Payoff Of Sergeant Rock Army Truck

Hey, welcome to trucks. You know, if you watch this show very often, you know that I'm always telling you to plan your project out and take your time with it and decide where you wanna go with it. And don't forget the small details because these are the things that will make or break a project. And

fortunately this is a time consuming process,

but it's worth it because once you see all those parts come in, you see that vehicle starting to go together

and nothing like that in the world.

Now, if you have no idea what I'm talking about or have never experienced how cool that is.

That's what I'm gonna show you today.

Now, the last few weeks I've been concentrating pretty heavily on building the suspension and the engine and the brakes of Sergeant Rock here,

but that's not all I've been doing.

Oh, I've also been laying out the rest of the truck. So right now I'm gonna show you what the interior is gonna look like.

Now, obviously, I can't just put any old seat in Sergeant Rock. Oh, man, I need some vintage something that looks like a forties bomber seat but

it needs to be safe too because you know, I am gonna four wheel this thing.

So we went to master craft seats and here's what we came up with.

We started with one of their state of the art, low back suspension racing seats. You can see there's no springs here. It's a suspension seat which will support your lower back, your kidneys and the rest of your body when you're banging around off road

and then

they covered it with the stressed pleated brown leather, like an old bomber jacket. And

then of course, every jacket it's got to have pockets. So they put in the cargo pockets

and then to finish it off, I had him stitch in a Sergeant first class patch because

this is Sergeant Rock. This is awesome. I have got a contemporary seat

with a vintage look.

Now, the cool thing is if you want a set of these seats, you can get them. All you have to do is call up master craft seats. Tell them you want a set of the rock seats. That's what these are called.

They'll stitch you up a pair, whatever material you want and there you go. These would be killer in a vintage Jeep or even a hot rod. Now to help hold me in this seat,

I also got a couple of their five point safety harnesses.

All right, with the seats. Decided. What about the steering? Now, obviously, I'm building this thing with kind of the,

the look and the feel of an old school, late forties, early fifties hot rod. So the steering column has got to reflect that.

So

I went to Borgeson

got this polished aluminum Roadster column

and their column drop

and their aluminum floor mount. Now, this stuff is about as basic and simple as you can imagine.

This column has no electrical in it. So there's no turn signals, no horn, no tilt, just long, thin and skinny, just like they had them in the old days.

Now for a traditional style steering wheel, you have got some choices out there. For example, Borgeson has got a classic three spoke or the four spoke. You can get these with leather wrap or just plastic

or if you want something a little different in that same style,

check this out from Grant. This is called the De La Hay

series and it's pretty slick. It's got rivets going through the spokes, give you kind of a new art deco look. So as you can see, you got some choices out there, you need to shop around, find what you like for the vehicle you're building

for gauges. Once again, it was really important to keep things traditional looking.

So I'm gonna use a full six gauge set of these classic gauges from auto meter. Now check this out,

they've got the little numbers and that little thin arrow pointer.

You got the small chrome

bezel and even the curved glass man. These look like something that would have been in a World war two airplane,

but they have modern electronics, all the sending units, all the hardware. So you can hook these things up and they're gonna work. So you have vintage look and modern technology

now with the interior all laid out. What about the rest of the body?

Well, I guess it's time for me to show you how this thing's all gonna go together.

Now, the exhaust pipes are these big, huge five inches off of a Kenworth big rig

and they're gonna bolt right into those pockets that are built into the bed

using aluminum spacer. So the pipe doesn't get up against the paint and blister it.

Now, I know you've seen this gun pedestal and this is the real deal. This is actually made by a place called Saber Defense that makes them for the military.

So you're not gonna find that in your J's catalog.

Now, the gun mount

that was built by a couple of friends of mine, Mark Woodruff and Dave Marshall.

And there are a couple of airplane mechanics who are part of the volunteers who are restoring the Memphis Belle and this is actually superior to a factory mount. Check this out.

You've got your gun cradles on both sides, you've got your ammo boxes, you've got all the de

tens, all the locks, the thing rotates and elevates. This is a fantastic piece of work.

Then the guns slide into the cradles

and there you have it, everything is all mocked up

so you can get a really good idea what this is gonna look like.

Now, obviously, these guns aren't gonna do anything to help the off road ability of this truck.

