The Car Guys on TV - Report Cards

[1990C4S]

Ranked on skill and entertainment value:

Dave Kindig - 'A' - skill and pretty entertaining without being self absorbed
Edd China - 'A+' - probably the most competent technically, great at explaining 'stuff'
Mike Brewer - 'C-' - enthusiastic but generally a bit annoying
Ant Anstead - 'B' - difficult to replace Edd....his home built car was pretty good
Danny Koker - 'C' - repetitive car mill, second tier work

Then there's the Hemi guy, can't recall his name. He gets high marks for knowledge, but a failing grade for personality.

Who did I miss, who did I grade wrong?

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

Ranked on skill and entertainment value:

Dave Kindig - 'A' - skill and pretty entertaining without being self absorbed
Edd China - 'A+' - probably the most competent technically, great at explaining 'stuff'
Mike Brewer - 'C-' - enthusiastic but generally a bit annoying
Ant Anstead - 'B' - difficult to replace Edd....his home built car was pretty good
Danny Koker - 'C' - repetitive car mill, second tier work

Then there's the Hemi guy, can't recall his name. He gets high marks for knowledge, but a failing grade for personality.

Who did I miss, who did I grade wrong?

I agree with everything except Ant Anstead. I would give him a A+ as well. He does great at explaining. and has mad skills. He is a master welder, and does more than just car repairs and builds. I miss Edd, and I wish I had an Edd or Ant type person living next door to me.

There are lots more shows and TV Guys. Dave Frieburger Finnegan with Roadkill is great entertainment, but I would never want them working on my cars. Funny stuff and the type of crap I would have done when I was 18 if I had a TV show to pay the bills.

I miss Fantom works. He was great on restoring a car and doing it right. Some of his builds took two years to do it right. Evidently he threw out the film crew because he refused the deadline BS of build it in a week.

[Scott Douglas]

After watching a few shows with Ant on his own, I'd have to rank him up there with Edd. Eliminate the 'replace Edd' part of it, he's as competent mechanically as Edd, IMO.

What about the guys/gal on Garage Squad?

[Scott Douglas]

Is that what happened to Fantom Works?

I always wonder where those people get that kind of money to spend on some of the cars they did.

[911boost]

I really like Road Kill, its great entertainment and some of their "fixes" are hilarious.

Fantomworks was good.

The Graveyard Cars guy appears as a total tool on tv, never met him so no first hand knowledge.

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

Then there's the Hemi guy, can't recall his name. He gets high marks for knowledge, but a failing grade for personality.

Who did I miss, who did I grade wrong?

I think the Hemi guy you are thinking of is the Mopar guy - Mark Worman, owner of Graveyard Carz. He seems to be an expert on Mopars - but I'm not that knowledgeable and could be wrong. The show has evolved over the years, the last dozen episodes or so I've watched it's become much more informational, and much less a "reality" drama filled show as it was previously.

[Nickshu]

I agree A+ for Ant. He's as good as Edd...the big change was Velocity/MT not wanting to do the painstaking filming that they did with Edd anymore, so unfortunately we don't get as good of coverage of what Ant is doing.

Add:

Wayne Carini - A+
Jay Leno - A+
Mike Brewer - A- (I'd say he's a B on camera but he's the brains behind the show from the start, and other shows, so I give him a little bump up for that).

[Mike80911]

I know he is not on TV anymore but Roger Barr from CCC in my opinion was one of the best mechanics around. There was nothing that guy could not fix. As for Mark Worman the restorations that shop does are nothing short of amazing. Putting his personality aside if I was to ever restore a mopar he is the one I would want doing the job

[sammyg2]

Agree for the most part, but I'd grade Ant higher and Mike lower.

Warning ..... serious rant ahead:


Car fix: Jared and Lou were awesome, never missed it. A's for both.
But for some reason they were replaced this year and the show is now pretty much worthless, I had to remove the show from my record list.

Two guys garage:
One of the worst shows on TV period. Almost as bad as goblin works but not quite.
Dufffasses trying to act like street gangstas with all their stupid animated motions, wanna-be wrappers. Like vanilla ice on meth pretending to work on a car.
Absolutely horrible.
it was good back in the old days with Sam Mimosa, but not anymore.

The guys on graveyard cars are finally starting to warm up, the technical stuff are incredible and I've learned to ignore the stupid antics of Mark worm-Er. the show would be much better with him behind the camera instead of in front of it.

