Today's a good day.
Today's a great day.
Man: Oh!
[ laughter ]
dave: We're building our very
first kindig-it design
production vehicle.
Oh, yeah.
And we're taking our view
of a 1953 corvette
to the extreme.
If things don't go smoothly,
I'm gonna be really upset.
Ow. That was my hand.
Dave: We've got a really cool
'32 ford showing up.
I got into the hot rod thing,
and now I need your help.
The engine was not helping.
Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[ engine shuts off ]
[ engine backfires ]
whoa!
dave: Clean...
Custom...
Bitchin'.
my name is dave kindig.
Designing and building custom
cars is my life's passion.
With the best mechanics,
technicians, and fabricators
in the business,
quality is our only focus.
We build bitchin' rides.
-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by
discovery communications
we're building our very first
kindig-it design
production vehicle,
and we're taking our view
of a 1953 corvette
to the extreme.
New wheels
for the mock-up
on the corvette are here.
We've got the plug car
put together
and made some k*ller molds.
Now that these molds are dried,
it's time to pull them off,
but that might be easier
said than done.
I'm really excited
'cause we worked on this
for a really long time.
A lot of really,
really early mornings
and really long days.
Thinking
if we can get this side off,
then we can access
the rest of the panels.
Oh, yeah.
It's coming
apart really good.
So I'm gonna go recruit
some help
because I bet this piece
is heavy.
Dave: And that brings you up
to where we left off
last time --
just trying to get
these damn molds off.
If things don't go smoothly,
I'm gonna be really upset.
aw, dang it.
Dave: The idea behind
these molds for us is to try
and get as big of a piece
of a one-piece body as we can.
So that means we're gonna
have multiple pieces
to make one mold
for the entire body,
and then we'll be able to
unbolt it to get the parts out.
Having these much larger pieces
to make one big mold
is proving to be a little bit
more difficult to get them off.
Well, I guess the front
wants to come off first.
there it goes.
there's
the front form pieces.
Just don't drop it
on me.
Yeah, you can see it.
It's twisting right there.
I'm pretty sure it's
because of these lights.
It looks like we have
a little bit of a trap
between the wheel well
and the headlight,
and we need to try and free
this or break it loose
without breaking the mold.
Don't pull too hard.
damn.
It took an awful
lot of labor
to get these molds
exactly the way they are,
and with that amount
of time invested,
we have to be very careful not
to break them getting them off.
Got it?
Just right here.
Green side down.
Oh, it came out awesome,
super-smooth.
We got a few little things
to fix here and there,
but that's expected.
A lot of work,
but, damn, it looks good.
Okay, we've got one side done.
Now it's time
to get to the other side.
Jason: I guess I'm anticipating
the same...
Hooking point up here.
Is it stuck
on the lights again?
[ crack ]
was that crack
around the headlight?
It's got to be
around these headlights.
That cracking sound you hear
is not good.
Is that moving?
Dave:
If the mold has an angle
that's not letting go
of the part,
that's called a lock, my friend.
So we don't want
to break the mold
getting the parts out of it.
We don't want to break
the plug car necessarily.
But that sacrificial.
But if it's breaking
the plug car, that means
it could probably break the
original carbon fiber body, too.
I'm willing to try anything
to make this work.
[ man humming ]
man: Oh!
[ laughter ]
if this mold's holding
on to the part that bad
and even breaking
a baseball bat,
that means we have
a serious lock here.
Jason: The headlight and front
wheel tub created a lock.
Either it seeped in too far
or...
Something not jibing,
so we've kind of got a lock
going on up here.
So we just got to negotiate
with it a little more.
Okay, let's try up
and out and forward.
Up and out, forward
down or in back.
[ cracking ]
sounds twisted.
The car's
coming with it.
It's almost like
it didn't get waxed.
At this point,
we've done everything we could
to get these panels off the car.
We've been pushing and pulling
and prying.
Something's got to give.
the mold came out good.
The front of the car --
not so good.
This is a really bad spot
to be in
because the mold car is supposed
to be perfectly unmolded.
And when you go and take
the molds off of the plug car
and it cracks the plug car,
that means you have a lock.
Jason:
So we're gonna have to fix that.
I'd rather have the car crack
and damage than the molds.
Well, it's weird 'cause
I don't even feel a lip.
It had to be around
this headlight
because, I mean,
you can grab pretty hard there.
Let's try the top.
Got some structure to cut out
in the middle,
and then this one
is just gonna be more heave-h*
just 'cause so heavy, so big.
And it's got to come
straight up.
Ow. That was my hand.
Oh, yeah.
Go and grab
the front corner.
Now, let's just kind of
almost lever it 'cause
the back taillights,
we got to break loose
and then go backwards.
