The tank was one of the cars in an amusement park ride for kids that went round and round and is most likely from the 1950’s. It sat five children and they all had their own noise making crank machine guns. Safe to say in this politically correct world of today they are not making many kiddie tank amusement rides with guns. One amazing thing about this piece was when we went to restore it we found it 100% complete. None of the chrome accents or trim pieces or even the name tag were missing which was surprising considering all the years of use and that there is so much of it.

We changed the paint scheme when we restored it but it was a pretty straightforward restoration. Take apart, sandblast, bodywork, clean or send out accent pieces for chrome, recover the seats, paint and then put it back together.

The real time consuming part was hand painting all of the camouflage after the base color of paint was laid down but I think all that time was worth it. Hope you like it.

View the video of this restored Patton Tank Kiddie Ride

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.

“Ride the Champion” — Kiddie Horse Ride

Children’s coin-operated rides first appeared on the scene in the late 1940’s. At that time, cowboys were all the rage, and the most famous of all was Gene Autry. For every child aspiring to be a cowboy, there was the coin-operated ride named after Autry’s horse, “Champion”. We restored this 1950’s “Ride the Champion” Kiddie Ride here at Vintage Vending. It was working when we got it. It was stripped and repainted. The base was powder-coated and the horse was airbrushed and then clear-coated. The sign was fabricated metal that was meticulously hand painted. We no longer own this whimsical piece, but we’re sure kids still get a great deal of enjoyment from it.

These very popular rides for kids are still being manufactured and used today.

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby. To view more pictures of the completed restoration visit the RetroPlanet.com Museum.