The Paul Jr. Podcast - Episode 6 "Jersey" Jon Szalay

Speaker 1: Well, welcome back to the Paul Junior Podcast. I got

a good friend of mine here today, John Zila aka Jersey John, and we go way back, and I'm really looking forward to having this conversation. I've learned a lot

from this guy, and through the years I've consulted with him.

I've known him for many years now. Now that we're

in Long Beach Island, yeah we're locals. Yeah, we're neighbor now. Yeah. Yeah,

so I've und a corner. Yeah, so let's get into it. Man,

we go shoot, Man, we go way back. And I

got to tell you, since the day we met, I was always very impressed with your skill set. I've seen

a lot of people who are good at things. Through

the years, I've worked with a lot of creative people.

I enjoy surrounding myself with people who have a skill set all different kinds. Engraving, welding, grinding, machining, you name it, painting,

you know, everything and anything. And I remember the first

time I went to your place and you were like nickel plating in his little box in the basement and refinishing furniture, and you had all these old bikes and everything like that, and I just wonder if maybe we could talk about that aspect of your life. I wonder,

where did you learn to become I knew I grew up in the steel business, and so I feel like, you know, I have a creative gift. Yeah, so obviously,

but the mechanical side of it really came from working for my father in the steel business and being given that opportunity. So I just always wondered from that day on,

and I never really asked you about it, like where did you learn your trade or your skill set? You know,

I mean mostly I'm self taught. That's the reality situation.

My dad was a lawnmower mechanic and a really pretty big lawnwar this uh and repair shop called Stelton Mowers and Piscataway, New Jersey, And that was in the late fifties through the sixties and into the seventies. And you know,

he got out of the Korean War and started as his business to raise the family. Guys, we have six

kids in our family. You know, well they all got

to eat, you know, Plus we went to Catholic school and you know, tuition and stuff like that to pay.

So and he's and he did wonderful. He had At

one time he had six employees. He carried the Huffy

brand of lawnmowers, and also it was cool because they also had a brand of like there was he would go to Italy every year with my mom and they would bring the bike, these Italian bike to the I remember there was like Huffey had these small mini bikes that they that they sold. It was motorized. Yeah, their motorized.

There were mini bikes and little motorcycles and they actually had big bikes that Renegade was kind of the big dirt bike. There's all the sixties and seventies. It was

like the Italian you know, Fantic brand. Yeah. Yeah, so

they probably licensed the name Huffy. Yeah, well, yes, exactly so,

but they were mostly all Italian, uh like little maid all them little mini Yeah, there's so many who always had a motorcycle. Yeah. I mean from time I was

six years old, I had a little bike called a fantic Chino is a fantic Chino but it was little.

It was like a lime green and it had orange.

It was so bright. It was like a little sport

bike and I rode that thing around in my yard.

It was so much fun. It was so cool and

that's my first memory of getting at the motorcycling and my dad had the lawn war shop. So I did

learn that trade at a very young Hey what like more like ranching, but long lawnmowers with gasoline. That's the

way we did. He had to get a old the

junk out, he wipe him down, wiping them down. But

he also told me how to do a valve job on a lawnmower. How to, so you started to get

your basic mechanics. Basically I wasn't even really that interest

at the time, so weird, that's not where my focus was.

My focus, like he taught me all that because like you know, it was just something we did, you know, as father and son. It was wonderful being a shop.

But I was young. I mean we moved out of that.

I was out of that when I was in like third grade, and then we moved down to the shore and he basically closed up the lawn war shop and after that. So I don't have that much experience with lawnmowers. Actually,

how about I do have. I remember the grease and

the smoke, and it had an impact, yes, a little bit, absolutely, Yeah, And then basically what I started doing was when I moved down here. Through high school, I was very involved

with woodworking through through the wood shopping school. Mister Holst

was one of my best woodworking teachers, wood shop teachers, and that was going through seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth all through my high school years. And that was a

big inspiration for me. I mean, that was something I

really enjoyed doing. When when and I was an avid

book reader, I bought every damn book that was involved with like any kind of woodworking or folk art. The

fox Fire series from from Elliott Wellington Elliott, Yeah, from he was a teacher in Georgia, Okay, and he had like a books he had an ear to what I called the fox Fire Books. And I got that books

when I was probably like twelve years old. Wow. And

it was all about early America and at the Appalachian Mountains, yeah, and folk art and how they did things all by hand of being self sufficient, and to me, that just struck a chord with me. Yeah, I mean I was

very interested in that whole genre, the whole like the folk life, the folk art, the way that things were made in America. And I tried my dream what's become

you know, a cabinet maker and bill Folk art and do things like that. But it was hard because I'm

in South Jersey, right, you know, And so what I did through high school was I was trying, you know, started my own business. Mister Grayson, my math teacher, uh

in ninth grade, you know that they had a they had arcades over seaside heights, and he needed a bunch of cabinets made for his arcades. So you pulled a

little you know, tchashka's in the toys that you want from playing ski ball. So he needed all these cabinets

made and it's all from Micah work. And I was like,

this is no problems, It's like easy. And I had

a shop at my at my house, you know, it was actually in my in my well, like a little wood shop. I had a little wood shop in my

I moved out of my bedroom, I moved it to my brother's bedroom and turned my bedroom into a wood shop.

So I had I had a table saw on air.

My dad was always bringing home a piece of equipment for me. Brought me a band, so they were very

very supportive. I was making cabinets in my bedroom at

the time, in year old day in my own. Oh

my god, that's how it started. Wow. And then when

I started doing, like really started making a living. My

dad had another lawnmower shop in Wells Mills Road. He

opened anup called Star Mower and above it was a loft.

I moved all my equipment in there, and that was the start of my business. And I was fifteen years old. Wow.

So when I'm fifteen, I'm making cabinets, you know, actually, fourteen years old, I'm actually building cabins. I did all

the old stuff from Mistigration for his for his arcade, did all the framca work, installed it, and it was like a lot of money. I'm like, he's great, you know, yeah,

I love you were loving life and making money. I

was making money all through high school instead of going and getting a job somewhere. You know, I was right

working at this. I was so self employed, right, you know,

and and doing I'm like, this is great working above my dad's shop and with his support, and that's kind of like. I kept reading about things, kept doing things

with woodworking and trying to elevate my skill set. And

I did that through reading, you know, and and just there was Fine Woodworking magazine was a big inspiration of me.

I had like issue one, number one, like nineteen seventy two.

Wow when it first came out, and you know, it's just like that was inspiration. That was really fine craft.

And it was hard to do fine craft in South Jerusy because you had no place to sell it. You know,

I wasn't it wasn't close up to New York then had that you know, you know that that. Yeah, the

money wasn't there. The money was there, right, right, But

I did have enough skills to do like for Michael work and I did. I did a Suffer Ocean Candy library.

I did a bunch of doctors and lawyers around the town, and did a lot of commercial cabinetry just so I could buy more equipment and like grow keeping business. You know,

pay five subscription to to Butt and Working Magazine and Wooden Boat Magazine. Everything. I was totally nerd. Yeah, that

was I just worked my ass off to develop my skills, wow, and get it and get involved with it. It was fascinating.

It still is. Yeah, you're still loving it. Oh yeah,

So when did the restoration ask that kick in? Because

you would you started to restore yeah, fine furniture over time, right, yeah. Yeah.

So this is nineteenth hours of nineteen seventy eight, and I'm you know, I'm a you know, going through high school.

I'm in tenth grade, eleventh grade. I'm like, I need

a bigger shop. I got to figure something out. And

my dad knew it too. He knows how busy I was.

And I'm hauling all this wood up these stairs, taking all this stuff out this little barn door in the front.

We're pushing it out the front and hopefully not crashing.

It was nuts working where I was working. It's a

little yeah, it was tight. It was tight. And so

what happened was We're sitting there on Saturday morning and I'm in you know, I'm in eleventh grade, you know, Saturday, working at my dad's shop, you know, my shop, and we're reading the paper every morning at just seven o'clock in the morning, reading the paper like das big part press.

He's say, John, that old bank building in Barnegat is going up for auction this morning. I'm like, I know

that bank. It's a nineteen fourteen bank building. Beautiful built

bank building. I said, Dad, let's go look at he said,

all right. My dad was up for anything. He was

like he was. You know, he would get he was

down for he was always going to flea market selling stuff.

I mean we were vend at flea markets. He'd go

to auctions with me. We went to we went to

Fort Mott when I was like thirteen years old, was the first antique motorcycle meet. You know. We went all

over place. So my dad was totally cool about supporting

what I was doing. So I could. We go down there,

and I'm looking at this bank buildings and the place is open, the parking lots packed with people, and the guy's like selling the bank, he's selling the drug store across the street, he's selling the parking lot, and an and another property upstream. And how old were you at

the time. I was seventeen, Wow, you know, and I

had some money. I mean I had some money in there,

and you were already fully in business. I was in business.

