Original subtitles

[upbeat music playing]

The whole goal with this car has been to build an aluminum Corvette.

Somebody who might say, "Well, why would you do that?

Corvettes are composite and Corvettes are this and that and the other."

But what it is is kind of a throwback

to some metal craftsmanship.

And to doing something that hasn't been done.

So we're gonna build this entire car,

the floor, the outer shell and the framework all out of aluminum.

We've got the whole structure for the body going together.

Just stoked to do it.

So... stay tuned.

[opening theme music playing]

[Dave] This has been a dream, well before I was in business.

[Kevin] It's gonna take a team.

Everybody's expertise, everybody's input.

[Dave] These cars cannot be displayed, promoted,

seen by the public until they arrive at Detroit Autorama.

[Kevin] There's only so many teams that have put these cars together

so it's a great, great, great opportunity.

[Dave] We'll build a car that nobody has ever seen before.

The goal is to build a Ridler.

- Two and a half. - [Dave] Two and a half?

Well, that's not a big difference, is it?

Visually, it's a lot, but...

This will give me the line at which I put it in the tipping wheel.

It kind of defines where the edge of the wheel well is.

So I'm trying to get that little bit of a flair.

One smack at a time.

[tapping]

[man] And these are the buck, the structure.

Designed it on the computer and there's just so many pieces.

So I had gone through and labeled them luckily.

[Jordan] I think Kevin's one of those people

that would see somebody doing a puzzle

and then take one of the pieces

so he could be the last person that put a piece in.

[man] Yeah, that sounds right.

[Jordan] I'm hoping that I can get the body done before I die.

[man] How long does it usually take someone to build a body from scratch?

- I don't know. I've never done it. - [man] Oh, yeah.

[whirring]

[Dave] So the front does have a lot more sweep.

It's a little bit more of a longer angle.

Something just looks out of place here.

Um...

But I mean, this isn't super well-defined, either, right.

I kind of brought it back in

- to kind of match the front a little bit. - Right

We can flare that guy open a little bit more, too.

I didn't wanna go too far, though. 'Cause it kind of looks like--

[Dave] Actually, we've got a long radius here on that lower rocker.

Um, I think that it would be

a little bit, uh, too much if we go back quite that far.

- But this section right here is kind of... - Okay.

- smoothing a little bit. So, yeah, smooth it out. Okay. - Yeah, I'll smooth this out.

[Dave] Jordan and I have kind of worked on the wheel openings.

And I don't wanna, like the CF1,

where I just radius around the wheels,

I want a nice long sweep,

- but not the same as what the original is. - Like the Caddy?

And I'll get some radius' on there

- and make sure that it's all pretty close. - Mmm-hmm.

Well, like the original but I want it higher and I want it shorter.

I don't want it... I just don't want it sloppy looking.

I wanna close in but keep a lot of the same style lines.

From right here to right here...

is where we need to be just almost, like just a full...

- Just, uh, one continuous radius? - Perfect arch. Right, right.

- And then as it gets here, soften it out. - Yeah.

But going back quite that far, I think we need to come back to the wheel well, so.

- Yeah. - If we can just get rid of that little flat spot

and just have that little more flow right there,

I think we're in good shape.

I don't know, I think it's pretty good, actually.

- Swoopy? But tight? - As in... swoop...

- Tight but swoopy. - Tight but swoopy.

- Tight and swoopy. - Hmm.

[Will] I am trying to accomplish the dream 'Vette.

The engine, the whole drivetrain,

the suspensions and the floor.

I mean, it's kind of a unibody construction,

whereas the frame will be internal of the bottom of the car.

The frame won't be exposed to the bottom of the car.

So that's a little bit different.

We're doing a V12 engine.

We're doing a lot with that V12 engine.

We're changing around the accessory drives.

The drivetrain's very wild.

We knew that the suspension was gonna tie

- to the drivetrain, right? - Right.

The whole thing is designed around a full floor.

I think that's the coolest part about, it's just like standing alone.

Any of those parts, the engine, the structure or the body do nothing.

- They would just fall apart by themselves. - Right.

[Will] Where I'm at now is I've got

a really good shell for the floor.

And we need to get it out of the computer

and turn it into a real piece.

And the way I'm gonna do that is build a fixture.

I've been working on this fixture design.

This is what it looks like after the floor has been removed

and we just have the structural pieces.

Our wheel wells, the tunnel,

and the floor platform itself.

This is the next tool we need to build,

so we can dream of getting this floor done.

For the most part, I had the whole fixture laser cut.

