- All the buttons, bro.
Yeah. [laughs]
- [laughs] This is good.
- [Speaker] Oh, that's good.
- Every other car on the road should be
a monster of some sort.
- You're only limited
by your imagination in your pocketbook.
- He'll go sometimes six or eight feet under water
before he come out.
- Mileage is about one chicken for every 10 miles.
- She is the American monster.
I'd like to fit her in a garage someday.
[Draka exhaling flames]
- [Narrator] Join us now on a special whopping,
stomping road trip.
We are looking for monsters, the homemade kind,
and the folks who rip, grind, and burn them
were busting through the garage
and landing wheels up in your own backyard.
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster Garage
This week the Monster Garage is leaving Long Beach
and heading to the hills.
[upbeat music]
Jesse James and his band of maverick mechanics
aren't the only ones up to monster making mischief.
So we'll challenge two teams
to do the monster mash on their own turf,
and we'll cross the country to meet some normal folks
and their monstrous machines.
[speaker laughs]
[upbeat music]
Rick Dobbertin's neighbors may think he's an astronaut,
especially when a giant gleaning spaceship like monster
rolls out of the garage,
the Dobbertin Surface Orbiter.
able to navigate the roughest turf and the highest surf,
but this amphibian began its life as a humble milk tanker.
[upbeat music]
- I like to look at something, not what it is,
but what it could be.
So a milk tanker seemed like an obvious starting point
because it's stainless steel,
so it'll hold up to the salt water corrosion problems.
And I figured if it'd hold 30,000 pounds of milk inside,
it would damn well keep the water out.
- [Narrator] Rick spent years
cutting, welding and fabricating,
then he built a high-tech c*ck for his dream machine.
- [Rick] The left side steering wheel turns the front wheels
and the gauge is for land use.
This side turns the rear rudder
and the gauge is for the sea part of the trip.
- [Narrator] With his task complete,
Rick set off on a two-year adventure.
Heading to South America,
the Orbiter crossed long stretches of open ocean.
[upbeat music]
- [Rick] It's bottom heavy,
so there's no way it would ever roll over.
- [Narrator] And to keep an eye
on his submerged driveshaft,
Rick cut a window in the bottom.
- [Rick] I've seen fish dart out of the way,
I've seen all kinds of stuff, but I never got any leaks.
- [Narrator] Rick's voyage covered 33,000 miles
in 28 countries.
He survived a rickety bridge crossing in Costa Rica,
was seized by Colombian gorillas,
who just wanted their picture taken with the orbiter,
and his monster became the first car
to transit the Panama Canal.
- This is just to say I did it,
and now I can say I did it because I did it.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] It's day one at Phineas Banning High School
in Wilmington, California.
Here a team of industrial art students will have four days
and $300 to create their backyard monster.
The challenge, transform a stock Costco shopping cart
into a monster shopping go-kart.
If successful, the school will receive three
$3,400 sets of Mac Tools.
[students laughing]
[student mumbles] [students laughing]
- Bring it over, bring it over.
- [Narrator] The team will be led
by automotive shop teachers,
Bernardo Rodriguez and Patrick Chung.
- Yes. - Yes.
- Now what do you think we might have to do to,
to make this thing into a go-kart?
- We need a engine.
- Engine. - Hmm.
- Yeah, this is still high, we need to drop this more.
- Excellent idea, bring down the center of gravity.
- Let's make that thing go fast.
- Vroom, vroom. [chuckles] - Yeah.
- All right, these are the plans.
- [Narrator] No need for a design team.
Mr. Chung has already drawn up the plan.
- [Speaker] We gotta make it strong.
- [Narrator] The shopping cart and an engine
will be supported on a frame of 1/2 inch steel tubing.
The steering linkage, rear axle, pedals
and brakes must all be assembled
to meet the challenge deadline,
and race on day five.
- What do you think?
- We'll be ready to go shopping in no time.
[machinery tool buzzing]
- [Narrator] The first step is to turn the basket
into a c*ck.
[upbeat music]
- Elizabeth, both hands, use both hands.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Mr. Rodriguez has worked on
thousands of vehicles,
but this is his first souped up grocery wagon.
- It's a little short, so what we're gonna have to do
with another cart weld an extension piece.
- We gonna extend this? - Yeah.
- [Narrator] Senior Ernie Coutinho
helped cook up the project.
- All right, it's a shopping cart.
What can you make it into?
Put a motor on it,
and you can now have a pretty cool car.
We're pretty much adventures, I guess.
[machinery tool buzzing]
- [Narrator] The frame is taking shape
and confidence is building.
- You gotta notch those, so it sits inside of them.
- Very good.
- And then you gotta notch this one, so it fits in between.
[upbeat music]
- [Speaker] Most of these students
are from the advanced class,
they work on welding or grinding without supervision.
- We try and do the best we can with the tools we have,
they are outdated by 20, 30 years.
[machinery tool buzzing]
- [Narrator] Sadly, cutbacks make this one of the last
automotive shops in the LA school district.
- Budgets. [chuckles]
[machinery tool buzzing]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] The frame is ready, the basket a foot longer.
These kids have monster making in their blood.
- If we all work together,
I think that anything is possible.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] It's been a perfect day,
but things are about to get dark and ugly.
[eerie music]
- You have a brain. - It's like, you're stupid.
- You have a brain, start thinking.
- Hey, shut...
- You want to take off the whole axle
and put a different one on.
- It's not gonna run.
- Thou shalt die!
