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00:00Up next on American Restoration, this is a Velocipede, a track inspection device.
00:06This sort of looks like another basket case of yours.
00:08This is cool.
00:10Yeah, I brought this Willard battery charger.
00:12Until you get into it, you're not going to know what you have.
00:14You see how this one fits?
00:16Yeah.
00:16You got a lot of gap.
00:17That's horrible.
00:17So we need a gear.
00:18What are we going to do?
00:19Really be careful.
00:21Just basically take your fingers off.
00:23We're rolling.
00:24We're rolling.
00:25Yeah, baby.
00:26Then we got going fast.
00:27I thought, oh my God, I'm going to die.
00:32I'm Rick Dale, and at my shop, we share a passion to give new life to pieces from the past.
00:43Every project has its challenges, but there's no job we can't handle.
00:49This is American Restoration.
00:56Hey, Mark.
00:57How are you doing?
00:58Hello, Rick.
00:58Hi, Tyler.
01:00I work for the Nevada Northern Railway in Ely, Nevada.
01:02What is this?
01:04Well, we got you something special here.
01:06This sort of looks like another basket case of yours.
01:09We have brought six other items to Rick to restore, and I'm really hoping he can restore this one, too.
01:16This is a Velocipe.
01:18These two wheels would ride on one rail, and then the other wheel would ride on the other rail to
01:24give you balance.
01:25You would pull the handlebars back towards you, and then your feet would be on the pedals there, pushing it
01:31away.
01:31Okay, so it's like a rowing machine, and they used it for track inspection.
01:35You can get up to about 20, 25 miles an hour on this.
01:39Wow.
01:39You're not stopping on a dime, that's for sure.
01:41I love it.
01:43So what's the story on this?
01:45I mean, how did these come about?
01:46Well, if you go to the 1870s, there was a gentleman by the name of George Sheffield who lived five
01:52miles down the track from where he worked, and so he had to walk that five miles.
01:58Well, that got old, so he cobbled something like this together, and he's coming home one night, finds a broken
02:05rail, and he reports that to the railroad, and they go...
02:10Well, how'd you see that?
02:11How'd you see that?
02:12And he showed them this, and they liked it so much, they said, will you make some for us?
02:17And he started producing them for railroads.
02:20They liked it so much, they didn't throw them in the wall.
02:22Yeah.
02:23Our intention is to have it out at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, and we'll let the general public ride
02:30it.
02:30So you want this looking exactly like it did back in the day.
02:34So the $64,000 question, Rick, how much?
02:37It's a little complex because there's stuff missing, and those are old gears.
02:42We're going to have to tear it down, sand all the wood, paint it, powder coat the pieces, redo the
02:47bearings, finish it all beautiful $7,500.
02:51Okay, $7,500.
02:53I'll tell you what, could you do it for $7,000, and I'll throw in a locomotive rental.
02:58So you come up to the Railway Museum and be the engineer.
03:04You're on.
03:05That's all you had to say to me.
03:07You're on.
03:08There's no way in hell I can pass up a chance to drive a locomotive.
03:12I'm as excited as a little kid right now.
03:15Awesome.
03:16Yeah, let's go in the office.
03:17I want to hear how the museum's doing.
03:19Okay.
03:19I want to know how the wigwags are doing.
03:20The wigwags are doing great.
03:28Hey, how are you?
03:29Hey, Rick.
03:29Kelly said you were going to be a little while, and this customer brought in some cool stuff to get
03:33restored.
03:34Yeah, I'm Rick.
03:34How are you?
03:35Rick, nice to meet you, Eric.
03:35Good to meet you.
03:36This is cool.
03:37Yeah, I brought this Willard battery charger and also this old gas pump.
03:42I love this kind of stuff because after World War II, cars became a symbol of American culture, and stuff
03:47like this became very collectible and valuable.
03:50This is a cool battery charger.
03:52It looks like it's probably in the 40s.
03:53The Willard company's been around since the late 1800s.
03:57This one's from Toronto, but they started in Cleveland, Ohio.
04:00So how do you see this done?
04:02Well, if possible, if we can get it to work as it was originally designed and built, that would be
04:08optimum.
04:09Being how old it is, and cars didn't have 12-volt to the mid-50s, this is probably a 6
04:14-volt charger.
04:15So this may have to be updated because everything's 12-volt nowadays.
04:19You know, I'll definitely get inside there and figure it out.
04:21But I would do all this exterior in red, do the black coming over top, black on the bottom, redo
04:26this plate, redo the plate on the side so it just looks like it's a brand-new battery charger.
