Wicked Willies Payoff

The day on trucks. It's one of the most popular projects Stacy's ever built and you've waited a long time to see it finished. Well, today is the big day on roads, mud and even water. We're pushing project Wicked Willie to the very edge to see if it will run as good as it looks.

You want more of that.

Keep watching trucks.

Welcome to trucks. You are gonna love this week's show.

You know, sometimes when you look at a project like this old Bronco and

you see floors that look like they're made out of Swiss cheese and a body that's just beat all the pieces and the suspension that's totally thrashed.

Well, that can be a little overwhelming. Matter of fact,

it really doesn't seem like this could ever be anything worth talking about again.

But I'm here to tell you if you take your time, don't get discouraged.

You might be surprised what you eventually end up with. That brings me up to the subject. The act of today's show.

It's without a doubt, one of the most popular vehicles that I've ever built. And you guys have waited a long time to see it. In action.

So today is the day and the vehicle just in case you haven't guessed is The Wicked Willies?

All right. When I first sat down and designed project Wicked Willies, its purpose was twofold. First, it needed to have a bulletproof drive train to handle extreme four wheeling and two. Well, I needed to look good and that can be a pretty tough combination.

Of course, standing here looking at the finished truck, It's pretty easy to forget that this is an entirely different animal than what I originally started out with. Now,

just in case you don't remember or you missed it.

Here's a look at the build up from the beginning.

It all began with a stock 1955 Willie's wagon that I bought from a buddy.

It had the usual rust in the quarters and the floor. But overall, it was in pretty good shape.

The engine and running gear was all stock and very worn out. But that was all right because that was all about to change.

The first job on a very long list was to disassemble the front clip,

remove the interior,

then lift off the body so we could get to the original drive train and pull it out.

Replacing the old drive train is a high performance clutch,

a massive NV 4505 speed transmission

and a bullet proof Atlas two transfer case.

Of course, that was all bolted behind a huge dodge 360 magnum crate motor kicking out about 350 horses.

Then it was all centered squared up in the frame

and finally custom motor mounts and transmission mounts were fabricated and welded into place

to make the frame strong enough to support that heavy duty drive train.

I boxed the entire frame

then welded in a TCI pedal assembly to hold the clutch and brake master cylinders

and bring the new pedals up through the floor in the stock location.

The rear axle is a curry high pinion nine inch Ford

and it's held in place with custom springs that supply six inches of lift.

The front axle is a custom Dana 44 from hicks four by four

and of course, disc brakes are at all four corners

so we can get those big 35 inch super swampers to stop. Finally big heavy duty custom drive shaft from Tom Woods tied the drive train to the axles and also eliminate a potential weak spot.

Next, it was time to deal with that rusty body

and I replaced both front floor pans,

both rockers

and the floor supports with new metal.

Then I shot the newly restored body with a very cool house of colors. Sherwood green pearl. Yeah,

I followed that up with the interior and threw in custom carpet

door and side panels,

gauges and dash

seats

and a tilt steering column with a custom wheel.

All right. That shows you what I started out with and gives you a very quick overview of the build up of the Wicked Willies. Now that brings us up to date except for a couple of things. Now to finish off the body, I custom made these wooden panels that fit into the indentations of the body. Now that not only gives us a really cool woody wagon look

but the light color of the wood also breaks up the dark green and that looks really cool. Now, obviously, the wood is sealed both inside and out and it's got a ton of clear code on it.

But something you need to remember about exterior wood,

it will eventually deteriorate and you'll have to replace it.

But hard work is done because now you've got those to use as a pattern

under the hood. You can see just how nice everything tucked up inside here. Now, I did have to recess the firewall two inches to make room for the distributor on that big 360.

And as you can see, I didn't have room for a mechanical fan, but that's all right because an electric will work just as good

up front. I've got a bumper that I carved out of an S 10 bumper. Now, it not only holds the winch in here,

but I also left these ends on to serve as guides. Now, let me show you what I mean.

Notice the height of the bumper

is

right at the same height as the fenders.

The rockers and of course, the transfer case up underneath

that way if I start hitting big rocks and stuff with the bumper. Well,

it's a pretty good indicator that I'll probably hit my rockers or my transfer case and cause some serious damage.

So the bumper ax is an early warning system primitive, but it works.

Ok.

