Original subtitles

[Pete Toundas] The 71st anniversary of the Detroit Autorama.

[Butch Patrico] The Motor City.

That's where we're at.

Degree of difficulty, engineering

and overall quality in fit and finish.

That's the neat thing about the Ridler Award.

Our award is open to anything.

Any manufacturer, any style of vehicle.

So it gives a builder and the owner an open book.

They can build anything they want

to compete for the Ridler.

There isn't any show in the world

that has higher quality cars.

Now, I'm supposed to give an award here.

Anybody ready to hear who won the Ridler award?

[Dave] This has been a dream well before I was in business.

[Kevin] It's going to take a team,

everybody's expertise, everybody's input.

[Dave] These cars cannot be displayed, promoted,

seen by the public until they arrive at Detroit Autorama.

[Kevin] There's only so many teams that have put these cars together

so it's a great, great, great opportunity.

[Dave] We'll build a car that nobody has ever seen before.

The goal is to build the Ridler.

[Kevin] Let's go get this C-10 set.

[Dave] So here we are in Pittsburgh, dropping off the game changer C10

to our good friend Dave Maxwell.

We're going to put it in his car collection.

And, more importantly, check out the rest of the collection.

It's been a minute. I've never been down to his collection.

- [Kevin] I was here, like... - Oh, that's right.

...five... five years ago?

Five years ago when we came out for his show.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, Dave, looks like the last pieces in the collection here.

All set. It looks beautiful.

[Dave] It certainly does.

[Maxwell] Yep. This is...

This tops it off here. This is my dream truck.

[Dave] Just like we talked.

[Maxwell] Everything is exactly what we discussed.

Well, you know, this...

This end of the building looks really, really good now.

[all laughing]

[Dave] But you've got some really cool stuff in here.

You leased this end, right?

[Dave] Yeah.

- Yeah, check's in the mail, Dave. - Yeah.

So, I mean, you know,

we got a chance to just walk quickly through here

to bring the cars over on this side of the building,

but what do you got in here?

That's my parents' car.

So it's sentimental value there, and that was their car,

and we really didn't do anything to it.

Didn't touch it at all.

I just purchased this T-bird here.

- You know, it's a resto-mod. - [Dave] Mmm-hmm.

This one was built by Ralph, wasn't it?

- [Maxwell] Yes, yes. - [Dave] Very cool.

You know, everybody's got to have an Eleanor.

[Kevin] Yeah, a couple Mustangs.

- [Dave] Yeah. - [Kevin] New and old.

Love it.

You got a cab in here?

[Maxwell] My daughter is from New York City,

and she loves New York City.

So I figured let's get a cab.

- [Dave] There you go. - [Kevin] Nice!

You got a pretty nice Dodge collection there.

The top one's the Cuda from the movie.

And then the Demon, naturally, down below

and couple of the other ones.

- These are my dream cars here. - That GTO and Superfast.

I love the color combo on that seat.

This is the only car in the country with that color.

So, Dave, you pretty much have kind of a an eclectic collection here.

I mean, you got street rods, you got classics, you got Ferraris.

That's cool.

You got really nice trucks and Volkswagens.

- Oh, yeah. - Big fan.

So what's next for you? I mean, what are you thinking you want to build next?

What are you gonna do?

I want something very special.

You know? Because I got a lot of the vehicles

that I really, really like, but I want a one-off.

One of my dreams is the Autorama.

I've been there many years.

I've been to it many times, and I see some really special builds up there,

and what you've done for me now is just over the top.

But I want one that's really over the top.

What about the Ridler?

You want to compete for the Great Eight in the Ridler, huh?

Definitely, I definitely... That's my dream.

[sighs heavily]

- [Dave] Wow! - I'm speechless.

Man. That's such an honor.

Hashtag, jaw drop.

The Ridler is a hell of an opportunity to build something.

This is at the Detroit Autorama,

and what they do is they pick

what they call the Great Eight.

This build can be anything.

It just has to be done at the highest degree of engineering,

styling, concept, accomplishment.

Basically, they are looking for the best car of the entire year.

It gives us chills, honestly.

That would be really something very special for us.

