Welcome to Finnegan's Garage, an inside look at my shop and projects. Each week (hopefully) I will bring you a new tip, trick or absolute nonsense concerning my cars, trucks and boats.
This time on Finnegan's Garage, I am building a new coil mount for the Hemi in my 55 Chevy using some cheap tricks and tools.
I'm working on my drag boat project, a 19-foot long Tom Peterson Placecraft jet boat. I plan to do as much of the work myself as possible, including building the exhaust system for the turbochargers. In this video I test my trusty Milwaukee abrasive chop saw against a Fein Slugger cold saw. I bought the Slugger from Trick-Tools.com and it works awesome!
I bought the Roadkill ramp truck last month and promptly drove it from California to my home in Georgia. It runs pretty good, is semi-reliable, and looks cool. However, the bed floor is completely rotten so I have to replace it before I can haul a car around the block, let alone to a drag strip. I know nothing about woodworking or the tools that go along with that so this was an adventure. I probably bought the wrong lumber, used the wrong tools, used them incorrectly but, it's all good because a new floor is now in place. This might not have as many good nuggets of info at the first few videos on my channel but at least you can watch me sweat for twenty minutes and laugh at my misfortune. Yay!
If you're new to the world of TIG welding or simply don't want to drop $200.00 or more on a tungsten sharpening tool then this vid is for you. This time I'm showing off dirt cheap ways to get a nice point on a TIG torch tungsten without contaminating it.
It's hard to believe that you guys have subscribed to this channel so quickly. I cannot thank you enough and it really confirms the idea that this is something I should continue doing. The greatest reward for creating Finnegan's Garage so far has been the comments and input you all have provided. I've learned as much from you as you probably have from me and to say thanks, I made this little video, complete with a celebratory burnout.
As a mini-trucker, I've installed more than my fair share of rear windows in trucks. However, I've never chosen to install one using the rubber seal and lock strip on a Chevy. It ain't easy but I got it done using some cool tools that I bought from LMCTruck.com. The ramp truck now has a solid, secure rear window just in time for me to start hauling Blasphemi around. Now I have a rad view of the Hemi's bottom blower pulley through the rear window as I drive.
It's no secret that my wife wants her car painted and that I refuse to make it happen. Her car is way too much fun to be locked up in paint jail when I could be out honing it daily. So I am always looking for things to fix in an effort to prevent the inevitable from happening. As luck would have it the front suspension started falling apart, providing yet another in a long line of excuses for me to keep the car dull and dented instead of shiny and bright.
I love building and tuning racing engines and driving a drag boat has allowed me to build outrageously powerful engines that would be pretty useless on the street. When bolted into my jet boat, though, I can experience brutal acceleration without the risk of going to jail. Of course, the risk of death is there since boats like mine don't have roll cages or seat belts, but the fun far outweighs the fear. I liken driving one of these water-rockets to driving a fast street bike. Anyway, I don't have much footage of my driving days but luckily my buddy Randy Joyce found a tape of a race from way back in 2009. Hopefully this will get you pumped up to see my next drag boat hit the water, hopefully later this year. Episode 10 will feature the header build for the new boat. For now, enjoy the action from one of the best weekends I've ever had in racing. Thanks to the Pit Crew-Randy Joyce, Robert Jonsson, Joe Cole, Scott Pynn and Track Announcers, Jeff Fry and Rolf Sammons.
Yo! The Kibbe and Finnegan show is now called the Kibbe and Friends show and has it’s own YouTube channel. I’m still on it when I can be – and it’s still awesome. Go subscribe right now!
Better late than never right? Here it is, a video about cutting and welding stainless steel tubing into a turbo header. There's some good tips in here and a time lapse segment of me dragging a vertical band saw with my '55 Chevy. Part 2 of the video won't be out for a couple of weeks because I had to leave town to go on Hot Rod Power Tour. The truth is i ran out of argon the day before I was leaving, right as I was beginning to back-purge the primary tubes and finish weld the. The good news is that I can no make a better, longer video all about that process so splitting the header build into two vids isn't necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, hope you enjoy this look at my jet boat and how I made these headers.
I just got home from Power Tour and as you might have guessed, i uploaded Part 1 of the drag boat header build video and then left town. Needless to say, I need a bit of time (and argon!) before I can finish the headers and upload Part 2. In the meantime, here's a quick test of NOS' nitrous transfer pump as well as tips for safely filling nitrous bottles using just an ice chest and a bottle heater. Hope you dig it!
The Hemi-powered drag boat is back and I'm making serious headway on the stainless steel exhaust headers. In this video I'll show you how to back purge stainless steel for a better quality weld as i finish assembling the primary tubes, collectors and flanges
My life is a never-ending battle to see how much work and play i can cram into every minute of every day. In fact, i hold a personal record for having a root canal done on my tooth in the morning, gone snowboarding in the afternoon, and drag racing with my buds at night all on the same day. I figure you guys and gals are fighting the same battle I am so here's a few tips that may save you a few busted knuckles and hours of daylight the next time you're wrenching on your ride. As always, there's a million ways to skin a cat; these are just my favorite ways to pet the...er...kitty. :)
It's always more fun to work with friends and this time my buddies Jacob Davis and Daniel Bopshers dropped by the garage to work on Jacob's '72 AMC Hornet Sportabout wagon. I met Jacob a couple years ago while filming Roadkill and he just happens to live near me and work at a local hot rod shop. I met Daniel at Hot Rod Power tour and we share a love of engine building so we get a long really well. Jacob is planning a late-model Hemi swap for the AMC and before that happens he wanted to have some fun with the inline six in the Hornet'. We decided to spray the living hell out of the engine at the drag strip with nitrous but not before comfirming that the engine was tuned properly. It's true you can bandaid minor tuning issues with a direct-port nitrous system but the odds of the engine surviving longer if it's tuned properly in naturally-aspirated form are much better. Jake bought an AutoMeter wideband O2 sensor and gauge kit that we'll be installing and testing on this episode of Finnegan's Garage.
Well, after a short hiatus I'm back. My apologies for the gap between uploads. I was gone for a bit while filming Roadkill and then I had to have my gall bladder surgically removed, which was so fun! But i'm back home and wrenching in the garage again so I should have more fun stuff to show you like this vid about working on Blasphemi. My '55 Chevy is powered by a 531ci Chrysler Hemi topped with a set of ported heads and a Blower Shop 8-71 supercharger with Hilborn injection. It's a beast of an engine that puts 800hp to the rear tires and does excellent burnouts. Today's project is replacing the crate engine valve covers with a set of classic race Hemi valve covers. While I'm in there I'll check the valve lash with my buddy, Daniel Boshears, who is an excellent engine builder.
The Green Hornet is back. Jacob Davis' 258ci straight six-powered station wagon won't do a burnout so we've got a slick plan to double the power of the stock engine using nitrous oxide. Before we can put the squeeze to the gutless wonder, though, we've got to fix a few small problems with the induction and exhaust systems. In this episode we install a slightly better, used intake manifold, a two barrel carburetor, and a tubular header. The car still won't smoke the tires but it's one step closer to swallowing a 150-shot of N2O. Thanks for watching.
I've been gone quite a bit lately and since there hasn't been a new episode uploaded in awhile and it's a holiday weekend (labor day) I thought, what the hell; Let's drop an episode on Friday instead of Monday and have a massive sale on t-shirts!
This '73 Chevy C30 Crew Cab ramp truck is one of my favorite and most useful hot rods. Powered by a 454ci Big-Block Chevy with a three-speed TH400 transmission and equipped with a Hodges hauler bed, I constantly use it to haul project cars around. It's semi-reliable but not altogether comfortable because the floorboards get incredibly hot while it's mobbing' down the highway. On this episode of Finnegan's Garage Jacob Davis and I are going to rip out the original carpet and insulation and install a bunch of products to drastically reduces the temperature of the floorboard and make the interior less disgusting.
My plan for the drag boat was to take my time, enjoy the build and not rush it for any sort of deadline. Two years later I'm still working on the thing and progress has been slow. I realize I've been obsessing over every little part and at this rate it'd be five years before the thing was finished. So I took the opportunity to unveil the boat at the annual SEMA show the first week of November 2016. No big deal, that's only two weeks away. Now my friends and I are thrashing to finish the turbo system, wirining and plumbing, and fabricate a bunch of other small parts for the boat before it's hauled to Las Vegas for the biggest industry-only event in the nation. This video shows the work to-date and offers tips for mounting waste gates in a turbo header. Oh and if you stick around until the end of the video you'll get a look at the new engine for my bagged and body-body dropped '67 Chevy C10.
The drag boat is almost done and thanks to my friends we got it buttoned up and transported to the SEMA Show. David Newbern, Daniel Boshears, Jacob Davis, Marcel Robert, William Roberts, Robin Lawrence, Jack Day, Sonny Leonard, Blane Burnett, Bill Tichener, Bub Miller, Todd Griggs, Tim Place, Jeff Conrad, Tom Peterson, Chastin and Lauren Brand, Holley, Earl's, Aeromotive, Brodix, Precision Turbo, SRE, Race Part Solutions, MSD, Stainless Headers.com, B1 Racing, Rockett Brand Racing Fuel, Place Diverter & Controls, and American Turbine all played a part in this build. Thanks! There's still work left to do before the boat hits the water but it's close and I'm more motivated than ever to finish this thing.
It's time to get cracking on my '67 Chevrolet C10 pickup, the bagged and body-dropped hot rod I sold and then bought back nearly a decade later. It's a long way from being finished but it's also a perfectly wrong platform for Chevrolet Performance' 650hp LT4 crate engine and six-speed Super Magnum manual gearbox. In this video I'll go over the history of the truck, the innovative features of the engine and a few of the parts needed to begin the swap. Thanks for watching and check back later for more updates as I continue working towards getting this project back on the road.
I'm building a 598ci Big-Block Chevy for my friend, Jeff. It's gonna be a bad mofo. The foundation is an aluminum block made by the folks at Brodix, right here in the good ol US of A! In this video I'll compare the lightweight block and a set of Brodix SR20 aluminum heads to old, cast-iron Chevrolet parts and show you how to take a couple of basic measurements so that you can order custom pistons for your next engine build. Wanna know the difference in weight between the iron and aluminum parts? Don't worry, I've got ya covered there, too.
After a short hiatus the Green Hornet AMC Sportabout wagon is back and badder than ever. Jacob Davis spent the backend of his summer rebuilding the long block to rid the 258ci inline six-cylinder engine of excessive blow-by, leaking valve seals, and wore-out cylinder bores. While he was at it he also upgraded the valve train to a new Comp Cams hydraulic flat-tappet camshaft with more lift and duration, new valve springs, better lifters, and a new roller timing chain. He topped it all off by replacing the cast-iron intake and two-barrel carburetor we installed in Episode 17, with a Clifford Performance aluminum intake and four-barrel Holley carburetor. When he brought the car back to my garage it didn't run too well and it still wouldn't do a burnout. In this episode we'll fix all of that with a bit of wrenching and a new MSD ignition system.
I've got big plans for the Ramp Truck, my 1973 Chevrolet C30 Crew Cab. You've likely seen this behemoth before on several episodes of Roadkill on the Motor Trend Channel. Frieburger and I have drifted it around an autocross course and we've hauled his race car to bonneville, too. It's proven to be fairly reliable although not very efficient. Later on this year I'll increase the efficiency with an engine swap but In this episode I'm upgrading the sheetmetal with new parts from LMCTRUCK.COM that not only make the truck better looking but also make it possible for one person to get the hood open, which is nice.
I've owned quite a few trucks in my lifetime but this 2006 Chevy Silverado 3500 is my first diesel-powered pickup. I recently found it on Craigslist and in this episode I'll give you a tour of the truck and I'll show you a few tricks I'm using to fix the audio system. Stay tuned for more updates on this awesome, used tow rig that I'm calling "J Low" because, well, it's got a big booty.
Don't get used to the crazy good lighting, sound, and advice found in this video; rarely will I have the opportunity to venture outside of my garage and rely on qualified videographers, editors and a studio to create an episode of this show, which I'm fine with. However, the good folks at Holley and Earl's were kind enough to plumb my jet boat and take it to the SEMA Show last October so when they asked if they could make a video about the work they did of course I said, "Hell yeah!" It's a long flick but if you've ever wondered about the different kinds of high-performance plumbing, fittings, hoses etc or you just wanted to see a few new angles of my new drag boat then you are in luck.
After a brief hiatus I'm back with a fresh new episode. This time around I'm going to figure out who won the contest for the crappy grill I took off my '73 Chevy ramp truck. I'll also show you how to stuff a boat on a trailer into another trailer. Finally, I'll show you how I kept my truck cool while towing a 12,000lb trailer up a mountain.
I build the Swiss Army Knife of hot rods. My stuff needs to do more than one thing well, which is why I just built a trailer hitch for my '55 Chevy Bel Air. Blasphemi is a fast car, its a stylish car and now it's a trailer-pulling machine! Follow along as I take bits of steel and a bit of ingenuity to build a new hitch without drilling any new holes into the powdercoated Jim Meyer Racing chassis.
Ever wonder what it's like to get behind the wheel of a really fast boat? Here's a look at the sights and sounds. My turbo boat isn't done yet but when I got the opportunity to race my old boat a few months ago I took it. My dad and I made a road trip from Georgia to Arizona, hooked up with my friends and spent a weekend bracket racing. We had a few small backfires and then made several great passes, eventually losing in the semi-final round when the conditions got a little too dangerous to safely make it down the track.
It's on! The Green Hornet is back and finally snorting a small dose of nitrous oxide. Will it destroy the previous best ET of 19 seconds? Will it explode in a glorious ball of fire, finally put out of its misery? We do our best to find out while giving you cool tips on direct port nitrous system installation, distributor recurving, programmable ignition how-tos, and having a damn good time doing it. Daniel Boshears and Jacob davis are back in the garage to make it all happen before Jacob heads off to Los Angeles for his new life. I'm not sure if the Hornet' will be back again so enjoy this final installment of our favorite project car.
It's time to stop messing around. I'm once again making progress on my 1967 Chevrolet C10, the truck I built in 2008, bought back in 2016, and am now swapping a Chevrolet Performance supercharged LT4 engine and six-speed manual Tremec gearbox into. In this episode I'm partnering with Miller Electric to test out its new Multimatic 215 MIG/TIG/Stick welder and I'm giving away one of these incredible machines to a viewer. It's the welder only so you'll have to provide your own gas bottle, safety gear, and a cart if you want one.
The LBZ Duramax Diesel engine in my 2006 Chevy Silverado 3500 dually is pretty much stock. The only mods the previous owner performed were a Magnaflow exhaust system and adding an Edge Products Evolution programmer, which I've been driving around set to Level 2, or tow mode. The engine runs great but is due for a new air filter so I decided to install a Jammer CAI, also from Edge Products, to see if it would indeed lower the temperature of the air coming into the turbocharger. My buddy Matt and I were able to install the system in under 30 minutes and test it out on a mild 83 degree (fahrenheit) day here in Georgia. I've got a couple more products from Edge to test but those will happen later on. For now, let's see what this CAI does.
This episode contains the winner of the "Win Finn's Tools" contest. The contest began in Episode 33 of this show where I asked for people to comment why they needed my welder to finish their project car. 14,000 comments came through and one of them was my favorite! Someone is going to receive my Miller Electric Multimatic 215 Mig/Tig/Stick welder and I'm also going to update you on the process of my '67 Chevy C10 project. This time around I'm using the Multimatic 215 to Tig weld a pair of mandrel bent pipes together to connect the old exhaust system to the new Chevrolet Performance LT4 crate engine.
Not that I needed another one, but another new project car landed right in my lap recently. My neighbor, Bobby, recently moved out of the neighborhood and sold me his 1975 Chevrolet Corvette. He parked the car decades ago due to a few small mechanical issues and it hadn't moved until my friends and I helped pack up his garage and uncover the car. It needs a thorough cleaning and a good coat of wax. I'm sure the brakes and suspension need some work and you can bet that the engine is likely frozen. My question is while rebuilding the internals of the engine should we modify the external parts for more power? We could add aluminum heads, a high-rise intake manifold etc? Or should we just up the inside of the engine and keep the outside stock appearing?
This time I venture out of my garage to watch the pros at Kaase Racing Engines dyne-test a 5.0L Coyote engine on the dyno. Robin Lawrence from Holley handled the tuning chores and together we learned what this engine likes. I had had hoped to show you guys how to read spark plugs but there simply wasn't time to do that during the test. In the end the engine produces great torque and nearly 500 horsepower!
I finally made my 2006 Chevy Silverado 3500 crew cab dually do a burnout. I swapped out the older Edge Evolution programmer for a brand-new Edge CTS2 programmer/datalogger/performance monitor and smoked all four tires down the block. In this video I'll go over the installation of the programmer as well as an exhaust gas temperature sensor and I'll show you the best way to install a backup camera on your truck. I've also got a new t-shirt in stock so you can finally show your love for Finnegan's Garage or use you can just use the shirt as a grease rag.
In this episode I'll update you on the '69 Pontiac Firebird, '67 Chevy C10, the turbo drag boat, and Blasphemi, my '55 Chevy Bel Air. You can see the 'bird in Roadkill Ep. 67 on The Motor Trend Channel, which is all about building and racing it at the One lap of America event.
This video is about prepping my car for Hot Rod Drag Week 2017. I didn't want to tow a trailer with my tools so my friends and I made this nifty trailer hitch-mounted rack to carry my spare wheels and toolbox. I hope you like it.
I'm so psyched for this episode! I've used most of the tools in Campbell Hausfeld's Get Stuff Done lineup of air tools and they work great.
On this episode I'll show you a unique way to control electric switches and valves on your project vehicle. I'll be removing several old analog-type switches for my truck's air suspension and replacing them with digital switches found inside the Edge Products CTS2 dash-mounted programmer. Along the way I'll school you on some trick wiring products, new tools
Well, my friends and I did get Blasphemi done in time to race Hot Rod Drag Week 2017 and although we only made it through the first day of competition we did have the time of our lives. When we weren't battling clutch and throwout bearing issues, the car ran a mid-9 second ET before one of the 12 year-old Hemi cylinder heads dropped an intake valve into the cylinder. The carnage was big, but we will rebuild and we will race again. Anyway, let's focus on the good stuff that's happening, namely new life hacks for guys building cars at home
Here's a quick video about tools that make hot rodding easier. Some are for fabrication and others are for engine maintenance but each one saves time and money. In short, you need these tools!
It's been awhile, I know, but I'm back. The end of 2017 was crazy as production of Roadkill ramped up and we filmed several episodes in a short amount of time before the end of the year. Basically, I was gone for weeks at a time and when I got back home I spent a lot of time with my family rather than in my garage. That's not to say I wasn't busy. In December I got my car back from the body shop after having the old, peeling, vinyl wrap removed and a fresh coat of paint applied to the body. Then I built a new stainless steel exhaust system using parts from http://stainlesssteelheaders.com Blasphemi is now back together, doing burnouts and I'm looking forward to warmer weather and some track time. This video will show you how I built the new exhaust system. From the tools to the techniques I'll show you exactly how I welded a stainless steel exhaust system from readily available parts.
