We Compare Garage Floor Coatings | Two New Hybrids | and a Castle?

Unexpected Day Trips Near Houston

Mike Marrs 0:06

All right, time now for driving destinations, Mr. Morris. Yes, sir. Got a few things here that we thought maybe that uh some areas that may not have quite noticed, or you may have missed them. First one up is gonna be Belleville and Newman's Castle. Now, this is uh uh one of those places that you may not believe that this is really here destination. It's an easy small town drive, or it's a small town, and it's an easy drive, but there is where you're gonna find Newman's Castle. And this gives it a real centerpiece. Uh, it's got a drawbridge, it's got a moat, a courtyard, and you can even take guided tours. And of course, you can go down to town Belleville and have lunch and have a complete family day trip out of it. And it's only about an hour and 15 minutes away, but the castle is what will get your attention when you get there. Uh the second thing is going to be San Felipe de Austin. That's my Spanish accent there. This is one of the favorite places you can go to because it's close. It's got a relaxed day, and it's got a story a lot of Houston families may not know, particularly if you're new to the Houston area. It preserves Stephen F. Austin's original Texas colony. It's got a visitor center in it, it's got exhibits, and it's got a reconstructed town site. This is kind of like they tried to make it like it used to be. So uh you can combine it with a trip to Belleville or even Seely for lunch and browsing and uh kind of make it more than just a quick stop to go by and see what's going on because they do have a lot of activities, a lot of people doing things there that you can watch to see how they did it back in the day. Then, if another place you can do is head east towards the Trinity River, uh you get a combination of Texas street history and the Gulf Coast scenery. Fort Anouac was important in the early roles leading up to the Texas Revolution. Now, this is where the park now is, offers a fishing and birding pier. It's got natural areas and views overlooking the water. Now, this is a less obvious Houston destination, and it fits kind of the idea that you're looking for someplace new, you want someplace to go, but you don't want to go too far, but spend the day and check the schedule because they do have a lot of activities going on here during the year as well. Then if you want to go a little further over towards East Texas, go to the Big Thicket Natural Preserve. Now, this is you're really going to get out of the Houston traffic. You're going to get in the East Texas Forest because uh you get over near Coont. Now, this is where you're going to find it. It's a small town, uh, wide spot in the road. Best I remember, it's got two red lights now. And uh, but they've got a lot of areas that go out through the ecosystems, and the visitor center is where you can really choose where you want to go because they've got so many choices. They've got junior ranger program that's set up for their kids. So if you're close enough that you can make regular trips out here and really get involved and get away from the wide or the the concrete world to get out into the woods. The next place we've got on it, it would be the San Jacinto Battleground and the Lynchburg Ferry. Now, if you're in Houston, it's hard, you know, you're bound to have heard about it, but still, it's a neat place to go out to because they've got the battlefield, they got the museum. You can take uh the Lynchburg Ferry still run.

Don Armstrong 3:17

Guys, yes, it does. It's the oldest running ferry in the state of Texas.

Mike Marrs 3:22

Well, I thought I'd read someplace that it stopped, but I can't.

Don Armstrong 3:24

And I can relate to it because I think the ferry started about the time that I was born.

Mike Marrs 3:28

There you go. That's how you got over to the 1800s, I think. Yeah. So you can go out here, you can get uh Texas history, you get ships, industry. Uh unfortunately they moved the battleship Texas down to Galveston, but it was a neat combination whenever it was there. So there's uh a lot of things to go out here and see. It's a pretty good sized area that you can actually drive through a lot of it to see it. Then you can go on the last one, go up to West Columbia, Varner Hogg Plantation. Now, I heard about this whenever I first came back, moved down here to Texas, and there was we're weird stories, but it's uh another historic place, and you can go to the Varner Hogg Plantation. Now, he was a governor of Texas. This plantation's 200 years old, and you got a lot of ranching and oil, and you can go through the historic property and see all the historic aspects of it. Now, it's uh good for people with older children because there's a lot of things that they can read and see and do over in Brazilia County. And one thing I wanted to mention whenever I came down here, people were telling me about this place, and they were telling me that uh James Hogg, the governor, named his two children. One of them he named Ima Hog, and the other one was Eurahog. That's right. And and I will say I've done the research, and Euro was not a real thing. Ima was, poor girl.

Jeff Dziekan 4:44

Ima was, yeah.

Mike Marrs 4:45

Yeah, if they did that today, she would be in big trouble. Anyway, that's the place.

