[typewriter typing]
[loud beep]
- Jesse James, what a great name.
[intense ambient music] - What's this?
Young Jesse James on a cable access show.
- How did you get into motorcycles?
- My dad had bought me a car
two weeks after I got my license,
I traded it for a Harley.
[bike engines droning] [people laughing]
not really to his liking.
[people laughing]
- [Narrator] Next to Jesse, Richard Zamboni, he makes.
- The Zamboni, Zamboni, Zamboni machine.
- What do you see for the future of the Zamboni company?
[upbeat ambient music] - The future is now.
Jesse's got a little more ink.
Richard more gray.
Mr. Hot and Mr. Cold
are teaming up again. [crowd cheering]
The final showdown, Manawa monster,
down on the ice up against the real deal, a factory Zamboni.
The outcome, Jesse scores the winning goal,
or the big guy takes a lick at.
- Ah.
Ah.
- [Narrator] Get ready as Jesse
and his g*ng of maverick mechanics rip, grind and burn,
transforming ordinary street vehicles
into monster machines in the monster garage.
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
- This week's challenge, [intense ambient music]
take a 1994 Chevy SuperSport clone
and transform it into the hottest thing on ice,
a monster Zamboni.
The rules.
When built, the monster machine must appear to be stock.
The team can spend
no more than $3,000 in cold cash for parts.
Jesse and his crew have seven days and nights.
On the first day, they design,
for the next five they build,
and on the seventh day they race.
If successful, [upbeat ambient music]
they walk away with a $3,400 set of Mac tools,
and the clock starts now.
Day one.
[upbeat ambient music]
Turning a Chevy Supersport into a Zamboni-like ice eater
might give some the shivers, but this team is cool.
Why?
Because they've got the iceman himself to guide them,
Richard Zamboni.
- Shave the ice, pick up the snow and remove it, collect it,
and put water down at the same time.
- [Narrator] For the Impala,
Richard's plan is to boil his namesake
down to its basic elements, the essence of Zamboni.
- It's a matter of three things, a sharp blade and a screw
that brings the snow to the center,
the conveyor itself goes around like so,
drops the snow into a container.
Then there's a tank that drops the water behind.
You have this nice path of ice
coming behind the machine
from this rough and scraped up service in front of it.
- [Narrator] But so much for tradition,
Jesse has his own ideas for the monster ice machine.
- I think it definitely should have some loud pipes
and a crazy paint job and custom wheels.
They've gotta look right at it
and think there's no way that that could be the Zamboni.
[imitates car droning]
Yeah!
You see that?
[upbeat ambient music]
- [Narrator] Jesse's on a mission,
bring long overdue respect to the Zamboni.
- The most taken for granted thing in professional sports.
I think it's about time,
you know, the Zamboni came into the forefront.
Let's start drawing something up
and see what we can come up with.
- [Narrator] Enter artist Dan Padilla.
- I think the idea of having a Zamboni
that can actually be a California custom car
is just awesome.
I mean, this is what it's all about.
I studied industrial design and I figured,
well, if I'm gonna design a toaster,
how cool can a toaster be?
This is cool.
- [Narrator] The first question
for Jesse, the designer builder is,
where will Jesse, the Zamboni driver sit?
- Now aside from the water tank and everything in front
and the conveyor,
is there any reason why the driver has to be in the back?
- That's a good question
- [Narrator] And Richard has a good answer.
- You really want to get the driver back there
where you can see what's happening.
- Where he is right over the surface
being surfaced. - That's right, yeah.
I gotta be in the trunk, you know.
- [Richard] That's what makes it a Zamboni.
- Yeah, 'cause if you're inside,
you can't really wave to the crowd,
but if you're way back there and back.
[imitates car revving]
- [Narrator] Next question,
how to get the blade down to the ice.
- What if we had the whole back end of the car
kind of drop down?
Instead of having the thing drop out of the trunk,
maybe section the car back here
and have this whole thing become the conditioner
and just have it drop down.
- Or we could just airbag the car
and make the whole car go up and down.
And since the ice isn't really bumpy or pothole
or stuff like that,
I mean, it can roll like an inch off the ground.
[upbeat ambient music] - The design
is falling into place,
an airbag suspension system
will be installed to lower and raise the Impala.
- We've got all this space
and the back seat for all of our stuff.
- [Richard] We can't put these pipes right here
'cause it's gonna mount the ice.
- Exactly, yeah. - So.
The exhaust has to go straight up, right Rick?
- [Narrator] How does Richard feel
about these monster touches to his family's jewel?
- My father would love to see something like this.
No question about it.
He liked changing things
and making things newer and different.
- Good.
I had a bout of doubt,
but now my confidence level is pretty high.
- [Narrator] While Dan draws,
Richard demonstrates how a sharp blade can shave away ice.
- Ice.
A sharp blade is really the secret.
[upbeat ambient music]
This, look.
- A little squeegee.
- [Speaker] Got a little squeegee over there
with a water bottle.
- I had a snow cone made by Richard Zamboni.
There's not many things cooler than that.
[tranquil ambient music]
- [Narrator] The design team wraps up.
The final plan,
the blade and auger will go under the rear end of the car
where a paddled conveyor belt
will spank the shavings into the cab.
Jesse will sit and steer from the truck, and they'll bag it.
An air suspension system will drop it right down on the ice.
