The History Channel's American Restoration is about shops across the country that work to take old, busted items and make them look like they just came out of the factory.
Over the past seven seasons, the featured companies have rejuvenated cars, motorcycles, soda machines, signs, and whatever other crazy stuff their clients have brought in.
However, it isn't all work. The crews have plenty of time to get up to some shenanigans. A lot of it happens in front of the TV cameras, since reality-show law says that just filming people working hard without distractions doesn't make for the most crowd-pleasing programming.
Luckily, the cast has ways to keep things interesting both in and out of the shop. And an online image search will turn up some surprises.
Fans pretty much know what to expect from the cast. However, we've tracked down a few pictures that will surprise both newcomers and veterans.
Some of these shots are actually from the show, but a couple are more candid looks at the cast and their off-screen lives, including some surprising bits of history about the people you thought you knew from the show.
Here are the 15 Surprising Photos Of The Cast Of American Restoration.
Just keep smiling ...
Here’s a picture of Ally with her stepdad Rick. Really, they both look fine, but they make sort of an awkward pair standing next to each other.
We don’t think they took this photo against their will or anything. However, Ally’s glamorous, pin-up look strikes a weird contrast with Rick’s Larry the Cable Guy get-up.
Somehow, this photo makes them both look like they’re taking a picture with a fan. It’s like the Rubin Facee (that picture that looks like either a vase or two people facing each other depending on how you look at it).
However, in this case, you’re just switching between which of the two people in this photo is invading the other's space.
It’s actually an eerie effect, and we can’t stop seeing it.
We all have these
Part of going on vacation is taking cutesy, slightly uncomfortable photos with your travel partners. That is, assuming you’re not trying to make a spectacle out of yourself.
Here’s one of those couples vacation shots from Rick and Kelly. It’s cute enough, and it even proves that Rick actually owns some shirts that have sleeves. So it kind of ruins the look that he’s cultivated so carefully, but he doesn’t seem to mind too much.
Probably the worst thing about this photo is that because Kelly just happens not to be wearing shoes, it’s shown up on sites like WikiFeet. That is a mostly harmless site for people with very specific interests and includes shoe sizes in subjects’ biographical info. The internet is really weird sometimes.
Kelly's race car driving
Ally isn’t the only model in her family, as this truck magazine cover-ready photo of her mom Kelly shows.
If something looks vaguely familiar about this photo, but you aren’t sure what the connection is, we can help. Kelly inspired the bombshell-style, cartoon woman in the Rick’s Restoration logo. However, that version is not nearly as clothed as she was in this shoot.
We aren’t about to claim that this isn’t a good picture. However, something about Kelly’s pose and smile just make it feel a little awkward and clumsy.
If a pretty woman in a skimpy outfit leaning against a truck wasn’t enough checks on the “things teenage shop students like” list, we’d like to direct your attention to the “Route 69” patch. It really completes the look.
Rick Dale goes gangster
Rick’s Restorations was the focus of the show’s first six seasons, and owner Rick Dale seems to have fun wherever he goes. This shot is from his visit to the Mob Museum, where he posed for some silly pictures with his friends and family.
He’s just casually wielding a Thompson submachine gun in this one, which we guess is one way to get in touch with history.
This is probably the most tame shot from the trip. One of them has him acting like he’s trying to shoot the lock off of a ball and chain, but it really just looks like he’s about to take out his wife.
Another photo from Dale’s visit has him holding a novelty mugshot card that says the police arrested him for street work. At least, we assume it was a gag.
Bodie Stroud makes a whoops
One of the new shops in the most recent season of American Restoration is Bodie Stroud Industries. It works on classic and custom autos. Stroud and his team are talented pros who know what they’re doing, but even they do some stupid stuff occasionally.
This still comes from a safety video in which Stroud goes over some tips about remaining injury-free in the shop. He also tells a story about a time a truck fell on his face, which is one of the worst things we’ve heard in a while. His best advice is “just don’t work in a shop.” Barring that, just be careful.
He wasn’t following that tip when he flipped open a car’s hood without checking to see if it was going to hit anything like, say, the fluorescent lights in the ceiling. Yeah, they broke.
Ally models a steering wheel
Ally Vezeau, whose mom is Kelly Dale, grew up doing pageants before starting up a modeling career.
She does high-quality, glamorous pictures, which are basically the opposite of this candid shot of her awkwardly holding a steering wheel and making a face that reads to us like, “Please just take the picture.”
We can’t give her too hard a time, though, since her fuzzy, impromptu pics still look better than the ones we actually prepare for. However, if you were to ask her for a photo, we doubt this would be high on her list. It’s probably not even on the list, if we think about it.
She has taken literally hundreds of better, more flattering pictures. This one probably ranks somewhere around a baby picture of someone eating cake on the kitchen floor. It’s cute, but they aren’t about to bring it out.
Ron Dale's sporty past
Rick’s brother Ron has a reputation in the shop as having a low work ethic. According to his nephew, Tyler, it takes him three hours to make a run to the hardware store.
His Twitter feed is also mostly about flip-flops, which are the official footwear of not caring what people think about you.
However, earlier in life, Ron played minor-league baseball for a few teams: the Spokane Indians, the Newark Buffalos, and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. This card from the third team presents a far different image of the guy.
Even before that, Ron was a punter for the University of Southern California football team, and he did so while sporting a mullet so long that he could tuck it into the back of his jersey.
