Page 102 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine Nov-Dec 2021

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BEST SHOP AWARDS
PAINT&PANEL NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021 WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
LEFT TO RIGHT: Paintshop can be seen from the entrance. Glenn O’Donnell
BEST NEW DEALER SHOP
NORTHSHORE BMW
GLENN O’DONNELL AND THE TEAM AT LOWBAKE HAVE CREATED A BENCHMARK REPAIR FACILITY IN ARTARMON, SYDNEY.
O
’DONNELL IS PROBABLY THE
most experienced BMW re- pairer in Australia and also has another BMW and multi-
badged shop in Narellan.
The facility is in a 3500m2 building
right next to the Northshore BMW service centre. It’s an unusual space configura- tion across three factories but they have really made the best of it. The main en- trance where customers drive in to have their cars inspected looks into the paint shop and they can see at once that their beloved BMW is going into a clean, high tech environment. We love the rather snazzy digital sign which says Welcome to Northshore BMW and the message can be changed so they could even welcome customers by name. There’s another esti- mating area inside to the rear of reception.
Reception is, as you would expect, a dealership style environment. An oasis of soothing white, black leather and nat- ural wood tones. There are glass walls that look into the office where the esti- mators and production managers sit.
Going into the workshop with its Lowbake’s LED lighting system and re- ally shiny clean floors you are tempted to reach for your sunglasses.
The paint and panel workshops are a technician’s dream. Every single piece of top drawer equipment can be found here. There’s an aluminium and com- posite repair bay, and EV repair bay. The panel bays all have Spanesi lifts or Cellette benches. Very fancy looking storage tubs for parts stack neatly in a wall mounted rack.
There are two Lowbake ALPHA booths with full glazing fitted with the air ramp system. Next to the two booths are three preparation bays all with integrated ducted vacuum, each with a sliding powered moving IR and UV curing system.
Behind the preparation bays is a ful- ly glazed mix room. All of it kept spot- lessly clean – it’s like an operating the- atre for cars. We loved the silver floor tiles in the mixing room which can be lifted up and replaced.
It cost a pretty penny and O’Donnell had a massive banner made up featur- ing BMW models to fill the void be- tween the top of the spraybooths and the ceiling, which looks fantastic.
There’s a a huge parts storage room which has sliding doors to block it off from the customer area. And then there’s a whole other workshop which is blocked off also by sliding doors, which is currently used for stripping and fitting. This will be kitted out in the fullness of time, obviously lock- downs have hampered its progress.
Upstairs is huge with a massive board- room, two more offices and a really nice lunch room and separate kitchen which can be accessed from the workshop.
Simply put, this is a totally state-of- the-art, next level repair facility.
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