[Stephanie] This is my dad's 1949 Ford.
-[Bill] Does he know the truck's here? -He does not.
-Oh, it's a total surprise, huh? -Total surprise.
It's cool to think this '49 Ford
is a gift for dad from his daughter.
[Ryan] Once we get sheet metal on this,
this will all tie in. It'll look real clean.
[John] We're going with aluminum and walnut.
[Dustin] This will make it so that
the bed will articulate up and down.
These are the candy colors, right?
-[Jose] Really gonna make that truck pop. -[Dustin] Mirror finish.
[Bill] The new Coyote engine is gonna give this truck
a lot more power.
[Dustin] It's gonna start. Right, Matt?
[engine sputters]
-[all cheer] -Oh, my God.
[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.
Well, I know you're here to get an update on something,
but finally all that chrome showed up.
-Man, it's about time, right? -[laughs] Yeah.
That's definitely a slow process.
You can't get that fast.
[Carlos] Yeah, you can never rush that,
but probably it's on its way.
And I mean, that's a good thing.
Another good thing is
I've been here almost about two years now.
-Already? -[laughs] Yeah.
-That's what I said. -Man.
-It felt like we just started here. -[laughs] Yeah.
What a wild ride it's been.
Two years, man.
What's been your favorite build so far?
Man. There's been a couple.
The tanker truck we did last year,
that was pretty awesome.
That was the first one I got thrown at the wolves with.
And seeing that thing as big as it was coming in here.
You guys doing that air ride suspension on it.
Just really taking that truck over the top.
But since then, there have been so many different builds.
You know, I guess sitting here right now
that I really like that '53 tow truck.
-You know, that thing-- -Yeah.
When that thing came in,
I didn't know whether to get you guys tetanus shots
or a new truck.
I mean, but then what you guys did to that bed, that frame,
I've never seen anything like that.
You had any easy ones?
I haven't had any easy ones.
I don't think I ever had either.
Speaking of the latest challenge,
you know, the '49 Ford.
Huge project.
That's one of those projects that I was kind of,
if you have taken it in or not when it came in,
as bad shape as it was sitting on the trailer out there.
But getting it into the shop and getting it all tore apart.
Getting it blasted, getting it back,
which is always kind of nervous.
You don't know what you're going to end up with.
[Bill] Yeah, man. But it was in fairly decent shape.
From that, building a new custom chassis,
brand new suspension, and incorporated that
independent rear suspension in with it.
You know, first for us.
That engine with that rear suspension, man, it's...
Mmm-hmm.
[Bill] Putting that Coyote in it.
Engine trans, you know, it's going to be a good,
good running truck too, man.
You know, it's been a long project.
[Carlos] Oh, I know. Yeah.
But, you know, we're at home stretch now.
Building the bed floor, still have to do that.
Build running boards, paint and body.
On this one, it's going to be a candy paint. Has to be.
Gonna make it stand out.
Definitely, man.
And then once that's all done, you know,
of course John's got to do his thing.
That candy paint, chrome, John's interior.
This might just be my favorite build though.
It's going to be a beautiful truck.
I'll tell you what, one of the last things we need is wheels.
And there's going to be a whole lot
of other stuff too, man. So get ready.
Yeah, well whatever it's going to take to get this
through the finish line, man,
whatever parts, you know, all that.
And don't make us wait on you again.
[laughs]
We've done a ton of metal work to this truck already,
but we still have a few more custom pieces left.
One of those is a custom running board
that would just go with the overall look of the truck.
And Ryan and Dustin are finishing that up right now.
So we got our running board this far,
and now we got a real good idea
of what it's going to look like
and the route we want to go.
You know, we had this going and it just wasn't enough.
So then we brought this little piece in,
gave it a little bit of flow, you know,
to go into the outside of the fenders like we want.
Once we get sheet metal on this, this will all tie in.
It'll look real good, real clean.
But we got this this far.
Now we need to catch the other side up,
make it look exactly like this,
make sure everything is perfect.
And then we can start doing our sheet metal work on top.
Roll this bad boy here.
I need some type of reference that I can measure off of
that side and the same on this side,
so I can make sure that these are landing
exactly where they need to be.
You don't want that one to be out
an inch further than this one.
You're only as good as the worst thing you've done.