Meet the world's first Slamboni.
[car engine droning]
[upbeat ambient music]
Day one of the build arrives,
along with five monster mechanics, thirsty for mayhem.
Bob Van Den Brick from Chino Hills, California,
Renee Newall from Santa Monica, California,
artist and welder.
Ted Yenawine from Los Angeles, California,
Set builder and Monster Garage wild man.
[Ted screaming]
Ken Hoffman from Simi Valley, California,
welder and fabricator.
Stuart Fuller, Downey, California,
hot rod designer extraordinaire.
- All right guys, so this is it.
Everybody got a good handle on this, what we're doing?
- [Narrator] Professor Jesse James
starts to team off with a surprise quiz.
Guess the build.
- Can you tell just by looking at it?
- No. [people laughing]
Well, we're gonna take this Impala
and make it into a Zamboni.
[Ted laughing] - What's a Zamboni?
- [Narrator] What's a Zamboni?
It seems Renee must have skipped that chapter,
but she's not the only one.
- I didn't know what it did,
I just thought it made the ice shinier.
Let's get started on it.
- [Narrator] With many aspects of their mission
still unclear, Jesse's team embarks
on the one thing they know they must do.
- Yeah, we got a bunch of space.
[upbeat ambient music] - Seek and destroy.
- Mark is coming at you.
[upbeat ambient music]
- [Narrator] With the interior ripped out,
the team turns their attention to the back of the car,
the business end of any ice resurfacer,
the bumper is off, what about the back windshield?
- Smash it, smash it, smash it.
[upbeat ambient music]
[glass breaking]
- Feeling of little less empowerment.
- [Narrator] Ken Hoffman
is a professional welder and fabricator,
he's his own boss in his own garage.
He used to have a real civilian job.
- I was a photo technician
and I enjoyed it from a technical end,
but I just needed to be out
banging metal and working with cars,
and making a lot of things that go fast.
- [Narrator] Ken also likes bugs,
[upbeat ambient music] pretty ones that fly.
- It's amazing what you find when you stop them.
There's some iridescent blues
if you look carefully at this peacock butterfly.
[upbeat ambient music]
Probably this whole subframe needs to come out.
- [Narrator] With the back of the Chevy
gutted like a store-bought trout,
the team sharpens their focus,
their first challenge,
a new hinge for the popup rear trunk.
- Where the trunk opens from now,
we're gonna pivot from there.
- At the very back of the car, right?
- And this is where we're gonna open.
- Right.
- This is the cavity that opens up.
- [Narrator] Ken and Renee team up to build a frame
to reinforce the trunk.
- Two things for sure, this will be b*llet proof.
- [Narrator] It doesn't get any simpler,
one inch square tubing and fire.
- [Jesse] Oh, you're good,
you're good. - Okay.
- [Narrator] The basic elements of Monster Garage.
- [Speaker Two] Yeah!
- [Narrator] Renee Newell is not your typical gearhead,
but as a sculptor she knows metal and how to weld it.
- I'm not an automotive person,
but I have a little bit of an engineering background.
I find beauty in diamond plate
and just different types of corroded metal.
I can visualize setups of different things.
- Tack it.
- Okay.
[welder whirring]
- We're building the hinges for the deck lid.
These supports will be welded to the inside
of that five mile an hour bumper for a good solid mount.
And then we're gonna make our own what we call barrel hinges
that will go on the trunk lid.
So when this whole thing
swings up like a rumble seed on a car,
it'll have enough material to support the weight.
We're gonna have to space it out this way a little bit,
'cause you gotta have enough clearance on the centerpiece
when it comes around or it'll hit here.
[welder whirring]
- Good show.
Got it?
Good. - Okay,
we still got movement so we're okay.
It's a little tight. - Yeah, that's okay.
- I'd rather have it a little tight
than I would to Liz. - Yeah.
- [Narrator] Jesse turns his attention
to a much more difficult problem
steering the Zamboni while sitting in the trunk.
- Well, since we're gonna steer it from the back,
we need a way to make this arm go left and right,
but from the trunk, we could find a junkyard steering box
that has the same size pitman arm
and we could either mount it down here
and then just run a shaft straight out underneath the car.
I think it would be way slicker
to have another except for steering box.
- Like a Mustang too. - Yeah.
- [Narrator] Stuart Fuller is your run of the mill,
totally talented supreme garage dude.
[car engine revving]
He's got the skills to pay the bills.
[car engine droning]
His current latest passion,
a nasty chopped and channeled 32 Ford Roadster.
Advice for Jesse,
when Stuart talks steering, just walk away.
- Oh, you know what's good with the geometry would be good
is a Corvaira one.
- Jesse's plan for navigation, [upbeat ambient music]
add an old Corvaira steering box
to the existing steering column,
hook it up to a long shaft
running all the way to the back trunk.
It's risky, tricky and expensive.
He's happy, others are not.
- We could just run the shaft straight to the steering wheel
and do it that way.
Jesse wants it to be more trick.
I agree that it is more trick to run a second steering box,
but I don't want his money to be trick.
I mean, we can be tricking. - So we go to the junk yard,
we get a $30 steering gearbox and away we go, right?
- I think that's a gig.
- [Narrator] A Corvair steering box is a tough find,
and even tougher on the budget.
- We don't need a new box,
let's just go get a used Corvair.
