BodyShop Business, September 2014

Maximizing Social Media » Carbon Fiber Repair » Vehicle Technology

September 2014//Vol. 33 No.9

Multi-Shop WinnerTom Griffin,

president,

Mayfield Collision Centers

2014Meet Our

Single-Shop WinnerRachel Minshall,

body shop manager,

Soerens Ford

Circle 1 for Reader Service

InsideSeptember

September 2014 Vol. 33 No. 9

BODYSHOP BUSINESS (ISSN 0730-7241)(September 2014, Volume 33, Number 9): Publishedmonthly by Babcox Media, Inc., 3550 EmbassyParkway, Akron, OH 44333 U.S.A. Phone (330)670-1234, FAX (330) 670-0874. Copyright 2014Babcox Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Periodicalpostage paid at Akron, OH 44333 and additionalmailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to BODYSHOP BUSINESS, P.O. Box13260, Akron, OH 44334-3912.

Member, BPA Worldwide

Guess the Car ....................................................................................4Industry Update ..............................................................................12Tech Tips ........................................................................................26Product Showcase............................................................................92By the Numbers ..............................................................................96

Meet Our 2014 Executives of the Year!Tom Griffin, president, Mayfield Collision Centers and RachelMinshall, body shop manager, Soerens Ford.

ON THE COVER

30

38

44

FEATURESTECHNOLOGY

Don’t Forget the Small Things!Technology has changed to the point where we shouldn’t betouching cars before doing our research.

TECHNICAL

Have You Had Your Fiber Today?More and more vehicles are being introduced with carbonfiber components. Are you prepared?

54 BUSINESS

It Ain’t the ’70s AnymoreToday’s vehicles are more sophisticated and thus require morerepair procedures...which we often don’t get paid for.

DEPARTMENTS

8101422

SHOP TALK

Editor’s NotesThe industry still has a long way to go with lean.

DetoursMy tour of Italy provided for some interesting car watching.

Clark’s CornerSwitching paint brands requires major examination.

Web Presence ManagementSocial media is the ultimate word of mouth.


Guessthe Car

4 September 2014 | BodyShop Business

What vehicle MODEL does this picture represent? Fax your guess to(330) 670-0874. Include name, title, shop name, city, state andphone number. Or submit your guess with our online contest formby visiting bodyshopbusiness.com/guessthecar. The winner will berandomly selected fromcorrect entries and awarded$50. Entries must be re-ceived by Sept. 30, 2014.*Only one winner will beselected. Chances of winningare dependent upon thenumber of correct entriesreceived. Employees of Babcox,industry manufacturers andBSB advertisers are noteligible to enter.

See the Octoberissue for winnerof Guess the Car#137.

Mike Theisman, manager, FlorissantAuto Paint, Florissant, Mo.

SOLVED!

Eye-on = (Saturn) Ion

#138

#137

Countryman = (Mini Cooper) Countryman

Reader Contest! Win $50!

WINNER!

#136

“Is that you, Maximillian?”



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Did Any of You Attend NACE? If So, What Did You Think?

I was pleasantly surprised. Good job Dan Risley and everyone who madeit a productive week. – John Webb, president and COO at TenPoint Complete

The latest online content from BodyShop Business

Former Sterling AutobodyPresident Named Partner ofPaintless Dent Repair Company Comment by Ding Guy: Theproblem that this new entity willfind out fast enough is that qual-ity PDR is a skill not learned eas-ily. There is already a shortage ofqualified techs, and those whoare will not work for less thanthey’re worth. So I’m not surewhere they plan on finding qual-ity techs. PDR Lynx, Dent Wizardand the other ‘big players’ knowthis already. You may draw somein on a lean hail season, butwhen several major metropolitanareas get hit in the same summer, the good techs areworking for themselves or com-panies that pay for top techs. SoI see this new company trying totrain new techs, and that meanslow quality for at least the firstfew seasons. Good luck guys!

Comment by An Actual PDRBusiness Owner: Honestly, I don’tthink I’ve read anything more outof touch with an industry thenthis nonsensical press release. Totop it off, you have the two part-ners and their field manager withzero experience in the actual run-ning, repairing and managing ofa PDR company other than fromwatching it being done in a BSsystem. Love the claim of a“vastly different model”:1) “Control costs” – Great! An-other company selling on price.Nothing new here.2) “Improve cycle times”– LOL. Idon’t know what dent crew he’sused to, but it’s already one totwo days at most for cycle times.So what exactly is he going toimprove?3) “Work exclusively through insurance companies” – Most ofthe repairs being done comefrom insurance, so I have no cluewhat on earth he’s talking aboutwhen he claims “insurance is anafterthought.”

They Said It On

bodyshopbusiness.com

John Webb

Like • Comment • Share

August 1 — Lookin’ good at NACE!

@BSBMagazine:@SEMASHOW is debuting a new attraction

at this year’s show #SEMAshow #cars #collision

#autobody

Dave Matthews

Very well done compared to recent years. I agree with George that it maynever be what it once was, but smaller with the quality is OK by me. I haveattended and actually worked the booth at more NACE shows than I careto remember, and I think the show ending on Friday evening was great.Typically, the Saturdays had vendors roaming around wondering why theywere there. The training was tremendous. Also, thank goodness it was notin Las Vegas! Detroit ended up being a great place to have the event. Look-ing forward to next year. – Dave Matthews, sales manager at Zimmerman’sAuto Body Supplies


But it was good to get refreshedon this subject. The system makesso much sense. Yet Steve Feltovich,manager of Business ConsultingServices, said the collision industryfor the most part remains mired inthe traditional, wasteful model ofdoing business.

“It’s not necessary to change.Survival isn’t mandatory,” he said.“But unless you can create morecustomer value tomorrow than youdid today, you’re setting yourselfup for future obsolescence.”

We all know the basics, right?Continuous improve-

ment. Reduction ofwaste. Empower-ing employees tofind better waysto do things.And that lean isa journey, not a

destination.

“Ninety percent of lean is think-ing; 10 percent is doing,” said Feltovich.

Aha! Therein lies the problem.Who has time to think in thisindustry, right? We’re too busypushing as many cars as we canthrough our facilities, even if wecan’t handle the workload, concen-trating on the almighty cycle time.But once you get systems in place,in theory you’ll have more time towork on your business, not in it.

I’ve heard some collision repair-ers say, “We’ve gotten as lean as wecan get.” The experts say hogwash –that this industry in particular hasa long way to go yet. I think this istrue based on my various shop visits throughout the country.What’s the old saying? “There’salways room for improvement.”

I would suggest brushing up onyour lean via a class, whether youhaven’t started yet, or you havestarted but have run into trouble,or even if you’re well down thepath of lean and doing it success-

fully. It pays to get out of theshop noise occasionally and

hear the cogs in your brainturning. You might be sur-prised what you comeaway with.

Editor’sNotes Publisher

S. Scott Shriber, ext. 229 [email protected]

EditorJason Stahl, ext. 226 [email protected]

Managing EditorGina Kuzmick, ext. 244 [email protected]

Contributing EditorsMitch Becker, Mark Clark,Mark Claypool, Erica Evers-man, Tom Ferry, KristenHampshire, Curt Harler, HankNunn, Carl Wilson

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A limited number of complimentary subscrip-tions are available to those who qualify. Call(330) 670-1234, ext. 288, or fax us at (330) 670-5335. Paid subscriptions are available for non-qualified subscribers at: U.S.: $69 for one year.Canada/Mexico: $89 for one year. Canadian ratesinclude GST. Ohio residents add current countysales tax. Other foreign rates/via air mail: $129for one year. Payable in advance in U.S. funds.Mail payment to BodyShop Business, P.O. Box75692, Cleveland, OH 44101-4755. VISA, MasterCard or American Express accepted.

It had been awhile since I thought about lean and the Toyota ProductionSystem. I realized that as I sat in the Sherwin-Williams EcoLean Work-shop in Charlotte awhile back. Receiving yet another copy of “The Toyota Way” book also reminded me that I still needed to read it.

Lean: A Long Way to Go?

Jason Stahl, Editor

Email comments to [email protected]


It’s Good to Be Here

vehicles seemed to be diesels and sticks.The last category is the fun one. Of course,

it’s the high performance group. Frankly, I’venever seen so many top, high-performance vehicles on the road for everyday driving.There were many Ferraris and Lamborghinissporting around in everyday situations. Istopped counting Audi R8 Cabriolets. Like-wise, Aston Martin Vantage and DB-7s in con-vertible form were pretty common. Mattefinish seemed to be the new great thing. I’m abig gloss guy, but I will say that a red Ferrariis still pretty breathtaking even in matte.

Check out the black Ferrari in the photo. Ifound it parked in the dropoff lane at bag-gage. I don’t know about you, but in the un-likely event that I find myself as a Ferrariowner, I highly doubt you’ll find me parallelparked at baggage claim.

Bringing all this home to us, I lookedaround for repair facilities. Some were cer-tainly better than others. Dealers had fairlyup-to-date facilities, but when you got intothe older cities, working conditions deterio-rated rapidly. I saw many a tech under a caron the ground with a floor jack supportingthe vehicle. And there were lots of vehiclesbeing worked on in the streets on theground, of course.

What struck me was the stark contrast ofoutstanding vehicles with the rather crude orill-equipped repair facilities. Not to say theywere all lacking, but the majority would clas-sify as a C or D shop over here. Again, onemore reason to be thankful we’re part of ourgreat country and our economy.

While the elaborate train system in Europe is a marvel, I wouldn’t trade it forthe flexibility provided by our individual-based transportation.

I hope to see you at SEMA!

Detours By S. Scott Shriber, Publisher


As many of you know, part of my jobinvolves traveling around the countryto participate in industry events. Oneof the by-products of that travel is the

columns I write about the unique shops andvehicles I find along the way.

This time, for once, I found myself outsideof our native soil. I was traveling through Europe and ran across some interesting sights.On the car front, it was quite an eye opener.Frankly, I only recognized about 25 percent ofthe vehicles on the road.

Interestingly, there were many brands I wasfamiliar with, but at one point in time or an-other they disappeared from our roads – Cit-roen, Peugeot, Opel, Alfa Romeo and Renault,just to name a few. Of course, there were Fiatseverywhere along with Mercedes-Benz, BMWand the like. Then, there were the ones I hadnever seen here – Skoda, Lancia, Rover andSeat. Most were fairly unremarkable, butsome of them caught my eye.

Then, of course, there were the offeringsfrom our domestic manufacturers. The sur-prising thing was that most carried differentnameplates than their stateside counterparts.Some were models that aren’t even availablehere. I’ve included a couple of photos of thesefrom Ford and Toyota. Some were very stylishbut also seemed practical. Most day-to-day


Following Farmers Insurance’s decision to removeMost Favored Nation (customer) clauses frominsurer direct repair programs, Dan Risley, Automo-

tive Service Association (ASA) president and executivedirector, sent a letter of thanks to Jeffrey Dailey, Farm-ers’ chief executive officer.

Generally, Most Favored Nation (MFN) clauses stipu-late that should a provider give a bottom-line discount,rebate or other estimate discount on the repair costs toany insurer, the same or better bottom-line discountmust be given to the insurer proposing the DRP agree-ment. The elimination of MFN clauses has long been apolicy priority for ASA.

“We are very pleased that Farmers has removed theMFN clause from the DRP agreements,” said Risley. “Iwant to personally thank you and the Farmers team foryour leadership in eliminating these clauses, whichhave become a significant burden for ASA members.”

ASA’s collision leaders have made several trips toWashington, D.C., to discuss eliminating the clauseswith congressional leaders, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

tices ensure quality re-pairs and customer serv-ice for Oregon motorists.”

This was the eighth timethe association has con-ducted such a survey since2004, and State Farm hadtopped the list each time,finishing last year with aB+ grade. But in a year inwhich State Farm requiredits “Select Service” shopsin Oregon to use Parts-Trader, shops dropped theinsurer’s mark by a fullgrade to C+, putting it infourth place in the survey,

IndustryUpdate

Farmers Insurance Drops Most FavoredCustomer Clause from New DRP Agreements

Two Northwest Insurers and USAA Get Top Grades from Oregon Body Shops

State Farm maystill be the largestauto insurer inOregon, but it’s

no longer the best, ac-cording to the latest sur-vey of Oregon collisionrepair shops.

The survey by theNorthwest AutomotiveTrades Association(NATA) asked shops tograde the Top 20 auto in-surers in the state interms of how well eachcompany’s “policies, atti-tude and payment prac-

virtually tied with Progres-sive, California Casualtyand other insurers. Multi-ple shops commented onPartsTrader as the reasonfor giving the insurer alow (or lower than in pastyears) grade.

