Car Masters: Rust to Riches (2018) s01e04 Episode Script
Junkyard Jewels
1
[Shawn] So are you impressed?
Are you ready to trade me
five cars for this thing?
Where are you coming up with five cars?
Our original deal was, like, two.
[Shawn] The original deal I had with Layne
was to trade a restored T-bucket
worth about 10 grand
for two project cars.
But Mark decided that the T-bucket
wanted to be a fire truck,
which raises its value to about 15 grand.
So, now, I gotta convince Layne to agree
to trade for three or more project cars
to make this worthwhile.
[Shawn] Is this a lot, lot better
than just a measly T-bucket?
[Layne] Well, you brought more
than I expected. I’ll be honest with you.
[Shawn] We over-delivered. So now…
I think it’s your turn to over-deliver.
I love it. Don’t get me wrong.
The fire truck’s cool. I like it a lot.
I could maybe fudge around on something.
-Are you ready to see what he’s got?
-Come on, Dad. Let’s go.
[Layne] I got nothing better to do
but show my junk so…
[Mark] Yeah.
[Shawn] Find us something fun.
[Mark]
This is like Disneyland out here to me.
-[Mark] Hey, Shawn.
-[Layne] Pretty much stripped.
-Yeah.
-Look what I found.
You said find some fun things.
This is fun things. Come here.
Would you focus?
[Mark]
That’s-- You sound like my girlfriend.
Is that like some sort of Tucker
or something?
Yeah.
That’s all the parts I have to it though.
-I don’t know where you’re going to find--
-Oh, my God.
Oh, it’s fiberglass. I don’t know
what the heck we’d do with that.
There’s what I really want to see.
It’s over here.
That VW Bus, it’s talkin’ to me, man.
I think
it’s telling you to leave it alone.
-Let it die in peace.
-No.
-[Shawn] That thing is like a shell.
-[Mark] No, no, no.
Wait till you see what I’m gonna do with
that. It’s going to be worth 60, 70 grand.
[Mark] I think there’s a huge market
for a custom Bus.
Especially the way Gotham Garage would
do it. Nobody is gonna do a Bus like me.
Oh, this is good. I like that.
Normally these things,
you do that, you go right through it.
[Shawn] But it isn’t worth anything now.
We need more stuff
to equal the value of the fire truck.
[Layne] We got this old truck right here.
-[Shawn] It’s a Tri-Five, isn’t it?
-[Layne] Probably a ’56.
[Shawn] A ’56. Now we’re talking.
Restore this hidden gem? Forty Gs. Easy.
Looks like somebody started it
and never finished it.
[mimics motor sound]
That’s the [bleep] right there, buddy.
[Mark] Oh, Shawn.
-[Shawn chuckles] He sniffed it out.
-[Layne] That’s a 454.
[Shawn] 454. Is that on the table for us?
-[Layne] It’s a possibility.
-Oh, boy.
We got a possibility here.
That 454 is worth some solid cash,
and that would go perfect
in that Tri-Five Chevy.
[Mark]
That will be a badass motor in that truck.
I actually see some Corvette suspension
you got over there too.
-That’s the big boy.
-[Mark] That’s got some clout.
This could be something.
[Shawn]
Why are you looking at that motorcycle?
-Nobody wants a Gold Wing.
-[Mark] It’s a Gold Wing.
Might be able to do something
a little more industrial with it.
Like just a small little one-seater bobber
or something like that.
You know how reliable those bikes are?
-We could make something sick out of that.
-[Shawn] Yeah.
[Mark] Good. Let’s go make a deal.
Let’s get down
to what we really need to discuss,
which is the amount of cars we’re getting.
He does have a carcass over there
that I’m kind of hip to.
[Layne] Which one?
[Mark] That Volkswagen Bus that
there’s absolutely nothing left on it.
And my idea here is we get this truck,
which the Corvette suspension
can go with it and the 454 engine.
How ’bout all of that and then we throw in
that classic Gold Wing you got over there?
I’ll be willing to give you
that Gold Wing. You can have it.
There you go. I want that bike.
-[Shawn] We got the bike.
-We settled now?
-That’s straight-up trade.
-[Mark] Let’s make a deal.
-[Layne] Let’s make it happen.
-[Shawn] Thank you.
[Mark] Thank you. Appreciate it very much.
[Mark] We took one crappy T-bucket,
turned it into a badass fire truck
worth about 15 grand,
and traded it for a ton of stuff.
We got almost everything we needed
to build this Tri-Five Chevy truck.
We got the big block motor,
we got the Corvette suspension,
and a VW Bus
that has some great potential.
Either one of those could be traded up
for a rare car
or sold for a good chunk of change.
Oh, yeah. And I got the Gold Wing
motorcycle on top of the deal.
By the time
we’re finished with all of this,
we could have way over $100,000
in vehicles.
I think this is one of the best deals
we’ve pulled off in a long time.
[horn honking]
[Shawn]
Attention, Gotham Garage employees.
-[Caveman] What the hell?
-[Shawn] Please report to new vehicles.
[Caveman] You’re at the wrong place!
This ain’t the junkyard!
[Tony] You know, this can be a cool truck.
-That one, I don’t get it.
-[Constance] I’m into this actually.
-[Tony] For real?
-[Constance] Yeah.
I feel like that’s a much cooler build.
We do trucks all the time.
I love these VW buses.
They’re so cool and unique.
But this one is the ’78 model,
which is cool,
but it’s not the most desirable
for really big enthusiasts.
There’s the Bus that has the V-nose.
[Constance] I know, but people like buses.
So I’m curious to see
what Mark wants to do with this build.
But definitely really excited.
-Bought a junkyard today.
-[all laughing]
[Constance] Oh, yay.
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
The motor, and there’s Corvette suspension
in the back of that truck.
They go in this truck.
-This build’s badass, right?
-Yeah.
Tri-Five is any Chevy
that was built in ’55, ’56 or ’57.
And that unique body style
makes it extremely valuable to collectors.
[Constance] What is that?
[Shawn] Oh, well, that’s…
That’s not what I had in mind.
I think my uncle
used to drive one of those.
We’re not gonna worry about the bike.
We’re just gonna park it.
It has a purpose down the road,
and it was free.
So, I just say we get everything unloaded
and get it inside before it gets dark.
I love the speechlessness.
Let’s get to work and get it done.
[Mark] Okay, that’s us right there.
Now let’s go get the other “cingulaires”
off the back of the trailer.
[Caveman]
Man, that thing looks like a frosted turd.
[Mark] With the fluorescent halo lighting,
it looks gorgeous.
[Tony laughing]
-[Caveman] It’s not in too bad a shape.
-[Tony] The body panels are straight.
If we go risky,
we might run into some trouble.
But if we play it smart,
there’s guaranteed value in this truck.
This is such a moneymaker.
And you know,
the restomod thing is so hot right now.
So a restomod is when you take an old car
and restore it to its classic look,
but you upgrade the rest of the car
so that it performs like a modern vehicle.
Right now,
restomods are at the top of the market.
And if we keep that classic look
on this truck,
we’re going to open ourselves up
to a lot more buyers.
[Caveman] I say we put a bench seat in it.
You can slide your girl next to you
as you’re cruisin’.
Remember you used to? That’s my thought.
-You’re looking kind of sexy, big guy.
-Yeah, well…
[laughing]
I like the bench seat.
[Shawn] So we’re all in agreement.
It’s a restomod.
I know we’ll do something badass. It’ll
get Gotham Garage touches all over it.
[Mark] To maximize the value
of this Tri-Five ’56 Chevy truck,
we’re going to replace
the missing fenders, door and hood
with original Detroit steel.
This will make this truck look
like it just rolled off the lot in 1956.
We’re dropping in a 454
big block engine and Corvette suspension
so this thing
will have some serious cojones.
We’re also gonna put a brand-new
wood floor in it, custom exhaust tips,
and then we’re gonna do the modern touches
like power windows, air conditioning,
Bluetooth stereo,
and a one-of-a-kind red leather interior
with a bench seat
that even a Caveman would use.
So I want Tony and Caveman
to work on this truck,
since you did
such a fantastic job on the last truck,
and we got so much money for it
that it was a really good deal.
We should be able to get this banged out
in about two weeks.
