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00:00Up next on American Restoration.
00:02Hey, recording artist Jason Mraz is trusting me with a sign that his grandfather painted.
00:07We can't screw this up.
00:09If there's any way to preserve his brushstrokes or even some of the patina.
00:13It's very, very thin metal.
00:14It's probably going to be one of our most difficult challenges
00:17because we cannot use a machine on this.
00:20Everything is by hand.
00:21Ron recently convinced Fred to buy one of our old gas pops
00:25by coming up with the idea of transforming it into a kegerator that dispenses beer.
00:30I mean, this is a tight area, so we're going to have to do some research
00:33and find a keg that's going to fit.
00:34For all the money I'm spending, it better be one badass kegerator.
00:39Ooh.
00:41Look at a man's workbench.
00:43You see his passions.
00:46His work's in progress.
00:50The things that drive him crazy.
00:54Projects that...
00:56You get the point.
00:57Anyway, every workbench tells a story.
01:00And this is ours.
01:02American restoration.
01:11Here at my shop, we usually take old, beat-up items
01:14and make them look brand new again.
01:16But from time to time, we get a customer
01:19that wants a slightly different take on their item.
01:22Yeah.
01:22Hey.
01:23Afternoon.
01:24I'm Rick.
01:24Hey, I'm Jason.
01:25Jason, good to meet you, bud.
01:26Nice to meet you.
01:26I'm Tom Mraz.
01:27Glad to meet you, Rick.
01:27Tom Mraz.
01:28Jason Mraz?
01:29Yes, sir.
01:30In the flesh.
01:30That's awesome.
01:31I'm a big fan.
01:32What are you guys doing here?
01:33Oh, we sent you a shipment.
01:34And we hope you got it.
01:35All the shipments end up over on a table here.
01:37There's a bunch that just came in.
01:38So let's go over here and we'll look through them.
01:40All right.
01:41Jason Mraz?
01:42Wow.
01:42I was really caught off guard when he walked into my shop.
01:45I can't wait to see what he's got for me.
01:52Old sign.
01:54They've been outside for 56 years.
01:57Wow.
01:57I'm coming down to Rick's restoration today
01:59because I'm interested in getting my Frank DeFixer signs restored.
02:03Both my dad, Tom Mraz, and I were raised in the shadow of those signs,
02:08the advertisement for what my granddad did.
02:10Rick, this sign came from my dad's shop in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
02:14My granddad passed away when I was in ninth grade,
02:16and these signs continued to hang for a long time
02:19until we needed to restore the roof and the signs came down.
02:23And so this is an opportunity for us to restore the signs
02:26and hopefully preserve the integrity of who he was.
02:30He was a welding supervisor for a company in Richmond,
02:33and then at nighttime he was out there fixing things.
02:36The local farmers would come by in the afternoons
02:39and they had to have it fixed that night.
02:40His name was Frank Mraz, but when he decided to get a sign made,
02:45he said, well, I'm going to fix it.
02:46I'm going to be Frank DeFixer.
02:47Frank De...
02:48Instead of the, Frank De?
02:50Yeah.
02:50Right.
02:50You remember your grandfather, right?
02:52I do.
02:52And he was Frank DeFixer, you know, more than just Frank Mraz.
02:56Right.
02:56He was always in his shop.
02:57He always had grease on his hands.
03:00Yeah.
03:00So this is the one detail, I think, of his character
03:03that lives on more than anything,
03:04especially throughout our hometown.
03:06Right.
03:06It looks like you've got two signs, basically, right?
03:09And they both attached in the center.
03:10And he just went straight across the front of them.
03:12Right.
03:13Originally, there were soda advertisements all the way at the end.
03:16Through the years, eventually, he just lopped off
03:18and kept only his sign.
03:20The thing that we love the most about this
03:22is that we can see his brushstrokes in here
03:25when he repainted the letters.
03:26That's the real life that we love about this sign.
