I stumbled across this recently, and the '34 Olds dump truck project sounded interesting. So I went ahead and recorded all 5 episodes that were on the schedule.
The Cadillac roadster build turned out far better than I expected, although there were some crude looking details and awkwardly proportioned shapes.
The dump truck build was like a bad joke. He wanted it to look like a toy. Great. But he also built it like a toy, and that's pathetic. A hand-cranked dump mechanism, built with rusty scavenged motorcycle parts? Seriously? They've never heard of electric motors? No openable tailgate? A wooden slat park bench in place of a real seat?What could have been an actual useful tool styled to look like a toy was instead simply rendered as a mostly useless toy. Fun to look at, pose with, and play around, but not much utility.
Way too many minutes spent standing around pointlessly yakking, and not nearly enough showing actual work being done, or how the engineering challenges of adapting things to do something they were never meant to do were solved. If you want a show that actually teaches you something, Full Custom Garage is great for metalwork, and (sadly cancelled) Fantomworks will give some useful mechanical tips and hints. Even Wheeler Dealers dispenses useful knowledge about the mechanical inner workings in most episodes.
I realize that abuse, derision, and fear are widely seen as valid training methods. And if your sole concern is the end product then they might even be deemed effective. If you're actually aware that you're interacting with a person otoh, it's just a toxic and damaging work environment. I've worked for ash holes like him. Briefly. Life's too short to put up with hating having to go to work, and constantly second-guessing if you're going to get yelled at.
Bottom line, I watched the Cadillac episode. And then forced myself to sit through the Oldsmobile pickup episode to see what the final result looked like and for any tiny build clues I could see in the background while somebody was standing around droning inanities. Skimmed to the end of the remaining 3 episodes to see the end product, erased them, and cancelled the DVR program.
