May 2012 Southeast Edition

Gunder’s Auto Center of Lakeland,Fla., has received settlement pay-ments from State Farm, 21st Centuryand Security National for processesand materials Gunder’s says they pre-viously refused to pay.

On behalf of and at the request ofhis customers, owner Ray Gunderfiled legal complaints against 21stCentury and Security National. Lastweek, Gunder’s received notice thatboth had agreed to pay charges forpreviously denied items includingpaint and materials, parts return fees,and miscellaneous processes and pro-cedures necessary to perform properrepairs. They also agreed to pay alllegal costs and attorney’s fees, whichamounted to $3,314 and $1,690 , re-spectively.

In the week ofApril 15, Gunder’sreceived a settlement payment of$346 from State Farm after the shopfiled a Civil Remedy Notice. The in-surer elected to settle rather than go

before a judge and jury for previouslydenied processes and materials.

In the same week, a second law-suit was filed against Travelers fornon-payment of a parts return fee re-sulting from the acquisition and returnof what Gunder’s claims were “ill-fit-ting” aftermarket parts—a fee thatGunder says “most, if not all othercarriers, now pay.”

“The more we do, the faster theyseem to settle,” says Gunder. “Thebest thing is that more and more in-surers and claims people are payingwhat is fair and reasonable to avoidbeing sued. The need for legal actionis decreasing as more insurers paywhat is fair and reasonable.

“We have a reputation for qualitywork, and I hear on a regular basisnow, ‘I’m told to pay Gunder’s whatyou ask for because we know you’regoing to do it… and actually Ray, wewould pay other shops in your area

Police have uncovered a huge cacheof parts stolen from a nearby Nissanplant, and from other sources, at aJackson auto body business. Follow-ing tips from residents, officers raidedPrecious Automotive Auto BodyRestoration, on Gault Street, just off

Highway 80 in Jackson, on April 18.Authorities said a majority of the mer-chandise came from the Nissan Plantin Canton. Crates full of Nissan partsand components were stored insidethe building.

They include catalytic converters,

airbags, wire harnesses, batteries andheadlight assemblies. Several stolenvehicles were also recovered. J.P.D.detectives arrested the building owner,48-year old Eric Brown. He ischarged with operating a chop shop,auto theft, receiving and possession ofstolen property and marijuana posses-sion.

“Detectives including officers ar-rived on scene and noticed approxi-mately half a million dollars worth ofmerchandise that was from the Nissanproduction center,” said J.P.D. OfficerColendula Green.

“We did surveillance on the prop-erty, came back out here today, did achop shop inspection and from that in-spection it revealed that there wasitems out here taken from differentareas. Most items we discovered camefrom the Nissan plant,” said Sgt. L.C.Russell with the Auto Theft Division.

“Nissan has beenmade aware that

By May 10, 2011 over 150 tornadoeswere reported in Alabama and over130 reported in Mississippi, bothstates lead the nation in reported/con-firmed tornadoes so far this year. Asof last year Alabama tops the list forthe most EF-5 tornadoes in the nation,since 1950. Before that, Alabama hadbeen tied with Texas, Oklahoma, Iowaand Kansas with six EF-5 tornadoes.

This year Florida is the nation’sNo. 1 state for frequency of tornadoes,according to a ranking by TheWeather Channel. Kansas ranks No.2.

The storms hit a maximum-secu-rity prison outside of Huntsville, Ala.,blowing down roughly 1,000 feet offence around the prison and causingdamage to the roof of two dormitories.Prison officials reported that the

prison, which houses roughly 2,100inmates was secure and no inmates es-caped.

In Harvest, Ala., James and JudyHarvest lost their home to apparenttornadoes for the second time in lessthan a year.

“I just think having to go througheverything again,” Judy Harvest said.

Florida has the unenviable lead inthe number of tornadoes per 10,000square miles between 1991 and 2010.Take into account intensity and thelength and width of a twister’s pathand Florida falls out of the Top 10.

The list is meant to raise aware-ness about the tornado threat as partsof the nation reel from a rash of tor-nadoes that have been coming at three

Alabama Led Nation In Severe Tornados in2011, This Year it’s Florida

Major ‘Chop Shop’ Busted in Jackson, MS,Owner Arrested, $500K in Nissan Parts Found

See Gunder’s Lawsuits, Page 10

See Severe Tornados, Page 8

Gunder’s Receives Settlement Payments fromThree Insurers, Files Suit Against Travelers

See Stolen Nissan Parts, Page 7

of 3issues

SPECIALPAINT ISSUE

PAINT & REFINISH TECHNOLOGIES

Some of the $500,000 in Nissan-coded Partsfound at the Jackson, MS, body shop

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REGIONALAlabama Led Nation In Severe Tornados in2011, This Year it’s Florida. . . . . . . . . . . 1

Another Lakeland, FL, Shop Files Breachof Contract Suit Against ProgressiveInsurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Birmingham Business is Booming SaysLocal BBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Body Shop Owner Eddie Lopez ShotDead in Early, TX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Florida Collision Industry Legal SeminarGets Strong Support, Calls Heard to“Take it On the Road”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Florida’s PIP System Said to the Victim inArrest of ‘Dirty Dozen’ Insurance FraudDefendents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Gunder’s Receives Settlement Payments from3 Insurers, Files Suit Against Travelers . . 1

I-CAR Hosted Golf Tournament Fundraiserfor CREF in GA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Major ‘Chop Shop’ Busted in Jackson,MS, Owner Arrested, $500K inNissan Parts Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Man Steals Truck and Tools from BodyShop Then Crashes Truck throughDoor to Steal Hand Guns . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Miami-Dade Warehouse Fire SuspectsBody Shop Source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

New “U Pull It” Auto Shredder Set Upin Davie, FL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Special 2011 Ford Shelby Sells Twice atBarrett-Jackson in Palm Beach, FL. . . . . 4

COLUMNISTSFranklin - “Power Babes” Throw aSuccessful Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Mainstream Media - Complaints Lead to Arrestof Ohio Car Restoration Business Owner . 32

Nigro - Reaching Beyond TraditionalAdvertising to Engage Your Customers. 16

Sherosky - Aluminum Stock—A Long-TermAuto-Related Opportunity?. . . . . . . . . . 20

Sisk - CCRE 2012 Seminar—Taking Backthe Collision Repair Industry. . . . . . . . . 28

Sisk - Sharing the Message with CCREPresident Tony Lombardozzi . . . . . . . . 36

Weaver - “GI—Think Like a Mechanic!” . . 27Yoswick - Standards Program in the U.K.Offers Lessons for the U.S. . . . . . . . . . 31

NATIONALAAIA and ASE Recognize World ClassTechnicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Anderson - Rich Evans CoSponsorsFundraiser for Baby Cancer Foundation . 43

BodyshopBids Helps Pay for Dallas-AreaTornado Damaged Vehicles . . . . . . . . . 18

Boyd Group Achieves Record Sales in2011, Acquisitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

CAPA Adds SF Insurance Executive to Board. 14CAPA Elects Clark Plucinski as Board

President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22CARSTAR & Mitchell Inc. Join Effortson Store Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

CollisionPartsSource.com Platform NowAvailable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Diamond Standard Says its WarrantyExceeds the OEMs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

DOE to Accelerate New High-TechMaterials for Autos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Enterprise Elite Service Partner ProgramLaunches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Farmers Recognizes Caliber Collsion asMSO of the Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Former MLB Pitcher, Now MotivationalSpeaker, Engages East Bay CAAMembers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Gyant Compliance’s New ‘Vocwebmanager’Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

I-CAR Adds Live Demos to its SpotWelding Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Insurer Report Card in Oregon Ranks StateFarm #1, Farmers and GEICO ReplaceAllstate at Lowest Rank . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Iowa Collision Repair Centers Raise$1,329 for Charity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

JD Power Says Customer Satisfaction isDown in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

LKQ’s ‘Promise of Protection Program’has Launched . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

MN Court Awards $157K in Progressive Ins.Underpays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

OSHA Publishes Final “Right toUnderstand” Rule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Peter Vann Joins Urethane SupplyCompany Sales Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Poway, CA, Navy Veteran Has VehiclePainted to Honor Troops. . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Registration for SEMA 2012 is Now Openfor Attendees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

VW Names OEConnection as CollisionProgram Provider. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Women’s Industry Network Adds NewBoardmembers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

PAINT SPECIALA Decade of Innovation Turns Paint Industry Literally Upside Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Airbrush Artist Shannon MacDonald UsesPPG Envirobase to Bring Icons to Life on Vehicles and Just About Everything Else. 34

AkzoNobel Holds North American Independent Distributor Conference in Boca April 24–26 . 9

Collision Repair Estimates—ExcellenceNow Required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Matrix System Launches World’s FirstPremium Low VOC Solvent Basecoat . . 40

PCL Automotive Products Help Rich Evans Excel on Every Project he Touches . . . . 15

Standox® Partnership In Excellence (PIE) Member Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Top Chicago Painter Prefers Preval’s vFanAirbrush for Mobility & Versatility . . . . . 21

Contents

Southeast

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Erica SchroederContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, Stefan Gesterkamp, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio,Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Dan Espersen, Tom McGee, Jeff Webster, Rich Evans,Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Jay Lukes (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Kristy NavarroArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the auto body industry. Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2012 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsBox 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018; (800) 699-8251 (760) 721-0253 Faxwww.autobodynews.com Email: [email protected]

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 41Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47CSS USA, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Delray Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Don Reid Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Filtersforbooths.com. . . . . . . . . . . . 16Ford Wholesale Parts DealersFL, GA, AL, MS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Global Imports MINI . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Gus Machado Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Hendrick Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25

Hyundai of Orange Park . . . . . . . . . 22Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 42Jerry Ulm Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge. 12-13Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers. 19Mazda Wholesale Parts . . . . . . . . . 45Mercedes-Benz Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 38

Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers. 41MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 23Nalley BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Nissan Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 44Palmers Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35PCL Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . 46PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Safety Regulation Strategies . . . . . 39Sam Galloway Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . 6SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . . 7SCA Appraisal Company . . . . . . . . 29Serra Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Serra Automotive Group. . . . . . . . . . 5Solution Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Southtowne Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . 29Star-A-Liner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Subaru of Gwinnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 39Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 42Volkswagen Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Inde

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www.autobodynews.com | MAY 2012 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

New Talent to Serve Readers Better at Autobody News

Melanie Anderson joined the Autobody News editorialteam in April, 2012 as Assistant Editor. She receivedher Journalism degree from Humboldt State Uni-versity and has been a professional writer formore than 20 years. Her background in-cludes working as a newspaper reporter,a freelance writer and as a public rela-tions and marketing communica-tions professional. Melanie

recently re-located back to San Diego county afterhaving raised two kids in northern California. Sheis very happy to be back in the area. For fun,Melanie enjoys travel, photography, explor-ing locally, gardening and spending timewith family and friends. If you have astory idea, please contact her at(800) 699-8251 or email tom a n d e r s o n@ a u t o b o -dynews.com.

Jay Lukes joined the Au-tobody News sales and mar-

keting team in April, 2012 as aRegional Sales Manager. Originally

from the Chicago area, he has spentthe last 25 years in Southern California.

He has worked in the marketing and adver-tising community since graduating from Cal

Poly San Luis Obispo and enjoys the relationshipshe builds with his clients. Jay’s most recent position

was coordinating ad sales forGoogle’s online clients. When he’s

not working, Jay likes spending timewith his family, Notre Dame Football and

traveling, preferably to Cabo San Lucas. He’salso an avid sailor having boated everywhere

from Lake Michigan to Panama. Call Jay about anad in any of our editions, or just to say “Hi” at 800-

699-8251 or email [email protected]

This year, at the Barrett-Jackson PalmBeach auction, one special unit wassold not once, but twice. A very spe-cial-edition 2011 Ford Shelby GT500was sold twice in a row Saturday atthe Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auc-tion, raising $950,000 for theWounded Warriors Family Supportfoundation.

The red, white and blue Shelby,signed by dozens of veterans, familiesand supporters from all over the coun-try, was hammered sold for $500,000to a thunderous cheer from the auctioncrowd, which rose to a fevered pitchwhen the winner of the sale, RonnieRains of Odessa, Texas, donated thecar back to be sold again.

Rains, an Army veteran whoserved in Viet Nam and Europe, saidhe wanted to give the car back for re-bidding because of his strong personalsupport for the Wounded Warriors or-ganization and similar veteran’sgroups.

“This is what it’s all about righthere,” said auction president SteveDavis. “God bless America!”

The group’s chairman, Army Lt.General John Sylvester (retired), withhis arm around Rains’ shoulders,added, “God bless America and Godbless Americans.”

With that, auctioneer SpankyAs-sister started his patter over again,with the second sale quickly reaching$450,000 and sold to Jack Miller, aJupiter, Fla., collector and restorer ofFord Mustangs.

The sales of the wrapped special-edition 2011 Ford Shelby GT500,signed by veterans, their family mem-bers and supporters, eventually raisedover a million dollars for WoundedWarriors Family Support.

Commenting on the news, Col.John Folsom, founder of the organiza-tion, noted, “WoundedWarriors Fam-

ily Support is a small, independentnon-profit organization that providessupport to the families of U.S. Sol-diers, Sailors, Airmen and Marineswho have been wounded, injured orkilled during combat operations.

“We are so grateful for the gener-ous support of the auction participantsand the American people. We are es-pecially grateful for the team at Bar-rett-Jackson for their tremendous help.The money raised through this auctionwill enable us to help military familiesin so many ways,” he continued.

At the auction, Folson addressedthe crowd, saying the car is signed bypeople from all across the country—though President Barack Obama is notamong them, yet.

Folsom hopes to garner PresidentObama’s signature on this year’s car,as he will begin the third annual na-tionwide High Five Tour this June,with a 2012 Mustang GT500.

On the 48-state tour, Folsom in-tends to “meet as many Americans aspossible and thank them for their sup-port of military families who havegiven so much,” officials noted.

“The High Five Tour will make astop in Washington, D.C., on July 7. Iwould be honored to have PresidentObama sign the 2012 car,” Folsomadded.

President of Barrett-Jackson Honoredfor DonationIn other news from the auction group,Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson, was recently honored at the8th Annual Armed Forces Congres-sional Gala Dinner with the “Con-gressman Bill and Mrs. BeverlyYoung Humanitarian of the YearAward.”

He was recognized for the dona-tion of his personal custom 1964 FordFairlane, which was donated to beauctioned for theArmed Forces Foun-dation, an organization that helps mil-itary members and families in times ofneed, at the 2011 Barrett-Jackson LasVegas Collector Car Auction this pastSeptember.

“Entrepreneur Ron Pratte suc-cessfully bid on the car for $700,000and then promptly and altruisticallydonated the car back to the ArmedForces Foundation, to be bid on againat the 2012 Barrett-Jackson ScottsdaleAuction in January,” officials ex-plained.

Then, in January, Ted McIntyre,

chief executive officer of Louisiana-based Marine Turbine Technologies,successfully bid on the Fairlane for $1million.

“The reaction at both auctionswas beyond enthusiastic and Barrett-Jackson waived all consignment feesat both auctions,” the company re-ported.

But this car’s story doesn’t stopthere.

During the Gala, McIntyre an-nounced that that he would be donat-ing the car back to the Armed ForcesFoundation and it would be sold once

again at a futureBarret t -Jacksonauction.

“I am beyondhumbled to be a re-cipient of this pres-tigious award,”said Davis. “To seethe outpouring ofsupport we gener-ated for our troopsand their familieswas spectacular. Iam so honored tobe able to helpthose who fight forour country; it isthese men and

women who make me proud to be anAmerican.”

Barrett-Jackson has raised morethan $39 million for various charita-ble organizations since 2006, andmore than $45 million since its firstauction, the company said.


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Special 2011 Ford Shelby Sells Twice at Barrett-Jackson in Palm Beach, FL

Marine Col. John Folsom (back to camera)talks with (from left) Barrett-Jackson presi-dent Steve Davis, retired Army Lt. GeneralJohn Sylvester, auction CEO Craig Jacksonand Ronnie Rains, who bought the car anddonated it back to sell again. (Photo: BobGolfen)

The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 traveled through most of the nationgathering signatures, said Marine Col. John Folsom, who foundedWounded Warriors Family Support. (Photo: Bob Golfen)

Group Wounded Warrior: Marine Col.John Folsom (back to camera) talks with(from left) Barrett-Jackson presidentSteve Davis, retired Army Lt. GeneralJohn Sylvester, auction CEO Craig Jack-son and Ronnie Rains, who bought thecar and donated it back to sell again.(Photo: Bob Golfen)

Just last week, at the Barrett-JacksonPalm Beach auction, one special unitwas sold not once, but twice.

The sales of the wrapped special-edition 2011 Ford Shelby GT500, signedby veterans, their family members andsupporters, raised $1,000,200 forWounded Warriors Family Support.

Commenting on the news, Col.John Folsom, founder of the organiza-tion, noted, “Wounded Warriors FamilySupport is a small, independent non-profit organization that provides supportto the families of U.S. Soldiers, Sailors,Airmen and Marines who have beenwounded, injured or killed during com-bat operations.

“We are so grateful for the gener-ous support of the auction participantsand the American people. We are espe-cially grateful for the team at Barrett-Jackson for their tremendous help. Themoney raised through this auction willenable us to help military families in somany ways,” he continued.

At the auction, Folson addressedthe crowd, saying the car is signed bypeople from all across the country —though President Barack Obama is notamong them.

That said, Folsom hopes to garnerPresident Obama’s signature on thisyear’s car, as he will begin the third an-nual nationwide High Five Tour thisJune, with a 2012 Mustang GT500.

On the 48-state tour, Folsom in-tends to “meet as many Americans aspossible and thank them for their supportof military families who have given somuch,” officials noted.

“The High Five Tour will make astop in Washington, D.C., on July 7. Iwould be honored to have PresidentObama sign the 2012 car,” Folsomadded.

President of Barrett-Jackson Honoredfor Donation In other news from the auction group,Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jack-son, was recently honored at the 8th An-nual Armed Forces Congressional GalaDinner with the “Congressman Bill andMrs. Beverly Young Humanitarian ofthe Year Award.”He was recognized for the donation ofhis personal custom 1964 Ford Fairlane,which was donated to be auctioned forthe Armed Forces Foundation, an or-ganization that helps military membersand families in times of need, at the 2011Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas Collector CarAuction this past September.

“Entrepreneur Ron Pratte success-fully bid on the car for $700,000 andthen promptly and altruistically donatedthe car back to the Armed Forces Foun-dation, to be bid on again at the 2012Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction inJanuary,” officials explained.

Then, in January, Ted McIntyre,chief executive officer of Louisiana-based Marine Turbine Technologies,successfully bid on the Fairlane for $1million.

“The reaction at both auctions wasbeyond enthusiastic and Barrett-Jacksonwaived all consignment fees at both auc-tions,” the company reported.

But this car’s story doesn’t stopthere.

During the Gala, McIntyre an-nounced that that he would be donatingthe car back to the Armed Forces Foun-dation and it would be sold once againat a future Barrett-Jackson auction.

“I am beyond humbled to be a re-cipient of this prestigious award,” saidDavis. “To see the outpouring of supportwe generated for our troops and theirfamilies was spectacular. I am so hon-ored to be able to help those who fightfor our country; it is these men andwomen who make me proud to be anAmerican.”

Barrett-Jackson has raised morethan $39 million for various charitableorganizations since 2006, and more than$45 million since its first auction, thecompany said.

***

Double Sale Nets $950k For Charity

Photo credit: The 2011 Ford ShelbyGT500 traveled through most of the na-tion gathering signatures, said MarineCol. John Folsom, who founded

Wounded Warriors Family Support.(Photo: Bob Golfen) Specially prepared 2011 Ford ShelbyGT500 at Barrett-Jackson raises fundsfor the Wounded Warriors Family Sup-port group; first winning bidder donatedit back to sell again.

A very special-edition 2011 FordShelby GT500 was sold twice in a rowSaturday at the Barrett-Jackson PalmBeach auction, raising $950,000 for theWounded Warriors Family Supportfoundation.

The red, white and blue Shelby,signed by dozens of veterans, familiesand supporters from all over the country,was hammered sold for $500,000 to a

thunderous cheer from the auctioncrowd, which rose to a fevered pitchwhen the winner of the sale, RonnieRains of Odessa, Texas, donated the carback to be sold again.

With that, auctioneer Spanky Assisterstarted his patter over again, with thesecond sale quickly reaching $450,000and sold to Jack Miller, a Jupiter, Fla.,collector and restorer of Ford Mustangs.

