Well, all right, y'all.
[Bill] You know, I'm getting excited about the old tanker,
next thing is that new diesel.
-A lot of motor in there. -[both chuckle]
[Ryan] Where are the pedals gonna go?
We need some stacks.
[Carlos] Nice, bright chrome.
Exactly. It's really gonna wake it up.
-Kinda jealous now. I'm really liking it. -[Bill chuckles]
[Rick] This is our '37 Ford.
[Bill] We're gonna go a little backwards on this one.
This customer is gonna take this beautiful '37,
that's complete,
and go back to a factory style.
Yes, he is.
Customer tell us what they want
and it's up to us to figure out how to make it happen.
-Oh, my God, Bill! -[Bill chuckles]
I'm Bill Carlton.
I built my first truck when I was 16.
And ever since,
me and my guys have been out here creating with our hands.
Building the biggest, lowest,
and baddest custom trucks and cars in the game.
People don't come here for what they need,
they come here for what they want.
This is Texas Metal.
We'll try picking it up on that side.
[Bill] You know, here at Ekstensive, we're always trying
to figure out a smooth path. Right?
When something don't work,
let's try the next thing.
Gotta tighten that up.
[Bill] So, here we are.
A friend of mine needs some help.
His trailer is built improperly.
He called me, "Hey, man, can you help me out?"
Watch out, Wally.
We're super busy. Super backed up.
Don't have time to do anything,
but a friend of mine needs some help,
so we're gonna help him out.
Pick it up!
Get ready to jump off if you need to get off the forklift
if it goes all the way over.
[man] We got it moving!
[Bill] Cut all its axles off.
-[man] We gotta cut 'em off? -They're too far back.
Terrible.
There's never a set path from A to B.
Getting the job done, start here, finish here.
In a job like this,
you think, "Oh, you know, we could have put this up on the horses.
We could have spent a lot of time blocking it all up.
And working underneath."
But the easiest route, it's just gonna be to flip it over.
And you think we're crazy, but hey, we gotta do it the most efficiently.
[thuds]
[Bill] At the end of the day, all that matters is getting the job done.
Getting the job done right.
And whatever you gotta do to make that happen,
we're gonna make it happen.
Getting it back over is going to be fun.
On this build, we gotta cut the axles off and move 'em forward.
On the next build, it's gonna be something else.
We're in the business of making things work.
The customer tells us what they want
and it's up to us to figure out how to make it happen.
We gotta a call from a guy who has a '37 Ford.
Needed a little work.
So I thought I'd just jump in the van and come see what's happening.
[door closes]
-Rick. -How're you doing?
Hey, man. Good morning.
This is the one we were talking about?
This is our '37 Ford.
-[Bill] I know you get a lot of looks with this one. - [Rick] Yes, we do.
People are always hanging out their windows at us
-and waving us to stop. -Yes.
[Bill] The '37 Coupe was a really popular car
that a lot of people customized.
-How long you had it? -Just got it.
So, you bought it as is?
Yup. Haven't done a thing to it.
Always had a dream to drive a Coupe.
But after driving it, we found, there's some things that don't quite fit us,
so that's why we gave Bill a call.
So, what's the main issues that you have with it?
Oh, I'd like to go back to door handles on it.
I've always had in the back of my mind
that if the key fob was dead,
-I won't be able to get inside of it. -[Bill] Can't get in.
I see your point there,
but, man, taking such a clean, smooth car
and putting a door handle on it...
And retaining the flames? You wanna keep the flames on it?
[Rick] If we could, yeah.
Finding that right handle is gonna be the challenge to keep this clean look.
That's why I gave you a call.
Most of the time, we're shaving door handles.
You know, taking off that bulky hardware
and just making it slick.
This is just the total opposite.
Let me show you back here what other things
that are hard to work with for us.
License plate.
I wanna get that upside, so I don't have to lay on the ground
to change my license tag.
-Yeah, it's a pain in the butt. -[Rick] Yeah.
-Especially as low as this car is, right? -[Rick] Yeah.
You know, knees and arms don't work that good anymore.
-So... -[Bill chuckles]
I really do kinda like the older style back to the rat rod days.
My hope was to put some
factory-looking tail lights back on it.
And then, the tag bracket would be with the tag light.