So it's ultra-precise.

Super strong, super cool.

It's gonna tell us every location we need to

to get the floor done that's gonna work with the body.

Then within a couple of days, I'll have all the aluminum, which is also laser cut.

We should pretty well be able to just tip the edges up of each of the pieces

'cause they're all gonna come together at a radius.

But lay on here and fix her up and hopefully go together really fast,

which will make us all happy because we're, uh,

definitely pressed for time at this point, so.

Once we have this floor all constructed,

we actually have basically a frame superstructure,

which is all three eighths aluminum plate.

It should basically puzzle together very much like this fixture

That creates the frame inside.

We're basically building a unibody car

with a superstructure frame inside it.

So this car should be so ultra rigid,

which is good because this engine's gonna just produce a lot of torque

and will want to twist a little aluminum car up.

It should be super strong.

Okay. I'm just trying to sort out what the hell piece is this.

[laughing]

The trick about the Ridler is, I mean, a lot of different stuff has won.

It's not the Grand National Roadster Show.

It doesn't have to be a particular car.

It just has to be an excellent car.

All we can do is cross our fingers and put our best foot forward.

And then, uh, we'll see when that day comes.

It all comes down-- You put your best foot forward,

that's where the payoff is.

And if it's not your day,

you do your damnedest to appreciate who might have bested you

and then you try to learn from that.

And then you find them in the parking lot and you steal their hamburger.

'Cause nobody's going home with my lunch.

Overall, through this little car, I mean, we had to think way ahead.

So when that came down to the chassis and ultimately the floor,

the thing I wanted out of it is to be aerodynamic.

I wanted to have some level of racecar-inspired

aerodynamics under the car.

So these are the front inner wheel houses.

Besides the tunnel, this is probably the most intricate piece in the floor.

This is a big shrinking tool to get the dome shape

that I need.

I stretched it through here and then I'm gonna shrink this

and this edge here. It's gonna take a while.

[dramatic music playing]

If I'm patient, then I won't over-shrink anything

and basically, like, make a mess of it

because the shrinks can kind of fold

on top of each other if you're not careful.

But really, that just requires a little patience.

Don't go too heavy with the machine.

There are other processes you can follow, but this is as good as any.

This machine's incredible.

[dramatic music continues]

So now we've run that edge and you can see

it's got this bend from us rolling it up

and it gathered a bunch

Now we'll basically stamp right down through that bend.

And because the bends there, it can gather that easier too.

You can see right now near the edge, it has a big effect

because it's dealing with less material.

It's not in the middle of the panel.

So what we do is we go and shrink this edge

and then we work our way back from there.

It is basically grabbing the material and shoving it together.

That's gonna make that radius smaller

and and that's effectively what we're doing.

You can see it's just a process.

The shape will get there. It takes a minute.

Or an hour... or two.

Not only am I shrinking it here on the machine on this shrinker,

but the way this works is kind of indifference.

I can stretch the center, that will make it grow.

Then I shrink the outsides, that makes it shrink.

And that together makes the entire machine.

So I'll go run the power hammer

and run it through the center for the most part.

Then all shrink the rest of this up,

but to smooth it and ultimately smooth it.

I'm gonna run it, all of it, through the power hammer.

- [hammering] - [dramatic music playing]

[Will] The fixture's built

and I've been working on the wheel houses, the inner wheel houses

and It's just a lot of back and forth.

I mean, you got to shrink and stretch every little piece

to get it to fit the buck perfectly

and it just feels like I'm getting my miles in.

You can see our line here.

This is where I want that dome shape.

This I just want to be a cylinder.

Instead of using a hammer, I'm using this rubber band basically.

It makes the top die soft,

so this die can push the metal up inside that little bit of banding

and bend it.

Obviously, not enough. [laughs]

[dramatic music playing]

[Will] Still that is so funny.

I'm going back and forth, back and forth

from the power hammer, shrinker-stretcher,

I mean, it's just been

back and forth, back and forth. That's all I do.

[hammering]

It's even and it's looking okay,

but, just need to go more.

2 But ultimately, what I'm looking for

is for it to touch basically all the ribs

as close to the form as possible.

So, almost and it's getting closer.

I think I need to beat on it here

and, uh, just kind of push the shape around.

This edging here is saying that it's not great.

That's not what we want.

I'll probably shrink all of this a little too much,

so that I can hammer it back out

up to the shape that I really ultimately want.

More. This needs more.

Just when you thought you were done.

Needs more.