Normally when we bend anything,
we got tubing benders that do all that good stuff for us.
But when you bend squared tubing,
it likes to kink the top of it.
It always leaves like a little kink, like a little pinch.
And you got to spend all the time,
either grinding it, and then it gets paper thin,
and it just turns into a headache, it's a nightmare.
So the best way to go about doing this is
to put the bend that we want in this, is to pie cut it.
So we're just going to cut some slits in here.
It's not going to take a lot,
and it'll give the perfect curvature
to the side of the cab right there.
All righty, make a little filler piece for that.
Instead of bending this, and rolling this this way,
and then having to roll it back,
it would have been really, really hard
doing it to that piece.
Our sheet metal will go all the way to here,
you know what I mean? It'll all be one piece sheet metal.
So you'll never know that this was added on.
It's just to give a little bit of character,
a little bit more flow into the running board.
And so once we cut all this off,
behind here, that will bolt to the fender,
and this will all be part of the running board here.
This will be gone. All of that is gone.
[Dustin] Ryan and I got our running board frames
established on the '49.
Now we're going to go ahead and go off sheet metal here.
We're going to take our sheets here,
take them over to the brake, get them broke,
take them to the truck,
and then get them trimmed to fit
our frame perfect for a nice reveal.
We'll go test it on the truck.
I'm sure that'll be some minor finish trimming and buffing,
and then we'll be good to go.
Now the sheet metal piece that we've made and cut
and everything fits perfect in here,
everything lines up.
We got it tacked to the bottom of the bed,
and now it's time to start tacking it in.
We'll tack it to the inch and a half.
There's also going to be a void here
once all this is cut out,
you'll be able to see daylight right through there.
So we got to figure out a way to make all that look good.
Once we got it good and tacked
and everything, we can pull it out,
cut all this excess off, and put it in there
and see what you got.
Right now I'm making some filler pieces
for the front fenders that'll weld in,
and then we won't have a gap. Voila, it'll look real nice.
[Ryan] All right, so now Dustin and I have got
the last pieces on for the running boards.
One step closer to having
all the fab work done on the truck too,
so now we'll get on to the next step,
which is... I don't know yet, but...
-[Dustin] The next one. -We're gonna... Yeah.
[Bill] I want to show off all the custom metal work
on the '49 Ford.
So we're going to make a bed floor
that will actuate up.
So we got our stock for the bed floor of the '49 Ford.
Now that Bill's got everything laid out,
and kind of has his idea going on what we're going to do.
We now know how wide each board needs to be.
So to keep it safe and keep everything uniform,
I've got some finger boards set up.
I'll do some stop blocks on the top
so everything stays where it needs to be.
And from that point,
it's just a matter of feeding it through,
getting it all cut.
We'll get back over to the truck
and make sure it all works.
We're going with aluminum and walnut
to get it form and function,
just like we like it around here.
The aluminum is a great idea
because it's lightweight and low maintenance,
but it also gives a great look breaking up the walnut.
And once Lewis stains it,
it's going to look really, really good.
All these aluminum channels and the woodwork,
we're going to bolt all that together to make the bed.
So I'm going to set this up here,
clamp it down a little bit so it doesn't move.
And then I'm going to mark in between
so I know where I'm going to cut.
I'm actually an upholstery man, but I own a machine shop.
I do little parts on the side. So I do this for Bill.
I've known him since he was like a kid.
He came over to my shop one day
and I was building my shop.
And he says, "I can do this."
And I said, "Sure you can."
'Cause you know, he welded.
Boy, he never stopped.
He just kept growing and growing.
Okay, I got these pieces marked out.
I'm going to head out and get them cut
so we can get this bed put together.
All right, we're here at the machine shop
and I'm fixing to cut these channels in here.
I'm going to move the table up until we touch the tool.
I'm only doing it by eye.
We have to cut it out a little bit at a time.
You can't hog this material out.
You have to cut it out.
I always have eye protection.
You know, when the '49 Ford came in,
you know, that's one of those projects
you really just shake your head going,
"Oh, my God,
what am I getting myself into?
A lot of the times when projects look way too far gone,
that just opens up more possibilities
for building more custom into the project.
Pretty much, I just need the basics to start with,
like a decent cab.
When the frame's a little tweaked, hey,
even more reason to build a brand new one.
