I’m in a race against time. In early April, I have to drive a World War II Jeep from LA to Moab, Utah. The only issue? Right now, all I have is a collection of many hundreds of excellent Jeep parts purchased from eBay; putting those parts together could take a normal person a lifetime. I have less than two months. In order to attempt to achieve this feat, I have flown in my friend and Autopian contributor Laurence Rogers. Here’s how things are going so far.
The year was 2022, and The Autopian was just getting its start. Jason Torchinsky and I had written a ton of articles, discovered and edited talented new writers, and done our very best to welcome the most amazing readership to the site. But I felt The Autopian needed a spark — something different. So I impulse-bought an impossibly broken 1969 Chrysler Valiant Ute all the way in Australia, with the aim of fixing it up to drive it to the Deni Ute Muster — the biggest ute show in the world.
What happened over there in Australia still boggles my mind. For three straight weeks, Laurence and I worked endlessly in his garage (or “shed,” as Australians call it), abandoning the original vehicle in favor of its parts car, which, unlike the vehicle I had flown to Australia to fix, actually had some body structure left to work with. We managed to get the ute through Australia’s rather strict inspection process, and then to the Ute Muster just in the nick of time. It was truly epic.
Can lighting strike twice?
That’s the question I’m hoping to answer by flying my all-star wrenching buddy Laurence out to LA (prices were dirt cheap from Sydney). I need a ton of help getting this Jeep going; I know that, if I can’t get this brand new, eBay-purchased engine running this month, I’m not leaving myself enough time to do everything else. And “everything else” is a lot. Here’s an abbreviated list of things that need to happen in the new few weeks:
- Rebuild transfer case
- Finish rebuilding engine. Install engine with transmission and transfer case
- Replace driveshaft U-joints; install driveshafts
- Rebuild steering box
- Install all brakes — master cylinder, brake lines, slave cylinders, etc.
- Install new steering drag link/tie rods
- Install body tub onto frame
- Install cooling system
- Install fuel system
- Install entire electrical system
- Go through the axles
- Replace steering kingpins and possibly wheel bearings
And on and on. It’s a ton of work, and it’s not a lot of time.
In truth, though, this project is quite a bit harder than Project Cactus, and any other project I’ve ever taken on. Whereas before I was just trying to rig something up, this time around I’m trying to build something new. I’m not just taking parts off, replacing what doesn’t work, and putting it all back together. Instead, I’m sourcing every single part, making sure all of these parts — which come from India, France, the Philippines, the UK, USA, Britain, and on and on — actually fit, and I’m having to rebuild and tune everything so it’s all in excellent shape. This is not a $500 junker build: This is going to be a $50,000+ new Jeep.
And while the timeline, and, frankly, my abilities, are going to constrain this build in certain ways (in other words, this thing isn’t going to be a concours build), I do need to make sure that I take no shortcuts on the brand new ~$8000 engine. I have to make sure that that shiny new motor sends power to a freshly rebuilt transmission and transfer case. I have to make sure my axles are in good order, I have to make sure my brand new frame has a freshly rebuilt steering box attached to it, I have to make sure my brakes are perfect, and on and on.
The vehicle isn’t going to look like a shiny new WWII Jeep — I anticipate it having lots of different-colored parts on it, and the body will likely be in primer-red by the time I (hopefully) start the trip — but it’s going to be a new WWII Jeep nonetheless. It will be a combination of hundreds and hundreds of parts, all carefully assembled by a regular dad in his backyard with the help of some friends.
That brings me to Laurence:
Hi, It’s Laurence!
Two full days in America and it’s been great so far. The weather has been rather warm (~24C), great for getting on the spanners and a good bit cooler than the summer heat when I left home (40C plus).
“We went to the Grand National Roadster Show on the Sunday. Crowds seemed a bit light but there was a great variety of cars and it was pretty amazing to see the ‘Deuce Coupe’ from the Beach Boys album cover after a total restoration. I finally got to see my first Corvair sedan (a couple in Dubbo have a Rampside and a Greenbrier which are super cool) and I’d totally love one if I had the space!
