02x06 - Hot Air Balloon

[bunniefuu]

- [Announcer] Hello everybody,

this is your Captain speaking, the Big Schwag.

Welcome to Monster Air.

This flight will be as bumpy, dusty, hot,

and nasty as we can make it.

Service with a snarl.

So close the shades, pop a cold one,

and place your La-Z Boy in the stretched out position.

You're in for the ride of your life

courtesy of Monster Garage.

- [Narrator] Join us now as Jesse

and his g*ng of maverick mechanics rip, grind,

and burn, transforming ordinary street vehicles

into Monster machines in the Monster Garage.

[rock music playing]

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster

This week's challenge, take a 1995 Geo Tracker

and transform it into the ultimate hot air balloon vehicle.

The rules: when built, the Monster machine

must appear to be stuck.

The team can spend no more than 3,000 greenbacks for parts.

Jesse and his crew have seven days and nights.

On the first day, they design.

For the next five, they build.

On the seventh day, they race.

If successful, each team member takes home a

$3,400 set of Mac tools.

- [echoing] Bitchin', bitchin'.

- [Narrator] And the clock starts now.

[metal crashing]

[engine revving]

Jesse James makes a big entrance in the little Geo Tracker.

The smell of burnt rubber hangs in the air

as his hand-selected design team assembles.

Their talents have been called upon

to turn this fun four-wheeler into a fierce flying airship.

Jesse James, a direct descendant of the legendary outlaw,

has made his name building custom choppers

that make the ground thunder.

But this week he takes to the skies.

[whip cracking]

- How you guys doing?

You know, we wanna keep the vehicle intact

so it can roll down the road

and then make a, maybe have a detachable basket

so once the balloon's inflated

that the vehicle can still roll,

and that'll take off from it.

- My idea was to cut just the back half

of the Tracker off.

- [Narrator] Jerry Schell has spent

a little time in the air.

- I've been ballooning since 1983.

I have close to a thousand hours in the air.

- [Narrator] A passion for powerful machines has propelled

his entire life.

- I've been a mechanic for 50 years. I've built

street rides, circle track cars, drag cars.

I have never imagined building anything like this.

This part will be cut off.

We use the back half of it as the basket.

- [Jesse] Why don't we just pull the whole damn body off?

- You're lifting too much weight.

- Do you have to lay the basket on the side

when you heat it up?

- Yes. If burners are actually sh**ting into the balloon,

heats the air that's already inside there,

and then the heat stands everything up.

- [Narrator] Martin Harms spends his days

in Sioux Falls, South Dakota making balloons fly.

He's an engineer for Aerostar International,

the leading balloon manufacturer in the United States.

- Something that started out as a hobby.

Now it is what I do as a career.

It's the freedom, not knowing exactly where

the wind's gonna take you that day.

Either tilt it sideways off the side of the vehicle

or tilt it backwards off the back of the vehicle.

- It'd certainly be more impressive to look at

if it's flying back away from it

as the thing's driving forward.

- [Narrator] Radical cars are nothing new

for Chris Brown of Brown Auto Design.

- Taking part in creating

a vehicle's really an exciting thing.

They're all kind of like your children when they get done.

I never had to make anything fly.

- [Narrator] Consensus calls for the back end

to be cut away from the body

and become the balloon's basket.

- We have a maximum lift of 1,650 pounds.

That's balloon, fuel, passengers, everything.

- [Narrator] Included in that 1600 pound limit

are a 250 pound envelope, a 150 pound propane tank,

and a 50 pound burner,

leaving a maximum of 600 pounds for the basket.

- Rather than trying to fit like a wicker basket

into the back of the Tracker,

we'd probably be better off just making our own.

- [Narrator] With these strict limits.

Jesse chooses aluminum over steel to save weight.

- Inch and a half aluminum square tubing

is really rigid and strong.

It should be pretty good.

- [Narrator] Jerry has his doubts.

- You have to remember that you're flying in this piece

of equipment that puts your life in your own hands.

Would you rather have it made out of mild steel

or out of aluminum?

- Aluminum.

- [Narrator] Jesse has doubts of his own.

- Is it gonna be like one of them deals

like on caught on tape?

Where you're like, they're like, "Oh Lord, look at that,"

and it hits the wires.

- No, no, we don't talk even about hitting the wires.

- Okay, just making sure.

- [Narrator] Power lines aren't the only obstacles

for the Monster balloon crew.

- We get this all done, and to be able to fly it legally,

we gotta get it FAA certified.

The reports, the engineer documentation,

the sign-off with the different offices.

- [Jesse] So, is it legal to throw stuff

out of a hot air balloon?

- No.

- Some stuff.

- Well, sometimes. Depends on what you throw.

- [Martin] If we're racing, we got a target.

- Water balloons.

- [Jerry] Yeah, that's fun.

- What's the biggest thing you've ever thrown out?

- Bowling ball.

- No way.

- Oh yeah.

- Really?

- [Martin] You wouldn't have seen it.

[Jesse laughing]

- [Narrator] The design is set.

The basket will be built onto the Tracker

and tilt back to fill the envelope.

Once inflated, the balloon will be released and fly off.

- [Jesse] Now what if we're trying to heat up the back

and something happens where the spare tire comes back?

- [Narrator] Design day ends in a ball of flames.

- Balloon schmaloon.

This is Monster Garage.

