- 7 hours ago
American Pickers - Season 27 - Episode 20: Rusty and Retro Relics
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TVTranscript
00:02hey what's up brother what's up yeah chip shit i'm almost there i'm drinking cold brew
00:07getting all jacked up for him that guy's that guy's got more energy than i do you better bring
00:12it man chip boost is the king of cool when it comes to cars mike will you see chip tell
00:19him i
00:19said hey you know chip jersey no but i'm i'm sure he's hurting me dude i'm jersey john yeah right
00:26listen we're in the same business he restores stuff i restore stuff we're running the same circles
00:31you guys are more jacked up than i am hell yeah man hey brother i got a favor to ask
00:36what i need
00:38you to ask chip or a t-shirt or a hat are you serious double extra large and the hat
00:44i like
00:44the trucker once can you tell him to sign the back i think robbie's probably lying about his size so
00:50i'm gonna get triple x oh yeah mike mike i wear a small i like to show up my physique
00:55i think he hung up jersey dude
01:05i've been doing this for a long time and i've been very fortunate to meet some really cool people
01:10chip boost is one of them most people know the guy as a legendary car designer but what a lot
01:17of
01:17people don't know is he is a serious bicycle collector too we've made deals in the past and
01:23this time i'm bringing in one of the rarest bicycles out there a 1930s elgin bluebird
01:30hey hey chip we're close to the public hey buddy what's up good to see you man how are you
01:40good to see you yeah been too long here i want to give you one of these
01:45old bicycles i got some bikes there you go dude you managed to put more stuff in here
01:51i got i gotta find places to put my stuff i know i see that it's looking good what about
01:55the
01:55the harley bike is that something you scrape together or is that real no that was uh a friend
02:00of mine had that and the indian and i bought both of them from chip boost is one of those
02:05guys when
02:05you say his name it just makes you smile because the things that he makes are so inspirational the
02:11designs are epic they're legendary they're timeless or what people call evergreen now his stuff
02:17is beautiful but he's also got a big heart man i had a bike shop when i was 12 years
02:23old get out of
02:24here on my parents like you had a brick and mortar no no no i was my parents side yard
02:28i had a bike
02:29shop in the front yard too i would go to swap meets yeah and garage sales and buy bikes i'd
02:34grab the bike
02:35and i would repaint them and then i'd bring oh you were painting them even yeah and then i'd reassemble
02:39them and then the neighbor kids would come in and i'd sell them to them really i'm known for doing
02:44vehicles but the first stuff i did for myself was a bicycle i wanted my bicycle to be as cool
02:50as my
02:51father's car so i would take my bike to the shop i would take it apart i customized the frame
02:55i was
02:56doing all kinds of custom paint work and that's where it really started for me i'm still living
03:00my childhood to this day when you were painting bikes as a kid were you just doing in the front
03:04yard no my dad had the hot rod shop oh my gosh so everything looked great even then this quality
03:10when i first met him through conversation it was evident right away that he was a bicycle guy and
03:16he'd been doing it for a long time and obviously he's looking for the rare stuff just like i am
03:20did you bring the bluebird i brought the bluebird yeah we can go get it if you want to just
03:24before
03:24you got here i was working on the drawing of it but at the end of the day the community
03:28is small
03:29and we all help each other out man i mean we're all growing old together you know we all love
03:34the
03:34same stuff what's mine now might be his someday and back and forth so today i'm so excited because
03:40this guy is epic where's the bluebird it's in the box remember you said you didn't care which shape
03:46it was in what up danny d hey guys so i'm gonna send you to meet john this property's been
03:54in their
03:55family since 1912. i mean they've really just kind of left it alone for the last 70 years wow what
04:00on top
04:01of that their grandparents owned an appliance store appliance store like what in the 1940s 50s yes i mean
04:07they've opened it up but that's where it stops they haven't really gone inside to organize or like
04:11lay hands on things just yet it's just all kind of there oh that's cool so it's all kind of
04:17old tvs
04:17and radios and stuff there all right yeah thanks danny all right have a good time guys
04:23right here look at this i was just cool man look at there's there's the store right here i wonder
04:28if
04:28that's a store no that's cool wow yeah that's an appliance store there's the end of us right here
04:33oh little barns here he is
04:38hello i'm john you talked to danielle i did oh yeah rob nice to meet you good to see you
04:43this is the kind of stuff we're looking for talk to danny about this oh yeah she mentioned some of
04:48this stuff this is an old house it's third generation no kidding yeah so did you grow up in
04:52this house i did not my great-grandfather moved here in 1916 and my grandfather grew up here with
04:59his brothers and his sisters 12 of them there were yeah very cool so it's generation it's
05:04generations they've been here yeah so when my great-uncle larry passed away my dad inherited
05:09the property and then my dad passed away and it ended up being my mom's wow i love this yeah
05:15so
