Holiday Gift Suggestions from No Driving Gloves Ep 293

Swell AI Transcript: Christmas2023DONE.mp3

John: Well, happy generic time of the day to you, Derek.

Derek: Hey, John, same thing back to you.

John: Yep. We're here on no driving gloves. And for once I thought ahead and we're going to do our suggested gift lists for Christmas before black Friday, right after this.

Announcer: Wanna talk about cars? Ferrari, GTO, Bentley, CRX, and even down to your great-granddad Spearless. Welcome to No Driving Gloves, the Car Talk Authority, where experience, knowledge, and controversy share the same seat. Enjoy the ride. Now your hosts, John and Derek.

John: So Derek, it must be nice to you that I've actually thought ahead on an episode with plenty of time and we're not talking a week before Christmas about what you should get your automotive enthusiast friends or ask as an automotive enthusiast for the holidays.

Derek: Yeah, it's actually quite amazing, although it's kind of scary that we're already talking about the holiday season and which, of course, means the year's coming to an end. And I'm not really sure where the year went, but here we are with our wish lists or at least maybe our wish list suggestions for the automotive enthusiast.

John: Well, we're going to ignore kind of the first quarter of the year because some podcast producer really couldn't get the act together and get a podcast rolling again, but we've been here every week and now every day for the listeners. So what are you thinking of It Happened Today, our new daily history episodes?

Derek: You know, I'm really enjoying them. And obviously, it's probably because I'm obsessed with automotive history and all things that have happened in the industry over time. But yeah, I'm loving them. I think our listeners are enjoying them. And even maybe our non-listeners that we're finally finding and hopefully converting into no driving gloves enthusiasts. But yeah, I mean I think it's a great opportunity to give a little tidbit of history and make people, in some cases, think about what has shaped the industry as we know it today.

John: Yeah, I'm really enjoying putting them together and when I started – it's part of National Podcasting Month. It's a tradition that's been going on years where you try to put out an episode every day and I thought this might be a cool thing to do. Heck of a lot of work. Our subscriber numbers are up. Our listener numbers are up. Obviously the number of episodes coming out are up. Obviously the number of episodes coming out is up. But I think overall it's working. It's great. It's fun. I'm learning some new things. I hope you yourself are learning some additional tidbits. And it looks like it— Oh, come on, John, I know it all. That's what I thought. But it's looking like it's going to become a regular part of No Driving Gloves. But we still want to get some of your feedback. Is it too annoying getting seven episodes a week? Should we cut it back to just weekdays of what happened in history, etc. ? Go to nodrivinggloves.com, send us a message, and let us know what you're really thinking. This is a listener podcast. Derek and I want to do, and we're going to do what we want to do, but we'd like some listener input and some guidance. Even give us some topic ideas. I found such and such a car and this thing's great, but can you tell me more? Or I think the listeners would be enjoy more about this vehicle. And if you don't know what we're talking about, it happened today. It's just a short sub five minute automotive history episode. You can listen to quickly in the morning while you're popping in the shower or brushing your teeth or something. Or if you've only got that quick five minute commute to work, it's a nice Nice easy episode. Let's dive into Christmas 2023 or Hanukkah 2023 or I'm going to say my ignorance again. Last week we learned I couldn't speak German. A couple of weeks ago we learned I couldn't speak German. And I should have let Derek do that episode because he has personal experience with one of those Daimler motorcycle replicas.

Derek: It's all good. We, you know, we record what we can and go from there.

John: Maybe you can actually say what the hell is the correct pronunciation of that motorcycle's name?

Derek: Pause. Pause. No, sorry. You know, I, I, I, I believe and I do not speak very good German as I don't speak German at all. But everything I've heard, and I should check with a couple of my friends that actually are from Germany and live here now in the U.S., but I believe it is pronounced Reitwagen.

John: That seems correct. I'll be honest, the Barber Museum has one of those. It actually has a nice collection of the earliest replicas of the earliest motorcycles. All of them that were mentioned in that episode, the Barber Museum has replicas of. And I had no idea how to ever pronounce it. And I walked by the thing for 12 years. Again, let's just jump into, well, I was saying my ignorance. I don't know. Do we give Kwanzaa gifts? Let me know. Give us feedback. NoDrivingGloves.com. Eric, why don't we jump into one of the things on your list? And all of these can be found at NoDrivingGloves.com slash Christmas or click the Christmas tab on the web page. Give us the one. This is a repeat gift. So you must really want this thing.

Derek: I talk about the very first one on the list here, John. Yes, I think you are. I have these. I have a different brand of I love them. And I really think. They are extremely helpful. I actually, when I was looking for these, of course, on that famous website, Amazon, seeing what was out there, obviously they have brought new versions out, different styles, all that good stuff. And I stumbled across the Duratec brand of the flexible tool tray. This is a silicone, molded silicone tool tray. And I really like these for just using when you're working on a project, right? I mean, whether it's a car or something else, it doesn't matter. You can keep some tools in the tray. You can keep screws and various nuts and bolts. all in these and you don't have to worry about scratching up whatever surface they're sitting on because they're a molded silicone. They're also being a molded silicone, they've got a little grip to them, so they're not going to slide around and fall off or tip over, anything like that. And the one thing that I thought was really, really cool about, actually a lot of them, I randomly kind of picked the Duratech. It got really good reviews, things like that. So I may even buy some just to give them a try. But they have these now that have socket holders built in, your screwdriver head bit holders, things like that, which I just, the ones I have, do not have any of the tool holder type trays. And I really like that. I mean, you try to take some sockets with you to work on something, and you don't have a holder or a tray to put them in. And all of a sudden, one's rolling across the hood of a car or something crazy. And who knows where the 10 millimeter went. And these, you know, these you can organize kind of what you need for the job you're doing and have them sitting right there wherever there's a good, you know, flattish space to put it. And yeah, just, I really like these, John. Like I said, I have another brand of these. I, I mean, I'd highly recommend it.

