If you own the hat, the stubby cooler or even just have one of their cards in the holder of your truck, you will notice some key words associated with Reflections Metal Polishing. ‘Passion is the Key’ – it is written on all their signage.
This isn’t just some AI generated cliché slogan designed for marketing purposes; it is the cornerstone of Francis and Ellen Cains’ success, and the building blocks on which the young family have managed to turn an enjoyable side hustle into one of the most respected truck polishing teams in the country. Through it all, passion has been the key.
Now I want to establish one thing right from the get-go – Reflections is a co-op company. These days, when people hear the name, it is Francis that people associate it with. Yes, it was his side hustle that began it all, but that was in the days when he tried to carry the moniker ‘My Buffer’.
In reality, Francis is merely the quarterback of the company – he gets to do all the fancy finishing. His mirror finishes flash all over social media and he garners the fanbase. From day dot, when Ellen wandered out to the backyard to watch her hubby and asked to give him a hand, she has been an integral part of the Reflections reputation.
In the early years, many clients were a little taken aback when this petite young lady rocked up with her protective mask and a sander almost as big as her. However, when they saw her sanding out the scratches and getting out all the gouges, they soon realised that Ellen is the one that makes Francis look good.
The company now has several staff on board, and Ellen’s role has shifted more towards the corporate side, but whenever she is needed, Ellen is always happy to suit up and get her sander on. The world of polishing is not the first-choice option for many females, but Ellen is keen to show that it is not a profession restricted to men and, if you have the passion and drive, it is an extremely satisfying occupation.
I have jumped ahead though – the point of my story is to highlight how ‘Passion is the Key’ is not just the Reflections’ motto; it is their mantra, and it is the key to Francis and Ellen’s success. The best way to illustrate my point is to give you a bit of an overview of how the couple have gone from very humble beginnings to having a fully staffed polishing shop with a truck washing facility as well, all of which has been grown on the back of hard work and a lot of passion.
Francis and Ellen are both from the Philippines. Francis grew up around trucks in the Phillipines but had zero interest in them over there. Ellen, on the other hand, had absolutely no trucking influences in her life – her area of expertise was actually medicinal. She met Francis in Melbourne after completing her Bachelor of Nursing and the two hit it off immediately. While Ellen was a nurse, Francis had been doing an apprenticeship. This is where it gets interesting – it wasn’t an electrical apprenticeship, diesel fitter or anything like that. Francis is a fully qualified silversmith.
Yes, I had to ask as well, what is a silversmith? To put it simply, Francis was making trophies, top of the tree kind trophies that set you back almost as much as the trucks Francis now polishes. He was working for one of Melbourne’s most prestigious silverware companies and has had a hand in creating icons like the Cox Plate, the Peter Brock Trophy, the Australian Open runner up trophies and even the Melbourne Cup.
Back when the couple first met, the idea of owning a truck detailing company would have been laughable. Even after the couple had their first baby and Francis needed to find a job with better pay and bigger hours, and would find himself working for Kentweld Bullbars and Bumpers, never did they think that job would uncover the passion it did.
MORE OWNERDRIVER TRENDING STORIES:
- TOTM: A tribute Mack for Mick
- Major competitor buys substantial shares in Lindsay Australia
- Lindsay Australia announces acquisition of GJ Freight
- World first owner driver and gig worker laws kick in
- January TOTM: Morgans keeps it in the family with new K220
“I’d done a little bit of polishing with the trophies, but I knew nothing about polishing bull bars,” Francis says.
“I didn’t really know much about trucks either, but we were struggling and needed a job with more hours.”
It was this job that was the seed for what you see now. It would be fairly easy to follow the trajectory of the couple from that first role with Kentweld Bullbars all the way to their Yatala shop today. However, that would be glossing over the passion that has underwritten their journey.
“When I started at Kentweld, I had one workmate who was very negative, always running down me and my work,” Francis says.
“I fed off that though – if people tell me I can’t do something, I use that to get better, and I did. I wasn’t shown how to do it, I had one fabricator who helped a bit, but I just taught myself.”