Shawn, Constance,
I got something really special
I want you to see over here.
[Caveman]
You got two girls on your side, huh?
-[Tony] Yeah.
-[Constance] Whoo! So here’s what’s gonna happen.
I’m gonna do a little photoshopping
old-school way.
Oh, jeez.
[Mark]
I been hearing about this subculture
that’s following these Mad Max
outlandish style vehicles,
and they’re selling for a ton of money.
We’re going to cut it
right behind the door.
I think this is the nonprofit
Art Institute of Temecula, California.
[Mark] This Bus has to look and feel
like it’s coming at you
to destroy something in your life.
So we’re gonna chop it in half,
stretch it, add two more doors.
Chop the top on it
and slam it into the dirt.
Because it’s screaming
for a massive big block motor,
we’re putting it in the middle
to show it off.
And to support the added weight and power,
we’re gonna build a custom chassis
and add a third axle with new suspension.
Then we’ll grind down the finish for a raw
metal postapocalyptic street machine
that’s ready to kick ass
and rule the world.
I know it’s gonna take a little bit longer
than usual to pull off,
but I think if we do this to the Bus,
it’ll be well worth it in the end.
-[Shawn] Who would even want that?
-No one’s ever done this.
That’s beyond one-of-a-kind.
Our priority is to trade this
for a more valuable car
and keep climbing the ladder
to six figures.
But I have no idea what this thing
is actually gonna be worth.
When Mark’s done with this mystery van,
it could be worth less
than what we brought it in for,
or it could be worth over $100,000.
I just don’t know.
The engine-- You can’t-- You got what,
a little weenie motor in that thing?
No, I was thinking
we’d put my Nailhead in it.
Oh. Is that something we got here?
The big block Nailhead
I have in the back of the shop.
We save everything at this shop,
and I have a giant 401 Buick Nailhead
from an old project car
that will be perfect for this project.
You know what?
I hope you prove me wrong on this.
-I always prove you wrong.
-That’s probably the most ridiculous idea.
Look at the picture. What am I missing?
Two axles and a suspension.
Away with you now. Go find me that.
I got some work cut out for me.
It’s a little dirty.
[Tony] Caveman and I are installing the
suspension we got from the junkyard trade.
This should definitely help
maximize the value of this ’56 truck.
When you’re doing suspension work,
Caveman is the perfect guy to have around.
I was trying to get the pad
to lock in with its…
They don’t lock in. That’s a spring
to keep them from rattling.
Looks can be deceiving.
His hair’s crazy, and you forget
how great of a mechanic he is.
You’re doin’ it all wrong.
[Tony laughing]
[Tony] You said you could do all this
with your eyes closed.
You wouldn’t believe
what I can do with my eyes closed.
[Tony] I’ll bet you one of Mark’s beers
that you can’t put one of these
brake calipers on blindfolded.
-Really?
-This one right here.
-Really?
-Yeah.
Okay.
I don’t have a blindfold, but I have
an old sleeve that I use for hot days.
All right. Let’s see.
-How many fingers am I holding up?
-How many am I holding up?
All right. Let’s see.
-Get it in the hole, Caveman.
-I know where I am. Better get this done before Mark gets here
and sees you goofing off.
Wait till he sees me drinking
one of his beers that you hand me.
[laughing]
-[buzzing]
-[both laughing]
-Well?
-Damn, Caveman.
I told you I could do that blindfolded.
[buzzing]
[sizzling]
-How ’bout that beer you owe me?
-You’re right, man. I owe you a beer.
Settle that debt.
Let’s do it.
[Constance] Normally, when we have
a project come into the shop,
I pull the motor and deal with that.
With this build, it’s just not even close
to being ready for anything motor-related,
but at least I get to break stuff.
[Mark] One, two, three.
And now you can use the broom out here.
-Hey, Caveman.
-Yo!
You already know
what I’m gonna ask you to do.
[Constance] You wanna come have some fun
with us?
Caveman. He’s quite the sensitive person,
believe it or not.
If I heard that Sawzall going
and saw this car getting cut up,
yeah, I’d be highly upset.
If I don’t let him cut this in half,
he will pout for a year.
And here we go.
-Caveman want snack?
-[Constance laughs]
[Mark] Uno mas blade, por favor.
Get me a short one.
I don’t know how to handle the big ones.
-[Constance] Hey, it’s how you use it.
-[Mark] No, it’s not.
[buzzing]
Oh, I got movement.
[Mark] This is probably one of the biggest
undertakings we’ve done in quite a while.
There’s no going back from this.
-[buzzing]
-[Mark] You’re done.
We should turn it around
and introduce it to its own ass.
[Caveman]
Hey, look. We got a walk-through.
-[Mark] There you go, a walk-through Bus.
-[Constance laughs]
So we have two projects going on
in the shop right now.
I need suspension for the VW Bus.
And for the ’56 Chevy pickup,
I need a hood, a door, and fenders.
I made a few calls
and lined up a few places.
[man]
Got some pieces right back here for you.
The ’50 parts are getting
really hard to come up with.
[Shawn] Yeah. You’re right about that.
What makes my job a little tougher
in finding these parts for the ’56
is they’re 61-year-old parts.
That’s some ancient stuff.
[man] You get a dark green
and an ugly Kermit the Frog green.
[Shawn] Oh, sweet!
All the good parts are picked through.
It’s such a desirable truck
that everybody loves to build,
so, really, the crap is what’s left over.
It’s, uh… Yeah, it’s okay.
I mean… it’s hard to really tell
what something is by just a picture.
You gotta get your hands on it.
-I’m gonna take this door.
-You take it. Don’t expect me to carry it.
[Shawn] There we go. Ho ho!
-[man] Got a rear end.
-[Shawn] Now we’re talking.
This is exactly what we’re looking for
for this VW Bus.
The better parts we get
for these projects,
the easier it is for me
to actually sell it in the long run.
So now that we have the Bus in two pieces,
we have to put it back together.
[sizzling]
But we’re gonna have to be precise.
They gotta fit together perfectly,
because the structural integrity
depends on if this Bus is true and square.
It’s startin’ to take shape,
and I’m really diggin’
the way this Bus is starting to turn out.
[Caveman mimics motor sound]
[Tony] It’s a good-looking motor.
-How’s that motor going, guys?
-[Tony] We’re enjoying it.
-That’s right.
-No problems.
-It’s super hard to go like this.
-[Tony] So jealous.
You’re so jealous right now.
Yeah, I… allow Tony and Caveman
to play with motors sometimes.
-I think that’s the nice thing to do.
-[Tony] There it is.
[Constance] But the fact of the matter is
this 454 was in perfect condition
when they got it.
They literally had to do no work.
-[Tony] Ready?
-[Caveman] Try it.
[engine cranks]
Yeah!
-I love the sound of a big block.
-Yeah, brother.
Sounds like a whole lot of money to me.
Ka-ching, ka-ching. Right?
-[laughing]
-Quick, hold on.
Here, I’ll get the Bus done for you.
No problem!
-[Tony] Jeez, bunch of haters today, man.
-Bunch of haters today.
Look at you with your little M&M’s
in the back of your candy truck.
[Caveman] It looks like
you went to the rainbow factory.
-[Mark] What is this? What do you got?
-[Shawn] The ’56 Chevy pickup stuff.
The squirrel found a nut.
Caveman, start dragging it out
and put them on the ground.
They’re not perfect, but they’re nice.
They definitely look like
they’re original.
[Tony]
I think it looks pretty good, Shawn.
What else you got in there?
I see something under a cover.
Ta-da!
I will never tell him, but I heard angels
singing when he opened up the doors,
’cause he actually brought me
what I was looking for.
When he showed up
with suspension for the Bus,
I was like, “Wasn’t expecting that.”
Props to Shawn.
Please don’t anybody tell him I said that.
-Are we ready to work, or we gonna talk?
-[Constance] Sure.
We were ready when you showed up. In fact,
we were all working when you showed up.
You want to see me unload this by myself?
Whoa!
-Oh, yeah.
-[Caveman] Yeah!
-You guys get that?
-Oh, damn it. My hands got dirty.
[Caveman] The princess got dirty.
[Shawn] All right.
-[Mark] Well, Constance, we got new toys.
