Biography & Early Wealth Journey
DiMartino joined Orange County Choppers in 2002, shortly before "American Chopper" became a television phenomenon. He spent five years helping fabricate and assemble many of OCC's elaborate theme bikes before leaving in 2007 to launch V-Force Customs with fellow OCC builder Cody Connelly.
He later reunited professionally with longtime friend Paul Teutul Jr. at Paul Jr. Designs and appeared on "American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior." As the custom-motorcycle boom cooled, DiMartino shifted away from building expensive show bikes and returned to his first professional passion: repairing cars and trucks. He now owns DiMartino Motorsports, a full-service automotive, truck, and fleet repair business in Walden, New York.
Early Life
Vincent DiMartino was born on October 9, 1972, in New York's Hudson Valley. He is the second of four children born to John and Margaret DiMartino.
Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts
Mechanical work was part of his life almost from the beginning. His father owned a gas station and automobile repair shop, and Vinnie began spending time there as a child. He has said he rebuilt his first motorcycle engine when he was nine years old and learned early that if he wanted to own cars, motorcycles, and other machines, he needed to know how to repair them himself.
DiMartino worked at his father's repair shop from roughly age nine through his mid-teens. His teenage years increasingly revolved around modifying and racing cars, and by about 15 he was performing high-performance work on his own vehicles and those belonging to friends.
He subsequently spent several years working in another family business, his father's golf course. After deciding he needed to establish a career away from the family operation, DiMartino tried an eclectic collection of jobs that included automobile repair, well drilling, truck driving, and custom automotive audio and video installation.
Friendship With Paul Teutul Jr.
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Real Estate, Luxury Assets & Personal Investments
DiMartino's connection to Orange County Choppers actually began long before reality television.
He and Paul Teutul Jr. knew each other as children and attended school together. Their families were also connected through the local automotive and repair community, with Vinnie's father knowing Paul Teutul Sr.
By 2002, Orange County Choppers needed another skilled mechanic and fabricator. Vinnie's father told him about the opening, and Vinnie contacted Paul Jr.
Within weeks, DiMartino was working at OCC.
Wealth Trajectory & Future Earnings Projections
The timing proved extraordinary. Discovery had already begun taking an interest in the Teutuls' custom-motorcycle shop, and shortly after Vinnie arrived, he learned that his new workplace was about to become the subject of a reality television series.
Orange County Choppers
At OCC, DiMartino became one of the shop's most versatile mechanics.
His responsibilities included mechanical assembly, wiring, engine installation, troubleshooting, fabrication, and helping turn Paul Jr.'s often ambitious designs into functioning motorcycles. Although other builders specialized heavily in areas such as sheet-metal fabrication or machining, Vinnie was particularly valuable because of his broad mechanical background.
He worked alongside Paul Jr., Rick Petko, Cody Connelly, Christian Welter, and other builders as OCC moved from a relatively small custom shop into one of the most recognizable motorcycle companies in America.
DiMartino's personality also fit the television show in a way nobody could have anticipated. He was usually calmer than the Teutuls and tended to focus on getting the motorcycle finished rather than participating in the shop's constant arguments.
That made him an effective counterweight to Paul Sr. and Junior.
"American Chopper"
"American Chopper" became a regular Discovery Channel series in 2003 and quickly turned the OCC crew into celebrities.
While the show's central drama revolved around Paul Sr. and Paul Jr., viewers also became familiar with the builders responsible for actually completing the motorcycles. DiMartino emerged as one of the show's most popular supporting personalities because he generally appeared competent, practical, and relatively uninterested in creating drama for the cameras.
He participated in numerous corporate and themed motorcycles during the height of OCC's popularity. The show followed the crew through complicated fabrication challenges, impossible deadlines, trade shows, promotional appearances, and the increasingly elaborate expectations of corporate clients.
DiMartino remained with OCC until 2007, appearing during some of the most successful years of the original series.
Leaving OCC
Vinnie's departure from Orange County Choppers generated considerable speculation because viewers had watched him become an important part of the shop.
The actual explanation was much less dramatic than many rumors suggested. DiMartino has said he felt he had progressed as far as he could within OCC and had always wanted to own his own shop. With limited opportunity to advance, he decided it was time to leave and build something for himself.
His departure was shown on "American Chopper." Paul Sr.'s edited response included the memorable remark that "everyone's replaceable," although both OCC and DiMartino later indicated that the television version did not capture the entirety of the conversation.
Vinnie left OCC in August 2007 after roughly five years with the company.
V-Force Customs
After leaving OCC, DiMartino opened V-Force Customs in Rock Tavern, New York.
Several months later, Cody Connelly also left Orange County Choppers and joined him. Together, they attempted to build the kind of independent custom-motorcycle operation that Vinnie had wanted for years.