[dramatic music playing]

[hammering]

Round 77. [laughs]

- So there was a lot of... - Shrinking and stretching going on.

A lot of shrinking and stretching going on.

[Kevin] And back and forth and back and forth?

- Back and forth, back and forth. - [laughing]

[Will] Not too bad.

[man] Nice.

[Will] I think it fits well enough to give my freaking brain

- a break for half a second. - [man laughs]

[rock music playing]

[Will] For the most part on these floors,

the panels are flat.

But where we join each of the panels,

we don't want just a square edge.

So we're rolling the edge.

Each of these pieces individually, are very weak,

but once we get them all put together,

then, you know, it'll be a nice floor.

And we do want it flat, so that it just looks crazy smooth

and aerodynamic, that's kind of what I'm after, so.

I'm just putting these, uh, simple rolls in here right now.

You know, I designed all this in the computer,

but I want to get it all close.

Kind of in the real initial fab stages here.

So I'm gonna get all these pieces basically put together, bent close

and then, as we join them with each piece,

then we'll make sure that they're spot on

and fitting the way we want to.

It seems like everything I get into these days,

everything is a challenge for me.

I mean, uh, nobody gives me the task that I've done before, I swear.

[man laughs]

Looks like I gotta shrink right here to get it to lay down a little bit.

So... let's go hit the shrinker.

This one, once you have a flange,

shrinking and stretching this edge

defines what this profile does, you know.

So it was teetering about right here on the panel,

around the body or whatever.

So you just gotta shrink that a little bit

to reduce that high spot so it can lay down.

Okay, let's try that.

It's not teetering there any more but now I gotta...

I'm concerned it might have a tiny bit of a gap there,

so I might just stretch that out just a tiny bit

to get it to relax so it's right there.

It's really close, though.

[hammering]

[Jordan] I think this one's sitting pretty good where I like it.

It doesn't feel like there's a gap or anything.

I think we'll move on to the next panel.

We'll start with the regular tipping wheel

and define the line that I want it to tip at.

Since it's on a curve like this,

I gotta stretch this edge, this flange,

to get it to lay down like I've done on the other side here.

This one, we gotta stretch it.

So there's my scribe line.

Yesterday I came in here with a razor blade

and just kind of scored the inside edge of all these.

So that's what I have to aim for.

We'll hit it again.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jordan] A little better.

Now I'm gonna kinda persuade it to tip up a little bit

by putting pressure on this as it goes through.

Okay, now we can go and stretch this edge

and help persuade the tip down.

- This machine just smashes metal. - [hammering]

If you have the right dies in it,

it's usually gonna stretch.

But if you have, like, the thumbnail dies in it,

you can work it like the pull max that fits thumbnail dies

and shrink the metal.

But, it's a really noisy machine.

I don't prefer it for most things.

That's probably good enough.

Aluminum is about as forgivable as steel.

Wonk-wonk.

Finish tipping that over.

I'm gonna try it on the wheel over here.

Like, if I stretch it too far,

it's no problem to go back and shrink it a little bit here and there.

It's not as unforgiving as you'd think.

If it was a different alloy, it might be more finicky.

But 3003, it's pretty malleable.

- You can hammer it around and it'll forgive you. - [hammering]

It's sure nice having a mockup body

to be able to just Cleco this stuff to

and know exactly where you're at.

We got a high spot there.

I think I might try stretching this a little bit

to get it to lay down right there.

It just doesn't flow quite right.

After that, it should be pretty good.

Gonna do it on the power hammer again real quick.

[hammering]

Well, I'm gonna doink that in and it might be just right.

[hammering]

Yeah, you can feel it teetering right there.

Think I'll just shrink it a little bit right there.

And then it should maybe be kind of close-ish.

[hammering]

[dramatic music playing]

[hammering]

[grinding]

And then it should be good enough to move on to the next panel.

Or go to lunch, whichever comes first.

That's good enough.

I'd say it's time for lunch or something.

2 [Dave] We have obviously

the biggest project that Kindig-it Design's ever had,

this Ridler project.

But we've also got a whole shop full of cars

that we still have commitments to to get 'em done.

[legendary music playing]

[Dave] There's Jen and Sue.

- Hello. - Hi!

- Hey! - How are ya?

Good, good.

- [Dave] Great to see you guys. - Hey, guys.

Oh, so good.

Today we're in Michigan.

We're at our very favorite place to make paint,

that is AkzoNobel which was Sikkens.

And, of course, my modern classic line.

We're here to develop a color for a very special project.