John: I actually picked one up last year on your recommendation and It's really convenient. And we all know I live in a townhouse and I can't really work on a car here. But just even the little household projects, hanging your flat screen TV gives you a place to put everything. Not worry about scratching the coffee table or, you know, working on the washing machine or just any of the little household things. It's not really just an automotive tool. This You know, this works everywhere. And I'm guessing, I mean, you get a little, if you use it on the car and you get grease on it, pop it in the sink, use a little bit of Dawn dishwashing liquid, which is a really good piece of advice for anybody. If it has oil or grease problems, or even if you're working on your fryer and you, you know, you're making turkeys at Thanksgiving, you splash some oil on your wonderful No Driving Gloves t-shirt available at nodrivinggloves.com. You can wash it in Dawn and that grease goes away. One of these that I put on my list is handy for, I love because as we have discussed before, I'm a cigar smoker and I enjoy my cigars. And I realized earlier this year, I bought a car exclusively for my three to 4,000 miles a month of driving. Girlfriend never gets in it. Nobody's I don't think anybody's ever sat in the passenger seat of this thing Since I bought it even including the car dealer. Just let me take it without him I don't think anybody's ever been in the passenger seat so I elected I could have a cigar or two in this car and you crack the front window and you crack the correct driver's front window and the passenger rear window and Airflows and takes most of that smoke away, but sometimes you'll get a little bit of residual smoke There is an ash can that's available, and I might add that to the Christmas list too. You put your cigar in, you put a lid on, and if you keep that can sealed, you really don't get that residual cigar smell. but I bought a inexpensive off Amazon air purifier and I felt it works so good. I stepped up to the Phillips go pure. Um, it's a high performance HEPA air purifier mounts on my dashboard, about 75 bucks. But I mean, you can get these things anywhere, 20 to little over a hundred dollars if you want to, but pops on the dashboard, plugs into the cigarette lighter or auxiliary power port. And, It's just a wonderful little thing. It seems to keep the smoke out of the car. So even if you don't smoke cigars in your car, it keeps that dingy car smell out without having to buy a pine tree air freshener and hang it from the rear view mirror or such. It's just a really handy thing to me to have in the car to add to helping keeping the car clean. And since I probably spend more time in my car than I do my townhouse, It's kind of important that it's comfortable.

Derek: Yeah, I really – when I was looking through your list here as well, John. I really like this one, not only for your daily vehicle, especially, you know, like John, if you're going to have a scar or something like that, but my mind immediately went to older cars, right? And maybe you're buying one that's not necessarily a restoration project where you're going to be pulling everything out, tearing the car down, but maybe you're buying a driver, right? Something that you just want to cruise in, have fun. Sometimes there's some odors that come along with those cars. Maybe somebody smoked in it. Maybe, you know, it's kind of musty from sitting in a garage for a while. I mean, my mind immediately went to this would be really handy to have around just to You get a car and it's got a little bit of odor, run it in the car. Notoriously or famously, maybe I should say, we like to use activated charcoal to try to pull all the odors out of things, but might be worth a try to get one of these. I think reading about it, this could come in really handy to purify those vehicles that might need a little freshening up.

John: I'd be honest, that use kind of slipped my mind, but if you do have something that's, I want to say not even a daily driver. Now, I might not plug it into the 12 volt in the car, but you can get a 12 volt power adapter. You could just sit this thing in your car while it's in storage and you're not driving it, and it'll help keep some of that old car smell down, uh, especially, you know, if you had something that's a little bit older, might have that musty mildewy smell, it would help reduce that so that when you do go take it out on a Friday or Saturday night for that one, one time a week cruise or such that some of that unpleasantness is gone. What do you want to jump to on your list now, Derek?

Derek: Well, you know, I, I kind of tried to take the approach of, I guess I'll call it tools and items that not your professional mechanic, but your, your at home weekend hobbyist really should have. And so with the tool tray that we just talked about a little bit ago, that to me is a great piece to have just to keep things clean, organized, not scratch things up. One of the things that always, I guess maybe just because it was drilled into my head as a kid, that always worries me is proper torques, especially when you're doing anything to your wheels and tires, right, so your lug nuts. and so i've got on my list and again this was just kind of spinning through amazon looking at reviews um you know i don't specifically own this brand of wrench but on my list is a d wall uh torque wrench uh 3-h drive adjustable torque wrench because you know most even most car owners at some point, you know, probably get involved in taking their wheels off. And nothing bothers me more than seeing someone not properly torque their lug nuts, because it's a safety issue. Yeah, whether you're under torquing them, and causing serious issues with, you know, the rim moving around on the, the lug nuts and the lugs and all that wonderful stuff that causes many, many issues.

John: But go ahead and say it over torque and say it the wheel falls off your car and goes bouncing across the highway.