When suspension rides like crap,
we're going to tear it out anyway.
It is endless, it's whatever your brain can think of,
whatever your skill set is,
you can build that into a custom car.
A lot of people start with a drawing,
"I'm going to build this."
Well, in my case, how I like to do it is just
getting a feel for the project
and just building on ideas as you go.
I think in the end, you create a way more special,
a way more unique vehicle if you build it along the way.
A good example of that is the bed for the '49 Ford
that we completely hand built one piece at a time.
And after a lot of work,
John's finishing the floor right now.
You know, it's been a lot of pieces to get here.
We've got the aluminum slats
that Joe made in the machine shop.
I've done all the math, got everything figured out,
got the wood pieces cut, everything fits in perfectly.
So now the next step is to take and actually attach
the wood to the aluminum.
We'll put them back in the jig
and work out getting these things bolted together.
Oh, Cleve, you got three big bones now.
You won't be able to see any of the fasteners.
They're all going to be hidden,
bolted together from the inside.
You know, it's going to be a really nice look
and really clean on the truck.
So the key to this is going to be keeping the wood
nice and flush with the aluminum.
Got my countersink in there so I can hide the hardware.
Once I get one piece attached to the aluminum,
I'll get another piece and just repeat the process
seven more times.
So the next step is to drill a hole in the middle
through every one of these pieces
and make them all line up in the same place.
What I'm going to have to do is I'm going to set up a jig
and the drill press to work from the end
that I've already cut off to measure it out,
put the hole in the middle
and it'll be in the same place on each one of them.
So I got all the middle holes drilled out.
Everything's going to line up. So the next step,
lay it here on the table, get it squared up
and see if we can get our rod through it.
This rod is going to help sandwich
the center of it together.
Come on.
[grunting] Almost there.
Go to your hole.
Nice.
I'm going to set up some clamps,
start pulling all this nice and tight,
put a couple of bolts in it to hold the end caps on.
That will be on the bottom of the bed cover
so when it's closed, you won't see them.
Joe made this piece for us here.
He machined it down so it'll fit perfectly
inside of these square tubes.
And what that's going to do is it's going to support the ends
and keep it from sagging.
Got everything marked out where it needs to be.
So gonna go over to the drill press,
make sure that I get these things drilled
perfectly square into the material.
That's one of the things about projects like this.
People will look at it, "Oh, that's nice.
That's cool. That's neat."
But they'll never really understand the amount of work
and labor and effort that goes into
making something like this as small as this project is,
in the whole scheme of things of the whole truck.
There's still a ton of work
put into just this one piece alone.
Not to mention how much goes into the whole truck.
So next time you look at a really cool, nice custom-built truck,
give a little bit of thought to how much work is done
that you don't see.
Someone's put a lot of effort into it.
We got our hinges made for our truck bed
on the '49 Ford.
So we got them drilled, tapped,
bolted down now. We'll go ahead
and get it back on the truck
and finish getting our hinges made.
Now we need to make hinge mounts
off the frame of the truck.
So I'm going to go ahead and make these
out of eighth inch steel and this will make it so that
the bed will articulate up and down.
So we're moving on to actuators now and trap door action.
I got this eighth inch plate here.
I'm going to get some tabs made
and that's going to locate our actuators
on the bottom of our trap door.
And that's what's actually going to make the bed
or the trap door go up and down
so you can see all the great work underneath.
So we got our actuator mounts cut out, tacked up,
and we got them installed on our trap door here.
I'm going to go ahead and attach our actuators now
and then we can go ahead and locate them on our frame,
weld them up, try it out,
and see if we can make a trap door go up and down.
Now we got a trap door.
You can see all our awesome work underneath.
See the awesome frame? Good to go.
So we got the cab pulled off the '49 Ford.
We got all the sheet metal finished up.
We got it over at the body shop now.
Those guys are going to work their magic on it.
Yeah, you're pretty good right there.
I got the chassis rolled in.
Now it's time to disassemble this.
We go all the way up and get it out of the way.
So I'm going to get the motor pulled out,
suspension pulled out, get everything disassembled,
weld out what needs to be welded,
and we'll get it shipped off to powder coat.
So as you can see we got the '49 Ford
pretty much wrapped up all the way in the exterior.
The only thing left is a dash and as you can see it has
all these imperfections that I have to address.
