So he just came here to get that fixed?
-We're doing collision work now or what? -[Bill] Well,
since it's here.
[Bill] This Jeep Gladiator has had
a lot of work done to it.
Definitely gotta beef it up.
We're gonna give it some style that you can't
buy out of a catalogue.
-That's the Karate Kid, right? -[Dustin] Yeah.
[Bill] Karate Kid bumper.
[Bill] I love the Ranger. We're gonna do some
stuff to this that nobody's
ever even seen.
Build a custom
camper for the back of this.
[Carlos] Whoa. Okay.
[Bill] You gotta make something
for all sizes and shapes
but when it comes to building
something that's custom,
you make it fit to you.
Perfect.
Oh, my God.
-That is badass. -[Bill laughing]
[Greg] Oh, my God.
[theme music 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.
[engine whirring]
Oh, man, you taking this thing out for the weekend?
-Yeah, man. It's a nice, nice day today. -Yeah.
-It's time to go have some fun. -Oh, yeah.
I bought a Polaris Ranger not too long ago
and the idea is for everybody
to able to use it,
have fun with it but
riding around stock just...
isn't cutting it.
[Bill] Going out to the offroad park
and just seeing all the crazy
side by sides out there, it's just like
custom cars around here.
It's a whole 'nother world.
Man, you take this out there,
I mean, you have fun but you're like,
"Damn, look at that, look at that cool,
look at that cool..." and you feel
so, insignificant.
-[Bill] We can't have that man. -Yeah, no.
[Bill] If it's gonna represent Ekstensive out somewhere,
we can't have it stock.
-[Carlos] I knew this was coming. -[Bill] Yeah.
There's a lot of stuff I wanna do to this. Of course
lift it. Of course
big wheels and tires,
a control arms, bumpers front and back.
The after market accessories
for this is pretty much unlimited.
So there's a lot of stuff that
we don't have to make.
-Not gonna be hard to find the parts for this. -[Bill] No.
But we're gonna do some stuff to this that
nobody has, nobody sells
and nobody has ever even seen.
If we're gonna do something to it,
we're gonna come with it.
[Bill] I love the Ranger
but it just looks too squished and tall.
So, one of the first things we're gonna do
is chop the top. Give it the roof line that's smooth,
-cleaner look. -[Carlos] Mmm-hmm.
[Bill] Lay the windshield back a little bit
and drop it down.
But I want that roof line to continue, so.
I'm thinking build
-a custom camper for the back of this. -[Carlos] Oof.
-[Carlos] A camper shell? -[Bill] Yeah.
[Carlos] Whoa. Okay.
And I wanna fill it full of subs.
-That'll get the attention. Oh, yeah. -[Bill] Yeah.
I've never seen a UTV
with a camper on it.
So, I'm thinking back to my old days
when I use to have a little S-10 with
the snug top on it.
Thinking that was pretty cool, so,
I'm gonna build one.
Not only that
something I've never ever even
seen or heard on a side by side.
I want a dancing bed.
-Oh. -[Bill] Like, old school mini truck dancing bed
-on a side by side. -[Carlos] See now,
-we're going back to my California roots right here. -[Bill laughs]
You know, way back in history,
back in the late 80's, early 90's
you know, the rave was in the mini truck scene
was having a dancing bed
and if you don't know what that is, it is the bed of a truck
that's been cut out and modified
where actually hydraulics
actuate the bed back and forth
and it looks like the bed
is actually dancing
on the back of the truck.
This is gonna be crazy.
-[Carlos] Yeah. -Hey! If we gotta do it, let's do it.
You know, there was a bet
to see how long it was gonna take
before this thing got taken
to the next level.
It didn't take long, so.
[Carlos] I'mma go tell the wife
I won some money now.
-[Bill] Ha. -[Carlos laughs]
[Bill] Just the past
decade or so the side by side world
has just went crazy.
People spend more money on
their side by side than they do on their car.
Everything that
you can buy online,
you're gonna see out there.
It's nothing to see
a side by side with $100,000
in it, you know it's unbelievable.
Anytime you build
something that looks cool,
it's always good for business.
We've been setting the trend for years with
automotive scene.
And with the bar set really high
everybody already thinks,
"Oh, I've been there,
done that, seen that."
Well we're going to prove
that they haven't.
We're gonna show 'em something
that's really really cool
and make people think, "Dang,
I need that."
And they know where to come
when they see it.
[dog barking]
[Jamie] All right, tell me it's time.
It doesn't fit in the parking lot,
it's too stock.
