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16CROWNING GLORY

PPG helps Crown Collision Center improve an already thriving business.

D e p a r t m e n t s

4 Inside Line Our new GM, John Outcalt, offers his perspective on PPG performance-based programs.

4 Team PPG The latest news and information from PPG across the nation and around the world.

8 “What Have You Done for Me Lately?” Scotch® Performance Masking Tape 233 from 3M can improve masking productivity by eliminating extra steps.

9 The Power of Precision The 3MTM TrizactTM HookitTM II Blending Disc makes deep scratch and adhesion concerns a thing of the past.

12 Taking Care of Business The PPG Online Precision Marketing Program for CertifiedFirst ® Network participants offers valuable customer information tailored to a shop’s specific location.

14 Tech Talk The Mottle Effect: What is it, why does it happen and how can it be prevented?

19 Off and Running The Sewer Equipment Company manufactures equipment that holds up to extreme conditions.

20 Training Update PPG and Harley-Davidson team up to benefit SkillsUSA.

22 (Up-In-The-) Air Guitar Kojis Signs builds the world’s largest guitar for the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.

27 Gallery A street rod Vette and a do-it-yourself showstopper.

PPG Repaint Reporter Volume 65, Number 3

Executive Editor Tara Strunk

Creative Director T. Jon Worden

Design Director Dave Buffington

Design Staff John Janiec Kevin Nowak Mark Francisco Bob Santoro

Contributing Editors Ann Donati Meredith Simpson

Writers T.G. Morrisey Gail Driver Brian Meitz John Stanley John Outcalt

Production Manager Shellie Hill

Contributing Photographers Jackson Hill Todd AndersonLarry Evans Robin NelsonWilliam Thomas Cain

PPG Repaint Reporter is published by the Advertising Department of PPG Automotive Refinish. Send comments and questions regarding this publication to:

PPG Industries Repaint Reporter Editor 19699 Progress Drive Strongsville, Ohio 44149 Or, fax to: (440) 572-6880

C o n t e n t s

10FAMILY MATTERPPG’s 2005 Platinum Distributor of the Year is a family-owned and family-run business.

6CUSTOMERS

FOR LIFECar dealer Carl Sewell

wrote the book on turning one-time buyers into lifetime customers.

24COMMERCIAL ESTIMATING

COMES OF AGEPenske Truck Leasing

puts PPG’s AdjustRite TM heavy duty truck estimating

system to the test.

5

T E A M P P G

Having spent a year away from

the automotive refinish team as

the General Manager, Insurance

and Services business unit, I re-

join our refinish team with a fresh

perspective of the

collision repair industry

and the evolving

dynamics that impact

our collision shop

customers. I am now

more convinced than ever

that PPG leads the way in developing

key alliances that will help assure

the success of our distributors and

collision shop customers in the

coming years, as well as offer

insurers and their policyholders

high levels of customer satisfaction

and effective business solutions.

At the forefront of these strategic

alliances are our LYNXSelect ® and

CertifiedFirst ® Network programs.

They are proving to offer industry-

leading opportunities for PPG

collision shops to build their

businesses and enhance

relationships with insurance

companies, agents and consumers

in their local market.

For example, as a 24/7 national

provider of automotive physical

damage (APD) repair management

services, LYNXSelect is now

efficiently processing claims for

10 different national insurance

companies and handling well in

excess of 20,000 claims a year—

a number that will continue to grow

rapidly. Benefiting from these

claims are some 3,000 collision

repair shops that comprise the

Ins ide L ineB y J o h n O u t c a l tG e n e r a l M a n a g e r , P P G Au t o m o t i v e R e f i n i s h

4

LYNXSelect nationwide network.

For those insurance companies

that prefer to handle claims

themselves, the CertifiedFirst

Network is proving to be a viable

asset. Aside from benefiting from

local marketing efforts such as the

Continuing Education for Insurers

Program and exposure through

www.certifiedfirst.com, a site

that has received over 20 million

hits since its launch and over

300,000 searches for bodyshops,

CertifiedFirst Network shops have

enjoyed the benefits of over

$30,000,000 in claims assignments

year-to-date, provided through our

alliances with national insurance

and fleet management providers.

The network of participating

shops is expected to reach 2,000

by year-end.

Self-insured fleets is another

area where PPG is developing

meaningful alliances, such as CEI.

CEI works with the largest fleet

programs in the United States and

is providing tens of thousands of

claims each year to our network

of participating collision shops.

The growing success of PPG’s

alliance programs is good evidence

that these programs are delivering

value to all parties involved: the

insurer, the policyholder, the agent

and the collision shop. If your shop

is not currently participating in

PPG’s performance-based programs,

I strongly urge you to reconsider

and take advantage of them. They

represent the future of where the

collision repair industry is heading.

S ince 1883, PPG has learned to love everything about

windows… except cleaning them!SunClean self-cleaning glass is a

coated glass product with photocatalytic and hydrophilic properties that combine to result in windows that are easier to clean. The durable, transparent coating on SunClean self-cleaning glass is applied to hot glass during the formation process, making it an integral part of the outer glass surface. The photocatalytic properties of the glass’ coating are energized by UV rays to help slowly break down and loosen organic dirt.

The hydrophilic properties cause water to sheet evenly over the glass surface, instead of beading. This sheeting action helps to flush the surface clean and to accelerate drying, leaving the glass with minimal spotting and streaking.

SunClean self-cleaning glass can be used in standard and energy-saving low-E windows. SunClean glass is available to makers of wood, vinyl and aluminum windows serving the new construction and remodeling markets, allowing SunClean glass to be one of the exciting new options available to consumers. So put away the bucket and throw away the squeegee! ■

SunClean® Self-Cleaning Glass

The Charity Chopper, a custom built, one-of-a-kind V-twin motorcycle has been

the centerpiece of a year-long fundraising effort in 2005 sponsored by PPG Automotive Refinish, Ray Evernham of Evernham Motorsports and Dave Perewitz of Perewitz Cycle Fab. This unique chopper, designed and built by Dave Perewitz, and featuring a spectacular Liquid Crystal paint finish from the PPG Vibrance Collection TM, made dozens of appearances this year across the U.S. at custom car and bike shows, special events and select NASCAR races to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Funds were raised at raffles and auctions, through merchandising, and during monthly auctions held on

eBay, where NASCAR collectibles and memorabilia were auctioned to benefit the Society. Including the sale of the Charity Chopper in October, the effort has raised $134,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Mike Murphy, the lucky new owner of the Charity Chopper, was presented with the bike during a special media event on NASCAR race day, November 6th, at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. Garry A. Goudy, vice president, Automotive Aftermarket for PPG Industries, along with Ray Evernham and Dave Perewitz presented a check for $134,000 to Society officials. For more information on The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, go to www.LLS.org. ■

Year-Long Charity Chopper Effort Raises $134,000 For The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Sam Eisenberg, 4, of Dallas, a leukemia survivor, and twin brother Ethan,his bone marrow donor; both honored patients of The Leukemia & LymphomaSociety, were at Texas Motor Speedway in April to help kick off the CharityChopper tour.

PPG Industries has presented nine Excellent Supplier Awards for superior

performance in 2004. Award criteria included product quality, delivery, documentation, innovation, responsiveness, continuous improvement and participation in PPG’s Supplier Added Value Effort ($AVE) program.

Kathleen McGuire, PPG vice president, corporate purchasing and distribution, praised the performance of the award-winning suppliers. “Their products, services, reliability, innovation and overall value in 2004 were outstanding,” she said. “We consider them invaluable business partners who provide us a significant competitive advantage.”

On an annual basis, PPG purchases more than $5 billion in materials and services from thousands of suppliers. The companies earning the 2004 Excellent Supplier Award, and the products and services they provide, are:• Applied Industrial Technologies,

based in Cleveland, supplies bearings and engineered products as well as power-transmission and fluid-power components to PPG’s automotive coatings, glass, flat glass, fiber glass and chlor-alkali and derivatives businesses in the United States.