I gotta sand it to get it ready
so I can put a body filler on it.
Once I pretty much bodywork all this and we have it ready
we will put one coat of primer
and we'll see what we have and probably add some more.
Now that I have the dash sanded pretty much
all the way to where I can start bodyworking,
I'm going to use a little bit of fiberglass to smear on it
and to dress all the big imperfections.
Once that dries I can be able to block it.
It's important to make sure that you wipe kind of
following the contour of the metal so by the time
you start sanding and blocking
it's going to be too much of a hassle.
Most people don't really focus on the inside
but once you're behind that steering wheel,
you get to see all the details that this dash has
and once I get done with it
he's going to be real happy with it.
As we get to the end of the job
as big as the '49 Ford,
we got to do a bunch of things at the same time.
While we're finishing up the bodywork,
John's going to get going on the interior.
I'm going to start with the door panels.
So I've got the ideas in my head
of what I want to do so I'm going to get them on this
piece of chipboard.
I'm going to make an insert that'll go inside of these,
bury some lights, that way we can get a nice trim light
all the way around these pieces.
Speakers are going to go down here.
I want to add carpet down on the bottom of this door.
Guard it against bumping.
We've got walnut in the bed of the truck
so we're going to put some walnut inside.
All right, that's that.
I'm going to get some measurements
and get it all in the computer and get the machines to work.
So the router has done its part.
It made my pieces for me. So the next step,
a little bit of work on the router table.
Take all these insert pieces,
get them glued into the base panel.
I'm going to grab the inserts,
start doing some bodywork on them,
get those ready to go.
So once these are done, the door panel will be ready
and we'll start some bodywork on that
and just about done.
Well, all the bodywork's done. Inserts are on.
Everything's where it needs to be.
So the next step get it on the truck, trim in the sides.
The thing will be ready to wrap
and we can move on to the next.
[Bill] One of the first things you notice on any vehicle
is the color.
I want this truck to really stand out,
so we're going to go with this special candy paint
and right now it's time to pick out that color.
-Jose, what's happening? -What's up Bill?
Forty-nine Ford spray-outs, huh?
[Jose] Spray-outs, man, we finally got them dialed in.
What do you think?
These are the candy colors right?
[Jose] The candy lemonade, yes, sir.
-So we got a 24 karat gold base. -Mmm-hmm.
Charcoal gray metallic base,
and a black metallic base.
So same candy color, just different base colors.
Same candy color, different base colors
will give you a different effect.
This one's just, man, I like it
but it's just a little too gold.
-[Jose] Too gold? -For this truck, yeah.
I think for this '49 Ford,
the darker is going to set it off.
[Jose] Oh, for sure man.
We'll go about four coats of metallic black base,
four coats of candy lemonade,
and then another four coats of clear
which is really going to make that truck pop
-because of the contours of the body. -Mmm.
[Bill] That's what we need right there, but we need
a whole lot of it.
-We got you. -For sure, man.
-You need these? -No man. Go ahead and keep them.
-Get some target practice? -Yeah, yeah, go ahead, man.
-All right, man. -All right, brother.
[Jose] We went with the Candy Lemonade.
We're painting a lot of pieces on this truck
from the frame, motor, transmission, body in and out.
In this case, we're mixing up a five-gallon bucket batch
to get more consistency of the color,
versus trying to mix a gallon at a time.
We could kind of, throw off the shade, if we do it that way.
So, that's why we're going with a five-gallon bucket.
So, now this candy has a pearl, what makes it flop.
A flop is gonna give you a dark
and a light look, depending on how the sun hits it.
What makes candy a candy
is a translucent tint
that goes over a certain base,
that gives you a certain look.
Without that base, you won't see that deepness of the candy.
We've got a quart of Candy Pearl base coat.
I'm gonna dump her in the gallon.
So now we're gonna add a quart of reducer
to the quart of Candy Pearl base coat.
Now, it's time to spray this motor transmission and frame.
So, we've got the frame painted, engine painted.
And we're gonna take it outside, so we can put it all together,
and then we're gonna bring the cab.
All right, so we got our black sealer on there,
and we're gonna go ahead and, uh, hit it with...
our black base coat.
Okay, we're gonna go ahead and, uh, hit over our candy.
But we're gonna have to paint everything at once.