So, Rick, you wanna take this clean, smooth and flush mount LEDs,
you wanna scrap that and put the factory tail lights.
I guess, it's what is gonna end up happening to be.
[Bill chuckling] Right.
You know, in a car like this, most of the time, that's one of the first things to go
is the big tail lights that hang off the back,
but I see your point here.
If you gotta have the factory looking lights back in it,
we're gonna find something that looks real cool
and gonna fit the car really well.
This car, you just don't throw any door handle on the door.
The same with the tail lights in the back.
You know, that all plays in together.
When you add one thing, you can't just add another thing randomly.
That would just completely destroy the look of the car.
[Rick] See, if I can get the doors open.
I wanted to show you some stuff that's really, needs a lot of work.
[Bill] You got a really clean interior in here
except for that steering wheel.
I'll donate it to you if you want it.
Turning the corners, it's not very comfortable.
It's hard on your thumbs. You get stuck in that 37.
-I'd like to go back with a banjo wheel if we could. -Definitely.
I don't know what they were thinking
when they came up with this steering wheel for this car.
It just... it looks cartoonish.
I mean, that's customizing gone wrong right there.
This is a whole lot of one color in here.
You know, I think, maybe a little piece of polished aluminum around
to tie everything else in together.
-And even bringing it up on the door panels itself -[Rick] Oh, yeah.
contrast on the dash and the door panels is a must on this.
-I think it will really wake it up. -Okay.
And give you a little personalization there, too. Make it yours.
[Rick] Sounds wonderful.
[Bill] You know, they say in life, it's the small things that count. Right?
Well, in custom...
it's the small things that just drive you crazy.
You know, like a job like this,
"Oh, just put some door handles in it."
Picking the right handle, putting it in the right place
and then, making all the mechanism behind it,
you need that mechanical part of it to work every time.
It turns that little bitty job
into something very, very time consuming.
The worst thing we could do is, you know,
check off that list everything he wants,
and just, you know, having that eye sore right at the end.
That your eye just goes right to, like, "Oh, man, that was a terrible decision."
That's definitely what we don't wanna do.
We want everybody to look at this car
and go, "Man, guys did a good job.
That's a good looking car."
What's happening? They said you wanted to see me.
Yeah, man. I'm gonna need your help.
It's a beautiful looking '37.
So, what are we doing? Maybe, a little buff?
Maybe, a little wet sand, you know?
Well, we're gonna go a little backwards on this one.
-[Jamel] Backwards means... -[Bill] He wants to put door handles
-back in the car. -Door handles?
He wants to make it a little more user friendly for him.
You already know. Hitting that remote,
it don't work every single time.
-Yeah. -And he just wants that reliability
of just going and opening the door.
-You gotta come with it on this one. -I see it.
[Bill] We're gonna try and not to damage the flames.
We have to have somebody come in and touch all that up.
Cool. So, we just need to be real precise.
Measure it twice, drill once.
-You're right. -You know, and make sure we're on point.
Not only that, there are some other things, too.
It has the smooth LEDs in the back.
Yeah, they're dope.
He don't want them.
He wants, like, the factory tail lights put back in the car.
But, like, factory-factory?
With the arms and the steel and the...
You know, we're not gonna do that.
We're not gonna go with the actual factory tail light,
but more of factory-style look.
So, it's up to us to come up with something cool.
Right on.
[Bill] And he wants a better license plate.
This customer's gonna take this beautiful '37 that's complete,
and we're gonna go ahead and put some factory handles back in it.
And then get rid of these beautifully flushed LEDs
-and go back with a factory style. -Yes, sir.
It's still gonna have that clean, smooth look,
still have that style.
[Jamel] Hell, yeah.
You know, as far as the exterior, that's it.
It's all you on that.
-Cool. -I mean, next is John Burgess.
He can get with it on the inside.
It looks super-smooth on the inside, too.
But it's a little plain, so we're gonna wake it up.
And make it cool looking for him.
Right on. Well, what about that gaudy looking steering wheel?
That thing there is rough.
It looks like a birthday cake.
-You know, like, car on the bottom. -[Bill chuckles]
[Jamel] With... "I turned 37.
-Brought the candles." -[Bill chuckles]
That is somebody's bad idea right there.
That's one the first things that's gotta go for sure.