03:29So if there's any way to preserve his brushstrokes
03:32or even some of the patina.
03:33This patina that's in here, the sun would bake the paint
03:36and then it'd rain and then it'd get a little bit of rust
03:39and then it'd rip down and then cover the signs.
03:42It looks really, really cool.
03:43You want to leave the life in the sign.
03:45Yeah.
03:45Right?
03:45Keep the brushstrokes, add the patina,
03:48and then make it all structurally sound right.
03:50Yeah.
03:50Man, this is definitely not your normal restoration.
03:53It's more like a preservation project.
03:55And to be honest, it's going to be tough.
03:57This metal's got a lot of rust.
03:59And on top of that, it's very thin.
04:01What I think needs to happen is first I've got to de-rust it,
04:04get that stuff stopped.
04:05And then we'll take it into the body shop
04:07and we will be hand-pounding all this.
04:10Everything on it will be hand-done.
04:12There will be not one power tool used.
04:13And we're going to leave everything your grandfather did by hand.
04:16And that's all the letter.
04:17That's fantastic.
04:18It's a challenge, but I truly love it.
04:21I truly love what I do.
04:22And I can understand your grandfather doing the same thing.
04:25You bet.
04:25You bet.
04:26Thank you very much, Rick.
04:27You bet.
04:28Let's go in the office and we'll do a little bit of paperwork
04:29and I'll start contemplating how I'm going to do this.
04:33Cool.
04:40Pretty delicate, huh?
04:42It's so thin.
04:43I mean...
04:43This is a sign from Jason Mraz.
04:46The singer?
04:46Yeah.
04:47Nice.
04:48The main thing is, is we don't want to take away from any of the character of the sign.
04:53He wants all the brush strokes left on.
04:55The problem is, it's really, really rustic.
04:58Yeah.
04:59We have to stop the rust.
05:01Otherwise, it's going to keep coming back.
05:03Try pieces in the rust removing solution.
05:07Maybe the ends, dip them in the rust solution and then let them strip out and see what happens.
05:12Okay.
05:13We want to see how it reacts.
05:15Sometimes it doesn't pull the original paint off.
05:17Sometimes it just removes the rust.
05:19Rick, the only thing holding this together is the paint.
05:22So thin.
05:23Yeah.
05:23It's probably going to be one of our most difficult challenges in repairing this
05:27because we cannot use a machine on this.
05:30Everything is by hand.
05:31If we try to sandblast the rust off these thin, brittle signs, there'd be nothing left.
05:35So we're going to try a more delicate approach.
05:38If the rust remover doesn't work, I don't know what we're going to do.
05:48Rick.
05:49Yeah.
05:50Fred's here to talk about the gas pump.
05:51Oh, hey.
05:52Hey, Rick.
05:53Nice to meet you.
05:54Yeah, you too, bud.
05:54Yeah, I know Ron sold you a gas pump.
05:57Yeah, you say you're going to turn it into a badass kegerator.
05:59Yeah, that's exactly why I wanted you to get down here so I can go through it and figure
06:03out we're on the same page, basically.
06:05That sounds good to me.
06:06All right.
06:06It's over here.
06:06All right.
06:07Fred is a hardcore biker that makes custom motorcycles here in town.
06:11Ron recently convinced Fred to buy one of our old gas pumps by coming up with the idea
06:16of transforming it into a kegerator.
06:18If I'm going to spend money, you've got to come up with something good.
06:20Let's turn it into a kegerator.
06:22What is that, brother?
06:23It serves beer.
06:24Yeah, that sounds pretty wild, man.
06:25This is not going to be easy, so I definitely want to get Fred's ideas about this restoration
06:31before we start tearing into it.
06:33We discussed, like, triple paint on here, red, white, and blue for America.
06:36Awesome.
06:37When people walk in, I want them to say, damn.
06:39That's what I want to hear.
06:40Then I know you did your job.
06:41One of a kind.
06:42Right.