04:31And what else you got?
04:33This old Bennett pump, I thought this would look good outside my shop.
04:37It's a beautiful, beautiful pump.
04:39And it's right out of the 30s.
04:40It's got such great lines.
04:43It's got these really cool shoulders on it.
04:44This is a computing pump, and they were invented in 1933, I think.
04:49They can actually tell you how much money you're spending.
04:51So what happens after $999?
04:53Right.
04:54That was as high as this gas would ever go.
04:56I spend $100 in my truck.
04:58I wish I could spend $10 again.
05:01So, Rick, what do you think it'll cost to restore both these parts for me?
05:04All right.
05:05Well, this particular one, all restored, is going to be $6,800.
05:09And that one over there is going to be $2,500.
05:15To tell you the truth, I think doing the pump and the charger is going to be out of my
05:20budget.
05:21So I think I'd like to concentrate on this charger, go forward with that.
05:26Okay.
05:27But this pump, you say this is a rear pace.
05:29Yeah.
05:30What would you think about buying this pump from?
05:35Um, how much you want for it?
05:38I think I'd like $600 for that pump.
05:41You know what?
05:42I would love to buy that pump.
05:44So instead of that being $25, it's going to be $1,900.
05:47Okay.
05:47All right.
05:48Great.
05:49Awesome.
05:49Awesome.
05:50Thanks, bud.
05:51You don't have that thing torn down yet?
05:53Mark wants to be able to put it at the museum, so we don't want one piece of this thing
05:58wrong
05:58or out of place.
05:59If we don't have this, we're screwed.
06:01You can hit that gear, and that machine will be well worth its money.
06:05So what do I get if I make it?
06:17You don't have that thing torn down yet?
06:19Just getting some pictures right now.
06:21Okay.
06:21What is this, Rick?
06:23This is called a velocipe.
06:24They went all over the country fixing the railroads or checking it with this.
06:28Mark wants to be able to put it at the museum, so we don't want one piece of this thing
06:33wrong
06:34or out of place.
06:35I don't know if it's missing parts.
06:36I mean, this one has a bar here, but no bar here.
06:39And something tells me that this seat isn't original either.
06:42It looks like somebody redid it and made it out of pine, but I'd like to make it out of
06:46oak
06:46so that it lasts a lot longer.
06:48Since it was patented, maybe we can look at the patent picture.
06:51Then you get his whole project, and you've got to label each part and each thing of what that does.
06:56That'd be where we want to find it.
06:58Can we start tearing this down now or what?
06:59Yeah.
07:00Get it done, okay?
07:01You got it, Rick.
07:12All right, Rick.
07:13So I got the John Deere pedal tractor all wiped down.
07:16I just need your final approval.
07:18Hell, that looks fantastic.
07:21Look at the paint job on that.
07:22It's nice.
07:24This is a real unique restoration because you have two different pieces that were in the boneyard
07:28that were found on two different picks.
07:30Yeah.
07:30Ron found this tractor made by Ertl when he brought in that monster load from Chicago.
07:37And this piece made by Murray came from the Rose Bowl that Tyler ended up with.
07:41So the customer saw the tractor, and it was actually sitting next to the trailer,
07:45and said he wanted to combine both of them together so he can give it to his grandkids.
07:49So instead of the kid riding around on some plastic piece of junk that will break in two days,
07:54they've got this sturdy thing that's been lasting for 50 years.
07:58I know.
07:58I feel like a chump now.
07:59I had, like, the plastic toys and...
08:01No, I bet.
08:02You lived in a plastic world.
08:03I'm in the 90s.
08:04Yeah.
08:04I mean, it's cool, right?
08:05Yeah, it looks perfect together.
08:07The way they manufactured these, they cast them in sand.
08:09So the aluminum would look really, really rough.
08:12We sanded it all out to make it look like a goddamn racing tractor
08:16to where it's really, really smooth.
08:18And you see the paint job Ted put on it?
08:20I mean, it's just beautiful.
08:21He cleared over everything.
08:23You sort of see the motor design over here.
08:24This thing looks good.
08:26The trailer on the back here used to be all destroyed.
08:28We did all the body work and everything.
08:30Ted did all the decals and the art here.
08:32Made it operate again to where you can actually lift up and dump the bed.
08:36But together, it's a total package.
08:39Well, I think it's ready.
08:40I don't see a flaw on it.
08:41It all works.
08:42It looks great.
08:43Let's go ahead and get it shipped out.
