Wheeler dealers 2016.
Discussion
) to fill a small scratch. sandman77 said:
monthefish said:
225bhp from a 5.0 V8.
Either way, these cars give great value for money today and are simple to maintain and run which is what we're all about.
The sales side of it has felt quite contrived for a while now. As examples, the Polish Serena (can´t spell) which immediately found an owner in a museum, the BMW Isetta going straight to BMW UK, the journalist (Paul Fearnly I think) who happened to turn up for an early 2CV, etc.
But this latest USA-based series has felt seriously "staged" even compared to previous efforts, the jolly banter in the inter-mechanicking scenes sometimes painfully contrived, and Edd China pretending to be pee-ed of with Mike Brewer on several occasions, then being made to look like a whacky scientist (the previously mentioned Geiger counter).
Have we witnessed this once very "normal" series having just Jumped The Shark?
But this latest USA-based series has felt seriously "staged" even compared to previous efforts, the jolly banter in the inter-mechanicking scenes sometimes painfully contrived, and Edd China pretending to be pee-ed of with Mike Brewer on several occasions, then being made to look like a whacky scientist (the previously mentioned Geiger counter).
Have we witnessed this once very "normal" series having just Jumped The Shark?
Also thought last nights was a decent episode for a change. More spannering by Ed with good descriptions of what he was doing & why. The 'small' bit of fibreglass Mike used for the repair was rather too much & would have needed a lot of sanding back if he'd actually used that much. I didn't understand the wiper issue though. It seemed to me Ed just undid the previous 'fixes' & it worked fine without looking into why it had been 'fixed'. Still, car looked great after. Better than the C5 I think it was from yonks ago.
Also noticed in the final credits that with this being US driven now Ed is no longer listed as an Executive Producer on it. Maybe thats why hes angry.
(Those bits do come across as Bernie/Leepu faux arguments).
Also noticed in the final credits that with this being US driven now Ed is no longer listed as an Executive Producer on it. Maybe thats why hes angry.
(Those bits do come across as Bernie/Leepu faux arguments).Well, I've just watched the latest Corvette issue.
As Winky said, there was no explanation as to why the previous owner had gone to such lengths to disable to wipers; there would have been a reason. All Edd did was re-enable and it just worked, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Also, what did they actually do to this car? Edd did a minor engine overhaul of repairing the carb, changing the points over to electronic, and replacing the valve stem oil seals. Then a minor bit of body repair, and replaced the rear callipers (padded out to show them being refurbished to retain originality). And that was it. They didn't even devote 30 seconds to swapping out the defective clock that the seller highlighted.
Then a bit of arsing around in the desert, followed by a no-haggle sale for the asking price.
I mean, it was ok as an episode but it all just felt a little half-hearted. I think half the problem is that they have pretty much done it all now.
Also, I still don't get what the deal is with Mike spannering. Especially as he is now starting to do an Edd and explaining to the viewer what he's doing in an authoritative way. It still feels very incongruous.
As Winky said, there was no explanation as to why the previous owner had gone to such lengths to disable to wipers; there would have been a reason. All Edd did was re-enable and it just worked, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Also, what did they actually do to this car? Edd did a minor engine overhaul of repairing the carb, changing the points over to electronic, and replacing the valve stem oil seals. Then a minor bit of body repair, and replaced the rear callipers (padded out to show them being refurbished to retain originality). And that was it. They didn't even devote 30 seconds to swapping out the defective clock that the seller highlighted.
Then a bit of arsing around in the desert, followed by a no-haggle sale for the asking price.
I mean, it was ok as an episode but it all just felt a little half-hearted. I think half the problem is that they have pretty much done it all now.
Also, I still don't get what the deal is with Mike spannering. Especially as he is now starting to do an Edd and explaining to the viewer what he's doing in an authoritative way. It still feels very incongruous.
Edited by ClockworkCupcake on Tuesday 5th July 19:21
I quite enjoyed it. I was also left puzzled by the windscreen wiper fix. Whoever disabled it went to quite a bit of trouble. It would make no sense to do that for no reason.
I did laugh at the idea of keeping the original calipers. Not having the right engine pretty much kills that car from an originality perspective. That's always going to keep the price of that car down so may as well just replace anything that needs doing. Maybe it was just the cheapest option to refurb the calipers though.
I kind of wondered about the paint fix as well. I would assume they actually had to respray at least the whole front wing so odd seeing Mike mask off a little bit of it.
The car did look great at the end though. Lovely and I am not normally a fan of C3's.
I did laugh at the idea of keeping the original calipers. Not having the right engine pretty much kills that car from an originality perspective. That's always going to keep the price of that car down so may as well just replace anything that needs doing. Maybe it was just the cheapest option to refurb the calipers though.
I kind of wondered about the paint fix as well. I would assume they actually had to respray at least the whole front wing so odd seeing Mike mask off a little bit of it.
The car did look great at the end though. Lovely and I am not normally a fan of C3's.
Edited by dvb70 on Tuesday 5th July 22:33
dvb70 said:
I did laugh at the idea of keeping the original calipers. Not having the right engine pretty much kills that car from an originality perspective. That's always going to keep the price of that car down so may as well just replace anything that needs doing. Maybe it was just the cheapest option to refurb the callipers though.
A fair point. I suspect it was just padding - a chance to show Mike getting them being refurbished, rather than a box of parts just turning up. Refurbishment seemed to consist of disassembly, cleaning, new pistons, and reassembly. So not the most interesting of such pieces but never mind.
dvb70 said:
I kind of wondered about the paint fix as well. I would assume they actually had to respray at least the whole front wing so odd seeing Mike mask off a little bit of it.