Now, there is no doubt

that the wicked willies is impressive looking,

but I know the question that's driving you crazy

is how well does all this stuff work together? Is it just a street machine with big tires or

is it an off Roader that's trying to look good

or

is it the perfect combination of both? Well,

I already know the answer to that question because I

have already put a few scratches on this thing that you don't know about, but you,

you're gonna have to wait till after the break to find out the answer to that yourself

next today. It's payoff time as we tackle the mean streets in an even meaner ride.

And later, Captain Stacy is taking us down the river and up the creek, the Greek bank that is

welcome back to trucks. All right, before the break, we took you through the extensive frame up, restoration of project Wicked Willies just to refresh your memory and what we did to it.

Now it's time to take it out on the highway and see how it does on the road.

Remember it doesn't do you any good to have a really cool four wheel drive.

You got a trailer it everywhere when you want to go four wheeling because it's not street legal. So

we're gonna see how this thing does on the highway Perth. So here we go.

Ok. First things first,

having those original gauges restored and recalibrated by United Speedometer was worth every penny

because not only do they look really cool,

but they also retained the original style of the dash. And man, I love that.

Now, the best part is since all the internal workings are brand new.

Well, heck, those are just as accurate as

anything you can buy in the market. Now,

steering combination is extremely comfortable and it sets me up high enough to where I can look out over the hood and the fenders very important when you want to go four wheeling

also shift there right here by my right hand where it should be.

All right, we're putting along here about 20 miles an hour and everything feels great.

But the speed limit is much more than this and that big old 360 is just begging for me to jump on it.

So

who am I to argue with mother

boar?

You might want to hold on to something?

That's great.

Oh,

man, the sound of that is great.

All right. Now, there's no doubt that the NB 4500 is an awesome truck transmission, but it is not for speed shifting.

So it's not gonna shift like a Richmond or a month, a year or something like that.

But it does have something that most of those don't have. And that

is gear number five. So I can cruise all day long on the freeway.

Come along at about 70. Check out these radio. Super swampers.

Yeah, you can hear them, but they're not that bad.

They're actually a lot better than I thought they'd be. This is livable.

Now, the steering

heck, it's great light, easy.

No wandering. Heck for what this is. That is impressive.

The handling of the wheelies is excellent, except for one thing,

I don't have any swing bars on it. So I get good axle

flex when I'm off road.

Unfortunately, that means that when I go around a sharp corner

or I'm exhilarating heavily,

I'm gonna get some body weight

now, driving around town,

this can just be mildly annoying.

But if you're gonna take an exit ramp

or make a quick maneuver on the freeway. Whoa.

Yeah, it can be a little dangerous,

which means I am gonna have to rig up a sway bar system on this truck.

Who

around town the Willies is surprisingly maneuverable in spite of how big it is

and it will sit in idling traffic all day long without overheating.

That is nice.

The visual impact of the wicked Willies is one is really amazing

in a sea of drab, dull, boring cars and trucks

and it stands out like a big old green watermelon. And I tell you what, I've gotten more thumbs up with this truck than almost anything I've ever built.

Well, that wraps up the road test of project wicked Willies and here's what we got.

We have a solid reliable truck that handles surprisingly well on the road,

it accelerates like a mother

and visually shoot, it absolutely knocks people's socks off. Unfortunately, it also has a lot of body roll around corners

and, you know, it gets bad gas mileage,

but as you probably guessed it's time for a break. But after the break, well, I'm gonna take this thing out to places where there aren't any roads and then, then we'll find out what it'll do

and I've got a spot for you right in the back seat. So hurry back

next. The muds playing as the willies proves it's as much go as it is. Show. Stay tuned.

You just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Welcome back to trucks and the full blown road test of project Wicked Willies. Now, earlier in the show took you through the full build up of this vehicle. Then I took it out on the highway showed you what kind of road manners it's got.

Now it's time to kick this thing in four wheel drive and get with it.

Now, before I start hammering on this thing

and there's some prep work I need to do. First,

I'm gonna knock off these spinners

that way. I don't bust them up on the rocks and stuff.

Then it's also a good idea to take some armor all. Or a solution of baby oil, spray the hole under carriage of the vehicle. That way when you get it money,

when you go to clean it up, well, shoot, it'll just hose right off

and once I get all this done

it's time to rock.

All right, let's check out what kind of gears we got.

Now. Low gears are important because it allows you to use the power and the torque of your engine

and still keep your speeds down. So

you don't end up tearing things up or worse, rolling down a mountain.

