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The California Department of Insurance and the Attorney General's Office held joint meetings on June  24th and 25th with insurers, suppliers, manufacturers and trade associations that are a part of the supply chain for aftermarket parts specified during  the settlement of insurance claims.

CRA has challenged the insurance industry's compliance with regulations that call for aftermarket parts specified in the claims process to be at least equal to the original equipment manufacturer  parts in terms of kind, quality, safety, fit and performance.

California Repair Association President Lee Amaradio stated, "It is encouraging to see the  Department of Insurance and the Attorney General's office showing interest in the is important consumer issue, though the outcome is uncertain . We hope their involvement will result in permanent change and a fair and compliant claims  process. All most all insurers have recognized the issue and stopped specifying non-compliant parts and they should be commended for that. We now need a permanent solution."

Amaradio added "this all started when Toby Chess demonstrated differences between OEM and non-original equipment manufacturer aftermarket  crash parts.  CRA recognized the importance of his demonstration and moved the issue forward putting pressure on CDI to fulfill its regulatory mandate. It appears they may now  be doing so."

CRA Executive Director Allen Wood  added, "vehicles should not be reengineered as part of the claims process.  The regulations governing these issues deal with insurance not auto repair. We want to insure that consumers (claimants)  receive high quality, competent,  safe repairs. The evolution of this issue is a graphic example of how a trade association that is responsive to the issues and is willing to step up can promote change. This is not over.  However, with the Attorney General involved, we are extremely encouraged."

The number of suspicious auto accidents that were staged or deliberately caused by criminals in Florida has increased dramatically in the past year.

A study by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) of questionable claims (QCs) submitted by its insurance company members shows a 58 percent jump from 2008 to 2009.

"South Florida used to be the focal point of these deliberate crashes," said NICB President and CEO Joe Wehrle. "While the Miami and Hialeah areas continue to show increased activity, the criminals have expanded their operation northward and Tampa is now at the epicenter of this crime trend."

Wehrle said the number of questionable claims for all insurance fraud increased 15 percent from 2008 to 2009 in Florida. But the 58 percent jump in the staged/caused accident category shows that criminals are taking advantage of the state's no-fault auto accident coverage.

"Previous industry studies have shown that among the 12 states that have no-fault coverage, Florida had the highest rates of fraud and buildup in both bodily injury (BI) and personal injury protection (PIP). The criminals who are staging and deliberately causing these accidents have been doing so because they can file claims for alleged injuries and collect big payments with little risk of getting caught.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) June 28 introduced a new innovation – Curve Control – designed to help drivers maintain control of their vehicles when taking a curve too quickly.

Curve Control debuts as standard equipment on the all-new 2011 Ford Explorer going into production later this year, and will be offered on 90 percent of the company's North American crossovers, sport utilities, trucks and vans by 2015.

The technology senses when a driver is taking a curve too quickly – a situation found to contribute to about 50,000 crashes each year in the U.S. – and rapidly reduces engine torque and can apply four-wheel braking, slowing the vehicle by up to 10 mph in about one second.

"Too many accidents stem from drivers misjudging their speed going into curves and freeway off- and on-ramps," said Sue Cischke, Ford group vice president of Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering. "Ford's Curve Control technology senses a potentially dangerous situation and reduces power and applies brakes more quickly than most drivers can react on their own."

Curve Control is effective on dry or wet pavement, and is expected to be particularly useful when drivers are entering or exiting freeway on- or off-ramps with too much speed. When a vehicle enters a curve too fast, the system responds to the driver's steering input by rapidly reducing torque and increasing brake pressure to help keep the vehicle under control.

"April driving on U.S. roads by all types of vehicles rose 1.2%, the second monthly increase, following March's 2.3% gain. This reduces the year-to-date mileage deficit to only 0.2%, much less than the 1.1% drop in miles through the first four months last year."

"At this point, it appears annual 2010 miles will post an increase, probably stronger than the 0.28% twelve-month gain for 2009. Nevertheless, 2010 mileage will be lower in the U.S. than 2004 levels."

Higher 2010 Mileage, With Some Reservations

Following two down months, 2010 mileage rebounded strongly in March and April, with 2.3% and 1.2% monthly gains, respectively. This reduced the 2010 year-to-date deficit (which stood at 2.3% through February) to only 0.2% for the first four months.

At this pace, 2010 annual mileage by all types of vehicles will likely top the minuscule 0.23% annual growth recorded last year.

Enterprise Holdings, North America’s largest and most comprehensive service provider in the car rental industry, has announced its commitment to reduce both energy use and energy costs by 20 percent over the next five years through a new sustainability initiative the company is calling its 20/20 Vision.

Through an upfront investment in energy-saving technologies and conservation practices, the company expects to decrease the environmental impact of neighborhood car rental branches and airport facilities it owns and operates through its regional subsidiaries. The company expects to reduce energy costs by $50 million.

“The 20/20 Vision aligns the interests of our customers, employees and partners with the long-term interests of our business by expanding our environmental commitment through every level of our operations,” said Lee Broughton, director of sustainability for Enterprise Holdings, which operates the Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental brands, “Proactively reducing our energy use and natural resource consumption not only decreases our impact on the environment, but also will result in cost savings to ensure the sustainability of our business.”

The 20/20 Vision was developed based on recommendations by Enterprise Holdings’ Chairman’s Task Force on Sustainability, a cross-section of the company’s departmental leadership, that is leading an assessment of the company’s operations to identify opportunities to make significant, positive changes.

Allstate Insurance Company appointed dozens of exclusive agents in the company’s Southern Region last year. Now, the company is ramping up its recruiting again – looking for at least 60 more Southern Region agency owners this year.

In 2009, more than 50 new agents opened Allstate agencies across the Southern Region.  This year, Allstate hopes to surpass that goal by focusing on professionals that may feel limited in their careers and are looking to start their own business in a recession resilient industry.

“We see a significant opportunity in the current economy to attract mid-career, mid-level managers to own and operate their own business and represent Allstate,” said Jim Conlan, Allstate’s Southern Region recruiting director. “We’re working with business brokers and through our own recruiters to find professionals with financial or sales backgrounds, who are dedicated to customer service.”

Candidates need a minimum of $50,000 of liquid capital to invest in their agency. Even with the hints of an economic recovery underway, some potential applicants are unsure if now is the right time to invest money needed to open a small business.  That’s why recruiters are focusing on the stability of investing in the Allstate brand.

“Allstate is unique among all other insurers because its agents own the economic interest in their business,” said Conlan.  “Allstate agents can sell the economic interest in their agency. No other branded insurer has this option.”

CCAR awarded Kendrick Paint & Body with their “GreenLink Shop” certification for its locations in Augusta and Martinez, Georgia and Aiken, South Carolina.

The GreenLink Shop status, an extension of CCAR’s CCAR-GreenLink® Environmental Compliance Assistance Center and S/P2 (Safety and Pollution Prevention) E-learning Program, aims to promote consumer confidence in local automotive repair facilities’ environmental and safety techniques.

Kendrick Paint & Body, which was founded in 1952, operates 3 facilities in Georgia and South Carolina, all of which received this certification.

“We are excited to be recognized as GreenLink Shops,” said Keith Brown, owner of Kendrick Paint & Body, “The feedback from customers and employees has been all positive, and we see the GreenLink Shop as a reward for our efforts to be environmentally responsible.”

Kendrick’s Operations Manager David Clark said that one of the benefits of going through the GreenLink Shop Program was that the company and employees were able to learn how to dispose of any waste incurred in the shop properly.

“We’re reaching out to a younger generation that is more concerned about the environment,” said Clark. All 3 locations are using waterborne paints to reduce their environmental impact as well as recycling old tires and metal scraps.

According to reports by the Associated Press, General Motors Co. said June 17 that it will keep most of its U.S. factories, including the Arlington Assembly Plant, open through the normal two-week summer shutdown to meet demand for some of its vehicles.

The automaker will keep nine of 11 assembly plants open to make 56,000 more vehicles that are in high demand, such as the Buick LaCrosse luxury sedan and the Chevrolet Traverse large crossover vehicle.

GM said in a statement that the company is trying to reduce waiting time for dealers and customers to get vehicles.

In addition to Arlington, plants that will stay open from June 28 to July 9 are located in Bowling Green, Ky.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Hamtramck, Mich., Kansas City, Kan.; Flint, Mich.; Delta Township, Mich.; Lansing, Mich.; and Wentzville, Mo.

Automakers have traditionally shut down plants for short periods during the summer while switching production of model years and to manage vacation time for workers.

The June 16th Pasadena CAA chapter meeting at the usual location, Brookside Country Club, was presided over by Linda Holcomb in the absence of President Curt Nixon. Linda reminded the group that July 1st, AQMD Rule 1147 goes into effect that, among other things, stipulates that a spray booth heater must be certified to meet a new 30 ppm requirement. A handout from Rely On Technologies provided specification details for the group.

Past President Nathan Simmons presented a CRA report and urged members to come to a fund-raiser for insurance commissioner candidate Dave Jones. Nathan pointed out that Dave has asserted that he has accepted no money from the insurance industry. (See flyer on p. 4 this issue.)

After dinner, Linda introduced the speaker for the meeting, Dale Delmege, Executive V.P. of Operations for Mitchell until 1994, and a principal with Chelsea Group and D.D. Partners, a marketing and organizational consulting company with clients like Dupont, BASF, LKQ, Carstar and ABRA.

Delmege’s topic, “A Perfect Storm,” had elements that will be included in a June 28th issue of Claims Magazine, under the title: “Watch Out For That Fourth Step.” With more than thirty years in the collision industry, Delmege promised to enlighten the group on what to do about the situation where 40,000 shops in the U.S. are competing for the declining amount of collision repair work that could easily be handled by 8,000 shops.

The California Assembly Business and Professions Committee, chaired by Assembly member Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward), will hold a hearing Tuesday, June 22, on two measures dealing with collision repair parts after our press time.
Senate Bill 350, the original version of which was sponsored by the Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA), would add a new section to the California Business and Professions Code that currently requires consumer disclosure in order to use aftermarket crash parts on a repair.

In addition to the current consumer disclosure requirement, SB 350 would add an additional list of requirements that must be met in order for an insurer to specify the use of aftermarket crash parts. Among them, the bill would require any insurer specifying the use of aftermarket parts to warrant that those parts are “of like kind, quality, safety, fit, and performance as original equipment manufacturer aftermarket crash parts.”

This requirement is already contained under Section 2695.8 (g) of the California Code of Regulations. The bill serves to codify existing law.

The bill, originally introduced by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), passed the Senate last year and is now awaiting approval by Hayashi’s committee. Hayashi is the Assembly member who in 2008 sponsored and passed Assembly Bill 1200, the measure that changed California’s anti-steering laws effective January 1, 2010.

The hearing is also scheduled to consider Senate Bill 427, introduced by Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod. SB 427 would require repairers to provide, on a signature page of the final invoice, a statement that installing parts other than those described on the estimate without prior approval from the customer is unlawful.

Both bills have already been approved by the Senate. Readers can go to www.autobodynews.com for an update on the results of the meeting.

The California Autobody Association (CAA) was invited to participate in a meeting on June 24 with both the California Department of Insurance (DOI) and the California Department of Justice to discuss the issues surrounding aftermarket replacement crash parts and provide recommendations in developing “policy and legal issues relating to the use of replacement crash parts.”

According to the CAA, this meeting is a culmination of a series of discussions and meetings CAA has been having with the DOI and the Attorney General’s office for the last several months which recently resulted in the DOI issuing a notice to all insurers specifying non-OEM replacement crash parts for the repair of an automobile. The memo stated that all non-OEM parts specified must be at least equal to the OEM parts in terms of kind, quality, safety, fit and performance, specifically noting aftermarket bumper reinforcement bars, and that the parts must have must have permanent, non-removable identification of the part manufacturer.

The CAA noted that California regulations Section 2695.8(g)(4) requires that “all original and non-original manufacture replacement crash pads, manufactured after the effective date of this subchapter, when supplied by repair shops shall carry sufficient permanent, non-removable identification so as to identify the manufacturer.”

As discussed with the DOI, the issuance of this notice to insurers is the first step in establishing a traceability system for parts in the state of California that will allow manufacturers to identify and track their parts in the event of a recall concerning safety, fit, and quality.

The CAA conducted a very successful stakeholder meeting in March of this year to begin addressing the need of tracking aftermarket crash parts. Many of those that were at that meeting will be in attendance at the June 24 meeting in Sacramento with the Department of Insurance.

The CAA’s position is that the issue of being able to have a uniform system to track aftermarket crash parts for the industry is a priority project that needs to happen now. Consumers should have the confidence that if a part fails or has been identified for possible failure there is a process in place to rectify it.

Peter Conlin, Counsel to the Commissioner, said in a letter to the CAA, “Commissioner Poizner places his highest regulatory priority on promoting consumer safety and I believe the CAA could play a significant role in developing a new policy consensus in the area.”

Rome Technologies, the forerunner in collision repair process management software, has just released CompleteShop2010.

CompleteShop is the only software on the market to allow you to increase your productivity and profits with the same staff and resources. CompleteShop groups the tasks for the writers, parts, production and customer service departments and prioritizes them for the shortest cycle time while maintaining the highest level of communication to the customer, insurer and rental car company. “No other software on the market can offer such incredible results,” says Patrick Power of DARCARS Toyota. “Our productivity has increased 40% percent, and significantly improved our net profit and the quality of life of our entire staff.”

The new release will also include an entirely new integration for CompleteShop to interface with CCC, Mitchell and Audatex. This new integration will support Text Recognition Technology (TRT), writers will be able to distribute income into the categories of their choice putting transactions in the right place the first time. For the first time, estimates and supplements will no longer require editing in the management system. This will allow the user to have more income categories to better scrutinize profits and process at every level of production and will decrease time spent navigating through screens and editing repair orders. Rome Technologies founder, Scott Rome explains, “We are constantly developing CompleteShop to meet the needs of our customers. This new integration is a direct response to the suggestions we received from writers bogged down by these required changes.”

In addition to the new integration, automated communication features have also been added to CompletShop2010 for both customer service and production. Combined with the new up-to-the-minute production forecasting and alert feature, the automated communication system notifies staff immediately if a car is behind in production and can also send emails or texts to customers to keep them informed on the status of the car – improving cycle-time and customer service index. Additional improvements to parts management, customer information screen, security settings and  reporting have also been made. Rome Technologies is conducting a series of free Webinars throughout the year to train current users on the new features.

To learn more about Rome Technologies factory-based process management business model  contact Scott Rome at 800-373-Rome or visit www.rometech.com.

Contact:
Scott Rome
President, Rome Technologies
800-373-ROME
www.rometech.com

• The new 2011 Ford Explorer will offer more eco-friendly features including soy foam in seat cushions and seatbacks as well as at least a 25 percent increase in fuel economy over the current model
• Ford is expanding its use of bio-based soy foam through nearly all of its vehicle lineup this year as part of an ongoing effort to use more renewable and recyclable materials
• There are more than 2 million Ford Motor Company vehicles on the road today with bio foam content; Ford's use of bio foam has helped the company reduce its petroleum oil usage by more than 3 million pounds annually and carbon dioxide emissions by 11 million pounds

The 2011 Ford Explorer will feature soy foam in seat cushions and seatbacks.  The bio-based polyurethane foam will be one of the new, eco-friendly features in the Ford Explorer which goes in to production later this year.

