[Bill Carlton] You guys ready to check it out?
-Ohhh, yes! -Are you serious?
[Bill] This 1960 Jeep Willys is one of the biggest builds
we've ever done here at Ektensive.
Cool, I've been waiting.
It's bigger, it's wider, nothing factory's gonna fit in that truck.
Everybody comes here 'cause they want something different,
they want something of their own.
Go big or go home.
[John Villarreal-Vega] Our four-link, our axel, our bag mount
and our shock mounts gives this thing that bulldog stance.
We're gonna cut this firewall out.
And there you go.
We got air conditioning.
[Bill] All the blood, sweat and tears
that's went into this Willys,
I can't wait to see it finished.
-Oh, look at that! Outstanding! -[Bill laughing]
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 cars and trucks in the game.
People don't come here for what they need,
they come here for what they want.
This...
...is Texas Metal .
[Carlos Soto] Morning!
How's it going?
Man, it's going real good, Carlos.
I gotta tell you, man, you been doing a real good job, man,
last couple weeks.
Man, I've been blessed to keep getting busier and busier.
Our builds just get bigger and bigger.
And because of that, we're just bursting at the seams,
and we need more help.
Well, it's been really nice working here, man.
Everybody's great, the builds are awesome,
clients have been amazing.
Just been a good time, man, and I enjoy it.
It's definitely hard to find the right people
with the right skill set.
Well, let's make it official, man.
-All right. -[Bill] Come on full-time.
I'm ready.
-[Bill] Let's do it, man. -[Carlos] Let's do it.
Luckily, Carlos came from California
to help coordinate our builds.
And I wanna show you something, man,
uh, you mind if I drive real quick?
Yeah, where are we going?
You'll see.
Insurance paid up, right?
[Carlos] Uh, yes.
[Bill chuckling]
You know, he's only been here for a little while,
but he's fitting right in.
Oh, I forgot something, let me go back up here real quick.
-[tires screeching] -[Bill] Whoo!
Yeah!
-[laughing] -Ah, you got me.
[Bill] Some days you think it's gonna be a normal day,
well, that's the total opposite around here.
I mean, we're always striving to go bigger, better,
and to be the best.
[Carlos] This is not the kind of donuts I thought we were gonna go get, but...
man, this is amazing!
-Hey, welcome aboard! -[chuckling]
[laughing]
That seems kinda like the theme around here,
always doing more.
[Bill] Yeah, you always gotta have that little more, little more.
Speaking of.
[Burgess] Man, the text message said, "Come up front."
I didn't know this was an intervention.
-Have I been working too hard? -[Bill laughing]
Too much work?
-No. -I need to cut back on the metal work I'm doing?
No, no, we watch on the cameras, we know better.
[laughing]
-Worth a try. -That's why we need to talk to you.
-[Bill] What we want to talk about is that Willys. -Okay.
I'm really getting excited about it...
-Yeah. -[Bill] ...but we're still a long ways away.
The 1960 Jeep Willys rolled in a while back,
and it was in really good shape.
But the owner, he wants a one of one.
You know, something totally different, unlike anything else,
and he wants that just aggressive bulldog look.
So, we went big and split that cab open to four pieces.
It'll make it eight-inches wider and about six-inches longer.
Bob Grant, one of the top guys in the game,
made that body just look like it came that way from the factory.
Yeah, this is my first big build with you guys,
and seeing that thing for the first time was just impressive,
and I can't wait to see it finished.
Well, we're getting close, man, we're getting real close.
Once that cab was larger,
we had to go with that larger frame.
So, we built the frame with the same size tubing
we use on a one-ton truck.
So, it's way strong enough to handle
that 6.2 Hellcat engine that's going in it.
Once that was done, we handmade a bed
that matches the size and design of the body.
It looks like it came on that Willys.
-Good job, I say. -We still need to do the firewall,
suspension front and rear.
So, we're bagging it, too, right?
Yeah, big four-link with big airbags.
You know, speaking of doing something right,
John, it's time for the interior.
Cool, I've been waiting.
I've been itching watching everybody work on it,
and just kinda getting ideas and thinking about
being able to do something to that truck.
-That thing is so cool. -[Bill] Yeah, man.
Except we don't have anything, we threw everything away.
