Style Over Substance: Muscle Trux Build-Off

(Austin)>> Well we're in the home stretch of the Muscle Trux Shootout and you know what that means.

(LT)>> That means you're about to be disappointed by your Ford.

(Austin)>> Not likely. You do know that style can win over substance right?

(LT)>> Very funny. [ Music ] [ engine revving ] [ tires squealing ]

(LT)>> Yeah baby!

(Austin)>> Woo hoo! [ Music ]

(LT)>> Well we've added a whole lot of high performance upgrades to both of these muscle trucks but I haven't heard this little mouse trap run yet. So why don't you hit it.

(Austin)>> Time for it. [ engine starting ]

(LT)>> It's louder than before. [ engine revving ]

(Austin)>> You got ear plugs. [ engine revving ]

(LT)>> Yeah I don't know about muscle truck there buddy but it's loud.

(Austin)>> I mean it's more muscle-y than it was before.

(LT)>> Is it though?

(Austin)>> It's a V-6 man, work with what we've got, but I did have to wrap up a few little things and that's feeding this bad dude some fuel. The stock fuel pump will support 1,000 horsepower as long as it has the voltage to do it. So JMS Chip sent over a Fuel Max, which basically boosts that stock fuel pump, feeds those injectors all the fuel they need. Now pair that with the Pedal Max. That'll increase the throttle response and just make this truck fun to drive.

(LT)>> Now I'm no genius but you're not getting anywhere near 1,000 horsepower I can guarantee you that.

(Austin)>> Not close but hey, at least we know it can support it right?

(LT)>> Alright well today we're talking about appearance. We've done all the mechanical upgrades to both of these rigs. So it's time to make them look better, and on that note I've actually got to skip town. I'm going down to the powder coater cause I've got some parts for the SRT that are just finished up.

(Austin)>> Sweet, my wheels are hear, already mounted up. I've just got to see if they actually fit and what I'm gonna need to trim.

(LT)>> Alright catch you back in a minute.

(Austin)>> Later! [ mechanical humming ] [ Music ] [ drill humming ]

(Austin)>> Now I'm gonna go ahead and say this is one might fine little combo I selected here. We've got these black wheels with some slight machine work, and it's just gonna compliment the truck really well. Now these are some 22 x 12 Drop Stars. I picked them up from Summit Racing. They sent them on over and we got them wrapped in some 305/40 R22 General Grabber UHP's. Now the one thing we gonna have an equalizing factor between me and ole Lawrence. That's these tires. We've both gonna be rocking the exact same tire and the exact same size. Gotta make things fair you know? Can't give him too much of a head start, but the unique factor about these wheels is I ordered a negative 44 offset, and what that means is the that the wheel is gonna kick out 44 millimeters off the center, which if you know anything about it it's gonna do two things. Push it further to the front when you turn, and as you can see we're gonna have some rubbing issues. Then when you crank that wheel the other way you're gonna have the same problem in the back. Now yeah you could set up, and start doing some crazy measurements, and figure all this out, or you could just take a very well educated guess like myself, get a little lucky, and realize you're gonna have to cut some things but I'm okay with that. So let's get to it. [ Music ] [ saw buzzing ]

(Austin)>> Every truck's gonna be a little bit different when it comes to trimming, and you don't really want to cut more than you need to. So just take it slow, a little bit at a time, and figure it out. Finally get to bolt this tire and wheel up for good. Put this dude on the ground, make sure we got the clearance. Alright crank this dude up. Let's see if it rubs.

(LT)>> You sure this thing isn't misfiring?

(Austin)>> Don't worry about that.

(LT)>> Sounds kinda... [ tires squeaking ] ...keep going?

(Austin)>> Keep going.

(LT)>> That's it.

(Austin)>> Money. [ tires squeaking ]

(Austin)>> Ton of room. Gets really close in the back but.

(LT)>> Sorry I couldn't hear you over those motorcycles driving by! What was that?

(Austin)>> It gets really close in the back but doesn't rub. I think we're good.

(LT)>> Alright well that was way too much effort to put a wheel and tire on. I'm gonna show you how easy it can be.

(Austin)>> Yeah!

