autobody news southwest april 2010

A jury deliberating for about 2-1/2 hoursafter a two-day trial has decided a TexasA&M University student was texting whiledriving, causing a deadly wreck, and has or-dered him to pay $22 million in damages tothe family of the victimMegan Small, andfriend Laura Gleffe who survived. Gleffe,Small’s lifelong best friend, was followingbehind her and was run off the road to avoidthe collision, causing her car to roll. Thevictim, Megan Small of Houston, was a 21-year old senior at Baylor University andwas driving to Waco when the November2007 accident happened near Calvert.

The investigation indicated a vehicledriven by Reed Vestal crossed the centerline and struck Small’s vehicle head-onnear Calvert.

Hunter Craft, a lawyer for Small’sfamily, said he was surprised by the verdict,but praised the jury for its decision. Craft

said Vestal declared bankruptcy prior to thetrial, and won’t have to pay any of the dam-ages. Vestal’s insurance company will beresponsible for some of the award.

Vestal initially denied having a phonewhen the wreck occurred, but phone recordsindicated that he had sent and received 15text messages and made seven phone calls inthe 45 minutes before the wreck, Craft said.

“This case isn’t about money,” Craftsaid of the Nov. 25, 2007 wreck. “This caseis about sending a message to everybodyand protecting people in the future, and inorder for them to be able to accomplish that,we told [the jury] they were going to haveto make a significant award.”

“I think the jury understands it is agrowing problem,” he said. “[Vestal] triedto say he didn’t know any better, and hedidn’t know it was dangerous.” It may bea record award in Robertson County.

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Texas-based Col-Met Spray Booths ‘Refuses the Recession’

Sherwin-Williams’ Express Scratch Repair—A New Profit Center

3M’s New Dirt Trap System for Keeping Booths Clean and Productive

Is Waterborne the Only Solution to Low-VOC Requirements?

PPG’s Green Belt Program Improves Profit at Atlanta’s Largest Shop

Texas A&M Student Ordered to Pay $22M to Victims of 2007Fatal Crash Caused by Texting and Phoning

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS

• Parts for Profit—How Big Parts Departments Operate

• Large Texas Body Shop Uses Scan Tools for Diagnostic Profits

• Texas Congressman Wants Black Boxes in All Vehicles

• Oklahoma Moves Towards Texting-While-Driving Ban

• TIAA Alamo Chapter Meeting Covers Credit, Security, Benefits

The aftermarket industry showed up in forcein front of the U.S. House of Representa-tives Judiciary Committee March 22. Thecommittee heard from consumer and indus-try advocates on why the “Access to RepairParts Act” (H.R. 3059/S.1368)—legislationthat would create a narrow exception in theU.S. design patent law for purposes of re-pair—would guarantee access to affordablealternative replacement parts and curb carcompanies’ attempts to monopolize themarketplace.

The Quality Parts Coalition (QPC),founded by the aftermarket manufacturersand insurers, and claims to represent con-sumers, seniors, insurers, parts manufac-turers and distributors and repairers, urgedCongress to swiftly enact the “Access toRepair Parts Act.”

QPC argued that Americans are likelyunaware of the “looming threat that could

send the costs of car repair and insurancepremiums soaring: a car company partsmonopoly.” They cite the history of morethan 60 years of alternative parts to repairtheir vehicles instead of more expensiveOEM parts. Alternatives are as much as26–50 percent less than OEM equivalents.This translates into an estimated $1.5 bil-lion in savings, primarily for insurers, theOEMs argue. Auto companies have se-cured an increasing number of designpatents on crash parts for cars (bumpers,fenders, hoods). When enforced, thepatents give car companies control of themarket for those parts. LKQ, for example,had to settle with Ford to provide crashparts for the F-150 last year. Insurers arguethat this loss of competition will drive upthe cost of insurance premiums by asmuch as $3 billion.

Supporters of Access to Repair Parts Act Testify in Favor ofException to Design Patent Law Favored by Automakers

See SUPPORTERS TESTIFY, Page 9

2 APRIL 2010 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

DAVID McDAVIDT H I S B R A N D S TA N D S F O R S AV I N G ST H I S B R A N D S TA N D S F O R S AV I N G ST H I S B R A N D S TA N D S F O R S AV I N G S

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WELCOME TO THEWELCOME TO THEDAVID MDAVID MccDAVID AUTO GROUPDAVID AUTO GROUP

WELCOME TO THEDAVID McDAVID AUTO GROUP

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www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2010 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

SouthwestPublisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst

General Manager: Barbara DaviesContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio, Dan EspersenJanet Chaney, Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Tom McGee, Stefan Gesterkamp, Rich EvansAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Christina Shubert (800) 699-8251Advertising Sales Assistant: Stephanie BowlingArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2010 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsBox 1400, Oceanside, CA 92051(800) 699-8251 (214) 371-6626 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

Aegis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Autoland Scientech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . 6

Chacon Suzuki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chevyland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

David McDavid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

TX, OK, LA, NM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Fredy Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Gladwin Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Global Finishing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . 24

Honda/Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers 31

Huffines Hyundai McKinney . . . . . . . . . 10

Huffines Hyundai Plano . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 34

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 30

LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Mattei Compressors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 35

Mercedes-Benz of Oklahoma . . . . . . . . 38

Mike Calvert Toyota. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 32

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 5

Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 36

Park Place Lexus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Performance Ratiator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Ray Huffines Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Replica Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

SATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

SCA Appraisal Company . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Sherwin-Williams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Shoot Suits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Suzuki Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 37

Soft-Sanders from Style-Line, Corp . . . 17

Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . 29

Verifacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 35

Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . 38

Young Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Inde

xofAdvertisers

2009 Total Miles Driven Up, But Miles Per Vehicle Down 7

3M™ Solution to Improve Paint Booth Performance. . 24

AkzoNobel Suggests Sustainable Business Model . . . 18

Alamo Chapter TIAA Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Amaradio - Hang ‘Em in the Town Square . . . . . . . . . 33

Austin-Round Rock Ties Best Recovery in US . . . . . . . 4

Auto Glass Chain Guilty of Insurance Scam . . . . . . . . . . 7

CAPA Tracker Designed to Enable Part Tracing. . . . . . . 8

CARSTAR Industry Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Causey - Concessions: Why give them to insurers?. . . . 14

Claims Adjuster One of Five Arrested In Insurance Scheme. 6

Evans - Finishing the Shelby Series 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Express Scratch Repair™ New Revenue Stream . . . . . . 13

Fewer Bays In A Growing Service Market . . . . . . . . . 19

Florida Autobody Collision Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Florida Officials Arrest 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Florida Shop Owner’s Ongoing Slander Suit . . . . . . . . . 10

Franklin - Make Secure Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Gesterkamp - Is Waterborne Paint the Only Answer? . 18

GM in favor of Recording Devices in Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Gonzo's Toolbox - “You Didn’t Do a Thing”. . . . . . . . . 21

Greenway Automotive Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Hey Toby! - Shop’s Welding Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Carbon Motors Partners with BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Honda Against Aftermarket Structural Parts . . . . . . . . 29

KMC on Demand™ and I-CAR Partner . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Large Texas Body Shop Uses Scan Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Legislation to Ban Texting-Drivers in Oklahoma . . . . . . . . 5

License Rules Change for Young Driver in Texas . . . . . 4

McGee - It’s Still a Mustang®. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Mopar® Teams Ups with Rich Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Nissan Position Statement on Wheel Repair . . . . . . . . 21

Oklahoma Workers' Comp Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Optional Insurance for Oklahoma Lawmakers. . . . . . . . 5

PA Association Expresses Concern on Aftermarket . . . 8

Parts for Profit—Managing Parts and Personnel . . . . 25

Auto Color PPG Supply Distributor of the Year . . . . . . . . . 6

PPG Shares Auto-Refinishing Technology . . . . . . . . . 38

Shop Showcase - Mississippi’s Larry King . . . . . . . . 37

Access to Repair Parts Act, Supporters Testify . . . . . . 1

Student Ordered to Pay $22M to Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Texas Congressman Wants Auto Recording Devices . . 8

Texas-based Col-Met Spray Booths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Toyota Addresses False Claims Regarding 2002 TSB . 29

Weak Economy Favors Auto Parts Stores . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Contents

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License Rules Change for YoungDrivers, 18 to 24, in TexasApplicants for a drivers license in Texasbetween the ages of 18 and 24 now mustcomplete an approved driver educationcourse and a driving skills test to get a li-cense, the Texas Department of PublicSafety says.

DPS says applicants must submit acertificate proving that they successfullycompleted a driver education course ap-proved by the Texas Education Agency.

Applicants with such proof will notbe required to submit to the writtenhighway signs and traffic laws test, butstill need to pass the driving skills part.

A driving safety course or drug andalcohol driving awareness program arenot acceptable as driver educationcourses.

The changes were approved by the2009 Legislature.

List of approved courses:http://rit-ter.tea.state.tx.us/drive/activede.html

The Austin-Round Rock area tied forfirst on a list of large metro areas wherethe recession is easing. Central Texastied Washington D.C. in the Forbes.comranking that compiles job growth andreal estate industry improvement, amongother indicators. Washington has one ofthe lowest unemployment rates in thenation, 6.2 percent, and the city pro-duced more goods and services than anyother in 2008.

Austin has also maintained rela-tively lower jobless rates, though thenumber increased to 7.6 percent lastmonth from 7 percent, according to theTexas Workforce Commission.Statewide, the rate was unchanged at 8.2percent from December to January, com-pared to 9.7 percent nationally.

Austin and Washington D.C. alsobenefit from their high government jobgeneration, according to Forbes. Thenumber of Central Texas jobs increasedjust shy of 1 percent between 2007 and2009, more than any other city includedin the research.

Dallas came in second on the rank-ing behind Austin. The number of jobsthere are expected to increase more than7 percent in the next three years. SanAntonio and Houston also made the top10 list.

Job growth projections were basedon information from Moody’s. The list-ing also considered median home saleprice changes and Metropolitan GrossDomestic Product.

Austin-Round Rock Ties D.C. forBest Economic Recovery in US TIAA’s preferred vendor for credit card

processing shared the important informa-tion at the Feb. 18th meeting.

NEVER write down a card number,expiration date, and even the CVV2 infoon a piece of paper when a sale is calledin. If someone is then able to fraudulentlyconduct 10 transactions for a total of$3,000, each incident can result in fines of$25,000. Even though the cards getcharged back, the fact that the perpetratordid it from your shop or store could putyou in violation of PCI Compliance,which could cost you the $3,000 plus finesof up to $250,000.

Neither the merchant receipt or cus-tomer receipt can be printing card numbers.They must BOTH be truncated. If yourmerchant copy is not truncating place a callinto the office at The BankCard Group im-mediately and explain that your receipts arenot truncating: (866) 412-0717.

In relation to PIN DEBIT. If you aredoing “internal” pin debit meaning that thecustomer is entering in their pin numberon the actual terminal itself, NOT a sepa-rate pin pad, you may also be in violation.

If you have NOT purchased a newpin pad in the last 2 years you may also bein violation. The back of your pin padshould say that it is 3Des encrypted orTriple Des Encrypted.

Alamo Chapter Treasurer, Louie Siri-anni, with Sirianni Automotive, said theannual TIAA Car Care Event to Benefitthe Battered Women’s Shelter will be heldApril 10th. In the past many women invery desperate situations have beenhelped. We need vendor assistance in theform of parts donations as well as shops tovolunteer their labor to assess the vehiclesthe night before and perform repairs theday of the event. This is a great opportu-nity to help someone in need.

Jay Leggett, retired from Jay’s Toys(Computer Consulting), suggested an on-line disaster recovery source that is veryreasonably priced. Symform providesbackup, should a catastrophic event occur,at a cost of $5–10 per month. There are norestrictions on the amount of data that yousave, but there are other qualifications re-garding swapping data storage space. Thissystem is supported and hosted by theAmazon network. Contact Jay Leggett at(210) 320-2530.

Henry Maine of Maineline Insuranceand MAR Financial are now offering aNEW member benefit that will assist ourmembers in Human Resources. They willbe sending additional information soon.

The Annual Fishing Tournament willbe held May 21st with the Annual meet-ing, lunch, and management training fol-lowing on May 22nd. Be on the look outfor additional TIAA Grams.

Alamo Chapter TIAA Meeting Covers Credit, Computer Security, and Benefits

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


Oklahoma Workers' Comp ReformBills Pass House as PackageLegislation aimed at reforming the Okla-homa workers' compensation system haspassed the state's House of Representa-tives. House Bills 1611, 2652, 2658 and2659 now move to the Senate for con-sideration. The titles are off the bills,meaning they remain works in progress,said author Rep. Dan Sullivan.

The legislation seeks to signifi-cantly improve employee benefits andlower business expenses, making Okla-homa more attractive to new industry.There is currently deep dissatisfactionwith the workers' comp system, which isplagued by fraud and high costs andrarely produces consistently fair and eq-uitable results, according to informationreleased by the House.Advertisement

Despite the fact that the benefitsspecified in state law are comparable towork comp benefits in other states, theactual cost of those benefits in Okla-homa is the most expensive in the na-tion.

Some of the reforms being soughtwill include defining the term “surgery”for purposes of compensation, strength-ening the value-added attorney fee pro-vision and capping the time fortemporary total disability.

A reduction in the number of work-ers' comp judges may also be consid-ered, coupled with a more equitabledistribution of judges between Okla-homa City and Tulsa.

Source: Oklahoma House of Represen-tatives

Optional Insurance for OklahomaLawmakers Approved in HouseA measure in Oklahoma that places limits

on texting while driving has passed out ofthe House Public Safety Committee. Themeasure would also prohibit young driv-ers from using a cell phone to talk or textwhile the vehicle is in motion.

House Bill 3250, by state Rep. SueTibbsand state Rep. Danny Morgan,would penalize any person who is operat-ing a motor vehicle on a street or highwaywhile using a cellular telephone or elec-tronic communication device to write,send, or read a text-based communicationwhile the motor vehicle is in motion witha fine of up to $1,000.

“This is an important measure thathopefully will encourage drivers to pulloff the road to a safe area if they must textsomeone,” said Tibbs, R-Tulsa. “Thiscould save people from serious injuries ordeath. There’s no reason for innocent

lives to be lost because a text couldn’twait.”

House Bill 3250 also prohibits anydriver operating under a learner’s permit oran intermediate driver’s license (class D)from using a cell phone to talk or text whenthe car is in motion. In addition, learner’spermit holders would only be able to drivebetween the hours of 5 A.M. and 10 P.M. Vi-olation of either provision would result inthe suspension of the driver’s license, pay-ment of court costs and ticket fees.

Tibbs noted that the Tulsa-basedCrime Commission has partnered withstudents from Booker T. Washington HighSchool to create a program that keeps Ok-lahoma’s teenage drivers safe on the road.State Farm Insurance is funding the “Gen-eration tXt” program through their YouthAdvisory Board grant in the amount of$35,453.

Generation tXt focuses on educating8th and 9th grade students on the dangersof texting and driving through educationalforums, videos, driving simulators and ed-ucational curriculum.

According to a Virginia Tech Trans-portation Institution study, for every sixseconds of drive time, a driver sending orreceiving a text message spends 4.6 ofthose seconds with their eyes off the road.Each year, 21 percent of fatal car crashesinvolving teenagers between the ages of16 and19 were the result of cell phoneusage. That number is expected to increaseas much as 4 percent every year, accordingto the study.

Recent research on states that havebanned hand-held cell phone use while driv-ing has shown no significant decrease in ac-cident rates versus before the bans.Distraction, not phone handling, is to blame.

Legislation to Ban Texting While Driving Advances in Oklahoma

The Oklahoma House has passed legis-lation allowing lawmakers to opt out ofthe state employees group health and lifeinsurance plans. House members voted92–4 for the bill and sent it on to theSenate for consideration.

The measure’s author, Rep. LeslieOsborn of Tuttle, says the bill will freeup taxpayer money. Any savings wouldbe retained by the state.

If 25% of state lawmakers optedout of the state's health insurance, thestate could save around $500,000 a year.Osborn says that money would be betterspent on education, public safety orother core services.

Osborn says legislating is a part-time job and many lawmakers may havebetter options for insurance through theirspouse or their private sector employer.

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PPG Names TN’s Auto Color Supply Distributor of the YearPPG has named Auto Color Supply, ofMurfreesboro, Tennessee as its 2009 Plat-inum Distributor of theYear. The award waspresented to Auto Color Supply owner PatAnderton at the annual Platinum Confer-ence held February 18–21, 2010 at the GreenValley Ranch Resort in Henderson, Nevada.

“I never expected this,” said a sur-prised Anderton after the award was an-nounced. “I was very excited andcompletely dumbfounded, speechless. Ididn’t know what to say. It’s a real honor toreceive this from PPG, and it’s somethingthat everyone at our stores had a hand in.”

The award was presented by BobWenzinger, director of the PPG PlatinumProgram.

“Auto Color Supply has demon-strated consistent sales growth and partic-ipated in the Platinum Program’s trainingand business development offerings. That’ssomething Pat and his team has done verywell,” said Wenzinger. “They especiallyperformed well in a very difficult year.Auto Color Supply is an exceptional rep-resentative of PPG products and has thetechnical and industry knowledge to earnthe trust and confidence of their customers.They truly deserve this award.”

Anderton bought Auto Color Supplyin Murfreesboro from his sister andbrother-in-law in 1983. Since then, he hasexpanded operations and opened stores inShelbyville and Columbia, TN. His team

of 12 employees sells a full line of PPGproducts. Anderton became a PPG Plat-inum Distributor in 2005.

The PPG Platinum Program began in1995 as a loyalty and support initiative for

PPG single-line distributors with the ulti-mate goal of providing exceptional serviceand benefits for PPG Refinish customers.

The program delivers competitive ad-vantages to its participants by aligning thetechnology, training and customer support ofPPG with the entrepreneurship, customerawareness, local market knowledge and serv-ice capability of the independent distributor.

For more information about the PPGPlatinum Distributor Program, call800/647-6050 or visit the PPG AutomotiveRefinish website at www.ppgrefinish.com.

Five Florida residents, including a claimsadjuster for Zurich Insurance Group, areaccused of stealing more than $240,000from the insurer by creating multiple falseand fabricated claims.

Donald Alfred Toohey III, 30, ofLake County, FL, was recently arrestedfollowing an anonymous tip in September2009 of possible fraudulent activity dur-ing his employment with Zurich, accord-ing to the Florida Department of FinancialServices’ Division of Insurance Fraud.

An investigation found that Toohey,along with four other individuals, were al-legedly receiving payments from 26 dif-ferent claims, totaling $240,000, fromAugust 2004 through June 2009 in variouscounties in Florida. The investigation dis-covered that Toohey, using his position asa Zurich claims adjuster, created fictitiousclaims for monetary gain for himself andhis four co-conspirators, all of PascoCounty, Fla., according to investigators.

The co-conspirators are identified asScott J. Kincaid, 44; Brian FrederickKneifer, 26; Anthony Michal Kneifer, 26;

and Tricia Ann Allen, 27. All four, alongwith Toohey, face up to 15 years in stateprison if convicted on charges of grandtheft and conspiracy.

The scam was allegedly initiated byToohey, who would create a fraudulentfile and claim for each of the participants,showing reason for reimbursement to theindividual for injuries occurring either tothe person or their automobile during anaccident, according to officials.

The participant would then receive acheck in the mail with the understandingthat a portion was to be paid to Toohey.

The investigation into Toohey’s al-leged activities led the fraud division toconfirm three or more checks received andcashed by each individual with thefts rang-ing from $8,800 to more than $67,000.

Zurich Insurance Group informedinvestigators that none of the five werepolicyholders at the time of payment, orat any other time, and payment auditsconfirmed the payouts as fraudulent, ac-cording to the Florida Department of Fi-nancial Services.

Claims Adjuster One of Five Arrested In Insurance Scheme

Pictured left to right: Greg Benckart, generalmanager, PPG; Auto Color Supply owner PatAnderton; and John Outcalt, vice president,PPG Automotive Refinish.

[email protected]

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2009 Total Miles Driven Up, But Miles Per Vehicle DownAccording to Jim Lang, Presdent of Langmarketing, annual mileage on U.S. roadsby all types of vehicles climbed a meager0.23% in 2009. While reversing the historic3.43% plunge in 2008 driving, the weak2009 gain did little to staunch the continu-ing drop in average annual miles per carand light truck in the U.S.

Although miles driven is an importantstatistic, the real significance of mileage toaftermarket product use is annual miles ofthe typical car and light truck. Since 2004,the average light vehicle in the U.S. hasbeen driven fewer miles each year. Whiletotal 2009 mileage for all vehicles failed tomatch 2004 levels, miles driven by the typ-ical car and light truck in the U.S. during2009 was lower than average vehiclemileage ten years earlier.

2009 Mileage Gain: A Symbolic VictoryFollowing the historic 3.43% plunge in2008 miles on U.S. roads by all types of ve-hicles, the modest 0.23% 2009 driving gainwas a symbolic victory which reversed thelargest annual mileage drop in over 60years.

What made the 2008 mileage reductionso unusual was its occurrence in the absenceof gas shortages at the pump. The only otherthree years after World War II in which an-nual mileage failed to increase were duringthe first and second oil crises (1974, 1979,

and 1980), when surging gas prices coupledwith spot shortages at the pump.

Unusual CircumstancesWhile the 2008 driving plunge occurredunder unusual circumstances, so too did themeager 0.23% 2009 mileage recovery. De-spite 2009 gas prices averaging nearly 22%below 2008 levels, falling pump pricesfailed to ignite a 2009 mileage surge.

Two Key FactorsAs Lang Marketing noted in AftermarketInsight™ Issue 169, U.S. Unemploymentand Consumer Confidence are major forcesdetermining the level of driving on U.S.roads. It will be difficult for mileage to in-crease significantly as long as ConsumerConfidence remains low and the Unem-ployment Rate hovers at double digits(with “real” unemployment topping 16%).

Putting 2009 Mileage In PerspectiveDespite increasing 0.23%, 2009 drivingfailed to reach total miles recorded fiveyears earlier in 2004. As a result, annualmiles declined at a 0.2% average annualpace between 2004 and 2009.

