[man] Looks great.
[Bill] So we've been working on a Bronco II for a while in the shop.
We've basically done everything on the outside.
Now we need to finish up some engine stuff...
-[engine revving] -...then on to interior.
First thing I got to do is put a bunch of bass in this thing.
You can't have a mini truck without having a loud stereo system,
so I'm stuffing it thicker than a Thanksgiving turkey.
[Bill] The '49 Ford will be the first time
we integrate an independent rear suspension
-into one of our ground-up builds. -Cool.
[Bill] There's a lot to do just to get this axle
attached to the rest of the frame.
I love projects like this where you've got to figure out things along the way.
[engine revs]
Oh, man! That is cool!
I'm Bill Carlton.
I built my first truck when I was 16.
And ever since me and my guys have been out here creating with our hands.
Building the biggest, lowest,
baddest custom trucks and cars in the game.
People don't come here for what they need.
They come here for what they want.
This is Texas Metal.
[Bill] So we've been working on a Bronco II for a while in the shop,
and it's been a long, long road to get to this point.
We've basically done everything on the outside.
Custom framed, suspension, body paint.
Now we need to finish up some engine stuff and get it going on to interior.
But the customer, Vernon, plays in a band
and he wants to see this truck before he goes on tour.
[Vernon] All right.
-Vernon, what's happening, man? -[Vernon] All right, man.
Looks great.
I got an '89 Bronco II.
I bought it new. So single owner.
I've had it since '89.
I moved to Texas in '89.
And, uh, I ran it on the beaches.
I ran it all over the place and it was time
to either get rid of it or revamp it
'cause I want to make it really something...
one of a kind, something special
'cause, you know, this is a car that's, you know, right here.
I know you're about to go out of town...
-Yep. -...so I just wanted you to stop by,
kind of check it out, see where we're at on things
and you know, get your approval and keep on going.
First reaction is, I love it.
It's what... It's what I want to see.
I wanted something that's badass,
unique, ridiculous.
-[Bill chuckling] That's it. -[Vernon] I want. I want somebody to look at this thing
and say, "What did they do?"
-I'm loving it. -[Bill] You'll be hard pressed
to find another Bronco II
-as customized as this. -One of a kind. I love it.
-Right? -You want to walk me through everything?
-There's a lot going on. -Man, you know,
the first thing we did is get it in,
separate the engine and frame and just roll the whole frame out.
New crate 5.0, that's usually in a Mustang GT.
I mean, you wanted something with too much power.
[chuckling] You got it in this.
This thing's gonna be like a go-kart when you punch it.
I love it. I mean, I'm gonna have to be careful.
I got to learn how to drive this thing 'cause it's a rocket.
[Bill] You know, you wanted that two tone, that black and silver,
so, got you going there.
Yeah. I love how that's gonna look with those tires.
[Bill] You know, new column, new brakes, new AC.
-We put the tank in the rear... -[Vernon] Yep.
...then all the hard lines.
So, you know, when you pop the back,
-it's gonna look really, really, really cool. -[Vernon] Oh, yeah.
Fitting everything into this little package.
-Wow. -You wanna see underneath?
Absolutely.
I'm just so excited to see all the work they've done underneath.
It's gone from being a... kind of a beach runner
to now, it's a high performance rocket.
This is as impressive
-or maybe more impressive than the top. -Right?
-'Cause this-- -This way you can see all the works done.
But it has the rectangle tube here
and the pipe work from the crossmember all the way back.
I mean, it's not gonna twist or flex whatsoever.
[Vernon] Yeah, it's incredible.
Man, you said get after it.
-Yeah. -[Bill] And you wanted it all the way on the ground.
So this is the way to do it.
-Just build a new chassis... -[Vernon] Yeah.
[Bill] ...so everything's tucked up...
underneath the body itself,
so when you let the air out,
-that body goes all the way to the ground. -[Vernon] All the way.
[Bill] We had to cut almost the whole floor out...
-Right. -...to make room for all that.
Then go back with the sheet metal work.
We've bed-lined the whole bottom so you don't have to baby it
-like you would if everything was painted. -[Vernon] Right.
It'll be a show car,
but it's gonna be a car I drive.
-Hell, yeah. -Absolutely.
There's a few things to button up under the engine compartment.
And it goes over to the interior shop
and John's gonna get on it and just fill it full of stereo.
