Original subtitles

Look, we got Grandma's car.

All right, guys, first car in the new shop.

I feel like I need a tetanus shot.

Shawn, you know what the best thing is about a four-door?

- What's that? - I don't know. What is it?

- Let's unhook this... - All right.

...and get it inside.

- I got it. Don't worry, guys. - It's official.

Gotham Garage West is open for business.

- What? - What?

- We're not calling it Gotham Garage West. - Why not?

I think we're actually south. It should be Gotham South.

Where do you come up with Gotham Garage West?

So anybody else got any good ideas for names?

How about Man Cave Shop?

Hey.

Caveman, grab your toolbox. You're fired.

Here at Gotham Garage, we upgrade and trade...

turning thousand-dollar rust buckets into six-figure works of art...

in a few greasy steps.

And we just came off one of our best years to date.

We just traded a '54 COE and a '55 Futura

for 170 grand.

And instead of pumping the brakes, we mashed the gas through the floor.

We pooled our money to get a second garage.

Welcome back, everybody!

In order to get this new shop ready for action,

we've been flipping cars and trading them for tools

just to get this building set up.

Now that you've seen your toy, show us what we're gonna get in trade for it.

All of it's yours.

Expanding any small business this fast is a huge gamble,

but if you want to build more cars and be more efficient and make more money,

you just gotta double down.

And for us, that time is right now.

You're not calling it Gotham Garage West.

What are we doing?

You guys, let's focus on this because I got questions.

Seriously, what is this?

This is a '53 Buick Special.

It is our trade-up car.

Yes, it looks ugly,

but we have somebody that thinks it's beautiful.

It's the same guy that gave him that friendnship bracelet.

Yeah. Anyway...

The guy we're trading this with says it had to be a Buick,

it had to be a Special, and it had to be a '53.

Apparently this four-door is the exact model his old man drove,

and he's always wanted to own one, but with a lot more muscle.

So what I want to do is turn this car into the first Gotham Garage sleeper.

Gotham Garage sleeper. We haven't done one.

I know this guy asked for a little more muscle,

but with this new shop, we need to blow every client's expectations away.

So we're not just adding muscle.

We're making it a full-blown sleeper,

and a sleeper is all about one thing...

deception.

On the outside, it looks stock and slow,

but hidden inside is an upgraded motor

surrounded by high-performance racing parts

that make it fast and mean.

We'll swap the original suspension that handled like a boat

for a Corvette front end and coilover shocks in the rear.

That way, this thing will hold the road, no matter how much horsepower we give it,

and we're gonna give it a lot.

We're pulling out that 60-year-old straight eight

and replacing it with a 350 V8 with tons of torque.

Then we'll complete the disguise by restoring the outside completely stock

with a two-tone paint job and whitewall tires.

You'll see this baby coming from a mile away,

but good luck keeping up with her.

I like the build. We're gonna turn it into a sleeper.

But then after we finish it, what are we getting for it?

This isn't a car we're gonna try and sell out there.

This is a trade-up car only.

So let me lay it out.

We're gonna take this absolute turd

and turn it into a peach worth 25 or 30 Gs.

I've got a guy willing to trade it straight up

for a '71 Chevy Blazer with the full removable hardtop.

That's a very desirable truck.

And once we get done, the value will be around 60 grand,

and that'll lead us to the crown jewel,

a replica of a '59 Corvette Stingray concept car.

That car is iconic,

and when we make that thing beautiful and cash out,

it's gonna be one hell of a payday.

We're talking well over six figures.

You guys get to start on this immediately.

Let's get some GoJaks and get this done.

Let's get this thing apart.

Shawn can annoy me nonstop every day,

but there is nobody better at making deals than him.

He's like a savant. For this second shop to be successful,

Shawn is really gonna have to step it up even more.

- Pretty good there. - How's that look?

Right there looks pretty good to me.

Wrong size. I need to go up one size.

If Mark would've told us we were doing the car here,

we could've brought our tools over.

1953 was actually a really cool year for Buick

because it was their 50th anniversary.

The Special wasn't considered the most glamorous car that they made.

It was kind of considered a smaller, more entry-level car,

which is crazy because in today's world, this car's huge.

But because it's old and big and has four doors,

it's the perfect car to make a sleeper.