Derek: and exactly exactly takes out somebody or or you just wear everything out if the if it doesn't back off you're still wearing everything out um or over torquing them which you know not only leads to issues trying to take them off again in the future but you know you can stretch the lug bolts you can do a ton of damage you can bend your rims all that kind of stuff that happens so you know to me anybody that is working on a vehicle and especially if you're doing anything with the rims and tires of the vehicle. you should have a decent torque wrench. I'm not saying go out and buy the top-of-the-line snap-on digital torque wrench with all the fancy techie things that you can get, but just get a decent torque wrench that, yeah, even if it is a little off, they're never going to be massively off unless you really don't know how to take care of one. It's going to make sure that you're doing things safely and properly and not causing any damage or harm to your vehicle or putting anyone that's driving it at risk. So I'm a big one on that. Like I said, it's the DeWalt brand. It got good reviews. I don't own one, so I can't give a review on it. I think it's a good idea for any automotive enthusiast hobbyist that's working on a vehicle to have a torque wrench.

John: And DeWalt's a good brand. I mean, I do own a three-eighths and a half inch, and of course, you know, because of I guess brands, I have Snap-on, and for what the average person uses and needs a torque wrench for, you don't need to spend, I probably have five, six hundred dollars in the two torque wrenches, you don't need to spend that kind of money. But something basic, you know, and like I said, DeWalt's a reputable brand, this will get you this will get you 98% of the way there which is better than anybody who doesn't have the torque wrench the only thing i might modify is i might look for a half inch drive especially if you're going to do wheels and tires because you never want to use an adapter or such on a you know you don't want to put a half inch adapter on the 3.8 so you can use a half inch socket and you don't really want to put a half inch to 3.8 adapter on the half inch torque wrench either because that will make a little bit of difference in the torque. So if you're really going to do this primarily for wheels and tires or throw it in the trunk of your car so when you get a flat you can properly torque the wheel lugs or such, you might just want to look at one of the DeWalt half-inch. It's personal thought there.

Derek: Yeah, you're right. You're right, John. I mean, I didn't really clarify that but, you know, this was more of just a a general like, you know, get a torque wrench. If you're doing this stuff, make sure you get the right size for what you're doing. Good, good catch there, John. I appreciate that.

John: I'm going to go ahead, a lot of my stuff for driver comfort, car comfort things, but I did throw a few tools on my list too. And I actually have this and I've used this and I've had one of these for years. I just talked about having Snap-on, but no, this is a LED brake fluid, um, tester in order to test your brake fluid, because with modern automobile cars, with modern cars, Brake fluid is very sensitive with the ABS systems and just even traction control systems and dynamic braking and regenerative braking. Brake fluid has become a very, very vital fluid. I mean, it used to be they dumped it into the factory and it never came out until the car was crushed. Now it's really recommended that you change your brake fluid every two years, especially in one of these more highly advanced braking systems, which almost every car has. And frankly, brakes are kind of important. It's either steering or brakes. Brakes really come in handy most of the time. And what this little device does, you pop the cap off your brake fluid reservoir, and that's easily accessible in any car, including, you know, like a Porsche Boxster that hides everything except, you know, the brake fluid, oil fill and brake fluid reservoir. You pop the cap off, turn this thing on, dip it in there, and it'll give you a series of lights letting you know the quality and percentage of life left back in your brake fluid based on moisture and contamination factors. That's what affects your braking performance. That's what wears the system. If the brake fluid has somehow gotten contaminated, that'll affect your ABS system. If there's too much water, that affects your ABS system, which in the long run, the $200 or $150 for a brake fluid change is a lot cheaper than having to buy new abs sensors or a new caliper or anything it's just a nice little thing for about 20 bucks that you can check every now and then and one of the things i like to do is to check my brake fluid like before i go for an oil change in that again i don't do a lot of work on my own cars anymore and i go places and that's an easy upsell but you'll know when you go in No, I think, you know, maybe you tested and the thing saying you've got 80% fluid life left and even though it's been 18 months, you can say, you know, I think I'll wait till next time. Now, if your manufacturer's warranty requires every 24 months or whatever, you have to adhere to that to keep the warranty. Don't, you know, let this say, well, the brake fluid tester said I didn't have to. Now, you know, pay attention to your owner's manual and your warranty requirements or your general maintenance requirements. But for a lot of us that have, you know, older cars or cars we don't drive that often are cars that we've stored over the winter. It's a good idea to, you know, test the brake fluid before you take that car out for its first drive in the spring to make sure that, you know, the temperature changes in that didn't perform any condensation and create moisture in that system. That's just an idea I had. Like I said, I have an inexpensive Amazon one and I used to use it all the time at the museum. We'd go through and we'd check out, I did the car collection and we check all the brake fluid just to make sure, you know, it was adequate because, you know, most of our cars could be driven and they needed to be driven at a moment's notice. And you couldn't exactly tell the boss, well, I got to change the brake fluid. And this way we could, you know, kind of a little bit of preventive maintenance.