06:43On the inside, we'll build a refrigerated unit in there, basically, is what we'll do.
06:47I mean, this is a tight area, so we're going to have to do some research and find a keg
06:50that's going to fit.
06:51The compressor will be on the bottom.
06:53It'll all get cold on the inside in here.
06:55And then your lines are running out to the sides.
06:57All this plate and the numbers, we want to see all that.
07:01On the face, this will all be lit, and you'll see everything moving.
07:05Wow.
07:05Okay?
07:05That's a badass idea, Rick.
07:07Can you make that happen?
07:08Yeah.
07:09Money's not an issue with me, but I want something unique, and it better be good.
07:13You just want a tasteful and hot-looking, right?
07:15I mean, just a badass-looking puff.
07:17Yes.
07:17I'm happy with that.
07:18All right, bud.
07:19All right, thanks.
07:19You got it?
07:21So, how are we doing on it?
07:22It fits, but the problem is with this being so tall, to cool the beer, we can't get it
07:27out.
07:27Ah.
07:29We got a little problem here.
07:30Oh, my God.
07:32That's the problem.
07:33These projects have got me really scratching my head.
07:37Oh, my.
07:49Hey, guys.
07:50When Ron sold the idea of converting this pump into a kegerator, I don't think he had any
07:55idea of how the job was going to get done.
07:58Now it's my problem, so we're going to tear it down and see what's what.
08:01The hardest thing that's going to be on this thing is being able to make a unit to hold
08:06this keg and actually keep it refrigerated.
08:08Oh, yeah.
08:08We had to have a compressor unit in the bottom somewhere.
08:10Yeah.
08:11Yeah.
08:11That has to slide and be all self-contained and cold all in itself.
08:14So, we got to get the size of the keg, and then we'll go from there.
08:18When you get the keg, can it help you drain it?
08:20It'll be empty already.
08:22All right.
08:22Get to work.
08:24Over the years, I've worked on over 100 gas pumps, and I've never turned one into a kegerator.
08:29It's a pretty sweet idea, but I think this thing's going to be a huge challenge.
08:33Watch out.
08:37I'll get this cleaned up.
08:38You want to take the computer to Fonzie, maybe?
08:41And voila.
08:48You ready for this?
08:50Yeah, let's see what we got.
08:52We're soaking apart the Jason Mraz sign and rust remover.
08:54It's a test to see how much of the original paint is going to get removed.
08:58Well, how come it's a moment of truth?
09:01Oh, this doesn't look good.
09:02No, it's taking all the paint off.
09:03Hey, the paint.
09:04Let's go find it, Rick.
09:05This project is all about preserving the original paint job.
09:08And although the de-ruster did its job, it went a little too far and stripped off some of the
09:12original paint.
09:13We've got to show this to Rick right away.
09:15Hey, Rick, we got a little problem here.
09:17Problem?
09:18Problem.
09:19Crank the fixer sign.
09:20Yeah?
09:20Oh, my God.
09:22That's the problem.
09:23This is why I wanted to test it.
09:25It definitely did its job on the back, but we can't put the rest of the sign in because it's
09:28going to eat the paint alive.
09:30All right.
09:30And the other thing is, look at the holes in that everywhere.
09:35You don't see it until you hold it up to light.
09:38This is a big problem.
09:39This thing was completely held together by rust.
09:42If we have any shot of preserving this sign, we've got to come up with an idea fast.
09:47We need to really, really put our heads together and figure out how we're going to make this work for
09:50them.
09:56The guys have prepped the kegerator frame, and Ron did me a favor by going out to Big Dog's Brewery
10:01and getting the smallest keg they have.
10:03Now we've just got to figure out how to make everything on the inside work.
10:07Maybe lower it a little bit, but I think we're going to be good there.
10:09Okay, guys, so Ron brought in two kegs.
10:12Is this the biggest one?
10:12That's the smallest one.
10:13This is the smallest one.
10:14Mm-hmm.
