Have any of you guys caught the show "Wrecks to Riches" on TLC? On the show, they go buy a beat up "muscle" car (usually from the 60's) and customize it, upgrade it, and rebuild it to a Super Muscle Car (and label it: SMC) - then take it to auction to sell it for a profit.

The 1 hour show takes you through the whole cycle - from finding the right car to start with, ordering parts, tearing the car apart, rebuilding it, and then to the auction. They keep track of the costs paid for everything, and also for the man-hours of labor spent on the car. (what they don't do is calculate a labor rate to show you what it would cost if everyone didn't work for "free")

It's pretty interesting. Last night's show they took a '71 Torino, in very good condition, with only 5k miles on the clock, and a straight 6 cyl engine, and turned it into a badazz muscle car with a 521ci big block. It was a little sad to see the very much original "survivor" car rebuilt in such a non-original way however. Like a piece of the car died when they tore it all apart.

But anyways - it's pretty interesting to see what different cars do at auction. Some real steals out there it seems, and a bunch of cars undervalued. Also, it's interesting how nearly impossible it is to make a profit by buying a "junker" and turning it into something nice for auction. Ok - they do seem to rebuild it "right" and not cut corners - and that is costly. But the only times they've made a profit is when they don't include the cost of labor - think about it, a couple hundred hours of labor isn't free!

So - what do you guys think about the show?