Finally Tired of Antics on Graveyard Cars

[70SwingerGuy]

I remember the episode where he said that he didnt do A bodies because there was no money in them. POW, right there I lost respect for the guy, just in it for the money like the other high dollar builders that I have no use for.

 

[4spdragtop]

Just as much drama here at times with similar antics... and doesn't necessarily involve Mopars.

 

[Kern Dog]

I remember the episode where he said that he didnt do A bodies because there was no money in them. POW, right there I lost respect for the guy, just in it for the money like the other high dollar builders that I have no use for.

Oh no! He is a man that only restores cars to make money at it! What a terrible guy!
He isn’t wrong. If you send him a rusted and incomplete car that looks like this:

The rust repair, bodywork and paint alone could total up to more than the car could ever get if you sold it.
Add on drive train, suspension brakes and steering, electrical, interior, glass and every nut and bolt.
Don’t blame him for being a realist. The A bodies were the cheapest Mopars to buy then and they draw less money at sale time now.
Being *** hurt over a guy that looks at building A bodies as UNprofitable is stupid. Would YOU pay the guy $90,000 to fully restore your slant six 64 Valiant? It could cost that much but no sensible person would pay that much.
Now, I’m not defending MW for anything else here. I agree that this show has continued a downhill slide in terms of its value to the viewers. Who the hell cares about any of the NON car banter? I don’t mind some joking and teasing but show some cars and explain some techniques.

 

[70SwingerGuy]

Being *** hurt over a guy that looks at building A bodies as UNprofitable is stupid

Never said I was *** hurt, those are your words, I simply said I have no use for guys who are only into high dollar cars, I dont care what make they are building or representing.

 

[Dan the man]

*buzzer sounds*

wrong again dan-o

roadkill has their final season to air as well.

a bunch of shows that were cancelled were in the midst of production, a lot of those will air early 2025. likely that a bunch of the other (less popular) stuff will be shelved and then air whenever Hearst spins up whatever the "new motortrend" is.

i'm *guessing* it'll all port over to something streaming with ads like Pluto

anyway, thanks for playing danimal! your parting gift is... nothing. enjoy!

I didn't say road kill. I Said road worthy rescue and yes it's another season

 

[junkyardhero]

I didn't say road kill. I Said road worthy rescue and yes it's another season

i love how you don't even know or read what you've wrote. solid work all around and i'd expect nothing less. carry on.

 

[72bluNblu]

Oh no! He is a man that only restores cars to make money at it! What a terrible guy!
He isn’t wrong. If you send him a rusted and incomplete car that looks like this:

View attachment 1716344799

The rust repair, bodywork and paint alone could total up to more than the car could ever get if you sold it.
Add on drive train, suspension brakes and steering, electrical, interior, glass and every nut and bolt.
Don’t blame him for being a realist. The A bodies were the cheapest Mopars to buy then and they draw less money at sale time now.
Being *** hurt over a guy that looks at building A bodies as UNprofitable is stupid. Would YOU pay the guy $90,000 to fully restore your slant six 64 Valiant? It could cost that much but no sensible person would pay that much.
Now, I’m not defending MW for anything else here. I agree that this show has continued a downhill slide in terms of its value to the viewers. Who the hell cares about any of the NON car banter? I don’t mind some joking and teasing but show some cars and explain some techniques.

That would almost be believable except for the fact that other shops have done high dollar restorations on A-bodies. You can't just say it's unprofitable and no one does it- it's been done, the cars are out there, you can see them in the old magazines and they've been at the auctions. It's not unprofitable.

Worman has said directly and on camera that it's because of the money. That's suspect to me because even if you ignore the shops that have been restoring A-bodies, there are still plenty of shops (and even specialty shops) out there that restore cars that aren't worth B/E body type money that do just fine.

What does that mean? Well it means that Worman wants the kind of profit margins that restorations on B/E bodies bring. Now that could be a few things, it could just mean Worman's greedy/lazy and he gets to charge more for B/E body restorations for the same amount of work it would take to do an A-body. It could also mean he's not a very good businessman and he needs those kinds of margins to stay afloat.

So yeah, I'm not giving him a pass on anything. The show has always been about how dysfunctional Worman and his employees are, you can't actually watch that show and learn how to do anything useful mechanically.

Never said I was *** hurt, those are your words, I simply said I have no use for guys who are only into high dollar cars, I dont care what make they are building or representing.

Totally agree. GYC has always been about the purists and cars that get trailered around and hidden in garages, and the type of people that participate in this hobby as an investment and not because they truly enjoy building and driving old cars.

 

[Kern Dog]

You’re never going to see anyone pay $90,000 for a stock 318 Valiant or Dart. Dan Short from Fantomworks has stated that people are idiots if they think that their cars can be restored for $50,000. If you do everything yourself, it is possible but paying for body and paint on an A body isn’t going to be much less than a comparable Challenger or Road Runner but the final sale price of those E and B bodies will be much higher.
Look, I love all the Mopars but you need to face reality. A 318 Duster won’t pull the same money as a 383 Satellite. There are a few desirable 340 A bodies that are excellent cars but they will never bid for 3 million at auction like a Charger Daytona or HemiCuda. The lesser Chargers benefit from the Daytona fame as do the 383 Barracudas.
Worman has said that he couldn’t do the restorations for the prices that he does if NOT for the income he gets from the TV show.

