04x14 - Belly Tank Lakester

[bunniefuu]

- [Announcer] Strap on your helmets, Monster fans,

and hold on for dear life.

This episode is right on target.

- I like this build.

It's basically making myself into a b*llet.

- [Announcer] This week,

Jesse is striving for extreme speed.

- My life is literally in all these guys' hands.

- [Announcer] So there's no time for coffee breaks

or midgets in monster trucks.

- That's something you don't see every day.

- [Announcer] Only positive thoughts allowed.

- I think I can. I think I can.

I think I can. I think I can.

- [Narrator] Join us now

as Jesse and his g*ng of maverick mechanics

rip, grind, and burn,

transforming ordinary street vehicles

into monster machines in the "Monster Garage."

[hard rock music]

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

♪ Monster Garage

- [Narrator] This week's challenge

transform this fuel tank off a Phantom F-4 fighter jet

into a soaring Lakester.

The F-4 was the most important aircraft

during the Vietnam w*r.

And a Lakester is an open wheeled streamlined race car.

A perfect monster match.

The rules?

The monster must appear to be fast.

The team will get 5,000 bucks for parts.

[cash register dings]

They'll have seven days and nights.

The first day they design.

For the next five day build,

and on the seventh day they soar.

If successful,

each builder gets a $4,000 box of Mac tools

and the clock starts now.

[announcer vocalizing]

Bam!

Once upon a time,

a master fabricator rode his copper bike

through the rugged roads of Mexico when he stumbled across.

- A belly tanks off a fighter. - Really?

- So you can go long distance.

They fill this with fuel so you got extra fuel

and then you just dump it when it's done.

Make a salt flat car out of it.

These are badass. I want one.

[metal clanging]

- [Narrator] The fuel tank made its way to the LBC

and is unloaded into the garage.

Jesse is ready to be briefed by the design team.

Bill Burke was the first man in history

to convert an airplane fuel tank into a Lakester.

Al Teague has broken the world

land speed record twice in his Lakesters.

And artist Jason Wilbur is a transportation designer.

- I'm Jesse. - Right Jesse, I'm Bill.

- How you doing, Bill. - Al Teague, Jesse.

- Hey, what's up Al?

This is something I've thought about for a while.

So, you know, doing something.

I just like the look of a belly tanker.

It just, you know, it looks like a b*llet.

It looks like it's built for speed

and fast and stuff like that.

[hard rock music]

First and foremost,

before we think about how fast we gotta go,

we gotta think about making it safe 'cause you know,

it's kind of like a- - Oh yes.

- It's kind of like a coffin already. [laughs]

- Boy, you know, that's the truth.

But people hate to have you say that.

- I'm one of those guys,

when I crash I want the helmet to cover my whole body

[Bill laughs]

so I just kind of skid across the ground

and nothing happens. - An inflatable airbag.

- Go through the rule book close on what they require.

- Like all the tech stuff? - All the tech stuff, yes.

- For safety and? - Safety.

Especially the safety stuff.

- Considering since I have a cast from my last crash,

[Bill laughs]

I'll go through that close.

- Yeah. [laughs]

- I've done all kinds of racing and been everything,

but I've never been to like El Mirage or Bonneville

and everybody tells me if I ever go out there once,

I'll be hooked.

- Oh, you will be. - You know.

- Once you get bit by the salt, you'll be back every year.

Won't he, Al?

- It's a fun place. - First things first.

We'll figure out

what kind of motor, trans, and rear end we wanna get.

Once we figure that out,

we can probably get this thing cut apart

so we can get inside it and measure it

and start making a frame.

Everything, axle, suspension, we gotta make it all.

So I think there's gonna be a pretty good chunk of fab work.

- In looking at that tank,

I mean, it's not like our smaller tanks

to where the the the standard wheels are sufficient.

- [Jesse] Yeah.

- But to get that up in the air.

- What about slicing the bottom of that thing

and putting a flat bottom on it to get it.

- [Bill] You know, that might be an option.

- Because I was already thinking

we'll probably bob the front off of it

and then I can make a like a little dome for the front.

- Yes. - Yeah.

- I think you'll come up to that really.

- [Jesse] And that'll kind of give it a different look.

- Basically. - Looks don't count.

It's performance and handling quality and safety, boy.

- Oh, looks count a little bit though.

- The emphasis on safety. - Huh?

- Looks count a little bit though. [laughs]

- [Al] If it looks good, it'll go fast.

- Yeah. - Is that it?

- [Al] It looks, it'll go way faster.

- I think that's a crock, Al.

[all chattering]

We know a lot of guys who put thousands into it

to make it look good and doesn't,

never had a record, never.

- We always want it

when it's standing still it looks like it's going.

- Yes. - Yep.