Ready?
-Yep.
okay.
Yeah, I see that.
Oh.
Damn it.
It's catching
right there
because that would be our up
to come this way.
And this is keeping it
from pivoting enough
that way right here.
[ thud ]
I hit something.
Jason:
It's definitely loose,
dave:
Even with my help,
the back was bending so much
that I think
we need a better solution
to this rear end.
Yeah, I should have run
right there.
With this mold being so big,
I guess worst comes to worst,
we're gonna have
to cut it in two.
cool.
I'm done with this car
for the day.
With the molds finally pulled
off of the car,
we have a couple of corrections
to make before we can ship them.
It's important to go ahead and
reassemble this one-piece mold
to make sure that
all of this lines up
and it looks perfect
for the new bodies.
Before these side molds
can leave here
with everything else,
we have to make sure
we put a little bit more backer
board structure on them.
Pretty much got everything done.
I can start to see the light
at the end of the tunnel.
I'm super-ecstatic about that.
So now we're just gonna
go around, clean up the edges,
get rid of all the little
stringies from the fiberglass,
and then we're gonna
load it up and ship it.
that's the end.
We're done.
Hallelujah.
dave:
This has taken a lot of work,
but I'll tell you what,
it's paying off.
This is what it was all about.
A whole 18-wheeler truckload
full of awesome, kick-a*s
kindig-it design molds
are ready to go.
dude, I've been looking forward
to this day
for the last 90 days.
When we started this project
about 90 days ago.
Now we're just gonna
load them in the truck.
Kev's gonna take them up,
drop them off.
They'll lay them up
with the carbon fiber,
and then we got
our carbon fiber corvette.
It should be pretty awesome.
I am ecstatic.
Might even cry a little bit.
I'm excited to not see
this beautiful stuff anymore.
I'm excited
because everything's done
and being shipped off.
I've been here three months
over 40 hours a week
just on this car.
Dave:
These c1 corvette concept cars
are gonna be possibly one
of our most bitchin' rides ever.
Jason: Today's a good day.
Today's a great day.
dave: Finally, the molds
are on their way to washington,
so we can start pulling
our brand-new carbon
fiber bodies out of them.
And while that's gone,
we've got a really cool
'32 ford showing up.
And the owner of this car
is just as bitchin' as his ride.
My name is jim heath,
and I'm also known
as the reverend horton heat.
I have a long-running band,
reverend horton heat,
that started in 1986.
We have not been without
a record deal since 1990.
We've probably played
as many as 6,000 gigs.
Well, jim, I'm glad you brought
the hot rod down here.
It's a 1932 ford, what
they call a highboy hot rod.
This thing's pretty cool.
How long have you had this car?
Well, it's actually -- it was
two cars put together.
I got a body from a '32
ford. It was a total wreck.
Unusable,
except for the one part
that we needed for a second one
that we found at a swap meet.
Oh, really?
Well, originally it
had fenders and a running board.
But when you make it a highboy,
a thing they did in the '50s
where they would take
the fenders off.
I'm very much influenced
by '50s music,
but also '50s culture.
So hot rods, classic cars,
atomic furniture,
so all that kind of stuff.
Super-cool.
I got into the hot rod thing,
and now I need your help.
Yeah, well,
the doctor is in, my friend.
What is going on
with the car?
What kind of issues
are you having?
I love the look
of the brakes,
and I like the buick
finned-aluminum look,
but the car slows down.
It does--
okay.
It doesn't stop.
That's bad.
That's bad.
It's very scary to drive.
You've got the period-correct
look of the car.
But if it's not stopping,
that's still period correct,
but people died a lot
back then.
We don't want you to die.
We want you
to stick around for a minute.
They actually make
a brake system.
It's a disc brake, and it is
hidden inside of what looks like
the same brakes
that you've got here.
So it's a much safer
brake system,
especially on
a period-correct-style
car like this.
We want to be sneaky
about it.
You know, it's period correct
to have a proper fan on it,
but the car overheats.
I don't live
in southern california.
I live in texas.
And so it makes it
where I can really
only drive it
a few months out of the year.
That's an issue.
I always look at it
as a balance.
Let's just bite the b*llet,
and we're gonna lose just a
little bit of vintage look.
Let's put an electric fan,
but let's shroud it.
That'll help really get the air
pushed through
where it needs to be
and keep the car cool
so you can enjoy it.
Because you know what?
Looking cool
in a period-correct car,
that's one thing.
It's real hard to look cool
on the side of the road
with that thing
boiling over.
Actually, I would be
almost willing
to just throw
period correct
completely out the window.
I want something I can drive.
Don't ever tell me that.
