That was my point, cars are meant to be driven… Even Jay Leno drives his very rare collection…
Same for the unique Simeone collection of distinguished racing cars, housed in Philadelphia. Dr. Frederick Simeone will not drive them anymore since he died last June. I’m not sure how long it can be held together, maybe a good idea to visit soon.
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I have a 1996 Volvo 850, non-turbo 5-cylinder, manual transmission, 239,100 miles on original engine and original transmission.
Nice car. Seems you lucked out on that one. Mid 1990s was definitely the sweet spot for car designs, especially those equipped w/manual transmission. Electronic computer controlled fuel injection but avoiding most the really annoying newer car stuff.
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I’m not reading all this stuff. I never drove a real old car cross country but I did drive some with quite a few miles. I always had enough cash, bonds, or credit along to replace a transmission, engine, or even the car if I had to, including the title. Worst I ever had was a headlight though but I do pre emptive repair/replacement of vulnerable parts.
A bit of humor that is relevant to this discusssion:
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An old mechanic said to me once that a cars mechanicals can be repaired for ever, but when the body goes, thats the end of it. Engines, transmissions, etc. can be repaired and replaced, just a matter of cost. When you are talking about restoration of a rusty body though, you are into real money like $50 to $100K.
Sometimes they restore pickup trucks, usually 4WD, American steel from the 60s, early 70s, on that tv show Counting Cars. You can pretty much bet that the Count (the restoration shop owner) will be complaining by the time the restore is done he hasn’t made any money, the truck’s restoration cost much more than anticipated, and can never be recouped by potential sales price. This problem seems to be mostly for trucks, restoring sedans from the same era seems to be more profitable. I’m not sure if the reason is body rust, or that the truck’s 4WD configuration makes the restoration costly. Probably a little of both.
In some cases he appears to make a profit of restoring trucks and truck-like vehicles, but those usually only involve cosmetics, new paint job and an interior dressing-up.
More likely what the producers wanted. Very little of what you see is true on those shows.
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Other than how long the restoration job takes, what I see on that show about vehicle restoration seems pretty believable. What parts of the restore process are your referring to that aren’t believable?
This look true enough?
Tester
It sort of looks like a pickup truck, if that is what you are asking. Instead of forcing everyone here to watch all 45 minutes of the vdo, suggest to summarize your main objections.
I was referring to the comments on cost, time, money made or lost. If he really didn’t make money on his work, he’d be out of business pronto.
Here’s an article about the fake stuff:
Here’s What’s Fake About Counting Cars (hotcars.com)
Counting Cars fake percentage is at least 80% just like all reality television shows.
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The other part that’s not counted (excuse the pun) in this equation is the appearance money the Count (and staff) gets for each episode.
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The extra unbilled time in the shop to allow a film crew to do their job has to be paid for someway or another. Also these folks lose their anonymity, can’t go in go to Walmart without being asked by somebody in the store if they are on the show. So payment is necessary, otherwise none of those folks would agree to having their work filmed, and there would be no show to watch. I have no objection the staff presumably earns significant tv income beyond their normal shop income.
The shop of course has to make money in the long run, but could still remain in business if they lose money on a few projects from time to time. The plusses have to outweigh the minuses is all. I expect most viewers know most of the conversations, negotiations already happened before the filming, and what is shown is condensed into a script to make the story move faster. It has to be done that way otherwise it would take too much time, & the story-line would take too long and be boring.
One complaint in the article you posted (which is a worthwhile read, thanka) is they don’t show the details of how they do the work. At least one time one of these restorations shows did actually, explaining the different methods and materials that could be possibly used for the task, and why they did it the way they did, and my oh my, was that segment ever so boring! … lol … Some viewers like me might be willing to put up with that sort of tutorial content, but it would turn off a lot of casual viewers. And the number of viewers watching is what pays the bills.
One thing I always wonder though is when they drive around seemingly at random looking for cars to buy, why nobody they approach seems to get upset at being followed and yelled at to pull over. I expect that does happen sometimes, but isn’t shown. I wouldn’t recommend folks looking for used cars to purchase ever do that, dangerous, somebody might respond in a very unfriendly way. That aspect of the tv show would be my main complaint, a segment I wish they’d delete.
The only thing real in those shows is when they’re actually working on a car. The remaining 80% of the show is a scripted work, mostly of fiction. I like Fantomworks because they concentrated on the actual work.
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Reminds me of a prior co-worker. For reasons I can’t explain, in any sort of technical discussion with him, 15 minutes of rhetorical dithering before he got to his main point. I wish conversations with him had been that sort of scripted fiction … lol .
I haven’t watched it much but watching others I was always amazed how they were able to get new or like new rare parts all wrapped up and shipped to them. Makes a guy jealous hopping from flea market to car show trying to find a headlight ring.
Good point @Bing, that show seldom talks about parts procurement issues at all. I expect the reason is the same as above, the content would just be too boring for a widely watched tv show.