"The new Explorer will deliver fuel economy at least 25 percent better than the current model as well as include sustainable materials like soy foam seat cushions and other eco-friendly features we will detail soon," said Amy Marentic, group marketing manager, Ford cars and CUVs. "Consumers will be pleasantly surprised they can get all these new features without having to sacrifice the capability, utility and safety they want for their families and adventures."

The addition of soy foam in the Explorer expands Ford Motor Company's commitment to using more sustainable materials in all its vehicles. By year's end, nearly 100 percent of Ford's North American vehicle lineup will feature the eco-friendly material.

Ford has more models with seats that use bio foam than any other automaker.  The 2011 Explorer will become the 23rd model to feature soy foam. To date, Ford Taurus, Mustang, F-150, Focus, Flex, Crown Victoria, Escape, Edge, Expedition and Econoline, as well as Mercury Mariner and Grand Marquis, Lincoln MKS, MKX, MKT and Navigator use the sustainable material. In addition to Explorer, the Fusion, Fiesta, F-250/F-350 Super Duty, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ will get soy foam by the end of 2010.

Soy foam has helped Ford reduce its annual petroleum oil usage by more than 3 million pounds, and is up to 24 percent more renewable than petroleum-based foam. The use of soy foam also has helped Ford reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 11 million pounds as the biomaterial provides a 67 percent reduction in volatile organic compounds emissions.  

"Soy foam is just the tip of the iceberg in the development of vehicle materials from natural resources," said Debbie Mielewski, Ford polymer technical leader. "We have to entertain the thought of bio-replacement in baby steps, looking at every aspect of a car that could be green. One day I hope to see the automotive world go totally compostable, removing the use of petroleum-based parts 100 percent."

I got a really interesting request for a cool project from a guy out in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Woody Frees.

If you’ve seen the Nicolas Cage movie “Kick Ass” you may remember the car in there driven by the character Red Mist, which Galpin auto sports built. They bought a body kit from me which is actually nine pieces of the 19-piece Rich Evans body kit that are used to create the car I called the Hardcore Knight. See my previous columns in Autobody News for more on making that car and the kit.

Galpin built this superhero car which is now called the Red Mist so it was real interesting to get a phone call from Woody. His kids had seen the movie. They’re 13 and 15 years old and they wanted that car!     Woody thought that would make a great bonding project for father and sons. That caught my attention, and I said man, this will be something that they’ll work on together and actually never forget about it. Woody went and bought a car out here in Long Beach, had delivered to the shop, so I could make it into a numbered car.

I get the painting and the body kit installed on this vehicle and gather up all the pieces to replicate the car to the exact specs in the movie and then ship a lot of the interior pieces; the grill, etc. that so they can finish up the project themselves back in Florida.

This is number seven of the hundred cars that I put out. I wanted to share this project with you guys and go through some of the steps that it takes to to do this project. This will be part one of likely two stories.

We’re going to start with a 2008 GT Mustang. Unfortunately Woody had tried to get a car the right color but it showed up in the wrong color. They make two different Ford reds, so it’s going to be a little more of a project just because we have to change the car color, but of course we have the capability of doing that here at Huntington Beach Bodyworks.

We’re going to put vertical doors on so I contacted my buddy Louie up at Vertical Doors Inc. and made an appointment. I’ve seen a lot of vertical doors and I’ve run into other projects down the line in repairing vertical doors where they’re welded on or they’re hitting or they’re damaging the car, but I’ve found that Vertical Doors Inc. has the best product out there. They’re very professional in the way they do things and their scheduling. It took two weeks to get an appointment.

I took the front end off of this car because we’re not going to use this bumper. I  took the fenders off so we could get through the process a little bit more and then, since we’re changing the base coat color, I painted the A pillars so when we put the new hinges on for the vertical doors I wouldn’t have to work around those.

That will save me time in the long run. Always think out what you need to do on your next step it’ll likely save you some time. Time is money and that’s what we’re all trying to save. Always seek a better way and keep up your quality.

I loaded up the car in my trailer from KC Sliders. The new trailer that I’ve got makes things really easy to load up. It takes 15 minutes to drive the car up, push a button, load it into the trailer, close it up, tie it down, and I’m on my way.

I’m about 40 minutes away from Vertical Doors (they’re off of Graphite Drive,1240 Graphite Dr, Corona, CA 92881). If you are looking at doing vertical doors  go to www.verticaldoors.com for a look. These guys are the best in the business, guaranteed, and they have the best quality parts. There’s nothing else out there that can compare. As I get there he’s got his guys ready, as promised, right on time. I pull in and unload the trailer, drive it in. The guys get right to work. Louie and I head out to lunch, come back, and these guys are almost finished. It takes your car to a whole different level. The way the doors operate, they still swing open but then they swing up and it gives it a real cool look. Thanks to the guys at Vertical Doors, I’m back on the road by 3:30 pm and on my way back to the shop to put this vehicle up on a rack. It gives me a little bit more easy access to installing the Rich Evans body kit.

We’re going to install the left and right rockers, the left and right rear wheel flares, and the rear bumper. I need to remove the OEM bumper, put on the Rich Evans bumper. I need a reference point where the flare needs to be because we’re going to widen these rear wheel wells 2 inches. I take the rockers, to use the reference point, and I’ll clamp the rocker up on the front, then I’ll put in the natural mounting points to the pushpins so it holds itself up.

I’ll take the flare and set it up, line it up with the rear bumper, have it meet that rocker panel, and then I’ll scribe a line and follow the radius of the flare so I have a reference point. Then I take everything back off and grind the left and right quarter panels where the flares are going. I’m going about 2 inches above that scribe line just so I can get rid of all the paint, and then I’m going on the inside of the wheel well and grind that as well.

I notch a piece out and reuse the OEM lip of the rear wheel well and extended it out 2 inches. Then I’ve got a template where I make a replacement piece which is only at the top of the inner wheel well. We’re losing about 2 inches, so there’s a 2 inch gap. I come back and fill that gap flush so you can’t even tell that there was anything done.  Going on to the rockers, I grind it where I mold this body kit to the car. I think it looks a lot better. The kit’s made to snap into OEM parts and then you can use double-sided tape to put the flares on and extend your wheels out so you get a little bit more meat on the ground. It gives it a little bit more of a muscle feel. We want that modern muscle look.

The steps on flaring out the rear wheel wells are 1) notch a piece out 2) take about an 11-inch piece of the wheel well and 3) cut up about an inch-and-a-half right at the line where that sharp edge is right on the wheel well and 4) cut there.

I’m usiing my Model# CP7900 pneumatic reciprocating saw from Chicago Pneumatics, and cut twice into the wheelwell. I saw all the way through the inner and the outer of the quarter. After doing that I’ve got a template. I’ll go inside and mark out the inner piece where I cut and I’ll use the saw for that as well. So I cut the inner piece as you can see the notched piece that I’ve taken out in the photo.

I go along that area and when I’m extending the wheel well the piece I’m cutting is going to have to move up so it fits directly to my flare kit to flare it out. I reinstall the flare kit after cutting. What I do is cut all the way up to that upper lip right before it meets the flare. I make about 10 cuts (every inch) that allow me to get a hammer up there and and massage those cuts so I can fit this piece back in. I take my rear flare, bolting it back up to the quarter panel, lining it up to the bumper and lining it up to the rocker panel. Now I’ve got a big hole and I’ve got that piece I cut out so I’ve ground that piece that I cut out, that 11-inch lip, and then I go to where I made those 10 notches. I hammer that until it hits flush to the flare. I take the piece that I’ve notched out, push it up there and it’s going to fit against that flare tight. Then it’s going to come right up to the lip where I can put three clamps on it and that will give me the positioning where that notched piece needs to sit. It needs to come out so I’ll have a solid structure to  mount the flare to. It becomes part of the car to give me a stronger structure for the vehicle. I tack a few spot welds that’ll keep it in place. I remove the flare. I come back and weld everything up and make sure I check it every once in a while to make sure nothing is moving. Then I cap off the front and  the rear so we have no moisture whatsoever to corrode or rust up later on. I come on the inside of the wheel well and I weld that patch piece in there solid. I tack it up in the center part first and I’m using 20 gauge metal so I’ll be able to roll it and massage it with a hammer so fits perfectly and that gives me a nice little radius, and it allows it to look natural. If you look up there you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’s ever been changed. Then I come back and grind everything smooth. Obviously I take some weld-through primer and hit the insides of the metal so we don’t have any bare metal being exposed.

Now I’m ready to put the body kit on. 3M has got a new product out. Actually it’s not really a new product, more a modified product. It’s a short strand fiberglass reinforcement filler but now we can use it in the “bondo-mixing gun.” Officially that’s the 3M dynamic mixing system which I’ve been using it for about two years.  If you don’t know it go to 3M.com and look up the 3M dynamic mixing system. Phenomenal product, lessens your work time and time is money. It eliminates pin holes. One squeeze of the trigger and you’re mixed and ready to go. That’s the best thing. Staying up on technology and all these new products these companies are coming out with. I’m a big fan of 3M, which is just a phenomenal company. I’ve working with them for years and they don’t quit amazing me on the products they’re putting out.  They’re really helping us, the end users, to be able to speed up our process, keep up our quality, and use fewer steps that allow us to make money and get on to the next project.

So I’ve been trying this new reinforcement filler out and compared to the way I used to do it before, I’m saving almost an hour-and-a-half to two hours installing my body kit. Before I’d have to mix it up, put it in a plastic bag, almost like cake decorating, and squeeze out and you know the rest. This tool has helped me tremendously in every project I touch. Visit 3M.com and find the dynamic mixing system, it’ll definintely help you out. As I install this, obviously I keep the rear bumper there, and  tape it where the flare meets the top of the bumper. That way it’ll get a perfect form to where it meets it, and then I can pull the bumper off and just pull the tape away and we’ll have a perfect mirror image of what needs to be to fit.

Back to molding the rear flare. We talked about the rear bumper and the flare meeting the rear bumper and now on to the flare itself. Obviously there are 6 mouting points that I used, set screws to screw through the flare to the body. This way I have a reference point for putting the flare exactly back to where it needs to be. Where it meets the rocker panel I have two screws going through the flare into the rocker panel and what I do is take the dynamic mixing system and the short strand fiberglass reinforcement filler and run a bead along the rocker.

I put the rocker on first and I clamp it up to the front. I’ve got the car up on the  lift which allows me not have to get low to the ground and  enough working room. I get the doors tilted up. I’m running the bead on the inside of the rocker. Then I’ll run a bead on the front part of the rocker and use the original OEM clips to  clip that rocker to the unit structure where the old rocker molding used to go.

After doing that then I’ve got to support the bottom of the rocker with a floor jack so it doesn’t sag in any way. I get the flare and put the fiberglass reinforced filler on the inside of the flare. That’s on the outside where it’s going to meet the lip and right where it’s going to meet the quarter. Also where it meets the rear bumper and meets up to the rocker panel. I use that so I can bond these panels all together and doing that takes two people. That way we can run the screws through the reference holes and screw it into place and also come back and nicely smooth out the fiberglass reinforcement filler to make for a better contrast when shaping this in the end.

I take three clamps and very lightly clamp them. I don’t want to clamp them too hard because they’ll warp the fiberglass flare.

Then I let it set for a couple hours, at which point I’m ready for the next step which we’ll go into next column. We should be able to go through the painting process and the delivery process of this vehicle. We’ve got wheels to do. We’ve got a scoop, the two tone, and the graphics to put on the side of it, as well as paint the car complete and take the mirrors, primer and block the mirrors out.

We’ve got the wing to put on and then all the other additional pieces to the project. We’ll get through that next phase.

I’d like to thank VerticalDoors.com for getting me in and out of there, 3M for all the product that they supply me with. I’d like to thank Chicago Pneumatics for all the pneumatic tools that help me do my job quicker and also I’d like to thank Woody Friese and sons for such a great project and I look forward to moving this project out to Fort Lauderdale and see them complete it. So another great project is underway. I’ll talk to you next month. Thanks guys.

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Giannini’s Auto Body in San Francisco’s Bay Area has learned that being green can lead to further green down the road, but that’s not the only reason why they do it. By setting a high standard for doing anything and everything they can to prevent degrading the environment, body shops like Giannini’s are winning recognition and remaining busy year-round. They were an early adopter of waterborne, they run their shop using practices that are ultra-green and they’ve found a niche in fixing hybrids in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hybrids are more popular in San Francisco than in most parts of the country.  “Toyota’s Priuses are very popular in the city and we’re seeing more of them coming through these doors all the time. Hybrids are definitely becoming a bigger part of our overall business and we’re gaining a solid reputation for working on them,” Manager Joe Mason told Autobody News.

“We see it in our bottom line. We’ve seen a significant improvement in business and we’re working on more hybrids than ever. We run a green, clean operation. People feel better bringing their car here, because our shop is immaculate and they appreciate it the fact that we’re trying to run a green operation.”

“Two things hybrid owners are obviously very conscious about—running a clean company and using earth-friendly methods.  At first, we were getting a few here and there and now hybrids make up 25% of our revenue. They’re part of our daily life now and we’re very comfortable and confident to be working on them.”

Giannini’s operates out of a 10,000-square-foot facility, employs eight people and repairs an average of 40 cars monthly. The company does approximately $1.4 million per year in business and the shop is growing at a steady rate.

In 2008, Giannini’s began fixing hybrids, and pretty soon the referrals began to pour in, Mason said. “We have two large, very well-known hybrid mechanical repair shops here in San Francisco—Luscious Garage and Pat’s Garage. They’re leaders in the hybrid movement in the Bay Area and they’ve been a great referral source for us.”

These hybrid specialists have made themselves available to Giannini’s for advice and assistance when needed, Mason said. “It’s very important that we’ve been able to call these people when we need information and they’re responsive and helpful—it’s refreshing. The hybrid circle is very connected around here and the people who work on these cars are a tight-knit group. They’re not super-competitive and they focus on the bigger picture. It’s not all about the money all the time.”

Learning the issues surrounding working on hybrid vehicles involves primarily safety precautions and processes that include safely handling high-voltage in wiring and connections, Mason explained. “It’s a simple rule—disconnect their electrical system and don’t re-connect until the car is re-assembled. Safety is number one, because if you’re not very aware of it, that’s when accidents can occur. We stress it with our techs every day, so they’ll never forget. By drilling it into their heads, it becomes second nature.”

PG& E has played a role in assisting Giannini’s movement to complete greenness by taking advantage of the utility’s rebate program, Mason said. “They gave us $100 per fixture for qualifying interior high bay linear fluorescent fixtures. With potential savings of $140 per year in energy costs when replacing a 400 Watt standard metal halide light, a fixture like this can pay for itself in two years. So it just makes sense for a lot of reasons.

The new, more environmentally responsible lights provide a better working environment as well, according to Mason. “We’re getting a more consistent light with better distribution with these high bay lights. The lights we have now also turn on faster and they’re much brighter. Our techs can see better now and that’s a big plus.”

Taking a green approach can also help his techs to be more productive and efficient, Giannini said. “We’re always looking for more ways to be greener overall and changing our lights helps the entire crew.  If it’s something and it’s within our budget, we’ll do whatever we can to achieve it.”