We went to In and Out Burgers, DT tells me the stand we went to is one of the oldest still around. The burgers were pretty damn good; sadly the fries I could not say the same. Fortunately I brought a jar of Chicken Salt as a gift for Dave and his wife. This livened up the fries! David has been trying Chicken Salt on everything these past two days, most have been a success but I won’t forget the look of instant regret when he tried some on a slice of fresh apple!
The Comanche is a damn fine ute, and if circumstances where different in the ’90s I think they would have garnered a following in Australia for sure. More tray space and comfort than a Landcruiser ute and 4×4 which the Falcon and Commodore utes didn’t have (excepting that limited run of XY Falcon utes in the early 70s).
I met Griffin today, cool bloke and went for a run in his sick Corvette to my first proper Mexican restaurant for some awesome tacos. I also saw a squirrel for the first time on David’s fence, this one was a big fella and nearly the size of a cat!
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We’re making some steady progress on the Jeep. The transfer case has been a mission, it’s really one of the most complicated parts of the whole vehicle so it’s taking some time to make sure it is absolutely correct before we mate up the gearbox and then the rest of the driveline.
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Day 3, we got the transfer case mated to the gearbox and sorted out the park brake which is a pretty wild contraption with a drum and a band that attaches to the back of the transfer case. Real 1940s stuff, it took the workshop manuals plus videos on Youtube from India and a couple other locations to work it all out
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We went to the grocery store and picked up some stuff so I could make the fellas some sausage sangas. Just a sausage, onion, bread and sauce, they are really simple and commonly available out the front of Bunnings from a community group for fund-raising or outside the voting booths on election day back home. The secret is to go for the cheapest ingredients, if you get too fancy it’s not the same.
Had some Funyons and Takis Fuego, I enjoyed both. We get some US snacks back home but haven’t had these. There was a servo (gas station) in the Outback that used to randomly stock a bunch of stuff which my wife Bek used to buy when she worked at a mine out that way.
Hey, It’s David Again
So, a couple of days in, and we have a rebuilt transfer case mated to a rebuilt transmission, and the park brake mechanism is all sorted out. I’d like to give a shoutout to YouTuber Redeye_Garage for this instructional video:
I like to mix paper repair manuals with YouTube videos when I fix things, and the above video was really straightforward. Honestly, repairing this transfer case, while a little time-consuming given the level of precision required, wasn’t really that hard. It helped that the gears in the transfer case I bought from an eBay seller up in Washington ended up being in excellent shape after Laurence cleaned them up:
Rebuilding the case basically just involved hammering off/on some bearings/seals, installing thrust washers and snap rings, and basically just making sure all the gears are in the right position and spinning on some bearings.
The most complex part was just checking the endplay of the output shaft.
This process involved placing a dial indicator on the case, placing the plunger on the output shaft, and then wiggling the shaft in and out to see how much it moved. I adjusted that movement (called the endplay) by changing how many thin metal shims were between the green bearing retainer casting you see in the image below and the main housing. A thicker shim-stack means that casting isn’t squeezing the bearing as hard, so there’s more end-play. Fewer shims means the bearing is squeezed harder, so there’s less.
I determined the right number of shims to reach the endplay spec specified in the U.S. Army service manual, I sprayed all the shims with copper gasket spray to prevent leaks between the shims, and boom — I was done.
Well, Laurence and I weren’t completely done with the transfer case. We still had to throw on the rather complicated park brake mechanism:
Laurence found a YouTube video, and the both of us found some photos, and this was enough to put the rear band brake/emergency brake together. It’s quite a cool contraption!
So Laurence’s first few days visiting yielded decent progress (and lots of fun; it’s been cool showing this excellent wrencher the ropes of flatfender Jeeps just like he showed me the ropes of Chrysler Valiant utes in Australia), but we’ve still got a brand new, France-casted motor to dive into. Hopefully it runs!
