Car Masters: Rust to Riches (2018) s05e04 Episode Script

1
[heavy rock music playing]
[Shawn] We feel
a very fair value is 125 grand.
I'm really comfortable about $65,000 cash.
[Shawn] We're in the middle of negotiating
a sale price for this hot rod Tesla.
Mark wants 90 grand for this car.
But unfortunately, our buyer, Joe,
either doesn't think it's worth that,
or he's playing hardball with us.
You know, you're Nick's buddy.
We'll drop it
all the way down to 100 grand.
I appreciate that,
but I really feel the deal for me,
I'll go up to 78,000.
-[tense music playing]
-Man, that's just not close enough for us.
It was hard enough finding this buyer,
so I'm really hoping that
I can get Joe up to that 90 grand figure.
If you had somebody
try and build you a car like this,
there's no way
you'd even get close to 100 grand.
The budget'd be skyrocketed
on something like this.
I tell you what.
I think our absolute rock bottom
we could go,
man, is 95.
I mean, that's that's
the lowest we can go.
And you did want a Gotham Garage car.
This is a modern art piece.
This has potential
to appreciate quite well.
So from a business standpoint,
this could make some sense anyway.
Listen, for my usage
in my office as a centerpiece,
seventy-eight five is my final offer.
[tense music playing]
Cash.
-[Shawn] Mark, what are you thinking?
-[Mark] I totally get it.
Um, but I think
it's just not the right fit at this time.
So, I just appreciate
you coming down here.
I just think we're too far away today
to make it happen.
-I understand what you're sayin'.
-[Mark] I appreciate your time, man.
Much respect.
[Nick] I know Mark's the owner of the shop
and has the final say in these decisions,
but in my opinion,
we should have taken this deal.
I think Mark's fixated on the short-term
and the immediate money from the Tesla
when he should be looking at
the the long-term aspect
of having a client like Joe
owning a Gotham Garage car
and putting it on display.
-[Joe] All right, my friend.
-Thanks for coming.
[Nick] Maybe we just have philosophical
differences on how we do business,
but I think this was a missed opportunity.
[Mark] Well, sometimes it doesn't happen.
Oh, man.
[clicks, whirs]
[revs, sputters]
[revs]
-[dramatic organ music playing]
-[wind gusting]
[grunts] I just hate pushing
another expensive car into storage.
-Yeah. It happens.
-It hurts.
It is what it is.
Did you let the crew know?
Yeah. I texted them
and told them the deal was a no-go.
[Mark] And?
They weren't too thrilled about it,
that's for sure.
[Mark] I'm sure that everybody's
pretty frustrated right now
because we didn't take
the money on the Tesla.
But there's just too much time
and too much money invested
to sell yourself short.
I'm not letting it go for 78 grand.
Between building the Barracuda
to acquire the Tesla
and then building the Tesla itself,
we're about 60 grand deep
into this whole deal.
Plus, we need to pay out
eight people now instead of five.
I know what we can get for it,
and I'm not ready
to give up on that just yet.
Definitely on that one.
We've invested so much
of this shop's energy into this project.
My feeling is we have to get
a solid return for this car.
Tony's texting me. It says, uh,
"Can you guys come over to the shop?
I wanna talk to you about something."
"Me, Caveman, and Constance
are waiting for you."
-Hmm. Don't know what that's about.
-You think we're fired?
I hope.
[exciting rock music playing]
[Constance] Ah, there they are.
-'Sup?
-What's going on?
-What'sa happen?
-Are we Are we in trouble or something?
[chuckling] Not exactly,
but, you know, we've just been talking,
and, uh, you know,
we always trust you guys
to steer us in the right direction
and have the best interest
of us in the shop.
But we're just a little confused about
the overall direction that we're taking,
and it it just doesn't feel like
there's a clear path forward.
Going after the high-end clients is great.
But adding a high-end upgrade and trade
on top of that
seemed like a recipe for disaster.
Now there's way too much money
going out of the shop,
and there's just not enough coming in.
I think it goes without saying,
I'm kicking myself now
for trying to pull off
this massive upgrade and trade.
With Nick coming in,
maybe I felt like
I needed to prove my worth.
Maybe I thought
if I couldn't compete with Nick,
these guys wouldn't need me anymore.
But I had no idea
it would dig us into this big of a hole.
You know, we're not saying, like,
we're broke or anything,
but it definitely felt like
after last year we were on this up and up,
and, you know,
more money was gonna be coming in.
[Shawn] Yeah
And over the past few weeks,
it kinda feels like that's not happening,
or even taking a step backwards.
Gotta have dollars to make sense,
and now we don't have any dollars.
So it's not making any sense.
[Shawn] Seeing the whole crew
get so demoralized by this, it's tough.