05:15yeah it's narrow stairs it's a cool old building you can tell people are smaller and skinnier watch
05:20your head all right yes all right good idea and this is really not a railing
05:24it's just there for show it's a whoa yeah this is great wow fantastic yeah they would just bring
05:32it up here if they didn't want it anymore and old pictures and stuff anytime you can get into a
05:36multi-generational family's home where do you want to start you want to start in the attic and i want
05:42to go to the back far corner because that's the stuff that got put in the attic first we're talking
05:47a hundred years one family look at this robbie baseball so who's that my grandfather's in here
05:53so that's my grandfather john yeah and my uncle larry he was in there as well this was made by
06:00a
06:00professional photographer looks like it's from the late teens early 20s i mean it's perfectly in focus
06:05everybody's organized the lighting is perfect and this is a new jersey team that's near and dear to my
06:11heart it was a semi-professional team that's the eagles yeah wow so my my dad used to tell me
06:16stories
06:16that his dad was the catcher on that so this got to be something you want to keep um it's
06:22oh it's
06:22third generation you know so you would sell it yeah yeah i'll think i'll sell it okay give me price
06:27what do you think 75 bucks okay i think that's fair all right i'm not sure what photos are worth
06:33well i mean i i i think photos are cool i mean that tells the history of it a lot
06:40of people always
06:41stored stuff in their photos oh i never knew that money and stuff same thing with money all kinds
06:46of different stocks man john what is this my grandfather and his brother older brother and
06:54younger brother started manville electric self-taught electricians i mean to me it looks
06:58like it hung on a window like on the outside yeah and when he was done with it he was
07:02like i'll just
07:03put it in the back it's like they used a family car for business just would have gone on a
07:06model t
07:07had two little hooks on it it was made of leather you hooked it on the door you pulled up
07:11you look like a businessman you pulled it off you look like a family guy two and a quarter
07:19two fifty honestly i've never seen one before like this i'm gonna do it all right i appreciate
07:24you thanks thank you thank you all right here i'm gonna let i'm gonna let you do the unveiling
07:33where'd you find this it came out of texas okay and it has a bonus frame yeah here i like
07:40that you
07:40got a bluebird sitting right here yeah i wanted something to you know okay here i want to put
07:44this over here so it don't fall and scratch that okay there you go look at that i mean this
07:49is the
07:49only piece i really really was look at this look how they did they did some welding here or something
07:54yeah they did believe it or not i have a picture of this thing together my dad had another bike
08:02that
08:02he always would talk about it's the elgin bluebird yeah when i first saw this bicycle i thought of
08:08chip foos right away for two reasons one because he told me that he didn't care what condition it was
08:14he wanted an elgin bluebird and two he's the only guy i know that can fix something like this man
08:20i mean let's face it it's in a lot of different pieces it's in really bad shape and it's going
08:25to
08:25take someone that knows metal that can move metal the way he can do it look at this here we
08:31go baby
08:32yep oh yeah look at this thing heck yeah
08:39isn't it killer though it is this thing i've always considered the elgin bluebird the lincoln zephyr of
08:45bicycles because it's so long and airflow and streamlined and when you look at the lines
08:50of this bicycle it's incredible it's a great part of history you know in america with motorcycles and
08:56cars and automobiles the 1930s the design of the elgin bluebird stands with all of those different
09:04industries i would love it to go somewhere that somebody could restore it or whatever you're going
09:10to do with it i want to build an electric bluebird you do of course you do these things are
09:16heavy if it
09:17had a pedal assist i think it'd be really cool i have ridden an electric assist you know pedal assist
09:22bike and they're actually really easy to ride the bluebird is a heavy bike it's not a bike that you
09:28go out and just have a leisurely ride you have to work to make that bike work so a battery
09:34would sit
09:34on top of the no no underneath it oh okay but then where would the electric motor go that'll be
09:39in
09:39the hub oh okay you're going to do one of those yeah so i want to give it a bit
09:43of a curve
09:44i'll drop the crank a little bit and this will be a little bit softer through here so i want
09:49to
09:49soften that up i'll have to lengthen it so i gotta split it anyway oh it's perfect i gotta lengthen
09:55that to get you you have to you have to actually separate this to lengthen it yes you know it's
09:59interesting that this is cracked right here because this is the weak point of the bike this bike wants
10:04to flex right there all of the pressures right here i've seen several of them that all fail there
10:09one of the things that chip pointed out that i didn't think about was that hole right where it
10:14broke you know where the speedometer cable goes through you've already got a thin metal there the
10:19seat tube is arched and then they've got a hole you know so there's a separation in that energy there
10:26you know so him pointing that out to me i was like okay that's the aha moment that was one
10:31of the
10:31design flaws in this bike i mean what boy's not jumping off a curb on his bicycle you know and