[ laughs ]
I'll put an ls
or 5.0 in it.
But, no, I know
what you're saying.
It looks like you got
a broken door handle.
So there's some little things
that we need to do on the car
obviously. Just
kind of knickknacks.
Is the gauges working?
I mean, how's the motor running?
How's the clutch feel?
The gauges don't work at all.
The gas gauge, the speedometer.
That would be nice to know
when I'm...
Again, sitting on the side
of the road,
getting a speeding ticket
with it overheating
and you're out of gas --
that all sucks.
Yeah, and I don't even know
if I actually made it over
Yeah, you want to know
why you're getting a ticket.
I want to know
why I'm getting a ticket.
With an engine like this
in this hot rod,
it would not be a difficult
thing to get a speeding ticket.
Obviously,
it's a small-block chevy.
Do you know anything
about the build on them?
There's something going on
with the engine,
and I don't know
what it is exactly,
but it just doesn't feel
right to me
because it's kind of, like,
sputters.
You know [imitates
engine sputtering]
and that's
the other thing, too.
Right now
it's just the headers.
It looks like
it's probably a little loud.
And my neighbors told me
that it rattles their windows.
When I drive down the street,
it rattles their windows.
So I want a muffler.
I want mufflers.
Okay, totally cool.
That pretty much covers
everything that needs to be done
to this car to make it drivable,
except for one little detail
that I'm gonna add.
All four tires
are the same size.
Can I talk you
out of those bias plies
and put some
hot-rod-style radials on here?
It'll probably drive
a lot better.
We'll check the alignment
and stuff,
but you got to have
bigs and littles, man.
Look, you do whatever you want
to do because I trust you
and I think
you're a pretty cool guy.
So I'll trust you.
Trust me. Trust me.
If you don't like it,
I'll buy you another full set
of truck tires
all the way around.
[ laughs ] okay.
Having the client's trust
is everything to me,
so I'll make sure that he likes
what I'm doing
before
I just send it on its way.
But I guarantee you
he's gonna love it.
Awesome. Thank you, man.
Jim, thank you.
Man, I appreciate you
picking us to work on this.
We're big fans of you.
We'll make you proud.
All right. Thank you, dave.
Appreciate it.
Well, come on up.
All right.
Before we get
to resizing his tires,
we're gonna get to checking
these front brakes.
these are drum brakes,
and, you know,
you have to get in there,
you have to adjust them
on occasion.
Where with this brake setup,
you don't have to do that.
They have opted to go
to a disc brake kit
that converts this drum system
to a disc system,
and it keeps the factory look.
You don't see a rotor.
You don't see a caliper.
Nothing like that.
It's rather
a really neat kit.
Kevin: So there should be
no modifications.
This is actually a kit.
They've been doing this
for a long time.
Everything should just bolt
right up and have no problems.
Lane: These brakes, these drum
brakes on the front here,
they look brand-new.
So it looks like
they've just been recently done.
But the master cylinder did die.
It was pissing fluid
all over the place.
So we are gonna be changing
the master cylinder
and upgrading it to a wilwood,
as well as changing
over the front drum brakes
to disc brakes.
Kevin: The drum brakes look
incredibly vintage,
and that's what we want to keep.
So we are going to do something
a little sneaky.
We're gonna take
some disc brakes,
and we're gonna hide them
in some drum brake covers.
so right now, I've got
the main hub for the spindle,
and it gives you an option
for different lug patterns.
So what I'm doing here is,
I've already matched up the hub
and the studs to the wheel
that we're running
and installing the studs
in the correct fashion
and torquing them into place.
[ beep ]
kevin: So lane likes to play
some jokes
with the axle grease
or the bearing grease.
He just needs to get
back to work.
everything looks right
on this install.
All we got to do
is wrap this thing up.
When installing a new hub,
you don't want to overtighten
the hub nut.
You want to go at it just tight
enough to hold it on there,
but not tight enough
to put any awkward pressure
on the bearings.
Lane:
Generally you have a little more
in the way of adjustment.
And these...
These don't like
to play nicely.
So they'll just get
what I give them.
So now that the disc
is installed,
now lane's ready
for the caliper.
so once lane has
the disc brakes installed,
it's basically just
a really cool drum cover
that makes it look like
drum brakes still.
It should look k*ller.
Lane: Another one done.
The master cylinder
comes in.
I complete it.
It'll be done.
Dave: I really love the fact
that these brakes are gonna
actually perform
the way they should,
but they still have
that classic nostalgic look.
Now it's time to check out
this engine
and get it running properly.
Lane:
Between the last couple days,
we have managed
to assemble the engine.
The engine was not healthy.
The engine was toast.
