Roadkill (2012–2020): Season 7, Episode 3 - The Ugly Truckling Dragster! - full transcript
In the early '50s, the first dedicated drag-race cars were 'rail jobs-vehicles stripped down to nothing but the frame and drivetrain to build the lightest setup for speed. Applying that ...
- This time on RoadKill,
Dave picks the wrong vehicle
to fail at drag racing in front of
a lot of people.
(cheers)
- Ahh.
(laughs)
Okay, wait.
To be fair, it was the right
vehicle for failure, right?
(cheers)
Thank you.
- We suck!
(laughs)
Again.
(car engine and tires squeal)
(rock music)
(car engine)
- Here's what's going to happen.
The same concept as the RoadKill vet kart
applied to drag racing.
Cut off all of the ugly
and go as fast as we can for cheap.
Let's go back to the early 1950s
and the beginnings of drag racing.
Back then, guys would take you know,
a Model A, or 40 Ford,
or something like that,
and they'd remove the body,
and they'd run nothing but
an engine and frame rails.
Have you ever a heard a
dragster referred to as a rail?
That's why.
'Cause they were nothing but frame rails,
and that's what this one's going to be.
So, Finnegan's going to
show up in a couple of days,
I'm going to get started
on this thing now.
I've got help from Lucky
Costa from Hot Rod Garage.
- What the heck?
- Steve Dulcich from RoadKill Garage.
- Man, this looks pretty good.
- I'm sure you'll see
shop manager Calen around
in the background,
and you're going to see a
bunch of other RoadKill cars
because, we're getting
ready for the Zip-Tie Drags,
which is a RoadKill event in Tucson.
We've got all these cars to get ready
in addition to building this.
And yep, when we're done,
we're going to drive it all
the way from L.A. to Arizona.
(50s music)
- Trunk's a little messy.
I think it was used to haul contraband.
Smells kind of bad.
- I think what I'm going to do is,
once we get the rack off of it,
we're going to weigh the truck
so we know exactly how much we took off.
- Whoa, don't dent the roof, dude.
- [David] Any guesses?
- [Lucky] I'm going to say 53 hundred.
- [David] I'm going to go with 62.
- [Lucky] That much, really?
- [David] 58 50.
- Wasn't the rule as close as you can get
without going over?
- Yeah, so I win.
58 50.
Here it comes.
Great.
Our first performance upgrade.
(bass rock music)
We're going to be able to
buzz all this stuff off
like crazy.
We can get rid of all
those exhaust hangers,
and this is useless.
Let's get the plasma.
- Have you used the
ESAB plasma cutter yet?
- I have not.
- This is just butter.
- Really?
- Just butter to that thing.
- Well break it out.
(welding sounds)
Alrighty.
That is some stinky rubber.
- It's not my kind of rubber.
- From the weed truck.
Here it comes.
There ya go.
Look at that.
Let's just go drive it around right now.
So much easier to work on now.
I'm debating if we
should cut the roof off.
See, at this point, you got to decide
about the functionality
we're going to have
and the massive weight
reduction that I'm going for,
and of course, the style.
That's what's important here.
I'd really like to get rid of
as much of the body as
possible and just have it
full tube like the vet cart.
The engine's must further forward
than I thought it might be.
- [Calen] You're thinking
crazy stuff right now,
aren't ya?
- Oh, I'm having evil thoughts right now.
Realizing since we have
this big, humongous frame,
instead of shortening it,
what happens if the engine
goes behind the driver?
The engine and trans is 64 inches.
- Wait, what did you just say?
- [Dave] What?
- You're going to put the motor back here?
- That's what I'm looking at.
(laughs)
If the front of the
engine was right there,
I think there's enough room for a little
stubby drive shaft.
We would flip the axle
on top of the springs,
and I think it would be
like, a drive shaft this long.
- [Lucky] Less drive shaft to break.
- It is, it'd be really easy to do.
We just made the decision
we are moving the engine
to the back and we're not
going to use the body at all.
It is going to be full on dragster.
This is going to be great.
- A gigantic dragster.
- Yeah.
It's a truckster.
- [Steve] Okay, we'll get busy.
(rock music)
- I think it's a great idea.
I love the idea,
mid engined.
- We're going to end up putting the axle
on top of the leaf springs
to lower the back of this thing radically.
We're also going to
have to notch the frame
a little bit for that,
and it's not going to take this shots.
I'm just taking stuff apart.
I've gone through the frame and just,
removing everything we don't need.
- I'm going to have to get
the drive shaft out of here
so it can lift the engine out of position.
And then Dave can have rear end free
to flip it on the springs.
(rock music)
- We got as far as we could in the back
with the axle on top of the leaf springs,
we need a saddle kit
that'll be here tomorrow,
so now we're going to move
to pulling the engine out.
(rock music)
I really wanted to get an LS powered truck
for this project,
but I couldn't find one
that was affordable.
And the reason is,
those LSes have gotten so popular
that the prices have actually come down
on these 454 big blocks.
This used to be the
ultimate junkyard find,
and now, they're kind of not.
But, it still has killer power potential
when we want to grow
this thing in the future.
We can put killer heads on it and stuff,
make a bunch of power.
But right now,
we're going to slam it in the back.
I want to see how fast
we can make this thing go
for as cheap as possible.
Look at that!
We got plenty of drive shaft room.
We got plenty of driving room in here.
Look at this.
Yeah, we're going to be like this.
Ah, man, plenty of leg room.
Finnegan is going to lose his mind
when he sees this.
But when he figures out that we're going
mid mounted on the engine,
I think he's going to approve
and get over it immediately.
I'm super stoked now.
There was a point today when
I was looking at the cab
and wondering if this
was really that great
of an idea,
but the fact that we
stumbled into the crew cab,
it was just available to us,
gave us the room to do this,
it's all win.
Or it will be at some
point later in the week.
Day two and we've already
made a whole bunch
of progress on this thing,
I can't believe it's this far gutted.
So Steve is going to work
on the engine a little bit,
he's trying to get some
broken studs out of it.
And over here,
Lucky is working on just hacking all sorts
of brackets off the
frame that we don't need.
- So for all the people out there
that do their amount of
modifications of frames,
they come across these rivets,
which never come loose unless
you crash into something.
The key is a sharp tip
on a air hammer.
And you can still do it,
cut the head off,
punch the rivet out.
Done.
(tools sounds)
- Well we're about to put
the new spring saddles
on this thing for the flip kit.
(rock music)
(tools sounds)
- Well those springs
compressed pretty good,
didn't they?
- Yeah, you made us take
all those leaves out.
- Yeah.
- Now imagine all the weight on it.
You can see we're going to need a C notch.
Too soft.
Now that we know roughly
where this is going to go,
let's make our engine happen.
- [Lucky] Skateboard it up, man.
- Now we have the rear
end mocked up in there
we know about where the
pinion's going to be
and so we can take the engine
and mock it to where we want it to be
and start building brackets.
These are going to go right in here.
And then they will have a
tube welded through them
so that they don't crush
when we tighten the bolt,
and the tube will also act as a spacer
to take up this space.
Turns out, the trans mount's
going to be pretty easy.
Straight across here,
little flat piece going
to the trans mount.
Boom.
- [Lucky] Shaka laka.
- Yeah, what I want to do is
do a tab on the end,
and make it so that we weld the outside.
- Yep, perfect.
(rock music)
I'm going to start
making the floor in here.
This whole thing is not really happening
like in an order,
like finish this job,
move onto the next one.
Everything is sort of intertwined.
Like, now we have the rear end
partially mocked up,
therefore we have the
engine partially mocked up,
therefore we were able to
partially mock up the seat.
But before I lock the seat in position,
I want to do this.
So it just keeps getting, you know,
more jobs stacked ahead of the next
in order to get it done.
Lucky's over there making
a trans cross member,
though we'll get that finished soon.
(rock music)
I've got a basic framework
of the floor here,
and I'm going to cut some
metal out of the hood
to make the floor.
(rock music)
- One of the biggest jobs we had
was getting the motor mounts figured out.
We needed the engine pretty well centered
and parallel to the frame rails.
Freiburger's going to weld this in.
Once this is in place,
we're going to come in,
put a little flag on the
transmission cross member
we fabricated.
That's going to catch
the transmission mount
in the back, and this
thing is going to be in.
- The bee's knees?
- [Steve] Oh, it's going to be great.
(rock music)
(welding buzz)
- We just got the engine and trans in
for the final time for the first time.
So, that's pretty good.
- [Steve] I'm happy.
Yeah.
Once I put the seats in,
I feel like the visual will come together,
because I can start to see like,
where the roll cage is going to go and,
I'll feel better.
Ooh, find out if the header's fit.
- [Steve] Going to fit
like it was made for it.
- [Dave] Like a glove?
- Man, they had this mid
engine placement in line
when they designed these.
Look at that.
- [Dave] Too bad it points directly
at the trans cross member.
- [Steve] No, that's alright.
- [Lucky] How about flipping
'em over, just for fun?
- [Dave] Do they fit upside down?