[Bill] Man, riding around on
a bone stock vehicle
-just isn't cool. -That ain't you, man.
No.
[Bill] I wanna build something that just,
everybody else is like, " Damn,
did you see that?"
And just be talking about it from now on.
That's what I wanna turn this into.
We're about to have a whole bunch
of parts come in for this
so, get ready.
[Bill] Crazy wheels and tires,
air suspension and we're gonna
of course, paint it.
This is the only I could get was just
white but it really don't matter
-'cause something we just gotta do it. -[Jamie] Gotta do it.
One of the first things we're gonna do
is drop the roof line down.
Four inches is about borderline
how much we can get away with.
So, I want you,
to take out the seats, seatbelts
and the mesh doors.
Take all that off, so we can start
chopping this.
[mimics cutting] You can cut this off here and here.
[Bill] We'll make something a little cooler for that.
Get the doors on it.
Levelling it all up is gonna take a minute.
Gonna take the bed that off.
Tilt it up, get it out of the way.
Then we gonna start the cutting.
We got everything lined up, all level.
-[Jamie] Wow. -[Bill] Everything's straight, we got a good foundation,
we know when we take this off,
it's not going anywhere.
-Let's pull these off. -[Jamie] Okay.
-[Bill] Take these over back to the table. -[Jamie] Okay.
[Bill] Clean off all the weld
the we can slip those pieces
-right back down in the tube. -[Jamie] Nice.
[Jamie] It's loose.
[Bill] Got it.
[Jamie] Glad you cut out the back now, huh?
[Jamie] Come on.
All right.
[machine cutting]
[Bill] Try to get it pretty good and then just split it.
-[Jamie] Yeah, and peel it off. -[Bill] Yeah.
[Jamie] So me and Bill cut this off
and this right here
slides into this tube.
What I'm doing is cutting the weld off
and then I'mma split it.
Then I can work the metal back and forth
and the weld will break.
[Jamie] Nice.
So, I have this bung
right here to be able to put right back on
and reweld it once we clean the weld off of it.
Now for the front part, the windshield
which we bring it down four inches,
it's gonna change the pitch slightly.
Can't just drop it down for this to be
over where it needs to be.
So that's why I'm cutting it in two places.
[Jamie] That's our three pieces.
-Get that bar. -Yeah.
-[Bill] Ready? You got yours in? -[Jamie] Yeah.
One, two, three.
-[Jamie] Ah. -Put this top piece in
and then we'll make that fit.
[Jamie] Do one side at a time?
[Jamie] Think that's way better.
-[Jamie] Way better already. -[Bill] Lot more...
Lot better proportions.
[Bill] Cut a little bit of that out.
-[Bill] Yeah. -[Jamie] Bit of welding.
[Bill] I think we're ready, man.
I'm really happy with how the roof looks.
You get back and look at it and it looks like
it's factory, it should've been that way.
You know, it looked really tall,
really out of proportion before.
[Bill] What you understand...
[Jamie] Right on the line on that side.
[Bill] ...you gotta make something for all sizes and shapes
for whoever's behind the wheel but
when it comes to building
something this custom,
you make it fit to you.
Perfect.
It's our first custom part
for the side by side
and I'm always happy with that.
[Jamie] Hell yeah.
[Bill] There's two best parts of any build.
One being the end when it's all put together
and the other part, the beginning
you know, when you're turning that
thought that's in your head
down into metal.
And this time that's that
camper shell for the 2023 Polaris.
Now that the roof line is all established,
we can start on the camper.
[Bill] We got chip board up front here, so I know
how we're gonna attach it
to the front of the bed.
I ordered a window online.
I ordered it pretty much
to the tail gate, so the opening lines up
with the tail gate itself.
Just kinda wanna get back,
look, see where the angle of the window
needs to be in relation to everything else.
[Bill] Yeah, that's a lot better.
And then we'll see how high the back of it
needs to be.
I have the front of the camper laid out
with the cut out in the front of it,
so when the bed lifts up, you can see
all the speakers pointing at you.
-[Bill] What up, man? -[Jessie] What up?
You know we're building that
camper for the back of the side by side?
So, we gotta have a place
-to put all those subs in the back, right? -[Jessie chuckles]
[Bill] Here's the measurements I took
and this is the radius I want for the top.
I wanna build it all
with eighth inch aluminum
and I'll bring the window over here for you.
[Jessie] So, we're finally gonna customize that thing?
-Yeah, man it's gonna be cool cool. -[Jessie] Yeah.
