Tex Mex Motors (2023) s01e01 Episode Script
The Opel and the Bug
-[drill whirs]
-[engine revs]
[calm guitar music plays]
[hisses]
[wind blowing]
[man] Whoo-hoo-hoo!
[man laughs]
[upbeat music plays]
[engine revs]
-What you got?
cabrón.
[man 2] Where did you find this?
'69 Opel GT.
Germany's baby Corvette.
I was driving around in Juárez,
running errands,
and I see this car
next to the train tracks.
The lady we got it from is in her 90s.
I had to wait for one of her sons.
Those are details.
We closed the deal. We got the car.
Now we got to make money with it.
-Oh, we'll make money with it.
-Yeah.
I've always known you could make
a killing bringing cars from Mexico.
I just never really knew how to do it
until I met Scooter and Rabbit.
If there's a car to be found in Mexico,
these guys are gonna go and get it.
-How much did y'all pay? Rabbit?
-A thousand bucks.
Okay, a thousand bucks.
You drove it in here.
It'd be triple that here.
I think y'all did good. I like it.
[Mike] So, here in the US, the days
of finding a well-priced classic car,
they're almost non-existent.
But Mexico remains a virtual gold mine
of forgotten and undervalued classics,
with everything from Euro speedsters
to US muscle cars dotting the landscape.
You can still find a ton of great deals
if you know where to look.
But hunting down these cars
and getting them over the border
is only half the battle.
They still have to be turned into
true one-of-a-kind masterpieces
in order to attract buyers
that are gonna pay top dollar in the US.
And that's where me and my team come in.
This is the MVP.
I see a money-mak-- Well, don't do that.
All of us took a leap of faith
and dropped everything to set up shop
right on the border in El Paso.
So did they charge extra
for the dead animals on the floor?
[laughing]
[Mike] Wesley, our master fabricator.
Kind of a quiet genius.
What do you think, Wes?
-It's got a Datsun engine.
-[Scooter] Yes.
We need to research
on what engines will fit in here.
[Mike] Jaime, our engine specialist.
-[whirs]
-[Mike] She calls 'em like she sees 'em.
I see a stack of cash.
-I don't.
-Yeah.
[speaks Spanish]
-Do the headlights work?
-[Mike] We were lucky that it drove in.
[Mike] Jenicio, our rookie.
He's our El Paso local.
[laughs] It's heavy.
-Almost there.
-[Jaime] Are you being mean to him again?
[Mike] He may still be learning the ropes,
but he's all heart and determination.
Let's get it inside and work on it.
[Mike] And me.
I do a little bit of everything.
And the paint.
[Mike] All right. Phew!
[grunts]
[Jaime] No!
[Mike whistles] Nacho.
At least Nacho's taking care
of the dead animals.
[laughing]
[Mike] We've rented a garage
through the end of summer and decided
that to cover all of our expenses
plus make it worth our while,
we needed to clear 250 grand
to prove that this business can work.
And if it does, that means we can take
bigger risks and head deeper into Mexico
where the sky's the limit
on what we can score.
But at the end of the day,
we gotta put all of our muscle
into spinning these cars into gold.
And that means
we gotta get to work, like, right now.
[theme song plays]
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
The good?
It is something you don't see every day.
Very unique. The Euro stuff is red-hot.
There's a whole market for people
who love restored European cars.
Restored properly
with a contemporary feel,
I can sell this easily and hit a home run
for the shop right out of the gate.
I think we need to kind of bring it
to the 21st century for sure.
I think we go racy on the interior.
[Wes] Yeah, big tires.
[Mike] It's a different kind of car,
so I think it needs to have
a different kind of paint job.
We can two-tone it,
do some kind of graphic on it.
[Rabbit] Two tones are hot.
[Mike] These have some power too.
[Wes] 200-300 horsepower would
push this thing around like a rocket.
-[Jaime] Yes.
-[Mike] What do you think that will bring?
I say this thing'll do 30 grand all day.
If you can get 30 grand out of it,
Scooter's buying you lunch.
-[Scooter] I'll buy him tacos.
-[Rabbit] Hey.
Speaking of tacos, me and Scooter gotta go
back to Juárez to check out this Bug.
-[Mike] Grab me a couple tacos there.
-All right. Bye, Opel.
[Mike] And a coke.
["Flow de México" plays]
[Scooter] Right over there.
Around the corner over here.
[Rabbit] I hope this is a good lead.
Oh, it's legit, man.
I got a friend of a friend of a friend
who says this dude Cristiano
has something to unload.
I know you know this area,
but I know the cars.
And we'll just have to wait
and see when we get there.
It's true. You can make a ton of money
bringing cars over from Mexico.
There just isn't a lot of demand
south of the border for restored classics.
A lot of these cars are used
for basic transportation,
and a lot of times
they get driven into the ground.
But there is a reason
why everybody's not doing it.
Mexico can be extremely hard to navigate.
Car titles can be a major headache.
If you don't know what you're doing,
you can lose your shirt
if you're not really careful.
-[speaks Spanish]
-Throwing stuff.
But Scooter,
he knows Juárez inside and out.
He grew up going
back and forth across the border,
so he's got a huge network
that's always looking for valuable cars.
'52 Packard.
[Rabbit] There really is nobody better
to hunt down these classics
and deal with some of the drama
that usually comes up with it.
-[woman] Hey.
-[speaking Spanish]
-[Rabbit] Except when he causes it.
-I could put a hot tub in here, man.
[laughs]
And the foreigner, that's me,
knows exactly which cars will attract
an American buyer.
This is a 1954 Kaiser Darrin.
They made a little over
400 of these things.
I've been doing this all my life.
I know what to pay
to maximize our profits.
But if our garage team
does their jobs properly
with the gold we're bringing in,
we might just be onto something here.
How about that, boys?
We got us a Volkswagen.
We need to get some sunlight on this
and see what we got.
-[Scooter chuckles]
-[Rabbit grunts]
Yeah, man.
[Rabbit] I love the Baja Bug look.
1965 was a popular year for the Bug.
Is this a girlfriend painted?
[in Spanish] Who is the young lady
painted on the mural?
-[speaking Spanish]
-[in English] That's his grandma, he says.
-No comment.
-No comment. [laughs]
-[in Spanish] He says that's very nice.
-[Rabbit in English] Fire it up.
-[Scooter grunts]
-[engine starts]
[Rabbit] When that Bug fired up,
I got a little excited.
The only thing is, I can't show that.
You can't show all your cards.
We want to get the best deal possible.
Bugs here are a dime a dozen,
but in the States,
people go crazy for restored ones.
[Scooter] Sounds good.
[Rabbit]
What's it gonna take to buy this thing?
[speaking Spanish]
-[speaks Spanish]
-[in English] Four thousand dollars.
What do you think?
Ask him if he has the title.
We don't want any problems with Customs.
[in Spanish] Do you have the title?
-[speaking Spanish]
-[Scooter in English] Yeah, right here.
Tell him 3,500.
[in Spanish] We'll give you $3,500,
plus a teeth cleaning
because my wife is a dentist.
With that we can seal the deal.
[in English] I just told him 3,500
plus a teeth cleaning from my wife
who's a dentist.
-Whatever it takes to close the deal.
-Yes.
-[speaks Spanish]
-[in English] Yeah, 3,500 sounds good.
-[Rabbit] Shake that man's hand.
-All right.
-[man in Spanish] We have a deal?
-[Scooter] Yes, a deal.
[Rabbit in English]
And we got lunch money.
-[Scooter] That's Grandma's money now.
-We'll see you, man.
[in Spanish] Say hi to your grandma.
-I even have a good-looking driver.
-[laughs]
-[Scooter in English] I wanna rev it.
-[engine revs]
[Scooter] Whoo-hoo-hoo!
[laughs]
That was pretty badass.
[rock music plays]
In order to transform this
into a modern-day badass Opel,
first we need to start by
taking all the old parts off.
Don't break it.
Opels are pretty rare,
and parts are pricey.
So we need to save the parts
that are in good condition.
[Jaime] Whoa!
-We have to find one of those.
-[Jenicio] I found a door handle.
-That makes it better.
-[Mike] Yeah.
[Mike] We're still gonna have to find
other parts and update the rest.
Up. I'll get the structural stuff.
And Mike and I will start stripping
the body paint.
-What you think, Nacho?
-[Mike] Gonna help?
[chill rock music plays]
-I gotta give the MVP to you.
-Really?
Throwing in the teeth cleaning
to close the deal.
You know,
I've done a lot of things to close a deal.
Cleaning someone's teeth
has never been one of them.
[siren blares]
[bleep]
They're pulling us over, man. Pull over.
Hang on.
[producer over radio]
span style="style2"Camera, stay back. They got pulled over.
Let's set up at a distance,
and we'll keep an eye on them.
Scrub the camera.
So we can't have them on like this.
You let me do the talking.
Whatever they say, just nod.
-[in Spanish] Good afternoon.