And that’s just the start. A running motor going through a good transmission and transfer case still requires a good set of axles, and mine seem to need new seals. I filled the front differential with oil, and within a day there was a huge pool under the pumpkin. Then there’s the cooling system, the fuel system, the gauges, the seats, the whole electrical system, the windshield, and on and on.
One step at a time, with the latter word being something I don’t have nearly enough of.
[Ed note: David mentioned the idea of building a brand new WWII Jeep to the team at eBay, and they loved the idea so much they said, “How can we help?” Their financial support and David’s Jeep-obsession are the fuel behind this crazy build. – MH]
Welcome to America, Larry, and I hope that you have as good a time being here as we do reading about your adventures with the Rust God, Travid Dacy.
Similar to Laurence. I just had a trip to the USA (my first since I was 12 in the early 90’s) prices are cheap to the USA from Australia right now because we are kinda afraid that we are going to be immediately deported.
Had a great time and apparently my social media was not checked – thank goodness – only got to travel to Colorado and Utah though and the car scene was mostly disappointing except for a Baja Subaru, Tercel 4wd and ran when parked conversion vans. tailgating at the Broncos game was fun unlike driving the 1-70 in a sleet storm Lost our rental outback in the carpark amongst all the others though. Met some great locals and will be back –and BTW you all have to many franchises to pick from.
Franchises are the things you generally skip if you want quality or regional specialties (in parts of the country that have a lot of options), but certainly something more recognizable to people back home.
I did end up liking Chipotle. But once we got off the heighway we found a few good diners in moab and Grand Junction. the Coffee in Boulder was excellent. It’s a beautiful country and this part of the USA felt a lot like home in Victoria, Australia.
The mountains of western CO are gorgeous and the deserts really surprised me with their beauty as I’m a coastal person and just expected heat, rocks, and sand. I got some pics of sunset over the Mojave desert with an old camera and they did the colors no justice—it was like something rendered on a display in RGB converted to CMYK and printed out.
Chipotle is one of the best of the fast food places. I don’t know how good the quality is, but it certainly seems better than the various McBurgers and doesn’t work like a belly bomb for me. Most of the other fast food places are just unhealthy salt, fat, sugar, chemicals, and poor quality food to varying degrees. Tastes good, but once I stopped eating that stuff for a while, my stomach revolted and I no longer find it appetizing.
I’ve had a fair bit of experience in deserts (and sometimes where they meet the coast like the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia but wasn’t expecting the unfolding landscapes and changing geography as opposed to the mostly barren interior of Australia. Australia definitely needs a mountain range through the guts of it like the Rockies!
We have a lot of Vietnamese food here in Australia and the grilled Chicken Bahn Mi is the healthy goto when travelling – always pays to get off the highways!
I love Vietnamese! The three places I used to go to are all gone now, though, and I need to find another one that doesn’t require getting near Boston. I actually made some decent chicken pho at home, but it takes a while to make and I’m lazy.
My girlfriend is from Boston. I will ask her about that. I recently met her father and he was a lobster fisherman (which seems so very Massachusetts to me.) so I think she was well catered for. Now I need to go get some lunch – this is making me very hungry.
My uncle made good money as a seafood distributor back in the ’80s and also had a seafood restaurant for a few years. He had a couple of blue lobsters, one that was two colors split down the middle, and an orange one (IIRC). He donated them to the Aquarium, but had each of them in the lobster tanks for a day or so. There was also a picture of him with a 100+ pounder. They let it go after the photo. He said they wouldn’t taste good, anyway, which might be why prisoners in the 1800s had a revolt over being fed lobster too often—probably fed big ones.
I’ll have to ask my partners Dad about the blue lobsters! in Australia we have southern rock lobsters. Also known as Crayfish. Quite a delicacy! Infact the biggest line for food I ever saw was in Tokyo where there was a 300meter line for Maine Lobster Rolls. I’ve yet to try one!
The unusual colors are mutations. The blue is the most “common”, I believe, at 1:1-2M with the orange and split colors being a lot more rare (and other colors, like yellow, which I’ve never seen).