[Burgess] It's not like it was gonna work anyway.
Right, exactly.
It's bigger, it's wider, nothing factory's gonna fit in that truck.
And it's on you to fill all that room with a bunch of coolness.
[Burgess] So, custom door panels,
something flows, nice lines from the car.
-[Bill] Yeah. -[Burgess] We'll do custom seats,
custom-shaped foam, covers, the whole nine yards.
With custom audio, we'll do it in the center console.
So, the idea is to keep all the leg room that we worked so hard to get in there...
-[Bill] For sure. -[Burgess] ...so, tie it in to the custom kicks
just for the kick of it.
[laughing]
'Kay, well, I'll just get you the material you need for the interior...
-[Burgess] All right. -...and just let me know what colors
and stuff like that that you need.
Hope your fingers are warmed up.
They're warm.
[Burgess] It's way more than just material, I mean...
But you got plenty of stuff to get started.
All right, well, this has been fun,
but I got work to do.
Go do it.
Don't hide this!
[Bill] We mocked up the engine and trans,
now we can get going on the suspension.
Because the Hellcat's pushing over 700 horsepower,
we're going with an extra heavy duty suspension.
Now we got the front axel in place,
all the front suspension done,
even the engine's in place,
now we want make the upper back supports
look as aggressive as the rest of the build.
All right, so, Jessie got these plates burned out for me,
now I can go get 'em shaped to fit the curvature...
...of the tubing.
Hot dog!
Now we got this bent perfectly,
clean up time.
All I'm doing now is taking all this
middle scale and black paint off of it.
It's given me some bare metal.
Nice shiny metal is better to weld on.
Now I got the plate where I want it,
I can go ahead and get that welded in.
Yeah.
Just like that.
We got our lower back mount here,
which the bottom of the bag is gonna sit on,
and our upper back mount, top of the bag's gonna sit on.
The next step we're gonna do is make a gusset
that connects from here down to the side of the frame rail,
give it a lot more support...
...and also make it look cool.
We're gonna do it at a pipe as well.
If we do it like that, we can't get that bolt out,
but if we do it like that, we can.
As you can see here,
this definitely is gonna add a lot of support to the end of this bracket.
Pretty bueno.
Now we got a complete bag mount.
Pull links are in, axels are on,
got our bag mounts on,
last, final piece of the front suspension,
doing the shocks.
All we gotta do is make us some shock pumps
that attach from the frame to the top of the shocks.
So, after doing shocks about a million times,
we're gonna cut us a template out, something like that.
We'll see how close we get to having that correct.
Pretty confident this will be pretty close.
Perfect.
Now we're gonna take this...
...and get that cut out.
Now we got all four pieces cut out...
...we can get these sanded, put some holes in it.
Now I got the first hole...
...I can clamp the second one together,
use that hole as a pilot and punch through the second one.
Now with everything in place,
our four-link, our axel,
our bag mounts and our shock mounts,
it gives this thing that wide bulldog stance
to handle the width of the body now,
the power of the motor, the size of the wheels and tires,
with everything coming together,
this setup is perfect for it.
[Burgess] So, today's the day.
We're gonna get started on the door panels for the Willys Jeep.
The look they're going after, you know, with this one,
it's kind of a, uh, utilitarian style.
Uh, they still want it nice and clean and classy,
but at the same time, it's still got that big, beefy,
nasty stance to it, so,
with that, we don't want too many curved lines or anything,
so, it's gonna be kinda straight forward.
We'll round out the corners and give it our own touch.
That's kinda gonna be my roadmap for the computer.
We'll be able to expand and elaborate on our design,
change 'em around, do what we need to do
and have a door panel.
Every one of our builds have to be completely different,
so, it's really difficult
to always keep one-upping yourself,
but it's also nice to always one-up yourself.
It keeps you motivated, keeps you moving.
Next step, we glue 'em on to a back piece.
Stick this in place and get it on the router.
It's that magic butter.
This is a, uh, fiberglass-reinforced body filler
that we use when we're making gaps bigger
than 1/8" to 1/4",
anything bigger than that, the bonder really doesn't have
the strength that you need, so we use this.
Helps hold our shape,
a little more difficult to sand,
but in the end, it's really worth it
because it keeps everything nice and straight,
and you don't have to worry about it breaking or cracking or anything.