Miles Per Vehicle DownWhile total miles on U.S. roads is an im-portant statistic, the real significance ofmileage to the rate of aftermarket product

use is miles driven by the typical car andlight truck. Over the past five years, since2004, the average light vehicle in the U.S.has been driven fewer miles each year.

Mileage Per Vehicle Peaked In 2004Annual miles for the average car and lighttruck in the U.S. peaked at 11.95 thousandmiles during 2004. Since then, the typicalcar and light truck in the U.S. has traveledfewer miles each year.

While total annual miles by all typesof vehicles decreased between 2004 and2009, the number of cars and light truckson U.S. roads climbed more than 33 mil-lion. Consequently, the typical light vehi-cle in the U.S. traveled approximately1,420 fewer miles in 2009 than five yearsearlier in 2004.

Fewer Annual Miles On Older VehiclesThe reduction in annual mileage by the av-erage car and light truck in the U.S. overthe past five years has been partially offset,in terms of its negative impact on after-market product use, by the soaring averageage of vehicles between 2004 and 2009 andthe rising number of older vehicles in op-eration, especially those 12 years and up.

For complete analysis of average an-nual miles per light vehicle in the U.S.since 1998, see the 2010 AAIA Factbook& Lang Aftermarket Annual.

Auto Glass Chain Guilty ofNationwide Insurance ScamThe owner and three employees of a na-tional auto glass company based in Oak-land, CA, have been convicted in federalcourt in connection with a scheme toovercharge insurance firms by installingcheaper windshields than they claimed onrepair invoices, authorities said March 22.

Mehrdad “Tony” Hakimian, 48, ofMill Valley, the owner of Glass Empo-rium of Marin Inc., was convicted by afederal jury Thursday of nine counts ofwire fraud and one count each of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and ob-struction of justice. He will be sentencedJune 11.

Hakimian directed employees at hisbusiness’ West Oakland headquartersand at its subsidiaries, Glass Pro andGlass Masters, to cheat insurance com-panies by misrepresenting the grade ofwindshields they were installing, prose-cutors said.

According to a federal complaint,Hakimian told a regional manager to“train (employees) like I want it done, toput in a cheap part and bill for a more ex-pensive part.”

The FBI began an investigation in2005 when an employee of a Glass Mas-ters shop in Tennessee came forwardwith paperwork showing 10 examples ofbilling irregularities, authorities said.


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Florida officials say a statewide sweep ofstaged accident scammers in March re-sulted in the arrest of 19 suspects, includingarrests in Ft. Myers, Miami, Orlando, Pen-sacola, Tampa and West Palm Beach.

Florida State Chief Financial OfficerAlex Sink said that since July 2009, inves-tigators have arrested 259 people for fak-ing accident medical injuries and personalinjury protection (PIP) fraud, culminatingin 156 convictions.

“It's huge. It's absolutely enormousand it represents millions of dollars infraud,” said Sink.

“Staged accidents put every Floridianat risk, both physically and financially. I amtaking aggressive action every day to getthese scammers off our streets and behindbars where they belong,” Sink said.

The claims were filed under personalinjury protection coverage, automobile in-surance that pays medical expenses, andlost wages in some cases, due to accidentsregardless of whose at fault. The Depart-ment of Finanical Services' Division of In-surance Fraud said PIP fraud is the mostreported type and accounted for 30% of thereferrals last year. Investigators arrested259 PIP fraud suspects since July, leadingto 156 convictions. DIF has seven PIPfraud squads dedicated solely to investi-gating PIP fraud.

“Every driver that has auto insuranceis paying for auto insurance fraud in the

form of higher insurance premiums and theestimate is around $200–300 annually,”said Amy Moore, a spokeswoman for All-state Insurance. She said an estimated 20%of premiums go toward helping insurerscover the cost of fraud nationwide.

Tampa ranked second in the nation be-hind Brooklyn, NY, for questionable autoclaims for the first half of 2009, accordingto National Insurance Crime Bureau statis-tics. Tampa Bay ranked fourth in a similarcomparison of metropolitan regions.

Scammers will stage a car accident,report it to police and insurance companies,then pocket the insurance money instead ofusing it for bills and repairs.

In Florida, most staged crashes arecarried out by a ring who either stage acrash or set up a fake crash scene, accord-ing to Detective Michael Hennessy, whoinvestigates insurance fraud in Tampa forthe Florida Department of Financial Serv-ices. Usually, no innocent drivers are in-volved.

The insurance industry is lobbying togive state fraud investigators the authorityto pull over suspects and they also want toensure personal injury clinics are licensedwith the state.

Insurance fraud is a third degreefelony that can lead to up to five years inprison. The state hotline is 1-800-378-0445. Callers reporting fraud are eligiblefor up to a $25,000 reward.

Florida Officials Arrest 19 in Fraudulent Staged Accident Ring

General Motors has recently comeout in support of what’s being calledthe “black box legislation.” GM is infavor of legislation from Rep. GeneGreen, D-Texas, that would mandateevent data recording devices in vehi-cles, and additional ‘reasonable’ leg-islation. Though not currentlyrequired by law, the devices are stan-dard for certain automakers, includ-ing Toyota. Not all Toyota devicesrecord pre- and post-crash data, butby the end of 2010 all Toyota vehi-cles will be equipped with devicesthat record both. By 2005, 64% of ve-hicles came with the devices, includ-ing all FoMoCo cars. Chrysler startedusing the devices in 2005, but GMhad been using a predecessor totoday’s device in their light-dutytrucks since 1995.

“There can be a discrepancy inwhat a driver claims happened and what(the National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration) concludes happened.This would mandate equipment thatwould remove any human emotion orbias to provide much more precise data,”Robert Ferguson, GM’s new VP forgovernment affairs said.

NTSB has recommended thatOEMs and the NHTSA use on-boardcollision sensing and recording devices.

GM in favor of RecordingDevices in Cars

The Pennsylvania Collision Trade Guildhas written to Insurance CommissionerJoel Ario of the Pennsylvania InsuranceDepartment raising concerns about thesafety and functionality of replacementcrash parts. It also asks for immediate ac-tion to ensure the safety of vehicles re-paired with non-OEM replacement parts.

In a letter, the guild says results fromrecent tests have shown that structuralcrash parts manufactured by non-OEMpart makers have been seen to be incon-sistent in construction as compared to theOEM parts. These include bumpers,bumper brackets, energy absorbers andstructure members.

The letter says that citizens who areoperating vehicles that have been repairedusing untested and inferior replacementcrash parts are putting themselves andtheir passengers in danger. It also statesthat various organizations includingCAPA and ABPA, among others, haveasked manufacturers and distributors ofnon-OEM parts to remove them from dis-tribution.The guild asks the State of Penn-sylvania to recall all vehicles repairedwith inferior structural aftermarket re-placement parts and re-repair them to re-turn them to their pre-loss conditionrelative to safety and performance.To read the letter see www.pctg.org/doc-uments/Joel-Ario-Letter.pdf.

The Capa Tracker is a free web-basedprogram that connects the uniqueCAPA seal number to the exact vehi-cle on which it was installed. was de-veloped in response to collisionrepairer concerns about tracing prob-lem parts. In the event of a part recall,usage can notify every participatingshop that installed one of the parts inquestion. The shop can then alerttheir customer and take any necessaryaction. This program was designedspecifically for repairers who ex-pressed concern that should a prob-lem surface with a CAPA Certifiedpart, it would be difficult for them todetermine if they actually installedthat part on a particular customer’scar.

“The Capa Tracker effectivelysolves this dilemma for shops con-cerned about safety,” said JackGillis, CAPA executive Director. Itprovides repairers with far morecontrol over the part identificationprocess than they have with car com-pany brand parts. The CAPA pro-gram is effective because of CAPA’sunique, individually numbered, partidentification system incorporated inthe CAPA Quality Seal, which en-ables positive identification of partsin the market.

‘CAPA Tracker’ Designed toEnable Part Tracing

PA Association ExpressesConcern on Aftermarket

A Texas congressman, Rep. GeneGreen (D-Texas), is planning to in-troduce legislation that would man-date electronic data recorders, alsoknown as black boxes, in all new carsand trucks.

These little devices that some arecalling driving diaries would beplaced inside your dashboard near an-other device that’s already therecalled a data processesor.

Black boxes have been used inairplanes for years, and they areavailable for automobiles right now,but as an optional feature.

“Anything that helps create asafer car, create a safer environmentinside the vehicle is what’s really im-portant.” Said Sewell Ford AssistantGeneral Manager Wes Hunt.

Hunt says these little blackboxes have the potential to record keyinformation from collisions, such asvehicle speed, the status of airbagsand whether or not seatbelts are beingused.

Congressman Green from Texassays this legislation is especially rel-evant considering the massive Toyotarecall saying, “As we witnessed inthe Toyota hearing, there is a demon-strated need of detailed crash infor-mation.”

Texas Congressman WantsAuto Recording Devices


Jack Gillis, testifying on behalf ofCFA, Advocates for Highway and AutoSafety, Center for Auto Safety and Pub-lic Citizen, told legislators of the con-sumer cost of a car company partsmonopoly: “The lack of competition forrepair parts will result in high repaircosts and more vehicles being ‘totaled’because the price of repairing the dam-age exceeds the value of the vehicle.High repair costs will lead to higher in-surance premiums. Furthermore, when

faced with expensive repairs and a lim-ited budget, consumers may simply notbe able to replace their head light or abroken side mirror, items essential forsafe driving.”

Eileen A. Sottile, executive directorof the Quality Parts Coalition added, “TheQuality Parts Coalition thanks the HouseJudiciary Committee for hearing testimonyon this vital piece of legislation and looksforward to its swift passage. Our membersand supporters span the spectrum of mo-torist to aftermarket employee and frominsurance agent to retired senior. At a timewhen our nation is just beginning to regainits economic footing, it is increasingly im-

portant that we put all safeguards in placeto protect the cornerstones of competitionand consumerism.”

Bob Passmore, senior director of per-sonal lines policy with the Property Casu-alty Insurers Association of America(PCI), a member of QPC, testified beforethe Judiciary Committee. Passmore noted:“At its core, this is a consumer issue. PCIsupports the 'Access to Repair Parts Act'because it will preserve competition in themarket for replacement parts and benefitconsumers. Without it, consumers willcarry the burden of a monopoly by way ofincreased premiums and higher autobodyrepair costs.”

The “Access to Repair Parts Act”provides a narrow exception to the U.S.design patent law, paving the way forconsumers to continue to have accessto affordable alternative replacementparts for their vehicles. Identical legis-lation is pending in the U.S. Senate (S.1368), sponsored by Sen. SheldonWhitehouse (D-R.I.). Rep. Lofgren isjoined by cosponsors Reps. RickBoucher (D-Va.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas),Charles A. Wilson (D-Ohio), G.K. But-terfield (D-N.C.) and Debbie Halvor-son (D-Ill.).

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Continued from Page 1

Supporters Testify

by Ed Attanasio,Special to Autobody News

What does a shop owner do when he’s upagainst the country’s largest auto insurersimply to get paid for work done, and thensuffers what he sees as a slander campaignagainst him?

For Ray Gunder, of Lakeland, FL, itstarted with saying ‘no’ to State Farm’s re-strictions and it has escalated into a Fed-eral Court case for defamatory statementsand for interfering with a business rela-tionship.

“I can’t makeState Farm stop slan-dering me by myself,but this great countrywe live in, and thisfair legal system wehave, can do some-thing about it, andthat’s why I’m count-ing on it,” Gundertold Autobody News.

Ray Gunderopened Gunder’sAuto Center in his

hometown of Lakeland, Florida in 1969.It was a different world back then, butfrom the very first day, Gunder pledged

that he would provide quality above any-thing else.

Over several decades, Gunder builthis shop into a $3.3 million business em-ploying 28 people. Things went well untilabout five years ago when Gunder said heran smack into a roadblock called StateFarm’s Service First program.

In the early ‘90s, the program withState Farm was cordial until they beganbutting heads over the communicationwith other shops on Quality Repair Proce-dures in 2002, Gunder said.

“State Farm came after me in a bigway during a six-month period in ‘04,” hesaid. “They told me, ‘If you continue tocommunicate with other shops and writethese procedures, we will remove youfrom our program.’ If my techs ‘droppedsweat’ for any of the procedure in theprocess of fixing the automobile, they de-serve to get paid fairly for their efforts.This is how we feed our families. All I’masking them is to be fair in the reimburse-ment for procedures that are prescribed forthat repair.”

Gunder quickly saw that State Farmwas cutting their program out from underhim as a direct result of his unwillingnessto yield over procedures, and communica-tions with local shops.

“From 2001 to 2004, I did $1.8 mil-lion with State Farm. From ’05 to ’09, Iwas down to $700,000. I saw it drop from37% of my overall business to 4% andthis year I’ve done maybe six cars withthem.”

The problems escalated when StateFarm began rejecting more and more itemspreviously included on his estimates, Gun-der said.

“They started re-iterating the fact thatthey weren’t going to pay for certain pro-cedures and then their re-inspectors beganrejecting items that were considered ac-ceptable before.” These banned proceduresincluded items like masking jams, denib,car covers for primers, and color, sand andbuff, Gunder said.

“In the beginning with the ServiceFirst program, we were actually writingthe estimates, uploading them to StateFarm and getting paid for them,” Gundersaid. “Then, when we started writing pro-cedures and when we started talking toother shops in the area about being paidfairly for procedures that are needed, theystarted to target me. That’s when I fellfrom grace.”

Gunder won’t ever sacrifice quality tomake a fast buck, he said, but State Farmdoesn’t seem to share the same concerns.

“We’ve been doing things a certainway for 35 years, so why should I startchipping away at quality to keep an insur-ance company happy? I have to show myface in this town and I can do that withpride, because I’ve always run an honest,fair business.

The database available to the collisionindustry in the late ‘90s helped Gunder tounderstand the right way to identify repairprocedures as Included–Non Included.

“Information is power,” Gunder said.“When the computer systems becamemore available, we were able to learn moreand more about the proper procedures andthe correct steps to identify them. Backwhen I started, I had to handwrite every-thing. We just looked in a big book andtried to understand it, and that’s how wedid it. But then we started educating our-selves with the computers, and with thenew technology and the information thatbecame easily available, we started askingto be paid fairly for things that weren’t in-cluded.”

But, State Farm wasn’t focused on ad-hering to these same procedures, Gundersaid. “When I started asking to de-trim adoor, they laughed at me and said ‘we’renot going to pay for that, because nobodyelse asked for it.’ It just evolved into a sit-

Florida Shop Owner’s Ongoing Slander Suit Against State Farm Began with Repair Procedure Disputes

Ray Gunder is suingState Farm for

defamation and forinterfering with his

business.


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uation where they put down their feet andtold us to go pound salt. But, I stuck to myguns and State Farm didn’t like it one bit.It became ridiculous.

“My goal with every repair is to ad-here to all of the needed procedures to puta car back in pre-accident condition, asbest as humanly possible. And they saidthings like ‘we’re not paying you becauseit’s not prevailing competitive pricing inyour market.’ Or, ‘you’re the only one and

nobody else asks for that.’ If I had a dollarfor every time I heard that, I’d have been amillionaire years ago.”

What’s the main transgression StateFarm has committed to cause Ray Gunderto sue the insurance company?

“Slander,” Gunder said. “Their repre-sentatives made totally inaccurate, falsestatements about my shop to long-termcustomers and potential customers, whoserespect I had earned over the years. They

told my customers that if they wanted tocome to Gunder’s, they couldn’t. Theysaid we’re not on their approved list.You’ll be paying a lot more than just yourdeductible if you go to Gunder’s, they toldthem. They said we overcharge. They saidwe don’t have the proper equipment andwon’t pass their inspection. They said wedo substandard work. And they also toldcustomers that we take longer to fix carsthan anyone else in this area, and any ad-ditional down time on rental would betheir responsibility.”

Once statements like these got backto Gunder via his customers, he waslivid. “I didn’t go with their plan and Iwouldn’t play nice, and they certainly didnot like my communication with othershops, so they turned on me like a rabiddog and tried to take my customers fromme. I’ve earned those peoples’ trust andI’m not going to let them taint that in anyway.”

State Farm has lightened up on Gun-der recently to some extent, he said, butit’s a case of too little, too late. “They de-cided to stop torturing me late last year.They finally changed their word track andthey’re not saying to the same degreenegative things about my shop. Now theyacknowlege, on a few occasions, that Ihave an excellent reputation in the com-munity.”

But Gunder isn’t going to drop hiscase just because State Farm is playingnice right now, he said. “They realizedthat I’m not a cry baby throwing jellybeans and that I’m serious. They essen-tially tried to steal my customers andbankrupt me, and they’re not going to getaway with it. I have no idea how long itsgoing to take to rehabilitate my name be-cause of the slanderous lies they havespoken about Gunder’s Auto Center inour community. They have made me“MAD”! Getting M.A.D. to me nowmeans Make A Difference. Not just forGunder’s but for our Industry!”

Gunder’s Auto Center Inc.930 Griffin RoadLakeland, Florida 38305(863) 688-7897

Ray Gunder’s Auto Center in Lakeland, Florida, opened its doors in 1969.

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Suzuki Kizashi 2010

“ It was the best of times. It was the worstof times, to quote Charles Dickens,” is howDick Cross, Chairman and CEO ofCARSTAR Collision Centers introducedthe CARSTAR 2010 Outlook conferencecall on March 18.

Speaking to an invited teleconferenceindustry group, Cross and Dan Bailey,

President and COOof CARSTAR, gavea candid assessmentand fielded questionson the state of the in-dustry as they per-ceive it.

“[Best andWorst] is kind ofwhat it feels like forus out there. As welook out, we’re prettyexcited about it.Everybody is having

a very difficult time these days. But we’rekind of excited about it. When industriesgo through the kind of events that are oc-curring right now in ours, big thingschange. But people that have the capacityto recognize and respond to and moveahead of those things, generally gainground. So, at the highest level that’s whatit looks like to us. We think that this econ-omy is very very bad for some stores andvery very good for some others.”

Bailey added, “The economy is verytough and vehicle designs are changingrapidly and require investment in trainingand equipment to be able to repair thesevehicles properly.

“We’ve had a big focus on whateveryone always wants, which is morework. But when you really look at thenumbers, and measure them, you mightnot need another car to the door. What youmight need to do is improve your imageand your look and feel to consumers to in-crease your closing ratios. Increase clos-ing ratios obviously increases revenueswithout more cars to the door. It’s a timetoday that our stores and the industry needto measure their key performance indica-tors (KPIs) closer than they ever have,probably in the history of this industry.”

“You have to make operational deci-sions based on what that information istelling you. And we’re doing that for ourstores today. Something that we couldn’tdo a year ago, as well as we wanted to, butwe have live data today that we’re able tofeed back to our stores and our RegionalService Managers that are in the fieldcoaching these stores have access to thisdata 24/7 to help a store improve its oper-ational performance to higher levels.”

“Also it’s a time to look at overheadcosts. It’s so easy to be overstaffed orhave your overhead is too high. It’s atime that you’ve got to tighten every-

thing that you can tighten. We’re crea-tures of habit. We’ve just come out ofJan. and Feb. as pretty good months.There is something that happens fromMarch 15th to about May 15th that is notgood for our industry. In some cases theprofit levels are not high enough for astore to make it through that time unless

they are able toquickly adjust theiroverhead and makechanges to reducetheir costs.”

Address ingthe recent scrutinygiven to aftermar-ket structural parts,CARSTAR execu-tives are calling fora recall of certain

faulty aftermarket components, con-tending that insurers should bear thecost if they had specified that a sus-pected sub-par part be installed on acustomer’s vehicle.

“It’s caused headaches,” says DanBailey, citing the results of demonstrationsconducted by I-CAR trainer and AutobodyNews columnist Toby Chess. The testinghighlighted industry concerns over theform, fit and safety of various aftermarketstructural crash parts.

Bailey made two other key points: “Inthis industry, and CARSTAR is guilty too,when the going gets tough there are twothings that are sometimes looked at as dis-cretionary spending and that’s training andmarketing.”

“You actually—and especially withmarketing—get more for your dollar dur-

ing tough business conditions marketingthan you do at any other time. Our adviceto our stores is don’t stop marketing. Infact, pick up the pace if you can. Anddon’t stop training, because again, train-ing is often looked at as a discretionalspend, but with the way cars are chang-ing toady to put a vehicle back in pre-ac-cident condition, training is a necessityand we track and push our stores to keepup with all the new technology that’s outthere.”

As CARSTAR continues to evolvefrom a “loose confederacy” of collisioncenters into a solid franchise operation, itremains receptive to enlisting solidly runbusinesses. Said Cross, “It’s time to turnup the heat, that’s still our game. Being inthis industry by yourself is going to getharder and harder over time.”


CARSTAR Industry Outlook Includes Management and Quality Parts

Dick Cross,Chairman and CEO

of CARSTARCollision Centers.

Dan Bailey,President and COO

of CARSTARCollision Centers.


by Nick Bartoszek, Sherwin-Williams

Recently published data from R. L. Polk &Co. show that the median passenger car ageincreased in 2008 from 9.2 years to 9.4years. Looking at the glass half-empty, thismeans that consumers are delaying their ve-hicle purchases until their economic confi-dence level rises. When we look at the glasshalf-full, we can clearly see the opportunitythis creates for the Fixed Operations side ofthe business. Due to the economic uncer-tainty, vehicle owners are now finding itmore palatable to spend income on repairsto extend the life of an existing vehicle,rather that committing to ongoing monthlypayments for a new vehicle.

This means more brakes, tire rota-tions, radiator flushes, oil changes and col-lision repair. Wait a minute! CollisionRepair… really? Well, not typical Colli-sion Repair. Full Collision Repair is a greatbusiness for a dealer who is committed tothat part of the business, but the vehicleowner is only involved in a collision onaverage every 6.25 years. That makes it abit difficult to establish a repeat customer.

What I am talking about is a differentconcept called Express Scratch Repair™(ESR). Express Scratch Repair focuses onsuperficial, cosmetic repairs that can befixed in one day or less and do not requirethe replacement of parts (aside from mir-rors).