Kowboy's worst nightmare
Kowboy is the metal polisher at Rick’s Restorations, and he is probably the most dour human being alive. Rick jokes that he would complain about a bonus, and we believe it.
That dour attitude probably doesn’t mesh well with being on a popular show. Reportedly, Kowboy refuses to take pictures at all, which soured one fan on the show completely.
However, apparently the Trip Advisor poster above either caught the mustachioed grumpus on a relatively good day or he got in before he instituted that rule.
While the fan looks pleased enough, we can’t help noticing how miserable poor Kowboy looks. The guy got out of bed expecting to blast some rust and maybe do some painting if he was feeling extra productive. He did not sign on for this photo op.
Brettly gets his jam on
Brettly Otterman is Rick’s stepson, and nobody at the shop expects much from him. He usually gets all the (literal) scrub work for Rick’s Restorations, as they usually put him on jobs like sandblasting.
If they’re really feeling the anti-Otterman vibes, they’ll send him to do less abrasive sodablasting. Ron Dale describes this relatively gentle process as “Brettly-proof” because that’s how much everyone respects him.
However, Brettly does alright because he has other things to occupy his time that don’t involve throwing away beehives. Music is one of them, and the internet has no shortage of pictures of him holding and playing guitars.
This one, from a YouTube video, holds a special place for us. We’re pretty sure it’s the guitar/harmonica combo.
Dale Walksler takes a knee
Dale Walksler owns the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum, another seventh-season place on American Restoration.
He spends his days tracking down and prettying up classic and current bikes. This includes what may be the oldest Indian motorcycle in existence and a one-of-a-kind Flescher Flyer. If you don’t know much about this topic, trust us when we say that these are some impressive items.
This picture comes from the 2013 Riding into History prestige auto show, where cars weren’t the only vehicles of interest. Walksler hired an airplane to fly over the event towing a banner with a marriage proposal for his then-girlfriend, Trish.
It’s actually a pretty sweet picture. However, we aren’t likely to make an elaborate propose in public at all, let alone at a car show. Even if it is an especially fancy one.
We're not sure those heels will work with that bike
Ally Vezeau is a model when she’s not greeting people or hanging out with her mom at Rick’s Restorations, and this is a sample of her work.
This was part of a shoot with Bombshell Vegas. It’s an organization that, according to its mission statement, aims “To prove every girl of every age in every walk of life is gorgeous and to help her see it.”
That’s a pretty good plan, honestly, and we aren’t about to make fun of it or this photo. Ally looks good in it, and it’s for a good cause.
However, we do kind of wonder why they bothered including the motorcycle at all. It’s an attractive enough bike, and it helps balance the composition, but it’s clearly not the star of this picture.
Brettly's angry face
It turns out that Kowboy isn’t the only person who makes with the grumps when tourists arrive at Rick’s Restorations. Here’s a shot of the normally relaxed and good-natured Brettly looking like the last thing the photographer ever saw.
We aren’t sure what occurred just before this picture happened, but it seems to have affected everyone in the room.
All of the people in frame look like they’d rather be anywhere else. Did the photographer say something? Maybe he interrupted a really great story about disposing of some Trash Bees.
Unfortunately, we’re afraid those details may be lost to history. Or it’s possible that only Brettly knows what happened because he was the only one who made it out of Rick’s alive that day.
We’re not actually suggesting he hurt anyone-- he just looks like he really wants to.
Rick is a good little helper
This is a shot from the holiday episode of American Restoration. We know it’s a bit of a cheat to use something that was actually on the show, but look at it. It’s glorious, and he didn’t even rip the sleeves off of it.
If you need context, this was from the third-season episode “One Horse Open Sleigh”, in which the crew at Rick’s receives the eponymous snow-skimmer for rejuvenation.
It turns out really nice, and the team fully dresses up to present it to the happy owner. That wasn’t at all necessary, but reality TV has to contain at least 10 percent silly costumes. We don’t make the rules.
We like how simultaneously fun and embarrassing this scene is, and this shot captures the spirit. Brettly’s dog also makes an appearance, which is always a good time.
How much for the burning woman?
Monkey Business is one of the new feature shops on American Restoration, and it usually deals in cool paint jobs and custom auto body work. However, its crew doesn’t limit its skills to cars. Occasionally, they’ll get creative on their own, separate projects, and that’s where this… thing came from.
It went up for sale on the shop’s Facebook page last July, and they bill it as a “Flamed Mannequin.” The asking price is $850.
“The ultimate conversation piece! One of a kind! Professionally painted! Great man cave/bar decoration!” the post says.
We’re not denying the artistry of the paint job. However, we're sure that we’d have plenty of conversations if we spent the better part of a thousand dollars putting this art in our house... and we’re not sure we’d enjoy all of those talks.
Shop dogs are good dogs
Rick’s Restorations' resident pet, which belongs to Brettly, is one of the coolest dogs we’ve ever seen. Look at how it’s just hanging out wearing sunglasses like it’s people. We tried doing that with our pup friend once, and the scars still haven’t faded.
Brettly posted this picture to his Twitter because he knows art when he sees it. That makes this a weird choice, but we don’t care because this pup looks soft, and we would like to pat it.
The danger with doing so, of course, is that it risks making the dog the reason people want to hang out.
However, we can think of plenty of worse reasons to leave the house. Usually it’s just to go buy terrible food that we end up eating while watching stuff like American Restoration.
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Do you know of any other shocking photos of the cast of American Restoration? Let us know in the comments!