Oh, that's pretty good.
- [Lucky] Inside the frame rail.
- It is pretty graceful looking,
I'll give it that.
- [Lucky] That looks crazy.
- Yep, it definitely has good flow.
Just like stylish.
Here, let's see if this is right.
- [Lucky] Yeah, it seems.
- [Dave] With a floor.
- [Lucky] That seems right.
- I'm like a straight
line to the steering box.
- Yeah.
- I just can't wait to see you drive past
a weigh station and the
cops run for their cars
to catch you.
(laughs)
- This is actually the old roll bar
we never used for the Rodson.
And, it almost fits.
If we cut it shorter, it will.
(rock music)
- We're working on the roll cage here.
Lucky brought his bender and
we're making a halo.
Which is going to represent
the roof of the roll cage
and give us a place to put the windshield.
Yeah, you wouldn't want
it any closer than that.
- I would go further forward,
'cause the other thing is,
we'd like to be able to
get in and out of the top.
- Right.
- And we're going to put and X in it.
(welding buzzes)
Okay, well,
it's been a long day,
we've gotten a whole lot done.
We're still fiddling with
roll cage tubing, but.
I think we're going to
make this one down bar
and then get out of here.
We'll come back Monday
and Finnegan will be here to critique
all our fabrication.
(laughs)
That's going to be fantastic.
(harmonica music)
- [Steve] About a, a little bit,
yeah, you're right.
- [Dave] You mean, because
it's bent too much?
- Yeah, well I think,
we just, I didn't give it enough.
- Oh, wow.
- Hey!
- [Mike] Hey.
(laughs)
- We're so busted.
- [Mike] What's happening?
The motor's in the back now.
- [Dave] You saw it on
Instagram, didn't you?
- I like that the motor's in the back.
- [Dave] Yeah, it seemed
like the right thing to do.
- [Mike] This is fantastic.
- We saved so much welding
by not having to cut the frame.
- Have you weighed it?
- No.
(laughs)
- That's a really good question, Finnegan.
- That is the question.
I think it's going to weigh 3,000 pounds
when we're done there by
negating the whole concept.
But we're going to have fun.
- The header's are a nice touch.
- [Dave] Yeah.
- I like that they'll warm the tires.
And if anything goes wrong,
they'll throw oil on the tires, so.
- Oooh, that's a good point!
(laughs)
I like that!
- Everything is engineered for a reason.
- Yeah, now back here's going to be like
radiator, fuel cell.
There's a lot to do.
Four days.
- This is not going to wheelie?
- No, no.
- Kind of happy with that.
(laughs)
(rock music)
- So we're really not going to do too much
to the engine.
The TBI here, it has to go.
We're going to change that and put
an after market aluminum intake manifold,
a budget four barrel carburetor,
and best of all,
we're adding nitrous.
This manifold was actually designed
way back in the 1970s,
early 70s.
But it's still
a very, very good piece.
Keep in mind,
if you're running nitrous like
we're going to run on this,
you really want to single plane,
because it gives you better distribution
when that spray bar is just blasting
nitrous and fuel right
here into the plenum.
- Right now we're going to
have to divide and conquer.
Dulcich is working on
hopping up the engine.
Mike is working on
making our motor mounts more safe.
And Lucky and I are going to
bend up some roll cage tubing.
So, it's going to have
to be all hands on deck
doing all sorts of different things
and a lot of chaos in order
to get this thing done.
We've got four days
and then Zip-Tie Drags.
(rock music)
(welding buzzing)
Right now I'm using
a whole saw type notcher.
This fish mounts the end of the tube
so that it'll fit into
the upright like that.
So that there's a nice seam
where it can be welded.
Kind of not the right tool, but it works.
(rock music)
- The thing about nitrous is,
it's just so darn easy to install.
I've got the fittings and lines
installed just kind of loosely.
And nitrous is blue, fuel is red.
And right here, I'm capping it off
with the Brawler carburetor.
It's a double pumper.
It's all aluminum construction.
Basically, on the spec sheet,
I'd say it's a pretty good unit.
We'll have to see how it runs but,
probably pretty good.
- Yeah, we're figuring out how to use
the stock truck steering column here.
And by we, I mean Lucky.
- It's 'cause you really
need that cruise control
when you're driving a mid engined
one ton drag buggy.
Now brake pedal.
See if it works.
- From the truck.
- Alright.
So the idea was to use the stock pedal box
out of the truck.
We're going to go ahead
and use part of it.
I simulated the firewall
and dashboard cowl
with this bar.
So that holds the steering column.
The pedal assembly pivot point
is still out of the stock pedal box.
And, uh, I'm just really sad
you're catching all this on video,
'cause if anything goes wrong,
it's me.
(rock music)
- The roll cage is rapidly
approaching good enough.
And so we're moving on
to some accessories.
We decided to take our original radiator
and mount it back here like
a little bit of a wing.
This thing visually needs
like some weight back here
because it's so front loaded.
And so the radiator's going to go there,
obviously we're going to
need to plumb all the water,
and then we're going to
have a fuel cell here,
and I think we're going
to hang nitrous bottles
off the roll cage.
(rock music)
- As you can see, we've
got the radiator mounted.
Lucky made these really cool brackets
and it's all nice and tight.
What I'm going to do now
is figure out where we're
going to mount the fans.
We've got two of these big, round
electric fans.
You don't want 'em up here,
because the wind's going
to be blowing this way,
so, they have to be mounted back here.
It's as though it's made for it.
So, that cooling system is almost
completely set up.
(rock music)
- We're going to use this as the firewall,
only it's behind you in this car.
We cut this section out right here
and put it between the
water pump, fan belt,
and the back of the front seat.
It's all about recycle.
(rock music)
- Here's a tech tip.
Calen found a set of these old Flowmasters
sitting around.
And you can see that they're like
two and a quarter inch pipe,
which obviously we don't want
for our fire-breathing big block.
But, you can hack the end off of it,
like I've done right there
with the plasma cutter
and open it up to a bigger size,
and then I'll be able to weld
the exhaust tubing
directly to it like that.
And have better flow.
(welding buzz)
Obviously, I'd like to
get it past the radiator.
What I'd really like is
for it to end right there
with a turn out.
That would be key.
(rock music)
- Right now what we're going to do
is we're going to take off the old rubber
and put on the new
giant drag slicks.
- These tall tires just undid
the benefit of our 410 gears,
but, I don't care.
- That's going to affect
how this thing sits.
And we're going to highball it and go,
"Alright, hey, we want the front lower,
"the back lower."
And when we do that,
that's going to dictate
our pinion angle,
which is then going to
dictate where we mount
the back of the transmission, so.
- Right there.
Now it can go in.
There we go.
- [Mike] Oh, it's like
it's wheelying already.
- Whoa.
- You might want to put a
couple leaves back in there.
- You think so?
- Yeah.
- Oh, wow.
It's almost all the
way touching the frame.
- Yeah.
- It'd be great not to have to C notch it.
- We're going to have to.
- Put a couple leafs in it,
lower the front, call it good.
- Oh, wow.
Those slicks really make the vehicle.
- Yeah.
They need smaller front tires now.
- Yeah.
- Those are too big.
- Well now we're down to two days,
we've officially named the vehicle
The Ugly Truckling,
that came off some fan on Facebook
whose name we don't remember,
so we can't credit him.
And, we have a whole lot of stuff to do,
and I've marked the stuff that's optional
and it's only just a very few things.
But we still have four guys working on it.
We have less than 48 hours
to get this thing running,
and driving, and roadtripping to Arizona.
(rock music)
- So we've got the transmission
finally buttoned in,
we've got the cross member,
the rears mounted up,
and I've taken this protractor.
I measured the angle
of the driveline here.
It's three and a half degrees.
There is going to be
a relationship between
the angle of the transmission,
and the pinion angle.
Ideally, under operating conditions,
if the tail shaft and transmission's
three and a half degrees down,
underload, you'd want an
equal and opposite angle
at the pinion.
Three and a half nose up.
We are at half a degree.
Three and a half plus half a degree
is going to give me a total of
four degrees pinion angle which is,
pretty close.
(rock music)
- This is the shin-killer 3000.
Does two things, here.
Provides a surface for you to walk into,
and it also mounts these highly illegal
offroad lights that are going to double
as our headlights.
- The problem was we got this gauge kit,
and there was no way
that the capillary tube
for the temp sender was going
to make it from the dash
all the way back to the engine,
so we're going to read it
in the rear view mirror
right here.
(laughs)
Zip-tied it in place perfectly,
you can see them in the rear view mirror,
which it's a miracle we even have one.
- Part of Freiburger's plan for this truck
was to lower it,
and he did that by flipping the axle
from beneath the leaf springs
to on top of the leaf springs.
And what that did, was that
decreased the distance
between the axle tube
and the frame rail.
These are bound to run into each other.
So we're going to cut this out
by about two inches higher,
and then we're going to take these
Belltech bolt-in C notch plates
and burn this thing in.