We can't do piece by piece, 'cause being a candy,
everything has to be the same, so it can match.
We can't mess up on this one.
So, everything has to be done at once.
All right, so we've got our two coats of candy.
We're gonna let it dry,
put it all back together, and paint the whole truck at once.
A candy paint job is a lot of work.
A lot of going around the car,
precision on your equipment,
using the right material. Preps is key.
If your vehicle is not prepped, right,
anything after that is gonna fail.
So we got our... clear coat on there.
Everything's looking really good.
We're gonna let it dry overnight,
bring our last piece, which is the bed,
and make it look good as the rest of the pieces.
[Bill] The '49 Ford is all painted,
and the suspension's all back from getting chromed.
So now, we're gonna get it all put back together.
[Dustin] Man, the '49 Ford is gonna come out very, very nice.
And with the chrome, the polished stuff,
and the candy paint...
Ooh, boy. It's gonna be slick.
It won't like...
We'll get it to go in there.
Here, watch this.
-Oh, you just got to hit harder? -That's right.
We got all our parts back from getting chromed.
I'm gonna go ahead and start assembling
suspension parts, bushings, heims.
I'm getting everything greased up, anti-seized up.
Just full assembly right now.
There you go.
We've got Mr. Corbin here, helping me out.
Anytime you send parts to get chromed,
you always have to go through, and clean threads
like what I'm doing right now.
There's always stuff that gets in the threads.
And if you don't go through, and clean it out,
then you generally end up
with a seized bushing or heim in your part.
You put anti-seize on whatever part you're installing as well.
-Wanna throw that one in? -[Corbin] Yeah.
[Dustin] And that will ensure no seized parts
in your brand-new nice chrome pieces.
Man, the chrome parts are very pretty.
Very nice to look at.
You can see this so much better,
and so much more clear under the truck
than a powder-coated part.
Great finish, man. That's mirror-finish.
[hammering]
-[Bill] Every build around here has a story. -[grunts]
It's cool to think this '49 Ford
is a gift for dad from his daughter.
We're at the stage now where Matt's gonna wire it all up.
[Matt] So right here, on the inside of the truck,
this is where our fuse... fuse panel is mounted.
We're gonna pop our holes out right here,
so we can bring our wires out,
and hug the body as close as possible.
And then we're gonna hit the frame right somewhere in this area.
That way, when everything is together,
all this will be hidden.
I've checked four times, but I'm gonna check again.
Definitely being extra careful, I mean...
you got... I got one shot to drill the right hole.
These are the bulkhead fittings we normally use
running air lines into the cab.
You'd... you'd put this in there and push your air line in there.
But this is the first time I've ever used these, that run wires.
But when Bill said,
we don't want to see no wires on the frame, no zip ties...
it forced me to figure something out.
I know this keeps a nice tight seal.
It keeps water out, and stuff like that.
So I figured, why not run wires through it?
I try to keep it tight to the body, but still,
I guess, symmetrical looking.
So, it looks like it belongs there and it's not...
it wasn't an afterthought.
We're gonna go ahead and drill them now.
It started with a small hole, a pilot hole,
and then we slowly step up the sizes.
It makes the hole easier to drill when you do it that way.
And also, we don't wanna create too much heat.
Since the frame is painted, it'll start bubbling up.
None of this, anybody's ever gonna see.
But every build I do, I like to be,
not necessarily better than somebody else's build,
but I like to be better than my last one.
Lucky for me, this idea is working out the way it should.
We're gonna go ahead and move on to the rest of 'em,
and get it tied up.
The last piece we have for the '49 Ford
is the center console.
We've got room now for the 3P controller.
We've got window switches.
We've got switches to control the tailgate,
switch to control bed floor, headlights,
chrome light, interior light, dimmer.
All in one beautiful piece of walnut.
We'll get those things sent over to Louis.
Let Louis do his magic on it,
and we'll start building console.
[Louis] I've got a collection of stains here, John.
-I'm just gonna try to make it work. -[John] Make something happen?
[Louis] Yes, sir.
I think it'll work out.
We're gonna apply our wiping stain,
put some clear on it, and we'll be good to go.
This is a water-based wiping stain,
so it... drives very fast.
It's gonna highlight the beauty of that walnut.
And it's really easy to work with.