• Brock Service Painting Company Inc., of Beaumont, Texas, provides painting and related services to the Lake Charles, La., chemicals facility.

• BYK Chemie GmbH, Wesel, Germany, provides chemical additives for the automotive

original-equipment coatings and refinish as well as industrial and packaging coatings businesses in Europe, South America, Australia and the United States.

• Eckart Aluminum GmbH, headquartered in Fürth, Germany, supplies aluminum pigments to automotive original-equipment coatings and refinish as well as industrial and packaging coatings businesses in Europe, South America, Australia and the United States.

• EPSCO International, with facilities in Texas and Louisiana, provides non-metallic pipe, valves and fittings to U.S. chlor-alkali and derivatives, fine chemicals and silicas businesses.

• Hartman & Hartman, Inc., of Washington, Pa., provides general construction services for U.S. automotive glass, flat glass, automotive refinish and chlor-alkali and derivatives businesses.

• Kerr-McGee Chemical LLC, Oklahoma City, supplies titanium dioxide to PPG’s worldwide architectural finishes, original-equipment automotive coatings and industrial coatings businesses.

• Kyowa Hakko, headquartered in Tokyo, supplies amino acids to the U.S. fine chemicals business.

• Oxiteno S/A Industria e Comércio, with facilities in Brazil and Mexico, provides butoxy ethanol to original-equipment automotive coatings, industrial coatings, automotive refinish and packaging coatings businesses in South America. ■

PPG Honors Nine Companies as Excellent Suppliers

We are pleased to announce that beginning November

15, 2005, PPG will introduce a new and improved Color Library phone service. Part of this upgrade includes an expanded color team to assist with color “look-up” calls and provide faster response to the large number of calls the department receives.

PPG will also offer expanded hours of service, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.,

Eastern Standard Time. With the extended hours and additional personnel to answer customer calls, we expect to offer greater efficiency and faster response time. Customers should continue to use the Color Library contact number at 1-800-647-6050 for all color inquires.

The upgraded Color Library phone service is part of PPG’s continuing effort to offer our customers the best possible service. ■

Expanded Color Library Phone Support

6 6 7

The difference is that, unlike many car dealers, Carl Sewell probably is his customers’ best friend. If they have a f lat tire on the way to work, he’ll send out a service tech to change it—for free. When they’re having work done at his dealership, he doesn’t rent them something to drive in the meantime—he loans them a current year’s vehicle. When he calls them, it’s not to badger them about coming in to trade up—it’s to invite them to dinner, on him.

From the outside, it looks like he’s giving money away. But that’s not how Carl Sewell sees it.

“It’s all a matter of perspective,” Sewell says. “And perspective starts with how you see the customer.

Like most car dealers, Carl Sewell appears to be his

customers’ best friend—cheerful, at ease, sincerely

listening to what they have to say and just generally

making them feel like a million bucks.

If you see the person who walks in your door as an opportunity to sell one vehicle, or do one repair, then you might see a much larger margin from that transaction, but you probably won’t see that customer again.

“If, on the other hand, you see that person as a potential lifetime of repeat business, then you’re going to treat him or her differently,” Sewell continues. “Just think of it—how nice would you be to someone if a half-million-dollar business deal was hanging in the balance? I think you’d be pretty nice. And in car and truck sales, every customer is easily worth a half million dollars of business over the course of a lifetime. So that’s how we treat every customer who walks through our door—as if half a million dollars were hanging on how well we accommodated their needs.”

Sewell’s approach is a different way of running a business—so different that, with business writer Paul B. Brown, he wrote a book about it in 1990. Customers for Life: How to Turn that One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime Customer has been published in 17 languages, and has sold more than 1,000,000 copies.

And Carl Sewell’s way of doing business was so refreshingly different that it convinced Steve Pearce, who had retired comfortably at age 41 after two decades of owning and operating collision shops, to come out of retirement and go to work as manager of the 80,000-square-foot Sewell Collision Center and the 65,000-square-foot Sewell Lexus Body Shop. Both shops lie within three blocks of one another in Dallas, and both do volumes that would set

most managers’ heads spinning.“It’s kind of like a cult,” says Pearce.

“And I mean that in a good way. We have a rule here at Sewell called the ‘Ten Foot Rule.’ If a customer comes within ten feet of you, you smile, acknowledge them and ask if you can help them, if that’s appropriate. And we have a policy of looking at every car that comes in, not as the customer’s car, but as your mother’s car, or your spouse’s car. You never just do the requested repair; you always look at the job and ask, ‘What can I do that will make this person happy with their decision to have us do the work?’ And after you’ve done it this way for

a while, doing business any other way just seems rude. It doesn’t take long to think of this as the only way to run a shop.”

Because so much of service depends on the technician’s attitude, Sewell’s management team interviews extensively for every opening, tests each promising applicant for aptitude and takes each finalist to breakfast or lunch to see how they are in a social

A L I F E T I M E ofR E P E A T B U S I N E S S

Dallas car dealer Carl Sewell wrote the book on

keeping Customers for Life

“We have a policy of looking at every car that comes in, not as the customer’s car, but as your mother’s car, or your spouse’s car,”saysmanager Steve Pearce.

“You never just do the requested repair; you always look at the job and ask, “What can I do that will make this person happy with their decision to have us do the work?” continues Pearce.

continued on page 26

98

In almost every industry, people continually look

for ways to increase performance levels while

lowering costs. In the paint and body shop business,

the solution may be as easy as upgrading a tool you use

everyday to something that lasts longer and/or gets

better results more consistently. Take, for instance,

masking tape.

S H O P C O S T S R I S I N G :

Time to Ask Your Tape, “What Have You Done for Me Lately?”

In today’s changing market, new paint chemistries and higher temperature bake cycles place great physical demands on masking tapes. In the automotive refinish industry, applying masking tape accounts for six percent of labor revenue generated on repair orders, or $56 on a typical repair order of $2,000. Since productivity equals profitability, consider how much time is spent performing compensating behaviors caused by the performance limitations of low priced masking tapes.

Megan Scherb, masking solutions business manager for 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division, explains that most painters, without realizing it, have changed their behavior to compensate for the limitations of lower priced tape. She notes, for example, that before spraying, painters typically inspect the vehicle to ensure the masking tape has not lifted since application. If it has, they must spend time pressing the tape down in order to prevent paint

blow-by. Compensating behaviors such as these require extra time that could be used more productively on revenue generating activity.

It seems that to save money in one area (labor) you must spend more money in another (supplies), but sometimes the costs for better materials are minimal compared to productivity gained, so it’s important to do your research and compare costs. To illustrate the productivity advantage that Scotch® Performance Masking Tape 233+ brings to a paint job, 3M has designed an interactive value analysis

tool. The tool helps the shop owner or manager understand the value of the time gained by utilizing the shop’s specific operating costs. “Masking tape can have a big impact on labor revenue while contributing a relatively small amount to material costs. Because of its excellent performance, using Scotch® Performance Masking Tape 233+ may improve masking productivity up to 10 percent per repair order by eliminating extra steps,” says Scherb.

Scotch® Performance Masking Tape 233+ is ideal for all body shop paint masking applications. According to Scherb, its balanced construction provides excellent adhesion with clean

removal—even from difficult surfaces like EPDM rubber moldings,

after contact with moisture and chemicals or prolonged

outdoor exposure—all qualities that can contribute to increased productivity.

For more information about Scotch® Performance Masking Tape 233+, visit

3M’s Web site at www.3M.com/automotive or call 1-

877-MMM-CARS (1-877-666-2277). ■

3M and Scotch are trademarks of 3M Company.

The P o w e r P r e c i s i o nof

3M, Trizact, and Hookit are trademarks of 3M Company.