Derek: Yeah, no, this is a great idea, John, or a great tool, I should say. I've known about these for many years. I personally don't own one, but thinking about it, I really probably should. I mean, a lot of the things you said are pretty important. And I'm just kind of used to the whole, I get a vehicle, one of my old vehicles, and wind up completely rebuilding the brake system, put new brake fluid and everything in them. When I get them, well, in the ones that have hydraulic brakes, you got to remember, a lot of my cars just have mechanical brakes, so this would be useless. But, you know, like you pointed out, it's also good in your daily drivers, you know, your modern vehicles and, you know, kind of like John said, I don't do a lot of the work on the modern cars anymore. They go into the dealer for oil changes, all that good stuff, mainly to keep the warranties up on them. But I think you're right, John. This is a really great addition to a toolbox or to your toolkit and something that I think I'm probably going to go out and grab. Moving on to one of my next picks, you know, and talking still kind of about, you know, your home hobbyist and and in my opinion, basic things that everybody should have, whether you're working on cars or working on your house, whatever. I don't care what you work on. Yeah, I've got on here. One of my picks is a craftsman 12 piece screwdriver set. And this is like the most basic craftsman screwdriver set you can get. for someone that's a hobbyist and enthusiast. It doesn't matter whoever they are. In my opinion, I it never hurts to have screwdrivers laying around. I mean, I can have them in both toolboxes in in the shop space. I can have them in the house in a tool bag. You know, I can have screwdrivers everywhere. That way I'm not running to go get one from the barn when I need one in the front of the house and so on and so forth. So I'm a big fan of always having multiple screwdriver sets around. easily accessible wherever you are. And I mean, I do actually own and I mean, this set has been around for a long time from Craftsman. I mean, this is like a staple Craftsman screwdriver set. I think I own two of these sets. And they're just in, you know, different places. One's out in the barn toolbox, I think one's up in the brick, the front garage toolbox, things like that. But They're a good quality screwdriver. They work for what you need them to work for. And it's just flat out handy to have these around. So that's kind of one of the easy, basic, simple ideas on this list.

John: You're absolutely right. I like having tools accessible. It's one of the things I enjoy about working in a shop or having, you know, like you having a big barn or something where you can just walk up to a tool and use it. Like you said, you've got every tool in the world in the barn. In my case, I have every tool in the world in a storage unit and, you know, nicely organized, easy to go grab if I need something specialized. But it's great to have just a little tool kit in the car so you can take care of something. You're at a buddy's house and they need something done, the tool's right there. Or here in the studio, I've got a tool kit just off to the side. And you never can have too many screwdrivers. Matter of fact, I always have a… a screwdriver laying out somewhere in here. Needed one last night, wanted to change the light bulb, put in a day night light bulb in the front porch socket and needed a screwdriver. And guess what? It was just right around the corner. Grabbed it. I mean, you can never have too many of these. And like you said, the convenience of having a screwdriver is wonderful. And I also, you have it on your list. I don't have the exact thing. Lowe's used to sell one for about a hundred bucks, and it was kind of a complete toolkit. Basic sockets, hammer, tape measure, screwdrivers, and it's this little roll around toolkit. And Excellent deal to have something like that. Why don't you go ahead and talk about that unit that you have on your list too, Derek, while we're talking about the convenience of having tools available.

Derek: Yeah, definitely. I mean, and it's to me again, you know, here are no driving gloves. Yeah, John, myself, Will, who used to host with us, and a lot of the people we have on and talk to, we're professionally involved in this industry, whether it's restorations, preservation, whatever. But again, we're not trying to put out these ideas that are thousands of dollars. I'm trying to give you guys basic ideas for your family member or friend that's an enthusiast and isn't quite set up yet, especially maybe the younger generation. Maybe you got a kid in the family that's really into working on cars. This is the kind of stuff, this is a good basic starter stuff. And yeah, one of the things I put on is, again, this is DeWalt brand, which DeWalt is a good brand of tools and equipment. Yeah, they're not your snap-ons and things like that, but for what we're looking at, this is a great starting point. And this is basically just a very basic, what they call their mechanics tool set. And, you know, it's a nice socket and ratchet set. You get some, you know, hex drivers, you know, you get various bits with it. And it's just, it comes in a handy carrying case. So, you know, you don't have to have all the socket rails and everything for a toolbox. You know, you've got it right in the plastic, you know, latching kit that you know the whole thing you can got an easy carry handle and you can take it with you where you're going. And it's just it's just your basic sockets, ratchets, you know, standard sizes that you're going to need for most things you're working on. think about everybody buys something like, you know, some kind of put together piece of furniture, be it Ikea, or you go to Target or things like that. And yeah, they always come with the little, you know, inset Allen tool that you need. And a lot of them say, Oh, you need a screwdriver as well, or you need this as well. And these are the kind of things, these are the kind of little kits that you want to have around whether you're working on a car or you're just doing something in the house. I mean, we fasten things with screws, nuts, bolts, all these things. And if you're going to do anything on pretty much anything in this world, you're going to need some basic tools. So that's why I threw this on here, John, is just it's a great little kit. Looks like it comes with a great selection of, you know, the basic, like I say, the basic standard things you're going to need to work on most projects. Nothing specialized here. Again, just something to get you rolling in mechanical work or even just working, like I say, working on stuff around your house or your shop.

John: It's one of the things I used to look for and nobody made one. And like I said, I have this kit by Cobalt from Lowe's that they no longer offer that I think was a stupendous value. This DeWalt kit you suggest is a lot of sockets and everything, but for a couple bucks more, you can add a screwdriver set with it or a drill bit set, a couple of things like that, and make it something that It's good to have in your little home shop if all your tools are away. Like you said, I used to be a professional restorer and had the shop away, and everything there was Snap-on. For home, at the time, I bought Craftsman Professional. You don't have to have Snap-on. And when I changed jobs, moved down here from Virginia to Alabama, and I started at the museum, for the longest time, I was working away, working away. And then I looked one day, and the 3H ratchet I had been using for two or three years was actually the Craftsman Professional ratchet. And the snap-on one, I had confused and put it in with my Craftsman Professional set. completely identical. The difference is the Craftsman one actually had a button to release the socket. The Snap-on one didn't. But otherwise, the body and everything was the same. So you don't have to feel like you have to have Snap-on. Craftsman stuff's great. Cobalt stuff's great. Husky stuff's great. And if you really get into tools, and we talked about this in a very early episode of No Driving Gloves, way back in maybe the low double digits, that there's only two or three tool manufacturers in the world and they make everybody's tools. So you don't really have to worry about the brand names. I do avoid discount store stuff and I don't necessarily want to buy and tools at Harbor Freight. I've had a Buffalo wrench break on me when I was younger and still have a scar from that instance. But buy something from a reputable store. One of the things I did when my brother got his first home, and this was 20 years ago. I gave him a toolkit for Christmas, you know, threw in the hammer and the screwdrivers and some socket wrenches. And I did the same thing for my stepsister when she got her first home. It's something that even if you're not a mechanic, the basic homeowner needs to have. And I'm amazed when I go over to people's houses and, oh, you know, I need this or that, you know, you want to, they ask you to help them fix something and you go, you have a hammer? No. It's something, you know, for between $100 and $150, you can put together and give somebody a gift that doesn't seem exciting until they need it. And then when they need it, they go, this was a fabulous, you know, fabulous gift.

