Original subtitles

Right now on full custom garage.

Master metal man Ian Roussel continues

the transformation of a 1955

Oldsmobile.

I got to finish this thing. It's looking

good, but we're not out of the woods

yet. And Ian's client has his doubts.

I'm really anxious. He's got some good

ideas, but I know that you just keep

throwing dollars at these things.

Bill's looking at buying a replacement,

but I ain't going to let that happen. I

got plans. And later, the workload

doesn't get any easier as Ian takes on a

Henry J chop top.

>> this chop was going to be a walk in the

park.

I told the client it was going to be

like the VW bug I made for him, and that

was easy.

Oops.

I don't know what I signed up for with

this project. [music]

I thought I was just pulling it out of

the ditch to ship it down the road. I'm

in deep.

I ended up [music] chopping the roof 3

in and I sunk the windshield into the

cowl, so I needed to make a tray to

support it.

I tilted the rear glass forward [music]

and sunk the edges into the body.

I needed to make that happen, [music]

but then I decided it'd be even better

if I made it a two-door.

Finished up the body work, got it ready

for paint, and he decided [music]

something mellow, yellow and white

two-tone paint job.

And that's when Bill decided he wants to

keep it. The car is turning out. I'm

starting to fall [music] in love with

this stupid car. The idea was to move

it. Well, I'm I don't like to move it

now. I got to finish this thing. It's

looking good, and we're almost there.

This [music] is my custom bedsheet

window gasket insulation

vibration dampener [music] trick.

It's very specialized.

This whole window is going to be

suspended in a big

rubber [music] goo, big silicone blob.

The original window rubber won't fit, so

I'm [music] pretty much just hanging it

on tape right now, but I'm going to set

shims, little rubber shims in it so that

the glass [music] is positioned. Then

I'm going to glue all the way around

both sides of it. That way the glass is

never actually [music] touching the

metal, it's just suspended in a big

silicone frame. The last bit of fitment

is the stainless steel that goes around

the glass. This car's roof line is

modified drastically [music] through the

glass area. I'm having to make special

clips to hold it in place, trim the

molding down, and refit it. It's a It's

a different shape than it was from the

factory, [music]

so it's taking some time.

Somebody who knows what a chopped car

should look like is going to pay

attention to all these window moldings.

Having them [music] fit right, that's

what's a big deal. It's what's going to

sell the car.

Using the original glass, the original

window trim, and making it look like

it's a factory thing, it just enhances

[music] my work. Makes it look stock.

That's the tricky thing.

Once I got the glass [music] in, put on

the white walls we got from Coker, and

it really set it off.

>> [music]

>> This car just needs something to put it

over the top. I called my friend Scratch

in. He's [music] the best pinstriper I

know. I think he's just going to finish

this car to perfection. You know what?

When I first saw the Oldsmobile, I'm

walking up the up the hill to the to the

shop, and the Oldsmobile sitting [music]

there in the middle of the shop space,

and it just kind of brings me back. It's

very nostalgic for me. I like that they

hadn't [music] changed the grill or

anything just yet.

And then they chopped the roof, so it

already had It has that [music] look of

it's kind of fast, but it's elegant.

Don't mess with me.

Scratch really likes Oldsmobiles and

traditional customs. I knew he'd be

perfect to pinstripe this thing, but

Bill was a little skeptical.

What's your thoughts? I'm thinking kind

of conservative, probably by your

standards.

Uh

Well, I'm super conservative. I know

that I know that's hard to believe.

>> It is. It's It's It's

It's It's actually It's really hard to

believe, but it's this guy over here.

He's the wild [laughter] man.

Ian introduced me to Bill, and uh we're

going to do it just a mild striping

[music] job on it today, and he's going

to let me loose on it.

So,

I'm going to tell him kind of what I

want to do, and see what his idea is,

but [music] hopefully he'll just give me

the okay to do whatever I want, cuz it

always turns out way better if I can

just [music] do what I want. Let the

artist be the artist. Let the customer

like it.

I figure we just do a piece [music]

here, a really nice piece,

and then just a couple of small pieces

on top of the headlights, the

taillights, [music]

and then in the trunk. Scratch just

explained what he had in mind, and Bill

is totally on board.

I tried pinstriping a couple times, and

I know it's not for me.

It takes a real steady hand. You got to

be thinking 10 steps ahead [music] of

what you're doing, and I think it's best

to just leave it to the pros. It's one

of my favorite cars, [music]

and uh

I always enjoy striping an Oldsmobile,

or helping somebody with their

Oldsmobile.

Pinstriping is like the final touches,

you know? You gal might put on jewelry

or a fancy necklace, the pinstriping is

just the last bit. Now, a lot of people

don't know this, but pinstriping

actually

was an [music] art form that was that

was made up to cover up bad body work.

So, striping's always in the same

[music] places. In the front of the

hood, in the middle of the deck lid,

that's where the emblems [music] and

stuff had been shaved off. And then over

the headlights and over the taillights,

cuz that's where they would french

[music] the headlights or french the

taillights.

But later on, custom body work was

taking so long, people would have their

cars [music] at their shops for so long,

that they're like, let's just get a

stock car, lower it, and do a panel

paint job on it. Like

has a stock original paint around it,

we'll just tape it all off and spray

another color, or we'll tape it all off

[music] and just do striping around it.

And that's basically what we're doing.

What I want to do is I always start off

[music] with a teardrop in the middle,

but I want to incorporate a rocket or a

rocket theme, or

simulate a rocket, cuz [music] it is a

rocket car, an Oldsmobile rocket. So,

when you're when we're done, you're

going to stand back and go, oh look,

there's kind of a little bit of rocket

there, there [music] here's the fins. I

always start in the middle and then

build my way out. That's been my rule of

thumb since I first learned to stripe.

[music] It's always I always start in

the middle and build my way out. And

I'll take a step [music] back and look

at the car the to see if it if that's

enough striping, or if it's too much,

[music] or it needs more, another color,

or and then sometimes a customer will

chime in. I really like the pinstriping.

[music]

It's subtle,

but it came out great.

I'm pretty proud of this job. When I got

done with the striping [music] today, I

really like it. You just step back and

look at it, and everything

has a really [music] nice feel to it,

and it accents the proper pieces. You

know, I had it wrap around the the

bezels, the taillight and headlight

bezels, and then in the front [music]

piece in the

is is really nice and elegant, and the

back piece is not too much. It's just

subtle. It's just a a small piece in the

middle. And I

I think it looks good. Scratch's work

was perfect. It was a no-brainer. Bill

was stoked, but we're not out of the

woods yet.

The paint on this car [music] looks

great. All the little details are

attended to, but it don't go nowhere.

The engine has yet to run. Bill's saying

it'll go. We just got to see it. All

right, just give it a kick, and I'll do

the throttle.

The engine runs. It's got oil pressure.

There's no weird clunking noises.

[music] That's a good sign.

But it's just not acting right. There's

something going on with the fuel

delivery. Ready? Yeah.

She's coming apart, sir.

I think it's a vacuum leak. Bill is

talking about carburetor change or

something, but it's definitely [music]

not right.

I think

Old cars.

I think I got to take this down [music]

to my shop. Working out here at Bill's

barn can only go so far. I got to take

this thing back to the lab, put the

secret sauce in it, make it go. The car

is coming together with every little

detail.

>> I'm really anxious. He's got some good

ideas, but I know that you just keep

throwing dollars at these things, and

I've done enough, and it's a money pit.

All right, so mechanical stuff. Here we

go. I got the radiator out. Bill's going

to get that thing boiled. There was a

bunch of mud in there.

Once I got this thing back to my shop,

as usual, my intuition was 100% correct.

Vacuum leak, [music] big time. Somebody

messed around with this carburetor. The

It's a mismatch base plate.

>> [music]

>> So, I'm going to have to build some kind

of an adapter. This is completely wrong.

This was for [music] a different

carburetor or something, because there's

no point in which [music] this surface

meets this surface all the way around.

These little dips around the screws,

that's your vacuum seal right there, and

nowhere on this adapter do those two

line up. So, you're relying on a paper

gasket.

That's why there's a vacuum leak. I

wasn't able to find a spacer [music]

that was 3/4 in thick.

Um

at least not in the price range I wanted

to spend.

So, I went up to Bill's. He wasn't

around. I snuck into his backyard and

found this piece of 3/8 plate. So, 3/8 *

2 is 3/4. That's 6/8.

>> [music]

>> Making a spacer for this car out of some

aluminum plate. I've done it before and

it's always worked. Why not this time?

So, I'll just make two

spacers and we'll use [music] three

gaskets.

One on the manifold, one between the

spacers, and one on the carb.

This idea of making a carburetor adapter

is a simple

cut it out, finish it, and assemble it.

It's not rocket science. [music] I can

pull this off.

Four

hole saw holes.

And that's what you get.

The whole deal [music] with what I do is

one of a kind. Nobody else has got this.

Even though it's a simple carburetor

spacer, that's the cool factor.

So, another issue that came up

you don't really consider it when you're

just

dealing with cars, but this is a

four-door.

So, we get the whole thing together, get

ready to get in the backseat. [music]

It's a fixed backseat. Every four every

two-door either has a split bench or a

full folding bench. [music]

So, this isn't going to be okay cuz

otherwise the two-seater you can't get

in the back.

You always run into walls on a project

like this.

Two-door to four-door conversion is

pretty straightforward. The last thing

you're thinking about is whether the

seat's going to fold forward.

Bill's looking at buying a replacement,

but I ain't going to let that happen.

[music] I got plans. I'm going to pull

this seat out and see if we can't make

this one pivot.

So, hopefully I can make this bench just

fold forward.

These seats look horrible, but I'm not

worried about that. My friend Jack's a

great upholsterer. He'll handle it. I

just got to make them hinge. You [music]

can see how it's bolted together here.

I'm hoping I can detach the back from it

and put a pivot in there. I got a couple

gate hinges.

I can make this thing happen. [music]

Two gate hinges and a dream.

So, the whole seatback thing

might solve with a pair of these

commercial door hinges I found at the

local supply.

Pretty much where the old bolts came

through, just slip that in.

And I'll weld all the way around, so

it'll be as strong as the old [music]

seat frame.

Now, it's a folding seat.

Easy.

Yeah, you won't need to fold it more

than that [music] to get into the back.

So, you can see here how this C-shape

indexes, so that'll make it very strong.

See, it closes right back

on its original holder.

And thinking if we take the old

retaining nut

put it in here, it'll thread [music] in

and out and it'll adjust the pitch of

the seatback.

All right.

A lot of parts in a car. [music] Even

though we had a big pile to start with,

we're still missing door panels,

fasteners, all kinds of trim stuff.

I made a bunch of interior panels out of

Masonite. I'm going to follow that

through with the kick panels. Bring them

to the upholsterer. The interior panels,

this used to be the inside of [music]

the door, but now nothing that used to

fit the door will fit here. I'm going to

take some 1/4 in Masonite and just make

up a blank shape that'll represent

[music] a door panel or an interior

panel at this point.

>> [music]

>> That looks pretty darn dang hot doggity

good.

Right at the edge, this is as much as we

can get out of it.

So, I'm not sure exactly how the top

fits, but I'll just get this trimmed up

flush.

This metal trim used to be the inside of

the rear door.