I think everybody's been waiting for this.
Yeah, we're gonna have
a good time with it, man.
Yeah, we'll all take it out and just
-go crazy with it. -Yeah, can't wait, man.
So, now I'm just drawing out the camper bit
for the side by side which is gonna have
a bunch of speakers
and there's gonna be dancing.
The side by side has been here for a while, you know?
We go to the park, we take it out
but it's been stock and when you go out there
you'll see a bunch of four wheelers
all lifted, customized.
I think this would be fun now
that we're gonna customize
the side by side
and then you know, represent
you know, the shop itself.
Usually when we do a build
it's for a customer and it goes home with the customer,
so you don't ever get to see it again.
With the side by side,
little bit of show it off
and little bit to use it ourselves
at the mud park.
[Jamie] Cool.
Nice.
[Bill] Jessie has always did
a great job burning it out.
It's exactly what I wanted.
So, the next step on this
is I'm gonna ben a 90 over,
and the a 90 down,
so the front of this has a lid
to sit on the front and fastened it
to the bed itself.
When it's up dancing around,
it ain't going anywhere.
-[Bill] Looking real good. -[Jamie] I like it already.
[Jamie] Man, taking this thing out to the mud park
you know, I'm really looking forward to that.
You see a lot of different things there
but you ain't gonna see this.
I got, yeah.
[horn honking]
-[door closes] -[Greg] Hey, Bill.
-[Bill] What's up, Greg? -[Greg] How you doing, man?
-Good to see ya, man. Good to see ya. -[Bill] Good morning.
You know, I've known Greg for a while,
he's our steel guy,
so anytime I need any kind of steel
that's who I call.
[Bill] Man, your Jeep is looking real good man. I love the stance
-of it man. Put 40's on it too? -[Greg] Yeah, yeah.
I put the 40's on it,
chrome molly axels regeared,
up and lower control arms.
Pretty much everything I can do that
I can bolt on to it I've done.
You know, I like Jeeps,
and the Gladiator as a truck,
I love it man.
I've always been a truck guy.
I need a truck bed.
I actually use my truck
and I'm hauling stuff and projects
and you know, I'm going
to mud parks every weekend.
I love the look of the Gladiator.
-[Bill] You take it off road too. -[Greg] I do, I do.
I'm in the mud parks on weekends
selling steel and you know, these ATV
guys are building the side by side
like you build your giant one,
-I'd love to see yours out there one day. -[Bill] Yeah.
So what are you doing in this area, man?
I know we got plenty of steel from you.
I wanna show you a little dent I got
in the back back there.
-What'd you do? -Well, I got rear ended.
-Oh, man. -[Greg chuckles]
Kind of knocked my back bumper out of whack
and you know, bed's a little jacked up but
I don't think it's, uh,
-not nothing you can't handle. [laughs] -Well, let's check it out.
-Oh, man. -[Greg chuckles]
Yeah, you got it a little bit.
[Greg] Just heartbreaking.
Didn't have too many scratches or dings on it
and then all pf a sudden here it is.
-That's how it is, man. -Yeah, yeah.
You know, of course as soon as you get
your car looking right,
you're feeling good,
driving around, you know it's looking good,
it crash right into you.
Man, Greg it is twisted up
a little bit, huh? It looks like the whole bed's
racked a little bit too. I mean the damage
isn't that bad but looks like it...
[birds chirping]
-It's out of square. -Mmm-hmm.
[Bill] You know, the bed's side wrinkled up.
It'd be best to just go ahead and throw a new bed on it.
-I like that. -[Bill] You know, the good thing about
getting rear ended something like this
is you don't have
to go back with that
factory plastic bumper.
[Bill] Since you're here,
it's time to maybe get a little custom.
Let's just upgrade a little bit.
Let's go with the... A cool, sleek looking
all metal bumper where
it's gonna give you little bit more
-protection than that plastic. -I think
that's a great idea. If I get rear ended again
I'd rather have them bounce off
-than smash my truck again. -Right. Exactly.
I noticed you pulling in too that
the six inch lift on here with the 40's
you know, has the factory 4-link on it
but once you lift it that high
or you're pivoting on the 4-link mount,
so it scoots that wheel way
-far forward in the fender well. -[Greg] I see
-it every time I look at it. -Yeah, for sure, man.
[Bill] We could build a new 4-link bars,
scoot the wheel back and center it back up
in the fender well again.
-That'd be a huge improvement. -[Greg] I like it, I like it.
[Bill] I noticed that front bumper too.