ESR is newly perfected repair processthat is in-between Paint-less Dent Repair(PDR) and the full fledge insurance claim,collision repair. ESR focuses on the bumpsand bruises that happen to our cars eachand every day. Parking lot dings, bicyclescratches, mail box encounters, and eventhe overly friendly neighborhood dog thatjumps up on your car to greet you whenyou come home. These are all incidentsthat happen to us all, yet we live with thembecause of consumer perceptions of longrepairs, rental car hassles and of course thedreaded insurance claim. Now, new tech-nology in the paint industry allows for theability to repair vehicle damage in aboutthe same time it takes to perform an oilchange and a tire rotation… without theneed for a high temperature curing oven.Let’s take a closer look at this opportunity.

Marketing the opportunityEver walk through a parking lot and takenotice of all damaged vehicles? So muchdrivable damage is never repaired out of theabsence of having an affordable, convenientsolution to get it done. Consumers wantthese repairs, they just don’t know where to

find them and dealers are not asking for thesale. Dealerships have a great opportunityto market this service. Professional market-ing brochures, posters, radio spots and wait-ing room videos make great tools toeffectively communicate this new service.

A marketing plan for a successful Ex-press Scratch Repair would not be completewithout tying into your CRM. Managingthose relationships and transferring thosewarm leads are critical to success and a win-ning closing ratio. Internet based softwareis currently available to allow your cus-tomer to log on and obtain an instant eval-uation on his or her repair 24/7 and allowsyou the ability to understand the repair andfollow up the lead promptly.

Whether your dealership has an exist-ing collision center with excess capacity ora service department with available bays,ESR offers your dealership another greatservice to increase customer frequency andcustomer loyalty. Additionally, this type ofrepair process is also great improving thespeed and cost control of reconditioningused car inventories.

TrainingNow that you’ve got them, what do you dowith them? Easier said than done, but thereare some great training programs out therethat not only focus on the technical aspectcompleting the repair, but also the man-agement and estimatics portion as well.Solid programs will not only focus on fix-ing the car, but also look at profitably writ-ing the repair order, scheduling andmanaging customer expectations.

The dealership model is a prime tar-get area to harvest future ESR customers.In the service lane, each an every serviceadvisor has the duty to perform a detailedwalk around each vehicle that enters hisdepartment. Looking for add on sales inthe service department is a great opportu-nity to grow this new revenue stream. Youhave already trained them to look for un-related, previous damage to limit any po-tential exposure to the dealership. Why nottake one more step to teach them how to

write a visual instant estimate to fix the ve-hicle and capture that new revenue. Sim-ple tools exist to enable service advisors tobe able to write ESR estimates that arefast, accurate and profitable. Since the re-pairs are limited to surface repairs, it iseasy to distinguish between ESR repairsand full collision repairs. Who knows, youmay even generate a few leads for yourcollision center.

Customer service skill training for theservice advisor should also be addressed.In collision repair, the introduction of theDirect Repair Insurance Program has hin-dered the attentive nature of the customerservice advisors. We all too often focus onfixing the car, when quite often we forgetthat the owner needs fixing too. We forgetthat there has been a loss in pride of own-ership since their vehicle has suffered ablemish. It is important to build a reliableprocess for providing an outstanding cus-tomer experience and be able to deliver afantastic repair to a delighted customer.

Combining these critical areas will becore to managing the success of the pro-gram. The training program should alsofocus on setting realistic goals and time-frames for defining success. A reputablepaint supplier should be able to assist withfacility design and layout if required.Whether it is just a few bays or tens ofthousands of square feet, any up front costwill pay for itself in the end.

Facilities and EquipmentIf you are not equipped for success, howcan you expect to achieve success? Facili-ties and equipment are the second largestreason more dealerships are not in the col-lision repair business, followed only by lackof adequate management to run the busi-ness. The prevailing perception is that ittakes high-bake ovens and a huge facility torun a solid collision operation these days.

That’s not the case for ESR. ESRneeds only a small defined set of tools (fitstightly in a wheeled tool box) and anOSHA-approved ventilated spray area.This streamlined approach is because there

are new technologies on the market that donot require bake ovens and that signifi-cantly reduces the cost. Some systemseven allow you to paint, polish and delivera vehicle in less than an hour at ambient(70–75°F) room temperatures. That’sabout the same amount of time some fluidchange services take.

Since some of the technology has ad-vanced to air dry levels, not only is there asignificant savings in equipment, youwon’t get socked with a huge spike in en-ergy or fuel to heat the building and makethe process productive.

Cost effectivemixing machines areavailable to allowshop personnel to ef-fortlessly match anyfinish and color oftoday OEM vehiclesand produce a repairthat is transparent tothe vehicle owner. Inan ESR repair, dam-age repair area iskept to a minimum,

so material costs are also manageable. It’ssimple, fast and profitable. Let’s face it, tra-ditional collision repair has a lot a movingparts; insurance relationships, parts orders,accounts receivable, Work-In-Process (WIP)& rental car companies. Pretty ironic—all ofthose things that make traditional collisionrepair challenging, are not present in Ex-press Scratch Repair.

By looking at an Express Scratch Re-pair program for your dealership, you willbe able to:● Capitalize on unutilized capacity● Satisfy a need in an untapped marketsegment● Build Customer Loyalty● Drive potential collision business● Add a great process for reconditioningUsed Car Inventory● Add Revenue and Profits to your top andbottom lines

Express Scratch Repair programs area great way to evolve your business into aconsistent profit center that will grow rev-enue, profits and loyal, satisfied cus-tomers. Contact your local Paint, Body andEquipment Supplier to find out specificson what types of program might be avail-able to you.

Nick Bartoszek is the Global Director ofProduct Management for the Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corp.(SWAFC).

Express Scratch Repair™ Gives Fixed Ops New Revenue Stream

CompanyConnections

Sherwin-Williams’breakthrough air-dry

clear, HPC 15

Typical repair highlighted for this process.

Sample repair in process. Can air dry without boothbeing fired up.


According to a recent New York Times re-port on the national health insurance de-bate titled Many small businesses can nolonger afford to cover their workers, em-ployer-sponsored group health insuranceplans are foundering because of “soaringpremiums.”

During the congressional hearings re-garding national health insurance, insurersagreed to make some concessions. But onlyfor individual private health insurance poli-cies or the insurance plans of major corpo-rations. The insurers “balked” at givingsimilar concessions to small business own-ers.

The insurers offered key concessions tomake it easier for individuals to buy healthinsurance. Furthermore, the insurers, duringthe congressional hearings, said they will“sell policies even to people with pre-exist-ing medical conditions, and to stop basingprices on how healthy or sick someone is.”

However, those same insurance com-panies “appear unwilling to give small em-ployers the same break,” according to theNY Times.

Businesses with fewer than 100 work-ers employ 40 percent of the labor force inthe United States. Small business is thebackbone of the US Economy. Yet, insur-ers won’t even consider “concessions”when it comes to helping the businessowners with the high cost of group healthinsurance.

Yet, insurers are quick to ask smallbusiness owners (body shop owners) togive them all sorts of concessions on parts,labor rates and any number of things.

Why Give Concessions to Insurers?Simple. It’s all about the money. If theshop is a Direct Repair Shop (DRP) it is arequirement of the contract. The insurerpromises to “send” more business to theDRP shop when certain discounts aregiven to the insurer.

For non-DRP shops, the insurer simply“refuses to pay” above the amount the DRPshops are getting paid from the insurer.

Insurers are experts at “negotiating”DRP contracts and agreements that guar-antee advantages and profitability for in-surance companies. After all, the insurerswrite the terms and conditions, and thebody shops can “take it or leave it” as faras the insurers are concerned.

Insurers no doubt control the repairprocess today, but body shops can “standtheir ground” and push back if they wouldjust do so.

When the insurer wants to get rid oftheir “labor-intensive clerical work” and

shift it to the body shop, they get awaywith it simply because the body shopowner “agrees” to do this in exchange forbusiness being “steered” to their shop bythe insurer. And in most cases the shopdoes get the business. But at what cost?

Many insurers only consider bodyshops for DRP deals that agree to buy aspecific computer system and software fa-vored by the insurer. After that is set up,the body shop has the responsibility to postschedules and routine clerical updates tothe computer during the repair process, sothe insurer can “monitor” a repair withoutvisiting the shop.

When the claims adjuster does visitthe DRP shop, they will be given that a“private office” and all sorts of officeequipment, courtesy of the DRP shop.

Today the stakes are higher than ever.Many body shops are going out of busi-ness due to the Great Recession and heavyinsurer steering to preferred shops.

The demands for concessions have es-calated to levels never dreamed. Now, StateFarm demands EVERY concession a shopgives to other insurers. Which insurer willtop State farm in their concession demands?

If the repair job in your shop is “de-layed” for any reason, expect to pay theclaimant’s rental car bill when the repair isfinished.

One more thing: body shops on someDRP programs are required to carry highlimits of liability insurance, and sign anagreement to “hold-harmless and pay alllegal costs incurred” on behalf of the insurerin the event of a dispute. What a contract!

Because of the tough business climateand the desire to get more cars to repair,some body shops give concessions theynormally wouldn’t accept. Concessionssuch as discounts on labor rates and parts.The insurance industry has an iron-fistedgrip on the collision repair industry, and itshows no signs of easing up.

A 2007 JD Power & Associates study,The Impact of ‘Customer Choice’ on In-surance Claims Experience, found theProgressive direct-repair program was“faster” in repairing vehicles than the in-dustry average but had the second highestfailure rate in the industry.

According to some, repair quality cansuffer under a direct-repair program. Why?Because insurers refuse to pay for certaincosts, the body shops won’t fight back andthe body shop “eats” those costs.

The “costs” that the body shops “eat”are often little things that really add up overtime. For example, $6 or $8 for flux addi-tive for bumpers; If the shop does just 40

bumpers a month, that works out to about$3,000 a year on just one simple item.

“Multiply the ‘simple items’ not paidfor by insurers and it’s a significantamount of money that a body shop is los-ing every year,” says Neal Nuce of Preci-sion Collision, Inc. of Raleigh, NC. Nucesays “Many body shops are being forcedto cut corners in repairs” because the in-surer refuses to pay for what is necessaryto properly repair the damaged vehicle.

“Giving concessions to insurer furtherempowers the insurers and harms the nego-tiating position of body shops,” says Nuce.

If body shop owners continue on thispath of giving in to insurer demands forconcessions, where will we be in the fu-ture? What will be the ultimate concessionthat the insurer demands—to perform thework and pay the insurer for the privilege.What ultimate good can come from grant-ing concessions to insurers? By saying“No” to insurers shop owners make it pos-sible to compete on a level playing field.

Some insurers cross the line of ethi-cal and fair business practices to the side of

unfair and unethical behavior because ofthe willingness of some body shop ownersto “get along” and agree to concessions.

Of course it’s not enough just to say“no” to the insurer. After all, the insurer isthe party holding the checkbook and thepen that writes the check. The shop ownermust know what a proper repair calls forand know the P-Pages for the major esti-mating systems.

As a State Farm adjuster once said,“Most shop owners don’t know how to getpaid for all their work, parts and suppliesbecause they don’t know how to documentthe requirements to show the insurer whatis necessary to restore the vehicle to itspre-accident condition.”

It is a safe bet that the insurer knowsperfectly well what is required to restorethe vehicle to its pre-accident condition.But the insurers’ goal is to pay out as littleas possible. That’s why they want cheapparts and quick turn-around time.

It’s a matter of survival for manybody shop owners today. Ask yourself, “Ifnot me, who? If not now, when?”

Concessions: Why give them to insurers?

The Right Causewith Mike Causey

Mike Causey is a consumer advocate and lobbyist for the Independent Auto Body Association (IABA), in additionto Non-profits such as alternative healthcare groups (Citizens for Healthcare Freedom, NC Reflexology Associa-tion), Organic farming and Healthy Eating. Mike is a writer and speaker on numerous consumer issues and legis-lation. Mailing address: Causey & Associates, P.O. Box 16725, Greensboro, NC 27416 Email: [email protected]: (336) 210-1947


On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for forty years. He haswritten numerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for manybusinesses. He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected].

I recently learned that a shop owner in myarea had dropped a couple of DRPs, in-cluding Farmers and 21st Century (whichhad been absorbed by AIG). I heard that hehad decided that between his Toyota andBMW dealership relationships plus hismany-year prior customers, he no longerneeded the hassle of increasingly onerousdemands and low profits from the insur-ance companies. Naturally I applaud hiscourage in seeking to prosper without theinsurance connections, but I had to won-der if he adequately considered the long-term ramifications of his decision. Overthe years I’ve observed that body shop re-lationships with dealerships are often sim-ilar to marriages. Many end in divorce.

I also thought about the rising roleFarmers Insurance is playing in the indus-try. Since absorbing Bristol West and re-cently 21st Century with its prior AIGconnection, I see Farmers becoming amuch greater force to be reckoned with. Isit wise for a shop to sever a connectionwith Farmers at a time when it may be-come a source of far more business? Ofcourse I can’t answer that question for this

shop owner. I don’t have access to his fi-nancial records and this move may makeperfectly good sense financially.

Several years ago I had the opportunityto speak with two very different kinds ofbody shop owners. One was bemoaning thepast, saying that fifteen years ago the busi-ness was fun—there were fewer regulationsand fewer forces nibbling away at profits atevery turn. Today he said he was earningless and working more and the fun wasgone. He was pessimistic about the future.

The other owner was expanding, buy-ing out a near-by shop and increasing hisreach into a wider market. He was opti-mistic about the future! Today it’s harderto find shop owners who are that confidentabout a better future ahead. Which view-point will better serve a shop owner whowants to grow but also wants to hedge hisbet in case the economy doesn’t bounceback very quickly?

The creation of a desirable future iswhat inspires us to work, and especially toput out that extra effort to build the kind offuture life we wish to arrive at. If we areoptimistic and believe it is possible to cre-

ate that better future, it is easier to get up inthe morning and to eagerly attack the tasksof the day, knowing that each day is bring-ing us closer to the better future we haveenvisioned. If we see the future as beingdoomed to continuous decline with dimin-ishing returns for the efforts we make, itwill become more and more difficult tomake that effort.

Remember, for a moment, where youwanted to go when you started your busi-ness. What were your goals? What kind offuture did you want to create? Have youarrived where you intended? Have yougone farther? Or have you fallen short andlost sight of what it was you wanted toachieve? If so, when were things last goingwell? What shifted or changed? Whatcould you do to get back on track? Try torecreate for a moment, those original in-tentions. How could your intentions bemodified to fit the present? If you were juststarting out today, how would you goabout striving to reach your objectives?

I come back to thinking about theshop severing that connection to FarmersInsurance. In today’s world, more than

ever, our forward thrust is determined byour connections. We’re much like ourpower tools that have to be plugged intoan electric outlet to draw power to be en-ergized. If we don’t connect to referralsources, reliable suppliers, informationaldatabases, competent workers and numer-ous customers, we’ll find ourselves dis-connected from the power sources we needto operate.

It may be that this shop has sufficientconnections to thrive without the insuranceconnections. But if I were to advise a shopowner who wanted to create a secure andgrowing future, my first advice would beto diversify his or her sources of businessand to open up as many channels as possi-ble for business to flow in. Connections inthis economy can be fickle. Someone of-fering a little better price, better discountsand/or faster service may very well stealone source of business out from under youwhen you’re not looking. If you haveenough other sources to survive the lossand keep growing, you may be able to con-tinue to create the better future you haveenvisioned.

Make Secure Connections to Create a Better Future

Mopar® is joining forces on two projectswith renowned custom-car builder andAutobody News columnistRich Evans atthe 5th Annual Chrysler Spring Festival inIrvine, CA.

Evans will utilize Mopar parts andbring to life a customized Dodge Chal-lenger for the 2010 Specialty EquipmentMarket Association (SEMA) Show in LasVegas, Nev., Nov. 3–6, 2010. Evans willalso serve as a judge in a newly-formedtuner category of Mopar’s “Top Elimina-tor” enthusiast recognition program.

Well known to our long-term readersas the owner of Huntington Beach Body-works and Rich Evans Designs, Evans is amaster automotive fabricator, welder andpainter. His custom-made rides have ap-peared in numerous movies and televisionprograms, including Pimp My Ride, Mon-ster Garage, Man Cave and Chop, Cut &Rebuild. The Southern California nativealso recently debuted a new iPhone App,The Rides of Rich Evans.

His one-of-a-kind Mopar-flavoredride for the 2010 SEMA Show will beginwith a base 2010 Dodge Challenger. Evanswill employ an array of Mopar parts, somemodified with his own fabricated spin, inorder to create a new automotive work ofart. Rich Evans Exclusive Parts as well as

products from numerous aftermarket sup-pliers will be utilized during the build,which will be documented in a series ofpodcast videos posted to Mopar’sYouTube channel.

Evans will also pen exclusive blogsfor posting on http://www.mopar.com aswell as his own Web site, http://www.hunt-ingtonbeachbodyworks.com.

“Rich Evans has crafted some of themost remarkable customized rides on thestreet today,” said Pietro Gorlier, Presi-

dent & CEO, MoparService, Parts & Cus-tomer Care, ChryslerGroup LLC.“This Mopar SEMAproject will demon-strate to our customerswhat they can createwith proven, quality-

tested Mopar parts and accessories.”Evans will also act as a judge for the

new tuner category of the Mopar “TopEliminator” program. Now in its fourthyear, the program highlights restyled orcustomized Chrysler, Jeep®, Dodge orRam vehicles of Mopar enthusiasts. Thenew tuner category winner will be selectedfrom enthusiast nominations based on cre-atively applying technology to a current-

model vehicle while maintaining brand in-tegrity and values. All “Top Eliminator”winners, from the various categories, willbe displayed in the Mopar Alley at the2010 SEMA Show.

“I’m pumped up to team up with apremier organization like Mopar on thesethrilling new projects,” said Evans. “To-gether, I think we can seize the attentionof the young Next-Gen crowd with thenew ‘Top Eliminator’ tuner award and theSEMA-car build while still holding theattention of today’s enthusiasts. You willsee an amazing Mopar/Rich Evans cre-ation in the Mopar exhibit at SEMA inNovember.”5th Annual Chrysler Spring Festival.

The 5th Annual Chrysler Spring Fes-tival takes place March 20 in Irvine, CA.The event is the largest gathering ofChrysler LX/LC platform vehicle ownersin the world, featuring current-model ve-hicles such as the Dodge Challenger,Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300.

The Mopar Direct Connection rig willbe on hand for show attendees to visit.Show vehicles packed with Mopar partswill be on display at the rig, including theDodge Challenger 1320 Street Pak, DodgeChallenger Mopar Edition and Ram 2500ST Reg Cab w/8.0 box. Enthusiasts may

also inspect Mopar engines on display, in-cluding the 426 HEMI engine with cut-aways, 426 HEMI Crate Engine and aMopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak HEMIengine with a cutaway bell housing andtransmission.

When Chrysler bought Dodge in1928, the need for a dedicated parts maker,supplier and distribution system to supportthe growing enterprise led to the formationof the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation(CMPC) in 1929.

Mopar (a simple contraction of the wordsMOtor and PARts) was trademarked for aline of antifreeze products in 1937. It alsowas widely used as a moniker for theCMPC. The Mopar brand made its markin the 1960s—the muscle-car era.

The former Chrysler Corporationbuilt race-ready Dodge and Plymouth“package cars” equipped with specialhigh-performance parts. Mopar carried aline of “special parts” for super-stock dragracers and developed its racing parts divi-sion, called Mopar Performance Parts, inorder to enhance speed and handling forvehicles both on the road or at the track.For more information on Mopar, visitwww.mopar.com. For additional informa-tion on Rich Evans, visit huntington-beachbodyworks.com.

Mopar® Teams Ups with Custom-Car Designer Rich Evans at 5th Annual Chrysler Festival

Rich Evans


I had a little detour from this project tofilm a pilot for a new TV show called Au-toholics. For the pilot show, we built a ‘64Lincoln Continental convertible in a weekso we hope you guys will be able to seethat show in production shortly. I had funand I met a lot of good people and we didit without pranks or yelling or anythinglike that.

We are back on part three with the Ul-timate Vodka Shelby Series 1 and we leftoff with the 800 grit to 1000, then 1200, to1500, to 3000, thanks to the Quick CutSanders™ and Soft-Sander™ blocks.

After color sanding with 3000 we’reused the 3M® 1-2-3 system involving threedifferent compounds: a heavy compound,and a polish, and then a final polish. Byusing 3M’s 1-2-3 system we saved a lot oftime especially if you take it down to 3000grit.

I’m also using a new tool called a‘thumb gun’ that allows me to dispensemy polish or my compound with the pushof a button. You can see it at www.thum-bguntool.com. It’s a phenomenal time-saver.

If anyone ever had those problemssuch as stopping when your wheeling up apanel and shaking your bottle, getting thecompound to hit the end, and putting toomuch on, and wasting it. You save time,material, and product, so it all saves thatmighty buck.

I’m using a DeWalt buffer and that al-lows me to control the various speedswhen I’m wheeling this out, so afterwheeling out all the panels, we’re readyfor assembly so we roll roll the vehicleover to the other side of the shop. I set

everything out as we bagged everythingwhen we did mock-up, so it should befairly easy to put this vehicle back to-gether.

I always start with the basics, such asmy Rich Evans’ panel alignment tools thatare basically just 1/8” rods (described inprevious column), used where I drilled the1/8-inch holes in mock-up form.

We started with the rear deck lid. Iused two dowels on each side, put the boltsin, tightened it down, pull the dowels out,and boom, it’s perfect.

So after putting the deck lid on I’mmoving to my doors. I put the strikers onthe B-pillars. I usually get the doorlatched in there, close the doors so I canhave access to the front where the hingesare and allow my dowels to go in there.I put my four bolts in and tighteneddown, pulled the dowels out. The door’sright where it needs to be, first-timearound.