So, I'm hoping that I can use this cuz

it looks cool. [music] It'll be

paintable.

Hoping that I can just trim this back

and use it to retain the door panel.

And it's kind of close to what we need.

Angry little machine.

>> [music]

>> Bill stopped by. I showed him the whole

deal with the carburetor. He's stoked.

There was a vacuum leak. There was a

vacuum leak. I figured it out. So, you

put two together

and and I got the gasket.

And voila. One of the nicest things

about Ian, he always goes to my scrap

pile to look for stuff [music]

and that's pretty cool. But I notched

them in there.

What's That's way cool.

>> Yeah, made it super simple. The back

detaches. [music]

>> So, it's just going to all fold forward.

>> Just like every other car in the world.

We're saving money because we didn't

have to buy a seat. [music] So, I'm all

in.

I showed him what I'm doing with the

interior.

It's all in-house. All I'm going to do

is ship this car to the upholsterer and

it's a done deal. So, that's what's

happening.

Very good progress.

Once Bill left, I just needed to install

the carb and see if I could get it

running.

All right. So,

put those there, put those there. So,

instead of one gasket, [music]

we're using three.

Starting to get nervous.

Drop a little piece [music] of shoe

leather on top.

Number three.

It's like a stack of pancakes. It's

awesome.

Oh.

Voila. All I got to do right now is put

in the radiator,

fill it with fuel and with water.

Yeah, it's pretty much [music] ready to

start as soon as it's got fluids in it.

That's a little bit better.

Let's feed the pig.

Sometimes the old guys know what they're

talking about. Bill had a hunch that

this was a good running engine. Sure

enough, man, it sounds tight.

Really good. The whole problem was that

vacuum leak. You can hear how it's like

hands-off and it idles. Totally good.

Started right up. Just had to bleed the

brakes and it's time to run it.

Car drives good. I'm stoked. The

steering's tight. Brakes work great.

I like it just like it is. Bill was

right, [music] this thing runs great. Uh

cruises nice. Everything seems like it's

legit. I just got to get the seats off

to upholstery and this thing's wrapped.

Just came down here to the valley, my

old stomping grounds, came to see Jack

the upholsterer.

He's done a bunch of work for me

in the past and

these Oldsmobile seats should be a

no-brainer. I've been [music] friends

with Jack for over a decade. I found out

about him word of mouth. He's the old

school dude. He's been there. He's done

it. He's worked for Barris, a lot of the

SoCal custom shops that were around in

the '50s and '60s.

It's really a no-brainer. All the

upholstery goes to Jack because he's the

man. [music] I worked for Barris for 5

years

in North Hollywood over here and we were

always [music] doing something creative,

you know.

So, he comes up with some

wild stuff. He's a lot like Ian, you

know.

So, I was thinking like

just gray, maybe some stitched things,

make it look kind of like that.

>> Like these? Yeah. All the way across?

>> it's a it's like a 1955 styled car.

Sure.

>> Nothing fancy. It's chop top, [music]

but nothing too crazy. So, I just want

to keep it mellow. I'll tell you what,

you spent a lot more time around cars of

this era than me. So, I think I'm going

to leave it up to you.

Well, that's cuz I'm old.

>> Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

>> guy. You you were there.

>> [laughter]

>> I totally trust Jack on his design. He's

been around since this car was built. I

mean,

he knows what's up. Back then, the cars

had character. You know, you could

see a car go, you'd know what it was

immediately.

Today, they look like jelly beans.

They're all round

and uh they're just different colors.

[music] They don't have the personality

like

the cars in the '50s and '60s had, they?

Not even close.

All right. Well, I'm going to leave it

up to you. Give me a call whenever

you're ready and I'll have the boss

[music] sign you a check. All right.

How's that sound? Just tell me what you

want.

I'm on the last leg of finish work with

Bill's Oldsmobile.

After seeing this car come complete,

chop top, the whole deal, it got me

spiced up to start another one. The big

fabrication tricks, they're the starting

block of any custom project. The

Oldsmobile's really tedious at this

point. My favorite part's the beginning,

so I'm starting on another one. I built

a VW Bug for some clients up in Canada.

They brought me down [music] a Henry J.

Pretty cool car. They want me to chop

the top and do a bunch other work to it.

Everybody calls this car a Henry J. The

VIN tag says Kaiser Frazer Corp.

Apparently, that's the manufacturer.

I've also heard people refer to this car

as a Sears Allstate because it doesn't

have a trunk. I guess these were sold

through the Sears catalog as an

Allstate. So,

I don't know what it is. I'm just going

to chop the top.

Mark gave me a wish list on what he

wanted to do to the car and he's not in

a rush. So, that gave me some time to

[music] really figure out how I wanted

to chop it and go forward with the

build.

The thing that thrilled me about the car

was it looks like a cartoon. [music] I

mean, it's got all these wild lines on

it already, so there's really not much

left to [music] customize. First step is

to just take everything I'm not going to

be working on off.

This car is just [music] pinned

together. It's got a full custom chassis

under it already, so I'm taking off the

hood, the fenders, just get everything

out of the way cuz all I'm concerned

with is the [music] roof pillars.

I love the way this car disassembles.

Everything unbolts. It really just

unbolts to this bare body shell. Makes

it way easier to work on.

The whole concept here is just try to

simplify it. The less cutting, the more

better.

My client, Mark, he's a helicopter

mechanic. He's like high-end, in-demand

[music]

guy. They've got him on duty in

Afghanistan. Hey man, how's it going?

Long time no see.

Hey Ian. It's been a while there, Ian.

Uh over here in the sandbox again

playing.

That's a crazy lifestyle, man. He's like

locked up in a bunker somewhere

repairing helicopters. He's dreaming

about this car and [music] I think he's

getting cabin fever.

Getting ready to start on your car

finally. It's been sitting on hold here

for a while, but the chop-top, I'm ready

to roll on it, you know. You got free

reign on this car, buddy. It's all

yours. Whatever you decide to do. I want

you to go radical on it, just like the

bug cuz the vibe on the bug is awesome.

I want the same vibe on the Henry J.

It's a true Ian Roussel original, just

like the bug. Mark is looking for

something really radical and I don't

think [music] it's a bad idea, you know,

on the whole. So, we're just going to

have to see what develops. I'm feeling

it out.

All right. Nothing new about this whole

structural deal. It's just a typical

scenario. You got to brace up all the

door openings, put a couple cross

braces.

I threw some straight legs down to the

chassis. So, everything's braced up.

This is a bare shell. Super light.

There's no engine. Nothing mechanical's

hooked up, so it's really just about

getting this steel shell

squared up and embraced strong enough to

cut the roof off.

The whole idea of this chop for me is

simplicity. Trying to work through it

relatively quickly.

I don't want to cut the roof [music]

open.

Bottom line.

So, you can see this window [music]

right now. I mean, with the rubber and

everything else, it's probably a 16-in

window.

So, if you were to [music] take a third

out of 16 in, I mean, 5 * 3 is 15. So, a

third out of it would be a little over 5

in.

>> [music]

>> So,

you can see a 4-in chop.

You know, there's 2/3, [music] 1/3 ratio

thing going on.

3 in is still pretty mellow. Either way,

I'm making a bunch of marks on this

thing.

Every inch. I'm going to cut it 2 in and

then I got these marks. I may even go to

4.

I might even go to 5 in. So,

the whole roof is going to follow the

A-pillar down.

It's going to follow the angle of the

A-pillar down. [music] So, that's going

to make this B-pillar slant forward. You

see them do it on Mercs, shoe boxes. I

did it on a Volkswagen.

Since this angle isn't really

predictable

because of what I'm going to do with the

rear, I'm just going to cut [music] this

out.

I'm just going to cut this right through

in these corners because this guy is

going [music] to lean and we're going to

have to put in some little pie cuts in

here. My whole game plan with this chop

is retaining my favorite part of [music]

the car and that's from the B-pillar

back. The whole rear window section, I'm

trying not to modify it.

This is the cool part. I've seen some

other fastbacks done like [music] this

and I think it really

just makes the car way more radical

looking.

In the C-pillar,

I'm just going to cut this out of the

way completely.

Cuz what's going to happen is this is

where the fender mounts up to this

[music] edge right here.

So, I'm going to cut it just above where

the fender mounts.

My concept from the start is to cut the

A-pillars and slide the whole roof

forward [music] and lower. By doing

this, I won't have to widen the rear of

the car.

I'm actually going to cut the whole back

of the car off

because this shape is so cool, I don't

want to mess with it. I want to retain

this and then I'll create these little

edges that flow into the rear fenders.

Yeah, so the whole rear of the car is

disconnected.

I'm going to chop the windshield [music]

posts and then pull out the B-pillars.

All right. Just putting in a couple

temporary braces that way I can cut this

B-pillar, snap this off, and the roof

should drop down.

That's it.

It's all cut apart.

I almost feel like the rear's got to

come down a bit.

It's too much to go from 3 in

>> [music]

>> in the windshield pillars to zero on the

back.

It looks a little too humpback to me.

I don't like it.

Turns out I'm going to have to cut the

rear of the roof. There's just no way to

make it look convincing without taking

the proper steps.

I kind of want to talk to [music] Mark

about it. I give him periodic updates

almost daily when I'm working hard and I

really just need him to know what's

going on. Well, I emailed you those

pictures. You saw them all of it all

mocked up, right? I did. It's looking

good, man. Trying to talk back [music]

and forth with Mark, get a little

direction, maybe, but he's just up in

the air. He wants to see me do my thing,

so

no matter what I [music] discuss with

him, it's always do your thing, Ian.

First, I really wanted to go radical

with this car. Such a crazy looking

machine, but as I got into it, I

realized it's all function. Chassis is

already pro street. This thing is a race

car for the street. I'm not looking to

make this radical custom that's

undrivable. This thing [music] is all

business. It's got to perform.

The whole deal with this build is Mark,

my client, signed up [music] for my

work. In the end, I got to figure out

what I like. That's a pretty good job.

I'm into it.

I got the A-pillars all finished off.

I'm committing to this chop. That's the

height of the roof.

I just ground them out and sanded them.

I was hoping to not cut this roof. I

just wanted to see how the side glass

was going to fit in.

Um

the roof is actually tapered towards the

rear.

So, what happens is the glass obviously

can't flex. I put a straight board here,

you'll see [music] it hits the front,

but the back is out.

Um the glass isn't going to be able

[music] to fit properly. It's going to

cause this uh this rubber trim to pop

back out. I wasn't looking forward to

cutting this [music] roof

and making it wider, but I think I'm

going to have to.

I started looking at it and I found that

this drip rail

was actually tapered. [music]

So, I think I can use this to my

advantage. Looks like the drip rail is

straight all the way through the door

and [music] then right at the B pillar

it starts to taper in.

So, if I was to attach the B pillar,

[music]

trim it and pull the rear of the roof

out, it'll go straight right back

through. It'd be easier to cut the drip

rail off,

but by leaving that people are going to

think it's a stock [music] part and then

they're going to start wondering.

So, that's what I got to do. [music] Cut

the whole roof lengthwise, back to

front. I thought this chop was going to

be a walk in the park. I told the client

it was going to be like the VW bug I

made for him and that was [music] easy.

Oops.