Oh, yeah. I wanna knock down a building.
-[chuckles] -[Bill chuckling] Yeah.
Well, man, do your thing.
We're gonna do our thing and I'll see you soon.
Absolutely.
[Bill] It took a bit to cram this 5.0 Coyote in this old Bronco,
but it's definitely gonna be worth it with all that power.
Now Matt's in the final stages of getting it all wired up and running.
[Matt] This right here is set up for a factory setup,
and the computer would normally mount here.
But to me, this right here
just... it's not appealing.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut this harness open,
find my spot where I'm gonna mount the computer,
which most likely is gonna be on the firewall,
and then we'll rewrap it,
so it looks cosmetically nice.
This isn't ugly for factory, but it's ugly for custom. [chuckles]
When you see this tied up in a loom,
you think, "Oh, it's just one wire."
You break it down and you've got 90 wires,
and each one is just as important as the next.
There is no guide or nothing, no reference to look at.
It can get a little aggravating at times.
But that's why you just take your time and do it right the first time.
You don't have to come back and do it again.
Now that I got all this opened up and peeled back...
Since we know we're most likely mounting our computer
right here on the firewall,
I'm going to see what it's going to take
to get the harness to flow that way.
And see what I'll have to do from there
before we tie it back up completely.
I'm gonna go ahead and get the second side of the harness plugged in,
and we're gonna figure out where we're gonna come in to the firewall.
What I'm looking for is...
anything that would be in the way of me drilling the hole.
I wanna go as low as possible.
So when you're looking at it from the engine bay,
you can't see the wires coming through.
It's not even something I thought I would do. I just...
I started when I was young, and it's kind of weird
'cause I'm a person that doesn't really have much patience.
But when it comes to electrical, I get in the zone
and, kind of, zone everything out and think about nothing
other than what I'm doing
and try to get it to look...
as clean and neat as possible
without any issues. of course.
At the end of it all, when it's all done tied up
and you can't see anything, it's...
that self-satisfaction is...
something I guess I just strive for.
I'm just going to go ahead and bundle these up right here.
Once I get everything mounted, and then I'll cut him down to size.
We'll get the fuse box for the body harness mounted
and start running all those wires to the headlights, tail lights,
and then get everything mounted.
I guess after that we'll be almost ready to start this thing.
Before I really got into electrical,
I worked at a car audio shop in Arizona.
We had an installer there that... he was color blind,
and he was probably one of the best
alarm installers in the shop.
So I, kind of, hung around him and, kind of, learned from him.
He showed me little tricks that made things easier.
And he's colorblind, so...
that kinda shows it don't matter what you're facing.
Like, you can figure it out.
You just gotta figure out how.
Well, now, the moment of truth.
Let's see what we got.
I hear a fuel pump come on.
Gonna go ahead and crank it.
[engine starts]
Now, it's alive.
...going on, John? I heard, uh,
this thing finally made it over to your side.
I guess they finally got it. I walked in this morning
and here it sits, so...
It's usually where it's at. It's sitting here just trying to figure out
what's going to happen.
And it's even more fun to figure out what's going to happen
when I don't know what's supposed to happen.
So what's supposed to happen?
[Carlos] Customer, he's an artist. He's a musician.
He loved music.
He said, "Go crazy with it."
He wants loud, loud, loud. Louder-than-me loud...
-[blows raspberry] -[Carlos] ...in this truck.
-Okay. All right. -[Carlos] Yeah.
I like loud.
-[chuckles] -[John] I can definitely do loud.
-A wall? -Not a wall.
-He definitely didn't want a wall. He... -[John] Uh, lame. Lame!
-[chuckles] -You know, he says, with the big windows,
he wants to be able to see whatever you guys created
-inside that wall rear, so... -[John] All right.
-What do you want? -That's all right.
That just makes it more of a challenge,
-makes it more fun, so... -Yeah.
[John] It's a lot of space, but it's not a lot, with it being a mini truck.
-It looks like there's more than there really is. -[Carlos] Yeah.
I think I'm gonna fill it up.
Six-and-a-half's on the door, six-and-a-half's on the kicks. Two-sixteens' in the back.
Some more six-and-a-half's out back.
And, of course, you know, we got to have plenty of power to run these things.
The subs alone are gonna be 2,500 watts apiece.
Another couple of thousand watts amps.