One of those enhancements involved the installation of a vacuum system that eliminates dust throughout the shop, Mason said. “We have eliminated 95% of all the dust on the floor and in the air with this new vacuum system. It doesn’t go down the drain and it doesn’t go in our employees’ lungs, so it was a no-brainer. We recycle the filters and keep them out of the landfill. These types of changes are easy to make, because they pay off in so many ways.”

Being green is an advantage, but in the end, quality customer service still reigns, Giannini said. “There’s nothing more important than providing a great customer experience every single time. We get great reviews on Yelp and a ton of referrals, because we’ll always go the extra mile for everyone we work with. We learned long ago that being fair and honest is the key. We want people to come here again and again without hesitation, because long-term customers will be your backbone.”

Was there a large initial investment needed before jumping into the hybrids pool? “It was basically all about the training,” Mason said. “We put all of our people through the I-CAR classes. They cost $108 per class and all of us took four classes. There wasn’t any significant investment in equipment, so it was a very easy process. We were fully trained within a short time and the hybrids started coming quickly, so we hit the ground running.”

Giannini’s embarked on the journey to using waterborne paint well before most shops even thought about it, Mason said. “It was a huge step and a smart move. Many shops waited right up until they were forced to switch, but we did it more than two years prior to the regulations kicked in. We saw the value in waterborne and we gravitated toward it as soon as we can. It was an easy transition. We dropped the solvent and started using waterborne the same day.”

What does the future hold for Giannini’s? “We’re focused on hybrids now that we’ve created a niche here,” Giannini said.” Our goal is to get to 80 cars per month, which we mean that we’d have to add a second shift. At that point, we might be able to consider moving to a larger new facility. We’re riding a green wave right now, and as long as we’ll never forget the most important thing—customer service—we’ll be producing quality work consistently and keeping our car counts where we want them to be. Being green isn’t expensive, because it pays off in the long run.”

Giannini’s Auto Body
625 Mariposa Street
San Francisco, California 94107
(415) 864-2644

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Much of what gets written and talked about regarding “lean” in collision shops focuses on recommended changes in the office and body department. But streamlining in those areas will only lead to backlogs if some lean-thinking isn’t done in the paint shop as well.

“If an organization is truly going to be lean, the whole organization has to be lean-focused,” Amjad Farah, manager of business development for BASF Automotive Refinish and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, said. “There can’t be one part that’s not.”

Farah and other experts on lean processes within the collision-repair industry weighed in recently on what’s different within the paint departments of shops implementing lean-focused problem solving to improve productivity. Here are some of their key suggestions. Standardize the processes.

Farah said one signal a shop is thinking lean is when he sees a clear chart on the wall of the paint shop showing, for example, exactly what products and exact ratios the shop is using for its clearcoat.

“There’s no ambiguity and it’s very specific to that shop: Here’s how we do it here,” Farah said.

Part of reducing waste is standardizing the best practices, he said, clearly defining—even using photos when appropriate—products and processes to be used, and what quality standards must be met. This reduces time-wasting conflicts about, for example, what grits are used to finish body work or primer.

It also can eliminate the need to stock multiple brands and variations of different products “preferred” by different employees. Should such standardization of materials come from the top of the organization down, or be left to employees to develop? A little of both, Farah said.

“Management needs to get employees together and talking about it, so the employees can determine what’s best overall once they understand the goal,” he said. “Lean is about continuous improvement. That won’t happen if you’re not empowering employees to find better ways to do things, or if you haven’t shown them you’re going to listen.” Don’t wait to match.

Eighty percent of the time wasted in the paint shop involves color matching, Steve Feltovich, manager of collision business consulting for Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes, said.

“So you start to minimize the waste on color issues by getting ahead of it rather than letting it get ahead of you,” he said.

One key to this, he said, is ensuring the paint shop has—and is using—all the color tools available through the paint manufacturer. But just as lean-thinking shops try to eliminate delays in the process through “blueprinting”— a complete disassembly of the vehicle up-front to identify at the start all needed parts and processes—Feltovich said color matching should start before the vehicle reaches the paint shop.

“Get color identification done during pre-planning and blueprinting process[es] so it’s proved out well before the car arrives in the paint department,” Feltovich said. Involve your paint supplier.

Another source of potential waste in the paint shop: excess inventory of paint and materials. Feltovich said Sherwin-Williams’ branches can work with shop customers on what is sometimes called a “kanban” inventory management system.

“Kanban is a Japanese word that really only means signal,” Feltovich said. “The goal is to have just the products and amount of products on hand that you need, to have minimums and maximums established, and a signal system in place that indicates when you’ve used something and when it will need to be replenished. It’s about just-in-time stock and inventory management.”

Such a system could be electronic, using a barcode system and computerized inventory, or as simple as a tagging system on paint and materials cabinets in the shop. The system is less important, Feltovich said, than keeping the goal in mind: having just what you need when you need it.

“When you reduce inventory and over-stocking, your people also become more conscious of what they use,” he said. “It changes their behavior. They tend to become more conservative, more conscious of waste and in doing things right the first time because they don’t have excess material to throw at their mistakes.” Get organized.

Once you’ve eliminated unneeded or overlapping products and materials from your paint inventory, put what your techs need at their fingertips, suggested David Knapp, senior manager of business solutions for PPG Industries. Knapp said it may be helpful to have a paint prepper, for example, keep a list of every tool and product he uses for a week. Then go through the list and identify the items that he uses every day. Those are the items that should be included on a “point-of-use” cart, always within easy reach.

Knapp said Mission Viejo Auto Collision in Mission Viejo, CA, took the idea one step further.

“Using the list of what they used every day, they cut the shapes of those items out of a piece of foam they bought at an upholstery shop, and put the foam on the top of the cart,” Knapp said. “They dropped those items into the foam, and now there’s not room for anything else, so it avoids the cluttered mess I see on prep carts in many shops.” Provide information visually.

Knapp said even in shops where language barriers aren’t an issue, providing information to employees in ways other than just writing can help reduce wasteful mistakes and oversights. PPG’s “lean” training, he said, includes “visual mapping,” using symbols and markings on the actual vehicle to indicate, for example, what panels are to be blended, what should be done with pre-existing rock chips on a hood, etc.

“One extra piece of visual mapping that affects the paint shop could be ‘loose parts,’” Knapp said. “A body man might remove a bumper cover or mirror or molding that may need to be painted. Make that part of the mapping process. Write down on the drivers’ window of the vehicle how many loose parts there are, so the paint department makes sure they’re in the booth at the same time.” Look for wasteful, non-value-added processes.

Steve Trapp, collision services development manager for DuPont Performance Coatings, said waste in the paint department can be as basic as using 2-inch masking tape when 1.5-inch or narrower will do the job.

“You see people still papering the car instead of just using plastic to mask even through the plastic is now sufficient to keep [overspray] paint from flaking off,” he said. “You can now just tape the plastic right to the blend area, so that whole activity of masking the car with paper is no longer necessary.”

Changes in products and processes, he said, have similarly eliminated the need for wet-sanding. Choosing the right size DA sander can reduce the repair area. Can’t fully mask a car because you still need to be able to drive it through the paint shop?

“What if you used magnets to hold the plastic down so you can still drive it into the booth, then quickly pull the magnet off and reposition the plastic and use strip magnets to hold it down,” Trapp suggested. “That’s a good lean-thinking solution.” Schedule smarter.

Trapp said one key aspect of lean production is “flow,” developing a steady, level stream of work moving throughout the shop each day. If the goal is to process $200,000 in sales in a 20-working-day month, for example, and the average job is $2,000, the goal for the paint shop is to produce five cars per day. In an 8-hour day, that means a car should be moving into the booth ready to spray every 96 minutes.

“So many shops don’t think that through,” Trapp said. “Their paint shop ends up with nine cars on Thursday, so the painter stays late, trying to make flow.”

One way to achieve consistent flow, he said, can be to move resources. If the prep team may not have a vehicle ready to go for the next booth cycle, someone from detail may be pulled to help out. The real key, however, Trapp said, is [to] not look at that 96 minutes as a deadline but as a signal.

“If you’re not achieving that flow, it’s your signal to stop and ask ‘why didn’t we,’ and the answer is the next problem you look to solve,” Trapp said. “You look for ideas to make that happen, to remove the barriers.” Focus on the whole.

Trapp cautions that any single such idea may not be the right answer to immediately implement within a shop.

“You really first have to look at what problems you’re having,” he said. “If a change doesn’t address the particular constraint you’re having, it may be a good idea but not what you should be doing first. For a true lean-thinker, it’s all about solving a problem, not just implementing ideas.”

At the same time, the paint company experts agree, the paint department shouldn’t be ignored during implementation of lean processes elsewhere in the shop.

“For a shop that’s truly working on lean, it has to lean throughout, not just in body, not just in paint, not just in the office,” Farah said. “It’s as if there were a string that ties every part of the shop together. When one part of that string moves, it all needs to move, or the string is going to break. If an organization is truly going to be lean, the whole organization has to be lean-focused.”

It starts with ‘cleaning house’.

Perhaps the first step in getting “lean” in the paint shop is some simple house-keeping, Steve Feltovich, manager of collision business consulting for Sherwin- Williams Automotive Finishes, said.

“It cannot be lean if it’s not clean,” Feltovich said, saying the industry has a mixed record at best in maintaining a clean working environment. “You can’t see all the problems through that dirt. Scales encrusted with months and years of paint ... yet they think that’s going to give an accurate measurement and color match? Or mixing machines so messy and disorganized you can’t quickly make sure every toner is pushed in when that mixing machine is spinning to make sure it’s properly mixed.”

Lean operators, Feltovich said, understand that there are first health safety risks to an unclean paint shop. But they also have processes in place, for example, to prep and clean vehicles thoroughly before they are brought into the booth, rather than just masking over the dirt and bringing it into the booth — and potentially into the paint job.

Booth maintenance—making sure fan blades and lighting fixtures are cleaned, and filters are changed regularly —also is part of lean, Feltovich said, because it drives down energy use.

“It’s got to be bright. It’s got to be clean,” agrees Amjad Farah, manager of business development for BASF Automotive Refinish, when asked about paint shop cleanliness as part of “lean.” “That helps ensure you don’t make mistakes.”

Farah said two of the pioneers in workplace time management were Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, a husband-and-wife team researching in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He said while Frank focused on process, Lillian understood that “the psychology of the worker within that process had a huge impact on output.

“So if you have a really good process but really anxious, frustrated and angry people, it’s just not going to be as effective as one in which people are happy and energetic,” Farah said. “Having a clean, bright area to work in does have an impact on the psychology of your workers.”

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Premier Collision Center in New Orleans, Louisiana opened in 2008 in the eastern New Orleans area to better serve customers after Hurricane Katrina. Beyond being the only shop in the area to use ONXY HD waterborne paints, Premier Collision Center also uses environmentally friendly products, sells damaged bumpers back to their suppliers, utilizes paint less dent repair processes and recycles old tires and bumper plastics in order to reduce their hazardous emissions and waste.

When asked why Premier made the decision to go with waterborne paints when they opened in 2008, collision center manager Raymond Ducote said, “Most car manufacturers are using it more and more now, so we saw the opportunity and jumped on it.”

Ducote also mentioned that he felt the color and clarity of waterborne paints were superior to solvent-based paints and worth the investment.

Premier Collision Center is a Toyota certified collision repair shop; they also works with 4 dealerships in the area: Premier Honda, Premier Kia of Kenner, Toyota of New Orleans and Premier Nissan of Metairie. With 12 employees working out of a 9500 square-foot shop, Premier Collision Center is able to see about 100 to 120 cars per month.

Ducote said the shop opened in 2008 in the eastern New Orleans area because that area had not been rebuilt back to its pre-hurricane condition yet and a body shop was desperately needed to service customers in that area. This location also enables them to service the New Orleans metro area as well as other surrounding communities.

Premier Collision Center also works with insurance company Direct Repair Programs (DRPs) to best service the customer’s needs. Premier is able to pull in about 1 million in total sales annually.

Since Premier Collision Center is a Toyota certified shop they are required to use all of the latest tools and techniques. Their state of the art facility uses state of the art equipment, including; the laser measuring system Portal, spot resistant welders and waterborne painting tools as well as a completely computerized paint matching system. They also provide online repair tracking for their customers so they can monitor their vehicle repairs in real time online.

For more information please visit Premier Collision Center’s website at www.premierautomotivecollision.com.

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Hey Toby:  Can you tell me how much heat can be applied to the front frame rail on a 2008 Toyota Tacoma.  I had an adjuster said that I could use low heat if I monitored it.
—Mario from Whittier

Hey Mario—Toyota says no heat period.  Cold straightening only.  You need to have the CRIB (Collision Repair Information Bulletin) from Toyota and give it to any insurance adjuster who wants you to heat structural parts in the future.

After receiving this note, I was thinking about importance of having the technical knowledge prior to writing an estimate.  About the same time I was visiting with Marco Mamoine of Marco’s Autobody in San Gabriel (CA).  Marco is one of the most anal individuals on doing repairs by the book.  One time I watched him torque the rear bolts on the rear subframe on a BMW.  When he was finished, he marked every bolt head with red paint (as per BMW guide lines).  I don’t think the mechanics at a BMW dealership go that far.  Well, when I got to the shop Marco and his mechanic were working on a 2010 Toyota Corolla.  The engine need to be removed for access to the front frame rail. Both men had small picks, screw drivers, mirrors, lights and everything else under the sun on a service cart next to the car.  They were trying to remove the engine wire loom that is attached to the fuse box on the left apron.  I watched them for 15 minutes trying to find the release for the wire loom, but could not find it.  I tried and Marco kept saying “don”t you break it” plus a few superlatives.  I thought it would be to let him break it, so I backed off.  After another 5 minutes he said that we needed to look up the removal procedures on TIS (Toyota’s Technical Information Service—www.techinfo.toyota.com). We started searching the collision section, but the information was not there.  I suggested that we look in the mechanical section and sure enough we found the procedures to remove and install the engine.  On the fuse box there are 2 black wires that are attached with 10mm nuts.  Remove the nuts and 3 connectors and the whole engine wire loom comes off.  Who would have guessed that two wires held in the unit.  Back to car with the info and 1 minute later the wire loom was off.  Who would have guessed it.  The cost for TIS is less than a dollar a day.  Every body shop that works on Toyotas needs to subscribe and if you don’t believe me, take this following test and see if you can answer the questions.