The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 trav-eled through most of the nation gather-ing signatures, said Marine Col. JohnFolsom, who founded Wounded War-riors Family Support. (Photo: BobGolfen)

Rains, an Army veteran who servedin Viet Nam and Europe, said he wantedto give the car back for rebidding be-cause of his strong personal support forthe Wounded Warriors organization andsimilar veteran’s groups.

“This is what it’s all about righthere,” said auction president SteveDavis. “God bless America!”

The group’s chairman, Army Lt. GeneralJohn Sylvester (retired), with his arm


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Special 2011 Ford Shelby Sells Twice at Barrett-Jackson in Palm Beach, FL

Take a look around the Magic City andyou’ll find the blueprints are everywhere.“It’s all about jobs and investment,” BBAPresident, Brian Hilson, said. And Hilsonhas the numbers to back it up. At the firstBlueprint Birmingham Summit, April 20,the BBA announced that in the last twoyears the Birmingham region has gainedover 3,500 jobs and taken in almost $500million in investments. “We’re proud ofwhere we are and we’re excited about thefuture,” Hilson said. “But this is a realitycheck. We need to understand exactlywhere we are.”

“Why not Birmingham,” askedBayer Properties owner, Jeffrey Bayer.Bayer’s company is overseeing the con-struction of the Westin hotel. It’s one ofa handful of projects that are puttingBirmingham on the map, along withRailroad Park, the construction of thenew Birmingham Barons baseball sta-dium and the expansion at the Birming-ham-Shuttlesworth Airport. Bayer saysgenerating interest and revenue is key tomake Birmingham a key destination.

“To me, it’s just one of the nextsteps in making this a better place tolive,” Bayer said.

By the comments of those in atten-dance, the Collision Industry LegalSeminar was a resounding success.The Saturday event began promptlyat 11: AM on April 14 and continueduntil well after 6:00 PM that eveningwith only a couple of short breaksand a 45 minute lunch. Many newfriendships were forged with otherswho shared the same views and con-cerns.

Over 60 people attended theLakeland FL event from as far awayas Oregon, Minnesota and New Yorkand many states in between, andbased upon the reports we receivedthroughout the day, they were encour-aged with the information shared byRay Gunder, Bret Geohagan (legalcounsel for Gunder’s Auto Center,Inc.) and Barrett Smith of Auto Dam-age Experts, Inc. (ADE).

In a poll taken during the initialintroductions, the one re-occurringmotivation for most everyone’s atten-dance was to learn how to regain con-trol of their business and itsprofitability.

“From discussions during themeeting and during breaks, the StateFarm Parts Procurement programseemed to be one of the straws strain-ing the camel’s back and collision re-pairers ‘are mad as heck and are notgoing to take it anymore’ and areseeking alternative methods of oper-ating their businesses” said Ray Gun-der.

“We were asked by many in at-tendance if we could “take the showon the road?” stated Barrett Smith ofADE, and in discussing with Ray andBrent, while humbled, we agreed thatif there was enough interest in anygiven market to arrange the travel andaccommodations, we would gladlyconsider sharing the message withothers”

Barrett Smith said, “There’s asignificant thirst for this knowledge asindustry professionals are just plaintired of the status quo and strugglingto keep their businesses viable. Re-pairers spend so much time ‘takingcare of business,’ they often fail totake care of their business.”


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Florida Collision Industry Legal Seminar Gets StrongSupport, Calls Heard to “Take it On the Road”

Birmingham Business isBooming Says Local BBA

A West Columbia, SC, man facesmultiple charges after South Car-olina’s Lexington County Sheriff'sDepartment detectives allege heused a pickup truck stolen from alocal body shop to break open a doorof a local gun business and stealeight handguns worth $4,220.

Sheriff James Metts said detec-tives arrested 41-year-old RobertFletcher Herbert of 104 CherrywoodCircle, West Columbia, on arrestwarrants on two counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of grandlarceny, and one count of illegal pos-session of a firearm by a person whopreviously was convicted of a vio-lent felony.

Herbert was released from theLexington County Detention Centeron March 31 after posting $87,130bail.

An arrest warrant alleges thatbetween 12 a.m. and 7 a.m. onMarch 27, Herbert stole a black2007 Chevrolet Avalanche pickuptruck from Bowen’s Auto Body and

Paint at 2839 Emanuel Church Roadnear West Columbia, Metts said.Deputies recovered the pickup truckon April 3 about 200 feet from Her-bert’s home, the sheriff said.

On April 9, detectives executeda search warrant at Herbert’s homeand found an ignition key that isconsistent with the ignition key usedto start the truck that was reportedstolen from the auto body shop,Metts said. Detectives also foundone Brother Intellifax facsimile ma-chine and one Stanley Jumpox thatwere reported stolen from the autobody shop. Detectives arrested Her-bert at his home after executing thesearch warrant.

The warrant further allegesthat at about 2 a.m. on March 29,Herbert drove the truck into a doorat the rear of S&R Gun Sales at2526 Emanuel Church Road nearWest Columbia in order to breakinto the gun business, where he al-legedly stole the handguns, Mettssaid.

Man Steals Truck and Tools from Body Shop ThenCrashes Truck through Door to Steal Hand Guns

In 2011, the collision industry pro-vided $4.1 million in support to sec-ondary and post-secondary collisionstudents and their school programsthrough the Collision Repair Educa-tion Foundation. This year’s tourna-ment occurred on April 25th at theHighlands Course in Lake Arrow-head. Through monetary and in-kindproduct donations, the 2011 CollisionRepair Education Foundation donorshelped to provide student scholar-ships, student tool grants, schoolequipment and supply grants, the 3rdannual Ultimate Collision EducationMakeover school grant, and muchmore. Since 2008, when the CollisionRepair Education Foundation becamea purely philanthropic organization,the organization has provided $7 mil-lion in school and student supportthrough industry donors. The AtlantaGolf Tournament supports secondaryand post-secondary collision studentsin the greater Atlanta area. We en-courage you to learn more about thisimportant fundraising event and par-ticipate and/or sponsor in future. Bydoing so, you are directly supportingand benefiting our industry in Atlantaand Georgia.

I-CAR Hosted Golf TournamentFundraiser for CREF in GA

a significant amount of automotiveparts were recovered today as part of abust at an illegal chop shop operation inJackson. We are cooperating fully with

the Jackson Police Department, whichis to be commended for their efforts.Nissan is supporting the investigationefforts and will continue to ensure thehighest levels of security throughoutour operations,” said Nissan NorthAmerica Inc. Corporate Communica-tions Manager Steve Parrett.

Investigators would not confirmif the thefts were an inside job at theNissan plant, but said more arrests areexpected.

“The items up here from Nissanwere originally packed in Nissan pack-agingwith tracing numbers still on them.At this point we don’t know how theygot up here,” said Sgt. L.C. Russell.

Jackson police have plenty ofunanswered questions:•How did the new auto parts end up atthe shop?•Who put them there?•Who were the potential buyers?

The merchandise, which includedcatalytic converters, airbags, head-

lights and batteries, still had the Nis-san tracking codes on them and werestill in cartons and crates when theywere found at Precious AutomotiveAuto Restoration at 5030 U.S. 80W,Sgt. L.C. Russell said.

Officers showed up at the business

to make sure it was operating legiti-mately after getting several tips about apossible chop shop there, he said.

“We primarily went to checktheir operation license, but when wechecked the license we found someother things,” he said.

Shop owner Eric Brown, 48, wascharged with multiple counts of re-ceiving and possessing stolen property,as well as a misdemeanor marijuanapossession charge, JPD spokeswomanColendula Green said.

Nissan officials told police theyhad concerns that some items could bemissing, Russell said.

However, the company wouldnot discuss the stolen parts beyond astatement acknowledging that Nissanhad been told about the discovery.

No current or former Nissan em-ployees would comment on securityrelated to tracking auto parts ship-ments.

Police are looking into severalways the merchandise could haveended up unaccounted for. “I’m puz-zled about how stuff got out of there inthat amount without them noticing,”Russell said.

Nissan uses independent trucking

for some of its shipments, he said.In addition to the stolen Nissan

parts, at least one stolen vehicle wason the property, Russell said.

Several onlookers had gatheredin the open area in front of the shopafter the police arrived, but they alldenied knowing Brown or anyone elsewho worked at the shop.

Russell said he was unaware ofPrecious Automotive having had pre-cious dealings with the law. He said,however, because of the conditions ofthe spilled car fluids and auto parts onthe property, police would be callingin the state Department of Environ-mental Quality.

In addition to Brown, two em-ployees were arrested on unrelatedoutstanding warrants, Green said.


Continued from Cover

Stolen Nissan Parts

Some of the parts still have the Nissan track-ing code labels

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times the average rate so far this year.“We’re just coming into tornado

season,” TheWeather Channel’s severweather expert Greg Forbes said.“You really need to be prepared forthe next several months.”

Florida has 12.3 tornadoes per10,000 square miles, according to TheWeather Channel analysis.

Rounding out the list are Kansas,Maryland, Illinois, Mississippi, Okla-homa, South Carolina, Alabama andLouisiana.

Florida is prime territory for tor-nadoes because it is surrounded bywater and is warm, which can providethe unstable atmospheric conditionsfor thunderstorms that can spawn tor-nadoes, according to The WeatherChannel.

Being a frequent hurricane targetdoesn’t help; they frequently spin offtornadoes as they come ashore oftenmiles away from the storm.

Tornadoes in Florida typicallyare short-lived, smaller and less in-tense than the killer tornadoes that

have stormed across the country thisspring, he said. “Ours are totally dif-ferent,” Zyvoloski said.

In Florida, the tornado seasontypically peaks in July, as the weathergets wetter and warmer, but they canhappen year-round. This tornado sea-son could mean more tornadoes forthe Sunshine State.

As a patch of the Pacific Oceanbegins to warm, the cyclical pattern ofLa Nina and El Nino, it generallymeans wetter weather for Florida andso a greater chance of a twister-spawning thunderstorm, Zyvoloskisaid.

On the other hand, a warming Pa-cific Ocean tends to disrupt the for-mation ofAtlantic hurricanes that alsoare a tornado risk.

“Now is the time to identify safeshelter, such as a basement or an inte-rior room on the lowest floor in asturdy building, for when threateningweather approaches and when a warn-ing is issued,” said Jack Hayes, direc-tor of NOAA’s National WeatherService. “Also, be sure to have aNOAAweather radio along with freshbatteries to ensure immediate aware-ness of this serious weather situation.”


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Severe TornadosBody Shop Owner Eddie Lopez Shot Dead in Early, TXAuthorities said a heated dispute overa woman left a Brownwood bodyshop owner dead March 12 after hewas shot at least six times in the park-ing lot of an Early doughnut shop, re-ports Denise Blaz, writing for theAbilene Reporter-News. The shootingmarked the city’s first homicide in atleast four years, officials said.

Eduardo “Eddie” Lopez, 45, wasshot shortly before 10 a.m. Mondaywhile sitting in his idling Cadillac SUVin the 900 block of Early Boulevard,said Brown County Sheriff BobbyGrubbs. Lopez was owner of twoBrownwood businesses: Eddie’s AutoBodyRepair and the barTequilaNights.

Rene Torres Pinon, 32, ofStephenville, was charged with mur-der after turning himself in at theBrown County Law EnforcementCenter, telling a deputy he had com-mitted a “crime of passion.”

“The subjects had an ongoing con-flict, I guess, and it appears due to the cir-cumstances that they came together rightthere thismorning,”Grubbs said. “I thinkthey had a verbal argument going, and itappears that one of them had a gun,pulled it and did some shooting.”

Grubbs said Lopez was shot mul-tiple times with a .40-caliber Taurus

semi-automatic handgun, includingonce in the face. Four bullet woundswere found along Lopez’s rib cageand another bullet was found in hischest, Grubbs said.

Early Police Chief David Mercersaid Pinon turned himself in as author-ities were en route to find him. Mercersaid a caller had informed authoritiesthat Pinon was sitting in his grayChevrolet Camaro at his workplace, aBrownwood manufacturing plant. Bythe time authorities arrived at the plant,he had turned himself in, Mercer said.

The broad daylight crime, Mer-cer said, marked the city’s first homi-cide in several years.

“I’ve been here four years, andthere hasn’t been one since I’ve beenhere,” Mercer said.

“We’ve had aggravated assaultswith handguns, but not like this.Luckily, no one else was hurt, no onethat was just driving by.”

Some patrons inside the doughnutshop witnessed the shooting, he said.

“The only people that saw werein the store; they heard the shots. Oneof them looked up in time to seemaybe a couple of more shots beingfired, and then he saw him (theshooter) walk back to his car.”

Standox® recently hosted its 2012Standox® Partnership In Excellence(PIE) Member Conference in Maui,HI, for collision center PIE mem-bers from the United States andCanada. The PIE Program is a busi-

ness partner with Standox® cus-tomers, maintaining a shared goal toachieve a sustainable competitiveadvantage, through quality network-ing, innovative marketing and intel-

ligent programs. Member benefitsinclude Member Conferences,Training Programs, Strategic Part-ner Relationships, Business CouncilMembership and Bowtie Bucks Re-bate.

The meeting was held at TheRitz-Carlton, Kapalua on the islandof Maui and gave PIE members theopportunity to network and learnfrom each other in a relaxing envi-ronment.

The conference is an excellentforum for collaboration and net-working among the collision centerowners and managers who attend.Attendees also can take the knowl-edge they gain from conference ses-sions and from their peers, back totheir collision centers, inspiringtheir future business decisions.

Opening the conference wereindustry experts Greg Horn,Mitchell International; Bruce Coo-ley, DuPont Performance Coatings(DPC); and George Avery, StateFarm Insurance.

Standox® Partnership In Excellence (PIE)Member Conference Gives Industry TrendsInsight, Human Resources & Marketing

Keith Sena, Standox® Brand Manager

See PIE Conference, Page 10

AkzoNobel Automotive & AerospaceCoatings Americas (A&AC) is puttingthe final touches on the upcoming 2012North American Independent Distribu-tor Conference to be heldApril 24 to 26,at the Boca Raton Resort & Club inBoca Raton, FL. For networkmembersthis gathering represents one of the in-dustries most anticipated and longestrunning distributor association events.Automotive paint and supply distribu-tors from across the U.S. and Canadawill rally together under the event’s“Win Forever—Always Compete”theme for three action-packed days ofinnovative workshops, exciting newproduct launches and training opportu-nities. Each element of the program hasbeen designed with the goal of provid-ing attendees’methods to better supportthe growth and profitability of the net-work of collision repair centers whichthey support throughoutNorthAmerica.

“Many of our distributors have beenpart of the AkzoNobel family since wecame toNorthAmerica in the early eight-ies’withour then innovativeSIkkensMix-ing Machine concept”, said AkzoNobel

A&ACGeneralManager,MargretKleins-man. “These same distributors have beeninstrumental inkeepingusalignedwith in-dustry needs, selecting body shops thatwere eager for the innovation we deliv-ered, and in turn helped us introduce newproduct lines.Asaresultofourclosework-ing relationship and our mutual under-standing of the value of all parties in therepair chain, we have been successful ingetting the right Color Solutions and Re-pair Support Services to our valued bodyshops customers. This conference willprovide information on new tools andproducts tobe launched in2012. Most im-portantly, it will provide the platform forthe co-generation of future products andservices to further improve our joint sup-port to the collision repair Industry.”

In addition to the array of productsand services to be found at the confer-ence this year, industry leaders such as3M, SATA, Dedoes and Summit Mar-keting Group, will participate in a spe-cial Opportunity Fair, where attendeeswill have the benefit of viewing currentand upcoming product introductionsand supporting services.

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U Pull It, an auto recycling companybased in Davie, Fla., has begun oper-ation of a new auto shredder at itsFort Lauderdale, Fla., facility. U.S.Shredder and Castings Group,Trussville, Ala., supplied the model80108 shredder. U.S. Shredder’s en-gineering services division providedturnkey engineering for all aspects ofthe installation, including the designof the motor housing and electricalsystems, as well as civil and founda-tion requirements. The entire systemis operated under roof.

According to Larry Danielle, UPull It owner, “The decision to installa U.S. Shredder system was madeafter we completed an extensive re-view of all shredder systems avail-able. We concluded the shredder isthe industry’s heaviest, and U.S.Shredder’s support and installationservices were the best in the industry.Now that the shredder is operational,we couldn’t be happier. We’ve hadshredder owners and operators fromall over the country visit our site, and100 percent of them have walkedaway commenting that this is thefinest shredder and operation theyhave ever seen.”

New “U Pull It” Auto Shred-der Set Up in Davie, FL

One day after knocking down a four-alarm fire that ripped through aNorthwest Miami Dade warehouse,firefighters returned to the scene todetermine what sparked the blaze,NBC news has reported.

Miami Dade Fire RescueSpokesman Arnold Piedharita toldNBC 6 crews would need to demol-ish the structure and remove debristo get closer to finding what set offthe fire.

Piedharita explained that thefragile state of the building's roof andwalls will make the process tedious,as will an array of chemicals insidethat were used by an auto body shop,which also ignited safety concernsfor firefighters.

"Firefighters and fire crews thatare here have to make sure thatthey're metering also for any type ofhazardous materials, fumes and toxicgases, that can still effect us evenafter the fire is out," said Piedharita.

Some 40 units and more than100 firefighters were on deckWednesday to fight the flames,which decimated a strip of busi-nesses on the 7600 block of North-west 27th Avenue.

Miami-Dade Warehouse FireSuspects Body Shop Source

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but they simply don’t ask.“I’m overwhelmed by all the at-

tention I’ve been getting on these is-sues, but as I’ve said many times andcontinue to say, I’m just a simplecountry boy who works hard to pleasemy customers and who wants to seemy hardworking employees get paidfor every drop of sweat they drop. Icouldn’t have waged these efforts orbeen as successful if it weren’t for mybrilliant attorney, Brent Geohagan(see CCRE story this issue), and the

experience and business coaching ofBarrett Smith of Auto Damage Ex-perts, both of whom have becomevery close and trusted friends of mine.Without their wealth of knowledgeand their moral support and encour-agement, I don’t know if I would haveor could have embarked on this jour-ney.”

“We stay very busy, and lastweek was no different other than wereceived three settlements from insur-ers to bring closure to three lawsuits;and we filed a new lawsuit againstTravelers!” states Ray Gunder,founder of the 43 year old Gunder’sAuto Center in Lakeland, Florida.

By the comments of those in atten-dance, the Collision Industry LegalSeminar was a resounding success.The Saturday event began promptlyat 11:00 AM on April 14 and contin-ued until well after 6:00 PM thatevening with only a couple of shortbreaks and a 45 minute lunch. Manynew friendships were forged withothers who shared the same viewsand concerns.

Over 60 people attended theLakeland FL event from as far awayas Oregon, Minnesota and New Yorkand many states in between, andbased upon the reports we receivedthroughout the day, they were encour-aged with the information shared byRay Gunder, Bret Geohagan (legalcounsel for Gunder’s Auto Center,Inc.) and Barrett Smith of Auto Dam-age Experts, Inc. (ADE).

In a poll taken during the initialintroductions, the one re-occurringmotivation for most everyone’s atten-dance was to learn how to regain con-trol of their business and itsprofitability.

“From discussions during themeeting and during breaks, the StateFarm Parts Procurement programseemed to be one of the straws strain-ing the camel’s back and collision re-pairers ‘are mad as heck and are notgoing to take it anymore’ and areseeking alternative methods of oper-ating their businesses” said Ray Gun-der.

“We were asked by many in at-tendance if we could “take the showon the road?” stated Barrett Smith ofADE, and in discussing with Ray andBrent, while humbled, we agreed thatif there was enough interest in anygiven market to arrange the travel andaccommodations, we would gladlyconsider sharing the message withothers”

Barrett Smith said, “There’s asignificant thirst for this knowledge asindustry professionals are just plaintired of the status quo and strugglingto keep their businesses viable. Re-pairers spend so much time ‘takingcare of business,’ they often fail totake care of their business.”

Florida Collision Industry Legal Seminar Gets StrongSupport, Calls Heard to “Take it On the Road”

Paul Hawks, owner of Bernie’sBody Shop in Lakeland, Fla., is usinga limited power of attorney signed byhis customer and has filed a breach ofcontract suit against Progressive In-

surance Co. on behalf of his cus-tomer, a Progressive policyholderwho asked that his name be withheld.

The lawsuit is the results of thenation’s fourth largest personal autoinsurer’s refusal to pay for repair re-

lated body materials. The insurer’sposition is that body materials arenot compensable because they arepart of a repairer’s “cost of doingbusiness.”

