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“Port Protection”: What was Litzi Botello’s cause of death?

Published

58 seconds ago

April 18, 2024

Martha Clifford

Litzi Botello was one of the residents of Port Protection, Alaska, featured in the National Geographic reality television show named after the said place. She might have appeared late in the series, but viewers were instantly drawn to her, and many were saddened when they heard the news of her passing in 2021.

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About the show

“Port Protection” followed a small tight-knit community in the census-designated place called Port Protection in the northern end of Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. As it was set on the shore of Summer Strait, with the Tongass National Forest and Mount Calder in the background, people were constantly amazed by the incredible view. Located 98 miles northwest of Ketchikan and 145 miles south of Juneau, it’s quite remote, and only accessible by seaplane or boat.

It seemed like an ideal place for people wanting to get away from all the buzz, stress, and chaos of city life, but the question that many were asking was if people could actually live there. With the population at 36 based on the 2020 U.S. Census, which was a little bit lower than when the documentary style series premiered in 2015, it appeared that not many could survive the harsh environmental conditions of the place. It was said that setting down roots in Port Protection required a commitment to living at the edge of one’s limitations.

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One had to learn how to become self-sufficient, and even if it was preferable to keep to oneself, it would be best to get along with the neighbors, as there was nobody else on whom one could rely or ask assistance in emergencies. There was no law enforcement, no local government, or hospitals. With wild animals abounding, rough terrain, and treacherous waters, it could become dangerous especially at night, so residents were careful not to be alone, wandering around when night fell – it could take a while before anyone could come and help if one was lost or hurt.

There were no roads, but people could get around using wooden walkways. Their running water was from a water system fed by a spring, and a resident was tasked to check the pH balance. There were no stores except for a trading post, but it only had the barest of essentials such as fuel. If one wanted something from a grocery store or hardware store, one had to travel 40 nautical miles to get to the port of Wrangell, Alaska. It had become one of the rules in their community that if one were to go there, everyone could ask for supplies or whatever they needed. Looking out for each other was also how the people here managed to survive and thrive.

“Port Protection” is a spin-off series of “Life Below Zero” produced by BBC Studios for the National Geographic Channel. While both shows gave an inside look on people living in remote Alaska, the executive producer, Joseph Litzinger, said that the original was focused on the ‘How?’ while the spin-off was more on the ‘Who?’ and ‘Why?’, explaining that ‘Port Protection leans into character moments to create a fully dynamic cast, using the dramatic Alaskan backdrop to unite and inspire those who are drawn to it.’ After three seasons aired from 2015 to 2018, it was re-branded as “Life Below Zero: Port Protection.”

The cast

Only about 15 percent of the Alaskan community were featured in the show. Here are some of those who made an impression on its avid viewers, with a glimpse into their lives:

Sam Carlson

He’s a local hunter, trapper and fisherman who has been living in Port Protection since he was two. Sam said that residents here used the barter system to acquire what they needed – all he had to do was ask someone who had ‘it’ and then replaced ‘it’ in kind – it could be sausage for a piece of scrap metal or fish for lumber. A local mechanic named James was looking for old motors; Sam had one, and in exchange, he could go through the junkyard which James managed, for supplies he needed to make a stove that he could take along while out hunting.

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In preparing for winter, he along with a neighbor went fishing. After they caught a few nearly 400-pound halibut, they filleted the meat for consumption and storage.

Timothy “Curly” Leach

One of the main sources of livelihood in Port Protection was the sea. Tim sold a skiff to a new resident, Amanda Makar, who said that she got a deal as he hired her to take care of his vessel “Lil’ Pelican” to help pay for it. One time, he went halibut fishing and took Amanda with him so she could learn to do it on her own. The fishing technique they used was longlining in which baited hooks were attached at intervals to the main line, with anchors at either end along with a buoy. Later, when they retrieved the line, it snapped and the fishing gear was lost to the tide. He didn’t give up and went back to where they lost it. They dropped anchor and somehow the line got caught and they recovered the gear. The day ended well, as they caught plenty of halibut after that.