I tend to switch my focus from one project vehicle to the next depending on what is happening in my life, what parts I have in my garage, and how good the waffles taste in the morning. During the period of time that I made this video the planets were aligned so that my homies from MRC Fabrication could hang out at my garage and help jump start the rejuvenation of my 1967 Chevrolet C10 truck, a project that i began nearly 10 years ago, got running, sold and then bought back last summer. The C10 is a bagged, body dropped and LT4-swapped rocker-dragging show truck. When my friends and I first put it together all I cared about was being as low as possible and tucking 22-inch inch wheels inside of the fenders. We accomplished that back in 2007 when the truck first hit the road with an LS2 under the hood. After buying the truck back last summer (without the LS2) my tastes had changed; I still wanted a really low truck but I also wanted it to be fast and handle well. With that in mind I began installing an Chevrolet Performance supercharged LT4 engine (think Z06 Corvette!) and a Tremec Magnum six-speed manual gearbox. I got as far as completing the exhaust system when I met Jimmy Bullard. Jimmy told me about a new suspension design he was working with Mittler Bros on and it sounded like the exact thing I needed to make this truck handle the way I wanted it to. In this video I'll show you how we replaced the fabricated front clip and suspension system with MRC's mandrel bent frame rails, aluminum spindles, and Flaming River rack and pinion steering. Then we'll show you all about this revolutionary suspension system that utilizes hydraulic fluid to raise and lower my truck but not in the traditional sense. These Hydroshox contain a coilover-type damper within a hydraulic cylinder. The cylinder does the ride hight adjustment and the coilover controls the handling characteristics. Although I've got a lot of work to finish before I'll get to road test the truck, this vi
My 1973 Chevy C30 Crew Cab Dually is unique for several reasons; first off, it appeared on several episodes of Roadkill. It's also unique because its a 3+3 Crew Cab fitted with an aftermarket ramp in place of the original truck bed by a company called Hodges Custom Haulers in Benton, Kentucky. Lastly, with the powerhouse 454ci V8 engine, TH400 three-speed automatic transmission and 4.11 gears in the rear axle, this truck has achieved a whopping 6 mpg when towing. It also won't break 45 mph going up a 6 percent grade and it tends to overheat. In short, as much as I love this truck it's gotta change its ways. Enter the guys from Power Driven Diesel and Diesel Conversion Specialists. After searching high and low for 2wd Square Body Chevy truck conversion diesel swap parts and noodling the pros and cons of various diesel engines and suitable transmissions, I decided to use a set of DCS engine mounts to swap in a 12 Valve Cummins inline six-cylinder diesel engine and then build my own mount for a 47RH automatic overdrive transmission. I also brought in a couple of experts from Power Driven Diesel to hop up my used Cummins before we stuffed it into the Ramp Truck. Together we o-ringed the engine block, changed the head gasket, upgraded the valve springs and pushrods, re-timed the injection pump, swapped in larger fuel injectors, fixed the dreaded death pin inside the timing cover, and installed a beefy new transmission. Did I mention we also installed a compound set of turbos that will make 60-plus psi of boost and over 650 hp?? Now it is possible to installed the Cummins 12V into '73- '87 Chevy trucks (and '73-'91 Suburbans) without cutting the firewall if you move the crossmember and engine mounts, unbolt the hood, replace the stock power brake booster with a hydroboost unit, and drop the engine straight down from the sky without the transmission bolted to it. You also have to forgo the original engine-driven fan and install an electric unit and hope for the best.
I love this car but I had to sell this car to my brother because I love my '55 Chevy Bel Air, Blasphemi, even more and after blowing up two Hemis last summer I needed money to pay for them. So to keep this 1969 Pontiac Firebird in the family my brother bought it from me. Part of the deal was that I had to fix all the electrical gremlins that have plagued this car since it was partially rebuilt on two Roadkill episodes that saw Tony Angelo and I race One Lap of America. The wiring on this car was a nightmare; there were splices, chewed up spots, missing ground connections and random switches added to control the headlights because the stock headlight switch didn't work. Enter Painless Performance. I used the company's Pro Series wiring kit to replace every inch of wiring in the Bird and once I troubleshooted a brand-new and malfunctioning headlight switch, the engine roared to life, the lights lit and the tires made smoke. Check it out.
One of the first problems anyone with a fast car encounters is the effect extreme acceleration has on all the subsystems powering their hot rod. The g-forces can especially wreak havoc on the fuel system. Part of the problem can be an improperly designed fuel supply, especially when using the OEM gas tank. During the holeshot the fuel inside of the tank can move away from the pickup, temporarily lowering the fuel pressure and causing the engine to run rough or stall completely. There are many solutions to maintaining fuel pressure in this situation and one of the most economical is to weld an angled fuel sump into the bottom of the steel gas tank. In this episode I'll reveal the methods and tools I use to do the job, including how I set up my own Millermatic 211 MIG/Flux Core welder to fuse the pieces of sheetmetal together without burning holes in them.
I'm back with an update on the Roadkill Ramp Truck, the Turbo Boat, the C10, and Blasphemi, my Hemi-powered 1955 Chevy Bel Air Gasser. The Cummins 12 valve diesel engine swap in the Ramp Truck is nearly complete. The guys from Power Driven Diesel were just in my garage helping me finish up the last few mods to make it run and drive again. We fired the engine, road tested it and did a ridiculous four-wheel burnout that will appear in a new episode of Finnegan's Garage just as soon as its edited and ready. In the meantime, here's a video about the state of my other projects as well as footage of my friends and I building a new hood scoop for Blasphemi and then running the quickest ever 1/8 pass for this car. There's also footage of Blasphemi on Westech Performance Group's Superflow chassis dyno. If you listen close, the all-important power numbers are in the video. As for that callout...I found out about it the same way you all did..I saw it on the Hoonigan YouTube channel, which if you're not already following, is a must-watch deal. These guys are hilarious and genuine gearheads. I've got nothing against Mr. Jon Chase or his fabricator friend, Brad, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to bust their asses at the dragstrip. That is--whenever Jon's car is running, which I hope is before mine breaks again.
The day we’ve all been waiting for is here; after busting our butts to remove the old 454ci Big-Block Chevy engine and three-speed automatic Turbo 400 transmission from my 1973 Chevrolet C30 ramp truck and replacing it with a hopped-up Cummins 12 Valve diesel engine and 47RH four-speed automatic transmission, we finally fired up the diesel and took it for a spin. So, how does the truck run? Good question. Here is what I know after a brief test drive: it does hellacious four-wheel burnouts with minimal effort on the part of the Cummins. Thanks to the compound turbo kit from Powerdriven Diesel, the system is building 60-plus psi of boost and that translates into lots of torque. The boys are guesstimating about 650hp and 1,200 ft-lbs. At some point I’m going to have the truck weighed and tested on a local chassis dyno. If you haven’t seen episode 47 yet, take a few minutes to watch the swap happen and see how we fortified the top end of the Cummins by grooving the engine block for o-rings, installing new head gaskets, adding ARP head studs, replacing the valve springs, increasing the injector timing and fixing the dreaded death pin inside of the front cover. The engine is also backed by a modified 47RH transmission, which Powerdriven built in-house to withstand the punishment this behemoth tow rig will put it through. Two awesome things are happening in this video; first off, I’m giving away $2,500 bucks worth of tools and supplies from Wirecare.com. The kit includes just about everything you need to wire and plumb your project car. Want a shot at winning? Leave a comment below. The contest ends at 12pm on August 24th. I’ll read through every comment and pick my favorite and then post a follow up video announcing the winner. This video will also show you the last few items we checked off the ‘ol To-Do List for the Ramp Truck, which included cutting and welding the longest stainless steel exhaust system ever. Using parts from StainlessHeaders.com, we
Also in this video my friend Dave and I do some serious suspension work on my 1955 Chevy Bel Air, Blasphemi, in an effort to set the stance just right and to allow me to leave the dragstrip starting line with more horsepower. We install a Jim Meyer Racing rear anti-roll bar as well as build our own set of aluminum lift blocks for the front of the car. After all of that work I venture to Hot Rod Drag Week with my friend, Daniel, and during test and tune the car went quicker than it ever has before. It ran a 9.07 pass at 149 mph in the 1/4 mile. This is nearly half a second quicker than it ran at the same track a year ago. To say i'm happy is an understatement and I cannot wait until that actual competition at Drag Week 2018 begins. Thanks for watching. The 55 is nearly finished or at least done enough that I can finally move onto other projects in the garage. I'll have an update on the Ramp Truck, the Jet Boat, and my '67 C10 real soon.
All the busted knuckles and sleepless nights have finally paid off and Blasphemi, my 1955 Chevy Bel Air Gasser has run its first 8 second 1/4 mile pass and finished the entire route at Hot Rod Drag Week 2018. This video goes behind the scenes during the race and gives you a glimpse of what its really like to participate in this grueling road trip and racing event. I also address the Hoonigan callout to race my car, which is once again broken. You can also watch me crash and burn during a footrace with a fan and see my buddies perform a parking lot engine swap in a Chevy Nova at 1:30am on the last day of Drag Week. Last, but in no way least, your faith in humanity will be restored when you see a fellow gearhead gift a super cool replacement 540ci Big-Block Chevy and Tremec transmission to the owner of the Nova after Drag Week is over. There's also footage of that guys six-figure Pro Touring Camaro build. Speaking of footage, this episode wouldn't be possible without the help of 1320 Video, The Hot Rod Network and Jacob Davis
In 2009 my wife and I inherited her grandfather's 1969 Chevy El Camino. It was a dilapidated version of the Malibu with a 350 small-block engine, a factory two-barrel carburetor, a Turbo-350 three-speed transmission, drum brakes and power nothing. There were zero creature comforts including air conditioning. Still, structurally speaking the car was in quite good shape and it held a ton of sentimental value because its been in our family since it was new. Grandpa Joe's Elco quickly appeared on episodes of Roadkill, first as the car we swapped a new engine into during a snowfall at a Summit Racing store parking lot in Reno, Nevada. Later we raced it against other Roadkill project cars during an autocross shootout involving Jonny Lieberman and Carlos Lago and a Kia. After it was done being Roadkilled, I really got to work on improving all aspects of it. My friends and I set about the task of making it reliable; My stint on the web show Hot Rod Garage allowed me the time to swap a Chevrolet Performance LS3 and a Gearstar 4L70-E overdrive transmission into the car as well as a new coilover suspension and disc brakes from Ridetech and Wilwood. It took less than a year for this car to morph from being Grandpa's grocery getter into a legitimate autocross terror. All along, my wife yearned for the car to remind her of her youth, when her Grandpa would pick her up from school in the shiny blue El Camino. She repeatedly asked me to have the car repainted and I refused because I didn't want the car to become so nice that we'd be afraid to drive it anywhere. Over the last 10 years she watched my own project cars progress even staying mum when I went ahead and painted Blasphemi, my '55 Chevy Bel Air. I tell ya, the woman is a saint. Finally, during our last outing in the Elco during the summer of 2017 the transmission died and the car was parked. She was sad but I had a plan; I used the broken transmission as an excuse to hide the car while it was being restored by my fri
I assembled a roll cage kit for my friend Matt and repaired a couple of my own projects.I was so impressed with the smooth starting arc and trouble-free Auto Set feature that I made this machine my dedicated garage welder and now you can, too!
It's official: I will be racing Jon Chase from Hoonigans and his Tri-Five By Fire '55 Chevy Gasser on February 8, 2019 at the NHRA Winternationals at the Fairplex in Pomona, California. Yes there will be video here, on the Hoonigans channel, and there will be an episode of Roadkill about this adventure. Right now my car is in one piece, having just returned from the SEMA show and this video details what went into fixing the car after killing the Hemi at Drag Week 2018. My plan is to address some small issues with the car and park it in the corner of the garage until we race. I've got a long list of upgrades I'd like to make but I'm just gonna leave Blasphemi alone and hope I bring enough power and reliability to win the race. What's at stake? Jon wants to bet beards. Obviously he's got more to lose than I do but what the hell, it's motivation so I'll take it. What are the rules? I don't believe there are any rules. In fact, I really don't know much about Jon's car since both he and the Hoonigan's have gone radio-silent since the initial callout. He could show up with a Top Fuel motor between the frame rails. Whatever. He's still got to get it down the track just like I do. So anyway, show up to the race and we'll see what's what.
The Ramp Truck is almost a full-functional tow rig again. Except for the rear axle quitting on us, she's a mean machine. In preparation for our cross-country trek to meet Jon Chase in Pomona, California at the NHRA Winternationals, where we'll line up in a best-of-three race to see who's shaving their beard, we've been plugging away at the long to-do list on my favorite truck. The largest item on the list was the very large hole we cut into my 1973 Chevy C30 square body firewall and floor. The hole was necessary because we wanted to have zero clearance issues with the transplanted Cummins 12 Valve 6BT diesel engine and 47RH transmission. Both the engine and trans were hopped up by the good folks at Powerdriven Diesel and are estimated to be putting 1,200 ft-lbs of torque to the rear wheels.
This one's for you. You asked and David Newbern and I answered. In this vid we cover the current status of your favorite project cars plus give inside info on what happened to the Mazdarati after it was stolen and when the grudge match between Jon Chase and myself is going down.
This is part 1 of an insane adventure that my friend David Newbern and I just went on. A super rare '89 GMC Sierra 3500 Crew Cab Ramp Truck hit the internet last Wednesday and I couldn't help myself; I had to have it. So we flew to Cincinnati on Friday and bought it, intending to road trip it home. The seller claimed it had just 35,000 miles on it and that it was ready to road trip. The mileage claim was correct. The road trip portion of their statement was total BS! Witness the joyous discovery and test drive of the ultimate hauler and then watch in horror as we nearly get destroyed by tractor trailers when the 454ci V8 shuts off as we reached the top of a two-lane bridge and had to roll backwards down the highway.
I'm calling this a ramp truck because if you open up the roll-up door, inside the 24-foot long cargo box is a pair of ramps to park a car on. Also, to load the car atop the truck you have to drive it up...drum roll please...ramps. lol. Anyway, in Episode 59 of Finnegan's Garage, David Newbern and I flew to Cincinnati to buy this 1989 GMC Sierra 3500 truck, which had been converted for race car hauling duty way back in 1990. We probably paid too much for this pig but with only 35,000 original miles on the odometer she needed no lipstick. There's hardly a scratch on this truck and although she broke down almost immediately and we spent 7 hours on the side of the road in the rain, we still love her even if we don't have much love for the seller. This video gives you a great look into what it was like making the journey from Indiana to Georgia and all the fun we had meeting fans and battling a dead battery, rusty fuel tanks and sketchy tires.
In this video we make last-minute suspension upgrades to the rear of Blasphemi, hoping to finally fix its unpredictable starting line behavior. Customs By Bigun replaced our old anti-roll bar with a beefier one from PAC Racing and we hope this is what makes this car finally go straight every single pass so that we can start putting real power to the rear tires at the starting line. We'll have more updates as the event gets closer but to say I'm psyched to run Blasphemi down this fabled California racetrack is an understatement. For the NHRA to allow Jon and I do race during their event is even cooler!
The time has come for Jon Chase and I to line up our Chevys at a drag strip and find out who built the baddass Gasser. Nearly a year in the making, the race is going down February 8th and 9th 2019 at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California. There's a lot on the line. We are racing in front of thousands of people and the winner gets an incredible trophy; the loser must shave their beard right there in front of everyone. A cold chin or worse yet a fresh double chin will be the consolation prize for the runner-up in this battle of old skool cool street car. As usual, my car is not ready and neither is my tow vehicle and my friends and I must drive 2,000 miles just to get to the starting line. This is the first in a series of videos about our adventure. We'll upload Part 2 just soon as I finish ending it in between wrenching sessions. As I type this we are almost to California, having thrashed on both the Ramp Truck and Blasphemi while having the time of our lives.
In Part 1 we prep the ramp truck for it's journey from Georgia to California. My '55 Chevy Bel Air, called Blasphemi because it has a 528ci Chrysler Hemi between its frame rails, wasn't exactly in one piece when we hit the road.In fact, in this video it's still not in one piece either. In this video, we make our way to Texas and along the way we stop at John Andrade's shop in Yukon, Oklahoma. John is famous for owning and driving a really fast G-body Olds Cutlass called The Cutty and for appearing on the television show, Street Outlaws. Although we'd never met before, he was cool enough to open the doors of his shop and host an impromptu meet in his parking lot. While visiting his awesome shop was cool, the best part was upgrading the ramp truck with a polished stainless steel wing on the roof and meeting fans who brought us cassette tapes for the cassette deck in the ramp truck. We scored so much cool music and no, the wing didn't help our fuel economy, but it still looks cool!. Tune into Episode 64 as we keep on truckin' toward California to chassis dyno the Hemi in Blasphemi (Yes, we'll tell show you the power numbers!) and you'll see Mike Cotten attempt to eat a 72oz steak dinner!
Here it is, Part 3 of a ridiculous road trip from Georgia to California in a super-unreliable 1989 GMC Sierra Ramp Truck. The goal is to get to The Fairplex in Pomona for the NHRA Winternationals, where I'll race Blasphemi, my 1955 Chevy Bel Air against Jon Chase and his Tri-Five. The winner gets a sweet trophy and the loser gets their beard shaved off right in front of everyone. In this video we blow into Amarillo, Texas, home of The Big Texan restaurant and its 72oz Steak Challenge. Witness my buddy Mike try to devour over FOUR POUNDS OF BEEF before we drive clear to Arizona to dyno test my car. Let's just say he did not enjoy the next 24 hours of his life in the ramp ruck and we then we had nothing but problems with my car on the dyno. However, we don't quit and had nothing but fun before we mobbed onto Cali. I need to thank Brian Macy and Kelvy Limon at Horsepower Connection and The EFI store for helping get the car ready and to Steve Darnell and Merlon Johnson from Welderup Las Vegas for jumping in to help.
This is it, the fourth installment of an incredible cross-country road trip to race Jon Chase at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California. Yeah, you probably already know the outcome of this race because it happened weeks ago and there's plenty of videos from the Hoonigans, Motor Trend, TheCraig909, FourSpeedFilms etc, but this is the tale from my point of view. I'm picking up the road trip to the race as we prepare to leave The Horsepower Connection in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. We finished dyno-testing Blasphemi and although it would not stop leaking water from the cylinder heads into the crankcase, it did put 1,070hp to the tires. To prevent making a motor milkshake during the event we decided to drain the water out of the engine and only run it long enough to race down the track. The new ramp truck, Square Force 1, was running great but only getting about 5.5 mpg and we wanted to know why. Sure, it's loaded down with Blasphemi, my tools, boxes of t-shirts and is pretty much a 14,000 lb brick pushing through the wind, but we still wanted to know how the 454 V8 engine was running. So David Newbern, Mike Cotten and I, along with Steve Darnell and Merlon Johnson from Welderup, decided to install a Holley Wideband O2 sensor and custom gauge to see the air/fuel ratio of the engine in real-time.
My '73 Chevy C30 Ramp Truck has led a hard life. It was converted to Ramp Truck status early on and has been hauling cars ever since. Last year we ditched the 454ci V8 gas engine and TH400 three-speed trans in favor of a compound-turbocharged Cummins 5.9L 12Valve diesel and 47RH four-speed with lockup converter transmission. Both the engine and transmission were modified by Powerdriven Diesel for towing duty and hot rod fun. It didn't take long to destroy the stock Dana 70 rear axle. A couple of burnouts was really all that was required to send the spider gears in the differential crying to their mama. Determined the make lemonade out of this lemon, we contacted the folks at Quick Performance for an upgrade. http://www.quickperformance.com/ The team suggest using the axle out of a late-model Chevy truck, which originally was supplied to GM by American Axle & Manufacturing. The axle not only comes with disc brakes but also a larger 11.5-inch diameter ring gear, which dwarfs the Dana 70's 10.5 inch gear. Right out of the gate this is a better axle for the kind of abuse the Ramp Truck endures, but Quick Performance further improved it by swapping out the 3.73:1 ring and pinion gears for an ever higher 3.42:1 gear ratio. Our Cummins certainly would appreciate the lower rpm and higher wheel speed that this ratio would force it to operate in. The stock open differential was also replaced with a Detroit Trutrac limited-slip differential for two wheel peels! Here's where things get even more exciting; the new axle came out of a single rear wheel truck. This meant that our stock 16-inch dually wheels wouldn't fit. Also, 17s wouldn't go on either. After many hours of trial and error fitment we stumbled upon a combination of 19.5 wheels and 1/4-inch spacers, which fit the truck and provided a more modern look. Check out the video to see how we made dually wheels fit a single wheel axle as well as tips for setting your pinion angle correctly.
