[AwesomeM3]

A good friend of mine has a new reality series permiering June 30 at 8:00 PM EST on Discovery Channel's Velocity network. Dan owns and operates a classic auto restoration shop in Norfolk, Virginia. The series revolves around Dan, his shop, and the restorations they do. The first episode features the restoration of a 1963 Corvette. Be sure to tune in!!!!

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A Norfolk vintage car restoration crew stars in new cable series

The Virginian-Pilot
© May 27, 2013


Daniel Short no longer watches automotive television shows to relax. “Now,” he said, “I watch them to see what they’re doing.”

And with good reason.

Short and the crew of his automotive restoration shop, DRS FantomWorks of Norfolk, are about to become reality TV stars. Their show, “Fantom-Works,” debuts on The Discovery Channel’s Velocity network at 9 p.m. June 25.

The channel, part of Cox Cable’s HD lineup, launched in 2011 and now reaches 42 million subscribers nationwide.

Those viewers are about to get a dose of Short and his intense passion for restoring cars.

Short runs his shop with the same intensity he displayed when serving in the military as a program manager. That attribute didn’t go unnoticed by Nicolas Valcour, CEO and COO of New Dominion Pictures in Suffolk.

A couple of years ago, Valcour brought his 1957 Heinkel bubble car to FantomWorks to be restored. It wasn’t long before New Dominion was filming a pilot in the former restaurant-linen factory on Hampton Boulevard. Within a year, contracts had been signed, a network secured and shooting had begun.

The first season’s filming, which wrapped earlier this month, wasn’t embraced by everyone in the shop.

“There was actually a lot of kickback on doing the show,” Short said. “Some of the guys refused to be a part of it. If the cameras came around, they were deliberately disruptive just because they didn’t want the show here. It became my job to become a full-time referee.”

Some of that tension boiled over from the demands of shooting for television.

“There was constantly that turmoil, because sometimes the TV crew would want to skip ahead to something. And I would say, ‘We’re not there yet.’ ”

Short said that eventually New Dominion and Discovery allowed work to proceed at a natural pace, but it took some convincing.

“I said, ‘Look, it still takes nine months to make a baby. Even if you put nine women on it, they can’t make a baby in one month.’ ”

Everyone’s attitude seems to have changed since a rough cut of the first show was shown at the wrap party.

“They’re really excited by what they see,” Short said.

The initial episode deals with a soon-to-be-wed owner of a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray who wants his car fully restored in a mere eight weeks, in time to drive his bride away on their honeymoon.

That the series has reached the screen in fewer than two years is remarkably quick by industry standards. The Discovery Channel reality show “Mythbusters” took almost seven to get to the same point.

“I think folks are generally excited about it,” Short said. “You know, it’s fun having a TV show.”

And Valcour’s 1957 Heinkel bubble car? It remains unrestored.

“We’re actually holding that for Season 2.”