Bill Willix had a funny notion back in 1989. The former parts salesman had seen firsthand how much electronics had revolutionized the automotive repair industry. Technicians who could build distributors from a few scraps of plastic and old newspapers froze when they saw a computer chip. 

Employees are filing lawsuits against employers and supervisors in record numbers, alleging damages in excess of workers' compensation insurance for personal injuries. 

As the end of the year rapidly approaches and people take time to evaluate their personal and financial situations, these are words to take to heart. Many of the salvage yards and repair facilities that I talk to are complaining that business is flat or down. The economy is having a tough time getting going and business has been better, but it has also been worse. One of the problems that I see is that people have difficulty shrinking their overhead to match the current sales volume of their business. 

Thanksgiving… Come and gone. NACE…Come and gone. Hanukkah and Christmas…Come and gone. New Years…Come and gone. 

"Community requires commitment." When I read this quote recently, I was struck head-on with the irony of how this applies to our business. How often do we make a commitment and actually follow through with it? Pure excitement persuades our signature to the dotted line, promising commitment, but follow-through is often lacking. 

If you've ever been to one of those Body Shop Management seminars, you've probably seen the math: Sale - Cost = Profit. The speaker probably made a big deal out of it Those guys all act so smart explaining something so simple. Big deal. 

Like a lot of people, I know enough about the current computer technologies to break things and call someone who knows what to do to fix it for me. That is a major handicap to overcome in today's world where everyone is striving to go electronic for locating parts. 

Following are excerpts from a book that the author says will be published this summer: "Wrecked!" - a "tell-all" book about the collision industry. The author promises the book will explore innovative solutions and alternatives for shop owners to consider as a means of improving their probability for financial success.

The news is not good. Total loss rates have more than doubled since 2002 and are continuing to rise. This translates into hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs and revenues that are no longer going to the collision repair industry in this country. 

My beloved Steelers have won the Super Bowl and, on a personal front, all seems right with the world. However, a number of articles concerning the disposition of flood cars from Hurricane Katrina are causing me some concern. 

I had what I thought was a small project, but it turned out to be harder than expected. Tom Foster is a buddy and a serious bike builder who’s been around for a couple of decades. He’s got a bike called an EVO HD Bushido that he’s building, and he came to me do the body and paint work.  

A couple of months ago I was approached by my buddies, Kevin and Victor, about making a unique trophy for this year’s charity Long Beach Car show. We wanted it to be unique and authentic and it occurred to me to use scraps and miscellaneous parts from around the shop.

At Huntington Beach Bodyworks, we recently began a new project: restoring a ’57 Chevy Bel-Air. In this article we will focus on the main ‘showpiece’ of this car, a custom airbrushed headliner. For this project I brought in airbrush artist Matt Van Wingerden after seeing some of his amazing mural and portrait work.

I’ve got a couple of Harley tanks that a customer wants to repaint. He’s had this paint job for 10 years and it’s got a couple cracks where the tank is leaking and the paint is starting to bubble up. He wants it done in the identical color using flames.

This 2008 GT Mustang is going to be the first numbered car in a series. It’s also the first car I’ve done using a waterborne refinish, thanks to PPG’s Envirobase.®

Rich Evans uses only Chicago Pneumatic orbital sanders, which he believes are the best orbital sanders on the market, to create award winning designs at Huntington Beach Bodyworks.

This month I will be discussing my father’s 1958 Chevy Pickup. The truck has a lot of history and sentimental value to my father. It was originally purchased in 1958 by my grandfather who was a farmer in Brighton, South Dakota. My father grew up and learned to drive in this truck and about 10 years ago, he was given the truck by my grandfather. It was still running and in decent shape, but after 50 years of service, it was in need of a fresh facelift. 

Recently I was putting a completed project together – reinstalling the hood, deck lid, and doors. You don’t have to be in this business to know that no matter how meticulous you try to be, things usually don’t go back together as easily as it was to take them apart – especially with cars and even more so with a custom car. When you get a new project for custom paint and body work, you first mock up the car, break it down, do the custom body work and paint, clear it, buff it, and put the whole thing back together again.

This month, I thought that I would tell you about a recent project involving a new metallic silver Hemi Charger. This project wasn’t as complicated as some of our others and there were no custom fabrications, however, it was a very nicely upgraded vehicle that turned out beautifully.

So I thought we should talk about two projects that are different from our usual topics. One is a 1950 Chevy Coupe and the other is Gene Winfield’s own 1932 Roadster. We previously talked about bubble tops and how to form them using heating and forced air to create a bubble for a space-age type coupe. However, I believe that these particular projects will represent a process that could be more useful.

Here’s a good one for you. I recently finished a project at Huntington Beach Bodyworks that you might enjoy hearing about. It was a retro bobber-style chopper for Matt Hotch Designs. Matt Hotch is considered one of the most talented, original, and innovative motorcycle designers alive today. He is also one of the biggest stars of the popular “Biker Build Off” television series and will be appearing again in its next season.

When I decided to add a custom motorcycle department to my medieval-themed shop, the first name that came to mind was Johnny Chop. What I liked immediately about him was his reputation for being an actual craftsman and not just a builder. He already had ties to Huntington Beach, so  it seemed like a good idea to at least approach him to get his thoughts. Once we met and ironed out some details, Johnny moved his bikes to the shop and joined our Huntington Beach Bodyworks crew.

Going through my photo gallery the other day, I came across a project that I’m surprised I have not written about yet. It was such an interesting project, I should have gone into detail about it a long time ago.