“It’s most unfortunate that a re-pairer must take these legal steps butthe under-payments and non-pay-ments are continually increasing asinsurer’s squeeze consumers and theirrepairers,” Hawks said. “I’m sick ofbeing intimidated by insurance com-panies.While rent, lights, advertisingand such are (the cost of doing busi-ness) body materials are not.”

Hawks’ shop is in Lakeland, thesame city where Gunder’sAuto Cen-ter is located. Ray Gunder, owner ofGunder’s Auto Center, has success-fully sued insurance companies insimilar lawsuits. (See related storiesthis issue.)

Another Lakeland, FL, Shop Files Breach of ContractSuit Against Progressive Insurance


Gunder’s Lawsuits

They each offered valuable in-sights into key industry trends im-pacting collision repairers andinsurance business models. SteveTrapp from DPC also presented at-tendees with scorecard improve-ment.

The conference also featured aninformative discussion by DaveSmith of Enterprise Rent-A-Car onhuman resource insight. Scott Braggof Marketing Associates closed theconference with a presentation aboutinbound marketing and digital strat-egy.

“Standox® has been hostingPIE Member Conferences for overa decade. It allows our key cus-tomers the opportunity of threedays of networking, learning andrelaxing,” said Keith Sena, brandmanager.

“Our focus with the confer-ence is to give our customers a de-tailed review of key industry trendsthat will affect them in the comingyear, give them some specific toolsthat they can use to improve theirbusinesses in areas that they’vesaid are important to them—and ofcourse, put a group of smart busi-ness people in the same room toallow them to learn from eachother.”

Continued from Page 8

PIE Conference

A13-month probe into a string of suspi-cious car crashes culminated in the ar-rest of 12 individuals, including a CapeCoral, Fla.-based physician.Authoritiesbelieve the “dirty dozen” were bilkinginsurers out of $22.5million a year in yetanother scheme designed to take advan-tage of Florida’s oft criticized personalinjury protection (PIP) system.

According to the federal indict-ments, the accused helped carry out“Operation Whiplash,” whereby cer-tain clinics billed for exaggerated ornon-existent medical services. More-over, clinics allegedly employed talentscouts to find willing actors to partic-ipate in orchestrated crashes and thenvisit clinics—or at least sign forms toattest that they had—all over Florida.

Initial suspicions about these oddtraffic patterns gave way to a full-blown investigation and a sting opera-tion involving agents who posed asparticipants. The investigation, be-lieved to be the largest of its kind insouthwest Florida, led to a police raidof two of the presumed 31 clinics in-volved in the scheme: Xtreme Care

and the C&A Family Rehab Center,both in Cape Coral, Fla. The presidentof Xtreme Care, Dr. Stephen M.Lovell, was one of the 12 apprehended.

One might assume that these un-deserved profits were fueling lavishlifestyles. However, as authorities ex-plained at a multi-agency press confer-ence on Thursday, purchases made bythe accusedwere surprisinglymundane.

“The expenditures were going allthe way from purchases atMcDonald’sto cruises,” said Josh Silko, the CapeCoral police detective who headed theinvestigation. “They weren’t livinglavish lifestyles, purchasing houses orreal expensive cars, but it was evidentthat they were profiting from this tolive their everyday lives.”

Charges against the defendantsrange from health care fraud to moneylaundering, with possible sentences of20 years each. This substantial arrestunderscores the vulnerabilities createdby the state’s current PIP system. Thereis hope that schemes such as “Opera-tion Whiplash” will one day becomethe anomaly and not the norm.


Florida’s PIP System Said to the Victim in Arrest of‘Dirty Dozen’ Insurance Fraud Defendents

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Gyant Compliance’s New ‘Vocwebmanager’ ApplicationGyant Compliance, a division ofGyant Group, a Lake Forest, CA,based company, announced Feb. 9 thatit has launched a New VOCWEB-MANGER Application for the Colli-sion Repair Industry.

“Gyant Compliance developedVOCWEBMANGER due to experi-encing first-hand challenges of com-pliance that McLaren Unibody, myfather in law’s old shop had faced withAQMD,” said Jon Gypsyn, CEO. ”Iwitnessed auto body shops strugglingwith tracking VOC’s, expiring per-mits, keeping up with new regulations,getting fines for being over their VOClimits, and scrambling for product lastminute with no central system for allof their environmental needs,” Gyp-syn continued.

“It took three years to developthe VOCWEBMANAGERweb appli-cation, and there were several consid-erations in the development of theVOCWEBMANAGER,” said MikeRamirez. “It needed to be web basedso that there would not be a need forextra equipment, or interference withexisting software programs. It had tobe user friendly for the painter to op-erate. The painter adds the usageamount, and with a click the VOC’s

are automatically calculated and pop-ulated into reports. It needed to keeptrack of inventory and send an emailalert when the shop was low on prod-uct and allow them to order with aclick. It had to alert the shop whenthey were nearing VOC limits or whenpermits were expiring. It needed tostore MSDS and technical data sheets,and be able to update owners on newregulations that affected their businesswith access anywhere at any time. Inother words, it needed to be the com-pliance and inventory tracker all inone place and that’s exactly what thevocwebmanager accomplishes, addedRamirez.

Gyant is an environmental com-pliance company focused on emis-sions tracking, reporting and carbonfootprint management.

The company operates and main-tains a web-based VOC and CO2Monitoring & Tracking System to as-sist clients in complying with govern-mental regulations and guidelines. Theweb application also complies withCOSHH, HAPS, and HSE regulations.VOCWEBMANAGER streamlinesmonitoring and reporting in real timeat any time. For more informationcontact: [email protected]




SHOP & PRODUCTSHOP & PRODUCT SHOWCASE SHOWCASE

Almost every successful carbuilder/painter over the years hasbeen able to find what they call their“go to” products—whether it’s paint,primers, sealers or even a certaintape product that they utilize in al-most all their work. Rich Evans, re-ality television star, Autobody Newscolumnist, and owner of HuntingtonBeach Bodyworks, uses productsmade by Pacific Coast Lacquer (PCLAutomotive) in every project hedoes.

After 3,000 jobs performed overhis 25-year career as a premier carbuilder and collision repair expert,Evans knows what he wants andwhat he needs to produce qualitywork time after time. That’s why heexclusively uses PCL’s refinishingproducts, primarily the company’sprimers and clears, as well as theirflat black topcoats, that have be-come increasingly popular with cus-tomizers and body shops alike.

Evans has nothing but greatthings to say about PCL and identifiesthe manufacturer’s role in consistentlysaving time and money on every jobthat comes through the doors at Hunt-ington Beach Bodyworks.

“I use their products on a widerange of projects and they performperfectly every single time. I startedusing PCL’s products in 2000, when

I built my Hummer Limousine (seephoto) out a 2002 Chevy pickup withthe 333-inch wheel base on it. Thatwas the first time I was introduced toPCL, because I had miles of panelblocking to do on that vehicle.”

Evans appreciates PCL’s primersbecause of their versatility and qual-ity. “We use a ton of their #901 (grayprimer) and the black primer, #903.What’s great about their #901 primeris that it’s a high build primer. I shootit out of a 1.9 gun. I can pull the trig-ger and just blast on a panel and itwill fill 36 and 80 grit scratches fasterthan most other types of primers. It’sactually a polyester product, so it’sjust like spreading polyester putty onbut with a gun, which allows me to

skip steps and spray it as opposed tospreading it.”

Uniformity and consistency isvital to the way Evans does his bodywork. “My approach has neverchanged over the years and I won’tever deviate because it works forme,” he said. “Basically, I shape with36 grit sand paper and then get the36-grit scratches removed with the80 grit; then I move onto the 150 gritand then chase the 150 scratcheswith the 400 grit, either dry or wet.Then I’m ready to apply the PCLsealer which gives me a great foun-dation to lay down my paint. When Ican do it all in one single step, I’msaving time and—as I always say—time is money!

“At the end of the day, I’m notgoing to get any shrinkage or imper-fections, and that’s key,” Evans em-phasized. “Many of the primers outthere right now on the market willcause shrinkage, which means youhave to take mil build off of yourclear to try and chase the shrinkageout. The shrinkage is like a dry riverbed that shows all the imperfections.But PCL’s primers provide a solidplatform so it does not move after itdries. It gives me a lot of options de-pending on the situation. In the endPCL’s primers can allow me to skip afew steps if I want to. By switching astep and filling those scratches in, Ican complete the job faster. On av-erage, it can save me 50% in timewhen I go that way, so it’s a big deal,especially when I’m super busy.Sometimes it can even save me upto 75% of the time I’d spend other-wise.

“When I do a hot rod and I’m in ahurry, I will take each panel and in-stead of just applying Bondo™ I canget everything in the ballpark with aheavy mil build. That way, I can thenwork with the product without puttingBondo™ on, or it allows me to workwith the product and get my panelstrue. Because I can apply as muchas a gallon on one panel and by thetime I come back and hit it with 80,150 and 400 grit, I’ve already re-moved 60% of the product while get-ting the build I need. That means Idon’t have to put more Bondo™ onit. Anyone who does this type of workknows that it takes time to mixBondo™ up and spread it.”

Evans also appreciates thePCL’s customer support as well. “OurPCL field rep is Paul Casanova andhe’s great. They’ve been sponsoringme for the past six years and I usedtheir products on the reality showCar Warriors (see Corvette photo)where we were able to complete carswithin 72 hours with a high quality,long-lasting paint job. Without PCL’sproducts, we never could have beenable to do what we did on that show.And we probably wouldn’t have beenable to be so creative and the qualitywould have suffered if we didn’t havethe PCL primers and sealers whenwe did our Lincoln Continental (seephoto) in just eight days on Auto-holics. It’s a big part of my processand it helps me to do things in aspeedy time. I tell people that I am a“mutt painter” because I never com-mit to one paint manufacturer orpaint line, but I have stuck with PCLfrom day one!”

PCL Automotive Products Help Rich Evans Excel on Every Project he Touchesby Ed Attanasio

The Certified Automotive Parts Asso-ciation has elected Carol Waldron ofState Farm Mutual Insurance Com-pany to CAPA’s Board. “CAPA is for-tunate to have Carol join us in oureffort to ensure truly high quality al-ternative parts are readily available tothe market. Carol’s extensive back-ground contributes to the broad rangeof industry expertise and organizationswho’ve joined together on CAPA’sboard to keep repairs affordable, carsrepairable, and protect consumersfrom poor quality,” said Jack Gillis,Executive Director of the non-profitassociation. “State Farm, and manyother diverse organizations, joining to-gether in CAPA, provide a unique in-sight into issues facing the aftermarketparts industry and make an importantcontribution to CAPA’s continuingsuccess. We look forward to workingwith Carol.” CAPA’s Board includes:Bill Brower, Liberty Mutual Insur-ance; Bill Daly, Allstate Insurance; BillDeGrocco, GEICO; Jack Gillis,CAPA; John Palumbo, PartsChannel,Inc.; Clark Plucinski, Boyd’s Group/Gerber; Ed Salamy, K.S.I. TradingCorp.; Ben Steinman, Ben’s AutoBody; Carol Waldron, State Farm.

The market for hybrids, plug-in hy-brids and electric vehicles is perkingup significantly, with much of thecredit going to the high price of gas.In the first three months of 2012, U.S.sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids andEVs shot up 44 percent from theyear-ago quarter, to 113,457. Marchsales of those vehicles were doublethose of January. It was a breakoutquarter for sales of vehicles with al-ternative powertrains, which hadbeen rising at a much slower pacethan expected despite waves of freshentries. The strong performance is ameasure of validation for automakersthat have persevered despite tepid de-mand for hybrids and criticism in po-litical circles. Hybrids accounted forthe bulk of alternative powertrainsales, 106,207, compared with 7,250EVs and plug-in hybrids.

Better sales of Toyota Priusdrove much of the growth as buyerssnapped up recently launched models,including a wagon and subcompact.Also providing a lift: launches ofGeneral Motors’ mild hybrid technol-ogy, dubbed eAssist, on volume mod-els such as the redesigned ChevroletMalibu, released in February.

Peter Vann, collision repair consultantand trainer, has joined Urethane Sup-ply Company (USC) as the West Coastsales representative.

Vann comes to USC with much af-termarket experience, including as aconsultant for Caliber Collision Centersand a technical trainer for VeriFacts Au-tomotive, Cerritos College, 3M, ProSpot and Car Bench. He was also an es-timator supervisor/production managerat a certified BMW collision center anda certified Mercedes-Benz collisioncenter, both in California. Vann is basedin Southern California. Beginning May1, he will be responsible for all stateswest of the Rocky Mountains.

Vann has been trained on USC’snew Nitrogen Welding System. In ad-dition, he has training from I-CAR, CarBench, Blackhawk Automotive, ChiefAutomotive Technologies (EZ Liner),Autorobot, Celette (Bench), Mercedes-Benz of North America, BMW ofNorth America, the American Iron andSteel Institute, the American WeldingInstitute and Cerritos College.

Said USC President Kurt Lam-mon. “His industry knowledge is ex-ceptional, and he is a solid addition toour sales team.”

Peter Vann Joins UrethaneSupply Company Sales Team

Registration for SEMA 2012is Now Open for Attendees

CAPA Adds SF InsuranceExecutive to Board

Assured Performance Network andEnterprise Rent-A-Car have intro-duced the Enterprise Elite ServicePartner Program. This program,using the certification services of As-sured Performance Network, allowscollision repair facilities to take ad-vantage of innovative service toolsincluding Enterprise® Priority Pass,an upgraded level of replacementrental service designed to increasecustomer satisfaction.

Shops enrolling in the programalso will receive several communica-tions tools. For example, EnterpriseRent-A-Car’s ARMS® Automotivesuite of products streamlines com-munication between shops and En-terprise. In addition, Customer StatusNotification software enables shopsto keep consumers informed on theprogress of their vehicle repairs. En-rollment in the Enterprise Elite Serv-ice Partner program is open to repairbusinesses that are able to become of-ficially certified by Assured Perform-ance and meet the qualifications toparticipate in its Certified CollisionCare Partner Network. Please visitwww.CertifyMyShop.com for moredetails.

Enterprise Elite ServicePartner Program Launches



Almost every successful carbuilder/painter over the years hasbeen able to find what they call their“go to” products—whether it’s paint,primers, sealers or even a certaintape product that they utilize in al-most all their work. Rich Evans, re-ality television star, Autobody Newscolumnist, and owner of HuntingtonBeach Bodyworks, uses productsmade by Pacific Coast Lacquer (PCLAutomotive) in every project hedoes.

After 3,000 jobs performed overhis 25-year career as a premier carbuilder and collision repair expert,Evans knows what he wants andwhat he needs to produce qualitywork time after time. That’s why heexclusively uses PCL’s refinishingproducts, primarily the company’sprimers and clears, as well as theirflat black topcoats, that have be-come increasingly popular with cus-tomizers and body shops alike.

Evans has nothing but greatthings to say about PCL and identifiesthe manufacturer’s role in consistentlysaving time and money on every jobthat comes through the doors at Hunt-ington Beach Bodyworks.

“I use their products on a widerange of projects and they performperfectly every single time. I startedusing PCL’s products in 2000, when

I built my Hummer Limousine (seephoto) out a 2002 Chevy pickup withthe 333-inch wheel base on it. Thatwas the first time I was introduced toPCL, because I had miles of panelblocking to do on that vehicle.”

Evans appreciates PCL’s primersbecause of their versatility and qual-ity. “We use a ton of their #901 (grayprimer) and the black primer, #903.What’s great about their #901 primeris that it’s a high build primer. I shootit out of a 1.9 gun. I can pull the trig-ger and just blast on a panel and itwill fill 36 and 80 grit scratches fasterthan most other types of primers. It’sactually a polyester product, so it’sjust like spreading polyester putty onbut with a gun, which allows me to

skip steps and spray it as opposed tospreading it.”

Uniformity and consistency isvital to the way Evans does his bodywork. “My approach has neverchanged over the years and I won’tever deviate because it works forme,” he said. “Basically, I shape with36 grit sand paper and then get the36-grit scratches removed with the80 grit; then I move onto the 150 gritand then chase the 150 scratcheswith the 400 grit, either dry or wet.Then I’m ready to apply the PCLsealer which gives me a great foun-dation to lay down my paint. When Ican do it all in one single step, I’msaving time and—as I always say—time is money!

“At the end of the day, I’m notgoing to get any shrinkage or imper-fections, and that’s key,” Evans em-phasized. “Many of the primers outthere right now on the market willcause shrinkage, which means youhave to take mil build off of yourclear to try and chase the shrinkageout. The shrinkage is like a dry riverbed that shows all the imperfections.But PCL’s primers provide a solidplatform so it does not move after itdries. It gives me a lot of options de-pending on the situation. In the endPCL’s primers can allow me to skip afew steps if I want to. By switching astep and filling those scratches in, Ican complete the job faster. On av-erage, it can save me 50% in timewhen I go that way, so it’s a big deal,especially when I’m super busy.Sometimes it can even save me upto 75% of the time I’d spend other-wise.

“When I do a hot rod and I’m in ahurry, I will take each panel and in-stead of just applying Bondo™ I canget everything in the ballpark with aheavy mil build. That way, I can thenwork with the product without puttingBondo™ on, or it allows me to workwith the product and get my panelstrue. Because I can apply as muchas a gallon on one panel and by thetime I come back and hit it with 80,150 and 400 grit, I’ve already re-moved 60% of the product while get-ting the build I need. That means Idon’t have to put more Bondo™ onit. Anyone who does this type of workknows that it takes time to mixBondo™ up and spread it.”

Evans also appreciates thePCL’s customer support as well. “OurPCL field rep is Paul Casanova andhe’s great. They’ve been sponsoringme for the past six years and I usedtheir products on the reality showCar Warriors (see Corvette photo)where we were able to complete carswithin 72 hours with a high quality,long-lasting paint job. Without PCL’sproducts, we never could have beenable to do what we did on that show.And we probably wouldn’t have beenable to be so creative and the qualitywould have suffered if we didn’t havethe PCL primers and sealers whenwe did our Lincoln Continental (seephoto) in just eight days on Auto-holics. It’s a big part of my processand it helps me to do things in aspeedy time. I tell people that I am a“mutt painter” because I never com-mit to one paint manufacturer orpaint line, but I have stuck with PCLfrom day one!”

Evans and his crew used PCL products whilebuilding this amazing 1976 Corvette on theT.V. car building competition Car Warriors

Evans designed and built this stunning 1964 Lincoln Continental using PCL primers and clears onthe TV show Autoholics on the Speed Channel

PCL Automotive Products Help Rich Evans Excel on Every Project he Touches

The first time he ever used PCL’s products,Rich Evans built a Hummer Limousine out of a2002 Chevy pickup with a 333-inch wheelbase.

by Ed Attanasio Huntington Beach BodyworksLocation: Huntington Beach, CA

Telephone: 714-842-9907www.richevansdesigns.com

Company At A Glance...

Type: Collision Repair & Customization

Facility Employees: One

In Business Since: 1992

DRP Programs: Zero

Number of Locations: One

Combined Production Space:13,000 square feet

PCL AutomotivePhone: (800) 752-1566 x 260email: [email protected]: www.pclautomotive.com

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We know that customers only use abody shop once every seven years onaverage. For this reason, marketing tothe end user is tougher than most otherindustries. To make matters worse, theinsurance company is engaged in al-most constant dialog with your cus-

tomers. This relationship allows themto direct (steer) customers towardsbody shops that succumb to their de-mands and play by their rules. Whatcommercials do your customers seeon TV? Insurance companies domi-nate the airwaves but they aren’t theones fixing your car and they don’tnecessarily have the shop owners’bestinterest in mind. If they did, theywould always use the specificationsand recommendations of the car man-

ufacturer to use original parts whennecessary, and not using aftermarketor used parts that are not recom-mended and take much more to in-stall.

So how do we create our ownrelationships with the customers?Traditional advertising can miss themark, and the message may be lostby the time they need your services.There are other sources of informa-tion for traditional marketing andadvertising techniques, such asradio, tv and print media. I want toto discuss other ways you can makea lasting impression when reachingpotential customers that may onlyneed your services once or twice adecade.

We’re fighting an uphill battle.How do we connect with new cus-tomers when most of them let the in-surance company tell them where totake their car? There are several meth-

ods for making an impression and get-ting your message out, here a few thatI’ve used successfully.

Get involved with local and na-tional charities. We’ve done severalcampaigns that benefit local and na-tional charities. This is a great way toseparate your shop from the competi-tors and creates loyalty and awarenessfor your shop. This can be as simpleas hosting an Alex’s lemonade standevent (see www.alexslemonade.org)outside your shop, or holding a toydrive, or something as complex as abenefit event. When you figure outwhat sort of involvement level suitsyour needs and resources, you canoften receive press coverage by send-ing out a press release and most char-ities will assist with getting the wordout.