- Everything that we brought
to 75 percent yesterday
is at a solid 80 today.
Most of what's left, I think
is like, plumbing and wiring,
and mount the fuel cell.
So I think we're going to get
on some of that stuff tonight,
and we'll be back tomorrow for the
really boring moments
leading up to the fact where we actually
start it and drive it away.
- Which is only 497 miles from here.
I'm sure we'll make it
without incident.
We got this!
Yay, team.
(clapping)
(welding buzz)
(techno music)
This is the last day of the build.
And yesterday was really productive,
check this out, we got a lot done.
Now has floors,
which were built out of
the hood of the truck.
We have two seats, with seatbelts.
The motor and trans fully locked down.
We have a drive shaft safety loop.
We have limiting chains.
So when Frieburger jumps this thing,
and the axle comes down,
the drive shaft doesn't pull apart,
and fall out, and when he lands,
turn into a pogo stick and kill him.
I mean, this is beautiful.
The fuel cell is practically,
yeah, that's in there,
I mean, it's practically ready to go.
Our spoiler is almost done.
We'll be out of here tonight, for sure.
Not late at all.
- [Dave] How's that
trans controller coming?
- It's not here.
(laughs)
But it will be.
It'll be fine.
(upbeat music)
- I'm buttoning up all the plumbing
on the cooling system.
Our inch and a half inch
aluminized muffler pipe
is what it is.
The cool thing is, it's
treated on the inside
and the outside, it won't rust.
But, I'm pretty sure the
car's life expectancy
is not quite as long as these pipes, so.
I like these.
Craft ready, magnetic lights.
This your idea, Mike?
- Oh, yeah,
we'll use them on the next car too.
- [Lucky] Good idea.
- And it's for those people that are
really indecisive about where
they want the lights to go.
- Right.
- So we've got one ton coil springs
on the front of this vehicle,
we've removed all the
weight from the front
of the vehicle, so that
is way too much spring.
I'm just going to plasma cut
the spring out of there.
That is called doing the wrong thing
the right way.
Oh, these springs.
- Those are cute.
- That's a lot lighter
than what was on there before.
- Okay, so, we went in the catalog,
and we looked everywhere
for one ton truck coil over conversion.
We couldn't find one.
Plus, the engine's not here anymore,
the cab's not here anymore,
we needed a special spring rate,
so we gave a call to Ridetech,
John over at Ridetech and
told him what we were doing
and when he got done laughing,
he then, sent us these shocks.
250 spring rate on each side?
Was that right?
- Yes.
- 250 on each.
With a single adjustable shock,
it's going to do everything it needs to do
and send this rocket down the track.
- So 15 hours from now,
we're supposed to be
about 40 miles from here,
meeting, I don't know
how many RoadKill fans,
so that we can all cruise
together to Tucson.
That's a tight window, it really is.
(rock music)
- We're at the point now where the list
looks really short,
but every time you get a job started,
more stuff gets added to it
because we're wiring, and we're plumbing,
and, like, I don't have the
right fuel pressure regulator,
and we don't have the
throttle position sensor
that we need for the
transmission controller,
and all this little stuff is
just stacking up right now.
We're making a zillion
runs to the part store.
(rock music)
- Oooh, that's too low.
- Yep.
- That's got zero spring.
- I'd say it needs to crank up more.
We've got a coil over shock absorber
that Ridetech sent us,
and it has an adjustable ring
that goes up and down so that you can
adjust where the bottom
of the coil spring is,
which raises and lowers the vehicle.
How's the spring rate?
- [Steve] Perfect.
- [Dave] Look at that.
This thing is just sitting beautifully.
So, can we check fuel system leaks?
- [Steve] Do it.
- [Dave] You ready?
- [Lucky] Whoa, flow bowls just filled up,
that's crazy.
(laughs)
Life is good.
- Okay, fuel system.
Officially handled.
We're pretty close.
Let's put wheels and tires on.
I like those off road tires, Dulcich.
(tools buzzing)
- We're about to go on
a test drive, finally.
And I like having things legal.
- The moment has come,
we're actually going to fire this thing up
and drive it away.
(engine revving)
Fuel on, lights.
Whoa.
It stops.
- We got brakes.
- It goes.
- Give me a oil pressure check
via the rearview mirror.
- It's good.
- Alright.
- [Dave] This thing's really long.
(laughs)
- It's like driving a motor home.
- Man, that smoke is deadly.
(engine revving)
Ahhh.
Oh, we need goggles, or a windshield,
or helmets.
This is bad.
So the trans is doing
everything it's supposed to?
- Yep.
- Good enough for me,
let's get on the road.
- Alright.
- Ready?
- Hit it.
(engine revs up)
- Ahh!
(laughs)
This is undrivable.
How do people ride
motorcycles with no helmets?
- I think they're bitter.
The bitterness gives
them a protective layer.
- Look at the inside the air cleaner.
(laughs)
- Let's crank it.
Uh-oh.
(laughs)
- That was funny.
Alright, this is a death trap.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- I love it.
Now that this thing is done and outside,
I think it looks way cooler
than I was anticipating
from seeing it inside the
shop for so many days.
And that's a good thing.
Because I suspect that it is way heavier
than I want it to be,
and I know it's way slower
than I want it to be.
And we don't have a full nitrous bottle.
But, we got to hit the road anyway,
and tomorrow morning we're either
making a windshield happen,
or we're getting helmets,
or we're getting goggles, or something.
(rock music)
Goal number one achieved,
we made it here to Irwindale Speedway,
which is our local dragstrip,
and circle track.
We did trailer it out here,
and so when we take off,
it's going to be the very first miles
we've actually put on the thing.
But, I brought the lex in,
so we're going to make a
windshield on this thing.
We've got all of our friends here,
who brought their cars out,
and we're going to
caravan to Tucson Dragway.
Everyone ready for fun?
(cheers)
(rock music)
Oh, that's not bad.
- Yeah, look at that.
- Oh, that's virtually done.
- [Mike] It's like a roof.
- Oh, we can drill holes and zip-tie that
and we're finished.
- Zip-ties.
- Ooh, sweet.
(rock and roll music)
Ta da!
- Now we're ready.
- Alright, that's as done
as it's going to get.
Who thinks we're going to
make it all the way to Tucson
in this thing?
(laughs)
No?
Who says no way?
(cheers)
- Oh, we forgot to adjust the shocks.
- Well, it just bottomed so I don't think
we want 'em looser.
- I already feel wind.
- Me too.
(car engine)
Oh good, there's already a highway patrol.
Maybe they'll end our misery quickly.
(laughs)
I can read the gauges,
we're in good shape so far.
Temperature's good, oil pressure great.
(harmonica music)
Puking water everywhere.
We need to get a radiator cap.
It's just, it's pouring out.
I think at this point,
it's let out so much water.
- Yeah, I feel heat.
This must be hot back here.
- Yeah.
- So we're driving along,
having a good ol' time,
enjoying our...
- Ugly Truckling.
- 'Cept the truckling wasn't happy.
In fact, it was vomiting water everywhere.
Emptied half the radiator, actually.
Freiburger decided that
our radiator cap was no good,
so we bought one of those,
and while we were here,
I decided, we needed
somewhere for that water to go
when it would vomit.
So, one gallon of water jug,
a couple of zip-ties,
and we're back on the road.
(rock music)
I think it'll be smooth sailing.
- Our rearview mirror gauges say yes.
- Alright.
(rock music)
- We're officially in Arizona.
Now.
Gas just got 80 cents cheaper.
(rock music)
Well, I'm cruising along, it just dies.
I think, is the fuel pump dead?
It's on.
- It's just the primary bowl's out of gas.
Secondary's got gas.
Alright, we'll fix it.
- So I'm just driving along,
and the thing starts to stumble,
and won't accelerate, and dies.
So we were either out of gas,
or getting no fuel for some reason.
- This looks like a five eights.
- [Dave] Yeah.
- About the right size.
- Nope.
- Actual tools.
- Which we don't have with us.
'Cause why would you bring tools with you
when you have something like this?
Well, apparently a fan pulled over
and has tools.
This 11 16ths?
- Yes.
- Alright, ready for gas spurt?
Kay.
You know what, when I opened that,
no fuel came out of it.
Let's go to the filter.
We're narrowing it down.
What we're doing is working
from one end to the other,
finding out where the flow restriction
or problem is.
- Let's put gas in it.
Maybe, the pickup isn't
all the way in the fuel.
- [Dave] That's all that's left.
It's out of gas.
- [Mike] That's all the way down here.
- [Dave] Yeah, it's out of gas.
- [Mike] Alright.
- Okay, it's out of gas.
That's a lot of work.
- [Mike] This is all good though.
- This is great.
(laughs)
(rock music)
- [Mike] There's a funnel,
right here on the street.
- Really?
- [Mike] Yep.
- Oh, you're right.
- So we pulled over,
'cause the engine didn't
want to run very well.
Then we decided to show off,
and troubleshoot a fuel system
that really didn't need troubleshooting,
'cause turns out, there
wasn't any gas in the tank.
