Blog : Classic Car Rescue? Perrrr-lease!

Keith Adams

It’s been a while since I’ve had a rant on these pages – what with work, life and travel keeping me pretty much fully occupied. But on Monday evening, I witnessed a car crash of such colossal proportions – and, more seriously, one which made us old car fans look so bad – that I couldn’t let the moment pass without a little gentle commenting.

Classic Car Rescue is Channel 5’s new flagship motoring programme. It occupies that all-important 8.00pm Monday evening slot, guaranteed to pull in the post-Coronation Street dads, channel-surfing after overdosing on soap suds. The programme’s mission statement would appear to be – to pick up a dilapidated classic car, restore it to a saleable condition and then see if it’s possible to make a profit at the end of it. All very laudable – and, as any reader of AROnline will know, we’re completely behind this concept of taking old cars and making the most of them… it’s the environmentally sound approach.

I suppose, had I read the TV channel’s PR blurb on the subject, I might have been less than keen to stay tuned on Monday evening. But the sight of two grown men on the hunt for a rusty old Ford (a Mustang in this instance), did have some resonance. Channel 5 says this: ‘Bernie Fineman and Mario Pacione restore shameful rust buckets to their former ‘classic car’ glory in this new six-part series. The fiery duo will restore a Jaguar E-type, a Mini Cooper, a Cadillac, a Ford Mustang, a Porsche 911 and an MGB. Working to a tight deadline and an even tighter budget, they scour scrapyards, wasteland and backyards to find bargain wrecks with great potential. Having found the cars, they then need to source the rare, original parts and piece together the vital organs of these sleeping beasts to re-create their classic beauty.’

I can’t comment about the first two or three programmes, as I did not see them (I was watching Nigellissima on BBC2, which is right up my street), but did end up being drawn into this week’s Mustang affair. However, as the programme wore-on, I found myself shouting at the television and getting increasingly annoyed by what I was seeing. I suppose I should have turned over at the point when the narrator started talking about muscle cars, then went to a Mustang reveal shot… and, as we all know, that’s a Pony car, not a muscle car.

But it went on in that vein. The car expert of the duo went to look at his first potential car, while the second one decided the best way to try and haggle with the seller was to insult him and be rude in the process. I don’t know about you guys, but haggling in life is absolutely fine – but there are ways of doing it well and rudeness is not one of them. The dynamic duo then decided to walk – or flounce – away, but this was a clear plot device.

Then they found another car, a project, which had already been primered. Tweedle-dum decided to buy the car (only after feigning surprise that there was no engine under the ‘hood’) and was delighted to find that this was a low-volume variant that came with some kind of heritage certificate. Remember that. This was a much nicer haggling experience as Tweedle-dee wasn’t there to play the angry negotiator. Thank God.

Cut to the workshop, and the proper examination of the ‘Stang. Again, mock horror as they find the sills are rotten (it’s a unibody, so actually welding on new ones is far simpler than on a monocoque) – did they not check? Of course they did. And when Tweedle-dee sees the car for the first time, he flies off the handle for buying a ‘wreck’, all very theatrical. Of course, said wreck is primed (with a ‘new’ dent in the door that’s appeared since we first saw it)…

In the end, the car gets fixed. There’s a wonderful moment when a windscreen is ‘dropped’ (thrown more like), which is amusing as it’s clearly not for the Mustang (good excuse to go to a scrapyard to find another from a car that’s been perched on top of a Volvo – in an empty yard). The first engine is seized, which means a trip back to the first seller to buy his ‘spare’ engine.

They then install the new engine (the wrong sort) into the unpainted engine bay. And it doesn’t run. The smoking distributor raises an angry laugh, too. Then finally, comes the bodywork. It’s dressed-up like an older car (negating that heritage certificate), and repainted a different colour. Sigh. All the way along, they’re making theatrical errors and, although they must think it makes great telly (it doesn’t) – what it does is make them look like prats. All that makes me sad and angry in equal measure. After all, junk TV like this reflects badly on the classic car movement as a whole.

