The last time I saw a Cougar hiding that much damage she was leaving the bar.

amazes me how much effort flippers put into doing it wrong...

Damn! That is one of the nicest polish job I've ever seen on a turd.

I would be afraid to walk under that while on the lift

It's a miracle that the lift supports didn't just go through the floor...

I've had girlfriends just like this car. Gorgeous on the outside, rotten to the core, covered up up with pancake makeup, and potentially deadly.

Tony, you’re educating potential classic car buyers. Kiwi, you are to be commended.

I always like how they have it inspected AFTER they buy it.

What kills me as a former body man is the time and effort spent avoiding the most fun part of restoration, the cutting, welding, and fabrication is more fun than bondoing, prep and painting.

Whoever did that flip should be behind bars. Scammers are everywhere these days.

This would make a good museum piece. Looks great but not safe for the highway.

I own a small shop where I build suspension for lifted trucks in my free time. You are right about not being safe. I’ve seen people try to build suspension. I’m talking 16-30 in lift so big trucks and they bubblegum weld stuff and things it looks “so good” it’s not what’s on the eye level it’s what’s underneath. Think of a car as a person when purchasing it. It is good on the inside, outside, places you can’t see, pull the carpet up, slide under that bad boy. Some people trust to much. Also I don’t know how you could spend 30+k on a classic and not see the giant bondoed door.

When I saw the framerails made of rotten layers of bondo I could feel a sadness settle onto my heart. They expended so much effort on the visible parts... So they know how to do it, they just chose not to. What terrible people they must be.

Working at a body shop was probably the worst thing that ever happened to me with cars. Now every time I go to a car show I'm seeing every flaw. I don't really even like going to them any longer.

I had a 72 Cougar XR7. Full leather. 351 Cleveland. A very squirrelly rear end in accelerating turns. Especially on a wet road They had zero anti corrosion on the entire car. As a result, they were rotting from the inside out in year #2 of ownership. Best long road trip car I ever drove.

As a Cougar enthusiast, I died a little inside! As an XR7 he probably paid a pretty penny too. About to go really look 👀 under my ‘67. Thank you for these videos!

Tony, you're brave to walk around underneath. I wouldn't trust it to hold together on the lift.

The owner needs to hire a lawyer and sue for misrepresentation. It almost looks dangerous.

Really like this australian guy. He's very to the point and stand up. Keep doing these videos they are insanely helpful

These types videos make me feel really good about my amateur restoration project. I am almost finished.

One thing I learned from these videos: When looking at a classic car, a magnet is your friend.

An honest $500 car that needs $20,000 in repairs is better than a fraud $20,000 car that's needs $20,000 in repairs.

Someone share the name of the dealer that did this so I can make sure I never buy anything from them, ever.

Really great video guys, subscribed to you both! Cool info with a bit of a friendly chuckle. Thanks!

The people who deal in these cars are not just professionals, they are professional thieves. I owned a Mustang restoration and parts business for 10 years and if I had attempted to get away with this kind of workmanship I would have been ridden out of town on a rail. Of course I live in California and we usually don't have to deal with the rust buckets that you have in the eastern parts of the country. You are doing a great service to the collector car community by uncovering these crooks. 🤠🏁 👍

They spent more time putting in mud and sealer than it takes to fix it. Unbelievable!

21:06 Tennessee doesn't have salt on the roads but it does have weeds. This is a car that was abandoned in some hillbilly farm, it was sunk up to the axles in the mud for 30+ years, then it was drug out and cleaned up, bondoed, and painted.

One of the WW2 veterans in my neighbourhood once told me the story how they "repaired" the frames of unibody cars in the 70s by "rebuilding" the rusted out frame rails from wood, then molding them in with bondo and finally covering everything up with underbody coating. This car reminds me of this story.

I paid a inspector 500.00 to inspect a car at a consignment dealer. He handed me 8 pages of issues. He saved me 30 grand!

