Southeast March 2010

Consumer Union Calls for Auto SafetyReforms, Toyota Controversy Heats UpConsumers Union, the nonprofit publisherof Consumer Reports, has issued a callFeb. 23 for urgent changes to strengthenU.S. auto safety regulation in the wake ofthe massive recall by Toyota.

The influential consumer advocacygroup said that the U.S. safety regulatorysystem should be reformed to becomemore transparent and that the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administrationshould have more funding and the abilityto impose tougher sanctions.

The group also urged a number ofsafety mandates it said should be imposedon all automakers to address the risk ofunintended acceleration of the kind nowunder investigation for Toyota.

U.S. safety regulators should requirethat all cars have brake override systems,simple controls that turn off the engine in

an emergency, clear and simple labels ontransmission shifters and a minimumclearance between floor panels and accel-erator pedals, Consumers Union said.

Toyota has faced criticism on all ofthose points in the run-up to a sweepingrecall for accelerator-related problems thattotals over 8 million vehicles globally.

NHTSA says five deaths have beenlinked to the risk of loose floormats trap-ping accelerator pedals in Toyota vehicles.Another 29 fatality reports are under in-vestigation.

“Much of the ongoing debate andpublic outcry has centered on why theseissues weren't caught or acted upon ear-lier,” Consumers Union said in its reporton the Toyota recalls and proposed re-forms.

State Farm Says NHTSA Warned on ToyotaState Farm said on Feb. 8 that it informedthe National Highway Traffic SafetyAd-ministration of a worrying trend of vehi-cle-caused accidents involving Toyotavehicles as far back as late 2007, basedon claims data.

State Farm said that it routinelytracks claim trend information and sharesits data with NHTSA. “We voluntarilyand routinely communicate with the ap-propriate government agencies when wesee a product-related claim trend,” saidState Farm spokesman, Jeff McCollum.

“When you start to see significantclaims activity that indicates that theremay be widespread problems with a prod-uct, that’s when you go to the NHTSA,”said State Farm spokesman Kip Diggs.“There had to have been significant activ-ity, a noticeable trend, for that to happen.”

NHTSA spokeswoman Karen Al-dana said State Farm sent the agency a

claim letter, dated Sept. 7, 2007, whichwas sent to Toyota concerning a crash in-volving a 2005 Camry. She said the re-port was reviewed and added to theircomplaint database. NHTSA officialshave since responded that the State Farmreport was reviewed and the agency is-sued a recall later that month.

NHTSA said it received complaintsabout acceleration problems in Toyotavehicles as early as 2003, and congress isnow investigating whether or not thegovernment missed warning signs of theproblems. The House Oversight andGovernment Reform Committee willhold the first of three congressional hear-ings on Feb. 24 which are expected to re-view the recall of about 8.5 millionvehicles globally, first over floor matssuspected of trapping gas pedals, thenover sticking gas pedals and brake prob-

See STATE FARM TO NHTSA, Page 4

SoutheastEdition

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VOL. 1 ISSUE 1MARCH 2010

SCRS and Others Alert Industry to ConcernsOver Aftermarket Structural Parts, Insurers Act

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In November of last year and January ofthis year, SCRS National Director andAutobody News columnist, Toby Chess,performed several demonstrations out-lining comparative studies he had con-ducted between randomly selected OEMand Aftermarket Structural Replacementparts. See Hey Toby column, p. 37 thisissue.

The parts reviewed included itemssuch as Front and Rear Bumper Rein-forcement Beams, Radiator Core Sup-ports, Bumper Brackets and BumperEnergy Absorbers. In every exampletested, there were significant differencesin both the construction of, and materials

used, in the aftermarket replacement partwhich can significantly impact the rolesthat these parts serve in the transfer of en-ergy resulting from a collision. Each ofthese parts also directly relates to thefunctionality and response of the vehicleSafety Restraint System (SRS), andcould have a resulting affect on how theairbag functions in the event of a loss.

The presentation also detailed that inother instances where the manufacturerhad paid particular attention to utilizingthe same materials as the OEM, and em-ployed credible third-party testing, theparts appeared to perform much better in

See AFTERMARKET PARTS, Page 36

See AUTO SAFETY REFORMS, Page 39

Understanding the Basics of the Waterborne Paint BoothBASF Answers Questions on Newer Refinish ProcessesDan Am/SATA and Jobbers Provide EPA Painter Spray Gun TrainingHow Compressors Can Affect your Spray Gun and Paint AppearanceTechnological Advancements in Overspray Collectors

— Continued in April, 2010

2 MARCH 2010 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

• Comprehensive Inventory of Genuine OEM Parts.• Our Highly Knowledgeable Staff is Here to Answer Your Parts Inquiries.

• Large Fleet of Vehicles for Delivery.• Ask About Volume Discounts.

Parts Manager: Brian Gradye-mail: [email protected]

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GREENWAY FORDDirect: 800-773-5078Fax: 407-515-6454www.greenwaypartscenter.com

www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2010 AUTOBODY NEWS 3


Southeast

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, Stefan Gesterkamp, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio,Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Dan EspersenAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Christina Shubert (800) 699-8251Advertising Sales Assistant: Stephanie BowlingArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the auto body industry. Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2010 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsP.O. Box 1400, Oceanside, CA 92051-1400(800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

Aegis Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Autoland Scientech . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . 33

Chemco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

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

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

FL, GA, AL, MS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Global Finishing Solutions . . . . . . . . 16

Greenway Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep . . . . 3

Greenway Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Gus Machado Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 31

I-CAR Education Foundation . . . . . . 40

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . 7

Mattei Compressors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . 30

Nalley BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Performance Radiator . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Reliant Finishing Systems . . . . . . . . 12

Replica Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

SATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

SCA Appraisal Company . . . . . . . . . 24

Sherwin-Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Shoot Suits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Soft-Sanders from Style-Line, Corp . 13

Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Taylor BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Verifacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Inde

xofAdvertisers

AEGIS Tools Innovates Windshield Repair Systems . . 17

AkzoNobel is Exclusive Paint Sponsor . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Alabama Body Shops See Green after Snowfall . . . . . . 6

Ask Dale - Parts and Car Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

ARA Adds Credit Card Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

BASF Expands Lean Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

BASF Answers Questions on Refinish Processes . . . . 26

BBB Issues Warning on Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Brad Wilmoth, 2010 Best of Belron® Award. . . . . . . 8

Carsmetics Opens First Facility in Atlanta Area . . . . . . . 9

CARSTAR Collision Centers’ Top Celebrity Crashes . . 35

Collision Industry Foundation to Auction Donations . . 24

Collision Repair Students are Well-Prepared . . . . . . . 29

Consumer Union Calls for Auto Safety Reforms … . . . 1

Dan Am-SATA & Jobbers Provide EPA Training . . . . . 15

Data Recorders Now in Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

EPA Sets New NO2 Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Espersen - Proper Repair Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Evans - A Remarkable New Product on a Shelby . . . . 11

Evans - Ultimate Vodka’s Shelby Series 1, Part 2 . . . . 13

Florida CFO Helps Customers Recover $22M. . . . . . . . 8

Florida Court: ‘No Retroactive Rule on No-Fault’. . . . . . 6

Ford and Hyundai Excel, Toyota Still No. 1 . . . . . . . . . 25

Franklin - Help Customers Avoid ‘Jackass Bends’ . . . 28

GEICO to Hire 150 Workers for Macon, GA, Office . . . 8

Gonzo's Toolbox - Early Morning De-Light.. . . . . . . . . 19

Hand-held Phone Bans Are Not Reducing Crashes . . . 16

Hey Toby! - Testing Aftermarket v. OEM Parts . . . . . . 37

Hyundai CEO Gets 2010 Automotive Citation . . . . . . . 31

Hyundai Redesigns Corporate Website. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

I-CAR Announces 2010 International Board . . . . . . . 24

IGA, NGA and NWRA Co-Locate Events at Conference36

Iowa Collision Sponsors SSB 3180 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Kaizen Assembly Launches LEAN Webinar Series . . . 34

Kia Soul Named ‘Small Car of the Year’ . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Miss Teen Georgia is New Face Driving Program . . . . 33

Mississippi House Attempts Anti-Steering Bil . . . . . . . . 9

Mississippi May Become No Deductible State . . . . . . . 9

Mitsubishi Parts Departments in Southeast . . . . . . . . 30

New I-CAR Director for Curriculum Work . . . . . . . . . . 22

Pep Boys Acquires 10-store Florida Tire Chain. . . . . . . 9

Performance Parts Pioneer John Simmons, Passes . . 8

Performance Radiator Stresses Consistency . . . . . . . . 8

Publisher's Page - Autobody News in Southeast . . . . . 5

Replacement Safety Certification Labels. . . . . . . . . . . 18

Salvaged Airbag Bill, SB 209, Withdrawn. . . . . . . . . . 39

SCRS Alert Industry to Aftermarket Parts. . . . . . . . . . . 1

SCRS Expands Repairer Education at SEMA. . . . . . . . 24

Soaring Foreign Car Sales, Detroit and Aftermarket. . . 18

State Farm Says NHTSA Warned on Toyota.. . . . . . . . . 1

Technological Advancements In Overspray. . . . . . . . . 23

Tennessee House’s Anti-Steering Legislation . . . . . . . 29

The Georgia Collision Industry Association (GCIA) . . . 32

Toyota Testifies, Limiting Recall Actions. . . . . . . . . . . 21

Toyota May be Vulnerable to Conquests. . . . . . . . . . . 21

Understanding the Waterborne Paint Booth . . . . . . . . 10

Veterans Return to Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Women’s Industry Network Seeks Candidates . . . . . 29

Contents

lems, and now potentially, over drive bywire throttle systems.

State Farm is America’s largest autoinsurer, with 42.4 million auto insurancepolicies. That gives it a U.S. market shareof about 18%, according the Insurance In-formation Institute.

Diggs said the company contacted theNHTSA in late 2007 and had been in touchwith the regulator an unspecified numberof times since then. Toyota has been hit bya huge recall of more than 8 million vehi-cles worldwide, (see story this issue)which has raised questions about the qual-ity standards and credibility of the Japan-ese automaker.

Diggs said that the models involvedin the incidents State Farm had brought tothe attention of the NHTSAwere “consis-tent with the voluntary recall undertakenby Toyota.’’

Other insurers said they had not seensuch a trend.

“We have not seen such a pattern,’’said Steve Witmer, a spokesman for Wis-consin-based American Family Insur-ance Group, the No. 10 U.S. auto insurerwith a market share of 2.1 percent. How-ever, Insurance Information InstitutePresident Bob Hartwig said that few in-

surers beyond State Farm had a bigenough auto insurance business to deter-mine a trend like this. He added thatState Farm’s insurance data had alsobeen critical in tracking problems withtires made by Bridgestone Corp.’s Fire-stone unit to rollover incidents involvingFord Motor Co’s Explorer models adecade ago.

“State Farm helped crack the problemwith Firestone tires and few other (auto)insurers have the scale to do what theycan,” Hartwig said. But other insurers aregoing back over accidents involving Toy-ota models to determine whether they mayhave been caused by a vehicle fault insteadof the driver.

“We’re currently reviewing claimsthat may be affected by the Toyota re-calls,” said Leah Knapp, a spokeswomanfor No. 4 auto insurer Progressive. “Rightnow it’s too soon to say how many cus-tomers may be affected, but at this pointthere’s no indication that it will be a sig-nificant number.”

In a separate matter, federal safety of-ficials said they will review complaintsfrom Toyota Corolla drivers about steer-ing difficulties on their vehicles. NHTSAsaid it has received about 80 complaintsfrom drivers of 2009 and 2010 Corollas.Many said their cars could wander whenthey drive on the highway, making it hardto stay in lanes.

Continued from Page 1

State Farm to NHTSA


First, a heartfelt welcome goes out to ournew readers in the Southeastern UnitedStates, who are now getting the inauguralSoutheast edition of Autobody News.

We have just mailed our first issue to6000 auto body shops in Florida, Georgia,Alabama and Mississippi, and that makesus officially a coast-to-coast publication ina Southern swath from California, Ari-zona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Okla-homa, Louisiana, and now Mississippi,Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

We’re very excited to be launchingthis, the third regional edition of our news-paper, and look forward to providing ournew readers in the Southeast with the samein-depth national and regional news thatwe’ve been providing to shops in our othertwo editions, for over 28 years.

Our Western Edition goes to 8,500body shops in CA,AZ, NV, and the South-west Edition is mailed monthly to 6,500body shops in TX, OK, LA, and NM.

Some have asked if we’re crazy to beexpanding in a recession and our responseto that is that in these challenging eco-nomic times, if you’re not moving ahead,you’re falling behind. Those shops andbusinesses that have survived over the last18 months are in a unique position to buildon their brands’ strength and get evenstronger. That’s why we’re expanding intothe southeast now.

Any publication that competes foryour valuable time and attention needs tospeak for itself, but it may be of some in-terest to know where the paper came from;and why we proudly proclaim we’ve beenpublishing continuously for 28 years.

Our paper was started by Leta Amickin California as a “very regional publica-tion” in 1982. Joe Momber, our advertis-ing sales manager, started working withLeta in the spring of 1996.When Rich andDebbie Neubauer bought Autobody Newsfrom Leta in 1999, Joe stayed on andworked with them until 2003, when he de-cided to try something new.

Barbara Davies and I bought the paperfrom the Neubauers, who had their handsfull with other publications, in the summerof 2007 just as the recession was starting tobite into the collision industry. We soonexperienced the market’s ‘unintended de-celeration’ before we realized that that ispretty much the definition of a collision,and we were truly in an accidental indus-try.

Shortly thereafter we found JoeMomber ready to resume his previous po-sition in the spring of 2008. Expanding thepaper at that time wasn’t an option and al-though the collision market is still de-pressed right now, we are learning fromour readers and advertising clients thatmany see this as the opportune time to takeadvantage of the dislocations caused bydistressed businesses and position them-selves as new leaders with new productsand services for the industry. Inshort—like them—we have decided not toparticipate in the recession.

More relevant is why we’re doing anew print publication—a newspaper, onreal, but environmentally friendly,newsprint instead of another on-linesource trying to jam your email with yetanother e-subscription. Of course, we offerthat as well, but more on that later.

It’s no secret that general newspapershave been on the decline almost every-where as more and more people get theirnews from targeted on-line sources, but webelieve in newspapers, because we believein the editorial process.

We believe that the selection of con-tent is as important as the content itself toa businessman. After all, you can read thesame wire story in a variety of sources, butyou can’t assemble them into a convenientformat online unless you know whatyou’re looking for.

We also believe in the power of ad-vertising, especially in print. It’s thosecompanies who are financially viable,have products and services that have beensuccessful for many years, who are ableand willing to advertise that you should bedoing business with. If a company cannotafford to represent itself in print, and hasbudgets and cash flow appropriate only foremail, it likely will have other problemsthat you don’t want to learn about afterthey’re your supplier.

We’re not talking about the size of thebusiness here. A small company with agood product has every chance of successas its “cream rises to the top.”Similarly, a small newspaper or media

source can be as useful as a big one, if it

sticks to its mission and makes a genuineeffort to be original. There’s no shortageof unique media perspectives in the colli-sion industry.And therein lies the dilemmafor the news business.Every media outlet wants to cover the

news as fully as it can, to be comprehen-sive and be the go-to source for its read-ers, but this leads to a lot of redundancywhere you see the same content on differ-ent channels, sometimes at the same time.How else do you explain every televisionchannel covering incidents like the balloonboy, or the TigerWoods mea culpa, simul-taneously?

There is a herd mentality in the mediathat often makes the channel you’re watch-ing irrelevant to the content being pre-sented.

Collision repair is fundamentally alocal industry, since no one takes theirdamaged vehicle further than necessary forquality repair. When you combine thatwith state regulation, local market condi-tions, and the environment your shop is in,you need to know what’s going on locally.What happens elsewhere in the industry,especially with legislation and shop asso-ciations coast to coast, is relevant for in-

formed shop owners and managers. Thatcompetitor down the street may be a muchcloser ally than you realized.

The business news is not alwaysgood, but there’s a big difference betweena good newspaper and a bad newspaper. Agood newspaper doesn’t shy away frombad news, but bad news and bad coverageare very different issues.

We’re in an age of instant news viathe internet, and being talked at by blog-gers of all stripes, as well as new mediahubs providing video, chat, and social net-working. All have their place, but whatmany readers need and want is an editorialperspective.

That’s what we hope to provide.We know you’re busy so we try to keep

our content succinct and to the point.Every month in Autobody News

you’ll see coverage of the harder news: thelegislative back and forth, insurance-re-lated actions, OEM auto dealerships andtheir parts distribution methods, and partsmakers—whether OEM or the Aftermar-ket. We also provide technical content in-cluding information that many otherpublications don’t, such as I-CAR’s Ad-vantage Online, and ALLDATA’s AllOEM Information column.

We have profiles of body shops in our‘Shop Showcase’ stories, and other busi-nesses in our ‘Company Connections’ arti-cles. Of course we also cover the businessaspects of running a body shop.

We have a long-standing group ofcolumnists who are some of the best in theindustry. Check out Toby Chess, RichEvans, John Yoswick, Tom Franklin, DaleDelmege, Lee Amaradio, Tom McGee,Dan Espersen, Stefan Gesterkamp, andmany others for their ongoing insight.We cover the auto body associations as

much as we can, because we believethey’re good for shop owners who shouldjoin them and support them more. A bun-dle of sticks is much harder to break in halfthan an individual stick broken one by one.

We hope you like and support Auto-body Newswith your valuable time and at-tention, because it’s your newspaper, andwithout your involvement as a reader,writer, or contributor there wouldn’t bemuch point in producing it. We want tohear what you want to see in the paper. Inthe unlikely event that you don’t like it, wewant to know about that as well.

As a regional publication, there’s al-ways need for more local content and weare expanding our contributors to get moreof that than any other comparable collisionpublication.

We will add to our mailing list con-tinuously as we are contacted by shops notalready on it. Turn in your friends who arenot getting Autobody News. They’ll thankyou for it.

We have a monthly e-newsletterwhich will go out in April when our cur-rent website is relaunched. Please sign upfor at www.autobodynews.com in the nextfew weeks. When the site is relaunchedyou’ll be able to browse our backlist of2000 articles. Contact me with any sug-gestions at [email protected].

We have mailed to every operatingshop we know about in both of our otherregions for 28 years. We hope your busi-ness will thrive for at least the next 28.We’re here to help that happen.

Autobody News: Your Antidote for ‘Unintended Deceleration’

(R to L): Publisher and editor, Jeremy Hayhurst,Founder Leta Amick, and General Manager,Barbara Davies.

Joe Momber reunites with former owners Richand Debbie Neubauer, in Oceanside, CA

with Jeremy HayhurstPublisher’s Page

[email protected]


A2001 amendment to Florida’s no-fault lawthat requires insureds to notify their insurerthat they intend to sue cannot be appliedretroactively to policies issued before theamendment was enacted, ruled the FloridaSupreme Court. Before the presuit noticeprovision, the law did not require an insuredto provide notice to an insurer before filingan action for overdue benefits. The amend-ment, known as the statutory presuit notice,constituted a “substantive change” to thestatute and thus cannot be applied retroac-tively. This provision states that before filingany action for an overdue claim, the insurermust be provided with written notice of anintent to litigate. The high court’s action re-versed a decision by the Third District court,which had held the notification amendmentto be “merely procedural.”

The case, Menendez v. ProgressiveExpress Insurance Co., Inc., involved Pro-gressive’s denial of personal injury pro-tection (PIP) benefits to an insured whowas injured in a car accident coveredunder a policy that was issued before theenactment date of the 2001 amendment.Justice Barbara J. Pariente wrote, “Inour view, the statute, when viewed as awhole, is a substantive statute.” The pre-suit notice provision is “not procedural”and “should not be given retroactive ap-plication.”

The Supreme Court said that the Legis-lature intended for the provision to be appliedretroactively, however, the court said that evenwhere theLegislature has expressly stated thata statute will have retroactive application, thecourtwill reject retroactive application “if thestatute impairs a vested right, creates a newobligation, or imposes a new penalty.” Thestatute as amended in 2001 alsomandates thatthe payment from the insurermust include in-terest and penalties not exceeding $250.Also,if the insurer pays within the additional timeprovided by the statute, the payment pre-cludes the insured from bringing suit for latepayment or nonpayment and shields the in-surer from a claim for attorneys’ fees.

The insured argued that the amendmentcreated various obligations and burdens thatare substantive and therefore could only beapplied prospectively.The insured also arguethat the statutory presuit notice provision, asa whole, affects an insured’s ability to retaincounsel because there is no longer a right toreasonable attorneys’ fees if the insurer sub-sequently pays the claimwithin the additionaltime prescribed by statute. The Court saidthat the “most problematic provisions” of thestatute are thosewhich impose a penalty, im-plicate attorneys’ fees, grant an insurer addi-tional time to pay benefits, and delay theinsured’s right to institute a cause of action.The ruling could affect other PIP claims.

by Bryan Henry, WSFA

Throughout the day on Friday, [Feb. 12]Montgomery, AL, Police worked morethan two dozen accidents. Some of thosecars and trucks ended up at Chico’s Paintand Body Shop.

“We’ve had 5 or so come in over theweekend,” said Wayne Tucker, Chico’smanager.

It’s the same kind of story at RedBazzell & Son Auto Body & Paint. Theseverity of the damage ranged from a bro-ken axle to a car that struck a tree.

The snow on Friday has so far pro-vided a 25% increase in business atChico’s, something body shops typicallysee when a major storm blows in.

“The folks in Montgomery just don’tknow how to drive in a winter storm likethat. We hate it for them,” said Joe Orr,the Estimator at Red Bazzell & Son’s.

The average cost of a storm-relatedrepair job is anywhere from $2,500 to$4,500.

The winter storm did a bang up job ofdelivering up to 7 inches of snow in partsof theWSFA12 News viewing area.Whilethe flakes are long gone, the storm’s callingcard of dented and broken vehicles remains.

Body shop owners told WSFA 12News Friday’s snow was by far not the

worst storm they’ve dealt with in terms ofrepairing vehicles. Red Bazzell & Son’ssays it repaired 4,000 vehicles after thehail storms in 1988 and ‘89.

©2010WSFA.All rights reserved. This ar-ticle is printed with the kind permission ofthe station.

Alabama Body Shops See Green after February Snowfall Florida Court: ‘No Retroactive Rule on No-Fault Insurance’

Does your body shophave a weather-relatedstory to tell?E-mail us with photos at [email protected], and get your storyin the paper. Or, if you submit yourwritten shop profile for our ShopShowcase section, you’ll get a $50gift card from Autobody News if it’spublished.

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2010 Genesis Coup

Hyundai Redesigns CorporateWebsite: Better InfrastructureHyundai Motor America recentlygained a new home page look and feel.The newly launched site atHyundai.com now has completely re-vamped infrastructure. Officials fromiCrossing worked with Hyundai Infor-mation Service North America to pro-duce a site they say has better usabilityto connect users with the informationthey seek quickly and effectively. Ex-ecutives from both Hyundai andiCrossing contend that consumers nowshould be even more informed aboutthe automaker’s vehicle lineup.“Hyundai.com reflects Hyundai’sbrand values and provides a widely ac-cessible, high-performance experi-ence,” noted Simon Cho, manager ofinteractive marketing for HyundaiMotor America. “These are the attrib-utes that our customers have come toexpect from Hyundai vehicles, and ourrefreshed site now provides that sameexperience online,” Cho continued.

Domingos Vieira, Vice President,Automotive at iCrossing, added, “visi-tors to Hyundai.com typically have aspecific need for key information.”

“We designed and built the site tomake finding that information as easy aspossible,” Vieira concluded.

Kia Soul Named ‘Small Car ofthe Year’ by FAMA MagazineAdding even more recognition to itsgrowing list of accolades, the 2010 KiaSoul was named “Small Car of the Year”by FAMA Magazine during an awardpresentation at the 2010 NorthAmericanInternationalAuto Show (NAIAS) in De-troit. Also named one of “10 Great andSafe Rides for Teens” byAutoWeekmag-azine, one of the “Most Exciting Cars of2010” by TIME.com, given two “TopSafety Picks” by the Insurance Institutefor Highway Safety (IIHS) and named tothe “Top 10 Back-to-School Cars” list byKelley Blue Book’s kbb.com, Soul wasselected by FAMAfor its extensive list ofsafety features, dynamic styling, impres-sive interior room and value.

“Soul offers today’s consumer apractical and attractive option with amore than impressive package of vibrantstyling, extensive safety features andstandard amenities,” said MichaelSprague, vice president, marketing ofKia Motors America (KMA). “Intoday’s economy we feel it’s importantthat buyer’s don’t have to sacrifice thesenecessities for overall value, and Souldelivers.” Each vehicle considered forthe award possessed a long list of safetyfeatures, impressive styling, interiorspace and value.

The Better Business Bureau is issuing analert regarding Clearline Coatings Inc., aFlorida-based dealer of epoxy floor cover-ings and truck bed liner products. Thecompany’s owner, Julius Lupowitz, for-merly located in New York, has also usedthe names Ocean Spray Technologies andHammerhead Spray In Liners.

In a complaint filed with the BBB, anOmaha businessman, who applies epoxyfloor coverings, states he was contacted byJulius Lupowitz and asked to “invest” inClearline’s epoxy product. Lupowitz askedfor an initial outlay of $2305 to open anaccount. He was directed to send a cashierscheck, because the company does not ac-cept payments by credit card.

A few days later, the Omaha business-man received a call from a company namedHammerhead. The representative told himthey had six trucks from Seattle whichneeded epoxy liners. All he would need todo was purchase the bed liner product andthe vehicles would be delivered for the ap-plication. The business agreed to purchasethe product based on the promise of trucksto work on and sent an additional $1068 tothe company. He received the bed linerproduct, but the trucks never arrived.

In another complaint filed with theBBB, a trailer business located in Shenan-doah, IA, received a call from “Eddy

Lupe,” offering a distributorship for “theonly clear epoxy product on the market”along with a guaranteed territory of a 150mile radius.

The price quoted for this distributor-ship was $16,000.After Lupe was told thatthe owner was not willing to make thiskind of investment, he then added, “Yourcompany will also be taking over the busi-ness records for another distributor.” Hepromised there would be jobs from thatcompany. The owner then agreed to be-come certified and invest $9,500.

The trailer company received theproduct, but could not get it to adhere ordry. The complainant states that the prod-uct does not work and a refund was re-quested. To date, there has been no refundand no additional jobs as promised.

When confronted by the BBB,Lupowitz denied he had concocted thephony orders, and said he was unwilling toprovide a refund but would retrain thecompanies in the proper use of the prod-uct. Additionally, Lupowitz stated thatcomplaints against him are occurring as aresult of a competitor who is persuadingbusinesses to file complaints with BBBusing false and misleading information.

