Having MCD shades installed in cockpit.

We are in Gainesville TX visiting relatives and will be heading over to McKinney TX in a few days to have the MCD factory install American Duo motorized shades on the windshield and manual ones on the cockpit side windows and in the bedroom.

I took a page from afchap's book and did some pre-wiring. I have no existing electric sun visors so I ran the dc wires and ignition run wire up into the cap area behind the overhead cabinets hoping to save a few bucks worth of labor costs.
I plan to get a couple of remotes so I have a backup in case one dies. I hope they can leave stub wiring for switches so I can add manual switches later if I decide I want to.

We installed the shades in the living area ourselves and are happy with them. I believe John Canfield and afchap - a couple of guys whose opinions I respect - are happy with their electric ones so I have good feelings about this project.

In Jan over in AZ we plan to have a Winegard Traveler HD automatic dish installed and in Mar would like to have all of the vinyl decals replaced. The graphics may have to wait until next fall though. The kitty will be a little skinny since we just had the tires all replaced.

During the last six years we have:

Replaced;
The kitchen faucet with a Moen with integral sprayer.
Bathroom faucet with a Moen.
The vinyl fabric on the patio awning with acrylic fabric
Carpet with laminate flooring.
Day night shades with MCD shades.
Chair with a leather Berkshire recliner.
New fabric on the valences throughout
Tube type TV with a 32 inch HD LCD flat screen.
Braided extensions with metal DuallyValve valve stems.

Installed;
Window awnings with acrylic fabric that matches the patio fabric on most windows.
New pivoting light fixtures in two locations and got replacement LED bulbs for the halogen ones that came with them.

Recovered the captains chairs, couch, and dinette cushions with Ultra Leather Plus.

When we get the HD dish installed and the graphics replaced I think we will be finished for a while.

Although the MCD shades were expensive, we love them and are very, very happy we made the change. Just last month we replaced our KingDome with the Winegard Trav'ler HD dish...wish we had done it sooner. It works! We are thinking about recovering our chairs and valences. Did you do it yourself? If not, who did it for you? Any advice on that?

We did it ourselves. Actually Lee did all the stuff that requires talent while I did the grunt work.

The Ultra Leather Plus is pretty expensive but still much cheaper than buying new furniture. I beleive we spent about $2000 for the Ultra Leather.
As I recall it was about $65 per yard. Lee found prices ranging from $30 up to over $100 per yard. The cheap stuff was knock-offs of Ultra Leather. Note that the real stuff is two words - Ultra Leather - while knock-offs are one word. There are two grades. The Plus grade is the best with better wear resistance.

I took the chairs off the pedestals and removed the old fabric which Lee used as a pattern. We did the same for the couch and dinette.

Lee found valance fabrics she liked at a fabric store and again used the old fabric as a pattern. She re-used the old thin foam behind the old fabric and in some cases added some new batting.

I can't tell you much about the sewing process as Lee did all that. I did get involved in holding some of the bigger pieces straight while she sewed them, but that was about it.

We bought a pair of hog ring pliers and a bunch of hog rings to clamp the Ultra Leather to the metal rod framing on the couch and captains chairs. We also bought a good stapler for the valance fabric. I had a staple puller which came in real handy.

We have some Ultra Leather left over and will use some of that for covering new cockpit valances that I will fabricate in the spring when we visit CO again.

It was quite a project since we live in the coach and stuff was all pulled apart and laying around everywhere, but I sure like the result.

That sounds like quite a huge project. I'll be doing only the valences and dining chairs, which now seems less intimidating now that I've read about all the work you (or should I say Lee) put into those captains chairs and couch. I'm inspired now. Thanks for all the information.

We are the MCD factory now. Our appointment was for Thursday but they called Tuesday and asked if we could come in on Wednesday instead. We were already in McKinney at the Lighthouse RV park so we could.
They measured Wed, produced the shades Thur, and were able to install the bedroom shades in the late afternoon. Today - Friday - they will install in the cockpit area.
If they finish soon enough we will go back to the RV park, dump the tanks and spend the night. Then we can head for AZ Saturday morning.