I'm 5 years into my own Mustang nightmare story after being robbed in the same way. What was worse for me is that I had it shipped to me overseas, throwing even more money into the pit. Pretty close to finishing all the body work now, but what a journey it's been. And not only for me but my family as well, that's the worst part..

This makes me think of the required vehicle inspections they have in many states. In MA they weren't going to pass this '78 Chev van I had, until I fix rusted through rocker panels. But that's just cosmetic. This car has frame rails made of rust an bondo.

You all are awesome! Thank you for sharing.

This is exactly why I seek out original, unmessed with cars and trucks when possible. Original paint is gold to me, even if its worn with dents and scars!

A public flogging, and having CROOKED CAR FLIPPER tattooed across their forehead might be an adequate penalty.

There was a local used car dealer who lived in the same small town I grew up in. He was an autobody man by trade and would buy vehicles damaged in accidents, rotted out (from MassaTwoSh!ts so lots of salt), even pickups that were sitting in farmer's fields for 10+ years, slap some paint on them, making them look better than new, and sell them for top dollar. He would go drinking every weekend in the local bars and would laugh at how he's ripping people off after getting drunk. I saw a 1985 3/4-ton Chevy 4x4 he was selling for big $$. The body was beautiful looking, but the interior was cleaned up but well worn, the suspension was sagging and he didn't even bother cleaning up the thick scale rust on the under carriage from sitting in tall grass for many years. I saw the new owner driving it about 6 months later and a chunk of bondo the size of the whole door fell off, exposing a caved in driver's side door. He never even bothered sanding the original paint before doing any filler work or spraying the new paint! The "new" paint was flaking off as it was driven down the road. But it looked great until it drove off the lot!

I was wholesaler for a bunch of years, mostly everyday auction cars. My job was looking for problems so I knew how much I had to fix and how much I'd have into a vehicle before it went up for sale. It's definitely a good idea to look underneath a car, especially a classic and bring a bright flashlight too even during the day.

I was at a buddies shop last fall and he had a 'Fully Restored' Dodge on the lift for some basic maintenance. The first thing I noticed when I walked under it was a bright shiny Frigidaire emblem on one part of the floor underneath. Apparently they had made all the floor patches out of an old refrigerator and left the emblem on the one panel. They were smooth like those on that Cougar, with lots of bondo and sketchy welds too.

I learned the hard way. A few years ago I bought my dream truck from a dealer even spent time under it before purchase. Seemed to be a beautiful truck... so I thought.. Dealer didn't know I had plans to take it apart and re-restore it to my taste. Got it home, started doing some real looking and poking around on the frame....there were some questionable areas that once u REALLY got in there... the frame was severely rotted all over, really it was ready to fold in half in 3 places. Structural damage and rot from front to back but someone took the time to pack all frame damage with bondo and paint over it... did a good job making it look good so never would have noticed had I not started stripping the frame. Long story short. Turned them in, truck sat for a year because police deamed it unsafe to drive, pulled the FRESH, from dealer, inspection sticker, went to court... Judge sided with the dealer, cuz they grew up together, I ended up loosing my ass on that truck. Even the police were suprised in the outcome givin all the evidence. Bought another truck from a junkyard with a good frame... used what I could from the dealer fraud truck to build my current dream truck myself. Cut the rest of fraud truck up into 3 foot sections and hauled it in for scrap. Never trust anyones "restoration/ showtruck" without checking every square inch first. Had anyone else bought that truck and just drove it... would have ended up in an accident when the frame finally folded going down the highway, or the front end or steering box ripped off the tin foil bondo packed frame.

I'm glad you guys didn't keep picking at the car, you almost picked it a part on the hoist! This reminds me a 70 Cuda I once saw for sale. Body seemed fine, but if you looked underneath, it was solid orange for rust.

I had the same happen to a ‘63 Nova convertible…if you ever plan to buy a classic, always be suspicious when you see any type of undercoating. I guarantee it’s there to hide something.

It's abhorrent that an auction house can be allowed to pass these through. This should be traced back so this thief can be locked up. They should fine the auction big too.