Lupowitz acknowledged to the BBBthat he does use aliases regularly such as“Eddy Lupe” in his business dealings, but

claimed he did not engineer the set ups asclaimed by these two customers.

BBB President Jim Hegarty has in-formed Lupowitz that the BBB is issuing analert after it learned that in 2006, Lupowitz,while operating a company called OceanSpray Technologies, was arrested in NewYork where he faced charges of grand lar-ceny and scheming to defraud auto bodyshops nationwide. Lupowitz pled guilty to afirst-degree felony charge and was sen-tenced to probation after making restitutionof $54,322. The money was disbursed to 14victims who had been refused refunds.

According to the DA, “In order to in-duce auto body shops to buy his product,Lupowitz, posed as a fictitious owner of afleet of trucks that needed to be sprayedspecifically with his product. This fictitiouscompanywould enter into an agreementwithauto body shops and based on this agree-ment, the shops would then purchase OceanSpray’s product.After receiving the product,the shopwould never hear from the fictitioustruck owner again. Lupowitz would then re-fuse to refund the auto body shops.”

Hegarty said, “The BBB has had ad-ditional contacts with complainants in sixother states regarding Lupowitz and is pre-senting the complaints to the BBB in Or-lando for further investigation of JuliusLupowitz and Clearline Coatings.”


BBB Issues Warning on Company Selling Truck Bed Liner Products

Georgia lawmakers are taking a closer lookat texting while driving legislation pro-posed in the week of Jan. 18. Representa-tives on the House public safety committeedebated the bill.At the end of the hour-longhearing, the bill was referred to a studycommittee for further consideration.

At issue was how law enforcementwould be able to determine if a driver istexting or using their cell phone for an-other purpose.

State Rep. Amos Amerson urged hiscolleagues not to focus on how the pro-posed law would be enforced. Supportersof the bill said its main purpose will be asa deterrent to would-be offenders, whomay be broken of the habit with the threatof a hefty fine and driving penalties.

Georgia House LawmakersStudying Texting Ban Bill

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Alabama native, SEMA Hall of Famemember, founder of SECO Equipment andSECO Performance Centers, John Sim-mons, passed away on Sunday, February14. SECO Performance Centers is wellknown in the Southeast and has outlets inBirmingham, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, andMontgomery AL as well as Panama City,FL.

“John Simmons was more than mymentor for more than 20 years,” saidSEMA Chairman of the Board RickRollins. “He was like a father that youcould always go to for the answers, andnot the answers that you wanted to hear,but the ones that came from his manyyears of experience, and more importantlyfrom his heart.”

Simmons started his own warehousedistribution business for performanceparts in 1962. He began by selling partsfrom a trailer that he hauled to race trackson weekends. By 1967, Simmons wascommitted to the performance parts busi-ness, but he also owned and operated theHelena Dragstrip. Soon after the track wasclosed in 1967, due to noise, Simmonsand several partners acquired LassiterMountain Speedway, which they ran for10 years.

Simmons joined SEMA in 1969 inwhat was the beginning of a fruitful re-

lationship. Simmons served threeterms on the SEMA Board of Directorsfrom 1978–1982 and he chaired the

SEMA Finance Committee in 1981. Heserved on the Awards Judging Com-mittee from 1984–1986, chaired thePerson of the Year Award in 1987 andalso served as Membership Committeechairman.

In 1980, Simmons was named SEMAPerson of the Year and was inducted intoSEMA’s Hall of Fame in 2004.

In addition to his SEMA efforts, hewas elected and served as a PerformanceWarehouse Association (PWA) Area Di-rector from 1974–1991, served two termsas PWA treasurer and two terms as na-tional director of the PWA. He receivedthe PWA Pioneer Award in 1993 and wasone of the founding members of theAAM/Parts Pro group.

All along the way, Simmons made it apoint to help others grow and succeed intheir businesses, and he always encour-aged people to join SEMA, urging them toget involved. He was never shy about ex-plaining how SEMA could benefit themand their businesses.

“John didn’t have time for the mod-ern day marketing surveys or 30,000-ft.views of what was going on, because heknew,” Rollins added. “He stayed in touchwith what was going on in the streets, onthe race tracks and at the car shows. As amanufacturer sales manager, I made veryfew decisions concerning selling into dis-tribution or running promotions withoutfirst consulting John. I will miss him.”


Performance Parts Pioneer and SECO Founder, John Simmons, Passes AwayFlorida CFO Helps CustomersRecover $22M from Insurers

GEICO to Hire 150 Workers forMacon, GA, Office in 2010

The Department of Financial Serviceshelped recover over $22 million forFlorida’s insurance consumers in 2009,according to officials. The $22 millionrepresents an increase from $14 millionrecovered in 2008. Florida CFO AlexSink said one recent success story wasthe recovery of more than $516,000 for998 customers of Household FinanceCo. The department was tipped off by anOrlando resident who discoveredmonthly premiums of $4.93 being de-ducted from her account two years afterher policy had expired.

A $60,000 recovery occurred aftera Sarasota resident was sold an annuitythat did not meet the requirements he set.

Richard Foster of Temple Terrace,who was frustrated because he could notget a call back from his insurance com-pany regarding a claim, was able to re-cover $12,160 within days after callingthe department’s insurance consumerhelpline, according to Sink.

Brad Wilmoth, 2010 Best ofBelron® Best Technician AwardVehicle glass technician Brad Wilmothof Hartford, MI, took first place at the bi-annual Best of Belron® competition heldrecently in Orlando, FL. Started by Safe-liteAutoGlass’ parent company Belron®,twelve competing technicians weretested on all facets of their job includingquality, safety and efficiency, whiledemonstrating windshield and bodyglass replacement, windshield repair andcustomer service.

Wilmoth was the 2008 runner-upand this year recorded the first-ever per-fect customer service score. As thechampion, he took home a $10,000 prizeand will travel to Paris, France in June2010 to compete against representativesfrom 30 other countries in the interna-tional Best of Belron® competition. Theinternational competition holds a purseof a year’s salary and the title of besttechnician in the world.

“It’s really a dream come true,” saidWilmoth. “When I got home from thecompetition two years ago I immediatelystarted working toward this one, and herewe are. It took a lot of practice and hardwork, but I’m ready to go to Paris.”

Columbus, Ohio technician MarkJackson took second place. As the na-tional runner-up, he received $5,000 andwill travel to Paris as an alternate.

“The Best of Belron® is an impor-tant event for our company because itshowcases the high quality work that ourtechnicians provide to our customersevery day,” said Tom Feeney, presidentand CEO of Safelite AutoGlass®. “Hav-ing the opportunity to watch up close thework our technicians do creates greatpride among our associates and appreci-ation for their work by our customers.”

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GEICO’s Macon, GA operations centeropened in 1974, and the office has sincegrown to employ more than 4,340.GEICO is actively recruiting and plansto hire more than 150 new associates inits Macon office in the first quarter of2010.

“GEICO has been in business for73 years and the Macon office cele-brated its 35th anniversary this year. Weexpect continued growth in 2010 and arelooking for well-qualified associateswho want to grow with GEICO and bepart of our success.”

GEICO’s Macon office has dou-bled in size in the last 10 years. Thecompany has many career opportuni-ties and is hiring for its sales, customerservice, claims and centralized servicesdepartments.

GEICO provides paid training forentry-level associates and positions areavailable for high school and collegegraduates, applicants with some collegeand experienced professionals.

“This is a great time to build a ca-reer with GEICO,” said Shawn Burklin,the regional vice president in Macon.GEICO has been named a top employerfor college graduates by College-Grad.com.

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It was announced in January that The PepBoys—Manny, Moe & Jack, acquiredFlorida Tire, Inc. in October 2009. TheMarch Group, a Coral Springs-based lead-ing private merger and acquisions firm,worked with both parties for about a yearbefore the purchase was finalized.

Florida Tire, Inc. is a chain of 10 au-tomotive service and tire stores in centralFlorida. Its first location was establishedin Orlando in 1987 by its former president,Doug Bolt. It has three Orlando stores.Other Florida stores includeApopka,Win-ter Park, Leesburg, Sanford, Clermont,Celebration and Eustis. The company sellsGoodyear and Dunlop tires and provides awide range of maintenance services formost cars and trucks.

Pep Boys is the nation’s leading auto-motive aftermarket service and retailchain. It is the only aftermarket retail andservice chain in the nation that serves allfour segments of the automotive aftermar-ket: do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me, buy-for-resale and replacement tires.

“Selling my company was one of thebiggest decisions of my life, but TheMarch Group gave me all the informationand support I needed to sell it with confi-dence,” said Doug Bolt. “Now I look for-ward to working with Pep Boys to help itgrow, knowing that my employees and

customers are in good hands.”Doug Bolt remains with Pep Boys,

focusing on its expansion plans and its re-lationship with Goodyear.

“We are leading our expansion withour service business, growing through newService & Tire Centers,” said Joe Cirelli,Pep Boys’ senior vice president of corpo-rate development. “The 10-store FloridaTire chain presented the perfect opportu-nity to grow within a market where wehave existing Supercenters that can helpsupport these smaller, neighborhood-basedService & Tire Centers. The 10 FloridaTire stores accelerated our expansion pro-gram this year, providing a model for ourfuture growth.”

In addition to a new Supercenter, PepBoys will have opened 24 new Service &Tire Centers by the end of the Company’sfiscal 2009 (January 2010); the Companyexpects to add another 40 in 2010 and 80in 2011.

Pep Boys has approximately 6,000service bays within over 580 stores lo-cated in 35 states and Puerto Rico. Alongwith its full-service vehicle maintenanceand repair capabilities, the company alsoserves the commercial auto parts deliv-ery market and is one of the leading sell-ers of replacement tires in the UnitedStates.


AMississippi senator has introduced leg-islation in the state (SB 2395) that wouldmake deductibles no longer apply to wind-shield damage covered under comprehen-sive insurance policies. If passed, the bill,which was introduced in January, wouldbecome effective on July 1 for any poli-cies issued or renewed after that date. Itcurrently is under the review of the Sen-ate’s insurance committee.

The text of the bill’s deductible pro-vision is as follows:

The deductible provisions of any pol-icy of motor vehicle insurance, deliveredor issued in this state by an authorized in-surer, providing comprehensive coverageor combined additional coverage shall not

be applicable to damage to the windshieldof any motor vehicle covered under suchpolicy. SB 2395 was introduced by Sen.Robert Jackson (D). Co-sponsors includeSen. David Jordan (D), Sen. Alice Harden(D), Sen. Eric Powell (D), Sen. BennieTurner (D), Sen. Kenneth Wayne Jones(D), Sen. Sampson Jackson (D), Sen.Willie Simmons (D), Sen. Johnnie Walls(D), Sen. Kelvin Butler (D), Sen. DeborahJean Dawkins (D), Sen. Bill Stone (D),and Sen. Ezelle Lee (D).

Several other states have enacted suchlegislation, including the state of SouthCarolina. Last year, the Alabama legisla-ture considered a similar law but it did notultimately pass.

Pep Boys Acquires 10-store Florida Tire Chain Mississippi May Become the Next No Deductible AutoGlass State if SB 2395 Passes

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Carsmetics express accident repair hasopened the first Carsmetics of Georiga fa-cility with its new location at 1675 Al-pharetta Highway in Alpharetta, Ga.

Carsmetics comes to Atlanta underthe ownership of Craig Gonzales, whohas overseen the growth of 17 Florida andSouthern California locations.

“Carsmetics will provide Atlanta carowners with an affordable, high qualityrepair in 24 hours that will make their carlook new again,” Gonzales says. “We arepleased to offer the Atlanta market per-fect auto body repairs on vehicles thathave light collision or ‘drivable dam-age.’”

Consumers are able to get damagefixed on vehicles at a lower cost than most

auto dealerships and major collision shopscharge, the company claims.

“We concentrate on repairing cars thatweren’t involved in a serious accident, there-fore we eliminate the high overhead costs oftow trucks and other expensive mechanicalrepair equipment,” saysmanagerEric Sagro.“We pass these savings onto our customers.”

The benefit of one-day repairs has in-fluenced insurance providers to recom-mend Carsmetics, which saves them rentalcar costs and long repair delays, the com-pany said.

Carsmetics outlines various servicesfrom cosmetic to functional repairs, fenderbenders and auto color matching and re-painting. They offer a 100 percent satis-faction guarantee.

Carsmetics Opens First Facility in Atlanta Area

The Mississippi House has undertaken ananti-steering initiative just one week intothe 2010 legislative session.

Rep. Henry B. Zuber (R) introduced abill, HB390, which would amend thestate’s insurance code to read as follows:

(1) No insurer may require as a con-dition of payment of a claim that repairs toa damaged vehicle, including glass repairsor replacements, must be made by a par-ticular contractor or motor vehicle repairshop; provided, however, the most an in-surer shall be required to pay for the repairof the vehicle or repair or replacement ofthe glass is the lowest amount that suchvehicle or glass could be properly andfairly repaired or replaced by a contractoror repair shop within a reasonable geo-graphical or trade area of the insured.

(2) In connection with the repair ofdamage to a motor vehicle covered underan automobile insurance policy, an insurer,an employee or agent of an insurer, an in-surance adjuster, or an entity that employsan insurance adjuster may not:

(a) Solicit or accept a referral fee or

gratuity in exchange for referring an in-sured or third-party claimant to a repairperson or facility to repair the damage;

(b) State or suggest, either orally orin writing, to an insured that the insuredmust use a specific repair person or facil-ity or a repair person or facility identifiedon a preferred list compiled by an insurerfor the damage repair or parts replacementto be covered by the policy; or

(c) Restrict the right of an insured orthird-party claimant to choose a repair per-son or facility by requiring the insured orthird-party claimant to travel an unreason-able distance to repair the damage.

(3) The insurer of a motor vehicleshall clearly and prominently display theprovisions of subsection (1) and (2) of thissection on the face of the insurance policyor certificate in lieu of an insurance pol-icy.

(4) Any person violating any of theprovisions of this section shall be guilty ofa misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shallbe fined not more than One Thousand Dol-lars ($1,000.00).

Mississippi House Attempts Anti-Steering Bill, HB 390


Imagine it has just rained. There are pud-dles on the ground, and everything iscoated with droplets of water. On a cool,overcast day with no wind, that water willtake quite a bit of time to disappear. Nowimagine the clouds part and the sunemerges. Those puddles will evaporatefaster, right? Now what if a stiff breezekicks up. That water will be gone prettyquickly. Everyone knows if it’s hot andwindy, a puddle of water will be evapo-rated a lot faster than if it’s cool and still.This is the same principle that gets appliedwhen we’re talking about curing and dry-ing the latest in advanced waterbornepaints.

Naturally though, things get a bitmore complicated when we’re talkingabout drying paint under very controlledconditions, such as those on an automatedfinishing line, or in an automotive bodyshop. Modern coatings are incredible ex-amples of chemical engineering. They canbe designed to withstand the harshest ofconditions, while maintaining their desiredappearance much longer than coatings ofthe past. However, in order to achieve thebest possible results with these coatingsand maximize their effectiveness, theyneed to be applied under very specific en-vironmental conditions. This is where themodern paint booth comes in.

Modern paint booths contain moretechnology than most people would ex-pect. Gone are the days of the simple ‘bigmetal box’. New paint booths are designedto provide not only a better painting envi-ronment, but also a more efficient workingspace for the painters. Things like auto-mated temperature control and shadow-free lighting make the painters’ job easierthan ever. Yet there is no one individualfactor that can be singled out as the key toworking with waterborne paints. It’s thecombination of several technologies thatallows you to effectively spray and curemost waterborne paints with maximum re-sults.

Going back to our ‘rain and puddle’analogy, the two things that are absolutelyessential when we’re dealing with water-borne paints are heat and airflow. Granted,you CAN cure waterborne paints withoutextra heat or accelerated airflow, but it’sinevitably going to take much longer. Thisis not something most modern businessesare ‘okay’with. After all, why spend moretime when you can spend less? This is whyit’s so important to make sure that your

booth is set up properly for waterborne.First, let’s talk about heat. There are

two basic types of paint booth heaters: In-direct-fired and Direct-fired.With an indi-rect-fired air heater, the gas burner is builtinside a large metal drum within the heatunit. The burner heats the drum, and as theair moves over the drum it becomes hotbefore it is forced in to the cabin. The in-herent inefficiency in this design isthe drum itself. Since the drumneeds to be heated first beforethe air can be heated, indirect-fired heat units take muchlonger to come up to optimumtemperature when compared tothe direct-fired variants.

Direct-fired heaters utilize amuch simpler and more effective heat-transfer design. In these types of heaters,the burner is placed directly in the path ofthe moving air. This allows for nearly100% of the heat generated by the burnerto be transferred directly in to the air. Theresult is much better heat-rise, and lowergas consumption over the duration of thepaint process. Direct-fired heaters are gen-erally accepted as the more effective andefficient choice for modern paint booths,especially when dealing with waterbornepaints.

The second part of the heat issue iscontrol over the temperature itself. Everycoating has unique curing and drying prop-erties. Different paints can require a highertemperature for less time, or a lower tem-perature for more time, or even differenttemperatures over the course of one cure

cycle. These temperature variances can bea nightmare for the painter if they have todo everything manually. This is why somepaint booth manufacturers have developedpre-programmed control panels that arespecifically designed to automate the dry-ing cycle. Some of the more advanced con-trol panels are programmed for specificbrands and models of coatings. This pro-gramming simplifies the operation of thebooth by allowing the user to push a singlebutton to begin the cure cycle, and thebooth does the rest. Automatically con-trolling the temperature of the air based onthe pre-determined times in the cure cycle.This allows for the fastest drying times by

using the best possible cure cycle for thatspecific paint, and gives much better con-sistency with each finished product.

Next, we’ll look at airflow in the paintbooth. While simply increasing the CFMof air moving through the booth does givesome improvement in the drying times, thekey thing to remember here is that wedon’t necessarily just want MORE airflow,

but what we do want is SMARTERairflow. What we mean bysmarter airflow is more controlover the airflow in the cabin.This is accomplished in twoways: with variable frequencydrives and with an accelerated

airflow system.Variable frequency drives

(VFD’s) are electrical control units that areintegrated in to the heat units to provideenhanced control over the motors. VFD’sregulate the flow of electricity to the mo-tors, and allow the motors to run at anyspeed, from 1% to 100%. Typically, elec-tric paint booth motors only operate at100% speed, which requires mechanicaldampers in order to control the airflowgenerated by the fans attached to the mo-tors. By utilizing VFD’s, the motors can beadjusted to any speed in order to controlthe airflow, which drastically reduces en-ergy consumption since the motors areonly spinning as fast as they need to at anygiven time. This control over the motorspeed allows virtually infinite adjustmentsto the air speed in the booth, allowing theoperator to customize the air movementfor optimum performance.

Accelerated airflow systems are verycommon in modern auto body shops, andare becoming more prevalent in industrialapplications as waterborne coatings be-come more popular. These devices cancome in several different forms, includinghand-held compressed air blowers, simplefans, or more advanced booth-mounted airblowers. Regardless of the type of accel-erator equipment, the concept remains thesame: increased airflow on the painted sur-faces. There are two reasons that this in-creased airflow is important: Heatstratification and low-pressure micro-cli-mate.

First, let’s explain heat stratification.This is basically a fancy word for ‘layer-ing’. We all know that warm air rises, andthat in any paint booth, the air near theceiling will be warmer than the air near thefloor. This causes the upper surfaces of thepainted object to dry faster than the lowersurfaces. Accelerated airflow systems aredesigned to mix up the airflow in the boothand force more air on to the painted sur-faces. While some systems focus air onspecific spots for smaller jobs, the moreadvanced systems will turn the wholebooth in to one big convection oven. This

allows for the heat to be distributed overthe entire painted object, and providesmuch more even and consistent curing re-sults.

Next, when we say ‘low-pressuremicro-climate,’we’re not talking about theweather. This refers to the way the airmoves over the surface of an object. As airmoves over an object in a linear way, evenat high speeds, there is a barrier of slow-moving air between the fast moving airstream and the painted surface. This bar-rier or ‘micro-climate’ is a low-pressurearea that acts as a buffer, preventing thewater or solvents in the paint from beingdrawn out, therefore slowing the dryingprocess. By introducing additional fast-moving air, these acceleration systems cre-ate a controlled turbulence on the paintedsurface in order to break up this micro-cli-mate and draw out the water and solventsfrom the coating. This drastically reducesthe time required to achieve a finishedproduct.

We can begin to see a trend here, al-most hidden amongst the time savingswe’ve been talking about. The benefityou’ll notice when you reduce the time re-quired to cure your coatings is reduced en-

ergy consumption. By minimizing thetime required to dry the paint, the paintbooth is operating for less time for eachjob you complete. The less time the boothoperates, the less natural gas is fedthrough the burner, and less electricity isused by the motors. That is the mark of atruly ‘green’ paint booth. Not only do theyallow for the effective use of environ-ment-friendly waterborne coatings, butthey also require less electricity and gas inorder to complete the same job as a regu-lar paint booth.

So as we can see, in order to minimizethe drying times of most waterborne paintsyou really need both controlled heat andaccelerated airflow. This combination willyield the fastest possible drying times withmodern waterborne coatings, and enableyour shop to push past the slow, cold, wetdays of inefficient waterborne drying andachieve the increased productivity andprofitability that you are looking for, withthe added benefit of knowing that yourpaint booth is helping you minimize yourimpact on the environment.

Understanding the Basics of the Waterborne Paint Booth


I’d like to welcome the 6,000+ shops nowgetting Autobody News’ new Southeastedition in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, andMississippi for the first time. You can al-ways download or read my previouscolumns on my projects, including thisone, at www.autobodynews.com. Also,check out Rich Evans designs atwww.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com orrichevansdesigns.com.

This is a three-part article—the firsttwo parts are in this issue, the rest willcontinue next month. I’m going to describeseveral truly great and useful productshere that enabled me to refinish thisShelby.

I got a call from Ed Blinn who runs thePatron Tequila operation for Paul Mitchell,the owner. He’s got a really cool car—aShelby Series 1—that I worked on brieflylast year. Now it’s back here for me “work

my magic” as they put it. There aren’t toomany Shelby Series 1’s around. This car hasa lot concept built into it, really cool-lookingbody lines, with unique curves and radiuses.I started removing the wrap that I put over ablack base paint with rally stripes to create a“Patron theme” last year. They’ve got a newproduct now called Ultimate Vodka whichis going to be this year’s theme.

We start with the basic tear down, cov-ering all the different preps and steps that wehave to take. Then we’ll move into the paintpart (part 2) and then delivery (next month’sarticle). First off, I remove the wrap leavingthe rally stripes and the gold leaf stripes onthe car.

I always individually remove all theparts and hardware and bag them, using azip-lock back to divide parts so it makes iteasier when you’re putting the car back to-

gether. So if I am taking apart the door Ihave a zip-lock bag labeled ‘left door’ etc.If I break clips or notice bolts are missing,

I have a running list so I have all the piecesto my puzzle, and I’m not waiting for partsto finish the project. When you work onmultiple projects you can forget things anda missing part can delay a project byweeks, especially on a rare car like this.With the wrap off and accessories off, Inow remove all the body parts.

I start with the hood and take an 1/8inch drill bit and mark two holes on eitherside of the hinge. Drill two holes on eachhinge, that way when you go to put it backtogether, you just position a 1/8 in dowelthrough the hinge and into the body, insert itto get the correct alignment, put nuts on andtighten them, remove the dowels; back towhere youwere. That will position the hoodexactly where it was when I took it off. So Idon’t have fitting problems or time delays.

Time is money and this is an easytrick that will help you get your hood backwhere it was. I call it a ‘panel alignmenttool’ and it can save hours and hours.

Now I remove the rally stripes startingwith the hood and use aircraft stripper tostrip it down. When we pull the wrap off,we’re pulling up paint. Whoever touchedthis vehicle before me had not done aproper prep repair and I don’t know if it wasfactory or some individual, but I spent a lotof time removing these stripes. The goldleaf is right down to the gel coat. Afterabout 12 hours of stripping we canmask offthe lights with plexiglass light covers be-cause they are not safely removable. I haveto be very cautious not to damage those. Itcould be very expensive. I usually remove

everything but if I remove these they mightbreak—more time, more money.

With everything else removed, I useda Chicago Pneumatic DA Sander 3/16 or-bital sanding pattern to remove the rallystripes. I’m able to block the surface as I’mremoving it. Not to get a perfect block butenough to massage it and not dig in pastthe gel coat. Having a straight block and ahard block is good, but neither of these isgoing to work on this project. Luckily, Ifound a perfect product/tool for this jobthat I’m excited to tell you about.

I’ve been working with an innovativenew product called Soft-Sanders, made bya company called Style-Line™ Corp. outof Georgia. This company makes 5-inch,

8-inch, and 11-inch sets of soft sandingblocks (from a pliable spongelike material)that can mold to practically any shape youcome across in any sanding situation, in-

cluding something like a bowling ball orbaseball bat or a boat hull. These blocksand their special Super-Flex® sandpaperare amazingly durable and resistant tomost solvents.

They have a tapered edge for sandingany hard-to-access areas. You can use anyof six blocks in the kit, with three differ-ent densities, that vary in firmness but areall soft enough to be compressed intoplaces that are otherwise hard and time-consuming to sand. The 8-in and 11-in

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

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

Using a Remarkable New Product—and Several Older Reliable Ones—on a Shelby

This is the car with a wrap done last year.

The wrap is removed

Hood and front bumper removed.

Aircraft stripper on the front bumper

Remove door decals.

Completely stripped

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blocks sand large curved (high crown)areas with ease, and the blocks, being flex-ible, conform to the surface being sanded.

The key to these blocks’ effectivenessis the special adhesive-backed Super-Flex®sandpaper. This high quality paper is avail-able in grits from 40–3000 and in differentsizes (to match the block you choose) andquantities (packs of 4 to 24).You simply con-form the paper grit down on the vehicle sur-face first and then press the blocks to theadhesive backing. The adhesive holds theblock securely in place then maintains thecurvature on the block until the job is doneand the sandpaper is removed. These blocksare really a brilliant innovation, and espe-cially useful for this kind of car with itsunique curvature. I was able to hit a lot moresurface without damaging the panels. Flatblocks just wouldn’t work on this car. If youare going to hand sandwith a standard 5-inchblock you’re just not going to get the panelsas true as they need to be. So, after sandingwith the orbital DA, I come back across withan 8 in. Soft-Sander block.