I mean, being in the business as long as we have been,

we've been around some of the top show cars in the world,

but never had the opportunity to do that.

I've designed a couple of cars that actually competed for the Great Eight.

But I've never been the builder of those.

Look at me, I'm shaking thinking about it.

It's something that we've always dreamed of being able to do.

I'm up for the challenge, and I know my guys are.

I mean, for sure. This... Man, that'd be cool.

- Really cool. - I'm in.

Dave and Tracy have been such great clients

and to be asked to build something,

to compete at Detroit for the Ridler,

is like a dream come true for all of us.

Do you have any idea what you want to build?

Something special.

As you know, I love the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s cars, as you can see.

I want to see what you come up with.

You have an idea of what I want, but it's got to be something special.

I'm gonna see what you can come up with and throw something at me

and see if it sticks to the wall.

Maybe the best thing for us is to let me put some stuff on paper.

And we just got to get an idea and a direction.

And we can make changes as we need to.

[Maxwell] I mean, with your team, I know you can do it.

So it's just, I'm anxious to see what you're proposing back

- and we'll take it from there. - [Dave] Okay.

By far, this is one of the most exciting days of my entire career.

I've known about the Ridler for so long

because I've been in the industry for over 35 years.

But to have the opportunity after being in business this long is priceless.

- It's a long road, but that's very exciting. - Yes, yes.

I'll get some preliminary drawings done up on the plane.

I'll go save my phone.

Yeah, I will.

[chuckling]

Get the right crayon.

- I gotcha. - [Dave] I use the green ones.

He always eats the brown ones.

Man. I got goosebumps, Dave.

You know, it's been so long, to get this opportunity

finally, is gonna be really cool for all of the guys here at the shop.

We have all of the skill level, we have all of the right people.

And now alls we gotta do is figure out what we're gonna build.

Well, after talking with Mr. Maxwell, I'm super excited because this is

definitely going to be a car that we're going to build,

and we are so pumped to get the opportunity.

He's asked me to build a car to compete at Detroit for Autorama

and the Great Eight Ridler competition.

Part of that also is that he doesn't really know what he wants to build.

I have a couple of ideas of some cars

and some things that I think would be really cool.

I was trying to think of cars that haven't been built.

Cars that would probably be very challenged to compete and win,

i.e., a fiberglass car, and I have had this idea,

while building the CF1s of making a fastback Corvette coupe from 1953.

So I'm actually just going to put that concept down,

at least if nothing else, if he doesn't like this,

this gives us a direction or a start

of where we might go with the build

since he doesn't really know what he wants.

The cool thing about building a show car to compete there, is there is no structure

as far as it doesn't have to be a street rod.

It doesn't have to be anything in particular.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be completely hand built.

There is no requirement of that.

My idea right now, at this point,

is to build something that didn't exist but could've existed.

And this car in particular,

I'm going to try and push the envelope

by basically just creating a body style

that looks very classic, will definitely stand out to the judges.

And we'll have all of those things. It needs to be well engineered.

It needs to be very well detailed.

The quality of the build has to be 100% plus.

And I think that we've been training long enough

in our little ninja hot rod camp here that we should be able to pull it off.

I hope.

As we go along, some things will make more sense.

We may make some changes.

Maybe big ones, maybe small ones.

But one thing is for sure.

We are definitely in, and we are going to go to Detroit to compete for the Great Eight.

All right, guys.

Well, I had an opportunity to meet a gentleman by the name of Dave Maxwell.

Well, his goal is to build the Ridler.

Even better, it's to build it with us.

I was pretty stoked when I first heard that

we were gonna have the opportunity.

It's been a dream for so long to

go that direction and we've got plenty of big ideas that we can explore.

Anytime you can take something and raise the bar, that gets me excited.

[Butch] It's an award that was started in 1964.

Don Ridler was the first professional promoter

that was hired to help us do the show.

He had recently died of cancer,

so we started the award in his name to honor him.

Our award is open to anything,

any manufacturer, any style of vehicle.

And we have never changed the rules from day one.

It's got to be best in show.

And show the most creativity out of anything else that's on the floor.

I had this little bit of a dream of building a coupe version

of the Corvette Roadster, which doesn't exist.

They never made a coupe for 1953.