-[Constance] Whoo!
[Mark] Alrighty, then.
I’m gonna go old school.
Look how easy that is now.
Now that the suspension has been laid out,
we need to build the chassis.
[Mark] Okay, genius.
This is where the head scratch comes.
I’m actually fabricating an entire frame
for this Volkswagen Bus
from straight sticks of steel
because the frame for this project
does not exist.
[buzzing]
These buses were originally built
with a very weak unibody structure.
It had a rinky-dinky motor in it.
It didn’t have a reason
to have a beefy badass frame.
We’re about to put a motor in it
that has a ton of horsepower,
so we’re actually gonna have to shore
this entire thing up
and stiffen it up so that we can keep it
from ripping and twisting itself in half.
[Constance] Should it be squared?
-It will be. That’s what this is for.
-Okay.
[Mark] Doesn’t get any squarer than that.
Mark has a very different way
of doing things
that you wouldn’t see in any other shop.
So what super old guy
did you learn all this from?
Me.
[Constance] It’s smarter, and it works.
And he makes it work that way.
So pretty much have
a basic frame ready to go.
Thanks for kicking ass.
I know it’s a lot of heavy lifting.
You know, I work out sometimes.
[man talking on phone]
Yeah. So, Larry, let’s kind of figure for,
like, next week or something.
I think that works for me.
I’m constantly on the hunt for project
cars that’ll make us some big money.
Or that can showcase
what we do best at Gotham Garage.
And, man, have I found a doozy.
-Thanks, buddy. Take care.
-All right. Bye-bye.
Did you finally sell the Bus?
Yeah, no.
But that’s funny.
What have you been looking for
forever now?
Someone to sit in your chair.
-That’s not funny at all.
-[laughing] That was funny.
-Larry…
-Uh-huh.
has a 1954 International COE.
Seriously?
I’m tired of using
my beat-up personal truck
to deliver our high-end cars.
So now it’s time to step up our game.
For over a decade,
I’ve been looking for a vintage COE
to turn into a Gotham Garage shop truck.
COE stands for Cab Over Engine.
This ’54 International
is one of the sexiest COEs ever made.
It’s the ultimate centerpiece
to bring this truck to life.
If we had something nice,
it could represent us well.
And who knows?
Get us some more potential customers.
[Mark] It’s like the Pied Piper.
People are going to follow
a nice shop truck back to your shop.
It may not bring any money in
in the beginning,
but it will pay us huge dividends
on the back end.
If your shop truck pulls in attention,
then your shop pulls in money.
Here’s the kicker.
He actually might be interested
in a potential trade/cash deal
with the ’56 pickup.
So we just discount it a little bit…
[Shawn] Just a little bit,
and it might work out price-wise for us.
That’d be good.
The only issue here is telling Constance,
Caveman and Tony about this.
This’ll be taking money
out of their pocket.
Can you tell them, instead of me?
-I mean--
-Sure.
-I got no problem.
-All right.
-No problem then.
-No problem telling them at all.
Hey, guys,
wanna come over here for a second?
You don’t have any beer,
so it must not be good news.
-[Mark] Yeah. It’s great news.
-[all laughing]
[Caveman] What’s up?
You’re-- Shawn wants to talk to you guys
about something.
-[all laughing]
-[Caveman] Shawn wants to talk to us?
So Shawn’s got a guy on a line right now
who wants this truck.
The kicker for the deal is that
he also has a 1954 International COE cab
that I’ve been looking for to build a shop
truck out of for a very, very long time.
It’s a very rare truck.
It’s very hard to find this cab.
To find one in as good a condition
as what Shawn’s telling me this thing is,
it’s one of those golden opportunities.
So you want to…
We’re thinking about
selling him this truck,
but taking part of the payment in
as trade.
It sounds nice, but that’s
kind of a big hit on this thing.
That’s kind of a hit in our pocket.
[Mark] Think about how much more money
that badass shop truck’s gonna bring you
when people are seeing it going,
“If they have a truck like that,
they must have some
pretty talented people there.”
The shop truck is a great idea,
but I just don’t know
how deep you guys are willing to reach
to make that deal happen.
It’s kinda hard to swallow
if we walk in and say,
“We’re gonna take
part of your profits away.”
[Mark] Keep in mind,
he hasn’t done this deal yet.
-This is just a hypothetical--
-Oh!
It’s something we’re looking at,
not something we’re doing or we’ve done.
That’s why we’re asking you guys how
you feel about it, what you feel about it.
So, we won’t really know
what’s gonna happen until this is done
and see what kind of money that guy
is willing to actually pay for it.
I gotta feel him out to see where he’s at.
Now that we’re all on board,
I think I’ll go to work, see if I can…
Sort of on board.
Let’s revisit this conversation.
And I’ll go get to work, see if
I can line up the deal of the century.
-[Mark] It’s not that bad of an idea.
-[Constance laughs]
[Caveman] Let’s just make sure
the hood fits. All right?
[Mark]
The truck is coming out great so far.
We’ve got the suspension in,
brakes are on, motor and trans is in.
[Caveman] Love these green fenders.
-It’s gonna be a race truck by Skittles.
-[Caveman] Sponsored by Skittles?
[Mark]
Shawn shows up with the sheet metal.
Those are big pieces that we needed.
Hood, fender, door.
[Caveman] Look. It’s looking like a truck.
You gotta love genuine GM parts.
[Tony] Something we can brag about
when we’re selling it.
[Caveman] Yeah.
[Tony] Let’s take this hood off,
and then we’ll get the radiator
and the A/C installed.
Yeah.
Hey, Caveman, Tony,
can you come over here for a minute?
-Yeah.
-More like an hour, hour and a half.
-Whoo!
-I got a truck I’m building now.
I know your boss,
and he’s okay with you coming over here.
The ’56 truck is so far ahead of schedule
that I feel very comfortable
pulling everybody off
and getting everybody working on this Bus.
We’re about to rip out the old suspension…
cut a giant hole in the floor
to clearance the motor
and everything else that we’re doing.
Go back. Go back, you devil demon, you.
[Mark] I think this Buick Nailhead engine
is gonna work great for this build.
It’s a giant motor.
It has a ton of horsepower.
The best part of this whole deal is
I’m gonna save a lot of time
and a lot of money
by not looking for a motor
and not buying a motor for this project.
This is the quintessential motor
to put in your open-motor hot rod.
You could at least let me clean it up
a little first.
-[Tony] Yeah.
-[Mark] Fits pretty good.
This is a very tricky part
and it’s gonna take a lot of hands to get
the body married to the chassis right now.
[Caveman] Guess there’ll be no babies
bein’ made in this Bus.
Ain’t gonna be no room. [laughing]
[Mark] There it goes. That’s all it needed
was some Mark suspension.
-[Mark] That’s it.
-[Constance laughs]
[engine starts]
[Mark] Working on my truck at 6:00 in
the morning before I go to the shop sucks.
Like the shoemaker’s daughter
never has shoes,
the mechanic’s car never works.
It’s just the way it is.
I’m just… I’m over it.
I really hope we can make a deal
on that COE
so I can build myself a new shop truck. This is something
I’ve always wanted to do as a child.
It’s something
I’ve always wanted to do as an adult.
I remember growing up
when my dad would come to visit,
I remember seeing his truck.
For me, that would be the perfect truck
because then it would be,
“Okay, now I’m my dad.” You know?
When you grow up without a dad,
it’s kinda rough.
Uh
This is gonna take a second.
Can somebody just piss me off real quick?
[groans]
Oh, man.
It’s just hard.
You get into it and it all comes up.
It’s rough when you grow up without a dad
because you don’t have
that father figure around you.
My mom was my mom and dad.
My dad’s in my life now,
which I’m grateful for.
It’s just, missing that as a kid, I want…
[sighs]
[sniffles]
It’d be nice to have something
to remind me of my father
when my father leaves this planet.
And that’s about all
I’m gonna say about it.
[sniffles]
[engine starts]
[squeaking]
All right. Oh, yes.
Look how pretty I am. I can see myself.
Damn, do I need to shave.
[Mark] Tony and Caveman,
they really came through
this time on this ’56 Chevy truck build
by doing all the heavy lifting
without my help.
Hey, look, I’m going to hand you
the A/C through the window.
