GP Motor Trimming

25/11/2025

🌟 A Little Update From Us 🌟

It might look like we’ve been quiet on Facebook… but behind the scenes it’s been anything but quiet. We made a conscious decision earlier this year to post less so we could focus on what matters most — being available for our word-of-mouth and returning customers. They’ve always been our backbone, and we honestly love the community that keeps us going.

Because of that support, we’ve been flat out. We’re fully booked for the rest of the year and already well into the new year. As a one-man, one-woman team, we’re juggling it all - quotes, installs, sewing, and everything in between — doing our best to keep up (many long days and sometimes nights).

So even if things look quiet online, we’re very much here in the real world, working hard and appreciating every single person who sends work our way.

Thank you for sticking with us and continuing to recommend us. 💛

15/11/2025

Huge thanks to Splash Pool Care for the goodies — and for capturing Geoff in his natural habitat: awkwardly agreeing to photos 😂
We love supporting local and these guys really are experts in their field — highly recommend!

So great to see Mackay getting behind them. If there’s one thing Mack Town does well, it’s supporting our own 💙🌊

100th IN STORE CUSTOMER

This week we served our 100th new customer through the store since opening in October.

Thank you to the whole Northern Beaches community (and surrounds). The support for our local business has been overwhelming.

And a big thank you to Geoff from GP Motor Trimming for agreeing to the picture 😂

20/08/2025

🌟 A lot of newcomers to our page might wonder how our name GP Motor Trimming connects to shade sails.

Geoff began his apprenticeship in motor trimming back in 2000, when the trade covered a wide variety of work — cars, boats, canvas, tarps, and of course, shade sails. Training regionally meant he learned it all.

It still amazes me today to watch Geoff take a roll of material and turn it into a canopy, boat cover, or shade sail — with no pattern and no two projects ever the same. Over the years he’s made everything from caravan annexes and boat canopies to gym pads, seats, outdoor blinds, machinery covers, and anything any one of our customers has been able to dream up — the kind of intricate, one-off work that shows just how versatile the trade once was. The old-school trimmers like Geoff really are the last of their kind.

While motor trimming apprenticeships still exist today, they’ve become much more specialised — usually focused on cars and marine upholstery. Shade sails and broader canvas work aren’t typically part of the training anymore, certainly not with the same variety Geoff had.

Geoff was honoured with two Apprentice of the Year awards during his training, and 25 years later, although his focus has shifted more to covers, canopies, marine work and shade sails, those old-school skills are still at the heart of everything he does.

So the name remains…… GP Motor Trimming!!! …..and we continue our mission to let people know — YES, we do shade sails too.

01/05/2025

04/06/2024

Days chatting about motor trimming leads to too many late nights & weekends in the workshop actually doing the motor trimming! 😴🤯

It’s for this reason we have made the decision to close the gate and reduce our opening hours to the public from today.

While we understand this may be inconvenient for some of our customers (we are truly sorry for that) but we feel it’s necessary in the interest of reducing our lead times and providing some uninterrupted time on the tools for Geoff to do what he does best and improve our turnaround times.

If you come by outside our new hours you will find this sign on the gate. While we will be sad you made the trip over when we are closed, there will be a QR code I will be working on in the coming weeks which will hopefully take care of a lot of the common enquiries we get.

Please remember to reach out in advance for appointments outside of these hours if absolutely necessary.

Thanks so much for your understanding & co-operation 🙏🏻

03/06/2024

We are still in Brisbane attending the Spectex Marine Trimmers expo. Still returning messages when we can.
Thank you for your patience.

Please also note we don’t return missed calls without a message. Honestly there is just too many & no way of telling which are marketing calls or genuine customer calls - please text (preferred) or leave a message if you need to hear back from us. We often can have delays in voice messages coming through from our message bank (if your with Telstra & know how to fix this problem please let us know).
Text or email is best for a quicker response. Thanks 😊

26/04/2024

Like a glove 🧤

26/04/2024

Here is a very small snippet of some of our lovingly made shade sails that we’ve installed in our beautiful region over the years.
For some extra study Geoff is currently doing to stay up to date in the tensile industry, I’ve been tasked with compiling an album to showcase some of our sail work. No easy task as we have done soooo many amazing shade sails over the years but I’ve started so for anyone who would like to see more of our shade making portfolio I hope to add to this post in the next couple of weeks as I go through & compile 😁 for now I hope this sneak peek will help to keep our very neglected page alive here a little longer.
Thank you to all our previous shade sail customers who literally are the ones that keep us going with word of mouth & tagging us in FB recommendations. We certainly aren’t winning any jobs with our own advertising that is for certain 😬🤣 We really do appreciate you so much 🙏🏻

13/02/2024

We recently replaced one of the very first shade sails Geoff made back when he started his apprenticeship around 23 years ago. I thought that deserved a post!

As you can see, the original sail in the photos (maroon colour - using the same shade sail fabric we use today), did very well over the years. However after a pool yard refresh, the new Terracotta coloured sail looks amazing and finishes off the space beautifully.

Just goes to show the value of a well made sail using quality material. I wonder how many Bunnings sails they would have went through in 23 years 🤔

22/01/2024

The phone has been running off the hook today and everyone wants to know....Should we take down our shade sail?

Shade sails are not cyclone rated, and while ours are tough and have been known to withstand winds over 90kph, an extreme weather event such as a cyclone has the likely possibility to produce damaging winds over 200kph. Being that a cyclone is also a predicted system that we have now been placed on a watch for here in Mackay, you will find most insurers will not cover any damage caused to or from a shade sail that hasn't been taken down during cyclone preparation activities.

Our advice is to take them down while it is still safe to do so. Though it will be annoying if predictions or tracking changes, our thoughts are it's better to be safe then sorry. This is after-all why shade sails are designed to be removable.

We have some very limited availability tomorrow for any of our customers who are not physically able to take down their sails. Removals cost $50 and another $50 to reinstall when the weather is cleared.

24/04/2023

Even the most neglected clears can make a come back with this product that Geoff loves. We will look at doing a bulk order in the next couple of weeks.

$50 a bottle, a little goes a long way. Bundle with the ARCO upholstery cleaner (100ml tub) for an extra $10 to get your boat looking fresh & ready for the winds to come down 🙏🏻

PM your order with mobile number & we will send you a text when it is ready to collect👌🏻