Don Armstrong 4:51

She's got a beautiful mansion here in Houston. That's something else to uh check out as well. Yes, perfect. All right stuff. Thank you, sir.

Garage Floor Coatings And Prep Mistakes

Don Armstrong 5:05

So uh, you know, I I I will tell you that I got into painting garage floors. Gosh, back in 2007. I've built paint on garage floors. Well, I've done that too. But as they say when you know you paint a car, it's really all in the prep. Yeah. And I have found out through multiple mistakes that it really is all in the prep. Yeah. And you've got to do it by the directions. Or you have enough money in your savings account that you can hire somebody that is a garage floor prep guy to come out and spend a couple thousand, three thousand dollars to go. But the paint these days is like two or three thousand dollars a gallon.

Jeff Dziekan 5:46

Well, depending on the kind of paint you use, a prep, like you said, and the condition of the floor actually. We can get into that. Yeah. Okay, we'll go for it. All right. Well, uh the main types of garage floor coatings are epoxy, polyurethane, polyurea, polyaspartic, and uh poly uh polycuramine. I know this way. Okay, that way. Uh plus you've got floor paints that every one of them offers different durability, chemical resistance and application methods, like Don said. So the national average of epoxy garage floor coatings ranges from 1700 to 30 to 3,500 basically. Uh but most homeowners pay around 230 to 2500 to have it done. It depends on how much you want to spend, the of the coating, the size of your floor, and the condition of the concrete and whatever add-ons you want into that. So here we go. One of them is epoxy coatings. It's a two-part resin system and chemically bonds to concrete, forming a hard, durable surface. It's highly resistant to chemicals, any impacts or abrasions, and makes it ideal for garages with heavy traffic or machinery. Epoxies come in several forms. They come in a water base, uh, low-high solid epoxy, and a hundred percent solid epoxy. So there you go with that one. The next one we have is a polyurethane coating. Uh, it's flexible, it's a chemical resistant product, uh, offering a smooth, glossy finish. There's less brittle than epoxy, it can handle temperature fluctuations better. Uh, polyurethane is often used as a top coat over epoxy to enhance its UV resistance and durability. Polyurrhea coatings, it's fast curing, it's flexible, it's durable, uh, and its flexibility allows it to stretch without cracking, making it resistant to temperature changes and heavy wear. Polyurrhea is ideal for high traffic areas, requires quick application due to its rapid curing time. So if you're using it, you gotta be quick with this, or it's gonna kind of uh bugger up what you're trying to do. Uh polyparas uh polyasparic coatings uh is a modified version of a polyurrhe, similar durability and flexibility and improved UV resistance. It also cures quickly, allowing for minimal downtime, which is useful for chemical uh for commercial and busy residential garages, sort of like what we did with uh uh Mr. Moody there. Uh polycuramine coatings combines benefits of polyurrhea and epoxy, offering a self-leveling, self-leveling, highly durable coating that can often be applied in a single coat, which is very good because you'll you'll want to spend a lot of time out there. It provides excellent chemical and abrasion resistance and is suitable for the DIY or professional application. Now, things to consider, the key points of this is the durability. Is it resistance to wear? Uh application, is it easy to install, cure time, number of coats you've got to put down, maintenance, cleaning requirements. Do you spill something on there, you gotta hurry up and get it off there? The upkeep, the cost. Now, the cost again is size, what you want to do, you want certain uh accents put into the coating. Those are all cost factors. And then of course the lifespan, how long will it last? So those are things to consider.

Don Armstrong 8:53

My experience with that is uh paint.

Jeff Dziekan 8:57

Yeah, it could be.

Don Armstrong 8:58

And back in the day, um it was relatively um well, it it was cost effective for me, but there was a lot of prep involved, and you gotta put down, you know, base coat and do this, la la la la. Well, it just so happened that I lucked into it and did okay. And it took a whole week. You know, you gotta let it cure, you gotta let it breathe, all of that.

Jeff Dziekan 9:21

The prep, you gotta scrub it with a broom and all of that. Oh, yeah.

Don Armstrong 9:24

And those chemicals alone will kill you. And then you have to etch it. Yeah, yeah. Etch it. Yeah. And uh that was a process that I didn't know anything about, but I learned pretty quickly. It just roughs it up, and then you that's what it sticks. It opens the pores of the concrete. It's a whole thing. And uh so I lucked out on one. The other one, I did the exact same thing. It was different kind of paint, same color, but uh I didn't let it cure enough. And uh the first car that went in there, the paint stuck to the tires. Pulled it right up off the floor. Yeah.

