
Radical Restoration
Classics By the Bay
Season 1 Episode 8 | 28m 50sVideo has Closed Captions
Visit Classics By the Bay, a classic car show on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay in Ontario
We join Gary as he participates in “Classics By the Bay”, a classic car show on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie where we take in some of the vehicles on display and speak with some of their owners. Then we see what it takes to move a restoration shop to a new location.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Made possible in part by: Cre-Oil, Manufactured by R.H. Downing; Retirement Miramichi; Rakabot; Joe’s Hand Cleaner, Manufactured by Kleen Products; Tire-Tag; Nutrafarms, Inc.; Hagerty Insurance
Radical Restoration
Classics By the Bay
Season 1 Episode 8 | 28m 50sVideo has Closed Captions
We join Gary as he participates in “Classics By the Bay”, a classic car show on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie where we take in some of the vehicles on display and speak with some of their owners. Then we see what it takes to move a restoration shop to a new location.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipIt's our main show of the Year.
It's called Classics in the Park.
We get approximately 200 to 300 vehicles And this is what you get, right?
So it really works well, right?
(engine revs) getting ready to move the shop down to Innisfil Beach Road and the 400.
So everything's a little upside down there right now.
Every car has a story (car races by) like the best thing ever.
For some, they end up here.
(thuds) (metal crushing) 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 the 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 ) Tire dash Tag dot com Additional funding provided by Nutrafarms and Hagerty Insurance On this episode, we're going to join up with the very thunder classics are putting on a show that's called Classics by the Lake this weekend.
So we're going to go down there.
We've got a bunch of our customers joining in and we'll have a few of those guys there.
Dave is going to be there from Nutrafarms is going to cook up some burgers and stuff for all the guys in the booth.
Lots of classic cars and hot rods there.
So we'll get a chance to show you some of the neat cars from this local area here.
And hopefully Mother Nature holds out and we don't get a whole lot of rain.
(music) it's it's our main show of the year.
It's called Classics in the Park and it's held in Heritage Park Kempenfelt Bay we get approximately 200 to 300 vehicles and around 2000 to 3000 people that walk through the park.
That's how we bought it, just like this.
We picked it up at the Burl's Creek two or three years ago.
So we walk by the fenders, saw the color of it, so we had to buy it.
It's a 1930 Model A Tudor back in 2011 that was in a very serious car accident We were rear-ended by a five ton truck and it got written off and I bought it back and restored.
It took us three years and it's back on the road (music) I've had a passion for cars since I was 16 years old.
My first Corvette I bought was when I was 18 and I've had one basically every couple of years.
This one here I've had the longest time being I've had a since 2003.
It came from Florida.
It's an actual U.S. car.
It's it was owned by the owner of Orlando, Saturn, Saab at the time.
And I had it shipped up from him.
And it was it was a rare car at the time with every option available, with a heads up display and everything.
it's got a 427 LS-3 stroke built by Billy Briggs in the U.S., naturally aspirated 767 horse, 900 horsepower with the NOS 9.5 seconds on the quarter mile, the car is actually being clocked in the in the fastest mile at just over 200 miles an hour.
Anything that can be done to that car is done to it with a six piston calipers, carbon fiber brakes, titanium plate underneath the whole car.
Getrag rear end fast racing suspension everything car is built to go and also to truck.
so right now when you before you're at the track and before you got off the line, what you end up doing is you, you have to get all the air out of the system so that you actually have pure nitrous into the system to mix with the fuel.
If you just have normal oxygen, you're just going to dump in this like pulling a choke on a car.
So with pure nitrogen, at least you got the density of the cold air going to mix with the fuel, which gives it the extra power.
So this is how I purge it right here.
That was probably $20 worth.
(laughs) Beautiful car.
Absolutely.
(car starts up) The car I'm standing in front of is a 1967 Dodge, Monaco 500.
And my grandfather, my mother's dad, Joe, he purchased the car in September of 1967 down at the Automotive Building at the National Exhibition.
Grandpa didn't drive it in the winter.
It was garaged till 1983 when he passed away.
And I convinced my mother to let me look after it (laughs) because the car is approximately 19 feet long and she had a big problem trying to drive.
