Vice Grip Garage is giving away a NOVA!

White Lincoln

White Lincoln

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New Mexico
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1994 Mercury Cougar XR7, 3.8L, all stock
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Yeah, tonights adventure stood around a 68 Nova Dereck's wife picked that is almost done, but has "issues". He is prepping for a giveway on December 2nd (?) if you buy "something" to be enrolled in the giveaway.

"May the best man win."

...probably the guy that bougth 2835 hats, t-shirs and underwear....

I never liked Nova's since highschool.
 
Freiburger is doing the same thing with a 68 Camaro (factory in-line 6 car). These automotive YouTubers are looking for buzz lately, I think the bubble is bursting.


Not that I have any problem with either car(although I HATE chrome bumpers painted black… just leave them pitted it still looks better!), but I’m just not a Chevy guy nor am I interested in picking up somebody else’s project, especially with the baggage of being high profile.
 
racecougar said:
Discovery has totally wrecked Motortrend programming, IMO. It seems those guys are diving back to YouTube hard to tread water as best they can.
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However many years ago it was Discovery gobbled up motortrend and more recently when Derek got his show with “motortrend” my immediate reactions were “Oh no!” Everything Discovery touches gets run into the ground.

YouTube isn’t much better, they’ve been putting the squeeze on talented content creators as of late too. Greed corrupts everything good.
 
Well, as much as like Dereck when he goes off on an impossible adventure only to let me down with "nope, this won't make it" and drags it home to sit in HIS back yard for another 20 years (or in his garage, like the Pantara). One of the last ones he did I really liked was the orange 40 Chevy. Now, that was a one cool car and sounded great and he was able to DRIVE it home, some unconsevable amount of miles. Heck, I hated drving to vegas every year, but at least I did it in a Town Car.

I also found the tear down of the 351 that came out of a the Lincoln Versailless interesting in a calm, I got nothing else to do right now, feeling.

But I do agree, I give Dereck and Chris (of NNKH2) another year or so before the bubble busts. Dereck has stretched himself so thin that something has to give, either his health, family or the business. From what I understand, he could probably retire on what he has made so far of the site.

What I really don't like is the merchandise they sell. The clothes are not 100% cotton and the hats are of the cheapest variety. I just bought a Craftsman hat for $8 on Posh(whatever) that was solid, two color, 100% cotton, leather strap and the duck was already bent for me. Now that is a bargain!

Off topic hear.

I still am not a fan of Nova's. Friday night, my wife came out to the living room asking me if I was going to enter the contest and get a "Nova". I said "if I do, will you ride in it?" with a quip she said "No." that ended ever thinking of the car. I was surprised when she rode wtih my in my F250 high boy I used get wood in. It was NOT her style... :p
 
White Lincoln said:
Well, as much as like Dereck when he goes off on an impossible adventure only to let me down with "nope, this won't make it" and drags it home to sit in HIS back yard for another 20 years (or in his garage, like the Pantara). One of the last ones he did I really liked was the orange 40 Chevy. Now, that was a one cool car and sounded great and he was able to DRIVE it home, some unconsevable amount of miles. Heck, I hated drving to vegas every year, but at least I did it in a Town Car.

I also found the tear down of the 351 that came out of a the Lincoln Versailless interesting in a calm, I got nothing else to do right now, feeling.

But I do agree, I give Dereck and Chris (of NNKH2) another year or so before the bubble busts. Dereck has stretched himself so thin that something has to give, either his health, family or the business. From what I understand, he could probably retire on what he has made so far of the site.

What I really don't like is the merchandise they sell. The clothes are not 100% cotton and the hats are of the cheapest variety. I just bought a Craftsman hat for $8 on Posh(whatever) that was solid, two color, 100% cotton, leather strap and the duck was already bent for me. Now that is a bargain!

Off topic hear.

I still am not a fan of Nova's. Friday night, my wife came out to the living room asking me if I was going to enter the contest and get a "Nova". I said "if I do, will you ride in it?" with a quip she said "No." that ended ever thinking of the car. I was surprised when she rode wtih my in my F250 high boy I used get wood in. It was NOT her style... :p
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I liked that 40 Chevy too, that thing has a great stance.

