One of many challenges of putting in new press brakes is changing outdated half packages to work with new programming software program.
Dan Dubose is a person who began down low and is now using excessive along with his firm, Motobilt, an Ozark, Ala.-based producer of industrial quality aftermarket elements, armor, and customized suspension parts for Jeeps and off-road automobiles.
Like many folks within the aftermarket automotive elements enterprise, Dubose obtained his begin engaged on his personal automobile. Again within the Nineties, he was attempting to show his truck right into a lowrider, which was a daring assertion contemplating he was from the opposite L.A.—Decrease Alabama as an alternative of Los Angeles.
A visit to Panama Metropolis Seaside, Fla., for spring break not solely modified his selection of car but additionally put him on a path that led to the place he’s right now. Dubose met somebody on the seashore who supplied to commerce his four-wheel-drive GMC S-15 compact SUV for Dubose’s truck.
From there, Dubose was taking the nonpaved path.
“I used to be going off-road with that slightly bit,” he recalled. “I then needed a Jeep, and that’s when the four-wheel-drive world actually took off.”
He didn’t notice it on the time, however the work he was doing on his Jeep was the muse for his future—fabricating elements for different individuals’s Jeeps. Whereas engaged on entrance and rear suspensions for his Jeep, he wanted to hand-build the elements. It was the mid-Nineties, and never too many others have been doing this.
“There was no YouTube and no Web,” Dubose mentioned. “So I discovered actually fast plenty of stuff to not do.”
Dubose stayed with the off-roading—or “rock bouncing” as he described the scene across the Southeast—throughout his time on the College of Alabama at Birmingham from 1994 to 1999. Even after beginning his job as a pharmaceutical gross sales consultant, he didn’t stray too removed from the off-road world. After work, he’d head to his store at 3:30 p.m. and begin constructing off-road aftermarket elements. He referred to as his part-time job Blue Torch FabWorks.
The off-roading world was actually beginning to take off within the early 2000s, and Dubose was making a reputation for himself with the customized work he was doing. Extra individuals began to note.
In 2003, he obtained a name from the producers of “Monster Storage” who needed him to take part in a customized rock crawler construct for the Discovery Channel tv sequence. Though he was excited for the chance, Dubose needed to flip down the supply as a result of his employer was within the midst of a giant pharmaceutical product launch.
He obtained a second probability in 2003, when the identical tv present producers referred to as once more. This time they requested if he needed to take part in a aggressive vehicle-building sequence referred to as “Drive Shaft” for FX Community. He wasn’t going to say no a second time, so he give up his job in company America to pursue a fabrication profession.
Dan and Hunter Dubose launched Motobilt in 2013, constructing on his expertise in fabricating heavy-duty off-road automobiles and her organizational expertise in establishing fabricating operations to feed an aftermarket elements enterprise. Photographs: Motobilt
After getting back from Lengthy Seaside, Calif., the place the sequence was filmed, Dubose turned Blue Torch FabWorks right into a full-time enterprise, constructing plenty of customized off-road automobiles, together with one for Crew Purple Bull.
“I suppose you possibly can say we pioneered that complete DIY half fabrication factor. We constructed that market up,” he recalled. It was additionally throughout this time that he met his spouse, Hunter.
Working Blue Torch FabWorks was fruitful for him from knowledgeable standpoint. He obtained to do what he cherished, and he was working with different like-minded and skillful fabricators, lots of whom sought his store out. But it surely was plenty of work, and it’s a troublesome mannequin to develop, significantly when the fabricator is so concerned in customized work.
In 2009, Dubose offered the enterprise. He needed to step away for some time, spend time with the household, and work out what could be subsequent.
Motobilt Materializes
In an interview from the 2010s, Dubose mentioned he had meant on doing one thing slightly totally different, similar to producing automobile wraps, banners, and different large-format printing, however the pull again to steel fabrication was too nice. He was hooked on the motion, however he wanted to strategy it from one other angle. That’s the place his new firm, Motobilt, was going to vary from Blue Torch FabWorks.
The Blue Torch FabWorks enterprise mannequin was based mostly on doing customized builds for purchasers and attempting out new product designs. Clients would see these and say, “Hey, we wish you to construct a Jeep precisely like that.” It was a continuing stream of customized work that was by no means going to be as worthwhile as fabricating merchandise for the off-roading group.
“Now, all of the automobiles that we’ve got are [our own custom] builds. For probably the most half, we personal them. So we will do it in another way,” he mentioned. “On each, we will take our time. If it takes two years, it takes two years.”
