02x13 - Child's Tricycle

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop,

where cherished family heirlooms are
brought back to life.

This is the workshop of dreams.

Home to furniture restorer
Jay Blades.

Nowadays, everybody spends a fortune
on stuff

that once it's broken,
they just bin it.

But everybody has
something that means too much

to be thrown away, and that's where
we come in.

Working alongside Jay

will be some of the country's
leading craftspeople...

Every piece has its own story.

It's amazing to think that some of
my work

becomes a part of that story.

I've always played with things,
I've always repaired things.

And I just love it.

There is a real pleasure

in bringing people's pieces back to
life again.

..each with their own unique set of
skills.

I can't wait to get started.

They will resurrect...

..revive... Come on, man!

..and rejuvenate

treasured possessions

and irreplaceable pieces of family
history...

Wow!

..bringing both the objects...

She's fantastic!

That's just taken me back 50 years.

..and the memories that they hold...

Oh, yes!

..back to life.

Oh, my God!

In The Repair Shop today,

a 20th-century masterpiece in need
of a conservator's masterclass.

The only way I can tell there's a
tear

is when I look at the back here
and I see that.

And a 1940s bicycle that
needs a bit of brute force.

Right. All right. Are we all
on it? Right.

Oh, blimey. No, it's not moving.

First to arrive at The Repair Shop
today is Sue Woods,

laden with a well-weathered
reminder of days gone by.

Hello. Hello.

I'm Steve. I'm Sue.
Nice to meet you. Hi.

She's putting all her trust
in clock restorer Steve Fletcher.

What have we got in here?

We have got my grandparents' clock.

It was a wedding present in 1917.

Let's see, let's have a look.
So it's 100 years old.

Oh. This is an interesting-looking
clock.

It's not often that we get the three
different dials on here.

The clock, the thermometer and the
barometer.

Tell me a bit about the clock.

Well, this was my paternal
grandparents' wedding gift

from the church in Glasgow
where they went.

We lived with her because she rented
the house

before my parents bought it

and I spent an awful lot of time
with her,

went everywhere with her.

This was always in the middle of the
mantelpiece

and sitting in Grandma's front room
was one of those big memories.

Grandma became ill, she ended up
with dementia.

So she went into hospital and
eventually,

the living room got cleared

and after that, I don't know what
happened.

I thought it just got packed up,
put away somewhere.

About 40 years later,
I found it in my dad's shed.

I don't know what happened,

but he'd obviously tried to resolve
the problem and not got very far.

When you found it, what were your
feelings?

I'm not sorry to say I cried,
actually.

Because it was really upsetting.

This looks in pretty poor condition.

That fits nicely
and that fits there.

And have you got the piece for...?

No, we're missing that one piece.

Oh! That's such a shame!

I know. I've got a lot, a lot of
work to do, Sue, to the clock.

But I'll see what I can do on that.

Brilliant, that would be wonderful.

OK, thank you. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Bye.

Bye now.

Once he gets the clock back to his
bench,

the full extent of the job ahead
begins to dawn on Steve.

We've got the barometer.

I need to replace the glass,

the hand and the outer bezel.

I've got the thermometer.

I hope the tube is all right.

The scale isn't.

The scale has completely
deteriorated.

The clock is a massive job.

With so many components needing to
be replaced,

Steve is drawing on some old
reserves.

I have literally tens of thousands
of old parts

that I've collected over
my 45 years of doing clock repairs.

I've got this...

..old clock here.

And because the dial is missing
as well,

I'm hoping that this dial will fit.

I quite often see a clock in the
charity shop

and pick it up just to have as
spares.

So...

It's its day now.

I'm going to take the movement out.

So, this seems really quite drastic,

but I think this is the only way of
doing it.

There we go. There we are. We have
a...

A dial that fits nicely in there
now.

Next into The Repair Shop,

Barbara Reeve is bringing a
treasured work of art

that's had an unfortunate accident.

She's hoping that painting
conservator Lucia Scalisi

can bring it back to life.

Hello. Hello. Nice to meet you.

I'm Lucia. I'm Barbara.

Hello, Barbara. And this is the
painting.

Oh.

Oh, wow! This is lovely!

Isn't it just? Yes!

It's Caputo!

Oh, and it's signed, it's dated...

Yes. Well, Caputo is an Italian,
Neapolitan, I think,

or that area of Italy.

But I know that he lived and worked
in Paris.

