Downloaded from YTS.MX
You know, everyday I feel blessed for our success at Ekstensive.
The builds just keep getting
better and better, bigger and bigger.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
You know, a huge part of Ekstensive's success is being in the Houston area.
What can I say. Houston is world headquarters for customization.
I don't think there's another place like this.
We got every kind of custom vehicle being built out here.
You know, like 1 Way Diesel, they've been down a couple times to help us out.
This is gonna make some power?
1500 horsepower and about 2000 foot pounds of torque.
They've been cranking out some cool stuff lately.
Wide Open Garage.
-What's happening man? -Oh, you know, another day.
[Bill] You know, David and Daniel, I've known them guys...
I've known Daniel his whole life.
You know, they're really deep into the muddin', off roading.
[chuckles]
[Bill] They build some really cool, impressive stuff.
And then, there's the Mod Mafia guys.
You know, they're the Hummer, Overlander guys,
and we've done some work for 'em recently.
[man] Man, it looks nice.
Cause I've never seen a cage like that.
[Bill] And I really like seeing everything just coming out of their shop.
Seeing what everybody else is building just helps us push
our creativity just even higher.
You always wanna outdo the next guy. You always wanna one up your game.
And the speed and aggressiveness some
of these shops are putting out around here is just crazy.
[Chase] We got a call from a buddy, Johnny Moore.
Come check out one of his projects he wants us to do.
So, I've actually done quite a bit of work for Johnny.
You know, he's got several diesel trucks and...
Man, we've got a great relationship. I've known him for several years so,
I'm ready to knock another one out for him.
Whoo! What do we have here?
Cannot wait to get my hands on this.
It's a 73 Road Runner.
A very iconic car.
Man this thing doesn't look like it even needs anything.
Man this thing is super clean.
All it needs is a diesel swab, throw about a 1000 horse to it, he'll love this thing.
Forget American muscle.
We're all about those Cummins diesels at 1 Way Diesel, so
you know, getting that in there,
that's gonna complete that thing, it'll be perfect.
[Johnny] What's happening?
-[Chase] What's up Johnny? -[Johnny] Not much man. You found the place?
Yeah man, found it. I am so excited about this.
-Yeah! -I can't wait to shove a 1000 horsepower Cummins in that.
That'd be awesome but that's not the build man.
That's my car.
-[Chase] WHat do you mean? -[Johnny] That car is finished.
Your project's back here.
That's your project.
-That? -[Johnny] Yeah.
[Chase] I mean this is definitely a project.
What is this?
1979 Dodge Li'l Red Express.
Maybe it was Johnny, but there's nothing there.
Of course, frame, cab, few other bits.
[Chase] This isn't really a build.
This is a build, like, ground up, nothing there, start fresh.
I might be able to find a few more pieces over in the other shop.
I hope you find another truck.
-Well-- -[Chase] I mean this is...
You got the frame here, some of it.
Cab looks decent, okay, I'll give you that.
Minus the invisible firewall and the one pedal but we'll make that work.
We've got the hood here.
And somewhat of a door.
So, what exactly are you wanting to do with this, Johnny?
You know, back in 1979 this was the fastest production truck off the line.
But that was a long time ago.
But I want to recreate it in today's times
and make it one of the fastest on the road today.
Okay now, I hear fast.
-You got my attention. -Yep.
How fast do you want it to be?
Maybe faster than that.
-That's easy. -That's fast.
That's not a problem. I can make it twice as fast as that.
-I've got this. -[laughs]
What I wanna end up with is a fast Li'l Red Express,
um, that's capable of towing a car to the track,
that's capable of driving everyday if I want to,
but also capable of being cleaned up and taken to a show and win the show itself.
You've given us one of the biggest projects we've ever tackled.
-But I'm starting to get excited about this. -That's awesome.
Just to go over a few things, big horsepower, red,
fast and a new truck because there's not much here to work with.
Pretty much, yeah.
-Okay, well-- -And the stacks, don't forget about the stacks.
Of course, these are known for that.
When you think of a Li'l Red Express that's what comes to my mind so.
Exactly.
The Li'l Red Express had the chrome stacks.
It's gotta have the stacks.
Be able to blow a little black smoke every now and then.
I gotta start loading parts up. Pray for me, man.
I'll do it, man, I appreciate it.
[Chase] This would've been perfect, guys. This--
That's too easy.
[Chase] You ain't lying.
The moment Johnny told me that was a Li'l Red Express,
I started to feel a lot better about this and feel a little excited,
'cause that's a very iconic truck.
Fact is, that was one of the fastest production trucks made.
We're gonna take it to a whole other level when we get done with it.
I know there's gonna be a lot of work involved.
He wants it red, he wants stacks,
he wants it fast, he wants to be able to tow his Road Runner.
And I've got five pieces.
This is gonna definitely test our capabilities.
[engine running]
Whoa!
Just let it down.
I created 1 Way Diesel for my love for the diesel engine.
The name came from a Bible verse.
You know, John 14:6.
It says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes
to the Father except through me."
[engine roars]
I've always loved cars.
But I really love the diesel engine.
[man] Hit it.
