[Shorty] He wants us to do a '59 Impala.
A full-blown lowrider style.
I want it patterned out. I want chrome suspension. I want hydraulics.
I'm very nervous about this. This car is mint.
[Shorty] The dream team is coming in
and we're gonna knock it out.
[Lokey] I'll be using 22-carat gold.
We're actually putting a piece of our soul into this paint job.
[Shorty] We're bringing in a '92 Mustang GT.
A lowering kit suspension.
Wheels, tires.
But the diameter of the wheel is not gonna fit.
Now we need to make Paul's Impala move like a lowrider.
Man. I'm gonna cry. That's what I think.
My name is Javier, but most people call me Shorty.
I was born in Mexico
and when I was four years old,
my parents moved to Texas in search of the American dream.
Now I'm living that dream with my own custom shop
and a team that builds the coolest cars on the road.
We make dreams...
Wow!
-[Shorty] ...come true. -[all exclaiming]
I'm excited to be coming over here
to Impala Paul's place today, man.
He's like us, man.
He's addicted to cars.
-They don't call him Impala Paul for nothing. -No. Exactly.
He wants us to do a '59 for him
and he wants us to do a full-blown lowrider style.
Imagine that.
For some reason, you know, he just...
He said, "Man, I've just gotta...
Man, I wanna do my '59
and I wanna do it up as a lowrider."
That kinda shocked me.
It's crazy...
-Yeah. -...and exciting at the same time.
Think he's here?
-It's kinda hard to knock on these doors, man. -Yeah, I know.
Oh, he... He heard you.
-Pete, Shorty. -What's up, Paul?
-Que pasa? -How y'all doing, bro?
Como estas, Paul? Good to see you, my friend.
-How you doing, man? -Good to see you too, man.
My name is Paul Castillo.
I have a collection shop.
Shorty's one of the best painters I've ever seen.
You know, right out of the booth,
it looks like it's been buffed already.
So, you know, I want him to work on my car.
[Shorty] We call Paul "Impala Paul"
because he has quite the collection.
So the name fits him pretty good.
-What you got right here? -That's a '64.
[Pete] What's the story on it?
It's got original interior. It runs like a new car.
It's beautiful, man. It's super clean.
[Pete] That's how I like 'em. Stocking clean.
Nice trim.
You know ... SS bucket seats with the factory tag
with the upgraded steering wheel on it.
Four-speed, undermount AC.
Wow. This is pretty, man.
Well, let's go check out the '59.
Let's go check out the real toy box.
[Paul] After going to a car show,
I saw a bunch of '59s,
lowrider with patterns and hydraulics
and I just feel like I need to do it now
or it's never gonna happen.
Check it out.
I was just getting it ready to turn on for you,
back it out of here so y'all can take it before I change my mind.
Man, look at that.
-It's a piece of art. -Yeah.
That should be hanging on the wall, man.
The Impala just goes back to the culture,
my Hispanic culture.
My great-grandfather had a brand new 1958 Impala.
So, first time I saw that picture, I was hooked.
I just... No other car. It had to be an Impala.
When I first got the picture of it when you sent it to me,
I was just like, "Wow, The color combo."
[Paul] It's a '59 Bel Air two-tone color.
-That's been flopped, right? -Yeah.
-If I'm saying that right. -Yeah.
This car has the trailmasters,
the cruiser skirts,
the visor mirrors, compass.
Almost anything you could think of for a '59,
this car already has it.
These are like a jewelry.
Yeah, it's literally diamond earrings.
And it cost like a piece of jewelry.
[Pete] This is amazing, man.
-This is amazing. -It's amazing.
[Paul] Like living in the '50s.
I feel... Every time I climb in these things,
I just feel I'm back in 1959, man,
like I'm just cruising around.
It brings me back to my childhood days
and the memories I have from back then.
[Pete] Well, Paul, what's your...
-What's your game plan on it? -Plan?
Well, I want Shorty to put his touch on it.
I want it patterned out,
lowrider pattern with flakes.
I want chrome suspension.
I want hydraulics,
a bulletproof hydraulic system
that I can still drive it and not have to worry about breaking down.
Basically, I just wanna let you do what you do, Shorty.
Hey, man, you know, we're gonna give it the lowrider look,
Texas style. How's that?
[Paul] That's what I want, buddy. That's what I want.
You know, the reason I wanna do a lowrider
is because I love the look, you know?
All the murals and the...
Just the extreme custom paint jobs
that these come up with.
Uh, the culture itself goes way back.
The clubs, the people,
it's all about getting together as a family.
Let's load her up.
[whistles]
What y'all bring back?
-Y'all ready? -[man] Let's see it.
[man] Whoo-ey!
Oh, man, I like that color.
[whistles]
-Man! -Huh?
[chuckling]
-Can somebody give me a push? -[man] Yeah.
