Steel building and fabrication shows are a big hit on TV, and it’s no different when it comes to MotorTrend’s “Iron Resurrection”. However, there’s more than just fixing cars and bikes for these guys, as behind Martin Bros Customs there’s an entire team of professionals with all types of skills, ready to make the best out of every seemingly irreparable vehicle which enters their shop.

Nonetheless, not a lot has been said about the show since the sixth season of “Iron Resurrection” wrapped up in mid-2021. What does this mean though? Is the show canceled, or is it possible that another season is in the making?

Keep with us to know everything about the future of “Iron Resurrection”, Joe Martin, his team, and even to get a hold of all the juicy behind-the-scenes details about the show!

What’s Up With The Show’s Sixth Season?

We know you’ve been waiting for a new “Iron Resurrection” for a long time.

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Ever since the fifth season wrapped up in mid-2021, Joe Martin, his staff and MotorTrend haven’t said much about a renewal, added to the fact that the show’s social media accounts are updated only on special occasions, such as the cast’s birthdays.

Though past seasons’ reruns are still airing to this day, the lack of news about a new season has every keen fan of “Iron Resurrection” wondering if the series has been unofficially canceled, or put on indefinite hiatus.

Nonetheless, any rumor regarding the end of “Iron Resurrection” is fortunately false, as according to Amanda Martin, she and Joe were ‘working on season 6 now’, as she answered a fan on Instagram in February 2022.

Although an official announcement is yet to be made, we don’t doubt the upcoming season of “Iron Resurrection” will be as successful as the previous ones.

Has Anyone Left The Show?

Shorty

As one of the original cast members of “Iron Resurrection”, Javier “Shorty” Ponce was undoubtedly one of the most well-known painters in the show. Given that, it’s not surprising that a huge part of the audience was flabbergasted and disappointed to not see Shorty anywhere when the fourth season premiered in early 2020, causing an avalanche of fan messages to flow into the show’s social media accounts.

Although reality TV usually keeps away from being too open about the whereabouts of its show’s former stars, “Iron Resurrection” was admittedly very sincere regarding Shorty’s absence. As someone from the show answered to a fan on Facebook, Shorty wanted to spend more time with his family after recently becoming a grandfather, resulting in him moving back permanently to Dallas, Texas, where his own shop is located.

Not long afterwards, Shorty himself took to his social media to thank his fans for the support they gave him during his time on TV: ‘I had no idea that there were so many of you out there that really like me for who I am and what I did’, he affirmed in a video, also telling his followers he meant to expand his business in the near future.

All in all, no one could blame Shorty for taking the best decision for his family and shop’s sake. Nonetheless, we hope to see him in another production sometime again.

Phil Cato

Shorty wasn’t the only “Iron Resurrection” star to leave in the fourth season, as the interior custom builder Phil Cato also parted ways with the show in 2020.

As “Iron Resurrection ” staff explained to their fans through social media, Phil was moving to Atlanta with his wife, who had recently started a new job there, making it impossible for him to continue filming the show in Austin, Texas.

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While the move might have looked sudden by the show’s fans, it seems that Phil had carefully planned his leaving, given how rapidly he established his shop Cato’s Custom Upholstery’s new location. As read on the business’ website, his new shop opened as early as February 2020, the same date his exit from “Iron Resurrection” was announced.

On the bright side of things, Cato’s Custom Upholstery seems to be doing better than ever. The business’ Instagram account has almost 30,000 followers, added to the fact the shop’s website offers more than just auto interior custom builds, but also sells a wide variety of merchandise, including caps, shirts, keyholders and bags.

Regarding his relationship with his former co-stars, the fact that Phil continues to interact with them on social media tells us they didn’t part on bad terms.

Pompa

As the Martin Bros Customs’ shop assistant, Pompa gained the hearts of the audience with good humored ways and personality.

Although he didn’t appear in all show episodes, he was still missed when “Iron Resurrection”s fourth season premiered and he was nowhere in sight.

Unlike his former co-stars Phil Cato and Javier “Shorty” Ponce, the show’s staff didn’t offer an explanation regarding Pompa’s disappearance, leaving people to inevitably speculate that his absence could have been caused by negative factors.