Two smaller North-west-based auto insurerscontinue to be among thebest at taking care of theircustomers after an acci-dent, according to shops.Oregon Mutual’s gradeslipped a bit from a B+last year to a B this year,

but that was still goodenough to share the topspot with Mutual ofEnumclaw. Both compa-nies have consistentlybeen among the top fourinsurers in the surveyevery year. Shops in thisyear’s survey comment-ed that the two are “ex-cellent to work with”and “take care of theircustomers.” In terms ofmarket share in Oregon,Mutual of Enumclawand Oregon Mutual are

By Gina Kuzmick

As a paint distributor, Tim Briggs frequently gets anup-close look at the collision repair process whenhe visits shops. On one particular visit, he noticed

an employee struggling with some tape while workingon a fender. He’d rip some off, then put the roll in his

mouth while laying thepiece down on the fend-er, then remove the rollfrom his mouth and tearoff some more and re-peat the process. Whenhe grew tired of this, theguy set the tape rolldown on top of the vehi-cle’s hood…only to haveit fall off and roll into apuddle of water.

Paint Distributor Launches

‘The Tape Thing’

12 September 2014 | BodyShop Business Circle 120 for Reader Service »

Continued on pg. 60

Continued on pg. 62

Louisiana AttorneyGeneral BuddyCaldwell filed a

lawsuit Aug. 19 againstState Farm alleging thatthe insurer has engagedin a pattern of unfair andfraudulent business prac-tices aimed at controllingthe auto repair industryand forcing unsafe re-pairs on vehicles withoutthe knowledge or consentof Louisiana consumers.

“State Farm has createda culture of unsafe busi-ness practices in whichconsumer vehicle repairsare performed with cost-savings as the primarygoal rather than safety andreliability,” said Caldwell.

The suit, filed inLouisiana’s 19th JudicialDistrict Court, allegesState Farm violatedLouisiana’s Unfair TradePractices Act and Monop-olies Law by using scaretactics to steer Louisianaconsumers to StateFarm’s preferred repairshops and forcing shopsto perform vehicle repairscheaply and quickly,rather than in accordancewith consumer safety andvehicle manufacturer per-formance standards.

The lawsuit alleges thatState Farm steers con-sumers to direct repairproviders that havesigned agreements withthe insurance company.As part of the terms of theagreement, those repairshops must comply withthe standards for repairlaid out by State Farm.

The insurance company,not the repair shop, dic-tates how long the repairshould take, what types ofrepairs are made and thequality of replacementparts. In many cases, therepairs are completedwith substandard partswithout the consent of the policyholder.

“In some cases, we’vefound that these parts arenothing more than usedjunkyard parts,” Cald-well said. “In others,we’ve found them to be

2014 Insurer Report Card

What grade do Oregon collision repair shops give auto insurers in terms of how their“policies, attitude and payment practices ensure quality repairs and customer servicefor Oregon motorists?”

Overall Grade*

Insurer (followed by grade in 2013) Non-DRP Shops** DRP Shops**

Oregon Mutual B (B+) B A-Mutual ofEnumclaw B (B) B- A-USAA B- (C+) C+ A-State Farm C+ (B+) C B-Progressive C+ (C+) C+ n/aCalifornia Casualty C+ (C+) C AKemper / Unitrin C+ (C+) C B+The Hartford C+ (C+) C B-Ameriprise C (C+) C B-American Commerce Insur. C (C+ C B-Country Companies C (C+) C+ n/aLiberty Mutual C (C) C n/aNationwide C (C) C n/aSafeco / North Pacific C (C-) C n/aTravelers C (B-) C B-GEICO C (C-) C- n/aAmerican Family C- (C) C- C+Allstate C- (C) C- B-Esurance C- (C) C- B-Farmers Insurance D+ (D+) D+ C

n/a = Insufficient responses from shops in the DRP to assign a grade.* Based on responses from all shops.**Based only on responses from shops participating in (or not participating in) that insurer’s DRP.

»| Industry Update |«

www.bodyshopbusiness.com 13« Circle 121 for Reader Service

Louisiana Attorney General Files SuitAgainst State Farm

foreign knock-off parts ofquestionable quality.Auto repair is not an in-dustry where you can cutcorners to save a littlemoney. It could be a mat-ter of life and death.”

Caldwell says the suitaims to change the cultureof unsafe business prac-tices led by State Farm inthe auto insurance and re-pair industry. State Farmcurrently holds the largestshare of auto insurancepolicies in Louisiana. In2012, State Farm wrote

one third of all auto insur-ance policies in the statetotaling over $1 billion inpremiums.

“Each month,Louisiana consumersgive their hard-earnedmoney to State Farm un-der the assumption thatthe insurer will take careof them if an accident oc-curs. This simply isn’thappening. Quite frankly,State Farm has been therefor State Farm, not theLouisiana consumer,”Caldwell stated.

Since there isn’t a tsunami of brand-new body shops opening anywhereacross the country, paint vendors areintent on growing

their sales by convertingthe existing shops fromone jobber and paintbrand to another. Manytimes, the enticements toswitch brands sound likea great deal, and they cer-tainly may be. But majorshop changes (like thequality and brand of paintand the local supplier) re-quire major examination to determine thebest outcome.

Great Painters » Let’s start the exam withan obvious truth: a great painter can makeanything work. Today’s most productiveand professional auto body painterschanged their game plan to match the newoffering’s paint chemistry. Earlier in mycareer, the best painters would change thepaint’s chemistry (catalyst and solventspeeds) to match their game plan. The pro-ductivity wizards who are flagging the mostrefinish hours these days do both: theychange their spray style, gun distance, handspeed and flash times to match the paintcompany’s directions. Once at that stage,they’ll fiddle with the mix ratios, air pres-sures and re-coat times until the paint laysout to their complete satisfaction.

But not every painter meets my arbitrarydefinition of a “great painter.” Many morefolks in our industry can get the repair cov-ered and blended “close ’nuff” than canspray any brand of anything at productionspeeds immediately. Whatever brand and

quality of paint your shop currently uses, thepainters know the speedy shortcuts.

The shop’s learning curve on a new lineobviously varies with theskills of the painters andthe convenience of thepaint line. Sadly, I oftensee the shop painters re-sentful and obstinate thata change in brands hasbeen made by the frontoffice without theirknowledge. Just like agood painter can makeanything work well,

angry painters can make any new brandperform poorly, too.

Status Quo » Whichever brand, whicheverquality and whichever local jobber, your shophas no doubt worked out many paint-relatedissues and are currently painting customercars every day in a productive fashion.Knowing exactly what to expect from the job-ber’s sales force, the delivery schedule, thecolor match, the clearcoat film build, thetricks to a perfect blended edge, the dry timeto scuff and buff and numerous other refinishissues all contribute to smoothly schedulingshop production flow. Changing your shopto a new vendor and a new paint line meansstarting over on all those things – a decisionthat should be made very carefully.

Paint Quality » Within most auto paintbrands, there are three basic levels of productoffering. These are referred to as qualities, notas in good or bad but as in market position.High-end, high-priced offerings bring thebest that paint manufacturer can offer: bestcolor match, color holdout, resin content,


By Mark Clark

SwitchingPaint Brands

Clark’sCorner


undercoat variety and much more.Middle-priced qualities are the heartof the market. More competitiveprices, acceptable pigment loads,quick recoat times and easy-to-usecolor tools all make for best-sellingpaint lines. The least expensive paintqualities sacrifice some things in thename of low prices. Often, the mostvisible difference to the body shop isthe color match.

Building clearcoats and under-coats is relatively easy. Resin content,solvent loads and raw material qual-ity are easy to manipulate and man-ufacture. Matching thousands andthousands of new color offeringsevery year is incredibly expensive.As a result, the less expensive quali-ties within a given paint brandspend significantly less on colortools and color match. Given thatcolor match is the painter’s biggestproblem, buying the most expensive

quality with the best color toolsmakes sense for most productionshops. Used cars painters may beable to operate productively with aless expensive quality and their re-sulting limited color pallet.

Apples to Apples » Sadly, I seemany shops make their paint lineand quality decision solely based on their discount from a printed price list.

“I’m getting 25 or 30 or 35 percentoff,” they say with great pride.

Off “what” is the key question.Twenty five percent off Brand X maybe much less money than 35 percentoff Brand Z.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s pretendthat the shop is choosing one of threequalities from the same paint manu-facturer. Their premium quality of-fering has a printed price of $100,their middle quality costs $80 and

their economy quality costs only $60.In each case, the local jobber will of-fer them a 25 percent discount toswitch from their current vendor.They’ll pay $75 for the best stuff, $60for the good stuff and only $45 forthe cheap stuff. By looking carefullyat the various features, advantagesand benefits of each quality, they canmake a relatively informed decision.

When the body shop’s choiceisn’t within one paint line, theproblem gets much harder. First,the corresponding qualities in an-other brand are not exactly thesame price. In the example above,the premium offering from Brand Xis $100, but the competitive highquality from Brand Y is $110 andthe premium offering from Brand Zis $90. To make the problem evenmore complicated, the body shopmay be looking at a premium linefrom Brand Z and a middle quality

»| Clark’s Corner |«

16 September 2014 | BodyShop BusinessCircle 16 for Reader Service


line from Brand Y. Multiply the dis-count offered times the price foreach competitor and confusionquickly reigns supreme. No won-der shops just want to go with thebiggest discount; it looks like aneasy choice!

“I’ll take the 30 percent off deal,”they say. But 30 percent off $100 isn’tas good as 25 percent off $80…or is it?

Do the Math » There are severalcommon paint shop calculationsthat can help in comparing offeringsfrom competing vendors. One iscalled Ready-to-Spray (RTS) and issimply the cost of a quart of productmixed, thinned and activated. Thishelps level the playing field whenshopping for new refinish material;the gallon of clear from Brand X was$200 and the gallon from Brand Ywas $250, but when they’re bothcorrectly mixed and catalyzed

(ready to spray), a quart of Brand Xwas $55 and Brand Y was $45. Thathelped a little, but there’s alwaysmore to know.

Imagine the RTS quart of a premi-um offering clear was $60 and a RTSquart of the economy quality wasonly $30. Clearly you would wantthe $30 version, right? The only wayfor a paint company to cut productcost is to cut out some of the expen-sive stuff. High solids clear resin isexpensive, and enamel reduce isn’t.Manufacture a clearcoat with lessresin and more reducer, and the costgoes down rapidly…but so does thecoverage. If it takes four coats of thecheap stuff to reach the same filmbuild as two coats of the expensivestuff, was it a good deal?

One factor in the equation is thecost of the liquid in the cup but, inaddition, the most expensive thingin any paint shop is always labor

time. Those extra coats cost thepainter lots more time over thecourse of a month. Therefore, an-other useful calculation in compar-ing disparate brands and qualitiesis square foot coverage. How farwill the RTS quart go? If a pint ofBrand Z covers one panel and apint of Brand Y covers two panels,both at two mils thick, Brand Yseems like the choice. But wait…there’s still more!

Application times, flash times be-tween coats, bake times and deliverytimes vary substantially from onebrand and quality to the next. Evenmore paint math is required. Nowonder many shops just want toquit when they hear the biggest dis-count percentage: “Sold at 28 percentoff!” Unfortunately, that may leavethe paint shop buying a poor hiding,poor matching, slow drying paintline that requires many coats.




Major shop decisions have majorimpacts on productivity. Before yourshop jumps on the next vendorthrough your door with an upfrontcheck in their hand and a tasty dis-count off the paint bill, do some seri-ous math. Good jobbers are happy tohelp with the calculations. If yourjobber can’t do the appropriate mathformulas (RTS, coverage, flash times)and just wants you to bite on the bigdiscount, they may not be the jobberpartner your shop needs.

Paint Is Paint? » I still hear folksin the front office say “paint ispaint” and it doesn’t make any dif-ference which brand, which qual-ity or which jobber sells it to me.But it does make a difference.Labor time is always the keydriver in collision repair. Greatcolor match, extensive color tools,fast dry and ease of use will makethe shop more money than a cheapprice on any economy brand.

Good local jobbers deliver muchmore than a can of paint, too. Beforeyour shop switches paint lines orqualities, plan to spend some qualitytime with your calculator first. Thisis a key shop decision and shouldn’tbe made without input from boththe office and the painters. Once allthe math is done, do a trial run withthe two finalist brands in your ownshop for a week or so. Better to findout the problems early than suffer-ing along under legal contract for thenext five years.

Numbers play an important partin any business decision, but good-looking paint work in the least timewins this contest every time. Chooseyour new paint line carefully. BSB

Mark R. Clark isowner of ProfessionalPBE Systems in Waterloo, Iowa. He’s a popular industryspeaker and consultantand is celebrating his 26th year as a

contributing editor to BodyShop Business.





Web PresenceManagement

Social Media: Word of MouthAmplified

Last month, Liz Lebantino, managerof Butch’s Auto Body & Paint, Inc.in Capitol Heights, Md.,(www.butchsautobody.com) shared

her approach over the years toward gettingher website exactly where she wanted it. Asshe revealed, for over 35 years, Butch’s re-lied mostly on word of mouth.

As part of her overall Web presence strat-egy, Liz says, “Our social media participa-tion is the new word of mouth, onlyamplified. We partnered with the leadingprovider of social media management serv-ices for the collision repair industry, thesame company that built our website. Wehesitated to engage in social media if ourwebsite wasn’t professional enough look-ing, so we initiated both at the same time.Our partner provided the concepts andtools to pave the way for our business tocost-effectively harness the marketing power of social media.

