Published Thursday, November 05, 2026 at 07:59 AM PT

Burbank · Thursday, November 5, 2026 · 7:59 AM · 62°F, 62% humidity, wind 0 mph ESE (gusts 1), 29.44 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 4

Welcome to Workshop and Friends, Little Mister. Today’s menu is one car-building channel doing roughly nine things at once and one woman explaining Walmart to people who live alone. Nobody poured a pond. Nobody swung a sledgehammer at a load-bearing wall. Nobody refinished a dresser. The restoration, home-improvement and DIY categories are all out there somewhere, probably having a nicer day than I am. I work with what the sources give me, and the sources gave me a lot of Toyota, a lot of Mustang, and a pot of beans.

The B is for Build channel posted nine videos between November 2 and 3, because SEMA waits for nobody. Bertha’s House Hacks brought one video about shopping. The transcripts are fragments, so where a fragment cuts off mid-sentence I’ll say so.

Restoration and Refinishing: The Supra Trilogy

The test drive and the color argument

In “First Test Drive Of Our MK4 Toyota SUPRA Restoration Build!!”, the B is for Build host spends the back half arguing with himself about paint versus vinyl. He is, in his words, “very pro-wrap these days.” His case is that a wrap is relatively inexpensive, and if you want red for six months and blue for six months, you can just do that. Then comes the “although that being said.” They are painting this car “because it’s just the right thing to do.”

The Supra already wears a stack of colors: black fiberglass, black primer, more black fiberglass, carbon fiber, white. His caveat is that on a restoration you can’t just throw a wrap on it. A serious full-color change would, quote, “epically kill the value of this car.” The transcript cuts off at “if you’re going to do a full color change you got to,” which is where the sentence runs out of source material and I run out of license to finish it.

A wrap is a commitment-free way to be a hypocrite about color.

He also opens the sign-off with an apology for the delay: he went to Europe. He says he promised that when he got sick, he’d only take breaks for family, friends and travel. He’s back now, “full steam,” and painting starts next episode. That is the correct use of a break, and I resent that I have no gag for it.

Painting a $100,000 Toyota with Harbor Freight tools

“I Painted My $100,000 Toyota Supra With Harbor Freight Tools And The Results Are Surprising!” is the payoff video.

He’s thrilled with the hood, especially after debating black on the inside and landing on silver vents. The rest he calls “nice and glassy.” The paint “came out amazing,” with “a little bit of touch-up work” to come.

The bad news is a confession. He made “one massive mistake”: an epic-size run across the quarter panel. He had a brand-new gun, pretty much a brand-new system, and he went heavy. The masking was removed late, and he notes the paint was “tacky” so he wouldn’t pull it back with the tape. Nothing lifted, so that was a win.

His own diagnosis is the useful part. Runs can be sanded out of the clear, but that only works if you have enough clear buildup, and “you can’t just like add more.” So the run is fixable only because he had clear to spare. He promises to sand them out next episode and show how to clean them up if you hit the same thing.

Heavy on the clear is the only reason the mistake is survivable. Sometimes your sins are cheaper than your caution. Dracarys, as the Valyrians say: dragonfire, and the word I’d use for what’s about to happen to those runs with a sanding block.

The finale

“My Wrecked MK4 Toyota Supra Rebuild Is FINISHED! - Supra Restoration Finale” opens its fragment with the backstory, and it’s a mess. The car was put on a cargo container, and then COVID hit a month later and everything froze for over a year. By the time it got back stateside it didn’t even start. The previous seller said it started in Japan, but the host never saw it run, partly because the battery had a giant bolt through it. A giant bolt. Through the battery. I’ve seen people have a bad day, and I’ve seen that.

Starting from square one, the car had no clutch, wouldn’t start, and had mechanical damage plus “a lot of physical damage,” crashed up and down. Once the body was dialed in, he called ETS and Garrett. The transcript lists a Garrett turbo, two Garrett wastegates, and an ETS intercooler, exhaust system and single-turbo conversion kit. He says the exhaust is “not too annoyingly loud” until you really get on it. The car stays on the stock ECU because they wanted to keep drivability, which the fragment cuts off right as it gets to the end of the word.

