The Wizard's Shop: Restoring Classic Cars to their Former Glory

As we stepped into the Wizard's shop, we were greeted by the sight of a completely destroyed engine block with massive holes drilled into it. The lock that was responsible for putting these holes there had finally given up the ghost, and the piston was just hanging out in its socket. Our trusty Prius, once a reliable mode of transportation, had been transformed into a shell of its former self. But, as we soon discovered, with a little bit of magic and some expert repair work, this car could be back on the road in no time.

The shop's owner, known only by his pseudonym "Wizard", explained that he had acquired a new motor from JJ Auto Wrecking, which he claimed was running smoothly. We were skeptical at first, but as we took the car for a spin, it quickly became apparent that Wizard was telling the truth. The engine purred like a contented cat, and all of the problems that had plagued our Prius were seemingly forgotten.

As for the cost of this repair job, Wizard estimated that it would set us back around $2,100. While this may seem like a lot, considering that we could have simply purchased a new car for the price of an engine swap, Wizard assured us that this was a worthwhile investment in our trusty steed.

But, as we soon discovered, Wizard had another surprise up his sleeve. As he began to work on our Imperial Crown Convertible, a 1966 Chrysler with a 440 V8 engine, he revealed that he had been searching for a rare set of 16-inch Mercedes wheels to match the car's original specification. These wheels, which were originally designed for the SL model, were extremely hard to find and had become highly sought after by collectors. Wizard explained that he had managed to track down eight brand new sets of these wheels on eBay, complete with tires, at a fraction of their true value.

The next step was to work on our Imperial's problematic steering system. The car was prone to squeaking and rattling, which Wizard quickly set about fixing using some clever adjustments and replacements. He also installed a rear main seal to take care of an oil leak that had been plaguing the car for months. With these repairs complete, we were eager to take our Imperial out for a spin and see how she handled.

To our delight, the car performed flawlessly. The engine purred smoothly, the transmission shifted seamlessly, and the suspension provided a comfortable ride. Wizard explained that he had also replaced the heat riser and fixed a pinion seal in the rear differential, which had been causing problems with leaks and squeaks. With these repairs complete, our Imperial was once again a joy to drive.

One of the most interesting aspects of this repair job was the fact that Wizard had installed some sperm whale oil on the seats. This, he explained, was a traditional practice from the 1960s, when cars were still being made with a focus on comfort and luxury. The oil, which came from the blubber of sperm whales, was applied to the seats to provide a smooth, quiet ride. Wizard joked that this had been one of his favorite parts of the repair job, as it brought back memories of a bygone era.

As we prepared to leave the shop, Wizard handed us a bill for just $680, which was well under our original estimate. We were amazed at the quality of work that Wizard had performed on our Imperial, and we couldn't wait to get behind the wheel again. The car's new set of 16-inch Mercedes wheels, complete with tires, looked stunning, and we knew that this was going to be a head-turner on the road.