Red Lobster is a chain seafood restaurant that I’m not sure has a presence in New England, but I think they’re popular in the Midwest. They used to have a TV ad where a chef walked out of the ocean holding a red lobster, trying to show how fresh their food is, which is comical to anyone who knows that cooked lobsters are red, not live ones (OK, live red do exist, but they’re about 1:10M and I’ve never seen one).
Lobster is messy to eat if you break them up and much to the chagrin of my uncle and people who aren’t from New England who yearn for lobster, I’ve never had it as it’s just a big (expensive) bug to me, though I love legless shellfish, especially scallops. I’d eat them nearly every day if I could afford it. Clam chowder is another regional favorite, the cream version, not that weird Rhode Island tomato concoction.
Be mindful that any parts manufactured in France are nonfunctional on Sundays and the whole month of August.
FWIW: Britain and the UK are used almost interchangeably, although technically, Great Britain is part of the UK, so maybe you meant England, which is part of GB and the UK. It’s not confusing, no, not at all…
Not as confusing as their money. Pence, pound, stone, quid, argh.
Lived in London for 9 years – was glad to get back to dollars and cents in New Zealand in 2018.
Torch, looking at airfares from Sydney: “hey these are dirt cheap-”
David, Habitual Extreme Bargain Enjoyer: “say no more”
Sausage, onion, bread, and sauce. Yep, that covers the four major food groups.
Not for an Aussie you still need beer.
OK this is a lazy hack joke but I still can’t wait for this to get down to the 11th hour and then Beau pulls out a flip phone…
Cut to Xzibit rolling up to DT’s house.
I appreciated the joke.
That is a very chonky squirrel.
It’s always great to hear from Laurence, and to see progress being made on the latest project Jeep!
The size of that squirrel I’m surprised our Aussie friend didn’t kill it cook it on a campfire sprinkle some Aussie Chicken Salt on it. Squirrel is good eating
I thought squirrels only got that chonky for midwest winters.
Today I learned that Australia does not have squirrels. I also learned that a group of squirrels is called a ‘scurry’. And a squirrel’s nest is called a drey. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole (or whatever the squirrel equivalent is).
This is the important information I came to the comments to read.
Whenever I’ve traveled, I’ve found the stuff that’s locally mundane that I have never seen at home to be interesting (eh, a Ferrari—whoa, a Lancia Ypsilon! No way!) , but it’s still funny to me that he comes to the US from a country of unusual, exotic, iconic animals and is impressed by a squirrel. That’s an especially fat one, though! Even in public parks here where they can scrounge plenty of discarded fried food, I’ve never seen one that big (of course, they’re also competing with seagulls).
Well Britain has squirrels but the French word for squirrel is very similar to their word for shark. So I am just trying to figure out the reactions the Autopian French members are having to having sharks on a fence in DTs back yard.
“Nearly the size of a cat” How big is that in spiders?
“Big and Bitey”?
Strong & Bitey!
Half a spider.
In Australia about half a spider they have crazy insects there.
Looks like you got an excellent wrenching partner, I love it. Also, the yard is looking like your old one back in Michigan. This is a compliment of course!
He needs a backyard mud pit to complete the look! 🙂 Though given the lack of rain in California, I suppose a backyard dirt pit would suffice.
Yeah good point! At least he’s got a frame, transfer case, other parts, tools and chemicals laying around in the overdue-for-a-cut lawn. This is the David we know dearly. Crunch time David! We have faith.
His wife is the ultimate good sport! Not many women would put up with the chaos.
Are you kidding it is a record rain fall and snow fall death valley is having flowers grow
Stole my comment.
But yeah, looking like a proper pig pen now.
*pops some popcorn, kicks back in chair*
This is gonna be good!
I hope they didn’t take that route as shown in the top pic. It’s really the long way around the block.
