A new Australian truck based TV series is about to debut (Wednesday 17 May) on pay tv with the premiere of Aussie Truck Rehab on Discovery at 8.30pm AEST.
The former boss of Heavy Haulage Australia, Jon Kelly, who also was involved in and was the subject of the former TV show Mega Truckers before the whole HHA empire collapsed, is back as the host of the new show Aussie Truck Rehab.
In the new show Jon Kelly and his team of restoration specialists set out to build the greatest truck rehab firm in the world.
The goal for the show will be to return Australia’s most beautiful and banged up heritage trucks to their former glory, for show, or for profit.
Working with Kelly are a crew of rehab specialists: finance manager ‘Dollar’ Dave Pattullo, crew chief ‘Driver’ Dave Pancino, lead mechanic Marshall Watego, workshop assistant Izaiah Watego and truck scout Jess Edwards.
Together, the crew takes on what it describes as high stakes truck rehab missions by ‘undertaking massive, one-off transformational projects that turn broken down wrecks into heavy hauling steel masterpieces’.
The self described truck restoration expert, Jon Kelly says he lives and breathes keeping ‘Australia’s most beautiful heritage rigs’ on its highways and in restoring its most iconic trucks to their former glory.
Kelly says that as a third-generation truck obsessive, he pores over every last detail of truck restorations, determined to recreate the classic rigs that inspired him as a boy.
He adds that it’s this relentless passion and perfectionism that drives his one-of-a-kind truck restoration business, which is called Heavy Haulage Assets.
“I’ve yet to find a bucket of bolts lying in a paddock that we can’t turn into treasure,” said Kelly.
Kelly says his goal is to turn the firm into the world’s best, by assembling a collection of statement restorations – elite, historic trucks from the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
With millions of km under their belts, many of these road warriors have fallen into disrepair, gathering dust in rural barns, or rotting away in forgotten corners of busy truck yards,” Kelly added.
Aussie Truck Rehab is being produced by Australian production company Ronde Media for Discovery.