Jeff Dziekan 9:58

Well, you could go to like a you could go to a paint place, you can go to your local hardware store.

Don Armstrong 10:01

You know how much that is a gallon? Five gallon. You can buy five. You can. But I bought it in the one gallons, and it took two gallons to do the the garage regular two-car garage. And uh it was now it's up to $200 a gallon.

Jeff Dziekan 10:15

Yeah, well, like I said, $3,500 to have somebody do it, and you know, it's professionally done, but you've got to be out of your garage for a few days. It's not like you put it down and two hours you get you're done. Well, and that's the other thing.

Don Armstrong 10:25

So you've got all your junk in the garage and all of the toolboxes and all of that stuff. Where are you gonna put it? You know where I put it? Front porch.

Jeff Dziekan 10:34

You take the transmission out of the garage, you put it in the bathtub.

Don Armstrong 10:37

Well, there's that. Yes, I I've done all of those things. You know, it's it's it's a process. It is.

Jeff Dziekan 10:42

And they look nice, don't get me wrong. I had a neighbor that did it. You can buy the gray stuff to make it look like a real concrete and all that, but you got cracks, you got divots, you got chips, you got stuff that come off of there.

Mike Marrs 10:52

All that your house settles.

Don Armstrong 10:53

Exactly. Yeah. Well, if you know, if if the if the garage floor is cracked, might want to get that fixed first. Yeah, there's that. You can fill it in with something.

Mike Marrs 11:02

Then you got to keep it fixed. That's the problem.

Don Armstrong 11:04

Yeah. And let the rest of the house just go ahead and sink and have the bricks fall off the side of it. But by God, the garage.

2026 Range Rover Sport PHEV Review

Don Armstrong 11:12

All right, time now for a joining us on this uh Saturday and time now for a car review. Mr. Mars uh actually got one of uh these things to drive. We're gonna find out what he thinks of it. The 2026 Range Rover Sports.

Mike Marrs 11:33

Yes, sir, and it's uh different. I'm gonna tell you that right up front. It's the Range Rover Sport Dynamic SE plug-in hybrid. Now, the final assembly location for this is in the UK. It comes in available at six trim levels, and again, we were driving the SE plug-in hybrid. Now, this is considered a standard SUV as far as size. Seats five passengers. Now, what they've done is they've tried to create some more dynamic exterior styling, as they call it, with the the lines and the way the vehicle looks. It's really a pretty sharp-looking car, particularly in the red. There's two different shades, red, both of them are really great looking. So on the outside of it, you're going to find LED lighting all the way around, including the auto high beam settings. Uh, it's got heated power folding side mirrors on it. It's got a panoramic sunroof to open it up to get lots of light in if that's what you're looking for. Uh, it's got a power lift gate. And one of the things that I really like about it, if you look down the side of it in these pictures, it's slick. It's almost like it's been shaved, but it's got deployable door handles. You walk up, you got the key fob, and then the handle pops out so that you can get it and open the door. I love it. And then uh we were rolling on the 22-inch satin dark gray wheels, and it also uh just really a nice looking car, particularly with that black trim. Now, on the inside of this vehicle, we had the Caraway Ebony Windsor Leather Seats. That's a heck of a name to say that it's a light brown as far as I'm concerned. Front heats, front seats are heated and ventilated, and the second row seats are also heated and ventilated in this vehicle. It's got a 13.1 inch infotainment screen. Now, this is where you're gonna find all your controls for your convenience controls. And one of the things that uh you'll see here coming up in one of the pictures here in a moment, it is very slick. You're not gonna find any knobs or buttons to turn. You're gonna have to do everything through the screens on it. And some of the icons, by it coming from the UK over here, you've got to do a little hunting, you've got to get used to them, and you probably would real quick if you own this vehicle. It does have the wireless charging, it's got Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and the uh it's got a Meridian 3D surround system. It's got 400 watts, it's got 15 speakers scattered around inside this vehicle. And you can pull up to a red light, and any of these guys that want to uh play games with you and see who's got the loudest, you can play with them pretty well with this vehicle. Not that I did that, it's just what I was told. And then uh up under the hood to make this vehicle go. Well, here's this picture right here on the screen. You can see how there's no knobs, no buttons. You've got to do everything through the screens. Now, the engine on this is a 3.0 inline six, it's a hybrid. Now it combines to put together 454 horsepower. And even though this is a 5,800-pound vehicle, that is plenty of juice to make this thing go. It'll jump and run on you real quick. 457 pound feet of torque. It's backed by an eight-speed automatic transmission for the all-wheel drive. And it's got a tow rating of 6,614 pounds. Now, that's pretty hefty as far as you know, light boats, kayaks, motorcycles. You can do a lot of towing, different things that you're going to do around town on a regular basis. Now, uh it's rated on the gasoline motor only, it's rated at 21 miles per gallon. 53 by the com combine of the gasoline and the electric motor. And one of the other things I really like about this vehicle, it's got the dynamic air suspension. And so it'll level out and it does really great going down the roads, particularly in a 5,800-pound vehicle. It's a nice riding driving vehicle. Base trim price on this vehicle is $95,100 as tested. $96,725. If you step over to the gas model, you can get into this thing as cheap as $81,325. Some of the things to compare it to, try to find some of those high-end hybrids, the Porsche hybrid that starts at $103,000. Mercedes-Benz GLE hybrid kicks out at $71,350. While the Rivian, first time I've had a chance to talk about the Rivian, R1S starts at $75,900. So these are all up there in that range of luxury SUVs that are hybrids that you might want to look at if you're looking at that category of a vehicle.