What I really like about the stain,
it's very uniforming.
It's very forgiving.
It dries real fast.
And pretty much immediately just go ahead and apply our topcoat.
We're gonna go ahead and put our solvent look sealer.
This is really gonna bring out the beauty of this walnut,
and keep it well protected for your scuff.
Now we're gonna go ahead and sand this.
Make sure it's nice and smooth.
So, walnut by nature, it's very grainy,
so we're gonna sand it really well,
and apply our final coat of top coat, and that'll be done.
This is an electric spray system. It has low overspray.
So, since we're not spraying in a booth,
this is gonna be the perfect machine
for applying our solvent look sealer to the wood.
[John] All right, all the pieces are done on the CNC,
so now it's just time to put the puzzle together.
Stack, stack, stack.
We're just gonna use a little bit of stack fab here,
Stacking all the pieces up.
Fabricating everything in a stack.
Pretty... pretty... pretty straightforward there, huh?
All right, so the first half of the console is in place.
It fits good. Shapes look great.
I'm gonna go through, and put some body filler in
to fill in the gaps around the front.
When that's done, we'll do the bodywork,
and we'll be ready to build the back half.
All right, so the top of the back half of the console
is done and ready to go.
So, the next step, we start building the sides,
get it in place.
A little bit more bodywork...
we'll be ready to wrap it and we can kick it out the door.
Anytime you're building a console,
um, keep in mind...
your designs, your shapes make everything.
It kind of flows together.
Something going off, something different.
Something no one else has.
All right, so the console for the '49 Ford is done and done.
Man, this thing looks great.
I couldn't ask for it to look any better.
So with that being said, I'm gonna go get it in the truck,
so we can get the truck out of the shop.
[Bill] Back in the day, you know, '49 Ford
was pushing about 100 horsepower.
The new Coyote engine
is gonna give this truck a lot more power.
But these engines come with a lot more wiring than they used to.
I haven't even seen underneath.
[Bill] I want to hide all the wires going to the engine base,
so it looks super clean.
-[Matt] I've got a problem. -[Jamie] What?
So, I'm trying to figure out...
how I'm getting...
-the main power cable to the starter... -Yeah.
...and then to our PAC-80 without being seen.
We definitely can't use the half-inch tube,
like we use it on everything else.
Yeah, that's not gonna work either.
[Matt] And I could come inside the cab, but I mean,
that's gonna mess with the interior.
I think that's really, um, the only option right here that we have.
That's just all there is to it.
You're right. It needs to go through the cab.
[Matt] Everything on the truck is strategically laid out
as from a fabricator standpoint.
From my standpoint, it makes it a little harder.
When I'm doing what I have to do,
I try not to interfere with whoever's doing interior
or fabrication or whatever.
But I mean, sometimes, you got to put your wires
or put your mount wherever it... it's gotta go.
And, I mean, we're all good at what we do,
so, I mean, the next person, it might be a little more challenging,
but they... they'll get it figured out.
We're gonna go ahead and start trying to...
fish the wire through.
This one was a short run.
It went through a lot easier than I thought.
Not a good idea to get too excited.
Usually when that happens,
the next one gives you problems.
Most likely it will.
[Jamie] Yeah, we're definitely caught up on something.
[Matt] See, I knew the back couldn't be as easy as the front.
[chuckles]
I know I'm right there at that sway bar
because I'm... kind of getting caught,
so I'm just trying to flip the line...
until I don't feel it.
[Bill] Man, we got it.
Now, we'll go ahead and tie our wires onto this
and get 'em pulled down the frame.
This factory harness that goes on the Coyote motor,
one of the main plugs that goes to the ECM is in the front
'cause that's where the computers mount factory.
So, I went ahead and we cut open all the loom on the harness.
I moved the plug inside the cab.
Doing that, it caused me to have to extend
some of the wires for the sensors.
We... we gotta cut these open, lengthen 'em.
We'll... we'll solder 'em up, doing it one at a time,
just so we get rid of some of the mess, and it looks clean at the end.
This part of the electrical is pretty crucial.
Without this being done right, the truck's not gonna run.
Building something like this, every minute of it is hard, like, it's a pain.
And you have to really love doing it
to stick with it and ride it out to the end.
To me, it's fulfilling.
That creativity and don't be scared
that somebody might not like what you did.