I'm like and my dad was like, all right, let's go.

I'm like, Dad, no, on the way, wait, wait, let's let's hang out and check the place out. So it's

ten o'clock in the morning, the auctions start and the auctioneers there, my dad registers to bid. I'm like, cool,

all right, he's got a bit number right, and I'm what he's up to. Was it run down pretty good? Oh?

My god, the place was a mess. I mean this

guy who had bought it. The bank closed in like

nineteen seventy four, seventy five, and the guy had bought it and just used it as store. She put tons

of stuff in her The roof was pouring water in a roof that the bank didn't put any money instead of play. Yeah, I think you told me there was

like a tree growing out. There was a tree grown

out of the freaking roof. I one of the windows.

I mean, it was ridiculous how bad it was. Broken windows,

the new plumbing, new heated, new electric, needed everything. Wow.

So and everything in the whole place with it had beautiful oak trim and these round top windows. And I

fell in love. Yeah, And I'm like, wow, it's really

unusual to be that at that age, to see that, to see the value in something like that. Most seventeen

year olds, I don't care what area you're in, have no idea of you know, no have no vision or foresight or anything like that. Yeah. I mean, I was

like looking at all these magazines that I had a lot of inspiration from other people. Yeah, to think about

what people were other shop owners were doing and seeing what they had. First, you need square footage, yeah, and

you need a good cool building. And the other thing

that I looked at his building was like, it's in the downtown area and there's like twenty five antique shops at this time in Barnegut. Literally, really there's like twenty

five different Now there's only like two or three. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it boiled down and there was a couple of co ops there and I'm like, it's just kind of started clicking in my head, what's gonna go on? This

might be I could have a cabin shopping here. And

I wasn't even think about antique furniture at the time.

It wasn't even in the back of my back of my mind. I knew how to build furniture, right, but

you hadn't restored it. But I hadn't restored a dancing

in my life life at that point. And I'm like, okay,

so we go off. The auctioneer's going off, you know,

they start high, starts off like one hundred fifty thousand dollars.

Nobody's been nobody's been go down to sixty, goes down to thirty, goes down to twenties. Out of fifteen fifteen

grand my dad. I was like, tooking my dad and

he's put the hand up. I'm like, I got fifteen

grand in the bank of this how I was seventeen.

I got fifteen grand in my bed right, you can know in that gallon right now, all of a sudden, the lights are going off. I'm like freaking out. I

had no idea the place was gonna got that cheap.

So anyway, it went up more than the Beden against us.

I got to Billy for like thirty seven thousand and five dollars. I'm like, oh, now, I'm freaking out. We're

gonna come to the rest of money, and my dad'sid don't worry. That's so we'll figure it out. And he

and we did it. I was sevent I couldn't even

sign it a legal contract. I wasn't even so he

had to sign for you. My dad signed. Wow, he

had such confidence. Oh yeah, my dad had. My dad

and my mom were great supporters. My whole family was,

I mean, everybody kind of knew this, kind of let me do my thing, you know, and my my mom and dad were like my mom was like, he's kinda cut all his fingers off on a saw. I'm like,

don worry about my I'll be okay, you know. Yeah.

But it was so cool that they that they supported me that way. Yes, And then my dad we got

a loan he co signed for me, and we were able to pay it. You paid off and I had

something paid off for in a couple of years. You know,

it was like nope, no brainer. And then I went

to work. As soon as I bought that build, like

we started working on Oh, I had to do something.

It was in May or April that the that the auction was and so I had to like gut the upstairs.

I had one to make it living quarters up there, and so I wanted to strip down all the woodwork, take all the pain off it. So you know, read

devil Pace twenty seven was the only trip you to buy and it's right at the hardware store and I'm just buying cases. Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, And I

was like putting on there and the pace remover and you know, in summertime and by September I had the upstairs.

I had the upstairs all done ready to ready to basically live and had you know, I had to get a full bath in there, a full kitchen, but I had a fireplace in it too. This place is so

cool and I just loved I fell in love with the building. I mean, I started pulling the windows apart,

put them back together again. And you know, by I

think December or January, I think I moved in there, got a co to live in there by bike. So

you moved now by time you were what eighteen, yeah, seventeen eighteen, Yeah, wow, you were living in there. Yeah yeah.

And so then what you started working out of there? Yeah,

they started doing your would work out of there. The

first thing I did was that the basement was the best place to start because the basement was all office space down there, so they had finished it off, they had electricity down there. It was the most useful space. Yeah,

that was I put. I hired an electrical company to

come in and put new new sub paneling, to get new electric in there and wire up my shop. So

all that stuff was done right away. And the first

thing I did was concentrated on a workspace so I could move out of my my dad's shop above right and get Yeah, worse. Yeah, because I'm shaking in my shoes,

like I'm got to pay a mortgage there right right, you know, I'm yeah, responsibility taking in and reality. I'm

having the biggest panic attack in my life. I'm like, damn,

this is freaking nuts. Yeah, but it was a good motivator.

I tell you what, dude. That was the best thing

I ever did in my life. And that was aou

forty five years ago. Yeah, you know, yeah, that's crazy.

Sixty two now yeah. Wow, I'm going to look conor.

I think I'm to be sixty two in the next week and then I am going to meet hyple birthday.

Most thank you. That's great. Oh you'll go see all

those guys at the auction then, huh all the camel your buddies, all the canniball guys. Yeah, yeah, from the

rider of Coast to Coast this year. It's kind of

a gathering point for us. Yeah. And the plus it's

a great but Urban Hirsch's collection is going off at this auction. Oh nice, And that's a huge collection of antique,

really super rare antique motorcycles, really so's and there's some some stuff there I want to buy. Nice. You know

absolutely so good looking forward to it. All right, So

you you build this place out, you start doing the furniture.

At what point in time did restoration come in? People

started bringing you furniture, Hey, can you fix my right having the cabinet making background because I could, I mean build pretty much anything at this point. Eight piece of

furniture and dovetails on drawers and you know builder. So

these antique dealers for bringing me stuff and it's like they're bringing me a you know, a chest of drawers was missing a drawer and can you can you asn't match it? And I'm like, yeah, no problem, man, this

is like easy. And then like you know, how much

can I charge you do this? I was making more

money refinishing stuff than I was doking it from scratch. Yeah,

I mean it was. It would be like there was

a beautiful piece of furniture five George tall oak Chester to drawers. This is like the bitting Gia of the eighties.

Furniture was starting to ramp up and get yeah that were he caught. There was a hot rum there. Furniture Now,

furniture is kind of dead. It's dead now. I thinks

back then in eg dude, I stelling stuff to Bruce Springsteen.

Really yeah, I mean it was crazy, that's how good it was. It was nuts. I was getting, you know,

for a round oak table cloth feet you can get like five grand for a really good I mean, you can't get that stuff away now, No, you can't give any of that. I know, it's so weird and special.

It might. Yeah, I feel like that's cyclical that that

and the country stuff and some toys have kind of fallen off, you know, I mean right now, I mean this your showroom is beautiful. Here, it's sounded, but it's amazing.

Piece of advertising. Signage is really hot, yeah, you know,

and then that allows this stuff exactly. But at that time,

furniture was hot and I knew it, and things were going nuts, and I had the ability. I didn't open

my antique shop up then, but I knew what I was going to do. Tucked the lobby and the gutted

the lobby. After I was done with the apartment up

there and got my shop in there, the next focus was getting the lobby. The bank like the lobby, the lobby, lobby,

round oak windows. I mean, it's gorgeous, and I'll tell

you it's one of my favorite buildings in this in ocean came like one hundred mile radius, you know, it really is. It's got the look, you know it. It

captivated me. I loved the building. I loved the windows

got me, you know, the brick work, I mean, the structure.

And then I found those a little booklet that came with the building, and it was like, and it's they said, in nineteen fourteen, they paid eighty five thousand dollars they have that building built. Wow in nineteen fourteen. Yeah think

about that, right, you paid a third of that when you got it, yes, and yeah, yeah, yeah, that was a lot of money back then. The quality of the

building is so good. It's a First National Areay National Bank,

and so I and so I opened up the lobby, made it all beautiful, and I opened up an antique shop called First National Antiques, you know. And that way

I made a sign, hand carved a sign, Hutch touch sign to the pounds pattern for the sign and his old sign painter and Forward River and he did that, and I hand carved a sign like actually incised the letters into the pine boards, painted all up with gold leaf, and you know it hung out there. I'd had an

antique shop in there for like twenty five years. Yeah,

you know, until furniture and people would come in and yeah, and I brug every other antique shop huh we mee.

And as I know, now it's like Fort Knox. You

can't even get on that. You can't even pull into

the parking lot. Now you don't want anyone though, I

don't want anybody there. Let's just be clear, right, Yeah,

I'm not. I'm not shopped out over the public anymore.

