Problems come up here all the time.
Let me rephrase that. [laughs]
The '31 Ford is a straight-up history lesson.
[man] And it rides like it doesn't have suspension.
[Bill] Right?
They got an antique coffee roaster.
This thing's massive right here.
I don't know how that's gonna fit in the back of the truck.
So we need to build them a trailer.
It's gonna look good, sound good,
and it's gonna smell pretty good, too.
I still get excited when a big build
like the '68 GTO comes together.
[Ryan] That's like the coolest set of wheels I've ever seen.
[woman] Looks like a blue sky.
[Dustin] Now that's a hog, boys.
[laughing]
[Matt] We're not looking for fuel-efficient. We're looking for power.
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,
and 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.
The '68 GTO body is back from media blast.
And, man, it's in pretty good shape.
The owner's, two brothers, dropped this car off a while back.
You know, it was looking good in good shape,
but you don't really know till all that paint and body work's gone
and you get it back from blast.
Next up, we're gonna get it over to the body shop
and then paint.
Meanwhile, we've finished most of the metal work
on this ground-up build.
Hand-making a custom chassis, suspension,
and a completely one of a kind engine bay.
The frame and suspension just came back from powder coat.
So up next, we're gonna assemble the rolling chassis
and run all those lines.
[Jamie] Grab that.
Using my head.
[Jamie] Got a rear diff for the GTO.
-Stabbing the pumpkin right now. -Thank you very much.
Next to them, we'll put the seals in.
Then I'll go ahead and slap my axles in.
Then we'll be ready to install it.
One of my favorite parts is actually when everything starts coming together.
You start seeing, you know, components coming back from powder coat.
We have paint going on right now.
You get to see that much more of it, just a little bit closer.
Just a little bit more.
You know, you start to see something evolve.
You get to see exactly how much work it takes
to get to this point right here.
You know, what it's gonna start looking like.
Okay, so I got everything installed on my rear end now.
I got the pumpkin in. I got my axles in.
I got my link bars on.
Last thing is, go ahead and put my coilovers on.
Once I put my coilovers on, this thing will be ready to roll.
All right. So we got the wheels now for the GTO.
Now we have this polished and this raw look.
I mean, it kind of really sets it off,
especially against this black frame.
Man, they're just the wheels to fit this car.
What do you think about the two tones?
[man 2] I think it's pretty cool.
The way it's concave like that.
Also, the Nitto's, you know.
That's gonna be a real sticky tire on here with that big motor.
Really like the way the cap covers everything too. Looks seamless.
The next thing is, we'll be putting a body on this thing soon.
When this thing's done,
it's gonna be a head-turner.
[Bill] You know, the owner of the car
wanted a light blue-ish color,
so I'm just gonna try to pick that perfect color
that really is going to make this car
stand out amongst all the other ones
and make it really, really cool.
Man, I think everybody has been to a car show or in a parking lot
where they walk by a car that catches their eye.
You can tell that somebody spent a lot of time
and a lot of money on a specific car.
But you look at it and go, "Man, it's just...
that's cool, but the color's wrong."
And that's what we don't want to happen, ever.
So it takes a certain eye to pick that certain color.
So, that's the critical stage of a build like this.
There's a ton of light blues
and all these color chips that we have, man, but I think...
this one right here...
is gonna fit that GTO perfectly.
And it's just got that right little flip of color,
small hint of metallic in it.
The sun hits this color, on that car...
People are gonna know that...
you know that isn't just any old GTO.
That's... There's something special about it.
All right. So we're at my favorite part of every build.
And now we got the wheels on, which are awesome.
That's like the coolest set of wheels I've ever seen.
But before we put the body on, I want to do all the lines,
which is way better with not having anything in your way.
Most of the chassis that I do,
it's always a bunch of air lines.
This one, we got brakes and fuel. So...
do the brakes first and then I'm gonna do the fuel.
Yeah, not bad.
Finding your best route to run the lines
is always best for maintenance because,
you know, if I ever have to take these apart for any reason,
I don't want to be jammed up to where I got to cut
or remove a body or whatever.
I always like to run down the edges of the frame rails.
I think that looks cleanest.
Never like to be on top
because the body is always so close.
I don't wanna pinch anything, ever.
Once I cut the line, I'll be ready to flare.
This is called a flaring tool.
This is a cheater one.
The other one's the old timey people.
