Watch An Abandoned Ural Become A Stunning Sidecar Beauty

Rescue Story is, apparently, a young dude from Russia with an eye for junk and some serious wrenching skills. He finds old Soviet iron in hedges, under deadfalls, and behind old, collapsed garages, pulls it out, and resurrects it. In other words, he’s basically a wizard. 

So, what’s the Magus of Moscow, the Sorcerer of St. Petersburg, working on this time? Only the Russianest Russian bike to ever Russia—that’s right, a Ural! In this installment, he digs an abandoned Ural out of an old barn and polishes it until it shines. He leaves no stone unturned, and no fastener untouched. Let’s have a look, shall we? 

Behold, an elderly Ural! How old is the bike in question? That’s not clear, but what we do know is that it needs some serious help. It’s not totally awful, but it’s clearly been sitting outside for some time. There’s plenty of dirt, surface rust, and exposure to the elements to contend with.  

Did any small animals make a home inside? Opening up the airbox yields what looks like a bird’s nest—but it’s a man-made one, and not any type of avian architecture. Some Urals used to make use of filters that looked like birds’ nests, which required oiling to trap particulates—and later in the video, the guys restoring this bike do just that. (I wasn’t familiar with these prior to watching this video, so it’s a new thing I’ve learned and now maybe you have, too.) 

In any case, because the bodywork rust appears to all be of the surface variety, once it’s all ground away, the actual bike underneath looks surprisingly solid. For whatever it’s been through, this Ural has stood up admirably well to the life it’s led so far. After plenty of prep, they prime it (we’d imagine some kind of rustproof primer, perhaps, although that’s not clear), smooth filler over the rough patches, grind it down, more primer, and then apply an absolutely gorgeous coppery-gold candy flake paint. It’s dark, shiny, and gorgeous when they’re done. 

The engine comes next, and while it seems pretty mechanically sound, it needs a good going over. So, they take it completely apart, and discover there’s a whole lot of carbon on those pistons. Nothing awful; it was just clearly a bike that was ridden. After a thorough disassembly, examination, and cleaning, it’s time to put it all back together. New gaskets, seals, rubber bits, grease (or other lubricants) as needed, new spark plugs, and all the best practices for restoring any bike back to good health are on display here. It’s time lapse workshop ASMR at its finest—but there’s one more piece of the puzzle to go. 

The sidecar is in a bit rougher shape than the bodywork on the bike itself, so it takes a little more prep work to get ready for paint. Still, no worries, the Rescue Story YouTube channel folks get the job done. After careful preparation, it ends up a matching, glorious copper-gold to suit the bike. They also take the time to cut out new interior cards and tack some type of leatherette interior material around them, in order to tidy up the interior. A seat from a car replaces the old sidecar chair, and of course a new floormat is fitted for the passenger to use.  

Finally, the sidecar is lowered into place and bolted back onto the frame at the side of the bike. The completed creation sounds great on its test ride, and looks like the timeless classic it was always meant to be. It’s a heartwarming tale, and we hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have.