“Our business survives mostly throughrecommendations of our customers to theirfriends, family and acquaintances. Andthat’s what effective participation in socialmedia enables us to do. We participate inGoogle+, Facebook and Twitter. Our part-ner set up our accounts properly, gave uspromotional strategies to gain more ‘Likes’and ‘Followers,’ and then started boostingand promoting our posts. Social media en-gulfed us like a tidal wave, kicking ourmarketing into high gear. We are very im-pressed with all the calls that we’ve beenreceiving, and we’ve gotten a lot of busi-ness out of it.”

Boosting Your Post » Facebook allowsyou to boost things that you post and targetspecific areas around your location. It also

allows you to target specific interest areas,age groups and male or females. This pastmonth, Butch’s posted that their websitehad been highlighted in BodyShop Business,then they boosted that post. They set abudget of $60, and the post was a screen-shot of what their new website looked like.It’s important to make your posts graphicbecause that’s what catches people’s eye.And that’s what this post did.

In 24 hours, this post reached over20,000 people in and around Butch’shometown of Capitol Heights. Butch’s islocated right near the border with Wash-ington, D.C., so that was one of manytarget outreach areas with this post. Thispost generated 70 clicks to their website,eight new “Likes” for their Facebookpage, 24 post “Likes” and seven com-ments. How do we know? Facebook ana-lytics, called “Insights,” providescomprehensive reports for your review.Comments included great testimonialsincluding a searchable hashtag post, #on-lyplaceirecommend, which adds to over-all visibility. Liz responded to thesecomments in a timely manner, fully en-gaging in the conversation with theirfans…all for just $60!

By Mark Claypool


Regular Posting » With theirWeb presence partner leading theway, Butch’s social mediaaccounts get posts at least 18times per week and aremonitored 365 days a year. PerGoogle’s recommendations, theirGoogle+ account receives threeunique posts per week. Facebookreceives at least one post perweek, and Twitter gets two perday. In addition, Liz periodicallyposts on both Facebook andGoogle+ when she’s got the timeand wants to share some infor-mation or showcase some of their work.

“It’s always reassuring to knowour partner is going to be postingregularly so that when I’m busy Idon’t have to worry about it,” shesays. “I know we’re being takencare of.”

Topics posted on Butch’s socialmedia sites vary greatly. They mustvary in order to reach and engage abroad audience, a key to successfulsocial media participation for busi-ness. Posting nothing but automo-tive-related things, like before andafter photos or cool cars, won’tever appeal to a certain percentageof your target audience, or con-stantly to the rest of them. Youneed to vary it. For example, onJune 6, it was National Donut Day,and that’s what Butch’s posted thatday on Google+. Fun!

Social Media Management » Lizclearly sees the benefits of partner-ing with a social media manage-ment service.

“With our partner’s regular post-ing on our social media, we wereable to connect and engage 24/7with our customers and vice versa.We feel that [customers] alreadyknow us even before they call orcome in to our shop. There’s an in-stant relationship of trust beingbuilt with our customers with thehelp of our social media outreach.With our promoted and boostedposts, we’re getting customers allthe way from Virginia and D.C.

“In addition to the significant in-crease in business from our web-site, we’ve seen increases in oursocial media followers, interac-tions, reviews, and most impor-tantly, our revenues. It’s extremelyimportant to give a customer agreat experience. If you go an extrastep with excellent customer serv-ice along with the quality of workwe do, you’ll win customers for lifeand they’ll share their experiencewith their friends online! Our Webpresence and social media nodoubt have helped us take ourservices to the next level.”

Liz’s shop is in the top 5 per-cent of the shops my companyhas come across in regard to theiroverall Web presence manage-ment. They “get it,” and they’regetting cars to fix as a result. Welldone, Liz! BSB

BSB Contributing EditorMark Claypool has morethan 30 years of experi-ence in the fields of workforce development,apprenticeships, market-

ing and Web presence management withSkillsUSA, the I-CAR Education Foun-dation, Mentors at Work, VeriFacts Automotive and the NABC. He is theCEO of Optima Automotive (www.optimaautomotive.com), which provideswebsite design, SEO services and socialmedia management services.

»|Web Presence |«



D o you know anyone whowhistles while they work?I do! My buddy, Alan,owns a body shop and

loves what he does. He’s a goodwhistler, too. Nowadays, Alandoesn’t spend as much time workingon cars as he does working on keep-ing his shop profitable – his techsget to have all the fun. Still, Alanusually whistles while he works –he’s just a happy guy.

Unmusical Grumbling » I stoppedby Alan’s shop the other day, and in-stead of a musical whistle, I heardsome very unmusical grumbling. Ap-

parently, he had a 2014 Explorer inthe bay that had its own unique kindof whistle. After pronouncing the re-pair complete and proclaiming thatthe vehicle looked showroom-new,Alan took it out on the freeway tocheck the front end. Everything wasfine, except for a distracting noisethat was coming from the windshieldarea. Ironically, it sounded like anoff-key whistle.

The problem is that Alan knowsthis customer. She has several cars,and his shop has worked on most ofthem. She’s very picky, but that’snot the problem. Alan expects hiscustomers to be picky, and he’s proud

of the high-quality work hisshop turns out. However, hedoes not believe the noisecoming from the Explorer isrelated to the repair he justperformed. And he’s partic-ularly concerned that thecustomer will think it is –reducing his profitability ormaybe forcing him to lose agreat customer.

As it turns out, Alan hadnothing to worry about.Playing a hunch that thismay be a known condition,he flipped open his tablet,accessed ALLDATA and de-termined that there was anew TSB (technical servicebulletin) from Ford that cov-ered this problem. Bingo! Inless than two minutes, hefound one that describes theexact problem, along with asimple repair.

If you have an Explorerin your shop that’s trying to whistlea Taylor Swift tune and give yousome competition in the whistlingdepartment, here’s an excerpt from the TSB on how to turn offthe whistle.

Whistle or Buzz-Type NoiseModel: 2011-2014 Ford ExplorerIssue: Some 2011-2014 Explorer vehicles may exhibit a whistle orbuzz-type noise from the front cowlpanel grille cover at highway speeds.This may be caused by the seal forthe front cowl panel grille cover notmaking full contact to the windshieldglass surface.

TechTips

Whistling Explorer is Off Key

By the ALLDATA Collision Team



Action: Follow the Service Proceduresteps to correct the condition.

Service Procedure1. Apply masking tape over the

area where the front cowl panelgrille cover seal makes contact withthe windshield. Drive vehicle athighway speeds.

a. On the return road test, re-move the masking tape to con-firm the whistle or buzz-typenoise.

2. Is the whistle or buzz-type noisepresent at highway speeds only withthe masking tape removed?

a. Yes – proceed to Step 3.b. No – this article does not

apply. Refer to the manufactur-er’s repair information to diag-nose the condition.

3. Remove the front cowl panelgrille cover.

4. Using a straightedge, measurethe distance from the windshieldsurface to the cowl sheet metal at each of the seven mountingholes for the front cowl panel grillecover.

5. Adjust the cowl sheet metal toincrease the clearance to 7 mm(9/32”), as required. This adjustmentwill allow the front cowl panel grillecover seal to make consistent contactwith the windshield .

6. Install front cowl panel grillcover.

7. Drive the vehicle to confirmthe repair.

Alan’s techs made the repair, andhe called the owner to tell her that the Explorer was ready. The last thing I heard as I walked out of the shop was Alan whistling a happy tune!

NOTE: This repair/service in-formation is excerpted from infor-mation published by the vehiclemanufacturer and is intended forthe purpose of promoting OE col-lision repair information to trained,professional technicians with theknowledge, tools and equipmentto do the job properly and safely.Before attempting any repairs described, refer to the complete article in ALLDATA Collision S3500.It’s recommended that these pro-cedures not be performed by “do-it-yourselfers.” BSB

Written by members of the ALLDATACollision team of experts.

© 2014 ALLDATA LLC. All rights reserved. All technical information, im-ages and specifications are from ALL-DATA Collision S3500. ALLDATA andALLDATA Collision are registered trade-marks of ALLDATA LLC. Ford and Ex-plorer are registered trademarks of FordMotor Company. All other marks arethe property of their respective holders.

»|Tech Tips |«




COVER STORY

www.bodyshopbusiness.com 31

By Jason Stahl

T om Griffin, president andfounder of Mayfield Colli-sion Centers, and RachelMinshall, body shop man-

ager of Soerens Ford, were honoredwith BodyShop Business’s prestigiousCollision Repair Shop Executiveof the Year award on July 31, 2014at NACE | CARS.

Griffin won in the Multi-Shopcategory, and Minshall won in theSingle-Shop category. This was thefirst time since BodyShop Businessbegan handing out the award in1984 that it gave out two awards,feeling it important to distinguishbetween bigger shop organizationsand smaller ones.

The aim of the award has alwaysbeen to recognize true collision re-pair “visionaries” who have expe-

rienced great success through innovative thinking, overcomingchallenges and persevering.

Griffin’s collision career spansmore than 40 years. He now leadsa two-store operation in Cleveland,Ohio, that’s described as a “thrivingfamily business that provides anextraordinary experience for cus-tomers and a rewarding work environment for employees.”

The main reason for the BodyShopBusiness staff selecting Griffin overdozens of other qualified candidatesis his dedication to helping youngpeople find their way in the industry and championing womenin the industry by hiring and nur-turing many female employees inhis company. Also, his industry involvement speaks for itself: past

2014

COVER STORY » 2014 Executives of the Year

Multi-Shop winner Tom Griffin, president, MayfieldCollision Centers, and Single-Shop winner Rachel

Minshall, body shop manager, Soerens Ford.

Meet Our

president of Coyote Vision Group,president of the Automotive ServiceAssociation Greater ClevelandChapter, and board member of theSolon Chamber of Commerce.

Mayfield Collision Centers is alsothe only body shop to participatein GuitarMania, a Greater Cleve-land community public art project

that has raised $2 million for UnitedWay and the Rock and Roll Hall ofFame and Museum’s educationprograms.

Griffin looked at the award asvalidation of his efforts and the efforts of his employees as well.

“It was both humbling and reaf-firming that the principles and

values we’ve long professed andoperated our company on are per-ceived by our customers and em-ployees as the right things to do,”said Griffin. “In this day and ageof people talking about SOPs andprocess, which are important, we’vealways been more of a values- andprinciples-based company that fig-ures out the SOPs based on thosevalues and principles.”

Although he was honored andprivileged to be recognized withthe award in Detroit in front ofhundreds of his peers, Griffin ad-mitted the “revelry” may last only30 seconds.

“Then, we’ll get right back tobeing very humble and applyingthe same things that helped us earnthat award to new customers today,next week, next month and nextyear,” he says.

Asked if he will leverage theaward via marketing efforts to fur-ther distinguish himself and hisbusiness, Griffin said he will…butmore internally than externally.

“Over the last six months, we’veearned three coveted awards: oneof the top 10 body shops in thecountry, Executive of the Year andone of the 99 Best Places to Workin Northeast Ohio – the first bodyshop ever to receive that award.The most important thing for usto do is stay humble and motivatedand inspired to action by our dailyactions, thoughts and decisionsand how we interact with em-ployess, insurers and customers.We will do some external market-ing, but I want to make sure wedon’t do too much chest pounding.It’s not in our DNA to stand on a soapbox.”

With all the consolidation goingon and the big shops getting bigger,Griffin is well aware what the future may hold for his operation.However, he insists their strategywill be to grow through quality,not quantity.

“A number of shops have grownthrough quantity and then fell on




their faces in the customer’s view-point,” he says. “We now have 59employees, up from 39 three or fouryears ago. We’re looking for theright situation from a quantity stand-point, growing through additionallocations but not doing it too fast.We want to be well-known and re-spected in the communities we do

business in, so if we have to competewith consolidators, hopefully thatwill give us a leg up. I don’t feelany fire under me to go out andbuy three shops just so I can say Ihave that market share and be moreattractive to a consolidator.”

The BodyShop Business Multi-Shop Executive of the Year award

is merely the latest in a long list ofachievements Griffin and his busi-ness have achieved. Still, there isone more goal left on the table hehopes to accomplish.

“My goal has always been, butwith much more of a sense of urgency now, to have this companybe able to operate with less andless dependence on me, which it’sclose to today. I could probably begone four months and this companywould not miss a beat. But it’s allabout developing my people andmaking this company sustainable.We’re well on our way, but thereis more work to be done.

“As I get older, what I enjoymore than ever is coaching andgrooming and developing youngertalent. We do this every day. Outof our 59 employees, we have atleast 14 people who started in thedetail bay. We have furthered theircareer, and we want to do more of that.”

Griffin knows that he and therest of the industry are staring amajor problem square in the face:an aging technician population anda weak influx of young peopleready to take their spots.

“We always said it was an issue,even 20 years ago when we couldput our shoulder down and gruntour way through it,” he says.