1.    Technician A states that SRS pig tail on Toyotas is not repairable.  Technician B states that Toyota allows repairs to the SRS wiring and a special kit is available.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

2.    Technician A states that Toyota does not approve of reconditioning wheels.  Tech B says that Toyota states in  CRIB # 154 that no refinishing of an OEM is allowed.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

3.    Technician A states in CRIB # 170 that adhesion promoter is  recommended on all OE raw plastic bumpers.  Tech B states that flex additive is a substitute for adhesion promoter.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

4.    A 2009 Toyota Camry is involved in a collision.  Technician A states according to CRIB #175 (Revised) that HSS occupant cabin reinforcement is repairable without heat.  Technician B states the UHSS occupant reinforcements repairs are not recommended.  Who is right?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

5.    How many SRS sensors are in a 2010 Toyota Camry?
A. 6
B. 7
C. 8
D. 9

6.    A HSS replacement part is being welded.  Tech A states that MIG welding is acceptable.  Tech B states that STSW is acceptable?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

7.    A HSS replacement  part is being welded into place.  Tech A states that ER70S6 should be used on frame replacement parts.  Tech B states that ER70S3 should be used for unibody components.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

8.    A new hood is being replaced on a 2009 Toyota Camry.  Tech A states that cavity wax is applied to the hood after painting.  Tech B states that a soft chip primer is applied to lower front section of the hood.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct
9.    Technician A states that Toyota has a partial replacement part procedure for the inner rail.  Tech B states that locations B & C according to the Toyota Repair Manual are section locations.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

10.    Location A on the rail has minor damage.  Tech A states that in the Toyota Repair Manual, the rail can be heated to 1150  degrees Fahrenheit with an only an induction heater.  Tech B states that cold straighten is allowed by Toyota on HSS.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

11.    What kind of section joint is used when section the above rail?
A. Tappered fillet
B. Butt weld with backer
C. Open butt weld
D. Flanged fillet

12.    A Quarter panel is being replaced on a 2009 Toyota Camry.  Tech A states the CRIB #176 (revised) allows use of adhesive bonding and weld bonding.  Tech B Adhesive is used between the outer panel and the outer wheelhouse panel.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

13.    A Quarter panel is being replaced on a 2009 Toyota Camry.  Tech A states that MIG brazing is used at the joint near the package tray.  Tech B states that an Oxy-Acetylene torch with flux brass can be used.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

14.    A Center post is being replaced on a 2010 Camry.  Tech A states that the “B” pillar reinforcement is sectioned 35mm above a reference point as per the repair procedures   manual.  Tech B states that butt weld with backer is used. Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

15.    A 2010 Camry has suffered sever damage to the rear of the vehicle.  Tech A states in CRIB #122 that rear body sectioning recommended because it uses less welds and preserves more factory welds and corrosion protection.  Tech B states in CRIB # 157 that the OEM warranty is still  valid with used  OE salvage parts, but is not covered with “imitation counterfeit” parts.  Who is correct?
A. Tech A only
B. Tech B only
C. Both Techs are correct
D. Neither Tech is correct

Answers:
1.a   2.a   3.a   4.b   5.d   6.c   7.d   8.c   9.d   10.b  11.c   12.b   13.a   14.d   15.d

If you missed more that a couple of the questions, you need to subscribe to TIS and attend I-CAR’s POP 01 class along with DAM 08.  You can e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and I will be glad to explain the correct answers.

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

A Volkswagen Beetle was left in my parking lot one cold morning. It was one of my regular customer’s ‘01 diesel Beetle. All I knew of the problem was that it wouldn’t start.

“Let’s check a few things first,” I said. I pulled out one of the glow plugs to check it for wear and tear and see if it was getting the necessary voltage to warm it up. All was well. In fact they looked fairly new. I checked to see if the resistance was correct… right on the money. I cracked open a fuel line to one of the injectors … no fuel…. No fuel?? Hey, wait a minute… isn’t that kinda necessary?? The tank was full, but no fuel pressure at the lines. One of the things to worry about with a diesel is air in the fuel lines…. Anytime these engines get any air in the fuel lines… oops… they will be hard to start or not start at all. Ask anyone with a diesel that has ran out of fuel how long it took to get it started again.

Well, before I start tearing into other possibilities, this would be a good time to shoot a little starting fluid down its throat and see if I can get a burp or two out of the little engine. I want to be sure there are no “mechanical” issues with the engine.

A couple of quick shots of ether and crank of the key and Shazaam!! Started right up…. Hold on hold on…. fuel is spurting everywhere.. Shut it off... Shut it OFF now!!

Looking under the fuel distributor you could see that the fuel was actually coming out of the two halves of the distributor. Apparently the gasket or housing to the distributor has developed a major leak. My guess would be probably from the cold. Air was getting into the fuel lines, but once the engine spun fast enough to overcome the air rushing in from the bad distributor it then was able to start.

I called the customer and gave him the bad news. The biggest problem was cost. A fuel distributor isn’t a cheap part by any means. Luckily for the owner he was still covered under the factory 100K mile warranty, but barely. It was about 500 miles shy of going over the mileage. The obvious next step would be to have the car towed to the dealership. All the work could be completed under the warranty and save the customer from a huge repair bill. Nothing like a warranty when it actually pays off on an expensive part… I’m actually more relieved myself. It’s not the easiest job by any means. Oh, I’ll do it, but given a choice between changing a fuel distributor or taking a swift kick, I’ll take the swift kick.

At this point I’m through. I did my part, diagnosed the problem and sent it on to the proper repair facility to have it done. What more should I do? Then the phone rang, it’s the owner of the car.

He was quite calm on the phone.. I couldn’t believe what he was telling me.

In a very calm and collective voice the owner said, “The tech at the dealer says it needs new glow plugs, new glow plug relay, and a new glow plug harness.”

Once the initial shock wore off, I began to laugh. “You’re kidding me,” I answered, laughing the whole time.

“No, that’s what the man said,” he said, with a little smirk in his voice. He asked me, “Do you want to call them?”

“No, let’s see if they want to call me,” I replied. “I already know what’s wrong with the car. Let’s try this; ask them if they will guarantee the repair and make it right if that doesn’t fix the problem,” I told him.

“OK,” said my now-laughing owner. “This ought to be a fun adventure. I’ll play along with ya.”

The phone rings again. It’s the tech from the dealer. I felt like it was one of those old western movies, where the bad guy strolls into the bar and says to the other cowboy, “This here town ain’t big enough for the both us.”

I could hear that “western” movie music in the background. I was waiting for the “call out” any minute now. It’s the old “I’m the dealer tech and nobody knows more than me.”

You know, I’m getting older, I may not be as fast as I use to be… but it’s still going to take more wrench than this spark plug has to get the best of this old gear head.  If this guy would just listen to what he was saying, he could have figured out who the real cracked engine blockhead was. I’m getting a visual of him donning his dealership uniform and transforming himself into tat ta tat da…. SUPER MECHANIC!!  I’m honored to be in the presence of such a marvel of the auto world.

Could I have finally met my match, am I to be put down at high noon like the Wild West gun slingers of old? High Noon, wrenches ready… let’s do this cowboy.

He proceeded to tell me that he had a code for an intermittent glow plug signal and that they had records showing that the glow plugs were changed at the dealership 2 years ago. Naturally, that was what was wrong with it. He didn’t need another shop to tell him that, because he was perfectly capable of handling the repair and that the only reason he was making this call is because it was company policy to verify complaints if the customer didn’t agree with their diagnosis. Holy Wrenches, Hombres, at least we have that going for us…

You know, there are times I’d just like to give these snot nose, green horn, socket jockeys a quick thwack on the noggin. But, this kid was lucky, I wasn’t in the mood to belch out my usual “you’re too young kid, you’re going to need a little more grease in the right places before ya go messin’ with this old wrench” speech. Instead, I was going to give him another chance to rethink his diagnosis.

“How did you arrive at that conclusion,” I asked.

“I had a code for it, and these cars have a history of problems with the glow plugs,” he very proudly stated.

“Did you check the glow plug themselves?” I very calmly asked.

“Well, they were changed 2 years ago,” he answered. First mistake.

“Let me get this straight, you found a code, you didn’t check it, and now you want to change the part… is that it?” I said in a stern manner.

“I don’t need to check it, I already know,” he quickly countered.

“I hate tell you this, but that code is there because of me. I pulled the glow plug out and hand checked it. I even checked the resistance value on the glow plug and the incoming voltage. I didn’t see a thing wrong with the glow plug circuit. Did you by chance notice the raw fuel under the fuel distributor?” I asked in a even more stern voice.

“Yeah, I saw the fuel. I washed it off.” he answered confidently. “It started to stink up the shop. The car was directly under the shop heater and the other techs were complaining of the fumes. Not like it had anything to do with the repair anyway. You guys’ are just a little sloppy, you should clean up things better next time.”

“That fuel you saw is from the fuel distributor housing,” I told him.

“Oh, you know, all these customers are all alike; they’re just trying to get stuff done for nothing while it’s still under the warranty. So, it’s no big deal,” he answered.

Oh please, don’t tell me this kid had the nerve to say that. It reminds me of all those comments that small children say to strangers in a crowded room. Usually out of context and never under the right circumstances and, most often, with their parents standing right there totally embarrassed by the whole thing.

Another mistake, keep going kid… it’s just keeps getting better.

“I think you should put this car back outside and check it in the morning after it gets good and cold. It’s going to leak again, that I’m sure of.” I told the new wrench.

“I’m going to have to ask my service writer about that, because I’m very sure of the repair work that I have already diagnosed. So, like I said... This is just a courtesy call... not a call to tell me how to fix it.” He said in a very insistent tone.

“OK fella, have it your way. I’m just trying to help you out. I didn’t spill a drop of fuel. That fuel you saw came from the distributor not from anything else.” I said, trying to get my point across.

“I understand, but you know, here at the dealership we have the most sophisticated equipment and can diagnose these problems better and quicker than you can,” he answered.

The mistakes kept adding up. About now I’m shining my wrenches for a showdown… somebody is going to get it, and it ain’t me.

I think, if I were him, I would be concerned that the glow plugs that were installed 2 years ago have failed again, seems pretty odd to me that the glow plugs wore out that quickly. But this young wrench head is strictly going by the code and not diagnosing the problem.

I told him, “Wouldn’t it be proper procedure to clear the code and then recheck. Chances are it was a false code due to the fact that I had disconnected it earlier.”

He didn’t seem to be interested in my comments. As I expected, the dealership called the owner and told him that they were going to do “further” testing.

The next day the owner called me back again with even more astonishing news. “The dealer tech said that the raw fuel was from the glow plug that you took out,” the owner said laughingly. I figured the tech was trying to cover his tracks.

A week later the little ‘01 Volkswagen had a new fuel distributor and a happy owner. All under warranty, and it didn’t need those new glow plugs replaced… imagine that.

This tech was just a young wrench with a chip on his shoulder. Trying to out wrench an old hand like myself was not a smart move. To top it off, the owner isn’t dumb about the whole thing either. A few more years under this young techs’ toolbox and he might just make it.

I guess you could say that there was a showdown at high noon. Holster those wrenches boy, you’ve got some more miles to put under the hood before you’ll be ready for another showdown.

I think it was a good lesson for the young ratchet head. Just because you’re dealing with an independent shop doesn’t mean they don’t know how to use those wrenches. So saddle up there youngster, I’m proud of ya, this was a good lesson for future endeavors. For me, the trigger finger is a little slower than it used to be… But I can still tell the stories… one wrench at a time.

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Many companies talk a big game when it comes to being lean and green, but LKQ says it is 100% dedicated to saving fuel, electricity and recycling everything that the enormous company can possibly touch, use, or produce. It’s not easy being lean and green because it involves a considerable investment in time, money and personnel to achieve sustainability and a high level of true greenness. But LKQ is dedicated to making the investment and leading the way among companies its size to being a trendsetter in taking the green approach to a whole new level.

LKQ operates from 290 facilities nationwide and passed $2 billion for revenue in 2009. “In 2010, we’re headed to hit that number again and higher,” Steven Jones, Vice-President of LKQ’s West-Northwest Regions said. Jones has been one of the prime movers behind the company’s transition to becoming greener nationwide.

Jones attended a recent conference sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy, in which most of the country’s Fortune 500 companies was represented. The subject of the conference was on newly constructed building sustainably, Jones explained.

“The experts told us that when we build new facilities, let’s try to educate ourselves on how to build them so that they’re sustainable,” he said. “By using re-used materials and incorporating things that require less energy, we can become a better, productive and more responsible company. During this three-day conference, I learned that some of the most simple things you can do while constructing new buildings can help you to save more power and be forward-thinking in every aspect of reusing and saving.”

The conference made a huge impression on Jones, who took the information back to LKQ for implementation. “It was a real eye-opener on many levels. Getting green isn’t easy, but in the end you win, because you save money and you save energy. One is good for the company and the other is good for everyone. We’ll be building approximately 50 brand new facilities from the ground up this year—warehouses, self-service and full-service salvage yards and distribution centers—throughout the country, to support our product.”

A big part of this efficiency-focused reform involved changing LKQ’s lighting systems in new and existing facilities. “One prime example where we can save tons of money and energy is by embracing the newest lighting in our buildings. Most of our warehouses have 30-ft. tall ceilings. We want them high and tight to save space, because land is expensive and building new facilities is very costly.

In the past, we used metal halide and sodium vapor lights—if you go to most average warehouses, these are the lights you’ll find there. They use a ton of energy and they don’t put off that much light. A T5HO is a high output light designed for these tall warehouses, and it uses roughly 25% of the energy that the standard lights we used to have. To take it even further, we’ve equipped these lighting systems with motion sensors on every light. It’s now a law in California to incorporate to them in every newly constructed building because it makes sense and saves a lot of energy.”

Saving energy is a priority across the board, Jones said, which also includes the offices within every LKQ facility. “Each of our new offices now has two light switches, one for half-light and another for full light. So if there’s a sunny day outside, maybe you only need to have half of the light running. All these little things added up can make a big difference in our consumption of energy, so we’ve embraced all of these policies in all of the construction of our buildings from the ground up.”

The savings derived from the company’s new lighting was apparent almost instantly, Jones said. “It’s a huge effort. For example, we installed T5HO lighting in a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Santa Fe Springs, CA, and we haven’t had a light bill exceeding $2,000 monthly since we opened it, although it is operating 18 hours per day. There are 70 people working out of that facility and the building’s energy consumption is considerably less than many of our older facilities. It’s just remarkable how much money we can save by designing these new facilities using the latest technology in energy-saving innovation. Of course it’s not cheap installing these types of systems in our new facilities, but they will pay for themselves if you do it right. For instance, those T5HO lights will get your money back within the range of 1-2 years, I would estimate. But, it does take that initial investment.”

Tapping into natural light is another method of saving money and energy. “We’re also requiring that skylights be built into the warehouses, depending on the local codes in each city. It will run between 4-10% of the light derived from sky lighting a facility. And of course, that’s the most sustainable energy you can find and it’s free. Skylights aren’t cheap either, but in the end it’s not all about the cost. It’s about taking the environmental high road versus just the economics. You’re making a commitment that says ‘hey, we have to make a decision.’ You know we have to make a difference—that’s what we’re doing. We’ve decided that being green does matter and [as a company we want to do] something that is the right thing to do that’s sustainable.”

LKQ is going green in every room, even in several of their bathrooms in some facilities.

“We’ve invested in Dyson hand dryers in the West region, a new device that allows us to eliminate the use of paper towels in all of our bathrooms. At $1,400 installed, these units aren’t inexpensive, but they’ll dry your hands in ten seconds, so it saves energy and paper, of course. We made a decision that we don’t want to create a bunch of trash in our daily lives. Why cut down a bunch of trees to use paper towels when you can use a Dyson hand dryer and save. We’ve installed 15 of these devices in our buildings and the response has been outstanding. They’ll pay for themselves in roughly 16 months.”

LKQ has always focused on recycling and reusing everything, but now they’re even more adept at keeping car parts in circulation. “Reusing something that somebody already used and rebuilding it to get it back into a vehicle is as green as you can get. This way, we keep them out of the landfill and make them usable once again, the way it should be designed. We’re also stocking re-manufactured products more than ever, including engines, transmissions, rear ends, steering gears, steering pumps, rack & pinions. We’re stocking all of these things, so that our end users don’t have to buy new ones. An entirely new transmission costs a ton to make, but our re-manufactured transmissions are just as good. Rebuilding one will use one-half of the overall energy it takes to manufacture a new transmission.”

