08x01 - 'Mueller? 'Mueller?

[bunniefuu]

[dave] it's not every day
that I get excited
about a volkswagen.


hebmuller cabrio.

It's like the holy grail
of volkswagens.

This is quite a bit different
from what we're used
to looking at.

A-ha!

That's a lot of engine.

That's fantastic!

[daniel]
there's rust behind rust.

We didn't know the front end
had been smashed in.

We're totally screwed.

[groans]

it's never easy.

Never easy.

[rock music playing]

[dave]
when I look at a blank canvas,
I see endless possibilities.

As the ideas come to mind,

the lines
start to fall into place.

And before you know it,
we have a bitchin' ride.

-[spinning]
-[screeching]

a bitchin' ride
has intense color.

-[laughs]
-[dave] this is gorgeous!

Performance.

[man] it's fantastic!

Stance.

-Wheels. Sound.
-[engine roars]

if there's one thing
that makes our cars stand out,

ours are bitchin' rides.

[screeching]

-this never gets old!
-[laughing]

whoa, whoa, whoa!

Careful, dude.
Watch the cliff.

[engine roars]

I have appreciated and built
a ton of custom volkswagens
over the years.

This is
a 1954 european bug.

Type 1, 2, or 3,
or for those of you
who don't know what that is,

karmann ghias...

Oh, my god!

Beetles...

What a great match, huh?

Oh, yeah.

Buses, you name it,

I've had my hands on them.

[woman] this was
such a great build for us.

[dave] I've had my hands
on all types of volkswagens,

and I customized
everything you can imagine,

but there's one that I've
never had my hands on.

The maxwells are
awesome clients of ours,

and actually,
today we're gonna be talking
with tracey maxwell.

Oh, hi, you guys.

-Hi, dave.
-How are you?

Good. Melissa, tracey,
good to see you guys.

I understand that you're
a volkswagen gal,
right, tracey?

-Yes.
-That's so cool.

You have a lot of history
with volkswagens?

I love them.
Like I said, I drove a dasher
when I was young.

And you see the bugs
and you see the vans,

and I'd like
something different.

I want something
that stands out.

I want something
that I will keep forever

and the world
doesn't know about.

-Right.
-I don't know if that exists.

She wants
the ultimate vw convertible.

I want it.

When you ask me
for the ultimate convertible,

the one thing
that I can only
come up with in my mind,

is, in fact, the ultimate,
rarest convertible bug
there ever was.

There was a very rare
volkswagen
called a hebmuller.

It was a coach builder
just outside of
the wolfsburg factory

and, basically,
what they would do,

is they would take
the convertible bodies,

the front sections,
and they would actually

put a different styled
rear end on it,

it's was a
coach-built rear end.

They had a hood on the back
that looked a lot
like the front hood,

and it has
a very short top,

instead of being
a long, you know,
sedan style top.

They're super, super rare.

I mean,
it's like the holy grail

of volkswagens.

-Of volkswagens?
-Yup.

I have to have one.

I have two dogs

that travel with me
everywhere,

so there has to be
room for them.

Not necessarily david,
just the dogs.

[all laugh]

pretty sure they had
a little jump seat.

I'm sure
they'd fit in the back,

and then dave
can just drive his truck.

[all laugh]

can you make it a convertible?
Is it a convertible?

They're all-- yup.
The hebmullers
are all convertibles.

I'm not a big fan
of a manual transmission,

and I'm assuming
those are manual, correct?

Uh, yeah, they never made
an automatic on any of these.

If we're gonna find
the ultimate volkswagen,
why not make it my own...

-There you go. Absolutely.
-...Volkswagen.

So, back in the original days
of the hebmuller,

they never made an automatic,

which was an option
later on in 1969 or 70.

They had what they called
the autostick,

but you
still had to shift the car,

you just simply didn't have
to put the clutch pedal in.

But, if you're wanting
an automatic,

it doesn't make a lot of sense
to not do an automatic.

I think that it would be
super cool to do
a resto custom hebmuller

without destroying
the history of the car.

Yeah, I definitely wanna keep
the history of it

and to be able to tell a story
of what exactly this is,

because, you know,
if you find something
like that,

you're going to pull in
some people that are like,
"what is that?"

-yup.
-Where did it come from,
the history,

-and I love
history stuff like that.
-Yeah.

[melissa]
will you still be able to add

some of your special
custom touches to it

if you're trying
to keep it more original?

Are you still gonna make it
a little bit special?

The resto customs,
basically, it's restored
on the outside,

but all of the guts,
the engine would be upgraded,

a stereo system
would be upgraded,

the stance, the wheels,
all that kind of stuff.

That way you keep
kind of the classic line...

-Yeah.
-...And you haven't
ruined the car.

Do you have
kind of an idea of colors
that you'd like to do?

So, I don't want
anything too flashy--

the hebmuller was the only
factory two-toned
volkswagen beetles.

I would keep it with that.
If that's what they did,
go with the history of it.

Let's see
if we can find one first,

and then I'll put a design
together for you

and just see what you like.

You're on the mission.
Don't let me down.

-[melissa] thanks, dave.
-You bet, guys.

-Take care.
-Thank you.

