- 1 day ago
A regular client brings in a 1900's air brake tester used for trains; a client brings in his father's 1954 Bantam tractor....
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00:05Up next on American Restoration.
00:07One of my regular customers just showed up.
00:10We thought we'd bring you another treasure,
00:12and it's an airbrush tester.
00:14It looks like somebody's mind is a treasure.
00:17Well, let's see what we got.
00:19It's a B&M tracker. It was my dad's.
00:21Wow.
00:22It's some assembly required.
00:24My dad passed away in 2002,
00:26so just to see it again, it's gonna choke me up.
00:29We're missing a few parts,
00:31so Tyler and I gotta hit the road.
00:35Ah, crap.
00:37Remember back in the day when things were made by hand
00:40and people took pride in their work?
00:43My name's Rick Dale,
00:44and I bring these things back to life.
00:48Every restoration has its own set of challenges.
00:52There's no owner's manual for what we do,
00:54but there's no job we can't handle.
01:13One of my regular customers who runs a railroad museum just showed up.
01:18I wonder what he's got for me to look at today.
01:21Hey, Mark, how you doing?
01:22Good, Rick. Yourself?
01:23Good to see you, Joan.
01:24Good to see you again.
01:26Well, we thought we'd bring you another treasure.
01:29That looks like somebody's mind is a treasure.
01:33King of Rick's today to have our air brake tester restored,
01:37and it's an original piece of equipment
01:40that we'd like to put back in service.
01:42This is part of our collection,
01:44and it's an air brake tester.
01:46George Westinghouse came up with the air brake system.
01:50It was quite the inventor.
01:51I wish he was still alive
01:52so I could sort of ask him a few questions before I started.
01:55Well, this is definitely the first time I've ever seen one of these,
01:59but I have heard of Westinghouse before.
02:01Aside from being a pioneer of the electrical industry,
02:04he was also a huge inventor.
02:06So this thing actually isn't a braking system for the trains.
02:09It actually tested the brakes on the train.
02:12Exactly.
02:13The railroad was built to haul the copper ore,
02:16which is very heavy.
02:17Right.
02:17And they come downhill,
02:19so it's always a good thing to have brakes when you're going downhill.
02:23Especially when something heavy, huh?
02:24Yeah, something heavy.
02:26Exactly.
02:27Bottom line, if the brakes on a train weren't holding enough air pressure,
02:30they wouldn't be able to stop the wheels,
02:31and you'd have a runaway train.
02:33So the tester made sure there weren't any leaks.
02:36They would hook this to the back of the train.
02:38This is where the air hose would go to,
02:41and then this is the same valve that the engineer has up in the cab,
02:45and they would pull it,
02:47release some of the air from the train line,
02:50and then that should set up the brakes on the train.
02:54What year do you think this one is?
02:55Probably about 1910, 1915.
02:59These old cast iron machines can be pretty intimidating.
03:02Mark knows how it worked,
03:04but getting it actually operational can be another story.
03:07Making it work,
03:08I'm going to have to figure out what's inside here.
03:11It's got a lot of little valves on it.
03:12Yes, that's what we have up there.
03:14We have lots of puzzles.
03:16And some of these parts are still available,
03:19so give us a call,
03:21and we can go up to the air brake building for air brake parts.
03:25I mean, as far as restoring it,
03:27I'm probably looking at about eight hours to tear it down.
03:30Sure.
03:30And then as long as stuff comes off in the sandblasting,
03:34it's probably about an eight again on that.
03:38Assembly could be between 10 and 20 hours.
03:40Okay.
03:41So if you add all that up,
03:43I'm probably looking around to be on the safe side,
03:45right around $5,000.
03:47Okay.
03:48Okay.
03:49All right.
03:50So we're good to go with the price?
03:51We're good to go with the price.
03:53Thank you very much.
03:54Appreciate it.
03:55Thanks a lot.
03:55Let's go inside and do some paperwork.
03:57Okay.
03:57Once this is restored,
03:59we'll actually use it for its intended purposes,
04:01doing the job it was designed to do 90 years ago.
04:15Let's see if let's take this whole top unit off.
04:17Whatever.
04:18We just got this air brake bleeder in the shop.
04:21Now Cowboy and I are going to tear it apart.
04:23I can tell you this ain't going to be no fun.
