- [Schwag] Is it one if by sea?
Two if by land?
Or the other way around? Hell, I don't know!
It's Monster Garage, we started our own revolution!
- It's not my fault, it's his idea.
- [Schwag] Everything's upside down!
- I just don't wanna watch.
- [Schwag] Clear the decks and get ready to shove up
for another monster voyage!
[driver cheering]
[upbeat rock music]
- [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!
[thunder booming] [upbeat rock music]
♪ Monster garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster
- [Announcer] The challenge:
Turn a brand new 2004 Custom Pickle Fork Ultra Boat
into a super sleek street rod!
The rules:
When built, the Monster Machine must appear to be stuck.
[voice cackling]
The team can spend no more than 5,000 oysters for parts.
Jesse and his crew have seven days and nights.
On the first day, they design.
On 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.
And the clock starts now.
[glass shattering]
Day One: The design team enters,
and these guys are definitely not fresh off the boat.
[voice cackling]
Mike Desmond; a grizzled veteran of the garage,
is an automotive designer for Mitsubishi Motors.
He'll be trading his pen for a pry bar on this cruise.
John West is also a veteran of these hallowed halls.
He helped keep the school bus pontoon boat afloat.
When he's not building monstrosities,
he builds custom ultra boats.
[car engine roaring]
John built this 19-foot Pickle Fork Jet Boat
just for this project!
Jesse James launches right into the task at hand.
- So this is your idea?
- No it isn't.
- Yeah, it is. - Yeah.
- You did approach me with this idea.
- Yes I did.
- About flipping a boat upside down.
- Yeah.
- So people have taken like, you know the SS Minnow.
And put wheels and stuff on it.
- [Jesse] Right.
- But no one's ever made one that looked cool
and I always kind of thought like a pickle fork,
it looks just evil-looking.
- Then we should just-
- It's like Satan, voom! Going down the street.
- Yeah, basically we've got this k*ller shape right here
and the wheels are gonna stick up like that.
We know that for sure.
A small wheel in here, it would be cool
so it doesn't even come through.
But a normal size, we'll just kind of do a swell,
kind of a cap over it if we have to.
- Oh, I need a little bit of water.
[object hammering]
[teammates chuckling]
- Now you wanna sit in front of the motor?
- Yeah.
- Okay. - I think in front.
We should have enough room to almost sit
right where the seats are.
I think everything's gonna basically be on a rotisserie.
So if you visualize it, the boat's gonna rotate.
- Yes.
- And the motor's gonna rotate.
And it's gonna grow wheels and go.
- Okay.
Well I figured, since we have a fiberglass hole,
we want to do some cool mods to it.
We would probably use fiberglass.
Here, fishy!
[glass shattering] Got a guy coming
that's gonna be all about foam and fiberglass.
[speaker talking faintly]
[group laughing] [speaker talking indistinctly]
- They're getting the ride of their life!
- And do we wanna put fenders on it? We can do that too.
- All right.
Let's try to do it without screwing up the gel coat
as much as possible, so we gotta do a lot of planning
and template making before we start cutting it,
you know, to the top to the bottom,
which is become the tops.
- Yeah.
- It's just gonna be a spectacle
when you pull a cover off.
I think that's what this project is about.
- So we've got a whole, like, junkyard
of monster garage cars that are just sitting there.
So let's scab whatever we need off them.
We'll call it recycling.
What if there's a law that a boat can't go down the street?
- I don't think there's a law we'll put some-
- 'Cause if we can go down the street
on the trailer, why can't it go down the street
by itself? - Exactly.
Well, I think the idea is not to ask.
- [Narrator] To realize Mike's vision,
The 502-V8 from John's Pickle Fork will be removed
and placed in a chassis built for the boat.
The hull will then be flipped and filleted
and set on the vehicle.
Fiberglass finishing will keep the lines lean and marine.
[upbeat music] [markers squeaking]
[food crunching]
[car screeching] - All right, I've seen enough.
Let's go drive it.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Jesse's anxious to hit the water,
but series producer Tom McMahon beats him to it.
Jesse will take the boat instead.
This beautiful brand new jet boat
has never been in the water.
So before he tears her apart,
Jesse feels compelled to break her in for her maiden
and final voyage as a boat.
Jesse rides all 550 horses in the marine power big block.
[upbeat rock music] [boat humming]
[driver shouting]
[boat revving]
[rock music continues]
After slicing through the choppy waters
of Long Beach Harbor at 90 miles per hour,
sh**ting a 200-yard rooster tail,
you'd think even Jesse James would hesitate
to hack this boat to bits!
Think again!
Day Two: the build team sails into port prepared
to navigate the treacherous waters of the Monster Garage.
[metal hammering]
Canadian Howard Murray is a helicopter mechanic
who makes boats fly.
[metal hammering]
Tim McNees builds Bonneville bombers
and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
[metal hammering]
Brandon Smisek is a fiberglass fabricator
from Southern California.