As Distractify reported in 2021, the most common comments from fans pointed out that Pompa could have left “Iron Resurrection” to escape the ‘antics both on-screen and in the blooper reel’, that he was often the subject of. Nonetheless, there’s no way to prove those rumors, given that Pompa usually didn’t explicitly show serious annoyance at the jokes.

In early 2022, Pompa shared Instagram videos of his New Year’s Eve celebration, after being inactive on the platform since 2019.

Later in February that year, the organization Cruisin’ Southern Style tagged him on an Instagram pic, in which Pompa, Joe Martin and his shop’s staff were in a car charity event together, leaving us to think that maybe his comeback to TV is possible, once “Iron Resurrection”s new season premieres.

The Show’s Beginnings

Although the majority of events you see on TV are usually well-planned, the way the initial ideas for reality shows come to be are mostly a matter of coincidence or good luck.

For Joe Martin and “Iron Resurrection”, it was a matter of being in the right place doing the right thing. As he recalled in an interview with the website New Jersey Car Shows in 2017, having appeared in the competition series “Bike Build Off” in the mid-2000s, added to the then-current boom of car-centered shows, opened many doors for him in both the automotive and the entertainment worlds.

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Keeping in contact with the right guys at Discovery eventually played in Joe’s favor, as several years later he was called by MotorTrend’s producers who were then looking for new material for the network. Finding Martin Bros Customs fitting the concept they wanted to create, everything was left in the hands of Joe and his brother Jason: ‘we put together a teaser reel that followed us all around the shop, and then they bid off on it and really enjoyed it’.

As Joe admits, ‘everything at that point kind of fell into place’ afterwards, though the road was most-likely not completely smooth.

The Business

What the guys at Martin Bros Customs do isn’t that complicated to explain. Their business is all about customizing cars, taking them from being rubbish to look a million dollars.

Although the business prides itself on resurrecting junk-looking vehicles, their compromise to deliver good work for their customers goes beyond just fixing and recovering cars, taking the aesthetic and functional aspects at heart.

The job at Martin Bros Customs isn’t limited by what they do in the garage, as exhibitions and car events are a big part of what they do, not only to promote the business, but to keep a strong presence in such a competitive field. Nonetheless, the way the business took-off in the first place isn’t that easy to explain, even for Joe: ‘I really don’t know what it is. I have been fortunate in doing the bike stuff and going to the shows and hitting the show circuit in order to gain some new customers’, he told New Jersey Car Shows.

Given the popularity of his business thanks to “Iron Resurrection”, Martin Bros Customs stopped accepting submissions online, due to the huge load of requests they were receiving. Nonetheless, those who really love the shop could either request Joe and his team for public events, or buy their merchandise available through their online shop.

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The Staff Dynamics

Anyone who’s ever watched “Iron Resurrection” knows that the guys at Martin Bros’ are usually friendly with each other, often leaving aside drama in order to get the job done, unlike many reality shows, in which staged drama is often spotted.

However, Joe Martin admits that despite getting along well on a personal basis, the work relationship between his staff and him isn’t always as smooth as it looks on camera: ‘Like in any shop, you are always going to have some problems and that sort of thing. But we don’t like to focus on it’.

While the lack of drama is appreciated by the show’s motorhead audience, the changes in the work routine for Martin Bros’ staff isn’t something viewers could easily see. As Joe’s best friend and associate Jayson “Shag” Arrington said in a 2020 interview with Screen Radar, one of the few negative consequences the show had on the business is how difficult negotiations have become since hitting fame: ‘people are like ‘Wait a minute, I’m not going to let this guy take advantage of me. These guys have money, they can spend it.’ I think there’s this misperception’.

While these factors could take a toll on Joe’s business in the long run, Martin Bros seems to be doing well for the time being.

How It Changed Their Lives

There’s no doubt that appearing on a TV show affects people’s life in several different ways, but while for some it means negative things, others make the best out of it.

Fortunately for Joe Martin and his family, fame hasn’t been as overwhelming as might be expected. According to Joe, the places he usually gets stopped by fans are car exhibitions and airports, which is ‘strange’ but not enough to be intolerable: ‘is kind of strange to us as we’re regular people and we are like, well, we’ve been like this all our life, so why do people want us to sign something now’, he said in a 2017 interview.