[engine roars]
[Chase] Man, that thing sounds awesome.
They're making a lot of torque.
And torque moves mass.
[engine blaring]
Once you feel it, you want more, you want it to go faster.
It's addictive.
Me, my dad and my brother Clay we started 1 Way Diesel in a little dirt garage.
With no tools hardly.
We've expanded the business so much from just
building engines, tuning 'em,
modifying 'em...
Oh, yeah.
...to doing a full on build.
But it makes it even cooler that I get to do this while working with my family.
[Tommy] What in the world have you got here? You cleaning up?
This is our next project, guys.
[Tommy] Okay, so where's the rest of it?
[Chase] I'm working on that.
This is a 1979 Li'l Red Express.
Oh, cool.
You know, the one cool thing I always loved about that truck
is it came factory with those stacks.
-That was iconic. -[Tommy] It was.
So, we definitely want to integrate that back into it.
Does he have the stack?
Well, no.
No, but we're gonna make some.
-It's gotta have stacks. -Yeah, it's gotta have the stacks, yeah.
That's an iconic look.
[Tommy] So, when Dodge rolled out in 1979, the Li'l Red Express, they were awesome.
Stacks, had wood in the bed, wood on the bedside.
These trucks were pretty fast.
I mean back in the day a little over 200 horsepower was a big deal then.
So, whose is it and what all he want done?
All right, this is Johnny Moore's.
-Y'all know Johnny Moore? -Yeah.
So, I know he wants to be able to outrun his 1973 Road Runner.
-Oh, really? -[Chase] And you know me.
And I might've talked this up.
-Oh, yeah. -So, we're going to have to come through with this guys.
He wants all the meat and potatoes.
He wants it looking good, he wants it fast,
-and you know, 800, a 1000 horsepower. -Okay.
He wants to be able to tow with it, which I was, like...
What's he gonna tow with it?
He wants to tow his 73 Road Runner.
Okay.
I mean we can make that happen.
All we have to do is some beefy coilover springs in the rear,
four-link the 9 inch back there.
Stance-wise, what's he wanna go with?
Let's keep it low, let's keep it fast, let's keep it classy.
We want this thing slick.
But still keep the originality of the Li'l Red Express.
It is lacking...
-a firewall. -[Clay chuckles]
[Chase] Uh, it's completely gone.
But we can fix that.
Well that gives us the opportunity to set that engine back as far as we can.
-[Clay] Yeah, yeah. -[Tommy] And get the weight transfer to the rear.
So, we can put this power down.
-Exactly. -We would've had to modify it anyway.
Yeah, we're gonna diesel swap it.
[Tommy] We want to stay old school?
I think we wanna keep that plastic.
-[Tommy] Let's put a 12 valve, 48RE. -[Clay] Yeah.
-Let's put that old dinosaur in there. -[Chase] You know, and then,
let's do a custom compound turbo setup.
Once we get all that dialed in, we're talking about leaving something in the dust.
Oh, for sure dude, I'm excited man.
That's gonna be sick.
First things first.
Let's get the frame in the shop.
Start getting on the back half and getting the engine and the trans mocked up.
[Clay] Sounds like a good gameplan.
[Chase] Let's get it done.
On ground up builds like this, because we're engine guys, we build from the engine out.
[clanging]
All right, let's get that frame in here.
[Chase] So once we get the frame under the truck
we can get the engine and trans mocked up perfectly.
And then, we'll build from there.
-[Clay] There you go. -[Chase] All right, perfect.
[Chase] Man, I think we're ready to start mocking up our engine.
Yeah, man, let's do it.
All right. [grunts]
-Ain't that thing light? -Oh, yeah.
-Right about there, huh. -[man] Yeah.
[Chase] I got a foam block here, that weighs about 20 pounds.
It's an exact replica of a 12-valve Cummins.
You know, we can bolt all the accessories on to it,
and we can get all our angles right.
So, we don't have to worry about flattening a 1000 pound engine.
One of the biggest thing when we're mock up these engines
is we gotta get our degree right.
At this power level, I mean, this thing has to be perfect.
That's why we wanna get these mock up motor mounts in here,
so that we can get our drive line exactly where we need it to be.
There it is.
-That looks great, man. -Looks sharp, man.
Now we got our engine mocked up, next thing to do is get our trans in there.
You know we can't set up our rear end, we can't set up our drive line
till we get the transmission bolted in.
So, basically you gotta work from the front of the engine
all the way to the rear of the transmission.
That all works together with our suspension.
[Tommy] Okay now, let's get our adapter plate bolted on to the back of the block,
and then we can install the transmission.
Perfect.
Now, we're gonna check our clearances, we're gonna check our angles,
make sure everything is sitting where it should be.
[Chase] Okay, looks like that clears right there.
We want about a half inch clearance all the way around on our transmission.
Because this engine even though we got semi solid mounts in it,
it's still gonna move some.
So, we gotta give enough room for it to do that without hitting anything.
Yes, it's a torquey beast.
[Daniel] Coming up.
[Daniel] What's Chris's truck doing here?
-Well, he says the front diff is messing up. -Okay.
[David] But, uh, he wants to compete.