Okay, let’s talk a little bit about a subject every painter encounters. It’s not one of the best aspects of the job, because it’s often very uncomfortable. I’m talking about all the gear we have to wear to keep us clean and keep the paint job as smooth as possible. Unfortunately it’s an absolute necessity.

Our story begins in 1963 with Bill Cushenbery and his Silhouette hot rod. Cushenbery was an extremely talented car customizer in the same era as George Barris. Although they were competing car customizers in Hollywood, the two did collaborate on a certain car—you may have heard of the Batmobile?

Last month’s article discussed creating plugs. You should have a polished and finished prototype plug, ready to make molds.

This process is similar to the plug process, since we use the same materials, steps, and techniques. The mold is an exact mirror image of the plug and is what will be used to reproduce new prototype parts over and over again.

In last month’s article, I talked about our race against the clock to complete the customizing of the Ford Mustang GT in time for SEMA. Now that the dust has cleared, I’ll explain in more detail the mock-up procedure for our new parts, including how our plugs were made.

The Chicago Pneumatic Quiet Rotary Screw Air Compressor is what we use here at Huntington Beach Bodyworks to power everything from tools and airbrushes to inflating tires, painting and cleaning. Designed to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it pays for itself in short order.

When the automobile was first mass produced, it spawned several different industries, including our own auto body industry. No sooner did cars come off the assembly line, then individuals began souping them up and changing their appearance – bringing forth the custom auto body industry as well.

If you are repairing an older vehicle or restoring a classic car, it is not always possible to obtain an OEM part or the cost may be prohibitive. This is where aftermarket parts can really help a lot. As you know, OEM parts are those made by the original manufacturer of the parts your vehicle came with. Aftermarket parts include everything outside of that – made by an independent manufacturer who intended the part to work the same way as the original.

    A recent project we had at the shop involved a group of six, sit-down Sea-Doo jet skis. The client wanted to enhance the brand new skis with graphics and artwork. The jet skis shared a common theme, each one with its own variation on the design. The layout included an art piece up front and a smaller one at the rear, with fire throughout.

The finished rim.

    One of the easiest ways to customize any vehicle is with a new set of rims. In recent years it has become popular to purchase rims with centers that match your paint and a nice chrome finish on the lip of the rim.
    If the style or brand of rim is not offered with a painted center or if the color of the center is not what you want, custom painting is the solution. Whether you choose to customize a particular set of rims on the market or decide to enhance rims you already own, both can be prepped and painted. A recent customer wanted black centers and airbrushed skulls on the center caps of his brand new set of rims, and the following steps describe how this was accomplished.

Applying custom graphics and artwork to helmets can sometimes be a little troublesome. Helmets can be just as time consuming, if not more, as painting a motorcycle tank. This is because with helmets there are many more parts and materials that need to be masked and protected.

A couple of weeks back I had the opportunity to host a workshop“The First Ever Auto Painting Workshop with Gene Winfield,” sponsored by The College for Appraisers, Alsa Paints, and DeVilbiss Automotive. It was a great time hosting and watching a master at work—Winfield, my good friend and mentor. I’ve learned a lot from Gene and been fortunate enough to receive his skills and experience on some of our Huntington Beach Bodyworks builds. What’s really amazing is that Gene just turned 81 years old and shows no sign of slowing down.

A common problem that often gums up the works of the collision repair process is the customer with a near-impossible deadline. Even if the needed repairs are second nature, the time deadline can interfere with performing established shop procedures and the technician's better judgment. 

A few years ago my shop flamed a Corvette convertible. It was a black 'vette with yellow pearl flames. Recently a client, who saw the car in a show on the East Coast, wanted to buy the 'vette, but it had already been sold. He proceeded to purchase a 1998 Corvette convertible and have it shipped directly to my shop - Huntington Beach Bodyworks. 

Almost two years ago, I decided to design some helpful tools for the custom paint industry, primarily focusing on the automotive airbrushing profession. Having been involved with airbrush artists since I dove into the custom paint industry many years ago, I've watched the profession evolve first hand. 

Do you have a project car that has been sandblasted down to bare metal and needs a spectacular finish? To explain in detail the complete process of transforming a bare metal vehicle into a show quality finish, the project I'm breaking down is a 1956 Chevy Bel Air Convertible. 

One project that has brought me a lot of recognition, and was most rewarding as well, has to be the Meguiar's big rigs. At the Super Chevy Show in 2002, I displayed one of my skulled out trucks which caught the attention of Meguiar's driver John. He later approached me and explained that Meguiar's had just recently purchased two new big rigs and were looking for the right person to lay down the custom graphics. Mike Kennedy of Meguiar's asked me for an estimate or quote for the job - typical procedure for a paint shop. 

I recently added the Chicago Pneumatic QRS Quiet Rotary Screw air compressor to my shop because of its quiet operation, smooth and pulse-free air output, compact size, high output volume, low vibration, prolonged service intervals, and long life.

While working on a radically custom '56 Chevy Hardtop called the Black Knight, I called upon Todd Oneal of Bassani Exhaust to collaborate with me on a very extreme exhaust system.

 By Rich Evans

{mosimage}After all the plotting, back masking, priming and prepping, it is finally time to paint the flames on the Meguiar's rigs, with a focus on the airbrushing techniques of Huntington Beach Bodyworks' master artist Terry Stephens.

It’s time for the latest installment of Barons In The Buff, a collage of candid quotes from the mind-trust of insurance personnel, those who once walked in their shoes, and from those of us who know them all too well. We trust you will find these quotes educational and entertaining, and encourage you to send us any notable quotes. Remember, the truth is always “stranger than fiction.”