I let my ego get in the way of the shop,
and that just can't happen.
Obviously, this upgrade and trade
was a bad deal.
If I would've known
that it was causing this many problems,
I wouldn't have brought it in.
You know, lesson learned.
At least you're man enough to admit it.
But I think right now
it's a little too early to panic.
We got some big picture dilemmas
that we gotta deal with, hammer out.
I think, in the short term,
if you guys are concerned about money,
I think maybe we just pump the brakes
and we just do a project
that we're all comfortable with.
That could work.
I feel like we gotta do something, though.
We gotta We gotta kind of change.
Shake it up a little bit.
So I was down in Old Town,
and I saw a Harley Dyna.
-They only wanted five grand for it.
-For a Dyna, that's a pretty good price.
We do super well with motorcycles.
They take no time to build,
and we've never had
a problem unloading a bike.
-Bikes are quick.
-Yeah.
[Mark] If the crew is feeling like
we're getting a little over our skis
and we need some quick cash,
then a custom Harley is the perfect build
to get us back on track.
You know, we could just go crazy
and do some wild customization on it
and get, like, 45 grand for it.
-[Caveman] I like crazy.
-[Mark] You are crazy.
-That's why I like crazy.
-[Mark] That's why. I know.
A Harley Dyna is a very basic bike.
It's kinda like
a Harley-Davidson starter kit.
But that means it's a perfect blank slate
for a Gotham Garage Road Warrior.
-That's old-school Gotham Garage there.
-Yeah.
-I like it.
-Sure, sounds good.
[Mark] Then, in the morning,
Shawn and I will go down to Old Town,
and we'll pick up the bike
and meet you here in the morning,
and we can start on that project.
[Tony] All right. Sounds like a plan.
[exciting rock music playing]
[engine rumbling]
[Jake] What is that?
[Tony] I think that's
our next project showing up.
-[Brian] Really?
-[Jake] Yeah.
-Little Dyna action.
-[music fades]
[Mark] It runs like a champ.
-We score a good deal?
-[Mark] Yeah. Like, stole it pretty much.
If the cops show up,
it wasn't me riding it.
[all laugh]
[Mark] So the bottom line is this
Tesla trade has set us back quite a lot.
When things get a little rough,
we do a bike.
The profit margin
in these things is ridiculous.
But you guys know the deal with bikes.
For us to make 40 grand,
we're gonna have to go
way above and beyond crazy custom.
That means tons of custom parts
and a totally unique design.
Tony, I'm gonna assign you
to this project.
And, Caveman,
I want you to be his right hand.
Yeah. Okay.
Tony did such a phenomenal job
taking the reins on the man cave build
that I want him to do the same thing
on this custom bike.
And Caveman is deep into the bike scene.
He knows Harleys better than anyone.
-Damn right I do.
-I know.
[all chuckling]
Shawn and Nick, this bike project
ain't gonna last forever,
so you guys need to go find us
another deal so we can get some money
Sure.
and get this ball rolling again.
Sound good?
-Sounds good.
-All right.
[Mark] Everybody knows their job?
Let's get it done.
[exciting rock music playing]
[Tony] I've been looking at some bikes,
and they have this crazy steering,
it's called center hub steering.
-Kinda like a rear swingarm in the front.
-Okay. Streamlined look.
[Tony] I'm definitely glad that Mark
suggested a motorcycle for this project
because I have a catalog
of custom motorcycle designs
always ready to go.
One in particular
is gonna be perfect for this bike.
I've been dreaming about
this idea for a super unique bike
for a long time now.
It's a blend of two of my favorite things,
superhero movies and badass motorcycles.
What I see in my head, Caveman,
is basically like a superhero bike.
If you wanna sell it to Harley guys,
you're gonna have to go
like a supervillain bike.
That's genius. A supervillain bike.
[dramatic music playing]
We're gonna push the bike
super low to the ground.
Really low.
Then we're gonna stretch it out.
Think more stretched out
than you've ever seen a bike before.
And then we're gonna add
two giant wide tires
in the front and back.
They obviously don't make
Harley parts like this.
So we're gonna have to make
everything custom.
We'll start with a center hub
steering system in the front
and a wider, stretched-out swingarm
in the back.
And for our paint job, we want
our supervillain to blend in at night.
So we're gonna give it
a satin black and bronze paint job.
This will be the most custom bike
we have ever done.
So, uh, can you pull this off
or you just up blowing smoke?
-No, I got this. Yeah.
-All right.
There was only a little smoke.
[laughs]
[upbeat synth rock music playing]
[Shawn] This string here,
that's an orange string.
That's like a tentative deal.
That's That's a more hardcore deal
that's gonna go down.
You're getting involved in
Professor Pilot's string theory over here?
-That's exactly what it is.