[Mark] Now that we have a buyer lined up
who potentially is going to
throw in a very rare COE,
it’s time to dial this truck in,
get it wrapped up, put a bow on it,
get it over there
and make this deal happen.
I really think it’s cool
to be able to take these older cars
and not only bring them back to life,
but make them comfortable
and even more badass than they used to be.
Sometimes we forget or we take for granted
all the modern conveniences of life
like power windows,
a Bluetooth stereo,
or even that sweet A/C.
It’s really important to the guys
in the shop
to keep that original classic look
for this Tri-Five, and it’s obvious why.
The original body lines are dead sexy.
And we accentuated them
with a two-tone black finish
and custom red pinstriping.
We tricked out the bed
with brand-new pine wood,
but instead of staining it like pine,
we stained it with a walnut finish
to give it that cherry wood look.
And then on the interior,
we put the Gotham Garage thumbprint
like only we can.
We gave it a brand-new billet
instrument panel with brand-new gauges,
a custom wood steering wheel,
a custom shifter.
We even wrapped the entire interior
in sexy deep-red leather,
including
the Caveman love-shack bench seat,
complete with custom stitching
to give it that one-of-a-kind feel.
[squealing]
But the real transformation
is when you open the hood
and there’s a big block 454
sitting in there screaming,
“I got all the horsepower
you’re ever gonna need.”
That motor,
along with that Corvette suspension,
is gonna scoot this truck down the road
like nobody’s business.
So now your restomod hot rod
is as comfortable and as easy to drive
as your brand-new car
that sits in your driveway,
but you’re wrapped with a sexy,
badass ’56 Chevy truck.
[Mark] That truck came out pretty good.
I’d love to put this deal together
because this deal would be so cool.
-Make it happen.
-Kill two birds with one stone. We sell a truck for nice money.
[Mark] Yeah, we’re trying to get
40 grand out of the truck.
I know we were supposed to revisit it
with everybody, but…
-Oops.
-Oops.
I just don’t want to lose this deal.
Remember,
if the deal doesn’t make sense for us,
we’re not bringing home the COE.
It’d pretty much have to be sour as grapes
for me not to walk out of there
with this truck.
I’ve been on the hunt
for this COE forever.
And I’ve found similar models,
but never the right year.
For Mark, it needs to be a ’54.
I can tell it really means a lot to him.
-Hey, Larry. I’m Shawn.
-Hey, Shawn.
How’s it going?
-Nice to meet you.
-Nice meeting you.
[Mark] Brought you a new girlfriend.
Shawn told me about the truck.
It’s something that I’ve been looking for.
Because it reminds me of when
I was growing up and my younger days.
[Mark] That, my friend,
is a big block 454 with aluminum heads.
-That’s impressive.
-It runs like a dream.
The bed looks awesome.
This is real wood.
This ain’t that cheap plastic.
We also made these custom exhaust tips.
Wow.
Larry clearly likes
what we’ve done to the truck.
If we sold the truck alone for 40K,
that would be a good deal.
And I’m guessing
the COE is worth about $6,000.
That means we need to get at least 34,000
to make this even worthwhile.
I just need to rein in Mark,
because if we’re going to make a deal,
it has to be one that
the whole crew’s going to be happy with.
I definitely like it, but we’ll have to
see if we can work something out.
Can we see what I came here to look at?
[Larry] All right. Let’s go do it.
-[Shawn] That’s gotta be it there, huh?
-[Larry] That’s it.
[Shawn]
How long has it been sitting out here?
I’ve had it for a while.
You can see it’s got everything.
[Mark] Wow. It’s even got
the gauges still in it dangling.
[Shawn] Really.
[Mark] I cannot believe that
it’s still got door handles and hardware.
[Shawn] Yeah.
[Mark] That all the [bleep]
that usually goes missing right away.
It’s in good shape. I don’t think
you’re going to find another like it.
[Shawn] All right, Larry.
I tell you what we’ll do.
If you throw in this,
we’ll actually give you that truck for 45.
You gotta do better than that.
I just can’t do it for that.
How ’bout we do 30 and the truck.
Thirty and the truck? Come on!
You know that’s not even close.
-You’re not gonna find this every day.
-I’m not--
[Mark] No,
you’re not going to find this every day.
Help me out. You don’t need
to fall in love with this right now.
It’s too late for that, dude.
I want his girl.
I’m hopin’ that you’re fallin’ in love
with the ’56 as much as he’s fallin’--
[Larry] Not for 45,000. I told you that.
Give me a realistic figure.
I’m at 41 and this for the ’56.
All right.
The bottom line for me, and this is it.
If we can’t do this,
then you might as well walk.
All right, so 37 is--
That’s all I’m going.
Oh, gosh. Can you go 38?
Deal at 37. Come on.
Aw, I knew…
-There we go.
-Thank you.
[Mark] I finally got my shop truck.
The cab alone is worth $6,000.
And we got $37,000 for the truck itself.
We’ve only put in
$15,000 of our own money,
which gives us a nice profit
of $22,000 in hard cash.
Let’s go get some paperwork done
before this deal doesn’t happen.
I’m hoping the profit will smooth
things over with the guys in the shop
when they find out that Shawn and I
just put this deal together.
[drill buzzing]
[Tony]
I wasn’t feeling this thing at first.
Oh, I wasn’t either.
This thing’s gonna be sick when it’s done.
There’s gonna be a lot of VW people
that are pissed off for what we did to it,
but the hell with ’em.
-[Constance] Whoo!
-What’s up, fellas?
-Shawn’s got some good news for you.
-[Constance] Money?
We are no longer proud owners
of a ’56 pickup.
We ended up getting 37,000
plus this guy’s COE.
-[Tony] What do you mean you got the COE?
-We talked about that.
-Briefly. Not really.
-[Constance] Talked about, never agreed.
That puts us over 40 though.
I don’t remember everybody
coming to an “agreeance” on that one.
No. I think that’s a great deal.
It makes me a little unhappy that
they did it without consulting all of us.
I would have liked
if we maybe got a phone call
before, you know,
the ink was on the paper.
I trust you guys. I know
we got the whole shop to look out for.
There’s a lot of moving parts.
I’m glad to have
a little money in right now.
Thirty-seven,
it’s a pretty good chunk of change.
It’s enough to bring some money
into the shop. Everyone gets paid.
And we still have this VW Bus
that’s really starting to take shape.
We’re almost about to fire this thing up.
We’re a couple hours out,
but today this baby’s gonna purr.
The sprockets and cogs are turning.
I see it in his eyeballs.
What do you guys think
of this motor in here?
I think it needs a little cleaning up,
but I could get it there.
You don’t think it looks like a little
tiny four banger in this giant big Bus?
-[Caveman] But how much bigger can you go?
-[Mark] A lot bigger.
So this Nailhead, it’s a big motor,
but it’s just not big enough.
I need an apocalyptic motor.
I need something that hits you in the head
like brass knuckles.
When we do that, it’s going to leapfrog it
way past our next trade-up vehicle
to a six-figure payday.
Your chick is supposed to show off
her 10-carat diamond ring to the world.
She’s supposed to go “clunk”
every time her hand…
Trust me. I’m the first person
to agree with that logic.
But I’m telling you
that this is not a half-carat.
-[Mark] It is.
-No, it’s not.
[Mark] It looks like a half-carat.
It needs to be a giant, huge, big motor.
Cha-ching.
That’s a big blow.
The frame has to come off.
All of this has to be moved back out.
All this has to be pulled out.
In a normal build, pulling a motor out
might not be as difficult.
In this particular build,
it is a nightmare.
Basically the entire Bus has to come apart
for us to get that motor out.
It still says Gotham Garage on the door,
and that motor is not
a Gotham Garage motor in this Bus.
I know it’s going to piss everybody off,
and you’re all just going
to have to work a little bit harder,
but I guarantee you
the payoff at the end of the day
will be twice what it would be
with this motor in it.
You were supposed to wrangle in
that situation, Shawn.
What do you want me to do?
This could be an absolute idiotic decision
to go backwards from where we were
to actually put in a bigger motor that
might not get us any more for the Bus.
Just go fix the problem, Shawn.
Yeah.
[Shawn] But if we do get a lot more money
for this Bus,
it could be a genius decision.
