VIDEO/PHOTO SLIDESHOW: Resident makes old things good as new

Tom Viktora has built his life around restoring old objects to make them good as new.

Viktora, 53, of Berwyn, owns a business refurbishing old stereo equipment, and as a hobby, does the same with old bikes. Viktora said his stereo business, which he runs out of his home in south Berwyn, gave him the occasion to spend a lot of time at estate sales picking up old pieces of equipment. He began to see an opportunity to put his hobby to work on bikes in similar levels of disrepair.

“I started running into a lot of bikes at these estate sales and I decided it would be nice to spend some time outside and work on them,” Viktora said. “It’s part trying to live green, and part trying to recycle more, but mostly I’m trying to bring more transportation options for kids in the (Chicago area).”

A Berwyn native, Viktora returned to the city about six years ago after spending a decade in south Florida and beginning his 16-year-old business, Upscale Audio Exchange.

Before moving to Florida, Viktora learned the ins and outs of stereo equipment at Saturday Audio Exchange in Chicago, a business that, much like his own, specialized in selling audio equipment and music. He said he mastered bikes in his free time.

“As a child, I used to take bikes apart, and as an adult, I learned how to put them back together,” Viktora said. “But I don’t call it restoration. I call it making them right, fixing their karma or giving them a new home.”

Most of the bikes and stereo equipment that Viktora restores date back to the 1950s or 1960s. Viktora said the quality of both bikes and stereo equipment made today can’t rival the items that were produced back then.

“Old speakers are better and more forgiving when you try to get volume out of them because they were made to play loud,” Viktora said.

Viktora said while he has the ability to stock and sell new items, he chooses not to, because of the higher quality, value and rarity of vintage products — both stereo and bikes. He said he frequents estate sales to buy the bikes and stereo equipment, and then invests time into bringing new life to parts already produced.

“I’ll buy four parts and see if I can salvage any of it, and make one less thing for the landfill,” Viktora said. “The trick is to find the crap and get rid of that, and work with the good stuff that you want to work with because it sounds good. My favorite stuff is the stuff that doesn’t cost a lot of money, but is the best (quality) to get.”

Polly Peters has been running estate sales in the near western suburbs for more than 30 years, and says that Viktora’s face has become a familiar one at the sales over the years.

“He does a phenomenal job and unbelievable amount of work to make them like brand new, or better,” Peters said. “Sometimes he’ll improvise on the bikes and put new handles or a seat on, and make it better and different than it was before. He’s very creative.”

Peters, a Western Springs resident, has become a regular customer of Viktora’s as well, having purchased a VCR, several TVs and a bicycle for her granddaughter from him.

“That’s the kind of stuff I don’t know anything about,” Peters said. “But he knows the good stuff and what he’s looking for. He’s a very generous man with his time and efforts, and has a little niche doing what he does.”

Want to know more?

Contact Tom Viktora at (708) 484-2694.