Mary Miller

She grew up in the city, but learned how to hunt and fish, and it helped her a lot when she moved to Port Protection to enjoy the freedom and sense of community it offered. In one episode, she shared that the people here lived by the weather and the tide, as it was their gauge in how they mapped out their day in what they were going to do. With her hunting supplies running low, she had to get to town for ammunition. It was an arduous journey having to contend with the spring storm as she maneuvered a small boat, went on an uphill climb, and then drove a truck for a hundred miles on a rough, old logging road full of potholes. It would take her three hours to reach the shop, and then another three going back. There was always the possibility of getting stuck along the way, so she always came prepared, bringing with her food, a sleeping bag, and a gun, which made her feel safe. Her kids lived in the city, and they were doing well. Talking about them made her teary-eyed, as she missed them terribly and remembered the good times.

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Amanda Makar

She was from Anchorage, and came to Port Protection because of a guy. The relationship didn’t work out, but she stayed on as she was drawn to the place and the people. Being new meant that she had to learn what she needed to survive – fortunately, the residents here were generous with their time and knowledge. Mary taught her how to use firearms, not just for protection but also for hunting food. She also took Amanda into the wild to teach her how to track animals. Amanda initially lived in a rental cabin, but later had to move out, so purchased a boathouse named “Why Not” in Port Baker, but the engine wasn’t working, so Stuart Andrews, dubbed as ‘the captain’, towed her boat back to their little town. It wasn’t meant to run anyway, and she only planned to use it as her home. Stuart and Mary, who was a former auto-mechanic, helped remove parts of the boat that had rotted out or weren’t needed so that the engine could be extracted safely. She fireproofed her boat, so Sam Carlson could install the stove he constructed out of salvaged materials, to keep her home warm.

Gary Muehlberger

He was considered the village elder. Even when he was around 70 years old, he could still make it to the roof of his house to rid the chimney of creosote caused by burning wet wood all summer. Also, he went off the beaten path on another island to go deer hunting, and ensure that he had enough meat to last through the winter. When his ATV broke down, he said he just had to do it the hard way, and go into the Alaskan bush on foot. There were times when he would go hunting for two weeks and returned home empty-handed. Fortunately that day, he shot a big doe and immediately drained its blood before making a backpack out of it, to carry it back to his boat. He said that he was proud of himself for retaining the knowledge he learned over the four decades of living here.

Gary was a funny old man who was always cracking jokes whenever he was explaining on camera what he was doing. He once ate a raw clam and joked about how it was best to eat it right then and there so he would know if it was fit to eat or not. He said that if after half an hour, his lips started tingling, he would know that he had paralytic shellfish poisoning, and would bid everyone goodbye.

Meet Litzi Botello

Cecilia “Litzi” Jovita Botello was born on 22 November1958, in Norwalk, California. She was 22 when she met a fisherman named John Bean, they fell in love, and were married on 21 May 2000, in Port Protection. They had two sons: their eldest, Leland Caulder Botello Bean born in 1991, and they welcomed their youngest, Johnny Duarte Botello, in 1996.

Losing her kids

It was said that no parents should have to bury their child but that was what Litzi and her husband did. Johnny died in July 2015 – according to reports, he lived in Thorne Bay and was on his way to work as a fishing deckhand when the 1993 Nissan pickup truck he was driving crossed the center line and almost had a head-on collision with a 1996 Kenworth logging truck on Boundary Road near Klawock. Both vehicles were totaled, but the 63-year-old driver of the logging truck didn’t sustain injuries. Investigation revealed that alcohol was not a factor in the accident. Johnny, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was in critical condition and had to be medevaced to a hospital in Seattle. However, after a month he succumbed to his injuries. Leland also passed away in the same month in 2017 but details weren’t revealed to the public.

There was a mother’s day blog that a guy posted online in May 2019 about how Mother’s Day could be a cruel reminder of what one was missing, but the writer wanted to give people a different way of dealing with loss during special occasions. He said that he looked at life as a long hike with loved ones and that for those whose children have died, it meant that the children had run ahead of them, had finished the race and were waiting at the finish line. Litzi was comforted by this, leaving a comment and sharing that her sons were both avid hikers and hunters, had always tried to get her to hike more. She hoped that she could get her husband to read this as well.