I can't do it. Yeah, yeah, I just I've got it,

like because I you know, it's my life has changed less since then. Yeah. So, but back then it was

really good. I mean I was telling dude some I

was sounding like ten grand on a weekend, on the summer weekend of furniture, and you were living and working in the same city Ace and it was ice was right, the price was right, and also it was just like I was just like really into it. I was in

a good groove. Furniture was like really coming up. Oak

Furniture was we were I was buying it for like at auctions down in Maryland, Crompton's for nothing. We were

getting some stuff out of the cities you know, abandoned building.

So would you sometimes buy it, restore it, and then just put it out there to sell it? Oh ya,

all ready to go? Let's say that would be I

would well the game, that was the game. I would

get it, get a dresser in, strip it down, take it all apart, reglue, make all the drawers work right, put you know, put like, you know, forty fifty hours into a dresser and then put it to make all your money and then make and then make every every last dime of it, you know, in the shop. And

the people are coming from Philly. My reputation was coming

from uh was reaching Philly, was reaching New York. So

I was getting designers into the shop, buyings the use, getting you know, arts and crafts furniture in there. And

then because I had the ability to, like if if a mirror harp was missing, I could reproduce it exactly the way and then using antique woods, you know, and then making right before authenticity purpose just that. But it

it looked right, yeah, yeah, looks right. It was an

aged wood hold. Yes, yeah, So that's pretty that's pretty awesome,

and that that's kind of like what I got How I got into the restoration trade and doing veneer work and doing marketry, doing bull or heirlooms like fam would in family early people this is yeah, and in our family that's who haddy. Later that started, I started taking

the like people's furniture and doing their their bedroom sets all that stuff. Later, once the furniture market died, I

kind of switch changed my business to like doing you know, restoring memories. And we had a lot of people from

North Jersey moving down to South Jersey and they're bringing their mother's furniture with them, so they'll doing a lot of nineteen thirty forties dining room sets, bedroom sets, and that was That was for good ten years and just really hitting that really hard because there was a lot of a lot of influx of business coming in and you do a really if do a really nice job, people coming through and I people working for me here and there, you know, not as hard. It's hard to

find somebody who had that skill. Which if they're that skilled,

they're gonna have their own right, They're gonna work for themselves. Yes,

So it's in any trade d about. So I had

people like helping me out, you know, move the furniture mainly and then you know, of course my son and stuff like that. He was fantastic and my had you know,

got an married, had a kid, and it was like fantastic and everything was working out really really well, and just rolling with the punches. Yeah, because you know, furniture

market kind of died, switching gears into doing rarely furniture, restoring your memories and doing all that stuff. And you

know I was doing that until you know, a couple of years ago, right six seven years. I remember coming

in there and seeing you working on that, you know, inlays and stuff like that, and your work in late bool where h water diamaries to it and they got like a beautiful cabinet. When Sandy hit here. I mean

I was doing tons of work, you know for Hurricane Sandy came through, and you know, it's just like it was overwhelming, overwhelming. I just didn't have any chanft to it,

you know. And then back in the day when I

was making a lot of money, I was starting to buy antique motorcycle parts and pieces. Okay, so that's all

that transition, and that's a whole So at the same time, you were starting to get this bug for early motorcycles. Yeah,

because I was looking at you. My I was so

passionate when the antique shop. But I love setting up

my antique shop. I was going out to like different

like Brimfield and all and all different shows in Atlanta and going out west to any antique shows and setting up and selling there. And now was that? Was that?

Also reading books on motorcycles like the wood or that was a little bit more hands on. I joined the

are any antique motorcycle called of America. I had some

great friends and some good mentors. Dick Nwkirk was one

of my good buddies. I met him at one of

the shows and he's he's just going to turn ninety next month. And this guy was like he kind of

showed me the ropes. You know, there's other people too,

and then there's other people too. And I was starting small.

I was just getting into it. So I was buying

hardly forty five stuff back in the in the eighties when it was you know, like nothing next to nothing.

It was just cool to have an antique bikes and stuff like pieces and parts around And I was, you know, uh, I built a hot rod. Uh you know, thanks to you.

You inspired me to build a hot ride. Oh I

did absolutely. I didn't know that. Oh absolutely, Yeah. I

built a hot rod strike. It was this crazy as

motor and it custom frame that's a fun end. Yeah,

it was nuts. And it was like the first three

wheeler with a soft tail frame in America. Oh yeah,

though you were early on that it was the first one.

It was that company from Canada that made the frame for me. Actually it was Well and Thunder No, no, no,

I forget what. It's a long time but they made

they made a soft tail adapter to take a service car rear end. Okay, and that was the first heart one.

But I was from watching your show, dude, really yeah that that inspired you absolutely must watch your show and like this is so cool what you were doing, you know.

So it was nuts. It was like we would work

in the shop with them at our dinner break and we'd go stairs and we throw you on TV and Jesse James and Heavy the topper build off stuff. Yeah yeah,

all inspirational. Yeah. I think it was a good era

in time for television, you know, where where people would started building things again and that was inspiring the people that's hands on. Yeah, yeah, I mean when I saw

what was going on with with you guys, and you guys were like making frames and doing custom work and custom paint job. The design element of it, oh freaky.

It was so out of this world and it was like wow, yeah, and that was right. It was man. Yeah. Yeah.

You know it's funny too because, uh, you know when you talk about kind of being self taught, I in the same way had people in my life that even coming up through the steel business. Uh you know, just

where they taught me how to weld and grime and read a tape measure. You grew in my business. I

grew up in that business. Yeah, and it really sharpened, uh,

my my craftsmanship, my my ability to work with my hands and things might have just been a railing or stairs or you know, but I was making things and I loved it. It's scratched an itch for me. But

it wasn't until I was in like my mid twenties and my father afforded me the opportunity to build motorcycles that I realized I had creative ability. I used and

it wasn't but it wasn't taught. I didn't I wasn't

good in art. I couldn't draw, I never did anything

I never read an article on it. I just had

an inclination creatively, my mind started to kick in, and you know, here's a product of everything now but you know, now that's twenty five years ago that started, you know, and so so time flies. But it's funny because I

think some people have a natural inclination towards something like you with woodwork kind of opened the door for what was next. It was you had an appetite for it.

And it's nice to scratch that itch. You know. You

want to dig further into or into our the things that really flip our switches, the things that inspire us, right, so we want to like dig deeper. What is the inspiration?

Where's it coming from? What I mean, how we're looking

through sometimes through nature, sometimes we're doing through architecture, something something new, you know, ancient art. It's funny too, you say,

because you read the books that kind of got you going, right, those were your big inspiration. Yeah, you go, I was

soon We would go to the mall as kids would go to Oceananty mall, you know, all all the whole family, and then I would just go to the bookstore and everybody else would go shopping mall. Rat in it, and

I would be like all I was in Wolden books, you have your face buried in face already and to do it yourself. Section like what was what was going on?

I was looking for the new things that were and Eric Sloan, you know, he was a writer on early American tools and how America was built. And I bought

all his books, Repers for Wood, Age of Barnes, a Vanishing Landscape, all his books or other inspirations. So it's

all these different things. I subscribed to Mother Earth News magazine,

so it's really crazy as a magazine, but for self sufficiency.

And it was like just because because they had articles in there about you know, solar power. It has articles

in there, be litting off the grid, and that appealed to me as well, be self sufficied, right right, not reliant, not reliant on not now inside sources so much. It

was just something being different than everybody else. You know.

It was just like I wasn't it wasn't interested in mainstream society at all. Right, I could give a shit, really,

you know, I didn't care. It's so funny too, because

at that age I ran from books. I couldn't stand read.

I want to read. No, I hadn't read in school.

I was suffering. I was crying every No, dude, don't

get me wrong. I sucked it as a student as well.

I mean I was not a great student. Math was like,

oh my god, I'm why, I'm nothing to do with it?

You know, algebra? No, I will not to do it.

I was a history yes I was. It was interested.

And of course I took architectural drawing and mechanical drawing for four years. That was a huge So that must

have been a big one for Yea to layout, visualization, plan in advance, come up with drawings and ideas. Not

just that, but when I got into the antique restoration of motorcycles and you have to reproduce a part, and I do. I make carburetors, I make frames and fixtures,

all different kinds of things, any little part. I'd go

find an original part from a collector and get it.

I would, and I would. I would reverse engineer it

and make aanical drawing with paper on a drafting table and actually draft everything. I have reams of drawings and

way back of Indian carburetors and racing carburetors and heads and valve assemblies and anything that you needed to restore these bikes. I was missing, you know, I was networking.

I was restoring bikes for people because I wanted to get into their collection so I could bar the damn carburetors and you get it your I would never you can't reproduce anything accurately unless you have it in your hand, So I would measure it down to the last thousands of micrometers, make a beautiful mechanical drawing, and ask where all that skill set from high school kicked in. Yeah. Man,

I'm like, I'm really glad I did this right. And

so my drawings look back on them and it's like, man, it's it's like it's such a cool reference and now it's like they're always there. Yeah, and just for you know,

nobody does that. Nobody does that type of work at all.

