July 2026 Updates
In a wild departure from my norm, I've published not one but TWO videos to the Redpants YouTube channel in the last month! Crazy, I know.
The first video was discussing some of the changes that have been happening to OEM products, some of which are more obvious than others. I'd already mentioned a few of these in my last Blog Post, but those were recent changes and I wanted to include some older examples in my video to show that this isn't anything new. I thought it'd be a good video to make since not everyone knows that OEM parts can and do change.
The second video is about PCV valves. These are an often-overlooked maintenance item that can lead to engine issues if neglected for too long. They aren't too expensive and only need to be changed every 4 or 5 years, so it's an easy thing to do for preventative maintenance. However, there's a catch - there have been faulty ones supplied to Aston Martin. Fret not, though, as I test every single one that comes in to make sure it's okay before sending them off to my customers. I usually keep them in stock but supply can be hit or miss, especially given the quality control issues.
In other news, Motul products have gone up in price. I updated the pricing about a month ago so some of you may have already noticed.
I’ve also updated product listings for ECPS products, which are taking much longer than they previously took. They used to take 8-12 weeks to from the time an order was placed to being ready to ship to the customer. Now they’re taking 3 or 4 months. These are all made-to-order, so please keep that in mind when ordering.
Beyond that, I've been tied up with a few other things that have kept me extremely busy lately. On the Redpants side is annual accounting and administrative filings. Nothing exciting but it takes a lot of time and keeps me from working on the Redpants website or making videos. Japan’s bureaucracy is no joke lol. I’m actually surprised I was able to get those two videos made at all with how thin I’ve been stretched lately.
[quick interjection] I was supposed to publish this Blog post a week ago but got hit with a nasty bug that wiped me out and then left me seriously dehydrated for a couple days. I’m almost back to normal but it’s slowing me down even more on top of everything else. Sorry for the even-slower responses and whatnot the last few days. [end interjection]
Lumar’s Café
A bit more exciting is that my wife and her mother started a pop-up café! Although I usually work virtually every day anyway, I try to limit it on weekends so I can get some rest and unwind a bit. Of course, they've conveniently set their cafe's hours to be those times on the weekends that I would usually take off, and have voluntold me to help out. As part of my indentured servitude, I’ve been conscripted into bartending. I’m sure that’s not a huge surprise for anyone that’s kept up with my YouTube channel over the years and, needless to say, I think I’m pretty good at it!
The main concept for the café is to make as much as we can original and from scratch. My mother-in-law cooks Brazilian foods, I cook American foods, and I also come up with original cocktails.
Lumar’s Café is open Friday and Saturday evenings from 6:00pm to 9:30pm, with Happy Hour until from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, and from 10:00am to 2:00pm on Sunday.
So… like I said… my would-be off hours.
I post about it on my Redpants Unzipped account on Instagram, and they have their own Instagram account there as well, so please follow those if you want to see what’s going on with their café. If you're ever in the neighborhood, come check out Lumar's Café!
A Couple Quick Reminders…
The US Government is still charging tariffs on virtually all shipments to the US and are not allowing exemptions for shipments worth less than $800 as had previously been done. While most of the world is already used to paying import duties, people in the US have mostly been spared from them until the Trump Administration cancelled the de minimis exemptions and imposed wildly inconsistent tariffs on almost everything going into the US.
Import duties, tariffs, and any fees associated with them are not included and must be paid separately to the shipping carrier before delivery of a shipment. Redpants is not responsible for these fees as they are imposed by the governments where the shipments are sent to, and charged separately from the order.
If a shipment is not delivered due to those duties/taxes/fees/etc not being paid, the shipment will be treated as abandoned by the customer, the order will be considered final, and a refund will not be provided.
If the shipment is returned to Redpants, it will be refunded according to the Redpants Terms & Conditions.
I know the tariffs are pissing off a lot of people. I’m not happy about them either. Unfortunately, they’re a tax imposed by the Trump Administration and there’s no legal way around them. That said, the US Supreme Court did say the original iteration of them was not legal and required them to be refunded, so hopefully that’ll also be the case with the current round of tariffs.
The other reminder is for emails, specifically order confirmations and tracking information. Every customer should receive at least two automated emails from Redpants when placing an order:
An automated email is sent to you when you place an order to confirm the order and its details.
Another automated email is sent to you when your order ships to provide you with the tracking information.
Note: Orders containing items that ship from multiple locations will receive more than one automated shipping notification email - one for each shipment.
If you do not receive these emails, please check your Spam folder. Most people that email me after placing an order find the order confirmation in their Spam folder after I ask them to check there. If it isn’t in your Inbox or Spam folder, it could be that there was a typo in your email address (that does happen), or your internet provider blocked the emails (that also happens, particularly with Spectrum in the US).
Of course, I’m happy to pull the order and send over all the information manually if there’s an issue with receiving the automated emails.
Okay, that’s it for this month’s update… Now I have to get back to work.