So, we gotta figure out what's wrong with it and turn it into a bounty hole truck.
Ooh, these babies are big.
While I'm putting the bench suspension together on the Li'l Red Express,
Dad's picking out an engine for it.
We each have our roles at 1 Way Diesel.
My dad takes a lot of pride in finding and building the perfect engine.
We do have a 12-valve over here that fit the bill I believe.
We always try to keep, you know, several engines in stock,
core engines that we can build for different applications.
We got a 6-7 Cummins here. It's...
It would work but it's electronic. I'm gonna stay away from electronics on this.
In '79, there was no computers there was no electric fuel pumps.
There was... You know, it was all manual.
So, that's, kind of, the theme I wanna stay with.
Now we have a 12-valve here that we could use.
It's got a manual injection pump, a manual lift pump.
Basically you can get diesel to this thing and it'll run.
Or we have a VP engine, 24 valve Cummins.
You can take the front cover off,
of a 12-valve and put it on here and you can put the P-pump on this,
and you'll have a P-pump 24 valve.
That might be an option.
I really feel like we just need to stay simple.
So, this engine right here, I think this is the one we need to go with.
I really do.
Just a regular old 12-valve Cummins.
It may not look like much right now, but I promise you when we're done with it,
it'll be so quality and it's gonna be fast,
and we'll get a 1000 horsepower out of this, no problem.
[Daniel] My name is Daniel.
Me and my dad Dave, we own Wide Open Garage.
Whatever you wanna do offroad related, if it's gotta go up, over or through anything,
we got you covered.
You know, when I was younger, I was racing four wheelers.
I actually ended up going pro.
I'm Googling myself here to look up my... You can actually see, you know,
what races I've won.
You know, in racing, you gotta be able to work on your own thing and build it.
Of course, you know, I had to.
I didn't have the money to pay someone to do it so,
I learned building these mud trucks basically from my four wheeler.
You know, and it, kind of, just grew from there.
And the next thing you know, people are contacting me,
paying me to build 'em a mud truck.
And it's just gotten crazy, you know, and it turned into a business.
You know, now I get paid to work on mud trucks
with my best friend and my dad.
You know, till this day we still have people rolling
in with stuff they just gotta have.
Hey, Chris, what's going on, man?
What's going on Dave?
-What you go tore up now? -Man,
something in the differential, axle, something making noise.
-She's broke, I need her fixed up. -Uh-huh.
Of course, we know you, you tear up things.
I've known Chris since he was a kid, a youngster.
He grew up on the next street over there and started running around with us and Daniel.
And he was ate up with the four wheelers.
Then he went to mud trucks and he's been ate up with it ever since.
Me and the wife, you know, we go running around up and down at the park.
Hit a couple mud holes here and there.
He's got a Samurai.
Samurais have been getting pretty popular at the mud park here lately.
They're short, they turn good,
and they look good.
There ain't no telling what he did to the truck this time.
But, you know, we'll get 'em fixed up.
I'll bet it's probably full of water, you know,
'cause you ain't on no maintenance plan.
Oh, no, it ain't gonna be that. I'll bet 100.
-[Dave] Really? -It ain't that.
You know, I'mma get some tools here later, I'll take that bet.
Now that I'm bringing it in, I mean, we might as well do a big makeover.
Whatchu wanting to do to it?
I'm thinking bounty hole killer.
-Oh, really? Okay. -Wanna go through the hole.
In the mudding world, a bounty hole is just a really big hole.
Could be mud, water, rocks.
There's two ways to win it. How far you went or how long it took you to get there.
You have to have a really light truck or a really fast truck.
So either you need a lot of motor or you need it lifted very high.
-[Chris] I want the biggest, baddest Samurai out there. -[Dave] Definitely.
What's up with the pink, man?
-[Chris] Oh, man. -[Dave] Come on.
You gotta be able to see me.
Man, we put some bigger wheels on there, we'll see ya.
Oh, that's what I'm thinking about.
We get these bigger wheels, it's gonna be able to go through anything.
Gonna have to upgrade them axles, 'cause you know they break.
We can't have you out there late at night broke down.
-I ain't coming to get you. I'm busy. -[Chris] No, no.
No, it ain't no problem. We can upgrade axles.
I want something unbreakable.
[Dave] Definitely clean this caliper and this rotor up.
I think that's the one that's making noise.
Uh, looks like it might be leaking a little oil.
Probably leaking some water too.
Looks like oil to me.
-Okay. -I still got that 100.
Everyone that comes here don't have water.
[chuckles]
But they've been at the mud park all day.
We'll get this thing unloaded and get on it and see what we gotta do.
You know, driving trucks is fun but building trucks is what we do for a living.
You ready? I'm going.
[Chris] Let me get some of the water out of here.
[Dave] We're gonna build this truck right for him, where he can compete with it.
When he goes out into the park, it's gonna be the best.
We're gonna fix him up.
Looks like you've been enjoying your afternoon.
Oh, you know, gotta take advantage of that rain.
Well, what's Chris's truck doing here?
-Well, he says the front diff is messing up. -Okay.
But he's willing to change up his game. He wants to compete.