But he has figured out that grow-ing his own people is the way to go.

“We get 90 percent of our em-ployees from employee referrals,and that has proven to be a tremen-dous recipe for success,” Griffinsays. “A lot of shops hire whenthey needed someone two monthsago, so they lower their standardsand throw someone in the position.When we hire, we’re not reallylooking for people. If we are lookingfor people, that means we neededthem two months ago and are hop-ing we can hire Superman and fillthat void.”

Rachel Minshall echoed Griffin’scomments on what receiving the




award means to her when she saidit validates her efforts and the bestpractices she has put in place ather shop.

“I’ve taken lots of different classesto keep learning and used littlebits of everything I’ve learned overthe years from the beginning ofmy career all the way through and

put all those little things in to makethis body shop grow and be at thetop of its game at all times,” saidMinshall. “[This award] gives usall more confidence and validatesour efforts to know that we’re doingthe right thing and that we willcontinue to make customers ourtop priority.”

Soerens Ford shared Minshall’sachievement on Facebook and Twit-ter and received lots of positiveresponses.

“People called and said, ‘We already knew you were the Execu-tive of the Year, you didn’t needan award to tell us,’” Minshall said.“I feel really proud. I’ve been here18 years, and I feel like we did this all together. I couldn’t have done it without all the support around me.”

The next goal for Minshall istwofold: to help her shop grow,and to teach her daughter that any-thing is possible.

“We are going through a signif-icant remodel right now where wewill be growing the entire dealer-ship, so I’m excited to be part ofthat and to show how good ourbody shop really is. I also am rais-ing my daughter to know thatwhatever she wants to do she cando, no matter who tells her thatshe can’t. I started off right fromhigh school going to the Ford AssetProgram where there was no otherwomen in the class and no womenin the business, yet I did it. I startedhere changing oil, and then wentfrom that to service writing to winning all the awards in serviceand then going on to be body shop manager. No matter whereyou start, you can always go to the top.” BSB



To nominate for the2015 Executive of

the Year,scan this code with your

smartphone:


In a letter penned to Jean-BaptisteLeroy in 1789, Benjamin Franklinwrote, “In this world, nothingcan be said to be certain, except

death and taxes.” Well, ol’ Ben hadit mostly right. The way I see it,nothing can be said to be certain,except death, taxes…and a changingworld. If you don’t think so, peekyour head out the front door of yourshop and take a good look around.

Think about what’s changed inyour life over the last 30 years. In1984, you were probably workingon Ford Tempos and Pontiac Fieros.When was the last time you sawone of those?

As vehicles have evolved, so havethe processes for repair. Here’s alook at three situations where vehicletechnology has changed, and theonly way to avoid potential issuesis to research these repairs beforeyou begin repairs.

The Small Dent » Vehicles are be-ing made out of a myriad of sub-

strates and construction materialstoday. If you’re working on a dent,do you even bother to see what ma-terials are used in the outer panelsof the vehicle?

On a 2011 BMW 550i, fixing asmall dent just may land you in alarge hole. If the vehicle is equipped

with park assist, BMW specificallycalls out that you cannot repair thefender in the areas surrounding theside marker lamp. Nope, I’m notkidding on this one. Here’s why:the side marker lamp housing holdsthe park assist sensor on both sidesof the vehicle. Working on a damaged

TECHNOLOGY


Technology has changed to the point where research before repairs is critical to performing a safe repair.

By Karl Kirschenman

Don’tForgetthe

Things!SMALL

Did you know you cannot repair the fender of a BMW 550i in the areas surrounding theside marker lamp if the vehicle is equipped with park assist?


The Bumper Job » Bumpers aren’tjust being used to absorb energyany longer. Newer vehicles have amyriad of electronics imbedded on or even behind both front and rear bumpers.

Let’s look at 2011 GMC Terrainfor a moment. We’re doing a minorrepair on the rear bumper, and it’sgoing to require us to refinish thepart. The rear bumper has backupsensors embedded in it. No big deal.We’ve all seen them before. Youhook up the sensors and mount thebumper. Well, you’ve just compro-mised the rear backup system.

GM says in its repair procedurethat you need to replace all four ofthe sensor housings every time thebumper fascia is refinished. Failureto replace the sensor mounts willcause them to fail and the rear backupsystem to be compromised. Whenyou do reinstall the sensor mounts,

TECHNOLOGY » Small Things


It’s a simple bumper repair on that GMC Terrain, right? Think again.

fender in the areas surrounding theside marker lamp may cause thesensor to not work properly. Whenthe fender’s surface is reshaped orbuilt up through the application ofbody adhesive, pulling/repairing,

etc., the sensor aim is adversely af-fected. The result may be that thevehicle does not park itself properlyand causes additional damage toyour customer’s vehicle and sur-rounding vehicles.


make sure the adhesive and themounting surface is between 66 and110 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, you’llneed to apply the adhesion promoterreferenced in the repair procedureto complete the repair properly.

The Dead Battery » How manybatteries have you purchased for

customers? Please don’t answer thatquestion. We all know that you’vespent a small fortune at $100 a shotreplacing batteries that were on theirlast electrons. Now, I’m not tryingto pick on BMW for this article, butthis is just too good not to sharewith the industry.

In this example, you deliver that

same 2011 BMW, and your cus-tomer comes back with a dead bat-tery. Even worse, they have a deadbattery and there’s no audio com-ing from their radio, CD/DVDplayer, phone, Park Distance Con-trol and audio warning indicators.In addition, you have a visualwarning on the instrument panelthat states “Vehicle battery. In-creased battery discharge at stand-still” or “PDC failed! No acousticwarning available for Park DistanceControl PDC.”

Remember the example abovewith the small dent? Yep, this is the same car. Is this related to thatfender repair that was completedby your tech? In this case, the answeris probably no.

After doing some research onthis issue for a shop, we foundthat BMW has a technical servicebulletin (SI B65 06 12) that refer-ences the issues above. The rootcause of this could very well bean aftermarket USB cable that yourcustomer began using after theygot their car back from your shop.Apparently, Apple devices workproperly when using “the correctand approved USB adapter cable.”A $20 cable may just affect your CSI score and jeopardize your customer’s experience with your facility.

Change Is Constant » As you con-tinue to fix more complex vehicles,you need to make sure that you’recompleting 100 percent teardownsand documenting your repairprocesses. Change is a constant, andchanges in vehicle technology willcontinue to impact collision repairprocesses at an increasingly rapidpace. BSB

Karl Kirschenman previously was the collision program manager for ALLDATA and the director of technol-ogy for I-CAR. He holds a bachelor ofscience degree in communications andhas over 10 years of experience in thecollision industry.

TECHNOLOGY » Small Things



W e’ve been hearing aboutcar manufacturers in-creasing their use of car-bon fiber. This talk seems

to be coming to fruition as theyscramble to meet the new govern-ment mandates on CAFÉ (CorporateAverage Fuel Economy).

Products once only thought to beneeded or wanted in projects forNASA or Boeing are streaming intothe automotive world. With impres-sive performance results in the racingworld, GM, BMW and Lexus are allseeing the potential for carbon fiberto benefit everyday vehicles.

Many more vehicle manufacturersare planning future composite prod-

ucts, which should come as no sur-prise to anyone since we’ve usedsimilar composites for years. You’veknown them as fiberglass and SMC.As new steel requirements in automanufacturing have brought changes,so too have composites. With thesechanges, considerations on trainingfor these repairs might be in order.

Many vehicle recommendationsfor the repair of new compositeswill take practice. Some new toolsmay be required, and a dedicationto detail will be necessary to performquality repairs. The difficulty ratingof composite repairs won’t be muchharder than current systems today,just different.

TECHNICAL

Many more vehiclemanufacturers are

planning future compositeproducts. With these

changes, considerations ontraining for these repairs

might be in order.

By Mitch Becker


Your Fiber Today?

Photo: Patrick Poendl / Shutterstock.com


Pros and Cons » First, let’s take alook at some pros of composite partmanufacturing. Lightweight andstrong top the list, in that the abilityto be light and rigid for manufacturinglarge and complex shapes is a boomfor manufacturers. Composites canbe used cosmetically in fenders andhoods and also structurally in occu-

pant compartments. This and corro-sion resistance in any environmentis an impressive start to a long list.

What are some of the cons? Well,composites are labor intensive, mak-ing them expensive to produce cur-rently as mass production is laggingin this area. However, advancementsin production have already seen an

improvement. Repair procedurescould be unique and somewhat timeconsuming. The other issue is dif-ferent types of damage will havedifferent repairs. Repair facilitieswill have to know how to access thedamage to properly repair it, andspecialty equipment will be required.

What Is It? » Carbon fiber is amanmade fiber or filament with acarbon content that’s between 92and 99 percent. It can be made intofibers, weave or cloth depending onuse. When combined with resins, itcan be shaped and molded into verystiff and/or complex designs.

Many of us have seen the exposedweave that shows in most pictureswhen looking at a Corvette. Carbonfiber has a long history in aerospaceand racing and has a proven trackrecord. Racecar builders have hadissues where riveted aluminum race

TECHNICAL » Have You Had Your Fiber Today?


The carbon fiber door sill of the BMW i3. (Photo courtesy BMW)


car structures would change or go soft, but vehiclesusing carbon fiber don’t seem to have that issue.Although expensive and difficult to mass produce, thebenefits are there. Not being susceptible to corrosion isa major benefit.

Repair Info » Shops that work on specialty cars mayhave already started to research or train for carbonfiber repairs. Those who will be working with the 2014Corvette and BMW i3 and i8 are seeing these vehiclesalready. For the rest of us in need of repair information,we need to do the research.

First, get some info. The CFR01 course from I-CAR isan excellent start. I recommend this course for all whoare involved in the industry. The class is well writtenand very informative and teaches what you may needto know to make a repair decision. Manufacturer guide-lines are critical as identifying these parts could bedifficult if parts to be repaired are painted. A shopcould be thinking a panel is SMC or fiberglass as thereis some similarity in look to the parts. Even just identi-fying carbon fiber is not enough, though.

Acronyms like FRP, CFRP, LFRT and CFR will tellyou about specifics, but this will not give you enoughinformation for repair. The type of carbon fiber alongwith the amount of damage and its use will designatethe repair. As mentioned before, carbon fiber can becosmetic or structural. We find it being used in drivetrainsand suspensions, too.

The Damage » Once you’ve identified the type ofcarbon fiber, we now need to look at the damage. Isthis a cosmetic repair or structural? What materialswill I need to make the panel as strong as before? Is thedamage all the way to the edge? Has the area delaminatedor disbanded? How is the carbon fiber used, choppedor woven? Is this painted or finished on one side orboth? Is it laminated or sandwich core? Hopefully,someone somewhere is working on a flowchart systemto identify all these types of uses and laminates.

When assessing damage, we need to know that manytimes, damage to the front will also damage the back.Distortions or even scuff marks may have damageinside such as lamination that has separated. Identifyingdamage and the extent of damage will take practice. Ahammer or coin could give some indication, but is notalways definitive. Thermal imaging equipment can alsobe used to establish the extent of the damage.

Repair Options » Once the damage is assessed, we canlook at repair options. On painted, non-structural repairssuch as chopped carbon fiber, the procedures are verysimilar to traditional composite repairs currently beingused. Some cosmetic repairs of carbon fiber allow tech-nicians to use a pyramid patch adhesive system. But not




all can be done this way – this repaircould lead to problems on thinnerpanels as carbon fiber contracts andexpands at a certain rate. An adhesivepatch repair will create a thick spotshowing a ghost image of the repair.Knowing the limitations of repairmaterials is critical to success.

Strength of repair considerationsmay be an issue that forces a shopinto a type of repair. These issuescould be, for example, damage allthe way to an edge, limiting thestrength of a conventional repair. Aconventional repair may not meetthe requirements to make the panelitself structurally sound. To make apanel structurally sound again willrequire vacuum bagging. If the partis a weave, then vacuum baggingwill be required to meet strength re-quirements. When choosing a proce-dure, be aware that what themanufacturer requires for repair is

the No. 1 choice. Adhesive repairsystems may not be able to return apanel to its proper strength.

Panel structural repairs using car-bon fiber have two procedures thatare most recommended. One is thewet layup, which has some similar-ities to the old fiberglass repair usinga form of the pyramid patch systemto start with. That’s where the simi-larity ends, however. A vacuumprocess is then used to compressand draw out excess resin.

The other procedure entails usingcloths or weave pre-impregnatedwith resin or prepreg cloth. The onlydifference in this procedure versusthe other one is that the resin is al-ready in the cloth versus the techni-cian applying the material.

Repair Basics » Let’s look at basicsof the repair first before applyingthe material. Procedures will call for

removing all of the damaged area.If the sandwich core is damaged, itwill require replacement.

Tapering of the area will need tobe done. This is where it gets reallyspecific as the number of layers andorientation of the fiber must be con-sidered. The amount of taper perlayer is important. This is where Isaid it’s not difficult, just different. Ishould also say it’s a little time-con-suming. Vehicle manufacturers willhave a specific size of patch accordingto the damage and weave orientationof patches to be applied.