[intense music]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] 3,000 miles from our feisty shop class,
there's a way to get to school that's really cool.
[upbeat music]
- I want to build something that kids could relate to.
Nobody has ever chopped a school bus
or lowered a school bus, so I said, "Well, why not?"
- [Narrator] Jerry Bowers grew up a poor farm boy
with a knack for making things.
- Couldn't afford to buy toys, so we made our own toys,
now I make big toys.
- [Narrator] Till Jerry and his girlfriend, Brenda,
came along, this was just a derelict 1949 Ford school bus.
- And it was huge. [laughs]
[upbeat music]
We took three sections out, slid the rear end forward,
and then we started chopping the top down.
- [Narrator] They channeled the body
to fit on an Eldorado frame,
and installed airbags to set it
just six inches above the ground.
- I love to take really nothing
and make something eye-catching out of it.
- [Narrator] And on a rainy day,
this supercharged asphalt hugger is still used for hauling.
- [Speaker] Hey, kids, you wanna ride to the school?
Come on in.
- Cool. [chuckles]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] In the 1970s,
the essence of cool was the DeLorean.
And in the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake,
a team of DeLorean fanatics will have four days
and $3,000 to build their backyard monster.
- [Speaker] Good, good.
- [Narrator] The challenge:
Combine a 1960s Ford GT40 lookalike kit car
with a 1973 Ford Bronco,
transforming them into a monstrous rock crawler
in just four days.
- All right, here's what we got, guys.
We're starting off with this GT40 body,
and we're gonna be putting it on that Bronco behind us.
Here's the concept-
- [Narrator] Team leader, Rich Weissensel,
conceived the design.
- I got inspired by watching the Monster Garage
rock crawler episode,
and we decided we wanted to do something similar.
[motorcar vrooming]
- [Narrator] But can Rich and his buddies
really top this monster?
Jesse successfully bucked the Bronco up and down boulders
till it busted a driveshaft.
[speaker laughs] - After seeing it,
I thought we could build a better rock crawler.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Their plan is to shorten the Bronco chassis
and to build a four-link suspension from scratch.
The engine will be overhauled,
a roll cage assembled,
and nitrogen shocks will be installed,
add the GT40 body, and some monster wheels and tires,
and it should be ready to rock crawl.
[metal clanging]
The team starts to rip into both cars.
The fiberglass kit car body is separated
from its old VW chassis.
- Ready, one, two, three, up.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] That chassis is going to the scrap pile.
- [Speaker] Watch your toes.
- [Narrator] Now it's the Bronco's turn.
- I'll tell you, there's nothing like ripping them up.
- [Speaker] Eh, ah!
[machinery tool buzzing]
- [Speaker] [chuckles] Little smoke coming outta that.
- [Speaker] Good job done!
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Monster truck builder, Steve Stump,
is the fireman of this crew.
[upbeat music]
- I enjoy tearing stuff. [glass shattering]
[speakers laughing]
Shouldn't see any problems with
turning this into what we're turning it into.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] These guys have a lot to do in just four days,
but mechanical engineer, Marty Meyer,
is supremely confident.
- We got a lot of people with a lot of knowledge.
I think we're as good as,
if not better than a lot of who you see
on some of the Monster Garage episodes.
Yeah.
[speaker laughs]
[metal clanging] - We're just
making a mess. [chuckles]
- [Narrator] Dave Swingle's pristine ultramodern garage
is getting a little dirty.
[metal clanging]
- It's got a twin post rotary lift,
the floors are heated with hot water.
That's kind of a monster in terms of size,
I think the neighbors certainly think so.
- [Speaker] Fire, fire!
[speaker mumbles]
- That is way too close to burning my house down.
- [Narrator] Dave's wife, Julee,
should be used to it by now.
- This is a homemade Monster Garage.
It takes a very understanding wife
to have a garage like this.
- [Narrator] The Bronco chassis is getting a trim.
This heap spent years as a Chicago snowplow.
Rust anyone?
[playful music]
- You got just salt deposits all over in corrosion,
and this is about what I expected.
- [Narrator] At 26, Eric Weber is the youngest team member,
but he is as c*ck as the rest of them.
- I'm an ASE certified automotive technician.
Anything to do with cars, I can fix.
Major tuneup, carburetor is gonna need a little bit of work,
all the vacuum hoses for one are gonna have to be replaced
to get this thing to run correctly.
- [Narrator] Now the old plow truck
gets to try on its new yellow suit.
[upbeat music]
- [Speaker] We're centering things,
so we can determine whether or not
we need to cut additional pieces off the fiberglass,
and then where we can start the substructure.
- [Speaker] Yeah, yeah.
[dog whimpering]
- [Narrator] At 9:00 p.m., the team is still going strong
assembling the roll cage.
- If we get crazy and it rolls over,
this should keep your body intact,
otherwise you'll get smashed like a little bug.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Working around the clock
is the norm for these guys.
- I'll stay up three, four days straight,
and I'll pass out before I fall asleep on purpose.
- [Narrator] And sleep may be at a premium
because they have an appointment to keep with a rock quarry.
[rocks thudding on the ground]
[thrilling music]
Monster makers are at work all over the world.
Like Scandinavian, Magnus Bjork,
he converted his Saab from gas to steam
and created a luxurious sauna.
- It's a combination of two things that Scandinavians love,
Saab and sauna.
So let's light up the stove.
[upbeat music]
- 100 degree Celsius. - That's hot.
- What, what, what...
