Ronald Finger's Down To Earth Builds Are The Antidote To YouTube Fatigue

There aren't enough hours in a lifetime to watch all of the automotive-themed content added to YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. That's why we're taking it upon ourselves to highlight some of our favorite underrated builders in a new series we're calling Wrenchers You Should Know. Not only do some of these people deserve way more views than they're getting, but they're typically the Do It Yourselfer type, rather than the big corporate-sponsored four-figure-horsepower slop that's dominating your feeds. In each installment we'll introduce you to a cool new builder, talk about some of their work, and give you a few reasons why you should be watching their progress.

This week we're talking about Ronald Finger, a very funny "regular" guy with a limited budget working out of his ancient home garage with real-world-affordable enthusiast cars. Moreover, he's spent a bunch of time on his YouTube channel restoring the garage around his projects as well, so if you're into construction YouTube, this is a double-header aimed right at our collective domes. Mister Finger doesn't upload as often as some of the folks who do YouTube builds for a living, but it's good honest content that makes me smile. Every single time he uploads a new video, infrequent though they are, I add it to my evening viewing. 

Ron has been uploading to YouTube for over 19 years, beginning with a simple 8-second lightsaber battle when he was but a wee boy. The enthusiast build content didn't begin until a decade of posting later, when a young Ronald began fettling with a vintage Kawasaki DI motorcycle. Fast forward another decade and he's rebuilt four motorcycles, a Fiero, a Tiburon, and a Datsun 280Z, as well as the aforementioned garage rebuild. You really need to watch all of it.

In a world where everything has gotten significantly more expensive over the last decade, the recipe to inexpensive enthusiast cars is the same as it always has been. Start with something that has been discarded. Mr. Finger pulled this 1978 Datsun 280Z out of a field in 2022. The 280Z is mechanically quite similar to the much-lauded 240Z, but has been deemed undesirable because of the larger 5 mile per hour bumpers and smog equipment-choked power delivery. They're still a ton of fun to drive, and modify, but aren't saddled with huge pre-smog collector car price tags. This is a great car to drive and modify, if you ask me. 

This car needed way more rust repair than you might assume given its Texas license plates, but it has seen quite a lot of sunshine and long days of neglect. Over the course of three videos, spaced about once a year, Ronald goes through the process of getting the car back to good running and driving condition, getting it registered and legal again, then tearing it all apart to give the car a modern update with real-deal fuel injection. Whereas many modern YouTube channels would have an update once a week, and would culminate in this car getting a turbocharged LS V8 swap and go drifting one time before getting tossed in a corner and forgotten about for the next car. 

I appreciate when a channel sticks with a project, and doesn't let the whole thing spiral out of control and end up with a car that isn't any fun to drive anyway. I'd much rather get infrequent project updates from a car that is out on the road and getting driven. 

Look, not everything needs to be a big turbo Lamborghini Gallardo or whatever. No disrespect to the supercar build channels, but I'd rather hang out with the guy doing real work on real cars in a real garage. Your generational wealth is nice for you, but not all of us have a million dollar shop, six-figure toolboxes, a full pristine machine shop, and a tire company sponsoring everything we touch. Not everything has to be a Rolex, and Ronald is as practical as the digital Timex he wears.  

In addition to the bargain 280Z project, I mentioned that Finger also put his, um, fingers to work on a wrecked Hyundai Tiburon. There's something so old-school car enthusiast about buying a piece of junk from an insurance auction and getting it back on the road again. Why not go with a $700 Tiburon for a cheap and reasonably fun daily driver? Yes, he pulls the frame straight using a come-along and a metal post. That's some old-school wrenching right there. 

If that's no good for you, how about a three-year 24-part video series bringing a vintage mid-engine sports car back to life? Lots of car folks will speak ill of the Pontiac Fiero, but you won't hear that gatekeeping nonsense from me. If you like your car and you have fun working on it and driving it, who are we to try to make you feel bad about it?

While I would love for Ronald Finger to drop a new video once a month or more often, it's nice that we get to spend any time with him at all. His taste in cars may not be your flavor or whatever, but watching him work on these cars–mistakes and all–is just so entertaining. 

As a middle-aged homeowner, I spend a lot of time watching DIY construction videos on YouTube. So when one of my favorite car channels does a garage restoration project, I'm definitely going to watch that, too. Rebuilding an old garage can often go hand in hand with rebuilding old cars. If you're confident enough in your car abilities, working with pine 2x4s is comparably a walk in the park. Buildings aren't very complicated, for the most part, it's just pieces of wood nailed to other pieces of wood with siding on the outside, drywall on the inside, and insulation in between.

It's usually pretty easy to modify your garage to be exactly the kind of shop you need it to be. That is, unless someone before you built it the wrong way, and you're forced to spend several months correcting those mistakes. What started out as Ronald trying to find more space for his car projects in an old shop ended up with basically four completely reconstructed walls, a completely rebuilt roof trussing system, a bunch of foundation work, and even more electrical. 

If it weren't for Ronald's amazing dry and occasionally self-deprecating sense of humor, these videos wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as they are, and for that I think he's owed a good bit of credit. This is a smart guy doing smart work for too small an audience. Maybe if you guys all follow and watch along, we can get two or three more videos per year. I just hope more followers and more ad revenue doesn't start pushing him to build a Gallardo or something. Stay true to your roots, Ron! I'll be here watching.