So had it basically rebuilt,
and now it makes
quite a bit more power.
So it's gonna be a fun car.
Lane: So now, you know, we're
just doing the final
few little things here,
and we'll be all
but ready to tune
this thing and break in the cam.
And finally, we'll see
if it'll do an awesome burnout.
Before
we can really even do a burnout,
I think we might need
to start the car.
Okay, go ahead.
[ engine sputtering ]
[ groans ]
dave: We're working through
some major issues
with this engine
in this '32 ford.
And I think we've got
everything figured out.
So let's see if it starts.
You're gonna crank it
for a minute.
There's
no fuel in the bowls, I bet.
Okay. Go ahead.
[ engine sputtering ]
let's put a charger
on that battery.
Some problems on these cars
are easy to diagnose.
Some are like scavenger hunts.
You've got to look,
you've got to search.
You've got to turn over
every rock to find out
what the problem is.
Collin: Which one
you want it on, lane?
Let's see.
We got the battery charged,
and we're gonna
give this engine a go.
[ engine sputtering ]
okay, hang on.
Let me help it along.
So on an engine like this,
it has a mechanical fuel pump,
so when the engine is running,
it is pumping fuel.
But when you're cranking it
with the starter,
it pumps very slowly.
We spray some fuel
directly in the carburetors
to get the engine running,
making the pump pump faster,
and fill the bowls
on all the carburetors.
[ engine sputtering ]
hang on.
[ engine shuts off ]
press down on
the throttle pedal again.
[ pedal clicks ]
okay.
Yeah, that front carb.
Man, oh, man.
It feels like
it's all jammed up.
[ groans ]
I don't want
to pull this carb off.
Let's see
if it'll pop or anything.
[ engine sputtering ]
yeah.
Let's check for spark.
The scavenger hunt continues.
We have fuel, we have air.
I'm breathing it.
Do we have spark?
Nothing was disconnected
underneath the dash, right?
I'm looking
at that right now.
And now...
What else could be wrong?
Oh, look at you
hiding over here,
you little pain in the a*s.
Oh, what was this?
The one wire isn't
hooked up to...
The coil?
Yeah, it was tucked in
behind a couple other wires.
♪ hey ♪
hey, how much do you want to bet
we go sparky, sparky now?
Kevin: Now that the igniter's
plugged in,
we should have spark.
Air, spark, fuel --
makes things run.
Cross my fingers.
Ready?
Give 'er hell.
[ engine sputtering ]
okay.
Still haven't filled up
the fuel pump yet.
Okay, give 'er hell.
[ engine sputters ]
again.
[ engine sputters ]
again.
[ engine sputtering ]
yeah.
I need a hell of a lot
more fuel than that, huh?
Yeah, we don't have
any fuel in the bowls yet.
We may have to fill
these carbs manually.
I just need to crank it
until the bowls fill up.
Keep cranking.
[ engine sputtering ]
damn, that scared me!
Why aren't
we filling the bowls?
So it seems like we're getting
a little fuel, but not enough.
There has to be something wrong
with the fuel line.
We're not getting any fuel.
I mean, I looked in the tank.
It's --
there's plenty enough in there.
Again.
[ engine sputtering ]
okay.
Fuel pump's operating,
so we're just not getting
fuel up here.
Nothing about the fuel line
looks out of place.
This is exactly what happens.
You've got to turn over
every stone to find the problem.
Yeah, that'll work.
Okay.
If it doesn't fire now,
we're gonna have to tear
the whole fueling out
of this car to find the problem.
Yeah.
[ engine sputtering ]
[ sputtering continues ]
no, no fuel.
We were hoping
it wouldn't come to this,
but there's only
one thing left to do.
We just got to find out
where the fuel's stopping.
No fuel up here either.
On the main feed.
It's running
into my shirt.
When we found fuel, it was only
making it halfway to the pump,
and we fixed the blockage.
That should cure our problem.
Fingers crossed.
We need to put
a little more fuel in it.
Man: Do it.
let's try this again,
and for the last time.
Okay.
Lane: Just crank it.
[ engine sputtering ]
[ engine starts ]
hell yeah.
-[ laughs ]
[ engine revs ]
got oil pressure.
[ engine whirring ]
sometimes it can be rough
turning over every stone,
but at the end of the day,
I love scavenger hunts.
We always find the greatest
surprise at the end.
Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[ engine shuts off ]
[ engine backfires ]
whoa!
Dave: Scared the [bleep]
out of me.
Well, we're out there
breaking in the cam right now.
She's running.
She sounds k*ller. And...
Whoa, whoa.
[ engine shuts off ]
[ engine backfires ]
whoa!