V-Force's first major motorcycle was known as V-Force 1 and was unveiled at Daytona Bike Week. The company subsequently created bikes for corporate and promotional clients, including a custom motorcycle for the Tampa Bay Storm arena football team.
V-Force opened a dedicated facility containing the machinery needed to fabricate highly customized motorcycles. For a period, the company gave DiMartino the combination he had been seeking: creative independence, ownership, and the ability to continue building high-end bikes without answering to OCC.
The business also appeared on the 2010 television series "Throttle Junkies TV," which followed multiple custom motorcycle operations.
Paul Jr. Designs
Despite leaving OCC, DiMartino remained close with Paul Jr.
When Junior launched Paul Jr. Designs after his own split from Orange County Choppers, he eventually asked Vinnie to work with him again. DiMartino agreed while continuing to operate V-Force Customs.
Their reunion became part of "American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior," which premiered in 2010 and followed the competing businesses of Paul Sr. and Paul Jr.
For longtime viewers, seeing Paul Jr. and Vinnie working together again recreated one of the strongest combinations from the original OCC shop. Vinnie brought the mechanical experience and troubleshooting skills needed to execute Junior's increasingly elaborate designs.
He continued appearing with Paul Jr. through the "Senior vs. Junior" period while maintaining his own company.
Changing the Business
The custom-motorcycle industry changed significantly after the boom years that coincided with "American Chopper."
Building one-off show bikes required an expensive facility, specialized machinery, skilled labor, and clients willing to spend substantial amounts on motorcycles that were often as much promotional objects as transportation.
By the early 2010s, DiMartino concluded that the economics no longer made sense for his business. V-Force sold expensive equipment, including CNC machinery and a water jet, and gradually moved away from producing custom choppers.
Rather than trying to preserve the television-era business indefinitely, Vinnie returned to the kind of work he had been doing since childhood.
DiMartino Motorsports
In 2013, Vinnie changed the company's name to DiMartino Motorsports and refocused the operation on automotive repair.
The business now operates as DiMartino Motorsports Automotive and Truck Repair in Walden, New York. Vinnie runs the shop with Jarrod Shorette, and its primary work involves maintenance and repair for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, medium-duty trucks, and commercial fleet vehicles.
DiMartino's experience is unusually broad for a repair-shop owner. In addition to decades of automotive work, he has extensive experience in motorcycles, electrical troubleshooting, fabrication, CNC machinery, and custom vehicle construction.
The transition effectively brought his career full circle. Long before Discovery cameras or $100,000 custom motorcycles entered his life, DiMartino had learned the trade by fixing vehicles in his father's shop.
DiMartino Industries
In 2022, Vinnie and his cousin Joey DiMartino launched another business called DiMartino Industries.
The venture combines automotive culture with apparel, merchandise, vehicle customization, and promotional giveaways. The two have customized trucks and other vehicles while building a brand around the mechanical and motorsports interests shared by the DiMartino family.
Cody Connelly has also remained part of Vinnie's extended circle, decades after the two worked together at OCC and V-Force.
DiMartino Industries gave Vinnie a way to return to more creative automotive projects without rebuilding the expensive custom-motorcycle operation he had deliberately left behind.
Reunion With Paul Jr. and Mikey
DiMartino has maintained relationships with several members of the original "American Chopper" cast.
In 2025, he reunited publicly with Paul Jr. and Mikey Teutul for a series of episodes of "The Paul Jr. Podcast." The conversations revisited their years at Orange County Choppers, memorable motorcycle builds, the realities of filming the show, and what happened to the cast after the cameras went away.
Vinnie later appeared in a separate episode with Paul Jr. devoted specifically to their longtime friendship and shared "American Chopper" history.
Their reunion underscored an important distinction between Vinnie's departure from OCC and the much more contentious breakup between Paul Sr. and Junior. Vinnie had left because he wanted professional independence, and his friendship with Junior survived long after the original television show.
Personal Life
DiMartino married his wife, Melissa, in 2001, one year before joining Orange County Choppers. They have four children: Vanessa, twin daughters Isabella and Ava, and a son named Vincent.
Family considerations influenced several of his major career decisions. His oldest daughter was born shortly after he joined OCC, the twins arrived in 2006, and his son was born in 2010. By the time he shifted V-Force away from expensive custom-bike production, he was raising four children while trying to maintain a business with significant overhead.
Away from work, DiMartino remains interested in motorcycles, cars, racing, cooking, and spending time with his family. Although television made him famous as a motorcycle builder, his career has ultimately been much broader and considerably more conventional than the spectacle surrounding "American Chopper": more than three decades spent making a living by understanding how machines work and knowing how to fix them.
"Vinnie" DiMartino
Connelly