- Those are harder to get.
[Ted exhales sharply]
- I tried to get 'em for my hot rod and they, I had to get.
- A used Corvair box to cast aluminum one.
- Mm-hmm.
And they're gonna be pretty expensive too
because they're rare.
- It's gonna be like 50 or 60 bucks, I bet you.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
- [Narrator] Tad begins the hunt
for the elusive Corvair steering box.
But the news is not good.
- Check this out, that steering is gonna cost 900 bucks.
They already priced it.
- Well, let's get it. - You want to get it?
- I'm giving Jesse a half a day to say what he wants to say,
pretty much keeping my mouth shut,
and then day two
I'll probably start sh**ting my mouth off it.
[Jesse screaming]
[intense ambient music]
We're gonna open this,
see if the new hinge concept is going to work.
- [Narrator] The new hinge on the trunk
is ready for testing. [upbeat ambient music]
- Little bit. - No.
- Huh, it's a snap fit. - Perfect.
- Okay, let's open it up again, let's see if it fits the,
can clear everything.
[people laughing]
- Happen baby.
- We won. - You see.
- [Both] We won.
- [Narrator] The trunk pops like a pro.
The team seems to be clicking.
- Yeah.
I think that's all right.
- [Narrator] They've pushed their first day
as far as they can.
[intense ambient music] The team understands
the Zamboni, in theory.
- Okay, master plans. - Ready.
- [Narrator] But they still have lots of concrete questions.
- Blade angle. - With a blade angle.
- I'd like to know if the blade is mounted solidly
or whether it's on a little shock or something.
- We'd like to know what the RPM is on this.
- A little bit more information,
a little bit more information here.
- [Narrator] Their questions will be answered
when they get their hand on the auger, blade
and the conveyor belt.
They need parts.
Jesse will go get 'em tomorrow morning.
No need to get nervous, that part comes later.
Go home, it's just day one of Monster Garage.
Monster Garage Factoid. [intense ambient music]
An average ice rink contains 10,211 gallons of water.
Enough to make 82,000 slurpies.
♪ Monster
♪ Monster - Day two,
[bike engine droning] Jesse hits the ground running.
He is heading up to the Zamboni factory
to see his old friend, Richard.
- I think this project is kind of like having Henry Ford
help us build a model A.
I think every great skater player out there
owes this guy a thanks, you know.
Would Wayne Gretzky really be able to do the stuff he did
if the ice was crappy?
Any junk parts around here we could use?
- We might have some that might be a little used,
but you know that's always possible.
- [Narrator] Since 1949,
a total of almost 7,000 Zambonis have hit the ice
and never left.
Old Zambonis don't fade away, they just keep working.
- It gets pretty slim pickings for.
- Well, we don't have. - A Zamboni junkyard.
- A screw over here that
some this kind of thing that
might be of some value.
- That looks good enough for an Impala Zamboni.
- You know, I'm just seeing some chain there.
Straighten those out, maybe that's just the thing you need.
- [Narrator] Jesse scored some precious Zam-bounty.
The blade, auger and rusted paddles
are perfect parts for the monster in waiting.
[intense ambient music]
Back at the shop, Jesse examines the components
they got from the Zamboni graveyard.
- This is a Zamboni blade.
[cash register rings]
They gave us a deal on us so we could use it for our
Impala Zamboni.
This thing is pretty sharp too.
Yeah. - We ain't fooling
with that one.
- No. - I ain't shaving with it,
but it's sharp.
Woo.
- So we had a.
Ow.
Oh.
It is sharp.
Look at it. - Yeah.
- Oh my God. [muffled screaming]
- [Narrator] The Zamboni continues to surprise the team.
If you get careless, it will bite you.
- Sharp. - Wow.
- Come in faint. [people laughing]
He told us, "That blade sharp."
I thought, "Yeah, okay.
Uh-huh."
Any who.
[intense ambient music] - Jesse gets back
to his steering mechanism.
It works fine in his mind.
Nothing's been installed, nothing's been fabricated,
and they have yet to locate
the all important Corvair steering box.
- Right now we're just trying to figure out
about the steering box.
Jesse wants Corvair,
but it's hard to find those.
And Vega boxes are like ready, people make 'em,
you just go out and buy one.
- How many places has he called?
- He's called about five places.
But see no one really carries the Corvaira.
- Find something. - A headstrong Jesse
makes for a frustrated tad.
He needs to vent.
[upbeat ambient music] - It seems overly complicated
and it's not gonna work
'cause the steering wheel
is probably gonna turn one direction
and the car is gonna turn the other.
It doesn't sit too well with me.
It's also a very expensive solution to the problem.
- [Narrator] On any given day in the Monster Garage,
there's a natural ebb and flow to the work pace.
The one constant for the Zamboni team is Bob Van Der Brink.
There's no ebb in this guy. [loud thumping]
- I'm gonna soak it up real good
with liquid wrench to start with,
and then I'll go back over it later on
in about an hour or so with WD-40.
It'll work just as good as a new one.
- Bob's definitely a worker.
He's just, you know, as blue collar as they get.
- [Narrator] For 35 years,
Bob was a high school shop teacher.
Inside the garage, he's become a born again workaholic.
[upbeat ambient music]
- I had a lot of kids that nobody else wanted.
I have taken some kid who might end up in deep trouble
and I've given him a shot at something.
