David Freiburger claims that this road trip on this episode of Roadkill is the most stupid thing that he and Mike Finnegan have ever done. Freiburger wanted to do a Jeep trip
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MotorTranscript
00:00 We bought a $3,000 Rat Rod Jeep,
00:02 (engine starts)
00:03 drove it from LA to the Desert Bar in Parker, Arizona,
00:06 (engine revs)
00:07 - Oh!
00:08 - And sold it to these guys for $407.
00:11 That's Finnegan Economics.
00:13 (engine revs)
00:15 (tires screech)
00:24 (rock music)
00:28 (engine revs)
00:31 On this episode of Roadkill,
00:41 Freiburger wanted to go off-roading,
00:43 so he said buy a Jeep, and I did.
00:46 Just not the kind of Jeep he was expecting.
00:48 I bought this Jeep in the dark in the dead of winter,
00:50 and I parked it under a tarp for the last three months.
00:53 Freiburger's never seen it.
00:55 I forget what it even looks like.
00:57 He's in for a hell of a surprise.
00:59 This is gonna be the least organized Roadkill ever.
01:07 And that's saying something.
01:09 It's gonna make a mosh pit
01:10 look like a precision military operation.
01:13 He bought something, and I have not even seen it.
01:17 So this is gonna be bad.
01:26 (laughs)
01:28 Hey, do you see your new Jeep?
01:31 - Hey.
01:32 - We're friends, right?
01:34 - This is the surprise?
01:36 - See your Jeep.
01:37 (laughs)
01:40 - Okay.
01:42 - You wanted to go off-roading.
01:43 I know of a bar that you can only get to by dirt,
01:46 and what better way to get to the bar than in a Jeep?
01:49 This is your Jeep.
01:50 - It's a flat rod, isn't it?
01:51 Jeep rod!
01:52 - She's not quite ready to get up for a test drive.
01:56 - No.
01:57 Oh, it's cool.
02:00 - It's cool for a minute
02:01 until you really start staring at her.
02:03 - Oh, it's a MB.
02:04 It's a genuine World War II grill anyway.
02:07 Huh, this tire's touching this fender.
02:10 - Oh, it's got airbags, it lifts up.
02:12 - Great, that always works out well.
02:14 - As long as they never leak, that's not a problem.
02:16 And because it sat here for three months
02:18 and I haven't looked at it,
02:19 it's puked all the guts out of the tranny
02:22 onto the pavement here.
02:22 So we're gonna have to remedy that.
02:24 - Oh, good.
02:25 That's not that much, it'll be fine.
02:27 - And there's no compressor for the airbags,
02:29 so we're gonna have to rig something up
02:31 a la Ranchero style.
02:33 - Chevy.
02:33 Does it run good?
02:35 - No, it needs a tune-up.
02:38 We need to obviously top off the fluids.
02:40 It needs a cotter pin for every single castle nut.
02:43 I am a little concerned about the fact
02:44 that the airbags are mounted single shear, no gussets.
02:48 - This is ugly.
02:49 - But I think if we put fluids in it and cotter pins--
02:51 - It can't weigh anything.
02:52 - Get air in the bags,
02:53 we could at least go drive down the street
02:54 and see if it'll make it.
02:57 - Where are we going?
02:58 - We are going to the Nelly E. Saloon,
03:00 a bar in the Buckskin Mountains in Park, Arizona
03:04 that you can only get to on a dirt trail.
03:06 - I don't know if you noticed,
03:07 but those are not BFG mud terrains.
03:09 - Well, I mean, we're not rock crawling,
03:10 but it is, you know, we may high center her.
03:14 - It looks cool.
03:15 - It's got style.
03:16 It has no substance though.
03:18 - So where do we begin?
03:19 Does it run?
03:20 - I don't know, it's been three months since I've seen it.
03:24 - Crank it over.
03:24 - No.
03:26 - Usual, the battery's dead.
03:28 Air compressor, lift it off the ground,
03:29 fluids, get a battery, test drive.
03:33 (upbeat music)
03:35 - I get the feeling that we buy the same stuff
03:40 over and over again every time we do this.
03:42 - How many jacks have we bought for roadkill?
03:44 - I don't understand why they won't let us take the break
03:46 clean and, you know, jack handles on airplanes.