Looks like a big old moustache up there, doesn't it?
-Let's go check it out. -[Greg laughs]
-[Bill] That looks mean coming at you, man. -[Greg] You know,
I put a steel one on the front,
I bought a big wide heavy one
put it on there because I figured
if there was gonna be any impacts
done it'd be by me in the front.
-[Bill] Right. [laughing] -[Greg] I wasn't thinking about the back.
There's a couple things we could do
-to it to make it a little cooler. -Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
[Bill] We could give you a little bit more
clearance of the wheels.
You know, when you're turning
climbing up and down...
-Oh, yeah. -[Bill] ...you know, we can
make it look a little cooler,
give you a little bit more room
and make it custom at the same time.
I love your thinking, Bill.
-Them big old 40 inch tires need a little room. -[Bill] Yeah, right?
And then, you know looks like we could probably get this whole
chunk of metal out of the way.
[Bill] Let's make your truck one of one,
you know just by modifying what's here.
Make this bumper look even meaner.
I think it looked pretty mean
coming at you after that.
That'll really set off the front of it.
It looks real good but
-we'll make it look even better. -I'm excited.
[Bill] You know, you can't go anywhere
on the road without seeing a Jeep
and there's a lot of people
trying to set their Jeep apart from everyone else's
with everything you can buy online.
But when a Jeep like that comes into this property,
we're gonna get our hands on it
and just give it some style that
you can't buy out of a catalogue.
This Jeep Gladiator has had a lot
of work done to it but not really a lot
of custom work done to it,
so we're gonna get our hands in it,
we're gonna get him hooked up,
then we're gonna put
some custom touches on it,
some extensive custom
touches from front to back.
And that way when he's on
the road there won't be
another one like it.
[Patrick] Man, Ryan, look at this dude.
This is kind of rough.
-I'm glad it's your job and not mine. -[Patrick laughs]
-[Ryan] Sir. -[Patrick] What's up bud?
Well, got a little problem right here.
[Patrick] Yeah, we can see.
It's never good when a vehicle
gets into an accident
but in this instance
it gives us the opportunity
to wake the 22 Jeep Gladiator, all the way up.
[Bill] Well, that's what he originally brought it in for
but this is our buddy's you know, Greg
who delivers our steel.
-[Patrick] Right. -[Bill] This is his personal truck,
so we gotta get him hooked
-up, you know what I mean? -[Patrick] Yeah.
-[Patrick] Oh, yeah. -[Bill] So, you know, it isn't just this
little damage right here.
If you really start to look
at it, Pat, the whole
bed side is wrinkled.
-[Patrick] Yeah. -[Bill] The wrinkle's in the bed floor itself, so.
Gotcha.
So, we're probably talking about
replacing the whole bed.
-[Bill] Exactly. -Yeah. Yeah.
[Bill] Pull this off. Let's find a new bed,
spray it and bolt it right back on.
No body work.
-[Ryan] Yeah, that's a no brainer. -[Bill] Yeah.
In case this ever happens again,
we'll put a bumper on it that's
-a little more substantial than this... -[Ryan chuckles]
-...plastic right? -[Ryan] So, he just came here to get that fixed?
-We're doing collision work now or what? -[Bill] Well,
since it's here.
Yeah.
[Bill] I think it looks great man. It's got a good stance to it,
-the wheels and tires look good on it, you know? -[Ryan] Mmm-hmm.
[Bill] He's bought everything
he could possibly buy on the internet
-and bolted it on. -[Ryan] Yeah, he got a bunch of add ons on.
[Bill] But, you know, we need
to raise the front up a little bit more
for him to get a little more level,
look a little better. It's a little low
-on the front. -[Ryan] Yeah, yeah for sure.
[Bill] And the lip that he has on there,
you know the art of the factory 4-link
has brough the wheel bas closer together.
So, the wheel's not center...
-[Ryan] Yeah. -[Bill] ...in the fender well.
So, we're just gonna make a new 4-link.
Well, Pat you get a couple guys from the body shop
go ahead and remove the bumper,
remove the bed
then we can start on the... the 4-link.
-[Bill] Let's do it. -[Patrick] All right.
We're gonna put
a more beefier bumper on it.
[Patrick] First, we're gonna get the tail gate off,
tail lights, everything dismantle.
We're gonna start with the bumper.
Basically we're gonna get into it,
see where... where it goes from there.
I think we got, uh, everything detached
and I believe we are ready to get it off.
[Ryan] Rinky-dink links.
