History channel’s Secret Restoration casts include six expert restorers Dave Weinman, Leah Bolden, PJ Burchett, David Dall, Sara Porter, and Alfred James Dill.
Secret Restoration is a reality show broadcasted by the History Channel. The show includes six casts, highly talented and highly skilled experts who will work with due diligence to restore old, priceless objects possessed by people as a memory from their families and convert them into objects of ultimate value. The gist of the show is to keep the restoration work a secret from the actual owner and only unveil the completed work as a surprise.
The first episode of the opening season premiered on 9 November 2022. Over the course of four episodes, the experts have restored various items, such as a Minibike from the 1980s, a canon from the 1800s, a beat-up boardwalk fortune teller, and a broken Jukebox.
Meet the highly talented cast of the show who will give their all to restore any rusted and old object with sentimental value to its former glory.
Secret Restoration Cast
Secret Restoration 2022 cast includes the experts Dave Weinman, Leah Bolden, PJ Burchett, and more.
Dave Weinman
Dave Weinman is a fireman and expert metal restorer. The restoring expert discovered his talent while he was working on an old fire helmet of his friend. The end product excited him, and he started honing his newfound craftsmanship.
Talent backed by passion and dedication, the master restorer has been in the business for more than a decade now. He is a master in restoring old tools, machinery, weaponry, and various gadgets. He specializes in restoring antique metal objects lost in the tide of time.
Not merely the object, he also restores the glory of the item. A fireman obsessed with firepower, Weinman is seen wielding antique cannons in his Instagram posts. He has his own YouTube channel named Parts and Restoration with 38.1K subscribers, where he uploads videos of him restoring old rusted junk items to their former glory.
Leah Bolden
Leah Bolden brings two decades-long expertise in the restoration and repair department. Woodworking and tool restorations are her forte. She is from Renton, Washington, US.
Bolden has a rich experience as a contractor. She has 25 years of field experience in the construction industry. She is also a teacher who is dedicated to sharing her knowledge of construction trades with a lay audience and making those skills accessible to all.
She is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of See Jane Grill, an online resource center. The center was founded in May 2013 in Renton, Washington. Prior to this, Bolden served as the Pre-Apprenticeship Trades Instructor at Apprenticeship and Non-Traditional Employment for Women (ANEW) for almost three years.
The center offers online video tutorials on self-involved household repairs. These free available videos offer instructions and ‘how-to-do’ guides in carpentry, finishing trades, and electrical works that are equally helpful for experienced and beginners alike interested in construction and repairing.
PJ Burchett
PJ Burchett is an expert automotive known for his unique talent for customizing cars. He brings a creative flair to machinery items, from arcade game machines to animatronics.
He has his own shop, B Rod or Customs, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He runs the shop with his dad Larry Burchett. People bring in old cars, which they beat up and turn into classics beyond the people’s wildest imaginations. Dubbed ‘the magician with a spray gun,’ he always tries to create something out of the box.
In 2020, he was awarded the title of International Class Champion by International Show Cars Association (ISCA). On 6 April, Burchett announced that General Motors provided the license to B Rod or Customs to make corvette replacement bodies.
David Dall
David Dall is a master wood craftsman, custom home builder, and expert in working with machinery and antique items. He specializes in restoring things of all sorts with historical values. May that be boats, auto parts, or machines operating with coins.
His father, a World War II veteran, taught him that items could be reused for various purposes if done skillfully. He carries the knowledge imparted by his father and the skills he acquired through hard work and dedication.
Dall is from Old Greenwich, Connecticut. He works at Clarke Buildres Inc in Old Greenwich. It is a family-owned business that has been offering custom home buildings for more than thirty-five years.
The service provided by the firm is primarily custom home building. Customers looking to expand the space by demolishing rooms or part of the buildings are the targeted customers of the firm. They offer unique solutions to their customers and try to repurpose and reinvent the elements that would otherwise be demolished completely to get rid of.
Dall has created his own collection of furniture that is one-of-a-kind. Commercial products don’t intimidate Dall because they are factory-made and have no story or historical value. Dall is a master custom builder. His goal is to try and incorporate old architectural items and designs into contemporary building projects. He believes this fusion instills life in concrete structures.
Dall was involved in making “Flea Market Flips,” broadcasted by HGTV for the first time in 2012. Dall said to The Local Vault that he helped Lara, the hostess of the show’s first season, to repurpose and reinvent some of her personal belongings at one point. They explored the estate sales and flea markets together, fixed a few things, and sold them afterward. Then and there, Lara hatched an idea for a show where teams would compete to transform junk items into valuable objects. They would then find the market for those items. And the team with the most profit would win. The famous show has completed thirteen seasons.
Sara Porter
Sara Porter is a favorite when it comes to antique pieces, given her vast knowledge of ancient artworks and antiquities. Over two decades of her professional life as a master restorer, she has been adamant about using traditional and reversible materials and techniques.
Sara Porter is a go-to name for museums, galleries, antique dealers, interior decorators, and private collectors looking to add value to their collections. She has a unique talent that she is famous for – perfection in matching the color to antique pieces and effectively every level of English and Asian fine art. that date back as far as 200 BC.
Sara has a work experience of twenty-five years with expertise in lacquer, japanning, leather and paper screens, painted finishes, eglomise, water and oil-size gilding, and color matching.
Sara is the founder of S. Porter Restoration & Conservation LLC, one of the industry’s most unique and acclaimed art and antique repair studios. She launched the company to focus on rare international art and furnishings with one-of-a-kind restoration and conservation challenges. S. Porter Restoration & Conservation LLC provides its service in the New York City area, Connecticut, and the Hudson Valle, with an experienced on-site team available for location projects.
Alfred James Dill
Alfred James Dill is a master tinker who started restoring antique items as a teenager. He loves to convert any old and discarded item with a mechanism into fully functioning equipment.
Dill finds solace in foraging the flea market and browsing through items with the potential to be revived, waiting for a pair of able hands to rescue them.
Dill has excellent taste in music. He can sing and loves to play guitar. Dill was a band member of CHANCES which he formed with Lin Thor, Mark Gazitano, and Joe Lee in 1994. He has a Facebook account with the name Alfred James Dill where he shares his musical talent, passionate restorations, and funny faces.
Secret Restoration Was Filmed In Connecticut
The filming location of History Channel’s Secret Restoration is based in Connecticut, USA.
The Secret Restoration factory is located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, while the rest of the filming is done in different cities of Stamford and Southington, claims a report by Distractify.
The first episode of the opening season premiered on 9 November 2022. The group of six expert restorers hails from different parts of the country. They are the ones who are on top of their games, all ready to work miracles out of misery.