I mean, that's how you set trends,
like, by doing new things that nobody else does.
I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people out there
that do it for the recognition of building the cars.
But I mean, most of us, we do it because this is what we love to do.
Moment of truth.
Well, let's do it.
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please start.
It's gonna start. Right, Matt? It's gonna start.
You tell me when you're ready.
[Matt] Go ahead.
[engine spluttering]
[engine starts]
-[Dustin] Let's go! -[exclaiming and mimicking engine starting]
[laughs]
Damn, that was loud as hell.
Badass feeling, for sure.
-[Dustin] Yeah. -All that hard work.
-And it... it's... it's there. -I don't know what time it is,
but it's late, and that's a good payoff.
[Matt] And the rest is up to them.
-Let's go, huh. -[laughs]
Every build we do is special to us
and the customer, of course.
But this '49 Ford's maybe a little more
because it's a gift.
And it's almost there.
We're putting the bed floor together one last time.
We're installing the bumper and hood...
buffing and polishing.
And after eight months of hard work,
we're ready to give this one back.
[Carlos] Once the vehicle is actually here,
it's just an immediate rush of, "Let's get this part.
Let's get these parts in."
I have to be on my game to, you know, make sure
all the products are here.
I've been doing this for, you know, 15-plus years,
you know, working with cars, trucks.
You know, moving out here, you know, doing the big move with my family,
I didn't know what to expect.
The first two years of being here, man,
it's been one of the wildest, craziest rides I've ever been on.
I fit right in with everybody because they speak
the language what I speak, custom trucks.
When building, the guys get it in the back, and they start going.
The end product is like no other.
You wouldn't even know that that was the same vehicle that came in the first day.
At the end of the day, you're making somebody's dream really become a reality.
-Oh! Look at that. Wow! -[laughs]
-Oh, my God! -Oh, my--
[Carlos] The detail and, you know, everything
that the guys in the back have done to that truck,
it makes you very proud to... to be a part of that.
-Hi. -Hey.
Stephanie's convinced me that her dad has no idea
where his truck's at.
-Stephanie, Bill. -[Stephanie] Yes.
-Carroll, my dad. -Carroll Estes.
-Nice to meet you. -Carroll, Bill.
So, we're gonna play a little joke on him.
You know, have him come in.
She doesn't know anything.
I wanted to talk to you about my dad's 1949 Ford F-1.
They're coming in today
for her dad to tell me what he wants in a build.
I had one in high school and I sold it.
I've regretted selling it ever since.
-Sure. We always regret one or two along the way, right? -Yeah.
I've seen Bill's work before, and I think this is the place
to get my dream fulfilled
and get him to build this truck.
You know, the '49 Ford is a cool, cool truck,
-and I can definitely see, you know, you wanting... -[Carroll] Yeah.
[Bill] ...something really cool built out of that.
But we might have a little surprise for you.
-Uh, okay. -So, Stephanie brought your truck in,
you know, a while back.
And we've been working on it for you already.
Really?
[Stephanie and Bill laugh]
[Carroll] Is she's pulling my leg?
-What'd you do? -[Stephanie] No. [laughs]
-Come on. -All right.
-Let's go see. -Let's go.
Oh, my God.
-[all] Surprise! [exclaiming] -[Bill and Stephanie laugh]
Oh, my God!
Bill.
-What did y'all do? Huh? -[Bill and Stephanie laugh]
Oh, my God, my family's here and all.
[Stephanie] Yeah!
[Carroll] Man, that thing is...
-What, do you like it? -...beautiful. Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
-It's on the ground, even! -Do you like it?
-Well, yeah, we had to make it low for you. -That's pretty low.
My dreams come true.
I walked out here and I saw the truck.
Oh, my God, everybody was hollering.
-I realized my whole family was down here supporting me. -[all applauding]
And I'm very grateful and blessed
to have such wonderful people in my family.
[all cheering]
Uh, my gosh.
[Stephanie laughs]
My family was in on this?
I... I can't even tell you how much that... that means to me.
-Y'all did good. -[Stephanie] You did good.
Yeah, y'all did good.
-Fantastic. -All of y'all did good.
Hey, it's beautiful.
When she brought your truck in,
I kinda really didn't wanna tackle it.
-It was just so much work involved... -[Carroll] All right.
