens of thousands of pounds of it from his dad and grandfather) I'm much more likely to get rid of things if I don't have a use for them in a reasonable amount of time. I'm a "young" Gen-Xer who is now middle aged and is going to be dealing with the giant pile sooner than later...
You also have to appreciate that you are in the extreme minority of hording boomers who have huge fleets of vehicles that are actually operational. Most guys have "I'll get around to it" cars and the piles that may or may not go with them, often burying them, that aren't doing much good. They hang on to the stuff with the mindset that they're going to do what you do, but very few actually do it. So, we younger people have been conditioned that thinking your stuff is just junk... because a lot of the time it simply is. You've no doubt seen this yourself when trying to buy cars. I remember one particular Firebird I looked at that the owner simply didn't know was sitting in standing water for 20 years because he hadn't actually seen it in that long. The garage was dry when he parked it there and started piling crap on it. There was nothing left of it.
Anyhow, I think the bigger issue with at least the perception of the JJ guys is that they were handed a bag of money, a free car, and a place to work on it. They had what for most of us was a 10-15 year boost right off the bat. I'm not surprised they spent a bunch of money in odd places. I would have too given that much freedom and the wisdom I had when I was just getting started. I don't believe it's so much about what was valued, but about what had suddenly become possible.
Well said
@@VinnyMartello Thanks!
Personally I won't begrudge the kids that, especially under some time pressure to make the NNN.
There is a fine line between hoarding and saving parts. Sometimes it’s more expensive to store them than pitch them. If it’s an original part off a classic or specialized fastener/hardware I’ll keep it. Otherwise it goes into the pile for the scrappers.
Totally agree with the mentality. I'm a millennial but, I was out on my own pretty early and really didn't have anyone to fall back on. I had to learn to fix all of my own stuff since I couldn't afford to pay anyone, and didn't have any help. I learned to be frugle with many things. Even now, years later I save and reuse fasteners and materials and save scrap metal. The skills I've learned from all this has got me out of jams a lot of times. I really appreciate all the builds using common and stock parts and I'm looking forward to the 318 project.
Poverty does one of two things. It will break you. Or it will make you REALLY clever.
@@VinnyMartello Possibly both. I got through but not with my health intact. :)
I am gen x, and I agree with, Tony. Thanks for the great video, Tony.
I certainly got something out of that Tony, thank you for sharing your thoughts and the differences. I've just turned 40 myself, so technically a millennial, but my thoughts on not throwing things away if they are useful is much more like the boomers. In regards to tools, if I can make it easy enough I will make the tool, unless I can buy it quick enough and for a good enough price it's worth buying. As much as you can make just about any tool, you have to weigh up the money to buy it VS the time to make it from junk. Is it worth your time, or are you better spending your time on something else?
I stopped counting my car's at 10 ( got plenty more, and the wife also has 4 of her own), most run, drive and are registered, and I've never had a car payment, or a car under 13 years old. As much as there is a few new or newish car's I"d like to own, I can't see the value in huge car payments to own them, while they are also declining in value.
Thanks for the Video Tony, keep them coming!
All of my grandparents were born either just before or during the Great Depression. I'm also from Appalachia where until recently in a lot of places we were seemingly 20 years behind the rest of the country if not more. I'm glad I picked up my family's hoarding.
I was born in 1977, I got the tail end of it...im glad I did, I see that the younger generations were coddled, and really they are nuts, and afraid of everything. Afraid to get hurt, scared of a little cold and flu...idk what the future holds
Oh yeah thatis not true actually...
@@trxtech3010 Yep not generally true, but significantly true.
Born in 1992. I agree and don’t agree with you. There’s a decent number of us who are skilled tradesman. But a lot that are also privileged pansies.
All I know is the lack of productivity coming from that generation, due to video gaming, watching sports instead of playing them, and combined with smoking weed, has put our whole country at pause. And then I have to ask, why a McDonald's cheeseburger price should triple, when we get less courtesy when it's handed to us, smashed in a bag, half wrapped?