[Bill] When the Jeep was lifted up
into where it's at now,
the axle moved forward,
it followed that plane the factory 4-link.
Scooted the wheels all the way forward.
So, we're gonna replace the factory 4-link
with some longer ones
that Ryan and Arthur are gonna make.
Since the wheel is not centered in the wheel well of the bed,
we already have
our brackets and everything there.
So instead of remaking everything
all we're gonna do is make
four adjustable arms
that can adjust out
whatever we want it to be.
Definitely gotta beef it up.
So, now that we got the links
off of the truck,
we got a little piece of scrap metal,
kind of cleaned it up a little bit.
Got these tabs here.
And this is going to be our jig for our links.
That way we can, put this here. Bolt it up.
Just as if you're throwing it on the truck.
[Ryan] And then, we can tack these here.
Once we get those tacked in, we can bust this apart.
And we'll just use this same exact tabs here on this side.
And then we'll just add tabs here, for this guy right here.
That way we're not using two different pieces of metal.
And it's all consolidated.
[Arthur] And voila. We now...
have a jig made, for both sizes...
of the 4-links that we're about to make, made the fit...
on each one.
Just run a bolt through it and it's gonna slide in perfectly.
Is that a lift hand?
Having the double adjustment here with the left and the right hand himes,
we can turn this pipe once it's weld together.
And it can grow. And we can get the rear end aligned
with the center of the wheel well.
[Ryan] So we got the measurements for the DOM.
And, we can get Arthur to cut that stuff.
We'll get it over here, get it tacked in.
All right. I just got done cutting the first piece for the 4-link
that we're making on this Jeep.
It is a inch and a half in ID,
with a quarter inch thick wall.
Just look at this thing.
It's a lot thicker, super stronger.
Take more of a beating than the part that's on there right now.
[Arthur] Now that I got my new 4-links made,
I'm gonna go clean them up.
And make them look nice and shiny.
[Ryan] So as you can see, got our himes in.
Got our DOM cut. It's all in place.
It's tight, doesn't move.
[Ryan] It's levelled with the two by three right here.
So, I'm gonna put some little small tacks on there.
All right. Now I got all of them tacked.
They're all fit together. Everything looks good.
We'll leave this one in the jig. We can weld it out.
We'll weld all the rest of them.
Send 'em off. Get 'em powder coated.
[Bill] Front end on the 2022 Jeep Gladiator just wasn't looking right.
It was a little bit lower in the front and higher in the back.
So, we're gonna make it level.
And put some pucks in. And raise that front up, just a little bit.
[Ryan] You know, it's not gonna be too bad,
once you bolt the shocks into the sway bar.
-All that will drop far enough. -[Dustin] Okay.
[Ryan] Oh, I don't know about that one.
-Probably gonna max out on the drag link. -Yeah, on the drag link, yeah.
[man] Wow. So that's... that's tight.
So in order to get our spaces up in here,
we need to take the shock out, the sway bar,
and then it'll allow all this to drop a little bit further.
So, we're able to access this little pocket up in here.
-Check it up and see what happens, yo. -Yes.
-All right. -Man.
[Ryan] Feels like it just stuck right there, like it wants to come up.
-[Ryan] No. -You wanna put spring compressors on it?
-[Ryan] Yeah. -There's some in that drawer right there. We can get them.
[Ryan] We got it all busted apart, and... raised all the way up.
And this is still coming up with the truck.
So, we're gonna have to use these spring compressors
and pull this spring down a little bit.
Further that way, we're able to get it out of the pocket up here.
Why are you so scared of that thing?
Uh, 'cause it's like a time bomb.
Like a ticking one.
[Ryan] Nah, man. It ain't going nowhere.
It's wedged in there. So much pressure on. There's no way you can...
You can hit that with a hammer right now.
[Dustin] I'm gonna let you do that.
-[Ryan] I'll do it. -[chuckles] I'll do it.
[Ryan] Uh-huh.
[Dustin] Rubber isolator.
[Ryan] Our rubber isolator is gonna stay on the spring.
Like so.
Then we got one our inch spacer here.
And then our half inch.
Which makes, an inch and a half.
[Dustin] Boom.
We got one and half. Inch and a half, put them together.
It's science.
-[Dustin struggling] Yeah. -[Ryan] All right.
-[Ryan] Right on, right on. -[Dustin] Right on.
[Bill] You gonna help me pull this bumper off real quick?
[man] Yeah, let's snatch it.
Originally I thought we were just gonna customize the front bumper on the Jeep.