I presume this is the Seine
running through here and that's...

The embankment. ..the other side,
the embankment, yeah.

How did this come into your family
or into your possession?

Well, it belonged to my
great-great-aunt, originally.

She bought it when she was living in
Paris.

When, do you know? Did she buy it
from the artist, or...?

Well, I think it would be around
this time

because shortly after that,

she came to London and lived
in London.

So she could have bought it
directly from the artist?

I think she probably did, yes.

And it came down through my
grandmother and my father to me.

And it has very special memories
for me

because my grandmother brought me up

for the first 13 years of my life.

So, it really is special to me.

It's beautiful!

Yes, it is, isn't it?
And what has happened...?

Well, unfortunately...

It was my fault.

My father was moving.

So, he said I could have
this painting.

So, we wrapped it up.

And put it on one side.

And we were wrapping some other
things.

And I put my hand...

Oh, so that's...

..and I felt something and I
thought, "Oh, my goodness me."

Did this happen recently because
it kind of...?

Yes. It looks recent. Oh, yes,
within about the last three months.

Oh, how heartbreaking.

Yes, but it would be wonderful to
have it restored, absolutely.

I am thrilled. I'll be really
thrilled to work on it.

Oh, thank you so much.

It's really beautiful. And I look
forward to seeing it repaired.

Good, my pleasure, my pleasure.

Thank you very much. Thank you,
bye-bye. Bye-bye!

Ulisse Caputo was an Italian artist

based in Paris at the turn of the
20th century.

Famous for his landscapes
and elegant female portraits,

his rich palette and bold use of
light and colour

brought him international
recognition.

What I can see as a conservator

and what I'm looking for is how the
artist painted it.

There are fingerprints
in the paintwork.

And these must be the artist's
fingerprints.

There's actually a couple on her
face and certainly in her garments.

And I'm wondering if he modelled
this figure with his fingers

before he sketched, you know, he
sort of sketched it in...

with his fingers.

It's very unusual to have
fingerprints like that.

But the priority is to get this tear
repaired.

Steve is attempting to breathe new
life

into a 100-year-old barometer clock

that's seriously under the
weather.

He's making headway with the
mechanisms,

but the damaged mahogany case is
going to need

the expert eye of woodworker Will.
Hey!

Is it a clock? It's a clock. It's a
barometer and thermometer.

Three in one. Absolutely.

Great. So, I've got this bit.

OK. I've got this bit here.

Right. But I haven't got that bit.

Leave it with me. Excellent!
Thank you! That's all right, Steve.

With so much to do on this job,

foreman Jay ensures things keep
ticking over.

So, how are you getting on with
Sue's clock barometer, then?

Yeah, all right.

I'm just going to check if the
barometer is actually working.

There's...

There is a...a vacuum chamber in
here.

That shiny, circular thing.

Yeah. When the pressure is high, you
know, the air pressure's high...

Yeah. It forces it down

and basically, that pushes this
lever down.

And it turns the hand one way or the
other.

OK. Yep. So, how are you going to
test it?

Basically, I'm going to increase the
air pressure.

I'm going to pop it in here.

I'm going to seal it.

So, I'm going to push on there
and see if the hand moves at all.

Moved a little bit, I mean, a
little bit.

You see it? It's not turning enough.

It is turning a little bit.

Yeah. I think the best thing is if
I...

If I strip down, clean it and then
test it again.

OK, cool.

While some of the items that pass
through the doors of The Repair Shop

have met with unfortunate accidents,

others arrive simply suffering from
the ravages of time

and years and years of use.

The next arrival is a prime example.

A battered old childhood favourite

belonging to
Caroline Sambrook-Hurst.

Hello. Hello!

I'm Steve. Hello, I'm Caroline.

Hi. Hi, I'm Eric.

Hello, Eric. And we've got your
tricycle here.

I see you have.

Caroline's brought in her
three-wheeler

for the attention of Steve

and vintage bike expert
Erik Van Bommel.

A bit of a classic, I think.

What can you tell us about it?

Well, Christmas morning, 1954

is the first time I remember it.

And there was this Christmas present
for me.

Looking a little better than this
does at the moment.

I can imagine, yeah.

It has been well used, but not
all by me.

We'd go down the village with my
brother.

He'd put things in the boot
and it had my toys in here.

And what you could do,

another child could sit on it and
hold on to there.

