Introduction to How 'Monster Garage' Works

Isn't TV great? Hidden among the usual sitcoms, game shows, reality shows and cop dramas, you can always find something a little bit different to shake things up. The Discovery Channel's series "Monster Garage" certainly fits the bill. Like TLC's "Junkyard Wars," this show pits mechanically inclined experts and enthusiasts against the clock to build a truly original machine. In this case, the crew actually starts with an existing vehicle -- a car, truck, SUV or even a hearse -- and customizes it to create something very different.

In this edition of HowStuffWorks, we'll find out what "Monster Garage" is all about, and we'll learn a little about the charismatic gearhead at its core. If you like your science served up with a little bit of testosterone, this is definitely a show you should check out.

The Ford Explorer garbage truck

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

The Challenge

The basic idea of "Monster Garage" is to apply the principles of car customization to a different kind of project. Instead of rigging up the standard hydraulic shocks and spoilers, a team of eight to 10 "gearheads" transforms an ordinary car into a different functional machine. In the first episode, for example, the crew turned an Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorer into a working garbage truck. In the fourth episode, they built the world's fastest lawnmower out of a 1990 Ford Mustang GT (it can actually mow at 60 miles per hour!).

The Mustang lawnmower

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

That in itself would be challenge enough, but on "Monster Garage", the artisans only have seven days and $3,000 to get the job done. Unlike their counterparts on "Junkyard Wars," the team members aren't working against other people -- only time, economic constraints and physics.

To make things even more difficult, the team has to rig the machine to transfigure itself into an apparently normal car for street driving. These "transformer" type vehicles are usually configured with hydraulic cylinders, like the type you might find in a skid steer loader. At the press of a button, these cylinders expand to open the car up and extend the unusual machinery hidden inside.

The VW bug swamp buggy, from episode 3

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

The true reward, of course, is the finished project, but every member of the team also receives a deluxe tool set if the thing actually works.

The heart of the show is the team leader, well-known bike builder Jesse James. In the next section, we'll find out a little about James' background and see how his show came about.

Jesse James with three of his "Monster Garage" projects

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Jesse James

The heart of "Monster Garage" is the gearhead team leader, Jesse James. James, who runs the Long Beach, California, bike shop West Coast Choppers, is one of the most successful bike builders in the United States. At $60,000 to $150,000 a pop, his distinctive bikes are not for the casual, budget-conscious biker, but they sure get widespread attention. The shop tends to attract clients with either a large disposable income or a real passion for bikes. James and his crew have built custom choppers for Shaquille O'Neal, Keanu Reeves and Kid Rock, among others.

James, who is related to the infamous Western outlaw of the same name, was born in 1969 and grew up in Long Beach. From an early age, he was fascinated by motorcycles and anything else related to engine mechanics. As luck would have it, his father's antique shop shared a warehouse with an aftermarket motorcycle parts manufacturer, which saw a steady stream of Harley Davidsons and high-end sport bikes.

At age seven, James got his first minibike (a Kawasaki 50cc), and by age 10, he was spending a lot of his free time working on motors and other projects in his mom's garage. While he never lost his love of motorcycles, James devoted much of his time in high school to football, and after graduation, he enrolled in the University of California at Riverside on an athletic scholarship. After a sports injury abruptly ended his football career, James trained as a bodyguard and went to work for various rock bands, including Soundgarden, Slayer and Danzig.

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Jesse James at work

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Another injury, from an incident at a concert, led James to give up the bodyguard business and get back into motorcycles. In 1992, after an apprenticeship of sorts with the legendary hot-rod builder Boyd Coddington, James started up his own shop, working out of a friend's garage. Today, James has more than 18,000 square feet (1,670 square meters) of work and showroom space, complete with all manner of high-end tools and even a shark tank, and more than 50 employees to keep his business going.

Inside the West Coast Choppers shop and showroom

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

James first got involved with the Discovery Channel in 2001, when Thom Beers, the president of Original Productions, approached him for a Discovery special on motorcycles and motorcycle culture. Discovery had commissioned Beers for the special after checking out his "History of Harley" special on TBS. Beers asked some of his contacts at Easy Riders Magazine who might make an interesting subject for a documentary, and they recommended Jesse James. James' big biker personality and loud, vibrant garage was exactly what Beers was looking for, so he brought in a camera crew and documented James' daily life. The result was "Motorcycle Mania," an hour-long special that turned out to be a big hit with the Discovery Channel audience.

Discovery followed up with another special, "Motorcycle Mania 2," which tracked James as he built and designed a custom chopper and then took it on a 1,400-mile (2,250-km) road trip to the annual biker gathering in Sturgis, South Dakota.

