05x05 - Boxing Gloves

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to The Repair Shop, where
precious but faded treasures...

It's in a bit of a sorry state.
..are restored to their former
glory.

I'm going to teach you how to do
it the old-fashioned way. All right.

Furniture restorer Jay Blades...
Now the fun begins. I know.

It's so nice that we can
be part of that history,
to just keep things going.

..and a dream team
of expert craftspeople...

Looks absolutely amazing.

Wicked. You really start to see the
thought that went into making it.

..come together
to work their magic.

Teamwork? Absolutely.

Yes! Beautiful.

Employing heritage craft skills
passed down the generations...

Oh! It's my duty to make sure that
this all goes back in working order.

..preserving
irreplaceable heirlooms...

It's absolutely amazing,
it really is.

It's like keeping a bit
of our family history alive.

..the team will restore the items,

the memories... Yes! Yes!

..and unlock the stories
that they hold.

It's touched my heart.
It's amazing.

In the repair shop today,
an extraordinary wartime memento

tests the patience of
natural history conservator Simon.

Maybe that bit goes there...
No, it doesn't!

Ah! It's infuriating.

And it's no laughing matter
when Dom restores a toy

that's a little piece
of comedy history.

It's going to be a bit
of a nightmare, to be honest,

because there's a quite big risk
of causing even more damage.

First into the repair shop
is Andy from Stafford.

He's hoping leather expert
Suzie Fletcher will take

on the challenge of a precious
piece of his family's past.

Hello. Hello. How are we doing?
I'm Jake. Andy.

Nice to meet you, Andy. I'm Suzie.
Nice to meet you.

That's a nice box.
What have you got in there?

What I've brought for you today
are some boxing gloves.

Please tell us the story.

OK, so these gloves belonged
to my Uncle Adrian.

My grandparents adopted Adrian
in 1958. Aw!

How old was he then?
He would have been two.

Once my dad had got used to
the fact they had this new brother,

they became very close.
They were inseparable.

On Christmas Day in 1974, Adrian
would have been 18 years old. Right.

He went back to his birth
family in Birmingham.

His family were pleased to see him.

He'd met his younger brother, who'd
he'd met for the first time. Right.

Wow! And on that day, Adrian
decided to go out with his brother.

And as they went out,
unfortunately, he was hit by a car.

Whoa! Yeah. And unfortunately,
two days later, Adrian died
from his injuries.

All on the same day of him meeting
his brother for the first time?

The same day,
Christmas Day, 1974. Wow.

I think I was almost five years old.

I'm kind of blown away by the story.
Yeah. It's a tragic story. It is.

So Adrian was an amateur boxer.

OK. And this is the only thing
that we've got left now

in the entire world is these gloves.
Are these Adrian's gloves?

These are Adrian's gloves, yeah.

What would you like Suzie
to do to these, then?

I would love the gloves
to be on display

rather than being put away
in a drawer. OK.

I'm not even sure that my dad,
if he knows I've still got
the gloves. Ah.

Cos this is all that we've got left
of Adrian,

I'd like to give these
back to my dad. Oh, wow.

My dad's a firefighter.
He's a bit of a hero. Right.

He's spent his whole life
doing things for people.

He's never really asked
for anything in return.

And this is what I'd like
to do for my dad. That's fantastic.

That's a proper son, innit? Yeah.
Nice one. I like that. Very nice.

Suzie? They will be quite
the challenge. I think so, yeah.

I haven't had a pair of boxing
gloves in my hands for a while,

so this will be
very interesting for me.

I'm very much looking forward
to doing them for you.

Thank you very much. I
appreciate it. You're very welcome.

Thank you for sharing your story.
No problem. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Andy. And I look
forward to getting started on them.

Thank you very much. All right?
Nice to meet you both. OK. Bye-bye.

It's a nice story, but it's sad.
It's very sad. Wow!

If you looked at the gloves, they
would look pretty insignificant.

They look old, worn, battered,
really ready to be to be discarded.

But they mean so much to us. It's
the only thing that we've got left

in the entire world now of Adrian.

And this is just something
that I'd like to do for my dad,

just to remind him of his brother

and keep Adrian's memory
with us all.

So, what you going to do next?
Good question.

You can tell that they're
very fragile and very dry.