-For the rest of it, over 7,000 watts in it. -[Carlos chuckles]
[John] So I'm stuffing it thicker than a Thanksgiving turkey.
-[Carlos] That sounds good right now. -[both laughing]
I know he's a musician, so we got a logo or anything we can work with?
He's got a logo. He did email it to me.
He wants it incorporated somewhere in the interior.
-[John] Okay. -[Carlos] Um, he didn't say exactly where.
-So leave it up to you and your design. -Well,...
Well, we'll get creative and see if we can come up
with something different with it, you know,
instead of just embroidering a headrest or anything.
I mean, I know it's 1989 that it came from,
but we don't have to put 1989 in it. [chuckles]
Cool. Well, you got to put together the list
of everything that you're gonna need.
-I know it's going to be a really long list. -Yeah. Yeah.
So, I need you to be like Santa
-and check it twice... -Okay.
...before you give it to me, so I can hit Rockford up,
so they send everything at one time.
Once it arrives, I'll let the guys know that we're gonna need a forklift
-to bring this stuff here to you. -[laughs]
-All right, man. -Cool, man.
-All right. -I'll get you a bunch of sandpaper, too.
-Extra. -[Carlos laughs]
[John] Extra, extra.
All right, so we're getting ready to get started on the door panels
for the Bronco II.
So one of the requests that the customer had
was that he wanted to keep the door panels kind of original,
but not too original.
So we're just gonna add a pod to the bottom of it.
And shape it out.
We've already let the robot do their job from our drawings.
Parts are made ready-to-go,
and so all I gotta do is put the puzzle together
and favorite part...
body work.
Glue it up. Next step, prep the door panels.
Then we'll attach the pods.
Everything fits. All I gotta do now is get an insert attached to the door.
And once that's done, it's just a matter of molding the insert
to the door panel,
that'll look kind of like a factory door panel.
Doors are all wrapped up. They look great.
Next thing to do is add a little bit of something, something to 'em.
So what I did is I laser-etched his band logo
into the panel, kind of, in a sticker bomb style.
So we're gonna edge-light it with LEDs,
around the outside of it.
They're gonna shine through and that's gonna make
all these logos pop and glow.
This is a low-voltage lighting, which is a lot safer.
Used to be that we used neon tubes.
And tell you what, trying to get a neon tube
in a door without breaking it,
that was fun.
I'm going to use a cob LED,
which is going to let light
transfer evenly all the way around.
And instead of having hot spots from individual led lights,
this is one solid strip.
It looks a lot better, in my opinion.
Coming up with different designs
and trying to come up with something different,
can be challenging from time to time,
but with that being said, it's also what pushes me
to try to better myself
with every one.
It can be challenging, but rewarding at the same time,
[Bill] Working on projects like the '89 Broncos,
bring me back to the old mini-truck days.
You know, that's what really got me started.
These days, we do all kind of trucks.
New, old, you name it.
And we just got back the '49 Ford from blast.
Customer dropped it off as one of the rustiest trucks I've ever seen.
You know, it didn't matter. She wanted to turn this thing
into a full custom show truck for her dad.
I was worried there wasn't gonna be much left after blast.
But the metal was in pretty good shape,
and the body-guys did a great job with it.
You know, the customer had supplied us
with the independent rear suspension.
But it wasn't gonna work with this setup.
So we ordered a new one, and it's perfect.
So now we're ready to finish this custom chassis.
All right.
You got the rear end, then?
-Man, about time, right? -Yeah. Seriously.
The rear end that came in with this truck just, man, wasn't gonna cut it.
It was just way too wide.
-Way too many moving parts. -[Dustin] Yeah.
So this simplifies everything, looks way cooler.
And that was the final puzzle piece.
Now we just need to make the rest of the puzzle, right?
[chuckles] We've already done a ton of work to this thing.
-[Bill] We've got the middle section of the frame built... -[Dustin] Right.
[Bill] ...finished the front part of the frame.
Shoot, we've had the new firewall put in it,
tunnel put in it,
sent it off to blast, prime.
I mean, we're in a really, really good spot to continue.
You know, the next step is just creating
the back part of the frame,
getting all that in place.
And there's going to be a ton of measurements
to figure all that out.
Then, we can start building that fully a custom bed.
So we're not gonna use any parts from the old bed.
Start from scratch?
