When Jay Leno found out that his part-time mechanic and friend Dave Killackey was in dire need of an overhaul on his 1956 Chevrolet Nomad, but couldn’t afford the expense himself, he turned to the dynamic team on TLC’s OVERHAULIN’ to make Dave’s dream come true. In a special episode of OVERHAULIN’ scheduled to premiere on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT), the unsuspecting Dave is subjected to the pranks and final reward that have become the trademark of the hit automotive fabrication series.
Jay Leno — along with master designer Chip Foose and co-hosts/tricksters Chris Jacobs and Adrienne "AJ" Janic — hatched a plan to overhaul Dave’s car.
Dave’s son Jason, a firefighter, also joined in on the fun as the group played a series of pranks, which led up to the final reveal of a hot new ride. Most of the work on the overhauled Nomad takes places in Jay’s own garage, located in the Los Angeles area.
"How did you guys do this without me knowing?" a confused Dave asked when his new and improved car was returned to him. "You’re not the hardest guy to fool!" joked Leno with affection.
OVERHAULIN’ is the TLC series that tricks the owner while tricking out the car. Show hosts Chris and AJ double as repo men, tow truck drivers, and a list of other characters to lure the keys away from the unsuspecting car owner, while auto design legend Chip and his crack team of fabricators and engineers perform surgery on the vehicle. With the help from a few accomplices — in this case Leno and Dave’s son Jason — OVERHAULIN’ follows the twists and turns of the parallel processes of keeping the car away from its (sometimes surly!) owner while following the renovation process of the vehicle.
