Car Masters: Rust to Riches (2018) s02e02 Episode Script
Totaled Disaster
[power tools run]
[engine revs and tires screech]
[Caveman] He hit it hard.
[Mark] You're [bleep] kidding me, right?
No, we're not [bleep] kidding you.
You're looking at it, right?
[Tony] We can't fix this. It's smashed in.
There's no structure. The frame's bent.
Who hit it? Did you hit it?
- [man] I didn't do it on purpose.
- You hit it.
Yeah.
What, you been driving for a [bleep] day?
No. I'm backing out, and he's coming,
and he's gonna hit me
So you hit me.
Yeah.
[Mark sighs]
This car is fricking totaled.
It's twisted up behind a tow truck.
The only thing salvageable
is the motor and transmission,
and we're only talking about
a few thousand dollars in parts.
I got four people, weeks of work.
Do the math on that one,
how much that just cost us all.
- Hey, dude. How you doing?
- All good.
- Having a good day?
- Having a great day.
Um, remember that Buick we were doing?
Funny. I was talking to the guy,
and he's wondering
when the damn thing's gonna be ready.
- Never.
- What do you mean, never?
[power tools run]
[engine revs]
Did you get the footage from the neighbor?
- Yeah.
- Let's see how bad this looks.
[Tony] Look. This van's backing up.
He's backing up.
[Caveman] Oh, wow. Whoa.
[Mark] Oh.
- [CM] Wow.
- [Tony] He hit that so hard.
[Mark] He waits and waits and waits,
and goes, "Reverse? I'm already in it.
I might as well just punch it."
This '53 Buick Special
was gonna be a monster.
Shawn had worked it out
so we could trade this Buick up
for a '71 Blazer.
Then we'd fix it up and trade it
for a one-of-a-kind
'59 Corvette Stingray concept car.
Since the tow truck
decided to play Demolition Derby
with our Buick,
we've actually lost multiple deals
and tens of thousands of dollars
in future profit.
- [tool drops]
- I'm just hoping and praying
Shawn's been able to talk to
the owner of this Blazer
and somehow keep this deal alive.
If not, I honestly don't know how
we're gonna recover from this.
Parking-lot accidents are the worst.
Shawn, you got to see this thing, dude.
Oh, Jesus. It just twisted this thing.
[Mark] So give me some good news.
Tell me you have the little light
at the end of this dark tunnel.
No.
[Mark] Really.
- [CM] No Blazer?
- [Shawn] Nothing.
He said he can't wait.
He's got guys with cash ready to go.
I've been stalling people left and right
'cause I was waiting on you.
[Tony] Is there something else
maybe you'd be interested in?
Can't do it, man.
- [Shawn] It's done.
- Like this car.
Yeah. This is a setback.
[Constance] If this deal isn't happening,
we need to have a plan B, C, D, E, F,
Shawn.
Why don't we just
take the rest of the day off,
and I'll figure out a plan
to, uh, get us out of this.
[dramatic music playing]
We didn't get to where we are
without picking ourselves up
off the canvas a few times.
In this business,
things fall through, stuff happens,
but we always find a way.
Hey, Caveman.
- Yo.
- Come over here and help me with this.
Everybody remembers this thing.
I got this Harley that's been in
the back of my shop for a while,
and I've got a plan
to make a low-cost build,
bring us in some quick cash
to get us out of this hole
that we've dug ourselves into.
Tony's got a 26-inch wheel, right?
- Yeah, we got a 26 sitting up there.
- Yeah.
And I probably have
quite a few other parts
sitting on the shelf back there
from old inventory.
Is this one of those deals
where you use up all parts in the shop?
Yes, it is.
We do this a lot. We have
so many parts stacked up
that in a pinch,
we can assemble a full car.
We did it a few months ago
with the Bug rod.
- [Tony] Ta-da.
- [Caveman chuckles]
Are you polishing a turd?
Yes, I am.
Wow. You guys made it happen.
In this case,
we're gonna do it with a bike.
Basically what we're gonna do
is we're gonna stretch a frame out,
and we're just gonna make
a custom badass bagger out of it.
- Really?
- [engine revs]
[Mark] A bagger is literally that.
It's a custom bike
that has a set of saddlebags on the back
for storage.
Typically, they're big bikes
built for long rides.
And right now,
baggers are one of the hottest commodities
on the custom bike market.
But our bagger is gonna be nothing like
anything you've ever seen.
First, we're gonna give it a big rake
and stretch the neck out by almost a foot.
Then we're gonna add
Tony's 26-inch wheel
to give it
a big piece of candy on the front.
We'll create a custom bag kit
that flows seamlessly
into the rest of the bike
to give it clean, sexy lines.
Of course, we'll give it
all of the regular Gotham Garage bling.
Then we're gonna finish it off
with a three-stage
candy-gloss custom paint job.
In the end, this bagger
is gonna lead us to a bag of cash,
and that's exactly
what the shop needs right now
- to get its mojo back.
- What's this bike gonna be worth?
- Like, what?
- I could see this being a $30,000 bike.
I mean, sometimes these bikes
even go for more.
[Mark] So, Shawn,
you need to sell this bike,
and we've also gotta hunt down
our next trade-up car.
- Yeah.
- In the meantime,
Caveman and Tony, you guys get this bike
running and done and fabbed up.
- [Tony] Nice.
- [Caveman chuckles]
We'll get the tank off.
We'll get the pipes off it.
Get this thing done
so we can make some damn money.
That sounds good to me.
[Caveman] In the bike world,
it's all about standing out,
having something unique.
- It's almost time to start cutting.
- All right.
[revs saw]
When you're riding, and somebody has got
a really nice custom bike
and has put a lot of money into it,
everybody notices that bike.
Here we go. Hold on.
All right.
Come on, baby. Get hot for Caveman.
One.
- We're right there.
- She's stretched and going back together.
I saw the light!
Again, too.
[Caveman] That looks sick.
[Tony] That's a whole new bike.
I'm gonna look good riding this.
Okay, so I've got a few cars up here
that just might make sense.
But we got to get the ball rolling
is what we need to do.
You need to get a ball to roll.
My biggest priority right now
is to find a new trade-up car.
What about that Camaro?
No. That guy wants tons of money for it.
I got a couple of different options
on my board,
but there's one in particular
I really like.
It's the perfect car
to start climbing the ladder
back towards six figures.
There is this one car.
Guy named Sebastien.
He somehow got his hands on
a '69 Mustang Mach 1,
which he doesn't know what to do with.
Without the door, it has no interior,
'cause I could see the other door.
Does it have a motor in it
or transmission?
No. Yes, it's missing everything,
but the beauty of that Mustang
is I can trade up for anything.
It's a absolute sure thing.
For right now,
that might be the perfect car for us.
We haven't got
a whole lot of choices right now.
We need to get something,
and we can go over now and talk to him.
I've heard enough
of your long-winded explanation.
Do you want to go look at this car
and see if we want to get it?
- I'll get some cash, and we'll
- Oh, you're gonna pay for it.
This is even a better deal.
I love this deal.
No, get your cash. No, get your cash.
- What are you talking about?
- [Mark chuckles]
Sebastien. He's a French guy.
- French-Canadian like you?
- No, no.
But I figure if I use my French accent,
maybe we can, uh, get the car
a little bit cheaper.