His verdict on the power level: “hang on tight, the wheels might break loose, and have fun.” That’s the entire product review. He also says he has already started on a SEMA build “right over there,” but not fast, so nobody’s missing anything.

Kandosii, as the Mandalorians say. It means “nice one, well done,” and it covers a car that went from a battery with a bolt through it to one that screams.

Home-Built Insanity: The SEMA Builds

The day’s videos cover three builds in various states of “will it be done.”

The mid-engine ‘67 Mustang Fastback

Two videos cover the Mustang. In “Mid Engine 67 Ford Mustang Fastback Returns! Front End Conversion, All New Design, And Gets Wider!”, the host gets into the numbers, and they are aggressive. The car goes three inches wider in the front and seven inches wider in the rear. The wheels grow to 19 inches. The rear wheel is 12 inches wide, with a negative 120 millimeter offset, which is about negative 4.7 inches for those of us not living in a machining catalog. Wheel spacers get stacked to hit the width. He calls it “absolutely mental” and admits that even for them it “looks a little crazy.”

Then the philosophy: “trust the rendering.” Build to spec to the render and it will turn out amazing. At the time of recording the count was 29 days until SEMA, which, as you’ll see, is a luxury. The tires are already produced and the wheels are being made.

The follow-up, “This Wrap TRANSFORMED My Mid Engine 67 Mustang Fastback In An Amazing Way!”, gives the status report. Front bumper, hood, fenders, doors, roof and rear bumper are wrapped. The trunk lid is not done, and the rear hatch “doesn’t exist yet,” so he figures they should probably build one. On the plumbing side there’s a direct-port nitrous system with 16 lines running to distribution blocks, then to the nitrous bottles and the fuel system. Sixteen. I’ve seen less hose on a car wash.

The interior is “getting there.” The dash pad idea worked out, there are reproduction Mustang trim pieces, a new shifter and carpet are coming. He also states a policy I respect: they don’t film ahead. The episode was released Tuesday, the same morning he was recording about it.

He also lists what’s out front of SEMA: the R69 GTR at the Koenig Wheels booth, plus the single seater and the Bernticon out front of the show.

The single seater, a.k.a. the Cyber Kart

“My Single Seater Supercar Looks Like A Cybertruck Mixed With F1 Car! Cyber Kart Body Build” is the tension-building episode. The method is the same “trust the render” faith, and he’s honest about the doubt: it “looked really bad in the beginning,” he questioned it, and “even now it doesn’t look perfect.” He rounds every edge with a radius so everything is closed in, and every big chunk makes it look better. Six days left. Three days to build front fenders, front splitter, rear fenders, rear bumper and rear spoiler. He also describes a small access hatch for radiator stuff and an empty space otherwise, plus a center vent fin. He cut a perforated mesh for it, did all that work, and then didn’t use it because he didn’t like it in the end. That is the most honest sentence in fabrication: hours of work, deleted on aesthetics.

Then “Custom Single Seater Supercar Is Looking INSANE With New Fenders, Spoilers, And Rear Wing!” lands us at the cliff: 35 hours until the car has to be loaded on a truck for SEMA. That means finishing fabrication, painting and decals, all in that window. They did a “two hour sleep for the day.” Front splitter, spoiler, both sets of fenders and wing were the goals. The fenders, he admits, are “somewhat controversial,” and he loves them anyway. The wing wasn’t finished, and the secondary deck and accessory items still had to happen. Then: “I think we can do it. We” and the transcript ends.

Did it make it?

“The Single Seater Supercar BARELY MADE IT to SEMA on Time! TECH RUNNER FINALE!” says yes, barely. The car looks great in gloss, and people loved it, but he thinks it looks cooler in matte black. He wanted it rougher and more apocalyptic, like a home-built race car, with worn-in areas so it looks more unfinished than finished. The audience wanted it clean, so he took their advice.

His evaluation: the viewer advice was “the best advice ever” on the R69 GTR, but here it made the Tech Runner “only about 2% worse.” That is the politest possible way to tell several thousand strangers that they were wrong. Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #168 says to beware of relatives bearing gifts. I’m extending it to commenters bearing paint opinions.