So, you know, I figured since we were here, I wanted to get with you guys.

Um, we have a really special opportunity right now

to build something to go and compete at Detroit.

Now I have already kind of had an idea of doing some silvers on red interior,

- but, to be honest with you... - Not my favorite.

Well, and it may not be my favorite, either.

I wanted to get with, uh, Rick and maybe the guys

and just see if we can develop...

I wanna do a special red.

Well, all of the places that you could go,

this is the place to be.

- Nice. - So, everything that you guys have in Utah,

we have here on a much broader, grander scale.

So, you guys can start... You can go in the lab, the color development.

- You can cocktail your own little color formula. - [Kevin] I can probably

come up with my own colors that might even be better

than the ones you came up with.

I doubt it, but whatever.

- [laughs] - You can make some blues, you can make some reds.

I think that we're definitely in the right place.

I know that you got some wonderful people here

that will help us kind of get my vision on a panel,

so we can kind of figure that out.

And then, we'll kind of develop

the rest of the colors and stuff.

But I think this would be really...

- [Sue] It's exciting. - Yeah.

Is this what we're gonna pick from here?

- No. We're gonna go see Rick and Bob. - Okay.

Down in the mix room.

- Awesome. - Let's do it.

Let's go get creative.

You know, I have a really good idea

of where I wanna go with this color.

I know kind of the direction, I want it to flop from golds and reds and so forth.

I've got it down on paper,

but now I gotta make it actually in liquid

and make it look good on a panel.

- Hey. - Hey, guys.

Look at this. This is even cleaner than our shop.

- How are ya? - Good, good, good.

- How's it going? - Very nice to see you.

- Good to mee you. - How are you? Nice seeing you again.

So, I have some ideas.

We have this huge build that we're putting together for, uh, the Detroit Autorama.

- [Bob] Mmm-hmm. - So, we're gonna try and build something kind of cool

to go and compete.

And I've had these really kind of awesome visions, I think,

and we've all kind of agreed on the silver

with the red interior. But the more I kind of think about it,

I just wanna kinda open up some options.

I'm kind of thinking of actually changing gears.

I'm thinking maybe in the red.

Something that'll pop off of the black carpet display that we're putting together.

So, I'd like to just kind of play around. I wanna look at some different flops.

I have kind of an idea of where I wanna go with it.

But, obviously, you guys are the pros.

You're the paint guys.

[Bob] Something other than silver?

[Kevin] Yeah, silver is not my favorite.

I mean, I think it'll do, but I think there is something out there

- that is greater than that. - That'll pop, yeah.

- Yeah. - Something that'll pop.

[Bob] I think we can figure something out.

- Let's do it. - Far out! Let's play.

- [Rick] While you're here... - Yes!

...we have some things for you.

- If you're in the booth... - [laughing]

- ...this is-- - Oh, they got our names on 'em.

Hey, Thank you.

- Do you want me to wear that one? - No, no, no!

You can wear the "Kevin" one.

[sweeping music]

[Kevin] Tell me... tell me how official I look.

- [Dave] This is awesome! - [Rick] Yeah.

You could be one of our lab techs.

- [Dave] You are official. - We need a clipboard.

- [Rick chuckles] - [Dave] Do you need a clipboard?

- I feel like-- - Taking notes?

Yeah.

[Dave] Anytime I'm mixing paint,

really, I've got kind of an idea of where I wanna go with it.

But of course, you always stumble into those

happy accidents, as we call 'em.

So, we're hoping for some really cool happy accidents.

And if nothing else, if all else fails,

we just go with what I have already in my mind.

Come on back, guys. I think we got some reds we can look at.

- We have some blues, we got some greens. - [Kevin] Hmm.

- We got all-- - Can we actually mix some stuff here?

- Absolutely. - Okay. Awesome.

- Awesome. - [Bob] All right. So, here's our toners.

And, yeah, what are you looking for?

I want to do a red, but I want some, maybe, gold undertones.

I want it to be a darker, almost burgundy, fine pearl,

but I want a gold undertone.

The more I look at that, I'm really envisioning doing the display in black.

And much like my renderings, a lot of times, I'll do a black background

to make the color pop off of the page.

So, that's kind of what I'm thinking is, I'm wondering,

is the silver gonna be enough with the red interior?

Is there enough red to bring that out?

Is the engine gonna be red? and at that point, I'm, like, going,

"I don't know if I really want the engine red."

So, now, I'm thinking red on the outside, make it more...

popping on the outside, and maybe doing some gold or whatever interior,

- on the gold side with, maybe, browns. - [Bob] All right.