10:37that's
10:37that's where it starts when people were designing these high-end pre-war bicycles back in the 1930s
10:42they weren't designing something super durable they were designing something beautiful it was
10:48basically more beauty than beast you want to keep the same lines but just kind of celebrate them more
10:54it's going to get stretched a little bit so i can put a longer fender both front and rear so
10:57it's
10:57going to be it's going to be longer than this yes oh my gosh that's going to be crazy and
11:02then add
11:03the electric power it's just so cool to see him geek out about bicycles i mean hell he creates
11:08things like this i mean he takes a piece of paper draws a vehicle on it and then he will
11:14actually
11:15build it and he's one of the best in the world i have the drawing over here i can show
11:19you what i'm
11:20going to do oh my god dude i want to see that jersey what you got robbie you're always talking
11:29about
11:29what your favorite thing coal and steam oh actual blueprints yeah and the notes and the notes this is
11:37an early engineering project pratt institute wow so uncle larry went to the pratt institute um that's
11:44where he learned electrical engineering because that was the very beginnings of engineering electrical
11:48engineering got leased right and and that was at its infancy right it was early 1900s electricity
11:53was just fascinating stuff back in the day i mean these guys was like beyond his time almost he was
11:58like thinking forward he was he was very forward thinking i've been restoring antiques for a very
12:02long time and i've been really interested in anything that's going to help me make the things be
12:06period correct the right fasteners the right materials to use and that's what's in these books
12:12practical engineering and drawings industrial control catalog this really is how to build a power
12:18plant very little of the information that's in these books is available on the internet because
12:24it's lost technology and that's what i'm capturing from these early volumes i might glean one little
12:30piece of information like oh wow that's how that switch works in this in this circuit you know this is
12:35something you would keep then yeah yeah this is something i would put it in my own personal library
12:38it's just something new jersey related absolutely you know it's just a cool piece of engineering
12:42history
12:4450 bucks
12:47yeah that sounds good good yeah that's i can't even negotiate dude thank you man he was looking at the
12:52the numbers and how the different formulas were there and the different pictures and the blueprints
12:56he got really excited about it robbie thank you you know listen i i got it now i'm gonna have
13:01to
13:01listen to this for the next freaking three months i'm gonna read this i'll be reading the whole thing in
13:05the van
13:05as we go across that would be great yeah like by the time we're done we're gonna have a power
13:10plant done
13:12oh my god that is so freaking cool it's just got a little bit of that more of a teardrop
13:19feel and
13:19then there's almost like an indian fender a little bit lighter on the front a little bit heavier here
13:24to play with that line coming off the bottom yeah this is incredible seeing chip put pen to paper
13:30it's nuts man i mean this artwork is so gorgeous really the important part was the tank okay and
13:37you have that there yeah yeah yeah so that's why that frame works you know i've got a nice one
13:42here
13:42but it's a shame to cut it up because i want this softer yeah and this to have a bit
13:47of that arc to it
13:48and you know the uh stuart warner front hubs the springer i saw that i saw what you're doing i've
13:54i've seen them in magazines i haven't actually seen cool i i have one okay it's from the 50s but
13:59okay i'm not
14:00building something to look like 1930s i mean yeah yeah yeah i just want to build something fun
14:04i mean think about the chance of something like this happening where you find a bike that was
14:09motorized broken in half separated and then he has had the idea all this time of finding something
14:16like this himself or someone bringing it to him like i am and he's gonna motorize it but with an
14:21electric motor because they're so heavy they're not fun to ride yeah yeah yeah but this would be fun to
14:26people are gonna freak when they see this thing going down the road no i mean seriously i mean i
14:30love the way you're skirting the fenders thank you so this is the perfect donor for what chip wants to
14:35do because it's basically like the heart the lungs the kidneys you know the the liver all of it's
14:42there let me throw this at you what about um possibly doing something in trade i love trades
14:48okay if i can see what you got parts wise or even bicycle wise yeah then maybe we could just
14:53trade for
14:54it yeah oh by the way i gotta ask you have you ever heard of jersey john before jersey who
15:00jersey john
15:03the plumber that's what i'm talking about okay that's what i needed to know that that's just like
15:09an inside thing between me jersey and robbie found a couple cool pieces that wouldn't it's really
15:15early though this is the stand this is uh this is like dress making right yeah oh that is yeah
15:20i
15:20think it's early i'm surprised it survived this long in the attic in the heat i found out that my
15:24great grandmother made all the clothes for all the kits she used to make all her dresses and stuff for
15:30the family so it's all the sewing stuff yeah so that's why yeah and with all the measurements on
