03x03 - Ride from the Ashes

[bunniefuu]

[power tools whirring]

[engine revs]

[slow rock music playing]

-Tow truck's on its way.

-Yep.

Alex is on his way over here.

-Need a hand with that?

-Nope.

[vehicle approaching]

-Speak of the devil.

-There he is now. This is a bit awkward.

-Hey, guys.

-Hey, Alex.

-How you doing, Alex?

-Hey, man.

Hi, how are you? How's it going?

Yeah, it's going.

[Shawn] So, we packed her all up for you.

[Mark] We took on this El Camino project

as a simple cash deal,

but unfortunately Alex's expectations

did not match ours.

You know, I wish I knew before, so I can

We're not gonna lose all this time.

But, you know

-We're not used to doing this.

-It is what it is.

[Shawn] It's not in the cards for us

right now to get all this done, so

You never want to be

in a situation like this as a shop owner,

but it does happen.

-[Shawn] Maybe another time.

-[Alex] It is what it is.

[Mark] When you get into a build

of adding catalog parts

that has no end in sight,

it's just not the right job for this shop.

[power tools whirring]

[engine revs]

[rock music playing]

-[Shawn] Hey.

-[Mark] Closed-door meeting.

First time ever.

Yeah, closed-door meeting.

It's very important here.

Look, the El Camino was a disaster,

so we need some liquid cash

in the meantime to hold us over.

To put it bluntly, these first two

high-end commission cars

have kicked our asses financially.

What's your brilliant idea?

Well, I actually have a guy,

deep pockets, that's got a '70 Nova.

He wants an all-metal chin spoiler

on the front

Does it come in with a packing list of,

"Oh, yeah, this is how you're doing it"?

[Shawn] We made next to nothing

on the Delahaye build.

So we were hoping to recoup some

of that lost profit on the El Camino.

We didn't redo the vinyl top,

and we didn't paint the car.

So we left nearly 10 grand on the table.

And the only vehicle in our garage

right now is a 1940 Ford woodie

that we acquired in the Scout trade.

-[Mark] Pretty sweet.

-Think we have a deal.

-There we go.

-[Mark] We have a deal.

[Shawn] It is our big

six-figure cash-out car,

but we won't see a payday on that car

for at least a few weeks.

I know Mark feels beat up

by these high-end client deals,

but we need a project

that can bring some cash through the door

as soon as humanly possible.

There's gotta be an alternative

to this ridiculousness of,

"Hey, just because I have the money

makes me right."

[Shawn] We got to put this

into perspective.

We freaking built a car and donated it

just to get these high-end customers.

Yeah, but the last two in a row

have been wacka-wacka,

-"I'm gonna tell you what to do."

-This is kinda new for us.

[Mark] Exactly. That's what I'm saying.

'Cause the morale in the shop

has gone way downhill.

I know Shawn is chomping at the bit

to tap into his new Rolodex

of high-end clients,

but this isn't the direction

that I wanted Gotham Garage to go in.

I thought we put the car in the Petersen

Automotive Museum

[all applauding]

we get high-end clients that want us

to build custom cars with my vision.

In my opinion, we shouldn't take on

any more of Shawn's new clients

until we have a better strategy in place

to deal with these high-profile builds.

Let's go talk to the kids in the garage

and see how they feel about it.

Maybe between all of us,

we can come up with a game plan

that puts everybody

back on the right track.

There you go. Good idea.

Let's go talk to them.

-Yo.

-[Mark] Hey, guys.

-[Tony] What's up?

-Conversation time.

-[Tony] Uh-oh.

-[Constance] Oh, no.

I know this comes as no surprise

to everybody

that we need a build

that can bring in some cash.

The big question is

what type of build do we want to bring in?

I have some high-end customers

ready to fork out some money

to have us build their cars,

but it comes with strings attached.

You know?

I don't think any of us are feeling

particularly fired up about the builds

we've been doing.