- [Narrator] This promises to be a night of pure bliss.
[dreamy music]
[speakers singing in foreign language]
[speaker speaking in foreign language]
- Ah, yeah!
- Ah, okay. - Come in.
- Loyly. - Yeah.
- [Speaker] We all really love the steam
coming from the stove.
[speakers mumbling] [speakers chuckling]
- [Speaker] I want this, I want this, it's beautiful.
Oh, it's beautiful.
- Yeah, that was the best loyly ever.
- [Speaker] Very cool.
[speaker sighs] [speaker mumbles]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] But for the hottest backyard monster of all,
aim for Houston where there's a car that's really smoking.
- It's going good.
- [Narrator] Noah Edmondson's old Beetle
was headed for the junkyard
till his appetite got the better of him.
- In Texas, Barbecue and cars are big subjects,
and we just married them together.
- [Narrator] It's an outdoor chef's dream
with a grill in back and a roomy smoker up front.
[upbeat music]
- Our specialty is meat monsters.
Today it's dog monsters.
And my house is called the Monster Mansion.
[eerie music]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] But cooking in your car
can bring unwanted attention.
- We're just cooking.
- A carbecue. [laughs]
[upbeat music]
- Hmm.
- [Narrator] Hungry?
Can't come to Noah's.
[upbeat music]
Well, Bad Taste Bar-B-Q is available for parties.
[upbeat music]
Well, was available for parties.
[somber music]
The tie rods on the barbecue Beetle snapped,
hurling the chef and our cameraman
to the pavement at 40 miles per hour.
[somber music]
Beware close proximity to monsters can be very dangerous.
[upbeat music]
- [Noah] Ew!
[upbeat music]
[glass shattering]
[bell tinkling]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] It's day two at Banning High School.
[students laughing]
- [Narrator] The monster shopping go-kart
just got its muscle.
A 12 horsepower engine, courtesy of Kohler.
- [Speaker] Freebie!
- Zip, zero, nada. [students laughing]
- I just hope it's not two days.
- Yeah, I think we can get it to fit.
- Perfect. - Perfect.
[worker hammering machine part]
- [Narrator] Patrick Chung helps Chris prep the axle.
He's taught scores of automotive students at Banning.
- I've been teaching for over 20 something years.
We have kids that have had problems
with reading and understanding,
but when they start working on mechanics,
they seem to excel.
Our programs will change some kids' lives
one way or the other.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Kids like Jesse James, for example,
- [Jesse] I can remember my first semester at metal shop,
it made a big impression on my life.
I had no idea when I was 13-years-old
that I was doing something that was gonna support my family,
and make every dream I wanted come true.
[motorbike vrooming]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] This shop class has inspired
Eric Cortez to dream too.
- I would like to go into an automotive career.
I won't have to go pay someone to do my own car.
[machinery tool buzzing]
- [Narrator] Elizabeth Garcia is unfazed
by being the only girl in a boy's world.
- [Speaker] All right.
[upbeat music]
- I've had, some have a crush on me,
but I'm here to work on cars,
and not to think about boys. [chuckles]
Hopefully I'll open up my own collision shop one day,
and I'll be the boss.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] When the tires are finally mounted,
the team realizes there's a hitch.
- Has to be one quarter.
- Three and one quarter.
- Five and a quarter, up here. - Oh!
- [Narrator] The front of the car
is sitting higher than the back.
Not safe,
not cool.
- You don't want the back lower than the front
'cause that looks like you're going really fast in reverse.
[upbeat music]
- Cut the frame. [Elizabeth mumbles]
Drop this part of the frame down.
- [Narrator] Mr. Chung thinks the solution
is to lower the front of the frame,
but the students do not agree.
- Then the arms are gonna be hitting the floor,
practically rubbing it, they're gonna be pretty close.
- All you gotta do is get bigger tires in the back
and smaller tires in the front.
- Find some smaller tires in the front.
- But it will set the frame up higher,
the center of gravity will be much too high.
- [Elizabeth] Just 'cause you're a teacher, you're right?
- No, I'm not saying that.
- Students, no, we're never right.
- Ooh! [speaker chuckles]
- [Student] Yeah.
- We start cutting into the frame.
- [Narrator] Mr. Rodriguez also has doubts
about Mr. Chung's solution.
- They really don't wanna mess with the knuckles.
- And we're just like, give you the smallest solution,
it's like so simple, and you're like,
"Well, no, let's do this."
- [Narrator] In true Monster Garage fashion,
unity has turned to discord.
- We wanna lower the front. - Do what he says.
- Go and take it up higher- [speakers mumbling]
Thou shalt die!
- [Narrator] The question is,
who are the real monsters in this garage?
- They never like me anyway.
[student sobbing]
[student laughing]
- [Narrator] The teens need to work on their teamwork.
In Seattle, Steve Walker and Lynn Taylor take backyard
and put it front and center.
Their formula, dream plus team equals monsters.
- We've kind of come up with the idea over the years
that if one of us can explain it to the other,
it'll probably work.
- [Narrator] They call themselves close enough engineering.
Their only rule, break all the rules.
Up close with a close enough creation,
a tractor that's gone off the beaten track.
Steve and Lynn call it "The Diamond T Boattail Roadster."
- We made up that name,
but it seems to describe it fairly accurately,
including the wooden tail.
- So we want a giant roadster and we are very large people,
so we built what resembles very early Indy race cars,
but twice the size.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Then there's the little mutant five-wheeler.
