02x04 - Pontoon Boat

[bunniefuu]

[ominous music]

- It is almost like a little bit scary

how familiar the inside of a school bus is.

[echo school bus]

The mirror,

that's where you got busted.

[echo busted]

- [echo sit down]

I actually got kicked off the bus in the sixth grade.

I was throwing the other kids' books out the window

while we were going down the street

and they got mad at me for that.

And then after that,

they wouldn't let me on the bus anymore.

- [Announcer] Hold those tears for Little Jesse

because big Jesse's not only back on the bus.

- You little brats need a ride?

Get on.

- [Announcer] He's driving it

around the bend when the next Monster Garage Challenge

is ready to roll.

- [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.

[upbeat rock n roll music]

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

- [Narrator] This week's challenge,

take a 20 passenger school bus

and turn it into the ultimate party boat.

The rules.

when built the machine must appear to look stuck.

The team can spend no more than $3,000 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

and the clock starts now.

[tire screeches]

Jesse Hot puts the bus into the garage.

Looks like it's had enough of the pedal

to the metal master schooling.

Before they start the design, Jesse sizes up his team.

- How much boat experience do you have?

- I have none. I have absolutely none.

- You?

- 13 years.

- You?

- My design has boats.

- I have a boat.

- First of all, we gotta figure out the vitals.

We've gotta make it float and we gotta make it propel

itself in the water.

- [Narrator] To turn a bus into a pontoon boat,

it's going to need pontoons.

- My idea was kinda like a tackle box.

We just split it,

right here and have these

rotate down and these will be the pontoons on the side.

- This whole thing's gonna flap down,

to be like a pontoon boat, so it's open like a party boat.

- We need this to displace 8,000 pounds of water for us

to get on that bus.

If we have any leaks or anything, it's going to-

- [Narrator] So far for Charlie Kahn, Jr,

Pontoons are not floating his boat,

but Jesse's thinking Monster Pontoons.

- These are gonna be actual side pontoons

that are gonna cover the whole side of that.

- Literally like three foot by three foot square?

- Those are gonna be huge,

that's like taking 6 55 gallon drums on each side.

- And they're gonna fold out of the inside.

- I don't want it to sink, that's our goal there.

- [Narrator] The son of a bus mechanic,

Charlie's got buses running through his blood.

- I grew up in buses so it was an easy trade to go into

and I think it was born with mechanical knowledge already

and mechanical ability.

- [Narrator] Team artist Rob King,

not only draws boats, he designs them.

Unlike Charlie, he's not sweating the floating.

- I've been making things float for quite a long time

and have been doing it quite successfully.

Displacing water within a weight is quite easy to do.

- [Narrator] It's a floater onto the motor.

- I really think driving it backwards is gonna be our best

bet because you never see a boat with a motor in the front.

- [Narrator] John West is to boats,

what Jesse James is to motorcycles,

his San Diego based company Ultra Boats,

makes some of the baddest speed boats on the water.

- I think anybody that does anything like this

with the hot rods or the motorcycles

or even the custom boats it's,

more of an art than anything else.

It's a craft.

They got a hold of me and asked if I had some

input on how we can take this thing

and make it look stylish

and make it so it'll actually perform.

And more of a custom style boat.

- [Narrator] If the school boat is driven from the back,

then the propeller must go under the

front of the school bus.

- Well, if the drive shaft is coming out here,

to the third member,

we'll just make a sprocket on here with a chain

with some supports off the frame,

with another sprocket, with a jackshaft

driving the prop.

- [ Narrator] The plan seems tight,

it should be smooth sailing,

but Jesse's acting weird.

It must be the water.

His first car boat almost became a submarine.

- [Announcer] Jesse Jay's putting his feet up,

He thinks he is going down

[echo down]

If we swamp, it's gonna burn out the electronics,

they're not waterproof.

- [Narrator] He's got a plan to make absolutely sure

the engine stays dry this time.

- And if we make something like a fake bumper

or something like that, that's big.

I mean it's like two foot by two foot,

by the width of the bus

and then fill it with foam.

Even if that totally submerges to here,

it's still enough to keep the motor and all electronics.

I think it'll definitely work.

It's just figuring out if we got enough time

because the labor part of it is not really difficult,

it's just a big massive amount of welding and fabricating.

- The hard part's done,

all it's left is just to make it.

- [Narrator] The design wraps, it works on paper.

The garage comes next.

[upbeat rock music]

Here's the plan,

the team will transform the upper frame of the school bus

into two massive pontoons,

heavy duty hinges on each side will allow the bus

to turn itself inside out.

It's a bus. No, it's a boat.

Monsters aren't born, they're built.

Meet the builders.

Darren Schurig, Los Angeles, California.

Chief Design Engineer at Metal Crafters.

Steve Furnish, Long Beach, California.

