What happened to Aaron Kaufman from Gas Monkey Garage and ‘Fast N’ Loud’?

Aaron Kaufman was a big reason Discovery‘s car manufacturing reality show Fast N’ Loud became so popular.

The series followed the lives and jobs of the members of Gas Monkey Garage, run by Richard Rawlings, as they restored classic cars in Dallas, Texas. Kaufman met Rawlings in 2003, who would tap him to collaborate on bringing Fast N’ Loud to Discovery nine years later. He was the lead mechanic and the second most important figure on the show after Rawlings.

In 2017, however, things started souring between the two. Kaufman told Art of Gears “There were some growing personal issues and professional differences of opinion” at Gas Monkey Garage. It seems the source of the issues was the type of cars that the crew was working on at that time, which the mechanic implies were not ambitious enough projects, as well as the tight deadlines that were killing the joy of the job. “Richard and I were having difficulty being in the same building together,” the mechanic told Restomod Air.

Kaufman left the show shortly after to pursue “a different direction,” telling his boss that despite their lengthy professional relationship, the last five years shooting Fast N’ Loud had “felt like 20.”

Where is Aaron Kaufman from Fast N’ Loud now?

In 2018, he did two seasons of a show called Shifting Gears for Discovery Plus, where he introduced his newly established Arclight Fabrication shop in Dallas, Texas, still found the demands of the medium to be draining.

He started racing, even participating in the famous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado. He became such a fan of the area that he eventually moved to the Centennial State. Oh, and he no longer has his trademark beard, so don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize him.

After moving to Colorado, it seems Archlight Fabrication became dormant, virtually disappearing from social media. The company hasn’t shared any new updates on Instagram or Facebook since 2020. Kaufman is still working with cars, particularly racing cars, at Magna Flow, a high-end catalytic converter and performance exhaust manufacturer.

In late 2023, the mechanic and racer revealed he was working on a new project that could realize “a nearly life long dream,” sharing a picture of a warehouse on his Instagram page to go with it. Kaufman said he was investing all his time and money in building this mysterious endeavor, which he has yet to share more details about.