The major concern
I have is this torn leather here.

And...the stitching
is coming apart here.

So there's a lot needing to be done.

I'll let you handle those.
All right. Brilliant.

Thank you very much. No problem.

OK, so I just started
on Andy's gloves and I've got

the challenge of how I'm going
to repair this thumb area.

I think I've got most of
the original leather there.

So what I'm going to do
is line all of this area,

so that I can glue
the original leather to that.

So initially I've just got
to start making a template.

Thankfully,
this one is pretty much intact,

so I'm going to put the calico
on that

and just draw around the seams
and that will give me

a pretty accurate pattern.

OK. So I'm just going
to cut this out...

..and see what this looks like.

OK, so I just need to transfer it
onto the leather now.

And I'm going to use
a really fine lining leather.

It's incredibly strong.

So this is there, literally just
to hold the old leather together

and reinforce it.

This leather is so thin
that a scalpel easily

cuts through it.

But I've got a section here
that's actually missing,

so I need to glue on a tab, so that
area can also be glued down securely

when it comes to that.

In Witney, my hometown, we had
a glove factory, and I remember

going there as a kid,
and Mum and Dad, they would go

and have their gloves made.

You know, they were special gloves.
It was above a shop.

So you had to go up
these creaky old stairs.

And it was just a flashback in time

of when you had these businesses
where you went and had things made.

I remember Mum and Dad
were having me measured,

erm, for a leather waistcoat
with fringes

back in the '60s and '70s.
They were like...

That's what I wanted for Christmas.

So I went there to get measured
for a waistcoat!

There were these wonderful
little businesses tucked away.

And sadly, you know,
it's no longer there.

I think this is going to work
quite lovely.

OK, so I think now I just
need to let that sit and dry

before I can complete
that part of the repair.

Next into the repair shop,
Trevor Bird from Southport.

He's brought an exotic
and fascinating curio

for the attention of natural history
conservator Simon Moore.

Hello. Hello. How we doing?
Good, thank you. I'm Jay.

Hello. I'm Trevor.
All right, Trevor?

I'm Simon. Hello, Simon.
Nice to meet you. You too.

So, what have we got in the box?
Not a pair of shoes?!

No, it used to be! Erm...
It's an ostrich egg cigarette box.

Oh, OK. Goodness.
Let's have a look, then.

Or at least it was
an ostrich egg cigarette box...

Right.
..er, made by a prisoner of w*r

for my grandfather,
who was a commando,

seconded to the intelligence corps
in 1942 or three,

somewhere in West Africa.

And he told me once
that this prisoner of w*r

had been a carpenter
in his pre-w*r existence. OK.

And to keep him busy,
they said, "Here's an ostrich egg,
do something with that."

And he made this by hand,
in the jungle, so to speak...

Amazing.
..a cigarette box, like this.

Now THAT...that is clever.

What's your earliest memory
of this, then? Do you remember?

Five years old. I was always,

"Please, Grandpa, can I open
the egg? Have a cigarette, Grandpa!"

Cos I was just fascinated with it,
the idea that a bird could lay
an egg that big.

Yeah, it's quite big, isn't it?
To a five-year-old boy who'd never
left England... Yeah, yeah.

..was incredible. Yeah.

And when he died in 2002,
the egg passed to me.

Yeah. So what does the egg
symbolise to you, then?

Mainly it's Grandpa Cliff

and my memories of him

being about as far removed
from commandos, w*r

as could possibly be the case.

He was always such a quiet,
peaceful, considered man.

You know, a bit of a hero,
I suppose. Yeah, yeah.

And he'd laugh. We used to laugh,
literally crying tears down...

There was always something that we'd
start giggling and we'd end up

howling in tears of laughter.

The egg is the one thing
that really connects him to me.

Yeah, yeah. So, anything
that could re-complete it,

just helps make
that connection again.

So, how did it get in this kind
of state?

Cos it's in bits now.
About a year ago, my Uncle Bob,

my father's younger brother...
Right, OK. ..stopped for tea.

So we rushed around to get the best
china, and the cupboard door opened

and it - my wife did it
and she knocked this onto the floor.

Oh! So how did you feel
when it was broken, then?

Crestfallen, I think, would be...
I was just stunned, you know?

But never angry.
These things do happen, don't they?