It's cast day, so it's all cad. Nobody does that

by hand. Nobody does the cast hand. And the attention

to detail is what you're into. I love that because

like I'm a purist when it comes to like collectibles and doing things like that right. So I love originality.

And so if you can't have the part and you're able to make it the way it was. That's like

the best you can get it as opposed to having what doesn't exist almost anymore. You're recreating something all together.

To me, that's like, that's one of the things about what you do that I've always been impressed by. And

I'm not generally impressed by a whole lot, but I see your skill set, man, and I'm like, this guy's like a mad science issue over here. I appreciate you.

You're getting the vibe them putting out there, you know.

So then motorcycles come into play, and in what that became a hobby for you for yourself, like a personal thing. Yeah,

Me and my son were like, you know, making whatever parts or pieces like that. It was a hobby. Yes,

at first, I was like I was because I was being in an antique shop and always getting the most money for the earliest piece of furniture. Like if you

had like a you know, a Victorian air address from eighteen nineties, okay, you could sell effort you know, fifteen twenty five hundred bucks. But if you had like a

seventeen nineties Chippendale right like one hundred years earlier, you were getting six or seven thousand bucks or something like that where it was real deal, right. So that's how

I was like, Okay, so let me put that same idea and the same thing into the antique motorcycle thing.

I'm gonna stop buying these Harley forty five and Harley right, the more common stuff, more common stuff, and I really want to start searching for the early and rare stuff, the rare stuff. And it's just like clicked right there.

And then I just sold a lot of that stuff off and used those funds to buy a frame. Will

you find? First off, is be going to like we

go to Oli, or we go to Wasseion or Davenport, and you look around, you would find a motor, right, you would find an old Indian motor from nineteen seven or nineteen I remember, I remember in nineteen I bought a nineteen seven Indian motor from the Antique Motorcycle Club magazine from some guy in Washington from earl Echele. He

was a racer. He raced in Salsburg. His grandpop did

you know, and he has his nineteen seven original paint Indian motor, like and it was like twenty five hundred bucks.

I'm like, I'll be right, there, dude, I couldn't get there fast enough. Yeah, And I made the deal with

I met this guy who's he bought a lot of other stuff from him forty years. And you find a motor,

and then you'll find a part here in a gas tank, another part, But you never set of wheels. You never

Sometimes you'll find their hubs, but you never find the frames. No,

they're hard, yeah, because they're in the ground somewhere. Yes,

they were scrapped. Yeah, I mean, from what I understand,

the boy Scouts had scrap drives, Victory scrap drives in World War One and cleared out all the basements of all the frames. You've all this stuff, all the front

health the war foot ways. Right, they helped the war,

but they would never get rid of the motors because the motors could do work right right, right, you put a CD right, that single cylinder Indian seven motor could run a front five mile right, Yes, exactly, they could run a sauce. So it was vera scenario because it

was the value. So when the farmer or when the

guy bought a motorcycle in nineteen seven, well by nineteen twelve, you know, we're nineteen fourteen, that motor was more cycles outdated.

It couldn't climb the hills like a two speed, you know, like an Excelsior could or Harley. And then when the

transmitions came out, nobody wanted the early stuff. They threw

all thetly the bar. It was absolutely right, it was obsolete.

So but what they would do was they was like, oh, they don't. They would take the motors out of them

and they would throw the frames in the back of a scrap pile. Boy scouts would come around. You got

up to the filet up in the back. Theres a

bunch of frames in the back. You can take them, so,

you know, damn boy scouts man. So let's talk about

the types of bikes you ended up getting into. My

focus was on early American motorcycles, and that was that's I wasn't involved with getting involved with British motorcycles or anthing like that, or European bikes because I saw the values.

I saw what these bikes are selling for. That I

mean that truly was a driving factor with a driving factor of me buying all these I'll spend a lot of money. I'm motors and parts and pieces, hubs, this

stuff is expensive, but I was justifying it, like, hey, I just saw like a nineteen seven Indians sell for one hundred and and you know you were like halfway there on for half the money. So I'm like, kid myself,

I'm gonna find a frame and buying all these pieces.

And sometimes that happened. Sometimes it's like fifteen years for

that to happen. But you know, then you'll fight a

chassis for a Seer's and you have the motor and you put all these pieces together and you got a bike, and then it's like it so is that when you started casting the different parts. Yeah, frankly, well that was

kind of like we were doing. There was a big

thing with overhead valve racing Indians. It's a taller frame, right. Yeah.

The board track racing, Stephen Wright came out with some great books The American Racer that inspired everybody to get into board track racing. He was telling the story of

the American board track racing scene, the Indian racers, the Harley's, the Celsiors, these cyclones, all these sexy bikes. Yeah, friends

with a cool paint. Oh my, that left the cool paint.

But the history, I mean, there was an accident in Welsburg, New Jersey, where twelve people died on the track, on this board track, and they opened the track up in July.

They closed it September, you know, And it's like that was it was called. They would call him murder Dromes

their motor drome. They called him murder Drume. Guys were

dying and this was a huge sport. The attendance for

those motor drome races back in nineteen you know, you know, twelve and thirteen was as much as as a football game is now. Yeah, people, I'll tell you I got

I got a trophy over there in my cabinet that was won by H. Perry Harry E. Mack. Yeah, he

worked for Harley, he did. I have a trophy that

he won. He got his name on it over there,

nineteen oh five, Garfield Park. Really yeah, it's fantastic trophy, right,

I got it from the grandson. Where's the bike? I

don't know where the bike is. There's a picture of

the bike somewhere, but O five's early early well, yeh super Harley suppose live No, that's what they s This is the stories. I got a bunch of articles with it.

This is the idea that he was one of their early guys and he was an engineer. He wasn't a racer,

but he raced and he won this ten mile race nineteen oh five Garfield Park. And at the end there

was like a fifteen mile race where they all raced it out and it was on a concrete track and a Fox terrier ran out in front of him and he hit it and he cracked his head open for the last It was the last time he ever raced.

It's all in the history books because then later he worked years later, he worked for Briggs and Stratton as their main engineer. Hit it as their lead engineer. I

did years later. But he came up with the PM bike,

the Macki motor, that overhead valve motor, the Jefferson and he would invented all different parts, all different front ends.

You know, he was a real he was a real engineering mind. Do some brilliant engineers back then. I mean

they're all trying to make, you know, a faster bike, a more efficient bike, so the climb hills go faster.

And it was really but it was always on the race track. First they would race on Sunday, that's right,

and sell on money. That's all right. If they had

a nice bike, was running good, and if it was you know, Excelsia or Indian, they went to the Indian dealers, guys in the stands and they went and went b Damn motorcycles just won the race. I know. And I

also think when you look back sometimes the timelines don't really add up for these guys. And I think they're

saying they were around longer than they were because it was better for business. Doesn't that make any sense? So

they say, oh, we we been around since oh two.

I meanwhile, you can't find barely in O five. I mean,

Harley says they've been around since nineteen oh three. I've

never seen no. I think it's one in the museum

that in Milwaukee. I saw that. Yeah, But I mean

I think they really started production No. Five. Yeah, and

even Indian they started No. Nine, but they only had bicycles.

No No, they saw oh sorry, oh one, sorry one, yeah, oh one, O two. I have the catalog for O

two and I have an original paint oh for my shop right now, a totally original bike. Wow. But the

production was low, I mean, but then they were the one Indian really was leading the pack. They had the

most production. I think by nineteen like eight, they had

like I don't know, twenty five hundred bikes or maybe even more than that for that year. And they Bike

Harley at that time in nineteen seven only made like one hundred and fifty. So it was way ahead of there,

way way ahead, way way ahead. But they had They

also were building bicycles for a lot of years, but they were at they over, but they hired what was the company? Yeah, they hired a Royal manufacturing company to

make all the parts for them until they got a big enough we're company together where they could make everything in house. So they had from nineteen o two to

nineteen nineteen seven Aurora Manufacturing Company was making all their stuff.

And then nineteen eight Indias like, okay, contract over and we're going to start making our own stuff. And then

then they started and they were killing. But nineteen thirteen

I think they made you know, like thirty five thousand motorcycles. Know,

it was crazy, real they were. Indian was definitely on

top of their game. They were the most advanced motorcycle

in that time period. Yeah, and I love them. I'm

actually working on you know, from nineteen to They're my favorite motorcycle for Nikes. I'm doing all the diamond frames

I got, like, I'm doing ten bikes. Oh, those are fantastic,

I know, and they're the biking the frames because I'm wanted to damn frames. Yeah, so we're actually making all

the casting. My sons helped me out. We're doing all those. Yeah,

those diamond bikes are got they got the look. They're beautiful. Yeah,

they're like very art forward, they yes, and you know, it's kind of like they're they're they're the bikes that inspired everybody else to yeah, to make it go right, you know. They're the one thing else the motorcycles, deside

the early motorcycle business going on there so sweet. Anyway,

that was what the motorcycle stuff kind of was inspired by.