-Thank you.
-Good luck.

For years,
decades, my entire life,

I've always wanted
to get my hands

on a hebmuller
and customize it.

And now,
I have the opportunity.

This is gonna be rad.

[rock guitar playing]

I'm doing the design
for the 1950
volkswagen hebmuller.

I've been wanting to design
one of these for a long time,

but even longer,
I've been wanting to build
one of these.

So, now that I'm designing it,
means that I have to build it.
[laughs]

for anybody that's ever been
into volkswagens and knows
that much about them,

a volkswagen hebmuller
is like the rarest
and the coolest

and the most
sought after volkswagens,
certainly by me.

And so, to be able to build
one of these custom

is priceless.

I'm so excited for tracey.
She's gonna love this thing.

Well, we know
what the color codes were
for this car in particular,

'cause it's in the registry.

But we don't care.
[laughs]

we're gonna actually do it
back to what an original
might have been.

All of them were available
to be done in two-tone.

This two-tone in particular,

I think is something
that she's been really after.

It's gonna be a black
and I'm thinking kind of
a raspberry kind of a color.

The interior, I'm gonna do
more of a grey.

You know, something
that would have looked
that way original.

I don't wanna really modify
the car too much.

I wanna try and pay homage
to what the car is,

but, of course, we want
improve the wheels, stance,
drivetrain and drivability.

So, she is
gonna drive this car.

Not a lot of these get driven
very much, I'm sure.

This one is going to.

We wanna make it comfortable,
custom, but classy.

Really, the only thing I'm sad
about this entire project

is it's not my car.

But tracey's gonna love it.

[rock music playing]

designing a custom-built
hebmuller is one thing.

Finding a good donor, which is
a completely different,

especially
when it's this rare.

-Guess what?
-[kevin laughs] what?

-You're not
gonna believe this.
-What's it about?

Volkswagen stuff,
and it's the coolest
volkswagen stuff.

I'm so stoked.

So, dig this.

Tracey and melissa
want to build

the ultimate
volkswagen convertible.

What, you ask,
is the ultimate convertible?

None of them.

-Stop! Let me finish.
-[laughs]

a hebmuller,
just like the ones--

remember those really rare
two-seater cabriolets

we were
looking at in orange county?

Yeah, but how rare are they?
We saw two at the same show.

That's probably the only two
in the whole state. Who knows?

-I don't know.
-[laughs]

they want to build

the ultimate convertible
resto mod--

-well, can you get one?
-'cause I know
that you asked--

I think
that black and silver one,
I think was for sale.

Can't we just get
the black one, it's done.

Uh, I don't think
that we wanna go in that much,

-'cause we're gonna
tear it all apart.
-Okay.

So... And that was--
that was a lot of money.

[rock music playing]

-that is a hebmuller.
-Hey, that's a hebmuller.

[dave] you'd kind of be
kind of an a*s
to take one of these

and chop it up
and make a hot rod out of it.

I would do it
in a new york second.

This is like dating a sexy


They want to build
the ultimate convertible
resto mod.

Well, can you get one?

That black-- can we get
the black one, it's done.

-[dave] oh!
-[kevin] what's this?

[dave] this is a hebmuller.

That's with the top up.

-Oh, look how cool it looks.
-[dave] I know.

-Seeing from--
-[kevin] and this one
is customized.

I know.

Is this car for sale?

The black one, no.
They won't sell,

and I ain't spending
that much money on that car.

The black and silver one,
I talked to that guy,

and that car was available,

but I don't have
his information.

Do you know anybody
that might be able
to track down

and find out who the owner
of that car was?
I didn't get his info.

I think brett knows a guy

-that's all into that bug crew
right there, so.
-Okay.

Let me call him
and see what he can do.

I mean, what do those go for?
Like 30 grand?

They're six-figure cars.

-Really?
-Yeah.

They're volkswagens, dave!

It's the rarest of the rare.

This volkswagen stuff
is getting ridiculous.

No, it's gonna get
even more ridiculous

when we get that car, so

see if you
can find the contact,

-give me his info...
-Okay.

...And I'm gonna see

if I can wrangle
that car off of him,

-and we're gonna build it.
-Okay.

Remember, I'm excited.

Yeah, I got it, I got it.

-I got it, I got it!
-Okay, hurry up.

When dave gets super excited
about a build,

he's like
a kid in a candy store.

It's fun to watch at first,

but then reality sets in,
and you realize

that you actually
have to do some work.

So, now we have to find
the car,

and I think
there's like, what...


You know what, the only time
I've ever seen a hebmuller--

hebmuller, or whatever
you wanna call it,

we saw two at that show
in orange county,

and I think my good friend,
brett, has a connection
to one of the ones we saw.

Hello.

-Hi!
-Hi.

Dave has got a customer

that wants to build
a hebmuller.

We talked about this
when we were at
that orange county show.

Dave was saying
he was interested in one
at one point.

Yeah, and I've never seen
two in one place.

That one, I believe,
was for sale,

and I believe
your buddy knows him.

Gangster money, gary bell.

That's what I'm talking about.

So, I need to get

gary bell's phone number
from you.