- In that first semester of metal shop,
I had no idea when I was 13 years old
that I was doing something that was gonna lead to this
and support my family
and you know, make every dream I wanted come true.
I'm just a glorified welder.
- I'd work for him with no problems.
- [Jesse] Hey Bob, can you hold this?
- I can't see. [Jesse chuckles]
I don't know what.
I get along with him personality wise.
Doing things with him, that just tickled my butt no end.
- I like him.
Seeing a guy like that
is kind of like seeing the future for me.
You know, I'm just a worker and he's having fun.
- [Narrator] After 35 years of teaching,
Bob has managed to retain his sunny disposition.
- Oh dammit.
f*ck! [loud beep]
- [Narrator] While Bob races after garage bliss,
Jesse's hit a speed bump,
the Corvaira steering box is a no-show.
Instead they'll have to settle for a Vega box.
It'll work fine.
- Our Vega steering box came from SoCal Speed Shop.
It's a remake but,
and they're actually better than the original.
- [Narrator] At times like this,
Jesse, the master garage chef relies on a favorite recipe.
- Can make chicken soup outta chicken.
[machine whirring]
Something I've been quite proficient at over the years.
[Jesse chuckles]
I wonder if we could whack a little bit of that
cross member out.
[loud thumping]
And then I can run that steering rod straight through there,
up through the passenger floorboard,
[Jesse exhales sharply]
right up there to the back.
I don't think I ever seen this done before,
so maybe we're on the right track.
[upbeat ambient music]
- He could see it, he's got it in his head.
If you have too many people in there,
it'd just be like, "You're in my way.
Get outta the way."
- Sometimes you need to work by yourself.
So I can appreciate Jesse wanting to sit under there
and just kind of absorb you underneath the car.
- You want something right, you gotta do it yourself.
I like to base my life on that.
So we got that steering arm on there.
Should be cool.
Use this as a template for how long the rod's gotta be.
We'll put a swivel here.
And a U-joint right up there.
- [Narrator] Watching Jesse
nail the tricky build and installation
got Stuart's attention.
- Jesse's already got us pretty well beat,
he's been cutting the steering box.
[machine whirring]
I want to do whatever it takes
to get that blade up there tonight.
- [Narrator] Before the blade can go up,
they need to to build a support frame
and mount it on the back end of the Chevy.
It will house both the blade and the auger.
- I'm trying to lay out plate that we're gonna weld,
the blade support too.
And we're also gonna weld a piece that supports the auger
and holds it in relationship to the blade,
which is a pretty critical space relationship.
- [Narrator] Day three also brings Mr. Zamboni by
to have a look.
He truly wants the team to ace their icer,
and he'll help in any way he can, up to a point.
- I think they're doing good.
I think I'll stand back a little bit
before I get put to work though.
- [Narrator] A quick zip around the Zamboni in the making
and he's gone.
- But the way he looked at me when he said,
"This should be adjustable",
I think maybe we should make it adjustable.
- [Narrator] A comment dropped by Mr. Z
has the team nervous,
their plan to mount the blade in a fixed position
won't work.
It needs to be adjustable.
- He had no flexibility in the original design.
- At all. - At all.
- [Narrator] Before any nerves start rattling,
Ken's got the problem solved.
- [Ken] Get a piece of angle iron on top of it,
and you know, run bolts through here,
either weld a nut up here or thread this or whatever.
And that way this can be adjustable.
- That's brilliant.
You're talking about making a skate.
- [Narrator] Ken's plan,
mount the blade on two steel runners
to slide it smoothly across the ice,
like a pair of ice skates.
Steel shims will tweak the runners up and down,
giving the blade adjustability.
- Don't have that. - Right.
- [Ted] It's gonna take this new idea.
- Oh, this'll probably take another extra hour
to work this all out.
- [Narrator] The rest of the team
starts building the components.
[upbeat ambient music]
- Tight fit.
- [Narrator] The razor sharp blade
is finally ready to go on.
- Whatever you do, don't grab the blade.
- One, two, three.
- [Narrator] The blade sits between
two pieces of quarter inch steel.
Renee puts her welding skills to use.
She tacks the blade to the steel frame.
- These are the bearing mounts for the auger itself.
- [Narrator] The bearing mounts are installed
on the ends of the auger.
This will hold the corkscrew just above the blade
and allow it to spin freely.
- Clean it, look, when I roll it,
it's really important to get the auger close to the blade
or it's not gonna catch the shavings.
And we're looking at three eighths inch.
- I think that's probably pretty good.
I'd rather be too far away than too close.
- [Narrator] The placement of the auger is critical.
Too low and it gouges the ice,
too high and it won't collect any.
- Need to go up, flush. - The final adjustment
comes with the skate.
- [Renee] If we need to adjust,
we can adjust from here or there,
or just drop it, or keep it high.
- [Narrator] The slick steel scape goes on last,
Jesse approves.
- I like them skis.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Kind of got that Dorothy Hamel look.
[Renee chuckles] You know.
That curling it over.
- [Narrator] A major component of the build is done.
The support frame is on, the blade and the auger attached.
As day two winds down,
the team treats themselves [upbeat ambient music]
to a custom built snack.
A hunk,
a slice,
and a wedge.
Add a little heat and presto,
a toasted Zambolloni sandwich.
