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David Freiburger ~ Mike Finnegan ~ My Roadkill B-body Heroes

Wingfoot

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Finnegan & Freiburger



 
Yup, I love the show. FAR too often we get caught up in making cars perfect, and collected, and put away. Frequently if a imperfect car is shown it is scorned. These guys slap them together, drive them, and love them. They are the inspiration to keep plugging away on my far from perfect Coronet.
 
An imperfect car is far more fun to drive because you are not enshrouded with anxiety or guilt over how you treat it or how others do.
 
Just by chance, I stumbled on the very first Roadkill episode on YT after watching some old
HotRod videos (the pre-RK ones that led up to it) and was hooked from then on - at least up
until the point the mother corporation decided to abandon ship on YT and go subscription only
on their own network.
Seemed sort of a sellout on their part to me. I'll try to explain...

Part and parcel of the early RK was the "broke as dirt" comraderie of them and their loyal
viewership on free YT - the common working schmucks car show, sort of the anti-BarretJackson
gang mentality.
Then they went for the bucks.... something I didn't follow and still haven't to this day.
The show thumbed their noses at what made them famous to begin with and that rubbed me
the wrong way.

I have stuck with Finnegan, though - he, along with Lucky the mechanic have kept their YT shows
going. They "get it" - they maintain a much more approachable aspect to the viewers/enthusiasts.
 
They came out and said why they took the money. They were always on the hook for costs, and it was starting to rather expensive.
 
An imperfect car is far more fun to drive because you are not enshrouded with anxiety or guilt over how you treat it or how others do.

KD.....this really rings true for me! I had the perfect paint, restored, all new everything 69 dart swinger that I was paranoid to drive. At the same time I had a ratted out 94 lifted jeep wrangler that I enjoyed way more and if it got a scratch or dent it added character. Sold the dart and never looked back. My current project is a 512 stroker 67 belvedere 4 door that has no rust and a 25 footer paint job. It's getting all the goodies in the drivetrain arena, but the body will get no attention as I am completely happy with the way it looks. It will beg to go out and be beaten.
 
KD.....this really rings true for me! I had the perfect paint, restored, all new everything 69 dart swinger that I was paranoid to drive. At the same time I had a ratted out 94 lifted jeep wrangler that I enjoyed way more and if it got a scratch or dent it added character. Sold the dart and never looked back. My current project is a 512 stroker 67 belvedere 4 door that has no rust and a 25 footer paint job. It's getting all the goodies in the drivetrain arena, but the body will get no attention as I am completely happy with the way it looks. It will beg to go out and be beaten.
Keep it coming, I feel better about the condition of my wreck all the time.
 
I was building a rotisserie restored 72 Scamp, she was so purdy...even went as far as clear coating brand new bolts before they went in place and started thinking...When Im driving this with the kids in the back seat, they're not gonna want to eat a snack in it are they? What if it rains while Im at a car show...how long is gonna take to wipe the underside of the car off?

Couldn't handle it anymore lol and with some regret I sold it and bought the Charger I have now. Shes far from perfect, was painted 25+ years ago, has some fill in it, paint is chipped in a few spots, lots more but you get the idea! I can tell you there is nothing better than ripping donuts in a field or hanging it out on a country road with my 2 boys in the back seat screaming and laughing! I dont miss the Scamp at all those days cause there is no way in hell I would enjoy it as much as we as a family enjoy the Charger!
 
They came out and said why they took the money. They were always on the hook for costs, and it was starting to rather expensive.
That was the excuse, yep.
Funny thing is, there are literally dozens of really good auto-based channels on YT, all done by "amateurs",
who of course make money off views (ad revenue sharing with YT).
With literally a million views + per episode, I'd say RK was raking it in as well - maybe not as much as
the parent corporation would have liked, but surely enough to keep going.
I think ultimately the channel took off bigger and faster than they expected and started taking up too
much of their time vs. revenue realized and a business decision was made.

Hey, nothing against making a buck - it was just unseemly that what brought them to the party to begin
with, what made them famous - their humble beginnings and loyal viewers on YT - was left in the dust.
 
I like the show, watched them for years on youtube, before MotorTrend.
Met them at the Kansas RK no-prep event a few years back. They seem like nice guys.
 
You have to look at it like this:
Taking the time to film something takes time. An hour of onscreen time may take a week of camera work, background set work, parts research, THEN there is the editing, the sound technician has to add or dub in various sounds, do Voice Over work, etc. NONE of this is cheap. If you look at Uncle Tony's Garage, he is mostly standing in front of the camera near a car, talking about it. His videos are informative and fun but are VERY cheap to make! No parts, no camera crew, no "GoPro" cameras mounted to his cars, no road trips, etc.
If the income stream from YouTube was too meager to pay the expenses, I can certainly understand why they took the money.
 
The expense of the show was explained by DF. And it’s a good production. You can’t do good for pennies.
 
My son really enjoys Roadkill, Roadkill Garage, Engine Masters, Junkyard Gold and Hot Rod Garage. He's got them on social media and always tells me when there's a new episode. I like Lucky and Dulchich.
 
I like the whole crew. I think the shows are good. It’s a shame most people forget, this is really for entertainment while showing you a few things that are pretty cool and what could be done. It’s not a scientific show dicing and slicing everything apart and it’s not how to show. It’s amazing how many people cry and pick them apart. It’s entertainment! I think it’s awesome the roadkill shell. I’m a firm believer in just get it running! The prettier they are the less enjoyable they often become.Cars are made to be driven. Hot rods made to be driven hard! If you’re not having fun with them, you’re doing something wrong, very wrong!
 
I got caught up in the numbers matching, perfect paint crowd several years ago. After having several really nice cars and the one left sitting most of the time I’m finding myself wanting to get back into how I use to roll.

Still want to put together a roached wagon and take a road trip back to Carslile
 
One of the better car shows
been watching it for ever it seems, from youtube
glad it made it on now MotorTrend TV
(used to be Velocity, after being Speed)

Most the time they seem to be having fun
that part is infectious
sometimes it looks like they aren't haven fun too

getting paid to do what you're gonna' do,
already without being paid
but they get sponsors/marketing partners/funds to pay for the ****
that's even better yet

the Kaiser/Willys Jeep stuff was pretty cool too
Finnegan's Blown Hemi powered 55 is cool
Frieburger's 70 Super Bee is pretty cool
that beater Camaro with the blown BBC wasn't too bad

HotRod TV is pretty much the same, well sort of
just different characters (Lucky & Tony)
different name, also a few nicer cars "sometimes"

It's all about having fun, they all seemed to be having
& fucken' with performance parts/cars
& aftermarket stuff, even some actually good information,
from time to time

a few of the builds have serious $$$ in them
in donated parts, sad to see the **** get destroyed "sometimes"
some also have almost nothing in value, cheap ****
a few of the builds they try not to destroy the stuff
most are just for fun & end up Road Kill
 
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Funny when they tried to work one in his parents driveway.
Tornadoes and power failure.
They were used to working outside in So Cal in the summer.
Flip flops and no gloves in the episodes are killing me.

They don't get any better than this.
Give the car away.
My wife and I watched them all when they ran on youtube.
Haven't seen any since then.

 
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