TURNING MY 4X4 TRUCK into a DREAM HOME

In this episode, I'm letting two guys I barely know tear up my home on wheels, rip out the entire interior and try to rebuild it. Well, this really does feel like starting afresh. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? So far on Expedition Wild, I have driven 6,000 miles. That's about 9,500 kilometers over the last three months. Driving from Mexico all the way to the Pacific Northwest here in the US. It's been amazing. I've picked up one passenger so far, a very important passenger, and I've had Odyssey converted once. Now, before I head to Alaska soon, there's a couple more things I need to do. So what exactly is going on? Let's rewind a little bit. Just over a year ago, I bought this truck and turned her into a tiny, tiny home on wheels with the help of my uncle. It was a pretty good setup, honestly, and it served me really well on a long trip around Europe and Turkey. But just last week, after changing my entire roof, I had been forced to remove a large chunk of the storage space inside Odyssey. And with a new puppy now traveling with me, storage space is something I desperately need. So this seemed like a great opportunity to rethink the entire interior once again. And that's what brings us to Bend, Oregon, on a hot summer's day in 2022. Hi! This is Will and Buzz. Someone tells you not to go into business with your friend, don't listen to them. It makes work so much easier. They run the show here at OTB Fabrications in Bend and will be rebuilding Odyssey from scratch. First things first, everything has to go. Oh my god, I can't believe this is actually happening. We're taking it out. Bye, Odyssey! So here's the slightly sad part. Like, I'm a little bit nostalgic because, you know, a year ago, I just got Odyssey for the first time and my uncle and I sat down to kind of create a little home inside her. And it was like the first time that either of us ever did anything like that. And every time I sat inside Odyssey, I, like, had a really nice memory of, you know, my uncle having worked on it and, like, my family back home. And that's why it's a little bit sad to see it all go. But you know what? Like, you just gotta keep growing. You gotta keep trying new things. That's just life, isn't it? So as nostalgic as I might be feeling right now, this is all a good change and it's for the better. And it's gonna be so amazing once it's done. I am so excited! In case you're wondering how my uncle feels about me changing the whole interior again, well, luckily he's the kind of person that doesn't have a bad ego and he'd much rather see me comfortable than have me stick to something by force just because. That's generally a really good life attitude to have. Indiana Jones was there? He was, yeah. I mean, he's autographed it. Yeah, yeah. Last one. And it's done! That literally took 35 minutes. 35 minutes, you realize, yeah. We are now back to square one. This is now, again, a clean slate. So many possibilities. Actually, we're done. Well, this really does feel like I'm starting afresh. It really takes me back to a year ago. I can't believe how far we've come. Well, I guess this is the beginning of something really new and really quite exciting. Like a new chapter. Yeah, completely blank slate. Well, let's start thinking about what we want to build in here. So, generally speaking, before you embark on a massive renovation, you'd want to have a good idea of what the heck you're doing. A plan, you know? This is the first movie, yeah, and then this is the second. This is how we build friends, and then this is us adventuring as friends. Nah, but for real, we took a long time discussing all my needs and use cases and most pressing desires. Came up with something that celebrated my uncle's original build while adding a lot more functionality. So, what are we looking for? Well, what are you looking for? You tell me. I think in terms of just the look and the structure of the wood, I think the maple is kind of cool. All these little squiggly lines. It looks like a heart rate monitor, you know? When you get the little lines. The wood cost about $600 in total, but before we got to building anything, we needed to create a good base. We decided to keep the old floor but cover it with a protective layer. This is the new floor. So cool. I don't think I've ever been this excited about a floor. I didn't even know that it's possible to get really excited about a floor. It's my floor in my home. The new floor. Cool. You seem like completely desensitized to it. It smells really bad. I'm really high right now. Now we just gotta let it sit up. A couple of minutes and then it gets tacky and then you roll it back down. We've got this roller thing and then once it's in, it is not going anywhere. And then all this stuff started flooding in. Mostly it was clever solutions for storage that I had picked up along the way. It's amazing how much you learn in a single year of living in a car. I am just so keen to finally put those lessons into practice. Awesome. Do you want to do it? Do you want to show me how to do it? Pre-drill with this to create the hole. And then with this guy, just drill it in. And that's it. You don't have to like go all the way, right? You