Balcones Forge member hammers with Jesse James
Mary Jo Emrick
September 6, 2005

On August 15, 2005 I got to start my great adventure to Long beach for a Monster Garage Filming. This all started about a year ago. Randy encouraged me to apply to Monster Garage after watching an all-girl build on Monster Garage. I never heard anything. In April I went to American Welding Society Show in Dallas. Unknown to me Jesse James and Martin Brothers were both there. Jesse is a rep for ESAB. I waited my turn to shake Jesse's hand and put in the good old pitch for myself to be on Monster Garage. He was very personal, he said e-mail me and mention meeting him and he would get me on. I thought oh sure! But he did contact me in July!!! Here I am in Long Beach with a day to myself so off to West Coast Choppers the home of my hero Jesse James and to find Monster Garage!

We spent the day shopping at the Harley Shop and West Coast Choppers and just exploring Long Beach. That evening we meet some of the other builders, Kathy Pearson, Tammi Milford and Wanda Benton. We all went out to dinner at the Elephant Room, the art metal was great! At dinner Wanda seemed to be unhappy with everything. I had a gut feeling this was only the beginning. We all wondered about one more person. That next morning we meet Mandie Gordon. That is our team!

The first day started late for the builders. Mandie and Kathy were part of the design Team so they started early. Tammi was so nervous! We finally got to meet Jesse James! He has my full admiration for his skills with metal, and engines! Kathy, Mandie, and Jesse explained what our build. We are doing a repeat build of the second all female build, a 74 Camaro into a dirt Track Racing Machine! We made a group decision that Mandie would be our leader. So they finally let us get started. We all got to experience the cameras and the distractions of the camera crew. It broke Wanda right away! The tear out went well by the end of the day everything was stripped and most of the cutting was done. We all worked hard even Wanda. Wanda had me holding her hair from time to time which was aggravating but I really didn't want a conflict to keep us from the main goal.

The second day was off to a good start but we knew that there were too many fabricators. The good thing is both Tammi and I had worked on cars; we didn't have any problem with helping Kathy and Mandie. Jesse came and helped us out. He wanted to fabricate the Roll Cage. He was great to work with friendly and easy to talk to. Wanda was still having problems with the camera crew. Mandie and Kathy were busy changing things on the engine and ordering parts. The third day was my hardest day. I built a cage for a fuel cell, better yet I built three. I had never seen one. I had no ideal how the needed to be attached or how close to make the frame. I have worked in machine shops for years and thought maybe a ¼ inch would be good. There aren't a lot of good surface to work on, and my first frame pulled out of square and was too small. In came the Camera's that made me so nervous! I tired to cut it and made it larger but that went bad also. Kathy was very calming just said try it again. She showed me a picture of what is should look like. Wanda came over to help but I didn't appreciate her talking to me like a child. It just seemed like she was trying just to take over. I like to fix my own mistakes. I tried it again it worked but still a little tight to add stress. The camera guys gave me a hard time. How many times is this Mary Jo! Tammi to the rescue we only needed a little more space. She said, "you're a blacksmith lets hammer it". That took care of my frustrations; hammering and it gave us enough room! After the crew saw me swing my 2.4 lbs. hammer I made; they stayed their distance! We were making great progress, but we will still waiting for Wanda to finish welding the roll cage! She attached her welding Certification Cards to her Helmet. So she must be the welder! That evening Wanda came to room crying she felt like everyone hated her. Jesse had called her a priamondona (I agree). He also made her cut the fender wells. She said she was a fabricator and as long as there was welding and fabricating that's all she should do. Day four we were wrapping up all the lose ends and waiting for Wanda to finish the roll cage so we could add fuel. Wanda went off to her interview she was gone for a couple hours. Mandie wanted someone to finish the roll cage. Tammi said she was all ready having trouble with Wanda. I said sure I'll do it this about the build not Wanda! When she got back she was mad! Jesse asked me to help with the seat frame! I got to help Jesse James. He was TIG welding the frame together at his personal work area.

He showed me how he TIG welded then he asked me if I would like to weld. He watched me TIG weld he was impressed. We finished the seat frame. Now the time came to fuel the car and start it! Great it started! Now we have just all the odds and ends. The fifth day! Wanda was still mad at all of us and the crew. Oh well we don't have to like each other to get our job done. We finished up all the lose ends, put screen of the window, pop riveted a sun visor on the car for Kathy. Kathy and Mandie had to go to West Coast Choppers to

use a mill. Things were going well so we decorated Jesse's area for him, we added curtains and dollies, and he seemed to like the curtains. We were ready to call it a finished build. All we had to do is crank the engine. It wouldn't start. That was the first time I saw Kathy panic and get mad. It was no big deal though it was just the battery; with a quick jump off we went to show Jesse how the car would run. We went speeding down Anaheim to a vacant lot behind West Coast Chopper!

It ran great; we got our tools and we were invited to watch Jesse James Figure Eight Racing at Irwindale. We a about a hour and ½ to get ready to go but Tammi wanted to go to West Coast Chopper to do some shopping. Wanda wanted her to take her camera and take some pictures. I had a thought we could do what Jesse would do and we could get even with Wanda. So I suggested to Tammi let take a picture of us flipping Wanda off with her camera that would be so sweet. Mandie showed up she said let do it. Fifteen minutes before we were suppose to meet at Monster Garage to go to the race Wanda called and said she needed to go shopping she didn't have the right belt. I told if she was late we were leaving at four o'clock. We got to Monster Garage no Wanda. We all started to leave five minutes after four; we were all in our cars ready to go here comes Wanda. She was so proud of herself said she a big girl and she was there on time and still got a new belt! We all were leaving; Tammi was in our car until Wanda just strolled over and hopped in, so Tammi got out. On the way to the track Wanda asked for her camera so we handed it to her. She was talking on a phone to a friend and telling her it was just another drama day. She looked at the pictures, and said "what is this!" I told her well it is the way we feel about all the stuff we put up with from her! She was pissed and nothing else was said for the rest of the ride. When we got to Irwindale she went off to another part of the track. We told the staff no way she was driving home with us; she was their problem. When the cameras were all ready there was Wanda. But before she got there we all got to meet Sandra Bullock or would that be Sandra James?