"Old timey people." I didn't mean that.
I'm sorry.
That almost looked like a little butterfly knife actually.
Like, open it up...
A little wingnut on it.
This is like the... Like you can't mess it up version.
Here, watch. I'm gonna mess it up.
I'll mess this one up.
Just so it's not one piece.
Cranking the hole.
Oh, it's the wrong way.
Why did you do that, dude?
[scoffs]
I just do this.
Just bend a perfect 180.
You know, the stainless line, it takes a little bit more time.
But the end result is way better.
Oh, yeah.
You can grab you some rubber line
and do it real fast and careless,
but with everything else you do,
why skimp on that?
It's also a lot of fun doing this.
It's a little bit different every single time.
So, I like it.
[whistling]
Looks pretty good.
All right, So we got all of our brake lines done now.
We're ready to drop the motor
and trans in this thing and do our fuel lines.
Once we get that done, then we can drop the body on this car
and we'll start moving forward on all that good stuff.
[door creaking]
-What's up, fellas? -[Greg] Hey, what's going on, Bill?
How you doing, man? Greg.
-Nice to meet you. -Rex.
-Nice to meet you guys, man. -Nice to meet you.
What y'all doing today, man? Y'all cruising around in the old truck?
All the way from Florida, man.
Oh, man. You didn't drive this from Florida. Come on.
-No, it would've take us about four days. -[Bill] Right?
We only drive at about 35,
40 miles an hour or something like that.
-[Bill] So what year is this? -[Greg] 1931.
[Bill] '31, man. That is something
you definitely don't see every day.
It looks very well taken care of, man.
This guy right here, man. Maintenance team and Rex.
They do an awesome job.
This, uh, truck frame came out of an old barn in Houston.
The old Maxwell House plant here in Houston rebuilt it,
uh, through the plant team in the '80s.
They redid it again in the '90s to make it more road worthy.
And now we're kind of bringing it back to where it started
to really take it to the next level.
So it's kind of neat that it got to come home.
Man, this is real, real cool.
So you want to take this truck and just bring it up to date.
-One more time. -Make it safe. Reliable,
and good for years to come.
Pay tribute to the heritage. But at the same time,
add your touch, your style to modernize it,
and get people excited about the brand, our truck.
have it really stand out at parades and events,
and people get excited about it.
Man, I love it. You know, one of the first things
we need to do is upgrade the suspension.
Those leaf springs and everything look cool,
but I know they ride horrible.
-[Rex] And it rides like it doesn't have suspension. -[Bill] Right?
[Rex] We put modern axle underneath the back
with a 4-link and install air suspension on it.
So you can put whatever in the back
and still have that ride quality and that...
Some adjustability also.
You know, on the front, cut all that out,
put independent front suspension
so we can put modern brakes on it, and...
What about these wheels and tires? Are you set on these?
-Not at all. -[Bill] So we can definitely upgrade that.
But still give it that vintage look, too.
That's exactly what we want.
[Bill] So, let me guess.
No power under the hood.
[Rex] No, it isn't cuttin' it.
-[Bill] Let's check it out. -[laughing]
It's a little underwhelming, for sure.
I mean, that's definitely not a factory engine.
So what is that?
[Rex] This is a Cavalier 4-cylinder.
[Bill] No performance there, right?
[Rex] No power steering. No AC.
Probably about two horsepower.
We're wanting to step this up, man.
So underneath the hood needs a little cup of coffee to get its energy up, right?
-You got it. -Yes, sir.
But I can definitely see why they chose that engine.
I mean, it's super tight.
Confined in here. There's not much room at all.
So... But this might take
a little bit extra thought on that
to see what'd actually fit
to not take up some of the footwell inside there.
So what's going on with the interior?
It looks really, really, really nice.
[Rex] Appreciate it. It's just, man, it's tough to drive.
Steering wheel's so big, you know,
you feel like you're driving a tractor.
[Bill] One of the most definite things we need
is to upgrade that steering column.
Give you a tilt wheel, make it easier to get in and out of.
And of course, you know, AC for sure.
It's hot as a pot of coffee in there.
-[Bill and Greg laughing] -We'd like to be iced latte.
You know what I mean?
The interior looks good, but no comfort.
I think these trucks were probably made
for four-foot tall people back in the day, but...
we're gonna do what we do.
Give 'em as much room and as much comfort
as we can possibly put in this little cube.
