-She's not gonna kill you, is she? -That's really up to you.
My life's in your hands with this, now.
[Bill] You know, it's real cool to see a brand-new Bronco
roll up in the parking lot today, and I hate driving stock cars.
I passed three of 'em on the way in.
[Bill] What are our limitations?
[Ryan] It's gotta fit in the garage, man. That's it.
[Jamie] You came to the right place.
The color matching the roof of the Bronco not only looks custom,
it looks classy.
Right on the money!
[Bill] The owners of the '68 GTO wanted this entire engine bay paneled off.
Let's get our beads on.
Full custom metal work, fender to fender, front to back.
Never done anything this complicated before.
-Go ahead, look at that. Look! -Oh, my gosh!
[theme music playing]
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.
-What's happening, man? Morning. -Morning.
-Need your help, buddy. -[chuckles] Okay.
Need a couple things. You know, the GTO,
we've done a ton of work so far.
[heavy metal music playing]
You know, first thing, getting it in the shop, unbolting the chassis,
and just rolling everything out, engine, trans, everything
-and just started fresh. -Mmm-hmm.
Building the new frame rails, front to back,
all that rectangle tubing all handmade,
all the suspension's done, you know, four-link, got coilovers in it.
The car sits on its own now. The next step, the customer wants something really
under the hood.
Got the brand-new LT4 mounted.
-Ten speed. Cool, cool, cool car. -[Carlos] Yeah.
But, I need some sheet metal
'cause we're gonna panel off everything underneath the hood.
We're definitely gonna need a lot of sheet metal.
He wants to be able to pop the hood, and people will go, "Wow.
What's going on here?"
So, you're gonna cover up that beautiful LT4?
[Bill] Yeah, that brand-new, horrible-looking, supercharged LT4?
-[Carlos] Yeah. -[Bill] Yeah.
So, when you pop the hood, only thing you're gonna see is that supercharger
without any dead metal.
And then, we're gonna trim everything else out.
Build panels all the way around the engine
to fill in the whole engine compartment.
[Carlos] So, you open that hood,
it's just gonna be full custom metalwork, fender to fender,
-front to back? -[Bill] Fit and finish is gonna be really key
on something like that, 'cause it's all you're gonna see.
[Carlos] Mmm-hmm.
[Bill] So, we really gotta spend some time underneath there
making it look really, really nice.
[Carlos] That's gonna be pretty awesome flowing all together, man.
Man, that's gonna look really, really nice inside that.
You know, once that's all done,
we're just really getting started.
You know, we can start taking everything apart,
get the body on a cart, get it off to blast
and really see what we're working with when that comes back.
You know, of course, John's gotta come with it on the interior.
I mean, it's pretty much a time capsule.
-I mean, it was a good-looking car. -[Carlos] Hmm-hmm.
-John's got work to do. -[Carlos] Yeah.
Need some sheet metal first.
Cool, well I'll get that 18-gauge and the 20-gauge
-and we'll get it going. Cool. All right. -Thank you.
[Ryan] All right, so we're gonna start doing the sheet metal work
on the front of this GTO.
First off, I'm gonna start with the motor.
So, the motor's gonna be basically... I mean, it's the center of everything.
But, everything below this portion here is gonna be hidden.
So, I wanna start with valve covers.
Take a measurement, and I'll start with these four points right here.
That's gonna be my mounting point, right there.
And then I'll figure out somewhere else to mount the bottom of it.
Right now, I'm just trying to come up with something that I like.
We're always trying to make something cool.
We're also just trying not to do the same thing twice.
So, that's the hard part.
So, I got my pattern, I got my shape.
We'll make some marks on the sheet metal, get this laid out.
And then I can make all my lines and circles and radiuses
and all that good stuff for my bead rolling.
You know, just playing with ideas like a design,
you know how much material I can get in there to actually bead roll.
And then making it flow with something else that's already on the car,
the floor and the back already has the same kinda pattern.
Everything is flowing from front to back.
Yeah, you don't ever wanna do something up front,
and then get it mixed up with something in the middle
and then something in the rear, something underneath...
It's very easy to get off-track.
It's very easy to have a lot going on real fast
without even really catching it.
So, sticking with one theme is always usually, you know, the hardest thing.
You know, it's a huge part of what we do,
and that's what separates us from the rest.
[upbeat music playing]
All right, so I got this side bolted up. It looks good.
Obviously, need to make some mounts for the bottom
so it doesn't sit here and rattle.
Probably box the front. In the meantime,
we're gonna start making that side over there.
we'll do the same, exact thing, and then I can figure out
how to tie the two in together,
before anything is cut and welded or anything like that.