-Yes. -[both laugh]
[thunder rumbling]
[Bill] Adding all the things back on the '37 Coupe that we need to add on...
It's a little bit of challenge to use those factory parts and still make it custom.
You know, there's no manual for this,
so we're gonna do what we always do.
Figure it out.
[Jamel] The customer wanted that old retro look.
So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna fit some retro style lights in here,
but still keep the cool, custom look.
We're just gonna drill a hole and slowly recess these lights,
so we can get it in that hip
and then go ahead and mold it in.
And do a little bit of fiberglass work.
And that's where the fun is gonna begin.
[drilling]
The toughest part about doing a job like this
is getting the tail lights actually go in the hip
without going too far out to the outside of the body
and going too far in.
We're gonna go ahead and sand out about four inches all the way around.
That way that allows our fiberglass
and our cosmetic repair to bite.
So, once that I get this basket all sanded off,
it will allow us to get a good adhesion
between the panel, the basket and the fiberglass.
Cool.
That looks really good.
Uh-oh.
I bet you the battery is dead. [chuckles]
Fully cures in an hour.
But if we only got one to two minutes working time,
that means it hardens up pretty quick.
[Bill] Just get it in place
-and put some tape on it to offset. -[Jamel] Correct.
De-clamp time, five minutes.
[Bill] The project like the '37 Coupe,
it's proof that every build has its own set of rules.
What do you figure? About an inch out on the bottom?
[Bill] I mean, that's good.
There's just gonna be a big gap now on the top.
-If it's all, you know, I hope you place it in and check it. -Cool, cool.
Jamel did a real good job of cutting the holes, getting everything prepped.
We're ready to actually mount the light in the hole.
The only thing left is to make sure everything is nice and straight.
Vertical and horizontally.
Put on this side, so it kinda balances it.
How we're gonna do that is...
I'm gonna put a piece of aluminum tubing across here
with a couple of pieces of tubing as a spacer clamped to it.
I've already taped the light kinda where it goes.
It looks pretty close,
but if that tubing busts up
to the light perfectly flat on both sides,
you know they're a 100 percent true.
Man, Jamel, we know it's on the money
-because there's no... -No guess work.
-This jig that you built is amazing. -Exactly.
-You know, there's no way you can go wrong with this. -Hell, yeah.
So, everything's lined up perfectly.
We're gonna go ahead and put some panel bond in here
and get these things in here secure.
The reason why we use panel bond
is because we're adhering two different types of material.
You can't weld metal to fiberglass,
so what we're gonna take here is some two part panel bond,
make it lock up quick.
That way we can go ahead and move the jig
and continue to build this beautiful '37.
All right. Cool.
Now, that we have our metal basket for our retro tail light
installed and solid thanks to our panel bonds,
we can go ahead and start doing some fiberglass work.
The fiber glassing process is just fiberglass
and resin and then the mat.
I'll take the mat,
I'll cut the little pieces to where it fits around the tail light
and fits nice and clean to where I like it.
So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna fill in where we had to make the hole
and add structural integrity on the backside.
I'm gonna put a couple of layers of glass in there to make it solid.
I want no shrinking, no stretching,
no cracking, none of that crazy stuff.
So, while I'm underneath doing structural work,
I'm gonna go ahead and remove these beautiful LEDs
and do the structural part on the backside, too,
while we have the car up in the air.
Now, we're just gonna go ahead and pop these bad boys up.
Once the repairs are done,
it will look like there was never any LEDs here.
All righty.
Cool.
Now, we'll cut us some more strips of mat.
And then, we'll mix up some resin
and we'll fill our holes.
We're gonna go and let this cure for 24 hours.
And tomorrow, we'll do the cosmetic side of it.
[Bill] One thing about this shop,
there's always something going on.
And there's always something up next.
So, while the Coupe keeps going in one bay,
right next door,
we're trying to knock out one of the biggest jobs we ever done.
That tanker truck.
What up, Cleevy? What up, Cleevy?
What up, Carlosy.
[Carlos chuckles] What's going on, Billy?
[both chuckle]
Man, you know, I'm getting excited about the old tanker.
A while back, this antique old tanker
rolled into the lot.
It's a 1953 white
pulling in that 1951 Fruehauf tanker.
And it's made for a huge, huge project.
We've done a bunch of work to it already.
