Champions in a skilled world

Two young autobody repairers will be off to the WorldSkills competition in London next year to represent Australia in their chosen field of panel beating and spray painting.

WorldSkills Australia was held in Brisbane in May to select the top students to represent Australia at WorldSkills competition in London.

The representatives of the autobody repair industry are panel beater Daniel Kostakakis and painter Nathan Crumpton.

Kostakakis works for Universal Smash Repairs in Williamstown North, Victoria, and studies at Kangan Institute – ACE Centre.

Silver went to Craig Agnew, Mid Coast Smash Repairs in Tuncurry, (TAFE NSW Hunter Institute) NSW and bronze went to Wayne Lea, Wayne Phipps Smash Repair, Midland, (Polytechnic West, Carlisle) WA.

Crumpton works for Dicker Motors Smash Repairs, North Gosford, NSW and attends the Ultimo College of the Sydney Institute of TAFE.

Silver went to Craig Gillard Metro Paint and Panel, Brendale, (SkillsTech Australia, Ithaca) Qld, and bronze to Nathan Florisson, Esperance Smash Repairs, Esperance, (Polytechnic West) WA.

The competition saw the panel beaters undertake five tasks over the three days.

Repair a front support, right hand skirt and rail extension on a Toyota; an R&R on a left-hand quarter panel; repair damage to a right-hand quarter panel and bonnet with hail damage, highlighting student’s file finishing abilities; and analyse and report on damage to a Toyota RAV4 using a Car-O-Liner bench and measuring system.

Painters had to paint the front end of a Toyota HiLux, edging out the insides of the bonnet and panels for a semi-gloss finish and then finishing the outside secessions with a gold metallic effect, using waterborne basecoat.

They had to prime, colour match and blend the colour on a small repair to the left-hand front of the vehicle; and mask off “GT” stripes on the bonnet, paint on the stripes using waterborne base coat, and attach two decals to the bonnet.