Sergeant Rock's Paint Job

Hey, welcome to trucks. Today's project is called Sergeant Rock and it is a 1941 Dodge army truck that was left for dead in the field until I found it, rescued it and brought it in here and started working on it. We took you through that whole process last week.

But now

you can see it looks a lot different than the last time you saw it. Yeah,

that's because I dropped it off to a place called the Alton Company up in Pigeon Michigan

and for the last few months they have been smoothing down the metal and squirting paint on it. Now you might be thinking, mm, the Outland company, the Outland Company, I

think I've heard that name before. Like, yeah, you have, I featured some of their stuff here on the show.

Matter of fact, the Alton company pretty much invented the extended cab truck decades ago.

If you needed your duly stretched,

they could do it.

Need more room to store your junk. Boom. There it is.

Got more passengers you need to haul in your big rig.

Pizza cake.

How about an extra door for your fire engine

done?

But

when Nick

and Dean took ownership in 2002

things changed.

They got wilder

because they began to really specialize in frame, stretching,

metal fabrication and custom painting.

And the Alton company started to build some of the wild custom stuff

that really began to showcase the depth of talent of the guys they have working there.

Now, when I designed the Sergeant Rock project, I designed a very unique bed to go on it. Take a look.

It needed to have removable side panels inside and outside

so they could be replaced if they got damaged.

It needed to have a floor structure strong enough to handle the fury of real functional twin 50 caliber machine guns

needed to have a fender opening large enough to tuck a 50 inch tall tire

and then it needed a pocket cut here in the front. So the exhaust system would tuck in behind the cab. Of

course. Finally, it needed a custom bumper to tie it all together.

Fortunately,

the guys at the Alton company built that bed

exactly how I asked them, check it out.

It's got the removable panels,

the big wheel wheels for those 50 inch tall tires,

the pockets for the exhaust stacks,

the bracing under the bed for the machine guns

and a killer custom rear bumper.

They even handmade the running boards to match that bumper and tie this whole truck together

and then they smoothed out all the bumps and lumps

and then painted this thing inside,

outside

underneath

everywhere that you can imagine.

And it is a fantastic piece of work. Now, guys, guys, I'm telling you if you are looking for a custom shop that does top, top quality work at a reasonable price that won't rip you off.

You need to get in touch with them at Alton co.com.

They'll treat you right now.

What about this color?

Once again, I got together with Ron Payton at PPG and told him that I wanted to create a color that had all the strength and the visual pop of a silver or a gun metal gray,

but with just a hint of green because this is a military truck.

So after about four or five attempts and a lot of

Cyrillic Pearl, we finally got it a

color that almost looks like a molten piece of metal, but with just a touch of green, we're gonna call it Sergeant Rock Metallic.

Now, just like the other two custom colors we've created for Copperhead

and the Hairy Hauler. The idea behind Sergeant Rock Metallic is to give you a cool custom color that looks like a candy

but is really just a base coat, clear coat. So it's a lot easier to put on

and also create a color that will look great no matter what you put it on, man, this would be killer on a mustang or a Camaro or a motorcycle.

But the only place you can get it is PPG. And the place you need to call is auto body color and supply in Nashville, Tennessee. They have got the code to mix this up. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. All right, you take a break.

We're gonna roll the truck over there on the left and I'm gonna start prepping it up, get it ready for those big axles when we come back.

You know, some of the questions that I get a lot involve how to put different axles in your truck. Questions like how do I convert from a two wheel drive to a four wheel drive

or how do I put a solid front axle into my late model truck that has an independent front end?

Or how do I fit bigger axles or what kind of axles do I use or how do I stretch my wheel base guys? These are all really good questions and I'm gonna try to touch on all of them on this project.

The first thing that you need to decide before you ever pick up a wrench

is what exactly do you wanna build? I mean, you wanna build a hardcore off Roader? Do you wanna build a trail rider?

Do you wanna build something you can drive every day? Do you wanna build a mud runner?

Because once you decide this,

then you can start putting the components together so they work together to build the truck that you want. For example, I designed this whole truck around these 49 inch tall. I rocks now of the tire that big,

you almost

have to use a Rockwell axle because they have 672 gears

and they're super strong and they're affordable. But if you're gonna run 38 inch tall tires,

you don't want to put in a rock. Well, you wanna use something more like a Dana 60 or a built Dana 44.

Now for suspension,

I wanted something that was tough and reliable because this thing's gonna be used on the road,

but I'm also gonna beat it off road,

but I also need something that matches the look and the feel of what I'm doing here. So

I'm gonna put it on leaf springs.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a custom three link or four link suspension.

But unless you're building a full on competition rig and need that extra flex and travel,

you don't really need it. A

matter of fact, leaf springs are cheaper to put on,

easier to put in

and then they are top.

You can abuse these things like crazy and still be able to make it home.

Yeah,

once you have decided all this and you've done your homework

now, you can tear into your rig

and take everything off the frame

that you're not gonna reuse.

Now, I'm not just talking about things that are bolted on.

Now, I'm talking about any brackets or junk that's been welded or hacked onto the frame over the years,

as well as brake lines and wiring

everything.

Your goal is basically to strip it all down to a bear frame so you can start over

1941 dirt.

I'll sell it to you.

There's no rust on the frame.

