50 Before And After Pics Of Things Being Restored To Their Original Glory

A lot of people thought I was crazy when I bought this car in the state it was in. But where they all saw a hopeless wreck of a car, I saw something with huge potential! I couldn't let this amazing car just return to the dust from whence it came!

The restoration was done by myself and my father-in-law. He did most of the heavy lifting with the bodywork and paint and he had the knowledge. I learned a tremendous amount during the process and it was an awesome experience overall.

I started collecting parts and restoring smaller pieces in my basement starting about 3 years ago. Then a year and a half ago we pulled it into the shop to really start all the work.

This lamp features silent film actress Billi Dove sitting on a paper moon in a cosmic rhinestone sky. I wanted to do something different, by mixing Victorian/Edwardian style with art deco. I also wanted to do something I think has never been done before by making a Crescent Moon shade which is normally made of embroidered silk with a beaded fringe out of mica and replacing the fringe with antique chandelier crystal pendants.

With a custom leaping gazelle alternating Amber, silver mica shade that I made... 

The 150-year-old safe restoration project is DONE! Here it is back in all of its glory - gold leaf and all (yes, REAL 23k gold). Swipe to the last picture to see what it looked like when I first picked it up. If you're interested in more of the story, keep reading below. In 1871, Ulysses S. Grant was president and Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated only 6 years earlier. And this safe rolled off the factory floor at the Detroit Safe Company, in Detroit Michigan. In the 1890s it found its way to Bay City, MI in the back of a new meat market founded by Max T. Malleck. Decades passed and the market eventually closed nearly 100 years later, but this safe was saved from the market and moved to Grandson Mike Malleck's house in the 1980s, and there it sat for over 40 years!

We've worked our restoration magic on this antique solid walnut mantle.
This stunning piece came to us in dire need of help, coated in layers of white paint and falling apart. Now she's all fixed up and shining just as lovely as she did 100+ years ago.
The final result of this project was the most rewarding.

My father bought the beetle in the early 80s for about 20 dollars. in the 90's he got kids and the car was left to rot away in our backyard. Last winter I started working as a car painter assistant in hopes of becoming a car painter. Around the same time, my father started talking about the beetle! Witch he wanted to fix up but he felt that he needed to wait for retirement about 15 years away. So me and my sister thought maybe we should give it a shot and quickly try to fix it up for him so we did.
 
And to add insult to injury we totally trashed it as children. Plus he is a huge car guy and he goes to shows and always feelt like he wanted something to "show".

I bought this 1973 Prowler camper in Springfield, MO for $1000 on Craigslist. I had been looking for a small single-axle vintage camper for a while. These vintage campers are getting hard to find, and those that aren't completely rotted beyond repair sell for a premium. I guess something is only worth what people will pay for it. I was one of six people to answer the ad that was posted early in the morning. I showed up with the cash first, and it was sold before noon. Although it had been sitting outside for a few years, it was the size I was looking for and was repairable.

In the end, I invested about three months and about $4,000 in total. It has been on several float trips on the Huzzah River, Table Rock Lake, and a motorcycle rally.

Here’s the workbench now. I’m pretty proud of myself overall. I look forward to improving myself and working on future projects!

Honestly, I didn’t use any hard chemicals or anything I just cleaned them using paper towels and water. I own a basic shoe shine kit that has a standard black shoeshine, a microfiber cloth, and a horsehair brush. After getting all the dirt off I spent like an hour or so applying and reapplying the shoeshiner to get to the point where the gloss was restored. You mostly have to focus on shining the toe and the heel because that’s where most of the damage will be. It’s a super simple process.

It was made approximately between 1948 - 1950ish.

So I borrowed a long-forgotten Stanley wood plane from my father-in-law... He told me it had been a wedding gift during the pre-power tool era, over 50 years ago. I wondered how many miles of wood this thing had peeled over time? It was seized up and practically unusable, so I pulled it apart.

This came out of a 1953 Silver Streak (camper trailer) that had been left sitting in a field for decades. The trailer was filled with rodent droppings and carcasses. I found multiple nests inside this stove.

It took days to fully clean this piece, but it was so worthwhile!  

I ran new wiring and changed out the clock mechanism so everything is fully functional. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of it illuminated, but the name "Dixie Wanderer" also lights up.

My dad loves these bikes, he had one of them when he was young but he had to sell it because of money problems. My dad is happy after a long time.

They had some deep discoloration so I decided to re-dye them since I don’t have any dark brown shoes.

I started with 400, then 600, then 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500. I made sure everything stayed rinsed off and wet the entire time. After that, I used "mothers mag & aluminum polish" for about 30 minutes. It was very nice when I got done, hairline scratches show up the second you put it in your pocket though and fingerprints are insane. That's the only downside to it. That, and it took me 5-6 hours to finish it.