I just love the car.

I really do.

I just love this car.

This one.

This one's been a bit of work since day one.

It's.

And every day we're finding more and more.

But slowly but surely, I mean, working away from the back to the front of the car, I was really the the guy that was like, Mom, we need to we need to get this done.

We need to we need to finish this.

Every car has a story car like the best thing ever.

For some, they end up here.

These are just some of the stories about those who collect and restore vehicles, giving them a renewed lease on life so that their stories can be told right here on Radical Restoration.

(music) Closed captioning provided by Cre-Oil.

On line at Cre-Oil dot com.

Funding for Radical Restoration is provided by (Music) Rakabot sources sustainable materials to create boot racks that organize footwear that allows drippings to go in the bowl.

Models designed for home, work or recreational settings are available on line at Rakabot dot com Joe's Hand Cleaner Manufactured by Clean Products supports Radical Restoration With our without water Joe's Hand Cleaner cleanses to ingredients that are food or cosmetic grade A family business since 1948.

On line at Joe's Hand Cleaner dot com.

Tire tag.

Re Usable labelling to organize tire rotation and re-mounting.

Tire Tag.

(car honk ) On line at Tire dash Tag dot com Additional funding provided by Nutrafarms and Hagerty Insurance Okay, this is another project that's come in.

This will be a lot of work.

You know, they look good from a distance.

But as you start to get closer, you see the rot through on the fenders.

It's literally coming off pieces.

Same in the doors.

See, here, even up in the quarter, panels is complete.

Rot up in here.

You can see where it's all been patched up before it's bubbling back through.

And actually, if you angled this, you can actually see all the sanding marks and the old bodywork.

This car needs floors, a complete trunk.

You know, basically, the whole car has to be.

gutted.

Well, these were a popular car.

The Camaro, the Nova and the Chevelle are sort of the the leaders of the pack when it comes to General Motors.

The you know, again, 69,70 ish was the popular model years for the Nova.

A lot of guys, you know, street raced them and and they've sort of grown up with them over the years and they find them to be very collectible.

There's a lot of stuff you can't see, I'm afraid, at the moment as far as damage goes.

But even on this side, you see here, we've got complete holes through and again, all the blistering on this side.

So we will basically take this, cut this here and remove this whole quarter panel and put a brand new one in.

So we'll make a whole new panel we'll probably, this one.

The engine and everything will be out of we'll detail all the engine bay.

The engine.

He wants new carpet in it.

I believe he's going to keep the seats that he has.

But this as we follow this one along, this one will open a lot of eyes as to how much work's actually involved in some of these projects.

This is the 72 Nova and it's it's totally gone in here.

you can see underneath it where we took the glass out It's got problems.

All along the front here.

Right up in this support area too, so.

We're going to have to be beef all this up This is problems.

You know, that's the problem when you get them they don't look too bad.

once you start to get them apart and you get it, you know, this is a prime example, too.

It's in the back part of this rad saddle which is your support for defenders as well.

It's gone.

These heavy areas are very rough We've been doing some work around the back here and See that we had to rebuild all these edges up in here, that we're underneath the glass.

So we're just working on these areas here.

Tim is making parts up in here.

for these edges they don't make those unless you a buy a whole quarter We've got a few more spots, but we're gettng down to the short list on it finally.

So probably in the next couple of weeks we'll see it over in the paint side.

So, starting to go through the bodywork on it.

The biggest challenge is, is you can't find some parts for these they're unavailable.

So you have to kind of make something from scratch and and make it fit and make it work.

(music) On this one in particular, it kind of starts getting worse.

The more more panels you take off so soon as we got the windshield out the back glass out we noticed the front cowl was rotted right out of it, which you couldn't see.

And unfortunately, we got holes all the way up where the wind where the windshield sits and seals.

So I mean, that's can be a few more days of just putting little pieces together and making it work.

You can't just buy a full panel or replace a little small patch like that.

So a lot of little time consuming pieces, that's for sure.

This one, this one's been a bit of work since day one.

It's.

And every day we're finding more and more.

But slowly but surely, I mean, working away from the back to the front of the car seems it seems like we're getting there.

We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, that's for sure.

But it's definitely been a lot a lot of work on this vehicle, for sure.

Ryan and Tim have been busy in the metal shop on this one.