What a great looking paint job. I would have fallen for that mess.

Go to any car show or auction, half the cars look like this. You just need to know what to look for, most folks don’t.

Tony, your channel is invaluable! Thanks for your hard work! (One suggestion regarding the videography, could you invest in a good quality light bar? When you are under the vehicle it can get very dark. )

So scary and sad for the customer but thanks for reminding us to look and inspect them better .

I'm a plumber by trade, this job reminds me of a job I came across the other day. All the abs drainage pipe was just dry fitted together, NO GLUE anywhere! Boy it took a lot of duct tape to fix it up.

We had one car, '71 T/A I believe, at any rate it was a early second gen, it had been back halfed. found the seam line when we were stripping the paint (and 200lbs) of bondo off. When the customer came in to see what we found he literally hung his head and walked back out the door.

There's no spot a magnet would stick...

Wow I cannot even imagine how bad the customer felt after seeing this I think it's the first time I've seen bondo used to make a floor and frame rails

I live in Canada. You wouldn't believe the amount of nice looking bondo buckets there are here. I work in a country garage and restore mostly British stuff on the side. I know rust only too well. Nothing survives 10 years + on our salted roads. You may get a couple more years out of it, but it is eventually done. Thankfully, there are a good number of cars up here that have been stored for half of every year, and they are worth restoring.. Thanks for the vid Uncle Tony. Cheers from the right coast of Canada!

I'm pretty sure I've been to that shop! I used to run a pickup and delivery route in Franklin. If so the guy your talking to was building a cougar with a fastback roof it was awesome! Would love to see a update of thar car it's been a few years.

this reminds me of that red classic car you were inspecting in a parking lot and was looking at all the rust in the trunk. first of your vids I ever watched.

Seems the builder/seller could or should face significant liabilities for putting this on the road.

Uncle Tony's Garage, You are doing a great Service by Exposing The Amount of Fraud by all those Flippers out there......Just disgusting seeing all that Butchery.

My Dad owned one of these when I was 16 years old. Then I bought two in my twenties and one was a 1970 Cougar "Eliminator" and the frame was rusted right through where the steering ram mounted to the frame. Nice car though. Cheers. 😁

What gets me the most, is that all that time and labor used to cover up the problem areas could have been used to fix them. Would have cost the same. This is ridiculous.

Wheels and tires are nice. It's surprising how good the top of the car looks for a rust bucket. Which makes it an auction special.

I love these videos so I know what kind of poor workmanship I need to avoid working on the truck I’m restoring.

I worked on a 2005 nissan sentra 1.8s special edition. My friend got it from auction. It had nothing but everything wrong with it. Wiring and mechanical. Transmission blown up, broken cv axles,blown out struts, burnt head lamps, and a after market "racing chip" wired to the mass air flow put together with being protected from the heat of the engine and wires just laying there open to the environment. Exhaust rusted through, cat pushed out but not cleaned out. Blocking the flow. It was a nightmare and a headache but got it all done without a lift. But love working on cars is what I do love to do.

WOW!! That's horrible that people can do that and think it's ok... What a shame... That thing is so bad, it's likely not even worth fixing...

If you’re interested in knowing the trouble spots for classic Cougars, Don Rush of West Coast Classic Cougars has an excellent series where he goes year by year on excellent survivors in detail, up on a lift etc. He points out the expensive fixes and the easy fixes, and the dealbreakers alike.

Uncle Tony and Kiwi walking under a car that is lifted on bondo frame rails 😱

I had this exact same car but stock two barrel carb, single exhaust and three on the floor. That car would go. A real sleeper. This video made me cry.