Sebastien! Comment ça va, my friend?
No, let's not do that.
[chuckles]
- [Mark] This must be the place.
- [Shawn] Uh, yeah.
Oh, there he is, there.
Hey, Sebastien.
- Hey, guys.
- How's it going?
- There's Mark.
- Nice to meet you.
- [Mark] What's up, doog?
- [barks]
- You got quite the place.
- Thank you.
Sebastien just works out of his house,
and he's got tons of cars,
but he's not into the American muscle,
and that's, uh
[chickens squawk]
He's got a few chickens here,
obviously, too.
When you talk,
you kind of get her all ramped up.
Chicks do that with me around, you know
what I'm talking about? Anyway, so, uh
- It's gotta be your shirt.
- Ah.
Well, now you know.
[squawking]
Shut up!
[stops squawking]
There it is.
[Mark]
That is what's left of a '69 Mustang.
[Shawn] The Ford Mustang
is arguably
the most popular pony car of all time.
[announcer]
For those who prefer the cool world.
People were flocking to these cars
when they were first released,
and they're still considered
an icon of the era.
Demand was high, is high,
and hopefully for us,
it will continue to be high.
Oh, man. It looks like it was a nice car,
but this does need everything.
You know the good part?
You have catalogs of parts for those cars.
- So it's easy.
- It's not that easy.
The interior kit's cheap.
Everything else is expensive.
[Sebastien] Shoot me an offer,
but be fair.
If you could be somewhere near
about, say, 55
I know you talked about ten,
but let's be realistic. Be realistic.
I know what I have.
I know what it's worth.
You need to do better. I mean, I'm at ten.
Even though this doesn't look like much,
when we're done with this car,
it's gonna be worth
somewhere around 50 grand.
If we can get this for under nine,
I'll take that deal all day.
[Sebastien] It's a '69 Mach 1.
There is not that many of those.
But obviously you don't want it anymore.
Yeah, but not for nothing.
But we can only pay so much
[rooster squawks]
- and
- [squawks]
the rooster's telling me,
"Only go to seven grand."
- [chuckles]
- [rooster squawks]
I can't do that.
Give me a realistic price.
Eight grand.
[Mark] It's a good deal at eight.
Eight grand is fine.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
[Mark] Eight grand is totally way more
than we would normally spend
on a trade-up car,
but in the long run, it's a safer gamble.
This thing is a total classic
that any car guy would get excited about
or, for that matter, a car girl.
Constance is gonna love this car.
She's built her own Mustang
from the ground up in her garage,
and she's gonna want to dive
right into this project.
[horn honks]
- [Tony] Look at that.
- [Caveman] Whoo. Hoo-hoo-hoo.
- What is it?
- [CM] You're gonna like this one.
Right up your alley.
This is the most beautiful rear end
I've ever seen.
[Mark] This Mustang
is now our most-important project.
It is our trade car.
[Constance] Is this for me?
[Mark chuckles]
So I brought everyone
over here to the new shop
so we can put a plan together
to get this car started.
- I didn't know it was Christmastime.
- [Mark] Yeah.
[guys laugh]
- [Mark] Good.
- [Shawn] Beautiful.
- Okay, you guys can go now.
- [laughter]
After the Buick, we needed something
that's not gonna take forever to fix up
and get us back trading up
to something bigger and better.
So this is gonna be a trade,
not a sell car?
It's a trade car, yeah,
so we can get to the six figures.
It's the fastest way to get there
right now.
I know everybody's feeling the same way
about the money being so deep.
[CM] I don't know about you guys,
but my pockets are empty.
This car is missing a lot of parts.
It needs a lot of money.
Do you already have a trade
lined up on this? Where do we stand?
No, there's no trade
lined up for this car yet
but it's a '69 Mach 1.
Who doesn't want one of those?
It'll be worth the investment.
It is the perfect car
to guarantee that
someone's gonna be interested.
So how much metal can I cut and move?
Well, okay, let's not get crazy.
Wait. Let's not get crazy.
[Mark] Normally with a trade car,
we start with something
that is not very desirable
and make it desirable.
With this car,
we're actually doing it backwards.
We're starting with a car
that is already very desirable.
But we still want to put our thumbprint
like we do with everything else.
I don't know how far
you can push one of these things.
That's why I'm gonna give Constance
the lead on this project,
'cause not only does she know Mustangs
inside and out,
when I gave her the lead
a couple months ago on the Bel Air,
she proved herself,
and she did a great job.
[engine revs]
- Now it's a car!
- Yeah!
[Constance] I think there's stuff
that we can do
that is still in line with
the Gotham Garage style
that still represents the past
in the Mustang history
and everything this car is built off of.
So I don't get to do any cutting
on this car?
TBD.
What'd you say?
- TBD. To be determined.
- [Constance laughs]
[snarky laughter]
Normally I would say
go and get started tearing it apart,
- but that part's already done.
- That was the easy part.
So, Constance, I need you to go find me
the best motor and gearbox
that we can stick in this thing
to get the most money out of it.
Something big.
Everyone else, let's get back to Gotham
and keep cruising on the Harley.
[Tony] Oh, you found the bag.
It's all kind of mismatched stuff.
The bagger kit I had laying around here
doesn't fit this bike.
- Oh, yay. Puzzle pieces!
- [Mark] Yeah.
We had this old bagger kit
just laying around the shop.
It's the same old cookie-cutter kit
that everybody has.
I really want to soften this.
So we're gonna customize this kit
and make it flow
into the lines of the bike.
Got a motorcycle kit there?
- [Caveman chuckles]
- Huh?
[chuckles] How are we doing this?
It's really simple.
When in doubt, cut it out.
- That should be on the front door here.
- I know, right?
Other shops would spend a ton of money
outsourcing this to somebody else
that would have to make a metal mold
to pull a fiberglass piece
to extend their bag,
but here, I go down to the fabric store,
buy $30 worth of florist foam,
and get the exact same effect.
[CM] I love working here.
It's something else that
- When did you start working here?
- Huh?
When did you start working here?
Keyword being "work."
- Yeah, I like hanging out with Mark.
- Yeah.
[background whistling]
From here on out, it's bodywork and paint,
and put it back together,
- and then we get paid.
- [Caveman] Cool.
The goal with a custom bagger
is to make it stand out
as much as possible.
So we're gonna paint this bike green
with a candy gold over the top.
[Mark] Green and gold
are the color of money.
Ah. I'm gonna hold it like a baby.
Pretty green alien baby.
What is it with you and shiny?
[chuckles]
We brought this Harley back to life.
We took the dusty tarp off the top,
knocked all the dirt off the bike,
and then, with everything in this shop,
we made one custom badass bagger.
[Mark] We stretched this bike over a foot
and gave it a custom 26-inch front wheel.
We custom-made the bag extensions
to seamlessly flow
with the lines of the bike.
The point of building a bagger
is to build something
that looks nothing like
anybody else's bike.
I mean, everywhere you go,
you're seeing 40, 50 baggers
parked in a row,
and if we can build that bike
that stands out of one in 50,
we're gonna get a huge payday
at the end of it.
[engine running]
[Caveman] Whoa! Damn!
When you're riding, you own the blacktop.
The road is yours.
You're the king, and you know it
because everybody's looking at you.
