Inflation Or Price Gouging - Only The Creative And Resourceful Will Survive
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- The obstacles thrown at today's car builder are becoming harder and harder to overcome. The most difficult for the average guy is the ever increasing price of the most basic items.
While setting up our transmission, we came across the perfect example of this with an insanely overpriced simple stamped steel bracket. We used our head and some scrap and came up with an even simpler and better method for free.
@EconomicNinja
#classiccar #depression #recession
MERCHANDISE:
Get Your UTG T-Shirts Here: uncletonysgara...
Get Your UTG Stickers Here: uncletonysgara...
OUR STORE: uncletonysgara...
*SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: / uncletonysgarage1
Instagram: / uncle_tonys
I'm excited for the thunderdome of hotrodding.
I have come to a conclusion that the spikes were there to attempt to get their money back that was floating away from the inflation
As Peg says...
"DDspeedshop!"
I watch your channel too. Some of the things you do are amazing, like making 2 doors out of 4 doors. I never really got into bodywork and interior stuff. I can remove and replace bolt on body parts, but that's about it. I do engines, transmissions, differentials, brakes, suspension, and steering, and pretty much anything else that goes together with nuts and bolts.
@@geraldscott4302 we all have our expertise. Mine is following manuals, sadly.
DD SPEED SHOP
DD SPEED SHOP
DD SPEED SHOP 👌
This video reinforces the message upon which your RUclips channel was created: "Do it yourself in your own garage with your own tools and don't pimp out the multi-dollar manufacturers." Building one's own stuff not only saves money, it builds character and a sense of fulfillment. These manufacturers cater to the customer's desire for convenience. It's time we take hot rodding back to its roots and build our own junk.
Sir,you got my vote! I want you for president
Exactly! How did we all manage before ebay and bucket loads of cookie cutter CNC billet crap became easily available!? There was a time where going to a car/hotrod show let you see all sorts of different creations and ideas and home made mastery. Now, its just the same same billet catalogue junk and the 'home made' gear gets frowned on like 'you're only using that because you cant afford this cool billet stuff'🙄.
Make it yourself, stand out, show your skill, not your wallet size and crowd following abilities!
Unfortunately that is getting cost prohibitive too. Tools are outrageously over priced (some welders have gone up 50% in 2 years). Electricity is up. Shielding gas is up. Any reproduction part is insane. I agree with you, but it's all frustrating.
Amen!!!
@@borisjankovici662 remember,we are humans,we are part of a race that evolved and created everything,even without electricity,just candle lights we made machinery in 1800.....
I, for one, DO want to hear Tony's ideas about why there's inflation and where he thinks it's all going. I really like Tony's ability to see the connections between cars and larger societal issues.
It isn't that hard. You just listen to the current ministration project about the future and plan 180 degree turn from there....
Money machine went brrrrer and speculation economy bubbling and rising energy costs, whats there that hard to understand about it.
Look at collectibles for past few years. Lots of regular people dumping wealth. Money slinging around and loans and people using it like dumbos - everyone thinking they can get into house or car flipping on debt etc.
It's going to crash because stuff just isn't worth it. A sealed nintendo game isn't worth a million bucks up from 20k from two years ago, but that doesn't stop people from making an investment poop and have an appraiser working with the auction house tell them that. Ffs people were buying fractional ownerships in pokemon cards(that doesn't get them actual ownership of the card even if they buy all the fractions of the llc they can buy). Then theres people buyinf nft's and crypto coins with 0 clue about what they were actually buying.
All and all it doesn't take a genius to know that stuff has to crash and that until then you'll get less stuff for your dollar because until then the money machine goes brrr..
Theres gotta be a bunch of people speculating on new old stock parts by now too - and theres been people speculating on the cars themselves for s while but its bled into what people thought as common cars already as well.
@@lasskinn474 tulips.
Too many dollars chasing to few goods.
Why is it that republicans won't take responsibility for who they vote for and address with their own party on these issues?...a lack of formal education and or a one party mindset that makes them sheep. I see an inflation bill being passed this year and I saw non cooperation during a deadly pandemic that makes things what they are today. Some people should try reading some of those books they usually burn.
The throttle position sensor went out on my 99 powerstroke and ford won’t sell you just a sensor, they want you to buy the entire pedal assembly for like $200. I cross referenced some part numbers and tracked down a dorman sensor that bolted right in and has worked perfectly now for well over a year for under $30.
Dorman parts always fail
@@jasoncampbell5518 The original Ford part failed. The Dorman has worked great for nearly 2 years, and if it goes to shit I’ll spend another $30 before I spend $200 on a whole pedal assembly from ford.
@@jasoncampbell5518, yes they do........ but... it seems like the Ford part also failed, and for 30 bucks you can replace it again......6 times before you paid less that the factory part. Replacing the T P S isn't to hard to do.
If you were replacing a part that's difficult to get to, such as a water pump on a 72 Torino that takes 3 hours to do, then I would opt for the more reliable factory part.
Toyota wanted to sell me an entire driveshaft to replace one ujoint. I found a parts book (gasp!) looked it up (double gasp!!) and found the correct part number, bought two, and replaced them. Absolutely nothing special about them except the lack of parts info so the stealership can make a buck. Be smart people. Do your homework.
Its a liability to sell those sensors by themselves.. being you are smart enough to find the sensor itself means you most likely know how to put things together correctly. Alot of people don't. Lawyers won't care thel sue even if it was a customer's fault...
Fabrication I am learning is incredibly valuable even just for convenience. I needed wider radiator brackets for an aluminum radiator, and I didn't have time to wait 5 days for shipping or pay 40 bucks to order them so I just bent up some scrap metal to work and it took me an hour and cost me nothing.
everyone should try their hand at fab. at the very least, if they fail they'll understand why it costs what it costs. but every "prepper" on this channel should have an at-home blacksmith shop (farmers used to in the corner of some shed someplace) for "when the big one hits". I keep grabbing appliances people toss out just for the sheet metal and the screws and scrap the copper to cover the cost. I keep hoping UTG will find one of these folks and do a "how to" video on it. also making gaskets at home, it's possible. I found a video about making your own polyurethane bushings (buy the stuff, pour it into tuna cans and catfood cans and so on as a cast to make the shape and size necessary). even if its not cheaper, it could very well be faster in this age of shortages.
