Primemeridianstore started in a rented corner of a Newcastle panel shop and grew into a two-bench outfit that both fits headlight optics and posts the parts to people who would rather do the job themselves. We are not a big warehouse operation and we do not pretend to be. There are five of us, one hoist, two benches, a wall for beam testing and a shelf of lenses we have already torn down to check. What follows is who we are, how we got here and what we will not do to save a dollar on a job.
2009
First bench in Carrington
2,400+
Fitted jobs since opening
5
Four on the bench, one on the phone
62%
Customers who come back or refer
For the first four years we only did repair work for local smash repairers. Insurance headlights, cracked tabs, moisture problems, that sort of thing. The kits we were buying then were inconsistent. One batch of projectors would be dead square, the next batch would be a millimetre out and impossible to aim without shimming. Customers were paying us to fix one problem and getting a second one free.
So we started buying components directly and testing each batch before it went into a car. That habit became the stock list. If it survived our bench test and a year of Newcastle road use, we put it on the website and sold it to people who wanted to do the work themselves. That is basically the whole business model. Nothing glitzy about it.
Not every year was a good one. The middle stretch nearly sank us, and it is worth saying so because it shaped how we price work now.
Started with a sublease in Carrington doing repair work for two panel shops. Cash flow was tight for the first year.
A regular customer wanted a set of Q5 projectors in his Hilux. That job became the template for the retrofit we still do now.
Bigger bay, proper beam wall, room for a stock shelf. Also the year a supplier shipped us a batch of dud lenses and we ate the cost.
Started posting kits interstate after too many phone calls from people who could not find parts locally. Flat rate freight from day one.
Five people. The person who answers the phone is usually the person who will be holding your headlight.
Twenty-two years on headlights. Does every projector retrofit that comes through the bay and decides what goes on the stock shelf.
Runs the booking calendar, writes the quotes and answers most of the emails. If your job slipped a day, she is the one who rang to tell you.
Lens restoration, sealing and tab repair. Trained under Trevor and now handles most of the restoration work end to end.
Packs every order that leaves the shop. Foam, tape, bubble wrap. Nothing has arrived cracked yet, which is her scoreboard.
Second year. Strips housings, re-seals, and takes the blame for the coffee. Gets the boring jobs because that is how everyone here started.
Nine years old, sleeps under the parts desk and barks at the courier van. Considered part of the team by everyone except the landlord.
A few projects that pushed the bench further than a standard swap. All of them are on the road and all of them came back for their first service check.
If your housing is odd, your car is imported or nobody else will touch it, send a photo. We will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.
Three things, written on the wall behind the bench and pointed at for the apprentice whenever he skips a step. They are plain, and they cost us money occasionally.
First, the beam gets tested on the road, not just the wall. A pattern can look perfect from three metres and still throw light into the wrong lane once the car is loaded and moving. Second, we quote before we open a housing, and if we find something extra once it is open, we ring before we spend another hour on it. Third, we hand the old parts back. Every customer should be able to see what failed and why.
See what we chargeIf a retrofit throws light at oncoming drivers, it is not finished. We will pull a lens and re-aim it rather than send a car out that fails that test.
No bill that appears out of nowhere. Anything above the original quote gets a phone call first, even if it is a ten dollar retainer.
You paid for the replacement, so the failed part is yours. Most people take it. Some keep it as a souvenir. Either is fine.
If a housing is beyond saving or a kit will not suit the car, we say so. Losing a sale beats losing a customer who tells everyone about it.
There used to be more on the list. We cut it back to these two because they are the work we can still stand behind after fifteen years.
The full job: housing opened, projector unit and shroud fitted, wiring loomed, canbus sorted where the car needs it, everything resealed and the beam calibrated on the wall and the road.
Sanding back the yellow, recoating with a UV stable clear and measuring what came back. Usually the cheapest way to make an older car safe at night.
Plenty of shops publish a wall of five star reviews and nothing else. Here is the less flattering side, because a workshop that has never had a job go wrong has not been open long enough to have one.
Fitted work carries 24 months on the labour and on the projector units we supply. Parts sold separately carry 12 months against manufacturing faults. Water ingress caused by a cracked housing after the job is not covered, and we will tell you that at the counter rather than in a dispute later.
The full wording sits in the Terms and Conditions and the Refund Policy. If anything there is unclear, ring the shop and ask. Michelle will explain it in plain English.
Ask about warrantyWe keep notes on the jobs and questions that come up most often. It is not a marketing blog. Most of it is us explaining something we have already explained on the phone a hundred times.
Five people in a workshop on Workshop Way. Two services. A stock shelf of parts we have tested. A phone that gets answered by a person who can tell you whether a projector will fit your car without putting you on hold first. That is not a big claim, and it is not meant to be.
The rest of what we do is in the price list, and the legal wording behind every order is in the legal information pages. If you would rather speak to someone, the contacts page has the phone number, the address and a form that goes straight to Michelle.
Mon to Thu, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Friday closes at 4:30. Saturday mornings we are here until noon, mostly packing orders.