You can't... Anger is of no purpose
at all. It won't rebuild the egg,
will it? No, definitely not.

You need an expert
in conservation of eggs. Thank you.

It would be a miracle if anyone
could do anything to make it look

a bit more as it used to.

The only thing that's rather
worrying about this is, of course,

apart from the odd little dots
which it has, which are,
of course, natural,

it has no other markings on it.
Right.

So it will be quite a jigsaw
to put it back together again.

Yes. Anything you can do
to restore it somehow

to something close to its original,
I'd be more than grateful,
believe me. Sure.

No, that's absolutely fine.
I'd be delighted. OK.

Thank you for bringing in
and thank you for the story.

Oh, no. Thank you.
Thank you, Jay, yes!

Simon, I'm very grateful
that someone like you exists.

Thank you. Good luck with my egg.

You take care now. Bye-bye. Bye.
Bye-bye.

I think Simon's got a...
a really tough job

to repair the egg.

It seems almost impossible
to imagine that it could be

pieced back together,
but I'm hoping that he can do that.

It'd make me feel as if I was sort
of four or five years old again.

So, how on Earth
are you going to do this?

Basically, I'm going to do
a little assemblage on my workbench

first of all, so that I know roughly
where they all go back together.

Right. Then it'll be trying
to get the curvature correct.

So, there are all sorts
of little, little, little problems

which we have to bear in mind
when you're trying to do
something like this.

Right. If you need anything,
just let me know. Yup, will do.

Let's get it over to your bench.
Mm-hm.

Got it? OK. Lead on.

Simon, whose unusual career began
in the Natural History Museum,

has conserved countless
ancient specimens,

including spiders and jellyfish.

Oh, there's a lot of them.

But this unique egg, with its dozens
of unidentifiable fragments,

will require all his brainpower.

The problem when you've got so many
bits like this is trying to find out

which bits go back to which bits.

That is going to be
the long process.

And off we go.

That's got no straight edges on it.

Nor has that.

Nope. So that's obviously not right.

Maybe that bit goes there.
No, it doesn't.

I've got to try every piece
with every piece.

This is why it takes
such a long time.

Yes, that's got a curvature on it
that's similar.

And...

..hey, presto!

So... Phew! Sigh of relief.
I'm now going to mark these two up.

I put a little one on them,
so I know where those go.

It's just going to be
trial and error now,

and I'm just going to have to sit
here and try and piece them back

as best as I can
and then start numbering them.

At her bench, Suzie also has a lot
to piece together with the battered

boxing gloves -
treasured mementos of a young life

tragically cut short.

Round two means attaching
the new leather backing,

which will strengthen the thumb
of the right-hand glove.

This is going to be
quite, quite tricky.

So I'm just going to put
this roughly in position

and go run the glue around the
pieces of leather that were left.

So I've got something solid
to anchor the new lining to.

I need the glue
to bond quite quickly,

but I don't want it to bond
too quickly.

So it's one of those things,
I really have to move quite fast.

I feel this is going to do a really
nice job of securing everything.

OK. Now I'm just going to roll...

..this old leather on top,
push it down.

So, now I've got that held in place
around where the seam is,

I can now start to glue
these big flaps that had torn away.

My aim is to make sure
it's nice and smooth.

This leather has got to go
all the way up to the tip
of the thumb here.

I'm going to try
and start at the top

and roll down to the bottom.

So far, so good.

Now I've really got to marry up

where the tear was and try
and make this join

as invisible as possible.

Good.

Phew! That's a relief.
That went quite well.

So, I'm really happy with
that and just left to insert

the seam that's come apart.

That's really interesting. Actually,
on the inside, the padding,

they've used animal hair.

I would imagine in today's
boxing gloves

it would be more of
a synthetic type of padding.

But it just goes to show, 70 years
ago, the different materials

that they would use,
all organic and very sustainable.

And you think about today's world
where we're very much

looking into sustainable materials,

you just have to look back
50 years, 70 years,

you can see, yeah, well,
we can actually do this.

We don't have to use
man-made fibres.

It sort of feels a little bit
like I'm doing surgery here,

but, er, I think I'm getting there.
A couple more stitches to go.

Just making sure that seam is
nice and tight, close together.

It's not going to come apart.

So, the last stitch...