It’s not even the errors they make that grate. It’s the premise of the show that gets to me. There’s no passion, no joy, no love of old cars. Just an underlying ambition to make a quick buck and jump on the classic car bandwagon. I think there are more shows in the series to come – but I’ll be back with Nigella next week. Hope you come to the same conclusion!

Next week I'll be back with Nigella - I'll never get back the hour of my life I wasted on 'Classic Car Rescue'
Next week I’ll be back with Nigella – I’ll never get back the hour of my life I wasted on ‘Classic Car Rescue’
Keith Adams

71 Comments

  1. This show just seems like a very poor man’s Wheeler Dealers.

    I think the Muscle car/Pony Car complaint is a touch picky, though. For a british audience, a Mustang is a “Muscle car” – “Pony car” is a much-less recognised term.

  2. You really have missed out on some mind bending, stomach turning episodes, Keith.

    The first one involved restoring a Jaguar E-Type which, for reasons I will never comprehend, a previous owner had fitted with one of those nasty cheap glass pop-up sunroofs that were all the rage on Mark 1 Fiestas back in the late 1970s at £99 a pop. To keep costs down the ‘restorers’ did not restore the beauty of the car by doing some clever surgery to the roof to remove this monstrocity, but instead replaced it with… yes, you’ve guessed it, a brand new pop-up glass sunroof. Truly awful! The car was not repainted in its original white but in red (classic car programmes restoring cars seem to do this with E Types). Then, after it had emerged from the paintshop, the American chap (whose name escapes me) reversed it into what I recall was an old engine and biffs in the offside rear wing. This is supposedly repaired using copious amounts of body filler.

    Last week’s episode with the MGB was even more of a calamity (and I’m not a fan of MGBs). Again, the stomach turned.

    Entertaining viewing it might be for some viewers, but I honestly don’t believe they can restore the cars to the standard we see them in at the end of the show, based on the limited manpower we see on screen, time factor or budget. This makes even the A Team’s efforts of turning an old calculator and empty yoghurt pot into a fully programmable rocket launcher in half an hour, look amateurish.

    I am genuinely praying they don’t get their hands on something like a Rover P5B 3.5 Litre Coupe or an early Range Rover, as I really would cry at their efforts, even though they are rescuing old cars from Death Row.

    That said, the ‘restorer’ from London did appear in another TV series about four years ago where it built a replica of the P4-based Rover gas-turbine car (‘JET 1’)for Jools Holland. This was based on an old Rover P4 from the same era. Despite the over-flaired wheel arches and it having a Jaguar XK six-cylinder under the bonnet – which the late Spen King did not hesitate to describe as “sacrilege” when asked – it was finished to a very high quality.

  3. I have watched every episode, also shouting at the telly! It is rubbish yet I watch it in amazement. I’m amazed how stupid they must think we are, the awful acting and staged disasters make it almost a comedy, I just hope non classic people realise that it’s not how it really is done! I’ll keep watching so I can moan about it! 🙂

  4. ”I have watched every episode, also shouting at the telly! It is rubbish yet I watch it in amazement. I’m amazed how stupid they must think we are, the awful acting and staged disasters make it almost a comedy”

    Are we talking about Classic Car Rescue or Top Gear?

  5. Adrian Flux insurance sponsors the show. Why on earth did they associate themselves with this bunch of unprofessional cowboys. They are damaging their own reasonably respectable reputation.

  6. It is trully an awful programme which really shows what dodgy dealers do to make a buck not true classic car enthusiasts. Why would you take a rubber bumber MGB and then convert it to a chrome model and say its an excellent restoration! The number plate gives the game away. And then you have the chance to win their bodged contraptions.

    Anyway i’ve being watching on the repeat on Thursday at 7 – not missing Nigella, but cant stop watching this drivel.