Monster Garage Factoid. [crowd cheering]
Before the first Zamboni,
it took three men, a horse and a scraper
one hour to resurface a rink.
A Zamboni completes the task in just 10 minutes.
[upbeat ambient music] ♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
- [Narrator] The team shows up for day three
[upbeat ambient music] feeling pretty confident.
The blade's in position to shave
and the auger is set to collect.
Their monster is ready to perform
two of its three crucial Zamboni tasks.
- [Speaker] Yeah!
- [Narrator] A Zamboni completes its ice
resurfacing hat trick by laying down a thin sheet of water.
This freezes quickly and smoothly.
Job done.
- Ah.
Ah.
- [Narrator] The team tackles building
and installing the water system.
Stuart holds the tank that will hold the water.
Renee finishes up [upbeat ambient music]
a steel frame that will hold the tank.
Bob pieces together PVC tubing for the Slam Palace Plumbing.
[machine whirring]
The final piece, he drills full of holes
for the water to drip down onto the ice.
- That's the drip system goes on the back of the car.
- [Jesse] All right, all right.
[upbeat ambient music]
- Are they gonna be self-tapping screws?
- Yeah, sheet metal first.
- [Narrator] Only in Monster Garage
will you find two expert mechanics
seriously discussing the best way to do this.
[machine whirring]
- Never in my life have I run screws into a brand new tire.
Not intentionally anyhow.
- [Narrator] Studded tires will give their ice machine
the necessary traction
to make its way along the slippery ice.
- Zamboni, his tires are usually filled with foam,
but we were concerned about the money,
so we continued to
go with the slime [upbeat ambient music]
and see what happens.
- [Narrator] Renee uses a sealant called 'slime'
to prevent air
from escaping through the tires new screw holes.
Stuart finishes pumping the prickly tires
and they're ready to roll.
[upbeat ambient music]
The wheels,
all the 20 inch forged aluminum blaze series.
Ted installs a new gas tank.
The original 20 gallon tank
went to make room for the conveyor,
but a smaller eight gallon tank needs to go in.
Zamboni or not, it's still a car.
- I haven't seen any.
I'm installing the submersible fuel pump into our fuel cell.
[upbeat ambient music] Just like that.
- [Narrator] Day three
[crowd cheering] is ready to hit the lockers,
but not before a surprise visit from LA King's defenseman,
Matthew Schneider.
- [Speaker Two] Yeah.
- Oh, that's gotta beat the Zamboni, that's for sure.
- Yeah.
- That's wild, that's a great idea.
That should be a lot of fun.
- [Narrator] The 15 year NHL veteran
takes a whack at their Zamboni with his own garage tool.
- This is just a simple wrist shot I'm working on here.
To raise the puck, you're just following through
and I'm pointing my stick where I'm trying to sh**t.
So theoretically I should hit the penguin
square in the middle of the belly.
[Jesse chuckles]
[upbeat ambient music]
- Not very fast, but what hell.
[indistinct speaking] [people laughing]
- How fast.
- [Narrator] Finally, Matthew demonstrates the first,
last and only rule of hockey etiquette,
dropping the gloves.
- One, two, three action.
- Oh. [people laughing]
- Oh, okay.
Okay.
- [Narrator] A parting gift,
a Monster Garage King's jersey.
- That's not bad, man.
It's cool.
Thanks man. - All right, appreciate it.
- My pleasure.
- [Narrator] Day three is history, Tad got tanked,
Bob hit the water and Renee played with slime.
[machine whirring]
[loud thumping]
- [Speaker Two] Yeah.
- [Narrator] Day four greets the Z team with two questions,
one.
- Hey Bob. - What?
- Are you sure you know what you're doing?
- Not really.
- Okay, good.
- And two. [upbeat ambient music]
- Why is Tad Yenawine wearing a skirt?
- No, it's not a dress. - No offense dude.
- It's a kilt. - Yeah.
- If that turns you on, that's your problem, not me,
it doesn't do a thing for me.
- I told him I hope he doesn't burn his
[machine whirring] when he is welding.
[people laughing]
- I see him, he came mighty close a couple of times.
- I keep getting surprised by your kilt.
Yeah.
Like you.
Whoa.
- Are you from Scotland? - Most of my family
are Highland Scots. - Yeah.
- I was starting to get a little nervous.
Guys in kilts are irresistible.
- Yeah! [upbeat ambient music]
- [Narrator] The major drama for the day
will be the battle of the belt starring Bob Van Der Brink.
This scavenged length of rusty chain and bent pedals
is the key to removing any shaved ice.
How's it going to work?
- This is gonna be the drive motor,
it's gonna operate the paddle chain and the auger.
This is basically the drive shaft
that this sprocket will mount on.
The sprocket mounts on this shaft
and the shaft will be turned by this starter motor,
which will pull that entire chain
with all the paddles on it.
The knife will shave the ice,
and then the auger, which is this piece here,
moves all of the snow toward the center,
and it's picked up by these paddles,
run through a channel up into and dumped into here.
[machine whirring]
We gotta make at least one lap of that ice rink.
And if it lasts for one lap, that's all we worry about.
We're gonna heat this up
and then we're gonna slide it down on there.
And once it's there, then we're gonna weld it together.
- [Narrator] Bob's starter motor is a calculated risk,
it's not designed to give continuous power,
but with the team running low on funds,
it's the best bang for the buck.
