Restomods Are Big Business at Arizona’s Big 10 Garage

This article originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of THE SHOP magazine.

By Mark C. Bach

Despite being exposed to car culture in his youth, Jason Bowman was convinced his career path was as an aviation mechanic. However, after a stint with Southwest Airlines and moving through various jobs in the automotive industry, he realized his passion was building cars and trucks. So, he opened Big 10 Garage in Gilbert, Arizona.

Like many young people, Bowman was drawn to cars early on. His dad raced with his uncle, and Bowman spent countless hours with Matchbox toys. His first car was a 1967 VW Bug that he bought for $300, and subsequently he replaced the engines on each of his first three cars. “I bought junk,” admits Bowman, but gained valuable skills working on those vehicles.

During the summer after his junior year of high school, he got the chance to crew on a nitro Funny Car team. “That was really cool, got to travel some and just be part of a race team,” he recalls. Before high school was done, he’d worked at a Discount Tire store as well.

A FLYING START

Still, Bowman thought his future was in airplanes. His father was a mechanic for Southwest Airlines, and at age 13 during the summer school break, he went with his dad to work the graveyard shift in the hangars. At that age, he was not certified, but could fetch tools and help where an extra hand was needed.

After high school, he enrolled at the local Chandler-Gilbert Community College and prepared to become licensed in aircraft airframe and power plants.

“I loved working on airplanes,” says Bowman.

While still in school in 2002, he was hired by Southwest. He was driving a 1971 Dodge Demon with a 340-ci power plant at the time, and unfortunately the Dodge had a tendency to throw belts at inopportune times, often causing Bowman to be late for work.

Southwest used a points system to track personnel issues. One day, his car threw yet another belt, and he was again late for work. His boss called him in and said he had accrued seven points and they had to let him go.

He reluctantly switched gears, going to work at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store.

Still focused on the aeronautics industry, Bowman and his father opened an aeronautics maintenance shop in 2003. The shop grew to six employees and encompassed 10,000 square feet. Later, when a lease was not renewed, with just two weeks’ notice, they were forced to move into smaller quarters with only 4,000 square feet.

Even with the shop business keeping him occupied, he found time to bring in a car or two and work on them while other employees worked on planes. Eventually, the aeronautics work became less interesting, and Bowman and his dad sold the shop.

In 2007, Bowman opened an automotive shop with a friend and, while things started well, he learned that working in somebody’s backyard shop was hard, dirty work.

“I realized how much work it is to own a shop and what kind of time you had to put in. I was working 16-hour days just trying to make ends meet,” he recalls.

The work included installing lift kits for dealerships. But, in 2008, the economy soured, and the demand for trucks dropped. Bowman left the business and worked for a dealership for two years.

He left there to work at a custom car shop, but after two weeks learned the owner didn’t have the money to pay his wages.

That lead to a job at Pro Dyno where he worked alongside Charles Hendrickson, who later was involved in the television series “Pinks” as a technical adviser. That allowed Bowman to meet several professional car builders.

INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE

In 2016, Bowman went to Dallas and hung out with some of the workers from Gas Monkey Garage. Upon returning to Arizona, he started modifying trucks in his home garage and managed to build four trucks while upsetting his homeowner’s association.

In 2018, Aaron Kaufman was leaving Gas Monkey Garage and asked Bowman to work with him in a new television series, “Shifting Gears with Aaron Kaufman.” They built four cars in two seasons—a 1971 Scout for King of the Hammers, a semi-truck for racing, a 2000 Subaru Impreza to attend rallies and a 1931 Model A for T.R.O.G. – The Race of Gentlemen.

The TV exposure gained Bowman some fame and followers before Kaufman abruptly opted out of the series. Two days before Christmas in 2018, Bowman and his wife decided to return to Arizona so he could start his own shop.

“I knew I wasn’t going to work for anybody. I just wanted to work for myself,” Bowman says.

News of his departure from the show hit the internet, and several customers approached him with truck projects.

By January 2019, he had a business license and a 2,000-square-foot shop. A year-and-a-half later he added his first employee. Later, he moved to a 4,000-square-foot shop and added three more employees.

Today, Big 10 Garage (big10garage.com) has a 6,000-square-foot location and plans to expand soon into a larger setting of 10,000 to 15,000 square feet. While 85% of the builds are trucks, an occasional car creeps into the shop for some work.

Since Bowman has a potent social media presence, his business also offers a wide variety of clothing and merchandise, supervised by his wife, Nancy, who has previous retail business experience.

The shop handles everything mechanically but does not do paint or bodywork. Big 10 also uses another firm to do interior stitching while the crew can do the actual assembly work.

When COVID-19 struck in 2020, Bowman wasn’t sure what to expect. There was an abrupt shutdown for a few weeks, but then his customers pressed forward with even more enthusiasm about completing their builds.

From there it’s been mostly smooth sailing. Big 10 Garage receives many customers from word of mouth and social media. Bowman has hired a social media staff member to handle the feeds.

A presence at large truck shows also helps keep his brand alive and thriving. He estimates that two-thirds of his customers can be traced to his attending enthusiast events.

Of course, it helps when his builds walk off with trophies, such as a customer’s 1972 GMC truck that won first place in its class at this year’s Grand National Roadster Show.

MAINTAINING THE ESSENCE

His approach with customers is to “steer them to what they want.” Bowman describes his builds as maintaining the overall essence of the pickup while adding the appropriate power and accessory upgrades.

“They are such cool-looking pickup trucks, why change it?” he asks.

Bowman presently has six employees working four 10-hour days. They kick off Mondays with a meeting to discuss the week’s schedule and activities, and he tries to schedule some fun activities for his staff on weekends (like attending truck shows), as he considers them part of his family.

Lamenting the office duties that often take him away from the shop floor, Bowman would still rather spend his time making things on the mill and lathe.

The workflow is steady, with builds scheduled about 18 months out.

“It’s really neat to be able to do what we do, but it also scares me because what we do is not a necessity,” he relays.

As for advice for shop owners, Bowman offers, “Just do good work. Do the best that you can. Take the extra time to make it nice.”

Mark C. Bach is a well-preserved automotive junkie with 30W oil in his veins who remembers feeler gauges and brake springs. He has a love for all things that move, especially old-school muscle cars. Bach covers car auctions and the automotive scene and writes for a variety of outlets, including Chevy Classics, Round-Up Publications and eBay Motors, and maintains Route66pubco.com.