  7. Crap TV!
    This bernie fella used to do chop shop with a Bangladeshi bloke called Lepu. Remember them?
    The used to create some wierd and wonderfull creations and sell them onto celebs.
    About 3 years ago though work I met Johnny Vagas, He had a VW Golf MK2 with Subaru running gear done by them. He said it was un driveable and actually cost him a packet. I seem to remember the figure of £40K mentioned
    I’ll stick with wheeler dealers.

  8. Horrid show. Loud shouty over-the-top people doing shocking ‘restorations’ to cars that require a long period of care and attention to details. Throw in the spurious idea that this resto can be done competently in 7 or 10 days, then’valued’ by someone BMW driving, sunglasses wearing arse who looks like, for all intents and purposes, Swiss Tony.
    I, like Keith, have lost an hour of my life. Could have used it better to working on the Cavalier.

  9. Top Gear is comedy with cars.
    The choice of vehicles in this series is clearly influenced by potential sale of the series to the US market.
    Perhaps they should call it “Who wants to be a classic car millionaire”?

  10. I actually liked the chop shop program. Lepu was (is) a very talented designer who should be earning big money somwhere. I saw the 1st episode of classic car rescue, where they “restored” a jag, filled the carb dashpot’s full of oil, then blamed that for oily running, proceeded to back it into an engine (left lying around) once painted. All contrived and crap. Havn’t watched any other episodes. Didn’t know Nigella was on tho – she is always pleasing on the eye !!!

  11. I haven’t yet seen this show, and from what I’ve heard I don’t think I want to.
    I had the misfortune one sunny Sydney Sunday to inadvertently tune in during an episode of Chop Shop. My jaw hit the floor at the utter shoddiness of the ‘modifications’ they were doing to vehicles.. In particular the wheel spacers on a Beemer, and the wholesale slice and dice of the running gear of a Volvo. All I can say is that even here in the antipodes, those two clowns would be laughed at, and nothing they built would satisfy ADR compliance and grace the road.

    And that’s not a bad thing looking at the deathtraps they build!

  12. I watched a bit of the MGB episode, it is scripted like a 1970’s ITV comedy that was pulled before the 3rd episode and left in the can never to be seen again. The ‘mishaps’ and ‘blunders’ are excruciating to behold and I like others have done was shouting at the TVuntil the wife came in took the remote and turned it over to Nigella and let me calm down. I will not be watching anymore and will soon be busy cooking an Italian treat for tea.

  13. Glad to say I didn’t see this crap programme. You guys can’t be the only ones annoyed by it, look at the comments: http://www.channel5.com/shows/classic-car-rescue/clips/mustang

    The choice of cars seems a little unimaginative as well. “Oh everyone likes them so lets do one up.”. I know that they’re guaranteed to shift (well maybe not with a nasty plastic sunroof), but it would be nice to see some originality.
    Ah well, Wheeler Dealers is about to start so I better be going.

  14. Tune in next week when Bernie will insult a seller (contrived), the big american will drop something or reverse into it (contrived), Bernie sacks all the staff (contrived) and then hugs them when they are re-employed (contrived). Could be worse, they could be repeating Chop Shop….

  15. I’ve seen all of the episodes so far.
    The continuity s a joke. Did you see the Mg leaking water from a clearly untouched “old “engine?
    2 seconds later badly bloke is “fixing” a loose hose on a “new” looking engine.
    It’s soo bad … Typical channel 5 sh*te

  16. I’ve left some comments on Channel 5’s own site. Basically along the lines of “it’s a complete waste of an opportunity. Make a proper series instead”. Who the hell are these guys, anyway. I think that Bernie Fineman has cropped up on other “car” shows. Backstreet cowboys isn’t in it. And, what’s a reputable company like Adrian Flux doing sponsoring this bilgewater of a programme. Rant over.

