[music playing]
ROBBIE: Oh, Jersey.
We need a new windshield wiper.
JERSEY JON: All right, so Danielle
says we're going to go do this with a brother and his sister.
ROBBIE: OK.
Their father passed away last year.
He was a shop teacher.
I don't understand how you got the lead from Danielle.
She used to call me. What the heck's up with that?
I don't know, man.
She likes me better.
ROBBIE: Dude, that building looks packed.
JERSEY JON: Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in there.
[vehicle honks]
- I'm Ryan. - Hey, how you doing?
Rob Wolfe. - Hey, I'm Jon.
- Good to meet you. - Talk to Danny on the phone?
- Nice to meet you, man. - I did.
So was this your dad's shop?
Oh, it was my dad's shop and collection
of random tractors and cars.
Danielle says he taught auto mechanics.
- He did. - Yeah.
- Out of high school. - Yeah.
- --for 31 years, yeah. - Wow.
Fantastic. - Yeah, yeah.
He did foundry work, she said, or something like that?
RYAN: Foundry work. - Yeah.
He's got a small foundry in the back
there to reproduce car parts.
I love that stuff you're doing.
ROBBIE: Yeah. - Yeah.
RYAN: Come on in, guys, and take a peek.
We got-- JERSEY JON: Awesome.
ROBBIE: Dang.
JERSEY JON: Man, there's a lot of stuff in here.
Hoo! RYAN: Yes, that man-- he had it.
ROBBIE: Dude, it looks like this building hasn't
been touched in 50 years.
RYAN: [laughs] It's-- probably.
JERSEY JON: A lot of stuff.
RYAN: It's been added to but not went through.
When my dad got into something, he learned everything
that he could about everything about that topic, whatever book
he could read on something to just gain
a little bit more knowledge.
He wanted to be a perfectionist at it.
But he liked to show it off at the same time.
ROBBIE: These things were, like, crazy in the '60s, man.
Look at that thing.
I have pictures of Dad putting it together and--
Do you ever ride it?
Not in a very long time.
ROBBIE: You can't think 1960s California
without the beach culture.
The cars of the time were getting bogged
down and stuck in the sand.
RYAN: It's a fun car.
ROBBIE: California fun, man, on the beach.
RYAN: A fun car. JERSEY JON: With a big go-kart.
ROBBIE: Yeah. Oh, exactly.
JERSEY JON: Right.
ROBBIE: In 1964, Bruce Meyers developed the Meyers Manx,
the very first dune buggy.
It was a lightweight kit car that could take you anywhere.
You ordered the body and put it on a car.
JERSEY JON: And it's on a Volkswagen chassis, Robbie.
It's-- the whole thing's Volkswagen.
JERSEY JON: It's all Volkswagen.
99% of these things were Volkswagens.
That's what-- you know, they designed them off that chassis.
Yeah, I've seen them in movies,
like "The Thomas Crown Affair," Steve
McQueen riding around in it. ROBBIE: Yes, yes, yes.
JERSEY JON: Yeah.
ROBBIE: Unfortunately, this isn't the Manx.
This is the Imp that was made by a company called EMPI.
And it was just a knockoff.
It's still very cool and valuable if built well.
Let me look at the bottom of this thing, dude.
The actual pan on this thing is in great shape.
You know, the VW pan?
JERSEY JON: Yeah, not right there.
ROBBIE: I mean, that's all they ever did,
was pop the body off and pop these things back on.
I want to look at the motor on the back.
I'll put this-- - Is that the canopy for it?
I think this is probably part of the canopy,
but I'm going to set it over here.
Is it moving?
JERSEY JON: It's got compression.
It's moving. ROBBIE: Look at that.
U-- ROBBIE AND JERSEY JON: --S-A.
JERSEY JON: Yeah, baby. - Man.
Lookit. 1970.
That's the last time this thing was on the road.
Probably. [chuckles]
ROBBIE: Wow.
RYAN: I always remember it as the dune buggy.
When are we going to get the dune buggy out?