[upbeat music playing]
All right, so now that we have both of our valve covers mounted on the car,
we can fasten the bottom side of 'em and make 'em a little bit more rigid.
[upbeat music playing]
Okay, so, now, they're fastened.
They got a little bit of structure to 'em, they're not gonna go anywhere.
This is exactly where they're gonna stay after they're painted
and body worked and all that good stuff.
[upbeat music playing]
So, now, we can move on to the firewall
and creating a firewall further out with a lip on it,
something to fasten to and something to button up
will be ideal for starting and working towards the front of the car.
I'm gonna do it in two pieces
because I'm gonna have to cut it in the middle, anyways,
so there's no point in cutting one long piece.
Might have to shape around that thing ol' thing right there man.
I'm just putting the lines there
so I know where I need to shrink and stretch.
I need to shrink now.
This thing has, like, a gradual, like, slope. It's not perfectly flat.
Just trying to match that and just, kind of, slowly walk your way down.
Might be able to get it right on the money!
[upbeat music playing]
Oh, yeah. Real, real nice. I'm not gonna mess with that anymore. That is good.
[upbeat music playing]
You know, it's real cool to see a brand-new Bronco roll up in the parking lot today.
These things are really sought after. They're hard to get.
And, you know, I'm just kinda curious to see what's in store for this one.
Hopefully, we'll get to do a little customization to it.
-What's up, man? -How's it going? Nice to meet you.
-Ryan Coffel. -Ryan, nice to meet you. I'm Bill.
Cool. Good to meet you.
That's a cool truck you got, man. New Bronco, huh?
We don't get many of those. We haven't had any come in the parking lot.
Yes, sir, they're kind of hard to come by right now.
It's a long waiting list on 'em. We waited over a year for this one.
We bought the Bronco after many years of my wife driving a minivan,
and SUVs with the third-row.
She saw these Broncos and wanted one.
Man, I was totally onboard with that.
We've had it about eight months, and it's time, man.
It's time to do something else to it.
Yeah, you starting to see 'em on the road now?
Passed three or four of 'em on the way in to see you this morning, so...
Man, I know exactly how you feel. Man, I hate driving stock cars.
Eight months, I can totally understand.
You know, typically, when it comes to customization on a new car,
I like to maybe wait eight hours.
-What are our limitations? -It's gotta fit in the garage, man. That's it.
This her baby. She tucks it in every night.
-[Bill] So, no crazy lift? -Nope.
You know, something aggressive, a little tough, mean-looking.
Just add a little bit to the height to achieve that. Whatever it takes.
[Bill] Man, I love it. I love it.
You know, right off the bat, I see a couple things we can do to it
to really make it stand out.
Stance sets the attitude of the whole car.
-Yeah. -A little bit bigger wheel and tire
would just make all the difference in the world.
When you pass somebody on the highway,
we want them to go, "Man, check that one out.
Why does that one look cooler than the last one I've seen?"
Adding bigger wheels and tires and lifting this thing up,
it's gonna look like a beast.
[Bill] And the bumper's a little black in the front.
-Yeah I see that. -So, changing that front bumper
to something that looks mean is a must.
But, if we're gonna do that, we might as well add lighting also.
-Oh-ho! Yeah! -Light it up!
So, at night, you can really see what's going on,
and where you're going.
You know, we might as well add some lights up close to the mirrors.
-The more the better. -Yeah.
[Ryan] And there's six toggle switches inside
and there's nothing hooked up to 'em right now,
so that sounds good, man. That...
-[Bill] So, we'll definitely fix that. -[Ryan] Yeah.
You know, one of the things is this gap in-between here.
It looks unfinished.
It does, yeah. I don't know how it left the factory looking like that.
[Bill] I think taking these off,
replacing it with something that looks more aggressive too,
-that'd be the way to go with the steps for sure. -I see that.
Man, I love this color on here. It looks great.
I think spraying the roof body color
would just really, really wake it up.
You know, not only the roof, the fender flares and the mirrors,
-it would not only look custom but classy. -Yeah.
Bill's come up with some really great ideas for the Bronco.
I'm not gonna tell my wife about anything Bill suggested.
I'm just gonna wait for her to see it when it's finished.
Man, if you could do all that, I'll be excited.
But, for my wife, I mean she'd probably think
it's prank when she sees it.
She won't believe that it's hers.
-She's not gonna kill you, is she? -That's really up to you.
-[laughs] -It's in your hands.
-My life's in your hands with this now. -Okay.
Man, you're in good hands. We'll get you fixed up. Let's go make it happen.
Let's do it.