So what you got going on in the back?
[Greg] Come check it out.
We got some really cool ideas, Bill.
We, uh, we have a roaster.
And we would love to be able to take it to events.
And roast coffee so people can smell it.
They can experience how you roast coffee.
So if there's some way you can incorporate a roaster into the back of the truck,
we just think that'd be next level.
[Bill] That's a cool, cool project, man.
I love getting stuff in like this,
especially with the history of the truck, history of the company.
I definitely get what you guys are wanting to do.
You got 200 people back home in Florida
that just I can't wait to see what you can do with it.
And I'm ready to get going on it, man.
If you guys are ready, let's make it happen.
-Let's make it happen. -We're ready.
[Bill] Man, I love projects like this.
I love that challenge of taking something
old and vintage
and making it over-the-top cool.
Most of the time, vehicles like this,
people are just trying to get them looking
as close to factory as possible
and trying to restore them.
Make them vintage or, you know,
go the rat rod style.
There's definitely not a lot of people that'll attempt
to take an old-looking truck and modernize it.
So it's challenging to make it
still look appealing and not just too gaudy.
We're gonna take our time to make those right decisions,
put those right parts on,
and make 'em a really cool truck.
[Ryan] Man, this is pretty cool, dude. I like this.
-It doesn't look bad. -The motor looks really, really clean,
or it's just never been driven.
[Jamie] Man, it runs good.
-I mean, I've driven it around the parking lot. -[Ryan] Yeah? Mmm-hmm.
It's not bad at all.
[Bill] What's up, fellas? Y'all checking it out?
-Yeah, man, this is really cool. -Yeah, man, looking to put
the old motor in here.
-That's a cool, cool truck. -[Jamie] Yeah.
You know, it looks cool cruising in parades and everything now, but...
they want something a lot cooler.
-Why they brought it here. -That's right.
We're basically gonna leave the outside alone,
but they definitely want some upgrades.
In the engine compartment
and underneath on the suspension.
First thing we're gonna do is just get it on the lift,
rip out that old engine trans.
And I think what would be really cool on this
is a diesel.
-That's a great idea. -[Ryan] Mmm-hmm.
But we're super confined to how much room we have
-underneath the hood of this, right? -Yeah.
-[Jamie] It has no room. -[Bill] Just a 4BT,
you know, Cummins 4 cylinder in it
would just be really, really cool.
That's gonna change this truck dramatically, for sure.
After that, you know,
the next thing we gotta tackle is suspension.
Ripping all this totally out.
These old springs, a straight axle.
-[Jamie] Yeah. -[Bill] Can't have that.
They want it to drive good, ride good.
So independent front suspension.
Air on it, of course.
-We gotta have that adjustability. -[Ryan laughing]
- And the same with the back. - [Ryan] That is cool.
[Bill] Ripping out that old axle.
New late model, dual wheel axle, disc brakes,
Disc brakes in the front.
Stopping really good, driving good, riding good.
We're not gonna keep these wheels and tires, are we?
-No. no, no. -[Jamie laughing]
[Bill] Brand-new wheels and tires.
A 24-inch Dually Wheel.
I think it'll look real, real cool on there.
[Ryan] That's gonna be sick.
-That's going to grab a lot of attention right away. -[Jamie] Yeah, really cool.
Absolutely. So when it pulls up, people just... are just,
"Wow, man. I gotta go check this out."
And when they're all around it and checking it out,
that's when they're gonna hit 'em with the coffee serving in the back.
They got an antique coffee roaster they're gonna send to us,
and we're gonna configure that in the back of this.
So it's gonna look good, sound good,
and it's gonna smell pretty good, too.
Well, I can't wait. This thing's done, roast some coffee.
I'mma break it in.
You're not gonna want to give it back.
[laughs]
-Y'all ready to do it? -Let's do it, man.
[Bill] When you're talking about a '31 Ford pickup,
you're talking about a vehicle that's over 90 years old.
Technology has totally changed
from then till now.
You know, it's more than tearing down a truck.
This is a straight-up history lesson
on how cars used to be built.
Oh, that leaf spring was hitting under it.
Dang, that thing is real jacked up, huh?
Yeah. They put a hose clamp over it to keep it all together. Look.
[Jamie] Damn.
[Ryan] I'm surprised that held that long.
That's crazy. Coming out today.
-[Ryan] You ready? All right. -[Jamie] Yep.