As we drove away from the shop, Wizard called out to us one last time, reminding us not to forget about our old Prius engine swap. He had, after all, forgotten to bill us for it, as part of his "squeak and rattle free" promotion. We laughed and waved goodbye as we disappeared into the distance, eager to put our new Imperial to good use.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enno wizard knows this car well because I bought it on the reality show if you don't know Arion fYI this week for the next four weeks is a show wizard and I did about a year ago where I bought 24 cars over the span of like six months including this Plymouth grand Fury it has a Dodge grill on it because the plymouth grill fell off typical chrysler but yes it's having some problems so it cranks really slow and then it starts to smoke from the wires I don't think that's normal oh um maybe I should turn the sirens off here we go oh don't start right up well yeah so here's what I'm noticing wizard and it's starting up now because it's on camera and naturally cooperating but I guess if you leave it for a few minutes the heat in the engine bay it kind of does something it heat soaks the starter the wire going to a ground somewhere this one gets yeah it's hot real hot but sometimes hot enough to smoke so you got two things going on there your starters getting heat soaked and your fuel is boiling out of your carburetor is taking longer to crank to get it started on a weak starter well you can solve that easily enough and the episode will be coming up this is one of the most fun episodes I did on car issues yeah I actually went to the police academy and trained at their pursuit driving course in this car which was amazing but wizard you can take care of this for me whenever you get a chance no rush not urgent but I am very worried about my 911 turbo and you said you have some information for me have some information okay let's check it out so for those who'd missed my latest track day fail last week I took my 911 turbo to the track which is apparently built to go to the track and like every other 911 I've taken to the track it broke badly it started spewing coolant everywhere my friend was behind me in a Camaro zl1 that has a recording action cam for the track cam and it got everything coated his car with coolant they had a shutdown the track for about 20 minutes to clean up my mess which I'm very sorry about that my apologies this is Houston say again please houston we have a problem so what is going on with my 911 turbo wizard well there's all kinds of metal coolant pipes that are on this engine they just glue them on from the factory glued them on glued them on so metal on metal and the only thing holding put together is glue it's a press fit with glue and with heat and pressure and age especially on a track condition at sustain high rpm it's just pop goes the weasel' but it looks like the offending culprit you can see it huh you took some things apart right behind the alternator there there's my dead pipe there it is an elbow and it looks like you can just glue that and slide it back in that's how it was right a couple hundred bucks I could I could repair that and put it back on the road for you awesome that's fantastic but I don't recommend that why not another one's gonna blow eventually especially if you go track it again so there's more than one of those oh yeah like a whole spiderweb of coolant lines probably because this engine was supposed to be here cooled originally and then they had to figure out how to water cool it a little bit of a shortage the motor truck gets dropped what send off all those pipes and have them welded or pinned that doesn't sound cheap how about three grand by the pretty car and you've got to be kidding me oh you gotta be kidding me but if I want the car back right now it'd just be $200 I mean but I won't guarantee it it won't blow another one well you can't guarantee anything it's not my fault you got a little mad in the last one because a few people in the comments thought this was the Wizards fault when it's not it's Porsches fault and father times faults and you went a little rant I had a good time super cutting that if you saw it on Facebook and Twitter I'll do a little clip here I have some beef with some people on YouTube the trolls the losers the people who have no life it's all wrong baseless claims again is that the Wizards fault did the wizard do that no you guys need to stop with that crap yeah what do you think of my little super cut there it was crazy a lot of people loved it and then you ended up making a t-shirt out of it and selling a bunch of t-shirts quite a few of them already so he's made lemonade out of that but none of this is the Wizards fault it's just stuff stuff happens yeah we better do it and it'll be fun to see the motor coming out and then actually I've taken a Porsche motor out I just haven't put it back in we put in that monstrosity of an LS engine so well I guess something to look forward to and you've got some other projects here I'm looking at my big woody wagon here yeah you got the interior all apart so what's going on with this you have issues with it where your speakers are cutting out and making crackling noises but I found a retro sound one that's supposed to fit in there with some modifications and then I have auxilary and getting speakers while I'm at it I'm gonna start kind of restoring this wagon ear to make it more usable because I really do like driving it but I don't want to over restore this thing like so many other wagon ears and make it super valuable to where I'm scared to drive it anymore I was thinking I was just going to fix the rust on it I have the repair panels then leaving everything else as is but I might as well do a full repaint and replace this wood paneling just on the outside but then leave it alone get it drivable and nice to where I can just enjoy it but I'm not in a big hurry to get this thing back it's kind of a fall and winter vehicle you know where I can haul pumpkins back from the pumpkin pad I don't I don't know what I'd do if it pose like a model or something I don't know wear flannel lumberjack yes a lumberjack lumbersexual that's what I want to be in this thing lumbersexual I think what they call it but this summertime so what I really want our convertibles and sports cars