08:44All right, cool.
08:45Okay.
08:45I wish I was six again.
08:50Hey!
08:51Can you bring some room on this table?
08:53It's like carrying a small elephant.
08:55You look like you're suffering.
08:57Jesus.
08:58This is the box of parts for the Velocipede.
09:00Okay.
09:01And I'm having trouble figuring out what's what here.
09:03All right.
09:04Let's just get some parts out.
09:05Let me figure out if we can put this thing together.
09:08This would go like that.
09:10Mount that there.
09:13This would go right like that.
09:15And then the next one is the axle.
09:17This piece here would go in here.
09:19You push the row handle to move this big gear.
09:21So you only have to push it a little to get the small gear spinning, the axle really fast.
09:26So it's a lot easier to pedal.
09:28You don't have to pedal this as much to make this go as fast.
09:31That's correct.
09:31The problem is you see how this one fits, right?
09:34You see how this is not in there?
09:36Yeah.
09:36You got a lot of gap.
09:37That's horrible.
09:38You see how these?
09:39These are a lot tighter, right?
09:40Yeah.
09:41Mark wants to be able to actually drive it.
09:43Sooner or later, this is going to totally break down and it won't work.
09:46So we need a gear.
09:47Yeah.
09:48This is the piece that actually makes it work.
09:50If we don't have this, we're screwed.
09:52We're bottom line, we're screwed.
09:53So we need a gear.
09:55Yeah.
09:55Mark doesn't have one.
09:56You know, some manufacturing company could go ahead and make one, but they're going to charge us an arm and
10:00a leg.
10:00I mean, if we were to send this out to try to have it cast, it would have to be
10:03perfect, which it's not.
10:04And it wouldn't last.
10:05It's cast.
10:05Yeah.
10:06I don't know.
10:07What are we going to do?
10:08What about the Omax?
10:10The reason why we got the machine is so that we can make parts like this.
10:14Yeah, but we don't really know how to use it yet, Dad.
10:16We just got in a new machine called the Omax that might be able to reproduce what we need.
10:20But we're a little green on it, and the gear has to be perfect.
10:24You've been practicing a little bit, right?
10:26Yeah.
10:26Will it cut something this thick?
10:28I've only cut thin sheet metal.
10:30At the moment, it's the only option we have.
10:33I know it's going to be difficult because it's your first time trying to make a gear.
10:37If you can hit that gear, you're going to save us a lot of time, and that machine will be
10:40well worth its money.
10:41So what do I get if I make it?
10:43This will be an achievement that will be appreciated deeply by me, and that you've got to put in your
10:48pocket.
10:49The gear?
10:50You want me to put the gear in my pocket?
10:51I want you to put depreciation in your pocket.
10:53Oh, that pocket's too small.
10:54You're a smart ass.
10:55That's what you are.
10:57All right, are you ready?
10:58Yeah, I'm ready.
10:59Go.
10:59I hope it works.
11:00Oh, that's cool.
11:02Son of a bitch.
11:04I'm here to pick up my Willard battery charger.
11:06Let's see this thing.
11:07You got it in your eyes, Dad.
11:08I'm ready, man.
11:09You're in your head, right?
11:09Let's see it.
11:23Hey, Ty.
11:24What's up?
11:25Figured it out?
11:26I hope so.
11:27We're restoring a 104-year-old philosophy, and it has a gear on it that is extremely worn out.
11:33There's no parts for a piece this old, so we're going to try to make one with our new Omax
11:37waterjet machine.
11:38The problem is we really don't know how to work it yet, so hopefully we can work this thing out
11:43because we're out of options.
11:44The way that it works is that it's basically taking high-pressure water and uses garnet, sort of like sand.
11:51And then this little nozzle right here mixes them together, and it creates 50,000 PSI.
11:58That's a lot.
11:59That's a lot.
11:59And the thing is, we've got to figure out if it's going to do what we need to do, so
12:02we've got to try it out.
12:03This machine takes time to program.
12:05It's expensive to operate, and it would take hours to cut that gear out of a two-inch piece of
12:10steel.
12:10So we're going to cut it out of a thin piece of material to make sure we have everything right,
12:14and then we'll do the real thing.
12:15We've got to really be careful with this nozzle.
12:18Let's just basically take your fingers off, and I guarantee it'll cauterize it as it goes, and you're just coming
12:23out with nubs.
12:24Am I going to get wet?
12:25No.
12:25All right, are you ready?
12:27Yeah, I'm ready.
12:28Go.
