I'm intrigued. Where did you get this?
So, a good friend of mine loves to scavenger hunt for junk,
and on one of his hunts he found this.
Okay. Obviously, you have an old neon sign here.
It says "fine Italian food."
And we have a chef.
Do you his hung or anything like that?
In the garbage?
[laughs]
[Chumlee] How old do you think this is?
Probably 1940s.
I mean, this is, like, the golden age of neon,
it looks like to me.
So how much you want for it?
So I'm gonna sell it for 1,350.
[Rick] All right. Um...
Seems a little steep.
But Todd, my restoration guy, he is here.
-Can you text him? -Yeah.
[Chumlee] Do you think it's worth restoring?
[Rick] I think it might be.
Yeah, 'cause it looks pretty cool.
[Rick] I think that belly shape
is more your belly shape than mine, right?
You're right. It's not big enough to be yours.
Hey, guys.
[Chumlee] Hey, how you doing?
-[Rick] What do you think? -Wow.
-So we got, like, a chef. -Okay.
He's holding some meatballs with a little heat coming off 'em
and it looks really complicated.
Yeah, this was full detail. Really colorful.
I think his legs were animated.
I think he walked.
Okay, so we had a chef walking along like that.
Yeah, walking with a steaming spaghetti and meatballs.
So what do you think about the condition of the sign?
Well, it's in really bad shape.
I see a few rust-throughs
and we'd have to fix the sheet metal down at the bottom.
It can be brought back.
All right, so how much do you think it would cost
to restore this?
It would be 7,000 to restore it.
And what do you think it'll be worth afterwards?
-Fifteen to 20,000. -Okay.
So do you think he could restore this to something amazing?
Well, actually, I've got a friend here in Boston
that has this fantastic neon shop
and I could ask him if he would work on it with me.
Yeah, I'd love to work on it, so...
-Thanks, man. I'll let you know. -You bet.
-Thanks. -All right.
So we got some choices here.
You can spend six to $7,000 then try and resell it.
-Mm-hmm. -Or you can sell it to me.
I'll give you 500 bucks.
Five hundred?
Okay, it was in the garbage.
Yeah, I guess you're right.
500 bucks, we got a deal?
-We got a deal. -Sweet.
Go right in there. They will get you paid.
All right. Thank you so much.
All right, let Todd know we got Italian food on the way.
All right, I'll let him know.
Chum. Hey, man.
-How you doing? -Good, good.
How's the sign coming along?
It's coming along really good.
I actually did a sketch of the existing graphics.
It's in really bad shape.
So I had to kind of guess at a lot of this.
-Okay. -But it got me to thinking.
Rick does have a barbecue restaurant,
so I could
cut a brand new piece of sheet metal over this
and I worked on this design to make it a Rick's BBQ...
-[Chumlee chuckles] -...right on top
so it historically preserved the sign
but on top of it,
this would change to Rick's BBQ.
I think it's actually pretty cool.
Yeah, yeah. It just seems to work.
[Chumlee] Rick could hang it on his barbecue
or he could sell it.
Yeah, I think we could go ahead
-with this version. -Okay.
I, uh, went ahead and drew
the Rick's BBQ neon pattern.
I think it'll look good.
So you're gonna start bending the neon now?
-Yes. -I'm gonna stick around.
Yeah. Take it away, Ton'.
Why don't we start with this nice curvy R.
-Okay. -That looks like a lot of fun.
Light the burner up here.
[flame whooshes]
The screen keeps the paper
from catching on fire.
I'm just gonna start the curve here.
Rocking it back and forth.
Bring it over to the table.
And lay it right down.
And that's about it.
You think you wanna give it a try?
Well, I would love to bend some glass with you
but it would be a little irresponsible of me right now
'cause my boss, Rick,
is expecting me back in the event shortly.
Yeah. All right thanks. I appreciate it.
Next time I see you,
we'll be picking up Rick's BBQ sign.
Yeah, yeah. I know he's gonna love it.
All right, well, thank you.
-Thanks for dropping by. -Thank you.
[Rick] This place obviously does neon.
You ready to see your sign?
-I can't wait. -Yep. It's all finished.
[upbeat music playing]
-Hey, Todd. -[Todd] Hey, guys.
-Oh, my God. -[both laugh]
[rock music playing]
[laughter]
Now, that looks good.
-[Rick] That is amazing. -[Todd laughs]
[Rick] I love that. It's got my face on it.
Oh, you noticed it right away.
[Rick] And I'm marching along. See that?
[Chumlee] I've never seen you move so fast.
[laughs] I'm in awe. You are unbelievable.
[Todd] I really wanted to surprise you on this.
I worked really hard to make it look like you
but still honor what was here before.
I can't believe you got it done so quickly.
Yeah, well, it's something all of us can be proud of.
[chuckles] I think it's absolutely great.
It'll be debatable whether I sell it or not.
I could just hang it in my restaurant.
We'll just look at me all the time.
-[Todd] Yeah, yeah. -[Rick laughs]
-Love you, man. -Appreciate it. Thank you.
-Thank you, Todd. -It was fun working with you.
We gotta get back to the event.
[Todd] See you on the next one.