[working music playing]

This is Monster Garage. [echoing]

- Day two. Let's get it on.

- [Narrator] Day two, 7:00 AM.

Jesse leads the build team onto the

b*ttlefield of the Monster Garage.

El Jefe, Jesse James, is in the Casa.

Chuck Mignacco from San Francisco, California

brings his welding expertise.

Engineer and robot builder

Dan Danknick hails from Orange, California.

Chopper Dave from Long Beach, California

lends his fabricating finesse.

The bike-building lawyer, Dave Park,

is here from San Diego, California.

And the ace of the air, balloonist Jerry Schell

from Tucson, Arizona stays on to build.

[bass-heavy music playing]

- All right guys, we're gonna take a Geo Tracker

and make it into a hot air balloon.

The hot air balloon part of it is pretty basic.

- [Narrator] Jesse gives the team

the lowdown on flying high.

- So it needs to latch and swivel from the back.

Swivel back, then it's gonna stand up

with hot air, latch back in front,

and then both latches release so it takes off straight.

- [Narrator] The team starts

by putting the Tracker on a crash diet.

If it wants to fly, it needs to lose all excess weight.

- [Jerry] Goes that seat.

[seat crashing]

- Somewhere along the line there.

[parts crashing]

- It's always fun when you get

to destroy other people's stuff.

[Dave laughing]

[metal clanking]

- I'm getting a bit of a gas shower.

- [Dave] Want a light?

- [Narrator] With the gas tank

safely aside, Jesse grabs the plasma cutter

and plots his approach to piercing the Tracker's skin.

- We can probably cut it right along this door jam,

along this seam, so the door, then we can brace it back up.

So all this stuff still works.

So the doors open and close without

having to re-Figure all that.

[plasma cutter hissing]

- [Narrator] Amid a spray of sparks, smoke, and flames,

Jesse separates the steel that connects

the back end to the front cabin.

- The whole mechanism of that thing leaving the back

of the vehicle is gonna be a son of a b*tch.

I just want to get that body off

so we can start doing the aluminum body

for the inside of it.

- [Jerry] There's only one person can run the cutter

and the rest of us is just kind of standing around watching,

seeing how close we can get burned.

[plasma cutter continuing]

- [Narrator] The last tendon of steel has been severed.

[car body parts clattering]

A couple of grunts later and the back end is off.

- You got it.

I knew stripping all those cars

in high school would come in handy.

[everybody laughing]

- God, this is light.

- We gotta make sure we have enough room for the frame.

- [Narrator] Before going to battle,

Chuck dons his garage armor.

- A leather bib.

Tillman leather bib. This is my battle gear.

- [Narrator] The Tracker's tail will be used

to conceal the balloon basket,

but there's still some excess steel.

The team gives it a Monster liposuction.

- This whole thing is gonna be about as strong

as three tin cans.

- This work is mostly to keep it square

so it fits back on the truck when we go back.

- [Narrator] As the scrap metal piles up,

a major piece of the plan is still unresolved.

How will they hinge the basket back

to inflate the balloon on its side?

The team wants to custom fit a hinge mechanism

to the part they've cut off,

but Jesse has something else in mind.

- Are we going to use this whole thing?

Instead of just do the subframe out of aluminum?

- Well, they're talking - They were gonna build a

- about doing a sub-frame - aluminum cage and such.

- using exactly what they have here.

- We should make a whole sub-frame for that thing

and hinge instead of trying to use this stuff.

So we're working with nice rectangular pieces.

So it's uniform instead of trying to, you know,

make everything fit with what we got.

I just try to keep it simple.

- Yeah, that's what I was trying to do.

Why don't we load the body on here,

see what we're looking at?

- [Narrator] They need a smooth surface

to mount the base and tilting body.

The back frame of the Tracker is anything but.

- [Dave] That's blocking right there.

That's as far as it's gonna go.

- [Narrator] Jesse wants to build

matching platforms, like a dump truck.

- If it's square and it's a flat mating surface,

and it's nice and, you know, a nice slip fit inside there.

- Jesse's really good at visualizing.

He can visualize exactly how everything's gonna go together.

And he'll try to explain it to you and you're like, "Huh?"

- [Narrator] When Chopper Dave talks about Jesse,

he's talking about his boss.

- Working for Jesse's an insane thing,

because I'm working in the ultimate shop.

I love working on bikes. I love riding bikes.

- [Narrator] It's the classic bikes that fuel his fancy.

- I'm more obsessed with all the old school style choppers

and customs than the new type stuff that's out there.

You know, I just think it's so much cooler than

everything that's being done now.

Something like this, probably 60% of the stuff on this bike,

if it's not modified

original Harley Davidson made by hand.

- [Narrator] His obsession is often a painful one.

- It's uncomfortable and that's the best part

because if you're not suffering,

you're not riding a chopper.

It's all about the metal.

- Let's get together and figure out where we are today.

- [Narrator] As day two comes to a close,

the crew reviews their progress.

- We started changing things

because we didn't exactly know what you wanted out of this.

- You're supposed to be the team leader.

- We wasted about eight, about four or five hours.

- I really don't see any time today wasted whatsoever.

Part of the experience here is going down various paths.

- Yeah, it's there. - That's true.

- [Chopper Dave] It all depends how you look at it.

- [Narrator] Day two doesn't need to land.

It never took off.

The Tracker lost some weight, but nothing got built.