[Shorty] Give him a little push!
-Right back, man. -[Pete] Straight back.
-[man 1]You're good. -[man 2] Good, good.
[Joel] This thing is bad to the bone!
Man, oh, man. Look at that.
Pete and Shorty have come back with this '59
and, man, it is amazing, man.
This car is so badass.
Wait till you see under the hood, Joel. You ready?
I don't know. Let's see.
Come on, man. Look at that.
Oh, man! Wow.
I mean, every option you could probably think of for a '59.
And then, on the back, it's got the cruiser skirts on it.
Oh, man, it's got gauges, too.
It looks like everybody's scratching their head on why this car's here.
I know it ain't got nothing drivetrain related
or no AC related
-or no wiring. -Well, actually, it does, Joel.
-It does? -[Shorty] Drivetrain related, man.
It gets front and back all-chrome components,
A-arms, rear end.
He wants to put the cylinders in, make it a true lowrider.
Whoa. You're talking about cylinders.
-You talking about hydraulics? -[Shorty] Hydraulics, man.
We've done a number of cars with air ride,
but hydraulics, that's a whole different animal.
Hydraulic are much quicker and more powerful.
The last one I did for myself
-was back in, I don't know, I guess, 1984. -Wow.
[Shorty] What you see, the dark green,
it's all gonna be lowrider patterned out, flaked.
-[Joel] Wow. -[Shorty] And then, on the side,
we're gonna put some pinstriping along with some gold leaf.
Man, that's crazy, man.
-It's pretty awesome. -Let's do it. When are we starting?
[Shorty] Uh, right now, Joel.
I don't even wanna put a wrench to this car, man.
-I just really wanna cruise it. -[Pete] I know. It's too nice.
I'm kind of a little bit nervous 'cause the car's so nice.
But we're gonna give it a whole different look.
Hey, Pedro,
this one, you and Charlie ain't gonna touch.
I know...
Well, no. I mean, it still has to be sanded.
It's our dream, every time we get a car,
to get one that's really clean and stuff like that.
This is one of 'em.
All right, well, let's go to work.
We have Paul's '59 in the shop
and we're getting ready to start taking some trim off of it.
We're gonna go over the car and figure out
what are the most important pieces of trim to take off of it.
And it's very difficult to take off,
uh, and you don't wanna damage it.
You guys ready to tear into this badass car?
[man] Yes, sir.
You know, we're gonna paint from here on out.
And I don't know that I wanna take off the side moldings,
but, for now, I would say
take off the accessories
such as the mirrors and the lights.
We wanna take off the spear.
Uh, obviously the bezeling in the front.
The antennas, the fifth wheel,
the continental kit.
So let's go ahead and take the trim off the trunk, the wings.
-Let's get after it. -Let's go.
Very nervous about this. This is a...
This car is mint
and we just wanna be very careful with what we're doing
and make sure that we're taking our time
and doing everything right.
[Easy] Yeah, not so simple.
We gotta take a lot of things out
just to take a little trim off.
Okay, pull the glass.
-Got it? -[Terry] Yeah.
So, now we've got the '59 in the bodyshop.
The interior's pretty good. We're not taking it out.
Uh, I'm not trying to get it wet.
I'mma put plastic so water won't go inside,
tape on every little hole.
And from there, I just start waxing.
I'm pretty excited today.
I got my buddies showing up to help me, uh, get the '59 done.
You bringing an arsenal or what?
The dream team is coming in and we're gonna knock it out.
We could, obviously, build this car ourselves,
but, in the spirit of lowriding,
I decided to bring in my lowrider family.
-What's up, fellas? -[all chattering]
-[man] Shorty, what's going on? -Yeah, man.
[man] What's up?
Been a long time.
You fellas don't know how glad I am to see you, man.
Well, you know we've got a special place in our hearts for '59s, so...
-And lowriders. -...I'm excited. And lowriders.
For Paul's '59, I'm bringing in
some of the top guys from the paint industry.
They've been in this industry,
in their car clubs for many years.
These guys are some of the best.
And we're gonna share some techniques
and, as always, have a lot of fun.
Man, I appreciate you bringing all these materials
that we're gonna need for the car.
We're excited to get down on this lowrider
'cause that's... That's what we do.
This is in our blood and, um, the lowrider style.
And this is the first step, is family,
getting together, everybody chipping in and giving their part.
[Armando] Yeah. Friends helping friends out.
On the car, we're gonna leave some of the original colors,
but on the trunk and roof,
we're gonna do a full-blown lowrider patterned-up paint job.
What do you say, we get started on
some kind of design, some kind of a plan,
to get this car going, man?
Armando, I saw you brought your iPad.
[Armando] This is our layout.
So, you can see I have this tape line here.
This'll stay the original body color.