Litzi on “Port Protection”

She first appeared in the hit NatGeo series in its fourth season as Gary Muehlberger brought her along when he went on a fishing trip. The two had known each other for nearly 40 years, since she began living in Port Protection, and he said that he had a lot of respect for her, while she considered him family. The two got along well, as they both had a zest for life and loved to laugh. Gary shared that they knew stories from way back, so he could start telling a story and she could finish it. He even said that fishing with her was as good as it got.

The ‘one-arm Mexican woman’

She was often described as ‘the one-arm Mexican woman’ as she lost one of her arms in an accident, but it never hindered her from functioning well and following an off-grid and subsistence lifestyle. She knew she could do a lot of things and she only needed to figure out how, and in the series, she was shown driving a boat alone and chopping firewood.

Litzi had been a sculptor for more than two decades, and in 2019, two of her art pieces made from clay were on display at a gallery for the fifth annual Artists of Ketchikan Invitational, hosted by the Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council. One of them called Jellyfish could be seen behind her, as she posed for a photo for an article about the exhibit.

It was reported that fishing with her husband inspired her to create aquatic art. Later, however, she found herself unable to do it, as she faced major difficulties in her life explaining, ‘I think to be in a really creative space, to create something beautiful that you think is good, you have to be in the right head space.’ It took her some time before she was able to get back to it and found it to be therapeutic. She said, ‘It’s fun to create something that you can look at and I guess be proud of, you know?’ She also enjoyed listening to good music, walking on the beach, traveling with her husband, and talking to strangers.

What was Litzi Botello’s cause of death?

When Litzi failed to appear in recent season of “Port Protection,” one of her fans who missed her took to the show’s Facebook fan page to inquire about what happened to her. John, her husband, replied that Litzi passed away on 25 June 2021, in Port Protection at the age of 62. She was preceded in death not just by her sons but also by her brothers Orlando and Joe as well as her mom Elida Botello.

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There was much speculation on the cause of her death at first, as she lived in a place fraught with danger, where each day was a matter of survival. However, her husband shared that Litzi died of ovarian cancer, having had surgery on the day that her friend Gary passed away. Apparently, the Alaska State Troopers received a report in March 2021 that the village elder’s house was on fire and he was missing. Human remains were seen among the fire ashes, and many believed that he had been fixing his propane hot water tank and it exploded. One could only imagine how devastated Litzi must have been upon hearing the news of his passing, when she woke up after her surgery.

Not much was known about Litzi, but her photos compiled in a video uploaded online for a memorial tribute spoke a lot. She was among friends and family celebrating milestones and life in general. Some were taken in the city, and the rest in her home in Port Protection. In a couple of photos, she was shown asleep surrounded by women believed to be dear to her, and many thought it was during her last moments, or after she’d died.

People who lived in Port Protection like Linzi showed true grit considering every comfort and convenience known to man could be found some place else. Despite the difficulties she faced, she felt in every cell of her being that she was where she was meant to be in this secluded place in Alaska. The series continues to draw the interest of viewers, as each day brought new challenges to its residents.

Martha Clifford

As an Author at Net Worth Post, I guide a dedicated team in the art of revealing the stories behind the world's most influential personalities. Fueled by a relentless curiosity and a knack for uncovering hidden stories, I immerse myself in the intricacies of our subjects' lives, weaving together accurate data and compelling narratives. My involvement spans the entire editorial process, from the seed of research to the final flourish of publication, ensuring that every article not only educates but also captivates and motivates our audience. At Net Worth Post, we are committed to providing thorough investigations into the net worth and life achievements of innovators across diverse sectors such as technology, culture, and social entrepreneurship. My method merges meticulous research with eloquent storytelling, designed to bridge the gap between our readers and the remarkable individuals who redefine our tomorrow. Through spotlighting their journeys to success, the hurdles they've surmounted, and their contributions to society, we aim to give our readers a deep and inspiring insight into the luminaries who are paving the way for progress and ingenuity in the modern era.

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How Is Amanda Martin (Iron Resurrection) Doing Now

Published

2 seconds ago

April 18, 2024

Martha Clifford

Amanda Martin, formerly known as Amanda Jill Keathly, is an American television personality, probably best known as one of the cast members from “Iron Resurrection”, a reality series on Discovery Channel that focuses on the restoration work done by the Martin Bros Customs workshop in the Texas Hill Country.

