Well, what can I say, Wrecks to Riches/Episode No. 2, costarring Tony Correia, was better than the first one, with less drama and a better story line, if that's really important in these buildup series. It followed the buildup of a '71 HEMI GTX Clone, which ultimately went to auction in Reno for $76,000. Barry admitted to having $51K hard into the project (needs a better freebie list) and if he charges his shop time at $75/hr. (380 hours), only lost about $10K on the deal before paying the auction fee. I notice they stuffed a Currie Enterprises rear end in with a lot of camera time on their logo, and wondered if Tony was able to score that item from Frank.

Our little buddy Tony got a bigger speaking part and more face time in this episode, and put out a pretty good purple paint job. Barry acting leaves something to be desired, especially when he's bragging to the new owner that he did some awesome burnouts in the guy's new car even before the crate HEMI was broken in.

This series is more realistic than Overhaulin, allowing a month to turn out a ground up restro, and doesn't have the bickering and name calling American Hot Rod includes in every episode, which has eliminated this show from my viewing list.

We've been around hot rods all our lives, but I wonder how deep is this market for novice viewers. Must be enough for new series like Wrecks to Riches, but I think they have to do a better job than the competition to retain an audience.

by Mark Byer