I'm gonna drive my 1967 Chevy C10 this summer. That's my goal. Before I can proceed with the remaining fabrication projects on this truck, though, I need to nail the wheel and tire fitment. In this episode I work with 2 U Tires to find find the perfect wheel and tire combination for my truck and show you how to fit the widest wheels and tires possible on your lowered car or truck. The key is a tool called the Gryp-R. It's a fixture that bolts onto the hub of your ride and holds nearly any tire in place so that you can check the fitment before you spend your hard-earned cash on the wrong set of wheels and tires. It's easy to use and as you'll see in this video you can get all the critical measurements done in a matter of minutes. I ended up stuffing the widest tires I've ever seen on the front of a lowered Chevy C10; I ordered a set of 295/30ZR20 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires from Summit Racing and then had Forgeline build a set of GA3R wheels in 20x10.5 size with 4-inches of backspacing. The wheels have Forgeline's optional "open lug" design and are extremely light.
Since this is the summer of driving unfinished projects, I'm briefly switching gears from wrenching on my '67 Chevy C10 and working on Game Over, my Placecraft twin-turbo jet boat. My goal is to drive both the truck and the boat in 2019 but I'd really like to go boating with my family before summer is over so Game Over takes precedence over the truck for now. In this video we are going to build a throttle system to connect our B1 Racing billet gas pedal to the Accufab throttle body that's mounted atop the 711ci Sonny Leonard twin-turbo engine. It's a pretty simple task that gives me the opportunity to show you some fabrication tricks and tools while showing you just what makes this incredible fiberglass boat work.
I needed a good way to mount the fuel cells in my drag boat without drilling holes into the bottom of the boat hull. I decided to build some aluminum mounts and then bond them to the hull using fiberglass mat, fiberglass cloth, fiberglas resin, and an epoxy product. The end result was strong and durable and I'm one step closer to driving this twin-turbo Hemi on the lake. It's gonna be an awesome summer!
On this episode of Finnegan's Garage we take a short break from working on cars to finally begin assembling that 582ci Big Block Chevy that I showed you way back in Ep. 24 This video will show you my methods for cleaning the block and measuring bearing clearances. I'll go over how to read a micrometer, a dial bore gauge, and what size clearance I look for in a connecting rod and main bearing in this particular application. Got more questions?
Square Force 1 is my 1989 GMC Sierra R30 cab and chassis square body truck that was converted for enclosed car hauling duty over 30 years ago. It's powered by a 454ci V8, which is backed by a Gearstar Performance Transmissions Level Four 4L80E tranny and a Yank billet converter. Prior to swapping the original TH400 three-speed transmission with the new four-speed, the truck averaged 5.5 mpg during a 5,300 mile coast-to-coast road trip. During this episode we'll address some tuning issues with the 454 and then road trip the truck with the new trans. After the mods the truck nearly doubled it's fuel economy; We achieved a best of 9 MPG and a worst of 6.5 MPG. This video will show you how to find Top Dead Center on a four-stroke engine, how to diagnose a malfunctioning vacuum advance distributor, and how to read the timing mark on spark plugs. Hopefully you learn something or just laugh. Thanks for watching!
David Newbern filmed and edited this quick tech tip for setting up a hydraulic throwout bearing in a manual transmission. In the video I'm using an American Powertrain Hydramax bearing inside of my G Force G5R five-speed manual gearbox. These are the parts that I use in Blasphemi, my 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. The procedure is pretty simple but I think it helps to see someone else do the job in addition to reading an instruction manual so here's a step-by-step video about the measuring portion of the job. Hope you like it!
Way back in September 2018, David Newbern and I competed in Hot Rod Drag Week, a five-day road trip to four different drag strips. Each day we made a pass at the track and then hit the backroads of the southeast, journeying from Georgia to South Carolina, onto North Carolina, across to Tennessee and then back to Commerce, Georgia. We drove over 1,000 miles in my 1955 Chevy Bel Air and David's 1971 Chevy Nova. I ended up scoring Second Place in the A Gas class before destroying my Hemi on the last pass. David managed to finish the event after nuking his Small-Block Chevy engine on Day 4. After a parking lot engine swap he limped the car to the last track and made an epically slow 24 second pass but still completing the event. Shortly after Drag Week we made a new friend, Hunter White, who gave Newbern his 540ci Big-Block Chevy and Tremec TKO five-speed gearbox so that Newbern could get his car back in one piece. Newbern has been collecting parts ever since in preparation for hearing the car roar to life once again. His new goal is to return to Drag Week in September 2019, do a wheelie, run a 10 second pass, and finish the event. This is the first in a series of videos about getting the Nova ready for racing.The new drivetrain is already in the car and now it's time to revamp the fuel system with a Quick Fuel Brawler 1,050 cfm carburetor and Holley fuel pressure regulator.
This is the biggest deal to ever go down on this channel! YouTube Superheroes Cleetus McFarland Cooper made the haul from Florida to Georgia to race his Ford Galaxie against the OG Roadkill Ramp Truck. Both have turbocharged Cummins 6BT 5.9L Diesel engines. Both have speed parts from Powerdriven Diesel and they both roll coal. The Galaxy has the edge in the weight department because the Ramp Truck is a 9,500 lb Chevy R30 Crew Cab with a ramp bed on the back. But the Ramp Truck has twin turbskies, larger fuel delivery valves, better valve springs and a few other tricks that may even the playing field. Who will win this battle Royale of homebuilt hot rods? Meanwhile, Mike Cotten and David Newbern have been thrashing to get Newbern's Attempted Murder Nova back together with it's new 550ci Big-Block Chevy. In Episode 73 we nearly got it running before a messed up flywheel stopped the starter motor from cranking the big block. This time the engine is rumbling thanks to a new billet flywheel and twin-disc racing clutch from Mantic and Newbern finally gets a chance to run the car down the dragstrip.
This is the first episode in a series we are doing about trading cars. This 1986 Chevrolet R30 cab and chassis truck was converted for car hauling duty in the late '80s and is in need of some repair. It runs and drives and stops just fine. The cooling system could use some attention. There is not rear door on the cargo box. But it's a super cool transporter with a ton of character and good bones.
This video offers an update on the "Trade My Truck" debacle and my 1969 Dodge Charger, which Kibbe alerted me was for sale last year. The charger is a legit barn find, stashed away in Indiana for 50-plus years before it was drug outside and put on eBay. I bought it, Tony Angelo and I filmed a Roadill episode about reviving it, and then the motor died one summer night last year. The drivetrain consists of a 383ci Dodge big-block, which is backed by a Silversport Transmissions six-speed conversion kit. The kit bolts a Tremec Magnum manual gearbox into the B-body with ease. The car is called Death Metal because it doesn't drive straight, the four-wheel truck drum brakes don't work that well, and the rollcage might actually be more dangerous than not having one at all. Nevertheless, I love the car and in this episode we'll show you what broke and how we fixed it. I think you'll be surprised!
This is the story of The Death Metal Charger and how I bought it and lowered it. In 1968 this Charger was purchased new from a dealer in Indiana and promptly crashed. As the story goes, the car was totaled and sat in a dealer lot until a local farmer named Joe Barry, who had aspirations of going Stock Car racing, bought the wreck and drug it home that same year. He stashed it in his barn and began searching the local wrecking yard for a front clip, doors and new quarter panels. From 1969 to 1970 he wrenched on his project. He fixed the sheetmetal while gutting all of the inner structure of each body panel. He built a roll cage and his own seat. He lowered the car and fixed the the damaged suspension by replacing everything with Chrysler C-body parts, including the front control arms and torsion bars. The USAC racing association sent Joe a letter stating he would be invited to attend qualifying at a NASCAR event if his car passed tech inspection. The pass, his Charger needed full floating hubs for the wheels so Joe went back to the scrapyard and grabbed the first parts that fit the bill-a Timken rear axle from a '49-'53 Willys truck and floating hubs and drum brakes a 3/4 Ton Ford truck. the drum brakes were adapted to the stock C-body front spindles and Timken axle. By 1970 Joe had been through many life changes and the financial toll of building the car had been significant. He decided to attend the last race of the season but after spending his last few dollars purchasing an open car trailer he discovered that the C-body suspension parts made his Charger so wide that it wouldn't fit ton the trailer. He missed the race and his car was deemed illegal for competition. Dejected, the Charger sat in his barn for nearly a decade and never turned a lap and rarely saw street driving. It traded hands several times between 1970 and 2016 but always remained inside barns in Indiana until it was drug out from the last barn and sold to a gentlemen who flipped it to Jason Hil
Awhile back I offered up my 1984 Chevrolet R30 Crew Cab Ramp Truck for trade and the offers that came my way were incredible. Everything from tools to girlfriends were proposed as suitable replacements for my Big Red hauler. Well, one of the offers really peaked my interest and so Newbern and I travelled to Delmar, Maryland to Lucky's Garage and made a deal. I gave up Big Red plus some cash and car parts and Newbern drove home in this modified 1969 Chevrolet C50 ramp truck. The road trip went as it should in an unfinished project truck. There were plenty of breakdowns and near-misses. I know, I know, I don't need another ramp truck but this thing is so cool and so unreliable that it's impossible to ignore the adventure of owning, modifying and road tripping it.
This beast of a big-block Chevy is a two-year project that finally is finished and Dyno-tested and we couldn't be happier with it. In fact, after a bit of tuning it produced over 800 ft-lbs of torque and 1,010 horsepower without a power adder. This single carb monster would be sick in your next project car, truck or boat. Want more info? Watch the video as we show you how to install a new MSD slip collar distributor before we rev this 582ci V8 over 7,000 rpm on Westech Performance' Superflow engine Dyno.
This is the story of how my friends and I rebuilt my 1955 Chevy Bel Air Gasser in my home garage and then showed up to Hot Rod Drag Week 2019 and won our class. We overcame extreme sleep deprivation, tons of broken parts, and a grueling 760 mile drive to win the A/Gas class. We couldn't have done it without a lot of help and the best part is the in addition to this video about the trip there will also be a special extended episode of Roadkill airing on the Motor Trend App. Drag Week is a five day road trip with drag racing every day. The rules state that you must follow a specific route each day to four different tracks. At each track you can make as many 1/4 mile passes as you like but you can only turn in a single time slip. At the end of five days the five time slips you submit are added together and then averaged and the lowest average in each class is determined to be the winner. In 2018 I came in Second Place in the A/Gas class, which is for nostalgic '60s-era Gasser style cars. Since that time, Blasphemi, my Bel Air, has been broken and rebuilt several times. It spent most of 2019 inside my garage instead of on the street. I finally changed engine builders and a few other key components on the car and found the reliability that has eluded me the past two years. Blasphemi ran a record-setting 8.52 second pass at 161 mph at Drag Week and finished the event in one piece. It's still running and is back home in my garage, which means I can finally turn my attention to other projects like the turbo boat and my '67 Chevy C10.
This episode is going live the same weekend that I'll be racing Blasphemi in Las Vegas at the Dodge-Pennzoil Nats NHRA race. So if you see this cmon out November 1-2nd to see if we can make some 8 second 1/4 mile passes in this radical stick-shift Gasser street car. Can't make it out? Well then check out this update on my wife's 1969 Chevrolet El Camino, a car that we've recently restored and then failed to travel very far in. The last time we went on a date in the Elco we actually ran over a massive piece of concrete that was lying in the road and it popped the Falken Azenis tire and smashed the Forgeline 18 inch wheel. This video has the backstory on that adventure and it also features a question and answer session with myself, 12-Volt Dave, and Cotten from inside my garage. It's pretty enlightening and funny. The three of will be in Vegas the first week of November 2019 for the annual SEMA Show at the convention center and we'll upload vids about our trip so watch for those
This is the story of how myself, 12-Volt Dave, Cotten, Merlin Johnson, Kelvy Limon and Brian Macy took Blasphemi to Las Vegas November 1-2, 2019 for the NHRA Dodge Pennsoil Nats, won a grudge match against another Gasser, and then went out cruisin. Blasphemi has been on a tear lately while winning Hot Rod Drag Week's A/GAS class and then winning a best two of three grudge match in Vegas. In Vegas it ran 8.63, 8.66, 8.68 and 8.69 passes at over 155 mph. The darn thing is reliable and consistent enough to be a bracket race car even with the stick shift and straight axle suspension. Now that the racing and cruising is over we've driven the car into the convention center for the annual SEMA Show and we'll have videos of this awesome event coming throughout the week. Stay tuned!
Cotten, Newbern and I have spent the week in Vegas racing Blasphemi and now it's time to move Blasphemi into the Motor Trend booth. Thanks to Merlon and Steve from Welderup, we got our car cleaned up and followed those guys and their awesome creations on a sick shortcut right into Central Hall of the show. Here's a quick vid on some of the Welderup cars those dudes brought out,. Hope you enjoy it!
The turbo boat is back and one step closer to action on the water. In this video we finally connect the steering system from the front to the rear of the boat. Along the way we give you great tips for TIG welding aluminum parts using a Miller Welders Dynasty 280DX inverter machine. Everything from selecting a proper tungsten, cup, and gas lens is covered and we show you how we prepare tungsten for AC welding aluminum plate. There's not a whole lot left fabricate on the jet boat before we fire up the 711ci Sonny Leonard Hemi turbo engine. In upcoming videos we'll cover the turbo and electrical systems of the boat as well as wiring up the Holley Dominator EFI system.
This episode revisits the truck you've been asking me to work on all year long- my 1967 Chevy C10. This is the truck my friends and I built 10 years ago, that I sold right after it was running, and that I bought back a couple of years ago. My goal is to be driving it by spring time. Today I took a big step toward making that happen by finishing the steering system.
Today we take a brief break from our regularly scheduled programming (Yeah, right, nothing is regular or scheduled on this channel.) to detour from my garage to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Performance Racing Industry show, a trade show for speed parts and race cars. We drove Square Force 1, my 38-foot long 1989 GMC R3500 crew cab ramp truck, while hauling Blasphemi, my 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Gasser. Of course, we didn't bother to check the weather and ended up driving through the snow to get from Georgia to Indy. Still, we had fun and saw all kinds of cool stuff like a 16 cylinder LS marine engine, several billet Diesel engines, a few internet and television celebrities and managed to only get into one food fight at a restaurant. But now we are back home working on new videos about the turbo boat and my C10 so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, enjoy this road trip diary!
It's a new year and a new decade so why not look back on the history of my 1967 Chevrolet C10 show truck while also crafting a custom-build roll cage for it? The dudes from MRC Fabrication in Walnut Grove, North Carolina, dropped by the garage to help build a cage that will stiffen the tube chassis and provide a measure of safety if I ever crash the truck at high speeds.
The Roadkill Chevy Square body ramp truck has served me well over the years. This 1973 Chevy R30 has hauled cars, trucks-even boats to race tracks all across America. It's even been to the famed Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, for Speed Week, which is why the truck now has rust eating through the fenders and doors of this 40 year old Chevy. In this episode we are going to disassemble parts of the truck while still keeping the Cummins 6BT 12 valve diesel engine intact. The goal is to strip the cab down so that we can media blast the sheetmetal in preparation for replacement panels.
Ever wondered how to remove powdercoating without killing yourself? It's not easy. I've tried all kinds of ways to do the job. Today, I'm finally stepping up to a media blast cabinet so that I can strip the coating off some of my jet boat parts. Today we are working on the turbo boat, a lightweight water rocket powered by a 711ci Sonny Leonard Chevy Hemi, with twin Precision turbos and a custom jet drive. The boat has yet to hit the water but our plans are to begin water testing in spring 2020. Today's task to undo some work we previously did when this boat appeared at the 2016 SEMA show. Our charge tube, which connects the intercooler to the Accufab throttle body no longer fits and we must build a new one. Before we can do that, we've got remove some old powder coating from the aluminum tubing. Enter Clemco and Rock Ridge Abrasives. We worked with both companies to set up a media blasting station in my home garage, which is beneath my house. The Shop Mate cabinet was a great solution, offering the ability to strip small and medium size parts (We've fit a trailer hitch and long tube header in there!) without filling my garage or Wifey's kitchen with a dangerous dust cloud! This video will school you on the different types of materials available for media blasting and they are used for as well as the finer points of the Shop Mate as we keep moving along on the hardcore fabrication project.
Newbern went behind my back and replaced the headliner in Square Force 1, my 1989 GMC R30 crew cab ramp truck and it turned out so good! This video is all about my surprise gift of fresh upholstery above my head. Check it out!
The day began like any other one; I checked my messages and saw several links to ramp trucks for sale. This one was different, though. I clicked through the spam and saw no ordinary truck. In fact, it wasn't even a ramp truck and yet I was still intrigued. What flashed across the screen was a 1998 Ford F800 behemoth that was stretched from a four-door crew cab to a six-door colossus! Even better, the truck reportedly only had 30,000 miles on the odometer and was powered by a Cummins 12 valve 6BT Diesel engine and seven-speed Spicer manual transmission. This was a red and white unicorn! So David Newbern and I hatched a plan; we'd fly to Iowa, buy the truck and road trip it 900 miles back to Georgia where we'd eventually hop-up the diesel and stretch the chassis to accommodate a giant enclosed ramp bed. We made it about 150 miles before the entire plan fell apart thanks to a wounded engine. This is part 1 of the fun. Come back to see what happens after this road trip comes to a screeching halt in the parking lot of a fireworks store in Missouri.
In episode 91 Newbern and I flew from Georgia to Iowa to purchase a 1998 Ford F800 cab and chassis commercial truck that had been stretched from a four-door crew cab to a six-door behemoth. The truck only had 30,000 miles on the odometer and we believed the mileage figure to be accurate. We also believed the seller who said it was ready for a cross-country road trip, even though the truck had a few suspect attributes. First off, during the test drive, the heater kept shutting off whenever I put my foot on the floor. Second, the radiator cap was leaking and lastly, the oil level dipstick had a homemade rubber strap holding it in place. None of these were good signs that the Cummins 12-valve diesel engine was completely healthy but after flying all the way to Iowa and falling in love with the six-door cab, we figured we'd take the risk and buy it anyway. After all, the dude said he had performed a "blobby test" and it passed with flying colors. lol Anyway, the truck ran fine but about 150 miles into the trip the heater stopped blowing cold air and then the temp gauge pegged the needle at the "H" mark. I quickly pulled over and shut off the Cummins. Popping the hood revealed a radiator gushing an mixture oil and coolant from the overflow tube, a surefire sign that the combustion chambers were no longer isolated from the cooling passages of the engine. It was late at night, nobody wanted to tow the behemoth without charging us several thousand dollars to do so, and so we checked into a local motel. This video picks up the following morning after my friend Jimmy Bullard helped us find a local tow company operator who was so generous that he not only towed the truck to his shop, but he also let us use his tools and fix it ourselves. What a guy!
After nearly six years of construction, my 19-foot long Placecraft jet boat is ready to rip the water. In this video we finish fabricating, wiring and plumbing the 711 cubic inch Sonny Leonard Racing Engines twin-turbo Hemi and it roars to life. We also drop this brand new boat into the water to see if it's floats. This video also gives you tips on building battery cables, fabricating aluminum parts and how I used compressed Co2 aka Carbon Dioxide to control the Precision turbocharger wastegates as well as the shifter and Place Diverter adjustable jet drive nozzle. As much as I'd like to make a fast pass in Game Over there is still a lot of tuning to do before this boat is safe. The engine has not been Dyno-tuned and we'll likely do that ourselves by driving the boat and making changes as we go. That takes time so bear with us as we take baby steps towards finishing this insane pleasure boat project.