Nobody will expect this thing to go fast or handle well,

but when we're done with it, it absolutely will.

Unh. There it goes.

That motor's huge.

Let's get this out of the way so you guys can get started.

I'm gonna work on that 350.

It's so nice having all this extra space here for our teardowns.

How long before we have this place overloaded with stuff?

Give it till after lunch.

Here's the entire problem with this garage.

We have so much stuff, but you can't throw it away

'cause you never know when you need it.

If you look at all my shelves, there's four cars in parts on those two shelves.

I need all of this stuff to build cars the way that I build cars.

Having less space

means not only are we on top of each other all the time,

but we're always waiting on something.

Waiting on the compressor, waiting on the lifts.

We waste time waiting on tools.

Think about it like this.

You got four chefs. They're in a tiny little kitchen.

They're fighting over burner space, time on the oven.

They're fighting over ingredients.

Food's gonna take forever to cook.

But take those same four chefs, give them a little bit more room...

Better yet, give them two kitchens,

and boom, you've got gourmet meals coming out twice as fast.

That's the premise behind having this second shop...

same manpower, double the efficiency.

Somebody mess with my chair? I feel lower today.

Are you trying to get up on me? Is that the deal?

That's what I'm trying to get here. So...

We got a great upgrade-and-trade car with that Buick,

but, uh, we're gonna need a cash car right now.

We gotta float bills at both places right now.

Well, I've got a guy that wants us to do a build for him.

- Yeah? - He's got a '73 Pinto.

That's not a bad car. They were pretty popular.

- I had... I had two of them. - Really?

Yeah. They make a really cool mini hot rod with big, wide tires,

and you can put, like, a big block in it sticking up out of the hood.

That's, like, a really good Gotham Garage car.

Well, that's the catch with this one.

The guy wants it to be an electric Pinto.

- Electric blue? - No, no, no.

As in, convert the motor to electric. This helps us expand, right?

I said expand. I didn't say start a whole new industry-business thing.

We're not. We're customizing a car for a guy.

You know why I don't do it? I know what it cost to make an electric car.

I know they're expensive, but that's okay. He's got the money.

- I think it's a perfect cash deal for us... - I'm not excited about building an...

Listen, it's not just the fact that it's an electric car.

It's who we're doing it for.

- Who we doing it for? - Gil Losi.

He's in the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame.

If he's in the Roadster Show Hall of Fame, then he's gotta be somebody pretty big.

Gil Losi is a legend.

He's been an innovator in every part of the car business,

especially the racing world.

He sponsored his own IndyCar team, and they were always ahead of the curve.

This is one of those guys who's on the cutting edge.

He always does something kind of new.

What's he want specifically? What are we doing to this Pinto?

He wants a Pinto dragster, and he wants it with electric motor.

It's got to be under nine seconds in the eighth mile.

- We're talking serious fast. - That's quick, dude.

That's not even fast. That's quick. You gotta be quick to beat nine seconds.

Hell, yeah. Are you cool with this? Can you...

No, I'm really not cool with this, but I'll-I'll build it.

You just get the money.

- All right. - Now get out of my office.

I'm out. I'm gonna go in the other room

and cry that I have to build an electric car.

I can't believe you agreed to do an electric car.

Sellout.

Caveman, check out this little gem. This is why I called you back over here.

Wow, look at that. A Pinto.

My brother had one. Wait. Wait.

Yeah, there you go.

Dude, it has an 8-track player in it!

You're gonna love this idea. We're gonna make a drag car out of it.

Ooh, okay. I'm down for that. Down for a good drag car.

It's gonna go on a diet, though.

- You're scaring me. - Gonna make an electric car out of it.

What? Wait a second.

I gotta make sure I'm at the same place. What's that say?

- That's says Gotham Garage. - And what do we do at Gotham Garage?

We build gasoline hot rods here.

Yes, we do. I know the "g" stands for gas.

If we have to do an electric car, we're gonna do it the Gotham Garage way.

Gil wants this Pinto to look amazing.

For us, that's the easy part, but getting it to perform?

That's gonna be the tricky part.

For comparison, your typical souped-up muscle car

does a 10-to 12-second eighth mile.

So to get it under nine, it's gonna have to be really quick.