-That's not a place you wanna go.
-Anyway.
-Red strings are hot deals.
Okay, the reason the reason
we brought you in here
because Nick has found us
another big deal.
Really?
My overall plan with Gotham
is to establish them
within my key circle of clients.
And I've obviously been talking them up
and creating some buzz,
but getting these big clients to trust
a new shop with an expensive car build,
that's proven trickier than I expected.
[Shawn] It's some sort of mystery
'cause he hasn't told me a thing about it.
So spill it, Nick. What do you got?
[chuckles] I think
this is a deal you'll like.
In the meantime,
while I'm finessing my clients,
I've managed to track down
a nice project through a friend.
It'd be the perfect project
to tide us over.
It's not the biggest build,
certainly not the biggest budget,
but it has a ton of upside
and very much in Gotham's wheelhouse.
-You know Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park?
-Yep.
So Fred, who runs it,
I've known Fred for years.
He has recently acquired, uh,
an M-29 Weasel personnel carrier.
[Mark] He's got a track Weasel?
-[Nick] He does.
-[Shawn] The little tank thing?
-Yeah, it's a mini tank.
-Yeah.
He wants it for for promotion
of the Motorsports Park.
He wants to turn it
into something flamboyant.
He wants to put a car on it.
The word "rat rod" came up.
Oh, I like the word "rat rod."
So he wants us to take an old car,
put it down on an old tank.
-[Nick] Yep.
-And so what's he
What's he talking about price-wise?
Fifty-five grand.
Fifty-five grand for a rat rod?
I may not be in a position
to voice my opinion
with the Tesla and all, I get that.
You're right.
But is this the right build
for us right now?
It's a rat rod tank.
[Shawn] Look, I know Nick is doing
what he thinks is right here,
but I don't think he understands
just how much a build like this
could lead the shop down a rabbit hole.
Does it run?
[inhales] Uh Okay, no, it doesn't run.
Does he even have the car
to put on top of the tank?
No.
Whenever we do these novelty-type builds,
it's a roll of the dice
whether or not we make profit.
Even at 55 grand.
We did a hot tub car a few years ago,
and we barely broke even on it.
-[Caveman] Yeah. Whoa!
-[Mark] Oh [bleeps]
And more recently, we did a rocket car
that we lost money on.
Shake his hand and take the money.
Nick may not know all that,
but I have years
of first-hand experience on this stuff.
-What's the timeline?
-He's got a big event coming up.
He wants to have it ready,
so it's about three weeks.
I'll be lucky to get that thing up
and operable in three weeks. Come on!
Three weeks to get something running here?
-I don't think so.
-[Nick] You like the deal?
I love the deal.
How fast can you get the tank here
so we can get started?
I can have it here in an hour.
I'm gonna go get Jake and Constance
to meet me over at the other shop,
and we're gonna wait to receive a Weasel.
-Of course you are. Why wouldn't you?
-[Mark] Mm-hmm.
Yeah, uh, while I'm doing that,
you should sell the Tesla.
Yeah, I got that.
[mellow rock music playing]
[Mark] While Tony, Caveman, and Brian
knock out our custom bike project
[Caveman] That looks cool
looking at it this way.
I'm pulling Jake and Constance
to help me on a rat rod tank car.
-[Jake] What the .
-[Constance] This is new.
[chuckling] Actually, it's kind of old.
It was made in 1942.
This is an M-29 personnel carrier.
-[Jake] It's amazing you find this stuff.
-[Mark] Yeah.
Constance can help with
getting the motor up and running,
and Jake and me
can handle all the fab work.
-Let's get it off the trailer.
-How are we gonna get it off?
Does it roll?
The tracks work or were working.
So let's get it unstrapped,
and then we'll find out
how good it does or doesn't roll.
The M-29 Weasel
was a tracked military vehicle
that was built in the 1920s.
Never a dull moment around here, Jake.
[Jake] I'm figuring that out.
-[upbeat music plays]
-[projector whirs]
[Mark] This vehicle was designed to go
anywhere on any kind of surface,
including over water.
It was an amphibious vehicle,
which means it could go places
that four-wheel drive Jeeps
and trucks could not go.
It's the epitome
of an all-terrain vehicle.
[thuds]
[music ends]
[Constance] It is really cool.
I feel like it needs a lot of love.
[Mark] For sure.
But for what we're gonna do to it,
it's not gonna need
as much love as you think.
The plan is, we're gonna turn this thing
into a badass rat rod tank car.
-[Jake] For real? Sweet.
-[Mark] Yeah.
Before we can turn this Weasel
into a rat rod tank car,
we need to first
get it running and driving.
[heavy rock music plays]
So we'll freshen up the motor
to hopefully get the motor started,
and that should get this thing
moving forward and backwards.