But the more I look at it, it's too ugly to save.
-[man sighs] -Come on.
[Bill] There's no flowing lines on it, whatsoever. So...
-Bingo. -[Bill] I just wanna scrap the old bumper.
And I wanna build something that looks a little more mean.
But still a little more free flowing also.
We're gonna cut off the frame,
so I'm gonna scoot it back far as we can.
Weld a quarter inch plate, all the way against the front of the frame.
Something that we can bolt the winch to.
And to be able to bolt the bumper to, as well.
Now I can get some chipboard and kinda see what we got.
And once that's established, we can bend some eighth inch plate.
And we go from there.
[Dustin] That'll work.
-That's about it, huh? -Now we just gotta figure out how to make that look good.
You know, I kind of got an idea how I want the bumper to look.
But, just kind of, making a quick little template out of chipboard.
Then when you get it just right,
transfer it over to metal.
And then you can build the puzzle.
[Bill] You know, we chopped the light down,
to give in a little more room here.
But, it just looks too empty, too open.
So, we're gonna get a little bit farther behind schedule.
And make it cool at the same time.
I wanna build the bumper all the way up to the bottom side of the light.
[Bill] But still give him a lot of ground clearance.
Cut that all the way off there.
-Cut it off real, real quick. -All right.
And the only way to build something like this, is to the vehicle.
[Bill] This way you can see what's up, what the next piece is.
I mean this is just the most efficient, easiest, best way to do something like this.
-Quick little spin. -All right.
-That's good. -The top pretty good, huh?
[Bill] Close enough.
[Dustin] That's what we need, man.
We'll get this part set, cut, tacked in.
Get it caught up on that side.
Yeah, that's the Karate Kid.
[Dustin] Yeah, there you go.
-Karate Kid. -Karate Kid bumper.
When you have a gap that you're trying to fill in,
you know, sometimes, these are gonna wire feed.
You hit the trigger
and the wire goes past beyond the metal that you're working with.
A cool little trick is putting copper behind it.
You can weld that gap all the way up.
And just break the copper right off.
And it keeps everything right where you want it to be.
[Bill] We got the size and shape for the camper all established
on the 2023 Polaris Ranger.
We got our front. We got our back.
We got the slope.
So, I got the measurements for the roof.
Next step, we're gonna bend it.
Pretty cool to get to see the roof about to go on here.
I mean, it's definitely a critical stage
to make everything nice and square and straight,
so we don't have a lot of problems later.
We're gonna Tek screw everything
just so we know everything lines up nice and right.
We definitely don't wanna... to look like it's already been...
tipped over.
We're gonna make sure it's all straight.
We gotta make sure everything is on point.
Everything is square. Everything is lined up perfectly.
I think the next thing we'll do is shape the corners here.
Little compound curve right here.
That little compound curve is probably gonna be
the hardest part of all of this.
So what we're gonna do is, just cut out a piece.
So we can make a radius.
I marked the bends out on this piece of chipboard.
So now I'm gonna transfer those measurements over to my metal,
by rounding the template.
-Fit? -Ah, I'm right on the line.
[Bill] We can go a little bit more there.
[machine whirring]
[Bill] Actually, pretty good.
Oh, it's looking real... real good.
You know, this fits the radius of the cage itself.
And that's what I wanted, a little slope down in the back.
Wanted to give it a little more style to it.
So, we got a nice, perfect little seam here to weld.
'Cause we need it super strong, man.
'Cause there's gonna be a lot of bass inside here.
It's gonna be shaking everything.
So, every little piece we put on,
just get a little more excited about getting across that finish line,
and making something really cool.
[Bill] We're getting really close, man.
You can really start to see how everything is coming together
from the '23 Polaris Ranger.
We got our top radius. We got our back radius.
So the next thing we're gonna do is, make the two side pieces.
You know, one that caps the top rail here
and goes all the way down to the side.
One bends on the side here,
so it keeps everything nice and straight.
So when you're welding it, it's not gonna bow and buckle.
It has that nice, clean, crisp edge on it.
It makes everything super strong.
The last piece for Jessie.
So, we'll go get that done.
-[Bill] That's it, man. -All right.
[Bill] Thank you.
There's gonna be a lot of vibration in here.
Not only going down a trail or through mudholes,
but from all the subs that are gonna be in here.
It's gonna be a ton of stereo.
That and, the side to side movement of the dancing bed.
This is gonna be put through the test, for sure.
So we're gonna make sure it's super strong,
and we're not gonna have any problem down the future with anything cracking.