(LT)>> So instead of running an aftermarket wheel that's way too wide and sticks out so much it makes the truck look like it belongs in a Luke Bryan country music video I decided to keep things a little bit classier and go with a stock SRT Ram wheel. Now these are a 22 x 10. So there's no need to go any wider, but I got these powder coated a dark gun metal charcoal by the guys at Blast from the Past in Lebanon, Tennessee. Now Austin did mention that we're gonna be running the same tire, and these are a 305/40 22, and they're a General Grabber UHP. now this is an ultra-high performance light truck and s-u-v tire, which is gonna give both of these trucks great traction and great handling when we're out on the street or even when we do go back to the track, but for now all I've got to do is get these bolted up and I know they're gonna fit without any sawz-all work. Oh that's heavy! [ drill humming ]

(Austin)>> Next the goods go on!

(Austin)>> Well it's definitely no mystery where most of my parts budget was spent.

(LT)>> Well this is kinda cool cause it actually shows different personalities. It shows what your priorities are and what mine are not.

(Austin)>> Well I'm still making it go faster and more power it's just style and appearance is a big thing too. You've got to have it all man.

(LT)>> Well walk us through what you've got.

(Austin)>> I'm gonna go ahead and say Summit Racing hooked it up with a package deal on this one. We're gonna be rocking a fiberglass hood with some ram air induction. Feed those turbos, let them breathe. Some blacked out headlights, l-e-d, and change it up a little bit with a Raptor style grille, and finally this was kinda a last minute thought but throwing some flares on it. I think it'll clean it up and give it the stance I want.

(LT)>> Well I am taking a little bit more subtle approach in the visual makeover of the SRT Ram. Basically I've got two items. I've got a black grille insert and I've got a pair of headlights that have some kind of black in the background. All I'm really trying to accomplish here is get rid of a lot of that chrome, kinda bring the truck into the 21st century.

(Austin)>> You are the simplest dude I've ever met.

(LT)>> Yeah who's gonna be winning! [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]

(LT)>> There we go. Basically what we've got going on is there's these two retaining clips that press into these retainers, and it actually sounds like something's breaking but it's not. [ Music ] [ clicking ]

(LT)>> Now it is a fairly subtle difference but having the background of the reflector blacked out, I think, makes this truck look a whole lot better. I told you I can't throw. [ drill humming ]

(LT)>> A Ram SRT 10 is quite different on the front end from a base model Ram, and two parts that really make it stand out are the ram air hood and the front bumper, and they both have a black mesh grille over the air scoop but for some reason the front of the hood got these horizontal chrome slats and it doesn't really tie together all that well. Now we get a lot of our parts from Summit Racing, and they have a lot of aftermarket grilles which are pretty flashy, but I didn't want that. So instead this is something you might not think that Summit carries. I picked up a bone stock replacement grille from a base model Ram. It's made from black plastic. They cost about $12 bucks a piece. So it's not gonna hurt my budget all that much, and it's gonna perfectly tie together the front end of this Ram, but first I've got to unbolt the front of the hood so I can get it in. [ Music ] So to zip off the fasteners under this hood I'm gonna be using this Matco Tools quarter drive 12 volt cordless impact. Now its compact size makes it great for working under the hood of a vehicle because it gets into a lot of those harder to reach places where a full size impact gun just won't reach. It has a comfortable and ergonomic design and a variable speed trigger, which means it's precise to use. Plus it has a built in l-e-d light to illuminate some of those harder to see areas. Not only that this thing has 60 pounds of breakaway torque, which means it's one of the more powerful compact tools ever designed. [ Music ] The original grille is held into the shell with these two part plastic clips. The inner part, or pin, simply pushes through the back side of the clip, and the outer part will just pop right out. [ popping ] Now I don't know about you guys but to me this $12 dollars per side definitely improves the front end of this truck cause this whole '90's billet thing going on, it just doesn't work anymore. So we've got black, it completes the theme on the front end of the truck, and for $24 dollars grand total I mean you just can't get any better than that, and it only took me like 10 minutes. I think Austin's still out there in the paint booth sanding for probably like the 12th hour in a row.

(Austin)>> Already got all the other parts painted on the truck, and instead of going with a normal body color and color matching everything like I normally would I'm taking a little chance here and I'm going with gloss black. Now I think it'll look pretty cool once everything's thrown together and it'll accent it pretty nice, and I figured why not throw it on this hood? We've got some good body lines here. I'm sure I could find some places, throw some gloss black on here along with that body color, it'll look pretty cool. And cleanliness is happiness, so we're ready to spray.