Along with teaching Francis the initial skills, the job at Kentweld also created Francis’ passion for trucks.
“We used to get all the big trucks coming in to get fitted and I just thought they looked so cool,” he says.
“Then I started noticing all the big ones on the Hume, like the DRT Kenworths, and found myself noticing them all.”
His growing love of trucks was matched by his growing sanding and polishing skills. His passion for the job saw Francis climb the ranks at Kentweld. Within six months, Francis was the lead polisher and soon he was the guy in charge of training the new recruits. By the time Francis left, he was managing the whole place. The polishing had been replaced with sales and the training polishers replaced with managing staff.
While Kentweld introduced Francis to the skills he would soon master, it was Francis’ next role that would be the ignition point for Reflections. Francis had taken on a new role with Preston General Engineering, a division of ABCOR. These are the guys that make a lot of the factory bars for many of Australia’s OEMs.
Francis’ role was overseeing all the pre-delivery products, checking for blemishes, quality control and ensuring everything was running to schedule – very tough when you are putting out over 300 bars a week.
While he was undertaking this new role, Francis and Ellen had welcomed their second child, Kenny. Even with the new job, money was tight and, to make a little extra cash, Francis had bought a few tools and advertised on Gumtree to do some polishing. His first job was a straight bar off a T900 Legend that the owner dropped off at the family home and Francis would work on it after his shift at PGE.
Many people already knew Francis’ quality of work from his Kentweld days, and word soon spread about the backyard polisher. As their yard started to fill with jobs to be done, Ellen would find herself settling the kids and then joining her husband outside sanding and prepping bars for her hubby to polish off. The couple became quite an efficient production line.
In no time at all, the request for work started mounting up, with more and more asking for full truck polishes – wheels, tanks, deck plating, bars, the lot. In 2018, Francis and Ellen decided to follow their growing passion and go full time with Reflections Metal Polishing. Francis left his job, the couple bought a second hand Kluger, filled it with the tools of the trade and began doing onsite jobs around the Melbourne area.
Shine begets shine begets shine. Local work soon led to regional work, which soon led to interstate work, all based on the passion they were putting into their work.
“Our first out of town job was down in Tassie,” Ellen says.
“We decided we’d pack up the kids and make it a bit of a holiday as well. After that, we pretty much covered all of the east coast, the kids were at school so we would do that stuff over weekends.
“Leave Friday, polish in the weekend and drive back home for Sunday night.”
It was perfect for a family loving their work and amounting experiences and friends up and down the east coast. By 2020, the family found much of their work was up in Queensland, and Ellen had tired of the colder Melbourne climate, so they packed up and made the move north.
They now had regular clients as far south as Tasmania and as far north as Mackay. The Kluger was gone, and a custom-made trailer was fitted with all the best tools and material. The shine was bright.
While the work was increasing, and the physical demands of such a labour-intensive job were no doubt accumulating, the passion for polishing and trucks was just growing for Francis and Ellen. They picked up more constant contract work that required a base of operations and, in 2023, found themselves with an office and a shed for the first time.
“It was very cool, we only had an old donger for an office but it was really special,” Ellen says.
That was the stepping stone again for the hard-working family company. In 2024 they took a lease at the Ritchies Auctions yard at Yatala and expanded their repertoire to include truck washing facilities.
“It’s not your standard half hour truck wash that we want to offer,” Francis says.
“When a truck books in for a wash, it is a full-service wash. We allow two and a half hours for a complete wash.”
Adding this service has obviously seen the need for staff to be added to the books, and that has allowed Francis and Ellen to share their passion with new trucking addicts.
“We have a great team here at the moment and we are training and teaching them all the skills,” Francis says, emphasising the need for each truck to carry the Reflections’ passion for perfection.
We all know there is nothing better than driving past a shop window and catching the reflection of the reflection of the reflection, or even just standing back and admiring the shine on our ride. Francis and Ellen share that addiction and that is what has led to the success story that is Reflections Metal Polishing, proving passion really is the key.
Subscribe to the weekly Owner//Driver newsletter here.