can just kind of like slow and steady. Oh my god. Nice. Nice and aligned. Doing well, hey? Yeah, a little more pressure. I did it. So you set the screw in the hole. And then with this guy, line it up on there. Yeah, there you go. Yep. And then just a little bit of a little bit of pressure. Just a little bit. Yes. Let's try that again. Yeah, yeah. Nope. I'm kind of getting it started. Oh, okay, got it. Like trigger on, trigger off, kind of. Oh, I see. So just like a bit more firm with it. Okay, oh cool. This is a great metaphor for my life. Chaos. Before I like start like building anything out, I really want to take a look at the electrical system. Right. And see what's going on there. Yeah. We are rerouting the heater ducting. All right. So that you can have access to goodies. Yes. Under here. And we're going to cut another awesome hole in the structure of your vehicle. Yay, lovely. Which is fantastic. Which I love. Yeah. So imagine this like, you know, through the hole down here. Yeah. Coming all the way out with the capping piece over the top. So I can like heat your whole van out through here. Yay, thank you. You could make like a necklace out of this. Yeah, there you go. Or maybe some like really cool big earrings. I love it. Yeah. Just thinking. You got style. So what do you think is going to be the biggest change to this setup? I just think knowing where everything's at. I know, oh my god. I know. Because this is the thing, we were just like taking stuff out of Odyssey. And I literally found things in there that I hadn't seen in like a year. And that's when we started building. This is always the most exciting, nerve-wracking part of the process. Seeing the very first pieces come together and cover up the blank slate. The nostalgia starts to fizzle out, opening up space for a new adventure. I think one of the coolest things about watching this build come together is just seeing like the raw materials, like big, just big slabs of wood. And then like Will does something magical to them, cuts them up, I don't know, touches them. And suddenly they just turn into like actual pieces of furniture, functional things, you know, that will end up being my house. Which is just incredible. You make something out of, make something so complex out of something so simple. It looks so satisfying, you know? It is. It's kind of crazy to see this because it's like, this is the kind of foundation of everything, you know? This is like the main piece that goes in the center of the interior, which is so exciting to see it. All right, I guess it's my turn to help out a little bit. There's not much I can do, honestly, because I don't really have the skills. But I'll just do whatever I can. And whatever I can meant sanding things down. The kind of job that's actually useful, but where it's very hard to mess anything up. Perfect. Okay, but don't mess up. So that doesn't look like a modern tool. Yeah, this is one of my great-grandpa's. Oh, amazing. Like, you know, we don't like use it that often, but when it comes out, it's a job, eh? Well, in a while, everything is automated. This is a really cool piece of history. Jilk had stayed with a puppy sitter during the day, and then joined me in the evening. It was just so hot in the workshop, and I was worried that he might accidentally swallow a screw or a nail. So I really had to keep an eye on him. Hiya. Yeah. So I tried to, like, book an Airbnb or a hotel, but the cheapest places are like $350 to $400 a night, which is just ridiculous. How does it get to that? How can people survive living in places like Bend full-time when it costs $400 to stay here for a single night? I just don't understand it. So, um, so we're staying here in the workshop for tonight with all the fans and all the extra AC blowing in, so it's a little bit cooler. It actually feels quite nice. And then, yeah, I'm gonna get to work again tomorrow. Good boy. Yeah, you're a nice little fella, aren't you? You got a good strategy going. He's got the better position, but I think he deserves it, so. Right. Good night. Hey, babe. Good boy. Yeah, good boy. And then Will and Buzz came back in the morning, and the mayhem resumed. This is the scene where I lost the sound because of a microphone malfunction. Let me just summarize it by saying that I had this awesome neon sign with Odyssey's name on it, and we decided to make it into a bit of a centerpiece. It kind of stopped working in the middle of everything, and then it worked again, and when we lit it up and when it did work, it was just brilliant. Brilliant. We're keeping a lot of the, like, nods to Odyssey point one in this new build, and among them is, you know, pretty much like the entirety of the passenger side, at least a lot of it, as well as the hinges. We're even keeping the hinges, which is actually quite nice and quite sweet. I'm really happy that we get to recycle them and just have parts of the original build in the new and upgraded Odyssey. That was actually your idea, Will, wasn't it? To keep the old hinges. Saves money and, you know, it ain't broken. Don't fix it. How does that feel? It feels nice. So satisfying. So just, like, so good to see it come together. So one of the challenges with Odyssey is that there's a