Even though the Soviets did try to copy some 50s and 60s American car designs, muscle cars were seen as too decadent and capitalist. However, modern-day Russians love a bit of Detroit V8 muscle in their lives, as somebody thought it would be a good idea to buy a wreck and have it repaired locally.
By now, you guys should be familiar with the famous "Russian" mechanic Arthur Tussik and his work. We're reminded once in a while that we've got the ethnicity wrong, but this isn't really about a spot on a map.
Most of Arthur's work involves fixing luxury vehicles from German brands, large ones like the BMW X5, the Audi Q5, or the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class. However, today he adds a Dodge Challenger to his portfolio.
If we are to guess, this 2018 Challenger probably clipped a barrier and scraped along a guard rail. It's got a mangled front end and scraped right side. After that, it was probably an insurance write-off, as it would cost more to have it professionally repaired in America.
However, Arthur brought it back to life in something like 70 hours of work. And we have to admit that the techniques in this repair video are quite impressive.
In the past, when a car got a damaged rear quarter, he would just take an angle grinder to it and weld a new part on. But here, he pulls out the damaged metal and uses melted soft metal (lead or tin) to fill in the gaps. This is kind of how they made the body on cars in the 60s.
There's not a lot of structural work, thankfully. But the upper frame rail requires replacement and there's a lot of cutting and grinding going on.Tussik uses the old leading method to fix the door, but other panels like the bumper, grille, and hood need to be replaced.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News