As we all know, Corvettes make the Great Eight,

but they never win because they're fiberglass.

That was my first question. I was like, what are we gonna build?

What are we gonna build?

If you had the chance to build a Ridler, what would you build?

[Dave] Anything has the potential to be the coolest car at the show.

- It depends on how you built it, quality of the build. - [Kevin] Construction.

[Dave] The ingenuity, the engineering, the design.

- All of those things have to all come together perfectly. - Yeah.

To accomplish what?

What it is that we want to accomplish.

So in that sense, who cares what you're building?

You just need to... It's how you're gonna build it.

[Butch] Street rides can win it, customs can win it.

It could be a truck.

As a matter of fact, the first one was a race car.

Anything on four wheels can win the award.

There's no restrictions at all.

We're gonna build this car, guys.

We're gonna build a concept-styled fastback.

'53 Corvette, but they never made it in aluminum.

There's only so many Ridler winners, and there's only so many teams

that have put these cars together.

So it's a great, great, great opportunity.

This has been a dream well before I was in the business.

To be able to go and compete for the Great Eight.

It's gonna take a team, way more eyes way more brains than just one.

Everybody's expertise, everybody's input.

There's four main rules. Creativity,

degree of difficulty,

engineering, and overall quality in fit and finish.

Those are the four things you remember when you build a Ridler car.

The real trick is to make sure that you have a long enough lead time

to build something of quality, but it stays in vogue.

We'll build a car that nobody has ever seen before.

Well engineered, well thought through, well designed, detailed.

We don't want to go and get a Great Eight.

We want to go and win. So that will be our goal.

- Everybody pumped? - [all] Yeah.

- [Dave] Sweet. - [Kevin] I think it's gonna be awesome.

I think what makes the award special,

you have to make the debut here in Detroit.

The public can never have seen the vehicle. It has to maintain its secrecy.

[Dave] There's a couple of things that are very important.

These cars cannot be displayed,

promoted, seen by the public, until they arrive at Detroit Autorama.

Most importantly, if anybody lets pictures

out of this car, we're disqualified.

Loose lips sink ships.

[Pete] This is the Oscar of awards.

You can come up with the greatest idea in the world or design in the world,

and if you can't execute it, it ain't worth nothing.

Anybody here up for a challenge

of building a car out of aluminum?

No, nobody.

[laughing] Crickets.

[Dave] That was a lot of crickets.

[crickets chirping]

2 [Dave] This is a little bit different from us

because we don't normally build a car to compete at the Detroit Autorama,

and so we're gonna actually have to keep it under wraps,

make sure everybody that works here keeps it also under wraps.

Try and keep me contained to keep it under wraps.

So I think probably the best thing to do

is I think we're going to probably,

down by the CNC room,

I think we'll probably build that off where we built the Futurliner.

So we can just build a room and capture everything in there,

build the car in the room so we can lock the doors.

That's probably gonna have to happen.

I can't believe I'm okaying them to lock me out of this project.

So I think what the best plan is when we're starting with

what looks like a 1953 Corvette is let's get the body panels,

let's glue it together, let's do the big chops and move stuff around.

Let's create that roof line so we can actually visualize it.

[Izzy] Our aluminum's gonna come up to here and then end here.

This isn't gonna have any type of A-pillar.

[Dave] No color. Chrome filler.

Okay, so this will be structural, but it won't be--

[Dave] It'll have aluminum behind it, and the chrome will be cladded

on the front and around the windows and the B pillar.

And then at that point we'll have a buck

and then we can actually go back and let's start doing patterns.

Let's, you know, we'll scan... We'll start getting all of that stuff.

Because then we have something

that's tangible that we can actually put our hands on.

- Check the proportions. - We can check the proportions, exactly.

- It'll curve back. - [Dave] Yeah, it's gonna curve back.

The rail will be at the top of the glass instead of down here.

Gotcha.

The body came in multiple pieces.

Metal structure for the body to attach the body panels to that.

So it's actually nice and solid-ish.

Except for that piece.

[Dave] So, Izzy, this is looking really, really good, man.

I am super stoked.

Got a good profile to it.

- It's a hell of a good start. - Does that look radical or what?