Oh. Is that why this is slightly
dented here?

Probably.
THEY LAUGH

Looking at it, I'm pretty sure this
is a Triang

which is a famous British brand.

They're very rare, and...

People have mentioned that they had
them but they've never kept them.

So this is quite special.

It is special. Yeah.

What are your plans with it?

Well, what I'd really like
to be able to do

is have Thomas, my grandson,
be able to have the bike to ride

and that would be great fun.

I'll definitely try, obviously.

It will be a pleasure to work on it.

Thank you. Leave it with us
and we'll see what we can do.

Thank you, goodbye. Bye-bye now.

So, Eric, what are the main areas
that you've got to repair on this?

All right. We'll clean up the frame,
we'll repaint the frame.

Following that, we'll rebuild the
wheels with nice, clean spokes.

And lastly, probably the most
difficult job,

is trying to repair this
beautiful little boot

on the back here.

OK, let's get it over to your bench.

All right. You can manage it.

Oh, easy, easy!

See you later! See you, thanks!

Eric has 35 years' experience
of fixing up broken-down bikes

in his native New Zealand,

the United States and now here
in the UK.

His first job is to break the trike
down into its component parts.

With some gentle persuasion.

Here we go.

Beautiful, look at that.

Lovely.

One last wiggle.

There, left and right back.

And here we go. Lovely.

Meanwhile, Lucia is beginning her
repair

of the painting by the early
20th-century artist Ulisse Caputo,

which has a tear running through its
Parisian scene.

I've got my adhesive in here.

It's isinglass, which is a
fish glue,

and this is acid-free tissue.

And I'm just going to position it
along...

the edge of the tear.

And this will hold all those little
fractured flakes of paint

because I want, really,

to put as little of my work on to
this painting as I can.

Once the glue is dry,

Lucia uses a heated spatula to
remove moisture

from the back of the painting

and flatten any loose threads.

Then, she applies a heat-sealed
adhesive to stop it fraying.

I use silicone release paper on top
of it

so it doesn't stick to anything.

And the painting is sat on release
paper, as well.

And then, the heat will activate the
adhesive

and attach the whole thing
to the canvas.

It's nice and flat and it's held in
place.

So, I'm going to start the cleaning.

I'm going to do a surface
clean first.

And then start to remove the
varnish.

It is basically taking off...

..years of dirt.

In this case, probably best part of
100 years of dirt

and discoloured varnish.

So, then we're down to the natural
colour,

but it's always a little bit
dried-out.

So, it needs a varnish
back on the surface.

Once the varnish is dry, Lucia can
start to disguise her repair.

I'm using an acrylic filler.

It's ready-made.

I like it because it's very quick
and easy to use

and I can rub it down easily
afterwards.

In crude terms, it is a bit like
doing a filling

as you would in your DIY situations
at home.

A broken-down barometer clock has
brought Steve and Will together

on a very complicated rescue
mission.

Steve is overhauling the barometer,
thermometer and clock functions

while Will has been attending to the
marred mahogany casing.

Cor, well done, lad, look at it.

Yeah?

That... Oh... Nice and smart?

That is lovely, lovely, lovely,
lovely.

Next on Steve's long to-do list

is to restart the clock mechanism,
which hasn't ticked for decades.

This is the moment of truth.

CLOCK TICKS
There we are. Ticking straightaway.

Beautiful.

I've done this all my life

and come to this moment so many
times.

And it still gives me such
satisfaction when I put the key in,

turn it, and it starts ticking
straightaway like that.

At the back of the workshop,

bike expert Eric has taken apart a
broken-down child's trike.

He's now trying to reinvent
its tired old wheels.

I've taken the tyres and tubes off,
a couple of spokes out,

and I'll get the rungs repainted.

But I think we'll have a good bike
by the end of it all.

Eric has enlisted the help of metal
expert Dominic Chinea.

But the bike's battered old boot
may be beyond even his skills.

It's in a really bad way.

Um, the more I look at it, the more
damaged bits I can see.

There's a lot, a lot of work to do
on this.

Daunted but not defeated,

Dom sets to work cutting away
any perished metal.

This has come out in one piece which
is great

cos it's allowed me to
template from nice fresh steel.

So now I can just put
this new piece back in,

so that's pretty much...
Now, it's ready to weld.

Back in the workshop, Lucia has
fixed the tear in the painting.

Now she must match the colours of
the original artist's palette

to blend in her repair.