So, I think, definitely something with an undertone of gold,

I think, is really where I'm kinda wanting to go.

The color is the first thing anybody sees.

- Exactly. - So, you know,

we'll try to make it pop as best we can.

- Cool. - I'm in.

- [Bob] Let's get that kind of gold undertone first. - [Dave] Okay.

And, then, we'll start maybe adding some burgundy or something to it,

till we get something how we like it.

I think this is very important because I'm not a fan of the silver.

So, I really need you to come through on some epic color.

So, Kevin can be my mixologist.

[instrumental hip-hop music]

You kind of...

You kind of have this, um...

Darth Vader thing kind of going.

I'm doing my job. You guys need to do yours now.

- [Dave] I'm sorry, I couldn't hear a word you said. - [all laughing]

- Thank God! - [Kevin] Yeah, you might like this too much.

[hip-hop music continues]

[Dave] So, we start with gold, then we add the red to it?

You think that's the best way?

[Bob] I think that's probably the best way.

- We'll keep track of it as we go along... - Yeah.

- ...what toners we're putting in... - Do you mind if I use this?

...and the weight. Yeah, absolutely.

And, so, that way, once we have the weight,

then we can figure out how much binder to add.

- And, now you have a complete color. - Okay.

So let's go, um...

- Let's go ahead-- - What color would you suggest?

Maybe find a medium gold?

Yeah, let's do one of these specialty toners.

Let's try this one.

Okay, which one's that?

That's 878NB.

- 878NB. - That's gonna give us that gold.

[instrumental hip-hop music]

[Kevin] That's cool.

[Dave] That's a really cool color. Okay.

- So, now, let's-- - Go into the reds.

Let's, uh... let's give it a little bit of...

Ooh, that's a little color-shifting pigment there.

This is red to gold.

- This is 877RA. - [Dave] Okay.

[Bob] We'll see what happens when we add a little of that.

- [Dave] You know what? Can I use this and make something? - [Bob] Yeah.

[Dave] Let's just see what this is. Is this gonna screw it up?

[Kevin] Look at that! Okay, that's super, super orange.

That's really orange. We need a lot more red.

2 [Kevin] Look at that! Okay, that's super, super orange.

That's really orange. We need a lot more red.

Today, we're in Michigan. We're at our very favorite place to make paint.

[Kevin] All right. So, you...

- Is that a translucent red that we were just using? - Yeah.

We're here to develop a color for a very special project.

- [Kevin] It's got a lot of violet to it. See that violet? - Yeah.

Which I don't hate.

- Let's go... - [Kevin] Need more red. You need to get more red.

- Let's get more red. - Let's get more red, yeah.

[upbeat instrumental music]

[Kevin] I think this stuff is super-potent.

- You think so? - [Kevin] Yeah.

- Correct. - [Kevin] Mix it up.

[Dave] Oh, yeah. Look at that. Oh!

- [Kevin] Look how it just took it from orange to red. - [Dave] Wow.

- Too much? - [Kevin] That one's on me.

That's pretty. I want more red in it, though.

- [Kevin] That was only a little. - A little bit more red.

Or am I thinking that it needs to be more red,

but maybe, when it sprays out, I see a lot of red to it?

- But it's still really quite orange. - [Kevin] Orange.

[Dave] Let's go a little bit more red.

This place has all of the toys and toners to make a bitchin' color.

Let's stop right there.

[upbeat instrumental music]

Stop.

Let's see what that is, 'cause that's quite a bit more than we had.

Oh! [laughs]

Look at that.

That's what I'm talking. Look at that. Look how pretty that is.

It'd be interesting to see what the flop is on that.

I'd like to see this before we go any more red, because I don't want it too...

blown out, just red-red.

I want those gold undertones,

and I can see just that little bit of...

you know, model right here. You see that?

See, that's kind of what I'm after, is...

I know, obviously, it's just a white,

but you see how dark that burgundy is,

and you get that real orange, kind of copper or gold look to it.

[Rick] Yeah.

[Dave] Can you imagine that with, like, a tan or a brown interior?

[Kevin] Mmm-hmm.

Almost like a cork.

I'm gonna say, let's start with this one and let's get some, uh...

let's get some binder to it. See if we can do a spray up.

Kevin's a better employee here than he is back in Salt Lake.

Honestly, he's following all the directions.

- Ah, doesn't know. - [Kevin] Doesn't know what?

We gotta write that down, too. Hang on.

