As much as people like to watch TV and enjoy all the actors and scripts, reality television has taken the world by storm. From the lives and styles of the rich and the famous to watching masters berate their apprentices on cookery shows, to finally reality TV about stuff we like – it all sells.

Updated October 2022: with Car Masters: Rust To Riches continuing to be one of the most popular car TV shows on air, we've updated this list with some more behind-the-scenes facts and secrets the show's cast doesn't want fans to know.

No wonder then, that car reality TV is also a big hit, and shows like American Chopper blew automotive fans away. But when one thing sells, there are plenty of others that crop up too and one of the many reality automobiles shows that gained popularity is Netflix’s Car Masters: Rust To Riches. The show catalogs the comings and the goings of the crew from The Gotham Garage.

While there is plenty of stuff the producers and cast of the show do want you to know, there are other things they’d rather keep under wraps, for both simple and complicated reasons. Here are some of those not-so-well-kept secrets.

11 Not All Of Their Builds Have Been Well-Received

Car Masters: Rust To Riches Season 4 show car build
Gotham Garage Via Instagram

Every Car Masters fan appreciates the fact that the team builds some truly unique and stunning cars. That said, the crew has worked on several iconic recreations and classic models that many fans haven't even heard of, such as their 1960s Plymouth XNR concept car or their iconic Speed Racer Mach 5 replica, which is touted as one of the Gotham Garage's greatest creations.

Gotham Garage's Ford T-Bucket and Ranchero buil rolling side view
Via: Netflix

However, despite their many successes, many Gotham Garage builds don't go over too well with fans. The main issues cited include poor build quality and tacky, outdated looks, such as this Reddit user complaining about the boat-turned-Vette. Another user whose post received 87% upvotes and more than 60 comments also complained about the show's lazy and unflattering designs.

10 They Charge A Fortune For Their Builds

Car Masters: Rust to Riches
Via: Instagram - Gotham Garage

Car Masters owes its fame primarily to all the cool and interesting builds they've built and showcased over the years. The engineering genius of the Gotham Garage crew isn't sold for peanuts though.

Gotham Garage - 1940s Lincoln Zephyr, front
Via: Instagram - Gotham Garage

Even though some of their builds start off as extremely cheap "scrap" you might find at a junkyard, they charge a pretty penny for their builds. As described by Mark Towle in Car Masters' 2018 trailer, the goal of the show is to buy cheap cars for $500 and sell them for as much as six figures.

9 The Cars Purchased Are In Shambles

Via Netflix

The idea behind The Gotham Garage and Car Masters is to make a tidy profit for the cast, crew, and of course, the production company. The premise is simple, they buy the cheapest and most destroyed cars they land their hands on, in the vicinity of $500-1,000.

Via IMDb

These cars are in utter disrepair, and sometimes nothing more than giant rust buckets with barely anything salvageable other than the shell of the car. It's only with immense work, money, and time spent that these rusty cars turn into the most beautiful things ever.

RELATED: 15 Little-Known Facts About The Rust Valley Restorers Crew

8 The Crew Members Are Actors And Models

Car Masters' Shawn Pilot
Via: IMDb

Not all of the Gotham Garage’s crew was a camera newbie. For example, Shawn Pilot was actually on his way to becoming a Hollywood actor. He had a minor role in Three Kings alongside George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg and was also on Inside West Coast Customs.

Gotham Garage's Constance Nunes, sitting in shell of car
Via: Facebook via Constance Nunes

Then there is Constance Nunes, who is not only a self-professed “glam girl wrenching in a boy's world” but is also a model, having worked with plenty of big brands in both print and TV commercials.

7 Constance Nunes Is Quite The Social Media Influencer Now

Via Facebook

Nunes’ star is also on the rise, so much so that she has 859,000 followers on Instagram already, although the official handle of the show, Car Masters: Rust To Riches, has a little over 50,000 followers only.

Via Facebook

Naturally, it helps to have curves, wear bikinis and get some alterations done as well, not that any girl would admit to any hanky-panky of this sort. And now, Nunes is also single and ready to mingle, which makes her even more attractive to her fans.

RELATED: 15 Things You Didn't Know About Gotham Garage's Constance Nunes

6 Mark Towle Is A Reality TV Frequenter

Via Distractify

On the show, Mark Towle is shown to be a car-crazy entrepreneur, someone who used to make vehicles and automotive props for movies and TV. And in doing that, his earnings are what bought him The Gotham Garage.

Via IMDb

What the majority of the audience doesn’t know is that this was not Mark Towle’s first rodeo and he has been cast in America’s Most Wanted and The Today Show, as well. So is he a car guy who also acts, or an actor who is now passionate about cars?

5 But His Personal Life Is Kept Strictly Under Wraps

Via TVOvermind

Towle has mentioned being brought up by a single mother in California and seemingly always had a fixer-upper tendency. He loved to fix broken things by salvaging stuff, and it's this childhood propensity that led him to have a career building props and vehicles for Hollywood.

Via Twitter

That said; his personal life is never discussed on the show, and no one knows who he’s with. Unlike the story about Nunes’ marriage and eventual divorce, Towle’s personal and romantic life is entirely under wraps.

RELATED: The WelderUp Garage Crew From Vegas Rat Rods Is The Real Deal

4 Gotham Garage Was Sued By Warner Bros

Gotham Garages Was Sued By Warner Bros
Via Forbes

One fine day, Gotham Garage decided to build their version of the Batmobile, rather a replica of the 1989-one. And Towle was promptly served by Warner Bros. who said that the Batmobile was a character owned by DC Comics and it was a violation of the copyright law to have Towle make it.

Via Twitter

Towle tried to argue that the car was simply a “useful article” and not a character, but the judge was not impressed and the Warner Bros won the suit. None of this was mentioned in the show, despite one of the episodes that covered the Batmobile.

3 They Also Customize Other Vehicles

Via Pinterest

The show is all about cars. So obviously anything the crew does, on camera, is always about a car. But the Garage itself does far more than just cars and is happy to modify and rebuild just about anything that has fuel and moves and is considered a vehicle.

Via Pinterest

They even took a boat and turned it into a Corvette hybrid of sorts, and then have also done up tractors and even a helicopter or two. The crew at Gotham Garage is way more talented than the show sets them out to be.

2 The Gotham Garage Also Builds Choppers

Via Facebook

Despite helicopters flying around in our heads, the choppers we mean are motorcycles. Gotham Garage is only too happy to take old choppers and fix them up to run like new. Towle considers himself to be a “biker’s biker” and can work magic around any Hollywood chopper.

Via IMDb

And he names his choppers too. For example, there’s “Barbed Wire”, where he designed the front end of the chopper eponymously, and plenty of other beautiful bikes their owners are undeniably proud of. Towle and his crew know their wheels and other stuff that floats and flies too.

1 Much Like Other Reality Shows, Car Masters Is Scripted

Via IMDb

Finally, reality TV may not be as real as it is propagated to be. A lot of what you see onscreen comes scripted, and there are many retakes in the reality TV world as well. You have to put on a show that looks real; but sometimes, if the reality is getting to be boring, it has to be spiced up.

Team Gotham Garage photo
Gotham Garage Via Facebook

Scripts and deliberately woven situations can do that, and the reality TV cast is often coached into making situations more antagonistic and dramatic than they need to be. But it's not as if Towle, Nunes, or the others will tell you so!