Just make sure you rubber mounted the radiator :)
Our auto shop teacher made us a simple bracket with hand tools before we ever got to touch a car. My brain now always remembers that I can make what I need lol
@@MiikeyLawless Ye I put some rubber between the rad and bracket
In 15-20 yrs some folks are gonna find interesting creations in cars built from this time.
Haha if we ain't nuked off the earth first of course 😁
On GM musclecar era core supports you can also knock off the existing with an air hammer chisel. Then cut them in half and re-weld them in place with the wider spacing needed for the bigger tanks.
Yeah, I remember a year ago I was pricing parts for my truck rebuild and started saving money up to get them. Then when it came time to buy them earlier this year I found that the clutch kit almost doubled in price, the brake drums went to 100 each ( and i needed all 4 ) so all the money I saved up only got about half of the things I needed that would have initially got me everything I needed. Recently I needed to find a replacement oil dipstick tube because the machine shop removed it and lost it. Found them online.... 45 for a 10 inch tube stainless steel tube. I ended up going and picking up a section of fuel line in the correct diameter I needed, fit the dipstick perfectly, cut it down to what I needed it to be and am now using that for my dipstick tube, same material as the original and cost me 17.00 for a 2 foot section.
For my 2000 ram 3 year's ago I gave 180 for a clutch kit,this year I gave 260
What year and make you working on... ?.. cheers from Southern California..
@@AtZero138 Im working on a 1965 F100
@@jessicawells5145 replacing the clutch after 3 years
@That V8 Life unfortunatly thats not how life works, not everyone has the space to store things for when they are ready to do it all at once. I got the truck and started looking at things then started pricing items that I may or may not need. Im not going to shotgun blast parts. Some things I got as I could, but now that I am to the point of putting things together fully I am finding that the money I have been putting aside as a just in case I needed the parts is not going to go as far as it would have a year ago when I made my list and priced everthing out. So dont call people stupid for not going crazy and spending money on things that they dont need right away.
Batteries are about $200 for a standard one now but the core price is the same. They want more money because they say materials cost more but they won't pay you more for the core materials. Price gouging
Yes, funny how that works huh.
Junk yards and peoples stock piles are getting more valuable
True that. I'm stockpiling copious quantities of many 🥝's, I can sell them to you for a nickel, plus transport, refrigeration, delivery and export / import co$+'s....🐿️🐿️🐿️✔️👋
Even in my early days of building, I scrounged for parts, used hack saws, tin snips and claw hammers on the side walk or the corner of a brick to shape some piece of metal intended for another use into something I needed but could not afford or find. Skills I still use today.
Sidewalks are versatile tools. I milled the head for my 5HP Briggs & Stratton mini bike on one.
Same here, had no money to buy already made custom parts or expensive tools growing up, surely had no $ to have someone else do it for me. Always had to learn out of necessity and make do with what scrap was stockpiled in the garage. Some years ago I was having tires mounted at a big box store garage, a guy in his 30's brought a pack of taillight bulbs to the counter and ask to have one installed. Made me glad to have had the knock around self education and being able to build or repair most anything with my own two hands. I suspect if the world continues down the path it's on, these skills will become more and more valuable to keep society functioning at even the most basic levels. 🍻
@@paulhare662 lol bullshit man
Our quality of life has dropped since they first started measuring inflation in 1972.
Likely due to the Nixon Administration’s decoupling of the U.S. Dollar from the ‘gold standard’.
@@HarrisonCountyStudio that was how they paid for the Vietnam War …
1973 definitely fell off the cliff,lol.
Let’s be clear, we are experiencing inflation and it’s due to absolute incompetence and it’s the fault of the folks that tell you to “stick to what you know”. Blame them. I️ do.
Nothing incompetent about it. They know exactly what they are doing and are laughing all the way to the bank
@@CandidProle You are so right.!
It's price gouging fed and the government can't track companies when they price gouge consumers if "inflation" is high and not easing, but for some reason inflation is going down but no market down on prices.
A while back you had I believe a Mr Norms relocation bracket for the Hurst comp shifter. When I bought my 1974 road runner at 16 I didn't know how anything was supposed to look as far as being stock........come to find out some previous owner had made his own relocation bracket out of a piece of C channel and some flat steel. Then cut all three linkage rods, cut threads on both ends, cut and tapped some steel tubing to make up the difference and allow for adjustability. They stuck a short 8" straight shift on it. Makes slamming gears much easier. They also had a home made deep sump oil pan like you've made but a stock length pick up tube. It leaked alot so I ended up going with the milidon deep sump pan and their deep pick up tube. Thank for videos and wisdom you share.
I've been stockpiling parts and consumables for my daily drivers for the past 2 or 3 years. My wife thinks I'm nuts having oil and filters for 30 oil changes, 3 or 4 sets of pads, fuel pumps etc. Etc.
Maybe I am nuts, but I will have parts
@[Twitch Streaming Channel] Q
Strangley enough, I carry around a fuel pump assembly in her vehicle.
I used a wire hanger to make the horn spring I needed for my Galaxie.
I bought a beat 77 mark v and used parts off it to upfit the 460 into my Galaxie.
I've even been fortunate enough to find mustang parts that were interchangeable onto my Galaxie. I did learn the hubs are different between the two tho.
I'm starting to realize why my dad hoarded stuff for so long. I'm the same way now. I'll find something to use it for later if not now.
What happened to that poor Lincoln?
I grew up with old folks. And might need to save that. Might come in handy was a common phrase.