How about a hood scoop on it, too?

Just for a gag. You want the big snorkel? That 12-inch one up there? Yeah.

That would be great.

Whether it's a gas-powered car or an electric car,

this Pinto needs to look and feel like a badass dragster.

We'll start by putting giant big-ass tires on the back,

and on the inside, we'll make it racing safe.

We'll put in a four-point roll cage, racing seats,

and fout-point racing harnesses.

We'll add a big, fat hood scoop just for looks...

and polish it off by adding an electroluminescent coating,

which means it's gonna light up the night.

- We need to strip this little car apart. - Okay.

The Ford Pinto is a car that a lot of people have heard about...

...because basically, when they got rear-ended...

boom.

Ford put the fuel tank between the rear axle and the rear bumper.

So when you hit it just right, they caught on fire.

Let's see.

My plan when we finish this car is to take it straight to the dragstrip,

have Gil meet us there.

That way, first time he sees it is when it shreds the track.

Caveman likes to cut.

We're gonna take out the bomb next.

He's willing to give us 60-65 grand

if this thing goes under nine seconds.

If we can get it going even faster than that,

I know we can get more money.

We gotta look at all of the electrical components that we ordered

and try to make some kind of sense out of it.

So all we have to do now

is figure out how to get all of this into that.

Hmm.

This is, like, way too much technology in my life in front of me.

There's a reason why I focus on gasoline-powered cars.

Because that's what I know how to do.

Every time I stray from that, I get myself into trouble.

A certain Smart car that almost destroyed me

comes to mind.

What is this? That's the motor.

- It's a cap plate. - Plastic cover?

- I was gonna say, "What the hell?" - I'm like, "How do you get the bolt out?"

Apparently the Smart car's outsmarting both of us.

But I do learn from my mistakes,

so I'm calling Tony to take the lead on this one.

Hello?

So I need you to come over here and help me figure this out.

- Be there in a few minutes. - All right. Bye.

All right.

I don't know what the is going on here.

- 'Cause we're dinosaurs. That's why. - I know, right?

I don't see anywhere to put gasoline.

Man, this is a sight to see. You two guys playing with a science-fair kit?

Yeah.

Tony is a master machinist and a really great fabricator.

He also loves this techy stuff.

So usually when we're doing a motor swap,

we're not dealing with this many parts to make fit together.

I think it'd be cool if we could take all these parts

- and make it into one big assembly. - Yeah.

Drag cars are all about acceleration.

It's about getting off the line as quick as you can,

and electric motors are actually really good for that.

Most electric cars have one motor,

but two motors coupled together can actually double the power,

and we have just enough space in this Pinto engine compartment

to squeeze two motors in there.

This is a drag car.

Obviously we're gonna push the envelope as far as we can.

- Ta-da. One electric motor. - It's pretty high tech.

If we can get more power in and make it go faster, we're gonna do it.

I guess first thing tomorrow morning, we'll start the electrical on the car,

and, pardon the pun, I will follow your lead.

I've been really into these electric-car conversions lately.

Been doing a lot of research,

and I've been waiting for one of these to come through the shop.

- Shouldn't have to guess, at this point. - That's all we do here is guess.

That's what the first "G" in Gotham Garage is for.

I still love our hot-rod builds, and I'll never leave that behind.

That's what we do here.

But I do want to try something new

and play with some of this new-and-upcoming technology.

Now we need some batteries.

Rigging the Pinto up to work on battery power

is a really big job.

- It's a bunch of double-A batteries. - That's all it is.

Every piece that we need, we have to make.

If we need a battery box for the Pinto, we have to make it from scratch.

So together they make quite a bit of voltage.

- You really have to pay attention. - Correct.

That'll wake you up.

The unfortunate thing is it's only gonna get more complicated

from this point forward.

What I'm doing here is wiring up our Tesla battery pack.

The manual for the electric car is about a inch and a half thick,

and half of it is written in another language.

To top it off, these instructions are for a single-motor setup,

and we're doing a dual-motor setup.

Since this is our first time around with an electric car,

this could take some trial and error.

We just have to dive in and figure it out.

- Is it ready to go? - I think we're ready to turn on.

Three, two, one.

There's no vroom sound. I don't know how hard to push.

