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After much experimenting and testing, I see in this video if it is possible to drive on all Glass Wheels!
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0:00
We're driving. We're driving on glass wheels
0:02
What would happen if you replaced your car's wheels with glass? Would you be able to drive anywhere
0:07
But more importantly, would you look really cool like a really cool guy in a hovercraft
0:11
Or would it come crashing down in a shower of shards and disappointment
0:16
Aww. Today, we're going to find out, and we'll stop at nothing until we get there
0:20
Even if that means resorting for extreme measures. This idea all started with a call with a special someone
0:26
Alright, so you guys have a Ford Pinto? Yes, and we've done a couple of videos testing out goofy tires on it
0:32
We made one out of asphalt. We tried one out of concrete, stone. You have a water jet
0:36
Do glass. Adam warned us that it would be a challenge. It's very likely to shatter no matter what the second you start to try and move
0:44
But we both agreed that it'd be an epic project. No one's ever made glass tires
0:49
That would be the first. And he gave us some tips on how to pull it off. The thing about the water jet that's so great is that you can stack and you can layer
0:59
So you can easily sandwich wood nicely between like four sheets of glass where two interiors are bigger and the two exteriors are narrower
1:08
And you glue it all together using glass glue, which I don't know what that is
1:12
But, you know, I know it exists because I see glass glued together. And then you would be able to actually get rolling on it
1:20
Good luck to you guys. And I can't wait to see what you do. At first, I thought this would just be too difficult and we wouldn't be able to actually drive anywhere
1:27
So I didn't do anything about it for months. But it was just such a good idea that I couldn't stop thinking about it
1:32
It got to the point where I decided to just try it and see what happens. First things first, though, I need to get some glass
1:38
If you're a smarty pants, you know that not all glass is the same. Most glass that's meant to be around humans is tempered because most people don't like getting stabbed if they accidentally break something
1:46
Tempered glass turns into these safe little cubes when broken, but I can't have my glass tires turning into little glass pieces at the slightest bump
1:53
So I need annealed glass. When I made bulletproof glass, I bought tempered glass and annealed it in our kiln
1:59
The problem is, our kiln isn't big enough to fit an 18 inch tire in it, so I have to start with annealed glass
2:05
This is the dangerous kind. If you break it, you get some nasty shards that are razor sharp
2:10
But it'll be better for our tires. The problem is a neoglass isn't mass-produced to the same degree as tempered glass, so it's more expensive
2:18
The solution, as usual, is Facebook Marketplace. I found this listing with inch-thick glass that was plenty big enough for our four wheels
2:25
For $250 I felt like I was practically robbing the guy. But like most things that are too good to be true, I got there and it was actually two quarter-inch panels glued together with argon gas in between
2:35
This would be great if I were building a house next to a freeway in Siberia, but I in fact am not
2:40
But I was already there and it was a pretty good price for two quarter inch panels at that length
2:45
So I decided to just buy it, but these glass pieces were so big I had to rent a u-haul just to transport them
2:50
So that was another hundred dollars. So we're five hundred dollars deep at this point
2:54
I was almost certain the glass was gonna crack in the 50 mile drive from the guy's house to our shop
2:59
So I nervously opened the back door and wouldn't you know it the glass survived
3:03
Now we can just mount it on the water jet and do a little test cut on the corner. This will avoid any cracking
3:10
I heard a noise while it was cutting. Guess what that noise was
3:18
About as straight a line as possible all the way across the pane of glass
3:24
You can't make this up. I would guess it had something to do with this metal bracket
3:29
It's like this glass already had a personal vendetta against me, and all I did was chauffeur it around
3:34
This was clearly going to be more challenging than I thought. However, the top panel was still good, so I grabbed a razor blade and two painful hours later
3:42
I had the top layer separated from the crusty cracked bottom one. There we go, ladies and gentlemen
3:47
Now that it's nice and flat on this plywood, with no metal to cause any cracking
3:51
cutting this will be a piece of cake. All right, I want to see if this is going to break when I pierce it
3:56