[Bill] Hundred percent, man. I mean, that's just way too far gone.
We can build a lot of coolness in it
as we're building it, other than trying to repair
a bunch of rust and then modify what's there.
And, you know, within building the bed,
we're gonna incorporate a bed floor
that raises so you can see all this coolness underneath of it.
You got to see all the fab work and all the hard work gone into it.
For sure, man, for sure.
All right, well, we'll get our part done, get it over to John, huh?
Let him have some fun.
-Yeah, we got a little bit to do before it gets there... -[Dustin chuckles]
[Bill] ...but yes, absolutely.
I mean, that's the last step. After it gets painted,
-let John Burgess do his thing and... -Yep.
...we'll have a cool, cool, cool custom truck.
-[Dustin] Yep. -Another one under our belt.
[Dustin] That's right. One-off.
First things first man, get the table all prepped
and I'll finish my measurements real quick,
-and then we'll start building the frame. -Sounds good.
[Bill] You know, we've built a ton of frames here
with a traditional straight axle in the rear.
But we've never built one with independent rear suspension before.
We have to build the rear part of the frame to this rear end.
Everything is based on mounting on this center chunk
of this housing itself.
So there's gonna be a ton of measurements
to get all those calculations correct
with the wheelbase centered up perfectly
and the mounting point through the third membrane.
So the frame is gonna come out, come up,
back and probably straight back.
I don't know. There's a lot of measurements to play with,
a lot of designs still to come.
I mean, there's... there's a lot to do
just to get this axle attached to the rest of the frame.
I love projects like this where you got to figure out things along the way.
You got some sauce on it, Dustin?
Give me a piece of 4-inch flat bar, about four feet or so.
-Where'd you want it? -Yeah.
I got my measurements figured out on paper.
So the next step is transferring
everything on the paper to on the table.
Then I can make him a couple of templates.
Transfer that to actual rectangle tubing,
then we can start making the frames.
So our mainframe is gonna be two by four by three-sixteenth rectangle tubing.
So the wall of the tubing is three-sixteenths thick,
so it's super strong and never gonna have a problem
with rigidity on this.
This frame will last forever.
Lean them both right there.
Just do a level across tip to tip,
just so I can see what it'll be looking like.
Cool.
Now it's starting to look like, "Boom."
The '49 Ford will be the first time
we integrate an independent rear suspension
into one of our ground-up builds.
Right now, we're making a crossmember
to attach the rear suspension to the frame.
I'll take a pic for you.
[Bill] It needs to be super rigid.
So we're gonna make it out of three-sixteenths plate.
All right, so it's like a crossmember for this rear end.
And I've got these holes here.
This is what it has to bolt you.
It's nine inches center-to-center this way.
Two inches center-to-center, that way.
This breather, too. But we're gonna do that after, if you want.
[Jessie] How far do you want... from here to here?
[Dustin] Find center and then go four and a half
on either side of that. You know what I mean?
That looks good.
Let me just clean up the backside of that real quick.
All right, looks good, clean up the slag, like usual.
Now, it's up to Dustin to take care of the rest.
All right.
We got it broke.
We'll get it on the truck and see how it looks.
All right.
[Bill] From the beginning, Vernon was very clear.
He wanted this '89 Bronco very, very loud.
So we got rid of the rear seats.
and I made some room for John
to make something really cool and very loud.
You can't have a mini truck without having a loud stereo system.
So first thing I got to do
is put a bunch of bass in this thing.
I'm gonna start by making the pieces that go over the wheel tubs.
We'll get some wood. We'll get it curved up so it'll make the curve.
Once we get that, cap it in
and we'll just start building up and out from there
and see where we get and get enough airspace
'cause it's gonna be big.
I'm going with something really big.
I'm gonna cram two 16-inch woofers in here
in a boarded enclosure.
It's gonna take a lot of airspace.
It's gonna be a big, big, big, big box.
Got a couple of stipulations that the owner has.
We're gonna work around those, deal with that
and see what we can come up with.
Damn it!
Rimmed it.
All right, so the box is moving along.
The next step I need to do is start figuring out
how I'm gonna tie it into the side panels,
and then the walls and everything. So...
I've got my stock panel that came out of the truck.
Obviously, it doesn't fit anymore,
so I'm gonna have to do some cutting on this,
chop it up, make it fit back in the truck.