Once the taper is sanded andready, a shop must decide if theywill be using wet layup or prepregcloth. Wet layup is different as thetechnician will be applying resins.The problem is if the repair is resinrich, it will become brittle. Prepregcomes with resin already applied. Itis also frozen and must be thawed




before use. Either way, the “plies orpatches: must be applied in orienta-tion with existing weave to not makestress in repair and to maintain repairstrength.” Layers also called bleedersand breathers are used to make thesystem compress and allow excessresin to be removed when vacuumbagging is applied. This procedureI’ve spelled out is a little abbreviatedas the layers and what they do arespecific, so read the repair proceduresfor a more thorough guide.

With either procedure, the finalprocedures involve curing underheat and pressure. A heating blanketthat can achieve the heat rating forthe product used will be applied,and a vacuum system will applypressure. A thermocoupler will beused to apply heat as needed forramping up to the temperature required and soaking at that tem-perature for a period of time. Once

the soak is complete, a cool-downwill start and the temperature willbe decreased at a controlled rate.The ratio of expansion, contractionand cure is considered all throughoutthe process. The time involved canbe hours for this step. The plies usedwill have compressed and cured,and final refinishing is done follow-ing vacuum bagging.

Just the Basics » Repairing carbonfiber may require other proceduresthat need to be performed to makespecific shapes and sizes. These arejust the highlights of a basic repair.The equipment and training may beexpensive for little payback in thebeginning, but as more vehicles areintroduced and composite use in-creases, repair procedures may catchup or change to help meet cycle timefor shops. Right now, it’s a specialtymarket. Lamborghini has doctors

who fly to where the vehicle is, assessthe damage and repair it if possible.

One factor to consider in carbonfiber is that all these procedures I’velisted are for non-exposed carbonfiber panels. All exposed weave panelsthat suffer damage are not repairableas the weave cannot be lined up.

Because equipment and trainingis limited in the U.S., most proceduresare replace-only on vehicles currentlyin production. But the amount of vehicles are increasing and, fromwhat was shown at the SEMA Show,aftermarket and ground effects com-panies are increasing the use of car-bon fiber. Today’s industry cannotafford to not train and learn as we’removing faster than ever. BSB

Mitch Becker is a technical instructorfor ABRA Auto Body & Glass. Contact him at (763) 585-6411 or [email protected].




By Joe Palumbo

When I began this trade in1976, collision repair profes-sionals were known as body-men and fendermen. Most

of us did what was known as combowork, which meant that you took thejob from start to finish. You straightenedthe frame, replaced or repaired the panelsand, lastly, painted the car. Some of uswere better at painting, some were betterat bodywork or framework. One guydid it all, including those woodgraindecals on those 1970s station wagons.

Now, in our modern world, bodyworkhas become very complex and oftentimesvehicle or model specific. There are manyoperations that body techs simply don’tget paid to perform. These operationsmust be done, so the tech basically doesthem for free. For example, insurers nor-mally know that many clips break or areone-time use, but who pays your tech tochange out 28 clips in a GMC Acadiarocker molding? And that’s just one mold-

ing. Remember, to set up a car and clampthe pinchwelds, you need to remove twomoldings, so that’s 48 clips, plus time toremove the broken ones and replace themwith new ones.

How about nameplates and bodysidemoldings? Insurers will pay to clean andretape the molding, but who pays to re-move the residual adhesive left on thebody? You do, my friend. For all youshop owners and managers who thinkclean and retape means the molding andthe body, remember that just to cleanand retape a molding can take awhile,let alone cleaning residual adhesive froma door, tailgate or fender. These are twoseparate labor operations and should bepaid for as such.

Radiators/Power Steering » Yearsago, when you replaced a radiator youbolted the new one in, filled it withcoolant and you were done. Now, mod-ern vehicles have sophisticated cooling

BUSINESS

It Ain’t the ’70s Anymore

It Ain’t the ’70s Anymore

It’s no longer the’70s. Vehicles are

more sophisticatedtoday, requiring morenecessary proceduresthat we often don’t

get paid for. We needto start demanding to

be compensated.



systems which can develop air pockets. The moderncooling system must be vacuumed much like an air con-ditioning system, filled under a vacuum and then run toensure proper operation of the cooling fans. This cantake 30 minutes or more, tying up a stall. Remember, yougot paid to install a radiator. That in and of itself is adifficult and time-consuming task – made even harder ifyou don’t have the spe-cialized tool to grip thespring-loaded clampsfound on most cars today.Don’t tell me your chan-nellock pliers work justfine. They won’t fit every-where. Trust me, I’ve tried.

This same rule appliesto power steering systems.They must be run forawhile, wheels turned lockto lock multiple times andfluid checked multipletimes. So unless your customer likes their steering gear tohowl like a timber wolf in the north woods, this is anecessary and customary procedure that must be performedwhen the power steering system is opened for any reason.

Wheelhouse Liners » Next, let’s talk about wheelhouseliners. Painters need them out of the car to prevent over-spray, and insurers pay us to remove them, right? If youanswered yes, you’re partially correct. They pay us to re-move and install one time. But our body tech performsthis task twice, the first time prior to the paint workbeing done and the second time during assembly. Andthe .3 that this pays hardly covers the time we spendjacking up the car, supporting it on a stand and removingthe liner. Sometimes you can get paid to remove thewheel if that’s necessary.

How about fire prevention? As techs, we must protectinteriors, seats, carpets, seatbelts and glass from weldingsparks. It takes time to place blankets and protectivewelding paper over all these areas. Our fine insurancepartners seem to have no problem paying a painter todrape a piece of paper over a door jamb, mask jamb ormask engine compartment. They do have a problem payingfor fire protection. What are the repercussions of notmasking a door jamb or engine compartment? Overspray.How about not covering the interior or windshield? Youguessed it. You better have your glass company on speeddial to replace the windshield. A burned seat cover cancost $500 or more at a trim shop. Last time I checked, thedealer wasn’t giving away seatbelts either.

Mock-Up Time » Does anybody know what mock-uptime would be? Let’s say your tech straightens a fender ora quarter panel. It’s Friday, and our delivery day is today.

BUSINESS » It Ain’t the ’70s Anymore


This is the specialized plier toolfor removing the spring clampson modern radiators.


Not a problem, as the vehicle has al-ready been refinished. All that’s left todo is install a headlamp or tail lamp.Uh-oh. Our repaired quarter panel isin about half an inch. The tail lampwon’t fit. You try slotting the lampand moving the other side inboard soit looks correct, but to no avail. It stilllooks like it was straightened by anamateur. You have no choice but tore-repair the quarter panel and refinishit again. This time, you’ll test fit ormock up the tail lamp.

There are a lot of programs on cablepertaining to restoration and customshops. These guys are professionals inevery sense of the word and still feelthe need to check and double-checktheir workmanship. Why shouldn’twe do the same and, more importantly,be compensated accordingly?

Aftermarket Parts » Allow me toaddress aftermarket headlamps.

They’re a great savings for insurers.Some are even comparable in appear-ance to original equipment. The mainissue with aftermarket headlamps isthat most, if not all, come withoutwiring harnesses and bulbs. Your techis paid .3 to install a headlamp, butthat’s assuming it’s plug and play. Notso in my experience. A tech is respon-sible to transfer the wiring, check bulbsand hope they fit in the imitation head-lamp. Hopefully, the harness isn’t dam-aged because your headlamp did notcome with a harness.

Let’s touch on like, kind and quality(LKQ) and used parts. GM Bulletin#B 06-08-51-005 pertains to caulkingOE and LKQ parts. Some foreign man-ufacturers still caulk their replacementparts. General Motors doesn’t. GM requires a minimum bead thicknessand width for the caulked seam. Thisis very difficult and requires the LKQor OE part to be masked. This is defi-

nitely something we, as repair profes-sionals, should be compensated for.Caulk, tape, labor.

Get With the Times » As vehiclesbecome more complex, our compen-sation should be more in line withthe times. It ain’t the ‘70s anymore,guys. BSB

Joe Palumbo is a body and frame technicianwith Haggerty Buick GMC. He can bereached at [email protected].

BUSINESS » It Ain’t the ’70s Anymore


This is a 2013 Buick Enclave I mocked up inorder to make sure the headlamp fit beforerepairing the fender.


ranked 12th and 13th, respectively.

USAA nudged up froma C+ to a B- this year,jumping from sixth placeto third, its best showingever in the survey. “Theyreally care about their cus-tomers,” one shop noted.

Farmers Insurance wasthe only insurer to re-ceive a D+ this year,keeping it at the bottomof the rankings for thethird year in a row.

“Just as medicalproviders see how healthinsurers take care of pa-tients, collision repairshops interact with autoinsurers on a daily basis,so we feel it’s worthwhileto ask how those insurerstreat Oregon drivers afteran accident,” said Bar-bara Crest, NATA execu-tive director. “We believetheir views will be help-ful to insurance compa-nies and consumers.”

About 500 collision re-pair shops throughoutthe state received the sur-vey. Crest pointed to anumber of items of inter-est in the findings of thelatest survey:

� In addition to USAA,two other insurers sawtheir grades improve fromthe 2013 survey. GEICO(which had a D+ in 2012)and Safeco each nudgedup to a C this year, upfrom a C- last year.

� Though State Farm’sdrop was the most se-vere, seven other insurerssaw their grades declinethis year. Travelers wasranked fourth last yearwith a B-, but fell to a Cthis year. American Fami-ly, Allstate and Esurance

(which is owned by All-state) each dropped froma C to a C-. Shops citedinconsistency in theclaims staff and policiesat these companies.

� Progressive has con-tinued to work its way upthe list, having had a D+or worse (and the lowestor second-lowest rank-ing) in every survey be-tween 2004 and 2009. Itwas 16th on the list in2012, eighth last year andfifth this year.

� Farmers received an“F” from about one-in-four shops, the most fail-ing grades received byany insurer. (By compari-son, Allstate and Es-urance, the otherlowest-graded insurers,each received about halfas many Fs as Farmers).

� About one-in-threeshops gave Oregon Mu-tual and Mutual ofEnumclaw a grade of“A.” Last year, StateFarm received an “A”from well over half ofshops, but this year lessthan one-in-four shopsgave it an “A” grade.

� In most cases, thegrades given to a particu-lar insurer from shops in-volved in that insurer’sDRP were higher thanthose given by shops thatare not part of that insur-er’s program. This wasparticularly true withCalifornia Casualty andUSAA; their DRP shopsgave them grades of A- orbetter while non-DRPshops gave each of theseinsurers a C and C+, re-spectively. But evenFarmers Insurance directrepair shops gave that in-surer only a C.



Northwest continued from pg. 12


“Collision repairers saythe insurers receiving thehighest grades – which in-clude both larger andsmaller insurance compa-nies – do the best job oftaking care of Oregondrivers after an accident,”Crest said. “We hope con-sumers will take these rat-

ings into account whenchoosing an auto insurer,and that insurers that re-ceived lower grades willwork to improve their per-formance.”

More than 50 shopsthroughout Oregon re-sponded to the survey.



And that’s when Briggs decided that there had to bean easier way. He ventured to Lowe’s the very nextmorning, bought some PVC tubing and some mag-nets, and crafted his first edition of The Tape Thing – amagnetic placeholder for tape that can be adhered toand removed from cars so that it’s within reach at alltimes. It keeps tape securely in place without causingdamage to the vehicles, resolving the issue of poten-tially losing or ruining a $10 roll of tape.

Since the birth of that first prototype, Briggs hasworked with an industrial designer to draw up andproduce about 1,500 Tape Things out of his ownhome. The newest version features three magnets andsome anti-skids on the back.

“Right now, we’re building them ourselves becauseI really want to control the quality aspect of it and un-derstand the process before I get it out there,” he said.

The now-patented Tape Thing is the most recent in-vention to come out of Briggs’ side business, CollisionEdge. The company produces products designed tomake collision repairers’ lives much easier – andthey’ve all stemmed from pure observation.

“I’ve always tried to solve problems of customersfor years and years so I thought, ‘You know what, I’mgonna start patenting some of this stuff,’” he said.“Collision Edge kind of grew out of that need, tryingto find solutions that weren’t there, and it just contin-ues to grow.”

Aside from The Tape Thing, Collision Edge alsomanufactures:

The Estimating Stick – A product that’s designed tohelp photo locate emblems and decals to improve effi-ciency.

The Dent Sizer – A tool designed to give scale tophotos to accurately represent damage.

The Dent Viewer – A repair planning tool that’sused to help capture dents. A grid is printed on a re-flective board that captures camera flash and illumi-nates the grid onto the damaged panel.

The Blend Stick – A tool that measures the finalrepair area on a vehicle and determine if there is

Tape Thing continued from pg. 12


room to blend within the dam-aged panel.