The money was being made. There was a guy out

in California who was reproducing the top ends for the overhead valve racing in the factory racer, but no nobody was making the damn carburetor. Nobody had a carburetor for

these things. And that's the hardest thing. That's the hardest

thing to find. Ye and I had just bought a

nineteen eleven Indian and the guy had a carburetor, a racing carburetor that he said, would you like to buy this?

It was like thirty five hundred bucks. There's a lot

of money bang in And I'm like, all right, I know what this is. I'm going to buy it. I

saw it in piece even Write's book. So I went

to work to reproduce that carburetor, and I did twenty two of this car me and my son casting cast things.

First off, I hired a pattern making company to make the first couple of patterns, and then I'm like, I don't want to pay that bill anymore. That was like

six gram right, hang, I learn that, dude, it's going on a woodworker. How hard could we make a pattern?

You get to buy the shrink rules. And then so

I took the carburetor and took my mechanical drawing skills, reverse engineered it, made the patterns up and started making them and did twenty two of them. Carbetters, there's twenty two.

My Carbritter's sitting out there. Me and my son. We

had a little machine shop at the back that's a lot day antique shop open. We had a little shed

I built and we and we worked on a machine and needles and all the parts for the carburetor in this little shed. And and just like I was the

only guy in the world still am who makes those carvers, And I'd make him anymore. That whole ship is sailed, right,

everybody mar everybody who was who wanted a board track racer got it. Yeah, you know, so once in a

while I get a call for a guy wants a carbriger.

But you know, well it's so interesting. I'm glad we

got this background because I think a lot of people don't know this about maybe year past from watching American Pickers.

Which leads me into the next thing. When did you

meet Mike? Well, when was the first time you went

at Mike had my antique shop. I mean he was

he was my picker basically, I mean he was. I

met him at at Oie And here's so he was to pick for you and then come sell it to you and then sell it. Yeah, yeah, he was. He

was a picker. He was the guy who he filled

his truck up with. He would go and just he

had a great eye, I mean, amazing guy. And I

met him and he had this it was it was a red van he says no, but he was a red van at Oie and it was pactful cool stuff.

He had like you know, weather veans and like lightning rods and like old crocks, and it was they take motorcycle to me. I'm like, dude, what are you doing here?

You know? And he was like he and I bought

some great stuff and brought it back to my shop and sold it. So and the week became fast friends.

I mean, he was like, what year was that? Oh god,

it was thirty ish thirty yearly years ago. All right,

so you guys been hurt Friday for thirty plus years ago.

So it's been a while. Oh I didn't want to

think about it, you know, I know. But anyway, so

we became fast friends, I mean, and so we started picking together. Here he's from Iowa and he he would

come out to my place and we would pick the Northeast.

I'm like, we'd get in the van and the Northeast is the best pick. Oh my god, it's like that's

where all the good stuff, where everything is everything. So

he and he was smart what he was doing. He'd

come to my place. He says, I got a bunch

of leads. I said, where you get these leads from? Dude.

So he was getting from the old antique motorcycle magazines from the sixties and seventies and he's calling them up.

He's calling the people up in there, Hey, do you still have that bike? What happened to that thing? What

happened to that motor And he was developing lead through the old antique motorcycle magazines and that was that's really smart.

That was for this this guy, because that was still sitting there in the basement. One of the you know,

the things that suck up would be most about Mike Wolfe, the guy brilliant. Yeah, he's a super smart guy. Yeah

you know, yeah, maybe not book smart, yeah, but he's street.

He's he knows the business and he knows how to hustle.

I mean, the guy he's got he was he was an inspiration to me. I'm like, who is this guy?

You know? And so we became fast friends and he's

you know, sleeping my couch. Yeah, he'd be upstairs like

like I you know, he's stayed there for like a week or two. I'm like, dude, hoole man, I was

sick of seeing you already. But we'd have a lot

of fun. We we you know, picked the wherever he

had leads. I had some leads. He had way more

leads to me for antique motorcycles. He was really into it.

He was really cultivating good leads and he was bringing me along and then I would bring him along some of my stuff that I had too, and some of it, you know, intertwined too. We would noticeing people, you know,

especially in Pennsylvania and stuff like that in New York.

So we would and we go We did Hershey together, we did antique shows together, and you know, and we were We're feeding off each other's energy. He liked my

shop and then I would go to Iowa and he had a shop out there too. It was a small shop,

and like we had the Davenport motorcycle right down the street from him, and stay stay at his house. So

we was back and forth. It was it was like

we we got along great, you know. So and that's

how I met Mike Wolfe. And this is before the show, yeah,

way before the show, way before the show. Yeah. And

I know I've spoken to Mike about this, and I know he had to really beat down a lot of doors before he got his show. Oh, my god, this

didn't come to him. I know. It was years of

really trying to sell the concept before it got picked up.

Here's what happened, dude. I would I would like, but

we'd go to our pick and he'd be like he'd be filming or you'd have a you know, a camera.

I don't know what the little camera was back then, but like whatever it was, and he would be filming things like Jersey. Look what I just filmed. And he

called me Jersey. He's the only guy whoever never met

you called me. He calls from New Jersey and he's

from Iowa, so he's like Jersey. So that's how I

got the nickname Jersey. Oh really, he gave you that.

He gave me that name. No, we're pretty good. Oh

he's the one. So Robbie, you call me Jersey. Everybody

in his family called me Jersey, and I hated it. Yeah,

so now it's kind of grown on. Yeah, you just

resigned town like, Okay, I'm Jersey. Yeah yeah, but no John,

you know. Yeah. But anyway, so we we had a

great time, you know, going on his leaves, picking things up and making a living. I mean we're both like, dude,

I mean trying to make a living, right, and it's just it's hard, you know. I mean I had the

furniture restoration business and whatnot, but also an antique shop.

I had to you know, get stuff sale for sale, right.

You had to have inventory, right, you had to have inventory.

And then I also noticed that my furniture wasn't selling anymore, right, that was fading. Yeah, and I'm like, okay, now what

do I do? You know, you know, I got I

gotta support myself. I got a family support. I got

figured this out. And that's when antique motorcycles start. That

starts like versifying. I taught myself glassware. I taught myself pottery.

I taught myself early paintings, how to repair pottery and porcelains.

I was diversified. I changed everything I was doing. I was.

I was getting in the more into fine antiques, going to the show up in brandy Wine and looking at really good furniture, watching Antiques Roadshow, and and the Keno brothers taught them and nerd it out on these early American furniture. I love that stuff. I gotta tell you, man,

that was my favorite show. Yeah, anti Olo's show is

like my favorite I could just I could watch it around like yeah, like if that's the only thing that was ever on, it was never bothers. It's an educational show.

It's value based and you get it and you really can learn a lot from these people who are explaining what these things are and also exciting like how these people have these things right right? The story the story.

But yeah, the story is always great, that's what's cool.

Like when I started working with the show and Mike, what you know, there was those issues. Frank was really

ill and he you know, he couldn't work on the show anymore. And Robbie got on the show. Then he needed,

you know, somebody else on the show. Then they wanted

me to go on the show. I'm like, well, do

I really want to be on the show. Yeah, I

remember talking to you about I was freaking out, Yeah exactly, I did we did? You called me and said, hey,

what's this television? What television? Giggles? Did I do it? Yes?

And yes, do it? And he inspired me. I'm like,

you know, and I was like I was kind of freaking out. Yeah, Well you were used to well, you know,

having a job and working and that you well, now they were going to take my time. They were going

to take you know, yes, every month I had to go and do this show. And at first I was

when when Mike started the show. First off, let's get back,

let's back up a little bit. Nobody gave him this ship. No,

I mean I watched him take all these films that he was making of different picks, and he had to get a teaser reel and he hired like I think it was crazy Eyes, the productions out in Iowa, and this young guy put the beautiful teaser reel together and it showed him and Frank picking. It was great, man,

I loved it. I mean, this is so cool, it's exciting,

and like Mike, this is great, keep it up, keep it up, keep going, and I'm inspiring him. And I

watched him it was like and then he would like try and market it to people. And it's really hard

to break into that that business, very very hard, very very hard, because all these execs think they know what the best television is. What they're only thinking about what exists,

so that they want they want to sure bet of course they want to show everybody does. And I think,

you know, I'm talking out of my turn. Really I

really don't know the business. But what I saw from Mike,

I watch saw him suffer. I'm like, and he would

call me up. He's like, you know, dude, I don't

know what I'm doing here. He's you know, he's trying

to put two pennies together, you know, to you know, figure out how he's going to live, you know, and they've got he's trying to make this show work. It

was his dream, big sacrifice, big sacrifices he's making. And

not only that, but it's just like he never lost faith in himself, and I'm like, and and also I never lost faith to him either. I'm like, dude, you're

gonna do this. It's gonna be great. And it was

like focus on the story, focus on the story, focus on the story. And I think that helped a lot.

