[Jamie] I'm all scared. You scared?
[Ryan Garner] No, I get paid by the hour.
-[Jamie laughs] -[Bill] 1953 tanker truck.
The tanker yanker from St. Louis, Missouri.
[Jamie] Massive thing's like a time capsule.
[Bill] Everything on here can squish you.
We're gonna make it a little cooler.
Why else would it be here?
[Bill] Air suspension on this whole truck
- and trailer. - Truck and trailer?
[Bill] This motor is smoked.
Runs like a dream, just no power.
-[Bill] I think like a 12-valve Cummins. -Oh, wow.
[Bill] Man, I'm ready to get this back on the road.
I just want to go around the neighborhood with the kids.
I hear you're the guy when it comes to golf carts.
[Ryan O'Rear] We make these things fast, make them loud,
- race them. -You race them?
[O'Rear] Oh, yeah, man. They're fast.
You're getting me excited on this.
Ryan's told me this thing can possibly do a wheelie?
Can't just have him walking away with some normal cart.
[screaming] What?
[brakes screeching]
[opening theme playing]
[Bill] I'm Bill Carlton.
I built my first truck when I was 16,
and ever since, me and my guys
have been out here creating with our hands.
Building the biggest, lowest, baddest custom trucks
and cars in the game.
People don't come here for what they need.
They come here for what they want.
This is Texas Metal.
[rock music playing]
-How you all doin' fellas? -[Larry] How you doin'?
-What's up, man? -[Matt] How's it going?
What in the world do you guys have here?
Brought you a 1953 White with a 1951 Fruehauf tanker.
The tanker yanker from St. Louis, Missouri.
[Bill] Man, that is cool.
-[Larry] Yeah. -This ain't something you see every day.
No, sir, it ain't.
You know, like I say, you never know what's gonna roll through the gate.
Prime example.
Today, a 1953 tanker truck.
This the type of truck that gets me excited.
The thing looks good. Look like fresh paint and everything on it.
-[Matt] Yeah, right? -[Larry] Yes, it is.
So what's in the tanker?
Nothing, it's just a promotional tanker.
It used to haul gasoline back in its day.
We actually have 34 Peterbilt trucks, just like this color here...
-Nice. -...that we run in St. Louis delivering fuel every day.
So we take this thing to parades and stuff, and people love it.
The truck and trailer combo gets a lot of attention,
but we've convinced the owners to make it a little bit cooler.
So you just want it to look good, promote business.
-Yeah, yeah. -[Bill] And have fun in it.
[Larry] It's a company vehicle,
and they're second generation.
I wanna make it comfortable for the third generation
to be able to go cruising.
-And that's where you come into play, Bill. -All right.
So what you guys got under the hood?
Is that one of the upgrades we need to do?
It's a whopper.
-[Bill] Let's check it out. -[Matt laughs]
[Bill] Oh, man.
-That's definitely some antique in there. -[Matt] Yeah.
[Larry] It's all original stock motor. 150 horsepower.
-Runs like a dream, just no power. -No power.
You know this antique truck looks good,
but this old engine in it...
150 horsepower definitely ain't gonna cut it.
We drove this from St. Louis.
40 mile an hour tops, Bill.
-Old Larry here, he's wore out from the drive here. -[Bill chuckles]
I bet it will wear you out, man.
Yeah, that steering wheel's big for a reason.
-That no power steering, it makes it tough. -Yeah.
Definitely room for improvement underneath there.
-I think, like a 12-valve Cummins. -Oh, wow.
Automatic transmission, so anybody can get in it and drive it.
It'd have plenty of power and that diesel rattle too.
It just would fit this whole project.
-[Bill] Excited? -Fit perfect.
-Yeah, that'd be awesome. -Yes, it would.
And you know, with the new diesel and everything,
I'm sure all your other trucks have stacks
-coming out the back-- -Oh, wow, yeah. Yeah, that--
-How about even making it match with that? -[Matt] Yeah,
-that would fit perfect. Yeah. -That would just fit this. Right?
When Bill brought up the Cummins,
I was just totally stoked,
because it's going from 150 horsepower
to the real world.
Just the power of the Cummins
and the smoke that's gonna come out of the stacks...
Can't wait to see it.
Man, you guys know what'd be real cool?
-What's that? -You know, of course, wheels and tires, but...
I know this truck rides...
horrible.
-Bill-- -[Bill] Especially with nothing in the tanker, right?
-Probably bounces the wheels off the ground. -[Matt] It's, uh...
It's pretty bad.
This is a difficult truck to drive
as you've seen when Larry brought the truck in.
[Larry] It's old school.
It's got air brakes on it,
spring suspension.
You go in it at 20 years old,
you're gonna come out at 80 years old,
-driving that thing around town. -[laughs]
What do you guys think about air suspension
on this whole truck and trailer?
Truck and trailer?
It'd be like floating on a cloud.
Man, you guys wanted something to promote your business.
