Iron Resurrection is not necessarily known for its on-screen drama, but several of its cast members have left the show through the years.
Joe Martin from Iron Resurrection has always been a gearhead, but it took him appearing on the Biker Build-Off to get his own show.
Iron Resurrection has now been on the air for six seasons, and although the show remains very popular, the cast has changed slightly over the years.
The Iron Resurrection backstory
While most of the teams that you see working to restore and customize various classic bikes, cars and trucks on Discovery’s MotorTrend likely love what they do, resto-mods are a way of life for Joe Martin and the team at Martin Bros. Customs.
Joe originally started restoring old cars and bikes in his youth, when custom builds from people like Boyd Coddington and Wayne Carini were just slightly out of his price range.
But he eventually earned his own claim to fame when he competed in Discovery’s Biker Build-Off in 2004.
This is also what ultimately convinced the Velocity Channel (now MotorTrend) producers to give Joe, his brother Jason, his best friend Jayson “Shag” Arrington, and his wife Amanda Martin their own show called Iron Resurrection.
5 Questions about the Iron Resurrection cast answered
The very first season of Iron Resurrection started airing back in 2016, and throughout the next six seasons, the Martin Bros. Customs team has been responsible for some absolutely beautiful builds.
This includes a few particularly notable builds like the “monster” trike (featured in Iron Resurrection season 4, episode 3), the complete ’77 Bandit Trans Am rebuild (in season 5, episode 4), or the ’65 Buick Riviera back which was brought back to life for the owner Butch Yamali, in the most recent season.
And of course, just about anything and everything in between.
Part of the reasons why the Iron Resurrection has remained so popular over the years, and why the Martin Bros. Customs team can continue to pull off these impressive builds, is because the show does not include the manufactured on-screen drama that many reality shows tend to favor.
However, this does not necessarily mean that things have gone/go off without a hitch behind-the-scenes. Iron Resurrection has seen quite a few cast changes over the course of the last seven years.
Iron Resurrection cast 2022
The most recent, sixth season of Iron Resurrection only premiered a few months ago on September 28, 2022.
The cast list of this season is:
| Cast member | Role |
| Joe Martin | Owner of Martin Bros. Customs |
| Amanda Martin | Co-owner of Martin Bros. Customs |
| Jason Martin | Mechanic |
| Jayson ‘Shag’ Arrington | Head of Sales and Marketing |
| Mike Zabonik | Welder |
| Pompa | Shop Assistant |
| Ken | Fabricator |
| Justin | Upholsterer |
| Miguel | Upholsterer |
| Tommy | Paint and Body |
| Chad | Fabricator and Shop Assistant |
| Tom Richards | Custom Paint Expert |
This season also featured some guest appearances by Tom Richards (a Custom Paint Expert), Brian Vastine (from Vastine’s Paint Garage), Darren Wenzel (from Gasoline Art) and a few other skilled artisans.
However, as skilled as the current cast of Iron Resurrection may be, we know that longtime fans will be much more interested in what happened to the show’s original cast and what will happen to the show in the future.
1. Why did Shorty leave Iron Resurrection?
Javier “Shorty” Ponce (also known as “Short Dog”) may not have been an official member of the Martin family, but he was certainly quickly established as one of the fan-favorite characters on the show.
Unfortunately, Shorty left Iron Resurrection just before the show’s fourth season, which aired in 2020.
Shorty’s abrupt and unexpected departure from the show caused such upset among longtime fans that both the show and Shorty himself had to put out official statements announcing and explaining that he had left the show to focus on his family and his business “Shorty’s Custom Paint”.
2. Did Shorty from Iron Resurrection get a new show in 2022?
When Shorty initially took to Facebook to explain why he had decided to leave Iron Resurrection, he promised that fans would be seeing more of him soon.
As it turns out, what he meant was that fans would soon get to tune in to watch his very own show, called Shorty’s Dream Shop, which premiered in 2022.
Shorty’s Dream Shop currently only has one season (with ten episodes in total) and is available to stream on the MotorTrend+ streaming service.
3. What happened to Cato on Iron Resurrection?
Phil Cato, who is often referred on the show by his nickname, “Cato” is another Iron Resurrection cast member who left the show unexpectedly prior to its fourth season.
Cato later revealed that he had left for similar reasons to Shorty. Cato had actually decided to relocate to Atlanta, where his wife had started a new job.
Now, a few years down the line, Cato is still doing his upholstery work. He even hosts regular custom upholstery workshops alongside Justin Stephens. They call themselves the ‘BITCHIN STITCHIN’ duo.
4. Is Mike Zabonik still on Iron resurrection?
If you do not count Joe and Amanda Martin (two of the co-owners of Martin Bros. Customs) Mike Zabonik, otherwise simply known as “Mike Z,” is probably one of the cast members who gets the most screen time on the show, and for good reason.
Mike is technically a welder, but he often handles much more than the metal work on the Iron Resurrection restorations.
Although some sources have reported otherwise, Mike was featured on the sixth season of the show and so far, it seems quite likely that he will return for the seventh season if the show is renewed.
5. Is Iron Resurrection coming back in 2023?
Season six of Iron Resurrection, aired its final episode only a few months ago, on November 30, 2022.
Although it is very likely that the show will be renewed for a seventh season, and that this seventh season may even start airing before the end of 2023, no official plans have been announced just yet.
This means that fans will just have to wait and see whether MotorTrend will bring Iron Resurrection back before this year is over or not.