We're ready to pull it out now.
Up a little bit.
All right. Pick it up.
Oh, brake lines. Hold up! Hold up. Hold up.
I don't wanna mess their brake lines up. They're perfect.
If we reuse them.
Dude, I got a treasure map. There's a note for Ekstensive.
Let's see it. If I didn't have gloves on,
-this would be way easy. -[Jamie] You found that in the truck?
[Ryan] Yeah. It was taped to the bottom of it.
"Congrats. You found the Mullis easter egg.
Just wanted you guys to know how much we appreciate
y'all taking care of old Max, who's special to us.
And we know it will be in good hands.
Can't wait to see what you guys do to old Max."
-[Jamie] You don't see that often. -[Ryan] Yeah.
-You never see that, huh? -[Jamie] Right on.
Ooh. You good?
[Ryan] Yeah. Yeah.
-All clear. -[Jamie] Ooh.
Out the way.
[Bill] You know, Jamie and Ryan did a great job tearing everything out.
You know, the next step on this
is rebuilding the rear suspension.
We're gonna build a four-link rear suspension
with an airbag that holds everything up.
So first things first,
building that part of the suspension
is getting the new hanger.
And what the hanger does
is connect the frame
to the rear end of the truck.
So all the stopping, starting.
All that torque transfers through to this hanger.
So this has to be super strong.
So, we're gonna build all this out of quarter inch material,
so we won't have any problems.
So I have the plate.
It bolts on to the-the frame here,
and then we're gonna have another plate
that goes on the outside.
And then we're gonna box all this in.
This is going to be exposed so people are gonna see this.
So I want to spend a little extra time on this
to make it look kind of cool and go with the styling of the truck.
Let's go give it to Mr. Jessie.
Appreciate you.
So now what I'm gonna do is just try to find something that looks similar
to this roundness right here,
which I found this.
I'll use that.
I already know this out here. Diameter's two inch.
So I'll just trace that, and that would help me
gather anything together and draw it out even faster,
and be more accurate with it.
All right. Everything looks good the way I laid it out.
So now I'm ready to cut it out.
So each hanger's gonna be different for the Maxwell coffee truck.
We're trying to make these more of its time.
More like it came with the truck.
Like they are original parts,
that way it can all just flow together
and look like...
that they rolled out of the factory like that.
All right, so I got the hinges done,
and they're punched, completely all the way through.
Now we've got to clean them up
and walk them over to Bill so he can put them on the truck.
The block. Spacer.
-Cool. -[Bill] We cut and cleaned up the hangers
for the rear suspension on the '31 Ford.
Now it's time to get them in place.
Tell you what we're gonna do.
-I want to box this in 100% around. -Okay.
I think that will look the coolest
and keep dirt out, all that out.
First things first, what I want to do
is probably take our five and a half inch pipe,
then we can just cut a piece here.
Cut a piece here, there and there,
and then just box the sides into it.
[Jamie] Boom. That'll be too big.
Okay, so I got all my pieces cut out.
Got all my pieces bent.
So the next thing is, go ahead and start fitting them in this shape.
Once I fit them to where I like them,
go ahead and tack them in. Then I weld them out.
Okay, so I got them all boxed up, mocked up.
Everything's tacked together.
So I'm gonna drop these off at Max's table.
They'll be welded out.
What's up, man?
Think you can burn these in for me real quick?
Okay, so what I'm doing right now is making
a bracket for a gusset on our hanger.
Basically, our hanger's bolted on the side of our frame.
So what I'm doing is making a little attachment
for our gusset to hang underneath the frame.
So it'll make our hanger very nice and sturdy.
So you can see I got my gusset right here on my hanger.
You know, this is exactly what this needs to give it the strength, you know.
So it can't bend or warp or anything like that.
This right here is gonna make this extra, extra, extra strong.
So now I got my gusset mount bolted up.
All I got to do, weld it out.
That's it. Strong as can be.
[Ryan] Check it'll clear.
Uh, no.
[Ryan] We can't get the motor for the GTO in under the door
and make everything work.
So we're just gonna roll the chassis out of the door.
Drop the motor down onto the chassis
and then roll it right back onto the lift.
Over here. Hold up.
You just hold that right there.
Coming down.
[Bill] Oh, watch your finger.
[Ryan] It's a lot heavier now.