Um, I'm thinking, in here, we could do some metal flakes.
Um, in here, another one of the body colors
with, maybe, some different effects.
I know you were talking about wanting to see those water drops.
Right in here, maybe, we mix some custom color,
-maybe a teal. I know you like those teals. -[Shorty] Okay. Yeah.
And, you know, I wanted to keep some of that dark color
because some of the inside of the car is that color,
-so it'll kinda match it. -Yeah. Yeah.
[Armando] More metal flake.
Maybe we can do some fingerprints
and then another custom color here.
So we'll go from a solid base
to a nice pearl
to a sparkly metal flake and then back,
so when the sun hits it, it's gonna dance like crazy.
And then we'll get it all leafed and pinstriped.
[Shorty] Nice!
When you're doing a lowrider,
these are the colors that you need.
You know, the more radiant, the better.
You know, the flake, it just screams lowrider style, you know?
That's what we like, you know?
The artistic side
of each individual that owns one of these cars.
That's where it comes out.
And that's one of the things
that, uh, you know, makes this scene
-just so cool... -Unique.
-Yeah. -[Shorty] ...and unique.
It's pure art rolling down the street.
[Dan] That's something to work with.
-Whoo! -Man, that's awesome.
Let's do it, man.
One of the first steps on this paint job
is to lay out our metal flake.
Anything that goes on top of this flake
will give it a badass sparkle.
We'll tape up over it
and that's what'll give us our different pattern designs.
-Look at that, man. It's gonna dance around really good. -That looks real good.
We've gotta get to doing some back masking.
-Yeah. Back mask. -Put some of this down.
-That's why we brought in the gold tape. -Let's do it, man.
What's tedious about this process is all the steps involved.
We're gonna be taping, painting patterns, un-taping.
It's taping it again and painting more patterns.
We wanted to integrate onto the top color
the color that's on the body on the bottom of the car
and then put some green pearl on top of it.
That green pearl will blend in with the green.
So it's gonna make a really nice transition
and then all the colors just blend right in.
[Armando] We're gonna use the regular pearl to start with.
We're gonna go ahead and mix up a little bit.
That's beautiful, man. Look at that.
[Armando] That's it. So we're gonna lay this down.
This is gonna be a ground coat.
We're gonna mix our candy now.
We decided to go with some organic green.
And then I'm gonna do just a drop of blue
so we have kind of like a green on blue shade.
So it's gonna compliment
our base coat that we have down.
As far as Armando goes,
yeah, he knows how to lay out some nice paint jobs,
nice patterns for that flow.
We're gonna do a reverse water job which is more of, like, a texture.
So what we're gonna do is we're gonna spray the water down,
and then we're gonna spray our color just over the top
and do a nice blend how we want it,
and then we're gonna wipe the water drops off.
[Shorty] Dan... Him and Armando are like peas and carrots.
And they assist each other, you know?
Right now, what we're doing with this '59
is what you call fingerprinting.
And as you can see why...
Uh, because it kind of looks like a fingerprint.
Uh, Reed it also an expert in his field
as far as custom colors go, custom painting.
When we all get together,
we learn from each other,
learn new tricks in the process.
We turn out some badass paint jobs.
What we've done so far
-is beautiful, man. -Looks good.
Oh, man!
[Joel] Man, that looks killer.
You can see this thing
rolling down the street from the air. Looks really cool.
The next step, Joel, is to call Lokey...
-Yeah, I know this. -[Shorty] ...and get him to do his part.
Final step of this design
is the gold leafing and the pinstriping.
-Yo, yo. What's up, guys? -[Joel] There he is.
-How you doing? -Big gun's in town.
Let's go check it out, man.
You know, gold leafing, pinstriping, the scrolling...
My friend Lokey, he's considered one of the best.
-Is that a good canvas for you? -[Lokey] Beautiful.
Really, the last step is you,
-whatever you're gonna do with it. -Let's do it.
[Lokey] Right now, I'm just outlining
the areas of the tape
that I'm gonna be doing, like, the gold leaf on.
I'll be using 22-carat gold.
-This is the lowrider paint version of a block party. -[Shorty] That's right.
Does that mean we're getting carne asada today?
-You order it, you get it. -[chuckling]
Yeah, right now, I'm just laying out my adhesive.
And once that's tacked up properly,
then I go ahead and lay my gold leaf.
So, all I'm gonna do now is just kinda pat it down
and then I'm gonna burnish off all the extra gold.
Lowriding truly is an art form.
I know, a lot of times, it's portrayed in movies
like it's all gang-related
and that's definitely not the case.
The pinstriping is very important
when it comes to a paint job.
It's really, like, the finishing touch to the paint job, right?
We're gonna have patterns.
It's basically like framing every single pattern
and separating the colors.
It makes everything stand out, you know?