[metal hammering]
Pippa Garner is an all-around inventor
and artist from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
[metal hammering]
Staying on for the build, Mike Desmond and John West.
[music humming]
[upbeat music]
- So we're gonna make a boat into a car.
It's not my fault, it's his idea.
- All my idea!
- We're gonna make just a little back-half frame,
and we'll probably just stack it.
We'll do motor, transmission,
We'll use that Circlematic and just,
we'll just hook it right to that rear end.
Half of us will take the motor
and strip this thing, the other half work on the frame
and rear end, and all that stuff.
Let's try not to screw up the gel coat.
Make it so when it's flipped upside down,
you can still look underneath it and it still looks perfect.
- So it's time to strip!
- We're not gonna scratch my boat at all, are we?
- Sure we are!
- Not for a few minutes.
[upbeat music]
- John West of Ultra Boats in El Cajon, California,
explains what's involved in the crafting of a craft.
- With any boat that we build,
we have to start with a paint job that we design first,
we have a set of molds that we build the boat out of
and tape, you know, our lines into the mold.
And then from there they sh**t the gel coat
and you have a shell of paint inside the mold.
And then the laminators come in,
start laying the fiberglass and resin.
The stringers are laid into it
during the fiberglassing process.
And the stringers are actually the frame of the boat,
instead of the structure.
So it's where the boat gets its strength.
After that gets done curing, it pops out of the mold,
then the top and the bottom get bonded together.
Then they have to be wet, sanded and buffed.
Then after it's been sanded and buffed,
it goes over to our rigging department
and that's where everything is assembled into it.
The motor, the gauges, the jet pump,
everything's done at that point.
And then from there it goes to upholstery
where, you know, the seat frames are made
and everything is, the foam is attached
and then the vinyl is sewn and then attached
and it goes on the trailer and gets water tested.
And this particular boat,
that entire process was done in seven days.
- Yeah, you can still smell it airing out,
still, the thing's still curing!
Yeah, that thing's still green.
Put it together in a week and tear it apart in a day.
[upbeat rock music]
[objects shuffling]
- [Narrator] Captain James issues his orders
and the team gets its feet wet ripping up the raft.
- [Team Member] There she goes! There she goes!
There we go!
[object hammering]
- There, she's out.
- Sweet!
[upbeat rock music] [objects clattering]
- [Narrator] In the midst of the team's feeding frenzy,
Pippa points out her pirate paraphernalia!
- [Team Member] That's beautiful!
- [Team Member 2] Wow!
- Sort of an elaborate way to get one
of those blue placards to hang around the rear view mirror
so that I can park in the disabled zones.
I can't hide, can't hide my age anymore,
'cause all they have to do
is cut me open and count the rings! [laughs]
- We're told we can have anything out in this yard.
- Yeah!
- [Narrator] Since Jesse's determined
not to touch the build budget, the team starts scavenging.
[upbeat rock music]
They salvaged the rear end
of the RC Racer Jesse trashed a few weeks ago.
[cars humming]
[car crashing]
[objects clanging]
- What else are we gonna need outta this car?
- Just rip it outta here. It doesn't matter.
- [Narrator] Now these merciless boat pirates
go after the transmission.
Since the front of the wreck is completely caved in,
it's not easy to retrieve the tr*nny.
The team struggles to pull the whole motor
from the RC car
just to get that pesky but necessary transmission.
- Use that wooden leg for a pry bar! Good.
- And I'm gonna have to revarnish it. [chuckles]
- You want me to? - No.
- Yeah, you're clear.
- Nice! - It's coming out.
- [Narrator] With the junkyard
and the pickle fork plenty picked over...
- Let's roll this thing outside.
- [Narrator] It's time to flip
the 650-pound fiberglass hull 180 degrees!
- We all right?
- Yeah. Okay.
[upbeat rock music] [metal scraping]
[truck beeping]
- [Narrator] With the help of two forklifts,
the boat is raised and rotated.
Yeah. Wait, wait.
Everybody grab, everybody get ready
to grab this side, because it's not gonna wanna let go.
Keep going. Has it hit the ground?
- No.
- [Team Member] No? Okay.
[truck humming]
You gotta start driving forward and letting it
down as you come forward.
Okay, let it roll.
Slowly.
- [Narrator] It's bottoms up for this bad boat.
And in typical monster garage fashion,
it's getting hard to tell which way is up.
- Alright, we got anything that carpeted?
I guess it's gonna get scratched no matter what.
So I don't know why I'm worrying about it.
- Guess he's just gonna destroy it anyway! [laughs]
- Lets go ahead and go down.
[truck beeping] Is everything okay?
[truck beeping]
- Look how awesome that looks all ready!
- Oh, this is beautiful, man!
- [Team Member] It almost looks formula car-ish.
- Yeah, it does, doesn't it?
- Well, Jesse says keep it looking like a boat.
Don't do a lot to it.
- We don't wanna do too much. We don't have to.