We just don’t know right now.
[Shawn] So are you impressed?
Are you ready to trade me
five cars for this thing?
Where are you coming up with five cars?
Our original deal was, like, two.
[Shawn] The original deal I had with Layne
was to trade a restored T-bucket
worth about 10 grand
for two project cars.
But Mark decided that the T-bucket
wanted to be a fire truck,
which raises its value to about 15 grand.
So, now, I gotta convince Layne to agree
to trade for three or more project cars
to make this worthwhile.
[Shawn] Is this a lot, lot better
than just a measly T-bucket?
[Layne] Well, you brought more
than I expected. I’ll be honest with you.
[Shawn] We over-delivered. So now…
I think it’s your turn to over-deliver.
I love it. Don’t get me wrong.
The fire truck’s cool. I like it a lot.
I could maybe fudge around on something.
-Are you ready to see what he’s got?
-Come on, Dad. Let’s go.
[Layne] I got nothing better to do
but show my junk so…
[Mark] Yeah.
[Shawn] Find us something fun.
[Mark]
This is like Disneyland out here to me.
-[Mark] Hey, Shawn.
-[Layne] Pretty much stripped.
-Yeah.
-Look what I found.
You said find some fun things.
This is fun things. Come here.
Would you focus?
[Mark]
That’s-- You sound like my girlfriend.
Is that like some sort of Tucker
or something?
Yeah.
That’s all the parts I have to it though.
-I don’t know where you’re going to find--
-Oh, my God.
Oh, it’s fiberglass. I don’t know
what the heck we’d do with that.
There’s what I really want to see.
It’s over here.
That VW Bus, it’s talkin’ to me, man.
I think
it’s telling you to leave it alone.
-Let it die in peace.
-No.
-[Shawn] That thing is like a shell.
-[Mark] No, no, no.
Wait till you see what I’m gonna do with
that. It’s going to be worth 60, 70 grand.
[Mark] I think there’s a huge market
for a custom Bus.
Especially the way Gotham Garage would
do it. Nobody is gonna do a Bus like me.
Oh, this is good. I like that.
Normally these things,
you do that, you go right through it.
[Shawn] But it isn’t worth anything now.
We need more stuff
to equal the value of the fire truck.
[Layne] We got this old truck right here.
-[Shawn] It’s a Tri-Five, isn’t it?
-[Layne] Probably a ’56.
[Shawn] A ’56. Now we’re talking.
Restore this hidden gem? Forty Gs. Easy.
Looks like somebody started it
and never finished it.
[mimics motor sound]
That’s the [bleep] right there, buddy.
[Mark] Oh, Shawn.
-[Shawn chuckles] He sniffed it out.
-[Layne] That’s a 454.
[Shawn] 454. Is that on the table for us?
-[Layne] It’s a possibility.
-Oh, boy.
We got a possibility here.
That 454 is worth some solid cash,
and that would go perfect
in that Tri-Five Chevy.
[Mark]
That will be a badass motor in that truck.
I actually see some Corvette suspension
you got over there too.
-That’s the big boy.
-[Mark] That’s got some clout.
This could be something.
[Shawn]
Why are you looking at that motorcycle?
-Nobody wants a Gold Wing.
-[Mark] It’s a Gold Wing.
Might be able to do something
a little more industrial with it.
Like just a small little one-seater bobber
or something like that.
You know how reliable those bikes are?
-We could make something sick out of that.
-[Shawn] Yeah.
[Mark] Good. Let’s go make a deal.
Let’s get down
to what we really need to discuss,
which is the amount of cars we’re getting.
He does have a carcass over there
that I’m kind of hip to.
[Layne] Which one?
[Mark] That Volkswagen Bus that
there’s absolutely nothing left on it.
And my idea here is we get this truck,
which the Corvette suspension
can go with it and the 454 engine.
How ’bout all of that and then we throw in
that classic Gold Wing you got over there?
I’ll be willing to give you
that Gold Wing. You can have it.
There you go. I want that bike.
-[Shawn] We got the bike.
-We settled now?
-That’s straight-up trade.
-[Mark] Let’s make a deal.
-[Layne] Let’s make it happen.
-[Shawn] Thank you.
[Mark] Thank you. Appreciate it very much.
[Mark] We took one crappy T-bucket,
turned it into a badass fire truck
worth about 15 grand,
and traded it for a ton of stuff.
We got almost everything we needed
to build this Tri-Five Chevy truck.
We got the big block motor,
we got the Corvette suspension,
and a VW Bus
that has some great potential.
Either one of those could be traded up
for a rare car
or sold for a good chunk of change.
Oh, yeah. And I got the Gold Wing
motorcycle on top of the deal.
By the time
we’re finished with all of this,
we could have way over $100,000
in vehicles.
I think this is one of the best deals
we’ve pulled off in a long time.
[horn honking]
[Shawn]
Attention, Gotham Garage employees.
-[Caveman] What the hell?
-[Shawn] Please report to new vehicles.
[Caveman] You’re at the wrong place!
This ain’t the junkyard!
[Tony] You know, this can be a cool truck.
-That one, I don’t get it.
-[Constance] I’m into this actually.
-[Tony] For real?
-[Constance] Yeah.
I feel like that’s a much cooler build.
We do trucks all the time.
I love these VW buses.
They’re so cool and unique.
But this one is the ’78 model,
which is cool,
but it’s not the most desirable
for really big enthusiasts.
There’s the Bus that has the V-nose.
[Constance] I know, but people like buses.
So I’m curious to see
what Mark wants to do with this build.
But definitely really excited.
-Bought a junkyard today.
-[all laughing]
[Constance] Oh, yay.
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
The motor, and there’s Corvette suspension
in the back of that truck.
They go in this truck.
-This build’s badass, right?
-Yeah.
Tri-Five is any Chevy
that was built in ’55, ’56 or ’57.
And that unique body style
makes it extremely valuable to collectors.
[Constance] What is that?
[Shawn] Oh, well, that’s…
That’s not what I had in mind.
I think my uncle
used to drive one of those.
We’re not gonna worry about the bike.
We’re just gonna park it.
It has a purpose down the road,
and it was free.
So, I just say we get everything unloaded
and get it inside before it gets dark.
I love the speechlessness.
Let’s get to work and get it done.
[Mark] Okay, that’s us right there.
Now let’s go get the other “cingulaires”
off the back of the trailer.
[Caveman]
Man, that thing looks like a frosted turd.
[Mark] With the fluorescent halo lighting,
it looks gorgeous.
[Tony laughing]
-[Caveman] It’s not in too bad a shape.
-[Tony] The body panels are straight.
If we go risky,
we might run into some trouble.
But if we play it smart,
there’s guaranteed value in this truck.
This is such a moneymaker.
And you know,
the restomod thing is so hot right now.
So a restomod is when you take an old car
and restore it to its classic look,
but you upgrade the rest of the car
so that it performs like a modern vehicle.
Right now,
restomods are at the top of the market.
And if we keep that classic look
on this truck,
we’re going to open ourselves up
to a lot more buyers.
[Caveman] I say we put a bench seat in it.
You can slide your girl next to you
as you’re cruisin’.
Remember you used to? That’s my thought.
-You’re looking kind of sexy, big guy.
-Yeah, well…
[laughing]
I like the bench seat.
[Shawn] So we’re all in agreement.
It’s a restomod.
I know we’ll do something badass. It’ll
get Gotham Garage touches all over it.
[Mark] To maximize the value
of this Tri-Five ’56 Chevy truck,
we’re going to replace
the missing fenders, door and hood
with original Detroit steel.
This will make this truck look
like it just rolled off the lot in 1956.
We’re dropping in a 454
big block engine and Corvette suspension
so this thing
will have some serious cojones.
We’re also gonna put a brand-new
wood floor in it, custom exhaust tips,
and then we’re gonna do the modern touches
like power windows, air conditioning,
Bluetooth stereo,
and a one-of-a-kind red leather interior
with a bench seat
that even a Caveman would use.
So I want Tony and Caveman
to work on this truck,
since you did
such a fantastic job on the last truck,
and we got so much money for it
that it was a really good deal.
We should be able to get this banged out
in about two weeks.
Shawn, Constance,
I got something really special
I want you to see over here.