03:50 - It has oil, only a little water in it.
03:53 - Over by the beach, there's a lot of condensation.
03:56 - Tastes okay.
03:57 I'm the editor of Hot Rod Magazine,
03:58 but a lot of people don't know that I was also the editor
04:01 of 4 Wheel and Off-Road for a long time.
04:02 I'm really hardcore off-road guy
04:04 and especially a hardcore Jeep guy.
04:06 I've got like seven flat fender Jeep bodies
04:09 and half rollers and all sorts of stuff
04:11 sitting around my house.
04:12 And I've always wanted to do this to one.
04:14 Well, not exactly like this, but make a hot rod out of it.
04:18 Oh, I can get the front wheels off the ground.
04:21 Check it.
04:23 You can watch the shock mount bend as you're doing that.
04:25 Look at the front axle.
04:27 Look at the rotation on it.
04:30 Oh, we're dead.
04:31 I've been 260 miles an hour in a Camaro.
04:33 I'm more scared of that.
04:35 The first time I welded on my mini truck
04:37 right after high school,
04:38 it looked better than what I'm seeing under here.
04:40 Yeah.
04:44 - I realize nothing about this is,
04:46 even the button to start it is red.
04:48 (engine revving)
04:51 - That runs bad.
04:55 So that needs a little bit of attention.
04:59 We only had two days to get to Parker
05:03 and this was going to be the last day of the year
05:05 that the desert bar was open.
05:07 We found out there actually was a compressor on board
05:09 and we got some air into the rear bags,
05:12 but we had to make the engine run right
05:13 and it did not help that the firing order was wrong.
05:16 I've seen sketchier hot rods in my life.
05:18 I just haven't driven in them.
05:20 Two cylinders were switched.
05:24 I have a feeling that's not going to fix everything
05:26 on this pile though.
05:27 - The airbag is rubbing the frame
05:28 and the shock is hitting the airbag mount.
05:30 So as we drive down the road,
05:32 that airbag rubbing there,
05:33 rubber against steel,
05:34 puts a hole in that bag
05:35 and then that blows and we crash.
05:37 - We've got to re-drill this
05:39 to move this airbag further outboard.
05:41 Riding in this might be so miserable
05:44 that you just crave the relief
05:46 that only sweet death can bring.
05:48 (laughing)
05:50 - Get the shock out of the way
05:57 so that we can cut this part of the mount off
06:00 that's wedging itself into the shock.
06:02 - This mount that I can flex by hand.
06:04 - I was thinking to myself,
06:07 why does this look weird to me?
06:09 And I walked over here and I went,
06:10 oh, the shock's installed upside down.
06:13 - The bat wing doohickey here
06:15 is hitting the shock body.
06:17 So when the axle twists like this,
06:19 which we know it does because it's a MAP,
06:22 it's gonna bend and bind that whole shock.
06:23 So that's why we're putting it back upside down right now.
06:26 - You're supposed to put spacers in between them
06:28 when you weld them together
06:29 so that they don't do that.
06:31 He didn't do that.
06:34 We put band-aids on the suspension,
06:36 tuned the engine as best we could,
06:38 topped off the fluids
06:39 and then it was time to hit the road.
06:41 - Ready for first test drive?
06:45 (grunts)
06:47 - Why does the steering wheel have to be this large?
06:49 - It's a stock Jeep wheel.
06:51 It's good.
06:52 - Ah, it's not good 'cause the brake pedal is...
06:56 Okay, so that's what I'm gonna have to do
06:58 to get to the brakes.
06:59 This is the Sailor Jerry car without a roof.
07:02 Look at this.
07:02 - It is.
07:03 (upbeat music)
07:06 I'm more comfortable than the Rat Rod, significantly.
07:12 - Well, that's 'cause you're not over here.
07:13 You don't have a steering wheel in your crotch.
07:15 When I run into the back of a semi...
07:18 - Let's go.
07:19 - We're leaving in the middle of traffic.
07:20 You know that, right?
07:21 - The slow speed will save us.
07:22 - Okay.
07:23 - So much for talking to each other.
07:26 - What? Yeah, it's great, I know.
07:28 - This is not connected to anything, you know?