But you're right, there are some that strive, and kudos to those that do.
Also, seriously, every generation says that about the next one/s. We've got the same kind of litanies in Cuneiform and like Plato's discourses, so that's all throughout history. This doesn't mean they weren't tryng hard to nerf the world for kids your age in some ways. Doesn't mean all the crazy was good, either, though.
5:30 similar to how i get the locking mechanism on my S10 steering column apart.
I think a key thing to keep in mind is a lot of millennials and zoomers might not have the space to just keep stuff kicking around. When i lived with my parents i kept EVERYTHING (my closet and under my bed was just filled, not to mention the garage and shed).
Now that ive moved out and live in a much much smaller space (all i can afford, down payment requirements are crazy) i wouldnt have the space to keep stuff
I love this content brother. Keep giving us your thoughts and knowledge.
I’m with you 100%, I keep just about everything. I get off on fixing stuff for free!
This is quite possibly the most important video that you have ever made.
Happiness through consumerism. 🤪
I picked up a 30" ariens snowblower cheap it had a popped engine gas in the oil I had a parts engine on the shelf from a generator I found in the trash don't toss anything with an engine on it I grew up with my grandparents too
Another way of looking at peoples perception of value when it comes to automotive parts or services it's kind of like this back in the depression people had literally next to nothing and because of the depression we had the war and because of the war within had people coming back from the war And that gave us hot rods and the way that the hot rods came about was simply people that had absolutely nothing and then they seen people lose it all through the whore of war and then they come back to basically nothing again and they had to build things from scratch they literally invented hot rods when they come back from the war which means every nut and bolt every panel every tire every engine combination they could get their hands on literally meant everything to them because it was all they had to work with and when you have all you have the work with and nothing more you appreciate what you have a hell of a lot more than people adjust pay for things when you actually build something from scratch with all you have to work with either through materials as of parts or mechanical ability when you actually build something you appreciate it much much more than the new generation that just orders it off the Internet and send it out to the shop to get rebuilt to totally different approaches and two different mindsets
You got it right. I started re sealing streeing box's and pumps for the past two years will not buy new or rebuild I ever. They all suck
The most versatile tool I have is a T-bar drive wrench I made myself. Allows precision control (low torque) by turning by hand at the "T" and using the end as a drive, or massive torque by holding it at the end and using the "T" as the drive wrench, plus it's more compact than a normal 1/2-inch wrench. I know it won't break, and I can even use it as a drift.
Tony, I'm a "Boomer" too brother. You should be proud of what you have done for those guys and this hobby of ours. Yeah, they are spending some money, but you got them excited about something other than video games and putting on lipstick. It's great to see these younger guys out there wrenching on some old iron for a change. We need more of this kind of enthusiasm in the world nowadays.
Id love to be on the list for the "Special Edition" Sportster scented Gear Head Monk shirt!
As a Gen-Xer I've had to watch as the Boomers caused us to go to a consumer based economy. Very frustrating. The across the board motto of the Boomer generation has always been "GIMME THAT ITS MINE!" 😂 But, yes, very well put Tony. And I can see the pendulum swinging the other way back towards things we buy having value. I've been frustrated for a long while because of this very reason. It seems that everything we buy is disposable, in that it will likely wear out and no longer function after a short amount of time. Then just toss it in the trash and go buy a replacement that does the exact same thing. Back when things were built to last, even if it got broken beyond repair, it was still made from metals which could be repurposed or sold for scrap.
Things we pay hard earned money for loses any monetary value immediately after you buy it.