It'll look pretty awesome.

You got the lines going just right.

[Izzy] Yeah, it turned out pretty good.

Boy, I'd like to keep the car as low as we can.

- Like this. It looks good. - Mmm-hmm.

It looks really good.

The process was very kind of based on discoveries.

Let's build this piece and it's going to answer five questions.

I think we've got a little bit more arc than I was envisioning.

Well, no, you're you're pretty close to what I had there.

This is a little bit more straight right there, but I think that's a good start.

So once you get the foam in there, just stay a little bit high on the foam here

so we can get a nice little contour to get that kind of, that split top look,

you know, where we have those bulges.

[Izzy] Okay.

[Dave] How it has that little crease in the center.

I want that to be very apparent.

So make sure you leave enough foam so we can kind of carve it down,

and then we'll just sand back to this frame.

- Okay. - That way it gets us in the area that we need to be.

Get the foam on there. Let's get it shaped up.

And then after that, we'll be looking at just doing some fiberglass

so we have a nice hard shell.

Yeah. Just keep going the way you're going. It looks really good, though.

- Cool. - I'm liking it.

The V-back window is killer, too.

But as it sits right now, I think just doing a shell on it

so that we've got something visually that we can look at, give a thumbs up,

and then we can start doing our aluminum panels.

- [Izzy] Okay. - I think it'll be great.

- [Izzy] Awesome. - So...

Awesome. Okay.

- Way to go, bro. Yeah. - Let's do it.

[Dave] Looking cherry.

[Izzy] Mmm-hmm.

You know, to design something like this

and me personally,

my personality is I love to show everybody,

"Hey, look how cool this could be."

And so we're gonna actually have to keep it under wraps.

[Izzy] I can't talk about it.

My wife thinks I don't even work here anymore because I can't tell her what I do.

I'm waiting for somebody to start peeking up over the stairs, looking at me.

Here's my conglomeration and hopefully at some point

we're gonna carve out the inside so we can sit in it.

The plan is to build all this out of foam

and then use this...

We're going to kind of create a buck, just like we are on the body.

But instead of trying to build all this out of fiberglass,

we foam it first and then we'll fiberglass it.

The wire frame essentially is our outline.

So we're gonna sand back the foam to the wire,

and then we'll start fine-tuning it from there.

The roof is actually gonna have, like,

a domed roof on the car when it's done.

So we're gonna leave it a little high right now

until we can kind of perfect the, like, the perfect shape on it.

I don't know. It's pretty cool.

It's basically making something out of nothing.

Yeah, and it just looks like a big potato right now.

So, I think it should be pretty rad.

I should be driving it in no time.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

I'm excited about this one.

I've done a lot of car stuff my whole life, my whole career.

But I've never done anything to this extreme.

It's pretty awesome.

I feel extremely honored to be able to be a part of this deal.

I think it's gonna be pretty badass. Gonna be a cool little car.

This really makes me want a potato.

Like, that's all I can think about.

Potatoes and French fries doing this.

[laughing]

Lunchtime!

I'm gonna go get some French fries.

2 [Dave] You know, really with the roof, I wanted to come up with something

that was different from what we normally build.

When you're looking at the surroundings

being reflected off the roof and you can follow the same light bend

through the trim and the glass and there is no deviation,

there's no big level changes.

it basically is different materials,

all flowing in the exact same slippery direction,

- which is just super trick. - And it definitely was not easy.

No.

There's so many things going on with that shape

because we wanted it to be aggressively a low top.

[Kevin] And then you're running it to the windshield.

And then you wanted the back window this certain way.

So, I mean, there was just endless amounts of thinking about it.

[Izzy] This is a very precise measurement.

You put too much activator in it, this thing will heat up and hardened instantly.

So you should always measure this out,

which is why I'm just gonna wing it,

because I feel like winging it is way better.

It doesn't take much.

Hmm. That's probably enough.

Maybe I'll go a little more. Just for us to be safe.

Now I gotta stir this.

And then, usually when you get it too hot,

it starts to turn brown and get really smelly.

I kind of go off just I've done it enough

I know what to put in there, but you get that nice

like bluish greenish color, and that means it's pretty cool.