One example we found very suc-cessful was the our “Choose yourCharity” program, where customers

were given a choice of five differentcharities that they could donate half oftheir deductible to. Each of the chari-ties promoted the program (and ourshop) themselves because they di-rectly benefit from its success.

Community involvement: Holda class, sponsor a local event, volun-teer for local non-profits. CommunityInvolvement is a great way to reachyour potential customers in a more in-timate and effective setting. We’vepartnered with the local hospital andSafe Kids to serve as a Car Seat In-spection center and for a few hourseach month we inspect and install carseats for free. This allows us time toengage the customer and show that weare dedicated to the community.

Partner with local schools, spon-sor a little league team, or get in-volved with your Local Boy Scoutschapter to offer a badge. Take part in aspring cleaning or beautification proj-


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Reaching Beyond Traditional Advertising to Engage Your Customerswith Domenico Nigro

The Community-Focused Body ShopDomenico Nigro is the president of Nigro’s Auto Body, a very progressive shop fortheir community in Philadelphia. In addition to many productivity innovations, Nigro’sinstalls equipment for disabled drivers, has developed several phone Applications,and represents products which directly support charities such as United Way and theNational Breast Cancer Foundation. Contact him at: [email protected].

ect and ask your employees to volun-teer too.

Word of mouth: This can be oneof your best sources and it’s “free.” Ofcourse, nothing is really free, and ifyou want to boost word of mouth re-ferrals there is effort involved. Car ac-cidents are one of the worst things thatcan happen to a customer. How canshop owners help to turn that negativeexperience into a positive one?

Make sure every interaction withyour customers is a positive one. Fromthe moment they pick up the phone orwalk in the door, you’re creatingbrand impressions that could deter-mine whether or not they would referyou others. Say “thank you,” educatethem about the process, and neverspeak down to your customers. Thismay sound like common sense butyou’d be surprised how many shopsfail to follow these simple rules andloose referrals as a consequence. Takepride in your work and give them thebest possible service you can offer.The effort will be appreciated and thecustomer is more likely to tell othersabout their positive experience.

Ask for testimonials: If theyseem satisfied, don’t be afraid to ask

for a testimonial. You can even offer asmall incentive, such as a branded airfreshener, for their time. Set up a com-puter at the office dedicated for onlinereview sites so it’s easy for your cus-tomers to leave a review or testimo-nial while they’re still in your shop.

Keep in touch: Hopefully you’realready gathering customer emails.Keep a list and send out monthlynewsletters with coupons, tips andnews. This helps you stay on theirradar so that when you are needed, it’seasier for them to remember you astheir first phone call when they get inan accident.

Offer referral rewards: You’renot going to go out of business by of-fering a referral reward. Many shop

owners feel like this is an unnecessaryincentive but there’s no other market-ing initiative that will guarantee you abetter return on your investment. Youcan pre-print testimonial cards.

Take advantage of your store-front traffic: Use your building’sstorefront and curbside space. You cantastefully add ground displays or ban-ners that alert street traffic to specificdeals or services you want to feature.You can do it without being over-whelming or unsightly. The insurancecompanies have billboards, after all,and this is one way to compete in thatmarket without the costs of billboardad campaigns.

Education: An educated con-sumer is your best customer. Mostconsumers are shopping for price anddon’t know how to look for true valuein a shop’s products and services. Dothey know the difference betweenvalue and price? It’s your job to edu-cate them on the difference and thenexplain how you shop provides thatvalue.

Teach them what to look for in anauto body shop, how the repairprocess works, and how claims arehandled. This can be achieved through

a pamphlet, a video on your website,poster, floor displays, or face to faceeducation. They should understandsafety requirements and what theyshould expect from quality repairs andparts.

Educating the adjuster: Educatethe adjuster on your processes. Tellthem what you’re doing and whyyou’re performing certain operationson a vehicle. Go over the P-pageslogic and give proper documentationto the adjuster. If you can prove thatwhat you’re doing is right, and edu-cate them, you can make more moneyon existing claims by getting properlypaid for the services you provide. Thisis an easy way to increase your rev-enue without any increase in the num-ber of jobs your shop sees and it’s thefirst step in leveling the playing fieldbetween your shop and the insurancecompanies. That should be your over-all goal.

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Search:Autobody News

on Facebook


by Ed Attanasio

In a tough industry full of trials andtribulations, body shop owners arevery susceptible to stress and burnout.If they’re not encountering issues with

customers, insur-ance companies,vendors and/or em-ployees, they haveto worry aboutthings like theircycle times and carcount. It’s a never-ending strugglejust to earn a buckand make theirpayroll every weekin this ever-chang-ing business.And that’s why it

was refreshingwhen the East Bay

CaliforniaAutobodyAssociation (EB-CAA) Chapter featured an inspira-tional speaker at its monthly meetingheld on March 20th at Scott’s Seafoodrestaurant in Walnut, Creek, Calif.Sponsors for the evening were LKQ,Diamond Standard Class AAA SafetyParts and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Best-selling author/motivationalspeaker Mike Robbins was the fea-tured guest and presenter of theevening. His first book, Focus on theGood Stuff, reached #4 on theAmazonbestseller list, and his latest book, BeYourself, Everyone Else is AlreadyTaken, reached #17 on the Amazonbestseller list Robbins and his workhave been featured on ABC News, theOprah radio network, in Forbes, FastCompany, and the Washington Post,and on over 500 radio and TV showsin NorthAmerica. He is also a regular

contributor to Oprah.com and theHuffington Post.

As a former professional baseballplayer in the Kansas City Royals or-ganization, Robbins’s sports career

was on track for stardom in the majorleagues until he suffered an injury thatended his playing days instantly whenhe blew out his pitching arm. Throughthe healing power of appreciation andauthenticity, as well as his own per-sonal journey of self discovery, Rob-bins was able to move beyond theinjury to find more meaning and pur-pose in his life, he said to the approxi-mately 60 EB-CAA members inattendance.

Robbins has worked with clientssuch as Google, the San Francisco Gi-ants, Wells Fargo, the US Departmentof Labor, Apple, Chevron, the State ofCalifornia, New York Life Insurance,Genentech, the Gap, Stanford Univer-sity, Adobe, Banana Republic, theAri-zona Diamondbacks, Kaiser, UCBerkeley, AT&T, The Atlanta Braves,Sutter Health, The VancouverCanucks, US Bank, and many others.

In a nutshell, Robbins’ messagewas: 1) People need to be more au-thentic 2) Be appreciative and show itand 3) Hey—quit complaining!

About authenticity, Robbins said,“If you want to be a true champion inyour life, be 100% real all the time. Ifyou’re afraid to tell people the truth,try it sometime and you will discoverthat it’s empowering. Many peoplemassage the truth and it breaks downrelationships and can lead to big prob-lems. Why do people lie? Becausethey’re scared of losing business orbeing embarrassed, among other rea-sons. But if you can be totally authen-tic all the time, your life will change.Be real with your spouse, friends andemployees. Sometimes it might resultin a 10-minute sweaty palm conversa-tion, but in the end both parties willfeel better and respect each othermore.”

Robbins’s second point was to ap-preciate your life and the peoplearound you and show it every day.“Acknowledge your employees for

their work and let them know that youappreciate their hard work. Many em-ployers don’t want to pass out thepraise, because they feel as thoughtheir employees will get complacent,but just the opposite will take place.And also humbly receive praise whenpeople show appreciation to you.Many individuals can’t take praise, so

they deflect it or re-direct it. Being au-thentic includes accepting praise aswell as distributing it.”

And lastly, Robbins said stopcomplaining all the time. “In this cul-ture, we’re chronic complainers,” heexplained. “If you’re busy being a vic-

tim, you can’t be the victor. There area lot of things in life we can’t change,but we can control: 1) Our attitude 2)Our effort and 3) Our perspective. So,why complain about things we can’tcontrol? Complaining is highly coun-terproductive, so concentrate on break-ing that cycle.”

After his presentation, EB-CAAmembers asked Robbins a se-ries of questions and then newChapter President Tiffany Ci-chon-Silva made announce-ments and talked aboutupcoming events sponsoredby the organization. Notabledates include May 22, whenthe EB-CAA’s monthly dinnermeeting at Scott’s will featureRichard Forness, an industrywriter who will talk about thefuture of the collision repairbusiness, sponsored by Auda-tex. Also, on June 2nd, theEB-CAAwill host its 26th an-

nual golf tournament at Diablo Creekgolf course in Concord, California. OnJuly 24th, there will be a summer bar-becue at the PPG Training Center,whereAaron Schulenburg with the So-ciety of Collision Repair Specialists(SCRS) will be the featured speaker.

Former MLB Pitcher, Now Motivational Speaker, Engages East Bay CAA Members

EB-CAA Officers for 2012, back row, from left:Jack Sandri (Dublin GMC, Cadillac) and Mike Govette(Finishmasters in Concord); Middle row: Trish Pickens(Audatex); Peter Lock (Contra Costa College); GregDecker (California Color Source) and Tiffany Cichon-Silva(Accurate Auto Body). Front row, from left: Gigi Walker(Walker’s Auto Body & Fleet Repair); Kathy Mello (TGIFBody Shop) and Lisa Daves (D & S Body Shop)

CAA Executive Director David McClune (left)and this year’s CAA President David B. Pic-ton (G & R Body & Paint) were there for theEB-CAA’s March monthly meeting

Best-selling authorand renownedmotivationalspeaker Mike

Robbins was thefeatured presenterat the EB-CAA’smonthly meetingon March 20th

From left, Margo Brough (Premier WholesaleParts) and Annie Thompson (Walnut CreekToyota) enjoying the show at the EB-CAA’smonthly meeting I-CAR has announced it will integrate

a live demonstration component intoits classroom-led Squeeze-Type Re-sistance Spot Welding course(WCS04) beginning May 21. I-CARsaid the overall course content will re-main the same but some of the coursemodules will be enhanced with livedemonstrations on properly setting upmachines, aligning and maintaining theelectrode tips, making spot welds,identifying and correcting weld de-fects, understanding how to visuallyinspect spot welds, and how to de-structively test welds for quality.

Jason Bartanen, technical direc-tor for I-CAR, said having propertraining and understanding of the prac-tices and techniques used during spotwelding weigh significantly on a tech-nician’s ability to achieve a properweld. The new live demonstrationswill help teach practical applicationsand provide students with a visuallearning format to enhance the learn-ing experience. “With an increasednumber of vehicles being manufac-tured with high-strength steel and ultrahigh-strength steel, spot-welding is aneffective solution for minimizing theheat affect zone,” Bartanen said.

I-CAR Adds Live Demos to itsSpot Welding Course

BodyShopBids, a Web-based plat-form that allows consumers to solicitrepair estimates from local bodyshops, announced it will help coverrepair costs for vehicles that weredamaged during recent tornados inthe Dallas metro area. BodyShop-Bids said it will pay for 25 percent ofout-of-pocket repair costs on con-sumer vehicles that were damaged inthe storms throughout the month ofApril.

“For those Dallas-Fort Worthresidents who suffered damage totheir vehicle, we’re hoping to allevi-ate at least some of the stress by pro-viding a simple solution to get theircar back into shape and defray someof the costs,” said Brad Weisberg,founder and CEO of BodyShopBids.

Chicago-based BodyShopBidsprovides a Web and mobile platformto connect consumers who need autobody repairs with body shops throughan online bidding system. Users areable to upload photos of their dam-aged vehicles and receive customquotes from local body shops forfree.

For more information, visitbodyshopbids.com.

BodyshopBids Helps Pay forTornado Damaged Vehicles


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Aluminum and light-weight automo-tive body structures surely go to-gether, no less than light-weightbodies and lower MPG. So, it shouldbe no surprise that the earnings ofAlcoa (NYSE:AA) would bring thecompany into focus once again, espe-cially with the advent of higher MPGrequirements by 2016 and 2025.

All of us know that forcing peo-ple into smaller cars is not advance-ment. Even a Ford engineeringmanager at 2012 NAIAS had thesense to say there is a limit to down-sizing engines as well as auto bodies.In fact, he noted the next wave ofgains for automotive will have tocome from lighter body structures.

Truth is, auto body structures arealready becoming hybridized, buthave a long way to go. They are stillmade mostly of sheet steel stamped incomplex forms, then welded togetherfor that unibody construction. How-ever, they are getting increasinglyamounts of aluminum and magnesiumpieces, too, especially for the un-sprung portions like suspension parts.

Looking at the future, considerthe Tesla Model S and the Mercedesnew SL. That’s where we need to goas an industry; and that’s where we aregoing as an industry. It’s simply a mat-ter of time and investment.

With regard to Tesla and Mer-cedes SL, both have all-aluminumstructures. They cost more money, butso do lithium-ion batteries. Further-more, a lighter body structure wouldprovide greater driving range even forfull EVs.

Now, imagine an all-aluminumChevy Cruze, for example, poweredby a revised Ecotec engine with asplit-cycle configuration or even adownsized engine with an electric su-percharger, stop-start and maybe evenan air-hybrid component. Then the gasmileage would be awesome comparedto what we have now even in the city;and the overall cost wouldn’t be for-midable for the masses as what wehave for EVs.

Point is, any company that makesaluminum will be in the sweet spot,

provided they can remain healthy dur-ing this latest downturn.

Thus far, it seems Alcoa may begetting into fighting shape. Sure, thereare other aluminum competitors, butAA is an American company; and itsposition to provide the American autoindustry with what it needs can liter-ally position itself like the companiesthat sold picks and shovels to goldminers of old.

Aluminum vs. Steel vs. Carbon FiberOne Torque News reader noted manymonths back that billet steel tradesaround $500/ton, while aluminumtrades at $2,200/ton during a period ofrock bottom aluminum prices. His im-plication seems clear: If you cut athousand pounds off the weight of acar by going aluminum, the ton of alu-minum you had would still add over athousand dollars to every car.

While he agreed that lowering theweight of cars is definitely the future,there are lots of other ways of doingit. He felt the auto industry could veryeasily take a page out of Boeing bookand investigate carbon compositebody structures. Or a page from theSmartCar book and investigate high-strength steel reinforcements.

Fact is, the auto industry is al-ready using those materials, just notextensively. Problem with carbonfiber is the cure time. Try doing that atthe rate of 60 cars per hour. At leastaluminum has the potential to havepresent welding technology, not tomention more use of extrusions whichare far cheaper, thus eliminating manykey stampings altogether. In high-stress areas, castings could be used, aswitnessed on the Mercedes SL.

Alcoa Stock ChartLooking at a recent chart of AA, it isclear that aluminum and Alcoa havenot faired well since 2008. And thatshould tell you something.

If the auto industry faired well be-fore 2008, though, then crashed only torevive to its present position, perhapsaluminum use and production willlikely follow that same pattern. It’s justshifted in its timing of recovery.

AA is now trading at 9.32 with itslowest low in the past five years at

4.97 and its highest high of the pastfive years at 48.77. That makestoday’s price look like a cheap optionplay, in my opinion.

Granted, it is not my usual writ torecommend any stocks. I prefer to letthe charts do the talking. However, Imust admit this chart has yet to showa turnaround. Then again, today’squarterly report may be the catalystthat might turn the trend; perhaps notall at once, but over the next year.

Personally, I will be watching theprices of the options as well as thestock dynamics for opportunities. Forsure, the general market is swaying theentire market including the auto sectorstocks, but that will not remain forever.

Frank Sherosky took early retirementfrom GM, Saturn and spent 39 yearsin the auto industry as a draftsman,product designer, CAD operator andStudio Design Engineer. His direct

experience within the auto industryenables him to contribute insightsinto business, people, processes andtechnology; and has written as theDetroit Automotive Technology Ex-aminer. He also trades stocks & com-modities, writes books and ebooks,like “Perfecting Corporate Charac-ter,“ “Millennial World Order,”“Awaken Your Body to HealthyAging” and “Awaken Your Specula-tor Mind.” He lives in Clinton Town-ship, Michigan with his wife and bestfriend, Judi.He may be contacted viahis forwarding email: [email protected] and followed on Twit-ter under @Authorfranks



Shawn Orr, 37, is a Chicago-basedfreelance airbrush painter who haspainted murals on cars, helmets,dealership windows, trucks, semis,motorcycles and has even donesome painting on human bodies aswell. Orr uses the vFan Portable Air-brush System for precision paint andmaterial dispensing, particularlytouch-ups and surface repairs, aswell as surface preparation and cur-ing.

Orr relies 100% on his PrevalvFan Airbrush to do touchups forbody shops—work they would rathersub out than do themselves. “Bodyshops line up cars for me and I comein there and paint primarily bumperswith the Prevals vFan Airbrush,” Orrsaid. “This way the shop does nothave to pay their painters a full day ofwages to do a few bumpers. I cancome in there and get it done a lotfaster, because I’m mobile and theydon’t have to worry about buying anynew equipment or pulling their peo-ple off other projects to do the job.Plus, I can do it in half the time!”

Sold globally, the Preval vFanAirbrush is made in the USA, and isused heavily in the automotive,aerospace, packaging, semicon-ductor, solar energy and textile in-dustries, because it’s the onlyairbrush on the market that convertsto an airgun and achieves both 3-inch fan and 1/16-inch hairline pat-terns. Fully portable, the vFanAirbrush can be used in all environ-ments when powered by 150 feet ofenergy, Preval’s innovative, eco-friendly aerosol compressor unit.Each canister of 150 feet of energycontains seven ounces of VOC-ex-empt propellant that powers morethan 150 feet of linear paint cover-age and up to 40 square feet ofpaint coverage. The vFan Airbrushis also compatible with most work-shop compressors.

Orr appreciates the fact that hisPreval vFan Airbrush offers his bodyshop customers a great alternativeand a smart way for them to improvetheir cycle times, he said. “If a shopwants to do this type of work in-house, they have to tape it off andthen in the end they’re painting theentire bumper of the car anyway toavoid overspray. With the Prevalsystem, I only have to paint the im-mediate area on the bumper andfeather it off at the edges and thenput the clear on top of that. So, itsaves time, money and materials forthem. They take what I charge andmark it up appropriately, so it’s obvi-

ously another source of revenue forthem.”

Orr also likes the versatility of thevFan Portable Airbrush System, he ex-plained. “I spray the base, the colorand the clear all with the vFan. Ofcourse, in between each phase, I haveto clean the airbrush, but it’s an easytask and it doesn’t take very long. Theo-rings inside the unit are coated, soyou can spray urethane, water-basedpaints and solvents. The air comingout of the cans is a dry air, so you don’thave to worry about moisture comingthrough the hose and ruining whateveryou’re working on.”

During his 20 years as a muralpainter, Orr hasn’t found anythinglike the Preval vFan Airbrush, hesaid. “The biggest difference is thatit changes from a standard airbrushto a fan pattern air cap. It goes fromabout a one-inch fan pattern to aboutthree inches. With the standard aircap you can use it to get those reallyfine scratches for hairline touchups,starting from 1/16th of an inch to afull inch. Then, with the fan pattern,you can do a full three-inch area. Themini jet can’t do that and a standardairbrush can’t go up in size like that,so that’s what distinguishes the vFanAirbrush.”

Orr has a wide range of clientsand the VFan Airbrush is a nice fit inevery scenario without fail, he said.“Lots of people call for us for touchup work and in many cases we willgo to their home to do the work. It’sa combination of do-it-yourselfers,customizers, interior vinyl/leather re-pairers, and of course, the bodyshops and car dealerships.”

Orr is currently doing a mural ona truck and it might be one of his best

projects ever, he explained. “We’recurrently working on a truck forOscar’s Auto Body & Mechanical inChicago, Illinois. The paint job hasblack on the bottom with silver on topand fading into it, with an Aztec tribalsign in silver. We’re obviously goingto do this design with the vFan Air-brush and we’re excited to see how itcomes out.”

For retailing less than $200, Orrrecognizes that the Preval vFan Air-brush is a superior value. “It’s defi-nitely a great deal, because theseairbrushes will last and they canwork with most air compressors.Each can has about 150 linear feetand that is more than enough for meto do touch up. And you have twocans with the system, so there’senough to do an entire bumper withthat supply, placing each can into theEDU (Energy Disbursement Unit).”This allows for five times longer last-ing spray.

By avoiding the use of a loud aircompressor, Orr is able to concen-trate more on his mural designswhile creating, he said. “All you canhear out of the Preval vFan systemwhile you’re using it is the sound ofthe air coming out of the tip of the air-brush. You won’t hear anything com-ing out of the portable air cans, whichis nice. When you use one of thoseChinese-made air compressors, itpretty much rattles the whole house.When I come into a body shop towork, they don’t even know I’m there,because it’s so quiet.”