When we get done
having this facetime,

I'll send you his contact.

I like that.
Always a pleasure to see ya.

Yes, it is.

And I'll talk to you later.

-It's a pleasure to see me.
-All right. [laughs]

-bye-bye.
-Later.

So, after one more phone call

and a couple of weeks'
worth of waiting...

Ta-da!

[rock music playing]

[dave] it's not every day
that I get excited
about a volkswagen.

-[kevin] right?
-But this is kinda
one I can get behind.

I'm kinda liking
what I see in you, my friend.

This is kinda cool.
hebmuller cabrio.

And I think they made 696.

This one,
not sure what number,

but it's one of a 123
that are in the registry
worldwide.

-That's left?
-That's left...
To known to be.

-Wow!
-[dave] at least,
in the registry.

To have the opportunity
to drive something like this

is pretty cool.

To have
an even better opportunity

of customizing
something like this...

Restore the body
and put it on a kick-a*s pan?

Yup, and then I think
I'm gonna restore the pan,

so that we don't ruin
the value of the car

and the collectability
and the history of the car.

You don't smile like that
when you're just driving
your mercedes around.

Yeah, well, that's a pleasure
to drive, too,

but this...

I mean,
look at your smile, though,

you're just like
all about it.

-Dude, if you ain't got one,
get one.
-[laughs]

we're just
gonna have to be
real careful with this one.

We need to be very careful
to be true to what the car is

-and not take away from that.
-Right, right, right.

We wanna make it
more enjoyable to drive,

though we definitely
need to make it
a little bit safer.

Well, let's see what she's got
under the bonnet, mate.

-This dude hasn't smiled
this big in forever.
-[dave laughs]

I'm gonna have a hard time
and not dreaming
about this day.

Hey, boys!

What an amazing
little experience that was.

I think that's awesome.
Because I think that,

since you're
so excited about this car,

maybe you should do
most of the work.

I'd be fine with it
if I could actually find
the time.

I'd love to do the work
on this car.

Oh, but look at this.
Look at what I just found.

-What's that?
-Time.

[laughs]

I know dave always uses
time as an excuse,

but if he has time
to drive this hebmuller,

at least he could give it
a once-over.

-What do you think these do?
-I don't know.

I have seen and worked
on thousands of cars
in my career...

[sad music playing]

[sighs]
...And this hebmuller is,

you know,
being super rare and all,

doesn't really matter.

It's not like it has
some awesome feature

that I've never seen before.

It doesn't have
a mister fusion

and it doesn't travel in time.

Maybe these are headlights.

-[gasps]
-[dave] ah, it's the wiper!

That's the one wiper.

No way!

[kevin] is that the headlight?

Where's the headlight switch?

This car's got
a lot of buttons.

You turn one on,
nothing really happens.

[sighs]
I hope there's
an owner's manual.

This might be
out of mine and dave's league.

Off... On...

Headlights, and then,
is this high beam/low beam?

It ain't doing [beep].

[kevin] I'll have to
figure that out.

Is that the parking lights?
I'll have to figure that out.

Now that we've got
the car here,
kevin and I are gonna

walk around the car,
give it a once-over
and make sure

that there's no big issues.

What is that dim light
that I'm getting reflection
on the cowl?

What is that?
Where is that coming from?

Is that inside?

-You see it?
I see a reflection on--
-it is!

It's got a dome light
in the convertible top.

I was just noticing
the reflection.
That's crazy.

[dave] that's probably
what that little switch is.

Hold, please.
I think we just solved
the mystery.

[kevin]
is this high beam/low beam?

It ain't doing [beep].

[kevin]
I'll have to figure that out.

-A-ha!
-[both laugh]

I think kevin and I make
a pretty good
watson and holmes.

Really, solving all
of the mysteries
of the universe,

including that switch
on the dash.

In tune in paris, stuttgart...

-What else have we got there?
-Frankfurt...

-Cigarette lighter.
-Look at this ashtray.

-You'd have to have your game
together to ash into that.
-How do you clean it?

You just pull it out,
I would think.

Wow! Can you just imagine
how old this is?

Think about all the things
that this ashtray has seen.

If only this ash-cray-- tray
could talk.

-[imitates stammering]
if only you could talk.
-If only you could talk.

[both laugh]

[dave] for the interior,
we wanna do something

that's still looks
like it was stock,
much like what we normally do.

I might build up the bolsters
just a little bit
on the seats.

The rear jump seat, actually,
is gonna be really cool,

because tracey and melissa,
they have little dogs,

and, of course, little kids.

So, we're gonna make sure
that it's safe

for the passengers
in the rear,

and they can only be
that tall to ride there.

Open it the hood.

Let's see
the business end of this.

[kevin] now, wait,
is this a hood?

I-- I would say it's a bonnet.

I don't officially know
what you would call it, no.

-Okay.
-Oh. That's a real beast.

This is quite a bit different

-from what we are used
to looking at.
-Yeah.

The firewall is obviously
a little bit different
from a regular type 1,

now this--
this is the part
that they modified.

[dave] that would be the part
that they actually built

specifically
for the hebmuller,

and then it looks like
they used the front trunk,
or the frunk--

-oh, these are from germany.
-Frankfurt would--

-not from France.
-[dave laughs]

these are the hood hinges
for the front,

they'd use them
on the back.

