Tag Archives: John Christner Trucking

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: The Call

12 Mar

March 12th, 2012

THE CALL
After weeks of silence, Junior calls Senior to give his condolences on Helen’s passing. Then PJD starts a charity build for the March of Dimes while OCC finishes a two-bike build for John Christner Trucking.

This week, Lamar construction hires PJD to build a bike for charity, the March of Dimes. The bike is going to be raffled off and hopefully raise a lot of money. Paulie and the crew visited some parents and kids in the hospital to get inspired for the project. It was moving and although he didn’t say anything, you could see that Vinnie was touched, being a father himself.

Over at OCC, the twin build for John Christner Trucking moved along. The old school bike was nearly complete and the focus was on the modern bike. Rick, who announced his wedding last week, was the lead fabricator as usual. What is interesting about him is that he depends less on the machines than the others in the shop, most of what he does is by hand.

When painted, the old school bike is very nice and the modern bike is shaping up very nicely too. It has tail lights mounted under the seat in the seat assembly.

It has only been a couple of weeks of TV time but two months have passed since Senior’s step-mother Helen died. Paulie finally, for whatever reason, decided that he was wrong to not call his father. “I had my reasons.” Maybe it was only guilt, but he is finally going to do the right thing.

At this point, I want to remind you of something Paulie said a few shows back:

Paulie, his wife, and his mother sat down to talk about the Helen situation. Bottom line, he feels it should be handled in private. As he pointed out, he didn’t allow discovery to film his wedding and there were no cameras in the courtroom during all the legal drama with his father.

So of course this week it will all be done on camera.

PJD starts their build while still brainstorming a design. The bike will be “a rider” and not a showpiece, which is usually a better bike in my mind. Most of the build seems like a build-by-the-seat-of-their-pants thing. It will corporate the March of  Dime’s colors, purple and white.

And now, the results of Mikey’s weight loss challenge! You may recall he started at 350 pounds and now, 45 days later, he weighs 337 and 3/8,  and that included the hair-weight he lost when he shaved his beard. 13 pounds in 45 days, a big guy like him? He should have lost that much in water weight alone. I guess his motivational trainer was a bust. This is true- when Mikey’s weight was announced the crowd nearly didn’t applaud, they were shocked that he lost so little.

And speaking of Mikey, the Free Rick T-shirts made another appearance. OCC’s legal team clamped down on Mikey because of them and since he can’t sell them he gives them away. Another reason he can’t sell them? They are butt ugly.

Some of you have asked about V-Force, Vinnie’s company. I got the following information from the Times Herald-Record website:

V-Force is still owned by Vinnie and Cody, and it is doing well. It’s on Route 17K in Rock Tavern, and they have an open-door policy. Don’t be afraid or shy to stop in and say hi or buy a T-shirt. The guys will be happy to sign it for you.

OK, OK! So you want to know what’s going on with Vinnie. He is still working at V-Force: Paul Jr. subcontracts Vinnie through V-Force. “Vinnie working over at Pauly’s hasn’t hurt the business at all,” Cody said. “The show is giving V-Force good exposure.”

Part of the agreement of Vinnie being on the show was that he could wear hats and T-shirts bearing the V-Force logo for the simple fact that he didn’t want people thinking that V-Force was out of business. Cody has also made a couple of appearances on the show.

That article is about a year old but I assume it is still accurate.

At 9:39 the moment we were all waiting for arrived. Paulie called his father and of course his father’s phone went straight to voicemail. He left a nice, if slightly awkward, message of condolence.

They went to commercial and when they came back, it was back to the usual nonsense. It is 9:50 as I type this, they are going to commercial, and so far Senior has not gotten the message. Discovery really knows how to stretch five minutes of drama into a full show.

Back from commercial at 9:53 and it is back to PJD’s build. For an episode titled The Call they are doing a nice job of ignoring it.

Then at 9:55 it is the OCC unveil. In the words of Milhouse, “when are they going to get to the fireworks factory?”

And finally, at 9:57, Senior hears the message! “I think it was good to hear his voice, I think it was cool that he called, maybe it gives me an opportunity to go over there.”

NEXT WEEK:  

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior
Drastic Step
Mikey launches a “Fill the Diaper” fundraising campaign for March of Dimes, OCC starts an eco-friendly build for CIMA Green and PJD unveils the March of Dimes bike. Meanwhile, Senior takes bold steps to reunite with his sons.
 
The commercial: Senior walks over to his wife and very seriously says “guess where I just came from.”

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Rick’s News

5 Mar

March 5, 2012

Last week Discovery had a little fun at your expense. They posted the episode title but not the description. They knew that people would jump to the conclusion that Rick was leaving OCC and moving to PJD. Not me, I don’t see that happening, and if somehow it did, the news would leak out long before the show aired. Anyway, here is the description of tonight’s show.