It's weird. I've never seen anybody actually...

Well, I've never seen him actually do that. So...

Uh-uh-uh! Dude!

This is a really good training facility for him.

Maybe I'll leave them here.

[Kevin] Okay, so are we gonna try... What, we're gonna do one?

No, I just wanna see where... I know we are. Like...

Yeah, but you know what else we gotta do, is actually...

Let's spray this out.

I wanna see what this looks like.

And, then, maybe we can come up with another color for the engine drive train

the undercarriage stuff.

[Kevin] I mean, yeah. But we have all of this stuff.

- I know that. - It's fantastic.

There's a lot of cars out there, Kevin, you know.

- Baby steps, Darth Vader. - [laughing]

- [Kevin] I'm excited. - Darth Kev-Dog.

You know, there's always a little bit of stress

trying to create something new, and make sure that it

not only makes sense to you in your mind and what you've thought about,

certainly for me,

but also to make sure that other people around see that same vision

and get the idea and the combinations and so forth.

This was what I was originally thinking with a... kind of a reddish interior,

which I think would still be, you know, nice.

It reminds me... You know what it reminds me of,

is Johnny Martin's car,

which I really loved, but it's already been kind of done,

- silver on red. Right? - Okay.

- And, then, I think this was one of the first ones. - [Dave] Mmm-hmm.

[Kevin] So, that's the red, and that's...

Is that what you were looking for? It's almost like a...

It's almost like a transparent red, in layman's terms,

over the silver.

[Dave] And, really, right now, the pressure is on me to create the color

for this biggest project we've ever built.

See how much...

[intense instrumental music]

I just... I'm telling you right now, that gold undertone is just...

gorgeous.

Yeah.

- You like that? - [Kevin] Yeah.

- I like it. - [Rick] Me, too.

[Dave] See how it goes on almost like a violet side

but, then, it comes back up here on the roll of the body line,

- and it's gonna show depth of the body as it rolls. - Yeah.

- And, then, the highlights will just be amplified. - Yup.

So... And this is the sage list with black.

- So, that's a dark and sage list that we-- - Yeah! See, look at that.

[Kevin] You know what we might even wanna try out?

We could try out with this, maybe doing some different sheens with this.

- I like the color. - Mmm-hmm, I like the color, too.

But I think I almost envisioned that being a matte finish

to offset against the red

It's already a contrasting color,

but to think about the contrasting sheens also,

- that would be cool. - Well, yeah. And I think that, definitely,

this would be a great accent color with the browns.

You know, looking at all of these killer swatches under the sunlight,

this really has given me a new breath of fresh air.

I'm really in love with this. I think this is definitely...

I think this is definitely something to continue to explore.

I wanna probably draw it up and see for sure

- if this is the color. - All right, so is it swaying you?

Oh, I'm very much swayed.

- I like that. - 'Cause, like I said, I like this color.

But I just think it's been, you know, a red on the interior

with this color.

It's a great combination, but I think that this

would stand off of the black background more.

- More a red Corvette is kind of telltale, you know? - [Rick] Mmm-hmm.

Definitely, a tan interior, I think, is gonna go really good with this.

And I'd love to see what this looks like in a matte finish next to that.

But I'm already convinced that that's just great color.

I know, right? I agree. And I am super pumped, again, 'cause, like I told you,

this is a great color.

But, to me, this is like vanilla.

This is the norm. This is the same, right?

- This is exciting, I think. - [Dave] Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Well, let's get back and you can do...

- I'll do some doodles. - I wanna do some doodles.

- I'll do some doodles. - You should do... Okay, doctor.

- Doctor. [laughs] - Yeah, I'd like to see that. [laughs]

- Okay. Thanks, Rick. - Thanks so much for the help, Bob.

Thank you very much. You guys did awesome.

- Can I take those with me? - Sure can.

You don't need those? No?

- [Kevin] Cool. - [Dave] All right, let's pack those.

Think we got it. I cannot wait to get back and start painting this car.

[sweeping instrumental music]

2 - [playful instrumental music] - [hammering]

[Jordan] Playing with the hood, trying to tip these flanges,

I got the shape of the hood all dialed in from the old fiberglass hood.

This is probably one of the last pieces on the front end.

You know, just making a nice, sharp edge out of it.

Then, we'll go shrink and stretch the corners

to get it exactly the profile that I'm after.

Gonna go around, get this edge nice and 90 degrees,

nice and sharp.

I made a couple of templates

to help me out with the profile.

So, I made this to the actual hood, so I can just set it on here.

