Motor City Motors Episode 2

Motor City Motors Week 2 Challenge: Turn a ’92 Chevy Suburban into a pothole filler. ‘The Asphalter’

Dave talks about all the potholes in the area, so he wants to fix ‘em. They drive around in some POS and demonstrate some of the potholes, until they crash the car…slightly.

They’re designing a big arm to go on the side of the Suburban that will become the dump for the asphalt.

Dave and his dad are talking about a riff between them. Daves parents thinks he stole $30K from the company and they have issues to work out.

They introduce the guys from around town that are helping out on this project. I’ll try to get these people listed, but it’s tough to type that fast, lol.

Day 1: Taking the Suburban apart. Jerry Bunch showing his ’34 Ford Coupe. Asphalt machine ‘hot box’ is in the shop now. They need to figure out how to make this huge thing work in the Suburban. Gotta remove the top of the truck it looks like. Figuring out hydraulics.

Sparks flying, roof coming off this pig.

Paul from Dynamic Metals being shown. He’s doing the hydraulics.

Roof is removed, they’re trying to figure out how to get it in, it’s too wide so they have to chop up the ‘Burb even more. Now they got it in….don’t you wish it were this fast in real life?

Commercial break, day two coming. I wanna see a fight, a finger broken, or something catch fire.

Day Two: The hot box for the asphalt is now installed, gotta get a PTO installed now so they can power the hydraulic pump. The hydraulics will lift the hot box.

Gonna use the motor from a log splitter, but they can’t get one ’til tomorrow, so they work on other stuff.

Jamie is actually working so far on this show… no fights between Jamie and Dave this week I guess. Could be between pop (John Kaye) and Dave though.

Here we go….FIRE!!! The guys have a huge torch shooting flames about 20 feet. I want one.

Checking out a low rider for it’s hydraulic system.

Gutting the rear suspension so it doesn’t bottom out with the hot box in the back. Think hard-tail bike. This should make it fun to drive, lol.

This hot box is going to use recycled asphalt, better for the planet apparently.

At commercial I’m thinking about all the Model T club guys that were pissed off last week when the Detroit Bros and crew destroyed a 1926 Model T. Anyone pissed about a ’92 Chevy Suburban?

I didn’t think so.

Day 3: The guys need to get the arm, motor & hydraulic pump installed today. Log splitter motor is 16 hp. Not sure, but that sounds like a hell of a log splitter.

The hot box is spinning now, so now it’s about the arm. If you haven’t seen Motor City Motors, but you’ve seen ‘The Colony’ also on the Discovery Channel, the warehouse that these guys are working out of looks like the one on that show. A huge, rusted out warehouse with various metal parts and junk all over.

Jamie seeks for ways to make the building of this beast more fun. Jamie is off-track right now with the rest of the group, this was inevitable. But, gotta like his sense of freedom.

Guys are going through an obstacle course…a la Jamie. I see more fire. This is blue-collar athletics at it’s best. The guys are having some fun.

Front hydraulics are in, but not wired. Other stuff didn’t get done on time today, they have to make up some ground on day 4. Seems like 2 days left is enough at this point, but wtf do I know about turning a Suburban into a pothole filler?

Day 4: Working on the arm fabrication. Jamie is late to work…again.

Still trying to get names of the other fabricators that are helping this week. Sorry to the guys I’ve missed.

Hydraulic failure. Jamie has shown up to work.

Hydraulics took half a day to get working. Now the front end pops up just like a low-rider.

Arm being fabricated & welded. Anyone in Detroit know how to weld? I’m guessing there’s one or two.

Dave, Jamie and John are gonna go to dinner and hit on the missing cash issue. Daves not happy he’s been accused of stealing $30 grand. We’ll see after the break.

You guys enjoying this show? To be honest I’m typing so fast I barely have a chance to actually ‘watch’ the show. Yeah, I could TIVO it and report later, but I want to give it to you as it happens. I’m not even sure why, it just seems like more fun to do this as it happens on tv… as if I have some responsibility to keep people informed of such important events, lol. I hope the world doesn’t fall apart in the next 16 minutes ‘cuz I’ll miss it.

I just got done spending a shit-ton of money on my Jeep a couple weeks ago. Next time it needs that much work I’m sending it to the Detroit Bros to turn it into a pumpkin catapult.

Day 5, the final countdown: The men are at dinner…$30K on an Amex bill that John can’t find…he’s basically accusing Dave of using it for personal reasons. Dave’s offended by that accusation. Money was used on Amex to help build & sell bikes…Dave needed more money for that than dad realized. Hugs, kisses & apologies…. all is back on track, with no blood shed. Sorry, maybe next time.

Back to the build. More sparks & metal things being attached to other metal things. Final piece of the arm is being worked on..they’re honing in on it. Arm is in place, last bits of welding going on now.

8 hours 57 minutes left. Stuff being tested. Front end working fine. Hot box hydraulic leak. Uh oh, front hydraulics have gone bad. The ‘burb is tilted to one side. 6 hours 29 minutes left. They’re trying to figure out the problem of the front hydraulics.

Son (Jerry’s I think) says there isn’t enough hydraulic fluid in the front, and he quits. Dad says “no you’re not’ and ‘because I said so”. Our dads would’ve smacked us for being a smart ass like this kid right?

Testing the arm.

Commercial break. I’m seeing these previews for Howe and Howe Tech….looks like a cool show.

If you’re one of the guys on this episode, send me a comment and give me a bit of info on you so I can update this page and give you credit for your work. The comments go directly to me, and they don’t show up until & if I post them, so use that form to send me your info and I won’t post it as a comment.

Final 5 minutes of the show: Time running down. Problems with the arm. 12 minutes 15 seconds left…yikes. They’re pulling the rig outside to test.

Asphalt is being put into the bucket from the hot box. Some ashpalt gets dumped on the ground, but some goes into the bucket…success.

All the guys get a bunch of tools worth $5,000.

Shaggy’s Radicals paints the pig and makes it look…better.

Ok, they’re showing the pothole filler in action and it’s kinda funny. The arm slams a bit of asphalt down (most misses the hole), then the front end hydro’s are used to slam the front of the truck down and flatten the asphalt. They say it ‘works’. I say I could do it faster with a bucket of asphalt and a shovel.

But what fun would that be?

Any comments to add? Post them below!

I’m out.