No chipping paint, no worrying aboutmy gaps. Now I move forward to the fend-ers. I didn’t really dowel those out. I basi-cally I just wanted to get a good gap. Idon’t have have too much movement onthe front, so two bolts on the top, two boltson the bottom, the rocker, and then onebolt on the front allows me to get my gaps.So I get my gaps looking good on the leftand right fender, then I’m going to moveto the bumper.

On the bumper I put some nutserts be-hind so I don’t have to reach around anddeal with a nut and a bolt. Now the nutsare permanently molded to the bumper soI’ve bettered that from the assembly line,which makes it easier for me and gives me

a better alignment up front. So after in-stalling the front bumper, we’re ready forthe hood.

We go back to the Rich Evans panelalignment tools again. I get the twobolts started on each side, find the holes,line them up, drop the dowel through it,tighten it up, drop the hood, we’re per-fect.

On goes the cowl from there and theseal that goes around the cowl and downleft and right fenders gets the front com-pleted, then I’m moving to the window.

I’ve got a new window seal. I didn’tchange too many of the other seals because

they’re not easy to get ahold of. You wantto make sure when you’re taking things offthat you clean them up and get prepared toput them back on, so you can move a littlequicker.

I got two days into putting this vehicletogether. After the doors and door glassesthat I marked out and put back in place.Put the belt moldings back on, the doorpanels back on. I did my homework whenI took it apart, so I’ve got all the pieces thatI need for assembly.

I popped the two seats out, and hadthem repaired, just to better the project.This is a nice looking vehicle on the out-side but had a couple of tears in theseats which I got stitched up. That al-lowed me to clean up the floor accessand put the back panel in, which theseatbelts drop through. It’s got the rallystripes that run through where the centerconsole is, so I got that all back to-gether. I went to the rear door valance. Iput the rear lower valance and left therear tail lights out, so I get access to thatrear valance.

Finishing the Shelby Series 1

Phone: (360) 687-3451

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

Rich Evans is the owner of Huntington Beach Bodyworks and an award winning painter andfabricator. He offers workshops in repair and customization at his facility to share his uniquetalents. For contacts and design samples visit www.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com

There are a lot of plastic shims inthis car and you have to put those back inbecause they’re there for a purpose.When the body’s being mounted, themounting points for the rear valance arepart of the frame. You don’t want itpulling the body down to the frame sothey’ve got it gapped out evenly. So justan another tip to make sure you’ve goteverything back the way it was. Wetalked about bagging, numbering, and la-beling, earlier. It’s very important in thisprocess. Otherwise you could be three,four, or five days extra, with repaints onnicks and chips, etc. So after that process,we’ll reinstall the seats.

We’ve got the convertible topdropped-in. Now we jack the car car up,get our rocker panels on, which are rivetedin, so we’ve got everything pretty muchriveted on. Then we’ll put our four wheelwells in. Those are the splash liners to

keep dirt from going up into the car. Wedrop the engine cover in and we can final-ize with an inspection of the headline ad-justments to make sure everything is right.All the gauges are working. All the turnsignals are working and then we’ve gotthe louvers. Inside the fenders we paintedthe louvers silver and working to dropthose.

I had a deadline for Thursday at 11:30and they showed up for the car at nineo’clock. I finished the car at noon, 30 min-utes behind schedule.

The guys are happy and are ready takeit out on the road and show it off. I’m re-ally happy with it. I put my signia on theright front lower bumper for Rich Evansdesigns. I didn’t want to dominate with thesignia but it’s enough to let everybodyknow who did the job.

Hopefully they will have this car atSEMA so you guys can visit it. Just check

my website for the schedule. You can seeit after following these three columns ondoing it. Pictures really don’t do it jus-tice.

Another great project under my belt.You’ll be able to see it on the Rides of RichEvans iPhone app. You can Google it oniTunes or your iPhone, and play the game.I had a good time doing it.

I can’t ever forget my sponsors.Thanks to Chicago Pneumatic™ for giv-ing me the best pneumatic tools on theplanet. MicroFlex™ gloves for providingme with it the safety part of my job. SATAspray guns has provided me with my sprayguns in the the fresh air system that keepsme around longer. The Soft-Sander™blocks. also Quick Cut Sanders™ or pro-vide me with the equipment that I needand that the blocks that I need to getthrough the steps and processes. 3M pro-vides me with all the product I need, be-

tween the compounds and their sandpaperand their “bondo gun” Visit them at3M.com.

To make sure I’m not forgetting any-body, please visit Huntington Beach Body-works and click on my link page and youcan see all the different partners and thedifferent products I use. If you need moreinformation on doing a particular projec,tvisit HuntingtonBeachBodyworks.com goto the store and pick up some videos. Ihave over 10 videos showing steps andprocedures. Thanks to House of Kolor forproviding with the great color choices thatwe had for this project.

I’m looking forward to next month todo something new and cool which I’llshare with you guys. As I always say, thereare 100 ways to build a car. This is oneway that’s working for me and hopefullysome of the steps I’ve described will helpyou.


Christina Shubert Joe Momber

Christina Shubert joined the Auto-body News team in January, 2010, asan account representative. She movedto Encinitas (near the Autobody News’office) in August 2009 to escape thecold winters of Northern Illinois. Shegrew up in the small town of PaddockLake, WI, and is the youngest of four.Christina’s alma mater is Trinity Inter-national University, where she re-ceived her degree in Marketing andmet her husband Shane. Before head-ing to the West she worked in theChicago area at American Hotel Reg-ister Company as an Inside Sales Rep-resentative. Apart from working atAutobody News, Christina loves thebeach, traveling, and trying out newfoods. She also has more Facebookfriends than anyone else on the planet!Call Christina about an ad or just tosay ‘hi’ at 800-699-8251, or email:[email protected].

Joe Momber rejoined the AutobodyNews team in February 2009 as a re-gional sales manager. Joe was instru-mental in building Autobody Newsinto the leading regional paper for col-lision repair and was with the com-pany during the paper’s expansioninto the southwest region Joe left theMarine Corps in 1979 and spent fiveyears with Jorgensen Steel. He startedworking with Leta Amick (founder ofAutobody News) in the spring of1996. When the paper was sold in1999, Joe stayed on until 2003, whenhe decided to try something new. Joeis a believer in giving back. He’s beendonating blood for more than 20 yearsand donated a kidney a couple yearsago. Joe stays so fit with racquetballand running he makes the rest of ussick. Call Joe about an ad or just to say‘hi’ at 800-699-8251, or email:[email protected].

In an Autobody News column last issue,the point was made that Southern Califoriashops can still use a VOC compliant sol-vent-borne basecoat systems rather than awaterborne basecoat system. Some of youmay have read this and thought, ‘hey, waita minute, I thought in California’s Rule1151 and other similar rules, water was theonly game in town?’

Well, the rule asks for a 3.5 VOCbasecoat. It does not specify that you haveto use waterborne paint. How you get to3.5 VOC is not important. Why would ashop want to go waterborne if they don’thave to?

From my point of view, the answer issimple; it is the better choice for the vastmajority of shops. After more then twoyears of using waterborne basecoats inSouthern California, most painters tell methat they wouldn’t trade their waterbornebasecoat back-in for their old solvent sys-tem. Although color matching in water re-quired a bit getting use to in the beginning,the overall matches right out of the canhave been better in water. This makes a lotof sense because the OEMs are using wa-terborne basecoats in increasing numbers.I truly feel that waterborne basecoat tech-nology is the right choice for about 80%of shops in our industry. So what about therest?

The remaining shops are likely in oneof the following categories: “mobile”small damage repairer, custom, or restora-tion business, fleet service provider, RVbuilder or repairer, or otherwise challengedby environmental circumstances.

For the mobile repair businesses, asolventborne solution like BASF’s LimcoSupreme line has many advantages overwater. Mobile repairers frequently do theirwork in the most unconventional areas andare exposed to weather and airborne par-ticulates. Making waterborne basecoatswork in these conditions is not impossible,but more challenging than it has to be. Theinitial flash-off time in water is slowercompared to exempt solvent technologyand it increases the risk for airborne par-ticulates to get stuck in the paint whilespraying in a parking lot. Another advan-tage to mobile repair specialists is that youhave a better chance to get a color matchdialed-in on the mixing stick, without hav-ing to spray a test panel. Not that I wouldrecommend it, but some have made an artform out of it.

Then there is the ever increasing costissue. In the mobile repair business, mar-gins are generally thin. With the exceptionof the rare specialty paint lines like “House

of Kolor”, most other solvent based op-tions on the market I am aware of are moreaccurately categorized as an economyproduct. In other words, it is likely trans-lating into older technologies and muchless R&D investment by the manufacturerfor continuous improvements such as colormatch and other very costly performanceattributes. This is precisely why fleet serv-ice providers also like this technology.Their end-user is generally less criticalthan the average collision repair client andwarranties are rarely given or very shortterm.

Custom and restoration shops haveother reasons to consider the use of a sol-vent based basecoat. If the paint job in-volves intensive graphics and stripingwork, solvent based basecoats can be eas-ier to use a times. This would also be thecase and a driving factor for RV busi-nesses. RVs are all about stripes. Pleasedon’t misinterpret what I am trying to say,many great custom painters and RV shopsalike are already using waterborne prod-ucts very successful every day. It simplytakes a new approach and different tech-niques to be successful. But I am not tryingto knock the old school custom guys ei-ther; there are reasons, good reasons, whythey are the hardest bunch of painters tomove into a new paint technology.

Custom shops have worked very hardto build a reputation for the unusual andunexpected. Unique and hard to copycraftsmanship is the name of the game inthis specialized segment of our industry.They found unconventional ways to ma-nipulate their paints to get just the right ef-fect their clients are looking for. Giving upall the hard learned lessons, tricks and ex-periences going with it isn’t easy. There isgreat comfort in knowing what to expectwhen you push paint past the envelope amanufacturers designs its product for.Knowledge like that took decades to de-velop and having to do it all over again ishighly time consuming. The other side ofthe coin is the period correct restorationwork. Some shops are really critical in re-producing the old style metallic-flake lookof the 50’s or 60’s. Producing that some-what flat, a bit lusterless look in waterbasetakes a lot of effort. Waterbase is by defaultcleaner more brilliant than solvent-basedbasecoats.

The last group that would benefitfrom modified, older solvent based tech-nology is shops that simply don’t have theability or recourses to get their facility to asuitable condition. A shop that routinelydoes business in a cold & humid climate

and has no ability to control the sprayingenvironment at all may be challenged tomake it work. This may not always bedriven by money either; some shops are insituations where the local government orother regulation would not allow for a new

booth, or booth upgrade permit. For theshops that have to, the technology is herefor you to use. For the rest, be aware thatthere are tradeoffs and a potential price topay for avoiding the change to moderntimes.


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Is Waterborne Paint the Only Answer for Low VOC Requirements?with Stefan Gesterkamp

Paint Management Stefan Gesterkamp is a Master Craftsman and BASF representative who has been inthe automotive paint industry for 27 years. He started his career in a custom shop be-fore turning to collision repair. Stefan graduated from the University of Coatings andColorants in Germany and is the author of “How to Paint Your Show Car.”

AkzoNobel says 160 attendees represent-ing 140 businesses from both car andcommercial sectors gathered Feb. 17–19in Ft. Worth, Texas, for the Sikkens Acoatselected Winter National PerformanceGroup meeting (NPG). This meetingmarked the 16th annual gathering. It isthe first of two NPG events annuallyhosted by AkzoNobel.

A number of shared business prac-tice classes were conducted. A key focalpoint for the meeting was the issue ofsustainability. Emphasis was placed onthe growing importance of elevatingawareness of business practices that cannot only have an effect on the prof-itability of collision repair operationsbut also the environmental well-being

of both local and global communities.Other pertinent topics included

using social media to market a businessand an overview of the new HAPS VOCregulations detailing implications and ac-tions required from shop owners pertain-ing to those regulations. In keeping withthe “real world” focus of the Acoat se-lected program, two shop tours were con-ducted.

Park Place Bodywerks of Dallashosted the group for a tour of its 87,000square foot facility, which generates inexcess of $1.5 million in monthly colli-sion repair sales.

Representatives from InternationalTruck Group toured the InternationalTruck facility in Garland, Texas.

AkzoNobel Suggests Sustainable Business Model


www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

NEWSNEWSNEWSNEWSService, Diagnostic

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Autobody News April 2010

by Jim Lang

The car and light truck service bay popu-lation in the U.S. shrank more than 50,000over the past ten years. During this sametime, the number of cars and light truckson U.S. roads climbed by nearly 47 mil-lion units.

Not only did the number of cars andlight trucks increase over the past tenyears, current vehicles are substantiallymore complex than those in operation justten years ago. All these changes took placeas the number of service bays in the U.S.shrank over 4%.

Big Decline In Dealer BaysThe closing and cancellation of thousandsof Dealers are dramatically changing thenumber and outlet mix of car and light truckservice bays. Between 2009 and 2012, we atLangMarketing expect over 36,000 Dealerservice bays will be shuttered or convertedinto independent service bays.

At mid-year 2009, there were just under320,000 Dealer bays in the U.S. By 2012,this number will drop to fewer than 285,000.

From 27% of all service bays in 1999, Deal-ers will recede to only 24% of bays repair-ing cars and light trucks by mid-year 2012.

Prior to 2008, Dealers annually ac-counted for an increasing share of car andlight truck bays in the U.S. aftermarket.This trend was erased by Dealer closingsduring 2008. Between 1999 and 2012, thenumber of bays operated by Dealers willdecline more than 55,000.

More Independent (non-Dealer) BaysWhile the Dealer service bay count willsharply recede between 2009 and 2012, theindependent (non-Dealer) bay populationis growing.

Lang Marketing expects independentservice bays will climb nearly 3% and ex-pand their share from 73% to 76% of carand light truck service bays nationwide be-tween 2009 and 2012.

Service Outlets Gaining BaysFor the first time in nearly 30 years, Serv-ice Stations and Garages (primarilyGarages) will add service bays between2009 and 2012. During these three years,

Service Station and Garage bays will in-crease nearly 3%, a sharp contrast to thedrop in Dealer bays.

Repair SpecialistsRepair Specialists (outlets focusing on alimited menu of vehicle service and main-tenance) will record the greatest servicebay gain between 2009 and 2012. Duringthese three years, Repair Specialists willincrease their bay population over 5% andgenerate nearly half of “independent”service bay growth.

Foreign SpecialistsForeign Specialists concentrate on the re-pair of foreign cars and light trucks (im-ports and transplants). They will ranksecond in service bay additions and first inbay percentage growth from 2009 through2012. During these three years, ForeignSpecialists will increase their service baypopulation 8%, operating one-fifth morebays by 2012 than during 2000.

Independent Outlets Gaining BaysTire Stores will moderately increase their

bay count between 2009 and 2012, about1%; while Discount Stores/Mass Mer-chandisers with bays will expand their baypopulation approximately 3% during thesethree years.

Service Bay LosersAuto Parts Stores with bays will drop 11%in bay count between 2009 and 2012. Theresidual category of Other Outlets (whichrepresents less than 1% of independentservice bays) will recede approximately3% in bay population.

Importance Of Bay ShiftThis significant shift in service bay countand bay share from Dealers to independ-ent service outlets between 2009 and 2012ensures the Service (DIFM) market sharegrowth of independent repair facilities, re-versing a long trend of Dealer Servicemarket expansion extending back throughthe mid-1970s.

From Aftermarket Insight™ by Jim Lang,President of Lang Marketing Resources,Inc., www.langmarketing.com.

Fewer Bays In A Service Market Growing In Size And Complexity

by Ed Attanasio

Lynn Johnson is a mechanical technicianworking for Roger Beasley Collision Cen-ter in Austin Texas, a 54,950-square-footbody shop with 40 employees. RogerBeasley Collision is approved on Mazda,Porsche, Volvo, Saab and Subaru, but theycan work on any type of vehicle.

Every month, Johnson, a 15-year vet-eran, performs diagnostics on an averageof 50 cars for a shop that’s fixing approx-imately 250 cars month. Since each carJohnson touches brings in roughly $300 onaverage, adding diagnostics to their list ofcapabilities represents approximately$180,000 in added revenue for the shop,Johnson said.

When Roger Beasley Collisionopened its doors in 2003, the owners madea decision to incorporate mechanical repairinto their menu of capabilities. It’s been asmart move, because the shop avoids send-

ing cars out for diagnoses and also picksup a significant amount of varied mechan-ical repair business from its collision cus-tomers, Johnson said.

Johnson credits a particular tool forthe jump in diagnostics revenue—the pur-chase of an iSCAN II diagnostics toolfrom Autoland Scientech USA, a Texas-based distributor of leading automotive di-agnostics systems sold worldwide. Theshop encountered the company and itstools when co-owner Dusty Wombel metthe Autoland Scientech representatives atNACE and was introduced to the product.

“Dusty told me about it when he re-turned from Las Vegas,” Johnson said.“We saw a demonstration here at the shopand I could quickly see that it was going toget into things that we couldn’t do withour other machines. It made a big differ-ence. It opened our eyes and we’re verypleased. It turned our world around re-ally.”

Since they’ve purchased the iSCANII, Roger Beasley Collision Center hasseen an overall improvement to the bottomline because an undiagnosed and unclearedtripped engine light can delay the comple-tion of a body repair.

“This machine will allow us to workon a wide range of cars,” Johnson said.

“It offers more coverage than anythingelse we’ve seen on the market. We workon everything, but most of the cars inhere are less than five years old and thethings we can do on these cars is out-standing.”

“Looking at the income side, the tooldoes generate revenue,” Johnson ex-plained. “We get diagnostics time everytime we touch a car. We save the time andmoney we’d otherwise have to spend tak-ing it to the dealership, and we save a lotbecause we don’t devote people to take thevehicle to a dealership every time. If youcan’t do the diagnostics here, it’s a hasslewhen the engine light or an airbag lightcomes on.”

“It’s a common thing—we’ll just befinishing up the job and then we see thateither the engine light is on or an airbaghas tripped. If your customer gets in thecar and it’s got an engine light on, that’sobviously not good.”

Large Texas Body Shop Uses Scan Tools for Profit in Diagnostics

Roger Beasley Collision has seen diagnostics on itscustomers’ cars become more profitable, efficientand productive since they opened their doors in2003.


The iSCAN II has simplified John-son’s life and increased his productivity.“If we see that light, we know we’ll makeevery effort to do the diagnostics in-house. If we can’t do it here, we need totake the car to the dealership to let themdo the work, which means we’ve lost con-trol of the job. Then, if there’s a furtherproblem, we have to order the necessaryparts and now we’re waiting while the carsits. It messes up your CSI and delaysyour turnaround time. These insurancecompanies look at your turnaround timesconstantly.

“Now, with the iSCAN II, we canbring the vehicle in, scan that car and findout what’s wrong with it fast. Then we canorder the parts and, before the repair iscomplete, we have the parts in-shop andwe’re not losing three days.”

Sometimes it’s just as easy as simplyclearing the lights, Johnson said. “There’soften nothing wrong with the airbag sen-sor, but you’ve got to clear that light. ThisiSCAN II machine will handle 85% ofeverything we touch. Most of the time, wecan clear those lights and send the cus-tomer home without any problems. In thatsituation, we’ve already fixed the particu-lar problem, so we just need to clear thelight.”

Avoiding trips to the dealership for di-agnoses saves considerable time and

money, he said. “It makes life easier, that’sfor sure,” Johnson said. “If you have tosend a vehicle to the dealership, it’s goingto cost you, say, $115 right off the bat.Then, you lose a day while you wait for itto come back to you. Not to mention thelost labor of two drivers to run the car outthere and bring it back at the end of theday. Most of these dealerships are 15–20miles from our location, so it’s not a quickdrop-off and pickup.”

Johnson said he also appreciates thesupport Autoland Scientech provides, hesaid. “Tech support is excellent. If we’vegot a problem, they’re just great. If I can’tfigure something out, I can call and I’ll al-ways get through to them with the initialcall. If they don’t have the answers rightaway, they’ll definitely get back to me andin a reasonable time, usually within an hour.

Johnson said that upgrading hisiSCAN II is simple and a no-brainer. “Up-grades were very easy to get. We pluggedinto the computer and the update was up-loaded in about 45 minutes. We didn’thave to sit there [watching it], it just hap-pened.”

“Their service is very responsive. Ifwe want something, we don’t have to waiton them, it just gets done. You don’t haveto submit a work order or any paper-work—they’re very good at followingthrough.

“We’ve seen our productivity im-prove dramatically. We’re more efficientoverall and our cycle times have de-creased. On top of it, our overall subletwork has decreased as well since we’vehad the iSCAN II. It’s a win-win.”

Autoland Scientech USA, headquar-tered in Cedar Park, Texas, is the Ameri-can division of one of the world’s leadingproducers of automotive diagnostic tools.Since its inception, Autoland Scientech hasemerged as a prominent player in marketsacross the globe and has brought togetheran international sales force of over thirtyof the world’s most selective automotivedistributors. Its products are developing asolid reputation for bringing techniciansand mechanics the latest in automotive di-agnostics at highly competitive prices.

Richard Zenteno, the Marketing Di-rector for the Americas for Autoland Sci-entech USA has seen numerous bodyshops embracing diagnostics just likeRoger Beasley Collision Center has, andfor many reasons.

“I’m seeing a larger number of shopsoverall that are becoming more open todiagnostics,” Zenteno said. “They’re re-alizing they can’t run a body shop [prof-itably] without diagnostics. In manycases, the iSCAN II can help them clearlights in five minutes and they can chargetheir customer for at least one hour oflabor.

“Roger Beasley Collision Center un-doubtedly paid for their machine withinthe first month they owned it. It’s a smartdecision and it’s paid off big for this cus-tomer and many others.”

Roger Beasley Collision Center10420 Metric Blvd.Austin, Texas 78758(512) 233-0460

Roger Beasley Collision in Austin, Texas repairs ap-proximately 250 vehicles per month.

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


Many specialists like me run into situa-tions where the customer’s previous me-chanic has referred the customer but hasn’ttold the customer the whole story, includ-ing why he’s really referring the job to me.Many times the job does require a special-ist but sometimes the “regular mechanic”just doesn’t want to look incompetent tothe customer, and the customer doesn’twant to accept that their “regular me-chanic” was incapable of fixing the prob-lem.