  17. Agreed, Agreed, utter tripe but i’ve seen all three.

    “The Garage” on Quest was much better, loud bald proprietor, but some real car mending among the crap.

    Nigella or the Metro next week..

  18. Shouldn’t be mentioned alongside Wheeler Dealers. Ed is definitely knowledgable, they strive to do a proper job, even if he isn’t happy with something they’ll do it right. Though on one occasion they revisited a Jeep they’d restored and realised a pattern part didn’t last. Mike can be a bit “Gorra luvly jubbly runner, wudya take a monkey? ‘owd aat yir ‘and!”
    but is excused as he finds some gems and at least isn’t insulting.

    The Autocar site has a blog on this alongside a lot of angry comments too.

    Looks like they’re trying to do an American show with contrived drama, arguments and pitfalls, with a shiny shiny at the end.

  19. I managed to watch about 2 minutes of one episode C5 have shoved on Youtube ( it was the E type one, and I wanr you Keith, do not watch it, as you will be spitting flames!) Bernie is an annoying cockney swearbox, who quite frankly I would love to insert a torque wrench up his nose SIDEWAYS, and his Canadian ‘friend’, well..ARGH!

    It was made with the help of Discovery I think, which will explain lots!

  20. @ Keith Adams:

    “Is it me, or is the E-type in the top image okay? And the red-oxide has just been sprayed on for effect?”

    I agree, for a car that was supposedly dragged unloved out of an old garage after so many years, the white paint does have a remarkable lustre to it.

  21. Its shite like this that makes me glad I haven’t watched telly for years at home (although I have to sit through some excruciating crap if I am visiting my dear Mother).

    Although not car related, I watched a really good documentary on the late Freddie Mercury on the BBC iPlayer (catchup TV via a PC) last night following a mention of it on Radio 4’s Front Row arts programme. I wasn’t a Queen fan but it was a very interesting documentary. I didn’t know Mercury was an Indian of Iranian extraction.

  22. I have only seen the MG one. The best bit for me was the narrator telling us how the MGs cart sprung rear suspension was robust and advanced (and based on a horse and cart). Well pardon me but cart springs & lever arm dampers were never a great combination, merely cheap. Then when they lifted the wrack, sorry car, the rear suspension fell off completely. 2 minutes later they had it all welded back on properly.

    As for the wreck, I know a fair bit about MGs and the fact that they were welded up from multiple small pressings which compromised the rigidity of the car and also let rust in almost everywhere. The example they got was a true basket case. Rotten sills, rotten scuttle, rotten wings, rotten floor, rotten suspension mounts. The scuttle repair alone would be enough to eat their £2500 “budget” at any decent garage.

    I would not take that car if you gave it to me without a full engineers report on the safety of the structure and an MOT done by someone I trust. To add insult to injury, they picked a virtually worthless early rubber bumper model and tarted it up as a pretend chrome bumper.

    Never mind that the presenters are an obnoxious pair of [expletive deleted] and it’s all so obviously staged. Makes Top Gear look like real life.

    I can only think that their daily drive car reg is TO55 ERS.

    A overwhelming win for Nigella, and I don’t even like cookery programmes.

  23. Wow! Calm down lads before one of you has a heart attack! I think you’re all being a little harsh on what is essentially a light entertainment program. Yes, Bernie is an obnoxious w**ker with microscopic fuse but the show is just for fun and he adds the drama (ok, shouting!) Yes it is a poor mans wheeler dealers but at least it gets the cars we like onto the screen for other people to see who aren’t necessarily into classic cars. I am sure the cars aren’t up to concours standards but they wouldn’t be ale to give them away as a prize if they weren’t mot’d and road legal. I don’t recall seeing Adrian Flux advertising on tv before so maybe this was a cheapish programme to sponsor?