I've done a little bit of
reconstruction in the tree

because a branch,

a section through the trunk was
missing,

and some of the branches were
missing.

So I've just sort of
worked them up.

It looks quite pale, and I can see,
just doing this,

it's a little bit too blue.
But it's, it's getting there.

After many long hours of labour,

the once-dilapidated barometer clock
is finally ready for reassembly.

With parts cannibalised
from donor clocks,

Steve begins by rehousing
the gauges,

starting with the barometer.

So, Steve, are we at a crucial stage
here?

We are. You know, the barometer
you helped me with, test... testing.

Yeah, in the back. That is in there.

Now I've found a nice old hand

that came off an old barometer.

Cool. So I'm just going to find out
what the pressure is.

It's 30.5.

All right, so you've just set it
to that.

I have.

It's pointing to fair at the moment,

and, um, it's good weather today,
so...

All right. Yeah. You can't look at
this

and put your washing out and
think, "It's going to be fine."

Is it any good then? Yeah, no, it's,
it's handy.

It gives you an idea. It's handy.
Yeah, it gives you an idea.

Believe me. For me, what I'd do,

is I'd just look out of the window
before I hang out my smalls.

Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

The barometer clock arrived in a
sorry state,

frozen in time for over 40 years.

Its owner Sue has returned

in the hope that waiting for her

is a beloved old friend, come rain
or shine.

Hello, Sue, how are you? Steve, how
are you doing?

Hi. Oh, what have you got for me?

Right, I'll just get something for
you.

Right.

Can you hear anything?

Oh, my God!

It ticks. Right.

I'm going to uncover it,

let you have a look at it in its
full splendour.

Ah.

Oh, my God!

That's brilliant.

I don't believe that.

That is absolutely fantastic -
you are a genius.

Have they managed to do the...?

Yes, Will's done a lovely job with
the case.

Oh, God, isn't it?

It's a long while since I've seen it
like this.

If you didn't know better,

you'd think you'd nipped out and got
another one, it's so good.

You can see the mechanism.

Oh, God. It's ticking away
beautifully there.

It is unbelievable.

You've had it - you will
get hugged!

Bless you. Thank you so much.

It's absolutely brilliant. Oh!

I'll get it all wrapped up
safely for you,

and you can take it home and get it
on to your mantelpiece.

I will do that.

Can't believe that Steve's done
such a fantastic job on the clock.

I was absolutely shocked rigid.

It's brilliant. My grandmother
would be absolutely ecstatic.

She'd be really, really pleased

that it's been repaired
to such a brilliant standard.

Outside in the metalwork area,
Dom is making headway

with the vintage tricycle's boot.

There's a good few dents in this
front panel

and this top piece was all dented.

I've been going around with various
different hammers,

depending on what I'm doing
to get into different areas,

there's different heads.

And then with different dollies,
which are these,

which we'd use on the other side
of the metal as the hammer.

Different shapes, depending on the
curve of what you're,

what you're trying to beat. So I'm
just working round now

trying to get this nice and smooth
again.

But on the whole, it's looking
an awful lot better.

I'm really happy, I just need
to tackle this lid now,

which looks like it's going to
fit quite well.

Once Dom's finished,

the boot and the rest
of the components

are sandblasted and painted,

ready for Eric to completely
rebuild the tricycle.

Right! Put the top cap on.

Screw it all down.

So I just adjust this up, see if
everything is nice and snug.

Oh!

Oh, dear. As you can see here,

it's got a big gap in the fork

and the bearings are exposed, not a
good sign.

Before he can continue the rebuild,

Eric's going to need some help

straightening out the bent steering
post.

Hi, Steve. I've got a bit of a
problem,

I wonder if you could help me with
it?

OK. As you can see, that is not
straight.

Wow. That is really bent.

That is a common fault
with old bicycles,

they've ridden into a wall at some
stage, probably several stages.

OK.

Let's put it in that vice
over there.

Yeah, OK.

A bit of brute force may be the
answer,

or it could spell disaster.

Gently, gently, gently.

Right. So that's it and you're OK.

You tell me when. OK.

I think it's going to need both
of us.

Right. OK? Mm.

Ready? Yeah.

Crikey. Oh, my...

What on earth are you doing?

We're bending, bending it straight.

Bending it straight, nice, OK!

Can I help? Can I hold the bench
or something?

Or push from the other side.