The popular show documents the daily activities of Joe Martin, proprietor of Martin Bros Customs, and his crew of skilled metal workers and fabricators as they restore old motorcycles and cars that have seen better days.

From burned-out classics to ancient rust buckets, the cast and crew from “Iron Resurrection” has seen it all, and over the course of the show, restored numerous projects back to their former glory.

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The popular auto-restoration series has been met with exceptional reception by its audience, and recently finished airing its sixth season with the seventh season heavily anticipated in 2023. The show aired its debut season in 2016, with the show’s concept inspired by the hot rod designer Boyd Coddington and Wayne Carini, the host from “Chasing Classic Cars”.

As an auto enthusiast, Joe admired Coddington’s work, but unfortunately could never afford any of his designs. As such, Joe began teaching himself the art of hot rod design and construction, and for a while worked as a motorcycle mechanic.

Joe’s big break came in 2014 after appearing in Discovery Channel’s “Biker Build-Off”, affording Martin a chance to open his own workshop. Two years later, producers approached Joe, requesting potential content for Velocity Network, now known as the Motor Trend Network.

Joe’s initial approach was soon turned into its own dedicated series, and thus the birth of “Iron Resurrection” became a reality. Naturally, both Joe and Amanda’s lives drastically changed since then, as they expanded their business into multiple fields, which now include the sale of merchandise.

However, during the release of the fifth season, fans were nearly devastated by the news of the possible cancellation of “Iron Resurrection”. Big changes came about after nearly the entire crew departed the show, leaving Joe and Amanda to fend for themselves.

Thanks @Velocity for letting me drive #buckleup pic.twitter.com/V9LlRxjP6l

— Amanda Martin (@mandimartinbros) May 12, 2016

Instead of entirely ending the series, it formed part of the drama, but this also meant that Amanda now spends less time in front of the camera, leaving fans wondering what happened to her.

As things stand now, the sixth season has not yet been confirmed.3

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Who Is Amanda Martin?

Born on 11 December 1973, in Red Oak, Texas, Amanda along with her siblings Zack, Sandra and Wendi, spent most of her young life in Texas where she attended Red Oak High School. Unfortunately, very little information is available on Amanda’s early life and her personal details, but it’s known that her father, Zacharia Keathly, was an American military veteran, who passed away in 2006.

Again, little is known about Amanda’s academic pursuits, but considering that she had a relatively successful career in finance, one can assume that she earned some type of degree in financial law or sciences, though her alma mater remains unknown.

Following her graduation, Amanda moved to the Texas Hill Country, where she worked for Wells Fargo bank, filling the branch manager’s position. She later worked for Pioneer bank in three different roles, namely the assistant vice president, deposit operations vice president, and product manager.

In 2016, Amanda took a chance on Joe’s gamble, leaving her day job to assist her husband’s endeavours, and joined the crew and cast in “Iron Resurrection”. She’s since earned her fair share of fame, as she quickly became the beautiful face of Martin Bros Customs.

Amanda is also hailed as co-owner of the workshop, and, as one might suspect, assists her husband Joe with the financial management of the business. In fact, when Amanda’s not in front of the camera, she’s busy crunching numbers in the office, or out searching for new clients.

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Considering that restoration work is very expensive, it definitely suits the company to have a financial genius at hand, but as many who follow the show would know, quite often, the workshop doesn’t have the required funds to restore certain vehicles. Usually, this means that Joe and his crew have to get creative, or sometimes look for sponsorships.

When Amanda and Joe aren’t busy filming or running the workshop, the couple goes about doing charity work with numerous canine programs. One of their recent interests as avid dog lovers and pet owners includes raising funds and awareness for the organisation Southern California Pit Bull Rescue, and thanks to the Martins’s help, the organisation exceeded their record of collecting $500 a day in donations.

Where Is Amanda Now?

Following the recent changes in the show’s cast, many viewers reached out on social media, asking what happened to some of their favourite cast members.

