MotorTrend’s “Rust Valley Restorers” is one of those TV shows that we can never get enough of. Since its premiere in 2018, the series has been gaining fans worldwide thanks to the amazing projects featured in it, and the undeniable charisma of the cast.
The show’s main star, Mike Hall is the one who has achieved the most recognition out of “Rust Valley Restorers”, as his fans love him for his personality, particular sense of style and the fact he’s crazy about cars, having a massive collection that most people could only ever dream of having.
The curiosity caused by Mike’s lifestyle is only one of the many reasons the show is so memorable, but how much of it is actually true? Is his collection as massive as “Rust Valley Restorers” portrays? Keep watching to discover this and more about Mike Hall!
Net Worth
From his home in Manitoba, Canada, Mike Hall has been at the center of attention for a long time, not only for his eccentric hairstyle, but also for his TV show “Rust Valley Restorers”. The man is the owner of Rust Bros Restorations, his business with which he takes on projects and also restores some of the cars on his land, giving them new life in the hands of someone else.
According to reports, Mike’s net worth is around $5 million, as of early 2025, which results from his career on TV, and as a car restorer and landscape business owner. It’s unclear if he has other sources of income besides these, but seeing how well he’s doing financially, there’s no doubt how he’s managed to fund his car craze so well throughout the years.
How Much Does He Make From TV?
As usual with reality TV series, stars often refrain from revealing details about their shows, but Mike Hall’s fellow “Rust Valley Restorers” stars – Cassidy Mceown and Sarah Ward – have shed some light on these topics in the past.
According to a video the pair shared on Mceown’s TikTok in 2022, they weren’t paid big salaries for their TV appearances, and their only benefits from the show was discounts on auto parts and other brands related to the show. As they described it, the cast’s salaries from the show were on the lower side of the industry, and while Mike and Avery Shoaf made more money for being the main stars, they still didn’t receive exorbitant wages from it.
The reason behind these surprisingly low salaries lies in the fact that “Rust Valley Restorers” is produced by the History Channel, making the production a documentary. This means that the show’s funding is quite limited, added to the fact that the Canadian TV industry is not as in-demand as in the US.
Besides the valuable information shared by Mceown and Ward, in an interview with the news site CBC.ca, Mike also affirmed that he’s lost a lot of money in business operations in recent years, breaking even on only a couple of cars since the show’s beginning in 2018.
What Happened to His Cars?
One of the main factors that make “Rust Valley Restorers” so entertaining to watch is Mike Hall’s massive car collection. By the time the show premiered, Mike had around 400 cars on his land, awaiting to be restored and sold to someone who would actually drive them.
However, the exact number of cars in Mike’s collection is uncertain for several reasons, starting with the fact that he’s sold and repurchased several of them. Back in 2017, he told the local news site Infotel that he was afraid of owning so many cars because of the issues these could cause his family once he was no longer alive. That’s where the idea of setting up a restoration shop was born, as Mike wanted to encourage himself to keep working on the cars, and make some money for his family in the process.
In 2022, Mike took part in a massive auction which led him to say goodbye to many cars. As reported, his 600-car collection was reduced to around 40, which seemed understandable at the time, given how far Mike’s car-buying habits had got, and it wouldn’t have been realistic to restore all of them.
Dodge Girls Have More Fun
With Mike Hall from Rust Valley Restorers pic.twitter.com/AtNrwt5Fyx— ~Amber Dawn~ (@AmberDawnGlover) July 30, 2024
However, it didn’t take long before Mike stepped back into his old habits, and re-purchased some of the cars he’d already sold, and also found new ones to add to his collection. By 2024, he was reportedly back to 100 cars and counting.
His Other Business
Mike Hall’s love for cars might be uncontrollable, but his business before TV had nothing to do with the automotive industry but with landscaping. His company Chimera Springs Rock Works is based in British Columbia and was established in the 1970s, becoming his main source of income and the reason he could afford to buy hundreds of cars in the span of over four decades.
According to Mike, the reason landscaping was so important for him was because it filled him with a sense of adrenaline that was hardly accomplishable anywhere else, something expected from a job which involves exploding rocks and piloting helicopters. There’s no doubt that Mike is truly committed to the job, as in 2008, he gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a goat which had fainted after falling off a cliff where his company was working.
That fact alone turned Mike into a micro-celebrity back when it happened, but there’s more to it. Mike’s business was featured on local news shows, and even in the “Highway Thru Hell” documentary, though no mention of the goat incident was made in these shows, as people were more interested in how Mike ‘Rasta Blast’ Hall exploded rocks for a living.
The Future of Mike Hall
Now that Mike Hall is back to having over 100 cars on his land, new problems have arisen for him. This was made evident in the fifth season of “Rust Valley Restorers”, which marked the show’s return in late 2024, after an extended break from TV since 2022.
Regarding Mike’s situation, his ever-increasing addiction to buying cars resulted in the risk of eviction, as the Canadian government is worried about the status of his land.
Though it’s unclear whether Mike will ever change his ways and control his car purchasing habits, this particular personality trait of his is what makes Mike quite fitting for great reality TV.