We've been working very hard
to get this '32 ford's
engine running perfectly,
and it looked like
we were almost there,
and then this happened.
Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[ engine shuts off ]
[ engine backfires ]
whoa!
Well, we'll take a look
at the damage.
Hopefully it's nothing serious.
[ laughs ]
scared the [bleep] out of me.
Oh, my ticker!
Got a fuel distribution problem,
I think.
Lane: We have
a header-cracking problem.
I wouldn't have
chromed it again.
I would have just cleaned
the [bleep] thing up
and polished the stainless.
Man: It backfired 'cause
it was revved so high.
Dave: For years and years,
hot-rodders have been
chroming their headers.
And it's not necessarily
the best way to go.
And a good chrome job will
really stay on there very well.
Sometimes you get just a bad
batch or a bad prep on chrome,
or it just didn't work out.
With these being
previously chromed,
that's likely
what the problem was.
Oh, there's a guy
that made that decision.
Blown the chrome off.
Had it redone.
And then they chromed
the whole exhaust
instead of just polishing.
They were supposed
to polish it.
The headers
were already chromed.
-I know.
-Is that polished or chromed?
-Chrome.
-Don't touch it.
It's hot as [bleep]
kevin: It is chrome.
It was steel, huh?
It sucks it did that,
but the old chrome would
have done the same thing.
Chrome will never get
you home.
It's a hot rod, man.
Yep. The driver.
It's the cost
of being cool.
Dave:
We've got the best chrome shop.
We'll just send them back
and have them redipped.
the engine
for the reverend's car
was the last big hurdle
to wrap up on this '32
before we give it back to him.
One of my very
favorite musicians,
the reverend horton heat,
sent us
his 1932 five-window coupe
to do a little bit
of work on it,
and he's here to pick it up.
So, jim, 25 years ago,
you set out on a journey
to build yourself
a hot rod.
Through the years, you've gotten
a lot of issues with the car
to where you really
couldn't drive it.
Not a lot of exterior changes,
but what do you think?
Wow.
Sure got it shiny.
I think that the front tires,
that's a good call.
Now it really has big
and littles.
Thank you. I was more worried
of anything of taking
those oversize front tires
off of this
and putting the correct size
for a hot rod.
But I am so glad you like it
because, boy, I sure --
I love that so much better.
It looks great.
We knew that we had some issues
with the carburetors.
It wasn't running real good.
When he was done, though,
this thing produced over
which is plenty for this car.
Wow.
I'm a little skeptical about
how the fan is gonna look.
You were having a big problem
with heating, and, of course,
any time you have
a stroke small-block,
it's gonna generate
some temperature,
and then you top it off
with being in texas,
where it's always hot.
That's right.
So that is the one thing
that you'll probably notice
is -- the only thing that's kind
of out of place on this car,
by
it not being period correct.
And that is that fan shroud
and the electric fan.
The late '50s,
it didn't have electric fans.
I will tell you
this right now.
We've been on
some real hot days.
And we drove this car
for over 100 miles.
And we've never seen
over 180 degrees.
Yeah, that's great.
And it's been hot this summer.
That's gonna make it
where I can actually drive
and use the car
pretty much year-round.
So that's excellent.
Exactly.
You also had a complaint
about the brakes.
They would slow you down,
but didn't exactly want
to "stop" you.
That's right.
We fixed that, too.
But we were able to do that
by keeping a very vintage look.
They look like drum brakes,
but they're disc brakes.
And he knocked it
out of the park.
That looks great!
We rechromed your headers.
It now goes down through a full,
polished stainless exhaust
through a set of those smithy
mufflers, which we had chromed
so it ties in with
everything else on the exhaust.
And I'm excited that it's gonna
have a muffler system
because I really don't like it
being as loud as it is.
And this is where
you really need
to have
the exhaust coming out
so it's not flowing back
into the car and foiling,
because, before,
those line fire headers
were designed basically to dump
out right in front of the door.
If you got your windows open,
it's coming in.
Car sounds awesome.
You want to hear it?
Yeah.
Stand right here.
Let me fire her up.
I want it to sound
like a hot rod,
but not be something
that's gonna attract
a lot of attention.
[ engine starts ]
[ laughs ]
oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
[ engine revving ]
oh! Whoo!
[ laughs ] wow!
So it still sounds
like a hot rod.
Oh, man. If I were a crier,
I'd be crying right now.
I'm super-excited.
It's a dream come true.
I had really just given up
on this car.
I just thought,
"this is out of my league."
and I was sad because
I just didn't want it to sit
in the garage rusting.
But now I'm gonna be able
to drive it. Thank you so much.
You're very welcome.
Thank you so much.
Well, it's been
our pleasure, jim.