We'll see if he shatters. Huh? Oh yeah, definitely shattered. It's a good thing we tested it on a small piece
4:04
All right, I've made a version of the file that is just the circles. No lug nut holes
4:09
And we're going to test it out on the broken piece. All right, let's hope this works
4:17
Wow, these are looking great. I think we're good to go. I'm joking
4:22
I think it broke so many times because this plywood isn't perfectly flat
4:26
And so it causes some stresses on the glass. So when the water jack comes in, it just immediately shatters everything
4:33
I decided to just glue them back together and put them on the car and see if we could learn anything
4:38
So I took them over to the water jet and pierced it on there and it caused a bunch of cracks
4:41
But it's okay because it was already cracked and I painted some resin on to seal up the gaps and then put them on the car
4:47
So let's see how they did. Thank you good, sir There we go what a great fit
4:56
Very nice. Let's see how she does let's lower down real slow
5:01
Yikes That doesn't sound good. I think it's resting on the jack
5:09
Oh, darn. I might not be able to let it down very slow, but I'll try
5:12
Okay, yeah. As slowly as you can, but we understand if it's not very slow
5:19
I probably shouldn't stand right here, huh? Oh. I think the forks are off
5:23
Okay. I didn't think it was going to hold. I'm surprised it's holding. I did not think it was going to hold since it was already broken
5:30
Well, that confirms it. Glass will hold the car. but it probably won't drive. I wonder if the noise is the resin or the glass. Oh, that's a good point
5:38
I'm in it before he lowers it so I don't break it when I sit in the car. Let's see if I can make it
5:43
five feet. That'll do it. I think we all saw that coming because it was cracked. So I think we need
5:55
something a little stronger, say 10 times stronger. That's right. Bulletproof glass. Bulletproof glass
6:02
is really expensive. Luckily, we know a guy. Enter Armormax, the experts who might just save this
6:08
whole project. Well, we found this place online. Let's see what they have in here
6:14
Hello? What's up? They have bulletproof glass, so, yes. Wow. They really know what they're doing in here
6:26
That's pretty neat. Excuse me, what are you doing? Oh, sorry. I just let myself in
6:33
Can I help you find something? Oh, I'm just looking around. So I'm Mark Burton at Armormax
6:38
Here we make the magic happen. We're outfitting an armored sprinter van
6:44
that's going to be used for presidential elections. These are used for transportation of celebrities, mobile offices
6:51
We help people travel safely from A to B. All the options would be stored
6:56
If we're doing shocking door handles, the spikes, if they have strobe lights on the car I mean there a handful of options The process is we get in any type of car Escalade Hummer RV Sprinter Van and then the step one is to take everything apart
7:13
Okay. Okay, so we take seats, headliner, carpet, and then they go through stage by stage
7:19
and they'll put in bomb blankets. They'll armor every seam, nook and cranny of the car
7:25
So the company has a contract with Tesla, so they do a lot of the Tesla vehicles
7:30
Okay for Tesla and then Tesla will just use them throughout their their fleet. This one's armored. Yeah
7:36
It's a normal car, but you still have to maintain it with we armored the fenders
7:42
There's additional battery okay wiring all that kind of stuff for the options
7:47
I noticed there's more black border on it. Yeah, yeah great question. What's that for
7:53
So when you're making armored glass You have an offset a little bit. It's a dot matrix. We can come look at it on this one
8:01
So because of all the armor, if you keep it the original thickness, you'd be able to see into all the armor work on the inside
8:09
Do you have an S fit on the average man hours or maybe on this truck
8:13
Our goal is to do about 700-800 man hours. Sometimes they'll take about 1,000 to 1,200
8:19
And that's probably about the average is about 1,000 to 1,200. It's on a lot of different cars
8:24
I don't know what it is. It doesn't matter what the car we work on. We kind of hit that 1,000 man hour mark
8:28
How much weight does that add on that one? On this one, I'm going to guesstimate they added about 1,800 to 2,000 pounds of armor to the car
8:37
Very big car. Yeah. Mobile home, an RV. That's less than I would think, though, you know, on a car that size
8:43
All right, so how much would you sell me one of these for? So this is going to go for about 2,000 or so dollars. Oof
8:51
How? What do I have to do to get it for five bucks
8:55
If you'll lick it, and if you'll let me put my little decal on it, then I'll give it to you for five bucks
9:02
All right. You're giving me your last dollars. Yeah. I just got to make sure this is..