- [Dave] Ready for your
headlights in action?
- Indeed.
(engine speeding up)
Please don't break it.
We're not there yet.
- Alright, next stop.
Gas station, then Tucson Dragway.
(upbeat music)
We're setting records for how many times
we can stop in, you know,
a three mile distance.
(upbeat music)
Yo!
- [Woman] Hi.
- [Dave] Yoo!
- [Mike] Thank you, thank you.
- [Dave] Watch yourself.
- I'm winning!
I got beer!
- Yeeeeahhh!
(crowd cheers)
Made it!
Man, ready for the victory dance?
(crowd cheers)
- [Mike] I'm ready for beer.
- Woohoo!
(crowd cheers)
So, we finished this thing 24 hours ago,
and today, we drove 500 miles
at 85 miles an hour on drag slicks.
We didn't get a ticket,
we didn't get arrested,
we didn't get dead,
and we made it to the Zip-Tie Drags!
(cheers)
Thanks for coming!
(cheers)
Hey everyone, we got to also thank
Lucky Costa and Steve Dulcich
who helped us thrash.
We built this whole thing in six days.
(cheers)
And it's a thing of beauty.
Alright, beer me.
- Somebody here's got to have a beer.
Where's the bonfire?
- [Dave] Let's go stand there.
(cheers)
Man, this has been an awesome day,
it's been a thrash all week long.
Actually getting here in the Truckling
is like a major victory,
because I never have to drive
it on the highway again.
I hope.
Tomorrow, it's going to get even better.
4,000 people and some drag racing,
we're going to take that turd
down the track ourselves.
It's going to be slow,
but I refuse to be disappointed.
(country music)
(upbeat music)
Well it's Saturday morning
here at the Zip-Tie Drags
at Tucson Dragway.
And, we're just about to scale this thing.
Oh, my tailbone is never going to recover
from last night.
So, what's your number on this?
- I said 29.99.
- [Dave] I say 32 hundred.
Boom.
- Okay, hold on.
- He's not going to tell me.
- Wow, um.
I mean, remember, this
weighed 58 hundred pounds.
- [Dave] No, don't, don't church it up.
Let's just give me the number.
- I mean, it was really heavy,
and I don't want you to
put a bullet in your head
when you find out what this weighs.
(laughs)
- [Dave] What does it say?
- Three thousand, five hundred 66 pounds.
(laughs)
Now, I mean, there's a pillow there,
there's, there's some stuff
in here you can take out.
- 35 hundred pounds means
it is not going to be
anything close to fast.
That is terrible.
That motor's not spinning a tire.
- With nitrous.
Okay, new goal.
Can we spin one tire on the bottle?
I think we can.
- Okay.
(rock music)
Okay, now we find out if
it'll do a two leg burn out,
I don't think so.
He's giving me a little bit of water.
(engine revving)
Alright.
(engine speeds up)
(laughs)
- It's not looking good.
- [Dave] Whoa, this is slow.
That is pathetic!
- 93 miles an hour.
14:57, I did not see that coming.
- [Dave] I'm not even disappointed,
because this has just been too fun.
- We can knock at least
two seconds off of this
with nitrous.
- This thing is so gutless.
It literally needs another
thousand horsepower.
- Oooh.
12 second Ugly Truckling.
That has a nice ring to it.
Wow.
(cheers)
- All I have to say is,
it ain't overheating.
That's all I got.
- We win then, we win.
- Yeah.
What it do?
- Oh, God, it do way better
than we thought it would.
- Really?
- [Mike] 14.
- Really?
- [Mike] 94 miles an hour.
- 94?
- [Mike] Yeah, it could
be a 12 second truck.
- It could be if we
just spray it with like
a 300 shot.
- Yeah, or leave the line with,
you know, more RPM.
- Wow.
Well, you can't really.
- [Mike] Well we can fix that.
- Yeah.
- [Mike] Nitrous.
- Yeah.
So, nitrous up?
- Yes, it's time.
- We're going to have to
put nitrous on this thing
and try again later,
but now Zip-Tie Drags must go on.
We're going to go, like,
sign some autographs
for some people, see some show cars,
get some racing started,
and we'll be back.
(rock music)
The RoadKill Zip-Tie Drags event
was born here at Tucson
Dragway a couple years ago.
Basically, it is just
a big fan get together.
We hang out with people,
we get to have a look
at their cars that they've
brought for the show.
People can race their cars down the track,
and we hang out for
some autograph sessions,
it's just a good time.
Okay, it's nitrous time.
While we've been out doing the event,
these guys have been working on
getting all the nitrous ready to go.
And, so, I'm just working on faith.
I go out there and I
stab this little button
and things go quick.
- This truck-ish thing
has already run 14:66
and 94 miles an hour.
And they've super-heated the bottle
to about 1400 PSI, which is about 500 more
than you ever want to
put in a nitrous system.
Nothing's going to go
wrong with this plan.
- This is going to be awesome.
- Or, it's going to go horribly wrong
and we'll need that paramedic down there.
Good luck!
(engine rev)
(county music)
(engine rev)
- [Dave] You need to
fix the stuck throttle.
- Okay.
I'm going to give it a
little more spring here.
Don't be nervous, Dave.
- I'm not.
- [Mike] Kay, try it again.
(engine rev)
- Okay.
Let's do this.
(engine rev)
Good, the pressure's down.
- [Mike] Oh, it's still high,
I'm going to purge it.
It's at 13 hundred, and that's too much.
Tell me when it gets to like, 11.
- Okay, Finnegan's purging
down the nitrous pressure here
'cause the bottle, which we heated up
inside the pilot truck,
is actually too hot.
- [Mike] Oh, yeah, you're good.
Nitrous is on.
- [Dave] Kay.
- This explodes, we should be back here.
- Here we go.
Nitrous pass.
Hopefully we can get
it in before it rains.
I can't believe how
packed the grandstands are
to watch this pile go down the tracks.
- [Mike] Come on, Truckling.
Be a hero.
(engine rev)
Yeah!
- Ah, it's too rich.
The tune is way bad.
I don't see any smoke behind me,
but that was no good.
- Alright, well so we picked up a second
and about nine miles an hour.
Not stellar.
Room for improvement.
- It just laid over in third.
It wouldn't RPM at all.
- You have enough pressure to go again.
- Literally, was laboring at 4,000,
going, ugh.
Felt like it was way too rich.
- He went out about 60 feet,
hit the button, and when he did,
it took off, but it puffed
a bunch of black smoke.
You could tell it was really fat.
So I'm going to take
some fuel pressure out.
I'm guessing it's at like seven right now.
It should probably be closer
to six or five and a half.
So I'm just going to turn it,
like one full turn,
and send it back out there again.
Alright, let's go.
- [Dave] Ready?
- [Mike] Yep.
- Anything I need to know?
(laughs)
- [Mike] Oh, no, you're fine!
- I thought so.
(rock music)
(engine rev)
- [Mike] Yeah!
(claps)
I quit!
I'm done.
I got nothing left.
Nice work, thank you.
- Nice job.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, at the top end,
I don't know if you saw on the camera,
I let off the button,
and it accelerated.
That means there's a
serious nitrous problem.
12:75 and 103.
That's a lot better than 14:66.
But, we know it can be improved.
Well?
- Alright, turn her off.
I'll tell you the good news.
- Well the good news is it went 12s.
- No, no, no, that's not the good news.
- [Dave] I'm ready for better news.
- You are now a member of the
100 mile an hour club, friend.
- [Dave] Awesome.
(laughs)
(audience cheers)
- That's legit right there.
You can't just buy that.
- So 12:75, 103.
Okay, this is going to blow your mind.
- [Mike] It's spun.
Did it layover again?
- It spun real bad,
it was laying over real hard,
so I lifted off the
button and it accelerated.
So, it's a full on nitrous tube problem.
- It's a good nitrous tube.
Well, you didn't have
enough bottle pressure
when you left.
- Yeah, so.
That's about as good as it gets, I think.
- That's a 12 second truck.
- [Dave] Well, that didn't
go exactly as I'd hoped.
It was a great plan to
just take a vehicle,
and strip all of the weight off of it
like those guys did
when they were building
dragsters in the 60s.
But the fatal flaw was that the garbage
still weighed way too much
and didn't make enough power.
We ran in the 12s with it,
I would really like to see this thing
at least in the nines in
order to be impressive.
But, in typical RoadKill fashion,
it was not the result but the journey.
We got to wrench with our friends,
hanging out with Lucky and Dulcich.
We made a roadtrip in this crazy thing
all the way from L.A. to Arizona,
and we ran it down the track
in front of a bunch of
fans at the Zip-Tie Drags,
and I'm going to go ahead
and call that a win,
but it'll only get bigger later on.
We got to add some boost to this thing,
or a different engine, or something.
'Cause I'm not going to
be happy until it runs
in the nines, and if it does,
you will see it in a
future episode of RoadKill.
(engine rev)
Support companies that support RoadKill.
- [Mike] That hurt.
(laughs)
- [Dave] I didn't see that.