Derek: Yeah, exactly. And that's, that's a lot of what, like I say, a lot of this, maybe on my list that we're talking about, you know, that's, that's where my head was, you know, and there's, there's a couple of things coming up on my list. They're a little, little more advanced, let's call it, you know, and, and John, you talked on, or you touched on, you know, Harbor Freight type tools. And obviously neither of us have items from Harbor Freight on our lists here, but I want to throw in that I have a few things from Harbor Freight in my box. And the reason for that is because every once in a while, especially with oddball or early cars, you'll find a situation where you need to make a modification to a tool to do what you need to get done. And I would much rather modify a reasonably priced tool from Harbor Freight than one of the slightly more expensive tools or sockets out of one of my sets. That's one place where I will, and I think a lot of the guys I know, you run into something, you're like, I got to modify. I'm going to run down Harbor Freight and pick up something and make the modification to that because as soon as I'm done, I can toss it. I'm not worried about the money I spent on that.

John: Yeah, don't get me wrong, Harbor Freight tools have their purpose. A lot of times when I need to buy something I'm not sure I'm ever going to use again, I'll buy it at Harbor Freight. One and done. If I find I use it five or six times, I use the Harbor Freight one until it breaks, then I go buy the good one. I've done that with an angle grinder in the past, or you go somewhere and you need, say, an angle grinder. Run over to Harbor Freight and get one because driving 300 miles back home to get your Makita, it doesn't make sense. I call Harbor Freight tools kind of, like Derek said, modifiable tools or test tools. It proves what you want. You know, there's the old saying, you know, spend a little bit more money and make the first tool you buy your last because you bought quality. I always believe in buy your first tool and make sure you're gonna use it and make sure it does what you want. And then you can go buy something else. You know, you buy a sander, say, and you go, oh, it does this and does this, but I need it to do this. Then you know, instead of spending that much money on, say, a sander, and finding out, oh, I need it to do this. Now you got to go out and spend, you know, $300 again to buy the sander that has this little modification. It's, you know, it's a test tool. I want to say there's regular Harbor Freight stuff I use in my shop, benches and the foam mats cover my, you know, that storage unit. I said the floor is covered in the foam mats from Harbor Freight. Again, we're not slamming Harbor Freight. while we're on kinda stupid tools. I said a lot of my stuff is a little bit of the car comfort stuff. One of the best things I've ever bought is the stupid car tray. It's just a plastic tray that goes in your passenger seat. It's got a little bit of riser on the back. So it's a flat tray and it has these little accessories that a cup holder and then a mug holder and a phone holder. And it's just a nice place to. especially if you travel a lot by yourself, it gives you the extra cup holder. It gives you a place to always know where your phone is. And, you know, I carry two phones during the day and, you know, I've got one in my mount and I've got one that gets lost on the passenger. You got to dig it out at every stop. And this stupid car tray, you know, they're about 50 bucks with all the accessories. and you can buy them for about $35 if you skip the accessories, but I recommend spending the $45 and getting them with the multiple accessories, and they're available in a ton of colors. Just makes it so convenient to keep things a little bit organized, or it gives you a table to put your fast food on, unwrap your sandwich, gives you a place to sit the sandwich without staining the seat, et cetera, et cetera. Like I said, it's a stupid thing, and they admit to it in the name, the stupid car tray. But once you have one, it's very useful. Even somebody like Derek, you know, who commutes a little bit to work, it could be a convenient thing to have in the passenger seat just to keep a couple of those things organized. And then when you're going to go, somebody with a passenger, you just pick up that tray, carry it inside and all your stuff still there so that Monday morning you put it back in the car and it's ready to go.

Derek: This is an interesting one, John. Maybe sometimes stupidity can be practicality. But just thinking about it, I've got a bit of a commute every day. I can see it coming in handy. But where else I can see it coming in handy is the fact that I have two kids. And this would come in very handy as extra space to carry all the crazy items that need to be carried when you're when you're going somewhere and the two kids are strapped in the car seats in the back, you know, their their extra drink cups and their extra snack cups and everything extra that has to come with you when you have a kid or multiple kids. And yeah, this this might go on my list, John. This is this is kind of interesting.

John: And when you said two kids and all of a sudden click, I, you know, it's shown and it's always being used on the passenger seat of the car. You have the two kids and yes, they're still in car seats and such, but it could go between them and that gives them a little table to throw their toys on. And as they get older, it's a table that they could play games on and that on trips and they, you know, it could become very useful in the backseat.

Derek: Yeah, clearly John does not have kids, as you just said. It's a table for them to throw their toys on. No, it's a table for their toys to land on after they've thrown them at each other.

John: Well, yeah, it makes it easier. Bounce off the kid. Unfortunately, or to me, fortunately, don't have children. What else we got on your list for you?

