Cleetus's "Cheap Car" S10 is DONE! This Made it a LOT Lighter!

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Hey everyone, welcome back to CJ Racecar's YouTube channel and in our quest to give a welder to as many people as possible during our $100,000 dream giveaway or Cadillac Blackwing plus $10,000 cash, which is going on right now. It's live right now, we're giving away another Everlast Thunder 215 MTS in a one random order. If you order between now and Sunday at 11:59 p.m., you may get this welder in your order. We've already given out one of these welders and a plasma cutter, and we're going to keep on going. We really appreciate the support. Go to cjracecars.com. Every $5 gets you one entry into winning the dream build or the Cadillac. And it's the only way we could do it. You guys buying the merch is literally the only way we can do these dream builds. And I really like doing a dream build. So far Steve's car is coming out absolutely awesome. And I can't wait to see what one of you guys picks. You could be next. Let's get to the video. Today we are working on Cletus' Jeep car, doing the cage in it. And today Cletus and George are actually coming here to put the engine and transmission in, which we're not going to show in this video.

[00:00:54]But with him being here, we can fit him in there and make sure that the cage we've already done fits him, which is really important because these trucks are kind of small. And if you watch any of our videos or any Cletus' videos, you know that he is hard to fit in anything.

[00:01:06]So, I want to make sure he fits in it. I want to make sure we put the window in the right place and all that stuff. So, it's a good thing he's coming. Also, we weighed this truck and we weighed Jack Stan's car and we noticed there was a huge difference and Jackan had a major advantage. So, we've gutted this truck and I got to say, we pulled a ton of stuff out and had to cut a little bit of steel in the roof area to clear the cage. So, I definitely after this cage want to reweigh this truck. That way, it's more of an apples to apples comparison because before James' car was completely stripped and this truck still had a bunch of stuff in it. So, I'm really excited to see what the actual weight difference is comparing them with the same cage and the same interior.

[00:01:44]Something we also need to address, and this is for safety. This is not a performance thing that should go against the budget. This is absolutely for safety. You can see there's some massive holes here in a firewall. So, we're going to work on getting these filled before they put the engine and transmission in hopefully because these are budget engines and with a budget engine, it's a good possibility that these things do not last and they blow up and the last thing we want is for fire, oil, anything hot to be coming through that firewall and uh hurting Cletus or just cause him not to be able to see or any of that. This needs to be sealed up pretty good. So Mark is going to get on the laser, draw some of these plates up, and we're going to get them tacked in to keep this firewall sealed up.

[00:02:44]See, I tricked Josh into saying, "Hey, we just got to get these motor mounts off the chassis."

[00:02:51]And uh now Josh looks like he's been cleaning a chimney for about a week without taking a shower.

[00:02:56]>> It's It's pretty bad.

[00:02:58]>> That's pretty bad.

[00:02:59]>> These old S10s, they're old, dude.

[00:03:00]That's probably 40-y old grease down there you're dealing with.

[00:03:03]>> Uh 40. What year is this?

[00:03:07]>> 85.

[00:03:08]>> Oh, >> 84, 82. I might be older than 40. Maybe a little less than 40, but it's at least 34 years old.

[00:03:15]>> I could definitely say it has never been degased.

[00:03:17]>> Yeah, >> for sure. And >> it probably leaked out of every orphice this thing had cuz I cleaned it earlier.

[00:03:25]Like you couldn't even see the bolt holes. Like the bolt holes were just >> This is what they call a factory unmolested truck.

[00:03:31]>> Yeah. Yeah. This is I don't even I don't know how to describe it. I can't even describe it.

[00:03:38]>> Dude, I love these trucks like this. The last one I had, well, the one I still have that we got almost done that nobody's probably ever seen. We actually pressure washed the entire frame and painted the whole frame. Yeah.

[00:03:47]>> And it looks really good.

[00:03:48]>> One day it'll be done, but not anytime soon.

[00:03:51]>> Yeah.

[00:04:20]Heat. Heat.

[00:04:45]Heat. Heat.

[00:05:05]Today's video is sponsored by Brunt Workware. Brunt Workware has supported us since the very beginning of this channel and been a huge part of everything we do here. And they have absolutely amazing products including boots, hats, shirts, pants, all kinds of stuff. Jackets, you name it, they got it. What I love about my Brunt Work boots is they're super comfortable.

