Little Red Wagon Part 1

Welcome to trucks. You know, one thing I've been getting a lot of requests for lately is a really cool build up

on a Dodge and that is a valid request because these things have a ton of potential,

but I'm not talking about a brand new Dodge. Why?

Well, because number one, any new truck is really expensive and number two,

most people don't want to mess with a new truck because they're afraid of avoiding their warranty.

So picking up something that's a few years old like this 99 short bed four wheel drive is a smart way to go.

Now, the reason is you can still get these in really good shape.

They're tough, they're reliable. This is by far the most popular body style that Dodge has ever done

and they're affordable. Yeah, pretty much the perfect project vehicle. And trust me,

when we get down tweaking on this thing, it's still gonna be cheaper and a lot cooler than anything you're gonna find on a showroom floor.

Ok. The direction for this build up now, most of, you know, that years ago Dodge made

pretty much the ultimate hardcore off road truck. It was called the power wagon.

It was tough, rugged, almost indestructible

and slow.

You could almost outrun one on a good day.

Now, in the seventies, Dodge went another direction. They came out with the little red Express.

This was a two wheel drive street truck that according to the magazines of the day

was the fastest production vehicle at the time,

but it wasn't much for towing or hauling or working.

Well, what we're gonna do is something that dodge Chevy Ford. None of those guys have thought to do.

We're gonna take the awesome off road ability of the power wagon

and combine it with the street performance of the little Red Express. And we are gonna build a vehicle called the little red wagon,

you know, for grown ups.

Ok. The first thing that we're gonna deal with on this project is a performance. Now, this truck has a 5.2 L V8 strong, healthy,

just not strong enough. So we're gonna help it out with a super charger from A T I pro charger and you can see this kit is complete. It's got all the hoses, all the tubing, the tubing is powder coated,

all the aluminum is polished. You've got all your bracketry, all your hardware and auxiliary fuel system, even the bracket to mo everything in. Now, what makes this kit really unique though is you have a belt driven Polish centrifugal supercharger

and an inter cooler. Now, real quick. A supercharger is basically an air compressor,

it compresses air and that builds boost. That's good.

It also builds heat, that is bad.

So that hot blast of air comes out, goes through the inner cooler and it's cooled back down.

That gives you a cool dense blast of air and

that's where you get your power. So if you want the most power you can get out of your super charger.

You really need to interco

it.

First, we're gonna get rid of all the stock air intake system

and install the new intake pad,

then modify the P CV hose.

Next, we need to make room for that super charger, which means off comes the factory belt

and tensioner.

Here you go, mo

now we are ready to start putting on the good stuff and you don't wanna do that on an old nasty engine. So after a little bit of clean up and some paint

we're gonna start by putting on this bracket

and it just bolts in place where the stock tensioner went.

Now, of course, this holds your super charger. You got a new tension or an adjustment and that's all nice. But what's really unique are the little details. Notice you have a hose clamp here to hold this air conditioning line out of the way

you have hardware to remount your coil down in between these brackets.

Now, these kind of details make this kit a really nice install.

All right, that takes care of that. When we come back,

super Charger goes on.

Hey, welcome back to trucks. The project that I'm working on today is called the Little Red Wagon. And the subject is this 99 dodge. Now, what we're doing is putting on an A T I pro charger to get some serious power out of this engine. Now, like I said before the break, the pro charger is a centrifugal supercharger and it's probably the easiest part of this install because it just bolts on to the bracketry

that we put on earlier.

All right, I have all the hoses and tubing assembled ready to be set into place. But first

I got something I want to show you

this

is called a surge valve. And what it does is release pressure. For example,

you're driving down the road, you got your foot buried in it, you're building lots of boost. Right.

Well, as soon as you take your foot off the gas, those throttle plates close and all that boost

has nowhere to go.

That's where this thing comes in.

It opens

and it allows that pressure

to be channeled back into the intake tube

before the supercharger. So it can be used again

without something like this

something's gonna blow. And that's never a good thing unless, of course, it's somebody else's truck and

then it's awesome.

The inner cooler is the next piece to go on

and it mounts under the front of the truck behind the bumper.

Between the frame rails up here underneath the radiator. Now to put it on,

you have mounting brackets,

this one bolts to an existing hole. This one, you just have to drill one hole

with your inner cooler in place.

Just hook up the rest of your tubing.

Now, make sure that you check and double check that your clamps are tight

because if they're not,

you're gonna find out real quick when you start this thing up.

The last thing we're gonna put on is this auxiliary fuel system now before you go? No, you mean I have to take the gas tank down. No, no, it's a lot easier than that. You can relax.

This is a supplemental fuel pump that works in conjunction with your stock fuel pump to give you the extra fuel that you're gonna need.

Now, it just mounts inside the inner frame rail

using the supplied bracketry and hardware

and then it just plugs into your stock fuel line.

Now, this little guy here

is an electronic fuel management unit.

This controls the amount of fuel that comes out of this pump, this mounts inside the cab

and the cool thing is it is completely adjustable so you can really fine tune your air fuel ratio.

Make that engine run the way it's supposed to.

All right, I'm gonna put this stuff on

you take a break when we come back,

we're gonna talk about exhaust.

Welcome back to trucks and our project little red wagon

where we're breathing some new life into this late model dodge. Now, the super chargers on inter cooler in place, we got some serious air blowing into this thing.

Now, we need to get some air blowing out. That means headers. Come on.

This is a set of stainless steel shorty headers that we got from JB A. Now you add these to a super charger, you better hold on.

