Jeep TJ on Steroids Part I

Today on search and restore. It's a new day, a new build team and a renewal for this 10 year old TJ.

Our team heads to the Deep South to meet a family who's all about off roading

and hear how these dedicated wheelers put smiles on some deserving faces

so far in our quest to give back to viewers who need a helping hand. We turned a Chevy two into a dream come true for a single dad and his three kids.

Then this Ohio father of seven saw his daily driver morphed into a four by four from another dimension

for our third round project. We pointed the tow rig south past some famous gates in Memphis across the swollen Mississippi river

to northeast Louisiana and the town of West Monroe.

Meet the smells are family, Jason and his girls.

I want a jeep to be fixed so we can go mud

riding. And

10 year old Haley encouraged dad to send in his application for our makeover.

They watch the power block every weekend and spend the rest of their free time enjoying God's green earth, especially in their TJ.

They love the jeep.

We gotta take the Jeep everywhere.

I think this Jeep means a lot to my dad.

It's like one of his favorite things. Ever.

Every time something goes wrong on a transmission goes out or whatever this right here,

she's always the first one to threat. And while we're gonna sell it

can't have this Jeep no more.

And, uh I, I tell her that I am not selling this Jeep no matter what happens to it.

Jason and his friends share their love of four wheeling in a very special way

for nine consecutive Sundays each summer, they volunteer at med camps of Louisiana. A summer camp for Children with special needs,

boys and girls battling mental and physical disorders are unable to participate in normal childhood activities.

But at med camps, over 300 kids get a real summer camp experience full of outdoor fun. One of those activities, a TV rides

and this one little boy, he wanted to ride on my four wheeler and

we loaded him up, got his helmet on him,

took off down the road. And as soon as I took off, he, he went screaming and I and not just normal scream. It was,

it was all, I mean, it, it was kind of screaming. You thought you don't hurt him? I I thought, I thought he burned his legs something I don't know. I pulled over.

I said, are you ok?

And uh he had cerebral palsy really bad. He couldn't talk very well. Uh, he was having some motor steel problems and, uh,

but I could understand him, say, go, go, go.

So I thought, ok, we're, well, we're good. So I took off again. We drove a little ways and

got down the trail and I got on the gas a little bit and he went to screaming again

and, uh, I, I thought I'd really hurt him that time. I mean, he really screamed

and it, it, it scared me. I pulled over and checked on him say, hey, are you ok? And he's grinning from ear to ear. Just

all smiles. He's laughing. He's hitting me on the back, telling me, go, go, go. And I'm like, what it's on now.

And, uh, I hit the gas and it, it, it was, it was all fun from air. We hit the pasture, we went across the levee through the ditch,

come back around, went through the pasture again. He's screaming the whole way. Just he's having the time of his life.

We get back up to the wreck hall to rotate out the next kid. And I noticed when I pull up there, there's this lady

and, uh, she's standing up against the wreck building and she's watching us

and I, and I noticed she had her, had her mouth covered

and, uh,

I pulled up and, uh,

I realized then it was the little boy's mama

and, uh,

we got the little boy off and, uh, he ran to go play with his friends, gave his mom a hug and ran away

and uh, she come up to me and uh she gave me a hug

and, uh

she told me,

she thanked me

and she said, you know,

at all my son's life, I've never seen him laugh like that.

And uh she broke down and cried and

hell, I did too. So

that, that's my favorite story.

And that, that's what's got me hooked

and uh

ain't nothing gonna pull me away from it.

That's it.

His family also shares dad's passion for helping others, but it's the girls who are often left at the trailhead due to the Jeep's limitations,

skinny tires, no lift just a few parts. Keep Jason and his family separated.

Hey, Jason,

it's Tim from Search and Restore. I brought you

from extreme for

Jason.

Nice

to meet

you.

Nice to meet you for sure.

We were really touched by the story you sent in about you helping all the kids and everything. So we're gonna take that Jeep right there and fix it up for you, man. I really

hey, everybody.

Come on now.

No excitement at all.

I heard all that screaming inside, but it's quiet now,

what's going

on?

So we're gonna freshen the motor

and

give it some clearance.

Turn it into the dual purpose rig.

They've always dreamed of

a good deed done for a power block viewer who gives more than he receives

next. A little Louisiana hospitality before the guys snatch the Jeep and begin tear down. Stay tuned.

Do that

feel bad for him?

They don't know. A lot of Whelan guys are just getting ready to eat them.

Louisiana was a blast. Even though we were only there for just a few hours. Jason and his buddies surprised the crew by putting on a traditional crawfish boil for us. Never had crawfish before. When I was growing up in Illinois, we did used to catch them in the creek sometimes and keep them as pets. We never really did eat them though.