These are strange times we are living in. The novel Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, has changed the way we all interact on a daily basis. Like most of you, I've been isolated at home with my family. My job, hosting the video show, Roadkill, is in limbo. I have no idea if or when the show will resume filming new episodes. My new job is working with my wife to home-school our young children and keep them safe, happy, healthy and fed. So far things have not been all that tough. We still have food to eat and we are all happy to do our part to stop the spread of the virus. A week has gone by since the world was put on notice that things had to change. Today is the first day I felt compelled to upload a new video to my YouTube channel, which I admit has been a nice distraction. I plan to upload videos more frequently from here on out and since I'm in no position to lecture or give advice on anything beyond having fun with cars, trucks and boats, that's what I'll continue to do. We are fortunate to live next to a beautiful lake called Allatoona in Northwest Georgia. This video is about lake-testing my 711ci Hemi-powered jet boat. It's actually only the second time I've ever driven the boat. It took over six years to build it from a bare hull into what you see here. The first time I drove the boat I just idled it around a marina to see if it floated and wouldn't sink. In this video I give it just enough throttle to begin tuning it and simply cruised it around the lake with my kids aboard (one at a time) and my friend David Newbern also taking a turn behind the wheel. Don't worry, the kids had life vests on while they were aboard and we never went faster than 30 mph. I'll have another video update this week. I'm still working on the jet boat and my 1967 C10 truck. Currently I'm building a custom pair of stainless steel headers and modifying the fuel cell and have some really cool tips, tricks and tools to show you that will help you build your own headers. Stay sa
Being cooped up in the shop for two weeks straight was getting to us so we decided to head to a semi-secluded spot to see if the 1969 Chevy C50 ramp truck that we traded for last year would actually smoke the tires. It wasn't easy and we tried every trick in the book (except putting tranny fluid on the tires because we have standards!) to finally make smoke pouring off the rear wheels. Now that we see the potential of the hot rod hauler we've ordered up a bunch of parts to poke a Weiand 6-71 supercharger through the hood of the truck. If all goes well, we'll have the the parts next week and will begin transforming this slow, unreliable ramp truck into a faster and still unreliable ramp truck. Thanks for watching!
Our fourth lake test was a success! After troubleshooting the ignition and fuel systems that plagued our last test session, we finally got to rip across the water at 90 mph and there's plenty of speed left in this beast once we get the air/fuel mixture tuned perfectly and stop the turbos from trying to melt the fiberglass boat hull. This video has lots of tips about troubleshooting V8 engines and it ends with us having the time of our lives in Game Over, our twin-turbo jet boat.
You've been patient and so have we; we've tested our 711ci twin-turbo Hemi-powered jet boat four times and never had any boost from the 88mm Precision turbochargers. Today, we finally fixed a few small issues, did some EFI and jet drive tuning, and shoved 8 psi of boost into the all-aluminum Hemi Chevy and the engine responded with big-time power. We wound the engine up to 7,000 rpm and ripped across the lake in seconds. In fact, the boat accelerated from idle speed to over 100 mph in just four seconds. We are just barely scratching the surface of how ridiculous this 19-foot long, 420 pound boat hull is capable of. Stay tuned for more and in the meantime enjoy this video about our latest triumphs in Game Over.
We are back working on my 1967 Chevrolet C10 project truck. For those that don't know, this truck has a tube chassis, independent front and rear suspension, a Chevrolet Performance supercharged LT4 engine and 6Xd.com six-speed sequential gearbox. The gearbox is brand new and I haven't dropped the video on it yet. That will come next week. In the meantime, here's an informative video about cutting and welding stainless steel headers for any custom project vehicle. We teamed up with Michael Furyik of Dogfab.com before the pandemic exploded to film this video using his new professional mandrel bend market tool as well as a couple other homemade tools for making the joints between tubes much tighter and easier to weld. I hope you dig this.
The last few last big pieces of the puzzle to rebuild my slammed 1967 Chevy C10 project truck are now in place. We just installed a billet 6xdgearbox.com sequential six-speed gearbox and Mantic USA twin-disc clutch on the back of the supercharged Chevy LT4 engine. The transmission can be shifted through all six gears super fast and without lifting off the gas pedal or using the clutch. It's an all-aluminum case machined from solid billets and with o-rings everywhere for easy serviceability. The clutch is capable of holding 1,000 lb-ft of torque and can be rebuilt and upgraded for more power later on. Now that the trans and driveshaft are in and now we can make a realistic list of the remaining fabrication, plumbing and wiring jobs to perform we can drive this badass truck.
Somehow, someway we have managed to film 100 episodes of this show. It happened so fast that I almost didn't notice that the magic number was rapidly approaching. When I did, though, I made plans to celebrate it the best way I knew how-with you guys! You all made this possible. This channel doesn't work without you watching and sharing the information and fun that David Newbern, Mike Cotten and I get to have on a regular basis.
Blasphemi has new graphics, there's a bagged Toyota Mini-truck in the garage, and lots of other updates on the Finnegan Garage fleet can be found in this episode.
This vid is short but sweet. I copped a new pair of MSD spark plug wire crimpers and built these plug wires for my 1969 Chevy C50 Ramp Truck in about 15 minutes. Thanks to the wonders of time-lapse video technology you can watch me do the job in under two minutes. Full vid of the supercharger install is coming soon. In the meantime, have a great day! Oh yeah, Here's a link to the crimpers, which also have replaceable jaws for crimping Weatherpak, AMP, and Deutch connectors, too!
At the end of 2019 my buddy Cletus tells me he's buying his own racetrack. I'm floored and so freakin happy for him. Then in January he calls me at the minute to fly out for the very first video shoot at the new Freedom Factory. I hopped a plane and when I wasn't hooping and smiling I filmed whatever I could on my iPhone. It was so a fun day! I can't wait to go back. In the meantime enjoy 18 minutes of mayhem courtesy of V8s, radial tires, and a few madmen behind the wheel.
It's time for a shop update and trivia night. This video is full of info on our 1969 Chevy C10, which just got a Weiand 6-71 blower and dual Holley carbs, our '67 Chevy C10, Blasphemi 1955 Chevy Bel Air, and the turbo boat.
So many of you have wondered how we are making the twin-turbo jet boat sit still while revving the Hemi and then launching it that we decided to drop a new video explaining why Game Over looks like it has a trans brake. It's true, this jet boat has no brakes, no seat belts, no transmission and yet we still treat it like a fast drag car when we spool up the turbos and unleash the twin-turbo Hemi on the water. How is this possible? Well, we'll show you. In this video we explain how we redirect the water coming out of the jet drive to the sides of the boat, which enables us to rev the engine to over 4,000 rpm and then drop the hammer and take off like we've been shot out of cannon! and just for fun, we lined up 100 ft behind my neighbors PWC for a short drag race on our local lake! No surprise, we blew past the PWC like it was tied to a dock. It was still fun though.
In this video not only will you see how we fit the massive supercharger under the stub nose hood of Chevy's medium-duty truck, but we'll also give you tips on fabricating, ignition systems, and how to get your nasty chassis clean with a brand-new product from CRC Industries.
We took a small break from wrenching on cars because it's super hot in Georgia right now and instead worked on stuff that we could play on the lake with. I've had a 1994 Yamaha Waverunner Superjet for about 10 years now and next to my jet boat, it's the most fun thing to ever rip the water. After searching high and low for a 2020 model Superjet, I found one of the last SJ's for sale in the USA in Florida. The good homie Cletus McFarland was kind enough to pick it up from the dealer and deliver it to me. I jokingly suggested he use Leroy the Savage to pick up the new ride but I didn't think he'd actually do it.
There is a place not far from me where the freedom echoes off the rooftops of lakefront houses, where men dare to blast across water in machines made of fiberglass, with engine's so large that the boats nearly sink under the weight of their awesomeness. We journey to Waterloo, South Carolina, to witness the spectacle of 30 hot road boats ripping across water with supercharged V8 engines belching the music of our people through open headers. It was all part of Leonard Pope's Waterloo Boogaloo hot boat party and it was incredible!
You asked for it-on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, in the comments of Cletus McFarland's videos, in the comments of my videos. You've wanted to see my supercharged 1955 Chevy Bel Air Gasser, Blasphemi, line up against Leroy The Savage, Cletus' turbocharged Corvette. Well, we finally made it happen! We both made our way to Paradise Dragstrip in Calhoun, Georgia, recently for a best two-out-of-three grudge match. The two-step action was on fire! The dragstrip was uphill! I did a reverse burnout (transmissions hate that so don't try it at home.)! It was an incredible day at the track and I can't thank Cletus, Cooper, Spenser, Brandon and Newbern for all the laughs and the help.
Yamaha has finally given the world an all-new Superjet stand-up personal watercraft and it rips! After 30 years of creating my favorite two-stroke stand-up, Yamaha created a clean-sheet design boat powered by the epic three-cylinder, 100hp TR1 four-stroke engine. The new ride does everything well and in this video I weigh it and every other generation of Superjet to see how heavy each one is and then I go wide open throttle to see how fast they are.
Talk about comin' up! All I had to do was let Cletus McFarland drive Game Over, my 1,700hp twin-turbo Hemi-powered Placecraft jet boat and in return, I got to spin donuts in his 60hp hovercraft. Score! After letting Ol Cleeter shoe my 19-foot long jet boat for a bit, I then took him for the ride of his life! I have no clue how fast we went but it's the best the boat has ever run so I'm guessing we beat my personal best of 115 mph in 4 seconds. Check the thumbnail-the face don't lie. lol As for the hovercraft? The Scat was unbelievably fun even though its not the fastest thing on the water. Why these little pocket water rockets aren't more popular is beyond me. I had the time of my life driving it.
Hot Rod Drag Week is a 5 day racing road trip, which mercilessly tortures the fastest street cars on the planet. Gearheads travel from all over the globe to compete in the event, which stipulates that each car must carry its own tools, luggage, spare parts-whatever it takes to make a pass down each dragstrip and then road trip to the next track. The route is usually right around 1,000 miles but in 2019 the trip was slightly shorter but no less grueling. Tony Angelo and I made the trip and won the A/Gas class in Blasphemi, my 1955 Chevy Bel Air. David Newbern and Brandon Wise were slightly less successful in Newbern's 1971 Chevy Nova. In this video we discovered why the 540ci BBC broke in the Nova and what we are gonna do now that Drag Week 2020 has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Thanks for watching and stick with us because we are going to attempt to do more frequent updates next week as we take on Rocky Mountain Raceweek 2.0, an event that's very similar to Drag Week.
This marks the final installment of our 1969 Chevy C50 ramp truck project. If you recall, this is the truck that we traded Big Red and a wad of cash for. We've put a lot of work into this ride including a complete wiring job, new front suspension, new brakes, a restored engine compartment and most importantly, a new Weiand 6-71 supercharger and dual Holley Double Pumper carbs. Now, we make her even more street friendly with the addition of a fresh 14-bolt rear axle from the dudes at Quick Performance. This axle has all he goodies for freeway flying and maximum wheelspeed burnouts; it's stuffed with a Yukon Grizzly locker, 35 spline axles, new seals and bearings throughout, and a 3.55:1 ring and pinion gearset. We swapped axles right before making an 800 mile trip to Florida to pick up a pile of parts and a Toyota Mini-Truck from our friend Steve Shaw. This truck will become Newbern's next project, which I'm sure you'll see on this channel at some point. Thanks for watching.
I own a ridiculously good and clean, original 1989 GMC Sierra 3+3 Crew Cab dually ramp truck. It's 38-feet long. I thought it was the biggest ramp truck ever until recently I purchased a 1986 Kodiak, which is 39-feet long and even taller than my GMC, which I call Square Force 1
This trip was so good that we had to split the video into two parts because so much stuff happened. First off, here's a little life update; We filmed this back in September but didn't get time to edit and upload the video until now. Immediately after filming our trip to Rocky Mountain Raceweek 2.0 (which is not in the Rocky Mountains), we left town to film Roadkill and Faster With Finnegan and we still aren't done filming those shows so we are working on Finnegan's Garage edits in our spare time. Anyway, since September, a lot has happened. I've bought a new enclosed ramp truck, which you'll briefly see in this video, I've traded away the six-door Ford F650 for a '66 Chevy Suburban, which you'll also see in this video, too. We also had a small shift linkage issue in Blasphemi during Rocky Mountain Raceweek 2.0, which resulted in a major engine failure-again, it's in this video. With any luck we'll upload Part 2 of the video next week. In that video, you'll see the rest of the road trip and you get to see my wife cry when I surprise her on our 15th wedding anniversary. :)
There's so much good stuff happening in this video. I haven't been home for many of my wedding anniversary's due to work commitments and drag racing events. This year is kinda special because it's our 15th anniversary and so when my car broke at Rocky Mountain Raceweek 2.0 on the first day of the event, I decided to cut my trip short and surprise my wife by coming home on our special day. I also had another surprise in store for her, which was a custom 1966 Chevrolet Suburban SUV, which she didn't ask for but that I figured she would fall in love with. Watch the the video until the end to see her reaction.
I've owned this car for several years now but building a really fast 1961 Cadillac Coupe De Ville is a project I've wanted to create for over 10 years. After watching several standing-mile racing events at airport runways I decided that someday I'd create a stock-appearing Caddy that could run 200 mph and 8 seconds in the 1/4 mile. The plan has always been to run a stock-appearing billet wheel with beadlock tire-retention rings. I ordered these wheels 9 months ago and they finally arrived so Newbern and I drug the car out of storage and put it into the garage to start measuring for tires and a new rear axle. Sadly, the wheels we dreamed about are not going to work on the Caddy but we are undeterred and will continue march forward with this awesome project.
In episode 119 I introduced you to my Caddy, which I bought to turn into a drag race and landspeed car. The goal is to run 8s in the 1/4 mile and 200 mph in a standing mile event while still cruising this luxurious behemoth on the street. In today's video, we completely strip the '61 down to a bare shell and then anger Kar Kulture Karens everywhere by cutting out the rust-free floors and trunk to make room for a new mandrel bent chassis. It's gonna be an awesome project car thanks to the dudes at MRC Fabrication in Kendersville, North Carolina. This shop specializes in off-the-deep-end builds and can custom build a chassis for nearly anything. Visit the shop's instagram profile ( MRCFABBULLARD ) for more photos of the build and all the other stuff they have created.
In this installment of the twin-turbo, 8 second Cadillac build, we unbox a new set of Weld Racing Alpha Pro double beadloc wheels for the back end of the car and a pair of V-Series front wheels, too. You'll also get a look at the MRC Fabrication mandrel-bent chassis, which will be the backbone of this high-speed project. Yes, we cut up a perfectly good, rust-free 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille but it will be well worth it when we cruise the street with our friends in this beast, then blast down the quarter mile, and finally go 200 mph in a car that was never intended to be anything more than a luxury liner.
Mom needed her Christmas tree brought home and I needed to test drive my barn-find 1967 Pontiac Firebird aka The Rubber Duck after installing a Blower Shop 8-71 Supercharger and dual Quickfuel carburetors. So we did both. And we did burnouts with the Christmas tree on the roof of the car and it was epic!
We've never really done a good video about David Newbern's 1971 Chevy Nova, which we call The Attempted Murder Nova, but that all changes today. The car got the name as a joke because it's nowhere near as fast as Shawn Ellington's Murder Nova, nor does it have similar race parts. Recently, though, the car received some serious upgrades when we journeyed to Florida to buy Steve Shaw's Toyota Mini-Truck and LS race engine. You can see that video in Episode 115 of Finnegan's Garage. Newbern took the mystery LS and swapped it into his Nova, replacing the old 454 that was under the hood. In this video we are going to dyno test the engine, hit it with nitrous oxide for the first time, and then head to Paradise Dragstrip in Calhoun, Georgia, for a grudge race with fellow YouTuber Emilie Reeves or Flying Sparks Garage. She has a really cool GTO with a supercharged LS engine and its a stickshift, which is super cool because we love stick cars and Newbern's Nova has a stick, too.
You asked for it and so I'm giving you a Christmas miracle--new content on my 1967 Chevrolet C10 truck. It's been far too long since I updated you on my IRS, supercharged LT4-swapped, adjustable suspension, sequential six-speed hot rod hauler but the time has come to make that final push to get it running. In this video I'll show you how to make a custom dash mounting bezel for Holley's new 12.3" touchcreen dash. I'll give you tips on making a template when you can't access the backside of a dashboard and mounting this incredible gauge system/data-logger/efi tuning system. And don't worry, we will continue to work on the C10 and uploading new content on this badass pickup!
MRC Fabrications is making quick work of the chassis on my 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, a car that I hope to run 8 seconds in the 1/4 mile and also go 200 mph with at a landspeed racing event. In this video we are going to install a full-floater rear axle from Quick Performance, finish the rear frame section, and custom build a rollcage. There's a lot going on and it all happened in 3 short days! The next time you see the car we should be installing the coilovers and finishing the cage. Then we build a floor and take her back to my garage to finish the build.
We check in on the Roadkill Ramp Truck, the 1973 Chevy R30 Crew Cab that's been getting a makeover art Concept Collision in Acworth, Georgia. We also take a look at the chassis restoration going on at David Newbern's shop. We also look at funny moments from the last two summer's worth of road trips that never made it on to the channel. And if that's not enough for ya, this poor Chevy Luv inhaled a 50 shot of nitrous oxide for about two minutes straight and lived even though it puked all the oil out and melted its exhaust manifold. Then Tony Angelo did another long burnout until one of the rear tire exploded and the rim was spinning on the ground.
You've asked for it and we are delivering more content on my 1967 Chevrolet C10. This is the truck my friends I began building more than a decade ago. The backbone of this truck is a tube chassis with a Ford Expedition 8.8" IRS. The front half of this truck came from MRC Fabrications. The truck rides on Mittler Brothers Hydroshox. In this episode we rebuild the rear suspension mounts and get the truck ready for plumbing and wiring.
Ever wondered how people put all of those cool lines in sheetmetal, making flat panels of aluminum and steel look like they were sculpted by aliens? I did, too, and so I tricked Jamey Jordan, owner of the Handmade Seat Co., into giving me a quick lesson in using a Mittler Bros. 36-inch bead rolling machine. I lured him into my garage with an offer of cheap booze and stale potato chips so that I could get tips on making new dash bezels for my 1967 Chevy C10, you know, the same panels I already made for the Holley 12.3" Pro Dash touch screens in Episode 124
For years Newbern and I have struggled to build rollcages without wasting a lot of time and tubing. Well, thanks to the recent purchase of some innovative tools and a few tips from a fellow YouTuber, we just leveled-up our cage game! In this video we'll demonstrate how to use the tool kit from Centurial Tools https://www.centurialinc.com/tube-cop...​ as we finish up the cage on my 1967 Chevrolet C10 sport truck. This is the truck with the 650hp supercharged Chevrolet Performance LT4 crate engine, the 6xdgearbox.com billet aluminum sequential manual transmission, the independent rear suspension, Forgeline 20-inch wheels and Mittler Bros hydraulically adjustable Hydroshox!
Next week I'm going to finally make my 1967 Chevrolet C10 run and move under its own power. I'm bringing a couple of friends into the garage so that we can knock out a bunch of work to finish the truck. In the meantime, Newbern and I created a new pair of headers from scratch using a kit from Stainless Headers Mfr, a company we frequently order from. The parts are made of 304 stainless steel and feature mandrel-bent tubes, merge-collectors and lots of quality US-made parts.
We have less than a week to get my 1967 Chevy C10 running and driving so that we can cruise it to MRC Fabrication in Kernersville, North Carolina.
