Caught an epsidoe of the UK-produced show Chop Shop: London Garage this evening which airs on my DirecTV channel Discovery HD Theatre.

It re-airs everyday through the weekend and I highly recommend it as it was very entertaining.

The premise is much like the late Boyd Coddington's show American Hot Rod where they customize an old clunker (in this case a late model vehicle of UK origin) all in under 3 weeks (compressed into 1 40min episode!)

This episodes base vehicle: an early Gen1 SWB UK-spec Mitsubishi Pajero.

They chopped the roof off completely, welded on a new roof from some Euorpean sedan, and did a veggie oil conversion on the Diesel engine.

Some radical body modifications and they wound up with this:

Chop Shop - The Frog

What suprised me most is they paid 550GBP for a hulk of junk (albeit a running diesel). Equivalent to 800USD!

Gives you top-choppers any ideas?

MI-Mitsu

Does this mean what I think it does? I know I've been out of the country for a while, but...

I loved that show! The old body guy that passed was the best!

It kinda resembles a newer Pajero Evo used in the dakar. BUT still blasphemy. But, whatever saves it from the crusher is a good deed in my book. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Yes, unfortunately Boyd passed away ... it must be somewhere near 9 months now I think? If you Google him or check Wikipedia, I'm sure you can get details. A heart ailment if I remember correctly.

After he passed his widow vowed to continue on with the shop and there was mention of possibily carrying on with the TV show as well. But I havent heard anything about the continuaiton of the TV show since right after his passing. I guess it's no longer feasible with most of the old team leaving the shop in the months before his passing.




On the "Chop Shop" show rig...

While the end result is debatable, the veggie conversion to the diesel and the steps they took in grafting the sedan roof on and the other bodywork changes they did were quite interesting.

MI-Mitsu

If I had the $800 on hand I'd pay it for a Diesel, I searched for years for a Diesel Trooper (only 1 year in US) and either no one would sell them or the engines were put in newer bodies.... Not sure about the veggie diesel, I ran b-20 and full on bio-diesel in my Chevy for 3 or 4 months and I think it contributed to fouling my injectors ($3800 replacement job fortunately snuck under the wire on warranty)

I liked the roof swap but I don't really like the headlights. I think it looked better with the original single round lights. I'm not sure about the rear end because they didn't give a clear picture of it during the show or in their online gallery. It also has this silly little shark fin spoiler looking thing at the back corners.
I did like the veggie oil conversion, but don't like having to mix the oil with 50% diesel, probably because used curry oil contains many powders and is much dirtier than oil used for cooking french fries. I've seen kits for volkswagens that allow pure veggie oil to be burned, although they require a small (1-2 gal) diesel tank for starting the engine and warming the veggie oil and when turning it off to clear the veggie oil lines.

I watched it last night. It looks better than the taxi they did a couple of weeks ago. I just wonder about those huge wheel spacers they always use. Those have to create some stress on the hubs or something, I would imagine.

I'd love to see it. But I can't stand the fat dudes griping. Keep waiting for him to say "Don't weeze the joooce!!!"