(engine revs)
(rock music)
- We're going to drive this thing today,
somehow, someway, we have to get
this thing out of the shop.
Yesterday we made it run,
which was huge 'cause it now runs on its own power,
so that is good.
- [Fred] But, it doesn't have a radiator hooked up,
it doesn't have power steering hooked up,
it doesn't have the alternator hooked up,
doesn't have the brakes hooked up,
it doesn't have a lot of things.
- [Dave] So today we're going to spread the work out
a little bit more.
- [Fred] Yes, by the end of today,
we will have 35 inch tires here.
- [Dave] Yep.
- [Fred] Bolted on this thing and it will leave the shop.
- [Dave] Yes it will.
- [Fred] We have a goal!
- [Dave] Yes, we're working until that goal is finished.
- [Fred] Which might be midnight.
It's time to do drive shafts.
With the leaf springs
and the shackle on the back,
the drive shaft actually gets shorter as it
goes to full droop, and then longer as it goes
to full compression.
We're going to use a CV drive shaft, which means
the pinion actually points right at
the output of the transfer case.
And we went out in the yard to look around
and try to find a drive shaft.
Ben has a bunch of different parts here at Mod Co.,
and we found a drive shaft out of a TJ.
This is too long, but what we'll do is we'll cut
this weld out, and then be able to take
the slip spline and cut the tube back
a little bit and then put it back in a weld it up.
The larger tubes seem to be able
to spin with less vibration.
That's why a lot of late model trucks
have really big drive shafts in em,
but there's more options out there.
(rock music)
Dave, surprise me with the tires!
- Look what I got!
- Boggers!
- Boggers and chrome steelies.
- Boggers are exactly the perfect tire
for an AMC Pacer.
- Yeah, check these things out.
They're 35145015's.
We got ya some chrome wagon spokes;
this thing's going to be rad.
We found out that the Pacer,
like part of why they were cool back in the day
is because they were so wide and stable.
So it turns out they're like wider than a Cherokee
and they're using Cherokee axles.
- So that means we get to go back to one of our favorite
things to use, wheel spacers!
- Lame.
- But if you're going to use wheel spacers,
get the ones from Spidertrax.
They're awesome, they're made in America,
they're pretty beefy, they come with Loctite and Lug nuts.
Just about everything you need.
- So, we think these'll fit.
We're going to end up trimming a little bit here
and a little bit there,
but I'm pretty sure it'll work.
They'll probably rub in there a little bit.
We'll probably just going to have
all sorts of fun with this car.
The tires look good, though,
and looking good is half the battle.
Right. (laughs)
- [Fred] We need all the help we can get looking good.
(hammer clanking)
(rock music)
- We only have a few more things to get finished,
most important being the track bar.
Otherwise, the (indistinct) is not going to work.
- Making some brackets for end of the track bar to mount to.
This, I'll weld on the frame and then a second tab,
so it will be like a double shear frame side mount.
(rock music)
- [Fred] After that, it could use some exhaust,
but it doesn't need it.
We need to put the air cleaner on.
Coolant hoses all need hooked up, it needs a shifter.
The shifter is going to have to go up underneath the dash,
and we'll put the seats back in.
Bolt the front tires on and we're going to go full width.
We're going to drive this thing out of the shop tonight.
- I think we almost got a running driving Pacer 4X4,
and it looks great.
It's lower than I expected,
it's grosser than I expected.
None of the fab work is as good as I was hoping for.
(horn honks)
- Horn works.
- But, we did this thing, let's fire it up.
Let's see if it squirts power steering fluid
and brake fluid everywhere,
and then button it up and get out of here.
- It smells like cat pee in here.
- It always does.
(cool bass guitar music)
(engine turning over)
I like the rear wiper.
It's like no matter what
the rear wiper is going to be on
and the tail lights are going to be on.
- [Fred] See if I can turn that off.
Now it'll never come off,
'cause I just broke the knob off.
(engine starts)
- [Dave] It's running.
We built the coolest looking Pacer ever!
- I know, if it was a car show car, we'd be winning.
Even though we got the fuel injection fixed
because the distributor was out of whack,
we got to clean up a little bit of wiring
and put the hood back on, we have another problem.
- Yeah, everything was going really good
until we tried to go forward and backwards,
and the clutch won't disengage,
so we are about to raise it back up.
We're working on this thing until it's right.
- Something is out of whack, um,
but we're going to stay here tonight until it's done
because tomorrow, we're going wheelin'.
- Alrght.
No rest for the wicked.
(blues music)