and I'd really love to have that Maserati Quattroporte back and we finally got what you need we have a transmission and yes let's check it out so I'm a 2007 Maserati Quattroporte which is supposed to have the good transmission not the horrible single clutch Ferrari based one that fails all the time the clutches go every 10,000 miles this is supposed to be the good one but my biggest issue with this thing there's only 88 hundred dollars the biggest issue was the transmission well not really the transmission itself with the electronic part on it part bad yeah I needed a part it was $2,600 and wizard couldn't even program this what is it the mechatronics the mechatronics how can I forget that word mechatronics $2,600 for this part and it has to be programmed by a Maserati Ferrari dealer or someone who has the right computer which wizard he has his beard of knowledge he has tons of tools and computers but he does not have that it was just cheaper to get an entire used transmission transmission Z sell for a thousand $1500 and I didn't have to pay anything thanks to J&J Auto Wrecking they been hooking me up with all the cars in the hooptie fleets so support them they carry all makes and models weird European cars they actually just took stock of a Maserati Quattroporte just to help me out with the transmission so if you need something on one of these call them they have stuff on Wagoneers they have stuff on everything they're able to take care of me even the Prius soon have a rolls and they bought your Rolls Royce that's right you've given up on it so what are you gonna do with this transmission and we're gonna do is just swap out the mechatronics as this was programmed for this car just swap over the mechatronics and there's a good good chance that would take care of it so all the electronic parts will swap into this and hopefully it'll work but if it doesn't then you have a whole transmission to replace if need be yep we have it here so the Prius is alive look remnants that's the original engine so Tyler there's some something I want to tell you it actually broke two connecting rods really it didn't you can see it through there so I have one rod that's completely destroyed and it's the lock that's what put the big holes in the block and the piston is just hanging out in there and then the second one is instead of being straight it's just completely bent poor poor Prius but the new motor from JJ Auto Wrecking is in and it runs super perfect check it out there it is that's great it's like nothing ever happened we went back in time to get your car back right we can just go out there and push the button again and do it again right well I've disabled all that oh you have well that's probably good because this was a little expensive even with the free engine from J&J how much does it set me back over two grand 2,100 that's seriously yeah for a Prius engine swap pays more hours on the book time to remove and replace this motor then it does on your 996 turbo so fixing a 996 turbo engine in and out is cheaper than a Prius engine swap oh I don't know it doesn't make sense at least I've sold it I've sold it for more than that bill and it's going to a pretty big YouTube channel out on the west coast I can't really say who it is because it's a surprise for who's getting it but that'll be really fun when it shows up and we can do and then bill there so one done and then there's another one finished that I am really really excited about Oh wizard this is the most beautiful thing ever my 66 imperial crown convertible by Chrysler a 440 v8 engine silky smooth these things are so well built so over built this thing rivaled rolls-royce Cadillac the best of them in 1966 I think it's the best luxury car offered in 1966 let's go through what have you done to this thing well we put a rear main seal in to take care of your oil leak right we also fixed your - rattle oh that was so annoying there are multiple rattles yeah yeah and then we got the heat riser fixed franksen travel anymore we got a pinion seal on your rear differential so it doesn't sling everywhere no more leaks for a minute yeah for a minute didn't change on it of course and we fix your squeaky steering wheel fantastic so how much was all that six eighty so he came under budget from your original estimate I think the original estimate was eight hundred dollars yes so the steering squeak wasn't a big deal no I just there's a little bushing actually right by the firewall two rubber bushing yeah I just put some sperm whale oil on it if you didn't put sperm whale oil on it the seats were coated with sperm whale oil from the factory and that had wizard all freaked out but it was normal to put sperm whale oil on everything back in the day they don't do that anymore because you don't want to kill whales but you have that stuff on eBay great but it's not squeaking anymore it's not squeaking anymore no more leaks no more squeaks no more rattles I can finally enjoy this car I can't wait to take this thing out but before I go there is one thing that showed up here at the Wizards shop that's gonna give you a hint on what my next car is yes looky here these are actually pretty hard to find he's eight whole 16-inch Mercedes wheels that you can find on the SL but most of them all chewed up and beat up but this wider set of 16-inch wheels is also shared with one other very special Mercedes of sedan that was made in the 90s and I bought the cheapest one in the country you can think of a midnight Mercedes sedan that has a really cool story that's really going up in value that's that's what I got except it's really cheap I got a great deal on these wheels found them on eBay and they came with tires which is great I'll save me several hundred dollars just shine my flashlight here and look at the date code the sixteenth week of 2002 so their kids graduating high school that are younger than these tires yes those are old oh well I guess I need tires then I guess the tread does look really old oh well they are in good shape and they were a really good deal but I don't care I'm gonna go drive this Imperial it's it's staring at me well actually I got a bill free to pay I was hoping he was gonna forget about that totally squeak and rattle free on a fifty year old car that's pretty impressive these things are just so well built and it was only six