Beginning Motobilt in 2013, Dubose nonetheless had the possibility to do customized builds, however this time they have been additionally a part of R&D exercise that influenced new merchandise to be offered on the Web and thru formal distribution channels. Hunter supplied the group and self-discipline to show her husband’s fabrication imaginative and prescient into off-road upgrades for purchasers seeking to duplicate considered one of Motobilt’s showcase builds.
A very good instance of that’s El Jefe, a modified Jeep YJ mannequin that the corporate web site describes as a automobile with “world class suspension and unmatched velocity.” This automobile had an prolonged construct schedule, bought in 2017 with modifications prolonged all the way in which to 2023. A kind of modifications was new rear nook guards; Dubose checked out a brand new light-duty Jeep Gladiator truck and obtained to considering how he would possibly change the mattress.
“I used to be considering I wish to bob the mattress [on the Gladiator],” Dubose mentioned. “We’ll use the design that we had on the El Jefe for the rear corners to make a mattress.
Motobilt’s new press brakes assist operators sustain with the numerous elements coming off its new 12-kW laser chopping machine.
“It was one thing that no one else is doing within the trade,” he continued. “Most individuals are simply placing physique cladding on the aspect and wrapping it across the again. Properly, this one truly is available in up and excessive. And it is form of like a bedside on a truck.”
That design alteration in the end turned the calling card for an additional Motobilt construct: Alumibob. As with El Jefe, off-roaders can go to the Motobilt web site and order the elements that make up the customized construct.
Though the R&D course of is slightly unpredictable, Hunter works with it as a result of she is aware of it feeds off-roaders’ urge for food for customized aftermarket items. Regardless of the free schedules, she will nail down half due dates and in the end launch dates from the design staff. That’s essential as a result of she is also concerned in overseeing the precise fabrication of these elements.
Dan and Hunter Dubose on The Fabricator Podcast
Dan and Hunter joined The Fabricator Podcast to share how Motobilt grew into a number one producer of aftermarket Jeep and off-road elements. They talk about superior manufacturing expertise, customized automobile builds, and the corporate’s enlargement into structural metal fabrication. The dialog additionally covers their experiences rock crawling and rock bouncing throughout the nation.
Figuring Out Fabrication
When he launched Motobilt, Dubose did what plenty of small outlets do: he turned to plasma for manufacturing chopping. He’d used it through the early days of Blue Torch FabWorks, so it was dependable and acquainted. However he knew that to enhance productiveness and high quality, he’d must improve his gear.
“Beginning Motobilt, the purpose was to personal a laser. I had a quantity set in thoughts, like a finances. As soon as I get to X variety of {dollars} that we’re outsourcing repeatedly every month, then we’ll go purchase a laser,” he mentioned. “So the primary time we hit that quantity consecutively over three months, we went and bought a CO2 laser that occurred to be getting phased out, as many laser producers have been switching to fiber again in 2017.”
That first yr of proudly owning a laser chopping machine was a revelation for Dubose and his crew. To start with, they thought they have been set, with the ability to produce elements as they have been ordered. That allowed them to maintain solely uncooked materials stock, which was nice given the small footprint of the Motobilt store then.
The laser chopping machine additionally allowed them to broaden their product lineup. They not needed to outsource laser-cut elements, and the machine may end up blanks in a matter of minutes.
A full yr later, Motobilt was overwhelmed.
The brand new Mitsubishi press brakes have helped Motobilt vastly decrease rework that after plagued its bending division.
Slicing on demand was good in principle, however chopping was just one course of. Some elements nonetheless wanted to be shaped and welded. Most wanted to be completed. All wanted to be shipped. Tackling every order from a rising portfolio of elements was an excessive amount of for the employees to remain on prime of and nonetheless preserve anticipated supply occasions to clients.
“We couldn’t scale the enterprise that approach,” Dubose mentioned.
The stakes have been massive as a result of Motobilt additionally had stopped promoting merchandise made by different firms and ended its apply of constructing automobiles for different individuals—each of which supplied income streams. It was strictly manufacturing elements now, the place the revenue margins have been higher, nevertheless it couldn’t maximize its efforts due to its incapacity to course of extra orders shortly.
In 2019, Motobilt made a transfer to an 85,000-sq-ft. constructing in Ozark, Ala., which gave the corporate extra room for elements stock and fabricating gear, and bought a 10-kW fiber laser chopping machine and two press brakes.
(The constructing additionally included area for Anvil Industrial Group, a heavy industrial fabrication firm that Dubose launched not too long ago. He noticed a possibility to offer fabricating experience to this sector after being approached by a number of individuals within the space in search of assist.)
Motobilt entered the 2020s able to accommodate a rising enterprise. In contrast to previously, when it needed to restrict its stock earlier than a big sale or vacation as a result of it merely didn’t have the room to hold it, the corporate now had room for racks of its bumpers, armor, suspension kits, and different aftermarket merchandise. The laser chopping machine was performing as anticipated.