I just want to pin these B pillars in

place first before I do any cutting.

That way nothing shifts from the door

[music]

opening forward.

So, the angle cuts look pretty good. I

can definitely commit to that.

The only issue being now I just have to

shorten the pillar.

This guy comes out [music] fairly

evenly.

This guy matches up pretty good [music]

down here.

It's not a really radical change in the

uh shape of the window, which [music]

makes this fit up pretty simple.

But

still got to shorten it.

So, the next step is to cut this corner

and move it over.

I'm not exactly sure how this is going

to work out, so [music] I'm going to

keep my line a little bit low. Ideally,

this is going to blend right in with a

piece of sheet metal. Um the most

important thing to me is getting this

drip edge over to the fender.

So, I'm just going to cut up to the B

pillar. I'll probably do a little relief

cut on the inside and see if I can just

twist a little, but I have a feeling I'm

going to have to go all the way to the

front. This is the thing I'm unfamiliar

with. I'm just feeling it out. I'm going

to make a relief [music] cut on the

inside of the structure and then just

zip the sheet metal open and [music] see

when it moves.

This is really delicate [music]

because in pulling this panel out, it

could buckle the drip rail and I'm

really trying to make it look right.

That's the hard part.

It's going to work. I don't even have to

cut ahead of the B pillar. I just

[music] put a trim on the back side of

that structure

and this guy will pull right over.

I really lucked out.

Made a couple cuts, I pulled the thing

and it snapped into place like it was

meant to be.

Yep, that's why I get paid the big

money.

Pretty cool. The thing is it [music]

looks easy because I just cut it, but

I've cut a lot of cars. I know how these

panels flex and that's why I made this

decision. I'm just going to weld it on

there now like I meant to do it that

way.

You could have cut this car anywhere.

The reason I cut it where I did is

because I know what I'm doing.

So, see I got to fill that all the way

through.

It's going to take a while,

but I can handle it.

The sides are mirror images of each

other, so I'm going to transfer this

measurement, cut the same thing like

butter, make it happen.

Plan for the rear of the car is to

delete the tail lights.

Client wants to put in a custom set

[music] of Cadillac tail lights in the

fins. So, the whole issue is the

transition from there to here. [music]

My mission here is to just smooth out

the entire rear end of the car, just

make it look like it's

futuristic, you know, Batmobile stuff.

>> [music]

>> Deleting these tail lights is really a

major style change in the whole back of

the car. It was Mark's idea for these

new tail lights and I think it's a cool

[music] choice.

The biggest repair panel in this whole

project is around where the old tail

lights used to go.

>> [music]

>> There's not a huge dimensional change

between the roof and the fenders, but

cutting out this tail light is a big

hole.

>> [music]

>> The rear panels on this are working out

perfect. My idea to just wrap these flat

sheets around all the curvature has

worked out fine.

The big challenge is getting these

corners of the roof put in. The pie cuts

are the biggest opportunity for

disaster.

If you overheat the metal, it's going to

warp on you. And with a curved roof like

this, it's a big surface area and it

could get messy [music] real quick. The

whole process here is fit up the panels

really well, so the gap you're welding

up is even all the way around

and just repeat.

Repeat panel after [music] panel, taking

my time. This whole process is really

tedious, but it's the end result that

makes you feel good.

>> [music]

>> All right. Well,

that's pretty much the story. From here

on out it's just weld, hammer,

grind, sand.

Now that this thing is all tacked up,

[music] it's really about finish welding

all the seams, get all the levels

proper, sand it out. I want to get the

doors on and take a look at it as a

complete car.

The roof looks great. The [music] final

step is putting the doors on so it looks

like a car. I got to cut this framework

out of there and just put it together.

From the start, the structure I put in

never allowed me to have the doors

[music] in the proper position, so I'm

stoked to get all this stuff cut back

out and put the doors on for a final

fit.

>> [music]

>> That's the look.

I've chopped a lot of cars and this

[music] rear portion has been probably

the most challenging out of all the

chops I've done.

>> [music]

>> Uh it's such a big graceful sloping back

end. There's a lot of welding.

I pulled it off. I'm stoked. This car

[music] is way cool. I'm really happy we

cut it as much as we did. I went back

and [music] forth with Mark a few times,

but in the end I think we nailed it.

This is a great looking car.

I sent Mark the photos of it and he was

stoked. Good call, Ian.

Oh, I love the way it looks. I mean, the

pictures you sent me are awesome. I

mean, it it suits the car. It's like the

bug, which is what I wanted and it's

going to be one radical [music] ride.

Looking forward to seeing it and you and

maybe some of your other little projects

you're working on there. Always got

something.

Yeah, that's right. All right. Take it

easy. I'll talk to you soon.

You too, bud. All right.

>> [music]

>> The Henry J is looking good. This part

of the project is a success.

I got to get back on the Olds. The seats

[music] are ready. I'm sure they look

good. Just going to talk to Jack and

wrap this thing up. Sweet.

Ah, so you did the little deluxe

version, too.

>> Yeah, well, this is like the

>> That's cool. Yeah, let me grab

>> these out of here while we're I'll grab

them outside and set them up. Get a

look.

Jack knows this car inside and out. He's

been around [music] it. He did the

seats, the rear panel, the front kick

panels, all the door panels, the little

trim pieces, etc. [music]

He used the same material. It was his

design. It looks great.

Take us to the drive-in movie theater,

Jeeves.

Well, I'll tell you what, it's better

than I expected. Thank you.

>> Thank you.

>> Every time [music] it's freaking great.

That's why I keep coming back.

Just going to bolt these seats in,

finish up the carpet, give it to Bill.

Hey.

Come on.

You're not the center of attention. This

is my show.

I thought the seats and the interior

came out great and it was a big, big

improvement. He did a great job. I love

[music] the dark gray piping that he

did. Bill loves this car. He's ready to

go to the drive-in [music] movie

theater. I think his wife is getting

dolled up right now.

Pretty classy, huh? Very [music] classy.

Well, like always, Ian, it all really

looks nice. Nice job. Thanks, sir. Glad

you like it. Nice job.

You've you've carried this project

[music] clear to the end. Yeah.

The people who see this car finished on

the street, they'll look at it, they'll

dig it, but once you understand where it

came from, that's the wow. That's the

wow [music] factor. This car was a mess.

You know, with Ian, uh whatever time I

get [music] him on board, none of these

projects are simple. This was a huge big

undertaking. This thing was really

rough, and he did a marvelous job on it.

Just take a look at it.

He [music] really walked the last mile

on it. He did the paint work, the body

work.

He He did it all. The end of the day,

two more [music] projects down.

Two happy customers. That's just how I

roll.

>> [music]

[music]

>> Right now on Full Custom Garage, master

metal man Ian Roussel transforms the

inside of a 1949

milk truck. The whole concept with the

interior this is like pirate ship. I've

been thinking about that for a while.

I want it to be my dream shop truck. But

a simple shop truck isn't enough. Ian's

got to take it all the way.

>> [music]

>> It's going to be modular. I want it to

be able to convert from work truck to

camper pretty easily. So, Ian rounds up

a crew of mercenaries to help get the

job done. He's being the brains of the

outfit.

The goal here is finished interior.

And it's like

who knows what could happen.

Shoot.

There's always a problem. You know, the

best laid plans, there's a statement

about that.

This is a 1949 [music] International

Harvester. It's a Metro Van. It's pretty

rare. This is a shorty model, so it

makes it very desirable. [music]

These are big commercial trucks, so I

say shorty because this is the shortest

wheelbase available. I got this van

because [music] I want it to be my dream

shop truck. This is like perfect. It's

enclosed, it's a van, it's heavy duty,

and there's tons of room inside.

The whole thing about vans for me is the

interior. It's all about what's going on

inside. The truck's in primer right now,

and I'm cool with that, but the

interior's horrible. [music]

I love the way that this thing was set

up from the factory. It's got this cool

seat that tilts forward. I redid the

bracketry on that, so you kind of

just get in like milk truck style. I

made all new steering column, foot pedal

controls.

The whole interior's been revamped. It's

nothing like it was cuz it's so low now.

I've done a whole ton of work on this

van, but for any cool custom van, it's

all about the interior.

And if you want to have a party in here,

this stuff ain't going to fly. I got to

fix it.

Thing I like most about this, it's just

funky. You don't see them. I've had VW

buses since I was 15. I've always loved

them, and this is like a big brother to

a VW bus. It's like the next bigger

size. It's able [music] to tow. It has a

good V6 engine with a manual

transmission. It's the same idea as the

VW bus, but rarer and cooler.

The whole concept with this is like a

dual purpose vehicle. During the week,

it's a work truck, and on the weekends,

it's a play vehicle. I want it to be

able to convert from work truck to

camper pretty easily.

I got a couple ideas for this van.

Getting started on the interior. [music]

I'm going to go to this van show and

just see what's happening.

The van scene is kind of like a 1970s

[music]

time capsule, right? It's like

everybody's playing dress-up. You got

your bitchin' vans in a row. I mean,

this is what's happening.

My friend Don came along [music] to this

show. He's been into vans since it was

happening in the '70s.

I like vans because they're really

focused on the interior. Sure, they got

cool look on the outside, mag wheels,

whatever, but it's all about what's

going on inside the box.

The wild thing about vans is it's just

like [music] ultimate self-expression.

You can go in any direction. You see

theme vans, fantasy vans, just anything

[music] goes.

Seeing the van show was really cool, and

it just got me inspired to to get mine

finished.

Just to kick off the project, I really

want to see the finished color somewhere

on the vehicle. I've been looking at

rust for way too long. I'm going to

bring in my friend Bob. He's a painter.

I want him to just do [music] the

dashboard. Just give me some

inspiration, Bob.

Hey, man.

How you doing today? I'm having a hard

time with the sander. Good thing you

showed up.

>> That's what I'm here for. Bob Gores is a

fan of mine. He saw the first DVD we

produced. [music] It's going on 10

years, I think. It's been a while since

we did that, and Bob has been on board

ever since. He's come out a bunch of

times to help me with my different

projects, and here he comes one more

time. Ian's working on [music] a

project, and he could use my help. He

said he could use my help, and so I

thought I'd come out and work with him

again. Every time I get the [music]

opportunity, I love to come out. The

main reason I call on Bob to paint stuff

is because he's stoked. He's like gung

ho. He loves the projects I work on, and

that's a huge asset. Instead of just

dropping it off somewhere where [music]

somebody's ho-hum about the project. The

dude comes across the country and nails

it. That's That's commendable.

>> [music]

>> I got this thing.

Got this thing I'm trying to finish.

I picked this thing up almost 2 years

ago, and you remember my silver shop

truck? Well, that's why I want to paint

this silver because this is my shop

truck. This is the '88 GMC pickup.

>> Really? I took the whole frame out from

under it, so it's got the motor,

transmission, front and rear axle, and I

just put this body on it. So, you know

how reliable that truck was. That thing

was unstoppable. So, I wanted to reuse

it. So, that's really what what this is

in in essence. The only thing that's

left from the original sheet metal is

this nose section,

the roof, and some [music] portions of

the body. The way Ian had described it

to me was nowhere near what [music] I I

didn't expect to see what I saw. This

rear bumper is the front bumper from a

F-150 Ford pickup.

