A body shop is on TV again.
Could say collision centers are ready for their close-up, but the industry hasn’t hurt for Hollywood attention. Shops have figured in film and television from “Corvette Summer” to “The Sopranos.” A collision center in Maryland once sought a reality TV gig.
Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” never shows a shop, but its plot discusses them, a hit-and-run, and vehicle damage. A current Modelo beer commercial shows three Latinas working on a lowrider’s engine, upholstery and paint. A California body shop recently for sale was once in an Adam Sandler film.
Now a custom and restoration operation is the setting for an ABC and Hulu sitcom, “Shifting Gears.”
For Love of the Restomod Game
The show airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on the broadcaster, early Thursday mornings on the streamer, produced by 20th Television. Walt Disney Co. owns 20th Television, ABC and Hulu.
A description, from the show’s press info: “‘Shifting Gears’ stars Tim Allen as Matt, the stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop. When Matt’s estranged daughter (Kat Dennings) and her kids move into his house, the real restoration begins.”
It’s Tim Allen playing Tim Allen, at least as we’ve come to know him. Young dad in “Home Improvement,” middle-aged dad in “Last Man Standing,” now a granddad, and dad of an adult daughter in “Shifting Gears.” And Tim Allen loves classic cars, being widely known for restomod tendencies -- co-creating a modern F-100 with McLaren or Tesla-ing a hot rod. His classics are in a SoCal warehouse.
Samples from the throng will be in “Shifting Gears” as shop projects, said production designer Stephan Olson.
Aim: Create Shop with Care, Like a Restoration
“He wanted this to reflect him,” Olson said.
“There’s a transportation department on the show,” he said, “with four or five cars on set” most of the time. Vehicles are moved around to illustrate a working shop and garaged overnight on the Disney production lot.
“We looked at a lot of shops online” in creating the set, he said, and “matched colors and architectural styles” as the focus settled on Allen’s personal restoration space in the warehouse.
More visuals came from BS Industries, a custom hot rod shop in L.A. Bodie Stroud has built for celebrities, including Allen and Johnny Depp, his website said.
“That was a big influence on us, for how a shop is set up,” Olson said, so “it wouldn’t just be a guy holding a crescent wrench.”
Two others crucial: Brett Gregory, who helps oversee Allen’s fleet, and Kady Fox, one of Allen’s daughters.
Co-Starring Vehicles from Tim Allen’s Car-Stack
Sometimes a completed vehicle will be partly “unrestored” Olson said, and work incorporated into the show.
Easter eggs abound. With one, shop manager Gabriel asked about an inverter and a hot rod, a nod to when Allen turned a 1934 Ford Victoria into an electric vehicle via its Tesla engine and drivetrain.
Another episode’s elaborate example sparked friction between Matt and Gabriel: rebuild a 1956 Ford F-100’s carburetor or install electronic fuel injection.
That conversation involves the owner, said Joe Messina, owner of a custom shop in Fullerton, CA.
“I’ll paint it pink if the check clears,” he said, “but I’m not in the business of making cars for me.”
But the story doesn’t include that talk.
But the reason mostly works: the truck was “stolen” -- swiped in the last episode of “Last Man Standing” three years ago, from Tim Allen’s character, Mike Baxter. That show took place in Denver, CO -- Allen’s birthplace -- and the truck, which over Matt’s objection got EFI, has an owner mentioned on “Shifting Gears”… in Denver.
Operators Grade Show’s Mainly Above-Average Approach
Allen’s actual truck, filched from his character on one show, restored by a second Allen wrench-wielder here.
Story layers galore for hardcore car guys.
“An inverter in a hot rod?” asked NorCal custom shop owner Ken Pike, of Gabriel’s earlier comment.
He’s seen it.
Pike’s shop “did the body and paint on a ’33 Roadster replica” in which the owner also put a Tesla drivetrain.
Messina’s electric inversion used a Bugatti chassis and a Tesla battery -- until the owner stopped the project.
“We never did get to drive it.”
Dave Payne, a Class A tech with The Dent Co. in Texas and former custom shop owner in Southern California, is a big fan of Tim Allen’s restomods. So much so he once bought a 1996 Impala SS, because Allen has a 1995.
Stay Tuned for More Restorations
“I follow his car collecting,” Payne said.
When Payne ran 760 Kustomz in Victorville, he tried to get a reality TV show.
“It was active and fun to work there,” Payne said. “I wanted to be one of these shows.”
Pike “didn’t see anything that looked out of place” but “it didn’t really go into much about cars.”
“They spent such little time on the actual shop,” added Greg Solesbee, a collision center owner in Idaho.
That’s a fair cop: so maybe the show must only suggest a body shop. It’s not about the business, but the people.
Oregon custom shop guy Mike McQuigg liked what he saw -- “they got it pretty close” -- and noted women working in Matt’s shop. “You don’t see a lot of women in the industry.”
Allen early on told Olson “‘the shop’s too clean,’ so we’re working on that subtly,” Olson said, adding, for instance, oil stains to the floor.
That’s the body shop image, which is changing. Operators agreed “Shifting Gears” as a TV show will show what people expect, with Tim Allen as Tim Allen: capable and gruff, doing guy stuff.
TV has tie-ins -- 1950’s retro diner Ruby’s was one here -- and product placement other than Allen restomods -- Lay’s potato chips, say.
It also involves something owners don’t want, but TV shows must offer, even if ginned up.
“We’re a no-drama business,” Solesbee said. “We want the high-functioning groups of a Mike Anderson,” but the show’s shop “is all about drama.”
USA Today declared “Shifting Gears” suitable mainly for Allen fans. There appear to be plenty. Over its first week, it became ABC’s most-watched series debut in six years, with 17 million viewers.
Paul Hughes