In between working and answering a lot of questions about the Stagea I’m selling (questions which could be answered by actually reading the ad in full), I’ve been watching a lot of automotive YouTube as of late. Starting with the self proclaimed dumbest car channel on all of YouTube which in turn had me watching a man with almost all the automotive answers I could ever ask, the Wizard…
(And speaking of the best car channels of all time via the tubes, a massive shout out to the hard working pair behind Bad Obsession Motorsport and their labour of love in Project Binky. I jumped onto this build back in 2018 and it’s still pottering along to this day but the sheer amount of work, design and fabrication is simply staggering. It’s also amazing how many people I’ve run into who are also massive fans of the team and their vids – I’m very happy their appeal has his almost astronomical levels.)
We start with the dumbest
Well he calls his channel that but if you’ve seen Tyler Hoover’s (aka Hoovie) garage as of late practically overflowing with super cars, well it seems that riding the supposed dumb train is paying off massive dividends. In a nutshell he finds the cheapest version of a make and model car somewhere in America, buys it, gives us the lowdown on the good and the bad (you can guess of which there is more of with each project) and then it’s off to someone who knows what they’re doing to get all the problems sorted and that would be the Wizard. Hoovie pays the bill after running through all the fixes and after that it either stays in the collection or gets sold, ready for the next financial disaster.
And while there’s some lovely pieces of automotive excellence in there (including a Bentley once owned by Jean Claude Van Damme hilariously) some of them are 100% super car in the fact that you’re paying a vast fortune yearly just to keep the damn thing running in a semi normal fashion. Given how much time and effort as well as money poured into one of his Ferrari’s, it’d probably be cheaper just to set the bastard thing on fire.
Also the amount of content he’s managed to squeeze out of Plymouth Superbird is impressive, again one of those cars messed over so badly by the previous owner, it’d be a deal best resold on and quickly.
But then that’s not the point of the channel is it? Call it a great lesson that having a garage of high end rides is not all it’s cracked up to be but also a fantastic introduction into one of the most helpful spanner twirling blokes on YouTube currently.
And that would be The Wizard.
Or the Weeeezard as Hoovie refers to him.
Meet Dave from Omega Auto Clinic, aka The Wizard. Not only fixer of Hoovie’s latest acquisitions but because of his involvement on screen and off, the success he’s had with Hoovie had led to his own Car Wizard channel which is really taking off. His time with Hoovie (and trying to get the man to pay his bills before he takes his latest work back home) obviously kicked things off well enough but his insight into not only cars but workshop tips, tricks and secrets on top of his incredibly calm demeanour when presenting has made his work for me, a must watch. Especially with posts/vids like this one – whether you’re a seasoned workshop pro or someone like me still figuring out what everything does, there’s surely something in this list that’ll make you go well that’ll cut down some time/frustration!
If you’re wondering why the shelves at your local auto shop are empty of both silicon spray and relay switches, it’s probably because of this vid. Also considering how many time’s I’ve dropped both bolts and washers into the engine bay somewhere (luckily not losing them into an intake..), the tips involving those particular mishaps are going to come in completely handy.
Also I want to give high praise to this effort too:
On account of two things:
- He admits that his shop doesn’t work on rotary engines and that they’re best sent to a workshop which does. Given his obvious level of working with a lot of complex and high end cars, he probably could given enough time and study figure one out, but he’s happy to admit it’s not in his wheelhouse yet.
- He points out that unlike the renesis power plant…everything else is completely normal just like in other cars which is refreshing. Back in the days of my Wankel ownership, I found a few workshops were a bit hesitant to work on it, thinking that if the 13BT was alien then surely the rest of it was too.
There’s also buying guides he creates too – suggesting cars that run well and advising against the ones that continually clog up his shop. Sure that might be a bad idea for business, customers rarely needing repairs – but have you seen what’s usually on the workshop floor every time Hoovie drags his latest buy in for a look over? I don’t think the Wizard is going to run out of things to magically fix anytime soon!
Car Wizard – Chillin in the Shop (Youtube)