-[Scooter] Good afternoon. How are you?
[officer] Where are you going?
[Scooter] We're going to the US.
We just bought the car.
-[officer] Where did you buy it?
-[Scooter] There. The guy sold it to us.
-[officer] You have papers?
-[Scooter] Yes, sir.
-[in English] Where's the title?
-[Rabbit] Sun visor.
-[officer in Spanish] Can you get out?
-[Scooter] Yes, of course.
[officer speaks Spanish]
The numbers aren't working.
[in English]
He says the numbers don't match.
[officer in Spanish]
Give us the keys, please.
[Scooter] Okay.
Okay, here's what's going to happen.
We'll run the numbers at the station.
If everything is good, we'll return.
[Scooter in English]
He's gonna take the title and the keys.
He'll run the numbers,
and if they match, they'll come back here,
give everything back,
and then we can be on our way.
-What are we supposed to do?
-[Scooter] Wait.
I think we got pulled over
because it's pretty obvious.
Big, tall white guy in a Bug.
They're not used to that around here.
They're expecting
to see if the VIN matches.
It usually takes a couple of hours,
but it could take a day, a week, a month.
I pray that title's legit.
'Cause if not, we're screwed.
Ay, ay, ay. God.
We passed a bunch of junkyards
on our way over here.
Might as well see if we can find
a backup car in one of those.
-Better than staying here.
-I guess so.
Vámonos. Ándase.span style="style1" Let's go.
Here we go, Rabbit, here we gospan style="style1" ♪
-[Rabbit] Shut up, Scooter.
-No singing?
-No singing.
-[Scooter] Just a little.
-No talking.
-No talking either.
[speaks Spanish]
[rock music plays]
-[Mike] Y'all got a second?
-[Wes] Always.
First, look at this side,
which had, like, five paint jobs on it.
-[Jaime] This is horrible.
-[Mike] Looks bad, huh?
-[Jaime] Yes.
-[Wes] It's rough.
-That's our good side.
-[Wes] Wow.
-Come to this side now.
-[Jaime laughs]
Check out that quarter panel right there.
What?! This is so bad.
[Mike] Scooter said this car was sitting
by some train tracks.
-[Wes] Yeah.
-[Mike] This is what happens.
Every time a train goes by,
it shoots rocks at 100 mph at a car.
-It's had a rough life.
-It has.
This is gonna eat up all of our time.
This is gonna take everything we got
to get this thing back to a decent car.
They paid $1,000 for this car.
We already knew
that we were gonna need wheels, tires,
engine, and new interior.
And now on top of that, we're gonna
have to spend a ton on paint and body.
It's going to take
three times the amount of work
that we were expecting.
Our profit's getting
smaller and smaller by the minute.
Where are Scooter and Rabbit now?
They should be out finding us a good car.
[paso doble music plays]
-Holler out.
-[in Spanish] Good morning.
[whistles]
What do you want?
We're just looking.
We're looking for cars.
Yes, I have anything you need.
-[in English] He's gonna show us stuff.
-Let's see what he's got.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] Willys trucks.
They grow on trees in the States.
[man in Spanish] This?
[in English] Look. A Mercedes Benz.
What is this? A 280?
[Rabbit] Too many doors.
We already got it.
-Cadillac.
-[Rabbit] It's too new.
Oh, look, Rabbit.
[Rabbit] '66 Mustang.
This is exactly what I'm looking for,
but it seems to be missing a lot of parts.
[in Spanish] Do you have
the rest of the car? The hood, the--
-Yes, everything.
-[in English] He says he got it.
-[man in Spanish] There's the door.
-[Scooter] Where's the hood?
[speaking Spanish]
[Scooter] There's the hood right there.
Look, it's like a puzzle.
[in English] That's good.
[Rabbit] The Mustang.
This is like America's car.
Pure muscle, and it just growls. Badass.
Just about everybody loves a Mustang.
When this was first released in 1964,
it was so sought-after
that Ford expanded production
into Mexico to keep up with demand.
Within 18 months,
this stallion broke the one-million mark
and continues to be one
of the hottest cars on the market today.
These first-generation Stangs are
a restorer's dream.
But finding an affordable one in the US
just doesn't happen.
-[Scooter speaking Spanish]
-Approximately $1,000.
-[in English] He wants $1,000.
-[Rabbit] He's been in the sun too long.
[in Spanish]
Tomorrow someone is coming for this.
[in English] He says, supposedly,
somebody's gonna come for it tomorrow.
This car's tomorrow will never come.
[Scooter chuckles]
I'm at 300 cash
if he's got the title to it.
-Do you have the title?
-Yes, I have everything.
$300 cash is all we have.
Uh…
-Three hundred?
-Three hundred.
-[in English] Okay. He agrees for 300.
-How will we get this thing out of here?
Don't worry. I have a friend.
All I have to do is make a phone call.
-And he has a trailer with a truck.
-[man] Truck?
-Okay. Yes, look, truck.
-No. I have a friend.
-Truck.
-No. [speaks Spanish]
[in English] I have a friend.
And he can come pick up the car
and the parts free of charge.
-And bring them to the shop.
-Yes. Because he owes me a favor.
I'll be honest. I don't like
relying on favors and friends,
but now we've just gotta rely on that.
We really need to get with the guys.
We gotta find us a truck and a trailer
to get this crap out of here.
Yeah. So, let's get the parts.
Has this pony been
around the corral a few times?
I guarantee it. But in the US,
this body would be $4,000 alone.
Settling on this car for 300 bucks
with the parts
like the hood, the grill, seats, doors…
Hell, these parts alone
are two or three grand.
This car's a steal all day long.
Can the guys bring this thing back
to better than new?
No doubt. Can I sell it?
Well, I'd bet my reputation on that one.
-There it is.
-[Rabbit] Now we're waiting on your guy.
[smooth music plays]
[Mike] How's the hood coming?
[Jenicio] I'm working out these dents,
and then this'll need some more metalwork.
It needs a lot more. This is rough.
You're gonna show your worth on this one.
[Jenicio] Yeah.
Our Opel is a unique little niche car,
so we have to do everything we can
to make this body as straight,
as perfect as it could possibly be.
One little flaw,
one little problem could cost us a buyer.
This being our first car,
we have to turn a profit on it.
So if that means
we gotta stay here all night,
that's what we're gonna do.
[phone rings]
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] It's the span style="style2"Federales.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] It's good news, man.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] It's the span style="style2"Federales.
Everything's clear.
We gotta go back now.
-Got your guy getting this?
-Yes.
Let's get on with those two.
Let's walk back.
Vámonos.
-[Rabbit] We're burning daylight.
-[Scooter] Burning it.
[smooth music plays]
So, this is our Mazda engine for the Opel.
I'm not seeing any leaks, no coolant.
Everything looks like it's in good shape.
In order to get top dollar for this Opel,
we have to change the engine in it.
Engine work is my specialty.
And with this Miata engine,
we got it at a great deal for 1,500,
and I knew
it would work perfect for this car.
This baby's gonna make
that little Opel fly.
One of the things with these modern cars
is there's stuff on here
that doesn't need to be used
on these older cars.
That's good for us 'cause we can eliminate
a lot off this block and make it smaller.
Before I came here, I was running
my automotive repair shop with my sister.
My dad was a body and frame man.
Our family still owns and runs
a large fleet of taxicabs
in the suburbs of Chicago.
So I was always
in his shadow and learning.
With that came engine work.
I must have worked on thousands of engines
over the course of 25-plus years.
Time to retire. [laughs]
Opel's ready. Phew! What a whooping.
[Jaime] It looks so much better.
Are we allowed to touch it?
[Wes] No, you don't want this
covered in oil and grease.
[Mike] No. Not really.
I've been doing this a long time.
And this is probably
one of the worst ones I've had to do.
[Wes] Let's shoehorn us a motor in here
and get it back to you.
[Mike] All right.
[Jaime] I'm super nervous about putting
this Mazda engine into this Opel
because not only does it have to fit,
but I can't risk damaging the bodywork.
If I just scratch anything,
it's gonna really affect our budget.
[Wes] All right. Down.
[Jaime] Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
I'm gonna go slow, so you just…
You gotta guide me.
[Wes] Let's go down a little.
-[crane squeaking]
-[Jaime] It's set on the crossmember.
Now you're gonna go under it
and jack the trans.
[Wes] They designed these cars
for a certain engine.
So when you change the engine
and put something in there
other than what was original,
there's a lot of fitment issues.
There's just a lot of challenges.
-[Wes] Will it come back any more?
-Yup, I'm pushing.
All right.
-This is where it's gonna have to be.
-[Wes] Sweet. That's what we wanted.
[Jaime] Mission accomplished.
[Wes]
Let's get it bolted in and off to paint.
[rock music plays]
[Mike] Whoo!
[Mike] This being our very first car
out of the gate,
we need our Opel to stand out
from every other car
because we need a big buyer.
I'm gonna do
a special two-tone on this car.