The Nova starts the rockers done Ryan just working on the corner here.

The door posts the lower part of the quarters are done and you can see some of the metal patch up in here.

This is all rotted out right here in here.

They're just pulling the lead out right now from the old seams.

And then if you look around the back here, there's been a Ryan actually made these up here they're inner panels and the supports behind the bumper got a new tail light panel installed new floor panels.

They're just working around this side right now.

The doors have got some rot in the bottom of them.

So we're going to get that sorted out.

This is going to be a nice car.

It's going to be, it's going to have a cowl hood on it We're cleaning up all the motor and everything, for him new clutch in it.

Not a full interior, but there'll be carpet and some other probably a roof liner and a few other things done.

These are nice little cars.

They're hard to find now, so just keep picking away at it and As you can see the Firebirds also coming along, they've got the tail light panels in that one again, the lower valance, the trunk, the quarters, the door skin That thing is it would have been better just going with a full shell on that car.

It's it's needs a lot of work.

(grinding) So this is underneath the front skin, look it They have, all the sheet metal screws, it's been patched before.

See, it's all rotted.

Oh, my, my.

This one just keeps getting better.

What do they say?

It's like an onion.

You keep peeling back the layers and you'll find more Yeah.

Unbelievable.

They're up on these things up in Sudbury Apparently Wow Boy, it keeps getting better Whenever you can find the garage for the body work And this is one of the problems you get Because you get people going, I need a flat price on my car.

Well, I don't have x-ray vision and I don't think think anybody else does either.

And this is what you get into underneath on a lot of these.

This whole car's been like this, you know, quarters, doors, roof and you know, it's still cheaper than buying a little brand new body shell because they have pre-production body shells for these.

But, you know, you're basically talking $20,000 for this part of it without the front sheet metal.

So it's still cheaper to go this route, but it's still a lot of work.

So it takes forever to scrap all the old off.

Yeah, unbelievable.

Half the time to put the new parts on.

Yeah.

Basically once we got all the filler off the the sheet metal, the door had been repaired two or three times, and it was not even close to being straight.

So Gary ordered a new door skin and threw that on and it's actually looking pretty good now on either side.

So next step to the roof and then over to this quarter and keep going from there (music) (unintelligible) (music) (unintelligible) Yeah (music) (sanding) Trying to give this old 72 Nova a bit of a cut and polish, get rid of some of the dust nibs painted it yesterday.

So the clear is nice and fresh, so it's easy to cut and hopefully we can get through it and give it a nice shine (music) Scott McDonald been here in Barrie since 1999 Met these guys here at Radical Rods and Rides through a great contest here in town.

Contest was called Revive Dad's Ride Rock 95 radio station here teamed up with Radical Rods and Rides.

Father's Day event pretty special win to be honest with you, still overwhelmed by it all.

So the contest involved, you know, the children the kids selecting their father's car is usually a car that dad's been trying to to put together, keep together, whatever.

Over the years, my three kids have seen this car since day one.

I've owned this car since 1978, bought it in the spring of 78.

And it's been kicked around, stored ever since.

So the kids know the car, the history of the car, and they thought it was their chance to pay Dad back for all of the tuition and University and the hockey and the driving all over Ontario playing hockey.

So they put together a really nice story about me actually, and it got chosen as the top one of the top ten cars in the contest that year and goes on you know Rock 95's website and the world literally is voting on it I'm sure of that myself because my daughter was in Thailand over that period and had the whole restaurant log on to Rock 95's website and vote for the car.

I still remember the morning they called me to say that I won.

I, I was on my way to Toronto and I thought, Oh my God, the car is going to get redone.

Finally, you know, the dream comes true and, and that's where I met the guys here and just a, just a great group of guys.

I consider them very close friends now.

Here's the story.

I mean, I'm going to try and do this without crying.

But our dad is an amazing person who devotes most of his time supporting his family and community, he is a successful minor hockey coach of over 20 years, a great father and a loving husband for the past 30 years.

Note that the car's older than the marriage.

Yes If there's anything he has left by the side and paid little attention to, it's his 1977 Camaro that he bought when he was a kid around 35 years ago.

Actually, it's still a teenager.

Yeah.

Yeah You know, he's very attached to what he calls his baby and admits that it's showing its age.

