Vice Grip Garage has removed himself from circulation.

A lot of these guys are playing characters (like Derek does) but to me, if I come away entertained, that makes me happy. I take most of what these guys do mechanically with a grain of salt and try to laugh at the mistakes. I've done plenty of sketchy, stupid crap with my friends to know what's a good idea and what isn't. 

And honestly, if it wasn't for Roadkill, VGG, etc to remind/motivate me that project cars don't have to be absolutely shiny and perfect to drive them, my Trans Am would still be sitting on jack stands in my driveway and my old Dodge truck probably would have met the crusher by now. If they can go revive old trash and drive it all over the place, there's no reason why I can't do the same, as long as it's safe to drive. 

Some of his earlier fly and drive stuff was just epic.  Here we had Roadkill doing it with a full support crew (ever notice there was always a big Ford Excursion shadowing them?) and Derek did it with just himself and a camera.  If he had a support crew he went to great lengths to hide it.  My gut instinct is that it was all legit.   

I have been enjoying sleeperdude. The most wholesome family on YouTube. He just puts minimal money into junkers but judging by the shop he is building he makes more money than most of them.

Scotty Con Queso said:

Speaking of characters, does anyone else think Puddin of Puddin's Fab Shop is a shtick?  I really can't bear to watch that guy because he sounds like me when I'm trying to mock the east Tennessee accent (I know Puddin is from Texas). 

He's even said it is on his videos.   He mentioned that his videos were boring and didn't get any traction until he invented his over-the-top persona.

eDiT~ Pretty sure Puddin' is a lifelong Okie.

Toyman! said:

I have yet to see a car show I thought was watchable. They are universally pretty terrible to me. I'd rather be doing the car stuff than watching the car stuff.

 

 Watching Calvin ( Nivlac 57) I've picked up things I didn't know.     Sure most of it is well known to me.  After a lifetime of wrenching and racing. ( and doing it professionally for a while) 

But part of it is also Calvin's character and family relations. 
 I've only watched Vice Grip Garage a little  and don't find it as rewarding. But understand what he's try to achieve.  

In reply to Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself :

Okay glad to know it's a character.  Funny I find him annoying but not Derek.  Different strokes and all that I guess. 

I'll have to check sleeperdude out, I like VGG especially with how he gets his family involved but the character reminds me a little too much of extended family from up nort'  

Junkyard Digs and Polebarn Garage are a couple more revival/fix old junk channels I really enjoy and have pretty minimal characterization to them.

Kevin of Junkyard Digs fame is a complete doppelganger of a guy I went to school with.  Drunken snowmobile race with discarded sleds that barely run? You bet!  Dalton of Polebarn Garage I also think is totally authentic. 

Freiburger, Bieri, Kevin Brown and Sleeperdude Josh are wholly responsible for me finding my happiness with the car hobby again. I was really losing interest until they taught me it was okay to just drive 'em and not restore 'em. Not painting this, ever, though I did use the wipe on clear coat. V8 swap this winter.

I'm obviously late to the party. I enjoy VGG, but his shtick does get a little annoying at times. I try to tune it out knowing that it's what sells clicks. Like others have stated, early Roadkill is what got me back into fiddling with old cars after decades away. I may have taken it too far looking at the pile of cars in the driveway (and yard). To add to the other channel suggestions (JYD, Sleeperdude, Pole Barn Garage, Dylan McCool, etc.), I recently found a channel called No Nonsense Know How. Highly skilled mechanic who has done a few epic fly and drive revivals and more frequently interesting "will it run" videos - all with no personality gimmick. 

I've been watching the heck out of Pole Barn Garage recently and have to say I really enjoy Dalton.  I feel like he's the real deal and not an act.   

Chris at No Nonsense Know How is that guy you want to be friends with. It's rare he doesn't have that needed piece of hardware in a drawer in his shop. He is friends with Dalton from Pole Barn Garage.

In reply to ddavidv :

Okay now I know what I'll be watching tonight.  

Yea, NNKH is great, he works on a wide variety of stuff so there is always something interesting. 

Right now my favorite automotive Yt channel is Dead Dodge Garage.  

I think putting together a channel that is even a little bit interesting, well presented, and has some flow to the episodes is not an easy thing to do repeatedly.  

Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself said:

Scotty Con Queso said:

Speaking of characters, does anyone else think Puddin of Puddin's Fab Shop is a shtick?  I really can't bear to watch that guy because he sounds like me when I'm trying to mock the east Tennessee accent (I know Puddin is from Texas). 

He's even said it is on his videos.   He mentioned that his videos were boring and didn't get any traction until he invented his over-the-top persona.

The part that bugs me is these guys have to do this to get more views - it makes me wonder why so many viewers need it.  I'd prefer if they just acted like themselves.  (If it were up to me I'd eliminate the horrible rock music that plays over every TV car show, too.)

In reply to stuart in mn :

Might I recommend a couple of YouTube channels where the people are, for better or worse, acting just like themselves and can't afford horrible rock music?

https://www.youtube.com/c/grassrootsmotorsports

https://www.youtube.com/@ClassicMotorsports

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

I just watch for the donkey.

as long as playback speed is 2x, i can watch VGG.

couldn't take Puddin' for more than about 3 minutes.

NNKH seems pretty knowledgeable and non-schticky, at least for the 2 vids i watched.

i've learned some things from Fitzee's Fabrication.

mostly i need to put the phone down and get my ass out to the garage.

Bumping this since it turned into a discussion of good Youtubers.

Since I've been relegated to the couch in the evenings still recovering from the flu, I've been watching the heck out of No Nonsense Know How (NNKH).  Without a doubt my favorite channel on Youtube right now.  No schtick, no well... nonsense.  Chris is a trained mechanic and I feel like it really shows in his videos.  He rarely gets stumped and really knows how to diagnose and repair.  Another good thing about his videos is while he chronicles his endeavors, he doesn't bore you with long drawn out scenes of him changing spark plugs.  His videos are more focused on loving life, which I really enjoy.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.   

So I had NEVER watched VGG before this conversation started and only actually watched him over the last two months since. 

I enjoy his schtick. It's repetitive and simplistic but I get a chuckle out of it. 

In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) :

points and carbs, baby!  Model T abandoned for a century!  Will it RUN AND DRIVE?  You're berkeleying right it will!

In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) :

I still really like the guy and what he does. It entertains me thoroughly. Going and reviving a long-forgotten, questionable vehicle and jamming it on the road just does it for me. There are other channels that do this, but I feel like he does it better than all the others. Is it the BEST way to fix something? No, but it's the most entertaining!

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Don't get me wrong, Derek is someone I admire in a lot of ways, but I do feel like Chris from NNKH does a much better job with his revivals.  If you have time, watch the series where he rescues an 81 El Camino from a front yard in Phoenix and drives it back to Pennsa-vain-ya.  He actually checks little things and fixes them as he drives.  By the time he's home, the car is in relatively good shape.  And he does follow up videos on more fixes.  Derek on the other hand has gotten so busy, most of his videos are him talking about how he has 8 hours and 1 day to fix the car and drive 1,200 miles back home because he has to go to Florida and drive Crown Vics.  Because of that, he very much limps the cars along and dumps them in his yard and they are once again moth-balled.  Again, I really like Derek, just something I've noticed. 

Right now I'm watching the episode series where he swapped a 5.7 Chrysler Hemi and 46RE trans into a half-ton Chevy pickup.  He's using a bunch of Holley-sourced products to make it easier than it would have been otherwise and it's interesting.  His purposely used mannerisms used to bother me more but I don't notice at much and when he's working through more challenging aspects of projects that stuff fades.  He seems like a good dad and husband and he's not guarded on that which I think is good stuff.

I watched an episode where he cleaned up a mid-50's Studebaker sedan a few weeks ago and when he was showing the results from his spray painting the hubcaps (which were fairly trashed to begin with) he said something about just doing projects and doing things the way you want and how important it was to do your thing as you wanted and own it.  I thought it was one of the better messages he could have shared.  I get why he might be hard to watch for some people but I think there's some good stuff there as well.

Holley gives him a LOT of stuff. Those weird swap projects probably wouldn't happen without that. I'm undecided if it's good or bad as a viewer.

I do look forward to the dipstick lick, the interior smell test and quips like "Hotter than a Arianna Grande concert". One could make a good drinking game once you know his 'system'.