Custom car fabricator and owner of Wolf's customs.

Jim Day, Inglewood, California.

Metal sculptor and welder extraordinaire.

John West, San Diego, California.

Owner of Ultra Boats.

Charlie Khan, Jr. Riverside, California.

Mechanic, A to Z bus sales, horrible dancer.

Captain Jesse, Think Ahab with tattoos,

introduces the team to their yellow whale.

- Alright guys, probably get the gist

of this just from the picture.

We're gonna try to take this school bus

and make it into a pontoon boat.

So we're not gonna try, we're gonna do it.

So what do you think? Yay or nay on hinging these sides?

- [Crew] Oh yeah, absolutely.

[indistinct]

- I mean I think we should do that first

and then fabricate after.

- [Crew] [indistinct]

- [Narrator] Everyone agrees, gut the bus, crack it open

and build the pontoons off its mangled carcass.

[upbeat rock music]

The seats are the first to go.

[electric drill]

- That doesn't wanna go on.

- [Narrator] Why wrench when you can torch?

Jesse's plasma cutter disintegrates the bolts.

- I'm used to putting this stuff in the bus,

not taking it out.

[upbeat rock music]

- About 25,000 students have ridden this bus

that equates to nearly 9,000 noogies,



and at least one broken heart.

- The only thing I don't like is the fiberglass,

it gets on your skin, makes you itch,

you breathe it in, you start coughing.

It's not fun.

- [Narrator] Steve Furnish is the owner of Wolf's Customs.

His specialty?

Fabricating unique vehicles,

like turbine powered motorcycles

and custom engines like in this 1999 Camaro Z38.

It's been clocked but not ticketed at

speeds well over 200 miles per hour.

Steve's motto?

Build it right the first time.

- Well, I've seen Jesse run these things,

it'd be better strong than not strong enough.

- The only hardest part is not the cuts.

- [Narrator] Charlie, the bus builder is getting in touch

with his inner destroyer.

Down boy.

Before they operate,

the garage surgeons carefully plan their cuts.

There will be three,

down the length of one side,

midpoint across the top

and a final incision along the other side.

The cut lines need to be reinforced

with two inch by two inch rolled steel tubing.

- I don't like what happened to our bus,

I'm a little sad now.

It actually looks like a crashed victim.

- [Narrator] John and Darren marked the side cut.

- So essentially we're talking about discussing

where the hinge line should be for the pontoons

and we really want to have the hinge line as low as possible

so that when the pontoon flips down it's as low

as possible to the bottom of the bus,

to keep the bus higher outta the water.

[indistinct]

- I'd say lower.

- [Narrator] Jim wants to hinge the side

at the halfway point

from the top of the bus to the bottom of the wheels.

This will allow the bus to float

as high as possible in the water.

Jesse wants to hinge point a foot higher,

at the base of the windows.

- Will we get water above the floor?

That's what I'm worried about when we actually float it.

- These pontoons are like four times the size

of regular pontoon boats.

- [Narrator] Jesse wants to make sure

there is ample clearance to drive the bus,

even when the pontoons are down,

he's made up his mind.

- Let's do it right here.

This is already cut. Nice.

- Sounds great.

- We don't have to do nothing.

We can do our hinges and everything right here.

- [Narrator] Before they can cut the bus,

they must reinforce the frame with steel tubing.

- We're gonna be two sets of the rods

all the way down there,

right where we cut it in half.

For the hinge to go, we have to put braces in there.

Luckily for us,

everything measures out almost exact on it.

So we just went ahead and set up a jig,

cuts out a lot of time rather

than having to measure each one.

[upbeat music]

As I'm cutting them, he's welding 'em into place

and then we're gonna cut right between the bars.

That way we have plenty of strength before we cut it apart.

That way,

we don't lose any structural integrity of the bus,

by cutting it up before we add the strength to it.

- [Narrator] Jim begins the arduous task

of welding the square supports inside the bus.

The supports will run above and below the hinge

and hold it in place.

John cuts more steal,

while Jim and Darren discussed the hinge mechanism.

- We're discussing the Hinge point,

how to make this thing hinge.

It looks like what we're gonna do is make a huge piano hinge

with a single rod going through it and then a,

basically a bar cut every 12 inches.

So one gets welded to the top,

one gets welded to the bottom.

- [Narrator] Jim Day is a metal sculptor,

whose creations run from installations at the

Los Angeles Natural History Museum

to this 15 foot skiff.

- I'm not like an artist,

I'm a metal worker who makes art

and makes a lot of other things as well.

Now it's not a flashy sports car kind of thing,

like built up the back and I built this extension

that adds more length.

It came with one outboard

and I found another one and I built all my own linkages.

It's the same kind of exact process.

- [Narrator] For Jim.

The best part of this job is teamwork.