- Well let's see- - Let's get it inside!
[upbeat EDM music]
- [Narrator] The team rolls the boat back inside
and calls it a day.
'Cause it's gonna be a long week
on a short pier!
Monster garage factoid:
Ken Warby is the fastest man on water
with a speed of 317 miles per hour.
Andy Green is the fastest man on land.
He tops 763 miles an hour!
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
- [Narrator] Day Three:
The build team floats into the garage
and plunges right into their work.
The Pickle Forks Jet won't have much thrust on land,
so the impeller is removed.
- Get it down.
[object clattering] [workers grunting]
- We got a steering column. - Oh yeah.
- [Narrator] To help keep the budget intact,
Brandon brought in a VW front-end he had at his house.
- It's nice if we got the steering,
we've got everything right here already.
- I know. I know, that's awesome.
- What's the width? Did we measure the width on it yet?
- 54.
- So what are we looking at over here?
- 54 is right...
Right here.
- I think this is gonna work.
Just like without even widening the thing at all.
- Exactly.
- [Narrator] Now with a front end, a rear end
and a power plant, the team is on a transmission.
They must make this mess
of salvaged steel into one road-worthy vessel!
[metal screeching]
- Everything seems to be falling
in this 29 and a half inch frame width on this boat.
It's already been built that way.
So everything kind of fits that width
- [Narrator] Because the stringers on the boat
are 29 and a half inches apart,
the chassis will be built to that width,
then the existing motor mounts will bolt right into place,
and the boat stringers will slide
right into brackets built on the chassis.
Bolting the frame to the stringers
will keep the whole pickle caboodle in one piece.
[car screeching] [liquid splashing]
- So we can start looking at how long this frame's gonna be
and I think we're just gonna make
a basic 29 and a half inch width.
That motor, everything is already set up.
The mounts, everything from the boat.
- [Narrator] Mike Desmond is an artist
and automotive designer at Mitsubishi Motors.
- I sketch all day
and I'm hitting walls with new concepts, new styling,
a new look at new vehicles because it's constantly moving.
- [Narrator] His latest creation outside the Monster Garage
reveals why he's one of the most sought-after designers
in the industry.
- This is the first car
that I've had kinda like basically full control of.
And it is a full-blown advanced concept vehicle
that is representative of what is gonna be coming out
in the marketplace in a few years.
So this is, you know, huge dollars in the multimillions.
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah
- We gotta start thinking about what we're gonna do
for driver's compartment.
- Yeah.
Simple, quick and easy, and cool-looking is a single.
- Well, you know what, with the single seat though,
everybody that wants to ride in it.
- [Team Member] What about [indistinct]?
- We have to let them drive. - That's right.
- Or stagger 'em. McLaren style.
- Like a motorcycle.
- That's what I told him. Log ride style.
- Because you could have,
the back passenger could even have their legs go around.
- Mike doesn't like that spooning position, I don't think.
- I don't like that at all. - You're like, two people
- Right there. [group chuckling]
That's perfect!
- [Team Member] I'm loving that! [harp thrumming]
- Uh-uh! Uh-uh! - Only closer!
- Let's just make it a single!
Let me see what it's like when you back up.
- All right, so we're gonna make it a two seater?
We're not doing a tan and forget that!
- [Narrator] With 13-foot rails
of two by four steel tubings set in place,
it's time to form a frame.
- This one's pulled back and it's a little bit...
- You don't wanna drive sideways?
- Square these end up
and weld this whole frame together as perfect as we can.
- And if it's not square and we weld that in solid,
the car, the boat's gonna want to go down the road sideways.
- The minute you get on it or go fast at all, I mean-
- [Team Member] It's gonna want to turn.
- It's gonna want to turn.
- You measure from one corner to that corner,
that corner to that corner.
And they need to be the same.
If they're the same, it's square.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Tim McNees sells speed in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He builds record-smashing streamliner chassis
for the Bonneville salt flats.
- Terry Nish, Royal Purple Streamliner
that they've put together.
The frame that I built for 'em,
the world's fastest small-block Chevy.
They've gone faster with a small block Chevy
than anybody else.
[car humming]
It was within square and within being straight
an eighth of an inch and 27 feet.
[car humming]
[objects clattering]
- Yeah, 159 and 3/8, 159 and 5/8.
- So we're in eight ball?
- Big swing, that's- [object banging]
- One more time. We'll call it good.
[object banging]
- [Narrator] A couple of taps from a BFH
and the frame is squared up.
- That'll fly.
- That's it. Good deal!
- [Narrator] Now John notches the ends of the frame,
so they'll snug up to the axle tube.
[slow drum music]
- I'll make a cross brace for the back of that frame
so it doesn't "bow!"
[metal screeching]
[electricity crackling]
- [Narrator] With the chassis square intact...
- Okay.
- [Narrator] It's time to bolt the drive line together.
[smooth drum music]
[metal faintly screeching]
- [Team Member] Okay. - [Team Member 2] That's it.