There you go.

Wow. Our Jeep is gonna be gone. I'm gonna miss the Jeep. Poor Jeep.

This is

the best thing that could ever happen to our family.

This is just a dream come true.

I never thought this would happen. I, I mean, I really appreciate you guys doing this for us.

It's gonna be cool.

Yeah, it's a pretty cool family getting to hang out with them for a while too. I think so. It's pretty typical four wheeling group. You know, you got guys from all walks of life. You know, obviously that one guy, the burger ate the crawfish in this place is pretty nice spread out there.

Yeah, we'll get this thing back to the studio, get it out,

get it in, get it up on the lift. Look at it, I think it looks pretty solid. You're not gonna say a block, you're not gonna send this out to block.

It's just, I'm not even gonna prime and block the whole thing. Did you hear that? I'm not gonna prime and block the whole thing. It's a little crazy if you ask me. But I think, I think you finally made the right decision.

Well, you know, I've never been around this stuff that much but I really like fab and tube work and all that stuff. You know, I'm not just a paint and body guy,

so I really enjoy this build.

Let's go dump it.

Tim and Ian have plenty of company waiting inside the tech center, including a talented team of volunteers ready to tear to the TJ.

Not to mention the guys from horsepower.

It is boys.

How you doing, man?

We have a couple of guys here from Industrial Depot

that supplies our hardware and bolts here for the show.

And then we have a whole bunch of guys that Ian brought in from essentially off road. Let's put her up on the lift. Boys. Get a look from the underneath

and they are awesome craftsmen.

So I'm really looking forward to working with these guys.

I don't have a drain pan. It's a good Jeep. It's not that bad. Uh frames good on it. We got something to work with uh with the crew on it. It'll be torn down in no time. This is, this is a normal territory for us.

Oil pans beat up a little bit. It's got a new water pump, but it's just old and wore out. So with everything else that's gonna be replaced on the Jeep,

we're gonna go ahead and rebuild the motor two for them. Make sure it goes to the swamp and doesn't break down

these four wheel drive guys in the last build didn't label anything. And all they had was like buckets full of bolts, couldn't find anything. We put it back together here. Might if you label this for me, the part that's the best about this whole tear down is Tim put all that stuff in baggies. We're not reusing any of that

in a matter of minutes. The body and chassis of the Jeep are ready to part company.

Now, the body can sit on a rolling cart for the remainder of its tear down

transfer case. That's garbage, both axles, garbage, all the suspensions garbage. So basically what we're keeping off here is the motor,

the frame, gas tank

and this little rubber thing right there.

I'll find a spot for that

coming up. The boys attack the frame with vengeance and get it ready for a custom link set up.

And Mike and John give their assessment on the straight six. Stay tuned

the first day went really well. We had a whole bunch of people here ready to pitch in and tear this thing down.

Our goal is to give Jason a really cool Jeep

something when he sees it

he's just gonna be speechless

to freshen up the motor. Who better to do it than the horsepower guys.

The 4 L we pulled out of the Jeep is a 242 cubic engine line six. They have a reputation for being very reliable and one of the best off road engines for a four wheel drive ever. We'll get the uh, valve cover off

oil pan, bouncer, timer chain cover

and then we're just basically down to a long block, put all that stuff in the washer and let it start soaking.

Now, I'm hoping this is what I'm gonna hope he changed the oil on a regular basis. So we don't have a lot of building. Let's see.

Yeah. Not bad.

Pan's got a little bit of sludge in it but nothing major. This is why we're gonna bake and shock pain. This block,

it'll clean out the inside water galleys, which is only gonna make this thing cool that much better.

See how these journals look.

Oh, yeah,

man. This thing is almost perfect,

smooth. This can be very nice

over on the main shop floor. Our volunteers are ripping into the frame of Jason's Jeep.

Basically, what we have is two frame rails. Nothing else. We're gonna do a completely fabricated four length front and rear.

It'll be all custom. We're using spider tracks, nine inch axles. True high nines. This thing is gonna be unbelievable. Probably way more than he's expected.

And our expectations for the frame.

Very uplifted

time to get started with the skid plate for the belly

and the fuel tank. We're gonna stuff the whole thing.

We're gonna build

the suspension at full stuff. It's the easiest that way if you can work around any clearance issues, such as the job shaft shocks, always the best way to do it.

All right. Well, I'm 52 and 96 tanks right there.

That's as high as the axles will travel and everything is custom built around them

like these 14 inch tall shock towers. I just

kind of

come up rolling back

in.

So who are these Picassos of hardened steel and plasma cutters?

They're hand picked by Jimmy Penner,

owner of essentially off road known throughout the Southern US as the go to guy of suspension design for hardcore wheeling.