- We're getting along really well.

I mean I could see some real friendships coming out of this.

- [Narrator] Building the piano hinge from scratch

will take time,

plus none of the interior shell has been built.

John's still confident they'll crack the bus open

before calling it a day.

- We still want to have this flipped open today.

- [Narrator] Steve wastes no time,

cutting the circular tubing into 12 inch sections,

which will form the pivots of the hinge.

- The hinge part of the tube,

the one inch tube is gonna be on the outside,

going all the way down the length of

where the pontoons are gonna run.

I'm going to weld them into place,

onto the square tubing that's on the inside.

They're gonna run a solid bar tubing through it.

- And then this is gonna be welded on the outside here.

So then as this folds down, that'll turn like a hinge.

- [Narrator] Darren finishes the supports,

while John puts the finishing touches on the hinge

with his crescent file.

The cut lines along the top of the bus,

will need a lot of reinforcement.

[upbeat music]

- The strategy is then to,

go ahead and get this one side finished,

get it all welded out

with all the structure for the pontoon

and then roll it down out of the way.

Do the other side and then we can do finished welding.

- I'm still gonna disagree on that,

because if we take this one side and we swap it down,

everything's gonna change the geometry

and we try to put it back together

it's not gonna be the same.

I'm saying why not just do 'em both at the same time?

- Hey, we were just trying to help you out.

- And so you didn't look stupid.

- I mean, you've heard me.

I'm not gonna say anything more about that.

- [Narrator] Down below,

Jesse and John dive into the propulsion system.

- We need to work on finding some kind of

change bracket set up.

I could use two front drainage brackets like on a Harley

with a 630 drive train.

- [Narrator] The bus is just about ready

for its grand opening,

but after nine hours of hard work,

Jesse wants to call it a day.

- I think we're all right, I think we kicked a*s.

- I'd gladly go longer.

I want to get a head start.

[indistinct chatter]

I'd like just to get the hinges working properly.

because once we got that worked out,

then we got the major mechanical,

versus the hydraulic.

- Well it's cool but

I don't see any reason to k*ll ourselves.

I mean I'd rather pace ourselves

with good progress and you know...

- [Narrator] It's only day two.

Jesse knows there'll be plenty of overtime

before this monster is done.

[upbeat music]

Monster Garage factoid.

Over the last century,

school buses have taken an estimated



♪ Monster, Monster Garage

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Day three.

The team gets back on the bus.

♪ She is, quite the force of nature ♪

- [Narrator] Jesse shows up on a highway patrol bike

he bought off the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

The flames were his idea.

- I think I was definitely right,

which those guys thought they would have this thing

opened up in an hour last night.

To me, I'm right a hundred percent of the time,

but proven fact, I'm right only about 60% of the time.

Just slightly in my favor,

the rest of it is calculated guesstimates.

[welding sounds]

- The big issue now is that we know that the body

is only mounted to the frame

in a couple of body mount points

and we wanna make sure we have enough structure

to support the weight of this vehicle

when it's floating.

- I think we need to extra strengthen it

because there's only body mounts holding this to the frame.

The vehicle's gonna be hanging by this body.

This body is not holding to the frame that much.

- If the frames here,

there's nothing in between here and here.

- Let's just cut right through the floor

and go right to the frame with those.

- I agree.

- Well if we got a number of these cross pieces

going straight to the frame from this body-

- Cut all the stuff out from underneath

and get all that out

and we'll take a real good look in there.

It might be fine.

- Yeah, it might be fine.

- So we'll go from there.

- You have bolts that pass through the floor,

down through a rubber body mount to the frame.

- [Narrator] Darren Surge has built an impressive career

on his love for cars.

- If the pulleys are down here,

you're gonna have that angle on your cable.

- [Narrator] A graduate from UC Berkeley,

with a BS in engineering physics.

His resume includes being manager

of the engineering department at Metal Crafters

where he developed concept cars

and prototypes like this Chrysler Prowler.

- The very original vehicle was,

was manufactured by Metal Crafters,

the very first Prowler.

And from that running prototype they went into production

to manufacture all the success of Prowlers.

This is actually a production model of the Prowler,

it's about two years old at this point.

But on this model we've added a lot of

the Metal Crafters accessories, the hard top, the wing,

running bores, grill, this fender in the side.

These are all components that we developed.

- [Narrator] With boats back on their minds,

show and tell is over, it's time to get back to work.

- For sure, we want to have the structure

for the pontoons on one side ready to be able

to swing before lunch today.

- We're gonna have it all nailed down and when we open it,

it's gonna work the first time.

- [Narrator] If all it took was confidence,

the bus would already be floating.

[upbeat rock music]

[welding sounds]

- So the whole front end here, we've actually reinforced

and supported so that we can split it and cut it away.