[upbeat music playing]
Ford did a great job with the new Broncos.
Making them look good, but there's always room for improvement.
Taking a brand-new car is a whole different set of challenges
than customizing an old car.
It takes a lot to come up with that unique package
that sets yours apart from everyone else's.
You can't just throw a bunch of parts at it and go, "Okay, cool, it's custom."
Doesn't work like that. It's picking those right parts
that just all flow together
in one, complete package.
That's what we need to do.
There's a lot of thought, a lot of time, a lot of effort to get the cars looking
as good as it does right now.
Taking that design, all those elements
and building upon it, that's our specialty here.
You know, creating something that nobody else has,
and everybody else then will copy off you.
Man, 2023 Bronco. These things...
-I haven't been underneath one of these yet. -Yeah, it's pretty sweet.
-[Bill] Y'all checking it out? -[Jamie] Yeah, man.
Super excited to kind of see how everything works.
Always love looking underneath these things.
-I love it. No dirt. -No dirt dude. That's the nicest thing.
All that rust, nasty stuff falling on your face?
-[Bill] Right. -We don't have to deal with that on this one.
-Thank God. -Yeah, man.
So, what are we doing to this brand-new truck?
Very good, Thomas. Thank you for asking.
[laughter]
Here we go.
[Bill] You know, brand-new Bronco. Not many of these on the road.
But there are some, so that's the problem here.
I mean, you go to a dealership,
you get the best thing that they have,
you're feeling good about your purchase, you're driving down the road.
[mimics car driving past]
-You see another one, -"That looks just like mine."
You know, that's the problem here.
That's the problem we're gonna fix today.
-You came to the right place. -That's it, man.
[Bill] You know, we got a lot to do with it, man.
We gotta change these bumpers, make it look a little meaner
when it's going down the road at you, right?
-[Jamie] Give that tough look. -[Bill] Exactly.
You know, another thing we gotta do, see the steps here
have a big gap in-between it. We're gonna rectify that.
Make that little more stylish, right?
And, of course, we're gonna give it a little lift.
-[Jamie] Oh, yeah. -[Bill] We're gonna tear this all apart,
upgrade the suspension.
-[Jamie] Nice, aggressive look to it, and bumpers... -[Bill] Yeah.
Different wheels and tires.
I see where it's going. I'm starting to see the picture.
[Bill] Yeah. This is a gift for his wife, a surprise.
So, he wants it different from everybody else's.
Is it really a gift for his wife
or is it something he's gonna be driving all the time...
-[Bill] Well... -...but it's "His wife's"?
Man, I don't know how that's gonna work out,
-but that's the plan right now. -Yeah.
[Bill] I think one thing that's gonna be really cool,
we're gonna change the color of the top.
We're gonna smooth all the texture out, and paint it body color.
So, all the black is gonna be the same green color as the rest of the car?
That's it, man.
We're gonna light this up front and back also.
So, we're gonna make this one apart from all the rest of 'em.
So, you're gonna let him work with you today?
Oh, God, am I ever gonna yell at him so loud.
-Are you ready? -Let's get it.
[upbeat music playing]
[Bill] I've asked Jamie and Thomas to tear down this new Bronco.
Thomas is one of our new guys. This is a good job to get his feet wet.
You know, we all started somewhere just like Thomas.
In those early days, you gotta work harder than everyone else.
-Lower these steps off. -Yes, sir.
[Bill] And you gotta prove yourself 'cause you're learning all your skills.
And, so far, he's working his butt off.
Be best if you bring your own tools.
I'm using yours.
[laughing]
Man, taking apart one of these brand-new trucks is a lot different
than an old, rusty truck.
Everything comes apart smoothly.
Except for this one. Hey, Jamie, it's just spinning in there.
[Jamie] It's all right, dawg. You're gonna get it, man.
Taking apart a new vehicle, you know, you have to pay attention
where everything goes.
I have no experience doing this on this kind of vehicle, 'cause it's new.
You always wanna pay attention, bag everything write everything down.
I always like to put the nuts and bolts back in where they go.
It's just, you know, a quick rule of thumb, just put it here, pay attention,
think ten steps ahead,
and it should go back together like nothing we've ever built before.
-Yo, that's the lightest bumper ever, right? -[Jamie] Yeah.
It's real light.
Okay, so, we're on the back now.
Fixing to put all our components on.
What we're gonna be installing is a lower, upper, strut,
put a little rock guard right here and a track bar.
I mean, there's no comparison. You got a lot more adjustability on this.
Set your pre-loads. You can adjust the spring rate, the dampening,
this is what you want. better-looking shock, better quality,
more adjustable. It's just cool.
