Rudys Custom Tops Upholstery

Mark did a great job replacing the rear window on my convertible top. Looks awesome, and he even delivered my car to me same day. The price was at least $ 100 less than other quotes. I would go back to Rudy’s without hesitation!

Mark was recommended to me by an auto body guy that I know and trust. I was told by two other car upholstery shops that, because the bottom if my rear glass window came partially out of its track, I would need them to install a new top. Both of their prices were over $ 1000. So I phoned Mark, and he quoted me a price that was several hundred less. But he asked to see the car first in order to judge whether it was fixable, so I brought it in, and he said that I shouldn’t waste my money on a new top. Instead, he got right to work on it and made it good as new again for a bit over a hundred dollars. Took him a few hours. I’ll definitely go back there whenever I need any upholstery work done.

Worst experience with a shop ever. Took my 240z dash to get reupholstered, he asked for fifteen hundred dollars. Left the deposit. Said would be done in 3 weeks. Came back three weeks later and he hadn’t even touched it. Asked for another week. Gave him an extra 2 more weeks. Finally after going back everyday to see where my dash was he told me that someone else was finishing it up. He sent my dash somewhere else instead of doing it himself. Got the dash back and it looked horrendous. Stitching was done by a five year old. Leather was wrinkled everywhere. Was not happy at all. Asked for my mo eu back and he wouldn’t give it back. Had to dispute it with my credit card company to get a refund. Stay away from this shop. They do terrible work and Pedro is the biggest liar.

Good quality work … Went to fix SUV left side seat which was cracking. I thought it was leather however, he explained it was not that it was synthetic on the sides and the center was leather. He gave me two options either patch or change the whole piece. I choose the later because it is a company car. When I went to pick it up I was impressed it looked as if it was part of the car. He got the texture right, the color right and even the red stitching. Finally, he added extra cushion and its firmer now. The price was 150 for everything, I can’t tell you if it’s expensive or not, but the quality was amazing.

NO STARS AT ALL. SCAM ARTISTS. WILL CHARGE AFTER THE REPAIR AND NOT TELL YOU ANYTHING AHEAD OF TIME. DO NOT GO TO THEM. These people totally scammed me. They gave me a price quote on one part of the order but wouldn’t give me one on another. They claimed they would look at it and call me. I called them 3 times to get one and they kept saying they didn’t look yet. Finally on my way to pick up the car, they mentioned they fixed it already– charging a diagnostic fee which Pedro, Jason, and the others never mentioned in the 5 times of asking/​calling. they then said the work was done and it would have to be paid plus labor. People that won’t give estimates and then charge after the work is done the money that they want to take from you is BAD BUSINESS. AND TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, THE WORK IS STILL BROKEN! i called to rectify and they said they don’t care and no money back. ROBBERS.

I Googled for days looking for a shop that could remove the headliner in my 2007 Mercedes GL450, so that a replacement sunroof track could be installed. I called first to inquire if they could in fact do this, and then drove out and met with Mark one morning to go over what needed to be done. Mark was very confident that he would be able to do the work in part of a day, and so we set a day in the following week. On that day, I arrived a little after 8am, and Mark greeted me. This is no small job, and one that very few shops want to take on. Mark was eager to do this work, and made me feel very comfortable that he would be able to do a good job, and actually at a very reasonable cost, just under my budget. He finished by about 3 PM, and everything worked perfect, looked perfect and just had me thrilled. I would trust this wonderful shop to do any interior work on any car. Don’t be fooled by its small size — it’s in a crowded auto park, but crowded for good reason! They just do fantastic work. –Sincerely, Robert from Arcadia, CA.