(LT)>> Next blackened emblems without using paint.

(Austin)>> Back at it on the F-150, and I keep reminding ole LT that the Muscle Trux Build Off is not just about performance. It's also about style. We're finishing up here in the booth laying down some paint, and we'll completely transform the entire look of this truck, and that color matched gray metallic should match the Ford perfectly. [ paint gun hissing ] [ Music ]

(LT)>> Well I think that's gonna win the style competition right there for $24 dollars. I will admit that I am taking a pretty minimalist approach when it comes to doing a visual makeover to this truck cause pretty much the stuff I care about makes the truck go faster. However there is one more thing that I want to change on the appearance of this truck and that's right here on the door. Now a popular modification is to de-badge, which is basically where you peel these letters off, scrape off the adhesive, and buff the door to make it look like they were never there in the first place, but I don't really want to take away from the heritage of the SRT 10, and I kinda like the way that the logo looks except that it's chrome and I'd much prefer it to be black. Now I'm gonna try a technique that I haven't used before. So we're in this together to find out if it's gonna work. Like any paint work the job begins by cleaning the surface but that's where the similarities end. Because I'm using a peelable vinyl coating I don't have to mask each individual letter. Rather I'm just leaving a large rectangle exposed around the whole thing. According to the instructions you're supposed to hit it with a light coat at first and then several heavier coats, and the more you apply the easier it should be to peel off later on.

(Austin)>> Well I think it is fairly obvious that we have no shortage of parts here, spent a lot of time prepping and a tiny bit of time painting, and got all this stuff done in nice gloss black. If you ask me I think it'll look pretty darn good on this charcoal gray truck. Once it's all blacked out it's gonna contrast really well. After all this is the Muscle Trux Build Off. Styling and appearance is equal value in points to performance. I'm not saying who's gonna win. I'm just saying I may have the upper hand here. I mean we've got this Raptor style grille gloss black, the bumper black all the way down in the middle, and wrapping it up with these flares. It's gonna look pretty cool. Might as well get started by slapping on that old bumper. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]

(Austin)>> After popping just a few pieces off we're gonna swap out this factory dull looking grille. It's easily done by just swapping the inner support over to the new grille and boom, transformation baby! And now we're finally starting to see it come together, the overall look and stance of this truck. Now if you remember we put these 22 inch by 12 inch wide wheels on here with a negative 44 offset. What that did was stick that rubber way past the body line. These factory little skinny flares, well they're not gonna do anything, and personally that's a little too much meat sticking out for my likings. Now if it was off road or lifted it would look cool I'd agree, but with this road tire, and the stance we're going for, and the muscle truck effect I'm voting for fender flares. And I'm not even a fender flare kind of guy, but in this application I think it'll look pretty cool. I think you just might be surprised. Well a nice new shiny emblem means that the build must be about complete but not even close. I still have a thing or two I want to do to this truck, and really dial it in and tidy it up. After all we've still got to get the hood, slap that on, get it outside and see what it actually looks. And I'm not really sure what this fella been up to but it just proves that anybody can paint anything. After laying down three good coats and following up with a flow coat to let that metallic stand up we have a good foundation with our first base coat sprayed. When spraying two tones or multiple colors I would normally spray that accent color first. Then mask off and spray that body color for the main base coat, but on this hood and where I choose to put this tape line it's actually gonna be way easier for me to spray that base color first and then use that tape line cause we've got some weird contours here, and spray our accent color later. We'll be in business. Quick and easy! After we get our main color taped off it's time to lay down about three coats with this accent color. [ Music ] Then we're gonna follow that up with four nice medium wet coats of clear and get this little dude shiny.

(LT)>> So who really needs a paint booth and a whole bunch of expensive equipment? For me a roll of masking tape and a spray bomb is all it takes. Next did we spend our entire budgets? Find out!

(Austin)>> We've been out of the booth for a minute and I went ahead and block sanded this whole hood down. Now it's just time to polish it out and find that shine. Using a simple two-step process I started with the Sonax Profiline Ultimate Cut. Then followed it up with the perfect finish and a soft pad to finally hone in that shine.