You and that bike have become one.
If Shawn didn't have a buyer
coming down for this in a couple days,
I'd probably jump on it
and take it to Vegas.
[cackles]
Shh. Don't let Mark hear you say that.
Awesome. [cackles]
[nut drops in bucket]
- [horn honks]
- [Constance] Hey, motor time.
Mark told me to get
"the biggest motor possible"
for this '69 Mach 1.
- Be really careful what you wish for.
- Four twenty-eight?
- Four twenty-eight.
- He did say go big, though.
I was able to get my buddy Mike
to give us this motor for 7,500 bucks,
which seems like a lot,
but it'll add a ton of trade value
to this car on the back end.
[cackles] Let's put this
big, beautiful big block in.
It really comes with the works.
Five-speed TKO transmission,
EFI, headers, bell housing.
I mean everything.
If you had a checklist of options
like you were ordering a sandwich
and you just wanted "the works."
[Caveman] Wow.
I said it's gonna be a tight fit,
but we're gonna get there.
[Tony] Might have to come back
a little bit. Oh.
[Caveman] It sound like it went in.
I don't think we can go much bigger.
Ladies, I have advice
if your man is a car guy.
You don't have to get him anything
but a big-block motor
of whatever he's into.
His Ford, his Chevy, his Mopar
That will put
the biggest smile on his face.
He won't need a ring.
- You wanna hear it a little bit?
- No, I wanna hear it a lot.
- All right.
- [Caveman] Not a little.
[Tony] Come on, 428.
[engine turns over and starts]
- Yeah!
- [Tony] First fire!
- [Caveman] First fire!
- Yeah!
[Caveman] Nice.
Fired right up.
[Constance] Once we get everything
cleaned up,
we'll get the new hoses
on the radiator set up.
I got
I got things that I want to do here.
[Caveman] I'm sure you do.
I see the cogs and sprockets
spinning in your eyeballs.
[Caveman and Constance chuckle]
[vehicle approaches]
Hey, Shawn, your buddy's here.
[Shawn] With the Buick crash,
we haven't seen a payday
in over three weeks.
Blake, buddy.
So we need to sell this bike
for as close to 30 grand as possible.
That way, we could put a couple of grand
in everybody's pocket
and use the rest
to keep the two shops flowing.
So we're bringing in a guy named Blake
who loves Harleys,
and he happens to be in the market
for a custom bagger.
Did I not tell you? Did I not tell you?
Take it in.
- [Blake] Holy hell, man.
- [Mark] Color of money.
[Shawn chuckles]
[Blake] It's almost hard to see
everything you guys have done
without walking around it
a hundred times.
- Yeah.
- What are we talking, motor-wise?
- What'd you guys slap in there?
- [Mark] RevTech hundred-inch.
I'll fire it up for you.
Gonna say, gotta give it a little whiskey.
[starts engine and revs it]
That sound good enough for you, Blake?
[engine idling]
- [shuts off engine]
- [Mark] That's just loud enough.
- That sounds like money right there.
- [Shawn] There you go.
First reaction, what are you thinking?
This isn't
This isn't what I was expecting
but this is rad.
I'm digging the color.
I do love the pipes. That intake's rad.
Lucky 13's badass.
[Shawn] So here's what I'm thinking.
Thirty-five grand.
[whistles] I was gonna say 25.
- [Shawn] Oh.
- I thought we were friends.
- [Mark chuckles]
- That's the friend's price.
- What, you kidding me?
- Gah.
I mean, for around the mid-30s, you know,
you can grab something
right off the floor.
- You mean something boring?
- [Mark chuckles]
We're not big on new around here.
And just remember what you're paying for.
You're paying for artistry here.
Not too many bikes looking like this.
You know, I do appreciate that,
but my wallet's
starting to try to run out the door.
Okay, I get it, okay.
How about I come all the way down to 32?
- Um
- Talk to me.
- Twenty-seven.
- You're going in the right direction.
Tell you what
You work with me a little bit more
so I can use a little bit of that
on my first road trip.
What do you say, 28,500?
[Shawn] Twenty-eight five.
- You know what? I think that's fine.
- I'm good with that.
And you buy the next round of beers.
Trying to shake your hand
before you say that.
- All right, man.
- Okay, 28,500,
and I got the next round of beers.
[Mark] It feels really good to sell
this bike
You killed it, dude.
but that's not gonna
hold us over forever.
We got to put the pedal to the metal
and get this Mustang done
so that we can keep this momentum rolling.
- Let's get the wheels real quick.
- [CM] All right.
'Cause it's gonna
change the way this car looks.
[Constance] With a classic muscle car
like this,
there are things that you can do,
and there are things that you cannot do.
This is a fat-ass tire.
Number one,
you cannot cut the roof off.
You have to balance this uniqueness,
which is what we bring here at this shop,
but keep those classic body lines
and things that really make it a Mustang.
- Hear me out.
- [Mark] Uh-oh.
People roll the fenders all the time
to fit a fatter tire in there.
If we pull the whole rear end out
- [Caveman] Wow.
- do the front out
so it still keeps the Mustang body line,
but now you have this classic car
that also has the feel of something
that's a little more modern.
So you're suggesting
we widebody this car?
Yeah. And then slam it.
That means air shocks.
Having a little problem processing
that you're telling me
to take a Sawzall to a '69 Mustang
- and push that fender out a good foot.
- I want it, like, here.
- It's at least a foot.
- Yeah.
This car is really gonna be
the best of both worlds.
You're gonna have all the little details
that tell you that it's a Mach 1,
but at the same time, you're gonna have
all the Gotham Garage touches
that people know us for.
We're gonna pull out those rear fenders
to fit those fat, meaty tires.
That will give the car
an overexaggerated cartoon look.
With the wider rear end,
we'll need five taillights
on either side of the back.
To modernize this car,
we're gonna give it a fully adjustable
Air Lift suspension kit.
That way, you can pump up the rear end
to give it that classic muscle-car look
or you can slam it on the ground
for that modern feel.
To finish it off,
we'll give it a jet-black paint job
so this car will look as mean as it rides.
[Mark] Let's get this over to Gotham
so we can start cutting it up.
- Got your way.
- [Constance laughs]
[Mark] With our current situation
at the shop,
it might seem a little crazy
to make a massive change like this.
Most people
would give it a factory paint job,
factory wheels, catalog parts,
and call it a day.
That is not what we do here.
In case you haven't figured it out by now,
we're all a little crazy.
I don't care how far in the hole
we are financially,
we have gotten to where we are
by never compromising,
and I'm not about to start now.
So why did you call me down here, dude?
I got a car to finish out there.
- I may have some good news.
- You're quitting.
No, I'm not quitting.
- Don't you wish. I've got
- Look at me. I'm crying on the inside now.
Pay attention. Think I've got a guy
that's interested in the Mustang.
Really?
His name is Chris. Got a hot-rod shop
not far from here, actually,
and he's definitely got lots of
high-end stuff to make a trade happen.
- So what does he have?
- He's actually got a '66 Belvedere.
He's got big, expensive motors.
He's got a Hellcat.
He's got a 426 Hemi.
There's a 25-grand motor right there.
And he's actually got a '70 Challenger.
He's never gonna trade us
a Challenger for a Mustang.