And the front suspension is done.
The rear suspension is done.
This thing was built before there was power anything.
And it's really hard to drive.
So, we started building an independent front suspension.
And out back, a heavy duty four link
with air suspension all around.
Got that engine and trans down in it. It's that new diesel.
Oh, yeah.
[Bill] We're replacing that old worn out engine
with that 12 valve Cummins.
This new engine should produce about three or four times more power.
Next thing is getting everything mounted, building the motor mounts,
building a transmission mount.
You know, once it's all mounted, everything is mocked up.
The firewall is all cut up and mocked up,
we can blow it all apart.
We can paint the engine just a bright red, man.
-Really, really wake it up. -[Carlos] Yeah.
You know, so it looks like a hot rod semi.
So, I gotta find some of that dress up stuff,
build it, chrome, whatever.
-We put on in there and... -Definitely.
release that red off even more.
When you pop that old hood, I want you to see, like,
-some bling underneath there. Right? -Yeah, we can do that.
[Bill] Sparkle.
We need some stacks
coming off the back, going up each side.
You know, big flat tops.
-Nice, bright chrome. -Exactly, man.
It's really gonna wake it up.
So, that sounds like all the front.
What about that... the trailer park?
[Bill] We're gonna need a bunch of parts for that, too, man.
Of course, we're gonna need a bunch of wheels and tires.
-Whole lot of wheels and tires. -[chuckling] Right?
That's gonna be a good order.
Once we take everything out, we're gonna need everything new.
A new axle for it, you know, the bags and all the cording.
The heims and everything.
We need all that to build all the rear suspension.
-And a lot more air line. -[chuckling] Yeah, right?
-All right. -Let's make it happen.
Cool.
Come on, Cleve.
Well, all right, y'all. All right, y'all.
[Bill] So, we have the Cummins mocked up.
Now, Jamie and Ryan are gonna figure out how to mount it.
What is this?
Four inch. Four.
All right, so the original way that this motor mounted up
is it got this mid-mount here.
It distributes the weight equally.
Usually, we'll go underneath the rear
and make our little, just mid saddle that goes underneath the transmission.
We can through bolt it that way,
And, you know, connect it with a pipe.
But with the way that this is mounted here,
it's not gonna really work that way.
It's gonna have to have two separate transmission mounts on this one.
Same concept, just split.
This is kinda cool.
You know, it's a tanker truck, first of all.
It's old tanker.
And now, we're putting, you know,
more of a modern motor that's just as big as the old one.
But, you know, different setup,
different geometry, different power and all that.
Boom! Shaka-laka!
It's kinda cool being able to do stuff like this.
Not a lot of people can go to work
and, you know, get to use their imagination to make it work.
Get this guy tacked in here.
So, it don't move around.
Doing stuff like this is cool.
You know, we get different stuff all the time
sometimes it's repetitive. Cut it up every day.
Cut it little bit more, stop right here and drop it out a little bit.
We'll get a better weld right there.
It's the cool part of the job. You know?
Perfecto!
I got a cool idea. We can do it like the...
the Bronco over there.
With a piece that goes right to the corner of this.
So, it will grab the top and the side.
-I think it will be so much stronger right there. -[Jamie] Yeah.
[Ryan] Since we don't have anything that we're going down to. You know?
[Jamie] That's a good idea.
'Cause you know how much this thing is gonna rattle.
-[Jamie] Yeah, these things shake. -That's like a tractor motor.
Yeah, they shake bad.
[Jamie] All right, I'm gonna go cut two sixes just to start out.
Go and get that tacked in.
Let me tack it on the finishing.
I like it.
You do the same with the bottom,
since we got so much room down there.
Man, these motor mounts look great.
It's got two good solid anchor points on it.
Motor's gonna ride right there.
-Strength is there, for sure. Style is cool though. -Yeah.
Now, everything flows from the front all the way to the back
with the tubing and the sand bushings and everything.
I like it. If it was mine, I'll be happy with it.
Now that we got it mounted,
next step is to fit this big old motor underneath the cabin.
So, this motor and trans step is a lot different
as you can see from the stock applications.
Looks like we're not gonna have to cut into that.
No, I think it's just this corner right here.
Just like, from, like, here over.
That's a wood floor. Just take the wood out.