15:36it and stuff it was probably for making dresses absolutely and then you got this religious mary oh i
15:41didn't that's mary yeah and look at look at how conditioned over look at the way her hands are
15:44is that porcelain what does it mean no it's it's it's plaster it's like a plaster i know they used
15:49to have a lot of religious artifacts and stuff throughout the house my family as well we were
15:53born and raised catholics all nine yards we had a lot of this kind of stuff laying around how about
15:57a hundred bucks for both good not gonna argue with you it's getting hot up here oh my god new
16:03jersey
16:03summers are notoriously hot and now this is proving it because we're in a new jersey attic i mean it
16:09is
16:09crazy hot in there i mean i can't even see sometimes because the sweat's dripping in my eyes
16:13i think it's like table legs it's like pieces like this is probably from lamps or something like
16:18that it's got a cloth in the back it's all wood yeah it's white wood and this is cast iron
16:22piece
16:23in here this looks like somebody made it 125 i do 100 how about 110 all right 110 sounds good
16:30you got
16:31all right christmas must have been big around here because i'm finding a ton of christmas stuff here
16:35when robbie pulled out that base for the tree i thought that was really cool and you just imagine them
16:40setting up their tree on that we would all get together at christmas and it was a really good
16:45time is it cast iron yeah it's it's 100 oh there's there's some of the balls right there you go
16:50you
16:50found them they were underneath yeah they were inside they were inside this 75 bucks all right sounds
16:57good at work yeah absolutely appreciate it thank you
17:04you've been up here before yeah but it's been years i don't know if i had all the hooks up
17:09here
17:09before oh you got the wheels up okay wheels and i've got frames over there yeah yeah yeah the last
17:15time i was here it was to buy an old bicycle it was a shaft drive columbia wood rim but
17:19it had a leaf
17:20spring front end on it and i just kind of kicked myself for not digging deep into his parts because
17:26the guy's been doing this i mean just as long as i have so who knows what's up there this
17:31is either
17:31late 1800s early 1900s that's a tall unicycle i haven't ridden that one what where'd you get that
17:37at uh that's a unicycle from that time period yep god this thing's nuts dude it's got the brass tag
17:45on
17:46it yeah have you seen that before from the schwinn exactly every piece that i've ever seen has this
17:52brass tag on it was from the schwinn family that's what he told me it was from the schwinn family
17:55he's exactly right then i was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when schwinn
18:01opened up a building that they had housed all these old bicycles in there was a guy named james heard
18:07that was kind of heading up the schwinn collection he was marketing it and so there were swap meets
18:12held in chicago and there was actually like a little museum down on navy pier it was a cool time
18:18to be kind of entering the hobby but in that building where all those old bicycles were at
18:24every one of them had that brass tag you know and you've seen them in auctions later on and maybe
18:29at swap meets and when you see the brass tag you're like that's from the schwinn family so this is
18:34a
18:34very special piece and on top of that the guy rides unicycles okay so i'm learning all this stuff
18:40about chip today do you know how to ride this yes holy crap are you kidding me i probably haven't
18:45ridden this in probably five years no kidding what do you value the the big long one at
18:52i don't know that i would want to sell that one i don't blame you man pick in 101 don't
18:56ask a guy
18:56that rides unicycles to buy his rarest unicycle because it ain't gonna happen oh dubuque dude this
19:04is this is iowa yeah that's dubuque iowa right there baby what are these bars down here you got
19:09what are these off these look like they're on track bar track bike or something
19:14and the grips are on and those are pirelli are they oh yeah pirelli grips so it's like what
19:20would you want for these in trade i don't even know what they're worth i mean to me i'll tell
19:24you
19:24what they're worth to me they're worth uh a couple hundred bucks to me he's in my cabinet of old
19:29bike
19:29parts and everything he's pulling out he goes well maybe this and i'm thinking in my head i didn't say
19:33anything but i'm thinking no that chain ring's interesting that's a remington believe that out
19:40let me that might be something i i would be interested in i'm spotting a lot of small things
19:44in this parts cabinet you know 20 here 150 there 200 there and then i start realizing you know what
19:51this doesn't add up to a lot and there's a reason why this stuff's in this cabinet he put it
19:55behind
19:56glass see these two hot wheels yeah these are the rarest hot wheels ever made really
20:03these were never sold because they were pre-production prototypes do you remember
20:08when mother's wax when you bought the wax yeah it had a hot wheel oh cool they wanted to build
20:14the
20:14grand master which is a car that i designed and built here they created all the tooling and then
20:19mother's and hot wheels got into a legal battle okay mattel just wanted the rights to make this
20:26yeah but they couldn't because i had a deal with oh so they never made them only six of the
20:31prototypes were ever built i have two of them mattel has the other four so has anybody estimated what
20:36they would bring i have no idea what they would bring oh my gosh there are so many companies that