If this starts to turn brown or like a

almost like a peach color, then it's way too hot.

So the goal is to do it nice and slow.

And try and work all the air out of it while we do it.

So we have the wire frame, and now we're going to fill that up with foam

so we can actually lay some fiberglass over the top, do some quick bodywork.

This will prove a couple of things.

It'll prove our concept of shape and design as well as we'll be able

to now take patterns off of it with tape.

[Izzy] Yeah, it's a big deal, man.

Ridler car. This is a... The car of cars.

These aren't cars that everybody gets to do, and it's pretty rad.

Just to be a part of it is awesome.

It's cool because hopefully everybody in here gets to touch it at some point.

So the rendering looks beautiful, but it's on paper.

And one of the biggest things when you're developing

and designing a brand-new body style

is you need to see it in person in scale.

Hey, Iz. Oh, man, I'm telling you...

Dude!

Turned out pretty good.

Nice. Hey, you know what? That's perfect, too.

That's just enough.

This is perfect right here.

That little drape in the roof.

That's exactly what we're after.

It's got a great line to it.

I really quite love the roof line.

I want one just like it.

Oh, man, it's so cool.

That's looking killer.

Somewhat nailed the look to start?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

This little reverse dish.

We need to keep that because it's a nice little section.

I think we should talk a little bit about maybe grafting this down in here

and having it to where we flange that sets down flat to it.

- [Izzy] Smooth transition into everything, no edge on it. - Right.

Start it from, like, right here and just start going up

- so it's just nice, gradual. - [Izzy] And just lose it as it--

[Dave] You still have that dish this way.

Just take it up. Take it uphill.

That thing can come up... Even that part, you're still

- going to have that same kind of shape. - [Izzy] Yeah.

[Dave] And then that gives us another inch and a half or so

for space between the top of the tire.

Okay, cool.

But I think this is a great, great way to start.

Get this top sitting down into the body.

So we have a nice transition for our aluminum panels to start laying up.

Then we can start smashing some metal.

Start hammering on some aluminum, yup.

All right, cool.

For the corner dips way down.

To achieve the stance we want, the wheel will be like up into the corner.

So we're using the foam.

To kind of reshape that valley there and then basically,

it'll increase the amount of room on the inside of the fender well

so the tires clear and don't rub on anything.

Foam it, and then once we get the shape that we want,

then we'll fiberglass over that.

And then later harden it up. It's a two-part foam or, you know, the mix,

It's a 1-1.

So you pour one and then you match the,

you know, the same amount of material and then just stir it in the bucket.

It's pretty easy.

If he mixes the correct amount this time. [laughs]

So this will basically just speed up the process.

Okay, like... It's good.

When it starts to activate,

so you wanna like...

really get it down in there.

You only got like one shot to get it

in the crack.

The idea behind mixing too much

is if you... say if we pour it and it doesn't spread out

far enough, when you overlap it, you'll get,

you'll create an air pocket in there and then you have a void,

and you essentially just have a weak spot in this.

So, we're gonna be shaping the aluminum over these eventually.

So we're gonna be beating the crap out of these things.

So we want to be as strong as we can.

[Will] I think we followed a pretty decent process.

As the process went, you know, we... we gave it the time

that we needed to and we kept going that direction.

Let's build these five things and it's going to answer 20 questions,

and then you can just build upon that.

So it started as one piece,

let's build this body.

So now we're gonna lay down some layers of fiberglass,

and then that'll give us a nice hard layer,

and then we can kind of do a final shape.

This stuff's pretty thick, so I like to split it in half.

Because you'll get all these bubbles in it

and you can just work it out a lot easier.

[girl] Oh, wow.

Yeah, this should be pretty much good to go.

Start shaping panels on it.

It's perfect.

Yeah, it's fantastic.

Good job, man.

- Cool. - That looks awesome.

Awesome.

[Izzy] I like it.

It's super cool.

- Everything's bonded together at this point. - Panels, so...

So the body is solid.

[Dave] It's the best way to go. It's not gonna move.

- [Izzy] Yeah. - So...

But this gives us a really good position

- to start fabricating aluminum panels. - Okay.

It looks like it's very even left to right, and that's gonna be important.