'Cause we're gonna have to re-build all that anyways.
Jamie just got done cutting the floor out.
Should be enough. We're gonna lower it down.
Make the cab to the frame
and then we can start all the inside sheet metal work.
All right, that should be good.
Oh-ho!
It's a lot of motor in there.
-No way. -Yeah.
[Jamie chuckles]
It's all motor.
[Jamie] Where are the pedals gonna go? [chuckles]
[Bill] Even though that '53 tanker is just so big,
that engine and trans combo,
it's just way bigger and wider
than our old engine that used to be in there.
[Ryan] Looks like a winner.
[Bill] So, Jamie is gonna re-build the firewall and floor.
So, sometimes, those sheet metal,
you're gonna have to go around things.
For instance, this bell housing.
You know, we can't move this.
And right here, this is where our pedals are gonna be.
So, I'm gonna have to make this as flat as possible.
Put my sheet metal as tight as I can.
But still have some clearance against the bell housing.
You know, I gotta think ten steps ahead
before I start laying everything else.
There. That's gone soft.
All right. So, I'm gonna go in there.
That's got to go up.
Split this.
Break.
Hold this piece down right here.
Now, that's just gonna have to be it.
That's definitely gonna work.
[hammering]
[grunts]
Man, that sucks.
About to cut that.
Initially, I planned to make, like, a pocket right here.
But, you know, things don't work out all the time.
It just looked good one way.
But it felt different once I put my feet down to check everything.
So, I mean, it's kinda, like, I have to do it now.
So, I'm gonna go ahead and cut some more of the floor out
to make different transitions and pieces on this.
It's gonna be a lot better car fit.
It's not gonna be a less of a lift for your foot.
Plus, I don't want any kind of obstruction
between the brake pedal and the gas pedal.
You know?
This is fabrication, you have to overcome.
-You wanted me to do it? -That's been in there...
-You ready to do it? -Yeah, I'm ready.
[Bill] You know, it already has the curve on it,
so we'll just figure out where
-this fits the cab. -[Jamie] Yeah.
And that pretty much establishes
-where we're working with. -That's right there where our stack up
-come up right there. -Yeah.
One of the really cool process of making this old '50s truck
into something a little more modern...
It is the chrome stacks.
It's not only gonna look cool,
it's gonna create even more flow for that diesel exhaust.
It's always good to get in a project like this
where you get to do some cool new things.
One of the first things we're gonna do is mount the brackets on the cab.
Establish how far our pipes and everything are gonna be apart.
I'm about center of the pipe right here.
[Bill] 55 and a quarter.
Then, we can come right out the turbo
to a big T.
And then, from the T to two chrome six inch pipes
going all the way up to backside of the cab
and over the tanker.
We got our measurements from our brackets on the cab.
Now, that's established,
get our measurements here.
That's gotta be 22 and a half.
The next thing is modifying the big T that comes out.
We need to the inch off of each side.
Lion King!
[chuckles]
Way to hang a stack.
See, if our calculations are correct.
[machine whirring]
[Jamie] We're solid now.
I don't think it's gonna fit.
Nope. Might as well go ahead and cut it.
You know, since we got this clamp hiding the seam here,
we're gonna take these down and weld 'em together,
so everything seems nice and straight.
We got our piece of two by two
extruded aluminum clamped to the table.
When it's touching all the way down,
you know it's laser straight.
Super, smooth, clean.
Really small weld is what you want on here.
[Jamie] Hey, that looks tough.
That's exactly what it needed with the 24-valve Cummins.
New front suspension.
Automatic transmission power steering now.
Man, with the stacks, it just completes the whole look.
-Kinda jealous now. -I like it.
-I'm really liking it. -[Bill chuckles]
You know, I've been really thinking about it a lot
on which handle to go with on this '37 Coupe.
Trying to find a mechanical handle
for a door that's this skinny
and still have no window operational.
It will be super-tough to try to make all that work.
So, found this online.
It works with the key fobs.
SO, when you walk by and the key fob is gonna sense it
and automatically pop the door open like that.
So, you got a nice grab spot.
But we're still gonna put a safety mechanism
in the door.
So, if anything fails,
you still have a pull cable that you can access,
you know, in that secret spot that nobody knows about.
You know, the little tricky part on this
is just putting the handle in the right spot.