[Caveman]
You got two girls on your side, huh?
-[Tony] Yeah.
-[Constance] Whoo! So here’s what’s gonna happen.
I’m gonna do a little photoshopping
old-school way.
Oh, jeez.
[Mark]
I been hearing about this subculture
that’s following these Mad Max
outlandish style vehicles,
and they’re selling for a ton of money.
We’re going to cut it
right behind the door.
I think this is the nonprofit
Art Institute of Temecula, California.
[Mark] This Bus has to look and feel
like it’s coming at you
to destroy something in your life.
So we’re gonna chop it in half,
stretch it, add two more doors.
Chop the top on it
and slam it into the dirt.
Because it’s screaming
for a massive big block motor,
we’re putting it in the middle
to show it off.
And to support the added weight and power,
we’re gonna build a custom chassis
and add a third axle with new suspension.
Then we’ll grind down the finish for a raw
metal postapocalyptic street machine
that’s ready to kick ass
and rule the world.
I know it’s gonna take a little bit longer
than usual to pull off,
but I think if we do this to the Bus,
it’ll be well worth it in the end.
-[Shawn] Who would even want that?
-No one’s ever done this.
That’s beyond one-of-a-kind.
Our priority is to trade this
for a more valuable car
and keep climbing the ladder
to six figures.
But I have no idea what this thing
is actually gonna be worth.
When Mark’s done with this mystery van,
it could be worth less
than what we brought it in for,
or it could be worth over $100,000.
I just don’t know.
The engine-- You can’t-- You got what,
a little weenie motor in that thing?
No, I was thinking
we’d put my Nailhead in it.
Oh. Is that something we got here?
The big block Nailhead
I have in the back of the shop.
We save everything at this shop,
and I have a giant 401 Buick Nailhead
from an old project car
that will be perfect for this project.
You know what?
I hope you prove me wrong on this.
-I always prove you wrong.
-That’s probably the most ridiculous idea.
Look at the picture. What am I missing?
Two axles and a suspension.
Away with you now. Go find me that.
I got some work cut out for me.
It’s a little dirty.
[Tony] Caveman and I are installing the
suspension we got from the junkyard trade.
This should definitely help
maximize the value of this ’56 truck.
When you’re doing suspension work,
Caveman is the perfect guy to have around.
I was trying to get the pad
to lock in with its…
They don’t lock in. That’s a spring
to keep them from rattling.
Looks can be deceiving.
His hair’s crazy, and you forget
how great of a mechanic he is.
You’re doin’ it all wrong.
[Tony laughing]
[Tony] You said you could do all this
with your eyes closed.
You wouldn’t believe
what I can do with my eyes closed.
[Tony] I’ll bet you one of Mark’s beers
that you can’t put one of these
brake calipers on blindfolded.
-Really?
-This one right here.
-Really?
-Yeah.
Okay.
I don’t have a blindfold, but I have
an old sleeve that I use for hot days.
All right. Let’s see.
-How many fingers am I holding up?
-How many am I holding up?
All right. Let’s see.
-Get it in the hole, Caveman.
-I know where I am. Better get this done before Mark gets here
and sees you goofing off.
Wait till he sees me drinking
one of his beers that you hand me.
[laughing]
-[buzzing]
-[both laughing]
-Well?
-Damn, Caveman.
I told you I could do that blindfolded.
[buzzing]
[sizzling]
-How ’bout that beer you owe me?
-You’re right, man. I owe you a beer.
Settle that debt.
Let’s do it.
[Constance] Normally, when we have
a project come into the shop,
I pull the motor and deal with that.
With this build, it’s just not even close
to being ready for anything motor-related,
but at least I get to break stuff.
[Mark] One, two, three.
And now you can use the broom out here.
-Hey, Caveman.
-Yo!
You already know
what I’m gonna ask you to do.
[Constance] You wanna come have some fun
with us?
Caveman. He’s quite the sensitive person,
believe it or not.
If I heard that Sawzall going
and saw this car getting cut up,
yeah, I’d be highly upset.
If I don’t let him cut this in half,
he will pout for a year.
And here we go.
-Caveman want snack?
-[Constance laughs]
[Mark] Uno mas blade, por favor.
Get me a short one.
I don’t know how to handle the big ones.
-[Constance] Hey, it’s how you use it.
-[Mark] No, it’s not.
[buzzing]
Oh, I got movement.
[Mark] This is probably one of the biggest
undertakings we’ve done in quite a while.
There’s no going back from this.
-[buzzing]
-[Mark] You’re done.
We should turn it around
and introduce it to its own ass.
[Caveman]
Hey, look. We got a walk-through.
-[Mark] There you go, a walk-through Bus.
-[Constance laughs]
So we have two projects going on
in the shop right now.
I need suspension for the VW Bus.
And for the ’56 Chevy pickup,
I need a hood, a door, and fenders.
I made a few calls
and lined up a few places.
[man]
Got some pieces right back here for you.
The ’50 parts are getting
really hard to come up with.
[Shawn] Yeah. You’re right about that.
What makes my job a little tougher
in finding these parts for the ’56
is they’re 61-year-old parts.
That’s some ancient stuff.
[man] You get a dark green
and an ugly Kermit the Frog green.
[Shawn] Oh, sweet!
All the good parts are picked through.
It’s such a desirable truck
that everybody loves to build,
so, really, the crap is what’s left over.
It’s, uh… Yeah, it’s okay.
I mean… it’s hard to really tell
what something is by just a picture.
You gotta get your hands on it.
-I’m gonna take this door.
-You take it. Don’t expect me to carry it.
[Shawn] There we go. Ho ho!
-[man] Got a rear end.
-[Shawn] Now we’re talking.
This is exactly what we’re looking for
for this VW Bus.
The better parts we get
for these projects,
the easier it is for me
to actually sell it in the long run.
So now that we have the Bus in two pieces,
we have to put it back together.
[sizzling]
But we’re gonna have to be precise.
They gotta fit together perfectly,
because the structural integrity
depends on if this Bus is true and square.
It’s startin’ to take shape,
and I’m really diggin’
the way this Bus is starting to turn out.
[Caveman mimics motor sound]
[Tony] It’s a good-looking motor.
-How’s that motor going, guys?
-[Tony] We’re enjoying it.
-That’s right.
-No problems.
-It’s super hard to go like this.
-[Tony] So jealous.
You’re so jealous right now.
Yeah, I… allow Tony and Caveman
to play with motors sometimes.
-I think that’s the nice thing to do.
-[Tony] There it is.
[Constance] But the fact of the matter is
this 454 was in perfect condition
when they got it.
They literally had to do no work.
-[Tony] Ready?
-[Caveman] Try it.
[engine cranks]
Yeah!
-I love the sound of a big block.
-Yeah, brother.
Sounds like a whole lot of money to me.
Ka-ching, ka-ching. Right?
-[laughing]
-Quick, hold on.
Here, I’ll get the Bus done for you.
No problem!
-[Tony] Jeez, bunch of haters today, man.
-Bunch of haters today.
Look at you with your little M&M’s
in the back of your candy truck.
[Caveman] It looks like
you went to the rainbow factory.
-[Mark] What is this? What do you got?
-[Shawn] The ’56 Chevy pickup stuff.
The squirrel found a nut.
Caveman, start dragging it out
and put them on the ground.
They’re not perfect, but they’re nice.
They definitely look like
they’re original.
[Tony]
I think it looks pretty good, Shawn.
What else you got in there?
I see something under a cover.
Ta-da!
I will never tell him, but I heard angels
singing when he opened up the doors,
’cause he actually brought me
what I was looking for.
When he showed up
with suspension for the Bus,
I was like, “Wasn’t expecting that.”
Props to Shawn.
Please don’t anybody tell him I said that.
-Are we ready to work, or we gonna talk?
-[Constance] Sure.
We were ready when you showed up. In fact,
we were all working when you showed up.
You want to see me unload this by myself?
Whoa!
-Oh, yeah.
-[Caveman] Yeah!
-You guys get that?
-Oh, damn it. My hands got dirty.
[Caveman] The princess got dirty.
[Shawn] All right.
-[Mark] Well, Constance, we got new toys.
-[Constance] Whoo!
[Mark] Alrighty, then.