Drop the rim down just a hair, little bit more, right there.
These go in real simple.
These sliders protect the pullover from any kind of rocks,
trees, so that the stem doesn't get bent, damaged, anything like that.
That's gonna give us our lip.
All right, so we got our coilover installed now, our rock guard.
Now, it's time to go ahead and replace this lower link.
[upbeat music playing]
Y'all can't tell, but this is super light, thin metal.
This one right here is heavy duty.
We're gonna go with the strength on this one get rid of this factory stuff.
Lowers are installed now. Everything looks nice.
Now, we're gonna start doing the uppers.
Go ahead and get yours in there.
So, last thing on the rear suspension we're gonna do
is replace the track bar.
We're gonna get rid of the OEM track bar
and use this BDS aftermarket track bar.
It's a lot beefier, it's got better hums.
Track bar centers your rear end when you're going up and down.
You know, you have basically the parallel four link on it right now.
So, it can move side to side. So, this track bar is gonna keep it true and center.
Twice as strong than this morning.
[Jamie] Ooh, you're so strong.
This thing is set up. It looks way better than it did before.
Super happy with it. And it's gonna be a nice ride.
You know, it always gets me excited to see the diversity of the builds
that comes through the shop lately.
To be able to put together the Bronco with the newer suspension set-up.
In the next bay, Ryan's creating a new engine bay
completely by hand and metal, as it should be.
[Ryan] All right, cool, so, Bill approved the design I had,
and kind of the route I wanted to go.
Thinks it looks pretty cool. So, I'm gonna go ahead
and start taking these templates
and making them into metal, now.
Once it's all done, this is definitely going to be one of a kind.
That's why he came here. That's what he wants.
We're gonna give him what he wants.
All right. I'm ready to cut.
[upbeat music playing]
This will all be one piece, and then we can do our bead-roller cut out.
We wanna put mesh into it, whatever, we'll decide that in a little while.
We're gonna work in the middle and work our way out
like we have been the whole time.
[upbeat music playing]
♪ Clampy, clampy, the clampy ♪
[vocalizes]
Put that clamp right there on the bench weld right there.
Thanks, assistant. Got that piece in there, now.
Now, we can start working our way out. We can make this next.
Get this all clamped or bolted together or whatever.
Make the side panels, and then that'll determine
what all that is gonna look like.
Still a lot more to do with the chip board, and a lot more to do overall,
but it's starting to look good, it's starting to take shape.
[upbeat music playing]
Building anything from scratch like the engine bay with the '68 GTO
it definitely takes skill and experience.
But it's the patience to see it through that matters just as much.
To cut and weld everything up and do it right the first time.
[Ryan] I got all the metalwork done up to this point.
I left this point for last just because of the master cylinder.
It seems like a relatively small part,
compared to everything else that's already happened,
but this is probably one of the bigger ones,
and I wanted to put more thought into it,
and I've been thinking about it
while I've also been doing all this, too.
So, it's kinda like the home stretch right here.
Still got about six more panels to make.
[upbeat music playing]
The good thing is I saved all of my chip board templates.
So, it'll be easier for me to duplicate everything.
All I gotta do is take this and bend it the opposite way of this,
and then I get my mirror image over there, right?
If you're ever doing any panels and you gotta mirror anything,
just always save all your templates.
It'll make life easier for you in the future.
Whenever I bead roll it, it's gotta have this step up in it just like that one does.
So, I'm trying to see which way I need to go.
So, this part needs to be raised. Let's get our beads on.
[upbeat music playing]
So, duplicating everything is gonna be one of the trickier parts.
So, this has to match that, or else everybody is gonna automatically be drawn
straight to what is not right instead of looking at what's been done.
[upbeat music playing]
Let's go see if it fits.
Oh-ho! Yeah, that fits nice.
As long as I just keep on keeping on, we gonna make it.
We gonna make it, one day.
All right, panel numero dos.
Bend this side, bend the other side, bend this side.
[upbeat music playing]
Never done anything this complicated before.
Done a lot of sheet metal work, but not like a full engine bay,
like, covering everything up before, never.
People might say building chassis is complicated.
I think I could've done that faster than I've done this.
[Bill] You know, the trick to the engine bay,
like in the GTO, is being part fabricator, part mechanic, and part artist.
You know, I've been keeping an eye on it the whole time.
And Ryan's doing a great job of finding that balance between form and function.
All right, so, one of my last fillers that I have to make for this side over here
to cover all my master cylinder, my windshield wiper motor,
all that good stuff.
