If you’ve watched American Chopper then you know how hostile of a working environment Vinnie DiMartino had to walk into pretty much every day since Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. were at each others throats pretty constantly. For Vinnie it was less of a workplace than a war zone with limited upward mobility as Meg Bucholtz of Looper points out. In this kind of working condition it’s usually to find a way to stay out of the way as much as possible or just get out when you can. While Vinnie likely tried the first option a few different times he finally opted for the second before American Chopper went off the air. You can’t really blame the guy since the father and son duo in the shop made for a very uncomfortable working environment and to viewers it was kind of evident that it wasn’t all just for show since the father and son were at each other without cease at times and got their work done in those rare moments when it seemed that they weren’t trying to have a go at one another.
For a while it sounds as though Vinnie opened up his own business and was selling his own designs and customizing motorcycles for a living, but when things went sour and the demand for customized motorcycles hit a serious low he had to diversify in a big way and went on to start working on cars as a regular job. He still managed to maintain his interest in customizing bikes as a hobby, but it wasn’t bound to keep paying as well. Since his time on American Chopper he’s been happy to stay away from the camera for the most part, but he does host his own YouTube channel where he discusses any car concerns that people might have. He even brings on Paul Jr. from time to time since the two remain good friends and he enjoys maintaining the relationship. But when it comes to TV it doesn’t sound as though Vinnie misses it all that much, and with the place he used to work one can’t really say that it’s surprising. In a job where the owner and his son are fighting constantly there’s not a lot of opportunity to do much more than keep your head down and do your job. The problem with working for family, quite often, is that no one else knows how to rattle a person worse than a family member or push them in ways that causes the other person to explode. The problem with this, especially when there are other employees around, is that it’s a poor way to run a business to start with, but it shows an utter lack of respect for the other employees given that should they bother to say something they’re likely going to be called out for trying to stick their nose in family business. Thankfully Vinnie didn’t bother making that mistake too often and was content just to do his job, away from the camera.
While working on cars isn’t always the most glamorous of jobs it does keep money in his pocket and put food on the table, and it’s closer to what he enjoys than a lot of other things so it’s not possible to really fault him for doing what he likes and trying to share his enjoyment of it with other people in an effort to help them out. One thing is pretty clear though, he isn’t going to be back at American Chopper anytime soon if the show keeps going, as Paul Jr. already gave him the invite and Vinnie turned him down. Some people might say that it’s kind of a foolish thing to do but when you really look at it from all angles there’s a good number of reasons to stay away and only a couple to go back, and those aren’t enough for Vinnie to say yes to. One thing about the guy, he knows what he wants and what he doesn’t want, and any added stress is something that any person would be wise to stay away from since all it does is speed up the aging process faster at times, or at least that’s how it feels some days. The mere fact that he said no to the show is enough to think that whatever is scripted on the program is only a small portion of what really goes on. Reality shows might suffer from the stigma of being faked a lot of times, but it would still be interesting to the get the point of view of the workers on a regular basis since they’ve likely got a lot of stories they could tell. For his own part though Vinnie is done telling tales as he barely even speaks of the show on his YouTube channel, preferring to talk about cars and the many fixable issues they come with.
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