Derek: Oh boy, I guess now we're stepping up into a little bit more of the more advanced-ish type things that I put on the list. One of those that I think most of us should have, anybody that's working on a car, doing any kind of mechanical maintenance, stuff like that, but I'm a huge fan of infrared thermometers. So I've got a Fluke brand industrial infrared thermometer on here. Yeah, you're looking at about $85 on this. Fluke is a good brand of electronic equipment. They do a lot of multimeters, things like that. Doing a tune-up on a car, especially early cars, things like that. Timing, all this kind of stuff that you're going to be working around with. And you get the car running, you can monitor the temperature of the cooling system, you can get a rough idea of monitoring the temperature of the heads, all of those kind of things. You can pinpoint the area you want to read the temperature of the engine on, and it helps you start understanding what's going on inside the engine, where you might be having issues, all those kind of things. I mean, you take the temperature of the exhaust manifold at each outlet and see if there's cylinder temperatures are, one's running, exhausting way hotter than another one. And so to me, always something convenient to have around. And so I highly recommend having an infrared thermometer like this.

John: A lot of your stuff is definitely car-focused, and I have a lot of these specialty tools, as I've said multiple times in this episode, and I don't necessarily work on cars as much as I did five, 10 years ago. So I've found other uses for some of these tools. And one of these thermometers is excellent. You can't use it to take your kid's temperature. I think even this one specifically says in the description, not for human use. But if you're working on your clothes dryer, you can get the temperature going out the exhaust, or what's the hot water temperature? Or is my air conditioner at home working well? And you can check on the vents and stuff. And what's the temperature of the air conditioning coil outside on the compressor? There's just lots of things you can do with it beyond The car, I mean, even I think the refrigerator might be running a little bit warm or the dishwasher is not getting as hot. There's just a lot of things. There's a lot of things in everybody's life. Not on a daily basis, but when you need to know, you need to know, and sometimes it's helping in diagnosing. Hot water doesn't seem as warm as it used to be, and I haven't touched the hot water heater. Guess what? You can check three or four days in a row, and if it keeps getting colder, or if it varies, you're going, maybe the hot water heater's on the fritz. It's a very convenient item for less than a hundred bucks to have. I think the one I have I got from Eastwood, granted 10 years ago or 15 years ago, and it might have been 50 or 60 bucks. So there is a wide range on these, but always buy from a name brand company or a name brand unit. I don't think you'll go wrong with it. I'm going to slide back into my car stinks, and this is a very simple gift. Eight bucks at Walmart, 12 bucks on Amazon, and usually a coupon to bring it down to Walmart's price. But just the simple Febreze car air fresheners that clip into your vent. Used to think these were the dumbest things in the world, but a person I knew had them, used them in her car, and they worked and it was the first really introduction into hey keeping the car smelling a little bit better because you know cars they get french fries that mold in them and you know Derek's talking about his kids in the car I'm sure every now and then there's a bit of food that gets spilled or a drink and this just helps overcome it because Febreze doesn't necessarily mask the odor it sometimes absorbs the odor and I don't have one on here I also have an odor-absorbing gel that I carry in the car that I actually get through a cigar place. It just doesn't work well in the car, especially in the summer, because it evaporates in about two weeks. These Febreze things work really well. They seem to last 60 days. You get four in this pack. You pop two in the car, and this covers you for four months for $12. And I always go with the linen smell because I like clean laundry. Some fragrances really bother me and my sinuses. Just like I said, something stupid that we never think of, but give it to somebody and they'll use it. They're not going to return it. They're going to use it. So that's a stupid gift, but I got to use it. And then all of a sudden they're going to find out they like these things. It's got to expose them to it. You use anything like this, Derek?

Derek: I was going to say, keeping your car smelling fresh and nice is good. I don't ever use air fresheners like this. Most of them are a little too strong for me. As you said, John, there's some smells that bother your sinuses and things. A lot of times when I get into vehicles that people are using these in, there's just something about maybe the chemicals they use in them and to make the fragrance, not the odor, the fragrance. It does something to me. It just, it doesn't, they don't work well with my olfactory system, my sinuses and all that wonderful smelling ability we have. I don't use them, but I understand the people that use them, you know, keep the cars smelling fresh, you know, kind of try to get rid of those odors that occur in your car from, like you said, John, you know, stopping at the fast food restaurant, something drops under the seat, you don't know it, blah, blah, blah. Now fortunately with my Malibu that I own now, I bought it used and whomever owned it prior to me was a a fan of using a very strong perfume. And on hot days, you open the door and that perfume smell still lingers in the vehicle. So I have a very fragrant used car that smells of actually a very nice perfume. So I have the joy of having a semi-permanent air freshener in my vehicle from the previous owner.

John: Yeah, that's what I tell my girlfriend too.

Derek: Yeah, right.

John: Okay. You take us back to the real world of automotive mechanics here. What are we buying?

