O.K., to clear up some of the confusion regarding an OH'd car. Yes, they shot our episode over a week (o.k., technically 11 days) in November. At the end of the week, Matt was let in on the fact that he'd been Overhauled, so he wasn't kept in the dark for several months. I had a hard enough time keeping the secret for a week, there is no way in hell that I would have been able to do that for months. I'm sure that there are folks that know that they're being Overhauled, but Matt didn't or else he did a fine good job of convincing me that he didn't.
Second, no owner ever goes home with their cars immediately after the show. Because of the short amount of time involved in the build, the show takes the cars afterwards and puts the finishing touches on them and puts them through thorough safety checks. We got our car back in April because it was a ground up rebuild and took longer to make sure that everything was safe and running right. As you all know, parts for these rods can't just be ordered out of a catalog like the muscle cars they usually do, so it took a little longer. As for mirrors or anything else, this car never had side mirrors, and really, do you actually have a blind spot on this car? They weren't required. Chip likes the clean line look, so he does strip off excess chrome and the mirrors aren't usually replaced (on other cars) until after the show.
That being said, we were thrilled to be picked, we were lucky to be picked considering they never intended to OH a hot rod, and we couldn't be happier with the results. Any more ?, feel free to ask....