-Chris wants to compete? -He said he wants to get through that pond.
-No way. -Yep.
So, we gotta figure out what's wrong with it
-and turn it into a bounty hole truck. -We gotta fix it,
and then he wants us to make it go faster.
But he pretty much just told me, "Hey, tell Daniel y'all do what you do."
[Daniel] I'm thinking like a 60 to 72 inch top tire.
-Let's just go crazy with it. -Big tire. Big tires.
I know Chris, he likes to show off.
Hey, if he can't go through the bottom, he can float across the top.
-[Daniel] Right. -[Dave] Maybe we can lighten it up a little bit.
I can see some stuff we need to cut off in here.
[Daniel] We definitely have to upgrade the axles,
'cause it sounds like he's already got something torn up.
Yes.
[Daniel] Either swap the axles or we're gonna have to do some custom hybrid axles,
probably Planetaries.
[Dave] Well, that's your department there, you know what to do,
-I'm just a helper on that part. -[Daniel] That's right.
Well, let's get in there, man, I got a lot of work to do it sounds like.
You know, the thing about a lake crosser is,
it's gotta be able to go over the water but it also has to be a water tight.
There you go.
First thing we need to do is pull apart the axle and see if anything is broke.
And of course, see if any water is getting in.
You know, the mudding world is not about looking pretty.
-It's about getting the job done. -[grunts]
We're not in the business of throwing away any good parts.
We keep what we can and replace what we can't.
All right, we got the wheels off, we're gonna go in next
and get the caliper off and the driveshaft off.
See if we can find this problem.
Check it out, Robert, look how bad this pin's wore out.
Rotor's been hitting into the pin.
The, uh, rotor was digging into the caliper pin.
That's supposed to be smooth, like the backside here.
There's definitely something going on, so I'm gonna keep tearing into it.
Oh, look at that.
[Daniel] Definitely got some problems.
So, we got the break caliper removed, the driveshaft removed and the rotor.
And there's clearly something going on in here.
It's not supposed to move like that.
It looks like the whole nut's coming loose on the back side.
-[Robert] Yeah. -[Daniel] Oh yeah, it's all junk.
So these rockwells are notorious for pinion bearing problems.
You get water or mud all in there
and it won't get the right amount oil it needs to the pinion bearing.
And if you're like Chris, all no maintenance,
you're gonna run into this problem all the time.
-There's a bearing in that side? -[Daniel] Yeah.
Mine don't have nothing.
-[Daniel] Really? -[Robert] No.
Definitely where the noise was coming from, huh?
So, you can see here that the bearing is completely gone.
There's supposed to be a bearing here.
The race is left in the inner part of the bearing.
But that's all. [chuckles]
Go ahead and get this thing pulled out of here.
We're gonna go ahead and get both bearings replaced on this.
The only bad thing is,
all that bearing material is in here.
So, we have to make sure we get it cleaned out.
[grunts] Okay.
Oh, yeah, I wanna see some water come out of this thing.
[Daniel] Oh, I feel like there's definitely gonna be some water in there.
-Oh, yeah. -[Robert] Oh, yeah.
-It's already draining. -[Robert] Water, water, water.
[Robert] Whoo, man!
Chris is buying us lunch.
He said there wasn't no water in it. There's water.
-[Daniel] Yeah. -[Robert] That says zero maintenance.
[Daniel] Oh, oh, yeah, this is what's making the noise right here, look.
The cage is jammed up in there from the bearing.
-Look at that. -Look at this.
-It's all chewed up. -[Robert] Oh, wow.
[Daniel] Basically you have to go in here and make sure
you get every piece of metal out.
One of those pieces of bearing would jam up in between the gear,
and knock a tooth off the gear or just cause failure.
Now that we've cleaned up the lake crosser's axles
we can get 'em sealed up and water tight.
We'll go ahead and get the pinion built, get the new bearings on it.
So, see here, I pulled the shaft out.
You can clearly see here that some of the material from the bearing
has chipped a teeth.
If you were to continue driving it like that
it would look like this pinion gear which is completely trashed.
So, we got a new pinion gear here and we're gonna go ahead and get this put on the shaft.
And also the races and new bearings.
[Robert] Almost.
So, we just removed the old bearing.
Obviously it's missing a few things. This is what it's supposed to look like.
This is the inner part of the bearing that's left.
The cage and the bearing part is actually what we cleaned out earlier.
[drilling]
There she goes.
All right, so we got the old pinion removed.
And we're gonna go ahead and get the new one installed.
And, uh,
throw this in the trash.
[Robert] Put a little grease on it, you know.
They're oil bath, but a little grease never hurt nobody.
That's for sure. You don't wanna run it dry when you first put it in.
No, you know Chris.
[Robert] It'll never see oil again.
When you're using this tool on this bearing,
it's very important not to actually get this piece
into the actual cage of the bearing. You only want to hit it right here.
Okay, that's a hard metal and this is all soft.
It'll just destroy it.
[Daniel] That's it, there it is.
Center chunk all cleaned out. All the bearing material is all out of there.
You don't want it in there because it'll chip the pinion gear.
We'll go ahead and get the races and get 'em in
and go ahead and stab the pinion.