The Process of PrecisionSTEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

SANDING LARGE AREAS 1a. CLEAN the repair area with soap and water, followed by 3MTM General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner.

1b. Using a spray bottle, apply enough water to dampen the 3MTM TrizactTM HookitTM II Blending Disc before sanding the panel. DAMP SAND the entire blend area, including bodylines and edges, with a DA sander. When necessary, re-dampen disc with water from spray bottle while sanding.

SANDING HARD-TO-REACH AREAS Remove Blending Disc from backup pad to sand hard-to-reach areas and edges.

CLEANING Wipe off blend area immediately.

the TrizactTM HookitTM II Blending Disc makes deep scratch and adhesion concerns a thing of the past.

The key to Trizact’s excellent performance is the combination of its foam backing and unique mineral construction, which is made up of micro-replicated, pyramid-shaped structures. This construction ensures that fresh mineral is exposed at a uniform rate, extending the life of the product while maintaining a consistent level of cut. Most importantly, the uniform scratch pattern left by the TrizactTM HookitTM II Blending Disc allows metallic and pearl colors to lay down uniformly resulting in blends that are virtually transparent which will certainly appeal to your customer and increase your shop’s CSI.

For more information about TrizactTM HookitTM II Blending Discs from 3M, visit 3M’s Web site at www.3M.com/automotive or call 1-800-3M-HELPS (1-800-364-3577). ■

No matter what method is used for preparing panels for clearcoat and color blends—traditional DA sanding discs, wet sanding sheets or scuff pads—all present obstacles to achieving a premium finish that results in an undetectable blend. For example, scuff pads conform very well to the panel surface but do not remove all gloss which can result in clearcoat adhesion failures. Scuff pads also have a tendency to leave deep scratches which may show through on metallic and pearl colors. Abrasives such as DA Discs and wet sanding sheets sand aggressively and remove more gloss, but do not offer the conformability of a scuff pad. This lack of conformability often leaves shiny spots that remain in the lower areas of the texture or “orange peel”. To remove this remaining gloss, the technician will not only spend additional sanding time but also increase the risk of sanding or “burning” through on an edge, contour or body line. The result is additional time spent reworking this previously undamaged area.

3M, the industry leader in abrasive technology has recently introduced the company’s most advanced product for clearcoat and color blending. The 3MTM TrizactTM HookitTM II Blending Disc is a foam-backed abrasive disc designed to conform to the sanding surface with minimal risk of burn through on edges, contours or body lines. The foam backing allows the disc to conform and sand deep into orange peel with minimal texture removal while producing a consistent matte finish with no “shiny spots,” something that is difficult to achieve with traditional DA discs or wet sanding abrasives. The finish left by

10 11

It’s a pretty big deal to be recognized by

your peers, particularly when your peers

are the best in the business.

No doubt that is what was on Bill Flannery’s mind as he stepped onto the stage at the PPG Platinum

Awards Banquet in Orlando earlier

this year. Bill, owner of Bill Flannery Automotive in Bensalem, PA, was coming up to receive the final, and highest, accolade—the glass trophy recognizing him as Platinum Distributor of the Year. It was the culmination of a relationship with PPG that stretches back nearly four

decades. And it says a lot about Bill’s business philosophy that, when he received that trophy, the first thing he did was turn to his wife, his daughter, and his son, and mouth the words, “This belongs to you.”

Running his business as a family affair is almost second-nature to Bill. He worked in an automotive parts-and-finish store as a teenager. He liked the finish business well enough that he opened a parts and paint store with two partners. Later, in 1975, he went to work on his own, working out of a truck and a trailer. As his business grew, PPG suggested that he open his own store.

It was just the push he needed. In 1984, he opened a small store in a strip mall, and by 1987 he had outgrown

that and moved to a 3,000-square-foot facility. By 2001, even that was too small, so Bill Flannery Automotive built the 11,000-square-foot location in which it is currently headquartered, a facility that sells shop supplies and tools, as well as paint. That was joined in 2003 by a 1,000-square-foot satellite location in nearby Telford, PA, opened for strategic expansion. Bill Flannery Automotive presently serves more than 100 major accounts and employs

27 people, three of which are his wife Gen (who handles payroll, accounts payable and human resources), son Billy (operations director) and daughter Tracy (who handles “purchasing, sales and anything else that is needed”).

Tracy became an employee of Bill Flannery Automotive nearly 20 years ago, when she was in her teens, but worked at the shop unofficially long before that. She remembers coming in during Christmas vacation at age nine to help take year-end inventory—a memory that’s a mixture of joy and family pride.

“My mom, my brother and I are here because we want to be here,” Tracy says. “We have three brothers who have lives outside the paint business. But Billy and I love this, because our father showed us that, at its heart, this is a people business, and your customers can be like family. Dad’s a great businessman—he was a member of the original PPG jobber council, the fifth Platinum contract

to be signed with PPG, and he’s been Platinum Plus every year since 1999. But his real talent is that he is a people-person; he’s always interested in helping someone else be the best that they can be.”

That interest in elevating others led Bill to work with a local high-school teacher and Skills USA mentor to help students learn the ins and outs of the collision-repair business, sponsoring a scholarship every year. Two of those former students are now employees, and several are now valued customers of Bill Flannery Automotive.

To be ready with answers when customers ask questions, Bill and his staff take full advantage of PPG training classes, have been to the Jobber Management Program, and participate enthusiastically in the East Two Forum (“An absolute wealth of knowledge and a truly invaluable resource,” says Bill). They also offer their customers the full range of PPG training.

When asked for the secret of his success, Bill is quick to direct the spotlight elsewhere.

Family MatterMeet the Flannerys—Billy, Gen, Bill and Tracy—

Winners of the PPG 2005 Platinum Distributor of the Year Award

Gesturing at his modern showroom, he says, “None of this would be possible without the talented people who make this place run, and the loyal people who have traded with us now for a quarter of a century. They’re the ones who make this happen.”

But daughter Tracy is quick to amend that, “Whenever we’ve had to make a tough decision, Dad has always—always—stressed that if at the end of the day you have your integrity-you have it all. Our customers, our employees, and even our competitors know that, above all else, we are going to be honest and fair.”

After all, when you think of your customers and your business as family—how else would you treat them? ■

THE PPG PLATINUM DISTRIBUTOR PROGRAM

AT A GLANCE

• Launched in 1994

• A partnership between the best entrepreneurs in the business and PPG

• Combines the talents of more than 650 single-line PPG distributors

• The size and scope of a 32,000-person, Fortune 500 company

PPG PLATINUM DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR

Awarded annually to the PPG Platinum Distributor who best…

• Demonstrates a consistent increase in annual sales

• Has received exemplary customer-satisfaction scores

• Has met a variety of other criteria of excellence over the last year

Employees Jason Shuck and Bob Sherlock stocking shelves at Bill Flannery Automotive.

Bill Flannery Automotive presently serves more than 100 major accounts and employs 27 people, including technician Wayne Knight, shown here mixing paint.

12 13

T A K I N G C A R E O F B U S I N E S S

You probably already know that, in today’s

competitive collision repair market, with its high

capacities and educated consumers, attracting and

keeping customers is practically a full-time job.

You probably also know that you don’t have to go it alone. With the CertifiedFirst Network, you get the quality reputation and high-end resources of a national network… working just for you and your business’ success.

But did you know that, as a participant of the CertifiedFirst Network, you have access to the PPG Online Precision Marketing Program, a sophisticated e-tool (valued at more than $1,200) that lets you zero in on valuable customer information in the areas where you are currently doing business or where you plan to do business?