One such, Javier who is also known as “Shorty”, posted a video on Facebook in which he thanked the viewers for their support, but also assured them that he was doing fine. Javier added that he moved back to Dallas, Texas, where he manages his own workshop, and gets to spend more time with his family.

This was really important to Javier, as by that time, he’d become a grandfather.

Cato, the show’s resident upholsterer, moved to Atlanta, and “Iron Resurrection” producers reached out on social media to inform viewers and fans of his departure, saying that his company is now hosted in Fuller Moto.

According to Cato, who reported on the relocations on a personal blog, his wife earned a new position in Atlanta, and he wished to support her, as such, he will no longer be part of the “Iron Resurrection” crew, but remains grateful for the time he spent on the show, as well as the fans’ continued support.

Pompa, the resident metal worker, left the show under obscure circumstances, though no indications of a dispute have surfaced, making it seem as if it was a mutual and amicable decision.

However, fans speculate that Pompa simply grew tired of the constant pranks, and that he left the show because he no longer wanted to be the butt of every joke. Fortunately, Joe dropped a few hints on social media, suggesting that Pompa might be returning for future seasons.

Manny, a definite fan favourite, has unfortunately disappeared without a trace, and with no social media presence, it’s impossible to say what happened to him. However, no indications of a dispute can be found, so it’s safe to say that Manny left amicably.

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As for Joe and Amanda, it’s very likely that they might already be working on the newest, seventh season of the show, but when they’re not busy filming, the couple keeps themselves busy with charity work.

One recent project includes support for the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, for which the Martins raised over $20,000.

Aside from the above, according to Amanda’s Instagram profile, the reality television personality is keeping busy finding new hobbies, spending time and effort on her health and fitness, as well as promoting merchandise for Martin Bros Customs.

As far as we can tell, neither “Iron Resurrection” nor Joe and Amanda are going anywhere. Thus, fans of the show can look forward to watching their favourite restoration crew hard at work, although the release of the new season, while anticipated, is still to be announced.

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Meet the woman behind “Bad Chad Customs” – fiancé Jolene Macintyre

Published

9 seconds ago

April 18, 2024

Martha Clifford

Behind every show and production, there are always lots of faces of talented and committed people who make everything possible, but are unfortunately rarely seen on screen.

Nonetheless, in “Bad Chad Customs” things are always made a different way. Besides the incredible talents of Chad Hiltz in shaping dreams in the form of cars, his fianceé Jolene MacIntyre stands out for herself for her personality, smarts, and hard-working attitude. Credited for being the one making Hiltz Auto’s business side work, Jolene is known for pushing everyone in the team forward, and taking the company to the next level, whether it’s through “Bad Chad Customs” or the several other projects she’s created through it.

However, have you ever wondered who Jolene is and how has she’s come so far down the road of business? How did she take Hiltz Auto to TV. and what else does she have in mind for the shop? Keep with us to know this and so much more about the woman behind “Bad Chad Customs” success.

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Who Is Jolene MacIntyre?

It takes only a couple of minutes watching “Bad Chad Customs” to understand that there is more than one person making everything possible in the show. However, out of all of them, Jolene MacIntyre is the one who not only keeps the business running but also does everything possible to make her fiancé’s talents known all over the world.

Graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in commerce from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada, Jolene knows all about business. Although she is sometimes seen lending a hand in Hiltz Auto’s garage, Jolene’s real magic takes place in the office and at the content creation desk. As she said during an interview with The Motorsports Agency, her day starts with planning the business’ everyday goals, schedules, and budgets, becoming the leading voice of the team by setting the plans of action she thinks will take Bad Chad and the entire business to success.

While Jolene is proud of taking the business’ reins when it comes to the technical side, she considers herself the baseball equivalent of a rover for the garage’s team, as she’s never afraid of getting her hands dirty, as long as it gets the job done.

How Did The Business Start?

Although it was Jolene who co-founded what we know nowadays as Hiltz Auto, Bad Chad was already working on cars before meeting her. As it happens, Chad Hiltz has been working with his hands since his teens, finding new ways of building all sorts of things as a way of self-expression, and making money: ‘I learned very quickly that there’s no money to buy things. So that’s, I guess, where it started, is to make things’, he told AutoWise, saying that he rejected the concept of buying, and felt more compelled to build what he wanted.