So, I'm gonna weld the stud into here
to where it can go down to where we can keep that
same look of minimal bolt showing like it's supposed to.
[upbeat music playing]
It might just seem like "All right, just put it on top,
it's not gonna get in the way of anything."
But I still got a hood that's gotta come down and shut and not hit all this stuff.
You know, so there's like a million things that you gotta think about,
and a million things you gotta do just to get like four pieces to work right.
I still got a lot more to do as far as welding and finishing
and cutting all of my holes out for all my vents,
but the big part was done now.
Every single part and piece is done for the whole sheet metal engine bay now.
I got plenty of room for adjustment and all that
whenever I put the rubber in there.
So, still got quite a way to go,
but now that the engine bay is done,
it's a huge check off the list.
[upbeat music playing]
[tires screech]
[Bill] You know, color matching the roof on the Bronco
is one of those details that not everybody's gonna notice right off the bat.
But those are the kind of details
that I try to bring in all of our builds.
I need you to help me get this top off, let me get it loose first.
[Patrick] Bill came up with this crazy idea.
He actually wants all the black plastics to color match with the vehicle.
So, I'mma go ahead, get started disassembling the vehicle.
Get everything off, get it to prep and get some paint on it.
I'mma go ahead and get the rubber taken off. Don't wanna damage it.
All right, on this rubber we gotta be very careful.
It has double-sided tape on it.
We don't wanna damage the double-sided tape nor the top.
I'mma gonna go ahead and get started sanding with the 100 grit sandpaper.
Normally, we do 80. I'd rather do 100 on this one because it's pretty smooth.
So when I prime it, the primer fills up any other voids.
As far as like edges and the valleys, you pretty much wanna do that by hand.
The machine will actually gouge into it
because it's bigger than this area.
So, it's better to do it by hand.
We don't wanna add extra work, so we gonna try to get it perfect the first time.
Now that I've got all the valleys done, we'll go back and do the edges.
Most important part of any paint job, make sure you get your edges sanded.
Now that I've got this piece all the way prepped,
I'mma go ahead and get the other pieces done
and get everything in to primer.
[upbeat music playing]
I'mma get my primer going.
As you can see, it's pretty thick primer It's a real high build.
It will take up a lot of scratches and cracks
and anything that's left on the surface.
All right. Let's go in.
Get some primer flowing.
[upbeat music playing]
What I'm gonna give it is like a 50-50 overlap.
Two heavy coats
just to make sure that we can fill in everything.
After this, we're gonna come back with the 400 grit, wet sand it.
Just to show you guys the difference
in a perfectly-prepped surface, ready to paint,
and a surface that's not ready to paint,
you have a real slick, uniform, everything looks the same.
But here, it's got a little gritty guideline.
That's what you don't want. You really wanna sand all of that out.
Get everything flat and smooth so you won't have any imperfections
once you spray your base coat and your clear on.
Once that's all done, I'mma move on to painting.
[upbeat music playing]
You know, doing what we do around here, everybody's got their own opinion
about the new truck designs.
The '22 Bronco's one of those ones with a really nice look.
But there's always room for some custom and a new bumper.
All right, so we got the old bumper off. Now, we got this new bumper.
It's way better, it's more meatier,
it's just got that style to it that we're looking for for the build.
So, Thomas and I are gonna go ahead and put these grilles in real quick.
Once we do that, that's gonna give us the location for our sensors.
Let's flip it over real quick.
Everything's cut out on the grilles for it,
so just find a location, keeping everything the same as it was
as it came off the vehicle,
gonna install it right back on just like it was,
plug it back in the harness.
It's gonna work amazing.
Okay, so I got all the sensors installed now.
Everything's nice and clean, tied up, tidy.
Next thing is go ahead and install the bumper
and get ready to start putting skid plates on.
Watch the body.
Yup.
[upbeat music playing]
Yup. Good.
Very nice piece of equipment.
Now, we got skid plate on, bumpers on, they're mated together.
Everything looks super tough on the front of this.
Definitely gonna notice it down on the side of the road.
[upbeat music playing]
So, we got these new headlights in.
You know, this is just factory.
We went over the top on everything else,
so we're gonna go ahead and install these real quick.
First thing is, we're gonna go ahead and pull this grille off
get that, and we can access the light.
These LED lights give you better visibility than the stock ones.
Grille's off.
And there's a white halo around the headlight that gives that custom look.
Ooh! Good catch.
All right. Really looks naked now.
So, go and add those new lights in there,
put everything back together, see how it looks.
It's pretty cool you know, building this truck
normally we've gotta make everything.
But this one, with our lights, accessories, bolts on,
kinda breaks it up, changes it up for us a little bit.
