Dan Short Fantom Works
FantomWorks is one of the biggest, best and most well-known car restoration businesses in the US and is based in a gigantic, near-100-year-old former laundry factory in Norfolk, Virginia. The founder, owner and front man of the TV show is 57-year-old Dan Short, who is a blunt, forthright, no-nonsense sort of guy who runs his workshop with military precision. Like his style or not, at least folk, whether they be customers or employees, know where they stand with him. This becomes totally understandable when you learn more about his background.
He told me: “I knew the day I was born I was going into the military. It was pre-destined. I am a fifth-generation combat veteran. My dad, Alexander, was WWII Lancaster bomber crew and I was born in 1962 at Cold Lake Air Force base in Alberta, Canada. Through the Sixties I lived in Canada, but Dad was constantly assigned to the US because he was one of the few guys that came out of WWII knowing how to programme computers. In 1950 he was a computer programmer which as you know was virtually unheard of. He went back and forth to the US to assist in the programming of the National Defence Air Computer and things like that.
“AS A CHILD, I WAS AN INSATIABLE MODEL BUILDER. I BUILT BOATS, CARS, EVERYTHING.”
“We moved to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and in 1973 when he retired, we stayed on, so