04:29Why don't we loosen these up
04:30and let's see if we can't drop this paint off of there.
04:37Sweet molasses.
04:38That's the strength in this arm, buddy.
04:43One hell of a wheel.
04:45I got it.
04:49Brantley!
04:57Hey, Rick.
04:58Hey, Mike.
04:59How's it going?
05:00Good. How you been?
05:01Good seeing you.
05:02Good. Good, brother. Good.
05:02I've done a couple of jobs for my buddy Mike in the past.
05:05Most recently, I restored a NASA space helmet for him,
05:08so I can't wait to see what he has for me today.
05:11This is it.
05:11Made in one piece.
05:12All right.
05:13Well, let's see what we got.
05:15Really?
05:15Wow.
05:15I came down to Rick's today
05:17to get my 1954 Bantam yard tractor restored.
05:20All right, Mike.
05:21So what the hell did you bring me this time?
05:24Pieces and parts of everything that I had for this thing.
05:26It's a Bantam tractor.
05:27It was my dad's.
05:28He bought it right off the showroom floor in 1954.
05:31Wow.
05:31Well, as you can see, it's some assembly required.
05:36Well, I saw it by the front.
05:38It is a Bantam.
05:39Bantam tractors have been around since the 1940s
05:42and were sort of the inspiration for every ride-on tractor you see today.
05:46This thing is way cool.
05:48There was a lot of guys that didn't want to mow their lawns by hand.
05:51And this thing was actually capable of mowing, like, two acres in an hour.
05:55So it was falling.
05:56We had an acre of grass, so Dad would be out there Saturday morning.
05:59Here's me and the old man.
06:01Wow.
06:02My dad passed away in 2002, so...
06:05But I want my girls to get, you know, the same experience.
06:07I want them to drive around the backyard.
06:08It's like a little tie to their grandpa.
06:11I really need to get this tractor picture perfect.
06:13It's so much more than a restoration for Mike.
06:16It's about reconnecting with his father that passed away
06:18and passing on that legacy to his own kids.
06:22All right, so how are you seeing this totally restored, Mike?
06:26I want it to look exactly like you did when my dad saw it
06:28for the first time on that showroom floor.
06:30Okay.
06:31You know?
06:32I want it to be that bright Bantam orange, all the decals.
06:35All right, and you want to use this as a tractor?
06:38Just as a tractor.
06:39I don't think I'm going to cut grass with it.
06:41I'll let the kids ride it, you know?
06:42Okay.
06:43What's that going to cost me?
06:44Am I going to have to sell the farm or what?
06:45So we got teardown, which isn't much,
06:47because it looks like it's already in pieces.
06:49Oh, yeah.
06:50I'll probably have four or five hours in sandblasting.
06:53The motor needs to come apart,
06:54which you're probably going to have about four hours in that.
06:57Send it to the body shop, do the body work on it.
06:59Probably have eight hours on all these parts right here.
07:02Next thing after that, we'll end up assembling it.
07:04I'll have between eight and ten hours putting it together.
07:07When people bring their stuff in to get restored, I'm used to there being missing parts.
07:11But I've never got something that's already separated into a million pieces.
07:15This is looking about, um, we're looking between $6,000 and $6,500.
07:20Oh, boy.
07:22All right, Rick, I'm getting a little plowed under here.
07:24Yeah, well, I mean, the thing is, when stuff comes in and a million pieces like that,
07:27next thing you know, we're putting it together and we're missing this one intricate part.
07:30Oh, my God.
07:31So I have to leave myself a little cushion.
07:33I will not overcharge you.
07:34But the way I'm sitting and my estimate is right at that, you know, between $6,000 and $6,500.
07:43All right, Rick, you're the guy to do it.
07:45I only trust you with something like this.
07:47I mean, this means a lot to me.
07:49Let's do it, brother.
07:50All right.
07:50Let's do it. All right.
07:51Sounds good.
07:52Let's go inside and take care of some paperwork.
07:54I can't wait to get this tractor back.
07:57I can't guarantee I'm not going to, you know, break down and cry when I see this thing
08:01because I had so many good memories.
08:02Just to see it again, you know, it's going to choke me up.
08:08The other day, we got a really cool air brake tester from Mark who runs a train museum in Ely,
08:13Nevada.