I mean, I definitely see that, like,

creatively, it's so stale right now.

Feels like a job, feels like a 9 to 5.

Where's the hobby shop

that I used to come into?

[Constance] I understand

where Mark's coming from.

High-end clients,

they want things in a very particular way.

They want it their way.

But we're always working

towards these six-figure cars,

and the reality is is these builds

can take months to be done.

So we really have to stretch

those pay days,

and that's why it's really important that

we try to keep these high-end clients

because we do really need that money.

I'm not saying

get rid of the high-end clients.

I'm saying

let's just hit the pause button.

I'd like to just have a buyer that's

willing to let us do what we want to do

and get the shop morale back up

to where it normally is.

Yeah. What kind of project

do we want to do?

You talk to me. What's everybody thinking?

-I think I might have the perfect project.

-What's that?

I got the Wildfire bike.

I was gonna restore this for my uncle,

and I basically have free reign

to do whatever I want to that thing.

[Constance] That's exciting.

[Tony] So this bike here,

at least what's left of it anyways,

it's got a pretty crazy story

that goes with it.

This was my Uncle Dave's bike.

Dave was a big motorcycle collector,

and he lost his entire garage

in one of the California wildfires.

For him, his garage

was more than just a garage.

It actually was his sanctuary.

He lost all of his motorcycles,

personal belongings, everything.

It was devastating.

This bike was about the only thing

that was salvageable.

He told me if I wanted to take it back,

I could do whatever I wanted to do

if I could turn it

into a full motorcycle again.

-That bike is really down and dirty.

-It's a great start.

-It burnt to the ground.

-Here's the thing.

I've been through the frame

and it's solid.

What's there is actually reusable.

All we need is an engine

and a transmission.

Almost all of the rest of the parts

we can make here.

Can't we go find like a donor bike

for like six or five grand

or something like that?

That's really all we need.

What kind of money is he talking about?

I mean

We talked about a budget

of probably about 25 grand.

-Good profit.

-It's not a huge bike, but

The issue,

how does your uncle feel about that,

and does he have the money

to pull the trigger now?

[Tony] I'll call and check,

but if anyone's going to appreciate

a Gotham Garage build,

-it's going to be my uncle on this bike.

-I like that.

Mm-hmm. You go start hunting

for a donor bike.

You call your uncle

and make sure it's a done deal.

If he's good to go,

you have a vision for it,

so Constance, you help Tony

tear down the Wildfire bike

and get that thing prepped.

Caveman, me and you, we're gonna go

to storage and get that woodie.

and the rest of us,

we can meet over at the other shop

and get a game plan together for that car.

-Let's do it!

-Good job.

[line ringing]

-[Dave on phone] Hey, Tony, how you doing?

-I'm good. How are you?

[Dave] Oh, not too bad.

Well, I just got out of a meeting

with the crew,

and we want to rebuild your motorcycle,

Big Red, for our next project.

-[Dave] For real?

-Yep.

[Dave] Oh, right on, Tony.

I've always had a great relationship

with my Uncle Dave.

You know, he loves cars

and loves motorcycles,

and we have that same

common bond and passion.

So this is a really

devastating loss for him,

but rebuilding this motorcycle is really

gonna mean a lot to Dave.

[Dave] I had a lot of motorcycles

in my life, but Big Red, man,

I rode the wheels off that thing.

-[laughs]

-Yep. So we want to jump on this thing.

Of course,

one of the big things, you know,

we talked about a budget of about 25,

and I just wanted to make sure

you were still good to go on that.

[Dave] Oh yeah.

If I don't have it, I'll get it.

[laughs]

-I'm excited. I can't wait to get started.

-[Dave] I'll be waiting for your call.

[rock music playing]

[Tony] All right.

So the real vision for this bike

is to really keep the essence

of what it is.

-Burnt.

-[Tony] Exactly.