To see a demonstration of thePreval vFan Portable Airbrush, go toYouTube and search for: “PrevalvFan Airbrush in the Field: Autobody.”

Top Chicago Painter Prefers Preval’s vFan Airbrushfor Mobility & Versatilityby Ed Attanasio

[email protected]

877-392-1150561-526-5351561-526-5364

Phone:Wholesale Direct:

Wholesale Fax:

3000 S. Federal Hwy.Delray Beach, FL 33483

HOURS:Mon. - Fri.:7am - 6pm

Sat.:8am - 4pm

• Experienced Certified Parts Professionals• Large Inventory to Serve You• Fast, Courteous, Competent Service is Our #1 Goal• “Collision Link”

HOURS

WHOLESALE PARTS

Aluminum Stock—A Long-Term Auto-Related Opportunity?

with David BrownShop Showcase

with Attorney Martin ZuradaBody Shop Law

with Domenico Nigro

The Community-Focused Body Shop

with Janet CheneyShop Showcase

with Frank SheroskyIndustry Business Beat This is a new column in Autobody News. It will focus on investment opportunities

in the auto industry and will feature guest columnists on a regular basis. Opinionsherein are strictly those of the author. Autobody News accepts no responsibilityfor investment actions taken or not taken based on this column.


on Facebook

This article is reprinted from TorqueNews with permission.

Aluminum and light-weight automo-tive body structures surely go to-gether, no less than light-weightbodies and lower MPG. So, it shouldbe no surprise that the earnings ofAlcoa (NYSE:AA) would bring thecompany into focus once again, espe-cially with the advent of higher MPGrequirements by 2016 and 2025.

All of us know that forcing peo-ple into smaller cars is not advance-ment. Even a Ford engineeringmanager at 2012 NAIAS had thesense to say there is a limit to down-sizing engines as well as auto bodies.In fact, he noted the next wave ofgains for automotive will have tocome from lighter body structures.

Truth is, auto body structures arealready becoming hybridized, buthave a long way to go. They are stillmade mostly of sheet steel stamped incomplex forms, then welded togetherfor that unibody construction. How-ever, they are getting increasinglyamounts of aluminum and magnesiumpieces, too, especially for the un-sprung portions like suspension parts.

Looking at the future, considerthe Tesla Model S and the Mercedesnew SL. That’s where we need to goas an industry; and that’s where we aregoing as an industry. It’s simply a mat-ter of time and investment.

With regard to Tesla and Mer-cedes SL, both have all-aluminumstructures. They cost more money, butso do lithium-ion batteries. Further-more, a lighter body structure wouldprovide greater driving range even forfull EVs.

Now, imagine an all-aluminumChevy Cruze, for example, poweredby a revised Ecotec engine with asplit-cycle configuration or even adownsized engine with an electric su-percharger, stop-start and maybe evenan air-hybrid component. Then the gasmileage would be awesome comparedto what we have now even in the city;and the overall cost wouldn’t be for-midable for the masses as what wehave for EVs.

Point is, any company that makesaluminum will be in the sweet spot,

provided they can remain healthy dur-ing this latest downturn.

Thus far, it seems Alcoa may begetting into fighting shape. Sure, thereare other aluminum competitors, butAA is an American company; and itsposition to provide the American autoindustry with what it needs can liter-ally position itself like the companiesthat sold picks and shovels to goldminers of old.

Aluminum vs. Steel vs. Carbon FiberOne Torque News reader noted manymonths back that billet steel tradesaround $500/ton, while aluminumtrades at $2,200/ton during a period ofrock bottom aluminum prices. His im-plication seems clear: If you cut athousand pounds off the weight of acar by going aluminum, the ton of alu-minum you had would still add over athousand dollars to every car.

While he agreed that lowering theweight of cars is definitely the future,there are lots of other ways of doingit. He felt the auto industry could veryeasily take a page out of Boeing bookand investigate carbon compositebody structures. Or a page from theSmartCar book and investigate high-strength steel reinforcements.

Fact is, the auto industry is al-ready using those materials, just notextensively. Problem with carbonfiber is the cure time. Try doing that atthe rate of 60 cars per hour. At leastaluminum has the potential to havepresent welding technology, not tomention more use of extrusions whichare far cheaper, thus eliminating manykey stampings altogether. In high-stress areas, castings could be used, aswitnessed on the Mercedes SL.

Alcoa Stock ChartLooking at a recent chart of AA, it isclear that aluminum and Alcoa havenot faired well since 2008. And thatshould tell you something.

If the auto industry faired well be-fore 2008, though, then crashed only torevive to its present position, perhapsaluminum use and production willlikely follow that same pattern. It’s justshifted in its timing of recovery.

AA is now trading at 9.32 with itslowest low in the past five years at

4.97 and its highest high of the pastfive years at 48.77. That makestoday’s price look like a cheap optionplay, in my opinion.

Granted, it is not my usual writ torecommend any stocks. I prefer to letthe charts do the talking. However, Imust admit this chart has yet to showa turnaround. Then again, today’squarterly report may be the catalystthat might turn the trend; perhaps notall at once, but over the next year.

Personally, I will be watching theprices of the options as well as thestock dynamics for opportunities. Forsure, the general market is swaying theentire market including the auto sectorstocks, but that will not remain forever.

Frank Sherosky took early retirementfrom GM, Saturn and spent 39 yearsin the auto industry as a draftsman,product designer, CAD operator andStudio Design Engineer. His direct

experience within the auto industryenables him to contribute insightsinto business, people, processes andtechnology; and has written as theDetroit Automotive Technology Ex-aminer. He also trades stocks & com-modities, writes books and ebooks,like “Perfecting Corporate Charac-ter,“ “Millennial World Order,”“Awaken Your Body to HealthyAging” and “Awaken Your Specula-tor Mind.” He lives in Clinton Town-ship, Michigan with his wife and bestfriend, Judi.He may be contacted viahis forwarding email: [email protected] and followed on Twit-ter under @Authorfranks



Shawn Orr, 37, is a Chicago-basedfreelance airbrush painter who haspainted murals on cars, helmets,dealership windows, trucks, semis,motorcycles and has even donesome painting on human bodies aswell. Orr uses the vFan Portable Air-brush System for precision paint andmaterial dispensing, particularlytouch-ups and surface repairs, aswell as surface preparation and cur-ing.

Orr relies 100% on his PrevalvFan Airbrush to do touchups forbody shops—work they would rathersub out than do themselves. “Bodyshops line up cars for me and I comein there and paint primarily bumperswith the Prevals vFan Airbrush,” Orrsaid. “This way the shop does nothave to pay their painters a full day ofwages to do a few bumpers. I cancome in there and get it done a lotfaster, because I’m mobile and theydon’t have to worry about buying anynew equipment or pulling their peo-ple off other projects to do the job.Plus, I can do it in half the time!”

Sold globally, the Preval vFanAirbrush is made in the USA, and isused heavily in the automotive,aerospace, packaging, semicon-ductor, solar energy and textile in-dustries, because it’s the onlyairbrush on the market that convertsto an airgun and achieves both 3-inch fan and 1/16-inch hairline pat-terns. Fully portable, the vFanAirbrush can be used in all environ-ments when powered by 150 feet ofenergy, Preval’s innovative, eco-friendly aerosol compressor unit.Each canister of 150 feet of energycontains seven ounces of VOC-ex-empt propellant that powers morethan 150 feet of linear paint cover-age and up to 40 square feet ofpaint coverage. The vFan Airbrushis also compatible with most work-shop compressors.

Orr appreciates the fact that hisPreval vFan Airbrush offers his bodyshop customers a great alternativeand a smart way for them to improvetheir cycle times, he said. “If a shopwants to do this type of work in-house, they have to tape it off andthen in the end they’re painting theentire bumper of the car anyway toavoid overspray. With the Prevalsystem, I only have to paint the im-mediate area on the bumper andfeather it off at the edges and thenput the clear on top of that. So, itsaves time, money and materials forthem. They take what I charge andmark it up appropriately, so it’s obvi-

ously another source of revenue forthem.”

Orr also likes the versatility of thevFan Portable Airbrush System, he ex-plained. “I spray the base, the colorand the clear all with the vFan. Ofcourse, in between each phase, I haveto clean the airbrush, but it’s an easytask and it doesn’t take very long. Theo-rings inside the unit are coated, soyou can spray urethane, water-basedpaints and solvents. The air comingout of the cans is a dry air, so you don’thave to worry about moisture comingthrough the hose and ruining whateveryou’re working on.”

During his 20 years as a muralpainter, Orr hasn’t found anythinglike the Preval vFan Airbrush, hesaid. “The biggest difference is thatit changes from a standard airbrushto a fan pattern air cap. It goes fromabout a one-inch fan pattern to aboutthree inches. With the standard aircap you can use it to get those reallyfine scratches for hairline touchups,starting from 1/16th of an inch to afull inch. Then, with the fan pattern,you can do a full three-inch area. Themini jet can’t do that and a standardairbrush can’t go up in size like that,so that’s what distinguishes the vFanAirbrush.”

Orr has a wide range of clientsand the VFan Airbrush is a nice fit inevery scenario without fail, he said.“Lots of people call for us for touchup work and in many cases we willgo to their home to do the work. It’sa combination of do-it-yourselfers,customizers, interior vinyl/leather re-pairers, and of course, the bodyshops and car dealerships.”

Orr is currently doing a mural ona truck and it might be one of his best

projects ever, he explained. “We’recurrently working on a truck forOscar’s Auto Body & Mechanical inChicago, Illinois. The paint job hasblack on the bottom with silver on topand fading into it, with an Aztec tribalsign in silver. We’re obviously goingto do this design with the vFan Air-brush and we’re excited to see how itcomes out.”

For retailing less than $200, Orrrecognizes that the Preval vFan Air-brush is a superior value. “It’s defi-nitely a great deal, because theseairbrushes will last and they canwork with most air compressors.Each can has about 150 linear feetand that is more than enough for meto do touch up. And you have twocans with the system, so there’senough to do an entire bumper withthat supply, placing each can into theEDU (Energy Disbursement Unit).”This allows for five times longer last-ing spray.

By avoiding the use of a loud aircompressor, Orr is able to concen-trate more on his mural designswhile creating, he said. “All you canhear out of the Preval vFan systemwhile you’re using it is the sound ofthe air coming out of the tip of the air-brush. You won’t hear anything com-ing out of the portable air cans, whichis nice. When you use one of thoseChinese-made air compressors, itpretty much rattles the whole house.When I come into a body shop towork, they don’t even know I’m there,because it’s so quiet.”

To see a demonstration of thePreval vFan Portable Airbrush, go toYouTube and search for: “PrevalvFan Airbrush in the Field: Autobody.”

Retailing at less than $200, the Preval vFanAirbrush is an outstanding value for bodyshops, mechanical shops who do occasionaltouch ups and automobile customizers

By contracting body shops throughout the Chicago area, freelance airbrush painter Shawn Orrcan get the work done fast and efficiently with his Preval vFan Airbrush

Top Chicago Painter Prefers Preval’s vFan Airbrushfor Mobility & Versatility

Orr covets the mobility, versatility andconvenience of working with the PrevalvFan mobile airbrush system

by Ed Attanasio Shawn OrrFreelance Airbrush PainterLocation: Chicago, IL

Telephone: 773-456-4423

Preval Spray TeamPhone: (877) 753-0021email: [email protected]: www.preval.comwww.delrayhonda.com

[email protected]

877-392-1150561-526-5351561-526-5364

Phone:Wholesale Direct:

Wholesale Fax:

3000 S. Federal Hwy.Delray Beach, FL 33483

HOURS:Mon. - Fri.:7am - 6pm

Sat.:8am - 4pm

• Experienced Certified Parts Professionals• Large Inventory to Serve You• Fast, Courteous, Competent Service is Our #1 Goal• “Collision Link”

WHOLESALE PARTS

Aluminum Stock—A Long-Term Auto-Related Opportunity?

with David BrownShop Showcase

with Attorney Martin ZuradaBody Shop Law

with Domenico Nigro

The Community-Focused Body Shop

with Janet CheneyShop Showcase

with Frank SheroskyIndustry Business Beat

Dallas-based Service King plans to em-bark on an ambitious national expansionled by new president Cathy Bonner in-tended to double revenue over the nextfive years. Service King Collision Re-pair Centers is actively looking for pri-vate equity to help fund a nationalexpansion effort.

The chain of collision-repair cen-ters, founded in 1976 by current chair-man Eddie Lennox, recently openedseven shops inHouston and the fact that

some were prof-itable after threemonths promptedLennox to expandbeyond Texas. Jen-nifer Kirk, vicepresident of mar-keting for ServiceKing, said Lennox

is spearheading the effort. Lennox an-nounced the growth strategy internallyto the company’s 1,500 employees in avideo broadcastApril 17. “Wewere ableto experiment with a lot of things inHouston that might work for us nation-ally,” said Lennox, 57, a former body-repair man who started Service King ina three-bay tin building inWest Dallas.

Most of Service King’s 31 shopsand 1,000 employees are in the Dallas

area. The privately held company,which says it has a 20 percent marketshare in the area, expects to repair about70,000 vehicles and earn $150 millionin revenue this year. Service King isworking with wealth management firmBB&T, based inWinston-Salem,NC, tohelp find the appropriate investmentpartner.

Kirk said Service King’s goal ofpartnering with an investment firm is tohelp the company establish additionalshop locations throughout theU.S.—be-yond the 47 facilities it already operatesin Texas.

“We are not being sold or bought-out,” Kirk said. “Our goal is to becomea national organization.We just want togrow beyond Texas, and become thelargest and best-run collision center inthe United States.”

Service King has not yet decidedmuch about the new locations, or howmuch capital it needs to acquire, or evenwhich areas of the country it target, Kirksaid. Those decisions will be made inconjunction with the eventual invest-ment partner.

Cathy Bonner, a Dallas native, isLennox’s sister-in-law. She has startedandmanaged threemarketing and com-munications firms. She will take point

on developing a strategic plan forgrowth, determining which marketsService King should enter and oversee-ing that plan.

“Eddie approached me and con-vinced me I don”t need to know how tofix a car,” said Bonner, 60, a finalist in2007 for The Dallas Morning News”“Texan of theYear” award for her workto pass legislation creating the CancerPrevention and Research Institute ofTexas. “I just get to build on their suc-cess.”

Bonner said she intends to have agrowth strategy plan completed by thefirst of the year.

“I had a lot of experience identify-ing newmarkets and bringing in corpo-rations when I was with the state,” saidBonner, who was part of a team of offi-cials in the early 1990s that helped con-vinceGeneralMotors Corp. to not closeits assembly plant inArlington.

“This relates to growth and gettingsomeone who can help us achieveit—and not ex-technicians likemyself,”Lennox said.

Kirk said the growth initiativewould not cause any changes to Service

King’s business structure. Lennox in-tends to remain involved with the com-pany, and no employee layoffs areexpected, she said.

Bonner, does not get stock in Serv-ice King, says she doesn”t view her jobas a long-term position. Lennox’s 34-year-old son, Jeremy, will assist her.

“I”m not going to dilute the stock,”she said. “I seemy role as being short interms of achieving the goals we want toattain.”

Despite its moves to get larger,Service King has no interest in goingpublic, said Lennox, who holds 80 per-cent of Service King’s stock along withhis wife.Managers throughout the com-pany own the remaining 20 percent.

“We”re well capitalized, and wehave good banking relationships,” hesaid. “We envision doubling our rev-enue in three to five years.”

“This is strictly a growth strategy,and the result of a growth plan we”veidentified for 2012. The timing is right,”Kirk said. “It’s all good for the employ-ees at Service King. It allows for moreopportunity for everybody within thecompany to growwith us in the future.”

Service King Looks for Funding For National Expansion, Cathy Bonner to Direct Strategy


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The Certified Automotive Parts Asso-ciation has electedClark Plucinski aspresident of its board of directors. Hebegan his postApril 1. Plucinski is thesecond collision repairer who has hadthis position, following BobAndersonof Sheffield Lake, OH.

I am delighted with Clark’s elec-tion,” said JackGillis, executive direc-tor of CAPA. “A principal thrust ofCAPA’s efforts in the year ahead willbe to continue to build awareness andsupport of CAPA throughout the in-dustry. Clark’s vast inter-industry ex-perience makes him particularlyqualified to continue the remarkablegrowth that CAPAhas already experi-enced.”

Plucinski has more than 40 yearsof industry experience. He started hiscareer as a collision repair technicianin 1970 at a major GM dealership.From 1973 to 1996 he was co-ownerand president of BCPAuto Body Inc.,a four-location collision company intheWashington D.C. area. He then be-came True2Form’s executive vicepresident of sales and marketing,where he helped create a chain of 43collision repair businesses in fourstates.

Customer satisfaction with the autoclaims experience declined during thefirst quarter of 2012 for the first timein three calendar quarters, accordingto J.D. Power and Associates’ 2012U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction StudyWave 2. Overall customer satisfac-tion declined by 13 points to 842, thelowest satisfaction level in the pastthree calendar quarters, according toJ.D Power. The largest driver of re-duced satisfaction scores was due to a19-point decline in first notice ofloss—when the customer first noti-fies the insurance provider of damageto their vehicle.

Jeremy Bowler, senior directorof insurance practice for J.D. Power,said 47 percent of auto claimants de-layed dropping their vehicle off at thebody shop to wait for a more conven-ient time, and 20 percent waited dueto weekends or holidays. He saidthose customers tend to have lowersatisfaction as a result of waiting anadditional day or more to get their ve-hicle to the shop. “This suggests in-surers need to do a better job ofmanaging customer expectations forclaims processing and vehicle repairtimes,” Bowler said.

JD Power Says CustomerSatisfaction is Down in 2012

CAPA Elects Clark Plucinskias Board President

Cathy Bonner

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GlassBYTES has reported that theMinnesota Court of Appeals uphelda decision that gave Rapid Glass, anautomotive glass repair and replace-ment company, $157,851.46 for 580underpaid and unpaid claims fromProgressive Insurance.

The court ruled that the glasscompany’s charges were fair, reason-able and competitive. Rick Rosar,president of Rapid Glass, told Glass-BYTES.

“The windshield has become anintegral part of the vehicle’s safetysystem. It is not a place to cut cornerswhen a windshield needs to be re-placed…”

The court said the dispute waswhether Progressive satisfied thecontract by paying “the amount nec-essary to repair damaged property toits pre-loss condition.”

“[Progressive] was not requiredto interpret the term ‘necessary’ be-cause the contract provided the defi-nition…,” the court wrote in itsdecision. “Under the terms of thecontract, ‘necessary’ means ‘a com-petitive price that is fair and reason-able within the local industry atlarge.’”

MN Court Awards $157K inProgressive Ins. Underpays

Of the more than 759,000 automotivetechnicians working in the UnitedStates, 20 outstanding individuals havequalified for the prestigious 2012WorldClass TechnicianAward. TheAutomo-tive Aftermarket Industry Association(AAIA) and National Institute for Au-tomotive Service Excellence (ASE)work together to recognize these pro-fessional technicians who have testedand obtained ASE certification in 22specialty areas during the 2011 test ad-ministrated byASE. “TheAAIAWorldClass TechnicianAward is for automo-tive diagnostic and repair professionalswhat the SuperBowl is for professionalfootball players orwhat the StanleyCupis for hockey players,” said KathleenSchmatz, AAIA president and CEO.“Just imagine the knowledge and skillsneeded by a technician to pass 22ASEtests. These folks are truly the best ofthe best and we are proud to be associ-ated with them through our annualrecognition in conjunction withASE.”“This recognition partnership betweenAAIA and ASE goes back 26 yearsand represents the most significantachievement award available to ourASE-certified professionals,” said TimZilke, ASE president and CEO.

The Women’s Industry Network(WIN) welcomes Jessica Voss-Kehl,Senior Product Development Super-visor, 3M and Melissa Perez, Dis-trict Sales Manager, FinishMasterInc. as the newest Directors to itsBoard. The WIN Board consists ofvarious industry segments includingbut not limited to: shop owners, job-bers, suppliers, consultants, paintcompanies and insurance companies.As an all volunteer organization,WIN Board members, serving 3 yearterms, work together to guide the or-ganization as well as foster an envi-ronment that encourages theeducation, recruitment, retention andnetworking of women in the colli-sion repair industry. New boardmembers will be introduced and of-ficially welcomed by seated Direc-tors and WIN members-at-large atthe annual WIN Educational Confer-ence, Be The Change, being heldMay 6–8 at the IntercontinentalBuckhead in Atlanta, GA. To learnmore about WIN, please visitwww.WomensIndustryNetwork.orgor for information on becoming amember, please contact DeniseCaspersen at [email protected].

CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Ex-perts has developed a proprietarystore management system that inte-grates its technology solutions withthe Mitchell RepairCenter ShopWorkspace to deliver technologytools to its store owners. The systemis the culmination of significant tech-nical investments to realize the visionof a tightly integrated system that willsignificantly improve CARSTARstore performance, the company said.It enables the capture, processing anddelivery of key data elements andmetrics to help stores better managetheir key performance indicators. Thesystem also will provide the informa-tion required to forge strategic indus-try partnerships, CARSTAR said.Reporting to support both insurancerelationships and purchasing willbenefit user shops.”

“The information gathered byusing the CARSTAR Solution Soft-ware and the reports available are in-valuable to our store and to the entireCARSTAR network in helping analyzeour numbers and in selling to our localand national markets,” said JanCombs, of Auto Body SpecialistsCARSTAR in Billings, Montana.

CARSTAR & Mitchell Inc. JoinEfforts on Store Management

Women’s Industry NetworkAdds New Boardmembers

AAIA and ASE RecognizeWorld Class Technicians


®

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Autoway HondaClearwater

888-205-2564727-530-1173

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 8-5; Sun [email protected]

Braman Hondaof Palm Beach

Greenacres888-479-0695561-966-5185

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-4:[email protected]

Classic HondaOr lando

888-893-4984407-521-1115

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat [email protected]

Coggin Deland HondaDeland

800-758-0007386-626-1811

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Delray HondaDelray Beach877-392-1150561-526-5351


Ed Morse HondaRiv iera Beach800-232-1098561-844-8089

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Hendrick Honda DaytonaDaytona Beach800-953-4402386-252-2301


Maroone Hondaof Hollywood

Hol lywood800-542-8121954-964-8300


Rick Case HondaDavie

877-544-2249Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7:30-4

[email protected]

South Motors HondaMiami

888-418-3513305-256-2240Dept. Hours: M-F 8-7

[email protected]

Carey Paul HondaSnel lv i l le

770-985-1444Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat [email protected]

Gerald Jones HondaAugusta

800-733-2210706-228-7040


Gwinnett Place HondaDuluth

800-277-8836678-957-5151


Honda Mall of GeorgiaBuford/Gwinnet t678-318-3155


Milton Martin HondaGainesv i l le

770-534-0086678-989-5473

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:[email protected]

Nalley HondaUnion C i ty

866-362-8034770-306-4646


Southern Motors HondaSavannah

888-785-8387912-925-1444


Brannon HondaBirmingham

800-833-1233205-833-0018

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat [email protected]

Jerry Damson HondaHuntsv i l le

800-264-1739256-382-3759

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-5:30; Sat [email protected]

Serra HondaBirmingham

800-987-0819205-949-5460


Patty Peck HondaRidgeland

800-748-8676601-957-3400


The Honda and Acura Dealers Listed Here are

Acura of Orange ParkJacksonvi l le

888-941-7278904-777-1008


Duval AcuraJacksonvi l le

800-352-2872904-725-1149


Jackson AcuraRoswel l

877-622-2871678-259-9500

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Nalley AcuraMariet ta

800-899-7278770-422-3138


Southern Motors AcuraSavannah

800-347-0596912-232-3222


Jerry Damson AcuraHuntsv i l le

800-264-1739256-533-1345



®

++

Autoway HondaClearwater

888-205-2564727-530-1173


Braman Hondaof Palm Beach

Greenacres888-479-0695561-966-5185

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-4:[email protected]

Classic HondaOr lando

888-893-4984407-521-1115


Coggin Deland HondaDeland

800-758-0007386-626-1811


Delray HondaDelray Beach877-392-1150561-526-5351


Ed Morse HondaRiv iera Beach800-232-1098561-844-8089

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Hendrick Honda DaytonaDaytona Beach800-953-4402386-252-2301


Maroone Hondaof Hollywood

Hol lywood800-542-8121954-964-8300


Rick Case HondaDavie

877-544-2249Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7:30-4

[email protected]

South Motors HondaMiami

888-418-3513305-256-2240Dept. Hours: M-F 8-7

[email protected]

Carey Paul HondaSnel lv i l le

770-985-1444Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat [email protected]

Gerald Jones HondaAugusta

800-733-2210706-228-7040


Gwinnett Place HondaDuluth

800-277-8836678-957-5151


Honda Mall of GeorgiaBuford/Gwinnet t678-318-3155


Milton Martin HondaGainesv i l le

770-534-0086678-989-5473

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:[email protected]

Nalley HondaUnion C i ty

866-362-8034770-306-4646


Southern Motors HondaSavannah

888-785-8387912-925-1444


Brannon HondaBirmingham

800-833-1233205-833-0018

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30; Sat [email protected]

Jerry Damson HondaHuntsv i l le

800-264-1739256-382-3759


Serra HondaBirmingham

800-987-0819205-949-5460


Patty Peck HondaRidgeland

800-748-8676601-957-3400


FLORIDA FLORIDA GEORGIA ALABAMA

MISSISSIPPI

The Honda and Acura Dealers Listed Here are Subscribers:HONDA

FLORIDA GEORGIA GEORGIA ALABAMA

ACURA

Acura of Orange ParkJacksonvi l le

888-941-7278904-777-1008


Duval AcuraJacksonvi l le

800-352-2872904-725-1149


Jackson AcuraRoswel l

877-622-2871678-259-9500

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Nalley AcuraMariet ta

800-899-7278770-422-3138


Southern Motors AcuraSavannah

800-347-0596912-232-3222


Jerry Damson AcuraHuntsv i l le

800-264-1739256-533-1345


GEORGIA

ALABAMA

www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

NEWSNEWSService, Diagnostic

and MechanicalService, Diagnostic

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and MechanicalAutobody News May 2012FLORIDA • GEORGIA • ALABAMA • MISSISSIPPI


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Chrysler is recalling certain modelyear 2012 Town and Country andDodge Grand Caravan vehicles man-ufactured from November 15, 2011,through November 21, 2011. Somevehicles may be equipped with rightrear hub and bearing assemblies thatwere not fully machined. This couldresult in a decrease in durability,which may lead to wheel separation,increasing the risk of a crash. Chryslerwill notify owners, and dealers willreplace the right rear hub and bearingassembly, free of charge. The safetyrecall is expected to begin duringApril 2012. Chrysler recall number ism13. Owners may also contact the na-tional highway traffic safety adminis-tration’s vehicle safety hotline at1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.Safer-car.Gov.

Chrysler Recalls Some 2012Town & Country and DodgeGrand Caravans for Machining

Chrysler is recalling certain modelyear 2012 Jeep Patriot and Compassvehicles manufactured from Decem-ber 17, 2011, through January 2,2012.

Some vehicles may have beenbuilt with a fuel tank assembly con-taining a damaged roll-over valve. Inthe event of an impact or roll-over,fuel leakage could occur, increasingthe risk of a fire. Chrysler will notifyowners, and dealers will replace thefuel tank, free of charge. The safetyrecall is expected to begin duringJune 2012.

Chrysler’s recall number ism11. Owners may also contact thenational highway traffic safety ad-ministration’s vehicle safety hotlineat 1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.Safer-car.Gov.

Chrysler Recalls Some 2012Jeep Patriot And Compassesfor Suspected Fuel Tank Flaws

The National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration (NHTSA) has pro-posed an update to the Federal MotorVehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS)No. 124, Accelerator Control Sys-tems, according to the AAIA CapitalReport. The proposal would requiremanufacturers to install a Brake-Throttle Override (BTO) mechanismin all vehicles.

BTO systems would trigger thevehicle to stop should both the ac-celerator and brake pedals be appliedat the same time, which would re-duce the risk of drivers losing con-trol of their vehicles due to theaccelerator pedal sticking or the en-tire throttle system becoming dis-connected.

The Alliance of AutomobileManufacturers has been pushing forregulators to take action on this issuefor some time, and most manufactur-ers have already begun outfitting theirnew models with these systems, ac-cording to AAIA.

“America’s drivers should feelconfident that anytime they get be-hind the wheel they can easily main-tain control of their vehicles –especially in the event of an emer-gency,” said U.S. Transportation Sec-retary Ray LaHood. “By updating oursafety standards, we’re helping givedrivers peace of mind that theirbrakes will work even if the gas pedalis stuck down while the driver is try-ing to brake.”

This proposal would also mod-ify the current standard by account-ing for throttle disconnection duringthe testing procedure of all vehicles.Comments on the proposal must besubmitted to NHTSA by June 15,2012.

Early last year, NASAengineersfound no electronic cause for theclaims of unintended accelerationlevied at Toyota. The report promptedTransportation Secretary Ray La-Hood to blame the cases on “pedalmisapplication.”

Drivers of electric vehicles such asGeneral Motors Co.’s ChevroletVolt and Nissan Motor Co.’s Leafmay save as much as $1,200 a yearcompared with operating a newgasoline-powered compact car,scientists studying improved fueleconomy found.

With gasoline at $3.50 a gal-lon, drivers who plug cars intoelectrical outlets would save $750to $1,200 a year instead of buy-ing gasoline for a new car thatgets 27 miles (43 kilometers) agallon when driving 11,000 milesa year, the Union of ConcernedScientists said in a study releasedtoday.

“While in this early electricvehicle market these products havehigher up-front costs, knowing howmuch one can save by using elec-tricity instead of gasoline is an im-portant factor for consumers,” thestudy by the Cambridge, Mass.-based group said.

Ford Motor Co., maker of aFocus electric car scheduled to goon sale this year, said last monththe price will start at $39,995 be-fore a $7,500 U.S. tax credit. Nis-san’s Leaf starts at $35,200.

The Focus costs more thanthe $16,500 base price for thegasoline-powered version, EddieFernandez, a spokesman for Ford,said in an e-mail. The U.S. Na-tional Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration rates the fueleconomy of the Focus SFE, agasoline-powered model, at 33mpg for city and highway driv-ing. The electric Focus was certi-fied by the U.S. EnvironmentalAgency to offer the equivalent of105 mpg.

Edmunds.com, an auto-re-searcher, predicts electric vehiclesmay reach only 7 percent of U.S.auto sales by 2017 even when con-sumers take rising gas prices intoaccount.

The average U.S. gas pricewas $3.91 as of Sunday, accordingto U.S. motorist group AAA.That’s a 19 percent increase so farthis year.

Study Says EVs Cost$1200 Less to Run

NHTSA Proposes Standard for Brake-Throttle Override

Automakers nationwide are likelyclutching their wallets and clenchingtheir teeth after the announcementthat recall fines could cost them $250million instead of the current $17million fine.

A bill affecting the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administra-tion (NHTSA) that would raise themaximum fine for not issuing recallsin a timely manner $233 millionfrom its current maximum alreadypassed the Senate and is pending ap-proval in the House of Representa-tives.

Consumers Union, the advo-cacy group connected to ConsumerReports backing the surface trans-portation bill, says that the $250 mil-lion fine would elevate recalls forautomakers to a level of concern in-stead of being a “cost of doing busi-ness.”

This isn’t the first push to in-crease NHTSA’s involvement in au-tomotive recalls. We told you lastmonth about the push to get NHTSAto oversee recalls by car rental com-panies. Consumers Union also sup-ports that position.

Automakers Could Face upto $250M in Recall Fines

After being the first to eliminateheavy, bulky owner manuals from itsvehicles, Chrysler Group LLC,through its Mopar® division, willnow be the first to eliminate un-sightly dangling power cords in itsvehicles by offering in-vehicle wire-less charging. The company will firstmake the technology available onthe all-new 2013 Dodge Dart that ar-rives in dealerships in the secondquarter of this year.

“At Mopar, we look for everysingle opportunity to make our cus-tomers’ lives easier,” said PietroGorlier, President and CEO ofMopar, Chrysler Group LLC’s serv-ice, parts and customer-care brand.“Our industry-first in-vehicle wire-less charging system is the perfectsolution for those customers on thego.”

Mopar Division Introduces FirstIn-Vehicle Wireless Charging


After high school I made the choiceto join the Marine Corps. It was a bigstep for a young guy who really did-n’t have a direction, nor thought aboutthe future. So, off I went to bootcamp. I’ll admit it was tough, it wasphysically demanding and very men-tally challenging. But, I did verywell, got a lot of good marks and evena couple of special awards.

One of the biggest surprises waswhen my platoon was on the “messand maintenance” week. I was as-signed to the commandant’s head-quarters building. I was to shine allthe brass, wax the floors, and generalbuilding maintenance. One day theSargent in charge said it was time tomow the grass. He sent me and twoother recruits out with scissors to clipthe lawn in front of the headquartersbuilding. Really, I’m not kid-ding…scissors, and I’m not talkingabout a large pair of scissors, no…

more like your typical size for anyhome office or school desk.

Well, being the bright, eageryoung lad I was I had to ask.

“Sargent, ever hear of a lawn-mower before?”

Not that I was being smart andall… it just struck me as dumb theywouldn’t have a lawnmower to dothis job. But, then again, why not geta couple of young recruits to clip thelawn with scissors… we’ll workcheap.

“Come here soldier, see what yathink of this,” he said.

In a hall closet just inside thebuilding there were four mowersstacked up on top of each other. Theyall seemed to be the same brand ofmower, but all of them seemed tohave been taken apart and there werelots of parts missing.

“Well, can we use them Sarge?”I asked.

“Those things haven’t ran sinceI’ve been here, but if you think youcan get one of them going, it wouldmake us all look good,” the Sargentanswered.

Luckily, the Sargent had a smallbox of tools stashed away, which justso happened to have all the missingparts stored in it from the variousmowers. After some careful maneu-vering I managed to get the mowersseparated, and within an hour I hadthree of them running. Talk about aproud bunch of Marines mowing thecommandant’s lawn. OohRah! TheSargent got a promotion out of it, andI got a special award for my efforts.Not a bad day in boot camp after all.

I really didn’t touch a car for along time after that. I spent a longtime overseas and cars weren’t on thetop of the list of things to be con-cerned about. It wasn’t until I was sta-tioned stateside, and I was leaving mybarracks one day when I noticed thesetwo guys sitting on the sidewalk withan entire four barrel carburetor laidout in pieces in front of them. Thesetwo jarheads had no clue what theywere doing. They were taking apartanything that had a screw on it.Clearly, these guys needed some help.

Now, I spent enough time backhome working on my grandparent’sfarms keeping the machinery runningand reading a lot of old service man-uals my dad had collected that I had apretty good idea what I was doing.

“Need some help?” I asked.“Sure could use a hand,” one of

them said to me.The big challenge was to put all

the parts back together on the carbu-retor without a new gasket kit, andmake it work again. I’m telling you,

this was one big mess for sure… theseguys went as far as taking the smallscrews out of the butterfly flaps.(Never had much luck getting thosethings out when they are peened intoplace myself.)

After I had the carburetor backtogether and installed on the car thelast thing was to put the plugs back inand sort out the firing order. Only oneproblem, they broke one of the sparkplugs off while taking them out.“Looks like we’ll have to run it on 7cylinders for now,” I told them.

It took a minute or so for the fuelto get up into the carburetor, but it didrun. The exhaust was falling off, itwas running pretty rich, but it wasrunning. The guys were ecstatic!They bought the car for 50 bucksfrom another Marine who was gettingshipped out, and the car had been sit-ting for about a year right there in theparking lot. Just hearing it run was animprovement. We all hopped into thecar and drove around the barracks afew times belching smoke, backfir-ing, and making enough noise tobring the MP’s to the scene. (Theythought it was pretty funny too… letus go with a warning.)

After this little escapade I endedup being the barracks’ mechanic foreveryone’s car problems. Most every-thing was “parking lot” type repairs,no engine rebuilds or tranny ex-changes, just basic problems that couldbe handled with basic tools that a cou-ple of young Marines could afford.

It wasn’t til after I was out of theservice that I realized repairing carsseemed to always fall into my lap. SoI guess it’s safe to say I was destinedto be a mechanic no matter what. Afew tech classes, a little tutelageunder an old watchful senior me-chanic, and I was in business for my-self.

Well, here it is a few decadeslater and I’m still turning wrenches,I’m still scrapping a knuckle, and stillmaking a living at it. I guess youcould say it’s my career.

Looking back on it now I guess Icould have done something else withmy working years, but like a lot of us

“GI—Think Like a Mechanic!”

See Think Like a Mechanic, Page 35

with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox This is a new story by Scott “Gonzo” Weaver as posted on his website, www.gonzostoolbox.com.

Gonzo has been serving the Tulsa area at Superior Auto Electric for over 27 years. See his book“Hey Look! I Found The Loose Nut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age.The book is available at amazon.com. Contact Gonzo at [email protected].

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When I first found out I was going toattend the Coalition for Collision Re-pair Excellence (CCRE) legal seminarin Philadelphia on March 30th and31st, I thought I would need a pillowand lots of caffeine, but I could nothave been more wrong. The seminaroffered a wealth of intriguing knowl-edge, much of which I’d never heardof or even imagined. CCRE represents

a whole movement dedicated to re-viving and regaining an industry thathas been guided by third-party inter-ference for decades. The experiencedcollision repair shop owners and thelawyers in attendance presented muchadvice to attendees as well as the op-portunity for shop owners to ask theirown, personal questions. I will sum-marize some highlights of the seminarhere with plans to exploring some ofthese topics in greater depth in thenear future; however, I highly recom-mend all shop owners to attendCCRE’s next seminar, which theyplan to hold in six months, in order tolearn first-hand that there are solutionsto the multitude of problems that arisein the industry. Because it is your in-dustry, and as CCRE President TonyLombardozzi emphasized “no oneelse is going to take this industry backexcept the repair shop owners them-selves.”

The event, hosted by the Penn-sylvania Collision Trade Guild(PCTG), was held at the AirportHilton in Philadelphia, PA. One hun-dred and ten people were in atten-dance from varying fields, includingmany lawyers who specialize in thisfield. Many of the attendees were non-CCRE members, and twenty-fivestates were represented with peoplecoming from as far away as Texas,NewMexico and Nevada. Tony Lom-bardozzi moderated the majority ofthe seminar with presentations beinggiven by attorneys Erica Eversmanof OH, John Parese of CT andRobert McClallen of VT.

Tony began by saying that thiswas a good industry when he firstbegan his career, but collision repair-ers gave it away over the past twenty-five years in exchange for systemssupposed to make their jobs easier. Byaccepting and following these sys-tems, such as estimating guides, re-pairers have become manipulated bythird-party influence. Repairers’ in-

vestment, in bothtime and money,should yield a profit.Through a plannedprogram of takingcontrol of your busi-ness and realizing

that the insurance company has noplace in your business, collision repairshops can still make a profit. As Tonystressed, “This has to become OURcollision repair industry.”

Discussing how this problembegan, Tony noted that there has al-ways been two separate contracts: one

between the vehi-cle owner and theinsurance com-pany, and anotherbetween the vehi-cle owner and therepairer; yet,somehow, thesetwo contracts have

joined each other as collision repairshops now have contracts with insur-ance companies through DRPs. Tonyasked: why do insurance companiesassume they have a say in the re-pairer’s contract with the vehicleowner while the repairer cannot inter-

fere with the insurer’s contract withthe customer?

Erica Eversman, Ohio attorneyand General Council for Vehicle In-formation Services, became involvedwith the issues in the collision repairindustry when she learned about the

problems that consumers have as a re-sult of repairers’ problems with insur-ance companies and realized thatconsumers have nowhere to obtain in-formation to understand the repair

process other than the insurance com-pany or the repairer. ReiteratingTony’s point about the combination ofthe two separate contracts, Erica notedthat in DRP contacts, the insurer mayor may not direct business to the re-pair facility, yet they act as if the re-pairer has obligations to the insurancecompany while they feel no obligationto the repairer.

In the contract between the vehi-cle owner and the repairer, the vehicleowner’s obligation is to pay while therepairer is obligated to provide a qual-ity repair. As oral contracts are diffi-cult to enforce, Erica recommendshaving a written contract with the ve-hicle owner to protect yourself. In thiscontract, it is important to define yourcustomer, each party’s duties and whatparts will be used. The specifics ofthese definitions vary based on indi-vidual state laws, but a valid contractmakes it easier for the repairer to ob-tain payment for the work they do.

Erica also explained that insur-ance policies give insurance compa-nies three options: replace the vehicle,pay for the loss in money, or elect torepair. Insurance companies rarelyelect to repair because it makes themequally responsible as the shop for the

quality of the repairs; however,through DRPs, insurance companiesare able to assume control of the re-pair without accepting liability. Ericawent on to discuss several legal casesand examples of the insurance com-panies choosing inferior shops to savemoney.