I made the license plate

flip up, and then you have your trailer

hitch hidden in there. So, if you're

going to tow a trailer, it just goes in.

The whole idea with this van [music] is

it's a keeper.

I'm to the point in the project where

it's all about cosmetics.

Is it going to be the same color as the

outside? I think the whole thing's going

to be silver all the way through.

There's so much more body work that

needs to be done to it. We Instead of me

painting the [music] outside of the

vehicle, he needed me to do some work on

the interior.

So, really, I've been working on

fabricating this whole back end. I got a

lot of framework and stuff to do, and

you can see how crappy this looks. It's

got this bitchin' glove box where you

can keep all kinds of stuff up here.

>> Yeah. But I just want to get rid of the

rust.

Just I want to You know, it's all It's

all flaking off. So, I just want to sand

out pretty much from here down. Just the

whole front cab. [music]

Um just got to get a base coat in so it

doesn't look like a haunted house in

here.

This was in a blueberry bush way up

north.

And somebody was living in this thing

for years. See that hole under there?

>> Yeah. There was a wood burning stove

>> [laughter]

>> on the dashboard. That's why the windows

are cracked from the heat. [music] And

there was a chimney. Look, you can see

the hole going right through. There was

a chimney that went out the top. It It

had signage on it that said like Andy's

Place or something. Yeah. See, all the

windows were painted black. So, some

kind of hippie was living in this thing,

>> [music]

>> and I needed to have it.

Some ghosts or something.

>> Definitely got some patina showing.

>> Yeah. Right. And I'm not going for that.

Okay.

I think I'll get in here and pull the

gauges and the switches out. That way

I'll get the steering wheel off, and

you'll be good to go.

So, I'll just get all this crap out of

your way.

This is even the front seat from the

pickup truck. Reused the whole thing.

I gave Bob a little wish list, told him

what I was looking for, and just go to

work. [music] He knows what he's doing.

I guess he's going to sand out

everything, prime it, and paint it.

Normally, we would have It [music] would

have been media blasted. It had so much

patina on it from back in the day that

he he actually felt that it was a little

too far gone to go that to that extreme.

So, what we did was [music] we we just

sanded it down and got it as ready for

paint as fast we could. And um

it still came out really good. Straight

up. It'll be the same color as the

exterior, that cool metallic silver.

I really flip-flopped on color choices

for this thing for a while, but I was

looking through an Eastwood catalog and

they had this silver [music] metallic

and it just looked right.

Ultimately, the whole van is going to be

this cool silver [music] metallic color.

Right now, Bob's just going to primer it

and then wait about an hour, I guess,

and go right into the color and clear

coats. This truck looks like a giant

toaster, so I want to paint it silver.

[music]

The metal flake goes with the whole '70s

van vibe custom stuff. I just mellowed

it out a little bit. I didn't go for the

heavy flake. I just went for a metallic,

[music]

but this color's cool. When as I laid it

out, I could tell it was spraying really

good. It covered nicely. I thought it

was really good, but it the most

important thing was Ian was really happy

[music] with it. This looks totally

clean, man. I'm stoked. It's way better

than it was. Yeah, well, thanks, man. It

means a lot.

Bob's paint looks great. I just needed a

no-brainer, somebody come [music] in and

nail it, and that's what he did.

There's a lot of fabrication to be done

on the interior, [music]

uh a lot of wood and upholstery, so I

needed to just get the dashboard [music]

painted and move on to this this more

challenging stuff.

This is the N B&D dual-purpose. I want

to build a deck across the whole rear of

it, so it's like a platform bed. It's

going to be made at an angle iron, I

think [music] 2-in. The whole thing is

it's got to be strong and it's got to

fold up.

This is the start of the rear deck. Uh

the whole idea is these panels are going

to fold up and become the walls of the

van when you're in work mode, and then

if you go camping or whatever, this is

actually a big mat, it's a big bed you

can sleep on.

I'm going to work on fabing up the

structure out of angle iron.

>> [music]

>> I came up with some material that could

act as hinges, so Bob's going to build

the hinges and I'm going to build a

frame.

This is a really simple barrel hinge

design. It's just a solid [music] shaft

that fits inside of a collar. Bob's just

cutting a bunch of blank pieces [music]

and making sure they pivot right. Since

we're fabricators and body men, we we

don't like to go to the store and buy

hinges when we can make them.

So, I thought we'd need eight, but six

seems to do it. Uh

I just welded them [music] right onto

the interior structure, so once we cut

this in half, the two sides will flip

right open.

I built one big square frame. My plan of

attack was to just build it, cut it in

half, [music] and it should hinge.

Turns out the van isn't square.

Surprise, surprise.

There's always a problem. You know, the

best-laid plans, there's a statement

about that. Typical stuff.

Oops. The van wall is angled in and

I had to go a little backwards.

What do you think, dude?

It's going to be your nest.

By angling the rear of this bed [music]

frame, it actually gives you way more

room to sit in the back door and it

looks cool.

His work is always an inspiration

[music]

to me and that's why I love working with

him and being involved with his projects

because you can never get bored being

around Ian.

Let's just fit out the the panels. We'll

cut some wood pieces [music] and we'll

fit up the walls and that's pretty much

it for today. The next step is to sheath

this thing in plywood. It's all going to

be covered. It's just got to be strong,

nothing fancy.

It was really cool [music] to see this

platform there actually constructed.

I've been thinking about this for weeks

and it turns out it works great. It

hinges perfect [music] and it's super

strong.

I need some material for the walls.

[music] They're going to be upholstered.

I had a couple acrylic sheets,

Plexiglas. It'll work perfect. You can

use pretty much anything. It's going to

[music] be covered with vinyl in the

end. I just cut it to fit and put a

couple screws in it. What do you think,

man? You need a couple bean bags

and bongos,

cooler full [music] of ice-cold

beverages. I really thought about how

this was going to work and I decided by

butting this frame up against the door

[music] jambs, when I lifted them up,

they were going to clip into place and

it worked.

Every one of my projects involves a lot

of just winging it. I'm standing back

[music] looking at this. I'm really

stoked with the little V-shape in the

rear of the seating area. It looks

great.

This is just a first [music] step. The

goal here is finished interior. This is

going to be a real challenge. I'm really

[music] enthused about getting to work

on it and

I'm really glad he did this project, you

know, [music] for himself, you know,

it's something really really nice.

I got a few different concepts [music]

for the interior of this van and I'm

thinking fancy pirate ship, something

really deluxe, kind of boat feeling.

My buddy Jackson, upholsterer, I've

worked with him on a bunch of projects

and I'm going to go to him for some

advice.

This will be one color though, huh?

I think so.

Unless you do the piping with a nice

>> Yeah, we'll do it we can do that a

lighter color or uh

like you said, silver maybe. The truck

is silver, so I'm going to leave it up

to you. Surprise [music] me. How about

that? I'm open for whatever.

This you can run the seat belts

>> No seat belts. No safety. 1949. Oh, you

don't need them. It is what it is. Yeah,

you don't want that. That's ugly.

Yeah, I'll have it done. Perfect. Thank

you, sir.

>> it done by dinner. Perfect.

>> [laughter]

>> I'm a resourceful guy, so my plan with

Jack was to just have him give me a

shopping list. I was going to go out and

get all the stuff he needed. I need to

buy like 20 yd of vinyl, 10 yd [music]

of carpet, a bucket of spray glue,

interior panels, the whole nine yards.

So, if you got the spot, let's take a

ride.

>> Well, we'll go up there and I'll show

you what they have. He's got the skinny

[music] on the cheapest fabric in town.

So, we went to this place here in the

valley. It's awesome. They've got

[music] all kinds of foam, every type of

fabric. It's like full industrial supply

house.

They got everything.

I walked into that place and I didn't

know where to start. I mean, I was

charged up. [music] It's like this is

men's shopping at its finest. Oh, yeah,

that's like heaven for a minor.

>> All different colors.

Maybe I should just do it in this.

Jack showed me around all the different

samples of vinyl they have. They got a

million different foams. [music]

So, he just kind of directed me to the

least possible expense and the best

quality for the money. This is This is

This is pretty much how I roll.

Show me to the dismembered packages.

I want the interior of this van to be

dim, kind of like a cozy bar you might

want to spend some time at. I'm thinking

like oxblood, dark red, burgundy,

something like that, but I love

contrast, so I want [music] like a light

tone to offset it.

I found exactly what I needed. I just

got to get back to the shop, finish up

the walls, and get onto the final

upholstery.

>> [music]

>> So, all I did on this was just went

through just as efficiently as possible.

I put in gussets on every join. I put in

a couple [music] extra braces and I

added these few tabs, if you could see.

You can see it the way it's sitting. I

only want to have one post in the middle

right over the airbag [music] arch, but

that lets the whole thing flop around

pretty bad.

I made a removable brace that supports

the floor.

>> [music]

>> It just pops out and when you close it,

it adds extra support.

I got to clean all this stuff up, get

the rust off. [music] It's recycled

material, but I just made this little

brace that actually clips into the back

of that bed.

I did a front one and a [music] back

one. You can see how it's going to go. I

just set in little clips.

Just pop it in the kit.

So, that's it's really tight fit, but I

think once I sand [music] it and stretch

it out and bounce it a few times, it'll

get better.

Dirty surfboard.

It shows you [music] I need to go

surfing. Look at how dirty that is.

I don't remember the last time I went.

>> [music]

>> But now that I got my van, I'll be able

to go. So, the whole idea is you got

your bed there

and all that free space [music] under

the bed to stash your surfboard.

How's that sound? That sounds great.

Wow.

>> [music]

>> Damn novice surfers. They don't even

know how to put their board in the truck

without scratching it.

It's all right. Now that I got my van,

I'm going to be a local.

Before I get started [music]

on finishing this thing, I'm going to

put all the wiring in, that way it's

hidden,

>> [music]

>> clean, out of the way.

Got this bitching

wiring assembly

from Painless.

Apparently, it's everything I need.

Pretty simple. They tell you right on

the wires what they do.

The whole idea with this is they're

going to be hidden under the carpet.

I don't want them outside underneath,

and you'll never have to mess with this.

This is all brand new, so

So, you can see everything is pretty

straight ahead.

This guy's going to go up where the old

one was.

The engine stuff will turn around and go

right through the firewall, and [music]

then the interior wires will come

around, go up to the dash, and then come

back to the tail lights.

These are simple trailer lights. They

look pretty ugly when you see them on

trailers, but I made this whole surround

and kind of frenched them in, so

gives it a whole new look. In the end,

you just get this cool round [music]

tail lamp. That's all you see.

They look kind of old school, you know?

That was the easiest wiring job I've

ever done.

This interior thing is something that

I'm really looking to have more

experience with. I've done a bunch of

stuff, and each time it gets more

[music] complex. The hardest part for

this van to me is going to be the rear

quarters. Whole thing will lay out

pretty easily. [music] It's the corners

that are going to be such a

problem area. It's a really hard shape

to make out [music] of flat sheets of

material. So, to me, that's like the

pride of this whole interior, is

creating these corner panels. Jack

explained a couple ideas on how he would

have done this.

And I guess he takes a series of paper

slats and creates the shape and glues

them all together.

I don't have any [music] paper, so I'm

going to try to do the same thing out of

metal. We'll see how it works out.

