Written by Joel on January 6, 2014/Park Tool News
American Restoration Episode Features Park Tool
Park Tool President Eric Hawkins made a guest appearance on The History Channel’s reality TV-show American Restoration. The episode premiered January 28th.
Park Tool, the world’s largest bicycle tool manufacturer, commissioned Rick Dale and the crew from Rick’s Restoration in Las Vegas to restore an old vending machine and create a Park Tool 50th anniversary show piece. The first part of the show was filmed in the Park Tool booth and Mandalay Bay parking at Interbike in September. When the restoration was complete, Hawkins flew back to Vegas for the reveal of his new, revitalized Park Tool vending machine. American Restoration shipped the piece to Park Tool headquarters in Minnesota just prior to airing the episode.
“Rick loved the idea of restoring an old vending machine to dispense our products. He loved the Park Tool story and was excited to build something for an American manufacturer.” Said Hawkins. The machine itself features the original Park Tool logo from 1963 and the 50th Anniversary logo from 2013. Originally built by National Vendors in the early ’60s, the former cigarette machine is now fully functional, dispensing ten different Park Tool products. “They did a great job of creating a beautiful piece we’re proud to display in our lobby. It’s perfect… and I love the color!” he said, referring to the iconic Park Tool Blue paint. “It was a great experience, lots of fun to do. Plus, it turns out that Rick is a big fan of old bikes and blue tools.”