And then it's time to turn it
into half car and half tank.
So we'll need to mount a car body on top
that lines up perfectly with the M-29.
Once that's done,
we'll give it an indestructible paint job.
We're gonna spray it with truck bed liner.
We'll finish it off with
some super unique Gotham Garage touches
that'll make it
a one-of-a-kind rat rod tank car.
Now you kinda know
what the general game plan is.
I'm gonna make a list
of everything it doesn't have
[chuckling] then we're all gonna go
to the doctor and get tetanus shots.
[Jake] Sounds good.
[mellow rock music playing]
I know all Mark wants to do is
take this tank and turn it into a rat rod,
which sounds simple,
but projects like this
always have a way
of just going off the rails.
Mark either goes way overboard
or a problem comes up and the timeline
and budget just snowballs.
Well, that's one way to do it.
[chuckles]
And on this one, there is just
so much room for things to go wrong.
Number one, it's a tank not a car.
Number two, this tank is really old,
really rusty, and doesn't run.
And number three, we only have
three weeks to get the whole thing done.
Oh, and I also forgot to mention,
none of us have worked on a tank before.
I mean,
I think we removed most of the floor.
-[Constance] Just on the cleanup.
-[Jake] Yes. I would say so.
Well, cool deal.
So tomorrow,
we need to go through this motor
and see if we can get it to fire up.
And, um, call Caveman.
Tell him there's an emergency at the shop,
and then tell him
that I said he has to sweep the floor.
-[laughs]
-You got it.
[driving rock music playing]
[Tony] All right, guys. Check these out.
-Those are large.
-Where's the front one?
That's the front one.
And this is the back one.
Was I right?
The dimensions about as wide as my ass.
[Tony] Yeah.
So, the big challenge is
these two big freakin' tires.
These tires are way wider
than what we had on this bike stock.
So we have to create
an entirely custom front
and rear end to fit them.
Okay.
For the front, our steering is gonna
come off the neck of the bike.
So I'm gonna start designing up
our center hub steering mechanism.
Okay.
[heavy rock music playing]
[Tony] When you think of
a superhero or a supervillain,
they always have the fastest ride,
and they're always weaving in and out
of obstacles seamlessly.
Center hub steering, the kind of steering
that we're gonna put into this bike,
is gonna give the bike
that kind of superpower.
It's not the most common steering system,
but it's gonna be totally worth it.
There's a lot of pieces going on here.
We're gonna get
from A to B to C to D to E to F.
And maybe somewhere around H
the wheel's actually gonna turn.
Most bikes have
something called fork steering
where you steer the bike
with a set of forks
that grab the wheel from above.
With center hub steering,
you're grabbing the wheel from the side,
and you're actually steering the bike
from inside the wheel.
It makes the bike way more agile,
and it actually allows you
to accelerate faster.
All right, Brian.
So first things first.
This'll all get tacked
and fitted to the frame.
But there's a reason
you don't see it on every bike.
It's a very technical
and complicated setup.
[Brian] It looks good.
[Tony] Yeah. So this is gonna
[imitates whooshing] just like that.
Now we need to get it
attached to the frame.
As a motorcycle aficionado,
I could tell you firsthand
that custom Harleys
are the most desirable bikes out there.
Come on. Can I get it?
Oh yeah, look at that. I got it, didn't I?
At this point, people have done everything
you could possibly do to a bike.
[Brian] That how high it's supposed to go?
Level.
So making it look different is not easy.
But, man, this bike with this design
and all the custom parts,
it's gonna be
unlike anything you've seen on the road.
Hey, sparks are flying!
Is it the 4th of July?
[Brian] Around here,
every day is 4th of July.
[Tony] This is obviously a ton of work.
Almost every piece needs to be made here
in house on the war jet.
[Caveman] Damn!
[Tony] But if we're aiming for 40 grand,
our bike needs a setup like this
to make it totally unique.
[Caveman] Look at that.
Look at that thing roll. Look at that.
[Tony] I've got enough here to say,
okay, we can sign off on this
and start cutting the back up,
but we got a lot of custom work left.
Letting you know, there's some long days
ahead of us, probably some late nights.
[Caveman] If we'll have long nights,
maybe I should call my mom up,
have her bring some of that lemonade
and cookies down
to sugar us up to get it done.
Yeah, a visit from Cave Mom?
-Yeah! Why not? [laughs]
-[Tony] That sounds great.
Wait, you guys are You're serious?
Oh, man, when Cave Mom comes down,
she brings lemonade, cake, cookies.
-So we get baked goods and lemonade?
-It's awesome.
-[Caveman] Yeah.
-I thought you were messing around.
[all chuckling]
[exciting, funky rock music playing]
[music fades]
[Mark] So, first things first.