I mean, you can't put it too far back
'cause it will end up in the door jam itself.
So, finding that cool little spot where everything works right
is key.
Nice and straight right there.
And that's where we're gonna cut it out at.
Give it to it.
[Jamel] Cool, get it knocked out.
I'm just gonna go ahead and make a little pattern
of the actual handle itself.
Because I wanna cut my hole smaller.
That way I can slowly
open it to where my handle fits perfectly.
When doing this right here, it's a one-time process.
So, there's no room for error.
So, that's gonna leave me about an eighth of an inch
to where I can slowly file it
top to bottom to get a precise fit.
So, when I'm cutting this,
I just have to make a good, clean cut.
It's gotta be perfect.
So, I just gotta focus.
It's all about clearing the mind,
getting comfortable.
The more comfortable you are, the better work it will be.
Now, we got our hole all cut out.
And what we're going to do is we're gonna make us
a axis hole right here on the back side.
Little window that we can get in there and work.
So, we can remove some of the fiberglass.
You see the thickness?
What we're gonna do is we're gonna knock that to about half its size.
In order to achieve that,
we'll just take the angle, grind it to on the backside.
Throw it all out. Our door handle sit flushed
against the back of the panel.
'Cause once again, we'll gonna be bonding metal
to fiberglass.
So, we'll use panel bond.
It's a two-part of proxy
which we'll use in the rear.
So, we'll use the same stuff here.
We got our handle in.
We got the panel bond on it.
Now, we're just gonna let it set for 24 hours.
And then, we'll pull it off and do the cosmetic on the front side.
[Bill] You know, we've done a lot of leather and woodwork in our interiors lately.
But on the Coupe, John's gonna mix it up a little bit
and put aluminum in the dash.
Right. Easy enough.
It's gonna break up that leather and give it a cool look.
The dash is gonna be somewhat of a retro fit.
I'm gonna start by
taking some measurements off the dashboard here.
Get in the computer, get it laid out.
And at that point,
I'll be able to lay out my design
and the ideas that I have.
Program set and ready to go.
I got some aluminum locked up in the CNC router.
Hit it with a little bit of lube.
If we don't do this,
the aluminum will gall up in a bit,
it will start chattering, get chunks in it
and mess up your part.
And off to work.
This being aluminum, you only get one chance.
You can't go in body fill and re-paint.
It's either right or it's wrong.
So, we'll have to babysit this one a little bit more than usual
just to make sure everything is still running good and on track.
But once it's done,
part that's gonna come out of the machine
will look perfect.
Nice, gooey mess.
So, CNC router has done its job.
Everything is cut out and ready to go.
That's gonna be cool.
With this being aluminum, I didn't wanna cut all the way through
and have these pieces come loose and go flying around,
so I stopped just before I got to the bottom.
Now, we'll take a jigsaw,
trim it out.
Go over to the hand router,
real quick run around on these parts and we'll be done.
We finished the custom air suspension on that '53 tanker.
Now, to give it a huge modern update
with that power steering.
[Jamie] What we got going on right now
is we're taking out the whole hydraulic steering.
You know, we'll try to bring it back modern
where everybody can drive this truck.
You get in this thing, you're not gonna have to fight that big wheel,
nothing like that.
So, what we're gonna do is gonna put rack and pinion
power steering in this truck.
Get this side down, that's my drop down
to hold my column up top.
We got our collar right here.
This is gonna locate the bottom of our column.
It's very important to get this right,
so our steer linkage is good.
Kinda liking that right here.
Right now, I'm just checking to make sure my column is straight.
That sheet metal work, I can make that
anyway I want to.
But this right here, I wanna make sure it's parallel.
You don't wanna be driving.
And the steering will be like this or this.
So, make sure everything looks true.
I'm happy with that right there.
And when you're doing something like this, you need to think
ten steps ahead.
We're now gonna go from the rack right here with the knuckle,
all the way to my column right here.
Obviously, I have a clearance issue.
I have two options. I can go ahead and put another joint in there.
Which is gonna be more material, more things combined up.
Or I can go ahead and just remove part of the motor mount,
get my steering linkage completed
and then I can go ahead and fabricate something around my steering linkage.
[sawing]
[Jamie] I got my steering linkage in
from the collar,
all the way down to the rack and pinion.