Unlike him, of course There's my favorite line in the whole thing.

we would like to pay him back for all the help he has given through our through our growing up and moving on to study at Universities across the province.

What a huge surprise and a very special you know, I'm going to cry, a very special Father's Day.

It would be if we could restore his pride and joy from Ashley Pearson.

Brannon.

Yeah, pretty cool.

Yeah And if it wasn't for this, my friend, I wouldn't have met you.

I know.

And you know, we had a lot of fun with this because we ran this contest through Rock 95.

Originally it was called Pimp Dad's Ride, and then it got changed to revive Dad's ride.

I guess it was little more politically correct.

Right.

And this was the final finalist vehicle and it was great because not only was it coming in for body and some minor interior, but Scott also stepped it up and decided to do a bunch of other stuff while the car was here.

So we pulled the motor out detailed all that with chrome accents and paint and we fixed up with some suspension.

Yeah.

They mentioned the hooker headers, man.

We did the headers.

Oh don't do that my wife will know now We did the stainless exhaust all the way back on it.

So it's got that nice throaty sound.

(car roars by) It has this great rumble, you know, for a small block Chevy, it sounds a lot more muscular than it really is.

And, you know, speed and that's not that important to me.

But certainly the sound is pretty cool.

(car rumbles) I think that's what turns people's heads first and then they notice the paint and then I get the thumbs up.

(laughs) It's a package deal.

Yeah.

I ...

I just love the car.

I really do.

I just love this car.

(car rumbles by) We're out at the Martin family's home today Checking out an earlier restoration that we did, a 1968 International pickup.

This used to be the truck that they used to use running around their gravel pit.

And when we got it, she was pretty rough.

Everything was gone on it.

The firewall was gone, floorboards were all gone.

The doors were basically rotted about halfway up.

There was a huge problems.

The fenders were all rotted at the bottom, the top, the like.

There was pretty much very much left of it.

We, you know, we were able to keep the salvage, the main lines of it, which allowed us to shape a lot of the panels.

A lot of stuff we had to make up, you know, we lasered these out the the old markers for the for the model number.

We were able to make a lot of stuff and refurbish it.

The grille, we had to come up with a different pattern for the marker lights.

There's just not a lot of parts around for this truck.

These trucks were very, very plain.

Originally from the factory, they weren't quite this nice.

All the floorboards were done, the transmission tunnel was done.

We carried the green and the brown into the inside.

We were able to find some old gauges out of Pennsylvania that we refurbished and we were able to make those work, which was great because it was like I said, we've a lot of trouble finding parts for this thing.

We ended up doing a nice distressed leather look on the seat.

When you got them from the factory, they'd have one sunvisor in them.

So we were able to find another one and just little things.

And then what we did was Bud Martin used to always put his wife's name on the trucks, whether it was on the front or on the side somewhere.

So we put Nina's name just on the glove box door which she loved.

One of the hardest things that we had to do in the back here was this floor was completely gone.

So we had to make this pattern ribbed floor.

So we were able to make the floor.

We made the we use some original bracketry, but again, just, just no lights available.

So we were able to adapt and make this work.

We put the cover over the chain just to protect the sides of box We actually had to rebuild part of this tailgate as well.

We luckily we were able to keep the original stamping here on this rear fender.

It was completely gone at the top and this was actually missing.

And this is your extra carrier notch for your spare tire.

So we were able to form and roll all that.

So a ton of work went into it.

The family seems very happy with it.

We're happy with how it came out as well.

In 1968, my husband and his brother went down to the International factory and picked up this truck and drove it home.

So it's been in the family since 1968.

My my father in law was Bud, and he had a construction company, gravel pit up in Innisfail.

And then my husband was in the process of restoring it, and then unfortunately I lost my husband.

He died in an accident.

So we had this piece of junk, which is what it was, and I didn't know what to do with it.

The first memory I have of this truck is is actually sitting on my dad's lap driving home from work.

One day.

I mean, it was always it was always around.

It was always in the gravel pit and it was always, you know, at work.

But the first distinct memory that I have is, as being, you know, just just a little guy sitting on my dad's lap (music) My son, who learned how to drive on this truck, spent a lot of time in the gravel pit that we owned driving that truck around.

He said, Mom, we got to fix up the truck.

Dad never started a project and didn't finish.