To be able to just pull up somewhere and just drop it down a little bit.
-[Larry] That would be so sweet. -Man, that would be great.
-Who wouldn't like that? -Right?
You know, we bagged a lot of things around here.
You don't drive all this way just to, you know,
get some stacks put on the back, or just a engine.
But this whole combination of engine,
wheels, tires...
and bagging this truck?
There won't be another one like this.
Man, we've never worked on anything like this before.
-This gets me excited. -[Matt] This is awesome.
The owners know we're bringing it down here,
but they have no idea what you're getting ready to do.
-It's gonna be a surprise. -Man, that's cool.
-We're definitely going to surprise them. -Yeah.
-Let's go make it official. -Appreciate it.
[upbeat music playing]
[Bill] They got a badass old truck,
but it's not up to today's standards.
You know, not just anybody
can hop in a vehicle like this,
and know how to shift gears,
pushing the clutch, do that and steer?
I mean, 25-year-olds,
maybe even 30-year-olds these days
can't even drive a standard.
So, of course make it cooler,
but we're gonna make it driver friendly,
have some air conditioning, have some power steering,
and a lot of power under the hood.
You know we've worked on big projects in the past,
but nothing like this, with a truck and the trailer.
When a vehicle comes in that's this big,
those fine little details that were this small on other projects
are now this big.
Every part and piece we put on here,
you're gonna see big time.
This gets everybody excited.
When you see cool stuff like this come in the shop,
you know you're gonna get to make it even cooler.
That's what we're in business for.
[horn blaring]
[electronic music playing]
[Jamie] Massive thing's like a time capsule.
I'm sure it's a handful to drive.
[knocking] Everything's made out of metal.
[Jamie] This thing's hauled some stuff.
How do you like the old tanker?
-It's cool. -I mean a lot of stuff we mess with,
you don't see every day.
But this? I've never seen.
Man, it's clean.
- It's classic. -[Bill] But this motor's smoked, right?
This is a trucking company's, you know,
they take it to parades and just promote business.
-A cool little toy for them, basically. -No doubt.
-It's unique. -But we're gonna make it a little cooler.
Why else would it be here?
-[Bill] So, you know-- -[chuckles] What you got in mind?
One of the first things we're gonna do is take out this engine trans.
-[Garner] Okay. -[Bill] Replace it with a new diesel,
automatic transmission,
tilt column, AC.
You know, make it comfortable to drive.
New axle, new wheels, new tires...
I want stacks coming out the back.
[Garner] Right on, that'd be cool, man, it'd be a good look.
We definitely got some upgrades going on up here, right?
-Yeah, just a few. -Check out the back.
All right.
[Jamie] I'm all scared. You scared?
[Garner] No, I get paid by the hour.
[Jamie laughs]
It's cool, cool stuff, man.
Cutting it in half or what?
-[Bill] No. -[laughs]
What you don't see is one of these
with air suspension to be able to drop it.
-[imitates air whooshing] -Yeah.
[Bill] You know, not sitting all the way flat on the ground,
but just so it looks good rolling through the parade.
-Cruising down the street like that. -That's gangster.
-[Jamie] That's gangster. -It's gonna be even nicer.
-And comfortable. -[Jamie] Mmm-hmm.
[Bill] So we'll just cut front axle out,
rear axle, and trailer axle.
Smooth the rails,
and we're just gonna totally start over.
We'll build a four-link on the rear,
four-link on the truck, electric brakes on the back,
-just like a modern trailer. -[Garner and Jamie] Yeah.
[Jamie] Keep the retro look,
-but just do the modern suspension on it. -[Bill] Yeah.
When it rolls up, man, people are just gonna lose their mind.
What we'll do is put the truck in one bay,
and the trailer in the body shop bay,
-so it's the only place it'll fit, right? [chuckles] -[Garner] Yeah.
-Let's do it. -Let's do this.
[hip-hop music plays]
[music playing]
[Bill] We have to use one of our biggest bays
to tear down this tanker.
First things first, we gotta lift the cab off the chassis.
Even though this truck's huge,
it's the same process.
Just being extra careful while you do it,
'cause everything on here can squish you.
You know, it's pretty cool taking apart old trucks like this,
'cause you get to see how far we've come.
As far as bushings and it being solid mounted...
-There's no rubber in this at all, huh? -[Jamie] No.
It was bolted down solid, man.
[Bill] They were really concerned about
driver comfort back then, right?
[Jamie chuckles] Not even.
So we got everything off the frame now. The cab's up.
The only concerns I do have is how heavy this motor is.
Fingers crossed this old forklift right here is gonna yank it on out.
What we got going on back there?
Sitting on this bracket right here.
[hip-hop music playing]
[man] It's good.
[Jamie] It's home.
[Jamie] Hard to believe this truck was driving two days ago.
Here it is, bare frame now.
[music playing]
We got that tanker completely torn apart.
It's down to frame rails.
It's not a 18-wheeler, but it's still a ton of weight.