And then you have the prop,
that's basically

the exact same one
as the front.

So, it's a little bit
primitive back here

is how they built that.

This right here,

is the gem, the jewel.

-You cannot find these.
-[kevin] is this one part?

[dave] there's just
so many weird things.

These small tail lights,
super, super rare.

This, what they call
pope nose on a beetle,

this is massive.

There are so many parts
on a hebmuller

that are specific
to that car only

and don't exist
on any other models.

So, if it's missing,
or broken, or damaged,

could be nearly impossible
to replace.

The trim on the side,

I have never witnessed
and actually looked
at real stepped trim.

This has
a little detail to it.

All of the other vw beetles

that I've ever played with
and seen

are just one big bull nose.

Semaphores, super cool.

The beetle headlight,
this one in particular,

those are,
what I believe to be,
original 1950 lenses.

[kevin]
they have vw's on them?

[dave] yeah,
and it's got this cool oval

in the fluting of the glass.

That is
such a beautiful piece.

I wish I could find those

and put them on every one
of the beetles I ever built,

but I don't know
where you would even find
something like that.

[kevin] it looks like
we've got a little bit of rust
going on in here.

Yeah.
It's gonna be a fun one.

Can't wait to get
all of it apart,

get it out, strip,
get it back here,

and see
what we got to work with.

Probably pretty solid.
If it was restored
in the '90s,

as long as we're not dealing
with a pile of rust
when we get it back,

-I think we'll be fine.
-[dave] yup.

All right. Just hope
I got enough time to pitch in,

because this is gonna be
a cool project.

Well, if you don't,
you just remember,

this is a once in a lifetime

volkswagen thing.

-Yeah.
-So, maybe

you have
to make time in your life.

I'm gonna. I'm gonna.

You know, overall, this car

really seems
like it's in great shape,

but we won't know anything

until we get the car
tore down,

get it up for dip,
and get it back
and check it out.

The key with taking
any car apart,

and especially
a very rare car
like this hebmuller,

it's important to make sure
everything is bagged, tagged,

and notes are made
of anything missing, broken,

or how it goes together.

So far, tear down
has actually gone pretty easy,

and the guys looks like
they're having fun.

It's like a power wheels.

We're sitting
on the back seat.

Yeah, this is the only way
we can drive it.

[izzy] this is what happens

when you put both feet
in one shoe.

-Like, that's
what it look like.
-[all laugh]

look, ma,
I'm in a volkswagen--

-it's comfortable.
-It's not bad.

-Yeah.
-I didn't even sit back
all the way.

[upbeat music playing]

tear down
was going super smooth.

No surprises.

And then we got to this.

[whirring]

I would never have expected
in a million years

that we'd be seeing
what we're seeing.

They've actually
made a piece of metal

that has been welded

from the floor pan
to the rocker.

I've never seen
anything like it in my life.

This bead
should go all the way
down to the pan,

but you can tell
it stops right here,

and this is a big old well
that's run all the way
along here.

[kevin]
come to find out, the people

that restored
this car in the '90s

put in a little extra metal
for us.

Thanks, guys.

So, the body
is welded to the pan,

which is normally
not how it is,

and I'm finding
a lot of things

that I'm not
super happy about.

So, we're gonna go through,

and we're gonna cut the body
loose from the pan.

Hopefully, we can find
all the places
that they did get welded.

[dave] after a lot of cutting,

they finally got the body
separated from the pan.

Who the hell does that?

With any car that you buy,

you can always end up
or expect to find some rust

or some ill repairs
along the way
in the lifetime of the car.

This one, in particular,
holy smokes!

So, we're gonna go ahead
and send this up north

and have them
chemically dip it.

[rock music playing]

the hebmuller parts
are finally back from dip,

and we're finally
getting a clear picture
on this car's life.

I hope
dave will still be smiling
when he sees what's going on.

How's the weather up north?

[bo] it's been
actually really nice.

We got everything unloaded.

I'm just praying there's no
unpleasant surprises.

So, the hebmuller is back.

Any crazy things
that you found?

We didn't know the front end
had been smashed in.

[kevin] [beep]!

Dave may not wanna hear
what I have to say.

Any crazy things
that you found?

We didn't know the front end
had been smashed in
like it had been.

And then we found
someone had filled
the rockers with spray foam.

Oh, that's always good.
All that water in there.

-Yeah, exactly.
-[kevin laughs]

the rear section
seems decently clean.

-It's really nice.
-There's been a little bit
of work here,

but it doesn't look like it's,
like, been crashed really bad,

-which is nice.
-It's pretty nice.

-[bo] and the panels
are really nice.
-[kevin] yeah.

There's definitely
more work here
than we had hoped for,

but the best team
is on the case.

So, explain to me
the process a little bit.

Well, you know,
everyone is different.
Just-- you guys know that.

This one we knew
had a lot of filler on it.

We ground down a little bit--

how many layers
are we looking at?

That gives us an idea
of what it's gonna take.

And the biggest step is
we cook the part
at over 200 degrees

for 48-72 hours,
and in some cases, longer.