[Thomas] Change of pace, for sure.
[Jamie] Ready for the big reveal?
-Test 'em out? -Yeah, let's see.
[engine turns over]
Nice. Turn the high beams on.
-Way better than before. -Oh, yeah.
[Jamie] I know the customer's gonna really like these.
-[Thomas] Looks a lot better than those stock ones. -It does.
-There we go. -Let's keep on putting these lights on.
Bill had the idea to put two pod lights on each side mirror.
And so, first things first, we gotta remove these two screws,
put our bracket on and use the same screws back in there, put our pods on, that's easy.
I'm surprised how much it changed the look of the whole truck.
It's really gonna add to it.
Next step is gonna be doing this top light bar.
I'm seeing that says "Accessory ready",
so I'm thinking I know where to start.
First step is removing this door gasket
and all these plastic trim pieces,
so we can run the wire up through there.
And we're gonna remove this plastic piece up here
so the light bar can bolt right on.
Then once we wire it up, it should be all lit up.
Man, that looks sharp.
That's gonna be a bright-ass light.
[Jamie] Everything coming together,
but these mirrors right here need a change also.
So, I have these integrated lights in these mirror covers.
I'm gonna bump 'em out real quick, see how it looks.
You know, more lights. You'll be able to see more,
and it just looks cool on here.
[upbeat music playing]
[Bill] The owners of the '68 GTO
wanted this entire engine bay paneled off.
We got that accomplished, but we're gonna need a little bit of airflow
and something, really, to break up all of the flatness.
So, we're making some grilles and it's gonna look a lot cooler.
So, that's it.
-My boy's gonna get after it here. You got this? -Yes, sir, I got it.
So...
That's the next step. Once that gets all cut,
we can start making our aluminum grilles,
and then we can tear this car completely apart.
[Dustin] I'm gonna go ahead and drill holes in each corner
and that's gonna give me a nice, round edge, instead of having to make that by hand.
I'll have a nice corner to start with.
And then I just connect the dots from there.
Using this little stainless quarter-inch washer here
as a template, so when you look under the car,
it'll look very nice and consistent.
Then we'll be able to put some mesh material in-between our template,
and then the actual sheet metal on the motor,
and then we'll be able to vent our engine bay.
Gotta be able to breathe.
All right. We got everything trimmed out, rough cut.
I'mma go along now and get everything looking nice.
[upbeat music playing]
Hit all the spots where our bolts are gonna go through.
Got our aluminum templates done. Now, we're making our mesh pieces.
So, we're just rough cutting it first, making it large.
Then, we're actually imprinting it. Got this piece of MDF.
I'm gonna hit that so it sits flush
with the side that you see.
Work this round the edge, maybe?
-Yeah, do it all the way, so it's nice and tight. -Okay.
Yeah... so we're just working the edges here,
getting it to sit nice and consistent all the way around.
Well, that worked really good. It's nice and flush as you can see.
Looks really nice.
Let's go put it on the car and see how it looks.
[upbeat music playing]
The engine bay on the '68 GTO turned out really well.
It's like a work of art.
And that's the last piece of metal work on this.
Now, we can tear it all apart, weld everything up and get it off to blast.
[Jamie] All right. Bring it down just a little bit. Stop.
We need to put some 2x4's in right here
and then we can start taking the body loose.
Once we get it back from blast, we can take it to the body shop.
But meanwhile, while we're doing all that,
we're also gonna be welding out our frame.
[vocalizing]
So, we'll send the frame over to Max, let him weld that out
while we're doing this.
[Bill] As a metal fabricator, it's always a big day
when you finish the metal work on a build.
A hand-built frame, suspension and engine bay.
We'll get this back from blast.
Now, body, paint and interior
along with building the rolling chassis.
We still got a lot of work, but it feels good to turn this corner
and I'm excited for what's coming next.
As one big build goes off to blast,
the '22 Bronco is almost ready for delivery.
Right now, Patrick's ready to paint it.
Medium aluminum gold.
So, I'm gonna go ahead and get started with the mix.
This color is a eruption green.
Nine different toners to make this one color.
All right, next, we have gold pearl.
And right now, I'm just mixing up enough to do a spray out
to check the color before I mix the full batch.
All these different toners actually erupted to a pretty good eruption green.
So, from here, I'mma go ahead and do a spray out.
Check it on the truck and make sure everything matches
and get to spraying the other pieces.
Well, this looks great from here. Checking all angles.
Pearl is standing out like it's supposed to.
So, I would definitely say that this is a perfect match.
When you spraying something like this,
you basically wanna go around the edges first,
'cause it's a lot of cracks and crevices.