Even when you make the repair andthe problem is solved, you can still befighting a losing battle with the customerbecause of disinformation from the regu-lar mechanic. Often the “mechanic” turnsout to be a friend or relative or “BillyBob” from next door. It’s when the me-chanic is a supposed professional, but notacting like one, that I get a chapped hide.

Here’s one of those situations.

A Chevy pickup with the anti-locbrake light stuck on showed up at my shopone day. Not a big problem, but it can be-expensive to fix, as I explained to the cus-tomer. Replacement parts run from severalhundred dollars to well over $1000 for cer-tain vehicles. The customer told me hisregular mechanic had already checked itout and told him it was going to be expen-sive and take time to fix. Better send it toan electrical expert to have it repaired. (Atthis point I liked this regular mechanic.)

After a lengthy conversation with theowner about how long it’s been like this...and how many different parts his regularmechanic had already tried… and howmany times he checked the fuses… andthat it had to be a ‘huge problem,’ other-wise his regular mechanic would’ve takencare of it. I put the truck in a bay and putit on the scanner.

Huge problem or not, I’m the luckyguy who gets to follow up. The previousmechanic had left about everything thatwent to the ABS system unplugged. Aftergetting all kinds of service codes stored inthe computer, I had to go back in and re-connect all the different parts. Then Icleared the codes from the computer, andbasically started all over again with thescanning and basic testing. (I was likingthe regular mechanic a little less at thispoint.)

After taking the truck around the blockonce, the ABS light came back on.Rechecking the codes led directly to afaulty ABS controller. (The controller is ba-sically the brain box that makes the wholething work.) I have changed several of thesein the past, and, other than the part beingridiculously priced, it’s a simple repair. Thetrick to this one is that the unit is mountedunder the car just below the driver’s area. Ifyou unbolt the unit and tilt it slightly to-wards the center of the truck, you can getaccess to the screws that hold the controllerto the mechanical part of the ABS unit. This

way you don’t have to undo any brake linesand bleed the brake system. Just install thenew one, clear the codes, and do any “re-learn” that needs to be done. Luckily, therewasn’t any “relearn” procedure on thisyear’s model and I had just saved the cus-tomer some labor time.

Okay, job well done, but the customeris not happy with the cost. Like I told him,it’s not the labor that is expensive, it’s theparts. He left, somewhat satisfied.

A few weeks later I get a call from theowner. The guy was furious. He wasn’tholding any words back. He definitelycouldn’t care less if anyone else was lis-tening. After he was done ranting and rav-ing about the repair, it became obviouswhat was wrong.

It wasn’t the repair. It wasn’t the cost.It was his “regular” mechanic. Seems hewent over to see his buddy to have somesort of work done. That’s when his me-chanic told them that it didn’t look like wehad done anything and that he just paid forabsolute absolutely nothing.

“Hold on a minute buster!” I said, myblood pressure rising. “Let’s start overagain. First off, is the ABS light off?”

“Well, yeah, it is.”“And is the ABS system working?” I

asked.“It’s working fine.”“Then what is the problem?” I asked.“My mechanic looked under there

and said you guys never took the lines off

so you didn’t replace the controller likeyou charged me for,” was his answer.

I told him that we most certainly did,because if we didn’t, his light would stillbe on, and the ABS system wouldn’t beworking.

“Furthermore,” I told him, “you don’thave to take the lines apart to put on thecontroller. The controller is the black elec-trical box above the thing you’re callingthe lines. Not only that, it’s probably thecleanest part under the truck, since it’sonly been on the car for a couple ofweeks.”

The customer called back later thatday to complain some more, still not buy-ing my explanation. Yes, he did see thenew parts, and he was aware that every-thing worked, but “my mechanic knowsyou didn’t do anything, and you electricalguys know how to jack up the systems tomake it look like you did something.”

Exasperated, I asked him nicely to letme talk to his mechanic or bring the truckand the mechanic to my shop and I’ll showthem both how the repairs were made.

After the two showed up, I patientlywent through the whole procedure.Youcould almost see the light bulb slowlybrightening above their heads. They leftsomewhat satisfied.

Later, when I thought about that ‘lightbulb’ over their heads, I thought it shouldhave been a neon sign instead, flashing“dumb ass”on and off.

“My ‘Regular Mechanic’ Says You Didn’t Do a Thing”with Gonzo Weaver

Gonzo’s Toolbox Excerpted from Scott “Gonzo” Weaver's Book, “Hey Look! I Found TheLoose Nut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age. Thebook is available at amazon.com. Contact Scott Weaver [email protected] and see his website at www.gonzostoolbox.com.

In its recent research, Rothman cites twoexamples of stocks doing better despite theweak economy since last year—O’ReillyAutomotive and AutoZone.

Cost-awareness amongst automobileconsumers has lead many to invest in serv-icing and repairing their current vehiclesrather than buying new, due to the weak-ened global economy. And this means big-ger gains to services sector stocks, saysfinancial analyst Bradley McCoy of Roth-man Research.

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. is a pub-licly traded chain of auto parts stores thatstarted with one store in Springfield, Mo.,in 1957. It has since grown to more than3,400 stores in 38 states. The corporateheadquarters of O’Reilly is located inSpringfield. The company nearly doubledin size and boosted its presence on theWest Coast with the acquisition of CSKAuto in mid-2008. The growing base ofstores resulted to strong sales and sent

profit soaring in the fourth quarter.O’Reilly earned $71.9 million or 52 centsper share, up from $42.7 million, or 32cents per share, in the same quarter of lastyear.

As the company expanded its opera-tions from 3,285 stores and 18 distributioncenters at the beginning of the year to3,421 stores and 20 distribution centers bythe end, O’Reilly’s sales grew by 36 per-cent to $4.85 billion. O’Reilly CEO GregHenslee says, “As we are looking forwardto 2010, we see consumer concerns overhigh unemployment and a challengingmacro environment as signs that our cus-tomers will continue to maintain their cur-rent vehicles and, therefore, drive demandin our industry.”

AutoZone, which operates as a spe-cialty retailer and distributor of automo-tive replacement parts and accessories, hasbeen reporting solid gains since last year.The company has seen double-digit EPS

growth for 14 consecutive quarters, whichwas propelled by a 565,000-share repur-chase during the quarter. Over the longrun, the continued improvement in opera-tional performance has created tremendousvalue for shareholders, according to Roth-man Research.

Full research reports on both compa-nies are available as free downloads fromRothman Research. Go to www.rothman-research.com.

Weak Economy Favors Auto Parts StoresNissan North America does not approveof any repairs or the use of any repairedsteel or aluminum wheel that involveswelding, bending, hammering, straight-ening, re-machining, reforming, oradding new material as this can compro-mise the structural integrity of the wheeland safety of the vehicle. Any repair ofsteel or aluminum wheels must bestrictly limited to minor cosmetic sand-ing or polishing that removes just the fin-ish.

Nissan North America factory war-ranty, replacement parts warranty or ex-tended warranties do not apply to anypart other than a Nissan Genuine originalequipment replacement part.

Nissan North America will not beresponsible for any subsequent repaircosts associated with the vehicle or partfailure caused by the use of a steel oraluminum wheel that has been re-paired.

Nissan Position Statementon Wheel Repair

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CALL: Joe Momber for details!

Col-Met Spray Booths is a major Texas-based manufacturer of paint booths, spraybooths, finishing booths, powder booths,air makeup units, mixing rooms, batchovens and accessories for industrial, auto-motive, wood finishing and other applica-tions.

The company’s home is in Rockwall,Texas and it has state of the art manufac-turing facility there comprising about130,000 square ft, where it builds boothsfor an extensive array of auto, truck, bus,and boat refinishing operations. This isdone in sizes from small 4’ bench booths tothe largest finishing facilities designed fortrains. Col-met’s ATR Commercial GradeBooths are also available for constructionequipment, recreational vehicles, and otherlarge equipment applications, both customand catalog. Col-Met is a “one stop shop”where paint booths are concerned.

Autobody News conducted a phoneinterview with Vice President of Sales,Donnie Montgomery, and Regional SalesManager, Billy Roche to learn more aboutspray booth sales and manufacturing andthe current business environment, startingwith some historical background.

ABN ► How did Col-Met get started inthe business of manufacturing SprayBooths?

DM/BR ◄ In 1996 Col-Met organized asa division of Collier Metal Specialties (amanufacturer of metal products since1957). Col-Met Spray Booths Incorpo-rated as a separate company Jan. 1st 1999.Eric Jones is the sole owner.

ABN ► What are the company’s specificareas of expertise?

DM/BR ◄ Paint Spray Booths of all typesfor wet or powder coating: Industrial, Au-tomotive, Truck/Equipment, Wood Finish-ing, Heated Air Makeup Units from 8,000to 40,000 CFM that are specifically de-signed for the paint booth industry. Col-Met has in-house Engineering that allows

us to be very flexible in providing paintbooths for our customers individual needs

ABN ► Does the company have relatedoperations (that are not directly involvedin spray booths) that support their boothtechnology?

DM/BR ◄ In addition to a fullline of Paint Spray Booths, Col-Met manufactures Heated AirMakeup Units (AMU)DM/BR ◄ Col-Met also manu-factures Batch Powder CureOvens as well as Process (produc-tion) Ovens, Washers, and variousrelated Finishing Systems compo-nents

Col-Met’s Electrical Departmentis Underwriters Laboratories Certified (UL508), primarily manufacturing ControlPanels specifically designed for the paintbooth industry

ABN ► With the recent rulemaking com-ing from EPA, what are you seeing interms of interest or concern from cus-tomers. For example, is there a waterbornedemand in Texas and other states that arenot mandated to use the lowest VOCs? Isthere a lot of interest now or is it more ofwaiting-to-see what is going to happen?

DM/BR ◄The answer isyes. There is alot of interestbut not neces-sarily becausethe mandates.It’s more foreconomic rea-sons. I think alot of the coat-ing suppliersare doing a re-ally good jobof educatingcustomers onthe return oni n v e s t m e n t .

The interest is in buying the system andgoing to a waterborne system if it’s doneright. We are getting a lot of response onthat, but not necessarily because of themandates from the gov’t.

ABN ► I assume that anybody in theseareas who is contemplating installing anew booth right now is thinking solventbut they are planning for an eventual wa-terborne transition. Is that fair to say?

DM/BR ◄ Yes. We definitely see that.That’s why we are seeing so many of theconversion systems out there. At NACEthis past November that was amply con-firmed by customers, and we took mul-tiple orders. A lot of questions wereposed to us regarding all these new coat-ings.

“We’re the ones that businesses call whenthey’re looking for a new method of refin-ishing - when they’re looking for a betterautomotive system altogether.”

“We’re working to create products specificto our customers needs - specific to theirgoals and concerns, and incorporatingthem into our leading systems. That’s whatCol-met does.”—Eric Jones, President, Col-Met SprayBooths

ABN ► What are the most unique aspectsof Col-Met booths?DM/BR ◄ What really makes Col-MetSpray Booths unique in the paint booth in-dustry is Col-Met’s employees and ourdealer network. Our customers have be-come accustomed to personalized servicebefore, during, and after the sale.

Collectively our employees have sev-eral hundred person years of experience inthe paint booth industry.

We make a quality product at a fairprice and offer outstanding service as anadded value.

ABN ► What is the major technology dif-ference between your waterborne and sol-vent Spray Booths?

DM/BR ◄ Faster flash time with water-borne coating is all about increased airmovement over the surface area.

Col-Met has 2 systems available:1. In the two-speed system the AMU

is oversized allowing as much as 30% in-creased airflow into the booth during Wa-terborne Flash-off Mode.

2. The corner tower fan system in-creases the surface airspeed to as much as400 feet at the vehicle during WaterborneFlash-off Mode.

ABN ► Do they represent a distinct pricepoint in the industry, or is pricing highlyvariable based on customization?

DM/BR ◄ Our EVO Waterborne FlashSystems range in price from around$3,000 to $8,000. Col-Met’s waterborne

systems always represent a good valuewithin their price point.

ABN ► What financing and other incen-tives might make Col-Met the best choicefor a shop customer?

DM/BR ◄ Col-Met equipment offers anexcellent return on investment (ROI)based on improved production and supe-rior finishes.

ABN ► You mentioned your experienceat NACE 2009. How did you judge themood at NACE?

DM/BR ◄ They were upbeat. It was apromising show. One of the best NACEshows in the last 8 years. It was one ofthose where people were cautiously opti-mistic. Everybody is expecting 2010 to bea strong year in this market.

We normally sell through the distrib-utors, but we actually took at least 7 boothorders at NACE. It’s been years sincewe’ve sold more than one or two boothsthere. It surprised us.

We’re not in denial but our saying allalong has been “we are not going to par-ticipate in this recession.”

ABN ► We like that philosophy. If no oneparticipated in the recession, we wouldn’thave one, would we?

DM/BR ◄ Right.

Col-Met Spray Booths1635 Innovation DriveRockwall, Texas 75032Toll-free: 888.452.6684Phone: 972.772.1919Fax: 972.772.1833Main e-mail: [email protected]


Texas-based Col-Met Spray Booths ‘Not Participating’ in Recession

CompanyConnections

As I (Tom) visit many shops each month,I continue to hear many of the same com-ments from the body shop owners, man-agers and staff. Some of the most commonare:

“I’ve been fixing cars since 1960-something and we know how to fix them.”

“They are still cars and nothing is re-ally changing on them.”

“My technicians are great and theyknow how to fix cars.”

Having heard similar comments manytimes, I decided to see just what haschanged over the years with a car most ofus are familiar with, the Ford® Mustang®.Through some research, I discovered thatthese were options on the 1965 Mustang:

- Power steering- Power brakes- Manual front disc brakes (V-8)- Deluxe retractable front seat belts- Rear seat belts- Padded visors- Heavy-duty battery- Radio and antenna- Vinyl roof

- Tinted glass with banded windshield- Air conditioning

What I didn’t find on the 1965 Mustangwas the need to de-initialize or re-initial-ize the door glass. Here is the procedurefor the 2008 Ford Mustang.

WINDOW MOTOR INITIALIZATIONNOTE:• Initialization is required to learnboth the full up and full down positionsand the profile of the glass as it travelsthrough the glass channel. Once initial-ized, obstacle detection is enabled. Theconvertible rear window motors do NOT

need to be initialized as they do not haveone-touch up or one-touch down func-tions.• The LH or RH front window motormust be de-initialized, then initializedwhenever the front window motor is re-moved from the window regulator, a newwindow regulator and motor is installed, anew window glass is installed or for any op-eration in which grease or lubricants are ap-plied to the window regulator or glass run.• A new (original factory setting) or de-initialized LH or RH front window motormay allow one-touch down operation, butwill not operate in one-touch up modeuntil initialized. If a new LH or RH frontwindow motor has been installed, proceedto the initialization procedure.• If diagnosing a LH or RH front win-dow switch problem, perform the windowinitialization procedure before replacingthe window switch.• All front window components (win-dow glass, window regulator, windowmotor and glass top run) must be in-stalled/tightened and adjusted to specifica-tion before carrying out this procedure.• Excessive bounce-back (window re-verses direction with no obstructions pres-ent) may indicate that a de-initializationprocedure may need to be performed.• A battery disconnect does not requirethis procedure to be carried out unless thebattery was disconnected while the win-dow was operating.• The motor will only operate in the 9-16 volt range. If the voltage drops below 9volts, the window will not function cor-rectly or may stop moving. If the voltagedrops below 9 volts while the motor is op-erating, the motor will become de-initial-ized and will need to be initialized.

De-initialization1. The motor can be de-initialized in 2ways:• Disconnect the battery cable from thebattery while the window is operating.• Remove the window motor fuse whilethe window is operating.2. After the motor has been de-initial-ized, reconnect/reinstall the battery cableor fuse and carry out the initialization pro-cedure.

Initialization

WARNING: Keep objects and body partsclear of the glass panel when carrying outthe initialization procedure. During the ini-tialization procedure, the glass panel closeswith high force and cannot detect objects

in its path. Failure to follow this instructionmay result in serious personal injury.NOTE:• If this procedure is only partiallycompleted, the front window motor re-mains non-initialized and may allow one-touch down operation, but does NOTallow one-touch up operation.• The door MUST be closed during thisprocedure (for convertibles, the top andquarter glass must be in the closed and upposition) in order for the door windowmotor to initialize.• The windows must be in the full openposition for this procedure to operate cor-rectly.3. Press and hold the window controlswitch in the UP position at the second de-tent until the window glass stalls into theglass top run for at least 2 seconds.4. Once the top run is reached, hold thewindow control switch in the DOWN po-sition at the second detent until the win-dow glass stalls at the bottom of its travelfor at least 2 seconds.5. Cycle the window glass up and downonce more to set the window soft stop forthe down position.6. Test for correct window operation bycarrying out the one-touch up and one-touch down features.

RESTRAINT SYSTEMS – 1965 vs. 2008The ’65 Mustang offered “deluxe re-tractable front seat belts” as an option. The2008 Mustang supplemental restraint sys-tem (SRS) contains dual-stage deployment(advanced restraint system) driver and frontpassenger air bag modules. It is designed toprovide increased collision protection forfront seat occupants, in addition to thethree-point safety belt system. This vehicleis also equipped with seat side air bag thatdeploy from the outboard front seat back-rest upon a side impact. The ’65 sure didn’t


with Tom McGeeALL OEM Information

Tom McGee is National Account Manager for ALLDATA Collision. He has had a long career with I-CAR, in-cluding as President & CEO. Tom is an ASE certified Master Collision Repair/Refinish Technician. He hasalso run his own collision facility and been a career and technical school instructor. He can be reached [email protected]. For other Tom McGee articles in Autobody News, go to:http://www.autobodynews.com/tom-mcgee/index.php — JEFF WEBSTER is an ALLDATA Technical Writer.and Jeffrey Webster

See STILLA MUSTANG, Page 28

It’s Still a Mustang®… But in Name Only – PART 1 of 2

Almost all body shop owners are facedwith the challenge of dealing with dirt anddust in their paint jobs and the time-con-suming maintenance in their paint depart-ment. Until now.

3M has developed an innovative sys-tem to protect the paint booth and reducepaint department expenses. The 3M DirtTrap Protection System provides a com-

plete paint booth solution that traps dust,dirt and overspray, reducing defects inpaint jobs by as much as 50 percent.

The Dirt Trap System features an adhe-sive-backed material that is applied to walland floor surfaces and a clear film to protectlights and windows. Once the material fillswith debris, it is simply removed and replaced.

“We spend a great deal of time work-ing with body shop owners and paint ex-

perts in their shops, participating in theirdaily work to understand the challengesthey face and the ways we can apply 3Msolutions to help them,” said Pat Hager,3M Division Scientist for 3M AutomotiveAftermarket Division. “Our researchshowed that painters spend a great deal oftime removing dust and dirt from paint re-pairs that stem from airborne contaminants

in their paint areas. Our research alsoshowed that painters needed help keepinga freshly painted surface clean and free ofdefects in their paint booth.”

3M was able to leverage several of itsexisting technology platforms to tackle theproblem – using advanced technology andan innovative green, solvent-free processto hold dirt and dust to the surface.

The 3M Dirt Trap System also helps

body shop owners protect the investmentin their paint booth by keeping the boothclean and bright. This eliminates the needfor repeated washing that can promote cor-rosion or the cost of repainting the booth torestore its appearance. It also saves main-tenance expenses by eliminating cleaningtasks such as sweeping, rinsing and scrap-ing windows. This reduction in mainte-

nance increases booth utilization andminimizes the down time for maintenance.

“We were looking for a solution to al-leviate time spent removing dirt and buff-ing vehicles,” saidMichael Caruso, Jr., ofCentral Collision Centers in Oak Forest,IL. “We maintain a very high standard ofcleanliness in our shops. The dirt trap sys-tem allows us to reduce dirt in paint workand keep our booth cleaner. We track cycle

time quite frequently in terms of averagedays, hours per day and units per day. Onaverage I would say we are able to produceone extra booth cycle per day in a two-manpaint shop. That can amount to deliveringfour to five more vehicles per week, whichhelps financial performance and helps usdeliver insurance company metrics.”

Installation, Replacement is EasyThe 3M Dirt Trap System is easily appliedonto the walls and floors with the magneticdispenser. The material is easy to handleand allows the installer to reposition dur-ing installation, which should be com-pleted in less than two hours.

The 3M Dirt Trap System is designedwith flexibility based on a shop’s produc-tivity. It can be simply removed quicklyand without slivering when it becomesfilled with debris. A body shop that is run-ning four to eight cars through their paintbooth each day would typically need to re-place the floor material every two to threeweeks, similar to maintenance on boothfilters. The wall material would typicallyneed to be replaced every 160 bake cycles.

Contact 1-877-MMM-CARS or yourlocal 3M Distributor or 3M Sale Repre-sentative for more information or visit thewebsite at www.3M.com/dirttrap.


3M™ Introduces Revolutionary Solution to Improve Paint Booth Performance

®

Before 3M Dirt Trap Protection System. After 3M Dirt Trap Protection System. Installation.


by Larry Williams

This article is di-rected to dealershipparts managers di-rectly managing em-ployees handling bothmechanical and colli-sion parts, however,the same principlesapply to parts man-

agement in a body shop. Read on to seehow to improve your parts and people man-agement.

Larry Williams is a former parts man-ager and consultant who has received na-tional awards andover 40 years of experiencein creating profitable departments. He can bereached at [email protected].

Fact: The typical [dealership] parts de-partment has more investment and returnsless profit than any other department.Every other department can be financed,leased, depreciated, or leveraged. Auto-motive parts require cash—paid in full,every month. Many parts departments aresinkholes, sucking resources from thedealer, tying up capital in un-saleable in-ventory, maintenance, and personnel. Thisneeds to change.

Today’s parts department must be anasset to the dealership. Analyze your partsdepartment’s profitability. Look at the ratioof net profit to inventory. A well-run partsdepartment can generate annual net profitratios of 50% or more, based on your in-ventory investment. Then show the dealerprincipal that your inventory is an invest-ment, better than the bank when it comesto the rate of return. This should be yourgoal. Every inventory dollar working toproduce more profit and every employee’stime managed to maximize their produc-tivity.