-Yeah. -Okay.
So, going back together we noticed,
you can clearly see that the seal has wore out from the bearing.
We're gonna go ahead and get that seal knocked out,
we're gonna get a new one installed.
And we see that it's got a good seal.
So, no water will get in it.
[drilling]
Money.
All right, so we got the pinion, new bearings, new races, new seals.
No more shaft play, I mean, it turns beautifully actually.
I mean, I'm real happy with it.
Time to move on.
[Chase] My dad sourced these old rear ends for the Li'l Red Express.
So, this is a Ford nine inch rear end.
These are very strong, tough rear ends.
I'm not a Ford guy but they made some good parts and this is one of them.
We're gonna clean all these old brackets off.
Then we're gonna get it centered under the truck.
Pull our measurements and start mocking up our four-link bars.
I just cut off all this excess metal
that we do not need on this rear end.
Now it's time to grind these welds clean,
that metal don't like to stick to rust, so
I'm trying to scratch it all off.
[Chase] You know, we're not gonna keep these old drum brakes.
We're gonna do a disc brake conversion, so, we've gotta get all this stuff off.
All right, let's do this.
-Oh, that ain't bad now? -No.
You want to grab that other jack and we can put it on the driveshaft.
All right, ease it down.
The next step is we've gotta get the rear end level.
[Chaz] Come down.
[Chase] And then we're gonna start to make sure that our drive alignment was correct.
[Chaz] That's good.
All right. I'm gonna just pull it off the center off the top of it.
You know, half an inch off, this thing is gonna look terrible, you know.
When you hit a bump or something, or this thing makes power...
it's gonna hit the bed and crack the wood or you know, we just got to take our time
measuring out before we start welding out our brackets to the four-link.
That looks pretty good, right here.
That's not good.
[Tommy] Now we've got our 12-valve Cummins on our engine stand.
As you can see, it's nasty, dirty...
it's had a few miles put on it.
But, we're gonna tear it all down, uh,
get it ready to go to the machine shop and get our
cylinders looking good, the crank looking good
and then replace it with all new parts.
This was basically a tractor engine.
One of the most durable, tough engines that Cummins made.
Basically, you get diesel to this thing, and it'll run.
You know, at Christmas like, when you get a new toy
I would take it apart, try to make it faster
or do some kind of modification to it
and put it back together.
And that's kinda like these...
take it apart, try to make it better.
We've got this engine completely torn down.
It's ready to go to the machine shop.
Let them do their thing, get it back...
we'll start putting this thing together.
[Chase] We got the four-link mocked up
and installed the new firewall.
Now that everything is mocked up,
now we're gonna take the cab and bed off,
so we can send those off to paint.
Then we can break this whole frame down...
weld everything out and send it to powder coat.
Y'all ready?
[Chase] There's a lot of little things we have left,
but man, we are making a ton of progress on this project.
Man, this thing is gonna look good, when she's done.
Back in 1979, this Li'l Red Express
came with a V8 engine from the factory, pushing 200 horsepower.
Dad's building a 12-valve Cummins
that's gonna put a lot of torque out
and at least 1000 horsepower.
So, we got our engine back from paint shop
nice and red, just like the Li'l Red Express.
Time to put this thing together.
Get these main caps off.
Get ready to put our crank in.
Each one of 'em are numbered.
These were individually honed for each portion of the block
so it's got to go back exactly how you take it off.
So, I had my machinist, line holing this block...
but just in the time from the machine shop
to here, you see that little bit of surface rust on here.
So, I'll take it over here with some Scotch-Brite and I'll buff these...
make sure there's no debris and it's true.
These little steps right here,
will make your engine, last a lot longer.
We got all our upper main bearings in, got 'em all clean.
I'll put some lubricant on 'em.
We're gonna take the crank...
we're gonna clean the crank
set it in here.
And then we'll do our lower main bearing,
fork it down
and this part will be done.
You know what this feels like?
This feels like horsepower.
Right here, we've got our stock 12-valve cam
and there we've got our new cam
that was custom-cut for this engine.
Now, we've got to take this gear off of the stock cam
and put it on our new cam.
I started, uh, my shop doing classic cars,
Cobras, kit cars, Vipers,
and then Chase, his first vehicle, he fixed it
and then he kept doing modifications to it
and it got faster and faster
so then I had to learn how to make a transmission hold that much power.
That's basically when we got into diesels and
Chase has pushed the envelope each time
and I've had to make my stuff stay together, so he wouldn't tear it up.
And then Clay, bless his heart he's usually the test dummy.
He's the one that gets to drive them first,
make sure nothing's going to break or tear up.
And then ease Chase into it, because we know Chase is going to break it.
So, we have our piston here...
drizzle a little oil on here.
When we build these engines and they turn
way more RPM than what they were designed to,
we have to have everything perfect.
So, as we add a part, we're gonna rotate this
to make sure we don't have any kind of binding,
'cause any little thing that binds this engine
is gonna rob you horsepower and it's gonna wear.
I really like this. It feels good.
So anyway, we got one in
we've got to do this five more times.
My dad and Robert are gonna make one more repair
to the axle on the lake crosser.