I have to change this review. The owner of Rudy’s is an incredibly nice guy, so I felt obligated to leave a nice review. But I was just inspired to change it to an honest one out of respect to potential customers.
Rudy’s made a couple of custom parts for me. One was done well, but the other was not. They redid the work and really improved on it, and I’m very happy with the result and with what it ended up costing. It looks great!
But I had to really bite my tongue through the process. The worst of it isn’t that they put parts covered in wet black paint in the interior of my car – no exaggeration, I got wet paint all over my hands – but fortunately not on my upholstery or anything showing. I asked to use the bathroom to get the paint off, and was offered a hose outside, a bucket, and some paint remover. Not the worst thing in the world, but not classy.
So here’s what gets to me: I asked the guy who made the parts to redo the work, and he accused me of trying to take advantage of him. He basically told me that I was going to keep coming back and demand they redo the work until I was satisfied with it, and could keep arbitrarily changing my mind.
Instead of saying «I’m happy to redo it, let’s see if we can make you a happy customer, this is what I charge for extra work,» he was really insistent that he wasn’t redoing anything. Period. Finally I explained that I was happy to pay for the extra work. Then he agreed to do it, but was still really argumentative. I thought the refinements were obviously necessary and wouldn’t be that difficult to do, but I respect that his time is money.
I am grateful that he took the extra time to make sure that he understood how I wanted the work redone, and he did it well. But it would have made more sense to ask me to come and see the work in progress, and make sure it was looking like I wanted it to look. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I ask someone to make something for me. I hope Rudy’s does, too.
I’m also a service provider. If I made a mistake in my business as big as putting wet paint in a customer’s car interior, or someone working for me did, I would bend over backwards to make up for it. Also, the one part didn’t fit particularly snugly into place, so they screwed it in. Maybe I’m asking too much, but I think you should ask a customer before putting a hole in his car where it can be seen. I hope they consider magnets next time.
Finally, I asked for the parts to be covered in something like leather or vinyl seat fabric as that would look better than (I think it was balsa) wood painted black. I let the part maker talk me into going with a different kind of material. I’m happy with it, but wish I’d gone with my first choice. I wasn’t going to have another discussion about it. When they glued the material to the parts, they left glue all over it. I pointed it out to them and they cleaned it off, but I’m surprised they had to be told.
Bottom line: they do good work, but getting them to do it right was aggravating.

Some toilet bowl cleaner leaked on my rear seat and ate through the leather and into the foam. Worked with Pedro here. He was polite, professional and on top of things. Gotta section of rear seat and foam underneath replaced for 200 bucks. The work is fantastic and completely indistinguishable from the rest of the seat. Also they ordered the leather for me ahead of time, called when it was in and took out the seat so I could use the car while they were working. Brought seat in in the morning and had it back in the car by afternoon the next day.

I was referred to them by my carwash. The upholstery was ripped. I had bought one of those kits for $ 30 to repair but it sounded too involved. I stopped by Rudy’s and he patched it in 10 minutes… only charged $ 10 (I expected a lot more). So for me, it was a great experience. It was a very congested parking lot with lots of mechanic shops so I could see where someone might get a dent or scratch. But for no longer than I was there, it was perfect. I would definitely go back.

Just went in for a consultation on a leather tear in my seat. I popped in since they had time to take a look at it. They gave me a range of options to consider. I decided to have them patch it until I could decide what I would do for the long haul (I love my car to pieces so I’m not worried about resale value). I thought I was gonna walk out with an unsightly patch and had already planned to put a sweet Hello Kitty cover over the seat.
Well, let me tell you, they exceeded my expectations and the patch looks so decent that I don’t need a cover. Although I might have to do it anyway. But definitely not because of the appearance of the seat — it looks really great to be a patch that they actually installed in minutes! I can definitely recommend these guys.

I needed some hand-​stitching for an undone seam on a seat and some gluing of fabric elsewhere. While relatively minor, the work was quality craftsmanship at a most reasonable price. They take pride in their work, are careful, and are pleasant as well. The location is crowded with a number of other auto repair shops on site, but don’t let that put you off.