Anybody can just powder coat a frame

and throw a new paint job on,

but you can't recreate this.

So get off as many parts

that look like they're just burnt

-but could still be used.

-Yeah.

Okay.

I definitely should have got

a tetanus shot

-before coming in today.

-[laughs]

Ever since my uncle gave me this bike,

I had a vision in my head

of how it should look.

Even though this bike looks like

it's beyond repair,

there's actually some

really great pieces that I can use.

So I'm gonna take some of these

old, charred pieces off of the bike

and clear coat 'em

to seal in the burned look.

Then, I'll need a few brand-new components

to get the bike running.

Engine, transmission,

everything mechanical

that's gonna get this bike

to fire back up.

I also want to send out the gas tanks

for some custom airbrush art,

something that captures the story

of what this bike's been through.

And since this is a one-of-a-kind bike,

it needs a unique set of wheels,

so I'm gonna create a set of 23-inch

clear wheels, using bulletproof Plexiglas.

-[parts clattering]

-Oh!

Tony, we're supposed to be careful,

-remember?

-I know, I know.

You know, I'd actually wanted

to buy this bike a while back.

-And he kind of knows what I do to things.

-Yeah.

[laughing] He said, "No. You're gonna

chop it up and ruin it."

No, we never do that here, ever.

[laughs]

[Tony] What we wanna do with this bike

is not just make it what it was,

because it'll never be what it was.

It's something different now.

We're really treading a fine line

with this build

because Dave's style

is a little bit different,

maybe a little bit more traditional,

a little more conservative,

but I think I've got the right way

to put this bike together

and just preserve the essence

of what this bike's been through.

So I hope that when Dave sees the bike,

he actually still likes it.

We got the shift assembly,

the brake assembly,

the gas tanks, and the frame.

Let's go over to the other shop

and help the guys out with the woodie.

And then when Shawn

finds us the donor bike,

we have to get all that scale and rust

off the frame

and get it ready to clear coat,

so we can seal in

that patina-burnt finish.

So it'll look just like it did

before we took it apart.

Yeah, except it's gonna be shiny burnt,

so you don't get tetanus when you ride it.

-[Constance] Shiny burnt. Okay.

-[Tony] Shiny burnt.

[rock music playing]

-This is a nice piece of wood.

-[Constance] Yeah.

[Mark] That is a 1940 woodie.

-[Tony] The wood's in good shape.

-That's definitely a woodie.

It doesn't look like anything here has

to be reworked. Everything looks solid.

I think we got a good platform

to just keep working with.

[Mark] This is the car

we've been trying to get our hands on

for a month or so.

We started with the Mercedes

and moved up to the Scout,

and that Scout led to this.

This is the most iconic hot rod

in California.

It's a woodie. And all it does is scream,

"Take me to the beach."

It's 120 grand on a bad day to sell

this car, no matter what we do to it.

The reason why these woodies

are so sought after

is because they have

one of the most interesting histories

of any car ever built.

Back in the '30s and '40s,

woodies were one of the most

upscale cars you could own

because the woodwork was handcrafted

by coach builders and cabinet makers,

but the wood was so hard to maintain

that the car soon fell out of style,

until the 1960s.

The woodie wagon

had a huge resurgence in America

with the California surf culture.

These cars were perfect

for throwing your surfboards in the back,

cruising to the beach,

and catching some waves.

To this day, people consider the woodie

to be the most iconic

California hot rod in history.

So are we building a beach cruiser?

No, this car is gonna be total

Gotham Garage cartoon hot rod.

Gonna put a Big-Block Chevy in it

with an 871 blower.

I'm gonna make sure that the top

of the shotgun on the top of the blower

on top of the high-rise,

on top of the Big-Block

is gonna be dead level with the roof.

This is gonna be one badass car.

You know, I I like what you're saying,

-but remember, let's keep it in the realm

-But?

of sellable and not get too rambunctious

-with the, uh, creativity.

