Sounds like Junkyard Wars, but with a timeframe more conducive to building stuff that will work.

There was a kilted guy on Junkyard Wars years ago. I couldn't place his accent, but he wore something like s Skilt and had a goatee that went halfway to his navel and a mohawk...blue if memory serves.

I miss Canadian TV...especially Red Greene being on four times a day. When I was a kid we could pick up one station from Seattle part of the time and two Canadian stations pretty much all the time.