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Question of the Day - 03 November 2025

Q:

Since you updated Pawn Stars, what ever happened to Rick's Restoration?

A:

Rick's Restorations in Las Vegas closed permanently after the end of the History Channel's "American Restoration" show. 

The show, which ran from 2010 to 2016, spotlighted owner Rick Dale and his team restoring antiques -- vintage cars, soda machines, gas pumps, and the like. In season 7, the network changed the format to feature five different shops nationwide, dropping Rick's team entirely; the series was canceled at the end of that season. 

The publicity from the show had boosted Rick's Restoration, but when it ended, the business started to go downhill and the shop closed shortly thereafter. There've been rumors of a Rick's Restorations revival from time to time, but nothing has materialized.

Rick Dale, now 66, reportedly "has since shifted to a quieter life focused on smaller-scale creative work." He and his wife Kelly launched My Best Font Forward, specializing in custom laser-cut metal art, embroidery, and personalized gifts.

Dale also wrote a book, Classic Soda Machines, in 2014. By then, his name was synonymous with the restoration and sales of Coke machines, which he'd been restoring for more than 30 years. 

Rick's son Tyler, also featured on the show, has gone on to woodworking and welding and his stepson (Kelly's son) Brettly Otterman runs a mobile media-blasting business in Las Vegas. Kelly has worked as a real estate agent since 2001 and has expanded her RE services to Kingman, Arizona. 

The Dale family occasionally shares throwback content on social media, but there's no sign of large-scale restorations resuming.

 

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Comments

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  • stephen rosol Nov-03-2025
    I miss that show
    I thought Rick's was great.  We visited there once while still active--I like it because he fixes stuff and restores things that are from our past.  Too bad the network got tired---what is happening with Kounts Customs?

  • VegasVic Nov-03-2025
    Tour
    They had free tours where you could watch some of the work in progress.  But we also got a private tour with Brettly. He was a goofball on the show but really nice and fun on the tour.  We got to out in the yard and see all of the stuff they had lined up.  He said if you brought something in for restoration it would be at least 2 years until they could get to it.  I guess all that stuff had to be returned when they closed.  Unless maybe they finished what they had and just didn't take in any new items.  
    
    Fun show, nice group of people.   

  • John Dulley Nov-03-2025
    Media blasting?
    WTH is a ‘mobile media-blasting business’ ??  

  • steve crouse Nov-03-2025
    media
    John
    Google is not your friend, but it will answer your question.
    It is a process similar to sand-blasting but uses various materials (media) depending on what the blasted item requires.

  • sunny78 Nov-03-2025
    excellent work
    Rick's biz did great restore work, was fun to watch when he was featured on pawn stars.
    
    Steve Crouse, google what now??? People still search for info like that these days? Grok rules. But to your point, true, search engines or AI still go to various underlying sources of data but AI casts a massive net of data sources far faster/one can steer it far easier. And on grok, imho, far less biased in results retrieved. And when speaking in voice mode to Grok, it's still a kick when it can tell I'm coughing.......or ask why I'm laughing at something based on an answer/response it comes up with. :) 

  • John Dulley Nov-03-2025
    No to grok 
    Google yes, grok is a HARD no because it is designed to be biased.. 

  • Peter Bijlsma Nov-03-2025
    Rick and Kelly
    People watched the shows because of the personalities. When the network switched to feature multiple shops they lost interest. Pawn Stars would be the same without Rick and Chum, Gold Rush needs Parker and Tony Beets, and the list goes on.
    
    Rick had a couple of appearences on Pawn Stars for special projects and Kelly has an active real estate business.
    
    Now the History Channel is dropping Pawn Stars. Rick is looking to continue the show with Chum on a different platform. Corey is no longer interested.
    
    Count's Customs is still in business. You can visit Danny's car collection, take pictures of the cars - no video please. Admission to the museum is free.
    

  • sunny78 Nov-03-2025
    John Dulley
    "Google yes, grok is a HARD no because it is designed to be biased.."
    
    It's comments like this that make me shake my head in disbelief. For starters, search 3 terms on google search, your favorite unbiased search engine: GOOGLE BIAS SEARCH. Enjoy all the tech research out there on the matter.
    
    I work in IT in some very technical stuff but one doesn't have to work in the field to figure this out in < 1 minute, on google's own search engine even. Time to get educated and "Sharp" on the matter....not "Dullee".