The thing that bothers me is when he can’t finish a roadtrip (or spend more time cobbling to limp it home) because he has to catch a flight to film an episode of roadworthy rescue the next day. When Roadkill started getting stale it was the same thing where Freiburger and Finnegan just had all of these other obligations keeping them busy, to the point they started using guest hosts, which I’m thinking the only reason I even recognize you two is from the show you’re now blowing off.

And this isn’t a criticism of them mind you, Freiburger and Derek and others have outright said without saying specifically it’s the meat grinder that is discovery and YouTube forcing them to churn out as much content as fast as possible. The highly marked up merch these YouTubers sell is a bigger revenue stream than the actual videos for some of the smaller channels.

68-72 Novas are only really popular because Chevy made a bazillion of them(same as the SBC under the hoods of most) and thus were(and still relatively are) cheap. I’ve seen plenty of cool ones, but for me it’s not exactly the car I’d want to blow my once in a lifetime good luck on if I actually won the damn thing.
 
I found another guy out there rebuilding "will it run?" cars, but it rather urked me that he was doing what Dereck does, just much neater (cleaner and with more respoect to the car). I have yet to see Dereck take a blower or vacuum to a car before tearing the engine open. These other guys will clean off all the debree before driving it home on a trailer, if nothing else, so its not blowing all over the road as they drive home.

I guess you can take the boy from the country, but you can't take the bumpkin out of Dereck.

The new guy (been around for 4 years?) is Michael from Budget Buildz... and he smiles too much. Makes me nervious.
 
White Lincoln said:
I found another guy out there rebuilding "will it run?" cars, but it rather urked me that he was doing what Dereck does, just much neater (cleaner and with more respoect to the car). I have yet to see Dereck take a blower or vacuum to a car before tearing the engine open. These other guys will clean off all the debree before driving it home on a trailer, if nothing else, so its not blowing all over the road as they drive home.

I guess you can take the boy from the country, but you can't take the bumpkin out of Dereck.

The new guy (been around for 4 years?) is Michael from Budget Buildz... and he smiles too much. Makes me nervious.
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I can’t stand the “will it run” knock offs for the same reason I could never stand the various Top Gear knock offs(including the current iteration of actual Top Gear). Derek has a unique persona and is a great entertainer, that’s why VGG works; It’s not rocket science to get a derelict car running, and really 90% of the time it’s rinse repeat if it’s a conventional carbureted old car, It’s the state of the car and his reactions that make it watchable.

Plus the whole “will it run” trend is fucking up the project car supply as bad as air B&B is fucking up the housing market.
 
I have to agree with XR7 on this. Top Gear can be funny, but it seemed they were running out of material a few years ago. Same old stick, one gets a decent car, the other two struggle. It's kind of stupid show, but entertaining just the same, which is what they are supposed to be.

As for RoadKill, I kinda thought those two were assholes trying to be funny? The only show I really liked they put out was the 64 Ford Ranchero they drove to Alaska. As you mentioned, one thing about Dereck is he is not portraying "attitude" or trying to be cool or smart or... like RoadKill. He is Dereck, family man, entrepreneur, business man... and a well versed mechanic.

I don't know, like most TV or rather "art", it is in the eye of the beholder and not subject to an equal chritisim from the masses.

I will say this. Watching these shows inspiries me to get off my arse and get out and get stuff done on these old cars. Last night I went out and changed out my O2 sensors cause I replaced them back in Feburary and found they were not the right ones (per Amazon, "these will fit your car!" BS. Next adventure is the drinkers door on the Town Car needs new motor gear plugs. I even went so far last night is to put a wind flap under the front of the car and see what that does! What the heck, maybe it will keep the engine cooler than it is or attract more crap to go up into the engine...
 
The first two or three seasons of Roadkill were pretty great, there’d be no Vice Grip Garage without them paving the way. Freiburger and Finnegan were essentially doing it as a side project from their day job at Hot Rod magazine and a lot of the featured cars were actually their personal cars they had stakes in not being trashed for entertainment value. There was also a lot more variety back then, one episode would be road-tripping an el Camino to the summit parking lot to swap an engine with a better one in the bed, or the two Alaska road-trips in the ranchero you mentioned, or the general mayhem build etc.