One side black, one side white.
It's gonna have a super unique design
down the center of the car,
in silver with a red border.
I'm going with red first
because it's gonna be the outline
for my graphic.
Now that I got the car based out,
it's time to lay out the design.
If I mess that up, it's not a canvas
where you can paint over it
and start again.
I have to sand it, reprime it,
and we're starting from the beginning.
We do not have the time
or budget for that.
Now I'm gonna go in
and do this really cool
honeycomb pattern
on the inside of the stripe.
I'm taking a little bit of a risk here.
It's different.
It's not something that you see a lot.
It's very uncommon, but I know for a fact
that when I'm finished with it,
it's gonna stand out above all other Opels
and above most other cars.
Which, in turn, hopefully,
means more money for us.
The tricky part of this is
getting all these honeycombs to line up.
Yeah, I know, it's a printed thing,
and you'd think it'd be easy, but…
Like, right now, I'm already…
First one,
and I'm already having an issue here.
I really need this to go my way.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
[mariachi music plays]
[buzzer sounding]
-[Rabbit] There's our buddies.
-[Scooter] Our friends.
[speaking Spanish]
[Scooter in English]
He's thanking us for our cooperation.
[officer in Spanish]
-[in English] He says I'm driving.
-[officer in Spanish]
-[in English] And for you--
-[officer] Your papers.
[speaks Spanish]
[in English] Okay, bye.
I guess I'm driving.
-Get me the hell out of here.
-I got this.
Vámonos.
Well, at least
we got our vehicle back. Yeah.
-[engine starts]
-[Scooter chuckles]
Oh, that's reverse. [laughs]
Back to the US it is for us.
[engine starts]
[tires squeal]
The time is right
And the moment is near ♪
Don't hesitate ♪
Just put it in gear ♪
[Mike] This thing
used to be a piece of crap.
And then it turned into
a bigger piece of crap.
But now
that all the body work's straightened out,
the paint's finished,
it's got the new interior…
new wheels,
and a badass little Mazda motor in it,
this thing is amazing.
Yeah… ♪
Now Rabbit just needs to line up a buyer.
Yeah ♪
Yeah ♪
Yeah ♪
Yeah ♪
Heading back to Texas ♪
That's my home, sweet home ♪
Always come back to this place ♪
No matter where I roam ♪
I struck out in love ♪
And I guess all is fair ♪
When I'm back to Texas
I don't really care ♪
[Scooter] We are here.
[honks horn]
[engine revs]
-[Scooter] Hey!
-What is this thing?
Look what they dragged in now.
[Mike] It sounds pretty loud.
They're gonna blow it up
before they even get it in the building.
Yeah.
[Rabbit] Ugh. Wrong gear.
[Scooter laughs]
Nacho. [whistles]
[engine stalls]
-[Mike] You want me to push it?
-[Scooter] Yes, please.
[Mike] Push it.
And Scooter's driving. Oh Lord.
Hey, we're here.
What took you so long to get back for?
[Rabbit] Well, Scooter sent us down
some sketchy road.
-You said don't come back without a car.
-It is a car.
'60s Bugs.
Big money.
[Jaime] Did you spend big money?
-[Rabbit] 3,500 bucks.
-Oh, that's not bad.
We can work with that.
[Rabbit] The VW Beetle's considered
one of the classic Mexican cars.
But it wasn't always that way.
When the Beetle was
first introduced in Mexico,
people weren't sure
about how it performed.
That all changed
after the 1954 Carrera Panamericana,
a legendary
cross-country Mexican road race.
Bunch of drivers entered the Beetles,
even though none of them came in first,
every one finished the 2,000-mile race.
After that,
the popularity of the Bug exploded.
And they continue
to be a Mexican and American classic.
-[Scooter] What do you think, Jaime?
-It's decent. It's got an RV sunroof.
[Rabbit] This thing's got
more switches in it than a fighter jet.
[laughs] It's the windshield wipers.
-We'll redo the dash.
-Who knows?
-It might blow bubbles out the back.
-Very possible.
-Holy moly, what in the--
-[Jenicio] Man, look at all these wires.
[Mike] This thing is a rat's nest.
-That's a Jaime job right there.
-Just cut it all out. [laughs]
-Jerk it out, start fresh.
-[Wes] Start fresh. Yeah.
-[Mike] I think you guys did pretty good.
-That's what you said last time.
I did say that last time.
Y'all did good. I like it.
-[Rabbit] What was wrong with the Opel?
-[Jenicio] The Opel was rough.
You guys didn't see
what was under the paint.
-Very true.
-[Scooter] What you wanna do?
I'm thinking what's popular now,
side-by-sides.
These off-road ATVs are going
for, like, 30 to 40 grand right now.
So if we can take this,
put about 10 grand in it,
get it dune ready,
we're looking at about a $20,000 profit.
Mm-hmm.
[Mike] We could do sinister.
We can bring out the suspension.
High fenders. Different hood.
High fenders in the back.
[Rabbit] Really cool LED lighting.
[Mike] Do some stuff to the motor,
make it super nasty.
Some race seats up front
where it's full race out in the desert.
[Rabbit] The salesman in me
loves this idea,
because I know how hot RZRs are.
That puts us in a whole nother demographic
for selling this thing.
That's right.
Jaime, if you want, you order the engine.
-[Jaime] Okay.
-[Mike] It barely made it through.
-We'll get rid of the roof.
-[Wes] This--
[Mike] That thing up here.
So that thing needs to go.
I say put a roll cage.
If we're gonna jump in the dunes,
we need a roll cage.
[Mike] Yeah. This is gonna go fast.
So you need to be hunting for buyers.
Good. We got another car behind this one.
[Mike] Y'all got two?
-Yes.
-Yeah, it's a surprise.
-It's a surprise.
-What do you mean?
-We can't tell you.
-You'll see when it gets here.
-You'll thank us for it.
-You need to be worried about this.
-The Bug.
-Find us a buyer for it.
Quit slapping it.
I don't wanna fix more damage.
-Yeah, please.
-[Mike] Let's get to work.
[tool buzzing]
You are right in my ear.
[Mike] Now that we decided
how to build this Baja Bug,
not much of it will stay original.
We're gonna be keeping
the body and the doors.
I'll drop it slow.
[Mike] Everything else
is gonna be aftermarket.
Either we're gonna buy it
or we're gonna build it.
[Jaime] Look at that.
[Mike] With all the mountains,
the deserts here, this is easy money.
It's gonna be a quick sale
and a no-brainer.
[Jaime] Our garbage man's
gonna be so pissed at us.
[Wes] Yeah.
[upbeat music plays]
[Wes] It's my turn to do
the modifications, get the body prepped.
Fenders, suspension, things like that.
And now I'm gonna get rid
of this RV sunroof.
I'm gonna fabricate a smooth panel.
Make this roof look like it was factory.
If welding and fabrication
isn't done right,
the body lines are off,
doors don't shut correctly,
suspension doesn't line up,
it could just ruin the whole build.
Just saying not all heroes wear capes.
Some wear welding helmets.
Couldn't even begin to tell you
how many cars I've worked on.
I've been working on cars
since I was five years old.
My stepfather owned a street rod shop.
Over the years,
I've done a lot of chop tops,
channeling bodies. Sky's the limit.
[action music plays]
[Mike] You see all these side-by-sides,
and they're painted pretty colors,
their little blues and stuff.
Ours ain't that.
The cool thing about the green color
is it's not normal. It's a custom color.
It's sinister. It's tough. It's mean.
It's gonna be sick.
I'm out.
Time to get it reassembled.
[Rabbit] What's going on, buddy?
I love selling cars.
One of my favorite things to do
is talking people into buying something
that they don't need.
I bought and sold my first car
when I was 16 years old,
and I wasn't even technically old enough
to have it in my name.
I could write my mother's name better
on the back of a bill of sale
than she could.
You could put me
at a church social or a brothel,
and I could make you think
I was born to be there.
I'm telling you,
you need to see this Opel GT.
The process for finding
a buyer for a collector or classic car
is totally different
from any other car sales.
When you're selling
somebody a daily driver
or the car they're driving to work,
that's a need.
We're selling wants.
This cousin of mine knows this lady.
She's a real estate agent.
-Mm-hmm.
-She was asking him that, supposedly--
-Do you have her number?
-[Scooter] Yes. Yes.
So, the Opel,
we're looking for somebody upscale.
We're talking about champagne dreams
with a span style="style2"cerveza budget.
-Hey. Rabbit.
-Hey.
[Rabbit] And the Bug is very extreme,
so my buyers are
on each end of the spectrum:
classic cruiser,
ultimate off-road machine.
But the approach is still the same.
And that's my job,
putting asses in seats of cars
they really don't need,
but they're gonna love to have.
[rock music plays]
[Wes] All right. The power plant.
[Jaime] Yep. It's here.
Let's get this puppy in there.
[Jaime] For the Bug, we ended up going
with a used engine to keep costs down.