After working on cars and in steel fabrication for years, Chad had an established business but which unfortunately hadn’t gained lots of traction outside his Nova Scotia town. So, meeting and dating Jolene completely changed what his business had been until then, as her vision took over: ‘I decided to build a business and a brand around him’, as Jolene told Medium.com in 2021, adding that despite having limited resources at the beginning, she invested lots of time growing Hiltz Auto as a business first, and then expanded its presence online by creating original, compelling, and entertaining content out of it.

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Soon, Hiltz Auto and Bad Chad had grown an audience online big enough to attract the attention of a TV production company, which would later launch “Bad Chad Customs”, gaining the business international fame.

Mission As An Entrepreneur

While the effort is often well compensated when projects turn out well, the path to success is usually long and enduring for entrepreneurs who only have a dream and small budgets to make things possible. To overcome the adversities and complex situations which get in the way of any young project, entrepreneurs and leaders surely need a clear vision of what they want, so not to lose focus of their goals.

It’s no different for Jolene, who for years has been relentlessly developing a brand around Chad Hiltz and his business, to show the world what they’re made of. As she admits it herself, her first and foremost inspiration to keep that special project moving forward is her admiration for her fiancé, who she described as someone with ‘an incredible ability of teaching, leading and inspiring others’, as she told Medium.com.

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That being said, Jolene’s mission is to encourage others to find that person, goal, or dream which fuels them to grow: ‘Our mission is to inspire greatness. Each and every day when we create, our focus is to inspire the next person to get out and work on their passion’, she told the magazine.

What Keeps Jolene Focused?

Jolene’s beginnings managing Hiltz Auto weren’t easy – as her initial goals were directed at growing the business and traction online, she forgot to develop some other parts of the project, which she didn’t realize right away were just as important.

One of those mistakes was the lack of YouTube content produced by Bad Chad during the first couple of years of the business, carelessly left forgotten, to grow an audience on Facebook and Instagram. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 restriction period in 2020 took place that Jolene corrected that error by creating content specifically made for Bad Chad’s YouTube channel, turning what she initially considered a mistake into a lesson.

Instead of blaming herself for her missteps, Jolene chooses to see the unexpected as an opportunity to fuel her fire: ‘Once I figured out that mistakes and obstacles are only meant to sharpen to you, I started embracing them’, she told Medium.com.

That being said, what keeps Jolene focused on her goals is her will to move forward and accomplish her dreams. Whether that determination comes from her thriving for success, her inspirations, or simply by her courage, Jolene is simply not someone who gives up easily.

TV Show

After spending a couple of years producing car restoration content for the internet, Bad Chad and Jolene had successfully accumulated hundreds of thousands of views on their Facebook page. Their projects were so successful that it wasn’t long until the pair was contacted by TV producers, who soon turned the business into the focus of “Bad Chad Customs”, helping to expand the brand that Jolene had worked so hard to turn from a concept to a real-life project.

Nonetheless, just being on TV wasn’t the end of the road. As Jolene said in early 2021, she planned on “Bad Chad Customs” becoming a number one car-centered show, along with a ‘household name’ in the field, and obtaining international partnerships: ‘the reason I can confidently say all of that is because we are willing to work day and night at it’, she told The Motorsports Agency.

While Jolene’s goals might have sounded a little too ambitious, the truth is that “Bad Chad Customs” has already accomplished a huge part of those objectives by gaining the hearts and admiration of its audience.

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Putting The Show Together

There’s no forgetting that TV isn’t an easy industry to work in, so it’s no wonder that “Bad Chad Customs” fans often question what it took to make the show a reality.

During a questions and answers session on Bad Chad’s Facebook page in January 2023, Jolene agreed that some aspects of the show took some time to put together. She explained that after being contacted to film the show, she and Chad had to personally search for a team, given that their shop was usually just both of them.

Things weren’t as easy from then on, as they had no option but to hire the few available friends of Chad who were up to the challenge, as the partners they had previously contacted let them down. One of the new members of the team was Chad’s son Colton, who at the time of the show’s 2019 premiere had just matriculated from high school.