- How fast have they ran?

- Well they're in the lower classes on gas.

I think they're in like, in the high twos.

- I think we should probably, you know,

set a goal of trying to get in the 200 mile an hour club.

- Yes. - Yeah.

- You know, I think that's achievable.

I don't wanna go out there and run a hundred 'cause-

- [Bill] Well no.

- I could do that in a minivan.

[Bill laughs]

[twinkling music] [tires screeching]

I've been kind of like apprehensive of going fast

ever since I crashed really bad four months ago.

- [Bill] Yes.

- But then soon as I smelled that like race gas

and like heard it fire up, I'm just like,

"Oh man, gotta go fast." - Yes.

[Bill laughs]

- Cool. - Yep.

- I think all that's left is totally everything.

I don't have anything to start with.

- [Narrator] To transform

this fighter plane fuel tank into a Lakester,

the tank will be cut in half.

A frame rail and roll cage will be built as one piece.

Then the rest of the car parts

will get mounted onto the frame.

Front end, motor, transmission, rear end,

and finally the tires.

The body of the tank will then be modified

to fit around all the internal organs.

[marker squeaking] [hard rock music]

[engine roaring]

It's day two and the builders report for duty.

[tools whirring]

Flying in from Wichita, Kansas,

Robert "Stainless" Steele,

he's a technical support specialist for Boeing.

From Littleton, Colorado, John Goetzke,

retired Air force machine builder and fabricator.

From Lake Tahoe,

Lakester expert, mechanic and fabricator, Charlie Hamilton.

From Cyprus, California,

welder and fabricator, James Iams.

From Salt Lake City, Utah,

race car fabricator and builder, Tim McNees.

Tim was also on the jet boat build.

[hard rock music] [engine roaring]

And staying on from the design,

the king of speed, Al Teague.

- What's up?

All right, so you guys got most of the gist of this, huh?

We have no plan at all.

Just gonna wing it.

Make that thing go fast.

I actually like doing builds like this

'cause sometimes like when we get

so much stuff ahead of time, it's almost like cheating.

You know, we'll get this thing cracked apart,

get some loose measurements.

We can map out the frame on the floor

and then see what we're gonna do for a motor.

I just say, [bleep] it let's go.

Let's get something as big as we can, you know?

- Excellent. - Well cool. Alright guys.

- [Team Member] Sounds good.

- [Narrator] Before they start torching the tank,

Stainless checks to make sure there are no traces of fuel.

Otherwise this tear down will blow up the entire garage.

- I believe that's Phillips 300 virgin fluid we're in,

we could be in good shape.

I don't think this is combustible.

That's good.

Hell, I can't even start the paper on fire

so I'm guessing we're in good shape here.

It won't light.

- [Narrator] The coast is clear.

So they free the tank from its cage

and start hacking it apart.

[hard rock music]

[metal clanging]

Everything is taken out of the tank

so they can build a new frame to mount the body back onto.

And Jesse has to confront his fear of tight spaces.

- [Robert] You know, we can always make it

so you could lay down and put a periscope out the front.

- No, I want a hole in it to jump out.

- Well I don't have a hatch. - I'm claustrophobic.

- In fact, if you want it to be all the way in it,

we could just put a window like down into here somewhere

and let you just be all the way in it

and look out that window.

- No, hell no.

[Robert laughs]

I wanna be able to jump out when it's on fire. [chuckles]

This stuff got a little hot back there.

- [Narrator] After they've stripped it,

they start prepping the tank.

- Zinc chromate paint.

You gotta get that off before you can weld to it.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] John Goetzke knows his fighter planes.

- When I was 22 I joined the Air Force

and was a b*mb nav technician,

which is electronics on a B-52.

- [Narrator] John and Stainless

met in the Air Force 30 years ago

and have been Bonneville comrades ever since.

- I've been going to Bonneville,

'73 was my first year

and I've made every year that it hasn't

except before it's been canceled since then.

- Well, it's got its- - It's weldable

because you can see there.

- It's probably 7075.

You know, I'm just guessing

'cause 7075 is just about the most expensive

and since it's the military, you know?

- That's what you'd go for. - Yeah.

I think we should split it directly in half.

We have a top and a bottom then it'll be easy

to kind of line up the dimensions on everything.

We can make flanges for the other side

and then tack 'em on there

and then just slice in between 'em.

- [Narrator] Jesse makes the flanges that will be used

to bolt the tank back together

after they cut it down the middle.

- It's shrinking it to,

it's getting it to curve to match the radius of that thing.

[hard rock music]

That's pretty damn close.

[hard rock music]

If those fly off at 200 too.

- [John] It don't matter, Jesse's driving.

- Yeah, whatever. [laughs]

- [Narrator] These builders started off with no parts.