The Online Precision Marketing Report is based on the adage that “birds of a feather f lock together.” In other words, people often choose to live near others who have similar lifestyles, beliefs and customs. These groups of individuals are called “clusters.” By combining data about these clusters with specific information about the collision repair industry, this report brings you insight into each group’s collision repair buying

zerhabits. It also lets you see which clusters are high-use when it comes to collision repair services, perhaps because they typically have more drivers in the family, own newer model vehicles, or because they simply tend to drive more miles on average - resulting in more collisions.

“There are other services—some of them quite costly—that can give you basic census and demographic information about population movement and household income,” says Georgina Sweeney, Director–Refinish Alliance Programs. “But only the Online Precision Marketing Report can combine that information with PPG’s own Collision Repair Potential Index (CRPI), for powerful marketplace intelligence that points to your best business prospects.”

And you don’t have to be a marketing guru—or a computer guru—to use this powerful tool. As a CertifiedFirst Network participant, all you need to do is go online to www.certifiedfirst.com/participants and enter the site with your shop’s unique user name and password. Click the

“Precision Marketing” tab on the web page that opens, and then click the line that says “Click Here For Your Precision Marketing Report.”

That opens on a page with two options. The first, “Determine Market Size and Growth,” allows you to look at an area (centered on an address, an intersection, or even a latitude-and-longitude readout from a GPS unit), and generate a report that includes: • a Collision Repair Potential

(CRPI) map• an estimated sales map• top customers location by ZIP

code spreadsheet• a 5-year market growth report, and• an executive summary that

explains it allWant to zero in even further?

Click the second option on the page, “Retrieve Advanced Cluster Information,” enter a ZIP code, and you can generate reports that tell you the top five cluster “types” living in that area, and an executive summary providing demographic information and trends.

Reports are generated as Adobe Acrobat documents that you can print out for use in meetings, save for future reference, or view onscreen with widely and freely available software. Click on a cluster name while you’re online, and that opens to a page telling you what that

particular customer group is like—from income, age range, education, employment and median income, to lifestyle and leisure preferences.

“If you’re planning your advertising schedules, the Advanced Cluster Information will tell you not only what sort of radio stations your target customers listen to, but what times they are most apt to be listening, and what parts of the newspaper they are apt to spend the most time in,” says Sweeney.

The Precision Marketing Report is designed to work with what you already know about the area where you do business. It can reassure you that you are correctly gauging the business potential of an area, help you zero in on particular parts of that area that are most apt to use your services, or provide valuable intelligence—including growth trends—when you’re considering relocation or expansion to an additional location. And the professional reports provide valuable substantiation for presentations to financial partners, zoning or planning commissions, or other stakeholder organizations.

“The Online Precision Marketing Program helps you base your business decisions, not on hunches, or even

educated guesses, but on measured and professionally accumulated facts,” says Sweeney. “The best collision repair professionals don’t guess on their estimates or their paint formulas. They calculate, using professional Marketing Reports, you can apply a similar technology when it comes to market analysis and customer types.”

For more information on Online Precision Marketing, please call 1-800-647-6050, option 4 (8 a.m.–5 p.m. EST). ■

CertifiedFirst® Network’s Online Precision Marketing— moving your customer profiles from ‘guesses’ to ‘knowledge’

in

CertifiedFirst Network participants can log on to www.certifiedfirst.com/participants and gain access to a Precision Marketing Report tailored to their specific location. The Report offers a wealth of information, including a Collision Repair Potential (CRPI) map (above) that shows the likelihood of consumers in the area to use a body shop.

The Online Precision Marketing Report provides you with information on the collision repair buying habits of potential customers in your target market area.

14

T E C H T A L K

Avoiding the

It’s a problem that’s almost impossible to detect at the basecoat stage since most basecoats dry to a silky matte finish. That means the effect doesn’t become evident until after the clearcoat is applied. Naturally, at that point it’s way too late to rectify the problem, and the only course of action is a re-do which can lead to serious film build problems.

Cause and cure

There are two main contributing factors—incorrect thinning of the paint and the application technique. The first scenario results from an insufficient thinning ratio or using a thinner that’s too fast for the prevailing conditions—for instance, when trying to push a job through quickly. After application the solvents in the thinner evaporate too rapidly and the paint film sets so quickly that it doesn’t let the metallic particles lay down smoothly, resulting in a mottle effect.

At one time or another virtually every refinish

painter will have come across the ‘mottle’ effect.

It describes the appearance of light and dark areas

within a metallic finish and is also referred to as

‘patchiness.’ These light and dark patches appear due to

the incorrect orientation of the aluminum particles

within the paint film.

A ‘mottle,’ ‘blotchy’ or ‘patchy’ type appearance can sometimes result after spraying a metallic finish,

particularly in lighter colors. So, what is it, why does it happen and how can it be prevented?

Using compatible thinners is also vital. PPG thinners are specifically designed for use with PPG products in the correct thinning ratio and according to the ambient air temperature. Following these guidelines can assist in dramatically reducing the mottle effect.

While working with individual bodyshops to help them with mottle control, PPG technical staff came across the following examples. One shop was thinning all colors to 1:1. This was working fine with dark colors, but with light colors there was mottle. It was discovered that the air pressure was around 45–55 psi which is too high for basecoat and is a major mottle contributor because it doesn’t allow the metallic basecoat to be applied in a wet, even film. After reducing the air pressure to 25–35 psi, mottle was dramatically reduced.

Application technique is another important factor in reducing mottle and it’s here that modern metallic paint finishes (such as in PPG’s Deltron® and GRS paint systems)

require a modern technique. Previously, the final technique or pattern coat may have been applied over a dry film. However, this can cause mottle due to the paint film setting too quickly which prevents the metallic particles from laying down smoothly. In addition, because this final coat tends to be dry and dusty it can result in clearcoat adhesion problems and reduced gloss levels. Applied correctly, the basecoat will appear very smooth and, when tack ragged, there will be no or minimal color on the tack rag.

To minimize the chance of mottle, the basecoat should be applied to give an even, uniformly dull appearance and left for the

recommended f lash times between coats. Proper application technique is critical when spraying light high metallic colors. Make sure to maintain a good 50% overlap and allow each coat to f lash for the recommended time. Also, make sure to pick the appropriate reducer for the size and temperature of the job.

Another method is the crosscoating technique—this is where the second coat is applied at right angles to the first and immediately following the first coat. The first coat cannot be allowed to f lash or the cross coat will not be able to re-f low and orientate the first coat metallics.

It’s a fact of life that most light colors will have a degree of mottle and that repairing light colors will always be more difficult than dark colors. However, using the above tips and the following guidelines should help to avoid mottling:• Reduce the paint to the

recommended thinning ratio and, depending on your equipment, more thinner may be required.

• Use the specified thinner for the spraying temperature.

• Avoid using high air pressure—25–35 psi maximum.

• Allow the paint to f lash off properly between coats. Multiple coats without a f lash off will make the paint f ilm very ‘wet’ and cause mottle.

• Don’t spray in very cold conditions. This will slow down the f lash off time of the paint and increase the chances of mottle.

• Don’t apply the clearcoat too soon. If the basecoat hasn’t set up fully, the clearcoat may cause the basecoat to dissolve and disturb the aluminum flakes, giving a mottled appearance.

• Ensure that your spray gun has a good spray pattern and, when spraying, overlap the strokes of the gun the correct amount to ensure an even appearance. Keeping the gun back from the job will make the effective fan width larger and overlapping the gun strokes will be easier.

• Develop a technique that works for you.

• Remember, if you do reduce the pressure, to make the same allowance on your spray out card. ■

15

1616

Crown Collision Center, in

St. Petersburg, Florida, does

the sort of business that most

collision shop managers only

dream of. Working out of a 45,000-square-foot main facility

with 23 technicians and eight painters, Crown processes over

300 vehicles a month, at an average repair value of $2000.

Monthly parts and labor sales exceed $600,000. And that’s

running just a single shift per day.

At this

Gulf Coast megashop,

seven-figure months will

soon be a reality

So—is Crown’s manager satisfied with her current production standards?