I’m gonna go old school.
Look how easy that is now.
Now that the suspension has been laid out,
we need to build the chassis.
[Mark] Okay, genius.
This is where the head scratch comes.
I’m actually fabricating an entire frame
for this Volkswagen Bus
from straight sticks of steel
because the frame for this project
does not exist.
[buzzing]
These buses were originally built
with a very weak unibody structure.
It had a rinky-dinky motor in it.
It didn’t have a reason
to have a beefy badass frame.
We’re about to put a motor in it
that has a ton of horsepower,
so we’re actually gonna have to shore
this entire thing up
and stiffen it up so that we can keep it
from ripping and twisting itself in half.
[Constance] Should it be squared?
-It will be. That’s what this is for.
-Okay.
[Mark] Doesn’t get any squarer than that.
Mark has a very different way
of doing things
that you wouldn’t see in any other shop.
So what super old guy
did you learn all this from?
Me.
[Constance] It’s smarter, and it works.
And he makes it work that way.
So pretty much have
a basic frame ready to go.
Thanks for kicking ass.
I know it’s a lot of heavy lifting.
You know, I work out sometimes.
[man talking on phone]
Yeah. So, Larry, let’s kind of figure for,
like, next week or something.
I think that works for me.
I’m constantly on the hunt for project
cars that’ll make us some big money.
Or that can showcase
what we do best at Gotham Garage.
And, man, have I found a doozy.
-Thanks, buddy. Take care.
-All right. Bye-bye.
Did you finally sell the Bus?
Yeah, no.
But that’s funny.
What have you been looking for
forever now?
Someone to sit in your chair.
-That’s not funny at all.
-[laughing] That was funny.
-Larry…
-Uh-huh.
has a 1954 International COE.
Seriously?
I’m tired of using
my beat-up personal truck
to deliver our high-end cars.
So now it’s time to step up our game.
For over a decade,
I’ve been looking for a vintage COE
to turn into a Gotham Garage shop truck.
COE stands for Cab Over Engine.
This ’54 International
is one of the sexiest COEs ever made.
It’s the ultimate centerpiece
to bring this truck to life.
If we had something nice,
it could represent us well.
And who knows?
Get us some more potential customers.
[Mark] It’s like the Pied Piper.
People are going to follow
a nice shop truck back to your shop.
It may not bring any money in
in the beginning,
but it will pay us huge dividends
on the back end.
If your shop truck pulls in attention,
then your shop pulls in money.
Here’s the kicker.
He actually might be interested
in a potential trade/cash deal
with the ’56 pickup.
So we just discount it a little bit…
[Shawn] Just a little bit,
and it might work out price-wise for us.
That’d be good.
The only issue here is telling Constance,
Caveman and Tony about this.
This’ll be taking money
out of their pocket.
Can you tell them, instead of me?
-I mean--
-Sure.
-I got no problem.
-All right.
-No problem then.
-No problem telling them at all.
Hey, guys,
wanna come over here for a second?
You don’t have any beer,
so it must not be good news.
-[Mark] Yeah. It’s great news.
-[all laughing]
[Caveman] What’s up?
You’re-- Shawn wants to talk to you guys
about something.
-[all laughing]
-[Caveman] Shawn wants to talk to us?
So Shawn’s got a guy on a line right now
who wants this truck.
The kicker for the deal is that
he also has a 1954 International COE cab
that I’ve been looking for to build a shop
truck out of for a very, very long time.
It’s a very rare truck.
It’s very hard to find this cab.
To find one in as good a condition
as what Shawn’s telling me this thing is,
it’s one of those golden opportunities.
So you want to…
We’re thinking about
selling him this truck,
but taking part of the payment in
as trade.
It sounds nice, but that’s
kind of a big hit on this thing.
That’s kind of a hit in our pocket.
[Mark] Think about how much more money
that badass shop truck’s gonna bring you
when people are seeing it going,
“If they have a truck like that,
they must have some
pretty talented people there.”
The shop truck is a great idea,
but I just don’t know
how deep you guys are willing to reach
to make that deal happen.
It’s kinda hard to swallow
if we walk in and say,
“We’re gonna take
part of your profits away.”
[Mark] Keep in mind,
he hasn’t done this deal yet.
-This is just a hypothetical--
-Oh!
It’s something we’re looking at,
not something we’re doing or we’ve done.
That’s why we’re asking you guys how
you feel about it, what you feel about it.
So, we won’t really know
what’s gonna happen until this is done
and see what kind of money that guy
is willing to actually pay for it.
I gotta feel him out to see where he’s at.
Now that we’re all on board,
I think I’ll go to work, see if I can…
Sort of on board.
Let’s revisit this conversation.
And I’ll go get to work, see if
I can line up the deal of the century.
-[Mark] It’s not that bad of an idea.
-[Constance laughs]
[Caveman] Let’s just make sure
the hood fits. All right?
[Mark]
The truck is coming out great so far.
We’ve got the suspension in,
brakes are on, motor and trans is in.
[Caveman] Love these green fenders.
-It’s gonna be a race truck by Skittles.
-[Caveman] Sponsored by Skittles?
[Mark]
Shawn shows up with the sheet metal.
Those are big pieces that we needed.
Hood, fender, door.
[Caveman] Look. It’s looking like a truck.
You gotta love genuine GM parts.
[Tony] Something we can brag about
when we’re selling it.
[Caveman] Yeah.
[Tony] Let’s take this hood off,
and then we’ll get the radiator
and the A/C installed.
Yeah.
Hey, Caveman, Tony,
can you come over here for a minute?
-Yeah.
-More like an hour, hour and a half.
-Whoo!
-I got a truck I’m building now.
I know your boss,
and he’s okay with you coming over here.
The ’56 truck is so far ahead of schedule
that I feel very comfortable
pulling everybody off
and getting everybody working on this Bus.
We’re about to rip out the old suspension…
cut a giant hole in the floor
to clearance the motor
and everything else that we’re doing.
Go back. Go back, you devil demon, you.
[Mark] I think this Buick Nailhead engine
is gonna work great for this build.
It’s a giant motor.
It has a ton of horsepower.
The best part of this whole deal is
I’m gonna save a lot of time
and a lot of money
by not looking for a motor
and not buying a motor for this project.
This is the quintessential motor
to put in your open-motor hot rod.
You could at least let me clean it up
a little first.
-[Tony] Yeah.
-[Mark] Fits pretty good.
This is a very tricky part
and it’s gonna take a lot of hands to get
the body married to the chassis right now.
[Caveman] Guess there’ll be no babies
bein’ made in this Bus.
Ain’t gonna be no room. [laughing]
[Mark] There it goes. That’s all it needed
was some Mark suspension.
-[Mark] That’s it.
-[Constance laughs]
[engine starts]
[Mark] Working on my truck at 6:00 in
the morning before I go to the shop sucks.
Like the shoemaker’s daughter
never has shoes,
the mechanic’s car never works.
It’s just the way it is.
I’m just… I’m over it.
I really hope we can make a deal
on that COE
so I can build myself a new shop truck. This is something
I’ve always wanted to do as a child.
It’s something
I’ve always wanted to do as an adult.
I remember growing up
when my dad would come to visit,
I remember seeing his truck.
For me, that would be the perfect truck
because then it would be,
“Okay, now I’m my dad.” You know?
When you grow up without a dad,
it’s kinda rough.
Uh
This is gonna take a second.
Can somebody just piss me off real quick?
[groans]
Oh, man.
It’s just hard.
You get into it and it all comes up.
It’s rough when you grow up without a dad
because you don’t have
that father figure around you.
My mom was my mom and dad.
My dad’s in my life now,
which I’m grateful for.
It’s just, missing that as a kid, I want…
[sighs]
[sniffles]
It’d be nice to have something
to remind me of my father
when my father leaves this planet.
And that’s about all
I’m gonna say about it.
[sniffles]
[engine starts]
[squeaking]
All right. Oh, yes.
Look how pretty I am. I can see myself.
Damn, do I need to shave.
[Mark] Tony and Caveman,
they really came through
this time on this ’56 Chevy truck build
by doing all the heavy lifting
without my help.
Hey, look, I’m going to hand you
the A/C through the window.