And this front cap is gonna go

with the pontoon on each side to provide more flotation

for the front end of the bus.

- [Narrator] The entire side of the bus

must be fully sealed

before the team can safely swing it down.

- We're welding up our side door,

which it's being a problem,

not necessarily a problem welding up, it's just a problem,

different structure than the other side.

We're getting ready to yank the fuel tank out.

We don't know how much fuel's in there,

and I can smell gas fumes already.

So before I start, everyone's gonna

stop what they're doing right now,

so we can get the fuel tank out.

I can go ahead or you-

- Yeah, yeah, go ahead and do your thing.

[indistinct chatter]

- When the sparks round fuel tank, that doesn't mix.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] As the crew forges ahead,

Jesse works on what he thinks is the front of the boat.

- I'm not sure if it's starboard or aft.

Is that it?

I don't Know all the correct terms.

Does that make me a bad person?

[upbeat music]

- Wanna measure it?

- [Narrator] Finally,

with the internal structure complete,

Steve begins cutting a one inch gap

along the side of the bus.

Just big enough for the piano hinge.

- We're in. - Looks like inch is perfect.

- Go for it.

[cutting sounds]

[hammer banging]

- [Narrator] Having completed the one inch gap,

Steve cuts out the remaining original supports

to make room for the hinge.

- The only reason we'd have issues of binding

is right here.

If these things weren't cut exactly right-

- Cut nice and smooth.

- Cut nice and smooth or if we just go ahead

and we leave ourselves a gap.

- [Narrator] John and Steve fit the hinge

onto the one inch gap.

Then Darren and Jim weld it into place.

[upbeat music]

With the top supports in place,

Steve is ready to make the first cuts

along the spine of the bus.

[cutting sounds]

Good to go now.

Got me some power.

- [Narrator] While Charlie tackles the outer incisions.

- Look at that incredible straight line.

You don't give that nowhere.

[cutting sounds]

[celebratory whistling]

- The team is finally ready

to fold down the side of the school bus.

- This is the moment of truth.

- Everything coming, no problems?

- I'm gonna stand in the window,

that way if it comes down I'll be standing-

- I can't tell if it's sticking

or you guys are just pushing real hard.

- You got it, we don't have any weight now.

- So do we have it?

- They say we totally have it now.

- Let's go.

- So let's go.

- How much weight we got?

- Oh, it's not bad.

- Just lay on the ground Charlie,

so it won't smash it if it hits.

Charlie

[indistinct]

- You got it dude, it's all you right there.

- I got it down here.

- Piece of cake.

- Boo-ya. - Woo.

- Piece of cake.

[celebratory whistling]

- Hi five buddy.

- That's what I'm talking about.

- Boom. - You the man.

- [Narrator] It's still too early

for Jesse to be celebrating.

- I think it folded down pretty cool like you know,

no clearance problems or anything like that.

It was planned out.

I think if they would've,

tried to rush it last night and open it up,

it

wouldn't have held itself together like it did.

But I think there's still a ton of labor to be done.

Probably just as much as they've already done,

still yet to do on just the pontoons,

just to box 'em in and then skin 'em and all that stuff.

- Works fine. - Feels great.

- Awesome. - Feels excellent.

Teamwork and everything pays off.

They can have a little,

little victory

or something.

I'm just gonna keep working.

I'll celebrate at the end when I'm passing out some tools.

- We do have a lot of work to do, but it was still a major

accomplishment to get this, make sure that it worked.

Everything ended up where we thought it was gonna be

in terms of the height of the pontoon,

the way it was gonna swing, the hinge worked great.

Everything worked really good, actually.

- Garage victories can be short-lived.

Jesse wasn't there when the team made the side cuts

and they didn't follow his orders.

Rough waters ahead.

- Hey, what do you think the ground clearance is gonna be

now since we lowered this down?

I don't know, it depends on your tires.

- Those tires are two inches smaller than those.

- So it's gonna be two inches less

than what you're seeing here.

- And this,

is on jack stands.

- Ooh.

- Let's put it down right now

because I don't think it's gonna move

because it's gonna be dragging on the ground.

- [Narrator] Jesse thinks the hinges are too low

and that the pontoons bottom out on the ramp,

when they try to launch the bus.

- Jesse wants us to drop the thing off the jack

so we can check this side down.

Rather than work on the hinge and get the other one down.

I wouldn't go any farther

because we might need to raise the hinge up.

I don't know Jesse, I think it's gonna work.

- Okay.

- [Narrator] Jim's a real smart guy.

Jesse hates smart guys.

Jesse checks out the clearance

but Jim and John are reluctant to make any changes.

- We're not raising the pontoon so.

We'll change the whole concept of the truck and lift it

and put some big rooms and tires on it before we end up...

- Tires can be changed, this is built.