The Soft-Sander blocks are color-coded in green, purple, yellow (two sizes),red block in different sizes and densities.You just find the size and density that youneed press it to the adhesive paper and go.You save a lot of time and get truer work. Iused the blue 8-in. block and the 80 gritsandpaper to true the area where the rallystripe was where I DA’d. I dug into the gelcoat a little bit and feathered it out. I fol-lowed the same process on the doors, on therear panel, on the front bumper, on the reardeck lid and also on a panel that goes inside,behind the driver seat and passenger seat.

There are a few photos here to showhow flexible and how sturdy the blocks are.Don’t let the lightness of the blocks foolyou. They become very rigid and durablewhen you add the adhesive sandpaper tothem. To get a large solid block for powerwork you apply a second sheet of paper onthe opposite side to keep it flat and straight.Even the longest soft block becomes superrigid. This is also now reversable if youneed to use the other side but the paper isdurable and goes a long way.

These blocks work so well that they’vebecome the go-to for me for every job sinceI tried them because they’re quicker, moreefficient, and do a better job. They feel likea carwash mitt and they glide without flip-ping or flopping. I don’t think there is an-other block out there that you can sand aball or tubular surface with. These blockscan do that.

Go to www.soft-sanders.com to visittheir site and see what I’m talking about,or call Style-Line™ Corp. at 800-752-9863 to find a dealer. Do yourself a favorand order some for yourself. Their kits arevery inexpensive, especially when you seewhat you can do with them, and the sand-paper is excellent quality. I guarantee youare going to find yourself using them a lot.

Back to the project. I’ve hit all these pan-els with 80 grit. The car is completely apart soI can paint everything individually. Now I amgoing tomask up the areas that I don’t want toapply primer to. I want to plug another greatproduct here. I use a PCLprimer which is in 2parts: hardener and primer. I like the PCLprimer a lot. It has been working for me foryears, so I tend to use it on everything. I don’thave any problemswith shrink back, or lifting

andcracking, andcoverage andbuild is phenom-enal. Pricing isright as well. Goto www.pclauto-motive.com formore info. Theyhave black andgray availableand they’ve al-ways got newproduct comingout. Like you,what I use is

whatworks forme. It goeson topof fiberglass,metal, whatever you’re working on.

On this project I use the black PCLprimer. I’ll put on a quart, or two quarts,depending on the area we’re sanding—inthis case, the rally stripes. I put four coatson and then feather out another two coatsover the whole project. This seals it in andlocks it down. Once it’s hardened, it’s hard-ened, and easy to sand. I don’t even reallyneed a guide coat with the black PCL.

I come back with the 80 grit and trueout the panels to get rid of any deepscratches, any low spots, flaws, waves, es-pecially focusing on where the rally stripeswere. I don’t want to have a problem withthe rally stripes coming back. I use the 8-in. and sometimes the 11-in. block on the

bigger areas,easily follow-ing the curva-ture due tosuperbly fittingthe contours.It’s all about

blocking cor-rectly. Youdon’t want toapply excesspressure whenyou are block-ing because you

can create low spots. You want to let theblock do the job; you are just the powersource. I run over the surface and look forimperfections, low spots and high spots andtrue them out from there. For high spots Ialways block in an X pattern cross-cuttingwith a bias one way and then follow upwith the other bias. It tends to cut a lotquicker. We are using the PCL primer soI’m able to see where it’s shiny, usually alow spot, until it becomes a dull black,which is when I know I’ve trued my areas.

After the 80 grit, I blow everythingoff, wipe it down, and then I’ll tack it andput two more coats of PCL on it. At thatpoint, I’m ready for 400 grit. These soft-sanding blocks work great wet or dry(again, the Super-Flex® sandpaper is thekey), so I’m coming back using 400 wetand blocking one final time before paint.

After the 400 wet, we’re going to gettwo batches and using House of Kolor,which has been around for close to 60 years.House of Kolor has additives you can putinto the product to make it VOC compliantin California. You remove the solvents andreplace themwith a product called KV1 re-ducer and add in the KV150 which willbreak it down. Use 1 part paint, 1 part KV1reducer and 1 part KV150. When you arebuying this product, you are going to bespending a little bit more money, but withthe mixing ratio you will get more paintcoverage by mixing it this way. The Houseof Kolor sealer that we are going to be using(KS210), comes in white, black or silver.Next month we will finish this project upand get the paint tips and procedures.

AcknowledgementsAs always I’d like to thank the people andproducts who helped me get this done.

I really was amazed at the time that thenew blocks and sandpaper saved me. DaveWalsh at Style-Line™ is an amazing body

guy and has been around this industry a longtime as a shop owner in Georgia. This newproduct that he and his brother Michael de-veloped is phenomenal.

Dave from Coast Airbrush in Califor-nia. Dave can be reached by email at [email protected].

Microflex puts out such a great prod-uct, with many selections of different typesof gloves. The Diamond Grips and theMidknights™ are the ones that I use.Safety is number one! Visit their site atwww.microflex.com.

Thanks to Chicago Pneumatics. Theirsealant tool is one of many products theycreate that are just getting better and better.These guys are taking the time to find outwhat the end users need when they developthese products. Visit them at www.cp.com.

I’d like to thank SATAas well for pro-viding me with the number one guns in theworld. I am using their 1.9 HVLP primergun and it allows me to just lay the PCLdown and control it. I’m using 27 psi withprimer and stretching my fan as much as Ican and I can really just walk that producton. See their site at www.sata.com. TonyLammer is my connection over there.

Make the commitment to invest inyour own safety and in quality tools, whichwill last you forever. I don’t endorse any-thing I don’t believe in. Nobody has timefor cheap tools or inferior products.


11” yellow Soft Sander block.

8” Soft Sander red block.

We’re back on part two of three on ourShelby Series 1 project that we started inthe last issue. We left off last month havingthe car ready for our base color. I chose aHouse of Kolor Orion Silver paint. Now alot of guys think it’s only waterborne thatwe can use in California, but there arecompanies such as House of Kolor thathave additives we can use to make it [lowVOC] compliant. To do that we’re going

to use one part paint, one part KU150 cat-alyst, and two parts KV1 reducer. This waywe can use these familiar custom colors

and still be compliant with the low VOCs.Of course this will also work in shops out-side California, who want to be more en-vorionmentally conscious and safe.

A word or two about safety becausemaking something compliant doesn’t meanit’s 100% safe. I always wear theMicroFlexMidknight™ gloves for the booth area andthings I’m doing. I can go through 100 pairsor more easily on a project like this, but it’sworth it. I also always use my shoot suitswhich keep me nice and clean and awayfrom the lacquer thinners and other solventsthat can get into the pores of your skin. Ialso use a fresh air system from SATAwhich keeps me safe. I want to be aroundfor another 40 years and still be paintingwithout worrying what any refinish productcan do to me over a long period of time.

We’re going to end up with twobatches in the booth, with applying threecoats of Orion Silver base coat, but beforethat we have to hit it with the sealer. I amusing House of Kolor KS210. It comes ina white and a black and I mixed 50% ofeach to get a gray color so I can apply sil-ver over top of it. First I apply two light

coats of the sealer over the surface and theparts. I’m going to apply three coats of theorion silver total. I’m using my SATA gunat 27 psi when I’m applying base color.

We’re getting our silver base on witha topcoat. I like TranStar and I’m using6531 to 2.1 low-VOC clearcoat. For myhardener I use the 6894HT and that allowsjust a little bit more flow time. It is betterfor what I do—graphics and custom work.

I’ve been using Transtar topcoat for about14 years and I’ve never once had it biteme or go wrong. A lot of guys out theremight not apply enough material so don’tskimp. It’s all about how you apply yourmaterial. I’m putting two coats on becauseI know I’m going to go back and sand itdown with 800. I’ve chosen to use a top-coat versus an SG100 (Intercoat clear) be-cause of all the taping. Instead of using theSG100 and having to use the KU150 andthe KV1 to get this compliant—to me, it’sbetter to put a low-VOC clearcoat on andskip the SG100 system.

We get the two coats on and I’m goingto come through with 800 grit 3M wet anddry and I’m going to use the Soft-Sanderblocks and Quick-Cut sanding DAs on theflatter areas. There aren’t many of those onthis car. The Soft Sanders are a huge helpbecause the multiple lengths of sandingblocks fit the body contours. The blocks areall color-coded so as you use them moreyou find out which ones help you most.Obviously they’re saving me a lot of timeand give me a better result. A straight blockreally doesn’t work on this project becauseof all the contours going on. I can use anyof the Style-Line Super-Flex® sandpapersup to 3000 grit. We’re cutting this with 800grit and then we’re going to bring it in anddo a mock-up for graphic layout.

I’ve called in Matt Van Wingerden todo the airbrushing on the project. You mightremember him from his Marilyn Monroeheadliner that we did for the ‘57 Chevy lastyear. Matt is very creative. He’s young butvery well-rounded as an artist. He wearsthree hats: having the plotter skills; the

graphic design touch; and the airbrush skillsall in one. I don’t have to sub-source any-thing. He’s a real talent and I’m sure you’llbe seeing a lot more of his work out there.

What we want is the real subtlegraphic layout and Matt’s doing the Ulti-mate Vodka bottle that I explained in thelast column. We want this bottle to lookreal and it represents the company, so Mattis my design and concept to place it on thehood in the rally stripes.

Matt puts about 20 hours into gettingthe bottle looking great and we’ve got thecar mocked-up, sanded down with the 800grit and ready for the second color which isgoing to be True Blue Pearl (part numberPBC36.Q01) from House of Kolor.

I used a panel-alignment tool before Itore the car down. I take an 1/8-inch drill bitand drill into the hinge areas of the hood,doors, fenders, the rear hatch; just so I havea reference so I can put those panels backexactly where they were. I know where I amall the time instead of wasting a lot of timetrying to line things up. You experiencedguys know what I’m talking about.

I’ve designed my own panel alignmenttool which is just a set of 6 screwdrivers withan 1/8-inch dowel of different lengths to getinto different areas. So you can make yourown, or I’ll make them available soon forothers. Sometimes we need to make our owntools, but these tools work for me. I’ve saveda lot of time with them and time is money.

So now that we’ve got everythingmocked-up, our graphic design is going toinclude some rally stripes, striped down theleft and right hood right before it meets thefender. We’re going to break it off in the frontto make it look racy and add some check-


Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

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

Ultimate Vodka’s Shelby Series 1, Part 2

Matt Van Wingerden, Air brush artist extraordinaire.

Graphic lay out.

House of Kolors Orion Silver Base coat withTranstar top coat

House of Kolor Orion Silver Base with Transtar topcoat sanded with 3M 800 grit sand paper usingthe Quick Cut sanders followed by Soft-Sanders

ered-pattern designs. I collaborated with EdBlinn—with Patron Tequila, the owner—onthe layout. I really want to give them whatthey’re looking for and represent their com-pany and their brand as best we can.

I use Photoshop to mock-up the vehi-cle in a picture to get on the same pagewith the company. When they give me thethumbs up then we need to make that pic-ture real. That’s the way that works for ushere at Rich Evans designs.

We’ve got all the graphics layed outand then we mask everything up ready forthe True Blue Pearl second base color. I like3M tape and masking paper, which is a real

good quality tape that doesn’t leave residuebehind, especially when you’re doing graph-ics. Make sure you pre-clean all your panelsbefore you mask them. Using the MicroFlexgloves keeps your fingerprints off the car.Use a nice hard mask, applied tight, so it’seasy to unmask. All of those steps reallycount when you’re trying to put out a high-quality commercial product. It takes a littlelonger but your end results are better.

So after tear down, we have twobatches. It could easily be three batches butif I do three it could cost another six hoursof time waiting between coats. It’s a littlecrowded but I have enough room to walkaround and apply the True Blue.

I’m using a 1.4 tip on my SATA gunand my comfort zone is 27 psi so it atomizesthe paint and I don’t have a really highbuild. I might get a two-mill build with thisproject’s six coats, half-triggered to just giveme coverage with the second base color.

You want to make sure that you arenot creating more work for yourself anddon’t get a high build on your second basecolor. When you’re doing graphics you canextend yourself for more color, sandingand buffing to make it smooth, where youcan’t feel the lines.

With the left to right doors we’readding the Ultimate Vodka image on andwe got those laid out to where they looknatural and not crowded.

I just used the House of Kolor whitebase color, two coats, with just enough forcoverage. We put on the white before weapplied the True Blue, then re-masked sowhen we’re done with the True Bluegraphic part we can de-mask everythingand add our shadows to give it a three-di-mensional look. It’ll make the Ultimate

Vodka lettering look really deep so that it’sreally popping off that Orion Silver. We’regoing to shadow where the checkerboardsmeet the graphic on the fenders and give ita natural rollover so it looks like it’s rollingunderneath that graphic and disappearing.It’ll be real subtle with a couple of littlehighlights here and there that’ll makesense to separate the blues (where it meetsblues) especially on the front where itcomes around and meets the rally stripe.We want that stripe to go underneath therally stripe to look like they’re really div-ing underneath it. You don’t have to overdoit to get the look. We’re not going for a

bunch of wavy effects or anything likethat. This car needs to look like it’s going100 miles an hour standing still.

We’re using six True Blue coatsthroughout the two batches and then de-masking. You really need to spend yourtime cleaning up making sure everythingis right. Blow off everything, tack it off,walk around, check it and make sure thateverything is blown out before you applyyour TranStar clear topcoat.

I’m going to apply five coats and onetack coat. I like to use the tack coat tomake sure I’m covering it and creating afoundation for my clear that I’m going toapply pretty heavily on. I’m going to comeback and cut two of those coats off so I re-ally want to leave a minimum of 3–3½coats of clear for a protective coat through-out its lifespan.

I have a system when I’m sprayingmy clear with my RP gun, which is a 1.4,and I recommend everybody get an RP gunwith a 1.4. I’ve been using one for aboutsix years and I use it about 35–37 psi,about 3 inches away. I usually shoot atabout 3 inches and I like to control theproduct when it goes on and make sure it’sflat. I want to make sure that I’m in con-trol and the paint is not controlling me andthere’s really no room for double lapping.You’ll create a comfort zone for yourself.

A word about keeping it clean. Go toshootsuits.com and pick yourself up a RichEvans shoot suit (ad adjacent). I’m walk-ing around in a shoot suit all the timethey’re washable, they last forever, and theprice is right. Cleanliness and safety gohand in hand because they show care andattention to detail. It’s nice to walk out ofthe booth and see everything right and

clean. You’re happy, you don’t have dirtflying around, and you don’t have to repeatsteps. Once again, time is money.

So five coats of clear, one tack, thatleaves me a lot of room to color, sand, andbuff. For that, I am going to start with 800grit and we will finish this in the third stageof this article. I really want to get the stepsand procedures across to you guys so youcan try what I’m doing, or maybe you’llcome across one or two things that you’renot doing that you might try that mighthelp you save time.

I’m going to hit some of my flat areaswith the Quick Cut sander with 800 grit.

That’s what I start with then I really keepmy focus on the second topcoat (True Blue)and it works those areas down because Iknow they’re going to be two mills higherthan everything else. So as I applied my top-coat I really pounded on the five coats. Find

a system that works for you but 15 minutesin between each coat works for me. By thetime it’s tacking and is starting to set up, Ipile it on again. You know that you have awindow of 24 hours between coats so someof you guys out there are doing extra by put-ting 3 coats on, sanding, cleaning every-thing up, putting it back in the booth andputting another three coats on.

Take your time to read up on yourproduct to see what your windows are. Youcan put three coats on, and come back thenext morning, without sanding, and put an-other three coats on. The more you dig intothe product details and the more you use it,

the more it will work for you the wayworks for me. It’s worked for me for years.

Breaking out the Soft Sanders, I’ve gotabout five or six blocks that I’m using onthis. They’re different sizes and lengths and


Phone: (360) 687-3451

Ready for Transtar top coat Blocking with the Soft Sanders 1000--1500 gritHouse of Kolor True blue pearl. Second batch with clear coat ready for color sandand buff

See SHELBY PART TWO, Page 39

Autobody News recently attended a 3-hr.evening training session for about 35painters, informally called a “SATA EPAclinic,” held at Sacio Enterprises in SanDiego. The Jan. 20 event was hosted bythe jobber, Tri City Paint, headed by SteveEllis, Sales Manager, and assisted byWayne Morrison and Felipe Contreras.Also present was the local representative,Gerry Carter, from Total Sales & Mar-keting.

The featured presenter was SteveTreutel, national industry relations andtraining manger for Dan Am/SATA, whocovered the theory behind the EPA regula-tions, the compliance requirements, andsome critical, but often overlooked, main-tainance issues for spray guns. The trainingincluded hands-on booth spraying beforethe painters could be certified in the course.

We asked Treutel about trainingpainters in light of the new EPA rule, andwhat refinish companies—including hard-ware manufacturers—and jobbers can do,and are doing, to help them get up to speed.

Steve Treutel ◄ Two things are hap-pening in the collision industry rightnowthat are huge, the EPA rule and water-borne, and I’m not sure which is the larger.

First, the EPA put into the rule whatso many of us wanted to do for some time

which is basically educating the painter.What we’ve done at Dan Am and SATA isset up a training program with our 39 repsdoing evening clinics on this. We coverhow the gun operates works, volume, air,from HVLP to RP technologies: they allfall into this rule. We teach them how toachieve the very best transfer efficiencyThen we turn around and physically do it.Every student in the class sprays and isgraded on it.

In the past if you tried to hold a work-shop for painters about how to use theirown spray gun nobody would show up.They thought that they knew everythingthere was to know. It’s because everybodylearned by watching someone else, not byknowing the principles behind the paintingprocess. Now they say “thank you.”

Every paint manufacturer out thereand their brand of waterborne basecoat isworking to make that operate and dry theway they want it to with color match andeverything else. Understanding how thatgun is set up is critical.

Starting with California, now everypaint company is releasing their water-borne nationally, some more effectivelyand aggressively than others. But nowyou’ve got the OTC group in the North-

east, and the Great Lakes group also,which are working on their waterborne lawfor 2012, only two years away. I think itcould all happen nationally within 5-10years.

That’s a lot of painters—bigger, even,than the California waterborne launch be-cause we’re talking about changing

primers and clears (to match the 1151 rule)and everything that goes with that. Aswe’re doing these evening clinics and I’mworking with our reps we hear that every-body wants to know how soon until I haveto do it? Across the street that shopmight’ve already changed over to water, oris seriously planning for it.

ABN ► So what percentage would yousay are doing it voluntarily?

Steve Treutel ◄ So far, it’s a small per-centage that have changed over voluntarilybut it’s bigger than many people think. Inmany cases it’s a shop that wants to standout from its competition more. For someof them it’s just for marketing; others aresaying “it’s going to come anyway” and Idon’t want to be waiting in line for jobbersand reps to help me.

ABN ► We know about two large MSObody shops that are planning a “flip theswitch” date to transition to waterborne.

Steve Treutel ◄ Yes, there are a lot ofproactive shops that are gearing up theirequipment and they have the plan in place.They understand that new equipment canmake it a lot easier. You can spray water

Dan Am-SATA & Jobbers Provide EPA Painter Spray Gun Training


See DAN AM/SATA EPA, Page 35

Steve Treutel, right, talks to a San Diego group ofmotivated painters seeking national certification forEPA mandated painting operations.

Steve Treutel reviews protective equipment and ex-plains some of the potential health hazards the EPArules are designed to prevent.

Distracted driving is an attention problemnot a manual operation problem, so it’s nosurprise to many that laws banning the useof hand-held phones while driving havefailed to reduce crashes, according to re-search conducted by the Highway LossData Institute.

HLDI, an affiliate of the Insurance In-stitute for Highway Safety (IIHS), said itsfindings were based on a comparison ofcrash damage insurance claim rates in fourU.S. jurisdictions before and after the phoneuse bans. The research showed claim ratesremained steady compared with nearby ju-risdictions that have not passed such bans.

“The laws aren’t reducing crashes,even though we know that such laws havereduced hand-held phone use, and severalstudies have established that phoning whiledriving increases crash risk,” said AdrianLund, president of the IIHS and HLDI.

In New York, HLDI noted, there wasa decrease in collision claim frequenciesrelative to comparison states, but that trendbegan “well before the state’s ban took ef-fect.” HLDI added that trends in the Dis-trict of Columbia, Connecticut andCalifornia did not change.

Mr. Lund said, “So the new findingsdon’t match what we already know aboutthe risk of phoning and texting while driv-ing. If crash risk increases with phone use

and fewer drivers use phones where it’s il-legal to do so, we would expect to see a de-crease in crashes. But we aren’t seeing it.Nor do we see collision claim increasesbefore the phone bans took effect.

“This is surprising, too, given whatwe know about the growing use of cellphones and the risk of phoning while driv-ing. We’re currently gathering data to fig-ure out this mismatch.”

Mr. Lund said a possible reason forthe finding may be that drivers are switch-ing to hands-free phones, which presentsabout the same risk as hand-held phones.

“Whatever the reason,” he said, “thekey finding is that crashes aren’t goingdown where hand-held phone use has beenbanned. This finding doesn’t auger well forany safety payoff from all the new laws thatban phone use and texting while driving.”

On January 11, 2009, The NationalSafety Council advocated a total ban oncell phone use while driving, stating thepractice is clearly dangerous and leads tofatalities. The group’s president likenedtalking on cell phones to drunken driving.She said cell phone use increases the riskof a crash fourfold, and that hands-free cellphones are just as risky as hand heldphones. The council examined more than50 scientific studies before reaching its de-cision. For more see autobodynews.com

Autobody News’ Online FeedbackFollowing are some responses posted onthis story as it ran online at a number ofmedia sites, including autobodynews.com.These are anonymous responses, not newssources, and do not represent any kind ofsurvey results or, necessarily, majorityopinion. —Editor● Accidents are not decreasing because thelaw is not enforced by police. Actually Isee police on the road using cell phones asmotorists. Police look at people talking onphones and do not even pull them over.

● This new study result simply can’t be ac-cepted. I question the baseline and quan-tifiable information, and perhaps thelimited span of the time period from whichdata has been grabbed. Regardless, person-ally and from others are many accounts ofhazardous driving behaviors of persons indeep phone conversation or texting. Lawsbelong on the books with stiff penalties forviolations.

● I’m amazed that so many still think theproblem lies in a driver having a cell phonein their hand. It’s the fact that people’sminds, not their hands, are preoccupiedwhen using a cell phone in any fashionwhile also driving a car. The ban needs tobe on any usage, not just texting.

● In July of 2008, California banned theuse of cell phones while driving for all per-sons under the age of 18 years. The Statealso banned the use of hand held cellphones for persons over the age of 18while driving. All cell phone users have toutilize hands-free devices, either corded orcordless, such as Bluetooth, to be withinthe law and avoid fines. That law is a hugejoke! Every day I watch dozens of peoplewith their cell phones glued to their earsand yapping away. There are a number ofpossibilities for their idiotic behavior:1) They don’t care about the law; 2) Theydon’t care if they get caught; 3) Theywould rather pay the fine than shut theirmouth. They think whatever they have tosay is more important than safe driving; 4)They think they can talk and drive but theycan’t chew gum and walk So, brillianceaside, what did the lawmakers think theserocket scientists were going to do to dialtheir cell phones? Not all of them havevoice dial, so here we now have motormouth tethered to the cell phone by theirnew hands-free ear bud and microphonecombo, holding it up in front of him or her,trying to see the keyboard and dial a num-ber. Or holding a piece of paper and a penand the cell phone, while trying to writedown a number that has appeared on thescreen, and must be of utmost importance.


Hand-held Phone Bans Are Not Reducing Crashes, Distraction is an Attention Problem

®

Bob Birkhauser, owner of AEGIS ToolsInternational, has 34 years experience in theautomotive glass industry, as a second-gen-

eration owner/opera-tor/product developerwhose father startedan auto car glass spe-cialist company 48years ago.

“My parentsstarted their auto glassbusiness in 1961 and Ibecame an S.O.B.(Son of the Boss) afterI graduated from Uni-versity of Wisconsinin 1975,” Birkhausersaid. “My dad wanted

me to commit to the family business, so hemade me sign a five-year commitmentagreement. I never looked back or hesitatedfor a minute.”

In 1982, Birkhauser invented the firstAEGIS windshield repair system for AutoGlass Specialists, Inc., to be used in hisfamily’s chain of auto glass installation

centers headquartered in Madison, Wis-consin.

“In the earlier days of this industry,windshield repair was an emerging serviceavailable primarily from repair-only fran-chises. Viewed as a serious threat to the autoglass replacement industry, windshield re-pair reduced the demand for replace-ment and directed referrals away fromreplacement shops.”

Never slowed by a challenge, theBirkhauser family decided to offer repairas an additional service, but needed high-quality tools without franchise fees. Withina short time, the AEGIS windshield repairsystem was designed, tested and awardedtwo patents.

Over the years, AEGIS designed inno-vative glass installation tools and refinementsto the windshield repair system. In 2005, theBirkhausers sold the Auto Glass Specialistsinstallation centers to Belron NorthAmericabut retained AEGIS Tools International,which is now a separate corporation.

“AEGIS Tools International Inc. is asmall, family-run business still located in

Madison,” Birkhauser said. “AEGIS toolsand equipment are sold worldwide througha network of distributors and our Web site.Our specialties are in custom-config-ured windshield repair kits and tools tomake glass installations safer and more ef-

ficient. Constantly innovating, a staff en-gineer brings new ideas from concept todesign, while a talented group of cus-tomer/field testers assist us in making ourtools the most well-designed in the indus-try. Most of our components are made inthe Upper Midwest and assembled at andshipped from our Madison production fa-cility.”

In 1990, Birkhauser became presidentof AEGIS Tools and assumed completecontrol of the company when his father re-tired several years later. The company isflourishing today, with seven employeesand selling more than 1,000 repair wind-shield kits annually, he explained.

It’s a worldwide business today,Birkhauser said. “Half of our business isinternational right now. We’re currentlyselling to 50 countries and growing thisrapidly expanding market, to shops andwholesale distributors in South and Cen-tral America, France, Germany, Nether-lands and sections of Eastern Europe.”

AEGIS Tools sells primarily wind-shield tools, repair kits and related com-ponents. Since opening its doors more than

three decades ago, AEGIS has sold itsproducts to more than 17,000 auto glassshops, Birkhauser said.

AEGIS Tools has designed many ofthe most popular auto glass repair systemsin the market today, Birkhauser said.

“Auto glass techs fromall over the world pro-vide us with valuablefeedback, telling us whatproducts want manufac-tured and how these toolscan be designed or re-de-signed in order to maketheir jobs easier,” he said.“We tap into our cus-tomers’ extensive knowl-edge regularly and itmakes for better tools.”AEGIS Tool’s wind-

shield repair systems arethe company’s largestsellers, Birkhauser said,

popular with auto glass shops, collision re-pair facilities, new car dealerships andwholesale distributors.

