Crank & Tang Arms & Auto Salvage

Eastern Duf-Dub salvage yard, speed shop, weapons bench, and ruin-runner garage

Crank & Tang Arms & Auto Salvage is a fortified repair and salvage shop in eastern Duf-Dub, run by the mutated mongrel mechanic Crank and the horned toad wheelman Tang. It is not the largest yard in Duf-Dub, not the cleanest, and not the safest place to stand barefoot, but it is one of the best places to get a vehicle running, a weapon patched, a recovery rig fitted, or a stupid idea made barely survivable.

Locals usually shorten the name to Crank & Tang’s, C&T, or just the Shop.

The front sign is made from layered sheet metal, painted three times, shot twice, and repaired badly on purpose:

CRANK & TANG
ARMS & AUTO SALVAGE
WE FIX IT OR TELL YOU WHY YOU’RE STUPID

Description

Crank & Tang Arms & Auto Salvage sits where Duf-Dub’s more respectable workshops give way to fenced lots, stripped vehicle carcasses, fuel drums, stacked tires, half-buried trailers, and the kind of alleys where deals happen through chain-link.

The shop is built from old service-bay frames, shipping containers, armored scrap, rusted gantries, welded scaffolds, and concrete barriers dragged in from forgotten roadwork sites. Its footprint is irregular because it grew by need instead of plan. Whenever Crank and Tang needed more space, they welded something onto the side, roofed over an alley, bought out a neighbor, or “temporarily” parked a storage container until it became permanent.

The result is a working maze of machine bays, parts cages, weapon benches, vehicle pits, salvage piles, hoists, fuel racks, and locked compartments that only Crank, Tang, and a few trusted hands can navigate without being yelled at.

It smells like oil, hot metal, old rubber, cordite, coolant, burnt dust, welding smoke, and whatever Tang is eating.

Purpose

Crank & Tang’s is part garage, part salvage shop, part weapons bench, part recovery outfit, and part speed shop. It serves scavenger crews, haulers, patrol riders, caravan guards, racers, militia drivers, and anyone else with enough trade goods to pay for honest work done by rude experts.

The shop specializes in:

• Vehicle repair
• Recovery rig maintenance
• Rough-terrain modification
• Track and suspension work
• Armor plating
• Weapon mounts
• Small-arms repair
• Improvised vehicle weapons
• Salvaged parts sales
• Performance tuning
• Scavenging prep
• Emergency field repair kits

Crank handles most of the complex mechanical work. Tang handles test driving, recovery work, customer pressure, pricing arguments, and anything involving high-speed bad decisions.

Layout

Front Yard
The public-facing yard is cluttered but controlled. Vehicles awaiting repair sit in rough rows marked by paint, chain, and old road signs. Customers are allowed here and nowhere else unless escorted.

Main Vehicle Bay
A covered work area for cars, buggies, haulers, motorcycles, crawlers, and light armored vehicles. The floor is stained with decades of oil and metal dust. The bay has a pit, two hoists, and a crane arm that only Tang claims is safe.

Heavy Bay
Jessie’s usual berth. This bay is reinforced with scavenged industrial beams and oversized tool rigs. The floor has gouges from track work, jack stands, and more than one emergency repair that should have killed someone.

Weapons Bench
A locked interior bay where firearms, vehicle mounts, improvised launchers, ammo feeds, and crude recoil assemblies are repaired or modified. Crank allows no smoking, no open flames, and no idiots inside.

Parts Cage
The most heavily protected section of the shop. It holds rare bearings, intact carburetors, fuel injectors, optics, springs, gears, barrels, ignition parts, seals, belts, good wire, ammo components, and things Crank refuses to explain.

Speed Corner
Tang’s domain. This area holds tuned engines, racing parts, steering assemblies, brake components, suspension pieces, and stripped frames meant for speed work rather than survival crawlers.

Fuel and Fluids Rack
A semi-secure storage area for fuel alcohol, biodiesel, questionable pre-Sundering fuel, oil, coolant, hydraulic fluid, brake fluid, solvents, and several unlabeled containers nobody is supposed to touch.

The Quiet Lockers
Private storage for the good stuff: customer secrets, rare parts, hidden weapons, blackmail salvage, Crank’s impossible projects, and emergency supplies for Jessie and Charlene.

Roof Lookout
A patched platform with shade cloth, a signal lamp, a mounted siren, a spotting scope, and a clear view of the approaches. Tang says it is for security. Crank says it is because customers lie better when they think nobody is watching.

