Today’s question starts out with a video series on YouTube that kicked off at the beginning of the year on the D.I.Y. Gang YouTube channel. A 2016 Dodge Challenger Hellcat that saw the wrong end of what appears to be a house fire was scored at a Copart auction and dragged back home. The plan is to return the car back to the land of the living. This isn’t a Roadkill episode…besides, they did that one already using a Plymouth Barracuda that got torched in a California fire a while ago. This is a young guy named José that not only has the means to make the purchase of such a fire roasted hulk of a Challenger fine performance machine, but the skills to spin wrenches and from what we’re seeing, the know-how and at least the enthusiasm to put it back on the road.
No, that is not a typo. He’s bent on returning this car back to street duty.
And it brings up a thought: we’ve been showcasing the efforts of YouTube mechanics for a bit, but it seems in the last couple of years we’ve found a crop of young guns who are diving in deep. Their videos are filled with dirty hands, sweating faces, late nights, and ambitious goals. From Dylan McCool’s 1969 Charger project that’s included engine, suspension and restoration work to Junkyard Digs’ goals of bringing cars back to life that haven’t ran in decades, we’ve been watching and paying attention. Think about it…what does José have to lose in this Hellcat deal? As you’ll see in the two videos I’m linking for the story, he’s already been deep into the 6.2L engine and it’s already been spun over and compression tested. So if the only thing that lives from this briquette of a Challenger is the engine, that’ll be fine…but that won’t be satisfactory judging from his work in replacing the panels. Love or hate his delivery style, anybody who is willing to drill out every last factory spot weld on a burned hulk for views is at least doing YouTube right. Or maybe that’s just us…what do you think?
I have seen a lot of the type of YouTube channels you are talking about. I go to them when I have to work on the “newer” stuff we all drive today. The biggest issue I have is. If you are going to do a real channel on YouTube. Don’t use your phone as your camera. I know the phones are good for birthdays and cat videos. But in dark holes or moving back and forth from one spot to another ,it just don’t work.When I do need to look or just want to. If the video was made with a phone.I’m sorry I just go to the next video.
It’s great to see younger people still working on cars. Junkyard digs is my favorite. He gets some real shitboxes back on the road. Always good to see them return to use. And maybe learn something in the process.
I was just watching a couple of Canadians working on a 65/6 Mustang trying to get the 289 motor running again. After tearing the engine down to the short block (with the requisite broken stuff), it amazed me how hard these guys were working on the old sludged up beast! “That’s not how I would have done it” kept coming to mind. It would have seemed that they were just a few bolts away from pulling the short block out, yet the just kept plugging away at the gooey, crusty. baked on goodness! Part1 ended with the lifter tray just full of ick..I am waiting for Part 2 to see if it actually will run after all the crap has been scraped off..80 + thousand views in just a few days.
I kinda like that “Eric the Car Guy”. At least he explains the process as he fixes stuff. Not just pictures of parts set to dubstep music.
I watch a few of them like goonzsquad and junkerup. Both of them have amazing skills in rebuilding cars for their age.
The one that blew my mind is that guy that re-builds Teslas. It’s like working on an iPhone. I really like that the big brothers at Tesla are trying to stop him at every turn.