They've got everything that you would expect from a quality set of headers, nice manual bands, thick flans, high temperature coating.

The best part is though is you can bolt these on and still use your stock exhaust system.

Of course, we're not gonna do that but you could if you wanted to.

Now, while we're at it,

we also got these power cables from JB A.

This will make sure we have plenty of fire flow into that engine too.

All right, with the new headers on and the plug wires in place. We're pretty much done under the hood. But

what about that hood? We're not gonna leave a little nasty stock hood on there. Are we? No, come on.

Now, I wanted something that was cool and had some style because the little Red Express had some style

that meant a call to Keystone Restyling products for one of their good hoods. Now, the first thing that really grabs you about this hood

is that big A Ar Ka

style scoop blended right into the center.

Yeah, you Mopar guys know what I'm talking about. Now, this scoop is fully functional air goes in here, goes down into the air box and then into your stock air inlet.

The hood is also fiberglass, fully finished top and on the back side. So it's gonna look good when you open the hood

and putting it in is just utilizing your stock hinges, latches, grill.

All you have to do is get this thing painted and put it on and putting it on

goes like that.

Ok.

Maybe not quite that quick. But installing a keystone hood is one of the easiest installs that you'll do

and the difference it makes in the look of your truck. That is huge. Look at that. That is,

that is just cool.

All right back to the exhaust system.

Now, the little red Express had a very unique exhaust system.

It had dual stacks that ran it behind the cab.

So I wanted something unique for the little red wagon,

but, you know, we can't use stacks. So

wouldn't look right. But what we can use are these polished stainless steel tips from styling concepts.

Now, these are made to go right through the body of the rig and they're designed to where this outer shell doesn't get hot. So you're not gonna buckle your paint. Now, I know a lot of you guys are thinking now, wait a minute,

if you're gonna bring them through the body that means you like need to need to cut.

Yeah, that's right.

We are gonna cut two great big holes right in the side of the bed, one on each side

and trust me, it's gonna look really cool.

Ok.

Yeah,

then just bolt in the tip

and that's it. Now, not only does this look really good but it's different. You're not gonna see this on just every truck running down the road and that's cool.

It also really cleans up the back of this truck because now

I can get rid of these pipes that are hanging down underneath.

We'll be back after this.

You know, the world of trucks is pretty interesting because there's a lot of vehicles that are built for a specific purpose, like a cement mixer or a fire engine. And one of the most unique is the wrecker. You know, the truck that's got the little crane in the back of it,

but the record didn't just spring into existence one day by accident.

Now, it evolved into existence because of accidents,

believe it or not. The wrecker originated in Chattanooga, Tennessee,

the brainchild of Ernest Walter Holmes senior

because those crazy Southern drivers kept driving off the road in town in the deep valleys of the Smoky Mountains

and they needed to have some way to get him back

the hill

starting with the 1913 Cadillac Touring Car.

Holmes cut the back out, made a bed and installed a twin boom wrecker assembly. And in 1916, the wrecker was born as a vehicle with the sole purpose of salvaging wrecked vehicles.

In 1918, the design was upgraded and patented and simply called the 485. Why?

Because that's what it cost 485 bucks without the truck.

The earliest example of this is this 1913 local

mobile

and it looks more like a carriage than a truck.

Now, the local Mobile was not made for very long, probably because the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

But we do know that it had an 82 horsepower six cylinder in it.

That was a lot of engine for 1913.

Of course, when you think of a wrecker, you naturally think trucks

like this 1929 model AA Ford.

But since not everybody made trucks in the thirties, converting a big limo into a tow truck was very common

like this 1929 Packard

that started out live hauling rich people to fancy parties

and ended up pulling rich people out of ditches when they couldn't make it home from their fancy parties.

Or this 29 Chrysler five window coupe

that was modified with a bed and crane.

Now all it needs is a

hemi

as things got heavier and the jobs got tougher

Holmes came out with the W 35

and this had much heavier twin booms

and the cable drums were turned by PTO from the engine

when World War Two broke out.

The military talked Holmes into adding outboard legs for stability.

And the mighty W 45 was born,

some of which are still in use today all around the world.

As times continue to change, people begin to demand damage free towing.

So new designs were developed like this 1974 cradle snatcher

that lifts your vehicle with straps to avoid damage.

This was the forerunner to the damage free towing systems that are in use today.

Now, I bet you're wondering where you can go to see all this really cool stuff.

Yeah, I thought you never asked

the international Towing and Recovery Museum in Chattanooga,

not only has these actual records,

but it also chronicles other things associated with this unique profession.

Let's face it. If you're a gearhead, you have a special spot for a record. They're cool. They're strong. They're unique. Heck, most of us find our next projects hanging on the back of them. Now, hopefully this gives you an insight to the unique history of the record.

The fact that they have their own museum dedicated to them should tell you something.

You know,

one area that most off road rigs are really lacking in is in the emergency brake.

That's because they're usually such a hassle to hook up once you've lifted the truck and got it ready to go wheeling

and most guys don't want to mess with it and they just leave them unhooked,

not the smartest thing to do

an answer to that problem comes from high angle drive line

in what they call the drive shaft emergency brake. Now, basically this is a rotor

that bolts to this flange that comes out of the transfer case,

then your drive shaft continues this direction down to the rear end.

Then you've got this bracket that bolts to the transfer case

and you have a mechanical brake that pinches down on the rotor

giving you a nice solid reliable emergency brake that you can really depend on.

This is cheap insurance and you can only get it from Jessi

at high angle drive line. That's it for today. More little red wagon next week. We'll see you then.