Car SOS - how good are their restorations?

[mat205125]

Michael-b35fl said:

One thing I have realised recently is that there is a market for a property nuts and bolts car show made for car enthusiasts. With wheeler dealers new patronising monkey and the lanky bafoon on car sos I have had enough. I don't care if he's had a hard time just get on and tell us about the car. Don't cut to a break and then remind me about what I just saw 5 minutes ago when you come back on air.

Will some one in the TV industry listen and make a proper car show. Every car enthusiast in the UK is dieing for it.

Get on youtube and subscribe to MotorTrend.

Road Kill and Hot Rod Garage are as close to that as I've found.

Really genuine and proper car guys, without goofy presenters like Wheeler Dealers and Car SOS.

Will make you insanely jealous for how amazing the US car scene and parts availability is though, and make you hanker for a muscle car / pickup.

[John_S4x4]

I like "Mighty Car Mods" on YouTube

[DatV8]

+1 for Hot Rod Garage and Roadkill. Really good watch and does make you want a classic muscle car!

Also worth a look is some of the project car series from Mighty Car Mods. Been following them from the start and they've done some really good projects on some interesting cars. They actually teamed up with Roadkill for an episode in America, is a great watch IMO

EDIT beaten to it with MCM!

[zeb]

If you are in any doubt whatsoever as to how good Car SOS is then watch any episode of goblin works or the new 'improved' wheeler dealers.

After that you will be happy in the knolwedge that Fuzz and Tim should get an oscar......

Joking aside, it does its cars properly and the back story (for me) is on the whole worthwhile. Tim 's shennanigins is just a bit of background filler for the non car person who's watching.

Also its now the only authentic british car programme we've got so long may it reign. Wheeler dealer is virtually american, goblin works is trying to be american and everything else IS american. Careful what you wish for......

[DonkeyApple]

Can’t the non car person just watch TOWIE. I doubt Made In Chelsea infills with car repair segments to pander to people who like repairing cars.

[corozin]

I shook hands and talked to Fuzz Townsend at the NEC about 3-4 years ago and he is just the nicest bloke you could meet and a true enthusiast for what he does.

[Halmyre]

zeb said:

If you are in any doubt whatsoever as to how good Car SOS is then watch any episode of goblin works or the new 'improved' wheeler dealers.

After that you will be happy in the knolwedge that Fuzz and Tim should get an oscar......

Joking aside, it does its cars properly and the back story (for me) is on the whole worthwhile. Tim 's shennanigins is just a bit of background filler for the non car person who's watching.

Also its now the only authentic british car programme we've got so long may it reign. Wheeler dealer is virtually american, goblin works is trying to be american and everything else IS american. Careful what you wish for......

I'd rather Car SOS than Classic Car Rescue with Bernie and Mario.

Tim's meeting with Roger Moore was particularly chortlesome.

"Can I shake your hand?"..."Don't you kiss it!"...

[mat205125]

Tangent time!!

Whats this thing I saw advertised on Dave last night, that's due to start this week ????

So and so, supercar modder, or something like that?

It looks like one of those programmes that will irritate and annoy, however be essential car crash viewing.

[coppice]

I covered a Car SOS filming session at Bruntingthorpe for a piece I was writing; the guys were doing a Caterham 7 . I have to say I was hugely impressed - tiny crew,ad lib script and two very likeable guys dong the presenting. The timetables and deadlines are self imposed , and real , so the producer told me and I saw , and heard nothing to make me disbelieve him. Easy to be cynical but I thought they were bloody great - proper car guys . .

[MyVTECGoesBwaaah]

mat205125 said:

Tangent time!!

Whats this thing I saw advertised on Dave last night, that's due to start this week ????

So and so, supercar modder, or something like that?

It looks like one of those programmes that will irritate and annoy, however be essential car crash viewing.

Yianni Supercar Customiser, Wednesday at 8 (2x30 minute episodes). Actually started last week but you didn't really miss much - Unless you are a big fan of sticky back plastic!

[RadoVR6]

stuartmmcfc said:

I understand though that he was the drummer long after they were at their peak?

Band members[edit]
Richard March (born 4 March 1965, York, England) - bass, engineering
Mike Stokes (born 15 June 1971, Birmingham, England) - keyboards, turntables, programming
James Atkin (vocalist for EMF, born 28 March 1969, Birmingham) - vocals, guitars
Fuzz Townshend (born 31 July 1964, Hammersmith, London, England) - drums
References

[tomic]

Was reading the other day that the bloke who had his Sierra Cosworth fixed up complained that they'd spoilt the originality of his car when they swapped the engine he'd removed the head from with one from a Sapphire. Cheeky fecker - as if he'd have ever fixed it on his own.


http://www.xrstyle.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?505...

[larrylamb11]

andym1603 said:

blade7 said:

In the majority of cases I'm sure the owner didn't have the means or capability to save the car. Though there's been a few Hooray Henry's laughing all the way to the bank I suspect.

The Daimler Dart owner springs to mind here.