“Not in the slightest,” says Jackie Zajac, who has managed Crown Collision Center since June of 2003. “By this time next year, I am certain—absolutely certain—that this center will be producing over a million dollars a month in total sales. And long term, beyond that? Who knows? We intend to beat all the facility utilization benchmarks. I’ll tell you the truth—I really don’t see a ceiling at this point.”

So what’s the reason for Jackie Zajac’s enthusiasm?

“PPG,” she says. “For this center, the sky’s the limit with PPG.”

CROWNING

GLORY17

What makes this story truly amazing is that Jackie Zajac had never worked as a collision center manager prior to joining the Crown Group.

For years, Jackie had worked with Crown from the opposite side of the desk, managing the DRP program for Progressive Insurance. But when she was offered the position, she readily took it. Jackie says she made the switch because, “I consider managing the Crown Collision Center the opportunity of a lifetime. This is one fantastic collision shop, and one great opportunity.”

18 19

When you’re a world leader in your

industry, you know you’ve done

something right. When you’ve been a leader for

more than six decades, you’ve had time to think about

how to keep things right.

And for more than six decades, Sewer Equipment Company of America has supplied municipalities and contractors around the world with the tools they need to service and clean sewer and storm-drain systems.

In a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in rural Chadwick, Illinois, Sewer Equipment Company produces specially designed power equipment ranging from a $2000 cable auger, used for cleaning sewer lines, to a $200,000 hydroexcavator that uses pressurized hot water to excavate lines for repair. The company is the world’s leading supplier of trailer jets—which use high-pressure water to clean lines—and one of the global leaders in the production of truck jets, upfitted to commercial truck chassis.

“With a product line this extensive, most of our production is done to order,” says John Wichmann, production manager for Sewer Equipment Company. “That means we might be building rodding machines one day and a catch-basin cleaner or a vacuum unit the next. And what we are painting can vary dramatically from day to day, as well.”

Yet, regardless of the size and scope of that day’s production, the Chadwick plant applies the same brand of paint—PPG Delfleet® Evolution.

Off

“Our equipment faces a wide extreme of road and climate conditions, from Midwestern winters and salt-covered roads, to Middle Eastern summers with blowing sand,” Wichmann says. “Plus they face the additional challenges of graywater, blackwater and sludge, and road-repair and construction-type environments. We need a quality finish that can stand up to those conditions, yet still be cost-effective enough to help us stay competitive.”

Months of testing at Chadwick showed that Delfleet not only delivered the quality Sewer Equipment Company expected— it provided coverage superior to competitive products.

“That was one pleasant surprise,” says John Wichmann. “And the other pleasant surprises were the up-front analysis PPG and our distributor—A & B Autobody Supply, of Peru, Illinois—did for us, and the training that PPG offers. We’ve already PPG-certified one painter and one supervisor, and they came back with so many great ideas—new ways to prep welded surfaces, and alternative drying techniques—that we’re in the process of certifying two more of our people. PPG is helping Sewer Equipment Company to do what our customers expect: provide durable equipment that looks great and does the job, no matter where in the world we ship it.” ■

RunningSewer Equipment Company of America

builds gear to keep things that way

According to Production Manager John Wichmann (shown above) “…what we are painting can vary dramatically from day to day.” Regardless of the size or scope of the day’s production, they apply the same brand of paint for every job—PPG Delfleet® Evolution.

and

18

That’s something of an understatement. Crown Collision is part of the Crown Dealerships Group, a family of 11 dealerships selling and servicing 20 car and truck lines, with most of the dealerships located on either side of US 19, adjacent to or near the collision center in St. Petersburg. Plus, as a DRP manager, Jackie knew how attractive such a high-volume facility, accustomed to working to auto manufacturer warranty standards, could be. And with that much of a dealership presence, insurance carriers could

be highly confident that Crown would be there for the long run, ready to back their guarantees.

Another reason for Jackie’s confidence is PPG Distributor Tim Morrell, who runs Auto Body Express in Tampa. Crown was under contract with another finish supplier when Tim first called on Jackie, but that didn’t stop him from pitching in and helping out.

“Tim and PPG were here, in this shop, consulting with me and acting as business partners for two years before I purchased a single drop of paint from them,” Jackie says. “I don’t want to give you the impression that the product was unimportant here, because that’s not the case at

all. My painters consistently told me that, for color match, and for cycle time, PPG was absolutely the way to go. And because PPG is a global company, they met the requirements of all our OEM warranty work. So certainly they were attractive, product-wise. But what truly made the difference for me was the attitude; PPG came in here with a partnership solution. And it was not a cookie-cutter solution. This is a big business, with unique challenges, so PPG brought in a variety of people, including Dave Mitchum, PPG Business Development Manager, to look at and analyze the various aspects of our business. They came up with not only a plan to help us attain our specific goals, but the systems to help us best implement the plan, such as Throughput Management and innovative production models.”

One of PPG’s first suggestions was that Crown adopt Summit management software, to streamline the operation, adopt door-to-door throughput management techniques, and identify potential issues before they can turn into real problems. Summit’s owner, Frank Terlep, f lew in and provided a customized IT solution that was specific to the shop’s needs.

“It’s a night-and-day difference,” Jackie says. “As a shop manager, I need to know when a car is tracking behind the scheduled delivery date. When a car is late for delivery, you’re past ‘problem’ and well into ‘crisis’—the customer is unhappy because you didn’t keep your word, the insurer is unhappy because there’s an additional rental expense… as a manager, I want to know when the car is going to be late going into paint.”

Having such a system in place has changed Jackie’s outlook as a shop manager.

“Some managers don’t really manage,” she says. “They put out fires. They spend their time looking at issues and trying to figure out why they arose. But with systems in place to avoid the issues in the first place, I have the opportunity to network with insurers and really leverage our CertifiedFirst® Network membership. I have the opportunity to meet with and understand the needs of our customers and how we can serve them better. And I can turn what I learn into initiatives that make us more productive and more attractive to all our stakeholders.”

One such initiative is Crown Express, a 12,000-square-foot facility just a short walk from Crown Collision, where repairs can be done while the customer waits.

“On simple repairs, a logical customer question is, ‘Why do I have to leave the car?’” Jackie says. “And we thought about that, and decided, ‘You don’t.’ By implementing time-saving steps, like pre-painting parts, we can really expedite things. We have a comfortable lounge, food and beverages, and a business center where a customer can check e-mail while they wait. Insurers absolutely love this service because they don’t have to rent a car. And our dealerships love it because, often, while a repair is being done, the customer walks over to one of our showrooms and shops for a new car or truck.”

Crown has been working with PPG to take even further advantage of certification and training programs for collision shop personnel at all levels of the business, and to incorporate plans that will help make this already successful business a phenomenal success. And Jackie Zajac is confident of that success.

“As far as I’m concerned,” she says with a nod. “The sky really is the limit with PPG.”<

Crown Collision Center processes over 300 vehicles a month, at an average repair value of $2,000, working out of a 45,000 square-foot facility with 23 technicians and eight painters.

19

When you’re a world leader in your

industry, you know you’ve done

something right. When you’ve been a leader for

more than six decades, you’ve had time to think about

how to keep things right.

And for more than six decades, Sewer Equipment Company of America has supplied municipalities and contractors around the world with the tools they need to service and clean sewer and storm-drain systems.

In a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in rural Chadwick, Illinois, Sewer Equipment Company produces specially designed power equipment ranging from a $2000 cable auger, used for cleaning sewer lines, to a $200,000 hydroexcavator that uses pressurized hot water to excavate lines for repair. The company is the world’s leading supplier of trailer jets—which use high-pressure water to clean lines—and one of the global leaders in the production of truck jets, upfitted to commercial truck chassis.