If the team wants to earn their wings,

they'll have to do better tomorrow.

Monster Garage Factoid.

The first recorded fuel used in a hot air balloon in 1782

was old boots and bad meat.

The stink was thought to increase the buoyancy.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

Day three starts with all the excitement of a yawn.

- Well, the first thing I think I better do is make coffee.

- [Narrator] But this is Monster Garage.

Time to wake up. Something's burning.

- Oh, we got us some burners.

- [Indistinct Voice] We got some burners.

- Do not use this on anything built at home.

- Oh. - Look at that.

- [Chopper Dave] That's beautiful.

- [Narrator] The burners come out firing.

- [Chopper Dave] I feel like Christmas.

- [Jesse] It looks like we could destroy stuff with it,

so that's a good thing.

- [Narrator] The first thing they destroy?

[guitar soloing] [cash register ringing]

The budget.

- All right, box number two.

- [Jesse] Now that looks like a tank.

- [Narrator] Before they can assess the damage,

in walks another big ticket item.

[guitar soloing] [cash register ringing]

- [Jesse] Wow, that's big.

- [Narrator] The first two purchases

lands the team deep in the red zone.

Looks like their hot air balloon's a money-burning Monster.

How's it going to end? Jesse has a clue.

[effect thudding]

Team Tracker has other concerns besides money,

like how are they going to fit Jesse,

Jerry, and a propane tank in this tiny space?

- It's getting pretty tight.

[Jerry laughing]

- Well, my concern is making the the basket

as big as it's gotta be. As big as we can get it.

- Would it be better to get the guys set in the rear,

put the tank up here?

- Have the tailgate swing open

and you sit with your legs sticking out.

- [Jerry] Your legs can't stick out of the gondola.

You have to be inside the gondola at all times.

- Says who?

- [Jerry] Says the FAA.

- [Dave] FAA.

- The government's watching you.

- [Dave] What do they know, anyway?

- So that being the case, we gotta.

So, the idea of putting this back on here just is.

- I'm not big on government regulatory agencies, so.

- [Jerry] That's just the way it is.

- [Narrator] Dave's a working man's hero.

A lawyer in San Diego,

he specializes in workman's compensation cases.

- If I didn't go to law school,

I'd probably be doing something like

metal work and fabrication. You know, working with my hands.

- [Narrator] Dave and Chopper Dave

come to the garage as good friends.

The synergy helps the build.

- [Dave] Dave and I are in a club called The Sinners

and it's just a bunch of guys

that are into custom motorcycles

and custom old cars and hot rods.

- [Chopper Dave] My wife kids me that Dave and I

are in love with each other 'cause we're such good friends.

But I gotta tell you, I think Dave

has developed a thing for Jesse.

[romantic harp scale playing]

- Hey Jerry, can we make it a seat?

- They do that.

- That might save us a lot of room in there.

- It'll give you a lot more room.

- It doesn't affect the fact, our gondola size.

- [Chopper Dave] It really doesn't.

- So we can be rolling with that.

We can be rolling with that part of it.

- [Dave] Where's the tank?

- Two, two, two. Two, two.

- Right.

- [Narrator] Jerry and Dan map out the gondola design.

- Well what's ideal on these?

On the design of these? Four inch, six inch, eight inch?

- I don't know. I've never built one. I mean.

- [Dan] [laughing] There's no standard?

We're gonna build what we can make fit and work.

- [Dan] Okay.

Trying to design the gondola here.

- [Narrator] Dan swaps his pen for the mouse pad

and plots a way to make it all fit.

- And the requirement is that everything has

to fit within the interior for safety,

to include the people, tank, burners.

Yes, it will all fit because this is Monster Garage.

This is Monster Garage.

- Right here on the ground will work.

[guitar soloing] [cash register ringing]

- [Narrator] The aluminum stock has arrived,

but before the bends begin, Dan has some numbers to crunch.

- So just some quick numbers

for various radiuses on the aluminum square tubing.

The closer it fits together,

then the less stress we're gonna have on the welds.

- Dan looks like the kind of guy

that might have a calculator on him at all times.

You know, the supermarket, you know.

"Save 20% on Poptarts." He's like, "Wow, that's 83 cents."

There's a definite need for that. I think that's good.

- This isn't a boat or a car,

so it adds a degree of difficulty.

I've described myself as a scientist.

Right now, my current interest is in robots

because they incorporate a lot of different technologies.

- [Narrator] Dan Danknick makes robots

that specialize in one thing,

destruction.

[builders laughing]

- Boo-yah!

I approve.

- [Narrator] The why behind the wow is what turns Dan on.

- And I have a machine shop of my own

where I use all possible tools to create things.

Whatever it is that I wish.

This isn't just trial and error stuff.

This is all engineered stuff.

You really need to know what the underlying ideas

and the science is behind it.

Clean up on aisle four.

- [Jesse] Oh man, that's cool.

- [Narrator] The pipe bender

and its 60,000 pounds of force means fewer welds

and more strength for the gondola.

[pipe bender humming]

Dave finishes the base for the dump mechanism.

- [Dave] I don't wanna drag.

- [Narrator] Now it is time to build a hinge.

- It's a really crude template for the gusset type hinge

that's gonna go from here to here.

It's gonna get welded to here

and the whole thing will pivot on a bar like this.

[machine rattling]

[plasma torch sparking]

- Yeah, perfect.