We needed something powerful enough
that would move the VW
and its 33-inch tires through sand.
It's not only gonna give us top dollar,
but the vehicle absolutely needs it.
A little bigger than the original engine.
[Jaime] A little more horsepower.
Ooh, that's almost perfect.
What's up? What's up? It's looking good.
Yeah. Everything looks good to me.
I think we're about ready.
-Really? First fire?
-First fire.
[Mike] Whoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo!
[Mike] I'm so excited
that this Bug is almost finished.
Rabbit has a potential buyer lined up.
But first, we need to put this engine
through its paces and make sure
that it is dune-ready.
It needs to be able to handle
what the dunes have to offer.
And then it's off to meet the buyer.
-Good?
-Yeah, I think so.
-Okay.
-[engine starts]
Sounds like it's spit-firing.
Give it a little bit of gas.
See if it will straighten itself out.
-[Mike] Want me to rev it?
-Yeah, okay.
[engine revs]
[Jaime] Whoa.
Whoa!
That's a lot of smoke, Wes.
-[Wesley and Jaime] Black smoke!
-[Jaime] Stop!
[Wes] We could hear bearings
making chattering noises, some smoke.
It's never a good sign.
That means there's problems internally.
It's something we couldn't see.
It was very disheartening.
[Jaime]
I got oil coming from the crankshaft.
And we got coolant
coming from somewhere in the back.
[Jaime] When you get a used engine,
sometimes you don't know
what you're getting. It…
[Wes] I think it's toast.
We're gonna have to get a new motor.
We don't have time for this crap.
[bleep]
We gotta to call
the people we got the motor from.
[Jaime] There's a warranty on it.
That doesn't mean they'll have
a replacement right away.
Especially in El Paso.
God dang it.
The engine dying on the Bug
is definitely not what we need right now.
I'm gonna cry.
[calm lounge music plays]
So, Alma, a little birdie told me
you're in real estate.
Yes. Twenty years now.
[Rabbit] With this sale especially,
the pressure is on to come out swinging.
The guys busted their ass on this car.
Now it's my turn to shine and show them
how their hard work turns into cold cash.
Speaking of beautiful things.
How about an Opel GT?
Goodness gracious.
Very ni… Oh my goodness.
This is so unique,
because my brother actually had an Opel.
His was a '72 Opel.
Amazing.
This is the cool thing
about collector cars.
A car like this is basically
the newest 1969 Opel in the world.
When Alma said
her brother owned an Opel back in the day,
I knew I had her.
That's the cool thing
about collector cars and classic cars
is they bring back a memory.
[engine starts]
Fuel injection.
Just pump it and fire it right up.
I love that.
Wow.
Check out these headlights.
Love hideaway headlights.
[Alma] Wow!
This feels like a Bond car.
[laughs]
[Rabbit] Why don't you
come join me in my office?
I've gotten good over the years.
I can tell you in the first few minutes
if somebody's a buyer or a talker.
I believe she's gonna be a buyer.
Let's talk price.
What do you wanna do with this car?
Drive it on the weekends, enjoy it.
It's a fun play car for me.
What are you looking
to spend for a play car?
Eighteen thousand.
[inhales sharply]
Mm…
-How good are you at selling houses again?
-Very good.
Then you can afford to spend
a little more than that. Now, come on.
How much do you want for it?
I'd love 35,000.
What?
Well, you gotta understand, there's a lot
of new parts in this old car.
And I got a lot of labor in this thing.
You know, we're both in sales.
No sense dragging this out,
'cause we can go back and forth.
And you know just as good as I do,
if you like it…
I do like it. Yeah.
I wanna sell it, you wanna buy it.
We just gotta find that happy number.
Tell you what.
How about 32?
That's like those houses you sell.
It's an investment.
Will you accept 25?
I'm at 32. You're at 25.
Would you do 30,000?
You're gonna have a car
you will absolutely enjoy.
I'll do 30 for my brother.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Alma, you're gonna love that thing.
I am.
[Rabbit] Scooter and I bought the car
for a thousand dollars.
We'd planned to put 11,000 into it.
However, the problems were
way more complicated than we anticipated.
So it cost 15,000,
putting us at about 16,000 all in.
But a $14,000 profit on this vehicle
is phenomenal for anyone.
If we can keep
this kind of momentum up with every sale,
we should hit 250k easily.
[Jaime] Let's do it.
We went back to the same source,
and luckily, they had another engine.
In my experience,
it's rare that you would get
two bad engines in a situation like this.
So we're gonna get it installed.
We should have it in no time
done and ready for the dunes.
Hi. How are you?
Nacho wants to help.
All right, up.
Excelente.
-All right.
-[Wes] Hope this never has to come out.
[Jaime] No, it looks good.
All right. Let's get going on this thing.
[upbeat music plays]
[calm guitar music plays]
[Mike] We set out to build a Baja Bug
that could really strip
the sand from the desert.
We extended the frame seven inches
and widened the suspension ten
for better stability.
Electric steering
and short-turn steering rack
allows this Bug to turn quickly
with minimal turns of the steering wheel.
The 2.4 Ecotec Chevy motor gives this Bug
more power and drivability
to handle the huge 33-inch tires,
while the custom roll cage keeps
even the wildest driver safe.
This Bug barely resembles
what it used to look like.
And given how popular it is
to go off-roading in the dunes out here,
Rabbit was able to find
a potential buyer in no time.
[Rabbit] There she is, boys.
What do you think?
Looks awesome.
So, is she gonna run as good as she looks?
[Mike] You're damn right she's gonna run
as good as she looks. She's bad.
Let's see it run.
[Rabbit] You just watch.
[Mike] We wanted to prove to the buyer
what this thing could do.
I got a buddy with serious off-road skills
to drive the Bug for us.
Time to get it dusty.
[Rabbit] Engines are running.
Better have a checkbook. Let's show them.
Yeah. Look at that thing go.
-[Mike] Go!
-[Rabbit] What do you think I'm doing?
[Mike] They'll catch you,
but I know he's fast.
We gotta get this thing sold.
Come on, man.
[Rabbit] Almost got him.
Ooh! Yeah.
Whoo!
-Oops! [bleep]
-[Mike] Oh!
[clattering]
[producer over radio] span style="style2"Call the medic.
span style="style2"The ATV flipped. We need the medic now.
-[Steve] Are you okay?
-[Rabbit] I'm alive.
[Mike] Dumbass.
At least the Bug is fine.
[Mike laughs] God dang.
Where's my hat?
[Rabbit]
Hope you leave your damn brain in it.
-[Mike] It went flying, you know?
-[Rabbit] A lot of things did.
Along with my phone and everything else.
Exactly. My pride.
The truth is we built a badass Bug,
and you were trying to keep up with it,
which is understandable.
Yes.
[Mike] Luckily, the medics checked us out.
Everything's good. We're good.
But got a little bit of damage
on this one.
I never claimed
to be a professional driver.
Two, did we lose the sale? No.
Sold for 35,000. That's a $14,500 profit.
Add that to the 14 grand
in profit we made from the Opel,
and we're at $28,500 towards our goal.
To top it all off, we just got started.
We got plenty of time ahead of us.
All we gotta do is explain
to these nice people in the rental office
how this wheel
just all of a sudden folded in.
-Luckily, we got insurance.
-It's a rental. That's the best part.
[upbeat music plays]
Ah, Jesus.
[Mike] Rolling over the ATV yesterday,
I must have hit my head really hard,
because this Mustang
cannot be our next project.
This has to be a bad dream.
What the hell is this?
They left it on blocks.
Somebody steal the wheels
or this is how they dropped it?
It's like… Ugh.
Come on, guys. You can at least
bring us back an entire car.
What do you guys think
about my little pony car?
[Mike] Y'all bought this?
This is a buy.
-[Mike] This is ours?
-[Rabbit] Yes.
This car is a little rough,
but it's cheap.
Three hundred bucks.
[Wes] Look at this.
[Mike] It's got so many holes
it doesn't even cast a shadow anymore.
[Rabbit] We got all kinds of parts.
We've got doors. We got front clip.
Virtually every body panel for this car.
Are they on the way or what?
They were boxed down there
waiting with the car.
So where are the parts at?
-I don't know. Scooter, where are they?
-[Scooter] I'll call and find out.
[in Spanish] Hey, man.
Where are the parts for the Mustang?
No, they aren't here.
But why? We had a deal.
No. Don't… [bleep] …with me.
What am I gonna tell these guys? [bleep]
-[in English] We have an issue.
-What do you mean, we have an issue?
-I think we've been taken.
-What are you talking about?
My friend.
I think my friend took the parts.
Why would he take the parts?
Well, I might have owed him some money.
I don't know why my friend took the parts.
Well, I know, but I didn't know
he was gonna go to that extreme.
He screwed me over.
He screwed everybody over.
There's nothing on this front end.
There's no doors, Scooter.
I didn't know
this guy was gonna do me like this, man.
