By Dex Fulton,
July 15, 2024
James Webb, from the popular YouTube channel Jimmy’s World, is a genius. Not in the Albert Einstein or Tony Stark way, more in the, “I’m just going to keep going until it works” kinda way. Sort of like the blokes that built the Pyramids or that guy you know from the pub with several successful businesses and a gorgeous wife despite having the appearance and personality of an unwashed potato. Some people are just go-getters who make things happen. James is one of them.
And you can’t argue with his results. As a roof contractor before COVID, he ran a promotion that anyone who bought a roof from him would get a free AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Unsurprisingly, business boomed. His channel, which is currently nudging half-a-milly subscribers, came about during the lockdown when he got himself a pilot’s licence and started flying planes up Jacksonville to perform his duties as a member of the Air National Guard in Florida. Aviation fuel was cheaper than regular petrol at the time, and a five-hour drive from his home was turned into a one-hour flight. Win-win.
An inveterate tinkerer, James thought he’d try his hand at fixing up older planes and flipping them for a profit, like he’d done with cars previously. Turns out, he’s pretty good at it, and Jimmy’s World was born. And that love of aviation is where Elvis Presley comes into the story – the Memphis Flash, Big E… the King.
You see, Elvis had three aeroplanes to his name when he kicked the bucket. The two more well-known ones, Hound Dog II and Lisa Marie, are currently on display at Graceland, but the third one (that Elvis never got the chance to fly in before passing), a 1962 Lockheed 1329 Jetstar, was abandoned at an old New Mexico airport for decades. Eventually, somebody realised that they had a piece of rock-and-roll history sitting out on the tarmac and the plane was put out to auction. Twice. Both times unsuccessfully.
The last time was in 2018. Fast forward five years, and the King’s wings were once again put under the hammer. Where previous valuations had put the price around the two-million bucks mark, this time, expectations were a fair chunk lower. James, noticing that the walkaround video put up on YouTube by the auctioneers had received a significant amount of views, decided to get involved.
He drove to the auction with a vague plan to get a bunch of followers on his YouTube account and $100,000 to spend. Unfortunately, that price was reached and exceeded within a couple of bids. Not to be deterred, James stuck it out up to $230,000, but had to bow out when the next bid went to $260,000, which won the auction. It was more than he had. It should be noted he didn’t have the $230,000 he’d bid moments before either, but as mentioned, James isn’t the guy to let a small thing like that stop him.
Somewhat deflated, he headed home, only to receive a call from the auction house ten minutes into the drive saying the high bidder had pulled out of the sale and that if he could get the 230 gorillas together, the Jetstar would be his. With some deft wheeling and dealing, he negotiated a deal where he’d put down his $100K and finance the rest. The auction house agreed, and just like that, James was one piece of Elvis memorabilia richer.
The Jetstar was promptly disassembled and trucked to the Jimmy’s World workshop, where James and his crew had to figure out just what the hell to do with this thing. After pricing up what it would take to get it back in the air, a figure just shy of six million freedom units (mainly thanks to having to replace the twin missing turbojet engines), he decided instead to use a wrecked Coachmen RV and put the Jetstar’s fuselage on top of the frame, creating a truly bonkers, one-off, Elvis-themed motorhome. As you do.
Given that he was only using the fuselage, or the main body section, of the aircraft, he chopped up the wings and outboard fuel tanks into collectors’ medallions, which he sells at around $300 (USD) each. And in case you think that sounds ridiculous, he reckons that he needs to sell 1000 of them to break even on this project. As of May this year, he’s already sold well over half of that. Told you he was a genius.
The Coachmen started life as a 1999 38-foot motorhome powered by a rear-mounted 24V Cummins diesel, which, if you’re going to put a jet fuselage on top and build a custom RV out of, seems as good a place to start as any. In short order, James had chainsawed, hacked and high-powered rifled the body into oblivion (yep, all on his channel) and was left with a bare frame, engine, driveline and wheels. The perfect blank canvas.
The Jetstar’s interior was surprisingly good for having been exposed to four decades of desert sun, so James is keeping as much of that as he can. There’s also plans afoot for a HVAC system, on-board gennie, and a bunch of other, frankly pretty darn cool, little touches. Oh yeah, and the cockpit still very much looks like a cockpit, with the steering yoke being a fully functional steering wheel. The whole build is, as you’d expect, completely bananas.
Things are getting to the pointy end now too, with most of the fabrication work knocked over and the RV running and driving. It’s down to churching up the interior and then taking this baby on the road. Don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what this mad scientist does next. I’m, wait for it, all shook up (I’m so sorry).
You can watch the LATEST EPISODE HERE.
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