So the first thing they order is a front end.

- What we're looking for is like a late,

excuse me, an early front Ford axle.

Like a thirties or a forties

with like a monotype leaf on it,

which would be perfect for this car.

[engine revs] [energetic music]

- [Narrator] James Iams wasn't even born

when his teammates started racing Lakesters,

but he's on his own fast track.

At 23, he has his own fabrication shop.

- We do everything.

You know, we touch every side of racing, fabrication,

you know, accessory, what have you.

- [Narrator] How does James feel

about working with the old timers?

- They're the source.

That's where our knowledge comes from.

I feel everybody's just pedal to the metal the full week.

I think if there would've been a bunch of younger guys here,

I don't think that would've been the case.

- Are we done yet? Nope.

Nope. It's only Monday.

- [Narrator] At the end of the day,

the motor is still up in the air,

but that seems to be the least of their worries.

- This is such a big project

that most of us are confident enough

that a motor's the least of our concerns.

- Oh, I'm totally me.

Motor's like disposable lighter.

Hey it doesn't work. Gimme another one.

[team members chuckling]

- [Narrator] They march out of the garage

at the end of day two having even less to work with

than what they originally started with.

Monster Garage factoid.

With a fleet of 5,000 planes,

The F-4 has flown more than 17 million miles

during its service.

That's equivalent to one aircraft

flying continuously for more than 2000 years.

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

- It's day three and Team Lakester

is hoping for an airdrop of parts

to bring the fuel tank to life.

- We're gonna start attaching a frame ramp

building the actual frame.

Hopefully we'll get some pieces to put on it today.

[engine roars]

- [Narrator] Robert "Stainless" Steele

is a long time worshiper of speed.

- Paying homage to the salt gods

is what every Bonneviller does.

- [Narrator] And Stainless has figured out

the key to victory at the salt flats.

- Well there's two ways to go fast.

Cubic inches, cubic dollars. [laughs]

Let's get to it.

- [Narrator] James starts welding a very sturdy frame rail.

They use two separate pieces to make sure

that once everything else gets mounted onto it,

it doesn't dip in the center.

[hard rock music]

- Just pick this, the cherry picker out here

and I'll just throw a chain around it and we'll pick it up.

- [Narrator] Instead of waiting around

for the real parts to arrive,

the team digs in the Monster Garage graveyard

for a junker engine to use as a guide

for everything that comes after it.

- And what did we decide we wanted?

- Well we don't, we've got a-

- You gotta consider 18 for the trans.

- 18 for the trans

and I would say from the center line of the axle,

another nine inches for the rear end.

- At least. Yeah, at least. - That's about right, yeah.

- [Narrator] Charlie brings in the racing seat.

- Man, I'm glad I don't have to sit in one of them.

- [Narrator] Jesse walks in with an update on the motor.

- The motor they're gonna send is, it's pretty badass.



[team members laughing] - Yeah.

- Lots of torque though. - No.

- [Team Member] Lots of torque.

- This looks like 260 horsepower.

- 260, so I said no.

So I'm gonna, we'll use that little blower motor.

Yeah, I'm getting that little stroker motor I got

that was supposed to be for my Fiat.

Someone's gonna have to pull the heads off it.

I don't know how to do that.

- I can do that. - Okay, just to make sure.

It's been sitting for 10 years, so.

- We can dust it. [tools whirring]

- [Narrator] With a powerful engine secured,

Tim and Charlie start making the roll cage

that'll keep Jesse secure.

[dramatic music]

- This is gonna be max here.

Max right there.

I believe you're done in there.

- Thinking we need to bend those a little bit.

- Wanna take that seat with ya?

- I'll hold the seat down.

[Al laughs]

- Here I'll help you get up with it.

- No, just hold the seat down.

- Yeah, just right. That'll brace.

[slow rock music]

- I dunno how square. - Right there

is off a little bit more. - Let me see. Let me see.

- [Narrator] While the roll cage is well underway,

John and Stainless head out

to pick up Jesse's 10-year-old motor.

- This is it. - This must be it.

It's got dust on it. It's gotta be the one.

- We can make that work.

- [Narrator] They've scored big time

with this 406 cubic inch stroker small block.

They also find an old quick change rear end

that they'll use as a mock-up.

[hard rock music]

- You know why it looks that good?

- Because you put it together.

- No, 'cause I never drove it. - Never?

- [Narrator] Once they start taking the motor apart,

they realize it's going to take

a lot more work than they thought.

- See the aluminum chips?

We should be able to just blow the dirt out of there

or suck it out with a little vacuum would be best.

And then we can oil the cylinders and then we can rotate it.

[light rock music]

When you watch it moves close

and it moves right up against and just kisses it.