So I'm gonna get the chipboard out,
put it up against the frame,
get a couple of measurements,
design a rear hanger,
which holds the rear suspension to the frame.
-What up, man? Good morning. -Good morning.
Man, I got the hangers all laid out for the old tanker.
Oh, that big tanker that just came in?
[both] Yeah.
I want these to bolt in, in the factory hanger spot
where the leaf springs used to be.
They need to be super strong,
-so let's burn this out of 5/16ths plates. -5/16ths?
All right, got it honed.
Then once it's laid out and I'm ready to cut it out.
That template Bill gave me?
I'm going to lay it on top of here
and just transfer the punches.
That way I know the holes will be in the exact same spot.
The dock has a little small point at the very bottom of it.
So all I do is just set it in there.
[Jessie] Ready.
Jessie just got our saddles back.
Everything looks real nice on them, did a good job.
We go ahead and bolt these on.
Now that I got the saddles on, we can go ahead and continue with the rear suspension.
I hope I look as good as this tanker truck when I'm 70.
However, not everything looks so good.
These axles? They're not gonna work.
What you got here, man?
So this morning, I went out to the junkyard,
found an old truck
to rob the axle out.
Yeah.
-Nice. -This is exactly what we needed.
Check it out. We got the single speed axle
with hydraulic disc brakes.
This thing is gonna stop good.
You know anybody can get in and drive and not to worry about the air brakes
-or anything like that. -Yeah.
[Jamie] Man, that's nice.
That's definitely what we needed right there for this build.
Exactly.
So I think what we'll do is just slide the bed back, tilt it down,
-so the tires barely touching the ground. -A-ha.
-We'll cut the U-bolts. -Okay.
[Bill] Pick it right back up.
I'll go drop this off so it's not in our way.
Okay, cool. Well, I'm going to get the torch, man.
Get everything ready.
-Yeah, I'll slide the bed back. -All right.
[Bill] Cut the brake hose bracket.
[Jamie] Uh-huh.
And just cut the brake line, back about a foot
like where the cross member is.
[Jamie] Ooh, always be ready.
[Bill] Man, we got everything we need off this chassis.
I mean, we got the rear axle,
rear driveshaft to hook up to this rear end.
We even got some emergency brake parts.
So I'm just gonna go ahead and leave this loaded up,
take it right back to the scrapyard, get it out of our way.
[Bill] We only need to replace the axle
'cause the old chassis on the tanker is in good shape.
Not that much more.
[straining] One, two...
Just as equally important to the hangers
were our brackets on the rear end.
That's where all the power from the ground transfers to the frame itself.
Good thing I got my good welder right here. [chuckles]
Welding something like this, it's really important.
There's gonna be a lot of weight.
You wanna make sure everything is prepped good.
You have good penetration when you have good prep.
Penetration is the next thing.
You wanna make sure your machine's turned up high enough.
You're gonna penetrate in both pieces of metal.
You got good form, you're comfortable.
A-B-C of welding? Always be comfortable.
When you're comfortable, you're gonna weld better.
One of the things I love about the custom game
is just the scale of some of our builds.
It can change so radically from build to build.
But it definitely keeps me on my toes.
You know on one hand, you got just this massive thing...
but then you can go completely to the other end of the spectrum.
I've had this golf cart in my garage for quite some time.
Me and the kids will decorate it for Halloween.
Take it in, kind of like a hayride.
The last hayride went haywire.
I got about a half a mile around the house
and it totally quits.
Man, I'm ready to get this back on the road.
I bet you are.
[Bill] Had a couple of people work on it
over the last year and a half. No luck.
-Man! -Appreciate it.
-Appreciate you. Thank you. -Yes, sir.
See you later.
[Bill] So, a friend of mine was telling me about
this golf cart guy, Ryan.
Not only he gets 'em running,
but he does some crazy stuff to 'em too.
Kinda like we do with cars, he does with golf carts.
I hear you're the guy I need to see
when it comes to golf carts.
-That's what they say. -Love cruising round the neighborhood
with my kids, my wife,
but, man, it's just been sittin'
in the corner of my garage for over a year now.
Just... shot.
Something's goin' on with it
and I'm just super, super tied up at my shop right now.
-Oh, I bet. -I'd love to just give it to you.
You get it running for me, man.
Well, we can definitely get you fixed up,
you brought it to the right place.
I'm one of the three owners of Golf Carts Modified.
Been doing golf carts for about seven or eight years now.
Started out as a hobby. Turned into a business.
Now it's a really big business.
Golf carts aren't even golf carts anymore. I mean,
everybody drives them on the street.
Takes them to the beach. They go camping.
I don't even own a set of golf clubs.
-I got nine golf carts and no clubs. -[Bill laughs]
We make these things fast.
Make 'em loud, race 'em.
-You race 'em? -Oh, yeah, man. They're fast.
Especially electric ones.
I mean, we got one electric one
that'll do 70 miles-an-hour.
-It gets a little sketchy at 70. -What!