That's a six-figure car, dude.
Well, it's only a half-done Challenger,
and he said everything's on the table,
and I'm figuring if we bring the car
down there, and he sees it done,
who knows
what he's willing to trade for, you know?
[Shawn] Once we finish the Mach 1,
it'll be worth every bit of 50 grand.
I don't know exactly
what we're gonna get in exchange,
but this guy Chris has options.
Plan A
we try for that Challenger,
and we're on our way to six figures.
Plan B
we package one of those massive motors
with the Belvedere,
and we're walking away
with a ton of value.
The bottom line
is once he sees our Mustang,
we might just be able to take
one of those projects off his hands.
You know, the guy is a tough negotiator.
He knows what it's worth,
but one way or another,
with the amount of things
he has down there,
I'm sure we could come up with
some sort of a deal.
It's a pretty good situation.
I think it might be solid,
so let me get the car done,
and then we'll see what Chris has to say.
- Sounds like a plan.
- I'll go to work. Do what you do best.
Sit there. Look pretty.
That's my job.
Ooh, fancy new club for me?
- [Mark] Those are some sweet shocks.
- I know.
Growing up, it was all muscle cars,
and I thought that was
a totally normal situation
to get dropped off at elementary school
in, like, a '72 Chevelle.
I am definitely
the first person in the shop
to fight really hard
to keep a classic muscle car
as pure as possible.
But with this build, give it something
that makes it really badass.
[Mark] It's time to see
how low it drops on the ground.
[Caveman groans]
- [Constance] That's pretty cool there.
- [both] Now do the back.
[Caevman] It's alive. It moves.
[laughter]
[Mark] We've done
a ton of custom work on this car.
Constance wanted a jet-black paint job
but I'm also giving it red racing accents.
This car is definitely
gonna look as aggressive as it sounds.
[wind gusts]
[guns engine]
[screeches]
When you put the pedal to the metal
and dump that clutch
this thing throws you back in the seat,
gives you whiplash,
and I'd stack it up against any Mustang
right out of the factory.
It has all the classic elements
of a Mach 1
with the look and feel
of a modern hot rod.
It started with that absurd 428 big block
that we stuffed under the hood.
From there, we gave it
obnoxiously wide tires
and a full air-ride suspension kit.
We widened out the body
by at least a foot.
We gave it five taillights
to each side of the rear.
Constance
did a fantastic job with this car.
It looks mean, it sounds mean.
This car is a fricking monster.
[revs engine]
[Shawn] What you did to this car,
I like it. I like it a lot.
Sounds like I did a damn fine job.
Mark and everybody at the shop
did their part.
This Mustang they put together
is worth 50 grand all day.
The good thing about Chris
is he wants a '69 Mach 1,
and he's willing to trade for something.
Obviously, we're shooting
for that '70 Challenger,
but if that doesn't work out,
he's got other things over there.
Now it's all about
what he's gonna give in exchange.
[honks horn]
Chris, what's going on?
- Shawn.
- This is, uh, Mark.
Chris, how are you doing?
Nice to meet you, man. Nice to meet you.
- Why didn't you put the big tires on it?
- [Mark chuckles]
[engine running]
[guns engine]
- How'd that sound?
- That's loud enough.
Yeah.
But that's not all.
This is the fun part right here.
- [Mark] Got a 428 in it.
- Wow. What kind of trans you got in it?
- It's a Tremec.
- Very nice.
- [Shawn] Got a little get-up-and-go.
- Yeah.
Is that custom sheet metal
for the front splitter?
All of it, yeah.
Well, there's no fiberglass on it.
- Wow. Nobody does that.
- Just us old guys.
Yeah.
Now, as a muscle-car guy,
I really like what they've done.
It's got the wide fenders, great interior.
Black and the red looks great.
Bodywork looks bitchin'.
If we can cut a deal,
I'd love to have this car.
Checks all my boxes.
Okay, are you ready
to do some trading or what?
Yeah, we can go talk about it.
- [Mark] Shawn showed you his.
- Now it's my turn.
[Mark chuckles]
Oh, there we go.
I like the Challenger right there.
[Mark] Seventy.
It's a great year for muscle cars.
Chris, you've been busy
on this car, I see.
Yeah. Lot of custom work done to this.
- Tucked bumpers, shaved handles
- Shaved handles.
- Flush-mounted glass.
- [S] Sweet.
Four-link rear, coilovers in the front.
Right now, it's just the metal stage.
Getting ready for bodywork.
Man, that's a lot further along
than the last pictures I saw of this car.
I'm sure. We've put a bunch of work in it
the last couple of weeks.
This car's 120 grand easy when it's done.
That's why I'm trying to
talk you out of it.
[Mark] That's the whole point here.
I know there's a ton of value right here,
but you said you wanted a done car, right?
- Yeah.
- Custom Mustang.
I know you like that car.
You said you wanted to do
a little swapping.
This is a little swapping.
I'm gonna need car plus 20 grand.
Oh, man.
Well, that's not gonna happen.
We don't like pulling money
out of our pocket.
What do you say even swap?
- Straight across?
- Straight-across trade.
- That doesn't work for you?
- It's a '70 Challenger.
Custom body work and everything.
So I need your car plus about 20.
- [scoffs]
- [Mark] That's not gonna work for me.
No.
We definitely don't have 20 grand
to put on the table right now.
Chris put in
way more work on this Challenger
than I was expecting,
but we always knew the Challenger
was gonna be a bit of a long shot.
What else have you got?
Maybe this Belvedere over here.
- Sixty-six.
- [Mark] Hey, your IQ.
You are funny.
It's got pretty good suspension,
it looks like, underneath it.
Yeah. Big brakes, sticky tires,
custom roll cage.
- You got the rest of the pieces for this?
- Yeah.
- That's the motor that goes with it?
- 426 Hemi.
[Shawn] That motor's
worth twice as much as the car.
But I'm seeing some work here,
and I just got done working on a car.
Yeah, I see a lot of work.
So this car with that motor
is roughly worth about
40-45 grand put together.
- Yeah.
- [Shawn] Mm. The problem is,
to get any value out of this,
it's got to be finished up.
Sure, but this car's pretty much
paint, wiring, and you're there.
[Shawn] But when we're done
with that,
we're talking
somewhere near the 60-grand figure.
Yeah, sure.
That's not enough for us
'cause this is a project
that needs to be cashed out on.
Nah. What are you thinking?
We're all men.
We know what we're all looking at.
Everybody wants to come out ahead.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't.
But for me to swap my 50 for this 40,
it doesn't do me any good.
- So
- Well, I guess it ain't working today.
[Mark] No, doesn't look like it.
It takes so much to make a deal go down,
and today, it just wasn't there.
He wanted too much for the Challenger,
and the Belvedere wasn't enough for us.
If we can't get more than what we've got,
there's no point in doing it.
It's easy to trade down.
It's very hard to trade up,
and that's the goal here.
So now you've got a new job.
Find someone to take us to that next step
so we can get on the landing,
and then get to that six-figure car.
[Shawn] And we got a very desirable car
to do it with.
[Mark] All this being said,
I can think of three people
that are not gonna be happy with us
when we roll back up
with this thing still on a trailer.
That's gonna be a hell of a conversation,
and I want no part of that one.