Trying to take a flat sheet and make a

dome out of it is really hard. It could

be done with metal, you know, it's just

going to take time. This idea of

layering these pieces, you are

overlapping them, kind of like [music] a

lobster tail, or if you see like a metal

glove in like a knight in shining armor,

the way his fingers actuate. [music]

Same concept. It's just the number of

layers overlapping to create a compound

curve.

This van had a huge amount of rust

repair, so I saved the walls. That's

just what I do.

I replaced both walls on the van. I

saved the old panels, and now I'm going

to reuse them.

The main reason I decided to use steel

is because I have the slip roller from

Eastwood, and I knew I could just cut a

few strips and roll them right into

shape. This is a slip roller. The idea

is it takes sheet metal and makes coils

out of it.

The idea is there'll be a series of

these that overlap each other

>> [music]

>> and change their angle, and then I'll

trim it all back.

So, the first step [music] is obviously

this one right here, cuz we want it to

be bigger than the rest. My whole

process [music] in everything is just

figuring it out.

You know, point A to point Z is in a

zigzaggy direction. These rear corners

are pretty challenging, but I feel like

it's going to work out.

Hardest part for me was figuring out how

all these pieces were going to come

together [music]

in this compound curve. Once I had the

top and the bottom panels in, I knew

filling in the rest was going to happen.

I used a whole bunch of screws to hold

this thing in place. I tack welded it,

and really just [music] finished it off

with the hammer until it looked as

smooth as I could get it.

So, you can see this side is the

overlaps. It's not that big a deal.

There's still plenty of room back here.

And I could have gone about this like a

hundred different ways, but this took

about 20 minutes, and I used up some

scrap metal in the process.

Trying to figure some stuff out. I don't

know what the motor say about it. I'm

I'm told that this foam will stretch to

the contour of this. I'm thinking I'm

going to have to put two layers of foam

in here,

cuz I'm trying to make it as smooth as

possible. I don't want it to look

faceted or choppy. The whole idea with

my plan of attack [music] is that two

layers of foam and then the headliner

material should smooth out all the rough

[music] edges.

And we won't know until it's all glued

up.

I got this spray adhesive that works

like like paint. You put it in a spray

gun, and it works like magic. It's super

strong. It stinks amazingly, and it's a

lot of fun.

I cut out the headliner material, glued

it up, and it's time to I'm going to put

it on. We'll see what happens.

Something about the way I work, [music]

it's just I go increasingly faster. As

soon as I'm comfortable with something,

I just move on, and I think that's how

I'm [music] so productive. The way that

this glue set up and everything has come

together, this is this is happening. So,

if you look close, you can see these

lines through here.

In an effort to minimize that, I'm going

to put one more layer of foam on.

>> [music]

>> Definitely better than it was when it

was a piece of metal, that's for sure.

This is the headliner material. I'm

going to use the end of the roll in case

I mess [music] up. This stuff's a little

dirtier than the rest of it.

Some kind of material laminated [music]

to the foam on this headliner, so it

might stretch differently.

>> [music]

>> Everything worked [music] out with the

foam and the upholstery. Uh, it's time

to put it in and see if it actually

looks right.

See? It's a perfect [music]

corner.

That

is deluxe.

After I got this quarter nailed, I was

excited to see how some [music] vinyl

looks next to this headliner material.

I took the piece that surrounds the rear

door and started with that. I put it in

the sheet metal brake. Seemed like it

fit perfect, so I went ahead and glued

it,

foamed it, and then went to the vinyl.

The whole issue with this process is

once you've glued up the vinyl, it's

like a giant [music] sticker. So, if you

fold it wrong, it's ruined. I don't know

if you ever used a sticker that big, but

this is pretty daunting. I just kind of

felt it. I don't know. I used the force.

I went out of my body for a moment,

looked at it from six different angles,

and committed.

All the fabric I'm putting in the

interior is pretty much a background

tone. I really want the wood that I'm

using to be the highlight. My friend

Nate, he's a cabinet maker. He's an

[music] expert in his field, and I'm

going to have him help me design the

dashboard.

Hey, Ian, what's up? Working on getting

this dashboard situated. Right. See all

this stuff I'm building out in wood?

It's pretty simple, but uh, I need

something really cool. I know you're a

cabinet maker, and I want to do

something that's really special. Like

you walk in the door, and this is the

main entryway. Right. Right.

The whole concept with the dashboard is

going to be like [music] a wood

structure. I want it to have cup

holders, lights, bells, whistles. This

is the focal point of the whole

interior. Okay, cool. So, we want to go

like the old school van used to have the

cup holder in the middle, except larger

version type of thing.

>> Exactly. See, the engine's under here,

so the whole thing is just going to

[music] sit in somehow. Not fastened

down, that way I can still get to the

motor. I could just take this thing off.

Okay. But, I'm thinking like these

dimensions, you [music] know, this kind

of angle shape, about this tall,

and really the sky's the limit.

We'll sit down and draw a few versions

of it for you, and I'll come back, and

we can discuss some more and go from

there. I don't even think you have to

draw me a version. Really? I think you

should just build it.

I know you got kind of an artsy thing

going. You're [music] a musician. I hear

you guys next door, so just like build

your cup holder, man. Build something

you think is badass, and I'll use it.

And you can hear us next door?

Yeah, a little bit.

I don't even need to use the radio.

Cool, man. Well, I'll be here. Let me

know. Thanks.

After [music] going to that van show,

Don has not stopped talking about his

old ride. He's got an old Dodge van in

the back lot, and he's been doing

nothing but talking about getting that

thing back on the road.

I bought it from a neighbor probably

[music] 10 years ago. He had it for

many, many, many years.

>> [music]

>> The whole concept was get all the

mechanical stuff back in order, give it

a good cleaning, and put it on the road.

But, we just started digging through it,

and we found some really interesting

artifacts.

Did you see the book that was in this?

It's still got some magic.

This was inside. This is the real deal.

Look at that. That's what I'm talking

about, baby.

Whoever owned this was definitely a van

head. He's got custom [music] van books,

all kinds of owner's manuals. I mean,

this dude was on it. He was all about

the van. Don's van is really a time

[music] capsule. It's the way it was

built in the '70s.

You know, you're pulling stuff out of

this van and it doesn't [music] happen

anywhere else other than the 1970s Van

Nuys Boulevard. It's cool, man. Let's

get to it.

The cool thing about Don's van is I

wouldn't change a thing. You know, this

is looks like it was done in the '70s

and that's why we didn't want to change

it, you know. I would drive this thing

every day. This van was pretty crusty.

>> [music]

>> The one redeeming factor is there's no

rust. You know, this thing was

sun-dried, but I think that was the

saving grace.

It's got the shaggiest of carpet. This

thing's a disco inferno.

I think one of the reasons this van was

parked is because the exhaust manifold

was broken. You don't know [music] that

until you start it. Cast iron exhaust

manifolds are pretty challenging weld.

We're choosing to arc weld this manifold

because Don has [music] these nickel

electrodes and that's the proper thing

for welding cast iron. You got an arc

welder and the right stuff.

The whole thing about arc welding is uh

there's no gas like in MIG welding.

There's no wire that feeds, so you're

literally just burning the electrode and

then this coating on it is the flux, for

lack of a better term.

Uh but it works on cast iron.

It was a good thing that the manifold

needed some attention cuz it ended up

putting new gaskets through the intake,

the exhaust, you know, right out the

back. Everything's freshened up. Runs

great.

No smoke? No nothing.

Well,

let's drive it.

The big charge in helping Don out with

[music] his project is, you know, these

are things that he he totally loves.

That's why he has all this stuff. And

seeing each one come back to life is

really rewarding. [music] You know, you

see his eyes light up because he

remembers when it was when it was

actually working, you know, and here he

is right back in it. [music] Don's

stoked. He's like Mr. Van in 1969 all

over again. I think it's bringing him

back a few decades and he's feeling

good.

So, this whole vinyl interior thing is

coming together pretty cool.

All the panels are pretty much mocked

up. I just [music] have to do this last

one

and then skin the doors. I have made

panels that fit inside every area

[music] that's going to be exposed.

Wrap that board with foam and vinyl on

it.

So, it's got the dashboard. I think the

silver paint [music] works great with

this dark burgundy color. I'm really

stoked. It just makes it look luxurious.

The whole concept with [music] the

interior of this is like pirate ship.

I've been thinking about that for a

while. Something kind of classy, [music]

boat inspired, definitely outlaw. That's

the whole van thing.

I just thought I might put some kind of

a nicer finish rolled edge on this

thing.

So, it doesn't just look like a hard

square, [music] but

when I was

buying this material, I bought a wrong

piece.

And this one must be like for a door

stop [music] or something.

But I think it'll work perfect for that

rolled edge I was looking for.

I'm doing what I can with what I got.

Interior dudes can go off on this thing

and spend a year on the interior. You

know, I'm trying to do something that's

feasible for this work play vehicle.

So, the whole idea is that this fabric

just makes a little bit more of a

presence

on the front edge. See that?

It just looks a little more [music]

rich.

Definitely looks cool.

I had an idea.

These doors are pretty rough.

And to body work and finish them, to

[music] paint them would really be huge

time-consuming process. So, I think I'm

just going to glue vinyl over them.

You know, so far, anything

>> [music]

>> that needs to be bitten, licked, or

chewed on, he's like all over it. I

couldn't ask for better assistant in the

licking and chewing department.

Come on.

It's time for glue. You know what that

does to you. You lose all your

composure.

>> [music]

[music]

>> So, this looks really great. I love the

way the dashboard came out.

Yo.

>> Hey Ian, what's up? Hey, man. What's

going on?

What you got? Hey, uh you know, you kind

of left the artistic impression up to me

on this thing and Yeah. uh I'm a firm

believer in recycling anything and

everything I can get wood-wise,

especially when it comes upon, you know,

some good hardwood. So,

>> [music]

>> the channel we're on here, too.

>> And and this is uh ipe wood. It's from

South America. They use it on decking a

lot. [music]

And what this is is a piece of handrail

that came off a deck that was redone.

So,

>> [music]

>> I got three or four pieces of this and I

was thinking that we would use this as

the cap for the handrail on that thing.

Hey, Don by show me this recycled piece

of wood that he has [music] and it's

going to work out perfect. Yes, I'm

totally down with that. That sounds

great. Cool. So, what you're saying is

this will actually be the cup holder in

here? Yeah, we'll drill right into the

top of that

and create your cup holders.

>> Okay. You got a plan. I got a plan.

>> [music]

>> The roof skin is the largest panel. It's

the biggest challenge in the whole deal,

especially cuz it's hanging upside down.

It's got to be screwed together right

and I I don't want it to buckle or look

lousy.

Because the roof is hanging upside down,

there's a pretty good chance for it to

warp because all the pressure point is

hanging on the screw [music] heads. I

put some metal strips along each side of

the panel. That should help give it

strength.

All this is is a hemmed edge. You can

see it's a sheet metal panel. It comes

around the edge. That way it's just

a lot stronger.

It's a pretty simple scenario. You have

your backing board, [music] you glue

some foam on, glue vinyl, and staple the

backside.

It leaves a pretty generic-looking

panel. I got this idea that's going to

spice it up a bit.

Got all these wooden [music] slats. I

think it offsets the color pretty cool.