[Mark] Now that we have a buyer lined up
who potentially is going to
throw in a very rare COE,
it’s time to dial this truck in,
get it wrapped up, put a bow on it,
get it over there
and make this deal happen.
I really think it’s cool
to be able to take these older cars
and not only bring them back to life,
but make them comfortable
and even more badass than they used to be.
Sometimes we forget or we take for granted
all the modern conveniences of life
like power windows,
a Bluetooth stereo,
or even that sweet A/C.
It’s really important to the guys
in the shop
to keep that original classic look
for this Tri-Five, and it’s obvious why.
The original body lines are dead sexy.
And we accentuated them
with a two-tone black finish
and custom red pinstriping.
We tricked out the bed
with brand-new pine wood,
but instead of staining it like pine,
we stained it with a walnut finish
to give it that cherry wood look.
And then on the interior,
we put the Gotham Garage thumbprint
like only we can.
We gave it a brand-new billet
instrument panel with brand-new gauges,
a custom wood steering wheel,
a custom shifter.
We even wrapped the entire interior
in sexy deep-red leather,
including
the Caveman love-shack bench seat,
complete with custom stitching
to give it that one-of-a-kind feel.
[squealing]
But the real transformation
is when you open the hood
and there’s a big block 454
sitting in there screaming,
“I got all the horsepower
you’re ever gonna need.”
That motor,
along with that Corvette suspension,
is gonna scoot this truck down the road
like nobody’s business.
So now your restomod hot rod
is as comfortable and as easy to drive
as your brand-new car
that sits in your driveway,
but you’re wrapped with a sexy,
badass ’56 Chevy truck.
[Mark] That truck came out pretty good.
I’d love to put this deal together
because this deal would be so cool.
-Make it happen.
-Kill two birds with one stone. We sell a truck for nice money.
[Mark] Yeah, we’re trying to get
40 grand out of the truck.
I know we were supposed to revisit it
with everybody, but…
-Oops.
-Oops.
I just don’t want to lose this deal.
Remember,
if the deal doesn’t make sense for us,
we’re not bringing home the COE.
It’d pretty much have to be sour as grapes
for me not to walk out of there
with this truck.
I’ve been on the hunt
for this COE forever.
And I’ve found similar models,
but never the right year.
For Mark, it needs to be a ’54.
I can tell it really means a lot to him.
-Hey, Larry. I’m Shawn.
-Hey, Shawn.
How’s it going?
-Nice to meet you.
-Nice meeting you.
[Mark] Brought you a new girlfriend.
Shawn told me about the truck.
It’s something that I’ve been looking for.
Because it reminds me of when
I was growing up and my younger days.
[Mark] That, my friend,
is a big block 454 with aluminum heads.
-That’s impressive.
-It runs like a dream.
The bed looks awesome.
This is real wood.
This ain’t that cheap plastic.
We also made these custom exhaust tips.
Wow.
Larry clearly likes
what we’ve done to the truck.
If we sold the truck alone for 40K,
that would be a good deal.
And I’m guessing
the COE is worth about $6,000.
That means we need to get at least 34,000
to make this even worthwhile.
I just need to rein in Mark,
because if we’re going to make a deal,
it has to be one that
the whole crew’s going to be happy with.
I definitely like it, but we’ll have to
see if we can work something out.
Can we see what I came here to look at?
[Larry] All right. Let’s go do it.
-[Shawn] That’s gotta be it there, huh?
-[Larry] That’s it.
[Shawn]
How long has it been sitting out here?
I’ve had it for a while.
You can see it’s got everything.
[Mark] Wow. It’s even got
the gauges still in it dangling.
[Shawn] Really.
[Mark] I cannot believe that
it’s still got door handles and hardware.
[Shawn] Yeah.
[Mark] That all the [bleep]
that usually goes missing right away.
It’s in good shape. I don’t think
you’re going to find another like it.
[Shawn] All right, Larry.
I tell you what we’ll do.
If you throw in this,
we’ll actually give you that truck for 45.
You gotta do better than that.
I just can’t do it for that.
How ’bout we do 30 and the truck.
Thirty and the truck? Come on!
You know that’s not even close.
-You’re not gonna find this every day.
-I’m not--
[Mark] No,
you’re not going to find this every day.
Help me out. You don’t need
to fall in love with this right now.
It’s too late for that, dude.
I want his girl.
I’m hopin’ that you’re fallin’ in love
with the ’56 as much as he’s fallin’--
[Larry] Not for 45,000. I told you that.
Give me a realistic figure.
I’m at 41 and this for the ’56.
All right.
The bottom line for me, and this is it.
If we can’t do this,
then you might as well walk.
All right, so 37 is--
That’s all I’m going.
Oh, gosh. Can you go 38?
Deal at 37. Come on.
Aw, I knew…
-There we go.
-Thank you.
[Mark] I finally got my shop truck.
The cab alone is worth $6,000.
And we got $37,000 for the truck itself.
We’ve only put in
$15,000 of our own money,
which gives us a nice profit
of $22,000 in hard cash.
Let’s go get some paperwork done
before this deal doesn’t happen.
I’m hoping the profit will smooth
things over with the guys in the shop
when they find out that Shawn and I
just put this deal together.
[drill buzzing]
[Tony]
I wasn’t feeling this thing at first.
Oh, I wasn’t either.
This thing’s gonna be sick when it’s done.
There’s gonna be a lot of VW people
that are pissed off for what we did to it,
but the hell with ’em.
-[Constance] Whoo!
-What’s up, fellas?
-Shawn’s got some good news for you.
-[Constance] Money?
We are no longer proud owners
of a ’56 pickup.
We ended up getting 37,000
plus this guy’s COE.
-[Tony] What do you mean you got the COE?
-We talked about that.
-Briefly. Not really.
-[Constance] Talked about, never agreed.
That puts us over 40 though.
I don’t remember everybody
coming to an “agreeance” on that one.
No. I think that’s a great deal.
It makes me a little unhappy that
they did it without consulting all of us.
I would have liked
if we maybe got a phone call
before, you know,
the ink was on the paper.
I trust you guys. I know
we got the whole shop to look out for.
There’s a lot of moving parts.
I’m glad to have
a little money in right now.
Thirty-seven,
it’s a pretty good chunk of change.
It’s enough to bring some money
into the shop. Everyone gets paid.
And we still have this VW Bus
that’s really starting to take shape.
We’re almost about to fire this thing up.
We’re a couple hours out,
but today this baby’s gonna purr.
The sprockets and cogs are turning.
I see it in his eyeballs.
What do you guys think
of this motor in here?
I think it needs a little cleaning up,
but I could get it there.
You don’t think it looks like a little
tiny four banger in this giant big Bus?
-[Caveman] But how much bigger can you go?
-[Mark] A lot bigger.
So this Nailhead, it’s a big motor,
but it’s just not big enough.
I need an apocalyptic motor.
I need something that hits you in the head
like brass knuckles.
When we do that, it’s going to leapfrog it
way past our next trade-up vehicle
to a six-figure payday.
Your chick is supposed to show off
her 10-carat diamond ring to the world.
She’s supposed to go “clunk”
every time her hand…
Trust me. I’m the first person
to agree with that logic.
But I’m telling you
that this is not a half-carat.
-[Mark] It is.
-No, it’s not.
[Mark] It looks like a half-carat.
It needs to be a giant, huge, big motor.
Cha-ching.
That’s a big blow.
The frame has to come off.
All of this has to be moved back out.
All this has to be pulled out.
In a normal build, pulling a motor out
might not be as difficult.
In this particular build,
it is a nightmare.
Basically the entire Bus has to come apart
for us to get that motor out.
It still says Gotham Garage on the door,
and that motor is not
a Gotham Garage motor in this Bus.
I know it’s going to piss everybody off,
and you’re all just going
to have to work a little bit harder,
but I guarantee you
the payoff at the end of the day
will be twice what it would be
with this motor in it.
You were supposed to wrangle in
that situation, Shawn.
What do you want me to do?
This could be an absolute idiotic decision
to go backwards from where we were
to actually put in a bigger motor that
might not get us any more for the Bus.
Just go fix the problem, Shawn.
Yeah.
[Shawn] But if we do get a lot more money
for this Bus,
it could be a genius decision.
We just don’t know right now.