So now we and the Millennials have to try and navigate our way through it all, while the aging baby boomers are busy driving their RVs all over the country from casino to casino, blowing the hell out of any inheritance we might have otherwise received. 😁
Great video I have to agree I am one who try to keep a lot and everyone around me tells me to get read of half the stuff I keep
Personally I blame squirrels
Multiple old guys have told me the value of holding onto hardware. One of my employers had what he called "the magic box" because whatever you needed would appear in it. When the hardware store was closed and I just needed a nut and washer to fix my snowblower, my personal "magic box" saved my butt. I've even been known to strip the fasteners, switches, and small brackets out of appliances before I junk them.
As the youngest child of depression era parents I identify with you. Dad could make anything he needed. My brothers and I watched him and knew if our car didn't run we walked. My place is a catch all for my son's projects, parts and currently my shop is my 14 year old grandson's work area. My son was raised with a work ethic few kids had. He was 13 when his "job" was repairing or changing forklift tires from 8.25x15 to 9:00x20. All were split rims and he made sure to get his tires done BEFORE going to school. I was a millwright in a sawmill and he was in my pocket to train when he turned 18. He spent about 15 years as a millwright. He is now 39 and is still a ball of fire. Cars people give him that won't run, he fixes and gets a couple years out of. Now his son is now doing the same stuff we do.
I can remember back in the pre AMD days guys would figure out all kinds of ways to fix rusty cars. I remember a great magazine article how somebody had figured out that 2 door L body door skins could be used for charger quarter panel patches.
I’m planning on taking my truck across country with my 8 year old son. 1978 f250 4wd 351 Cleveland. I might try to drop by. You are an inspiration and of my salts. I’m aiming for Dollywood. Coming from Oregon
Hey uncle Tony, really appreciate your channel. I learn a lot of stuff. I’m a boomer as well. I’ve got three hot rods out in the garage. I think old school is just ingrained in our DNA my space is just chok full of goodies aswell
Here goes my Old Man rant, this generation in my experience is intellectually incurious, see everything not from their generation as corrupt or corrupting, and expect someone else to fix the world to be to their liking, without having to lift a finger to make it happen. What they expect is instant gratification in a disposable world, all I can say in their defense is that businesses, corporations have set them up for failure in a system that rarely offers value and quality, and who's main motivation is GREED and not offering quality and value for the ridiculous prices of EVERYTHING.
love it, gotta have the right scents on them shirts to experience uncle tonys garage.
I have every roller cam. I can can build 5 FEs out of my shed and I can give a lot of stuff away and I do. I am a hoarder. 62 years old and my wife and son think I am crazy.
whats an FE
@@wonka4 how old are you? Lol. It was the engine in the GT40 that won LeMans in the mid 60s and handed Ferrari his ass at his home track. And it was in NASCAR winning despite being at a disadvantage to the Hemi, they still won a lot of championships. Their Hemi was banned because it was SOHC. Fine engine!
@@Bbba724 Sounds great. Im 35, never cared much for cars until these last couple years. So its all chinese to me lol. Plus im from south america, so car culture might not be as much as a big deal here as it is in the US, where people drive everywhere all the time and such. Im eager to learn though :)
As a 16 year old fan I agree completely with the arp bolt thing. I know a guy who put all arp hardware on his sbc 350 even the valve cover bolts. I just couldn't understand why you would need that. I had to break down and buy a set of arp con rod bolts because the bolts came loose in the rod. I take engines and parts from many of the older guys in my area and love when I get bolts, brackets, and other parts. I don't have to pay anything other than the time to clean it up
I'm a Gen X, and I have the same values as you. It came from growing up with nothing and valuing everything we could get.
Lol, that was friggin' great. Well spoken Uncle Tony. I have ALWAYS felt blessed to have grown up with Grandma and Grandpa close by. Grandpa was born in 1901, I was born 1961 that should tell some of the (my) story. Starting the Scoot in the house. I did this just yesterday. Warmest part of the day I ran a couple of the cars in the garage with the door only open enough so I didn't die. Lit a smoke and let thermostats open. Came in with sweatshirt smelling like exhaust and finished my chores.