And I'll tell you what.
You keep playing rock 'n' roll.
We'll keep building
hot rods.
Okay. All right.
Good deal.
Let's go for a ride, man.
Jump on in.
Let's go.
Jim: Oh.
Dave: [ laughs ]
oh, yeah.
Whoa! [ laughs ]
oh, man.
It's gonna stop.
I can already tell
it's gonna stop.
He's gonna be able
to stop on a dime
and give you
Whoo! Those brakes!
It's great having brakes.
Whoo-ah!
[ both laugh ]
the stopping's good,
but the going's better.
[ laughs ]
so you're 450 horsepower
now, jim.
Man, I can feel it
when I...
[ both laugh ]
I can feel it
when I hit the gas.
Does it feel good,
like it's driving good,
nice and straight?
It's tracking great.
It's easy to drive.
The gas gauge actually works.
Yeah.
The temperature gauge
actually works.
You're at 180.
Got 106 miles on the car.
We've shaken it down.
We had to drive it,
make sure it was valet-proof.
That's good.
That's excellent.
Jim: Since it's running
so good right now,
and since I've got a daughter
that needs a car,
then I'm probably gonna
let her just start using my car.
I'm gonna try to use it
a little bit more
as a daily driver.
[ both laugh ]
it's a bitchin' ride.
how goes it over here,
guys?
-Good.
-Good.
As you guys might remember,
at the beginning of the year,
we filmed a brand-new
competition show here
at the shop,
and we had a winner.
Hey, so, frank,
today's challenge is gonna be
a little bit more difficult
because you have equipment now.
Somebody's going home today.
[ laughs ]
okay, all right.
I guess
I could hit the road again.
"hit the road?
I just got here."
[ laughs ]
I'm kidding.
Welcome aboard, frank.
Thank you, dude.
Despite some of you guys
thinking
that this was
all put on and just a drama,
well, no, the truth is,
is we actually did want
to hire the winner,
and we did hire the winner.
how are you doing, man?
I'm very excited to be here.
Right on.
I'm glad to hear that.
You're gonna do
really well for us.
I know you will.
So we're excited to have you.
Trying to take it all in
right now. It's, like...
It's probably
a little overwhelming.
A little bit.
In a good way, though.
Yeah?
It's cool, though.
Well, I think everybody here is
excited to have you here, too.
So, you know, could use
some extra hands.
Looks like we got
some good ones, so...
It's a blast working here.
I love working here.
Since I started working here,
they've pretty much
allowed me to work
in almost
every single department
or every area of the shop,
which is super-cool,
because I don't know
if that's something
that everyone gets a chance
to do or not.
And I got a whole mixture
of different things
I can do around the shop.
I come to work some days,
I don't know what the heck I'm
doing, and I just go with it.
It's an absolute dream
come true to be here
and be a part of this team.
Guys --
get back to work.
Sorry. Sorry.
Dave: After a little bit
of time, finally
we have our very first
production carbon fiber body.
Just arrived at the shop.
And we're so excited
to put it together.
kevin: Oh, yeah. It's amazing.
Stuff looks great.
I can't wait to get
a chassis over here
and start putting
the whole car together.
It's gonna be really,
really, really mean.
all right, well, looks like
we got our first body here.
There it is, dave.
This is super-cool.
There it is.
You've done an amazing job
on the design of this thing.
It's k*ller.
I'm getting pumped
to see this thing all together.
I bet.
With carbon fiber,
there are some certain things
that we have to watch.
First of all,
the edges on this,
when they come out
of the molder, razor-sharp.
The material is very thin.
Nothing's been trimmed.
We didn't purposely
trim anything
because we're real lazy.
No.
Okay.
We didn't know exactly
where your trim lines were,
so we wanted to see
you guys kind of do this.
And as I suggested,
we use small diamond wheels.
One-inch diamond wheels on
high-speed pencil grinder.
And it keeps
your dust level down.
You don't want to be breathing
a lot of carbon.
Make sure you're wearing
your n95s.
And this body probably only
weighs around 50 pounds.
You won't see any cracking
or anything on it years to come.
That's what we were
really hoping for.
Looks like we got
the right product
and certainly
the right manufacturer, so...
On your corvettes, those
body panels looked flawless.
Obviously, we had a couple of
locks on this one,
a couple of difficulties,
but it was our very first
carbon fiber mold.
As we get more of these cars
coming in,
I think that we'll get closer
to being a one-piece body,
which will be just as good,
if not just a little bit better.
As hard as you try to make
the first one perfect,
the second one
is usually better.
Right. Right. That's why
I picked number three.
There you go.
Smart guy.
It was looking
like the registration marks
are there
for the body mounting.