The first step is to analyze your in-ventory. You can easily check your month-end management report for stocking partnumbers. I have found that an inventory of1500 part numbers is all you need to coveryour daily sales. This is based on a re-quirement that stocking parts should sell atleast three times in a year, or for new mod-els, two times, in six months. You can ra-tionalize stocking dollars this way: After apart has sold three times, you have madeenough profit to purchase the fourth part,effectively investing profit, not capital. Atwenty-one day supply is more than ade-quate for all normal needs. All other partsshould only be ordered when needed andwhen the sale is guaranteed. No moneyshould be tied up in speculation. All excessinventory; all items unsold for twelvemonths or more, need to be converted tocash. Return them to the manufacturer asobsolescence if possible, or donate them to

the nearest tech school for a tax credit. Allthey do now is collect dust and absorbvaluable resources.

With today’s freight system you canbalance inventory vs. freight. A smalldealer will have smaller inventory withhigher freight charges; a large dealer willhave more inventory, but smaller freightbills. Never absorb all freight charges, dothe paperwork necessary to recovercharges from the manufacturer and alwayscharge your special order customers fortheir freight. A flat percentage with a min-imum starting charge will keep your costsat a minimum.

Example: 10% with a $2.00 mini-mum. Remember, that is ten percent ofyour selling price, not your cost. Thisshould allow you to make a profit on yourfreight. Find out what your manufacturercharges are and post your freight policywhere your customers can see it.

These simple guidelines will start youon your way to a department that is valu-able to the dealer, and a steady source ofneeded revenue.

Next, look at the physical layout ofyour parts department to make it more ef-ficient and profitable.

Physical Efficiency is EssentialA profitable parts department must be timeefficient. Wasted time is wasted money.Reduce as much as possible the time re-quired to go from the sales position to thepart itself. Counter personnel must be ableto go directly to the bin, find the proper lo-cation, and pull the correct part with a min-imum amount of time and effort.

Most basic of all, your efficient de-partment must start with its physical de-sign. Preplan your bin layout. Draw out afloor plan first. Know what your plan isand locate parts one time only. You mustdivide your inventory into fast and slowmoving sections, not just large and small.Remember, only about 1500 numbersmake up the bulk of your sales. These partsmust be in your first section of bins.

Use at least three sizes of bins in eachsection. You must be able to locate all fastmoving parts in the bins closest to yourcounters.

Make breaks in your rows; don’t forceyour people to walk the entire row beforegoing to the next isle. No more than fivebins between walkways. All isles must beperpendicular to the counter. All isles mustbe a minimum of 30” and a maximum of36” wide. Do not crowd your walkways,no parts sticking out of bins. I found 18”deep shelves work better than 12” ones.Also, remove backs of bins and use strutsfor reinforcement. This allows more lighton your shelves, and 20” parts are no prob-lem. Vary your shelf spacing for small,medium, and large parts. “Front” all your

parts, it makes them easier to see andreach. Mark all part locations with mov-able tags, because your inventory is in aconstant state of change. You want to beable to relocate parts easily. Leave bottomshelves empty, this is good for temporarystorage of parts you will work into posi-tion later.

Special attention needs to be made tothe back counter area. Bins here must beused for fast moving filters, fluids, andother shop needs. You must also have ashelf here for your shop’s special orders,visible to your technicians. A separate spe-cial order section is also needed. Theseparts will also be moving out rapidly. Keepyour special orders near your counters.

Avoid stocking air. The biggestwaste of stocking space is trying to followthe manufacturer’s numerical sequence onyour shelves. Very few manufacturers keeplike sized parts in sequence. With com-puter controls, you can mix parts, loca-tions, size, etc. any way you want. Thetime spent creating the most efficient workarea possible will be repaid ten fold in in-creased productivity.

Numbering and Location of BinsQuick and easy access to your 1500 fastestmoving parts is your key to efficiency andprofit. Bin numbers should be mentalguides to the actual location, easy to visu-alize and travel to. Direct travel betweenbins and isles in easy to remember locationcodes, not just numerical sequence. Giveyour team a mental picture of exactlywhere the bin is and they only have to re-member the part number.

The best numbering system I havefound is row, side, bin.

Example: Bin “3L4” is isle 3, leftside, bin 4 from the front. This gives amental picture of exactly where this bin islocated in the department. When neces-sary, use the shelf number also. 3L42 nowindicates shelf number 2 as the part loca-tion. All parts on that shelf are in numeri-cal order. Small parts need to be in 4” binboxes with dividers. Don’t waste shelfspace going wide when you can go deep.Again, logical bin numbering, 3L4D4means drawer 4. Use logical letters to helplocate parts, R,L,N,S,U,B,M, etc. meansright, left, north, south, upper, bulk, mold-ing, etc. Put like items together, tune-upsection, cooling section, fuel section, etc.

Make the job as easy as possible, theless time taken per sale means more salesper employee.

The best floor plan possible is wasted,however, if you have sloppy housekeep-ing. Details are important! All parts mustbe in sequence, with adequate room for alllike parts. Every location has a bin tag,magnetic ones are best. Every bin tag isprinted in the same font. All tags legible

from a five feet away. Your employeesmust be able to scan a bin and find theirpart in seconds, not minutes. No multiplelocations except for bulk overstock of ex-tremely fast moving parts, filters and flu-ids, for example.

After working out the main bin loca-tions, parts locations, traffic patterns, salespatterns, do the individual work stations.Again, you are maximizing the sellingtime per counterperson. Every employeeshould have all the tools he or she needswithin arm’s reach. If you have three em-ployees working at the counter, and onlytwo catalog stations, you are cutting onethird of your sales potential.

Custom-tailor each workstation to theindividual. Right-handed persons need thephone on the left, calculator on the right.Left-handed people need the opposite!Cordless phones and headsets are goodideas. Buy the extra stapler.A physical layout plan:1. Divide your inventory by movement2. Divide your inventory by sales area3. Create isles, bins, and bin numbers4. Create work areas5. Supply all tools for each individual

Profitable Inventory Control PhilosophiesInventory control courses have alwaysbeen promoted by the manufacturer, andinventory specialists know who signs theirchecks. Because of this, all inventoryphilosophies have naturally been biased infavor of the manufacturer. Stock order vs.special orders, designated stock order daysand minimum percentages are good for themanufacturer, not the dealer. Extra dayssupply, inventory of new model parts, allare good for the manufacturer. None ofthese policies make the best use of thedealer’s dollars. However, a slight changeof philosophy will result in better profits,the dealer’s main need. New philosophy…Lean and Mean!

Policy And Procedures SampleParts For Stock: (tight control system)Part must sell at least 4 times in 12 months.Part must sell at least 1 time in last 60days.Part must have no more than 30 days sup-ply on shelf.

Parts For Stock: (normal control system)Part must sell at least 3 times in 12 months.Part must sell at least 2 times in 6 months.Part must have no more than 60 days sup-ply on shelf.

As I have said before, all these partshave permanent locations, in bins close toyour sales counters.

Other Inventory Control GuidelinesKeep all your controls as simple as possi-

Parts for Profit—How to Manage Your Inventory and Personnel Profitably

See PARTS FOR PROFIT, Page 31

Larry Williams


Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

Toby Chess is an I-CAR program instructor, Welding specialist, and former salvage yardoperator. Toby is universally known in the collision industry for his charitable works,worthy causes, and magic tricks. He can be reached at [email protected]

Hey Toby—Thanks for the conducting theSPS 05 (Required test for the Porsche Cer-tification Program) for my techs. One ofthem told me that he needed a new weldinghelmet. I decided to get everyone in theshop new helmets. Can you recommendone I should buy?—Luis from Pan American Body Shop,San Jose, CA.

Hey Luis—I can’t recommend any spe-cific brand because I make it a policy not todo that, but I will give you an honest as-sessment of products of which I have directknowledge via in-shop use. I personallypurchase all my own equipment (welders,gloves, helmets and jackets) that I use inthe I-CAR Welding program and I receiveno compensation from any welding manu-facturer. This is my experience from con-ducting nearly 3000 welding tests and, Irepeat, is not a paid endorsement.

Let me start with some of the prob-lems I’ve encountered in the shops.

I have been teaching welding princi-ples to students over the last 4½ years. Ihave conducted well over 2900 I-CARMIG Qualification Tests and what I haveencountered is a lack of welding knowl-edge in body shops.

Recently I-CAR has adopted thesame program that I have been using (In-house welding). I-CAR’s In-house pro-gram consists of filling out a questionnaireabout the equipment in the shop (helmets,welders, power, etc.) It must be filled outprior to performing the in-house test. Forthis I bring in my own equipment, but I dogo over the welding equipment in the shopwith the owners and managers and pointout any deficiencies that exist. What I haveobserved is that many, if not most, of thewelders are in poor condition.

Commonly the flow rate and volumegauges are not functioning. The covers areusually missing and the needles are bent ormissing. The flow rate for Argon/CO2 gasshould be set between 15–25 CFH. If youcan’t tell what the rate is, than you are

probably wastinggas. If you need anew meter, I wouldrecommend a VictorFlow Meter. I haveused this meter formy testing with only2 problems in 4½years and one wasfixed under war-ranty.

Most of the MIG guns that I have in-spected are in poor condition. The neck

and trigger area are usually wrapped intape, because they are in need of repair.What happens is that the techs usuallybang the gun against a hard surface to re-move porosity from the nozzle instead ofusing a proper tool—MIG Pliers

These plierswill clean the noz-zle (for proper gasflow), tighten all theparts on the gun, cutthe wire and re-move the nozzle (itgets real hot duringwelding). The noz-zle is another partof the gun that isunderlooked.

Nozzles are considered a consumableitem and they do wear out. After a period ofuse, the nozzle end starts to curl under andthis restricts the amount of shielding gas tothe weld, which in turn, leads to moreporosity. (Porosity in welding is a result ofoxygen and water being released during thewelding process, that is trapped in themetal when there is insufficient time to es-cape prior to solidification.) Porosity in aweld will lead to a weak weld or even afailure under stress. Sometimes the end ofthe nozzle wears away and a hole developson the lip. As the gas passes over the hole,water and oxygen are sucked into the weld,which in turn leads to porosity in the weld.

I have found during my welding ma-chine inspections that the tension on thedrive rollers is wrong.

To check the tension, I put the wire be-tween my fingers and adjust the tension untilthe wire feed stops slipping. The wrong ten-sion can lead to bird nesting (wire jambs inthe rollers). Also a knicked or clogged gunliner can cause bird nesting too. Part of the

welding machine maintenance procedure isto take the gun off and blow air through theliner. Also checking the tension on the spoolof wire. It should stop without unravelingwhen you let off the trigger.

The next item is what you askedabout—the welding helmet. I carry 8 weld-ing helmets in my trailer (4 Performanceseries and 4 elite) and, in virtually everywelding test, they are used instead of theones that each tech brings.

I ask the question: would you go to aswap meet and buy the cheapest set ofsockets? They respond—no. Then, whywould you buy the cheapest welding hel-met when you have the only two eyesyou’re going to have, to protect?

There are two types of welding hel-mets: passive and auto darkening. Thepassive type you need to snap your neck sothat the helmet comes down before the arcis struck. It usually comes with a shade 10lens. As the name suggests, the auto-dark-ening helmet automatically darkens whenthe arc is struck and this type of helmet isrecommended for the collision industry.

Let’s look at some of the features thatyou should take in to consideration whenpurchasing an auto-darkening helmet.

First is the number of sensors in themask. There are between 2 and 4 sensors.As the number of sensors increases, sodoes the price.

As the sensor number increases (3 &4), so does the coverage especially for out-of position welds—when you’re on yourback welding in a rail, for example—where a sensor could be blocked.

Another consideration is viewingsize. The helmets that I use have a 7 squareinch screen (Miller Performance & Lin-

coln Viking Series) and over 9 squareinches for the Miller Elite Series.

Another fea-ture to look for isthe capability ofholding a magnify-ing lens in the unit.Both the MillerElite and Perform-ance models havesuch a feature, aswell as the Lincoln700G.

I have foundthat most of the techs in our industry needthat additional magnification to help themsee the welds. Having a magnifier is easierand better than wearing glasses whenwelding.

A couple of other features that arenecessary for today’s helmets are Ad-justable Sensitivity control (the ability toadjust for different lighting conditions)and Adjustable Delay control (The dura-tion that the lens stays dark after the weld-ing has stopped because harmful rays asstill emitted until the weld has cooled).Let’s look at gloves next.

Nearly every tech that I have encoun-tered uses the wrong type of glove forMIG welding.

The above gloves are for Arc welding.They are heavy for heat protection, butthey don’t have the flexibility that is nec-essary for MIG welding.

I have tried over a half a dozen differ-ent types of MIG gloves, but the best oneshave been the Tillman #42. Great feel andextremely durable, but that is just my opin-ion. Next I want to look at welding jackets.

There are a number of different typesof welding jackets. Full leather, halfleather jackets, cotton jackets, and hybridjackets.

Taking a Good Look at your Shop’s Welding Equipment

This helmet (LincolnViking) has 2 sensors.

This unit (Miller Perform-ance) has 3 sensors.

This helmet (MillerElite) has 4 sensors.

This is an excellent jacket. It protectsthe arms and has an add-on front chest pro-tector. I prefer this type of jacket over thefull leather because it is less restrictivethan the full leather version.

Another type to consider is a cottonjacket. It is lightweight and cooler thanleather. It is fire resistant, but not resistantto hot molten metal, which will penetratethe material. I can show you some scars toattest to that fact.

I think the best jacket for collisiontechs is a hybrid. It has leather sleeves withcotton construction.

I have tried dif-ferentbrands,but thebest one I’ve tried isthe one made byMiller Electric. It islightweight, com-fortable, and it wearslike iron. I love it.

The last thing on my list for weldingessentials is the welder itself.

I have been in hundreds of shops andthere is a myriad of different types ofwelders present. One of the things that weteach in I-CAR’s Cycle Time Reductionclass is to standardize the equipment andhave consumables (wire, tips, gun linerand nozzles) in stock to prevent down timedue to equipment failure.

A proponent of this defensive thinkingis Tom Williamson of Marina Autobody

Repair in Marina Del Rey, CA. Tom nowuses only Miller 110 welders. He only hasto stock 2 types of contact tips and 1 type ofnozzle. I convinced him to buy Hobart’s 2 lbspools of ER70S6 wire (he orders it by thecase). I have tried the larger spools (10 lbspools), but the windings have been incon-sistent and they have a tendency to put a lotof pressure on the 110 volt machines. I haveyet to have a wire problem in 4 years.

I have usedMiller 110 weldersfor the I-CARsteel welding qual-ification test andthe Millermatic350P with a 15A

spool gun for the Aluminum welding qual-ification test. Every time I conduct thesteel test, the welders run anywhere from 4to 5 hours continuously and I had only onewelder stop functioning (with a bad fanmotor) in nearly 5 years of testing. I mightadd that Miller repaired it under warranty.Here is my recommendation—the Miller140 with Autoset for most welding appli-cations in the body shop. It works on 110volts and the auto set feature is the best.You select the wire and thickness and themachine does the rest. I would recommendthat you upgrade the cart.

The Miller 140 will handle .023 wireand .030 wire, but when welding on vehi-cle frames, you will need .035 wire. With

the use of .035 wire, you need to increasethe amperage of the machine and that canonly be accomplished by switching to 220volt units. Miller introduced last year the211 welder. It works on both 110 volts and220 volts. It has the auto set feature (.030wire and .035 wire) and it will handle allthree wire sizes from .023 to .035. The bestof all is the price. Check with your localwelding supplier for pricing.

I would like toconclude the articlewith a little knownI-CAR WeldingQualification Test,SPS 05 StructuralSteel test. I startedconducting this test

because it is needed for the Porsche Certifi-cation Program. This test is not for everyone.It takes about 7 hours to complete and it doesseparate the men from the boys. The follow-ing pictures were taken a DC Autocraft inBurbank, CA (DC Autocraft is certified cen-ter for MB, Audi, Jaguar and BMW).

The techs are given a detailed set ofinstructions and 2 rails. One rail to act asthe original damaged part and the secondas the replacement part. Thirty differentwelds are performed (plug welds, taperedfillet, flanged fillet and a butt weld withbacker) in vertical, horizontal and over-head positions. The final rail is measuredto plus or minus tolerance of 1 ½ mm be-fore each and every weld is inspected.Here are some pictures showing the test.

To take the test, a tech needs to havetaken and passed the MIG QualificationTest. If your tech is requalifing, I wouldhighly recommend that he/she take this in-stead.

It really is a true test of one’s ability toread, follow precise instructions and per-form to the highest level of performance.This is the ultimate test that the collisionindustry has for technicians.

If you want more information on thetest or you want to conduct the test in youshop, give me a call at 310-995-7909.



have the following list of SRS items to in-spect and repair following a collision:WARNING: Remove restraint system di-agnostic tools from the vehicle prior toroad testing. If tools are not removed, thesupplemental restraint system (SRS) de-vice may not deploy in a crash. Failure tofollow this instruction may result in seri-ous personal injury or death in a crash andpossibly violate vehicle safety standards.

NOTE:• After diagnosing or repairing a sup-plemental restraint system(SRS), the restraint system di-agnostic tools (if required)must be removed before oper-ating the vehicle over the road.• Deployable devices (suchas air bag modules, pretension-ers) may deploy alone or invarious combinations depend-ing on the impact event.• Always refer to the appro-priate Vehicle System proce-dures prior to carrying outvehicle repairs affecting theSRS and safety belt system.• The SRS must be fully op-erational and free of faults before releas-ing the vehicle to the customer.

All vehicles1. NOTE: Refer to the correct removaland installation procedure for all SRS com-ponents being installed. When any deploy-able device or combination of devices aredeployed and/or the restraints control mod-ule (RCM) has the DTC B1231 (EventThreshold Exceeded) in memory, the repairof the vehicle's SRS is to include the re-moval of all deployed devices and the in-stallation of new deployable devices, theremoval and installation of new impact sen-sors, and the removal and installation of anew RCM. DTCs must cleared from all re-quired modules after repairs are carried out.

Vehicles with occupant classification sen-sor (OCS) system2. NOTE: After installa-tion of new occupant classi-fication sensor (OCS) systemcomponents carry out theOCS System Reset proce-dure. Refer to the appropri-ate Vehicle System for OCSsystem removal and installa-tion procedure. When a vehi-cle has been involved in acollision and the occupantclassification system module(OCSM) has DTC B1231stored in memory, the repairof the OCS system is to in-

clude the following procedures for the spec-ified system:• For rail type OCS system, inspect thepassenger side floorpan for damage and re-pair as necessary. Install new OCS rails.• For weight sensor bolt type OCS sys-tem, inspect the passenger side floorpan fordamage and repair as necessary. Install a newseat track with OCS weight sensor bolts.• NOTE:Most bladder type OCSM donot store a DTC B1231 in memory afterdeployment. The DTC B1231 is storedonly by the RCM. For bladder type OCSsystem, inspect for damage and repair asnecessary. If installation of an OCS systemcomponent is required, an OCS systemservice kit must be installed.

All vehicles3. When any damage to the impact sensormounting points or mounting hardware hasoccurred, repair or install new mountingpoints and mounting hardware as needed.4. When the driver air bag module has de-ployed, a new clockspring must be installed.5. New driver and/or front passengersafety belt systems (including retractors,buckles and height adjusters) must be in-stalled if the vehicle is involved in a colli-sion that results in deployment of thedriver and/or front passenger safety beltpretensioners.6. Inspect the entire vehicle for damage,including the following components:• Steering column (deployable columnif equipped)• Instrument panel knee bolsters andmounting points

• Instrument panel braces and brackets• Instrument panel and mounting points• Seats and seat mounting points• Safety belts, safety belt buckles andsafety belt retractors.• SRS wiring, wiring harnesses andconnectors7. After carrying out the review and in-spection of the entire vehicle for damage,repair or install new components as needed.

Unibody – 1965 vs. 2008Besides both vehicles being referred to as aunibody, that is where the construction sim-ilarities stopped. The 2008 Mustang unibodycontains a wide variety of steels and plastics.

It’s still a Mustang, but it has definitelychanged since the 60’sThere have definitely been changes in thisvehicle since the ‘60’s. And we haven’teven touched the diagnostic trouble codes,changes in the drivetrain, or even the num-ber of exterior colors available. We mighthave been able to set the points and timing

on the ’65 without OE technical informa-tion, but you cannot work by memory ontoday’s version of the Mustang, or anyother vehicle for that matter. You definitelyneed the proper OE technical information.Watch for Part 2 of this article in nextmonth’s Autobody News. We’ll talk aboutsectioning the lower frame rail and theMustang’s tire pressure monitoring system(TPMS).

©2010 ALLDATA LLC. All rights re-served. All technical information, imagesand specifications are from ALLDATACollision. ALLDATA is a registered trade-mark and ALLDATA Collision is a mark

of ALLDATA LLC. All other brand namesand marks are the property of their respec-tive holders. Ford and Mustang are regis-tered trademark names and modeldesignations of Ford Motor Company. Alltrademark names and model designationsare being used solely for reference and ap-plication purposes.


Still a Mustang Item Part Number Description1 02501 LH / 02500 RH A-pillar assembly – high strength steel

2 02039B LH / 02038B RH Cowl side panel – high strength steel

3 02509 LH / 02508 RH A-pillar reinforcement – high strength steel

4 02505 LH / 02504 RH A-pillar inner – high strength steel

5 24301 LH / 24300 RH B-pillar inner – high strength steel(part of 27791 / 27790)

6 27791 LH / 27790 RH Quarter panel inner – mild steel

7 28061 LH / 28060 RH Quarter panel upper rear extension – mild steel

8 28059 LH / 28058 RH Quarter panel lower extension – mild steel

9 - Wheelhouse inner panel – mild steel(part of 27791 / 27790)

10 02B67 LH / 02B66 RH Rocker panel reinforcement – high strength steel

11 02733 LH / 02732 RH Gusset – high strength steel

U N I B O D Y F I G U R E 1

Item Part Number Description1 17D957 Bumper cover(front) – Thermoplastic polyolefin(TPO)

2 10177 LH / 10176 RH Rocker panel moulding – TPO

3 17K835 Bumper cover(rear) – TPO

4 44210 Decklid spoiler – Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene(ABS)

U N I B O D Y F I G U R E 2

Unibody Figure 1.