Ooh, like a glove.
So, now we've got a nice trim ring built around it.
Everything worked out great.
Next thing we have to do is build the arm rest on top of it.
This is one of the things that I just don't like doing with a machine.
To me, it's a lot more fun,
part of the creative process of building things manually
and getting your shapes and things in it that way.
You can usually look at something
and tell if it's been mostly done by machine
or if it's handwork, how much handwork's gone into it.
It just has more of an organic feel,
and to me, there's just no replacing that.
I'm of the school of just get in and get your hands in it
and figure it out.
A lot of people like to do, uh, will do a test piece or something.
No, I like to just go straight in,
dive right in full boar.
If you're not gonna put 100% into your practice piece,
you'll never know what the full potential is
of the part you're trying to make.
Go big or go home.
All right, door panel's all body-worked out
and ready to go.
Next step, get some leather on this,
get the inserts wrapped,
and we'll be ready to put it on the truck.
[Bill] People come through the shop all the time,
"Oh, man, you inspire me to do this,
to weld more in my garage
or, you know, to be more hands-on,"
and then a customer comes in, says,
"Well, I've seen how you did this,
well, I wanna do this."
You know, and the projects just,
they spiral out of control from there.
Like the Willys, for example.
Bob coming in and just making it look so easy.
Cutting a cab up like that and putting it back together,
that just ain't something anybody can do.
So, we had to cut through all the structure and everything,
and when we rebuild it, we're gonna have to put it back,
all that structure back in.
[Bill] I mean, you really have to have your skills fine-tuned
and honed to be able to come in,
make it look as easy as he does,
make it go back together as easy as it looks.
That's really saying something.
To make the body lines match up the way they do,
the proportions look the way they look,
I mean, that's a skill set in itself also.
Just the cab on the Willys
is something we can all be proud of,
and having Bob part of that is key.
I know this looks crazy and bad right now...
...but once we get it all cut out and trimmed up,
it's gonna look perfect.
[Bob] This is Ektensive metal works.
We do metal work on pretty much
every project that comes in and out the door.
There is some sort of metal shaping,
welding, grinding, all that technique
is built in to pretty much everything that goes in and out,
but this Jeep Willys...
...I mean, every inch of it is metal work.
It's something that's evolved
into a really, really, really cool project
that everyone in this shop is proud of.
We're making good progress on the front suspension
on the Jeep Willys.
You know, the four-link, new axels, bag mounts, shock mounts,
it's all done.
Now we're making the heavy duty hangers for that rear suspension.
This is usually where I finally line it up and make it all straight,
and make all the cuts right here without having to do it on the frame.
Kinda something cool, too,
the Willys has a little roll in the fenders.
So, this kinda duplicates the fender a little bit
the way it rolls back.
Once it gets welded out, it'll be super strong,
and it's all gonna flow together.
Now Tim's got these nice hangers tacked in place,
I'm gonna go ahead and get these welded out.
After that, we're gonna start building a heavy duty four-link
to accommodate the heavy duty rear end
to handle all the power this Hellcat's gonna put out.
It would be pointless to put your basic four-link on this,
so, we're definitely gonna put an updated heavy duty
four-link on there to make sure it withstands
all the power and torque that this engine's
gonna put to that rear wheel.
Now we got the hangers all welded in on a very strong weld,
now it's time to get that three-quarter ton axel in,
and get that four-link built.
First thing we're gonna do is get this axel centered
from side to side,
and also from front to back on both sides.
We want this thing straight across and even.
...Seven a seven-eighths.
From the edge, I'm gonna mark me a couple reference lines,
so I know exactly where our axel tabs are gonna mount.
When we set our axel tabs here with a four-link bar,
we know that it's gonna be perfectly straight.
You always wanna make sure the bar
is gonna be just as strong as everything else.
So, if we're using a bigger, heavier-duty piece of DOM,
so, when he does step on it...
...he should have no problem at all with the four-link.
This is the gravy maker.
[Villarreal-Vega] Uh, we got the top two bars in.
We're gonna tack 'em in place so they don't move,
then we'll get our bottom ones made.
[Tim Donelson] One more tap.
All right.
That looks right.
All right, we got the hangers in place all welded out,
heavy duty four-link bars in.
