For years, viewers have turned to this hit
reality series for their fix of sweet bikes and family fights. But if you lost track of the American Chopper
stars during their long hiatus, don't worry. We've got you covered with this look at everything
they've been up to. Just a day before the American Chopper reboot
premiered in March 2018, Paul Sr. filed for bankruptcy. According to paperwork obtained by Page Six,
Teutul admitted to owing nearly 50 creditors a total of more than $1 million, against a
net worth of around $1.8 million. Teutul also claimed a monthly income of $15,000
and expenditures of just over $12,600 not enough to pay off his crushing debts. "My goal was to build maybe 5, 10 bikes a
year. More for the hobby and passion than for making
money" But the story wasn't over. In April 2019, the trustee in charge of Teutul's
case asked the court to dismiss the bankruptcy petition. According to that filing, Teutul didn't provide
the trustee with a copy of a federal income tax return or transcript for 2017 and 2018,
and more proof that his financial situation, quote, "indicates a negative cash flow." Four months before he filed for bankruptcy
and the whole world suddenly knew about his daunting financial problems, Paul Sr. put
his enormous Montgomery, New York estate on the market for $2.9 million. Teutul then cut the price to $2.49 million. And by early 2019, it was down to just $1.65
million. The trustee in charge of his bankruptcy case
said Teutul seemed sure that selling his home would solve all his money woes, but it doesn't
seem to have worked out that way. At least, not yet. All those fights between Senior and Junior
were apparently real. Tensions ran so high at Orange County Choppers
that in 2008, Paul Sr. fired Jr. from the shop, even though he co-owned it. Junior later told Fox News that his dad giving
him the axe was what he called "a big favor" because it set him on the path to starting
his own business. Paul Jr. Designs opened in 2010. "The beauty of it is, you can get a history
lesson, and you can see all these bikes you've watched us build on the show for all these
years" Paul Sr. then tried to legally force Jr. to
sell him his 20 percent share of their company. But it turned out that getting rid of Junior
represented a breach of contract with the Discovery Channel, and could have led to the
show's cancellation. This all led the network to launch the spinoff,
American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior. After that series wrapped in 2012, Jr. went
back to Paul Jr. Designs, and in 2015 celebrated the birth
of his first child a son named Hudson. American Chopper fans came for the bikes but
stayed for the fights. But fabricator and mechanic Vinnie DiMartino
tried to keep his head down and get to work. In 2007, he left the Chopper franchise, and
founded his own shop, VForceCustoms. He wrote on the company's now defunct site, "I had gone as far as I could there. I really didn't have any chance for advancement,
and I had always wanted to have my own shop, so the natural progression was to leave and
start my own place." "Everybody thinks I'm a die hard biker, I'm
really not" In 2013, DiMartino abandoned bikes for cars
and opened DiMartino Motorsports, a car and truck repair company in Walden, New York. Rick Petko seemed like an even-keeled guy
on American Chopper. Even when the two Teutuls split up to run
separate shops, Petko stayed on with Senior but stayed amiable with Junior. Both Teutuls attended his wedding in 2012. And by the end of 2015, Petko was a dad to
two girls. He was still working at Orange County Choppers
by then, but, tired of his 90-minute commute each way from his home in Pennsylvania to
the shop in New York, he took a job as the chief fabricator at the Pocono Mountain Harley-Davidson
complex in Pennsylvania, roughly a mile from his house. "To run these bikes that are a hundred years
old, even though you're redoing them, you're adding history to them…it's something cool
about it" When he's not working with metal, Petko…
still works with metal. He runs a small knife-forging company out
of his home called RPD & Co. Paul Sr. and Jr. frequently disagreed, but
fortunately, there was a third member of the Teutul family around to maintain the peace:
Mikey Teutul. But he walked away from the Chopper franchise
in 2012, saying, "[I want to] seek some peace of mind and work
on my relationship with my dad." "Ready on set" He later came back to work, but Teutul used
part of his time off to open an art gallery in Montgomery, New York, which featured his
paintings. It closed in 2014, but Teutul pursued another
artistic project: a web series. "Folks, this is Bob the Bum again talking
to you right here on Bum Television" Launched in 2016, Bummin' Around aims to shine
a light on New York City's homeless problem. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
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