I know, right? I'm getting my electric-car ride.

It does not like the rev-up.

I lost power.

I got no gas.

As soon as we go full on the throttle, we lose all power.

Well, that was fun.

But I've got my trusty 500-page manual here.

- Figure out why your toy don't work. - This is my toy now, huh?

When they don't work, they're no longer my toys...

All right, I'm on it. Let me get this thing plugged in.

This 350 V8 is going to be the perfect motor for this Buick.

I mean, nobody's going to expect it to have so much power.

We actually pulled this 350 out of a previous build,

so it's been in the shop for a while now.

It's going from sitting on a shelf somewhere in the back of the shop,

and now it gets the chance to be the heart and soul of this sleeper.

I'm the engine specialist here,

and builds like this are really why I just love my job.

Hey, Caveman, can I get a little man muscle over here?

Keep going. Keep going. Oh.

This way some...

and kick my end out some.

Ooh. Oh, yeah. All right, we're all the way in.

- Right? - Looks good.

Sounds like Caveman and Constance are cruising on that sleeper,

but the electric Pinto is basically at a standstill.

I got no power coming from the key.

With gasoline-driven cars,

you can use all your senses to figure out what the problem is.

You can see things. You can tell if it's getting gas.

You tell if it's getting spark. You hear things.

"That's a rod knock. Doesn't sound like the timing's right."

Maybe back to the longer one, do that same loop.

You can smell things. "It's leaking fuel somewhere."

- It's quite the puzzle, isn't it? - Yeah.

Electric cars... This is what you get.

There's nothing.

How do you know if it... if it's on?

- That's a good question. - The problem could be anywhere.

I'm telling you, this is turning into that fricking Smart car, dude.

Ah. Fun stuff, man.

Uh, maybe we just popped a fuse or something.

Oh, yeah. We-We just blew a fuse right here.

Yeah.

You got one of these?

Nope, but I know how to fix it.

So in my day, this is why they said

you put cars together with chewing gum and baling wire.

Because the foil is so thin on here

that if it really is a short, it'll singe it and burn it in half again.

This is how you get home from the drive-in.

Just stick it in, it'll work.

So we're really gonna use chewing gum right now

to fix the electric car?

We're not actually using the chewing gum. We're using the foil wrapper.

If you say so.

The best part is you'll never have to replace that fuse again.

All right.

It needs a little old school with the new school.

Punch the throttle.

- See? - There it goes.

That almost sounds like a real motor.

All this work, and that's what we were missing.

I can grab the seats we got for it, and we can stick 'em in real fast.

- Yeah, baby. - Not bad.

Whoa.

Dude.

That's got some yip-yay. That is way better than before.

- Gets a big high five. - Pretty good.

- High five. - Yeah, baby.

The Pinto is running really well on the street.

Tony has these motors dialed in. Everything seems to be working properly.

It seems to be really quick, but it's impossible to know

if we're gonna get under nine seconds in a eighth mile

until we actually get this thing on the track,

which means we need to finish the car, so now it's fabrication time.

First off, we need to make room for

the biggest, meatiest rear tires we can find.

And it's not gonna fit.

Oh, it'll fit.

One, two, three! Gotham Garage rocks!

Then we got to build a four-point roll cage for safety.

Every serious dragster needs one.

I asked for a hood scoop.

The hood scoop is really just eye candy.

It's not necessary for an electric motor to have an air intake on top of the hood.

It's just my twisted sense of humor.

Remember to wear the safety goggles.

Where's the queen? Where's the queen?

This is a drag car. It should look like a drag car.

- That's a good job. I'll give you a "B." - A "B"? It's better than a "D."

Right. Exactly.

Ow.

- I get you? - Oh, got me good.

- Check that out. - That's '70s drag car all day long.

Right?

The Pinto's been anything but ordinary

up to this point, so why stop now?

We're gonna put a product on it called LumiLor.

It's an electroilluminescent coating.

It's a light-emitting paint.

It's pretty much magic.

I don't know how it works.

This is gonna be the perfect way to highlight our electric dragster.

Shawn's customer wanted a Gotham Garage ride, electrified.

And that's exactly what he's gonna get, right down to the paint.

With that done...

now we're gonna skin this with a badass purple wrap.