(laughs)
That would have sucked.
- Oh, man.
- Brakes work good.
- At least the cameras
were running for that.
(car engine vroom)
Dave picks the wrong vehicle
to fail at drag racing in front of
a lot of people.
(cheers)
- Ahh.
(laughs)
Okay, wait.
To be fair, it was the right
vehicle for failure, right?
(cheers)
Thank you.
- We suck!
(laughs)
Again.
(car engine and tires squeal)
(rock music)
(car engine)
- Here's what's going to happen.
The same concept as the RoadKill vet kart
applied to drag racing.
Cut off all of the ugly
and go as fast as we can for cheap.
Let's go back to the early 1950s
and the beginnings of drag racing.
Back then, guys would take you know,
a Model A, or 40 Ford,
or something like that,
and they'd remove the body,
and they'd run nothing but
an engine and frame rails.
Have you ever a heard a
dragster referred to as a rail?
That's why.
'Cause they were nothing but frame rails,
and that's what this one's going to be.
So, Finnegan's going to
show up in a couple of days,
I'm going to get started
on this thing now.
I've got help from Lucky
Costa from Hot Rod Garage.
- What the heck?
- Steve Dulcich from RoadKill Garage.
- Man, this looks pretty good.
- I'm sure you'll see
shop manager Calen around
in the background,
and you're going to see a
bunch of other RoadKill cars
because, we're getting
ready for the Zip-Tie Drags,
which is a RoadKill event in Tucson.
We've got all these cars to get ready
in addition to building this.
And yep, when we're done,
we're going to drive it all
the way from L.A. to Arizona.
(50s music)
- Trunk's a little messy.
I think it was used to haul contraband.
Smells kind of bad.
- I think what I'm going to do is,
once we get the rack off of it,
we're going to weigh the truck
so we know exactly how much we took off.
- Whoa, don't dent the roof, dude.
- [David] Any guesses?
- [Lucky] I'm going to say 53 hundred.
- [David] I'm going to go with 62.
- [Lucky] That much, really?
- [David] 58 50.
- Wasn't the rule as close as you can get
without going over?
- Yeah, so I win.
58 50.
Here it comes.
Great.
Our first performance upgrade.
(bass rock music)
We're going to be able to
buzz all this stuff off
like crazy.
We can get rid of all
those exhaust hangers,
and this is useless.
Let's get the plasma.
- Have you used the
ESAB plasma cutter yet?
- I have not.
- This is just butter.
- Really?
- Just butter to that thing.
- Well break it out.
(welding sounds)
Alrighty.
That is some stinky rubber.
- It's not my kind of rubber.
- From the weed truck.
Here it comes.
There ya go.
Look at that.
Let's just go drive it around right now.
So much easier to work on now.
I'm debating if we
should cut the roof off.
See, at this point, you got to decide
about the functionality
we're going to have
and the massive weight
reduction that I'm going for,
and of course, the style.
That's what's important here.
I'd really like to get rid of
as much of the body as
possible and just have it
full tube like the vet cart.
The engine's must further forward
than I thought it might be.
- [Calen] You're thinking
crazy stuff right now,
aren't ya?
- Oh, I'm having evil thoughts right now.
Realizing since we have
this big, humongous frame,
instead of shortening it,
what happens if the engine
goes behind the driver?
The engine and trans is 64 inches.
- Wait, what did you just say?
- [Dave] What?
- You're going to put the motor back here?
- That's what I'm looking at.
(laughs)
If the front of the
engine was right there,
I think there's enough room for a little
stubby drive shaft.
We would flip the axle
on top of the springs,
and I think it would be
like, a drive shaft this long.
- [Lucky] Less drive shaft to break.
- It is, it'd be really easy to do.
We just made the decision
we are moving the engine
to the back and we're not
going to use the body at all.
It is going to be full on dragster.
This is going to be great.
- A gigantic dragster.
- Yeah.
It's a truckster.
- [Steve] Okay, we'll get busy.
(rock music)
- I think it's a great idea.
I love the idea,
mid engined.
- We're going to end up putting the axle
on top of the leaf springs
to lower the back of this thing radically.
We're also going to
have to notch the frame
a little bit for that,
and it's not going to take this shots.
I'm just taking stuff apart.
I've gone through the frame and just,
removing everything we don't need.
- I'm going to have to get
the drive shaft out of here
so it can lift the engine out of position.
And then Dave can have rear end free
to flip it on the springs.
(rock music)
- We got as far as we could in the back
with the axle on top of the leaf springs,
we need a saddle kit
that'll be here tomorrow,
so now we're going to move
to pulling the engine out.
(rock music)
I really wanted to get an LS powered truck
for this project,
but I couldn't find one
that was affordable.
And the reason is,
those LSes have gotten so popular
that the prices have actually come down
on these 454 big blocks.
This used to be the
ultimate junkyard find,
and now, they're kind of not.
But, it still has killer power potential
when we want to grow
this thing in the future.
We can put killer heads on it and stuff,
make a bunch of power.
But right now,
we're going to slam it in the back.
I want to see how fast
we can make this thing go
for as cheap as possible.
Look at that!
We got plenty of drive shaft room.
We got plenty of driving room in here.
Look at this.
Yeah, we're going to be like this.
Ah, man, plenty of leg room.
Finnegan is going to lose his mind
when he sees this.
But when he figures out that we're going
mid mounted on the engine,
I think he's going to approve
and get over it immediately.
I'm super stoked now.
There was a point today when
I was looking at the cab
and wondering if this
was really that great
of an idea,
but the fact that we
stumbled into the crew cab,
it was just available to us,
gave us the room to do this,
it's all win.
Or it will be at some
point later in the week.
Day two and we've already
made a whole bunch
of progress on this thing,
I can't believe it's this far gutted.
So Steve is going to work
on the engine a little bit,
he's trying to get some
broken studs out of it.
And over here,
Lucky is working on just hacking all sorts
of brackets off the
frame that we don't need.
- So for all the people out there
that do their amount of
modifications of frames,
they come across these rivets,
which never come loose unless
you crash into something.
The key is a sharp tip
on a air hammer.
And you can still do it,
cut the head off,
punch the rivet out.
Done.
(tools sounds)
- Well we're about to put
the new spring saddles
on this thing for the flip kit.
(rock music)
(tools sounds)
- Well those springs
compressed pretty good,
didn't they?
- Yeah, you made us take
all those leaves out.
- Yeah.
- Now imagine all the weight on it.
You can see we're going to need a C notch.
Too soft.
Now that we know roughly
where this is going to go,
let's make our engine happen.
- [Lucky] Skateboard it up, man.
- Now we have the rear
end mocked up in there
we know about where the
pinion's going to be
and so we can take the engine
and mock it to where we want it to be
and start building brackets.
These are going to go right in here.
And then they will have a
tube welded through them
so that they don't crush
when we tighten the bolt,
and the tube will also act as a spacer
to take up this space.
Turns out, the trans mount's
going to be pretty easy.
Straight across here,
little flat piece going
to the trans mount.
Boom.
- [Lucky] Shaka laka.
- Yeah, what I want to do is
do a tab on the end,
and make it so that we weld the outside.
- Yep, perfect.
(rock music)
I'm going to start
making the floor in here.
This whole thing is not really happening
like in an order,
like finish this job,
move onto the next one.
Everything is sort of intertwined.
Like, now we have the rear end
partially mocked up,
therefore we have the
engine partially mocked up,
therefore we were able to
partially mock up the seat.
But before I lock the seat in position,
I want to do this.
So it just keeps getting, you know,
more jobs stacked ahead of the next
in order to get it done.
Lucky's over there making
a trans cross member,
though we'll get that finished soon.
(rock music)
I've got a basic framework
of the floor here,
and I'm going to cut some
metal out of the hood
to make the floor.
(rock music)
- One of the biggest jobs we had
was getting the motor mounts figured out.
We needed the engine pretty well centered
and parallel to the frame rails.
Freiburger's going to weld this in.
Once this is in place,
we're going to come in,
put a little flag on the
transmission cross member
we fabricated.
That's going to catch
the transmission mount
in the back, and this
thing is going to be in.
- The bee's knees?
- [Steve] Oh, it's going to be great.
(rock music)
(welding buzz)
- We just got the engine and trans in
for the final time for the first time.
So, that's pretty good.
- [Steve] I'm happy.
Yeah.
Once I put the seats in,
I feel like the visual will come together,
because I can start to see like,
where the roll cage is going to go and,
I'll feel better.
Ooh, find out if the header's fit.
- [Steve] Going to fit
like it was made for it.
- [Dave] Like a glove?
- Man, they had this mid
engine placement in line
when they designed these.
Look at that.
- [Dave] Too bad it points directly
at the trans cross member.
- [Steve] No, that's alright.
- [Lucky] How about flipping
'em over, just for fun?
- [Dave] Do they fit upside down?
Oh, that's pretty good.
- [Lucky] Inside the frame rail.
- It is pretty graceful looking,
I'll give it that.
