Project Overkill Returns

Today on muscle car project overkill is ready to hit the streets. We're gonna shake her down and see what she'll do.

Rick shows how to make a cool tool from scrap metal and an eighties muscle car with lightning in its veins.

Ever wonder what happens to those cars in the movies that end up getting trashed in stunt scenes. A lot of them end up in the scrap heap but some valuable cars like this challenger from too fast, too furious are rescued.

And here at muscle car, we know all about reviving cars that most people would think were dead.

We're losing her. We can save it

charged clear. Come on baby live.

And we have brought a lot of cool old cars back to life like the 67 lemons, old blue hair, the tribute trans am the

Ka but rescuing a movie car after Hollywood has had her way with it.

That can be a real challenge even for us. But we did it.

Project overkill is alive and well and after some extensive surgery, it's got a good bill of health and it's ready to step back into the spotlight

back in 2002 year one pulled together seven challengers for the movie. Too fast. Too furious. After being used as a stunt car, this one was beat up pretty bad. So they brought it to muscle car to give it a new life. After tearing it apart, our team sent it out to be blasted so we could see just how much work we were in for

and it wasn't pretty, there was rust everywhere time for some cutting and patching.

Some panels were just too bad to fix. So we threw some brand new sheet metal at it.

Then the firewall got some attention. All the holes were filled and everything was ground down. Nice and smooth.

Next came a custom K member to give us the ground clearance. We were looking for the only engine we could imagine in this car is a hammy, but a 426 was a

big enough. Some of

our performance sent us a 528 with 610 horses and 650 ft pounds of torque to back it up. We bolted on a Kesler five speed overdrive trans and the test fit looks good. All that extra power called for some bracing. So some tubes were added to the fender wheels and behind the fire,

a custom three inch exhaust came next because we wanna hear that hemi

roar.

Once everything lined up just right, we blew it back apart and sent it out for some Rhino liner. It'll provide some insulation and cut down on the road noise.

Next stop paint booth for some epoxy primer to prevent rust. While the rest of the body work is knocked out,

all the body panels were hung back on. Then we broke out the welders to finish up filling any holes we didn't want.

Once the body work was done, three rounds of priming and blocking, got the body laser straight.

The vitamin C Orange went on

and got topped off with three coats of clear.

Then it was time to put her together for the last time to keep from scratching up the paint. We're going in from the bottom.

We got lucky. It went in just as planned and looks great.

The Dana 60 is the same rear and Chrysler put in the original hemi

and it just looks cool.

The centrelink is CNC machine out of a single piece of steel and bolts to a close ratio steering box.

The old trim and bumpers were recro and look awesome. And the finishing touch was a vinyl top for that. Genuine seventies. Look

overkill is done. If you wash muscle car from day one, you've seen most of the build, but there's a few things we never got a chance to show you

like this pulley set. Now, if you try to find an original set for this car. Yeah. Right. Good luck. It's all right because Bill specialties has you covered? They have a complete set with a power steering pump and reservoir along with an ac compressor.

The interior has been finished out with stock style leather seats, plus panels, carpet and trim from year one.

The original gauges were reconditioned and calibrated by auto instruments

and as if you're not gonna look cool enough riding in this baby, we added ac from vintage air.

Now, one of the best upgrades we did on this car was install a hydraulic brake assist, otherwise known as Hydra Boost.

The Hydro tech braking system sent us this set up and the reason I like it so much,

it uses its own pump. It doesn't rely on engine vacuum so you can use it on high performance engines or diesels or anything else that doesn't create a vacuum to operate all your accessories.

We also changed a couple of exterior details like adding an RT style bumble bee

rip in the rear and blacking out the center of our polished grill.

The final result is one sweet looking ride. I know what y'all thinking. It looks good, but will it jerk a knot in your neck? Well, believe me, we're gonna find out because we will have this thing on the road before the end of the show. And since we wanna spend our time driving it, not pushing it, I put together a pre flight checklist

so it's time to get it up on the rack and double check all of our work

coming up. Need an extra hand or foot. Rick's gonna show you how to make one.