Our goals on this Pinto

were to make it electric and make it quick.

We gave it wide, meaty tires for traction,

a four-point roll cage,

racing seats, and harnesses for track safety.

We hooked it up to two electric motors powered by seven batteries.

This thing is lightning quick on the street.

It should break nine seconds no problem.

But you can't test the eighth mile out here safely,

and it's not like I got keys to the dragstrip.

So we're just gonna have to hope

that this thing... nails it at the track.

Good evening, race fans.

Welcome to Thursday Night Thunder at Irwindale Dragstrip.

Our client Gil wanted a sub-nine-second car,

and he has agreed to pay handsomely for it

to the tune of $65,000.

Our thought is that if the car performs even better than expected,

Gil might dig a little deeper in his wallet.

Next up to the line is a fully electric 1970 Ford Pinto

by Gotham Garage out of Temecula, California.

Yeah, we like the Pinto!

Wow. That thing's pretty wild. Now, if it runs like it looks...

Hell, yeah, it's gonna run.

Our goal with the Pinto was this... there's no half measures.

If we're gonna do it,

it's gonna be the most badass Gotham Garage electric dragster ever.

Under eight seconds? Are you kidding me?

That thing is amazing.

How'd they get that little car to go that fast that quiet?

- That's crazy. - That is fast.

Hitting the gas in this

makes you feel like you're strapped to the front of an asteroid.

It flies. It eats the pavement.

We did an under-eight-second pass on our first run with no tuning.

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually kind of love this car.

And the only step left now is to sell it.

The guy we built this for is huge in the hot-rod community,

and according to Shawn, he's always been on the cutting edge of technology,

both as a car builder and as a man.

- Was that fast or what? - That was really good.

It's amazing. Totally amazing.

There goes our Pinto! Yeah!

- Now does that look good? - It looks really hot.

I think the car is great. You guys did a unbelievable...

Runs like a champ. Thanks. Our crew did a great job.

And it just never made a sound.

Yeah, it's a silent but deadly, I guess.

It's quieter than regular electric cars.

They make some noise. This makes no noise.

Yeah, yeah. This is, like, a lot of fun. A lot of fun.

There's a whole lot done to this car.

It's pretty much a drag car, but it's also a showpiece.

Underneath the hood, what we did is the motors are joined with a coupler.

That's the front motor, and that's the back motor.

And it has an electric pump

for the transmission to cycle fluid through it.

It's got automatic transmission fluid going through it.

It's got a readerboard that tells you

everything you need to know in front of you.

I think the car is great. Great color. It's a great design.

The flares and everything look good.

I love all the lights and stuff in it.

But wait. Here's the other cool thing.

This is illuminescent paint.

The stripes light up. How do you like that?

- That's wild. - That's an electric car, isn't it?

That's wild. I heard of this stuff, but I've never seen it.

I didn't either. I was like, "We gotta put that on. It's an electric car."

That's crazy. What about the radio?

- It's a 8-track. - Yeah.

Originally we agreed to 65 grand for this Pinto build,

which seems like a ton of money,

but electric cars are not cheap to build.

We really only stand to make about 15 grand for this job.

When you split that between all of us, it's not a whole lot of money.

But this car performed beyond expectations.

Man, we got to push for more money.

- Are you impressed yet? - I really am.

Originally, we talked about 65,000,

but we knew that was a bit of a floating budget.

What's this "we"?

Well, that's us. I talked to you on the phone about this.

- So here's what I'm gonna throw at you. - I knew that was gonna happen.

I'm thinking because we put in so much extra,

we're gonna just up the bill to, like, 80 grand,

and I think that's more than reasonable.

You got your head up your?

But 65,000 was for a nine-second car.

- We got under-eight-second car. - High sevens.

- High sevens, exactly. - High sevens.

So what do you think? How's 80? Is that fair?

No.

You got a one-of-a-kind car.

- Seventy-five. We got a deal. - Seventy-five?

Shake his hand before he changes his mind.

- Okay. - Hand him the keys to his new car.

- Here you go. - I appreciate what you guys have done.

Thank you, Gil.

So Mark showed him a good time, and Gil paid for it.

- That does not sound right. - It's all right with me.

I showed him a good enough time that he gave us a lot of money.