[Shorty] It's time to put the clear on it
which is what's going to bring this alive.
Once you put the clear on top,
that's where the magic happens.
The metal flake and all the different shades of candy that you put on,
it just comes alive
and just sparkle like a star.
We're bringing in a '92 Mustang GT into the shop
and this is my wife's car.
I bought this car brand new for her in 1992.
We were riding around one day, one Sunday afternoon,
and we passed by a dealership
and it was up on a little ramp.
And I just casually just mentioned,
"Oh, look, that's a really cool car."
You know, when you love someone,
you buy something for them, right?
[Lupe] Next thing I know,
he just showed up one day at the house
and said, "Hey, here, here's your car."
Obviously, it was bought out of love.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Lupe, I gotta open the door for you.
[Lupe] Oh, I didn't know that.
There's no time that Lupe comes into the shop,
driving the car,
and Junior goes over there asking about the car.
Every time I bring it,
I know what the question is
and the answer is still no.
You know, he wants it really bad,
but I don't think my wife's gonna budge.
We've had it for 30 years.
It's still beautiful.
Needs a little TLC.
There's a little bit of wear on the seat and things like that.
You know, the top needs to be replaced.
It's pretty old.
But, other than that, it's a great car.
Wait, you see it has a little chip right here.
So I think that means the price is a little cheaper.
I think I know someone that can fix that.
[Shorty] I thought, by now, this would be your car.
He's been trying.
You've worked on all these cars.
None of 'em are mine.
What do you think about putting some new wheels on it,
lowering it a couple of inches?
-Okay. -We're putting on a new top...
-[Lupe] Yeah. -[Shorty] ...putting some exhaust on it
and, obviously, fixing up
some of the interior that's torn in there.
We have a plan.
Let's get it fixed up and then we're gonna go to lunch.
-All right. -That's the only thing I can promise you.
-We're gonna go to lunch. -She's gonna take you to lunch.
Paul's Impala is starting to look like a lowrider
and now we need to make it move like one.
So in the spirit of lowriding,
I invited my friend Shorty from Shorty's Hydraulics
to come help me with it.
Hey, bro. I'm tripping, right?
You know I'm tripping, right? You seen my face?
We got Shorty one and Shorty two.
The real Shorty's gonna be the shorter one.
Not me. Yeah.
My name is Sotero Villarreal.
Everybody knows me by "Shorty".
This is my son Marc.
First of all, I'm Shorty first.
He's Shorty second.
Reason is I'm a year older than he is.
We have all the '59 components laying out on this table.
Uh, Shorty's hydraulics.
It's very important that all this stuff
gets installed, you know, as good and as safe as possible.
This is the... What we call a "wishbone".
Basically, it's a... We're making a triangulated four-link.
Once you install this on top of the rear end
and to the frame of the car,
you eliminate the Panhard bar and that's what's gonna keep
the rear end from shifting side to side.
This is not your typical rear end for a lowrider.
This rear end has been modified, it's been strengthened,
and it's also a Toyota rear end.
These are very common to use on lowriders
because you modify 'em. you put all your brackets that you need.
Everything has been chromed,
so everything is gonna look really nice in there.
Well, right now, we need to modify the driveshaft,
put a slip yoke on it.
[Shorty] So, only one section is gonna get shortened on this driveshaft.
The driveshaft is also special
'cause it takes a different part,
being connected to the Toyota rear end.
This Toyota rear end that we're gonna put in here
is made to fit one of these cars,
but it has some mods that we won't be able to use,
uh, the back park of the driveshaft.
This new piece
is what we're gonna be adding to the old piece.
As you can see, it's a telescopic.
So when the rear end... When the car goes up and down,
this will actually be working, doing this.
We had to cut out a part of the frame
in order for the driveshaft to have enough clearance
for the rear end when it goes up and down.
And, like I said, this is for clearance of the driveshaft up and down.
And now we're gonna move onto this tunnel.
We're getting the body ready for the hydraulics to be installed.
So now we're just prepping all the components
and putting them together to get 'em ready to put in the car.
This'll actually mount into the power bar here
and then this coil's actually gonna sit up on top.
Then, whenever it extends, you know,
the shaft will come out and the spring will stay on top.
[Sotero] Back in the day, normally, they would have a,
a plate that was here
with a little piece of cup
and that coil will sit on there.
So now they invented the power bar
which, you know, it'll move.
It's not gonna pull out of fall out out of place.
[Marc] So it'll actually pivot
with the car going up and down.
[Shorty] We're making good progress on Paul's '59.
We're gonna start cutting the trunk
for the installment of the rack
and the hydraulic components.
We're gonna mock it up before we start cutting.
Right now, we're kinda laying out
to see how we're gonna cut our base material.
We have a base plate that's gonna hold the pumps.
