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HEATSOAKED is a Florida-based car culture podcast hosted by Cris and KT - two 30-something year old car nuts who live the stories they talk about. What started as two friends having late-night conversation about dream builds, blown budgets, and heat soaked engines turned into a platform for the culture that raised them.
This isn't about perfect cars or polished influencer content. It's about the grind behind the build. Cris and KT bring real conversations about the 90s and 2000s era tuner scene, passion-built machines, and the culture that keeps them alive. Every episode dives into the journey of a typical gearhead; including the victories, mistakes, lessons learned, and the passion that keeps the culture moving.
HEATSOAKED - because nobody remembers the cool nights.
Cris (00:02)
What's up guys? Welcome back to the episode of Heat Soaked. I'm Cris. You guys know KT well. Hey, we're coming back today for a special topic, something near and dear to my heart. But hey, we all know this moments in every project car build when the excitement kind of disappears, right? We're looking, we're our car isn't finished, it's not drivable. It's been on jack stands for you know a couple days, and then next thing we know, it's been a couple months, it's been you know six
So today we're breaking down the psychological, physical, and the ⁓ I'd say financial aspects of how to get past that point or what we'd like to call the project wall. And I think we're gonna be having some fun. So dig in. Don't forget to like and subscribe, leave some comment. I mean first man, let's talk about what we got going on back here. ⁓ so I removed the grill.
KT (00:53)
Yeah. ⁓
Cris (00:55)
⁓ I'm also
facing something with the project wall, but at the end of the day, ⁓ no, everything's been good. ⁓ you know, waiting on parts to come in. I'm one of those guys that gets really meticulous with parts. And unfortunately ⁓ for everyone else, that means all of my parts come in like, you know, Tuesday I'll get something, next Tuesday I'll get something, and I'm just real slow about picking 'cause I like my quality, you know, at the end of the day that's kinda what I'm looking for. So
That's why we're we're out we're out not seeing much right now. Timing kit's on its way in and I'm gonna order all that set here soon. I have lower ball joints to do because that's the IS three hundred's biggest weakness, right? I don't want my w my wheels in my passenger and driver's seat, ⁓ just you know, at random one day. So that's where we're going. What's up, KT? How you been, man?
KT (01:47)
Good. ⁓ as you know I picked up a spare engine.
Cris (01:50)
Yes, yes. Like ⁓ the cue the clapping, like cue the clapping. Golf clapping. ⁓ yeah, you say you picked up a spare two J C
KT (02:00)
I picked
up a spare 2J-Z GE engine. So it's a spare engine out of another IS 300. And the guy had a really good deal for it. And once again, it was on like a Sunday night at like 10 30 at night. This time Cris wasn't able to go with me, but I made it out there myself and I'm here to tell the story. So But I picked up that engine. ⁓ it's disassembled right now from the previous owner just because he wanted to inspect it, but
It's currently still sitting in the back of my car because the block weighs like three or four hundred pounds and I just got an engine stand so I didn't want to put the engine on my garage.
Cris (02:36)
Two
or you just got two engines. You got one for either side of the engine block in case he needs
KT (02:43)
But that's my big update really. ⁓ I got a spare engine. Well the car itself, the IS is this close to running again now because the rear suspension is all back together. I think I just need to go to the local gas station, fill up a little canister, like two gallons of gas, pop it in there and just start it up for the first time.
Cris (02:53)
Yep, can't wait.
Nice man, nice. And you did a little bit of a little short, yeah, ⁓ Instagram reel for it. So guys go check that out. you'll see all the beautiful bushings this gentleman put underneath his car. So that's gonna be ⁓ it's gonna ride like a Cadillac, man, I'm telling you at the end of it. But yeah, it's all back together. We're excited for you guys to see the build process on that and when we finally get to the engine. But I think just getting his car running again after this time frame.
⁓ so he's facing his own project wall but it's gonna be a a real good time and I'm really excited for the content that comes from that.
KT (03:37)
Yeah, for sure. It's been a long time coming, but yeah.