10:14It fits, but the problem is with this being so tall to cool the beer, we can't get it out.
10:21Oh.
10:22We can shorten this, but that means we're only cooling half the tank at once.
10:26The only drawback to making one-of-a-kind items like this gas pump kegerator is that there's no blueprint
10:32for how all the inner workings are going to fit together.
10:36I'm at a loss.
10:37Oh, man.
10:37All right, so what do we do now?
10:41We couldn't run some kind of a roller system and pull it out, but by the time we're out, it's
10:46going to be clear out here, and that means the line that runs from this point down to the compressor
10:53is going to have to stretch out to there.
10:56And then when you push it back in, the line, who knows where it's going to go.
10:59So I think the easiest way is to maybe tilt it, then this will slide out, right?
11:05Right.
11:05Slide right out.
11:05Right, then.
11:06Okay.
11:07Tilting the keg will require less slack for the compressor line, which will keep the hose from kinking when you
11:13change the keg.
11:14So I'm hoping this problem can be solved if Fonzie and Dave can build it out.
11:18The first thing we've got to focus on right now is welding this inner frame to the bottom of this
11:24plate with a hinge on it.
11:26And then, Fonzie, you need to figure out on your plumbing end of what we're doing with the refrigeration if
11:31that's going to move back and forth.
11:32All right, sounds good.
11:33All right, I'll come check on you later.
11:42What the hell?
11:44Brett Lee!
11:46Brett Lee!
11:47Hey, hey, Brett Lee!
11:48What are you doing?
11:50Jamming.
11:50It's not every day Jason Mraz comes to the shop, so I figured I'd get some practice in.
11:55Who knows?
11:55If he hears me play, this could be my big break.
11:58There's a lot of things you need to do right now.
11:59You've got two deliveries.
12:00You need to get some stuff done.
12:01You need to get back to work right now.
12:02I don't pay you to play guitar, I pay you to work.
12:07Brett Lee's an aspiring musician, and I actually think he's pretty good.
12:10But we're setting a bad precedent if I let him play guitar in the middle of a work day.
12:14I mean, I figured, you know, I'd practice.
12:16But you need to do it on your own time, all right?
12:18So get back to work.
12:20All right, back to work.
12:23Brett Lee!
12:27Wicked screaming, get back to work.
12:37I'm really worried about the Jason Mraz sign.
12:39The metal is extremely old, thin, and brittle.
12:43Dave has tried to weld it together, but it just won't stick.
12:49My plan was to restore this sign just like Frank DeFixer would, by hand with original materials.
12:55But once we removed the rust, we lost that option.
12:58Now we have to build an all-new sheet metal frame and attach the hand-painted section of the sign
13:03to it.
13:03So we're cutting out the hand-painted sections of the old signs about an inch away from the letters and
13:09fixing them to the new frames.
13:10It's the only way to keep this paper-thin metal together.
13:16The tricky part of combining old and new materials is making the new paint match the old.
13:21So Ted's going to have to work his magic and recreate the look of a half a century's worth of
13:27patina.
13:27I just hope Jason and his dad will like what we're doing.
13:39Okay, Fred, it's right there.
13:42I'm here at Rick's today to see the gas pump he turned into a kegerator.
13:45If this thing ain't what I expected, I'm just going to turn around and walk out of here.
13:50All right, you remember what this thing started out like, right?
13:52Yeah, a pile of s***.
13:53Yeah.
13:54All right, you ain't kidding.
13:55Yeah.
13:56All right, here we go.
13:57One, two, three.
14:02Holy s***.
14:04Is that awesome or what, brother?
14:07When I first saw that kegerator, I was blown away, man.
14:10Awesome freaking job they did.
14:13Damn.
14:13That's better than anything I could have freaking imagined, brother.
14:17Anything.
14:18Man, the color is exactly what I wanted.
14:20Red, white, and blue.
14:21Pretty much says Americana, don't it?
14:23Everywhere you look.