07:34 - I haven't, it feels better using it, you know?
07:36 - Okay, yeah.
07:37 - Is there any brake fluid in this thing?
07:39 - There was.
07:40 - 'Cause I'm having to use both feet to stop.
07:43 - Oh yeah, we've never tried to stop before.
07:46 - No.
07:47 - Will it stop?
07:47 - No.
07:48 - That's fine.
07:49 - Yeah, with two feet.
07:50 - We can make it the whole way like this.
07:52 (car engine revving)
07:55 - That's good.
07:56 (laughing)
07:57 - Sort of.
07:58 - I need to set up a car alarm.
08:00 (laughing)
08:03 Okay, here we go, ready?
08:04 (upbeat music)
08:07 (car engine revving)
08:10 - Woohoo!
08:12 (car engine revving)
08:14 - Oh my God, that's loud.
08:17 - No turn signals.
08:18 - It's surprisingly slow too.
08:20 Not that I'm challenging you.
08:22 (laughing)
08:24 - Oh wait, we're in the wrong lane.
08:25 - Get back over.
08:27 (car engine revving)
08:29 (laughing)
08:30 - You wanna know what death looks like?
08:32 This is what death looks like.
08:35 (car engine revving)
08:36 (car alarm blaring)
08:37 (laughing)
08:39 (car engine revving)
08:41 - Oh shit, this is gonna hurt.
08:43 Oh, railroad track, hold on.
08:45 (car engine revving)
08:46 (laughing)
08:49 - Okay, I'm gonna test the brakes now.
08:53 I had to push my knee down
08:54 to make the brake pedal work good.
08:56 This thing's hater-proof.
08:59 (car engine revving)
09:01 - Oh, dude!
09:03 (laughing)
09:06 - That was fun, that was a prank.
09:07 (laughing)
09:09 (car engine revving)
09:11 - Oh, you're getting played.
09:14 Whoa!
09:15 - It doesn't break.
09:15 - Little bump steer.
09:16 - It doesn't break straight.
09:18 (car engine revving)
09:21 - We headed back to the office
09:26 to meet up with our official naysayer,
09:28 KJ Jones from 5.0 Mustang Magazine.
09:31 - Look at all that travel.
09:32 - Nah, bro.
09:34 No.
09:34 - No?
09:35 - No, no, this is gonna be--
09:36 - You don't like the Batman theme, the shotgun?
09:38 - Really, man, look at this right here, bro.
09:40 - What are you saying?
09:41 - Come on, Dave.
09:42 (laughing)
09:43 Come on, bro, it's got a ladder bar, man.
09:46 - Yeah, but they're attached well.
09:48 (laughing)
09:50 - No (beep) way.
09:51 (laughing)
09:54 - Then there's this problem.
09:55 (car engine revving)
09:58 - Open headers.
09:59 - Guys, we've really done it this time.
10:03 - So, while KJ headed inside
10:04 to take out a life insurance policy on us,
10:07 we needed to go over to a local hardware store
10:09 and fix the suspension before hitting the road.
10:12 But first, we were gonna live up
10:13 to one of Finnegan's dreams
10:15 and take one of our utter piles of garbage
10:17 and valet it at a high-end restaurant.
10:20 (upbeat music)
10:22 (car engine revving)
10:26 - Oh yeah, oh, dude.
10:28 - Let's make this place.
10:30 - Gonna eat good tonight.
10:34 - Okay.
10:35 - You sure you gotta work it?
10:36 - I don't know.
10:37 - Who can blame the valet guy
10:38 for not wanting to park this thing?
10:40 He was a bit confused when he went
10:41 to put the ticket on our windshield
10:43 and discovered we didn't have one.
10:45 - We lost our window.
10:46 (laughing)
10:49 - This is swank.
10:51 - We have to celebrate.
10:53 - Yeah.
10:54 - When we've done roadkill with beater vehicles
10:59 for like the past year,
11:00 every single time we've wanted to go
11:02 through the high-end valet.
11:03 So we finally did it at that steakhouse back there
11:06 and they were unfazed.
11:08 But now we're at the hardware store
11:09 because we still have to fix the ladder bar mount
11:12 and ratchet strap down our junk.
11:14 And what else?
11:15 Fluids, gas again?