- [Narrator] The dump platform looks good.

They test fit the back end.

- [Chopper Dave] It's getting there.

[food crunching]

- [Narrator] The team takes a working lunch.

Today's special? How to release

the fully-inflated hot air balloon from the Tracker.

- I plan on mounting the trailer hitch ball.

- [Narrator] They're thinking

a trailer ball and hitch might work.

- [Chopper Dave] You can have the pieces

coming down the ram mount strip.

- You know how you have to kind of rock a trailer

hitch to get it off?

You gotta wheel it up and down and back and forth

to try to get it to to release.

We already got the frame that Dave made is perfect.

All we need to do is make a frame fits inside of it.

Two pins and spring pins. You know?

- [Narrator] Jesse and Chopper Dave

turn the lever concept into a reality

- On that spring. That would.

- Keep it all tight, pull it out, press it in.

- [Jerry] What are you gonna fly off with?

- I'm not telling you how to fly a hot air balloon,

don't tell me how to make a Geo Tracker hot air balloon.

- I'll do that. You got it.

- It's a supervisor's, you know, job to stand around

and ask questions.

- That's it. You know, that's what a supervisor's for.

But you know.

- Jerry's fine. He brings a lot of experience to the team.

But he has that sort of old guy attitude

where everything's an issue.

I think Chuck and I look at everything

as just another step in the solution process.

But we'll beat him into shape.

- Beating sounds good.

- [Narrator] The delicate and difficult task

of welding the basket's aluminum framework

leaves absolutely no room for error.

- No, I have 23 inches.

- [Narrator] One bad weld could spell doom.

- We don't have enough material or time to go ahead

and build the uprights of this basket again.



- [Narrator] Before the day ends,

Jerry takes another opportunity to supervise.

- Are you done welding all that you can weld on this?

- Yeah. Well one more weld right here.

- [Jerry] Might as well finish that

so we're not leaving one loose end hanging.

- All right.

- I hate starting something and not finishing it, Jesse.

Especially something that's that important.

- [Jesse] Okay.

- [Jerry] I'm gonna hit you, just you wait.

[welder buzzing] [heavy rock music playing]

- [Narrator] Day four, Long Beach Veteran Stadium.

The crew gets some schooling on ballooning.

- [Jerry] Usually an old man like myself

don't have to carry this.

- [Jesse] I have 11 crew members, I do nothing.

- [Jerry] Okay, that's good.

Okay. Good work.

For the part about our Monster car,

we drive in, unload, it's all contained.

It'll make it very, very easy to do.

Take it all the way out to the end.

- [Narrator] They'd better pay attention.

The build team will be the flight crew

for the Monster balloon's challenge.

["Up" by Richard Haitz playing]

♪ Build me up, tear me down

♪ I understand, I hit the ground ♪

♪ Steal my heart, rip my soul

♪ I win the game; I'll take control ♪

♪ I don't feel your pain

♪ It makes you go insane

♪ It's your weakness

- This is our pilot lights here.

There's the two small lights up above that make

[burner roaring]

the burners go. It's liquid fire.

Heads up.

[burner roaring]

All right, walk us out to the end of the rope gently.

I do not want to go out of this ballpark.

Are you ready?

Weight off.

[burner roaring]

Coming up.

♪ Tear me down

♪ I understand, I hit the ground ♪

♪ Steal my heart, rip my soul

- [Narrator] The field trip sealed the deal.

The team is flying high on ballooning.

- We thought ballooning was kind of lame to begin with.

After getting there, pretty cool, man.

- That propane burner is badass.

- Yeah, like 63,000 BTU. - Bad. a*s.

- That thing burns your hair off from 10 feet away.

That thing is awesome.

[heavy rock music playing]

- [Narrator] Gondola construction continues.

Chuck is a welding machine.

- [Jerry] That is some really, really nice welds.

- Thank you very much.

- [Narrator] Welding aluminum tubing is challenging,

but for Chuck Mignacco it's a labor of love.

- This is hands down what I love doing.

For me it's the welding part of the combination

of the metals and bringing everything together

and producing an end product from nothing.

That's the only way I can describe it is, to me personally.

- [Narrator] As an assistant to renowned artist Mike Gill,

Chuck spends each day making one-of-a-kind creations.

- We kinda get to go over and look at a stack

of just, you know, square pipes

and round pipes, do all the pounding,

the flame, the fire, the whole nine yards.

The end is not really so important to me.

All the thinking and designing and everything,

that's the part that floats my boat.

- [Narrator] Dan and Jerry discuss

where to weld the brackets for the balloon cables.

- [Dan] Oh, I think we should make it as low profile

as possible so it's strong.

- [Narrator] Dan will build them tonight

in his machine shop.

Jesse and Jerry's lives will be hanging

from four small pieces of aluminum attached to the basket.

Those welds had better hold.

While the crew has been working,

Jesse's picked up some essential items.

A five horsepower Honda fan will provide

the air power to inflate the balloon.

[cash register ringing] [guitar soloing]

Another key purchase, this electric ram,

rated to 700 pounds, will be used

to push the basket into position for inflation.

[guitar soloing] [cash register ringing]

Jesse and Dave decide where to mount the ram.

- I think we just do a tube straight off

the inner part of the frame, just drilled and tapped.

And then just run a bolt coming.

- [Dave] Just like that piece coming down?

