CLASSIC Vehicle and a Big Risk | American Pickers (S16) | History

like the kind of place we can get our hands dirty.
MIKE: Look at that. Oh, look at the Ford!
FRANK: Oh, that’s cool.
MIKE: Oh, yeah, man! [honks horn] FRANK: Dani wasn’t kidding.
I mean, when we pull up to this property, I’m seeing a lot of barns, a lot of garages, a lot of sheds.
MIKE: You got a flyer? FRANK: Got it, man.
MIKE: Alright, let’s do it!
FRANK: This guy’s name’s Mike.
MIKE: Hey, you Mike?
LODI MIKE: Yeah.
MIKE: Nice Ford!
MIKE: There’s a white 1930s convertible Ford.
Obviously, we’re in the right place.
MIKE: Hey, I’m Mike too. Talked to Dani?
LODI MIKE: Nice to meet you. Yeah, yeah.
FRANK: Frank, how’re you doing?
LODI MIKE: How are you, Frank? FRANK: Pleasure.
MIKE: Did you restore this?
LODI MIKE: Actually, my dad did and my cousin Al did.
MIKE: No kiddin’.
LODI MIKE: This was just really like a paperweight.
MIKE: It’s a driver! LODI MIKE: Yeah.
LODI MIKE: It’s got a small block 350 in it.
FRANK: Sure.
LODI MIKE: We put power-steering in it.
We made it a lot easier for Dad to drive it, for one thing.
FRANK: He could drive it anywhere!
LODI MIKE: Pretty much. MIKE: He was riding in style!
LODI MIKE: Yeah. [laughs] when he was a kid.
MIKE: This was all your dad’s stuff, huh?
LODI MIKE: Yeah, it was.
And he passed away at the end of the year, and I’ve been just been working on trying my best to pull through and make it…
MIKE: Sort through, figure it all out?
LODI MIKE: Yeah, yeah. It’s been quite a chore.
MIKE: Yeah.
LODI MIKE: It’s a collection that’s out of control.
I need to make room.
My wife was willing to move here, down to this big house, and it’s an old house.
LODI MIKE: We’ve been doing a lot of remodeling inside, FRANK: Mike is a motivated seller, and nothing motivates a seller like a wife that wants to clean out the property.
to patch the stuff for a while.
MIKE: How much for the broken propeller?
Both tips are broke off.
LODI MIKE: Yeah, what does it say here?
MIKE: Oh, there’s another one behind it.
Is this like the wall of shame?
All the broken ones?
LODI MIKE: Is that one broken?
MIKE: That one’s not broke, is it?
This one’s not broke. LODI MIKE: No, and it’s– MIKE: And that’s bolted on there, hard!
LODI MIKE: Yeah, it’s…
yeah, it’s bolted through the shaft, so that should come loose.
MIKE: Okay.
LODI MIKE: And come right off.
Either that or this building will fly away.
MIKE: So how about…
three bills for this one, and then the other one, like, let me see…
That one’s rough, man.
Like, 60 bucks.
LODI MIKE: Yeah, okay, I could see that.
MIKE: Alright.
MIKE: Imagine the shredded, splintered one hanging above a bar. I love it.
LODI MIKE: Don’t have a need for a big belt-driven drill press, do you?
MIKE: This one’s smaller, and manageable.
Some of them are so big, you can’t even mess around with them, you know?
MIKE: Okay, so this is a line shaft drill press.
So before power tools had individual motors, they were powered by a line shaft.
So there was one central motor that powered all of the machinery in the shop through a series of belts.
So anything from a drill press to a lathe, or a saw, all of these things were run from one central power source with a series of belts.
Now, the great thing about this drill press, it’s not so huge that you can’t move it.
MIKE: What do you want for this?
LODI MIKE: I have no clue, Mike.
MIKE: Well, it’s just…
I mean, it’s kind of a… it’s a prop.
LODI MIKE: It is.
MIKE: You know, for someone to put, if they’re doing an early garage, you know, if they’re collecting Model Ts, Model As, you know…
LODI MIKE: And the thing is, my dad used that.
LODI MIKE: The building was where we built cars, and where we worked on different things, and just had fun.
He kept that thing greased up, and you can be guaranteed it would work.
MIKE: Two, two bills!
LODI MIKE: Good enough.
MIKE: I think it’s cool.