Now this thing's gonna be able to handle whatever the engine throws at it.
What you doing, man?
Oh, hey, what's going on?
So, I just got off the phone with the owner of the Jeep Willys...
-Right. -...and, uh, trying to go over some colors.
He wants to kinda keep true to the era of the Jeep Willys.
So, I printed this out,
and it's got all the different colors that they have.
-So, this is what we're picking from, huh? -Yeah.
That's better than picking through a whole color book, right?
Yeah.
You know, a couple of these you can just mark these right off the list.
Peacock blue.
Palm beach ivory.
-Mmm. -Nah.
Tropical rose.
[Carlos] Yeah, that Jeep doesn't really scream, "Tropical."
[Bill] Yeah.
One of the things I've been thinking about this,
you know, of course, the whole time you're building something,
you're thinking, "Hey, what color's gonna look..."
-Mmm-hmm. -What it's gonna look like in the end, right?
-And I've been thinking dark green since, you know... -Mmm.
For a while now.
-That pretty much makes it easy on this. -[Carlos] Mmm.
[Bill] That deep, deep green is gonna look really, really good on there.
-[Carlos] Yeah. -[Bill] I think, you know, you're really gonna see
all the body lines.
Let's get with Juan back there, we're gonna mix it up,
you know, a little bit.
We don't wanna have, you know, boring green, but...
Yeah, you gotta keep it a little custom,
-but keeping it OEM style. -Right, right, yeah.
It's gonna be a one-of-a-kind color just for his Jeep.
You know, as far as the interior color also, man,
it has to be a tan.
I think that deep green with the tan interior,
I mean, that's a win-win right there.
This is gonna stand out like no other.
And I'm gonna get with Juan,
get something mixed up 'cause we're ready.
Yes, sir.
We're gonna make it happen.
Cool.
Making that Jeep longer and wider than it was originally,
it's not only a metal-working challenge,
it means none of the original interior pieces are gonna work.
John needs to build every part and piece from scratch.
And I mean everything.
[Burgess] Got the base of the door panel all wrapped.
Everything worked out great,
so, next step, finish making the map pocket.
We're gonna use this spring steel.
We're gonna put this like an insert inside of a leather sleeve,
and it'll just create our belt that goes across the opening
for our map pocket.
Everything I've done has been self-taught.
Screwed up a lot of stuff.
Had to fix a lot of stuff.
I guess that was one of the driving factors
when I started doing it is not wanting to pay for broken stuff, so...
...got either good at fixing it
or not breaking it. One of the two.
And over time you just get better at not breaking it.
But you still screw up stuff.
That's a good looking door panel.
I'll put that on a Willys Jeep.
[Bill] You know, it's no secret I'm a big fan of air suspension.
On-road, off-road, doesn't matter,
it's a better driving experience.
That's what the owner of the Willys wants,
and today he's gonna get it.
We got the center of our bags laid out.
So, what we're gonna do is make a perimeter around it
with pipe, and then plate it all in.
That's gonna be our upper bag mount.
Okay, so, right now I've got our piping here,
fixing to go ahead and cut out a section of pipe.
Then we'll take it over to the pipe bender...
...and that's gonna be our upper bag mounts.
Jessie just burned us out some plates right here.
This is where our bag is actually gonna bolt to.
I gotta trim it just a little bit more.
Once I do that,
I'll go ahead and punch the holes in for the bolt and air fitting.
Once I do that, I'll go ahead and weld this thing out all the way.
All right.
Got both the upper bag mounts done,
everything's blown in,
so, next is go ahead and put 'em on the truck.
You know, I've built more air suspensions
like the one on the Willys than I can even remember.
When mocking up the shocks,
it's critical to see how they fit with everything fully compressed.
This is all good.
Okay, so, we got our mock-up shocks here, compressed.
We'll go ahead and set our tab.
-[grunts] -[Bill] Got it?
[Jamie] Once we do that,
we'll know what we're gonna mag drill to the frame.
Gonna go right through the frame.
That's gonna tie in to the upper part of our shock.
All right. We've got our hole.
[Bill] So we've got our DOM.
The shock is gonna hang off the side of the frame and come down to the axle.