We'll perfect the panels that we're making out of aluminum.

Yeah.

Yeah, this one's got to be super special.

And what's different,

most contenders for that Detroit Autorama are not drivable cars.

We want to make this car look like it cannot be driven.

I want to be able to drive this car.

So you get to drive it, then I get to drive it?

Well, we're gonna have to shake it down.

- Cool. - Yeah.

- Cool. Okay, buddy. - [Izzy] Awesome. I like it.

Get her done. One day, we can maybe drive it to lunch.

That'd be sweet.

All right. Looks good.

We're finally done with the plug, and I'll tell you what.

I got goosebumps, baby.

Now it's time to start doing some powdering it and start bending some metal.

2 Yeah, it's fantastic. Good job, man.

- Cool. - That looks awesome.

You know, building a Corvette is one thing,

and they're beautiful cars, and you can do all sorts of cool stuff

and especially chopping up and moving fiberglass around.

There's an art to it. There's a lot of people

that are really good at SMCs and that kind of stuff.

But to build something that everybody expects it to be a certain material

and you go well beyond not just doing it out of carbon fiber or another SMC,

but actually doing it out of a alloy.

Get this top sitting down into the body,

so we have a nice transition for our aluminum panels

- to start laying up. - We can start smashing some metal.

Start hammering on some aluminum.

Out of aluminum

just gave that much more of a difficulty level.

It also gave us the ability because I don't think you really

build a unibody car out of fiberglass.

I just don't know if it exists.

I don't know if it's strong enough or it's a thing.

Not just the body panels--

I think aluminum brings it back to a coach building side of it, right?

[Kevin] I think it just really took the car into like a craftsman class.

Like, you know what I'm saying? It's not just a car.

This is a car that was built by craftsmen out of aluminum.

[Jordan] Building a car from scratch.

I can't say I've done an entire body like this from scratch before.

We'll start with the tape patterns.

The method with the tape is if you have a body to start from,

you can lay tape on it and get what's called a flexible shape pattern.

It allows you to make a pattern that gives you the area of the body.

You can take that tape, peel it off and then use that as a template

for what the metal needs to be.

So then you can start shaping the metal and get it in the areas

that it needs to be raised up or lowered or shrinked or whatever.

Get all of that to where the tape fits

nice and taught again, then all you have to do is just wrap it

around the form of the body. So you get the shape of the tape

and then the form with a buck or a body.

The other nice thing about the tape is you do one side,

you can flip it inside out and then you have that reverse side

so it's a really handy way to mirror something.

From there, we get all the panels shaped,

get a template of each panel as best I can.

I prefer aluminum.

It's just the way to go.

It definitely adds a little level of prestige.

I mean, you're not gonna have to worry about it

rusting, almost ever.

The nice thing about doing this out of aluminum

is that moves around a lot easier than steel.

Steel, I'd be breaking quite a sweat trying to wrestle it around

and get it to fit the body

after I'd made the shape, you know?

It's hard to stretch

and shrink the metal to infinity, but even on this,

you can see where it does the reverse curve,

it's a lot thinner.

On this area that needs to get stretched out a lot

to come back around that than it is here, where it actually had to shrink.

So it started off as about 80,000ths thick.

And then, where it's shrunk,

it's as thick as 90 to 100 thousandths and then where it's...

where it's stretched, it's about 60 or so.

To get a decent thickness,

throughout the whole car, you have to make it

in a lot of smaller chunks and then piece it together.

Once you have a tape pattern, then you have to break up the tape

into manageable sections.

Ideally, it'd be nice to make as large

of a piece as possible, so you don't have to do

as much welding. But some shapes,

there's just way too much curvature going on.

One of the hardest parts of this panel

is getting that trough to sit in as deep as it needs to be.

Just that reverse curve is usually the more challenging part of a panel.

But I'm gonna shrink right there, get it to lay down

a little better around the headlight.

The tools involved in shaping,

I like to start with the beater bag and you beat the sheet metal over that.

You get a lot of shape really quick.

Also creates natural tucks in the aluminum and when you get a tuck,

that's what you need to be able to shrink something.

Might be a good start.

From there, I like the English wheel.