We have no clearance between the piston and the crank shaft.

You can see the mark on the piston where it's touching.

So it's gonna have to be clearanced a little bit.

- Well that wouldn't have lasted too long with me driving.

[Jesse growls]



[John chuckles]

[tool whirring]

- [Narrator] The used front end that James secured arrives.

But Jesse and the old timers aren't digging it.

- This thing is awful wide.

- See, all that stuff's gonna be hanging out in the wind.

- When we can take this free one right now

and I can make this thing work.

Let's just go for it because we're outta loot here.

- Who's got one that'll? What about SoCal?

- They've got. - I'll call Peach for us

to see if we can get.

- Call Peach, what we need is is done.

- Well let's call and they'll have it.

- They're giving us this, right?

- They'll have this. - So let's just

keep this here just in case.

I'll make one call.

If it doesn't, then we'll just go ahead and use this.

- [Robert] They'll have a steering box too.

- At 200 miles an hour,

I don't want some old freebie van front end.

So I called my friend at SoCal, he's gonna hook us up.

Once you start hauling a*s and that stuff starts shaking

and [shudders] I like how we started off

with just a little warmed over 350 and a nine inch

and now we have a blown stroker motor with a quick change.

[Jesse chuckles]

- You know, somebody told me once,

if you're going to New York, you don't get off in Chicago.

- [Narrator] Monster Garage is honored that Al Teague

made up pit stop in Long Beach for this build.

He is a true legend in the world of land speed records.

- Al Teague, I've been reading about him

since I was in high school

and there's all kinds of jet cars and rocket cars

and all kinds of guys that have done land speed records.

But to do one in a car that works like a car

where it's a engine turning a transmission

that's turning wheels that make the wheels make it go.

And he did that

and went 432 miles an hour with one V8 engine.

That's pretty, that's pretty awesome.

[hard rock music]

- The whole main structure is done as far as the cage.

Yeah, I'm really happy with it.

It came out.

It came out really nice.

- How do you want it? - Well here. Just bring it up.

- Hey, Matt. - This is a good team.

A lot of skill and knowledge in this room.

So it's gonna be cool.

- The rear end master cylinder

and all that'll be here Thursday.

- What about tr*nny did he say?

- Wednesday, Thursday.

- Yeah, if we get lucky we get the tr*nny tomorrow.

We can kind of stack everything in there.

- Stack it. - All right.

Well I think that's it.

- [Narrator] At the end of day three,

this team will need more than luck

to turn pieces of steel into

one of the fastest monsters ever built in the garage.

It's already day four

and so far all this team has is a 10-year-old motor

with lots of kinks,

a well-built frame and a cut up tank.

- We've got a lot to do today and need a lot of parts.

- Because we can't wait to the last day

and then have a rear end and a front end and an engine

and we don't have time to put it all together.

[engine roars]

- [Narrator] Tim McNees was handpicked

by Jesse for this build.

His impressive fabrication skills from the jet boat build

qualified Tim for the rare honor

of being asked back by the master fabricator.

- Awesome.

It's gonna be awesome.

It's gonna be the best ride Jesse's ever had.

If we get the right tires, this will go 200 miles an hour.

No problem.

If we can keep it going straight.

- [Narrator] But before they can go straight,

they need this engine to turn over.

- Okay, let's look at the things we've gotta have right now.

We need a distributor or mag.

What kind of distributor?

- It'd be nice if we could get something

MSD though to AL6.

[hard rock music]

- About the same spot.

Go straight over.

- We're gonna mark it inside.

- Oh, we're just trying to see how well we can hide Jesse.

We gotta treat the air somehow.

- That's all you're gonna see is his eyes right there.

- [Narrator] Jesse rides in just in time for a test fit.

- Another beautiful day in the LBC.

You like that little Island wrench set, don't you?

- I use mainly Bondhus. - Yeah, me too.

I think that's gonna be cool.

- Okay. - Yeah, you're good here.

- [Jesse] Yeah, let's go back a little bit more

so it has some clearance.

- [John] If it came just a hair further, it'd be better.

- Yeah. - Okay. We can do that.

- Plus I don't wanna like flip this thing

and pop it on top of my head.

You know, I want a little bit of clearance, so yeah.

I'm just scared to have that touching on the top.

- Oh, I understand.

- There's nothing that protects that.

My life is literally in all these guys' hands.

I'd like to have that T-shirt

that says 200 mile an hour club.

All these guys have one. I want one.

See how big my [bleep] are when I get out there.

- [Narrator] Charlie has taken over

rebuilding the 10-year-old engine

and he's not happy with what he's finding.

- The sprocket was broken on this one.

The more we take apart,

[chuckles] the more things we find wrong with it.

