Justin: Here at AmericanMuscle.com, we can sometimes get caught up or lost in the day-to-day
grind, so when the opportunity comes along to do something really cool, we would absolutely
love to help in any way that we can. Enter Johnathan from Make-A-Wish. Now we told you
about Johnathan and his story a little while back at Chip Foose's shop in California, about his
wish to have AmericanMuscle.com totally transform his New Edge Mustang into his dream ride.
Hey, Johnathan, how you doing, buddy?
Johnathan: Good. How are you?
Justin: Doing well. Congratulations, man. Obviously surprised. We're gonna be hooking you guys
up and taking care of your ride and getting you all hooked up.
Johnathan: Wow.
Johnathan: You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna grab your car. We're gonna ship it out
to American Muscle. The guys and I are gonna go to work on it here. And how about we fly
you and your family out to our car show this August? We'll reveal it there for you.
Johnathan: That sounds pretty amazing.
Johnathan: Well, we got the car in the shop as you can see, and it's a little rough to say
the least. What is underneath is even worse. Basically, this thing is beyond repair, so
we helped Johnathan find a new platform to start with, 2001 Mustang GT to help Johnathan
create his dream Mustang.
Now Johnathan's been great with helping us with the part list, color schemes, and other
ideas to really nail down his dream Mustang. Johnathan came up with the overall design for
his Make-A-Wish New Edge and then worked with our talented graphic artist here at American
Muscle to create a rendering based off of his vision for his dream Mustang. So I'm gonna
present that rendering to Johnathan right now and see what he thinks. Hey, what's happening,
Johnathan? How you doing, buddy?
Johnathan: Hey, how you doing?
Justin: Good, good. Well, I just sent an email with the rendering here that our artist came
up with. Why don't you open that thing up, man, check this thing out, and see if you
like it?
Johnathan: Okay, one second.
Justin: All right.
Johnathan: Wow.
Justin: What do you think, man?
Johnathan: That's pretty crazy. I like the red accents that he has going on with the
roof, the mirrors, the spoiler definitely.
Justin: Yeah, I like it. It's kind of like a Laguna-Seca-style New Edge with the black
and red accents.
Johnathan: Exactly, that's exactly what I think of when I see it. The bullet rims, just when
you put that red in there and everything, it's very nice.
Justin: Besides obviously the appearance stuff we have going on here, of course, to give
you a lot of performance to back up these really good looks here. And again, if you're
not liking one thing in particular, let us know because after I hang up with you, we're
gonna get to work on this car here since the show is right around the corner.
Johnathan: The only thing I could think of is just have red inside of the hood scoops
there. We're good.
Justin: Okay, I dig. I dig. We'll throw a little red in the Terminator hood there, make sure
it pops a little bit. Okay.
Johnathan: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm extremely excited. It's my dream car, really. It's amazing.
Justin: We're gonna have a lot of fun with this one, believe me.
Johnathan: I do really appreciate it, and I'm very excited.
Justin: We'll see you in August.
Johnathan: See you soon.
Justin: I cannot wait to get to work on this thing. The show is right around the corner,
so let's go.
So first, we're gonna tackle the exterior. We're gonna give Johnathan's GT the full treatment
with a complete overhaul with the help from our friends at a local body shop, Malvern
Collision. In order to get Johnathan's car completely perfect, we have to blow it apart
to get it ready for bodywork and paint. Again, to nail that Laguna-Seca-style look that Johnathan
really wants for his dream New Edge, we're going with a deep glossy black base with red
accents on the hood, roof, and spoiler. Can't wait to see how it turns out.
All right. Let's check this thing out. Wow! Definitely got that Laguna-Seca-style stuff
happening with the black and red. Man, that thing looks awesome. They really did a good
job on the paint scheme. Super glad he did the black-and-red thing with the vents on
the hood because it really needed something up front here, but overall, this thing looks
killer, man. Now obviously, those wheels are sticking out like a sore thumb, but we'll
fix that. Body kit looks killer. Should be sounding pretty good too. We've got the Roush
side pipes on. Let's fire it up.
That sounds pretty cool. Car's off to a great start. We still have a long way to go with
this thing though. Obviously, wheel suspensions and performance stuff is next on the plate.
So we'll get that going, and then it's crunch time, man.
Johnathan's Make-A-Wish New Edge is now really looking the part, so we've got to give him
some performance and suspension to back up those good looks. We're giving him some of
the bolt-on essentials and dropping the ride height to really show off those staggered
bullet-style wheels.
All right, guys. Crunch time here on Johnathan's Make-A-Wish build. Now the big reveal is only
a few days away, but we have been hard at work on this thing that's really starting
to take shape. Let's show you where we're at right now.
We got a lot of stuff going on under the hood here as you can see, some of the bolt-on basics
including brand new underdrive, pulleys, new intake manifold, which is nice. Dual intake
will mess our performance, and that C&L is always nice as well. Brand new shorty headers,
of course, padded X-pipe, and leading into that exhaust which just sounds pretty awesome.
What you can't see is a new rear-end set we got going on here, 3.73 gears from Ford Racing,
in addition to a nice new one-piece drive shaft as well. But we didn't stop there. We
finally addressed that ride height situation as you can see with a brand new set of coilovers
and, of course, new wheels because look at these things, man. We couldn't stick Johnathan
with that. He really wanted the black-bullet-style wheels, so that's what we're giving him, wrapped
in a really, really nice Street Comp tires from Mickey Thompson, huge 315s out back this
thing which will look pretty tough.
But we're burning daylight. Johnathan, this one's for you, man. So we gotta get to work.
As you can see, we got this thing totally ripped apart right now. We're doing brand
new carpet for Johnathan, brand new really cool racing seats for him, and a couple of
other little touches. Most importantly, as you can see, Bryan right now, our buddy, is
working on a pretty rocking system for Johnathan and his New Edge. He really, really is a big
fan of music, so we're gonna hook him up big time. We're doing a complete JL audio system
for him enclosed sub in the rear here. We got the touchscreen up front, the Alpine.
This thing should be pretty nuts by the time Bryan's finished up, and I really can't wait
to hear it. So, guys, finish line's getting close.
Well, guys, that's it. Johnathan's Make-A-Wish New Edge is a wrap. I really think we nailed
this thing. Now we're getting it loaded up on the trailer right now for the big reveal
at our show. Can't wait to see his reaction.
Johnathan: Very excited. It's a dream come true.
Steve Voudouris: When we first got a call from Make-A-Wish and we learned that Johnathan's wish was to
have us, American Muscle, overhaul his car, we were honored. We were excited. We got a
chance to go back and forth with him quite a bit. I got to meet him earlier today, and
he's really a great kid. He couldn't deserve this more.
Justin: Everybody wants to this thing, right? Hey, Johnathan, you want to come up, buddy?
We're gonna do it on three, all right? Three, two, one. All right.
Johnathan: Wow.
Justin: Congratulations, buddy. Hold on... on second.
Johnathan: Wow.
Justin: Keys belong to you, sir.
Johnathan: Wow.
Steve Voudouris: All right, Jonathan. How do you like it?
Johnathan: A lot.
Justin: Did we nail your vision or what?
Jonathan: By far.
Justin: Can we start up. Is that cool? Do you wanna hear how this thing sounds like? Go
ahead, John. Let me help you get into that thing, man.
Johnathan: Wow. Thank you. Seriously, man, thank you.