Now, restoring a muscle car can be a long involved process. And when it's finally done, it can be really tempting to jump in it and go, the cars are complex and odds are something got overlooked. So, for safety's sake, and to help prevent you from kicking the side into a car that you just spent half your life restoring, take a few minutes and check things over.

You wanna check out the suspension really well, making sure everything's tight cotter pins are in place and there's no binding in the steering because you don't wanna die.

Do you

check your tire pressure and your lug nuts too? Even if you had a tire shop do that for you double check it because it's your butt nut driver seat and it's up to you to cover it.

Also make sure you double check for oil leaks, transmission leaks, gas leaks and above all brake line leaks, check every fitting from the front to the back before you even

think about pulling this thing out on the road.

There's a few things to check out under the hood too. Look at the routing of your wires to make sure there's nothing too close to the exhaust to get hot short cause a fire, especially whenever something as simple as a zip tower clip could fix. Also check out your battery connections because your chances are you've had these awful time too.

Right. So, you got all your systems checked out. You have no fluid leaks. Your suspension is all tight. Your wheels and tires aren't gonna fall off, but there's still one more system that needs to be checked before you can hit the road and that's your lights. Now, your running lights and headlights are pretty easy to check. You can turn them on and walk around the car, make sure they're all working brake lights. Well, that's another story. And if you're anything like me, it's probably gonna be 11 o'clock at night on a Sunday. All your buddies have gone home and you're there by yourself and you really wanna take this thing out for a drive. So I got a little trick for you how to check your brake lights by yourself.

Build on a budget muscle car projects that save you time and money.

This brake pedal lock will hook to the steering wheel. So the first step is to measure from the pedal to the wheel. I'm using a piece of three eights mild steel tube to form the main shaft just because I had it laying around

any small diameter tube or rod will work just fine.

A few pieces of eight inch plate will form the rest. I'm not using any specific measurements. This piece rests against the wheel so it needs to be wider than the grip.

The hole needs to be slightly larger than the diameter of the tube or rod, you're using

these smaller pieces will form the lock and release mechanism.

One more relief cut and I'm ready to weld it all together.

A

bolt acts as the pivot for the lock and an old Allen wrench will be used as the key.

Perfect. See if it works.

Now, it's real simple to use, just depress the brake pedal and lock it in against the steering wheel. And this also comes in real handy. If you're loading up a car on a trailer, you don't have an emergency brake to release it, just pull the pin

and you're free.

Now, it also comes in handy. If you're adjusting the window,

you can use this to hold the glass up while you adjust the regulator. Also, if you're adjusting the door, you can use that to hold the door in place while you adjust the hinges. Now, we've gone over every major system on this car from front to back, top to bottom and she's got a clean bill of health. So stick around because coming up later in the show, we're gonna take this little dodge out, see what she can do

after the break. How hurst and Olds teamed up to revive Muscle in the eighties.

Today's flashback, a 1984 Hearst old

in the car world. There are some names that just go together, Shelby and Mustang Yanko and Camaro and who could forget.

Hurst and Olds. They joined forces back in 68 to create a killer version of the 442.

And over the next decade,

the hurst olds made its mark on the street and on the track when performance made a comeback in the early eighties,

the name returned for just two years. The 83 and 84 were practically twins. Only the colors were flipped.

This numbers matching 84 edition has been well preserved but it still got lightning in its veins

make that Lightning Rods. It wouldn't be a Hearst O

without a Hearst shifter. And instead of just one, these cars got count em three. What? I don't have two hands.

Hold on, I'll explain it.

Now, Hearst Lightning Rod transmission was kind of a his and hers set up the left stick could be used like a typical automatic for everyday driving while the other two controlled 1st and 2nd

for a quick launch, put the left stick and D and the other two in the down position

hit the pedal and when you're ready, throw the right stick up now you're in second

when it's time for third,

shove the middle stick up,

slam the left stick into overdrive and now you're in court.

It packed quite a wallop, making for one wild ride

so wild that it came with its own warning label

today. Lightning Rod shifters are very rare and highly sought after

the 84 Hearst

started off as a cutlass just like the earlier models.

Oles woke it up with an exclusive paint job enhanced by red racing stripes and bumper sticker size decals. The body got a sportier look with a front air dam, rear spoiler and power balls hood

underneath. It was the top shelf 307 V8 featuring a high performance c

dual exhaust gave it a sound that announced that this wasn't your father's Oldsmobile.