Unibody Figure 2.


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Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc., addressedfalse claims regarding a 2002 TechnicalService Bulletin (TSB) published by Toyota,as reported by CNN's special investigationsunit.

On the CNN segment, plaintiffs' attor-neys involved in litigation against Toyotaand others, including Clarence Ditlow of theCenter for Auto Safety, allege that the 2002TSB proves Toyota knew of problems in itsvehicles' electronic systems that could causeunintended acceleration, and that the com-pany and the National Highway TrafficSafety Administration (NHTSA) conspiredto keep this information from the public.Both claims are patently false.

The 2002 TSB and software release inquestion were issued to remedy a drivabilityissue at speeds of between 38 and 42 milesper hour at light throttle. This condition wasstrictly related to a function internal to thetransmission torque converter under certainthrottle conditions. It manifested as a slightrocking motion, or surge, while holdingsteady throttle at the specific speed window.This issue was in no way related to any kindof sustained acceleration.

The term surge has been used acrossthe industry for many years to describe acondition where there is a very slight slow-down and speed-up perception (typicallytwo miles per hour or less) while holdingsteady throttle at low to moderate speeds.

Powertrain software updates (typicallyreleased with TSBs) are designed to elimi-nate drivability concerns, including surge.Toyota's 2002 TSB software release was notissued to resolve any computer softwareconcerns or problems with the electronicthrottle control system and was not relatedto unintended acceleration.

Drivability concerns related to mo-mentary surges are not unique to Toyota,and nearly every major auto manufacturerhas published TSBs to address this type ofissue in their vehicles. In the last ten years,nearly 80 TSBs related to this issue with cor-responding repairs and/or software updateshave been released across the industry.

Mr. Ditlow's claims that the 2002 ToyotaTSB is a secret internal document that has notbeen made public are simply wrong, as are hisallegations that Toyota and NHTSA kept thisdocument from the public eye. Federal law re-quires that TSBs from every vehicle manufac-turer be made available to independent serviceproviders and the public. From the publisheddate, the Toyota TSB in question was publiclyavailable through Toyota at https://techinfo.toy-ota.com as well as through a number of inde-pendent and government portals.

This 2002 Toyota TSB has also beenpreviously reported on by other news out-lets, and was also publicly discussed by JimLentz, President and COO of TMS, duringrecent Congressional testimony.

Toyota has sold more than 40 millioncars and trucks with our electronic throttlecontrol system with intelligence (ETCS-i),and the company is very confident that thesystem is not the cause of unintended accel-eration. Toyota engineers have rigorouslyand repeatedly tested Toyota's ETCS under

both normal and abnormal conditions in-cluding electromagnetic interference andhave never found a single case of unin-tended acceleration due to a defect in thesystem.

Customers can contact at www.toy-ota.com/recall and 1-800-331-4331.

American Honda says it does not supportthe use of aftermarket, salvaged or recycledstructural parts in collision repairs of its ve-hicles because the parts could compromisethe way these vehicles absorb collision en-ergy and put occupants at risk in future col-lisions.

The company explained its reasoningin the following position statement:

“Honda and Acura vehicles are engi-neered and manufactured to exacting stan-dards and, as such, are designed to helpprotect vehicle occupants in the event of acollision.

All elements of a collision-energy ab-sorption system including but not limitedto any structural components such asbumper reinforcement bars, bumper energyabsorbers, frames, rails, fender aprons, A-pillars, B-pillars and body panels mustwork in concert to protect the vehicle oc-cupants and maintain cabin integrity.

All elements of an occupant supple-mental restraint system including but not lim-ited to airbags, side-curtain airbags and airbagdeployment sensors must work in concert

with energy absorption components to pro-vide proper timing for airbag deployment.

Compromising any element of a colli-sion energy absorption system or an occu-pant supplemental restraint system in therepair of a collision-damaged vehicle mayhave an adverse effect on occupant safetyin any subsequent collision.

Therefore, American Honda does notsupport the use of aftermarket, alternative,reverse-engineered or anything other thanoriginal equipment Honda or Acura partsfor the collision repair of any Honda orAcura vehicle.

Further, American Honda does not sup-port the use or re-use of structural compo-nents that have been removed and salvagedor recycled from an existing vehicle that hasbeen previously damaged. Although the partsmay appear equivalent, it may be difficult totell if the parts have been previously replacedwith a non-OE part, or if the part has re-ceived collateral damage as the result of aprior collision. Further, the part may havebeen subjected to severe weathering, rust orother detrimental environmental exposure.”

Honda Against Aftermarket, Salvaged Structural Parts Toyota Addresses False Claims Regarding 2002 TSB


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ble; a manager should not spend all histime on inventory reports. Use as fewsources as possible, used not only for or-dering, but also for pricing. Use the min-max, per job, and full bin fields to keepyour parts at the proper levels. Watch outfor phase-in parts, the computer has noidea of multiple part needs.

Example: shock absorbers, sparkplugs, etc. will phase in as a suggestedorder of one only. Manage your inventoryby exception, use the hi/low value on re-ports, the middle will take care of itself.

Other inventory control issues: Tapeupdates, part number changes, bin loca-tion changes, negative and zero on hand,phase in and out, should be weekly ormonthly activities, with regular sched-ules.

Missed sales and outside purchasesare probably the second most importantloss of dealer profits. You must have hon-est input of these parts in order to keepyour inventory current. All shop purchasesmust be entered as missed sales. Everycounterman must record every missed sale.If a man has to take the time to look up apart, it should be recorded. Buying a partfrom outside instead of taking it from your

own supply is always a loss, a loss of timeand manpower.

The many details of inventory controlcan take up thousands of words, but if youadhere to these principles, keep your in-ventory lean and mean, profit will be thenatural result.

Managing Your PeopleYou now have your 1500 part numbersarranged in bins close to your counters, ineasy to remember locations, correct quan-tities, and are ready to make some money.No, not yet. You’ve only done the easypart.

After inventory-investment control,productivity is the next issue. Productivityis limited by time. Wasted time cannot bereclaimed. Every decision, every proce-dure, every plan should be based on time.

Training your people will be the hard-est, longest, and most frustrating part ofyour job.

No one wants change in their life, es-pecially not at work. Some are actuallyfrozen in their patterns. Your ideas will bemet with resistance of all kinds. You mustnot quit. You must be the unstoppable, ir-resistible force. Here are some guidelinesto help you.

Write it down. Verbal instructions arealmost useless. We use our eyes first, ourears second, our memories last. When you

write down your policies and procedures,you create a lasting effect, one that cannotbe “forgotten”.

Write it all down. When you areready to start your program, do it all. Iso-late yourself, start thinking about how aperfect department functions, and startwriting. Don’t worry about priority, thatwill come later. Think about the position,not the person. Think about efficiency, vol-ume, quick and easy procedures and howto provide them. Create plans. Break downoverall plans into separate detailed plans.Give yourself time to brainstorm, and writeeverything down. Let your enthusiasm beyour guide… if you start to over-detail onesubject, continue. You can always go backto the beginning, if you have written itdown. The important thing is to keep theideas flowing. Stop writing only when youcan’t think of anything else.

Make your list. Now comes the timefor priority. Sort all your ideas into groups.Sort all procedures by positions. Listchanges in order of priority, and list every-thing you want to do. This list will becomeyour guide in the months to come. If youdo not have a guide, you will becomemired in routine, and be unable to remem-ber the wonderful ideas you used to have,all the changes you wanted to make.

Schedule your changes. People canonly handle a maximum of three new ideasat a time. It takes twenty-one days to makeor break a habit. Use these two facts tomake up your schedule of changes. Take iteasy, one or two steps at a time. Wait untilthings have settled down before stirring thepot again. That is why you must have a listof all the things you want to change. Nowyou see why I say this is the longest andhardest part of your job.

Change yourself first. Next comesome guidelines to help you lead your peo-ple, but you must be the example they fol-low.

Employee MotivationBe a leader, a teacher, and a problemsolver. Each person in your departmentmust be as productive as possible. An un-happy employee is not a productive one.Do your people come to work with smiles?Do your people stay late to “BS,” or to fin-ish jobs, or to prepare for the next day? Ifyou answered yes, 90% of your work isgoing to be very easy. But if you have anunhappy workforce, the first thing youhave to do is to change their attitude. Neg-ative criticism is the worst tool you have.Use it as a last resort, when trying to savean employee from termination. The man-ager’s attitude will be the attitude of theemployees. They look to their leader forclues about how to perceive their jobs. Ifthe top man is unhappy, everyone else willfollow him down the hole and so will yourcustomers. You must be a positive leader.Smile, laugh, and joke with your people.

Not enough to interfere with them, justenough to get them smiling also. Createpositive feelings between employees andget them working together.

A few simple ideas: Ask each one tofill out a short form once in a while aboutthemselves or each other. A simple ques-tionnaire: name, position, year’s experi-ence, their own idea of a job description,their proudest accomplishment, sugges-tions for improvement of their job. Do notask for criticism; ask positive or neutralquestions only. Talk with each one in pri-vate about how they perceive and feelabout their job and place in department.When presented with an opportunity to im-plement one of their ideas, do so and givethem full credit for the idea. Encouragethem to want to improve the department.Create a “pat on the back” award, one thatthe employees themselves contribute to. Asimple form, with all employee names, anda check box for good, better, and best. Aska simple question: Rate your fellow em-ployees for most helpful, or most cheerful,or best problem solver, etc. Only one ques-tion, no possible negative comments, atake-home and mail in form with astamped and addressed envelope. No rat-ings except for an award to the winner. Getyour people thinking positively about eachother. Post all department goals based onprior years and update daily. Make everyeffort to praise good work publicly, andwhen necessary to have a negative sessionwith an employee do it in private behindclosed doors. Once you have fully devel-oped a positive attitude in your depart-ment, changes will be easy to make.

Things to do:● Establish inventory controls● Establish training program● Establish pricing policy● Establish expense accounting● Analysis of wholesale income● Analysis of discount structure● Check for maximum stock order dis-counts● Check for dealer wholesale incentives● Check fleet accounts and rebates● Check for best part return policy● Review possible promotions● Review pay plans● Create policy and procedure manual● Establish schedules for inventory main-tenance● Schedule freight credits

The parts manager is the key motivator inthe department. Also, he has the most com-plex job. You need all the help you can get,and it needs to be good help.

Very few employees will train them-selves. Most of the time they rely on “onthe job” training, and when they havelearned enough to keep up with the every-day flow of business, they stop. The prob-lem with this is that “just enough” is not


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Parts for Profit

On March 22, Carbon Motors Corporationand BMW Group jointly announced astrategic partnership in a press conferenceheld outside of the 2010 Government andSecurity/U.S. Law Conference and Expo-sition. BMW will supply Carbon Motorswith advanced clean diesel engines, com-plete with cooling and exhaust gas sys-tems, and automatic transmissions for theCarbon E7, the world’s first and only pur-pose-built law enforcement patrol vehi-cle—designed by law enforcement,exclusively for law enforcement.

“America’s largest, and most visiblefleets of government-owned vehicles, nowin excess of 450,000 units, deserve themost durable, efficient and reliable pow-ertrain available,” said William SantanaLi, chairman and chief executive officer,Carbon Motors Corporation.

“The strength of BMW as a partnerwill allow us to provide our women andmen in uniform with a diesel engine capa-ble of the performance they desire alongwith the significant reduction in fuel con-sumption and emissions that U.S. taxpay-ers need.”

It is estimated that the U.S. law en-forcement fleet consumes an estimated 1.5billion gallons of gasoline and emits an es-

timated 14 million tons of CO2 annually;the Carbon E7 will cut that by up to 40%using clean diesel technology. Clean dieselis the technically correct solution for lawenforcement operations due to its inherentperformance, safety, operational, fuel effi-ciency, and durability characteristics.

“We are delighted to support CarbonMotors Corporation with our engine ex-pertise,” said Ian Robertson, member ofthe Board of Management of BMW AG.“BMW Group diesel engines have a clearlead over the competition when it comesto fuel consumption, emissions and per-formance. Today’s agreement with CarbonMotors marks an important milestone inBMW’s 35-year commitment to theUnited States market.”

Also in attendance at the announce-ment were U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Indiana’s Secretary of CommerceE Mitchell Roob, Jr.

“Carbon Motors has exhibited relent-less and unwavering determination in itsefforts to put Hoosiers back to work,”commented Sen. Lugar. “Today’s an-nouncement brings us one step closer toproving that America is back and is turn-ing Indiana into the Silicon Valley of theauto industry.”


good enough. You must institute an ongo-ing training program until everyone is asqualified as possible. The more your per-sonnel know about the entire department,the better they will work with each other.Most manufactures have a certificationprogram of some kind. Set a goal thatevery employee will get the highest cer-tificate possible. Set aside time for train-ing. For individual employees, afternoonsessions are best. Training for a group isbest done after work. Group training is dif-ficult. None of your people are going to beenthusiastic about staying after work. Youmust be firm. Let all of them decide onwhich day they want, except for Friday, noone should have to stay late on that day.After the day is decided, have a firm goalfor each meeting. One manufacturer Iworked for had short manuals, approxi-mately thirty pages, with twenty questionsat the end. Having a “classroom,” witheach one reading and answering by them-selves would have been a boring andpainful experience. Instead, I passed outthat evening’s manual, and immediately as-signed one of the questions to each person.I instructed everyone to look through themanual for the answer, and when found totell everyone what page the informationcould be found, and read it aloud. Theythen were given the next question to workon. All persons were given the same num-ber of questions. This created a team effect.

At the end of that session, everyone had allthe answers, and all had contributedevenly. If one or two had not found an-swers by the end, all contributed to the ef-fort. Although this would seem on thesurface be shorting them on the completecourse, in reality they had to read the man-ual, cover to cover, over and over to findthe answer to their own question. Turningto the page, reading the answer to anotherperson’s question, writing the answerdown, gave them the knowledge withoutthe “pain” of a structured class. All sharedthe work, the knowledge, and the reward.

Here is a general training outline:1) training on parts system, number

system, group system2) training on computer system-inter-

face with accounting3) training on posting, part number

control, dollar control4) training on customer relations-

wholesale, retail5) training on accounting, expense

and sales accounts6) training on parts control-monthly

obsolescence, parts ordered in error, partnumber changes, credits

7) Overall objective, have everyoneknow everything… and why.

8) Create a team

Comments? Contact Larry Williamsat [email protected].

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One of my favorite movies was the West-ern miniseries Lonesome Dove, starringTommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvallalong with Robert Urich and DannyGlover. This was a story of the legendaryTexas Rangers and the old West. Therewere several great parts but a themethroughout the entire movie was that thesemen had a bond that was all about integrityand honor. There is a scene that comes tomind where they were forced, because oftheir integrity, to hang one of their friendsbecause he had stepped outside of the lawand, most importantly, he had breachedtheir unwritten code of honor.

In a statement just before beinghanged, Jake says to Gus, “Hey Gus, I wasjust trying to stay alive” and Gus replied, “Ibelieve you, Jake but you know the rules.‘If you ride with outlaws you die withthem.’ You stepped over the line Jake.”

The interesting thing is that Jake didknow the rules and that was pretty muchthe end of the discussion and so theyhanged their friend. In fact, Jake helpedthem hang him by spurring his own horse.

Did they hang him for taking part in themurder of two sod-busters or for not doingsomething to stop the murders? They hunghim because he had breached their code ofhonor and did nothing while watching twoinnocent men die. To these men their honormeant more to them then their own lives.Jake knew this and excepted his fate. Withthe noose around his neck he spurred hisown horse so his friends wouldn’t need to.The meaning was clear. He was saying ‘Iunderstand’ and ‘I’m sorry.’ He may havebeen trying to alleviate whatever guilt theymay have felt. These are the kind of menthat formed our country. Men that wouldn’tstand for injustice. These men were men ofhonor and integrity and valued their wordabove all else. Today, we have drifted so faraway from honor and integrity that unlessyou are watching a vintage war movie werarely even hear the words.

Another movie comes to mind, star-ring Sean Connery, called The Wind andthe Lion. There was a scene at the endwhere Sean Connery’s counterpart says,“Great One we have lost everything,” and

Sean Connery smiles as he replies, “Myfriend, have you found nothing in lifeworth losing everything for?”

With that they both let out big smilesand were on their way. The meaning that Igot was, yes, I have lost everything! But itwas worth it, because they believed in whatthey stood for. It was all about their honor.

Integrity and honor are priceless.They cannot be bought or sold. Either youhave them or you don’t. Either you’redoing it the right way, or you’re not.

It’s not about telling everyone howhonest you are it’s about owning up toyour mistakes and being accountable. MyDad taught me that my word was my bondand a handshake was something honorableand to keep my word because it is the mostimport thing I have.

Somewhere we have gotten off trackand most gang members have a bettersense of honor than most businessman. Ifthis were not true we wouldn’t need to puteverything in writing. It’s because ourhonor has diminished to a point where aman’s word means very little.

What I liked about the old west wasthat judgment was swift. They didn’t havechild killers becoming celebrities with aton of lawyers waiting in line to defendthem. I liked it better when they wouldstorm the town jail and drag the bad guyout and hang him in the town square. Wewere still under the same constitution andit was still the same America, except therewas swift accountability that was drivenby honor and integrity.

I was telling my wife that because ofthe recession all of my efforts to helpchange the collision industry have been fornothing. I was complaining that nothinghas changed, except now I have a giantbull’s eye on my back.

She set me straight and told me whatI accomplished wasn’t about everyoneelse. It was about me doing what I thoughtwas right. I could lose everything and stillhold my head up knowing that I did, ortried to do, the right thing.

Everything isn’t always about moneyand “success is only a matter of one’s ownperception.” I mean, no matter how success-ful I may think I am, there are many socialcircles where I would not be considered verysuccessful. So everything becomes aboutwho we are and what we stand for and howvaluable our integrity and our honor are to us.

I know that there are many people thatsay, “it’s just business,” or “I don’t makethe rules.” Well, I have news for you. Ifyou don’t make the rules who does? Doesthis mean now there are no rules? No,

there are rules and there is accountabilityand we will reap what we sow. Rememberthe ‘Golden Rule.’ “Do unto others as youwould have them do unto you. “We wantthe buck no matter what” is just not right.

Where did this all go wrong? We haveall watched a subtle change throughoutour financial world and we have come toaccept the lack of integrity and honor asacceptable business practice. We need towake up and go back to the LonesomeDove days when our “word” not our “networth” was what defined us.

My Dad once said to me, “Hey son, itwon’t do you any good to be the richestguy in the graveyard.”

It took some time for me to under-stand what he was telling me. Were mypriorities mixed up, or was I just workingtoo hard? What he meant was I was work-ing too hard for the wrong reasons. It’s notabout our stuff, it’s about who we are, andmoney doesn’t make the man.

It really doesn’t matter how muchmoney you make, but it does matter, howyou make it. What does it profit a man togain the whole world and lose his soul?When we are required to sell ourselves outto stay in business then it’s time to get outof business. We need to regain our per-spective and add honor and integrity to theway we repair vehicles. How much moneywill someone trade for their life? The an-swer, all of it. So when we start talkingabout safety and the safety of others ex-cuses will not cut it.

If there were a hospital director thathired a staff of doctors that continued toharm patients because neither he nor theyhad the proper training or equipment nec-essary, they would be removed from theirpositions. They could have the best inten-tions but intentions mean nothing withoutthe training and equipment necessary to dothe job.

When it comes to collision repair,“safety” is a big issue and knowing theproper way to repair a collision-damagedcar and using the proper equipment is apriority. There are too many shops thatthink they can remain in business with the“status quo” and really aren’t investing intheir futures. It is “wrong” if you “fail todo what is right” when you repair yourcustomers’ vehicles. We need to quitmaking excuses and give our customersthe repair they trusted us for and startwearing our integrity like a badge ofhonor.

Otherwise, when the victims say “geta rope,” and we’re under the tree, we’regoing to have to spur our own horses.


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Opinions Countwith Dick Strom



Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

Lee Amaradio, Jr. is the president and owner of “Faith” Quality Auto Body Inc. in Murrieta,California. Lee is president of the CRA as well as an advocate for many other industrygroups. He can be contacted at [email protected]

Hang ‘Em in the Town Square

Greenway Automotive Group, headquar-tered in Orlando, FL, owns and operates14 car dealerships located in Tennessee,Florida, and Alabama, representing Ford,Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge, Hyundai, Mit-subishi and Honda. Overseeing the com-pany’s parts departments is Brian Grady,42, who’s been the group’s parts directorsince 2003. He supervises 70–80 employ-ees, managing more than $30 million inparts inventory.

Having 28 years of experience in au-tomotive parts, Grady started his career atage 14, working in a parts warehouse for adealership in Memphis, TN, and learningthe industry from the bottom up.

“I started back in 1982 working atPryor Oldsmobile for my fatherDan, who was the parts managerthere, and it was a great experi-ence,” Grady said. “The businesshas changed on every levelthroughout the years, but in theend, most of the important aspectsof this industry have remained thesame. It’s still about the people, thedetails, and the problem solving. If youwant to make it in parts today, you haveto be willing to do whatever it takes tohelp your customers succeed.”

Grady stresses service over every-thing else and constantly drills his crewabout the importance of timely deliveryand finding the right parts for their cus-tomers.

“We have so much great technologyat our fingertips that we can take advan-

tage of,” Grady said. “With Web sites ande-mail and all the information that’s avail-able and easily accessible, we can contactour customers quickly and follow-up al-most instantly. Service to the customer isby far the top priority we have here. Price

and availability are important and every-thing works in conjunction, but if our serv-ice isn’t the best we can offer, we’re notwhere we need to be. We know that othercompanies have these same parts, so wehave to do whatever we can to be differentand better.”