He and his crew have thousands of custom suspension systems running and everything from daily drivers, weekend wheelers, hardcore crawlers to high end

four race cars. When he heard about Jason, he brought his, a team.

I got a great crew here with me today.

We got Morgan Shepherd. Awesome. He's been with me for three years that I got Jonathan Coleman,

best mechanic you've ever seen. Um, Derek Cleat. He's just our general help in the shop anywhere from mechanic just to drill and holes. He's, he's real good that Bill and his son helping out here today. Always happy to have them along.

We started with the top end, tearing it down, getting all the valve train out of it. Everything looked perfect up top, got the head off boards looked good. Top of the pistons look great

as we got down further and further. I mean, we didn't find anything wrong.

Ham, bearings. Frog bearings. Oh my God. Wait till you see this bearing. If I saw this come off a shelf, I'd say it's a brand new bearing. Everything. We're almost in perfect shape. I wouldn't have been afraid to run another 100,000.

The oil and everything looked really good. So Jason took care of this thing, doing regular oil changes and filter changes.

One,

did you see yourself with a permanent smile? No, not really. The man they called dirt does will meet him after the break.

I just can't have it.

Our Jeep thrash is well underway and by the end of this day, our build team is hoping to have the tub trimmed and fitted

on a frame sporting custom link suspension

with the shock towers in place along with the cross member,

simple masking tape will help lay out the three links for the front suspension

and four more out back.

Really no. Out of the box suspension system that's gonna handle hardcore off roading for the specific type of wheel that Jason wants to do. He's hanging with guys with big blocks, two buggies and rockwells. So it's a stretch to get this Jeep to be able to run that same trails, but with a custom suspension, right set of tires, good axles, he'll do it

well, in the last couple of builds we kind of went over the top on paint and body fit and finish. This thing is gonna get strapped against trees, rocks, all kinds of stuff. So I just don't have it in me

to

totally cut and rub and polish every square inch of this thing because I probably cry a little bit once I see it after they scrape it against the tree or roll it down a hillside. It's got just a couple dents in the body. We're gonna fix it has no rust holes. So we got the body tub down in the prep station right now. The Industrial Depot guys are down there helping me cleaning out the interior, running some scotch, bright pads around scuffing it up and getting it ready for some, uh, liner in the, in the bed and some underneath the body,

cutting out some of the rocker panels so they can put the armor on and have that ready.

The father and son team of Brian and

Zach D

traveled from Illinois to donate their time in school.

A love of Jeeps runs deep in their family.

Got a collection of Jeeps. I try to keep them running. I don't know where I got that bug from. I've had it since I was little me and the wife and, uh, all three kids. Had one at one time. The best time is when we could take the top off and go riding and take the, the old country roads. We just enjoy it.

I, I love doing off road and I love going mudding.

You think it might bother Zach, knowing that his body work will probably get beaten up.

But off roaders have a more relaxed perspective on things.

I'd probably do the same thing.

I'm restoring a Jeep myself. So, and I'll probably end up tearing it up after I do it, which I don't want to. But I know it's gonna happen.

More links, more rod ends plus some heavy duty shocks

and the body was ready to go back on to check clearances. Now, all of our volunteers this week brought in a ton of experience, but one in particular brought us a continuous smile

dirt.

Joe Dirt is what we call him because of striking resemblance to the uh movie star. Look at that.

That is like Mullet Hall of Fame right there.

Good for you.

He's always smiling and we kinda, we kinda describe that as ignorance is bliss.

I guess he's just, just happy with life. I don't know, Dirk kind of just smiles when you, you know, you're talking about him or making fun of him. He never really says anything, especially if there's a camera around. He kind of just uh

miles and turns his head. It's kind of good having him around

everybody. Killing the crowd. Don't smile, don't smile.

That just brings it out when I tell him not to do it.

I just can't have it.

I, I think he wakes up in the, the same mood that he goes, you know, goes to bed at every day.

He's smiling right now, actually

keeps morale up. Uh, keeps everybody in a good mood and, uh, he's just a pleasure to be around.

Yes,

you gotta smile to keep him crying sometimes. So

I just smile all the time.

Is that good?

Something else

next time on search and restore? Which way am I trying to go?

Tim kissed some rocks and he liked it.

Gives our paint booth prints an introduction to four wheeling. He'll never forget. Plus more donated parts arrive along with more volunteers charged with creating this hardcore work of art on wheels.

Look hot. Is that, is that the word for this bill? It'll look hot. I think that, what's her name? The lady that looks like a drowned rat. She has that trademark, I think.

Oh, ok.

Let's go with wicked,

wicked, awesome. Sounds better than, oh, it's hot.