- [Team Member] Okay. That's all the way in.
- Okay, that's right where that motor's gonna sit.
And we can drill right into that frame.
- [Team Member] It looks like it's fitting now.
- Okay, we can come right across here
with the tr*nny bracer.
- Come up right, right up here?
- Yep.
- We'll do a radiator. Two fans right here.
- Yep.
- That should tuck right underneath
and that way when we do the cutout,
we'll just do the cutout for the engine.
Just big enough.
- This should slide right in like a slot car
on its little electric body.
[metal banging]
- [Narrator] The motor is bolted into the chassis
and the front and rear axles are welded onto the frame.
[metal banging] [electricity crackling]
[objects banging]
With the chassis in one piece,
the team tests the torsion bars of Brandon's VW front-end.
[metal squeaking]
- It's gonna bounce like you're in the water, you know?
- Of course it looks good!
- So I guess we're gonna need all hands on deck,
so to speak.
- [Narrator] The inverted boat is strapped
to the underside of the lift.
- That's probably about as good as we're gonna get it.
- [Narrator] And the new rolling chassis
is wheeled underneath.
- This is too easy!
[team member laughing]
- [Team Member] Ye-yeah!
- [Narrator] This team is turning
the whole garage upside down!
They've made their lift into a lower!
- Right there. That's good.
I don't praise the Lord as much as I praise the "Low-erd."
[voice cackling] [objects clanging]
I like the fact that the front end's
gonna hang way over the front wheels.
I think that's really cool.
So it's almost like it'll be
a really weird sensation to drive.
It's gonna be scary, unstable and fast!
[title twinkling]
- [Narrator] With the hull hovering over the frame,
Brandon marks where the fiberglass needs to be cut.
- Quarter of an inch all the way around it.
- We want to cut right along this line right here.
- [Narrator] At last, it's time for the travesty.
John's been saying he's gung-h* to vivisect his vessel.
- Here we go!
- But when Brandon takes the blade to the boat,
John's face tells a different story.
[winding whooshing]
- I don't even wanna watch.
He's just hacking on my brain! Yeah.
[tools hammering]
[tools continue hammering]
I just don't wanna watch.
[tools continue hammering]
Okay.
The stringer to a boat is the equivalent
to a frame of a car.
So we're trying to do as much as we can
to not cut the stringer.
[tools continue hammering]
- Yeowza!
[tools continue hammering]
[objects clattering]
[speaker talking faintly]
- [Team Member] All right.
- Nope!
- I'm not gonna throw it away.
- [Team Member] Why?
- [Team Member 2] Let's get it down!
[upbeat rock music] [tools humming]
- [Team Member] All right!
[objects clattering]
- [Narrator] With the body on the car,
it's apparent this is going
to be one sweet street rod.
- Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!
- Sweet.
- Awesome.
- That's badass! - That's badass!
- You were talking earlier
about one seat or two seats.
Didn't you want to figure that out?
- Yeah, a pod. Single seat.
That would be the easiest and the coolest.
- [Narrator] Mike is still selling the single seat setup
for his brainchild, but Jesse has something else in mind.
- You still want two seats?
- Yeah.
- [Mike] Well I think we're cool for today.
- I think we're, yeah, we're fine for this.
- We're kickin' a*s.
- [Narrator] Now that this team
is flying two seats to the wind,
they go home to ponder how to pull it off.
Monster Garage factoid:
The Gibbs Aquada can reach 100 miles per hour on land
and 34.7 miles per hour on the water.
You can put one in your dock garage
for just over a quarter of a million dollars!
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
- [Narrator] Day Four: the team is rudely awakened
by a dose of reality.
Jesse wants this ride to be a two-seater,
but the team's in a pickle over how
to make them both fit in the narrow c*ck.
- As far as the seating, how long is it gonna take for us
to reconfigure that chassis and widen it
and do all the stuff that we're gonna have to do?
- I think, yeah-
I don't know the date, 'cause look,
we have to redesign the whole thing.
It looks like we've got a lot done
right now, but really we don't.
- He's turned it into a Roadster
and he wants two seats, side by side.
Sort of the way it was when it was upright.
- Right. So there's two frame rails like this.
Now we gotta go like that way.
- We need to widen it a lot.
- To sit the seats down low enough
so you don't look like an idiot sitting up this high.
Now we know a whole new set
of problems we gotta solve today.
- [Narrator] Starting day four, Pippa's t-shirt says it all.
[upbeat music]
John starts cutting up the boat seats
to try to squeeze them into the existing frame,
while Pippa cuts out the c*ck.
[tools humming]
But avast, even the pair of section boat seats
won't fit between the frame rails!
- You know, there's no reason why
we have to use those seats.
Why don't we just make our own seats
outta some of that half-inch tubing that fits?
Stagger 'em? Don't even have to widen this out.
Then we'll force the seats to fit in there with that.