The company’s newest leading productis the patented dry vacuum-hydraulic pres-sure system for AEGIS windshield repair,featuring the QuikSilver Technology, whichallows repairs in as little as five minutes,Birkhauser explained. Dry vacuum allowsall moisture and air to be evacuated from thebreak, while hydraulic pressure forces resincompletely and quickly into the break.

One of Birkhauser’s main goals ishelping auto glass companies doing a bet-ter quality job by using superior productsand bettering efficiently, ergonomics and

overall safety, he said.Even with better tools

and training in 2009, thereare still a wide range ofsafety and quality issues inthis industry Birkhauser said.

“I would guess that 80percent of the same types ofmistakes happen when autoglass work is performed,” hesaid. “Some errors are small,but others are significant,

but we don’t have any sympathy for compa-nies who take shortcuts using inferior materi-als and engaging in unsafe practices. If youviolate the standards, you’re running a risk ofgiving the customer an unsafe product.”

AEGIS Tools International2810 Syene RoadMadison, Wisconsin 53713(608) 274-9266www.aegistools.com


AEGIS Tools Innovates Windshield Repair Systems Worldwide

CompanyConnections

AEGIS Tool’s staff assembles one of the company’s patented windshield in-stallation tools.

AEGIS Tools headquarters is located in Madison, Wisconsin.

AEGIS Tools OwnerBob Birkhausergrew up withinhis family’s autospecialist business,starting in 1961.


www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

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Autobody News March 2010

by Jim Lang, Aftermarket Insights

Annual 2009 vehicle sales are in, and thepicture is clear. Foreign vehicles (importsand transplants) have gained control of theU.S. new vehicle market. Foreign cars andlight trucks captured 55.8% of dwindling2009 new vehicle sales, up from 52.5% ofthe 2008 market and much stronger thantheir 48.9% share in 2007. This is phe-nomenal growth since 1999, when foreignmodels totaled only 29% of new vehiclesales.”

“Americans purchased 16.2 millionvehicles in 2007. By 2009, new vehicle vol-ume slumped to 10.4 million (down 36%),as foreign cars and light trucks increasedtheir sales share more than one-seventh intwo years. Skyrocketing foreign share ofnew vehicles is reshaping the aftermarket.”

Domestic share of new vehicle vol-ume (not including transplants) plungedfrom 51.1% in 2007 to only 44.2% by2009. General Motors sank from 24% of2007 sales to only 20% of the 2009 mar-ket. Ford held at 16% share from 2007 to2009; while Chrysler saw its share fallnearly one-third, from 13% to just 9%.

GM unit sales dropped 41% between2007 and 2009; while Chrysler sank 51%.Ford achieved a Pyrrhic victory (amongthe Detroit Three), as its volume receded amere 27% from 2007 to 2009.

Toyota passed Ford in 2009 volume,capturing second position, as Hondapushed Chrysler from fourth place.

Reshuffling Foreign Vehicle ShareHyundai and its Kia division sold 735thousand new vehicles in 2009, within 10thousand units of all German carmakerscombined and pulling close to Nissan in abid to take sixth position in total sales. TheHyundai Kia group is on track to pass Nis-san as well as all German carmakers in2010 U.S. volume.

Aftermarket ImpactThe foreign new vehicle surge is a futurewhich has already happened. Its impact onthe aftermarket in the next five to ten yearsis inevitable. Here are just a few aftermar-ket changes coming from this ongoingseismic shift in carmaker sales mix.

1. Manufacturers, Distributors, Re-tailers and Installers which cannot adapt

to the changing mix of vehicles on U.S.roads will not hold their competitive posi-tions.

2. Domestic cars and light trucks willgenerate one-tenth less aftermarket prod-uct share in six years than they do today,and their volume of aftermarket productswill steadily decline.

3. Foreign cars and light trucks willincrease their aftermarket product sharemore than one-fifth over the next six years,and they will generate all aftermarket prod-uct growth during that time.

4. Aftermarket volume will dispro-portionately be captured by product brandswhich are deemed “appropriate” for use onforeign cars and light trucks (imports andtransplants) by Installers and DIYers.

5. Service outlets perceived by con-sumers as “qualified” to repair foreign carsand light trucks will disproportionatelygain market share.

6. Retail Parts Stores as well as partsdistributors which sell brands perceived as“appropriate” by DIYers and Installers foruse on foreign vehicles will disproportion-ately increase their aftermarket sales share.

Foreign Vehicle Aftermarket GainsForeign cars and light trucks will set thecourse of aftermarket growth and develop-ment over the next ten years.

By 2020, foreign vehicles will gener-ate the majority of aftermarket use of many(if not most) product categories.

Domestic Woes Affect the AftermarketOver the past three years, the number ofdomestic cars and light trucks (not includ-ing transplants) sold in the U.S. dropped atotal of over four million units, reflectinglower overall new vehicle sales and plung-ing domestic car and light truck share.

Domestic cars and light trucks sank to44% of 2009 vehicle sales, down from51% of the 2007 market and off more thantwo-fifths from their 78% share of the1998 new-vehicle market.

While January 2010 vehicle salesseemed to show stabilizing Detroit Threevolume, there are some problems in the Jan-uary numbers. For example, despite GeneralMotors posting a sales gain, its January sharewas only two-thirds what it was 11 years ago.

Although Ford is showing salesstrength, its share is down nearly one-third

from 1998; and the future of Chrysler re-mains cloudy. Unless Chrysler can stage acomeback, with the assistance of Fiat,Chrysler's sales could plummet and takethe Detroit Three's combined share into thebasement.

Change Is In The PipelineHowever, things can change rapidly, asshown by Toyota's recent headaches, andthe Detroit Three could stage a comeback.Nevertheless, even if things stay aboutwhere they are over the next several years(or even improve a bit), significant after-market changes are already in the pipeline.

Less General Repair Shop VolumeGrowing legions of foreign cars (importsand transplants) on U.S. roads means thatgeneral repair shops (Service Stations andGarages), which traditionally depend ondomestic vehicles for a majority of theirvolume, could shrink substantially in re-pair share over the next several years.

More Specialized RepairSpecialty Repair Shops (outlets conduct-ing a limited menu of repair) and ForeignSpecialists (outlets focusing on importsand transplants) stand to ring-up big repair-volume gains at the expense of Dealers andgeneral repair outlets.

DIFM versus DIY RepairAs domestic vehicles on U.S. roads growolder, they will generate an increasingportion of DIY volume. At the same time,the Service market will continue expand-ing its product share, bolstered by thegrowth of foreign vehicles, which aremuch more often taken by their owners toprofessional shops rather than be repairedby DIYers.

Foreign Vehicle StrengthWith domestic cars and light trucks losingnew vehicle share, foreign models will ex-pand their portion of the Service market,which will generate most if not all car andlight truck aftermarket growth over thenext several years.

This means all car and light truckproduct expansion for the foreseeablefuture will be generated by foreign ve-hicles (imports and transplants). Theiraftermarket product sales will continue

expanding at an unprecedented rate.

OE Brands And OE DistributionThe strength of OE brands and OE distri-bution will differ substantially between do-mestic and foreign vehicles.

OE distribution and OE brands forforeign cars and light trucks will continueringing-up strong sales; while thousands ofdomestic Dealer closings and declining do-mestic vehicle sales will severely undercutthe domestic segment of the OE channeland the domestic OE brands it distributes.

This will provide opportunities for in-dependent (non-OE) aftermarket distribu-tion and non-OE brands.

Aftermarket ChangesHow well the Detroit Three perform overthe next several years has significant con-sequences for many aspects of the after-market. These changes will widen the gapsbetween aftermarket winners and losers.

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

Soaring Foreign Car Sales Shape Both Detroit’s and the Aftermarket’s Future

Replacement Safety CertificationLabels Gaining Wider UsageMore body shops are taking advantage ofordering replacement safety certificationlabels online. The Federal Safety Certifi-cation label and the Tire and Loading labelare required by law to be permanently af-fixed at the time of manufacture. The Fed-eral Safety Certification label indicatescompliance with all applicable FederalMotor Vehicle Safety Standards and in-cludes the month and year of manufacturewhich is important for recalls. The Tireand Loading label contains several keypieces of information such as the manu-facturer’s recommended PSI for the vehi-cle’s tires, the maximum weight (“load”)recommended for the vehicle, and the rec-ommended tire size. These labels providethe vehicle owner with valuable informa-tion and should be replaced if damaged orremoved. Body shops also benefit from re-placing these labels with a standard partmark-up and labor rate. All major insur-ance companies accept these labels, soshops are paid to replace the label ratherthan tape the old one back on. Shops canlog on to www.AutomotiveID.com.


Early Morning De-Light and Nursing Ingenuitywith Gonzo Weaver

Gonzo’s Toolbox Excerpted from Scott “Gonzo” Weaver's New Book, “Hey Look! I FoundThe Loose Nut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age.For more information, Contact Scott Weaver at [email protected] andsee his website at www.gonzostoolbox.com.

Here’s another true story from my book. Itreminded me that the true sign of a crafts-man is no wrinkles in the duct tape.

A few years ago a nurse dressed in herscrubs came into my Tulsa auto-electricshop early one afternoon. She had just fin-ished her morning shift at the hospital. Shetold me that things were kind of tight at herhouse financially, and she didn’t have a lotto spare for car repairs. I told her I wouldhelp her out as much as I could.

Her problem was that her headlightsdidn’t work, and she really needed to takeher old Datsun (Dats before Nissan) to workin the early morning hours, regardlesswhether or not she got a ticket for having noheadlights. She explained that she had toleave for work at ‘Oh-dark-thirty,’ as weused to say in the Marines, so I was thinkingshe had some sort of lighted route that wouldkeep the prying eyes of the law off her tail.

“I get the picture, Ma’am. I’ll take alook at it,” I said.

Now I’m no car snob but I was gen-uinely suprised at how decripit this has-been automobile she was driving was. It

should have been crushed years earlier, al-though it looked pretty much all biode-graded already—completely rusted anddented up with not much left of the inte-rior. But as it was, this was this nice lady’sonly ride to-and-from work.Yes, she would wait to seewhat I found.

Rather than surveyingthe outside any longer thannecessary, I popped the hoodand got right to work onfinding the problem. It was-n’t that hard to find. At thepositive battery post onthis type of car was a se-ries of fusible links thatpowered up different systems in thecar. One of them was corroded off the ter-minals. It just so happened to be the one thatpowered the headlights.

I grabbed the trusty baking soda andcleaned off the crud from the positive postof the battery. After replacing the corrodedend of the fusible link, I attached it backonto its proper post. One flick of the head-light switch and she was in business.

I went into the lobby and told thenurse, who was waiting anxiously, what Ihad found. I told her that it was going to bea cheap fix, and not to worry about havingto get a car-fix loan (as she had worriedaloud to me). I then asked her how long had

she been driving around with noheadlights.

She told me with an airof satisfaction, “Oh, I had head-lights all the time. I just wantedthe factory ones to work becauseI was getting tired of changing thebatteries in the other ones.” Saywhat?Factory ones? Batteries? What

other ones? Did I miss something?I just stared at her for a few sec-

onds. I thought that by now I was prettygood with electrical systems. What did Imiss on this old Datsun’s electricalschematics that involved alternate head-lights that she was aware of, but I wasn’t?

“Really?” I said. “Can you show mewhat you are talking about?”

We walked out to the car and there oneach edge of the front bumper were two 9-

volt flashlights duct-taped around thebumper with what could have been awhole roll of tape. She walked up to themand pushed the button on each of the rightand left flashlights. Then she turnedaround to face me with both arms outstretched like a TV ad model; pointing onetoe and all. And wouldn’t you know it…she’s got headlights, sort of.

“I just thought it was going to cost somuch to fix them that I have been puttingit off for months,” she said. “But I had tobuy so many batteries I thought it wouldbe cheaper to find out what was reallywrong with the factory ones.”

Now I’ll admit I’ve never seen duct-taped flashlights attached to a bumper be-fore. And I haven’t seen them since... ButI’ll tell you this, if I’m ever in need of anurse in an emergency, who can get the jobdone till the cavalry comes, she is mychoice. Way to go girl. You got my vote forduct-tape engineer of the month.You can order Gonzo’s book, Hey Look! I FoundThe Loose Nut, from Amazon and othersources. Gonzo is working on a second vol-ume now. Contact him at the banner address.


With all of the new vehicles being devel-oped and introduced every year, your staffmay have questions about how to developa strategy or a proper repair plan for ade-quately repairing a vehicle to a safe andquality standard.

Among the many decisions you willhave to make will be whether to repair, re-place or section a structural component.The answers will depend primarily onwhat the industry currently recommends.

This knowledge will be the most im-portant tool that you and your staff willhave available to them on a daily basis.

Collision business management prac-tices, as well as KPI demands from insur-ers, are often confusing and misunderstoodby estimators, technicians and sometimesthe management team. By obtaining andreferring to manufacturers’ or industry-ac-cepted repair procedures in the pre-pro-duction phase, your staff will have theknowledge necessary to repair the vehicleup front, rather than after or during pro-duction.

Ask yourself this: If we had proper re-pair information up front, could we:● Lower cycle times?● Reduce out-sourcing?● Increase hours per day?● Develop or enhance insurance or cus-tomer relations CSI?● Reduce costly returns?● Improve efficiencies?● Increase overall shop revenue?● Enhance our staff’s knowledge?I am guessing the answer is yes!

How are you currently gathering critical re-pair information?Current information gathering techniquesare often time-consuming, cumbersomeand more often than not, unsuccessful. Es-timating systems offer labor times, partspricing and very limited diagnostic infor-mation, but they do not offer comprehen-sive repair procedures or “how to”information, such as current manufactur-ers’ sectioning and repair procedures.

When asking collision repair shopshow they obtain repair information, I havebeen told:● Technical experiences● Training programs● Co-workers● Dealerships contacts (when available)● Technical manuals● Industry training instructors● Manufacturer-supplied installation

instructions● OE websites● Educated guesses

Most of these sources are time-consumingto research, sometimes outdated or incor-rect, incomplete—and most importantly,not all in one place! The authority regardingproper sectioning procedures and practicesis the vehicle manufacturer. Best practicesshould always be the recourse when a man-ufacturers’ procedure is not available.

The decision to section or replace anentire component on a damaged vehicleshould be a systematic process involving:● Readily available, up-to-date repair doc-umentation from the most reliable and rep-utable source● An educated and qualified staff that un-derstands current Industry repair practicesand theories● A method or process to gather repair in-formation in the pre-production stages● A proper teardown or disassemblyprocess to perceive all hidden damages● A working knowledge of available tools,techniques and talents within your facility● Parts availability● Insurer program requirements (If appli-cable)

With all of these elements in place,your staff should have the critical tools inplace to develop a proper repair plan.

The sectioning mystery doesn’t haveto be a mystery.

Manufacturers publish many proce-dures that we may not know exist when itcomes to structural repair recommenda-tions. Without the proper procedures wecould be setting ourselves up to fail. Re-source the manufacturers repair proce-dures first to determine the best course ofrepair.● Educate yourstaff on industrytheories and ap-plications.● Develop a pre-production planto gather rep-utable repair in-formation in atimely manner.● Develop an

evaluation or disassemblystage, or a method to properlyidentify hidden damages.● Provide your staff withmanufacturers’ recommendedguidelines and current indus-try-recommended repair infor-mation.● Refer to Industry Best Prac-tices if the manufacturer doesnot publish repair infor-mation for a given oper-

ation.While the manufacturers may

not always provide all the informa-tion you need, they provide a lot. Weneed to be aware of the informationthey do provide.

I learn of new sectioning and re-pair procedures every day on allmakes and models. You and your staff cantoo—through effective communication,proper guidance and education. The effortwill help make your business stand outabove all the rest.

Here is the manufacturer’sprocedure for sectioning thefront lower frame rail on a2008 Dodge Caliber:

2008 Dodge Caliber SRT-4—Front Lower Frame Rail1. With vehicle mounted to ap-propriate pulling and 3-dimen-sional measuring equipment,complete the following proce-dure paying particular attentionto body dimensions while fit-ting and welding panels.

2. Remove bumper components, coolingmodule, headlamp, and all other compo-nents for clear access to repair area.

3. Remove front rail cap panel on damagedrail.

4. Remove welds holding lower radiatorcrossmember to damaged rail (if cross-member is damaged, remove completely).

5. Remove welds holding FESM structureto rail (if damaged, remove complete as-sembly).

6. Mark existing rail as follows:a. Right side

i On inner rail, mark at 50mm for-ward of the leading edge of flanged hole in rail.

ii On outer rail, continue markfrom inner rail.

7. Mark replacement part in same location.

8. On left rail, remove bracket located oninner rail.

9. Using a cut-off wheel, reciprocatingsaw, or equivalent:

a. Cut all existing parts on the for-ward side of the scribe line using care notto damage the material that will not be re-moved.

i. Right rail section location: Wheninstallation of new tip is complete, there isa 6mm hole on the inner rail at the forwardedge of the section joint which may needto be recreated or restored.

ii. Left rail section location: Wheninstallation of new tip is complete, there isa 10mm hole in bottom horizontal surfaceof rail which may need to be restored.

b. Cut all replacement parts on therearward side of the scribe line again usingcare not to make any additional damagebut do not discard any material yet.

10. Clean all sharp edges and create aslight taper for weld purposes.

Proper Repair Strategies and the Sectioning Mysterywith Dan Espersen

ALL OEM Information Dan Espersen is ALLDATA® CollisionSM Program Manager. Dan is a Gold PinMember of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) and holds an AA Degree inAutomotive Technology. He has 17 years of experience in the collision industryand 17 years of experience in the automotive industry.


11. From the remaining replacement part,cut a 19mm strip from both the inner andouter rail. Clip off the weld flanges, topand bottom, and dress edges. These pieceswill be the weld-backer.

12. Prepare welding equipment per theweld chart.

13. Install the weld-backers into the frame

rail, centeringthem on cut edge.Clamp and tackthe weld in posi-tion when properfit is confirmed.

14. Weld using askip-stitch methoduntil the fulllength of the jointis completed onboth the inner and

outer rail. To avoid excessive heat buildup,move between inner and outer rail duringwelding.

15. Dress welds without removing anybase material paying particular attention tothe mounting surface of the outer rail.

16. Reinstall bracket removed from leftrail.

17. Either install new or reposition the lowerradiator crossmember and FESM structureand clamp in place and weld.

18. Install new front rail cap panel.

19. Dress the welded area and apply cor-rosion resistant coatings inside and out.

a. Apply etch-primer to the inside of the

frame rail repair area.b. Inside the rail, inject a

creeping wax based rust in-hibitor compound through theexisting holes in the frame en-suring 100% coverage includ-ing the space between theoriginal frame rail and the re-inforcing sleeve; using MoparCavity wax kit (part#68042969M) I Undercoating

kit (part #68042967AA)or equivalent.

c. Apply adurable top coatto the outside ofthe repair area.

Note: UseMopar Cavitywax kit (part #68042969AA) IUndercoatingkit (part #

68042967AA) or equivalent.

©2010 ALLDATA LLC. All rights re-served. All technical information, imagesand specifications are from ALLDATACollision. ALLDATA is a registered trade-mark and ALLDATA Collision is a markof ALLDATA LLC. All other marks are theproperty of their respective holders.

Under sharp and at times hostile question-ing, the president of Toyota's U.S. opera-tions told a Capitol Hill hearing on Feb. 23that even the massive recall by the world'sbiggest automaker may “not totally” re-solve safety problems implicated in acci-dents in the United States that have killednearly three dozen people.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. Presi-dent James Lentz defended the embattledJapanese auto giant's safety record, but con-ceded that the company had failed to meetits own high standards in responding to thecrisis. The company was too slow to respondto the safety issues that have led at least threecongressional committees to begin what islikely to be a long and exhaustive investiga-tion, Mr. Lentz acknowledged.

“Put simply, it has taken us too long tocome to grips with a rare but serious set ofsafety issues, despite all of our good-faith ef-forts,” Mr. Lentz told an oversight panel of theHouse Energy and Commerce Committee.

Lentz insisted that Toyota's engineershad identified “two specific, mechanicalcauses” of sudden unintended acceleration,which has been associated with at least 34deaths, according to complaints filed withthe National Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration (NHTSA).

“We are confident that no problemsexist with the electronic throttle control

system in our vehicles,” Mr. Lentz said.“We have designed our electronic throttlecontrol system with multiple fail-safemechanisms to shut off or reduce enginepower in the event of a system failure.”

Toyota President Akio Toyoda, thegrandson of the company founder, will tes-tify Feb. 24 before the House Oversightand Government Reform Committee.

In documents obtained by the DetroitFree Press, Toyota’s leading U.S. execu-tive ‘boasted’ to the automaker’s Washing-ton staff last summer that they had savedthe company more than $100 million byactions which limited any regulatory ac-tion on sudden acceleration to a recall ofequipment such as floor mats, according todocuments turned over to a key U.S.House committee which will hold hearingson the issue Feb. 24.

In the documents, the deal with the gov-ernment was listed among “Wins for Toyota”in an internal presentation by Yoshimi Inaba,chairman and CEO of Toyota Motors SalesU.S.A. in Washington last July 6.

The documents were among thou-sands of pages turned over to the HouseOversight and Government Reform Com-mittee. A second committee will met onFeb. 23 to discuss the Toyota recalls.

“The question this raises is was thebottom line factored into Toyota’s decision

making,” said Kurt Bardella, aspokesman for the committee’s rankingRepublican, Rep. Darrell Issa of Califor-nia. Issa has acknowledged that his familyowns four Prius models.

“Did regulators do their due diligenceonce problems were brought to their atten-tion? Did Toyota raise potential safetyproblems with regulators as soon as theyknew a problem existed?”

Toyota defended its commitment tosafety.

“Our first priority is the safety of ourcustomers and to conclude otherwise onthe basis of one internal presentation iswrong,” the company said in a preparedstatement. “Our values have always beento put the customer first and ensure thehighest levels of safety and quality.”

Toyota has recalled more than 8 mil-lion vehicles worldwide in recent monthsbecause of sudden acceleration problemsthe company and regulators have connectedto entrapped floor mats and potentiallysticky accelerator pedals. A third recall cov-ered more than 400,000 hybrid vehicles, in-cluding the popular Prius for faulty brakes.

Earlier this month, before the hybridrecall, Toyota executives estimated that theunintended acceleration recalls would cost$2 billion in lost sales and cost of extraparts for repairs. Toyota stopped produc-

ing eight models in the U.S. from Jan 26until Feb. 8. Analysts have said the costcould be higher.

Toyota has said repeatedly that nomalfunction in any of its vehicles’ elec-tronic throttle system contributed to any in-cidents of unintended acceleration, whichhas been cited in hundreds of accidents, in-cluding 34 fatalities, according to NHTSA.But the automaker has offered a brake-override software remedy on 2007 through2010 models of the Toyota Camry, Avalon,Lexus ES and IS models. Brake overrideensures that the brakes will slow the vehi-cle if both accelerator and brake pedals arepressed at the same time.

Toyota is making the brake overridestandard equipment on all Toyota andLexus models by the end of 2011 modelyear, but it has refused to offer it on manyof the 5 million vehicles covered by thefloor mat and sticky pedal recalls.

The estimated cost savings of morethan $100 million was among nine pointsthat Inaba’s presentation labeled as “Winsfor Toyota.” In addition to the savings,Inaba made note that NHTSA had foundno defect.

That was before the Jan. 21 recall thatfound a possible defect in the gas pedalsamong 2.3 million vehicles, and the brak-ing recall on Prius and other hybrid models.

Toyota Testifies, Documents Show Savings by Limiting Recall Actions

The Relationship between your Compres-sor, your Spray Gun and the Final Appear-ance of your Paint Finish

After my February column on spray-gunchoices appeared in Autobody News, I wasasked to clarify a point I made on CFMavailability in the shop during peak airconsumption.

CFM stands for cubic feet perminute and a spray gun’s peak perform-ance is depending on proper air volume.Each spray gun is engineered and tuned,just like a carburetor, for a specific CFMconsumption. Some spray guns ask for 8-9 CFM and others want 17 CFM or morefor optimum performance. Less CFMconsumption doesn’t automatically trans-late into a better quality spray gun; it sim-ply means that it could be the betterchoice for your situation. Most manufac-turers’ spray guns will consistently per-form well and do exactly what they aredesigned to do, as long as you providethem with their basic pressure and vol-ume requirements.

How do you know how much CFMyou have available? The following is not a100% scientific answer to that question,there are simply too many unknown (to me)variables in every shop’s situation, but it isa fairly reliable rule of thumb and it beatsbuying highly expensive equipment you arelikely to use only once. Just look at the tagon your compressor for the necessary in-formation and do the following math.

A standard two-stage piston compres-sor produces about 4 CFM per HP (horse-power) and a screw drive compressorgenerates about 4.7 CFM per HP. Multiplyyour compressor’s HP rating by the appro-priate CFM and you get your maximumCFM output. To have all of the potentialCFM available to you, the air should be de-livered to your work area in a 1½–2 inchpipe. Make sure that the connections fromthe compressor to any filter or dryer is alsoproperly sized. Whenever possible, thepipe should be a closed loop system. Themoment you close the pipes in a loopedsystem, the pipe becomes a very effectivestorage reservoir. It also evens out the air

availability to each work station. All ofyour quick-disconnect couplers in the paintdepartment should be 3/8 of an inch in di-ameter. Many shops are still using ¼ inchcouplers or wall regulators with too low ofa CFM rating and can’t figure out why thepaint jobs are not as nice as they hoped for.Leave the rest of the shop on ¼ inch cou-plers. Nobody in your shop is as dependenton CFM as your painter and he deserves toget preferential treatment when it comes toair supply. Most shops don’t have a dedi-cated compressor for the paint department.In that case, you must deduct the air con-sumption of all other air tools that couldpotentially be used at the same time fromthe total CFM produces. By deducting allof the potential air tool CFM consumptionfrom the total volume produced, you get agood idea what type of spray-gun you canconsistently support in your shop. Be sureto consult the air tool owner’s manual forthe actual CFM consumption of each tool.

Following are some general figures forthe most frequently used tools in our indus-try. A standard DA sander consumes about

10–15 CFM and an air buffer 20–25 CFM.A wide-open air blower could use as muchas 35–40 CFM. The length of your air hoseis also a factor in the calculation; you canlose an additional 1 CFM for each 10 feet ofhose over the standard 32-foot length. De-pending on the type and the manufacturer ofyour quick-disconnect couplers, you maylose as much as 7 CFM for each quick-dis-connect coupler the air has to travel through.

One last comment about CFM. Yourair supply is only as good as the weakestlink in the system. If your air volume is re-stricted anywhere between the compressorand the gun, your available volume can’tbe more than the restriction allows to passthrough. For example, if the compressor ishooked to the main line with only a ¾ inchpipe, it doesn’t matter what you do afterthat restriction, you can only access thevolume that passes through that pipe.Whether it’s 100 HP or 10 HP compressorswouldn’t matter.