'Cause it's hard, when this is sitting on the hood,

to tell what gap is in there, you know?

So, I can see there's a gap there.

I just need to shrink this edge to get it to come up and meet that.

Makes it an empty little tool to get the profile right there.

Made it for the front and the rear.

Progress, yup.

One smack at a time.

[intriguing instrumental music]

[hammering]

[music ends]

2 [dramatic instrumental music]

[slow instrumental music]

[Dave] You know, honestly, to get all of this stuff done

in a reasonable amount of time,

I think we're gonna have to kind of divide and conquer.

I think I have these top roof panels fitting really well.

Got the edges all tipped in where I like 'em.

It's touching. I went along and did reference marks of how it fit together,

and how to line it up.

So, I think I just need to weld it together.

No more excuses not to.

I don't know if I'm nervous, just...

or overly cautious. I don't know.

It seems like a big, irreversible step.

You wanna clean the aluminum with a clean stainless brush,

just get all the oxidation off of it,

so you have a nicer weld.

[intriguing instrumental music]

[Dave] I wanted to come up with something that was different

from what we normally build

and paid homage to other supercars, or American sports cars.

And I thought of the Viper. I thought that was a perfect thing

on the GTS roof, where it had just that little bit of lump

over the driver and passenger.

[Jordan] Aluminum, you wanna weld it on AC for this stuff.

It's fairly thin. You wanna be careful not to put too much heat into it,

or blow through it or anything like that.

Like, just how slippery... Like, the roof line on that car,

and just how it cascades down to the bottom.

[Jordan] Welding it. Close the gap.

But I'm gonna open it back up a touch.

So, you smack that tap weld, and open that gap back up to where you want it.

So, let's test it really quick.

[intriguing instrumental music]

It's already pretty strong.

Fitting pretty decent.

And see how you can kind of doink it down.

We'll finalize that when it's all welded up.

But...

First two pieces tacked together!

[Dave] There's so many things going on with that shape.

[Kevin] You have the windows that have to meet up at a certain point.

You have the top of the windshield

that has to meet the roof at a certain point.

And, then, you throw the bubble on top of it,

which I call, you know, the double bubble.

And, then, you're running it through the windshield.

And, then, you wanted the back windows a certain way.

I mean, there was just endless amounts of thinking about it.

"What are we gonna do, and how are we gonna finish this off,

and how is it all gonna tie together?"

[Jordan] I mean, we want some more panels.

The rear upper trunks, deck lid.

Okay, now it's just fit.

Looking to see that it doesn't just fall right off.

And it actually follows the lines pretty close, so that's a little reassuring.

[instrumental music]

And this guy, I got these two pieces welded together.

All the welds smoothed out.

This car isn't perfectly symmetric.

Back buck is.

So, there's gonna be a little bit of

massaging to get it to fit that perfectly.

That looks pretty good there,

but just a little bit of a battle getting everything to tie together right.

A little thing I'm slightly nervous of is,

if I weld it together, will I be able to get this whole section off

to be able to finish welding it off the bench and planch it all out.

[intriguing instrumental music]

[Will] We're wanting this car to be a unibody.

We don't want a chassis under the car.

The best way to go to that extreme

is basically have the chassis structure inside the body.

We're building a bobsled.

[Eric] We don't really know what we're looking at yet.

We got some rudimentary maps here.

What we've got laid out right here on the ground is more or less the puzzle.

We're just gonna start standing things up,

and making our best shot of it, and we'll go from there.

Little more.

Should check side to side and see how close we are.

I got 90.5.

It's a modern chassis. It's all kinda gonna play off of each other.

90 and 7/8ths.

90 and 5/8ths

90 and 11/16ths.

It was built in the computer so, technically, it should go together.

But in real life, it's a little different. So, we're gonna...

use our eyeballs and maybe a laser,

and some measuring tapes, and some shims,

and see what we can come up with.

- I think we're good. - Do we wanna start tacking stuff at all? Or...

- Or I think we should tack this square. - [Eric] Yes.

And, then, we could take the clamps off and use them for the rest.

- Okay. Ready? - [Eric] Yup.

[intriguing instrumental music]

[Will] But the main chassis structure is all 3/8ths aluminum.

Stout, but not too rigid.

And what's the reason that you use 5052?

It's just tougher.

- [Kevin] That's tougher? - Yeah.

[intriguing instrumental music]

It's just that what we needed to do was, like, absorb the impact.

Oh, like a more structural...

So, something that's not gonna work hard in over time, and break.