Much more sensible map here.
https://images.natgeomaps.com/PROD_LG_1000px/RE01020324_1_LG.jpg
My first thought as I have done that flight a LOT… This is my fav mapper: https://www.greatcirclemap.com/?routes=%20SYD-LAX
It’s the Flat Earther special route.
Sorry there isn’t any 4 wheeling fan that believes in a flat Earth
I’m from Pittsburgh – I can relate. They built this city in spite of geography.
That’s why flights were “dirt cheap”.
I am glad to see that Americo-Australinian relations have improved since the 90s.
https://youtu.be/hMNhc1jMSaE?si=V6D3orh6EQe94TpS
Matt: “hey Adrian we want to fly you out to LA!”
Me: “great! I love California!”
Matt: “you have to help Davi….”
Me: “NO DEAL”
Hey, this easy without all the usual rust on his projects…
You know where your talents lie, sitting in a directors chair, drink in one hand, smoke in the other, telling them how they’re doing it all wrong.
With good music in the background, of course
The Beatles on continuous random repeat.
(he hates them somehow)
I hate them because I’m a man of culture and taste.
“a dedicated follower of fashion”
The word culture has many meanings. As on a sample of a disease in a petri dish.
I’m glad someone around here recognises my station in this operation.
Back in high school my buddy and I were working on his 81 Camaro when his dad pulls up a beach chair, a stiff drink, and just sat and watched us wrench as he told us what we were doing wrong and just generally gave us shit. Was great.
You missed the opportunity to chide David in person for wearing socks with sandals, though.
I have to cut him some slack for simply wearing clothes that are not covered in baby…..whatever babies produce. Baby droppings?
Well I don’t diss you for not knowing as baby byproduct and English cooking create pretty much similar looking products. Beans and toast?
I’ve never heard it put so eloquently and accurately.
Socks and sandals is as English as pork pies, so Adrian might not even notice…
True in America men often wear pork pie hats with sandals and socks.
I’m English. I choose death over socks and sandals.
My folks are English and they agree with you 100%
“I’ll do it if David comes to Blighty to wrench on my Rodius.”
Aren’t you more design than actual work? The design is done. Maybe you can organize a fashion show for the jeep? Lol
Rolling my eyes as David loses another 10mm socket is work.
Shooting the occasional withering look at David from the comfort of a cabana chair while sipping high shelf cocktails and spooning Beluga caviar isn’t helping?
Well I think it’s a vital contribution but these peasants remain unconvinced.
Perhaps you should up your game from “shooting the occasional withering look” to “hurling objects and insults”.
David Tracy Mad Libs lives! I have _____ time to get ______ ready for ______.
Impossible is not a word I associate with DT.
Rat infested Jeep FC Biohazard – Check
Project Cactus where the parts car became the primary – Check (Not entirely sure you’ll ever top this one)
Project Postal – Check
The Autopian – Check
BEV BMW Lover, about as far away from Jeeps as you can get – Check
Move to California – Check
Marriage – Check
Child – Check
Pop culture – Bzzzzzz
Well, you can’t win them all.
“I have no time to get Rat infested Jeep FC Biohazard ready for Child.
Brilliant!
This comments section is absolute gold.
TBH babies are as bad a biohazard as rodents. But not FTs kid.
Good onya, mate! (That’s probably woefully wrong, but the best I remember from Ty the Tasmanian Tiger on the Xbox). Glad to see DT with an extra set of hands helping out, and great to see Laurence!
Glad to hear the updates on another great Australia-America collaboration!
I just hope Laurence didn’t bring over a koala in his luggage, since we all know what happened when an errant bullfrog was brought to Australia.
It’s my understanding (and maybe this is incorrect) that koalas are so dumb that if you give them a pile of eucalyptus leaves they won’t eat them because they don’t know what that are. They have to be on a the branch still.
So probably not a big risk of them becoming invasive (though there are a lot of eucalyptus in SoCal).
But who knows, maybe the one in reference was just a fussy toddler. Or trying to throw us off his scent while he planned his US invasion.