[closing music playing]
- [calliope plays]
- [child] I want to see the show.
[engine revs and tires screech]
[Caveman] He hit it hard.
[Mark] You're [bleep] kidding me, right?
No, we're not [bleep] kidding you.
You're looking at it, right?
[Tony] We can't fix this. It's smashed in.
There's no structure. The frame's bent.
Who hit it? Did you hit it?
- [man] I didn't do it on purpose.
- You hit it.
Yeah.
What, you been driving for a [bleep] day?
No. I'm backing out, and he's coming,
and he's gonna hit me
So you hit me.
Yeah.
[Mark sighs]
This car is fricking totaled.
It's twisted up behind a tow truck.
The only thing salvageable
is the motor and transmission,
and we're only talking about
a few thousand dollars in parts.
I got four people, weeks of work.
Do the math on that one,
how much that just cost us all.
- Hey, dude. How you doing?
- All good.
- Having a good day?
- Having a great day.
Um, remember that Buick we were doing?
Funny. I was talking to the guy,
and he's wondering
when the damn thing's gonna be ready.
- Never.
- What do you mean, never?
[power tools run]
[engine revs]
Did you get the footage from the neighbor?
- Yeah.
- Let's see how bad this looks.
[Tony] Look. This van's backing up.
He's backing up.
[Caveman] Oh, wow. Whoa.
[Mark] Oh.
- [CM] Wow.
- [Tony] He hit that so hard.
[Mark] He waits and waits and waits,
and goes, "Reverse? I'm already in it.
I might as well just punch it."
This '53 Buick Special
was gonna be a monster.
Shawn had worked it out
so we could trade this Buick up
for a '71 Blazer.
Then we'd fix it up and trade it
for a one-of-a-kind
'59 Corvette Stingray concept car.
Since the tow truck
decided to play Demolition Derby
with our Buick,
we've actually lost multiple deals
and tens of thousands of dollars
in future profit.
- [tool drops]
- I'm just hoping and praying
Shawn's been able to talk to
the owner of this Blazer
and somehow keep this deal alive.
If not, I honestly don't know how
we're gonna recover from this.
Parking-lot accidents are the worst.
Shawn, you got to see this thing, dude.
Oh, Jesus. It just twisted this thing.
[Mark] So give me some good news.
Tell me you have the little light
at the end of this dark tunnel.
No.
[Mark] Really.
- [CM] No Blazer?
- [Shawn] Nothing.
He said he can't wait.
He's got guys with cash ready to go.
I've been stalling people left and right
'cause I was waiting on you.
[Tony] Is there something else
maybe you'd be interested in?
Can't do it, man.
- [Shawn] It's done.
- Like this car.
Yeah. This is a setback.
[Constance] If this deal isn't happening,
we need to have a plan B, C, D, E, F,
Shawn.
Why don't we just
take the rest of the day off,
and I'll figure out a plan
to, uh, get us out of this.
[dramatic music playing]
We didn't get to where we are
without picking ourselves up
off the canvas a few times.
In this business,
things fall through, stuff happens,
but we always find a way.
Hey, Caveman.
- Yo.
- Come over here and help me with this.
Everybody remembers this thing.
I got this Harley that's been in
the back of my shop for a while,
and I've got a plan
to make a low-cost build,
bring us in some quick cash
to get us out of this hole
that we've dug ourselves into.
Tony's got a 26-inch wheel, right?
- Yeah, we got a 26 sitting up there.
- Yeah.
And I probably have
quite a few other parts
sitting on the shelf back there
from old inventory.
Is this one of those deals
where you use up all parts in the shop?
Yes, it is.
We do this a lot. We have
so many parts stacked up
that in a pinch,
we can assemble a full car.
We did it a few months ago
with the Bug rod.
- [Tony] Ta-da.
- [Caveman chuckles]
Are you polishing a turd?
Yes, I am.
Wow. You guys made it happen.
In this case,
we're gonna do it with a bike.
Basically what we're gonna do
is we're gonna stretch a frame out,
and we're just gonna make
a custom badass bagger out of it.
- Really?
- [engine revs]
[Mark] A bagger is literally that.
It's a custom bike
that has a set of saddlebags on the back
for storage.
Typically, they're big bikes
built for long rides.
And right now,
baggers are one of the hottest commodities
on the custom bike market.
But our bagger is gonna be nothing like
anything you've ever seen.
First, we're gonna give it a big rake
and stretch the neck out by almost a foot.
Then we're gonna add
Tony's 26-inch wheel
to give it
a big piece of candy on the front.
We'll create a custom bag kit
that flows seamlessly
into the rest of the bike
to give it clean, sexy lines.
Of course, we'll give it
all of the regular Gotham Garage bling.
Then we're gonna finish it off
with a three-stage
candy-gloss custom paint job.
In the end, this bagger
is gonna lead us to a bag of cash,
and that's exactly
what the shop needs right now
- to get its mojo back.
- What's this bike gonna be worth?
- Like, what?
- I could see this being a $30,000 bike.
I mean, sometimes these bikes
even go for more.
[Mark] So, Shawn,
you need to sell this bike,
and we've also gotta hunt down
our next trade-up car.
- Yeah.
- In the meantime,
Caveman and Tony, you guys get this bike
running and done and fabbed up.
- [Tony] Nice.
- [Caveman chuckles]
We'll get the tank off.
We'll get the pipes off it.
Get this thing done
so we can make some damn money.
That sounds good to me.
[Caveman] In the bike world,
it's all about standing out,
having something unique.
- It's almost time to start cutting.
- All right.
[revs saw]
When you're riding, and somebody has got
a really nice custom bike
and has put a lot of money into it,
everybody notices that bike.
Here we go. Hold on.
All right.
Come on, baby. Get hot for Caveman.
One.
- We're right there.
- She's stretched and going back together.
I saw the light!
Again, too.
[Caveman] That looks sick.
[Tony] That's a whole new bike.
I'm gonna look good riding this.
Okay, so I've got a few cars up here
that just might make sense.
But we got to get the ball rolling
is what we need to do.
You need to get a ball to roll.
My biggest priority right now
is to find a new trade-up car.
What about that Camaro?
No. That guy wants tons of money for it.
I got a couple of different options
on my board,
but there's one in particular
I really like.
It's the perfect car
to start climbing the ladder
back towards six figures.
There is this one car.
Guy named Sebastien.
He somehow got his hands on
a '69 Mustang Mach 1,
which he doesn't know what to do with.
Without the door, it has no interior,
'cause I could see the other door.
Does it have a motor in it
or transmission?
No. Yes, it's missing everything,
but the beauty of that Mustang
is I can trade up for anything.
It's a absolute sure thing.
For right now,
that might be the perfect car for us.
We haven't got
a whole lot of choices right now.
We need to get something,
and we can go over now and talk to him.
I've heard enough
of your long-winded explanation.
Do you want to go look at this car
and see if we want to get it?
- I'll get some cash, and we'll
- Oh, you're gonna pay for it.
This is even a better deal.
I love this deal.
No, get your cash. No, get your cash.
- What are you talking about?
- [Mark chuckles]
Sebastien. He's a French guy.
- French-Canadian like you?
- No, no.
But I figure if I use my French accent,
maybe we can, uh, get the car
a little bit cheaper.