12:28I hope it works.
12:35You said I wasn't going to get wet.
12:37My bad.
12:38Oh, now you put the water up.
12:41Well, that's cool.
12:42It's cutting the hole for the center right now?
12:44Yeah.
12:45Oh, that's cool.
12:46Lift it up.
12:49Son of a bitch.
12:51Did you lower that water down again just to give me a little splash?
12:54What a little smartass.
12:57Bring the water down.
12:59Good.
13:08Almost there.
13:10All right, let me see.
13:13There's that.
13:14Looks good.
13:15There's that.
13:17All right, so that's the hair off.
13:20Well, that sucks.
13:21You've got to keep tweaking and trying and tweaking and trying until you get it perfect, Tyler.
13:26So we need to try to do that before we actually cut the big piece, because this is expensive to
13:30run.
13:31I've got to go prep that battery charger for Eric.
13:33I'll come back and check on you.
13:35Well, hopefully that gear is exactly what we need.
13:45Hey, Rick.
13:46Yeah.
13:47Eric's here for the battery charger.
13:49All right.
13:49Hey, Eric.
13:50How you doing?
13:50How you been?
13:51Good, good.
13:51You?
13:51Thanks, Ron.
13:52I'm here to pick up my Willard battery charger.
13:55I'm hoping Rick was able to get it to work.
13:57Eric, when you brought this battery charger in, what do you remember it looking like?
14:00It was rough, dented.
14:01I think it even had some mud on it.
14:03There had been some welded repairs, just, you know, the cables were missing.
14:07Right.
14:08It was rough.
14:08Very rough.
14:09All right.
14:09So here we go.
14:10You ready?
14:11Let's see this thing.
14:12One, two, you got it in your eyes now.
14:15I'm ready in your head, right?
14:16Let's see it.
14:17Three.
14:19Wow.
14:19Look at that.
14:20It's awesome, because that metal was just beat up, holes in it all over the place.
14:25Okay.
14:25All the knobs came out nice.
14:27You can't compare them at all.
14:28Good work, man.
14:29That looks great.
14:30It's pretty sweet looking.
14:32Yeah, it is.
14:32Like you said, everything on it was dented, because it's so small that it was probably
14:37carried around a lot, not wheeled.
14:39Right.
14:40And then it got beat up.
14:41So what we did was sandblasted it, eliminated all the holes, did all the body work on the
14:45red portion of it.
14:46The glass on the amp meter and everything's all been cleaned up.
14:50The knob itself got polished out.
14:52This is actually Bakelite knob.
14:54And on the inside was the coolest looking stuff.
14:58But it would never work again, because it was missing electrical parts.
15:01So I left everything inside there.
15:04And we put a newer battery charger on the top of that.
15:06And it works great.
15:08So what you do is take the positive lead, which is red, and hook it to the positive portion
15:14of the battery, the negative, to the black one.
15:17And a few hours later, you're good to go.
15:19It'll charge any battery.
15:20It'll trickle charge.
15:21It'll high-speed charge.
15:23You know, you're going up to a car and you've got a totally dead battery.
15:25You can put it on it.
15:26Boom, it'll start it, you know?
15:28To see it back in this condition is just really awesome.
15:31What are you going to do with it?
15:32What I want to do is use it as a raffle item for a benefit for a good friend of
15:37mine.
15:37He had kidney failure and actually just had a kidney transplant.
15:41Wow.
15:41So he's okay?
15:42Yeah, he's doing great.
15:43Yeah, so you're going to do a benefit and make some of those medical bills up?
15:47That's awesome.
15:48That's awesome.
15:49You're a good man.
15:49Yeah, well, good luck on the benefit.
15:51I hope you do really well with that, you and your friend.
15:52I hope your friend stays healthy.
15:54Let's go inside and I'll cut you a little donation right now.
15:57Come on.
15:57Okay, Rick, thanks.
16:03Did you pick your nose in my car?
16:05Not yet.
16:07I feel just like a kid.
16:08This is cool.
16:09I'm operating the train.
16:10You are operating the train.
16:21Today, Ron Leonard and I are heading up to Ely, Nevada,
16:25some 242 miles north of Las Vegas.
16:28This is home of the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and I love coming here.
16:32I mean, the museum is really cool and full of early 20th century equipment and half the stuff I've restored.
16:39It's great seeing things like they were back in their heyday and I can't wait to show the velocity to
16:44Mark.
16:45Hey, Mark.
16:46Hello, Rick.
16:46How are you?
16:47Hey.