Good. Really pleased with that.
A few heart-stopping moments,

but I am very happy
with that end result.

Now I'm ready to clean and condition
these guys and get them ready
to hand back to Andy.

I can't wait to see his face.

Next to arrive are Nottingham father
and son, Nick and Richard Povey.

They've brought along something
which, for metalworker

and vintage lover Dominic Chinea,
could be another fine mess.

Hello. Hiya. You OK? Yes, thank you.
Wow, look at that!

Brilliant. I'm Dom. Richard.
Richard, nice to meet you.

Hello, I'm Nick.
Nick, nice to meet you.

Please tell me, how on Earth
did you get hold of something
as cool as this?

Well, it was given to my brother
on the Empire Stage in Nottingham

by Laurel and Hardy in 1953.
Really?

And that's the only reason
why we've never thrown it away

cos of the history, I just couldn't.
Wow!

So take me back, first of all.

So how on Earth did you get
this from a Laurel and Hardy show?

My parents had a lace firm
in Nottingham

and they took the entire staff
to the pantomime. OK.

And my brother was there
and he got pushed onto the stage

by the lot and, er... The poor chap,
he wasn't just given it,

he actually had to sing
Baa Baa Black Sheep before it.

Oh, you're kidding. On the stage,
up...? Yes, three and a half years
old and he had to perform.

And then they could pick a prize,
and this is what he picked.

Good taste, clearly.
Isn't it brilliant?

I could just try to imagine
what it was like back in the '50s,
having something like this.

It was quite a special thing
to have, being a kid.

It's the earliest thing I've got of
my childhood now.

That's the only thing I've got left.
Is it really?

So, that's why it is precious to
me.

Do you remember riding on this when
you were a kid?

I do, yes. You do, as well, yeah?
I do, yeah.

We used to put up a little racetrack
round the garden,

the hosepipe to sort of do the
lanes. Oh, brilliant!

From being so loved and well-used
for so long,

what happened for it to get into
this state now?

It's probably my fault, because when
they finished playing with it,

it was just put in the outside
shed and it's been there for years.

What made you dig it out now?

I've got a three-year-old son that's
desperate to go on it.

Oh, he's been nagging you?
He has been looking at it.

The first thing he said, "The pedals
don't work." Doesn't work.

It doesn't go round. Yeah.

I'm so glad to hear that it's going
to be used again

because it's such a beautiful thing.

I mean, I wouldn't blame you for
just wanting to put

it on the on the shelf, on the side
and just look at it.

Honestly, thank you so much -
I can't wait to get started on it!

No problem. Thank you very much.
Pleasure, thank you.

Lovely to meet you both. And you.
See you soon. Thank you. Thank you.

It'll bring back a lot of memories,
I think,

seeing the bike being used again.

So, I'm hoping to sort of re-live
some of my childhood memories

through this bike.

And, hopefully, it might go for
another generation or two!

They really don't make bikes like
this any more.

It's brilliant.

I would loved to have had one when I
was a kid!

I love bikes.

I'm very familiar... Well, I know
my way round a bike,

but the way it's actually made is
completely different.

This frame is the actual structure
of the bike,

which leaves me with a little slot
on the bottom there

for access to get inside to all of
the parts.

I need to basically
remove the rear wheel,

these... the cranks here and that
whole chain assembly

all needs to come out.

I don't think anything's obviously
broken.

It's just completely rusted and
seized up and all sort of

gummed up in there, so that all
needs to come out and have

a thorough clean.

The seat is obviously bent.

Hopefully, that's just a bracket,
that's a bit easier to get to.

The front wheel, again, completely
seized.

I can't even turn that,
that's completely locked solid.

All of those elements need fixing to
make the bike work again,

but I've also got to think of the
cosmetics.

Rust has really started to set in,
so I do need to treat that,

but I don't want to be removing
the original paint.

I want to keep as much of this as I
can because it looks

beautiful like it is.

Time to start getting this thing
apart.

I'll pick an easy target first. I
think I'm going to go for the wheel

because I can get
a good spanner on there.

Ah, there we go, I love this part.

Taking bits off, you get little
hints there,

that paint - that hasn't seen the
light of day for 50, 60 years.

Look at that lovely,
shiny red paint.

I need to just make the rest of it
look like that now!