 

[Yunick13]

For many years, I have been standing up for Mark’s crazy antics on Graveyard Cars. As long as the car working and Mopar knowledge teaching content was good, I put up with his antics. The latest shows I have watched have been mostly all crazy antics with virtually no car working being done and no Mopar knowledge being taught. I watched that show for years to watch the guys work on the cars, and to learn about Mopars. I just can’t watch it any longer.

Congrats, you held out longer than most

 

[72bluNblu]

You’re never going to see anyone pay $90,000 for a stock 318 Valiant or Dart. Dan Short from Fantomworks has stated that people are idiots if they think that their cars can be restored for $50,000. If you do everything yourself, it is possible but paying for body and paint on an A body isn’t going to be much less than a comparable Challenger or Road Runner but the final sale price of those E and B bodies will be much higher.
Look, I love all the Mopars but you need to face reality. A 318 Duster won’t pull the same money as a 383 Satellite. There are a few desirable 340 A bodies that are excellent cars but they will never bid for 3 million at auction like a Charger Daytona or HemiCuda. The lesser Chargers benefit from the Daytona fame as do the 383 Barracudas.
Worman has said that he couldn’t do the restorations for the prices that he does if NOT for the income he gets from the TV show.

People have absolutely paid as much as Worman charges to restore A-bodies, and there are 6 figure A-body restorations out there. Whether or not they resell for that much is irrelevant, I'm sure some of the B/E bodies he's done cost more to restore than they ended up selling for. Most, and I mean MOST, people that pay to have a car restored have more money in the car than the final value of the car ends up being. They still pay for the restorations, because believe it or not, not everyone that pays for a restoration is in it for the money.

If Worman can't do restorations for the ridiculous price he charges without making money off the show, it just proves he's not very good at what he does as a businessman. Plenty of shops out there doing restoration work and making money without the help of a TV show.

 

[harrisonm]

If you think ANYTHING on ANY reality show isn't scripted and fake, I've got a bridge for sale you should look at.

I agree that it was all scripted. But for several years, we still got to see some good work being done and learned a lot. I just got tired of the slap-*** stuff

I remember the episode where he said that he didnt do A bodies because there was no money in them. POW, right there I lost respect for the guy, just in it for the money like the other high dollar builders that I have no use for.

I don't think he said that A Bodies lacked value, or that there was no money in them for him, he said words to the effect that once professionally restored the owner would be seriously upside down in the car and most owners were not willing to do that. How many people are willing to spend $150K to restore a 69 Barracuda that might be worth $50K when finished?

 

[70SwingerGuy]

I don't think he said that A Bodies lacked value, or that there was no money in them for him, he said words to the effect that once professionally restored the owner would be seriously upside down in the car and most owners were not willing to do that. How many people are willing to spend $150K to restore a 69 Barracuda that might be worth $50K when finished?

Im pretty sure that he did say that A bodies lacked value and thats why he doesnt do them. I may be wrong, I was wrong once before actually
Are you going to make me watch every episode to find that quote? Please dont make me. LOL

 

[junkyardhero]

look at those dusters that just sold at mecum a few months ago. the only people who really made money was the shops that restored them and the auction house.

arguments of worth or value aside, the cost to have a car restored is astronomical and most people who enter this gambit tend to choose cars that historically have a higher overall sales price with the thought that if they need to get out from under it they won't totally lose their ***.

thus, E and B bodies become the choice.

 

[Kern Dog]

If an A body owner were to be willing to spend the money to have Worman restore their car, I don't see why he would turn them away.
If very few Duster/Dart/Demon owners are knocking on his door, that would explain why you don't see them done at his shop.
It isn't like this guy is running a charity or some form of Mopar preservation program. He restores what a paying customer brings him.
Why is this hard to understand?

 

[72bluNblu]

It isn't like this guy is running a charity or some form of Mopar preservation program. He restores what a paying customer brings him.
Why is this hard to understand?

The only part I find hard to understand is how anyone is able to watch the absolute buffoonery of that show for more than 5 minutes, let alone pay that moron to work on their car. You can learn more in 15 minutes on FABO than if you watched all 20 seasons of GYC and Mark's massive ego.

And yeah, if he needs the show in order to stay in business doing 6 figure restorations, he isn't any good at the business part either.

look at those dusters that just sold at mecum a few months ago. the only people who really made money was the shops that restored them and the auction house.

arguments of worth or value aside, the cost to have a car restored is astronomical and most people who enter this gambit tend to choose cars that historically have a higher overall sales price with the thought that if they need to get out from under it they won't totally lose their ***.

thus, E and B bodies become the choice.

Pretty much everyone that pays a shop to fully restore a car loses their ***. The shops make some money, the auction houses make some money for doing nothing, and the guy that paid to restore the car loses money.