Miss the days of real junkyards with real car's
Back when I first started working in 98, one of the first things I had to learn was how to make custom throttle cable brackets for the supercharger kits we were fitting.
Thank you so much for the mention! I believe that by January we will see a massive collapse in used and new vehicle sales. I'm waiting to buy my fast car.
At tax time? I disagree tax time always sends prices through the roof. Fast cars are cheap in November and December
Most people will be paying off their credit cards or catching up rent/mortgage with their returns. The days of buying an overpriced craigslist POS with their "free money" from some scroungy flipper are coming to end, for a long time.
CLASSIC CAR CULT URE LEADER UTG BABY!!!
I Make everything I possibly can & only spend $$/ buy when I absolutely Must!
Thanks Uncle Tony. I am 63 years old and as you know, this is how we did it in in the 70s and 80s because it was the only way to do it. We needed right then. Sure we could order it from Direct Connection. And wait a week. But as time went on and we got things super cheap from China. It was easier and just as quick. I am in the process of putting my 70 GTX together. Even my engine parts in my 440 I am using the old stuff. Cam, lifters, oil pump are just some of the parts I will reuse. Mind you I built it 25 years ago and only have 20,000 miles since rebuild. Things are that unreliable now. Junk. We do need to bring our industry back home. No better QA than good old US of A. It’s time.
I actually miss fabricating my own parts. It was interesting to see if my plans worked or failed most of my engine swaps were converting a motor from a GM into a Ford
Absolutely price gouging. At this rate younger generation can't afford to learn and do. Cripes, even the older generation is getting hard pressed.
Right now my process of learn and do is work a job a loath cause it's the only one I can get, go broke just getting the damn thing, then go broke again getting the parts to fix it. Granted my situation is a bit worse cause I have to swap out the entire drivetrain and other parts along the way but still. Back maybe 5 years ago the same person could do the same thing and still have money left over for some goodies like maybe a cam or something.
I think for the first prices you mention, you could buy material enough to fab one, but if you went and fabricated it in your shop, it might cost you $50 worth of time. But, if you purchased the bender & mill, it could be that you could compete with them by selling the thing for $50 & free shipping instead. Use JIT manufacturing & put in the jig, do the half hour of work, and make the part... keep little or no inventory but some raw material. You would easily make profit. That 727 bracket example is a 3 step process.: mill, bend, bend.
Hand drill, angle grinder, vice, hammer. Done.
My dad's tire changer is about 70 years old. He would never replace any of the accessories but figured out ways to make it work with screw drivers, bolts and nuts, and pieces of wood!!
What a guy
The new ones like by Coats suck and only last a couple of years.
It's better to fix the old stuff.
Just like starters used to be $24 now they're 70+
.
My dad just turned 86 this year and sounds just like your dad. He is still sanding, painting, wiring, engine building, welding...etc.
Smart with money and secretly worth more than a person would think.
The car collection alone would stuptify the casual person and being a jack of all trades and someone who doesn't cater to laziness and new shiny wasteful things...still is a source of pride and continued amazement to us kids and strangers.
Funny thing, my parents still drive the 1982 Toyota Starlet they bought new as an everyday car. I was driven to school in that car in 9th grade and now at 55 listen to my mom tell me how she is almost harassed by strangers asking if the car is for sale. Her 68 911S Targa Softwindow seems to get less attention than that Toyota.
I was born on a Friday and was modifying stuff in the shop on Sunday , thank you Tony , a real can do guy !
I was born with two left hands to a father with two right hands, so to speak. It's been a long road and the only thing that stops me from big DIY projects is confidence. "What if I mess up?". I've been working through it and I have a couple projects going, but I often catch myself getting stuck on small things. Some people get lucky and are born with DIYing in their blood, others have to learn it. I damn sure hope I can find my groove in this soon enough because I have a '70 Chevelle waiting to be fixed up and driven hard.
This is exactly where the WW-II Vets were in the late 40's and early 50's. Parts for higher HP motors and running gear were too expensive to buy. Putting a wrecking yard Caddy V8 in your old Ford coupe did not entail buying GM parts to make it work. It meant you built it yourself.
From the 1980's on it became a process of buying kits and assembling. Mustang II suspension, rear 4-link kits, etc. The old guys were rolling over in their graves ... Building kit cars is not hot rodding. Making pieces and swapping parts for stuff is 😊
Difference is, the "build it yourself" stuff back then was a lot easier to find the donor bits for. They didn't fab everything from scratch, they took bits and pieces from here and there, and fabricated parts to make them work together.
Today, you're fighting over 30-60 year old parts to do that. If you want to use donor engines, etc from current on-the-market vehicles, prices are going way up on the available ones. LS Engines in good shape? Going up. Honda K Series? Good luck. Anything newer also increasingly requires so much computer control that fabrication is no longer welding/cutting/grinding, but rather building circuits, programming and things that are typically beyond the typical auto hobbyist. For example, if you look at RUclips, you'll discover that MANY of the current crop of youtubers who are building cars come from a software background. To work on and fix modern cars requires high tech knowledge.
Sadly soon all combustion cars and trucks including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-(
In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025
on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Car washs will be forbidden too because they are climate killers, now they want to slow down all the gas station pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime.!!! (BABVVEN & TEBBVEN & BEFVO laws)
As a person who learned out of struggle and necessity I'd add one thing to this:
Any time a person is pressed to fund their niche whether it be money or supply, that person does 1 of 2 things. 1. They quit. 2. They come up with something that leaves the rest of us saying "what a genius".
This inflation is price gouging because it is Is purposely created by this administration
One of the best bosses I ever had once told me, "There's more than enough profit to go around without having to screw the customers to get it." It's a shame that honorable way of doing business has died.