And, you know, the great thing about it is it’s easy to move around.
LODI MIKE: I’m glad to see that go to a good home, only because it was one of the things my dad used a lot.
MIKE: There’s actually people out there that will still use this.
And even though they’re few and far between, it’s still a desirable piece.
LODI MIKE: This was my dad’s.
FRANK: Oh, cool!
MIKE: Alright, now you’re talking.
FRANK: Oh, I love motorcycles!
A Zundapp!
FRANK: Zundapp motorcycles are German-made motorcycles.
I mean, at one time, they were Europe’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles.
MIKE: Unbelievable.
MIKE: I bought a Zundapp in Italy when Frankie and I were there a few years ago.
Bam, we see it!
KS-750 Zundapp, with side car.
CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah! MIKE: Oh, yeah!
FRANK: Zundapp! Now we’re talking!
CONTRIBUTOR: Zundapp! MIKE: Let me see, ah…
FRANK: Because they’re made overseas, Zundapps are very easy to spot in Europe, but not so easy to find in America.
MIKE: Very cool. Is it original paint?
LODI MIKE: I believe it is.
FRANK: 50 what?
LODI MIKE: ’54 I think. FRANK: Wow.
LODI MIKE: The Buco seat is not the original seat, but it’s a much more comfortable seat.
FRANK: Okay.
LODI MIKE: I know that the value on it drops a little bit because it’s not the original seat.
MIKE: That’s a great seat, though.
Opposed Zundapp…
FRANK: Opposed Zundapp.
FRANK: Zundapp is one of the few motorcycle companies that run opposed motors.
That’s where the cylinders, instead of going up and down, go side to side.
FRANK: It kicks through, still. Even after all this time.
LODI MIKE: That’s one thing that my dad did.
Even though he didn’t ride it, he’d go and make sure that the engine was loose on this, and the compression was good.
This was a special thing to him.
FRANK: Well, I know a little bit about these bikes.
The tours on these, they have a bakelite timing gear.
And they corrode– I mean, after they’ve been sitting, they just corrode.
Those need to be fixed.
They’re about 4 or 500 bucks for the gear, and about the same to have them put in.
MIKE: Yeah, it was, the bakelite gear was– the timing gear was quieter.
LODI MIKE: Yeah, yeah.
MIKE: That’s why they did that.
LODI MIKE: [laughs] MIKE: This is a rare bike.
FRANK: Oh, yeah.
So, I mean, I’m interested. What would you have to have?
LODI MIKE: Frank, I know that a bike in this condition is worth about five.
FRANK: Okay.
FRANK: These don’t come up for sale that much, you know?
I mean, they’re very rare.
A lot of people specialize in German motorcycles.
I don’t know a lot about them, but I know enough to buy it.
FRANK: I’d be comfortable at 4,000.
LODI MIKE: You know, I think I’d be comfortable with you having it at 4.
FRANK: Really?
LODI MIKE: Yeah.
FRANK: Well, heck of a deal. I’ll do ‘er, then.
LODI MIKE: Alright. FRANK: Alright.
MIKE: It’s a rare bike, Frank.
You know, it’d be right up there with, like, the BMW R69S.
It’s right there with the quality of it, you know?
FRANK: Right.
LODI MIKE: As much as Dad liked the bike, I like the idea of it going somewhere, so I don’t see it on the road.
LODI MIKE: That bike has special meaning in our family.
It deserves respect…
to get it up running, but I don’t want to see– I don’t want it riding by my house.
FRANK: Wow! This is awesome in here!
FRANK: It’s like walking into a movie set.
The light’s coming through the windows, making it look like a magical set-up.
FRANK: Look at the cars!
♪ MIKE: So Mike saves the biggest barn for last, and you can’t help but notice this killer collection of cars from the early 1900s.
MIKE: Mike’s got a few Franklins in this barn.
Some are from the 1930s, but there’s one from 1919.
LODI MIKE: It was a good road car, but it was also one that you could just…
do anything you wanted to with it.
MIKE: And this is the earlier one over here?
LODI MIKE: Yeah. The early, early Franklin.
MIKE: Yeah.
See, these are the ones I’ve seen before and fell in love with in the past.
The front end of these cars are insane.
I mean, it looks like a locomotive.
LODI MIKE: Yeah, and it just amazes me how easily things move.
