Gotta monster of a eBay Find for you readers this week. The Monster Garage Volkswagen Beetle Swamp Buggy has been spotted! An Ebay seller from Thurman, OH has listed this one of a kind ride recently at a price of 10K or BO. Nice a bad deal, especially if your looking to wow the folks at your local car show or cruse in. If you remember it does travel on land and water (kinda, sorta). For those who may not be familiar with this ride. Let me fill you in.
On the show's third episode, Jesse and the team put together vehicle capable of driving on land and floating on water much like a bayou swamp boat. They started with a 1999 VW Beetle for the base. They were given just a week and a small budget of just $3000 (not including the cost of the car). They hacked up the rear deck hatch and squeezed in a fan boat motor on tracks. Body modifications were made to help create a shell/hull. The empty hull was filled with foam to help make the car float. A long tall pipe was added to direct the exhaust up and out of the water. The team was successful in making a functional vehicle to meet the challenge while keep it relativity stock looking.
According to the eBay auction the car has been in storage for quite sometime. After the first season aired, the car along with other vehicles from the show went on tour. It eventually wound up in the Peterson Museum for sometime before being returned to the set. After the show was canceled the car was stored in warehouse in Burbank, CA. At some point most of the Monster Garage cars were sold at Barrett Jackson Auto Auction. However this lucky bug didn't go up on the auction block. Later the car was sold to the current owner and housed in Ohio out of public view. Which brings us to where we are today.
Now it can be yours! Head over to the auction and place your offer or buy it now. Be ready to pick it up locally. If you do. Please let us know! We'd love to feature your new OnScreenCar! See ya next time folks!
Yesterday Hasbro rolled up their display in New York City at the American International Toy Fair. A full scale movie vehicle of the famous Transformers Optimus Prime was parked out side The TimesCenter. The truck however cannot move on his own power and is not street legal. It took a team of two flat beds traveling across the country to bring Optimus to the big show. Hopefully he'll be on his best behavior after Bumble Bee's appearance during a Super Bowl Commercial. It's hard to keep your cool when you get a New York City welcome.
Well how did the city respond? They gave Optimus a ticket. Hasbro reported that all the proper permits were acquired to park Optimus on the street. However a $115 dollar ticket was applied. No word yet if Hasbro has plans to pay. But word quickly spread through out the web. Including a video or two popped up on Youtube. Check out one of the videos below for the full street appeal. Till next time avoid a boot or tow and pay your tickets!
Update: January 2021
Sorry folks the video and account associated are long gone.
You couldn't watch MTV during the 80's without seeing ZZ Top's Gimme All Your Lovin' video. It just didn't happen. ZZ Top had a ton of hits. Not mention a sweet 1933 Ford Coupe nicknamed 'The Eliminator'. Inspired by the Ford Coupe in the hit movie, The California Kid, Billy Gibbons contacted the owner Pete Chapouris. They began a long process that would lead up to the finished product.
They turned to Don Thelen, a car builder for Buffalo Motor Cars in Paramount California. The base car was acquired from a lady in Tucson Arizona, she had been the car's only owner. The car was in perfect condition. The crew focused on style and dependability. The roof was chopped three inches and a the car sits on a Pete and Jake's aftermarket chassis. 39' Ford taillights in the back and 34' headlights in the front. The car was outfitted with a mild Small Block Chevy 350 backed up by a Turbo 350 Transmission. The graphics were created by legendary car artist Kenny Youngblood.
As with most ZZ Top videos there is no short supply of girls. It seems like they followed a simple formula for musics videos. Show a hotrod, show some girls and play some music. I think it worked out pretty good. Most of the videos feature some guy getting hit on by a group of girls. Saved by the band as they hand him the keys to the ride.
Our star car was featured in 3 (Gimme All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man and Legs) music videos before it was retired. However it's still rock'n at the Cleveland Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame. Don't let it fool ya. It got plenty of show time. So much show time that they had to build two of these cars to meet demands. The car also had many mini-clones too. Monogram Model Car company produced a 1/24 scale kit of the car complete with details and graphics. Hot Wheels also followed suite. Till next time give us all your lov'ns and tell your friends about OnScreenCars.com!
Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth is one of the greatest custom car designers of all time. He's responsible for countless inspired designs of not only custom cars, but timeless popular culture icons as well. Tales of the Rat Fink is an exciting documentary about the life and times of Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth. Thanks to Shout Factory! and YouTube. We're able to bring you the full length feature embedded into this post. Pull up a chair and learn about the man behind Rat Fink. Note this video is not property of OnScreenCars.com. We take no credit. We simply want you to enjoy it as much as we did. As Ed Roth once said, "Keep the rubber side down and the shinny side up." Be sure to keep your eye out for incredible OnScreenCars! See ya next time.
Update 9/17/2023: The Shout Factory video is long gone. But I have replaced it with the trailer below.
So what does the Olds 442 and the band Chicago have in common? One wicked music video! Ah the 80's. Music videos of the time may have been much simpler compared to the high production videos of today. But a lot of them have something modern music videos often lack, vintage muscle cars! This early 80's video from Chicago is no exception! In the video a guy trying to convince this girl to stay the night. She finds him disrespectful and runs off in the 442 (we're not clear if it's his or hers). Grab'n gears and burning rubber, she manages to jump a car hauler twice while being chased by the dude on the back of a Ford F100. Apparently he still doesn't get the message and jumps onto the hood. She tries to throw him off by doing donuts.
Amazing car, amazing video. Not to mention awesome stunt work. From what we've gathered the gal in the video is stunt driver Debbie Evans. She's known for her work in the Fast and the Furious, Matrix and other popular films and tv shows. Watch the video closely. You will notice that two 442s may have been used. Some note the differences in the dash shots. Some note that there was a 4-Speed car and an automatic car. We're still looking. Comment and tell us what you saw! Till next time keep those wheels safely rolling!