hundred eight dollars to completely sort this Imperial oh I am one happy dude I don't care that I'm gonna get fried like a lobster on the way home top down all the way cruising thank you for watchingno wizard knows this car well because I bought it on the reality show if you don't know Arion fYI this week for the next four weeks is a show wizard and I did about a year ago where I bought 24 cars over the span of like six months including this Plymouth grand Fury it has a Dodge grill on it because the plymouth grill fell off typical chrysler but yes it's having some problems so it cranks really slow and then it starts to smoke from the wires I don't think that's normal oh um maybe I should turn the sirens off here we go oh don't start right up well yeah so here's what I'm noticing wizard and it's starting up now because it's on camera and naturally cooperating but I guess if you leave it for a few minutes the heat in the engine bay it kind of does something it heat soaks the starter the wire going to a ground somewhere this one gets yeah it's hot real hot but sometimes hot enough to smoke so you got two things going on there your starters getting heat soaked and your fuel is boiling out of your carburetor is taking longer to crank to get it started on a weak starter well you can solve that easily enough and the episode will be coming up this is one of the most fun episodes I did on car issues yeah I actually went to the police academy and trained at their pursuit driving course in this car which was amazing but wizard you can take care of this for me whenever you get a chance no rush not urgent but I am very worried about my 911 turbo and you said you have some information for me have some information okay let's check it out so for those who'd missed my latest track day fail last week I took my 911 turbo to the track which is apparently built to go to the track and like every other 911 I've taken to the track it broke badly it started spewing coolant everywhere my friend was behind me in a Camaro zl1 that has a recording action cam for the track cam and it got everything coated his car with coolant they had a shutdown the track for about 20 minutes to clean up my mess which I'm very sorry about that my apologies this is Houston say again please houston we have a problem so what is going on with my 911 turbo wizard well there's all kinds of metal coolant pipes that are on this engine they just glue them on from the factory glued them on glued them on so metal on metal and the only thing holding put together is glue it's a press fit with glue and with heat and pressure and age especially on a track condition at sustain high rpm it's just pop goes the weasel' but it looks like the offending culprit you can see it huh you took some things apart right behind the alternator there there's my dead pipe there it is an elbow and it looks like you can just glue that and slide it back in that's how it was right a couple hundred bucks I could I could repair that and put it back on the road for you awesome that's fantastic but I don't recommend that why not another one's gonna blow eventually especially if you go track it again so there's more than one of those oh yeah like a whole spiderweb of coolant lines probably because this engine was supposed to be here cooled originally and then they had to figure out how to water cool it a little bit of a shortage the motor truck gets dropped what send off all those pipes and have them welded or pinned that doesn't sound cheap how about three grand by the pretty car and you've got to be kidding me oh you gotta be kidding me but if I want the car back right now it'd just be $200 I mean but I won't guarantee it it won't blow another one well you can't guarantee anything it's not my fault you got a little mad in the last one because a few people in the comments thought this was the Wizards fault when it's not it's Porsches fault and father times faults and you went a little rant I had a good time super cutting that if you saw it on Facebook and Twitter I'll do a little clip here I have some beef with some people on YouTube the trolls the losers the people who have no life it's all wrong baseless claims again is that the Wizards fault did the wizard do that no you guys need to stop with that crap yeah what do you think of my little super cut there it was crazy a lot of people loved it and then you ended up making a t-shirt out of it and selling a bunch of t-shirts quite a few of them already so he's made lemonade out of that but none of this is the Wizards fault it's just stuff stuff happens yeah we better do it and it'll be fun to see the motor coming out and then actually I've taken a Porsche motor out I just haven't put it back in we put in that monstrosity of an LS engine so well I guess something to look forward to and you've got some other projects here I'm looking at my big woody wagon here yeah you got the interior all apart so what's going on with this you have issues with it where your speakers are cutting out and making crackling noises but I found a retro sound one that's supposed to fit in there with some modifications and then I have auxilary and getting speakers while I'm at it I'm gonna start kind of restoring this wagon ear to make it more usable because I really do like driving it but I don't want to over restore this thing like so many other wagon ears and make it super valuable to where I'm scared to drive it anymore I was thinking I was just going to fix the rust on it I have the repair panels then leaving everything else as is but I might as well do a full repaint and replace this wood paneling just on the outside but then leave it alone get it drivable and nice to where I can just enjoy it but I'm not in a big hurry to get this thing back it's kind of a fall and winter vehicle you know where I can haul pumpkins back from the pumpkin pad I don't I don't know what I'd do if it pose like a model or something I don't know wear flannel lumberjack yes a lumberjack lumbersexual that's what I want to be in this thing lumbersexual I think what they call it but this summertime so what I really want our convertibles and sports cars and I'd really love to have that Maserati Quattroporte back and we finally got what you need we have a transmission and yes let's check it out so I'm a 2007 Maserati Quattroporte which is supposed to