Watching a car or motorcycle transform from object garbage to a beautiful piece of machinery is a deeply satisfying thing. What is less satisfying is dealing with all the hardships of doing it yourself, whether that’s the massive expense, the space needed to blow a car or bike completely apart, the skills needed to undertake the work or even just the time commitment.
Thankfully, we have YouTube which for many of us scratches that itch and often costs nothing more than a click (or a Patreon sub if you really appreciate what the channel is doing). We asked what your favorite automotive restoration series were on YouTube and these are your answers.
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Garbage Time – Free Car Build
Free Car Part 1: The Misery Begins.
Garbage Time and the “Free Car”
Its an old Daihatsu Charade that they are trying to get running again. Its got unique paintwork and the engine got rebuilt.
Submitted by Garlos Chosn (in honor of Mergio Sarchionne)
Fab Rats & Merlin’s Old School Garage – Yellow Submarine
However, I would like to nominate the Fab Rats and Merlins old school garage series on what they called the Yellow Submarine. I started watching it before the series ended so it was a real treat, and kept me full of anticipation, waiting to see what would happen. Also, I had never seen either of their channels before that video popped up on my algorithm, so they were fresh to me.
The first few episodes they went to a drying up lake and cleaned up some trash and dug out a sunken boat. I am still not sure if it was their intention from the beginning but they started to restore the boat that had been underwater for 30 years, finding scraps of information along the way, uncovering a mystery. Amazingly the boat was well-preserved, and the end of the series was very touching.
The people working to restore the boat seemed very genuine and wanted nothing in return. I like how they started off just trying to clean up nature and ended up restoring the boat and doing some deceptive work.
Submitted by rocknroll_jeph
Squatch253 – Caterpillar D
Caterpillar D2 #5J1113 Recovery Mission Part 1 – Preparation to Load and Haul
While not strictly speaking a car Squatch253’s epic multi-year restoration of a basket case Caterpillar D2 will teach you more than you ever wanted to know about antique crawlers, line boring and matching patina as he applies model railroad weathering techniques to replace sheet metal and devotes several episodes to building a track pin press. He’s currently resumed work on a Minneapolis-Moline tractor prototype that also involves years of work, an epic final drive failure and equally epic repair.
Submitted by Slow Joe Crow
Ronald Finger – 1985 Pontiac Fiero
The Journey Begins | 1985 Fiero 2M4 Revival – Part 1
Anyone who’d done a fastidious, years-long restoration on a pretty basic Fiero’s already off to a good start, but Roland Finger’s followed it up with a Kawasaki GPZ1000 (almost the Top Gun bike) and a Datsun 280Z. Similarly to Croker, he’s funny, and has actual production value. Plus, since he’s into 3d printing, he’ll occasionally break out a neat solution to reproducing an unobtainable part.
Submitted by Maymar.
Soup Classic Motoring – Mercedes W123
Soup Classic Motoring
Some good Lotus / Range Rover stuff here.
Submitted by WilburX3
Dominic Chinea – Porsche 356
Some of the “restoration” channels are just fake new finds and minimal work. i like the ones that get into the fine details.
Submitted by Broken-Aero
BaremetalHW – Redline Restorations
Redline Restoration: Hot Wheels 1968 Custom Camaro
BaremetalHW on YT – Hot Wheels restorations.
Submitted by thisismyid2
Land Rover Sophie – Discovery 2 TDi
There are others out there like Land Rover Sophie, and HeroRR that are shorter and more DIY that are also good.
Submitted by Black B5
M539 Restorations – Project Marseille
Garden Find 6-Speed V12 BMW E31 850i Revival – Project Marseille: Part 1
M539 Restorations. Incredible channel, endlessly watchable.
Submitted by Augustus Gloop
Vice Grip Garage – Betty White Cadillac
I love watching all kinds of restoration videos. When I was sick over the winter holiday I binge watched a lot of Vice Grip Garage as each episode was long (so I didn’t need to do anything but zone out), funny and informative.
Submitted by Rocknroll_Jeph
Sarah -n- Tuned – 1994 Ford Ranger
Sarah N Tuned’s Ranger restoration. It was the truck she learned to drive in and belonged to her grandmother. She drives it from New Hampshire to Arizona and then goes full OCD on it doing a frame swap and so much more.
Submitted by JAB2022
Legit Street Cars – Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG
Speed Academy and Legit Street Cars are my two favourites
Submitted by mjerk
Speed Academy – 5 Day K-Swap Civic Build
See above.
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