Need a way to search on extra field data

[Bronxgodzilla]

Surely this subject has come up in the past -- can someone direct me to code which will connect and Select the proper table of the db containing the extra fields? Here's the problem, and it is a serious one, if you are selling comic books no one in the biz will say, "Iron Man 39 Comic Book" -- or "456 Turbo Mazoratti Car" or "36 foot Ketch Boat" -- meaning that a site full of comic books, cars, boats, etc -- if the customer making the ad does not put the "name" in the title or descriptions (and very few will) -- no boats, comic books, or cars will be found in a standard text string search ("keywords box" on search.php) -- regardless of the fact of there being 1000 of each around.

I have tried putting "car" in an extra field, part of the description of the list or child, but no go -- unless I select the appropriate category, the extra field will not show up on a "general" search. While I understand the good ideas behind that, some words should just be basically searchable across the entire db. I have also tried putting the word "car" in the caegory-keywords but no joy either.

So is there anyone who has asked this question before and / or has a solution? Is this a custom mod solution?
Thanks
BarryG