My convertible’s top was tattered and scary looking… like the flag on a pirate ship – totally shredded. It was an embarrassing eyesore. Valet parking always made me cringe. On the freeway, I couldn’t hear my radio over the flapping of the fabric. Worst of all, the interior of the car was starting to smell funky as a result of mildew… because I simply couldn’t keep the rain out. I needed to replace the entire top.
My decision to finally replace the top started when Jose at JL Auto Services (see my review below) introduced me to Walter, who’s on the family-​run team at Rudy’s Custom Tops.
I live in the West San Fernando Valley (Woodland Hills). Driving my Toyota MR2 Spyder (my baby!) ~all~ the way down to Hollywood for a new top seemed like a drag… especially since I didn’t know the quality of Rudy’s. But after being introduced to Walter, Walter in turn gave me Pedro’s contact info. Pedro runs the shop… and since I figured a friend of Jose’s wouldn’t steer me wrong, I gave him a call. Their shop, indeed, gave me a ~very~ low-​priced quote… and so I drove down to Hollywood to let them check it out the damage.
The shop for Rudy’s Custom Tops looks very modest, which might make you think it isn’t an A-​class shop. But you’d be wrong… It’s in a busy strip mall containing many auto shops near the corner of Gower and Santa Monica. (A prime location for business, I suspect.) In any case, Pedro greeted me, took a look at the car, and said he needed a day. I said I’d bring the car back in a couple weeks.
Weeks became months. I was very worried about getting it done right, and, in spite of the low quote, I was still reluctant to drop the cash needed for a new one. I contemplated taking the car to the dealer, but they wanted significantly more money. The top that was on the car… well, I think it began to fall apart because the dealer hadn’t installed it right.
So I waited and waited. But, when I finally called back half a year later, Pedro totally remembered the car. He ordered a new top in anticipation of my arrival… pronto. I drove down. He said, again, he needed a day. I arrived in the afternoon, and decided to leave the car, and their top installation guy – Mark – drove me all the way back home to Woodland Hills for a couple bucks. He picked me up in my car the following afternoon – exactly 24 hours later – and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The car looks soooooo much better! Practically like new. Just that fact alone made me instantly super glad to have spent the cash.
It was done in the nick of time, too, because it rained the following day. I had been skeptical about things like: did they connect the defroster on the rear window? …will it leak? Et-​cetera, et-​cetera. But the top is awesome… and was installed expertly. I had enough time in the car chatting with Mark to tell: the guy takes his work very seriously and has a lot of pride in what he does. All he does is tops. He gave me some good advice on how to prolong the life of the top. But most of all, it was plainly evident he really cared about the quality of his work.
I have no idea why I waited so long. I should have had a new top installed by these guys months ago. Now I love having the valet salivate over my nice car, and feel zero embarrassment when getting into the car at a restaurant or hotel or special event or whatever. Plus: I can actually enjoy my tunes and hear people on the bluetooth while I’m driving.
I can’t recommend Rudy’s Custom Tops highly enough. The service was simply over-​the-​top awesome. They’re sweet as pie, totally honest, and they know what they’re doing. If your top is beat up… don’t wait. Don’t take it to the dealer, or some other random shop. If you want the work of a craftsman, someone who does only tops and has been doing it for years (like Mark), take your car to Rudy’s. You won’t regret it.
Thanks to Walter, Pedro, Mark, and the team at Rudy’s! You guys are awesome! (And thanks to Jose for the referral!)

I took my truck into Rudy’s Custom Tops to have my sun roof repaired. I left my truck in the afternoon but the worker parked it a few feet away and left the windows down and the truck unlocked. I asked him to lock it and put the windows up, he replied he would do it as soon as he had a spot available (1^st mistake). I took the bus home and it took me 30min to get home. The truck stayed over night which I knew about (2^nd mistake).
The truck was ready the next day in the afternoon which meant I couldn’t do much all day unless I wanted to take the bus again. When I got to the shop I checked the sun roof and a few extra things I asked the worker to fix. All the things were done right and the sun roof worked again. What I didn’t do was check everything else (3^rd mistake). When I got home I realized that my children’s car seats were moved and put back incorrectly, the paint was chipped on the driver’s side, the dome lights were not working and my Oakley sunglasses were missing. I stopped by again and the look on his face was priceless. He figured something was wrong. I complained about everything and he said he would fix it.
One week later I’m sitting outside his shop and he doesn’t know how to fix the dome lights. I get that he doesn’t specialize in that area but 2 hours of trying to figure it out… you should call someone who knows how instead of having three other guys who know just as much as you hovering around my truck. Maybe I’ll be here all day… we’ll see.
I’m planing on getting the money for my glasses. Removing my children’s car seats and not telling me about it… not cool, that’s a huge safety issue.
Bottom line they can fix the original problem you came in for but you’ll leave with a few extra ones.

Rudy’s is a small shop, but they can produce quality work. It was recommended I see Mark at Rudy’s shop to stitch the custom seat for my 1929 Model A hot rod. He did a great job and I couldn’t be happier.
Friendly people –I’ll be recommending Pedro & Mark to my friends.