Monster Garage host rides the Peterbilt chopper.

The challenge was formidable.

Take a 1972 Peterbilt chassis with a 3,000-pound Cummins diesel engine and send it on to its next life as a chopper, do it in seven days and spend no more than $3,000.

No problem, at least not for the team The Discovery Channel assembled for its hit television show Monster Garage. The show, which attracts millions of loyal viewers to the cable channel each week, takes ordinary automotive machines like cars and trucks and turns them into something more akin to Frankenstein’s monster. In other episodes, the team, always led by famous custom motorcycle designer Jesse James, turned a school bus into a partying pontoon boat, a mini car into a snow mobile and, more recently, two straight trucks into fighting machines.

For Episode 34, which first aired in December, the team was charged with turning the 158-inch long Pete chassis into a two-wheeled motorcycle patterned after the famous choppers James churns out at his West Coast Choppers shop in Long Beach, Calif. At least that’s what James wanted to do.

Enter teammates, crazy hotrod designers and artists Michael Leeds and Randy Grubb. The two, who were selected for the Monster Garage team based on a vehicle Grubb designed and sold to The Tonight Show host Jay Leno, convinced James a tricycle, or trike, would be more likely to hold the weight of the Cummins and still stand upright.