Derek: Well, I just mentioned it when I was talking about the infrared thermometer. And although I did not put a Fluke brand one on the list, this is a Klein Tools brand, but a great little electrical test kit with a digital multimeter. And these come in handy I mean, again, here we are, yeah, we're talking about cars, but man, this is just handy if you're going to work on anything pretty much, anything where electricity is involved. So you're working on a car, you're going to want to test, you're going to have a number of electrical things you're going to want to test. continuity issues, all these kind of things. So that multimeter comes in real handy. It's AC-DC. But this kit comes with an outlet tester as well. So there, you're working in your house or you're working in your shop, in the barn, on the electrical. and you need to test if the breaker you turned off was the right one. Well, you've got an outlet tester you can plug in. It's going to tell you if that outlet's on or off. It'll also read if there's issues, ground issues, all that kind of thing. Kits like this are just, to me, really handy to have around. This Klein Tools kit is $40. I mean, $40, so you know you're not going to get electrocuted. That, to me, is a pretty good insurance policy. And just very, very convenient to have around. So one of the reasons I put it on, yeah, this is maybe a little more advanced tool than your basic, you know, simple oil changes, things like that. But Something that I think everybody needs. I think I have two or three multimeters laying around just because I Want to be able to have one when I need one, you know, I mean everything from analog to digital I mean, I've got an old analog one all the way up to digital but obviously I've got one of these two and I bought this way back in college and I've used it now for 30 years 20 years.

John: How long have I been out of college? And some of them have wonderful little features like the one I have has a temperature probe, has a tachometer feature, so you put – has the inductive pickup and some of these are so diverse, very specific for automotive needs but have a lot of features that you can use elsewhere. You could even use – the tachometer thing on your lawnmower if you're, you know, working on it. It's, you know, just inductive thing. So the features that these multimeters can bring to you, like Derek says, the peace of mind they can provide just to verify that you've turned the right breaker off or even the breaker itself is good. Not that I'm encouraging most of us to get into our electrical panels. I mean, once you take that cover off, it gets pretty deadly pretty quick. It's it's not an expensive piece to have in that little home arsenal. And like I said, if you going back, if you gave somebody the screwdriver set, the socket set for Christmas this year, next year, you add the temperature probe or the multimeter and let them build up a good little home tool kit that's safe, provide some safety for them and a lot of convenience and probably take some work off of your plate.

Derek: Yeah, I just wouldn't, you know, gift it to somebody if they just recently like. Zapped themselves doing a home project and might be a little, you know, a little too soon.

John: Well, I'll be honest, I just use my car keys to test if an outlet's hot, active. Now, actually, I guess I did plug a key into an outlet back when I was one or two years old, which could explain a lot. I'm gonna go back to dropping french fries and food and a friend of mine actually was just complaining about this on Facebook as she almost broke her finger trying to fish out something that fell between that gap between your seat and the center console. Thought they were the dumbest things in the world, bought them. They're great. They make them all kinds of different ways. This is just a very simple set set of the car seat gap fillers. It's something that slides down on your seat or between your seat and that center gap fills that up, gives you usually a little tray. Sometimes I'll have a drink holder in them, gives you a compartment maybe to throw your phone. Some of them actually have a 12 volts or a USB socket in them. You know, you plug the the gap filler into a power source and then it brings the power outlet to a much more convenient place. You know, these started about 20 bucks and I think the one I threw on here is a pretty basic one that's about 20 bucks. I don't need a lot of the fancy stuff. I mean, all of my USB ports and auxiliary power ports are convenient in my normal driver. Go back to the mini and they're a little inconvenient. I'd probably be better to take them out of the old Ford and put them in the mini and make them useful there. But it's again, I'm just doing some quick, easy things to make the time you spend in your daily driver a little bit more enjoyable and a little bit cleaner.

Derek: Yeah, you know, actually, my my wife bought some of these for her Acadia and they work really really well. I know she enjoys them. She's got them out right now just because the life with kids, climbing around and doing things when you're, you know, trying to get them in and out of the vehicle, they kept kind of getting knocked loose or moved and it just, things weren't Working as well as she had hoped with turning the interior of the car into a jungle gym essentially But you know, she she likes him she and she hates when things drop down between the seats Actually, I just did it last night in my my car was trying to get to my phone and unplug it from the charging port and Slipped out of my hand and sure enough there goes down between the seat and center console and I'm you know outside the car now in the parking lot, down on my knees, trying to reach under the seat and get behind the seat track where it's now wedged and feed it out. These are convenient. They fill up that space. The worst thing is I've dropped keys between the seats and man, they go into the wrong spot under the seat track. you're there for 15 minutes trying to fish them out. So yeah, I think these are a good idea. And like I said, even my wife has them for her car, and she likes having them. So yeah, never a bad idea.

John: Sounds like since she's not using them, you should grab them and put them in your car.

Derek: You know, John, I didn't think about that, but you're probably right. Maybe I will today.

John: I will give you the one warning. They're bad when you like leave the house and you forget your wallet and you need lunch because they prevent all that extra food from falling down there and you can't dig it out and have a haphazard free lunch. There's some drawbacks of these products. Why don't you throw your last one out here, Derek?

Derek: All right, so last one here. This is just something, might not be your most basic tool to have, but this is, you know, I put on here a nice set of a hammer drill and an impact driver, cordless, battery powered from Dewalt. And it's a little pricey, right? I mean, you're looking about $365 on this, but For the people that are doing various projects around the house, around the shop, this is going to come in handy. Not necessarily going to be heavily used on an automotive project, if you're restoring a car or something like that. Obviously, the impact driver can be, this can be used. Obviously, you got a stuck nut and bolt, something like that, and you just can't get it broke free with your standard wrench ratchet setup, all those kind of things. Yeah, you're going to look to an impact driver to try to give it some impact and help break it free. But this is really more to me, just general use even around the shop. Most of us have a shop, we have concrete floors and some shops you've got cinder block walls, concrete walls. That's where this is really going to come in handy because you got your hammer drill for drilling into the wall, drilling into the floor, whatever you need to do. Maybe you're installing new heavy equipment for your shop and you want to bolt it down. you're going to need a set like this. It's just something I think could come in very convenient or be very convenient around the shop to have. You just never know when you might need one of these. It's a good thing to have around.

