Malibu interior work recommendation.

[Ronnie]

Chris Phillips called me this morning. He wanted me to relay this info.

He says he offeres his sincerest apology but he will not be able to do any more interior work for a while. His Dr. advises him to take a break and he still does the interior designs for Skiers Choice. They are about to go into model change so this will compound his time problems. He says he doesn't even have time to mow his yard. He is very appreciative of everyone that has sent him work and he says he is pleased with the working relationship he has formed with TheMalibuCrew.com but he needs to take a break and not promise anyone work that he will not be able to complete in a timely manner.

As soon as he gives me the go ahead that he can take more work or offer another person that will do the type of work we expect, I'll post it up here.

[urban77]

I just had Gabriel Garcia make some skins for my 04 VLX, I found him using this thread!! Thanks for the post Jeff! He did 5 cushions and the big seatback across the back of the boat. The match was perfect, the skins went on easy and they look great!! I had a great experience with Gabriel and would highly recommend him!!!

[joshuadale07]

Can I have Gabriel's info pm'd to me?

[JeffMcDowell]

Gabrial's email is a few posts up. Wanted to post some pics of the finished product but I have some mostly done pics on my phone.

front 1

front 2

rear

top

Edited November 1, 2017 by JeffMcDowell

[Rznhales]

Jeff that looks really good. I like the color choices.

[robbennett]

Gabriel did some great work for my boat. I highly recommend him while Chris is taking a break.

[JeffMcDowell]

Jeff that looks really good. I like the color choices.

Thanks! I took a lot of inspiration from the newer boats at the local dealer. Very happy with the way it turned out. Not to bad for never doing upholstery work a day in my life!

[tzordan]

I am currently looking for new vinyl skins for my 2000 Sunsetter LXI. It looks like Chee is no longer around and saw a few posts about Viper Custom and a guy name Chris. The preliminary comments were good but wanted to know how the final product looked and did you do a color match or the entire boat? I also need contact info on Chris if you have it. Thanks!

[robbennett]

Contact Gabriel Garcia. His phone number and email are in the first post on this thread. He did perfect work on my boat and it had a great match to my old skins. Chris is taking a break as mentioned by Ronnie earlier.

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/54527-replacing-seat-skins/

[ptagher]

I was going to use Chris to reupholster my 2000 Malibu Escape LSV but since he is out of commission I'm going to bite the bullet, purchase an industrial sewing machine, and do it myself!

Can anyone advise on where to purchase the vinyl? I know that my vinyl is foam backed and although I do not necessarily want to use the exact same since I am redoing the entire interior (minus the dash), I would like to get the same if not higher quality.

Thanks!
Paul

[robbennett]

I was going to use Chris to reupholster my 2000 Malibu Escape LSV but since he is out of commission I'm going to bite the bullet, purchase an industrial sewing machine, and do it myself!

Can anyone advise on where to purchase the vinyl? I know that my vinyl is foam backed and although I do not necessarily want to use the exact same since I am redoing the entire interior (minus the dash), I would like to get the same if not higher quality.

Thanks!

Paul

I buy vinyl on amazon for small projects. It is hard to know exactly what color you are getting because there are no samples. Do a google search for marine vinyl. There are plenty of places that have it.

[ptagher]

I can find plenty of marine vinyl -- just looking to match what I have since I don't intend to do the entire boat at one time. I also know my Malibu has the foam backed vinyl which is more difficult to find. Let me know if anyone knows what brand it may be.
Thanks

Paul

[h2oratJR]

Do any of you know if Gabriel is still taking in work ive emailed & left voicemail got no response. Are there any other options like him . Looking for a rwar seat skin for my 97 Sunsetter LX

Thanks

Rin

[Doublee133]

I emailed Gabriel a week ago also no response.