- It's a 1958 Alfa Romeo, Triumph,
Ford, Honda, Harley-Davidson, with sidecar.
I call it an Alfa Romeo special.
- [Narrator] Weirdest of all is a trike
that seems to be backwards.
- [Speaker] Most have one wheel in the front
and two wheels in the back,
and we do things a little different around here,
so we reversed the process.
- [Narrator] Close enough engineering.
- We'll build you anything.
Keeps us outta the bars.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] It's day two
of the backyard rock crawler build.
- We're on schedule,
and in some respects a little bit ahead of schedule.
- So far we're still friends.
- Oh yeah, sure.
- [Narrator] But Steve Stump is a bit cranky.
- I got an hour and a half worth of sleep.
- [Narrator] Steve is starting the four-link suspension.
He's got brackets to cut and heights to measure,
but the keys to the suspension are the Heim joints.
- They will allow this bar to twist with the axle.
Keeps the axle from moving forward and back,
but it will let the axle move up
and down in an extreme twist.
- [Speaker] Oh yeah.
- [Narrator] Steve is confident about the rock crawler
with one word of warning.
- [Steve] It'll stay together as long as we don't abuse it,
but if you don't abuse it, what's the fun?
If you don't abuse it, what's the fun?
What's the fun?
[welding machine sparking and buzzing]
- Hey Dave, we need-
- [Narrator] Marty needs some metal for a battery bracket.
- This great big heavy stuff, a little bit too much.
We got something a little bit lighter?
- Let's go take a look in the basement.
There's something I'm thinking maybe down there.
- [Narrator] There are advantages to monsterizing at home.
It's all bedframe parts, is this...
Do you think this will do what you're-
- Yeah, that'll work great. - Looking for?
[upbeat music]
- Yep, the bedframe is working pretty good.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Dennis and Brian are planning a new firewall.
- See, this will be able to sandwich,
I think through the steel plate.
- Do some real rock climbeth, uh.
[speaker laughs]
- [Speaker] All right, all right, I will.
[speaker laughs]
- [Narrator] Marty is the master fabricator,
he'll supervise the team.
[upbeat music]
- Boys, I'm a figment of all your imagination.
- [Speaker] I've a problem.
- [Narrator] Eric's late for engine duty.
Bad start.
Bad haircut, Eric's bad.
- If you want something done right, you do it yourself,
and that's how I got myself into this mess.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Dave's mess is the front axle.
- Kind of relieves your frustrations, I guess.
- [Narrator] It may look like road debris, but not to Marty.
- I'm gonna replace the brakes,
roll up the spiders and lock it.
It's a little rusty, but we'll make it work, no problems.
No problems, no problems, no problems.
- [Narrator] The firewall is coming together.
[speaker mumbles] [speaker laughs]
And Marty's spirits are lifted.
[upbeat music]
It's getting late, and Julee Swingle has some bad news.
- I just got a call from the
neighborhood association President,
and she's coming over because there's been a complaint.
[somber music]
- What's going on?
- Oh, we're just making a little mess and a little noise,
but it's only for about five days,
and then things will get back to normal.
What?
- It's just basically the clutter.
- The clutter. - The clutter.
The obstruction of the road out there
'cause you do have a lot of cars on the road,
and in the yard. - Yeah.
- So we're just afraid that it was gonna be a business
that you were trying to do here.
- [Narrator] These guys don't care about the neighbors,
but there are some factors beyond their control.
- [Speaker] These regular street tires
and wheels are just not gonna make it for rock crawling.
- [Narrator] Monster Garage promised to send
freebie wheels and tires,
but they forgot to pay their FedEx bill,
so nothing's arrived yet.
- Everything's slowing down on the second day,
I was afraid that would happen.
Just like on the show,
everything goes good the first day,
and then it falls apart.
- We're dirty, we might as well keep going, right?
[speaker chuckles]
[somber music]
- [Narrator] Kerry McLean is a monster maker
who has reinvented the wheel.
[monocycle vrooming]
[upbeat music]
- [Kerry] Actually the idea came to me
by looking at a stagecoach wheel,
and I envisioned riding inside of that.
- [chuckles] Yeah, I see him all the time,
he's got all kinds of toys.
- [Narrator] Kerry fabricates every part
of the wheel himself, even the tire.
There isn't any tire out there to buy
that's gonna work in this application, it's specific.
- [Narrator] And his contraption comes in three sizes:
Small, medium, and monster.
- Well, here's a six-foot wheel
with an Oldsmobile Dual Quad V8 in it,
I call it the Rocket Roadster.
It's capable of well over 120 miles an hour.
[Rocket Roadster vrooming]
My neighbors, they think I'm nuts.
- [Narrator] Maybe because they once witnessed
the monster turn on its creator.
Kerry nearly lost his life.
- [Speaker] Oh, oh!
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Since the accident,
a new back wing and rudder system has improved stability.
- And the engine also pivots
to move the gyroscopics in and out of the wheel.
[cheerful piano music]
- [Narrator] This builder loves to pound the ivories,
but his mind is always on rubber and metal.
- [Kerry] I actually dream about the wheel all the time.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Kerry McLean certainly didn't invent the wheel,
in fact generations of builders have had the urge
to roll to the beat of a different drummer.
[upbeat music]
Their designs have been radical, innovative,
or just plain stupid.
[upbeat music]
And here at the National Automobile Museum in Reno,
some monsters of yesteryear
have found their final parking spot.
Museum Director, Jackie Frady,
is keeper of these early beasts,
like the 1892 Philion.