9:08
All right, I'll do it for five bucks. All right. Okay, let's see you lick it
9:12
All right. It was awesome to be in a place where they actually knew what they were doing for once
9:18
These guys were true professionals. I mean, you kind of have to be when you're selling armored vehicles to Arabian princes
9:23
I know a lot of you guys are in the market for an armored vehicle, so make sure you check out Armormack
9:28
Without their help, I probably would have been caught in an endless cycle of cracking regular glass
9:33
Not only did they hook us up with the perfect material for one wheel, but they gave me an idea for the other three
9:38
Now that we've got something a little more substantial, I'm a lot more confident that this is gonna work
9:42
The only problem is, you still can't pierce it with a water jet. This is what happens when you pierce it from the polycarbonate side
9:48
And this is what happens when you pierce it from the glass side. So we don't want either of those to happen. Luckily, I found something that can help with that
9:55
But we do need to cut out the circle shape on the water jet first That is hefty. Well, she's all mounted up and I'm really hoping I don't crack it because we've only got one shot at this
10:08
But I think if we start off and go in we should be fine. Just because I'm a little nervous. I'm gonna turn the speed down to like
10:17
85% CHOIR SINGS
10:51
It didn't crack. Round of applause. I bet he's going to play that with no sound
11:06
and it's going to be awkward, huh? Now. Ooh, nice. Okay, so we have one, two, three, four layers of glass
11:13
and then one of polycarbonate, it looks like. Okay, now to cut out the lug knot holes
11:20
I got a premium tool specifically for this part. You know it's good when there's not a single word of English on there
11:28
Oh yeah. That's as small as it goes. Uh oh, we might be in trouble
11:33
Hey yeah. Oh nice. That is on there. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Now I just need a battery in my drill
11:43
And just a little water. Oh yeah. This is working like a charm
11:50
All right, I think we can remove this now. Oh man. Yeah, that's not coming out
12:00
Ooh, here's a nice side view. That's the resin layer, and I can dent it with my finger now
12:09
Look how soft that layer is. I can kind of do that with the plexiglass, and I obviously can't do it at all on the glass
12:17
This process took me forever because drilling glass without it cracking is a nightmare activity
12:22
I used the drill press for a little, but that was actually slower than doing it by hand with the drill
12:26
Lesson number one, diamond bits and infinite patience are key to your success
12:33
Okay, the final hole. I started this at like 11 a.m. It's now 6.30
12:40
Almost an entire eight hour workday to cut five holes. With only one piece of bulletproof glass and not wanting to spend $3,000 for the rest of the wheels
13:01
I'll have to make my own bulletproof glass if I want that cool guy hovercraft look
13:05
All those earlier failures taught me what I needed to know for this final attempt
13:09
First, I needed some flatter plywood. We had to come out here in the bitter winter's hell
13:15
But this stuff is flat. If the glass breaks on this, I don't know what I'm going to do
13:21
Wouldn't you know it with the straightest piece of plywood, it is still levitating
13:26
Call it Dua Lipa with the baby. Welcome back, everyone who just finished their comment about how it's not plywood
13:31
It's OSB. You're a nerd. I found a Reddit thread that says exactly how to do this
13:37
You get some polystyrene foam and put it under and then you drain the water level
13:41
So it's currently draining right now. You can see where it was and where it is
13:45
because the bubbles and the water turning around underneath come up with so much force that they crack the glass from underneath
13:51
like a little volcano. Ladies and gentlemen, we got them. Had to cut it in half so it'll fit in the car, though
13:56
I'd throw it on for comedic effect, but then it would probably ruin the cut of the glass
14:00
So you'll just have to imagine it. All right, this looks a lot better
14:05
There nowhere with a gap between the glass and the styrofoam So that exactly what we want All right this is for all the marbles If this doesn work I going to be extremely sad
14:24
Well, wouldn't you know it. What else can I do at this point
14:29
I tried to cut up the glass into smaller pieces before cutting the circles so there wasn't as much weight and pressure on it
14:35
But you can see how well that worked. I decided to just cut out the other circles while I had it all mounted up
14:51
And they all cracked a bunch of times because why would they not? The next day
14:55
But then I remembered the spy movies and how they always have a glass cutter to cut a perfect circle in a window
15:00
and how it takes them 10 seconds and how that's definitely how it works in real life
