Facility Overview
Facility Tour
Facility Restoration
Current Facility Overview
2400 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk VA 23517
This triple layer brick and free-span steel girder building is 52,000 SF on the bottom floor alone. Parking is available in the fenced 15,000 SF gated lot and along both sides of 24th and 25th streets. This historic building is absolutely amazing inside and out. We are restoring it to its former glory including complete stripping, rebuilding and repainting of the the 3″ thick wood roof decking back to the correct brilliant white, painting the massive 100′ free span steel girders back to their original bright silver and stripping the bricks back to their original clean face. All windows are in restoration with safety laminated glass and restored steel frames. The building is a work of art from a pre-war era and a testimonial to the artisanship of our fathers and grandfathers era.
Built in 1941 as a Linen Cleaning Facility; Now Under Restoration as the Largest Classic Car Restoration Facility in Existence Breakout of Square Footage as Follows:Floor Plan Overlaid onto Plat
This newly renovated 52,000 SF facility includes everything to complete your restoration quickly and professionally.
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The facility includes specalized departments that are dedicated to providing the best work avaliable. Each department has their own specalized tools to complete each and every job asked of them. These departments include, admin, upholstery, assembly/ disassembly, showroom, clean, machine, wood, prep, and mechanical. All of these areas have their own specalize staff that complete the work requested in a timely and professional fashion.
Check out our ongoing Restoration to the facitily further down the page.
Facility Tour
Welcome to FantomWorks
First, lets start with what exactly FantomWorks can do for you. FantomWorks can do just about everything; including repair, makeover restoration, and frame off rotisserie restoration. Now you might ask yourself what are each one of these types of restoration, if you click HERE you will be redirected to the page that has everything you need to know about the process.
It is our goal here at FantomWorks to provide our customers with the best quality of service avaliable. Although our rate may be higher than some it includes alot more than just one persons labor. There is more on this in our FAQ section under the support tab.
Now lets start with what you should expect when you come to FantomWorks. When you walk into FantomWorks there will be a friendly group of staff waiting to greet you. They will be able to set up appointments for any customer. Once you have set up an appointment you will be able to sit down with our team and map out a plan for your restoration.
As soon as there is a detailed plan made, your car will be pulled into our disassembly area (provided your car needs to be disassembled)
Next, it will be taken into the body and metal area where body and metal work will be conducted as needed.
Once the body and frame are done, they will be taken into the paint area where they will be prepped for paint and then painted.
After all the paint is done the car is taken to the mechanic area again and the frame is reconnected to the body and the engine and transmission are put back into the car. All the electrical and mechanical components are also reinstalled. The last step in the restoration process is to go back to the disassemble area, where all the interior was pulled out for restoration, and have all the interior reinstalled. Once the vehicle is all put back together it is then delivered to or picked up by the owner.
video to be posted soon!
To find out more about just the facility check out the facility restoration section located below.
Facility Restoration
FantomWorks being in the business of restoring classic cars, has chosen this building because of its historical significance. It was built in the early 1940′s making the building itself classic. The building itself has been undergoing a restoration of its own. Today we are removing all the paint off the bricks and repainting the rafters and the cieling. We have also mostly renovated the front office area. Below are some pictures of all the areas in the building that we are currently restoring.
The Front Offices Restoration
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Current
The Disassembly and Show Room Restoration
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Current
The Paint Room Restoration
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The Body Area Restoration
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The Mechanic Area Restoration
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The restoration of this facility has come a long way. We are hoping to finish our restoration in the next few weeks. Keep posted as the website continues to be updated with more and more photos of the ongoing restoration.
Prior FAC I
4625 Kincaid Ave, Norfolk VA 23\\502 (757) 216-1745
- 4625 Kincaid as it appears today
This facility was a brake manufacturing plant in the early 1960’s. Sometime in the 1980s it became a warehouse for packaging and shipping classic cars to Europe. A local Norfolk businessman purchased vehicles from around the U.S. and crated them for sale. He used the local shipping ports to send the vehicles abroad. This business ran until the late 1990’s when a hot-tub sales company purchased the facility and used it for a short time as a showroom but mostly for a storage facilty.
In June 2006 the facilty burned destroying the contents of the building, the electrical system and the roof. FantomWorks purchased the facility in November of 2006 and we set about the task of rebuilding the facility and turning it into a full service classic car restoration facility.
FAC II Former
We never completed our move to the facility on 1001 Monticello St. Due to the owner not able to secure financing to renovate the facilities. We cancelled the lease and decided to purchase the building at 2400 Hampton Blvd which is now in renovation (Dec 2010).
Our determined efforts have been successful and we are expanding into a larger facility to keep pace with the customer’s demands. The New facilities are approximately 24,000 square feet and the available floor space will be divided into six functional areas.1. Showroom (First Floor)2. Complete Upholstery/Interior Shop (First Floor)3. Mechanical Work (engines, suspension, transmissions, brakes, carburetion, etc) (First Floor)4. Metal Fabrication Shop (Second Floor)5. Body Shop with paint bay (Second Floor)6. Final Assembly including vehicle component storage (Second Floor)FAC II1001 Monticello as it appeared in the late 1930s
We will soon be EXPANDING to 1001 Monticello Ave, Norfolk VA…
Click here for more Facility Updates
Top Floor Floor Plan
Bottom Floor Floor Plan
History of this Facility as we understand it through many stories from the local folks who grew up around here and either worked there or purchased their vehicles there:
1911 to 1930′s – Pierless Dealership
Initial part of the facilities built 1911 to 1915. This is reported to be the earliest existing car dealership in the state of virginia and has the oldest operating elevator (which also happens to be a CAR elevator) in the Tidewater area.
Pierce Arrow Dealership from opening until sometime in the 1930′s
1930′s to 1957 - F. A. Rothke
1001 Monticello as a DeSoto Dealership under F.A. Roethke circa 1957
During the mid 1930′s an additional section was added to the facilities roughly doubling the size.
Mid 1930′s the building changed from Pierless to a Desoto Dealership under F.A. Rothke until approximately 1956.
1957 to 1967
When F.A. Rothke died he left the facility to his wife who rented it out to XXXXXXX and it became a Plymouth dealership. Approcimately 1963, the Plymouth dealership expanded to include Dodge vehicles as well and it remained the XXXXXXXXXXX Plymouth-Dodge dealership unitl the late 1960′s
1967 – 1973 -
Klein Chevrolet body shop from the late 1960′s to the early 1970′s
1973 – 2009 -
Storage from early 1970′s until July 2010. In 2007 the zoning was formally changed from light industrial to warehousing. In 2009 the city was petitioned to rezone the building from warehousing back to light industrial and the effort was successful making the rezoning a significant event within the city with some stating that this is the first time in the city’s history they remember a building being rezoned back to light industrial.
2010 -
DRS FantomWorks full service restoration faciltiy July 2010…