[hard rock music]

- [Narrator] As Al Teague's chief mechanic,

Charlie Hamilton knows the frustrations

of trying to set land speed records.

- Yeah, it's something that you think about all the time.

You know, the designing and engineering of stuff

and making it work and seeing if it can work.

- What's up? - What's up, dog?

- This isn't what we want.

What the hell?

This is the second time this thing showed up here.

This is not the right gasket.

- [Narrator] While cool Charlie tries to keep his composure

as the engine problems continue,

a new front end arrives that won't give them any trouble.

- Now's where we need some more hands putting this together.

- That's a nice piece. - Isn't that nice?

- That's gonna make it look like we knew what we were doing.

- Yep.

- [Narrator] Jesse starts stripping

the paint off the aluminum cone

with some assistance from his helper.

[dramatic music]

And James is starting to doubt his team's competence.

- Do you have any objections to having one of my buddies

coming over here and assembling that motor?

- Why?

- I don't know.

I'm just kind of starting

to get worried about it a little bit.

- Why? Those guys can put it together.

All we're waiting on is a water pump.

- When we're kind of stalled out for parts and whatnot.

It's just, I don't like to stand around.

You know what I mean?

If I can do something, I want to do something.

So it's just off and on.

Like sit down, hang out, kind of back to work,

sit down, hang out, back to work.

So it just kind of kills, you know?

- [Narrator] So James stands around

while Jesse cuts off the front cone

and fabricates a blunt nose for the Lakester.

[hard rock music]

- If you're not paying attention, you could lose it, huh?

- Yeah, it'll split the metal like that.

[hard rock music]

[metal clanging]

- [Narrator] He puts the nose on hold

to get back in the driver's seat for another fitting.

- That's perfect. - Seat better?

- [Narrator] Now that the seat suits Jesse

and the entire frame is built, the c*ck is cut.

- Passed the point of no return now, buddy.

Alright, I believe we got a hole here.

Basically, we're gonna take the top half,

fit it on the car.

That'll give us some perspective

of where other things have to go as well.

See how we did on clearing the roll cage.

We may need to do some other things to this hole.

We don't know because, you know, when you measure it here

and then put it here, measure it and cut it.

It starts to get a little,

little snaky, so.

- There you go.

Move around the other side, Stainless.

Okay, hold on, Stainless.

[hard rock music]

- We've just got to start working it on

and that's gonna be the biggest problem.

[hard rock music]

- I like this build.

It's basically making myself into a b*llet.

- [Narrator] Jesse rolls in the tr*nny

and this build seems to have rolled right over James' head.

- [Jesse] There's that stuff.

- Hey, did you ever try to get a quick change for this?

- What do you think that is? - No.

I mean, I thought you were originally talking

about running one in it.

- What? I don't understand the question.

- Like when the car was completed,

having a quick change in it.

- It is a quick change.

We're getting a winners.

- Oh, so we are getting a quick change?

- Yeah. Why do you think we're mocking it up with that one?

- Well, it just- - Come on, James.

Get with the program.

You're like a day behind.

- Ben made it sound to me like we're getting a nine inch.

- [Jesse] You need to get a pad and paper and take notes.

- [Narrator] James may be a little slow today,

but the rest of the team doesn't skip a beat.

They can't attach the tr*nny until the rear end arrives.

So they start fitting the body on.

- You know, that looks pretty bitchin', huh?

- Looks cool. - Yeah.

- Can we stop buying cars now and just do 'em all like this?

[slow rock music]

- Can you see my fingers? - No.

- I can see your eyes. - I can see his hair.

That's it.

- Don't listen to 'em. - That's all.

That's all you need to see.

All you need to see is the horizon.

About 70 feet out and you'll see the ground.

- [Jesse] What about the markers or anything like that?

- Look off the side. - They're going [whistles]

you can't see them.

- That's how fast. - How wide out are they?

- 80 feet. - If you can see over the top,

we would be best off leaving it just like that.

- [John] Leaving it, especially for now.

- [Narrator] Now that he'll be able

to see where he is going,

Jesse wants to adjust the brake pedal.

- It might have to come forward just a little bit,

depending on how stooped it is.

- [John] Yeah, you're never gonna use it anyway.

- What if they go out and I have to pump it?

- We always had ours that way. - We spread our pedals.

- [John] I don't think I've used a brake pedal once.

- I know you guys have done it

a lot of different ways your way.

But remember who's driving.

- Well, the brake won't do any good.

[Jesse laughs]

Parachute'll do 40 miles an hour.

- I like that. I like that rule of thumb.

Brakes at high speed? They're worthless.

[team members laughing]

- Ask anybody, ask Al. - I'll just put my hands out.

- You ever use the brakes? - It's bitchin'.