Cris (03:40)
Man,
for sure. I mean, so let's talk about it, man. why do car builds stall, right? There's all these different ⁓ their methods that we kind of face and I think that a lot for a lot of our guys that are newer working on cars, and even our guys and our viewers that are been ⁓ you know, our subscribers that have been, you know, calling me, ⁓ basically have something that they've always hit that brick wall, man. They hit that wall and they can't get past it. before we continue on to this, I just wanna give a huge shout out
to my boy Julian. ⁓ he's one of our subscribers, reached out to us and you wanna want to say thanks for the feedback, man. You've been awesome kind of following up and we really appreciate the the nice notice. I hope everything goes well with your bald head and you have a good rest of the day. For sure. But other than that man, so I think ⁓ first let's just get into it man. so for example with me here with this one
it hasn't been too much of anything just waiting on parts. It's just basically time. Time's been flowing by, work, you know, the my ⁓ you know, kids, you know, you know, ⁓ little things that have been kind of happening through life. So I think we all face these different like reliances on, you know, what we're facing, this time frame of ⁓ actual completion on a build. And even for for example, my E thirty six, like I got all the way to making it everything that I needed it to be.
And then I got up to the floor pan and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna cut this thing out. It's gonna be easy. I wanna make sure, you know, I'm there's a hole in my floorboard like Flint's done. I'm gonna make sure I cut it out, put a nice new floorboard. And that's where the bill ended. I think let's get into the side part of it, man. Let's talk about it. What's the number one?
KT (05:19)
So
Yeah, for so it sounded like for you psychological was a a really big one in that particular instance. And psychological is a big one for a lot of people because there's there's multiple barriers within the psychological theme, right? Absolutely. So the biggest one, ⁓ I think is burnout. It's so easy to be overwhelmed by something, by a project, by a task that you just feel like, Hey man, this is just like too much to to take on.
Cris (05:53)
Yeah, that's fair. But I mean it's I think you're right, man. You you you it's too much to take on. ⁓ instead of having this awesome project that you love and enjoy to work on, it becomes actual work. Yeah. You know, you're actually putting in almost, you know, eight hours a night after you put in eight hours a day on this on this car and it turns into this, ⁓ man, I'm spending more time here than I am anywhere else. So
KT (06:15)
But
we have to remember that, you know, progress is still something. Any amount of progress that you make on a project car, it goes a long way because ⁓ you have to build the momentum to continue doing bigger and better things. So some work is still better than no work at all.
Cris (06:20)
Yes. Yeah, absolutely.
True,
that's a hundred percent. Listen, I got the grill off, so I'm I that's some something that needed to be done. but no, in all in all seriousness, man, you're right. Like burnout, guys, we've all faced it, in their personal lives, professional lives. ⁓ when it becomes not fun to do something that we enjoy to do anymore, yeah. Just you r just remember, always revert back to something, one thing. Just to do that one thing on the car that week. It's better than nothing, and that'll kinda get you back into that room.
KT (07:03)
Baby stuffs, right? Baby
stuffs if it if it just means you're just gonna clean the windows out of your car, right?
Cris (07:10)
give it a give it a car wash. I love I love when I can clean the car after like it's got like a nice decent paint job. Clearly I don't have that anymore. Other than you know the wife's car, but the all I think the next thing we're really going to is just like you said, do something one thing at a time. ⁓ you'll get back into the rhythm and it's it's satisfying. You're you're doing something that you need to achieve, that you wanted to achieve and that counts. That checks a box. It it helps us kinda
settle ourselves instead of going through that burnout phase and not doing anything.
KT (07:41)
Well related to that then, so part of the reason why you're burnt out in the first place may be because of indecision or your favorite term.
Cris (07:50)
What analysis paralysis. So analysis paralysis is basically okay. I'm a guy who likes my options. As I know what I want, I know exactly what I can tell you everywhere you go, know my odor, right? At the end of the day, when it comes to cars, there's so many options on we're talking everything from fluids, hardware, ⁓ we're talking about head gasket sets.
KT (07:54)
So explain what does that mean?
Cris (08:19)
Bolts, head head bolts, ARP, you know, like we could just keep going down the list. But there's so many options for every part on these cars nowadays. This analysis paralysis will hit us and we'll just look at the immense amount like for example, if you ever do a build, just a heads up to my new guys doing build sheets. ⁓ I do a Excel file. I think K T you do an Excel file as well. and that's something that we really face and organize ourselves so we don't hit this.