Manufacturers buy cores from LKQ to rebuild their engines and transmissions, for example. “When a manufacturer wants a core, they call us. This way, we make sure that these products ultimately get back into the main stream of commerce, so that they don’t have to build a new one.”

Saving energy, reusing, reconditioning, recycling and doing their part to help preserve the environment is LKQ’s ongoing commitment. “Being green never ends. It’s not a momentary thing or something we do to because it’s popular today. We’re in for the long-term and committed and that will never change.”

According to the company’s Web site, “LKQ is a leader in recycled auto parts and environmentally friendly business practices and recycled 492,000 vehicles last year. That is equivalent to recycling about 540,000 tons of steel, 47,000 tons of aluminum, and 13,000 tons of copper. Through its operations, LKQ helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 890,000 tons, which is about the same as the annual emissions of a city of 82,200 people.

“In addition, LKQ recently partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to give its customers and anyone else interested in helping the environment an additional way to be green in our LKQ Get Green promotion. Anyone who visits www.LKQGetGreen.com between April 22 and June 30, 2010 and enters a valid email address will receive 1 tree planted in their honor. Customers can also print a savings coupon to use with their next LKQ recycled purchase.  Those who use the coupon will receive $25 off their purchase or can choose to have 25 trees planted in their honor. Together with its customers, LKQ anticipates planting a forest at the conclusion of the program.”

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

The recent craze among businesses of all stripes is to use terms such as “green” or “organic” when marketing their respective goods or services. The trend has extended to industries such as collision repair, which is testimony to the marketing appeal of the process because automobile repair shops are often viewed as part of what some call a “dirty” industry.

What is the real definition of ‘Going Green?’  According to one online environmental website: “Going green” means to pursue knowledge and practices that can lead to more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible decisions and lifestyles, which can help protect the environment and sustain its natural resources for current and future generations.

That’s quite an ambitious definition, but who doesn’t want cleaner air and cleaner water? When it comes to taking steps to help the environment, small steps can make a big difference in each business.

Obviously auto body shops are not organic in the same sense as growing or selling food, and won’t advertise the “organic” label. However, the “going green” term is gaining ground with body shops from coast to coast, and, increasingly, customers appear to be taking notice.

Although many types of businesses now “paint themselves green” in their self-promotions and advertising, body shops going green seem to gain even greater attention from consumers.

In Clemont, New Jersey, Dan’s Auto Body has a truck with a billboard that reads, “Dan’s Auto Body has gone green. Call and see what we mean.” Dan’s Auto Body of New Jersey has been using waterborne paint for some time, as their truck billboard reflects.

In Dallas, Texas, Bodywerks, an 85,000-square-foot body shop that claims to be “the largest body shop in the U.S”  (average repairs of 500 vehicles a month) became one of the first dealership body shops in that part of the country to switch from solvent-based paints to waterborne paints. Waterborne paints will likely be required in all U.S. body shops within the next decade since it is more eco-friendly and less toxic than conventional paint systems.

In Oregon, Ohio Community College (Owens CC) upgraded its auto body shop to “prepare students for environmentally friendly careers and teach students how to reduce harmful emissions with eco-friendly paint products,” as reported  by WTOL television reporter Chris Vickers.

Owens’ “experimental green auto body shop is the first in the Midwest to feature BASF’s new waterborne basecoat technology which greatly reduces the industrial contribution of ozone,” says Vickers.

A BASF spokesman says waterborne is just as efficient as their solvent-based product while the water reduces the amount of harmful material by nearly 70 percent.

Some reports have suggested that waterborne paints cause fewer health problems such as headaches among workers and substantially reduce the amount of chemicals and fumes in the paint process.

Much of the state of California and some cities in Oregon and Washington require waterborne paints. Ford, GM and Chrysler use the waterborne paints. These waterborne systems are required through out Europe and Canada.

John Harris Body Shops, with several locations in South Carolina, is Going Green.

They have made it their “goal to leave a green footprint in South Carolina and help our environment. Constantly we are looking for ways to recycle our waste without compromising quality. This is one more reason John Harris Body Shop is the right place to have your vehicle repaired.”

John Harris Body Shop promotes that:
▪  95% of all Cardboard is Recycled
▪  95% of all plastic bumpers are recycled
▪  95% of all scrap metal is recycled
▪  JHBS has equipped all office and technical staff with computers so paper files do not have to be generated
▪  All documents are stored electronically (eliminates file cabinets and paper storage)
▪  100% of Steel and Aluminum wheels are recycled
▪  85% of Batteries are recycled
▪  100% of Paint Waste is recycled
▪  75% Fluids such as antifreeze, oil, transmission fluid and power steering fluid is recycled

Consider what you can do to help your shop become more environmentally friendly by taking steps to go green. Maybe you don’t want to get a herd of goats to mow your grass, as Google does at their corporate headquarters, but you can change your light bulbs to the more energy efficient ones and educate your workers about recycling, etc.

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I was recently helping a shop update their website, and checking out numerous other shop websites in the process. One characteristic stood out in most of them: their primary emphasis was on their QUALITY of work.

This struck me as curious because many customers have indicated to this shop that their main concern was how fast they could get their car back, and with self-pay customers, it was price that was most important. Very few mentioned quality.

In recent years, it seems in many business areas speed and prices have triumphed over quality. Fast food establishments far outnumber other restaurants, and while quality may be a minor concern, price and speed of service are what counts. Today’s marketplace is dominated by “instant” services: photos, cleaning, car washes and even tune-ups and oil-changes. Given this preponderance of concern for speed and price, I found it curious that these factors were rarely mentioned on collision repair websites I visited. Of course there was some mention of “cycle time,” but I never found this trumpeted as THE reason to visit the shop.

So is quality dead as a primary characteristic when marketing a shop? Of course not, but when visiting dozens of shops, I was surprised to find that some of the busiest shops were better at marketing than quality of work. Of course possibly it was due to the large volume of jobs that there were more returns and re-dos. I’ve also found this discrepancy to be true of some other professionals I’ve worked with. A mediocre attorney was always busy because he excelled at promoting himself. I even went to a highly promoted dentist who was incredibly busy, but the dental work I received was far below the quality I’ve received at a small dental facility.

I’ve observed that those businesses that manage to attract a large volume of customers concentrate heavily on marketing. This is not to say they neglect the quality of the work they deliver, but when advertisements all loudly proclaim the great quality of their services or products, perhaps viewers come to believe that they’re all about the same. And if there isn’t any significant difference in quality, why not simply choose on the basis of price and speed?

So what might these observations mean to a shop owner about to spend time and money on advertising and promotion? I would say the number one take-away is don’t underestimate the importance of a full-time focus on marketing. Many shop owners started out in production themselves. They are naturally concerned with the quality of work their shop produces and marketing is probably not as comfortable a skill as production quality. Nevertheless, if marketing is properly viewed as the tool that brings customers in the door, it has to be elevated to the number one position whether the shop is slow or not.

The next take-away might suggest a change of focus for their website. Anyone surfing the web looking for a collision repair facility is unlikely to be swayed by assertions of superior quality that are fairly uniform from one collision repair site to the next. It’s also likely that this surfer wants to eliminate the time it would take to travel around to various shops or to even call them. The web surfer is obviously concerned with time and speed. Finally, why do people purchase products and services on-line rather than from a local shop or store? Abundance of choices is certainly a factor, but when narrowing down those choices, price is likely to be the deciding factor.

And so we come to the final question: What can a shop owner say on his or her website that will bring in the prospect looking for price and speed of service? The offer has to be credible, so some sort of guarantee must be included. “Lowest price” generally means nothing. An offer of a percentage discount is also useless. These days people automatically assume the product or service has been marked up another ten percent before that percentage is deducted. One effective approach might be to mention that insurance companies always demand a parts and labor discount. The website could promise the customer he or she will receive the same discount the shop offers insurance partners.

Speed of service is a trickier proposition. I’ve visited shops that publicize a turn-around time based on the price of the job: Under $500, 24-hour service; under $1000 two-day service, etc. One shop offered to reduce the price of repair by a percentage for each day they exceeded the estimated time. Another offered some sort of rebate if the job wasn’t completed on time. A shop owner might not want to offer these terms to anyone other than a prospect on the web. But given the reasons prospects surf the web, this focus on price and speed are most likely to bring the prospect in the door.

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

In the busy daily life of a body shop, a product that will make techs’ lives easier while saving time and money is a breath of fresh air. In this frenetic, deadline-heavy existence, a useful piece of equipment can help a shop to meet its cycle times and exceed even the most discerning customers’ requirements. Time is the key and without enough of it in the average day, saving it is a big issue in every body shop on the planet. That’s why shop owners, techs and even hobbyists flock to a product such as the Mobile Lift Jack, distributed by Ikotec USA.

“It’s all about safely lifting vehicles and moving them around the shop easily,” Conrad Egerter, owner of Ikotec USA said. “The jack is small, so it takes up very little space. It runs on electricity so it uses less energy as well. It’s our signature product and we’ve received great reviews on the Mobile Lift Jack from shops throughout the country.”

Ikotec USA has the master distributorship in the USA, Canada and Australia for the Ikotec Mobile Lift Jack, an innovative and unique lifting system for automobile, truck and motorcycle maintenance and repair, Egerter said. Within the past two years, the company has sold more than 1,000 Mobile Lift Jacks in Europe alone, he said.

The Mobile Lift Jack will be showcased at the November 2010 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas and on PowertBlocktv.com, Egerter explained.

“We’re proud to be associated with this product, because it works and that’s the bottom line. You’ll be able to see it and use it at SEMA and that’s the best way to understand everything it can do. When people see it for the first time, they automatically start thinking about different ways they can use it in their shops.”

Based on the company’s literature, Ikotec currently has three Mobile Lift Jack models. The Ikotec 1000 is a revolutionary way to lift foreign or sports cars, cars with little ground clearance, or cars with fiberglass trim and moldings with very little chance of damaging the vehicle.

The Ikotec 3000, the most popular model, is a 110-volt all electric wheel lift with 15 different attachments that has a lifting capacity up to 2,250 lbs per column and will lift a vehicle in approximately 35 seconds. The company’s largest lift jack is the Ikotec 6000, a 110-volt wheel lift that can lift industrial size vehicles up to 6000 lbs per column.

“Each product is designed for easy operation,” Egerter said. “They allow users to lift cars, trucks and motorcycles quickly and economically. With built-in safety features, these jacks are truly unique and provide a safe working environment in garages, body shops, inspection stations, tire stores and for the at home do-it-yourself mechanics.”

The Mobile Lift Jack was invented by Christian Koch 20 years ago, Egerter said. After for nearly a decade of perfecting and changing it, the sixth or seventh version of the lift hit the public in 1999. Since then, Ikotec obtained the exclusive Northern American distribution rights to the entire line of Mobile Lift Jacks, he explained.
The Ikotec 3000 has fans throughout the world that are more than willing to praise the product.

To say that Richard Schomaker is a car aficionado is a major understatement. He has 12 cars in various stages of rebuilding and owns a series of garages at his home near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He’s currently working on a ’64 Studebaker Avanti and he’s been using two of his Mobile Lift Jacks to implement the restoration of this prized classic car.

“These lifts are really slick,” Schomaker said. “I’ve owned them for almost two years and I couldn’t do without them. It’s all about the mobility. I need to be able to move these vehicles fast and easily and the Mobile Lift Jack is the perfect equipment for the job. There’s no air required, which means they’re no seals to break. It’s all powered by electricity and we love that aspect of it.”

With so many cars that he’s restoring simultaneously, Schomaker likes the fact that the Mobile Lift Jack works fast and never needs a break, he said. “It lifts a car in roughly half a minute. Time is money when I am working on my cars, because I can only be in one place at any time, but these lifts work quickly, which means I can spend more time doing what matters.”

Schomaker values the Mobile Lift Jack’s portability more than anything else, he said. “We can move this thing all over the shop. Sometimes I’ll wheel them into my driveway. I can go as far as an extension cord will take me. We use it a lot to hold a door on a car or lift up a vehicle’s rear end to remove the gas tank, it’s so versatile and easy to use. That’s the key of the Mobile Lift Jack.”

Sonny Palermo has owned Palermo Auto Body in Wexford, Pennsylvania for 30 years, he said, and he fixes approximately 80 vehicles per month out of a 16-bay shop with eight employees. Palermo purchased a Mobile Lift Jack and fell in love with it after using it just one time, he said.

“I bought a Mobile Lift Jack about two years ago and I saw right away that it was really convenient. Anything that will make my life easier is something I want. We restore a lot of classic cars here, and this lift allows us to move vehicles around the shop in a pinch.”

“If you want to lift something and do a specific repair, this lift can do it,” Schomaker said. “It’s so versatile and adaptable. I’ve purchased several of the accessories and it’s allowed me to do so much more with the product.”

A wide range of accessories for the Mobile Lift Jack are available to enable users to perform various procedures, including wheel sleds, hitch adapters, door supports, jack stands, quick fit plates, plane plates, sill supports, shop crane adapters, spring compressors, transmission adapter , tuning sills and motorcycle attachments.

Ikotec USA is represented internationally by distributors in Spain, Germany, Italy, France and Poland as well as the in the USA, Canada and Australia. The company is the exclusive manufacturer of the products using American manufactured motors and parts and are assembled in the USA, which insures quality control and cost containment. The product can be viewed at www.mobileliftjack.com and information is available through Conrad Egerter, Ikotec USA at 412-427-8031.
Ikotec USA

184 Babcock Boulevard, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15209; (412) 427-8031

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Jeremy Weller, owner of Unique Auto Body, started painting cars in his early 20’s, and he’s now 39, so he knows what he’s talking about with paint. Weller’s two shops in the Salt Lake City area in Utah paint an average of 10–12 vehicles daily, so he needs a paint system that provides accurate color matching with consistent quality throughout. After a decade of being with another paint company, Weller made the switch to Pro-Spray’s waterborne product—and it’s decision he’s extremely enthused about.

“We’re getting exceptional color matches with Pro-Spray that we couldn’t achieve before,” Weller said. “We didn’t feel like we were getting all of them 100% with our former paint supplier, so we started looking around. Getting away from the solvent as our main paint was a key move too.”

Unique Auto Body has now been using the Pro-Spray waterborne product for a year and a half and the new paint is already a welcome production partner.

Pro-Spray’s color matching capabilities has alleviated stress in both his locations, Weller said. “I don’t have to worry about showing a customer a car in the right light anymore. These dead-on color matches have built a sense of security with my painters, because we can now match these colors every single time.”

Unique Auto Body’s two locations employ 25 people, including four seasoned painters who know the score when it comes to producing cars at a rapid rate. Weller saw that his painters initially bucked the change to the Pro-Spray H2O Waterborne paint, but were quickly onboard and using the new paint enthusiastically.

“They saw the benefits and that’s what motivated them,” Weller said. “If we can get a better finished product, it’s a big plus. Painters are very focused on doing the best job they can, and if a certain type of paint will help them do that—they’re excited.”

Both shops still use solvent-based paint for older vehicles, but every newer car that comes through the doors is painted with Pro-Spray H2O Waterborne, Weller stated. “We’re using very little solvent right now and we’re going to phase it out eventually. It’s a convenience issue right now, but we’ve had such a great experience with the waterborne paint that we want to use it to be as our sole paint.”

