Redding, CA CARS offers service to vets
CARS (California Auto Repair and Smog) in Redding will celebrate the new veterans home that is being built in Shasta County with complimentary concierge pickup and delivery for veterans’ vehicles.
Shreveport, Louisiana’s Caddo School Named ‘2010 School of the Year’
Caddo Career & Technology Center, a vocational high school in Shreveport, LA, was named the Tomorrow’s Technician/Chicago Pneumatic 2010 School of the Year.
Students’ training begins outside the classroom, where instructor Mike Falkner and other instructors greet them at the door with a firm handshake and a good morning. Shirts must be tucked in, name tags must be visible and they’re reminded to look people in the eye when they speak.
“We run our class just as though they were going to work,” said Gary Weese, who with Falkner teaches students about everything under a car from bumper to bumper.
On hand to present the award and tools to the school were representatives from Tomorrow’s Technician, program sponsors Chicago Pneumatic and WIX Filters and custom hot-rod designer, builder and painter Rich Evans of Huntington Beach Bodyworks.
More than 300 applications from secondary and community colleges were submitted for the contest, which recognizes the top automotive technical schools and instructors throughout the country. This was the first time a high school has won the award.
Stevens said the selection committee received a four-inch binder full of heartfelt recommendations from students, teachers, parents and community members about the school’s program. Student-teacher ratio, graduation rates and awards and recognitions also were considered.
So. Cal Shop Goes to DuPont™ Cromax® Pro for One-Coat Coverage
Doug Albin, owner of Body Works Collision Center in Murietta, California, knows paint. He’s been painting cars since he was in high school and has owned a body shop for nearly a decade, so he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to paint and painting systems.
Body Works Collision Center operates out of a 5,000-square-foot shop, generates $250,000 per month in sales, and performs 65–70 repairs monthly. The company employs 12–15 people depending on workload and seasonal spikes in business. Body Works specializes in repairing Toyotas, Hondas, Acuras and Mazdas, but they’ll work on any non-exotic vehicle on the road.
Albin, 41, has been in the body shop business for his entire life, as a master tech and a painter. He’s a second-generation shop owner who worked every summer with his father’s body shop while in high school and also completed training to be a master painter shortly thereafter.
“My dad’s shop was called Albin’s Classic Cars in Newport Beach, and he worked restoring high-end expensive cars,” Albin said. “It was a great education, because I was allowed to step in and work on different types of vehicles. Some people are born to follow their parents’ career path and I gravitated toward the body business from day one.”
By doing rather than simply delegating every aspect of collision repair over the years, Albin has a unique and invaluable perspective of how to run a body shop from top-to-bottom and front-to-back.
Northwestern Louisiana Collision Repair Association Offers Estimating Courses
The Northwestern Louisiana Collision Repair Association (NWLCRA) held several estimating courses May 11, 12 and 13 at the Louisiana Technical School Collision in Shreveport, LA.
Mitchell International sponsored the courses which were taught by Dave Gauthier and provided basic as well as advanced techniques in the collision repair estimation field.
Two Best Practices beginners’ courses were taught for free as well as an Advanced Estimating course which carried a $25 fee.
Bill Burnside, NWLCRA past president and coordinator of this event, said, “It went fairly well, we had a good turnout.” He also said that the association would not object to holding the courses again in the future if interest was expressed from industry people in the area.
The Northwestern Louisiana Collision Repair Association helps to promote the automotive collision industry as a whole as well as educating the public and people in the industry about proper repairs.
The association also tackles industry issues and news during their meetings to inform members. The NWLCRA meets monthly to talk about news events and learn from industry speakers. More information can be found on their website at www.nwlcra.org.
California Shop Credits Mitchell’s Ultramate and RepairCenter for Managing Growth
Precision Body Shop & Detail, with two locations in Colma and San Rafael, CA, has grown rapidly, with more and more cars coming through every month. Having lots of work can be a blessing or a curse, because organizational and production bottlenecks can arise in minutes within a busy work environment.
Precision has not only survived, but thrived during a recession. They give a lot of credit to Mitchell International Inc. and the decision to adopt their market-leading business management systems.
Precision Body Shop & Detail was started 10 years ago with just three employees detailing cars primarily for new car dealerships throughout the Bay Area. In 2004, Precision’s dealerships started inquiring about doing minor body work on their fleets and the company jumped at the opportunity.
“We started out doing primarily paint, panel and hanging bumpers to go with our detailing for dealerships,” Caprini said.“Then, we realized we should do it all. So, starting in ’06, we began pursuing all forms of collision repair and it’s been a great business model for us.”
Caprini and his partner Lou Hanhan have tapped into their complementary skills to create a company that makes a profit and is poised for expansion.
Was this Noise Caused by the Repair?
Almost everyone in the collision industry has experienced this scenario: You repair a vehicle – in this case, a Chevrolet® Suburban® – to the highest standard possible. The owner takes delivery and drives off smiling. A few days later, he brings it back with a noise that he insists was not present before the repair. He describes a buzzing noise from the right-hand fender.
What do you do? If you have OE information, including technical service bulletins (TSBs) available to you, you do a little research. Technical service bulletins are published by automobile manufacturers primarily to identify factory defects, safety related problems and recognized issues for which the manufacturer has published a solution.
As it turns out, the General Motors® had already issued a TSB describing the exact situation I just described.