None. It's got the original Army paint on there.

That's cool

there.

Bye

now. Any time you're working on something this old and classic

man don't be throwing this stuff away like this old lever action shock.

There are people searching ebay every day for this kind of stuff that are doing an original restoration

and they can't find it and give you money.

If you just toss it

the

now before you get too excited and remove your axles, you need to slow down here a little bit. You have got to mark your axle center line up here on the frame. So you know where to put your new axle in provided you wanna keep the same wheel base. Now, if you want to shorten or lengthen your wheel base, you'll just move this line forward or back. And of course, that's something that

you did decide before you started. Right?

Ok. Now, once you have everything marked where you want, it just duplicate it on the other side.

Now, remove the axles, the springs, the hangers, everything else that's on the frame.

All right.

Finally,

you can start fitting your new axles and suspension to that frame and I'm gonna walk you through that next week. But wait, wait a minute, we're not done yet. After the break, we're gonna have a little fun

with something we call truck ups

warning you may see yourself or people, you know, in the following video it may cause outbursts of laughter, painful rms

or uncontrolled flat joints. If that's the case, you're watching truck officers

getting your truck airborne in front of a crowd. Oh man, that's cool. What's not cool is forgetting? You need to make a turn at the end of the track.

We all know that sometimes the best thing to do is just stomp down on the pedal and go for it.

However, there are times that, uh,

that, that can really get you in trouble.

Ernie decided that the only way to sell his rig was to show people how detailed the undercarriage was.

As you can see,

he's already got two guys interested after putting it off for years, Sandy finally found a way to get Bob to go to the proctologist for that. You know, that, uh that checkup,

you know, sometimes when you're wheeling things just don't go your way

in spite of how many times you try

the back flip with a half twist is always a crowd favorite, especially when you stick the landing.

Now, having a spotter is important, you know that,

but it's also important for that spotter to hold on to the strap when you're on a side hill or this could happen.

Standing your rig up in the air, getting daylight under the front tires. That's impressive.

But, you know, you do need to know when to stop.

I mean, stop. I get off the throttle.

Jamie was so upset that he forgot to install his front locker

that he just decided to enter the burnout contest. Instead

sidetracked by the thought of that blonde waitress down at Hooters.

Higgins failed to see the trap that the Thrasher Brothers had set for him until

it was too late.

Catching a ride on the trail is usually no problem. People are really friendly

unless of course, you forgot to pack a clean pair of shorts, stinky,

intimidated by the judges.

Palmer decided to try to impress them by showing off his new bumper and winch

frustrated and in a hurry from oversleeping

little Joe decided to pack his own gear this morning.

Uh huh.

Now everybody likes it when you get on the throttle.

But for Leroy, the real trick is knowing when to get off the throttle

or was that the bottle

wedged on its side between the rocks? The motors smoking like crazy. Kelly took a breath, closed his eyes

and decided that this was as good a time as any to show off the strength of his roll cage.

After years of practice, Ernie finally taught his rock buggy how to roll over and play dead.

Unfortunately, getting it to stay dead. Well, you know, it still needs a little work.

When you think of rock crawling.

Most people think of climbing up rocks.

Well, here, Clyde gives us a reminder of just how tough going down can be.

Now, I've said before, we all know how important a spotter can be,

but, you know,

sometimes

it's best just to ignore him.

You know, one of the most frustrating things about building a vehicle

is trying to find all the nuts,

all the bolts

and all the hardware that you're gonna need to put the thing back together.

And a lot of people overlook the fact that you need new hardware until of course it's too late. It's time to put everything back together.

So they make a run to their bolt drawer and try to put it together with a bunch of junk.

Man. Don't do this. Got two words for you, Garner Westcott.

Now they specialize in quality fasteners in steel, stainless steel, polished stainless steel, even chrome. Now, look at this.

You can get the heads designed and just about anything you can imagine hex head,

button head, Allen head, 12 point flat head

and you can get them stamped with your favorite logo. You got Chevy and Ford and Dodge and

skull and crossbones and flames. They will even stamp your own logo. You know, as long as it's something reasonable.

So if you are ready to finish off your vehicle, right?

Carter Westcott can help you out

a simple inexpensive upgrade to do to your truck comes from DZ

in what they call the stainless steel nerve step. Now, these are designed to give you that extra little step getting in or out of your truck. Now, they're built out of oval shaped tubing, which is very cool.

And then they have a step pad here

to keep your foot from slipping off and you busting your shins on the bar.

Now DZ knows that a lot of you guys don't really wanna modify your rig. So these are designed to bolt, ride on to an existing body mount,

simple and easy.

If you use your truck for what it was intended for, you know,

carrying and hauling stuff in the bed,

then you know that two areas that are gonna get some damage is top of the tailgate

and the top of the bed because, you know, you're always throwing stuff in there, scratching it up.

Well, Bush whacker has got a way to help you prevent that

with what they call their bed cap

and their tailgate caps. Now, these are made out of a BS plastic, so they're lightweight,

they're very strong and they are low profile. So when you get these things mounted on the bed painted to match the same color,

you're not even gonna hardly see that's there. Now, to put them on

is a matter of using the supplied three M adhesive tape. So there's no drilling, no cutting of the bed if you want your bed to keep looking good. Put a cap on it.