So, we wanted something really substantial
to hold all the jarring of the shock,
so we put DOM through the frame so we can through bolt it
and, you know, tighten it up and be nice and strong.
So that's a sleeve, basically, to go over our DOM.
Just cosmetic, basically.
And it's gonna look better against the shock.
Okay, so now we got our upper shock mount done.
So now we're just gonna through bolt it.
Line everything up.
And tack it right on the ram right here.
Okay. Shocks are in. Everything looks parallel.
I like it.
All right. So, we're getting started on the console for the Willys Jeep.
And we're gonna do a stack fab-style box.
So, basically, we're just gonna make a bunch of rings.
Gonna put a subwoofer in it.
Woofer's gonna be on the backside,
firing up the back wall of the truck.
And we have a good, solid foundation for our curve.
We don't have to worry about any fleck or anything like that,
so really good way to go about it.
[man] Give it a squeeze.
It's got a clamp on here. We're gonna let this glue dry for a minute.
Once the glue's dry, we'll put the baffle on it, cut our hole in it,
and start shaping these sides in.
Step one. Rough cut.
There's just something to be said for knowing
that you can do whatever you want with your hands.
You know, that's one thing I've always said,
is I'll never go hungry as long as these work
because I'll find something to do.
I'll find a way to make something.
One of the challenges, you know, is you've got the customer
that has certain expectations,
and they have certain wants and needs.
And then you, on your artistic side,
you're trying to up your game and kind of set it up
and push yourself a little further every time.
So we're getting that fine balance between the two-
of giving the customer what they're after
and still putting your little spin and your touch on it.
But there's still some constraints at times,
and it's just the nature of the beast.
I like it.
All right, man. We got this thing all bodyworked out, ready to go.
So, the next step on the center console
is to go ahead and work in the piece that goes around the shifter
up into the armrest.
We'll be able to attach this to the front of the subwoofer box.
So, next thing I have to do is start working on the insert and all the parts
that go around the shifter so we can bodywork that into this panel.
Everything starts with a basic form, basic shape.
Just how far do you take it from there?
So, time to get busy and get some mud on this thing.
Chipboard, fiberglass, bodywork.
Usual thing.
All day, every day.
If you're fabricating, you're bodyworking, I promise you.
If you're not, you're not doing it right.
Give it some sandy-sands.
Common thread with fabrication. Sanding.
Lots and lots of sanding.
Usually, because we go with bigger engines and transmissions,
we cut the original firewall out.
Now it's time to replace it with a new, handmade firewall.
Even though you won't always be able to see it,
we're gonna give it that same custom look as the rest of the Willys.
Now we got the cabin lifted up off the frame,
what I'm gonna do is start removing all this stuff
that's not needed anymore,
and we're gonna cut this firewall out
and build a whole new one that looks really nice.
They're not planning on having this ugly-looking firewall
when the rest of the truck is completely custom.
And there you go.
We got air conditioning.
You know, typically, the firewall's flat.
But right here where the motor is,
I'm gonna make it curve in and curve back out.
So, not only does it gotta curve in from the sides
but also from the top.
Something like this little challenge is fun to do.
You can't always have it easy all the time, then you get burned out.
Now we're creating our radiuses,
horizontally and vertically at the same time.
It takes a lot of time, but the finished product looks so much better.
We got the hardest piece done.
Now that's taken place, we can build our templates
for what we're gonna design on the rest of the firewall,
which is mainly flat stuff with some bead rolling.
Should be way easier than that part.
First thing I'ma do first: crack this in half.
I'ma bead roll some patterns that matches the rest of the patterns
that are on the truck already.
So the panel will match perfectly to the truck and not look out of place.
Now we got our first panel.
We got our patterns recessed in like the rest of everything,
and I raised the perimeter around the hood hinge
so that this panel will sit flat against the firewall.
All right. I just trim off all the extras that's not needed,
and get it tacked on the firewall.
All right. We got all the panels made, cut to fit.
All we gotta do is weld it in,
and we got us a full firewall.
A project like this Jeep Willys,
that's one of the most labor-intensive jobs
that you can actually do to a vehicle.
Every part along the way is just hours put in.
From taking apart the body and totally remaking it:
the frame, the suspension, of course, that handmade bed.
Most of the time when you have a project,
you're working with parameters there.
