Industry legend Bobby Christie of Goulburn Smash Repairs has passed away. One of his many, many industry friends Mark Williams of Lowbake has created a photo tribute to him, below. Williams told me yesterday he's never had so many conversations with so many men in tears in one day. Paint & Panel would like to include your tributes to this well loved and respected man so please send them to samstreet@yaffa.com.au and include any photos you might have of Bob.
The funeral will be held on Friday June 26 at St Saviours Anglican Cathedral, 170 Bourke Street, Goulburn at 2pm.
Paint & Panel found an interview on aboutregional.com.au from 2023 celebrating Bob's 60th anniversary as a spray painter.
Finishing high school early, Bob began spray painting while working for Russell Adam, the unconventional founder of a national signage company.
“I became a bit obsessed with the spraying, so I bought a little compressor for 28 pounds,” he said.
“I used to do little jobs for my mates.”
He taught himself colour-matching while spray painting for car dealer Neville Burrows and had two stints working for Reg Moore at Geissler Motors.
He once rented a small shed from Lindsay Taylor in Clinton Street, sitting car bodies on milk crates and spray-painting them for panelbeating shops.
“My shed was a wool store, it belonged to John Moses and Co,” he said.
“For years I pulled bits of wool out of my wet paintwork.”
One of his neighbours, Mike Collins, who had a backyard full of car wrecks, ran Goulburn Panel Beaters.
“We had a connection through speedway,” Bob said.
“He was a great neighbour; we shared the gate – that was our entry.”
While building his business, Bob also earned a profile in speedway racing.
“It was like, on the weekend you were in show business and on Monday morning you were rubbing down mudguards,” he said.
He moved to his current site in Maud Street in the 1980s, buying it on vendor finance for $145,000.
Collisions with kangaroos continue to bring most people to the repairer, but exceptions include the owner of a dark-blue Subaru.
“It turned out she had a pet goat who could see itself in the reflection in the dark blue and thought it was competition and punched the inside out all the way down the side of the car,” Bob said.