Awesome tool, and you can actually do

a lot of cool stuff in the shaping and the forming process of it and smooth it

super, super smooth.

You see it's all planished and you're not deaf afterward?

It's the wheel.

I'll be amazed if it's anywhere near fitting.

Might shrink a little more right there.

We'll shrink that down real quick

and then just make it around a touch.

Every time you bend it over here, it affects what it does over there.

So you've got to kind of chase it back and forth.

It feels a little bit better, but it feels like it's still

teetering off of something around there.

If you look inside there, it looks like I'm a mile

off of the bottom there, but it's just that thick.

2 [Dave] After doing the mock up and really looking at the car

in scale, in real life, I've decided to go back

and make a couple of changes 'cause I really quite love

the newer roofline in comparison

to the other one that I had done.

Just a little bit higher up.

I've given a little bit more shape to the windshield,

having the V and the trim in there.

What I decided to do is actually take off the door posts.

This original rendering I did when I showed Dave, had just a little

bit more bubble top look with a B-pillar and also the C-pillar

was a little bit skinnier, same back window idea.

But I think definitely putting these big radical arches in the rooftop

and carrying it through into the top of the front and rear windows,

and the trim, I think, is going to be trick.

And also getting rid of the B-pillar,

the split basically between the door and the quarter glass

I think this is going to really make it look a lot better.

I've also kind of shrunk that a little bit, too, so...

we'll keep playing around with the plug.

So we can make some patterns.

And I really am liking this direction, though.

So we're gonna go ahead and make this change and I think it's gonna be great.

2 [Jordan] Every time you bend it over here, it affects what it does over there.

So you've got to kind of face it back and forth.

But if you look inside there, it looks like I'm a mile

off of the bottom there, but it's just that thick.

It feels a little bit better, but it feels like it's still

teetering off of something around there.

So I'll try to move it around on the wheel, I think.

The wheels are nice and polished and pretty.

That's what ends up being the... on the panels.

You get done wheeling something, and it looks like a polished piece of aluminum.

It's like, "Did you polish that?" It's like, "No.

It's good tools."

Pretty decent. I think I've vaguely defined that

arc there. Okay.

Sharpen up that line

and this one will be pretty close.

You got to kind of face it back and forth.

But sometimes you can see the... the body where I'm pressing against,

it's really dark right there.

So obviously it's pressing pretty tight against it,

so I can probably smack that out a little bit.

If I can get it to relax like that, that'd be nice.

[hammering]

Playing with the hood, trying to tip these flanges.

I got the shape of the hood, all dialed in from the old fiberglass hood.

This is probably one of the last pieces on the front end,

and now I'm just making a nice sharp edge out of it.

And then we'll go shrink and stretch the corners to get it

exactly the profile that I'm after.

I'm gonna go around,

get this edge nice and 90-degrees,

nice and sharp.

I made a couple of templates

to help me out with the profile.

So I made this to the actual hood so I can just sit it on here.

It's hard when this is sitting on the hood to tell what gap is in there, you know?

So I can see there's a gap there.

I just need to shrink this edge

to get it to come up and meet that.

Makes it a nifty little tool to get the profile right there.

Made it for the front and the rear.

Progress, yep.

One smack at a time.

I have the front clip to go with,

so I'm just starting to tackle whatever front pieces I can.

The hood was a little bit of a daunting task

because it's a large low crown panel.

That's notoriously difficult to do in sheet metal shaping.

Just a tiny bit of stretch or shrink goes a long way on a low crown.

So I was a little nervous to do that, but I had some good wheels

that I was able to knock it out pretty well.

Each piece you want to leave an inch to two inches large

just because it's hard to totally comprehend

exactly where the metal's gonna move

when you're starting from a flexible shape pattern to a flat sheet.

It's pretty easy to build yourself in into a corner,

but take it slow and it doesn't... It's not too bad.

[hammering]

I'm being more and more inspired every single day

watching this stuff now, finally coming together.

And I think that the team is doing very well.

I'm very excited to come to work every single day.

And I'm even more excited to see more parts go on this car.

So we're about four and three-quarters of an inch to the wheel opening.

...is I can't reach it.

Yeah, you can reach it that way, though.

There's like seven and three-eighths or something.