I don't want to drop anything in
here, that would be a nightmare.

I need to make sure that everything
I take off,

I keep hold of.

Right, that's the split pin removed.

That has allowed that to be removed.

This was the key to holding all of
this in.

That's just become apparent now.

So, it's amazing, really, that tiny
little split pin

was holding in this whole assembly,
basically,

holding the space up that's held in
this whole assembly.

It's very clever how something so
small can be so important.

There we go. Perfect. Perfect!

Inside the barn, natural history
conservator Simon is trying

to rebuild the ostrich egg
cigarette box.

With multiple, near identical
fragments and no way of telling

how they fit together,

he's had to trial
every possible combination.

I've now got nine drawings here and
another three on the egg itself.

I'll be, at last, being able to
stick them together,

to get them properly adhered.

To help hold the pieces together
and support the joins,

Simon's going to create an
imitation membrane

inside the shell, using a very
specialist material.

Here I've got some Japanese gampi
tissue.

The main thing about Japanese
tissue, particularly with this one,

is the fibres of the plant, the
gampi plant,

have been very carefully aligned by
the manufacturers,

which is why if you tear it...

..it tears pretty much
in a straight line.

If you try and break it
across the grain,

it takes about two kilos
of pressure to do so.

So, it's got a very
strong breaking strain.

And what I'm going to do is I'm
going to put some of it along here,

to align the two pieces of eggshell
when I put them on.

Now, the dragging of the tissue is
quite tricky,

because if it picks up too much
glue, it will roll up into a scroll.

So I've got to keep moving it all
the time.

This is neutral PH PVA, so it's
very similar to wood glue,

but wood glue is quite acidic.

Manipulate it into position.

There we go. I'll just run a
fingernail over it to make sure that

the edges are exactly in alignment,
which they are - good!

So, I've only got about another 36
more to go.

So, that should keep me very busy!

I'm now at about the halfway stage,
and this is always very,

very difficult because this is where
the pieces of shell start to move,

not where you want them to.

I've got a little crack forming
down here.

So, what I'm going to do now is
paint on a little bit of water

and just loosen them very slightly,
so that I can get them to realign,

painting it into the crack...

..and then I shall put a little
clamp on and, hopefully,

that will now realign that crack
perfectly,

and then I shall be happy.

Well, I'm very nearly there now with
the glueing.

Let's just see if it all fits
together now.

This is always the rather critical
moment where you hope

that the whole thing's going to
join up together!

Well...

..well done!

Oh, thanks, Jay.

That looks cool, man.

I can't believe it, that it's almost
come together - at last!

That's a lot of work!

And you had no reference whatsoever.

No, this was in about 40 pieces.

Admittedly, the last egg I worked on
was about two pieces,

so it was slightly different!
Right.

So, what's left to do now?

So, next I'm going to fill in the
little, tiny cracks

with my glue pen here. OK.

That'll then put the adhesive into
the crack here. OK.

And then I can do little in-fills
right down this side... Yeah.

..that side, which is the critical
part of it.

I think you've done a blinding job.
It's really cool.

Thank you very much, Jay.
Yeah, I'm going to leave you to it.

Thanks very much, Jay.
No problem.

With the egg rebuilt, just one last
piece of the puzzle

remains for Simon.

I will admit that Trevor's done a
very good job of finding

all the bits - bar one.

Well, it may be a few little tiny
splinters

which make up this little triangular
area here.

So, I'm just going to
add the filler now,

and once that's dry, then I can
colour match the actual surface

and get it finished.

Over in Suzie's corner,

the 1950s leather boxing gloves
are nearing completion.

Finished putting the saddle soap on.

These are in so much better
condition now.

The leather itself,
when you touch it,

it actually yields like it's
supposed to.

The last thing that I ought to do is
go over it with some

rejuvenating cream, which has a
little bit of grease in it,

but, more importantly, it has some
colour in it.

It's going to really bring these
gloves back to life.

And I think by the time I finish
with them,

they're going to be fighting fit!

The boxing gloves are the only
belongings to remain of Adrian,

who died in tragic circumstances
at just 18 years old.

Adrian's nephew, Andy, brought these
precious mementos in for repair

as a surprise for his dad.

He's got absolutely no idea at all
what he's about to see.

