Lily Welsh is the MTA Institute Apprentice of the Month for November 2024.
The 20-year-old is in the third year of her automotive refinishing (painting) apprenticeship and works at Advanced Auto Accident Repair Centre in the Brisbane suburb of Albion.
Lily is, according to her MTA Institute trainer Patrick Cranitch is an outstanding apprentice with an approach and attention to detail that is ‘industry leading.’ Her employer too is full of praise for Lily’s skills and enthusiasm, saying her ‘. . . abilities and quality of work far exceeds a third-year’s standard.
For someone who is proving to be such an able, skilled, and reliable employee, it is a surprise to learn that becoming a spray painter was not something that had been a childhood dream for Lily. Instead, it was a bit of luck and the desire to try something a bit different that would end up seeing her join Advance Auto Accident Repair Centre and uncover her passion for the work.
“I was working at packing pineapples when my brother-in-law – who worked as a panel beater here – asked me if I wanted an apprenticeship in spray painting.,” said Lily.
“I was 17 years old, and I’d watched some YouTube videos of people doing the job and thought it looked sort of cool, but I didn’t really have an interest in it. But it was a new job opportunity, so I wanted to give it a try.
“I was given a week to see if I liked it or not, and then did three months’ probation before starting my apprenticeship.”
Advanced Auto Accident Repair Centre has a fine reputation and works on some extremely high-end and exotic cars. It’s a great place to learn the finder arts of painting and Lily was fascinated by what could be done by a skilled painter.
“Watching my tradesperson paint and seeing the work that she does on high-end cars and the results she was getting – which were really, really good – intrigued me,” said Lily.
“And now I do work on some of those cars. The most high-end have been Porsches and Mercedes, and I have worked on a Bentley too.”
As a third year, Lily works on all sorts of cars and all sorts of paints and complicated jobs, and the process of getting the right paint for a job is, she said, an interesting one.
“We take a spectro – a photo of the paint on the car – and hook it up to our computer to see what the spectro gives us as a best match. We then do a spray-out card of the one that looks visually best on the computer screen,” she said. “When that spray-out card is cured, we take it to the car and look at it with a ‘sun gun’ – which is a sunlight torch – and if it is a good match, we’ll use it. If the paint needs a little bit more tinting, then we’ll come back and tweak it.”
Finding that precise colour and applying it might be Lily’s part of the repair job, but she said it was very rewarding to watch a car go through the whole process of repair – to come in damaged but roll out of the shop looking like it did when it was brand new.
“That really is very satisfying,” she said.
Clearly, Lily is a brilliant apprentice and skilled employee, and it seems that the MTA Institute is not the only organisation to recognise that, for Lily has also been named as a finalist in the Technician/Estimator category of the 2024 Women in Collision Award organised by Australasian Paint & Panel. The winner will be announced in February 2025 but being in the running for such a prize is a terrific achievement in itself. Along with the news of her winning the MTA Institute Apprentice of the Month award, it seemed that Christmas had come a little early.
“It is cool,” said Lily. “It has been a pretty good week!”
It certainly has.
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (December 2025/January 2025)
20 January 2025