This one here, we just pulled off this truck.
You see it's wore out.
Looks like the needles fell out and you see it's loose.
That was probably making noise...
but they didn't care as long as it keeps going.
We're gonna have to replace this end for sure.
[grunts] All right.
-The die grinder. -Yup.
Let me get the die grinder in here and clean this up a little bit.
[machine whirring]
-[David] Well, that's bad right there. -[Robert] Yup.
-[David] Look at that dent. -[Robert] I see it.
[machine whirring]
All right, let's see what we got.
-Ready? -Yes, sir.
[David] See if we can get the U-joint out.
-Oh. -There we go.
[Robert] Okay.
[David] Have to get these caps off here...
make sure all the needles are in there.
See how we beat the other one apart,
the needles fell apart because it was no good.
This one here is still good.
All the needles need to be in place.
If they fall over... you can't get it together.
[Richard] Here's some grease to help hold them together.
[David] Right there.
Come on.
-[Robert] All right. -[David] See if it'll take a clip.
You haven't tried doing this at the mud park,
when you don't have the good tools.
-[Robert] Been there, buddy. -[David] Mmm-hmm.
This one's good to go.
It's nice... it's high... not making no noise.
All right. This is ready for our Planetary. Oh, yeah.
[Daniel] You know, this Samurai it only came with
this baby little four-cylinder engine.
Man, that sucker looks heavy.
[Daniel] There was absolutely no way it has the power to
turn these giant wheels and drive across the lake.
And that's why we're installing Planetaries
to increase the gear ratio and strength.
I'll use my fat gut to hold it.
[Robert] Ready?
All right.
Good? Oh, yeah, she's turning.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. That's gonna work.
[Robert] What we've done here now is,
essentially this is a 670 gear.
So basically, this drive shaft turns 6.7 times
for every one time this axle spins.
But then we multiply that again times three.
So now our gear ratio is almost 20:1.
This drive shaft is going to spin 20 times
for every one time the wheel spins.
That's gonna give us all the gear ratio and reduction we need
for this little four cylinder to turn a monster tire.
So Daniel, he put me on a little mission
to find some R-2 tires.
They have a better bite in the mud than the R-1's.
A lot of places like up in Florida, Louisiana, that area...
they run this type of tire because of the swamp land.
But, we're gonna give it a try right here in this Texas mud.
I'm headed back to the shop with them right now and see how they fit.
What do you think of them, Daniel? Them thick enough?
[Daniel] Man, I think those will work.
I tell you what, going from that tire...
to that...
I mean, he's probably going to gain...
4 to 5 foot of ground clearance with these.
Ooh, these babies are big.
How about that?
-A little more. -It's all I got, buddy.
Whoo. Look at that.
Look how much bigger that is.
That looks pretty cool. [laughs]
[Daniel] Now you can clearly see why we needed these Planetaries.
I mean, these tires are ridiculous.
They're over 6 feet tall.
There is no way it would've been able to turn 'em without these.
[Daniel] We finished up the axle on the lake crosser
and we got one thing left.
We're gonna go ahead and give those old wheels
a little bit of style and protection.
We're gonna go ahead and cut 'em a rock ring...
with the name of his truck in which is called "Pocket Change."
The rock ring will protect the bead of the wheel
because if you bend the bead of the wheel
then the tire's coming off, the air is coming out...
just creates problems.
So, we're making one for each wheel well
and then we're sending them off to powder coat and this truck is done.
[grunts]
[David] Today is a big day.
We're bringing out Chris' Samurai
and we're going to try it out.
-What up Chris? -What's going on Dave?
How you doing, man?
-Hey, the day has come. -We got you ready, man. We got you ready.
-Is that so? -Oh, yeah.
-Big tires? -Big tires.
Oh, probably this big.
Like, I can run you over big tires?
Yes, you run me over and never even know it.
-Let me see it then, I'm ready. -She's good to go.
-[chuckles] Let me see the thing. -[yells] All right, Daniel.
Bring it on.
[engine roaring]
-[David] Look at them tires. -Man, that is insane.
-[David] Oh, yeah. -[Chris] That is crazy.
Look how big the thing is.
Look at those tires.
Man, I can't believe it.
[laughs] Man, that thing look like a Tonka toy.
I couldn't believe it was my truck.
It's bigger than my camper.
-What's up, Chris? -What's goin' on, Daniel?
What do you think, man?
[Chris] Man, that thing is big, Daniel.
-[grunts] -[Chris] You need a ladder?
You weren't expecting that, were you?
-I did not expect that. -What's up bro, how you doing, huh?
Good, what's up, Dave?
'Sup!
I like it.
I really like it.
I figured you know, you like to do it big
so we gave you the biggest Samurai I know of.
[Daniel] Of course we did these massive wheels and tires.
I'm gonna say it measured around 70 to 74 inches tall, which is ridiculous.
About 1200 pounds apiece
it blows people's minds that it even fit on a Samurai.
I know you're wondering how that
-four-cylinder is going to spin these things. -Yeah.
[Daniel] We had to go ahead and upgrade.
Went ahead and put you a 5-ton Planetary on the outer...