-Now that's a hog, boys. -[Bill laughs]
[Bill] Quit hogging around, dude.
Hogging around, man.
We got the engine and trans installed on the '68 GTO.
Now Ryan's running all the lines.
All right, so we dropped the motor in here.
And now I can run my fuel lines back to the back.
Got the regulator mounted, fuel pump.
Everything's ready to go.
So I'm going to knock that out real quick.
When I run the fuel lines, I like to separate them.
I like to do a whip line from the motor to the chassis.
Other people think otherwise, they like to do it their way.
But it's always better to have one solid line
instead of having breaks in your line.
Less chances of this having a leak.
Less places to chase for a leak.
All right, so we're at a good point now
to get our body all together, get it rolled over here,
and put it on the lift,
and drop it down on the chassis.
All right, so we got our color for our '68 GTO.
It's a light stellar blue metallic.
But I think it's going to look really good.
Basically, I'm mixing a lot of different toners.
You don't want to go over or less with some colors
because it can mess up your formula.
That's why we try to mix a whole gallon.
Because if you mix a little by little here and there,
it might come out a little different.
I think what's really interesting about this paint
that we add in all this aluminum,
that's what's going to give it
that really cool metallic look to it.
All right, that's really going to make that color stand out.
All right, the color looks good.
We're going to go ahead and apply some sealer.
After that, we're going to come back,
paint our car, and see how it looks.
We got our two coats of base coat.
We're going to go ahead and lay some clear on it.
We're going to have a look in Motor City Finance.
We're going to go ahead and let it dry overnight,
paint the rest of the parts,
and we should have a brand new car.
I'm going to put these wheel dollies under the chassis,
and I'm just going to move the chassis underneath the GTO
and marry the two together.
Even though I've been in this game for a long time,
I still get excited when a big build
like the '68 GTO comes together.
All right, start cutting that. Cut it hard.
Seeing the finished product in my mind is one thing,
but seeing it actually come together
is when I definitely get excited.
Today's the day when we're putting the chassis
and the body together for the first time.
Just make sure I don't hit the motor on the firewall.
If it ain't touching now, it ain't going to hit.
[Jamie] Like right there on the edge, so that should be good.
[humming]
Man, good job.
We're going to go right into that bay.
Whoo.
Thank you very much.
So we got the GTO back over in this bay.
Now it's time to do all the sound deadening,
get this thing back up on the lift,
and start rolling through the whole final process
of doing all the fun stuff.
This GTO used to be a drag car originally,
but it wasn't... he wanted to drive it.
It wasn't practical.
We went ahead and got the LT4 crate motor.
And it's a lot of horsepower, but it's just not enough.
So we're going to go ahead and make some changes,
change some engine parts,
make it come alive, but still be a daily driver.
Streetable car with some good power under the hood.
So we're going to start by taking off
our whole front assembly.
A lot of the Chevy stuff, the basics of them
are the same back to the carbureted 350 days.
I'm not sure on the LT, but I know on the LS,
up until 2013,
you could take a transmission from the '72 Chevy
and bolt it right up to it for the most part.
I've been honestly messing with it
since I was a kid.
I was young.
My grandpa was a mechanic, my dad, most of my uncles.
So I've just kind of always been around it.
It's not really something I chose to do.
It's something that I just grew up doing.
I still do it, so I don't hate it, I guess.
This is the AC compressor.
So I guess I'm going to go ahead
and pull the crankshaft, pull it now.
So now that we got our front assembly all torn off,
we're going to start taking off the blowers
so we can get to our heads and get those pulled off next.
So we're going to go ahead and now
take our fuel rails off
and fuel lines so we can get these heads pulled off.
Just kind of paying attention to how it came apart
is one of the main things.
Always got to pay attention to what you're doing,
especially if it's a motor you haven't done before.
It makes the reassembly a lot easier.
Once the heads come off, the motor looks tiny.
And the kind of horsepower it makes
is even crazier for something so small.
We're going to go ahead and pull our lifter trays out
and get our lifters out.
And then we're going to pull our front cover
and get our camshaft out.
This is the oil pump.
And you got to be careful when pulling these out,
because see that right there? That's a bearing.
So if you're too rough with it,
you could push those bearings out.
Now we're done with the disassembly.
We're going to go ahead and get all our
mating surfaces cleaned up
and then put our heads on it
and basically build our motor backwards.
This thing's going to be a beast, for sure.