As to "throw-away" parts: I save those until I either have a use for them (modified or not), or have enough to melt and cast or sell to the scrap yard.
after 1945 when America had NO global competition, we could support a ton of auto makers employing 1 out of 8 americans (directly or indirectly). 50% corporate tax rate and a payroll unlike today (watch the first episode of "Mad Men" and count the number of employees today's exec replaces with their cellphone) and your boss was right, there USED to be enough profit to go around. Now the shareholders get paid dividends thru manipulating taxes and cutting overhead (ie, jobs) with automation.
Now we have global competitors and The Big Three. the days of "enough profit" are going going gone--Walmart, everyone's favorite punching bag, makes a 3% profit margin. no wonder they shaft their vendors for "low low everyday prices" and have you noticed the day after a holiday, the candy just disappears? any other store puts it on sale because they're stuck with it in order to have gotten a deal in the first place, so they'll sell it to you at cost (that percentage off is likely their profit margin on most goods).
> "There's more than enough profit to go around without having to screw the customers to get it."
Nowadays it's "Charge 'em 'til they holler, and add another dollar"
@@albertgaspar627 My boss said that in 1996, and he's still right today. We've had global competition since 1776, and done just fine.
The problem is corporate shareholder greed and the desire to maintain the unsustainable double-digit profit margin.
Carb kits pretty much have so called throw away parts. I keep them incase I could use them.
@@kmoecub Exactly this. When the economy gets rough, a household does not expect salary to increase. If income is reduced, spending is reduced until good times return, plain and simple. But corporations and stockholders? If the economy gets rough, they do not survive by spending savings, they jack up prices to maintain the previous levels of profit on lower sales. Witness the auto industry right now, completely abandoning the economy car market in favor of everyone selling luxobarges. Low volume, High profit. Making record profits by selling to fewer people. It's the new economics. Price your goods for the ultra-rich and screw everyone else.
I almost want to have a moment of silence for all the extra stuff I had that got loaded into the scrap dumpster when I lost my shop. Motors, trannies, rear ends, starters, alternators, brackets, bolts, exhaust manifolds, bits of metal, just stuff. I did give away as much as I could so it didn't go to China. But still, that was a 40 yeard dumpster heaped over with scrap. And that isn't counting the whole cars I had to sell for scrap, cause no place to out them. And I mean rust free chevy trucks, not ford contours.
I feel your pain. When I moved out of my shop 7 years ago and unloaded all my buckets of parts, scrapped 3 whole cars at the time I thought were worthless. Only to find I need so many of those parts and they'd be worth 10s of thousand today if only I'd kept them.
This is why hoarding is bad mmkay
I’m in the middle of a move right now and it makes me cringe how many treasures I have to put into the dumpster because nobody will take them
@@MiikeyLawless it's only "hoarding" if other people WANT it..... And it's only bad IF you have to move! LOL
No self respecting mechanic, shade tree or pro, tossed away unused parts from kits bought to ease or make installation of engines, transmissions, rear ends or other items away unless they already have a bin full of them! There is no telling when that throwaway piece will work even if it needs some modification to fit! That will alway save $'s in time or money!
#1 rule is dont throw away anything. I throw those extra bits into my parts hoarding room and I know where it is years later.
To me its price gouging with a touch of inflation. Im too cheap to buy a $65 bracket unless its machined billet aluminum. Simple steel stamping is easy to make. Hell.. I needed a throttle cable adapter for my 79 camaro. No one had one that worked with that I had (just a holley 4160.) Bought one that worked with my kickdown and cut the throttle tab off of it and moved it an inch forward and welded it back on. I wasn't going to pay stupid money for something that should be on the shelf.
My car is a survivor rust bucket im just trying to keep on the road. We got to go back to the old days and fabricate our own simple parts.
More like inflation has given people an excuse to gouge.
the irony is that all this "making do" was what hot rodders did in the 1950's, but show up at a rat rod show and all someone wants to know is "cool, where did you buy that part XYZ from?"
@@albertgaspar627 consumers rather than dreamers.
Don't throw away anything has positives and negatives.
Positives: You can use parts from your stash and make things work. Its cheaper to buy a complete vehicle or two for $500 than to buy all the parts you can get from them.
Negatives: You need somewhere to store all of it. Things pile up fast, including parts vehicles. Digging through several buckets of miscellaneous fasteners to try to find the one you need is a pain.
People are still buying the parts and demand and future projected demand is high enough to ask high prices. If the parts seen as limited and going up the speculations then already built into the sale price today
I love the tci kit that shows you where to cut the channel out on your valve body and it turns your 727 into a manual. Loved it. You could put in into 2nd at any speed it would instantly go into 2nd. It was amazing
$66 for that bracket is insane... Thinking outside of the box will be the only way to survive going forward...
What sort of yearly sales volume do you think this part has?
Congrats on the 250k subs guys.
I just noticed that too!
Even in the 60's when my buds and I were heavily into making old shit go fast, there wasn't nearly the stuff you can get now...that is if you can afford it.
I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B. It's in every sector of supply/retail. Labor costs have gon up to try and entice people to work, every invoice that comes in has a fuel surcharge on it on top of always climbing shipping charge (here in Canada's west coast fuel was $2.40 /liter or 9.08 a gallon just recently) every cost on something being received keeps creeping up so ya. There has to be a final increase to the consumer but there is most definitely greed involved. Prices rise so fast now that its become the terrible norm. When does the whole thing collapse in on itself..time very soon will tell. Till then fix or repair what you can people
Plenty of money for executive bonuses, no money left for truck drivers, accountants, cooks, stockers and ect
UT , I would love to hear you talk economics! You're a tremendously intelligent guy who could probably school a lot of so called experts in the economics field. Investing and trading with Uncle Tony, sounds like a new channel right there.
You are so right Uncle Tony! I keep scrap steel around the house that I pick up from the wholesale metal distributor down here in Los Angeles that I pay one to two dollars per pound for and Fab out probably 90% of any bracket or similar type device that I need because one it'll fit when I'm done into the price to buy online is ridiculous and three the time delay of even getting it! And yes I saw this exact same scenario back in the '70s!
