Are all these car resto shows good or bad for our hobby?

 

depends on which one you are watching.

 

Most TV shows made of any activity are bad for the activity, and these are no exception. Prices go up, unreasonable expectations go up, tolerance of BS shortcuts go up, and wrong information spreads.

 

I think they are mostly good. (not as much so when talking about auctions) Helps bring the old car hobby to everyone. I am a huge 3 wheeler fan and there is NO coverage for them anywhere. Till the 3 wheeler forums they were almost completely dead. The forums helped bring them back some but the net can only do so much. TV coverage has to be a good thing.

 

I think they are good for the hobby, even the bad ones.

 

I like the shows but I've found that instead of a heavy emphasis on the work, the entertainment portion takes over after a while. They would be better if the show stayed with the work like Overhaulin does.

 

I've found one of the best shows is Wheeler Dealers. They focus on the repairs and actually provide a little "how-to" information. There's no drama; just a couple of Brits that are fun to watch and listen to.

 

I think this show kind of has to grow on you. You have to get used to the guys being Brits and driving on the wrong side of the road. They never have to bleep anything out. These guys just seem to have a good time and you can learn some stuff. They do get some oddball cars.

 

I'm not a "Wheeler Dealers"fan, btw you guys drive on the wrong side of the road . But that's my problem. And I enjoy "Top Gear", despite it being an entertainment show based on doing silly things with cars.


What the shows don't put across is the hours of dull toil needed to bring a car up to standard, but I suppose that might put a lot of viewers off and it won't make good tv.


A lot of custom building and resto shows seem to follow the formula of; An ambitious project roll into the shop, everyone bubbles over with enthusiasm, it all goes wrong - paint jobs go wrong and wrong parts arrive, then everyone falls out - cue dramatic chords, then in the last segment it all comes together and a wonderful machine rolls out of the shop.
Sorry if I gave away the plot.


Roger.

 

I hate bleeps, also. Especially, when Ozzy Osbourne had his show. Everytime he'd open his mouth, there were more bleeps coming out than actual words. Where do you watch the stuff uncut? Over here, even the cable networks bleep choice words out. You must be enjoying uncensored viewing from an satellite dish, since it's not likely Texas would allow expletives on public channels

 

I think you missed my point on the bleeps. I do not have a satellite dish, just Verizon cable. My point was they don't use language on the show that has to be bleeped. When Boyd Coddington had the show on TV, half of of everything his foreman (whatever his name was) had to be bleeped. The guy was a total jack wagon. I think that show was the worst about drama. I do like Overhaulin with Chip Foose. It seems to have less drama about something not happening on schedule or somebody getting fired and more about making somebody's dream car become a reality.

 

Dwayne was the foreman. He was kind of a psycho. He also fired wives and girlfriends, besides mechanics and ended up working for that other customs outfit which catered to mostly rapstars and were customizing modern cars and Hummers. I forget what he's called. He started an outlet, here in Berlin, and his bouncer was bullying even the new German recruits. I'd rather work for absurd Coddington than for that other one

 

I like most of them it seems they r also increasing the hands on aspect Americarna is kind of cool, I like graveyard cars only for the cars the whole reality angst thing has to go for sure the guy Darren needs to b %tch slapped and put to work, but all in all a decent show if you like mopars,

I think the comment about unrealistic expectations is true, how can you do a 1 week transformation ? But a new Yankee workshop show for cars would be great for us but my wife and kid wouldn't watch it its all about viewers not content y else would we have all the moronic television we do ? Who gives a ratz azz about the kardashians, jerseyshore snappaheads real housewives of hell and beyond etc...I a.m At least glad there is some old cars to see and 10_15% useful content...

 

The main issue that I see with these shows is the unreasonable expectations that people can get from them. They see a junker brought into a shop, and in less then a week, a show car comes out (overhaulin' comes to mind). What they do not talk about are the problems that these people have later with some of these cars because of the rush job that was put on to get it out the door by the deadline.

Because of these shows some people actually get suprised when they bring their junker in and find out that it will take several weeks (not a few days) to complete all of the needed work. Not to mention the cost.

Don't get me wrong! I enjoy some of these shows (British top gear, wheeler dealers and fast n' loud come to mind). But mostly I like them for their entertainment value.

 

Wait a minute...You mean it takes more then a week to do a restoration and it might cost over my $10,000.00 budget...

 

I got into cars because of the early morning Saturday shows back when TNN was on the air in our area I would watch the demo derbys , monster truck shows , truck pulls , all of mornings shows like horsepower and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. But my first tidbits of info I got on the hobby was watching these shows. Once I got into high school I took votech programs and went from there. Back when I was younger like 8-16 I enjoyed watching the shows. Now that I work in the automotive industry its not the same. Car shows on tv for me lost their luster long ago but its a great way to. Introduce many to the hobby.

