New TV series American Restoration

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Motopecane

Motopecane

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So I started watching this new TV series on History channel called "American Restoration". It is a show based around the guy that restores a lot of the items for the crew at the pawn shop in the show "Pawn Starts". Anyway one of his projects was a Hopalong Cassidy bike that a guy brought it. He paid $3,000 to have it fixed up. Don't get me wrong it looked amazing when it was done. The only problem was this; as the guy rode away and when they showed some close ups of the bike I noticed something odd. The restoration guys never attached the coaster brake arm clamp... Anyway thought I would share and check out the show other than that it is right up my alley since I like to restore old things!

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I was amazed that he couldn't find a workable seat pan for it.
I've only seen these bikes in pictures. It looked terrific when done.

Did anybody see the Schwinn Black Phantom and Panther on Pawn Stars right after this show ?
 
Oh! sorry the photo is not the one that was restored on the show. The one on the show did have a white chain. Instead of going out and buying a 10 dollar chain breaker tool they cut it with a grinder.. :lol:

I didn't stay up to see the pawn stars that was on after I'll have to see if it's in on demand.

+1 on the seat thing. I feel like having a custom seat made just cost the guy more money that he will never see because now it's covered in horse hide.
 
outskirtscustoms said:
That bike looks amazing, but should have a white chain.
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I know thats what the guy says on the show, but Ive never seen another hopalong with a white chain, i know chains and tires are usually the first thing to get replaced, but out of all the restored show bike hoppys, you'd think some of these guys would know about the "white chain". Any body seen another with a white chain or an ad that looks like it had a white chain on it ?
 
gotta see this. History ch site doesn't even list it yet.
 
Motopecane said:
I was drooling when they showed that guys bike scrap yard... :roll:
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Me too.......

Also I am only quoting the show on the white chain.......I really have no clue...lol
 
cashman said:
Maybe this show will encourage someone to start making more repro parts for bikes?
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GOD I hope not, Excessive Repros have killed every other hobby.
 
I watched the show, it's kinda goofy and lacking substance. Zanny one liners and feel good moments. Antique Roadshow on PBS is more interesting show that any on these History Channel shows. Ok, but, I was surprised to see the hop-along restoration cost $3,000. 500 for parts made sense but 2,500 for labor? Would that be normal for a complete professional restoration?
 
I do restoration work on multiple things myself and I honestly don't see $2,500 in labor. I have fixed some pretty hammered stuff out there. Chrome is the most expensive (obviously). The parts I can see spending that much, but I doubt that guy happened to have those parts in his yard though. Everything else he had wasn't cruiser-ish, especially not rare stuff either. I just did a restoration on my good buddys wifes bike and didn't charge him a third of that! I restore old gas pumps, pedal cars, coke coolers, old cars from the ground up, etc... anyways that's just my opinion. And here's the bike I did for my buddy........
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With shop time running from $50 - $75 an hour these days, $2,500 sounds about right. That's why this is a HOBBY and not a business. You'll almost always pay more than the bike is worth to have the entire job professionally done. Same with cars... lots of $70,000.00 cars get $120,000.00 restorations just because the owner is in love with the car. That's why it's ALWAYS better to buy a restored item if you don't have the personal skills and time to restore it yourself. Let the guy that had it restored take the loss.
 
if they dont, im sure they soon will! :lol: maybe thats why the resto cost so much, to pay the royalties.
 
Nice restoration, Slick...It looks really "Slick" :mrgreen: Aside from labor, how much in parts and paint went into your restoration? and about how many hours?
 
I supplied the bike for him with all the main parts. Paint was about $150 for the 2 colors and clearcoat. We had the colors matched to the original paint on the tank so both colors are correct. The color is actually a little darker than in the pictures. Decals and stencils were about $60. The new parts list was NOS pedals,grips, repop seat, stainless spokes and nipples. Probably about $600 in parts and paint materials, and the labor to lace the rims and true them which he had a bike shop do. I hand painted and lettered the headbadge because we couldn't find a nice enough original. I have really close to 100 hours into the labor of body, paint, decals, clearing over the decals and full assembly afterwards. The bike was delivered to him just as you see it. With all this time and labor he still has less than half of what they charged for the Hopalong bike on tv. I can restore anyones bike out there so let me know. I use top quality Dupont nd PPG 2 stage paint, everything is sandblasted to bare metal to assure no peeling later down the road and no issues of bad paint underneath reacting and ruining what I painted over. If you have reference photos I can duplicate it. I restore pedal cars, old cars, gas pumps, etc..
 

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