MG Car Club of South Australia
MGB REGISTER EVENT
From..Steve Spong
Visit to Adelaide Hills Panel Works
ing extensive body work with several
panels having to be remade. This car
had been in the shop since April 2019
and was expected to be completed by
Christmas. With one panel taking many
hours to just fabricate and fit, such a
time frame is understandable. The sec-
ond Karmann Ghia was in the spray
booth. The usual paint finish being a
durable 2 pack plus a clear coat.
Brian, having been a panel beater all
his working life, demonstrated some
panel forming techniques as well as
giving us some inside knowledge on
preparing bodies for lead or plastic fill
prior to painting. Brian is to retire shortly
which leaves Rob with the dilemma of
where to recruit a replacement for this
dying art.
A visit to APH’s website or Facebook
page will give some idea of the works
undertaken, but they include a GT Fal-
con rebuilt over some 18 months, and
an Austin Healey 3000 rebuilt onto a
new chassis, both projects costing in
the order of $150K!.
So we had a very interesting morning
and our thanks went to Rob and his
crew for taking the time to show us what
great works they do. Thanks too to
those members, especially to the two
members attending their first event and
to our one guest. As a bonus we also all
enjoyed a lovely sunny, albeit chilly,
W
e had been invited by Rob Eph-
grave of Adelaide Hills Panel
Works, to visit his premises at Nairne,
on Saturday 27 th July. Rob kindly
opened up his workshop for us and ar-
ranged for his panel beater Brian “the
Wizard” to attend and to show us some
of his skills.
Rob has run AHP for some 11 years
and they specialise in body restorations
for all types of cars; vintage, classic,
custom, performance etc, as well as
undertaking insurance repairs. Usually
working on one or two car restorations
at a time through to completion, their
practice is to invoice the Client monthly,
providing detailed reports as to the
works undertaken, whilst maintaining a
comprehensive photographic record.
Interior trim works are contracted out,
as is mechanical and electrical work. In
this regard we met Martin Wallace
(0408 100 303) who runs his own me-
chanical, electrical, and minor trim
workshop at Kanmantoo. Martin arrived
trailering a lovely early 3.8 E-Type
which he had been working on and
which was being brought in for some
minor rust removal and spraying of the
front wing.
In AHP’s workshop this day were two
VW Karmann Ghias. One was undergo-
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