They're going to be roughly a foot, 16

in

>> [music]

>> apart. The whole idea is the strips go

lengthwise down the sides and the roof.

It just makes [music] it look cool. I

don't know. There's going to be wood

strips every 16 in. I mean, there's

going to be wood on the roof. There's

[music] going to be wood on the walls. I

might even put some outside. Maybe even

wooden rims. That would be ridiculous.

The devil's in the details. Just getting

the rest of these interior parts

installed.

Got to give [music] respect to all the

guys who do interior stuff. This is a

very simple design and it's really a

workout.

And you may ask yourself, how does one

guy hold a 4-ft by 8-ft sheet on the

ceiling? [music]

Don had a pile of firewood.

So, I screwed the piece of firewood to a

2x4.

Got to adapt and overcome. It's the only

way.

This is what I'm thinking.

If I sit here

and then I stick this [music]

right here.

It holds it up.

That's using your head.

One of the last things I need to do on

this van is probably the most gnarly.

I got to cut the glass and it's like

who knows what could happen. In an

effort to do everything myself as usual,

I decided I was going to take on the

challenge of cutting the glass and it

has [music] proven to be quite an art

form that I'm not very proficient in. I

thought that cutting this glass would

[music] be a pretty good challenge and

it has been.

I made templates for all the windows.

This is the uh windshield.

Basically a mirror.

Driver side, passenger side.

I bought a huge sheet of glass and I've

been slowly but surely destroying it.

Trying to learn how to cut this [music]

stuff properly.

There's a plastic laminate between two

panels of glass. That's what the safety

glass is.

So, the plastic is pretty tough. The

idea being when the window [music]

breaks, it doesn't shatter all over you.

The way you cut the glass is you score

both sides with the glass cutter, crack

it,

>> [music]

>> and then put some flammable liquid. I

was using denatured alcohol. You light

it on fire and melt the plastic.

The guy at the glass shop didn't want to

do this job for me. It's part of the

reason I ended up doing it. He had an

issue with an employee who spilled the

denatured alcohol all over himself

[music]

and didn't realize how flammable it was.

You don't want to light yourself on

fire.

There it goes, all by itself.

Ta-da!

So, the last step in this whole process

is finishing off the edges.

Um you want to pretty much polish them

because any imperfections in the edge

could cause a stress point, which will

crack the glass in the end. Found the

easiest way to rough out the shape is

with this diamond wheel. It's for

cutting tile.

Has like little pieces of diamond

[music]

uh fused onto this metal disc. But, if

you just write about it, it works pretty

efficiently.

Getting the glass in was the last thing.

Now this thing's weather tight.

Interior's in. Van is ready to roll.

The van's together. I got the airbags

in. It's a driver. The big secret it's

hiding is it's my old work truck.

[music] It's a 1988 GMC pickup truck.

From the radiator to the gas tank, I

modified the whole thing and put this

International body over it. [music] So,

it drives like a modern vehicle. It's

got a Vortec V6 with a manual 5-speed,

airbags all around. It's a bitching

ride.

I got the seats back from Jack. They

look sweet. It was his whole design with

these stitched ribs and the grommets.

[music] I saw CD had there uh and it

translated perfectly to these two

[music] shapes.

I chose this kind of oxblood color vinyl

for the interior cuz I just thought it

would look rich. You know, the exterior

[music]

of the van is pretty mellow, but when

you look inside, it's it's pretty

special.

My friend Nate made [music] this cool

console like bar thing. It's just one of

the things when you walk in, it's the

focal point, you know, it's a really

[music] nice piece of furniture.

This thing is immaculate.

Better than anything [music] I could

have made.

I spent a lot of time on the structure

of the fold-down walls. I want them to

be very usable, so this whole [music]

hinge and steel mechanism I came up with

has proven to work well.

The whole concept [music] with this van

is its usability, you know, it's not a

show car. So, the back is set up to load

and carry whatever, or you can hang out

in it. That's the whole idea with this.

It's the utility vehicle.

One thing I work by yourself, but a

project like this it couldn't come

around this quickly without some help

from [music] some good friends.

Ian works outside the box so much. I

don't think Ian's ever seen the inside

of the box. He has no limitations.

You're never going to see an end [music]

to his creativity. His creativity is

what he feeds off of and then that's the

best fuel for any fire anybody could

ever have.

I saw quote uh it was attributed to

Jerry Garcia said uh

you don't want to simply be the best at

what you do, you want to be the only one

that does what you do.

And really that

you know, it's kind of something that's

just stuck in my head.

Right now on Full Custom Garage, master

metalman Ian Roussel attempts to create

a wild bubble top on a '62 Thunderbird.

This bubble top is kind of the holy

grail of fabrication. It's pretty

mysterious. It's definitely delicate. I

mean, these cars [music] have a history

of being like top-notch attention

getters. But, Ian's eccentric client

isn't going to make it easy. Crazy thing

about working with Victor is he's always

pushing me.

Then I walk up and I said, "Ian, crank

it up. Let's take it to the limit." Yes,

Captain. Taking it to the limit.

As requested.

And with the pressure on, the whole

thing's collapsing. Ian pays a visit to

legendary car customizer Gene Winfield.

Every day is a school day.

Even Albert [music] Einstein, he said

that you learn every day and the and the

day you stop learning, you start to die.

And later, as Ian continues the build,

the project expands in all directions.

This is a perfect example of how I work.

Adventure into the unknown.

I got a couple ideas, a couple of hints.

It's time to make it happen.

Victor started off as a client. I would

do random modifications on his cars and

he's become my biggest patron. The dude,

I don't know how many cars I've built

for him, but if you look at the examples

of where this [music] man goes, his cars

are top-notch.

Ian, throughout our relationship,

[music]

has been able to achieve anything I ever

wanted to do.

The guy's got an imagination [music]

that I've never met anybody

that has like his way of thinking.

Everything we do is art.

These are not cars. These are works of

art. They're sculptures.

Victor's cars are full custom stuff,

really artsy, and he trusts me to just

go off with my own designs. And if they

work, he follows through with it.

Otherwise, we just collaborate on a lot

of stuff.

Victor and I are up at this car show up

north and this dude's got the king

bubble [music] top of all bubble tops.

Apparently, it's the biggest one in the

world. This car is out of control.

Victor says he wants one.

And I got to pull it off.

So, I said, "You know what? Let's go

home and start."

Victor is non-stop about wanting this

bubble top.

>> [music]

>> He's chewing my ear off about it. And

I'm thinking the quickest way to get

there is to use one of our old projects.

He got this old T-bird, never got

finished. I think it'll be a perfect

candidate.

This T-bird project in my idea was like

a speedboat with wheels. It was this

crazy motorized transformer type

Thunderbird. And Victor just wasn't

happy with it. He wanted to take it

further and [music] it just stalled out.

The reason why I picked the Thunderbird,

looking at the car, I knew I wanted to

do [music] something crazy with it. The

cool factor about this car is it's

radically customized. The whole rear has

been cut off and remade. It's got a wild

lift-up cockpit. The hood is reversed.

It's on [music] air suspension.

To take this car further is really like

out of control.

I consider it done. Victor just wants

more.

Our work is evolving. [music]

We finished a lot of cars and then he

has me cut them apart again.

The first task in this whole bubble top

adventure is figuring out how to heat up

the plastic.

The first task in [music] this whole

bubble top adventure is figuring out how

to heat up the plastic.

The only hints I have at this are some

>> [music]

>> pretty obscure uh writings about how Ed

Roth did it. Some folks say a pizza

oven. Other people have talked about

like electric heating elements.

The real challenge here is figuring out

how to heat up a huge amount of square

feet of plastic at an even rate.

I got a couple ideas [music] using some

sheet metal, some plywood, and angle

iron with a masonry board as insulation.

I need to build an oven big enough

[music] to heat this thing. So, what I

ordered was two different thicknesses of

plywood.

The heavier stuff [music] will be the

form for the Lexan when we inflate it.

The thinner stuff is for the walls.

And

>> [music]

>> the masonry board is insulation. And the

galvanized steel is just something

hopefully to reflect the heat and

[music] protect all of it.

The loose factor about this oven is

there's no way to test it except to do

it.

So, I'm going to build it, fire it up,

[music] see what happens.

We're going to build a frame to hold

these masonry sheets.

And then cut the plywood and sheet metal

to match.

The cool factor of this whole bubble top

thing is like I've seen this since I was

like 8, 10 years old. You know, these

[music] these cartoons of cars with

crazy plastic roofs.

How the heck did they [music] do that?

I've always wanted to find out.

Every project I do, I'm really just

trying [music] to push

my skills. This plastic experiment is

really next level. I've never tried

anything like it and it's a huge

challenge.

That's all the sheet metal panels. Next

is the dusty part.

I don't know how dirty this is going to

get, but let's see.

After about 12 or 15 sheets, we should

have a nice mess going.

There's a lot of options on how to go

about creating this thing. Uh I really

could just farm it out to a plastics

company and be done with it. But, that's

not how I work.

I want to figure this thing out and make

it my own.

Getting my clay pan. [music]

Spend some time.

See, so by putting the screw through

this way, it grabs the plywood.

Sandwiches the whole thing together.

Now all I have to do is put in 5 million

screws.

I mean, the real cool factor about the

bubble tops is that it was completely

[music] custom. It wasn't seen on

anything else. It was handmade for each

particular vehicle.

Well, now that these little sandwich

[music] panels are made, they need to be

retained in the angle iron structure.

So, I think I'm just going to put three

uprights on each side.

That way it'll it'll all kind of flex,

but [music] it definitely won't fall

apart.

Next step is to take the rest of the

angle iron and create a perimeter frame

that'll be for the lid.

The lid's going to be a few different

sandwiched pieces. It all kind of has to

fit together, so I'm just going to

finish up the heavy welding here and

bring it to the location.

The rest is all screws and wood.

We're out of Victor's place. We got the

big oven here.

I'm going to try to make like a teardrop

[music] shape. I've read about different

plastics, and each one has its own

characteristics. I've settled on this

acrylic sheet, Plexiglas. It's 3/8 inch

thick, and it's a 5-ft by 8-ft sheet.

Plastic needs something to hold it in

shape while it's heating up. This whole

idea with the backboard and the

retaining ring is really just to keep a

solid base. So, the edges remain

perfectly flat, and [music] the interior

part of it will heat up and expand. My

idea with this base [music] plate uh is

that we could blow four or five

different roofs, and they would all be

successful. They'd be interchangeable,

and Victor could just pick the one he

liked.

I'm creating a balloon with wood and

plastic components. I'm trying to make

it airtight. The silicone is going to

help seal it.

Silicone looks like it's sealed. All the

air fittings are in place.

I got everything screwed together.

Big challenge trying to figure out how

to heat this thing up. I'm just hitting

walls with it. I'm talking with Victor

about it.

>> And he said, "Well, we need some

igniters or or elements." I said, "I got

some perfect elements. Let me just

finish cooking my steaks."

>> I guess his family barbecues a lot.

>> [music]

>> You know, they have big family events,

go on vacation. They they do a lot of

motorhome camping, and they got these

two huge commercial barbecue grills, and

[music] he thinks that it's going to

make it happen.

Victor and I share a lot of the same

characteristics. I think this barbecue

thing might just be too much.

