Car Masters: Rust to Riches: Mechanics Struggle as Buick is Totaled, Mustang Trade Falls Through

The second season of Car Masters: Rust to Riches continues with its early storyline of The Gotham Garage attempting to rebound from a string of misfortune. A half-built 1953 Buick was totaled and a trade deal with a newly restored Ford Mustang fell through, so the third episode of the second season has the mechanics scraping by where they can.

It’s the biggest setback that has had to be dealt with since Mark Towle started the business in season 1. Luckily they’re always quick to pick up new deals and stay afloat. The first new job showing up to recover is for them to fix up an old T-bucket for a client. Given that the client is requesting it as a wedding anniversary present and asking for it to be as eye catching as possible, Mark quickly shoots out ideas about making the new T-bucket design comparable to wedding carriages. So already with a new project, there’s room for creativity and inspiration. More importantly, the project will be quick and efficient. They’ve been given a three-week deadline, the car they have already drives just fine, T-buckets are fairly simple hot rods in the first place and The Gotham Garage had experience fixing one up last year.

The T-bucket is the b-plot though, the main priority is still making a worthwhile trade for the Mustang. While Constance, Caveman and company keep working at the garage, Mark and Shawn Pilot visit someone to see if they can trade up from the Mustang that they estimate is worth $50,000 right now. After some searching, nothing fits the bill even when considering bundling several cars together on the other end of the trade. Frustrated, they decide they may have to search for someone who specifically wants that type of car.

Now to not just be sitting where they are until that happens, Shawn suggests taking out a 1948 Buick that Mark has had in the back of the garage for a while. Mark explains though that the car has more significance than it would seem. It belongs to his friend Gina currently, and she’s daughter of Bob Anziano, who fixed up classic cars and was consistently praised for his work and attention to detail. The Buick was the last car he was working on until he died, it was about 60% finished, and Mark made a deal with Gina to eventually finish it himself and split the profits with her evenly. The connection to Anziano boosts its value, but that also understandably adds a lot of pressure and fear for Mark, especially if his focus is also on the T-bucket.

Shawn continues to push for the Buick to be worked on and hold them over until they trade the Mustang, and at first Mark remains resistant to the idea, but finally caves when he meets up with Gina and she pushes him to start it as well. The Buick now becomes the main project, as the T-bucket is finished up and sold smoothly for the $40,000 that was agreed on. The small profit from that keeps the lights on at the garage as well as some breathing room to finish the Buick, because while the first 60% of it is finished; that’s the easiest part of it. The gang needs to do a clean top chop on it, fix the viper motor, add new wheels and tires and do a new paint job on it. No easy tasks. They even have to use process of elimination to sort out what Anziano wanted to do with some of the parts for it that he had left over.

After several weeks of work though, with a fresh coat of jet black paint to go with the Buick’s chrome, and with Gina’s approval of the overall build in a touching scene, Shawn and Mark are able to sell it for $165,000 and finally make a sizable profit. Two sentimental projects this episode were to everyone’s benefit, and it only gets better from there as the episode ends with them getting a call saying that someone wants to see the Mustang as soon as possible, and they might be able to make the trade they’ve been waiting for.