Kingscote crash repair business 1953-1959

Quite apart from the general crash repair work, I carried out welding repairs around the Island and other contract work – but there were times when there was not enough work to fully occupy my time. Despite this, around 1957 a local painter decided that he too could be a crash repairer, but he wasn't really successful until later when he managed to form a business and employ a professional panelbeater, at which point the insurance companies were prepared to give him some work. His entry into the business helped me in fact, as now insurance assessors were in a position to ask for two local repair quotes, and as his charges were virtually always excessive – him being unskilled himself, and having to employ someone at quite considerable cost. I was in a position to raise my quotes, with insurance companies that I had dealt with for some time, but were prepared to pay me more, rather than have to ship the job to the mainland, or accept his demands.

I always had a good relationship with assessors who always flew over from Adelaide, and were well aware that failure to reach agreement, meant an additional insurance transport payout to Adelaide and return – the Adelaide businesses being in no way interested in quoting on an 'overseas' job! However in one particular case which I will describe, an attempt at collusion between a local Ford agency and an Adelaide crash repair firm, backfired miserably! This was around December 1956 when a local lad had bought a new Ford Consul from the agency and within a matter of days with only 1400 miles on the speedometer, had managed to roll it several times into the thick Kangaroo Island scrub that lined all of the dirt roads. Unfortunately he picked a spot where there was an ancient Yakka tree, and he collected this with the roof of his vehicle, and came to a sudden stop – luckily unhurt!

The Consul was another matter – it looked terrible and was written off by the insurance company responsible. I checked it out of interest, as at that time I was looking for a late model family car, and considered it an easy repair job. All the more so, because I already knew on the insurance grapevine that there was an identical body shell in Adelaide, with frontal damage that would supply the main body shell. Unfortunately the Ford agency decided that here was a chance to make some quick money. After selling the unfortunate owner a second new car, and accepting the wreck as a trade in, he refused my reasonable cash offer for it, telling me that he had a mate on the mainland who was going to repair the wreck, and they would split the (presumed) profits, and so it was shipped off to Adelaide! Some weeks later I was approached by the manager of the Ford agency asking if I was interested in the wreck. The ensuing conversation was interesting to say the least, but in the end the wreck was mine but at the additional cost of the return trip to Adelaide, and the assurance that it was complete as it was when it left the Island. I had already been told that the wreck had been carted around Adelaide to several repairers who, despite having found the spare body shell, considered the job unwanted when the new owner demanded a cut of the profits on the repair job, and so the wreck and it's greedy owner was unofficially black listed and he was stuck with it! There were few secrets in the insurance and body repair trade!

So the wreck returned accompanied by the spare body shell which I bought cheaply, and within a week I had the wreck dismantled and the new body in place. I never even removed the engine gearbox assembly – the steering gear, or any of the suspension components of the front section of the bodywork – not even the front mudguards! The body sections were welded together, and the car was driven around without the doors, bonnet or boot lid, to check that all was well mechanically – and it was! The driver's side doors were basically undamaged, as was the rear passenger's door on the left hand side, only the front passenger's door had suffered major damage and this was easily repaired. A new windscreen and a couple of door glasses – the rear glass having popped and survived – all the trim was undamaged, and suddenly we had a new car!
I immediately set to work and gave it a two tone paint job, and we decided to take a well earned two month's holiday, taking in the East coast of Australia up to the south of Queensland. We had three small children at this time, and Barbara was well pregnant with Wendy – our fourth child.

There was another part of the Consul story, a few months before it had been wrecked, I had been given word of a 40's Pontiac sedan with minor driver's side damage, owned and dry stored by a Port Pirie farmer, who had brushed the roadside scrub, and just gone out and bought a new Holden. I made contact with him and he supplied a couple of photos so I bought it unseen and went over to the mainland. I got the car mobile, obtained a temporary registration permit, and drove it back to Adelaide and shipped it to the Island.
This was a lovely well maintained vehicle, and I promptly repaired the damage and gave it a new paint job, and was about to get it registered when the Consul was wrecked.

Some time previously I decided that I had enough money to buy a new car, and ordered one of the new model Holden station wagons – the FE model. The Pontiac had been offered and accepted as a trade-in by the local Holden dealership. On returning to Adelaide after our holiday, I had no trouble in selling the still low mileage Consul to a used car dealer for a good price, and so we returned to Kingscote ready to take delivery of our new Holden – but dealership trickery intervened immediately, and the Pontiac trade-in was refused – even though it had been a so called done deal. So the Holden deal was refused, but as is often the case – a door opens, a door closes! Barb was due to go into hospital to have Wendy, and suddenly I had a call from an insurance assessor to go to Adelaide and have a look at a low mileage 1956 Dodge Automatic that had been involved in a fatal front end crash. The insurance company was asking 360 pounds for the wreck, and the assessor decided that this would be ideal for my repair talents.

Wendy was born, and the next day I hopped on a plane, inspected and bought the Dodge. I had a tow truck tow it to the shipping wharf, and accompanied it home on the boat the next day, getting a local tow operator to tow it home up past the hospital. Barbara watched it pass – not in the least impressed! This was repaired to the point where it could be registered, and became the family car with the eventual addition of later Chrysler Royal front end panels, and later still, the rear of the body was chopped off and rebuilt as a one off Dodge Wayfarer station wagon – one of the best cars that we have ever owned!