But you either do it the way you wanna do it

or do it the way it works.

- Because we should have cut it right where I said cut it.

This whole thing's gonna be lowered,

with custom wheels on it.

That's what we figured in with the two inches.

That's where it-

- [Narrator] It's not really about whether

the hinges should be moved up or down six inches.

- Well do you guys think I'm talking out my a*s,

I don't know what I'm talking about.

- [Narrator] It's about not challenging the alpha male

when you're on his turf.

- Jesse, it's nothing personal.

- No, I take it personal, this is my job.

I'm trying, I'm defending my crew.

I'm working with these guys,

we are working really hard.

- In case you didn't notice, this is my crew

and what I say goes here.

Next time you make a bunch of changes and stuff

to the design, check with me first

because I might know what I'm talking about.

- Are you pretty much committed to this other tire?

Would you consider to going to more like a knobby?

- No, I mean I'm not committed to anything now.

I mean now we're starting to run out of time.

Just work with what we got

because I don't think we have enough time

to go backwards now.

- I just freaked out a little bit I don't like...

I had one car that failed and I don't like it.

♪ Boom-Boom.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Order has been reestablished in the pack.

The big dog is happy.

- There.

The end.

- [Narrator] Monster Garage factoid.

[factoid echo]

There are currently 27 rock and roll songs about buses.

There are none about pontoon boats.

[cricket sounds]

♪ Monster, Monster Garage

♪ [upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Day four.

The team is looking at a busload of work to do.

John takes the lead,

quickly establishing the goals for the day.

- I was thinking today we should split up into groups

and everybody can concentrate on one particular item.

Now when it's in the up position.

- [Narrator] The lesson from last night's blowup

include the master in every decision you make.

John and Darren consult Jesse on a locking mechanism

for the pontoons.

- That's the best.

- Well that'll be strong and foolproof.

- Good, I don't want anything that's Bam,

and then the thing drops into the water.

- [indistinct]

- This is gonna be the stop and the attachment,

the tie down to lock the pontoon in place,

once it lowers into position.

- That comes out and thing will lift.

So when it's in it down position, that'll hold it down.

Another one in the front that I'm gonna finish right now.

- [Narrator] The hinge works great

but it's only half the job.

When they're done filling this thing with foam,

it will be too heavy to lift by hand.

They need some sort of mechanical system

to lift and lower the pontoons.

Jim Day thinks he has the solution.

An elaborate winch system that will use pulleys

and cables to raise and lower the pontoons.

A pair of four inch by four inch steel posts

at the center line of the bus

will be used to anchor the pulley system.

Jim's design is complicated and convoluted,

but to him it's art.

- I think that winch thing sucks

- [Narrator] The rest of the team,

try a more tactful approach.

- I don't wanna ruffle your feathers or anything, but

we were just wondering about it.

- We were just wondering, why the two cable systems?

because wouldn't one cable have been more simpler?

You got a bar across here with the pulley system

and it just pulls it up and down.

- [Narrator] But Jim holds firm.

He still thinks his plan will work.

- I think it's gonna work.

- Is it gonna work tonight?

- Well it will if I can get it done.

If we talk about it all day and I don't get anything done

and it doesn't work-

- You gonna work all night long to fix it, to change it?

- If you gotta figure it out how to do it,

we gotta get going on this.

- I've got faith in you Jim.

- You guys all okay with this on Monday when I drew it up.

- If this doesn't work, we're just gonna take you out back

and kick your a*s.

- Put me in the woodshed.

- We're gonna leave it totally on him

but if not, he's getting it.

- He said okay.

- [Narrator] With Jesse's words ringing in his ears,

Jim gets back to work on his winch system.

The rest of the team works to complete the pontoons.

[lighthearted guitar music]

The pontoons frame is skinned with 20 gauge steel.

At the Monster Garage,

hard work does not go unrewarded.

Jesse arrives with a surprise.

- Everybody likes the birthday boy.

- Oh that's so sweet.

- Come on sing happy birthday to Charlie.

- [Crew] ♪ Happy birthday to you. ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you.

♪ Happy birthday to Charlie.

♪ Happy Birthday to you.

[celebratory whistling]

- Did you make a wish?

- Yeah, I'm sure you guys know what the wish was.

[laughter]

- [Narrator] Charlie's wish of a floating school bus

is a far way off.

As day four comes to a close,

there is no propulsion or rudder, no pulley system

and the pontoons,

it looks like this school bus is turning into a

yellow submarine.

- I could probably get another guy to help us

if you guys think it'll help tomorrow.

I think we just got a lot of labor.

- [Narrator] Once again,

the team has missed their projected goals.

Time is running out, tomorrow will be a critical day.

But for Jim, tomorrow is a long time away.

He prepares for a full night of working

on his pulley system.

[upbeat rock music]

- I'm a little nervous.