Nothing like drinking a nice cold beer, with two slices of pizza and a UTG educational video on a Saturday night!
Best thing I've heard yet
LOL!
Those people who survived the First Economic Depression spent the rest of their lives doing this, and it brought costs down to the point it no longer made sense to buck the system so we all reverted to buying manufactured solutions. Great job fabricating a replacement bracket! I saw the bracket and problem and before you showed your solution I thought “Why not make a copy of that one?” because everyone has scrap laying around or can get to Lowe’s or HomeDepot to get a piece of thick enough stock to work. But you did the job with even less! Repurposing scrap destined for the recycler, solving your problem for free, and you earned some Kudos on RUclips for it! You know when you drive obsolete vehicles and equipment that mostly fell by the wayside you end up having to salvage parts from junked ones or copy the old design as best you can to make a repair. I think fabrication may make a come back in America
It's priced by someone whom has never used or know about it and only know its needed. I will always fabricate like yourself and safe a buck for stuff that's really expensive. My grandfather wouldn't pay for a new A/C pressure hose that blew on his 77 chevy 3/4 farm truck. He said he would use a union fitting and tie it together. The parts guys laughed and laughed. I remember, I was 10 and there. I have the truck now and I replaced the hose on a performance build (400 sbc with. 225 AFR's)mostly to hang the hose on the garage wall as a work of art. It made it another 40 years..
I had to make a bracket last night to put a water pump on a 5.3 that had 1 water pump bolt broken off in the block, just a flat piece of metal with two holes drilled in it and bent just a little so the bolt across from it would help clamp the water pump against the block and not leak, it worked perfectly and only took a few minutes to make out of what looked like a bumper bracket and a angle grinder with a cutting wheel on it.
I have to imagine that all these parts have been in stock for years, Gouging, no doubt.
Maybe, maybe not. As Tony said that bracket is a basic part that's probably stamped out in the hundreds to thousands....but where and, most importantly, how many of those stamping businesses are still around given all that's been happening for the last 2+ years.
This might be the start of a situation where a high number of those manufacturing businesses have shuttered, forcing the remainder to prioritize certain parts/work orders over others given the profit potential considering both inflation as well as whether those businesses have had to increase wages to retain skilled workers.
But as I mentioned before the question of where those brackets are being manufactured is important too because if it's china then their economic downturn and the knockon effects from their C19 zero policy lockdowns that have been plaguing their shipping ports may be a factor in this.
the 727 isn't a current transmission, so save everything. Like any old machinery, the world won't wait for you, it will instead run you over or gouge you.
@@12Mantis Am I supposed to read all that? There's a crate in a wharehouse some where with a zillion of em.
@@skipstalforce , no modern business with economic sense stock a huge amount of anything these days. Having stocks cost and locks money that could have been used more effective. Items that sells very slow may even end in the bin, to make shelf space for parts that sells fast and generate income
Tony is a great mechanic and street smart. Love to hear his thaughts on everything. Think he very often gets it right even outside his field of expertise. Keep up the good work!
I think it messed up that everything goes up. Every company needs to maintain margins. But payroll stays the same. Then business makes a larger margin. They make more and we make same. That’s the messed up part.
It dosent work like that.
Not that simple at all.
@@lilmike2710 just saying in my the line of work. Everything has increased but payroll.
@@stannelson2582 Brother I'm right there with you. But man it seems like they all knew this was all about to happen. In 2020, most everyone got a pay raise. %3 - %6. . But now the cost of living has since increased over %13. That's what you and I see.
The people and companies that we work for have not only had tax breaks taken away, but higher taxes than before imposed. New taxes created even. This sort of thing ties their hands to where they cannot afford to hire new employees. Hence, "worker shortages". LMAO and the "elected" officials take a victory lap saying "businesses are begging for employees" and erroneously citing "low unemployment". Meanwhile, the fed keeps printing paper money out of thin air. They sent every American taxpayer checks of $2000, even more for houses with kids. And steadily printing money.
I'll go into a damn economics 101 class here if I keep typing 🙄.
I don't mean to do that. But to put it in simple terms, in 2016 the dollar was worth 35 cents, by the end of 2019 it was worth 39 cents. We were starting to kick a little ass. The coof 🦠 slowed it right down.. BUT since 2020 they've not only given everyone a couple thousand free dollars, but have been printing monopoly money out of thin air causing the value to PLUMMET..... The dollar in your pants pocket is sitting there worth a paltry 27 cents now..
But when the dollar falls, precious metals increase. Gold and silver more precisely. So if you have had gold and/or silver, or even a shit load of copper, brass, aluminum etc. invested and put aside then your looking pretty good right about now.
Actually, the perfect scenario for this "perfect storm" would have been as follows...
In 2018 taken the majority of your savings and bought pure gold bullion and coins.
Dropped any and all investments you had at the time, sold off any remaining shares.. took that money and dump it all %100 into Phizer and Moderna stocks.
Keep that stock and rake in the tons of money as everyone is told to get the "vaccine" ... "So they won't catch coof".
Keep the stock and wait for the proposed mandate that says every American MUST have the shot. (All free to the public because Congress approved the purchase of BILLIONS of dollars worth of it.)
If the mandate goes through you'll be able to retire with a mansion in the US, Europe, Bahamas and several beach houses..
If the mandate fails (which it did) then dump your Phizer/Moderna stocks and invest your gains in gold.
VOILA!!!! And congratulations, you've just increased your wealth literally 5X.
Damn, I rambled on anyway didn't I?
Case in point... It must be good to be a member of Congress in Washington DC.
MEANWHILE... As for all the American workers who will feel the crunch and struggle... Just tell them that their "wealthy" employers are taking in all the money and sitting pretty. Divide them all into groups and turn them all against each other.
Make them believe their employers are to blame for why they're having to struggle. And since the workers are divided into groups based on race, gender, sexuality etc. they'll have a difficult time in discussing important issues or organizing any sort of .....
💩 I apologize for the rant.
