Daniel Kerrow
FounderStarted the business with a van and a pressure washer. Still does the final inspection on every car that leaves the shop.
About Dealfable
Four people, one workshop, a stubborn attitude to finishing properly
Dealfable has been looking after cars on the northern beaches since 2014, first out of a mobile van, then from a fixed workshop on Williams Esplanade in Palm Cove. We are not a franchise, not a chain and not a rotating door of casual staff. The same four faces turn up every day, and the same person who inspects the car at drop-off is the one who signs it off at pickup. That simple continuity is why people keep coming back.
Palm Cove base
Fully insured
Trained team only
Where it started
A van, a pressure washer and a phone that would not stop ringing
Daniel started Dealfable in 2014 with a used van, a second-hand pressure washer and a mobile phone number. The first jobs were basic interior resets and hand washes for people around Trinity Beach and Kewarra who did not want to drive into Cairns for a detail.
The work was honest but the setup was limited. Mobile work means you cannot do a proper machine polish, you cannot run a drying booth and you definitely cannot apply a ceramic coating in a controlled environment. By 2019 it was clear that to keep improving the standard we would have to get a fixed workshop, so we signed the lease on Williams Esplanade and moved in properly.
The story so far
Eleven years in five milestones
Not the sort of thing you would put on a billboard, but the milestones matter to us because each one changed the kind of job we were able to take on.
-
2014
Mobile operation starts
One van and a portable water tank doing interiors and hand washes around the northern beaches. The first twelve months were mostly word of mouth.
-
2017
First ceramic coating
Daniel trained and certified in ceramic application. The first coating was on a customer's black Golf and it sold the technique to half of Trinity Beach.
-
2019
Williams Esplanade workshop
Moved into the fixed shop. Two bays, a proper drying area and the first commercial-grade hot-water extractor in the business.
-
2022
Filtered coating bay added
Sealed, filtered and humidity-controlled. This is what let us move to three-layer coatings and offer a seven-year warranty with a straight face.
-
2025
Team of four
Two paint technicians, one interior specialist and one coating technician. Still no rotating casuals, still the same inspection process on every car.
Numbers
What the booking records say
Straight from the workshop ledger. We update these every quarter so they are not stale marketing figures.
0
Cars through the door
0
Coatings applied
0
Trading in FNQ
0
Average customer rating
The team
Who is actually holding the polisher
Four people, different specialties, one inspection standard. If you have a particular person you want working on your car, ask at booking and we will schedule around it.
Priya Anand
Paint leadRuns the polishing and paint depth work. Certified in two ceramic systems and obsessive about swirl-finder checks.
Marcus Bellingham
InteriorsHandles all interior deep cleans and odour treatments. The person to talk to if you have a dog, a milky toddler or a mystery smell.
Nathan Reyes
CoatingsApplies every ceramic layer in the filtered bay and handles the annual coating inspections for existing customers.
Our approach
Four rules we actually stick to
These are not decoration on a website. They are the things we would rather lose a booking over than compromise on, and there have been a few of those over the years.
Show the problem first
Every car gets photographed before we start. If a scratch is under a layer of dust we will have already shown you it, so there is no argument later.
Honest scope, no upselling
If a cheaper package covers what you actually need, we say so. We would rather sell you an $189 refresh than a $529 treatment you did not need.
Slow down on the finish
The drying and cure stages are the ones most shops rush. We do not, because that is exactly where cheap work falls apart six months later.
Fix issues without a fight
If we miss something, bring it back and we sort it. In eleven years we have never needed to be dragged into a dispute over a finishing detail.
Selected work
A few jobs we are proud of
Real bookings, real customers, told with their permission. All photos are of the specific cars described.
Philosophy
Why we say no to easy jobs
Anyone in this trade can spend forty-five minutes on a car and hand it back looking decent under carpark lighting. What is harder is knowing when to say the customer's expectations do not match what the paint can actually deliver, and being honest about that before you take the money.
We have turned down jobs where the paint was too thin to safely correct, where a smell was coming from a sealed water leak that no coating or treatment would fix, and where the customer wanted a result that a coating simply cannot promise. Those conversations are awkward but they are the right thing to do. It is why our returns and complaints rate sits where it does, and it is why we still get called by the same families eight or nine years after their first booking.
What we do
Two flagship services, done in-house
Everything from decontamination to the final inspection happens under our roof. Nothing gets sent out to a third party.
Interior
Interior Deep Clean & Odour Reset
Seats out, carpets hot-water extracted, fabric steam-lifted and a ninety-minute ozone cycle that kills the source of the smell rather than masking it. The package that handles dog cars, spilled milk and trade vehicles.
Exterior
Ceramic Coating & Paint Correction
Paint depth readings, full decontamination, then two or three machine polishing stages checked under swirl-finder light. Sealed with a multi-layer ceramic rated for the Queensland sun and backed by a written warranty.
Beyond the shop
What we do when nobody is paying
Every year we detail one local charity vehicle and one community car free of charge. It is not a marketing play, we just think a shop with four bays and a bit of spare time should be doing something useful with it.
We also run a short training morning twice a year for apprentice mechanics who want to learn the basics of safe machine polishing. No charge, no catch, just a few hours in the bay with the gear set out and someone experienced standing over you while you learn.
Read our workshop postsCharity car programme
One vehicle fully detailed and donated free each year to a local not-for-profit cause.
Apprentice mornings
Free half-day sessions for local apprentices learning safe polishing and interior care.
Chemical waste handling
All runoff is captured and processed properly. Water that leaves the bay has been through our sediment tanks.
Local sourcing
Chemicals, cloths and consumables come from Australian suppliers wherever there is a reasonable option.
From the blog
Things we have written down
Practical posts from the bay, aimed at people who want to look after their car between visits.
Blog
Five Coastal Car Care Myths We Hear Every Week
Dish soap, monthly washes, parking under a tree. Most of the advice people follow out here is aimed at someone in a dry inland city, and it makes coastal cars worse.
Blog
The Dog Owner’s Guide to Getting Your Car Back
Dog smell is three problems stacked on top of each other. Miss the third one and you will be back where you started within a fortnight. Here is how we actually fix it.
Say hello
Come past the shop or give us a bell
If you want to see the place before you book, drop in during workshop hours. Someone will show you around the bays and talk through what your car probably needs.