I'm just gonna come and tell everybody what they gotta do

and make sure they do it.

I have a hard time forcing people to get to work,

but some of these guys, I would let them know

that they need to pick up the pace.

- [Narrator] As day five dawns,

a weary Jim has spent all night getting his

winch system to work.

- I already got the thing to work.

- [Narrator] Without asking, Steve puts Jim's winch system

to the test and the sparks start flying.

- Hey, hey.

Look at it, you can see the poles deflecting man.

They're like bent over about an inch.

It's like I said that about six times.

- Why aren't you forcing these up?

I thought you were gonna do that this morning.

- Don't even talk about it,

[indistinct]

What are you nuts?

- Look at those poles deflected.

I said they had to have loads on each side,

I mean this is nuts.

What do you want?

I spent all week making this thing,

you guys want to destroy it in a couple hours?

- Hey you need to brace those-

- Damn it.

- Come back down.

- Jim's mad.

- I cannot believe it.

I already got the thing to work.

It's like I don't need to be proved wrong,

you destroy it now,

none of us are gonna get this thing done.

Everybody agreed on my system and

because he doesn't like my system, he's been completely,

trying to like screw me for several days because of it.

- It's bull.

If he fails, we all fail.

It's that simple.

I mean it makes everybody look bad.

I don't care if it's all on him because of the winch.

He needs to listen to other people on the winch.

- He's overreacting

and he needs to do a little more team effort there.

To him it's his, to us it's ours.

- [Narrator] Man overboard.

While Jim cools off, his teammates do their best

to repair the damage to his winch system.

A short while later Jim returns.

Mr. Loaner is back on the team.

- We're all working together,

we're trying to get this thing to work

and I apologize for getting so angry.

- [Narrator] Reunited,

the men labor towards getting

the winch system working again.

- What do you think Jim?

- Well, we're having some weight issues

because the hinge point... now the cable's so high

that it's really working to try and pull it.

- I think we should start thinking about a plan B.

Because if we keep patching this up and patching this up

and chasing our tail and trying to chase the weak points,

we're ended up replacing the whole thing anyway.

- You've got this much into it Jim, there's no stopping now.

You're there Jim,

- That's thing, for me you're there.

- I think you know it's bent a little, I can bend it back.

We'll put in the bracing and I'll make it stronger.

Then I'll lift it up and down for you,

you can take a look at it.

We'll explore some other options,

but I think I can get this one to work.

- All right.

- [Narrator] Jim goes back to the drawing board,

desperate to make his winch system work.

His bus mates press on

and finish applying the steel siding to the pontoon frames.

[lighthearted music]

Jesse zeroes in on his flotation bumper.

His insurance plan to keep the engine high and dry.

[lighthearted music continues]

Jesse adds a nice detail, using a bead roller.

- It makes it kind of look like we gave a damn

about what we were doing.

[lighthearted music continues]

- [Narrator] Charlie starts building prow ends

for the pontoons,

but he discovers another use for the square tubing.

- You absolutely the most.

You were a bad leader, weren't you?

- I was a Batman.

- [Narrator] Impressed,

Darren pays Charlie the highest of compliments.

- You absolutely the most multi-talented redneck

I've ever met.

- [Narrator] Jim thinks he's found the cure for his winches,

thicker cable and more robust pulley wheels.

- One way or another, this thing's going on the water

and it's floating and it's running tomorrow.

- Right.

I was dragging about an hour ago,

but I'm starting to get my my second wind.

So get a little food in my belly

and kick in.

- Tonight could end up being an all-nighter,

you never know.

- This bus better give in

because we're not giving up.

- [Narrator] Tough words to end an even tougher day.

- Good because it's irritating me.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.

- [Narrator] Day six breaks over the garage

like a rogue wave.

Charlie crawls out from the wreckage.

- Appreciate it.

- That late night last night k*lled me.

- He was still working when I went to sleep

and he's done more,

so he's been just busting a*s.

- I was up till around, I didn't go to sleep at all.

- I went to sleep at six and slept for like an hour.

And the difference of what we had at eight o'clock last

night and what we have now, major difference.

- [Narrator] But there's still miles to go

before this team can sleep.

Charlie clears his head,

and gets back to his pontoon tips.

♪ Monster boys, monster boys

♪ Nuts and bolts

The pontoons will be filled with a special foam

to give them buoyancy.

- [Narrator] It will take almost the entire budget

to float this boat.

But thanks to AP products,

- [Announcer] Freebie, freebie, freebie

Zero.

- [Narrator] Foaming is a two part process.

A catalytic chemical called polyol

is mixed with another additive,

isocyanate.

A reaction takes place creating heat,

which initiates the chemicals to expand into a foam.

One cubic foot of foam can float approximately 60 pounds.