lot of, like, little weird corners and nooks and crannies, which basically means that the guys have to, like, really, like, cut around them and make sure that everything fits snugly and neatly. So what's the challenge here? We have to cut this hole a little bit bigger out on this side here because it's rubbing against here and not letting us pressure this side back towards the back of the car. This is one of those things where, you know, you've got, like, a little corner, a little edge as you kind of go into the car. So the hazard is just, like, banging your knee up against it every single time you go up the car, which is why Buzz here has decided to just make a nice rounded corner so that we avoid that situation. Yeah, it's actually pretty good. Not too bad. Yeah, no corners, no sharp corners, nothing. Better than a square? Yeah, so much better. Can you see it? It looks like a dude's face. Just the side for a mile? Yeah, yeah, totally. Dude, that's awesome. So art deco? Art deco, happy accidents. Yeah, you're gonna love it. You're gonna love it. Now that we've got this kind of base structure down, this is where it all becomes about storage, storage space. There's a big cupboard coming up here, there's a couple small cupboards coming in the corners, and a lot more. And this is the bit that I'm the most excited about, just having space to store all of my stuff. And, of course, Will's stuff, because he's definitely being taken into consideration for this build. I mean, we could run that all the way down, and that would slim up that whole thing. Which is also good, because, like, thinking about it, like, when I'm out here, maybe, like, I want to put, like, something here for just a second, like a cup or something, you know? Yeah, for sure. So, you know, we're all nice and comfy in there inside, but this is Oregon in summertime, and there's a wildfire going on. Actually, there's a couple, apparently, which, when you come outside, you can actually smell that, you know, burn. And you can see it, too, because we've got a really nice sunset, but it's not nice, because it's just pretty on its own. It's nice. It looks nice, because it's all behind clouds, a layer of smoke, which is really sad. So, yeah, it just really reminds you about the importance of the little things, you know, like putting out your campfire, not flicking your cigarette butts anywhere, just really being careful with fire, because it could lead to serious, natural disasters like this. This is my cupboard. This, to me, looks like a proper cupboard that you would have at home. It's the same size, like half a wardrobe. All I need. So, Buzz tells me that this is called breaking the edge. Basically, very labor-intensive, low-skill kind of intern-style work. Exactly what I need this afternoon, actually. Close, close. Why not? You can go a little higher, like that, and really, like, sand it down, you know? I just thought it was fine, but no. Hey, it was doing the job, kind of, you know? You might have been here for, like, two days, though, I think. A little more pressure, and just do, like, one spot at a time, and then kind of move through evenly. Okay. This part has taken absolute forever, hasn't it? Yeah, it's a long time. Getting ready? Will is leaving us in, like, two hours to go to a music festival. Before Will leaves on his mini-holiday, I'm just getting him to leave me a little autograph somewhere inside Odyssey. You know, like, my dad, when we did the first build, my dad left a little signature of his own, like, at the bottom, and just, whenever I saw it, which was not very often, but, like, every couple of months, whenever I saw it, I just thought, oh, that's so sweet. It's so nice. Just kind of reminded me of that build process that we went through together. So, basically, that's what this is all about. Yay! And then I'll buzz your sign right here. That is amazing. Thank you. That is just such a nice thing. It'll definitely make me smile every time I open that cupboard. I'm not going to say bye to you, because I might see you on Tuesday. Okay. Have a great time. I'll see you while I'm coming with you. Have a great time. Bye! So, this is the stuff that we still have to do, right? Yeah, we've got a little bit more to the list. We thought we were done on the first page, but we have the little, please turn over. Aww! Best of friends. We miss you, Will. All right. And this is the rest of it. Cool. Thought we were finished, but... Not yet. Just one more. Let's face it, this isn't a great living situation for a puppy. So, temporarily to make his life a bit more comfy for now during Oregon's heat wave, and while we work on the build, and while I run an ultra marathon in a week, I decided to have Wilk stay with a trusted trainer during this short period of time. Yeah, it was really hard to make that decision because I don't want to be away from him. And I was so sad that I didn't even film anything when I dropped him off at her place. But it's really just a short period of time and I know he's going to be a lot more comfortable. I miss him so much. We'll see each other again real soon. Next week on the channel, we try and finish up the build, but of course, things go wrong. Lo and behold, a catastrophe. What happened?