Body - Buzz/Rattle From R/H Front Fender on Acceleration
Subject
Loud Buzz or Rattle Noise from Right Front Fender Area on Moderate to Hard Acceleration and/or Braking Torquing Around 1800-2000 RPMs or Before 1-2 or 2-3 Shift (Install Closed Cell Foam to Right Front Fender)
Models:
2007-2008 Cadillac® Escalade®, Escalade ESV®, Escalade EXT®
2007-2008 Chevrolet® Avalanche®, Silverado®, Suburban®, Tahoe®
2007-2008 GMC® Sierra®, Yukon®, Yukon Denali®
The Autoholics: A New TV Show Concept that might be Addictive
Get ready for the craziest, most outrageous highly addictive automotive show on television. That’s if and when the pilot for The Autoholics hits the air in the near future.
Crash Element Entertainment, in Los Angeles, the producers of the new show, is touting The Autoholics as a combination of the “Best Damn Sports Show” meets “Martha Stewart,” and is preparing to pitch it to the major TV networks, Creator, Co-Producer, and Co-Host Diggity Dave told Autobody News.
“We think this show would fit very nicely on Saturday right after the automotive racing. We think it’s worthy to be on one of the major networks where it can hit its prime audience every week. We feel this would be a perfect time of the weekend for automotive fans to watch The Autoholics.”
Each week, The Autoholics will feature a panel consisting of some top names in the automotive and entertainment field, including Diggity Dave (credits include Pimp My Ride, Battleground Earth); Rich Evans (Chop Cut Rebuild, Monster Garage); Comic Billy Gardell (King of Queens, My Name is Earl); Bo Butner (NHRA world champion driver), and “Flames” (Host of Ford Motors Mustang Alley/Gilpin Auto Sports).
This assemblage of automotive expertise will hold court every week on their new and amazing set at Huntington Beach Bodyworks, Rich Evans’ shop, that’s been transformed into a rock ‘n roll romper room.
Building a Custom Trophy for ‘The School of the Year’
This month we’re going to cover a little different category than repair steps and procedures or building hot rods or repairing vehicles We’re going to talk about getting creative and using your mind to build with car parts. I wrote a column in Autobody News (Sept. 09) about building a trophy for a Long Beach car show which was a big charity event last year. Ed Sunkin, an editor from Tomorrow’s Technician (a Babcox company), contacted me saying “I read that article on that trophy you built. We’ve got this school of the year award coming up and we wanted to know if you want to build a trophy?”
I said “You know what, I’m into it. I dig stepping away from everyday routine and trying out something different. I actually had fun when I built the trophy for the Long Beach Car show.”
I started wrapping my head around it and with help from Chicago Pneumatics and Tomorrow Technician, also WIX had joined us for this, our third year into this event and contest. This year there were more than 300 applications nominating more than 163 schools, the four finalists were Arapahoe Community College, Littleton, CO; Caddo Career and Technical Center, Shreveport, LA; Spokane Community College, Spokane, WA; and Carroll County Career & Technology Center, Westminster, MD.
Silsbee Texas Gets New Fasulo’s Paint and Body Shop
Fasulo’s Paint and Body Shop unveiled their second Texas location in Silsbee, TX, 20 miles north of their flagship shop in Beaumont, this April and was able to receive over $70,000 in repair jobs during just their first month.
David Fenner, the owner of both locations, couldn’t be happier with the productivity of both shops during this challenging economic period. The Fasulo family originally approached Fenner about buying Fasulo’s Paint and Body a few years ago; Fenner has been renovating and growing the business ever since he purchased it in 2005.
“We’ve actually been growing in Beaumont as well as in the Silsbee location,” said Fenner.
Fenner and his wife, Lisa, have managed to preserve the family-run shop feel while still growing the business and even opening a second location.
“Usually if I’m in one shop, she’s in the other so one of us is always at each location,” said Fenner.
The decision to start up another location during a declining economy came easy to Fenner, who said several insurance companies he works with expressed to him a need for a good repair shop to service clients in the Silsbee area.
The Beaumont location boasts a 22,000 square-foot facility, employing 18 people and pulling in about $2 million in revenue per year. The Silsbee location operates out of a 7,500 square-foot air-conditioned facility and employs 6 people; Fenner hopes this location will be able to draw in about $1 million annually once it gets going.
Randy A. Harris, Collision Student at Ohio Tech College Wins Flying Tiger Design Contest
Writes Randy: “I was born in Cleveland Ohio, and grew up in a small city called Wickliffe where four siblings, a nephew and I were raised by my single mother. Since I can remember I’ve had a pencil in my hand, drawing. I couldn’t get enough of it and had a passion for cars.
Nothing can beat old American Muscle cars: Camaros, Cudas, Mustangs, etc. While looking for a way to implement both of my passions into one for a career, I found OTC. Here is where I developed these passions through the collision and repair and custom paint courses.
One day my class was told about a contest to design a picture for a tiger statue for the 2010 Year of The Tiger Celebration. The Year of The Tiger public art project celebrates Cleveland’s Asian Town community. St. Clair Superior’s blossoming arts district and its thriving business community. The project is in commemoration of the Chinese Year of the Tiger which began with the new moon February 14, 2010.
I knew I wanted to do something noble, strong. A protector. The tiger statue was given to me where the first thing I started ground off the main under the jaw. The second thing was laying out my design. Third, start sculpting the armor out of a material called magic sculpt. This product gets rock hard and needs to be sanded. The wings have a metal frame that is welded together and actually sit over the tiger’s shoulders like a saddle and then I put magic sculpt over the frame. And fourth, I painted and cleared it and the finished product is what you see here.
During this creation I received help and encouragement from some people that I would like to thank, Mr. Downy, Mike Donahue, and Mr. Gold.