 

I think that the more exposure that our hobby gets the better it is for the hobby. These shows are one of the only ways for newbies and the younger sets to be exposed to cars and car restoration, helping to keep the torch alive.

 

You'd be surprised as to how many views those trashy shows get and to think they get to vote

This is one shown over here. In the first vid, the 2 gals try their best Bear Grylls:

 

I stand by my original call that they are bad for the hobby. We all complain about the
ever increasing prices that people charge for parts; it's because some people do it as a
business, not a hobby, and I think a lot of people get into the inflated worth concept,
and some even into the business itself, by these shows and the auction shows.

 

I tend to agree, although TV coverage does promote the hobby and is a good way to bring folks into the car world....too bad there was not a happy medium...a show that promotes the hobby but lays off this whole "bells and whistles" thing.....

 

I watch and they are... what they are. Sometimes I think they screwed up the car with their modifications but they always seems to find a buyer with deep pockets. One show recently restored a Chrysler imperial. It was ok to change the original color from blue to black and change the interior but they had to have NOS tailight lenses for 1000 dollars. They could have repro ones done on a 3D printer but they did not want repro stuff on the car....???

 

I lost respect for Overhaulin" when they took a perfectly good Olds engine out of a Cutlass Convertible with A/C and replaced it with a Chevy crate motor all chromed up and no A/C, then put on giant Foose wheels to replace the Olds wheels. If they talked my wife into that, I'd kill her!

 

I am glad you used the word "activity". For some people this is a "car hobby", for others it is a way of life.

 

That was counting cars that was on. The customer was the old man from pawn stars and he requested the black color. As far as the tail lights go, that is just how he likes to do his business. And you see it all the time on this site for people who look for NOS parts but then change stuff on their car.
Biggest thing being the paint they use on the car. Why spend all that money to make it like the day it came off the showroom floor with all these NOS parts, then not use era correct paint...

Anywho... that was that episode on why they did that. And me personally i like watching Counting cars, and other car shows. But for the entertainment value on most of them

 

Good for entertainment and keeping interest in old cars but not much "reality" in any of them.

You could combine reality and entertainment without the faux drama by giving old timers like Gene Winfield a show. A real living legend still going strong at well over 80 years young. He put on a top-chopping class here where he cut and banged metal all day, danced with the young ladies until midnight and then was back at it early the next morning. Most of the TV posers could not keep up or be as entertaining doing it. Americarna is a close as I have seen recently.

 

Make a car show like "This Old House". It could be "This Old Car" They could have a small audiance in the shop who could ask questions. Every week they can show the differant task completed and future work. As they do on this old house they allow independent contractors to show their skill set. The show could show body work guys, engine specialist, electrical, sound system, chrome repair, brakes and suspension and so forth. This way all skills are shown and would allow viewers to see what aspect they are most interested during the resto process.
I think the point that is most frustrating is, they make even the worst rust bucket seem as easy to resto as a typical 20 footer

 

Yeah, I saw that too. It was a white Cutlass and I wonder if the owner was ticked off about that, afterwards. Especially, because it was a crate smallblock. A bigblock swap would at least have been half-way forgivable. They didn't even try starting up the Olds engine to see if it even ran or not

 

Get back to basic car and resto shows, they were better and we learned more.

 

Speed Channel used to have several different car/truck repairs shows which became nothing but long infomercials. I could live with that since it helped get a sense of what is out there while having my Saturday morning coffee. Those shows seamed to disappear and now this morning I see that Rogers has dropped Speed Channel all together…???
We still get Spike TV which has Power Block (with Courtney Hanson) which is all right but thats about it other then the shows previously mentioned. We have a show hear called Restoration Garage which is not bad but too much drama and personal stuff for my liking.
I suppose I should just spend more time in the shop and get away from the tube...

Mark

 

Corky Coker of Coker Tires has a new show coming on about barn finds. He is an interesting guy and it should be interesting. I know it comes on Wednesdays and I think is just starting. I don't remember which channel it is on but it is the History Channel or TNT or one of those.

 

This afternoon, Discovery Channel showed a similar episode where Foose desecrate a '65 Skylark with one of those crate 350s and the excuse was that Chevy parts were easier to get. If so, at least a 396 would have justified this excuse. Luckily for Foose, the owner was some housewife whose dad bought her the ride, back in highschool and it was her first car. She admitted to knowing little about cars. One of these days, if Foose keeps it up, he'll step on the wrong toes and the victim he "overhauls" will overhaul him back, by embarassing him through walking off the set