The condition of the gloves when I
brought them in were really poor,

almost to the point where they could
no longer be kept.

I'm hoping Suzie will have got the
gloves into a condition

where they can be displayed,
so we can see the gloves

and remember Adrian, so that we can
celebrate Adrian

and turn it into a happy story.

Hello. How are we doing?
Well, thank you. How's yourselves?

Not too bad. Good.

I'm Jay.
Hello, Jay. Mick.

How you doing, Mick? Take a seat,
sir.

Hi, Mick. Hello. Lovely to meet you.
I'm Suzie.

Suzie. Hello, Suzie.

How you doing, sir? Nice to see you
again. Nice to see you again.

Good to see you.
Nice to see you, Suzie.

So, we've been keeping a few
secrets.

We thought we'd do something for you
today,

just because you've been such a
great dad.

You've done things for so many
people

and this is just something
for yourself.

Thank you very much, that's nice.

I know you've got no idea what it's
about,

but just to help remind you.

Oh, yeah, Adrian.

Who is Adrian?

Well, Mum and Dad used to foster
children. Yeah?

And we had Adrian from a very young
age. Smashing. Yeah, smashing.

There's something that belonged to
Adrian which you gave me

when I was a very young boy. Mm.

And it was always my intention to
give you this back,

so you could remember your brother.

Go on, then. You ready? Ready?
Yeah. OK.

So...

That's... That's lovely, isn't it?

Can I pick them up?
Of course you can.

Yeah, he used to do a little bit of
boxing.

That's absolutely smashing.

Thank you. I'm chuffed with that.

Bit of a shock, eh?
Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

I boxed with Adrian.

I used to tell him I trained
Muhammad Ali and all this.

THEY LAUGH

Excellent!

So, it takes me back and gives me
happy memories, really.

Yeah.

So, you better keep these now.
Yeah, I'm going to get them framed.

Yeah? Oh! Yeah.

Well, I'm dead chuffed.

Yeah. I can see it.
Thank you very much indeed.

And thanks, Andrew. Listen, you're
more than welcome, you deserve it.

So, how long did it take you to get
this sorted?

Well...

It was quite a while!

You've done a smashing job.

Yes, she has, hasn't she?
That's really kind of you.

Thank you very much.

Well, what can I say?

It's good! Yeah.

Let me give you a hug!
Oh! There you go!

Thanks so much. Oh, Mick!

Oh, thank you. My pleasure.
That's made my day!

Oh, bless you.

Brilliant, what you've done for your
dad, well done, mate. Well done.

Thank you. All right? Nice one.

Really appreciate it, thank you so
much. There we are.

Shall I carry them for you? Yeah,
thanks, lovely. Thank you.

OK. OK, thanks ever so much. Lovely
to see you, take good care.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

Well done, well done!

I'm surprised, to say the least.
I mean, I wasn't...

Well, I wasn't expecting anything.

But then to see the gloves, and it
did bring back such happy memories.

Long lost brother now.

He was a lovely lad, he was turning
into a lovely man.

He was always prepared to help
people - very, very kind -

and I think that he would be...

I think he's looking down on us,
as it happens,

but he would be very touched.

He would be very happy, yeah.

In the outdoor workshop, Dom has
dismantled the treasured bike

gifted to a young audience member by
comedy legends Laurel and Hardy.

So, now I've got all of the dirt
removed and all the grit and grime

off the paint, I'm just left with
the nice, clean paint surface.

The problem is now, the very top
layer of the paint has oxidised.

It's really changed colour.

So, I need to cut that first layer
of paint away.

I'm going to use wet and dry
sandpaper and reveal the next layer

down, which is hopefully going to be
nice, fresh, bright red.

It's very thin paint, so I've got to
be so careful.

This is why I'm using such a fine
grit paper.

I really don't want to go through
to the bare metal.

There's already enough rust on this,
so I need to keep as much paint

intact as I can.

And it literally looks like a
different bike already -

it's amazing.

This whole left-hand side of the
bike is looking really good,

but I can't really say the same
about the front end.

The fork and this mud guard at the
front,

I think I am going to have to do a
bit more painting

than I originally hoped.

Dom now turns his attention to
making the bike fit to be ridden

by the next generation of the
Povey family.

