Projects

An APO Update

About five years ago, I cobbled together a little shop setup on the island of Kauai. One of my biggest concerns back then was the salt air – how it creeps into everything and turns tools into rust sculptures. To fight back, I built a system using Milwaukee Packouts paired with desiccant packs. Five years later, here’s how that strategy has held up. To see how I put these together, check out this video. To see how I assembled the ”Packout Work Bench,” peep this.
Reviews & Features

Ear Protection: Air Pods Pro 2

This is probably terrible advice—hell, borderline irresponsible. Do your own research, trust your instincts, question everything. But I’ll tell you this: my favorite ear protection in the shop? Apple AirPods. Yeah, I know. But if they fit your ears right and your brain doesn’t rebel against the noise-canceling voodoo, they just disappear. No pressure, no bulk, just quiet and clarity while the chaos rages around you. But here’s the catch—you need the Pro model for proper noise canceling, and they’re not exactly built for shop abuse. Dust, metal shavings, and random acts of violence tend to chew up dainty tech …
Reviews & Features

Innova 5610

Most of my time in the shop is spent buried in ancient steel—real cars, not these wheezing modern things laced with silicon and shame. I hot rod, goddammit. I take something that works, rip out the compromises, and replace them with speed and danger. And I do it all with tools, not a laptop. So when Innova emailed me asking if I’d like to review one of their OBD2 scanners, I laughed. Out loud. “Wrong guy,” I told them. I don’t own anything new enough to need one. My shop is where computers go to die. They sent it anyway. …
Projects

Stromberg Jet Storage

I’ve got a mountain of shit to do today—doctor’s appointment, content deadlines, kid logistics, bills stacked like bad decisions—but all I can think about is wrenching on the hot rod. I’m this close to having it dialed in just right, and every minute spent doing anything else feels like a waste of oxygen and caffeine. The pull of flathead glory is real, and it’s making me about as productive as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. So in the spirit of multitasking and half-assing, I slapped together a quick and dirty video about a case I built for storing Stromberg 97 …
Projects

The Hellfire Coil

Another day, another application for the new shop laser… My little hot rod is running a generic Mallory coil. It was finished in a sort of pot metal chrome that clashed with the rest of the motor and I’ve been meaning to paint it. Last week, I did just that when I got an idea. Why not throw this thing under the laser? So I pretended my brother’s hot rod shop was making coils back in 1951, imagined how one might look, and then drew it up. Twenty minutes later and the Hellfire Ignition Coil was born. Anyway, here are …