Sebastien! Comment ça va, my friend?
No, let's not do that.
[chuckles]
- [Mark] This must be the place.
- [Shawn] Uh, yeah.
Oh, there he is, there.
Hey, Sebastien.
- Hey, guys.
- How's it going?
- There's Mark.
- Nice to meet you.
- [Mark] What's up, doog?
- [barks]
- You got quite the place.
- Thank you.
Sebastien just works out of his house,
and he's got tons of cars,
but he's not into the American muscle,
and that's, uh
[chickens squawk]
He's got a few chickens here,
obviously, too.
When you talk,
you kind of get her all ramped up.
Chicks do that with me around, you know
what I'm talking about? Anyway, so, uh
- It's gotta be your shirt.
- Ah.
Well, now you know.
[squawking]
Shut up!
[stops squawking]
There it is.
[Mark]
That is what's left of a '69 Mustang.
[Shawn] The Ford Mustang
is arguably
the most popular pony car of all time.
[announcer]
For those who prefer the cool world.
People were flocking to these cars
when they were first released,
and they're still considered
an icon of the era.
Demand was high, is high,
and hopefully for us,
it will continue to be high.
Oh, man. It looks like it was a nice car,
but this does need everything.
You know the good part?
You have catalogs of parts for those cars.
- So it's easy.
- It's not that easy.
The interior kit's cheap.
Everything else is expensive.
[Sebastien] Shoot me an offer,
but be fair.
If you could be somewhere near
about, say, 55
I know you talked about ten,
but let's be realistic. Be realistic.
I know what I have.
I know what it's worth.
You need to do better. I mean, I'm at ten.
Even though this doesn't look like much,
when we're done with this car,
it's gonna be worth
somewhere around 50 grand.
If we can get this for under nine,
I'll take that deal all day.
[Sebastien] It's a '69 Mach 1.
There is not that many of those.
But obviously you don't want it anymore.
Yeah, but not for nothing.
But we can only pay so much
[rooster squawks]
- and
- [squawks]
the rooster's telling me,
"Only go to seven grand."
- [chuckles]
- [rooster squawks]
I can't do that.
Give me a realistic price.
Eight grand.
[Mark] It's a good deal at eight.
Eight grand is fine.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
[Mark] Eight grand is totally way more
than we would normally spend
on a trade-up car,
but in the long run, it's a safer gamble.
This thing is a total classic
that any car guy would get excited about
or, for that matter, a car girl.
Constance is gonna love this car.
She's built her own Mustang
from the ground up in her garage,
and she's gonna want to dive
right into this project.
[horn honks]
- [Tony] Look at that.
- [Caveman] Whoo. Hoo-hoo-hoo.
- What is it?
- [CM] You're gonna like this one.
Right up your alley.
This is the most beautiful rear end
I've ever seen.
[Mark] This Mustang
is now our most-important project.
It is our trade car.
[Constance] Is this for me?
[Mark chuckles]
So I brought everyone
over here to the new shop
so we can put a plan together
to get this car started.
- I didn't know it was Christmastime.
- [Mark] Yeah.
[guys laugh]
- [Mark] Good.
- [Shawn] Beautiful.
- Okay, you guys can go now.
- [laughter]
After the Buick, we needed something
that's not gonna take forever to fix up
and get us back trading up
to something bigger and better.
So this is gonna be a trade,
not a sell car?
It's a trade car, yeah,
so we can get to the six figures.
It's the fastest way to get there
right now.
I know everybody's feeling the same way
about the money being so deep.
[CM] I don't know about you guys,
but my pockets are empty.
This car is missing a lot of parts.
It needs a lot of money.
Do you already have a trade
lined up on this? Where do we stand?
No, there's no trade
lined up for this car yet
but it's a '69 Mach 1.
Who doesn't want one of those?
It'll be worth the investment.
It is the perfect car
to guarantee that
someone's gonna be interested.
So how much metal can I cut and move?
Well, okay, let's not get crazy.
Wait. Let's not get crazy.
[Mark] Normally with a trade car,
we start with something
that is not very desirable
and make it desirable.
With this car,
we're actually doing it backwards.
We're starting with a car
that is already very desirable.
But we still want to put our thumbprint
like we do with everything else.
I don't know how far
you can push one of these things.
That's why I'm gonna give Constance
the lead on this project,
'cause not only does she know Mustangs
inside and out,
when I gave her the lead
a couple months ago on the Bel Air,
she proved herself,
and she did a great job.
[engine revs]
- Now it's a car!
- Yeah!
[Constance] I think there's stuff
that we can do
that is still in line with
the Gotham Garage style
that still represents the past
in the Mustang history
and everything this car is built off of.
So I don't get to do any cutting
on this car?
TBD.
What'd you say?
- TBD. To be determined.
- [Constance laughs]
[snarky laughter]
Normally I would say
go and get started tearing it apart,
- but that part's already done.
- That was the easy part.
So, Constance, I need you to go find me
the best motor and gearbox
that we can stick in this thing
to get the most money out of it.
Something big.
Everyone else, let's get back to Gotham
and keep cruising on the Harley.
[Tony] Oh, you found the bag.
It's all kind of mismatched stuff.
The bagger kit I had laying around here
doesn't fit this bike.
- Oh, yay. Puzzle pieces!
- [Mark] Yeah.
We had this old bagger kit
just laying around the shop.
It's the same old cookie-cutter kit
that everybody has.
I really want to soften this.
So we're gonna customize this kit
and make it flow
into the lines of the bike.
Got a motorcycle kit there?
- [Caveman chuckles]
- Huh?
[chuckles] How are we doing this?
It's really simple.
When in doubt, cut it out.
- That should be on the front door here.
- I know, right?
Other shops would spend a ton of money
outsourcing this to somebody else
that would have to make a metal mold
to pull a fiberglass piece
to extend their bag,
but here, I go down to the fabric store,
buy $30 worth of florist foam,
and get the exact same effect.
[CM] I love working here.
It's something else that
- When did you start working here?
- Huh?
When did you start working here?
Keyword being "work."
- Yeah, I like hanging out with Mark.
- Yeah.
[background whistling]
From here on out, it's bodywork and paint,
and put it back together,
- and then we get paid.
- [Caveman] Cool.
The goal with a custom bagger
is to make it stand out
as much as possible.
So we're gonna paint this bike green
with a candy gold over the top.
[Mark] Green and gold
are the color of money.
Ah. I'm gonna hold it like a baby.
Pretty green alien baby.
What is it with you and shiny?
[chuckles]
We brought this Harley back to life.
We took the dusty tarp off the top,
knocked all the dirt off the bike,
and then, with everything in this shop,
we made one custom badass bagger.
[Mark] We stretched this bike over a foot
and gave it a custom 26-inch front wheel.
We custom-made the bag extensions
to seamlessly flow
with the lines of the bike.
The point of building a bagger
is to build something
that looks nothing like
anybody else's bike.
I mean, everywhere you go,
you're seeing 40, 50 baggers
parked in a row,
and if we can build that bike
that stands out of one in 50,
we're gonna get a huge payday
at the end of it.
[engine running]
[Caveman] Whoa! Damn!
When you're riding, you own the blacktop.
The road is yours.
You're the king, and you know it
because everybody's looking at you.
You and that bike have become one.
