Jeremy Bumpus of The Hot Rod Shop (Corinth, MS)
What does being an upholsterer mean to you?
For us it goes beyond just making covers or panels. We love getting to create the vision for the build from the very beginning stages – through renderings – then getting to make those drawings come to life through our hands is an amazing experience.
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How did you get started in upholstery?
I always wanted to be a trimmer but my goal when deciding I wanted to be a custom car builder was to be able to do every aspect of the build. Whether that be metal fabrication, custom paint or wiring. Being able to accomplish these things has always allowed me to be able to take the upholstery up a notch.
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What types of upholstery do you do?
Automotive Custom Upholstery
How long have you been upholstering?
22 years.
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What is your biggest consumer demand?
One off interiors
What is your favorite upholstery project you've done?
All of them
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What is the strangest item you've found in a restoration?
Probably shouldn’t say it out loud.
Have you noticed any up & coming trends?
Something we’ve been doing in the past few years and is a trend with technology is 3D scanning. We have tried to utilize this in some of our builds where we can scan the bare interior of a car. Transfer this over into cad and draw out interiors. Once that is complete this can be transferred over to a router table or 3d printer and cut out in plastic or wood. I think technology has come a long way in a short amount of time and I feel like this will be the way most shops will be doing it. Most of the big custom upholstery shops already are.
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What changes would benefit the upholstery industry?
I think Automotive upholstery is in a good place right now. A lot of aftermarkets support. Good presence at SEMA which normally tells me how its doing. Great places like The Hog Ring where you can go if you need a little help.
The only problem I’ve noticed is wood and panel boards seem to be a thing of the past and ABS plastics and PVC foam boards are more of what we use now and I’ve struggled to be able to keep or get those in our area. That is one thing I wish we could get our hands on a little easier.
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Have you ever been featured on television, online, or in another Publication?
I’ve hosted Truck Tech with RTM Productions featured on Spike, History and Paramount. I Currently Host CarFix on the Motortrend network where we have shown how we do some upholstery projects. We’ve had multiple magazine features. We do a ton of social media where we feature our builds and tend to average a 3-4 million reach per month.
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Do you have a shop animal?
Yes, 3 french bulldogs. One in particular whose name is Archibald.
Some answers have been edited for clarity.
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