The changeover to waterborne met with some hesitation amongst his painters initially, but in the end Pro-Spray won them over, Weller said. “Painters  are creatures of habit. They were a little stubborn and reluctant to change, but in the end it’s been better for them, because now they don’t have to breathe in all that solvent all the time. You can smell that solvent 100 yards away and you can’t even tell that this waterborne is in the room most of the time. It’s a huge bonus for my painters, because they’re now happier and if I can provide a safer working and cleaner environment for them, it’s a great thing.”

Weller didn’t switch over to waterborne because he had to in order to adhere to local laws, because Utah doesn’t require the use of waterborne paint. So, why did he do it?

“The color matching aspect of the Pro-Spray initially attracted us to the product, because we saw that the matches were so superior and that the depth and the intensity of the finished product looked so amazing that it became a no-brainer.”

Eventually, Unique Auto Body embraced the Pro-Spray H2O Waterborne for its earth-friendly aspects as well, Weller said. “We figured that if we can get proactive in this thing, why not? We’re getting better results, so if we can help the environment at the same time, let’s do it.”

Has the conversion to waterborne helped his business overall, Autobody News asked Weller. “Yes, I hear our customers commenting about the waterborne all the time. People in this area are into being green and we promote the fact that we use the waterborne. If we can position ourselves in a better light by using the Pro-Spray product, it’s well worth it. There are only a handful of body shops using waterborne in the Salt Lake Valley right now and we’re proud to be one of them.”

Pro-Spray’s Western Regional US Sales Manager, Paul Reid, has seen more shops switching to waterborne in areas where the laws haven’t yet required them to change over to low VOCs yet.

“It’s a new movement that we’re seeing more and more,” Reid explained. “I’ve converted at least 50 body shops outside of regulated areas within the last year or so, and I’m starting to hear that more shops want to convert all the time. Green is a huge issue and it’s going to get bigger, because shops can get better color matches from our products and the finished paint jobs are superior overall.”

According to the company’s Web site, Pro-Spray® H2O Waterborne Basecoat consists of 70 pigment-rich, shake-and-pour toners formulated using advanced European technology to deliver quick coverage, precise color match, superior metallic orientation, easy blending and fast dry times, saving body shops time and money.

Pro-Spray waterborne paint is part of a complete line of low VOC automotive surface preparation products, undercoats, primers, clear coats, thinners, activators and ancillary products backed by user-friendly color formula software, technical support and waterborne conversion, color theory and painter refinishing training.

Weller’s painters were trained by Pro-Spray’s experts and were using the H2O Pro-Spray Waterborne within one week. “Jim Wallace was the technical representative from Pro-Spray and he came down here and took us through all of the steps in a very clear and logical process. Paul Reid was also very involved in the training. We were up and running right away and they kept checking in with us to help us further. If we had questions, they were right there to provide answers. They made the transition problem-free and that was a huge plus.”

Weller had to invest approximately $4,000 in equipment as part of the changeover to waterborne, but he sees it as a modest expenditure that will rapidly pay for itself. “We had to purchase some new fans for improved air movement and then my painters had to buy new guns, but other than that, that’s all we had to do. For what we’ve achieved here, this was a very small investment.”

Reid is happy every time when he sees that a new one of his customers has stepped up to make the sage move to waterborne.

“Jeremy is a former painter, so he knew what he was getting with the Pro-Spray H2O Waterborne product. He’s also a very hands-on owner, so he got right in there with his painters. This paint is so painter-friendly and the quality is so consistent with better color-matching capabilities, that this was a logical transition for Unique Auto Body. They’re seeing better results and producing better paint jobs, so it’s a win-win on every level.”

Unique Auto Body
11500 South Redwood Road
South Jordan, Utah  84095
801-302-0966

798 West Center Street
Midvale, Utah 84047
(801) 302-0966.

To view a PDF of this article PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Its Friday afternoon, the vehicle owner is expected to pick her car up in less that an hour. That’s when you discover that the door glass isn’t operating properly. Panic sets in. How do you fix it quickly?

With the ever-increasing use of electrical and electronic systems in today’s vehicles, we are seeing an increase in the number of systems that need to be reset or re-initialized. In some cases, there is some type of memory setting that can be programmed.

Technicians are quickly becoming responsible for recording the memory settings and returning them to where they were when the vehicle arrived at your facility. All these systems need to be reset/re-initialized following repairs.
Let’s take a look at the procedures required to re-initialize the glass door on three different vehicles.

2008 Acura TL V6-3.5L
Resetting the Power Window Control Unit
Resetting the driver’s or front passenger’s power window is required when any of the following have occurred:
•    Power window regulator replacement or repair
•    Power window motor replacement or repair
•    Window run channel replacement or repair
•    Door glass replacement or repair
•    Power is removed from a power window control unit while the power window timer is ON.

Using the Honda Diagnostic System (HDS)
1.    Connect the HDS to the vehicle’s DLC.
2.    Turn the ignition switch ON (II), then enter the vehicle’s VIN and mileage at the prompts.
3.    Select “Body Electrical” from the “System Selection” menu.
4.    From the “Body Electrical System Select” menu, select “Power Windows”.
5.    From the “Mode” menu, select “Adjustment”.
6.    From the “Adjustment” menu, select “Window P Reset” for driver’s side (passenger’s side) power window.
7.    Follow the prompts on the screen.
8.    Confirm that the power window control unit is reset by using the driver’s (passenger’s) power window AUTO UP and AUTO DOWN function.

Without the HDS
1.    Turn the ignition switch ON (II).
2.    Move the driver’s (passenger’s) power window all the way down by using the driver’s (passenger’s) power window DOWN switch.
3.    Open the driver’s (passenger’s) door. NOTE: Steps 4-7 must be done within 5 seconds of each other.
4.    Turn the ignition switch OFF.
5.    Push and hold the driver’s (passenger’s) power window DOWN switch.
6.    Turn the ignition switch ON (II).
7.    Release the driver’s (passenger’s) power window DOWN switch.
8.    Repeat step 4-7 three more times.
9.    Wait 1 second.
10.    Confirm that AUTO UP and AUTO DOWN do not work. If AUTO UP and DOWN work, go back to step 1.
11.    Move the driver’s (passenger’s) power window all the way down by using the driver’s (passenger’s) power window DOWN switch.
12.    Pull up and hold the driver’s (passenger’s) power window UP switch until the power window reaches the fully closed position, then continue to hold the switch for 1 second.
13.    Confirm that the power window control unit is reset by using the driver’s (passenger’s) power window AUTO UP and AUTO DOWN function. If the power window still does not work in AUTO, repeat the procedure several times, paying close attention to the 5 second time limit between steps. If it still does not work, go to B-CAN System Diagnosis Test Mode A. See: Powertrain Management\Computers and Control Systems\Information Bus\Testing and Inspection\Diagnostic Trouble Code Tests and Associated Procedures\B-CAN System Diagnosis Test Mode A.

2009 Cadillac CTS AWD V6-3.6L
Express Window Programming and Setup
Anytime battery power is lost or if the power window motor is replaced, the express down and express up features must be relearned.
Follow the procedure below to program the power windows:
•    Ignition ON, lower each window to the full down position and hold each window switch at the full down position for 5 seconds.
•    Raise each window to the full up position and hold each window switch at the full up position for 5 seconds.
•    Verify that the express down and express up feature are working by pressing the power window switch past its first detent and releasing and pulling the power window switch past its first detent and releasing. If the express down and express up functions are successfully relearned, the power window should roll completely down and roll completely up.

2008 Lexus Truck LX 570 V8-5.7L (3UR-FE)
WINDOW / GLASS: POWER WINDOW CONTROL SYSTEM: CUSTOMIZE PARAMETERS
1.    CUSTOMIZING FUNCTION WITH TECHSTREAM (REFERENCE)
NOTICE:
•    When the customer requests a change in a function, first make sure the function(s) can be customized. •    Be sure to make note of the current settings before customizing.
•    When troubleshooting a function, first make sure that the function is set to the default setting.
A.    Connect the Techstream to the DLC3.
B.    Turn the engine switch on (IG).
C.    Turn the Techstream on.
D.    Enter the following menus: Customize Setting.
E.    Select the setting by referring to the table below.

INITIALIZE POWER WINDOW CONTROL SYSTEM (POWER WINDOW REGULATOR MOTOR (ALL DOORS) CAUTION:
When the power window regulator motor is reinstalled or replaced, the power window control system must be initialized. Functions such as the auto up/down, jam protection and key-off do not operate if the initialization is not performed.
HINT: When the battery is replaced, it is not necessary to initialize the power window regulator motor.
NOTICE: When the power window regulator motor is replaced, DTC B2313 is output. Clear the DTC after the initialization.
When performing initialization, do not perform any other procedures.
After a door glass or a door glass run has been replaced, the jam protection function may operate unexpectedly when the auto up function is used, due to detection of a value different from the operation learned value of the door glass movement speed. In such cases, the auto up function can be resumed by repeating the following operation at least 5 times:
1.    Open the power window by fully pushing down the power window switch.
2.    Close the power window by fully pulling up the power window switch and holding it at the auto up position.
•    If the initialization is not completed properly, the LIN communication system may have a malfunction See: Powertrain Management\Computers and Control Systems\Testing and Inspection\Diagnostic Trouble Code Descriptions\LIN Communication System.
A.    Initialization procedures when replacing the power window regulator motor with a new one:
1)    Connect the battery and turn the engine switch on (IG) (at this time, the LED on the power window switch blinks to indicate that it is ready for initialization).
2)    Fully open the window by fully pushing the power window switch, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully opened.
3)    Fully close the power window by fully pulling the power window switch, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully closed to reset the glass position. The LED on the power window switch stops blinking and illuminates to indicate that the initialization is complete.
B.     Initialization procedures when removing/installing the power window regulator motor:
1)    Connect the battery and turn the engine switch on (IG).
2)    Fully close the power window by fully pulling the power window switch, and hold the switch for 6 seconds or more after the window is fully closed (if the power window does not move or stops halfway even when the switch is fully pulled, release the switch and fully pull it again).
3)    Fully open the window by pushing down the power window switch, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully opened.
4)    Release the power window switch. Then fully push and hold the switch for 4 seconds or more.
5)    Fully close the power window by fully pulling the power window switch, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully closed to reset the glass position and complete the initialization.
C.    Initialization procedures when the power window does not fully open:
1)    Connect the battery and turn the engine switch on (IG).
2)    Fully close the power window by fully pulling the power window switch, and hold the switch for 6 seconds or more after the window is fully closed (if the power window does not move or stops halfway even when the switch is fully pulled, release the switch and fully pull it again).
3)    Fully open the window by pushing down the power window switch, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully opened.
4)    Release the power window switch. Then fully push and hold the switch for 4 seconds or more.
5)    Fully close the power window by fully pulling the power window switch, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully closed to reset the glass position and complete the initialization.
While this article focused on reinitializing door glass, there are a variety of different systems that require these types of procedures, such as sun roofs, steering angle sensors, power doors, etc. Collision repair facilities must have access to the correct procedures to ensure that, when it’s Friday afternoon and the vehicle owner expects to take delivery of her vehicle, she can happily drive away without any delays.
For more information on OE repair information, please visit:
www.alldata.com/promo/abn3tt/

©2010 ALLDATA LLC. All rights reserved. All technical information, images and specifications are from ALLDATA Collision. ALLDATA is a registered trademark and ALLDATA Collision is a mark of ALLDATA LLC. All other brand names and marks are the property of their respective holders.
Acura, Acura TL and Honda are registered trademark names and model designations of  Honda Motor Company, LTD. and/or American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Cadillac and Cadillac CTS are registered trademark names and model designations of  General Motors. Lexus, LX 570 and Techstream are registered trademark names and model designations of  Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. All trademark names and model designations are being used solely for reference and application purposes.

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ICC Collision Centers is proud to announce the grand opening of their new El Mirage, AZ, location. The shop hosted an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, June 5, 2010 to mark the grand opening of this new state of the art facility. The event, which was open to the public, ran from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. at 12555 Northwest Grand Avenue El Mirage.

Attending were Mayor Michele Kern of El Mirage, Arizona; Sam Mirabile, Vice President of Operations; Sean Darcy, Vice President of Business Development; Ed Hovsepian, Los Angeles Regional Manager and local business officials.

The facility is strategically located in the greater Northwest Valley in order to expedite turnaround times and allow a full-service customer experience. In addition, ICC offers a 10 day free car rental, lifetime transferable registered warranty, 18 month free paint maintenance program, convenient rental car at locations provided by Hertz and towing is available.

“Our facility is laid out for lean processes. We have very quick turnarounds and that helps get our customers back on the road,” said Tracey Collins, Business Development Manager for ICC.

ICC Collision Centers is also doing their part to be conscious of their impacts on the environment in their shops; the California locations are using waterborne paints and most of the parts they use are recycled in all locations.

“Providing the highest level of service to our customers and vendors in the Northwest Valley is essential to our success, and we’re pleased to offer a dedicated location to better serve them,” states Matt Gorges, General Manager of ICC Collision Centers, Arizona, “We look forward to making a long-term contribution to the Northwest Valley economy.”

ICC Collision Centers Avondale location has been in Arizona for four years and has built a reputation as a top level service center. Established in 1986, ICC Collision Centers has 10 locations located in the heart of California and Arizona. Over the past 28 years, ICC Collision Centers has grown a reputation of being one of the premier auto collision centers in the business. For more information go to www.icccollision.com.

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According to reports made by the Associated Press, the political clout of 18,000 auto dealers scattered nationwide was too much even for President Barack Obama to resist.

House and Senate negotiators putting final shape to a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations all but agreed June 22 to exclude auto dealers from the oversight of a consumer financial protection bureau.

“The political reality is that those of us who have fought against an auto dealer carve-out can’t prevail,” Representative Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

The House bill approved last December contained an exemption for auto dealers, among others, from lending regulations issued by the proposed consumer agency.

The Senate did not, but the sentiment was there. In a 60-30 nonbinding vote last month, senators called for the auto dealer loophole.

Under a compromise offered by Senate Democrats Tuesday, auto dealers would still be covered by federal truth-in-lending rules that would have to conform to regulations adopted by the consumer agency.

Georgia joins 27 other states in passing laws banning drivers from sending text messages while driving. The governor signed House Bill 23 which prohibits young people under age 18 from texting or using cell phones while driving.

He also signed Senate Bill 360 which prohibits drivers over 18 from texting. These bills become effective July 1, 2010. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 from crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver, and more than half a million were injured. Research also shows that the worst offenders are the youngest and least experienced drivers: men and women under 20 years of age.

“These laws are a positive step forward in the effort to make our roadways safer,” said Micaela Isler southeast regional manager for PCI. “House Bill 23 aims to assist our least experienced drivers in Georgia to be as safe as possible by banning cell phone use. The use of cell phones while behind the wheel is a significant source of distraction, but it represents one of many distractions that can lead to a crash.

By passing Senate Bill 360 Georgia is sending a strong message that all drivers have a responsibility to exercise good judgment in all of their driving activities. Although news media has focused attention on cell phone use and texting; navigation systems, eating and drinking as well as personal grooming can all serve as distractions that compromise road safety.”

Dime-sized hail dents to vehicles in the Clovis, NM, area on June 12 brought a truckload of work for insurance companies and body shops.