That's cool.

[Eric] What was this thing?

They haven't showed you what it goes to?

I thought it was gonna be a stegosaurus when we were done, but...

You know what it is, dude.

That's the firewall support.

Look, there's the back seat.

I look at it as, like, a parade float.

You have this structure that drives the car

and, then, you just build this beautiful thing around it.

There's a lot of room in this car.

Crazy, dude.

How much does this weigh, do you guys know? Have you been able to move it around?

300 pounds, done, when you pull things together.

Get all your hammer strikes out when Will's not here.

[intriguing instrumental music]

I think this one's supposed to stay the same distance here.

That looks more like the picture, but I don't like it.

It's weird 'cause, for how close everything else has been,

for this to be this far off.

- [Daniel] Doesn't make sense. - [Eric] No.

But it works on the computer.

2 [welding machine buzzes]

So, this thing is really important to make sure that everything's

exactly the way that it was designed,

because so many different things that come after this rely on it.

So, we're taking our time to make sure that everything's 90, or square,

or 100% whatever Will designed.

[winces]

- [Daniel] Oh, I saw the flame in that one. - [laughing]

Smell that?

[intriguing instrumental music]

Now that we've got the whole structure tacked together,

we can start doing all the final welding.

Stitching it. So, it's all MIG weld, so it gets pretty hot.

And, then, how thick this is, it's gotta be turned up quite high.

I wanna weld everything all the way around

so we can get welds behind 'em and in front of 'em.

I'm just going back and forth and trying to keep everything symmetrical

so that heat can distribute evenly throughout the part.

[Kevin] If you don't build cars, you don't know.

But, you know, you spend all day trying to make these things perfect,

- and they move. - Yeah.

- They move around. - Oh, they do, all the time.

- Cars move around. They change. They shift. - [Dave] The temperature.

- They bend. The temperature changes 'em. - [Dave] Mmm-hmm.

You think that this is a piece of metal,

and it stays the exact same shape the whole time.

- Well, it does not. - [Dave] Absolutely. Yeah.

- This is kind of cool. - [Will] It's really cool, isn't it?

- Uh-huh. - It's like...

we're gonna go to Mars.

Looks like you've been to Mars.

[Will] As soon as we're done with the car,

we're gonna take it to Mars.

[Dave] What are we looking at here, Will?

[Will] This is kind of our version of a mono chassis, I guess you'd say,

almost from early, like, Can-Am, IndyCars.

So this, basically, is the main structure for the car.

So we've got the skin...

[Will] The exterior skin and the floor structure,

basically, kind of unibody.

But exterior shell like the egg.

- Then, this hides inside all that shell. - [Dave] Mmm-hmm.

And picks up the engine and the transmission all tied to this.

So, when you're done, we'll have a rolling unit that can be rolled underneath,

- and creates the structure with this... - Yes.

...in the floor with the shell of the body on top.

- Yes. Pretty wild. - [Dave] Yeah, this is awesome.

[Will] We're gonna brush it up and clean it up and make it look all pretty.

And, then, it's gonna get buried.

Right.

- [Will] You know? - Let's get to burying it.

- That's gonna be cool, though. - [Will] I know. It's wild, huh?

[Dave] That's some next-level stuff.

Do we say "next-level"?

Are we gonna change the name of our TV show now to the Next Level?

- No, we're not gonna do that. - Okay.

- Come on, let's go. - Okay.

Masterpiece!

[Dave] Now, I'm getting chills.

Now, I can start to really see the car come to life.

[Jordan] We're welding the chassis to the floor.

This is the point of no return.

There you go.

Yeah, this looks pretty good side to side now.

[man] The rest of the aesthetic stuff,

that's really where you kind of make compromises.

Don't let Dave hear me say that. [laughing]

Once we scan this, then it'll all be in the computer,

and we can reference it whenever we need.

Yo, Mad Max! Steve! Come give us a hand, will ya?

[Jordan] Pop it on for the last time and weld it up.

- On for good? - Hopefully.

One, two, three, go!

[intriguing instrumental music]

[Dave] Yeah, I'm gonna start to lift the rear end a little.

[Jordan] Right there is about as far as we can go.

[Dave] Can we go up? Can we go a little more forward, Will?

- [Will] No. - [Jordan] This is gonna be a really hard thing to...

[Dave] She smokes.

[Jordan] We're stuck on the fixture.

Right there is about as far as we can go.

- [Will] Are we hitting stuff up there? - [Dave] Yeah.

Wow!

That is incredible.