- Do we want to try to sit in there
and see if we can physically get two people's?
- I can imagine.
- You can try it, I...
[smooth bass music]
- Comfortable that way. - We're all cozy!
- [Team Member] Yeah. Looking good!
- Why we make it a four passenger?
- We got no problem!
- [Narrator] Howard got a serious deal
on a horizontal stabilizer from a helicopter.
That might work as a spoiler for the car.
- The vertical fin.
We got car, we got some boat, aircraft.
Those pieces there.
One of them is 6,000 bucks
and the other one's about 12,000 bucks.
Brand new.
- You spent no money, did you?
- Six dollars, 25 cents.
- $6.25?
$699 bucks? No.
$6.25. How'd you get them so cheap?
- 'Cause I'm a helicopter guy.
I know where to go for cheap stuff.
- [Narrator] Howard Murray is a helicopter mechanic
from Canada who likes to make boats go fast.
Real fast.
- Since about 2000, I've had my own company,
Firestorm Turbines,
and I've been putting gas turbine helicopter engines
into offshore performance boats
- [Narrator] With his gas turbine boats
reaching speeds of almost 200 miles per hour
it's no wonder Howard is excited about his work!
- Yeah! Boats, jet engines, this is cool!
Does it look good on there?
- I don't know, Mike,
you need to cut about this much off.
- We cut about that much off, yeah.
- No, this way.
- Way shorter. - Yeah.
- Make a hat out of it.
[team members chittering]
- $12,000. Here it goes!
- [Narrator] Certain aircraft parts
can only be used for a limited number of flying hours.
This tail section is only worth its weight
in aluminum scrap.
In this case, six dollars and twenty-five cents.
Pippa cuts holes for the front wheels.
Then Brandon starts carving polyurethane foam
into a streamlined blister shape to cover the holes.
This foam form will be covered with fiberglass
to blend seamlessly into the boat's existing lines.
- It'll be flared into it and everything.
- [Narrator] As a show car designer
and clay modeler for the automotive industry,
Brandon Smisek literally creates the shape
of things to come.
- Everything you see on the road today
was once clay, was sculpted out of clay,
nothing is made on the computer
and goes straight to production.
It all has to be finessed by hand
and that's what gives it its sexy look.
Or its, you know, its artistic feel, so to speak.
- [Narrator] Things get more challenging
when Brandon tries to match the second fender
to the first one.
- The second one always takes time.
There'll be a channel running through it this way
and a channel running through it that way.
And I'll draw a line there and a line there
and then shape down to it.
[upbeat rock music]
- [Narrator] Finally, the matching foam fenders
are glued into place.
- Well, that's the first time
that tool's been used amongst the garage!
[saw scraping]
- [Narrator] Now Brandon begins on his biggest challenge:
Making the bottom of this boat look like the top
by adding a dash and a cowl.
[upbeat rock music]
First, the big block of crudely-shaped foam
is glued to the boat with body filler.
Then Brandon's craftsmanship takes over.
[rock music fading]
[saw scraping]
- What do you think, Pippa?
Well, we haven't spoiled any of the good features
of the hull, and that was important.
- Pippa Garner is an eccentric artist
and inventor, whose work can be seen
in Car and Driver magazine.
- You know, I had done all these transformations
of vehicles and radios and televisions
and everything else, turning them into other things
and just doing this kind of whimsical parody
of mass production.
And I had kind of done everything
and I thought, well, okay,
I've been working with manmade products.
Am I not a product myself?
So the notion of of sex change occurred to me.
- Years ago, Pippa was Philip Garner.
Also an artist and inventor, though not quite as eccentric.
- I see myself as, I guess you could say woman-oid.
Artificially female.
I don't like to be called he,
but I wouldn't mind being called it.
You aren't the same, but you are the same.
It's a wonderful paradox that is a high state in art.
I think, something that you see
that you're not quite sure about.
You know, you think, you kind of walk away with your,
a question mark floating over your head.
- What are we gonna hook up?
- [Narrator] It seems that Jesse likes the cut
of Pippa's jib.
- I like Pippa.
I mean, every guy's acting like a chick
at one time or another. [words echoing]
[harp trilling] [birds chirping]
Just, one sometimes wanna stay that way.
[upbeat drum music]
- [Narrator] Tim makes a floor for the driver's compartment.
[electricity crackling]
- That's a roll cage.
- We found these fans out back.
We went ahead and made this bracket to hold the fans
and then turned the same bracket into the mounting
that'll hold down the radiator.
So that way it clamps it down.
Everything's real easy to remove.
Well, I'm not concerned about not completing the project.
I just don't know if it's gonna come out
quite like we had originally anticipated.
But there's a lot of modifications
we're having to make as we go along.
- It's changed quite a bit from the original.
I think it's gotten better. - This is one of those days
where it looks like not a lot got done,
but then tomorrow you guys are gonna go,
whoa, how'd they do that?
So you just wait.
- Just chill, all right? - Yeah.