While it’s still early in its life,Collision Edge is diligently work-ing to grow its customer base andspread the word about its prod-ucts. Briggs has promoted TheTape Thing on social media outletssuch as Facebook and Twitter, and

through the company’s brand-newwebsite: collisionedge.com. SinceBriggs distributes PPG products,he also gets promotion from thepaint manufacturer through itsGreen Belt classes. His next stepwill be to get in touch with somenational warehouses to distributethe product, and he anticipates that

The Tape Thing could even extendbeyond the collision repair indus-try and into other markets.

“I think that any time you solveproblems for customers, you win,”said Briggs. “I spent a ton of mon-ey on it. I’m scared to death, but Ireally feel like every shop in thecountry is going to have one.”



Farmers Insurance Drops MostFavored Customer Clause fromNew DRP Agreements

Following Farmers Insurance’sdecision to remove Most Fa-vored Nation (customer) clausesfrom insurer direct repair pro-grams, Dan Risley, AutomotiveService Association (ASA) presi-dent and executive director,sent a letter of thanks to JeffreyDailey, Farmers’ chief executiveofficer.

Generally, Most Favored Na-tion (MFN) clauses stipulatethat should a provider give abottom-line discount, rebate orother estimate discount on therepair costs to any insurer, thesame or better bottom-line dis-count must be given to the in-surer proposing the DRPagreement. The elimination ofMFN clauses has long been apolicy priority for ASA.

“We are very pleased thatFarmers has removed the MFNclause from the DRP agree-ments," said Risley. "I want topersonally thank you and theFarmers team for your leader-ship in eliminating these claus-es, which have become asignificant burden for ASAmembers.”

ASA’s collision leaders havemade several trips to Washing-ton, D.C., to discuss eliminatingthe clauses with congressionalleaders, the U.S. Department ofJustice and the Federal TradeCommission.

Miracle System


ProductSpotlight


[email protected]

www.equipmentgateway.com

1.866.588.7599

M iracle System is a system of panel repair tools developedover 30 years ago in Japan by Star co. It provides – on mobiletrolleys – all the tools required to make a panelrepair regardless of the tools individual technicians

may have. The technician can move to a job knowing he hasall the tools in place without having to return to his toolboxfor hammers or grinders. The various beams and pullersallow you to pull anywhere on the vehicle and keep thepanel under tension while you do the hammering. Miracletools are made out of titanium and aluminum. This propri-etary alloy is then cast into the various tools so they areboth strong and light weight. These tools are made withoutcompromise for the harsh body shop environment.

M iracle Aluminum takes today’s expectations of the degreeof aluminum damage that can be repaired to a wholenew level. Using argon shield and lift arc technology,the Miracle Aluminum welder attaches a slotted key to

the aluminum panel in a one-step MIG weld. The alloy of key useddepends on the panel being repaired. The key becomes one withthe panel but remains flexible so it does not pull holes when undertension. With a good grip on the panel, deeper and more severedamages than dings and dents can easily be repaired using aselection of Miracle System pulling tools.

Miracle System is imported to the USA by Equipment Gatewayand is sold through a network of distributors. Equipment Gatewayis your gateway to innovative products for collision repair fromaround the world.

The only thing better than a new panel is the original.

Miracle AluminumNot just for dings and dents.

A recent report showswhile the number of unin-sured motorists on theroad has decreased in thepast decade, the cost of be-ing uninsured has risen.

The report, “UninsuredMotorists, 2014 Edition,”shows that the percentageof uninsured U.S. mo-torists fell to 12.6 percent in2012 from 15 percent nineyears earlier. However, thereport estimates that $2.6billion was paid to cover

uninsured motorist claimsin 2012 – a 75 percent in-crease over the 2003-2012period studied. That num-ber, according to the re-port, only accounts forbodily injury paymentsand not property damage.There are roughly 30 mil-lion uninsured motorists inthe U.S. – a number thatrepresents roughly one ineight drivers.

The report doesn’t offer areason for these numbers;

however, the economyseems to be at play. Re-searchers noted that, lead-ing up to the most recentrecession, a 1 percent in-crease in the nation’s un-employment ratecorrelated with a .5 percentincrease in insured mo-torists. Yet during the reces-sion, the ratio of uninsuredmotorists to bodily injuryclaims decreased.

In addition, the reportshows that some stateswith higher unemploy-ment rates have higher ra-tios of uninsured motoriststo bodily injury claim fre-quency: Oklahoma, Missis-sippi, Florida, NewMexico, Michigan and Ten-nessee. Also, some of themost populated states have

higher numbers of unin-sured motorists:

� California (4.1 million)� Florida (3.2 million)� Texas (1.6 million)� Ohio (1.3 million)� Tennessee (1.2 million)“Motorists who forgo

purchasing insurance createa problem that is of greatconcern to auto insurancepolicyholders, insurers, reg-ulators and the generalpublic,” the report states.“In addition to paying forinsurance that covers theirown actions, insured driv-ers pay a portion of thecosts incurred by driverswithout insurance throughuninsured motorist (UM)coverage. For insurers, costsassociated with UM claimscan be substantial.”



NationalReport Reveals Uninsured MotoristsStill a Persistent Problem


The Automotive Manage-ment Institute (AMI) re-cently honored its 20thclass of Accredited Auto-motive Managers (AAMs).The graduating class of2014 includes 68 automo-tive service and repair pro-fessionals who earned theinstitute’s AAM designa-tion by successfully com-pleting AMI courses andaccumulating a minimumof 120 credits.

The continuing educa-tion offered by the institutehelps automotive serviceprofessionals improvetheir business manage-ment skills. In addition to

providing business man-agement classes, AMI of-fers the AAM designation,the industry’s first businesseducation accreditation.AMI courses concentrateon five core areas of busi-ness management educa-tion: financialmanagement, marketingand sales, operations andservice, management andadministration, and per-sonnel and human re-source development.

“It is my pleasure to rec-ognize these individualsfor their accomplishment,”said AMI Chairman TonyPasswater. “The profes-

sionalism and commit-ment of these men andwomen truly make theman asset to our industry.”

Added AMI ExecutiveDirector Toni Slaton,AAM, “This elite group ofautomotive service profes-sionals joins the 1,726 be-fore them whounderstand and respectthe significance continu-ing education has on theircareer and business suc-

cess. It was an honor torecognize these graduatesfor the value they place ontheir education.”

The graduation tookplace during the Automo-tive Service Association’s“Celebration of Excel-lence” award ceremonyAug. 1 at the Henry FordMuseum in Dearborn,Mich. – a site near ASA’sNACE | CARS 2014 indowntown Detroit.



AMI Honors 20th Class of

Accredited Automotive Managers

The 2014 graduating class of 68 automotive service and repairprofessionals.


The Society of Collision RepairSpecialists (SCRS), SkillsUSA andSEMA have awarded an expenses-paid trip for two to the SEMAShow to automotive instructor

Sandy Martin of Starmount HighSchool in Boonville, N.C.

The “Mega-Prize” was awardedfor the third consecutive year at the100% Advisor Reception this past

June. The prize package donatedby SCRS and SEMA included twoVisa gift cards for airline expenses,two hotel rooms, two passes for the2014 SEMA Show and two full-se-ries passes to the SCRS RepairerDriven Education (RDE) series.

Martin had joked only minutes be-fore the winning announcement thathis friends could give up because hewould be the lucky recipient.

“I’ve never won anything before,”said Martin. “I was just kiddingaround, and then it became real! I’veread all about the work SCRS is do-ing at SEMA, and I’ve seen the showon TV and in all sorts of magazines.I’ve always wanted to go, but neverthought that I would have the op-portunity to attend it. This is such agreat opportunity to take in and beable to bring back to my kids thisyear. I’m speechless with gratitude.SkillsUSA is such a rewarding pro-gram to even be able to participatein, and then to walk away withmore opportunities like this is justindescribable.”

In addition to the Mega-Prize, allstudent competitors and sponsor-ing schools will be receiving a com-plimentary one-year membershipto SCRS so that they can remainconnected to the ongoing activitieswithin the industry.

For collision repair instructorswho have an interest in attendingSCRS’ RDE series at the SEMAShow, the association has part-nered with the SEMA Show to offerthem a discounted full-series passto the education programs. Quali-fied educators who make arrange-ments directly through JulietMarshall, education administratorfor SEMA, at [email protected] willreceive full access to all SCRS RDEregular sessions for only $50. Ad-mission into SCRS’ OEM CollisionRepair Technology Summit willalso be discounted to $50 as well.



SkillsUSA, SCRS, SEMA Award North Carolina High SchoolInstructor with Free Trip to Show


ABRA Auto Body &Glass and its principalowner, Palladium Equi-ty Partners LLC, haveannounced a definitiveagreement for ABRA tobe acquired by affiliatesof Hellman & FriedmanLLC, along with ABRA’ssenior managementteam.

ABRA’s nationwidenetwork includes 186company-owned vehicledamage repair centersand 48 franchised cen-ters in 19 states.

“It is with the dedicat-ed work of our employ-ees, the trust of ourcustomers, and thetremendous support ofour insurance partnersthat ABRA has becomean iconic name in autobody and glass repair inthe three decades sinceits founding,” said Du-ane Rouse, presidentand chief executive offi-cer of ABRA. “Hellman& Friedman brings deepinsurance and automo-tive service industry ex-

pertise and an exempla-ry record of helpingcompanies such asABRA continue toevolve and grow. Welook forward to workingtogether to build on ourtrack record of success.”

“Within the $30 bil-lion collision repair sec-tor, ABRA stands out asa highly-respected, ex-ceptionally well-runbusiness,” said Erik Ra-gatz, managing directorof Hellman & Friedman.“Built on a foundation

of delivering superiorstandards for repairquality and customerservice, ABRA has be-come a trusted partnerof leading automotiveinsurers and a reliablesource for quality colli-sion repair servicesacross the nation. Wesee outstanding growthprospects ahead andlook forward to partner-ing with ABRA’s teamto continue to executeon their strategic plan.”

The transaction is ex-pected to close in thethird quarter of 2014and is subject to cus-tomary conditions.



ConsolidationABRA Auto Body & Glass to Be Acquired by Private Equity Firm


Caliber Collision Centers has announced that theircontinued expansion in existing and new markets hasresulted in the opening of a new location in the

greater Houston area.Caliber’s new Tomball location, with over 15,000 square

feet of space, opened for business on Aug. 18. It employsthe latest innovations in collision repairs with 19 servicebays, two heated paint booths and more than 30 parkingspaces for Caliber’s customers and partners.

“Today’s Tomball opening allows us to restore even more

Houston-area customers to the rhythm of their lives, as wedeliver on our commitment to expand customer choice whileproviding industry-leading metrics in every market we serve,”said Caliber CEO Steve Grimshaw.

Added Mark Sanders, Caliber’s president and chiefoperating officer, “Our new Tomball center brings CaliberCollision’s total number of Texas locations to 63 and 182across the Caliber network as we continue to grow into thecollision repair provider of choice in the eight states wenow serve.”

country,” said DuaneRouse, ABRA’s presidentand CEO. “We are delight-ed to continue expandingin markets and showingcustomers our innovativeservice model.”

Added Scott Krohn,

ABRA executive VP of op-erations, “ABRA’s reputa-tion is built on provenprocesses and our com-mitment to excellence. Wecontinue to grow becausewe have the expertise andexperience needed to besuccessful in the collisionrepair industry.”



Caliber Collision Opens New Collision Repair Center In Houston Region

ABRA Auto Body & Glass Adds Three Locations

ABRA Auto Body & Glassannounced the purchaseof White Auto Body repaircenters in Florissant andO’Fallon, Mo., and Fayet-teville Collision in Fayet-teville, N.C. Theseacquisitions increase

ABRA’s repair center port-folio to 237 in 19 states.

“Acquiring these threecenters today reinforcesour growth strategy andunderscores our commit-ment to servicing cus-tomers across the


PPG has announced thatregistration is now openfor the Fall MVP Busi-ness Solutions Confer-

ence, taking place Sept. 21-23 atthe Gaylord Opryland Resort andConvention Center in Nashville,Tenn.

“To continue to assist in our cus-tomers’ development as they pre-pare for new challenges and excelin the collision repair business isour principal goal,” said JimBerkey, PPG, director, MVP Busi-ness Solutions. “By staying not justtwo but several steps ahead of thecompetition is what will provide asustainable business model for ourcustomers’ future.”

The conference will begin withthe MVP Randy Dewing Memori-al Golf Tournament at the Gay-lord Springs Golf Links followedby a welcome reception.

Practical and dynamic break-out sessions include:

� Making Change Happen� Get More From Your Gen

Y(oung) Workforce� Estimate Evolution� DRP Compliance Training –

A Roadmap to Success with DRP Relations

� Culture and Service theRocks!

� Becoming a Talkable Brand� Superpower Success!� Aluminum – The Future of

Automotive DesignThe comprehensive conference

schedule is also highlighted byprominent keynote speakers Peter Sheahan, Ross Shafer andRoss Bernstein.