I wanna make sure that
the motor's actually mechanically sound.
[Jake] Okay.
[Mark] It doesn't run now,
but the good news is,
I did a little research
on the interweb last night,
and that motor
is just an old Studebaker motor.
So we're gonna know pretty quickly
if it runs or not.
Uh, you'll need to get a battery
and drop it in.
-[Jake] Okay.
-Then, Constance, you can climb inside.
-Yep.
-[Mark] So let's get that all started up.
[Constance] We're trying to see
if we can get this tank's original motor
and treads actually working.
Now, you may think
that there's just no way
that we're gonna be able
to get this thing to work.
But the military made every part
on these tanks built to last.
So we're thinking
that if we can kinda give this thing
a quick little refresh,
I mean, cap and rotor,
spark plug wires, spark plugs,
in theory, it should still work.
[Mark] Get some gas hooked up to it
'cause I know that fuel pump doesn't work.
[Constance] They also designed
everything on it to be easy to fix.
The issue with that is,
if your easy fix doesn't work,
you can pretty much bet that
you're gonna have to replace everything.
There's three switches over there,
all have to be flipped straight up.
[Constance] Alright.
And if it turns out
that we're gonna have to start replacing
these obscure military parts,
it's gonna be really hard to make sure
that this tank is ready on time
for this off-road event.
Okay, go ahead
and crank it around right now.
[engine sputters]
Try it again.
[engine sputters]
Alright, hold on.
Okay. Now crank it.
[engine sputtering]
Keep going.
[engine almost starts]
[Jake] Come on!
[engine rumbling]
[Mark] That's it.
Yeah!
[upbeat music playing]
Alright, go ahead and cut. Kill it.
-All three switches down. There you go.
-[engine shuts off]
So that's freaking awesome.
That's stage one.
[chuckling] Onto the driving part.
-That's the one I'm more worried about.
-[Mark] It's the driving part.
[exciting rock music playing]
[engine rumbling]
[engine revving]
-Purrs like a kitten the day it was born.
-[Jake] It sure does.
[Mark] Well, moment of truth.
Oh, yeah.
[Constance] Movement is good.
Right, turn it.
I was.
-Really?
-Yeah, it doesn't work.
The steering doesn't work.
-Just forward and backwards.
-[Mark] Yeah.
-These two bars, they're supposed to go
-[Jake] Individually.
Forward is power to a wheel,
and back is disconnect
the power to the wheels.
That's how you get it to turn.
It skid steers.
So it ain't happening.
So there's something wrong.
Anything moving back there?
[chuckling] I mean, it kind of looks like
it's trying, but not nearly enough.
[groans] It's never that simple, I swear.
So here we go. Now we gotta figure out
how to make this thing steer correctly.
[mellow rock music playing]
So we've got some big issues
with the back end.
That tire is wider than these struts.
It sure is.
[Tony] So we're gonna
have to cut the struts off
and we have to stretch the swingarm
and fit the wide tire in.
What do you say, Caveman?
You ready to do some cutting?
Of course I'm ready to do some cutting.
I've been waiting all damn day!
[exciting rock music playing]
[Tony] Now that we have
the front of this bike built out,
and our center hub steering is functional,
we now need to assemble
the whole back end of the bike.
Basically, the back end
needs to mimic the front end.
-[Caveman] What else? What's next?
-[Tony] That's it. That's it.
I should've made it last longer, then.
[Tony] So we're gonna create
a completely one-off swingarm
that grabs the back wheel from one side,
similar to how our center hub steering
grabs the front wheel.
We'll throw a straight edge on it
and clamp it up to our back wheel.
But since the whole back
and front end are custom-made,
the challenge is making sure
that everything is true and square.
-You see it on the bubble.
-[Tony] It's looking really even.
-It looks pretty badass from this angle.
-[Tony] I'm pretty happy with it.
It's super long.
It's like a limo now.
[Caveman chuckles]
Guys, unfortunately, we do have to blow
this bike apart one more time for paint.
[Caveman] Of course.
-Hello. Michael, are you here?
-Hey, Mom.
-You got cookies!
-[Tony] It's Michael.
-[Sandra] I heard you're working hard.
-Thank you, Sandra.
-So this is Cave Mom?
-Yeah, I'm Sandra.
-I'm Brian. Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you, Brian.
Mom has always been real supportive.
I mean, the boss
has always loved my mom too.
And everybody else. They see her coming.
"Oh, there's Mike's mom, Caveman's mom!"
"And what is she bringing?" [laughs]
You know, I knew you guys
were working hard overtime.
-So, you need a sugar rush, right?
-Yeah, we do.
-Yeah? Okay.
-Absolutely.
-What do you think of the bike?
-It's beautiful when it's finished.
Yeah, check it out.