Push, yeah? Yeah.

OK, are we all on it? Right.

Oh. That moved.

THEY LAUGH

I think we've fixed it, boys.

Yeah. And not, not a scratch on the
paint.

No scratch, no, and no paint, yeah.

Thank goodness. The beers are on me.

Hey, great. Remember that.

Cold one!

Lucia has been painstakingly
restoring

the cherished Caputo painting.

The canvas had a rip
running through it,

and was in need of some delicate
repair work.

Hi. Looks like you've almost
finished Barbara's painting.

I have nearly finished. A little bit
more varnishing, I've got to do.

I don't know if you remember the
tear that was in it?

Yeah. But I did the tear repair.
So that's quite neat.

So what's left to do? I need to put
another spray-coat of varnish on it,

and just sort of bring that tear up
a little bit,

because it's still a
little bit matte in parts.

The only way I can tell there's a
tear

is when I look at the back here and
I see that.

But this is clean.

It looks beautiful. Good.

Barbara's returning to
The Repair Shop

to see if her
great-great-aunt Annie's painting

has been rescued.

How nice to see you again.

Nice to see you, welcome back.

Lovely to see you.

This is Jay. You all right?

Yes, pleased to meet you.

Likewise. So, I'm so excited.

Well... I've got my fingers
crossed.

Yes. Are you ready? Yes.

Wow! Look at that!

You cannot see a thing.

That is the idea! That is amazing,
isn't it?

What a wonderful job you've done.

I'm glad you like it.

I think that because the damage
has been repaired,

your eye is not going to immediately
go to that area any more.

It was very dominating, wasn't it?

It was, absolutely. And you've
cleaned it for me.

Yeah, it cleaned really quite well,

so you're really seeing its true
colours now, which will last.

They're beautiful, aren't they?
I can't believe it.

And this must be how she saw it.

Well... You know. That's really...

It really is emotional, that is.

It's absolutely amazing,
and I can't thank you enough.

I'm glad you like it.
It is beautiful. My pleasure.

My father will be delighted as well
to see it like this.

It's just so many memories
of when I was younger.

Yes. And it just connects me
straight back,

straight back, absolutely.

Thank you for bringing it in.
Thank you ever so much.

And thank you so much
for what you have done.

Oh, my pleasure, Barbara.

I love it.

It's beyond all my dreams, that is.

I'm very relieved because I know my
father will forgive me now,

especially as it looks so wonderful
now, he'll be delighted.

He might even thank me for doing it,
you never know.

SHE LAUGHS

Bike expert Eric is putting the
finishing touches

to the vintage tricycle.

So here we have the boot,

reconditioned, repainted,
panel-beated.

Now it looks beautiful, like new
now.

Hopefully, it goes in together.

This is starting to look really
cool.

Hi, Steve. Well, that's looking
fantastic.

It is, it's a massive labour
of love,

but it's looking very, very tidy.

That's incredible, isn't it?

And these forks, the straightening
of it worked all right?

The straightening worked fine,
by the look of it.

There, it's vibration free,
it's nice and tight, nice and safe.

The brakes work, squeeze a lever.

There we are.

Excellent. I think you've done an
absolutely fantastic job, well done.

Thank you, yes, thank you very much.

Really well done.

After 64 years,

the wheels were in danger of coming
off this tired old trike.

But a bespoke restoration means
it's ready for another generation.

In Stratford-upon-Avon,

its owner Caroline is awaiting a
first look at the three-wheeler

with her grandchildren,
Thomas and Keisha.

Look what I've found!

What do you think of this?

Yay! What do you think's inside
here?

I think we'd better get the covers
off, don't you?

Yeah. Go on, then.

Oh!

Look at this!

Oh, my goodness me!

Ooh, look at that, look at that.

Fantastic. Thomas, can you remember
what it was like before?

All dirty.

SHE LAUGHS

That is absolutely lovely.

I love it! Yes.

Are you going to try it?

See what you think.

Put your feet on the pedals.

Right, off you pedal, come on.

There you go.

HE SHOUTS

HE LAUGHS

It was amazing.

I would never have thought

that I would have seen my
grandchildren

playing with one of my toys.

That is just such an astounding
feeling.

It makes you feel really sort of
warm and fuzzy inside.

Join us next time in
The Repair Shop,

as the team takes on more precious
items in need of some TLC...

Jeepers, look at that!

..and brings them back to life.