20:41have aligned with him i mean here we're looking at hot wheels he's worked for dodge he's worked for ford
20:46i mean he's created his own wheel line i mean you know sometimes i forget all that stuff because
20:50we're such bike geeks you know but when he pulls out the hot wheel and he's like this is one
20:55of the rarest
20:55hot wheels and he's telling me why i'm like wow man i mean what talent this guy has so what
21:00he's saying you give me these for the bluebird uh how many bluebirds do you have
21:06is that where you're going with this i just wanted to share the story no i love no it's great
21:12my uh great uncle he uh started this with my grandfather and his brother how convenient was
21:18that he lived next door yeah come right here to the business every day just walk right over right
21:22it's like working from home this is cool right oh wow you weren't a kid in here whoa man yeah
21:28look
21:28at this look at this jersey look at the lights this is great walking into this old appliance store
21:34is amazing because there's new old stock appliances from like 1960 or 1955 black and white televisions that
21:43are brand new there was never an i love lucy episode on there 219.95 back then that was a
21:50lot of money
21:50yeah that was a lot of money man a lot of money that that was a couple weeks paycheck i
21:54see toasters
21:55i see lighting and radios yeah so and he would fix the radios and tv so uncle larry did it
22:01was just
22:02a store that existed in time and it kind of uncle larry left it and no one really touched it
22:08what's
22:08this pratt institute stuff here that's like a 1920s felt penance that's uncle larry yeah the pratt institute
22:15in brooklyn yep yeah the lettering style is neat when i was a kid the place wasn't in business still
22:20but he would come out here and tinker and work on radios he's got a little workshop oh he's got
22:25a
22:25workshop in the back so this guy was also proud that he was a graduate that he went to school
22:29yeah
22:30these felt banners are really cool because it's from the pratt institute i mean this is something
22:33hung on his wall he wanted to show his customers he wanted to show his family you know his school
22:38pride
22:38they got that vintage look you can't fake so i mean this has got a big hole in it unfortunately
22:44moth damage or whatever yeah if you frame that around 1928 yeah yeah 1928 but this one's nice this
22:50one's pristine it looks really in great shape 175 bucks for the both i'm a 200. cost of framing that's
22:58going to add i know because you're going to have to frame that i know i know yeah i'm i'm
23:02at the edge
23:02really yeah i mean i go 180 bucks okay you do that yeah me too all right thank you all
23:08right cool
23:09great this one was for radio and television it's back lit here underneath uh-huh so it's got a little
23:16bit of flaking on the back but the tube in it indicates like 1957 1962 to me okay somewhere in
23:23there you can see the tube in there oh yeah yeah that piece in this this uh clock i can't
23:29tell
23:29that porcelain hobby let me get up there can i stand on this uh yeah i guess that work yeah
23:35you
23:35sure yeah i mean it's it's a washer dryer you used to jump on them as a kid these two
23:40pieces have
23:40been hanging on the wall in here for a long time rca when you see the advertising up there that's
23:46probably from the 50s but rca was one of those companies that started in the early 1900s developing
23:51the radio cbs hytron tubes it says certified quality service radio and tv in the back of it
24:00oh yeah it still has the markings on it it's pretty clean look at how they did the cord on
24:04this
24:04oh yeah wrap it around there the hooks were never even used they're still here i think this thing just
24:09comes right off in here yeah look at that it still has the tags on the back of it ohio
24:16advertising
24:16display company yeah are you interested in selling both pieces john sure yeah i am
24:21would you do 750 for the pair um you know it's been in the family for quite some time
24:27um and it's yeah it's good to see a new home get it out to the masses yeah it'd be
24:32great to see
24:32you all right shake his hands thank you buddy awesome great
24:41you're probably the first one to look up in there and well yeah it looks like it too there's
24:45some dust 60 years yeah i mean he was basically bringing out to the people that live in this
24:50town everything that was new back right yeah the new appliances the latest and greatest yeah
24:56in this tiny little building here yeah it was so cool to be in this space and to imagine people
25:03coming in from around the community and buying their appliances some guys are living paycheck to
25:07paycheck but they wanted a tv set or they needed a washing machine this was a nice family-run business
25:13you shopped close to home your money stayed in your community here's the bubble lights that's cool
25:20too oh the old bubble yeah the old bubble that had the water in there and they would have like
25:24an oil
25:24or something in there those i'm interested in the bubble lights were really cool they would have oil
25:29in them and when they heat up they would blow a little bubbles would pop up this is like christmas
25:41display is something that you use to advertise these bubble lights i mean they've reproduced these
25:46but it's not the same kind of deal the chemistry that's inside those old ones they can't use it
25:51anymore it's got a different quality to the light it's something you can't reproduce with the bubble
25:57lamps and that display there uh i'd do 125. yeah i can't argue with that okay yeah all right good