Mike did make mention of them "feathering in" the new paint, so maybe it isn't necessary to do a whole panel these days? I don't know. Edited by ClockworkCupcake on Tuesday 5th July 23:16
That's what I was actually interested in as to if they could fix just that local paint damage without doing the whole wing. The way Mike initially said they had a method of fixing it without a full respray made me wonder if we were going to see some clever new technique that could fix that sort of issue without doing the whole wing. As it was all we saw was a basic repair of the damage and got no details on the actual painting.
I wanted to dig a little deeper on the wipers, so googled and very quickly hit on the Vette forums.
As expected, they did way more to the car than we saw (not really surprising as this is almost always the case) but still none the wiser about the wipers.
http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c3-general/384...
Also, the new owner answers some questions here:
http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c3-general/384...
Edit:
The new owner says the work they actually did was:
All new seals and gaskets in the engine, rebuilt the Holley carb, electronic ignition, new spark plugs and wires, new water pump and thermostat, fuel pump, new oil, air and fuel filter, new clutch and pressure plate, new 2.5" stainless exhaust with magnaflow mufflers, new gas charged shocks, new suspension bits as needed, rebuilt all 4 original calipers, new rotors and brakes, upgraded the cooling system with twin electric fans and high performance radiator, refurbished the rims, new tires, new battery, tilt steering column, repo steering wheel, I have the original one, it has a new convertible top and rear window, it comes with the hardtop, new vacuum servos for the headlights and windshield wiper cowling. And like Forest Gump says and that is all I have to say about that.
Edit2: Oh, and it looks like it was the whole wing that was repainted.
As expected, they did way more to the car than we saw (not really surprising as this is almost always the case) but still none the wiser about the wipers.
http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c3-general/384...
Also, the new owner answers some questions here:
http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c3-general/384...
Edit:
The new owner says the work they actually did was:
All new seals and gaskets in the engine, rebuilt the Holley carb, electronic ignition, new spark plugs and wires, new water pump and thermostat, fuel pump, new oil, air and fuel filter, new clutch and pressure plate, new 2.5" stainless exhaust with magnaflow mufflers, new gas charged shocks, new suspension bits as needed, rebuilt all 4 original calipers, new rotors and brakes, upgraded the cooling system with twin electric fans and high performance radiator, refurbished the rims, new tires, new battery, tilt steering column, repo steering wheel, I have the original one, it has a new convertible top and rear window, it comes with the hardtop, new vacuum servos for the headlights and windshield wiper cowling. And like Forest Gump says and that is all I have to say about that.
Edit2: Oh, and it looks like it was the whole wing that was repainted.
Edited by ClockworkCupcake on Wednesday 6th July 13:52
Quite a bit extra work there then. I actually thought when we saw it at the end it looked like it had a hardtop rather than a soft top but was not quite sure as we never saw the soft top actually up. Makes sense now the owner says that got a hard top for it.
Edit: Ah and good to know they did paint the whole wing. I thought they would have too.
Edit: Ah and good to know they did paint the whole wing. I thought they would have too.
ClockworkCupcake said:
Also, what did they actually do to this car? Edd did a minor engine overhaul of repairing the carb, changing the points over to electronic, and replacing the valve stem oil seals. Then a minor bit of body repair, and replaced the rear callipers (padded out to show them being refurbished to retain originality). And that was it. They didn't even devote 30 seconds to swapping out the defective clock that the seller highlighted.
In the beginning, they would sort out a car over two episodes, which allowed for more detail.. If I'm at the NEC in November, I'll be raising this point. exitwound said:
In the beginning, they would sort out a car over two episodes, which allowed for more detail.. If I'm at the NEC in November, I'll be raising this point.
Not quite true. In the beginning they would have two half hour shows per car, then they changed the format to a single one hour show per car, so the amount of screen time per car stayed roughly the same. ClockworkCupcake said:
exitwound said:
In the beginning, they would sort out a car over two episodes, which allowed for more detail.. If I'm at the NEC in November, I'll be raising this point.
Not quite true. In the beginning they would have two half hour shows per car, then they changed the format to a single one hour show per car, so the amount of screen time per car stayed roughly the same. From what I have seen so far, I do not think I will be buying the box set when it's released, and I have every single one - but wouldn't buy this even for the sake of completion - unless the second half of the series improves radically.
Don't forget that in the first couple of series, they had a segment where Mike would talk to the owner of a well-sorted example of the car featured in the episode. That was dropped after a while.
One thing I do like from the later series are interesting little pieces where Mike visits a company that does a specific service, whether that be head work (fitting hardened valve seats, gas flowing, or whatever), fabricating springs, custom making exhaust manifolds, wheels, laser cutting, trimming, making fitted carpets, or whatever. I find them interesting an informative.
Less interesting is when Mike visits a motor factors and they have everything he wants conveniently to hand but we are supposed to pretend that Mike hasn't called ahead with what he wants. Mind you, that's slightly better than when Mike walked into the Merc place and they said "here's the box of stuff you ordered".
One thing I do like from the later series are interesting little pieces where Mike visits a company that does a specific service, whether that be head work (fitting hardened valve seats, gas flowing, or whatever), fabricating springs, custom making exhaust manifolds, wheels, laser cutting, trimming, making fitted carpets, or whatever. I find them interesting an informative.
Less interesting is when Mike visits a motor factors and they have everything he wants conveniently to hand but we are supposed to pretend that Mike hasn't called ahead with what he wants. Mind you, that's slightly better than when Mike walked into the Merc place and they said "here's the box of stuff you ordered".
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