[theme music plays]
-[engine revs]
[calm guitar music plays]
[hisses]
[wind blowing]
[man] Whoo-hoo-hoo!
[man laughs]
[upbeat music plays]
[engine revs]
-What you got?
cabrón.
[man 2] Where did you find this?
'69 Opel GT.
Germany's baby Corvette.
I was driving around in Juárez,
running errands,
and I see this car
next to the train tracks.
The lady we got it from is in her 90s.
I had to wait for one of her sons.
Those are details.
We closed the deal. We got the car.
Now we got to make money with it.
-Oh, we'll make money with it.
-Yeah.
I've always known you could make
a killing bringing cars from Mexico.
I just never really knew how to do it
until I met Scooter and Rabbit.
If there's a car to be found in Mexico,
these guys are gonna go and get it.
-How much did y'all pay? Rabbit?
-A thousand bucks.
Okay, a thousand bucks.
You drove it in here.
It'd be triple that here.
I think y'all did good. I like it.
[Mike] So, here in the US, the days
of finding a well-priced classic car,
they're almost non-existent.
But Mexico remains a virtual gold mine
of forgotten and undervalued classics,
with everything from Euro speedsters
to US muscle cars dotting the landscape.
You can still find a ton of great deals
if you know where to look.
But hunting down these cars
and getting them over the border
is only half the battle.
They still have to be turned into
true one-of-a-kind masterpieces
in order to attract buyers
that are gonna pay top dollar in the US.
And that's where me and my team come in.
This is the MVP.
I see a money-mak-- Well, don't do that.
All of us took a leap of faith
and dropped everything to set up shop
right on the border in El Paso.
So did they charge extra
for the dead animals on the floor?
[laughing]
[Mike] Wesley, our master fabricator.
Kind of a quiet genius.
What do you think, Wes?
-It's got a Datsun engine.
-[Scooter] Yes.
We need to research
on what engines will fit in here.
[Mike] Jaime, our engine specialist.
-[whirs]
-[Mike] She calls 'em like she sees 'em.
I see a stack of cash.
-I don't.
-Yeah.
[speaks Spanish]
-Do the headlights work?
-[Mike] We were lucky that it drove in.
[Mike] Jenicio, our rookie.
He's our El Paso local.
[laughs] It's heavy.
-Almost there.
-[Jaime] Are you being mean to him again?
[Mike] He may still be learning the ropes,
but he's all heart and determination.
Let's get it inside and work on it.
[Mike] And me.
I do a little bit of everything.
And the paint.
[Mike] All right. Phew!
[grunts]
[Jaime] No!
[Mike whistles] Nacho.
At least Nacho's taking care
of the dead animals.
[laughing]
[Mike] We've rented a garage
through the end of summer and decided
that to cover all of our expenses
plus make it worth our while,
we needed to clear 250 grand
to prove that this business can work.
And if it does, that means we can take
bigger risks and head deeper into Mexico
where the sky's the limit
on what we can score.
But at the end of the day,
we gotta put all of our muscle
into spinning these cars into gold.
And that means
we gotta get to work, like, right now.
[theme song plays]
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
The good?
It is something you don't see every day.
Very unique. The Euro stuff is red-hot.
There's a whole market for people
who love restored European cars.
Restored properly
with a contemporary feel,
I can sell this easily and hit a home run
for the shop right out of the gate.
I think we need to kind of bring it
to the 21st century for sure.
I think we go racy on the interior.
[Wes] Yeah, big tires.
[Mike] It's a different kind of car,
so I think it needs to have
a different kind of paint job.
We can two-tone it,
do some kind of graphic on it.
[Rabbit] Two tones are hot.
[Mike] These have some power too.
[Wes] 200-300 horsepower would
push this thing around like a rocket.
-[Jaime] Yes.
-[Mike] What do you think that will bring?
I say this thing'll do 30 grand all day.
If you can get 30 grand out of it,
Scooter's buying you lunch.
-[Scooter] I'll buy him tacos.
-[Rabbit] Hey.
Speaking of tacos, me and Scooter gotta go
back to Juárez to check out this Bug.
-[Mike] Grab me a couple tacos there.
-All right. Bye, Opel.
[Mike] And a coke.
["Flow de México" plays]
[Scooter] Right over there.
Around the corner over here.
[Rabbit] I hope this is a good lead.
Oh, it's legit, man.
I got a friend of a friend of a friend
who says this dude Cristiano
has something to unload.
I know you know this area,
but I know the cars.
And we'll just have to wait
and see when we get there.
It's true. You can make a ton of money
bringing cars over from Mexico.
There just isn't a lot of demand
south of the border for restored classics.
A lot of these cars are used
for basic transportation,
and a lot of times
they get driven into the ground.
But there is a reason
why everybody's not doing it.
Mexico can be extremely hard to navigate.
Car titles can be a major headache.
If you don't know what you're doing,
you can lose your shirt
if you're not really careful.
-[speaks Spanish]
-Throwing stuff.
But Scooter,
he knows Juárez inside and out.
He grew up going
back and forth across the border,
so he's got a huge network
that's always looking for valuable cars.
'52 Packard.
[Rabbit] There really is nobody better
to hunt down these classics
and deal with some of the drama
that usually comes up with it.
-[woman] Hey.
-[speaking Spanish]
-[Rabbit] Except when he causes it.
-I could put a hot tub in here, man.
[laughs]
And the foreigner, that's me,
knows exactly which cars will attract
an American buyer.
This is a 1954 Kaiser Darrin.
They made a little over
400 of these things.
I've been doing this all my life.
I know what to pay
to maximize our profits.
But if our garage team
does their jobs properly
with the gold we're bringing in,
we might just be onto something here.
How about that, boys?
We got us a Volkswagen.
We need to get some sunlight on this
and see what we got.
-[Scooter chuckles]
-[Rabbit grunts]
Yeah, man.
[Rabbit] I love the Baja Bug look.
1965 was a popular year for the Bug.
Is this a girlfriend painted?
[in Spanish] Who is the young lady
painted on the mural?
-[speaking Spanish]
-[in English] That's his grandma, he says.
-No comment.
-No comment. [laughs]
-[in Spanish] He says that's very nice.
-[Rabbit in English] Fire it up.
-[Scooter grunts]
-[engine starts]
[Rabbit] When that Bug fired up,
I got a little excited.
The only thing is, I can't show that.
You can't show all your cards.
We want to get the best deal possible.
Bugs here are a dime a dozen,
but in the States,
people go crazy for restored ones.
[Scooter] Sounds good.
[Rabbit]
What's it gonna take to buy this thing?
[speaking Spanish]
-[speaks Spanish]
-[in English] Four thousand dollars.
What do you think?
Ask him if he has the title.
We don't want any problems with Customs.
[in Spanish] Do you have the title?
-[speaking Spanish]
-[Scooter in English] Yeah, right here.
Tell him 3,500.
[in Spanish] We'll give you $3,500,
plus a teeth cleaning
because my wife is a dentist.
With that we can seal the deal.
[in English] I just told him 3,500
plus a teeth cleaning from my wife
who's a dentist.
-Whatever it takes to close the deal.
-Yes.
-[speaks Spanish]
-[in English] Yeah, 3,500 sounds good.
-[Rabbit] Shake that man's hand.
-All right.
-[man in Spanish] We have a deal?
-[Scooter] Yes, a deal.
[Rabbit in English]
And we got lunch money.
-[Scooter] That's Grandma's money now.
-We'll see you, man.
[in Spanish] Say hi to your grandma.
-I even have a good-looking driver.
-[laughs]
-[Scooter in English] I wanna rev it.
-[engine revs]
[Scooter] Whoo-hoo-hoo!
[laughs]
That was pretty badass.
[rock music plays]
In order to transform this
into a modern-day badass Opel,
first we need to start by
taking all the old parts off.
Don't break it.
Opels are pretty rare,
and parts are pricey.
So we need to save the parts
that are in good condition.
[Jaime] Whoa!
-We have to find one of those.
-[Jenicio] I found a door handle.
-That makes it better.
-[Mike] Yeah.
[Mike] We're still gonna have to find
other parts and update the rest.
Up. I'll get the structural stuff.
And Mike and I will start stripping
the body paint.
-What you think, Nacho?
-[Mike] Gonna help?
[chill rock music plays]
-I gotta give the MVP to you.
-Really?
Throwing in the teeth cleaning
to close the deal.
You know,
I've done a lot of things to close a deal.
Cleaning someone's teeth
has never been one of them.
[siren blares]
[bleep]
They're pulling us over, man. Pull over.
Hang on.
[producer over radio]
span style="style2"Camera, stay back. They got pulled over.
Let's set up at a distance,
and we'll keep an eye on them.
Scrub the camera.
So we can't have them on like this.
You let me do the talking.
Whatever they say, just nod.
-[in Spanish] Good afternoon.
-[Scooter] Good afternoon. How are you?
[officer] Where are you going?
