Restoration Facts

The Statue of Liberty's torch arm sits 18 inches from where it was designed to be. Before her 100th birthday, engineers found it swaying in strong winds, with a spike of her crown threatening to pierce it. Crews turned the spike away and swapped almost every iron bar holding her copper skin while she stood. They never moved the arm, or her head, which still sits 2 feet off-center.

A former Marine pilot in Peru, Indiana, bought a Vietnam-era Army Huey on eBay. The listing said it was not flyable. It was trailered 1,300 miles home from Maine, volunteers rebuilt it, and in 2007 it flew again. The nonprofit he and his brother started now flies three Hueys and has given more than 23,000 rides. The crew says a veteran is reunited with a Huey at every event.

Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 is the largest steam locomotive running anywhere on Earth: 1.2 million pounds, 133 feet long. Only 8 of the 25 ever built survive, and only this one still runs. For 51 years it just sat as a park exhibit in Pomona, California. Union Pacific rebuilt it and put it back on the rails. This summer it crossed 14 states and 7,145 miles for America's 250th birthday. It is still running.

Jay Leno hosted The Tonight Show for 22 years, from 1992 to 2014. Now, at 76, he tears down cars from his own collection in a Burbank shop. He puts them back together with his crew. The collection holds around 212 cars and 186 motorcycles. He posts the work on YouTube every Monday, and almost 4 million people watch. He still drives every car himself.

A World War II bomber named Doc sat in the Mojave for 42 years as a Navy target. An Air Force veteran spent more than eleven of those years talking the Navy into letting it go. It went home to Wichita, where 1,644 B-29s were built, and retirees from those lines helped rebuild it. Doc is one of two B-29s still flying, and it lands at airports every year so people can climb inside.