I've met the chap who owns that and a nicer guy you couldn't hope to meet. He was absolutely floored by having his Dart done for him and despite what it appeared, didn't have the means to do it himself - he was unfeasibly lucky to survive his accident and only did so because there just so happened to be a doctor on the Air Ambulance that day, a proper hero who spent an hour inside the mangled wreckage of an aeroplane employing every trick he knew to keep that chap alive and stabilised well enough to get to hospital while the Fire Brigade battled to cut him out. The airfield where he crashed is local to me and he is often at local classic meets - in the Dart too. What one also doesn't really appreciate is that surviving was only the start of a mammoth journey - I think he was off work for the best part of a year, which very nearly crippled his business (in which he was the key man). He never worked properly again and suddenly well-intentioned retirement plans and finance projections went out of the window. I know for a fact he had spent 25 years trying to get a Dart on the road.... 25 years! Overnight the physical ability to achieve that evaporated and suddenly there was a whole new priority for finances. He told me himself that if Car SOS hadn't stepped in that Dart would never, ever have been finished and he would never have realised a lifelong dream. Given how humble he was about it and just how much he had done throughout his professional life to give to his local community I couldn't help but think "fair play, fella, you actually really deserve that." 'Twas a truly heart-warming story all in.

Dids444 said:

I love watching car SOS and I'd be surprised if any of their work was under par as even for a TV show they do seem to go the extra mile.

Did you see the Daimler Dart episode for example? When this came out the spray booth it looked a million dollars

It still looks a million $ now too. You can see where the paint has sunk a bit and there are a few bubbles, but overall it still looked blooming nice when I saw it last year. From talking to the guy he had a few teething problems, charging issues, coil issues and flat battery issues etc. and things like odd loose bolts and silly stuff from where the reassembly had been rushed, but overall the work was of an extremely high standard and definitely not in any way bodged. I think he said the paint job alone was something like £16k - that was how much the restoration shopped billed the production company, or around that, it was a huge amount of money and they had put a huge amount of hours into it. He also said that he genuinely didn't know it was being done and really was as surprised as he looked when it was handed over. Apparently he really did turn up unexpectedly when Tim and Fuzz were loading the car onto the trailer and they also really did do the whole job in four weeks. Fuzz hadn't been to bed the night before handing it over as the whole workshop had been working on it through the night to try and get it finished for the deadline. They got the car running and to to the location but didn't manage to get it MoT'd or 100% finished so had to take it away after the day's filming to finish off the last bits before delivering it back a couple of days later.
Having looked over the car in person I must say I was impressed and the guy who owned it was like the Cheshire cat - he was literally living his dream! Made me feel all warm and fuzzy......
If the quality of the Dart is typical of the quality of the restorations they are doing, then I would say they definitely aren't to 'TV production company' standard, but much more to decent commercial restoration company standard. Fuzz really knows his oily bits it seems.

[Tyre Tread]

larrylamb11 said:

It still looks a million $ now too. You can see where the paint has sunk a bit and there are a few bubbles, but overall it still looked blooming nice when I saw it last year. From talking to the guy he had a few teething problems, charging issues, coil issues and flat battery issues etc. and things like odd loose bolts and silly stuff from where the reassembly had been rushed, but overall the work was of an extremely high standard and definitely not in any way bodged. I think he said the paint job alone was something like £16k - that was how much the restoration shopped billed the production company, or around that, it was a huge amount of money and they had put a huge amount of hours into it. He also said that he genuinely didn't know it was being done and really was as surprised as he looked when it was handed over. Apparently he really did turn up unexpectedly when Tim and Fuzz were loading the car onto the trailer and they also really did do the whole job in four weeks. Fuzz hadn't been to bed the night before handing it over as the whole workshop had been working on it through the night to try and get it finished for the deadline. They got the car running and to to the location but didn't manage to get it MoT'd or 100% finished so had to take it away after the day's filming to finish off the last bits before delivering it back a couple of days later.
Having looked over the car in person I must say I was impressed and the guy who owned it was like the Cheshire cat - he was literally living his dream! Made me feel all warm and fuzzy......
If the quality of the Dart is typical of the quality of the restorations they are doing, then I would say they definitely aren't to 'TV production company' standard, but much more to decent commercial restoration company standard. Fuzz really knows his oily bits it seems.

An excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to post it.

[NickCW]

Tyre Tread said:

An excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to post it.

+1

[Pan Pan Pan]

Not that I am a fan of Tim Shaw, but the standard of work done by the car SOS team, seems to be many times better than the
bodge it and legit team shown in wheeler dealers.

[zeb]

NickCW said:

Tyre Tread said:

An excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to post it.

+1

and a +1 from me too

[SonicShadow]

John_S4x4 said:

I like "Mighty Car Mods" on YouTube

Worth watching the builds that Marty and Moog are not as involved with as well on MCMTV2 like the Stagea V8 Turbo build and the 1UZ Turbo Ford Fairlane build:

V8 Turbo Fairlane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwIUolF28_E&li...

V8 Turbo Stagea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjDGM7noTJw&li...

[mat205125]

RadoVR6 said:

stuartmmcfc said:

I understand though that he was the drummer long after they were at their peak?

Band members[edit]
Richard March (born 4 March 1965, York, England) - bass, engineering
Mike Stokes (born 15 June 1971, Birmingham, England) - keyboards, turntables, programming
James Atkin (vocalist for EMF, born 28 March 1969, Birmingham) - vocals, guitars
Fuzz Townshend (born 31 July 1964, Hammersmith, London, England) - drums
References

I did some googling on this, as I couldn't believe that this nugget of trivia had passed me by:

If wiki is to be believed, the timeline (near the bottom) puts him touring with the band just after "The looks or the lifestyle" album came out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Will_Eat_Itself

Also toured the US with Nine Inch Nails!!! Now that would have been a treat back in the mid-nineties!!!

[Tim-D]

Dave Hedgehog said:

great shows, shame he stopped

Not quite...there's a series of shorts via 4od with him going through the recreation of the missing 9 Jag xkss's....