Last but not least, all pressure regula-tors and filtration systems should be ratedfor sufficient CFM pass-through.


Compressors Affect your Spray Gun and your Paint Appearancewith Stefan Gesterkamp

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

In January I-CAR appointed William(Bill) Stage to fill the newly created posi-tion of director of marketing & distribu-tion. Stage will report to John Edelen,president and CEO of I-CAR.

Stage arrives at I-CAR with morethan 20 years of experience in the colli-sion inter-industry and previously servedas I-CAR director of Field Operations,Marketing and Product Developmentfrom 1990 through 1994.

In addition to his previous experi-ence with I-CAR, Stage most recentlyserved as manager, Network SupportServices for AkzoNobel Coatings, a po-sition he held since 2007. From 1994 to2006, Stage was vice president & direc-tor of Field Services for Mitchell Inter-national. Stage also owns SSR CollisionCenter in Alpharetta, GA.

“I am very excited to join I-CAR atthis time to assist in implementing the newprograms developed under John Edelen'sleadership,” said Stage. “The I-CAR staffand volunteers are a dedicated group of in-dividuals committed to improving the in-dustry and I am proud to be a part of theteam.”

In his new role as Director of Mar-keting and Distribution, Stage has beentasked with taking a body of work twoyears in the making to the next level. Therole-based training curriculum known as

the Professional Development Matrix re-aligns the I-CAR curriculum into a frame-work for industry training based upon anindividual’s role and level of experienceand responsibility.

“It’s important to me that we engageevery segment of the industry around this

body of work. Cen-tral to this curricu-lum model is theI-CAR vision thatevery person in thecollision industry,current and future,has the necessaryknowledge andskills relevant to

their position to achieve a complete andsafe repair,” said Stage.

“I’m very excited to serve I-CAR andthe inter-industry at a greater capacity as amember of I-CAR’s leadership team.”

“I want to reassure our volunteersand instructors that they play a key com-ponent in our role-based training curricu-lum, as they administer and delivertraining to the industry,” said Stage. “I-CAR’s history and 30 year legacy wasbuilt by volunteers and instructors manyof whom are still involved with I-CARtoday, it is our vision that we continue tobe defined by the industry that is our fu-ture.”

New I-CAR Director for Curriculum Work

Bill Stage


by Rand Schweizer —Chemco Mfg. Co. Inc.

This is part one of a two-part article con-densed from a longer article by RandSchweizer. You can read the full article cour-tesy of Chemco Mfg at their website:www.chemcomfg.com/ articles/articles-tips-overspray-collectors.html

IntroductionFrom today’s vantage point, the industrialfinishing industry’s technical challenges ofthe 1960s through most of the 1980s werepretty straightforward. Conventional airspray equipment was the predominant ap-plication technology. Most finishers werespraying low-solids, solvent-based coat-ings. Frequently, production painting wasdone in waterwash spray booths that oper-ated for weeks, sometimes even months,

with little maintenance. Over time, thebooth’s water tank would fill with the cap-tured overspray solids. The water-saturatedsludge cake was manually removed fromthe tank over a weekend and productionresumed the following Monday morningwithout a hitch.

Intermittent or batch spray paintingwas generally done in dry filter spraybooths. Typically, these booths wereequipped with either expanded paper (seeFig. 1), accordion-style pleated paper, orspun fiberglass paint overspray collectors.Depending on the finishing process partic-ulars, these collectors were capable of cap-turing 85–97% of the overspray entrainedin the booth’s exhaust air stream. Most ofthe remaining overspray was deposited inthe booth’s back section, on the exhaustduct’s interior walls, and on the exhaustfan blades. Any residual overspray still en-trained in the exhaust was emitted to theatmosphere.

How Do They Work?Overspray is the paint mist produced as abyproduct of spray application processes.As the cost of industrial coatings has in-creased, finishers have worked to maxi-mize their application process transferefficiency. They have a double incentive tominimize overspray. By definition, over-

spray isn’t applied to substrates; therefore,it is wasted. Additional expense is incurredto capture and dispose of this wasted at-omized paint. In spite of the use of highertransfer efficiency spray technologies,such as HVLP, electrostatic air spray, andautomatic rotational atomizers, more than30% of all spray-applied liquid industrialcoatings end up as overspray. During1998, U.S. industrial finishing operationsproduced more than 90 million gallons ofliquid paint overspray.

Recent advancements in collectortesting procedures have produced labora-tory test data that challenge the acceptedrules-of-thumb on how collectors actuallycapture overspray. The arresting process ismore complex than previously thought.Most modern collectors utilize a combina-tion of physical principles to capture andretain overspray from spray booth exhaustair streams.

At the end of the 20th century almostall overspray collectors utilize one or acombination of several types of mechani-cal filtration. Traditional air filtration tech-nology teaches us there are threemechanical filtration processes that maybe used to remove foreign particles from amoving air stream.1. Impingement, also known as impaction2. Interception3. Straining

Impingement is the process by which thelarger (typically 0.10 microns) oversprayparticles are captured. As the overspray-laden exhaust air stream approaches theface of the arresting media, the individualair molecules begin to align themselveswith the openings in collector face. Thelarger overspray droplets have too muchforward inertia to follow the surroundingair molecules as they zig and zag throughthe collector’s staggered openings. Figure2 shows an overspray droplet about to beimpinged on the front face of an expanded

paper collector even as the air shifts later-ally to pass through the openings in each

ply of the media. Depending upon theprocess dynamics of a given spray booths,as much as 80% of the total mass of the en-trained overspray may be impinged on thecollector’s face. An additional 15 to 18%of the overspray is removed as the exhaustair stream passes through the successivestages or layers of the filter media. The re-maining 2 to 5% (the smallest droplets)pass into the exhaust plenum to be de-posited on the fan blades or the exhaustduct. Droplets making it past these imped-iments pass into the atmosphere.

Interception is the primary processutilized in spun fiberglass collectors. It isalso a secondary capturing process at workin many impingement collectors. The ef-fectiveness of the interception process isdirectly proportional to the number of in-tercepting surfaces in the media. Ar-restance by interception occurs whenoverspray droplets make accidental con-tact with a media element while entrainedin the exhaust air stream passing throughthe media pad. Interception requires the in-dividual overspray droplets to remain at-

tached to the filter element for theremainder of the collector’s functional life.Although many overspray droplets are rel-atively sticky, most interception collectorsare tackified—coated with a sticky sub-stance, usually an oil or a pressure-sensi-tive resin by the media manufacturer.Interception collectors are more effectivein capturing larger overspray droplets thansmaller ones. Experience shows thatsmaller fibers are more likely to retaindroplets than larger ones. Additional fac-tors having a positive impact on the per-formance of interception media include theair velocity—slower is better than faster,the depth of the media—thicker media in-creases the probability that a droplet willmake contact with a fiber, and the fiberdensity— the closer adjacent fibers are toeach other the greater the likelihood thatinterception will occur. Figure 3 depicts anoverspray droplet making contact with afiber element as the exhaust air carries itthrough the collector.Read part two in April’s Autobody News.

Technological Advancements In Overspray Collectors, part one

Fig. 1. Expanded paper paint overspray collector.

Fig. 2. Impingement.

Fig. 3. Interception.

Collision Industry Foundation toAuction Donations for Charity


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SCRS Expands Repairer Education Presence at SEMA—ASRW will be Mid-week in October

The Collision Industry Foundation (CIF)is planning to continue its success of rais-ing funds through its online EBay Store tobenefit the charitable causes of the colli-sion repair industry by having a 2010 driveto collect items for the online auction. Lastyear, the EBay efforts raised $12,000 to-wards the Blanket the City Detroit project,giving to local food banks in need for the

hardest hit region ofour country.

As a con-tinuation of themany good works

of CIF, the goal of this drive is to fundprojects, new and established, such asRecycled Rides title transfer grants, in-dustry grant assistance, disaster relieffunding, and more.

The CIF EBay Store needs donationsof any item that can be auctioned throughthe popular bidding website EBay such astickets to sports games, hotel stays, mem-orabilia, or any other item that could havevalue. It is not required to be related to au-tomotive; there is no limit to the possibil-ities that can be donated to the program.

The CIF EBay store is perpetual, buta major push for a group of items will bedue by March 31st. To donate an itemplease contact the CIF Admin Office at(804) 427-6982, email: [email protected] (no hyphen).

In a move that will fuel the contest for thehearts and minds of collision repairers be-tween ASA (which sponsors theNACE/CARS events) and AAIW (whichsupports AAPEX and SEMA)—the 2010SEMAPaint & Body Equipment (PBE) areawill be growing due to a new affiliation be-tween SEMA and the Society of CollisionRepair Specialists (SCRS). SCRS will becollaborating with SEMA as the host of RE-PAIRER DRIVEN EDUCATION, which will bepremiering this year within the show and re-sulting in a larger SEMAfootprint dedicatedto the collision repair industry.

“We look forward to working with theSCRS to develop a valuable and relevanteducational program,” said SEMA VP ofmarketing and member services TomMy-roniak. Typically featuring 50–60 sessionsthroughout the week, the educational pro-gram is one of the cornerstones of the an-nual trade-only event.

“As more and more attendees at theSEMA Show become interested in thepaint and body market, it is becoming in-creasingly more important to incorporateseminars targeted specifically to this audi-ence,” said Myroniak. “Working with theSCRS will be instrumental in helping usdeliver value to this growing group.”

REPAIRER DRIVEN EDUCATION atSEMA will feature a wide array of topics

and course selections focused on bringingeducation and information covering rele-vant issues that impact collision repairersacross the nation. In addition to the educa-tional offerings and collaborative work inthe PBE wing of the show, SCRS will beholding their fall board meeting at theSCRS headquarter hotel, the Las VegasHilton. These meetings will be held inconjunction with other industry events,such as the Collision Industry Conference(CIC), to be held at the same location.

“SCRS’longstanding mission has beento educate, inform and represent the collisionrepair professional,” stated SCRS ExecutiveDirector Aaron Schulenburg. “A venuesuch as this certainly provides a stimulatingand exciting environment to build upon theeducational focus of our activity, and we arelooking forward to a bright future of possi-bilities for our industry as we collaborate tobring enhanced collision industry offeringsto the SEMA Show.”

“Responding to our membership’sneeds and desired direction has always beenone of the strong traits of SCRS,” addedSCRS ChairmanBarryDorn. “Through on-going discussions with our membership, it isobvious that there is a strong desire to par-ticipate, and have representation, in thisevent. Partnering with SEMAto significantlyenhance the offerings available to our indus-

try makes a lot of sense, and we are ecstaticto build upon what is shaping out to be a verystrong foundation between SCRS and theSEMA Show.”

“We’re constantly adapting to changesin the industry,” notes Chris Kersting, SEMAPresident and CEO. “We challenge ourselvesto deliver high value to both exhibitors andattendees, all with the goal of providing themwith a show that is current and relevant.”

Manufacturers interested in exhibit-ing at the SEMA Show will be able to ac-cess space rental agreements inmid-March. Attendee registration for theevent opens in May. Updated informationis available at www.semashow.com.

The third annual Automotive Service& Repair Week, ASRW 2010, announcedthat Jerry Burns will return as the eventchairman for the International AutobodyCongress & Exposition (NACE); and MitchSchneider will serve as the event chairmanfor the Congress of Automotive Repair &Service (CARS). The ASRW 2010 eventswill take place Oct. 11–13 at the MandalayBay Convention Center in Las Vegas (nolonger duringAAIW). ASRW will now be astand-alone event specifically created for allautomotive service and repair professionals.Eucational programs are scheduled Oct. 10-13, a Sunday through Wednesday. Exhibitswill be open from Oct. 11–13.

I-CAR announced its 2010 Interna-tional Board of Directors and ExecutiveCommittee following the I-CAR AnnualMembership Meeting in Torrance, CA.

The 2010 Executive Committeeconsists of: Chair Tom Moreland, Ak-zoNobel; Vice Chair Elise Quadrozzi,Crawford & Company; SecretaryDustin Womble, Roger Beasley Colli-sion Center for SCRS; Treasurer BobKeith, CARSTAR; Past Chair RobbyRobbs, NuCon Services Inc.; Member-At-Large Bruce Bares, Hi-Tech Colli-sion & Glass Centers; andMember-At-Large William Brower,Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

“Over 30 years ago, I-CAR wascreated to educate the industry on theproper repair of unibody vehicles. Astoday’s vehicles are complex and rolesin the industry are diverse, it only makessense for I-CAR to pursue a role-basedcurriculum model to better serve thecollision inter-industry,” said Moreland.“The I-CAR International Board of Di-rectors appreciates the work staff, in-structors, and volunteers are doing todevelop, implement, and deliver contin-uous improvement of the curriculumthat is truly relevant and beneficial to in-dustry professionals.”

The remaining directors include:FarzamAfshar, Verifacts Automotive;Terry W. Angell, Warren Tech; RollieBenjamin, ABRA Auto Body & Glass;Bruce Cooley, DuPont PerformanceCoatings; William DeGrocco, GEICOInsurance;Ronald Doerr, General Mo-tors Corp.;Chris Evans, State Farm In-surance Education Foundation Rep;David Henderson, See Progress, Inc.;Joseph Laurentino, Esurance; JohnNorton, Ford Motor Company; SamPezzullo, State Farm Canadian Repre-sentative; Greg Potter, DearbornGroup Technology for Equipment &Tool Institute;Monica Rivers, BMW ofNorth America, LLC; MikeSchoonover, Schoonover Bodyworksfor Automotive Service Association;and James Spears, USAA.

The board of directors sets theoverall strategic direction for the organ-ization and assists in obtaining re-sources in support of the I-CARMission. The board of directors is com-prised of representatives from each ofthe following six industry segments:collision repair; insurance; equipment,tools, and supplies; education, training,and research; vehicle manufacturers;and related industry services.

I-CAR Announces 2010 International Board of Directors

The dealer owner where we buy most ofour parts for a certain line of cars ap-proached us with a proposition. In returnfor an extra discount on parts, he wants usto pass along customer names as new carsales prospects. Anything wrong with that?

Not for the dealer. He’s entitled to usewhatever information he can dig up. Butwithout the customer’s unequivocal priorpermission it’s a foolish risk for you, nomater what the additional discount isworth. Your knowledge of the customer’sidentity is not your property to use to yourbenefit. In any case, in this age of privacysensitivity, sooner or later a customer willclaim to have been damaged somehow byyour “unauthorized” disclosure. Inciden-tally I know of some DRP’s where even afirst offense in this department will resultin immediate and irreversible termination.

Our competitor seems to have just aboutall the city and county vehicle collision re-pair business pretty well locked up. Doesthis traditionally go up for bids? How dowe go after it?Don’t you have enough in your life to de-

press you already? This is highly political,low-profit, low-quality, shop-cloggingbusiness. Unless you like doing $2000 jobsfor $1600, leave it to the guys that fixtaxis.

Try this instead: Go make some goodsales calls on the HR departments of at theone or two non-profit agencies in your areawith the most employees. Provide themwith special cards for them to give theiremployees that will produce an automatic$10 or $25 contribution to the agency foreach employee’s car fixed at your shop.

Dale, Settle a bet. My brother says medriving my most expensive car to my shopevery day makes the employees resentful. Isay that good employees are motivated byseeing the material benefits of hard work.

You lose. I hope you bet him the car.

We have been a dues-paying member ofour state trade association for many years.It’s been beneficial learning and sharingbest practices. But recently the associationhas become very aggressive politically,hiring a lobbyist to confront insurers with

the Insurance Commissioner and publish-ing “consumer education” materials thathave an anti-insurer flavor. Is our mem-bership going to cost us business?

Not unless you’re a conspicuousspokesman for the new aggressiveness.But at some point you will have to askyourself whether everyone your dues aresupporting are worthy fellow members ofyour profession. If you can’t remember thelast time your association kicked outsomebody for not being up to its standards,what’s the point of being part of it?

We used to belong to a paint company “20group” where we compared numbers threeor four times a year. What are consideredgood basic operating numbers these days?

Circumstances and regions vary, of course,but you really need to be at least in the low40’s at the gross margin line to haveenough left over for sufficient retainedearnings to keep strengthening the busi-ness. Nobody on the property should becashing a bonus check for a month below40%. With margins on parts typicallybelow 30%, you need your gross marginon direct labor at 60% or more includingbenefits. Also, if your paint & materialssales are less than 10% of total sales in anyquarter, your estimators need some moretraining. Indirect labor needs to be at orbelow 12% of sales, and rent shouldn’t getmuch beyond 5% of sales unless you’rethe landlord. Get back in a 20-group, butpick critically. They range from pointlessto priceless.


with Dale DelmegeAsk Dale Dale has been Collision Industry Conference Chairman 1999–2000; a Lifetime

Member (since 2001) of Society Of Collision Repair Specialists. He is a NationalAuto Body Council Founding Member and Director; a C.I.E.C.A. Founding Member,Director, and Chairman. Contact Dale at [email protected].

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Ford Motor Company vehicles accountedfor four of the top five vehicles for cus-tomer brand loyalty, according to recentindustry analysis from Experian Automo-tive. The analysis, compiling industry-wide automotive trends for the thirdquarter of 2009, also saw Hyundai per-forming strongly with gains in overallmarket share and increased new vehicleregistration.

From the second to third quarter of2009, Ford customers continued to showstrong loyalty for the Ford brand. Ford’sFusion, Edge, Flex and Five-Hundredmodels were all within the top five vehi-cles for customer brand loyalty at 61.8percent, 57.8 percent, 57.6 percent and56.3 percent, respectively. Ford Freestylehad the 10th highest brand loyalty at 47.6percent.

Hyundai performed strongly in thethird quarter by gaining 2.2 percentagepoints in overall market share and experi-encing a 30.1 percent increase in new ve-hicle registrations. Ford also sawimprovements in market share, growingby 1.1 percentage points, and in new ve-hicle registrations, growing by 5.1 per-cent for the quarter.

“Given the extraordinary challengesin the current economy, Ford andHyundai showed positive growth,” saidJeff Anderson, director of Consultingand Analytics for Experian Automotive.“Both were able to pick up market sharegains and improve on their customer loy-alty. This gain in momentum should seethese companies well-positioned for suc-cess when the market turns around.”

While Ford had a strong presence inbrand loyalty, Toyota’s new Venza modelwas No. 1 in brand loyalty at 63.2 per-cent. Toyota’s Prius (51.8 percent) andCamry (48 percent) came in at numbers

seven and nine, respectively. When itcame to corporate loyalty, Toyota movedahead of GM to take the top spot. Fordfollowed closely in third place.

Other insights from Experian Auto-motive’s analysis included:● Hyundai’s corporate loyalty rose tofifth overall to nearly tie with Honda atalmost 40 percent loyalty.● The Cash for Clunkers program (July1, 2009, to Aug. 24, 2009) accounted fora quarter of Q3 2009 new vehicle regis-trations. Toyota led brand loyalty amongparticipants, with 41 percent of those whodisposed of a Toyota purchasing anotherToyota vehicle.● Cross-Over Vehicles and Small Car–Economy were the two fastest-growingvehicle segments, gaining 50,747 and49,698 more registrations, respectively,year over year. Full-Size pickup truckssaw the largest decline with 114,613fewer registrations than in the same quar-ter for 2008.

“For several quarters now, the in-dustry has worked diligently to better un-derstand the ever-evolving landscape ofconsumer tastes in vehicles,” said ScottWaldron, president of Experian Automo-tive. “The recent shifts in consumer loy-alty, corporate market share and vehicleclass preferences show that building fu-ture success will come from increasedknowledge of the changes in consumerbuying habits today.”

However, the brands seeing thebiggest upswing in owner loyalty duringthe initial aftermath of the Toyota recallsare Korean and Big 3 automakers, ac-cording to Kbb.com, which also pointedout that brand consideration and loyaltyfor Toyota has eroded. Kia and Hyundaiappear to show the steepest upwardmovement.

Ford and Hyundai Excel in Brand Loyalty, Toyota Still No. 1

CompanyConnections

Autobody News was recently able to askHans Kempf, Regional Training Instruc-tor in charge of Course Development atBASF Automitive Refinish, for some ob-servations about recent trends in water-borne and other refinish issues.

ABN ► What is the approximate growthrate of BASF waterborne product sales?Has it plateaued or is it growing steadilyin non-mandated waterborne areas?

HK ◄ Growth continues to be strong in allareas and we expect it will continue to increase.

ABN ► Is consumption ofwaterborne prod-uct becoming more efficient with experienceand training, i.e., do painters and their shopsget cost benefits as they getmore experience?

HK ◄ We have found the learning curveto be very short for both the Glasurit 90-Line and the Onyx HD product lines. Thedegree and type of benefits that are asso-ciated with switching to waterborne areboth shop and technician dependant. It canbe said that at some shops do in fact expe-rience speed and material use efficienciesonce they have completed the transistionto a low VOC portfolio.

ABN ► Is airmanagementmore or less crit-ical with newer formulations of BASF prod-uct?Can yoube specific about how importantair (humidity, cleanliness, and temperature)is to proper application of the product?

HK ◄ There have been few changes in theformulations of our waterborne basecoatover the last several years, which is to saythat things remain the same.

The drying mechanism of all water-borne paints require good airflow, this im-portance increases as the relative humidityrises. BASF recommends a clean and tem-perature controlled environment for all ourpaint systems, not just the waterborneproducts. Just like for higher VOC systems,we have developed products and proce-dures for spraying our low VOC productsover a broad range of temperatures.

ABN ► How involved is BASF with thedata providers and their cost estimates?

HK ◄ Because we understand the impor-tance of accurately estimating material cost,BASF is willing to provide the appropriateinformation necessary for data providers tocreate accurate estimating systems.

ABN ► Let’s just “air” some issues with

current refinish processes and get your ini-tial thoughts:

Color matching and mixingHK ◄ Color adjustment and tinting is anecessary evil in our industry as OEMcolor variations continue to be problematic.

The OEM color palette continues to ex-pand bringing more complex colors that mustbe adjusted at the shop level. So many paintershave had little to no real training that createsan understanding around color adjustment.Certainly, the training centers around BASFColor Tools and information: ColorMax,SmartTrak, SmartSCAN and how to use thesetools most effectively. When colors still needto be adjusted, our training’s approach is todistill color into its basic components that areanalyzed individually and corrected sepa-rately. It also instills into the painter whattoner characteristics to consider when adjust-ing and their effects. This is a straight forward,step by step process that replaces the old con-fusing “trial by error approach” so manypainters have struggled through.

Spray gun operation and cleaningHK ◄ Throughout all of our technicalcourses there is a strong emphasis on properusage of any spray gun regardless of whatbrand. Students are coached with the basics:overlap, distance, speed and proper pres-sure, but also on more effective techniquesof application such as back-blending andproper clearcoat blending. An understand-ing of gun set up and tip/cap choice istaught, which is absolutely critical for anypainter. Through the new EPA regulations,cleaning is limited to using enclosed guncleaners or hand disassembly, both aspectsare thoroughly reviewed with painters.

Spray booth maintenance and managementHK ◄ The properly operating spray boothdefines the heart beat of any collisionshop, but it can also be the “Achilles Heel”as well. BASF training covers the basicsof booth operation and maintenance in-cluding filter change-out schedules, filtermedia requirements, proper velocity test-ing, balancing and troubleshooting.

Clear and primer trainingHK ◄ Although a large amount of effortgoes into proper training of waterbornebasecoats to meet new VOC regulations,clearcoat and primers are also being af-fected by these same rules. Proper instruc-tion into both VOC compliant productsand National Rule is conducted coveringtopics such as: prep and sanding, cleaning,application, film build, equipment, dry

time, productivity and blending/repairing.New products are continuously being

introduced to make our customers moreprofitable. What better way to learn aboutthese than where the expertise really lies,in a BASF training class.

Low VOC, solvent-based productHK ◄ With the established and impend-ing low VOC legislation, it is crucial forour customers to feel comfortable withBASF’s compliant product portfolio. Al-though many application and performanceaspects of these products are superior totraditional solvent based products, peopleresist and fear what is unfamiliar to them,this is understandably just human nature.

Developing an understanding aroundthese products is done to ease this transi-tion. Although BASF continues to lead theindustry’s development with low VOCproducts, many products have been suc-cessful in the collision industry for manyyears already. BASF Training highlightsthese products and presents a digestible ap-proach to transitioning to compliancy.

BASF has dramatically expanded itsLean educational program for cus-tomers. BASF’s Lean program used tooffer a half-day introduction to Lean,giving collision centers a high-leveloverview of Lean concepts. BASF’sLean education component of VPU nowincludes three additional programs.● Launching Lean (VPU-031) is a two-day workshop that demonstrates funda-mental concepts. This is the first step inimplementing a continuous improve-ment business model.● Lean Implementation (VPU-032) is athree-day workshop centered around abody shop simulation that guides cus-tomers in identifying non-value addedactivities, exploring methods for reduc-ing waste and developing ways to meas-ure success.● Leading a Lean Culture (VPU-033) isa seminar for those considering a leanbusiness model in which customers as-sess their individual businesses and es-tablish a plan for Lean implementation.


-a-sn-

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BASF Responds to ABN’s Questions on Newer Refinish ProcessesBASF Expands Lean Education

With 57 warehouses in the U.S. andCanada, Performance Radiator has grownsteadily since opening its initial location in1988. Owner and CEO Mike Carr, 50,founded the company out of a duplex inSeattle, Washington, after working for aradiator retailer for five years.

“When I saw a need for a radiator dis-tribution company that could deliver aquality product on a consistent basis toshops throughout NorthAmerica, I knew I

could fill a void in the market,” Carr said.“I was convinced that my concept wouldwork if I could get the right products andthe right people, and it has proven to be asolid business model.”

Over the years, Performance Radiatorhas added an average of five new ware-houses per year. In 2002, the company pur-chased PWI, Inc., and took over theirnationwide locations. Performance nowhas warehouses located fromMiami toAn-chorage.

Performance Radiator employs morethan 400 people and carries an inventoryof $15 million in radiators,A/C condensersand vacuum parts, as well as various re-lated radiator, exhaust and A/C compo-nents. The company owns a fleet of over200 delivery trucks.

Consistency of product is a big reasonfor the steady growth of Performance Ra-diator. “We use the same suppliers for allour locations,” Carr said. “Our approach issimple—we get the best parts we can fromhighly reliable sources that meet even themost stringent OE specs. We will never

purchase inferior parts just to re-sell themat a profit.”

With more than 28 years of experiencein the radiator andA/C industry, Carr knowsa quality part from an inferior one instantly.“A lot of aftermarket manufacturers claimthat they make parts that are OEM-compat-ible,” he said. “But, they’re certainly notwhat I would put in my car. We’ve foundmany of the aftermarket radiators use lessergrade materials or are poorly designed.”

