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this weekend on Dirt Everyday it's an epic off road battle between Frank and his
pre runner and me in that
you guys remember my buddy Frank. Frank help me out when we build the motorhome go kart he helped he was
there when we built the crazy jeep for ultimate adventure this episode I'm gonna race
frank in this old truck this is Frank's Ford frank and i were building
this truck years ago then he went broke his silly neck and he hasn't really been
off roading in it a bunch we're going to get this thing back on the road I came down here
to pick this thing up this thing looks terrible it's been sitting for seven
years as their ratchet straps holding the roof on yeah the rust kind of
fell out and so it separates a little bit so refresh my memory what you have in
this truck this is the quintessential awesome Desert Truck it has a beam for an end
with bypasses and coilovers a spooled rear end with bypasses 429 ford c6
just simple simple tough truck and what's under the hood 429 Ford I'm
really not concerned about this what I'm going to race you in is going to be
awesome I can pull four spark plugs on this motor and still make more
horsepower than most of your trucks the vehicle that i'm gonna show up at this
race in is something that you fear clampy no I don't know we'll see I think we should
lay some groundwork what are we gonna do in this race what we have to do what you
want to show that your pre runner so fast
quintessential Desert Truck the so good at they take bumps really well okay so
you some bumps it likes to fly
you need some jumps it's just generally fun for low money put all that stuff
together we're gonna make a race when the last time I ran three years ago
Christmas can we get this thing on my trailer or do I have to push it up the truck no
it'll fire right up probably hopefully
give it some gas Fred
this is where had not having a choke is dumb in California ford sheet metal has gotten
really light over the years
vintage that what all the kids say right
sounds great yeah no problem
years ago I bought this truck to kind of learn how to do fabrication and Fred would come down and help me work on
it we were just two morons with a welder and just had the most fun ever this
this truck has brought me more smiles per dollar than anything else I've ever owned I
can't wait to race Fred in it I can't wait to run it we're just gonna have
fun when i win it'll be all that much better I will see you Thursday I will
come up I will kick your *** I will drive home a champion whatever
alright boys guard the car so I left frank's house a little secret I had is actually have a vehicle
yet for this race but I remembered something that Frank told me once and it
gave me an idea for the perfect vehicle to race him in and beat him in and he's gonna
hate it let me show you
so my secret weapon is a Volkswagen van Frank hates vw vans I think his
parents were hippies made a ride around the back when old van when he was a kid
I came down here to Go Westy where they have a lot of really cool vanagons
I'm gonna pick one out that gonna be fast enough to beat his old truck and
just gonna get his go when it blows the doors off Lucas how are you
Fred I need a van for a race so I need something that is a cool offroad van the vans that we that
we specialize in here are three different types of buses and vanagons and
eurovans buses are too old eurovans aren't going to cut it so buses are the round old
hippie buses and then there's the new modern front wheel drive that's not
gonna work you want something its offroad capable it's got to be a vanagon
probably a synchro four-wheel-drive you have a synchro we can check out let's go
show you what I got let's check this one out so the synchros is the four-wheel-drive vanagons yeah
this was made from 86 to 91 this particular one right here is a good example of what
we do
fully outfitted for expedition it's got all your recovery gear front and rear
lockers low gearing it's pretty badass
only takes about a year and a half to build we can get this done about 18
months I need something sooner than 18 months or do you have that we could get
today something rougher but similar to capable yeah something that's fast and a van so that makes Frank mad
that I beat him in it yeah I think I got something let me show you this other one
so like the four wheel drive vans you can make a two wheel drive into a four wheel drive yeah in fact the two wheel drive and four wheel drive vans are 85% the same van ok Volkswagen shipped two
wheel drive vans to Austria and they were converted to four wheel drive nice lets see what you got full Fred I'm thinking this
might be just what you're looking for
it does look like it's in my price range how long they've been sitting here
quite awhile it kinda looks like it's growing moss on the roof yeah that's a plus
though I've heard it makes them more slippery
so it looks like I am now the owner of a volkswagen vanagon I couldn't afford a four-wheel
drive but I did talk Lucas into some parts so we're going to take this thing
home and put a little lift kit on it
this thing is totally going to whoop Frank's butt
what am I doing
so luckily guys at Go Westy have a lift kit this truck this van is not four wheel drive only two wheel
drive in fact it doesn't even have a rear locker so it's pretty much one wheel drive but
they have a lift kit which will allow us to put a bigger more aggressive tire on it it's basically coils
and a shock that will put on each corner and then I'm also gonna put a skid plate
on I have never owned a volkswagen vanagon I don't know anything about this van but
the guys down at the Go Westy said it's super easy to put their their kit on so we're gonna
throw it up and some jack stands and pull everything apart and see if we can
find under there basically just a metal box on wheels it can't be that hard it's like working on a
giant German loaf of bread
that feels sturdy ish there's my one hub cap I bought germans like this where they used wheel bolt instead of a lug nut and bolt
like the Mercedes Sprinter vans have that also which doesn't seem as you get an idea
because you have to hold this up and get it
lined up but hey the Germans they must have some sort of great engineering
reason for that
this front end has a shock that goes up through the lower suspension arm there's
a nut right here and then there's a bolt through the bottom so you take the bolt
out under this nut the whole shock will drop out then we have to get the coil
out so we have to pull these two bolts and open this up clean this up get the coil out
so that's our old coil this is our new coil a progressive rate and it's also much taller coil sits right in there stuff it all back in so this
this is where it's gonna get crazy so we wrestled the coil in here and now putting in new fox shocks in