He's convinced it's going to work. All I

have to do is prove it.

Each grill has two propane tanks, so

we'll have four 5-gallon propane tanks,

which should be plenty of capacity. As

long as these guys get that volume of

air warmed up, it should work.

All I can do is try. [music] We're

either going to have the right amount of

heat or not enough. We'll see.

I built this whole oven without the lid

on.

So, we're here. We're doing this, and it

occurs [music] to me that with the lid

on, you can't see anything inside the

box.

That's a problem.

I used to work in a foundry, and they

had this [music] huge kiln, and it had

this perfect porthole that you could

look into it. Uh so, I'm just going to

cut a hole in the box and make the same

little door that I [music] saw in this

kiln.

Got a couple portholes cut in the thing.

Got a couple barbecue grills. We're just

going for it.

It makes some heat. Let's uh let's put

the lid on.

In keeping with the low-tech approach,

I've got some plumbing pipe, a simple

gauge, and some air fittings. The idea

is just create a controlled air source

to inflate this thing.

Target temperature for this is 375°

to get the plastic that hot.

I had the idea that this laser

thermometer would be a perfect way to

check out the temperature, and yeah, the

readings are consistent. It's heating

up, and it seems like it's going to

happen.

Pretty weird. This huge sheet of

plastic, as it heats up, is starting to

deform. It's getting like all wobbly

looking, and

just putting a little bit of air

pressure in it. And just strategically

putting the air in and heating it up,

and I walk up out of coming from a

project that I was on, and I said, "Ian,

crank it up. Let's take it to the

limit." Yes, Captain. Taking it to the

limit. Take it off. As requested.

>> [laughter]

>> That didn't work.

Shut her down. I turned my head for a

second, [music]

and it was like, "What was that?" Within

2 minutes, the thing started tweaking

and blowing, and I pretty much I could

see the look on Ian's face like, "What

the hell did you make me do now?"

Shut everything off. It's going to melt

the plastic real bad. A quick

turnaround, peeking in the hole, I can't

even see what's going on. I just I'm

seeing sheet metal. I don't know what's

going on cuz the whole thing [music]

appears to have collapsed. The whole

thing's collapsing.

I don't know what to do. I stuck my arm

back in the oven to hold the thing up

[music] and kind of get a look, and it's

just destroyed.

We got to lift the lid up and see what

went wrong.

It looks like the metal and everything

[music] tore right out of the roof of

the box. It tore off the lid.

So, we actually [music]

damaged and warped the first mold. I

said, you know, just crank the pressure

on it.

>> [music]

>> That was the wrong thing to do, but hey,

it's a good story.

>> [laughter]

>> This thing was twice as big before this

broke. So, what happened was he lost air

pressure, and it shrunk.

What a bummer.

To most people, [music] this thing looks

like an utter failure,

but I'm going to work through it.

This directly [music] relates to my

process because I don't know what I'm

working with. Most of the time, I don't

know where I'm going.

So, this is where it failed. It ripped

off of the backer [music] board.

You can see it's all jacked up on one

side.

But, what this does is it proves that

the uh theory works.

This whole process [music] is pretty

mysterious. The only guy I can think of

to talk to about it is Gene Winfield.

Gene Winfield is one [music] of the

old-school custom car guys. He's been

doing this since the '50s. He's been

there. He's seen it all. And if I need

some advice, he's the go-to guy.

>> [music]

>> Well, I was glad to see Ian come up here

today and ask me some questions about

blowing a bubble. I've done it, you

know, of [music] course, over and over

for the years and years that I've been

building cars. I do metal shaping

seminars all over all over the world,

actually. [music] I I want to teach

people and and keep this thing going.

Every day is a school day. [music]

Even Albert Einstein, he said that you

learn every day, and the and the day you

stop learning, you start [music] to die.

When I saw your oven, that's what I dug

about it cuz it's like, "Wait a second.

I could do this."

>> That's right.

>> And literally, you just have a pipe with

holes drilled [music] in it, and you

light it on fire. You light the gas. Oh,

we made that when I was doing Blade

Runner.

I built 25 [music] cars for the movie

Blade Runner. And they had windshields,

but they weren't really complex shapes,

you know. They just had a little curve

to them and stuff like that. So, we

built [music] plugs and and draped them

over there, and it worked really And

that was all just acrylic, regular

Plexiglas?

>> Yeah. Yeah. Then then when I did uh Back

[music] to the Future II,

you know, I did the Ferrari, what we

call the Ferrari.

We had to buy [music] special It was

gray, smoke gray, but we had to buy

um

5-ft wide material. Just seeing Gene's

shop and all his projects, [music] it

really gets me charged up. I mean, I

want to build some cool stuff, and just

seeing people who really push your brain

to the next [music] level, this is a

great experience. That's really the

whole inspiration for my project [music]

was seeing you and your team pull this

off down at Rich's shop.

>> Yeah. I built the the Pacifica

originally for Ford Motor Company 1962

[music] and three, and it went in the

Ford Custom Car Caravan all over the US.

So, then I wanted the engine under

glass. So, I built a mold, and I changed

the mold two or three times until I had

it just right, and then it worked out

pretty good. One tip that Gene gave me,

which I have [music] seen, is keep the

temperature even. You know, be really

careful about how this thing heats up,

because if you get a hot spot, it's

going to deform. So, I guess it's keep

the air pressure low, keep the

temperature up, and just

>> Put uh put your Manila folder in there

so it doesn't hit directly on the the

hot Plexi. I use a Manila folder, and I

cut it into kind of a uh diamond or star

shape, and and staple it down. So, when

the air hits it, it dis- distributes the

air evenly uh in all directions.

Everything I've done was really by the

seat of my pants. But after talking with

Gene, he gave me a few tips, and he's

been successful time and again. So, this

makes me think I can get this.

When I saw you with the bubble top, it's

like, "I've been thinking about this

since I was 15 years old." And it's

like, "That's how you do it." Right?

It's like, "This is like, you know, no

vacuum machine or nothing."

>> Right. I think that uh Ian's a a real

good craftsman. [music]

He's up and coming, and he's going to do

a fabulous job, and uh I think he's

going to uh go back and rework [music]

that bubble and and redo it again, and

and it'll come out fine for that T-bird.

Shouldn't be a problem.

After talking to Gene for a while and

really just coming to

understand his process of doing things,

it really parallels mine. It's like a

real do-it-yourself attitude. So, seeing

what he's pulled off,

uh I think I could do this.

The whole wooden structure is up-sized.

It's thicker than it was. The idea is it

won't distort. I strengthened

everything. I used this uh heavier angle

iron.

Put a complete perimeter frame around. I

threw crossmembers to hold the center

down.

Fender washers around the perimeter,

they're going to hold the wood in place.

The steel is going to hold the whole

thing together. It's like a big heavy

unit. Just got to keep this plastic

under control.

It's heavier than it's ever been. We got

wheels on the gantry, so we can just

lift the lid into place. No struggling.

No error.

I set up areas to put a little

temperature gauge. Uh I put [music] an

air pressure gauge on the inlet.

Just to try to keep the air a little

stiller. I don't [music] know if it'll

have any effect, but I just put a couple

masonry boards to close up the air gap

on the front and on two sides of it.

I put some marks inside the box to help

out. I didn't know how big the thing

was. I was looking at a screw on the

wall and just trying to gauge how far

down it was.

As I understand, the whole deal is even

temperature and inflating it so the

thing doesn't tear. You want it to be

consistent all the way across the

surface. The ovens are pretty much where

they were, but we never had them even.

They were just kind of laid in there, so

I put them equal distance from the

walls. Propane tanks are full. All the

burners I took uh made sure that they're

all working properly.

Game plan from the start for me is to

slowly heat it.

Preheat it to about 200° and in

10-minute [music] increments raise the

temperature. Get it up to 300 over the

course of a half an hour

and let it [music] soak.

This whole thing is an experiment. So,

obviously we want to get [music] this

thing completed, but it's really a

learning experience and we're going to

keep going.

Victor's a funny guy about the way he

builds stuff. He'll paint a car five

times until he's satisfied.

Unbeknownst to me, [music] the car is

painted.

This T-bird is really like an evolving

piece for him and he's finished it to a

certain degree. I think he's just trying

to get the final exterior [music]

look. I think if I just put a bubble top

on it, this sucker's finished.

From the start, Victor wanted to see

what's going on inside. I'm crawling

around on the ground, peeking in. I got

my little system, so he brings out his

great-grandfather's

family heirloom mirror. We couldn't

really see. We're looking underneath and

it's pretty warm. [music] I said, "Let's

get some mirror. You want to use this.

This is passed down for 10 generation.

That's how committed I am to the cause.

I might lose my heritage, but we got a

bitchin' bubble top.

>> [laughter]

>> He found a way to squirm a mirror in

there somewhere, [music] so he could

check out what's going on.

I put it underneath and uh actually

we're able to see the bubble being

blown.

Don't tell my wife [music] I used it,

but you know, I

Thanks for reminding me. I've got to go

put it back inside

and wrap it back up.

I think it brought a a bit of good luck.

My plan is working. The slow heat, the

low pressure.

It's not over [music] 3 PSI at any

point. It's very low air pressure and

the thing is taking a great shape.

It's the best one yet.

There's none of that weird deformity

like we had on the first try.

Thing looks

>> [music]

>> freaking smooth, man. It's nice.

Lifting the lid up, this is a home run.

It looks like [music] magic. It's better

than I hoped.

Look at the radius on the front of this,

man. It stood up really good. My whole

life has led up to this. My entire

career.

Look at the freaking front, dude. It's

like

bang. We set it on the car and the

contour front to back is it's a part of

the car already.

I think that's the top. I think that's

the right bubble for this car.

>> [music]

>> That's perfect.

Perfect.

This thing's on the car 15 minutes.

Everybody's praising it, you know, "Wow,

yeah, that was a great experience."

Victor wants to go bigger. He wants

something better than this.

When I seen it come out, I said, "We

achieved our goal." And if we were

normal people, we would say, "All right,

let's get the hell out of here. We're

done." But we're not. Technically bigger

means more heat, more air pressure, a

little more time in the oven. And we've

already [music] proven that that amounts

to disaster.

But Victor wants more.

We were really [music] successful with

this last dome we inflated. The

proportions are dead on.

Talking with Victor, he wants to max

[music] it out. That's how he rolls.

We're going to just push it

hotter than [music] ever and more

pressure than ever. We're going to get

the biggest shape we can out [music] of

the box that we have.

Following the same procedure as the

other times,

this time though, I'm going to let it

cook [music] a lot longer.

The way this one's coming together, this

one seems to be coming out the smoothest

of all of them.

I just don't want to get it too close to

the flame because that's certain [music]

death.

It's still pretty nerve-racking. This is

uncharted territory. How hot can you go?

How much pressure can you put in? We'll

see how hot it gets.

This bubble is enormous. It's getting so

close to the barbecue grills. My plan is

to turn off the heat and then hit the

air. That way there's no flame. It's

just hot air.

Houston, we have a problem.

All right, let's try to cool it.

I think we could save it, but it's

definitely giving out.

See, the edge is all warped out.

Yeah, we got trouble.

Fudge. I didn't realize how much force

such a low pressure of air could exert.