- [Dan] Yeah, a little A-mount off of that and it'll.

- [Narrator] Chuck stops welding

to work out the geometry of the basket.

- So the seat will kinda come to the edge of this,

and this will just be a small foot area right here.

If you're sitting right here,

those double burners will be right here.

- [Narrator] A big problem stares Chuck in the face.

- That tent will be right in our face.

We're gonna have to do some modifying.

- [Dan] Yeah, man, you'll be barbecuing

your face off with this thing.

- [Narrator] If the burner is mounted as planned,

Jesse and Jerry are toast.

- Could you put with pieces on tracks,

with pins that slide up?

- [Narrator] Chuck's week just got a lot longer.

- So what it amounts to is we have to build a burner frame.

An adjustable burner frame.

- How high do you wanna go, Jesse?

- High as you can. With me going like this.

Woohoo! [Jerry laughing]

- Can't take sitting down that low on my knees.

- What's gonna happen when we're up there?

- Then you have to suffer. I do these things.

- You're gonna have to double up on the Geritol?

- [laughing] Right!

- Even though I give him a hard time,

that just means I like him.

I always tell everybody, "You know what I'd say

"to you if I didn't like you?"

And they say, "What?"

I say, "Nothing."

- [Narrator] The basket has taken shape.

But how does it look in the Tracker?

- We'll lift it back out. We'll bend the whole thing

more back with, on clamps.

- You gotta clamp it down.

- [Narrator] The gondola won't fit in the back end.

- Go ahead and put it all the way back.

- All set.

Try to step on the tire so the whole thing

doesn't move much.

- [Jerry] Is this not gonna drop straight down through here?

- [Jesse] See if it'll drop straight in this way.

- You alright? - Yep.

- [Chopper Dave] Sorry.

- No. - No chance.

- [Narrator] Rebuilding the basket

will cost them valuable time.

They're wondering if there's another way.

- I'll cut these apart and we'll save these fenders

and these uprights, and we'll just make some brackets

out of sheet metal, just so the body looks like

it's semi-stock.

- [Narrator] Instead of fitting the basket

in the back end, Jesse wants to weld

the pieces of the back end onto the basket.

- I think it'll actually be better.

- [Dan] It'll make the basket a lot lighter.

[heavy guitar rock playing]

[power tool grinding]

- [Narrator] With these welds,

the outer shell of the gondola is finished.

- We have a gondola. We are rocking balloon-style.

- Hell of a job.

- Thank you very much.

- [Jerry] Thank you.

- I did not believe that Jerry was gonna give me a rest.

- Goodnight y'all. I'm done.

- I would've liked to have gone a little further today,

but we didn't, so.

- [Narrator] On day four, the basket boys

made significant gains on their gondola,

but the backend crew have been bogged down

by design changes.

The two groups will have to come together

or the project may never get off the ground.

Monster Garage Factoid,

a cubic foot of air heated

by 100 degrees can lift a quarter of an ounce.

It takes 10,000 cubic feet to lift a 150 pound man.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

[motorcycle roaring] [heavy guitar rock playing]

The team arrives eager to work on day five.

- [Chopper Dave] Ready for another day.

We have a lot of progress to make today.

- Yeah, everything's gotta be go, go, go.

- Ready to rock?

- Right on. - Everything's on today?

- [Narrator] Dan proudly presents

his homemade attachment mounts,

but Jerry has some bad news.

- We have a change of plans.

They cannot be welded on no matter what

they look like, they have to be bolted on.

- You told us we couldn't turn any holes

in the aluminum tray.

- I'm just by, no, no, no.

The drawings that I gave you, they're all bolted.

- I did not notice that.

- Everything, all of that is bolted together.

That's what they want.

- [Chuck] Well then, we got one problem.

- [Jerry] What's the problem?

- The problem is, is these are

about long enough for one bolt.

So three hours of yesterday's work

to make these when they need to be an inch.

- We're gonna put two bolts in.

- Well, it needs to be an inch longer for two bolts.

- [Dave] That's whack.

- No, this is a mistake.

- Hey, I have to agree, but there's

nothing we can do about it.

- Let's get rolling. I wanna get going.

We gotta get rocking.

- [Jerry] Let's talk to him before we do anything.

- This is nonsense.

- [Narrator] Fabricating the adjustable burner mounts

is next on the to-do list.

- I wanna get the burners flush

and I want 'em to be able to come up this high

- [Narrator] Before they begin welding,

Dan wants to make sure no time is wasted

on yet another unapproved design.

- Where does the burner aircraft part end

and the home-built stuff start?

- That's what we're gonna have to determine. Right.

I have no idea. - It's entirely subjective?

It's not based on any logic or reason?

- Yeah, no, I don't figure that.

- What my design constraints are.

- A lot of the FAA does nothing logical.

- [Narrator] How many days does it actually take

to install an actuator?

- [Dan] Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not gonna work.

- [Narrator] More than two.

Martin arrives from the FAA

with a head full of regulations.

- Hey, Chuck.

Can I see it?

We'll take a look at it. So far this looks good.

- The understanding I got from Jerry this morning

is that it's no longer acceptable just

to weld this guy right on here.

- That's not the way our standard gondolas are done.

In the timeframe that we're looking at.

- Today.

- To have this done this week.

- Today.

- We need to match original construction.

Right now those fittings are bolted on.