- [Lucky] That looks crazy.
- Yep, it definitely has good flow.
Just like stylish.
Here, let's see if this is right.
- [Lucky] Yeah, it seems.
- [Dave] With a floor.
- [Lucky] That seems right.
- I'm like a straight
line to the steering box.
- Yeah.
- I just can't wait to see you drive past
a weigh station and the
cops run for their cars
to catch you.
(laughs)
- This is actually the old roll bar
we never used for the Rodson.
And, it almost fits.
If we cut it shorter, it will.
(rock music)
- We're working on the roll cage here.
Lucky brought his bender and
we're making a halo.
Which is going to represent
the roof of the roll cage
and give us a place to put the windshield.
Yeah, you wouldn't want
it any closer than that.
- I would go further forward,
'cause the other thing is,
we'd like to be able to
get in and out of the top.
- Right.
- And we're going to put and X in it.
(welding buzzes)
Okay, well,
it's been a long day,
we've gotten a whole lot done.
We're still fiddling with
roll cage tubing, but.
I think we're going to
make this one down bar
and then get out of here.
We'll come back Monday
and Finnegan will be here to critique
all our fabrication.
(laughs)
That's going to be fantastic.
(harmonica music)
- [Steve] About a, a little bit,
yeah, you're right.
- [Dave] You mean, because
it's bent too much?
- Yeah, well I think,
we just, I didn't give it enough.
- Oh, wow.
- Hey!
- [Mike] Hey.
(laughs)
- We're so busted.
- [Mike] What's happening?
The motor's in the back now.
- [Dave] You saw it on
Instagram, didn't you?
- I like that the motor's in the back.
- [Dave] Yeah, it seemed
like the right thing to do.
- [Mike] This is fantastic.
- We saved so much welding
by not having to cut the frame.
- Have you weighed it?
- No.
(laughs)
- That's a really good question, Finnegan.
- That is the question.
I think it's going to weigh 3,000 pounds
when we're done there by
negating the whole concept.
But we're going to have fun.
- The header's are a nice touch.
- [Dave] Yeah.
- I like that they'll warm the tires.
And if anything goes wrong,
they'll throw oil on the tires, so.
- Oooh, that's a good point!
(laughs)
I like that!
- Everything is engineered for a reason.
- Yeah, now back here's going to be like
radiator, fuel cell.
There's a lot to do.
Four days.
- This is not going to wheelie?
- No, no.
- Kind of happy with that.
(laughs)
(rock music)
- So we're really not going to do too much
to the engine.
The TBI here, it has to go.
We're going to change that and put
an after market aluminum intake manifold,
a budget four barrel carburetor,
and best of all,
we're adding nitrous.
This manifold was actually designed
way back in the 1970s,
early 70s.
But it's still
a very, very good piece.
Keep in mind,
if you're running nitrous like
we're going to run on this,
you really want to single plane,
because it gives you better distribution
when that spray bar is just blasting
nitrous and fuel right
here into the plenum.
- Right now we're going to
have to divide and conquer.
Dulcich is working on
hopping up the engine.
Mike is working on
making our motor mounts more safe.
And Lucky and I are going to
bend up some roll cage tubing.
So, it's going to have
to be all hands on deck
doing all sorts of different things
and a lot of chaos in order
to get this thing done.
We've got four days
and then Zip-Tie Drags.
(rock music)
(welding buzzing)
Right now I'm using
a whole saw type notcher.
This fish mounts the end of the tube
so that it'll fit into
the upright like that.
So that there's a nice seam
where it can be welded.
Kind of not the right tool, but it works.
(rock music)
- The thing about nitrous is,
it's just so darn easy to install.
I've got the fittings and lines
installed just kind of loosely.
And nitrous is blue, fuel is red.
And right here, I'm capping it off
with the Brawler carburetor.
It's a double pumper.
It's all aluminum construction.
Basically, on the spec sheet,
I'd say it's a pretty good unit.
We'll have to see how it runs but,
probably pretty good.
- Yeah, we're figuring out how to use
the stock truck steering column here.
And by we, I mean Lucky.
- It's 'cause you really
need that cruise control
when you're driving a mid engined
one ton drag buggy.
Now brake pedal.
See if it works.
- From the truck.
- Alright.
So the idea was to use the stock pedal box
out of the truck.
We're going to go ahead
and use part of it.
I simulated the firewall
and dashboard cowl
with this bar.
So that holds the steering column.
The pedal assembly pivot point
is still out of the stock pedal box.
And, uh, I'm just really sad
you're catching all this on video,
'cause if anything goes wrong,
it's me.
(rock music)
- The roll cage is rapidly
approaching good enough.
And so we're moving on
to some accessories.
We decided to take our original radiator
and mount it back here like
a little bit of a wing.
This thing visually needs
like some weight back here
because it's so front loaded.
And so the radiator's going to go there,
obviously we're going to
need to plumb all the water,
and then we're going to
have a fuel cell here,
and I think we're going
to hang nitrous bottles
off the roll cage.
(rock music)
- As you can see, we've
got the radiator mounted.
Lucky made these really cool brackets
and it's all nice and tight.
What I'm going to do now
is figure out where we're
going to mount the fans.
We've got two of these big, round
electric fans.
You don't want 'em up here,
because the wind's going
to be blowing this way,
so, they have to be mounted back here.
It's as though it's made for it.
So, that cooling system is almost
completely set up.
(rock music)
- We're going to use this as the firewall,
only it's behind you in this car.
We cut this section out right here
and put it between the
water pump, fan belt,
and the back of the front seat.
It's all about recycle.
(rock music)
- Here's a tech tip.
Calen found a set of these old Flowmasters
sitting around.
And you can see that they're like
two and a quarter inch pipe,
which obviously we don't want
for our fire-breathing big block.
But, you can hack the end off of it,
like I've done right there
with the plasma cutter
and open it up to a bigger size,
and then I'll be able to weld
the exhaust tubing
directly to it like that.
And have better flow.
(welding buzz)
Obviously, I'd like to
get it past the radiator.
What I'd really like is
for it to end right there
with a turn out.
That would be key.
(rock music)
- Right now what we're going to do
is we're going to take off the old rubber
and put on the new
giant drag slicks.
- These tall tires just undid
the benefit of our 410 gears,
but, I don't care.
- That's going to affect
how this thing sits.
And we're going to highball it and go,
"Alright, hey, we want the front lower,
"the back lower."
And when we do that,
that's going to dictate
our pinion angle,
which is then going to
dictate where we mount
the back of the transmission, so.
- Right there.
Now it can go in.
There we go.
- [Mike] Oh, it's like
it's wheelying already.
- Whoa.
- You might want to put a
couple leaves back in there.
- You think so?
- Yeah.
- Oh, wow.
It's almost all the
way touching the frame.
- Yeah.
- It'd be great not to have to C notch it.
- We're going to have to.
- Put a couple leafs in it,
lower the front, call it good.
- Oh, wow.
Those slicks really make the vehicle.
- Yeah.
They need smaller front tires now.
- Yeah.
- Those are too big.
- Well now we're down to two days,
we've officially named the vehicle
The Ugly Truckling,
that came off some fan on Facebook
whose name we don't remember,
so we can't credit him.
And, we have a whole lot of stuff to do,
and I've marked the stuff that's optional
and it's only just a very few things.
But we still have four guys working on it.
We have less than 48 hours
to get this thing running,
and driving, and roadtripping to Arizona.
(rock music)
- So we've got the transmission
finally buttoned in,
we've got the cross member,
the rears mounted up,
and I've taken this protractor.
I measured the angle
of the driveline here.
It's three and a half degrees.
There is going to be
a relationship between
the angle of the transmission,
and the pinion angle.
Ideally, under operating conditions,
if the tail shaft and transmission's
three and a half degrees down,
underload, you'd want an
equal and opposite angle
at the pinion.
Three and a half nose up.
We are at half a degree.
Three and a half plus half a degree
is going to give me a total of
four degrees pinion angle which is,
pretty close.
(rock music)
- This is the shin-killer 3000.
Does two things, here.
Provides a surface for you to walk into,
and it also mounts these highly illegal
offroad lights that are going to double
as our headlights.
- The problem was we got this gauge kit,
and there was no way
that the capillary tube
for the temp sender was going
to make it from the dash
all the way back to the engine,
so we're going to read it
in the rear view mirror
right here.
(laughs)
Zip-tied it in place perfectly,
you can see them in the rear view mirror,
which it's a miracle we even have one.
- Part of Freiburger's plan for this truck
was to lower it,
and he did that by flipping the axle
from beneath the leaf springs
to on top of the leaf springs.
And what that did, was that
decreased the distance
between the axle tube
and the frame rail.
These are bound to run into each other.
So we're going to cut this out
by about two inches higher,
and then we're going to take these
Belltech bolt-in C notch plates
and burn this thing in.
- Everything that we brought
to 75 percent yesterday
is at a solid 80 today.
Most of what's left, I think
is like, plumbing and wiring,
and mount the fuel cell.