  24. I watched the first program with the e type expecting much more than the rubbish I got.
    Nothing to do with the cars – just 2guys hamming it up.
    Have not watched anymore episodes

  25. It’s a TV show that’s trying to be entertaining. Entertaining for people that don’t know much about cars.

  26. I hope Keith didn’t see the American classic car restoration show Fast N Loud last night – how to make a profit by pure luck despite lots of arrogance, loud music and inconsiderate language. Real car nuts should look at the motors that Barry in Storage Wars owns/turns up in…

  27. Just seen it and it is indeed dreadful. But its an American/Canadian based programme so what do you expect? There are dozens of shows like this on the likes of Discovery Turbo and all are rubbish, with the notable exception of Wheeler Dealers. The Mark Evans programmes – MG is Born, Jaguar is born etc are pretty good too.

  28. I found the program entertaining and obviously stagged and no doubt people will think it is real life just like they think top gear is.

  29. Absolutely crap with a capital K. Yes it is about classic cars but so wrong on so many levels. Pandering to people with an IQ of minus 50. Typical Channel 5 – each time we come back after the break they tell us in simple mouth-breathing style what we have already been watching in the earlier sections between the breaks – which straight away tells you it is aimed at telly-hopping zero-attention-span morons. And some of the voice-overs to the natty little 3D animations are risible. When the back axle fell off that crudaceous MGB GT was one of many lows. Staged arguments and rows by shouty people, a supposed valuation expert who doesn’t even lift the car up to look under it… it goes on and on. Is it some kind of classic car ‘pimp my ride’ for the brain dead? Where is a sharp stick when you need one?

  30. I watched the MGB episode and it was awful. Talk about dumbing down TV for the UK audience……X-Factor was more intellectual. The whole program is staged and I cant understand how anyone could say it was good.

  31. My tip is to record the show, thanks Sky +, and then fast forward the annoying bits. Good concept, bad acting.

  32. They didn’t restore the barn find MGB GT. The finished car is a different car swapped half way through, hence why the sunroof got filled that week. It’s was funny to see the dash change from a post 76 to a pre 76 one. Also the shuts were a different colour when the car was near painting to that of the original farm fresh car and the engine was different! Easy to spot all the errors with pause and freeze frame and some MGB knowledge!!

    Confirmed now it seems by Channel 5………so the MGB GT is an illegal ‘ringer’ swapping the 1975 ID onto an older secondhand chrome bumper bodyshell in far better condition?!

    From Pistonheads forum:
    Just found this posted on the TV headed thread following the same response as this thread. Proves the point but raises more questions as well……

    Update on the MBG being 2 or even 3 different cars, I sent channel 5 questions which I don’t have a copy of but along the lines of confirming if indeed the car was the same as the wreck “rescued” from the barn and about the validity of the 2 week restoration claim. This was the reply I received:

    Dear David

    Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding Classic Car Rescue.

    While the production team were filming in Canada, the mechanics in London discovered some serious problems with the MGB, midway through the restoration, which meant they felt it might not be entirely safe to drive. Their original plan was to buy a new chassis, which is a common way that people restore MGBs (you can buy an entire new monocoque chassis for just £1000) and build on top of that. But wanting to stick with used parts, they bought another car and used the chassis from that, transferring much of the first MGB, right down to door-handles, and windows. The cost of the second car was included in the figures mentioned and the end result was a combination of the two.

    The programme aims to show how Bernie Fineman and Mario Pacione cope with restoration jobs with a “tight deadline and an even tighter budget” in an entertaining fashion while also giving some background into why each selected model is held in the high regard that it is. It is not intended to, and does not claim to, demonstrate the detailed effort and finance that can go into the high end restoration of classic cars.

    Nevertheless, this does not diminish the validity of your opinions and we are grateful to you for taking the time to make us aware of your concerns. Your comments have been logged in our Viewer Enquiries Report. This is circulated throughout the company and seen by all relevant personnel.

    Thank you for your interest in Channel 5.

