2 years ago an aspiring YouTuber borrowed $20,000 to buy Logan Paul's old car for a video. Now he has over a million subscribers.

• Colorado-based YouTuber Matthew Beem has risen to fame on social media in recent months.

• He told Insider he once borrowed $20,000 to fund a video idea of customizing Logan Paul's old car.

• Beem said the video ended up costing around $50,000 to make, due to unforeseen damages to the car.

YouTuber Matthew Beem said he's still paying off  a $20,000 loan he took out to fund a video idea that involved a car belonging to well-known influencer Logan Paul, in the hope that it would help him grow his channel.

In September 2020, 25-year-old Beem, who typically posts content about building large-scale objects and statues, posted a YouTube video titled, "I Spent Thousands on Logan Paul!" which now has 13,000 views. In it, he said he was going to customize a yellow Dodge Challenger car, which previously belonged to Paul.

Paul is a controversial influencer with 23 million subscribers. He rose to fame on the now-defunct platform Vine, going on to post regular vlogs on YouTube. He received widespread backlash when he filmed a purported dead body in Japan in late 2017, but later apologized and continues to post content for his large following.

Beem told Insider he was inspired by Paul and other influencers who rose to fame during the "vlog-era" on the platform, so when Paul gave his car away to a fan in September 2020, Beem decided to contact the fan so he could get his hands on the car and "paint it amazingly" for a video.

The YouTuber told Insider he had been working as the head painter at a car business at the time, saying, "Once I was confident with the knowledge that I learned from painting cars, I was able to save some good money and I thought, 'I'm going to go all in and make a really big investment.'"

Beem said he planned to take out a loan so he could buy the car from the fan and use it in his video, but his friends and colleagues thought the idea was "crazy."