Okay.
So we'll get that drilled.
Do we have
a bushing kit for this?
I want to go straight
to the frame as we construct it.
If we put a dampener underneath
it once it's done, then great.
But I would love to just build
it straight on the metal.
Yeah, I agree.
There's 30 separate parts,
at least.
Well, get to sanding, son.
Let's see it go together.
Yeah.
You ain't got to tell me twice.
I can't wait
to put this car together.
We're prepping the chassis
for the floor.
The chassis is
pretty interesting,
the way the construction is.
It's laser-cut, bent,
and then it indexes together,
and then they do
a pretty simple weld over there.
Trick is, it sticks up,
and you don't want
to remove it with a grinder.
Right now, we're putting
a plastic spacer in here.
Eventually, what it will get
is a rubber strip
that will be sound-dampening
and be more comfortable
in the car.
We will find the indexing points
on the floor, drill those,
and we should be able
to set this on here,
get it bolted down
in place on the chassis.
We do have some trimming
of the edges we need to do.
And that's basically gonna
dictate our day is, how fast
can we trim pieces up
and get them set on here?
The dream, sounds like, today
is to get everything mocked up,
essentially ready
to glue tomorrow.
We want to go as big
as the chassis.
Grab your tape, and let's
double-check some stuff.
Just make sure that
we're not going off that one
and find out
something's weird.
Carbon fiber is super-strong.
But it's flexible.
We have got to be super-careful,
get this placed together,
get it glued together.
Then all of a sudden,
we're gonna have us
a rigid racecar.
Inch and 3/4
right there.
About 1 3/4 inch.
So find somewhere up here.
The front edge
of the mount.
Uh-huh.
Everything's lining up
front to back.
We've got it pretty well
squared up on this chassis.
Now we're just gonna jack it up,
get the holes drilled
in the floor,
and basically just start
with square one.
Where are you gonna drill?
Right there?
-Right there.
-Okay.
howard: Ready?
good?
I think so.
Yeah, cool.
Okay. No, don't worry about it.
We're gonna take it off
as soon
as we get these drilled.
There are trim lines
all over this car in the mold
that transferred onto the parts.
Oh.
The funny thing is, though,
some of them are on the bottom.
So we're gonna have to
disassemble,
get this trimmed up,
and then reassemble.
Yeah.
So we got it located.
Now we're basically gonna
just take the bolts out
and take it off,
get all this trimmed up.
There's nowhere to hold on
to this up front.
So we're just cutting up
to that line,
right?
-Yeah.
You can see right where
it needs to be, right?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-We definitely had to retool
for the carbon situation.
Our whole toolset changed up.
Even, like, you know,
the cutoff wheels we'd use.
Everything is just slightly
different than the metal.
And it's been really awesome.
These diamond wheels cut great,
but they're this big.
I want one that's about
so we can get this done.
we've got some big flanges
on the inside of the pieces,
so we're trying to utilize that
so we can get some fasteners in
to hold these pieces in.
We're trying not to drill or do
any fastening holes
along these seams, where stuff
could be visible later.
We're trying to use what we can
to get something pinned in
before we try
to set the body on.
How does it look?
On the inside, it looks good,
will, but on the outside,
the flange
looks a little out.
It seems like
that side's further back.
Yeah, it is further back.
So that's kind of strange.
We're assembling our very
first production
carbon fiber vehicle.
Now, it looked a lot easier
on paper than it is.
How does it look?
On the inside, it looks good,
will, but on the outside,
the flange
looks a little out.
And you got the width
the same, the way you want it.
It's a little wider.
Just say 1/2 inch.
There's a lot more room
in here.
The only thing I see --
like, over here,
like, this one
is touching there now.
It seems like
that side's further back.
Yeah, it is further back.
So that's kind of strange.
Why is that?
The molds were square,
the plug car was square.
This thing should be, too.
We went off the one.
We squared the chassis.
Do me a favor.
Go figure out what this width
is supposed to be
off the other car, yeah?
And then when we get to
the point
where this just
isn't working...
Will:
Ultimately we weren't far off.
We just had to trim back
a little farther
than we were expecting.
So just get the trim in.
We'll get that fitting.
it's already fitting better.
Yeah, we're going to grab
the body and throw it on here.
Should lay on
the cowl just fine.
We've got to come forward
on that side.
I think it'll be fine.
It looks great.
Dave: It looks like everything's
starting
to fit up the way it should.
Alls we need to do now
is glue it together.
The moment has finally come.
We're getting ready
to glue this bad boy.
We're just gonna
kind of do this in stages.
Start with the wheel wells.
We're gonna get glued in.
Kind of work
our way up to the front.
oh, there we go.