Jessie's working on our side piece right now.
So, I need to go ahead and start filling this radius right here.
It's compound radius, 'cause I'm rolling this way.
And I'm rolling this way.
So I have a arch and a radius going in.
[Jamie] Oh, I'mma take my
nice piece of sheet metal right here.
Put it in the roller. Get it rolled.
Once I do that, then I'll start rolling this edge.
So you know, when making a piece like this, you gotta kind of fill it out.
See what your metal's doing. How your metal's working.
And just kind of adjust on the fly.
Mmm.
You're not gonna do it just a certain way.
Every little bend and radius and corners are always different.
So, there's many different techniques.
And, I'll go with the planishing hammer.
Well, the reason I do it this way is 'cause it makes a lot of noise,
and it irritates everybody in the shop.
So after a round in the planishing hammer,
I'll dolly it out a little bit.
Cut it down to size.
She got it now.
So it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort.
But in the end, you won't even know all the work that went in that one little corner.
[Bill] You're the last little piece.
Well, last big piece.
It looks simple. Just bend some sides and put it in place.
But, there's a lot of room for error on that.
So you gotta check, check, double check, triple check,
and make sure it's 100%, so...
That's what I'm doing. Just laying everything out.
Measuring, coming back, laying out.
Measuring, laying out.
It should fit right in.
And, we're only doing this one time.
Then, the camper will be complete.
[Bill] I mean we got a camper.
I see. I see.
[Bill] Looks like perfectly even with the roof.
Got a little slant back.
It just flows, 'cause the front kind of kicks down too.
So it looks like it's perfect.
-We put in a way more work than I thought I was gonna do. -I know, right.
[laughs]
[Bill] The custom camper is just one of the first parts of this built.
From here, we're gonna go with a little old school mini truck flavor.
[Bill] Like making a dancing bed.
We put it upside down right there.
[Bill] We're gonna bring the right team in to do that.
Gonna add rear steer, bumper, paint,
interior, stereo, speaker, lights.
But as it sits right now,
it's already really, really cool.
I'm definitely getting excited.
There won't be another one like it anywhere, much less the mud part.
All right, so we're working on a Jeep Gladiator.
[Edgar] The reason why we have this bed here is 'cause the other one got wrecked.
So, instead of fixing the dents and all that,
we thought, hey, might as well get a new bed.
One big problem, this color's not the same as the vehicle.
So what we have to do is, change the color. Color match it to the vehicle,
so it can all look perfect, like nothing ever happened.
The reason I take all the fenders off of the bed is cause you have this.
And some people try to cut corners
and maybe just leave the fender on.
And try to make sure they get as much paint as it you want, inside.
But, we're gonna do the paint here. Your paint there.
And get it done right.
[exclaims in excitement]
[Edgar] You wanna sand it. Get this green off.
Then we're gonna prep it. Get it in the booth.
And get the actual right color on it.
[Bill] With the busy shop getting even busier,
we got a lot of new faces.
Patrick came all the way from Mississippi.
And I'm glad we got him as a new painter.
Edgar's done prepping the bed.
So, now, the next step is to seal it.
That's actually gonna turn the green bed into a red bed.
[Patrick] We go in, we mix our sealer.
'Cause without that, it won't dry. It won't adhere.
Second step is the base coat.
We're gonna do a spray out, to make sure the color's, uh, the same.
Now after the spray out, we'll go and check it with the vehicle.
Make sure that it's the proper color.
Actually looks pretty proper.
So, what we're gonna do, is get the bed sprayed.
Three or four coats of base. Tack between coats.
Then we move on to the clear process.
It's crucial when you're mixing your clear coat,
'cause you wanna mix it just right,
so it'll dry at the proper time.
Three or four coats of clear.
Same steps.
Tack between coats.
We actually have a red bed that actually matches the Jeep.
[Patrick] I started painting model cars, bicycles, back in the day.
I actually started in my backyard.
My father built a shop, just so I could continue.
Years later, I bought my own property, built my own shop.
So basically started from the backyard.
Kept inspiring myself. That that's my passion of painting.
When you first see a vehicle, the color is the first thing you see.
I take normal colors. Make it lot more intense.
It's very exciting to me.
I like taking a vehicle and giving it attitude.
We get to take something new, tear it apart,
and make something better out of it.
I actually get to bring them back to life.
So it's like being a big kid again.
This is actually something I would like to pass on to my kids.
I have a 18-year-old son and a four year old son.
And I'm looking forward to those guys actually coming into this.