Don Armstrong 16:03

All right. Thank you, sir. Time now for Jeff.

This Week In Automotive History

unknown 16:11

All right.

Don Armstrong 16:11

Time now uh on the NWEL Time Car Talk Show for this week in auto history, Mr. Mars.

Mike Marrs 16:17

Yes, sir. Found a few things this week uh coming up this week that we thought were rather interesting. And we're going to start with August the 29th, 1927. The drunkometer, probably officially called the Drachometer, but drunkelmeter is the way it's spelled, and I like it. So this is the actually the precursor to the modern breathalyzer because up until this time, people, officers of the law, they just had to observe people and kind of figure out what they were going on to decide if they uh were inebriated or not.

Don Armstrong 16:46

What is that thing that she's blowing into there? Is that a bubble? Uh some sort of rubber rubber kind of thing.

Mike Marrs 16:54

It's a balloon. So they blew into the balloon to capture the air.

Jeff Dziekan 16:58

The drunchometer.

Mike Marrs 16:59

Yeah, on the drunchometer. Then they would let the air out and it would measure the amount of alcohol that was in the device.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

There's a lot of tubes and stuff going on.

Mike Marrs 17:10

They modified it a little bit, so it's a lot better now, of course.

Don Armstrong 17:13

Looks like a catheter in the box there, doesn't it? To me.

Mike Marrs 17:16

It looks like you could look you looks like it used that for a lot of different things.

Don Armstrong 17:21

Yeah, and some rings too. Moving on.

Mike Marrs 17:24

Moving on. August the 30th, 1945. Hudson returns to civilian car production. Now, World War II, everybody started making things to support the war. They quit making cars. So in August the 30th, 1945, Hudson produced his first post-war vehicle, and it was a Super Six coupe. Like a lot of others, they started remaking their cars because nobody really expected the huge demand of everybody after the war if everybody wanted to buy these vehicles. So it worked out well to get everybody started. Then on August 31st, 1955, GM built a Sunmobile. Now, one of their engineers, this is over 70 years ago, a GM engineer demonstrated a Sunmobile at the company's Power Rama show in Chicago. It was only 15 inches long and it was a model, but it used 12 selenium photoelectric set uh cells to produce the power. Basically, this is the precursor to the EVs. This is what they used to work and to try and create the EVs and sun power off of them. It worked for a 15-inch vehicle. Then on September the 1st, 1989, Lexus arrived in America. Now they uh started building. This has really started a new chapter in the American luxury car market. Because whenever Lexus came in, they were very nice. They challenged, uh they were coming out of Europe, and the American luxury brands now suddenly had to compete with price competitive vehicles that brought in uh a lot of a quality and luxury items for the price range. Then on September the 5th, 1994, the National Corvette Museum opened in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Now it was appropriate because that was where the Corvette production had been since 1981. So the museum actually became a big part of that landscape there. A lot of people go there. We've been there a couple of times with uh doing some interviews. I would love to go there in person one of these days. I was actually on a flight out of uh the local here, going off to a car event, and there was a gentleman sitting behind me talking to his daughter. He was flying to Bowling Green. Him and her were gonna pick up his new Corvette and then drive it back home. And I thought that is the way to buy a new Corvette. Then on September the 5th, 1940, the Federal Aid Highway Act. Now, this is kind of a precursor to uh the shaping the Americas highway system.