Performance Radiator purchases itsparts from reputable sources only and hasbeen using many of the same vendors for22 years. “We get the majority of our partsfrom the same OE plants in Thailand thatmake all of the parts for Suzuki, Kawasaki,

Honda andMitsubishi. The main differencebetween what we buy and the aftermarketis that the companies we deal with build 98percent of their own parts, including oilcoolers, tanks, tubes and header design,using all of our tooling. And we don’t use50 different companies for our parts, either.70 percent of what we sell is made in onefactory. By doing it that way, we can mon-itor the quality from start to finish.”

When it comes to competing againstthe recycled/remanufactured industry andthe aftermarket, Performance Radiator isconfident in how they stack up.

“We feel we have better coverage anda superior product overall,” Carr said. “Wethink we know the business better.We real-ize that price is very important, but we don’tever undercut our competition on price.Wesee the value of the job hinging not just onprice, but also on service, availability andthe overall quality of the part. The lowestprice is not always the smart buy.”

A large part of Performance Radia-tor’s business comes from body shops whorespect the company’s quality products,reasonable prices, quick delivery and in-dustry experience.

“We particularly pride ourselves onour knowledge and service. We have a tonof tenured employees working for us, with

more than 20 people who have been withthe company for a minimum of 15 years inthis industry. Same-day delivery is anotherconvenience we offer our body shop cus-tomers.With cycle times as a priority, shopsappreciate the fact that we can get themtheir parts within four hours, in most cases.”

Performance Radiator markets itselfto shops through a variety of methods, in-cluding their Web site (www.perfor-manceradiator.com), outside sales reps,and direct mail. Knowing specifically whatshops need and meeting those needs is amajor priority for the company.

“We know how important it is for bodyshops to get the right parts for a job, on timeand within their budget. Time spent waitingaround for parts that end up not fitting cankill a shop, because while they’re sittingaround, it’s costing them money and skew-ing their cycle times. Money can evaporatequickly in this industry—andwe know that-so we’re always trying to find new ways toserve our shop customers better,” Carr said.

Business has been uneven recentlybut Carr sees a bright future for Perform-ance Radiator once the dust created by therecession settles.

“People are taking the insurancemoney and keeping it,” Carr said. “Plus,cars are being totaled out by the insurancecompanies much easier nowadays, whichhas directly affected us in a major way.”

What does the immediate future looklike for his industry? Carr is hopeful, yetunderstandably cautious.

“There will be a nationwide shakeout,where some companies fall by the waysidewhile others consolidate their operations.We’ll survive, but it will be rocky for awhile until the credit market opens up. Themarket will stabilize at some point, butthere will be fewer players in this segment.In many ways, it’s a natural progression.”

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Performance Radiator carries an inventory of $15million in radiators, A/C condensers and vacuumparts, as well as various related radiator, exhaustand A/C components.

With 57 warehouses in the U.S. and Canada, Per-formance Radiator has grown steadily since open-ing its initial location in 1988.

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In the 1940s, in the Spring the MissouriRiver, in the vicinity of Kansas City,would overflow from heavy Winter snowsand Spring rains. The result was seriousflooding of the surrounding land. One fac-tor that made the flooding worse was themeandering nature of the river, and one ofthe worst meanders was locally called“Jackass Bend” where severe flooding wasnearly an annual event. To resolve this sit-uation, the U.S. Corps of Engineers dug astraight new channel several miles Southof the old one called the Liberty Bend cut-off, and dammed up the old channel. Andthey built a new bridge across the newchannel called the Liberty Bridge.

I’ve noticed that a number of shops puttheir customers through a few “JackassBends” just to get their vehicle repaired.Forms must be filled in and a customer mayhave to wait for an estimator and then waitfor a rental car. The popular buzzword ofthe day is “Lean Procedures,” with a focuson eliminating unnecessary steps and de-lays. Much of the emphasis is placed onlean production, but lean customer process-ing is equally important. Many shops thriveon customer referrals and a customer sub-jected to a series of “Jackass Bends” is notlikely to go out of the way to refer the shop.

A recent survey of health care systemsin other countries noted that countries thatuse a health care data card similar to a creditcard, can keep many doctor visits to just afew minutes. All of the patient’s medicaland physical information is on the card andcan be accessed in seconds. The card is up-dated after the visit, so the patient neednever fill in a form on the next visit. Todaymost drivers licenses have a magnetic striplike a credit card. Using a card reader mayenable a shop to capture much of a cus-tomer’s information from the drivers licensewithout having a form filled out. But thisconcept opens the door to even better timesavings along with a marketing advantage.

If a shop acquires the technology tocreate a collision customer data card of itsown, the customer can walk away with apiece of plastic that identifies everythingabout his or her vehicle plus all of the re-pairs and parts installations that have beenmade. The next visit will require practicallyno data capturing at all. Will the customerkeep this card in his or her purse or wallet?Possibly not, but most astute shops nowprovide every customer with an accidentinformation pamphlet or booklet to keep inthe glove compartment. It’s a simple moveto add a slot or pocket to hold the data card.

People are naturally inclined to fol-low the easiest path. This strategy alone

can incline most customers to return to theshop to get handled more quickly andavoid tiresome form filling. But there is away to get even more mileage out of thedata card. By adding a master code num-ber to the card and keeping that mastercode along with this customer’s data onthe shop’s computer system, the customerneed not even come into the shop to beginthe process of getting set up for the nextrepair. The code could be sent by e-mail,fax, phone, or entered into a preset area onthe shop’s website. When the customer ar-rives, he or she simply drops off the vehi-cle.

If this was all of the value a shopcould get from providing a data card, itwould be well worthwhile, but this isonly the beginning. The card can now beused for additional sales and marketingadvantages. If a shop also has a vehiclemaintenance division, tires, brakes, airconditioning service, tune-ups and otherreminders can be programmed in. If ashop sells accessories, winterizing prod-ucts and other seasonal items can be pro-moted. Today’s credit cards haveenormous data storage capabilities.These items won’t even begin to over-load the card’s capacity.

Finally, for the shop owner who is re-ally serious about getting the most out of adata card system, there is the added possi-bility of links. The Internet is filled withwebsites that earn all revenue from adver-tisements on the site. A shop can offer pro-motional connections on the card to a localcar wash, car rental facility, automatictransmission repair shop and other relatedbusinesses. All of these advantages can behad by simply eliminating “Jackass Bends”and creating a new channel for data to flow.

By the way, I really hope the currentsnowfalls in the east and southeast don’tcause serious flooding.

Help Customers Avoid ‘Jackass Bends’ by Creating Channels

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

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


In an effort to boost their value-addedmembership benefits, the Automotive Re-cyclers Association (ARA) announced anew benefit program designed to reducecredit card processing fees for Membercompanies. Joining with First NationalMerchant Solutions, ARA members canexpect low rates, money savings, stability,excellent customer service, and no hiddenfees. This program offers discounted ratesfor Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards,and also works with debit cards.

ARA members can rest assuredknowing that First National Merchant So-lutions is one of the top ten credit cardprocessors in the United States. It is ownedby the First National Bank, Omaha, whichis a family owned bank since 1857. Theybegan processing credit cards in 1953when credit cards were first established.First National Merchant Solutions is of-fering a free analysis of a facility’s creditcard processing and will customize a pro-gram for the facility based on their needs.They will either save you money or tellyou honestly that your current plan is bet-ter. There is no obligation attached to afree analysis, and it is worth the time to seeif you can save hundreds, even thousandsright to your bottom line.

“We are excited to add yet anotherprogram to our strong line-up of valuablemember benefits,” says Michael E. Wil-

son,ARA’s executive vice president. “Ourgoal is for members to keep as muchmoney as possible in their pockets, and nothave to pay out unnecessary fees. This is areliable, safe and secure provider of creditcard processing, and we are pleased thatthey have joined with the ARA to serveour members.”

For more information, call ARA Di-rector of Member Services, Kelly Badillo,at (888) 385-1005. Or, contact First Na-tional Merchant Solutions SeniorAccountExecutive Paul Niss:Toll-free: 1 (800) 228-4411 x 6897 mainofficeIn Boston: (508) 740-7734In Florida: (954) 247-4644E-mail: [email protected] visit www.firstnationalmerchants.comfor more information.

About ARAEstablished in 1943, the Automotive Re-cyclers Association (ARA) represents anindustry dedicated to the efficient removaland reuse of “green” automotive parts, andthe proper recycling of inoperable motorvehicles. ARA represents over 4,500 autorecycling facilities in the United States andfourteen other countries around the world.

To learn more about the AutomotiveRecyclersAssociation, visitARAonline atwww.a-r-a.org or call (571) 208-0428.

Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) Adds CreditCard Processing Discounts to Member Benefits Both the Tennessee House of Representa-

tives and the state’s Senate currently arereviewing bills that would require insurersto inform claimants of their right to choosea repair facility. The bill also would pro-hibit insurers from requiring insureds orthird-party claimants to use a certain busi-ness for their vehicles’ repairs.

The bill is labeled H.B. 3488 in theHouse, and S.B. 3455 in the TennesseeSenate. H.B.3488 is sponsored by Rep.Dennis Ferguson (D), while S.B. 3455 issponsored by Sen. Ken Yager (R).

Like many other recent consumerchoice bills that have been filed throughoutthe United States in the last fewmonths, thebill would add language to the state’s in-surance code defining the term “deceptivereferral” (known as the practice of steeringby many). The bill would define a decep-tive referral as “any trade practice by which

an insurer attempts to persuade, convince,coerce, or intimidate a claimant into chang-ing the claimant’s choice of repair facilityafter the insurer has been informed that theclaimant has selected a repair facility.”

The bill reads as follows, “An insurershall inform a claimant upon initial notifi-cation of a claim that the claimant has theright to choose the repair facility of his orher choice to repair a damaged vehicle.” Itcontinues: “An insurer or any of its repre-sentatives shall not request or require anyinsured or third-party claimant to use aspecific person or business for the provi-sion of automobile physical damage re-pairs, automobile physical damageappraisals, automobile glass replacement,automobile parts, or glass repair service.”

Both pieces of legislation were filed onJanuary 28 and assigned to House’s Con-sumer and Employees Affairs Committee.

Tennessee House’s Anti-Steering Legislation

The Women’s Industry Network (WIN)is seeking candidates to fill upcomingvacancies on theWIN board of directorsin conjunction with WIN’s annual con-ference being held May 2–4, 2010 in Or-lando, FL. Each seat will be for a periodof two years, with the ability to be re-elected to a second, two-year term.

Although WIN membership is notrequired to be considered for a board po-sition, preference in the selectionprocess will be given to current WINmembers. Prospective board membersmay join WIN at any time. For a down-loadable board seat application and re-quirements go to WIN’s Web site atwww.womensindustrynetwork.com orsend an email to Margaret Knell, chairofWIN’s governance committee at [email protected]. Completed ap-plications should be submitted by Feb.26, 2010. Applications may be sent viamail, fax, or e-mail (preferred) to thefollowing: Margaret Knell, c/o I-CAR,5125 Trillium Blvd, Hoffman Estates, IL60192, Phone: (847) 590-1198 x222;Fax: (888) 422-7222

WIN is still accepting sponsors for2010. For more details on becoming aWIN sponsor go to:

http://www.womensindustrynet-work.com/WINCorporatesponsors/tabid/59/Default.aspx (no hyphens).

Women’s Industry Network SeeksCandidates for Boardby Dustin Henggeler, NNL writer

This article is reprinted with the kind permissionof the Nodaway News Leader, Maryville, MO.

They don’t have desks or written tests totake each week, but you’d better believethese students are learning somethingeveryday. The new collision repair classat the Northwest Technical School [inMaryville, MO], taught by Ron Wieder-holt, gives the students just what theyneed to learn; hands-on experience onreal vehicles.

“What’s so great about this type ofwork is that you’re not working on an as-sembly line, doing the same thing every-day,” said Wiederholt. “You face a newproject every day. Even if it’s the samespot on a vehicle, you will need to do dif-ferent types of repairs in order to get a carlooking new again.”

From fender benders to completerestoration of older cars, Wiederholt’s stu-dents never see the exact same project twiceand are always kept busy. Students come tothe class from as far away as Mound City,Craig/Fairfax and North Andrew, or asclose to home as Northeast Nodaway andMaryville. Adults are welcome to take theclass, too; in fact, two are currently in theclass: one is 63 years old, proof that it’snever too late to learn or pick up a hobby.

Completely needing restored, oneof Wiederholt’s own muscle cars is aproject many of the students are work-ing on with hopes that it will be finished

by the end of the school year. Earlier inthe year, the students also completelyrebuilt a military vehicle that is nowbeing used by local volunteer firefight-ers. And on top of just repairing cars,the students are also constructing andpainting vehicles that they give awayfor those who cannot afford a fully-op-erational car.

Having owned his own auto-bodyshop for 10 years, Wiederholt knows theimportance of keeping up with the timesand does his best to offer these new tech-niques to his class. Learning about thecare and repair of hybrid vehicles issomething his class takes part in, keepingtheir expertise on anything from oldschool to cutting edge.

“The kids in here aren’t your typicalstudents who enjoy science or math, but

enjoy the hands-on experience,” Wieder-holt commented. “When I show themsomething new in here, they’re alwayswide-eyed and ready to learn.”

Though his class can handle 30 stu-dents, Wiederholt has only 15, but theplan is for more students next fall. Andsince this is his first year of offering theclass, it’s hard to say where his studentswill be after graduation. Wiederholtknows that some of his students plan tocome back next year, even if it’s post-sec-ondary. The collision repair curriculum isa two-year program, so future studentsmay plan to take it their junior year if theschool district allows.

Collision repair, a field that couldonly become extinct when we don’t usecars, will be a growth area. Wiederholtmakes sure his students learn everythingfrom the basics of the shop to the varioustechniques any repair project requires ofa Mr./Mrs. Fix-it.

“I make sure that the students knowthat a clean shop is the most importantthing in terms of safety,” said Wiederholt.“I also give them new project partnerseveryday so they can get used to workingwith new people all the time. Studentsneed to know how to work safe as part ofa team, keeping the work area clean andsafe as well.”

Collision Repair Students are Well-Prepared for the Real World

Re: “What Went Wrong With My Toy-ota?” (letters, Feb. 6):The letter recommending a data recorderin cars like those in airliners to help thediagnosis of problems like those beingexperienced by Toyota owners is right on.But little known to the driving public isthe fact that in many cars computers arealready constantly recording vehicle

speed, throttle position, braking applica-tion, air bag deployment and a host ofother vehicle operating characteristics.

This information is routinely down-loaded by law enforcement after seriousaccidents. If this information were madeavailable to an impartial investigator inaddition to Toyota, the mystery might betaken out of the current situation.

Data Recorders Now in Cars

The recent news onMitsubishi is very pos-itive. The manufacturer has established astrong brand for nearly 30 years makingdistinctive, well-designed, and solidly-built cars for American consumers. Thebrand is thriving, despite unsettled eco-nomic times, with over 3,000,000 vehiclesmanufactured and sold in the U.S.

The company’s employees’ hard workand innovative approach has paid off byearning the allegiance of an ever-growingloyal customer base and by unveiling a widerange of new products, including the I-MiEV, their new new-generation electric ve-hicle, which hit the Japanesemarket late lastyear. Recently Mitsubishi has been gettingconsumer attention with its 2010 Outlanderfeaturing state-of-the art electronics, includ-ing a communication system called Fuse,which is a credible rival for Ford’s Sync.

In October 2009, Mitsubishi recog-nized a milestone when the company cel-ebrated the rollout of its three-millionth carat their NorthAmerican facility in Normal,IL. Greeted with cheers by a crowd of over800 Mitsubishi employees, the Rally Red2010 Eclipse GT personified Mitsubishi'senduring commitment to its place in theAmerican automotive market.

Autobody News recently talked toparts managers at Mitsubishi dealershipsin Florida and Alabama to find out howthese encouraging indicators have affectedtheir sales of collision parts. We wanted tofind out how Mitsubishi is producing pos-itive numbers in a tough market.

Bill Penney Mitsubishi, Huntsville, ALBill Penney Mitsubishi’s parts manager,Kerry Fitch, has been with the dealershipsince 1996, so he’s learned the brand fromtop to bottom, inside and out. He runs a smalldepartment with 1.5 employees and carries abare bones inventory for several reasons.

“A few years ago, our owner decidedto reduce our inventory from approxi-mately $160,000 to $50,000,” Fitch said.“With three stock deliveries every week

fromMitsubishi’s distribution center inAt-lanta, we’re able to get pretty much any-thing we want within 1-2 days max.”

Many dealerships throughout thecountry have become leaner overall, by re-ducing their parts inventories in the pastyear, and the change has worked well forFitch.

“We cut back because the thinkingnow is we can get anything we wantquickly from the manufacturer, rather thansitting on parts that may not move quicklyenough,” Fitch said. “If they take up space,why let them sit in our facility?”

The fact that Mitsubishi builds cars tolast is a Catch-22 situation for dealershipservice and parts departments nationwide,Fitch said.

“These cars don’t break down as arule,” he stated. “I’ve seen several Mit-subishis with more than 300,000 miles onthem and they’re not even slowing down.I’ve owned three Mitsubishis, so I knowhow reliable they truly are.

“And that’s one of the main reasonswhy we carry primarily crash parts andmaintenance-related mechanical parts, asopposed to larger parts like engines andtransmissions.We don’t need them here be-cause these cars are so well-designed andbuilt that it’s a rarity when we need one.”

Carrying a smaller inventory doesn’thamper Bill Penney Mitsubishi’s effec-tiveness in the wholesale game either,Fitch explained.

“Our fill-rate is right around at 100%,because we’re very responsive to all of theshops we sell to. Body shops are focusedon making money, and we know that. So,I’ll do anything I can to get that particularpart in their hands. Our shop customersknow we’re dedicated to performing forthem and we’ve built a reputation of com-ing through over the years.”

Like any other parts department, BillPenneyMitsubishi is concerned about howto stay competitive with the aftermarket/re-manufactured parts industry, Fitch said.

“Our wholesale body shop customerstell us time and again that they prefer usingOEM parts from the factory over the af-termarket, but our hands are tied. The in-surance companies will lean toward theaftermarket or remanufactured/used partsright off. We don’t even get a chance tocompare prices, in many instances. If I doget an estimate, I’ll always try to get asclose as I can price-wise while still makinga decent profit. Because in the end, we ob-viously have to make a profit to survive.”

Fitch is optimistic about the future forbody shops in his region, adding,“I talk at

length to our wholesale body shop cus-tomers, and they’re keeping busy most ofthe time. People still get in accidents andthey need their cars fixed soon and thatisn’t going to change.”

Daytona KIA Mitsubishi, Daytona Beach, FLRon Braithwaite, 61, has been the serv-ice manager at Daytona KIAMitsubishi inDaytona Beach, Florida for seven yearsand possesses 43 years of total experiencein parts and service at the dealership level.

Braithwaite has been around cars hisentire life and is proud to announce thatDaytona is the #1 Mitsubishi dealershipfor sales in the United States.

“I have always been a motorhead,”Braithwaite said. “I was raised in a me-chanical world, working on outboard mo-tors and any kind of engine you canimagine. That’s why I’m still having funhere. I don’t have any plans to retire, that’sfor sure.

“We’re proud of being the best, andwe work very hard to stay number one.There’s a great attitude here that comes

from the ownership and affects every sin-gle employee. There’s a great environmenthere and it makes it a pleasure to come towork every day.”

Braithwaite supervises a parts de-partment consisting of 2.5 employees(two full-time and one part-time counterperson). Last year, Daytona KIA Mit-subishi did $276,000 in parts sales andcarries an inventory of $180,000, split


DistinctiveDealerships

Mitsubishi Parts Departments Show Responsiveness to Body Shops

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Parts Manager Tim Hitchcock (left) and ServiceManager Ron Braithwaite run the parts depart-ment at Daytona KIA Mitsubishi in Daytona Beach,Florida, the #1 Mitsubishi dealership in the U.S.,based on new car sales.

The Automotive Hall of Fame awardedits 2010 Distinguished Service Citationto John Krafcik, Hyundai Motor Amer-ica president and CEO, on January 15.Hyundai’s long list of achievements in2009 include sales growth of eight per-cent, outpacing the industry in marketshare gains, successfully pilotingHyundai Genesis to the company’s first-ever North American Car of the Yearhonors and launching the innovativeHyundai Assurance vehicle return pro-gram.

“The Distinguished Service Cita-tion is aptly named, for it recognizesthose leaders who have distinguishedthemselves for the outstanding servicethey provide to the motor vehicle in-dustry and to their respective organiza-tions,” said Jeffrey Leestma, president,Automotive Hall of Fame. “It’s a rarehonor indeed. In 70 years, just 431 in-dustry executives have received Distin-guished Service Citations.” The

Automotive Hall of Fame honored fouradditional executives with its Distin-guished Service Citation, including:Timothy M. Manganello, chairmanand CEO of BorgWarner Inc.; RodneyO’Neal, CEO and president of DelphiCorporation; Jack Roush, chairman ofthe board of Roush Enterprises, Inc.;and Mary Ann Wright, vice presidentand managing director of Johnson Con-trol’s Business Accelerator for Ad-vanced Energy Storage Solutions. Inaddition, Alan Mulally was recognizedas the Automotive Hall of Fame’s 2009Industry Leader of the Year.

“To be included by the AutomotiveHall of Fame with this distinguished classof leaders is an honor and it speaks toHyundai’s success not just in 2009, butover the past several years,” said Krafcik.“This award represents the exceptionalteam at Hyundai, the support and successof Hyundai and our outstanding lineup ofgreat vehicles.”

equally between mechanical and crashparts.

Auto body shops in his region ofFlorida are doing well, but there has beena shakeup over the past few years.

“The little mom and pop shops thatweren’t getting enough insurance workcouldn’t survive,” Braithwaite said. “Thebigger fish have swallowed some of thesmaller ones, but the shops that are still hereare doing quite well. Some of my largershops have 50-60 vehicles in their facilitiesright now, while a handful of smaller inde-pendents are still thriving, doing 10-12 carsper week. It all comes to networking and es-tablishing strong relationships with thecommunity and the insurance companies.”

Braithwaite has a stellar right handman, Tim Hitchcock, who knows the localmarket and has the experience to reach outto the major players while not forgettingabout their smaller clients.

“Tim is a seasoned pro and he reallyknows the business climate here in thisarea,” Braithwaite said. “He’s worked on thedealership level in parts for more than adecade. Shops are always comfortableworking with people who know them andTim knows all of them. He’s our go-to Mr.Everything and he reaches out to the bodyshops in our neck of the woods on an ongo-ing basis. Our customers appreciate the extraefforts and Tim is ideal for that position.”

As a parts veteran, Braithwaite re-spects and appreciates the new technolo-gies that have made the whole industrymore efficient and responsive to shops’needs.

“In the old days, if you wanted to lo-cate a part number, you had to pull out themicrofilm and the catalogs,” Braithwaitesaid. “Now we have everything availableto us and accessible within seconds andminutes instead of hours or days. We’reonly as effective as the information wehave and today we have so much morethan we did even ten years ago. In the end,it helps the body shops, because they candrastically improve their cycle times andprovide a better product. So everyone—dealerships, shops, insurance companiesand car owners—work better and easierdue to the newest technologies.”

Crown Mitsubishi, Saint Petersburg, FLAt Crown Mitsubishi, Steve Olinger, 43,oversees the parts department maintainingan inventory of approximately $100,000,split equally between mechanical and col-lision parts, he told Autobody News.Olinger is a youngster in the parts man-agement field, but he has logged more than18 years in the parts industry overall.

Olinger runs a top crew with an assis-tant parts manager who’s been with Mit-subishi for over 13 years. “My right hand

guy, Mike Constantine, is the backbone ofthis department. He’s our point man whenit comes to the brand and his knowledge,experience, and feel for the region reallymakes him invaluable.”

Olinger believes the quality of theMitsubishi brand has helped his dealershipholding its own while some other au-tomakers throughout Florida have down-sized or closed dealerships.

“Mitsubishi owners are very loyal tothe brand,” Olinger said. “They want [us]to fix them instead of replacing them. Theywill repair them at body shops, through in-dependent shops and through our servicecenter, because they know that these carswill last them and perform well for themin the long-term.”

With a fill-rate of 89%, Olinger said hecan get all of his customers their parts fast,regardless of what they need and whetherthe items are in his inventory or not.

“We’re in a ‘now’ society, so we haveto think that way in everything we’redoing,” Olinger said. “If the other guy canbeat my delivery by even a couple ofhours, he’ll get the advantage and couldwin over some of my customers. But, nowwith three stock orders every week, it’stough to beat us. Back in the old days, wereceived only one stock order from the dis-tribution center per week. But now, withthree, we’re providing better service andthat’s the key. It gives us more flexibilityand allows us to act quickly, which is thename of the game in this business.”

Daytona KIA Mitsubishi510 North Nova RoadDaytona Beach, Florida 32114(386) 252-7000

Bill Penney Mitsubishi4810 University Drive NWHuntsville, Alabama 35816(256) 837-1111

Crown Mitsubishi KIA5500 34th Street NorthSaint Petersburg, Florida 33714(727) 525-4990


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

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

DO THE RIGHT THINGENOUGH TIMES,AND PEOPLE BEGINTO NOTICE.Hyundai Sales Up More than 14% (year on year). In 2008 Hyundai became the world's ��h-largest automaker, with 7% market share in the United States.

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Parts Manager Steve Olinger (left) and AssistantParts Manager Mike Constantine work hard toprovide top-tier customer service to its wholesalecollision clients at Crown Mitsubishi KIA in SaintPetersburg, Florida.

Hyundai CEO Gets 2010 Automotive Hall Of Fame Citation

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by Rachael J. Mercer

Steering. Supressed Labor Rates. Cappingof Repair and Refinish Materials.Got your attention? If you’re a collision in-dustry professional, these hot-button top-ics are hurdles you’re facing in yourbusiness as you work to serve your cus-tomers and keep your business profitable.These are some of the tough issues theGeorgia Collision Industry Association(GCIA) is currently addressing.

As Executive Director of the GCIA,Howard Batchelor serves the collision in-dustry and consumers in an effort to “pro-

mote professionalismand consumer aware-ness of the Automo-tive Collision RepairIndustry in the Stateof Georgia.” Since its founding in1997 the GCIA hasworked towardreaching that goalthrough education of

its members as well as collision profes-sionals around the state, while also engag-ing consumers by educating them abouttheir rights.

The GCIA was founded by a group ofcollision industry professionals whowanted to address the issues concerningthe industry, according to Batchelor.“Mainly the group wanted to promote con-sumer awareness concerning the collisionindustry and promote professionalismwithin the industry,” he said.