About ten grand more than we originally thought we were gonna.

So?

- Well, how'd we do? - Seventy-five Gs.

There you go.

And Gil's happy?

- Gil's stoked. Yeah. - Gil's very happy.

- Totally loves it. - His dream car. That's what he was after.

So now don't forget, we still have a Buick we gotta finish.

- We did not forget. - We didn't forget.

So I'm gonna take my truck

and go home with a empty trailer and a happy face.

So I will see you all back at the shop.

- All right. - Good job, guys.

- Good job. - Good day, you guys.

- Look at this. 1950's technology. - Yeah.

Twenty-first century technology. Hmm.

We got to get back to this Buick 'cause it is very important.

We're turning it into a sleeper car.

Stop.

It's a wolf in sheep's clothing.

We're making a badass hot rod camouflaged with a stock exterior.

Caveman and I are gonna put that rear suspension in that car.

With those coilovers, this car is gonna sit low and mean,

and it's gonna handle like a dream.

While we're doing that, Constance is gonna finish that 350 V8.

- I got shiny things for you. - I know.

Oh, I'm so pretty. You can see me.

See?

Constance is pretty. You're not pretty.

I'm very pretty.

You're not pretty.

My mother would never lie to me like that.

She's gonna give it that classic muscle-car look underneath the hood,

but from the outside, no one is gonna know it's got that much horsepower.

Whoa.

- Damn! - Damn.

Ooh, yeah, give it gas!

Yeah! Awesome.

- Nice job. - High five.

- Great job! - Nice job.

That's fricking awesome.

So now we'll get all the body panels on it that Shawn found

and get it over to Gotham Garage for body work.

Let's get the hood up on a stand, then Constance can start on this.

- Me and Constance are doing our nails. - We're having a spa day today.

That would be toenail-size for you.

Now it's time to complete the disguise.

We're doing the final blocking and body work before it goes to paint.

I was having more fun...

- With our spa day? - ...with our spa day.

Hey, this thing is turning out sexy.

In the morning,

it's gonna get that awesome, vintage, stock-looking two-tone paint.

It is gonna be the coolest sleeper on the planet.

Grandma's car looks badass.

I'm not gonna give my crew a spa day,

but they did a fantastic job with this car,

so after I'm done priming it,

I think I'll give them the next best thing.

- Oh, why, thank you. - You're welcome.

Nice to have this thing almost done.

- Looks good. - Right?

It's come a long way from that rust bucket it rolled in as.

- You partying without me? - Speak of the devil.

Look who's here.

Yeah?

Oh, my God, this looks great.

Small block all cleaned up.

- It's got A/C. - Oh, yeah.

Now we're gonna trade it for a '71 Blazer, yeah.

You should see the Blazer.

I could tell by that twinkle in your eye it's a gem.

Oh, I'm twinkling. The Blazer's a really nice truck.

And then we trade it

for a replica '59 Corvette Stingray concept car.

That's what I'm talking about.

As long as everything keeps falling into place,

it'll be like a train.

It'll start to build momentum, and we'll be golden.

- Where's my beer? - He knows we're partying without him.

I love this place. Like a candy store.

I'm on the hunt for chrome bolts

for the bumpers on the Buick.

$5.65 a piece.

That bolt would probably cost you $11

if you were to buy it at a specialty automotive store.

Or just to have it chromed, it's gonna cost more than five bucks.

Caveman can buy tires for him to chew on in the front yard.

"Call me ASAP." What, something caught on fire?

Hope he didn't blow nothing up.

I need you to get here right away. There was a accident with the Buick.

- It's bad, man. You got to get here... - No, it's not.

I need you to get... You guys gotta get back here ASAP.

See you in two seconds.

You kidding me.

We'll be back. We got an emergency at the shop.

Slow down. Let us get in. Let us get in the car. Hold on.

- Hurry up. - Hold on, hold on.

Hold on, hold on. Let me get in. Let me get in.

Tony called me that frantic, which is not like Tony.

All the worst things that can happen at a shop like mine

are all running through my head right now,

and I just know I got to get back there as fast as I can.

All right, guys, let's go.

He hit it hard.

You're kidding me, right?

No, we're not kidding you. You're looking at it, right?