Misfit Garage is a car restoration and reality television program that aired on the Discovery channel. It stars Tom Smith and Jordan Butler who, after being fired from the other television program Fast N' Loud's Gas Monkey garage, join up with mechanics Thomas Weeks and Scot McMillan to form a new garage called Fired up garage. The cast is ever changing, by including Kevin Clark and John Klump among other mechanics and car artists as well as Richard Rawlings, who is the owner of Gas Monkey Garage and also a producer on the show.
Updated February 2022: If you were a fan of the show Misfits Garage, you'll be happy to know that we've updated this article with even more facts about the Fired Up Garage crew.
Each episode of the series features old cars, either brought in by a customer or picked up on a scouting mission, and being restored in either classic or innovated methods by Fired Up garages talented mechanics. The show also features reality show elements such as constant arguments between the cast, mechanical problems and endless disputes with Gas Monkey’s Richard Rawlings. There's no surprise that this show can be much of a soap opera at times. Although fans of the show might think they know every corner of Fired Up garage, there are actually many secret tools hidden in the toolbox. Here are some cool and interesting things about Misfit Garage.
19 Misfit Garage Is A Spin-Off From Fast N Loud
Misfit Garage's main cast members, Tom Smith and Jordan Butler, were previous members of Gas Monkey Garage on the show Fast N Loud. On February of 2014, Tom Smith revealed to TMZ inside reporters that he got fired from Gas Monkey garage after swearing at the on-duty manager.
This verbal showdown came after Tom Smith and Jordan Butler allowed a fan to pose for a picture with Richard Rawlings Rolls-Royce, without permission. The Discovery channel later offered the jobless duet a new opportunity to start their own show, still produced by the same Pilgrim studios.
18 The Misfit Garage Cast Are All Fired From Gas Monkey Garage... Or Are They?
Some of the cast members of Misfit Garage were previously a part of the show Fast N Loud and were seen to be fired on the episodes of the original show. This, however, is cause for some speculation among viewers since the executive producer of Misfit Garage is Richard Rawlings.
If you have been paying attention, he is the man responsible the firing of some of the cast members of Fast N Loud. So, the question remains – were these cast members really fired, or is it a clever game of television poker. Well, word on the street is that probably the Discovery channel staged a firing of the cast members, to create the spin-off the show.
17 Richard Rawlings Had More Control Over The Show Than You’d Expect
Although Fired up garage claims to be independent of Gas Monkey garage, Richard Rawlings still had a majority of control over Fired up garage including being the landlord, which was demonstrated right at the start of the show's television run on episode 1 of season one. Richard Rawlings also just so happened to be the show’s executive producer as well.
The role of being an executive producer gives Richard Rawlings control as an artistic overseer, which allows him to manipulate the cars that are featured in the shop and how each car is transformed. To make it worse, Richard Rawlings is also the financial budgeter, which gives him control over how much money goes into each project, how the money is used on the garage and also how the show is publicized and marketed.
16 Mechanic Thomas Weeks Has Suffered Multiple Car-Related Injuries
Thomas Weeks has suffered from multiple accidents both on and off the show. Most of these injuries occur from car related activities nonetheless. These injuries include the minor, regular and expected injuries such as cuts, scrapes, fatigue, pricks, and burns. However, some injuries have occurred which were more severe.
These more major injuries include a wrist injury which is quite visible on the show as Thomas Weeks has to constantly wear a glove to support his injured hand. His first car-related injury though was an incident where a metal rod sliced right through his chin. This happened when a then-4-year-old Thomas Weeks was watching his dad fix a car and accidentally fell into a spike-lined emission, after peeking under the hood.
15 Tom Smith - Mechanic By Day, Comedian By Night
Well, who knew? Tom Smith often performs a comedy act on the side. He regularly performs at the Dallas improv club in Texas, as well as occasionally at the Manhattan Christie club in New York. In fact, Tom Smith is so in love with his comedy endeavors that he has regularly aired his thoughts to multiple newspapers and reporters about his dream of bringing his comedic act to life on the television series Misfit Garage.
One act that he is deeply eager to demonstrate on the show involves him going door to door in a no soliciting neighborhood trying to sell no soliciting signs.
14 The Name, Fired Up Garage, Has A Deeper Meaning
The name, Fired Up, is the name of the garage featured on the show Misfit Garage. Obviously, this name is cool, hip, kick ass, and trendy enough. But it has a deeper meaning.
If you take the initials of Fired up garage you get a set of initials which can automatically be thought of as a common insult. Sure enough, Tom Smith did this on purpose after having a toolbox as a kid where he wrote a message which said, “'Our customers have been satisfying us since 1973,” and eventually called his dream garage F&U garage.
13 The Money Comes From The Viewings, Not The Cars
Let it be known that any business revolving around cars is expensive. Most people would assume that the money earned from restoring and tricking out old cars would be the main method of profit income to pay the mechanics and keep the garage from going bankrupt. However, this is not how things work.
Misfit Garage gets an average viewing of 1.3 million people per episode. The average profit from each car that is featured on the show is around $2,000, which means that the cast members salary comes mostly from the show’s popularity, not the products.
12 John Klump And The Batvan
Before working at Fired up garage, John Klump worked at multiple garages across the united states and worked on multiple cars including a 1960’s mock batmobile in the form of a van. This is where John Klump mounted a working flamethrower.