It's easy enough to do that anyway. Now notice everything in first gear, low range, no feet on the pedals and we're literally just crawling along here. But what's really amazing

is we continue to crawl

as we go up the steep hill. No foot on the gas motors idling. That is what low gears do for you.

And that is amazing.

The next thing we're going to look at is axle articulation and wheel travel.

Now, you can see why there's no sway bars on the wheelies. This allows the axles to pivot and move and let the truck slink over tough obstacles and keep most of the tires on the ground. Awesome.

Now, low gearing is great, but you gotta know how to use it. Now, I'm sitting here trying to crawl up this really steep hill and I've got the power to do it,

but

it's muddy. I'm just gonna sit here and dig my way to China. I'm not gonna get anywhere.

Now, does that mean that I can't make this hill? Heck, no. What I'm gonna do is back up,

select a higher gear. Get a little bit of, run, a little bit of momentum

blow through this thing.

Ha.

All right, driving in mud is a whole different approach to rock rolling.

You need to have some momentum and some wheel spin to get this thing. Designed

tires for blood. And that is a ball

and horsepower with the wicked willies

means as close as a goose on the gas pedal.

Baby.

There is one drawback to play in the mud

and one of these days you're gonna have to clean it up.

But what the heck

after the break, Stacy's convinced himself this wicked green watermelon can fly

and he may just be right.

Welcome back to truck. We're test driving the wicked willies. Now, we've already done a lot, but we still have a lot more to do. So. Hold on and let's go.

All right, when you're driving in water and you've already checked to see how deep it is. So you don't drown yourself.

You wanna be careful that you don't get too much tire spin

because a sharp rock on a wet tire

is just like a knife on soft butter. It'll slice your tires all to pieces.

And at the cost of a super swamper,

you don't wanna do that, but you don't wanna get stuck either.

A fine line there.

No big rocks.

All right. If you're gonna try a hill like this,

well, it's not just how steep it is.

It's also this break over angle up here on top because that is where you can damage your transfer case, high center of the vehicle and worst thing is bust your body up. Now, this looks pretty close.

I'll tell you what you can look at them all day long, but eventually

you're gonna have to try it and that's exactly what we're gonna do.

Now. Not all four wheeling about going slow. Sometimes you got a goose it to get over the hill, which is what we gotta do here. By the way, there's no seatbelts back there.

Oh,

that

I work close.

Wow.

That takes care of the test drive of the wicked willies. It did everything that I expected it to do on the highway. No surprises there. And it took everything I could throw at it off road and made it look easy. Matter of fact, once I get it cleaned up, shoot, you'll never be able to tell I took this thing wheeling

except for a few scratches. But those are badges, man. Those are battle scars. Now, you might be thinking why in the world would I spend so much time and money building something like this and then be so immersible to it?

Well, I designed it to be driven like that and you deserve to see what it can do.

And if I can't handle what it was built for, it's really not the wicked willies, is it?

And now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities

in the world of power tools. There are some that you've just got to have if you're a, do it yourself or things like a drill

and a jigsaw,

absolutely imperative if you're gonna finish some of your projects. Now, wouldn't it be cool if one tool did the job of all of these impossible? Nope. Black and Decker has come out with the firestorm multi tool. Now, the magic to this tool is you have a single power unit

that goes from a drill

to a jigsaw

to a detail sander

all in just a matter of seconds.

Now, it also comes with an extra battery, a charger and a really cool carrying case. So you don't lose these parts all over the garage. Now, you can pick up one of these power tools for about 70 bucks.

One tool that every mechanic has got to have is a creeper so you can roll underneath vehicles, however,

they have one major flaw,

any kind of trash that you hit with those wheels, it's gonna stop you dead in your tracks

that usually happens when you're buried under a truck, greasy tools in either hand.

But there is a solution to this problem

and it is called

the Creeper Sweeper by Butler and associates. Now, it's a custom caster. It's got a little bristle brush mounted in front of the wheel and it clears a path so nothing gets up under there and locks up that wheel ingenious design.

Now, these bolt right in place of your stock caster

and they're only eight bucks each for a price like that.

Everybody needs some of these. Check that out

next week on trucks.

It may not look like much now, but this old Bronco is the start of project. Crazy Horse

and Stacy's got a mess on his hands as he begins throwing out the bad

and bolton on the good.

Then we'll take a look at a cool 48 Chevy Street truck that's out on loan from Stacy's Bank officer.

That's all next week on trucks

for a VHS copy of today's show call Toll Free 1877853 7260. Show videos are just 1295 plus shipping and hand

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