And, so, now it's time to start building the box out and up
and get it all tied in.
Now that we know where we got to go,
what we got to deal with.
And, uh, we'll go from here.
We're actually gonna have to take the top and adjust it upwards
in order to get the amount of airspace that we need.
We can only go so far outward,
so far towards the front of the truck. So...
up is the only way to go.
So, the base of the box is all set,
locked in place, ready to go.
I'm just checking my fiberglass,
and working it down into the curve.
I like using this chopped strand
because it's very easy to get it thick
and laid up nice and solid in one shot,
because you can take this, just kinda glop it in, move it around a little bit
instead of doing one layer, rolling it out,
doing another layer, rolling it out,
another layer, rolling it out.
You can get this stuff up to two, three inches thick
in one single pass, so...
Saves a lot of time, really, really strong,
and really makes life a lot easier,
so it's one of my favorite things to use.
[grunts]
Well, good morning to you, too.
[Bill] Loudness all comes down to personal preference.
Some folks like to hear music loud in their car.
But what John's building in the back of this Bronco
is gonna be loud enough for the whole car show to hear.
[John] I thought it was gonna be a good idea
till I had to pick this thing up.
Now, I'm just taking this heavy-ass woofer,
try to position it and get a layout of where it needs to be,
so I can go sit down and draw up the baffle and all the trim rings
and everything like that.
Now, I'll start using the CNC router
and the laser and make the parts
to actually dress up the box.
The next thing what I'll do is cut it in half.
That way, we can get it in and out of the truck easier,
and be able to put it together in the truck,
we'll bolt it, seal it up.
Makes it a little bit lighter.
We don't have to worry about banging up our vinyls and leathers,
stuff like that when we go back in for reassembly.
So, the next step,
we're gonna cut these dividers open.
That way, the two halves can breathe together,
it'll be like one box all over again.
To me, there's nothing better than a mini-truck.
This is what got me started in this whole scene
and everything was mini-truck,
so getting the chance to work on this is really, really exciting.
As a kid, I grew up on this side of town,
so I saw a lot of custom trucks and mini-trucks,
lowered full sizes, everything like that.
And it was always what caught your attention
'cause you heard 'em come.
Loud pace, I loved it. Couldn't get enough of it.
So, they'd come around the corner, you could see it.
Flashy paint job, cool, low truck, you know?
It wasn't anything better, that was just...
That was my thing, I really loved it.
So I've strived from that point
to make loud stereos and drive a mini-truck.
We've built some big audio boxes
and vehicles before,
but the sub enclosure in the '89 Bronco II is double XL,
which would really set it apart
along with those small details.
[John] The box is all together, tops on it,
it's closed up and ready to go.
The next step, get the trim rings in place.
So, basically, what I'm doing here
is I'm building an insert that's removable
from the enclosure
that will be two toned out.
It's gonna trim in the speakers,
it'll trim in the ports.
It's also gonna help hide the fact that the box is actually two parts
bolted together 'cause you won't be able to see the seam.
A lot of benefits to doing it this way,
so the best thing I can do is just get it together
and get this good glass on it, and get it good and strong,
and start body working.
If you're not body working, you're not fabbing.
And if you're fabbing, you're body working. Take your pick.
Go check my gun... 'cause it was spraying kinda crazy.
While John's boogying on the '89 Bronco interior...
Patrick's gonna paint that dash black
to match that black paint on the body.
I just got the dash for the Bronco II from John
and I'm about to change the color on it.
It's going black, so I already got it prepped.
So, first things first, I'mma go ahead
and get the adhesion promoter put on.
Let it tack out for a second,
and then go with the black.
After that, they want the dash to be pretty much a similar gloss,
so I'm gonna do a satin clear on it.
It's got a high gloss right at this moment,
but once this dries down, it will dry down to a satin finish.
Any time you apply a satin or a black clear,
it's gonna go on gloss, but once it dries down,
it will give you the finish that you're looking for.
It looks great.
I'm gonna go ahead and let that dry.
Once it dries down, it will be a satin finish.
I see, there's 25, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, and then some.
So, yeah, that's a lot of power.
The sub box is in the '89 Bronco.
This thing is massive.
Everything's working out great,
the lines look perfect.
So, the next thing to do is just get 'em all tied in, tied into the box,
get it all looking like one piece,
and make it look good.