That's gonna be mounted
and it's gonna go from this wall.
And the base plate is just big enough
to fit between the wheel wells.
But it sticks out 11.5 inches,
so our rack is going to be...
We're gonna move these over behind the wheel well,
and that way, the base plate will come right next to it.
[Shorty] What we have going on here...
Marc asked me to cut him some slits in the trunk floor
so we can put the brackets from the frame
and weld them onto the frame of the car.
You don't wanna knock it off, we can set it.
It's already rocking.
So now that we got it mocked up, we know...
...where we're gonna mount this pump.
We're gonna make some brackets on the square tubing underneath.
That way, we're gonna sandwich the plate and the pump,
we'll weld together.
We're gonna drill a hole in the backside of this plate
so when we do our power cable
it'll just drop down straight into the plate,
so it'll make it look a lot cleaner,
and then from there it'll just be hidden and run to the solenoids.
[Javier] The pump platform and then the battery, that trays are separate.
[Marcos] You want it to be sturdy, that way
whenever you hit the switch on the hydraulic system,
the pumps create torque and they'll tend to rock a little bit,
so you do wanna have a nice, solid foundation
to keep it from coming loose.
[Javier] We have the base for the hydraulic pumps
and the battery trays oiled to the rack.
Now we're gonna send it off to the powder quarter
before we install it in the car.
[car revving]
Check it out, Junior.
[Junior] Man, oh, man. I can already tell, yo.
New top. Didn't they do a great job?
-They did a fantastic job. -Look at that.
Hey, man, I got the new top, I got the new seats, look at that, man.
You wanna go for a spin, Junior?
-Let's go. -All right, let's go.
[Javier] I don't know if anybody knows, but, uh,
she doesn't hardly drive this car.
The one that drives this is mainly me.
[tires screeching]
The upgrades are for her, but they're for me.
'Cause they're for her, but they're for me. You know what I mean?
[tires screeching]
And I think it's time we get some new tires, too.
[man laughs] God!
[Shorty laughs]
Where's everybody? [laughs]
[laughs]
I think the top came out awesome,
the seats came out great.
I think now it's time for some new suspension. What do you think, man?
-Maybe like two inches all the way around? -[Javier] Yeah.
[Javier] So what we're doing is just putting a little better suspension on it,
so the car will handle a little bit better, a little bit stiffer.
Uh, also dropping it about an inch and three quarters.
[Joel] And along with adjusting the stance,
we're gonna stiffen it up a little bit
with an upgraded sway bar.
It's a little heavier, so therefore it's gonna
keep the body from rocking even more, so.
It should ride pretty good.
No. Oh, hold on.
Try it now.
Yup.
[Marcos] We just finished cutting the holes in the sheet metal,
so now that we got it up in the air,
we're gonna cut the holes in the frame for the rear cylinders.
And then we'll move on to mocking up the rear end.
We just cut out almost all the way to the lip,
we wanna release some of the dropdown, that way it holds the coil.
Looking good so far.
-What do you think, Marc? -[Marcos] It's looking good.
It's the perfect color to go with that car.
Got the little microfacet in there and everything.
Basically, to install the powerplant of the cylinders,
you have to build racks.
And this system actually works without batteries.
So, it's not running off the car.
We're running four batteries on this car.
Two for the front and two for the back.
You build the rack, put your batteries on each side,
and then on the center you put your custom-built pumps.
And then you run your hydraulic lines to the front.
[Marcos] Right now, we're mounting the solenoids
underneath the rack before we put it in,
that way, it'll already be on there,
so we already got one step ahead.
We're gonna go ahead and put two screws in each solenoid
to make sure they got proper ground.
Right now we got the brackets tacked in,
we're gonna go ahead and start fully welding them.
After we finish that, then we'll adjust the, uh, the pinion angle on it,
on the wishbone.
We'll get all that lined up for the drive shaft to go in.
The drive shaft, then. That's a good sign.
Uh, these are the pumps
and of course, the, uh, cylinders to the front.
The rear's already installed.
Uh, and what the cylinders do when the pumps come on,
it pushes the fluid through,
it'll raise the cylinder open,
which will raise up the car.
[Javier] We're about to put all the components and tie them in.
And then, uh, hopefully, uh, in a few hours we'll have,
we'll have it pretty much complete.
This cylinder.
Plug it.
[indistinct chatter]
[Javier] Shorty and Marc are, uh, finishing up,
rounding the hydraulic lines from the front cylinders to the pumps.
What's going on, Pete?
It's not every often that Pete stops by,
you know, around midnight.
He showed up just in time to get the car out of the lift
and see how the hydraulics' gonna work.
[Marcos] All right, we'll go up at the front.
We got a, uh, a pot over here,
everybody got chip and five dollars for the petting zoo.
-[Javier chuckles] -[car popping]
There we go.
