I freely admit to watching GMG regularly, if only to live vicariously because I’d love to be doing what they are.
But I too cringed at the last episode on the Camaro SS build where the body guy snapped an oil pan bolt because he had set the torque wrench to 63 ft lbs instead of 63 inch lbs. Doing a $150k build and
Richard has this non-mechanic guy building the engine? Yeah, that was ridiculous.
There was one build they did in which they used a Ford Modular engine I think it was and may have brought in some ringers that actually knew what they were doing.
The bearded one made a comment (not a direct quote) of something to the effect “I don’t know anything about fuel injection and don’t wanna know…”.
Even worse than Gas Monkey was that 1 year and done Desert Valley Kings show. That old scrapyard has been around a long time and I thought that the people running it and working there would be real pros on the old stuff. Apparently I was wrong.
That mid 70s bone-stock Ford smog motor 351 puts out 335 horsepower? Ha; not even thrown off a cliff will it do that.
Or that '68 Charger that got an old generic 383 and they thought it was blazing fast because it ran a 20 second quarter mile…
Or that 69 GTO (engine out of ?, Tempest and Lemans body parts, etc, etc) they restored and after all was said and done THEN they noticed the frame on the right rear was rotted clean through with rust and broken in half. They jammed things into place with a floor jack and ran a bead of weld…
That POS was used at the Russo and Steele auction as obviously a setup for R & S TV time. The R & S buyers are astute and high end and no one bid on that hunk of junk. After 5 minutes of silence all of a sudden swarms of bids appeared and ran it up to 23 grand; about triple the worth.
The camera never showed the bidders so the phrase shill to save face comes to mind…
"Or that '68 Charger that got an old generic 383 and they thought it was blazing fast because it ran a 20 second quarter mile…"
Oh, yuck. I wanted to comment on that episode, but I didn’t know which show it was.
The sub-story on that show was how the guys got to demo a new Charger from the showroom, and how “It is TOO a four-door hot rod!” Basically bought and paid by Chrysler. The 383-equipped Charger barely breaks 20sec…for no good reason I can see other than to make the current model look badass by comparison running high 13’s (as best as I remember).
My 76 y.o. dad could break 19 in that car…heck, he could probably do it in his minivan!
That Charger would have been light years better with an early 440 stuffed in it. When that car got completed and they mentioned “hoping it breaks 20 seconds” I knew right then those guys didn’t have a clue and I agree with you about making that new Charger look better by comparison.
Maybe Chrysler ponied up some money to stage this and the reality is that’s a veiled infomercial.
A decent 383 in that old Charger should have easily coughed up a 14 second quarter mile and those dolts were cheering and high fiving over a garden slug.
Jeez, my old WWII era Harley flathead has turned 18 seconds in a quarter with foot clutch, hand shifter, and one hand on the bars while banging gears with the other.
Sounds like I missed a really interesting comedy show… the Three Stooges and friends with wrenches.
my 75 ford supercab with a 390 car motor and heavy duty german 3 speed could turn 20 easily
I’m by no means an overly prudish, stick in the mud guy but I’d like to think that the person restoring the car would exhibit a little dignity and professionalism. This bit of a scandal from some years ago for those who never heard about it…
http://spankmymarketer.com/richard-rawlings.html
Looks like the old sled in the background, like their other projects, is ready for some paint… 
Desert Valley Kings still shows up at random times on the Velocity channel. They did auction off a lot of bitsas (bits of this car,bits of that)
That Desert Valley show was worse than the Gas Monkey guys. In one episode an employee found some rattlesnakes in an old car out in the yard and apparently this was a huge surprise to them.
Who woulda thought of rattlers in the AZ desert.
So they close the yard down for a day and call a herpetologist in after going on red alert. At that point I bailed on the show and assumed the snakes were going to be gently removed to the outskirts of town where they, or their offspring, would slither their way back to the yard…
Seems to me a .22 pistol is the shortest, fastest, and easiest answer when it comes to both lethal and non-lethal vermin.
I agree, but you can’t suggest that publicly.
Have you ever shot a snake? Seems like a hard target to hit. I’ve used a shovel to kill it and then cut off and bury the head. And cut off the rattle.
Shot skunks though. Don’t get too close or use too large a gun or you’ll make one heck of a stinky mess.
True enough. To be honest, I’d be a bit antsy about prowling around in acres of old cars sitting out there just because of the rattlesnake issue. Snakes are going to looking for shade so in or under an old car would keep me on my nervous toes.
When I was a kid in southern Texas my father was a civilian employee at Moore AFB after mustering out of the military. Rattlesnakes were all over the place down there and once a year the fire department would put on a big BBQ and snake fry.
They would start killing snakes a few days before and had them laid out by the dozens at the entrance gate.
One pilot called in a MAYDAY once and crash landed out in the mesquite thickets. (Flying T-34s and T-28s then)
When they went to get him he was still sitting in the downed plane and when asked why he didn’t walk out rather than risk fire he said he was more afraid of rattlers than the plane blowing up.
He figured he would just sit and sweat it out because he knew rescue would be along quickly.
When I was in Texas in the AF snakes were everywhere. They were doing “snake hunts” then, and they were bringing them in by the dozens.
when I was a very young man I had an encounter with a very large copperhead, who was about to eat a very cute puppy. after making a very good shot with a .410 slug, and blowing him in half, I did a very stupid thing. I picked up the half with the very large head to put it on the fence, away from the very cute pups. all I saw were very large fangs as they flashed past my face and headed toward my arm. luckily I had very good reflexes…
@wesw, if the copperhead bit you, it would have been a very bad week. But their venom is not powerful enough to kill adults or teens. We are too large. Good thing you swung it out of the way, though, because it would have been a very,very bad week.
I’m generally not in favor of killing snakes. They do provide a useful service by eating rodents and other small vermin. I would rather relocate them if possible. I know that isn’t always possible, like in @wesw’s story. But in the case of the junk yard, it might have been the right thing to do.
I’m generally not in favor of killing snakes. Neither am I but I do have a little different take on my statement. I will kill any venomous snake on my property immediately but I would never think of killing one in their territory, i.e., the woods or in non-populace areas.
Getting back to Gas Monkey for a moment here. I just watched the most recent episode of “Fast N Loud” and have decided that I never would purchase a Gas Monkey vehicle because they let anyone work on their cars. The body man snapped off an engine bolt while using foot-pounds instead of inch-pounds. A real mechanic would never have made that mistake. It makes me shiver to think that some of those cars and trucks were assembled by people who had no idea what they were doing. There should be a law but that would curtail a lot of DIY automotive projects so that will never happen. Not in my lifetime anyway.
Fair enough, @missileman. I would prefer to leave a copperhead alone and let it slither off unless it is somwhere to dog might get into, or inside the tool shed (next to house). Rattlesnakes are very rare in Central MD; much more prevalent in Western MD. I might have a different take if the snake could actually kill an adult. I haven’t, and almost certainly won’t, have that experience. And I wouldn’t want to do it with a shovel (too close), and discharging a firearm in my neighborhood is a serious crime. I probably would just call MD Animal Control.
this news just in from the eastern shore:
my son s best friend s parents were coming home from crabbing this week and and stopped to move a snake out of the road, long story short, it was a copperhead and it bit his finger. his forearm and hand are still grotesquely swollen…
As I said, he’s going to have a very bad week.
And if I chose to move a snake, I think I’d use a long tool or a big stick to do so.
there may have been beer involved…