08:14Kyle and Cowboy tore this thing down and determined that we're missing a few parts.
08:17So now, Tyler and I got to hit the road to see if we can find the parts from Mark's
08:22place.
08:28Oh, crap.
08:34I guess you should fix that.
08:36Yep.
08:36And we don't have a spare.
08:38Woo!
08:40So what are we going to do then?
08:42Let's just hope this place has a radial tire here.
08:45I mean, this gas station must have something.
08:47Oh, man.
08:49That whole tread came off.
08:50Let's go see if this gas station's got a tire.
08:52All right.
08:54Should have taken my truck.
09:01Oh, come on.
09:05What are you doing?
09:07We just got in this tractor from a customer.
09:09It's pretty much broken down, which is awesome.
09:16Let's start going through all this.
09:17See what we got.
09:19Somebody's already had this thing apart.
09:21Honestly, I really don't like stuff coming in that's already tore down.
09:24A lot of people think it saves time, but in the end it ends up taking more time
09:28because we have to spend hours figuring out how to put it back together.
09:35We're going to pull the hood off.
09:36We got to pull the seat off, the seat bracket.
09:39Ain't nothing else coming off it, huh?
09:41Yep.
09:42Pretty much got it gutted.
09:51You Oscar?
09:52Yes.
09:52Good morning.
09:53How you doing?
09:54Oh, well, we're in deep doo-doo right at the moment.
09:56Oh, okay.
09:58You got something close to that?
10:00After blowing a tire on our way to Ely, we're running behind schedule.
10:03And if this guy doesn't have a tire that works on my truck, we're never going to make it to
10:08Mark's Museum.
10:08Well, I got this one. It's almost the same size.
10:12See that?
10:13Yeah. No, that looks good.
10:15Luckily, we were able to get a spare tire that should get us to Ely and back.
10:19I just hope that Mark has the parts for the air brake.
10:22Otherwise, we wasted a lot of time and a tire.
10:27Do you know where you're going?
10:28Yeah, I know exactly where we're going.
10:30Shouldn't you have brought a map or something of some sort?
10:33There's only one road there, you know?
10:35All roads lead to this place. They do.
10:48Hey, Mark.
10:49Hey, Rick.
10:50How you doing?
10:51Good. Tyler?
10:52How's it going?
10:52Great.
10:53This place is awesome.
10:54Oh, yeah. It is really neat.
10:56So, what brings you up to East Ely?
10:58Well, you're needing a few parts.
11:00Needing parts. Well, you came to the right place.
11:02We have to go to the air brake building.
11:05All right.
11:05Hit us off.
11:06Right this way.
11:08This is so much snow. I didn't wear the shoes for this.
11:10Don't be a wuss.
11:12This is the air brake shop.
11:14Well, this is cool.
11:15This is where they did the testing for the air brakes.
11:18You probably recognize this from...
11:21The other...
11:22Yeah, the other.
11:22Because this is a mountain railroad.
11:25Coming downhill, air brakes were incredibly important,
11:28especially with the heavy trains.
11:31So, you get more than four pounds a minute...
11:33And leakage.
11:34You got real problems.
11:36You're going downhill fast.
11:37Yes, exactly.
11:39This is the parts room.
11:41They have the parts still in the bins.
11:44This was used for maintaining all of the air brakes on the train.
11:48And right here, these are the gaskets that you're going to need for the test rack.
11:54Yeah.
11:54This room is awesome.
11:55All these parts would have been impossible to find elsewhere.
11:58I wish I had a setup like this for every job I did.
12:09While Rick's on the road,
12:10Brentley and I are doing the body work on this Bantam tractor.
12:13It's got a bunch of dents in it that we have to bang out,
12:16and we have to grind out these really rough welds.
12:20Phil, my sparks are bigger than yours.
12:22You get to sand it, too.
12:24It's going to be a long day.
12:41Oh, man.
12:42Tyler and I just got back from Ely, and now we have some work to catch up on.
12:46All right, Ty, go take those parts to Cowboy and get them to prep and polish as soon as possible.
12:50Okay.
12:51I'm going to go paint the tractor.
12:52All right.
12:56I'm going to stick with the original Bantam body color, which was bright orange.
13:01But for the engine parts, I'm going to add a little flare and paint it with some custom gold paint
13:06so it really pops.