- [Narrator] Today the team navigated
through some obstacles,
but they hope for smooth sailing tomorrow.
Day Five: The team sails into the garage
and sets some lofty goals. - Oh dear.
- Wanna make a list of goals for today?
- Yeah. - Yes.
- [Team Member] And not stop until we reach those goals?
- That's right.
- [Team Member 2] I think that's the plan.
- I'm tired.
- You're tired? - You too?
- This is kind of turning out to be hard.
- Well then let's not make our goals real high.
- [Team Member] Yeah, our goals is to just eat!
- Set our goals real low so
that way we can actually achieve 'em!
- [Narrator] Now that Brandon has shaped the foam,
it's time to start on the fiberglass.
- This stuff, once it gets wet you can push it around
and you can do any shape with it.
- [Narrator] Fiberglass is just fine fibers of silica glass,
which can be woven into various fabrics
for different applications.
First, Brandon cuts out a pattern.
Then he coats the fiberglass with a polyester resin.
- See how it's changing colors, turning brown?
It's starting to react.
We got a limited amount of work time with this stuff.
- [Narrator] This is laid over the foam mold
and smoothed out.
- I've got a razor bladed at just the right time.
If I do it too early, it's gonna just fray.
If I do it too late, I won't be able to do it.
I'm gonna have to get a grinder out here.
I'm gonna make a mess up it.
Now this, I gotta babysit this little bit.
[objects faintly clattering]
- [Narrator] After the fiberglass is dried,
polyester body filler is used
to make the surface perfectly smooth.
- At least what this does is it gives me something to sand,
because you can't sand that laminating resin.
- [Narrator] Brandon finds that a soda can
is the perfect diameter for shaping his fenders.
It doubles as a handy vessel for a refreshing beverage.
While Brandon shapes the top of the fenders...
- Good enough!
- [Narrator] Pippa hollows out the underside
to provide clearance for the front wheels.
- I'm gonna glass this whole area.
I gotta clean it up a little bit.
Put some more paper, get some fiberglass on it.
Same thing that we did on those front pods there.
[fabric rustling]
- [Narrator] With the cowl glassed in,
Brandon finds the perfect hood ornament for the pickle fork.
- Okay, we can name this boat, "Pickle Envy!"
[objects rustling]
[liquid splashing]
- [Narrator] Jesse gets started on a mystery project.
[upbeat rock music] - Kind of like looking
in a box of Legos and saying, "What's that?"
Seats...
- [Narrator] To fit two seats in this car
without widening the frame will require making custom seats.
- Just making some beads on this so it's not all sloppy.
- [Narrator] Then staggering them.
While Pippa salvages brake components from the RC car,
she suggests it would be better to stick
to the nautical theme of the project.
- Originally, of course, it had an anchor, I assume.
Which is rather low-tech.
- That's what driving my Chevy's like,
I just drop it down on the frame
and let it drag till it stops.
[car revving]
[voice crackling]
That's kinda like an anchor.
[electric guitar screaming]
It works good too!
- We're gonna try to upgrade that
with some of this Detroit technology here.
All that for this.
- We're building a brake pedal.
That's gonna be the pedal pad right there,
when we get done, that'll stop it.
This is for the push it needs to drive.
- [Narrator] Even this team's priorities are upside down!
They'll set up the brakes before the throttle.
- The go pedal!
Just about ready to go.
[electricity crackling]
- [Narrator] Howard adapts the boat shifter for use on land.
He even makes a spring-loaded ball and detent mechanism
to keep the automatic transmission in gear.
- This is gonna work?
- [Team Member] I think so. Pretty confident?
- Yeah.
- [Team Member] In in a day and a half?
- Oh, yeah.
- In a day and a half it's gonna be done and running.
- That's right.
- [Narrator] Pippa gets serious with the saws-all.
- That chop saw, where are you cuttin' with that?
You'll have to lop something off.
- I wouldn't want that to happen again.
- Yeah. I'm just looking out for you.
- I don't have much left to lose! You know?
- The whole thing is about, you know,
reality hacking and where else to start but gender?
I mean if you screw around with that,
everything else is easy!
I like that!
- Sex-changed people are such a minority
that nobody knows how to react.
It's not like they if they're h*m*
or something like that.
It doesn't really apply.
When you've done all the stuff that everybody knows about.
You gotta, you know, go into the never-never land.
Like I played high school football
and did all the things I was supposed to do
and I thought, you know, what's the learning curve
and had completely fell flat.
- How young were you when you knew
you were supposed to be a girl?
- About 50.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Really? - Yeah.
- How old are you now? - 61.
- That's cool. That's cool.
- So I'd already done it all!
- Do you like girls or guys?
- I don't really care for people at all.
- [Team Member] Never married or nothing like that, or?
- I was. Yeah for a while, but...
You know, that was another thing that I've done.
- So your monster garage conversion
was from a dude into a chick?
- Yeah!
It's an art performance that will last forever.