So, we wanna take those spots first.
Then we'll overlap 50-75%, just let it tack.
All right. Got my first coat on. Looks great.
Go ahead and give it time to tack off.
Get my gun reloaded. Come back for the second coat.
Everything look marvelous. Move on to the clear coat stage.
The clear that I'm using is a good 3-1 clear,
and I'm actually over-reducing it 10%
to get a better flow, 'cause it's so thick.
You over-reduce it, you have it flow out a lot better.
You have a great UV protection
and even better shine. Real high gloss.
First coat of clear looks awesome.
No runs, no trash, everything looks perfect.
Once this dries, we'll go ahead and get it on the car.
[Bill] We have a few last parts to install.
That'd give this Bronco a way cooler look, and make it a better truck.
-[Jamie] Pretty crazy how light this bumper is, huh? -Yeah, it's real light.
[Jamie] It's gonna be a lot more better here in just a minute.
Just like the front bumper, we have the rear bumper off right here.
It's all plastic. Very lightweight, not very durable.
If you hit something with this, it's gonna explode.
All right, take that off.
So, we're gonna go ahead and get rid of this.
Put our new steel bumper on there.
Put our wire harness in. Bolt that thing up.
-That one is a lot heavier. -Yeah, this is a two-people bumper right here.
[upbeat music playing]
Careful, don't scratch nothing.
Slow. Easy.
[Thomas] Yeah, this is so much better than that plastic one.
[Jamie] Indeed. Indeed.
So, before, we had the stock steps.
You know, they just weren't the best-looking steps.
You could see the big gap between. You actually see the pinch weld right here.
So, we're gonna get rid of those. Get some electronic steps
that fold up in here, and give it a nice contour to the side of the truck.
[upbeat music playing]
Okay, so this is our step. It's got a nice, wide platform.
If you look at the other side, it's got this slick, black design.
It's gonna hide everything.
So, once it retracts, you're gonna just barely see the edge of this.
It's gonna look real good.
Almost like a rock slider.
Okay, so now, I got the steps in. Now, it's time to wire 'em up.
Each one of these mounts have a motor on 'em.
So, I'mma have to run power to each one of these motors all the way up to the front,
plug it to the battery, ECU, and that's it.
Everything looks good, smooth, strong.
It's a nice step up in there with the lift.
This is definitely the upgraded step that we wanna use right here.
[upbeat music playing]
Think I'm gonna, get my rubber mallet and tap it on this side.
Just a few more parts left.
New exhaust...
new wheels and tires...
That's gonna look real good.
-Tail lights... -[Jamie] Way doper than stock ones.
And this thing's ready for whatever they want to throw at it.
[Thomas] I've been here at Ekstensive about four months
and I'm loving it so far, you know,
getting to work with all the guys,
and learning a bunch and just having a good time.
My junior year of high school, I dropped out to come work here
and then worked on my GED and got that.
So, I know leaving school early isn't for everybody,
but I think, for me, it was the right move
and now I'm here building a career
and I'm gonna get to do what I love for the rest of my life.
I've known about Ekstensive for some time and working with Mr. Bill is awesome.
You get to learn a lot. He knows so much,
'cause he's been doing it his whole life
and he's willing to teach you, which is cool, so he'll show you
how to do it the right way
so you don't mess it up and have to redo it and redo it.
This is always what I've done.
Since I was a little kid, I've always been working around cars
and building stuff and just making stuff out of your hands,
you know, turning something, like, old and rusty into something shiny and brand new,
and it feels good.
The secret to being successful here at Ekstensive
is you gotta do the dirty jobs first
and then you gotta work your way up.
So, all in all, I'm gonna keep showing up early
and working hard at the dirty jobs until I get to where I wanna be.
[upbeat music playing]
You know, one of my favorite things is surprises.
And today, Ryan's gonna surprise his wife with the Bronco we built.
-What's happening? -Morning.
-Good to see you. -Morning. Shannon. Nice to meet you.
You been missing a Bronco lately?
I've been missing it a lot, yes.
Your husband wanted to surprise you a little bit with a few little upgrades.
That's awfully brave of you. What did you guys do?
-So, you've been dodging some questions? -Oh, yeah.
-Oh, yeah. Yes, sir. -[all laughing]
Yeah, we done a couple things to your Bronco.
He said just open checkbook. No matter what the cost, make my wife happy.
-Oh, did he say that? -No, I didn't.
No, he didn't. [laughs]
Look, man, I wanna live to see the Bronco, okay?
-You wanna check it out? -Yes, sir.
Come on.