[laughs]
Seeing the car jump around for the very first time,
it just brought back memories.
I mean, from way back in the day when I was young,
the passion, you know, the love that you have for low riding,
and for cars in general.
[car popping]
Seeing how quick it moves
and how they work, it's just a work of art. It's amazing.
[Sotero] Come here, Shorty. Let's see how rusty you are.
Can you hold back?
Ah, he remembers.
You know, I was like a kid in a candy store,
I haven't had anything like that since high school.
Hey!
Didn't even flinch.
I think I did pretty well.
Hell yeah, man.
-All said and done, a little late. -I love it.
That's all right. Better late than never.
It's working great. What do you think, Pete?
I know Paul's gonna be excited about it.
The setup came out nice, man.
You know, that's one of the great things about the Impala.
That's why so many people use Impalas for low riding.
It's 'cause they're easy to build.
They're, you know, everything's... the suspension is great,
you know, it's perfect for hopping.
And, you know, you just can't beat the Impala.
I got goosebumps. It reminds me back in my days, you know,
when I was young.
Well, hopefully, truly, you'll be a lowrider.
-I am. Oh, hey. -I'm gonna get you more,
more excited and ready to go.
You can bet on that one, Shorty.
-All right. Well, okay, okay. -Build me one.
I can say it was a real pleasure working with, uh, Shorty and Marc,
uh, that they came out to, uh, help me do this installation.
Without them, I couldn't have done it.
It looks great. Like, once we put it, you know,
cut it and buff it, put it back together,
it's gonna become alive, you know?
-No problem. -Thank you guys, again, and we'll see you next time.
-We'll be back. -Yeah.
[Javier] We're making good progress on Lupe's Mustang.
Now we're swapping the wheels from 16ths to 18ths for better performance.
Yeah, brand-new pretty drums.
It's almost time for Lupe to go on a cruise, man.
Are you gonna do a burnout? Clean your tires?
-[Javier] I'm gonna offer her a burnout. -Yeah.
I'm gonna say, "Let's get it."
[Javier] How's it look?
I like it 'cause it looks clean, it, it's not too much,
it's just like a '90s little hot rod.
[Javier] Last thing we need to do is get the old exhaust out,
replace it with a new one so it can have
the signature sound like the Mustangs did back in 1992.
[Joel] These rubber seals, it's always good to lubricate them
before you go and take them off.
You just take some oil and squirt it off in here.
Pops them off just like that every time.
Oh, my God, look at that.
Now we got the old exhaust out,
let's see the new stuff.
Hell yeah, look at that.
I think this is this side.
-[Javier] Is that good? -[Joel] Yeah, it's good.
[Javier] You got a lowered suspension,
wheels, tires, new top, new seats,
new exhaust.
I think she's ready for the drag strip.
We're about to put on this bumper right now.
It looks a little different than the conventional bumper.
That's because they've added a Continental Kit.
This is a kit that has a spare tire right here.
It makes it a little bit more tedious to put on.
After that, we'll move on, uh, to the Continental Kit,
which moves right up here in this area.
There we go.
He and I are threshing down on this '59,
putting a bunch of the trim back on it.
Most of the trim that we're gonna put on right now
is the trim that's not gonna get in my way of the cut and buff.
This trim is, uh, you slide it in the drip rail
and then you very carefully have to, uh,
twist it so it will stay.
He says it's easy-peasy.
I should've left that for him.
[man] It's tedious, it's all it is.
[Javier] You gotta take your time, 'cause if you don't,
you can very easily screw things up really bad.
[glass rattling]
[chuckles]
[Junior] So, you know, it's the final day.
I'm not gonna say it's one of my favorite cars,
but it's one of my favorite cars.
I've been trying to buy this car for years now.
It's a triple white Mustang. It's a GT.
It has a 5.0 in it, and it's exactly the way I want.
-Hi. -Hey, babe.
[Lupe] How are you doing? Cleaning up the little car?
-Doing all right. -[both laugh]
So, I hear my car is ready.
Yeah, yeah, uh,
Junior's supposed to clean it up for me,
-Okay. -and you know what, he left a little bit ago.
Did he take off with it?
[Junior] You know, Shorty told me, "Hey, here's the keys."
If he's gonna give me that opportunity,
that car, based on Shorty's age,
has never been driven the way I drive.
[Lupe] There it is.
I just had to make sure them tires still able to be spun.
[Lupe] Wow.
Where did you go clean up the car?
-I, I took it to my house. -Oh, Junior.
-[Javier] You wanna see your car? -[Lupe] Yeah.
So, first thing, these wheels are actually a little bit bigger than the ones you had.
So, it had 16-inch wheels on it, and these are 18s.
-Wow, they're beautiful. -[Junior] They're great for drifting.