John Klump also happened to add a side mount for a machine gun as well as a spot for a missile on the top of the roof of the van. And before you start planning a heist on how you’ll steal the Batvan, please note that these extra add-ons were far too dangerous for the streets of the United States of America and therefore were fake.
11 Joyriding, The All-Important Passage
Many of the cast members on Misfit Garage have been guilty of joy ridings (also known as driving without a license) such as Kevin Clark and Tom Smith. These two featured cast members have admitted to reporters and media platforms that, before they could legally be old enough to attain a valid driver's license and drive any vehicle, they stole cars from their close family members and drove around town.
One story is told by Tom Smith, referring to when he was 10 years old. Tom Smith happened to be out on a nightly joyride when he was almost caught by the police. And instead of stopping the car and being arrested, Tom Smith decided to go James Bond and tried to escape, only to crash into a police cruiser.
10 Kid At Heart Kevin Clark
Kevin Clark did not come from a car-obsessed family like the other members of Fired Up garage. He got his interest from fiddling around with toy cars. Starting out with Hot Wheels when he was younger and then resulting into making his own model cars into his teenage years, Kevin Clark had always loved his miniature models and still does.
9 Did Misfit Garage Wreck More Cars Than They Restored?
Although many people would assume that the point of a garage would be to fix and restore cars, many viewers would be surprised that the opposite, in fact, happens quite commonly. Many cars seen on the Misfit garage are destroyed.
Specifically, a 1971 GTO was crushed by a tank (season 3, episode 20), done by the fellow members of Fired Up garage in order to teach frontman Thomas Weeks a lesson in etiquette. Another case was when a customer’s car was smashed by a fallen tree (season 1, episode 3).
8 Thomas Weeks Is A Pilot
Thomas Weeks obviously has a driver's license and another license that only a few people can brag of. At the age of 16, Thomas Weeks pursued another lifelong passion, aeronautics.
By this, he got his pilot's license as well as his driving license. Since he was a young boy, Thomas Weeks was obviously a fan of all things cars, but, as it turns out, was actually a fan of all things mechanically transportable which just so happened to include airplanes, big and small. So, why not combine the ever-growing field of mobility and get a dual license?
7 Tensions On The Show Kept Growing
Most people would automatically assume that when working in a garage, things are bound to heat up. With all the welding torches, engines, and other mechanical tools used in this particular trade, heat will rise both literally and metaphorically.
Thus, besides this obvious form of physical heat, also comes the hot mess which is a battle of who exactly has the best ideas. Yes, arguments, brawls and straight out fights also occur regularly behind the doors of Fired Up garage on the show Misfit Garage.
6 Tom Smith And His Aqua Car
Tom Smith didn’t become the mechanic that he is known as today overnight. Years of training, going from garage to garage and doing a variety of jobs made Tom Smith who he is today.
As a rookie mechanic, Tom Smith once was assigned to work on a 1970s Gremlin. The car ran fine and all, but once Tom Smith was finished with the aesthetic design of it all, it was not anywhere near his standards. He detested this car and therefore decided to experiment by building a makeshift boat on the car and driving it into a lake, only to have it sink.
5 Tom Smith Is Smarter Than You'd Think
Tom Smith was a Georgia state spelling bee champion at the age of 10 although he often brushes this off by claiming that this fact counts for nothing due to this achievement has no meaning in the state of Georgia.
Also, Tom Smith happens to be a fan of the works of Albert Einstein and Isaac Asimov (an American biochemist who is known for his science fiction novels). There is always more than meets the eye, this is the perfect case.
4 Scot McMillan Opened His Own Garage
After leaving Gas Monkey garage, Scot McMillan joined Fired Up garage with the other recently fired mechanics – Tom Smith, Jordan Butler, and Thomas Weeks. However, attitudes and ideas never seemed to disappear as constant feuding remained a part of Scot McMillan’s artistic pursuits at Fired up garage between him and his coworker.
Scot McMillan then left Misfit garages Fired up garage and now has his own garage, called Scot Rods garage which is in Fort William, Texas.
3 Customers From All Walks Of Life
Let's face it. When anything is produced on a massive scale on any type of marketing or media platform, it’s guaranteed to attract an audience.
Due to this fact, many customers have gone to Fired Up Garage. This list includes, but is not limited to, Officer McCaslin and Officer Heron from the Greenville Police Department, bull rider Montana Hand, and Yu-Lan Sue Martin, a Vietnamese upholstery specialist. This list, of course, is ever-growing.
2 Thomas Weeks Is Color Blind
You might recall previously from this article that Thomas Weeks is a licensed pilot and has an enormous and long-term passion for everything in the field of aeronautics. This passion was so strong in fact that Thomas Weeks initially planned to earn a BA in aviation.
This was Thomas Week’s dream for a long part of his life but sadly, he had to quit when he discovered that he was legally colorblind. Being colorblind makes it impossible for anyone in the United States to attain an aviation bachelor's degree.
1 For The Love Of Meat
Let it be known that all of the cast members of Misfit garage are a fan of cars first, and meat second. These carnivorous car junkies openly express their love of food both on and off the television screen. This is evident in season 3 of Misfit garage where the mechanics of Fired Up garage restore a food truck.
The menu included deep-fried mozzarella balls on a stick, Texas style pork chops, and a few of Tom Smith’s 9 thousand bacon-infused recipes such as bacon-wrapped corn cobs and bacon cinnamon rolls.