16:48How's my velocity?
16:50I came out good.
16:51I can tell you're excited.
16:52Oh, I am excited.
16:53Yes.
16:53I didn't even have to ask.
16:55What I'd like to do is I want to unload it and I don't want you seeing it.
16:59Yes, of course.
16:59After you get everything set up, we'll meet on the end of the tracks over there.
17:04Okay.
17:07The thing that I'm most worried about with this restoration is Rick has never seen a Velocipede before.
17:14And you just don't go to your corner Velocipede store and say, hey, I need parts.
17:19Mark, when you brought this Velocipede in, it was pretty rough.
17:21I mean, you remember that?
17:22Well, yeah, it was only 104 years old.
17:27There were some pieces off.
17:29The gears were all off on the bottom.
17:30Some of the wheels were off.
17:32It was a basket case.
17:33Yes.
17:33So, so, so.
17:35Okay.
17:35Okay.
17:36All right, here we go.
17:37All right.
17:38All right.
17:38One.
17:38One.
17:39Two.
17:40Two.
17:40Three.
17:42Oh, my.
17:44That is just grand.
17:47What do you think?
17:48I'm speechless.
17:49You know, you guys, you made it look like a museum piece.
17:52Yeah, I tried.
17:53Just like we were asking for.
17:55Good.
17:56This is astounding.
17:58Did we give you all of the gears?
18:00We were missing one gear.
18:01One gear.
18:02Right.
18:03It was an easy find, right?
18:06We didn't go find it.
18:07We actually had to make it.
18:08The rear gear was our problem.
18:10It was totally stretched because it gets the most torque.
18:14Right, exactly.
18:14So, we got this new machine in.
18:16It's called an Omax.
18:17And what it does is it takes water pressure and shoots down.
18:20Yes.
18:21And it just literally drew the gear.
18:23We actually made that whole gear.
18:25Wow.
18:25These wheels, I mean, this is steel, but the rims are wood.
18:29So, we took all these apart, painted them, and then put them back exactly how they went.
18:33We ended up building these out of oak.
18:35So, now it's not as wobbly anymore, and it'll last another 110 years.
18:39Cool.
18:39Okay?
18:40But everything else on it, we left original.
18:42And as far as the color, underneath this toolbox, that was the only thing that had the original color.
18:47Right on the bottom.
18:48So, we pulled it off, turned it over.
18:50Here's this color right on the bottom.
18:52Cool.
18:52People come in and ride on it, so you give them a little cushion.
18:55We did it the other way, too.
18:59The real, real man ended up sitting on that bad boy.
19:02Yes, exactly.
19:03So, can we take it for a test ride?
19:05Yeah.
19:06Yeah.
19:07Let's see this baby in action.
19:08We'll take it for a spin.
19:14All right.
19:15There we go.
19:19Yeah.
19:21Look at that.
19:22I mean, could you imagine trekking the track, riding that far?
19:25He looked like he was having fun.
19:26He was getting a little bit of a workout there.
19:28It was good.
19:29I'm impressed.
19:32What do you think?
19:33Oh, it's fabulous.
19:34You're in it, Abby.
19:36You only went 300.
19:38See?
19:39The last time you saw it looking like this was in 1910.
19:43So, to actually be able to see it, how it came off the factory floor, and of course, having our
19:49logo on it, too, was a nice, nice touch.
19:52You promised me a train ride.
19:54So, is this a train I'm going to get to ride?
19:55I'd be honored.
19:57This is what makes the Nevada Northern such a special place.
20:00This locomotive was delivered right here July of 1910.
20:06And still doing today what designers and builders intended over a century ago.
20:13Let's go up.
20:14When I crawled up in that thing, the smell of the coal and the oil, it was so intense.
20:19Are you ready?
20:20Yeah, I'm ready.
20:21No, no, no, no.
20:23Are you ready?
20:23All right, I'm ready.
20:24I'm ready.
20:25Two toots.
20:29Grab your throttle there.
20:30Okay.
20:31And ease it back to you.
20:33Keep her coming.
20:34Just a little more.
20:37And there we go.
20:39We're rolling.
20:39We're rolling.
20:40Yes.
20:41So, pull it.
20:46Nice.
20:48Driving that thing was the most incredible thing I've ever done.
20:51I mean, I felt like I was in the 1900s.
20:53It was an incredible ride.
20:55The amount of force and weight that's pushing you, and then we got going fast.
20:58And I thought, oh my God, I'm going to die.
21:02It was a lot of fun.
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