- I think bolting it like this is a complete failure

and it's an accident waiting to happen.

These bolts are gonna tear right out.

We propose dropping in a second piece

of aluminum tubing like this.

- [Martin] And bolting through? Bolting through?

- [Dan] Welding that on,

and putting the bolts straight through.

So the hanger is hung between actual two pieces of aluminum.

So we're still making the physical attachment

with a bolt to comply with your request

to not weaken strength. - That joint.

- The structure with the heat of the weld.

But then we have bolts also.

- I think that'll work. No problem.

This gondola looks good. Like we can go with this.

- Let's go.

- If we can just work with this guy,

we're gonna get done exactly what we need.

And he seems reasonable and amenable,

so this is the way it's gonna go.

I want Jerry out of our decision processes for the rest

of this day. 'Cause we're not gonna get anywhere

with him popping in with another alternative view.

I'm just telling you that now.

- Dan's ready to pop, I think.

Now he's remaking all of those carabiner points

that he spent three hours yesterday making.

- We're just gonna make something new. Ditch these.

It's better to have it right

and have everybody happy with what we have than, you know,

just waste time trying to make

something work that doesn't fit right.

- [Narrator] Picking up parts gives Chuck

a much needed break from the garage.

- You'll be able to take that gondola to a park

and fly it with a balloon separately today.

Or I will strangle Jerry where he stands.

[welding torch sparking]

- [Narrator] Chopper Dave and Dave's dump mechanism

will easily satisfy the 500 pound lift requirement

that Jerry gave them.

- That is excellent, man.

- I don't have any bigger fuse.

- [Jerry] Weigh in the basket in the bag. Fuel.

- Did he just say a thousand pounds? Jerry?

- No, I told him 500.

The basket, it's gonna be a thousand pounds.

The envelope, the tank, and the basket.

- And the burner. Everything installed.

- And the burners.

What is that? What is that rated at?

- [Indistinct Voice] No, we don't have to lift a thousand.

- Who's got the hammer? I want to hit Jerry on the head.

- [Indistinct Voice] We're gonna have to tilt it.

- What are you gonna do, gonna bypass that?

If you gonna bypass the [indistinct]

- [Jerry] The circuit break could blow when you.

- Yeah, if we had a second ram, we could lift twice as much.

Tip it over.

- I think you're oughta order another ram.

You know we don't need a failure. You know what I mean?

- That's what I'm talking about, Jerry.

- Sorry.

- We're have to justify blowing another 350 bucks

on another ram so the thing operates correctly in the back.

So.

- [Narrator] On closer inspection,

Martin has discovered a huge design flaw.

- This lifting member needs to be

underneath this to lift it all up.

We've got it on top.

So this load that's gonna be carried here is gonna be

hanging from those welds, not supported by this tube.

- The problem is there are two ways to build this basket

and we built it the wrong way

for a way to safely suspend it.

We're gonna hang this basket from the envelope

by attaching it to this vertical.

The problem is this vertical goes down, doesn't go

underneath the floor, so the weight of the humans

and the tank and everything inside

is actually being suspended from the bottom of this

by a weld as opposed to being completely retained

by the floor itself.

I don't know what we're gonna do.

[welding torch sparking]

- If we built two more of these,

and we made them an inch longer.

Now, we're gonna put things on the inside anyway

to bolt that bracket in here.

We build two more frames, a little bit longer,

and we bring those on the outside of these.

- [Narrator] Martin's proposal is to add another

loop of tubing under the floor, then lower the top rail

so the gondola still fits in the back of the Tracker.

The team isn't sure. But Jesse is.

- We're trying to avoid having to do that extra loop.

- No, let's do the extra loop.

Just because I'm gonna be in it,

I think we should add the extra loop, you know.

We'll add that one right to here all the way around.

We've still gotta go arm reach high on the burner.

- The burner's height is not a change.

- Is that okay?

- [Jesse] Okay, let's do it then.

[heavy rock music playing]

- Personally, I feel I cost these guys

about six or eight hours of extra hard work.

I've never built a basket like this,

but that's no excuse.

Looked at the drawings. We're in a hurry.

[heavy rock music continuing]

- [Narrator] Even a master fabricator

needs a haircut once in a while.

- Ow! [bleep]

[Jesse laughing]

I'm trying to let 'em work.

I mean, Jerry kind of took the initiative as being,

you know, the elder statesman.

I let him go ahead and totally mess it up,

and now when my life's in danger, I'm gonna step in.

Probably when Tammy's done cutting my hair,

I'm gonna take over completely.

- [Narrator] Jesse better take over soon

because Jerry is at again.

- Not enough.

I was trying to bend the tubing by myself

and when it twisted I put a kink in it

and destroyed about four feet of tubing that we had to have.

Felt good. I marked it in the wrong side.

- Well, you're running it the wrong way.

- Oh no, not again.

- [Narrator] The comedy act is not amusing Chopper Dave.

[whimsical cartoon boinging]

- I want him to bring it over here and sit it here,

and say, "The basket's done." But it's not happening.

- You think you're a pretty tough guy, don't you?

He's just a mean and bitter man.

- [Narrator] Chopper Dave's holding up his end.

The release mechanism is almost done.

- It will actually be held shut with a spring.

You pull the lever over, these will drop out into

here and lift off.

It works.

- Dave's so smart. He's my hero.