It made 100 and 80 horse which for the time for the size of the car wasn't too shabby.

The only other car in its class that could top. That was the Buick Grand National which got 205

performance on the road was improved. Thanks to a stronger 8.5 inch rear end and super lift air shop,

custom chrome wheels, bucket seats,

rally gauges and a sport steering wheel completed the package T tops were a popular option, but this is one of just 23 with a factory moon roof. This fully loaded model cost around 15 grand brand new. About 4000 more than a base cutlass

os limited the production to either 3000 or 3500 depending on who you ask.

84 was the last year you could get a factory Hearst Olds though it did return as a kit in 88.

Very few are left in as great a shape as this and it stands out today as a fitting tribute to a legacy that began over 40 years ago

up next from Hollywood back lot to eating up the black top. It's Project Overkill's come back.

Project Overkill is finally ready to hit the road.

This bad ride belongs to Kevin King, owner of year one and he's going to be here soon to pick it up, but we couldn't resist taking it out for a test drive first.

It is kind of cool at the last time this car was on the road,

it was me

air and got crashed into a bunch of crap on a movie set.

I don't know if I'd want to be that guy riding in it though because this thing was mucked

up.

All, no. Been all the heck. Frame tweak sheet metal winded up.

Yeah,

but

you didn't find any blood or nothing in it. So that, that's pretty good.

You know, it's nothing quite like a good ride on a pretty day in an old school muscle car, man.

All right, man. The bridge is out up here. Let's do it.

All right,

man. I really like it best for.

It's a

lot of

just feels awesome

and you can't beat it. We're cruising about 55 at about 1600

AC O.

She's definitely built the ride,

man. This thing sounds awesome.

That

big hemi

breath. It

really does.

It's got a pretty good cris speed to it.

Oh, yeah, man. This thing rides nice.

You know, one thing for sure, we couldn't have done this build without year one, man.

It's so hard to find original parts for these things. Finally somebody's starting to pop them things back out.

Oh, no, he's there, man. I guess he's early,

man. You guys been out hot riding the Challenger?

No, no, that's a lie, man. I swear. Just check it out.

It's all good, man. It's meant to be driven anyway.

How you doing?

It's looking good.

Heck yeah, dry is pretty good too. Right on.

Hey, Rick, why don't you take him for a ride? I got some stuff to do in here.

Yeah, we can do that. Pop in, man. Let's go.

Everybody always wants to know what my favorite car is. Yeah,

but I don't know. How do you pick a favorite? It's like picking a favorite kid.

I'm kind of curious, what does the future hold for? Overkill here? What are you gonna do with this thing?

Same thing I do with all the other ones.

I'll drive

some of

it.

Well, hey, man, I've got plenty of sea time in this thing. You wanna give it a shot? Absolutely. I'd love to see that perspective.

Oh.

Oh, man,

here you go, man.

Preach.

Sweet.

That is a good looking car. You know, it, it certainly is. It looks a lot better than it did when we brought it.

Yeah, it does.

I'll tell you what it was one of those things. I mean, it took all of your guys' help and all our help and

there was a team effort, man. Well, I appreciate it, you know, I love riding in them, but sure it's a lot more fun to drive. Heck, yeah, let's go grab some gears.

Oh, it's pretty smooth actually.

It is, uh, drives nice.

I like the action on the shift there. Yeah.

Sure.

It's a lot shorter than I thought it would be.

My

girl's got some torque to it. Huh?

No kidding. It just lumbers right along

1500 RPM and I just, you just feel it

full.

Yeah, this will make a good cruiser.

Yeah, I can write to like block

cushier than I thought it was going to. Well, you know, you get,

you can get that air ride suspension dialed in. Right.

It's, it's about as good as it gets.

Well, that was cool.

That was very cool, man. That's a nice driving car.

Thanks for letting us partner for the year one, man. I really appreciate it. Awesome project. I look forward to the next one if you haven't. Me too. Right on on it. Well, I gotta get back to work, man.

So I'm out of here. Thanks, Rick later, man.