Deep Red, Done Right
The brief: factory-clean looks with real touring function. The answer: a chassis-mount aluminium canopy sized to travel and finished to match that Deep Red Metallic paint — strong where it matters, light where it counts, and laid out so life on the road is easy, not effort.
Why we built it this way
The Amarok’s V6 does the heavy lifting; our job is to keep weight down, storage organised and systems seamless. We removed the tub, mounted an aluminium canopy directly to the chassis, and balanced access, electrics and water so packing is instinctive and camp is five minutes, not fifty.
Stand-out features
The canopy is custom made to fit at 1700 × 1840 × 900 mm, locking up clean with black hardware and remote central locking plus door-open buzzers so nothing’s left swinging. Outside you’ve got a heavy-duty roof on three black powder-coated carry bars, rear drop-down swing-out ladder, rear roof visor, under-tray toolboxes both sides, and full road gear – LED tails and plate lights with protective surrounds, mudguards and mud flaps, twin vents, and a top-centre 240 V inlet/outlet on the rear wall. The V6 badge is re-fitted to the new rear infill, and all the OEM tech – reverse camera, parking sensors and blind-spot monitors – is re-mounted and recalibrated in the new panel so driver aids stay live. A fixed spare-wheel carrier sits on the right, a lockable jerry-can holder on the left, and underneath lives a 160 L water tank with an 11.3 LPM pump plumbed to the rear.
Storage & workflow
Open the doors and it feels like a tidy workshop, not a guessing game. On the left, next to the upright fridge, a marine-carpeted aluminium drawer is built to height, with a powder-coated slide-out bench carrying a Breville single-induction cooktop. On the right, a second carpeted drawer mirrors the fridge height with depth to the battery box. We’ve preserved a minimum 370 mm open space across the rear for bulky gear and airflow, then tied it together with a full-width mesh partition from the back of the drawers to the roof and a rear mesh ceiling shelf for light items. The whole canopy is insulated and trimmed in marine carpet so it’s quiet, cool and camp-friendly.
Cold chain & comforts
Up front sits a Dometic NRX115C upright 115 L fridge for your daily staples; opposite, an Evakool 40L drawer fridge/freezer handles drinks and frozen goods. Power on site? The Enerdrive 240 V inlet system feeds two internal GPOs (one on the Power Tower, one on the front wall) with the matching rear 240 V outlet for external tools. USB-A/C and cig sockets are placed both sides where you actually use them, and lighting is handled by Korr 100 cm orange/white dimmable strips on each frame plus ATOM 25 W wide-flood work lamps off the rear visor for pack-down after dark.
Power system
The heart of the fit-out is a floor-mounted, marine-carpeted battery box carrying a custom 280 Ah compact lithium. Management is pure REDARC Manager30 with TVMS Primeto tie it all together, and a REDARC 2000 W inverter with AC transfer & RCD for safe, silent 240 V. On the roof, two Alvolta 160 W fixed mono panels (320 W total) keep the bank topped up, with an external solar-blanket input up front for extra juice on lay-days. We also pre-wired for connectivity with Starlink Mini: USB-C PD power in the tower, a waterproof recessed front-wall connector, dedicated DC cabling and a SVNTY roof-rack mount with locking hardware. Air on hand? The ARB pump-up package (twin compressor, 4 L tank, hose kit and digital gauge) lives compact in the left rear toolbox, plumbed with braided lines and ARB fittings. Towing is set with a Narva 12-pin trailer plug.
Paint & finish
This one’s about the look as much as the living. We split the finishes to keep it tough and premium: the canopy frame, front infills, flared guards, toolboxes, tail-light covers, rear fascia, jerry-can holder and visor are Raptor-coated black; the doors, vents and toolbox lids are 2-PAC in Deep Red Metallic, the swing-out ladder, carry bars, slide-out bench, rear infill and mesh partition wear Sahara-black powder coat. The result is one cohesive, quiet finish that looks factory at ten paces and better up close.
The result
A Deep Red Amarok that drives lighter, lives smarter and looks like it rolled out of Wolfsburg with a touring degree. Less faff, more horizon — and a place for everything when you get there.
Ready to build yours?
Tell us how you travel — towing, kids, dogs, bikes, Starlink and spreadsheets — and we’ll map an Amarok spec that fits your life and your load.