- Sorry. - It's okay.

[upbeat music]

While floating this boat,

the team learns a valuable safety lesson.

Sparks and foam don't mix.

- Fire. - Fire.

[indistinct]

Great reaction guys. Quick reactions.

- [Narrator] Foam didn't ready to float.

It's time to test Jim's improved winch system.

The big question,

will the winch system lift the steel pontoons

filled with an additional 800 pounds of foam?

- This is the hard part.

- [Narrator] Failure now will sink their hopes

of floating the bus by the end of the day.

- Come on baby.

[mechanical winch sound]

- That makes it good.

- Now that's what I'm talking about.

- Even though I totally think his idea was wrong

and wasn't gonna work and everything,

I gotta respect that he just worked.

He busts a*s.

You can't fault anybody for that.

He sold on and he's doing it, no matter what I say

or anybody else's says.

That's some stuff like I would do.

Prove me wrong, that's awesome.

- [Narrator] But there's a hitch,

starting from the closed position,

the winch system is unable to

push the heavy pontoons back out.

- That is gonna take quite a bit to be able

to lift all that weight past the falling point.

- Yeah. Now what about this? How about those linear

actuating rods.

- Yeah that's a possibility.

- They're 12 volt.

- But they gotta be able let loose once it gets to a point.

So it has to be something to just push on it.

- It's not attached to it,

- A flat tab somewhere where it just pushes it,

and just drives it out.

- That's a good idea actually.

- [Narrator] Steve's idea for a lifting system,

will use four actuators.

The actuators will push on the pontoons,

lifting them to the balance point

to then be guided down by the winch system.

If that doesn't work, it's on to plan B.

- Or we're gonna weld Jim in the pontoons

and then he can just push all everything out

when he is in there.

- [Narrator] It's crunch time.

Every tick of the clock, a crack of the whip

driving the exhausted team to the finish line.

Jesse and his crew tackle the propeller system.

The drive shaft will be connected to a propeller shaft

using two sprockets in a motorcycle chain.

- Right like that.

[upbeat music]

- Doing a little clean it up on this prop shaft

we can get our gear to slide on there.

[mechanical sounds]

[upbeat music continues]

- [Narrator] The propeller is good to go.

The last piece to go on Jesse's bumper float.

They fill it with foam,

and then they're off.

This bus has one final exam to pass

before they can call it a boat.

Jesse arrives at the marina, barking orders.

He tells all sea life to clear the way

for his sea monster.

- Look, he heard me.

- The bus will float.

- [Narrator] The pontoons are lowered and locked.

Jesse takes the helm of the boat.

The skipper orders his ship out to sea.

- Starting to touch the bottom,

we're floating in the back.

- I mean, he's totally moving sideways,

so he's floating.

- It's way out, he's totally floating.

That has not gone down one bit, we succeeded.

- There you go.

- [Crew] Yeah.

[celebratory whistles]

- Yeah.

♪ I lost my ankle with the devil ♪

- All right.

- All right guys,

Mac Tool time.

Well, it looks like our backs were

against the wall a little bit.

Jim's the ultimate outlaw.

Despite us being totally against whatever he had going on.

He still kept to his word and did it,

so I gotta give you respect for that.

- Thanks a lot, man.

- Isn't that fun?

- Yeah, it was. - Oh man.

- That was like volunteer punishment.

- Go ahead guys, check them out.

- [Narrator] An expert crew from Linx sprays the pontoons

with a waterproof polyurethane coating.

Then expert painter Tom Pruitt takes over.

- We got a few hours to finish this one.

Jesse's off to have a super party, so

very good paint so it's dry by the time they get it there.

We're starting off with some chrome yellow.

We're gonna come back in it with some pearl essence

and maybe even top it off with some ice pearl.

- It's sunshine yellow for the monster bus,

ready to head out for the ultimate school party.

It's got a date with a lake.

Monster Garage factoid.

In 1939,

the official color for school buses

was changed from Omaha orange to chrome yellow.

According to scientists, the color yellow acts as a

stimulant to the eyes and alerts the brain to danger.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.

[lighthearted guitar music]

♪ I lost a wager with the devil ♪

♪ In my haze

- [Schwag] Big Schwag here in beautiful

Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Home of fun, sun and school buses.

- [Frank] That's right Schwag.

Big yellow floating school buses.

- [Schwag] Floating school buses?

Frank, you gotta be kidding me.

- [Frank] I never kid about floating vehicles

and I'll tell you who else doesn't Jesse James,

the mastermind behind this monster machine.

- [Schwag] He better not get around.

Check out his competition,



Tell us the rules of this competition Frank

- [Frank] Schwag, points will be awarded for speed

and partying.

First, our boats must navigate through the marina.

The first team to enter have Havasu channel

wins five points.