John: I'm going to focus a little bit more on the impact driver. People think impact driver, why do I need it? I have an electric screwdriver. I have an adapter for my hammer. The impact drivers are just so convenient. Putting, you know, putting like screws into just a two by four wall, not over torquing things. You know, you can think of times in your life that sometimes Instead of just steady pressure, you need that intermittent pressure. Boy, I screwed that one up a few times, that intermittent pressure. And that's where the impact driver comes in. I never thought I needed one. I always thought they were stupid kits, buy the drill, get the impact driver, never use the impact driver. Then one day I picked up the impact driver and used it. And I use it more often than I do an electric screwdriver, it seems, anymore. Very, very convenient tools to use. This is a very nice set that Derek's recommended here on the list. You know, you don't necessarily have to go $400 for DeWalt. There's a few different brands, you know, the Home Depot Ryobi brand, which is pretty much a lot of the power tools I use. They're 18-volt, they're green tools. That's the set I have and I enjoy it, gets me by. I'm gonna wrap up our shopping list with another very inexpensive item. Costs you again about 10 bucks on Amazon. And they call it a car cleaning gel kit. Very, very stupid product. Reminds me a lot of, if you're as old as me, there used to be a thing that came in a little green can called Slime. not exactly the same stuff Nickelodeon dumped on your head during the show, but it's a gooey substance, or maybe it's kind of a cross between slime and silly putty. But this is a mass of goo that's very, very sticky. I guess it reminds you of the rubber cement that some packaging has on it. You pull something off and you get that little rubber cement at the back. It's kind of like that. But where this is good is all the little crevices in your car. you know, where the trim, say the shifter panel comes to the side of the center console and there's this little eighth of an inch or sixteenth of an inch gap that always gets crumbs in it, or even the vents of the car, the radio knobs and the controls, if you have that. I mean, so many of us have touchscreens now. um getting you know down into the door handles of your car where you can't necessarily reach you cram this stuff in you pull it out and it just the the little loose debris adheres to it and then i'm sure with kids derrick's income of about 18 other uses for this and then even just around the house uh you know cleaning up my mixer board which i'm sure everybody has in their house or my keyboard my music keyboard or my computer keyboard. It can come in handy. Just there's just a lot of little places. I think I see this used. I ought to check and see where the girlfriend uses it around the house. I know I got one for her little cleaning kit or our little cleaning kit. I do help clean up around here, too. It's not her job. Like I said, just a very stupid little thing until you own it and you never realized that you needed it. Like I always say, it's like a heated steering wheel or heated seats in your car. You never knew you needed them until you have them. So careful. Once you buy this, you're going to be addicted.

Derek: Yeah, very true. Even my wife has bought some of this, not this brand specifically or things, but this cleaning putty, if you will, and she uses it in her car for all those little crevices and all that kind of stuff. think i'm pretty sure i've seen her use it around the house here too just to clean up some spots and john as you said you know you can always figure out something with kids i mean basically you just take this and you just roll it all over them and just get everything that's stuck to them it's like pig pen you just gotta clean it you know uh pig pen is a reference to the snoopy cartoon for those who don't know uh anyway peanuts cast the the characters Again, very convenient, gets all those little crumbs out. For some reason, the thing that popped into my head when I saw this on your list, John, and again, just being, I guess, the historian that I am, this is nothing new. And John even brought up, it's kind of like silly putty. And people don't know, silly putty was actually created as a cleaning putty long, long ago. And it would be used to actually, during spring cleaning, to clean the walls of the houses after having burnt the coal furnaces and coal fireplaces to get the soot off of everything, all of the soot from the coal. And so this is just kind of a continuation of a product that's been around forever to use as a cleaning product.

John: I learned something new about Silly Putty and I'm sitting here thinking, boy, I should have used this at my last house because we had a fireplace that unless you set the fire perfectly in it, it loved to fill the living room with smoke and you have to go back and clean the white mantel and everything. I never thought of using this product to pull the soot off, but that would have been a lot easier than smearing it around with a household cleaner.

Derek: Very convenient.

John: But that's just a few ideas. I think that's about 13 or 14 gift ideas, either you can ask for as a car person, or you can give this episode to somebody and say, hey, these are some neat ideas that we should get so-and-so, or maybe we gave you a couple of ideas for alternative uses for things that are very car-specific. We got this out early. All these links are included in the show notes, and then they can be found under the Christmas tab on the NoDrivingGloves.com website. And of course, they are all Amazon links. They are affiliate links. You know, we might receive some money from Amazon if you purchase some of these. We would appreciate it if you did, you know, did check them out and go through there. We also have a link to get 30 days of Prime membership free if you don't, you know, I don't know anybody who doesn't have Prime, but if you don't, you can click that and you get 30 days of Prime. Hey, that gets you through the holiday season and then you cancel it. Plus you can watch some cool TV shows in those 30 days. Here, you got anything else we need to cover, Derek, or

Derek: No, I don't have anything to add. I mean, hopefully this has given some people ideas on, you know, either gifts to ask for or gifts to give to somebody that, you know, that's interested in. And yeah, I mean, hopefully we've made your Christmas shopping or whatever holiday you celebrate shopping a little easier. That's all I got for today, John.

John: Then we all know what I've been saying. Now that you've enjoyed the show, get off your ass and go burn some gas. John is out.

Announcer: This show was a part of the No Driving Gloves Network, produced and edited by John Viviani of Magic City Podcast with voice work by Gary Conker. So until the next exit.