26:06i mean that's that's cool a lot of kudos to the guy who's running the store i mean it's really
26:09neat
26:10that they were that organized everything's priced out everything's inventoried everything is boxed up
26:14nicely and protected this is an advertising piece of some sort i think it just advertised the bulbs light
26:20up and well it would you want to see how bright the bulb is boom you can turn it off
26:24yeah gotcha when you
26:24wanted to buy a bulb you walked into the store these actually displayed all the different bulbs on top
26:30and they could light them up individually about 160 bucks can you do 200 on that it's got a great
26:36look
26:36on it how about 180 bucks okay does that work yeah take his hand beautiful all right beautiful
26:43so this is like old school where you know like we've bought some concept art before yeah now everybody
26:49does this on a computer right you know but you're still doing everything by hand everything like that
26:54bicycle that was this yeah i was never introduced into the automotive industry i was born into it
27:00my father did this for a living he went on his own when he was 14 started a hot rod
27:05shop so at the age of
27:07three i would sit next to him whenever he was drawing something and i would copy what he was doing
27:12and i wanted to be as good as him so like how long does it take you like if you
27:18sat down how long
27:18would it take you to do something like this is it worth more if i say a long time i
27:24don't know i'm
27:25just wondering that drawing was probably about an hour that's it what i'm doing here is what every
27:31car enthusiast with a pulse would love to do look through chip foose's archives man all the artwork that
27:40he has done for cars the last time something like this happened to me with another car legend was with
27:46george barris you know same thing going through this cabinet and looking at all this artwork george
27:52did you draw these or who drew i have an artist that worked with me i designed it this got
27:57the
27:57monsters coach this is chip's life's work and he's showing it to me man and he's just he's so humble
28:03when you build a car for somebody are they always wanting the original artwork i don't give them the
28:08original artwork i keep the originals for my kids but if i'm doing an original piece of artwork somebody
28:14and giving that to them that's normally 10 grand so if somebody commissions you to do a piece of
28:19artwork then it's 10 grand okay you know i was involved with the first two cars films so i designed
28:25the graphics for lightning mcqueen and ramon and a couple of the other cars and then when disney
28:31decided to build radiator springs in the theme park at disneyland pixar called me and said i need your
28:37help here so for two and a half years that was an absolute dream job you've set the bar so
28:43high for so
28:43many different people which sounds like unobtainable but it also is just inspires everybody i have been
28:49so blessed hot rods aren't necessary yes but they're passion driven when i first walked into this
28:54building the only thing that i was thinking about was bicycle parts you know that was on the brain but
29:00now he's got me thinking about some art you know because it's so sought after and it's so valuable
29:08so yeah there's two cars in here there's a nash rambler okay and then there's like a 49 i think
29:14mercury in here you got 49 mercury really yeah that was my uncle larry's okay uncle larry and my
29:21grandfather were able to borrow the car from the uh funeral home as long as they kept care of it
29:28and
29:28then they ended up actually buying the car from them when you hear the term barn fine barn fresh
29:34this defines that moment this open jersey we gotta pull up oh don't break the door
29:42i'll let you guys do the heavy lifting dude look at this thing jersey wow
29:51and that's the merc robbie oh it's a merc all right it's like you're walking into a burial vault
29:57lo and behold the light is like shining on this beautiful mercury this thing hasn't been touched
30:03in decades wow oh yeah the merc motor yeah there it is look at that yeah look at that paint
30:09still on
30:10it look at the carburetor on that the air cleaner is still beautiful oh geez actually really in pretty
30:14good shape in 1949 mercury introduced this new model it was produced by the ford motor company which
30:20owned the mercury brand the mercury front grill is what makes this thing so distinctive i mean it's
30:25incredible this thing has such sleek lines on it the fact that this thing even exists this was like
30:30the greatest hot rod that they ever built although they call them the lead sled oh they chop they do
30:35everything this is outrageous pre-1949 cars were blocky they were big this thing was sleek and long
30:42it's got the skirts on the back here it's a cup robbie yeah you'd think it would be a four
30:46-door
30:46if it was for like funeral that's what i would do i know it's cool that it's coop man there's
30:51very few
30:511949 mercuries left that have not been customized in some way it's like the most iconic car in american
30:58hot rod history it's dirty it's dusty but it exists the fact that this thing's standing in front of us
31:04right here unchopped unmolested that's what you want to save look at the dash how many miles
31:09robbie how many miles shows 79 000. wow 79 000 miles so they somebody drove this thing yeah it was
31:16a
31:16driver obviously that's a lot of miles for a car like this john is there a you have a key
31:21to this
31:22car and do you have title to it don't have a title okay i don't have a key these cars
31:26are for sale um