-Well, that's not gonna happen.

[Shawn] I know Mark and the crew

are dying to get creative right now,

but this is not the car

to be doing this with.

You know, when it comes

to these iconic cars,

most guys want 'em as close to original

as much as they possibly can, am I right?

-Nope.

-[laughs]

[Shawn] If we build a traditional woodie,

I can easily sell it for six figures.

Then we'll have cash to burn

on a whole slew of starter cars

that they can go crazy on.

[Mark] This is literally

what we all just talked about.

-On a car like this

-Just remember

creativity has always turned

into a much bigger payday. Trust me.

[Shawn] I hope Mark knows

what he's talking about

because if he's wrong,

we could lose

tens of thousands of dollars.

Don't you think by continuing

to tell him not to do something,

that he's just going

to wait for you to leave

and do everything and then some?

-Yeah.

-[Shawn] Good point.

-I'm out of here.

-[Mark] You should.

-I'll start making calls now.

-[Constance] Just go!

-Bye! Adiós!

-Bye!

Hate to watch you leave,

but I love to watch you go.

[laughs]

[Mark] No matter what Shawn says,

I know there is a market

for the car I'm about to build.

I know the fuel cell's here,

so Constance and Caveman

are gonna take care of that,

and Tony, I need you to make

a crossmember that'll hold up that motor.

All right, big money.

[Mark] Most woodies

are traditionally style-built,

but that's not the guy I'm after.

I want to start with a redonkulous motor.

We're gonna get a brand-new,

custom-built 454 Big-Block Chevy motor

and stack it with bling for days.

Then, we'll add custom front fenders,

our Mercedes fabric top,

and one-of-a-kind, custom-made wheels.

Inside the car, we'll keep the wood theme

with a custom wood floor

and hand-tooled painted leather seats.

To complete the look,

we'll stuff a couple of surfboards

in the back in true California style.

[hammering]

-[whirring]

-[Caveman] How's that look?

-Everything looking good?

-Yep.

Success.

All righty. So, it's coming along.

Right now, I mean,

the fuel cell's all hooked up on it.

Tony got the whole front suspension

buttoned down with that new piece.

So tomorrow, Shawn's gonna have

a donor bike here ready to go.

-Should be simple.

-[Constance] All right.

[Mark] Tony and Constance, you get back

on the Wildfire bike in the morning.

Caveman, me and you

are back on the woodie.

What do you say you clean this stuff up,

and we leave early?

I think that's probably the worst idea

you've ever had.

I thought it was a great idea.

[rock music playing]

[phone ringing]

Oh, hey, what do we got here?

Hello, this is Shawn.

[man 1 on phone] Hey, Shawn,

I heard from a buddy

-you're working on a woodie over there.

-Yes, yes

It's a one-of-a-kind, is what it is.

Woodies are such a specific subculture

in the car world.

A woodie usually appeals

to older guys that want a cruiser.

We're not building that car.

-[man 1] What do you got under the hood?

-There's actually no hood on the car.

[man 1] Uh-oh.

We're going totally out of the box

with this massive monstrosity of a motor.

Yeah, the engine's a little unorthodox.

[man 1] Unorthodox?

And when you build

an out-of-the-box car like this,

you narrow your scope of potential buyers.

We're talking about a custom

ATK 454 Big-Block,

topped off with an 871 blower.

Gary?

[Gary] Looking for something

more traditional.

It's a traditional with a flare.

There's a very high risk and it might

take a long time to find a buyer.

[man 2 on phone] Shawn, I like it,

but I just dropped

a bunch of cash on a custom Buick.

Is that going to be tough for me?

Hell yeah, it's gonna be tough.

[man 2] It sounds really cool, but

I'm out of town for the next few months.

So I don't think I'll be able

to make it to the shop to check it out.

[Shawn] We've always trusted

Mark's visions for these cars,

but I can't help but wonder

if Mark's vision

is leading us down the wrong path.