With the new wheels, the new low-profile tires,
just give it that extra look, that extra-racy look,
and then we put suspension on the front and the back.
You know, that dropped it a couple of inches
for that main look and stance.
We got a new top for you,
-because the other top, it just got old. -[Lupe] It was old.
We got, uh, new exhaust.
You know, sounds like a Mustang should.
It's a Flowmaster special muffler that you put on it
that gives the Mustangs that special rumble.
[Javier] So, inside, you remember how
-the interior looked. -Oh, wow.
[Lupe] Brand-new seats.
Now this is the one that was really worn out and little bit torn,
now it's brand new. This is amazing.
The car is finished, I had to hit Lupe one more time,
to see if she's ready to sell it.
-Least I can have my name on it? -No.
[laughs]
This car is very, very special to me, Junior.
One day, the time will come and I will own this car.
Junior has zero chance
of ending up with that car.
Not while I'm still alive.
What do you say, uh, we get in it
-and we go for a spin and we'll come right back? -Let's go.
[Javier] We'll be right back, Junior.
[car revving]
[Javier] Yes, right here.
-What do you think? -It feels great.
It's awesome, right?
Well, this car means a lot to me.
I can feel the power, and I can hear the power.
Brings me back to 1992.
-30 years' worth of memories, -30 years.
-that every time we get in this car, we relive it. -Right.
-Now that's awesome. -It's special. Here we go.
-[Lupe] We're gonna be cruising. -[Javier] Oh, yeah.
Lupe is really happy with her Mustang,
but now it's time to give Paul's Impala buffed,
and detailed, and get it ready for delivery.
Hey, Shorty. Do you remember your first lowrider?
My first lowrider was a '65 Impala.
What kinda wheels did you have on it?
I was poor, man, I couldn't afford,
so I went to Traders Village and bought me some baskets.
-[Javier] You remember the baskets? -I remember the baskets.
-You remember the fake ones? The fake baskets? -Yeah.
[Javier] And, uh, slapped them on, man.
And I actually painted the car myself in school.
Color sanding is basically the step that you do before you buff.
You cut the paint, you start off with 800, all the way to 5,000.
The higher grits take out the finer scratches that you're leaving,
and that just makes it easier for the final buff.
What about you, Pina? What was your first lowrider?
'76 Monte Carlo.
-[Javier] '76, man. -White and red interior.
Had some true spokes on it.
Well, see, on mine,
I, I put front hydraulics.
But we didn't build no racks, no nothing,
the batteries were flapping around in the back every time you turn,
-[all laughing] -beating up the corners and everything.
What was your first lowrider?
My first one was
the 1984 two-door Coupe DeVille.
$1,500.
-Dang. -Check it out. Gave her $1,000,
and she said, "For some reason, I trust you,
-that you'll bring back my $500." -You're gonna come back.
But look at us now, man, working on Paul's dream '59 Impala.
-This is a dream, man. I mean, look at it. -Yup.
-Work of art, man. -Work of art. Literally.
[Pedro] Damn!
[Javier] What happened, PG?
[Pedro] I don't know, it felt tight right there.
[man] Whoa, whoa, whoa, watch out.
[Javier] What happened?
-[Pedro] It just looked-- -Oh. Pedro?
[man] It went all the way through the roof.
[Javier] Oh...
[bleep] at that. Look at it, look at this, man.
Damn, that did go through.
Uh, yeah.
Dude, you better stop filming. I gotta fix this.
[Javier] Yeah, don't film this, James.
[Pedro speaking]
[Javier speaking]
-[Joel] What happened? -Ask PG.
So, Wayne labeled this as back molding screw,
and I started putting the screw in.
[Pedro] Well, that's on Wayne--
PG, how in the hell you not gonna see the damn screw, bro?
-Wayne, Wayne labeled it. -Holy...
That's Wayne's fault right there.
-Man, y'all play too damn much! What the... -[all laughing]
Y'all play too much, man.
Man, PG needs to get to work. It's not funny.
-[all laughing] -[Pedro] We'll be busy, Joel.
Well, maybe a little funny.
We have Impala, Paul's dream '59,
and getting ready to deliver it.
We're all threshing on it today.
Everybody's just, uh, putting in their part to get the car done.
We're going back in with the back seat,
we just got through installing the door panels
and all the headliner trim.
Well, thanks for all your help, PG.
-[Pedro] Uh-huh. -That was, uh, that was a ton of help.
Getting the interior all done, looks great.
These wheels are unique to the lowrider style.
Around 1920s,
Ford offered wire wheels as an option to the Model Ts.
That's how our wheels came about.
These happen to be 13s, which is, like,
you know, if you're a hardcore to the bone lowrider,
then you go with 13s.
We also have a narrow rear end.
The narrow rear end helps with the rubbing of the fender skirts.