You're just changing, you know, tail lights
or maybe changing the wheel well opening a little bit
just to add those custom touches.
Well, in this case of the Willys,
there's no reference points to go off of.
Creating the whole bed- it's work.
But, really, more of the challenge
is making it look like it came that way.
That's a whole, whole, whole different ball game.
Stepping back and getting the proportions right, the right body shape,
the flow of the body...
I mean, all that is super, super critical.
To see how to bend those lines
and how long to make the lines
and where to put the wheel well opening
and how to shape the wheel well...
The key is making it look like they came that way.
All the blood, sweat, and tears that's went in this Willys is...
It's finally, finally coming to an end,
so we're right there at the finish line,
and I can't wait to see it finished.
When you're working on these big builds,
you always learn to celebrate these big milestones.
That'll do it.
With all the months and months of metalwork finally done,
we can finally send this frame off to powder coat. It's a very big day.
[Tim] You know, when you finally send off the frame,
it's one of them days that you really look forward to
because you know all the fabrication's been done.
And once you get it back, clean out the powder through the holes,
and you get to start reassembling this thing,
and it really starts to come together.
[Bill] You know, the Willys' metalwork is all done.
The body shop did their thing. Now it's time for paint.
Green for the money. Gold for the honey.
All right. So, we're gonna paint this Jeeps Willy a Jeep Green,
which, that's actually the name of the color. It's called Jeep Green.
So, basically, it's a military green with some glamor in it.
It's gonna be a nice color.
It's gonna be something exotic, something nice.
All right. So we got all our colors,
and now we're ready to take it to the shaker and get it all mixed up.
All right. So, we got out Green Jeep metallic
for a Green Jeep that's going on a green Jeep.
Looks like an avocado now.
All right. This is a nice Jeep Green. It's gonna look good.
I like it.
[Bill] As a contrast to the green paint on the Willys,
we went with a tan leather for that interior.
You know, with that color combo,
it'll really make these handmade seats really stand out.
Decided to go with a pair of buckets in it.
So I've taken some foam, got it all shaped out.
So now it's just a matter of sitting here, getting an idea in my head,
getting it laid out on here so we have something to work off of
to make our patterns.
Let's see. So, we're gonna run center on this.
Once I got that, it's just time to start coming up with ideas.
Probably one of the hardest parts of all of this
is the simple fact that no two can be the same.
Everybody comes here 'cause they want something different.
They want something of their own.
You know, it takes a little bit of effort, a little bit more work
to get it worked out to make it happen
but definitely what we shoot for.
Something like that.
Foam gives our pattern some workability,
make it lay nicer, look better.
And now to play Tetris.
Let's go sit down and do some sewing.
Oh, yeah.
Got two halves of our insert.
I'm gonna put these together.
I'm gonna make a strip to go up the center.
Get that sewn down. It'll cover up the seam.
And this is a contrasting top stitch,
so it's like drawing on it with a marker.
You get it crooked, they'll see it.
All right. We got the first insert done.
That's ready to go.
Next step: rinse, wash, repeat, and go on to the next one.
-[man] We're good? -[man 2] We're good.
[Bill] We're getting all of our parts and pieces back from the powder coat.
And this 1960 Jeep Willys, you know, is bare frame,
so we're putting on every part and piece.
We got the axles painted.
All the four-link bars.
Powder coat tapped out of them.
We got our Hellcat Redeye engine transmission painted.
Everything's going back together.
It's looking really, really good.
Right. To the front, y'all.
[Bill] I love the grey hammer tone next to the green metallic.
Man, it just looks very classy,
but it still has that military kind of feel,
so I think the colors are gonna go with this perfectly.
You know, this is one of my favorite parts of any build.
When all the parts and pieces all start to come together,
it just reminds you, you know,
when you were a little kid, building that model
and creating that little masterpiece.
Well, this is the full-sized version right here.
I can't wait to see how this wide body is gonna look on this chassis.
Right now, I'm just trying to lay up for the kick panels on the Willys Jeep.
Trying to get this thing set up so we can get the machine running.
No. No matter how many sets of kick panels I've made
or how many panels I've made,
whenever we're building these cars,
every one of them's different.
Every bit has its own way of making a mess out of me, so...
Dirtiest tool in the shop, besides me.