[ptagher]

Another vote for Viper Customs in TN. Jim is a great guy and was very helpful. We wanted to try it ourselves and he got the vinyl for us. It's turning out great

[Chia]

Another vote for Viper Customs in TN. Jim is a great guy and was very helpful. We wanted to try it ourselves and he got the vinyl for us. It's turning out great

which sewing machine did you end up getting?

[h2oratJR]

Gabriel did a rear skin for me .  Told him a bunch of you were trying to get ahold of him .  He just moved into a new shop.  He said to keep trying him for those of you looking .

[flapjack]

On 6/24/2015 at 8:31 AM, JeffMcDowell said:

Gabrial's email is a few posts up. Wanted to post some pics of the finished product but I have some mostly done pics on my phone.

sorry for the hijack... Did you redo the carpet as well?  If not, how did you get your carpet so clean? 

[Nitrousbird]

So who can we use now that has the original patterns?  Chee did one of my seat skins that was damaged by the previous owner.  The other rear seat just started to show separation from the piping, so I'd like to correct that over the winter.  I need a OEM match.  My interior is in great shape overall for a 15 year old boat and I like to keep up on it. 

What I refuse to use is some shop that thinks they can copy the design/material.  I just need a proper skin I will install myself.  I require a quality match or it will drive me nuts.

[REHinH20]

22 minutes ago, Nitrousbird said:

So who can we use now that has the original patterns?  Chee did one of my seat skins that was damaged by the previous owner.  The other rear seat just started to show separation from the piping, so I'd like to correct that over the winter.  I need a OEM match.  My interior is in great shape overall for a 15 year old boat and I like to keep up on it. 

What I refuse to use is some shop that thinks they can copy the design/material.  I just need a proper skin I will install myself.  I require a quality match or it will drive me nuts.

Use Gabriel - he does the skin off of your Hull ID#, so it will match.   Back to the first post of this thread:

 

Edited August 9, 2016 by REHinH20

[JeffMcDowell]

On 6/1/2016 at 11:35 AM, flapjack said:

sorry for the hijack... Did you redo the carpet as well?  If not, how did you get your carpet so clean? 

Bought new carpet. Got a large remnant from https://www.corinthian-marine-carpet.com/

[Tweeder06Wakesetter]

Anyone heard from Gabriel lately?  Just checking to see if he is still doing skins. 

[jwl019]

14 hours ago, Tweeder06Wakesetter said:

Anyone heard from Gabriel lately?  Just checking to see if he is still doing skins. 

I emailed him a couple weeks ago, he responded a few days later.  In his email he told me he now has a shop and doing upholstery full time.  I asked if he could still take the VIN and make me the skins to send to me and said he would need the skins off the seats for the pattern or I could send the seats to him and he would do them and send them back.  It still may be an option I will go with, but not really what I was looking for since shipping 2 seat bases to California from Louisiana is going to be expensive I bet with his cost to do the seat bases as well.  I am still debating on if this is the route I want to take.  I bet by him doing them, it would turn out the best, but I could pretty much have them done 2-3 times locally for what it will end up costing me sending them to him.

[REHinH20]

1 hour ago, jwl019 said:

I emailed him a couple weeks ago, he responded a few days later.  In his email he told me he now has a shop and doing upholstery full time.  I asked if he could still take the VIN and make me the skins to send to me and said he would need the skins off the seats for the pattern or I could send the seats to him and he would do them and send them back.  It still may be an option I will go with, but not really what I was looking for since shipping 2 seat bases to California from Louisiana is going to be expensive I bet with his cost to do the seat bases as well.  I am still debating on if this is the route I want to take.  I bet by him doing them, it would turn out the best, but I could pretty much have them done 2-3 times locally for what it will end up costing me sending them to him.

If you remove the old skins yourself the shipping should be pretty minimal.  The old ones will have to come off anyway.

[jwl019]

1 hour ago, REHinH20 said:

If you remove the old skins yourself the shipping should be pretty minimal.  The old ones will have to come off anyway.

That is still definitely one of the options I am looking at. Then paying a local shop to install, this way would only run me about $250 a seat plus shipping.