Back to the drawing board, I guess.

[rock music playing]

[crickets chirping]

[birds chirping]

[Tony] You ready to get some of this stuff

cleaned up?

Oh, yeah. See how much dust

we can blow off of here.

[Tony] Yeah, just the flaky stuff.

It's got a scar. We don't want to hide

the scar. We want to show it off.

[Constance] When you are building

something like this,

you're not building it the same way

that you'd build anything else

because you're a lot more

emotionally invested,

and to Tony, it's not just a motorcycle.

It's his uncle.

I mean, his uncle is so passionate

about this bike,

and to have it taken away from you

in this uncontrollable situation,

like a fire, is heartbreaking.

So, I think Tony sees this as something

that can give him a new lease

on the future

that this bike can hold for him.

-[vocalizes]

-Pretty shiny.

Yeah.

All that burn is sealed in.

No, it came out really nice.

[Tony] Shawn was able to track down

the perfect donor bike for this build.

-Mark. Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

I'm stoked. I was expecting

a few more things missing,

but it's everything we need.

[Tony] Most of the components

on the burned bike,

like the engine and the transmission,

is completely unusable.

So we pulled all of the mechanical parts

off the donor bike,

and we painted them

with our rust treatment.

So they would match

the look of the burn bike.

Right there.

Usually, you'd see this, and you'd go,

"Man, that looks really bad."

-[Constance laughs]

-"That motor looks like complete junk."

It's all old and rusted up,

and it's never gonna run."

But for what we're doing here,

I think it looks perfect.

It looks absolutely perfect.

We're like 80 percent now.

Yeah, so I'm gonna go

knock out the wheels,

and you head to the other shop and help

those guys with the motor on the woodie.

Cool?

Cool.

[rock music playing]

[engine revving]

This little box came from Summit Racing.

It's a ATK 454.

-Okay, can we open it now?

-So we can open it now.

You can do the honors

and cut it and get the box off.

-[Constance giggling]

-[Caveman] You ready?

[grunts, laughs]

-[squealing]

-[Mark] There it is.

Finally, it's the moment

we've all been waiting for.

This giant 454 Big-Block,

custom-built motor

is going to be the centerpiece

of this woodie build.

-[Caveman] How's it looking?

-[Mark] Go ahead and set it down slow.

[Caveman] Yeah. Go in easy, go in easy.

It's a monster,

an absolute beast of an engine.

Nice.

It's gonna make this car

look unlike any other traditional woodie

you'll see on the street.

[Caveman] Ooh-whee! Yeah! Purty!

[both laugh]

[upbeat music playing]

We've put some really big motors

in stuff before.

[engine revving]

The Frank'N'Bus is one that

immediately comes to my mind.

But this thing is ridiculous. [chuckles]

It's got over 700 horsepower,

and for a car that's basically 70% wood,

that's crazy.

[Mark] She's got the librarian thing

going on.

[laughing] She can see 'em now.

[Constance] This honestly might be

Mark's wildest car yet.

I mean, you just don't see that every day.

-[Mark] You guys ready?

-[Caveman] Fire in the hole!

-[Constance] Don't say that, Caveman.

-[laughs]

[Mark] Go ahead and crank it over.

[engine cranking]

[Caveman] Come on, baby. Come on.

Try it again.

[dramatic music playing]

[engine starts]

[revving]

-[yelling] More! More! More!

-That makes stuff fall over, don't it?

-High five. How good was that, huh?

-I love the smell of carburetion!

[Mark] Constance, jump back

on the Wildfire bike with Tony,

and Caveman, as far as the woodie goes,

all we gotta do is the rest of it.

-Then we can go for a ride? [laughs]

-Then we'll go for a drive.

[dramatic music playing]

[Tony] The one big custom addition

that I'm adding to this bike

is a set of clear wheels.

I'm gonna take a 23-inch

aluminum wheel blank

and cut the center out,

and I'm gonna replace that center

with a piece of bulletproof glass.