...kept your same 2.5 ton in the center here.
You know, these things kinda have a reputation.
People call 'em "Hater Kits."
So I'm gonna have haters now?
Yeah, they're gonna be jealous they see this. [chuckles]
Man, we also did a little custom for you,
'cause I know you like to call this thing "Pocket Change."
-Oh, man. -So, we cut you out a custom rock ring here.
We've cut these out in our plasma table.
[Dave] Them wheels was ugly.
Now, check that out.
[Daniel] You look good while you're competing, you know?
Oh, man. Well let's test it.
David and Daniel killed it on this build.
I asked for the biggest and baddest Samurai and they did that.
This is a complete different truck than what I had before.
Man, this thing drives like a dream.
Big tires. We love the rock rings on there, "Pocket Change".
I mean, we got plenty of pocket change around here.
David and Dan better watch out
'cause next competition, I'm taking first.
You know, all in all, I think we gave Chris, exactly what he wanted.
Man, that's a whole lot of truck.
You know it don't weigh nothing.
If there's water, it's gonna float.
And I'll tell you what, that Samurai is gonna go places.
We built Chris one of the biggest Samurai's we've ever seen.
I think he'll be able to take anything we throw at him.
But hey, you got to let Chris know though
-water is not a lubricant. -[Daniel chuckles]
[Chase] We're gonna set it on the ground.
Bring the cab in over so we don't trip over it...
and then pick the cab up then put it on the jack stands.
[Chase] So today, we got the frame coming back from powder coat,
we got the cab coming back from painting.
[grunting]
I need you to work for it, son.
[Chase] This is one of my favorite days, you know?
You get to see the vision become reality.
And man, it really gets me excited.
We want the black frame a red cab to give it that pop.
Now that we got everything back... I mean, we just start rocking and rolling and...
[chuckles] I cannot wait to put that engine in there.
All right, let's do it.
Roll it over.
[Clay] Okay.
You can never have this thing too clean.
[Chase] Clay, you know he's my little brother
and we've been working side by side
since we started this company.
Went from holding the flashlight...
now he can put an engine together, you know.
Just being around this stuff, you know, it rubs off.
And it's addictive.
Building a diesel truck, you know once you feel it
you want more, you want it to go faster.
And Clay definitely caught on to that.
[engine whirring]
All right.
I'm about to put on our billet tappet cover.
This is a breather for the crank case basically.
I got a tappet cover hot and ready here.
Whenever your cylinders are going up and down they create pressure.
That pressure doesn't always go out where it needs to go.
Sometimes it builds up in the crank.
So, this helps relieve that pressure.
This also is gonna add a little strength.
We're installing our billet freeze plugs.
These are designed for high horsepower applications.
Whenever the coolant in the truck, if it ever froze
it has a way to escape, so it doesn't bust the block.
Right here, we have our engine mounts.
These are custom-made with a neoprene bushing in 'em
so they dampen it and keep it from being an unpleasant ride.
Whoa.
-Careful. -Push it over, brah.
And they handle the power we're gonna throw at 'em
and keep it from moving too much.
[Chase] Man, this thing looks killer.
It's like a puzzle going together, you see
each piece being put back on.
I'm so excited to see the next step, you know and
that's going to be us putting this transmission in.
All right, so, now we've got our
47RE transmission for the Li'l Red Express.
This is going to be so quality.
These were aluminum cast, aluminum cases.
And we'll polish 'em. They turned out really nice.
Uh, with that said, we're going to start putting this together.
When we first got into diesels
these transmissions were you know, $15,000 to $20,000.
So, I had to learn how to build 'em and make 'em stay.
Just got ahold of 1000 horsepower
so I better be on point. [chuckles]
I enjoy it. I've done it my whole life
and I'll never get tired of doing it.
Especially now, I get to do it with my sons, it's rewarding.
Special delivery.
Heck yeah.
[Chase straining]
[motor whirring]
[Chase] She's home.
-This thing looks good, man. -Yeah, doesn't it.
I love the way this thing is looking.
[Tommy] Looks fast already.
[Chase] What the heck?
So today, we're putting our compound turbos on the Li'l Red Express.
So, our compound turbo setup is two turbos
but it's not like your typical twin turbos setup
where they're both the same size.
Compound turbo setup has a small turbo and a big turbo.
So, this is our high pressure turbo.
This is the turbo that starts to spool first
air comes out of the exhaust side, drives it through here,
and spools this turbo up.
This is big daddy.
This one here is gonna make all the horsepower
once it takes over from this one.
But if you mounted it straight on the manifold
it would be really slow to spool.
It would have terrible street manner.
It would be smokey, lazy
but when you combine the two together
that's when the magic happens.
That's when you have a real quick spooling setup...
drivable...
and super, super torquey.
They're just a lot of fun to drive.
So, basically, 1 Way Diesel got a start from...
my first truck.
Ol' funky monkey.
When I was about 11 or 12, my dad had a Cummins,
and I told him that I want a truck just like this.
Fast forward five or six years later
I came to my dad, he said, "Hey,
if you figure out how to fix that truck
that can be your first truck" and I said, "Deal."