Jessie’s Berth

Jessie, Crank’s salvage-built tracked ruin-crawler, occupies the heavy bay when she is not on a run. Her berth includes track tools, oversized rollers, patch plates, debris guards, fuel drums, towing chains, spare tensioner parts, and enough scrap steel to rebuild half her flank if needed.

Nobody leans on Jessie without permission.

Nobody climbs into Jessie without permission.

Nobody calls Jessie ugly where Crank can hear it, unless they have already paid.

Charlene’s Slot

Charlene, Crank’s fast recovery vehicle, is kept in a tighter, cleaner slot near the front response gate. She is fueled, checked, and pointed outward whenever trouble is expected. Tang is one of the few people allowed to drive her hard.

Where Jessie is the shop’s hammer, Charlene is its knife.

Services

Crank & Tang’s does not promise miracles, but it comes close often enough that people keep paying.

• Common services include:
• Basic vehicle repair
• Emergency patch jobs
• Engine tuning
• Suspension rebuilding
• Track maintenance
• Armor plating
• Weapon cleaning and repair
• Weapon mounting
• Recovery jobs
• Tow service
• Salvage appraisal
• Parts identification
• Fuel system cleaning
• Pre-run inspections
• Post-run damage assessment
• “Make it work until I get back” repairs

The last category is expensive.

Customer Rules

The rules are painted on a metal plate near the front gate.

1. Pay before yelling.
2. Do not touch the parts cage.
3. Do not lie about what you broke. Tang can tell.
4. Do not call a track roller a wheel.
5. No loaded weapons on the bench unless asked.
6. If it leaks, say so.
7. If it explodes, you still owe us.
8. Crank is not mad. He always sounds like that.

There is an unofficial ninth rule:

Do not annoy both owners at the same time.

Reputation

Crank & Tang’s has a strong reputation in eastern Duf-Dub and among drivers who pass through Northside. The shop is known for ugly but durable repairs, honest diagnostics, harsh pricing, and an unwillingness to flatter customers.

• People do not go there for comfort.
• They go there because the work holds.
• Common things said about the shop:
• “Costs too much. Worth it anyway.”
• “If Tang says you did it, you did it.”
• “Crank can fix anything except your pride.”
• “They’ll insult your machine, fix your machine, then insult you for letting it get that bad.”
• “Do not steal from them. They recover vehicles for a living.”

Business Model

Crank & Tang’s accepts barter, salvage rights, parts, fuel, ammunition, tools, maps, old keys, rare manuals, useful rumors, and favors. They prefer tangible payment and hate vague promises.

They often charge differently depending on risk, urgency, and customer stupidity. A calm customer with good salvage may get a fair deal. A panicked customer with a hot engine, bullet holes, and a story that changes twice will pay more.

Crank is most interested in rare parts.

Tang is most interested in whether the customer is lying.

Security

The shop’s security is layered, practical, and ugly.

Chain-link and scrap wall fencing

Locked vehicle gates

Noise traps

Dogs or dog-like things depending on the week

Hidden trip lines

Elevated lookout

Floodlights

Reinforced parts cage

Weapon lockers

Tang

Crank with a wrench

The most effective security measure is the fact that anyone who steals from Crank & Tang’s may eventually need a vehicle recovered, repaired, or identified — and Tang remembers faces.

Employees and Regulars

Crank and Tang are the core of the operation, but the shop usually has a rotating cast of helpers, apprentices, runners, guards, and parts pickers.

Possible regulars include:

A teenage greasehand who can crawl into tight engine spaces

An old welder who sleeps in a chair and wakes up only when someone strikes an arc wrong

A former racer paying off debt by sorting parts

A one-eyed guard who knows every common thief in the district

A quiet ammo-loader who never discusses where she learned the work

A fuel-brewer who insists everything smells fine

None of them are permanent unless Crank stops yelling at them by name.

Relations

Skriff’s Scrapyard
Crank & Tang’s buys, trades, and argues with Skriff’s operation regularly. Skriff’s has scale; Crank & Tang’s has expertise. The relationship is useful, tense, and full of small grudges.

Texas Motor Speedway
The shop has ties to the Speedway through racing, recovery, tuning, and old favors. Tang’s name still carries weight there, though not always comfortably.

Scavenger Crews
Many scavenger crews rely on the shop for pre-run prep and post-run repairs. Some pay in parts, others in claims, and a few in information.

Caravan and Hauler Drivers
Drivers who value survival over polish use Crank & Tang’s whenever they can afford it.

Duf-Dub Locals
Locals treat the shop as a useful hazard: loud, rude, dangerous if mishandled, but valuable enough to protect.