Too often, but even with this, as you're looking at these this file and you're just going down the list of all these parts, and you actually get to the point where you're choosing which one you're going with. You're doing the research on it, which is the most reliable, what's the most performance, how's that's the easiest to tune. There's so many options, it stops you from making a decision. It faces that indecision in the build. You're not spending money when you really could be buying something immediately.
But you know, it sometimes it's for the better when it comes to those really important parts. We're talking like, you know, head gaskets, you know, head bolts, we're talking, you know, radiators, we're talking fluid, you know, good oil for the engine. Everybody's got their brand that they trust, you know, shout out to Mobile One looking for sponsors. ⁓ I'm just messing, guys. But this indecision will stop you from buying parts. And when you stop buying parts, parts stop coming in. What else are you gonna do with a car that needs to r you know you're gonna replace it? I got a power steering leak.
Gotta order something. Hey, what's the best one? Do I go electric? Do I stay with the belt belt driven? Do man, that's a good question. I think what I do is ⁓ in my studies and in what I find, for me especially. ⁓ once I'm ⁓ happy with the results that other people either have achieved through it through the research, YouTube's been fantastic. Like we have all these forums still and a lot of good guys in the car group will still communicate like hey, I bought that.
KT (09:52)
Personally overcome that then.
Cris (10:15)
I wouldn't buy it if you're looking for this, I would buy it if you're looking for this. And like if you're looking for that reliability, a lot of guys would go, okay. Sometimes that OEM plus instead of that tuner buy, right? is much better. And and sometimes we just go OEM because that's the the easel easy item. Other times we go to AutoZone because they got a limit limited lifetime warranty on lower ball joints. but
That's kinda how I go to it. What's the most reliable way I can get it for and I I like I I do care about the price. Anybody that says they don't is not a real car guy. ⁓ but at the end of the day it depends on how much you're willing to throw. How I overcome that is just time. Yeah. I need that time to process it. I write out all my options and I choose my best one based on what what I'm familiar with and what's h ⁓ done best for me in the past. If I recognize a brand
and I've used it in the past and it's done well, good. If I if it hasn't, I'll avoid that and go back to it, right? Like so it's just it's just kind of the buyer's remorse that we all face, right?
KT (11:22)
And sometimes you have to realize there's there's no perfect option out there too. You kinda you read the forums and you find out everybody recommends, you know, like ⁓ an an AEM ECU or a How tech There's there's so many options and they're all great at the end of the day. Absolutely. And sometimes you get overwhelmed, you're like, Well, I there's obviously differences it but at some point you just have to pick one and live with it, right? Almost like a if it doesn't work, well that's a lesson learned for you next time.
Cris (11:35)
Yeah, health like or learn kids.
That's exactly right.
Well and
that's an opportunity, right? 'Cause you can go to the tuner you're familiar with and be like, hey, in your experience as a tuner, what have you worked with? What's your what do you like the most? What gives you the most options? You know, what can I make sure that I put in here if I'm looking for this type of build? Like it's getting more information and filtering that out to get that result. That's the most effective way to really do it.
KT (12:12)
But that really brings us to kinda like our next point is the perfectionism.
Cris (12:17)
This is something I think you actually face the most on. ⁓ so I I'm a type of person where I find it, I get it done, I'll come back to it at another point in time I know I will. It'll be on the ch on the build sheet. But at the end of the day, I know some people, and you're one of them my man, that has to make sure everything is absolutely perfect before you move on to the
KT (12:39)
And that goes to not only doing the work, but even when we're talking about like buying parts too, right? So if it's like do I get that tane coil over set or a B C set yeah it's like, Well, I gotta pick one or else I'm never gonna get a set at all.
Cris (12:48)
Right.
And I'm just gonna stick with the stock busted ones.
KT (12:55)
But
perfectionism is a really good one. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, we said it before, some progress is better than no progress. So sometimes you just have to dive in, pick something, go with something, try it out. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, well now you know, check that one off the list, go buy the other one.
Cris (13:15)
Well walk me through it for me, man, 'cause I I I'm more of a get get it done, get out. especially ex except for when it comes to certain items on the car. If it comes to anything on the head, anything on the block, anything transmission, it's take your time, do it but do the job but the best way you can the first time, mm-hmm and then come back. You know, you always want to do it the best way once, never have to come back unless you absolutely have to. Mm-hmm. So what when it comes to perfectionism,
I say you're you're slated with this curse, but in reality, what causes you just to make sure that everything is perfect before you're done?