I got the truck running.
[engine starts]
Immediately, I start building jack drills, massive turbo
custom one off block
huge injectors, lots of nitrous.
I started 235 horsepower
and it's making a whopping 2703 horsepower.
The sound this thing makes is insane
and when it turns 6000 rpms there is nothing like it.
And the crazy thing is it makes that kind of power
has AC, still street drivable.
I can take, you know my wife and kids out
to Dairy Queen and go through the drive-through.
Wax the old dude in his supercar, drive it back home.
I love this truck.
It's what I did with my first truck that gave me the notoriety
to start this business.
Everything's coming together on the '79 Li'l Red Express.
The bed...
the interior...
and we got the custom air brushing on the doors
with the old logo.
And of course, as a final piece
we're fabricating the stacks.
Back in the 1970s when these came out
the most iconic thing about 'em was the stacks.
A red pickup that was a Dodge
they knew instantly it was a Li'l Red Express.
We're gonna give it a custom flare, you know,
kind of give it that raw, mean,
"I make a lot of power" look.
-[Chase] Today's a big day. -Yes, it is.
We get to reveal the Li'l Red Express to Johnny.
I can't wait to see his face when he sees it for the first time.
I can't wait to see his face after you hammer on it for the first time.
That's my favorite part.
Let him feel the power, 'cause this is not something you get to drive every day.
[David] We didn't put no old crap handles in there.
-No, yeah we got to keep it clean, you know. -Yeah.
-You're here early. Not bad. -I'm excited.
So, I've had this truck for such a long time...
it just blows my mind that
today is the day that I actually get to see it.
I'm gonna tell you this, you gave us very little
to work with on this thing, but we pulled it off.
-You ready to look at it? -I'm ready man, I'm ready.
-Well, let's go look at it. -Let's go.
[Johnny] Tell me when.
What do you think?
[laughs] Oh, my goodness.
That is freaking amazing.
When I walked around the corner seeing that truck for the first time
it was beyond my expectations.
I couldn't believe that, that was what came out
of all those parts that I gave 'em.
A hunk of junk turned into that.
You all did a great job.
[Chase] We started off with a bare frame.
You know, we had to four-link it
coilovers in the front all new suspension.
Then the fun part.
We got to the engines.
[Johnny exclaims]
That is insane.
-[Tommy] We went with the 12-valve Cummins. -[Johnny] Oh wow.
You know this is old school.
Completely rebuilt. We've got valve springs, cam, new pistons
-with my little secret sauce on the rings. -[laughs]
[Tommy] You know, this thing is gonna make tons of horsepower.
We did a custom compound turbo setup.
This thing is making around 1100 horsepower.
Holy cow.
1100 horses in a 1000-pound truck.
[all laughing]
-It is going to be a rocket, man. -Oh, my God.
They nailed it with the 12-valve
no computerized anything on it
and those big compound turbos.
We got a 1000 horsepower there, baby.
Oh, my goodness, that is clean.
Slick black on black with red accents.
That is exactly what I wanted, dude.
-Clean, simple. -Yeah.
-[Chase] Little details that just take it a long way. -[Johnny] Pop, pop.
[Johnny] Man, that steering wheel looks amazing. That is perfect.
One of the other cool things we did on this truck.
I had a friend of mine air brush the original decal
-for the Li'l Red Express. -[Johnny] Wow.
-[Chase] You know the problem with these is... -[Johnny] Really?
-[Chase] they would just peel off, you know. -[Johnny] Right.
We wanted to fix all the problems they had, bring it back to the modern times
but still keep the originality of the Li'l Red Express.
[Tommy] And speaking of originality
-you can't not have these on here. -Uh-huh, that's for sure.
[Tommy] Back in the day, when these were new
everybody wanted them
-because they had stacks. -[Johnny] Yup.
[Tommy] As a young kid
-we wanted to be loud and proud, you know. -[Johnny laughs] Yeah.
-So now, we're gonna be loud and proud with a diesel. -[Johnny] There you go.
One more thing...
-This custom-wood bed. -Holy cow, man.
-That is neat. -[Chase] Yeah.
We actually burnt the wood to give it that look.
Man, that gas tank lid looks cool as well
just blends in perfectly with the chrome in there.
That's exactly right, you know just little touches
-there and there, just to give it-- -[Johnny] Better tone, yeah.
That is killer, man. That is cool.
It is pristine.
They did an awesome job.
I want to thank every one of them.
I came to the right place. I trusted the guys and they came through for me.
Can't wait to see how fast this joker is.
-Why don't you ride with me one time. -No problem.
I'll show you what it can do.
-Then I'll hand you the keys. -No problem.
-You ready? -I'm ready.
You ain't never experienced this before.
Oh, I can't wait.
[engine starts]
You know, it's one thing to tell a customer it's making this kind of horsepower.
[laughing]
Oh, boy.
It's another to let them experience it and be there to witness it.
-You ready for this? -Yeah.
[engine accelerating]
-[laughing] -That sucker's bad, ain't it?
Definitely want to thank our team though, Dad.
We couldn't have done it without 'em.
[Tommy] You know, Clay and the guys, everybody