# American Restoration



## Big Deficit (Jul 8, 2003)

The shows totally reworked after Rick Dale said he refused to re-up. The previous "edition" had become a saccharin sitcom. Still too sickly sweet for my taste with not enough restoration, but an improvement.


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## dbranco (Nov 20, 2003)

It appears to be all vehicles now. Bleh. I really liked the wide variety of items that Rick's Restoration showcased. This is what I read in some forum about why Rick left. Appeared to be one person's opinion, so I don't know how accurate it is.

_Rick left because the TV producers wouldn't let him keep doing restorations for his normal clientele. The producers pick the people who would come on and negotiate a price for the restoration. The show would than pay for the restorations ßo Rick never gets paid for the actual restoration. The trade off is that a Rick and his crew are paid more money per episode than they would ever make if there was no show. So everything u see on TV are decisions that are made for Rick. He is basically an actor at this point and he got tired of it. I do know he is looking to do another show but he will have much more control in it. Rick just got tired of all the BS and the money didn't matter anymore._

eta: Doesn't History Channel already have an all-vehicle show -- "Counting Cars"? Or was that cancelled when A-R was reinvented? I like Danny and his crew, so have been watching CC since season 1.


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## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

I preferred the original version. I really didn't like any of the new people here, and came close to turning it off. I'll give it one more before throwing the switch though.


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## worachj (Oct 14, 2006)

I didn't care for the new format, and the new guys weren&#8217;t all that intriguing. The jumping back and forth between the three different shops with the recaps and the repetitiveness drives me crazy. Almost turned it off, but will try one more episode.


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

Wow, that was boring.

I understand why they had to change it up, but they couldn't find more interesting items? I mean, vehicles is boring because there's already a million other car/motorcycle and other vehicle restoration shows.


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## scooterboy (Mar 27, 2001)

I hope it gets better. At least they're not (yet) doing fake drama crap between the people on the show, like they did with the employees at Rick's (and they do with Pawn Stars).


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

The fake drama crap is to attract eyeballs - not because the show's failing, but to prepare the a la carte cable unbundling and it's every show heading to lowest common denominator because advertising revenue will be more important than subscriber revenue.

It's only a matter of time.


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## Big Deficit (Jul 8, 2003)

Second episode and though I might be in the minority? I still like it better than the old format.


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## Frylock (Feb 13, 2002)

Big Deficit said:


> Second episode and though I might be in the minority? I still like it better than the old format.


The old format being the past few seasons? Yeah, it's a little better.

But compared to the first few seasons, when they walked through all the steps? Not even close. I miss that show. It was much more interesting.


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## Idearat (Nov 26, 2000)

They're showing the same amount of detail in how the restorations happen as the later episodes from Rick's, but without the nonsense. I'd still prefer more detail on their process, but I'm happier having a higher content to nonsense ratio.


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## Malcontent (Sep 5, 2004)

Bump....

*American Restoration: Truck Edition*



> Rick Dale is travelling the country looking to restore America one project at a time. This time around Rick has his eyes set on a long forgotten 1956 Ford pick-up. Nick, a grape-farmer from California, bought the beat up pick-up when he was 16 but never got around to completing the restoration because his family and farm came first. With a tight budget and just 30 days to restore the pick-up, Rick and his team work around-the-clock overcoming one challenge after another to bring this American classic back to life.


Looks like it might be a one off. Maybe a pilot?

It's already aired on the History channel. Available by magic.


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## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

Thanks for the heads up! Looks like the next showing is this coming Sunday. All set to record.


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## skypros (May 19, 2015)

I was channel surfing a few days ago when I stumbled on AR: Truck Restoration.
I watched a few minutes of it..... Thinking this seems to be new.... Rick looks older and Tyler no longer has 2-tone hair.
I bet Rick got fed-up with doing the show...... after he was able to move to allot bigger yard/building.... He probably figured his popularity would keep him and his crew busy.
But after a few years not on TV, his business probably dropped off.

I am glad to see American Restoration may be coming back (with Rick Dale)..... I will watch


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## JTAnderson (Jun 6, 2000)

Seems like the demise of the original series was a bit of brinksmanship between Rick (and family) and the producers that resulted in mutual destruction.


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## pgogborn (Nov 11, 2002)

skypros said:


> I bet Rick got fed-up with doing the show......







His reaction is open to interpretation but after looking at his video I would not bet hard cash.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

My girlfriend and I had a private tour with Brettly 3-4 years ago (he's not the "airhead" he appears to be on air). He said they had about 4 years worth of stuff in the boneyards (there's the one shown on TV and another one) to restore. I'll definitely check out the new version.


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## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

skypros said:


> AR: Truck Restoration.


Caught the re-showing today. I really liked it. It was great seeing them back.

The guide description had a write-up that talked about two teams working together. I think it may be taken from the show that came after Rick's original show. But of course this episode had nothing to do with teams.

That truck was cool, but I thought it still was too low to the ground for farm work. They needed something like a 4 inch lift to get that thing off the ground.


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