Graveyardcarz is restoring a 71 Demon 340
And totally understood.
The mistakes are not juvenile. He is not a total hack. Not a even a partial hack. But you made the statement Worman appeared to be the best in the country. There's are a BIG gap between juvenile mistakes and #1 in the U.S. for concours level resto.
The mistakes are upper level concours type mistakes. But some are sort of basic for those restoring Hemi cars. The steering pulley did not line up. Hemi cars have a thicker crank balancer so many of the pulleys are special to them. So the pulley was not pressed on all the way to make up for the difference. That can lead to mechanical failure and it's just a uneducated short cut.
It also had the wrong brand tires. Wrong master cyl. I'm not going to bash this owners car. IT IS VERY NICE. But the owner expected more.
Tony D is not there restoring those cars day to day. Pretty hard to train someone to be #1 in a profession over emails and phone calls.
Careful with "experts". Experts who rebuild top level concourse wiper motors or concours hood latches or concours gauges often are not top level at restoring a whole car. Parts experts are parts experts. It takes more than one specialty to do a whole car to a top level. It's a lot of utilizing and executing the right and appropriate specialized resources.
I think you need to go to a Carlisle or Nationals in your area and look at the cars that show being judged for top flite categories. Honestly more of those will be B and E bodies. Not to say there are not A-bodies restored to that level, but just fewer and harder to seek out. Get out and talk with the owners face to face. And do back research too. Many owners will claim to have had a car restored at a shop, only to actually find out they did part of the work or just minor things.
Kohr's Kustoms and Totally Auto (forgot to mention) are in PA.
PLEASE remember this is T.V.... Does the show state it is a 100% Documentary?
I live in LA. I know people who work on reality TV shows. Things are not what they appear....Storage Wars. Fake. A friend was asked to be an expert consultant on that show for a Nascar pit crew air gun. The air gun was HIS. They paid him to use the PROP in the storage locker AND to speak on the show. AND HE GOT HIS AIR GUN BACK.
hi autoxcuda...
well first off, i should not have said or inferred that worman was the best in the country for mopar restorations. being a retired sleazy attorney i spent a career "never" using "absolute" terms about "almost" "everything." so that was my mistake. while one can say a "few" things about "some" stuff in absolute terms - like "the sun WILL come up tomorrow" - it's always dangerous and "almost always" inaccurate to use absolute terms in reference to "someone's skills" being "the best there is." i should have talked in more reasonable terms.
as to the various levels of restorations, i do understand the nuances you are referring to regarding "100%" or "100 point" cars. i often watch the show "Chasing Classic Cars" with "Wayne Carnini." i went to college in boston and "wayne" is a common "version" of a "car guy" that you find in New England. he deals primarily with very high end collector cars and collectors - usually foreign cars - and is often at "very high end" car shows. i suspect you may have attended the Pebble Beach "Concours" auto event that he often attends. rarely does wayne ever talk in terms of a special car he is featuring being driven on a regular basis. more often, he talks in terms of a car he is selling being a great additional to "a collection" or a "collector grade"
there is clearly a "collector grade" mopar crowd, whether they are looking for the "1 of 3" model or the "lowest miliage survivor on the planet" or a car that has undergone a "museum quality" restoration. i think i can confidently say that "these" people and "these cars" would not be associated with mark worman. i think these are the "correct harmonic ballancer for a 1969 426 Hemi" examples you've noted.
in the final analysis, i think whether or not to send a car to worman to restore has to do with what the owner is expecting. the last couple of "hemi car" owners i saw on the show would frankly, make me nervous to do a car for. their body language and general demeano struck me as similar to a few potential clients that i refused to represent because in the first 5 minutes of talking with them, all i got was "any problem i have with you is going to result in me suing your ***." i found out early in my legal practice that those kind of people need to be avoided at all costs. as to the "success" worman seems to be having, i get the impression that there are "millionaire" mopar collectors out there that are now calling worman to restore a "million dollar" car they own with the expectation that they are going to get the "museum quality" or "Pebble Beach concours level" car back. as i noted preveously, i don't think worman is producing that level of restoration.
now, with all this said, is what worman is doing worth the cost he is charging? i have no idea as i don't know what he is getting for one of his "complete" restorations. with today's paint, material and average labor rates, it costs at least $35k to do a "pretty good" complete restoration. that level of repair DOES NOT include removing every single part down to the bare body shell and then starting from that point and adding all "restored original" or "NOS" parts. what worman is doing with tearing every car apart HAS to be in the $75-$100k range. so you're a millionaire with a "1 of 2" Hemi car. at the last mecum or barrett-jackson auction, a similar car sold in the $500k-$700k range. are you going to take that car to mark worman to restore thinking that giving him $100k will result in a car likely to bring "over a million" at the next national auction? from watching the show, that appears to me what a few of the owners may have done.
you are correct in your summary: there are a very small number of "concours restorers" in the country that really only build "100 point" cars. i agree, "Graveyard Carz" is probably not in that category. i think mark worman IS building "very nice" and actually "beautiful" cars. i would LOVE to have a car he has built. it remains with every customer that goes to him to determine if he has produced what they "wanted" and what they "thought" they would get - and if what they "paid" for the work he did, was a good value to them.
ps. from your mention of the Van Nuys car show and all the other "car restorers", i figured you live in california. the "politics" out there are nutty but your state IS the "car capital of the world."