KT (13:51)
⁓ so part of it is personality, of course. Everybody's a little different personality wise, but for me personally, it's just that when I'm going through and and working on things, I wanna make sure that I'm doing it right the first time around. Yeah. Right. So that includes if I'm installing something, I don't want to take it off again. So it takes time to research all right, what's the proper order of operation to do this? Like what's the proper torque sequence, what's the proper you know.
Cris (14:10)
Fair.
KT (14:19)
This and that, right? But then there's the other aspect where ⁓ perfectionism in the sense that I want everything to look clean and nice.
Cris (14:28)
Wait, so y you don't just tighten things till you lo till it loosens, like yours?
KT (14:32)
Or
if I if I know I'm gonna put a wrench on a bolt head that I just spray painted black, I better make sure this wrench doesn't scrape the paint off of it. You know, that's a little O C D, right? But that's perfectionism. And I'm not at the level where it prevents me from doing stuff, but it I'm at the level where it slows me down from doing things
Cris (14:53)
Yeah, I mean y you could have been back on the road, but I mean, you reached a point in your build where you were like, you know what? Since I'm down here
KT (15:02)
Since I already took the fuel tank out, I'm gonna paint it anyway's right. That whole level of perfectionism, it slows the whole process down and sometimes it stalls the entire process. And that's kinda what we're talking about. And we we wanna prevent that from happening for you guys out there. We don't want you to s to stop your project or completely stall your project out. But it's okay to kinda have to reevaluate, take a step back that
Cris (15:06)
Correct, correct.
KT (15:29)
that one day project ends up turning into maybe two days or a week. But don't allow it to turn into, you know, two months, a year or never done at all.
Cris (15:38)
Well, mean it's true. Like like you just said, ⁓ d something done to the best of your ability is sometimes done better than perfect. Mm-hmm. Sometimes we face that, right? And that's just the options we do. So I think like I mean another thing we face, right? We we just talked about psychological factors is basically like physical factors. I think we cover this in a couple of episodes is like the experience level of different people as we kinda go about it is always gonna come back to, you know, lack of training, experience.
And a big one is lack of tools. Like what's gonna stop you from what's gonna make you stop you from hitting the wall? I gotta go go get a pooler set. Which means I gotta go and I gotta rent one, which means they're gonna take take some money out of my card. Sometimes, hey, I got bills that week, you know. Well I'm just gonna wait till the next couple of weeks and we're gonna keep going from Yeah, I agree for yeah, exactly. Instead of buying a pooler set, I'm just gonna I almost got you one by the way. Like it ⁓ so
I'm gonna ⁓ get get the pooler set, you know, I'm gonna rent it. That's what's that's what stops you. So it kinda goes back and forth and we'll we'll get further into that, but tools. Number one we talked about, hey, get you something ⁓ that can be easy and here's something we all face as guys that work on cars is space. Hey, we're in a single car garage. KT's got a d double car garage and at the end of the day he's still facing space problems.
KT (16:59)
But I think that's what kinda goes back to the idea of community and friends and other guys and girls in the the hobby right. Because you also have resources available to you, whether it's additional knowledge, additional tools you can borrow, additional space you can use.
Cris (17:15)
Yeah,
I mean d exactly. Like it it that that leads back into that car community phase. I can't tell you how many times I've asked for a assistance in a job. Like I needed another set of hands to help me get this, you know, transmission off 'cause I've busted my face one too many times and I wanna make sure I don't do it again. So it's like at the end of the day that lack of tools, like a space is something you can overcome if you get into the community. If it's just you, it's time, right? It runs back into that.
