Sierra/Big Blaze/Ferret

Today on trucks,

we'll take a 99 Sierra and give it a few things every outdoor rig should have. Then we'll show you the latest on project big blaze before bolting on a heavy duty bumper and winch combination.

After that, we'll take you on a tour of duty with one of the ultimate British war machines.

All that plus a little fun with the cab of the Hairy Hauler.

That's right. We'll show you how to replace those rusty panels. That's all today on trucks.

Welcome to this week's show everybody. We're glad you could be with us. Now, if you own a truck, chances are you bought it with a purpose in mind. And that could be either hunting and fishing, towing and hauling or just plain old recreational use. But the point is a truck can be used for a whole lot more than just basic transportation.

That's true. However, since the use of a truck is so diversified, well, they never come from the factory with everything you need.

That's what the aftermarket's for. So we're gonna put some products on our 99 GMC that are designed specifically for the outdoorsman. Now,

if you're into a little more hardcore off roading than that. We'll stick around. We got some stuff for you too.

Now, the first thing we wanted to upgrade on ours

is the front end to get some protection for our headlights and grill. So we went to DZ and got one of their back road grill guards. Now, this thing not only comes completely assembled like you see here but all the bracketry and hardware you'll need to install, it is also supplied.

Now, before you can put on your grill guard, there are a few things that you need to do, but

taking off this stock bumper isn't one of them that's good.

Now, the grill guard fits right up against the bumper

and these thick brackets that hold it in place, bolt right to the frame rail using the stock bolt. So you don't even have to drill any holes.

Oh, yeah, you do get to keep your toe hooks

since the guard is gonna tuck up against the bumper. Like ST

just told you there needs to be something to keep it from scratching things up.

So the kit comes with this adhesive foam padding

that you apply to the backside of both vertical posts and that's going to prevent any damage to your stock bumper.

Now, we're ready to put the guard on,

that's just a matter of bolting it to the brackets and you're done.

Now, remember this is a guard. It's designed to keep bushes and branches from coming in and breaking your lights or messing up your grill. It is not a push bumper and it's not a winch bumper. So don't expect it to do what those do

now that we have our front taken care of. We're gonna turn our attention to the sides of the truck by bolting on a set of these DZ back road Nerf bars that have the same black powder code as the front brush guard. So everything will match perfectly. These will also make getting in and out of our Sierra a lot easier

installation of the side steps involves first bolton to supply brackets to the body mounds. Now, this is where you get your strength,

then mark and drew your holes in the lower pinch weld

and finally bolt on your side tubes. Now make sure that you use a level to get everything square before you tighten them down.

Well, as you can see our front grill guard as well as the side bars have really changed the attitude of our outdoor rig.

And since the bars are mounted to the body bolts, they'll hold all the weight you can throw at them.

One of the biggest problems with trucks is having your tools and stuff roll around in the back of the bed.

And if you're a hunter, the last thing you want is a big shiny toolbox in the back, telling everybody that you've arrived. So

we went back to DZ. Got one of their lockable utility boxes with the

Mossy Oak camouflage.

Now, the good thing about these boxes is you can mount them right over an existing bed liner or even a bed rug like we have here. Now, we're gonna mount ours right up against the front of the bed. So the first thing we need to do is take some measurements to make sure we have everything properly centered.

Now, since this box mounts to the front of the bed, as opposed to going down through the floor, we needed to drill a couple of holes in the back of the box.

Then we'll just slide in our brackets and our pins.

Next line up the box to the March you made earlier on the front of the bed

and then mark and drill your holes and mount it in.

The neat thing about this set up is that if you ever need to take out the box, all you do is pull the pin

and out. She comes

another really cool feature on this box is that it comes with a heavy duty locking system to keep all your stuff secure no matter where you end up.

Now for you, hardcore off road guys, we promised we had something for you too. So let's check out the latest on project big blaze.

Now, I know the first thing you're wondering is what color is this? It's pretty cool, isn't it?

This is house of Colors, Cinnamon pearl. You're gonna wanna write that one down.

Now, my paint booth is literally stacked to the roof with projects like the Hairy Hauler and couple trucks projects you haven't even seen yet and a couple of motorcycles and things like that.

So I knew it'd be a while before I got a chance to shoot some color on this. So

gave Kevin Tates a call who does the paint education video series

to see if he really knows what he's talking about.

Well, he spent almost 200 hours on this thing smoothing it down to what you see here

and the final product should convince you that his tapes are worth having in your library. He's a good painter.

We'd also like to thank Heritage Automotive in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee for allowing Kevin and Jeff and Carson to burn the midnight oil on this thing. Now, before we show you what's next for Project Big Blaze, we need to take a break. So stay with us. You don't want to miss this

later on trucks. We'll ferret out one of the finest machines the British military ever put into action.

But that's after we finish giving projects Big Blaze, a healthy dose of attitude and function.