Uncle Tony, thank you for this video and to the fellow that you’re I guess see you interviewing that owns that shop thank you. Also, he seems like a very professional fella himself and anyway these people that do these kind of things they should not only be charged with fraud with some sort of. I don’t know what you would call it not attempted murder, but something like that reckless endangerment there you go charge them with reckless endangerment and give them the full penalty plus fines, restitution, and all that stuff this is six in a row.Jim from Kennerdell, Pennsylvania

Thanks for doing these “scammer” videos

We all know that lipstick on a pig is nothing new, especially in the classic market. Years ago, I actually lost a "friend" over a similar situation. He was selling a 69 Z28 (not 100% original as it had a 70 LT1 engine) that appeared to be a very nice "20 footer". Another friend was a serious buyer until I told him to use a magnet on the trunk floor and rear sub-frame rails. BOTH were mostly made of fiberglass mat, a bunch of resin and, a bunch more rubberized undercoating. I knew this because I'd watched him "restore" it. The buyer took my advice on his 2nd look and told the seller that I'd suggested where to use the magnet. I'm still friends with the buyer and, he actually did end up with a very nice, driver quality 69 Camaro later on. I guess the seller wasn't really much of a friend to begin with and, even though I still run into him now and then, it's basically a hi/bye thing and I'm OK with that.

I has a BEAUTIFUL Gold /white/white 68 California Special come in for a new, complete dual exhaust. I rarely ever use the twin post to pick up old cars, we use the drive on instead. In the case of this car, it was a solid choice. On the ground the car appeared as it just rolled on the show room floor, in the air it was a rotted, POP RIVET FRAME REPAIR POS. I called the owner and asked her to come down, they were furious, the had paid 24400 for a restoration (1988) the restorer never went under the car, but knew the floors were gone as they riveted tin over the holes before installing new carper. It immediately explained why the restoration shop told the owners why they needed to have an exhaust shop do the exhaust, they could claim they never saw under the car. It was rotted enough it would have folded on the twin post.

I love old cars and your making me think about my old ass 65 fairlane in the back that i havent driven in 3 years.

I'd wager that car has been through several auctions. Someone buys it, gets it home, and sees what they bought. The auction doesn't help them out, but offers them a free rerun fee at the auction. So the car goes back, gets resold, someone else gets stuck with it, and the auction gets another buyers fee. And if a buyer makes a big stink about the car, then it will get put back in the auction system with a declaration of structural damage, and instantly loses 75% of its value. So always beware if you see a car sell, and a few weeks later it shows back up, it's cursed like this Cougar!

that's just criminal!! people who do that to people should be in jail

In a tiny shop, I was given a 67 Vette to tune up in about 1985. Standard procedure was a 300 point inspection. I was in love with this car but after underneath, I had to throw up! It was Bondo, wire, rubber undercoat and it make me sick. I brought the manager to show him why I would not work on the car. Everything metal was gone or under 1/8th thick with rust over it. Neighbor guy painted cars, knock and he let me in. He was shoveling newspaper into rusted rockers and finished with with cardboard. Plastic filler was applied before a black paint job with a Firebird Eagle decal on the hood. The decal was $155.00 dollars if the tells you how long ago. Really sad for the rest of us.

Great video- been on that lot. They have some cool cars. My kids love visiting there!

I'm in Australia at a small classic shop and we had a new customer contact us to get the car legal for Australian roads (can be as simple as changing headlights and adding amber indicators) after they bought a classic at one of those big TV actions in the USA. The front brakes didn't work and the rear brake hard lines were wrapped around the rear springs as a small example of what had to be done. It took 9 months (most parts have to ship from USA) and doubled the purchases price.

When I see newly painted classic cars for sale I always wonder if it's a rust bucket haha..

When I bought our Chevelle I was able to do a thorough inspection including a helper and a hoist for a couple hours.

About two years ago a neighbor bought a fairly clean 60 Catalina 2 door hardtop with what he was told was a 400 Pontiac ahead of a THM 400,nice interior, fairly decent body,nice driving,but rather slugy for a 400.First thought was a stretch or jump chain,but it sounded good,opened hood saw a funky intake a half a Q-jet,and a oil filter the size of a coffee cup hanging sideways,which told me it was a 301,but at least the tranmission was a 400. I just wish I went along I would have spot it right of the bat,but to be fair the rest of the car in pretty nice,but in would have been much nicer with a 400 Pontiac.

