Massive 5th Wheeler Motor home Overhaul

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Recently the Douglas Auto & Marine Upholstery team were thrilled to be asked to complete an overhaul on the Evans’ 5th Wheeler Motor Home upholstery and awnings.

These customers are “living the motor home dream” as the camper (if you can call it that) is their permanent home. Our team had to turn this job around quickly to save them motel costs, while ensuring the job brought their visions to life.

The motor home interior

Inside we did a full re-carpet in the bedroom, including the steps and added a step rail to reduce wear. In the living area as well as re-carpeting the motor home we re-upholstered the entire set of settees and dining squabs, and even covered their dining chairs to match.

The motor home awning repair

We added a new bolt rope to the top as the old one had started to tear, and on the other side repaired their roll-out blind.

Take a look inside & out

In this short video our Production Manager Peter O’Connel takes you behind the scenes with a look at the nuts and bolts of the project.

Could your motor home or caravan upholstery use a quality repair?

Talk to the Douglas Auto & Marine Upholstery team about a bespoke solution to bring your visions to reality for your motor home or caravan. We enjoy exceeding the expectations of our customers and look forward to hearing about your ideas.

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Photo credit: Shellie Evans Photography (https://tikitouringnz.blogspot.com/).

Motor trimming shown with custom Sunbeam convertible soft top

Custom motor trimming – check out this soft top

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The Douglas auto upholstery & motor trimming team have been lucky enough to have done work on this customer’s Sunbeam for a few years now, and each time he brings us a new challenge. 

Put the top down, baby!

This clever guy came to us and said he planned to make the framework for the convertible top himself, and could we help with making a completely custom sports top from scratch, with nothing more than a couple of photos and a bit of collaboration and imagination?

Not one to turn down a challenge, here’s how we got this to completion in a few “simple” steps:

  • Working closely with the customer as he designed and built the framework, once we had the car in our shop we were able to draw up a pattern, and got the owner to check he was happy with the look and that it would work once it was folded down (a bit of nail-biting went on!)
  • We then set about covering the framework in sports topping to match the motor trimming work we had previously done on the car’s interior upholstery
  • Next step was to fabricate the inner hood lining
  • Then, using the pattern we first made, we fabricated the outer skin and fitted it. Like a glove, no less!

Motor trimming shown with custom Sunbeam convertible soft top  

Custom convertible soft top cover by our Hawkes Bay motor trimmers

The final reaction from the customer was amazing. His initial reaction was stunned silence (we all held our breath), then he went on to explain that he’d had a vision for what he imagined it would look like, and as he knew the challenges we faced just as he had when he’d built the frame, we had exceeded his expectations as to how good it looked. 

Fair to say we were pretty happy with that! What a cool job we have sometimes as motor trimmers – we are privileged to be asked to work on classic cars like this, and treat our customer’s baby like our own. 

If you have a challenge for us, get in touch – we’d love to hear about your plans and requirements. 

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You can also take a look at the custom work we do every day on cars, boats, aeroplanes, caravans, horse-floats – you name it!

Alitex Roof Install

Alitex Roof Installed in time for Summer

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This Hawke’s Bay customer will enjoy their outdoor area even more this summer underneath their Alitex roof. Our aluminium structure with translucent canopies are waterproof, strong and stable while transmitting plenty of natural light while blocking harmful UV. Next year the customer will add outdoor screens to complete their outdoor living area.

Hawkes-Bay-Marine-Cover

Boat Makeover – The Great White

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The customer of this boat wanted it to have a complete cover makeover.

He came to us with some ideas after just purchasing the boat. Being a relatively tall guy the existing canopy was too low for him, and he also was keen to have covers made.

Marine-Upholstery-Makeover

Hawkes-Bay-Boat-Canopies-Screens

 

 

 

 

 

We started by designing a custom canopy for The Great White.

Our concept was to utilise his existing frame where we could, modifying it slightly to increase the height.

Using CAD technology we photographed the frame and drew in the new cover style to send for the customer’s approval. When it came time to fabricate, we created the canopy in the desired blood red colour.

Marine-Boat-ScreensA zipper opening was created to be able to see out in case of bad weather.

The canopy is able to fold down so that a cover can be put over the top. 

 

 

 

A custom boat cover for superior protection

Custom covers were made to match the canopy in the blood red colour. Covers were made to protect the motors as well as the boat while on the road or in storage, and hi-vis panels were added to the rear to increase night-time visibility. The Great White is going to be hard to miss when it is on the road.

Hawkes-Bay-Boat-Cover-Engine-Cover

A custom boat cover allows for a nice snug fit which prevents any surprises in the boat when the cover comes off in the new season.

Then we won an award for it!

Because of the design and craftsmanship that went into this job we decided to submit it for the OFPANZ Awards in 2018, being one of the jobs we were most proud of for the year.

We were delighted to have won this award for marine fabrication, it was a fun job to do and we’re incredibly proud of our team because to win a national award is truly a team effort.

Winter doesn’t last long in Hawkes Bay, so contact us quick to get your covers made – we’d love to discuss how we can turn your ideas into a quality custom solution.
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