RICK’S NEWS March 5, 2012
Rick’s news? He’s ENGAGED! Meanwhile, Junior decides to revamp the Black Widow Bike he recently reclaimed from Senior, and OCC works on a two-bike build for John Christner Trucking.

The plot threads tonight: 1- Will Rick invite Paul Sr. and Paulie to his wedding?  2- Paulie takes the OCC logo off the Black Widow bike and puts on a PJD logo. 3- Mikey hires a personal trainer. (Not the first time, IIRC.)

I have not yet seen the show, we are only 3 minutes in. I understand him wanting to remove the OCC logo but I disagree. It was an OCC bike. Why deny history? It was NEVER a PJD build. OK, he doesn’t want to advertise OCC, but at the very least, leave it without a logo.

OCC is hired to build a pair of bikes for John Christner Trucking, one old-fashioned, one modern. PJD will be working on the Black Widow. They had a flashback to season one with Senior talking about the bike. Senior had a fatter face and darker hair. Time has worn on. Anyway, the bike needs an overhaul, the frame needs work, the paint needs to be redone, it just looks like a ten year-old bike.

Over at OCC, Rick is in charge of the old-school bike, and it appears he is even designing it. It goes without saying how smooth the build will go. Rick is building it like Paulie would, on the go, coming up with ideas as he goes along. As the episode goes along, Rick just shows more and more of the skill we’ve seen over the years. Sad that skill and talent are not rewarded at OCC as much as other things. Yes, Rick is paid well (I assume) and has a good job, but why doesn’t he have more say in the builds?

BTW- the bike Jason “drawed?” It had a design problem: unbuildable exhaust pipes.

Rick is getting married and yes, he is inviting everyone to the wedding, OCC, PJD, whoever. Will they fight? Will they get along? Will they all show up?

Mikey goes on the radio show that they always seem to be on, the big guy with the hoarse voice, to plug the weight loss challenge he entered last week. He is 350 pounds! He’s raising money for a leukemia charity and he is getting sponsored, so much per pound lost. If he shaves his beard and cuts his hair there goes 20 pounds, easy. So Mikey now has a personal trainer. He doesn’t seem to have his blind, Dungeons + Dragons-looking sidekick anymore.

His trainer is Carlos Kremer, a buff but not toned looking guy who seemed more interested in mentally motivating Mikey than training him. He claims to be a former marine, but for a tough military man he seemed more interested in asking about his relationship with his father than building Mikey up. At any rate, he gets Mikey lifting weights, so good for him.

“He seems a bit misdirected.” -Carlos on Mikey, and man, is that an understatement. He is a “master motivator and life coach.” Sounds like BS to me, but I am ready to be convinced. If there is one thing Mikey needs, it is a life coach. 

Nub got some screen time, talking about how bad he feels that he has to take off the OCC logo. He called up Shane from OCC, the original painter, to tell him the logo he painted is coming off. On the one hand, I commend Nub for having the loyalty to tell the guy. On the other hand, where is the loyalty to Paulie? If Shane said not to touch it, would Nub have not done the job? And who is Shane (and Nub for that matter) to make the call. Paulie is both the owner of the bike and the guy paying Nub. Do what he says. End of story.

After all the time that has passed, Rick and Vinnie meet up at a diner to catch up and talk about Rick’s upcoming wedding. Vinnie is going to the wedding regardless of who else is or is not. Vinnie again showed himself to be a class act talking about Senior and his mother, who passed away recently.

Paulie, his wife, and his mother sat down to talk about the Helen situation. Bottom line, he feels it should be handled in private. As he pointed out, he didn’t allow discovery to film his wedding and there were no cameras in the courtroom during all the legal drama with his father. He has a point, but does it take a family sit down to get him to tell his father how sorry he is?

I was prepared to write that the show spent more time on the builds, which it did, but I then realized that while they are showing more, nothing is being explained. There is very little on the technical side of things. This show is still not for people who are into the builds. (No news there, I know.)

BTW- remember Odie? The guy Paulie fired for being total turd and who was later hired by Senior because he badmouthed his son? Haven’t seen him in a long time, have we?

PJD unveiled the revamped Black Widow at the Javits Center in NYC and Vinnie pointed out that most of the people who built it ten years ago were standing on stage with one exception: Paul Senior.

Next Week:

THE CALL March 12, 2012
After weeks of silence, Junior calls Senior to give his condolences on Helen’s passing. Then PJD starts a charity build for the March of Dimes while OCC finishes a two-bike build for John Christner Trucking.

From the commercial: Paulie calls Senior.