In a one-man shop on Deer Run Road, a two-toned stock 1955 Chevy convertible sat topless, waiting for a new ragtop to be stretched over its metal ribs.
A lowered, rodded, extremely purple '50 Chevy pickup stood beside it, in the middle of a custom interior transplant.
On the phone, Outback Upholstery owner David Webb answered a customer with his trademark reassurance, "No worries, mate!"
One reason Webb's part-time upholstery business turned into a full-time job could be the reassuring way he works with his customers.
"I pick them up, walk them through the process and drop them off at the other end," explained the native of Perth, Western Australia.
That includes suggesting design details for custom work, explaining the advantages of the large variety of upholstery fabrics and understanding their special needs such as quick turnaround or stock appearance for restorations.
"I've been doing upholstery for 18 years, with one or two projects in my garage all the time while working a main job," he said. "My upholstery customers kept telling me I needed to get a shop going full-time."
So last September Webb rented space at 3160 Deer Run road, just south of Highway 50 East, and Outback Upholstery was born.
One popular special item Webb makes are insulated wheel shrouds for the open wheel race cars that compete on Carson-area tracks. Webb explained that, after the drivers heat the cars' tires in preliminary runs, the shrouds help retain the traction-promoting heat until the main events.
With outdoor recreation so popular in Western Nevada, Webb recovers a lot of boat, motorcycle and aircraft seats.
"One day two summers ago, my answering machine had a message from Cliff Robertson, the actor," he said. "He keeps his sailplane down at Minden and he needed its interior redone."
No worries, Cliff.
Webb, who moved to San Diego, Calif., from Australia in 1987, earned a trade certificate and completed an apprenticeship in upholstery. But his main paycheck in recent years came from doing public relations work for manufacturer Bently Nevada, traveling to clients' factories to document installations with photographs and preparing publicity materials back at the Minden headquarters.
Along the way, he earned a journalism degree from the University of Nevada, Reno on the "10-year plan."
Bently is now one of his regular accounts, along with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and others, he said.
"It's not just vehicles, though. I reupholster furniture, from the big couches down to a bar stool," Webb said.
He said a small upholstery job, if a suitable material is in his shop, can arrive in the morning and often be out by the end of the day. Delivery of special-order fabrics only takes a day or two, so those jobs are still done quickly, he said. And large vehicle projects are often done in a couple weeks.
Webb pulls off and disassembles the old upholstery to create patterns for the replacements, he said. Sometimes he installs factory-made upholstery replacement kits, if that is what a customer prefers.
And he often assists in the selection of a suitable fabric and color for a project.
For one Targa Porsche, that meant an unusual red- and black-checked denim fabric.
Of course, the customers' preference is paramount. Webb warily displayed a photo of bright pink leatherette seats that matched the garish paint job on a woman's hot-rodded roadster.
"Don't blame me for that color," he said. "That's exactly what she wanted."
No worries, mate.
Outback Upholstery
David Webb, owner
3160 North Deer Run Road Unit #1
883-4848