And he did, and that show is really story based.

And you know, even for me, like these are, I'm like addicted to collecting. I mean, I love it. It's

a sickness more than anything. I think. The thing I

love about it other than the visual and early advertising and that is the story and the history. I am

a sorry I will pay more for history. I love.

I am That's the thing I love to do. I've

researched for days and not even bought the thing I researched.

But I got an education. And then again, like you

said earlier, you have the right people in your life.

You make the phone call, heywing, your toy guy, you motorcycle guy. You know, Mike's got someone everywhere, right, well,

all of you on the motor early. Yeah, I was

helping out with early motorcycles with him, and you know, and also just you know generalistics. We just we were

just like antique dealers and we sharing information and we trusted each other. And so yes, you do network. It's

a lot of networking. The networking is big. And that

brought me up into a better understanding. And you can't

really get an education until you make the risk. You

buy it. You make some mistake, thing wrong things. Hopefully

you do good. Yeah, you get rid of some of

the stuff that you didn't do so good on and over time, if you have a good eye, yeah, and you have some education and you do some investigating, you could do pretty good. Because some of this stuff I've

gotten at a real reasonable price. And that's part of

what I like about collecting. I don't just go and

throw money at stuff. If I can't sneak up on

it a little bit, you want to probably not buy it.

Find it like stock market. I like that. Gotta buy

lots because there's room in it and it's better than money in the bank. You know. That's what I love.

That's that's what I'm passionate about. You see all this stuff,

I mean, even this block right here, you know, came out of a Studebaker building. You know, it's crazy beautiful.

And I've always miirred the stuff that you've had, and I respect you for the history that you like save, but also the research that you do to find out what each piece have you like, I've learned things from you by even those boats I bought from this, I called over the Stevenson's Institute, got the professor on the phone.

He got the back to me with all the serial numbers and told me exactly what I had the testing boats for that from an America's cup. That's right. I know,

there was so cool that first off. We both like

dig that kind of stuff, so we've always gotten along that way. Yeah, it's not just a flashy snow, it's technical.

The piece of how it plays it it's part and hidden history, correct, you know, like you had that big zeppelin Ye crazy, Yeah, I mean that's amazing. It's it's

actually an engineering model. And to me it's like a

piece of oh, like real Americana. Like think about it.

It's a piece of history, you know, it's not it didn't.

It was a piece of history. It had a function.

It helped create Zeppelins. And the quality. You can see

the quality. I know you're a quality guy. You love

to see quality. You've you've recognized it, and that's the

hard thing to see. It is an eye for your quality. Bill,

this is what made you your reputation together. It's a

quality of the design and also the machining and the and and the fabrication. I mean it's like nothing else

set out there right now. It's unique. It's very unique. Yeah,

and I liked and that's why I got like a lot of one off signs. I like to collect one

office if I can. You know, of course that's as

much value. We all want the one. I want the

one off motorcycle and yeah I want the first R Times Yeah, yeah, yeah, one, Yeah, I want the first Indian that's you know there, what's that Traube. What's that

troub trout that net walk starts place. Yeah, that's a

great point. Oh my god. I mean the whole museum

is amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean the whole world

is really cool with the whole antique motorcycle stuff. And

that's where Mike and I really grew strong together, really strong. Yeah,

like we were. We were spending some serious money on

stuff and like and you have to have that that courage tould do it. I mean we're talking about, you know,

spending fifty thousand dollars on a piece of junk bike that looks like crappy, right and looks I don't Douber would walk right over walk past it, and I mean you have to see it. You got to understand history.

You got to know what the value is going to be and kind of like beat you know, two steps ahead of where the value is going, you know. And

so we had that, we had that bond, and then he's doing this show and I'm like paying attention to what he's doing. I'm not trying to get in his

business with no at all. I'm like, that's cool, dude,

you do that, you know, Yeah, And he did it, and that was, and then like five years nobody wanted it and he suffered and he's like, dude, nobody wants to show get man, don't worry about it. You're going

to get it. You're go get it. And then he

got into some I guess through History channel. He got

in the back door through a friend of his, and he got an interview there and they bought he says, Jersey Day's bought six episodes. That's all it took. I'm dude,

so proudy. That was so cool. I was really so

proud of what he had accomplished there. Yeah, because and

he tells me the story, He's like, I didn't know what he was going to do. He was like he

wasn't sure where to even go. He didn't have anything

lined up. He wasn't expecting this, and he was like

from the seat of his pants. He had a film

crew there and directors and you know, all these guys.

They's like all right, I'm like, no way, okay, let's do this. And he's like knocking on some guy's door, Hey,

can we film in here? It was that raws and

that's what made it great too. That's still what makes

it great. It is it is. And you know, I

got to tell you for the years that I spoke with him once we got to know each I didn't know him back then, but later we got to know each other, and uh, he said, man, your your guys show kept me going, Yeah, I saw what you guys were doing, just regular guys making television. And he's like, man,

it just kept making me push, make me push, because he said, I knew I had something special. Yeah, you

got to get other people to see it. Do was

nothing like it on the market, nothing, and there still isn't. Yeah, well,

I mean Paunt Stars was kind of like started to dish.

I'm fish. It's it's not the same show, but it's

not as it's not as personality driven as far as like different characters where you go visit Middle Earth. You know,

it's just random guy. I love you know, doing the show.

I've grown to really really enjoy it to being with people and finding out like where did you get all this stuff from? And why is it here? Is that

your favorite part about being absolutely just the people. It's

the people. Yeah, I love that interviewing the people. It's

the engine this show. And you know, here's another really

important part of it. For me and it gives me

bootmall goosebumps. E've been thinking about it is that we're

going to a house and I've never miss these people before.

I have a little idea who they are, but I mean it's totally organic. We're going in there and the

father's gone, who have collected with this stuff? The mother's

gone to collected all this stuff. This is this is

this is a family member, and they're explaining to me, like, this is my dad and this is his stuff that we have and we have to we don't we don't know what to do with it, right, And you got to kind of go in there and some of his collections are amazing collections, and you got to tell the story of the father or the mother who's gone through their collection. Oh, I understand why he bought this. Now

I see where this is going because I'm coming from the same background. I understand what this collection is about.

But you can see, like his the evolution of his collections.

Sometimes this was his early stuf and then before he passed the best he bought the he's playing. He's really

stepped up and bought the best, you know, right piece of art that he afford and so now it's not just we're picking people. It's almost we're doing a eulogy, right,

you know what I'm saying. Yeah, and that is oh

my god, it's such a responsibility. Yeah. And you could

see the respect for the families oh after the show, and you know, I'm sure there's a lot of behind the scenes everything, because it takes a lot to make a television show, but to come in and respect what it is that you're looking at and honor the memory of people because it's usually their kids are grandkids, are moving things along. It's like you said, they don't have

a passion for it, they don't know what to do with it, and they want to see it in a good home. Yeah. And Mike is so good at that,

and I know he is. He gets everyone real comfortable.

Oh absolutely, And I've kind of learned that from him too, because I was really super nervous starting to show. I'm like,

I don't know if I'm gonna be good at this or I just don't know what to do. But it

just worked. He said, dude, you're killing it. I'm like

I am like, well, we're just being you. I'm just

just like we're talking here. I remember having the conversation. Yeah,

he said, hey, Mike, you know, because I know you, they would call you on the phone get their opinion.

But you say, hey, Mike wants me to come on the road and be a part of the show. And yeah,

I said, dude, you should do it. And I know

you were concerned about it because you didn't really care about being famous. No, you didn't care about his notoriety.

You you cared more about am I gonna like this is this like the next chapter and how is this going to affect my job, my David, my bills? Right,

because and that's where you were at. And I'm sure

you know that works out over time. Yeah, apparently you

guys work through that a little bit. Yeah it's okay,

I mean yeah, I mean, who whatever, No one's getting to do what you're doing. Right. It's such a great

life experience, you know, it's it's just so cool. I mean,

they treat me really great. On the show. We travel

all over the country. We meet these great people, we

see these great collections, make these connections with people, I make friends with these with with people, and there were part of their life now And you don't realize how important that really is. Like these are people, you know,

we're coming into the collection and their dad's gone or mom's gone, and now we're celebrating them and putting and documenting the family's history on this pop culture media. Yeah,

and it's there forever. I mean we're still watching. I

love Lucy reruns. This show is going to be gone forever.

I mean, he's it's been on since two thousand and nine, I think was the first show and here we are still going strong fifteen years later. Yes, I mean the

show is doing good. Our ratings are way up. Yeah,

I mean we're doing really good. Timeless that's why, I guess,

I don't know, I think so. And it's story driven,

so we have the same experience. We just happened to

create a genre. Yeah, you were out there. We loved

the whole the dynamic, the chemistry you guys had in our show. I mean that's what That's what kept me

tuning in on every all right Wednesday. Nor the personalities.