15:04
So I bought a circular glass cutter. But the instructions were a little weird. Okay, how to use circular glass cutter
15:11
Calibrating the scale of circular glass cutter. Step 12. Pet hole is ready now
15:17
So I put it all together, got it calibrated, and started cutting the glass. We'll do it on the broken section in case something goes wrong
15:24
Just listen to that satisfying sound. Ignore the radial sander in the background
15:32
Little bits of glass are flying up. Then I did it a hundred more times to make sure it was really a good cut
15:49
Then I was ready to break off the tester piece. Don't break in my eyes, please
15:53
Safety squints. A little harder. the hammer wasn't working so Alex suggested something a little more precise
16:05
if I do this and it breaks you can pull the I don't know if you can separate them though
16:10
oh huh so it just didn't even follow the scoring at all that didn't work either so I tried hitting
16:18
it with the hammer a few more times trying out some different spots until this happened
16:22
no it's like strong how did it manage to do that how did that even happen how did it get past the
16:36
crack that was here already and heat strength you can see the words right there so you're telling me
16:41
buying windows off a facebook marketplace isn't the best way to get glass well i think we need
16:47
to go back to using these guys here i can just use a little super glue in there and call it a day i
16:53
think. Just a little bit. All right I just got to do that 400 more times
17:04
Now that the glass is ready we can add some polycarbonate which is also
17:08
surprisingly expensive. These eight pieces cost $225. Inside of me there are
17:14
two wolves. One wolf wants to cut them all at the same time because that would
17:19
be a lot easier and faster. The other wolf knows it's probably a bad idea
17:24
and that the cut quality would suck. So I think I have to do it the hard way
17:27
What's crazy about polycarbonate is you can do whatever you want with it
17:43
We're quickly pushing $1,000 on this video. With no sponsor. Oh, yeah
17:48
So I just repeated the same process eight times, and then I got to do the best part
17:57
Does it fit? Theoretically, it should. Oh, what a treat. I'll just mix up a little epoxy to glue them together
18:05
and that should do the trick. So viscous. Heh, heh, ab. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
18:13
Then I spread that epoxy real nice and good and put the glass on
18:24
Then I did the same thing on the other side. Go figure. And smooshed it down again
18:33
The next day, they still weren't cured, so I put them in the hot box. And a few hours later, they were good to go
18:39
Now that is some bulletproof glass right there. I did leave the plastic layer on
18:44
This is all glued together at the moment. I just needed to separate them
18:48
Oh, there we go. There we go. Yeah, that's why we left the plastic on
18:55
Oh, there's the second wheel. There we go. There's our last two wheels
19:00
And then I was ready to drill holes in the glass. But first... Doug
19:16
Hey, Doug. Come here. Okay, let's drill those holes
19:37
Now I'll take them all and individually load them onto the water jet and run the cut file so that they're perfectly lined up
19:43
and that there's no margin of error for me doing it by hand. I had some business to take care of, though
19:48
You know, when I started this project, I thought this was going to be pretty straightforward. I mean, glass is fragile, sure
19:54
But with some polycarbonate reinforcement, how hard could it be? Turns out, pretty hard
19:58
After two weeks of constant setbacks, broken glass everywhere, and countless hours of work
20:03
I was starting to wonder if getting a car on four glass wheels was even possible
20:07
But we finally made it. Let's see how we do. Okay, I am real proud of this one
20:12
So I'm thinking we put the polycarbonate side out so the lugs can twist into that a little bit
20:17
Let's see if she fits. Because we haven't tested it yet. Oh, like a glove
20:27
That looks so weird. Yes, thank you, Armor Max, for this beautiful piece of bulletproof glass
20:33
All right, just a little bit of impact because I'm tired of hand tightening. but we do not want this to crack
20:41
All right, we're ready. I have high hopes for the bulletproof glass wheel
20:45
If you're a little freak, get yourself a little freak on board sign. Available at waterjetmuseum.com
20:51
Link in the description. Would you do the honors of putting me on the ground
20:55
All right, let's give it a test, shall we? There we go
21:01
Oh, it's cracking along the edge. Is it? Already? Yeah, it's chipping off
21:07
This feels like a normal car. Nothing strange about this car. Oh it leaving a little trail of dust Oh is it I trying to look in the mirror Oh dang it already like mega cracked It almost as cracked as me at Fortnite