Knowledge feeds the system andstrengthens any parts department’s day-to-day operations, Grady said. “Experience iscrucial and there’s no substitute for time

under the belt. We’re constantly familiar-izing our crew with the new models andfamiliarity grows over time. It builds con-fidence. We want our people to know whatthey’re talking about when a customercalls in and it makes it easier if my counter

people know the vehicle, includingits assembly, and the parts in-volved.”

Grady said he’s always lookingfor top people to add to his crew.“We want folks who’ve been there.We wouldn’t put someone inexpe-rienced on the counter, because itwouldn’t be fair to our customers.

We’re always in search of people who canbring us value to our operation. We’ve hada lot of success getting great people fromdealerships that have closed their doors forwhatever reason.”

Knowing the collision repair industryso well over many years on the front lines,helps Grady to think like a body shopowner or a front office person, he said. “Ialways tell my people that we have to lookat things from their perspective,” he said.


DO THE RIGHT THINGENOUGH TIMES,AND PEOPLE BEGINTO NOTICE.

�e Hyundai Genesis—2009 North American Car of the Year.

Hyundai Sales Up More than 14% (year on year). In 2008 Hyundai became the world's ��h-largest automaker, with 7% market share in the United States.

See these Hyundai dealers below for all your collision parts needs!

�ink About It

OKLAHOMATEXAS

James Wood HyundaiDECATUR

940-627-4607940-627-4653 Fax

Mon-Fri 7:30am - 5:[email protected]

Hub HyundaiHOUSTON

800-856-2212281-955-2311 FaxMon-Fri 7:30am - 6pm

Sat 8am - [email protected]

www.hubhouston.com

NEW MEXICO

Larry H. MillerHyundai

ALBUQUERQUE505-792-7050505-792-7016 FaxMon-Fri 7:30am - 6pm

Sat 8am - [email protected]

www.Larrymillerhyundai.com

Allen Samuels HyundaiNORTH RICHLAND HILLS800-888-2079817-589-7882 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 7pmSat 7am - 4pm

[email protected]

Vandergriff HyundaiARLINGTON

866-643-7320817-557-6778 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 6pmSat 8am - 5pm

[email protected]

Automax HyundaiNORMAN

866-619-6406405-364-3307405-364-6504 FaxMon-Fri 8am - 6pmSat 8am - 1pm

Greenway Automotive Group’s Management of $30 million in Parts

“we brought our sales repsback in-house, but eventually ithurt our bottom line. They’re

back out there ...”

Company Connections

Company Connections

Distinctive Dealerships

Company Connections

with Ed Attanasio

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

Greenway Automotive Group’s Parts Director BrianGrady met his wife Karen while selling parts to herfather’s shop, Larry King Body Shop (see p. 37)

“And that means getting the right parts onthat delivery truck each and every time. Inmany cases, it comes down to communi-cation. If there’s an issue, we want toknow what it is so that we can remedy it.You don’t want to take an order from acustomer and then ship them a partialorder. That doesn’t work and we won’tlikely retain that customer if we do it thatway.”

Grady prides himself on a consis-tently high fill rate in all his parts depart-ments, he explained. “Each situation

varies. It’s differentbased on the particu-lar department, de-pending on howmuch they participatein the wholesale as-pect of their busi-ness. But overallwe’re better than90%. If we don’thave certain parts instock, we can getthem typically withinone day without is-

sues. Delivery by the manufacturers is somuch better than it was even ten years ago.They’re so many different car modelstoday that it’s literally impossible to haveeverything in our inventory all the time.”

The ongoing question of using OE

parts as opposed to tapping into the after-market and used/re-manufactured parts,Grady’s position is clear.

“The aftermarket is a reality, so weneed to address it and figure out how wecan happily co-exist. The quality of after-market parts has gotten better and theiravailability is significantly improved, soit’s harder to compete with them. We willprice-match whenever we can, but onlywhen we can still make money.

“We’ve learned not to force our partsonto the insurance companies’ invoices,just because we want to get the business,because otherwise we’re spinning wheelsand it’s a waste of everyone’s time. Price-matching can create a bookkeeping andpaperwork nightmare too, so we have toweigh each situation before we’re cuttingprices to make sales.”

Greenway believes in reaching out tobody shops to build strong and lastingwholesale relationships, achieved via printadvertising, periodical mailings, constantphone contact and by utilizing the ongoingefforts of outside sales reps.

“We know the value of employingthese outside sales people and getting themout into the shops to get a bead on whatthey want and need,” Grady said. “Whenthe recession hit, we brought our sales repsback in-house, but eventually it hurt ourbottom line. So, they’re back out there

again and we’re pleased with the results.Nothing can replace personal touch andusing these reps is extremely valuable toour overall marketing strategy.”

How have Florida body shops faredduring this downturn in the economy?

“Everyone is down maybe 30% in Florida.Some shops have folded, but the oneswho’ve survived will most likely be herefor a long time. If I were to give advice toshops in our area, I’d offer them somecommon sense—keep your expensesdown and your grosses up. Many shops

didn’t recognize that simple concept whenthey should have and now they’re notaround anymore.”

What’s Grady’s sense of how whole-sale dealership parts will play out for theremainder of 2010 and into next year?

“We’re alignedwith some greatbrands that are get-ting good responsefor building out-standing vehicles,so we anticipategood numbers thatwill get better asthe economy im-proves. Our atti-tude is, if we keepdoing things right,we’ll benefit andbuild loyalty withour body shop cus-tomers, regardlessof their size or rolein the market. It’san ongoing en-

deavor, but we’re primed and prepared tokeep plugging away.”

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by David M. Brown,Special to Autobody News

Fragmentation, frustration and apathy oncecharacterized Florida’s various collisionindustry associations. Regional groupswere created but eventually withered; oth-ers started up briefly then stalled. A strongstatewide group, fully supporting the indi-viduality of its regional chapters, was un-able to get traction.

The Brevard Autobody Association isillustrative. It operated from 1989–2002,with approximately 35 active members.“We were probably the longest running as-sociation in the state of Florida at the timethat we disbanded,” recalls Steve Long,whose Rockledge-based Long WholesaleConsultants has been serving the statesince 1990. The Brevard association spunoff from an Orlando association which op-erated approximately from 1989–1999.

Today, dissolution and distrust inFlorida is patiently being replaced by unityand a commitment to longevity. Long isthe treasurer of the new Space and Treas-ure Coast Chapter of the growing FloridaAutobody Collision Alliance (FACA).

FACA comprises six state chapters cen-tered by larger cities. Formed in August2009, Long’s Space and Treasure Coast rep-resents collision-industry members from Ti-tusville south 100 miles or so to Stuart alongthe Atlantic Coast. The other chapters areFACA of Jacksonville, Mid-State (Lake-land), FACA of Tampa Bay, Central Florida(Orlando) and South Florida (Ft. Laud-erdale). Approximately 200 members regu-larly attend regional meetings statewide.

This year, FACA plans to open chap-ters in the Miami, Ft. Myers, Pensacola,and other areas. hold a first state conven-tion and hire a full-time executive director,says Dave McBroom, president of FACAand the Jacksonville chapter.

FACA is an affiliate of Prosser, Wa.-based Society of Collision Repair Specialists(SCRS) and the National Auto Body Coun-cil, headquartered in Princeton Junction, N.J.

McBroom notes that George Averyand Chuck Sulkala at NABC and BarryDorn and Aaron Schulenburg at SCRShave been particularly helpful during theformative period. “We receive a lot ofguidance and assistance from both thoseorganizations,” he says.

The association started about sixyears ago. “I walked into a restaurantabout the same time as a dealershipshop manager and another new shopowner and asked if they would mind if wesat together. Two hours later, we agreed tomeet again the following week,” recallsMcBroom, owner of Jacksonville-basedSunbeam Autobody since March 2000. Aretired Army major and helicopter pilot, hehad moved to nearby St. Augustine from

Colorado four years earlier and purchasedSunbeam.

The group met weekly for severalmonths, joined by a fourth member, SteveCarey, an insurance re-inspector and localI-CAR chairman. They decided to meetregularly and discuss topics of mutual in-terest, McBroom says. He had been anSCRS member for a few years and askedthen current executive director, Dan Ris-ley, to speak to the group aboutthe advantages of unity. InJacksonville at the time, shopowners and managers didn’tcommunicate or work together, he ex-plained. “We sent out invitations and,wow!, we had over a hundred in attendancefor that meeting.”

For the next few years, the group metinformally bimonthly. Vendors sponsoredthe meetings with meals, and McBroomsecured speakers from the EPA as well asvendors, manufacturers and politicians.

Two years ago, two shop owners fromthe Fort Lauderdale area, Eddie Quintela,owner of Collision Concepts in Boca Raton,and Mike Pierro, owner of Ideal Collisionin Hollywood and currently chapter presi-dent of the 50-member-and-growing FACASouth Florida, called McBroom. About sixmonths earlier, they had heard about FACAduring a meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.

Inspired by the guidance on forming alocal autobody association, they askedMcBroom to visit and help them start achapter. John Mattos, president of Pro Fin-ishes Plus in Temple Hills, MA, Mike An-derson, owner of Wagonwork Collision,Alexandria, VA, and Aaron Schulenburg,SCRS executive director and treasurer ofthe Washington Metropolitan Autobody As-sociation, also attended. “What a greatmeeting, with so many eager people want-ing to be involved,” McBroom recalls.

Then, two weeks later, another callcame in from George Mantzaris and oth-ers from the Tampa Bay area. FACA vicepresident Mantzaris, collision center man-ager of Toyota of Tampa Bay, is today alsothe Tampa Bay chapter president. DavidHesser, owner of Gulf Coast Collision inPort Richey, is the chapter’s vice president.

In 2008, after contacting Risley atSCRS, McBroom invited the other twogroups to meet in Ocala; they incorpo-rated, wrote bylaws, elected a board, chosethe FACA name and joined the national or-ganization.

“It has been fantastic to watch theirgrowth and development throughout thestate in a very short period of time,” said-SCRS’ Schulenberg.

“I am continually astounded by howwell they have done to bring together suchmeaningful and well-attended meetings,with members who are so driven to moti-vate positive change within the industry.”

SCRS has more than 39 affiliate asso-ciations across the U.S. and Canada, rep-resenting 6,000-plus collision repairbusinesses and 58,500-plus individualsemployed within the industry.

“Our chapter decided to join FACAbecause we felt we would have greatersuccess being a part of a much larger stateassociation rather than trying to go at itourselves: Strength in numbers!” Piero

says. He adds that this year’schapter goals are to grow mem-bership awareness about FACAand to promote regulations that

will protect consumers when filing aclaim.

Representing consumers is also im-portant at the Mid-State chapter, whereMichael Meisner serves as president.Coming together as a group helps them,the chapter members and the industry, hesays.

“This is the best way for a customerto get the best repair possible,” says Meis-ner, whose Meisner Paint and Body inLakeland is a third-generation collision-repair business. In 1942, his grandfatherstarted repairing vehicles on the samestreet the business is now on.

“If shop owners are not ‘back-stab-bing enemies’ but are instead associates,they are less likely to undercut each other

for the job and do inferior work on the con-sumer’s vehicle,” Meisner says.

The shopowners benefit in variousways as well. For example, if the owner be-lieves that an insurance company is nottreating him or her correctly, the shop cancall fellow members to see if they are beingsimilarly handled. “This closes the gap thatthe insurance companies hold betweenshops,” he says. “There is still competitionin our association, but healthy competition.”

Ray Gunder, owner of Gunder’sAuto Center in Lakeland (see cover story),agrees. “FACA has opened up communi-cation between shops that never existedbefore in our area. The amount of ‘knowl-edge’ that is shared with a phone call or e-mail is tremendous. We are no longer onan ‘island by itself,’” explains Gunder,who started what is now a full-service col-lision and mechanical auto center 41 yearsago. He is the sergeant at arms for theLakeland chapter and, what McBroomcalls, the “conscience of FACA.”

“We can now visit each other’s shopsand be welcomed—instead of being leery—looking at a demo of new equipment to-gether,” Gunder adds, noting that the chap-ter holds monthly lunch meetings atdifferent shops. “We have all gained a newrespect for each other’s business and havebeen able to ‘bury the hatchet.’”


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Florida Autobody Collision Alliance Picks Up the Issues

Larry King is a 44-year veteran of the col-lision industry and a shop owner who hasseen the business change in many ways.

He still believes inrunning a clean oper-ation that’s focusedmore on customerservice than pursuitof the almighty buck,he told AutobodyNews.

King, 66, beganhis career in the col-lision repair industryin 1958, when hebegan learning howto fix cars in a highschool co-op studyprogram.

“I went to schoolhalf the time and therest of the school dayI worked in a local

body shop. I learned how to be a pretty de-cent body man from my school learningand by just doing it. First, I was sweeping

floors and pretty quickly I was doing itall.”

In 1965, King started Larry KingBody Shop in Corinth, Mississippi, a smallfour-car shop with two employees.

“Both my workers were helpers ba-sically. So, I did every job imaginable onmy own from start to finish. We weregetting three to four cars in there everyweek and business was good. It was adifferent business back then, withoutcomputers or even calculators. I kepteverything in my head and all of the es-timates were visual.”

In 1976, King’s father, R.C. died afterrunning his own shop for several decades,he said. “For 11 years, we were competi-tors, but he was a great body man and hetaught me a lot. I followed his footstepsand got into this business because of him.”

Larry King Body Shop today fixes20-25 cars per week, employing four bodymen while his wife, Betty, and his son,Todd, run the front office.

“Todd grew up working in bodyshops, so he learned this business by doing

it,” King said. “And my wife has been hereworking with me on and off for manyyears. We’re three generations in the body

shop business and, man,we’re proud of it.”

How has Kingachieved such longevityin a tough business?“How do I do it? It’s sim-ple. No drinking, nosmoking and no cussing,”he said. “I’m a Christianand we run a family oper-ation. We’re fair witheveryone that works withus or comes in throughthat door and that’s justthe way we do things. It’sthe way I’ve done it since’65, so why would I startchanging now?”

King is a past customer of BrianGrady, King is a past customer of BrianGrady, currently the parts director for theGreenway Automotive Group (see p. 29).After ten years of King buying parts fromhim as the parts manager at Dobbs PontiacGMC in Memphis, Tennessee, Grady alsoacquired another one of the shop’sstrongest assets—Larry’s daughter,Karen. It was a collision of loveand—this time —insurance compa-nies weren’t involved.

“I introduced Brian to Karenand they got married in 1997,” Kinglaughed. “I always stress good cus-tomer service, but that was more thanI expected.”

How has the collision industrychanged since the late ‘60s? “Paint-ing the cars was a lot harder and wehad to buff them out back then,which was time consuming,” Kingsaid. “And back then those cars had actualframes on them. Now 95% of them haveunibody frames, so it’s changed in manyways.”

One thing that has become more of anissue today is the question of using OEparts in repairs as opposed to buying lessexpensive parts from the aftermarket, Kingsaid.

“I will use the original parts from themanufacturer in almost every case if I can.I’ll go that way, even if I don’t make asmuch money as I could by using an after-market part. I’ve seen problems with af-termarket headlights that aren’t as good.And re-manufactured bumpers and somehoods have issues. If they don’t fit, I haveto spend time fixing them and then I’mlosing money.”

The struggle between insurance com-panies and body shops when it comes towrestling over labor rates and the costs ofparts hasn’t changed in four decades, Kingsaid.

“The insurance companies are re-questing used parts more and more, be-cause they’re trying to save money and Irealize that. But I also want to put out thebest work that I can, so it goes back andforth. I’ve had DRPs in the past, butright now I don’t have any. We’re stillbusy, so it hasn’t affected my businessmuch. It’s more valuable to me to retaincontrol of my shop and run the businessthe way I want to run it. We’re prettyclose to full capacity right now, so we’refine.”

King has hired many body techs overthe years, so he knows the qualities thatgood ones possess,. “A good body guy islike an artist really. Creativity is definitelythe trait of a top-notch body person. Agood one will also have a lot of pride in hisfinished product. The best ones I’ve seenare craftsmen who are really never happywith a finished job. They always want it tobe better.”

At 66, other people might be consid-ering retirement, but Larry King hasn’teven stopped long enough to even thinkabout it, he said.

“What? Why retire? Don’t rush me. Istill feel great and my health is good, sothey’ll have to pull me out of here before Iretire.”

Larry King Body Shop2008 Corinth StreetCorinth, Mississippi 38834(662) 286-8011


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Mississippi’s Larry King Looks Back at 44 years in the Business

with Kathy Steck-FlynnAutobody CSI

with Kathy Steck-FlynnAutobody CSI

with Dan EspersenALL OEM Information

with Dan EspersenALL OEM Information



Automaker Actions and Announcementswith Jeremy Hayhurst

Automaker Actions and Announcementswith Janet Chaney

Automaker Actions and Announcementswith Jeremy Hayhurst

I-CAR Tech

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with Ed AttanasioShop Showcase

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Say What?!

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Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

Larry King, owner ofLarry King Body shopin Corinth, Missis-sippi, has seen thecollision industry

change dramaticallysince he started his

shop in 1965.

Larry King Body Shop fixes 20–25 cars per week andemploys four body techs.

Larry’s wifeBetty helps runthe shop’s frontoffice with their

son Todd.

[email protected] us!write us!www.autobodynews.com

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This article first appeared on the Pennsyl-vania College of Technology website. It isreprinted here with permission.

Technology with the potential to changethe auto-refinishing industry—on par withthe introduction of the spray gun 75 yearsearlier—is in the hands of collision repairstudents at Pennsylvania College of Tech-nology, thanks to the generosity of a long-time corporate partner.

PPG Industries Automotive Refinish,a major equipment and training contributorto the college’s School of TransportationTechnology, recently donated an Envi-robase High Performance waterborne-coatings system to the collision repairprogram in College Avenue Labs.

“PPG is one of the premier industriesin collision repair refinishing, and its gen-erous donation of cutting-edge, water-based refinishing technology will enhanceour students’ overall learning to a profes-

sional level,”said MichaelR. Bierly, amember ofthe college’scollision re-pair faculty.“Our stu-

dents will be able to enter the workforcewith a whole new technology and be readyto apply it.”

Primarily used in Europe, Canada andCalifornia, where air-quality regulationsrequire lower levels of volatile organiccompounds (VOCs), the system replacessolvent-based paint with a waterbornelatex basecoat that is as efficient as it is en-vironmentally conscious.

“We believe that, by January 2012, allbody shops will be mandated to be water-

based,” said J.Todd Warren,a sales repre-sentative forPPG Automo-tive Refinish,whose seven-county terri-tory includes

the Penn College community. “PPG isahead of the crowd on this one, among theearliest adopters of this new technology.

There’s a lot of loyalty among our cus-tomers. They know and trust PPG, andwe’re making a huge impact on the indus-try.”

Warren acknowledged that theswitchover can be daunting for bodyshops, but he said the advantages—bothfor the environment and for business—transcend the learning curve. Some recog-nizable names, from the Blaise Alexanderdealerships on the regional landscape toPenske Racing on an international level,already have made the conversion with noinclination to turn back.

On the “green” frontier, the move toEnvirobase High Performance saves morethan 300 pounds of VOCs annually for anauto-body shop that mixes an average ofone gallon of basecoat per week.

“That isthe equiv-alent ofeliminat-ing emis-sions frommore than1,000 ve-hicles peryear,” saidWarren, am e m b e r

of the school’s Collision Repair Technol-ogy Advisory Committee.

There are economic benefits, too.“Customer service will be re-ener-

gized by this product,” Warren said. “Itdries in two minutes. That’s 60 percentfaster. I don’t have to calculate the dryingrate of solvent on a cold day or on a hotday; it dries at one speed, consis-tently—without color-shifting or mottling—so I’m not standing around wasting timebetween coats.”

Warren and Jim Kvatek, supervisinginstructor at the PPG Pittsburgh BusinessDevelopment Center, returned to the col-lision repair paint bays for hands-on ses-sions with Penn College students andfaculty, as well as with instructors in auto-motive programs at vocational highschools.

And because 70 percent of the water-borne market is in Europe, PPG plans totake a group of Penn College collision re-pair students and faculty to Italy for aglobal perspective in the land of Ducati,Fiat, Ferrari and Lamborghini.

For more information about collisionrepair technology and other majors withinthe School of Transportation Technology,visit online or call 570-327-4516. Formore about Penn College, visit on theWeb, e-mail or call toll-free 800-367-9222.


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KMC On Demand and I-CAR have an-nounced a memorandum of understandingto establish a strategic partnership underwhich KMC will provide the training plat-form and I-CAR will provide technicalcourse content to create a new online learn-ing opportunity for the auto collision in-dustry.

“This collaboration brings togethertwo industry leaders to seamlessly inte-grate the e-learning capabilities of KMCOn Demand and the training expertise ofI-CAR,” said Colm Keenan, V.P. of knowl-edge management for KMC On Demand.

“We are very proud I-CAR selected KMCto partner on this initiative. We share withI-CAR a similar vision that every personin the collision industry has the skills toachieve a complete and safe repair by in-creasing access to knowledge-based train-ing directly related to his or her role in thefield.”

Currently, I-CAR offers individualsthe opportunity for instructor-led classesthat cover vehicle-specific collision repairsand general collision concepts. Theseclasses are complemented by a limited of-fering of online training. KMC and I-CAR

will offer the automotive industry a broadercurriculum of online learning modules withimproved access and functionality.

“Partnering on this initiative withKMC On Demand is a critical develop-ment in I-CAR's plans to deliver role- andsegment-specific training in the both theclassroom and online,” said John Edelen,president and chief executive officer of I-CAR. “The KMC technology will enableI-CAR to bring more of our existing andfuture training to the industry, when,where and how the industry wants to re-ceive it.”

Collision repair professionals and in-surance appraisers will benefit from im-proved performance in the field as theKMC On Demand platform provides toolsand resources to directly support learningand performance, bridging from the learn-ing environment to the work site. Individ-uals and collision repair facilities will beable to maintain their I-CAR trainingrecognition status and state continuing ed-ucation credits, as both CE credits and I-CAR points will be awarded forcompletion of the appropriate courseworkon the KMC platform.

KMC on Demand™ and I-CAR Partner to Deliver Online Training for Auto Collision Industry

autobody news southwest april 2010

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