AMERICAN FORK — Gary DeVincent is Utah County's ultimate grease monkey.
Motor oil flows in his veins. His heart beats to the aggressive roar of a Harley Davidson.
Motorists driving by his place at 658 E. 80 North can't help but step on the brakes and do a double take. Sunlight gleams off the 1940s-era gas pumps in a reproduction of a classic Sinclair gas station.
"People always come by, they're usually people who are older," DeVincent said, kicking back on a chrome Harley Davidson bar stool. "It's just that split second in time that they're not thinking and it takes them back in time and they go, 'oh, wow.' Some pull up and say 'can you check my oil, my tire pressure?' and I have to tell them sorry, this is not a functioning gas station."
What looks like a classic 1940s gas station is actually DeVincent's workshop, where he takes rusty, time-weathered motorcycles and breathes new life into them. It is a wrencher's ultimate playground.
Ever since he was 16, growing up in Bridgeport, Conn., DeVincent said has been in love with the classic Harley Davidson. It was his father's passion, which rubbed off on him. Its sleek style and classic design harkens back to the times of bad boys in white cotton tees and black leather jackets, of James Dean and rebels without a cause.
How he came to settle in American Fork, Utah, was also a tale inspired by the legends of drifting bikers. "My brother was going to BYU and I was living back east. I was just kind of criss-crossing the country on my bike, you know, kind of exploring life. I was in California and I was going back to Connecticut, and on my way back I stopped here to visit my brother and I met this girl," DeVincent says with a smirk. "The rest is kind of history."
He points out he is no longer with the girl, but he decided to stay put.
Due to some key real estate deals, DeVincent said he has plenty of free time to do what he loves. Mainly, he hangs out working on bikes. Occasionally, someone will drift in, head up, spinning around in wonder. "This is so cool," said one curious person who spotted the place and stopped.
"I meet a lot of people this way," DeVincent said, adding he doesn't mind making a new friend and talking about his "hobby."
But this big boy's toy wonderland didn't happen overnight. DeVincent said it took seven years of tracking down each antique sign, light, pump and part to create his vision.
Each antique gas pump was once a rusty shell. Each sign for Coca-Cola, Sky Chief gasoline, Good Year tires or Quaker State oil, was sought after, bartered for and hunted down. Some of the signs he shelled out over $1,000 for. Most of the stuff he finds stashed behind old barns and ranch houses.
"Just beat up, hammered, that's how it comes in. Just shot up and bullet-riddled," he said. Using his experience doing auto paint, pretty soon it all came together. All the signs look like new.
Although DeVincent admits he makes the occasional profit from selling a restored Harley, he says it's not a business for him.
"More people come up to me and say 'why don't you establish a real business and make some real money?' I mean I've done it before, a few years back, and it just kills every ounce of fun."
DeVincent said he doesn't mind helping someone track down a sought-after spare part or giving out some wrenching advice — just don't ask him for an oil change.
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com