Chad was seemingly against having his son in “Bad Chad Customs”, not for his lack of experience, but for the pressure it might put on him. In the end, Chad consented to make the show a sort of a family endeavor, which is also one of the factors why the show became so well-liked in the first place.

Do They Keep Cars?

While Chad and Jolene put a huge effort into making “Bad Chad Customs” as real as possible, there’s no denying that some real-life aspects aren’t as portrayed on screen.

Although one of the show’s most attractive features was the pressure the staff was put under when a deadline was close, the truth is that customers weren’t exactly real ones. As Jolene affirmed on a Facebook video from early 2023, she was in charge of finding people from their town to appear in the show as customers, as the Los Angeles-based production company working alongside Discovery didn’t know the area.

While the renovations were afforded by the network, the cars didn’t leave Hiltz Auto even after they were finished. Instead, Jolene affirms that the restored car stays in their basement due to Chad’s resolution to preserve each of them as a work of art. Nonetheless, Hiltz Auto was initially not ready to store more than a couple of cars, leaving the couple no option but to buy extra land to build a storage room for their valuable creations.

The guys at Bad Chad Customs continue to convert the rusted '71 Pinto into an homage to European performance! Stream the latest episode of Bad Chad right now on the MotorTrend App! ➡️ https://t.co/3JQjXRwP1u pic.twitter.com/XiyXOeTQAp

— Automobile Magazine (@automobilemag) October 4, 2020

How Did She Get Together With Chad?

While we only knew about Jolene and Chad upon their TV show’s premiere in 2019, the pair had been together for a some time before that.

The couple met around 2016 in a place called West Side Charlie in New Minas, Nova Scotia, when Chad dropped by the tavern to promote the event Rockabilly Weekend. At the time, Jolene was working in the place full-time, but had recently graduated from college.

As admitted by Chad in a YouTube video on their channel, he was immediately attracted to Jolene upon seeing her in the bar. She and her friend Reggie asked Chad about the car she was driving out of curiosity, but that was the beginning of it all, and Chad eventually convinced Jolene to give him her number.

Chad texted Jolene quite often, but didn’t obtain a positive response for the next couple of months. She eventually texted him back, and their acquaintanceship turned into a friendship when he visited the tavern just to see her. As affirmed by Chad, he was afraid that his ‘too rough around the edges’ personality wasn’t compatible with her academically oriented interests, but as they shared more time, things simply worked out on their own.

Jolene and Chad officially started dating in early 2017, just a couple of months before they became engaged. Then, even in early 2023, marriage doesn’t seem to be high on their agenda.

What Happened To Her Bugatti?

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Jolene is responsible for giving form to “Bad Chad Customs”. As it happens, the first restoration that she and Chad worked on together was restoration of Ralph Lauren’s $40 million Bugatti, one that Jolene had desired for the longest time, and Chad promised to make for her.

While Jolene’s Bugatti isn’t the same car owned by Lauren, but a replica built from scratch by Chad, the personal value and significance of this car are worth several million. The build of Jolene’s dream car was filmed by her using only her phone and the limited knowledge about content creation she had at the time, but the results were good enough to gain the pair their first followers online.

By uploading the Bugatti’s build videos on a weekly schedule, Jolene discovered that social media was more than just a helpful tool, and could be the key to Bad Chad’s success.

That being said, Jolene’s Bugatti is more special than any other car in the personal sense. As Jolene told Monsters & Critics in 2019, she plans for it to be her wedding car, and is waiting for the special occasion to happen to finally show it to the world.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp5S5BfHCep/

Current & Future Projects

Nowadays, Jolene and Chad are focused on growing their brand and sharing their views about the car restoring art with the rest of the world. thanks to their social media. By using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, the couple has successfully gained around half a million followers combined.

That being said, after “Bad Chad Customs” wrapped up its second season in late 2020, not much about its comeback to the small screen has been known so far. Regardless, in a 2022 video, Jolene revealed that she and Chad were happy with having total control of their content, while not dealing with the tight TV schedules from the past.

While this seems disheartening for those waiting for a third “Bad Chad Customs” season, the most important thing is to see Jolene and Chad fulfilled with what they do nowadays.