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The US Sun
American Pickers stars Mike and Robbie Wolfe’s coolest antique finds from $12.2k rare motorcycle to $1.8k ornament
By Phillip McDonald,
3 days ago
AMERICAN Pickers stars Mike and Robbie Wolfe have discovered an abundance of rare treasures while hunting for antiques.
The antique experts travel across the country, with the help of their History Channel co-star “Jersey Jon” Szalay searching vintage items and rare antiques to add to their collections.
Here are the coolest bits of classic Americana the reality TV star brothers saved from being lost to time after they were found forgotten and collecting dust.
MIKE’S BIKE
This week, American Pickers creator Mike Wolfe , 60, took his vintage Harley Davidson motorcycle for a ride through Tennessee.
Mike shared a video of the aged motorcycle, which featured a faded blue shade, parked on the side of the road.
The bike was equipped with a large headlight and featured a rusty Harley Davidson logo on the side.
The motorcycle’s engine trumpeted as Mike circled the 1934 antique, revealing details of the rare automotive piece.
“Taking the 1934 Harley VL for a spin on the @natchezracetravel,” the reality star wrote over the clip.
Mike then shared a photo of the bike in front of Fly General store in Santa Fe, Tennessee .
“Always stop and chill @flygeneralstore for a moment,” he wrote.
Mike has been in the business of vintage motorbikes for quite some time.
He owns Columbia Motor Alley , a car dealership in Columbia, Tennessee, with a full-service motorcycle repair shop and vintage bike display.
The TV personality has two locations for his vintage shop Antique Archaeology, one in Nashville, Tenessee, and another in his hometown of Le Claire, Iowa.
LOST TREASURE
While fans await new episodes of American Pickers , which is set to premiere Season 26 on October 15, the TV show has been sharing throwback clips on social media.
Last week, a video showed Mike and his fellow picker, Jersey Jon, 61, finding the “rarest motorcycle in the world.”
Mike Wolfe's businesses
Mike Wolfe has created a business empire featuring real estate, antique stores, and more.
American Pickers – A reality TV series that premiered on January 18, 2010, on the History Channel In the series, hosts Mike and Robbie Wolfe travel across America in search of rare artifacts and national treasures that they can buy from collectors to add to their collections or sell in their antique shops.
Antique Archaeology – Mike has two locations for his antique shop. One in Nashville, Tennessee, and the other in his hometown of LeClaire, Iowa.
Columbia Motor Alley – Mike’s love of transportation history and historic preservation combine in Columbia Motor Alley, a 1947 Chevrolet Dealership turned restoration and merchandise shop.
As they headed to California to find antiques, the History Channel stars met a seller who had an old motorcycle mounted on top of a pole.
“This four-cylinder motorcycle is one of the rarest motorcycles in the world,” Jon said in a confessional.
“We’re not gonna walk away from this chassis on a pole!”
Jon is an antique expert fond of vintage motorcycles who first appeared in the series during Season 7, which aired in 2012.
Mike asked Jon if he was interested in the bike, to which he replied, “It’s amazing that we had an opportunity to even find this bike in the wild.
“You just don’t see these things. It’s surreal.”
Although Mike offered $10,000 with hesitation, Jon added another $2,000.
The seller countered the TV personalities’ offer with $12,200, to which Mike and Jon agreed.
“I can’t tell you the last time I even had an opportunity to buy a 1941 Indian Four Cylinder Chassis,” Jon said, adding, “They don’t show up.”
HOT WHEELS
Last week, Robbie Wolfe impressed fans after acquiring a rare car manufactured over 70 years ago when he listed a 1947 Ford convertible for $16,000 on Instagram .
On September 7, the reality TV star gave fans a closer look at all the details of the maroon car that has only ever been owned by one family.
Robbie highlighted several vintage decal stickers still stuck on the car’s windows before cutting to a video of him cleaning up two Lee Tire signs for sale.
“They’re also dated the 1940s, everything for sale,” he wrote.
The clip was set to an instrumental version of Guitar Tribute Players’ song Beautiful Things.
Robbie’s followers praised his latest acquisition in the comments section, with one person writing, “The window decals really make the car. What a time machine!”
Another comment read, “Priceless time capsule.”
A third person added, “Beautiful, I love the color,”
“Yeah man, cruising to heaven,” a fourth user commented.
Replying to a fan inquiry about the sale price, Robbie confirmed the car and the tires were going for $16,000.
ORNA-MENT TO BE
Robbie’s antique car listing post came days after the collector revealed on his Instagram account that he had purchased a vintage hood ornament for nearly $2,000.
Robbie shared a video flaunting his 1926 green Studebaker while showing off two of its intricate hood ornaments.
One of them, a silver and red airplane, was already fastened to the front of the vehicle.