21:26
Oh, it's only like the front layer. If you can see it from this GoPro angle, it's like this main, mainly this layer
21:33
And then the rest seem fine. I wonder why that is. Probably because of the... Actually, I have no idea why
21:38
Let's keep going. Yeah, buddy. Yee-haw! Yee-haw! Sounds like a... it sounds like the concrete wheel
21:47
Wait, let me put the... Oh! What was that? A big old piece just came off, but let me put the mic on there. Oh
21:55
Where did those come off? It looks like they came from like right here
21:59
Oh, we're off the back. You see that big piece that's missing back here
22:04
Oh man, this is gonna suck to clean up. Oh, and these are razor sharp
22:09
It looks like a clamshell. Oh, alright, let's turn it around. Yikes
22:24
How's she doing? She drove over some gravel, and it hated that
22:30
Oh, yeah? I could see the gravel go into it and then shatter into a million pieces
22:34
Oh, man. She is not looking too hot. Polycarbonate doesn't care. Yeah, the polycarbonate's fine
22:45
It's still laminated to it. It's not coming apart at all. I'm pulling on it pretty hard
22:52
It works. It actually works. Even just driving a few feet is a huge accomplishment considering everything we had to go through
22:58
to get here. But let's see how much further we can push it. Should we put the other wheels on
23:02
Yeah, like it drives. We should probably do the other ones, right? Yeah, sure
23:06
Should we do a burnout? all right let's get the other three installed see how she does all right well these are fully
23:12
tightened and this is what the wheel can do so obviously these lug nuts aren't going to be ideal
23:18
we do have some other nuts here jimbo saved the day yet again i went to rotate this and it's just
23:25
so light and it feels so stupid like you know a normal tire weighs like 50 pounds or so and this
23:31
is like what 10 pounds if that so what i'm saying is this car is going to have a crazy zero to 60
23:36
because it's got really light wheels. All right, I think we're ready to lay her down. This looks cool already
23:41
but I think it'll look better with no jack or forklift. The hover Pinto
23:45
All right, I'm going down. This one's creaking
23:58
Uh-oh. What's happening over there? Yeah, it looks like you're good. All right
24:06
She's on her own weight! I gotta be really careful as I get in
24:12
so it doesn't collapse Eeeeeeasy does it It's creaking
24:22
I gotta put the microphone there Oh, that didn't sound good Oh, it's terrible
24:32
Were you recording? Yeah You shook the ground. Really? You like felt it
24:43
All four wheels are glass and polycarbonate. But we don't talk about that
24:55
Oh boy that sure sounds good. They both shattered on the front
25:09
Oh, no. I guess let's put the normal tires on the front
25:14
and then we'll drive around on these two glass ones. Wait, we have a spare, so let's just put one real tire here
25:20
and then other spare on the front, and then we're chilling. All right, well, I better start driving before it blows up
25:35
Let's hope when the transmission jolts into drive it doesn't shatter the wheel
25:41
Let's let off the brake. Oh, it's going to do it again
25:46
Ah, we're driving. We're driving on glass wheels. That's crazy. How is it working
25:55
I didn't think it would work. Ah. Should we go faster? Does that ask you for trouble
26:05
Oh, I'm scared. Oh, dear. Oh, boy
26:17
Did it just break? It broke. Oh, man. We made it further than I thought
26:22
How's the back wheel doing? The back wheel's doing good. It kind of cracked
26:28
But it didn't bend like this one did. Well, you can drive on glass tires for a little bit, but not very long
26:33
Unless, come with me, you have some real professional grade bulletproof glass
26:38
I think it's time for a burnout test. I should probably roll out my window for this
26:44
I don't want any glass in my eyes. Oh, we dug a hole in the asphalt. Shoot
27:29
I mean, these wheels are bulletproof. oh it stinks so good yeah this is the resin from in between the layers of glass oh and also it's
27:40
the polycarbonate oh dear sorry about that mr jimbo it's all right it kind of made itself a
27:47
wheel shape it's kind of curved at the edges i mean i'm thoroughly impressed with this bulletproof
27:52
glass we could drive 100 miles on this oh yeah no i totally nothing nothing's better than getting
27:58
ready to do something and realizing sort of taking in the full degree of its absurdity
28:04
and how lucky you are to get to do this thing right now with help and time and money and resources
28:10
Yeah, that was regularly one of my favorite mental exercises while making the show
28:15
Yeah, I need to remind myself of that more. When it's really annoying and the wheel won't fit on for three hours
28:21
I got to think of that. That's all part of the growing pains, man
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