The idea is to build an invisible wheel,

and I need to use bulletproof glass

to make it strong enough

for the wheel to hold together.

My Uncle Dave and I have been

riding motorcycles for a long time.

We bonded over motorcycles,

and I just want this bike

to be really special for him.

I know we're not getting paid

a crazy amount money for this project,

but for me, it's a way to give back

and really show him what he means to me.

So if I've gotta put in a little

extra time to add these custom pieces,

like the wheels, I'm gonna do whatever

it takes to make it special for him.

[Tony] Got the wheels all together.

[Constance] Wow, those look really cool.

[Tony] So I think we have

almost everything here.

[Constance] Yeah.

[Tony] Right now, we're gonna send

the gas tanks out to get airbrushed,

and then when they come back,

we can put this bike back together.

In the meantime, we can go to the other

shop and help out with the woodie.

But we're pretty close to having

this thing ready to fire up.

Cool.

[rock music playing]

[Caveman] It's like Fourth of July.

So, this is going to be really simple.

We're actually gonna

put a floor in it now.

Why? I enjoyed the Flintstones style.

Because I don't really want all that mud

being thrown on my back

-while I'm driving it.

-[laughs]

Constance and Tony, I'm gonna have you

start fabricating up the frame right here.

-Sheet metal floor pans here.

-[Tony] Gotcha.

[Mark] Caveman, you and I,

-we'll use a truck bed kit for the back.

-Yeah.

Treat it the same way

the outside of the car is.

-[Tony] Sounds easy.

-[Caveman] Easy-peasy.

This woodie will be very unorthodox,

but we want to keep that classic wood look

on the outside of the car

and on the inside.

This is what made these cars

so special back in the day,

handcrafted wood all over the car.

All right, your hands clean? Good job.

[Caveman laughs]

Every single one of them

needs 13 inches off the bottom.

[whirring]

It was a super time-intensive process,

and it was not cheap.

In fact, Henry Ford

bought an entire forest in Michigan

just to manufacture

all the wood in his cars.

Okay, guys, floor's looking really good.

Tony, Constance,

you guys go finish up that bike.

Caveman, you and I are gonna get

this woodie prepped

and ready for the paint booth.

[upbeat music playing]

[Constance] All right.

We're looking pretty good.

We got the front end.

I think maybe we start with the front

suspension, put the front forks on,

-and put the wheels on.

-[Constance] Good.

I think a lot of times,

we're very fortunate to build stuff

that's all happy, all the time.

When my uncle sees this, I don't think

he'll believe me that it's the same bike.

The fact that it's an actual functioning

bike is a good first step to that.

Yeah, that's the first step.

[Constance]

I think Tony sees this as something

that he can take this negative situation

and kind of start a new chapter

that still has all this connection

to your past,

but closes the door

on the negative portion of it.

[Tony] Looks like the wheel's

just floating out in space.

It's so cool.

[Tony] I think any time someone has a loss

like Dave just had, you lose so much.

And it's devastating. You think,

"How am I gonna come back from this?"

You can walk away, you can let it

drag you down in other parts of your life.

[bike starting]

But I think it's how you fight back.

It's how you get up

and what you do with that memory.

That's what defines you,

and that's what this bike is.

[rock music playing]

Using salvaged parts off the burned bike,

we brought this old Harley back to life.

New motor, new transmission.

For the gas tanks, I told the airbrush

artist to come up with a cool visual

that captures the Wildfire theme,

and I think they turned out perfect.

I also created a set

of one-off clear wheels.

We took something that was left for dead

and literally gave it a second life,

and I cannot wait to see my uncle's face

when he sees this for the first time.

[upbeat music playing]

Dude, you did a really good job on this.

The truth is that I couldn't really

ruin it from what it was.

-I know, it's really hard to go backwards.

-Yeah.

-Hey.

