Inside EV Fest's Most Custom Model X Build

There’s a lot of builds at EV Fest. Most of them are great. George’s 2023 Model X Long Range is something else.

I’ve known George for years. He was one of the few people running a Model X back when I had mine, and his shop, EV Auto Styles, is in the City of Orange off the 57 and Ball. When he swung those falcon wings open for me at this year’s event, I got that familiar feeling you get when you see a car you used to own done up right. A little bit of regret that I let mine go. The theater seating, the presence of a fully specced X. Except everything on the inside has been completely rebuilt from scratch.

I’ve been writing up a few of them: Marvin’s bippu Model 3 and Joe’s Lucid Gravity from the same event. George’s Model X is operating in its own category.

The Nappa Leather Isn’t a Trim Level

Most aftermarket interior jobs use standard automotive leather. George went a different direction. The seats and much of the cabin are wrapped in Nappa leather from Alea Leather, a premium automotive leather manufacturer known for supplying upholstery-grade hides to the luxury car market.

Here’s the distinction George explained on camera, and it’s worth understanding: standard leather has visible grain. It’s the processed surface of the hide and you can see and feel the texture on most OEM seats. Nappa leather is a higher-quality portion of the hide with no grain at all. Smoother, softer, more durable. It’s the same specification that ships in Ferraris and Lamborghinis from the factory.

It’s a quality grade, not a brand name. Alea uses that designation for their top-tier hide, and once you see it in person, the difference is obvious.

The door panels are a quadruple-stitch diamond pattern, also in Nappa, with the perforations cut symmetrically to the diamond shapes and black leather backed underneath each hole. The carpet is done. The center console is done. The steering yoke is wrapped as well. George mentioned that one specifically required three attempts to get right. Getting Nappa leather to conform to the yoke’s curved geometry and hold stitching cleanly without the material bunching is a technical problem, not just an aesthetic one.

One detail worth noting: the dash uses Nappa vinyl, not full leather. That’s intentional. Genuine leather doesn’t have enough stretch to tuck into the compound curves of a Model X dash, and it would create an airbag deployment problem. The vinyl gives the installer flexibility to fit properly, and the shop pre-scored the material layer underneath so the airbag can punch through cleanly if it ever needs to. You can see the score marks if you look closely.

The Alpine Setup Runs Off Tesla’s Own Battery

George says this is the first Tesla Model X in the US with a full Alpine audio system installed. That claim came from him, but the technical reason behind it makes it credible.

Traditional car audio is designed around 12V electrical systems. Tesla’s modern vehicles use a 16V low-voltage architecture. That gap creates problems for conventional aftermarket audio equipment, and most installers work around it with a step-down converter or a separate 12V battery. Alpine built a 14-channel digital signal processor engineered specifically for Tesla’s 16V system. No external power source needed. The system draws directly from the car’s onboard battery.

George did this build in collaboration with Alpine, and the result is 24 speakers spread throughout the cabin. I got a quick sample inside the car. It’s not what you expect from a heavily modified interior build: no bass bloat, no mid-range fatigue. Just clean, full sound at volume.

The Rest of It

There’s an iPad Pro mounted in the cabin with full internet access, running alongside the factory rear screen. Carbon fiber vinyl on the door jambs and around the exterior details.

George estimates he’s put over $25,000 into this build on top of the purchase price of the Long Range. That number climbed during the project, which tracks. When you start doing Nappa leather across an entire Model X interior, including the yoke, the dash, the center console, all four doors, and the carpet, the hours accumulate fast.

But when you see the finished car at an event like EV Fest, it doesn’t read as modified. It reads like Tesla should have sold it this way.

EV Auto Styles handles all makes, not just Tesla. George has a custom Suburban and a lifted truck in the shop too. If you’re in the OC and looking to do something serious to your interior, this is the benchmark.