We were very real and raw. There's no rehearsal, we

weren't taking acting lessons. We were the same people on

camera as we were off camera, and we just hit at a time where there was a real appetite for it, and it was new. It was new to television. There

was no reality shows like ours before the wa It was family driven family. You had your whole family there,

your dad, your brother, you and you guys were all like it was. We were a little nuts absolutely as

doing I'm like, did you just back into your dad's truck? Right? Like?

You just do? Yeah? How many doors can you know? Yes?

And you guys were just it was so brilliant watching that and seeing that and it definitely inspired me. Yeah,

legacy shows, Uh, Pickers is one. You know, there's shows

that were on when we started. So we started in

two thousand and two, right, and there were other shows that were popular at the time, not necessarily reality just shows, but nobody remembers them, nobody. They were just there for

a blip. Yeah. What we did was we came up

with a whole generation. We brought a whole generation to

people up with us. And you know, like you said,

it's the characters that is the staying power. And even

now today up the appreciation there's like nostalgia for our show now and the appreciation. I'm fifty now, so everybody

who started watching the show was half their age that they are now, but now they have kids, some in college, you know, so it's a it's a pretty interesting dynamic.

But I see it in Mike's show. It's a legacy show.

We have a lot of fun doing it. I mean,

I think it was kind of we had a shaky period in there when Frank got really sick and they couldn't do a show anymore and all that was going down, you know, that was it was all hard. Did they

bring you in because Frank was sick or you want to I mean, I suppose so yeah, I mean I don't really know, but yeah, I get. I mean, I

guess they wanted a little bit more diversification, not just buying oil and gas stuff, and I had a more background in general antiques, furniture, tools, you know, machine work, you know, art whatever. I mean, Well, it's the evolution

of the show too, because it was just the two of them the first few seasons and then they started bleeding in Rob Robbie the girl would go out. You know,

they mixed it because the more picks you got, the more episodes you have, and he doesn't have to be at every single pick, you know. The mechanics of the

show had to change. Yeah, but that was a stretched out,

really thin and I mean I can't believe that he's still doing it. Pull and not just that they pulled

this off. Yeah, I mean, this is a super strong show.

It's amazing. And then we got like we have a

huge crew. It's like, you know, yeah, thirteen guys on

the road, you know, pulling us across the country and doing all this stuff. I mean they're all relying on it. Yeah.

You know, if I don't show up for work, it ain't working that that's right. You you mess everybody up. Yeah,

and that is the way. That's the way our show

always was too. I will say, man, I'm jealous of

these shows like like Pickers, And I'll tell you why our show was such a process show. It was like

six weeks an episode. How you know you guys could

do like twenty episodes in six weeks. Maybe not, you

know you? And I heard it's three hundred hours per

episode with the edding and everything. So it's it's it's

kind of like, yeah, right, there's still that's but it's not quite You can get more done in a shorter period of time. And I think they're half hours, right,

are they half I know they're an hour lung show.

Are they hour long show? They're alon show? But in

any event, you know, our show was so labor intensive.

It just was. It's I can't even bathom how that was.

Even this is all new to me, the production of it.

These guys blow me away. It's all in the edit.

These editors who made our shows put it together. They're brilliant, yea.

And they got a formula that is trying creating something and taking all the little slurs out of my speech.

I watched one of the editors and they're like, have these three screens and I'm on there and they're taking you never said this so good, and I sounded so good in my life. These guys are making me sound.

We could probably do that. We could do that for him, right,

So Ronnie through the machine. Yeah, so I said, could

you please put the Brad Pitt filter on once in a while? So yeah, yeah, I want so. Anyway, It's

just funny. It's my life is just like a different

It's I'm still I still work in my shop, i still hold these things I'm doing. I'm working on the

marshmatch right now. I was painting yesterday. You know, I'm doing.

I don't do furniture. You're squeezing in projects? Absolutely? I

still yeah, I'm still I'm still right about Are we gonna ask you how they didn't being done? Well? It's hard, yeah,

because I mean you're on the road, you know, ten days, you know, two weeks sometimes and then you got to travel out. You're packing your basket, your stuff ready, and

then you're getting back and you unpack and get your stuff ready. So how much time out of ten days

of two weeks? It's almost just harder time to start

even to start up a project. But I'm making it work.

You know, It's like it's life. Is it enriching your life?

Are you? Are you happier for it? Absolutely? Yeah, Well

that's I mean you're enjoying it. Yes, It's a different

dynamic to my life, and I'm really I feel I pressed off. I felt like God gave me something in

my hands, in my brain a long time ago when I was born to be able to work, would and do all these things, and I was always been very grateful for those gifts. This is just one more gift. Yeah, well,

one more thing I've been Well, He's given you a platform to showcase it. Yes, yes, And I've had that

my well, most of my adult life. So I can

appreciate that because it affords you the opportunity to keep doing that thing that you love. If I can inspire

someone else like I, like, you know, inspire somebody to the young guys to do what I'm doing, because the craft is getting lost. All these old guys who are

you know, welding and gone there and they're going there now, C and C. And you know AI is going to

take over. There's not going to be craftsmanship with these

hands and his mind anymore. You know, it's gonna take

it's gonna it's gonna be We're closing that generation of craftsmen unfortunately. Absolutely so. I mean I want to inspire

young people to get involved with stuff, or old people or whoever change the change their direction in life a little bit, inspire them maybe, and that could really happen at any time. Yeah, there's no real there's no there's

not an expiration day on that. Now can get inspired

at eighty years old. This just one little thing, what

one little piece of information, one little piece of the passage in a book that I read when I was twelve got me to this point where I'm at now inspireired me back then to keep this, to keep my energy up, to keep it going, to keep the enthusiasm going.

And I'm hoping that our show and then you know, they're showing more of me on the show. Now. I've

been pretty steady on it for like four years is twenty twenty. I've been pretty much on everything going going.

And that was a wild time because everyone else was going wild. Yeah, everybody, no one was filming. And twenty

twenty in the middle of COVID and we're filming and we had to get tested three times a day. We

were massed everywhere, and then we're making this TV show and we're the only ones out there doing it. It

was like we were in some kind of like strange like you know, apocalyptic drama. And I'm telling you, the

world shut down. In every type of filming and even

type of television show, they all went, they all stopped.

We didn't do it. We did. It's amazing. We kept going.

It was crazy, it was nuts, but I'll never forget it.

So yes, to answer your question, I do like doing it.

I'm being I guess talked about more on the show.

We talk about what I'm doing about the processes and the stuff that Mike doesn't really talk about too much because he doesn't know. But I want to bring out

like how to cast something, how to machine something on a lathe Are they doing any of that with you over there? We've been in your shop, film my shop

all the time. Yeah. Yeah, so more and more that's

gonna be. It's getting show on the show, and I'm

proud to be part of that part of that. And

not only that, but you know, I got my son, I have two grandsons. This is all this is my story. Yeah, yeah,

I'm and that's a big deal. Yeah, absolutely, So this

is my book that's getting written right and it's it's so I want to I want to show people what I've done and what I'm doing and keep motivating other people to do something. Perhaps you know, one little, one

little thing that inspires some guy and I see it all the time. Now it's working, you know, I'm you

can hear what people are saying. Absolutely. Manas guy sat

at home depot yesterday, I'm picking up some some wood and he's stopping in the parking lot. He says, dude,

I love what you're doing. And it's not even with

the show. We're talking about the cannonball stuff like he's

because he've been following me for a long time, and the stuff that I've been with antique motorcycles. And I said,

do you watch the show? He says, no, I don't.

I don't watch the show. But I'm talking about me personally,

And that felt good because I'm not The show is not my life. My life is what the show was

just part of your life. It's part of my life.

That's so, and I'm glad that beyond it. It's amazing

because it gives me that that platform. Then he said,

to showcase the things. Yeah, I mean in some capacity, right, Yeah,

it's cool to do it. It's time consuming. Yeah, it

takes off a lot of my energy, but my energy's still there. I'm still very damn while you can, right, Yeah,

So I'm going to continue doing it as long and still have me. They have said, they've said the black

car for me yet to get out of here Jersey, you know. So, I mean, that's pretty good. That's good.

But but it's it's Mike and Robbie, and you know, we have a lot of fun and Mike has done this amazing thing with this show. I am so damn

proud of this guy and amazed at him. His energy

is up and his creativity the way he and it's it's ongoing. I mean, he always getting new ideas and

he's like when he's on when he when he's on pick together, he's directing us too, right, and he helps me a lot, Like if I'm getting stuck with something, I have to explain something we just saw a big tool pick and right, He'll be like, say it this way, or he'll be like, this is how you Well, he just gets me idea to put it in my own words, right, but he's like, why don't you hit it from this aspect?