If Shawn didn't have a buyer
coming down for this in a couple days,
I'd probably jump on it
and take it to Vegas.
[cackles]
Shh. Don't let Mark hear you say that.
Awesome. [cackles]
[nut drops in bucket]
- [horn honks]
- [Constance] Hey, motor time.
Mark told me to get
"the biggest motor possible"
for this '69 Mach 1.
- Be really careful what you wish for.
- Four twenty-eight?
- Four twenty-eight.
- He did say go big, though.
I was able to get my buddy Mike
to give us this motor for 7,500 bucks,
which seems like a lot,
but it'll add a ton of trade value
to this car on the back end.
[cackles] Let's put this
big, beautiful big block in.
It really comes with the works.
Five-speed TKO transmission,
EFI, headers, bell housing.
I mean everything.
If you had a checklist of options
like you were ordering a sandwich
and you just wanted "the works."
[Caveman] Wow.
I said it's gonna be a tight fit,
but we're gonna get there.
[Tony] Might have to come back
a little bit. Oh.
[Caveman] It sound like it went in.
I don't think we can go much bigger.
Ladies, I have advice
if your man is a car guy.
You don't have to get him anything
but a big-block motor
of whatever he's into.
His Ford, his Chevy, his Mopar
That will put
the biggest smile on his face.
He won't need a ring.
- You wanna hear it a little bit?
- No, I wanna hear it a lot.
- All right.
- [Caveman] Not a little.
[Tony] Come on, 428.
[engine turns over and starts]
- Yeah!
- [Tony] First fire!
- [Caveman] First fire!
- Yeah!
[Caveman] Nice.
Fired right up.
[Constance] Once we get everything
cleaned up,
we'll get the new hoses
on the radiator set up.
I got
I got things that I want to do here.
[Caveman] I'm sure you do.
I see the cogs and sprockets
spinning in your eyeballs.
[Caveman and Constance chuckle]
[vehicle approaches]
Hey, Shawn, your buddy's here.
[Shawn] With the Buick crash,
we haven't seen a payday
in over three weeks.
Blake, buddy.
So we need to sell this bike
for as close to 30 grand as possible.
That way, we could put a couple of grand
in everybody's pocket
and use the rest
to keep the two shops flowing.
So we're bringing in a guy named Blake
who loves Harleys,
and he happens to be in the market
for a custom bagger.
Did I not tell you? Did I not tell you?
Take it in.
- [Blake] Holy hell, man.
- [Mark] Color of money.
[Shawn chuckles]
[Blake] It's almost hard to see
everything you guys have done
without walking around it
a hundred times.
- Yeah.
- What are we talking, motor-wise?
- What'd you guys slap in there?
- [Mark] RevTech hundred-inch.
I'll fire it up for you.
Gonna say, gotta give it a little whiskey.
[starts engine and revs it]
That sound good enough for you, Blake?
[engine idling]
- [shuts off engine]
- [Mark] That's just loud enough.
- That sounds like money right there.
- [Shawn] There you go.
First reaction, what are you thinking?
This isn't
This isn't what I was expecting
but this is rad.
I'm digging the color.
I do love the pipes. That intake's rad.
Lucky 13's badass.
[Shawn] So here's what I'm thinking.
Thirty-five grand.
[whistles] I was gonna say 25.
- [Shawn] Oh.
- I thought we were friends.
- [Mark chuckles]
- That's the friend's price.
- What, you kidding me?
- Gah.
I mean, for around the mid-30s, you know,
you can grab something
right off the floor.
- You mean something boring?
- [Mark chuckles]
We're not big on new around here.
And just remember what you're paying for.
You're paying for artistry here.
Not too many bikes looking like this.
You know, I do appreciate that,
but my wallet's
starting to try to run out the door.
Okay, I get it, okay.
How about I come all the way down to 32?
- Um
- Talk to me.
- Twenty-seven.
- You're going in the right direction.
Tell you what
You work with me a little bit more
so I can use a little bit of that
on my first road trip.
What do you say, 28,500?
[Shawn] Twenty-eight five.
- You know what? I think that's fine.
- I'm good with that.
And you buy the next round of beers.
Trying to shake your hand
before you say that.
- All right, man.
- Okay, 28,500,
and I got the next round of beers.
[Mark] It feels really good to sell
this bike
You killed it, dude.
but that's not gonna
hold us over forever.
We got to put the pedal to the metal
and get this Mustang done
so that we can keep this momentum rolling.
- Let's get the wheels real quick.
- [CM] All right.
'Cause it's gonna
change the way this car looks.
[Constance] With a classic muscle car
like this,
there are things that you can do,
and there are things that you cannot do.
This is a fat-ass tire.
Number one,
you cannot cut the roof off.
You have to balance this uniqueness,
which is what we bring here at this shop,
but keep those classic body lines
and things that really make it a Mustang.
- Hear me out.
- [Mark] Uh-oh.
People roll the fenders all the time
to fit a fatter tire in there.
If we pull the whole rear end out
- [Caveman] Wow.
- do the front out
so it still keeps the Mustang body line,
but now you have this classic car
that also has the feel of something
that's a little more modern.
So you're suggesting
we widebody this car?
Yeah. And then slam it.
That means air shocks.
Having a little problem processing
that you're telling me
to take a Sawzall to a '69 Mustang
- and push that fender out a good foot.
- I want it, like, here.
- It's at least a foot.
- Yeah.
This car is really gonna be
the best of both worlds.
You're gonna have all the little details
that tell you that it's a Mach 1,
but at the same time, you're gonna have
all the Gotham Garage touches
that people know us for.
We're gonna pull out those rear fenders
to fit those fat, meaty tires.
That will give the car
an overexaggerated cartoon look.
With the wider rear end,
we'll need five taillights
on either side of the back.
To modernize this car,
we're gonna give it a fully adjustable
Air Lift suspension kit.
That way, you can pump up the rear end
to give it that classic muscle-car look
or you can slam it on the ground
for that modern feel.
To finish it off,
we'll give it a jet-black paint job
so this car will look as mean as it rides.
[Mark] Let's get this over to Gotham
so we can start cutting it up.
- Got your way.
- [Constance laughs]
[Mark] With our current situation
at the shop,
it might seem a little crazy
to make a massive change like this.
Most people
would give it a factory paint job,
factory wheels, catalog parts,
and call it a day.
That is not what we do here.
In case you haven't figured it out by now,
we're all a little crazy.
I don't care how far in the hole
we are financially,
we have gotten to where we are
by never compromising,
and I'm not about to start now.
So why did you call me down here, dude?
I got a car to finish out there.
- I may have some good news.
- You're quitting.
No, I'm not quitting.
- Don't you wish. I've got
- Look at me. I'm crying on the inside now.
Pay attention. Think I've got a guy
that's interested in the Mustang.
Really?
His name is Chris. Got a hot-rod shop
not far from here, actually,
and he's definitely got lots of
high-end stuff to make a trade happen.
- So what does he have?
- He's actually got a '66 Belvedere.
He's got big, expensive motors.
He's got a Hellcat.
He's got a 426 Hemi.
There's a 25-grand motor right there.
And he's actually got a '70 Challenger.
He's never gonna trade us
a Challenger for a Mustang.
That's a six-figure car, dude.