It's finally happening, I'm finally finishing my 1967 Chevy C10 and going on a road trip to break her in! I knew the only way I'd ever make serious progress on this truck was to set a deadline
The crew is working 12 plus hour days to design, fabricate, assemble, plumb, wire my C10 pickup so that we can go cruising. Yesterday we made great strides on the fabrication side of things, checking off items, which include the radiator mount, stainless steel exhaust "x-pipe" and V-band joints, as well as custom flaring stainless steel brake lines. The Cab of the C10 is still not back on the custom tube chassis. Maybe that will happen tomorrow.
It's starting to look like a truck again! We now have the cab set in place, the radiator installed and most of the plumbing is finished. There's still a lot of fabrication ahead of us and a mountain of wiring left but we are trucking toward our goal of building this truck in less than a week and then cruising it to MRC Fabrication in Kernersville, North Carolina
This adventure began on Monday March 1st with less than a week to get my 1967 Chevy C10 running and driving so that could cruise it to MRC Fabrication in Kernersville, North Carolina. We decided to drive it there on Sunday March 7th to go check out the progress on my 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVill.
Man, we are getting really close to starting up my truck. Today, Andrew built the rear half of the cage and Colin began the process of programming the EFI system and Racepak Smartwire Power Distribution Module. Meanwhile, Cotten and I tackled the plumbing. We have less than two days to get my 1967 Chevy C10 running and driving so that we can cruise it to MRC Fabrication in Kernersville, North Carolina.
I gotta apologize for the late upload but at the end of the build we simply put our heads down and wrenched rather than working on filming, editing and uploading videos. However, we are back home from our trip to North Carolina and ready to show you all what went down. This video is about the last 24 hours of the C10 build and the road trip to Jimmy Bullard's MRC Fabrication shop in Kernersville, North Carolina. In a nutshell, David Newbern, Mike Cotten, Andrew Calkins, and Colin Sebern did not sleep when it came time to finish up the C10. And yet, we still came up a little bit short.
My tube chassis, supercharged LT4-powered, six-speed gearbox-equipped 1967 Chevrolet C10 has officially hit the streets! After a decade of hibernation, the custom independent suspension, 20-inch Forgeline wheels and Mittler Bros Hydroshox are fully functional and I'm happy to report that I've rowed all six gears of the RTS/6XDgearbox.com billet sequential transmission. The Holley Terminator X Max efi system is far from properly tuned but after a few hiccups during the last day of the build, my friends and I were able to get a taste of the potential of this street truck. Now all we gotta do is drive the thing 300 miles back home to Georgia!
This time we are giving you more of what you want: We've got the 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille build and the road trip home from MRC Fab in the 1967 Chevy C10. We'll show you how the rear wheel tubs were made in the Caddy, install a pair of Stroud parachutes and then load the Caddy onto a trailer and bring it home. When we'll road trip the C10 and break down twice! lol.
There's a lot going on in today's episode. First, Newbern and I attempt to build new shelving in the shop and attach it to the concrete walls using a high-powered nail shooter, which doesnt work at all. In fact, the 2x4 wood falls right off the wall before we can ever stack any boxes onto the shelves. Since that wasn't working we decide to head to Mo's Speedshop in Dallas, Georgia, to fix the tune on my 1967 Chevy C10. It was running real bad and although it took several hours to figure out why, in the end the Chevrolet Performance LT4 made over 640 ft-lbs or torque at rear tires, which is awesome!
Way back in December I surprised David Newbern by gifting him a car he's always wanted-- a 1957 Chevy two-door. It's rough, but a good foundation for a race car build since we'd probably through away a lot of the heavy metal anyway. This video is all about the day I revealed the car to him
We are hitting the highway in Lincoln Hawk, our stretched 1986 Chevy Kodiak enclosed ramp truck. The plan is to fix some stuff on the truck and then make tracks for the west coast. I'm flying to California to film an upcoming episode of Roadkill while Newbern is driving to Arizona. We'll meet up in AZ and then road trip back home to Georgia with not one but TWO jet boat projects.
This road trip is about to get real....weird. We loaded up not one but TWO jet boats onto the back of Lincoln Hawk, my 1986 Chevy Kodiak ramp truck and left Arizona for Georgia. Along the way we broke down, saw aliens, stayed in a campground and had the time of our lives. Stay tuned for Part 3 of this ridiculous road trip
The adventure continues! We made it from California to Texas and planned to make it to the east Texas state line but got sidetracked by the site of '57 Chevys behind a fence. There were so many of them! Hardtops, post cars, wagons etc. We met the man, Dickie, who owned them all. He spent his life restoring '57 Chevys and '40 Fords and these were the leftover parts cars. Newbern fell in love and struck a deal to buy a sweet hardtop that we'll have to come back for. We also briefly went shopping at Camping World but struck out on our quest for an RV-specific GPS system for Lincoln Hawk. Stay tuned for the conclusion of this journey and the big reveal of our new project boat, which we've been towing on golf cart tires behind Lincoln Hawk.
We've come to the end of our road trip from California to Georgia. In this video you'll see Newbern and I battle through the worst storm we've ever experienced as we journeyed through Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. We managed to bring two new project boats home with us. The first boat was loaded inside of Lincoln Hawk for the trip home and if you're a fan of Roadkill then you'll recognize this 1976 Rogers Bonneville TR jet boat. The second boat has been under wraps literally and figuratively speaking, since I ordered it from Eliminator Boats in Mira Loma, California last year. We managed to tow it over 2,100 miles with a custom Kokopelli trailer riding on golf cart tires behind Lincoln Hawk and now it's time to unwrap it. We'll be refurbishing the Rogers and building the 21-foot Eliminator tunnel hull from scratch. Stay tuned for more videos on both boats plus more fun with Game Over, the 711ci twin-turbo jet boat as well.
Redbeard's Garage practically restored this old Argo 8x8 amphibious UTV and traded it to me for a pile of speed parts and an old square body Chevy Suburban 4x4 that I'd never driven. After test driving the Argo for about 5 minutes we decided to try and cross my local lake in it. It went about as well as you'd expect. lol Go give Redbeard a follow and stay tuned for more adventures as we hop up the Argo for more speed and fun!
This is my Cousin Randy's 1976 Rogers Bonnevill TR jet boat. You may have seen in on an episode of Roadkill where Freiburger and I towed it to Lake Elsinore, California, then swapped the engine out of a Square Body Chevy and put it into the jet boat. We went boating for a few hours and then took the engine out of the boat, put it back into the truck, then towed the boat back home. The boat sat around for nearly 8 years until recently, when it was used for another episode of Roadkill. Roadkill wasnt too kind to the boat and so it came back to Georgia with a dead engine. In this episode we clean up the mess and swap in a new-to-us LS engine that we robbed from Newbern's Attempted Murder Nova, which he has also sold. As usual, things didnt go as planned but we still had fun and got this boat running again. Briefly. lol
This is what it took to make Game Over, my 711ci Hemi Twin Turbo jet boat, run its fastest pass to date. Watch as I take a grinder to the bottom of my fiberglass boat hull and radically change its shape in search of more speed. The re-shaped keel increased the water volume of water entering the jet drive and also increased the water pressure inside the jet drive. The results was a 15 mph increase in speed after just 1 hour of work on the bottom of the hull.
So a crappy motel, an awesome trailer purchase, and the roughest ride ever in our '86 Chevy Kodiak enclosed ramp truck add up to a ridiculous banzai run from Georgia to Kansas City and back in just 30 hours. We thought we wanted to convert Lincoln Hawk into a toterhome so we set out to find just the right car trailer to hitch the back of our favorite ramp truck. We bought the trailer and by the time we made it back home, the rough ride has given us serious doubts about the future of this CAT 3208 turbo diesel-powered hauler.
On episode 150 of Finnegan's Garage, Mike Finnegan bids farewell to his giant ramp truck, Lincoln Hawk. After recent road trip he discovered that there wasn't enough room in the engine compartment to swap a bigger diesel engine into the truck, which meant he didn't have enough power to tow the trailer he had just bought. So, he sold the big red chevy kodiak square body ramp truck and bought a 2004 Freightliner FL112 semi converted into an RV by a company called Showhauler. This video is about the purchase and first road trip in the truck, which ended in disaster when the onboard freshwater storage tank leaked 75 gallons of water into the interior of the Toterhome, ruining the carpet and wood floor. Don't worry, we are well on our way to repairing the truck in anticipation of a cross-country drag boat road trip!
This is episode 151 of Finnegan's Garage. Back in episode 130 of Finnegan's Garage Mike Finnegan told you about an incredible chance you had to be a part of a fabrication build-off right in his home garage. All you had to do to have a shot at entering was leave a comment on the video that made him happy, intrigued or just laugh out loud. Well, today is the day to find out which comments he chose, which of his three friends would also be a part of the contests, and how things played out in the garage. In this video you'll meet Kevin Smith from KSR Performance https://www.youtube.com/user/TheCutla... Mike Cotten from Midwest Images https://www.instagram.com/midwestimag... and Matt Knabb of Knabb Gear and Auto in Cleveland, TN These three guys went head-to-head in a build off to see who could create something unique in less than two hours using the leftover parts and Miller fabrication equipment in my garage. The results were incredible and this video was made possible by Miller Welders, which also provided the prizes for each contestant
In Episode 152 of Finnegan's Garage, Mike Finnegan and David Newbern finally get the 1976 Rogers Bonneville TR fiberglass jet boat on the water. The last piece of the puzzle was to change a car oil pan for a marine-specific pan made by Dooley Enterprises. The guys found it at https://www.shop.socaljetboats.com Since the Rogers has a built 384ci LS engine with an aftermarket stroker crankshaft, the oil pump pickup that came with the Dooley pan had to be modified and the guys had to install a remote oil filter mounting system because the 10-quart capacity, full-length sump pan had no provision for a factory oil filter location. After a few more mods the pan went on and the boat hit the water for the first time in a long time. Shout out to Kevin Smith at KSR Performance for dropping by to lend a hand and for sticking around to watch the boat run during a rainstorm! lol
On Episode 153 of Finnegan's Garage, Mike Finnegan and David Newbern search for more speed out of their LS-Swapped jet boat. The 1976 Rogers Bonneville TR fiberglass jet boat is powered by an LS6 engine with Mast Motorsports cylinder heads, a Holley Hi-Ram tunnel ram, and dual Holley double pumper carburetors. The quest for more speed came from making adjustments to the jet drive hardware. The guys also repaired the trailer, which needed a dozen holes drilled in it and six u-bolts added to it for strength. Of course they did the work right there at the local launch ramp.
On episode 154 of Finnegan's Garage, Mike Finnegan's friends, David Newbern and Matt Knabb venture to Big Spring, Texas, to pick up a neglected 1957 Chevy 150, which the guys had spotted a few months earlier during a road trip from Arizona to Georgia. The car was had been sitting under a shed since the mid-1990s because the owner had used it as a parts car for another restoration project. The tires were flat, the windows were busted out but there wasn't a lot of rust in the body so Newbern fell in love and used a come-a-long strap to drag the carcass up onto an open trailer and then tow it 14 hours home to Georgia. In a future episode of Finnegan's Garage we'll get it running and of course do burnouts in this awesome machine. Thanks for watching!
This is episode 155 of Finnegan's Garage and Mike Finnegan is driving from Georgia to California in his 2004 Showhauler, which is a motorhome built on a Freightliner FL-112 semi truck chassis. The rig is powered by a 450hp Mercedes Benz turbo diesel and backed by an Eaton 10-speed autoshift trans. Of course, lots of work had to be done before hitting the road and this video gives you the highlights of getting the truck, the trailer and the toys ready for an epic cross-country journey to the Colorado River.
In this episode of Finnegan's Garage, Mike Finnegan explains the ins and outs of driving the Toterhome. There was so much footage from the Georgia to California road trip that all the extra stuff from Part 1 is right here. Part 2 is gonna go live on August 1st and in the meantime you can watch me elaborate on what it's really like to drive my 2004 Freightliner FL-112 Showhauler toterhome RV.
This is episode 157 of Finnegan's Garage and contains Part 2 of Mike Finnegan's cross-country trip from Georgia to California. The plan was to haul my 711ci twin-turbo jet boat, Game Over, to the Colorado River to do a bit of racing and boating. However, when I arrived in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, I quickly discovered that Interstate 40 was so rough that it actually broke the axles on my boat trailer. Lucky for me, Jake Jordan has a fab shop called AZ Freeride/AZ Fabrication and helped me put some tig-welded band-aids on my stainless steel air ride boat trailer. It burned a solid day of my vacation but in the end I met some cool, new people and got the rig fixed up enough to make it to the river to meet up with my friends and family.
Episode 158 of Finnegan's Garage sees Mike Finnegan from Roadkill finish his Colorado River vacation. There's lots of action here; drag boat racing, a broken toterhome, and the twin turbo 711ci Hemi-powered jet boat, Game Over, blew its intake manifold apart etc. We even witness a Cummins 12 valve diesel swapped Tarva boat drag race an old school Southwind jet boat. It's big block chevy vs Cummins diesel drag racing action!
It's been far too long since we've done a proper burnout here on Finnegan's Garage and in Episode 159 we "borrow" wifey's whip to launch a pair of personal watercraft at my Mike Finnegan's local lake. The watercraft include a 2021 Yamaha Superjet and a 2022 Yamah Jet Blaster Waverunner. Of course the car wasn't ready for towing duty so we installed a really old trailer hitch that we had stashed in the corner of the garage. Then we hitched up our water rides and hit the highway. Of course we had to make sure clutch in the Elco was good and wore out so trailer burnouts on a backroad ensued.
In Episode 160 of Finnegan's Garage, the owner and driver of the world's fastest street car, Tom Bailey, dropped by the garage to school Mike Finnegan on what to do if the Cadillac ever catches on fire. He also showed off an awesome Fireade system, which will extinguish the blaze without making a mess of the Caddy. Once we got that out of the way, I took Tom for a ride in Game Over, which at the time we shot this video, was not broken! lol.
This is episode 161 of Finnegan's Garage and it's important because it contains footage of very first burnouts ever done by Mike Finnegan in his 1967 Chevy C10. The truck has a Chevrolet Performance supercharged LT4 crate engine that's backed by a 6xdgearbox.com billet six-speed sequential transmission and a custom independent rear suspension. This truck rides on Forgeline wheels and Mickey Thompson tires and has a custom Mittler Bros/MRC Fabrication Hydroshox adjustable suspension. In this video we install two Holley 12.3 touchscreens into the C10 dash, and we fit the cab with new seating and door panels from TMI Products. Finally, we meet up with our friend Scott Blair, who installed our new tires and told us all about his new training facility for gearheads who want to start their own mobile tire installation business. Then we do a fat burnout in the ol Chevy!
In Episode 162 of Finnegan's Garage, Mike Finnegan visits his other shop to dig out Square Force 1, his 1989 GMC Sierra 3+3 crew cab dually ramp truck in preparation for a road trip. The are headed to a killer event called Holley LS Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky! The goal is to load Finnegan's 1967 Chevrolet C10 truck and a bunch of FSM shirts, hats and stickers for the event. Along the way, he and David Newbern give a tour of the broken project vehicles inside the shop including Blasphemi, Finnegan's 1955 Chevy Bel Air, and an ARGO 6x6 UTV. Hope you enjoy the video.
Episode 163 of Mike Finnegan's show, Finnegan's Garage, is for ladies and every gentleman who enjoys a good time. We decided to mod a 1976 Rogers Bonneville TR jet boat solely to make it shoot the biggest stream of water ever from its jet drive. The problem was that a huge thunderstorm swept across our lake during our adventure. With limited time to test our our new mods, we braved the elements anyway so that we could bring you this video! The mods made our boat slower but looks cooler when we shoot a massive rooster tail of water and we and can always undo our mod if we decide to go racing again. Check it out.
On Episode 164 of Finnegan's Garage, Mike Finnegan and David Newbern drive Finnegan's 1967 Pontiac Firebird to Mo's Speed Shop in Dallas, Georgia, to tune the supercharged Big Block Chevy V8 and see how much power it produces. This is the car that we drug out of a barn next to Paradise Dragway in Georgia two years ago. Jeff Harris ran the dyno and we did very little tuning to the Quick Fuel carburetors to make the engine produce 735hp and 845 lb-ft of torque at the tires. We were stoked because this engine is a mystery to us; it was donated to Newbern by Hunter White and after eating a camshaft in the Attempted Murder Nova at Drag Week 2019, we paid a local shop to rebuild it. Unfortunately, the shop gave us zero info about the rebuild. We don't know the cam specs, compression ratio, ring gaps etc. We don't even know how many cubic inches the engine is or how hard we can push it. However, other than a few massive oil leaks, it did survive a road trip to Texas for a Roadkill shoot in 2020 so we are fairly certain it will live through Rocky Mountain Raceweek 2.0, if we don't lean on it too hard. The mystery motor is topped off with a used Blower Shop 8-71 supercharger and backed by a Yank Billet torque converter and a Gearstar Turbo 400 transmission with a Gear Vendors Underdrive/Overdrive unit. The old Dana 60 rear end has a rebuild kit and 3.73 gears from Quick Performance and the old Centerline Convo Pro wheels are wrapped in 31x16.50 Mickey Thompson ET Drag R bias ply DOT-legal racing slicks. We have no clue how fast the car is but if it lived through a few dyno pulls then it's got a chance of surviving a 5 day racing road trip. Wish us luck!
Episode 165 of Mike Finnegan's Garage gives an exclusive look at the newly renovated 1957 Chevy Bel Air that David Newbern bought during our cross-country road trip. We drove from Georgia to California and back in Lincoln Hawk, a Chevy Kodiak enclosed ramp truck. On the way back home we stopped in Big Spring, Texas, and Dave bought this rough but really cool '57 Chevy, which had just the right amount of patina on the body. In this episode you'll watch as he restores the chassis of his other '57 Chevy using parts from Speedway Motors and then slides fresh chassis under his newly acquired body. Powering the car is the original 454ci V8 Big-Block Chevy engine take from the OG Roadkill ramp truck and that is backed by a Silversport Transmissions six-speed Tremec manual gearbox kit. The Chevy is also wearing one of Blasphemi's original sets of Coker chrome steelie wheels! Check it out!
In Episode 166 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we are responding to all of your most important questions. Stuff like: Where is Blasphemi? Are we going to move out of the garage and get a bigger shop? Do we like Street Outlaws No Prep Kings better than NHRA drag racing and what happened to Newbern's face? It's all in this video plus our automotive history and the current status of the Finnegan's Garage fleet of sh%tboxes. Thanks for watching!
In Episode 167 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we replace the antique rear axle and shocks in my 1968 Dodge Charger stock car and then do rev-limiter burnous! If you haven't seen this car before, it's got a unique history. This is a legit barn find, a car built in 1969 to go ARCA stock car racing, but it never turned a lap; it sat for 50 years in a barn before landing on eBay. I bought the dilapidated Charger and then Tony Angelo and I got it running and road tripped it from Georgia to Indiana to visit the original builder. He wasn't too happy to see the car again, which killed the vibe of the project for me to the point where I was ready to sell it in 2020. Then I got the the ridiculous idea to rip out the weak 383ci big block Mopar from under the hood. My plan was to finally experience a proper Toyota 2JZ inline 6 cylinder engine by swapping it into The Death Metal Charger. The hate from the Mopar crowd was excellent but despite all of that, I fell in love with the car again. It was lighter, faster and almost twice as powerful as before and it made 2J noises, which is rad! The old Timken rear axle wasn't happy about all the burnouts I'd been doing and the old Monroe shocks were trashed so this video is all about curing those problems. Newbern and I installed a 9-inch axle from Quick Performance.
Episode 167 of Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about my trip to Tucson Dragway for the Duct Tape Drags, which is a new event put on by the track and David Freiburger. It's a great event for anyone who wants to have a good time without spending a ton of cash to go drag racing, camping, and doing burnouts. So much good stuff happened while I was there; I met fans, watched the slowest and most competitive drag racing ever, drank some beer and even got to sign off on a new driver's official NHRA Sportsman driver license application. Then I jumped on a plan and headed to Washington to film a new episode of Roadkill.