So (laughs) (music) so we're here today at the Classics by the Lake in Barrie beautiful city of Barrie Some of the customers have joined us just in our booth today.
Dave's here from Nutra Farms, brought the wagon along and he's serving some burgers and hot dogs and we've got Chuck here with his Riviera.
And Harold's brought the monster in the Chevelle.
We've got Dave's 442 another old customer of ours, Alf, has brought his formula and Gary's got his 71 charger.
You know, we just come to let people know where we are.
You know, it's nice to the the customers be able to show their cars, potentially win some trophies.
You know, it's the camaraderie of everybody just getting together and, you know, shooting the breeze and having a little having a good time because sometimes it's hard to the shop are so busy.
Dave's joined us today and brought the NutraFarm's trailer down, brought his 442 Olds down.
(music) So I should use a 3 inch by 3 inch chunk of steel?
(music) This is a 1950 Mercury M68 The truck has been chopped 3 ” sectioned 4, channelled 5, lengthened 6 and it's riding on a 99 s-10 frame took 3 years to do this truck.
Well, nobody else was doing pickup trucks, and this is the.. it was a learning experience to do it.
Yeah.
It's hydraulic.
Back end opens up so you can get the wheels off.
Cause it's channelled down 5 inches, so, back end is hydraulic tilt (music) My names Rob Baxter This is 1980 Z 28 Camaro.
I built it from two Camaros two Z, 28 Camaro's.
One was a hard top, one was a T top.
And this is the car that I selected.
I bought it from a gentleman in Hillsdale and invested a pile of dough.
Right.
And I started with the body.
The body was immaculate.
The floors were immaculate.
That's what drew me to it.
You get this car done, right?
The big thing was I wanted to start with a good solid car.
Right.
I liked the way it stood and that stance that it had on the road.
So with that it came with the rims that were really dull and beat up and I took 2 hours per rim and polished them up away I went.
(engine revs) The Z 28 this model here, most people go for a 68, 67, 68, 69, maybe even a 70.
But this, this, this model runs from 70 to 81.
And, you know, it's it is popular to a certain amount of people.
A lot of people like the older one, and they model the new Camaro by the older like 68, 69, like those that type the first generation and they mimic it But they forgot about this one.
Right.
So a lot of these cars are not in existence.
They're they're they're a dying breed, I'll tell you that.
(engine revs) This car took me three years to build, and I built it right from ground up.
Right from the frame up.
I had the frame off.
I sandblasted the whole car in a rotisserie and it was painted complete inside and out, just like I would feel that I would want a car done as if it was dipped at the factory.
(engine revs) I'm an old school guy.
I like a rear wheel drive with some horsepower.
Right.
And this one here has a little over 510 horsepower.
I aimed at that by mimicking Dale Earnhardt Jr is one of his Camaros, but the Camaro doesn't look the same.
It's just the engine component.
And then I've always been a fan of V & M transmission, so I slapped a 400 transmission on it with a 2500 stall.
so I slapped a 400 transmission on it with a 2500 stall.
And this is what you get, right?
So it really works well, right?
(engine revs) (engine revs) So as you can see, it really hooks up nice.
And, you know, it's just, you know, gives you the feeling it's got power when you need it or you can cruise around.
It's a real looker.
You know, I like to you know, it's not just building the car for yourself.
You're building it for other people to take them back and give them memories of what they did.
Right.
And so that's the whole feeling.
It's the whole thing.
And that makes you proud of what you built.
(car drives by) Yeah.
So I really enjoy the car.
It's brand new from inside and out.
I mean, everything is is new.
The inside is completely new.
There's there is the steering column is the original.
It everything else is new.
Maybe the underneath, the seats, the springs, it's like that is original, but all the buttons and everything are all brand new.
So I just wanted to make sure it was right, you know, and the guy I bought it off of, he really loves the car.
And I take him out in it.
Randy Wilson he's a good friend from Hillsdale but I just yeah, it really worked out (engine starts) This is the car I first built This is a 1980 283 Monte Carlo I've changed a lot of parts on it.
I used a donor car, a Monte Carlo SS and I converted it to a Monte Carlo SS they call that a mock, a mock Monte Carlo it's a modification of one.
It's complete.
It has a 350 Corvette motor in it.
It's pushing over 400 horsepower, still.
Right.
So, it's a real nice car.