But I mean, let's face it, like lack of tools, lack of space can be overcome by purchasing tools. ⁓ either you move or you find a way to do it. I'll tell you something about car guys, if you're watching this and you're just getting into it. We always find a way to get the job done. If you have ever been broken down on the side of the road in I would say you could say any city in the world and you've pulled it off, you just you didn't think it was gonna happen, your tur
torque converter is broken to pieces and you figure it out and you just keep making sure you get home at least. At the end of the day something you just gotta do it. I mean sometimes you can make it home. We've all faced those times. Sometimes, you know, your your bolts fly off, your belts fly off a mile back and you gotta walk a mile back to find it. You know, I've done it. And then you gotta put it back on at two o'clock in the morning in downtown Tampa. Like so
It's at the end of the day, like these are little things that we face, but I would tell you, overcoming an obstacle like that, we find a way to make it happen. That's what I love about
KT (18:51)
It's it's a hard one to overcome, but there's like some some tangible examples of that is if you're lacking tools, right? Maybe a yard sale. Yeah. Facebook marketplace. Absolutely. Ways to find cheap tools. That's a good point. That's one like if you're lacking space, this one's a really challenging one, but there's ways to get creative, right? Absolutely. If you live in an apartment complex and you're not allowed to work on your car in your apartment, well maybe you can drive to a Walmart parking lot and work on it there, you know? May not be the best, but hey, it's better than what you got. Absolutely.
Cris (19:19)
Absolutely,
man. I'll tell you, Dollar General parking lots at at what what time was like eleven o'clock at night? There nobody there. You can do an old change, you can do whatever you gotta do. But that's the that's exactly what I'm talking about. We always find a way, and that's what I love. But I mean, then it comes to this other one, this other physical moment. Let's say we're doing something, we're finally able to mod this damn thing. I gotta refresh these coilovers, right? I buy ⁓ and guess what? Head gasket blows, right? It's
KT (19:29)
No.
Happens.
Cris (19:48)
Happened
to previous cars of mine, I'm sure it's happened to you. You gotta stop spending the money. This is leading to that next topic where it's just unexpected repairs, right? Where there's something that breaks mechanically when you're trying to do do a a little bit of modding on it. And that's when like comes back to the point where hey, we gotta stop what we're doing, keep those beautiful po coilovers in that box over there, and now I gotta re I gotta repair the head gasket on this thing. Get a machine, get the head machine.
look at the block, make sure it's good and take the time to make sure it's ⁓ it's it's it's just fit.
KT (20:23)
And
anybody who works on an old car or a rusted car knows that when you take bolts off, they don't necessarily have the ability to go back on either. Absolutely.
Cris (20:26)
Yes.
Absolutely.
And sometimes my favorite thing is they grow legs and they walk away. ⁓ don't ask me how I know this. I know this. We've all experienced the bolt that the one that got away.
KT (20:46)
But it it turns a ten minute job to sometimes into a ten hour job or a ten day job because you have to order a special bolt from Toyota and wait a week for it to show up.
Cris (20:58)
I think I told the story, ⁓ I had a little civic for the wife a while back and I was doing a valve cover job that I think we told that and the one of the valve cover bolts ⁓ yeah yeah tightened down until it was loosened. Yeah. And so I had, you know, going through that process, had to drill it out. Then I had to go to the junkyard. You know, the car's not driving. Now I gotta take my other car to the junkyard to, you know, go get another valve cover bolt and finally get one, bring it back, and we're good to go. And it's like it's that
those unexpected things that happen that that separate that time from I could I could've used that time to work on the E thirty six, you know, maybe I could have had that floor pan done.
KT (21:37)
And you can't plan for that. It's exactly as it is unexpected. You're not gonna have an extra engine laying around 'cause your engine blew up. Right. Exactly. And same extra bolts laying around. Maybe some people have extra bolts laying around. But, you know, the whole premise of this episode is like we're not gonna let this stop us altogether, right? It's a little road bump in the whole grand scheme of the journey.
Cris (22:00)
Yeah, I and I think that's that's the point, right? And you like just understand if you're ever working on cars, like you are gonna face these unexpected repairs. You are gonna face these, you know, broken missing bolts. ⁓ you're gonna have these times where you're like, dude, I'm just done with this thing. I can't I can't anymore. It's about taking that step back in the situation and just going, All right, listen, y you y you fell in love with this thing for a reason. You bought it. You you bought into the the dream
The romance of those of what we do, sweating in a hundred degree heat in Florida, deciding I'm gonna change oil in the sun and getting a tan on my shins. Like little things like that is what you wanted from the beginning. So it's important to remember that. And I get it. Sometimes we just we do we just want to quit, man. But I think what I what once again, what I really appreciate about the car culture is that we find a way to make it happen every time, man. It's it's it's just about passing those barriers, and that's such a good
feeling when we go back to that thing, we finally get it out, it's like it's like winning winning the Olympics. It's like it's like your team won the Super Bowl, like all in one feeling and there's just there's no good d description for it. And I think that's something we'll talk about in a future episode is that feeling, that winning feeling. And you know, we're we're talking about physical things and like talking a little bit about life like lessons in here. But
KT (23:21)
Before you get to life, my best piece of advice before we close out on that topic is just be very organized and take your time when you're correct when you're working on things. Because you can't plan for the unexpected, but knowing that bolts could break, things could roll away from you
Cris (23:35)
Get lost.