11:17 - My junk's fine.
11:18 But yeah, let's go get some stuff
11:19 to hold things together.
11:20 Most of the bolts have nyloc nuts,
11:24 which are great for holding things together that vibrate.
11:27 Except when the bolt doesn't protrude
11:29 all the way out the end of the nut,
11:31 so the nyloc can grab it,
11:33 they tend to fall apart.
11:34 And when they fall apart on the suspension, you die.
11:37 So we're gonna remedy that situation with longer bolts.
11:41 It's 9 p.m. on day one.
11:46 We've gone one mile.
11:48 We're continuing to wrench on the Jeep.
11:50 Remains to be seen if we're gonna hit the road tonight
11:53 or we're gonna end up hitting it in the morning.
11:55 It was late and we had to hit the sack.
11:59 No one took it.
12:03 Dang it.
12:03 I don't think they could figure out how to work it.
12:07 - Did you call your wife and say,
12:10 "It's been nice knowing you?"
12:11 - I called her and I said,
12:13 "You'll be happy to know that all the work we did yesterday
12:16 "wasn't for speed or efficiency.
12:17 "It was just to make sure we didn't die today."
12:20 And she thanked me 'cause she said
12:21 she'd like to have another child
12:22 and she wants that child to have the same father.
12:25 All those rabbit turds in the bottom of this car
12:28 make me feel like I need more safety equipment than usual.
12:30 - Check my hearing so I can hear my baby someday.
12:33 All right.
12:35 Ready?
12:36 Can you even hear me?
12:39 - No, that's the good part about that.
12:42 - I'm going full on Darth Vader.
12:44 - Good to go.
12:46 - Oh yeah, this is comfortable.
12:49 - This is like going on the freeway in a skateboard
12:51 with a Briggs & Stratton on the back.
12:53 (engine revving)
12:56 (upbeat music)
12:59 - Hey, how fast are we going?
13:06 - I can't hear you.
13:07 I think this is the first time in my life
13:17 I've wished for heavy traffic.
13:20 (laughing)
13:21 - Don't worry, we'll be fine.
13:22 - He's like a champ.
13:25 (engine revving)
13:28 - 3.18 gallons.
13:31 - And 51 miles.
13:33 What do you think, keep it or sell it?
13:34 - I'm gonna have a lot of fun getting to the bar.
13:37 After that, I don't need to drive this ever again.
13:39 (laughing)
13:40 I'm fine with disposing it.
13:41 So here's what we do, right?
13:43 We turn on glimpse so people can follow us,
13:45 but they don't know where we're going.
13:47 And we tell them, follow us to this bar.
13:50 Whoever's in the seat at last call,
13:52 which is six o'clock at this particular bar,
13:54 has to pay our tab and they can take it home.
13:56 - Right now it makes me kind of sad
13:58 to think of it being gone,
13:59 but after another 400 miles,
14:00 I'm thinking I'm anxious for that.
14:02 So I'm gonna put it on Facebook.
14:04 We're just saying, you gotta follow us or figure it out.
14:06 - Yeah, we're going to A bar.
14:07 - We're going to A bar.
14:08 (upbeat music)
14:11 - We really weren't sure how many people
14:13 were gonna show up to buy this Jeep,
14:15 but within an hour,
14:16 we actually had 500 people following us online.
14:19 (engine revving)
14:21 - Woo hoo!
14:22 - Finnegan seemed happy to drive.
14:25 And I think it's because there's a steering wheel
14:28 to hold on to.
14:29 You don't sit in this thing, you sit on it.
14:32 And there's one of a hundred things
14:34 that could break on this thing
14:35 and then just throw us right out onto the pavement.
14:38 - Oil on the floor.
14:43 - Coming up from the floor?
14:45 - Coming out of the crack right there.
14:47 - Like not down the firewall from the bottom.
14:50 - Yeah.
14:51 - How's that possible?
14:52 That kinda looks pink.
14:55 - Yeah, it's transmission fluid.
15:00 - All right.
15:01 - Transmission fluid catches on fire.
15:03 That'll be fun.
15:04 - Will this drive faster?
15:06 - It'll blow it out.
15:08 - No, come on.
15:09 And, go!