Any time you're building something,
for me, I like to keep it organic
and let things change as I'm going,
and just kinda flow with it, and...
Roll with the punches. Whatever we get at is where we end up at.
Usually end up in a pretty good spot.
Amp cover's built, fabbed out, ready to go,
and pretty much I worked myself
into my favorite thing.
Time to pull it out and start body working.
Anybody wanna come do it for me, feel free.
1804 Sunny Drive, come on.
Yeah, it's a drywall knife, body man across the way,
they laughed at me the first time I pulled this thing out,
until they saw me using, they're like, "Oh.
I need one of those."
It's like cake decorating.
Too bad we can't eat it like we can fondant.
All right, so the next step on the back of the Bronco
is to cram in a lot more speakers, so...
got a little baffle set up.
Gonna do a little cutting on the router.
Let it make some parts, get things ready,
and go get in the back of the truck
and add in some speakers.
I'm ready to do this if you are.
Even though I've been building things since I was a teenager,
and, man, I'm always still learning,
it's new challenges like this that keep me excited.
-Will it fit in there? -[Dustin] Yeah.
-Half inch... -[Bill] Half inch spaced down, yes.
Independent rear suspension
is different from a straight axle
'cause each wheel moves independently.
That all adds up to better traction and a smoother ride.
Okay, you tack this corner.
But it's definitely not a traditional suspension system
like we normally make.
Basically, we take that center chunk
and build the frame right to the top of it.
That way, we know it's gonna fit perfect
and it's not going anywhere.
Let's weld that up.
It's pretty good.
All right, set it down.
[Dustin] We got the rear portion of our frame up here
connected to our center section of our frame,
got it all tacked up.
Now, I'm gonna go through and throw some stitches on it
to make sure it doesn't go anywhere.
I think it'll fit.
-Come down a little bit. -Cool.
-Is it tight? -[Dustin] Yep.
-All right. We'll go with the lift. -All right.
-[Bill] Man, now that's gonna look good. -[Dustin] Uh-huh.
[Bill] Looking at that '49 Ford,
even at this stage, I know it's one of the builds
that just defines a shop like this.
But I also know we got
a whole lot more steps in front of us.
Next step, we're gonna extend the frame.
So, I'm gonna have Dustin cut these two pieces.
Add a two by two square tubing.
It's gonna look something like that right there.
[clicks tongue]
Do it to it.
Mosquitos are horrible.
What we're gonna do now is just make some continuation of the frame itself.
So it serves a couple of purposes,
it actually stiffens the frame up in the back.
Going down the road, hitting certain dips in the road
at certain speeds, the frame might flex a little bit.
Like diving board effect.
Like... [mimicking vibration]
With creating this little truss on top of it,
the frame stays super rigid,
it doesn't deflect whatsoever.
And all we're doing is relying on suspension then
and not the frame flexing.
[Dustin] Mmm... Hmm!
[Bill] What's the next step, Dustin?
-[Dustin] Tack up the next one? -[Bill] No.
[Dustin] Try it?
-[Bill] Yeah. -[Dustin] Huh.
-[Bill] Is it good? -[Dustin] Yep.
Now, what's the next step?
[Dustin] Tack it on here?
Do the other side?
Yes. Put that on the table.
Sand it smooth so you can lay the other one on top of it,
clamp it together, then tack it together,
then we'll put it on the frame.
[Dustin] Not bad.
[Bill] We're in a really, really good spot right now.
Man, I love how it's looking,
you know, the contrast between the two different sides of the tubing,
it's looking really good. We got our cool base to put our bed frame on to.
So the next step is finishing out that side,
then we can start making the bed.
That's our first independent rear suspension,
so I'm really excited about getting this in and getting it going.
Then, after we get all that, we got a lot more work to do.
You know, getting all this in the body shop
for powder coating, painting, plating,
get the frame off to blast,
and then the last step, go over to John.
All this is like fun to us, so...
I mean, it's work, for sure, but it's really fun.
We get to create things like this,
and at the end of the day, have a really cool, rolling piece of artwork.
[John] Oh, you damn mosquitos. I hate you.
[Bill] We're at the stage of the '89 Bronco
where John's built all the custom pieces.
But now comes the big job of wrapping 'em.
You know, this is one of the hardest parts
'cause this is what everyone sees.
You know, if anything's off, it just won't look right.
[John] The day is finally here.