[00:05:23]Again, you guys know I don't wear boots all the time, but we wear them every time we go out to the job site when we're going out to show you guys the house. And a ton of the people on a job site are wearing brunt work boots. And why is that? Well, because they're comfortable and for how good of a boot they are, they're very well priced. Josh has been wearing his Brunt Work boots, I think, every day, including when he sleeps for at least a year. And he absolutely loves them. I don't think he'll ever wear anything else. These shoes are heat, oil, and slip resistant.

[00:05:49]comfortable from the minute you put them on. You don't have to wear these boots for a week, two weeks before they're not stiff as a board. These things are comfortable from day one. Plus, they have these shoes. They have composite toe. They have a boot for just about every application you can think of. And Brunt believes in their products so much that if you buy a pair and you don't like them, you can send them back. The reason they do that is probably because they know you're not going to send them back and you're going to love them. I love my Brunts and I think you will, too. So go to bruntworkware.com/cjra10 and get $10 off your first order of over $60. That's cjra10 to save $10 on your order of over $60.

[00:06:27]Thanks Brunt for sponsoring today's video. It can fit or pack like it won't fit.

[00:06:34]>> No, I'm going to I'm going to pull it.

[00:06:36]It's I'm going to pull it in with a ratchet strap rather than trying to trying to uh put some more bend in it.

[00:06:44]I think you're Can you You got to roll it back, right?

[00:06:47]>> Yeah. Yeah. I'm still too tall for that.

[00:06:49]>> She's tight.

[00:06:50]>> Yeah, >> it's real tight. Dang, there's more rust up here.

[00:06:52]>> Yeah, bro.

[00:06:54]>> All right, so I think I know what this is.

[00:06:55]>> Oh, look. We cut this out. We were talking about this. We cut this out. So, we did save them some weight. But look how much extra room. So, before your roof went here, we're going to have to put the hoop way down here. Now, that's a that's a life hack right there.

[00:07:06]>> That's a S10 life hack. That's what I'm doing from now on.

[00:07:09]>> But I think I know what the paper is.

[00:07:11]What?

[00:07:12]>> Go look at the backside so it doesn't leak. papermâché.

[00:07:14]>> I Yeah, I think so. I think they filled it with paper and then like did body work over top the paper.

[00:07:24]>> I'm serious.

[00:07:25]>> I believe you.

[00:07:27]>> Look at the other side.

[00:07:28]>> People did some wild stuff back in the day.

[00:07:29]>> Look at the other side.

[00:07:30]>> Oh, >> wow.

[00:07:37]That's a new one for me. I've never seen nothing like that.

[00:07:41]It's pretty tricky.

[00:07:44]All right.

[00:07:44]>> So, okay.

[00:07:46]>> Yeah. And I'm I'm level to this.

[00:07:48]>> Perfect.

[00:07:50]>> To the window.

[00:07:51]>> Perfect. See, now we can put the the A-pillar here.

[00:07:54]>> Just a tiny kick this way. And you're way over here.

[00:07:57]>> I'd pull all this out. We don't need none of that. We need to get >> I ain't got there yet.

[00:08:02]>> No, you're good. Looks good, though.

[00:08:04]>> If you need to I mean, it should fit right.

[00:08:09]Worst case, you're going to be tight right here, right?

[00:08:13]>> Oh, you can pull it in. And I should be behind I'll be behind that.

[00:08:17]>> Worst case is I'm going to be tight here.

[00:08:19]>> Well, cut that.

[00:08:20]>> So, I may have Yeah, I may have to >> cut it.

[00:08:22]>> I've already I've already seen it as a potential.

[00:08:25]>> So, I'm going to if we have to cut weight out because of safety, and that's really what we're doing. I'm glad this is on camera. This is all for safety.

[00:08:31]Not not this is not intentional weight saving. This is all safety related. So, I'm glad glad people have seen that.

[00:08:38]Well, we may just have to cut that strip out.

[00:08:40]>> Yeah.

[00:08:40]>> So that he fits in there, too.

[00:08:41]>> Yeah.

[00:08:42]>> Okay.

[00:08:42]>> Or we can leave it like a like a mini like a mini uh funny car hoop.

[00:08:47]>> Nah.

[00:09:17]Ty just texted me. He's going to be here in 15 minutes and he has Garrett's engine and transmission for the truck.

[00:09:23]But James text me cuz he knows Tai's on his way over here and Garrett's going to be here tomorrow to put their engine and transmission in and James doesn't want him to see the engine in the 240. So we got to hurry up, get this truck outside.

[00:09:34]We got the engine covered up and hopefully roll it out of the way into the other building before anybody gets here.

[00:10:14]Just like that, James already picked up his car. I don't know where it's at.

[00:10:23]>> Nice.

[00:10:25]Then he's bending up that he's got his mockup tape coer doing on the other side.

[00:10:31]>> I think we cut So we never done this before, but see where the hoop goes in the back?

[00:10:35]>> Yep.

[00:10:35]>> There's like a normally there's like a sheet metal on the inside. It goes like this and you have to lower the hoop way down.

[00:10:39]>> That's how my Ranger is >> I cut all that out. Yeah, I think that's the best way.

[00:10:44]>> And then I think we can go out above the window without having to >> That's how I got mine out above it.

[00:10:48]>> I think that's all that out.

[00:10:50]>> Yeah, >> looks good.

[00:10:53]You guys work on your car.

[00:10:54]>> Some rust hiding back there, huh?

[00:10:55]>> You know what's crazy is I didn't notice it, but see all the paper in there?

[00:10:59]>> What they did is they stuck the paper in the holes.

[00:11:01]>> Oh, they bugged it.

[00:11:05]>> Dirt bags.

[00:11:06]>> That's pretty wild.

[00:11:07]>> Dirt bags.

[00:11:08]>> I've never seen that.

[00:11:09]>> I I've seen that on a Jeep Wrangler frame rail once. Really?

[00:11:13]>> Yeah. This guy's like, "Can you weld these plates in to gusset my frame?" I'm like, "Oh, yeah, no problem." I hit it with a hammer and my It was like all cardboard side of the frame and bonded over. It was crazy. So bad.

[00:11:24]>> Jeez.

[00:11:27]>> That's wild.

[00:11:28]>> Yeah.

[00:11:29]>> It's probably Squirrel's cousin probably sold him the truck.

[00:11:33]>> Did some body work on it real quick.

[00:11:34]>> He's like, "Oh, I'll never go back here."

[00:11:36]>> Yeah.

[00:11:37]>> We're here to see Jackson.

[00:11:42]>> We got to check it out.

[00:11:44]>> It ain't in there. Boy, it's skating hard on us right now. Be a long push, right? Mother freaker.

[00:11:52]Yeah, I don't know. I'll ask the guys.

[00:11:53]Well, actually Taylor's not here today and he's the one who said he picked it up.

[00:11:56]>> Dude, you stay for one minute. You're fooling me right now.

[00:12:04]>> All kinds of room.

[00:12:09]>> Oh, you're good.

[00:12:14]>> Keep her bolted to the floor, buddy.

[00:12:17]>> Yeah, you're good. Yeah, the leg room's a little rough, but >> I would not put anything underneath that seat.

[00:12:23]>> All right, >> we're going to be good.

[00:12:24]>> All right, well, you guys just saw Cletus just sat in the truck, and I'm actually surprised he fit as good as he did because these S10s are tiny.

[00:12:31]Although, we taking out the stock seat and putting a Kirk on the ground probably saved him 6 in. So, that definitely helped with headroom. And he does fit in here good with headroom. Leg room, there's nothing we can do about it. There's just only this much room.

[00:12:43]So, we know now we need to mount the seat directly to the floor. And that's all we can do. So, he's going to fit.

[00:12:51]That's the good news. And they were here putting in an engine today. And um starting to look like a real cheap race car. It's coming together. We have one more bar basically here. The door bars are done. Well, they're fit anyways.

[00:13:02]They're not done. We'll have to basically weld everything up. And then there's not a ton of stuff left to do.

[00:13:08]We're going to do the same winter net like we did on jack stands on this, which we'll have to wait for cuz we send out the pattern to Straoud to get made.

[00:13:17]So, it fits perfect. But other than that, the cage is 99% of the way done.

[00:13:22]We just have to mount the seat, which is the same thing we have left to do to Jack's car. And both these cheap cars will be done. So, that's exciting. I really, really, really want to weigh that. The next video we do on this, we're going to have to weigh it. We needed to weigh it with the cage and all the stuff out of the back here because I think it's going to be a lot closer than it was before. Before we were off about 500 lb. I bet we took 100 lb worth of stuff out of here. Maybe 150 and probably only added, you know, half that back in. So, it's definitely going to be closer than it was. And it's coming along good. You know, I love these S10s and I'm excited to be doing this. I'm glad CE chose an S10 because we built at least 20 of them. He fit in the truck.

[00:14:04]Now, I really want to take him over there and see if he'll fit in the promod that I'm building with Victor because I would love to see him make some passes in the promod. That would be super cool.

[00:14:13]Some eighth mile outlaw promod stuff would be absolutely awesome. And I think Cletus could drive the wheels off that thing. So, let's see if he fits in that.