[Carlos] Oh, yeah.
Oh, Jamie.
Stuff just showed up for the Maxwell house.
They sent us over a nice little grinder here.
And then that's the roaster
that we're going to be roasting the beans in.
This thing's massive right here.
I don't know how that's gonna fit in the back of the truck.
That's what you and Bill are known to do,
to make magic happen.
Because Maxwell House is going to use
old Macks in many events,
they wanted a roaster and a grinder in the truck.
But what they sent is way too big for the bed.
So we need to change things up and build them a trailer.
You know, the only thing is there's no hitch.
So I guess we got to make them.
So all the machinery is so heavy and big.
We're going to go ahead and put a receiver hitch
in here now.
So what I'm going to do is go ahead and put some
C-channel right here on top of the frame.
Then we'll have a piece of four inch
boxed in with the C-channel.
Then we'll have the drop down with the slide.
All right, so I got my piece of C-channel here.
Cut, squared up.
Next thing is, start cutting this
three by four into place.
This is going to be the end of it
where our receiver hitch goes into.
So I'm going to miter it in between
these pieces of C-channel.
So once I get these cut out,
I'll go ahead and test fit it.
If I know it fits the way I want it to,
I'll go ahead and start putting these on the truck.
[Bill] For the back end of the hitch, we're going to add
a receiver tube.
So it's going to be super strong.
That way, they can haul as much coffee as they want.
Bill just lined this up for me.
So, fix the cutter right now and get it all welded out.
All right, I got my hitch.
It's solid. It looks good.
Now I'm going to add these gussets to it.
It's going to reinforce it and make it a lot better
and stronger.
Now I got my gussets in here in place.
Now I'm gonna quickly weld all the way around.
They're going to look good.
We got the custom hitch on the '31 Ford finished.
Now we're going to make some side plates
that attach to the frame
to secure the hitch to the truck.
You know, because this is wood and metal,
we can't just weld this.
You know, it's going to burn.
Everything's going to catch on fire.
So what we're going to do is we're going to take a plate
right here, and sandwich this plate
between our C-channel for our receiver hitch.
What I'm going to do right now is bring it to Jessie.
Need two of these, man.
And the holes.
I mean, you can make them just a tad bigger.
But I need two of these out of 3/16".
So I got it all drawn out.
It looks good.
So now I'm just ready to cut it out.
Okay, just got my plates back from Jessie.
Everything looks really good.
We'll go ahead and test fit them real quick.
Make sure everything's the way I want it.
After that, we'll go ahead and start drilling.
All right, now I got my marks.
I can drill everything in now.
I establish where my holes are going to go now,
from my plate to my frame.
So I'm going to go ahead and punch these real quick,
drill them out.
Bolt them back up,
Through punch them,
take the plate back off, drill the frame,
and everything should line up.
So you can see the frame
and the wooden frame of the bed are offset.
So the only thing to do is go ahead and cut it
all the way down the middle of our piece
that I had Jessie burn out.
Then we're going to go ahead and come back in here
with a strip, weld it in,
so we'll have a nice little shape to it,
contoured on each side.
So it's almost like a saddle
that's going to hold it right in place.
It's bolted through and through.
It's bolted to our drop hitch.
That's the way to go.
Now that the side plates are mocked up,
we realized the strip
connecting the top and the bottom plate
just really didn't give us the seamless look
we were looking for.
[Jamie] So the top piece wasn't going to work.
And instead of welding a little piece in,
I went ahead and remade the top piece
and put a bend right in it so it can meet the same angle
that I need.
You know, problems come up here all the time.
Let me rephrase that. [laughs]
Problems happen when you're working
on vehicles all the time.
You can only think of so much stuff,
but you can't ever think of everything.
You're going to have issues,
and you just have to adapt and overcome.
When you're making things by hand like we do,
most builds don't go exactly how you first thought.
Once we realized we needed a trailer for this thing,
we had to make a tow hitch.
From here, we need that custom suspension and the bed,
putting in the new 4BT diesel engine under the hood,
and then get to customizing a trailer.
Building a custom vehicle is never a straight line path,
but I really like the direction
we're heading in on this one.
We've got our C-channel in, our plates on the side,
and last but not least is our receiver hitch right here.
Got it stitched up right now,
so the receiver hitch is mocked up.
[Bill] We stripped the LT4 motor on the '68 GTO.