That's just as true about the B/E bodies. GYC charges over 6 figures for their restorations. Even most B/E bodies aren't selling for over 6 figures. Sure, some do. But a lot of them don't, and if you bought a B/E body and then paid well over $100k for a resto and then turned around and sold it there's a good chance you're losing money.

Now if you buy a finished car at auction, park it for a few years and the market goes your way, maybe you make some money. But that's investment level stuff, not auto restoration.

 

[Demonracer]

I grew tired of "Worm Man" a long time ago. The shop may turn out some really nice cars and he may really be a nice guy. His antics and his put downs of his staff are ridiculous. If he talked to me the way he talks to some of his staff, he might be found locked in one of the containers on the far back side of the property.

 

[Dan the man]

If an A body owner were to be willing to spend the money to have Worman restore their car, I don't see why he would turn them away.
If very few Duster/Dart/Demon owners are knocking on his door, that would explain why you don't see them done at his shop.
It isn't like this guy is running a charity or some form of Mopar preservation program. He restores what a paying customer brings him.
Why is this hard to understand?

Most paint jobs are 20k alone.

 

[Dan the man]

Shops around where I live used to charge a certain amount for doing quarter panels, etc if they were to charge by the hour then the average person couldn't afford to get the work done.

 

[Mopar603]

I think the problem with Graveyard Cars is they essentially just restore B and E bodies back to stock specs. The show has been on for a long time and there's only so many B and E body combinations you can do. It got repetitive years ago, even without Mark's antics. They had a few different builds and some customizations but 95% of the show was the same thing over and over again. It's no surprise that it jumped the shark a few years in with all the goofiness.

Either way with the Motortrend cancellations, nearly all of our car shows are going by the wayside. Sucks because I really enjoyed a few of them.

This is what I've always said. I appreciate OEM as much as the next guy, but how many stock cars can you look at? They all look, sound and perform the same. The only guys who want a car that looks like it rolled off the assembly line, is one who is wanting to make money off it, not enjoy it. I'd watch a show where they build budget-driver Mopars all day long over these high dollar 401k cars. Probably why Roadkill is so successful.

 

[jos51700]

People on an A body site talking about the cost of A bodies AT ALL is kinda silly. Let's face facts, these cars were never, and will never, be like ye olde Hemi Road Runner or Baron Von Charger Daytona.

Most of us got into A bodies because they were more affordable/plentiful/achievable, and THEN we discovered what they had to offer. Not the other way around.

And if someone is in business, even the entertainment business, the expectation should ALWAYS be that they're looking at the financial aspect of things. To have any other expectation is..... Foolish.

 

[gzig5]

Shops around where I live used to charge a certain amount for doing quarter panels, etc if they were to charge by the hour then the average person couldn't afford to get the work done.

That really doesn't make sense. How the job is charged, doesn't change how long it takes. Are you suggesting that they are giving the labor away by charging by the job? The employees are paid by the hour and unless they take shortcuts, aren't going to be more efficient and get more quarter panels done in a week if they charge the customer by the panel instead of by the hour. I guarantee they are making sure that they cover all the potential hourly wage and consumables costs plus some, by baking it into a generic job charge. So it actually costs the customer more in the end if they are in fact doing it that way.

 

[Texas Red]

I really wish that Motor Trend would bring back Junkyard Gold with Steve Magnante with Junkyard Gold. No one else could host that show and it ever be the same again.

 

[fishmens67]

if they were to charge by the hour then the average person couldn't afford to get the work done.

Well then, I guess they need to learn how to do it themselves.
I'm sure most guy's on the forum like me learned how to do most things in life at an early age do to lack of funds.
If I didn't I would have been on foot and my house plumbing would be leaking like a sieve.
I grabbed the bull by the horns and rebuilt my first motor at 14 and painted my first car at 16.

 

[missing linc]

GYC was a pretty good show when it first started, they did some good work and explained what was going on and why, but it has devolved into the Mark Worman Comedy show and I have no interest in it any longer. It was good when they showed the proper procedures for dismantling and rebuilding some components, but it seems those days are gone. I haven't watched it in years and I don't miss it.

 

[Dan the man]

That really doesn't make sense. How the job is charged, doesn't change how long it takes. Are you suggesting that they are giving the labor away by charging by the job? The employees are paid by the hour and unless they take shortcuts, aren't going to be more efficient and get more quarter panels done in a week if they charge the customer by the panel instead of by the hour. I guarantee they are making sure that they cover all the potential hourly wage and consumables costs plus some, by baking it into a generic job charge. So it actually costs the customer more in the end if they are in fact doing it that way.

Well then, I guess they need to learn how to do it themselves.
I'm sure most guy's on the forum like me learned how to do most things in life at an early age do to lack of funds.
If I didn't I would have been on foot and my house plumbing would be leaking like a sieve.
I grabbed the bull by the horns and rebuilt my first motor at 14 and painted my first car at 16.

I rebuilt my first engine when I was 15. I wish that I had learned how to weld. It's cheaper if you can do it yourself. Most of those guys on those shows have plenty of money as Most of the builds cost 250k