Last summer, JD Sarantakos – star of the A&E hit show “Mindfreak” and brother of world-famous magician Chris Angel – unveiled five newly restored cars from his personal collection at the GM Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He filmed the restoration process leading up to the unveiling for a short YouTube documentary series.
While Revolution Motors Group handled most of the restoration work, all of the upholstery – including two convertible tops – was outsourced to a local trim shop in Franklin Square, New York. In part five of the series, JD visits with Big Jim and Little Jim Zabatta of Phoenix Upholstery where they update him on the progress of his vehicles.
The video offers a great behind-the-scenes look at how a busy auto upholstery shop juggles several restoration projects at once. It also calls attention to how easy it is to make a mistake when you’ve got so much on your plate.
Try not to cringe when JD is presented with a “surprise” at the end of the clip that doesn’t go according to plan.
On many occasions I’ve called a customer just to double check the final decision on a seat. Confirm color combination, french or double fell seams, just to make sure. It’s so easy to overlay all the ideas that are bantered about in the planning process, and sometimes the notes and pictures don’t answer the questions as much as you expected they would. I’ve just never had mine on video. lol.
I do the same Stitcher Guy. Better safe than sorry.