[team members chuckling]

- Tired? - f*ck yeah, dude.

- I think I can. I think I can.

I think I can. I think I can.

- [Narrator] At the end of a productive day four,

General James lays out the drill for tomorrow.

- Well, I'll finish that thing up tomorrow.

I'm gonna pound it over at my shop

on that big hammer in the morning.

Try to get all, everything super hard done.

Big work tomorrow.

Then Friday can be body work.

- [Narrator] With those orders,

The Lakester retires to the bunker

deep inside the LBC jungle.

- Hey, is this back when you guys started? [laughs]

- That's real close to it. - That was.

- [Narrator] Monster Garage factoid.

Al Teague currently owns the world land speed record

for wheel driven vehicles at almost 410 miles per hour.

That's better than two football fields every second.

[upbeat music]

[bubbles popping] [hard rock music]

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

- [Narrator] It's day five.

These soldiers are on a mission.

Charlie continues tweaking the engine

while Stainless and Al cut the bottom

of the fuel tank in half to fit around their new frame.

- We're running out of time.

We really are.

- Build some stuff to water tank a car.

So make it happen here.

- [Narrator] James takes the time

to fabricate a fancy firewall that integrates a water tank.

- Firewall to separate the motor from the driver.

[metal clanging]

- They're good. Team's really good.

Team's a good hard worker.

Then we got a couple movie stars,

but that's okay, they work.

- [Narrator] While the crew continues

cranking on the Lakester,

Jesse is at his shop

finishing up the nose on his power hammer.

- You don't need lube to do it,

but the liquid on the surface

lets me see where the hammer marks go.

You know, so you could make sure it's even.

[hard rock music]

Hold that there, Jim, let me look at it.

It's kind of cool looking.

- Yeah, way cool. - We gotta,

I mean, it'll look way better with it flat on the bottom.

[hard rock music]

I'm tired.

I'm gonna chop a finger off any second.

[hard rock music]

- [Narrator] Jesse takes a break

to bring in the much awaited rear end.

- Oh, look at that piece, Jess.

- It's nice.

It's the same one I have in my Figure 8 car.

- Brake line, what is it? - Except for

this part isn't shattered.

[team members chuckling]

- We still don't have parachutes.

- [Narrator] Al puts the rear end together

while James is MIA.

- I don't know.

I'm hoping that he's somewhere with the tank

water checking it.

If you've spotted him on a couch taking a nap,

I'll weld him to it.

Where do you think he is?

[producer laughs]

[slow rock music] [voices chattering]

- Is he the one that's supposed to stir the screw or what?

[tools whirring]

- [Narrator] No breaks for Charlie and John.

They wanna make sure the transmission is gonna fit.

- [Charlie] Yeah, quarter would be too tight.

Yeah, okay.

- Eighth inch it is. - Get genius over here.

- James? - You're not doing nothing.

- [Charlie] James, can you give us some muscle please?

- He don't do [metal clangs] like this.

He's a professional welder.

He don't do this kind of peon work.

- [Charlie] That's good.

[hard rock music]

- [Narrator] Now they're ready to put it all together.

- Okay, swing it around square.

- Ready? Let's do it.

- Okay.

Okay. Hold it right there.

That's just about right.

- Let's bring the rear end forward.

[hard rock music]

It's not bad. Not bad at all.

- [Narrator] The tr*nny, motor, and rear end

are a perfect fit.

But the water tank that James spent so much time on

isn't big enough for the car.

- [James] Well now it needs to be bigger.

- Well, yeah, we need- - Where we gonna put it, bud?

[team member chuckling]

- I don't know, but that ain't big enough.

That ain't nearly big enough.

- Cool.

- We're just gonna come right up here

and just kind of build a frame.

- You guys are [drill whirs] k*lling me.

- Why? - Look how tough you are.

You said you were tough and grit.

- Hell, you already scrapped one, right?

- Yeah. - What's two?

- You need the- - The third time's the charm.

- We'll use that for something else.

What can we put there? - You need the experience.

- It seems like now we have

a lot more room than everybody thought

where we can put some stuff.

So I think they want to, you know,

they want to have me design like a really large water tank

that goes up behind the transmission.

That way the car can run for a longer period of time.

[metal clanging]

These guys will make a decision

and then they'll change it.

You know what I mean?

So I'll get like two hours into building something

and then oh, there it goes, you know?

- Got the gas pedal.

Go button.

[hard rock music]

- Go out a little bit.

Yeah, that's good.

- [Charlie] Do you want it a little maybe that way?

- No, I think, I think out.

[hard rock music]

Waving to the ladies.

- Yeah. [laughs] - That's right. That's right.

- Profiler, profiler. - Beep, beep.

What up, Salt Lake City?

