Shop Profile: Right site gets Stow away to top flight shop

NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO Michael Stow was looking at the Pacific Highway, Sydney as a location for his new smash repair shop. The major northern artery between the city and Hornsby, on the upper North Shore, was a magnate for people looking for car showrooms and affiliated repair shops. Stow made numerous trips from his then Ultimo (near the CBD) workshop but could not secure premises that suited his business.

He spotted a site, belonging to a carpet cutter, in Hotham Parade, Artarmon, on Sydney’s lower north shore but despite lengthy negotiations he could not secure it. So Stow returned to Ultimo and for l2 months continued to repair Sydney’s growing vehicle population.

Then came the lucky break when the carpet cutter phoned with the message he was willing to sell his premises and Stow moved quickly to snap the space up. For more than quarter of a century since Stow has been plying his smash repair trade in Hotham Parade to a growing clientele of prestige car owners and their families. In that time his shop
floor area has doubled.

He is proud of vehicles he has handled, not the least the $2 million XJ220 Jaguar super car he had to repair after it came into contact with the back of a smaller Japanese car in the Kings Cross tunnel. The job was a matter of major urgency as the Jag had been due to make a starring role at the Sydney International Motor Show and needed its
busted nose repaired inside a fortnight with no trace of the incident discernible.

It is testament to the professionalism and expertise of Stow’s team that it did the job so well nobody was any the wiser when it went on parade before thousands of eagle-eyed fans, despite the grill, nose and bonnet having been badly stoved in.

The Jaguar was also due to play a major role in a charity fund-raising and nobody wanted a group of disabled children to ride around in a damaged car. In order to meet that earlier obligation a black ‘bra’ was fitted to hide the damage on the partially repaired snout and all the children received their ‘non-topless’ ride.

Later the car’s infamy was to continue when it featured in an advertising shoot beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge adorned by a far younger Elle Macpherson sprawled over the bodywork.

The Jag success ensured Stow’s reputation for prestige perfection was forever cemented.

Once a BMW-approved bodyshop, Stow Smash Repairs is now part of a Lexus-approved body and paint repairer network. The Artarmon workshop houses 24 panel beaters, spray painters and administration staff working on everything from a Ferrari to a VW Golf.

“How can I refuse to fix the non-prestige vehicles cars when I do so much work on other cars from the same family,” Stow says.

Although the “smaller cars are very well built” Stow prefers to work on bigger vehicles.

There have been many challenging jobs - like the time he had to make panels and cut out the rust from a Mercedes Gull Wing.

“Those were the days of handmade cars, not the stuff of robots. At the time we were mainly Jaguar repairers but in the course of that we repaired Leyland cars including Rovers, Triumphs and Minis. It was not a way to make money.”

Now in the computer age, he says the new system of electronically-controlled manufacture and repair makes for easier jobs and closer to perfect results. “In the pre-robot days everything was done from the outside but Mercedes and BMW changed all of that. Still, some of the old ways remain.”

Stow likes to do preparatory work repairs by hand. To demonstrate he showed Paint & Panel a car severely hail damaged with dozens of dents filed to a fine finish. “We beat the dents out, then pull them out and file finished back to the metal. Not too many smash repairers go to those lengths these days.”

Stow says his workers use the now rare fine grade files which are worth searching for as they make for a superb finish. All of this against a background of two ovens and a spray booth and a coterie of new hightech equipment. “We have an Autorobot and a Carbench to fit all jigs as well as a strip, repair, assembly and paint preparation area and detailing.
The workshop has a fine array of fan invertor welders for most alloys and steels. His paint selection is spread between Standox and Glasurit.

“Cars are all lighter and stronger and we will see increasingly more plastic in cars. I have seen kevlar used in Formula One cars where the car has hit a wall and the safety cage remains perfectly intact after a 200kph impact. This has to be the ultimate vehicle safety product.”

Boasting a Golden Gun award (won by employee Frank Lee for being one of the top 30 spray painters in the country) Stow Smash Repairs comes with credentials. With a workshop full of modern and not-somodern but valuable vehicles, finish work is paramount.

“Customers like to bring in their Rolls, Bentleys, Aston Martins and Lexus vehicles, not to mention BMWs and Mercedes, because they know we will give them an excellent and strong repair without any filling.”

Does he look forward to the new repair agenda, plastic without the surface to file to that fine finish? “We’ll wait and see,” he says philosophically.