We may start with a template from another one,
but from there, we just elaborate on what we've already got.
Then we have something that's totally unique,
completely different, no one else has it, only that one truck,
so everything has to be different.
-[Jennifer] Hey, man. -Hey. What's up?
-These are great. Those are the kick panels? -Yeah.
Okay.
So, I could use a little bit of help.
-Listen, it's easy work. This is easy. -Easy? This is a trick.
I've got all the drawings for the Willys Jeep.
-Okay. -I just need you
to take the drawings out of the software
and put them into the laser software
so we can feed lady sponda...
-[Jennifer] Oh, yeah. -...and she can cut out some trim edges for me.
-We're gonna feed the new beast. -Yes.
-Feed the beast. -Chomp, chomp, chomp.
The advantage of a laser cutter over a CNC is speed and precision.
The laser cutter is very fast and very precise.
It doesn't need to go over the cut multiple times.
One cut, and it's perfect.
Unfortunately, the machines won't sand for us, so we still have to sand.
I'll never be able to do away with this.
The Willys is one of the biggest builds we've ever done
here at Ekstensive.
This build took a little longer than expected.
Maybe a little over budget.
But it's something myself and all the guys are really proud of,
so I can't wait for you to see what we got for you.
[Carlos] So, growing up, my dad always had different kinds of cars.
It's kind of a running joke in my family
that every time my dad went on vacation, he got a new car.
After high school, I got real heavy into cars.
I met an owner that owned her own truck accessory shop,
and from that day forward, you know,
I fell in love with helping people build what they wanted to build.
So, the way I got here was kind of a funny thing.
They had put a post out looking for a parts person.
Sent in a resume.
Took three months before I heard anything back.
At first, it was a text message.
"Hey, this is Bill Carlton with Ekstensive."
And at first, I thought it was just one of those free hotel stays in Hawaii.
But later that night, I get a call from Bill.
So then I came out for the week,
and I just fell in love with the place.
Being a kid picking up old magazines of trucking magazines
and stuff like that, I would always see the Ekstensive logo,
and I just knew there was no way
that I can pass this opportunity up.
It did take me about three days to talk with my wife,
make the decision to make the move.
[Bill] Today's the day to really see how we did.
Man, there is not another Jeep Willys like this anywhere on this Earth.
And I can't wait to really see how John and Scott are liking it.
-[John] Hell. -What's happening, fellas?
-How's it going? -Hey. Good to see you.
-How you doing, man? -Good.
-Good to see you, Bill. -Good to see you guys, man.
-How you doing? -Doing great.
Man, you're about to be doing a whole lot better.
You know, we've had the truck for a while.
This guy's been on me forever to get this truck done.
And I can't believe it's done. I keep pinching myself.
I know he's been on you. We've been getting the emails.
-[both laugh] -Yeah.
But today is the day. I can't wait for you to see this.
You guys ready to check it out?
-Ready. -Ready to check it out.
All right, John. Come on.
-Oh, you hear it? You hear it? -[car engine revving]
[Scott] Yeah, baby.
-Oh! Look at that! Wow! -Look at that!
Outstanding. Whoo!
-Good job, baby. -Oh, man.
Oh, man. Look at the size of the brakes!
-Wow. That thing is hot. -[Scott] Crazy, dude.
Look how big the wheels are.
Look at the size of those brakes on there.
-Thank you very much. -That looks good.
[Bill] Is that wide enough for you?
[Scott] That is wide enough. Perfect.
[Bill] Got a bulldog look to it.
[Scott] That's bulldog look what I was looking for, yeah.
-[Bill laughs] -[Scott] That's well worth the wait,
just to see what it looked like.
It's so exciting to see the difference
of what it was when we had dropped it off.
-Got a kid in a candy store here. -That's true.
[Bill] Man, I'm glad you like it.
-I mean, we're all super proud of this. -[Scott] Oh, yeah.
-We spent a lot of time with this truck, right? -A lot of time.
A lot of time, yeah.
[Bill] The first thing we had to do was chop the cab up.
You know, I had Bob Grit come in.
We made it eight inches wider, six inches longer,
just to give you a lot more room.
When my dad was talking about cutting the cab in two sections,
that kind of blew my mind.
They did an awesome job.