May be they could be a whole lot better than I am.
Which is gonna be rough.
But, hopefully they can be better than I am.
The Jeep Gladiator was pretty beat up after getting in an accident.
But that just gave us the opportunity to make it really cool
and custom.
You know, the after-market bumper that was on here
just isn't gonna cut it.
So we're gonna go with a fabricated metal bumper
that'll hold up a lot better.
It's gonna really add to a look that you know, he's going for.
It's gonna add to the beefiness of the rear to match the front.
You know, we got everything going on up front.
And just there was nothing back here. Stock bumper.
So, this is really gonna be a good look for him.
A little less stock and more custom. Right up our alley.
[Ryan] A little more. Right there.
We got it back down on the ground and some of the wheels and tires.
You can see the links have moved it back exactly where we wanted it.
Center of the bed here in the wheel well.
Time to clean it up and we'll give Greg his truck back.
[Bill] We're not typically a collision repair shop,
but if any of our buyers needs some help, we're definitely gonna help them out.
And then some.
-[Bill] What's happening, Greg? -You all right?
[Bill] How you doing, man?
Hanging in there. I've been waiting.
Definitely the perfect opportunity to bring him over to the custom world.
Me getting rear ended in that accident,
looks like it could have been a blessing in disguise.
Well, we're about to see.
-You ready to check it out? -I am, man.
All right, Ryan. Come on with it.
Oh, my God.
[both laughing]
[Greg] Bill, you knocked it out of the park, buddy.
-[Bill laughs] -That is...
bad ass, oh my God.
Dent's gone!
[Greg] Hey, I thought you just gonna scuff it up,
throw a little paint on it and stick it back on there.
No, man. Come on.
Oh, my gosh.
That is phenomenal.
-Wassup, Ryan? How you doing, brother? -Wassup, big man?
-What do you think? -Oh, hell of a job, man.
[Greg] I never in a million years thought it would come back to me like this.
Man, we had to get you hooked up. I mean, you always take care of us.
Whatever we need. So I wanna return the favor.
It got a little crashed up. I mean, the whole bed was actually wrecked.
It would just taken way too long to repair it.
We just got you another bed, color matched it, bolted it right on.
The bed came out beautiful.
New lights on it.
Bumper on it looks amazing.
[Bill] It had a plastic bumper on it too. So you didn't have very much protection.
We had to put something a little bit more substantial,
in case that ever happened again.
They're gonna bounce off that big boy.
[Bill laughs] Yeah. They are, man, for sure.
Great looking truck, had a good stance,
but once you lifted it, you know, with that short factory 4-link,
the wheels moved a little more forward.
So what we did is, made a brand new 4-link,
and scooted the wheels back, center of the fender well.
It looks cool under there, and it definitely serves its purpose.
Made it styled for me.
Oh, yeah, man. That thing will be able to handle anything you throw at it now.
Big DOM arms and the big himes and all that stuff,
plus centering it, it looks great, and it'll handle great.
-It's good. No problem. -No problem, man.
-Phenomenal. -Man, we got one other thing for you too, man.
-More? -Yeah.
-All right. -Little something, something up front.
-Let's see it. -Check it out.
Oh, wow, guys.
It doesn't even look like the same truck anymore.
Well, good, 'cause I definitely didn't like that front bumper.
Yeah, nah.
-[Bill] It looked like it had moustache, didn't it? -[all laughing]
[Bill] You wanted a little bit more ground clearance.
You wanted a little bit more tire clearance.
And, we talked about chopping that bumper that you had on there.
And man, after thinking about it, looking at it,
it just wasn't gonna look cool.
So, what we did is just took the old bumper off,
and pushed that winch as far back as we could in the frame,
made new brackets, cut the frame off,
gave me six more inches right there in the front.
We just took a piece of eighth inch material
and just started chopping it up.
-[Bill] That's 25 pieces of metal right there. -[Greg] Wow.
[Bill] All welded, bent together, to form that bumper.
[Greg] The whole front of the truck looks like one piece now.
-Yeah. -It just looks amazing.
You ain't gonna find that on the internet. No.
[all laughing]
I just wanna say, huge thank you to everybody in the shop.
They did an amazing job.
I can't thank you guys enough.
I can't wait to get the truck out in the mud park and go have some fun.
-So you liking it? -I love it.
I love it, man.
Hang on.
Every time I've seen you build a truck like...
Did you drive my truck?
[all laughing]
Well, we haven't, you know, really broken it in yet.
Yeah, you showed up too early.