I got it on the computer here.
Okay.
So these are all the blueprints
of what we're building.
-Wow.
-This is kind of the transformation steps.
-You can see we changed all the wheels
-That's It's longer.
-And the suspension, it's longer.
-It's beautiful.
I love coming to the shop.
-I like to see the cars, the progress.
-Do you have an English accent?
-A tad. Yeah. A tad.
-[Brian] A tad?
Yeah. I was born and raised
in England, yes.
-I gotta get Nick down here real quick.
-Get him down here.
Yeah. I like to see the interaction
with all the people working.
Especially to see my son, Michael.
[chuckling]
-Right here.
-[chuckles]
[chuckles] Oh, it looks like
Nick's about to bring
a special English treat for you.
I've always been proud of where he works
because all the love
that goes into everything.
I think it's wonderful.
[all exclaiming excitedly]
What do we got here? Oh my goodness.
-[Nick] Someone has to be civilized.
-Oh, a man after my own heart.
[Nick] See, a gentleman.
-Tea solves every problem.
-[Nick] Really does.
[Sandra] It really does.
If that was the case,
I'd have been drinking tea long time ago.
[all laughing]
I was really surprised
to meet Nick with the tea.
I thought it was lovely.
Cheers, darling.
Michael has never
made me a cup of tea in his life.
[sputtering] How am I supposed to know
which one when you got boxes in,
you know, in the cupboard?
-I know.
-Breakfast, lunch, dinner.
-You know, snack things. I don't know.
-It's what I do.
-[Sandra] Thank you. This is lovely.
-You're welcome. Of course.
Sorry to break up the tea party,
but Shawn's asking me
to meet him in the office.
Are you in trouble?
-I never go there.
-[Caveman] Take biscuits.
-Take biscuits if you're in trouble.
-[Sandra] Take these.
-[Nick] Let me take
-[Caveman] Oh!
Let me go see what he wants.
Thank you, Sandra.
Bye, darling. Nice seeing you again.
I only come over
when I bring biscuits and, uh, lemonade.
-[Nick] Then you should come very often.
-[all laughing]
[exciting rock music playing]
[music ends]
[knock at door]
-'Sup, Shawn? Hey.
-Hey, Tony. What's going on, buddy?
I got your text, man. You wanted to talk?
I'm just going crazy here
trying to get a buyer for this Tesla.
Everybody's loving the car,
but no one's willing to throw down
90 grand for a car like that.
It's so specific of a build.
I swear, I am doing my absolute best
to try and sell this Tesla,
but it is getting ridiculous.
[man] I don't know if a hot rod Tesla
is really my style.
A little more understated,
know what I mean?
Uh, understated?
Uh, it's all in the eye of the beholder,
you know?
So I called Tony in here
to run an idea by him.
It's pretty bold.
But at this point, it might be
our only way out of this mess.
I'm, uh I'm thinking about
doing a trade for the Tesla.
This is the only way
I see out of this mess.
Because right now,
there's just no one that's willing
to just put out straight cash.
After everything
that's gone down with this car,
I can't believe
that Shawn is even considering a trade.
That's what got him into this mess
in the first place.
But, look, it'd be a trade deal
that'd involve a good chunk of cash too.
Get some more cars in.
Maybe we can parlay that
into maybe something more than 90 grand.
But if he's really at the end of his rope
like he says,
then a solid trade
that also involves a good chunk of cash
might be the only way
to get out from underneath this car.
Where I'm at right now
is, um, I'm trying to think of anything
I can do to actually move this car.
I mean, it's got potential, but, you know,
if Mark sniffs out what you're up to,
he's not gonna be happy.
I say we keep it on the down-low.
You help me out a little bit.
Maybe we enlist Constance and Caveman.
-Oh, man.
-We do a little What? What?
-So
-You want a paycheck, right?
We're all gonna be your accomplice
on these shenanigans?
If you wanna call it that, yeah.
In my opinion, this is the type of car
that could give us
a ton of value in a trade.
All right, Shawn. Well, listen, man.
I'll I'll talk to Caveman, Constance,
and I'll see if we can shake anything out.
Me and Caveman are going
to a car show in a couple days,
so maybe we can even ask around there.
That's what I like.
Mark might kill me if he finds out,
but he's gonna love me if I pull this off.
Listen, if something goes bad,
and this gets sniffed out
and and there's there's
a price to pay, this was all your idea.
-It was all me. Yep.
-This is all your idea.
-All right.
-Okay, you know nothing.
-Alright?
-[chuckles] Nothing.
Alright? Oh, yeah. Okay.
That might get us out of this mess.
[intense electronic music playing]
[music ends]
[Mark] It's these two that are not moving.
They're bound up. It needs a little help.
-Shock to break it loose?