Insurance companies write esti-mates to verify there is damage and tofind out how much money to reservefor the claim, but these estimates arewritten for internal purposes only andmean nothing because insurers do notfix cars—they just pay for repairs.Erica noted that contracts do not over-ride consumer protection laws, butsince few consumers know their rightsor realize they are being taken advan-tage of, insurance companies often ig-nore consumer protection laws or tryto pressure collision repair facilities todo so.

Before introducing the next seg-ment, Steve Behrendt of CCRE andPCTG noted that shops should have asolid contract customized for howthey do business, and he revealed a

sign that hangs inhis shop specify-ing that insurancecompany paper-work, such as esti-mates, are used forinformational pur-poses only and donot determine the

methodology, extent or cost of repairs.Continuing her presentation,

Erica agreed that the insurer’s esti-mate is for informational purposesonly, emphasizing that the insurer hasno place in your business. Spellingthis out in the contract allows repairshops to control their relationship withthe customer, keeping the shop in therole of a professional and the insurerin their proper role. She also suggestsaddressing replevin in the contract,granting shops a lien that allows themto retain possession of the vehicleuntil they are paid for their work. Onesection of her sample contract alsogrants the shop the right to recovertheir lost profit if the insurance com-pany steers the customer to a differentshop.

CCRE 2012 Seminar—Taking Back the Collision Repair Industry

See CCRE Seminar, Page 30

Erica Eversman

Left to right: Robert McClallen, William Bensley and Ashly Van Earl

John Parese and Erica Eversman confer

From left, Rick Dotterer, Steve Behrendt, Truman Fancher, Tony Lombardozzi, and Mike Parker

Steve Behrendt

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware, who

writes on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family of NASCAR fans.She can be contacted at [email protected].

Kano Williams, US Navy VeteranHM1(FMF/PJ), had his 2006 DodgeMagnum RT painted as a tribute piecefor all armed forces, active and retired,in October of 2011. At first Kano had

the car wrapped with a vinyl graphicwith a similar concept to the way thecar is painted now. He decided to makethe photos and concept permanent byhaving the design airbrushed on thecar. All the photos on the vehicle areactual pictures of the 6 tours Kano hasdone throughout his career in thearmed forces. The Purple Heart designis also inspired by Williams’ career ashe is a Purple Heart recipient.

“The car was really getting a lotof attention with the vinyl on it so I

decided to make the concept perma-nent by getting it airbrushed on mycar,” said Williams.

Kano’s car was featured at lastyear’s SEMA show and also just fin-

ished the DUB Tour in Anaheim, CA,earlier this month, where it won Bestof Show in Painted Graphics. Kano’scar will also be part of the inauguralVeterans’ Cruise for aCause in Oceanside thisyear.

The shop that didthe build was Sinful En-hancements in LemonGrove, CA. Owners Sinhand Han helped Kano ac-complish his dream car.

The beautiful artwork painted on thecar was the work of Wesley Smith atStudio Wes in Lemon Grove.

The inside of the car carries onthe theme with purple upholstery and

more Purple Hearts embroidered inthe headrests.

Kano is the CEO for an organiza-tion called Vets Cruzin’ for a Cause,

an organization that uses all variationsof vehicles as a way to create aware-ness for the past, present and on-goingmilitary related affairs. The group is anon-profit, veteran owned and oper-

ated organization. They hope to raisemoney to provide bi-annual bike andcar shows in selected areas, as well as,hosting an annual bike/car ride/cruise.For more information about this or-ganization visit:www.vetscruzinforacause.org.

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When I first found out I was going toattend the Coalition for Collision Re-pair Excellence (CCRE) legal seminarin Philadelphia on March 30th and31st, I thought I would need a pillowand lots of caffeine, but I could nothave been more wrong. The seminaroffered a wealth of intriguing knowl-edge, much of which I’d never heardof or even imagined. CCRE represents

a whole movement dedicated to re-viving and regaining an industry thathas been guided by third-party inter-ference for decades. The experiencedcollision repair shop owners and thelawyers in attendance presented muchadvice to attendees as well as the op-portunity for shop owners to ask theirown, personal questions. I will sum-marize some highlights of the seminarhere with plans to exploring some ofthese topics in greater depth in thenear future; however, I highly recom-mend all shop owners to attendCCRE’s next seminar, which theyplan to hold in six months, in order tolearn first-hand that there are solutionsto the multitude of problems that arisein the industry. Because it is YOURindustry, and as CCRE President TonyLombardozzi emphasized “no oneelse is going to take this industry backexcept the repair shop owners them-selves.”

The event, hosted by the Penn-sylvania Collision Trade Guild(PCTG), was held at the AirportHilton in Philadelphia, PA. One hun-dred and ten people were in atten-dance from varying fields, includingmany lawyers who specialize in thisfield. Many of the attendees were non-CCRE members, and twenty-fivestates were represented with peoplecoming from as far away as Texas,New Mexico and Nevada. Tony Lom-bardozzi moderated the majority ofthe seminar with presentations beinggiven by attorneys Erica Eversmanof OH, John Parese of CT andRobert McClallen of VT.

Tony began by saying that thiswas a good industry when he firstbegan his career, but collision repair-ers gave it away over the past twenty-five years in exchange for systemssupposed to make their jobs easier. Byaccepting and following these sys-tems, such as estimating guides, re-pairers have become manipulated bythird-party influence. Repairers’ in-

vestment, in bothtime and money,should yield a profit.Through a plannedprogram of takingcontrol of your busi-ness and realizing

that the insurance company has noplace in your business, collision repairshops can still make a profit. As Tonystressed, “This has to become OURcollision repair industry.”

Discussing how this problembegan, Tony noted that there has al-ways been two separate contracts: one

between the vehi-cle owner and theinsurance com-pany, and anotherbetween the vehi-cle owner and therepairer; yet,somehow, thesetwo contracts have

joined each other as collision repairshops now have contracts with insur-ance companies through DRPs. Tonyasked: why do insurance companiesassume they have a say in the re-pairer’s contract with the vehicleowner while the repairer cannot inter-

fere with the insurer’s contract withthe customer?

Erica Eversman, Ohio attorneyand General Council for Vehicle In-formation Services, became involvedwith the issues in the collision repairindustry when she learned about the

problems that consumers have as a re-sult of repairers’ problems with insur-ance companies and realized thatconsumers have nowhere to obtain in-formation to understand the repair

process other than the insurance com-pany or the repairer. ReiteratingTony’s point about the combination ofthe two separate contracts, Erica notedthat in DRP contacts, the insurer mayor may not direct business to the re-pair facility, yet they act as if the re-pairer has obligations to the insurancecompany while they feel no obligationto the repairer.

In the contract between the vehi-cle owner and the repairer, the vehicleowner’s obligation is to pay while therepairer is obligated to provide a qual-ity repair. As oral contracts are diffi-cult to enforce, Erica recommendshaving a written contract with the ve-hicle owner to protect yourself. In thiscontract, it is important to define yourcustomer, each party’s duties and whatparts will be used. The specifics ofthese definitions vary based on indi-vidual state laws, but a valid contractmakes it easier for the repairer to ob-tain payment for the work they do.

Erica also explained that insur-ance policies give insurance compa-nies three options: replace the vehicle,pay for the loss in money, or elect torepair. Insurance companies rarelyelect to repair because it makes themequally responsible as the shop for the

quality of the repairs; however,through DRPs, insurance companiesare able to assume control of the re-pair without accepting liability. Ericawent on to discuss several legal casesand examples of the insurance com-panies choosing inferior shops to savemoney.

Insurance companies write esti-mates to verify there is damage and tofind out how much money to reservefor the claim, but these estimates arewritten for internal purposes only andmean nothing because insurers do notfix cars—they just pay for repairs.Erica noted that contracts do not over-ride consumer protection laws, butsince few consumers know their rightsor realize they are being taken advan-tage of, insurance companies often ig-nore consumer protection laws or tryto pressure collision repair facilities todo so.

Before introducing the next seg-ment, Steve Behrendt of CCRE andPCTG noted that shops should have asolid contract customized for howthey do business, and he revealed a

sign that hangs inhis shop specify-ing that insurancecompany paper-work, such as esti-mates, are used forinformational pur-poses only and donot determine the

methodology, extent or cost of repairs.Continuing her presentation,

Erica agreed that the insurer’s esti-mate is for informational purposesonly, emphasizing that the insurer hasno place in your business. Spellingthis out in the contract allows repairshops to control their relationship withthe customer, keeping the shop in therole of a professional and the insurerin their proper role. She also suggestsaddressing replevin in the contract,granting shops a lien that allows themto retain possession of the vehicleuntil they are paid for their work. Onesection of her sample contract alsogrants the shop the right to recovertheir lost profit if the insurance com-pany steers the customer to a differentshop.

CCRE 2012 Seminar—Taking Back the Collision Repair Industry

with Rick WhiteShop Management

with Stefan GesterkampPaint Management

with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox

with Richard ArnoldJobber Journal

Mainstream Media

with Dale DelmegeAsk Dale

Mainstream Media

Automakers’ Actions and Analysisby Autobody News Staff

Shop Showcaseby Autobody News Staff

with Ed AttanasioShop and Product Showcase

with Ed AttanasioConsumer Callout

with Walter DanalevichShop Strategies for Savings

with The Insurance InsiderInside Insurance

with Ed AttanasioCustom Corner

with Chasidy Rae SiskCompany Connections

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News

with Chasidy Rae SiskShop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Snapshot

Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware, whowrites on a variety of fields and subjects, and grew up in a family of NASCAR fans.She can be contacted at [email protected].

Turning the discussion to parts,Erica insisted that shops should neveroffer a warranty on parts, especially af-termarket parts, but they should war-

rant the quality oftheir repairs. Whileinsurance compa-nies can guaranteethe work of a DRPshop, this meansassuming liability.They usually offerwarranties on re-

placement parts but not on workman-ship, unless specifically stated.

Noting that warranties are like in-surance policies in that they have moreexclusions than coverage, Ericastressed that manufacturers’warrantieswill often be void if aftermarket partsare used, yet many insurance compa-nies require shops to use these parts intheir DRP contracts. She also pointedout that insurance companies are greatat propaganda; many insurance adscreate the impression that insurers areinvolved in the repair, and they focuson magical restorations.

In the Question and Answer sec-tion of her presentation, Erica noted

that insurers onlyfear bad press andlitigation as it pres-ents unknown andunknowable costs.While other busi-nesses are forcedto comply withconsumer protec-

tion laws, insurance companies aregenerally exempt and are only investi-gated if there is proof that their actionsare common practice.

John Parese Esq., of CT pre-sented next in regards to tort reform.Tort requires those responsible forharming others to compensate theirvictims, and the classical purpose oftort is to provide full compensation forproved harm. Tort reform proposeschanges to reduce tort litigation ondamages by setting procedural limitson the ability to file claims and cap-ping the awards of damages, amongother things. Advocates of tort reforminclude automobile manufacturers andinsurance companies, in addition tothe tobacco, chemical and pharma-ceutical industries.

John then proceeded to show clipsfrom “Hot Coffee,” a documentary

about Stella Liebeck’s lawsuit againstMcDonald’s when she spilled coffee inher lap. These clips show a differentside to the case than what was seen inthe media, validating this seeminglyfrivolous lawsuit. John stresses “If youdon’t even know the basic minimalstandard that you need to employ andthen you harm someone, the conse-quences can be very significant.

John noted that these same tacticsare being used to change the collisionrepair industry as insurance compa-nies come out on top through publicrelations. Some of their methods areDRPs, insurance involvement in set-ting repair guidelines, misleadingcommercials and legislative “reforms”to allow more steering and greatercontrol over repairs. He asked “does itfeel like there’s an ever-encroachinginsurer presence changing fundamen-tal ways of doing business, relent-lessly grabbing for more and more ofyour business, in part through a per-petual public relations and legislativecampaign of distorted information?”

Continuing the presentation, Johnexplained that consumers are misledby false perceptions that insurancecompanies fix cars and by propagandareinforced by uninformed courts, leg-islators and state officials. They arealso given false information regardingwarranties, delays, quality, rentals andtrust. Yet, most consumers do not evenknow they have been harmed!

After watching several insurancecompany ads that show magical re-pairs and stress that the insurancecompany repairs vehicles, the audi-ence erupted in applause to see ananti-steering commercial. The dis-semination of this type of informationis one way that the collision repair in-dustry can fight back, through recog-nizing the problem and playing thesame game of public relations. Colli-sion repair shops’ goals should be toget the insurer out of the repairprocess, remember who the customeris and use a well-reasoned strategy ofinforming. Make things about theprocess, not the money.

SCRS Executive Director AaronSchulenburg then gave a brief but in-formative report on information theyhad received regarding the new StateFarm parts bidding program (see re-lated story this issue) and the potentialimpact the process could have on re-pairer processes and profits.

Attorney Robert McClallen ofVT then began discussing assignmentof proceeds. This document is useful

as it allows the repairer to effectivelystep into the consumer’s shoes inorder to sue the insurance companyand get paid for their work. By signingan assignment of proceeds, the cus-tomer gives the collision repair shopthe right to force the issue and receivepayment. In creating an assignment ofproceeds for your shop, it is important

to clarify and specify exactly whichrights are being assigned. Ericastresses that the wording of the docu-ment must be correct because shopswill not have the right to sue if it onlygrants them rights to proceeds; it mustalso grant the right to act as the con-sumer in order to obtain payment.

On Saturday morning, the semi-nar resumed with a presentation byRobert McClallen and Mike Parker ofCCRE as they discussed how Mikewas able to use his assignment of pro-ceeds to successfully sue an insurance

company for repeated short pays. Dur-ing the trial, Mike stressed that he feltlike he was a “co-conspirator to de-fraud consumers” when questionedabout why he asked to be taken off di-rect repair programs. Rob was able toprove the insurance company prac-ticed steering against Mike as well. Inhis closing argument during the trial,

Rob stressed that the insurance com-panies have no legal way to do this.“They’re just doing it because they’rebig and they think they can.” Rob con-solidated Mike’s 38 claims, all first-party claims because of short pay, andhe won every single case.

Mike emphasized the importanceof making sure the customer knows ex-actly what they are signing so that, in atrial, the insurance company cannotclaim customers were coerced or un-aware of what rights they were assign-

Athodsto

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CCRE Seminar

Truman Fancher

Tony Lombardozzi

Left to right: Joe Talarico, A. Brent Geohagan, John Parese and Erica Eversman gave legal advice

See CCRE Seminar, Page 44

Turning the discussion to parts,Erica insisted that shops should neveroffer a warranty on parts, especially af-termarket parts, but they should war-

rant the quality oftheir repairs. Whileinsurance compa-nies can guaranteethe work of a DRPshop, this meansassuming liability.They usually offerwarranties on re-

placement parts but not on workman-ship, unless specifically stated.

Noting that warranties are like in-surance policies in that they have moreexclusions than coverage, Ericastressed that manufacturers’ warrantieswill often be void if aftermarket partsare used, yet many insurance compa-nies require shops to use these parts intheir DRP contracts. She also pointedout that insurance companies are greatat propaganda; many insurance adscreate the impression that insurers areinvolved in the repair, and they focuson magical restorations.

In the Question and Answer sec-tion of her presentation, Erica noted

that insurers onlyfear bad press andlitigation as it pres-ents unknown andunknowable costs.While other busi-nesses are forcedto comply withconsumer protec-

tion laws, insurance companies aregenerally exempt and are only investi-gated if there is proof that their actionsare common practice.

John Parese Esq., of CT pre-sented next in regards to tort reform.Tort requires those responsible forharming others to compensate theirvictims, and the classical purpose oftort is to provide full compensation forproved harm. Tort reform proposeschanges to reduce tort litigation ondamages by setting procedural limitson the ability to file claims and cap-ping the awards of damages, amongother things. Advocates of tort reforminclude automobile manufacturers andinsurance companies, in addition tothe tobacco, chemical and pharma-ceutical industries.

John then proceeded to show clipsfrom “Hot Coffee,” a documentary

about Stella Liebeck’s lawsuit againstMcDonald’s when she spilled coffee inher lap. These clips show a differentside to the case than what was seen inthe media, validating this seeminglyfrivolous lawsuit. John stresses “If youdon’t even know the basic minimalstandard that you need to employ andthen you harm someone, the conse-quences can be very significant.

John noted that these same tacticsare being used to change the collisionrepair industry as insurance compa-nies come out on top through publicrelations. Some of their methods areDRPs, insurance involvement in set-ting repair guidelines, misleadingcommercials and legislative “reforms”to allow more steering and greatercontrol over repairs. He asked “does itfeel like there’s an ever-encroachinginsurer presence changing fundamen-tal ways of doing business, relent-lessly grabbing for more and more ofyour business, in part through a per-petual public relations and legislativecampaign of distorted information?”

Continuing the presentation, Johnexplained that consumers are misledby false perceptions that insurancecompanies fix cars and by propagandareinforced by uninformed courts, leg-islators and state officials. They arealso given false information regardingwarranties, delays, quality, rentals andtrust. Yet, most consumers do not evenknow they have been harmed!

After watching several insurancecompany ads that show magical re-pairs and stress that the insurancecompany repairs vehicles, the audi-ence erupted in applause to see ananti-steering commercial. The dis-semination of this type of informationis one way that the collision repair in-dustry can fight back, through recog-nizing the problem and playing thesame game of public relations. Colli-sion repair shops’ goals should be toget the insurer out of the repairprocess, remember who the customeris and use a well-reasoned strategy ofinforming. Make things about theprocess, not the money.

SCRS Executive Director AaronSchulenburg then gave a brief but in-formative report on information theyhad received regarding the new StateFarm parts bidding program (see re-lated story this issue) and the potentialimpact the process could have on re-pairer processes and profits.

Attorney Robert McClallen ofVT then began discussing assignmentof proceeds. This document is useful

as it allows the repairer to effectivelystep into the consumer’s shoes inorder to sue the insurance companyand get paid for their work. By signingan assignment of proceeds, the cus-tomer gives the collision repair shopthe right to force the issue and receivepayment. In creating an assignment ofproceeds for your shop, it is important

to clarify and specify exactly whichrights are being assigned. Ericastresses that the wording of the docu-ment must be correct because shopswill not have the right to sue if it onlygrants them rights to proceeds; it mustalso grant the right to act as the con-sumer in order to obtain payment.

On Saturday morning, the semi-nar resumed with a presentation byRobert McClallen and Mike Parker ofCCRE as they discussed how Mikewas able to use his assignment of pro-ceeds to successfully sue an insurance

company for repeated short pays. Dur-ing the trial, Mike stressed that he feltlike he was a “co-conspirator to de-fraud consumers” when questionedabout why he asked to be taken off di-rect repair programs. Rob was able toprove the insurance company prac-ticed steering against Mike as well. Inhis closing argument during the trial,

Rob stressed that the insurance com-panies have no legal way to do this.“They’re just doing it because they’rebig and they think they can.” Rob con-solidated Mike’s 38 claims, all first-party claims because of short pay, andhe won every single case.

Mike emphasized the importanceof making sure the customer knows ex-actly what they are signing so that, in atrial, the insurance company cannotclaim customers were coerced or un-aware of what rights they were assign-

As the discussion of how and whetherthe industry should develop some sortof formalized collision repair stan-dards continues, Paul Gange brings asomewhat unique perspective on thetopic.

Gange is the president and chiefoperating officer of Fix Auto USA,which has 48 franchise locations infour U.S. states, as well as 151 shopsaround the country using the com-pany’s services as part of a moreloosely-knit “network.”

But Fix Auto also has a similarorganization in the United Kingdom,with 68 franchises in a market that hasimplemented a repair standards pro-gram that is most often mentioned asa potential model for one in the UnitedStates.

Speaking recently on the Colli-sion Repair Executive Webcast(CREW), Gange shared some of theperspectives on standards he’s learned

through observing the U.K. marketand speaking with shops there.

He predicated his remarks bysaying that Fix Auto USA is commit-

ted to repair stan-dards, ensuringthat all of its fran-chises here, for ex-ample, maintainthe I-CAR GoldClass designationof ongoing train-ing, and use a

third-party, VeriFacts Automotive, tohelp ensure repairs are being donecorrectly.

“Fix Auto is committed to repairstandards that are universally adheredto and which ensure vehicles are re-turned to the road safely,” Gange said.

That said, he offered the follow-ing prescriptions and warnings forthose involved in the standards efforthere.