In episode 168 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, David Newbern and Brandon Wise road trip from Georgia to Biloxi, Mississippi, for Cruisin the Coast, a massive week-long car show. Before they can hit the road, though, the guys have to finish Newbern's 1957 Chevy 210 and Wise' Chevy square body crew cab dually. The dually rides on a GSI air ride suspension and is powered by a Cummins 12-valve diesel engine. The '57 rides on a factory frame with Speedways Motors bits, QA1 dampers and a Quick Performance 9-inch. It's powered by the Roadkill Ramp Truck's 454 BBC and backed by a Tremec six-speed manual gearbox with a Silversport Transmission installation kit.
We began filming Episode 169 of Mike Finnegan's Garage about six months ago when I was sent a message about a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette that was hiding just a few miles from my house. The seller told me he was the original owner and had put the car up on blocks 40 years ago, waiting for the right time to restore or sell it. It appears that time has come. Newbern and I drove my dog to the Vet for a checkup and then we continued driving my '67 Chevy C10 until we found the owner of this derelict 427/4 speed Corvette convertible. He told me it was a '67 although I think I referred to it as a '66 and a '67 in the video. Anyway, after trying to buy the car from him for several months I finally gave up and bought a different car. My friends from Hot Rod Ranch found me an unfinished '66 Corvette Coupe project car near Livermore, California. The dudes from Alloy/Driven Garage went and looked it over and picked it up for me. This car is more my style; it's already modified and unfinished, which means I can make it my own. Someday I'd like to turn it into a fast street/strip machine. For now, I just have to make a plan to get it home.
It's rare when a product works as advertised AND bolts-on like it's supposed to. This is not a sponsored video we are just passing along the good vibes about an excellent product from Place Diverter and Controls. In episode 170 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we swapped nozzles on the back of our Berkeley jet drive, which powers our 1976 Rogers Bonneville TR and GAINED three mph of top end speed. Our butt-dyno also says this mod also increased the boat's holeshot. We also adjusted the angle of the nozzle and gained another two mph of top end speed. The nozzle swap took less than twenty minutes to complete and required no drilling, no wiring, and no grinding. It was just that easy!
The fabled Roadkill ramp truck is coming back home after a two year stint inside of Concept Collision in Acworth, Georgia. This 1973 Chevrolet C30 3+3 Crew Cab dually was built decades ago with an custom extended chassis and a wedge-style bed for hauling a car to the race track. It was originally powered with a 454ci Big-Block V8 engine and TH400 three-speed automatic transmission. Thanks to the dudes at PowerDriven Diesel, it now sports a Cummins 6BT turbo diesel and 47RH Automatic Overdrive four-speed transmission. The diesel isn't stock either; before transplanting it from a 1997 Dodge 3500 dually, we upgraded it with ARP head studs, a new head gasket, larger fuel injectors, and better valve springs. We also performed the "killer dowel pin" mod and turned up the fuel injection pump. Topping all of these mods off are a pair of Garrrett compound turbos and a stock Dodge intercooler. The combination of parts is good for 65 psi of boost and over 1,000 lb-ft of torque. Concept Collision repaired the body of the ramp truck, replacing all four doors, the front fenders, and the hood using parts from Brother's Trucks. David Newbern repaired some rust in the floor and one rocker panel before smoothing the passenger side of the firewall using a filler panel from Slosh Tubs. This video is all about putting the truck back together and then getting the truck back inside of my garage. Hope you enjoy it!
Behind the scenes of the newest episode of Roadkill, which you can watch on Motortrend Plus. This time we are entering Rocky Mountain Raceweek 2.0, which we attempted to finish in my 1967 Pontiac Firebird. As usual, we were running late and the Rubber Duck was completely untested. In fact, we were replacing most of the wiring in the car the night we left for Oklahoma because the car needed working headlights and turn signals to pass the RMRW tech inspection. The event is for street cars and the goal is to drive to four different tracks over the course of five days. We did it and almost made it into 8 second territory in the 1/4 mile. It was an epic week and this video is just the tip of the iceberg. The footage that the Roadkill crew captured is even better than what we shot with our Youtuber Start-Up Kit aka, our Iphones! lol
In this episode of Mike Finnegan's Garage we pause every project build we have to fabricate a custom welding table. This video will explain the materials and techniques we used to build a DIY table that will make you a better welder or at the very least you'll have a table that makes you look like you know what you're doing. Whether you're MIG or TIG welding, this table will make it easier to access those hard-to-reach areas of your project and you can build the table in just one day! We used a Miller Welders Multimatic 220 AC/DC multiprocess welder and a Miller Xtreme 375 plasma cutter to complete this project.
In Episode 173 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we are loading up a bunch of sheetmetal parts from the front of my 1973 Chevy C30 ramp truck and taking them to the powdercoater. First, though, we have to do a little rust repair on the Roadkill ramp truck. After dropping all of the parts off for a coat of Satin Black powdercoat, we head back to the garage to mock up a pair of Nelson Racing Engines patented 88mm Mirror Image turbochargers
We take the Rubber Duck, my 1967 Pontiac Firebird back to where we found it, Paradise Dragstrip in Calhoun, Georgia. This was the 1/8 mile track next to the barn where the track's owner, Otto, last raced this car and where the car was hidden for nearly 16 years. This is the second time I'd driven the car at Paradise. The first time was right after we got the car out of the barn and running again. The wounded Big Block Chevy only pushed the car to a low 8 second pass. This time, we managed a 6.07 at 116 mph and I couldn't be happier. Check it out.
This is Episode 175 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and it's all about prepping for, and going to the Performance Racking Industry Show AKA PRI. Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, it's about 10 hours from my spot in Georgia. It's not a bad drive but before we could hit the road we had to rescue my '67 Chevy C10 and bring it home from Paradise Dragstrip, where we left it a week ago when it broke down. We also have to replace the winch on my trailer, because the control it malfunctioned and Harbor Freight no longer sells the replacement parts to fix it. You can buy them on Amazon.com but we didn't have time to wait for a new control box so we just bought a new winch. We'll fix and install the old winch on something else later on. We also needed to install new control arms onto the Cadillac to widen the track width so that the car looked better. That mod snowballed into extending the tie rod end adjusters, too. Anyway, we hit the road later that we wanted but we still made it to the show on tim
It's no surprise that I film a bunch of the clips on this channel with my phone but most of them never see the light of day because I forget what I've got saved. So, I spent a few days digging up stuff that I laughed at while I filmed but never put here on YouTube for one reason or another. So here is a collection of funny stuff from the last four years of filming Roadkill, Faster With Finnegan and Finnegan's Garage. I hope you enjoy Episode 176 and get ready because we've got big stuff planned for 2022 as well!
In this episode of Mike Finnegan's Garage we have a rare treat; Michael Cotten, David Newbern and Mike Finnegan are all in the same place at the same time because we just wrapped up filming Faster With Finnegan for 2021. So, we decided to sit down and BS about project cars and life. Hope you enjoy the conversation!
In episode 178 of Finnegan’s Garage, we bring the Death Metal Charger back from the dead. This Toyota 2JZ turbo-swapped ’68 Charger has been dead in the driveway for months with a smashed radiator and water in the oil. Today we swap-in a radiator made for a Volkswagen Scirocco, repair the smashed front end, give it a bath and an oil change, and hit the streets once again with turbo noises!
The crew travels to Iron Mountain Park, an amazing 4,400 acre off-road recreation facility in beautiful Dahlonega, Georgia. The goal is to put Jay Meagher behind the wheel of the Death Metal Charger, our 1968 Dodge Charger.
There's a lot going on in Episode 180 of Mike Finnegan's Garage. We are moving into a larger warehouse and that means we can finally have all of our junk under one roof. Before we moved out of the old spot, though, we had to have a little fun with our neighbors. We also had to get Square Force 1, our 1989 GMC Sierra crew cab ramp truck, fixed up so it could safely haul all of the cars to the new spot. Mike Howe of How's it Doin Garage ( @howes_it_doin_garage) took the challenge of straightening the c-channel frame, adding new crossmembers, and then gusseting the chassis so it would remain straight for years on. He killed it! Now we can cruise SF1 everywhere and no matter what's inside the box she looks nice and straight instead of lookin like the bridge from Tempe of Doom. Once that was handled we moved 6 cars, two boats, one ARGO and yes, the same SCAT Hovercraft that Cletus game me last summer, to the new shop. Hope you like the video. Thanks for watching and supporting our shenani
In this episode of Mike Finnegan’s Garage, we embark upon our most ambitious build yet, a five-seater 21-ft long Eliminator Daytona jet boat. This one will get twin-turbo LSX power and in this video we are gonna show you two tools we bought for less than 100 bucks that made installing the engine much easier!
In Episode 182 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we escape the frosty winter conditions of Georgia and head to sunny Florida for Tom Bailey's drag and drive event, Sick Week. This event is a lot like Hot Rod Drag Week, which means it's gonna be fun! I'm going to be filming an episode of Roadkill and Newbern is going on vacation with a camera in-hand to cover the event. This video was shot on Sunday, which is Registration day and Test n Tune Day. Racing begins on Monday. The eclectic mix of fast cars is the best I've ever seen and we are gonna try to bring you a new video every day of the event. Have fun and thanks for watching!
In Episode 183 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we are once again out of the garage and on the road! While Finnegan' is filming Roadkill, Newbern is following along the same route in his 1957 Chevy and capturing all the carnage that happens to street/strip cars on a drag and drive racing event.
In Episode 184 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we continue our ridiculous road trip throughout Florida and Georgia. There were so many cool hot rods, muscle cars, imports, trucks and sport compacts on the road today
In Episode 185 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we journeyed from Florida to Georgia for more street/strip car shenanigans. So many epic passes and broken parts today! Two more days to go!In Episode 185 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we journeyed from Florida to Georgia for more street/strip car shenanigans. So many epic passes and broken parts today! Two more days to go!
In Episode 186 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we motor down the road to South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Georgia to experience our fourth day in a row of an epic racing road trip called Sick Week 2022. Lots of stuff went on; we replace a smoked clutch in the Roadkill 1986 Pontiac Firebird, which we are affectionally calling Beef Water, because of the paint job. We also interview Keith Turk about his involvement in running Sick Week and Drag Week events, and Eric Yost shows us how a real trailer is put together to make surviving an event like this. The trailer has a kegerator and a gas-powered margarita blender!
This is Episode 186 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and it concludes our 5 day road trip as part of Sick Week 2022, an awesome drag racing road trip. This vid was shot at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida and Cletus McFarland's Freedom Factory, which is located right next door. Some very heavy hitters were in attendance including Cletus, Kevin Smith, Shawn Fink, Rick Prospero, Nicky Bobby, Scott Klepinger, Scott Brown, Doc McEntire, Tom Bailey, and a group of fun-loving Swedish dudes who ultimately ran quicker than everyone else in attendance and took the title as fastest car of the event. Me? I was busy swapping clutches in a 14 second 1986 Pontiac Firebird and filming an episode of Roadkill with David Freiburger so a lot of this video features David Newbern, Matt Knabb and Brandon Wise behind the camera. It came out awesome!
In Episode 187 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we continue on with the build of our spankin-new 21ft long Eliminator Daytona jet boat. I've never driven one of these before but know several guys and gals who are hauling the meatloaf behind the wheel of the second shortest Daytona in the Eliminator lineup. This time we are adding accessories to the 427ci Texas Speed LSX, including some mirror image turbochargers from Nelson Racing Engines
This is Episode 188 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and you're gonna love the new project car err truck that just arrived
Episode 189 of Mike Finnegan's Garage will help everyone who's building their own turbo kit at home, especially if they are trying to fit twin whirlybirds inside of a small engine compartment. In this video, we show you how to pie-cut straight aluminum tubing to create the tightest 90-degree bend possible. We'll also show you the tools we used to make it happen. Also, here's an update on the 21ft Eliminator Daytona jet boat build and some new technology for you jet boat guys! This one is heavy on the tech and also features the one and only Mike Cotten behind the ol Youtube Starter Kit aka his smart phone! lol
Episode 190 of Mike Finnegan's Garage is a big one. We've got a road trip, a snowstorm, a broken Cummins-swapped and airbagged crew cab dually, a 53ft long car trailer hauling several Tri-Five Chevy's and it all happens in the span of three days! You're gonna watch this til the end!!!!
We finally address the elephant in the room; the unsafe handling of our 1968 Dodge Charger. We call it Death Metal cause everything about this car is sketchy, and while exciting, it's not always fun to drive because the car constantly wants to crash. Our plan is to replace all of the front suspension, the steering and the brakes in an effort to make the car fun and safe but of course, things don't always go as planned. What began was a relatively simple bolt-on front k-member and coilover/disc brake conversion from QA1, turned into a much larger project, which is why we had to call in reinforcements!
Episode 192 of Mike Finnegan's Garage is so damn good! The Death Metal 1968 Dodge Charger has been keeping it sketchy since the 1970s and now it's mostly fixed! Thanks to Kevin Smith and some slick parts from QA1 and Wilwood, this car handles, stops and steers better than ever! By the end of this video we are doing burnouts and shaving 40ft off of our 60 mph to 0 mph stopping distance. So much win!
In Episode 193 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we take a good, hard look at the current condition of Blasphemi, my Hemi-powered 1955 Chevy Bel Air and make a plan to bring it back to life, better than ever. But before we can move forward with the fixes, we first must remember where we came from so here's the full story on how the car came to be and why I need to revamp the car I've owned the longest. Thanks for watching!
In Episode 195 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, I show you how to mod your welding cart to keep those must-have tools from falling on the floor. Thanks to Miller Welders for providing me with a new tool that will make my wife happy; a Miller Welders fume extractor! This baby inhales the smoke from cutting, welding and grinding in my basement garage so that my wife doesn't have to smell it anymore. She doesn't know it, but she just go an early mother's day present!
In Episode 196 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we visit Harrell Engine and Dyno and Customs By Bigun in Mooresville, North Carolina. At HED, we check out the broken Hemi that powered Blasphemi, my 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, to the A/GAS Class win at Hot Rod Drag Week 2019. We also get a good look at the replacement parts Pete Harrell is going to use to upgrade the powerplant.
In Episode 197 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, I jump back into the 21ft Eliminator Daytona twin turbo jet boat project. There's lots of content about this one because my family vacation is coming up quick and my wife wants to drive the five seater hot rod instead of Game Over, the two seater hot rod jet boat. Who can blame her? In this video we are going to build a six-foot long aluminum fuel cell for the boat and since Andy Weyenberg from Miller Welders was in town, i seized the opportunity to have him set up my new Dynasty 400DX welder and compare it two my Multimatic 220 AC/DC. Andy hosts Miller Welders Real Garage on YouTube and he gave us tons of useful tips, which you can use for setting up and using the machines in your garage. Best of all, Andy stuck around long enough to get us a great headstart on the fuel cell.
In Episode 198 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we make a big push to finally get my wife's 21ft Eliminator Daytona jet boat read to rip the lake. We've got less than a week to make it run and then water test this rocket before I leave on a cross country roadtrip family vacation. This video will show you the Holley Dominator Electronic Fuel Injection system, Earle's Speedflex fittings and hoses, Speedwires relay/switching system, and some trick Motion Raceworks goodies like the stainless steel wastegate mounts. Special thanks to Kelvy Limon for dropping by to wire the entire boat and get the Texas Speed 427 LSX engine fired up for the very first time.
Do me a favor and check out my friend's youtube channels for even more content about this incredible Eliminator Daytona jet boat. Without Kevin Smith and Pete Harrell, Newbern and I wouldn't have gotten wifey's boat done and water-tested in time for our family vacation.
This is the 200th Episode of Mike Finnegan's Garage and its fire! I towed a boat trailer riding on golf cart tires 4,400 miles to go boating for just 5 days. It was worth it just to see my wife finally get to driver HER BOAT! That's right, I really did build this 21 foot long Eliminator Daytona with a twin-turbocharged Texas Speed 427ci LSX engine and Dominator jet drive for her. Sure, she didn't for it but that doesn't mean she didn't want it, right? Want to see more fast boats? Check out the SocalJetBoats Youtube channel.
In Episode 201 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we once again have the honor of hosting automotive legends Pete Harrel and Kevin Smith, in the garage. The guys are here not only to continue tuning my wife's 21ft Eliminator Daytona but also to see if Game Over will once again roar to life after being in pieces for the last 12 months. Do me a favor and go follow both of their channels, Real Good at Doin Stuff and KSR Performance and Fabrication here on YouTube.
Do me a favor and check out my friend Brian Goude's channel, GTV, because he's got a ton of cool content about custom cars and trucks. He also camped out all week to document this new project's transformation from a plain white '86 Toyota mini into a tribal painted '90s throwback custom.
In Episode 203 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we bring back one of our favorite project vehicles, the 1973 Chevy 3+3 Crew Cab ramp truck from Season 2 of Roadkill. This truck has been through a lot and it's spent the last three years being restored. Now it's time to put the final pieces of this puzzle back together so we can start road-tripping this epic tow vehicle again.
In Episode 204 of Mike Finnegan's Garage we hang out at Motor Trend's Roadkill Nights event, which is powered by Dodge. The event is unique because the city of Pontiac, Michigan, allows Roadkill to hold street legal drag racing right on Woodward ave. Newbern and I drove the Roadkill ramp truck there while hauling precious cargo as part of a really cool upcoming episode of Roadkill, which you can see of Motor Trend Plus streaming app. Rather than drive all the way back home to Georgia with an empty ramp truck, we decided to buy a really rusty and slightly butchered pro street 1970 Dodge Charger. The car is a mess but I have a vision and a few used speed parts that will someday go on this car. In the meantime, enjoy the trip and the fun of celebrating Mike Cotten's new car that he bought at RKN as well!
There's something for everyone in Episode 105 of Mike Finnegan's Garage! The legend, Cletus McFarland dropped in to go for a ride in my wife's 21ft Eliminator Daytona jet boat and of course, we had issues. A boat that has ran great all summer long suddenly had an intermittent issue with the crank sensor in the twin-turbo Texas Speed 427 LSX engine. We got that handled and also enlarged our charge tube, which made a massive reduction in the temperature of the air coming from the turbos. This meant the engine made way more power! In this video we show you how to pie-cut tubing and test our new parts while adding six mph to the top speed of the jet boat!
This is Episode 206 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and it's one I've been excited to film for a long time because it's about putting my 1955 Chevy Bel Air back together. Say "Hello" to the new and improved Blasphemi! With a goal of competing at Hot Rod Drag Week 2022 I set out to rebuild this legendary straight axle, stick shift, 8 second street/strip Gasser class car for better looks, more speed and more reliability. In this video we go over the new paintjob, new wheels, and why there's no Hemi under the hood anymore?
n Episode 206 of Mike Finnegan's Garage, myself, David Newbern, and our friend Brandon Wise travelled from Georgia to Tennessee to party with 30 other Youtubers at Cletus McFarland's Bristol 1000 race and Cletus n' Cars burnout competition. Both were held at the Legendary Bristol Motor Speedway, the same high-banked oval track where NASCAR races are held. Taking a page from my wife's playbook, we overpacked for the trip, bringing two ramp trucks, one car and one jet boat for no reason other than to have a good time. This is the story of how I got caught up in the nastiest wreck ever, and rear-ending Kyle Wade's Crown Vic cop car at nearly full speed.
This video and every other video from my trip to Hot Rod Drag Week 2022 was made possible by the good people at Wire Care.
Here's a recap of Test n Tune/Registration Day of Hot Rod Drag Week 2022.