Next thing is, go ahead and start making
this motor mount go around my steering linkage.
So, I'm gonna get my angle finder,
get somewhat close to the pitch I want.
Once I do that, take exhaust machine,
gotta bend it.
That's our arch.
Go ahead and chop that down real quick.
Go ahead and cope it.
Once I cope it, it's gonna fit nice and tight on this bushing on the motor mount.
Okay, so I got it in place now.
I'm gonna go ahead and shape it out just a little bit with a little heat and beat.
♪ Hey ♪
Come on out. Got it all unhooked.
Now, we've got our thing mocked up.
It's time to blow this thing apart.
Take the cab off, take the motor out.
Get this thing to powdercoating.
We're clear right there.
All right, go back, go back, go back.
Back. All right, now, buff it.
Oh, you're good right there.
Now, we get the cab off.
Go ahead and start slicking down this frame.
Weld up what needs to be welded.
Then, off to powdercoat we go.
[Jamie] Come in.
Come in.
All right, right there, then, side shift right.
The '53 tanker is back from powdercoating.
[Ryan] One, two, three.
[Bill] With everything coming together,
we can finally install that freshly painted Cummins.
Good job!
Gonna bring her down.
[Bill] This new engine, it's a big step forward
with many, many more to go.
All right.
There's still a whole lot of work to do on this old truck.
Need to get that cab back on the chassis.
There you go. One, two, three.
All right, we gotta go to the front.
[Bill] Still needs a custom bumper.
It needs to go back now.
It's pretty freaking close right there though.
Interior and a whole lot of metal work to do on that trailer.
Gonna come down a little bit.
Yeah, that's good right there, dude.
Keep going.
Big jobs like this take just that much longer.
But it's always worth it 'cause when we get it done, it's one of one.
The nice part about being this busy as a business,
even as one job still has a lot of work to do,
another one is almost done.
John's finishing up one of our last big pieces on the coop...
the door panels.
[John] Going through few ideas here
and making a decision on which one we're gonna do.
Once we get the base idea down,
we'll let the machines cut our pieces out,
then it will be up to us to get it all the shaped in, put together.
Kinda nice to be able to put your base drawing on the computer.
You still have to keep building it in your head.
How are you gonna put it together? How are you gonna wrap it?
How's it gonna finish out, so there's a lot of stuff that goes in to it,
other than just lines on the computer.
Take this.
So, this car has so much curve to these doors
in all directions.
It's basically just one big concave bubble.
So, in order to get all this shaped in right,
we're going to get it glued in place
and body work with it on the car.
That way it will hold the shape,
'cause if you just do it on the bench
and body work it flat and try to put it on the car,
it goes bad.
I'll body work and sand this down,
then it will be ready to wrap.
Like everything, it will take time,
but it will be worth it.
Yes.
[tires screeching]
[engine revving]
[tires screech]
After all the fabrication and the body work on the '37,
Jamel needs to mix that paint
to that exact color to match the rest of the car.
So, we use a dark gray, a gray and a light gray.
That will give us three different shades of red.
We're actually... we'll do one of these two.
This will give you all four different series on one part.
I'm gonna spray up on these cards,
take 'em up to the car
and figure out which one is the closest match
to our automobile.
All right, I'm certain we got a match.
So, this one's in, it's over gray sealer.
So, the next step is we're gonna prep and finish prepping our car.
That way we can get in the paint group and get this thing painted.
We're gonna make us some sealer real quick.
Take our mixing cup...
Put in some sealer!
All right, just so give us some field substrate.
Makes everything even.
So, I'm gonna go ahead, I got the sealer and the gun.
We're gonna go in here and we're gonna put a coat of sealer
on our panel.
Now, we're gonna come back with our red base coat dusted out
and then clear the panels.
After a lot of searching and being through different shops,
Ekstensive is home.
Here is where I can be creative.
Here is where the magic happens.
The custom paint world, it's different than the collision.
You break all the rules.
They say, spray-attack-coat. No.
Oh, you can only put two coats of clear or three coats of clear.
Oh, man, forget about that.
Shoot it the way you want it to look.
'Cause that's really how you're supposed to spray it.
I know for myself,
when I do something, when I do one project,
I'm my own worst critic.