[Scooter] We're going to the US.
We just bought the car.
-[officer] Where did you buy it?
-[Scooter] There. The guy sold it to us.
-[officer] You have papers?
-[Scooter] Yes, sir.
-[in English] Where's the title?
-[Rabbit] Sun visor.
-[officer in Spanish] Can you get out?
-[Scooter] Yes, of course.
[officer speaks Spanish]
The numbers aren't working.
[in English]
He says the numbers don't match.
[officer in Spanish]
Give us the keys, please.
[Scooter] Okay.
Okay, here's what's going to happen.
We'll run the numbers at the station.
If everything is good, we'll return.
[Scooter in English]
He's gonna take the title and the keys.
He'll run the numbers,
and if they match, they'll come back here,
give everything back,
and then we can be on our way.
-What are we supposed to do?
-[Scooter] Wait.
I think we got pulled over
because it's pretty obvious.
Big, tall white guy in a Bug.
They're not used to that around here.
They're expecting
to see if the VIN matches.
It usually takes a couple of hours,
but it could take a day, a week, a month.
I pray that title's legit.
'Cause if not, we're screwed.
Ay, ay, ay. God.
We passed a bunch of junkyards
on our way over here.
Might as well see if we can find
a backup car in one of those.
-Better than staying here.
-I guess so.
Vámonos. Ándase.span style="style1" Let's go.
Here we go, Rabbit, here we gospan style="style1" ♪
-[Rabbit] Shut up, Scooter.
-No singing?
-No singing.
-[Scooter] Just a little.
-No talking.
-No talking either.
[speaks Spanish]
[rock music plays]
-[Mike] Y'all got a second?
-[Wes] Always.
First, look at this side,
which had, like, five paint jobs on it.
-[Jaime] This is horrible.
-[Mike] Looks bad, huh?
-[Jaime] Yes.
-[Wes] It's rough.
-That's our good side.
-[Wes] Wow.
-Come to this side now.
-[Jaime laughs]
Check out that quarter panel right there.
What?! This is so bad.
[Mike] Scooter said this car was sitting
by some train tracks.
-[Wes] Yeah.
-[Mike] This is what happens.
Every time a train goes by,
it shoots rocks at 100 mph at a car.
-It's had a rough life.
-It has.
This is gonna eat up all of our time.
This is gonna take everything we got
to get this thing back to a decent car.
They paid $1,000 for this car.
We already knew
that we were gonna need wheels, tires,
engine, and new interior.
And now on top of that, we're gonna
have to spend a ton on paint and body.
It's going to take
three times the amount of work
that we were expecting.
Our profit's getting
smaller and smaller by the minute.
Where are Scooter and Rabbit now?
They should be out finding us a good car.
[paso doble music plays]
-Holler out.
-[in Spanish] Good morning.
[whistles]
What do you want?
We're just looking.
We're looking for cars.
Yes, I have anything you need.
-[in English] He's gonna show us stuff.
-Let's see what he's got.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] Willys trucks.
They grow on trees in the States.
[man in Spanish] This?
[in English] Look. A Mercedes Benz.
What is this? A 280?
[Rabbit] Too many doors.
We already got it.
-Cadillac.
-[Rabbit] It's too new.
Oh, look, Rabbit.
[Rabbit] '66 Mustang.
This is exactly what I'm looking for,
but it seems to be missing a lot of parts.
[in Spanish] Do you have
the rest of the car? The hood, the--
-Yes, everything.
-[in English] He says he got it.
-[man in Spanish] There's the door.
-[Scooter] Where's the hood?
[speaking Spanish]
[Scooter] There's the hood right there.
Look, it's like a puzzle.
[in English] That's good.
[Rabbit] The Mustang.
This is like America's car.
Pure muscle, and it just growls. Badass.
Just about everybody loves a Mustang.
When this was first released in 1964,
it was so sought-after
that Ford expanded production
into Mexico to keep up with demand.
Within 18 months,
this stallion broke the one-million mark
and continues to be one
of the hottest cars on the market today.
These first-generation Stangs are
a restorer's dream.
But finding an affordable one in the US
just doesn't happen.
-[Scooter speaking Spanish]
-Approximately $1,000.
-[in English] He wants $1,000.
-[Rabbit] He's been in the sun too long.
[in Spanish]
Tomorrow someone is coming for this.
[in English] He says, supposedly,
somebody's gonna come for it tomorrow.
This car's tomorrow will never come.
[Scooter chuckles]
I'm at 300 cash
if he's got the title to it.
-Do you have the title?
-Yes, I have everything.
$300 cash is all we have.
Uh…
-Three hundred?
-Three hundred.
-[in English] Okay. He agrees for 300.
-How will we get this thing out of here?
Don't worry. I have a friend.
All I have to do is make a phone call.
-And he has a trailer with a truck.
-[man] Truck?
-Okay. Yes, look, truck.
-No. I have a friend.
-Truck.
-No. [speaks Spanish]
[in English] I have a friend.
And he can come pick up the car
and the parts free of charge.
-And bring them to the shop.
-Yes. Because he owes me a favor.
I'll be honest. I don't like
relying on favors and friends,
but now we've just gotta rely on that.
We really need to get with the guys.
We gotta find us a truck and a trailer
to get this crap out of here.
Yeah. So, let's get the parts.
Has this pony been
around the corral a few times?
I guarantee it. But in the US,
this body would be $4,000 alone.
Settling on this car for 300 bucks
with the parts
like the hood, the grill, seats, doors…
Hell, these parts alone
are two or three grand.
This car's a steal all day long.
Can the guys bring this thing back
to better than new?
No doubt. Can I sell it?
Well, I'd bet my reputation on that one.
-There it is.
-[Rabbit] Now we're waiting on your guy.
[smooth music plays]
[Mike] How's the hood coming?
[Jenicio] I'm working out these dents,
and then this'll need some more metalwork.
It needs a lot more. This is rough.
You're gonna show your worth on this one.
[Jenicio] Yeah.
Our Opel is a unique little niche car,
so we have to do everything we can
to make this body as straight,
as perfect as it could possibly be.
One little flaw,
one little problem could cost us a buyer.
This being our first car,
we have to turn a profit on it.
So if that means
we gotta stay here all night,
that's what we're gonna do.
[phone rings]
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] It's the span style="style2"Federales.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] It's good news, man.
[speaking Spanish]
[in English] It's the span style="style2"Federales.
Everything's clear.
We gotta go back now.
-Got your guy getting this?
-Yes.
Let's get on with those two.
Let's walk back.
Vámonos.
-[Rabbit] We're burning daylight.
-[Scooter] Burning it.
[smooth music plays]
So, this is our Mazda engine for the Opel.
I'm not seeing any leaks, no coolant.
Everything looks like it's in good shape.
In order to get top dollar for this Opel,
we have to change the engine in it.
Engine work is my specialty.
And with this Miata engine,
we got it at a great deal for 1,500,
and I knew
it would work perfect for this car.
This baby's gonna make
that little Opel fly.
One of the things with these modern cars
is there's stuff on here
that doesn't need to be used
on these older cars.
That's good for us 'cause we can eliminate
a lot off this block and make it smaller.
Before I came here, I was running
my automotive repair shop with my sister.
My dad was a body and frame man.
Our family still owns and runs
a large fleet of taxicabs
in the suburbs of Chicago.
So I was always
in his shadow and learning.
With that came engine work.
I must have worked on thousands of engines
over the course of 25-plus years.
Time to retire. [laughs]
Opel's ready. Phew! What a whooping.
[Jaime] It looks so much better.
Are we allowed to touch it?
[Wes] No, you don't want this
covered in oil and grease.
[Mike] No. Not really.
I've been doing this a long time.
And this is probably
one of the worst ones I've had to do.
[Wes] Let's shoehorn us a motor in here
and get it back to you.
[Mike] All right.
[Jaime] I'm super nervous about putting
this Mazda engine into this Opel
because not only does it have to fit,
but I can't risk damaging the bodywork.
If I just scratch anything,
it's gonna really affect our budget.
[Wes] All right. Down.
[Jaime] Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
I'm gonna go slow, so you just…
You gotta guide me.
[Wes] Let's go down a little.
-[crane squeaking]
-[Jaime] It's set on the crossmember.
Now you're gonna go under it
and jack the trans.
[Wes] They designed these cars
for a certain engine.
So when you change the engine
and put something in there
other than what was original,
there's a lot of fitment issues.
There's just a lot of challenges.
-[Wes] Will it come back any more?
-Yup, I'm pushing.
All right.
-This is where it's gonna have to be.
-[Wes] Sweet. That's what we wanted.
[Jaime] Mission accomplished.
[Wes]
Let's get it bolted in and off to paint.
[rock music plays]
[Mike] Whoo!
[Mike] This being our very first car
out of the gate,
we need our Opel to stand out
from every other car
because we need a big buyer.
I'm gonna do
a special two-tone on this car.
One side black, one side white.