You know, it's always tough when you're doing a surprise for someone
and you don't have that direct contact.
You're just using your best judgment. If you're making the right decisions,
if you're using the right combo here and there,
So, we're about to see how good all this comes together.
Oh, God, look at that. Look!
-Look at that. -Oh, my gosh! Is that even the same car?
-[Shannon] She's beautiful. -[Ryan] Above and beyond what I imagined.
-You did so much to it. -[Shannon] It looks amazing.
-[Ryan] Man! -[Shannon] What did you do?
-Look at that. Oh, my... Oh, I'm sorry! -Look at all the lights!
-Look at all the lights. That's awesome! -[Ryan] I know. Look at it!
[Shannon] Are those new tires?
[Bill] Yeah, we totally went through pretty much the whole truck.
I mean, one of the most important things is the car when it's coming at you.
So, we had to change the front bumper.
Way more aggressive when it's coming down the road at you.
Oh, yeah.
I love how it's all black and it definitely makes a statement
when it's behind you.
-People are gonna get out your way now. -Oh, yeah.
They're gonna let me over.
[Bill] If we add bumpers, you gotta add lighting into it, right?
-[Shannon] Well, yeah. -And not just in the bumper.
We had to change the headlights.
[Shannon] I've never seen anything like that.
That's definitely not the only lighting.
-No, I see some more. -[Bill] So, we got some rigid lights up on the cowl
that you can manipulate to shine wherever you want.
We also have some mirror lights, too.
-[Ryan] Those are awesome. Color matched. -[Bill] Yeah.
I really love that light bar because I didn't think we could have one.
[Bill] I know you had that height restriction in the garage, right?
So, we found this one. It fits this truck perfectly.
Oh, yeah I can't wait to light it up.
Also, one of the things we had to do is change that stances.
We had to add that three-inch BDS kit,
-you know with the coil overs and fox shocks. -[Ryan] Ooh.
You're getting good, comfortable rides,
-and it's off-road capable, for sure. -[Shannon] That's cool.
-She's mean. -Yeah.
And it's a lot taller. I hope I'm gonna be able to get into it.
-Well, we got you hooked up on that. -All right.
-Oh, man, that's smooth. -Yeah.
That's awesome.
Right, so you can still get in there, no problem at all.
It looks like it.
[Bill] You know, when the truck first came in,
it had that gap in-between the step
-and the locker itself. -[Shannon] With the holes? Yeah.
So, we had to just replace that, put retractable steps on it.
So, you don't have any problem now with that extra height,
-getting in and out. -Those steps are amazing. That's smooth.
-If you like that, come check the back out. -All right.
Hey, look at the back of this thing. It looks completely different.
Yeah, well that's the point. You didn't want to be like everybody else, right?
[Ryan] Haven't seen anything like this, man.
[Bill] Can't just change the front bumper,
so we had to change the back also. We had to make it look a lot cooler.
-[Shannon] It looks just as mean as the front. -Yeah.
Yeah, we changed out the tail lights, also.
You know, gave it a little more aggressive look.
[Ryan] Those smoke-colored lights are gorgeous.
Nobody's gonna have those tail lights.
You know, the biggest change on the whole truck, I think, is the roof color
-and the fender flares, right? -[Shannon] Oh, yeah.
[Bill] Smoothened out all that texture,
-painting that eruption green... -[Ryan] Oh, yeah.
[Bill] Not only looks custom, it looks classy.
It really sets it apart from everybody else.
Bill and the team did awesome.
I wasn't expecting anything but I certainly wasn't expecting that.
She's beautiful and she's a beast and I'm really excited.
You know, some guys come in, say, "This car truck's for the wife."
But we know it's really for them.
Oh, he's never gonna drive it again.
-Exactly. -Yeah.
-You can tell this is your truck. -It is. It's my baby.
And he did this especially for you.
I know how much you love the Bronco, and I just wanted to do
something to keep that love going forever,
just like our love.
[Shannon chuckles]
Bill, thanks for coming through and helping me give the best gift
I could ever give to my wife.
I know that she loves it and I thank you for that.
Man, you did good.
[Ryan] No, man, I appreciate it but all credits to you guys.
You know, Ekstensive definitely ain't a one-man show.
I'd just like to thank all the guys at the shop for once again
coming through for me.
Well, I hope you guys really do enjoy this
and, you know, no more issues now when you're driving down the road
-seeing another one like yours. -They'll be green with envy.
[Bill] That's it, for sure.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you. Appreciate it.
-Have fun. See y'all later. -Thank you.
I love it. You did good, thank you.
-[Ryan] I love you, babe. -[Shannon chuckles]