have the good transmission not the horrible single clutch Ferrari based one that fails all the time the clutches go every 10,000 miles this is supposed to be the good one but my biggest issue with this thing there's only 88 hundred dollars the biggest issue was the transmission well not really the transmission itself with the electronic part on it part bad yeah I needed a part it was $2,600 and wizard couldn't even program this what is it the mechatronics the mechatronics how can I forget that word mechatronics $2,600 for this part and it has to be programmed by a Maserati Ferrari dealer or someone who has the right computer which wizard he has his beard of knowledge he has tons of tools and computers but he does not have that it was just cheaper to get an entire used transmission transmission Z sell for a thousand $1500 and I didn't have to pay anything thanks to J&J Auto Wrecking they been hooking me up with all the cars in the hooptie fleets so support them they carry all makes and models weird European cars they actually just took stock of a Maserati Quattroporte just to help me out with the transmission so if you need something on one of these call them they have stuff on Wagoneers they have stuff on everything they're able to take care of me even the Prius soon have a rolls and they bought your Rolls Royce that's right you've given up on it so what are you gonna do with this transmission and we're gonna do is just swap out the mechatronics as this was programmed for this car just swap over the mechatronics and there's a good good chance that would take care of it so all the electronic parts will swap into this and hopefully it'll work but if it doesn't then you have a whole transmission to replace if need be yep we have it here so the Prius is alive look remnants that's the original engine so Tyler there's some something I want to tell you it actually broke two connecting rods really it didn't you can see it through there so I have one rod that's completely destroyed and it's the lock that's what put the big holes in the block and the piston is just hanging out in there and then the second one is instead of being straight it's just completely bent poor poor Prius but the new motor from JJ Auto Wrecking is in and it runs super perfect check it out there it is that's great it's like nothing ever happened we went back in time to get your car back right we can just go out there and push the button again and do it again right well I've disabled all that oh you have well that's probably good because this was a little expensive even with the free engine from J&J how much does it set me back over two grand 2,100 that's seriously yeah for a Prius engine swap pays more hours on the book time to remove and replace this motor then it does on your 996 turbo so fixing a 996 turbo engine in and out is cheaper than a Prius engine swap oh I don't know it doesn't make sense at least I've sold it I've sold it for more than that bill and it's going to a pretty big YouTube channel out on the west coast I can't really say who it is because it's a surprise for who's getting it but that'll be really fun when it shows up and we can do and then bill there so one done and then there's another one finished that I am really really excited about Oh wizard this is the most beautiful thing ever my 66 imperial crown convertible by Chrysler a 440 v8 engine silky smooth these things are so well built so over built this thing rivaled rolls-royce Cadillac the best of them in 1966 I think it's the best luxury car offered in 1966 let's go through what have you done to this thing well we put a rear main seal in to take care of your oil leak right we also fixed your - rattle oh that was so annoying there are multiple rattles yeah yeah and then we got the heat riser fixed franksen travel anymore we got a pinion seal on your rear differential so it doesn't sling everywhere no more leaks for a minute yeah for a minute didn't change on it of course and we fix your squeaky steering wheel fantastic so how much was all that six eighty so he came under budget from your original estimate I think the original estimate was eight hundred dollars yes so the steering squeak wasn't a big deal no I just there's a little bushing actually right by the firewall two rubber bushing yeah I just put some sperm whale oil on it if you didn't put sperm whale oil on it the seats were coated with sperm whale oil from the factory and that had wizard all freaked out but it was normal to put sperm whale oil on everything back in the day they don't do that anymore because you don't want to kill whales but you have that stuff on eBay great but it's not squeaking anymore it's not squeaking anymore no more leaks no more squeaks no more rattles I can finally enjoy this car I can't wait to take this thing out but before I go there is one thing that showed up here at the Wizards shop that's gonna give you a hint on what my next car is yes looky here these are actually pretty hard to find he's eight whole 16-inch Mercedes wheels that you can find on the SL but most of them all chewed up and beat up but this wider set of 16-inch wheels is also shared with one other very special Mercedes of sedan that was made in the 90s and I bought the cheapest one in the country you can think of a midnight Mercedes sedan that has a really cool story that's really going up in value that's that's what I got except it's really cheap I got a great deal on these wheels found them on eBay and they came with tires which is great I'll save me several hundred dollars just shine my flashlight here and look at the date code the sixteenth week of 2002 so their kids graduating high school that are younger than these tires yes those are old oh well I guess I need tires then I guess the tread does look really old oh well they are in good shape and they were a really good deal but I don't care I'm gonna go drive this Imperial it's it's staring at me well actually I got a bill free to pay I was hoping he was gonna forget about that totally squeak and rattle free on a fifty year old car that's pretty impressive these things are just so well built and it was only six hundred eight dollars to completely sort this Imperial oh I am one happy dude I don't care that I'm gonna get fried like a lobster on the way home top down all the way cruising thank you for watching\n"