While the GCIA serves the state ofGeorgia as a whole, its member base is pri-marily comprised of collision repair busi-nesses in the Atlanta metro area. “Oftenit’s hard for people outside the perimeterof metro Atlanta to make it to meetingsafter a day at work,” said Doug Dorsey,Body Shop Manager for Honda Carland inRoswell, Ga. For this reason, people whoare located close to the base of operationsfor the GCIA in Marietta tend to be themost involved members.

The GCIA has tried to address theissue of serving an area as large asmetro Atlanta and the state of Georgia.“We try to meet all over the metro At-lanta area,” said Batchelor. “At one timewe met in the Smyrna Convention Cen-ter for each meeting, but now we movearound so we can make the meetingsmore convenient for collision profes-sionals to attend.”Meetings are held every other month, andthe topics of discussion and education arevaried from month to month. Batchelorsaid, “We try hard to feature ‘hot topic’speakers at each meeting, and often thehotter the topic, the higher the attendanceat the meeting.”

The 6H RuleIn the state of Georgia, one hot topic issueis environmental regulations and compli-ance. The GCIA is working with the Geor-gia Small Business EnvironmentalAssistance Program (SBEAP) to educatecollision shops about a new federal airemissions regulation, known as the 6Hrule. The Georgia SBEAP is a non-regula-tory program of the Georgia Environmen-tal Protection Division that provides freeassistance to small businesses to help themcomply with environmental regulations. Rachel Cochran, Public Affairs Coordina-tor for the Georgia SBEAP, explained therole the GCIA is playing in educatingGeorgia collision businesses about the newregulation and compliance. “The GeorgiaSBEAP is a small program of mostly en-vironmental scientists and engineers,” shesaid. “and we have limited ability to com-municate to 3,000 Georgia collision shopsefficiently on the subject of the 6H Rule.”Instead of mass mailings with invalid ad-dresses and misdirected communication,the GCIA has helped communicate the re-quirements of the 6H rule to its membersand to collision shops in the Atlanta area.The GCIA has also facilitated educationalclasses where its members and other colli-sion industry technicians have been able tolearn about the regulatory requirements ofthe 6H rule.

“The GCIA has hosted two rounds oftraining, where one of our technical staffhas presented an environmental trainingpresentation on 6H.,” said Cochran. “Al-though the presentation itself is fairlyshort, there are always many questionsfrom attendees who are concerned abouthow the new regulations will affect theirbusiness. Because of the GCIA, we havebeen able to reach these people in ways wecould not otherwise.”

Each collision repair technician in thestate of Georgia is to be formally trainedon the regulations in the 6H rule by Janu-ary 10, 2011. For new shops, techniciansmust be trained within 180 days of hiring.New regulations include how to applypaints in a way that reduces air emissions,how to properly clean a spray gun and re-duce air emissions, and more.

“We have a really valuable stake-holder group,” said Cochran. “It includespeople in the collision industry, companieslike Akzo Nobel, Sherwin-Williams, Fin-ishMaster and PPG, and groups like theGeorgia Collision Industry Association.” In addition to its help with communication,the GCIA has assisted the EnvironmentalAssistance Program with staging mock in-spections. Cochran said, “We used the col-lision repair shop of a member of theGCIA, where collision shop owners andmanagers could use compliance checklisttools.”

“For many of these collision shopowners and managers this was their firstforay into compliance regulation,” she said.“This mock inspection setting gave theman better understanding of Rule 6H re-

quirements, and will help them be preparedin the event of a compliance inspection.”

Insurance RegulationBecause steering, the capping of repair andrefinish materials costs and suppressedlabor rates are such hot-button topics, theGCIA is becoming more active in govern-ment issues. A relationship is being formedbetween the office of the Insurance andFire Safety Commissioner of the State ofGeorgia and the association. In December2008, Commissioner John Oxendine cameto the bi-monthly meeting to discuss in-surance regulation and the rights of con-sumers and collision repairers as theyrelate to automotive insurers.

Batchelor said, “Very quickly, Mr.Oxendine realized he did not know verymuch about the collision industry and itsrelationship with automotive insurers, orthe problems collision repairers face. Heasked the association to help educate himon these issues.”

In 2009, Batchelor and three otherGCIA members visited the Commis-sioner’s office to present him with anoverview of the pressing concerns of col-lision repairers. “We gave our presenta-tion, and then we came back to meet withhim again; we were able to suggestchanges to how insurance companies settlecollision repair claims, and we offeredideas about ways to strengthen some rulesregulating automotive insurers,” saidBatchelor. He commented that the associ-ation is continuing to work with Commis-sioner Oxendine and his office to makechanges that strengthen the automotive in-dustry, adding: “change doesn’t happenovernight.”

Assisting Collision Repair ShopsThe education opportunities that the GCIA

offers are numerous. In addition to theclasses concerning the 6H rule that GCIAhas facilitated, GCIA members have hadthe opportunity to learn under the teachingof Mike Anderson, AAM; the Society of

Collision Repair Specialists(SRCS) has also taught a classon lean operations for the GCIA.

The GCIA offers mem-ber benefits—some which aresuited to independent collisionrepair facilities and some thatare better-suited to dealerships.“We offer credit card serviceagreements, the ability for ourmembers to purchase office sup-plies at a discount, to purchaseapparel for their employees andmore,” said Batchelor. “Anotherimportant benefit area involvesfinancial planning and succes-sion planning for repair shopowners—giving them the tools

their need to make sound financial deci-sions.”

This year the GCIA is involved in itsfourth annual labor rate survey, in whichmetro Atlanta-area collision body shopsare asked questions about their business.The survey, conducted by a third party, isprovided to about 850 shops, and asksquestions about labor rates, how muchbusiness it takes to cover costs and make aprofit, and more. “Each year more andmore shops respond,” said Batchelor.“And each year, the information we re-ceive is better and better.” In addition tobeing posted on the GCIA Web site, thesurvey results are provided to membersand forwarded directly to the Office of theInsurance and Fire Safety Commissionerof Georgia.

Fostering Camaraderie“One of the biggest benefits to a member-ship in the GCIA is the opportunity to net-work with other shop owners andmanagers,” said Dorsey. “Many times Ican spend time at the bi-monthly meetingstalking with people I wouldn’t come intocontact with otherwise.” Dorsey continuedby explaining that the bi-monthly meetingsgive collision professionals a chance tooffer pointers to each other, and an oppor-tunity to make suggestions to each otherconcerning repair procedures or workingwith customers. “The real-life knowledgewe gain from each other at these meetingscan make business life a little easier,” hesaid. Dorsey has been a GCIA membersince its founding in 1997.

GCIA hosts an annual golf tourna-ment—this year is the 14th annualevent—which gives members who partic-ipate an opportunity to network and meetother industry professionals. In fact,many Georgia collision industry profes-

The Georgia Collision Industry Association (GCIA) Takes the Lead

Howard Batchelor

GCIA board at Nov. 09 golf tournament. At left— FoundingMember and current GCIA Board Member, Gene Hamilton;2nd from the right—Founding Member and past executive Di-rector, David Bourne; At right—Current Board Member RustyWalker.

sionals who are not GCIA members par-ticipate yearly. The proceeds from theevent are donated to various charities, andthe location changes from year to year.More information on the upcoming 14thannual tournament is available on theWeb site.

Community Involvement and Consumers’Rights“It is important that the general public un-derstands that the GCIA is not just an as-sociation that represents collision shopsand businesses,” said Batchelor. “We arecommitted to educating consumers abouttheir rights in the event of an accident.”The GCIA Web site (www.GCIA.org) of-fers information that consumers can use asthey work with their insurance companytoward a quality, complete repair. The Website recommends questions that consumersshould ask their insurer before and duringthe repair process concerning subjects likeaftermarket parts versus OEM parts. “Ulti-mately, we as collision professionals arehere to serve the consumers,” said Batch-elor. “Without the consumers our busi-nesses would not succeed. Workingtogether, collision repairers and consumerscan achieve a high-quality repair follow-ing an accident.”

In addition to consumer rights edu-cation, the GCIA has projects through-

out the year that demonstrate their loy-alty and support of their customers andcommunities. One such project takes

place in the spring each year duringprom season, with a vivid demonstrationaimed to keep teenagers from drinkingand driving. GCIA will place a crashedcar at the entrance to several highschools in the Atlanta area, hoping toshow the results of horrific crashes—even if the human losses are not seen.“If it makes a kid take a second thoughtabout drinking and driving, then [thedisplay] has done its job,” Batchelorsaid.

Informational PresenceThe GCIA Web site was developed and ismaintained by a GCIA member who now

has his own marketing and con-sulting business. RichardArnold, owner of Key ConceptServices, began working on theoriginal GCIA Web site in2000. To keep up with chang-ing technology and to ensurethe GCIA Web site is at theforefront of industry informa-tion, a new site was developedand unveiled in the spring of2009. “For an industry website, the GCIA Web site staysvery up-to-date,” said Arnold.“I am always looking for hottopic stories that will generateconversation or provide infor-mation to GCIA members, col-

lision professionals or consumers.”The GCIA Web site offers consumers

print outs about their rights, and givesthem the opportunity to find GCIA mem-ber collision repair shops. It provides col-lision repairers with schedules for trainingand opportunities for seminars and classes,and gives GCIA members information onupcoming meetings, their locations, speak-ers and topics.

The GCIA is excited about the op-portunities for growth and education that

are ahead in its 14th year of organiza-tion. For more information about mem-bership, visit the Web site atwww.GCIA.org or contact GCIA Execu-tive Director Howard Batchelor. If youare a member of the GCIA, now is agreat time to really get involved as theassociation works to achieve its goals.Any association is stronger with moremembers who are active and passionateabout its principles, and the GCIA is nodifferent. The next opportunity for mem-bers to really get involved is at theMarch 18th meeting at the Crowne PlazaAtlanta. From 6:30–9:30 that night, theGCIA will hear from several of the can-didates who are running for the office ofGeorgia Insurance Commissioner—justone more way the association is workingto benefit collision professionals andconsumers alike.

Rachael J. Mercer is a freelance writerbased in McDonough, Ga. She can bereached at [email protected].


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The team from European Auto Collision won first placeat the last tournament. Pictured are: Tommy and An-drew Suggs, Matt Lawson & Mike Shelton, (not nec-essarily in that order).

Miss Teen Georgia is New Face of Teen Driving ProgramMotor Age Magazine has reported thatFear This, Inc., a nonprofit organization,has announced that Caroline Wade, MissTeen Georgia, has become a spokespersonfor the company’s driving program.

Fear This, Inc. is directed at helpinginexperienced teen drivers gain a better un-derstanding of accident avoidance skills.

Based on the Emergency Vehicle Op-erations Course (EVOC), which is inter-nationally known for police training for alllevels of law enforcement, the Teen Vehi-cle Operations Course (TVOC) uses PeaceOfficers Standard and Training CouncilCertified EVOC instructors.

By learning first-hand from policeacademy instructors, licensed teens learnhow to react in an accident situation. Thecourse also teaches teens how to safely re-spond in other emergency situations,something Miss Teen Georgia will be par-ticipating in herself.

Two days after Wade had beencrowned she was en route to an interview.Due to a flat tire, she lost control of her carat 70 mph. With her father, who was in thecar ahead of her, watching in his rearviewmirror, Wade spun out of control, strikingthe guardrail, bouncing back into the high-way and back into the guardrail again be-fore coming to a stop. Fortunately, neithershe nor any other motorists were injured.

“This is exactly the type of situation thatcan happen to anyone,” Dan Wade, a Lieu-tenant with the Atlanta Police Departmentand Caroline’s father, says. “I have beenwith city of Atlanta Police Department for28 years and have done course study in

traffic accident in-vestigations on teensinvolved in acci-dents, so I know howdevastating this canbe to parents. Geor-gia ranks No. 5 inthe nation involvingteens in traffic fatali-ties. We are very for-tunate that nothing

serious happened to Caroline, but it’s theperfect example of a young driver not hav-ing the experience to handle a situationthat requires quick thinking.”

“I was very, very lucky,” Wade saysof her accident. “I could have just as eas-ily been killed. If I can help kids learn howto be safer and more prepared drivers, Iwill feel a huge sense of accomplishment.”

Schools and youth groups facilitatethe workshops, and the programs havecaught the attention of various municipalcourts in the Atlanta area. Wade will attendnumerous events throughout the year onbehalf of Fear This, Inc.

Caroline Wade

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by Lee [email protected]

Military veterans also are returning toschool, thanks in part to a newly expandedGI Bill that may provide the best veterans'benefits in history.

About 150 veterans or their depend-ents are using the GI Bill to attend AthensTech; another 300 are at the University ofGeorgia and 132 at Gainesville State Col-lege.

Veterans can get not only tuitionand fees, but a housing allowanceunder the GI Bill. New rules also allow

veterans to transfer benefits to depend-ents.

And when state benefits such asthe HOPE Grant and HOPE Scholar-ship factor in, veterans can earn almostas much by going to school as work-

ing.As with older students,

veterans, even young ones,may return to school withstrong work habits that cancompensate for academicdeficiencies.

“Because of the train-ing they've received, they'revery straightforward andhighly motivated,” saidGreg Thomas, an instructorin Athens Tech's auto colli-sion repair program.

Two tours of duty inIraq helped change Jordan

Wooten, a corporal in the U.S. MarineCorps Reserve.

In Iraq, he learned a new attitudeabout responsibilities, he said.

“Everything you do is a big accom-plishment. You're in charge of people'slives,” said Wooten, 22, who finds him-self nowadays making friends with peo-

ple older than he. His military servicehas created a kind of gulf betweenWooten and many people his age, whoare more interested in partying thanstudying, said Wooten, who lives inFarmington.

“I got that out of my system a longtime ago,” he said.

Kelley Smith of Athens, a classmatein the auto collision repair program, alsolearned new habits while serving in theU.S. Navy.

“Everything you do has a purpose,”said Smith, 33. “Here, you might go homeand turn on some crappy TV show.”

College not only is the place to gettraining for a future career, but a good wayto re-enter the nonmilitary world, Wootensaid.

“The civilian world is a differentworld. You have to adjust to it, and collegeis the best place to do it,” he said.

Reprinted with the kind permission of theAthens Banner-Herald. Originally publishedin the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, Feb-ruary 21, 2010.


AkzoNobel is Exclusive Paint Sponsor for theAllure of the Automobile Exhibition in AtlantaAkzoNobel Car Refinishes Americas an-nounces that they will be the exclusive au-tomotive paint sponsor for “The Allure oftheAutomobile”. The exhibition will pres-ent 18 of the world’s rarest and most bril-liantly conceived cars ranging from the1930’s to the mid-1960s, including mas-terpieces by Bugatti, Duesenberg, Jaguar,Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Ferrari. Theexhibition will be held March 21–June 20,2010 at the High Museum of Art in At-lanta, Georgia.

This exhibition is the first to focus onthe stylistic development of the automo-bile. It is also the first of its type to corre-late auto design with major design periodmovements such as Art Modern and Post-war Modernity. “AkzoNobel is pleased tohave this unique opportunity,” commentedTim Loden, Director of Marketing forAk-zoNobel Car Refinishes Americas.

“Each of the cars that will be exhib-ited is a one-of-a-kind custom built design.Collectively these vehicles document a his-tory of extraordinary advances in automo-tive styling and engineering. Their flawlessquality represents the best of both Euro-pean and American design. This exhibit isa story that reflects a passion for perfec-tion…a passion that AkzoNobel shares.”

In addition to AkzoNobel other keysponsors include Porsche Cars NorthAmerica,Auto Trader Classics, Manheim,and NAPA. The exhibitions guest curatoris Ken Gross, writer, automotive historianand former executive director of the Pe-tersen Automotive Museum in Los Ange-les. Ron Labaco, the High Museum’scurator of decorative arts and design, is themanaging curator. The exhibition will beaccompanied by a full-color catalog.

Veterans Return to Class—Not Just Older Northeast Georgians FillingClassrooms at Athens Technical College

Kaizen Assembly Launches LEANAuto Body Webinar SeriesKaizen Assembly has announced theLEAN Auto Body Webinar Series—a4-course live online seminar trainingseries specific for the auto collision re-pair industry. Conducted by ChrisOrtiz, this series provides a hands onapproach to lean auto body. “This we-binar series will allow body shop own-ers and their staff to take advantage ofour lean auto body seminars and elimi-nate the cost of travel,” says PresidentChris Ortiz. The webinar series can bean ongoing schedule or can be sched-uled for one specific company. Contactpatriciabrunhirl @kaizenassembly.comor 360-715-2129.

Scott Reed, right, and Jordan Wooten, an Iraq war veteran and cor-poral in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, repair dents on a Mazda MX-6 during a recent auto collision repair class at Athens TechnicalCollege. Photo credit: Richard Hamm

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!

EPA Sets New NO2 StandardEPAhas tightened theone-hour standard formeasuring emissions of nitrogen dioxide(NO2), but left the annual standard un-changed.The long-termexposure remainsata maximum of 53 parts per billion (ppb)while an acceptable short-term exposurelimit is now100parts perbillion.Short-termconcentrations of NO2 were previously al-lowed to range from100–200ppb.TheEPAbelieves NO2 exposure has been linked torespiratory problems. The primary man-made sources for NO2 are motor vehicles,coal-burningpowerplants and factories.Ac-cording to the EPA, concentrations of nitro-gendioxidedropped41%between1980and2006.Theagencywillnow,however, requiremoremonitors alongbusy roadsand in largeurban areas by 2013. Itwill then collect datafor several years to determine which areasare not in compliancewith the newstandardandwhether additional steps are necessary.

Toyota Vulnerable to ConquestsBuyers whowould have looked at Toyotavehicles are now considering other brandsafter the automaker's series of safety re-calls. Analysts from Kelley Blue Book,Edmunds.com and J.D. Power say Ford,Honda, Hyundai and Chevrolet are grab-bing Toyota customers, based on salestracking data and surveys on their Websites. Mazda, Subaru andVolkswagen arealso getting upticks in buyer interest.


with whatever you have today, but it getsmuch easier and better with the rightequipment.

We look at what they have already.You have a primer gun, a sealer gun, and aclear gun, but is it ready for tomorrow’sproduct? Is in good working condition?Just because it’s a good and relatively newgun, if you haven’t maintained it correctlyit might not be working well enough forthe new product. Now the EPA wants tomake sure that you have the right transferefficiency, and that’s important for bothshop profitability and the environment. Ifyou’re just starting with waterborne andyou don’t keep your equipment clean,you’re going to have much bigger prob-lems than you ever had with the solvent.

But guess what, if you do it right, andmaintain and adjust your equipment,things work better. The paint dries the wayit’s supposed to, your color match is cor-rect, and you’re right with the EPA, be-cause you kept your gun clean.

ABN ► So, that isn’t the product’s fault,it’s yours?Steve Treutel ◄ Yes. All of a suddenpainters are learning the hard way that theyneed to keep my gun cleaner than theyever have before. You could have one ofour SATAjet 3000 (HVLP and RP) thatwe’ve had out for 3-4 years. If you boughtit then and you’ve never replaced the noz-

zle set, it’s already worn out to some point,and then do you really have the right noz-zle set up or whatever you are going to bechanging to?

For waterborne I like to look at it a lit-tle differently. We do a true evaluation of ashop. Do we have enough air volume to runthe equipment you need. Do you haveenough to run the blowers. Are you plan-ning HVLP? But how much air does thattake?Are you doing overalls or just bumperjobs? Figure out the CFM required.

Then look at the quality of your air.Just because you got a lot of air doesn’tmean it’s clean enough. If you might haveoil droplets or oil vapors. This creates an-other contamination.

Is it breathable? Think about makingyour air breathable quality. Now we canlook at the guns—the difference betweenHVLP and RP technology is how much airdo they use?

If you don’t have enough air forHVLP, it doesn’t matter how good apainter you are. You’re never going to beable to get the same job that the paint com-pany training center will do.

Typically for HVLP we like to see15–18 CFM and 29 lbs pressure. For RPtechnology you’d be around 10 CFM, abouta third less air volume, which is the makeor break point. For a shop that has maybe a10 hp compressor serving three prep peopleand a painter, you’re right on the edge. Atthat point the RPmight be the better choice.The quality can be maintained even at thelower volume. That’s why we have the twokinds of guns and the EPA has said that if

you have the transfer efficiency, you canmaintain high quality at the lower volume.Nothing wrong with that.

If you have enough volume, HVLP isa good way to go because you have all theatomization, and shaping of the pattern,and drying with 10 pounds or less at the aircap. There is a lot of tooling done on anHVLP gun to get all that working.With RPtype technology you have a higher air cappressure,which does a lot of the work foryou so RP can actually work very nicelyfor you, especially if you don’t haveenough volume of air to run HVLP.

ABN ►Do all the large shops run, or pre-fer, HVLP?Steve Treutel ◄ No. It’s not always thelarge shops that are better off using HVLP.Sometimes they have so many painters andtechnicians running air tools that they’renot really able to run HVLP efficiently.Many large, and good, shops use RP.

With the paint companies doing moreconversions, they’re learning more aboutwhere those lines are. They saw shops thatwere kind of right on the edge of not hav-ing enough air, and they allowed them totry it and they found out they don’t haveenough air.

I think we’re seeing our entire indus-try getting smarter about this.As paint com-panies continue to improve their products,you’re going to see different nozzle gener-ations, increased transfer efficiency andprobably even less air required.You need tohave guns that do the atomization, but thenalso have the increased transfer efficiency

so that the shops are still profitable.Now the painters understand why

they need to do it. If you have a bit of timefor people to relax and listen to you. Edu-cation is becoming, once again, important.All the players are changing how they’redoing their training. They’re taking thetime to explain it.

ABN ►How do you see waterborne mov-ing across the country. Is it smooth anduniform or is it patchy?Steve Treutel ◄ It’s a little bit patchy.Some companies have especially moti-vated regional people who are moving ag-gressively, and pushing hard for it. Therate of conversions in Texas percentage-wise, is actually quite high. In the trainingcenters that’s what they’re teaching inTexas.

If you combine how EPA and water-borne is working hand in hand, it’s a greatopportunity for everybody. Some peopleare just old school, and they’re not goin towant to change. One day, we’re going tolook back at this and say “that was huge.”


Dan Am/SATA EPA

The training includes hands-on, in booth, demon-strations and tests.

Celebrities can make great customers forcollision repair centers, with frequentcrashes in their cars and clashes with thepaparazzi chasing them.

In their honor, CARSTAR CollisionCenters, the nation’s largest chain of colli-sion repair experts, are kicking off the in-augural CARSTAR’DAwards to recognizethe top of the charts in dings, dents, crashesand collisions. And the winners are.....

10. Nicole Richie: On October 5, 2009 apaparazzo rear-ended her car and causedher to have to go to the hospital for obser-vation in Beverly Hills, Calif. (TMZ)

9. Michael Jackson and family: TheJackson clan made the list twice in 2009,first when MJ’s kids Prince Michael, Parisand Prince Michael II were driving withtheir nanny Grace Rwaramba in Encino,LosAngeles on October 21, and a photog-rapher rammed their security vehicle, andsecond with a hit-and-run incident with aphotographer in London on October 23,2009. (ANI)

8. LeAnn Rimes: Rimes was questioned

by the Los Angeles Police Departmentover her possible involvement in a hit andrun car accidentAugust 20, 2009, in Brent-wood, Calif. Rimes reportedly rear-endeda car that was stopped in the left turn lane.There were no injuries and minor damageto the cars. She also had a run-in with a se-curity golf cart at The Commons in Cal-abasas, Calif., on December 4, 2009.(TMZ)

7. Anne Hathaway:The Devil WearsPrada star was in-volved in a car colli-sion in LA onDecember 17, 2009. The star’s boyfriendAdam Shulman was driving the car whenhe collided with a bicycle on Santa MonicaBoulevard in Hollywood. (RadarOnline)

6.Renée Zellweger: Zellweger was in a caraccident in Beverly Hills on August 31,2009. The actress was fine and there wereno injuries—her car was towed away fromthe scene. One of the headlights fromRenée’s car was shattered and one of thecars lost a license plate in the smash. (TMZ)

5. Olympic medalistMichael Phelps: Bet-ter in water than behind the wheel, Phelpswas involved in a three-car accident in Bal-timore onAugust 13, 2009. Phelps was notinjured, but a woman in the other car wasshaken up and taken to a local hospital, dueto “head and arm pain.” (TMZ)

4. Lawrence Taylor: The NFL legend hadan illegal tackle with hit-and-run on No-vember 9, 2009, allegedly ramming his Es-

calade into a 1984Ford van two sepa-rate times beforedriving off. (TMZ)

3. George Michael: The singer was in-volved in a car collision August 14, 2009,in London. In a statement released Aug.15, Michael claimed that statements by thedriver that Michael appeared “dazed” afterthe accident and had been “weaving allover the place” before crashing were false.

2. Weezer: While on the way to Bostonvia Toronto on December 7, 2009,Weezer’s bus slid off the road just outsideof Albany, NY, after hitting a patch of ice.

Lead singer Rivers Cuomo was quicklytransferred to the hospital. Drummer JoshFreese explained on Twitter that there are“some injuries, but everyone’s alive and inone piece.” (PerezHilton.com)And the leading celebrity car crash of 2009made headlines around the world......

1. Tiger Woods: The world’s number onegolfer was injured early Friday, November30, 2009 when he lost control of his SUVoutside his Florida mansion.A local policechief said Woods’ wife used a golf club tosmash out the back window to help get himout. Tiger took the blame for an “embar-rassing” car crash that gave him cuts,bruises and public scrutiny like never be-fore. Soon after, news of Woods’ havingover 12 alleged mistresses came out.(Perezhilton).

I guess he didn’t think to blame it onunintended acceleration. —Ed.

Surprisingly absent from the 2009 listare top contenders Brittany Spears andLindsey Lohan, who have earned spots onthe CARSTAR’DAll-Star list for their pastvehicular performances.

CARSTAR Collision Centers Toasts Top Celebrity Car Crashes, 2009

subsequent crash test video demonstra-tions.

As a result of these studies, the AutoBody Parts Association (ABPA), who rep-resents more than 150 manufacturers, dis-tributors and suppliers of aftermarket crashparts, has taken what SCRS views as a re-sponsible first step, stating to their mem-bers that if sufficient testing is notavailable they recommend “discontinua-tion of the production and sale of these parttypes as well as immediate notification tothe estimating systems to eliminate theseparts from their database.”