- It's amazing that the first car built in America
was America's first monster car.
It had a driver in the front seat to steer
and a chauffeur in the back to operate the steamer,
and it could reach a whopping eight miles per hour.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Then there's the 1915 Briscoe
with a body made of papier-mache.
- It's kind of a lightweight monster.
I think a kindergarten class could do a great job
with body repairs on this car.
- [Narrator] And the 1934 Dymaxion
designed by futurist, Buckminster Fuller.
- He didn't think it was radical,
in fact he thought it was very logical.
It's a three-wheeled car,
and the single rear wheel acted like a rudder of a ship.
In 1934, this was thought to be the car of the future.
[funky music]
- [Narrator] Finally there's a 1937 Phantom Corsair,
the world's first concept car.
Museum mechanic, Roger Mattson,
keeps this one of a kind creature spotless.
[upbeat music]
- It reminds me of kind of an aquatic animal,
like a manta ray.
- [Narrator] But it turns out,
the Phantom Corsair is yet another misguided monster.
- [Roger] It's bumpy, it's clumsy, it's not very responsive,
and it drives like a lumber wagon.
- [Narrator] Backyard monster factoid.
Archeologists in Slovenia
recently uncovered the world's earliest known wheel.
It's made of wood, and at least 5,100 years old.
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
It's day three of the great shopping cart transformation.
- If we can try and get that motor mounted today,
and we can start setting the accelerator linkage
and we can set the chain.
- [Narrator] Mr. Rodriguez reviews today's objectives,
he's taught at Banning for less than two years,
and he's very popular.
Not so for Mr. Chung.
- Mr. Rodriguez is a really good teacher,
he is letting us do our ideas,
and Mr. Chung is kind of like,
"Let's try mine first,
and then if it doesn't work, we'll do yours."
- From yesterday I still think
that the tires are probably adequate.
I think the tires are still adequate.
Adequate, adequate, adequate.
- It's supposed to look cool,
and that doesn't look cool right now.
[speaker chuckles]
- [Narrator] The students want smaller tires in front
and big ones in the rear.
Burris Racing has agreed to an exchange.
- We get these in the back.
- Yeah, get those in the back, big gnarly ones,
and then put some nice slicks in the front.
- The tire issue is just an appearance issue.
Well, I'm against it for one reason,
is that we're wasting time.
- [Narrator] Martin and Eddie return
with new tires in no time.
[speaker speaking in foreign language]
- It sure does make it look better.
- If they're happy, I'm happy.
- [Narrator] Finally, the team shifted into high gear.
- Ah!
- [Narrator] The engine is locked in place.
- Honey, you wanna make sure
that the chain is on the sprocket.
Yeah.
[narrator burps]
- [Speaker] Excuse me!
- [Narrator] The steering linkage complete.
- [Speaker] The turning radius should be okay on this.
- [Narrator] Brake and gas pedals welded in.
- I think it's ready to roll.
- [Narrator] Elizabeth's basket c*ck
still needs some work.
- [Speaker] This just slightly. [chuckles]
- [Narrator] But this junior monster is beginning to stir.
[go-kart vrooming]
- It runs. - It runs.
Beautiful!
- Hopefully I get to drive it, I mess around in it.
[Elizabeth whistles]
Take my mom with me. [laughs]
- [Narrator] And Martin has just
the right Simpson racing outfit.
[upbeat music]
- An astronaut.
- Da-da-doo! [laughs]
- A fruity astronaut.
- Dit-da-da-doo-doo!
- Oh!
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] There is a special group of builders
whose vehicles don't swim or climb rocks,
but their monstrosities are works of art.
Rebecca Caldwell topped a hearse with a bug
to create a soaring gothic masterpiece, Carthedral.
[church bell tolls]
- This car is self-portrait.
When I look at it, I'm very connected to it. [laughs]
[Rebecca playing musical instrument]
[somber music]
Every car I think should have a hood ornament,
so this is mine.
[gothic figurine laughing]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] They say the greatest art
comes from personal experience.
That maybe how Ken Browning thought up the roadster.
- I'm not a full-time artist, I'm actually a master plumber.
I know about roaches here, and big ones.
It's a combination of Celica GT and a pickup truck.
We cut the whole dashboard and then moved it back four feet,
so you steer it from behind the back wheels.
It's a open top touring roach.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] An entire group of artists created Monstero,
the mighty skull car.
- Monstero got its name because it started out
as a Mitsubishi Montero,
there's one another somewhere.
The teeth are very sharp,
and they have slaughtered many people already.
[somber music]
Oh, [mumbles]
[speakers laughing]
- [Speaker] It's got super-evil powers.
- His license plate is three-years-old.
- Shh, we're on TV.
- Oh! [speaker chuckles]
[upbeat music]
- Everybody thought that I was crazy
and gave me the hardest time
about putting a fish pond in the back of my car,
and also putting a bubble machine in the back of my car
to make people smile.
- [Speaker] Yeah, yeah!
- [Narrator] But does it float?
- Just like your car, all the way to the bottom.
[metal clanging]
- [Narrator] Probably the wildest art cars of all
inhabit a menagerie created by Mark Bradford,
a.k.a. Scrap Daddy.
- No one really knows what the dinosaur looks like,
and this is my vision of maybe what they look like.
- [Narrator] Mark makes his creatures
out of recycled junk from motorcycle engines to spoons.
- I gotta get stuff that's already made,
so I can focus on my artwork,
making the creatures come to life.