All the planning, all the hard work,
all the sanding, all the everything
has finally come to fruition. We get to wrap the parts.
I'm gonna start with the big pieces of the puzzle.
It's kinda the first thing that anchors everything.
I have to get these in before I can do anything else.
When you're using a contact cement to glue the vinyl on,
you have to apply the glue to both pieces.
You have to put it on the vinyl and the part that you're wrapping.
Let that get good and dry.
This is hard 'cause I just wanna start laying it right now, but...
I gotta be patient.
'Cause if I don't, I'll regret it.
All right, here we go.
You kinda wanna start in the hardest places on your parts
and work out from there.
A lot of people like to go about it the other way.
It really makes it harder if you don't start in the hard spot.
Gotta go that way, that way, and that way.
That's a lot of everything.
So it's gonna be hard enough
trying to deal with these curves and stuff up here,
the compound curves and concave.
I know that's gonna be a problem.
So I'm gonna have to wrap this in sections,
there's no way that I can wrap this all in one piece.
I can feel my seam underneath here
where two pieces come together.
All right.
Then I'll take it off, add a little bit to it, trim it.
Glue it, fold it over.
Then I'll go over and run through the sewing machine,
and it'll look like a stitched edge.
That will get glued down in place.
It gives us our little bit of overlap.
And it will look like we actually sewed the two pieces together.
Tricks of the trade, don't tell nobody.
I like it.
I'm not looking forward to putting it in the truck now though.
Now, that everything's built on the '89 Bronco interior...
'Cause now I have to be worried I don't screw nothing up.
[Bill] ...here's the fun part
of putting it all back together.
A 1989 Bronco II is definitely not what you think of
when it comes to custom vehicles.
[John] Don't bang it up.
Don't scratch it. Don't nick the vinyl.
[Bill] From what that truck was,
just a run-of-the-mill, old grandma truck,
bringing it back to today's standards is something really cool,
and a lot of people are gonna change their minds when they see this.
So, as you guys know, I came here from Colorado
and I've been at Ekstensive for about a year.
I love building vehicles.
I love cars and trucks, you know?
So, I said, "Let's do it."
Packed my wife up, we came down here,
and it's been a huge learning curve.
It's a whole different culture down here.
But, honestly, I wouldn't have traded it for anything, you know?
I'm glad we did it.
Summer sucks, that's the one thing.
It's really, really hot compared to Colorado, I'll tell you that much.
You don't have 90% humidity there,
but just like when I said when I moved down here,
I'm like, "If they could do it, I can do it."
Here I am, I'm still here a year later.
So I guess something's working.
Getting into the Ekstensive team here,
man, it's been a wild ride.
Working here has been really good,
all the guys here have really accepted me
and been teaching me things.
We're learning everyday, that's what we do,
and I love doing that.
If you have the opportunity to go somewhere
and do some different work and learn some new things,
take it, you know? Especially if it's something that you like to do.
There's always an upside to whatever big scary, you know,
whatever big jump you're making.
So go ahead and take it. Hop in headfirst.
[engine revs]
Vernon's definitely one of the more interesting customers we've had
coming through here.
You know, rolling up in a McLaren,
coming to look at his customized Bronco II,
looking like a rockstar cowboy.
-Vernon, what's up, man? -Hey, Bill. Good to see ya.
You definitely never know what this guy's up to next.
That's a good-looking car, man.
Yeah, it's a nice one.
My thing is a car is a special thing,
so I only like special cars.
Well, today's gonna be a super special day for you then,
'cause we definitely, definitely have something special for you.
Can't wait.
-Well, let's check it out. -All right.
I have 32 cars, I collect cars,
and I like every one of 'em to mean something,
to be something special.
But this car, the '89 Bronco II is really special
'cause it's the first car that I bought new when I was a young man.
[engine starts]
Oh!
I like that.
[engine revs]
All right! That... Wow.
Dude!
-[engine revving] -[Vernon] Oh, man, I love the front,
and, of course, the stance is completely different.
And I'll tell you what I love, it's the sound.
-The sounds, that's-- -Right?
Like, when it first came out,
it's like... [mimicking engine roaring]
Ah!
-This ain't that old Bronco you're remembering, is it? -Tires... No!
-No. -[Bill laughs]
-[suspension hisses] -Oh, yeah!
That is...
-Oh, man! -[laughs]
That is cool!