Mormon chicks.

[engine roaring]

- [Narrator] Jesse takes off

and the builders put to bed a good day five.

Now that their Lakester is starting to come together.

- [Big Swag] With only one day left,

will this fuel tank be ready for combat

or will dissension among the troops cause this build to bob?

- You wanna be here 'til 2:00 in the [bleep] morning?

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

- [Narrator] Day six.

It's the last build day and everyone's ready to work,

except for one person.

- Who's missing?

- Our wayward son gone again.

- I think he went upstairs with one of the blondes.

- We're starting over.

He doesn't care.

Not a problem.

[metal clanging]

- [Narrator] Tim takes over where James left off

and makes a newer bigger water tank.

[slow rock music]

- What do you think, Jesse?

Shall we divide it in half

and then figure out what it goes?

- Yeah, I just wanted to kind of look at it.

It looks long in front.

It's pretty phallic. [chuckles]

- If you have any trouble seeing,

you can just flatten that off though.

- I think once we get up on the wheels,

I think it'll probably be all right.

- I think you're right.

- There's more vision in this car

than most of the cars I've ever seen.

- [Narrator] Now that the other parts are on,

Jesse starts making the exhaust.

[hard rock music]

[metal clanging]

- That's the we got no space

so cram it in there as tight as you can exhaust.

- The band guy's over here

sitting on our couch in his underwear, dude,

reading the newspaper.

[hard rock music]

- Long Beach, California,

home of the Monster Garage, cold crushing-

- [Narrator] For this larger than life monster,

the Dwarves stopped by to perform for the team.

♪ But I knew I'd seen that car before ♪

[fast punk music]

♪ Bless these people in this sick, sick city ♪

♪ Burn your car to the ground and make the sky look pretty ♪

[fast punk music]

♪ Monster Garage, yeah

♪ The Dwarves, rock legend

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah

♪ Yeah, yeah

- Canadian. - Different strokes, huh?

Different strokes. That's what they say.

[hard rock music]

- Would you look at that or would you look at that?

[upbeat rock music]

- [Narrator] With the motor and tr*nny

finally mounted onto the frame,

the team cuts

and cuts and cuts the tank until it fits onto the frame.

[hard rock music]

- I want to fit this bulk in.

That's what I want to fit.

Okay, we're 30 and a quarter.

That's gonna be 15 and an eighth.

That should be our center right there.

- Okay.

[hard rock music]

Damn, we're good.

I hope this fits. - See how far we can go.

- Let's just see if we can get it over the rear end.

- Let's see how far we can go.

Okay.

- Damn, that's fitting pretty nice, Al.

- [Narrator] And Jesse squeezes in his exhaust.

- Hey, this thing don't fit, man.

[Jesse laughs]

- How far? About right here? - Yeah.

I would just slice it.

[tools whirring]

- We need some cappuccinos.

Shannon said she was going for cappuccinos at three o'clock.

- It's hot. It's hot. - And now it's 4:15.

- Yeah, where's my Frappuccino?

- It's hot. It's hot. It's hot.

[classical music]

- Yeah. You good getting some of that?

That's a good,

it's like liquid crack.

[classical music]

[Charlie slurping]

- You are the only one that works around here.

You doing all the work?

You doing all the work?

- Yeah, I can work and drink my coffee at the same time.

- [Team Member] You're good.

- This is the starter's button.

The ignition switch,

the fuel pump switch,

and the battery disconnect.

We're gonna be done at midnight.

We're gonna work on it 'til we can't work on it anymore.

[engine roaring]

[dramatic music]

- These are just for getting it

on the ground and running tonight.

- Putting water in.

Let's see how bad it leaks.

- No leaks on the tank, huh?

When it's going,

bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam,

then I'll feel that much better

'cause then we get to test the transmission

and know that it shifts and that the brakes work.

- Everybody's done a lot.

- Everybody? - Well, almost everybody.

[James yawning]

- Oh, I got something special planned.

You just wait.

[intense music]

- [Team Member] Damn, don't bust it right away.

[hard rock music]

- Is today the last day?

[chuckles] I forgot.

How long have you guys known each other?

- Since '72? - I could tell.

You talk to each other like old ladies.

I reckon there ain't nothing wrong

with two fellers being together

long as they love each other. - We love each other, man.

[upbeat rock music]

- [Charlie] Gonna hook onto something.

It'll cause more problems.

- Better just- - Ladies, ladies.

- I don't like to hear that. - It's the fourth quarter.

- It's only the third.

- I know you're running low on your Geritol.

Man, I got those pretty close.

Do you see that? - You're the man.

- I got those pretty close for just eyeballing it.

The coolest exhaust that no one will ever see.