-Yeah. Got a hammer?
I sure do.
[Mark] The tank runs with a joystick,
so the only way to make the vehicle turn,
you have to push one forward
and pull the other one back
to make the tank turn right or left.
Our assumption here
is that this thing has been sitting
somewhere out in a field, in the weather,
and it's fused itself together.
It's seized up. It won't move.
I'm not even feeling anything,
and I'm pulling on it.
I think it's just time
to get military on it.
-Yeah. Leverage.
-And just started pulling on it. Yeah.
These vehicles
were designed for the military.
They were designed to be worked on
and fixed in the middle of a battle.
That in mind,
sometimes it just takes brute force.
That's what we're gonna try.
Go ahead and start ratcheting it.
Knowing that we gotta have
this vehicle ready
for an event that's happening
in less than three weeks,
we're really hoping
that the brute force tactic
does not backfire on us.
All right, keep going.
You're either gonna break it
or break it loose.
-[clanks loudly]
-Ah, there we go.
-[Mark] Well, that's This one's free.
-[laughs]
[Mark] You guys
button that back up real quick.
Let's, uh, say a hope and a prayer,
and it'll run, drive,
and spin around in circles.
Let's give it a whirl.
[engine rumbles]
-It's turning.
-Yeah, I did see that.
Watch the lift.
[metal groans]
[Mark] Well, I'd call it a turn.
-It goes places.
-Yeah, it sure does.
It's better than forward.
It goes forwards,
backwards, right, and left.
-[Jake] So, problem solved?
-[Mark] Problem solved.
Well, we're in really good shape
for today.
So next step is we gotta find a car body
to mount on top to turn it into a rat rod.
I'm gonna go with Shawn
and we'll get a body for this thing.
Once we find one,
it's full-blown fab work from here on out.
-Good job, you guys.
-[Jake] Thanks, Mark, for your help.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Tony] To make this bike look like
something a super villain
would ride in a movie,
it has to have a badass paint scheme.
But we also wanna pick a color scheme
that won't limit our buyer pool.
[intense music playing]
[Tony] To give this bike
a real sinister look,
we're gonna paint all the wheels
and custom suspension components
satin bronze.
That's gonna make it jump out
a little bit, but not too much.
And the rest of the bike
is gonna be satin black.
It's gonna give it a real, real mean look.
-Got some more pretty parts.
-That's the last of it, Caveman.
Yeah, you did a fabulous job.
[Tony] Alright, let's start putting
this bike back together.
We're not just reassembling
the motorcycle's hundreds of pieces.
-We're connecting the new parts too.
-One piece at a time.
[Tony] Caveman's working on the clutch,
I'm on the wheels,
and Brian is on the center hub steering.
I'm sure Caveman is dying
to take this thing for a ride.
But I already called dibs.
So once this thing's fully assembled,
it's freaking on.
[epic music building]
[engine revs]
This is definitely one
of the slickest, most creative bikes
we've ever done at this shop.
It almost looks like it was forged
in some dark, underground lair.
[sinister music playing]
[Tony] From where this bike started
and where it is now,
the transformation is just epic.
The center hub steering and swingarm
not only make the bike
faster and smoother,
the front tire almost feels like
it's floating out in space,
like it's magnetically connected
to the bike itself.
And with this stretched stance
and super wide tires,
it almost looks like it could
devour the pavement.
Riding this bike almost makes you feel
like a villain from a graphic novel
in a crazy chase sequence.
And just when it feels like
they got you caught
In the blink of an eye you're gone.
[engine revs]
[music fades]
[birds chirping]
I can't even believe
how good this turned out. You know?
Tony's got some mad skills.
There ain't another one like it out there.
[Shawn] We've obviously sold
a ton of bikes in the past,
so it didn't take me much
to track down a buyer.
My guy, Otto,
is absolutely perfect for this bike.
He loves Harleys,
and he's always
looking for something different,
and this bike is different.
I told him mid-forties.
I don't know if he's gonna look at it
and think it's amazing
and throw us 45 grand or not.
All told, Tony and Cavemen spent
about 15 grand on this build.
So if I can get about 40 grand for it,
we're looking at about 25 grand in profit.
-[motorcycle approaches]
-We'll find out if he loves it.
[Shawn] Sounds Sounds like
we're gonna find out pretty darn quick.
-There he is.
-That's a badass Har, though.
[Shawn chuckling] Yeah.
Told you he's into
custom bikes just a bit.
A little bit.
-[Shawn] Otto, how's it going, buddy?
-Good. How are you?
-Good to see you. This is Mark.
-Hey, Otto. Mark. Nice to meet you.
Yeah, Otto.
I've been buying and selling
custom motorcycles and custom cars
for close to 15 years.
This is that custom bike
I was telling you about.