“With a product line this extensive, most of our production is done to order,” says John Wichmann, production manager for Sewer Equipment Company. “That means we might be building rodding machines one day and a catch-basin cleaner or a vacuum unit the next. And what we are painting can vary dramatically from day to day, as well.”

Yet, regardless of the size and scope of that day’s production, the Chadwick plant applies the same brand of paint—PPG Delfleet® Evolution.

Off

“Our equipment faces a wide extreme of road and climate conditions, from Midwestern winters and salt-covered roads, to Middle Eastern summers with blowing sand,” Wichmann says. “Plus they face the additional challenges of graywater, blackwater and sludge, and road-repair and construction-type environments. We need a quality finish that can stand up to those conditions, yet still be cost-effective enough to help us stay competitive.”

Months of testing at Chadwick showed that Delfleet not only delivered the quality Sewer Equipment Company expected— it provided coverage superior to competitive products.

“That was one pleasant surprise,” says John Wichmann. “And the other pleasant surprises were the up-front analysis PPG and our distributor—A & B Autobody Supply, of Peru, Illinois—did for us, and the training that PPG offers. We’ve already PPG-certified one painter and one supervisor, and they came back with so many great ideas—new ways to prep welded surfaces, and alternative drying techniques—that we’re in the process of certifying two more of our people. PPG is helping Sewer Equipment Company to do what our customers expect: provide durable equipment that looks great and does the job, no matter where in the world we ship it.” ■

RunningSewer Equipment Company of America

builds gear to keep things that way

According to Production Manager John Wichmann (shown above) “…what we are painting can vary dramatically from day to day.” Regardless of the size or scope of the day’s production, they apply the same brand of paint for every job—PPG Delfleet® Evolution.

and

21

T R A I N I N G U P D A T E

Most collision-shop owners and techs are familiar

with SkillsUSA—the nation’s premier

organization for the promotion of excellence in

technical education. In fact, if you’re working in

the collision industry today, there’s a pretty good

chance you’re a SkillsUSA alumnus.

And if you know about SkillsUSA, then you know that the Super Bowl of vocational education is the SkillsUSA Championships, where students with talent ranging from baking and

carpentry to computer science and collision repair gather to compete for national honors.

This June, during the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference, PPG and Harley-Davidson got together in a very special fundraiser.

It all started during one of the planning meetings for the event, when Cheri Judkins, operations manager for Harley-Davidson

University, offered on behalf of her company to donate a 2005 Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide Custom motorcycle, to be raffled off as a fundraiser. When Cheri made her offer, Steve Lehner, of PPG, who was also on the same committee, said, “That’s a great idea. I’ll tell you what—if you’ll donate the bike, we’ll paint it.”

The result—a genuine American legend, done up in a super-trick, color-changing, faux three-D f lame paint

scheme—was enough to quicken the pulse of any motorcyclist.

It certainly did that for Don Dunbar, a SkillsUSA computer science instructor at Idaho State University. Don, who had toured the Kansas City Harley plant earlier in the week, and has ridden motorcycles for years, had always dreamed of owning a Harley-Davidson.

Don had also never won anything in his life. Still, he bought one ticket for the raffle (out of the 30,000 sold),

because he wanted to show his support. And as he videotaped

the motorcycle being ridden into

Kemper Arena for the prize announcement at the end of the awards ceremony, the thing going through his mind was not, “I hope I win,” but, “Wow, what a beautiful bike; I hope whoever wins it will appreciate it.”

When his name was called as the winner, Don recalls that he “got so excited I almost threw the video camera away.”

As Cheri Judkins said, “It’s always great when the winner of something like this is a rider who can really connect with the Harley mystique.” And it pleased everyone at PPG to learn that, for the first week after Don picked the motorcycle up at High Desert Harley-Davidson in Emmett, Idaho, the motorcycle was on display at Idaho State University’s auto body shop, where students perfecting their paint and refinish techniques could take a good, close look at what a master custom painter can do with products from PPG’s Vibrance Collection TM. ■

PPG and Harley-Davidson get all fired up to raise money for SkillsUSA

HOGWildI N K A N S A S C I T Y

Fired UpAllC R E A T I N G A P A I N T J O B W O R T H Y O F A L E G E N D

Cheri Judkins (left), operations manager for Harley-Davidson University, poses with Don Dunbar, a SkillsUSA computer science instructor at Idaho State University, who sits astride the 2005 Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide Custom motorcycle he won in a raffle to raise funds for the SkillsUSA Conference.

The custom paint on the tank and fenders of Don Dunbar’s SkillsUSA Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide Custom is the creation of Paul Stoll, instructor at PPG Refinish’s Seattle Training Center.

Paul, a custom painter for more than 35 years, first started painting in a vocational/technical training environment, much like that fostered by SkillsUSA. He says that he was “fortunate enough to find custom painters willing to share their secrets in an era when most custom painters were not,” and that inspired him to not only learn to paint, but to share his knowledge. With techniques that betray his Southern California custom roots, Paul teaches Vibrance custom painting classes around the country for PPG.

Here are the steps he went through to create the color-changing True Fire paint scheme (all products available through your PPG jobber or distributor):

• Obtain OEM body parts in e-coat (electrodeposition primer).

• Seal e-coat with DAS 3025 Sealer.

• Apply three coats DBC Black Basecoat DMD 1683.

• Apply two coats Vibrance Liquid Crystal Glacier VM4104 (this finish will change color, from emerald to blue, depending on the angle at which the light strikes it).

• Apply one coat DBC 500 Base Clear to protect work.

• Apply flame motif using airbrush in the True Fire method created by custom painter Mike Lavallee: a base of DMD 618 Moly Orange, DMD 639 Chrome Yellow and DMD 1684 White, with candy topcoats in Vibrance Radiance ® II DMX 213 Red, DMX 211 Orange and DMX 210 Yellow.

• Hand-cut mask of Harley-Davidson logo to create faux metal appearance with Vibrance VM4201 Liquid Metal.

• Apply DC 4000 Clear atop all work.

• Sand with 600 grit paper and a dual-action (DA) sander to level topcoat.

• Apply two coats of DC 4000 for final gloss.

Total hours for job = approx. 100Retail value of similar paintwork = $6500.00

If you are a PPG certified painter who’d like to become hands-on familiar with the technique used to create this effect, as well as the products, you can learn from Paul or one of his peers in the PPG Vibrance Collection Real Fire class. For details on how to enroll, contact your PPG distributor, look online at www.ppgrefinish.com, or call the PPG Faxback service toll-free at: 1-800-450-2654.

20

It sounds like a tall tale. And it is. But it’s true.

To break into the big time, all one Bunkie, Louisiana signmaker had to do is do what their competitors had said was impossible. They did… and now they have a world record to prove it.

“We’re a small, south-central Louisiana sign company,” says Todd Ducote, shop foreman and designer for Kojis Signs. “We have about 70 people working for us; we were the sort of company that got most of its

business putting up signs for fast-food restaurants, that sort of thing.”

That’s fairly steady work. But it’s not all that Kojis wanted.

“We have always had our eye on the casino business in this part of the country,” Ducote says. “But we had, historically, found it impossible to break in. There were a select few big sign companies of national prominence that the casino organizations did business with, and while we would bid on every job we learned about, it seemed as if we never heard back.”

Then, last year, they did hear back. Hard Rock Café International, Inc., the global phenomenon with Hard Rock Cafés, Hotels and Casinos in more than 40 countries worldwide, was building a new hotel casino in

Doing the impossible puts one small Louisiana signmaker on the map

Biloxi, and wanted a sign worthy of its reputation: a neon-lit, aluminum guitar, realistic down to the smallest detail. And they wanted it in headline-making proportions, 112 feet tall and almost three times as large in surface area as the then-record holder for the largest guitar in the world (also on a Hard Rock property).

Just as the folks at Kojis feared, first consideration went to a major signmaker, very well-known and justly well-respected throughout the industry. But then the call came.