I've had people tell me, "Oh, man, that looks really good."
You know? And I'm like,
"Man, I think it could have been a hell of a lot better."
I beat myself up, beat myself up bad.
But the reason is 'cause I wanna excel.
You know, I wanna be the best.
So, in order to do that,
you have to push yourself.
All the way through.
No shortcuts, no cutting corners.
Producing the best is what's expected.
Nothing else is acceptable.
Nice.
Perfect.
We've done a lot of work on this already custom '37,
you know, from the tail lights to the door handles
to a new interior.
The customer said it just wasn't right.
Just wasn't what he needed.
So, we've addressed all those issues
that he had on his mind
and got him hooked up.
Now, it's just right.
-Hey, man. -Hello, Bill.
You can really tell there's a place in his heart for this car.
And I can't wait for him to see it.
Come on!
-Oh, my God, Bill! -[Bill chuckles]
I don't believe it.
That... Oh! That's wonderful.
I've waited 40 years to see something like this.
-40 years, huh? -40 years.
I started building one back in the '80s
and I lost it.
I gave up on a dream of having it for cruising and...
You made it. It's here!
It's... You did it.
I can't.
I'm a little loss for words now.
-Let's get a closer look. -Great.
[Bill] You know, I can kinda understand where Rick's out on this.
Losing something early in life and finally getting it back after many, many years,
you know, that can...
bring a tear to your eye, for sure.
[Rick] Oh, God, Bill.
It's perfect.
The tail lights, you can see them yet they're molded in.
It looks like an old street rod.
Yeah! You wanted to put the factory-style tail light back in,
so that's what we had to do.
But I didn't wanna just put
a big tail light that hangs off the back of the fender
with the stem coming off.
So, we decided that mold 'em in.
You know, it still has that factory look,
-but it's all custom. - [Rick] Mmm-hmm.
It's definitely the '30s style of fender.
It's street rod. They don't use that term anymore,
-but it's just slick. -[Bill chuckles]
This car makes me feel like a kid again.
I'm going through my third childhood
and this is gonna fit right in with it.
You know, one other problem you had was that low license plate bracket.
So, we got a nice retractable one now.
So, you hit a button and it just comes up and out.
[Rick chuckles]
Oh, that beats the heck out of reaching up underneath.
Yeah. You don't have to worry about that anymore.
[Rick] It's perfect.
[Bill] The hard thing is taking such a nice car
and modifying it and not detracting from it.
You know, like, the door handles itself.
Picking that right handle to go back in a really clean car.
[Rick] They're sleek. I was thinking of my old Chevy door handles
-that would catch your coat with. -[chuckling] Right.
[Rick] I could get in and out of this without worrying about
something sticking out of the door.
Oh, man, it's hotter than I thought it would be.
[Bill] It's still an electric door handle.
If that doesn't work, you still have your safety release underneath.
So, you can pull in and actually get in the car.
You don't have to get the brick out and smash the glass.
[Rick chuckles]
Oh, my God, Bill.
I had never dreamed that it could ever look like this.
-It looks so... -Creamy.
It looks creamy.
-[Bill laughs] -[Rick] Now, it's got character.
John Burgess knows how to weight something up.
He fired up the old CNC.
He cut out a piece of aluminum.
[Rick] Oh, yeah.
[Bill] He can stand off the dash with the two-tone in there.
Yeah, it just really, really comes alive
-once you do that. -It does.
And the door panel looks solid.
Before, it was just hanging off of there.
- Got a lot of work went into it. -[Bill] Yeah, it is.
Definitely, definitely.
You see one thing missing, too. Right?
-That thumb grabbing steering wheel. -[Bill chuckles]
[Rick] You guys hit it right on the head with that.
[Bill] Man, it looks good and not only good,
-it looks classy, too. -It's classy, definitely.
Getting a car in like this, it's already super-slick.
Modifying that to the customer's taste,
you know, that's always the challenge.
Especially something like this.
Man, I really appreciate you trusting in me, the company.
To add to your dream on this.
Bill, it's been in my heart and you nailed it.
I couldn't have dreamt anymore than what this turned out.
Long time ago, I was hoping for something like this, and here she is.
It's everything that I had ever dreamed of, Bill.
My kids are gonna fight over it
-after my wife and I are gone. -[Bill chuckles]