Now it's time to give this thing even more power.
[Matt] We're going to go ahead and start with the fun stuff
and get all the new more power parts put in.
We're going to start with the camshaft first,
and then we'll get our timing chain in there,
set our timing, and then move on from there.
It's set up different than the stock
to create more horsepower.
This one's got higher profiles.
The lobe separation is a little different.
It's a bigger cam to create more power.
The specs on it are set up for a blower motor.
Right here is our timing chain and oil pump gear.
So what that does is when you put this together,
it keeps the motor in time
so the valves open when they need to open
and not too soon or not too late.
So if that piston's at the top
and the cam's not timed right,
then that'll either break a valve or destroy the piston,
and we don't want that for sure.
All right, so we're going to go ahead
and get rid of these factory DoD lifters
and go ahead and put our new
just standard LS7 lifters in it.
So what the DoD does is allow the computer to shut down
four cylinders of the motor
to make it more fuel efficient.
But in this case,
we're not looking for fuel efficient.
We're looking for power.
These are our new heads right here.
We've got bigger intake valves, exhaust valves.
They open them up and smooth them out
so the air flow will be greater
and it'll flow smoother.
These bolts right here are actually stronger,
like the factory style bolts,
or they call them a stretch to yield.
So when you're torquing them,
the bolts actually stretch out.
So when you have boost in a motor,
it'll cause the head gasket to blow.
So with these bolts right here,
they don't stretch.
Okay, we're going to go ahead and put our new push rods in.
They came with our cam kit.
These are a different length
because the profiles on the cam are different.
If these are too long,
it's going to open the valve too much,
which could possibly hit the piston
and cause catastrophic failure for sure.
So it's real important that your push rod length
matches your cam setup.
All right, so now we're going to go ahead and install
our new rocker arms.
So the difference between these and the factory ones
is it's got a roller on the end of it
where it actually pushes the valve straight down.
As opposed to these, these kind of come in
and put a side load on the valve
before they open the valve.
If you put too much side load on the valve,
especially at high RPMs,
there's a good chance it'll snap the valve
and drop it in the motor.
That's the end of that.
It's actually starting to look like a motor,
a fast motor too.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
I'm going to spin the motor over a few times
just to make sure there's no issues.
Everything spins freely.
If I put some gas in it,
It might start like the old motors
where you had to spin them.
Then we'll go ahead and get
all our tin on the outside of it.
Put our valley pan on, valve covers on, front cover,
and pan on, just get this motor all closed up
and ready to hit the street.
So the LT4 was already a great engine,
a great platform to start with.
But the parts we add are definitely gonna
increase the horsepower.
And the performance is going to be top notch,
especially it'll be a streetable car.
That's the nice thing, but still have some power
to rip down the road.
But it looks good internally and externally.
So can't wait to get this thing together
and see what it's going to really do.
Hi, my name's Matt Lipp. I do a lot of the motor
and electrical stuff here at Ekstensive.
I've been doing this now for 20-plus years.
Since I was a kid,
kind of just took stuff apart,
figured out how to put it together the wrong way first,
and then got taught the right way.
And that's just kind of how it evolved into what I do now.
The thing I like about engine and wiring work,
there's always something new.
350 horsepower, 15 years ago was impressive.
But now we're building stuff
-that's 1,000, 1,500 horsepower. -[engine sputtering]
It keeps going and going with the technology now.
Like, I always got to make sure I'm on point
and keep up with all the new technology,
everything that comes out
so I know what it'll take to make the motor better.
Now it's lean, mean, and ready to be seen.
The payoff for me is just the self-satisfaction.
Like, I don't do stuff for other people
to say, "Oh, good work."
It's more for my pleasure.
Like, I like to know I took something on
that was hard.
And I accomplished it and made it come together,
just work in the end.
That's really what I enjoy doing the most.
Got it.
What's good, Carlos?
-Hey, Stephanie, what you doing? -How you doing?
[Carlos] I heard you were coming in.
Yeah, I'm here to check on my dad's '49 Ford.
Well, it's not done yet.
But it's a lot further along than what you dropped it off.
I mean, when you did, I didn't know if I had to get them, uh,
-tetanus shots or not. -[laughs]
But the guys have done so much work,
that custom frame that they put on there,
-that new independent rear suspension. -Mmm-hmm.
You are going to be impressed with that.