It's frustrating when you have some semblance of understanding about what's going on right under your nose.
It'd be better if we simply had no idea like the rest of the people.
"Ignorance is bliss"...
Tis so frustrating... Have a great day and GOOD LUCK OUT THERE.
Its more complicated. You have cost of raw materials. Transportation, inventory costs, labor just to start. Price of steel has skyrocketed.
@@stannelson2582 When is the last time you got a 9 or 10% raise? The only way is to change jobs to get that pay increase.
I think its a little bit of both. Prices on raw materials, are threw the roof. They're having to increase pay,just to get people to come to work.But, a Bracket like that. They probably have three tractor trailer loads made at once. And then. They sit around in a warehouse for years. They saw a way to recoup their money.
Anyone who can put a slant six in a Miata should have no problem coming up with a work around to attach a shifter cable!
Your final solution is my first recourse. Most of my special tools I've made, not bought. And I'm a tool junkie.
I just found out I need an abs pump and module for my 2001 mercury grand marquis work car. no longer manufactured, but I found one online for only $1400. yes, its gouging tony! thanks for the video.
have you never been to a pull a part?
@@freedomparts5869 yes. I'm going with a used one. just making a point on price gouging. take care.
Never throw anything away. Also join all your local car clubs. There's always one obsessive compulsive individual that has barns full of stuff.
That is price gouging. I operate a CNC plasma table and brake press. I also do the nesting so I see the production price for each part. Even with the current high prices for steel there's no way to justify the price on that bracket.
And they priced it smart. If you bought multiples of these shifters to try and sell the remaining brackets to those who need it, you need to buy a lot of shifters to break even.
said " That is price gouging. I operate a CNC plasma table and brake press. " So you own a fab shop? Why are you not making these parts and charging less?
@@bobroberts2371 operating two machines does not mean he owns the company. And even if he did own the company, he's probably using those machines to make much more profitable parts.
@@qers Yep, cost of manufacture is only a small part of the equation. There is buying material / handling / storage / marketing.
@@bobroberts2371 Does every employee that operates CNC machines also own the business? Please try to refrain from making pointless impulsive comments.
We should start all keeping throw away parts for others as well as what you said.
You don't have mild steel in the shop make one. What do you need grinder and step drill bit. 5 minutes i knew i should have waited till the end of the video before commenting.
I'm retired now but, years ago, I used Northern Auto Parts kits to rebuild 350 Chevy engines. They included the freeze plugs in the Master Kit. I put the leftover parts from all kinds of kits into boxes. I still occasionally will be doing a project where I have to dig a piece out of a box and use it. Nice work on the piece.
There is going to be mega inflation and shortages coming soon. This winter will probably see food and heating fuel shortages. Consider having a generator and building a wood gasifier to power it. A generator on a wood gasifier only gives about 50% of its rated power.
I have noticed lately that fabrication tools such as drill presses, welders, hydraulic presses and other related tools seem to have come way down in price. I picked up a lathe, table saw, and a radial arm saw at my town dump. Good Luck to Us All, Rick
I'm blame squirrels and poltics.
The Trump inflation is caused by one thing only. Racism.
Dam squirrelly politicians,no doubt.
Sad today, I'm old school gen x. Old cars are my hobby, seen lots of cheap crap rong parts lately here too
I put on 120 miles today sourcing all the parts for my ram's front suspension steering and differential. Had to run back for bad casting on control arm. Had to use 5 different auto parts stores. I used the identical parts I bought 4 years ago did the math they were up 32%.Some of them were under warranty so I cheated on the math. Also a parts vehicle was necessary
You didn't call the parts store before making your trips?
An older guy told me decades ago racing/performance/customizing isn't buying stuff and bolting it on, its making the stuff you need to do the job you want it to do
Politician: I get 100% of drivers drive electric cars before my first term over
Reality: Not possible you living in fantasy land.
I just went by 3 huge windmills. I had to watch them for a couple minutes to see if they were actually moving. They were, but with barely any wind, I can't imagine they were making very much electric.
FJB 💩🤡.
@@ripvanrevs 60% of california power comes from renewable energy. If you place wind farms in the right place, they'll make free power every day. When they stop turning the power they made before is held in huge battery banks.
@@karlx-1 I also heard that California residence live to be 127 yo.
yup. Being that 97% of the 150 million cars are gassers, that's about 7 trillion to purchase these replacement EVs, excluding the exorbitant inflation in prices that will be caused by the huge spike in demand of raw materials like lithium. I think the total consumer debt is around 17 trillion, hey what's 7 trillion more???!!?
The homemade bracket will work but I would weld an extra part to get a second screw on it. Brackets and mounts with one screw tend to work loose and rotate on the screw. We have a saying at work, one is none, two is one...
I'd add an arm and grab that ear up above and use a nut and bolt.
I think it's getting harder and more expensive because it's a dying art. It's a hobby now - people aren't building old cars just to have a car anymore for getting from point A to point B like before. Cars are just made cheap and disposable now, like everything else.
Cheaper to buy a fast car than build a slow one has never been truer, a TRD camry has the same or better 0-60 than our favorite muscle cars! Plus the camry will do 40 mpg...
@@wobbles7915 no. It's just not the same lol. Theres beaters and theres cars you love! . Lol
@@ss67camaronut i know its not the same but its a simple matter of comparative advantage. Car factories are really damn good at making cars and its not like cars have been a high margin business for a long time. You can spend 30k and hundreds if not thousands of hours making an old car comparable to a new car. I know, im doing jt right now! 🤣
That’s why I bought myself a Honda monkey. One cylinder, basic, cheap parts and 150 mpgs
Personally, I'd love to hear Uncle Tony's take on where the economy is going.
Absolutely.
