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There’s no shortage of car-centered shows, especially not on the internet. From shows specialized in restoring classic and muscle cars, to others which conduct crazy experiments and have no fear of destroying a car or two, there are simply too many options to choose from. While this is mostly a good thing, it also makes it hard for many shows to stand out from the most original and memorable ones.
Nonetheless, Junkyard Digs is one of those online shows which success is just too hard to ignore. Whether it is their honest and unpolished approach to automotive rebuilds and restorations or the fact Kevin Brown is a very likable host, there’s no doubt that Junkyard Digs is one of the most innovative car-centered YouTube channels around, attracting over a million subscribers and counting, since its beginnings in 2017.
However, who else besides Kevin is behind the channel, and how did it come to be? Stay here to know all about Junkyard Digs.
Kevin Brown
Every time you put on a Junkyard Digs video, the first face you’ll see is of Kevin Brown, the channel’s owner and the main guy who will guide you through his car adventures and builds.
While at times it might seem that Kevin is just having fun with cars, he’s actually a graduate of Iowa State University in 2021, with a Technology Management Applied Engineering Degree. His experience as a mechanic extended beyond that though, as he’d worked as a helicopter mechanic during his time in the Army National Guard, where he was deployed for a year. On top of that, he has over 15 years of experience working as a mechanic, meaning that he started quite young when it comes to getting his hands dirty under car hoods.
Though he grew up in a small town in the north of Iowa, he moved to Ames to study, and just stayed there after he grew fond of the city. At some point in between splitting his time in college and serving in the Army, Kevin started his YouTube channel, and hasn’t stopped growing since then
Just as the channel description states: ‘Real cars. Real people. Real content,’ Kevin’s key to internet success has been keeping his audience entertained with his fresh and fully honest take on car restoration and builds, marking a distinct difference from other channels around.
How Did He Start The Channel?
With so many years of experience in mechanics, it’s not surprising that Kevin Brown would eventually show his talent with cars for the rest of the world to see. Nonetheless, the process of deciding what he wanted to do for his channel, filming said content, and then posting it on YouTube took him several years, many of which he had no intention of becoming internet famous.
It all started in 2008, when a young Kevin had no source of entertainment except for a computer and internet access. Back then he would discover the genre of old car shows, loving every bit of them, and the straightforward way this type of content was made.
This specific taste for unpolished car content and the fact he thought he could make money out of YouTube, eventually led Kevin to launch Junkyard Digs in 2017, as he admitted in an interview with the podcast The Muscle Car Place in 2021.
His video introduction to the channel directly stated his intentions, admitting he didn’t have a good microphone, good lighting, or even the expected setting which most popular car shows had at the time: ‘You’ll notice behind me this is not California, this is Iowa’, he stated. Since then, he’s been exploring different types of content, but always keeping true to his essence
The Gang
Even though Kevin Brown started his channel alone, he has made several friends over the years, who aren’t afraid to share his fun car adventures with him, and whom he lovingly addresses as his ‘gang’. While some of them aren’t necessarily behind the content creation process of Junkyard Digs, they’ve contributed to the success of the channel in some way or another.
Junkyard Mook
We couldn’t talk about Junkyard Digs without mentioning Junkyard Mook, though viewers might also know her as Micah Uetz. She’s been there with Kevin since the early days of his channel, the only other person besides Kevin who is just as involved with Junkyard Digs as he is.
Whether she’s in front of cameras or filming, Micah knows her way around cars quite well, to the point of even starting her own channel Junkyard Mook in 2019. The latter channel brings her audience lots of the scenes of projects shown in Junkyard Digs, while also exploring Micah’s car adventures and projects.
Not only is Junkyard Mook directly connected to Junkyard Digs when it comes to content, but Micah and Kevin are also more than good friends. Though most of the details about their relationship aren’t well-known, they have been a couple for several years, and in October 2022, he proposed to her with the most original and gearhead-styled engagement ring. It’s unclear when they’re tying the knot, but they surely have a bright future ahead.
Other Important Members Of The Crew
The most usual guests in Junkyard Digs videos create content on their own, so gearheads surely recognize their faces or channel names. First there’s Luke Finley, an automation engineer known for his popular channel ThunderHead289. While his appearances in Junkyard Digs’ videos were more usual during the earliest years of the channel, Luke moved out of Ames to a nearby town, and now has less spare time to film videos with Kevin, but their friendship and love for cars remain in place.
There are also John Inzerillo and Isaac Jennette from the highly popular channel Cars and Cameras, Dylan McCool from the DylanMcCoolVideo car restoration channel, the Canada-based DebossGarage, and the classic car-centered The Old Car Channel. There’s also the highly successful Vice Grip Garage, which has recently crossed the YouTube limits to premiere its TV show “Roadworthy Rescues”.
While it’s not always that you’ll get to see Kevin’s friends in his videos or him in his friends’ videos, the collaborations between these content creators have significantly helped them to increase their individual audiences, and find their niche in the vast world of online content creation.
Plans For The Future
There’s no doubt that YouTube has played well for Kevin Brown. Besides the fact that his channel’s growth doesn’t seem to ever stop, hitting the one million subscribers mark in 2023, Kevin has also made himself a name in the car restoration industry.
While he’s surely grateful for the popularity and success achieved by Junkyard Digs so far, when it comes to building a business through it, Kevin isn’t over yet. As he admitted in a 2021 interview with The MuscleCar Place, creating videos for YouTube isn’t as stable as he would like, especially considering how many of the car content creators he grew-up watching are somewhat already forgotten.
That being said, his plans for the future include not only keep growing Junkyard Digs as much as he can, but also using the money he’s gained through the channel to start other businesses, and have a stable income in case something were to happen.
Will Kevin’s worries for the future become real? Only time will tell, but in the last couple of years, Kevin has been keenly diversifying his income by starting an online merchandise shop and getting sponsorship deals, all to ensure that Junkyard Digs doesn’t turn into one of those old forgotten channels, and achieve all the goals Kevin Brown has planned for it.