KT (23:36)
You know, be organized. Be careful when you're taking things off. Don't cross thread that when you put it back on, right? So just just it's almost like taking a slower pace at it rather than rushing it because you you know, if you rush it or if you go into it without planning or organizing yourself, you can make your problem way worse than
Cris (23:56)
And that's what we talked about in our in our video when we kind of brought up those ten things, right? Is how organ how easy it is to be organized to prevent all of this. Yes. Instead of rushing into it, you know, to try and get it done, you know. But being organized is you're right, that's a such a great point. And I think that would help you guys ⁓ to avoid this, you know, this wall that we're hitting. But I think we're all facing one thing just to get, you know, moving along is basically the the fact is
We all have lives. We all have separate lives. We all have families We all have jobs. We all have things. We gotta pay the bills. I mean, I don't know about you. I got a job to pay the bills, we all gotta eat as you can tell. but ⁓ at the end of the day, life sometimes just gets in the way. It's emergencies happen, medical things happen. you know, a lot of ⁓ life is a is a roller coaster in general, on top of a project car and you know, you could be facing something really hard right now and
You could be facing something that nope, like I think the best something the some of the best advice I ever received was you never know what somebody's going through. And that's that's super relatable, man, because at the end of the day, like we you know, we we could be going through different things and that's what could stop a bill. It's it's finding your way back to that. Sometimes, man, I've been under a car and it's helped me through a lot. It's helped me through a lot of really deep, really important things in my life and learning about the car and how to work on it.
It's been something for me that's been super important because it's really like I said, it's gotten me through those hard times, those dark times, and really kinda gone through that. I think it's I mean, how has it done anything like that for you? In life in life.
KT (25:33)
For me, just life in general with a car and obviously like you said it family work, all that stuff. ⁓ one of the biggest strategies that I try to employ just to keep things straight for myself is just carving out time to do things, specific time to do things. So we all work, right? So we have this schedule. We have to get up at, you know, seven AM, drive our car to work, come back home by five or six, right? It's routine. So why not?
Why not making your car a routine, right? Why not make it make it on your schedule? I'm gonna work on my car every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Why not do that? Just make it a routine. And I know it's easier said than done, but that's that's one way to try to plan part of your life because of course the unexpected comes up. You have a birthday party you gotta go to. You can't plan for that. But if you at least book some time out
Cris (26:25)
Yeah.
KT (26:31)
If something else comes up that's not as important, you can be like, Well, no, sorry, I can't I already booked out this day. Yeah. ⁓
Cris (26:37)
Yeah.
Sometimes okay, that's another good point. It's about those boundaries. Sometimes it's going, Hey, you know, I'd love to I'd love to go hang out or go golfing and stuff like that in those morning golf times and get home by like one. But, you know, sometimes I just want to wrench, man. And finding that time I'll tell you, wrenching under a car is it's it's it's it's priceless. That time that you have that you complete that project, it's it's insane when what what happens and goes through our minds when we actually get that thing start to finish, you know.
And I think, you know, we could talk about life. We could probably talk about life the rest of this podcast. But let's go ahead and cut it right there. You guys, we all understand what the reality is here. And I think the the next big thing we really want to get to is gonna be like I think the reality once again of the world is financial. So I mean let's talk about financial issues, man. Let's talk about what what's your favorite term and the first thing we're talking about.
KT (27:31)
term I use at work all the time. Scope creep.
Cris (27:34)
Creeper
Scope Creep. So give me the definition of scope creep here.
KT (27:38)
So the definition is when you have a certain objective, a certain scope, right? But now it starts becoming larger than what your initial objective was. Your s your scope is creeping larger. Right. So the perfect example of that is like, hey, I am going to only do one thing, right? I'm only gonna change my oil.
Well while I change my oil, I also realized hey, I need to change my power steering fluid, I need to do this, I need to do that. Next thing you know, you're down this rabbit hole when you only wanted to spend thirty minutes doing something and now you're spending thirty days doing like thirty different things.