Tony: I don't want to disagree with you, but nothing has changed in the 45 years I have been building cars. In 1980 I needed a cheap car to take to the big city and use to commute to and from college. A buddy had a 73 Astra GT (Vega) with a 4 speed and a blown engine. I had a 327 sitting in the garage, so... Because I was short on time ( I only had 3 weeks to put this together, I opted for the Hooker "Kit". $600 got me engine and tranny mounts and headers. Because I decided to keep the 4 speed, I needed the Hooker clutch cable adaptor for $75! This turned out to be a piece of 1/4" x 2" angle iron cut off and welded to a 1/4" plate 2"x4" with two holes drilled in it. I was kinda pissed by the price, but it is what it is. Once I get everything installed, I had a clutch pedal that ONLY took 150lbs of pressure on the pedal to depress it. After a dozen or so clutch actuation's, the cable broke. I spent a day sorting out a linkage and for the total price of $0, I welded a couple of pieces of scrap and bent it a little and filed a little and voila my clutch worked with only 20lbs pressure on the pedal. Point is prices for special stuff have always been extreme. And truth is if Hooker had actually put some "engineering" (intelligent thought) into the clutch cable adaptor in the first place, I would have sucked it up and walked away happy. I packaged up the Hooker junk and sent it back for a full refund.
I like your bracket better, the other one is in the way anytime you want to drop the pan and it uses different bolts with spacers you can mix up with the others.
That pan MAYBE will need to be dropped once between rebuilds, if that. The only fault with his bracket is a lack of a stop to keep it from rotating, but that's easily solved with scrap and a welder.
Great topic Tony! I just watched a motion race works video today about their new "operator" shifter. $700!!! for a damn shifter!! Are you kidding me?!?! Greed. This is why people buy shit from across the pond. Unbelievable
That's not the problem the problem is all the good old junkyards that are no longer pick a part
The good old junkyards in my area are all gone. Now, all we have are "pick a part" and there's nothing older than late 1990s (if you're lucky) to be found in any of them!
This video makes me miss my old man…..he passed in late 2019……broken cars ended up being his life basically…..we both grew up on the same farm (started by my grandfather)
If a vehicle would break down he would scavenge them for parts to make handmade tools for himself. I still have a post hole driver he made from 2 broken motor mounts and 1/4” angle iron…..
Both: Inflation due to price gouging. Oil companies have been raking in billions in excess profits due to profiteering, which drives up the cost of EVERYTHING.
When I worked in a shop, we would fabricate stuff like that. Especially when you're holding the pattern right there in your hand. You could make as many as you need.
Also, never ever throw away those extra brackets, pieces and hardware . You or someone you know might need those pieces one day. If anything you could sell them or trade them off as well.
GREAT VIDEO! I CANT AGREE MORE! the price of everything has gone skyrocket and it's absolutely ridiculous! this has been going on for quite awhile now, I'd say the past few years it's been getting a lot worse but since last year or even the past 6 months or so it's been insane! I just paid 279$ for a cheapo u joint and a coil the u joint was the correct part number and brand new from China but didn't fit and the coil was defective from the factory! RIDICULOUS! government needs to get their money back from all the unemployment benefits and stimulus checks they gave out! now is the time to save like you've never saved before!
Old oil field hand here, we usually made equipment work in the field using hand tools and ingenuity. On the boats coming to the dock, someone always needed help to get home not always the best weather. Everyone helped out because you never knew who was next,lol.
I work in IT and up until a few months ago it was impossible for me to buy the higher end graphics cards we need for scientific research. Reduced production due the pandemic plus demand from cryptocurrency miners left the market barren, and what WAS available was snapped up by scalpers asking 2x MSRP. One of my vendors actually had daily lotteries for the handful of cards they were able to procure.
A lack of excess manufacturing capacity could easily explain why that bracket is $65...if factories are busy trying to make enough mainstream products the niche products like that bracket become scarce, making them more valuable.
Seems to me that if simple brackets like that are going for 10x the cost to produce one, that's an opportunity for somebody to make some extra money making them in their basement and selling them for $40 a pop!
doesnt Nvidia own the gpu market basically?
The best part is all it might need is a little tab welded to it to prevent rotation. Once again, a quick trip to the scrap pile for a random piece of steel the size of a nickel. Small block chevy lifting eyes have been used for many such projects around my shop. I even copy them using angle iron scraps now and again just to have a few at the ready for whatever random need I may have.
Man I'm only half way in and gotta throw this out there, especially what you have in your hand, you don't have to order, it's seriously just a piece of metal, cut to shape, bent at a few places and then holes drilled... Ive build pieces like this for all kinds of applications, like today, the door to the 96 dodge wouldn't shut, the claw was riding that ring end, so I looked in my "junk" pile, found two crank bearings, hammered them flat, drilled to holes, free shims, now the door shuts better than new! Edit: you figured it out I just need patience 🤣
That's fine if you're good at fabrication, have the tools and equipment and expertise to fabricate every single part on your car. But the majority of hobbyist car builders and many shops are simply "bolt together the correct puzzle piece" types and THAT'S OKAY because they have other areas of expertise than fabrication. You were always able to order parts off the shelf to support that. In today's world of "Stock only the highest profit high volume items" that's no longer the case.
@@AlvinBrinson I don't have anything to work with but a 12v cordless drill (no drillpress) a sawsall, jigsaw(no much use in automotive but I've been surprised), I just recently bought an angle grinder, I was using my mom's old hand me down dremel till now. next up I'm saving for a torch and then a welder. I've even had to knap flint in order to make a flathead screwdriver on the side of the road. You don't need a factory, primitive tools have gotten us this far. Tony has turned into a broken record about these bolt on guys, its a joke and we'll all be laughing when they can't cut threads in some barstock!
Out of being broke and being desperate, the first transmission I tackled was an AOD. I pooped my pants when done, it worked perfectly. My fav was a 727 on a van. Take out the doghouse and all the bolts are staring at you. The thing I like about the 727 is that you throw all the parts in a box, give it a good shake and it comes out all assembled, ready to add oil.
CEO salaries are at an outrageous high. Price gouging and they're laughing at all of us.