- [Narrator] He's got a name for every monster.
- This is Asaba,
it's like a prehistoric animal
that's grabbed ahold of the wheel.
He's saying, why walk when you can roll?
[upbeat music]
His front arms are attached to truck driveshafts.
I'm headfirst looking out of this window. [laughs]
This is crazy.
[upbeat music]
This is Manta.
Manta is like a big crane mantis.
It's so cool 'cause I drive up at the top,
and I use a window switch
like you have to raise and lower your window,
and it sends a signal to a wheelchair motor
that's attached to a 250 cc motorcycle motor.
[upbeat music]
This is the Spoonazoid.
The Spoonazoid is made out of 10,000 spoons.
These are all spoons.
[Spoonazoid vrooming]
This is a water cool 150 scooter motor.
It goes fast enough,
especially since you can't see that good.
[upbeat music]
He's a man-eater, but we're giving him fruit,
we're changing his diet.
[metal clanging]
- [Narrator] It's day three in Crystal Lake,
and Eric, the bald, is late again.
- Yeah, we were up last night till 12:30, 1:00 o'clock.
Now we're running into some technical obstacles.
- [Narrator] Like a dead engine.
- I'm just trying to scare these guys.
- [Speaker] Oh!
- Just tip them in a little bit.
[speaker chuckles]
- [Narrator] They want the vehicle
to ride high on nitrogen shocks.
To support them, Marty must design steel tower brackets.
- I guess the reason that I have a lot of luck
doing some of this bracketry and everything else is,
I tend to have a natural ability to think
and see in three dimensions,
and it makes things a lot easier for me
to try and cut and fit and put things together.
- Oh!
- It's just something I'm blessed with.
[welding machine sparking and buzzing]
- [Speaker] Find all.
- [Narrator] The nitrogen filled shocks
will keep the rock crawler floating above the rocks.
- This one here has 12 inches of travel,
forced pressure lifts it up into the air.
- [Narrator] Brian is wondering how to bend a piece of metal
to cover the transmission.
He sees the solution in the front yard.
- It's just the right diameter.
- You are gonna promise me, you don't hurt it.
- Yeah, no, we're not gonna destroy the tree,
as far as she knows.
[upbeat music]
- It's like an award-winning maple tree.
[upbeat music]
- Perfect transmission cover.
- It ain't gonna work.
- Yeah, it will. - No, it won't.
- Yeah, it will. [speaker chuckles]
- You'll never be able to shift.
You have to cut a hole in it to reach your hand through,
so why bother putting it there?
- [Narrator] Finally, an argument.
- Just put two feet pegs like on a motorcycle.
- By the time we get cutting it down,
it's gonna be a small plate.
- Okay.
- I just feel it's a waste of time, I don't need it.
I mean, the motor doesn't run yet,
Eric's still gotta finish getting that going and...
- It'll work.
[somber music]
- [Narrator] Things may be ballooning out of control.
- If we had known, we would've paid to have Monster Garage
written across the front of it as it flew over.
- [Speaker] We're getting into the day three crunch.
- I see an all-nighter or two coming here.
- [Narrator] They'll work all night,
but our camera crew will sleep.
Only our time-lapse cameras will capture
the nocturnal activity of the yellow-backed rock crawler.
Will the crawler crawl?
Will the go-kart go?
And what does Jesse think? [Jesse chuckles]
- This is good.
- [Narrator] It's all coming up on backyard monsters.
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
[playful music]
- Day four. - Four.
- Four. - Four.
- [Narrator] The nearly complete shopping go-kart
is ready for a test.
It had better work because the challenge ends at 5:00 p.m.
when the school's electricity will be shut off for repairs.
- It's not turning.
- Look at it, it's turning.
- I don't think it's turning enough.
- It's 'cause all the weights in the back,
if we put more weight in the front,
we'll have better traction.
- [Narrator] As usual, the kids think
the problem can be easily solved.
But with 50 pounds added to the front for traction,
the turning radius is still terrible.
Mr. Chung wants to fix it his way.
- I would prefer to change that rear drive
from a solid axle to one that drives one wheel only.
- [Narrator] With both rear wheels locked to the axle,
the kart is pushed straight ahead,
but if one wheel spins free of the axle,
the kart can make tighter turns.
- There's more weight in the back towards the front,
so what is it gonna do?
It's gonna pick up the front.
That's why you're not turning.
- [Narrator] The mini monsters don't buy it,
they think Mr. Chung is just being his uncool self.
- I told you, we're gonna
have to have- - John, today is the last day,
if you didn't realize that,
we don't have that much time [censored] around.
- And you're sitting right there doing nothing.
You have a brain. - I'm not stupid.
- You have a brain, start thinking.
- Hey, shut- - You wanna take off
the whole axle and put a different one on.
- We have to find the solution, okay?
- See, you act like it's gonna be that easy.
We cannot make it turn within the next five hours,
electricity is gonna be shut off.
That will be the end, we won't be able to finish it.
No, I think we put the engine too far back.
That's one problem. - Oh my God!
- But the other problem- - Don't wanna lose the engine.
[speaker laughs]
- You guys are so negative,
it's gonna go on the show like that.
I can walk out right now,
and let Mr. Rodriguez finish it, all right?
Then he has to deal with all your stuff, okay?
[somber music]
And all you guys wanna do is put on a exhaust,
make it look fancy, it's not gonna run.