-[Tony] Hey, Dave.

Hey, Tony. [chuckles]

-[Shawn] Mark. Dave.

-How you doing? Nice to meet you.

[Dave] Tony and I have had

a history of bikes in the past,

and I've owned that bike for 32 years.

I never thought I'd see it again,

to tell you the truth.

The last time I'd seen it,

it was just a hulk of nothing

sitting in a pile of ashes.

I mean, it's like, how can you anticipate

something like this?

-Are you ready to check this thing out?

-I'm ready to check it out.

It looks a little different

than the last time you saw it.

All right, here we go.

Oh, wow.

Oh, right on. Tony, right on, man!

[laughs]

Wow.

[laughing]

It's really something,

I really have to say, man. I love it.

Tony has this ability to take inspiration

and creativity and harness that.

And it was a big shock to see it,

to see that it actually lived,

that the motorcycle was a living,

breathing thing again, you know.

That's why that whole avalanche

of emotions came back to me

when I saw that bike for the first time.

I mean, I can't even believe

this whole thing.

I love the fire-burned part of it.

-[Tony] This is all the original burn.

-This is

So we cleaned the tanks out

and sealed all this in.

-Right on, man.

-How do you like that upholstery?

-All hand-tooled painted leather.

-[Dave] Wow.

Tell him about the no-spoke wheels.

Yeah, this is something.

-What is this, a 23?

-23s on the front and back.

Tony had a genius idea

to use bulletproof Plexiglas.

This is a masterpiece.

I mean, it really is. It's awesome, Tony.

This is exactly why I built this bike.

Dave wants to get on the bike, I think.

-[Tony] You want to hear it run?

-Yeah, I do. This thing is awesome.

[all laugh]

[Tony] What he's been through

and what this bike has been through,

to have him reunited with it

is worth more than any check

that anyone could write.

-Fire that thing up.

-Fire it up?

-[Tony] You remember how to do it?

-I've only owned this thing for 32 years.

-[engine revving]

-Give it up. Give it a twist!

[turns off engine]

-Wow. That's really something, man.

-[all laugh]

Even though we made about 10 grand,

which isn't a whole lot,

it was nice to see the creative juices

flowing in the shop right now.

-So you want to take her for a spin?

-Can I?

-It's your bike now.

-[Dave] All right.

And seeing Dave reunited with this bike,

it's well worth it for this.

Is that a heart I hear in there?

You're like the Grinch.

-It's getting two sizes too big.

-What?

-Sounds like Boing!

-Shut up.

It's gonna break right out

on that camera lens.

Shut up.

[engine starts]

What?

[Mark] Look at that smile.

[upbeat music playing]

[Shawn] As expected, hunting down a buyer

for this crazy woodie

has been a real pain in my a*s,

I'll tell you.

I've made a ton of calls, and I've also

met with a bunch of well-connected guys

from the Southern California woodie world.

We're actually putting in

a Chevy 454 engine

with an 871 blower on it,

-So we're getting a little

-Wow. That's over the top.

[Shawn] It's just a tough car to sell.

I mean, this isn't just your standard

cruiser woodie.

But I stuck with it,

and my hard work paid off.

I talked to a guy

that is very interested in the car.

However, it sounds like he wants to get

a little creative with the deal.

Mark and the crew

are almost finished with the woodie,

so hopefully, this is our guy,

'cause I'm pretty much out of options.

[dramatic music playing]

[Mark] The whole point

of this woodie build

is to make a car that stands out

in the crowd.

This car needs to be loud, obnoxious,

and totally outrageous.

[music continues]

I want this car

to be a magnet for your eyes.

It draws you to it,

and you can't stop looking at it.

[tools clattering]

[Tony] That's a purple woodie.

What do you think of the paint?

That plum-crazy purple?

I think it looks great.

I just want to lick it.

Let's try to refrain

from licking the vehicle, okay?