Well, we did a good job of wounding the 535ci Mopar Hemi V8 in my 1955 Chevy Bel Air. However, after attempting to swap David Freiburger's Hemi Gremmie engine into the car and subsequently failing to complete the swap, I started to stare at my engine more and asked myself the question: Can we fix it? The answer is yes, but only if we figure out how bad the damage is and get the parts to fix it ASAP. Since Tony Angelo from the Stay Tuned Youtube channel and I do not quit, we are continuing on. We are lucky to have a video crew who's as nuts as we are and so we will forgo sleep if we need to but we are going to try and make my car run again if we can before the event is over.
In this episode of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we are engine-swapping one of my favorite vehicles, my 1994 Yamaha Superjet. For the last 15 years this thing has been mostly stock and pretty damn reliable. Lately, though, it's been giving me lots of trouble so that was the perfect excuse to hook up with the boys at Ericson Machine and Performance to make some serious upgrades to the drivetrain of this water rocket. We swap out the stock 701 Yamaha engine for a fully built stroker deal from Ericson and we trade the stock jet drive for a ported version with upgraded internals! Top all of that off with a Factory B pipe and dual carbs and with some expert tuning this Yamaha Superjet is a water rocket!
In this episode of Mike Finnegan's Garage, we fix the problem that melted the Hemi on Day 1 of Hot Rod Drag Week 2022. Luckily, sharing info with Pete Harrel from Harrell Engine and Dyno and Robin Lawrence of Holley EFI made us realize that we had a fuel delivery issue and not just a half-empty fuel tank during our first pass at Drag Week, which is what made the engine lose fuel pressure and kill a piston and all of the rings. Not only do we change fuel pumps and fix the problem but we also show you a cheap and useful tool for mounting parts to sheetmetal that we are sure you'll love.
I get back to work on my 1973 Chevrolet Crew Cab Ramp Truck aka the Roadkill Ramp Truck. This is my Cummins 12 Valve diesel-swapped hauler that recently underwent a restoration, which included new paint and new upholstery. We also installed a new audio system, which included a five-channel, 1,100 watt amplifier from Arc Audio. Unfortunately, that amplifier had a bad subwoofer channel so we were never able to really take advantage of the dual 10-inch Subwoofers mounted behind the rear bench seat. Today we fix that issue, give the truck a much-needed bath, and open some fan mail.
It's time to say goodbye to Game Over. We are taking the boat apart to ready is for a cross-country trip home with its new owner. I'm definitely keeping the 711ci twin-turbo Sonny Leonard Racing Engines Hemi engine but the rest of the boat and trailer are leaving. Don't worry, there are some excellent tips and parts used in this video because, of course, nothing ever comes apart easily, even if it's only been together for a couple of years.
I'm so excited about it because not only is my new t-shirt design making me laugh my butt off, but its also live right now at
Mike Finnegan's Garage and we are working on the Rubber Duck Firebird, a barn find 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400 that we found hibernating for 16 years in a Georgia barn behind a dragstrip. This was originally a 400/4speed car that was modified in the early 1990s into a big tire bracket racer with a Big Block Chevy engine instead of the original Pontiac powerplant. Recently, the car appeared in an Episode of the Motor Trend Show, Faster With Finnegan, where we replaced the bent Dana 60 rear axle with a new 9 inch from Quick Performance. We also replaced the leaf springs and custom ladder bar rear suspension with beefier Ladder bars from Applied Racing Technology and also a pair of Mod Series coilovers from QA1. Doing all of that work required cutting out most of the floor behind the front seats of the cars and it there wasn't time to repair that during filming of Faster With Finnegan so I'm doing that by myself in my home garage. This video is all about bending sheet
It's been six years since I've attended a drag boat race and 10 years since I drove a jet boat at a National Jet Boat Association event. Mike Finnegan's Garage is Part 1 of a 3 Part Series about my first weekend back behind the wheel of a real drag boat. Over the next three days I'll drop the complete series of videos on this channel. It's my Thanksgiving holiday gift to you guys; three videos in three days about the highs and lows and the ups and downs about racing my latest purchase, a carbon fiber jet boat. This is a 2016 Ralls Precision Machine Cheyenne jet boat and what makes this thing unique is that Andy Ralls, cnc-machined all of the aluminum hardware on this boat to be as light as possible. He also had E-Ticket Boats in Lake Havasu, Arizona, laminated the hull entirely from carbon fiber. KMG Boats painted the red, black and gray hues, while Marine Performance Design blueprinted the Dominator jet drive. The boat is powered by a naturally aspirated 632ci, 10.5
Mike Finnegan's Garage is Part 2 of a 3 Part Series about my first weekend back behind the wheel of a real drag boat and it did not go well. We had parts fall off the boat, corroded parts that didn't work, and we ended the day with a motor milkshake and broken valve springs. But, we did make a couple of really good passes down the liquid dragstrip at over 131 mph in our naturally aspirated 2016 Ralls Precision Machine Cheyenne jet boat and so I'm still very happy. What makes this boat unique is that Andy Ralls cnc-machined all of the aluminum hardware on this boat to be as light as possible. He also had E-Ticket Boats in Lake Havasu, Arizona, laminate the hull entirely from carbon fiber. KMG Boats painted the red, black and gray hues, while Marine Performance Design blueprinted the Dominator jet drive. The boat is powered by a naturally-aspirated 632ci, 10.5 liter aluminum Big Block Chevy engine that produces 1,300hp without nitrous, or turbos or a supercharger. The engine was origi
Mike Finnegan's Garage is special because it's the grande finale of a 3 Part Series about my first weekend back behind the wheel of a real drag boat. Although fun, it really did not go well. LOL. We overcame adversity in the form of a severe motor milkshake, which was the result of too much water pressure in the cooling system. We also had to replace several broken valve springs in the 632ci Big-Block Chevy. After solving both of those problems we believed my new 2016 Ralls Precision Machine Cheyenne jet boat was ready for race day. As you'll see in this video, boy were we wrong! What makes this boat unique is that Andy Ralls cnc-machined all of the aluminum hardware on this boat to be as light as possible. He also had E-Ticket Boats in Lake Havasu, Arizona, laminate the hull entirely from carbon fiber. KMG Boats painted the red, black and gray hues, while Marine Performance Design blueprinted the Dominator jet drive. The boat is powered by a naturally-aspirated 632ci, 10.5 liter al
I'm so excited about it because not only is my new t-shirt design making me laugh my butt off, but its also live right now at https://www.fsmgarage.com Here's the charity benefiting law enforcement officers mentioned in this video: Team blue line https://www.teamblueline.org and the 3d printed, battery-powered flashlight tool can be found here: 3D Printing On-Demand https://cce3d.com And thanks you all, the new postal box is overflowing with letters and random gifts from you guys and girls! Every day feels like a Christmas when UPS sends me a text letting me know that the mailbox is crammed with stuff for me to open. As usual, everyone who sent me something that I opened during this video will get a cool FSM shirt or hat from me.
It's time to get back to work on my favorite new project and the one you've been asking for an update on...The Caddy! This 1961 Cadillac Coupe De Ville is a high strung, low slung, badass land yacht that is destined for glory both on the street and the dragstrip. The goal is to run 8 second quarter mile. passes while still being completely streetable. I found the car in an airplane hangar and bought it with 46,000 miles on the odometer. It's clean, rust free, and now sports a mandrel bent pro-touring style chassis from MRC Fab. It rolls on Mickey Thompson drag radials and Weld double bead lock wheels. The engine is going to be a twin-turbo big-block Chevy with AC and power steering. In this video, I modify the rollcage, test fit the twin-turbo Sonny Leonard 711ci Hemi engine that I took out of my jet boat, and re-organize my garage. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments section. Thanks for watching!
While I wait for my parts for the '61 Cadillac so that I can continue wrenching on it, I decided to film another unboxing video. This is Episode #124 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and I gotta say that the love I'm feeling every time I visit my local UPS store has been incredible! I've had so much fun opening all of the mail you have sent. From the fruitcakes (please no more!) to the 10mm sockets and other handmade gifts; it's all been so cool. Thanks to everyone who bothered to take the time to send stuff to my box.
We lift the curtain off our entire five day experience at Hot Rod Drag Week 2022. All of the highs (We had a few!) and every low moment we endured is here for you to enjoy. It's Tony Angelo's and my Christmas gift to you; two unfiltered hours of suffering and triumph and the best part is we are just getting started! On December 31st, we'll drop the thrilling conclusion to this epic adventure. You might think you know the story but trust me, you don't!
Part 2 of our epic movie that lifts the curtain off our entire five day experience at Hot Rod Drag Week 2022. This is Tony Angelo and my give to you; 2.5 unfiltered hours of suffering and triumph! You might think you know the story but trust me, you don't!
Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about crossing another one off of my bucket list and don't worry, the Cadillac is not taking a back seat to this one. In fact, a week from now I should have the engine for the Caddy, which means more work, more progress, and more videos. In the meantime, I managed to drag this 1963 Chevrolet Split Window Corvette out of my neighbor's basement, where it's been sitting for years. After the Caddy is running, then it's full steam ahead on turning the Vette into a 6 second street car, using the 711ci Sonny Leonard Hemi as the powerplant. Hope you enjoy this video as much as I had buying and pulling this car home.
I tell stories, answer questions and open a bunch of cool mail from viewers. The Mazdarati was ripped off from the Roadkill crew in Blythe, California. We had just wrapped an episode of Roadkill where Freiburger and I tried hard to make the truck finally run a 10 second pass at the dragstrip. We installed a tunnel ramp, added nitrous and in the end the engine leaked out of every orifice and the transaxle was destroyed. The truck left the track on a trailer during an overnight stay at a motel, someone shoved it off our trailer onto another trailer, and disappeared into the night. The local police Department has a good idea of who stole and and where the engine ended up, but the truck is long gone. We have no casting numbers for the engine so we werent able to recover the engine from the thieves. In this video I talk about what's next and if we are going to replace the crappy, but lovable mini-truck. Thanks for watching!
Making big time progress on my 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille because we finally have the Nelson Racing Engines 540ci twin-turbo big-block Chevrolet engine. We wasted no time in swinging the Dart engine block, Master Motorsports cylinder heads and NRE Alien intake maninold between the fenders of the Mac Daddy Caddy only to find out that fitting this thing under the stock hood is gonna be harder than it looks!
I venture to Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Home Of Holley and Jessie's Garage, a local shop with a sweet chassis dyno. Jessie was kind enough to allow us to strap my 1967 Chevrolet C10 to the dyno to finally finishing tuning the Terminator X EFI system. The end result was unleashing an additional 200 hp from the Chevrolet Performance LT4 supercharged engine and doing epic burnouts in every gear of the six-speed sequential gearbox.
Going drag boat racing on the Colorado River and I've got good news; This is the first of two shorter episodes about the weekend and then I'll also have a longer episode once I get home and have time to finish it. We are legit uploading this video from the racetrack on raceday. lol
Mike Finnegan's Garage picks up where we left off at the drag boat races with a big block chevy that had water in the oil.
It's time to open the mail and you sent some incredible gag gifts, heartfelt letters, and awesome tools and toys for me to play with. I love it! While unboxing a ton of fun stuff, I share brief stories about my life, including that time a dude named after a meat on a stick fired me from the Kibbe and Finnegan show. I also once again dive into the philosophical discussion about the Roadkill Mazdarati, try a bunch of awful Swedish candy and discover a new replacement for fruitcake.
Mike Finnegan's Garage is huge and we are bringing you over two hours of action as we drag Side Chick, my 2016 RPM Cheyenne jet boat to the Colorado River to race against the best of the best. The weekend was almost over before it began as our 632ci Big Block Chevrolet engine had water mixing with the oil. However, we fixed it with some liquid voodoo called JB Weld and the managed to nab Second Place in two different racing classes. Thanks to Wirecare for sponsoring this video and providing two very important tools, which helped us fix the boat:
Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about creating homemade engine mounts to lock the 540ci twin-turbo Big Block Chevy engine into my 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Stick around for the full video and I'll show you all kinds of new tools to make fabricating parts from steel much easier and more efficient.
After a little exhaust system work I drive my car to Caffeine and Octane in Kennesaw, Georgia, to pop the hood and find out how the crowd feels about seeing the legendary Toyota turbo inline 6 between the fenders of the most famous model of Dodge ever produced. I call this 1968 Dodge Charger, a car that was hidden inside of a barn in Indiana for 50 years before it landed on eBay, the Death Metal Charger. Shortly after it was drug out of the barn I bought it and Tony Angelo and I got together in my basement, put a new drivetrain in the car, and drove it from Georgia to Indiana to show the original owner what we had done. He was unimpressed with the Big-Block Chrysler powered machine and so I stopped caring about having his blessing on the project. Death Metal: Phase 2 came quickly. Phase 2 involved removing the 383 V8 and replacing it with a Junkyard Toyota 2JZ GE engine sourced from a junkyard. Jay Meagher from Real Street Performance met me and Tony at Kevin Smith's shop in Gainsvil
Mike Finnegan's Garage will give you all some insight into how I got here. Plus, I open more of your fan mail. If you'd like to send me something and I happen to open it up on one of these videos then I will send you some Finnegan Speed and Marine merch. Don't forget to include your address and shirt size.
Mike Finnegan's Garage takes us back into the basement as I fix several things on my Chevy C10 to get it ready for an upcoming Roadkill episode. First off, during a pretty rowdy burnout session, I destroyed the clutch so that needs replacing. The question is why? We'll answer it with help from Geoff Gerko from Mantic Clutch USA. Mantic clutches are assembled right here in America and my new clutch still has twin discs and ceremetallic material, but this time we went with solid hubs instead of sprung hubs. And also, we are re-using my old flywheel because we didnt have the correct eight-bolt flyhweel for my LT4. Want more information about Mantic Clutch USA? Go here: https://manticclutchusa.com We are also going inspect the inside of the 6xd billet sequential gearbox. Mainly, we are doing this because I wanted to replace Sixth Gear with something that offers a lower cruising speed (numerically lower, but a higher gear ratio) for highway driving. Rick Lamber from RTS/6XD had the gearbo
Mike Finnegan’s Garage we finally Dyno-test my Cummins 12 Valve diesel-swapped Chevy Square Body ramp truck. The guys from Power Driven Diesel are back to upgrade the compound turbo system and swap my stock head for a ported unit. We also installed a better set of injectors and a custom p-pump. We did the work in one day inside of my garage and then drove 20 minutes to Mo’s Speed Shop in Dallas, Georgia to find out how much power the truck makes.
Finnegan's Garage and right now I'm on the road so today's drop is a fun video where I tell stories, open fan mail, and give you inside info on my world. I really hope you enjoy it. If you'd like to win a Finnegan Speed and Marine shirt all you have to do is mail me a letter and if I open it during one of these upcoming episodes then I'll send you something cool. It's just that easy! Thanks for watching!
Mike Finnegan's Garage and I'm giving you what you've been asking for...I'm wrenching on the Caddy. This time I fabricate mounts for the Nelson Racing Engines 88mm "Mirror Image" turbochargers. These patented and polished beauties are going to flank both sides of the 540ci Dart iron Big-Block Chevy engine block and aluminum Mast Motorsports 20 degree cylinder heads. This video will show you all of the tools and techniques I used to craft custom steel mounts for the turbos.
Yeah, i'm opening the mail here but I'm also going really deep into my personal reasons for walking away from the Motor Trend show that had my name on it, Faster With Finnegan. I hope you enjoy the insight into the most significant career decision I've ever had to make as well as the fun of seeing what viewers sent in the mail this week. Thanks for watching!
Episode 243 of Mike Finnegan's Garage was produced while I was out of town filming a new episode of Roadkill for the Motor Trend Plus App. As usual, this unboxing vid is full of good stories and of course, mail from viewers. I hope you dig the video and with any luck, I'll have an actual "wrenching" video for ya next Sunday. Thanks for watching!
This is Episode 244 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and it's all about revealing a new tow rig. Of course I bought another Square Body Chevy and you're not at all surprised by that fact. However, you probably weren't expecting it to be an actual red neck limousine, though! This stretch limo has all the creature comforts and a history that involves shuttling patrons to a local strip club!
This is episode 245 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and since it's droppin on Mother's Day I figured I'd take you all behind-the-scenes of my adventure of trying to buy the right car for my wonderful wife. It was a rollercoaster of emotions as I navigated bidding on this hot hatch I found on bringatrailer.com.
This is episode 246 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and once again you have inundated my UPS box with 10mm sockets, imported baked goods, and other awesome gifts and stories. Thank you all! I have so much making these unboxing videos.
This is episode 247 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and I owe you all an apology. Last weekend while I was off racing I accidentally sent the wrong footage to my editor. He edited an unboxing video that I had already uploaded to the channel. Late at night I watched his edit and it seemed familiar to me so I quickly looked back at the videos I had recently put on the channel. I didnt see the same video and just chalked up the feeling that I had already uploaded the video to the fact that I was in the video and that's why it seemed familiar. I even made a new thumbnail for the video not realizing that I was about to uploaded the same episode for a second time. The really funny thing is that somebody else edited the first version of this video so editor number 2 had no clue he was working on something I had already used. Anyway, I put the video on the channel and went racing and it wasn't until later that day that I ran into a fan who said I had uploaded the same video twice! So, I'm an idiot!
This is Episode 248 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and this time I'm getting my wife's twin-turbo LSX jet boat ready for a family vacation. The cooling system is a mess so I spent a day cutting, crimping and installing new hoses and then Kevin Smith from KSR came over to help water test the boat on my local lake. It went about as well as it always does but we did learn some valuable lessons. Once testing ended I decided to teach Kevin how to ride my old 1994 Yamaha Superjet stand-up personal watercraft. That turned out to be really fun and I think he may now be as addicted to riding the thing as I am. Hope you enjoy the vid! Thanks for watching and I'll see ya soon.
This episode 249 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and we are bringing the heat. My friend and co-pilot Tony Angelo is back and we are actually doing pre-race rep on Blasphemi, rather than just throwing the engine in the car and showing up to race.
This is Episode 250 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and I'm literally typing this as I pack my bag and head to the airport to film a new episode of Roadkill. So, Yes, this is going to be an unboxing video full of amazing letters, memorabilia, and gifts from fans. I am floored at the contents of these packages and as always, everyone who sent me something that was opened in this video received something cool from https://www.fsmgarage.com
Wow, this is Episode 251 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and I can't believe we've come this far! I say "We" because you guys and girls are as much a part of the fun of this channel and those of us who make it are. It's a been a wild ride and it will only get wilder as we continue to tackle some of the crazy projects around the basement shop of my house. Today we are once again working on my 1961 Cadillac Coupe Deville and I'm so stoked at the progress. In this video we are moving the turbos and making new front bars to complete the rollcage.
Mike Finnegan's Garage is here and this time I'm not only working on my 1985 Toyota pickup but I've also partnered with Bling Sauce to give you a shot at meeting up with me in Las Vegas for the SEMA Show? What is the SEMA Show? It's that automotive aftermarket parts manufacturers, retailers and distributors annual trade show. It's massive and full of the latest and greatest gadgets for your vehicle.
Mike Finnegan's Garage and we are back working on my 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona clone. In this video we are going to convert the car from two pedals to three; that's right I intend to run a manual transmission in Dumpster Fire! A week from now the entire Roadkill Crew, including Steve Dulcich, will be in my garage thrashing to put this car together in just five days. Before they arrive, Joe Cole and I will be installing the pedals assembly into the Charger, rebuilding the front brakes, and marrying the 383 Chrysler big block engine out of Death Metal to the GForce Five speed gearbox out of Blasphemi.