The second piece was a vintage silver Studebaker eagle hood ornament with wings that flap, as Robbie demonstrated its functionality in the short clip.
“Never seen one this big,” he explained to his followers.
“Huge, large, and in charge. [This is] just a crazy good ornament. Look at that thing fly! Man, they built some killer stuff back then.”
The Pickers star captioned his post, “Back in the brass era days and the early Automotive days of America they just built the most incredible accessories for cars.”
Fans praised the “bada**” ornament that Robbie purchased for $1,800 in the comments, with one person writing, “Let’s bring them back.”
BUGGIN’ OUT!
Robbie dropped $2,600 on a rare dune buggy in an episode clip shared on the History Channel series’ Facebook page.
In the video, Robbie and Jersey Jon visited a brother and sister in Michigan whose late father had a large collection of antiques.
The Pickers stars rummaged inside the barn for valuables with the brother, Ryan, and discovered a dust-covered dune buggy.
“You can’t think 1960s California without beach culture,” Robbie explained.
“The cars at the time were getting bogged down and stuck in the sand [and] in 1964, Bruce Meyers developed the Meyers Manx – the very first dune buggy,” he continued.
Robbie described the Meyers Manx as “a lightweight kit car” that could be taken anywhere.
Jon asked, “It’s on a Volkswagen chassis, right?” while the younger Wolfe brother inspected the body.
“The whole thing’s Volkswagen. Ninety-nine percent of these things were Volkswagen. They designed them off that chassis,” Robbie confirmed before revealing, “Unfortunately, this isn’t the Manx.”
This is the Imp. That was made by a company called EMPI and it was just a knockoff [but] still very cool and valuable if built well.
Ryan recalled, “I always remember it as the dune buggy. ‘When are we going to get the dune buggy out.'”
Later, once Ryan’s sister entered the negotiation, Robbie stated that if the Imp was running it would be worth about $8,500 but he added, “It’s going to take some doing to get it there.”
He did admit that the dune buggy was “put together right” and that’s a plus before offering $2,500.
The sister responded by setting the sale price at $3,000 and Robbie rebutted by offering $100 more.
She smiled, looked at her brother, and accepted the offer, telling Robbie, “I think that works.”
The restoration shop posted a video of the TV star’s car running on Instagram.
The progress video showed a mechanic carefully reversing and driving Mike’s Lincoln Zephyr forward inside a garage.
The TV personality’s antique automobile is valued at around $71,500 per the auction website Concert Car Z .
The post was captioned, “Finally got this baby rolling under its own power. Very exciting day. #lincoln #zephyr #lincolnzephyr #v12 @mikewolfeamericanpicker.”
Mike reposted the video on his Instagram Stories, and like some kind of car-obsessed Dr. Frankenstein, the reality TV star excitedly wrote, “@aftermanperformance firing up the Zephyr. She LIVES!”
The antique expert posted photos of the vehicle on Instagram , hoping to attract followers’ interest.
Mike captured every angle of the maroon-colored truck, including the bed with wooden planks installed along the bottom.
In his caption , he pitched the restored vehicle to fans and noted that it was his primary form of transportation before moving to Tennessee .
“Selling my 1947 Hudson pickup. This was a daily driver for a few years for me when I was home in Iowa. Older restoration Super Clean bone stock truck. This sucker has a long bed if you want to haul motorcycles. Price is 36,900,” Mike wrote.
Fans swarmed the comments section to gush over the unique truck, and many pointed out that it looked unlike anything they’d seen before.
“Absolutely gorgeous, the color,” one fan said.
“Man, that’s a beautiful truck, another echoed.
“Wow that thing is wild looking fits your style,” a third remarked.
The TV star has made his affinity for the soda maker’s signage known in the past, showing off a pricy sign from the brand while cleaning up his Iowa antique shop.
Mike appeared in a teaser clip from the upcoming American Pickers season, taking fans inside a pick in Alabama.
He and Robbie scoured through an Alabama collector’s treasures until they happened upon numerous Coca-Cola signs.
“Those are Coca- Cola signs and this Army-Navy Surplus store got them all and painted them out in black and then lettered them with his store name,” the collector explained.
“Now I’ve got a picture of one that has been stripped. They look pretty doggone nice once they’re done.”
He went on to explain that a friend had done the restoration.
“I’ve got a friend that has one of them. He stripped the paint off of it and restored it to a beautiful Coca-Cola sign and I think it has a date stamp on it for 1948 or 1949,” he shared.
The collector had eight or nine of the signs, and Mike was extremely interested in some of them.
Ultimately, Mike took a gamble on the signs, paying $4,000 for all of them.
“I think the risk of the $4,000 purchase is all on Mike. I think the potential is tremendous, but if I’m wrong, he’s got a four by eight sheet of tin,” the collector said in a confessional.
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