This is a big step.
Once this is done,
then everything can start being,
like, locked down for good,
instead of just rough-fit.
Once we get the firewall glued
and we can set it back down,
we'll start getting
the cleco points
back in that align the body,
and then we're gonna check
all of our measurements again
while everything's sitting,
make sure nothing's shifting
or moving around.
So far, so good.
Everything fits really nice.
Dave: The concept corvettes
are coming along very well.
In fact, it's up
to the last couple of details
for us to figure out,
including these new headlights.
All right, greg,
so show me what we got.
I really do think these are
gonna look great.
Yeah, so it took me a little
while to find the components
I wanted to use
for these headlights.
After looking through
some stuff,
I found this unit,
which is high beam and low beam.
That's great. That's great.
Yeah, so,
it has a nice sharp horizon line
like modern headlights do,
and it's a relatively
small unit.
So it gives us
a little bit of room.
I really like
the overall design
and the idea
behind these headlights,
but I really got to see
how they're gonna look on
before I can make
a final decision.
The white one is ground.
Okay. And that would be
black here, right?
Yes. So if you want to
just hold those two together.
So that is the high beam.
That's bright.
Yeah. And then this one's
the low beam.
See that sharp line?
Wow, that's cool.
Yeah. Cool.
Nice.
I think what's gonna be
unique and different about this
is, it looks like you got
your l.E.D.S right here.
This upper section right here is
actually gonna be an opaque.
So it'll be a daytime running
light and a bright white.
Yep.
And then it'll blink out
and go to a turn signal
when you turn-signal.
Yeah, exactly.
That's gonna be rad.
Yeah, I think it's
gonna be really cool.
So we didn't have to put
all the tubes and everything.
This isn't a honda accord, man.
So that's perfect.
Rockin'.
Thanks, brother.
Yeah. Looks good.
Good job.
-Thank you.
Dave:
It's been a really long haul
making this car
a dream come true.
This has been really
a life dream for me
to build a car from scratch
to be able to sell.
Well...Wish us luck.
I can't believe
we're finally to that day.
I know. It's fantastic.
It is fantastic.
Oh, my gosh, it's done. To see
the whole project, from paper
to fabricating up
the fiberglass plug card,
to get molds made, to making
our first carbon fiber car.
It's been a marathon.
It's been a long road.
Well, you know, I think
everybody in the shop
has actually had their hands
on this car.
And to have it to this point
where it's basically ready to go
to the body shop is exciting.
I think it's super-exciting.
I can't believe
that something that came out
of your head is this awesome.
Actually, I take that back.
Really?
No, I really take that back.
Like, you design some really
cool stuff, but, like, this
is, like, a scratch-built car.
Yeah.
You know, we've built
so many cars here
at kindig-it design
for other people,
but not necessarily
a turnkey-type vehicle.
This being the first one
has really worked out.
I'm so stoked.
You know, the car just feels
like I've got tons of room.
Somebody that's 6 1/2 feet
could be in this car.
I mean, there's so much room.
The seat's
not even back all the way.
You're way below the windshield,
which is super-nice.
This doesn't have anything
to do with a corvette.
This is your design 100%.
Right?
And we'll basically send these
to the foundry
and get them made out of,
like, silicon bronze
or aluminum.
We're gonna do aluminum
actually.
Looks like they got the mock-up
on the taillights going here.
Look at that one.
Uh-huh. I see it.
I know, but watch. This is
where you put the gas in.
That's awesome.
Plenty of room in the trunk
for a jacket. [ laughs ]
yeah, this is actually
a decent trunk.
You should be jet set.
Yeah.
The back of the car
just looks k*ller.
-Let's check out the front.
-So nice.
Obviously the engine
sits in there really nice.
It will do something really cool
with the throttle bodies.
Instead of us building
this whole thing
for the latches that we do,
they're already there.
Really, all of the boxes
have been checked.
We now have our first-issue,
full-custom, turnkey, concept
vehicle from kindig-it design.
It's just so crazy how long ago
we looked at this drawing,
and now it's actually
real life.
It is kind of nuts,
isn't it?
Everything has come together
on this car,
and I am so excited
to get it into production.
I think I might have a couple
people that might be interested.
So we'll start putting
the feelers out there.
And this has turned out
to be one bitchin' concept car.
Wow, man, look at that.
Sweet!
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07x09 - It's Alive!!
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Reality show featuring Dave Kindig from the Salt Lake City, Utah-based company Kindig It Designs as they show their process of restoring and rebuilding vehicles.
Reality show featuring Dave Kindig from the Salt Lake City, Utah-based company Kindig It Designs as they show their process of restoring and rebuilding vehicles.