    Yours sincerely

    Ian
    VIEWER ADVISOR

    http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=140&t=1199421&mid=0&i=400&nmt=%22Classic+Car+Rescue%22+Channel+5++on+Mon+24th+Sep+20%3A00&mid=0

    http://www.channel5.com/shows/classic-car-rescue/episodes/mgb

    and MGB GT shells are around £8000 from BMH……….
    http://www.bmh-ltd.com/mgbshell.htm

  33. PS.
    They did not really fill in the sunroof with that welded metal plate…..it was just that the swapped shell had no sunroof. Also is the reason chrome bumpers were fitted, they are not just a straight bolt on with some brackets job to a rubber bumper model as was suggested…..but the swapped shell was earlier so rubber bumpers would not fit!

  34. I am glad other people find this programme annoying too! I never knew a sales tactic to buy a car was to insult the seller and lose your temper with them. Then they don’t really show you anything that they have actually done to the car, which for me is the interesting part. Somehow I managed to watch 3 episodes before cancelling the series link.

  35. ” I never knew a sales tactic to buy a car was to insult the seller and lose your temper with them. ”

    You’ve never sold a car on gumtree then…

  36. “I found myself shouting at the television and getting increasingly annoyed by what I was seeing.”

    But that’s what television is for isn’t it?

  37. I have only seen the E-Type and half of the Mustang episode and both were utter tripe. Have you ever looked in a scrap yard for parts for a pre 1990 car? Me too, they don’t exist. As for dropping a 302ci lump in and putting those awful stickers on it they just dont match up. The Boss v8 was a different engine to the one they put in and the MY68.5 (not the 69 as they claimed) car they had did’t come with a boss unit anyway. Its kind of like putting Cosworth stickers and a whale tail on a Cortina.

  38. Glad it’s not just me shouting at the TV when watching. The MGB episode was making me incandescent.

    If someone turned up to buy my car and spoke to me like the bald “geezer” does I think I’d be giving some choice advice on where they should go.

    It’s so obviously staged, even the cars are made to appear worse than they actually are; the Porsche looked quite reasonable in its ad on Pistonheads, yet suddenly loses its interior, bonnet and headlights and gains a coat of red oxide graffiti. As for the comedy spraying scenes with the cockney chromedome and the MGB……

    Sometimes things are so bad they’re good. This is not one of them; it’s just plain bad.

  39. If you think this is dire cr4p then you must watch Strippers, i watched about 15 minutes and had to switch over

  40. The power is in your hands people. Just switch it off. Tv isn’t compulsory or obligatory. It is mind numbing, especially (sounds like) at this level. What do you expect from a Richard Desmond vehicle, anyway? As for Sky+ (mentioned somewhere) well, there’s another man to whom I’d give not one penny, not for all the cars or football in the world.
    Roger Waters was right: thirteen channels of shit on the tv to choose from.
    Think I’ll read another book.

  41. @49…. its not “13 channels of shit” anymore, more like 130.

    The more channels there are the less I watch, can’t even be bothered with Top Gear anymore

  42. After reading this post, I thought I would go and have a watch.

    Entertaining telly for the masses, nothing more.

    They couod have put a Webasto or something period in the Jag.

    It just appear to be a cockney geezer and the Canadian doing crap deals in scrap yards.

    Not a patch on Wheeler Dealers where they actually show you what they do, where you get to meet the owner of a top quality car which is what they aim for.

    Mike Brewer can be a bit annoying with all his “Put year aaaand aht, you just bought yersel a Porkah” Easex boy nonsense, but Wheeler Dealers is the better show.

  43. The programme lost all credibility with me in the first episode when they left the tacky, non-original spec, sunroof in the E-Type. The “respected valuer” made no negative comment about this, and Channel 5 even seemed to think it was a plus point when they were encouraging you at the end of the programme to phone their premium rate phone line to try and win the car.

  44. I’ll record next episode on sky+, I liked Wheeler dealers, from all the comments, that’s a poor version of this program, I’ll make my own mind up next Monday.