I cannot wait. I'm so excited.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Well, Bill's out in the body shop right now.
-There's a GTO that they're just pulling out. -Okay.
If you want, I could go grab them for you real quick.
No, it's all good.
I can go find them and see what's happening outside.
-All right. Well, enjoy. -Okay.
-Good to see you. -All right, you too.
Man, Edgar, it's really starting to look good, man.
We finally got the body back on the chassis.
We're in a good, good spot, man.
Yeah, man. We're getting real close to putting this car together.
It's going to look real great, man.
Hi. Nice to see you.
Hey, good to see you. Edgar, you met Stephanie?
-Hi, hi, nice to meet you. -Hi.
-Give me just a second. -All right, man.
Hey, thank you for coming in.
You know, I want to go over a couple of things
-with your dad's truck. -[Stephanie] Yep.
You know, I need you to pick and choose a couple of things.
So I appreciate you coming down.
Absolutely. But before we do that,
what do we got going on here?
With this timeless beauty.
[Bill] Man, this is a real, real cool car.
It's a '68 Pontiac GTO.
This has been in two brothers' family,
for about 40 years they've had it.
-[Stephanie] Wow. -[both laughing]
[Bill] We know what this car means to them.
So we're definitely going to take our time
and make sure every part and piece is 100% right.
[Stephanie] Yeah, these old GTOs are super cool.
I love old muscle cars.
Yeah, me too.
So which one was worse when I brought the truck in?
My dad's truck or this car?
-You definitely won on that one. -[laughs]
[Bill] This car was in really good shape when it came in.
You know, it was a time capsule pretty much.
But they wanted a car they could just get in,
has a whole lot of power, but still drive it
wherever they want and look good doing it.
So we just tore it all apart.
We made a whole new frame from front to back.
So you built the whole frame from scratch?
[Bill] Every part and piece, every bit of the suspension.
I mean, everything that's underneath the car
is all handmade.
[Stephanie] Wow.
If you're going to be customizing a car to this extent,
the first thing you've got to do
is start with a new frame.
[Stephanie] So you're not bagging this one?
[Bill] No, they wanted just a static, low look.
So it's got coilovers all the way around,
so you just get in and go.
[Stephanie] Are these the wheels for the finished ride?
[Bill] Man, it is.
-[Stephanie] Yeah. -I love the look of them.
-You know, it's a 20-inch wheel, -Me too.
so it's not too big.
You know, being a coilover suspension,
you don't have that adjustability.
So you can't go too big and have the car too low,
or you won't be able to turn.
So a 20-inch wheel for this, it's perfect.
You know, the brothers grew up racing in this car.
They had a race engine in it.
So the challenge was finding an engine
with a whole lot of power,
but the reliability that they want
to be able to drive it wherever they want.
So brand new crate LT4,
about 600-plus horsepower in it.
They're gonna definitely do whatever they want to do.
They're going to be fighting over who's driving.
[Bill laughs] Absolutely.
The one other cool thing, when you pop the hood on this,
you're not going to see anything but the supercharger.
Everything else is all paneled off.
So sheet metal panels all throughout the engine.
You won't see anything.
[Stephanie] Right.
[Bill] So it's going to look really, really cool.
When you pop the hood, it's just all body color,
-all underneath the hood. -All engine.
[Stephanie] Wow, that's going to be really cool.
You open up the hood and see all the custom metal work.
I think that's going to look super rad.
The color is amazing.
It's probably my favorite.
It looks like a blue sky.
[Bill] Well, the original color was blue,
but we had to wake that up a little bit.
[Stephanie] Well, this looks amazing.
What else do you have to do to it?
Man, we've done a ton of work up to this point,
but I mean, we still got a lot to do.
I mean, of course, getting the body all fit and finished
and then taking it over to the interior shop
and letting John do his thing.
So he's got his hands full with this one, for sure.
[Stephanie] Looks like it.
[Bill] Yeah, man, I can't wait to get this thing done.
This GTO has been a lot of work
for everybody in the shop,
but it's looking good.
I mean, there's pieces to this car everywhere,
but trust me, when you see it all together,
everybody's going to be blown away.
This is something special for these two brothers.
You know, it's been in their family for 40-plus years.
They've had it their whole lives.
So we really want to take the time
to make sure we're building this perfectly for them,
and it stands out from any other '68 GTO.
You know, that way, they can enjoy it
for another 40 years.