13:07When I get this thing back together, it's going to be the best looking tractor on the whole block.
13:21You lift up the tank a little bit.
13:24Earlier, Tyler and I drove out to Ely to get the parts for the air brake tester.
13:28Let's get it on there.
13:29Now, Cowboy and Kyle are going to put it together.
13:36So the tank's going to slide back into this valve right here.
13:38Oh, that's going to be a booger bear, ain't it?
13:41There it is.
13:50This project was definitely a challenge, but I really enjoyed getting to work on it.
13:55It's not every day that we get to restore something with such historical significance.
13:59And who doesn't love trains?
14:02We came down to Rick's restoration today to pick up the Nevada Northern Railway's 1920s air brake truck.
14:09We're really excited to see it.
14:11Rick, are you around?
14:13Oh!
14:16Hope this thing has brakes, man.
14:20So what do you think?
14:21Oh, Rick, it's amazing.
14:23Oh, this is just fabulous.
14:25Look at that.
14:25Rick did an amazing job on the restoration.
14:28Oh, it's terrific.
14:29It's just terrific.
14:30I think it's awesome.
14:31When it came apart, I mean, literally every single piece of this pipe and tubing and valves,
14:36everything had to be disassembled and reworked inside, cleaned up,
14:40make sure all the valves work, make sure all the diaphragms are good.
14:44I mean, it's pretty wild how many valves really are on this thing.
14:47Oh, yeah.
14:47I mean, you've got bypasses.
14:49Yeah, this is a double valve.
14:50Yes.
14:51Here.
14:51I mean, there's valves everywhere on this thing.
14:54And I'm assuming this is the main one, the thing to get it going.
14:56That is the main one.
14:57That's what the engineer would use to set them up and release them.
15:01Right.
15:01Now that Rick has restored the air brake tester, I want to take it back to Ely, set up a
15:06train,
15:06pump it up, and then actually find out how this works.
15:10Because none of us have operated this.
15:11So we're going to have to figure it out, and it'll be kind of cool.
15:17As far as everything we've got going on here, I mean, we hit the budget right on.
15:21Cool.
15:22Well, Rick, you really blew us away.
15:24This is just great.
15:25Awesome.
15:25Thank you ever so much.
15:27Thank you, guys.
15:27Joe, you make sure he comes back to me with everything he has.
15:31You got it.
15:32Okay.
15:32Let's go in the office and take care of some paperwork.
15:34All right.
15:34Rick did an amazing job, and it's going to be quite the addition to our collection up at the museum.
15:47Okay, Kyle, let's drop this bad boy and see how it looks.
15:52This Bantam tractor has been going really well.
15:55When he brought it in, it was a mess of loose pieces.
15:58And now it's something his father would have been really proud of.
16:01Jeff and I just finished reassembling all the engine parts.
16:04Now Kyle and I are going to start putting everything else back together.
16:08Good in here.
16:09It sort of clashes with that, don't it?
16:10Yeah.
16:12I'm always taking chances in my restorations.
16:14I really try to make these items stand out.
16:17That's terrible.
16:18So let's just take it apart, shoot it black, stick it back in.
16:22So now I've created more work for myself, and now I've got to paint it back to black.
16:27If it ain't one thing, it's another.
16:36Too steep.
16:37What you guys doing?
16:39Trying to figure out the steering, man.
16:40It doesn't steer with a crap.
16:41If you know a big mic thing getting on this thing, it ain't going to turn at all.
16:44It's not going to turn.
16:44I thought it was going to be smooth sailing after that painting fiasco, but now I've got
16:48a tractor with a broken steering mechanism.
16:51See, this bottom one was a new gear.
16:53You can see how bad it's getting chewed up just from two to three days.
16:55Yeah, the pitch should be entirely different to catch the whole gear.
16:58I mean, all they're literally doing is just hitting, what, an eighth of an inch?
17:02If that.
17:03The gears for the steering are not lining up properly, so this thing will not turn at all.
17:07Big Mike's going to be arriving any minute.
17:10If we can't get this thing fixed, he's not going to be happy when he gets here.
17:22I really hope my dad talked to Big Mike about the problems with his tractor, because I do
17:26not want to be the one to have to break the bad news to him.
17:31Tyler.
17:32How's it going, Mike?
17:32What's up, brother?