I’m not a koala expert, but thanks to research from writing three books involving a sloth as a protagonist, I am pretty knowledgeable about their South American niche equivalent. Koalas not eating plucked eucalyptus leaf is likely an accurate observation, but the inferred conclusion is wrong. The leaves they eat are low in nutrients and digested for a long time to extract as much as possible (this is also why they have a very slow metabolism—low caloric intake). Because of this, it wouldn’t make sense to eat fallen leaves, they’d select fresh leaves that have the most nutrients right from the branches. Not that I think a koala rivals an orangutan for intellectual capability, but as is too often the case, these kinds of anecdotes regarding animal intelligence are based on bad assumptions and standards that don’t consider the lifestyle, physiology, or concerns of the animal in question. Or, in this case, maybe it started as a joke that people mistook as fact?
But given in America we got Turkeys that if you leave them out in the rain they will look up and drown not sure who has it worse. I would need to taste koala to be sure.
Man, there are many more mean things he could bring from there. (Shuddder!)
Don’t even joke about those!
Always more fun to wrench with a good buddy!
I’m hopeful that building a Jeep with basically new or good used parts will go quicker than you expect. Not having to disassemble and clean everything saves time. But in my experience, not taking it apart means not knowing quite how it goes together. And some of those parts sourced from everywhere won’t line up.
And there will be maddening little whatzits and doojiggers missing. If you have a parts manual and it lists every bit down to the number, type, and thread count of screws and bolts needed, I have found the hardware aisle at the local Ace or True Value to be a magical place.
Then again, it wouldn’t be a DT Build(tm) without some time-induced panic. Go get ‘em, team! Rooting for you!
Wait until the West LA chicks find Laurence and he can figure out how to degrease his hands. He not going back.
In typical American style, I’m always amazed when people haven’t experienced our trash junk food. There are really people out here who haven’t had Funyons or Takis? It blows my mind.
In his defense, Takis are Mexican.
Perhaps a new charity? For only the price of Doritos and a Mountain Dew you can give Doritos and a Mountain Dew to those in need.
I’m American and have never eaten Funyons or Takis. I know what they are of course, but never consumed either.
I’ll get Funyons every once and a while just because, but you really aren’t missing much. It’s a fried corn puff with a bunch of onion powder and salt in it. Never had Takis, and I’m really not keen to change that.
I’ve lived in various parts of California almost my entire life and only became aware of Takis a few years ago. I wasn’t very impressed. Too salty for my taste buds.
Look on the bright side: you don’t have to dig the Jeep engine out of the ground first.
Hey Lawrence! Welcome to the land of the big PX. Glad you could give David a hand. He may be a regular dad, but digestive health isn’t going to get that Jeep built by April.
I’m pretty sure that the shortest way between Australia and LA is across the Pacific, and not across Europe or Africa . . .
it’s the ‘dirt cheap’ route
Somebody pasted that map into the photo of his to-do list. Send him a globe, better yet, slingshot around the sun and pick up all the time you need.
Laurence, my brother moved from Austin to Australia about a year ago. If you live anywhere near Wagga Wagga (think it’s an hour or so from Sydney), let me know and I’ll have him hook you up with some badass tacos and salsas. He only charges help on his 41 Ford
More like 4 or 5 hours. mainland USA and Australia are very similar in size.
How long is it if you drive 180km/h?
Depends how many hours in jail you have to endure when you get pulled over.
Yep 460km from Sydney to Wagga and nearly 5hr (especially if you’re sensible and stop a couple of times to enjoy some refreshments and sights along the way.
I think Laurence lives within cooee of Dubbo and Dubbo to Wagga Wagga is 401km or about 4hr22m according to Google (keep in mind it will be highways, but not necessarily fast highways).
Another great article in this series. Happy to see Laurence helping out David again. I love that the Army service manual was used for the t-case assembly. Also, yeah, that is one fat squirrel.
Oh, at the risk of igniting a war: yes, In-n-out is over-rated. It’s not bad, it’s just that all those Californians (and I guess that includes David now?) talk it up sooooo much. Like it’s life changing or something. And then, it’s just… fine.