Galpin garage's show: Can't remember the name of the show because they keep changing it. Car kings maybe?
Incredible cars, incredible guests, top of the heap as far as car history IF you can stomach the dumb stuff.
10 minutes of intro personal crap, 10 minutes of poser reveal at the end, and in the middle if they have time, they might show about 3 minutes of incredible car work.
IOW, here's a historic famous show car, but it's a basket case.
And when we come back after the commercial, it will be completely repainted, new interior, rebuild drive train, and ready to drive.
Get a haircut, forget the side distractions, and focus on the cars.
Don't show more footage of driving to get parts than you show on restoring the car.


Just about any car show NOT on motor trend: infomercial.


Ian on fourwheeler: A+
Good guy, doesn't take himself too seriously, knows his **** and does great fabrication. Awesome show and I'm not into 4-wheeling, but get rid of the dooosh hair fer pete's sake.


geared up:
new show, terrible acting, painful to watch, won't tune in again. If it makes it to the end of the season something is wrong.


Restoration garage: good show from canadia, I like what they do, but they talk kinda funny

Fantomworks: over-the top faux-anger crap acting, but good details of work on cars.
Cancelled, not sure if I'll miss it or not.

Speed is the new black/texas whatever/iron resurrection/diesel bros etc etc etc generic with two much emphasis on non-remarkable personalities: pass. Not interested.

Dirt every day. awesome show, never miss it.

Any show with Finnegan or Freiburger, must watch. Best on TV period. Dulshich (sp?) is cool too. you can tell he's real.

Hot rod garage: love the show, love the detail and work they do, Lucky is the greatest, it would be better if Tony would tone down the Napoleon complex a couple notches.

Street outlaws: Nope. Fake.

Salvage hunters, nope.

Desert car clowns: they build clapped out crap out of junk with an earl sheib paint job and pretend to sell it for a gozillion dollars, nope.

Truck-U, good show. Bruno does OK, other guy does good. Too much blatant infomercial stuff.

garage squad: good show, Joe Zolper is awesome. Bruno is ok but gets in the way sometimes, but not too bad. I miss heather storm, did you know that she's 56 years old? Very nice.

Cristy Lee is doing OK, needs to relax and be herself. It isn't a photo-shoot

All girls garage: haven't bothered to watch it in many years. And won't.

full custom garage:
good guy, smart, incredible skilz but makes too many bondo works of art, not real cars. Shame.

Richard Rawlings: read too many of his own press clippings, acts like an ass because it's just in his nature. No thanks.

Wayne Carini: class act, good show.

[biosurfer1]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Wayne Carini: class act, good show.

CCC is one of my favorite car shows. I like that Wayne doesn't add much made up drama, and when they do throw it in, it's usually quick and subtle, which I can deal with. I know thats not what most mindless TV watchers want these days, but I doubt those people are watching classic car shows anyways, so why stuff it in there??

Someone here a while back suggested a show with Ant and Edd and while I would love that, it'll never happen.

[NY65912]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Agree for the most part, but I'd grade Ant higher and Mike lower.

Warning ..... serious rant ahead:


Car fix: Jared and Lou were awesome, never missed it. A's for both.
But for some reason they were replaced this year and the show is now pretty much worthless, I had to remove the show from my record list.

Two guys garage:
One of the worst shows on TV period. Almost as bad as goblin works but not quite.
Dufffasses trying to act like street gangstas with all their stupid animated motions, wanna-be wrappers. Like vanilla ice on meth pretending to work on a car.
Absolutely horrible.
it was good back in the old days with Sam Mimosa, but not anymore.

The guys on graveyard cars are finally starting to warm up, the technical stuff are incredible and I've learned to ignore the stupid antics of Mark worm-Er. the show would be much better with him behind the camera instead of in front of it.

Galpin garage's show: Can't remember the name of the show because they keep changing it. Car kings maybe?
Incredible cars, incredible guests, top of the heap as far as car history IF you can stomach the dumb stuff.
10 minutes of intro personal crap, 10 minutes of poser reveal at the end, and in the middle if they have time, they might show about 3 minutes of incredible car work.
IOW, here's a historic famous show car, but it's a basket case.
And when we come back after the commercial, it will be completely repainted, new interior, rebuild drive train, and ready to drive.
Get a haircut, forget the side distractions, and focus on the cars.
Don't show more footage of driving to get parts than you show on restoring the car.


Just about any car show NOT on motor trend: infomercial.


Ian on fourwheeler: A+
Good guy, doesn't take himself too seriously, knows his **** and does great fabrication. Awesome show and I'm not into 4-wheeling, but get rid of the dooosh hair fer pete's sake.


geared up:
new show, terrible acting, painful to watch, won't tune in again. If it makes it to the end of the season something is wrong.


