Sunshine Coast QLD / since 1989
Automotive refinish, industrial coatings, aerosol fills and the consumables that run out before the colour does. Panel shops, maintenance crews and weekend restorers all buy over the same counter at 5 Main Drive, Warana, on the corner of Commerce Avenue, Monday to Friday from 7:30am to 4:00pm. Most of what a job needs is on the shelf and leaves with you the same visit. The part a shelf cannot give you is the conversation about the rest of the system: the primer for the substrate, the reducer for the day, the abrasive and the gunwash that go with the colour. Bring the code, the panel or the sample.
Local since 1989
Same Kawana site for over 35 years
Overview
Three groups of buyers use this counter, and they want different things. Panel shops and spray painters come in to restock, industrial and commercial maintenance buyers come in for coatings that have to hold on plant and fleet, and DIY owners come in for a weekend car, minor damage or a finish they want to upgrade. That split matters: the professional two-pack systems and the DIY range are not the same range here, and the manufacturer's own data sheet draws that line.
Automotive refinish runs on manufacturer systems rather than loose tins. Concept No Mix Basecoat is a solvent borne clear over base medium solids tinting system that requires no mixing and no mixing machine, which is how a two-bay shop runs a full tinting system without buying one. Which system suits your booth and your cure times is a longer conversation, and the full breakdown sits on the automotive paints page.
Industrial coatings answer a different question: not what the colour is, but what the coating has to survive on plant, fleet or structural steel. Bernardo Ecenarro publishes a range built for the industrial, commercial vehicle and automotive repainting sectors, so a buyer who needs bodywork and plant in the same week can work from one manufacturer rather than two. Substrate, exposure and cure chemistry are worked through on the industrial paints page.
Aerosol filling happens in store, on the machine photographed on this site. Behind all three families sit the consumables, the part of an order that empties mid-week, and Finixa publishes that whole range as one catalogue.
The counter
Every application figure a manufacturer prints assumes conditions, and the Sunshine Coast does not supply them for free.
At Bureau of Meteorology station 040861 at Sunshine Coast Airport, mean 9am relative humidity is 71 per cent across the year, rising to 76 per cent in June. Concept's No Mix data sheet sets a hard condition against that air: surface temperature must always be a minimum of 3 degrees Celsius above dew point. On a June morning in an unheated shed at Warana, with the air near three quarters saturated, that margin decides whether a coat lays down or blushes and lets go later. It is not something anyone judges by eye, and checking it before the first coat costs nothing.
Summer moves the problem the other way. The same sheet quotes 5 to 10 minutes flash off between coats and 30 to 40 minutes air dry at 25 degrees Celsius, while the station records a mean maximum of 25.5 degrees across the year and 29.1 degrees in January. A January panel runs hotter than the sheet assumes, so flash off shortens and a reducer chosen for a mild day fights you.
None of that changes what is in the tin. It changes which reducer, which hardener speed and which order of operations you walk out with, and no product listing makes that call. WorkSafe Queensland names suppliers, alongside manufacturers and industry associations, as a source to consult when a workplace is identifying spray painting hazards and reading labels, data sheets and instruction manuals. That is the job here: read the sheet, read the conditions, then match the products to both.
Same corner since October 1989.
Some colours are hard to identify from the vehicle alone. A stalled job holds a bay, and a close-but-wrong guess gets stripped and done twice. We match from a code or from the panel itself, and the matching service is set out on the custom paint page.
Buyers plan around the colour, so the hardener, reducer, abrasive grade, masking and gunwash get remembered at the point where they are needed. A missing component either stops the job or gets substituted from the bench, which is where mismatched cure times and lifted edges start. Our own enquiries run on this, with buyers asking whether we supply everything a paint project needs and whether we can help choose the right products. We work through the stack out loud and check it against panel area before you pay.
A can holding your exact mixed colour looks like the same product in a smaller package. The Concept fillable can takes 1K product only, which makes it right for touch-ups, small panels and signage and wrong for a full two-pack refinish. We say what the can can and cannot do before we fill it, and we sell what goes under it, since it belongs over an acrylic primer surfacer or grey etch primer aerosol.
The counter trades Monday to Friday from 7:30am to 4:00pm and is closed Saturday and Sunday, while most restoration work happens on the weekend. Running out of clear on a Saturday afternoon means tape on the car and a part-sprayed panel sitting until Monday. Come in on the Friday and talk the whole job through, and we will work quantities out from panel area. Most stock leaves with you the same visit.
Refinish colour, primers, clears, hardeners and reducers for collision and respray work.
Automotive paintsProduct selection at the counter, from substrate through to the final coat.
Ask a questionChips, scratches and small panel repairs on daily drivers, 4WDs and work vehicles.
Custom aerosol cansCutting, polishing and protection products for the finishing bench.
Detailing productsGuns, tips, filters, cleaning gear and booth consumables.
Talk to the counter
The full stack for a repair, matched to the substrate and to the finish you want.
Automotive paints
Coatings for plant, fleet, structural steel and commercial vehicles.
Industrial paintsStocked, matched, and backed by experience
The branch opened at Commerce Avenue in October 1989 and still trades from that site, now addressed as 5 Main Drive, Warana, on the corner of Main Drive and Commerce Avenue with the entrance in Commerce Avenue. It is owned and run by Cory and Candice, a local family rather than a branch office of a national chain. Gavin Pollock runs the sales van with close to 35 years in the industry, and it carries a spectrophotometer and computer for hard to identify colours. The systems behind the counter carry their own continuity: Concept Paints is an Australian family owned manufacturer operating from St Marys since 1994, Cromax is Axalta's refinish brand, and Bernardo Ecenarro has manufactured coatings in Spain since 1963.
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
Questions
Concept words its No Mix data sheet as being for automotive and industrial use by professional painters, and not recommended for sale to or use by the general public. WorkSafe Queensland treats paints containing isocyanates as high risk. For home work we point you at touch-up, aerosol, abrasive and polishing products instead.
Yes. A Queensland business must hold an up to date, compliant safety data sheet for each chemical before it starts its hazardous chemicals register, and the register must list each hazardous product with its current sheet. Health monitoring is also required for workers who regularly use two-pack paints and are at significant risk. Ask which sheet governs a product before you buy.
No. The counter trades Monday to Friday from 7:30am to 4:00pm and is closed Saturday and Sunday. If the job is a weekend one, come in on the Friday and talk through the whole sequence rather than only the next step, because most stock leaves with you the same visit.
Gavin Pollock runs a sales van to panel shops and has close to 35 years in the industry. It carries most day to day products, along with a spectrophotometer and computer for colours that are hard to identify. Call the counter to arrange a visit, because we do not publish a fixed schedule or a coverage area.
Tell us the vehicle, the colour code if you have one, or just what you are trying to finish. We will tell you what you need and what it costs.
Bring the paint code, the panel, or a sample of whatever needs matching, and tell us what the finish has to survive. The counter is at 5 Main Drive, Warana, entrance in Commerce Avenue, Monday to Friday from 7:30am to 4:00pm. Most stock leaves with you the same visit, and we will confirm timing on anything ordered in. Trade buyers can ask about the van instead.