And it's so funny too because as much as I built motorcycles for all those years and we had all this family dynamic, the one thing that you get really good at is making television because you understand the ins and outs of it. An American Chopper. Although there was

a production company there, we made American chop Sure. We

all the creative was us. Every thing we did we

did pretty naturally and it was made great content and we were the ones driving the ship the whole time.

All that for the whole duration of that. They came,

they found us, they put us on television, but they didn't make us. You had to beat You're the guys,

you're the talent. You're the guys who inspired everybody else

to do what they're doing, and they're there to document that.

That's what I feel about our show. That's right, that's

the best show you can have right there. Yeah, I'm

just learning not to put my back to the camera.

You know, open to the camera. The camera. We set

this up last night. I know where my camera is.

I'm going to respect it. And it's like, and it's

four years later, you had to tell you, hey, joh oh my god, I got I've got to open up the camera. Say that again. Open up the camera. That's

all right, don't stand in front of the object you're buying. Well,

talk about it, and you know, then it was like the show is like we'll go on a pick and we're that's the the contributor, the people who were picking, and then there's a whole other part of the show is that's the interview. So we have to do the interview.

We talk about that that that that day that we're there, and sometimes that could happen two weeks later. Oh, yeah,

I believe me. I did those they're called pickups. You

didn't like, Yes, I would do. We would do three

or four episodes. I would do pickups for a day,

all days. But it's good because in the beginning they

had Mike Road doing it, like in the first few episodes, Miro that, And then they started using up Micro. Yeah,

Micro is a great guy. Uh. Then they started using

us and it made the show more personal because then we were telling the story in first person, in our voice. Yes,

and that really helped the show. I think that helped

people with us in the show, and it got our fan base really invest But now I know how hard those pickups are. They can that's the hardest thing I do,

because you have to sound like you and still say what they're looking for. I got to explain why do

I buy this stuff? What my boat explained? Do the eulogy, Yeah, right,

that's RRD and but that's part of the storytelling. Yes,

and so it's a it's really important to the content of the show. It's amazing how it works. I never

had I had no idea how these shows, how your show would get and now I've got that, you know, I got the backstage pass and how I'll just create insight and it is so much or it's a lot of work. It's a big team. It's a big team.

But also it takes like at the end of a pickup day. I am it's the worst. It's you rather

have to physical activity. Is nothing compared to doing that

because my brain is melted. I am just totally. I'm

as spent. I just gave everything. I just gave everything

that I had and I don't believe me. I was

there for too many years. Yeah, you know exactly what

I'm talking about. It's just like and it's so it's

such an emotional you know, regurgitation of the day. It is.

And then you got a recall because if it was not recent, you have to remember the scene and they try and get you to yeah, well they bring up you know, they'll bring up some footage or all right, Herschel My director is amazing, you know, one of our directors, Tyler's another one. And these guys they get my recall

going and then all of a sudden it just comes back.

And then then you're like, oh, yeah, I just remember what I want to say. Yeah, because I do think

I'll say up at night sometimes thinking about like, wow, I should say this about this thing or this people. Right,

and I'll get my phone to make a little note and I'll and I'll start writing a chapter that I want and then I'll then i'll that'll bring that into my into my pickup. Yeah, and really it starts to

come together. Yeah, it seems to be working. Yeah, it's me.

It's a good tool for me. It's good. Yeah. We

did pickups like once a week for a decade. And uh,

we would also need outfit changes. So yeah, we would

get these like folders of red hat, black shirt, work shirt, blue shoes, you gotta and we I'd have a pack stack of clothes here and I put the red shirt and hat. Do my pickups change my alth. I do

that all day, you know, because it has to fit in the scene or else it doesn't. It's not continuity.

But they have their own formula for us. You know,

it's amazing what to do. When I watched the show,

I'm flabbergasted and how well they make me look on the show. It's like I can't believe that this is me.

And also that when I'm doing voiceovers on stuff, I'm like that's me talking. I mean it might. He's great.

I mean, he's he's got a great voice, he's a great emotional intellect. Yeah, and he connects with everything and

show in the way he disgrees. His adjective are really fantastic. Yeah.

I've learned a lot from him doing about But also I'm a reader too, and I have that capacity as well articulate and also but getting the getting the emotion into words like finding out it's the very emotional show.

It's a descriptive thing. Yeah, it's right and finding the

right the right the right descriptive words and getting and building that, building that emotion up so the viewer can experience and you know, and I think we're doing that, you know, I mean it's it's we get a lot of positive feedback from on the from me on the show.

You know, of course, there's it's it's hard to to you know, navigate it, especially when we lost Frank. We

got beat up a lot. Yeah, and it was it

was really sad what people were saying. It was we

were to their own conclusions obviously. I mean, well now

now they're figuring out what was going on, and you know, Mike was really heartbroken about it, and I was supporting him, like, dude, we got this, you know, and now he's like he's good. Yeah,

I know that was hard for him. It was so hard.

I mean it broke everybody's heart. It was so but

here we are, you know, we're back, we're doing it and we're moving on and you know we have we have the wisdom of Frank's presence in the show too.

You know, it's all there. I mean, he got us

to where we're at. Yeah, he was one of the

early Endgeld. He's a great friend. He was a good guy.

You know, we had we had a great you know.

He every time he come to my house, he buy me something, he brings something. He picked me. Here, Jersey,

take this something. I have a I have I have

a York news team that put the newspapers in it.

It was like, oh and boss, and it's got all yellow paint on it. He gave it to me one

time and it's it's the top my stove. Yeah, in

the back above the stove. I love it whenever I

see it. Yeah. He was a great guy, you know. Yeah, so,

but that was but that's part of the deal. It

was hard. The show has got it's up and downs

and its own emotional content as well. And now that

I'm and more and more involved in it, you know, I love doing it. I'm just really really into the

whole creation of it and glad to be part of it.

You know, I'm grateful. Yeah, I defin a lot of

gratitude for you know, American Pickers, and you know the production company Cineflix, Mike Wolfe, you know, Robbie Danielle, all these guys who put the whole show together. The crew,

it's amazing guys. Yeah, I mean I'm part of that

family now. You know, you're lucky to have a good

group like that. Yeah. And we're still going, man, I

mean it's going good. We just we just got done

filming in Phoenix and then we're heading down. I'm heading

to the Mekam Auction in Las Vegas. And then right

after that I got to scoop back here and heading right out again and we shoot down south. It's winter time,

so we're going where it's warm. You know, Florida. I

don't know, Florida is pretty cold right now. Right now,

Georgia is like four inches of snow. Yeah, but you

know what back of last long. It's better than here.

It's so cold. Yeah, it's old. I mean it's like zero. Yeah,

so it's in ueras of here. So but we can't

film these things when it's cold out we're outside a lot. Yeah,

so we got to go where where it's warm and then the spring combering and going hopefully back in the northeast.

This is great, man, This conversation has been great. I

mean I knew some of this stuff, but not all of it. Very enlightening. And I feel like the fact

that you you've never done a podcast before. Now, no,

I'm not really involved with podcasting at all. I mean

it's a lot of time. Yeah, you know, it's like

my time is like really valuab, I'm gonna work on stuff at all. Unfortunately for me, you're right down the street. Yes,

well it makes a kid the neighbors. You don't got

to get on a plane or and I don't see you often enough. No, that's true. It's it's because I'm

on the road a lot. You're busy as all get

out in your life and doing this, and you did an amazing job here watching your lisp face and it's it's what it's amazing what you're showcasing here, you know, the Legacy show. Your Legacy show is here now. So

it's cool. And I'm glad that you invite me in

the podcast. And I'm glad your son came. I know

my son is here. It's great. You know, it's fantastic

family affair. He's been part of it too, Yeah, you know,

watching me do my thing, and you know, he helps me a lot. He's the guy if I have a

CSC problem or something like that, because I don't see his computer in the American Control machines at my shop or CAD. He's my guy. Yeah, if I got to

get something done, you know. And we do a lot

of molds for the for the steel molds for the for the motorcycle frames. Right, you know, he helps me

out and other engineers as well. Yeah, right, back back

and a couple of the guy takes a village cool man. Well, hey, man,

I appreciate you coming out. Hey, I'll have you back

out at some point in time if you're if you're down with that, absolutely, man, I mean you mad. You

know what I'd like to do. I'd like to maybe

come over to you. That'd be great. Yeah, that'd be yeah,

it'd be fun that places. Maybe do something in your

space talk and we'll just talk about some different things. Absolutely,

and you could show us around, Yeah I could. We

could look at a nickel tour. We can cast the car,

Breder do it, or we can do it some nickel plates.

People would love that, Yeah, they I would love that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

We do it all the time, you know, always. That's

it's like we're always getting stuff going. Yeah, so all right,

Jeep Renegade

GMC Cyclone

Ford F-150 Lightning

About this episode