So it's kind of like doing this stuff.
- That's pretty punk rock!
Just becoming a chick just because.
- Yeah. I've never had so much fun.
Like, a life gag, you know?
- I wanna chrome myself.
- Yeah, wouldn't that be great?
- Maybe all chrome from the neck down!
- With Pippa's secret out in the open,
the rest of the team feels comfortable coming out with her!
Out of the garage, that is.
[door rolling]
- [Schwag] Is the wind at this team back,
or is their back against the wall?!
- Got a major problem.
- Basically we [tool clattering] up!
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
- [Narrator] Day Six: The last build day.
The team dives into their projects.
- I know what I gotta do!
[team repeating and chattering]
- I'm diving in. [water splashing]
- This is where the stringers are gonna sit right on there.
So we got these plates we're putting on there
that'll screw bolt through the stringers
and then that way once we set the body on,
we'll just drill through.
[electricity crackling]
- That'll work right there.
- [Team Member] Hold it.
- [Narrator] Tim and Mike bleed the brakes.
- Alright, we got back brakes.
- Yeah.
[tool screeching]
- [Narrator] Brandon puts the finishing touches on the cowl.
[upbeat drum music]
[tools buzzing]
- I'm trying to just get it to blend, you know,
and try to look like it was meant to be there.
I don't want to have something that crashes into,
you know, two things like that.
So it was easy enough to just flow into this surface
and at the same time, continue this through.
[upbeat music] [fire roaring]
- [Narrator] Jesse forms the skins for the twin seats.
[tools hammering]
[object rustling]
[upbeat rock music]
- That does it, he's ugly, but he can make him a medal seat!
It's getting things ready
so we can start this thing up pretty soon
so we can actually wire the engine.
We should be able to actually crank it over.
[tools humming]
[objects clattering] Clear?
[objects clattering]
- Battery's low.
[engine running]
- All right, cool. Alright.
- No worries there. - Okay, we'll start.
It'll stop. It'll shift.
- [Team Member] Yep, we know it's in part-
- Throw the body on and get outta here!
- [Narrator] Not so fast, tough guy!
You still gotta make it steer.
[upbeat rock music] [tool crackling]
- Load this up and get it where we want it.
[object clattering] - Up top, look at that!
[speaker talking faintly]
- [Narrator] In rolls the 22-inch Jesse James rims,
mounted with Toyo-tires.
- Check it brothers! - Oh sweet!
- Rolling on doves.
[music fading]
- [Narrator] With only five hours to go,
the team makes a discovery
that could sink this whole project.
- Mike? - Yo?
- Got a major problem.
- Let's go take a look down the front rail.
- Damn!
- [Narrator] The frame rails have bowed in the center
from the weight of the 700-pound big block motor.
- We've made this entire frame
and everything that's been welded onto it
has been made with this engine in place.
So it was probably already arched from the very beginning.
We just never noticed it
because it was the first time we put it up.
We probably got it locked in this position right now.
It probably isn't gonna get anywhere.
- I don't think it's going anywhere.
- Huh?
- I don't think it's gonna go anywhere.
- No, maybe what we should do is just go ahead
and put the bracket right now.
- Do it. - Leave the curve in it.
- Yeah. - Give it the extra bracing
so it doesn't get any worse.
We wanna strengthen it just the way it is
right now so it doesn't flex.
'Cause this has already been calculated
with the the flex in it.
- Sure.
- Maybe from there down to there.
- Well, no matter what we do, we're gonna have to do it
because we're running out of time.
Either we're gonna do it or not do it.
If we're, you know... - If we're gonna do it...
- I would do it right off the bat.
- Let's do it right now. - Yeah.
- Add two braces to each side and let's call it good.
- Tim cuts some bracing
to keep the problem from getting worse.
[tools screeching]
Basically, we, [object clattering].
[team mates chuckling]
- Triangles make things strong.
- This is going to keep it from going any further.
- That's a triangle, if we needed one!
[tool crackling and screeching]
[screeching continues]
- I'm getting tired.
- I'll be glad when it's over.
- [Narrator] Finished or not,
it's almost over for this team.
It's nearly 8:30 at night.
- Looks good!
- [Narrator] And the moment of truth has arrived.
The body is lowered onto the frame.
The stringers of the boats
slide right into the chassis brackets.
- Okay, stop!
- Everything looking good?
- Okay, everybody on their backs!
- This side looks good.
- This side looks good too.
- It's pretty sweet. Looks like a race car.
- Oh man!
- Let's run some volts through the body. Hold it down.
Send Jesse on his way. See what happens.
- [Narrator] With only a couple hours before midnight,
The body is bolted to the frame.
[upbeat rock music]
[tools crackling] - It is a race car.
It doesn't need to be pretty it's just gotta work.
- [Narrator] Soon, Jesse might be leaving
a rooster tail of rubber.
[music fading]
- I think it's a perfect Monster Garage car!
- It's pretty thin.