14:24Even old Ethel down there.
14:26You know what I mean?
14:27Yeah.
14:27I found this American gasoline, and I thought, what more American is than American gasoline?
14:33It's got the flag in it, and it's got the eagle on it.
14:36Cool.
14:36The trickiest part of this whole thing is on the inside.
14:39It has to basically be a refrigerator in the inside that holds a keg.
14:43All right, so here, you ready for this?
14:44I'm ready.
14:49Holy s***.
14:51That is a keg inside there.
14:54How did you do that?
14:55Yeah, no, it was one of those things that you build that as you go, you add a little,
15:00subtract a little, give a little, take a little.
15:02How hard is that to get out?
15:05Oh, there you go.
15:06Okay, that was another thing.
15:07We got it in there and said, hey, you can't go up, it hits the computer on the top.
15:11So we designed it to where you just pull out, clicks out, stops right there.
15:16There you go, brother.
15:17Undo your keg, pull it out, put in a fresh one.
15:19Wow.
15:20That's cool, huh?
15:21Yeah, that blows my mind.
15:23When you used to go to the gas station, you would plug the nozzle into the car and the
15:27attendant would come over and flip the switch and what would you hear?
15:30Pump running.
15:33Oh, yeah.
15:34Every time your guy comes up and he has a beer, you're going to be able to tell how many
15:38beers he has because the bell's going to be dinging on.
15:40You can go over here and look.
15:42Boom, next thing you know.
15:44Wow.
15:44Drank another beer.
15:45Drank another beer.
15:46You're cut off.
15:47How much is the price of a cup of beer nowadays, Rick?
15:50Well, right now it's 29 cents a gallon, so it's probably the cheapest beer in town.
15:54Well, 29 cents a gallon, I'm going to have a line in my shop like you can't believe.
15:59Yeah.
15:59Pretty cool, huh?
16:00That's cool as hell.
16:01So you want to try it out?
16:02You ready?
16:02Yeah, I'm ready, brother.
16:05That's awesome.
16:06It was really cool to see the beer come out ice cold like that and how the tap worked.
16:11It totally just impressed the hell out of me.
16:13All right, bud.
16:14All right.
16:15Here's to badass.
16:16Here's to badass and here's to the kegerator.
16:19Right on.
16:22Ah, this is good beer.
16:24It is, man.
16:25Is this American beer?
16:27All right, now all we need is a Harley and a babe and we'd be set.
16:30That's right.
16:31Hey, once I get the kegerator back to my shop, I think I'm going to surprise the guy, shut
16:35down early and throw a little celebration with some ice cold beer.
16:38Thank you so much.
16:39You bet.
16:40That's awesome.
16:41Makes me happy.
16:42Me too, brother.
16:43Let's go inside and we'll finish up the paperwork and I'll help you load that up.
16:47Hey, man, I mean, before you leave, you want to jam?
16:49I'd love to.
16:50That's what I do.
16:52See?
16:52That's what musicians do.
17:03We've had one hell of a time getting Jason Mraz's sign back to the condition that would
17:08make his grandpa proud.
17:10I think we nailed it, but we'll soon find out because he's coming to the shop today.
17:14Hey, Rick.
17:15Rick.
17:15Hey.
17:16Tom and Jason are here.
17:17Hey.
17:18Hey, Tom.
17:18Did you miss me?
17:19Yeah, I missed you.
17:20Hey, Rick.
17:20Rick, I'm excited.
17:21The last time I left you a mess.
17:23Yeah.
17:23So I'm hoping you can give me good news.
17:25I can't wait for you to see it.
17:27You want to see it?
17:27Well, we're excited.
17:28All right.
17:28Okay.
17:28It's right around the corner over here.
17:29Come on over here.
17:30Can I come?
17:30Sure.
17:31I'm here at Rick's today with my dad to see the Frank DeFixer sign that he's restored
17:36for us.
17:37When we brought it in, it was really just a thin piece of rusted tin that had the words
17:42Frank DeFixer on it.
