Garage Squad works slightly differently than other car restoration shows and requires a submission from a real amateur mechanic for each episode.
Garage Squad focuses on helping regular home mechanics with their forgotten projects, instead of creating their own builds.
They do this by relying on the public to submit their own projects for the show. These projects are then reduced and filtered the show’s producers, who choose just a few stories to tell in each season.
Why does Garage Squad do what they do?
Any longtime car enthusiast or DIY mechanic will know that even passion-led projects like restoring a beloved car can fall by the wayside if things like budget, time and energy get in the way.
This is exactly why the Garage Squad team does what they do on the show.
Instead of leaving these overwhelmed and under-prepared home mechanics to their own devices, the Garage Squad team can take over these forgotten projects and complete those last few finishing touches to get the cars up and running again.
How does Garage Squad work?
Since Garage Squad endeavors to help other car enthusiasts with their own projects, the show does not rely on pickers, auctions or vintage shows to procure the cars the way other restoration shows might.
Instead, the show relies on the family and friends of home mechanics (who have usually grown tired of seeing their “projects” standing around in the garage or driveway) to apply.
Alternatively, the mechanics themselves can submit applications to be on the show.
The Garage Squad website is no longer active, but when it was still working, it included a dedicated “Forms Submission” section which allowed possible participants who wanted to be on the show to apply via a regular written or filmed video submission.
Of course, these submissions had to include several details about the mechanic and the car, such as why you need the help, as well as the make and model of your car and what condition it is currently in.
This was so that the producers of the show could determine which projects would be a good fit for the show.
The FAQ section of the website also confirmed that the Garage Squad team looked at every single submission, even though this likely would have totaled in the thousands when the show was at its peak, before making their final decision about who got to appear on every season.
However, it is fair to assume that once a project was selected to be featured on the show, the Garage Squad producers would reach out to the mechanic with further details regarding the filming dates and restoration plans.
The filming and production of every season reportedly started just a few months before the season started airing, and the skilled Garage Squad team would then work on these projects at lightning speed in the Garage Squad shop, in order to get all the episodes for the season filmed and finished in time.
The executive producer, Ted Lega, revealed in 2018 that the team only had seven days to complete every project on the show.
How do the restoration budgets work on the show?
Although participants need to apply to have the Garage Squad team consider their failed restoration projects, the Garage Squad submission process did not require that applicants already had a certain sum of money saved, like many other shows do.
Instead, the Garage Squad team paid for all the restorations, parts and labor themselves (with the aid of a few generous sponsors).
The geographical limitations of the show
When Garage Squad was still actively filming new episodes, the show’s primary filming location was the Chicago area.
The show did not limit submissions to this area, but it does mean that if you were selected to be on the show, you would have to travel to the Garage Squad shop in Chicago for filming.
You would also likely have had to be available for the entire seven days that it took to film each episode.
Will Garage Squad return for another season?
The most recent eighth season of Garage Squad started airing almost two years ago in October 2021.
Although a few years between seasons is usually no cause for concern when it comes to the renewal of popular television shows and series, it is strange that MotorTrend has not yet officially renewed this show after so many months.
To add to this, the Garage Squad Facebook page has also not given any indication that the team is working on new projects beyond 2022.
Considering this, with the website’s current inactivity, it seems unlikely that Garage Squad will return for another season.