- [Narrator] It's finally time for this team to ship out.
[car rumbling] [upbeat rock music]
- Check it out!
[team cheering]
- With only one of the seats installed,
John pulls the boating behemoth out of the garage
so Jesse can test the waters.
- That's a boat.
The cops are all, "What are you guys driving?"
"A boat!" [laughs]
[racecar roaring]
[crew laughing and cheering]
- [Narrator] Turns out this 19-foot road boat
makes better donuts than a Monster Garage cop car!
[group cheering and clapping]
[racecar roaring] [tires screeching]
- Oh my God! [laughs]
[racecar roaring]
- Oh my God. - Good stuff, man.
That thing's tough as nails, huh?
- Yep. - Awesome, yeah!
- I think he should just sit there and keep on going!
High five brothers!
- It's interesting. The thing that's so tricky to me
is that you take five people
that have never seen each other before
and give them an absurd assignment and they do it!
- All right, let's get serious for a second.
- [Narrator] After boomeranging around
in his capsized pickle fork,
Jesse reveals why this had to be a two-seater.
- All right. I put two seats in this car
'cause there's this little boy named Tyler
that was supposed to come down and hang out
with us on this build.
He passed away last week, Thanksgiving Day.
So...
- [Team Member] That's Tyler seat?
- [voice shaking] Yep.
- Just a number one Monster Garage fan.
So I want to dedicate this show to him.
- [Team Member] That's cool.
- Cool.
- All right, you guys want some tools?
- [Team Member] Hell yeah!
- [Narrator] The team's thoughts are with Tyler
as they take their tools.
- Pickles, Monster Garage CDs, Mac Tools and Pickles!
[goofy swinging effect] [splattering noise]
- Look out for that.
- [Narrator] The Pickle Fork returns home
to ultra boats for one final blast of gel coat
to cover Brandon's fiberglass work.
Build cost tally;
Hard cash,
freebie value,
vehicle cost,
grand total...
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
- [Schwag] Okay, Monster Maniacs!
Straighten up and fly right,
because it's time for another Monster Garage Challenge!
- Frankie, where are we?
- [Frankie] 90 miles north of Long Beach Swag.
A place called Tejon Ranch!
- [Schwag] Cattle Country! Ye-haw!
- [Frankie] Well they better stay off the road
because here comes Jesse!
- [Schwag] Nice wheels, dude!
- [Frankie] Lamborghinis are cool,
but check out this week's monster!
- [Schwag] This sucker is flipped!
A classic Pickle Fork speed boat turned upside down
with a 502 Chevy-grade engine stickin' out of the back!
You gotta be kiddin' me!
- [Frankie] Say hello to Capsized!
We need one of those [play horn squealing] horns for it!
- [Narrator] What does Jesse think for this one?
- I don't think, I only react.
- [Narrator] You should have seen that one comin', Schwag!
- [Schwag] Frankie, what's the plan
for our man and his monster?
- [Frankie] Well, Schwag.
The numero uno friend of the garage,
John West, has brought up one of his custom muscle boats
to run alongside one of the baddest-looking monsters
ever to roll out of the garage!
He's heating it up and testing the waters
before the big run!
- [Schwag] Check out the tail on that rooster!
[boat humming]
John west, Monster Garage salutes you!
- [Frankie] Schwag, this dude gets more airtime than we do!
- [Schwag] Ah, that's not funny, Frankie.
- [Frankie] Crag, Capsized was a big bad boat on water!
Let's see how it performs on dry land!
- [Schwag] And who better than Jesse James
to give it the g*n?
Let her rip, big guy!
[upbeat music]
- [Frankie] Oh yeah!
Capsized is a land shark and it's eaten up the road!
[boat humming]
- [Schwag] Look at way fast, where they go folks!
[boat humming]
- [Frankie] Uh, oh, it's stopping!
- [Schwag] Jesse's climbing out. Something's up, Frank!
- [Frankie] Schwag, we just got word that the transmission
is totally blown!
- [Schwag] That sucks. Capsize is dead in the water!
[sad dramatic music]
- [Frankie] Well, at least Jesse got
one good run out of Capsize before it sank.
- [Schwag] Frankie, recycling doesn't always pay off.
Remember the transmission came from the beat-up RC Monster!
Let's just appreciate the view!
Oh yeah!
- [Frankie] So long, Capsized!
Jesse's popping the scissor wing on his little red Lambo!
[car roaring]
- [Schwag] Big Jesse James has no time for fishing,
but transmission and upside down boats
that can't finish a race!
- Monster, Monster, do nothing! [chuckle]
- [Schwag] He's got metal or burn. Sparks the fly!
The next Monster Garage Challenge is just around the bend!
[upbeat rock music]
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
♪ Monster, Monster Garage
[dramatic title music]
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03x17 - Capsized
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A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise was assembled to modify a vehicle into a "monster machine."
A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise was assembled to modify a vehicle into a "monster machine."