After that, it's a mad dash through the channel

with the first boat crossing under the London Bridge,

winning 10 points.

- [Schwag] But what about the party, Frankie?

- [Frank] Teams will receive one point

for every monster party move Schwag.

- [Schwag] Monster party move, What the hell's that?

- [Frank] I don't know,

but you'll know it when you see it Schwag.

- [Schwag] I'll have to take your word for it Frankie,

because our teams are ready to race.

- Schools out you little b*stards.

- [Frank] And both boats are heading down the launch ramp.

Now the pontoon boat is guided by a truck

and trailer while Jesse drives his bus right

into the water's edge.

I wonder what he's gonna do now.

- [Schwag] I'll tell you what he is gonna do.

He's gonna work some hydraulic magic.

I don't believe what I'm seeing Frank,

the roof of the bus just turned into two giant pontoons.

And check it out Frank, hideaway actuators.

They're folding down flaps.

It's formed a perfect party platform

- True wild machine you got there.

- I want to build a bus into a boat.

- [Frank] Look at that Schwag,

the team locks the pontoons in place.

[rock n roll music]

- [Schwag] A pontoon boat is already wet.

You gotta wonder if this early lead is affecting

Jesse and his crew.

- [Frank] Schwag, what are they doing?

It looks like some sort of railing system.

- [Schwag] As always, Frank.

It's safety first in the Monster Garage.

- We need jackets.

- Life jackets?

- Yeah, ready to go?

- Life jackets? I could swim.

- [Schwag] That's right,

there's no room for life jackets on the pleasure crews.

There's only space for the essentials,

like an ice chest, a barbecue and deck chairs.

- Yeah, let's go.

- [Frank] The crowd looks on as the team drives the bus

effortlessly into the water.

And she floats.

- [Schwag] And just like that,

Jesse and his monster mechanics fall into the lead.

The pontoon boat is just now pulling away from the trailer,

but Jesse's got a good 50 foot lead on him.

- [Frank] Schwag,

the pontoon boat has a definite speed advantage

over the pontoon bus.

- [Schwag] Frankie,

the pontoon boat captain is docking again. Why?

- [Frank] I'll tell you why, Schwag, he's parking his truck.

- [Schwag] Parking his truck?

You gotta be kidding me,

there's no time for parking your truck in a

Monster Garage Challenge.

- [Frank] Well, you can't very well leave it

on the launch ramp Schwag.

- [Schwag] Jesse's already made the turn down the channel.

Franks, that's five points for the Monster Garage.

[air horn]

Look at dead school boat glide through that water,

unbelievable.

- Yo-h*-h* and a bottle of rum.

- [Frank] They're cruising Schwag, no doubt about it.

And the London Bridge is in sight,

but the pontoon boat is closing the gap and closing it fast.

- [Schwag] From the shore,

the crowd cheers on the school bus.

It looks like they'll be first to make the bridge.

- [Frank] But wait a minute, what's this?

The school bus has stopped.

- [Schwag] Is she dead in the water?

I don't think so, Jesse's too smart for that.

He knows he can't outrun the faster pontoon boat.

He's decided to get right down to earning some party points.

- [Schwag] And there it goes,

the boat passes the bus and makes it under the bridge first,

giving it a 10 to five lead.

- [Frank] Check it out Schwag.

The Monster Garage Crew already has their barbecue lit.

One party point, it's 10 to six.

- [Schwag] Jesse takes matters into his own hands,

performing a near perfect swan dive.

That's good for another party point Frank. 10 to seven.

- [Frank] This competition isn't nearly over,

the pontoon boat docks with the pontoon bus.

And we have ourselves a Monster Garage party.

- [Schwag] And look at this, it's a full scale mutiny.

The crew, the pontoon boat is joining the

Monster Garage party.

That's good for two monster party points.

- [Frank] The pontoon boat's holding a slim lead,

at just 10 to nine.

- [Schwag] What's the story on the pontoon boat?

Nothing, it's empty,

everybody wants to be on the floating school bus.

That's another party point.

- [Frank] It's all tied up Schwag, 10 points a piece.

- [Schwag] It's a barrage of cannonballs,

what Grace? What form? That's another party point.

Monster Garage takes the lead, 11 to 10.

- [Frank] But wait a minute, jumping in with your shoes on.

That's a party foul, deduct one point.

- Ah but they'll get the point right back

with some on deck Sumo Wrestling.

- [Frank] [foreign language].

Thank you very much.

Monster Garage 11, Pontoon Boat 10.

- [Schwag] Jesse and his crew victorious again

in an amazing come from Behind Victory.

School's out, class dismissed.

But there's no time for synchronized swimming,

aquatic antics or a floating fiesta.

There's metal to burn, sparks to fly,

the next Monster Garage Challenge is just around the Bend.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.

♪ Monster, Monster Garage.