Lowe is not a workaholic: he enjoys having fun and has plenty of other interests.

This year he snared an acting role in a video for Australian hiphop band Hermitude for their new single, Promises. You might see his distinctively hirsute face in a commercial or two on television. He puts videos of his restoration projects online under the tag, Fixing Shit with Lowey.

But the passion to make, fix, or repair, is practically in his DNA.

At 57 years old, he's retired from two decades of teaching electrical trades and education administration (which came after a career in the electrical trade).

"I retired poor," he says. "I had a few friends pass away through the random things in life - a stroke here, a cancer there, I thought 'I'm going to start enjoying life and doing the things I want to do before that time comes'."

Standing in his remarkable work shed in the back of his home in the traditionally industrial suburb Mayfield, he says after the decision to retire, he had to decide what was next.

"I thought, 'what can I do? I have time.' I had time and there were two things I could do: Play snooker (I played comp last night for the Newcastle City Snooker Club and got beat), and do something in media," he says.

Lo and behold, he applied for one of the positions as a repair person on the new Foxtel series The Repair Shop, sending in a video, telling them how he saw it: "I'd like to apply for this position in the repair shop, it's got my name written all over it. It's what I do."

He got invited to a casting call almost a year ago, proved himself, and spent six weeks in Terrey Hills in northern Sydney with five other repair specialists and host Dean Ipaviz repairing precious personal items brought in by members of public.

Now, eight months after shooting was complete, The Repair Shop Australia is scheduled to go air starting next week (Foxtel Lifestyle channel, Tuesday, 8.30pm).

The show's PR describes it: "Each week, families bring along their damaged historical treasures in the hope they can be fixed. As each item is painstakingly restored by the skilled craftspeople, we hear the personal stories behind the heirloom and why it's so cherished by the family."

Lowe is billed as the electrical all-rounder. The other trades people on the show include a horologist (clocks), jeweller, leather craftsman, furniture restorer, metal worker.

Lowe says there was one common thread about the people who rocked up at the Terrey Hills Foxtel workshop for the show: "People had things they had no idea where to find somebody who could fix them. It sounds funny, I used to rely on older men as mentors. Most are gone. I'm the old man now."

He brought two loads of his own gear down to the studio shed to deal with whatever might come in the door. In the world of repairs, as Lowe says, you need to have the right tool for the job.

For example, he points to a rack of screwdrivers - there are at least 50 in it. "I use them all for different times and reasons, sizes and shapes," he says.

There are several special tools, and pullers. "I've got drawers and drawers of special tools. In the motorbike area I've probably got 50 special tools for fitting in a certain place," he says.

Of course, there is another essential element of what Lowe does ...

"I'm not a big thrower out of things," he says. "It's even like my little rack there. A bit of tube, a bit of pipe, I've got all sorts of scrap and steel and pipe and useful things. I've even got a useful box for things I just can't throw out. Like Playschool. Some hinges, other bits and bobs that may come in handy one day."

Lowe's paternal grandfather Fred Lowe started the first electrical power station in the scenic village of Gloucester on the edge of the Barrington Tops. Lowe's dad, James Fred Lowe, was an electrical contractor in Gloucester, with an appliance store on the main street. James Lowe moved the family to Sydney where he took a job teaching electrical trades in TAFE, eventually transferring to Newcastle where he taught the course at the Wood Street campus in Hamilton.

Paul Lowe was the youngest of four, several years younger than his brothers. He grew up following dad around in his shed, watching dad refurbish the family home. Watching and learning.

He apprenticed with Delairco. "It was a really good apprenticeship," he says. "I learned to wind motors, repair appliances, all sorts of useful things rather than just doing the same - putting in power points for four years. It was a broad trade."

In 2000 he did a fast-track double degree and became an industrial arts teacher, first with Alesco (Cooks Hill) and eventually teaching at TAFE, then moving up into management and writing textbooks for electrical trades courses (which his father also did).

He still picks up the occasion shift at TAFE.

Although his business has a name, Re-Cycled Engineering, he calls it a hobby not a business. For the amount of time spent on projects, there is no way he could call a fair return on labour.

"It's mostly my own stuff, and friends will come. I'm not a registered mechanic," he says. "I'll do the odd little electric job, like the headlight's out."

At the moment he is completing restoration on a 1950 Malvern Star motorbike. The job has been in the works for three years, since he bought it online at auction in Tasmania, and has eventually sourced all the parts and repaired and restored every single part on it.

"There'd be hundreds of hours in that, just sourcing the parts," he says of the motorbike. "The clutch is made out of cork that you've got to import from England and cut into pieces to fit into the clutch. Even just getting the parts - getting a new piston for a 70-year-old engine, that's probably the skill as well."

In the TV show, Lowe is called upon to repair a train set. He had experience - he's the "chief engineer" for a local friend who has a huge train set.

One of the crew members on the show gave him his own train set to repair, too.

It's kind of hard to imagine Lowe saying no to somebody in need of a repair - he appreciates the craftsmanship of old items.

"There were plenty of things that came up under The Repair Shop that I've never seen before, or touched before," he says. "It's that initial experience like the Malvern Star; I know the basic concepts but you've got to learn everything all over again. And that's the part that keeps me excited. The learning bit. That's my bag."

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