“Hard Rock told us that the signmaker they were considering was saying that the radiused curves necessary to do a faithful rendition of a guitar would require special dies that would cost upward of half a million dollars—just for the dies,” Ducote recalls. “And they also said that Hard Rock’s deadline for delivery of the sign—July 5, 2005—would be absolutely impossible to meet.”

The door had opened, just a crack.“We did some experimenting in

our shop, invented a tool that would create the types of bends needed, and showed the results to the people at Hard Rock,” he says. “They said, ‘Okay, can you meet a July 5 deadline?’ We said we would, and we got the job.”

Before construction could begin on the sign, Kojis had to construct an addition to their shop—an 180-foot-long, 27-foot-tall addition, just to have the space to move and work on the various pieces of the giant sign. That began in December of 2004, concurrent with computer-aided design of the sign itself. On January 27, 2005, work on the actual sign began.

“To give you an idea of the scope of this project, we had four of our painters—Calvin Johnson, Sherman Black, David Holsomback and Chris Marcot—working for six months, straight, just to do the paint and body work. We had to design the sign to withstand a light Category Five hurricane, and because of the soil composition in that part of the country, we designed twelve 90-foot concrete piles for the guitar to stand on. There were suppliers involved from four countries—the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the hand-drawn neon guitar strings were brought in from Italy. And we finished the guitar with $42,000 worth of PPG DBU Basecoat/Clearcoat paint.”

Why PPG?“It’s almost all we shoot,” says

Ducote. “We have never, ever, had a problem with PPG finishes; PPG makes just an awesome product.”

In early May, two months away from deadline, Kojis Signs’ internal projections were showing that their competitor may have been right on at least one of their two objections—at the rate they were going, the guitar was going to be late for its delivery date. Kojis management called a company-wide meeting, explained the situation and the

(Up-In-The-) Air Guitarimportance of keeping their promise, and employees agreed to work seven days a week, 10-13 hours a day, Father’s Day and the Fourth of July included, to pull the job back on schedule.

That worked. On July 5, 2005, the guitar arrived for installation at the Biloxi construction site. And The Guinness Book of World Records is expected to certify Kojis Signs’ creation as the largest replica guitar in the world.

So—did this change things as far as Kojis getting future casino work?

“The phone has not stopped ringing,” Todd Ducote says with a laugh. “It might say ‘Hard Rock Casino,’ but that big guitar is one exceptional billboard for Kojis Signs, right in the middle of our most valuable prospects. So yeah—I guess you could say ‘we’re in.’” ■

22 23

Kojis Signs designed twelve 90-foot concrete piles as a base for the world’s largest guitar, engineered to withstand hurricane force winds. The design obviously worked, as the guitar was still standing after Hurricane Katrina, which produced winds up to 184 mph.

Recent news reports have been filled with television footage of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast. Rising up amidst the rubble, still standing, was the world’s largest guitar. According to Todd Ducote, shop foreman and designer for Kojis Signs, “Quite frankly, we were amazed. The sign frame and column were designed to withstand winds of up to 180 mph. At the height of the storm, the winds were 184 mph. In fact, there were sustained winds of over 100 mph for seven hours straight. At one point the base of the guitar was under eight or nine feet of water.”

The Hard Rock Casino was completely destroyed. Plans are underway to rebuild the casino, with an opening scheduled for November or December of 2006. The only real damage to the guitar was from flying debris. The guitar will be taken down and shipped back to Kojis to be refinished, then reinstalled at the casino site.

“We’ve received hundreds of calls from all over the country from people who saw the guitar on TV, who called to congratulate us,” says Ducote. “We designed the guitar and its foundation to withstand hurricanes, but we never imagined it would be put to a test like this one.”

Kojis Guitar SurvivesHurricane Katrina

24 25

The shoulder patch worn by Penske Truck

Leasing techs displays the company logo—its

name over a checkered f lag—surrounded by three

words: Quality, Service and Performance.

Those are not just empty words. Like all Penske companies—from its numerous auto dealerships, to OEM-supplier firms, to world-famous racing teams and commercial truck repair locations—Penske Truck Leasing is known for 24/7 professionalism and efficiency. That’s why, when they went looking for an up-to-date computer tool that would allow them to estimate heavy-truck body repairs, they had high standards. And nothing on the market seemed to meet those standards.

“Penske was not alone in that regard,” says Cristina Fronzaglia, manager of f leet marketing programs for PPG Commercial Coatings. “For some time now, students, including bodyshop managers and in-shop estimators attending our Commercial Estimating Class have

online-based estimating tool. Key features of the new program include:

It is specifically designed for f leet shops, not a passenger-car collision shop program that has been modified for the f leet market.

Produces fair, accurate and competitive estimates

Easy to use—simple point-and-click functionality

Prepares neat, easy-to-read, professional documentation for each estimate

Employs logic to account for often missed labor items. For instance, if a tech is replacing a fender that contains a headlamp module, AdjustRite logic automatically calculates the necessary time to re-aim the headlight

Keeps superior records as well as allows the addition of pictures

Incorporates detailed parts information

Creates shop worksheets for the parts department and shop technicians

Less time estimating and more time repairing—increased productivity

To give AdjustRite a thorough real-world trial, PPG beta tested it with several f leet companies, including Penske Truck Leasing.

“Penske has had a longstanding relationship with PPG through our various companies,” says James Svaasand, general manager of business ventures for Penske Truck Leasing. “Ten years ago, when we were operating our first truck bodyshop, we realized that the electronic luxuries we were accustomed to in our other businesses just weren’t there in this industry. So, of course, we were very interested when PPG took the lead in developing this tool. They’ve always been a valued partner to us, and this experience just reinforces that lead.”

One bodyshop manager who has made good use of the new tool is Brad Keiter, who manages the Penske shop in Norcross, Georgia. And for Keiter, who began working on heavy trucks in the military in 1978, AdjustRite has been “a good, consistent way to estimate—a great tool that we desperately needed.”

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9The AdjustRite online-based estimating system takes into consideration every detail of a repair, including often missed labor items to produce a fair, accurate and competitive estimate.

“It’s a real, usable electronic tool,” says Keiter, whose busy shop employs 14 techs, including two full-time box technicians, working in three 74-foot drive-through service bays, a 74-foot prep bay, and a 73-foot downdraft paint booth. “And the beauty of it is that it is online and fully editable. The logic incorporated in the program is a real help when you’re generating a large, 20- to 50-line estimate. On something that size a person might overlook something, but AdjustRite doesn’t.”

Keiter, who has done more than 150 estimates using the new tool says, “This is an online incorporation of all the things I learned when I was certified by PPG as a heavy-equipment estimator three years ago. As far as I’m concerned, this ingrains PPG even more deeply as a partner to our business. They’re not just supplying paint—they are helping us to generate revenue.”

To try AdjustRite for yourself, go online and register at www.AdjustRite.com. Or for more information, call 1-800-516-5149. And let your carrier colleagues know that an insurance adjusters’ version of the program will be available within the next year.

Comes of AgeAdjustRiteTM gives heavy truck estimators a much-needed electronic advantage

Penske Truck Leasing of Norcross, Georgia, employs 14 techs, working in three 74-foot drive-through service bays, a 74-foot prep bay, and a 73-foot downdraft paint booth.

Try AdjustRite for yourself. Log on to

www.adjustrite.com and receive

5 free estimates!

been asking for an automated estimating tool that incorporated the logic and methods taught. These types of programs have been

available to their colleagues in passenger-car and light-

truck repair for years. So f inally, to better serve our PPG f leet customers, we decided to offer it ourselves.”