[cash register rings]
- We just fixed that one.
- All right, very good. - That sucker's done.
- Hooray for Bob. - Hooray.
And oh man, does that spin nice.
You get those plates welded in there nice and square.
- I'm looking out. - Bob,
I will weld you plates so straight, your shaft will spin.
- Don't get friendly.
[machine whirring]
- [Narrator] Ken's ditch welds the starter motor mount
to the sheet metal body.
- It's a tedious process because we're welding heavy,
fairly thick metal to thin sheet metal, body sheet metal.
It's very easy to burn through.
And we're looking pretty good.
Because that's ready to mount up.
[upbeat ambient music]
We got good clearance.
I think we're in business, Bob.
- Cool. - I think we're rocking.
Let's snug this up and.
- Snug the chain on it. - Throw the chain, yeah.
[upbeat ambient music]
- It's like the sizing of the chain
is a little different from the size of the sprocket.
- Yeah. - Oh boy,
that's kind of a problem, isn't it?
That's a little worrisome.
Hope that doesn't bone us. - Yeah.
- [Bob] Where'd you set the battery?
- Jumper cables and battery.
And we'll have some fun.
- You getting outta the way? - You bet on it.
[indistinct]
All right.
[upbeat ambient music]
- Hot damn.
- When this thing goes across the ice rink,
I'll ride back there,
and you want an additional water flow?
I'll give it to you.
I wanna see the inside of this thing
look like one of those snowballs you get
in a souvenir store,
you know you shake it and the stuff goes all over the place.
I wanna see what the inside of this thing look like
the same way.
You fill it up with snow.
- Yeah. - High five Bob.
- Nice shot.
Nice shot Ken.
- Okay, let's disconnect this thing
because we have to tighten up just about everything on this.
- It's been a hell of a lot harder than we thought it was.
There's a lot more involved in this.
This is a nasty piece of machinery,
but it will be nice when it's finished.
- [Narrator] The team is ready
to punch the clock on day four.
Bob came through on the conveyor system
and he's ready for the showers.
There's one more job to be done
before the sun comes up on day five,
installing the airbags.
- Normally it would be a week job,
but we're gonna try to cram all that in.
That's why there's two of us. - Right.
- So we get done faster.
- This is the airbag.
[upbeat ambient music] - Freebies.
- That's like this when the car is down, you put air in here
and it [Jesse exhales sharply]
raises up, raises the car up.
[upbeat ambient music]
This is hydraulics.
Two pumps, two batteries. [speaker laughing]
[upbeat ambient music]
- We got three and a half inches to the frame.
- [Narrator] The airbag specialists
will work through the night installing the new suspension.
The rest of the team will sleep
knowing that much remains to be done.
The finish line is in sight,
but they're not out of the woods yet.
Day five looms large
for this tired and tattered team of technicians.
[upbeat ambient music] - Coming up.
Can Jesse James cold cut the competition
when the monster named "Freezer Burn"
takes on the real deal,
a factory Zamboni or will frost bite back?
Stay tuned folks!
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
[upbeat ambient music] - Day six,
the final build day.
Team Zamboni needs one more power play
to plant their monster icer deep in the net.
Captain Jesse James
starts out fabricating a new exhaust system.
[machine whirring] Go straight up,
try to keep some of the heat off the ice.
- [Narrator] His team hits the floor
firing on all cylinders.
Ken's installed a hydraulic arm to pop the back trunk.
- My lock is done.
Ken, you are the man.
- [Narrator] Ted runs throttle cables
back to the rumble seat.
- Now when we pull on the other end of this cable,
it'll operate the fuel injection.
And now we have a throttle.
- [Narrator] Bob makes the brake and gas pedals.
- The pedals are for the gas and the brake
in the back of the car, not the front.
They'll be connected by cables.
- I just finished working out the controls
to drive this thing from the. [machine whirring]
- Car's in park right now.
Now it's in drive.
- Vroom, vroom. - Yeah.
- That looks pretty good.
It's a pretty standard setup. - I like it.
- [Narrator] Ken welds on a steering wheel
fit for a monster.
- It's pretty good. - Renee is whipping flames
out of steel plate.
- What do you think we should do with the suit?
Jesse [loud beep]
is counting on you. [Renee laughing]
- Boom, boom! [Ken laughing]
- They close. - Jesus.
[car engine droning]
- That makes me happy.
You like that?
- [Narrator] It looks like nothing can stop the Z team
until Mr. Z himself stops by for another visit,
and everything stops.
- I like that.
- Are these holes in the top?
- Look at the hold at the bottom.
- [Narrator] Richard's input has been invaluable.
They could not have gotten this far without him,
but this is Z-day,
the smallest change
can send them spinning off into an icy void.
- The thing about having them on the top
is it fills the pipe evenly.
- [Narrator] He declares it ready for the ice,
but not the water.
They need to rework the water system, including the tank.
They need a bigger one.
- We can always crank down the valve.
- [Narrator] It's hard to argue
with the man whose name is on the side of the machine.
- I feel like punching Richard Zamboni.
Sometimes you just gotta work with what you got.
So right now this is what we got, so we're working with it.
- If we don't have enough water pouring out,
it's not gonna cover. - You have to say,
if we don't have enough, we don't have enough.
If we have too much we can always put.
