How American Pickers Tracked Down Jack White's Missing, One-Of-A-Kind Trailer
Mike Wolfe of "American Pickers" has a long-established relationship with musician and Third Man Records owner Jack White, having sold White a taxidermy elephant's head back in 2012. So when White called Danielle Colby to invite the team for another visit, Wolfe and Colby eagerly headed to the Third Row record pressing plant in Detroit to meet with White and sound engineer Bill Skibbe.
During the visit, which was shown in Season 24, episode 2 of "American Pickers," White and Skibbe gave Wolfe and Colby a tour of the facility before showing the pair his newly purchased mobile recording studio. The studio is housed inside a 1969 Chevrolet P30 box truck and was used to record classic 70s albums by Bob Seger, KISS, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Sid Vicious, as well as President Jimmy Carter's inaugural address in 1977.
White told Wolfe and Colby how he hunted the truck down in Florida and told them he planned to restore it to its former glory and full functionality before showing them the truck's original brochure. The brochure also showed its matching trailer, which had a lounge, generator, and storage. White then asked Wolfe to help him find the original trailer. "It may not exist anymore," White said, "But we gotta say we looked." His infectious curiosity immediately hooked Wolfe and Colby into joining the hunt for the missing trailer.
The trailer was tough to find
They didn't have much to go on aside from the brochure Jack White found in the truck, but Danielle Colby jumped on the phone and was able to trace down the owner — Jamie Ambrose — from a 2005 receipt that Bill Skibbe found in the truck.
Mike Wolfe's brother, Rob, headed to her home in Florida, accompanied by helper Diamond Dave, and the two found the trailer there. The trailer sported four flat tires and was covered in dingy white paint instead of the bright red-and-yellow-trimmed design shown on the brochure. The first indication that they found their target was the letters "QP," for "Quiet Please," painted on the door.
Ambrose, who purchased it as a cargo trailer and did not know its history, asked $5,000 for it, but Rob and Dave were able to talk her down to $4,000. Considering that all the tires were flat and that the trailer no longer had its full structural integrity, they decided to put it on a flatbed and tow it back to Detroit. White was suitably impressed by the find and couldn't hide his excitement. "I can't wait for us to bring this back to life and have that first band record through it and see what they do with it," he said. "Every piece of this has come together just like a puzzle, just like a story," Colby remarks. "It was meant to be here with you."