So I think we're going to get
on some of that stuff tonight,
and we'll be back tomorrow for the
really boring moments
leading up to the fact where we actually
start it and drive it away.
- Which is only 497 miles from here.
I'm sure we'll make it
without incident.
We got this!
Yay, team.
(clapping)
(welding buzz)
(techno music)
This is the last day of the build.
And yesterday was really productive,
check this out, we got a lot done.
Now has floors,
which were built out of
the hood of the truck.
We have two seats, with seatbelts.
The motor and trans fully locked down.
We have a drive shaft safety loop.
We have limiting chains.
So when Frieburger jumps this thing,
and the axle comes down,
the drive shaft doesn't pull apart,
and fall out, and when he lands,
turn into a pogo stick and kill him.
I mean, this is beautiful.
The fuel cell is practically,
yeah, that's in there,
I mean, it's practically ready to go.
Our spoiler is almost done.
We'll be out of here tonight, for sure.
Not late at all.
- [Dave] How's that
trans controller coming?
- It's not here.
(laughs)
But it will be.
It'll be fine.
(upbeat music)
- I'm buttoning up all the plumbing
on the cooling system.
Our inch and a half inch
aluminized muffler pipe
is what it is.
The cool thing is, it's
treated on the inside
and the outside, it won't rust.
But, I'm pretty sure the
car's life expectancy
is not quite as long as these pipes, so.
I like these.
Craft ready, magnetic lights.
This your idea, Mike?
- Oh, yeah,
we'll use them on the next car too.
- [Lucky] Good idea.
- And it's for those people that are
really indecisive about where
they want the lights to go.
- Right.
- So we've got one ton coil springs
on the front of this vehicle,
we've removed all the
weight from the front
of the vehicle, so that
is way too much spring.
I'm just going to plasma cut
the spring out of there.
That is called doing the wrong thing
the right way.
Oh, these springs.
- Those are cute.
- That's a lot lighter
than what was on there before.
- Okay, so, we went in the catalog,
and we looked everywhere
for one ton truck coil over conversion.
We couldn't find one.
Plus, the engine's not here anymore,
the cab's not here anymore,
we needed a special spring rate,
so we gave a call to Ridetech,
John over at Ridetech and
told him what we were doing
and when he got done laughing,
he then, sent us these shocks.
250 spring rate on each side?
Was that right?
- Yes.
- 250 on each.
With a single adjustable shock,
it's going to do everything it needs to do
and send this rocket down the track.
- So 15 hours from now,
we're supposed to be
about 40 miles from here,
meeting, I don't know
how many RoadKill fans,
so that we can all cruise
together to Tucson.
That's a tight window, it really is.
(rock music)
- We're at the point now where the list
looks really short,
but every time you get a job started,
more stuff gets added to it
because we're wiring, and we're plumbing,
and, like, I don't have the
right fuel pressure regulator,
and we don't have the
throttle position sensor
that we need for the
transmission controller,
and all this little stuff is
just stacking up right now.
We're making a zillion
runs to the part store.
(rock music)
- Oooh, that's too low.
- Yep.
- That's got zero spring.
- I'd say it needs to crank up more.
We've got a coil over shock absorber
that Ridetech sent us,
and it has an adjustable ring
that goes up and down so that you can
adjust where the bottom
of the coil spring is,
which raises and lowers the vehicle.
How's the spring rate?
- [Steve] Perfect.
- [Dave] Look at that.
This thing is just sitting beautifully.
So, can we check fuel system leaks?
- [Steve] Do it.
- [Dave] You ready?
- [Lucky] Whoa, flow bowls just filled up,
that's crazy.
(laughs)
Life is good.
- Okay, fuel system.
Officially handled.
We're pretty close.
Let's put wheels and tires on.
I like those off road tires, Dulcich.
(tools buzzing)
- We're about to go on
a test drive, finally.
And I like having things legal.
- The moment has come,
we're actually going to fire this thing up
and drive it away.
(engine revving)
Fuel on, lights.
Whoa.
It stops.
- We got brakes.
- It goes.
- Give me a oil pressure check
via the rearview mirror.
- It's good.
- Alright.
- [Dave] This thing's really long.
(laughs)
- It's like driving a motor home.
- Man, that smoke is deadly.
(engine revving)
Ahhh.
Oh, we need goggles, or a windshield,
or helmets.
This is bad.
So the trans is doing
everything it's supposed to?
- Yep.
- Good enough for me,
let's get on the road.
- Alright.
- Ready?
- Hit it.
(engine revs up)
- Ahh!
(laughs)
This is undrivable.
How do people ride
motorcycles with no helmets?
- I think they're bitter.
The bitterness gives
them a protective layer.
- Look at the inside the air cleaner.
(laughs)
- Let's crank it.
Uh-oh.
(laughs)
- That was funny.
Alright, this is a death trap.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- I love it.
Now that this thing is done and outside,
I think it looks way cooler
than I was anticipating
from seeing it inside the
shop for so many days.
And that's a good thing.
Because I suspect that it is way heavier
than I want it to be,
and I know it's way slower
than I want it to be.
And we don't have a full nitrous bottle.
But, we got to hit the road anyway,
and tomorrow morning we're either
making a windshield happen,
or we're getting helmets,
or we're getting goggles, or something.
(rock music)
Goal number one achieved,
we made it here to Irwindale Speedway,
which is our local dragstrip,
and circle track.
We did trailer it out here,
and so when we take off,
it's going to be the very first miles
we've actually put on the thing.
But, I brought the lex in,
so we're going to make a
windshield on this thing.
We've got all of our friends here,
who brought their cars out,
and we're going to
caravan to Tucson Dragway.
Everyone ready for fun?
(cheers)
(rock music)
Oh, that's not bad.
- Yeah, look at that.
- Oh, that's virtually done.
- [Mike] It's like a roof.
- Oh, we can drill holes and zip-tie that
and we're finished.
- Zip-ties.
- Ooh, sweet.
(rock and roll music)
Ta da!
- Now we're ready.
- Alright, that's as done
as it's going to get.
Who thinks we're going to
make it all the way to Tucson
in this thing?
(laughs)
No?
Who says no way?
(cheers)
- Oh, we forgot to adjust the shocks.
- Well, it just bottomed so I don't think
we want 'em looser.
- I already feel wind.
- Me too.
(car engine)
Oh good, there's already a highway patrol.
Maybe they'll end our misery quickly.
(laughs)
I can read the gauges,
we're in good shape so far.
Temperature's good, oil pressure great.
(harmonica music)
Puking water everywhere.
We need to get a radiator cap.
It's just, it's pouring out.
I think at this point,
it's let out so much water.
- Yeah, I feel heat.
This must be hot back here.
- Yeah.
- So we're driving along,
having a good ol' time,
enjoying our...
- Ugly Truckling.
- 'Cept the truckling wasn't happy.
In fact, it was vomiting water everywhere.
Emptied half the radiator, actually.
Freiburger decided that
our radiator cap was no good,
so we bought one of those,
and while we were here,
I decided, we needed
somewhere for that water to go
when it would vomit.
So, one gallon of water jug,
a couple of zip-ties,
and we're back on the road.
(rock music)
I think it'll be smooth sailing.
- Our rearview mirror gauges say yes.
- Alright.
(rock music)
- We're officially in Arizona.
Now.
Gas just got 80 cents cheaper.
(rock music)
Well, I'm cruising along, it just dies.
I think, is the fuel pump dead?
It's on.
- It's just the primary bowl's out of gas.
Secondary's got gas.
Alright, we'll fix it.
- So I'm just driving along,
and the thing starts to stumble,
and won't accelerate, and dies.
So we were either out of gas,
or getting no fuel for some reason.
- This looks like a five eights.
- [Dave] Yeah.
- About the right size.
- Nope.
- Actual tools.
- Which we don't have with us.
'Cause why would you bring tools with you
when you have something like this?
Well, apparently a fan pulled over
and has tools.
This 11 16ths?
- Yes.
- Alright, ready for gas spurt?
Kay.
You know what, when I opened that,
no fuel came out of it.
Let's go to the filter.
We're narrowing it down.
What we're doing is working
from one end to the other,
finding out where the flow restriction
or problem is.
- Let's put gas in it.
Maybe, the pickup isn't
all the way in the fuel.
- [Dave] That's all that's left.
It's out of gas.
- [Mike] That's all the way down here.
- [Dave] Yeah, it's out of gas.
- [Mike] Alright.
- Okay, it's out of gas.
That's a lot of work.
- [Mike] This is all good though.
- This is great.
(laughs)
(rock music)
- [Mike] There's a funnel,
right here on the street.
- Really?
- [Mike] Yep.
- Oh, you're right.
- So we pulled over,
'cause the engine didn't
want to run very well.
Then we decided to show off,
and troubleshoot a fuel system
that really didn't need troubleshooting,
'cause turns out, there
wasn't any gas in the tank.
- [Dave] Ready for your
headlights in action?
- Indeed.
(engine speeding up)
Please don't break it.
We're not there yet.
- Alright, next stop.