Amazingly, the body
only took the weekend.

-[kevin] oh, okay.
-So we cooked it three days.

-The parts, however,
took about two weeks.
-Wow!

And then, so, once it's cooked
and then cleaned,

-and then, does it come out
just looking like this?
-[bo] no, no.

-[kevin laughs]
-not by any means.

No, it comes out,
and most all the material
is still on there,

-but it's loose.
-[kevin] okay.

And then it's
high pressure fresh water
to blow it all off,

clean all the seams,
get everything off
that we can.

-And of course, we knew
how delicate these parts are.
-Right.

So, we're like
just give it
a little wash down,

cook it some more.
Wash it, cook it.

[kevin] yeah. You know,
ever since we started

having you do this
to get our cars cleaned,

I don't think we could ever
go anywhere back.

They come out,
they're clean.

You know, you never
have to worry

about any warpage
to the panels

from the heat of the--
of like a blaster.

-And that's it.
It's a non-abrasive process.
-Right.

In the blasting process,
you know, you're getting
through the paint,

and as soon as you get
through the paint,
now you're hitting the metal

-and you're basically taking
a layer of that metal off.
-Absolutely.

It may be small,
but like I said,
in cases like this,

we need to save
every little piece
that we can.

It's so important.

Well, I appreciate it.

You did a k*ller job,
like always.

I'll let you know
when I get the next one.

-Great. Thank you.
-Thanks, buddy.

Take it easy. Travel safe.

[kevin] there's definitely
some parts on this car

that are going to need
to be replaced.

Lucky for us,
they're the ones
we can actually find.

Some of these parts
are impossible.

They're never
gonna be reproduced.

This is an incredibly
rare volkswagen,

so, what we're going to do
is we're going to restore
the original pan

back to stock, stock engine,
stock everything,

and then we're gonna get
an irs pan and hotrod it.

And we're actually gonna take
the body unharmed,
fully restored,

put it on this hotrod pan,

and it's
the best of both worlds.

Now, we're gonna save
this, the front,
this whole tunnel,

and then the rear section.
So, basically,
everywhere your feet go

is what's gonna be replaced.

Start drilling out
all the holes,

cut it out and start putting
the new stuff in right away.

[rock music playing]

[kevin]
since we are restoring
this body,

it's a little tedious,
drilling all these spot welds.

We wanna make it look
as original as it can.

[daniel] there we go.

[kevin] the flanges
where the floor pans
are spot welded

have some surface rust,
and they need
to be addressed.

I don't know who's winning.

I think
we're in the same place.

[whirring]

[dave] with the pan halves
going back in together

and all the repairs made
to the center sections
of these chassis,

we're gonna put
a weld thru primer
on these areas

to ensure that we have no rust

sneaking back through
once it's all finished.

[daniel] 'cause that's
where the rust was building,

so, they just put
a weld thru primer
on top of it.

So, when we stack
the other one,
we don't just make it work.

[kevin] I don't know
who got done first,
ira or daniel.

The most important part is
they're both done
and they look amazing.

We're gonna set it up
on this hotrod chassis.

It's gonna have a big engine,
it's gonna be really cool
to drive.

But if somebody
ever ends up with this car

and wants to go back
to the original,

we have the pan for you.
We've restored it completely.

You could unbuild the body,
put it right over
on the original pan.

I'm just test fitting
before I do drill the holes

and see
if I gotta trim anything,

'cause I'll just put holes
on the perimeter.

So I don't wanna put
all the holes
and have to cut it off

and have half a hole
here and there.

It's looking
like it's kinda long.

It is always better
to be too long than too short.

Cutting off material
is relatively easy,

but adding it back can be
a little bit more complex.

[rock music playing]

I guess that's it.

As nice as bug can get, huh?

[dave] kevin and I
have a great way of installing
these floor pans.

So, before daniel
gets too far,

we wanna share
that information.

You're a-- yeah.

-You're, uh...
-[daniel] tired?

No, not yet.

If you put it
in the wrong place,
you will be.

We do have one thing, though.

We want you
to put them up there
and get them packed,

and then I want
to stack the body up there.

Line these holes up,
front and rear on the body,

and then fit this back
across the back
where it goes.

[daniel]
well, I can put it on there
with self tappers in.

Yeah. Yeah,
that would be fine too.

We just wanna double check
and make sure,

because you're using
an irs pan,

we can assume
that it's gonna fit just fine.

Kevin's recollecting that
I've never actually
put the body back on

and actually fit these,

before I just put them
in place. He's right.

I never have,
I've been very lucky.

But I've wallowed
a lot of holes...

-[kevin] I was gonna say--
-[all laugh]

I was like, I just thought

we just put
pan outs on these things.

Then you just--
and they always
just lined up.

I didn't know
you had to wallow
all these holes.

Get it in place,

and then make sure
that this is good.

Front to back and in and out
before you weld it.

It's good to learn
from other people's mistakes.

In this case, it was dave's.
[laughs]

we will definitely
be test fitting it
before drilling any new holes.

This side is
all set in place, trimmed,

and just
self tappered in for now,
so we could test the body.