It's a lot of motorcycle.
Shawn's talked this bike up quite a bit.
But, uh, I like to see stuff
that's, uh, head-turning, handmade parts.
It's stuff that you can't buy
out of the catalog.
If it doesn't check all those boxes off,
I'm not buying it.
I don't think
you'll ever see another one like it.
It's our take on a single arm,
single grab swingarm.
We made everything. We made the wheels.
We made the sprockets. We made the arms.
And you can tell by the front end
that that's not store-bought.
Every part of that front suspension
and the front wheel
is all handmade here in the shop.
Yeah, it's an interesting design.
Mind if I fire it up?
No, hop on it.
[mellow rock music playing]
[engine rumbles]
[engine revs]
[Shawn] Nice stuff.
[turns off engine]
[Mark] Like music, ain't it?
Ah, Otto looks
pretty comfortable on there.
[Otto] Where you at on price, Shawn?
I threw a number at you before.
We're talking 48.
This is a lot of bike.
Uh, it's a beautiful motorcycle.
Definitely unique, like we talked about.
48,000 is just a lot of money.
I'm closer to the $35,000.
-[Shawn] Thirty-five?
-Yeah.
Thirty-five grand. Wow!
You know, you're talking
about a custom one-off bike.
You go somewhere,
nobody else is gonna have
a bike like this.
This is special
Gotham Garage workmanship right here.
I mean, how about we do 43?
-How 'bout that?
-You're getting warmer. I'll do 41.
Go 41.5 and we got a deal.
-41.5 seems like a fair price.
-[Shawn] Yeah?
I think you just got yourself
a one-off custom Gotham Garage bike.
-Thank you. Otto. I appreciate that.
-Hey, thank you, Mark.
Man, Mark and his crew really put together
a unique custom motorcycle.
I'm looking forward to taking it home
and putting it in my collection.
Yeah, I think it's pretty impressive.
Got a lot of work in this bike, Mark.
That's about as custom
as you can do to an '04 Harley.
-Otto absolutely loves the bike.
-You're welcome.
And, you know, 41.5.
-That leaves us over $25,000 in profit.
-Twenty-five grand?
That's a good amount of money
for an old school Gotham creation.
I know we're trying to do
all this high-end stuff with Nick,
but it's nice to know
that the old way still works.
Very nice.
If you wanna go up front, do paperwork,
I'll get this thing ready for your guys
to pick it up and get it loaded.
-Sounds great. Thanks.
-I had a feeling you'd love that bike.
[exciting rock music playing]
You'll love this place we're going to.
This guy has got a variety of cars.
Right now me and Mark
are on our way to a salvage yard
to find a car body
that we can put on top of the tank.
He wants something rough and dirty,
and I know the perfect place to go.
The good thing about this
is that this personnel carrier
is on schedule,
even though we had a little hitch
in the get-along with the gearbox.
You had a problem?
What was that all about?
All you need to know now
is it runs and drives.
-[phone ringing]
-Whoa. What do we have here? Hello.
-Hey, Shawn.
-Tony! How's it going, buddy?
-It's good, man.
-What's going on?
So Caveman and I are at a car show,
and we met this guy, Jimbo.
We started talking about the shop,
everything we're building,
and I told him about the Tesla.
-[dramatic sting]
-He just got real excited.
So Jimbo has a whole bunch of cars.
He's got a '69 Chevelle
that he'd be willing to trade.
-Trade?
-Really?
We're talking about
selling the Tesla, not trading it.
I told Jimbo
that the Tesla's worth 90 grand.
He's got a whole bunch
of other cars at his property,
and he's willing to throw some cash in
on top of the trade cars.
Cash on top?
-Cash on top.
-Nice.
I really wanted to just get
the 90 grand in cash.
Okay, yeah. Don't we all want that?
But what's the harm in going over
and seeing what Jimbo's got over there?
Look, I know Mark's not too thrilled
about being put on the spot here.
But Mark is a junkyard dog at heart
just like me.
And he can't help himself to at least
go see what Jimbo's got up there.
Jimbo said he can do it today
if you guys can come make it happen.
Today?
Well, I guess there's no harm
in going and seeing what he has.
Obviously, I've got no idea
if Jimbo's got enough cars and cash
to make a trade worthwhile.
And getting Mark to agree
is gonna be an uphill battle.
So text me the address
Hell yeah.
and we'll load the car
and meet you out there.
Okay. I'll send it over right now,
and I'll meet you guys there.
-All right, brother. See you there.
-We're turning around, heading that way.
But, man, if this somehow works out,
then I might be able to put
this Tesla behind me once and for all.
[Mark] It better be worth it.
[Shawn] You worry too much.
[closing theme music plays]
[metal creaking]
[engine rumbles]