Regarding the workload that being in such a popular TV show entails, Joe admits the hectic filming schedules sometimes make him ‘second guess’ himself, but he keeps moving forward without rush, for the sake of delivering a good job in the end, even ‘regardless of what the production team says’, as he told Fuel Curve in 2019: ‘We don’t want to sacrifice the quality [of the build] just to get a car done for the TV show’.

Nonetheless, the experience is ‘priceless’ in his opinion, for which he’s grateful.

Was Joe In Another Show Before?

If you haven’t been a fan of steel building and auto-centered TV shows for long, you would most-likely be surprised to know that Joe Martin has been in the entertainment world for some time, and was quite successful at it.

It all goes back to Joe’s early life, when his childhood interest in drawing cars, trains and bikes turned into a fully-fledged occupation in his teens: ‘I tried to learn some mechanical things, and picked up ideas from guys around my neighborhood, as I didn’t have any type of formal training or anything’.

The mid 1990s saw Joe’s career in the automotive world start with him doing paint jobs for bikes in Dallas. As his work skills progressed, he eventually started his bike building business, which was the booming automotive field in the early 2000s thanks to greatly popular TV shows such as “Monster Garage”, which producers shockingly ended up offering Joe a place in “Bike Build Off” in 2004.

Appearing on TV meant a great opportunity for Joe, especially when he became the show’s third season’s winner, gaining him a place in the following seasons, and in the spin-off “World Biker Build-Off 2004”.

Those glorious days eventually came to an end after a couple of years, but the experience was surely unforgettable.

How Real Is The Show?

While there’s no way to tell for sure if some scenes are staged, re-filmed or scripted in “Iron Resurrection”, the fact that Joe Martin and his staff stay away from making drama the show’s centerpiece is very telling of its genuineness.

Although including some arguments between the staff or misunderstandings could easily gain the show a wider audience, this isn’t what Joe wants at all: ‘We want our show to be educational and funny, and make the average guy want to go out and learn more about cars’, as he told Fuel Curve.

Wanting to inspire viewers to get things done by themselves is admittedly a hard goal to achieve, but there’s also nothing we love more than seeing how authentic Joe wants “Iron Resurrection” to be.

If there’s something we have learned about reality TV so far, it’s that audiences won’t ever get tired of seeing common but skillful folks performing apparently impossible feats on air. That explains very well why not only “Highway Thru Hell” is such a successful show, but also why its memorable cast quickly gained the hearts of viewers, just by being themselves and doing their job.

Out of all the Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue’s crew, Ken Monkhouse remains in the minds of “Highway Thru Hell”s audience as a good-humored man, who was undoubtedly deeply passionate about his work. Nonetheless, his sudden death and disappearance from the show have left viewers both surprised and with many unanswered questions.

So whatever happened to Ken? When and how did he die? What happened to the show afterwards, and did anyone else unfortunately die too? Keep with us to know all!

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Ken Monkhouse’s Death

If the news about Ken Monkhouse’s death were somehow surprising to you, it was the same for his loved ones, friends and co-workers. On 24 May 2020, Ken suddenly died of a heart attack in his native Hope, in British Columbia.

The news of his death was announced by several local news pages, though it was Ken’s former employer and “Highway Thru Hell” star Jamie Davis who posted the most heartfelt message regarding the unfortunate loss: ‘an amazing guy, great work ethic and a good friend has passed away last night of a heart attack . Missing you forever’.

Other messages, including that of his then-current employer company Mario’s Towing, asked for respect and privacy for Ken’s family during that difficult time.

Despite the suddenness of Ken’s passing, he had actually been suffering from heart problems long before his death. In 2019, he took a break from “Highway Thru Hell” to undergo open heart surgery, only to come back to the show a couple of months after.

While he then seemed healthy following his comeback, his cardiac problems eventually took a toll on him.

To honor Ken, in December 2020 “Highway Thru Hell” aired a special episode entitled “Weather The Storm” dedicated to him.

Who Else Died From The Show?

Unfortunately, Ken Monkhouse isn’t the only “Highway Thru Hell” cast member who has passed away. Any long-time fan of the series surely remembers the always good-humored but greatly skilled rescuer Robin McArthur, who died in his sleep on 26 July 2014 at 60 years of age.

Although Robin appeared a couple of times during “Highway Thru Hell”’s first seasons, his light-hearted nature quickly gained him the hearts of the audience. Nonetheless, Robin was known in his community for more than being a TV star.