[chuckling] Yeah!
[O'Rear] That cart belongs to a 13-year-old girl.
Runs 40 miles-an-hour,
and it'll pop a three-foot wheelie
for about 60 yards.
[Bill] Now you're talkin', man.
Ryan's telling me this thing could possibly do a wheelie,
and haul ass?
You know, I'm hearing all this,
this is something I'm really interested in.
You're getting me excited on this, man. I...
You know, I was just coming here
just to get it goin'.
But you can do somethin' like that with this?
We do what you do. Just on a smaller scale.
You wanna go crazy? We'll go crazy.
Let's check out what you got, man.
-Ah! 36-volt series cart. -[Bill] Yeah.
[O'Rear] Oldie but a goodie.
Yeah, man. We can definitely upgrade this.
Bill has a pretty common golf cart.
He's got a EZ-GO TXT.
We like working on a TXT,
because they have a steel chassis,
they're much easier to customize.
You can do a lot more with 'em.
Nowadays, with powdered coating
you can make 'em last just as long as
any aluminum frame cart.
What we can do is we can get rid of all these
heavy lead acid batteries, and go back in with a lithium.
Jump voltage, we can go all the way from 48,
all the way up to 72.
We cut half the weight, and add double the power.
Dang! And that's what makes you do a wheelie or what?
That's step one. You also gotta add a motor and controller.
You wanna roll fast, roll wheelies,
you gotta get rid of that old DC stuff.
AC stuff is the way to go now.
It's instant torque.
It's the most efficient system you can buy.
Think of all your big electric cars.
All of that stuff's AC.
You're pretty much building a miniature electric car.
I love it, man. I love it.
You know, Bill. If we're gonna be into it, man,
you probably should upgrade that suspension.
You don't wanna be coming down on that thing
after a three-foot wheelie.
We can add some coilovers to it,
put a little long travel on it,
make it really ride nice.
Man, Ryan, I'm usually the one selling suspension.
So, I definitely know what you're talkin' about.
-We gotta have that. -[O'Rear] Yes, sir.
You know, and if we're gonna do that, make it look cool,
might as well go ahead and throw in a new set of wheels and tires.
-And really just change the whole look of the cart. -You don't like
my wheels and tires either?
They're not bad, but if we're gonna go all out,
we might as well go all out.
Yeah, so much for...
just dropping it off and getting it fixed, huh?
-Oh, no! We're gonna fix it. -[Bill laughs]
It's getting fixed.
-It's just gonna get upgraded a little bit. -All right!
[upbeat instrumental rock music playing]
-This things been through some better days. -[screwdriver whirs]
[Bill] You know, I came in, lookin' for...
Not even a little upgrade.
-[screwdriver whirring] -Just get it running right.
Make it reliable.
It's bent in several places.
Looks like he's had some fun with it.
I just wanna go around the neighborhood with the kids.
[screwdriver whirring]
But after talking to Ryan,
him... you know, kinda, selling me on a couple of things.
Just pick that bad boy up.
[Bill] I'm really getting excited
about going all in on this golf cart.
[O'Rear] And we will be keeping that part.
All right, let's get rid of these nasty batteries.
This is old school lead acid.
The big thing with lead acid batteries,
is they have to be constantly filled with water.
And if you live somewhere in the south like we do,
these things are always evaporating water.
These batteries weigh 59-pounds apiece.
So, we're shaving 200-pounds out of the cart.
I'm not gonna have to go to the gym today.
[screwdriver whirring]
Yeah, that one's seen some better days.
[objects clattering]
We're pretty much down to bare metal.
The only thing left to do is remove the rear axle and the front axle.
Boom, get it ready for powder coating. Boom!
[clanks]
All right.
That is seven and seven-eighths.
We got the four link done on the '53 tanker.
Took off all the old leaf springs
and we're replacing it with a big air spring.
You can't ride on anything better than air.
[hip-hop instrumental music playing]
What we're gonna do is start off
making our upper bag mount
and then once that's located,
we can put our lower bag mounts
in place right up to it.
So it's looking pretty centered
from your angle back behind me?
Yes, sir.
Center of our bag mount right there.
On this particular suspension,
we're gonna put the big airbag right behind the axle
because there's no room up on top.
We've been doing air suspensions since 1994.
-Each vehicle we learn from. -[tools whirring]
So this is gonna be the latest and the greatest.
With all that extra weight that's gonna be on the back,
we just put a piece of 2-by-2 across,
on the inside of the frame.
It holds the weight, keeps it straight.
We're using this piece of 2-by-3 box tubing
just to simulate the bag fully compressed.
So when all that air is out
that's how big the bag is, just three inches.
It's pretty nice.
So we got our simulated bag compressed here.
Our lower bag mounts
so we're just gonna make the brackets
from the bag mount to the axle.
[clanks]
[tapping lightly]
Push the back...
-[tapping lightly] -Yeah.
[sparks crackling]
[Bill] That's hot!