Cris (28:12)
It it it's the it's the just watching the parts list continue to grow. I gotta change my transmission, turn this thing into a five speed. Guess what? Gotta buy a flywheel, gotta buy clutch, clutch plate, I gotta buy, you know, there's so ⁓ the it's watching that grow. It could get out of hand really fast too because depending on how once again we as we kinda go back much of a perfectionist you are or ⁓ how you're going and what you you know, how indecisive you are facing it.
at time could just start increasing. So it's just about getting something there. But that scope creep is super dangerous. I think that leads us to the next one. Is all of those hidden costs. We talk about scope creep increasing the workload because of the parts that we need, including, yeah, I'm just gonna change my transmission. ⁓ there's a couple other things you gotta do with that. Like you unless you're considering that beforehand, you gotta really understand what comes with that scope. Right? But those hidden costs are what sneak up on you. Right. Okay, hey, I need
Double check my rear main seal. Like that, man, I gotta make sure that's on the parts list, you know, when I do this transmission. Because guess what? I'm not going back.
KT (29:18)
And in May ⁓ and
Cris (29:20)
If
it leaks, it leaks, man. I'm just saying.
KT (29:22)
You may have captured some of it in your initial scope, yeah, but it's easy to overlook certain things, right? And it's easy to find other problems once you get into your main root of the problem, right? So you were using the example of doing a transmission swap. So you know you're gonna need you know a clutch pedal, you know you're gonna need a ch gear shifter, you're gonna need all those things. You don't need just a transmission.
Cris (29:44)
Correct Bill H.
KT (29:45)
I am I am sure once we get into it there's also gonna be other things that you realize you also need and we're gonna be stalled because we have to order We have to order certain gaskets from Toya we have to order special bolts because you thought you can just find it at Ace Hardware, but apparently not. You know, that's that's kind of part of the hidden cost and scope creep true side of the
Cris (29:53)
Yeah, that was the yeah.
You're 100% on it. And it's and you're right. That's kind of what leads into that. These two, I think, go together really well, these scope and these hidden costs, because everything leads to another. When we talk about hidden costs, like you just said, we talk about gaskets, talking about fluids, we're talking about hardware, we're talking about specialty tools. Once again, we bring up tools. This is really important when you're working on cars. And I'm not being funny, I'm being serious, because sometimes you just need a torque wrench and it needs to be a lot bigger than the one you have.
So I mean little things like that and I think, man, as we as we kinda come to a close with this, what is the final one that you face when we get to these financial financial points, man?
KT (30:47)
Yeah, when your priorities change in general. So priorities in life change or even the the goal of your build changes. Yeah.
Cris (30:56)
Yeah, that's a I mean, yeah, those are two insanely just awesome points.
KT (31:01)
They kind of lead down the financial side of things too, right? So a really good example is if your goals and your build change. So if you were just trying to rebuild this car to have it be like a street ready car, and halfway through your build you realize I want to turn this into a drag strip monster. Well, that's that's gonna involve a lot different parts than what you were initially planning for. So now you're gonna be spending a lot more money on top of just the time that you have to.
either redo or add on to your
Cris (31:32)
mean yeah, that's a hundred percent right, man. I think it's these little things that we we face and ⁓ as the priorities change in life, but really our di direction in life can change, right? Like dependent. But I think let's talk about and keep it with cars, direction of builds. You had a great point when you're talking about setting up a streetcar, right? Sometimes you even with your car wanted to set it up at OEM plus, right? But sometimes that next step is just a little couple bucks.
KT (31:59)
More.
Cris (32:00)
Right, it but ⁓ how many more hours does it take you to do, you know, it's the it's that ⁓ sweaty that equity that we talk about, right? It's that investment, that time, that work that we kinda go through, ⁓ to kind of make sure that we're going through it, man, and and getting it completed is part of that process. No matter how the build changes, it's understanding that if you change here, exactly what's gonna happen with this motion and making sure we're really focusing on those priorities itself. Hey.
If I change this, is that gonna really mess up everything that we're facing on that end? Is it really going to change the entire rear end setup that I just completed? Is it if I, you know, change the motor that I'm really looking at doing or change the horsepower output, am I gonna have to focus on a new drive shaft, LSD?