Hey, you could either have fast and cool looking

or slow and easy to bolt on and ugly.

- Ready, Charlie?

On, pump on, ignition on.

- Clean. - Here we go.

[engine revving]

[engine roaring]

[engine revving]

- It just doesn't have enough fuel.

[engine roaring]

- The exhaust sounds pretty tuned.

[team members laughing]

- Now we gotta make sure we clear the linkage.

- Yeah.

- It's sitting up on something.

It's not sitting down all the way.

[hard rock music]

- Dr. Strange, yee-haw!

- [Team Member] You wanna keep that?

- What do you hit?

- We're hitting on this.

We need to that gusset.

- We need to trim this here.

- You wanna be here til 2:00 in the [bleep] morning?

- We got an hour!

- Hey, why don't you guys stop [bleep] around

and just put that thing on?

- All right. - That's my sentiment.

- You want to- - No, we don't.

- You didn't see me [cat meows] the dog

getting that exhaust done.

- [Charlie] I know. We're trying.

We're working at it.

- [Narrator] In just five days,

Jesse and his crew have built a car out of nothing.

- Come down, Charlie.

Come down some more.

Yeah, he's got it.

We got it. That's it.

Drill it. Drill it.

Drill it.

- Looks good, huh? - I think so.

- [Narrator] Just before midnight,

this monster is ready for its maiden voyage.

[hard rock music]

- That thing looks pretty badass on the ground.

It's nice to have a head sock with bloodstains. [laughs]

[engine roaring] [hard rock music]

- Yee-haw! - Yeah!

- It needs a little fine tuning.

- Damn fine tuning. - I'd say a little

fine tuning won't hurt it.

- What do you think? - It's fast as hell.

Cool. - The man.

- You guys want some tools? - [laughs] We would love it.

- You got two sets now. - That's right.

- That's no fair.

[engine roaring]

[upbeat rock music]

[team members chuckling]

Mac Tools.

Monster Garage CDs somewhere.

Good job, guys.

That was good.

Building something outta nothing.

- [Narrator] Build cost tally.

Hard cash, $11,775.78.

Freebie value, $11,900.

Vehicle cost, $3,247.50.

Grand total, $26,923.28.

[bubbles popping] [hard rock music]

♪ Monster

♪ Monster Garage

- [Big Swag] Hey monster speed freaks.

We're here at Vandenberg Air Force Base

for another monster challenge.

It's a perfect day to make the monster run.

- Too perfect.

I hope nothing bad happens. [laughs]

- [Big Swag] Just how fast does Way Fast Whitey wanna go?

- I want to get in the 200 mile an hour club today, man.

- [Big Swag] 200 shouldn't be that hard.

Especially with a monster that looks this good.

Oh yeah!

- To run 200 miles an hour in anything,

that is a big number.

- [Big Swag] That's Mike Cook

and he's here to make it all legit.

- Make a run back through there.

Over the left hand side of the racetracks.

If you have any trouble with the car whatsoever,

we want you to turn out to the left.

[intense music]

- [Big Swag] The Lakester is towed into position.

[crowd cheering]

- Yeah! - Yeah!

- [Jesse] Yeah, let's haul a*s, man.

[intense music]

- [Big Swag] Hit it, Jesse! Hit it!

[engine roaring] [hard rock music]

First run, 140 miles an hour.

How'd she feel, Jesse?

- She's got lots of power.

Definitely not even tapping into it.

[upbeat rock music]

- [Big Swag] He gets off to a fast start.

Wait a minute, it's slowing down.

Bummer!

- [Jesse] It just started sh**ting ducks and crapped out.

Brr.

- [Big Swag] Everyone who can pitches in to fix the engine.

- That one's done. - The problem?

A blown head gasket.

- [Crew Member] Blew the O-ring right out of it.

- [Big Swag] The impromptu monster pit crew

races the setting sun.

Mike Cook confers with Jesse.

- I think we ought to back you up

right up against the fence. - Let's do it.

- Give you every bit you can have

'cause you're only gonna do one more.

That's it.

[intense music]

- If I don't get in the 200 mile an hour club, I'm pissed.

[engine roaring]

- [Big Swag] It's off for the third time today.

But after all that hard work

and the last minute attempts,

Jesse's still outside knocking on the door

of that 200 mile an hour clubhouse.

- Good job, buddy. - You tried.

- Look how perfect it is.

Dude, look how. [laughs] - Perfect.

- God doesn't want me to go 200 miles an hour in a car.

Damn, it sucks.

- [Big Swag] He's got no time for cars that go slow,

head gaskets that blow,

and monsters that just can't get it done!

He's got metal to burn, sparks to fly.

The next Monster Garage Challenge

is just off the end of the runway!

[hard rock music]

[dramatic music]