As the president of Hope Volunteer Search, Robin was known for helping people in dangerous situations, in addition to working as a secondary school metalwork teacher.

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He also owned his mechanics auto shop All 4 Services, which he managed until his death from Pancreatic Cancer.

Only three months after Robin’s death, the “Highway Thru Hell” star Bruce Hardy – also known as “Crazy Horse” – died on 10 October 2014 when 58 years old. Though he was usually hard-tempered during the first two seasons he appeared in the show, on his online obituary his family described Bruce as a ‘caring and considerate individual who would do whatever was asked, whenever and wherever it was required’, true to his rebellious and free nature.

Who Had An Accident Recently?

Everyone who has watched “Highway Thru Hell” at least once, knows that accidents and mishaps are an almost everyday occurrence for Jamie Davis and his company. However, while solving unfortunate incidents is their job, sometimes things get so out of control that their team inevitably gets hurt in the process.

The most recent and widely commented of these incidents happened in June 2020, when it was revealed that Jamie’s driver Rob Mitchell suffered a ‘flat deck accident’ which involved his truck rolling over several times while he was in it. He was immediately taken to Hope Hospital, where it was found that besides the scratches and bruises, his injured ankle was the thing he needed to worry about the most. Fortunately, 12 weeks of rest and a stretched foot was everything Bruce needed to get back on the road.

What is Jamie Davis Towing?

Everyone knows what “Highway Thru Hell” is about, but what exactly does Jamie Davis’ business do when TV cameras aren’t around?

Although the show usually shows us the toughest side of Jamie Davis Towing, the truth is that the company has a wider range of services, which include rather less extreme and dangerous activities.

For starters, their auto service options go from towing, to delivering fuel to hardly accessible cars, unlocking and locking autos, long-hauling, moving equipment, and even changing tires.

While these services sound somewhat less exciting than taking care of a crashed vehicle on the hazardous roads of British Columbia, it financially makes sense that Jamie’s business is thus diversified, considering that despite occurring with frequency, large transit accidents in Hope aren’t an everyday thing.

Their Beginnings on TVG

Given how much of a coincidence it was, the way “Highway Thru Hell” came to be is curiously a rare occurrence in the TV industry these days.

It all started in 2010, when the producer Neil Thomas broke his truck on his way through Highway 5, in southern British Columbia. That’s when he met Jamie Davis, whose business’ rescuing services left such a good impression on him, that not long afterwards Thomas and a cameraman named Kevin Mills offered Davis his own show on Discovery.

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Despite never having been before on anything remotely related to the entertainment world, Davis found the offer quite attractive, for allowing him to show the world what his profession and business entailed. The idea turned out well, and bin September 2012, “Highway Thru Hell” premiered on Discovery Canada with astoundingly high audience ratings.

The road has been worth it so far, even regardless of the ‘highs and lows’ Jamie and his staff have had to face so far: ‘There’s some good days and bad days, and the show tells how tough it is to be in the business’, Jamie told Today In BC in 2014, but “Highway Thru Hell” has kept afloat even when faced with so many tragedies and losses, partly because of the fascination which viewers have with such incidents.

Why Did The Show Move To Alberta?

Besides wanting to bring a deeper insight into his industry and what makes it valuable, one of the reasons Jamie Davis accepted to be part of “Highway Thru Hell” was the then-booming popularity of his business, given the rise of accidents around Hope.

Nonetheless, the rescuing industry isn’t necessarily a stable one, and Jamie was eventually pushed to expand his business to other towns, due to the increasing competition in the field, which in Jamie’s opinion resulted atleast partly from publicity emanating from the show: ‘brings on competition and people are aware of the wrecks we are doing and want a piece of the action’, he told Calgary Herald in 2014.

To ensure the future of Jamie Davis Towing, he spent the following year establishing and growing two other operations in Lake La Biche and Fort McMurray in Alberta, despite the overbearing difficulties found in those locations: ‘Whereas in Alberta, you get very, very cold weather, and dry, blowing snow conditions and lots of black ice…. the conditions are totally different, but equally dangerous.’

While those new operations seemed to be doing well for some time, in 2016 the decreasing revenues and worsening weather conditions took a toll on Jamie’s business in Alberta, pushing him to shut them down and return to British Columbia.