They look the best on those lowrider style,
uh, cars, and, uh, we're about to install them.
I'm super excited to show this car to Paul.
I mean, the paint job, the hydraulics,
everything that we did to the car...
I think that when Paul sees this car,
he is gonna be super excited.
Hey. There you go.
Paul has a, uh, impressive collection of Impalas, mainly '59s.
I don't think he's ever had one like this.
And I can't wait till he hits the streets and hits the switches.
Today, I get my baby doll back.
I don't know anything about it.
Shorty hasn't sent me anything,
it's a real surprise.
It's something I wanted my whole life,
'cause when we were little kids,
you know, we have posters and lowrider magazines,
and you just dream.
Hey, I'm emotional. [chuckles]
It's an emotional day for me.
-Javier will be here soon. -I'm nervous.
-Hello, hello. I see you got the whole family with you. -Hi. [laughs]
It's my little baby, Risa.
I know the car's very special to you.
We got a lot of people here that are ready to see the car as well.
-How you feeling? -Nervous.
I let y'all do whatever y'all wanted, so I mean, you know,
I don't know what y'all did. But I'm ready.
I wanna thank everyone that came out to join us,
it's very special to Paul.
I just wanna say, it's a dream come true, bro.
Been waiting my whole life to get a car built.
I'm gonna turn him around, I'm gonna wait for him
just to hear the car coming.
[people exclaiming]
[people cheering]
Go ahead, turn around, Paul.
-What do you think, Paul? -I'm gonna cry, that's what I think.
[Javier] We pre-cruised it for you, man.
Oh, my God.
[Paul] I'm speechless.
That don't even look like my car anymore.
You made my dream come true, bro.
I think it's perfect.
I have a few Impalas, and, you know, '59s are my favorite.
I needed a lowrider, and now I have it.
I mean, it's everything I could dream of.
We even put the little cat back on there, man.
You know, bringing the car out here for the first time out here in the park,
and seeing the paint job in the sunlight,
it's just an icing on the cake.
When you speak about a lowrider paint job, anything goes.
The canvas is whatever you feel like it.
It's a dream come true, bro. I mean, I've been waiting my whole life for this.
I told Shorty to do what he wanted to do.
He did exactly what I would've wanted to do.
The patterns on the top,
the small gold leafs down the side, it's perfect.
This is just something I thought I would never achieve in my life, man.
[Javier] I've been out of the lowrider scene, that's why I was so anxious
to, you know, to do one for someone.
It's amazing to me how few people from different cultures
came together to give an old friend a hand, so.
That's what lowriders are all about, man.
[Javier] You know, Shorty and his son Marc,
-he thinks he's the original Shorty, right? -[laughs]
Hey, I'm a year older, man.
I know you haven't hit the switches in a long time,
so I'm gonna let Shorty come over here
-and show you how to do it. -Can you show me, Shorty?
[Sotero] We went a little more than basic on your setup,
-make it look a little nicer than normal. -[Paul] Yeah.
[Sotero] You have your, uh, over your front, then all the way down.
Bring it back.
Once you get about halfway or so,
you can bring it over to the side.
You come in here and give it a tap or two, man,
see how it feels for you.
-[Javier] Well, he wants to hop it, man. -He wants to hop, man.
[Javier laughs]
I don't wanna abuse my car, it's a '59 Impala,
I just want, I want everything that the lowrider's supposed to have
on my car.
Chrome suspension, the hydraulics,
custom paint, it came out perfect.
[Javier] All the cars you have are super nice, super cool,
so thanks for giving me the opportunity
to do something for you.
Man, I appreciate you, bro.
It's been a dream since I was a kid.
It, it's just, everything's amazing.
Lowriding is all about family, all about your friends,
and today I had a lot of that with me.
It's an honor, you know, to have the car of my dreams,
something I've been waiting for, so, I mean, I got it.
[all cheering and clapping]
It's just an icing on the cake.
That's what we're all about.
We think of each other as family.
We unite, we bond together.
These guys that have a passion for lowriding,
get together as clubs
and do a lot of good things for the community.
And that's what family's all about.
That's what's, uh, really cool to me.
I'm gonna give you, hey, I'm gonna give you a teeth cleaning.
Everybody take their time,
Wayne, we know you only got one speed.
We're gonna need you to slow that down a little bit more.
I'm gonna stop. Between slow and stop.
[man] Can you imagine Wayne slower?
Wayne, nice to meet you. I'm the number one Shorty here.
[Javier] He's playing, he ain't the real number one.
I'm Shorty, but I'm the original Shorty.
-[man 1] He said he's first. -[man 2] All right, guys.
[Sotero] He's younger than I am.
-Who's taller? -[Javier] I think I got him by half an inch.
-He's over here putting his hat up right there. -[laughs]
[man] Yeah, I saw him.