Just got to catch up this one

and then grab some people

and set the body
on this thing.

[clunking]

[whirring]

I wanna test fit the body

on the custom frame
before we get too far

to see what kind
of modifications
we may have to make.

Okay, so front corners.
We're just gonna walk it over.

Why is there three of you
on that side
and me of me on this side?

[grunts] ...Uh, nothing.

Watch your back.

[dave] is this light,

or are you carrying
the whole thing?

[daniel] I work out.

[groaning]

I knew you'd try to
sabotage mine.

Fellas, we're going too fast.
Go forward a little bit.
Forward.

It's very important
to all of us to make sure

that the body fits,
obviously, both chassis.

Down.

Down. Go that way.

[daniel] now we're hitting
on the inner well right here.

Go that way.

[daniel] now we're hitting
on the inner well right here.

We're test fitting
a hebmuller body
on a modern chassis,

and, right now, it looks like
the only place
it's hitting hard

is those shock mounts.

Get it jacked up, let's drill
those spot welds out

and hang on to those mounts.

Let's go ahead
and move it back.

We need to do
a little bit of massage

on that cast needed for
the shock mount,

for the upper shock mount.
Do that.

And then, yeah, just wiggle
it around up front,

it should drop in.

We can hotrod the pan.

We just wanna do
the least amount damage

to the original body.

Here's the thing
that I look at.

Chopping the hell out of it
and doing all sorts of stuff,

being silly about it,

is still keeping it

to where the car
is being used.

It's not just being looked at.

A restored car
is so expensive, so valuable,

and not fun to drive--

I had fun
driving this, actually.

I don't know why
I lied about that,

but you're still
saving the car

by making it
to where somebody

wants to actually get in
and drive it and use it.

[rock music playing]

and now that we can see

how the body's gonna fit

on this new chassis,

it's time to make
some modifications.

We're gonna replace
all of the areas

that we can tell
have rusted through,

starting with the rockers.

[rock music playing]

that part sucked,
and that was the easy part.

Rust behind rust.

Just trying
to test fit this piece,

because it gets bolted
to the pan.

Wanna make sure
that it's actually fitting
in the car before we do it.

For the most part,
these fit pretty good.

Most of this stuff
gets built around this,

so, I'd rather
cleco that guy in.

And then build it
all around it,
and then pop it back out.

Finding some spray foam
in the cavities of these cars,

we just need to cut
things out and remove them.

[clanging]

the rockers
on this car are shot,

and so
are the convertible supports.

So, we're gonna have daniel
fab up a brand-new set,

and get them installed.

[dave] we've replaced
all of the rusty parts

with brand-new
reproduction parts
that are really nice pieces,

but we got to ensure
that everything's gonna fit
all at the same time.

[daniel] both pans are done.

So, test fitting both pans,
make sure they both align,

and we got to make
each pan line up
with all the holes,

so, that way,
they can be interchangeable

if someone
were to swap it out.

Got the majority
of the stuff that I can build

all beaded
and welded in.

So, all the rust repair so far

is done
on the internal stuff.

It's all the heating tubes
and the rockers are in.

So, just waiting on parts now.

They make good replica fenders
for the early volkswagens,

but you have to look
in the right corner
of the world to find them.

The new front clip
has finally arrived,

and we got
frank working on the mock-up.

[frank] we've got
new pieces here, tested
on the front of the car.

I mean, you've got a, what,
with old metal from germany

that's been beat around
for a long time.

So, it's hard to take
new stuff aftermarket.

Some of these parts are made
in different countries
that we got them from, too,

and try and fit them in
and make them all
work together.

Aftermarket
never fits exactly perfect.

You don't wanna spend all day
chasing down one little thing.

You have to see
how everything fits
relative to the other part.

The odds
are always against you

for it to fit good
the first time.

Do a rough test fit
on this hood.

Got it aligned here,

and you can see
how much it's arching there.

Is it the nose of the hood
that's curled in

from getting wrecked,
or something?

Or could it be
this lower valance?

I'm gonna pull this off
and see what happens.

Now let's see what happens.

You can see,
with this removed,

you know, if that was causing
this to touch,

or something,
but it's out of the way.

We're running into
the same issue here where,

really, from nearly
the entire back to here,

it's just raised up
above this line.

It's a fight versus
aftermarket reproduction
panels here

against an original.

It would have been nice
if this would have fit
perfectly to that, and then

all we had to do
was tweak this a little bit.

Let's try the fenders and
see what those look like.

Hopefully, something fits
without needing
significant modification.

Looking under here,
I can see, definitely,

there's a misalignment.

These are the sem--
semi-fours...

I don't know how you say it.
Semafours, semifours...

It's pronounced semaphores.

Turn signals
for the volkswagen...
Ah, for the hebmuller.

Sema, meaning partial,

an
and one more than three.

And it's a turn signal.

[izzy] these buckets
house the signal.

We're gonna install them
into the new fenders on this.

And these are actually
supposed to be mounted
flush in the car.

I'm going to be
cutting out

all of this surrounding
metal here,

clean them up
as best I can,

'cause, as far as I know,
we can't get these.

Izzy has
the semaphores buckets
prepped and ready for the car.