When Richard and Nick first showed
me this bike,

the seat was all leaning over to one
way and obviously had some damage.

I was hoping that it would be quite
a straightforward fix.

On closer inspection, I've taken
off the main bracket holding it on,

and where that's riveted on, every
single hole has got, like, cracks

coming out of it, where the sheet
metal that this is made from

has just literally split.

I'm going to try and weld them up
and it's going to be a bit

of a nightmare, to be honest,
because the metal's so thin

and I'm welding so near the hole,
there's a big risk of making an even

bigger hole, causing even more
damage.

That's the very first crack welded
up,

that's actually gone really well.

I'm surprised how that's actually
taken it, it's really good.

I was fully expecting that to melt
into a much bigger hole

and cause a lot more work.

But let's hope they all go
as well as that!

So, the good news is I've got
Richard and Nick's seat

back in one piece, it's now
structurally sound, altogether.

All of the cracks and the bent
damage is all repaired,

it's back how it should be.

Problem is now I've got to tackle
the paint,

and that kind of goes for the rest
of the components that I've got here

and the actual body of the bike
as well.

It's a very fine balance between
keeping the original paint

and repairing what's necessary.

This grey paint is a primer.

I'm putting this on the bare metal
areas.

It gives a good base for the paint.

You can't really put the red paint
straight onto the bare metal.

This is all of the parts of Richard
Nick's bicycle

now hung up on my little washing
line here.

Everything's cleaned, prepped,
sanded down, primed.

It's now time to get a shiny bit of
red paint on them.

This is now my favourite part of the
restoration -

the cosmetics.

I'm in the process of trying to free
up the original chain.

It's been soaking now in a bath
of oil.

This is all the rust that I'm just
working out

from all of the little nooks and
crannies.

Because this is the original chain
and there's absolutely no reason

why this won't live again.

This is what the chain should look
like.

Nice and flexible,
all the links are nice and loose.

We're well on the way now to getting
the bike up and running again.

Despite over 50 years of natural
history conservation experience,

rebuilding the shattered ostrich egg
cigarette case

has been an arduous job for Simon.

But with the delicate shell now
intact,

his final task is disguising his
handiwork.

I've done some colour matching to
conceal the areas where there have

been fills, adhesives and so forth.

Now I'm just going to add a little
bit of texture

with some fine dark spots,
which would normally be

on the egg anyway,
and then it'll be ready for Trevor

to come and collect.

When owner Trevor brought this
unique piece that he inherited

from his grandad to the barn, an
accident had seen it smashed

into more than 40 pieces and it
appeared to be beyond repair.

The egg is one of my earliest
childhood memories

from when I was four or five years
old, visiting my grandfather.

I'm hoping against hope that Simon
has somehow managed

to cobble most of it together.

It just brings back, I suppose,
memories of my grandfather.

Happy ones!

Hello. Hello!
How are we doing?

Hello, nice to see you again!
Likewise.

Simon. Good afternoon, Trevor.
How are you? Good to see you.

Am I right to see that you're
smiling?

Is there good news for me?

It's always good news. Well...
Always good news. Absolutely.

Amazing! So, do you want to see it,
do you want to see your egg?

Yes, I do, please! Yeah?
Yes.

Oh, my goodness me!

Goodness me.

That's a work of art, isn't it?

And beyond that, you know!

That's incredible.

Extraordinary.

May I? Of course, it's yours!

It's fantastic!

HE CHUCKLES

It still works. That is quite
extraordinary, really.

Thank you very much.
Quite extraordinary. Amazing.

Amazing!

Well, it's going back in a velvet
case, don't worry!

THEY LAUGH

So, what are you going to do with it
now?

What are you going to do with
it?

I'm going to take it home very
carefully... OK.

..and then even more carefully,
put it behind a glass case

with some other precious things in.
OK.

And I'm never, ever going to leave
it on the edge of a sideboard again!

Right. Never!

I think if my grandfather was here,
he'd be as astonished as I am,

to be honest. That's wonderful!
Thank you very much.

He would be, yes, incredible.

So, Trevor, you ready to take this
home now? Yes, sir!

OK. Yes, I am.

There you go, sir. Thank you.

OK. Thank you.
Thank you. OK.

Simon, thank you so much. Pleasure!
Thank you.