Welcome back to the shop, like we said before the break, there's still one area we need to take care of before we're done with Project Big Blaze and that's bumpers.

Now, for those who went to a place called Trail Ready and got their road armor series. These are stout, check out this front bumper, it's made out of heavy gauge steel

has a heavy duty tube running over the top

has openings for off road lights and turn signals and a winch built right in. This is a trick piece.

Now, the front bumper isn't the only trick piece. The rear bumper is just as cool and is made with the same heavy gauge steel has openings for backup lights and a license plate built right into it and also has a spare tire carrier

that swings away for access through the rear tailgate. Of course, both bumpers have been hit with a nice black powder. Co

the first thing that you need to do is unbolt the old bumper and brackets from the frame. Now, bumper bolts are almost as notorious as exhaust bolts for rusting up on you check this out.

So make sure that you have plenty of penetrating lube to knock these loose. Now, the trail rated kit

comes with these heavy duty brackets

that bolt right to the frame. Once all the old stuff's out of the way

for our front off road lights as well as our backup lights. We went to Tennessee speed sport and got a complete set of KC off road lamps. Now in the front, we're gonna use these halogen day lighters that'll throw out 200,000 candle power and for the rear, we got these backup floodlights to help us keep tabs on what's going on behind us.

Of course, we knew we needed a winch. And since big Blaze is a big truck, we wanted a big winch. So we went to Warren and got one of these M 12,000 electric winches.

Now it comes with the remote and the fair lead and all the goodies, but we're gonna mount it first before we put the bumper on. Now, the reason being is the winch sits down in this little pocket. You won't be able to get to that.

Once you put the bumper on.

Now with the winch and lights installed, it's time to get our bumpers in place and all you have to do is line up the holes

and bolt everything down. Keep in mind you will have to supply your own mounting hardware because that doesn't come with a kit.

And as you can see the trail ready bumpers, the winch along with the lights really are the crowning touch to project big blaze. Now, if you weren't around for the beginning of this project or if you don't remember what we started out with, here's a reminder,

you know, we think it's safe to say our old 88 blazer just ain't what she used to be

and now it's time to take her out and see what she'll really do, but that'll have to wait for another day because right now we need to take a break. Stay with us. We'll be right back

later in the show, we'll take you step by step through the installation of our new custom panels on the cab of the harry hauler.

But up first, we'll take you through a close up. Look at one of Britain's finest.

Just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Thanks for staying with us. Everybody. You know, at first glance, the modern off road vehicle may not look like it has a lot in common with the military vehicle. But the truth is they pretty much owe their very existence to vehicles that were tested and proven on the battlefield. Of course, we have the Jeep, the power wagon and the humvee but not all legendary military vehicles were American made. One of the most famous was the pride of the British army

called the ferret.

Now the ferret was a small four wheel drive, lightly armored scout vehicle that was designed to get in and out of war zones quickly with or without a rug,

but it still had to be tough enough to return home from the front lines. Now, this 1960 model belongs to Ken Fee

and it's restored to original battle specs.

First thing that really grabs you about the ferret is its tank like appearance.

The armor is one inch thick in the front and a half inch thick in the back.

And the driver looked out through small metal hatches

and when battled, the hatches were closed and the crew looked out through bulletproof periscopes to protect them.

The front is loaded with various tools and equipment and the turn signals, mirrors and lights are not only original

but they made it street legal.

Now, the exterior on this thing is loaded with various storage compartments.

And at first glance, the body actually looks amphibious but it's really not. However, it could handle water up to 3.5 ft deep. and with a few minor modifications, it could be made fully amphibious with the tires providing its propulsion.

Although the ferret was designed as a scout vehicle, it was armed with a 30 caliber machine gun tucked inside of a manually operated turret.

Ah, there you are

now like most military vehicles, it could also be set up with rockets or missiles and smoke launchers on the front allowed you to lay down a smokescreen

James Bond would love this.

Now, the tires are a special run flat design with the unidirectional tread and the four wheel independent suspension is unique and that it's designed to sheer off if you hit a land mine leaving the rest of the vehicle intact

inside the ferret carried a crew of three, the driver, radio operator and the commander and things were definitely tight.

The commander sat in the middle and operated the gun and turret.

The radio operator had little jump seats on either side and tried to stay out of the commander's way.

And of course, the driver sat up front down low between two front drive shafts snuggled around shifters and a backward face and steering wheel.

You know, most armored vehicles because of their tight quarters could become a death trap if they took a hit in battle.

Now, for those situations, an escape hatch was located on either side

so the crew could just pull a pin and the hatch would fall away.

The ferret was powered by a heavily armored six cylinder rolls. Royce engine mounted in the rear and it's completely sealed and waterproof. Now, it allowed a top speed of around 50 miles an hour, which was really fast for an armored vehicle. Let's just put it this way. The next time you're cruising around in your SUV thinking you're king of the road,

you might wanna think again.