Three things happened that made roadkill stale, the Dodge sponsorship seemed to mean a lot more old mopars became roadkill cars(good or bad thing depending on your tastes) Finnegan moving out of California to Georgia which made the great chenestry the two had seem more forced and awkward, and finally getting put behind the motortrend on demand paywall which seemed to really limit what they could afford to do on the show(like roadtrips) and ironically simultaneously seemed to seep more cable TV production values into a show that really never needed more than go-pros to be good. Freiburger and Finnegan are both better outside the show where they seem to ham it up for the cable audience. Derek clearly does it too.
 
I can't argue with you on the RoadKill shows, I know I watched several of them back in the day. But as mentioned, I seemed to have lost interest after a few seasons, as you had mentioned, probably due to their sponsers (owners).

I myself used to look forward to Friday night and VGG, but seemed to have grown out of what he is pushing now. Which is fine, nothing against the show, it will go where it will go... but as mentioned, the other shows are just kick off's of Dereck (ie: RoadKill) and are either just crass, tacky or boring to me now.

Maybe I'm just jeolouse because I can't find the 69 El Camino SS I always wanted for $1000 and fix it up or not finding the work they do relative to my own car issues. Not sure.
 
White Lincoln said:
I can't argue with you on the RoadKill shows, I know I watched several of them back in the day. But as mentioned, I seemed to have lost interest after a few seasons, as you had mentioned, probably due to their sponsers (owners).

I myself used to look forward to Friday night and VGG, but seemed to have grown out of what he is pushing now. Which is fine, nothing against the show, it will go where it will go... but as mentioned, the other shows are just kick off's of Dereck (ie: RoadKill) and are either just crass, tacky or boring to me now.

Maybe I'm just jeolouse because I can't find the 69 El Camino SS I always wanted for $1000 and fix it up or not finding the work they do relative to my own car issues. Not sure.
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If you really want to find a show to hate, find the episode of Monster Garage where Jesse James turned a real 70 or 71 El Camino SS into a figure 8 race car and immediately wrecked it! I saw that when I was like 12 and I’m still holding the grudge!

Roadkill was before VGG, but I think my attitude is the same, both ran their course. It’s like when I realized The Simpsons bad episodes overwhelmed the great episodes. I still tune into either from time to time but it’s not like it used to be.
 
I actually looked Roadkill garage better than Roadkill because they were actually working on their own stuff that they planned to keep. It was more informational and showed progression of projects. VGG is ok because he's funny but the rattle can everything gets a bit old at this point. He does seem like a decent guy, so that helps.

I'm actually starting to like Tony Angelo's YT channel. He's starting to finally make better content and I think Derek helped him with some of that. Nice to see guys help each other out.
 
Zep5.0 said:
I actually looked Roadkill garage better than Roadkill because they were actually working on their own stuff that they planned to keep. It was more informational and showed progression of projects. VGG is ok because he's funny but the rattle can everything gets a bit old at this point. He does seem like a decent guy, so that helps.

I'm actually starting to like Tony Angelo's YT channel. He's starting to finally make better content and I think Derek helped him with some of that. Nice to see guys help each other out.
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That plus Dulcich is the manIMG_5998.png
 
I think the guy in the Cougar needs a hair cut. I keep thinking I would not mind having a 67 Cougar. I keep seeing them for sale (at a ridiculous price, none the less), but they are so iconic. Even a 69 Thunderbird would be a delight, as the interior is an awesome work of art. Wow... off topic - "and you may find yourself in a large automobile..." Talking Heads - Once in a lifetime.

I was planning on going back over the Roadkill episodes and see if any look interesting, and in looking over the 76 episodes, I did see a few I recall watching.

I tried Tony Angelo's channel and was not liking it. Ever since I saw him with Dereck and that awesome 67 Fairlane, they did not seem to have chemistry or Tony was having a bad hair day, or was silently pissed he had no seat to sit on when they test drove the car. I will try a few more just to be sure it was not me having the bad hair day.
 
White Lincoln said:
I think the guy in the Cougar needs a hair cut.
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I feel personally attacked 😆


White Lincoln said:
I was planning on going back over the Roadkill episodes and see if any look interesting, and in looking over the 76 episodes, I did see a few I recall watching.

