How Mike Hall Created Rust Valley Restorers

Car restoration television shows aren't new, but Netflix's "Rust Valley Restorers" certainly brought some fresh elements. The show starred Canadian Mike Hall, his son Connor, and master mechanic Avery Shoaf. Shoaf served as the voice of reason, trying to keep Hall focused on the task at hand: fixing and selling the hundreds of classic cars spread around Hall's property.

"Rust Valley Restorers" was birthed from Mike's desperate effort to sell his property and the trove of rusting vehicles he had accumulated during his many years living there. The collection included a 1926 Ford Model T, a 1938 International Harvester tractor, several World War II-era motorcycles and military vehicles, and dozens of 1960s Mopar muscle cars and vintage Mustangs. Hall first put the lot and collection of vehicles up for sale in 2016 for a little more than a million dollars and raised the price slightly a year later when it still hadn't sold. Producer Tyson Hepburn, who had previously worked with Mike on a Discovery Canada series called "Highway Thru Hell," proposed a series based on Mike's efforts to sell off his collection, and "Rust Valley Restorers" was born.

In an interview with Behind The Grind, Hepburn told host Julianne Keu about people's emotional attachment to classic cars and how Hall embodies those feelings. "He's collected 400 cars that everyone else would have sent to the crusher," Hepburn said. "He sees potential in them, and he wants to restore every one of them."

Hall told Motor Trend that his massive vehicle collection started with a couple of rare classics and a block purchase of some Chevy muscle cars. "My first car was a '51 International, but really it was the next one, my '61 Alpine that got things started for me. After I ran that into the side of a mountain at about a hundred miles an hour, I ended up buying six or seven little '62-'65 Novas." 

As for finding a buyer for his entire collection, "It's a pretty tough sell," Hall admitted. "Someone's got to be as stupid as me, or as crazy as me to actually see the potential." After the series ended, Hall auctioned off nearly his entire collection piece by piece, keeping a few dozen vehicles for himself. "I was supposed to keep ten, I ended up keeping 52," Hall told the CBC. "So basically, I still have a full deck to play with, I just don't have a full deck up here [pointing to his head]."