They might do something to help clear the highway. Now, the next step,

the next step is to pull it all back apart again

because I still have some things I need to do to the frame and the drive train and the fuel system.

You know those details that I was talking about. That's ok because that's all part of a project like this. And each one of those steps brings you that much closer

to being done.

Ha

Hey, welcome back to trucks. You know, before the break, I took you through the assembly of the interior

and the bed of Sergeant Rock to kind of give you an idea what this thing is gonna look like. And also to show you the kind of late forties hot rod feel that I'm building into this thing,

but

you wouldn't necessarily call this a hot rod truck. No, but you would call that a hot rod truck. Yeah,

that's right. The Hairy Hauler.

Now, I know a lot of you guys might have thought I forgot about this truck. No,

I haven't. I've actually been working on laying out an intake and an exhaust system

that will match the insanity of building a chopped, shortened 34 international truck with an early injected hammy.

Ok. First of all the problem since I am running this truck fender list, I no longer have the lower body line that was established by the fenders and running ball. I've

just got the frame here. And since the cab is narrower here at the front, you're gonna see more of the frame from the side

than you would at the back of the cab,

which gives the optical illusion that the cab is sagging down in the rear. But in reality, if you look at this top line,

it's raking down to the front. So you have two lines that are fighting each other looks terrible. So

I need to re-establish this lower line and I'm gonna do it with an exhaust system.

So the next stop was to a place called Stainless Works up by Cleveland

that specializes in top quality stainless steel exhaust systems.

That's where I laid out what I had in mind for the exhaust.

Then

they went to work

and in a few weeks, here's what I got back.

Two huge polished stainless steel, four inch side pipes

with the bracketry, all welded on

bungs for the 02 sensors in place, clamps, even the mufflers are in place, but side pipes are only part of it.

The other half is a hand built set of polished stainless steel headers that are gonna make a really cool transition between the engine

and those side pipes,

these are specifically designed for the look and the stance of this particular truck.

And at this point, all I've got to do is bolt them on.

Now. That is awesome.

It completely changes the look of the truck, gives it the proper bottom line. So everything flows together properly.

That is a hot rod.

Ok. What about these air intake tubes? Now, keep in mind I am building something here that has the look and the feel of a sixties race car, which this definitely does, but

there's nothing new here. I mean, you've seen this before. I mean, this looks been around since.

Well, the sixties and I wanted something a lot wilder and crazier than this. So I went back to the guys at Stainless Works and this is what we created,

starting with a stainless steel flange,

four polished stainless steel tubes were hand built and then come down and end in a little ee tip, which is a stainless works exclusive.

Now, if you think this looks like a set of headers,

well, that was not by mistake. Take a look at this.

The Flans bolts down to the intake manifold

and then the pipes flow down and back and they match the exhaust system down below it. So you've got pipes flowing all over the place top bottom everywhere. As you can see the intake and the exhaust has now become one of the main focal points of this whole project, which is exactly what I wanted. Now, this is evil looking. This is the type of thing mothers don't want their kids to see.

But now you've seen it, it's too late. You will never be the same.

Now, I know some of you were thinking. Oh man, that's,

that's great. But, and I don't need anything like that.

I just need some mufflers for my S 10 man.

That's ok

because stainless works can help you out. They have got all kinds of mufflers, all kinds of tips.

X pipes, hardware complete systems for early and late model muscle cars and trucks. So you can get a whole system from them or you can get the parts that you want to put together the system that you need.

Either way with a name like stainless works, you know, it's made out of stainless steel. So, you know, it's gonna last and that's a good thing

because if you're gonna do it,

you wanna do it right?

You know, 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of two milestone events. Number one

in 1955 a group named Bill Haley and the Comets released a song called Rock around the Clock.

That was the beginning of rock and roll music and of course, that changed our culture forever.

The second

Chevrolet came out with the 55 Chevy.

Ok.

So what was so special about that?

Well, guys, it wasn't the car, although the car was cool it's what was under the hood. A small 265 V8.

That's right. 1955 was the birth of the small block Chevy engine

and that changed our hot rotting culture forever.

Now, before that,

the flathead Ford,

the Chrysler

hemi

and Oldsmobiles, Cadillacs and De Sotos were the engines being stuffed into hot rod cars and trucks and even boats.