17:44But there was a lot of life in it, and hopefully that life is still there.
17:47You wanted something old, kept old, but made structurally sound and new on the outside.
17:53Very, very difficult.
17:55So here we go.
17:56You ready?
17:56I'm ready.
17:57Here you go.
17:57One, two, three.
18:01Woo!
18:02Look at that.
18:03Wow.
18:04Look at that.
18:05You kept the patina there, the rust and everything.
18:08Look at it.
18:08It's completely rebuilt.
18:10Wow.
18:11I was blown away by the sign.
18:12It looked exactly as I remembered it being up on the roof.
18:16It looked as if nothing had even happened to it, you know?
18:20But I could tell it was restored, which I loved.
18:23We'll just start with the rust, okay?
18:25Okay.
18:25So we start tearing it apart, and you had some ends.
18:29Ends used to be mounted on it.
18:30Sure.
18:31So we tested these ends, and my first thing was try to see if we could de-rust it.
18:35I soaked it in this de-ruster.
18:36It came out.
18:37It was holes.
18:38The only thing holding the sign together was the rust.
18:41That was it.
18:42So I'm freaking out, and all of a sudden, next thing you know, now we're going to have to
18:46weld up all these little corners and make the sign back into one shape again.
18:50And Dave gets there.
18:52He starts welding.
18:53Poo-hole.
18:54Poo-hole.
18:54So what we did is we ended up cutting out right to the very edge of it.
18:59And then Dave went and shaped all this metal out on the corner exactly like the sign would
19:04have been.
19:05Then he could weld because we no longer have rust in there.
19:07And the final stage was Ted, which this is very hard to do this art.
19:12He painted all this splatter and rust and rust marks.
19:16This is white paint looking like rust.
19:19So now it's all set.
19:21It looks old.
19:22It's got good structure.
19:23And your grandfather's rust strokes are still there.
19:26Yeah.
19:27Oh, that's fantastic.
19:28You know, I hope it's what you want, and I hope it's something that, you know, achieved
19:31the goal that you were looking for.
19:33Yeah.
19:33Well, I'm glad we were able to test your skills.
19:35Yeah.
19:36And I'm sure my dad would be quite frankly proud of what you did to extend the longevity
19:44of his name.
19:45Cool.
19:46Well, man, I'm incredibly touched.
19:48I'm incredibly honored that you guys did this work for us and that we get to take it
19:53home and benefit from it.
19:54So thank you.
19:55You bet.
19:55You bet, bud.
19:56Cool.
19:57Thank you much.
19:57Thanks, Scott.
19:58I think again, Rick.
19:58Hey, man, I mean, before you leave, do you want to jam?
20:01I'd love to, man.
20:02Two guitars.
20:03Yeah, of course.
20:04Jam something up.
20:05That's what I do.
20:06See?
20:06What musicians do.
20:08All right.
20:08He didn't want to go back to work right now anyway.
20:10No.
20:10Yeah.
20:11It's hard to tell you the words that are coming to my mind that how thankful I am that I
20:16was able to have Rick do this for us.
20:20Frank D. Fixin' was a handyman.
20:24He could handle anything.
20:27He was my granddad.
20:30He grew his own food and he could fix his own cars.
20:36I watched it all happen in our backyard.
20:42He reinvented the part to fix a broken home.
20:50Oh, well, I wish I was a fixer.
20:56I would fix you up inside.
21:02I would build you a town if the world fell down.
21:07I wish I was that guy.
21:21And we're hangin' at Rick's restoration.
21:27I said it's Rick's restoration.
21:33Rick and Bradley fixed a sign for Tom and Jason.
21:38We're at Rick's restoration.
21:47Nice.
21:48Yeah, dude.
21:49I'm gonna give you goosebumps.
21:50I got goosebumps.
21:51That was good.
21:52That was awesome.
21:53I got goosebumps.
21:53Yeah.
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