Now he just need to
cut the hole and make sure

that the edges are smooth
for a great weld.

So now, I have that.

I'll just grab
the measurements
that I was given.

And... It's over there.

I kind of just try to eyeball
where the contour
is gonna match.

I think right about there.

Somewhere in there.

Izzy needs to put
a little curve
or a little shape

into the semaphore buckets,

so they will match
the front quarter panels.

[izzy] we are finally
starting to put the semaphores
in the car.

Normally, we would have this,
like, trimmed piece
that we would--

you know, we'd like graft this
in the side of the fender,
like that,

and then we're gonna hammer
and dolly it all the way
around the fender

so that it's all flat.

But, yeah, we like to
do things the interesting way.

So, these are put
in the fenders
before they're put on,

so, basically now,
what we're trying to do

is adapt the buckets
that would go
on the backside

and attach it to this flange,

and we're just gonna kinda
get them right on the face
of this panel,

and just get
a good edge weld on it.

This thing
is kind of sticking out.

You can see it.
It sticks out past the body.

We're just trying
to get these set

in a super
comfortable position,

knowing that we can take
these back in

to fine tune them against
the body right here
that's all done.

There's a couple of tabs
in there,

and you can manipulate
those tabs a little bit.

This tab right here,
I can manipulate
that tab as well.

That brings it down.

[dave]
it took a little finessing,

but in the end,
the semaphores fit perfect.

It's one of those things
that kinda like

makes the character
of the vehicle.
These old bugs,

what's not cool
about a turn signal
that flips out like that?

Boop, goes down.
[laughs]

yeah, I really dig them.

Looking under here,
I can see definitely
there's a misalignment

with the holes
that are already drilled
on the fender

in comparison
to the inner fender well.

I think these ones
are from, like, columbia
or south america,

and those ones
are from europe,

so, you got
different manufacturers

reproducing something
from a 70-year-old car, and...

Trying to make it all work.

The holes look better
on this one.

Let's get it tightened up
and see what happens.

That's a pretty good fit.

It's coming away
a little bit there,

but I think

one of those holes
wouldn't go through.

Concerned about this, though.

I dunno why it's doing that.

I hope I can make
a simple adjustment,

and this gap will go away.

We go from the front edge
of this, across,

I'm seeing it,
two and an eighth.

Front edge of this one,

that's only
an inch and a quarter.

So, that's actually way in

and that would explain
why that hole isn't lining up.

This has gotta come out
a little bit.

Now, that's much better.

Probably need to get
that other panel back on,

and now try the hood out,

and then figure out

how I'm gonna get
that hood to fit.

Even with the other panel on,

it still doesn't look
like things are fitting

the way they should be.

It's never easy.

Never easy.

All right, let's do
something different,

so I don't get
pissed off on that.

[laughs]
let's put the hood on it.

The same game as before.
We know it's touching,

but are we hanging over?

Pretty good on the left side,

but it's definitely
hanging over the fender here
on this side.

You can see a crease here.

The hood
might have got a hit,

and it might be bringing
that line out.

Looks like
it's even hanging over

a little bit on this side.

So, if it's hanging over
there and there,

twist it...

Do I chase the issue
with the fender?

Do I fix the hood?

It would be really easy
with the fenders

to start correcting
the whole alignment,

and that just may be
all I need to do.

And that will fit
pretty good then.

I could play
with this after.

I'm just gonna move it
for now.

After a few minor adjustments
on the front clip, though,

things are fitting
a lot better.

We're getting
towards the end

of the major metal work
on this hebmuller,

but now it's time
to start addressing the hood.

We've got three hoods.

We've got dave's hood,
which we can't screw up,

but it's a good template
for us to be able to mark off

what actually
the hood should look like.

We've got the yellow hood
that I've got mostly straight,

getting it flattened
to kinda fit the contour
of the body,

and then I had to work out
some dents on it.

So, we're gonna take parts
and brackets and pieces

from the early hood
that was on the car

and actually graft it
onto a better skin,

but, on that skin, we also
have some major damage,

so, we're gonna build
the entire front ten inches
of that. By hand.

Dave's going through
and actually creating
a whole new nose piece.

At the same time,
I'm removing

the hinge
and support structure
from the hood.

This is
the original factory hood.

This structure
needs to actually go

on the newer hood
that we're putting
onto the car,

pull all
the other structure off.

For me here, the process
is going through,

and drilling out
all these old spot welds

that they've actually
spot-welded the structure
to the hood,

and not try to drill through
and then damage
the hood skin itself.

All right.
Just gonna go for it.

Oh, yeah!

Got movement.

I was hoping
that the structure
would come off easy

without any extra work,
but, you know,

that's never the way it goes
with these things.

This little corner
of this spot weld

hanging on for dear life.

Oh, yeah.

Structure!

That's actually
not too bad either.

All the spots in here,
we can see a little bit
of corrosion.

Just wanna clean
all this stuff up.

This thing's awesome,
because most people,

like myself,
when you started out working
in your own shop,

you don't have
the nice equipment like this,

trying to get rust
and stuff off of metals.

It's a completely
different way, either
hand-sanding or grinding.