Yes, sir. Ho!
We're looking good.
Hangers are on, four link's on.
Now we got the bag mounts all mocked up.
My man Jamie's gonna put some weld on it.
Then we'll let it down,
move down to the panhard bar socket mounts
and the rear suspension's a wrap.
[hip-hop instrumental music playing]
Seven-eighths.
One little, last puzzle piece of our rear suspension
is the panhard bar.
Since we don't have leaf springs anymore,
we have a four link.
So the panhard bar is that solid point,
from the frame down to the axle.
Locates everything nice and centered
and keeps it really, really strong for cornering.
[high-pitched grinding]
Okay, last piece of the puzzle right here.
Ta-da!
Let's go up and down real quick,
and we'll check it out.
[machine whirring]
[Bill] Man, Jamie, it's looking good.
I don't foresee any issues with this.
[Jamie] Yeah, man, this suspension's
definitely gonna be a lot better than those leaf springs.
Handle, work, and have a good ride.
Definitely.
On a really big truck like this tanker,
the airbags are a no-brainer.
It just gives you a way better ride.
However, on my golf cart,
it's an entirely different setup.
Because this golf cart's gonna be really fast,
and able to do wheelies,
we're gonna go with coilovers in the front
so when it comes down from the wheelie,
it absorbs all that weight and that bounce.
You wanna spin it around?
Ryan's bringing his team down from the East Coast,
to help put it all together.
[Travis] We got a call from Ryan, our business partner,
and he was asking
if we would build a golf cart for Bill at Ekstensive.
You know, my first immediate response was this is fake,
like someone is calling you, messing with you.
Bill did not just cold call us...
[stutters] to talk about a golf cart.
[clanking]
Once we found out that the build was a go,
we laid out a game plan to make this trip to Houston.
Twenty hours later, two truck breakdowns,
we're in Houston.
We're ready to start working on this golf cart.
[O'Rear] We just got the frame back from powder coating.
First things we're gonna tackle
is the front and rear suspension.
One of us will be working in the back.
One of us will be working up front.
That way we can get everything going from the ground up.
Building a golf cart is not much different than building a car.
You wanna start off with a good frame.
You gotta get your suspension set right
and make sure that you have a good stance.
You always wanna make sure everything's safe
before you take off on these things.
[Travis] We're about to assemble this long travel suspension
for the front end.
It's just gonna make the cart ride better.
Have better articulation on the suspension.
This build's a big deal to us,
and we're putting a lot of effort into it,
because when you get a call from a client like Bill,
I mean, he's a legend.
It's an honor to get the opportunity
to build something for him.
I know he wants the best of the best.
And that's what we're gonna give him.
[tool whirring]
This cart comes factory with leaf springs,
and a solid axle across the front.
So when you swap over to the long travel,
it gives you eight inches of adjustability
for your desired height.
More travel from the shock... gives you more rebound.
[clanking]
For this particular cart we're gonna go with a...
-[hammering] -...70-volt lithium battery.
It's gonna give this car incredible torque
so it will lift the wheels off the ground.
So, these coilovers will help with the rebound
as the cart comes back to the ground.
This just all-around is a much nicer design
than the original equipment that came on the cart.
[upbeat music playing]
[O'Rear] So, similar to a truck,
we're gonna do the rear lift on this,
we're gonna use a six-inch lift block in the back.
With a heavy duty spring,
this is gonna give us clearance.
That way we could shove those massive tires up underneath the box.
[tool whirring]
[hip-hop instrumental music playing]
[Bill] You know, over the years,
Ekstensive's done our share of engine swaps.
The one thing that we haven't done yet,
is go electric.
So, Ryan's sayin' the lithium setup that we're goin' with
is gonna be putting a ton of torque
to those rear wheels.
This cart's gonna be able to wheelie,
you know, I can't wait to see this.
Let's talk about the muscle in this cart.
We're gonna be installing a 5-kilowatt
AC motor and controller.
Seventy-five-pounds of muscle.
So this is a three-phase electric motor.
These are way more efficient than a DC motor.
They turn at a lot higher RPM.
They actually get a lot better range too.
Especially paired with a lithium battery.
Most golf carts have three bolts
holding the motor on.
Because this one makes so much torque,
we're gonna be adding six bolts to this total.
That way we're gonna make sure we don't snap anything off
when Bill goes to pop a wheelie in this.
All right, so for this build...
it started out with 36-volts of lead acid batteries,
which is very old school.
We decided to go to a lithium battery setup,
and we chose the 70.4-volt eco battery.
One huge advantage to run a lithium setup is weight.
Lead acid batteries are roughly 50-pounds apiece.
This battery is about 125 pounds total.
That is a huge advantage,
and then you're almost doubling your voltage.
So, way less weight, way more power.
-So, you ready to grab that big boy? -[Cory] Yep.
[upbeat instrumental rock music playing]
Bigger is better.
You are in Texas.
[screwdriver whirring]
-[clanks] -[Cory] It's secure.