[power tools whining]

- We inflate, blades come back up.

Lock it down from inside the c*ck.

One lever. Liftoff!

- [Narrator] In a rush to make up for lost time,

Jerry loses some more.

- You should have waited until it cooled down.

- [Narrator] Dan asked Jerry and Martin

to wait for the welds to cool

before attaching the burner mounts.

They didn't, and now the welds have hardened

with the mount crooked.

Jerry tries to straighten it with his foot.

- Watch what I'm doing.

- You're gonna break the welds is what you're gonna do.

- Okay, you guys are excused. Go home.

I have excused the interlopers in our area

so that we may finish our work.

I told them go home.

- But it's time for me to leave.

- [Narrator] For some day five was mildly frustrating.

[metal clanging]

- [Announcer] Monster One to Tower, clear the runway.

Jesse James and his Monster flight crew are coming in hot

and there's no telling

what might happen when Monster Garage returns.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

- [Narrator] Day six, the last build day.

It's an all-out race to finish.

The basket and back end must be completed

and joined together before the day ends.

- We need every moment of this entire day,

plus about three hours I think to finish this.

- [Chuck] It's getting a little heavier now, isn't it?

- I need an off the record moment.

- [Narrator] Chopper Dave makes sure

Chuck is focused on the finish.

- Want you to try work as independently

as possible over there, 'cause those guys

are gonna get you totally sidetracked.

- Dude, I'm doing my seats and my things and that's it, yes.

Let's get these burners outta here

so I can get seats ready to go.

You got that? Thank you, sir.

That's where this is gonna rest now, is up here.

- [Narrator] The second actuator to lift

Jerry's forgotten 500 pounds arrives.

[cash register ringing] [guitar soloing]

Chopper Dave wastes no time installing it.

[heavy rock music continuing]

Chuck re-welds the burner mounts

and the burners are fitted.

- Turn it around. There we go.

All going well, this thing will go. Ready?

Like this, right here.

- Match the other back, yeah.

- [Chuck] Then this will come up to a proper height.

- [Jerry] And there'll be fire.

- A lot of fire. - Real fire.

- Good. I need to cut this, boom.

- [Narrator] Chuck and Chopper Dave

size up the diamond plate for the seats.

[heavy rock music continuing]

Chuck makes a quick trip to West Coast Choppers

to form the gondola bench.

He cuts, he bends,

and he breaks the steel diamond plate

like paper on a cutting board.

Back to the shop to fit the seat.

- We just have a couple things left to do

and then we're gonna be done with this mess.

- Here come our seats, so great.

- Hey, hey, hey!

- [Narrator] Just a few cuts with the torch

and it frames the tank perfectly.

- God, I couldn't have done that any. Oh, h* h*.

[Jerry laughing]

- How sweet it is.

- Cool, we fit. This is a lot more room

than I thought there'd be in it.

- Final assembly day. Everything's coming

together at once. The mad flurry.

[heavy rock music continuing]

- [Narrator] The second actuator goes in.

They test the sturdier dump frame.

- [Chuck] That's moving totally smoothly now, too.

- [Narrator] Everything looks better with flames.

- Yes! We have fire.

- [Chuck] Welding that stinking gondola.

- [Narrator] Chuck is all tacked out.

- The gondola is now officially done.

[heavy rock music continuing]

- [Narrator] The magical moment of convergence has arrived.

- Hang on a second. Hang on a second.

- [Narrator] They line up the basket, add weight, and test.

- Three, two, one.

[machinery whirring]

- Oh yeah. Yeah!

- It really, really worked.

- Just what we were hoping for,

just like the way we designed it.

That's just what we wanted.

- It's a beautiful thing.

- Five days of toiling really paid off.

- No, I'm not angry anymore.

- I got cold chills, I'm so happy about this.

It's really wonderful.

- Fan mount now. We're moving to fan mount.

- I'm gonna just bob these off.

[funky rock music playing]

- [Narrator] Jesse's plan is simple.

Weld square tubing to the frame rails

and create a sliding track so the fan

can easily slip on and off the back end.

- Goes all the way like that.

[power tools whirring]

- Let's get the sides on. We're gonna need to do

these weld brackets.

- [Narrator] Like a wolf in sheep's clothing,

the basket is fitted with the steel skin of the Tracker.

In a nice touch, they resurrect

the discarded spare tire cover

to conceal the fan.

The Tracker is back to its old stock self.

- You undo those pins and the fan comes off.

- [Narrator] Chuck rigs a chain for the heavy-duty scale.

- This is the final weigh-in

so we can get approval of our weight.

- [Narrator] The gondola must come in

under 500 pounds to meet FAA approval.

- Clear the ground. That's it.

We are 190.

- [Narrator] 190, no problem.

- I said 200 before, didn't I?

- Dammit.

- [Narrator] The weigh-in's done,

but Chuck forgets something.

[suspenseful sting]

[wrench clanging]

- [Jerry] You okay?

- The wrench came down and twanged my head.

I have a lump on my melon,

and the only thing I could find

is a frozen bottle of Gatorade.

Okay, let's put it back on the car,

put everything on and tilt it back, and we're done.

- [Narrator] The next test, the basket release.

- [Chuck] Okay. It's free.

- [Narrator] It flies free from the Tracker.

- Do you feel like you're?

- [Chuck] Move forward, that is.

- Yes, I feel like a book bag.