How Tough Is The Job?

As anyone who has ever watched “Highway Thru Hell” knows, rescuing people and recovering crashed vehicles isn’t a job suitable for everyone.

Though it would be impossible to recount all the risks that the Jamie Davis Towing has to face when called to emergencies, some of the most danger-inducing factors for them are the remoteness of the accidents, harsh weather conditions, and the rare but always-present risk of causing another accident while on a rescue mission.

As well, becoming stranded or losing communication with the rest of the team are constant dangers given the local low temperatures. However, making it alive out of every situation isn’t a matter of good luck, but instead results from decades of experience, taking the right security measures, including ensuring medical provisions, food and gas reserves, which usually last until the work team cleans off the roads after arriving to their destination, when one of the drivers returns to recharge gas for everyone, as Jamie told the website Driving in 2013.

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All in all, the difficulties and always present risks that Jamie Davis Towing’s staff face on an everyday basis only makes their job more valuable, and worth appreciation.

The Strangest Recovery

Given the nature of the job, it’s not surprising to know that Jamie Davis and his team have seen some of the rarest and most uncommon situations while on their rescue missions.

When it comes to a weird recovery, that’s definitely when Jamie’s business joined the recovery of a frozen chicken load after the truck transporting them rolled over near a forest. While the experience wasn’t necessarily a pleasant one, it was definitely seen in a comedic light by those who watched it during “Highway Thru Hell” second season.

Nonetheless, the title for the oddest recovery was finding $60,000 in a car. As Jamie affirmed in a 2020’s YouTube video, the finding was made by one of his workers, who discovered the money while recovering a wrecked car, and took it to the business’ offices.

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The cash was seized by the police under the suspicion that it came from illegal activities, leaving the owner to explain the source of the money.

What Causes Most Wrecks?

If there’s something for sure it’s that no accidents are the same. Nonetheless, the situations preceding these unfortunate events are usually similar, making it easier for rescuers to identify the cause.

With over three decades in the rescue field and countless working hours in his resume, Jamie Davis is undoubtedly an expert at pointing out these things. As he told the news site The Lede in 2019, 90% of the accidents his business deals with are caused by people who drive ‘too fast for road conditions’.

Though that says a lot about automotive accidents everywhere, the other 10% is somehow meant to happen: ‘sometimes it’s just totally weather-related, where it doesn’t matter how great a driver you are, or what shape your vehicle is in.’

While knowing that most accidents are actually preventable, in a 2013 interview with Driving, Jamie affirmed that well-thought driving can save lives: ‘as the sun goes down the temperature drops, and the storm starts. Don’t travel at night. You’re fatigued and the driving is its most treacherous. Wait until morning.’

How Is It Filmed?

One of the vital aspects of “Highway Thru Hell” is definitely the fact that it’s filmed on location, allowing viewers to witness the events and rescues as if they were there when it happened.

Nonetheless, while filming a show so far away from a studio might not always be a right decision, the camera and production crews of “Highway Thru Hell” handle any difficulties with ingenuity and creativity. As explained by the specialty camera operator Dalyn Forsythe, getting the show’s ‘crazy shots’ all comes down to placing professional action cameras in strategic places with Jamie’s trucks.

While action cameras are built to last even when faced with the harsh weather conditions seen in “Highway Thru Hell”, the duration of its batteries isn’t very durable.

To solve this issue, Dalyn and his team invented individual energy systems, made up of a car battery, a power inverter and lighter sockets so that the camera can run for at least 24 hours.

That being said, placing these camera systems in places where they would get all the action but not get ruined is all about the staff’s creativity and experience.

Is The Show Real?

While every reality show is subject to editing and staged scenes, the “Highway Thru Hell” star Jamie Davis affirms that the show doesn’t fall in the same category of those others.

As he told The Calgary Herald, towing is a business so full of drama that creating more stressful situations isn’t necessary: ‘we don’t feel the need to do anything other than what we regularly do on a daily basis’.

Logically, the show’s production would usually edit scenes to catch the audience’s attention in an effective way, but everything else – such as the accidents, wrecks, locations and the businesses – are all real. That makes “Highway Thru Hell” a breath of fresh air when compared to most other supposedly action-filled reality TV shows nowadays.