Don Armstrong 19:57

It's before, isn't that in the in the the uh Dorothy and and Toto and and yeah, e Pleurabus Unum. Kansas.

Mike Marrs 20:07

It was in Kansas.

Jeff Dziekan 20:09

I'm taking that forward.

Mike Marrs 20:12

So so the way this worked, because they actually started because of the highway system, it was important at the time, back in the 40s, the national defense, and this is what allowed the the federal government to go in and spend the money. That was their excuse to go in and spend the money and build the highway system and eventually led to the interstate system that we have today. So these are some things that you're gonna see coming up this week in automotive history that we thought were rather interesting.

Don Armstrong 20:37

Uh listen, e pluribus unum. Uh that that got me. I'm I'm waving the American flag right now. I'm thinking, yeah, don't click your heels together. Uh we're all gonna go to Kansas and all of that.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

So

2026 Toyota Crown Signia Review

SPEAKER_01 20:58

there you go.

Don Armstrong 20:58

All right, time now for this hour's car review, the 2026 Toyota Crown, built in Aichi, Japan. It comes in these trim levels, the XLE and the Limited. Uh the reviewed trim level is the limited. Uh it's a small wagon that looks like an SUV. It is considered a wagon. Does it look like a wagon to me? It looks like an SUV. Seats five, including the driver. Exterior changes, it was all new last year. This is the Cygnia version of it. One of the sharpest-looking SUV wagons on the market today. I think. Front fascia is modern with a nod to the Lexus brand. Sloping roof line is a nice arrow style, narrow taillights and sunshade at top of the uh hatch adds to the great look. What I liked about it, everything. Everything. Look at that grill. Kind of has a little smattering there of the Lexus, doesn't it? What could use improvement? Absolutely nothing. Toyota nailed it with this. Now, interior highlights include a great instrument cluster that melds into the center screen for a sleek, user-friendly feel. Well thought out center console, handy and useful. Roomy second row seating and great leather appointments. Wide opening hatch with a panoramic sunroof with a nice shade on the top. See that one there? See the cell phone? It's vertical, right ahead of the shifter. It is the perfect place for your phone. Pardon me? It's out of the way. It's out of the way. Cargo trunk room, adequate for this size vehicle. Start comparing it to other vehicles. Don't, but if you have to, it's going to be a little bit smaller. Good. That's exactly what we want. What I liked, the vertical phone charger takes minimum space and works great. We could use improvement. Nothing. Stop trying to rock the boat. I wrote that. I did that. Engine. 2.5 liter, four-cylinder, hybrid motor. No other choices. It doesn't need any. 240 net horsepower, CVT transmission, 2,700 pound tow rating. Here's the good part. Miles per gallon, 39 in the city, 37 on the highway. For a combined of 38, I got 36.9 miles per gallon over 409.8 miles. Not bad, Mickey. Not bad. What I liked, the drivetrain is plenty responsive. What could use improvement? Nothing. This is the gold standard for hybrids, in my opinion. Ride and handling. What I liked about it, the smoothness. What could use improvement? Nothing when it comes to the ride. They got this right. Go and drive when you're going to go, well, Don Armstrong's not right about much, but he's right about this one. Base trim price, $48,790. Price as tested, $53,944. Base model price to get in it, $44.69. Here are the competitors. The Toyota RAV 4. Now it's kind of a distant cousin, only because they have a hybrid version of the RAV4. It starts at $32,850, but it's not this one. The Nissan Murano starts at $41,670. And the VW Atlas Crossport 383. I want you to go drive this. Even if you don't want to buy it, drive it.

Jeff Dziekan 24:53

You're going to go, wow. So the sedan crown is not made anymore. Um because the crown started out as a sedan. Yeah.

Mike Marrs 25:01

Yeah, it's still made. Is it? Okay. Yep. Well, it's still the website. Let me put it that way.

unknown 25:07

Yeah.

Jeff Dziekan 25:08

This thing, uh, this thing nails it. Kathy was looking at the the the Toyota's when she was looking for her car and she ended up on landing on Alexis. Yeah.

Don Armstrong 25:17

Well, uh, this one, wow. I'm impressed. And it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to new cars these days, but that's one rocks the boat.