So real nice to cruise with.
That year it didn't come with a computer, so I wanted to put an overdrive in it, so I put the 700 transmission in it.
and just put the manual switch in it through TCI that had manual switches.
and I have them on the dash to get your overdrive and to get your lock-up, right So it really helps out if you can put a few trick things like that you know you learn that.
I was a long time mechanic at General Motors so that's what I did before I changed trades Yeah.
So.
The floor, like the interior's out of it just got it back from the paint shop, so that's done.
So it turned out really well I painted it 78 Corvette white which is pretty bright on the eyes, when you take to a car show.
but this is the one I started with taking it to car show.
the other one, that's over here, the Chev truck that was the second build Right I did that and I built that right from ground up and painted the frame with POR all the way up, same as this one and then I built the Camaro and that was it but it's all just grass roots level and you just have to have patience and time But yeah, so this this is dirty (laughs) But I'll be cleaning it all up, This is not a 383 stroker like my Camaro This is just a 350 double bump heads nice Cam in it when it's all cleaned up it really runs well No problem with that and it's a little dirty right now and that's what it is and, when things sit they get a little mold on them and, I didn't get enough time to finish this one cause I was working on the Camaro and enjoying it this year, right.
getting it out to the car shows, right, so.
(music) (music) getting ready to move the shop down to Innisfil Beach Road and the 400.
So everything's a little upside down there right now.
We're getting trailers loaded.
(music) We start moving over the next two weeks and we're going to follow with the body shop and over two months after the fact.
So we're it's a little unorganized at the moment.
We're doing pretty good.
We're still cranking cars out of there.
And hopefully we don't have to shut down for a week to do all this.
I think we'll be able to sort of maneuver it between, you know, getting jobs done and getting everything moved.
But we'll follow up and sort of film the progress for setting up the showroom and partition walls in the back.
And it's going to have a ten car showroom in the front and a much bigger parts area as well.
So we're we're moving on up and looking forward to it.
The concern is we're supposed to be in there by the 15th and now we've got you know, we're going to have stuff all over the floor there.
So definitely a problem with some of the guys with the grinding and polishing the floors at the front.
I just called down and all you have to do is get you a P-O and then she's going to get back to me with the time and date.
So she should be handling that too.
I can talk to her and see what's going on with that.
Okay.
I think we still need to deal with the immediate problems, which is the electrical and the floor.
Yeah, yeah.
I'll get in.
I'll get on those guys and see what I can do with that and go from there.
Okay.
All right.
So thank you.
All right.
Thanks, bye Contractor problems.
They I kept pushing them to get this stuff going.
You know, we're down to basically three weeks.
We have to be out here and set up there.
And they haven't even I talked to the electrician.
He hasn't even ordered the lights for the building.
He says he hasn't got a P-O from them and they're only just discussing polishing floors.
Now, the showroom floors are supposed to be ground and concrete polished.
So I'm I'm hoping they get it together because they're gonna be dodging around all my stuff.
So it's going to get real interesting in the hurry, I think.
But stay tuned for more fun this morning.
We're going to head down to our new facility down in Innisfil, Ontario.
Really nice location that we've been able to get to right beside the Highway 400.
We've been battling it out with contractors and stuff, but we're we're actually making some progress.
We've got people in painting.
New lights are going in this weekend.
We still have some work to do on the floors and signage will be up next week.
You know, we'll give you a little tour around.
See what it looks like now and as opposed to when it's going to be all finished, I think you'll like the change.
So we're down at our new location at 2315 Industrial Park Road in Innisfil this morning.
We're just checking to make sure that some of the contractors are in starting to get their stuff done.
Just to give you an idea here, we're actually facing Highway 400 and the beauty that we have here is we've got 77,000 cars a day.
That go by the front door, which we never had at our other location at the front of the building here.
Next week, we're going to have signage from the corner all the way down to the center.
It's a 50 foot sign.
And then we're going to have four flagpoles in front as well.
So you'll be you won't be able to miss this from the highway.
One of the other things that we're waiting on right now is we have to get this yard here fenced as this is going to be our compound.
But as you can see, the Heather's already got this wall done.
The color on, it's looking great.
It's Tioga.
It's called a sort of a greeny gray color, which is going to go with the barn board on this wall here.