In his keynote address titled“FL!P: Creative Strategies: ForTurning Challenge Into Opportu-nity And Change Into Competi-tive Advantage,” Sheahan, aNational Speakers AssociationHall of Fame recipient who isknown internationally for inspir-ing innovative business thinking



CorporateRegistration for PPG MVP BusinessSolutions Fall Conference Now Open


and creating lasting behaviorchange, will explore best prac-tices from multiple industriesthat have experienced similartransformative change and un-pack the key insights fromthose who profited from thechange compared to those whohave become victim to it.

Shafer will deliver an ad-dress called, “The Future OfGrowth Is To Be A PeripheralVisionary,” which delivers theknow-how to help your teamfind new opportunities fromoutside your immediate scope,even when you’re under ex-treme pressure. This sessionexplores ideas to eliminatedangerous tunnel vision, toharvest an endless supply ofgood ideas, how to find com-petitors in your blind spot, andways to capitalize on yourcompetitors’ weaknesses.

“The Champion’s Code: LifeLessons of Ethics and Account-ability from the Sports Worldto the Business World,” is theclosing headline presented byBernstein, who will get atten-dees thinking about their ownDNA – and about the differen-tiators they possess that wouldultimately lead customers tochoose to do business withthem. At the core of his mes-sage is the simple fact that welike to do business with peoplewho we trust, who we like,and who just “get it.”

The conference is open toowners and managers of colli-sion centers using PPG Refin-ish products. To register, visitwww.ppgmvp.com.


78 September 2014 | BodyShop BusinessCircle 78 for Reader Service Circle 100 for Reader Service

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Axalta Coating Systems anddriver Jeff Gordon notched an-other win at Michigan Interna-tional Speedway (MIS) on

August 17, 2014, the third win of theseason and 91st career win for the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

Record-breaking speed led Gordon tocapture a second pole position of theseason, making it his sixth at MIS andhis 76th career pole. Brilliant Flameswas dominant the entire weekend,clocking top speeds in practice.

“So much credit goes to [crew chief]Alan [Gustafson] and the Axalta Racingcrew,” Gordon said. “Those buildingthe chassis, the bodies, the engines –

everyone at Hendrick Motorsports – areon top of their game right now. We’vebeen bringing great race cars to thetrack every weekend which makes it alot of fun.”

“This has been a magical year forAxalta,” said Wade Robinson, Axaltastrategic marketing and racing direc-tor. “We are pleased to have the oppor-tunity to bring customers to theseevents to experience the excitement ofracing and the thrills of winning. Wecannot be more proud of our partner-ship with Hendrick Motorsports. Welook forward to our next sponsoredrace in Talladega in October. We paintwinners!”

O’Reilly AutomotiveJoins CCC TRUE PartsNetworkCCC Information Serviceshas announced that O’ReillyAutomotive, Inc. has signedon to join the CCC TRUEParts Network, an electronicautomotive parts quotingand eProcurement networkthat connects auto partssuppliers with CCC’s cus-tomer base of collisionrepairers.

O’Reilly Automotive, Inc.,one of the largest specialtyretailers of automotive after-market parts, tools,supplies, equipment andaccessories in the U.S., isthe first mechanical partssupplier to join the CCCTRUE Parts Network, addingits mechanical andaftermarket inventory to theoptions collision repairerscan view and purchase fromwithin CCC ONE RepairWorkflow.

“Reducing the time ittakes to review and orderparts is vital to the contin-ued improvement and



Axalta Coating Systems and JeffGordon Notch Third Win of Season


growth of the collision industry,” saidTony Bartholomew, senior vice presi-dent of professional sales, O’ReillyAuto Parts. “Collision repairers nowhave the opportunity to pull inventoryfrom over 4,200 O’Reilly stores and25 distribution centers from within

the CCC ONE Workflow application.O’Reilly Auto Parts has a commit-ment to provide quality aftermarketparts and excellent customer serviceto the collision repair industry, andthis platform provides us withanother avenue through which we

can continue meeting this goal.”“O’Reilly Automotive is a national

leader in the automotive aftermarketparts industry, and we’re very excitedto have them join the CCC TRUE PartsNetwork,” said David Boden, vice presi-dent, CCC’s Parts Services Group. “Theaddition of O’Reilly marks our forayinto mechanical parts and serves asthe perfect complement to the dozensof other national, regional and localmarket suppliers we have in the net-work today. Our goal with the CCCTRUE Parts Network is to offer the col-lision repair industry choice and con-venience when it comes to partsprocurement and today marks anotherimportant step in that vision.”




Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive FinishesAnnounces 2014 Q4Training Schedule

Sherwin-Williams AutomotiveFinishes has announced its latestcourses and training sites for thefourth quarter 2014, with the suiteof courses available from Oct. 6through Dec. 15.

Participants will learnthrough a combination of class-room, digital and hands-on set-tings at the variousmetropolitan Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive Finishes trainingcenters. Training is designed forand available to shop owners,managers, painters and techni-cians, all of whom can alsochoose to advance their busi-ness-building, production-excel-lence and/or paint applicationtechniques as needed.

The following hands-on, paintand processes application-basedcourses will be offered during thefourth quarter:

� AWX Performance Plus Waterborne Refinish System

� Color Adjustment and Blending

� Painter Certification

Tec/BASE® Premium RefinishSystem from Martin Senour


ProductSpotlight


www.martinsenour-autopaint.comor call 1-800-526-6704.

The Tec/BASE® Premium Refinish System targets shopsthat want the highest performance, color match and pro-ductivity. From spot repairs to overall finishes, theTec/BASE Premium Refinish System is an easy-to-apply,

fast-drying system that uses state-of-the-art resin technology. Supported by premium undercoats and clearcoats, the

Tec/BASE Premium Refinish System offers industry-leadingspeed, performance and quality. Available in basecoat andsingle stage technologies, Tec/BASE Premium Refinish Systemis supported by OEM certifications, a limited lifetime guarantee,and has decades of success in the collision repair, custom andrestoration, fleet and commercial, and industrial and manu-facturing markets.

TEC/BASE Premium Refinish System Features: � Excellent color match – OEM alignment� Highly productive – easy to use / minimal coats� Fast color retrieval – supported by PROSPECTOR® and

FormulaExpress® color tools� Versatile technology – basecoat or single stage� Renowned durability – global OEM warranty approvals� IP Process™ – time, labor, and energy savings

Martin Senour Automotive Finishes provides products forvarious automotive, fleet and manufacturing refinishing seg-ments. Martin Senour is the exclusive supplier of automotiverefinish products to NAPA. Together, they provide the singlesource for all your automotive and refinish needs.

For more information specific to Martin Senour paint products, visit:

by individuals, weredropped from a helicop-ter above a green, andwhoever’s ball was clos-est to the pin won 23percent of the total golfball sales. The winningball was sponsored byMarie Peevy, and shegraciously donated halfof her $1,700 winningsback to the EducationFoundation.

“This is the sixth con-secutive year we’ve co-hosted the CollisionRepair Education Foun-dation’s industryfundraiser,” saidDomenic Brusco, PPGAutomotive Refinish,senior manager, industryrelations. “It is great tosee the industry collec-

tively support this eventand raise a significantamount of funds to as-sist high school and col-lege collision students,programs and instruc-tors nationwide.”

The Collision Repair

Education Foundation isalready starting to planfor the 2015 event, andthe date and locationshould be announced inthe coming months. Indi-viduals and companiesinterested in getting in-

volved with next year’sfundraiser should contactEducation FoundationDirector of DevelopmentBrandon Eckenrode at (847) 463-5244 [email protected].


84 September 2014 | BodyShop BusinessCircle 84 for Reader Service Circle 103 for Reader Service

Atlas Copco Announces Leadership Change forU.S. Oil-Free Air Division

Atlas Copco Compres-sors has appointed NeilBreedlove vice president,business line manager forits U.S. oil-free air division.

“Neil brings over 28years of experience in oil-free air, and has workedwith many of the indus-tries that require oil-free

air for critical processes,including oil and gas,power generation, steelfabrication, food andbeverage, semiconductor,air separation and auto-motive,” said JohnBrookshire, president,Atlas Copco Compres-sors LLC. “His experi-ence in all aspects of the

business line will servehim as he works to growthe oil-free air businessaccording to our short-and long-term businessgoals.”

In his new position,Breedlove will be respon-sible for continuing thedevelopment and growthof the company’s oil-free

Circle 122 for Reader Service »

Additional shop man-agement and business-building courses will alsobe offered:

� Improving Perform-ance with KPIs

� Achieving Service Ex-cellence

� Estimating Solutionsfor Profit

“All of our courses thisyear reflect the Sherwin-Williams philosophy oflean operations,” says RodHabel, Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive Finishes di-rector of training opera-tions. “We’re alwaysseeking to introduce con-cepts that support sustain-able practices, increaseproductivity and mini-mize or even eliminate


www.bodyshopbusiness.com 85Circle 85 for Reader Service Circle 102 for Reader Service

waste – all factors that arenecessary to the success ofa collision center.”

The upcoming curricu-lum has a strong emphasison the company’s AWXPerformance Plus water-borne coatings technology.

According to Sherwin-Williams, the system pro-vides excellent colormatch, quick flash timesbetween coats and re-quires minimal time in, oreven eliminates, the bak-ing cycle. Other classes fo-

cusing on painting excel-lence, including hands-onapplication techniques, in-clude its ULTRA 7000, Di-mensions and ATXrefinish systems, as well asits Genesis fleet refinish-ing systems.

Collision Repair Education Foundation’s 13th AnnualFundraiser Co-Hosted by PPG Raises Record $85,000

The thirteenth annual Collision Re-pair Education Foundation indus-try fundraiser, co-hosted by PPG

Automotive Refinish, raised a record$85,000 through the support of atten-dees and sponsors. Sponsors and partic-ipants enjoyed a day of golf atNorthville Hills Golf Club in Northville,Mich., on July 31, 2014, and the fundsraised from the event will go toward

supporting scholarships and grants forcollision schools and students.

There were also several additionalbig winners during the event. At-tendee Rick Johnson won $10,000 atthe AirBagSolutions.com-sponsoredhole-in-one contest by sinking his shot.The second annual helicopter golf balldrop, sponsored by LORD Fusor, waspart of the event. Golf balls, sponsored

« Circle 123 for Reader Service

air business in the U.S.He will also be responsi-ble for maintaining astrong sales and market-ing team to develop andimplement business de-velopment goals in accor-

dance with the oil-freeair division’s targets andobjectives.

Breedlove was previ-ously the manager ofCTS Service Sales –Southern Region and

served as the regionalsales manager for boththe industrial and oil-freeair division. He began hiscareer at Atlas Copco as adesign assembly and testengineer within the oil-

free engineering groupand was part of the teamresponsible for the fin-ished build-out of boththe standard and cus-tomized oil-free Z seriescompressor.




Nitroheat Expands in Oregon

Nitroheat, a manufacturer and distributor of heatednitrogen systems, thermal controllers, filters anddryers for spray painting, is expanding into Ore-

gon with bigger and better facilities in line with its strate-gic growth in the Pacific Northwest region.

The relocation to a 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-artmanufacturing warehouse located in Wilsonville, Ore.,will accommodate an expanding inventory and order fulfillment.

“This strategic relocation is critical to address thegrowing demand that we have experienced over thepast two years,” said Nitroheat CEO Derek Naidoo.

“Our solutions have been extremely well-received byusers of both water- and solvent-based paint. The con-tinued efforts of our distributors have been instrumen-tal in the growth of the company. We will continue todevelop our distribution networks in North Americaand Europe to ensure that our products are available toall sectors of the collision industry. We believe that allspray painting facilities should be using our productfor improved productivity, improved efficiency and im-proved quality. Lastly is the environmental benefits de-rived from the reduction of overspray when using our technology.”



By Jason Stahl

BodyShop Business recently spoke with Auda-Explore about some of their latest product of-ferings and how those products are targetingtrends in the collision repair industry.

In the discussion with Gordon Henderson, vicepresident of collision repair solutions for AudaEx-plore, many hot topics concerning the world of esti-mating came up – from data sharing to predictiveanalytics to mobile technology.

BodyShop Business: Regarding the recent launchof your MSO-specific BMS, why are you focusing onthe MSO segment of the collision repair market?

Gordon Henderson: There are several reasons we’readding focus to MSOs. First, we’ve looked at the mar-ketplace, and in a large way, we believe the MSOs areunderserved because most of the solutions being cre-ated by the vendors in the space are typically focused

on single shops’ operations because there are so manythousands of them.

Second, the expansion of MSOs is accelerating. Atthe halfway point this year, MSOs have already ex-panded their location count by the same number ofstores as they did the last calendar year. Private andpublic investment is fueling that growth, and there ap-pears to be no end in sight.

The third reason we’re adding focus on MSOs is theinsurance companies clearly see them as key partnersin their business. MSOs process somewhere around 35to 40 percent of the DRP transactions in the market-place, yet they only represent 12 to 13 percent of thetotal shop location count. Insurance claims, like ourrepair business, are very important to us, so we canalso help insurance companies by helping their strate-gic partners, the MSOs. But we never lose sight of thefact that having a strong network of quality, geograph-ically diverse single-shop operators is always criticalto our success and the success of our partners.