- Talk to him about it, I'm tired of arguing with-
- [Narrator] Mr. Rodriguez has arrived,
and Mr. Chung explains his plan to modify a bearing,
so one rear wheel can spin freely.
- The axle will come through,
and the wheel will turn.
- So let's go with this plan. - Mm-hmm.
- We're gonna need to cut.
- [Narrator] The rebellion is halted,
but there's only a few hours left till the shop goes dark.
- Come on, come on, come on, come on.
All right, focus, focus, fellas.
We can get this. - All right.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] With the welders adding weight to the front,
and Elizabeth still trimming her basket,
Mr. Chung bears down on his bearing.
- This will be the plate that will hold the bearing,
so that that one wheel will freewheel.
- [Narrator] It wouldn't be a monster if it wasn't loud,
Chris works on the headers.
[go-kart vrooming]
[speaker laughs]
- Great!
- You like that one, huh?
- [Speaker] Oh, yeah.
- [Narrator] The basket c*ck finally fits perfectly,
but attention shoppers,
this place will soon be closed.
- It is coming down to the wire, it's another hour to go.
- [Narrator] The wheel with Mr. Chung's bearing is ready.
- It's rolling a little bit tricky.
- [Speaker] I don't care right now
at this point. - Okay, this is rolling now.
[speaker laughs]
- [Narrator] The monster is now a freewheeler,
but will it turn?
[upbeat music]
It's do or die at Banning High.
[speaker laughs] - Oh!
[speaker laughs]
- We have our Monster shopping cart now.
[speaker laughs]
[go-kart vrooming]
[somber music]
[speaker laughs]
- We owe someone an apology here, right?
Don't we owe someone an apology here?
I thought I'd bring that out.
- Sorry, Mr. Rodriguez. - No, no.
- [Narrator] No apologies from this bunch.
Maybe tomorrow's challenge will straighten them out.
[speaker laughs]
[intense music]
A dry lake bed in Nevada is the perfect setting
for the baddest backyard monster of them all.
Meet Draka, the brainchild of sculptor, Lisa Nigro.
[funky music]
- I used to be freak Magnetta,
but I got tired on being a freak magnet,
and so I built this beast, and now I'm the dragon lady.
- Dragon man at work. [Lisa laughs]
Dragon man at work.
- [Speaker] Nothing.
- [Narrator] When her truck
and three trailers are coupled together,
Draka is 124 feet long with a 50 foot wingspan.
- Wings and we're ready to fly.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Everyone wants a ride on Draka.
She's a rolling party animal
with an onboard bar and plush seating.
[upbeat music]
- [Lisa] So anybody who's been involved
with the dragon for very long, you get bit.
- [Narrator] Or burned.
[Draka exhaling fire]
Because Draka breathes a 30 foot arc of flame.
[upbeat music]
- [Lisa] We're using compressed air
to get that kind of blast.
And each year it's gotten bigger and bigger.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Like the mythic dragons of old,
Lisa believes that Draka has magical powers.
- She reveals the truth people don't always want to see.
Sometimes the truth is good,
and sometimes it's evil. [chuckles]
[Draka exhaling fire]
[eerie music]
- [Narrator] It's day four
at the rock crawler sleep deprivation lab.
- I gave up at about 4:30.
- I called it quits at five.
- Last night I stayed up all night.
- I've been up over 24 hours.
- [Speaker] Is it working?
- Yeah.
[engine vrooming]
- [Narrator] The major accomplishment of the night,
a working engine.
- It's running good, we got no oil leaks,
there's no fuel squirting out of any of our connections.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Eric takes a breather to fly his favorite toy.
- Oh, does this seem like a good thing
to be doing with no sleep?
- I'm using this to gauge how much articulation
I still have in my finger.
[toy helicopter chuffing]
- [Narrator] At last FedEx has been fed,
and the KMC wheels have arrived.
- Fantastic for a freebie.
- [Narrator] The suspension system is nearly complete,
time for a stationary test.
[upbeat music]
- [Speaker] The suspension design
does what it's supposed to do,
it allows this thing to swing a whole 12-inch arc.
Steve did a great job.
[upbeat music]
- [Speaker] All right, here they are.
- [Narrator] Rich finally shows up
with custom-made driveshafts.
But what about the tires?
- [Speaker] Just turn that, it'll open.
- You won't believe it when you drop it off,
you're not gonna believe- - Julee's tracked him down,
they're on a truck just a few hours away.
- Rich? - Yes.
- The tires are coming.
[speaker laughs] - When?
- He said, at the latest eight o'clock.
- The problem we're gonna have is,
we're not gonna be able to get them mounted
after eight o'clock tonight.
[upbeat music]
- It's about 6:30 on the afternoon of the fourth day.
We just got the brakes sorted out,
we're finishing up the front suspension.
The only major subsystem left is to put the radiator in.
Next weekend probably gonna be monster house
because I'll probably end up gutting the garage
and starting over.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Their work is almost done.
And now Steve can fill the nitrogen shocks.
[upbeat music]
But nothing's happening.
- Don't even raise it up.
- Don't have enough pressure. - Yeah, it won't work.
- [Narrator] The standard Schrader valves in the shocks
can't handle the high pressure,
and the custom Schrader valves they need
aren't an everyday item.
- I need the right valve.
[upbeat music]
- Chance of getting some of...
- Getting some of what?
- The Schrader valve, right?
- The right ones for these shocks.
- That's a 15 cent part, but it's hard to get.
- I can't roll it outta here until I fill them.
[upbeat music]
- We got tires, I gotta hear something.