[O'Rear] Well, now that we got the battery all installed,
we can get everything wired up.
-[machine whirring] -One of the main reasons we build cables,
is 'cause we can custom create links for everybody.
That way we can shorten on resistance and heat.
Cables are a really overlooked part of the cart.
That's what delivers all your power,
to your motor and controller.
If you don't have good cables,
might as well not have anything at all.
[hip-hop instrumental music playing]
So the very first thing we're gonna be hooking up
is our small cable.
This is going to be running from our solenoid output over to the controller.
And the very next thing we're gonna do is start
running motor wires.
All right, we got the power hooked up,
grounds hooked up?
-[O'Rear] Yes, sir. -I'm gonna hook this one up,
and then we will see if we are completely wired
and ready for juice.
All right, I'm powering it on.
-[O'Rear] Let me do this. -If it beeps, we're good.
-[button clicks] -[beeps]
[Cory] All right, we got power.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Bill] We're making an independent front suspension,
and a four-link rear suspension,
on that '53 tanker truck.
You know, we got the rear all mocked up.
Now it's time to get on to the front.
So we got a cross member established
the height that it needs to be.
We got our wheel, tire, all mocked up.
Ooh! Look at that boy!
All we're gonna do is come from bushing
to the ball joint.
And there's our mock up slow control arm.
That's that.
-Man, we got a long arm on this one. -Yeah.
Good stuff. You know, we got everything mocked up.
This is exactly the size that it needs to be,
for everything to play nice.
So, we need to get going on building the lower arm.
[sparks crackling]
[grinding]
-Why don't you cut some pipe? -All right.
[Jamie] We're going with the one inch set right here or...
Man, I'm thinking an inch and a quarter.
[pipes clanking]
I'm gonna make it all out of
inch and a quarter schedule 80.
So everything's nice and strong.
Ooh! First time on the machine!
So excited!
[machine whirring]
[Bill] Real advantage with this,
is that the arm is really, really long in this setup,
so we have plenty of room for a big airbag,
to handle all that weight.
[sparks crackling]
[tapping]
[Bill] All right, we've got our lower control arm on.
We got our spindle in place.
We got our frame nice and level,
we got our measurement from the upper ball joint,
all the way to where it needs to land on the frame.
So I'm gonna take that measurement,
and just make an upper control arm.
See it, man... Forward thems.
[slow instrumental music playing]
I love jobs like this.
This is what makes the day go by not only quick,
but it makes it fun.
Hey. [mimics swishing sounds]
You know, when jobs like this
come about that's not repetitious...
Yeah.
-That, you know, has a set goal... -[welding torch crackling]
...and there's no specific way to get there.
That's what I love doing.
[Jamie] One down.
[Bill] This is gonna locate
the top part of the spindle
so it holds everything in place.
Yeah.
Go down and up a couple times,
let's see what it looking like.
Perfect. That's exactly what we want.
You know, that's nice, perfect alignment.
All the way up and all the way down.
I can't stand when
people drop the air out of the suspension, the wheels go... [squishing]
-[Jamie] Yeah. -[Bill] Can't have that.
-No. -It takes time to make that perfect.
[Jamie] Definitely.
[Bill] You know, as a fabricator,
I'm pretty much known as a control freak.
I try to keep my eye on everything all of the time.
Ryan, what's happening, man?
I'm just sitting here working on your cart.
That's just the same when things aren't at the shop,
just like my golf cart.
How's it going?
[O'Rear] It's going good. We just got the new
powder-coated long travel kit on. Everything's installed.
Coming together real nicely.
Nice, man. That gets me excited.
I'm ready to do some wheelies in it.
Man, I can't wait to see y'all do some wheelies.
I think it's gonna really surprise you.
-Yeah. -While I have you on the phone here,
let's talk about the body, man.
This one that you have is nice but it's a little outdated.
I was thinking maybe we could go with a new Storm body.
This is gonna give this cart a much more edgy look.
It's street legal, high-beam low-beam headlights.
Ryan, man, come on, it's just a golf cart.
It's never just a cart, man.
-This is a representation of yourself. -[laughing]
I can't just give you a stock-looking golf cart.
You know what's better than doing wheelies?
Looking good while you're doing wheelies.
I can't really disagree with that, can I?
[O'Rear] While we're talking about that though,
if we can do the body,
we should probably go ahead and put a custom interior in this.
Full custom dash, maybe throw in some lighting,
custom seats, really take this thing
-next level. -I see your point.
You know, I've done my share of pushing the customers
to go a little bit bigger on their builds.
If we're gonna do the new body, man,
we might as well, right?
That's what I'm talking about.
And, man, once you're on the other side of it, you know,
it's kinda hard to say no.
Go ahead and get me hooked up on it then, man.
I'm... I'm anxious to see what you guys can do.
-Yes, sir. We're on it. -All right. Talk to you later.
Man, he got me on that one.
[Bill] Let me make this template for the bag mount
real quick so Jess begins making them.