We're going to have a brick finish on the upper half and then on the lower half barn board.
And then there's going to be a counter down here in barn board as well.
And there will be a few other accent points within the shop.
This room over here is going to be for designing of people's cars when they come in and basically what's happening here is this glass door that's here is going to end up right here and then they'll be that'll be an access roll up door for cars to come in.
There will also be another roll up door there.
We're going to divide this back area here into the body and paint and the mechanicals.
So from this point to the second set of posts we will have, this will be mechanical.
And then from those posts back will be the new doors, new spray booths, new prep area going in as well.
And it's going to be nice.
(music) D-Day We're just wrapping up now and mixed emotions.
We've done a lot, a lot of cars out of here and the new stuff going forward is going to be fun.
But, you know, we've done literally hundreds and hundreds of cars out of this building.
So it's a little strange packing it all up and seeing it empty again.
You know, remember when we first moved in here, we had three cars, you know, brand new shiny floors.
And, you know, it didn't take long before it was full.
We're all kind of sitting here the other day looking around, going, wow, we're finally we're finally leaving here.
We never thought we would.
Fun part is, is this gets cleaned out to make a mess on the other side.
So then we'll spend the next two weeks organizing that.
Yeah.
A new place will be a nice fresh start.
(music) Just getting all the cars moved down from Jacobs Terrace.
A bit of an issue with the floor, guys this morning.
So we told them, you know, last Friday to get it done, not done so, it's too bad we're moving the cars in, so a bit of drama where it is.
So we're just they're doing a nice job getting the glass door put in.
Two more 53 foot trailers to unload still So it's going to be a long day Just look at it now.
Not enough room.
how many square feet About 13 and change 13 five, something like that we're we're waiting to see the 8,000 next door to us all the parts and all the other stuff it's going to spend the next three or four days sorting out the rack and stuff and (music) Where do you want it Gary?
The center one?
How do you feel on there?
I don't know Does it feel good?
Eh?
It's got you written all over it.
(unintelligible) (music) The last time you visited down here we were just moving in here.
Things have changed quite a bit with this highway location.
This was originally supposed to be our showroom, but we're so busy that we've moved things around and this is our assembly area for interior work.
So we'll show you a few the cars in the front here and then around the side here.
They've got the area where they're making seats and consoles and stuff.
So these are just a few of the interior projects we've got 64 Impala 67 GTO and a 56 Buick are all in various stages of getting the interior and the trim done on them after after being painted.
If you have a look around here, we're very busy there.
Chris is doing interior work and this is where all the seats and consoles and headliners and door panels are made for a lot of the projects that are here.
This one here we just finished a while ago.
We've just had we just had it out on a road test that's why she's all dirty.
This is a Mega Raptor.
And we what we did was we stretched this and used military differentials in it with just a lot of different stuff.
We did the six by six bead locks on it.
If you come around to the back of the truck here, it's got the Mega Raptor embossed in the in the door.
We did a six by six here custom bumpers with lots of lights.
And then you can see up on the top here, we've done we've done a spare tire carrier and actually has a hydraulic ram in it, which helps lift it up because these things are so heavy.
This is a lot of assembly work.
Our our business is really growing quite a bit.
We do all of our own chasis in house.
We have an engine shop on the other side now and we're still well known for our body and paint work.
And then, as you can see in the body shop, we're absolutely full as you can see, Bill's busy, he's got motors to tear apart.
And then I'll take you into the the other side there where he does the assembly.
Yeah.
So this is the other Charger.
This is a 69 What a beaut, isn't it?
This is what we start with a lot of the time.
So what we're doing here is you can see the light colors that are in putting just put in the glass and then the trim and the lights and stuff.
So this is all custom built console door panels, seats and that it has a crazy headliner in it with 450 optic tubes in it.
So it sparkles up at night 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 ) 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 drives by) (tires squealing) (sanding) (music)


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Hit the road in a classic car for a tour through Great Britain with two antiques experts.









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Made possible in part by: Cre-Oil, Manufactured by R.H. Downing; Retirement Miramichi; Rakabot; Joe’s Hand Cleaner, Manufactured by Kleen Products; Tire-Tag; Nutrafarms, Inc.; Hagerty Insurance