15:11 (engine revving)
15:15 (upbeat music)
15:21 - At one time, this was the world's
15:24 largest military installation.
15:25 It went from here in California, all the way to Arizona.
15:28 It's where Patton trained like a million guys
15:31 to go fight in Africa.
15:33 And a lot of the surplus Jeeps in California
15:36 came out of here.
15:37 This is a genuine World War II Jeep.
15:38 It's like a 41 to 45, which you know,
15:41 'cause it has a different grill, blackout lights,
15:44 the hood doesn't say Willys like the civilian ones do.
15:46 Bantam initially came up with a design
15:48 for the World War II Jeep, and they were too small to do it.
15:52 And so, Willys ended up getting the contract,
15:54 and they were too small to build them.
15:55 And so, the government actually had Ford
15:57 make a bunch of them too.
15:58 This could be a Ford.
15:59 So yeah, it's a Willys or a Ford.
16:02 It's a hot rod.
16:03 (engine revving)
16:07 (upbeat music)
16:09 (engine revving)
16:12 We were cruising down the highway at the end of the day
16:27 and getting passed by every car,
16:28 and I'm even falling asleep.
16:30 So I pulled over to hand the keys to Finnegan.
16:32 What does he do?
16:34 Gets us stuck immediately on flat ground.
16:39 How pathetic that a Jeep is stuck here.
16:42 This Jeep sucks, man.
16:44 See, this is why the Jeep rod concept is completely wrong,
16:47 'cause you remove the front axle,
16:48 you make it two wheel drive,
16:50 you take all the Jeepness out of the Jeep,
16:52 and then you get it stuck at the side of the road.
16:54 Because we didn't fix the shifter earlier today,
16:57 we're gonna fix it now with a cotter pin and a zip tie
16:59 to connect the linkage back together.
17:01 And here comes someone offering to help.
17:03 Hope they got a toe strap.
17:04 You need a hand with anything?
17:07 You have a Yank strap?
17:07 You got a Yank strap?
17:09 (clicks tongue)
17:10 We're gonna strap his car to our car
17:12 with an extension cord.
17:13 That's right, an extension cord.
17:15 That's what's gonna get us out of this mess.
17:17 We just traded four gallons of gas
17:27 for a three foot toe with an extension cord.
17:28 - How did you end up coming to the edge like that?
17:31 - We're making a U-turn.
17:32 (laughs)
17:35 (engine revs)
17:38 Right now it's 11.15 and we're in the middle of nowhere
17:49 fixing this thing 'cause it's puking so bad.
17:51 The desert bar opens at noon and closes at 6 p.m.
17:56 Hopefully this junk is gonna make it
17:58 on a 12 mile dirt road all the way out to this bar
18:01 in the middle of nowhere.
18:02 Wow, that's leaking bad.
18:03 Once I cleaned everything off,
18:05 it was really hard to tell where it's coming from
18:07 'cause it's not running and the fountain's not moving.
18:09 David wants me to start it up on the jack right now.
18:12 Genuinely afraid 'cause I think this thing's
18:13 just gonna ghost ride itself off into that field
18:15 and then it'll stop when it hits the ditch.
18:18 At that point I'm leaving it.
18:19 I'm not even gonna pull it out if it ends up in that ditch.
18:22 (engine revs)
18:24 Flashlight's right there, have fun.
18:28 Okay, eight.
18:30 It is the transcooler line.
18:31 It wasn't leaking out of the fittings
18:33 so the line must have a hole in it.
18:35 It must 'cause it's squirting up and then running down.
18:39 Okay, we're not fixing that so it's fine, right?
18:41 I'm okay with it, just keep buying more ATF.
18:44 When you know the rules, you're allowed to break them
18:46 and we know that that's not supposed to leak
18:48 so we're good.
18:49 Like that.
18:52 Oh my God.
18:53 (upbeat music)
18:56 There's the car wash.
19:00 And there's nobody in line.
19:02 That means it's all ours.
19:03 We need this cleaned.
19:05 They're all like, what in the hell is that?
19:10 Notice how nobody's jumping up to wash.
19:11 You're not leaping to action.
19:13 (laughing)
19:16 They're like, we're not washing your car.
19:18 See, we're selling this today and we need it to be spiffy.