I told him, "Let's go as low as we can go."
I didn't know you could go that low.
I was just floored.
This is amazing.
Unbelievable. I love it. I love it!
Thank you, man.
-This is awesome! -Yes, sir.
[Bill] It's a little bit different
from when you seen it on the lift last, right?
-Oh, yeah. -[Bill] You could see that new chassis
and everything built, but you really didn't see
-how it was gonna actually work like this... -[Vernon] Yeah.
[Bill] ...and be able to let this truck get as low as it does
with those big wheels and tires.
Last time I saw it, I saw it coming together,
I saw the potential, you know?
But seeing it here lowered, it's just looking great.
Well, we got a lot more to show you on this.
Whoo! All right!
First thing I notice is just cramming that thing in there.
[Bill laughs]
There's a lot going on there under this little engine compartment.
I love the way it looks.
That looks as good right there as the whole exterior.
I love that.
-[Bill] Right? -I love that.
-You get a lot to show off when you pop the hood on this. -[Vernon] Oh, man.
-[Bill laughs] And a whole lot of power. -[Vernon] That is crazy.
You got about 400 horsepower under the hood right now.
-[Vernon] Hmm! -[Bill] So this little bitty truck,
it ought to be a really fun ride.
And I'm speechless, man. This is crazy. I love it.
Last time he's seen it, it was just the engine just crammed in there,
nothing hooked up, nothing painted.
But now, totally done, finished, all detailed.
You know, he can definitely see how much work we've done to this.
Wow.
-Wow. -We did some work in there.
-[chuckles] -You did.
[John] I know you had a couple of stipulations you had.
You wanted to keep some of the retro look to it,
-but we had to modernize it at the same time. -[Vernon] Yeah.
So working those lines in and stuff
wasn't the easiest thing in the world.
There's not a lot of space in this little truck.
I was able to cram speakers in the door,
and then we took a piece of acrylic and I etched your logo
on to the acrylic kinda like a sticker bomb.
-[Vernon] Yeah. -[John] Exactly.
-And it all lights up, so-- -[Vernon] Oh, really?
-[John] Turn on the lights, and they'll all glow... -[Vernon] Ah!
-[John] ...nice and bright... -[Bill] Very cool.
[Vernon] Oh, yeah.
The personalization, having the VTHK logo for the band,
having the back lighting,
that is a Vernon Trumbull truck.
-No 1989 there anywhere? -No. No.
I love it, love it.
I know this guy is dying right now to show you
what he's really been creating in the back.
You wanted something loud, Vernon,
-and he is-- -Gotta be loud.
He's been making the neighbors very angry back here.
-[John and Bill laugh] -Good. Good.
-Let's check it out. -[Vernon] Yeah.
-Oh! Oh, yeah! -[John laughs]
[Vernon] It's the theme of the truck, right?
It's like big stuff crammed into a small package.
That's a feat of engineering,
-to get that in the back of this thing right here. -[John and Bill laugh]
[John] So yeah, that's about 7,000 watts right there.
-Oh, oh! -[John] You got 5,000 watts
just in the subwoofers alone.
-[Vernon] Ooh! -[John] And then, another 2,000 watts
on the rest of the speakers in the system.
-Oh, man. -[John] So not gonna be hungry for power at all.
7,000 watts of power.
Incredible. That's more power than The Beatles had
when they played Shea Stadium.
-We know you're a musician. -[Vernon] Yeah.
-You go out on tour. -[Vernon] Oh, yeah.
-This is your mobile concert right here. -[Vernon] Oh, yeah.
They're gonna hear me coming.
-[Bill] Oh, yeah. -Oh, yeah.
-Check this out. -[Vernon] All right.
♪ No more ♪
-♪ Oh, yeah, oh, yeah ♪ -♪ Oh, yeah ♪
We actually get a show from Vernon himself.
[rock music playing]
You know, with all the custom touches all throughout,
the one thing that really sets this off
is the box in the back.
You know, when you go back to the mini-truck scene,
the stereo was always definitely the focus.
♪ No more Oh, yeah, oh, yeah ♪
Yeah, always, man.
Takes everybody here at the shop,
and I can't thank them enough.
[Vernon] Yeah!
[Bill] And I know all the old mini-truck guys out here,
when they see this, they're gonna go crazy.
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
[Bill] They're gonna lose their minds.