Every city has its beloved burger joint that is just okay. I come from Seattle, and I absolutely have to get two Dick’s specials every time I go back, but I recognize it’s not a burger that will wow anybody who didn’t grow up with it. I give the Cali folks grace. They can love In and Out, I’ll happily have one and skip the fries, but it is not life changing. I’m currently in Minneapolis, and our Jucy Lucy (not a typo) fits into that category. I’m not stepping into the Matt’s/5-8 debate.
Dick’s is good because it is incredibly cheap compared to Burgerville and they take care of their employees.
Grew up in WA and every time I come back to the PNW I get a “bag of Dick’s” for one meal. And yes, I giggle when I show up with the bag to someone’s house. 12 year old boy trapped in a 52 year old body.
I grew up in Omaha. When I go back to visit,I have to have a Cheese Frenchie, a staple of teens who ate at Kings diners. Kings is long gone, but the Cheese Frenchie lives at Don & Millie’s.
Living in California, the unique thing about In-N-Out is that the fries are cut from fresh potatoes on site (you can see them being run through the cutter from the counter). They don’t have sugar or other added ingredients like some chain fries. You can ask for them twice fried and that crisps them up a bit.
The joy of in-n-out is its simplicity and service. No frozen stuff, real ingredients, and they will make you anything they can if you ask for it. But it’s nothing “special.”
That makes the fries polarizing. They are not crispy because they are cut fresh and fried once and not coated in extra starch sugars like many places. It’s *exactly* what some folks want, but many do not. If you want more crispy, you can ask for “fries well done” and they’ll toss them back in the fryer for a second round.
Fresh cut fries can be crispy, you just have the blanche them first. They’re just skipping steps, it’s not the extra ingredients.
Seriously, you can do it at home with potatoes you cut yourself.
True, a blanch and two times through the fryer will do it. That’s what five guys do. Most fast food places use maltodextrin.
Five Guys fries are the best I’ve had. In and Out fries are the worst. Just thinking about them makes me gag.
I actually just learned something that improves my health. Thank you! I have a strong gluten sensitivity and maltodextrin also triggers discomfort. Five guys fries are my traveling snack since they don’t make me ill. That’s the only thing I get there and they think I’m either crazy or broke. Other places fries just don’t compare, and now I know to avoid them aside from the obvious cross-contamination from fried breaded items. Did not know maltodextrin was used on fries. They put that damn stuff in everything!
It also helps to parboil the fries in dilute vinegar before that first dunk in hot oil:
https://www.seriouseats.com/perfect-french-fries-recipe
(I have noticed the GV frozen fries I buy at Wal-Mart have a faint whiff of vinegar to them as well as a slightly golden hue indicating they are made according to the first few steps of this recipe.)
DT should take Laurence to a Five Guys.
That would totally blow the build budget
Their burgers are good. It’s a fine, freshly made burger with way too much onion on it. But the fries? I’ll be as polite as I can and say that they are bad and they should feel bad. Having made zillions of fresh cut fries over the years, I can say with certainty that Drunken Wrench is correct- fresh cut fries require a blanch in lower temp oil first to cook them. The second dunk in a hotter fryer is to finish them, and then they have to be seasoned directly after coming out of the oil. The residual oil is what the seasoning sticks to- if you try to season them after the fact, then the potato itself becomes a force field that sheilds them from your seasoning. If you just dunk the cut potatoes straight into a fryer at a higher temp, then you have to cook them too long just to get the insides cooked, and you end up with the shitty ass tasting cardboard bullshit that In-n-Out serves. Sorry, I was trying to be polite, wasn’t I?
Yeah, I had roommates that used to drop acid and deep fry shit. If THEY could make killer fries, anyone can.
I used to think In-n-out was overrated. But, on a per-dollar basis, it just isn’t.
The fries are a soggy, undercooked, disgusting mess.
The chain’s owners also had some questionable behaviour at the height of covid.