George Songer, owner of Rembrandt’s Auto Body Shop in Clovis, said he received 256 claims in just one day on June 16.

“We’re so busy we can’t get to our collision repair we already have in,” Songer said. Songer also said he saw a lot of dime to egg-sized dents and mostly broken sunroofs, rather than broken windshields, thanks to the spring storm. He estimates that some cars coming in may also be totals.

Chuck Jones, a forecaster for the National Weather Service, said the storm dropped .62 inches of rain in Portales, making it the fifth wettest June 12 on record. An exact rain amount for Clovis was not available, but Jones said the storm most likely dropped “well over an inch” of rain. The storm brought snow-like hail that blanketed the streets, which made for dangerous driving conditions over the weekend.

The hail damage is so widespread Songer said he can’t keep up with the number of claims coming into his direct-repair shop. Songer said he has been writing a lot of estimates and is even glad to lose some of the jobs to insurance companies’ DRPs because they’re so swamped.

Louisania Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a law in week of June 14 that will allow vehicle mechanical breakdown insurers to provide customers with specific vehicle component coverage contracts for several items, including windshield-specific coverage, for road hazards.

Under the terms of the law, mechanical breakdown insurers can now provide windshield-specific contracts to their customers, and that contract would “promise to pay for all or part of the cost of the repair or of the replacement of windshield or window glass on a motor vehicle when the damage to the glass is caused by contact with a road hazard.” The law, which has already taken effect, says the term “road hazard” includes items such as potholes, rocks, curbs, wood debris, other debris, nails, screws, bolts, metal parts or glass, but not damage caused by a collision with another vehicle, vandalism or other causes “usually covered under the comprehensive or collision coverages.”

Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) has launched a national wholesale parts loyalty program on behalf of its Nissan and Infiniti dealer networks.  Designed to increase Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) collision and mechanical parts sales, the "Rewards Loyalty" program allows independent body shops and repair facilities to earn points that can be redeemed for more than 3,000 premiums selected from an online catalog.  Advantage DataSystems Corporation has been selected to administer the program.

"Encouraging independent shop owners to purchase genuine OEM parts through their local Nissan and Infiniti dealers is a win-win-win," said Ron Stukenberg, senior manager, Wholesale & Collision Parts, NNA.  "Our dealers benefit from increased parts sales and a closer relationship with their local business community, our Nissan and Infiniti owners benefit through the assurance that approved factory parts have been used in their repairs, and the shop owners know they are getting quality parts plus an added reward."

Once Nissan and Infiniti dealers enroll in the Rewards Loyalty program, they select the wholesale mechanical program and collision repair network facilities they wish to include (participation is free for the shops). 

Each shop is then sent an I.D. number and instructions for online enrollment.  Points are earned with purchases, with rewards available from just 20 points.

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner today filed a cease and desist order against two California men and several corporations for allegedly operating unlicensed insurance companies and using deceptive and illegal telemarketing. Robert Lewis Chapman, James C. Sletner and several corporations they own and manage, including SafeData Management Services, Inc., d.b.a. Consumer Direct Warranty Services, Warranty Administration Services, Inc., and Warranty Administration Solutions, Inc., face substantial fines. 

“If you want to sell insurance in California, you must obtain a license, have adequate financial reserves and you must not deceive consumers,” said Commissioner Poizner. “In order to protect California consumers, there are specific requirements for insurance companies seeking to do business in California. If companies do not abide by these requirements, they will not be permitted to sell insurance in our state.”

The Department of Insurance alleges that Consumer Direct sold insurance policies and vehicle service contracts without a license and in blatant disregard of numerous, longstanding legal requirements designed to protect California consumers. The unlawful insurance policies, which promise to repair breakdowns to engines, transmissions and other parts, typically sell for $1,500 - $2,500. Chapman, Sletner and Consumer Direct each face a fine of $5,000 for every day they conducted business in California, or five times the revenue received from California consumers, whichever is greater.

With passage of SB 2508 last night, consumers could be facing increased hassles and overall higher costs in the auto body repair process unless Governor Donald Carcieri vetoes this legislation, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI). "This legislation is bad for consumers and we will urge the governor to veto the bill,” said Frank O'Brien, vice president, state government relations for PCI.

"SB 2508 will add to the hassle of being in an accident by requiring the additional step of an independent appraisal in the repair process. The majority of repair jobs would need this extra step, adding time and cost to a repair process that is already one of the costliest in the country.”

In recent years the Auto Body Association of Rhode Island (ABARI) has pressured Rhode Island legislators to pass 15 various measures that have driven up costs to consumers without improving the quality of repairs. Rhode Island is now the fourth most expensive state in the country to repair a car. On average, it costs $2,818 here – $460 more than the US average of $2,358.

“ABARI has been chipping away at consumer choices and repair options that would control costs for several years,” said O’Brien. “As a result of these bills costs continue to rise and with SB 2508 both time and expense will be added to the repair process. We will be asking Governor Carcieri to step in and protect consumers from yet another self-serving auto body repair measure that has been pushed through the legislature."

The Rhode Island General Assembly adjourned its 2010 formal session last night, according to the American Insurance Association (AIA).     

“This session, like many that have preceded it in Rhode Island, presented a number of challenges to the insurance industry,” according to Laura Kersey, AIA assistant vice president, Northeast Region.  

Notably, the General Assembly approved Senate Bill 2508, the An Act Relating to Insurance; Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act. SB 2508 was introduced on behalf of the Auto Body Association of Rhode Island (ABARI) and would require an independent appraisal on all cars with damages in excess of $2,500 by an appraiser unaffiliated with the repair shop.

“No other state requires this kind of appraisal, and SB 2508 would only add time and costs to a repair process that is already one of the most costly in the country,” said Kersey “Unfortunately, Rhode Island legislators approved a bill that could increase repair costs for consumers, increase hassle for consumers and limit consumer choice.”

SB 2508 now awaits Gov. Donald Carcieri’s consideration, and AIA will urge him to veto this ill-advised legislation.

The Georgia Collision Industry Association (GCIA) held its 4th Annual labor rates survey for Georgia in June. This was the first year the association utilized an online survey option as well as a phone method.

Flat labor rates were collected for body work, paint jobs, mechanical jobs, frame work and materials from several different shops throughout the counties of Georgia. This year the GCIA took out a lot of their other questions pertaining to shop size and employee count and just concentrated on labor rate figures.

The GCIA was very pleased with their choice to have an online survey this year according to Howard Batchelor, Executive Director of the GCIA.

“The online survey made it that much easier for people, they could do it on their own time,” said Batchelor.

The information gathered from the 2010 GCIA Labor Rates survey was presented at the Richmond chapter of the Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association (WMABA) meeting on June 17. The results from this survey will also be presented to the Georgia Insurance Commissioner’s Office for review. The hope is that this information will help body shops negotiate their labor rates fairly with insurance companies.

I-CAR will host the 2010 I-CAR Industry Conference at the InterContinental Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, IL. The event will be held on July 21 from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

This year’s event will coincide with several other industry meetings being held during the same week. I-CAR will introduce details of the new curriculum model that has been developed over the last two years based on inter-industry feedback.  I-CAR has focused on clearly defining industry roles, identifying the knowledge and skills needed to be effective in each role, and developing a training and recognition structure that aligns with the direction of the industry.

The Automotive Service Councils of California (ASCCA) has signed an agreement to co-locate with Automotive Service and Repair Week (ASRW) 2010, bringing the number of events held under the ASRW umbrella to four. In addition to the ASCCA event, ASRW includes the International Autobody Congress & Exposition (NACE), the Congress of Automotive Repair & Service (CARS), and Auto Glass Week, which makes it the industry's leading event for true professionals to conduct business, network and engage in industry issues. ASRW is scheduled for Oct. 10-13 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010. 11:00am-12:00pm, PST

Anaheim, CA, June 11, 2010:  Fix Auto USA has announced that it will open its members’ only monthly webcast “FixCast” to the industry this month only.  Host Paul Gange, President and Chief Operating Officer of Fix Auto USA will welcome David McClune, Executive Director of the California Autobody Association and Erick Bickett, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fix Auto USA.

They will discuss what has happened, so far, on the recent actions taken by the Orange County California District Attorney, and the lessons learned from other sting operations.

“FixCast is a members-only communication forum for Fix,” said Gange.  “However, we believe that the content of our discussion this month will help our industry as a whole and we encourage repairers and insurers alike to join the call.  We hope to use this as an opportunity to learn from the recent actions in Orange County, reinforce our code of ethics and remind our members and industry peers of the laws and regulations that govern our actions every day.”

FixCast will be held on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 11am PST.  The webcast will include both audio and presentation content provided through GoToMeeting. Participants should log-in at least 5 minutes early and should be advised that space is limited and will be provided on a first come first served basis.  To access FixCast go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/928547176. If you have problems registering please e-mail FIX at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Gullo Toyota of Conroe, Texas, has been named the Toyota Certified Collision Center of the Year. The Toyota Motor Sales, USA award is based on meeting Toyota’s highest standards for customer service and rigid criteria for productivity in numerous key areas of the collision business.

“We were a top four finisher last year, so we did some things differently from 2008 to 2009. In particular, we concentrated on the little things---keeping the customers regularly informed and having three sign-offs when filling out quality control checklists on finished vehicles to ensure better quality. While these and other things seem simple enough, it's easy to veer away from them when faced with the demands of everyday work,” said Michael Cortez, collision center manager for Gullo Toyota.

“We did not accomplish this on our own. I would like to thank Tony Gullo Jr. and family, Travis Rice with Gulf States Toyota, Dave Pyle with Toyota Motor Sales, USA, and Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes (SWAF) for all their support through the years.”

Larry Mooney, area sales manager for SWAF noted that it is a great privilege to support the Gullo Dealership network. He added that this is the fourth time in the last five years that one of Sherwin-Williams’ customers has been the recipient of this award.

Douglas Auto Body in Pasadena, CA, founder, George K. Daghlian, passed away May 22nd, leaving Takouhi, his wife of 47 years, four children and many grandchildren. His oldest son, Armen, and youngest son, Kevin, started Douglas Auto Body with George, and will continue to operate the collision repair facility.  The funeral was held at Forest Lawn Hill's Red Church on May 27th, and a memorial dinner was given at Verdugo Hills Country Club in Glendale.

George had an unusually extensive background in the collision repair industry, both in the U.S. and abroad. He began working in a body shop at the age of 13, in Aleppo, Syria. At the age of 18, he opened his own shop in Kuwait, and five years later he returned to Aleppo, and opened a shop there. When he saw that life in Syria could become difficult and even dangerous, he brought his family to the United States and opened a shop in Pasadena, in 1987. The shop grew every year until in 2006, George could celebrate fifty continuous years in the collision repair business, with a shop that had now grown to about 50,000 square feet.

Chrysler is recalling almost 600,000 minivans and Jeep Wranglers in the United States and another 100,000 elsewhere because of brake or wiring problems that could create safety problems, the company and federal regulators said Monday.

Chrysler said it is recalling 288,968 Jeep Wranglers from the 2006 through 2010 model years due to a potential brake fluid leak.

It also is recalling 284,831 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans from the 2008 and 2009 model years because a wiring problem can cause a fire inside the sliding doors.

Another 76,430 Wranglers and 34,143 minivans are being recalled in Canada, Mexico and other international markets, Chrysler said.

Neither problem has caused any crashes or injuries, Chrysler Group LLC said.

It was the second notable recall in the past week for Chrysler. The company recalled nearly 35,000 Dodge Calibers and a limited number of Jeep Compasses last week to fix a potential problem with sticky gas pedals, the same issue that has afflicted millions of Toyotas.

The recall comes five weeks after U.S. safety regulators opened an investigation into potentially sticky accelerator pedals in Chrysler vehicles, based on five consumer complaints.

General Motors Co. is recalling 1.53 million cars and trucks worldwide because fires can be ignited by components that heat windshield-washer fluid.

The company will disable the heating mechanism in the washers of Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer and Saturn brands from model years 2006 to 2009, according to an e-mailed statement today. It said it will pay owners $100 for each vehicle because the feature won’t be available and the maker of the units is out of business.

“One big recall probably won’t hurt GM if it’s just one big recall,” said Jim Hall, a principal at 2953 Analytics Inc., a consulting firm in Birmingham, Michigan.

“They have to market on so many fronts. The last thing they need to do is counter market against a recall.” Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest automaker, recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide for defects that may cause unintended acceleration. Following the recalls, U.S. regulators stepped up scrutiny of auto safety, and Congress is considering measures to tighten regulation of the industry. GM’s heated windshield washer, which the company said was supplied by Micro-Heat Inc., was recalled in 2008 for repairs. The automaker received five reports of fires in the components in the past year, prompting today’s action, the company said.

Gullo Toyota of Conroe, Texas, has been named the Toyota Certified Collision Center of the Year. The Toyota Motor Sales, USA award is based on meeting Toyota’s highest standards for customer service and rigid criteria for productivity in numerous key areas of the collision business.

“We were a top four finisher last year, so we did some things differently from 2008 to 2009. In particular, we concentrated on the little things - keeping the customers regularly informed and having three sign-offs when filling out quality control checklists on finished vehicles to ensure better quality. While these and other things seem simple enough, it's easy to veer away from them when faced with the demands of everyday work,” said Michael Cortez, collision center manager for Gullo Toyota. “We did not accomplish this on our own. I would like to thank Tony Gullo Jr. and family, Travis Rice with Gulf States Toyota, Dave Pyle with Toyota Motor Sales, USA, and Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes (SWAF) for all their support through the years.”

Larry Mooney, area sales manager for SWAF noted that it is a great privilege to support the Gullo Dealership network. He added that this is the fourth time in the last five years that one of Sherwin-Williams’ customers has been the recipient of this award.

Specialty Paint and Body in Athens, GA, recently converted its painting system to waterborne paint techniques.

The use of waterborne paints lessens the release of volatile organic compounds that evaporate from liquids such as paint, paint thinner and gasoline.

Specialty Paint and Body already manages their environmental impact by composting shredded office paper, and recycling most plastic and metal car parts, paper and cardboard. It also reuses plastic sheeting to protect car parts during the repair process.

Georgia SB 360, also known as Caleb’s Law, named after a teen who died in a December car crash while texting and driving, has been signed by Governor Sonny Perdue. The law forbids texting while driving in the state of Georgia. The state now joins 27 others that have enacted similar bans. The Georgia law applies not just to writing a text message while driving, but also to the sending of it or the reading of “any text-based communication” on a “wireless telecommunications device.” Wireless telecommunications device means a cellular telephone, a text-messaging device, a personal digital assistant, or a stand alone computer. Starting July 1, drivers who are caught reading, writing or sending any kind of text message, including emails, could face a $150 fine and a point on their driver’s license.

No under-18 Calls While Driving

The Governor also signed a separate law, House Bill 23, that forbids anyone under 18 from using a cell phone while driving. Young drivers caught using a cell phone while behind the wheel may be fined $150, and if they become involved in an accident while on the phone, the fine doubles to $300.

The California Autobody Association (CAA) learned last week about fifty-three Orange County estimators and owners that were arrested and charged on felony insurance fraud following a 5-month investigation by the Orange County Automotive Insurance Fraud Unit that targeted auto body repair shops. The OCDA conducted 152 undercover operations throughout Orange County between January and May 2010.