19:21 I want you to use the good soap,
19:23 not the stuff you use on everybody else's cars.
19:25 That's right.
19:25 Are you brothers?
19:27 No.
19:27 (laughing)
19:29 That's my dad.
19:30 Yeah.
19:31 Don't forget the chrome.
19:32 Right.
19:32 It's like the one nice part on the whole car.
19:34 There we go.
19:35 Thank you.
19:36 Thank you for the donut.
19:38 This thing is a smoke machine.
19:46 So of course we did burnouts
19:47 before we left the pavement for the last time.
19:49 (engine revving)
19:52 (upbeat music)
19:54 I'm thinking greater speed might help.
20:13 Here we go.
20:16 (laughing)
20:19 Oh, brutal.
20:20 I thought this thing was bad on pavement,
20:26 but we hit the dirt and I felt like
20:28 I was inside a paint shaker.
20:30 This is why I told you I wanted a Jeep.
20:32 You know what the funny thing is?
20:36 Is these people think they're roughing it.
20:38 They have no top on their full on rock crawling Jeep.
20:41 They don't know what life's about.
20:42 You're a rugged outdoorsman, dude.
20:44 Have fun with your radio communication.
20:48 Yeah, remember no front brakes or no rear brakes.
20:51 What was that?
20:53 It must have broken, right?
20:54 The bag might've blown.
20:56 Yep.
20:57 Bag mount broke off.
20:59 Don't make it worse.
21:00 You knew that was going to happen.
21:01 Make it worse.
21:02 We're close.
21:03 Let's just keep going.
21:04 Okay, so now we have no suspension at all.
21:07 'Cause now that that bag broke.
21:10 This one's also flat.
21:11 Yeah.
21:12 They're teed together.
21:13 So we have no air in the front suspension.
21:15 I don't care.
21:16 Let's just get to the beer.
21:17 (upbeat music)
21:20 The desert bar is legendary.
21:28 And I had this picture in my mind
21:29 of what kind of an oasis it was going to be.
21:32 And we rounded the corner and there it is.
21:34 Wow.
21:36 We're going to make it.
21:37 The only problem is this place has no phone, no internet.
21:41 So we couldn't call them in advance
21:43 to get permission to shoot roadkill there.
21:45 And when we got there, they said, no cameras, no way.
21:48 The problem with this deal is that we showed up
21:51 45 minutes before closing time.
21:53 And we didn't feel we could really run up a tab
21:55 that was what the Jeep's worth.
21:57 But we tried.
21:58 You do not want to see what it looks like
22:00 when Finnegan and I drink 400 bucks worth of alcohol
22:03 in 45 minutes.
22:05 And there was a couple people who showed up
22:06 who had driven all the way from Phoenix and Scottsdale
22:09 just to look at the Jeep and see if they could buy it.
22:12 Yeah, those guys took one look and hit the road.
22:14 But there was a guy in the bar, though,
22:16 who recognized me from Hot Rod Magazine.
22:18 I told him the story.
22:19 He walked out into the parking lot
22:21 and made the flash decision.
22:22 He had to own this thing.
22:24 Sucker.
22:25 The most incredible thing is not just that we lived,
22:30 but that we made it all the way to Arizona
22:33 without getting arrested.
22:34 With no windshield, no mufflers, no seatbelts,
22:37 no license plates, no registration, no common sense.
22:41 Come to think of it, that's pretty normal
22:43 here on "Roadkill."
22:44 Go for the best beer at work ever.
22:49 Best beer at work ever.
22:51 Wait, hold on.
22:53 That sounded drunk.
22:54 (laughing)
22:56 That's Finnegan Economics.
22:58 Fin-onomics.
23:01 Fin-icomics.
23:02 Most drunk "Roadkill" ever.
23:04 All of the ladies come back.
23:08 Why would you want them out?
23:09 Wait, you're not in the photo.
23:12 You gotta come around front.
23:14 No, both of you, all the way in front.
23:16 'Cause you're not in the photo.
23:17 Oh yeah, boobs are good.
23:17 This is like, "Grawl Boy" kind of thing.
23:20 Yeah, yeah.
23:21 All the girls on my side.
23:22 You wanna do that again?
23:24 (water bubbling)
23:27 (water bubbling)