- The tires coming in. - What time is it?
- [Narrator] In the midst of crisis,
the Toyo tires appear from the gloom.
- [Speaker] It's not gonna go out.
- We'll have to send them out to have them mounted,
we're not gonna be able to do it here,
it's too stiff on the walls.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] There's a challenge to run tomorrow morning.
So after 40 hours without sleep,
Eric and Steve are getting a little tired.
- There you go, there you go.
[upbeat music]
- I just want to get on national TV, look on you.
[metal clanging]
- [chuckles] Congratulations!
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] It takes 30 minutes to mount one tire.
- There you go! - Hey!
- [Narrator] There are three to go.
[speaker chuckles]
[somber music]
[clock ticking]
Marty focuses his 3D powers on the Schrader valve.
If he can't make them work,
the rock crawler will just become garage clutter.
[somber music]
- When we tighten them up, they're still loose,
there's no seal.
That's the problem, we're not getting a seal.
- [Narrator] It's the classic O-ring scenario.
At 4:30 a.m., Marty discovers
that Dave's garage has a fine selection.
[upbeat music]
- Look at this, Steve.
Look at it.
Pulls up snug.
- I bet you it works.
[upbeat music]
I can't.
Ready?
[worker pumping gas in shocks]
- [Narrator] It does work.
Now they can head for the rock pile.
Backyard monsters factoid.
Sylvan Goldman of Oklahoma City
invented the shopping cart in 1937.
It was so popular that by 1940,
he had a seven-year waiting list for new ones.
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
[upbeat music]
The backyard monsters are alive.
It's time to race and crawl.
[upbeat music]
- I got a couch in the basement
that I've been wanting to get rid of, so.
- [Speaker] Let's do it.
- [Narrator] Like all newborn monsters,
the rock crawler must be tested.
- Oh, whoa!
- Oh!
[speaker chuckles] Oh-oh!
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] But this vehicle will be climbing something
a lot harder than that. - Ah!
[speaker laughs] - Hold on to all this.
[upbeat music]
- Oh God!
- [Narrator] It's teacher versus the students,
and Mr. Chung is looking for revenge.
He's giving them a headstart.
[upbeat music]
But the world's fastest shopping cart
starts to outmaneuver the competition.
Now will they learn some respect?
- [Speaker] Go, go, go ahead.
[go-kart vrooming]
[speaker mumbles]
[go-kart vrooming]
- [Narrator] If he can't kick their little butts
in the classroom, at least he can do it on the track.
[speaker cheering]
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Finally they're ready to rock crawl.
Rich is in the driver's seat.
- Watching the Monster Garage,
I thought we could build a better rock crawler.
- [Narrator] Try a smaller rock, Rich.
- Small rock. - Small rock.
[rock crawler vrooming]
- I thought we could build a better rock crawler.
- [Speaker] Rich just broke it.
[rock crawler vrooming]
- [Speaker] There you go.
- [Narrator] A shock reservoir is loose,
but someone's belt will secure it.
[upbeat music]
Their crawlers ready to rock.
But Eric's got something else in mind.
- My God!
[spectators cheering and applauding]
[upbeat music]
- Driveshaft's gone.
- My turn.
- [Narrator] With no front driveshaft,
there'll be no rock crawling for Steve.
Who could care less?
The dude hasn't slept in three days.
- You wanna music with fun now.
[rock crawler vrooming]
- [Speaker] Whoa!
- [Speaker] Tails are right off.
- You wanna music with fun now.
[upbeat music]
- Here he comes again, look at this.
[upbeat music]
- Oh, no! [speaker laughs]
- [Speaker] Oh!
[speakers laughing] - All right.
All right.
[upbeat music]
- Where did you guys steal the shopping cart from?
- [Narrator] The Banning team has been granted an audience
with the Monster king himself.
- [Jesse] That's cool.
- [Speaker] And I wanna see it go.
- Okay. [speaker laughs]
- [Speaker] Just don't hit nothing.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] It's a Karmann Ghia versus the Costco Express.
[upbeat music]
- [laughs] This is good. - Okay.
- [Speaker] Hey, Mark, you set?
[intense music]
[speaker laughs]
- [laughs] Look at him!
- Ooh-h*! [Jesse laughs]
- He just got your [beep]
[Jesse laughs]
[somber music]
- [Narrator] Back at the quarry,
there's no putting the pseudo rock crawler
back together again.
- [Speaker] We shred a line on a tire
and the whole thing goes down the tubes.
- [Speaker] Yeah.
- But our Schrader valve is still there, guys.
- [Speaker] Yep.
- Next project is Monster Garage cleanup.
[speaker chuckles]
- [Narrator] These guys will get their Mac tool kits,
but maybe they should have had Mr. Chung on their team.
- Not gonna run.
[upbeat music]
- [Narrator] The story ends well
for the high schoolers from hell,
and the school gets some cool tools.
[upbeat music]
- Good job guys to give you guys screwdrivers.
[speaker laughs] We got some tools
for the school too,
just in time for you guys to graduate.
[speaker chuckles]
- [Narrator] A Monster Garage high-five for Banning High,
as for the rock crawler that wasn't.
- It's a dead monster, but it's a good monster.
Rock on!
- [Narrator] We won't be seeing this one again,
but the next backyard Monster challenge
is just around the bend.
[upbeat music]
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster Garage
♪ Monster
♪ Monster
[upbeat music]
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03x04 - Backyard Monsters
Watch/Buy Amazon
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."