Yeah, I'm gonna say about... Yep, seven and three-eighths. So that's the difference...

- Two and a half. - Two and a half?

Boy, that's not a big difference, is it?

Not much.

Visually, it's a lot, but...

[Dave] I think visually, I think we just lay it out.

Well, see they're roughly... Boom, boom.

- We'll be about-- - [Jordan] Three-eighths is about up there.

[Dave] So what I want to do is I want to find a nice even flow

where this wheel well is going to have that swept back, the wheel opening.

It's gonna be a little bit higher, but we still want to cover the top of the tire.

So it has a little more of an aggressive,

lowered stance to it, as opposed to more of a sports car stance.

One thing I'm just noticing right now

is this rocker right here has never been extended.

That would be a real nice natural line

just to catch that and come up here and just bring it back out.

- [Jordan] Stand back and look. - What do you think?

2 So what I want to do is I want to find a nice even flow

where this wheel well is going to have that swept back, wheel opening.

It's going to a little bit higher, but we still want to cover the top of the tire.

What do you think?

[Jordan] That looks a little better.

- It still is raised enough. - [Jordan] Cuts it right in half.

We're going much bigger diameter than what was on their stock.

So I think we're in really nice shape there.

This has a nice flow to it.

Building a car to this degree, to go for the type of award that we're hoping for,

just raised the bar, I think, for difficulty.

Yeah, I'm getting super stoked on this.

Yeah, it's... It's nice to see stuff like that get put into it.

[Dave] Mmm-hmm.

So you're still working that other panel

right there, but you're you're getting so close

on this front end, I know you've got the hood panel,

- the low crown panel all built up. - [Jordan] Yep.

[Dave] This is an awesome way to visualize

exactly what it is we want done when it's finished.

I think it's really gonna show how much we're committed

to going there and really giving it our all and winning.

I don't want to jinx us.

So is it going to be this low then or is it gonna be a little higher?

No, I think we're gonna try and keep it about this height.

Maybe a half an inch higher, but not much.

- I really do like... I think it's very aggressive... - It looks awesome that low.

...how low that sits right now.

- Yeah. - It's sweet.

Building it in metal is one really huge chunk of it.

Now I'm getting chills.

Now I can start to really see the car come to life.

I think what's gonna be funny, though, and I can't say it for sure,

but I'm not aware of any fiberglass cars that ever really won the Ridler.

And so when we show up at Detroit with a Corvette coupe,

I think it's gonna be like, eh.

Till they know what it's made.

No fiberglass car has ever won.

Well, that's funny. You're right.

That's why we made it out of aluminum.

And then they're gonna go, I'm leaving.

I'm packing up my car. I'll come back next year when you're not here.

- [laughing] - [Jordan] Yeah.

I mean, that's what I'm hoping for.

- Yeah. - I'm gonna pinch myself and wake up any minute.

Honestly, out of the years

that I've been in the business and designing cars,

this one has got me so damn excited,

I can't hardly sleep.

Well, I'll let you get back at it.

- Okay. - These aluminum cans aren't gonna "form themselves."

[Jordan] I wish.

- Kind of. - All right, buddy.

Looks great, though.

Yeah. Thank you.

Really getting pumped.

Whoo-hoo!

Yeah.

Being a Ridler, things have to be perfect.

[Will] We want it better than what we're even used to.

Hell, yeah!

We don't really know what we're looking at yet.

[Kevin] Once we weld it together, there ain't no coming back.

One, two, three, go.

Wow, it's all aluminum.

So we're gonna switch the colors.

[man 1] When it's not in the sun, how does it look?

[man 2] This is the point of no return.

There's no way to blend on this car.

Do not [bleeping] guess whether you can do something or not.

We are out of time, that cracked the fender.

Unbelievable.

You know, I thought this fit better.

[Dave] I'm so excited to see what's going to happen with the gauges.

I can't get that pitch that that devil like that corner.

We can't go.

- [overlapping shouting] - Yeah. There you go.

- There you go. - One, two, three.

See you guys in Detroit.

Okay. Fire it up.

- Nope. - [Kevin] What do you wanna do?

I don't know.

Anybody ready to hear who won the Ridler award?