owner of fender mender auto body in new smyrna beach, florida. i've been building cars since i was a kid, building muscle cars, hot rods. got involved with production work for a little while and had to make a living, but always stayed with muscle cars. now i'm back doing muscle cars full time, what i always wanted to do. we have several projects going on in the shop right now. we have a '67 chevelle, we have a '69 gto, we have a '50 plymouth convertible, and we have several cars in the dock as you come in. with all the projects in the shop, of course i have help doing it-- darren, who's been with me for 20 plus years, doing the prep work and taking care of all the detail work. we also have shane, who just happens to pick up all the cars and do the running around for me. i have three master car builders that work with me: robert, who specializes in body work; glen, who's a master mechanic; and skip, who does mechanics, body work, plus he does paint work. and then, of course, we've got megan in our office, who keeps edging her way into the shop som

megan: the salt air in new smyrna beach can really eat up bare metal, so we have to get a coat of primer on that 'cuda. skip and darren sanded down the body already, and now it's time to spray. while that dries, skip and victor are cleaning up a quarter panel. after soda blasting the '71 barracuda last week, the deck leg looked pretty rough, so i jumped at the chance to do a little cutting and welding in the shop. you are thinking about... i'm thinking about whether i want to... cut it out like so... just cut out the whole piece? and make an all new piece, lip and all, and cut that out. that's probably what we're gonna do. we're gonna go get a piece of metal first. so what we'll do is just cut a simple piece with the shear. put your fingers right there. hold? you're good. that's it. all right. that's it. wow. so now we need 29, right? twenty-nine. we want a lip on this line right there. we want it to fold? we want it to fold. that's exactly what we want it to do. see that line right there? we wanna go make a break. that's why they call this a break. we're gonna bend that. we're gonna mak

debut of muscle car workout, we gave you a full rundown on our body shop, fender mender, in new smyrna beach, florida. we also got a first look at a 1968 cutlass that our customer, jim cook, recently purchased, and we began the disassembly of a 1971 plymouth barracuda slated for a full frame-off update. first thing on the agenda today is to lift the motor out of the car. okay, megan. we're gonna take this motor out of here today. we'll get the carburetor out first. okay. sounds like a play? a plan. a plan. yep. okay. let's get the carburetor, and we'll put the motor plate on here. let's get the fan blade off, and let's get that upper radiator hose off. i learned that you just can't simply take a motor out of a car. you can't just pick it up and take it out. there's actually a whole procedure that goes along with it. i don't think i had a huge expectation of what was gonna happen, but i did think it was gonna be a lot easier. i knew it was heavy, but i didn't know there were so many different steps before you actually even got to the motor. got it? yep. this is us being nice, now. i want you