Restoration garage: good show from canadia, I like what they do, but they talk kinda funny

Fantomworks: over-the top faux-anger crap acting, but good details of work on cars.
Cancelled, not sure if I'll miss it or not.

Speed is the new black/texas whatever/iron resurrection/diesel bros etc etc etc generic with two much emphasis on non-remarkable personalities: pass. Not interested.

Dirt every day. awesome show, never miss it.

Any show with Finnegan or Freiburger, must watch. Best on TV period. Dulshich (sp?) is cool too. you can tell he's real.

Hot rod garage: love the show, love the detail and work they do, Lucky is the greatest, it would be better if Tony would tone down the Napoleon complex a couple notches.

Street outlaws: Nope. Fake.

Salvage hunters, nope.

Desert car clowns: they build clapped out crap out of junk with an earl sheib paint job and pretend to sell it for a gozillion dollars, nope.

Truck-U, good show. Bruno does OK, other guy does good. Too much blatant infomercial stuff.

garage squad: good show, Joe Zolper is awesome. Bruno is ok but gets in the way sometimes, but not too bad. I miss heather storm, did you know that she's 56 years old? Very nice.

Cristy Lee is doing OK, needs to relax and be herself. It isn't a photo-shoot

All girls garage: haven't bothered to watch it in many years. And won't.

full custom garage:
good guy, smart, incredible skilz but makes too many bondo works of art, not real cars. Shame.

Richard Rawlings: read too many of his own press clippings, acts like an ass because it's just in his nature. No thanks.

Wayne Carini: class act, good show.

Got to agree with this.

Add Iron Resurrection, enjoy. really nice work.

Diesel Brothers.....Nope, azz bags

[john walker's workshop]

Iron Resurrection, my fave.

[asphaltgambler]

Years back I met Joe Martin ( Martin Brothers) at an Easy Rider's world invitational bike show in Ohio. He was very low key, humble genuine nice guy. He stopped by my display, asked me about my bike. Pretty much same guy personality wise you see on TV today.

That Bruno guy, btw whom I've never met in person but did took over his spot in a small BMW / Porsche shop in Charlottesville, Va in 2008 when he left to start his career with Hot Rod TV series.

[1990C4S]

Something about Wayne Carini annoys me, but Roger was good. I hear he left Wayne and is working elsewhere now. Just guessing, but I suspect Wayne is not easy to work for.

I forgot WelderUp. So so. That dopey 'model' with the tattoos creeped me out.

Restoration Garage was also good, but the two partners were pretty full of themselves. He certainly turned out some nice cars. And some junk.

Dick Rollins. Total ass.

Road Kill was excellent, but they disappeared from YouTube and I'm not going looking for them.

Fantom Cars was also good, but it seemed like some of his staff were stunned.

Boyd Coddington turned out nice cars, but the managers were petty *******s.

I will add: Binky: A+ to both of them.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

I think the Hemi guy you are thinking of is the Mopar guy - Mark Worman, owner of Graveyard Carz. He seems to be an expert on Mopars - but I'm not that knowledgeable and could be wrong. The show has evolved over the years, the last dozen episodes or so I've watched it's become much more informational, and much less a "reality" drama filled show as it was previously.

Yes, that's him. Thanks for the name.

[Scott Douglas]

Some of the stuff Road Kill has driven on the streets/freeways is down right scary. Surprised they haven't killed someone yet.

[GH85Carrera]

Iron resurrection does great work, but it is just the same car, over and over and over. Just slam it to the ground, giant wheels and suddenly tires become meats.

And I suspect they would both be mimes if they had to use a sentence without the word "Man" in it.

Great artist for sure.

[Venetian]

I do not understand why there always has to be a 2 week or whatever deadline for a build. Just build the damn car and quit talking about some phony deadline. Also I am not sure I have seen a show where one of these so called deadlines was not met. Also very annoying is the play acting and dumbass things these guys do.

That being said I am often amazed at the craftsmanship they are capable of. They turn out some beautiful work. I do enjoy watching them because of their abilities. Kindig offers a good balance and is extremely talented IMO. Carrini is also good but never says what he pays for some of his purchases which is annoying.

[Scott Douglas]

Carrini may not say what he buys them for, but he sure lets you know when he blows it and sells it below what he paid at auction.
I wouldn't be one of his customers that has him sell my car for me.

[sammyg2]

If we knew the true cost of one of these kindig or graveyard fully restored or customized cars, most of us would be shocked. Cubic $.

These are The types of cars that sell at barrett jackson 5 years later for $150k, AT A HUGE LOSS.