Create Your Own Richard Rawlings Special Posted by EmilyGeorgie about 6 years ago Share Article Comments Related There is no way you can call yourself a petrolhead if you haven’t at least heard of Gas Monkey Garage. These guys, headed up by uber eccentric Richard Rawlings, run one of the best auto shops in America. Taking run down classics and either restoring them to their former glory or, pimping them up into something incredible.When you see Richard rolling back from a buying trip with something that looks like it came from the classic car graveyard, you can often think he has made an epic fail. Nothing is going to turn that monster into a purring pussy cat. Of course you are wrong every time as the team perform miraculous transformations, under his watchful eye, and then move the cars on for quite outstanding profits.Ok, so in your garage with just a few pairs of hands, you aren’t going to be recreating anything worth millions. You can, with a lot of hard work and care, create something completely special and bespoke at a quarter of the price it would cost you to buy.One of the secrets to finding the perfect base car for this is to look everywhere, even in the most unlikely places. You can often see the boys jumping over fences and uncovering a hidden gem. We don’t recommend you start trespassing but heading out to one of the many junk car buyers might just be the key to your success. You’re probably going to be tossing out the engine, gearbox, suspension and such like anyway so why worry about all of that. Just find a car with an excellent chassis and you have the start of your ultimate project.There are a huge selection of companies offering retrofit help to build your car into the ultimate machine. Whilst you can do a bulk of the expensive prep work yourself, it is advisable to call in the experts for the important bits, such as the brakes and paint work. Although you could consider having the car wrapped which gives you a far more affordable option. Get onto forums for the model of car you have and get chatting to as many fans of the manufacturer as you can, these enthusiasts really know their stuff and could steer you in the direction of help or parts that you weren’t aware of.To avoid your new ride looking like Frankenstein’s monster, you will need a vision of where you are going and have a timeline of how and when you want to get there. Set out a strict budget and do not be tempted to push it up every so often. You are probably going to need a contingency as it is. Do not eat into it just because everything seems to be going well at the start. You can make additions once you have a fully functioning auto. Take your time to make sure you have a finished car before going off the planned project path. Finally, be prepared for how much hard work this is going to be! Tags: