COE Ramp Truck EP-7 Halfass Kustoms Needs Our HELP! Making A Floor Shifter From Column Shifter 

Brent and Ester are truly salt of the earth, you can't help but feel for them, Fire is probably the worst thing that could happen to people, short of health issues that are not able to be addressed. They'll get life put back together with or without us, but we can help them tremendously, and I hope we do!

First time i met Brent was at a small show and shine. There were kids lined up to climb into the cab of the General and honk the air horn. That’s the meaning of a true hot rodder. He was enjoying it almost as much as the kids. Brent and Esther are good people,they would never ask for help. Brents stepson set up a gofundme, and many of their friends are pitching in.

Carl, it's great to hear you stand up for Brent and Ester at Halfass Kustoms 👏 because that's how good the car community is ,helping out each other when they're in need and also you're an awesome guy to watch and how you share your skills and ideas 👍

Thank you so much for doing the shoutout towards Halfass Kustoms. You are a true artist, as well as Brent. ❤

My heart sank when I seen Brent's post on Instagram the other day and then watching his video almost made me cry at the end poor guy . I know he will rebuild . I have shared his video and gofundme as well and given him a shout out on my channel as well

🦘🇦🇺 Yeah, a pretty shit way to return home but with Brent's attitude & the support he's been & will get he'll back on top of things soon 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

What the heck, that's awful. Glad everyone's safe and nice to see the community coming together to help!

Hi Karl, it was really great to meet you at MotorEx Saturday morning and have a chat, although it was hard to even bring up the fire as such a terrible thing to happen. Looking forward to the next time you come back, I am keen as to do a metal shaping course then! Enjoy Sydney, Cheers.

Like it, the only possible down side is the bench seat idea. However it doesnt have to be a full bench, you can have a single and a 3/4, you only need an inch between the seats for the shifter to fit through. The long stick does give it an old school look.

Hey Karl , hope your loving my country Australia , wanted to catch you at motorex but unfortunately wasn’t to be , Devasted for Brent and Esther , watch all of you religiously and you all feel like family , they will be back bigger better than ever and I’m sure the car community will play a big part , love everything you all do ,the different styles and techniques between Jordan Brent and yourself is what makes you all unique in your own ways, love to you all and watch out for the drop bears here in Oz

Tks for letting ur subscribers know if they havent herd allready about Halfass Customs, thats what motorheads do lend a helping hand when in need..Tks again

I shook your hand at Motorx and said welcome to Aus .. as we walked by each other, your passion- authenticity and down to earth nature has been very well received in Australia, I have no doubt ! Take care and safe travels, Nathan.

Hey Karl. Thanks for your shoutout and support for Brent @Halfass Kustoms....You are a good friend. How about this: Weld a pivot bracket to the frame to where the cable will reach, and drill a piece of angle for a pivot hole (a lever). The shifter will move this lever. Then a short linkage (bar stock or rod) to the tranny. Now the cab can still tilt.

Such a wonderful gesture Karl - it's great to see the restomodding/fabrication/maker community rallying behind these people! I didn't know their channel existed but I'm a subscriber now 😊

Karl my hats off to you for stepping up and doing the shoutout for Brent and Esther at Halfass community. I know what they are going through, while I didn't have a fire, I was in a terrible auto truck accident and spent 3 1/2 years in physical therapy to get back to work and am partially disabled because of it. There were no go fund me programs at that time so it took years to recover. So I understand what they will have to deal with mentally and financially. I threw in a chunk of cash and hope many others do too. Don't forget to tip the go fund me people as they have expenses to. Without them this could never happen. Plus if it was not for Brent's stepson who set up the go fund me link for Brent and Esther the help would be limited to local friends. But with the go fund me we now have friends from far away places, across borders and over oceans stepping up and helping a friend. God bless all of you who for your thoughts, and financial gifts at a time of need.

Welcome to Australia mate hope you enjoy it

More ramp truck please . Sorry to hear about Brent and Ester of Halfass Kustoms . I know they will come out of it and look forward to it . I really did want to see the finish on the coupe he was working on . Same as i want to see more of this Ramp truck and the longer the better .

You're a good cat for shouting out to Brent and his family. ❤

Move shifter back between the seats and have it arc forward cable will be long enough.

Hey welcome to Australia dude sad news about Brent I'm sure all the followers of you guys will do their best to help him back on his feet, you both are cool stand up blokes and I admire your knowledge and willingness to share it, Cheers and enjoy the rest of your trip.

Thanks for doing that for Brent !

There is an option, making a bracket and a rod to mount on transmission, or to add a second cable and build a coupler. Looking forward to seeing more on the ramp truck.

Thank you for sharing the gofundme link. He and Ester are great folks and we need him back creating and sharing content.

Carl , thank you for posting the Go Fund Me link. I'm sure that many of your subscribers will donate as I have already done. Brent and Ester are good people and helping them is the right thing to do

Please Karl block that cab with something that'll hold while you guys are under there. While serving in the Army I was stationed in Korea and I was working on my equipment. The cab was a COE style cab. I was in between the cab and the frame and the prop rods let go. The cab came down on my head which smashed my head between the cab and the frame. It broke teeth, cut up my face and poked holes in my cheeks. The rest of the cab was on my back and my stomach was on the battery box. I had surgery on my neck to replace discs that were burst and my lower back needs three replaced. It sent shivers down my spine seeing you guys in there like that. Please be careful brother...I don't wanna see you dealing with what I have to deal with on the daily.

I've been watching Brent build or fabricobble (his words, not mine) for 4 years or so. His attitude, drive and motivation and just plain old get your hands dirty way of life is something that is becoming a thing of the past. I look forward to much more builds from him as well as Make It Kustom and Bennetts Customs (also in Austraila by way of Canada). Another good vintage car channel is Cold War Motors from Alberta. I'm very fortunate to have all these quality car channels in my weekly play list. I'm hoping for a speedy shop recovery for Brent and Esther. Very good humans. They deserve the best.

Really feel sad for Brent and Esther! Thanks for your help! Nice job on the shifter and looking forward to more on your projects.

I sent some help previously when I saw his video. I was really moved by his tribute to his old shop. I love his upbeat attitude about rolling with the punches. Unrelated: I aquired a clutch motor down in Tucson. Had a friend pick it up. When I drove down to get it from her, I was amazed at how heavy the thing was.

Car people are the best and I guarantee Brent will get support from them all. Ill see you at Rosehill

A shame with Brent's shop. Shifter looked like it had a massive range of motion so mounting it up higher would've helped but not been hidden. With the tilt I was thinking of using 2 cables anchoring one cable to say the hoop that the cab latch goes too and the other picks up from there via a lever mechanism and goes forward to near the cab pivot and back to the shifter mount so it doesn't pull tight or change position as the cab comes up, but as you say disconnecting it is no big deal, as long as you remember...😝

I have seen long steel cables replaced with hydraulic cables on vw sand rails . It basically is two plungers connected by a tube . Good luck .

Brents fire knocked everybody sideways I love his channel and builds

Thanks for bringing the go fund me page to my attention. Brent lost a lot of things that might never be able to be replaced but every little bit of $$ helps him with a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately bad things do happen to great folks ! Hoping the rebuild is swift so he can get back to educating us soon ! Cheers !

Good ingenuity on the shifter. Thanks for giving a shout out to Brent Been watching him for quite a while, and learned alot from him. You both are down to earth people.

So sad to see their loss! I hope he gets all of the support he deserves! You both are my go to channels! Aloha from Hawaii.

Thanks for sharing this, Karl. Even though I don't have much, I donated 5 dollars to Brent. I also shared this on my Facebook as well. Let's hope he gets back to doing what he loves quickly!

Very nice of you Carl to take the time while you are in Australia to give a shout out for your friend Brent and Ester. I watched your video when he came to help you and he is a really talented and humble man and Ester is a hands on woman to. She is not scared to get out there in the shop with Brent and get dirty to.. I know he will come back bigger and better and Pablo will be riding with him in something.. ;o)

I've owed my garage (retail shop) for over 30 years. Garage fire is my biggest fear.

heads up!!!! keep i ball on that!!! i did this many years ago, I found under heavy braking the dumb thing jumped out of gear and once straight through into reverse not a happy ending, it was to do with the weight of the extended shifter. After replacing the gearbox I built a shift gate arrangement.

I did a donate to the Go Fund Me that is in place for Brent.I am posting out a box of tools for Brent today.I know Brent will be up and running shortly.

Thanks for this, Karl. I've dropped a bit in the GFM, but what an awful thing to happen. Glad you're here in Australia with us, unfortunately won't be able to meet you at the Sydney show but I know you'll have a great time! 😀👍

I always like when things come together and closer to finishing 👍😀

Thanks -- Carl for letting people know about what had happened to Brent ---- Yes --- you can see that this ISN'T going to get him down ---- He's Coming Back -------------- Rodney

My entire life & career is in my shop. If it burned tomorrow I would surely be devastated & DONE. My heart goes out to everyone that has experienced it

Hi Karl, was so awesome to stand and chat with you at motorx last Sunday. Very sad about halfass kustoms. Hopefully you had a chance to film some of the cars at motorx to show your viewers

Thanks Karl for all you do! So scary seeing what happened to Brents shop. ENJOY YOR TIME DOWN UNDER!

Very good work as always we are stronger when we help our community thanks for helping good people at their time of need 👍🏻🇦🇺

Great to see the truck getting some work done on her💚🇬🇧🌱

I think express vans had longer throttle and shifter cables then Silverados. Great shoutout to Halfass, the local firefighter worked hard on that fire, it was a big one for the volunteers.

A rod and bellcrank arrangement would allow you to both tilt and have the cable run straighter which should help with shift feel

Thanks for helping Brent and Ester out. Your plug of the go fund me page will help a lot. Cheers.

Left a nice donation for Brent and Ester. Thank you Carl for letting us know about the fund to help them. PS: thank you for everything Brent, I now have a 6.0LS in my 63 Impala! Oh yes, we love Pablo too!

I really like how that turned out. Another idea - I used to drive an Isuzu cabover and the shifter stub dropped into a pocket with a funnel shaped guide on the frame that was connected to the shift cables when the cab was in the driving position. Maybe it's just adding room for slop - but an idea nonetheless.

Just donated. Thanks Carl for the heads up.

yay

Thank you for the Gofundme link Carl. Paying it forward to Brent and Ester ❤. Now get the ramptruck done 😊

I still say you need to look into a late 70's Freightliner cab tilting system. You can pump the cab up and pump the cab down. I have the pump and cylinder but I live in Portland. You should be able to scrounge the parts up. It would make it much easier to tilt the cab.

So sorry to hear

I always enjoy the way you engineer on the fly from what exists. You had that beautiful bracket built and then discovered that the hump interfered with the action of the shifter. Rather than throwing out the bracket and extending with a new bracket, you shimmed it. Not satisfied with just a stack of washers, you made spacers out of pipe and TIG'd them in to look like a purpose-built, factory bracket. . . .and that's leaving out that you had the vision to modify that shifter for your application in the first place. 29:11

The classic Crown Royal bag as a shifter boot would be cool.

Maybe you could make a linkage shifter part of the way forward to allow you to use the cable with enough slack to allow for cab tipping. Just put a belcrank at the front of the linkage with the same radius to the cable attachment.

I started watching Half Ass because I saw them on your show . Dude is a Cool Cat .

You're awesome! I absolutely love Brent and Ester! When I saw what happened to his shop, I was devastating! I sent $ to the gofundme and I hope it's helpful.

Because of how the shifter arm moves, one of those "opposing brushes" kind of things (I really should look up the name) designed for floor-mount parking brakes levers, or the PTO shifter in a factory-cab farm tractor, might work better. Think two bristle brush devices facing each other while covering the hole, and the lever moves longitudinally through it, parting the bristles as it goes. That sort of thing. Excellent video, thanks for sharing.

One man's junk is another man's treasure! Nicely thought out. And the use of factory parts to assure correct fit and op are very intelligent in my humble opinion. Tits Karl!

Sad to hear about Brent and Esther, great of you to stand by them. hope they will be back on their feet soon. My wifes name is Ester too. Wished I could have met you when you was with Jords, I spent a lot of time in Dunsborough/ Busselton area but now live over seas. I found Jords through your channel and enjoy both immensely.

How about using a couple of plates on the top of the floor with tapered holes for flush fit socket head screws, that way the entire top is re-enforced for mitigating vibration fatigue cracks.

Sad news about Brent that is one of my biggest fears for my shop but I know they will recover from this. On another note so exited to have you here in Australia and cannot wait to meet you. hope I get the chance to shake the hand of a true legend.

Good job Carl. Very nice of you to do this for Ester and Brent.

Man I’m Devo I’m in Aussie land myself but can’t get to the states you’re visiting and man Brent’s stuff hit me hard he’s so awesome been watching for ages I had a massive theft happen to my workshop it’s devastating and to hear he lost everything to a fire and to such a nice guy sucks so much but I’m stoked to see something on the ramp truck I’m building a 68 Bedford cab over into one been my motivation with it keep up the epic work mate :)

Please don't lose video next time my son and I have been waiting for you to work on the ramp truck can't wait to see how you make the ramp part keep up the good work

Was wondering what happened to the COE. Pretty shocked to see the state of Brent's shed when he posted the footage. Guess he'll just keep moving forward; he gives the impression of being that sort of a bloke.

Hope you are loving my country. Im on that little tiny island south of the main one, Tasmania, known as Tassy to us.

I would probably also fab a sealed boot or cover for the shifter body under the cab. Since the shifter was only designed to be mounted inside the protected area of the cab, I doubt if the electronics are sealed to the elements and could be damaged if subjected to moisture (or heat).

Look into the shifter cable for the express vans. Because the trans is further back relative to the firewall, van shifter cables tend to be longer. Might be an easy solution that doesn't requre any vhanges to your fabrication.

You could have gotten more favorable geometry out of the shift throw if you had curled the end of the shift handle like a C.

Love that your talking about this I love you and Brent’s work and only wish the best for him and his family

i didn't even know MotorEx was on!!! dam I would have been there in a hurry , really sorry i missed you

Great design of the shifter. If you don't get a longer cable is there enough room next to your motor to add an extension rod to the transmission shifter arm. Then connect the cable to that extention arm using maybe a kind of bell crank to keep everything aligned? I know years ago they just use rods and bell cranks from the collum to the transmissions to shift it. Your crafty you can do it, i know you can!👍

Enjoyed your show, Brent and Ester are truly blessed to have love and support.

Thanks for the content, another great video. Re: the shifter cable, I really like the way that in just about everything that I have seen you do you put a lot of effort into making the finished project look cool. Even stuff that will rarely be seen is designed to be visually pleasing and well organized as well as functional. For example there is probably no need for the COE cab to tip as far as use and maintenance are concerned anyway. All the work that you put into it is so that it looks cool and shows off your skills as a designer and fabricator. Picture yourself at a car show or even just showing it off to a friend or fan, to flip the cab up you have to get in the cab and open a panel and reach in to disconnect the cable and climb out before you can pull the safety pin and operate the release, etc etc. Sorry It took so long for me to get to my suggestion. I'd like to see a cool linkage with your typical stylish brackets and mountings to extend the shifter function to where the cable can reach and be mounted. I really like your channel and find you to be very talented and likeable person, I don't mean to be critical in any way.

Halfass's motif looks like what is called a Kicking Cuddy here in Northeast England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. In fact there is a public house ( pub - saloon) not far from where I live with that name. So he's the owner of the Kicking Cuddy Kustom.

They are awesome, brother. As are you an yours. Much love

Thank you for measuring a branch. You’re the only one that has said some Thank you for mentioning Brent

Nice going Carl

Hey Karl did you have any luck getting shirts sorted to sell at the Sydney hotrod show? Also watched Brent's video the other day, man that dudes got some talent. Hope shits looking up for him soon.

Glad to see you back on the ramp truck

sorry to here about Halfass Kustoms i know how gut wrenching this is cos it happened to me nice work on the truck build Cheers

Hey Karl, not sure what vehicle your shifter cable came out of but I know that the Express/Savanna vans have longer cables with an extender.

You always ask for a little more , thats being prudent . You've done a great job so far don't settle for almost , do what is necessary to fulfill your inner self . Just my thaught !!! Stuart in Ontario................

Great video. Sad about Brett.🙏🏻 . Love this up date on this project. Can't wait to see more videos soon my friend. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Fab On. Weld On. Keep Making. God Bless.

How about running another cable from the shifter to a bell crank on the frame, and the existing cable and the new cable pivot on the same pin. That way it won't make it work backwards.

What about Cantilever at the transmission with a short patch cable. And I agree with the idea of having a short shifting rod light and out of the way giving room for another seat if need be.

Great fab on the fly job. You, Bad Chad, ad Brent at halfass kustom, are my go to guys to learn the art of fabrication with what you have. Brents turn of fortune shocked me, His down but not out attitude, was what i expected from him. A great guy with a move forward philosophy.

I have a strong feeling that the shifter will get to be a problem when you guys are doing longer trips. That's because you will be passing stuff back and forth between the driver and passenger as well as needing floor space especially between the seats, for all kinds of stuff such as backpacks etcetera. (I speak from experience 😁)

Quality Fabrication at it's best!

The car Scene doing with the car Scene does helping each other I grew up in a garage I know this all too well

Waiting to see it with the Ramp going to be super cool

I absolutely agree that Brent and Esther are two of the most genuine people. Love em like family and they have room and board if they're ever in Arizona. I had a thought about the shifter cable dilemma, maybe a relay bracket that carries a connection relay linkage so it goes SHIFTER, CABLE CAB SIDE TO FRAME, RELAY LINKAGE ON BRACKET, CABLE ON FRAME TO TRANSMISSION. This way, it's an effortless tilt at any given time. Good luck in all you do, your skill and class assure success. God bless.