31:28yeah i'd have to consult my my mom real quick just to see even here's the deal even if if
31:33she says they're
31:34not for sale i can at least help you with the value on it all right yeah let me check
31:38her check with her
31:39and then yeah jersey and i'll open these doors real quick you want to go check with her yeah all
31:43right
31:43sure that's good awesome there you got your robins i have yeah i have you still have the shaft drive
31:53robin i have the shaft drive and then these two and then look at this oh you got the skylark
31:58is that
31:58original paint yes god dang that's nice juan radolphus morganski is the gentleman that designed
32:05the elgin bluebird the robin and the skylark okay if you can't say that three times fast then just say
32:11john morgan that's what most people say basically he was a genius and what these bicycle companies were
32:17doing was they were trying to outdo each other so they were hiring all these industrial artists
32:21to change the game and that is what juan radolphus morganski john morgan did when he created the elgin
32:30bluebird elgin was sears bicycle brand not only in their brick and mortar stores but also in their
32:37catalog so what do you value this robin at that's painted with a dead chicken i paid seven grand for
32:43that did you what would you value it at you know the market's all over the place you know what
32:48i mean a
32:48lot of times on real deco bikes the guys that are paying more money are the guys that aren't bike
32:53guys to a bicycle guy like we see this stuff but to a car guy that's got a a 30s
32:59auburn or whatever
33:00the hell he's got you know and he's like oh my gosh this would be great to build that story
33:05yeah from
33:06that time period you know so i think that's what those go for i think these are worth more than
33:10the
33:11bluebird that you brought me oh yeah the thing's broken in half basically what's happening here is chip
33:17and i love the same stuff you know i'm geeking out on the skylark i'm geeking out into elgin robins
33:22you know the harley bike all that kind of stuff so at the end of the day i've got a
33:26bluebird that's
33:27broken in half okay and i'm trying to make a trade with these bikes at this caliber and the value
33:33that
33:33they're at and how much he really loves them it's not going to happen what are you thinking okay here's
33:40here's what i'm thinking i paid 3 200 bucks for it you know i'm thinking just from a part standpoint
33:49i'd like to get 38 out of it you know you want cash or was there anything that you saw
33:54that you're
33:55interested in i mean to be honest with you i mean a lot of the bikes you and i've been
34:00doing bikes for
34:00so long and we've got different examples of the same thing i love the artwork i really do i mean
34:06the car
34:07artwork and i get why you have never sold any of it before because you know it just becomes part
34:13of
34:13your portfolio you know it's i mean it's it's you can look back through all the decades you've been
34:18doing this and it's all a story being told through the artwork through all the cars if you want a
34:23piece
34:23of art i'll trade you for some art i mean to be honest with you i was blown away by
34:28the by the art you
34:29did on this i mean that's a very detailed drawing it really falls into line with what i collect and
34:35what
34:35i do when he started talking about the drawing i was so excited because that is the huge compliment
34:42to me that he wanted something that i created over some of the stuff that he's always looking for
34:47i told you what i get when i do commission work yeah i would think a bicycle probably about half
34:53of that
34:54you would trade me the bluebird for the bluebird the con for the okay you'll trade me the bluebird that
35:02i can touch right here that's in front of me for the bluebird on paper yeah if you're good with
35:07that
35:08i'm good with it done okay thank you seriously we're doing this yeah no okay hell yeah the last thing
35:16that i thought i was gonna walk out of here today with was a drawing of an elgin bluebird but
35:22it's a
35:22chip boost drawing to have that the only one something that he did and he's such a close friend
35:29that's something that i want to have to cherish to put on my wall because one it's bicycle two
35:36it's chips and that is priceless awesome seriously man that's a good day in huntington
35:42beach i love it i love it thank you buddy i appreciate you working my pleasure
35:48so yeah i just talked to my mom she said uh i think i'm selling it yeah on the right
35:53price look
35:54underneath the car on that side all right let me try and get underneath this out here yeah
35:58what are you seeing dude yeah okay the rockers are blowing out on this side robbie
36:04oh yeah right here too yeah yep this is dipping in the new jersey salt yep oh really yeah yeah
36:10i'm
36:11getting handfuls of rust yeah same thing i got on this side yeah this thing was through the new jersey
36:18winners the salt yeah there's a lot of salt in the roads and that you know the salt eats the
36:22cars away
36:22money yeah 100 percent to me robbie that's a big deal is to make sure that this is not something
36:29we have to spend too much money to get a return out of it we have to be really careful
36:34not to get too
36:35emotional i think there's something that we could do with it but at the end of the day it's like
36:41anything you got to buy it at the right price so i mean what kind of money are you thinking
36:45on this thing
36:45um yeah maybe at least ten thousand it's going to cost me probably thousand fifteen hundred to get