These undercover sting operations have been going on periodically since the early 2000’s throughout California. An undercover investigator will bring a car into a shop in which the investigator wants the shop estimator to help him / her defraud their insurance company. At this time, the undercover investigator makes it clear that it is his / her intention to present this estimate to the insurer to commit insurance fraud. At this time, the investigator is recording or videoing the
conversation.

2010 Automotive Service & Repair Week (ASRW) will host an official Industry Forum to discuss timely industry issues, followed by a networking reception Sunday, Oct. 10, from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. The forum and reception will conclude the first day of education at ASRW 2010, featuring the International Autobody Congress & Exposition (NACE) and the Congress of Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) events taking place Oct. 10-13, 2010.
Designed as a professional venue to discuss relevant, thought-provoking topics, attendees of the industry forum can expect compelling, current - and even controversial - issues that transcend the industry.

The ASRW Industry Forum will feature two concurrent 45-minute sessions, one for the mechanical industry and one pertaining to collision repair; a 30-minute break; two additional concurrent sessions (one each for the mechanical and collision repair industries); and will conclude with an hour-long networking reception and mixer. Tickets for the ASRW Industry Forum will be available later this week when attendee registration opens online and can be purchased for $40 through Aug. 17; $50 after.
Sponsors of this new forum are: the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF), the Women's Industry Network (WIN), the National Auto Body Council (NABC), the Automotive Management Institute (AMI) and the I-CAR Education Foundation.

California Collision Repairers are invited to join their colleagues for a fun Casino evening to support Ron Guilliams, of Fix Auto and a past president of the California Autobody Association.

Ron suffered a debilitating illness earlier this year and is undertaking a slow recovery. Procedes from the event will go towards Ron and his family.

Click for event poster

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is warning owners of 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan vehicles not to place any unsecured floor mats, whether made by Ford or any after-market retailer, on top of the standard, carpeted floor mat in the driver’s side foot well. In addition, all owners of these vehicles should ensure that any mat used is properly secured and never stacked.

Any Ford “All Weather” optional floor mat should be placed in the driver’s side foot well only after first unfastening and removing the standard, carpeted floor mat. This is the only way to ensure that the “All Weather” optional floor mat is physically secured to the floor. The Ford original equipment floor mats have special attachment opening points to safely secure them to the floor of the driver’s side foot well.

Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. has announced that he has asked to intervene in a lawsuit in order to protect newly adopted motor vehicle emission standards that are estimated to save nearly two billion barrels of oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately one billion tons.

Brown filed a motion to intervene in the U.S. Court of Appeals in support of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a suit brought by energy companies and other industries challenging the EPA's authority to enforce the tough emission standards beginning in 2012.

"The thousands of barrels of oil spilling in the Gulf of Mexico each day are a graphic reminder that we need to cut oil consumption in America," said Brown. "These regulations would do that, as well as vastly reducing pollution from tailpipe emissions."

The fallout from the Orange County auto body sting operation which swept up 53 shop owners and estimators earlier this month has already cost many of those implicated their DRP arrangements. Several major shops involved, with the notable exception of two of the state’s three Sterling shops owned by Allstate, have already had their DRPs cancelled by their insurer partners.

Details of the specific charges are still forthcoming, but those involved will likely be charged  under CP code 550b(2), which reads, in part:

(b) It is unlawful to do, or to knowingly assist or conspire with any person to do, any of the following:

(1) Present or cause to be presented any written or oral statement as part of, or in support of or opposition to, a claim for payment or other benefit pursuant to an insurance policy, knowing that the statement contains any false or misleading information concerning any material fact.

(2) Prepare or make any written or oral statement that is intended to be presented to any insurer or any insurance claimant in connection with, or in support of or opposition to, any claim or payment or other benefit pursuant to an insurance policy, knowing that the statement contains any false or misleading information concerning any material fact.

More than 300 auto industry representatives, community leaders, students, faculty and administrators celebrated the official grand opening of the 10,000 square-foot Automotive Partners Building at Cerritos College on Friday, May 21.

The event, held inside the facility's glass-lined showroom, marked the culmination of years of planning, fundraising and collaboration between the college, public officials and local auto dealers. Cerritos College apportioned community bond funding toward the $5.1-million facility, and major private donors included the Southland Motor Car Dealers Association (SMCDA) and the Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers Association (GLANCDA), who each contributed a half million dollars toward the facility. L. A. County 4th District Supervisor Don Knabe and the Conant Auto Retail Group each provided gifts of $100,000.

Caliber Collision Centers, an operator of collision repair facilities in California and Texas, has announced the acquisition of Collision Correction located in Houston.

Collision Correction, comprised of two state of the art repair centers, was founded in 1998 by owner/operator Terral Hill. The Woodlands Center, a 25,000 square foot facility, is located off of Kuykendahl Rd.

“This center is strategically located relative to our existing centers in the Houston market to provide additional coverage for our carriers. This is an excellent acquisition and a natural fit for Caliber as we execute our mission of being the collision repair center provider of choice in every community we serve,” said Steve Grimshaw, CEO of Caliber Collision Centers.

The second location is Caliber Collision Centers– Spring, a 26,500 square foot facility located off of I-45 and Louetta Road.

Paul Masters, the owner of Spray Gun Repair Inc. of 344 Chase Rd in Thompson, Connecticut, has been rebuilding and cleaning Spray Guns since 1976. 
At that time, he was working at his family-owned business, Masters Auto Body Supplies, where he learned to rebuild and properly clean spray guns to meet customer needs and to extend the useful life of their automotive paint spray guns.
Masters has heard the same stories from spray gun users in applications as different as furniture and cabinet refinishers to auto painters. He knows the prevailing attitude is “When my spray gun stops working properly, I toss it under my bench and buy a new one.”
This he knows to be a senseless waste of time and money. He’s identified four basic levels of spray gun maintainance: daily lubrication, periodic maintainance (best performed at the end of the work week), thorough cleaning (if the periodic maintainance doesn’t prevent the problem), and eventually rebuilding the spray gun (replacing all the gaskets, seals, and packings).
Masters views his business as both lean and green, in the same way a shop would view any more efficient, cost effective process. But he sees even greater demands now given the new EPA regulations for efficient transfer, whether a shop is spraying waterborne or solvent, or both.

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A U.S. House committee May 26 passed a sweeping auto-safety bill with a number of changes in the original legislation that had been sought by the auto industry and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

Amid partisan sparring, a House panel has advanced a sweeping U.S. auto safety bill that critics contend is too tough on the industry.

The legislation, approved 31-21 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the wake of the large Toyota Motor Corp. recalls, now goes to the full House, where lawmakers hope to pass it later this year.

Toyota has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles around the globe, leading to the first major review of auto safety laws in Congress in a decade.

Under provisions of the bill, automakers would be required to meet new safety standards to prevent unintended acceleration in vehicles -- a key issue in the Toyota recalls. They also would face new rules for brake override systems and vehicle black boxes and tougher penalties for slowing down a recall.

Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat and the committee's chairman, called it a "balanced bill'' that would "dramatically improve the safety of motor vehicles.''

But Republicans said the bill, including tougher fines, was overly harsh on the industry. They questioned efforts to boost federal funding for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and add user fees of $3 to $9 per vehicle to fund NHTSA's safety program.

"If you think this bill helps the automotive industry ... I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that I don't own that I'd be happy to sell to you,'' said Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican.

Democrats said the federal agency had been underfunded for years, limiting its ability to root out potential safety defects.

The bill empowers NHTSA to order a recall if it finds "substantial likelihood of death or serious injury to the public.'' Automakers could present information before the department issues a final order.

Automakers typically conduct voluntary safety recalls but if they disagree with the government on the need for one, NHTSA must develop a case for a recall and then hold a public hearing. The process can take months.

Car companies that fail to promptly report safety defects to the government would face tougher penalties of up to $200 million.

Toyota paid the maximum penalty of $16.4 million for a slow response to one of its recalls. Safety groups have called it inadequate and pushed for stiffer fines.

Auto executives who knowingly provide false information to the government could face penalties of up to $5 million under the proposal.

The new House Energy and Commerce Committee bill, which now goes to the floor of the House, would require installation of brake-override systems and event-data recorders, or black boxes, in the wake of Toyota's unintended acceleration problems.

Regulators also would have to consider standards for foot-pedal placement, electronic systems, push-button ignition systems and transmission configuration.

The bill leaves it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to decide on the timetable for industry to carry out many of the requirements. The original legislation outlined a time frame that automakers said was burdensome.

The committee also dropped a requirement that black boxes record crash data for 75 seconds, leaving it to NHTSA to decide on the technology provisions.

In addition, the legislation would increase maximum fines on automakers for safety defects from $16.4 million to $200 million,  amending an earlier version of the bill that would have eliminated a cap on penalties.

More transparency

NHTSA also would receive increases in funding and an expansion of its authority, and auto-safety information would become more transparent to consumers.
“The committee addressed a lot of our concerns,” said Michael Stanton, president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers.
The panel divided strictly along party lines in a 31-21 vote.
Stanton predicted that Congress would pass a bill by the fall and send it to President Barack Obama, who has endorsed the thrust of the legislation.
The congressional push follows Toyota's worldwide recalls of 10.6 million vehicles since the fall for sudden acceleration. U.S. regulators are investigating reports of 89 deaths in the United States. Toyota already has paid a record fine of $16.4 million.
A similar Senate bill has been introduced with at least one notable difference from the House measure: It would eliminate the cap on automaker fines. No dates have been set either for a vote by the Senate Commerce Committee or by the full House.

Doubling funding

The House measure would beef up NHTSA funding by phasing in fees on automakers of $9 a vehicle and by doubling federal funding to $280 million over three years.
“This bill will dramatically improve the safety of motor vehicles,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the energy and commerce panel.
The Transportation Department also would have the authority to order recalls if it determines that there is an “imminent hazard” of public danger. But the agency would have to give notice to the manufacturer and offer the automaker the right to appeal.
This appeal right, which was not in the original bill introduced by Waxman, had been sought by Dingell.
“The bill is going to be a hard one for the industry to accept, but I believe it's in the public interest and is good overall,” Dingell said.
Although Waxman bowed to Dingell on a number of provisions, he got the committee to add a revolving-door restriction. It would impose a one-year prohibition on lobbying of NHTSA by former NHTSA officials who join the industry.
The bill also contains a new requirement for an alert sound on electric or hybrid vehicles that allows detection by blind pedestrians.
Although the auto lobby got many of the changes it sought, the new bill still left many Republicans dissatisfied.
“I think this is a very bad, bad bill,” said Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the committee. “It's certainly not good for the automotive industry in America.”

Honda takes action

In a related development, Honda Motor Co. formally announced plans to install brake-override technology in Honda and Acura models.
“We are committed to applying brake priority logic on 100 percent of Honda and Acura passenger vehicles produced for the North American market by the end of calendar year 2011, with our first application coming to market in late August 2010,” Honda said in a statement.
A spokesman had outlined the initiative earlier this month.

The largest state collision association in the U.S., the California Autobody Association (CAA), formed in 1967 by merging two organizations in Glendale and Long Beach, making it the first group to represent the industry throughout all of California. Now, at age 43 and based in Sacramento, the CAA represents 1,000 members in 18 chapters from San Diego to Eureka.

“Some of our members do have mechanical facilities, and we have dealership body shops as members, but primarily, most members are independent collision repair shops,” explains David McClune, executive director and chief operating officer for the association.

Six state board members represent the CAA executive committee. The 2010 president is Gigi Walker, owner of Walker’s Auto Body in Concord. She notes: “An association is a place for knowledge, camaraderie and keeping up to date with legal issues facing an industry—and the CAA is fulfilling all of those roles admirably.”

McClune explains that the organization has been consistently involved in the issues facing the country’s most populous state—for cars and people.

In the ‘70s, the CAA was involved when the Bureau of Automotive Repairswas started in 1972. BAR oversees automotive repair operations in the state.

Today, new rules go into effect in the European Union requiring automobile manufacturers to share more technical data about their vehicles with independent repair shops and spare parts vendors.  The Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) is calling upon Congress to pass similar legislation pending in the U.S. Congress.  Please find attached the ARA Press Release on this issue.

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The 2011 Toyota Avalon and Sienna and 2010 Lexus RX have all earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick awards for 2010. This accolade recognizes vehicles that receive the highest score of Good for front-, side-, rollover-, and rear-crash protection and are equipped with electronic stability control. All of these models have standard stability control and standard side and head-curtain air bags.

The redesigned Sienna is the first minivan to earn the award since rollover protection was added to the criteria in 2010. The RX is the first Lexus to win the award, and the Avalon was a past winner in 2009.

The Toyota Avalon, Sienna, and Lexus RX join the Toyota Corolla and Scion xB to bring the number up to five Toyota company vehicles so far that earn the IIHS top score for crash protection.

Accelerated Paint & Body, 21714 Interstate 45 North, received the Winner of Distinction Award at the Better Business Bureau 2010 Awards for Excellence luncheon held Wednesday, May 5 at the InterContinental Houston near the Galleria. This was the first time Accelerated Paint & Body was eligible for the award after joining the BBB in 2009 and receiving a Gold Star Certificate from the BBB for maintaining a rating of A- or better in 2009.

The BBB Awards for Excellence recognizes businesses and non-profits for their achievements and commitment to overall excellence and quality in the workplace. Proceeds from the event help fund the BBB Education Foundation which educates consumers about scams and fraudulent business practices in the Greater Houston area.

When asked what it means to Accelerated Paint & Body to receive this recognition, Guy Ray, Co-owner and General Manager of Accelerated Paint & Body, states “We work hard to provide top notch personalized service to our customers and clients and it is an honor to be recognized for our efforts.”

The Massachusetts collision repair and automotive service industries united May 24 during an industry dinner meeting held in Marlborough, Mass. All three of the state's major automotive repair industry associations - the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Massachusetts (AASP/MA), the Massachusetts Auto Body Association (MABA) and the Central Massachusetts Auto Rebuilders Association (CMARA) - joined forces as one statewide industry association.

As per the new agreement, the association will carry on under the AASP/MA banner and be open to both collision and mechanical members. The new interim AASP MA Board of Directors, which will be in place until elections this November, will be led by former CMARA President Tom Ricci. Former AASP/MA President Rick Starbard and former MABA Chairman Paul Hendricks will jointly serve as vice presidents.

Irving police on May 27 asked North Texas auto body shops to be on the lookout for a car that investigators believe was damaged in a hit-and-run crash last week that killed a U.S. Marine on Texas 183.

Car parts recovered at the scene indicated that the Mazda Tribute sustained damage to the right side of the vehicle, Irving police said.

Investigators believe that someone has repaired it or will need an estimate on the repair.

Authorities are asking repair shop employees to call Irving police if they have any information on the car which could be white or silver.

Police also said that other witnesses were at the scene who have not come forward to make reports. Irving police appealed for those people to call.

On May 19, Evan Sanchey, 23, of Yakima, Wash. was struck and killed about 5:50 a.m. in the 4400 block of Texas 183 at the Esters Road exit ramp in Irving.

Sanchey had recently flown into Dallas/Fort Worth Airport from duty in Afghanistan and was at the airport awaiting connecting flight home, Irving police said.

Sanchey was hit by the Mazda Tribute as he crossed the freeway, Irving police said.

The car slowed down briefly, but drove away eastbound on Texas 183, Irving police said.

Anyone with information should call Irving police at 972-273-1010 or 972-721-2761.