I tried Tony Angelo's channel and was not liking it. Ever since I saw him with Dereck and that awesome 67 Fairlane, they did not seem to have chemistry or Tony was having a bad hair day, or was silently pissed he had no seat to sit on when they test drove the car. I will try a few more just to be sure it was not me having the bad hair day.
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Tony’s got a bit too much of an “I’m really awesome” YouTube influencer personality that keeps me from watching his content most of the time, but mostly I find his crew actually legitimately irritating when I do watch. Small doses he’s fine, and I liked him on hot rod garage paired with Lucky. In fact one of the rare better episodes of Roadkill where he was guest hosting was the drag week one where Blasphemy won gasser class.
 
Well, I must say I was wrong. I watched several of the RoadKill episodes and was enjoying them. Why, my opioin was so skued since years ago, I am not sure, but it is human nature to have a bad experience and that is what stays with you.

Neither David Freiburger or Mike Finnegan were acting in anyway that gave me the impression I had of them when I started this post.

I really enjoyed the Mach 1 Mustang they rebuilt from a junk yard, the 68' Dodge Charger that a hemi engine and components was put in and a few other of the shows I was able to see. The shows are well done, edited well and have great content. I also enjoyed the comrodery between the two stars of the show. I would recommend anyone that is going to watch the new "will it run" shows to watch a RoadKill show of a car they like to get overall structure where these new shows come from.

Now, back to the current shows of "will it run" have been officially cheapened and made to really look like knock off's. I have a lot of RoadKill shows i need to watch so I no longer need to watch these "knock off" shows.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Tony’s got a bit too much of an “I’m really awesome” YouTube influencer personality ....
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Exactly! Thanks for putting the words in my thread for me!

Blasphemy... what a car. Talk about being built from nothing.
 
Tony has been getting better as of late. They just shared how they made a Z06 worse, and then fixed it. Maybe I just like how they do more reasonable builds and share how they do a lot of the tricks of the build. It's certainly no HRG.
 
Zep5.0 said:
Tony has been getting better as of late. They just shared how they made a Z06 worse, and then fixed it. Maybe I just like how they do more reasonable builds and share how they do a lot of the tricks of the build. It's certainly no HRG.
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That's good to hear Zep. I will go into watching Tony with an open mind next time I watch his show.
 
I like Stay Tuned because they build a car and keep working on it rather than just getting it running once and then on to the next one. Most of them are pretty budget builds, but I can also appreciate when they go way above my budget to build something different. I'm generally not into Porsche's or Mercedes, but even those builds are interesting. I can kind of maybe see the "influencer" attitude in him, but I'm guessing he is a pretty down to earth guy.

Steve Dulcich is the man. I definitely prefer RoadKill Garage over RoadKill nowadays, but the "He Hate Me" episode and when they take the muscle truck to Lake Elsinore and swap the engine into their boat in the parking lot are both pretty classic.
 
Thanks for sharing your likes and dislikes in car shows. Gives me something to check out and be interested in or turned off by, but either way, it shows diversity in what members here like / dislike and how the people in these shows deal with vehicles and share what they know and have learned.
 
BTW: Here's a tip for watching YouTube videos. If you don't have a subscription to YouTube and are sick of the ad's you are forced to watch, try this. Download DuckDuckGo browser and open a YouTube link using the DDG browser. It should ask if you want to watch it on YouTube or watch in Duck Player. If you select Duck Player to watch the link on, you should NOT see a single commercial pop up.
 
KevinVarnes said:
I like Stay Tuned because they build a car and keep working on it rather than just getting it running once and then on to the next one. Most of them are pretty budget builds, but I can also appreciate when they go way above my budget to build something different. I'm generally not into Porsche's or Mercedes, but even those builds are interesting. I can kind of maybe see the "influencer" attitude in him, but I'm guessing he is a pretty down to earth guy.

Steve Dulcich is the man. I definitely prefer RoadKill Garage over RoadKill nowadays, but the "He Hate Me" episode and when they take the muscle truck to Lake Elsinore and swap the engine into their boat in the parking lot are both pretty classic.
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Any Muscle truck episode is great, and I’m not even a truck guy(though I do think stepsides were the coolest trucks) The one where they took it to the sand dunes and Finnegan hacked the perfectly good fenders to fit knobby tires and Freiburger’s clear sadness and Finnegan’s can do “well just flange them and dzus them back on” made me laugh so hard the first time I watched it😆
 
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