And that was true.

He never started a project and didn't finish it.

I was really the the guy that was like, Mom, we need to we need to get this done.

We need to we need to finish this.

I felt it was really important when it was sitting in the garage there and in a million pieces, it just didn't it didn't feel right to me to just, you know, I didn't even know what we would have done with it.

You know, there was pieces everywhere.

The wiring, harness was in the basement.

The the windshield was down in the basement that we found the was it the steering wheel or was it the sunvisor?

After we moved and we were just cleaning out, everything looked up, way up in the closet and there was the sun visor.

So there was pieces all out throughout the house and in the shop and different sides of the shop.

And we came up with a flatbed and another truck and picked up all these boxes and sort of sorted through it.

But there's a lot of this stuff that's just not available for this truck.

I couldn't bear that to think that it would just go to the scrap yard, you know, It just held too much had too much of an emotional connection to the truck to let that happen.

So (music) My name is Rob Speer.

I was friends with Dan.

I met him actually in kindergarten, went all through public school and high school with him to see it today, now that he's gone, is incredible.

It brings back so many memories.

(music) Although Dan didn't finish this project that he started, Nina did There could be, in my mind, no finer memorial to his hard work, dedication and his life and seeing this truck as we see it now, looking better than I even see it in my memories (music) What did you bring it in for?

Oh, just to have this the paint looked at it and Gary is going to do an oil change little line in the mark, in the paint down in the bottom.

We're going to fix some for her (music) when my daughter got married, the truck was still on the property where we lived and the photographer came to do the wedding picture.

She said, Oh, we've got to get that truck in the wedding pictures.

So she took some pictures of my daughter and her husband in the truck, and that was the only picture we had at that point that showed the white on the side, because by the time Gary got it, Gary: It was gone.

It was gone Gary: It was pretty much faded.

You could just see a little outline All the pictures that he sent me of the progress up in the front of the truck, there was this picture taped of my daughter and her husband in the truck, using it as a reference.

And right now, the truck looks looks better than what he would have done.

I mean, that the truck is it's immaculate, everything about it.

is done exceptionally well.

So I think I think he'd be really happy with it that it was still, you know, still in the family.

I mean, it wasn't it wasn't licensed for the longest time.

So, you know, I'm sure he would have loved to see it driving around, driving around town, you know, on the roads, because it didn't do that for years and probably decades where it wasn't out on the road.

So yeah, I think I think you'd be really happy to know that we're, we're in the truck and we're the ones driving it around and, and, you know, getting it out there for people to see.

I'll do whatever, whatever we have to do to keep it in the family.

I mean, that that's what I am going to have to do when when my mom was looking at new houses, I made a point to say, listen, we need we need a two car garage.

We need a spot to put the truck in.

And if it wasn't going to be a two car garage, then we're going to have to rent a spot, you know, do do whatever we have to do.

So, yeah, it's going to stay with us.

And and my son, he's he's two and a half and he loves trucks like truck service.

most famous thing in the world.

So I'm sure he's going to be just as obsessed with this truck as I am.

So that's that's the plan.

The truck.

The truck definitely helps you remember my dad.

It's not the only way.

It's just it's just a really nice memento I mean, the the truck's in the shape it is now because he took care of it for, you know, the first 40 years of his life.

So I don't know.

To me, it's just a really good representation of his work ethic and the quality of work that that he was committed to doing.

But I mean, there's there's a million ways that I can I can remember him, but this obviously, it's nice to drive it around for sure.

Funding for Radical Restoration is provided by (Music) Rakabot sources sustainable materials to create boot racks that organize footwear that allows drippings to go in the bowl.

Models designed for home, work or recreational settings are available on line at Rakabot dot com Joe's Hand Cleaner Manufactured by Clean Products supports Radical Restoration With our without water Joe's Hand Cleaner cleanses to ingredients that are food or cosmetic grade A family business since 1948.

On line at Joe's Hand Cleaner dot com.

Tire tag.

Re Usable labelling to organize tire rotation and re-mounting.

Tire Tag.

(car honk ) On line at Tire dash Tag dot com Additional funding provided by Nutrafarms and Hagerty Insurance Thank you for joining us.

My name's Gary Nichols.

Until next time.

May all your rides be radical.

(car roars by) (tires squealing) (sanding) (music)