It never came out of the barn that often.
But we actually saw the pictures of him building that car.
That was pretty special to be able to see
him actually working on that car when he was pretty young.
But before I sell anything like this,
I'd like to talk to my sister about it--
ROBBIE: Oh, yeah. For sure.
For sure.
So now that we got the two of you together,
we were looking at the VW earlier.
I don't know if he told you.
He did.
OK.
Can we go revisit that-- you both are together now.
We'll go revisit that?
RYAN: For sure.
All right.
I've been thinking about it all day.
The front end of it, you know?
1960s.
JERSEY JON: Yeah.
ROBBIE: I know you're following me on that, aren't you, Jersey?
JERSEY JON: Yeah, no, it's cool.
ROBBIE: You're like, I could see this--
JERSEY JON: I see it. ROBBIE: --on the Jersey Shore.
JERSEY JON: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
RYAN'S SISTER: [chuckles]
I just keep thinking over and over in my mind,
your dad's a Model T, Model A guy.
And he's got this in here.
A dune buggy. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I think I remember hearing stories of him driving it
home from college and coming--
JERSEY JON: Really? ROBBIE: [chuckles]
RYAN'S SISTER: You know, coming home.
Yeah.
JERSEY JON: That's a great story.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
The big thing with these cars was, Manx
was like the Cadillac of these.
They were the first ones to bring these out.
EMPI started after Manx.
They actually produced, like, six different models.
This is, like, their plain Jane.
You can tell by the paint that's on it.
It doesn't really have any character to it.
Even if you shine it up, it's not going to, like, sparkle.
Now, if you put a wild paint job on this,
you could see it standing out a little bit more.
Yeah, '60s with a-- ROBBIE: Oh, yeah.
--psychedelic paint job on it. JERSEY JON: Right.
ROBBIE: Yeah, you got to remember, this is the '60s.
RYAN: '66.
And this is when they produced a green frickin'-- you know?
RYAN: Yeah. ROBBIE: So I still love it.
I think this thing running down the road
is probably, like, 8,500 bucks.
But it's going to take some doing to get it there.
JERSEY JON: Yeah. RYAN: Yeah.
ROBBIE: I'm still going to have to do the tires, the brakes,
tune up on it, gas tank, all these things.
It's been sitting since 1970.
This thing was put together right.
I mean, that's a big plus to it.
And you know, after seeing your dad, the stuff
that he built, I mean, I'm pretty
positive this was built right.
Yeah.
ROBBIE: A lot of these were built by amateurs.
Knowing that Ryan's dad built this one,
I feel pretty confident it's rock solid.
So I've got a feeling--
- Auto mechanics teacher. - Right.
- Right, he-- - This-- he did it right.
So that's-- you know, I'm a-- that's a big plus.
JERSEY JON: Yeah.
ROBBIE: So I'd like to be--
[suspenseful music]
I'd like to be at, like, 2,500 bucks.
[mid-tempo music]
Do you think Gus would want this someday?
Time goes by quick, so he could
be driving this in no time.
You know, one-year-old 16 years later--
this would be a sweet car.
[chuckling]
But you know, with all the work and everything,
it's a big test to handle.
What about 3?
- Mm. - Yeah.
JERSEY JON: It's a lot of work here.
ROBBIE: Honestly, I mean, with shipping
and getting it home and--
JERSEY JON: It's going to be $1,000 to ship this thing back.
ROBBIE: Yeah.
I'll tell you what.
I'll come up--
I'll come up 100 bucks.
2,600 bucks.
- I think that works. - Yeah.
ROBBIE: That work for you guys? - That works for us.
ROBBIE: All right. Thank you.
- All right. - Thank you.
Thank you. JERSEY JON: Thank you, guys.
I'm looking forward to getting this thing back on the road.
JERSEY JON: Yeah, yeah. - What do you think, Jersey?
JERSEY JON: I think it's great, man.
It's going to be good, dude.
I think we'll get this thing running by the end of the day.
Yeah.
[laughter]