[00:14:20]>> Cars are a lot smaller, though. So, I'm really worried that you might not fit.

[00:14:24]>> They're a lot The roof's a lot shorter.

[00:14:26]>> What is this?

[00:14:27]>> 69 Camaro.

[00:14:29]>> So, why is it smaller?

[00:14:30]>> Well, it's a carbon body. So, it's chopped, stretched, raked.

[00:14:34]>> It's not really a 69 Camaro.

[00:14:36]>> Yeah, the carbon body I forgot. Makes it >> I think you could probably fit.

[00:14:41]>> Oh, you're good.

[00:14:43]>> Well, the helmet on.

[00:14:44]>> Yeah.

[00:14:46]>> Just putting the pouring over there. You got 3 in probably. How many What you got up there? Three inches.

[00:14:51]>> I'm supposed to ask me looks like six.

[00:14:55]>> I want to be touching with my helmet on now.

[00:14:58]>> Be close.

[00:14:59]>> It'd be close. I wonder if you could you bend your knees a little more.

[00:15:02]>> Yeah, I could probably >> Yeah, >> by a little bit just by doing something like that.

[00:15:06]>> I think you got to make some >> being crunched in these things.

[00:15:09]>> No, you don't want to be against >> when you go 220. It's not that >> promod guy anymore, dude.

[00:15:13]>> No, eighth mile promod. He could do that.

[00:15:15]>> I like it. Eighth mile like Bill Hemi Promod. I can do Bill Hemi quarter mile.

[00:15:22]I've given up on that.

[00:15:24]>> Yeah.

[00:15:24]>> No, you made it to the top and retired on top.

[00:15:27]>> I did. That's That's a good looking.

[00:15:29]>> Retired at the top.

[00:15:30]>> Said I'm the fastest guy in the world and I'm done.

[00:15:33]>> I That's literally what happened.

[00:15:34]>> That is true.

[00:15:36]>> We did what we set out to do.

[00:15:38]>> All right.

[00:15:38]>> Also, if you haven't already, go to cjracars.com.

[00:15:42]Get entered into our $100,000 dream build or Cadillac Blackwing plus $10,000 cash giveaway. It's going on right now.

[00:15:49]We're already into the second week. This thing's going to be over before you know it. So, don't wait. Plus, only two more days left on the second bonus welder.

[00:15:56]We've already given away a welder and a plasma cutter. This is the second welder we're giving away, an Everlast Thunder 215 MTS and one random order from this week's going to get it. You only have two days left. So, go over there. Thanks for the support. And now we have some big news. That's going to do it for today's cheap car video on an update on Fletus' truck. It's just about done here and then they have some more stuff to do with it. But I have some really exciting news. We talked to Cletus today about possibly getting in their cheap car challenge. He's going to think about it.

[00:16:24]So, there's a possibility there. But either way, I found a car. We're going to go look at it. Even if we can't get any cleats because they already started, I totally understand. If we can't, no big deal. It would be fun, but no big deal if we can't. I still want to get a cheap car. I want to build it the best we can and still do the $15,000 budget and see how fast we can go with a $15,000 budget doing a drag and drive style event. So, we're going to go look at this car today and we're going to get it. And that'll probably be the next video you guys see. Hopefully, we get it. Hopefully, the deal works out. And if we do, we'll do a complete detailed list of how much we paid for it, how much all the parts are, the weight as we go, how we build it. That way you guys can really know like maybe some of you guys at home want to build, you know, something like that and see just how far we can go. $15,000. I think we could definitely go eights. I think a little bit of benefit we would have is that we could build something pretty light. We could really gut it out, add some tubing here and there. Nothing crazy. We want to keep the theme here of a cheap car challenge, but I would like to go fast.

[00:17:21]And the weight is super important when trying to go fast when you have a limited budget to make limited horsepower. So, we're going to go take a look at that. Make sure you keep an eye out for that. It'll probably be our next video. I'm really excited. You guys commented and said you wanted to see us do a cheap car challenge, and we're going to try to get in cleats. But if we can't, we're still going to build one and do something very similar and just have a fun time with it because stuff like this, even these guys, Cleat and George, putting the engine in here today, it's just a good time. You have to worry about scratching a firewall.

[00:17:50]$50,000 paint job. Don't get me wrong, I love my nice stuff and that's what I'll always do. But this this kind of stuff is just smiles the entire time you do it. So, I'm going to go take a look at this cheap car. Hopefully, we can get it. Make sure you like, share, and subscribe if you haven't already.