Now, one trick that people do to get a little extra horsepower is swap in some underdrive pulleys. Now doing this will reduce the drag on the water pump and the alternator and it'll give you some extra horses. However,

you do need to be careful here if you go too small with your pulleys, well, the water pump and the alternator won't work right when you're idling.

So if you swapped out your pulleys and you're having trouble overheating or your battery is not staying charged, well, you probably need to swap your pulleys back

and hunt for some horsepower elsewhere.

Welcome back to trucks. Now, a few weeks ago I showed you how to make some replacement metal panels for areas on your truck where you're having some rust problems.

And if you use the proper tools like a sheet metal break and this shrink or stretcher combination,

you can make some killer panels. Now, I'm gonna give you some tips on how to put these in.

The first thing you need to establish is just how much metal you're gonna cut away.

Now, remember the rust will extend beyond these obvious rust holes. So make sure you leave at least an inch. So you're up here into some solid metal.

Now, once you have that decided, trim your panel, if you need to

set it in place

and then go ahead and outline it.

All right. Now, you need to decide what technique you're gonna use to put in the new panel. You got a couple of choices here, both are fine,

both have their pros and cons. So first

you can take a flang tool, put a flange in the body

and the panel lays right in there. Now, this is the easiest way to do it. And if you're a beginning welder, this is the way to go because the weld sits right down in the pocket

and you don't have to grind it much.

Now, the drawback to doing it this way is any time you've got two panels together,

they're susceptible to getting moisture down in there,

that of course causes rust.

Now, if you're gonna do it this way,

you'll need to cut about a half inch inside the panel.

Now, the other way to do it, this is the way I'm gonna do it

is to butt weld the two pieces together. Now, this is a little tougher, but it leaves you a much more workable panel. Now, the trick to doing this

is you need to leave a little bit of a gap so the weld will penetrate down in there because you've got to grind the head of the weld off. Now, once all that's decided,

grab your cut off tool, jigsaw or Sawzall cut out the piece.

Now, if you cut right down the line that leaves you a nice gap for your butt weld. Now, once the old panels out test fit the new one and don't be surprised if you need to do a little bit of tweaking to get it just right

and once you're happy with it, clamp it in place and you're ready to weld. I notice I needed to make some pie cuts here in the center to allow this panel to flare out and match this contour. Those will need to be welded up too.

Start by putting tack welds at least an inch apart around the panel, continually checking it to make sure that it's still in alignment.

Now, once it's tacked in, go back and weld the rest of it using tack welds and keep them well spaced to prevent warpage.

Now, this is very tedious and the big key here is to not get in a hurry and don't expect these wells to be pretty.

That's not gonna happen when you're jumping around using spot welds and filling gas.

The goals here are penetration,

keeping the panels perfectly in alignment and not warping the metal.

Once all your welding is done, it's time for the grinder. Now, you still need to be careful here because you can still overheat these panels and warm them.

Now, once you're all ground down and you've taken the time to do these steps correctly,

you can see that you're not gonna need hardly any filler to get the body ready for paint.

And the best news is all of these tools will actually cost you less. And once you pay somebody to do this for you

and now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities,

you know, when you're hauling a load in the bed of your truck, usually there's only one thing holding everything in place and that's a ratchet and strap. Well, USA products group knows just how important these guys really are and they make a whole bunch of different applications from the pro grip, adjustable strap to the flex grip as well as the quick lock tie down

the bottom line is whatever you're hauling around town USA products has exactly what you need to keep everything exactly where you want it.

Now, for those of you who are into the great outdoors. Well, you know that there's one thing that's inevitable

and that is the call of nature

and don't let anybody fool you. It calls everybody.

And if you've ever had to squat out over a log in the middle of nowhere, well, you know, that is not a real pleasant experience.

So Jungle Incorporated decided to do something about that with the bumper dumper. Now, this ingenious device slides into your receiver hitch and allows you to mount a garbage bag under the royal seat. So you have proper disposal. Now, this may sound really crude. But considering the alternative, you've got to have one of these, the bumper dumper goes for about 60 bucks and that includes the seat.

The biggest reason most people buy trucks is to haul stuff and sooner or later you're gonna wanna haul something big like an A TV or even a lawnmower. Well, the Highland company has exactly what you need

in their ramp champs. Now, these things are made of a lightweight composite material that's actually strong

than steel and can handle up to 1000 pounds per ramp.

They also telescope all the way out to 96 inches. Get rust free lifetime performance with the ramp champs for about 200 bucks. That's gonna do it for truck gear. Here's a preview of next week's show.

If you're getting ready to build your next project truck and you just gotta have a big block. You're in luck because all the manufacturers have Cret motors available. But if you're thinking outside the box, like we are, maybe a hemi

is the way to go. Don't miss the build up of our 51 3 31.

Also, the liberty is the latest in the story, history from the makers of Jeep. Find out what performance West did with theirs

that's gonna do it for this week's show. We appreciate you.

Yeah, we just might not be back next week.

Trucks is an RTM production.