It's gonna have a super unique design
down the center of the car,
in silver with a red border.
I'm going with red first
because it's gonna be the outline
for my graphic.
Now that I got the car based out,
it's time to lay out the design.
If I mess that up, it's not a canvas
where you can paint over it
and start again.
I have to sand it, reprime it,
and we're starting from the beginning.
We do not have the time
or budget for that.
Now I'm gonna go in
and do this really cool
honeycomb pattern
on the inside of the stripe.
I'm taking a little bit of a risk here.
It's different.
It's not something that you see a lot.
It's very uncommon, but I know for a fact
that when I'm finished with it,
it's gonna stand out above all other Opels
and above most other cars.
Which, in turn, hopefully,
means more money for us.
The tricky part of this is
getting all these honeycombs to line up.
Yeah, I know, it's a printed thing,
and you'd think it'd be easy, but…
Like, right now, I'm already…
First one,
and I'm already having an issue here.
I really need this to go my way.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
[mariachi music plays]
[buzzer sounding]
-[Rabbit] There's our buddies.
-[Scooter] Our friends.
[speaking Spanish]
[Scooter in English]
He's thanking us for our cooperation.
[officer in Spanish]
-[in English] He says I'm driving.
-[officer in Spanish]
-[in English] And for you--
-[officer] Your papers.
[speaks Spanish]
[in English] Okay, bye.
I guess I'm driving.
-Get me the hell out of here.
-I got this.
Vámonos.
Well, at least
we got our vehicle back. Yeah.
-[engine starts]
-[Scooter chuckles]
Oh, that's reverse. [laughs]
Back to the US it is for us.
[engine starts]
[tires squeal]
The time is right
And the moment is near ♪
Don't hesitate ♪
Just put it in gear ♪
[Mike] This thing
used to be a piece of crap.
And then it turned into
a bigger piece of crap.
But now
that all the body work's straightened out,
the paint's finished,
it's got the new interior…
new wheels,
and a badass little Mazda motor in it,
this thing is amazing.
Yeah… ♪
Now Rabbit just needs to line up a buyer.
Yeah ♪
Yeah ♪
Yeah ♪
Yeah ♪
Heading back to Texas ♪
That's my home, sweet home ♪
Always come back to this place ♪
No matter where I roam ♪
I struck out in love ♪
And I guess all is fair ♪
When I'm back to Texas
I don't really care ♪
[Scooter] We are here.
[honks horn]
[engine revs]
-[Scooter] Hey!
-What is this thing?
Look what they dragged in now.
[Mike] It sounds pretty loud.
They're gonna blow it up
before they even get it in the building.
Yeah.
[Rabbit] Ugh. Wrong gear.
[Scooter laughs]
Nacho. [whistles]
[engine stalls]
-[Mike] You want me to push it?
-[Scooter] Yes, please.
[Mike] Push it.
And Scooter's driving. Oh Lord.
Hey, we're here.
What took you so long to get back for?
[Rabbit] Well, Scooter sent us down
some sketchy road.
-You said don't come back without a car.
-It is a car.
'60s Bugs.
Big money.
[Jaime] Did you spend big money?
-[Rabbit] 3,500 bucks.
-Oh, that's not bad.
We can work with that.
[Rabbit] The VW Beetle's considered
one of the classic Mexican cars.
But it wasn't always that way.
When the Beetle was
first introduced in Mexico,
people weren't sure
about how it performed.
That all changed
after the 1954 Carrera Panamericana,
a legendary
cross-country Mexican road race.
Bunch of drivers entered the Beetles,
even though none of them came in first,
every one finished the 2,000-mile race.
After that,
the popularity of the Bug exploded.
And they continue
to be a Mexican and American classic.
-[Scooter] What do you think, Jaime?
-It's decent. It's got an RV sunroof.
[Rabbit] This thing's got
more switches in it than a fighter jet.
[laughs] It's the windshield wipers.
-We'll redo the dash.
-Who knows?
-It might blow bubbles out the back.
-Very possible.
-Holy moly, what in the--
-[Jenicio] Man, look at all these wires.
[Mike] This thing is a rat's nest.
-That's a Jaime job right there.
-Just cut it all out. [laughs]
-Jerk it out, start fresh.
-[Wes] Start fresh. Yeah.
-[Mike] I think you guys did pretty good.
-That's what you said last time.
I did say that last time.
Y'all did good. I like it.
-[Rabbit] What was wrong with the Opel?
-[Jenicio] The Opel was rough.
You guys didn't see
what was under the paint.
-Very true.
-[Scooter] What you wanna do?
I'm thinking what's popular now,
side-by-sides.
These off-road ATVs are going
for, like, 30 to 40 grand right now.
So if we can take this,
put about 10 grand in it,
get it dune ready,
we're looking at about a $20,000 profit.
Mm-hmm.
[Mike] We could do sinister.
We can bring out the suspension.
High fenders. Different hood.
High fenders in the back.
[Rabbit] Really cool LED lighting.
[Mike] Do some stuff to the motor,
make it super nasty.
Some race seats up front
where it's full race out in the desert.
[Rabbit] The salesman in me
loves this idea,
because I know how hot RZRs are.
That puts us in a whole nother demographic
for selling this thing.
That's right.
Jaime, if you want, you order the engine.
-[Jaime] Okay.
-[Mike] It barely made it through.
-We'll get rid of the roof.
-[Wes] This--
[Mike] That thing up here.
So that thing needs to go.
I say put a roll cage.
If we're gonna jump in the dunes,
we need a roll cage.
[Mike] Yeah. This is gonna go fast.
So you need to be hunting for buyers.
Good. We got another car behind this one.
[Mike] Y'all got two?
-Yes.
-Yeah, it's a surprise.
-It's a surprise.
-What do you mean?
-We can't tell you.
-You'll see when it gets here.
-You'll thank us for it.
-You need to be worried about this.
-The Bug.
-Find us a buyer for it.
Quit slapping it.
I don't wanna fix more damage.
-Yeah, please.
-[Mike] Let's get to work.
[tool buzzing]
You are right in my ear.
[Mike] Now that we decided
how to build this Baja Bug,
not much of it will stay original.
We're gonna be keeping
the body and the doors.
I'll drop it slow.
[Mike] Everything else
is gonna be aftermarket.
Either we're gonna buy it
or we're gonna build it.
[Jaime] Look at that.
[Mike] With all the mountains,
the deserts here, this is easy money.
It's gonna be a quick sale
and a no-brainer.
[Jaime] Our garbage man's
gonna be so pissed at us.
[Wes] Yeah.
[upbeat music plays]
[Wes] It's my turn to do
the modifications, get the body prepped.
Fenders, suspension, things like that.
And now I'm gonna get rid
of this RV sunroof.
I'm gonna fabricate a smooth panel.
Make this roof look like it was factory.
If welding and fabrication
isn't done right,
the body lines are off,
doors don't shut correctly,
suspension doesn't line up,
it could just ruin the whole build.
Just saying not all heroes wear capes.
Some wear welding helmets.
Couldn't even begin to tell you
how many cars I've worked on.
I've been working on cars
since I was five years old.
My stepfather owned a street rod shop.
Over the years,
I've done a lot of chop tops,
channeling bodies. Sky's the limit.
[action music plays]
[Mike] You see all these side-by-sides,
and they're painted pretty colors,
their little blues and stuff.
Ours ain't that.
The cool thing about the green color
is it's not normal. It's a custom color.
It's sinister. It's tough. It's mean.
It's gonna be sick.
I'm out.
Time to get it reassembled.
[Rabbit] What's going on, buddy?
I love selling cars.
One of my favorite things to do
is talking people into buying something
that they don't need.
I bought and sold my first car
when I was 16 years old,
and I wasn't even technically old enough
to have it in my name.
I could write my mother's name better
on the back of a bill of sale
than she could.
You could put me
at a church social or a brothel,
and I could make you think
I was born to be there.
I'm telling you,
you need to see this Opel GT.
The process for finding
a buyer for a collector or classic car
is totally different
from any other car sales.
When you're selling
somebody a daily driver
or the car they're driving to work,
that's a need.
We're selling wants.
This cousin of mine knows this lady.
She's a real estate agent.
-Mm-hmm.
-She was asking him that, supposedly--
-Do you have her number?
-[Scooter] Yes. Yes.
So, the Opel,
we're looking for somebody upscale.
We're talking about champagne dreams
with a span style="style2"cerveza budget.
-Hey. Rabbit.
-Hey.
[Rabbit] And the Bug is very extreme,
so my buyers are
on each end of the spectrum:
classic cruiser,
ultimate off-road machine.
But the approach is still the same.
And that's my job,
putting asses in seats of cars
they really don't need,
but they're gonna love to have.
[rock music plays]
[Wes] All right. The power plant.
[Jaime] Yep. It's here.
Let's get this puppy in there.
[Jaime] For the Bug, we ended up going
with a used engine to keep costs down.