  45. I watched half of the E type programme, and that only because I felt I could not switch off after 5 minutes. It was the most moronic TV programme, of any sort, that I have ever seen. As someone else said, what on earth did Adrian Flux think they were doing associating themselves with this drivel?

  46. If they really ARE trying to draw a US audience, they should make the clips viewable from the USA.

    Can’t see it ti judge for myself, but I’m sure its just more of the ‘scripted’ and ‘exaggerated’ “reality” fare.

    Sadly this sort of thing seems to reinforce the ‘chav’ interpretation of “restoration” as meaning “Bodge, patch up and sell-on”.

  47. Awful contrived rubbish.

    They lack the knowledge of the likes of Edd China, or the enthusiasm and genuine goodwill of Mark Evans.

    The MGB episode was ridiculous. It was so obviously a different car that anyone with half a brain could see that. They love angle grinders and body filler far too much.

    For anyone who doesn’t know this is an entertainment show. It shows the classic car industry as a bunch of bodging idiots. It’s so far removed from the truth, it’s not funny.

  48. Has anyone watched Fast N’ Loud? It is kind of like this program but they actually show things when they go wrong. Rather than trying to hide it like the MG episode. They also seem to have more fun doing it. Still prefer Wheeler Dealers for the explanations on what they are doing.

  49. Bernie Fineman might be the most obnoxious tv presenter of all time – if he and his sidekick showed up anywhere near my premises, they’d be rapidly and forcefully shown the door.

    STOMACH CHURNING TV!

  50. Sat through an entire episode last night to give it a chance.

    Even the other half, who has little interest in cars, thought it was contrived, especially when they start the engine, plumes of white smoke come through the exhaust filling the garage, and no-one seems to notice except the bald man when he comes running in shouting.

    The car comes out in primer, and the bald man goes nuts as he says it’s some sort of “Battleship Grey”. They didn’t expect us to think that they’d mixed up and the undercoat was the final colour?

    What was the craic with the scary man with the rear bumper?

  51. I preferred the earlier Nigella shows, I’m certain her figure was somewhat fuller and therefore more appealing.

  52. Yes I think you are right Keith, the E-type was dressed down from what it actualy was. I suspect it had spent most of its UK life in somthing better than a council lock up. Why they changed the colour is a mystery as its well known that will alays devalue a classic, unless it was deaf aid beige. They also gound off all the original lead loading and then procedded to fill it with P38.. pity as it was a basically sound car

  53. The most ridiculous part of this show is actually knowing this Mario Pacione. He is not a mechanic, the shop setting was not his and he breaks more cars and hearts than anything else. The backing up of the Jaguar IS TYPICALLY Mario. He is bankrupt now, owing a fortune to friends and governments and his property has been powered of sale by his good friend. Bernie should have checked Mario’s credentials out as It is a laugh here in Canada. RM is a Canadian company and would not appraise the cars at those prices. They are a high end restoration shop not a butcher. Too bad…..it was a good idea. It is too fake.

  54. The top pic of the E Type is very anthropomorphic. It actually looks like it is screaming in pain and weeping from the shame of it…

  55. I have endured a few of these shows and to be honest,would you let these two geezers loose on your car? You cannot restore a car in three week,resurrect perhaps but not restore.

    The stupifying theatrical outburts are insulting.

  56. Having unfortunately purchased an Austin-Healey that I thought had a little rust, I learned the hard way that there is no such thing as a “cheap rusty collector car”. My subsequent collector cars have all been purchased from dry southern US states, and haven’t had hardly any rust.

    At least with Wheeler Dealers, Mike knows to stay clear of the rust buckets, although the Amphicar sure hid a lot of it. I truly respect Edd China’s skills, and I have actually learned a lot watching this show.

    I would classify “Classic Car Rescue” as a dramatic comedy, and a bad one at that. I hate the staged theatrics. And no, there is no way I would ever want any of their repaired cars.

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