Tony, that isn't poor craftsmanship. The restorer added energy absorbent crumple zones to the frame.

Just subscribed to you both. That happened to my father when he bought me my first car in 1980. It was a ‘66 mustang convertible, he found it at an auction and it looked beautiful. We were so excited. After getting it home and when it came time for him to teach me how to change it’s oil we put it on ramps and rolled underneath to find out it was a rust bucket full of bondo. Just like that cougar floor pans were gone, frame was rusted out and bondo patched, a complete mess. It took loads of cash to get that all cut out and new metal properly welded in.

It's amazing they could do such a nice job with the trim, interior, and lights, and have so much horrible underneath. Even without "factory" patch panels, a decent fab person would've been able to weld in new pieces on the underside and make that car structurally sound.

Blown away by how bad it is underneath and how nice it looked wow !!

That’s a bummer. Always liked that body style Cougar and they’re still relatively reasonably priced.

You can't crawl under a car at Mecum, but they serve wine. You should visit Smoky Mountain Traders and get under a few of those cars.

I really wish I knew more about cars.. Its the only shop class I didn't take but now in my 50s I really can appreciate the cars that were still all over the roads in the late 70s and into the 80s that you really don't see that much of anymore.. But with that being said when you go to one of these car auctions, are you aloud to look at these cars up close and get under them ect... Or do they just trust that what they're buying is the real deal and worth what they're biding on?

Thanks your showing us what to look at.

Keep picking on them! I learn so much from your flipper reveals and enjoy your commentary. Thank you!!

The first sign of trouble is all that overspray. A sloppy spray job usually hides sloppy work underneath. It just went downhill from there. Parts for these are expensive and the person that "restored" it knew that the parts are expensive and hard to find and they cost a mint to obtain and get right, so they went with what can be seen and that's the lipstick on a pig scenario you're describing here.

You broke my heart when you put that Cougar up on the lift.

I got myself a S10 Flipper Special. First thing I noticed was the roach clip that attached the wire to the starter solenoid. Then it got worse.

That's awful I hate seeing people getting screwed, and it's dangerous

Kiwi's Catastrophic Cougars has a nice ring to it! HAHAHA I like these team up videos. Kiwi is such a great guy and a master craftsman.

Love it how there saying how it’s structurally unstable and there standing under it on lift

i fixed up a few 4x4s pretty rough rust repairs for bush work .... nothing as bad as this but pmsl difference is if i sell it on i disclose the repairs !

When I seen the title and the opening of this vid, I knew exactly where it was going when they put it on the lift. There are so many of these turds out there. How could a buyer miss this stuff? I'm old but very first thing I've always done is get down and look underneath when I'm looking at ANY car to buy. I do understand a cast majority of people just don't know cars, and that's fine. It's just that when you are fixing to drop big money at least have it checked by someone who Does know!

Poor Kiwi does he ever get to share positive news with his customers? LOL 😂

Wow, that is an awesome holder for cougar parts if you can find a good chassis.

My 1966 Mercury Comet from Chicago is just like this. Winters of road salt and snow ate the unibody. If I sell it, it would have to be as a parts car.

Keep these kinds of videos coming. They make me feel great about my cars. Never seen bondo on a frame, unreal.

Most low buck, or low skill restorations (not necessarily flip cars) are pretty obvious. Some are cleaned up nice, and it takes a minute to see how butchered they are, but this is on another level. Even up fairly close this looks really nice. The nice bumpers and chrome and general attention to detail, especially under the hood is unusual. Id say someone got burned, then took some time to clean it up better so that they could run it back thru an auction and recoup their money.

Its one thing the UK got right - This is a nation wide MOT or safety test every year for cars over 3 years old. If they do not pass, they do not go on the road until repaired correctly. They even have a category to prohibit cars this bad from ever going back on the public highway permanently. This means cars are NEVER presented to a MOT test in this state.Most cars fail for relatively minor reasons and are easily fixed.

I'm glad there's subtitles!