Gas station, then Tucson Dragway.
(upbeat music)
We're setting records for how many times
we can stop in, you know,
a three mile distance.
(upbeat music)
Yo!
- [Woman] Hi.
- [Dave] Yoo!
- [Mike] Thank you, thank you.
- [Dave] Watch yourself.
- I'm winning!
I got beer!
- Yeeeeahhh!
(crowd cheers)
Made it!
Man, ready for the victory dance?
(crowd cheers)
- [Mike] I'm ready for beer.
- Woohoo!
(crowd cheers)
So, we finished this thing 24 hours ago,
and today, we drove 500 miles
at 85 miles an hour on drag slicks.
We didn't get a ticket,
we didn't get arrested,
we didn't get dead,
and we made it to the Zip-Tie Drags!
(cheers)
Thanks for coming!
(cheers)
Hey everyone, we got to also thank
Lucky Costa and Steve Dulcich
who helped us thrash.
We built this whole thing in six days.
(cheers)
And it's a thing of beauty.
Alright, beer me.
- Somebody here's got to have a beer.
Where's the bonfire?
- [Dave] Let's go stand there.
(cheers)
Man, this has been an awesome day,
it's been a thrash all week long.
Actually getting here in the Truckling
is like a major victory,
because I never have to drive
it on the highway again.
I hope.
Tomorrow, it's going to get even better.
4,000 people and some drag racing,
we're going to take that turd
down the track ourselves.
It's going to be slow,
but I refuse to be disappointed.
(country music)
(upbeat music)
Well it's Saturday morning
here at the Zip-Tie Drags
at Tucson Dragway.
And, we're just about to scale this thing.
Oh, my tailbone is never going to recover
from last night.
So, what's your number on this?
- I said 29.99.
- [Dave] I say 32 hundred.
Boom.
- Okay, hold on.
- He's not going to tell me.
- Wow, um.
I mean, remember, this
weighed 58 hundred pounds.
- [Dave] No, don't, don't church it up.
Let's just give me the number.
- I mean, it was really heavy,
and I don't want you to
put a bullet in your head
when you find out what this weighs.
(laughs)
- [Dave] What does it say?
- Three thousand, five hundred 66 pounds.
(laughs)
Now, I mean, there's a pillow there,
there's, there's some stuff
in here you can take out.
- 35 hundred pounds means
it is not going to be
anything close to fast.
That is terrible.
That motor's not spinning a tire.
- With nitrous.
Okay, new goal.
Can we spin one tire on the bottle?
I think we can.
- Okay.
(rock music)
Okay, now we find out if
it'll do a two leg burn out,
I don't think so.
He's giving me a little bit of water.
(engine revving)
Alright.
(engine speeds up)
(laughs)
- It's not looking good.
- [Dave] Whoa, this is slow.
That is pathetic!
- 93 miles an hour.
14:57, I did not see that coming.
- [Dave] I'm not even disappointed,
because this has just been too fun.
- We can knock at least
two seconds off of this
with nitrous.
- This thing is so gutless.
It literally needs another
thousand horsepower.
- Oooh.
12 second Ugly Truckling.
That has a nice ring to it.
Wow.
(cheers)
- All I have to say is,
it ain't overheating.
That's all I got.
- We win then, we win.
- Yeah.
What it do?
- Oh, God, it do way better
than we thought it would.
- Really?
- [Mike] 14.
- Really?
- [Mike] 94 miles an hour.
- 94?
- [Mike] Yeah, it could
be a 12 second truck.
- It could be if we
just spray it with like
a 300 shot.
- Yeah, or leave the line with,
you know, more RPM.
- Wow.
Well, you can't really.
- [Mike] Well we can fix that.
- Yeah.
- [Mike] Nitrous.
- Yeah.
So, nitrous up?
- Yes, it's time.
- We're going to have to
put nitrous on this thing
and try again later,
but now Zip-Tie Drags must go on.
We're going to go, like,
sign some autographs
for some people, see some show cars,
get some racing started,
and we'll be back.
(rock music)
The RoadKill Zip-Tie Drags event
was born here at Tucson
Dragway a couple years ago.
Basically, it is just
a big fan get together.
We hang out with people,
we get to have a look
at their cars that they've
brought for the show.
People can race their cars down the track,
and we hang out for
some autograph sessions,
it's just a good time.
Okay, it's nitrous time.
While we've been out doing the event,
these guys have been working on
getting all the nitrous ready to go.
And, so, I'm just working on faith.
I go out there and I
stab this little button
and things go quick.
- This truck-ish thing
has already run 14:66
and 94 miles an hour.
And they've super-heated the bottle
to about 1400 PSI, which is about 500 more
than you ever want to
put in a nitrous system.
Nothing's going to go
wrong with this plan.
- This is going to be awesome.
- Or, it's going to go horribly wrong
and we'll need that paramedic down there.
Good luck!
(engine rev)
(county music)
(engine rev)
- [Dave] You need to
fix the stuck throttle.
- Okay.
I'm going to give it a
little more spring here.
Don't be nervous, Dave.
- I'm not.
- [Mike] Kay, try it again.
(engine rev)
- Okay.
Let's do this.
(engine rev)
Good, the pressure's down.
- [Mike] Oh, it's still high,
I'm going to purge it.
It's at 13 hundred, and that's too much.
Tell me when it gets to like, 11.
- Okay, Finnegan's purging
down the nitrous pressure here
'cause the bottle, which we heated up
inside the pilot truck,
is actually too hot.
- [Mike] Oh, yeah, you're good.
Nitrous is on.
- [Dave] Kay.
- This explodes, we should be back here.
- Here we go.
Nitrous pass.
Hopefully we can get
it in before it rains.
I can't believe how
packed the grandstands are
to watch this pile go down the tracks.
- [Mike] Come on, Truckling.
Be a hero.
(engine rev)
Yeah!
- Ah, it's too rich.
The tune is way bad.
I don't see any smoke behind me,
but that was no good.
- Alright, well so we picked up a second
and about nine miles an hour.
Not stellar.
Room for improvement.
- It just laid over in third.
It wouldn't RPM at all.
- You have enough pressure to go again.
- Literally, was laboring at 4,000,
going, ugh.
Felt like it was way too rich.
- He went out about 60 feet,
hit the button, and when he did,
it took off, but it puffed
a bunch of black smoke.
You could tell it was really fat.
So I'm going to take
some fuel pressure out.
I'm guessing it's at like seven right now.
It should probably be closer
to six or five and a half.
So I'm just going to turn it,
like one full turn,
and send it back out there again.
Alright, let's go.
- [Dave] Ready?
- [Mike] Yep.
- Anything I need to know?
(laughs)
- [Mike] Oh, no, you're fine!
- I thought so.
(rock music)
(engine rev)
- [Mike] Yeah!
(claps)
I quit!
I'm done.
I got nothing left.
Nice work, thank you.
- Nice job.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, at the top end,
I don't know if you saw on the camera,
I let off the button,
and it accelerated.
That means there's a
serious nitrous problem.
12:75 and 103.
That's a lot better than 14:66.
But, we know it can be improved.
Well?
- Alright, turn her off.
I'll tell you the good news.
- Well the good news is it went 12s.
- No, no, no, that's not the good news.
- [Dave] I'm ready for better news.
- You are now a member of the
100 mile an hour club, friend.
- [Dave] Awesome.
(laughs)
(audience cheers)
- That's legit right there.
You can't just buy that.
- So 12:75, 103.
Okay, this is going to blow your mind.
- [Mike] It's spun.
Did it layover again?
- It spun real bad,
it was laying over real hard,
so I lifted off the
button and it accelerated.
So, it's a full on nitrous tube problem.
- It's a good nitrous tube.
Well, you didn't have
enough bottle pressure
when you left.
- Yeah, so.
That's about as good as it gets, I think.
- That's a 12 second truck.
- [Dave] Well, that didn't
go exactly as I'd hoped.
It was a great plan to
just take a vehicle,
and strip all of the weight off of it
like those guys did
when they were building
dragsters in the 60s.
But the fatal flaw was that the garbage
still weighed way too much
and didn't make enough power.
We ran in the 12s with it,
I would really like to see this thing
at least in the nines in
order to be impressive.
But, in typical RoadKill fashion,
it was not the result but the journey.
We got to wrench with our friends,
hanging out with Lucky and Dulcich.
We made a roadtrip in this crazy thing
all the way from L.A. to Arizona,
and we ran it down the track
in front of a bunch of
fans at the Zip-Tie Drags,
and I'm going to go ahead
and call that a win,
but it'll only get bigger later on.
We got to add some boost to this thing,
or a different engine, or something.
'Cause I'm not going to
be happy until it runs
in the nines, and if it does,
you will see it in a
future episode of RoadKill.
(engine rev)
Support companies that support RoadKill.
- [Mike] That hurt.
(laughs)
- [Dave] I didn't see that.
(laughs)
That would have sucked.
- Oh, man.
- Brakes work good.
- At least the cameras
were running for that.
(car engine vroom)