KT (32:46)
It might, it might change all that and it might add a ton more money. But the whole point is again, don't let that prevent you from making progress, right? That's the biggest thing in this hobby. Because you're gonna run in through all of those things we just said, psychological, physical, financial. It's gonna hit you and multiple there's a good chance multiple are gonna hit you at the same time. You're gonna get hit with all three at once, right?
Cris (33:11)
Well such is life man. I think that's the excitement of owning something that you put a personality into, right? That you really crave and create. It's y it's us, right? Like no matter what happens to this vehicle, it's going to be something that reflects.
KT (33:24)
That's
a really good point because at the end of the day, think about what it is at the end of the day. That's your your end goal. Yeah. We we joke about how it's never gonna be done, but it still can be like ninety-five percent done. I'll take nine So that's still better than five percent.
Cris (33:38)
95%.
I mean that's hey listen, five percent still more progress than I've seen on some listen, right? At the beginning I th I asked you guys, hey, you know those projects that you bought that are still up on stilts, still in the garage, just taking space. You put on FB Marketplace, nothing's been done. And guess what? Something stopped you from building that. What stopped you? Like that's a that's something you can talk about on your own or like talk to yourself in the mirror, but at the end of the day.
KT (33:45)
Five percent is more than zero.
Cris (34:07)
Something stopped you. Find a way past that that wall. Find a way past that project wall that you know stop stalling. As we you know, we talk about stalling, but it's a real conundrum that we're talking about that. But at the end of the day, project stall is real, project walls are real. Find a way around them. You guys got this. The car community is fantastic. Hook up with friends, make sure you you guys can help each other out. And I think that's the most important thing that we're reached at the end of this, man. Yeah.
KT (34:37)
And to wrap up the financial side of things, I guess do you have any advice when when you're dealing with all these scope creep items, hitting costs? How do you handle that financial side of things?
Cris (34:46)
man, just never over man, I think a really good point and don't ever ⁓ finance like and I say finance because we could like dig into this really bad. Never finance a build, right? If you finance something fully just to get it done and you're paying monthly payments on, you have a monthly payment per month, you know, to understand that will affect the financial, that lifestyle, what you can afford. And sometimes that car still burns.
KT (35:13)
Yeah, I mean that's I think you I think you're saying don't overextend yourself. Maybe have a little extra cash in in the bank just just in case, just knowing that you're probably gonna break something along the way. So if you're really stretching yourself out cash wise, yeah, maybe maybe you do have to take a little bit of pause, save up a couple extra bucks knowing that you're probably gonna break something or run into something along the
Cris (35:17)
Don't overextend yourself. Exactly.
way. I think the understanding for that is also like, hey listen, if you're, you know, maybe eating ramen cup all the ramen cuffs only like per night because you're spending too much on the car, maybe hold back a little bit. The money will come, the project will finish. It might not be in the time frame you want, but guess what? Taking care of yourself at the end of the day I think is a lot more important. But at the end of day, it's a project. You go about it your own way. I've seen guys go about it their own way and we let's let it happen.
KT (36:03)
We are not financial advisors, we are not psychologists, and we are not personal trainers. ⁓
Cris (36:09)
⁓
clearly, like clearly. I mean, that's just obviously. no, we're two car guys in a garage, man. At the end of the day, ⁓ this is just some things that we face sometimes ⁓ as we're building these topics and we're talking to each other, we're like man, you know, and we tell stories that we're probably gonna start bringing up a little more so you guys can see a little more personal side of us. These stories really are something that we face, especially like the breaking down the side of the road, how losing a belt walking a mile back.
Little things like that are are little glimpses into our lives and something that we could have faced in the past. But I think going back and wrapping up that financial for you is just saying, ⁓ don't overextend, but like you said when you're working on the car, stay organized, all right, stay on top of your stuff, understand what you're getting into, and I think you'll have a better, clearer picture. And that's all I got, man. You got anything else for the viewers today?
KT (37:02)
No, we're good. So if you guys like the content, please like and subscribe, Heat Soaked FL. we welcome feedback. We love feedback.
Cris (37:10)
Yeah,
for sure. Send it, send it our way, we'll have fun. And I think as it close out we'll start doing something fun, something funny. But hey guys, stay cool, stay wrenching. We'll see you in the garage. See ya. Peace. Later.