Stu Orr, an estimating professional with 15 years

experience with insurance carriers and another 15 providing review services has traveled to PPG business development centers around the country teaching PPG’s Commercial Estimating classes. He was also the author of a DOS-based PC estimating tool that could be used on the heavy-duty-truck end of the business. PPG contacted Stu and worked with him to develop AdjustRite, an exclusive PPG

27

G A L L E R Y

This 1956 Corvette sat in pieces in an Oregon barn for nearly 20 years before being purchased by Jack

Barnett of Apollo Beach, Florida. Then Barnett transformed the former basket case into “SRV” (“Street Rod Vette”)—the show-stopper you see here. “After fabricating the chassis, I chose Time Machines of Hudson, Florida to serve as my custom shop,” Barnett recalls. Working to Barnett’s designs, Time Machines made approximately 100 body modifications, from the molded and frenched head lamp rings to the in-body molded tail lamps--

Street Rod Vette— From Pieces to Perfection

so many body mods that Barnett says, “Nothing remained original.” Time Machines even fabricated a remote-operated hood and stainless engine trim for the nitrous-breathing C5 Corvette LS1 V8. Corvette Torch Red from PPG’s Global Refinish System added a show-winning finishing touch.

The SRV was picked as a Fabulous Five winner at the 2005 Goodguys event in Jacksonville, was a finalist for Street Machine of the Year at the 2004 Goodguys PPG Nationals, and The Speed Channel selected it as Best of Show at the 2004 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. ■

setting (as Carl Sewell says, “If we don’t like them or find them pleasant, how will the customer?”).

Once hired, Sewell technicians have a work environment that is rarely seen outside of race shops—painted f loors in most work areas, tile f loors in the paint prep area, air conditioning in every part of the shop and everything neat and well-maintained, with no grease or grime anywhere. There are no quality inspectors; everyone is responsible for his or her own work.

And if a job has to be re-done, the tech re-does it—and does not get paid for the job.

“That’s not punishment,” says Pearce. “That is a provision that allows a person to be proud of what they do. Motivated people like the ones we hire here would feel badly about making the company pay for their mistakes, so they are more than willing to do the job again on their own time, often with guidance from another tech or a supervisor who is willing to help them learn to do an operation correctly. In fact, it is usually not the customer who asks us to re-do a job; it’s the tech who did the job. And when they come to us and say the job’s not right, or they damaged a customer’s car, we’ll give them the materials they need, but they provide the labor to make it right.”

Because the atmosphere is so supportive and so invigorating, Pearce reports that the Sewell shops have almost no turnover and a long waiting

list for every position. As he says, “We pay well, but dollars aren’t everything. In this business, no matter where you work, you’re going to spend a lot of time in the shop. A comfortable and clean working environment, being surrounded by people with a can-do attitude… that means a lot. It makes you look forward to coming in every day. And nothing makes Carl Sewell happier than changing people’s lives for the better—that goes for the people who work with him, as well as the people who do business with him.”

Pearce says that his techs also like the fact that they are empowered to please the customer.

“If someone brings a car in with a crumpled front fender, and we notice that they also have a taillight that’s out, we will put a new bulb in at no charge. If the car’s running on fumes when they drop it off, we’ll put some gas in so they don’t have to stop on the way home and be late for dinner,” says Pearce. “We’ll do detailing that we know the insurance doesn’t cover, just because it makes it nice for the customer when they pick the car up. Because collision work is generally done by insurance allowances, rather than shop estimates, we usually can’t

beat our own estimate. But we can do work that we see is needed and not charge for it. That lets the customer know we’re truly grateful that they came here.”

All four of Sewell’s shops use PPG products exclusively. “That’s no accident,” Pearce says. “One of Carl’s principles is, ‘You can’t give good service if you sell a lousy product.’ So first and foremost we go to PPG for the quality, and for the fact that they’re like us; they stand behind their work and they’ll make things right if the results aren’t what’s expected. And the PPG Roundtable, the CertifiedFirst® Network, their continuing education programs? Those things are all so much like Carl’s way of doing business that you’d think he invented them.”

It all adds up, bottom line, to a way of doing business that works. And Steve Pearce reports that, for the customers, it’s kind of like a cult as well.

“I constantly hear from people who buy here and get their service here because their parents came here,” he says. “My folks said, ‘I don’t care what kind of car you get, as long as you get it from Sewell.’ I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that.” ■

KEEPING CUSTOMERS FOR LIFEWant to put Carl Sewell’s principles to work in your shop? Here are Steve Pearce’s top three recommendations for getting started at earning customers for life:

Hire the right people “You aren’t looking for ‘qualified;’ you’re looking for ‘exceptional.’ Interview as many people as it takes to find the person with the capabilities, the character and the vision to think this way, day in and day out. Staff your shop with nothing but that kind of person.”

Treat them like family “The ‘them’ here refers to your customers and your staff. If you go the extra mile for them, they’ll reward you with a loyalty that money can’t buy.”

Read the book “Customers for Life contains lessons that you can put to work the moment you set the book down and step out into your shop. It’s like a graduate degree in doing business the right way.” Customers for Life is available anywhere books are sold (ISBN 0-385-41503-6).

Lifetime of Business continued from page 7

26

Besides the obvious—the fact that it won 2005 Street Machine of the Year at the

Goodguys 8th PPG Nationals, last July in Columbus—Roy Pigford’s 1966 Nova is exceptional for two reasons. The first is that the chopped and low-slung Chevy is Pigford’s first foray into the hotly contested high-performance street-machine world. And the second is that

Do-it-Yourself ShowstopperPigford, owner of Roy’s Body Shop, in Pasadena, TX, did 99% of the work himself. The Nova, which Roy’s son once drove to high school, rides on a custom-built frame and ’84 Corvette suspension pieces, and is powered by a 383 LT1

Lingenfelter. For finish, Roy applied a PPG Lexus Maroon and Ferrari Sandstone basecoat/clearcoat paint system, with the two hues divided by custom airbrush graphics. When he won, Roy called it, “One of the best days of my life.” But

we bet any day he goes cruising in this stunning ride is a

close second. ■

27

G A L L E R Y

This 1956 Corvette sat in pieces in an Oregon barn for nearly 20 years before being purchased by Jack

Barnett of Apollo Beach, Florida. Then Barnett transformed the former basket case into “SRV” (“Street Rod Vette”)—the show-stopper you see here. “After fabricating the chassis, I chose Time Machines of Hudson, Florida to serve as my custom shop,” Barnett recalls. Working to Barnett’s designs, Time Machines made approximately 100 body modifications, from the molded and frenched head lamp rings to the in-body molded tail lamps--

Street Rod Vette— From Pieces to Perfection

so many body mods that Barnett says, “Nothing remained original.” Time Machines even fabricated a remote-operated hood and stainless engine trim for the nitrous-breathing C5 Corvette LS1 V8. Corvette Torch Red from PPG’s Global Refinish System added a show-winning finishing touch.

The SRV was picked as a Fabulous Five winner at the 2005 Goodguys event in Jacksonville, was a finalist for Street Machine of the Year at the 2004 Goodguys PPG Nationals, and The Speed Channel selected it as Best of Show at the 2004 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. ■

Do-it-Yourself ShowstopperPigford, owner of Roy’s Body Shop, in Pasadena, TX, did 99% of the work himself. The Nova, which Roy’s son once drove to high school, rides on a custom-built frame and ’84 Corvette suspension pieces, and is powered by a 383 LT1

Lingenfelter. For finish, Roy applied a PPG Lexus Maroon and Ferrari Sandstone basecoat/clearcoat paint system, with the two hues divided by custom airbrush graphics. When he won, Roy called it, “One of the best days of my life.” But

we bet any day he goes cruising in this stunning ride is a

close second. ■

Besides the obvious—the fact that it won 2005 Street Machine of the Year at the

Goodguys 8th PPG Nationals, last July in Columbus—Roy Pigford’s 1966 Nova is exceptional for two reasons. The first is that the chopped and low-slung Chevy is Pigford’s first foray into the hotly contested high-performance street-machine world. And the second is that

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