You know, we always try to measure twice, cut once.
That's even more true with
the size of everything
on this old tanker.
Not to mention the price of metal these days.
We're just wrapping up the front suspension now.
I love this,
the instant gratification of just things coming together
quick.
The next step's gonna be placing our airbag
so we got our upper bag mount,
we got our three-inch spacers
simulating a compressed bag.
We got our suspension bottom totally out.
So this is where the suspension needs to be
when there's no air in it.
So all we need to do, put the bag mount in place,
weld it in place with a couple gussets,
bag mount's a wrap.
Let's go back.
Okay, so we're on the last part
of our front suspension, shock.
What I'm doing right now is making the upper shock mounts.
It's gonna be a three-piece deal.
One piece that my shock's gonna go through,
then I'm gonna have two gussets on each side.
All right.
It's gonna make this thing solid.
You're not gonna be able to bend it.
Once it's boxed in, it's gonna be there forever.
Boom.
Just transferring this pattern
to my flat bar.
Once I get these cut out,
I'll be able to assemble the upper shock mount.
[welding torch crackling]
I'm gonna go ahead and sand it, give it that nice slick look.
You know, clean it up so I'm gonna just go that
extra little bit, make it look nice.
You can see the before and after.
This is fine.
Most people would, you know, just let it be. Not here.
We gotta do that extra little step.
Everything nice, clean, cool-looking.
Anybody can do this, not everybody thinks about doing this.
Oh.
[Jamie] It's gotta go up... There.
Looks same to me.
-[Jamie straining] Nope. -[Garner] Yeah.
It's got like no room.
-[Jamie] All right, we gotta take turns off. -[man 2] Yeah.
[Bill] Now we've mocked up the suspension on the '53 tanker,
we're ready to drop in that big old diesel engine.
[Jamie] Just try to be easy across that,
to the left right there 'cause we don't got nothing to balance it.
This 12-valve is a lot bigger than the inline six
the old truck rolled in with. So there's not much room to maneuver
even on a truck this size.
We're good right there, Ryan.
[Garner] And our transmission is, like, five-foot long.
Now I think it's even longer than five feet.
[Jamie] All right, come on in.
[Garner] That's the longest combo
that I've put in.
[Jamie] Good, stop.
[Bill] On the builds that are physically as big as this thing,
every step is just that much more consequential.
You don't wanna have that all in a bind right there.
[Jamie] Yeah, we're gonna have to do a little trimming.
Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?
We need to get this big old engine mounted,
modified, and running.
[Jamie] All right, bring it down a little bit.
There's still a lot of fabrication
including the custom stacks,
and interior, and audio.
And, man, we haven't even touched that trailer yet.
-[Jamie] It's level? -[Garner] Level.
[Jamie] Heck yeah. All right.
It's a long road, but it's gonna be worth it.
[Garner] It looks really good right there.
It does look good, it looks right.
[Bill] One of the cool things about custom
is that anything can be customized,
even a golf cart.
The team is ready to install the new body kit.
Fits like a glove.
[O'Rear] Nice and flush.
Looks good.
It's definitely gonna be mean.
All right, give me a hand with this.
This is not a production dash. This is a one-off dash.
It's wrapped in the exact same material
as his seats are.
This is gonna look really good once it's wired
and everything's lit up.
Is it bad that I'm jealous? I don't even have a dash that clean.
You know, it's real cool to get the big builds in,
you know, the ones that just
command your attention. When you pull up somewhere
in just a massive vehicle,
everybody is looking to see what the heck is going on.
Who's pulling up in here in that big old truck?
Every vehicle's different in the design process,
you know, whatever the scale is,
you attack each and every project individually.
But everything about a big build is just bigger.
You've gotta really watch what's going on.
All the wrenches are bigger,
all the nuts and bolts are bigger,
you know, the wheels and tires are bigger.
Just everything is not only bigger, but it's heavier also.
You know, those are the builds that I just love the most
'cause you get more opportunities on a larger scale
to be different, to have that personality come out,
to have that coolness factor magnified on a huge scale.
We're transforming those from something that's really
nothing into something that's show-stopping.
When you're doing an extra-large build,
that's just extra ways to make it extra cool.
You know, a few weeks ago,
my golf cart wouldn't even run.
But it's come a long way.
Everything is coming together.
The lithium batteries, a new bigger motor,
seating,
handmade dash,
lighting, audio,
and a custom body kit.
And today is a big day.
Ryan's gonna drop it off at my house.
When Bill brought this cart in,
it was old, it was outdated,
it was underpowered. We changed all that.
It's been a lot of work. It's been a lot of fun.
Lots of hours but I'm really excited,
this cart has turned out awesome.
Hopefully, when he comes out and sees this, he'll be blown away.
[Bill] Ryan called me, told me to come outside,
see the cart rolling up.
It's totally transformed.
And then,
I see it doing a wheelie.
What?
Man!
[chuckling] I can't believe you did that.