- Too much is never too much.
- Too much is never, too much is never.
- [Narrator] Monster Garage mantra,
too much is never enough.
- Too much is never enough, to much is.
Never enough. - The order goes out
for a bigger tank, but the b*mb has been dropped.
[loud beep]
And the team is feeling the heat.
- One of these can go to
[loud beep] space.
- Well, everyone is getting touchy at this moment
and irritated.
- [Narrator] Ted seizes the moment
and gathers his Z mates for a much needed pep talk.
- Little worried about the water tank,
but maybe it's time to have a little powwow
and get everybody on the bus here.
Can I get you to have a little meeting with us for a second?
- Yeah, sure.
- We are at a point where, you know, this is our last day
and we gotta finish a few really necessary things.
I don't want to hear about the seat again.
You know, it's a waste of time to talk about the
[loud beep] seat.
So if you feel like tackling that,
I don't want to talk about it.
Just do it.
Stay focused.
Keep the hammer down.
Just do it.
- All right man. - Thanks.
- Okay.
- [Narrator] The mood has definitely changed today
from one of unlimited optimism to an element of tension
and seriousness in the air about what we're doing.
- Get outta my face.
- I'm stressed too.
- I'm gonna get my pants back on man.
I don't wanna burn my. [loud beep]
[intense ambient music]
- [Narrator] The new water tank arrives,
and with it a whole new set of problems.
- Son of a [loud beep]
may not fit.
Who measured this damn thing?
[upbeat ambient music]
- [Narrator] The tank is too big for the trunk.
- This afternoon, - Put it somewhere around
because. - No,
you can't put it somewhere else, it's gotta go there.
- Yeah, you're right,
it does have to go there.
- There is no clearance.
That frame is the exact size of the tank.
- I don't wanna get anybody
[loud beep] off.
- I do. - Listen, let me speak dude.
I'm just trying to let you guys know
it's not with the tires, that's all.
The tire [loud beep]
gonna [loud beep]
hit the tank.
- We're at the end of our rope,
we got a lot of things to covered.
Panic without facts, we will end up wasting a lot of time
and spinning our wheels even further
if we start taking actions we don't need to.
Stuart's got a good point here,
we're gonna have a problem, Bob.
- We're gonna hit it. - We may end up
coming in conflict with the fender well.
- It won't go in this way any farther.
- Well, then I'll have to just cut the thing out.
We don't have a master plan, that's the whole damn problem.
- Doesn't go anywhere.
- [Narrator] Wiley old Bob bends a few corners
and creates just enough wiggle room
to get them off the hook.
- Oh, bitchin'.
I can come out five and a half, six inches right there.
You got it?
Coming up.
- Lemme get mine in.
- They beat the tank, [upbeat ambient music]
but the battle rages on.
- We just gotta see who's up for the electrical crap.
Ooh.
I'm unvolunteering myself for that.
- [Narrator] Tad and Ken are on it.
[upbeat ambient music]
- Hot ground.
Hot ground.
Ken four, good buddy.
- [Narrator] The team has arranged
to test their monster at Iceland Skate Rink,
but it closes in less than two hours,
and they still need to finish off the conveyor system
with aluminum trays that will carry the shaved ice
into the front of the Zamboni.
- I need somebody up here to hold this thing.
Get the damn camera out of the way.
[machine whirring] - I'm not done.
- [Narrator] As Bob barks his way
through the last frenzied minutes,
it's clear he's learned the one lesson
that binds each man to his monster.
- Tough. [loud beep]
- [Narrator] In the end, all who enter this garage
will bend to the will of the ticking clock.
[machine whirring]
- Okay. [tire thumping]
- [Narrator] No more time for tweaking,
it's wheels off and ready to roll.
[upbeat ambient music]
- Mad Max versus slap shot.
[tranquil ambient music]
- [Narrator] Snorting like a bull in the ring,
the airbags drop the Chevy down on the ice.
Jesse hits the water switch and pulls out.
There's a problem, the water is working fine,
but the blade is not touching the surface.
There's no shave in this ice razor.
- I think the blade's not digging in enough.
- Drop it down. - Just drop it
all the way down,
or raise it till the steering box is up.
[machine whirring] - A little more.
[machine whirring]
[car engine droning]
- Just a little bit. - Lift it up
in the back a little, sir.
That's good.
[car engine droning] - No.
Lift it up and back.
I'm gonna take out a sham or two on these skates
so that the blade actually makes some contact with the ice.
I think we'll throw a lot more snow
if we actually shaved some ice down.
The clock says five to 12.
I mean, that's kind of like.
- Man, your clock is screwed,
it's only 10 after 11.
- Go, Bob!
[loud thumping]
- You ready?
It feels like it's shaving right now.
- Yeah.
[car engine droning]
[upbeat ambient music]
- [Narrator] But time is running out.
The team holds a cold collective breath
as Jesse leads the newborn monster onto fresh ice.
Nobody is prepared for what happens next.
Success, the monster lives.
The team has proven their worth.
Riding shotgun in the front,
Stuart has to jump out to keep from being buried alive.
- He waves for the kids.
[person screaming] - Go back.
[Jesse laughing]
- Oh yeah! - Woo-hoo!
[upbeat ambient music]
- Yeah. - Yep.
[indistinct talking] [people cheering]
[people laughing]
- Look at the front windshield.
