Sunshine Coast QLD / since 1989
Our counter is at Warana, a few minutes from the Kawana Waters town centre, and we have mixed paint on this corner since 1989. Colours read off your panel, mixed while you wait, and filled into aerosols if that suits the job better.
Local since 1989
Same Kawana site for over 35 years
Overview
Kawana is a locality rather than a single suburb, and it covers most of the ground between Mooloolaba and Currimundi. That mix is why the paint work coming out of it varies so much: daily drivers and work utes from the residential streets, fleet and service vehicles out of the hospital precinct at Birtinya, boats off the canal systems, and trade work from the panel shops in the surrounding estates.
What those jobs share is the coast. Kawana sits close enough to the open beach that salt carries inland on the prevailing wind, and a Queensland summer puts hard UV on every horizontal panel. Roofs, bonnets and boot lids fade faster here than the same car would fade thirty kilometres inland, which is exactly why a repair mixed to the factory code can still read as a patch in daylight.
We work the other way around. The panel gets read with a spectrophotometer as it is now, faded included, and the formula is adjusted against a sprayout card until the card and the car agree. For a Kawana car that has lived outdoors, that is usually the difference between a repair you can see and one you cannot.
Bring the vehicle if you can. A code gets us close, but on a car that has spent years parked outside near the beach the code describes a colour the car has not been for a long time. We measure the panel, adjust the mix, spray a card, and check the two together in daylight before you take anything away. Silvers, pearls and three-stage reds are the ones we would rather see the car for than work from a number.
Not every job is a repair. Restorations, bikes, helmets, wheels and project cars come through the counter wanting a colour that is not on any chart, and those get mixed from scratch the same way a match does. Candy and pearl finishes need the whole stack planned in advance, including the ground coat, because the colour you end up with depends as much on what is underneath as on the tint itself.
For a stone chip on a Kawana daily driver, or a small repair a mobile tech is doing on site, an aerosol filled with your actual mix beats the nearest colour off a rack. We fill them in store from the same tinted bases we would use for a full mix. Signwriters and boat owners use them too, for the same reason: it is the colour, not an approximation of it.
If you run a shop in or around Kawana, the van is usually the answer. Gavin covers the Kawana Waters suburbs and carries the spectrophotometer, the computer for difficult colours, and most of what a shop goes through in a week. Sending an apprentice to Warana costs you an hour of labour; a van call costs you nothing and the colour gets read on site.
Salt air and UV are the two things every finish around here has to survive, and they are also the two things most often left out of a product decision made on price. The primer under the colour and the clear over it do more for longevity than the basecoat does. Tell us where the vehicle or the job lives, how much of it sits in the sun, and we will specify the stack rather than just the tin.
Stocked, matched, and backed by experience
Decades of refinish experience behind the counter, the brands the trade actually asks for, and colours matched and mixed while you wait.
Local since 1989
Same Kawana site for over 35 years
Concept Paints distributor
Including the NO MIX system
Cromax and BESA refinish
Cromax and Bernardo Ecenarro
Custom colour matching
Spectrophotometer on site and in the van
Getting here
Our workshop is at 5 Main Drive, Warana, in the Warana industrial area, on the corner of Main Drive and Commerce Avenue. From Kawana, near the Kawana Waters town centre, it's a short run down Nicklin Way and into the Warana estate to reach us. We keep the van stocked for the common jobs, so most Kawana call-outs are sorted in a single visit. If it's easier to drop in, give us a call first.
Queensland Paint SuppliesQuestions
We are at 5 Main Drive, Warana, on the corner of Commerce Avenue, which is a few minutes from anywhere in the Kawana Waters area. Come in through Commerce Avenue rather than Main Drive. From the town centre it is a short run down Nicklin Way and into the industrial estate.
That is most of the work here. Kawana sits close enough to the open beach that roofs and bonnets take constant salt and hard UV, and both fade a finish faster than the same car would fade inland. We read the panel as it is now rather than mixing to the original code, so the repair matches the car instead of matching the factory.
Yes. Gavin runs the van across the Kawana Waters suburbs and carries a spectrophotometer and a computer for colours that are hard to identify, along with most day-to-day products. If sending someone to Warana costs you a technician for an hour, call and we will work your shop into the run.
Same business, same corner. Queensland Paint Supplies opened on Commerce Avenue in October 1989 and still trades from that site, now under Cory and Candice. The Kawana connection is not a marketing line: their kids go to high school in Kawana and surf lifesave at Mets Caloundra.
Usually, yes. We mix the colour and fill the can in store, so it holds your actual colour. Busy periods and difficult matches can push it out, so if you are driving in from Kawana specifically for that, call first and we will have it ready.
Both. Trade accounts are the bulk of what we do, but the counter is open to anyone. Chips, scratches, a weekend restoration or a polishing kit are all normal, and we will talk you through the product and the process rather than just handing it over.
Bring the car, or bring a painted part you can remove such as a fuel flap or a mirror cap. The spectrophotometer reads the colour directly off the surface, so a missing or unreadable compliance plate is not a problem.
We do. Marine work comes up regularly given the canal systems through Minyama, Parrearra and Kawana Island, and the coatings involved overlap heavily with what we already stock for industrial jobs. Tell us the substrate and where the boat lives and we will specify the system.
5 Main Drive, Warana, entrance via Commerce Avenue. Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4pm. Call ahead with the vehicle and the colour code and we can have it mixed before you arrive.