17:33You're here for the Bantam, right?
17:34I'm here for the bucket of bolts, man.
17:36My dad didn't call you?
17:37I mean, they said they were having some real problems.
17:39Are you kidding me?
17:39No.
17:39You're freaking me out, man.
17:41All right.
17:41I'll go check.
17:42Just stay here.
17:43This Bantam tractor was my dad's tractor.
17:45It's got a lot of sentimental value, because everybody I know has something that reminds
17:49them of their dad.
17:50And for me, it's this tractor.
17:51I'm nervous and excited, but if it ain't ready, I mean, I'm going to be really disappointed
17:56in Rick.
17:58Hey, guys.
17:59Mike's here.
18:04We got him working!
18:05Yeah!
18:06Woo-hoo-hoo!
18:08Yeah!
18:10Wow, baby!
18:16What do you think?
18:19That's like showroom news.
18:21It's cool, huh?
18:22It's great.
18:23It's showroom news.
18:26I barely made it, though.
18:29It came out nice.
18:31So, yeah.
18:31Check it out.
18:34It reminds me of my dad, man.
18:36Yeah.
18:37Good.
18:38It really does.
18:39Thanks.
18:40You bet.
18:41Thanks.
18:41You bet.
18:42When that thing came around the corner, I was...
18:46The sound of it, the smell of it, just takes me back to being six years old, dude.
18:51Wow.
18:51Moments like this really make all the hard work worthwhile.
18:55We didn't just restore a tractor for Mike, we brought back a connection with his dad.
18:59And it's just an amazing feeling to be part of that.
19:02No, I don't.
19:03This was my dad's pride and joy, you know?
19:04Yeah.
19:05Yeah.
19:05I never thought it would look like that.
19:07I know my dad somewhere, he's looking down on me, just smiling, going, that's my tractor.
19:13We've got these just in case.
19:15I do.
19:16Oh, wow.
19:17So, how did you do this?
19:19It was pretty nasty, but the crew is phenomenal at the jigsaw puzzle.
19:23Wow.
19:24I can't believe it.
19:25I mean, I never thought you'd get it back together.
19:26You don't just pull them parts out of your butt.
19:29Yeah.
19:29Speaking of your butt...
19:30That's the original seat?
19:31That's the original seat.
19:32We reinforced it on the bottom because this is just sheet metal here, so we put a quarter-inch
19:37plate all in here.
19:38All in it.
19:39And if it held you and your dad at one point, it should have no problem now.
19:42That thing's got some spring to it.
19:44Yeah.
19:45On the original stickies.
19:46We put every decal that used to be on the original motor.
19:48I mean, from the air cleaner and how to clean it to how to use the piece, period.
19:53I mean, it looks just like what the old man would have seen in the showroom.
19:55Right.
19:56The paint, the engine, all the little details.
19:59Oh, man.
19:59Just blew me away.
20:01Yeah.
20:01I'm at a loss for words.
20:02I'm not usually a guy who lost his words, you know?
20:07Well, here's the keys.
20:08I like it.
20:10I can't even begin to put a price on this thing.
20:12I mean, I don't care what it costs, but, you know, if it went over budget, this is going
20:17to turn into a noose with my wife real quick.
20:19Where we at, buddy?
20:23I quoted you $6,000 to $65,000.
20:27Yeah.
20:27You're scaring me.
20:28Come on, man.
20:28Let's get at this.
20:30Come on, Rick.
20:30Spit it out.
20:31Where we at, buddy?
20:33Am I sleeping in my car?
20:34What's going on?
20:35No, you're not sleeping in your car.
20:36We made budget.
20:37We did.
20:37Yeah.
20:39Come on.
20:39I got it.
20:41Yeah.
20:43You're probably the happiest customer I've ever had.
20:46Oh, you don't know.
20:48Now that this thing is, like, brand new, I can't wait to just get it back in our yard,
20:52just drive it around and show off my pride and joy, and people are just going to lose
20:57it when they see this thing, because it's so nice.
21:10He's like a kid in a candy store.
21:14And there he goes.
21:17We may not see him again.
21:19There we go.
21:20You come on.
21:20Yeah.
21:20Just Danny.
21:22Yeah.
21:22Well done.
21:22But I went in on a road and here, take care of you.
21:26Fine.
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