Well, it's only a half-done Challenger,
and he said everything's on the table,
and I'm figuring if we bring the car
down there, and he sees it done,
who knows
what he's willing to trade for, you know?
[Shawn] Once we finish the Mach 1,
it'll be worth every bit of 50 grand.
I don't know exactly
what we're gonna get in exchange,
but this guy Chris has options.
Plan A
we try for that Challenger,
and we're on our way to six figures.
Plan B
we package one of those massive motors
with the Belvedere,
and we're walking away
with a ton of value.
The bottom line
is once he sees our Mustang,
we might just be able to take
one of those projects off his hands.
You know, the guy is a tough negotiator.
He knows what it's worth,
but one way or another,
with the amount of things
he has down there,
I'm sure we could come up with
some sort of a deal.
It's a pretty good situation.
I think it might be solid,
so let me get the car done,
and then we'll see what Chris has to say.
- Sounds like a plan.
- I'll go to work. Do what you do best.
Sit there. Look pretty.
That's my job.
Ooh, fancy new club for me?
- [Mark] Those are some sweet shocks.
- I know.
Growing up, it was all muscle cars,
and I thought that was
a totally normal situation
to get dropped off at elementary school
in, like, a '72 Chevelle.
I am definitely
the first person in the shop
to fight really hard
to keep a classic muscle car
as pure as possible.
But with this build, give it something
that makes it really badass.
[Mark] It's time to see
how low it drops on the ground.
[Caveman groans]
- [Constance] That's pretty cool there.
- [both] Now do the back.
[Caevman] It's alive. It moves.
[laughter]
[Mark] We've done
a ton of custom work on this car.
Constance wanted a jet-black paint job
but I'm also giving it red racing accents.
This car is definitely
gonna look as aggressive as it sounds.
[wind gusts]
[guns engine]
[screeches]
When you put the pedal to the metal
and dump that clutch
this thing throws you back in the seat,
gives you whiplash,
and I'd stack it up against any Mustang
right out of the factory.
It has all the classic elements
of a Mach 1
with the look and feel
of a modern hot rod.
It started with that absurd 428 big block
that we stuffed under the hood.
From there, we gave it
obnoxiously wide tires
and a full air-ride suspension kit.
We widened out the body
by at least a foot.
We gave it five taillights
to each side of the rear.
Constance
did a fantastic job with this car.
It looks mean, it sounds mean.
This car is a fricking monster.
[revs engine]
[Shawn] What you did to this car,
I like it. I like it a lot.
Sounds like I did a damn fine job.
Mark and everybody at the shop
did their part.
This Mustang they put together
is worth 50 grand all day.
The good thing about Chris
is he wants a '69 Mach 1,
and he's willing to trade for something.
Obviously, we're shooting
for that '70 Challenger,
but if that doesn't work out,
he's got other things over there.
Now it's all about
what he's gonna give in exchange.
[honks horn]
Chris, what's going on?
- Shawn.
- This is, uh, Mark.
Chris, how are you doing?
Nice to meet you, man. Nice to meet you.
- Why didn't you put the big tires on it?
- [Mark chuckles]
[engine running]
[guns engine]
- How'd that sound?
- That's loud enough.
Yeah.
But that's not all.
This is the fun part right here.
- [Mark] Got a 428 in it.
- Wow. What kind of trans you got in it?
- It's a Tremec.
- Very nice.
- [Shawn] Got a little get-up-and-go.
- Yeah.
Is that custom sheet metal
for the front splitter?
All of it, yeah.
Well, there's no fiberglass on it.
- Wow. Nobody does that.
- Just us old guys.
Yeah.
Now, as a muscle-car guy,
I really like what they've done.
It's got the wide fenders, great interior.
Black and the red looks great.
Bodywork looks bitchin'.
If we can cut a deal,
I'd love to have this car.
Checks all my boxes.
Okay, are you ready
to do some trading or what?
Yeah, we can go talk about it.
- [Mark] Shawn showed you his.
- Now it's my turn.
[Mark chuckles]
Oh, there we go.
I like the Challenger right there.
[Mark] Seventy.
It's a great year for muscle cars.
Chris, you've been busy
on this car, I see.
Yeah. Lot of custom work done to this.
- Tucked bumpers, shaved handles
- Shaved handles.
- Flush-mounted glass.
- [S] Sweet.
Four-link rear, coilovers in the front.
Right now, it's just the metal stage.
Getting ready for bodywork.
Man, that's a lot further along
than the last pictures I saw of this car.
I'm sure. We've put a bunch of work in it
the last couple of weeks.
This car's 120 grand easy when it's done.
That's why I'm trying to
talk you out of it.
[Mark] That's the whole point here.
I know there's a ton of value right here,
but you said you wanted a done car, right?
- Yeah.
- Custom Mustang.
I know you like that car.
You said you wanted to do
a little swapping.
This is a little swapping.
I'm gonna need car plus 20 grand.
Oh, man.
Well, that's not gonna happen.
We don't like pulling money
out of our pocket.
What do you say even swap?
- Straight across?
- Straight-across trade.
- That doesn't work for you?
- It's a '70 Challenger.
Custom body work and everything.
So I need your car plus about 20.
- [scoffs]
- [Mark] That's not gonna work for me.
No.
We definitely don't have 20 grand
to put on the table right now.
Chris put in
way more work on this Challenger
than I was expecting,
but we always knew the Challenger
was gonna be a bit of a long shot.
What else have you got?
Maybe this Belvedere over here.
- Sixty-six.
- [Mark] Hey, your IQ.
You are funny.
It's got pretty good suspension,
it looks like, underneath it.
Yeah. Big brakes, sticky tires,
custom roll cage.
- You got the rest of the pieces for this?
- Yeah.
- That's the motor that goes with it?
- 426 Hemi.
[Shawn] That motor's
worth twice as much as the car.
But I'm seeing some work here,
and I just got done working on a car.
Yeah, I see a lot of work.
So this car with that motor
is roughly worth about
40-45 grand put together.
- Yeah.
- [Shawn] Mm. The problem is,
to get any value out of this,
it's got to be finished up.
Sure, but this car's pretty much
paint, wiring, and you're there.
[Shawn] But when we're done
with that,
we're talking
somewhere near the 60-grand figure.
Yeah, sure.
That's not enough for us
'cause this is a project
that needs to be cashed out on.
Nah. What are you thinking?
We're all men.
We know what we're all looking at.
Everybody wants to come out ahead.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't.
But for me to swap my 50 for this 40,
it doesn't do me any good.
- So
- Well, I guess it ain't working today.
[Mark] No, doesn't look like it.
It takes so much to make a deal go down,
and today, it just wasn't there.
He wanted too much for the Challenger,
and the Belvedere wasn't enough for us.
If we can't get more than what we've got,
there's no point in doing it.
It's easy to trade down.
It's very hard to trade up,
and that's the goal here.
So now you've got a new job.
Find someone to take us to that next step
so we can get on the landing,
and then get to that six-figure car.
[Shawn] And we got a very desirable car
to do it with.
[Mark] All this being said,
I can think of three people
that are not gonna be happy with us
when we roll back up
with this thing still on a trailer.
That's gonna be a hell of a conversation,
and I want no part of that one.
[closing music playing]
- [calliope plays]
- [child] I want to see the show.