Uh it's really crazy how it steel and

wood are deforming under the air

pressure. [music]

I don't know how this is going to work

out. It's on the flange, which is kind

of a bummer, so the flange will have a

little little warp in it. Similar to the

first failure, just not as drastic.

[music]

Now, we just got to cool it off, so I

raised the lid and

let some air circulate. I'm just holding

it at 3 PSI.

Raising up the chain hoist and the thing

looks sweet. It's just it's enormous.

Better than I hoped. I I think it's over

2 ft tall.

That's real good.

It's quite a dome we've got there.

You could see here there's a little

wackiness, but all in all, I think it's

usable.

>> [music]

>> It's pretty substantial.

22 in.

The other one was just under 16, so

that's pretty significant increase.

So, we're putting this thing on the car,

but it's big.

And you stand back and look at the

[laughter] thing.

It's for a different car.

It's too tall for this one.

When I seen it come out, and I I went

back to like we could do anything and

we're going to try to stretch it even

further.

So, this whole mission of heating and

inflating the plastic, that was like a

fraction [music] of where we're going

with this. We got the bubble top.

Now, we're going to build a car that's

suitable for it.

Victor's pushing. He's pushing it. He

wants more. We're sitting there checking

the car out, [music] thinking about

ideas, and he comes up with this

spinning bubble top. I said, "Okay, and

this one's going to spin, go up and down

and spin."

Victor's talking about all these

ridiculous concepts. He came to the

right guy. This is what I do. I'm

totally on board.

Victor just wanted me to get this

concept as quickly and as inexpensively

as possible. Just prove that it works so

we can go forward.

Since there's no [music] bubble top

rotating supply hardware

surplus store that I can think of, uh my

friend Bill, he's got a pile of old

junk. I think I can make something

[music] happen.

I'm looking for any kind of steel tube

that will telescope. It just needs to

work like a power antenna almost. Or

even any kind of antenna where they

[music] telescope and get progressively

taller. The whole idea is you have

multiple sleeves and it should be

incredibly strong. [music]

So, my thought was there would be like a

sprocket with some kind of a motor over

here with a chain drive maybe and it

spins the whole deal.

Just in the way I'm picturing this

mechanism working, [music] I think it'll

need like three or four concentric

tubes. I'm thinking just to save space

and be ridiculously strong.

It has to be super heavy duty. I don't

know how much weight's going to be on

here, but the leverage on the pivot pin

is going to be incredible.

If I made this into [music] a U-shape

like a saddle,

then I could put a pivot through here,

so it'll be sitting like that, and then

it would tilt up and down,

and swivel around. It'd be kind of like

a mechanical [music] bull almost.

We can buy anything, hydraulics, motors,

whatever. I just got to see if this

thing has the capacity to perform.

To get this whole deal to spin, I'm

thinking some kind [music] of a chain

drive would be good cuz it really gives

you the opportunity to move the motor

further away from the whole pivot

assembly.

This is what I'm using. [music]

Bottom line is this is such a crazy

concept, I just got to throw it

together, low-budget, quick and dirty,

and prove that it works.

When I'm just setting it up here [music]

in the car, I realized that the car is

in the way. I got to cut out a huge

chunk of the automobile to make this

design work.

Victor was so proud of this paint job

with the gold leaf, you know, it was a

really hot-looking car. So, uh I sent

him a piece of it.

You know, it's just [music] that was his

favorite paint job, so I wanted him to

keep a piece of it.

My original concept was to have this

lift like on a hydraulic ram or

something, but there's just no room.

You can see how much room you have now,

but when you drop the car,

the cool factor is this car is on

airbags. [music] It's a huge amount of

weight that's just dropping on the

floor. I think I'm going to use that to

my advantage. The only way I think I can

make this move is by actually using the

differential [music] as a pusher. As the

car drops, the differential lifts this

mechanism up.

Like a landing gear kind of thing. As

the car settles, [music]

the thing automatically opens.

I cut out the body, and then I have to

fit this outer bearing [music] sleeve.

It's working out good because it will

weld right to the crossmember that I put

[music] in for the airbags years ago.

Everything seems like it's coming

together. It's pretty simple. [music] I

just keep sliding these tubes in,

raising and lowering the suspension, and

trimming them to fit.

This saddle isn't really working on its

own. It's designed to work with the

leverage of the big dome attached to it,

so I'm putting this rod on to simulate

the leverage that is going to be there

in the end.

Ready to lift.

So, what's happening is you can see that

this is rising out of the back of the

car,

then it hits the pivot.

I said, and then it hits the pivot.

I think [music] it's just you.

Yeah.

>> [music]

>> Right? That's pretty cool. And then it

comes down.

The whole deal with this is just

greasing up everything. [music] It's

rusty, dirty metal. As soon as I sanded

it a bit, put grease on it, it smoothed

right out.

Oh, look, it's way smoother.

I'm stoked. This thing is working

better. Every time I raise [music] it,

it smooths out a little more.

To the layman, this could seem pretty

sketchy, but I call [music] it a

success. I had this in my brain, and

it's actually functioning. That's cool.

The up and down motion is working

perfect, [music]

but we're not out of the woods yet. I

really want this thing to rotate. I'm

going to do whatever it takes.

The next step is making a support ring

to hold the acrylic dome. [music] It's

really a no-brainer. It's just some 1 by

3 heavy wall rectangle tube.

The whole plan with the shape of this

ring is to use the wooden backboard from

the [music] original oven.

That way I'm sure that the contour

matches this this plastic bubble.

The hardest part about this is going to

be this really [music] tight radius at

the front. I think what I'm going to do

is put the tube on the roller and create

a gradual arc like it is through here.

The thing with the bender is it makes

perfect circles. This is kind of an

ellipse, sort of like a spiral. So, I'm

going to have to take that circular

shape and tweak it.

It's got a couple different radiuses in

it. I'm going to have to put the saw to

use. I'm going to have to just slice

every inch or so, and kind of fold in a

tight radius for these corners. So,

the whole deal here, as you can see how

it was, but by slicing it,

see, it makes a tighter radius.

The whole idea

is to just keep trimming it

to fit.

I'm going to tack weld all of this

because uh it's going to be a lot less

finish work. It doesn't have a big

built-up bead like the MIG welder, so it

takes a little longer, but the finish

time will be reduced because you'll see,

there's going to be a [music] ton of

welds on this.

You can see where it's at. It's darn

close. I just got to put [music] a piece

in.

What I'm going to do is sleeve these

tubes inside so that it's a very strong

joint at the front where they come

together.

And then back here, I'm going to put

some kind of a huge support plate

that will knit match onto that saddle

there. Once I put the plastic on here,

I'll just go [music] through with a

series of holes, and put some kind of a

rubber grommet. That way the metal is

never [music] touching the plastic. It's

just suspended in like a rubber bushing.

I knew I was going to hit a wall

somewhere in this project. The thing

with the motor gear drive, I knew it was

going to be a hassle.

Yeah, so this motor needs a lot of room.

I knew that this motor was going to be a

pretty big setup in the car, [music] so

I just cut out a bunch of sheet metal,

and then I just went in for the simple

lift mechanism.

This thing is [music] working, you know,

it leaves room for development, of

course, but hey, look, it's happening,

right? It's a little loose, but it's

working.

The ring that I've created to attach to

this monstrosity

is a 1 by 2-in steel

steel rectangular ring.

I met them up in the center with about

an 8-in piece.

And then here on the back, I threw it on

the car,

and I made it up to that big heavy

saddle piece.

This is the part with the pivot, [music]

and then I threw some supports along the

side of that, and then a couple

outriggers so that it's [music] got a

little more grab on the tube. The thing

weighs about 60 lb, and it's

>> [music]

>> roughly 5-ft wide by 8-ft tall, and I'm

hooking it up to an angry motor.

Victor and I have done enough projects

to know that his cars are going [music]

to get cut up. It's just what happens.

I was going to chop a hole in the doors,

modify that, [music]

set the ring down,

you know, makes it part of the car

instead of just stacked on top of it.

This whole thing is in its conceptual

[music] stage. These bubbles are so

delicate, I don't want to ruin one of

the keepers. I brought the damaged

[music] one to try out. That way if it

fails, no loss.

So, it's still [music] not perfect, but

it's working.

As long as it lifts this plastic

and spins it,

I think we're going to Victor's. [music]

On to the finish.

Literally, this car lifts up

and spins around. It's awesome. You've

never seen that before.

Probably for a reason. [music]

Oh, it spun itself off of that block.

It's kind of half carnival ride, half

[music] thunder version.

I got it working. It's still kind

[music] of loose, but it definitely

demonstrates Victor's concept perfectly.

So, it totally works. I'm going to take

it down to Victor and see what he

thinks.

A car

>> Okay, I got this car [music] back to

Victor's.

See what he thinks about it.

There's a couple small [music] issues,

but all in all I think we're going to

work through it.

It's really tough [music] to say how

Victor's going to respond to this. I

know he likes the far out stuff, but I

also know he likes [music] to see things

delivered properly.

I pull in with the trailer and I see

Victor is not really

>> [music]

>> jumping for joy. Let's say that.

Car shows up, it's half disassembled,

[music] there's a bunch of foam stuck to

it.

When I first saw the car, I seen it was

in the rough state.

I want a system that will

open up and rotate and be safe and

secure. So, that's what we we [music]

talked about and that's what I'm hoping

to see today.

It's all there. It's proven to work. So,

that's kind of where we're [music] at. I

just need you to make a decision on

whether you'd like it to spin or not.

How fast [music] is it going up and

how fast is it rotating? It rotates too

fast.

>> Like how fast is too fast?

Like it wanted to kill somebody. [music]

So, let me show you the rotation. I'll

ask you to stand back when I turn it on.

He put it on and it was rotating like

very [music] fast. He almost took off my

head a couple times. But, just seeing

this wild the concept got his brain

going in a whole new direction.

Accomplishing this bubble top, I think I

[music] might have like blew a fuse or

something in Victor's psyche because now

he's really going off the deep end. He's

talking about some wild concepts and

we're only [music] at the beginning of

this next stage.

On the next episode of Full Custom

Garage, the bubble top goes out of this

world as Ian and Victor take it to the

next level. I want it to be like a

spaceship. It's already been built two

times, what's one more time? Some people

would think of this abstract idea as

like, what? And I'm like, yes, charge

onward, figure it out.

I spent a couple seconds inside that

dome and it's hot.

So, we're having vents in the front

that'll vent the cabin and then vents in

the back that'll exhaust [music] it.

My whole task here is creative metal

work and mad scientist inspiration. He's

got pro body guy [music] on the job,

he's got a pro interior dude.

I meet the guy and it turns out he's

deaf. And Victor is like moving around,

flailing his hands, this and that. You

know what? I move my hands and I'm a

hand [music] talker, if you could see,

and we could communicate perfectly.

He's talking about making it look like

this is like the main power source for

the entire car. [music]

It's crystal powered spaceship. I'm a

subtle guy, if you could tell by my car.

We're on the final run of the whole game

right here and Victor comes up with

another idea. But now I said, "Ian, we

need a new element." [music]

He wants to take it one step further, so

we're going to try something unique once

more with the roof. I don't know exactly

how we're going to get there, but this

car is going to be amazing.

>> [music]

[music]