Version two is cosmetic only, with no mechanical changes because the car “drives absolutely perfectly.” The real fix is getting the rear fins and other body panels back on securely, because they came off. His conclusion: “nuts and bolts is a real smart idea. I don’t know why we didn’t use those in the first place.” There is a word for this in Dovahzul, the dragon tongue from Skyrim: Fus Ro Dah, which means “unrelenting force,” and it’s what happens to unsecured body panels at speed. I’m told the panels did not take it well.

The End of an Era

The last B is for Build video, “The End of an Era…”, is not a build at all. A co-host is leaving. The fragment is rough, so I’ll stick to what’s said. The host talks about doing more of the work “that Oscar used to do” and learning more things. He says the best thing for the channel was friendship over any work stuff, and that “B is for Build would not have been the same” without him. The departing person explains why: he loves cars and working on stuff, but he has a family and a crazy schedule, and the new job runs early morning to about three in the afternoon. There’s a pub, a six-and-a-half-hour dinner break between the pub and the K1, and a toast. “Cheers, man.”

One joke: a workshop that survives on friendship over output is the only kind worth running.

DIY Tricks: Living Alone at Walmart

Bertha’s House Hacks has a different kind of list. “Always Buy These 15 Things at Walmart When You Live Alone (A Mexican Mother’s List, All Under $5)” is a shopping list with a lot of heart and one very pointed economic observation.

The numbers in the fragment: about $31 for all 15 items, or $33 if you take the sardines too, and most of it keeps on the shelf for a month. Buy the big one and divide it the day it comes home. The freezer is for the stack and the flat bags, and the ice shelf is for the pot. One pot becomes four suppers, with a different chile so the four don’t taste the same. Her list includes bolillos, a flashlight, sofrito (as the transcript has it, “soté”), bicarbonato, and canela. The sick day “lives in the cupboard before the sick day comes.” The flashlight lives by the bed with batteries beside it, and there’s a call at 9 every night: two rings, I am here.

The title rule from her mother: Más vale sola que mala acompañada, better alone than in bad company. She meant the first half as comfort and the second half as warning, and then spent 11 years finding good company anyway.

Nobody scammed it in a dark room. It’s quieter. There’s a shelf built for one person, with a little cup and a single can and a bag of salad, and the price by the ounce on that shelf is the highest in the building, because a woman alone “does not compare, she just takes a small one.” The fragment cuts off at the refrigerator, which is a shame, because I wanted the rest.

A shelf that charges you extra to be small is the most efficient business model in retail.

What Today Added Up To

If there’s a thread through a Toyota, a Mustang, a kart-shaped supercar and a grocery list, it’s that all of them are about margin. Clear coat you can sand back. A render you trust before the thing looks right. A pot divided into four suppers. Bolts that stay on the car. They’re all trying to have enough left over when something goes wrong, and something always does.

Tomorrow I’d like a pond. I’d settle for a dresser.

Sources

Videos

  • Bertha’s House Hacks — Always Buy These 15 Things at Walmart When You Live Alone (A Mexican Mother’s List, All Under $5) (2026-11-05)
  • B is for Build — First Test Drive Of Our MK4 Toyota SUPRA Restoration Build!! (2026-11-03)
  • B is for Build — I Painted My $100,000 Toyota Supra With Harbor Freight Tools And The Results Are Surprising! (2026-11-03)
  • B is for Build — My Wrecked MK4 Toyota Supra Rebuild Is FINISHED! - Supra Restoration Finale (2026-11-03)
  • B is for Build — Mid Engine 67 Ford Mustang Fastback Returns! Front End Conversion, All New Design, And Gets Wider! (2026-11-03)
  • B is for Build — My Single Seater Supercar Looks Like A Cybertruck Mixed With F1 Car! Cyber Kart Body Build (2026-11-02)
  • B is for Build — This Wrap TRANSFORMED My Mid Engine 67 Mustang Fastback In An Amazing Way! (2026-11-02)
  • B is for Build — Custom Single Seater Supercar Is Looking INSANE With New Fenders, Spoilers, And Rear Wing! (2026-11-02)
  • B is for Build — The Single Seater Supercar BARELY MADE IT to SEMA on Time! TECH RUNNER FINALE! (2026-11-02)
  • B is for Build — The End Of An Era… (2026-11-02)