Thank you. Take care now.
Bye. Bye-bye.

When I first saw the egg, the fact
that it was just in one piece

was extraordinary.

Just the workmanship that Simon had
put into the egg.

I can't believe how he managed to
repair it.

Grandpa would be astonished that it
could be fixed.

And, I think, pleased that I care
about it that much.

I think he would be pleased with
that.

Outside, Dom's restoration of the
bike,

gifted as a prize by comedy greats
Laurel and Hardy,

is almost finished.

I've got the original tyres here.

I'd originally given up hope with
them,

I was expecting to replace them.

But on second thoughts and giving
them a go,

spending a bit of time scrubbing
them up and giving them a clean

and soaking them in some hot water,
I'll be able to re-use them.

I'd always much rather keep all of
the original components,

as many as possible, on any
restoration project.

All that remains is for Dom to put
all the parts back together.

So, I need to make sure now that all
the mechanism, the chain

and the bearings and the grease -
everything goes together

as it should, so it's nice and safe
to ride.

Well, look at that.

That was completely seized up
before.

The front wheel's on, that was kind
of the easy bit.

The back end is going to be a little
bit more tricky,

mainly because, unlike a normal bike
where you can actually access

everything, all of the gubbins and
the bits that I need to get to

are inside here and my hands are too
big to fit in there!

I've got, basically, the cranks, the
chain reel, the chain.

I've got to get this wheel on
with the stabilisers,

and it's all, kind of like, lined up
in here.

Now I can drop this in without a
scratch on it.

Hopefully!

OK, that is all working as it
should.

And that's it, fantastic!

I'm so pleased, it's been such a fun
project, this one,

working on this.

I'm a bit sad to see it go, really.

But Richard and Nick are on the way,
so I better get it in the barn.

That looks brilliant!

Nick and his son Richard have put
their trust in Dom,

to ensure their very special bike
will see many more years of use.

We're hoping that the bike will be
restored to almost

its original condition, so that my
grandson and his son can use it.

Really excited to see it again.

Just because we've not seen it
working for a long time now,

so it's always looked a bit sad
in the shed.

So it'd be nice to see it back in
its former glory again!

Hello. Hi. Dom!

Good to see you again. And you.
You OK? Hi, Dom, you all right?

Hey, lovely to see you. You OK?
Very well, thank you.

Are you excited? Yep.
How are you feeling? Nervous!

Nervous? Nervous! Just not knowing
what you've done with it.

What we've done...
How do you remember it?

Rusty! Yeah.

Rusty and squeaky, looking old!

And unloved.

A piece of scrap metal!

Aw!

Are you ready to see it?
Yeah. I can't wait! Yeah?

Can't wait!

Ooh! Brilliant!

Oh, that's good!

Oh, yes! It actually works now,
yeah.

HE LAUGHS

That's superb, that is!

Oh, that's brilliant, well done!
Yeah, you're happy?

Yeah! Yeah. Good, thank you.

Is it more how you remember it,
from your childhood?

Yeah, definitely. I love it as well
because it doesn't look brand-new.

It was the best bike in the shed,
so it was always a fight,

the first one to get it.

I want to see Benjamin on it, as
well. I think it'll be...

..to really bring it back.

Most importantly, it's now safe for
Benjamin to ride, so...

Oh, yes, he'll love that!

Oh, I'm glad, I'm glad you like it.
That's brilliant.

It's been good fun working on it.
That'll last for years now.

Years and years.

That's brilliant! As long as
Benjamin looks after it!

Well, that's it. Yeah.
He's got pressure now!

THEY LAUGH

Thank you very much for bringing
it in,

and I really hope you enjoy it and
little Benjamin

gets a good few miles on it.
Well, thank you ever so much.

That's great. Thank you. Cheers.

Thank you very much. Lovely to see
you. Cheers, thank you.

Yeah, I'm highly delighted that it's
been saved and it can carry on

for a few more generations.

Can't believe how we're reunited
with the Laurel and Hardy bike,

how good it looks.

My expectations were high, but
that's blown me away

because it looks exactly like I
remember it now,

from when we had it as children.

Join us again, as exquisite
craftsmanship...

This is like a
hot knife through butter!

..secures a future for family
treasure...

I don't want to touch it!

Oh, wow!

..in The Repair Shop.