(LT)>> We use many different Sonax products here in the shop to keep our trucks looking great. Everything from their wheel cleaner, glass cleaner, and even their spray detailer, but they also offer a wide range of products for paint correction as well, like the Profiline EX-0406. Now let's say you've got a truck kinda like the SRT 10 here. It's a few years old and it spent a lot of time in the sun. it doesn't take more than a quick glance to realize this paint doesn't look great. Now you can use paint correction techniques to kind of restore some of the shine and color to an older paint job, but there is such a thing as too far gone. Now the sides of this truck, they do look pretty good because they don't get direct sunlight. However the horizontal surfaces like the hood and a lot of the roof, well there's not a lot that we can do. If you kinda look here on the edge you see a lot of these little tiny pits or bubbles. Basically the clear coat is just starting to separate from the base coat underneath. Now if you left this thing outside for another couple of years eventually all the clear coat would basically fall off and turn to dust, and you'd start to see some rust kinda build up underneath here. So really the only thing that we can do to the top of this truck is re-paint, but that's a project for another day.

(Austin)>> And the hard work pays off. I am truly satisfied with how this hood came out. The clear coat's nice and flat, shinning nice and bright, and you can see that gloss in the color truly stand out, but that'll protect the paint. You also want to protect that clear coat and to do that we're gonna use the Sonax Profiline Polymer Net Shield. Now unlike a wax that contains oils this is a polymer based product. It's a sealant, meaning it'll still have that drip off effect, still protect the clear coat, lasts up to six months, and super easy to apply. Really you can't go wrong. Just spray it directly on the sponge or on the paint surface, rub it in, and all you've got to do is wipe it off before it's dry. And to extend the life of the sealant you could use the Brilliant Shine detailer every six to eight car washes, and it'll put it up there somewhere good to about a year. Let that gloss keep shining and that color keep popping.

(LT)>> Well that pretty much wraps up my build and it looks like your hood is shinny again. So that's progress right?

(Austin)>> Your timing is impeccable my friend. Wraps up mine too. Grab that end and let's get this dude on there.

(LT)>> You know I like the black on this. It kinda gives it like a Shelby vibe.

(Austin)>> I figured I'd do something a little different instead of just plain Jane.

(LT)>> Now you test this before right? You know it's gonna fit, line up the first time?

(Austin)>> It's not gonna be easy but it will. [ drill humming ]

(Austin)>> I say we take them outside so we can actually see what they look like.

(LT)>> Alright see if you can keep up. [ Music ] So this wraps up the build portion of our Muscle Trux Shootout, and I've got to say it feels good to get these things out of the shop and into the sunlight so we can finally just take a step back and look at what we created.

(Austin)>> For sure, it's always fun to build them but in my opinion it's more fun once the build's complete and you can actually see what you accomplished. I think they're pretty cool, and I'm not gonna lie I even kinda dig your black emblems.

(LT)>> Well you know what? That's a nice d-i-y custom touch, and it just illustrates the difference between how these two trucks are built. You've got one over here that's just kinda all about flash and pizazz, and then you've got one over here which is all business and muscle.

(Austin)>> Well it's all about the dollar. So go ahead and tell me what you spent so far.

(LT)>> Alright so we each were given $15,000 to start this build off, and up until this point I had $6,149 dollars left. The majority of my budget today was spent on the wheels and tires. It cost me $500 bucks to get the wheels powder coated, $815 for the tires, and $199 for the headlights and grille, which means today I spent $1,514 dollars and I've got $4,635 left in the bank.

(Austin)>> On the F-150 I previously spent $9,200 dollars. Today on tires alone I spent $815 bucks. The wheels were $1,500, and body mods was $3,100 dollars. In total that's $14,600 dollars. That leaves me with just under $400 left in the bank. The next time you see these two trucks they're gonna be put to the test on the track and there's only gonna be one winner. So until then we're gonna protect them with these Weather Shield HP truck covers from Covercraft.

(LT)>> They're made with a high performance all weather fabric, which means you can use them both indoors and out. It'll allow water to bead off but the fabric still breathes so you don't have moisture build up underneath. Plus they're a perfect fit. If you have any questions about Covercraft or anything else you've seen in the show today be sure to check us out at Powernation TV dot com.