Man, that is cool, cool, cool.
Man!
-[O'Rear] What do you think? -That looks so good.
-What's up, man? -[O'Rear] What's going on, man?
That thing looks beautiful.
-That's the same one, right? -[O'Rear] That's the same cart, man.
[Bill] Everywhere I look, there's something brand-new on it.
I can't believe it's got that much power to...
You in it doing a wheelie?
-That's a lot of weight to go up in the air, baby. -Man. [laughing]
Man, I tell you what, this gets me excited.
A golf cart doing a wheelie?
That ain't something you see every day.
And then, just the total transformation of,
you know, the new body, the new wheels,
tires, the lift, it looks good.
This thing is cool, cool, man.
-Man, I'm glad you like it. -I like every bit of it. Tell me,
what'd you do to this?
Man, what did we not do to this?
-[Bill] Right? -[O'Rear] We took this thing down to the frame,
it's all brand-new, had everything powder-coated.
Started with new suspension,
-it's double A-arm with coilover. -[Bill chuckling] Yeah.
-[O'Rear] It's gonna give it a much softer ride. -[Bill] Yeah.
Especially when it's coming up in the air and slamming down,
-you don't wanna be sitting on spindles, man. -[laughs]
You know, I definitely wasn't expecting that, and have
long travel with coilovers on the front of my golf cart?
Love the stance of it, man, the... the wheel track and everything.
Just the way it looks when it's coming at you, it looks mean.
You know, when you brought the cart, it was on 23s
we decided to go ahead and bump it up
and get you a little higher, put some 25s on it.
We did space the wheels out about
two inches with that lift.
We also widened the back,
make it a little bit more stable.
It's gonna ride a little bit better,
have a little bit more tire on the ground.
It's definitely gonna be the meanest one in the neighborhood.
[chuckling] Yeah.
[O'Rear] This is the new Storm body,
this is the Gunmetal Metallic.
We wanted something that was gonna pop against the aluminum powder coat
that we did on the suspension and frame.
I love the color of it.
[O'Rear] This has a full street-legal kit in it.
You got running lights, turn signals,
horn, hazard light.
This can make you street-legal in Texas
so that y'all can ride this on the street.
Man, the kids are gonna love this one.
You know, I didn't know how bad my old golf cart was looking.
But now that the new body is on it,
it looks like it just rolled off the assembly line.
Man.
Well, it had to look just as good on the inside as the outside.
This is cool, man.
[O'Rear] We got you a brand-new set of FS2 seats.
These are super comfortable, we went ahead and had 'em bolstered.
That way, it'll hold you in place when you're
-popping wheelies. -Mmm-hmm.
[O'Rear] We had a transition down on the floor,
got you a new floor mat.
You know, that way, we can come back up into the custom-made dash.
You're the only one on the planet that has that dash.
-So this ain't something you buy? -No, sir, that is custom-made.
-Is this-- -Nobody else is gonna have that.
That's a light, man.
Hey, if you're riding at night,
-you gotta be able to see, bro. -I love it.
Ooh! That looks good.
[O'Rear] All right. Not very many golf carts have interior lights. So...
-[Bill chuckles] That looks good, man. -That's pretty cool feature.
I see it hauls ass.
It does a wheelie so show me what's underneath here.
This is where the magic happens, bro.
That is a big 70 volt 105 Amp Hour battery.
-[Bill laughs] -That is not your normal lead-acid.
We cut half the weight of the old batteries out
and doubled the power.
[Bill] Man!
[O'Rear] This is one big contained lithium kit.
This is what's gonna put the power down to the new motor and controller.
This thing puts down massive amounts of torque
and produces speeds up to 30 miles an hour with normal batteries.
But with Bill's battery, we'll achieve speeds up to 50.
Man, I'm blown away, Ryan. Man, it looks...
It looks cool.
Normally, I get to give a customer their car back.
I'm not used to, you know,
coming outside and really getting excited like this.
Man, you guys killed it on it, man, thank you.
You're welcome, man, I hope y'all enjoy it.
Definitely.
Man, I'm gonna go get the kids, man, they gotta-- They gotta come see this.
-Well, y'all have fun. -Appreciate it.
My cart was just sitting in my garage
for the last couple of years, just broke down.
-Whoa, is that the old golf cart? -Is that the old...
Same one. Can you believe that?
-Can we go for a ride? -Let's go.
I'm glad I was able to take it to Ryan.
-Ready? -Ready.
[boy] Klee!
And him, just transforming
this whole cart.
Okay, golf cart's modified.
They just came in,
stepped up and just built me a hell of a cart.
Ride's good, huh?
All right, Klee, come on.
-Come on. -Come on, Klee.
[Bill] Me and the family's gonna have a lot of good years...
Yeah.
...and lot of good times in this cart.
About time we get our golf cart back, huh?
-[Presley] Mmm-hmm. -[Bill] It's been a while.
[Keegan] This thing is so cool.
Yeah.