We needed something powerful enough
that would move the VW
and its 33-inch tires through sand.
It's not only gonna give us top dollar,
but the vehicle absolutely needs it.
A little bigger than the original engine.
[Jaime] A little more horsepower.
Ooh, that's almost perfect.
What's up? What's up? It's looking good.
Yeah. Everything looks good to me.
I think we're about ready.
-Really? First fire?
-First fire.
[Mike] Whoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo!
[Mike] I'm so excited
that this Bug is almost finished.
Rabbit has a potential buyer lined up.
But first, we need to put this engine
through its paces and make sure
that it is dune-ready.
It needs to be able to handle
what the dunes have to offer.
And then it's off to meet the buyer.
-Good?
-Yeah, I think so.
-Okay.
-[engine starts]
Sounds like it's spit-firing.
Give it a little bit of gas.
See if it will straighten itself out.
-[Mike] Want me to rev it?
-Yeah, okay.
[engine revs]
[Jaime] Whoa.
Whoa!
That's a lot of smoke, Wes.
-[Wesley and Jaime] Black smoke!
-[Jaime] Stop!
[Wes] We could hear bearings
making chattering noises, some smoke.
It's never a good sign.
That means there's problems internally.
It's something we couldn't see.
It was very disheartening.
[Jaime]
I got oil coming from the crankshaft.
And we got coolant
coming from somewhere in the back.
[Jaime] When you get a used engine,
sometimes you don't know
what you're getting. It…
[Wes] I think it's toast.
We're gonna have to get a new motor.
We don't have time for this crap.
[bleep]
We gotta to call
the people we got the motor from.
[Jaime] There's a warranty on it.
That doesn't mean they'll have
a replacement right away.
Especially in El Paso.
God dang it.
The engine dying on the Bug
is definitely not what we need right now.
I'm gonna cry.
[calm lounge music plays]
So, Alma, a little birdie told me
you're in real estate.
Yes. Twenty years now.
[Rabbit] With this sale especially,
the pressure is on to come out swinging.
The guys busted their ass on this car.
Now it's my turn to shine and show them
how their hard work turns into cold cash.
Speaking of beautiful things.
How about an Opel GT?
Goodness gracious.
Very ni… Oh my goodness.
This is so unique,
because my brother actually had an Opel.
His was a '72 Opel.
Amazing.
This is the cool thing
about collector cars.
A car like this is basically
the newest 1969 Opel in the world.
When Alma said
her brother owned an Opel back in the day,
I knew I had her.
That's the cool thing
about collector cars and classic cars
is they bring back a memory.
[engine starts]
Fuel injection.
Just pump it and fire it right up.
I love that.
Wow.
Check out these headlights.
Love hideaway headlights.
[Alma] Wow!
This feels like a Bond car.
[laughs]
[Rabbit] Why don't you
come join me in my office?
I've gotten good over the years.
I can tell you in the first few minutes
if somebody's a buyer or a talker.
I believe she's gonna be a buyer.
Let's talk price.
What do you wanna do with this car?
Drive it on the weekends, enjoy it.
It's a fun play car for me.
What are you looking
to spend for a play car?
Eighteen thousand.
[inhales sharply]
Mm…
-How good are you at selling houses again?
-Very good.
Then you can afford to spend
a little more than that. Now, come on.
How much do you want for it?
I'd love 35,000.
What?
Well, you gotta understand, there's a lot
of new parts in this old car.
And I got a lot of labor in this thing.
You know, we're both in sales.
No sense dragging this out,
'cause we can go back and forth.
And you know just as good as I do,
if you like it…
I do like it. Yeah.
I wanna sell it, you wanna buy it.
We just gotta find that happy number.
Tell you what.
How about 32?
That's like those houses you sell.
It's an investment.
Will you accept 25?
I'm at 32. You're at 25.
Would you do 30,000?
You're gonna have a car
you will absolutely enjoy.
I'll do 30 for my brother.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Alma, you're gonna love that thing.
I am.
[Rabbit] Scooter and I bought the car
for a thousand dollars.
We'd planned to put 11,000 into it.
However, the problems were
way more complicated than we anticipated.
So it cost 15,000,
putting us at about 16,000 all in.
But a $14,000 profit on this vehicle
is phenomenal for anyone.
If we can keep
this kind of momentum up with every sale,
we should hit 250k easily.
[Jaime] Let's do it.
We went back to the same source,
and luckily, they had another engine.
In my experience,
it's rare that you would get
two bad engines in a situation like this.
So we're gonna get it installed.
We should have it in no time
done and ready for the dunes.
Hi. How are you?
Nacho wants to help.
All right, up.
Excelente.
-All right.
-[Wes] Hope this never has to come out.
[Jaime] No, it looks good.
All right. Let's get going on this thing.
[upbeat music plays]
[calm guitar music plays]
[Mike] We set out to build a Baja Bug
that could really strip
the sand from the desert.
We extended the frame seven inches
and widened the suspension ten
for better stability.
Electric steering
and short-turn steering rack
allows this Bug to turn quickly
with minimal turns of the steering wheel.
The 2.4 Ecotec Chevy motor gives this Bug
more power and drivability
to handle the huge 33-inch tires,
while the custom roll cage keeps
even the wildest driver safe.
This Bug barely resembles
what it used to look like.
And given how popular it is
to go off-roading in the dunes out here,
Rabbit was able to find
a potential buyer in no time.
[Rabbit] There she is, boys.
What do you think?
Looks awesome.
So, is she gonna run as good as she looks?
[Mike] You're damn right she's gonna run
as good as she looks. She's bad.
Let's see it run.
[Rabbit] You just watch.
[Mike] We wanted to prove to the buyer
what this thing could do.
I got a buddy with serious off-road skills
to drive the Bug for us.
Time to get it dusty.
[Rabbit] Engines are running.
Better have a checkbook. Let's show them.
Yeah. Look at that thing go.
-[Mike] Go!
-[Rabbit] What do you think I'm doing?
[Mike] They'll catch you,
but I know he's fast.
We gotta get this thing sold.
Come on, man.
[Rabbit] Almost got him.
Ooh! Yeah.
Whoo!
-Oops! [bleep]
-[Mike] Oh!
[clattering]
[producer over radio] span style="style2"Call the medic.
span style="style2"The ATV flipped. We need the medic now.
-[Steve] Are you okay?
-[Rabbit] I'm alive.
[Mike] Dumbass.
At least the Bug is fine.
[Mike laughs] God dang.
Where's my hat?
[Rabbit]
Hope you leave your damn brain in it.
-[Mike] It went flying, you know?
-[Rabbit] A lot of things did.
Along with my phone and everything else.
Exactly. My pride.
The truth is we built a badass Bug,
and you were trying to keep up with it,
which is understandable.
Yes.
[Mike] Luckily, the medics checked us out.
Everything's good. We're good.
But got a little bit of damage
on this one.
I never claimed
to be a professional driver.
Two, did we lose the sale? No.
Sold for 35,000. That's a $14,500 profit.
Add that to the 14 grand
in profit we made from the Opel,
and we're at $28,500 towards our goal.
To top it all off, we just got started.
We got plenty of time ahead of us.
All we gotta do is explain
to these nice people in the rental office
how this wheel
just all of a sudden folded in.
-Luckily, we got insurance.
-It's a rental. That's the best part.
[upbeat music plays]
Ah, Jesus.
[Mike] Rolling over the ATV yesterday,
I must have hit my head really hard,
because this Mustang
cannot be our next project.
This has to be a bad dream.
What the hell is this?
They left it on blocks.
Somebody steal the wheels
or this is how they dropped it?
It's like… Ugh.
Come on, guys. You can at least
bring us back an entire car.
What do you guys think
about my little pony car?
[Mike] Y'all bought this?
This is a buy.
-[Mike] This is ours?
-[Rabbit] Yes.
This car is a little rough,
but it's cheap.
Three hundred bucks.
[Wes] Look at this.
[Mike] It's got so many holes
it doesn't even cast a shadow anymore.
[Rabbit] We got all kinds of parts.
We've got doors. We got front clip.
Virtually every body panel for this car.
Are they on the way or what?
They were boxed down there
waiting with the car.
So where are the parts at?
-I don't know. Scooter, where are they?
-[Scooter] I'll call and find out.
[in Spanish] Hey, man.
Where are the parts for the Mustang?
No, they aren't here.
But why? We had a deal.
No. Don't… [bleep] …with me.
What am I gonna tell these guys? [bleep]
-[in English] We have an issue.
-What do you mean, we have an issue?
-I think we've been taken.
-What are you talking about?
My friend.
I think my friend took the parts.
Why would he take the parts?
Well, I might have owed him some money.
I don't know why my friend took the parts.
Well, I know, but I didn't know
he was gonna go to that extreme.
He screwed me over.
He screwed everybody over.
There's nothing on this front end.
There's no doors, Scooter.
I didn't know
this guy was gonna do me like this, man.
[theme music plays]