These studies were performed afterreceipt of concerns from various members’shops that there has been an increase in uti-lization of these aftermarket structural re-placement parts in the claims settlementpractices of certain insurance carriers.SCRS urges the collision repair industry tounderstand the magnitude of this issue, andto heed warning as well. SCRS recom-mends that collision repair professionalsuse exceptional caution when performingrepairs to consumers vehicles, and to only

use parts that will perform with the sameexpectation of quality and safety, bothupon installation, and for the life of the ve-hicle. SCRS also recommends that repairfacilities understand the liability associatedwith utilization of inferior parts, and toavoid being unduly influenced to utilizeany replacement part that has not under-gone credible independent testing to en-sure it meets quality and safety basedstandards.

“This is a serious issue, that has notreceived enough attention from the indus-try in the past,” reiterated Chess. “Theseparts are critically affecting the structuraldesign of a vehicle in its post-repair state.I think the ABPA has shown their leader-ship through their release, and we need tohold their members, the people and organ-izations that manufacture and supply theseparts, accountable for the quality andsafety of their product. The OEMs put a lotof money into research and developmentto ensure that the end product operates re-acts and sustains damage in very specificway.Any replacement part made availableto the market should be required to havethat same expectation of performance.”

“This issue is concerning on so manylevels,” stated SCRS Executive Director

Aaron Schulenburg. “Obviously our mem-bers have to understand the liability impli-cations they have when making criticalrepair decisions such as part selection. Theproblem with many of these parts is that avisual inspection at the shop level oftencan’t uncover significant differences, likematerial or alloy variances. We can’t visu-ally see the difference in weight, or thatone part is .25 mm thinner than another;especially when the two aren’t side by sidefor comparison. It should also not be theresponsibility of the shop to make a deter-mination on which part is equivalent, ornot. If it is not quality, if it is not safe, itshouldn’t even make its way to the market;but they are. We have too many examples,even with current internal ‘quality assur-ance programs’ in place, that they arebeing manufactured, sold, and utilized, de-spite not meeting the most basic of re-quirements such as material composition.”

“Most importantly, there has to be away to address the individuals who alreadyhave parts that have now been deemed ‘in-ferior’ on their vehicle. It is not enough toaccept that suppliers will deal with theissue on case by case bases if, or when,there is a problem. If the process and in-frastructure are not in place, to support the

ability to notify consumers when a prob-lem has been identified, then we need tosignificantly fix that infrastructure beforemore parts are sold. If there is a parts prob-lem generated from the OEM, there is anelaborate recall process in place. Everyconsumer is notified and their vehicle iscorrected. These critical safety parts shouldnot be treated with any less urgency. Thisis an issue that requires a proactive solu-tion, rather than reactive; the motoringpublic deserves more,” Schulenburgadded.

SCRS has made the presentations pre-pared by Chess available on their websiteat www.scrs.com. We encourage everymember of the industry to ensure you arefamiliarized with this issue. It is importantfor the repair industry to understand thesubject matter, and it is also SCRS’ hopethat the insurance industry will exhibitequal concern over the seriousness of anissue that impact both industries, and thecustomer base we each serve. This willcontinue to be an area of significant focusfor the association in the upcoming year,and will continue to share information onthe subject as it develops.

SeeHey Toby article next page for de-tails on the demonstrations Toby did.


Aftermarket Parts


Iowa Collision Repair Association(ICRA) Sponsors SSB 3180In its 09/10 goals, the ICRA stated it isworking towards introducing legisla-tion that would allow reimbursement toend-users of sales tax on paint materi-als. This is a law that has been on thebooks since 1934 in Iowa. The ICRAsays it needs to be changed. In January,Scott Weiser met with Senate Ways andMeans Committee Chair Joe Bolkcom(D-Iowa City) to discuss the ICRA’stax issue. After serious consideration,Senator Bolkcom agreed to sponsor aSenate Study Bill to begin the processof consideration of legislation. ICRAwill assist in the preparation of the Leg-islative Fiscal Note that will detail thepositive or negative impact of the leg-islation to the Iowa General Fund.SSB3180, exempting from state salesand use taxes the sale of paint and otherconsumed materials at an auto bodyshop, is sponsored by Senator Bolk-com. The proposed legislation is writ-ten to charge sales tax on the retailprice of paint supplies so that bodyshops would no longer pay sales tax onthat cost. This means an immediate in-crease in net profit of 7% because theyare not paying sales tax on the cost ofthe materials.

IGA, NGA and NWRATo Co-LocateEvents at Spring Auto GlassConferenceThe Independent Glass Association(IGA), the National Glass Association(NGA) and the NationalWindshield Re-pair Association (NWRA) have agreedto co-locate their auto glass events in2010 around the IGASpringAuto GlassShow to be held May 21-22 at the Sani-bel Harbour Marriott Resort & Spa inFort Myers, FL.

Both the IGA and NWRA will hosttheir annual conferences there; the NGAwill host its auto glass related committeemeetings there. Thesewill be the only autoglass events for all three groups in 2010.

“We are pleased to be bringing theauto glass industry together,” said DaveZoldowski, IGA president.

“IGAwill extend every courtesy tothe other groups joining us.”

“This will be the only auto glassevent the NGA will participate in thisyear,” said Steve Mort, immediate pastchairman of the NGA. “It is a delight tosee all segments of the industry comingtogether in one location, especially insuch tough economic times.”

“NWRA members will be able toparticipate in the programming fromother groups such as the IGA as well,”said NWRA president Mike Boyle. “Itwill be great to expose our members tothis type of cross programming.” Allmeetings will be held around the SpringAuto Glass Show, May 21-22 at theSanibel Harbour Marriott Resort andSpa. Attendees will be able to attend ei-ther or both conferences and the show.

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


Hey Toby—I had an insurance com-pany put ‘reconditioned bumper re-inforcement’ on their estimate. Myquestion is: should I use it?

— Concerned owner, San Jose.

Hey concerned owner. The answer is ‘no’.No OEM allows for bumper reinforcementsto be repaired. In this case how is a bumperreconditioned? Usually with heat and weld-ing. If an end had a small amount of dam-age and you can restore it to its originalshape without heat, it would probably beOK, but don’t quote me on that. I think thateveryone needs some more background in-formation on this subject and I will devotethe rest of this column to vehicle structuralcomponents. The ideas in this article startedwith my firefighter extrication training.

I have been teaching firefighters forthe last 18 months about hybrids, airbagsystems, and vehicle structure with an em-phasis on ultra-high-strength steels(UHSS). I usually use a “B” pillar rein-forcement from a 2004 and a new VolvoXC90 for my demo.

For a little fun, I put a $100 bill on thetable. To win it, I challenge a volunteer tocut through the part in less than 90 secondswith a reciprocating saw. They jump at thechance and it’s fun to watch them try, butthey all fail because the steel is harder thanthe saw blade.

My problem in doing this demo is thatmost Volvo dealers do not stock the rein-forcement and I have trouble taking it on aplane flight. I recently did an ExtricationTraining Seminar at Kniesels CollisionCenters in Sacramento, CA, and I askedTom Kniesel if he could order a frontbumper reinforcement for a 2009 ToyotaCorolla. I teach I-CAR’s POP 01 class andit demonstrates that the front bumper onthat particular vehicle is made from UHSS.

I was able to pull the same stunt with thispart as I had done with the Volvo “B” pillar.

Last October, a shop owner had com-plained to Aaron Schulenburg, the Execu-tive Director of SCRS, that one of his DRPcoordinators specified an A/M core supportto be used on a 2007 Toyota Corolla repair.Aaron contacted me (I am on the educationand training committee of SCRS ) and askedthat I get in touch with the shop owner. Iasked the shop to order me the same A/Mpart that his carrier had specified on their es-timate and I also purchased a new OEM part.I was told by Joe DiDonato, the lead trainerfrom Toyota University that the OEM coresupport is made from high-strength-steel.More on these parts later, but I wanted toknow why there was such a major differencein price between the Aftermarket and OEMpart (Nearly $300). About the same time Ipurchased an A/M bumper reinforcementand an OEM reinforcement for a 2009 Toy-ota Corolla. These two parts started the ballrolling, but before I detail what I found, letme remind you a little about metals, struc-

ture and energy movement.There are two types of energy move-

ments during a collision. One type is en-ergy absorption; the other is energytransfer. Energy absorption occurs in thefront and rear of the vehicle. Energy isdissipated by the deformation of theparts. As the parts start to deform, energyis reduced as it travels from the front orrear collision to the opposite end of thecollision impact. Energy transfer movesenergy away from the point of impact toother parts of the car. Energy transfer oc-

curs on side and rollover impacts and it isachieved by making the parts stronger(UHSS in the passenger sectionreinforcements). These parts in-clude the front windshield postreinforcement, “B” pillar rein-forcement, door intrusion beams,rocker panel reinforcements,floor reinforcement, “A” pillarreinforcements and roof rein-forcements. Note that the bumperreinforcement is made from high-strength steel or ultra-high-strength steel.Vehicle manufacturers are making vehi-cles using a higher percentage of thehighstrength and ultra-high-strengthsteels to continue to increase the safetyof the passenger compartment and it isour job to know how to replace or repairto keep the passenger section as safe asif it was never damaged and that meansusing parts of the same design, thickness,and metal hardness as the original.

Here’s what I found when I comparedaftermarket structural parts to OEM partsrecently.

Let’s go back to the front bumper re-inforcement on the 2009 Toyota Corolla.Remember that bumper reinforcement ispart of the vehicle structure, the airbag sys-tem, and also part of the energy absorption

system. I purchased both reinforcementsand this is what I found.

The A/M reinforcement has a roughtexture compared with the OEM.

Note the damage to the bottom of theA/M Bumper reinforcement. If this partwas ultra high strength steel as is theOEM, it would take a tremendous amountof energy to damage it. The steel used for

Testing Aftermarket v. OEM Parts Side-by-Side

Tech Notes

National News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

Regional News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

with Jeremy HayhurstPublisher’s Page

with Karyn HendricksShop Showcase

with David M. BrownShop Showcase

Shop Showcasewith Jeremy Hayhurst

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

California Autobody Associationwith David McClune

Collision Repair Association of CA.with Richard Steffen

Insurers Excel at Steeringwith Richard Steffen

Year in Quoteswith John Yoswick

Transition Planningwith John Yoswick

Mainstream Media

My Turnwith Joe Momber

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

See Next Page

Front Section Passenger Section Rear Section

MPa — PSI200 — 29,000270 — 39,100590 — 86,000610 — 88,500700 — 101,000980 — 147,0001180 — 171,000

A/M

OEM


the A/M is probably mild steel (more onthis later).

Check out the mounting holes.

I used a standard 18T general purposehacksaw blade on the aftermarket bumperreinforcement. Notice how much I cut intoit after only 5 seconds. I change to thesuper duty extrication blade and I was onlyable to scratch the surface of the OEM re-inforcement.

At NACE, in a similar demonstration,I was able to actually cut right through theA/M part, but I was only able to cut abouta ½ section on the OEM. I know this wasa crude test, but the only way that I couldcut through the A/M Bumper reinforce-ment was if the part was made from mildsteel.

The next part that I compared was thebumper reinforcement from a ToyotaPrius. You will note that the A/M bumperreinforcement was bent to form its shapeand by doing it this way, the reinforcementhad 2 large bumps and 2 large craters. TheA/M reinforcement would not channel or

absorb impact energy in the same manneras the OEM, thereby causing SRS system

and the passenger compartments integrityto be compromised.

The next part that I compared was afront bumper reinforcement from a HondaCivic. The shape of the A/M bumper rein-forcement was totally off. Note how theA/M reinforcement was formed comparedto the OEM in the photo. Again, I ask:Would the aftermarket part perform inthe same manner as the OEM to protectthe driver? You make the call.

The next part that I compared was a frontbumper bracket for a Nissan Xterra. The A/Mpart looked identical to the original, but theA/M part was 1.4 mm thinner than the origi-nal. Being thinner and lighter, would it behavein the same manner as the OEM? Again, Idon’t think so. Nissan and other OEMs areconstantly trying to save vehicle weight. IfNissan could have made it thinner with thesame integrity, would they not have done so?

Let’s look at the core support from theToyota Corolla. Again, the A/M was closein appearance. The bends were not as sharpas the OEM and a through hole was usedinstead of a threaded insert (OEM). Theproblem is the metal on the A/M part wasdifferent than the OEM. I determined thisby doing a hardness test on two samplestaken from the core support.

The A/M part had a reading on the Ascale of 20 and the OEM had a reading of30 on the A scale. A better test would be todo a tensile strength test (PSI) to get a bet-ter metal analysis, but this test did demon-

strate that the metal was different betweenthe OEM and the A/M part.

The next to last part that I comparedwas a core support from 2004–2008 FordF150 core support. The OEM part is madefrom magnesium, but the A/M part wasmade from aluminum.

The difference, according to Ford en-gineers, is that magnesium is 38% strongerthan aluminum weight for weight. The coresupport is considered by Ford to be struc-tural and, if the A/M part is substituted forthe OEM, what will happen in frontal im-pact when compared with an original part?

The last part was a foam impact ab-sorber from a 2004 Toyota Corolla. AnOEM impact absorber is made from highimpact polypropylene foam, but the A/Mwas manufactured using polystyrene foam.

The OEM absorber (black) and A/M(white) look very similar, but the OEMwas much stiffer. I took the following de-scription from free patents online—

“Increasing the stiffness of an energyabsorber generally increases the efficiencyof the absorber since a stiff energy absorberbuilds load more quickly than a less stiffabsorber. In addition, there generally is lessintrusion with a stiff energy absorber thanwith a less stiff energy absorber.” What I

found was the polystyrene was softer foamthan polypropylene. I put a sample of bothfoams into a press and it took significantlymore pressure to compress the polypropy-lene than the polystyrene.

I next conducted a flame test on theparts. Polystyrene is highly flammable,whereas the polypropylene did light onfire, but melted from the heat.

As you can see they look alike, butthese two parts will obviously function dif-ferently.

It should be noted that there is a com-pany that makes absorbers, reinforcementsand brackets that it has tested. DiamondStandard Brand reinforcement is manu-factured using the same materials andprocesses that are employed by the OEMs.They test all their reinforcements (samefamily of parts) by the same testing com-pany that the OEMs use—MGA ResearchCorp. Go to the Diamond Standard website, www.diamondstandardparts.com andview the testing of the front bumper rein-forcement. Pay particular attention to theend of the reinforcement and watch whathappens to the aftermarket reinforcement.If you are still thinking about using anuntested reinforcement, this will changeyour mind in about 15 seconds. They alsouse the same high impact polypropylenefoam as the OEMs in their manufacturingprocess of the bumper absorbers. I havenot compared their bumper brackets, but Iwas told by a company representative thatthey use the same materials as the OEMand use special jigs for measuring for holeplacement accuracy.

Understand that I purchased 8 differ-ent products in both types (two types ofcore supports, four types of bumper rein-forcements, one type of bumper bracketsand one type of bumper absorber). Eightwere OEMs and eight were aftermarket. Ichose these particular parts because I hadknowledge of these products from teach-ing I-CAR classes. Magnesium core sup-port for F150—WCA 01, and the ultrahigh strength steel front bumper reinforce-ment for the Toyota Corolla-POP 01. Mypoint is that many of the A/M structuralparts from across the Pacific are not thesame as the OEM when it comes to mate-rials, shape and function.

I need to stress is that these parts werenot CAPA-certified parts. CAPA does not

OEM

A/M

OEM

A/M

Polystyrene — A/M Polypropylene — OEM

See HEY TOBY!, Page 39


AUTOBODY MARKETPLACE

Advertise in our CLASSIFIED SECTION for $50 per column inch!

800-699-8251Call or e-mail for rates: [email protected]

Salvaged Airbag Bill, SB 209, Withdrawn by Maryland State SenatorAfter strong opposition by repairer organiza-tions at the National Conference of InsuranceLegislators (NCOIL), a model airbag bill, al-though amended, was still passed for use inindividual states. The model bill establishescriminal penalties for fraudulent installationof an airbag; requires shops to maintain de-tailed records of airbags they purchase, sellor install; mandates that a repair facility sub-mit an affidavit to a vehicle owner saying thatan airbag was installed properly; and setsforth guidelines regulating the use of salvageairbags. The bill, intended to provide a docu-mentation process for the use of new and sal-vaged airbags to protect consumers fromairbag fraud, had been proposed in Maryland.

On Feb. 5, the Washington MetropolitanAuto Body Association (WMABA) sent outan urgent notice to repairers to oppose thisbill, citing many reasons that repairers andconsumers could be harmed. Many repairershad taken the initiative to contact their repre-sentative if they were on the Senate Financecommittee who was hearing the bill first.Though these actions were taken immedi-ately, WMABA was unsure of the responsethat would be seen in the bill hearings.

Rep. Robert Damron of Kentucky,who is the NCOIL president, wrote, in anopen letter to WMABA: Although we do notwish to comment on specific Maryland ac-tivity, we do wish to weigh in on some gen-eral statements regarding the NCOIL modellaw on which the Maryland bill was based.

The Model Act Regarding Auto AirbagFraud, adopted overwhelmingly by NCOILon November 22, 2009, neither encouragesnor discourages the use of salvaged airbags.Rather, in adopting the model law, legislatorsset forth a comprehensive approach to fight-ing airbag fraud—an approach that ac-knowledges today’s installation, howeverfrequent or infrequent, of both salvaged andnew original equipment manufacturer (OEM)parts. The purpose of our model is to ensurethat any airbag installed in a vehicle is safe.

On Feb. 15, Senate Bill 209, proposed bySenator Delores Kelley (D-Baltimore County)was voted down unanimously by the SenateFinance Committee to have the bill withdrawnwithout foreseeable reintroduction.

“This outcome was no doubt the resultof WMABA, our lobbyist group Alexander& Cleaver and our Maryland constituents giv-ing useful and pertinent information to theSenators, so that they could make an informedand consumer-conscientious decision,” saidBrad Whiteford, WMABA President andowner of Whiteford’s Collision.

“All of the WMABA membershipshould be proud of the efforts of the asso-ciation to head-off such a possible disasterfor repairers throughout the country, be-cause we all know how bills like these in-crease the chances for other specialinterests to attempt this in other states.”

For more information contact theWMABA at: (804) 789-9649.

certify bumper absorbers, bumper rein-forcements, bumper brackets. Core sup-ports are considered structural and CAPAdoes not certify these parts at this time.

A number of insurance companies arerequiring their DRP shops to use theseparts. Insurers have language in the DRPagreements that you (body shops) will holdthem harmless. If one these aftermarketnon-certified parts is used in a repair andsomeone gets seriously hurt or dies, youcould be left holding the bag. You cannotgo into a court of law and say that the in-surance company told you to use the parts.All of the responsibility falls solely on you,the body shop owner or manager. I wastold by one major body shop chain thatthey have notified all of their managers tostop using these non-certified parts.

We as an industry need to band to-gether and say no to the insurance industrywhen it comes down to safety issues whenrepairing today’s cars. I know it tough tomake a decision when a carrier says youwill use these parts or you will be taken offtheir DRP program, but think of the safetyof the consumer who puts his/her faith inyou to repair his or her vehicle properly.

Do the right thing and just say ‘no’ tousing non-tested parts. Send me feedbackat the email address in the banner.


Hey Toby!

they’ve got 40 grit to 3000 grit sandpaperyou can use. It’s all good for wet sanding.The blocks will take you from A to Zprocesses. They’re a great tool to add toyour collection; not for everything you do,but they’re a great tool to have in your arse-nal for time-saving and better quality. Everyjob is different every job is a different panelthat needs to be sanded so these are a greatproduct to complement the rest of your tool-box. They’ve saved me a lot of time andmoney. They pay for themselves on the firstjob I used them on. I also just found out thatPPG has adopted them for their training pro-grams, which is a great endorsement.

We’ll talk about the color sanding stepsand procedures next month along with thedelivery of the car. And we’ll see where thisproject goes on tour and see how manythousands of people will put their eyes on it.You always want to make sure that you keepyour quality high and have a good product.

I don’t use or endorse anything I don’tbelieve in. I always thank my sponsors. I can-not create or build cars without them. Thanksto Chicago Pneumatic™ for my pneumatictools. MicroFlex™ for the safety of the latexgloves that they provide. I want to thank ShootSuits for providing a comfortable safety suit.Quick Cut Sanders for providing a tool that is

a very efficient product which is well thoughtout. House of Kolor for putting out such greatproducts. I want to thank TranStar for such agreat topcoat. I look forward to trying outsome of their new products will be writingmore about those in future. I also want tothank 3M for all the support they’ve given meover the years and the great products that theykeep coming out with.

Rides of Rich Evans—iPhone AppI have a new free iPhone app game calledRides of Rich Evans that you can downloadthrough iTunes. It’s a fun app. Try to beatthe game. You can google ‘Rich Evans’ or‘Rides of Rich Evans’ to learn more. I’m al-ways trying to put something new out thereand this app showcases a good selection ofabout 80 different vehicles I’ve done. Itshows some diversity, but isn’t everything.We’ll probably add hundreds of more carsto this game over time. It’s also a learningapp to recognize makes, models, and modelyears of different projects that camethrough my shop.


Shelby Part Two

“While the U.S. has arguably the bestautomotive safety net in the world, thesetypes of infrequent problems are the hardestto catch and the most difficult to diagnose,in this case with deadly consequences.”

The recommendations come as theU.S. Congress begins the first of two daysof hearings that will feature a grilling ofboth safety regulators and Toyota on thequestion of why red flags were missed.

Separately, Consumer Reports re-leased its annual ranking of the most reli-able auto brands.

Honda Motor Co. topped the list for thefourth consecutive year in a tie with Subaru.

Toyota was No. 3, although ConsumerReports suspended its recommendation forthe eight models recalled for sticky accel-erator pedals.

Hyundai Motor, one of the automak-ers expected to benefit most in the short-term from Toyota's woes, jumped to fourthplace from ninth a year earlier.

The annual report is considered an in-fluential benchmark among consumers.Many automakers set internal targets tomake the magazine's list of recommendedvehicles since the endorsement is seen asvaluable in advertising and in supportingauto resale values.


Auto Safety Reforms

ABM-Auto Body Management, Inc. Accurate Auto Body Adelmann, Tim Advantage Collision Center ALLDATA Amica Mutual Insurance Company Angell, Laura and TerryAtlanta I-CAR Committee Atlantic Collision Inc. AutobodyAlliance Auto Body Color Co, Inc. Autobody News Autochex Baker, Danny Barrington, Lori Bartanen, JasonBecca Bob Hastings Collision, Inc. Body Craft, Inc. Bradshaw Collision Center Broward County I-CAR Committee Bryn Mawr Auto Body, Inc. Burda, Joe California State Automobile Association (CSAA) Calvo, Alberto CAPA (Certified Automotive Parts Association) Carey, Phil CARSTAR Automotive, Inc. CARSTAR Connecticut Business Group

CARSTAR Scola’s Collision Center CARSTAR Yorkville CARQUEST Auto Parts CCAR ChemSpec USA Chess, Toby Chief Automotive Technologies, Inc. Chipotle Mexican Grill Chrysler Group LLC Clarity Corporation Collex Collision Experts CollisionWeek Col-Met Spray Booth ComSearch Cook, Kirk Copart Auto Auctions Corwith’s Auto Body, Inc Country Insurance & Financial Services Crest Industries, Inc. Cross Country Automotive Services CSi Complete CynCast, Inc. DeCleene, Valerie Dickerson, John

Dorschel Collision Center Doyle, Joe Eckenrode, Brandon Edelen, John EMC Insurance Companies Emerson Collision Service, Inc. Erie Insurance Esurance Evans, Chris Ever- green Paint, Inc. Excel Auto Body, Inc. Fibre Glass EvercoatFinch, Thomas Foothill Autobody, Inc. Fort Washington Auto Body, Inc. Fortner, Terry Gerber Collision & Glass The Gorilla Glue Company Goss Auto Body Goyke, Kevin GreenLeaf Auto Recyclers Grove Body Shop Harden Auto Body, Inc.Harry’s Auto Body Hertz Corporation Holman, Paul I-CAR Executive Committee (Bruce Bares, Robert Keith, Tom Moreland, Elise Quadrozzi, Robby Robbs, Bill Stage, Dustin Womble) I-CAR Education Foundation Executive Committee (Chris Evans, Chris Northup, Steve Seidner, Terry Fortner, Doug Webb) IADA Association IHOP Restaurants Impact Auto Body, Inc. Impact Vehicle Damage Erasure International Epoxie & Sealers J.C. Auto & Truck Parts, Inc. J.D. Hendler and Associates LLC Jan-sen, Bob Kasmer, Joyce Kaye, G. Walter Keith, Robert and Margaret Kempfer, Ken Ken’s Auto Body Kent Automotive Kirschenman, Karl Knell, Margaret Kottschade, Geralynn Kumler Collision Inc. La Prairie’s Body Shop LaRose, Jason and Ruth LKQ Corporation Lopez, Gene Loy, Michael MAACO Franchising, Inc. Marks, StevenMarscin, Melissa Merrick Road Collision Corp. MetLife Auto & Home Meyers, James Mike’s Autocrafts, Inc. Minutillo, Michael Mission Hills Collision Center, Inc. Mod-ern Auto Body Moreland, Tom Motor Guard Corporation Mulroy’s Body Shop, Inc. NACE – Int’l Autobody Congress & Exposition Nelson, Randy Northern Virginia I-CAR Volunteer Committee Northup, Chris Novak, Robert Nyiradi, Joseph Omaha I-CAR Committee Ottum, Jolinda Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac Passwater, Tony Performance Claims Pincus, Shirley Plucinski, Clark Poole, Jeff Preferred Autobody, Inc. Quadrozzi, Elise Raintree Auto Body, Inc. Ray, Ron Reesman Body Shop Rdesign Plus, Inc.

Rheubert, Ronald Ron Wise Auto Body Safe Auto Insurance Company SCA Appraisal Company Schmidt, Steven Schuerman, Scott SCRS Seidner, Steve Settle, GregShaw, Ernest Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corp. Solmes, David Southtowne Auto Rebuild, Inc. Springfield I-CAR Committee Stage, Bill Stilwell, Joseph GlennSuperior Collision & Paint, Inc. Swygert, Ronnie Taylor, Roy Torres, Mark Total Resource Auctions, A Manheim Co. Toyota Motor Sales True2Form Collision Repair Centers

Tuuri, Rick Tyson, Mickey UltraWiz Tools Urethane Supply Company VeriFacts Automotive Virginia I-CAR Committee Walk’s Service Center Watz, William Webb, Doug Wertz, Merle Wilson, Dale Zara’s Collision Center, Inc. Zurich North America

THANK YOU. Thank you for helping fuel the future of the collision industry. 888.722.3787 [email protected]

2009–2010 I-CAR EDUCATION FOUNDATION DONOR AND INDUSTRY PARTNERS

Thanks to our donors, the I-CAR Education Foundation provided $1.7 million in support to collision schools, students, and instructors in 2009.

GEICO®

Southeast March 2010

Documents

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