If you ever see any old steel bedframes in the trash, stop and grab it! I have made dozens of shift cable brackets (among many other brackets) using that steel. It's very strong steel.You can use the ready made slots there for the bed size adjusting to match the pan bolts location!
Personally I blame squirrels
We all do.
I love squirrels. Especially dead ones.
Something we need to accept is that we are a fraction of a fraction of one percent. Many of these parts (perhaps not the bracket you showed) are made by machine shops that make a run of a few hundred when there is down time. How many of those brackets are actually sought after by the public as a whole? Many of the folks (at least in the US) that make such things do so knowing at best they will break even. The prices change depending on how many Joe Machinist has in his bucket. The first month, they are a few bucks; as the supply from one run dwindles, the price shoots up. It sucks, but if these guys don't make a profit, they won't keep making them.
The other thing to consider is how many folks who want old cars are actually doing it themselves rather than having a restoration shop do it. A shop doesn't care what it costs; they will pass it on to the customer. We who pinch every penny, don't fit into the equation.
Id love to hear a show about economics
2 yrs ago almost, i had to buy a new GM crate 350 from pace for 2900ish, same engine now sells from same place for over 4k. boy did my engine blow at the right time.
That bracket is genius, love it.
I hardly ever throw out left over new parts from a kit. Can be useful down the road. The cable mount you fabricated only has one mounting point which means it can pivot under stress and vibration. The intended bracket has at least two mounting points.
That's what a little wire feed welder is for
That's a stamped piece of metal costs about a dollar to make.
Uncle Tony, I appreciate you keeping the channel pure. I don't come here for politics and I love your lessons.
40 years ago I was in the back stock room of a mom/pop hardware store when I saw a roll of copper sheet that was probably used for roof flashing. 6' x 2', they sold it to me for $10. 40 years later, a young kid came into my rural town off Cal Interstate 5, in a Cummins Dodge, pulling a 5th wheel with some pretty interesting salvage. He blew a gasket on the turbo. Not able to find one, the parts store sent him to me. I could see he took interest in my curio piles. We got to talking. In the end I gave him that sheet and watched him make a gasket. Watching him do it was payment enough for me.
Today we are more of a “throw-away” society. I remember old folks that came out of the “Great Depression-Era”, they would save anything they could including aluminum foil for reuse! Lol! Today it’s much easier to click a button and have something shipped for convenience as long as the price is right. Maybe get a few buckets of extra parts from now on for Mopar stuff, being that many of the parts and brackets are common.
I was screaming the price at the screen..... because I just went through this exact same thing for a C6 Ford. That Swap Meet Shifter isn't that cheap now...... until I remembered that dad just bought a shifter for a Chevy and I snagged the Ford one from him.
It's getting tough Brother and lesson is, don't throw away anything. Everything has value now, and it's more than a few pennies a pound at the recycling yard.
Exactly where hot ridding is going back to You nailed it.
Fuel will be made in garages and basements
I'm in Alaska so this isn't new to me but it's getting worse and will continue to do so. Mechanical aptitude is an advantage that will always put you ahead of the other guy. The more self reliant you become? The better off you and those around you are. Ever try to enslave wild birds? Would be crazy to even try.
I love your show and I like the way you look at things. You opened my eyes way back when you did the show on car lots being empty and The electric car push.
Totally agree. People will need to be creative to survive their projects. Also specialized parts prices you cannot do by your own are going to the roof. For an example, I bought an FRPP Intake Manifold (M-9424-463V) for my 3V on October 6th 2020 for 684.99+shipping+tx. Now, the same FRPP Intake, same sku, is 849.99+shipping+tx. Imagine. 165$ more, 24% price increase in less than 18 months. Add to this I'm living in Canada, shipping rates have also increased by a lot due to gas prices. Crazy. This will be a halt for a lot of people. This is not a good time to start a project unless you're willing to do you things by yourself like I do and be creative like you said. Great video, tks for sharing.
I’ve been acquiring parts for my 62 C10 project for a few months now. I’d normally pick things up as I need them, but thinking everything will keep going up, I ordered what I need and I’ll get to it in a few months.
Todays world.
Tony,
Sad fact is we have been scrapping this stuff together forever.
Now we have convenience at a huge cost.
Great video!
Sean
Cars and economics do kinda go hand in hand. Tony you are the man I'd love to hear your perspectives.
I put aluminum steps on my Power Wagon 4 years ago. The steps are universal for RAM, Ford, Chevy etc. The kit came with all the different mounting hardware. After I put on the 6 mounts for my RAM. There were 10 POUNDS of mounts left over. I kept them for years thinking these have got to be worth something. I am going to sell them and retire!
What ever the reason(s) the outlook is clear. A death spiral of price increases as corporations seek to cash in before it all goes to food and housing. Thanks for talking about the real world.
This is the exact reason I bought a plasma cutter and have learned how to fabricate almost anything that I need as long as I know what it looks like or dimensions for the part. I'VE found more and more things that have to be made just to finish a project. We're not going crazy, this whole thing is being planned.we are gonna be like Cuba before too long UT
I started building hot rods as a poor kid in the 80s. I don't think I had a stock alternator bracket until I had to buy a new car in the military. Even today a large part of my tools are homebuilt. A welder and a couple grinders and you can make almost anything. The L bracket was great, it could be replicated with a L bracket from a hardware store and a step bit to fit the cable properly.
Making your own brackets, is basic Hot Rodding 101. Tony’s right if you are going to keep a car project reasonably affordable, making some of your own brackets is a great place to start.
As a kid in Australia my father and brothers were all chrysler fanatics ,my father loved the slant 6 and 318,we went drag racing with this combination all the time and on the way home dad always said one day boys im gettin me a keith black and blow everyone away,i imagined this Mr Black to be EXACTLY like Uncle Tony
Yesterday I saw an ad for a USED 2021 Bronco Badlands with 15,000km for $70,000! It's all over.