BSB: It seems like you no longer want to just be an esti-mating system because you’re coming out with a lot ofproducts geared toward being a full solution provider. Isthis true?

GH: We’ve never been just an ‘estimating’ company,bur rather a solutions company for the repair industry.As the needs and challenges of our industry change,we want to provide clearly differentiated and value-generating solutions and have them all be fully inte-grated. But honestly, we see very interesting trendshappening in estimating. We believe there will be aday where we’ll see a disruptive shift in how we esti-mate auto physical damage, so we’re building the nextgeneration of estimating. Frankly, we’re working toput ourselves out of part of our traditional business ina way and come up with the next step in estimating.We think data is a big part of the coming disruption,and we’re investing substantially in that area. You’llsee a lot more news coming in the next six months orso around what we’re doing with data. But data iswhat we see in terms of predictive analytics and simi-lar technologies that will really kind of change howwe estimate auto physical damage. It will look a lotdifferent in five to 10 years.

BSB: Speaking of data, are you familiar with repairers’concerns over data sharing when they upload estimates toinsurers and their push for BMS vs. EMS? What is Auda-Explore’s stance on that issue?

AudaExplore Addresses Data Sharing,Predictive Analytics and Mobile Technology

BSB: In regard to your Driver Ex-perience solutions, what is your senseof where the market is heading withmobile technology?

GH: Our assessment is that mo-bile technology is exploding. Gen-eration Y leads the pack in termsof the adoption of mobile and so-cial technologies, but the othergenerations follow right behind.In fact, the boomers and silentgeneration are the highest growtharea of smart phone usage – cer-tainly at a lower take rate thenGeneration Y or X, but they’re in-creasing very rapidly.

We’ve had the Driver Experi-ence platform solution in use withthe AutoWatch app for severalyears now, and the majority ofshops on that program use themobile app. The reason is because


www.bodyshopbusiness.com 89Circle 105 for Reader Service


GH: EMS and BMS are very dif-ferent. EMS has been around a longtime and is based on a DBASE4 fileformat, which is clunky. When youexport data with this format, youget everything that the software ex-porting data has available in the file,so it’s not very flexible. The BMSformat allows for a lot more flexibil-ity, but you still have to have part-ners who both talk that samelanguage and agree on what piecesof data will be sent and received.

The issue of BMS vs. EMS hasbeen a little oversimplified in themarket. To say if you just use BMS,everything will be fine is not reallytrue. With BMS, you can sendeverything too. It’s all up to the soft-ware design that does the exportingin terms of what it includes.

And the challenges are big there.We conduct BMS transactions allthe time. Most of the back-end in-tegrations we do are BMS. We defi-nitely are in support of CIECA andthe BMS standard, we just need tosee more adoption in the industry.Until we have more partners whoare willing to trade it directly outof the estimating system and thengive them control over that output,we won’t see a lot of movement.

The other thing about data is it’snot necessarily about what we canextract from the shop in terms ofanything about the vehicle owneror rates, which I think is a lot ofwhat shops are concerned about,especially that they’re beingjudged and forced to participate ina DRP to accept certain rates, andit’s all coming from EMS data.That’s not at all what we’re talkingabout. Our licensing agreementsclearly state the terms and limita-tions we impose on ourselves onthis issue. What we’re talkingabout is taking a look at patterns inrepairs. When you replace thisfender, let’s take a look at all theother parts around that fender tohelp guide appraisers to determinewhether repair or replace is theright option.

most estimators’, shop managers’and body techs’ phones are sittingright in their pocket or next to thetool box, so they already havethem handy and it’s more conven-ient for them to operate programslike that from a mobile device.We’re still very much in thegrowth stage. Shops have some-times been a little slow to adoptsome of these technologies, butwe’re seeing exploding growth inthis area.

BSB: Is the collision industry em-bracing this technology? What is yoursense of how these new products arebeing received by the industry?

GH: I think there’s a significantsegment of the shop populationthat’s realizing they have to adaptor they’ll be left on the sidelines.

As you look at the consolidationhappening in the market and thegrowth in DRP networks and theincreasing complexity of vehicleswith substantially higher amountsof aluminum and other complexmaterials, shops are going to haveto make significant investmentsand shifts in how they do businessin order to survive.

Vehicle complexity continues toevolve and grow. It’s a lot morechallenging to bring someone onboard and train them to do a goodestimate and quality repair, so ifshops aren’t willing to leveragetechnology to help them do theirjob more efficiently and with high-er quality, they’ll be on the side-

lines. And I think more and moreshops are realizing that. We areseeing the adoption of newer tech-nologies growing. It’s human na-ture to be reluctant to change, andthat’s probably true in most indus-tries, but we’re starting to see thedisruption happen; it started hap-pening several years ago. But newtechnology shouldn’t be adoptedby shops because it’s cool or neat,it should be adopted because it’sadding leverage in their businessto let them do repairs faster, withhigher quality, more accurate, and,at the end of the day, have highercustomer satisfaction – what we atAudaExplore call winning the 'Eraof Disruption.'




After two sold out EcoLean Workshops, Sherwin-Williams Auto-motive Finishes has announced that the next EcoLean Level 1workshop will be held Sept. 16-17, 2014 in Phoenix, Ariz., at thePhoenix Airport Marriott and Swift Transportation.

The EcoLean Level 1 workshops are offered to collision centerowners and dealer managers from across the U.S. and Canadaand are designed to educate attendees on how to maximize prof-itability by improving production and eliminating wastethroughout their facilities.

“Our goal is for our attendees to leave the two-day event inspired,confident and armed with the necessary tools to immediately in-crease the quality and production output of their businesses,” saysGreg Eisenhardt, Sherwin-Williams A-Plus Network marketing manager.

At this particular training session, the Phoenix EcoLean Level 1workshop curriculum will include a facility tour of Swift Trans-portation’s "Best in Class" extensive repair center, as well as specifictopics which include:

� Improving Workshop Efficiency – The history of lean produc-tion, and its practical application in collision repair

� Principles of 5S – Methods of making your facility more efficient and consistent

� Building a Lean Culture – How to build a lean culture fromthe ground up

� Overcoming Lean Implementation Challenges – Roundtablediscussion with consultants

Next Sherwin-Williams EcoLeanLevel 1 Workshop Set for Phoenix

Blackstone, which ac-quired Service KingCollision Repair Cen-ters in July, announced

the acquisition of Alliance Au-tomotive Group, the leadingwholesale distributor of auto-motive parts in France and theUK, from Weinberg CapitalPartners.

On its website, Alliance Auto-motive Group says it addressesall categories of spare parts in-cluding technical parts, con-sumables, oil, tires, refinish,body parts, and equipment andtooling. It operates under thebrands GROUPAUTO France,GROUPAUTO UK, Partners,Gef’Auto and Précisium. It is anintegrated company with itsown buying organization and awholesale distribution networkcomprised of its own sub-sidiaries and independent dis-tributor members. The grouphas 1,500 outlets and 3,500 employees.

“We are delighted to team upwith the management team ledby Jean-Jacques Lafont and Al-istair Brown to acquire AllianceAutomotive Group,” said Li-onel Assant, head of EuropeanPrivate Equity at Blackstone.

“The company has market-leading positions and an out-standing management team. Welook forward to working withthem as the company confirmsits position as a leading opera-tor in the European marketboth through organic and ac-quisition led growth.”

Added Philippe Klocanas atWeinberg Capital Partners, “Weare proud to have contributedto Alliance Automotive Group’sgrowth, partnering with themanagement team to supportits build-up strategy. DuringWeinberg Capital Partners’ownership, turnover has dou-bled as the Group has becomethe number-one operator inFrance and a leading player inthe UK. We very much look for-ward to the next phase of de-velopment with Blackstone, aleading global investor. Theirworldwide presence will backthe management team to pur-sue its growth strategy.”

“Thanks to the continuoussupport of Weinberg CapitalPartners and their long-estab-lished track record in B2B dis-tribution, we have been able toaccelerate significantly the paceof growth of Alliance Automo-

tive Group that we set up in1989,” said Jean-Jacques Lafont,chairman and one of thefounders of Alliance Automo-tive Group. “Alliance Automo-tive Group has now become oneof the leading European playersthanks to an ambitious externalgrowth strategy. We warmlywelcome Blackstone as a share-holder to pursue our interna-tional expansion.”


www.bodyshopbusiness.com 91Circle 107 for Reader Service Circle 91 for Reader Service

Blackstone Acquires Alliance Automotive Group

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ProductShowcase

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Self-Calibrating Measuring System Eclipse by Advanced Measurement Systems (AMS)provides continuous self-calibration during meas-uring. Its Auto-Cal feature combined with the in-dustry’s only dual axis level compensation forboth the vehicle and scanner allows for measuringand monitoring of multiple points with accuracy.Buy an Eclipse now through Sept. 30, 2014, and get a$1,000 rebate.AMSwww.ams-laser.com


Cooling SandersAirVANTAGE Advanced Series Sanders incorporate a motor fan blade coolingsystem to lower bearing and spindle temperatures. In addition, a patent dual channel vacuum design on all vacuum models increases vacuum efficiency.AirVANTAGE Toolswww.airvantagetools.com


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Build Awareness for Your ShopPreFab Ads’ TV commercials haveproven effective in building aware-ness on local cable andbroadcast stations,as well as the Web.Embedding them inFacebook ads,which can be target-ed by ZIP code anddemographics, is an-other trend showing promise.From now through Oct. 15, 2014,the company is offering a buy one,get one free deal on any of its 20professional, pre-made auto bodyTV commercials – all easily customizable for local usage.PreFab Adswww.prefabads.com


Infrared Heat Cure PanelPerfect for curing coatings, adhesives and laminates, the BeaconBPIHP series of portable infrared heat panels use medium-waveradiant producing heating elements to cure or boost finisheswith a reduced chance of blistering. Gold anodized aluminumend caps and reflectors give the unit a 10 percent faster cure time

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Classifieds


AAPEX 49AFC Air Filtration Co. 42Aflac 23A-frame Paint Booths 74Airomax/U.S. Body Products 68AirVANTAGE 46Amerex Corp. 82Anest Iwata USA 21Automotive Mgmt Institute 84Axalta Coating Systems 5BASF Corp. 15BendPak Insert, 90Blair 50Brewer Automotive Equipment 28Campbell Hausfeld 40Carcoon America Airflow Systems 75, 91Car-O-Liner Co. 17CCC 19Cebotech Inc. 71, 76Certified Auto Parts Association 7Chicago Pneumatic 60Chief Automotive 32Chrysler Group/Mopar 39Crash-writeR 86, 88DEKRA 89Dent Fix Equipment 9Dominion Sure Seal 52

DV Systems 34Eagle Abrasives 77Engineering & Manufacturing Services 91Equipment Gateway 65, 86Eurovac 80Evercoat 3FS Curtis 56Garmat USA 11Herkules Equipment Corp. 36Homak Manufacturing Company Inc. 41Hostar Inc. 85I-CAR 45Induction Innovations 72Innovative Tools & Technologies, Inc. 59International Epoxies & Sealers 58Intuit 51Island Clean Air 18Jessen Productions 48Kaeser Compressor 47Logicar Inc. 81Malco Products 85Martech Services Co. 78Matrix System Automotive Finishes LLC 43Mechanic Advisor 62Mirka Abrasives 64Mobile Spray Technology 82Motor Guard Corp. 89

NAPA 79, 83O’Reilly Auto Parts 87PPG Industries Cover 2-1Pro Spot International Cover 3Pro-Spray Finishes 25RBL Products 4, 66, 70Reflex Truck Liners 20Rubber-Seal Products 16S.A.I.M.A. of N. America Cover 4Sata Spray Equipment 29Scorpion Truck Bed Linings 78SEMA 73Sherwin-Williams Co. 67Shop-Pro Equipment 33Southern Polyurethanes 37Spanesi 24Spraymax 53Steck Mfg. Co. 20Total Automotive 69Tsunami Compressed Air Solutions 84TYC/Genera Corp. 55, 63Urethane Supply Co. 35US Chemical & Plastics 57Valspar/Debeer 61Wizards Products/RJ Star Inc. 27Zendex Tool Corp. 90

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Attribute Rating

In Stock (Supplier Consistently Has Part) 1.4

High Quality 1.4

Delivery Time 1.6

Low Price 2.3

Relationship With Sales Rep 2.6

Offer Both Recycled And A/M (One-Stop Shop) 3.9

Other 4.7


Ye

s

No

So

me

tim

es

5%

15%

10%

25%

20%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

55%

60%

65%

0

Source: 2013 BodyShop Business Industry Profile


8%

65

%

27

%

By theNumbersVital collision industry stats

Have You Ever Altered A DRP Contract Before Signing It?

Do You Agree To Accept PaintMaterial Thresholds Or CapsFrom Insurance Companies?


What Factors Matter Most When Selecting A Parts Vendor?

(1 = Most Important, 5 = Least Important)

0

30%

40%

50%

20%

10%

60%

70%

80%

90%

No84%

Yes

16%



Documents

BodyShop Business, September 2014