But the little Chevy changed that because it was small and light.

It was affordable

and most importantly, it had tremendous potential for building serious power.

The 265 quickly gave way to a 283. Then the 327 then the 350

on and on all the way up to a 400 in the seventies,

but no matter what the displacement,

a little mouse motor was always a force to be reckoned with on the street or at the track.

And over the years, the Chevy small block won more NASCAR

circle track SCC and drag racing events than any other.

So good was the small block Chevy that it remained virtually unchanged for almost 40 years.

However, when the generation three and four Ls engines came out,

this was a total redesign with an aluminum block and new heads and a new ignition system. It was all new. It even looked different but still had the same potential to build serious power.

Another thing that Chevrolet did was create the idea of the crate engine way back in 1970 you could go to the dealership and order an LT one engine,

but it wasn't until the nineties that the idea of the factory crate engine really caught on as a whole

new generation of hot rodders embrace the tough little engine all over again.

That is why to this day you can still go down to the Chevy dealership and by a generation 123 or four small block Chevy crate engine to stuff into your project.

So am I saying that the small block Chevy is the ultimate hot rod engine? No, heck no.

There's been a lot of great engines come out over the years.

The guys you gotta give credit where credit is due without the small block Chevy hot rodding racing. Heck even the aftermarket would not be what it is today. And for that, we say thank you, Chevrolet.

You know, one part that takes a tremendous amount of abuse in a performance or an off road truck

is an automatic transmission because high horsepower and heat will kill these things if they're not built, right? Well, TCI Automotive knows how to build them, right? For example, this 727 torque flight is

with the toughest clutches and steels on the market

that will handle the stress of the high horsepower. Now to help you handle the heat TCI also has these deep thin aluminum oil pans, they hold a little more oil and they'll help you keep the temperature down.

Now, of course, the transmission is only as good as its torque converter

and they got you covered there with what they call the race converter. TCI offers these in 9, 10 and 11 inch sizes. Then of course, they've got shifters

like this one. They call the outlaw. Not only does it look really cool,

but it's got a universal mounting

and you can change the shift pattern so you can make this fit any vehicle just about any automatic transmission.

So if you need an automatic tranny or all the stuff that goes with it for Ford Chevy Dodge, it doesn't matter. TCI is just a call away.

Now. That's great if you're running an automatic. But what if you want a stick or a transfer case?

Well, simple, you call a place called Rockland Standard Gear because they specialize in standard shift transmissions

and transfer cases. You need a T 56 6 speed for your S 10 project or Ford F 150.

There it is,

you need a bulletproof built 205 transfer case for your rock crawler done.

Not only do these guys have the stuff, but they'll set them up with whatever gear ratios or hardware that you need for your particular project. So if you like to slam those gears and you want a gearbox that will handle that. Slamming

Rockland Standard Gear is a place you need to talk to

when you are custom building a vehicle. One thing that's eventually going to rear its head is that radiator,

what are you gonna do? Where are you gonna get it?

Well, C and R racing has got an answer for you because they have been building radiators for the racing world for years. NASCAR Indianapolis off road racing. These guys build them all and now they'll do one for you.

Here's what you get a state of the art aluminum radiator that will handle whatever cooling capacity that you need

your inlets and outlets, the filler neck, the mounting brackets are all where you want them. So this will fit your application.

Now, that's cool, but they also have a direct line of replacement radiators for muscle cars and trucks. So whether you just need to upgrade the radiator in your street truck or you need something custom built for your hot rod CNR racing,

pretty much wrote the book on how to keep an engine cool

when it comes to an engine that makes a statement. Now, there's very few things that have the visual impact of two fours on a tunnel ram or a supercharger.

Unfortunately, this set up can be a little bit of a nightmare to tune

in the past. Not anymore

because Barry Grant has just come out with a demon in line twins. Now, this is a twofour setup made specifically for a supercharger application. Now you still get all the benefits of the regular demon carburetors, but

these are also boot referenced, which means they respond instantly to the needs of the engine.

So you have no more of the hesitation, the the stumbling, the surging, all that junk that's normally associated with two fours on a super charger

and you drop the hammer on these and you are gone, your head's hitting the back of the window and that's what we want.

Barry Grant is the only place to get these.