Mike Finnegan's Garage we journey to Mooresville, North Carolina to visit Customs by Bigun. Inside the shop we put in more work on my 1955 Chevy Bel Air to get it ready for the street and strip. This time around we pulled the trans to investigate the reason behind my slipping clutch and Bigun and friends cut three inches out of the overall track width of the Quick Performance 9 inch rearend so that the Mickey Thompson ET Drag slicks would no longer hit the 1/4 panels at high speed. With any luck, the car will be back on Harrell Engine's chassis dyno soon and the back to the dragstrip to see if we can get back to running 8 second passes.
Mike Finnegan's Garage and it's a good one because are finally wrapping up the last few details before test driving my 1969 Dodge Charger for the very first time. There's lots of fab work and laughs in this video and some really cool tools that you might want to check out for yourself.
Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about making my wife happy, making you guys happy, and building new tools. First off, I worked with Andy Weyenberg of Real Garage to make a water bed for my plasma cutter table that will eliminate the fumes and mess created whenever I cut metal in my basement. I used a stainless steel kitchen sink that I bought from Amazon and the end result is my wife is stoked that she's not breathing my mess upstairs anymore.
Mike Finnegan's Garage, I get back to work on my 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, which was a beautifully stock luxury car until I decided to cut it up and make it faster. The original x-frame chassis was removed and replaced with a custom, mandrel bent frame from MRC Fab in Kernersville, North Carolina. The car rides on Weld Racing Wheels, Mickey Thompson tires and Viking coilover dampers now. In this video, I cut into the chassis to make room for a massive radiator, aluminum shroud and dual brushless electric fans from Delta PAG. This video also marks the end of the contest for the Miller Welders Millermatic 142 MIG welder.
All about bringing Blasphemi back to life. My 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air has been hibernating all year long while we continue working on it to create a more reliable, fun street/strip car. So far we've narrowed the Quick Performance 9 inch rearend, we've replaced the triple disc Mantic USA clutch, and today we are headed back to the dyno several new bolt-on parts to try. We'll be testing my old stainless steel headers with 2-1/4 stepped to 2-3/8 diameter primary tubes (3.5-inch OD collectors) against my new 2-3/8 stepped to 2-1/2-inch primary tubes headers (4-1/2-inch OD collectors). We'll also try a new, larger diameter throttlebody from Phil Rohr, and we are gonna test the 528ci Pete Harrell-built hemi with and without a Walker Performance Filtration air filter on top of the four-port throttlebody. We make more dyno pulls that ever in the quest for reliably putting 1000WHP down to the chassis dyno and deciding will or won't we be ready for Hot Rod Drag Week 2023.
Joe Cole and I prepped my Chevy truck for a road trip to Cletus McFarland's Bristol 1000 oval track race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The we road tripped the C10 and my Cummins-Swapped '73 Chevy Squarebody to the race. Of course the trip did not go smoothly but the race did. I ended up beating 23 other drivers and finished in 8th Place. Not a bad result for a dude with very little wheel-to-wheel racing experience. Hope you enjoy this video and please tell your friends about it.
Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about giving back to everybody who took the time to mail me something. Whether you wrote me a letter, created some awesome artwork, or simply bought an 11mm socket from Amazon and sent it to my UPS box, I heard you and am responding in-kind. If I open your package in one of my videos then I'm sending you a shirt, hat or stickers from my website, https://www.fsmgarage.com
First off, I need to correct an error I made while filming this video. I spaced and forgot to mention that Jake Sanders and his friends were a huge part of rebuilding the Hemi during drag week 2022. I said Tony Angelo and I rebuilt the Hemi and even though there's a clip of Jake wrenching on the engine, I want to make sure he's he gets the credit for saving our bacon during DW 2022. So, if you're near Brownsburg, Indiana and need a Hemi fixed, Jake's Snake Performance is the spot! Anyway, this is Episode 261 of Mike Finnegan's Garage and this time we venture out of the garage in Georgia and head to Race City USA aka Mooresville, North Carolina. It's the home of Harrell Engine and Dyno, the spot we've spent countless hours trying to tune more power into the 528ci Chrysler Hemi of Blasphemi. After several chassis dyno sessions we decided to take the Hemi apart to assess the condition of the rotating assembly and address two issues that we knew ahead of time that needed fixing. This video
Mike Finnegan's Garage is the next unboxing session and boy was this a fun one. We got wedding invitations, graduation announcements and we talk about the snoring habits of my wife. lol. Hope you enjoy the vid. Thanks for watching!
Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about our long term tow pig, the OG Roadkill ramp truck. This 1973 Chevrolet R30 crew cab dually has all the mods; we've swapped a Cummins 12 valve 6BT diesel in place of the old 454 Big Block V8, we've replaced the old three-speed TH400 automatic trans with a Dodge 47RH four-speed automatic with a lockup converter. We've added rear airbags to the leaf spring suspension, and switched from stock 16 inch wheels to aftermarket 19.5 inch wheels from Michael's Truckworks. The cab has been fully restored inside and out. The only things we've havent really touched on this old school hauler are beneath the ramp bed and it's time to replace a seemingly unsafe trailer hitch by fabricating a beefy one that will be up to the job of towing doubles. That's right, not only are we going to continue hauling cars on the bed but we are also going to drag a 30ft long enclosed trailer behind this truck! In this video we'll show you the tools and techniques we used to seriously
Tried to upload this on Wednesday but ran into some technical difficulties and so here we are with what could possibly be the very first ever Friday upload in the history of this channel. It's an unboxing video where I open up fan mail and everybody who's mail is opened receives Finnegan Speed and Marine swag from me.
We are working the oiling system of my 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. The 528ci Hemi is missing but that doesn't mean that we can't fabricate a custom mount for a used Moroso dry sump oil tank. We decided to hide it behind the passenger side headlight and use the existing radiator mount for the base.
You know the deal. Mail me something cool along with your contact info and shirt size and if I open your package during an unboxing video then I'll return the favor by sending you some Finnegan Speed and Marine merch!
After doing a bit of suspension tuning on my Toyota 2JZ-swapped '68 Charger we road trip it and my '69 Charger to the local Caffeine and Octane car show here in Georgia. We wanted to see what the people thought of the ratty muscle car and so we mounted a camera on the windshield and let it roll for over an hour to capture folks' impressions of the cardboard radiator ducting, ratchet strap battery hold down and rusty body. Boy was that exciting! lol.
Mike Finnegan's Garage is one of our new traditions, opening your mail during the week before our giant Sunday morning wrench session. This is always fun for me as I get to see your creativity at work and good vibes.
Mike Finnegan's Garage is awesome because not only do I have the Hemi back between the frame rails of my Bel Air but for once I have video footage of the Hei being assembled. This is a huge deal because every other time I've had someone else work on this engine it's been because I was out of town filming Roadkill and couldn't be there. This time my buddy Joe was at Harrel Engine and Dyno to witness the assembly and I couldn't be happier about the results and I'm pumped to put the car back on the dyno.
Mike Finnegan's Garage? Why yes it is! So let's celebrate by opening some fan mail, shall we? Thanks for the years of support and inspiration. As always, if I happen to open your package here on a video then I'll send you a shirt, hat or sticker pack
Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about modifying my 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, which is called Blasphemi. This Hemi-powered beast is fast and unreliable and I fully intend on making it even faster and hopefully a bit more reliable
In this video I travelled to Arizona with my friends to enter my jet boat into the world final's of drag boat racing. This is a huge deal for me because I love the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports venue and have made a lot of great memories here but I have not ever won an event at this spot. With all the time, money and work I've been putting into Blasphemi recently, getting to this particular boat race was a challenge and during the first two days of qualifying we struggled hard.
We chopped this footage down to two-plus hours and it is still just barely enough time to convey the rollercoaster of emotions my friends and I experienced during a weekend of racing. It began with the transmission in the ramp truck blowing up. We broke the input shaft and smoked the Third gear clutch while towing our all-steel 30ft trailer with the dragboat inside and a Kawasaki Mule UTV on the back of the Chevy Squarebody ramp truck. When we finally arrived at Wildhorse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, Arizona, things went from bad to worse as everything under the sun fought us as we desperately tried to stay in competition. In the end we had fun and made memories but it wasn't easy!
Although brief, this video is full of good stuff because not only did I pick up the frame but also the front and rear suspension and original IRS rearend for my Vette. Episode 274 of Mike Finnegan's Garage asks the important questions about this project car build, in particular what direction do we take it? Should it be a nostalgia drag car with vintage paint and lettering or a modern Pro Touring build with big power, huge brakes, and wide rubber? We could go vintage road racing vibe or with the right parts this could be a mild resto-mod type deal. I'd love to hear your opinion about the subject so feel free to wax poetic in the comment section about what to do with this collectible hot rod.
We are back to work on my gangster '61 Caddy, the car with the twin-turbo Nelson Racing Engines 540ci Big-Block Chevrolet under the hood and Weld bead Lock wheels wrapped in phat Mickey rubber out back. Until now it was really just a single turbo deal but today we are releasing the twins! Both of the Mirror Image turbskis are mounted in the engine back and the front half to the cage is done. Plus, we I brought Side Chick home with me and in this video we are taking the first step toward's building a more reliable jet boat. The unreliable 632ci Big-Block Chevy is out and the 711ci Sonny Leonard Racing Engines Hemi that was in my old Placecraft Jet Boat, is in! In this video we see if the 5-inch bore space Brodix aluminum block fits in the same spot as the old 4.84-inch bore space Dart aluminum block and if we can re-used the old aluminum motor mounts. I'm super stoked on this episode and hope you guys enjoy it, too!
It's taken 14 months for me to finally have Blasphemi ready to rip down a dragstrip and for the first time ever, I'm actually attending a private test session. Episode 276 of Mike Finnegan's Garage takes you along for the ride as we track-prep my 528ci Hemi-swapped 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air and then head to Alabama International Dragway in Steele, Alabama to see how the car runs. And without fail, we managed to find an entirely new weak point in my car and exploit said weak point in spectacular fashion. We legit littered the starting line with massive pieces of my brand new transmission.
I'm excited about this one because as you know, a week ago, my transmission exploded on the starting line of Alabama International Dragway. Well, I'm happy to report that thanks to GForce Racing Transmissions and Tick Performance, the transmission is fixed and we are ready to test the car again. It wasn't easy to make happen, since I had to leave town to film an episode of Roadkill right after that fateful day when Blasphemi grenaded the gearbox. But thanks to my friends, the car was transported from Alabama to North Carolina where Team Tick performed a miracle using new parts provided by GForce.
This is a big day! Episode 278 continues the whirlwind two weeks of my life that saw me break Blasphemi at the dragstrip in Alabama, rush to have the transmission repaired in North Carolina, display the car at the Performance Racing Industry Show in Indiana, and then road trip the ramp truck to pick up a new enclosed trailer before heading all the way home to Georgia. It was nuts but ended on a high note as we now have a lighter, safer, and more functional car hauler than ever before. Not only was I able to work directly with Aluminum Trailer Company to design and purchase my trailer but I was also able got a factory tour of how it was built, which I've shared here.
Once back at my warehouse, we repacked the new ATC Trailer ROM550 car hauler with tools and Blasphemi and immediately headed east to Alabama to see how my '55 Chevy Bel Air runs. The goal for this track test was to see if we could soften the launch of my car by using a new product called The Bangshift Billy to control the release of the clutch throwout bearing. It took awhile to get it set up correctly but by the end of the day we were seeing the potential of this cool product.
My 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, and I'm custom building my own set of stainless steel headers for the twin-turbo Big Block Chevy. The 540ci monster is going to breathe through 2-1/4 inch primary tubes, which will exit into a 3" billet stainless steel merge collector and then flow into Nelson Racing Engines Mirror Image turbos. This video is full of tricks, tips and tools that will help you build your own headers, too! Want more info on the stuff I used in this video?
I filmed it while I was traveling to film Roadkill. Once we wrapped filming Roadkill in Gardena, California I drove to Torrance, California to the headquarters of Ace Racing Engines. There, I got to look at and fondle parts that I've collected over the past 12 months for an upcoming project car. This episode is about the very first steps in building the engine, namely measuring the oil clearances of each crankshaft main bearing. It's a sweet video that will help you when it's time to build your first engine.
Finnegan's Garage is all about discovery how and why my all-aluminum 632ci Big Block Chevy Nitrous Motor broke during the World Finals of Drag Boat Racing last November. It was a disappointing racing weekend to say the least. We travelled from Georgia to Arizona with high hopes that we could be competitive in two different racing classes. Instead of running with the big dogs we struggled to go as fast as we had in the past when this engine was naturally aspirated. After hours of disassembling the engine, carefully measuring and staring at parts, now we know what happened. Check it out.
You asked me top get crackin on my '61 Cadillac Coupe DeVille and that's what I'm doing in Episode 283 of Finnegan's Garage. After a full week of cutting, grinding, sanding, fitting and welding, the entire driver side exhaust system is finished. From turbo to tailpipe, she is done! Watch this video and I'm going to show you how I did it as well as school you on some cool parts and cools!
Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about the adventure! This time we journey to Dallas, Georgia in search of automotive treasure as we seek out the original location of Southeastern International Dragway. Sadly, by the time we arrived there wasn't much left in the way of treasure, but we still had fun in our fake 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona and that's all the really matters.
Mike Finnegan's Garage and this time we are fixing Blasphemi, moddying my 1961 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, and hopping up my garage. It's a super fun one! First up, we had a leaking head gasket on Blasphemi and rather than ripping the motor apart we did what most humans would do, we went to the auto parts store and bought a can of fix-it sauce. Oddly enough, it worked!
I hope you're sitting down cause this is one long, strange and fun road trip. This episode of Mike Finnegan's Garage is all about a trip my friends I took, which began in Georgia but saw us driving to the coast of South Carolina and then to the mountains of North Carolina and finally, back to Georgia. Along the way I bought a 1970 Datsun 510 two-door, with the goal of driving it from the beach to the mountains so we could go snowboarding one last time before the season ended. The car was mostly great and it made it home intact. My leg? Not so much. lol
Who doesn't like a shot at scoring free stuff and who doesn't like their car wiring to melt? Everybody! That's why I've teamed up with the good people at Wire Care to not only fix the wiring nightmares under the hood of my latest project car, a 1970 Datsun 510, but I'm also gonna give away some cool tools and supplies so that you can do the same to your ride. All you have to do is leave a comment on this video. I'll choose my favorite response from the comment section and that person is gonna win a massive haul of Deutch connectors, tools and swag from Wire Care. Three more people are going to win my signature series Cable Tie kits as well! Just leave a comment in the next 48 hours and I promise I'll read every single one of them until I find my favorite and choose the winners.
Mike Finnegan's Garage is a sad one because I'm sending the Roadkill Ramp Truck, my 1973 Chevrolet Crew Cab Dually, down the road to it's new owner. After 8 years of proud ownership, it's time to say goodbye, fix a few odds and ends, and fondly look back at the good times we've had together. I know this is a sudden departure but I have good reasons to sell the truck and I'm excited about the future. So sit back, relax and take a trip down memory lane with Joe and I as we say, "Goodbye, Old Friend."
Mike Finnegan's Garage is a banger! I'm introducing a new project, exploring a spooky warehouse full of cool equipment while trying not to get killed, and driving cross country in a 26 year old truck. This was all made possible by the good people at Bling Sauce and its Platinum line of automotive detailing products.
First off, I had to take care of the shifter in my 1970 Datsun 510 because every time I reached for Second Gear, the shifter punched the dashboard and I smashed my knuckles. I ended up fixing it with fire! Then, I pulled my 13,000 original mile 1998 GMC Sierra short bed truck into the garage to measure it for new wheels and tires and a better suspension. Finally, I headed to Lithia Springs Ford to test drive two different 2024 Ford F250 Superduty trucks while towing my 28 foot ATC RoM 550 trailer. Not a lot of dealers will let the customer hook up their race trailer to a truck like that just for a test drive but I was determined to find out which was going to work better for my needs; the 7.3L Godzilla gas engine or the 6.7L high-output diesel engine.
We head back to Alabama International Dragway in Steele, Alabama, to track test the Rubber Duck. My 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400 is a legit barn find, a car that my friends and I drug out of a Georgia wood barn after lying dormant for 16 years. Since that day we have been tweaking and refining this Pro Street car in search of turning it into an 8 second street/strip car.
After finding problems with The Rubber Duck at the dragstrip, we headed right to the chassis dyno to figure it out. We left the dyno with more horsepower and a happier car. This video gives a breakdown of the changes and we double check our camshaft valve lash and valve springs at home in my garage. Hope you enjoy it. Next stop, is back to the dragstrip to see if we can finally run an 8 second pass in my 1967 Pontiac Firebird.
The car I've been teasing you about for over a year is finally in my garage and being worked on. In this video we show you portions of my new drag and drive beast, a car that hopefully is fast enough to trip the beams of a 1/4 mile dragstrip in under 7 seconds at over 200 mph. Powering the project is a custom-built 400ci LS engine crafted by Ace Racing Engines in Torrance, California.
I can't believe we are nearing the 300th episode we've dropped since 2016. It's been a wild ride and the pursuit to make our barn-find '67 Pontiac Firebird run an 8 second pass at the dragstrip has been just as wild. In this vid we are back at Alabama Dragway to see if recent upgrades and tuning changes results in quicker ETs. We are on on the right track and the car is improving, even doing a small wheelie in this video!
Hands-down, this is the most fun I've had with cars in a long, long time. We took my 1968 Dodge Charger, aka The Death Metal Charger, to Mooresville Dragway and instead of pointing it straight down the asphalt dragstrip for a few seconds we went round and round a new dirt roadcourse for hours! The 450hp turbocharged Toyota 2JZGE engine and new QA1 front suspension performed flawlessly and aside from a couple of minor fixes to the cooling and air inlet systems, the car just kept going and going like a boss.
My favorite car in the Finnegan's Garage fleet--Blasphemi! This 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air has been with me the longest and its the first long-term project we ever tackled on Roadkill, the Motor Trend show I still film each month with David Freiburger. I'm still pushing towards that magical place where speed and reliability share real estate and in this video we perform three new mods to accomplish that goal. First, we slide a larger pair of Stainless Headers Manufacturing collectors onto the primary tubes of our headers. Next, we replace a small Hilborn injector with a larger one that my buddy Phil Rohr sent me. Finally, we build a new set of header collector extensions aka Bullhorns and then a longer pair of front leaf spring shackles.
Mike Finnegan's Garage sees us heading to Mooresville, North Carolina to visit Pete Harrell and Mike Moore. The goal is to further our diagnosis as to why the valves are hitting the pistons of our really expensive 632ci Big Block Chevy race engine. In Episode 282, after a disastrous weekend of racing, we tore the entire engine down in my home garage only to discover some major issues with parts hitting other parts inside the aluminum V8.
it's all about modifying my OBS GMC truck. I bought this 1998 GMC Sierra W/T in Austin, Texas with just over 12,000 miles on the odometer and the drove it about 1,000 miles back home to Georgia. Now it's time to make it lower, louder and faster in time to show it off at the 2024 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This video is Part 1 of 2 that will detail the installation of a Ridetech coilover conversion. In this video we tackle the front suspension and next week we'll show you how to revamp the rear of the truck.
Modifying my 1998 GMC Sierra W/T. I bought this truck in Texas with just over 12,000 miles on the odometer and then drove it about 1,000 miles back home to Georgia. Now it's time to make it lower, louder and faster in time to show it off at the 2024 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This video is Part 2 of a full Ridetech coilover conversion and will cover the revamp of the rear suspension.
I decided to do something big; I'm finally going to show you the mystery project car that I've been hiding for a very long time.
Update on the no-longer-a-secret small tire project, my 2018 Lexus LC500. Now that it's at RK Racecraft in Cartersville, Georgia, it's time to get to work. The car was blown completely apart until it was nothing but a shell, some tubing, and an engine. During the process of taking the car apart, all of the carbon fiber inner paneling was removed and a lot of the interior rollcage tubing was removed in preparation for a new design.