LODI MIKE: They used to call it a ‘coffin nose Franklin.’ At least that’s what I grew up learning it as.
It’s got the split windshield that comes to a point.
It looks more like a– I don’t know, an airplane, a boat, or something else like that.
MIKE: There was a guy in southern Iowa that I tried to buy one of these cars off of.
LODI MIKE: Yeah?
MIKE: Years ago.
I was just so enamored with the front end of it.
And it’s– I’ll tell you, once you see the front end of a Franklin, you never forget it. LODI MIKE: Yeah.
MIKE: I mean, they’re so unique.
MIKE: Franklin cars have been around since the early 1900s.
This is a car company from Syracuse, New York, ahead of its time, with cutting-edge engineering.
MIKE: It’s so amazing, I mean, just think about it, you know, this car was air-cooled back then.
LODI MIKE: It’s hard to believe, 1919, and they were paying attention to this kind of stuff.
MIKE: Yeah…
It was a very innovative time in American transportation.
LODI MIKE: Did you look at the interior?
MIKE: No, I didn’t even look at the interior yet.
LODI MIKE: You’ve gotta look at the interior.
MIKE: Oh wow, oh wow!
This is the original interior?
LODI MIKE: Yes, it is.
MIKE: Oh wow!
LODI MIKE: Open that door, and if you look at the handles, they’re not just the typical handles.
They’re like a brass, they look more like something on furniture, than they do a car door.
It’s just so elegant inside the car too.
It’s just such a really classy vehicle.
LODI MIKE: Do you see the netting on the roof there, right there? MIKE: I saw that, yeah.
LODI MIKE: Isn’t that cool?
MIKE: This is a barn find, by every means.
It looks like underneath all the dirt and dust, it’s original paint.
LODI MIKE: One of those things where you walk in, and you go, “Wow, I didn’t think anything like this existed in this condition.” MIKE: Yeah.
FRANK: And how long has it been sitting here?
LODI MIKE: It’s been here at least 30 years.
40 years, probably.
MIKE: Do you remember where your pops found it?
Or was it your uncle, your grandfather that had it, or…?
LODI MIKE: I think it was my uncle again.
There was a lot…
MIKE: So it’s always been in the family then, if your dad got it from your uncle?
LODI MIKE: Yeah, pretty much.
LODI MIKE: The Franklins, they all ran.
In fact, my father drove one of them back and forth to work in Cleveland for a while.
MIKE: What kind of number do you have on this one?
LODI MIKE: Actually, a guy made an offer on it once.
MIKE: What did he offer you?
LODI MIKE: 4 and a half, 5.
MIKE: They’re not big money cars, especially if they’re barn finds, because you never know what you’re going to encounter mechanically, with one of these cars.
And it’s not like there’s a tremendous amount of parts out there.
MIKE: It’s not like they come up onto the market all the time, you know?
LODI MIKE: Right.
MIKE: So it’s difficult to navigate the restoration of one of these, or even to mechanically restore one.
MIKE: What research have you done on this car?
LODI MIKE: Well, a car in this condition is…
5, 6, $7,000 range, because it’s a barn find and yeah, it’s a little crummy dirty, but you’ve got– the interior’s nice on it, it’s well-lubricated, at this point…
FRANK: It’s all there. LODI MIKE: It’s all here.
LODI MIKE: Um, biggest problem you’ve got is a dent.
MIKE: Yeah. LODI MIKE: And that’s about it.
MIKE: So it’s a straight car that would be perfect for a restoration or if you wanted to just mechanically go through it.
LODI MIKE: Exactly.
MIKE: Getting a car to run is completely different than getting a car to drive.
MIKE: What would you feel comfortable selling it at?
LODI MIKE: [sighs] Something over 5.
MIKE: So 6 would do it?
MIKE: I think there’s some room on the back end, if I can get the car to run.
LODI MIKE: 6 would do it really easy.
MIKE: Okay, well, then let’s do it.
LODI MIKE: You just bought yourself a Frankie-lin.
MIKE & FRANK: [laughing] MIKE: Wow!
LODI MIKE: I’m glad he got it.
It’s nice to see somebody who can truly appreciate that for the beauty that that car really is.
but I think I’ve made some friends.
If I’ve got a question, I think I know who I can turn to for an answer.
[honks horn] MIKE: See you guys!
LODI MIKE: So long! KAREN: Bye!