[Bill] We added four inches down each side of the hood
and down on each side of the grill.
[John] Looks factory-built.
[Bill] Yeah, that's the point. That's what you wanted.
You know when something's been done, it looks really cool,
-but I can't quite put my eye on it. -[John] Yeah.
-Yeah. Just... Yeah. Perfect. -You nailed it right there.
[Bill] You know, one of the next things we did
is we built a whole new chassis from front to back.
And,, you know, we put F-250 axles front and rear, with the big four-link.
We built in custom air suspension with that chassis, too,
so if you don't like that stance,
you can ride a little higher or a little lower.
And there's a transfer case in there,
so you still have the front wheels pulling, also,
with the flip of a switch.
It's exactly what I was looking for.
It's perfect. The stance is perfect.
-It sounds mean, and it looks mean. -[Bill] Yeah, man.
[Scott] First thing we're gonna do with this truck is just show it off.
-Take home some trophies. -Yeah.
Love the wheels on it. Just what I was looking for.
[Bill] The big 24s on it just look like the perfect proportion.
-[Scott] Yeah. -[John] It does.
I mean, coming down at you,
you just automatically notice that color, right?
[Scott] I love the color. It just sparkles.
That paint is so nice, you could actually reach in and touch the flake.
Man, that's awesome.
You wanna see under the hood?
-I wanna see under the hood. -Yeah.
[both] Whoa!
-[Scott] Yeah! -[John] Are you serious?
[Scott] Oh, beautiful. Beautiful.
[John] Look at that thing. Whoa!
[Bill] You know, got the hemi under the hood
with the Hellcat Redeye supercharged.
There's about 700 horsepower under there.
Hear those wheels? You're gonna be spinning.
-[laughter] -[Scott] Yeah. It's great.
[Bill] Then we had to custom make the firewall
to fit not only around the engine,
around the big transmission, also.
It looks just like it came off the assembly line. It's perfect.
Yeah, to 1960?
-Yeah. -Yeah. [laughs]
[Bill] We've done a lot over here, but this isn't the only thing.
-Old John Burgess did a lot inside the cab. -[Scott] More?
-[Bill] Let's check it out. -Okay.
-Wow. -Wow.
Look at that! Wow!
-[John] Absolutely gorgeous. -[Scott] Yeah.
Look at that thing.
[John Burgess] We had to start from the very beginning.
Threw it all away because for one, nothing was gonna fit,
and for two, nothing would match what they've done to the truck.
From A pillars and B pillars to seats...
We were able to hide the subwoofer in the center console.
We got your speakers in the kick panels.
Everything plays nice and loud.
It's in your face. Nice and clean.
Custom door panels.
Nothing in this is from 1960.
[John Fougner] Took a blank canvas,
-and you made it into a masterpiece. -Yes.
We got one more thing to show you in the back.
-One more? -Yeah?
-One more. Sounds good. -All right.
-[Bill] What do you think? -[Scott laughs] Okay.
-Nice. -This is nice. Wow.
-[Scott] Oh. -[John] We didn't bring it to you like this.
-[Bill] No, so... -[Scott] No, and you nailed it.
I love the custom corner there...
-[Bill] Yeah. -[Scott] ... where it goes on the box. I love that.
-[Bill] This has all been constructed by hand. -[John Fougner] Wow.
[John Burgess] It was just a pile of sheet metal when they started.
-[Scott] Yeah. Wow. -[John Fougner] Unbelievable.
[Bill] You said build you a cool truck. How'd we do?
110%. Love it.
You guys did a great job.
I wanna thank everybody over at Ekstensive that worked on the Jeep.
I wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart.
You did a great job.
[John Fougner] Yeah, it takes a team effort to do something like this,
and it's awesome to see everything get together, and...
-The team did a home run. -Yeah, they did.
You know, we love what we do. We love building stuff like this
and appreciate you giving us the opportunity to build this for you.
And I'm very, very thankful to each and every guy at the shop
for making this happen.
The skills that they have, putting in the work all day every day
and making vehicles like this one of a kind.
Well, fellas, we're gonna get back to it.
-Okay. -All right.
-Appreciate it. Thank you. -Thank you.
-Thank you, guys. -Thank you. I appreciate it.
You guys have fun with it. It's yours now.