36:54it home at ten that'd be eleven five and then by the time i got through everything i'd be and
36:59do it
36:59you know minimum there's a minimum what's going to go into this car to even make it run you're going
37:03to
37:03be between three and five thousand but now you got to do body work to it or you got to
37:08take this and
37:08the guy that we we would even try and sell it to this might be a candidate where they would
37:13take it and
37:13chop it yeah with that being said i think i'd have to be at like
37:20six grand i mean at that i'd have 7 500 in it yeah and i think seven would be a
37:28little low i think
37:29seven is my max on it i mean that would be my max with the shipping and stuff take a
37:34look at it
37:34outside maybe a little see if we can get outside and check it out well at the end of the
37:39day i'd love
37:39to see it out here well we got to get it out anyway i'd love to see it out and
37:42we'd like to
37:43move on all right you got an air compressor yeah you got air compressor i do let's see if we
37:46do it
37:47all right let's do it we have got to get it out of that space so we could really see
37:51it in the light
37:52it's going up it's going up it's holding air i'm watching the compressor go up 20 pounds right now
37:59there's a lot that can go wrong here i mean we could we could smash a door we could scratch
38:04the paint
38:04we could pull the side of the barn down you know there's a lot of things that could happen if
38:09we're
38:09not really careful about how we pull this car out of this space all right slowly john slowly i'm gonna
38:15give you the tipper see if this thing's gonna move go ahead whoa oh oh oh oh we're awfully close
38:28to the wall
38:32okay we probably should have hooked it up to the other shackle okay because we hooked it up to that
38:36one and it didn't pull it i'm trying to get the car to go this way so we need to
38:40do it slowly and
38:41listen to me i'm gonna pull on that strap and try and get it to pull as i'm pulling you're
38:46pulling out
38:46we get that to happen we're golden robbie came up with an idea to shift over the actual toe strap
38:52to
38:52the other side and kind of give it a oomph as it was coming out a little bit john a
38:59little bit every
39:00time that robbie's pulling this thing the wheels are moving another quarter inch and i could tell
39:03by looking down that the front wheel is locked up the brake is locked up there's something going on
39:07we're dragging it out you know like an old grizzly bear out of the cave
39:15okay stop i am going to get this thing out of here hell or high water we might knock the
39:21garage down
39:21but we're going to save the mercury a little bit there you go straight back keep going
39:27keep going keep going keep going all right you got it keep going you're out you're good damn
39:37it's finally seen the light of day yeah look at that a long time raccoon pooping off yeah raccoon's
39:42been on a field day with this dirt on this thing look at this i just want to look at
39:45that engine now
39:48oh man
39:51well that black that oil is dude he needed oil change a long time ago there's no good i know
39:57but
39:57still dude look how black that sucker is i don't mind black oil yeah there's no water in it that's
40:02what i was talking about john right here look at how on both sides robbie robbie this side's just as
40:07bad yeah i mean that's all gone look at look look at dude yeah i mean it's just falling apart
40:17and that's the whole thing in here it's just leaking rust there was so much rust then what he said
40:24made
40:24a lot of sense the jersey winters they always put salt on the road and just back then they probably
40:30never washed it off what do you think of jersey well i mean your thoughts change after it came out
40:36that side's worse with rust and the driver's side tell you what i was at six
40:43it's 65 60. i got 1500 in shipping i'm i'm kind of firm at seven um you remember that mary
40:50that was
40:50upstairs that i bought from you yeah okay i feel mary for us man i'm just taking i'm praying to
40:55mary
40:55that the engine's not stuck and i can actually get it running i got an idea okay we do a
41:00coin flip for
41:00it coin flip 6 507. there are a lot of different ways to negotiate when it comes to picking
41:07the bundle the walk away and maybe the most popular the coin toss heads i win tails you lose
41:13all right here's my professional flipper right here heads
41:22and you called what i called heads bingo
41:26tails i don't fuck with any coins because i lose man i lose but unlike my brother i don't lose
41:34all right all right it's got heads and tails it's got a heads and tails are you calling it
41:38jersey or yeah i call it yeah all right jerseys how do you want to call it no you can
41:42call it all right
41:45heads whoa
41:47it's tails seven grand seven thousand he won all right that's all right seriously john that's all right
41:54dude i appreciate you thank you it's seven grand we're gonna have 1500 in it to get it home that's
41:598 500. i'm praying and hoping that i can get the engine running if i can't and i got to
42:03replace the
42:04engine and i got to replace the transmission it could become a money pit you don't mind this sitting
42:08here for a couple days i'll have danielle get a hold of you okay and then she'll work on the
42:12shipping
42:12of this but the other stuff we'll grab and take today sounds good i'm really glad that it's going to
42:17someone that is going to be passionate about fixing up the car and getting it back on the road and
42:22maybe it'll have another life bye guys thank you thank you
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