[rock music playing]

Getting this 1940s woodie in the shop

was exactly what we needed.

Go fast.

[imitates engine revving]

The last few deals, we seem

to have gotten kind of beat down,

but to work on this woodie

and go crazy on it,

your mind just opens up,

the creativity flows,

and that's the best about working here.

[music continues]

This thing is gonna be

so badass when it's done.

I want to hear them tires roast,

and I want to be in a cloud of smoke.

[Hawaiian music playing]

[birds squawking]

[Mark] With car building, it's very rare

to have the exact vision in your head

come to life in front of you.

But with this 1940 Ford woodie,

that's exactly what happened.

[upbeat music playing]

This woodie beach cruiser

is larger than life.

The motor on this car,

it's a giant 454 Big-Block Chevy engine

with an 871 blower on it.

The wood on this car is pristine.

The hand-tooled painted leather interior,

it's all Tiki.

We went with that beach look.

When you sit in it,

you can smell the salty air.

[music continues]

[Tony] You just seem

to keep cleaning this.

You've been round those wheels

three times, man.

-I just like the car.

-He likes looking at it.

[Mark] It's all Gotham Garage,

front to back.

With this woodie being built,

the enthusiasm in this shop

is where it needs to be.

This should bring some serious money

to the little pocketbook.

[Tony] About to get our six-figure payday.

Now, all we have to do is find a buyer

for this car and cash out big.

-What's up, Shawn?

-[Shawn] Man, that looks

That is frickin' wow.

Man, that that's impressive.

[Mark] So what brings you out here, Shawn?

You know what? I'd like to talk

about money on this car.

I said this was gonna be a difficult sell

right from the get-go. Am I right?

Mm-hmm.

And now, I've only got one guy lined up.

But

But it's just a little different than

what we all talked about, you know?

[Mark] How different?

His name is Huey, and when he found out

this was a Gotham Garage woodie,

-man, he was all in.

-What are we talking, money wise?

Well, he doesn't have all the cash

-[Constance] Oh, come on.

-but here's the deal is,

the guy's got 85 grand,

and he has a lot of trade cars

to do this massive cash-trade deal.

These are good project cars

that we could turn into more money.

Think about that.

[Tony] I understand this woodie

is a tough sell for Shawn,

but we've all been working

towards this huge cash deal.

And what are we gonna do?

We're going to take less money

and start trading stuff.

Project cars are hard to find,

and we might be getting enough cars

to last us like two or three, four months.

[Tony] We have a model, it works.

You trade up, you get to your six figures,

you cash out.

Man, it's been how many builds?

We've been chasing the six-figure payday,

-and now it's here on our doorstep.

-[Shawn] But I'm telling you,

this is our only deal we have right now.

If we hold out for an all-cash deal,

we might be sitting on this car

for a while.

My question is,

what kind of money is he willing to trade?

So are we gonna break

that buck-twenty mark?

Yes, we are.

His value that he puts on this car

is way higher than 120.

With his 85 cash

and a bunch of these trade cars,

we could end up with maybe 130,

maybe 140 in value for this.

[Mark] Sometimes, you gotta take the deals

that come your way

and work 'em to your advantage.

The guy's got really good stuff,

and he's in love with Gotham Garage.

He's been looking for a woodie.

This is our guy.

If this guy has all of the gems that

Shawn's been telling me that he's got,

we're gonna come out

so far ahead of the game.

We do need more cars to play with.

I trust you guys.

It sounds like a good deal.

Yeah, nothing weird, nothing weird!

[Mark] But if these aren't gems

and this is just a coalfield,

we're gonna put that woodie

back on a trailer,

and Shawn is gonna be

like a little girl scout.

He's gonna go have to knock on doors

and sell this woodie

like a box of cookies.

Give him a call. I'll get the truck.

We'll get this loaded and go see him.

[closing theme music playing]

[engine revving]

-[calliope plays]

-[child] I want to see the show.