- Feeling lucky?

[funky rock music continuing]

- It puts the truck in the basket.

- [Narrator] It locks back on.

Time for the final test, the burners.

[heavy rock music playing]

The modest Tracker releases its first Monster breath.

It's a flame-spewing dragon.

[burner roaring]

The team celebrates by roasting some marshmallows.

The neighbors celebrate by calling the cops.

Tomorrow, they race.

While the crew rests,

Tom Pruitt of Damon's Motorcycle Creations

reaches into his bag of tricks to Monsterize the Geo.

- Jesse always told me he was gonna rise

to the top of his field, and with something like this,

I believe he'll make it.

Tonight we're gonna lay on some LimeTime Pearl.

Gonna give it a nice basecoat.

[airbrush hissing]

I'm gonna put a couple of coats

of the Ice Green Pearl over the top of that.

[airbrush hissing]

I'm gonna finish it off with some

of this really awesome Yellow Lime Metal Flake.

[airbrush hissing]

And I think it should be a pretty unique looking balloon.

You'll definitely be able to spot Jesse from a hundred

miles away with this baby.

- [Narrator] Monster Garage Factoid,

a British Thermal Unit is the amount of energy it takes

to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

The Monster air balloon burners

produce 20 million BTUs an hour,

enough to make a swimming pool boil.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

[heavy rock music playing]

- [Announcer] Welcome once again

to another Monster Garage Challenge extravaganza.

Captain Schwag here along with my co-pilot,

Frankie Whiteside.

What's up Top g*n?

- [Frankie] Well, Cap, Jesse James

is taking on all comers in the

mother of off-road races.

He's pitting his puny Geo Tracker against the nastiest

big tire mud suckers in Southern California.

[engines revving]

- [Announcer] Hey, there they go.

Whoa, look at those dirt devils.

But wait a minute, they're leaving Jesse in the dust.

What's going on, Frankie?

- [Frankie] Hold on.

Jesse and his team are pulling something out of the Tracker.

- [Announcer] I don't get it.

The dirty dog pack is getting away.

How's he gonna catch up?

- [Frankie] I'll tell you, Schwag.

Jesse's got the right stuff in his Tracker.

That's a hot air balloon they're laying out.

- [Announcer] You gotta be kidding me.

Looks like Jesse's gonna take the high road of this race.

[heavy rock music continuing]

[crew whooping]

- I wanna get inside there and run around.

- [Announcer] There's a little unfinished business we need

to take care of, isn't there?

- [Frankie] It's not little, Schwag.

The cost of that beautiful balloon, $31,000.

- [Announcer] Hell, yeah!

- [Frankie] The final number for this team

of budget busters.

- [Voice] Incoming!

- [Frankie] $37,360 smackaroonies!

- [Announcer] Frankie, let's show 'em

who's gonna pick up that Monster check.

- [Frankie] Thanks, guys.

- [Announcer] Pay up suckers.

[cash register ringing]

- Lemme do this.

[burner roaring]

- [Crew] Yeah!

[rock music playing]

- [Announcer] We have liftoff.

Why don't you tell the folks the ground rules

for this way-off-road race?

- [Frankie] You got it, Schwaggy.

They're heading for a finish line

exactly 7.2 miles from where they started.

The prevailing westerly winds will point

the Monster balloon in the right direction.

The big knobbies need to carve their own trail.

[rock music continuing]

- We're losing it.

[heavy rock music playing]

- [Announcer] The pack is eating dirt like there's no

tomorrow, but hang on.

Jesse's coming around the bend.

- [Frankie] Looks like he's caught a jet stream, Schwag.

He's airborne and gaining ground by the second.

[heavy rock music continuing]

[funky electronic music playing]

- [Announcer] The wild bunch is stopping.

What's up with that, Frankie?

- [Frankie] Oh, they spotted some water.

Where there's water, there's mud.

- [Announcer] I like these guys, Frankie.

The race will have to wait. No red-blooded

off-roader worth his lift kick

can pass up a primo mosh pit.

- [Frankie] It's the mudder of all slam-dances.

- [Announcer] Frankie, I'm having a Monster moment.

It just doesn't get any better.

- [Frankie] I hear you, big guy. Let's watch.

[hardcore music playing]

Looks like they're done playing in the mud, Schwag.

- [Announcer] The race is back on,

but Jesse's built a big lead.

It doesn't look good for the off-roaders.

[heavy rock music playing]

Captain Jesse James, soaring through the skies,

the wild blue yonder.

The balloon zeroing in on the Tracker.

- [Frankie] Bring it home, boys.

- [Announcer] We have touchdown. Jesse James

and his Monster hot air balloon victorious over

a game bunch of mudder truckers.

[crew cheering] [heavy rock music continuing]

- Off-road means off road.

- [Announcer] For Jesse James,

there's no time for stale peanuts

or complimentary beverages.

[burner roaring]

- I will never get tired of that.

- [Announcer] There's metal to burn, sparks to fly,

the next Monster Garage challenge is just around the bend.

- [Narrator] Now it's tool time.

- You guys did awesome. Thanks a lot you guys.

You all did a great job.

- Jerry does that.

Out of all the people I've met,

definitely one of 'em.

- Thank you. [everyone laughing]

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Newer cars

♪ Designers

♪ Welders, builders, custom-made vehicles ♪

♪ Using our custom-made super-cars ♪