bull's eye shock is in. front bolt
how can I have a 5,000 square foot building and yet I'm crammed in the corner
so we have new coils and shocks on the front I'm going to turn truck around and we
will put coils shocks on the rear and then we can put bigger tires on
putting the floor jack underneath is this trailing arm to raise and lower the
trailing arm so I can get the bolt lined up this is called the floor jack
trailing arm bolt line up maneuver look at that we have just turned what looked like a
dated old hippie bus into an off-road racing machine look what's behind me remember when
Freiburger had that muscle truck and it had boggers on it some how these boggers ended up at Fred's house and now they're gonna
be part of our tractor van we're probably gonna have to grind some of the
trailing arm in all likelihood it will also tear up the body around here so I
might have to come in here with the saw cut that off
so the ironic thing is that we are now at another van shop remember my buddy Rob used to work down
at synnergy well Robin and Mark started this new company called van compass where they do lift
kits on Spinner vans but this is actually we're gonna work on frank's
truck so we got the truck in here that probably already making a list of parts
we need to get to get this thing running again so I'm go in here and help them out
hey Mark hey Fred good morning
there's Rob what you guysfound out about the truck so far if we just get an engine
and transmission golden it's not running very good run and it's a little rough after it's slumber its so pretty much
a full day tune up on a big block looks like it's bleeding out a little bit too
yeah that's so we know that it's got fluid in it it once it stops leaking then we check the fluids
what does this thing needs we need a cap rotor plugs wires fluids we gotta put
the hand controls back in it back in so he can jump it or crash at one of the
two we have to protect the shocks cuz they are the only high dollar part left
in the truck ok so I'll run to town you guys want to get the bump stops in yeah I think we
will put on the rack cus you got to put on the rack to get the bump stops in
and then went back tune up parts alright give me the list I'll head to town see you in a little bit it's like we're rebuilding
the thing
this is the bump stop so when we go and jump the truck and lands a little
smoother but this truck has been sitting by the beach for a while and everything is
very rusty and
tight so they're not quite fitting this is our new air bump install tool
one more got it this probably got more gas in that than oil
smoke screen you dirty trickster after I pull in front I'm going to blind you and fall asleep drive off course I see the science
behind this racing program the truck is running all tuned up smoking like crazy really
concerned about that a little bit of wiring little bit more hand control action and this
thing should be ready to go
lose epically against my far superior racing machine
this is my prerunner it's a 67 ford f100 it has a big block 429 and a c6 ford 9 inch with a spool 35
it's set up for me to drive with hand controls this is my break and then this is the gas
rotate down like this my hand goes on this tri pin which gives me the ability
to steer also the steering box has been modified to have zero resistance it's
just a basic truck there's nothing really fancy to it and we're going
to go out and have some fun and if I do lose at least I had a day shop with my
buddies and a day in the dirt with my buddies so pretty much win no matter
hey man let me show you my van check it out
got two seats up front this is here from a prior owner beaded lizard shows the
agility of the van and this Sun and Moon this is so fast as fast as the
stars and the moon and this beaded Cobra that's how these things going to strike on
Frank's truck like a cobra cap fell out so we put this rag in there and covered it with some
electrical tape let's get these sweet 185 R 14's steering tires these
tires are really good on the front of the truck for steering these are 31 inch
Super Swamper boggers and this is a race tire if you have a small van and it's
muddy its a winning tire right here and underneath there is an engine got some sort of high
performance fuel injection from Go Westy peace and love for everybody except for Frank
that's what I got for frank we are back at the world famous dirt everyday top-secret off road test
facility this is where you've seen things like motorhome go karts and
motorhomes vs vans and this time it's gonna be another awesome van vs rusty
old Ford driven by Frank Frank why is your truck so rusty
speed holes lightweight equals fast that's a good theory mines mossy mossy equals fast cuzs
it's slippery this is our plan we're going down here we're gonna turn right turn
right turn right jump this mud hole turn right turn right turn right come back
through the finish line the last guy here is not the winner and your buying the beer either way right
right we're good gentlemen start your engines and you guys on the ford
alright we're goind on 1 321
come on little bus we're using our smoke screen technique
second first loser frank you totally crushed my van that thing is so much fun to drive but I
think a big block under the hood might be the winning combination when it comes
to top secret ranch racing or whatever it is we did today it's about as much
fun as you can have with your clothes on rob were you scared I wasn't to scared
just at the end there was moments I say we take the van and we go hoon around in the field over
there and see what we can break perfect this has been an awesome day the volkswagen van may not what people think of when they are looking for something to around in but you put some boggers little bit of
lift and some good shocks on it and you'll be amazed at what it can do
I bent the steering wheel
really it's not about this vehicle maybe it didn't win the race the fact the matters is I'm out the dirt I'm having an awesome time and even more importantly I got Frank out here
Frank hasn't driven his truck in years what
more could I possibly ask for
it may not be the fastest prerunner but this thing jumps like a elephant with big ears this has been a great
day we'll see you next time on Dirt Everyday
if you liked this episode of dirt every day you can watch the next episode live
right now on motor trend on demand dot com this week on Dirt Everyday we're going to
show you how to rescue an old jeep from a barn and the snow drift because we're on an
adventure
I can't get out watch the latest episode of dirty right now
Motor Trend on demand
and four wheeling to build a van is the next hotness like over landing at school
and a hammer racing all 24 so yeah whatever but this is a combination of
the two
like mud bog tires a small engine all of this room inside for activities this
is the next hotness sorry but your boot