But with the sandblast,
it's gonna sh**t high-speed
sand particles at it,

and just clean up the metal.

It's gonna come out
looking almost
perfectly clean.

Much better.

Now that the structure
from the first hood
is cleaned up,

we need to remove
the structure
from the second hood,

so we can replace it.

The nice part
about the other hood,

all I had to do
is drill those spot welds out,

and you saw
how it just slid right out.

Here, on this,
the way that they got the skin

of the sheet metal of the hood
rolled over like this,

so, I'm actually
gonna have to roll that out,

so this can slide out,

and then have to fold
that all back in,

and not try and jog what all
the metal lifts up here.

So it's gonna be a little bit
more careful surgery.

Yeah, that's lifting good.

You can actually see two
as I pry behind it,

it's moving forward,
so, it's not connected.

I'll be able to finally
finesse this thing right out.

Yes!

Man.

Got to clean this up though.

So, when you're building
a new hood,

such as what we're doing,

trying to keep everything
exactly period correct,

this inner structure
from the hood skin,

which is perfect, is great,

but it does not fit this car.

[beep]

we are replacing
the structure on the hood
for the hebmuller.

It should fit
we want it to fit,
I hope it fits,

but a lot of times,
things don't work out
the way you plan them.

Let's test fit it,
see how she looks.

[rock music
continues playing]

perfect.

Like it was meant to be.

Since we've been able
to utilize the other structure

to fix the frunk,

now it's time to work
on the front leading edge.

I went ahead and molded up
a new sheet metal skin,

and right now,
I am making the inner flange.

Once I get this into shape,
I'll weld it
to that new nose piece,

and we can get it
on our hood.

[dave]
this all sounds convoluted,

a little confusing,

but the car
has two hoods on it.

One is on the frunk,
and one is in the back.

So, the flange
seems to be fitting perfectly.

We're gonna go ahead
and remove the old nose

and replace it
with a new one.

Well, it starts to look
like a volkswagen hood again.

We got this thing fitting
absolutely fantastic,

so, now all I got to do,
is weld her in.

The lid, the bonnet,
the frunk...

I don't know
exactly what to call it,

but now we can get on
and getting the guts
in the car.

[dave]
one of the biggest challenges
on this hebmuller

is converting it
from a four-speed manual
to an automatic transmission.

So, the very first thing
the guys need to do,

is build some supports
to hold it,
so they can do a mock-up.

[givens]
got a structure built
underneath the car

to hold everything in place.

I went ahead and pulled
our torsion bars out,

and then started
cutting away the material.

I got the bulk of it out,
now I'm just kinda

trimming away
a little bit at a time

until that fits in there,
'cause I don't wanna take
too much out.

So, we've already
removed a ton of material
out of this pan

for this new
automatic transmission.

I hope we don't have
to cut any more.

With all the cutting
and modification
that we've done,

it's still a tight fit.

Super close.

[will] now, I bet
that's supposed
to be pretty flat.

-[givens] okay.
-So, we're a long way
from there.

I'm gonna clear these--
that front edge here,

and see if I
can get that front down.

Yeah, but I don't know
if bringing this down

is gonna be as important
as bringing that side up.

The challenge here is,
we have to figure out

how far into the chassis
this transmission
is gonna fit.

It would have to come down
at the front.

Basically,
probably a half an inch.

Maybe we can get it level,
but we're kind of a long ways
from there right now.

Are we gonna interrupt
into the gasket surface
of the body?

No, I don't think so.

Is there lines that's
supposed to go out forward?

Well, there is just one line
that's like upward.

I don't know
if we're gonna be able
to get there

if we get this up, you know.

Three quarters to build
a snake ride underneath there.

We can bring the back down
just enough, and get that up.

I was hoping
things were gonna be easier,

but it looks like
we have to make a custom piece

to get
this transmission to fit.

It's too bad
that any part of this

wasn't a little more like
just mount on.

-[laughs] you know
what I mean?
-Well, that would be easy.

And then everybody
would be running around

with automatics
on their volkswagens.

And then how cool would we be?

-We wouldn't be.
-[laughs]

we would just be another guy

with the same old thing

we just slapped together.

Now, this makes it way cooler.

-Good luck, guys.
-You would just be another guy

with a '50 hebmuller
with an automatic.

Right, and 170 horsepower.

I hope there's gonna be
something left of this chassis

by the time
we get done cutting.

More cutting.

We need the clearance to make
this new transaxle fit,

and there's only so much
of the pan and suspension
we can cut away

and still have the body
fit on this thing.

This is starting
to be a little more of a job
than we thought.

[givens]
they don't wanna overdo it.

They don't wanna have
too much material gone.

[dave]
so, we literally cannot cut

any more of this chassis
or pan out of the way.

So, the engine obviously
is sitting down
just a little bit lower than--

-...Normal.
-Yeah, we're sitting down
just a hair lower than normal.

You can't go in any further,

'cause then the carbs get
into the firewall too far.

You can't come up any further,

'cause you're already
gonna get too close
to the deck wood.

[givens] now we're splitting
hairs back here, huh?

-Yeah, pretty much.
-[kevin]
we're totally screwed.

[groans]

[beep]