[people laughing]
- I hope the heater works in that car.
[Jesse laughing]
- Unbelievable. - You guys
really did the job. - No.
- Thank you. - Never would've been
able to do it without you.
- Thank you. - Yep.
- What time is it now? - Time to go home.
- Winning time.
- 11:40. - Winning time, 11:40.
- Wow. - 20 minutes to spare.
- 20 minutes to spare and it works bitchin'.
- [Narrator] Bob's right,
the Z team came through at the very end,
the Zamboni beat the ice
[people cheering] and they beat the clock.
The rewards go to the victors.
- I got a toolbox for you.
- Oh.
- Yeah, Bob. [people cheering]
[people applauding]
- Pick it up.
- No, you don't have to pick it up.
- That's heavy.
- Yeah! [people cheering]
- [Narrator] The monster Chevy comes off the ice.
It done good.
Now it's time to make it look good.
Check that, look bad.
Monster Garage has one of the best in the biz, Tom Pruitt.
- We're gonna lay the black base coat down
and we're gonna put about three coats
of the candy purple on in certain areas
to give it a glowing effect of candy out the purple.
[spray can spraying]
- Hmm, it is done.
- [Narrator] Monster Garage Factoid.
On September 30th, 2001,
Jimmy Iceman McNeil drove a Zamboni
almost 10,000 miles across Canada.
The trip took him 115 days to complete.
[upbeat ambient music] ♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
[car engine droning] [upbeat ambient music]
- [Big Swag] Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome once again to another Monster Garage Challenge.
I'm your host, the Big Swag
with my partner Frankie Whiteside.
How are you, Frank? - I am doing great, Swaggy.
Hey, hey look, there's Jesse and he's on the prowl.
- [Big Swag] He's looking to put his monster ice scraper
to the test.
But he's gonna need somebody to race, Frank,
who's the lucky victim for tonight?
- [Frank] There's our man right there Swaggy,
we've got the Wiley vet, Mike Peterson.
He's riding high in the saddle on the factory Zamboni.
[car engine droning]
- [Big Swag] Wait a second,
where in the heck is Jesse going, Frank?
- [Frank] This is beautiful, just like the real Zamboni.
Jesse is gonna pilot the SS freezer burn from the rear.
[car engine droning] [tranquil ambient music]
- [Big Swag] It looks like our competitors are ready.
Frank, why don't you break it down for the folks at home
and give us the rules on this Monster Garage Challenge.
- [Frank] Okay, Swag starting from the face-off circle,
it's three lapse around the rink,
and then a mad dash to center ice for the big finish.
But the bottom line Swag, it's all about resurfacing.
- [Big Swag] So what you're saying, Frank,
while they speed around the ice, they have to shave it,
scoop it, and drop water.
- [Frank] That's right Swag.
Hey, Jesse is using the air suspension.
He's dropping the frame right down on the ice.
It's a slamboni!
[car engine droning]
And the race is about to begin!
Five,
four,
three,
two,
one, and they're off!
[crowd cheering] [upbeat ambient music]
Look at the determination on Jesse's face!
It's game on folks.
The big question is, can this nasty snow cone maker
stand up against a real McCoy Frank?
- [Frank] Now this is what I call a real ice-capade.
I mean, it's like a valet out there.
- [Big Swag] Oh boy, a valet out there.
Thanks for that observation, Frank.
Back to the race at hand.
- [Frank] It looks pretty even so far Swag.
- [Big Swag] Pretty dangerous, too, Frank,
if either racer slips up,
we're talking head on collision and busted up forward.
- [Frank] Oh, swag, head on collision.
I did my homework,
and a fully loaded Zamboni weighs over four tons.
- [Big Swag] So if I understand you, frankly,
if Jesse and Freezer Burn end up under Mike's wheels,
we could have one mashed master monster mechanic.
Ouch, say that quick four times Frank!
- [Frank] Goodnight sweet friends!
- [Big Swag] Look at Freezer Burn shave that ice!
You gotta be kidding me Frank.
- [Frank] Swag,
it's shaving smoother than an Emperor penguins' bottom.
- [Big Swag] An Emperor penguins' bottom.
Oh, Frank, you're k*lling me.
[bell rings] Lap number one is complete.
Jesse is on a power play!
Check that Swag.
[bell rings] Lap number two.
Peterson powers past the penalty box.
- [Frank] Jesse James is juking and jiving.
He's looking to jam the the biscuit home.
Lap number three!
- It's neck and neck. - They pulled the goalie.
- [Big Swag] They pulled out all the stops.
- [Both] They sh**t, they score!
[crowd cheering]
- [Big Swag] Wait a minute, Frank,
looks like a photo finish.
In the Monster Garage Challenge, there are no losers Frank.
- [Frank] Swag, what we just witnessed
is that the monster from the garage is a perfect match
for the monster name Zamboni.
- [Big Swag] Pure poetry Frank.
But for Jesse James, there's no time for [indistinct],
no room for snow bunnies or hot totties,
there's metal to bend and sparks to fly
because the next Monster Garage Challenge
is just around the bend.
[upbeat ambient music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Supercars
[intense ambient music]
[intense ambient music]
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02x01 - Zamboni
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A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise was assembled to modify a vehicle into a "monster machine."
A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise was assembled to modify a vehicle into a "monster machine."