[Bill] ...to take something like that
and make it into something like this, but...
she talked me into it.
-It was a special project, especially for you. -[Carroll] Yeah.
I had one in high school, and there's no way
we could have done that in high school.
There's so many things I see that... that I like
and that somebody did work on.
[Bill] Every one of these guys got blood, sweat and...
and tears in it, for sure.
Did they have tetanus shots?
-[laughing] Oh, yeah. -[Stephanie laughs]
-We're all up-to-date. -[Carroll] Up-to-date?
-[Stephanie laughs] -[Carroll] Oh.
I can't imagine how much time and hours
that they've spent doing metalwork on the truck,
the bed, the fenders, the drip rail.
All of the body's seams welded and cut up.
Unbelievable metalwork.
That color is crazy, man.
It's so deep and it kinda flops
when the sun's on it to a black, in the shadows and all.
That's one of a kind right there.
That's a candy pearl lemonade over a black base.
-[Carroll] You couldn't have picked a better color. -[Stephanie] Impressive.
You got any chrome?
[Bill] There's a little bit of chrome underneath here.
-[Carroll] There's a little chrome on it. -[laughs]
That's what we wanted.
-[Bill] Everywhere you look, it has custom touches on it. -[Carroll] Yeah.
[Bill] You'll be hard-pressed to find a '49 Ford like this anywhere on this planet.
I would agree.
-Oh, my God! -Wow!
-[Carroll] Oh, my... Wow! -[Stephanie] Oh, wow!
-Whoo! -[man] Whoo!
-Yeah! -[laughs]
-[Stephanie] Yeah, buddy! -[Bill laughs]
[Carroll] Oh, my God!
[Bill] You see, that 5.0 fits really good underneath the hood now.
-[Stephanie] Yeah. -We had to make a whole lot of room.
And while we were making a lot of room,
we made a bunch of handmade panels
to make it look even better under the hood.
[Carroll] The inner fenders are all welded up.
There's no seams in the bottom part of the front fenders.
I don't have words. I mean, it's just fabulous.
If you're liking that,
-we got some more for you to check out. -I like that. I like that.
-Wow. -[all exclaiming]
-Wow! -Whoo!
-Nice. Very nice. -[man] Yeah!
Big transformation what was there,
there wasn't anything there.
And, man, in your interior was missing the floor.
We repaired all that, slicked it all out.
John Burgess got busy in building everything you see in there, pretty much.
Holy Jesus. John did a fantastic job on that interior,
the... the door panels, the... the seats, the carpet, the dash.
That's just one of a kind interior. It's just cool.
-[Stephanie] Wow. -[Carroll] Oh, my Lord.
[Stephanie] Just gets better and better.
I think this is one of my favorite parts of the truck, for sure.
When you're behind it, you see those 22 by 12s with the big tires on it.
The handmade bed kind of built
to the suspension and the wheels and tires.
[Carroll] What holds the tailgate on?
-[Bill] It's all actuated. -[Carroll] Actuated?
John, help me out.
-[Stephanie] Wow, that's so cool. -[Carroll] Oh, Lord.
-[Carroll] What? -[Stephanie exclaims]
-[Carroll] Oh, look at that. -[Stephanie] Wow!
[Bill] The bed floor is all on the actuators, too.
-And you can see all that framework. -[all exclaiming]
-Wow, wow, wow, wow! -Wow!
[Stephanie] There's your independent rear suspension.
-It's beautiful. -[Bill] And you see that's all connected
to a brand-new chassis front to back.
Every bit of the suspension in the front
has all been handmade, with air suspension,
so you can raise and lower it, you'd still have that nice, comfortable ride also.
It looks just as good looking at every angle
from underneath as it does from the top.
Wow, it's fabulous.
You know, I always say it's not a one-man show.
I mean, it takes everyone in the shop
to work their ass off all day, every day,
to see projects like this to the finish line.
So, how do you think we did, man?
Is this the... the truck you was hoping for?
Yeah. It's everything I could have dreamed of
or imagined, all in one package.
-Hey, thank you, baby. -You're welcome.
-Love you. -Love you, too.
-Thank you, Bill. Appreciate it. -You're very welcome.
-[Carroll] Thank you, guys. -[all applauding]
[Stephanie] Y'all did great.