Season 1 |
Season 2 |
Season 3 |
Episode Guide
Go Big Or Go Home
All in the Family
Going into Battle
Rustang to Mustang
A Smashing Success
Happy Ending
Rusty Dreams Come True
Race to the Finish!
Rust Valley Restorers has all the hallmarks of a binge-worthy, engrossing realty TV series. Given the fact it originally aired on the History Channel in Canada, its 8 episodes are available immediately here and make for a very easy binge watch. Rust Valley Restorers takes all the best elements of shows like Pimp My Ride and Cake Boss, with enough charisma and personality for its eccentric owner Mike and his crew, to make for a breezy and engrossing series to sit through.
With over 400 classic cars hidden away deep in the breathtaking vista of the Rocky Mountains, classic car enthusiast Mike decides to turn his lifelong hobby into a job, putting his livelihood – and life savings – on the line to make his dream a reality. With finances stretched and the future of the shop hanging in the balance, Rust Valley Restorers sees Mike, Avery and the rest of the crew work together to restore old cars back to their former glory. Across the 8 episodes they come across various different cars and work together to fix them up, sell them on or trade them with prospective clients.
Across the 40 minute episodes, Mike and Avery exchange banter and advice, scouring the expansive scrap-heap graveyard for spare parts, different cars and anything they can sell along the way. Most episodes follow a pretty predictable pattern, with an introduction to each car and its history, throwing us back into fly-on-the-wall material as we see Mike and Avery discussing what’s needed to restore the car and how they can make it better.
What’s particularly interesting here is just how in-depth the discussion gets when it comes to the technical specifications of each car. I’ll be the first to admit, I know next to nothing about cars, which is pretty ironic given I used to work for a car insurance firm. From fan belts and testing engines through to trims and paint jobs, Rust Valley Restorers is a show that never dumbs down its material and as such, feels much more tailored toward those who love their motors. There’s a lot of colloqualistic language here regarding cars and motors, and if I’m honest, the show works so much better because of it.
In true reality series fashion, there is some drama here and a lot of it comes in the form of Mike’s financial situation. Across the episodes there’s a constant feel of do-or-die and when you’re self employed that’s a pretty accurate assessment if I’m honest. Evolving your hobby into a profitable business venture is not easy, which I know firsthand, and for a while you do operate at a pretty significant loss. For Mike though, the success of his shop will ultimately make or break his livelihood and despite living his dream, this worry is a constant source of stress and motivation for him.
With an eclectic rock soundtrack and the ever-delightful before-and-after pictures, Rust Valley Restorers is easy TV to watch. It’s the sort of show you could either stick on in the background and do the housework or watch intently and find a lot of enjoyment in. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or deliver anything different than what we’ve seen before but the educational content around cars and the digestible episodes make this a very easy show to recommend, even more so if you’re a car enthusiast.
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Verdict - 7/10
7/10
This series were amazing, Mike and Avery are absulutely refreshing. I like this way of restoring cars, very different of other Netflix series of people full of tatoos and looking worse than a gang member doing “restauration” of cars that look outrageous. They instead make you laugh, specially Avery. Boy, that guy is so funny and his laugh is so contagious that I was just laughing my head off listening to him. He is a brilliant mechanic. It was very sad the way the series end, like if Mike were selling his dream to his neighbor tha shark. I also like when they included Cassidi, this girl is gorgeous. Please continue the program, we really love it, it is natural, refreshing, educational (so many more than other programs)
Not exactly sure where you are with your comment…these guys know what they know…the rest? They farm them out…the exact same thing that a lot of us would do…like I said, don’t know where you are comin’ from with your comment…
The good : easy and entertaining to watch. love the personnalities of the owner and his pal Avery. Avery’s laugh is contagious. We get to know about canadian car culture and history. Mike knows so much about it. But…
The bad: these guys don’t seem to be the best at restoring cars. They don’t seem to know that much about technique. Avery is a motor wiz, i don’t doubt it. but for anything else and from anyone else, there is little competence. notice how some of the cars are finished by other restoration businesses and how some cars have no image of them being restored by the crew…