Beers enjoyed James so much that he decided to develop a new show centered around life in the garage. The concept, a coupling of an educational look at the craft of customization and a challenge show along the lines of "Junkyard Wars," appealed to both James and Discovery Channel immediately, and "Monster Garage" was born. Beers, James and Discovery worked out the details, decided on a logical timeline and budget for the projects, and shot four episodes for the initial run. The original series was a big hit, so Discovery requested more episodes, which will air this year.

Episode Guide

The original four episodes:

Upcoming episodes:

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Making it Happen

The production process for each "Monster Garage" episode begins simply, with James and the producers tossing around any and all ideas for potential projects. James says the producers favor more sensible, peaceful machines, while he's constantly pitching destructive monsters. The result is a good balance of projects, all with a little bit of biker edge to them. To date, most ideas originated from James and the producers, but they also consider suggestions posted in the Monster Garage forums.

The team at work on a golf-ball-collecting Porsche for an upcoming episode

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

The range of possible vehicles is virtually unlimited. Typically, the crew thinks of some familiar specialty machine and couples it with a suitable, well-known type of car (the producers spend about $8,000, on average, on the cars themselves). Based on their collective experience in the field, James and company decide what's feasible within the $3,000 budget and what's too ambitious.

If the idea is workable, and James thinks it's cool enough, the crew looks into what it will take to get the job done, and they start to round up a team. James always signs on for the project, but the rest of the roster changes from episode to episode. A typical team includes men and women from a variety of backgrounds, including industrial designers, welders, technicians and mechanics, both amateur and professional. This includes some of James friends in the business, as well as fans of the show who apply on the Discovery Channel's Monster Garage Web site. Discovery receives about 200 applications a day from potential team members.

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

The team working on the car-crushing hearse

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Additionally, James and the producers may call in experts who are uniquely qualified for a particular project. In the second episode, in which the team converted a 1996 Lincoln Town Car limousine into a fire truck, the show signed up a fireman, a fire engine engineer and a custom limo designer. For an upcoming episode featuring a car-crushing hearse, the producers recruited George Barris, who created, among other things, the Batmobile from the 1960s Batman series, KITT from "Knight Rider," and the DeLorean from "Back to the Future." For the first episode of the second season, the show recruited Richard Zamboni to help transform a Chevy Impala into an ice re-surfacer based on the famous machine invented by his father, Frank Zamboni (the machine had a problematic debut on September 19 following an L.A. Kings exhibition game -- read all about it on the Discovery site).

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

The fire engine limo, from design concept to finished product

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Once the team is assembled and a suitable car is selected, the gearheads work out exactly how they're going to attack the project, sketching out the basic design and writing down details. Every challenge is different, but typically, the building process involves a lot of metalwork, cutting, welding and electrical and hydraulic work. And of course, no monster machine would be complete without the finishing touch -- a quality custom paint job (not counted in the $3,000 budget). The "Monster Garage" shop, located in Long Beach, includes all the necessary equipment for the job, as well as a "chill out room" and a few bunks for napping during the late night building sessions.

The garage bunks

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

The garage "chill out room"

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Finishing the projects also involves collecting all the necessary pieces of the vehicle. For most people, it would be pretty difficult to buy (or even find) all of the body and machine elements for only $3,000, but James' many connections give him a slight edge. In exchange for a good word on the show, or just as a personal favor, James' friends will often give him a good deal on costly items. The producers always get free high-end tires from L.A. Wheels, which are worth around $2,400 a set, and the paint job that tops off each vehicle runs about $5,000. The team is also allowed to scrounge together extra money selling stuff on eBay. The crew's collective experience also helps them locate the necessary pieces -- they know which junkyards to go to, and they know what specialty shop to call up for the real hard-to-find pieces.

Throughout the entire building process, multiple camera crews keep tabs on everything that's happening in the garage, and the team members periodically explain what they're working on in the confessional unit. Finally, it's time to put the machine to the test, usually in a head-to-head run against its conventional counterpart, to enjoy the fruits of their labor. After the show, the producers let other people enjoy the finished project, too, arranging for the vehicles to make special appearances around the country.

At the end of the actual build, the show producers have to take hours and hours of footage, spanning seven days, and condense it for the hour-long episode. The goal is to show enough to clearly explain what the team set out to do and demonstrate how they did it. While they can't explain every single detail, the episodes do give a good overall sense of the process, with plenty of entertaining shop talk and the occasional creative disagreement.

Taking the Chevy Impala ice re-surfacer out for a test spin

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Jesse James hopes to continue the show for a while, as long as it doesn't interfere with his business, his family and riding his bikes. He's also thinking about another installment in the "Motorcycle Mania" series, this time in the form of a theatrical movie, with Kid Rock and other celebrities onboard for the ride.

For much more information on "Monster Garage," including a guide to past and upcoming episodes, check out the links in the next section.

Lots More Information

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