The press brakes, nonetheless, proved to be a problem just a few years after set up. They weren’t delivering correct types, and the Motobilt staff had problem rectifying that scenario.
Hunter mentioned service personnel would present as much as resolve the issue however go away with no resolution. A distinct service technician would observe up and mainly have to start out the analysis from scratch and check out a unique strategy that always did little to treatment the accuracy points.
“We requested them to come back in and do a whole overhaul to get our press brakes again to new with a purpose to try to transfer ahead with them. And that did not work out both,” Hunter mentioned.
In the meantime, rework turned a continuing challenge. Press brake operators have been “chasing angles” on elements that ought to have taken solely minutes to type however took for much longer, in keeping with Hunter. They merely couldn’t produce high quality elements on a constant foundation.
Motobilt’s Mitsubishi 12-kW GX-F fiber laser is related to an automatic materials storage tower but additionally accommodates aspect loading of fabric for impromptu jobs or for loading sheet steel remnants.
A New Fabricating Chapter
The Duboses spent most of 2024 in search of new laser chopping and bending expertise. They visited totally different gear producers and spoke with different steel fabricating firm house owners. They noticed plenty of expertise that would do the chopping and forming they anticipated out of modern-day fabricating gear, however they have been in search of responsiveness from their expertise suppliers.
Once they visited the MC Equipment Methods facility in Elk Grove Village, Unwell., to have a look at Mitsubishi laser chopping machines and press brakes, they shortly observed an enormous display screen in the midst of the workplace space. The display screen confirmed every customer support name together with how lengthy the client had been ready and who on the MC Equipment staff was liable for resolving it.
Hunter mentioned that was an essential signal for her. She knew that any Motobilt points with gear could be seen to these liable for getting them again up and working.
By summer time 2025, Motobilt had its Mitsubishi 12-kW GX-F fiber laser with a 60- by 120-in. desk up and working. The laser chopping machine is related to a cloth tower that may robotically load the uncooked materials. The laser additionally permits materials to be loaded from the aspect, which is useful when remnants are getting used.
Motobilt additionally put in three press brakes with 60-, 135-, and 252-ton capacities. The latter offers heavy-duty bending capabilities that the store didn’t have earlier than.
“We’re actually proud of how the gear is working,” Hunter mentioned. “The velocity that the laser cuts aluminum is very thrilling. Simply to see how briskly it traverses when it’s chopping—it’s unbelievable.”
The press brakes ship the accuracies which are needed for maintaining with orders. Dubose mentioned that the operators particularly just like the projector system on the 252-ton brake that shows bend info immediately onto the work floor so the operator can see precisely how the half ought to be introduced and shaped. That is particularly useful with massive elements when the operator can’t swing the management monitor nearer to the bending motion as a result of the half would possibly strike it throughout forming.
A bottleneck within the bending division within the latter a part of 2025 was not associated to accuracy points however attempting to transform half packages over to the brand new bending software program equipped with the Mitsubishi brakes.
“None of our elements are containers, proper? They’re all actual intricate, like our bumpers which have to suit collectively completely, and so they’ve obtained to suit your Jeep,” Hunter mentioned. “If a bolt gap needs to be in a selected place, that signifies that it needs to be good. Our tolerances are tight.”
Hold Transferring Ahead
Simply because the blanking and bending operations now are so as doesn’t imply issues have slowed down at Motobilt. The corporate is in the midst of transitioning to a brand new MRP software program bundle to streamline entrance workplace operations and enhance connectivity with store flooring programs. Anvil
Industrial is rising, so the Duboses are attempting to determine methods to reconfigure store flooring area for extra heavy industrial work. Motobilt is also constructing out its 3D printing operations, putting in three resin printers for elements like gentle and digicam housings.
Motobilt additionally now employs round 100 individuals between the 2 firms. It’s come a good distance from 2013 when area was at a premium.
Dubose is again to what he likes the perfect, engaged on automobiles and proving out new ideas. He is probably not doing all of the work himself, however he affords constructive criticism and steerage to the youthful fabricators who deliver their very own concepts and creativity to the job.
One of many firm’s more moderen creations is a Jeep Gladiator with a 550-HP V-8 engine and 42-in. tires—Hunter’s present journey. It additionally has a double-triangulated four-link suspension, which was considerably just like what Motobilt has been making for Jeep JL fashions, and a back-half body equipment beneath the bobbed mattress. Each merchandise made their debuts on the Rowdy construct, and now Jeep Gladiator clients can order these modifications to show their very own automobiles into rock-climbing monster machines.
The view is all the time higher from up prime.