● Discussion of standards can eas-ily lead to multiple “standards.”Gange said the standards effort in theU.K. began in the 1970s along withthe shift to unibody vehicles. One in-dustry organization developed a stan-dards program, which about 2,700U.K. shops implemented over a four-year period. But 300 other shopsbalked at that standard, and createdand implemented a different set ofstandards. Eventually there were atleast three such programs, and shops

found themselves being required bydifferent insurers to implement mul-tiple standards, just as U.S. shopsoften have multiple estimating sys-tems to meet different insurer re-quirements.

“This was, at the very basis, a bitof a mess,” Gange said.

Some say the U.S. market isgoing down a similar road, with an in-creasing number of shop certificationprograms by the automakers and

Other Voices on StandardsSeveral other industry participants offered their view ofthe industry standards development process during arecent Collision Repair Executive Webcast (CREW).

Mike Quinn, who co-chairs a Repair StandardsAdvisory Committee working on the issue, said crashtesting of a vehicle repaired using methods consideredsafe just a decade ago showed that if used today, suchmethods would compromise the safety of passengersin a subsequent crash.

“The results were disastrous, and if we don’t think we’re under a mi-croscope by litigious attorneys or governmental agencies, we’re kiddingourselves,” Quinn said. “The ostrich approach has not worked for our in-dustry. The consumer expects and should have comfort that cars are beingsafely repaired to a standard so their family is safe in that repaired automo-bile. We have to move forward.”

Denise Caspersen of the manager of the Automotive Service Associa-tion (ASA) Collision Division, agreed that standardscould improve shop consistency and efficiency, as wellas repair quality, customer satisfaction and the indus-try’s professionalism. But, she said, ASA membershave expressed concerns about whether a standardsprogram would be open to shops of all sizes, whetherit would be recognized by consumers, and whether itwould offer a return on investment for shops or rather

just add another cost for shops.Steve Nantau of Ford Motor Company agreed that

in order to be successful, a standards program wouldhave be recognized as valuable by consumers and in-surers. He believes if the industry doesn’t develop asingle, recognized program, even more automakers andother groups will implement their own such program,none of which will end up with enough “traction” forwidespread recognition.

Standards Program in the U.K. Offers Lessons for the U.S.

with Ed Attanasio

Shop and Product Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Social Media for Shops


The Right Causewith Mike Causey

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in thefamily and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).Contact him by email at [email protected].

See Standards Program, Page 33

Mike Quinn

Denise Caspersen

Steve Nantau

Paul Gange


Nalley BMW

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Large original BMW parts inventoryBMW trained techniciansService when you need it

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1606 Church St., Decatur, GA 30033www.nalleybmw.com

(800) 622.2021(404) 297.9134 Fax(800) 622.2021(404) 297.9134 Fax

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by Jami Kinton, News Journal

Authorities capped a five-month in-vestigation April 11 with the arrest ofa Shelby, OH, man on multiple felonycharges.

Local officials say they wereprompted by complaints from 17cases of unhappy car-restoration cus-tomers, who combined said they lostmore than $300,000.

Keith Shellhouse, 46, wascharged with aggravated theft, a third-degree felony, and theft of a motor ve-hicle, a fourth-degree felony, saidRichland County Deputy Sheriff, RichEichinger.

“I’ve been doing car restorationsfor 30 years,” said Shellhouse, ownerof Independent Autobody and ProRestorations at 4952 Plymouth-Springmill Road. “Did I steal? No, Idid not steal anything.”

Richland County Sheriff’s Maj.Dale Fortney said the department wasassisted by the Attorney General’sEconomics Crimes Division and thestate Bureau of Criminal Investiga-tion, the National Insurance CrimeBureau, the Ohio Department of Tax-ation, the Ohio Collision Repair Boardand the Bureau of Motor Vehicle In-vestigations. He said there were morethan 30 victims, but only 17 kept goodenough records to take to a grand jury.

“People had to refinance theirhouses, sell land,” Eichinger said. “Heonly finished one car since 2002 andhe’s had 20-plus cars waiting. Yes, itdoes take time to restore cars, but thenwhy would you continue to bring innew cars when you have so many youhaven’t even started?

“I think he just wanted more andmore money coming in. It was kind oflike a Ponzi scheme.”

Shellhouse said previously hiscar restoration business has resulted inaward-winning street rods. The shopalso offers collision repair service, andits website promises customers a 100percent money-back guarantee.

Some customers report a differ-ent experience.

Bill Stouval, of New York, foundthe shop online.

“(Shellhouse) came to pick upmy car on July 31, 2009,” Stouval said

of his 1986 Chevy Camaro High RockZ28. “He told me he would do a com-plete restoration. He told me when hewas done it would be better than whenit rolled off the showroom floor.”

Stouval said Shellhouse esti-mated it would be a two-year project.Stouval said he paid $5,000 up frontand was told it would cost $15,000 tocomplete the project.

“I chased him down every monthand asked how it was going,” Stouvalsaid. “He was really good at ignoringmy calls. I had to call from otherphones, and his mailbox was alwaysfull. Neighbors said they’d see peoplebeating on his door, knowing he wasinside but he wouldn’t open it.

“When I would get a hold of him,he did admit he hadn’t made muchprogress but had every excuse, ‘I’mwaiting on parts. I’m about to get a di-vorce from my wife. I lost my cell-phone.’ Normally, you’d say, ‘OK,well then you’re fired.’ But when thisguy has thousands of your dollars, youcan’t do much but say, ‘OK, when areyou going to be back on track?’ “

Stouval said Shellhouse collected$9,400 from him.

Judy Boyd had a similar story.“I had a 1972 Corvette and my

husband at the time wanted to surpriseme and have a restoration done on it,”Boyd said. “He found Keith on the In-ternet, but I really didn’t want someoneto touch my car because I was afraidsomething like this would happen.”

Boyd said she paid Shellhouse$9,000.

“I took my car over to him in onepiece and got it back in pieces,” shesaid.

On March 16, 2002, Boyd asked

that the vehicle be stripped of all bodypaint, repainted and completely refin-ished within two years.

“On Oct. 9, 2003, I went overthere and found that he had disassem-bled it, but done absolutely nothing,”Boyd said. “He’d also left my frameout in the field and it had completelyrusted.”

Boyd said all calls were “shortand argumentative” and emails re-ceived no response. She finally soughtlegal help.

“I loved this car dearly. When Ithink about it, it just makes me wantto cry,” Boyd said.

Members of the Northern OhioViolent Fugitive Task Force arrestedShellhouse at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday athis business.

“Sure looked a lot different inthere this time,” said Deputy ChuckKochis, who was present in Novem-ber when authorities searched the

business and seized three vehicles. “Itlooks like he’s actually trying to workon cars now. I’m sure he’s upset be-cause he’s trying to build his businessback up. But he dug his own grave.”

Shellhouse’s wife, Tammy, whoworks in Mansfield, was waiting tocollect her husband’s possessions atthe jail.

“He did nothing illegal,” she said.“They raided my house with bogussearch warrants.”

Shellhouse is expected to be ar-raigned the week of April 15. Author-ities ask people with complaints tocall Eichinger at 419-774-3572.

Autobody News takes no position onthe guilt or innocence of the personsfeatured in this article and all are in-nocent until proven guilty.

This story is reprinted here by kindpermission of the author, Jami Kinton,and the Mansfield News Journal.

third-party certification programs,such as one being launched by the As-sured Performance Network.● Create a system that is free frombias. While the industry in the U.K.has shifted in recent years toward asingle standard, Gange said there’ssome question as to whether that pro-gram treats all repairers equally.

As an example, Gange said thatmost shops are subject twice a year tounannounced assessments of theircompliance with the standards.

“These are arduous assessments,”he said. “They are very, very detailed.And if you fail that assessment, youlose your certification.”

But Gange said one mobile re-pairer organization in the U.K., whichfocuses on light hits and bumper re-pairs, faces such assessments at onlya subset of their “locations,” which areessentially vans, rather than at all lo-cations like most other repairers. Thatreduces their costs of compliance,Gange said, which some traditional re-pairers view as unfair.

In addition to that type of sitation,Gange said he would like to see theU.S. also avoid a standards systemthat isn’t open to anyone willing andable to comply. Automaker shop certi-fication programs, for example, gen-erally require an independent shop tohave a relationship with a dealer,which may make such a program opento one shop but not to another,equally-qualified shop.

“Repairers wiling and capable ofinvesting, if that’s required, or adher-ing to standard specifications anddoing the work that’s it’s going to taketo ensure that they can repair vehiclesproperly should have a right to repairthat vehicle,” Gange said. “I would notwant there to be a standard that ex-cludes a shop that wanted to adhere tothe standard but perhaps wasn’t able toparticipate because it didn’t have theendorsement of another organization.”

● Don’t underestimate the cost ofstandards. Gange said that while thestandards program in the U.K., is “at itsessence positive, it’s riddled with bu-reaucracy, and along with bureaucracycomes costs.” Gange said that shops inthe U.K. feel they bear the burden of

these costs, including a $30,000 to$80,000 initial implementation fee,along with the equivalent of just under$8,000 a year in annual training. Muchof that training is provided throughThatcham, an insurer-funded researchand training organization in the U.K.

Gange said the industry here maywant to ensure there are multiple or-ganizations helping implement anystandards program.

“I think what we would want tohave in this regard is a healthy mar-ketplace for those that do the trainingand the assessments and the initial im-plementation,” Gange said. “That willhelp keep the prices down.”

Gange was asked if the standardsprogram in the U.K. has led to in-creases in repair costs and total lossesthere.

“At some point you have to ex-pect that when you’re spending$30,000 to $80,000 to implement astandard, and another $7,000 to$9,000 a year to maintain a standard,those costs have to come out some-where,” Gange said. “And I think itsfair to say they have come out in thecost of repairs ultimately with an in-crease in total losses.”

● There needs to be recognition ofthe standards by insurers and con-sumers. Gange said the U.K. stan-dards program uses the “Kitemark”brand for shops meeting the standards;similar to the “Good Housekeeping”seal here, Kitemark is a well-recog-nized symbol among UK. consumers.

Without recognition by insurersand consumers of the value of choos-ing a certified shop, Gange said, shopsnot meeting the standard will use theirlower costs to market lower prices –generally for a lower-quality or evenunsafe repair.

John Yoswick, a freelance writerbased in Portland, Oregon, who has beenwriting about the automotive industrysince 1988, is also the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.Crash-Network.com). He can be contacted byemail at [email protected].


Largest PartsInventory in Central Florida

Parts Hours:Monday-Friday 7:30 am - 5:30 pm; Saturday 8 am - 4 pm

Call Us Today!

407. 644.5111Fax:

407.645-4971

1875 SOUTH ORLANDO AVE. – MAITLAND, FL 32751

F-250 Lariat ‘11

Ken AdamsParts Director

www.fordparts.com/donreidfordwww.donreidford.com


Standards Program

Complaints Lead to Arrest of Ohio Car Restoration Business Owner

Keith Shellhouse. owner of Independent Auto-body and Pro Restorations, 4952 Plymouth-Springmill Road, Shelby, OH, is taken to theRichland County Jail on April 11/JAMI KIN-TON/NEWS JOURNAL





Mainstream Media


Mainstream Media













This column reprints articles referring to the collisionand auto repair industry as given in the general press.Autobody News thanks the copyright holder for givingpermission to reprint such works.

by Jami Kinton, News Journal

Authorities capped a five-month in-vestigation April 11 with the arrest ofa Shelby, OH, man on multiple felonycharges.

Local officials say they wereprompted by complaints from 17cases of unhappy car-restoration cus-tomers, who combined said they lostmore than $300,000.

Keith Shellhouse, 46, wascharged with aggravated theft, a third-degree felony, and theft of a motor ve-hicle, a fourth-degree felony, saidRichland County Deputy Sheriff, RichEichinger.

“I’ve been doing car restorationsfor 30 years,” said Shellhouse, ownerof Independent Autobody and ProRestorations at 4952 Plymouth-Springmill Road. “Did I steal? No, Idid not steal anything.”

Richland County Sheriff’s Maj.Dale Fortney said the department wasassisted by the Attorney General’sEconomics Crimes Division and thestate Bureau of Criminal Investiga-tion, the National Insurance CrimeBureau, the Ohio Department of Tax-ation, the Ohio Collision Repair Boardand the Bureau of Motor Vehicle In-vestigations. He said there were morethan 30 victims, but only 17 kept goodenough records to take to a grand jury.

“People had to refinance theirhouses, sell land,” Eichinger said. “Heonly finished one car since 2002 andhe’s had 20-plus cars waiting. Yes, itdoes take time to restore cars, but thenwhy would you continue to bring innew cars when you have so many youhaven’t even started?

“I think he just wanted more andmore money coming in. It was kind oflike a Ponzi scheme.”

Shellhouse said previously hiscar restoration business has resulted inaward-winning street rods. The shopalso offers collision repair service, andits website promises customers a 100percent money-back guarantee.

Some customers report a differ-ent experience.

Bill Stouval, of New York, foundthe shop online.

“(Shellhouse) came to pick upmy car on July 31, 2009,” Stouval said

of his 1986 Chevy Camaro High RockZ28. “He told me he would do a com-plete restoration. He told me when hewas done it would be better than whenit rolled off the showroom floor.”

Stouval said Shellhouse esti-mated it would be a two-year project.Stouval said he paid $5,000 up frontand was told it would cost $15,000 tocomplete the project.

“I chased him down every monthand asked how it was going,” Stouvalsaid. “He was really good at ignoringmy calls. I had to call from otherphones, and his mailbox was alwaysfull. Neighbors said they’d see peoplebeating on his door, knowing he wasinside but he wouldn’t open it.

“When I would get a hold of him,he did admit he hadn’t made muchprogress but had every excuse, ‘I’mwaiting on parts. I’m about to get a di-vorce from my wife. I lost my cell-phone.’ Normally, you’d say, ‘OK,well then you’re fired.’ But when thisguy has thousands of your dollars, youcan’t do much but say, ‘OK, when areyou going to be back on track?’ “

Stouval said Shellhouse collected$9,400 from him.

Judy Boyd had a similar story.“I had a 1972 Corvette and my

husband at the time wanted to surpriseme and have a restoration done on it,”Boyd said. “He found Keith on the In-ternet, but I really didn’t want someoneto touch my car because I was afraidsomething like this would happen.”

Boyd said she paid Shellhouse$9,000.

“I took my car over to him in onepiece and got it back in pieces,” shesaid.

On March 16, 2002, Boyd asked

that the vehicle be stripped of all bodypaint, repainted and completely refin-ished within two years.

“On Oct. 9, 2003, I went overthere and found that he had disassem-bled it, but done absolutely nothing,”Boyd said. “He’d also left my frameout in the field and it had completelyrusted.”

Boyd said all calls were “shortand argumentative” and emails re-ceived no response. She finally soughtlegal help.

“I loved this car dearly. When Ithink about it, it just makes me wantto cry,” Boyd said.

Members of the Northern OhioViolent Fugitive Task Force arrestedShellhouse at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday athis business.

“Sure looked a lot different inthere this time,” said Deputy ChuckKochis, who was present in Novem-ber when authorities searched the

business and seized three vehicles. “Itlooks like he’s actually trying to workon cars now. I’m sure he’s upset be-cause he’s trying to build his businessback up. But he dug his own grave.”

Shellhouse’s wife, Tammy, whoworks in Mansfield, was waiting tocollect her husband’s possessions atthe jail.

“He did nothing illegal,” she said.“They raided my house with bogussearch warrants.”

Shellhouse is expected to be ar-raigned the week of April 15. Author-ities ask people with complaints tocall Eichinger at 419-774-3572.

Autobody News takes no position onthe guilt or innocence of the personsfeatured in this article and all are in-nocent until proven guilty.

This story is reprinted here by kindpermission of the author, Jami Kinton,and the Mansfield News Journal.

third-party certification programs,such as one being launched by the As-sured Performance Network.● Create a system that is free frombias. While the industry in the U.K.has shifted in recent years toward asingle standard, Gange said there’ssome question as to whether that pro-gram treats all repairers equally.

As an example, Gange said thatmost shops are subject twice a year tounannounced assessments of theircompliance with the standards.

“These are arduous assessments,”he said. “They are very, very detailed.And if you fail that assessment, youlose your certification.”

But Gange said one mobile re-pairer organization in the U.K., whichfocuses on light hits and bumper re-pairs, faces such assessments at onlya subset of their “locations,” which areessentially vans, rather than at all lo-cations like most other repairers. Thatreduces their costs of compliance,Gange said, which some traditional re-pairers view as unfair.

In addition to that type of sitation,Gange said he would like to see theU.S. also avoid a standards systemthat isn’t open to anyone willing andable to comply. Automaker shop certi-fication programs, for example, gen-erally require an independent shop tohave a relationship with a dealer,which may make such a program opento one shop but not to another,equally-qualified shop.

“Repairers wiling and capable ofinvesting, if that’s required, or adher-ing to standard specifications anddoing the work that’s it’s going to taketo ensure that they can repair vehiclesproperly should have a right to repairthat vehicle,” Gange said. “I would notwant there to be a standard that ex-cludes a shop that wanted to adhere tothe standard but perhaps wasn’t able toparticipate because it didn’t have theendorsement of another organization.”

● Don’t underestimate the cost ofstandards. Gange said that while thestandards program in the U.K., is “at itsessence positive, it’s riddled with bu-reaucracy, and along with bureaucracycomes costs.” Gange said that shops inthe U.K. feel they bear the burden of

these costs, including a $30,000 to$80,000 initial implementation fee,along with the equivalent of just under$8,000 a year in annual training. Muchof that training is provided throughThatcham, an insurer-funded researchand training organization in the U.K.

Gange said the industry here maywant to ensure there are multiple or-ganizations helping implement anystandards program.

“I think what we would want tohave in this regard is a healthy mar-ketplace for those that do the trainingand the assessments and the initial im-plementation,” Gange said. “That willhelp keep the prices down.”

Gange was asked if the standardsprogram in the U.K. has led to in-creases in repair costs and total lossesthere.

“At some point you have to ex-pect that when you’re spending$30,000 to $80,000 to implement astandard, and another $7,000 to$9,000 a year to maintain a standard,those costs have to come out some-where,” Gange said. “And I think itsfair to say they have come out in thecost of repairs ultimately with an in-crease in total losses.”

● There needs to be recognition ofthe standards by insurers and con-sumers. Gange said the U.K. stan-dards program uses the “Kitemark”brand for shops meeting the standards;similar to the “Good Housekeeping”seal here, Kitemark is a well-recog-nized symbol among UK. consumers.

Without recognition by insurersand consumers of the value of choos-ing a certified shop, Gange said, shopsnot meeting the standard will use theirlower costs to market lower prices –generally for a lower-quality or evenunsafe repair.

John Yoswick, a freelance writerbased in Portland, Oregon, who has beenwriting about the automotive industrysince 1988, is also the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.Crash-Network.com). He can be contacted byemail at [email protected].


Largest PartsInventory in Central Florida

Parts Hours:Monday-Friday 7:30 am - 5:30 pm; Saturday 8 am - 4 pm

Call Us Today!

407. 644.5111Fax:

407.645-4971

1875 SOUTH ORLANDO AVE. – MAITLAND, FL 32751

F-250 Lariat ‘11

Ken AdamsParts Director

www.fordparts.com/donreidfordwww.donreidford.com

407. 64

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Standards Program

Complaints Lead to Arrest of Ohio Car Restoration Business Owner





Mainstream Media


Mainstream Media













This column reprints articles referring to the collisionand auto repair industry as given in the general press.Autobody News thanks the copyright holder for givingpermission to reprint such works.


on Facebook

in this automotive repair business, thiswas my calling. I am one of manymechanics and technicians of anysmall town or big city who might havedone something else with their life,but cars and tool boxes became ourvocation. I may have chosen to be in

this business but quite honestly, itmight have actually chosen me. Can’tsay it’s been that bad of a deal.

I’m sure everyone in the businesshas a story to tell of how they gotstarted, and when I get the chance tohear someone else’s story I’ll take thetime to listen. It’s really fascinating tome how we all ended up here… bend-ing over the hood of a car or truck.

I’m very proud of the auto indus-

try, and I’m proud to be a part of it.Whatever some people may thinkabout the job of a “mechanic” or howthey might try to degrade it, there’s onething to keep in mind…. it’s a neces-sary part of the world we live in. Thiscountry is built on moving goods,products, and people from one place toanother, and without mechanics every-thing would come to a complete stop.

As a tribute to all of the mechan-

ics, technicians out there… a tip of thehat to one and all… your dedicationand hard work should be com-mended. If no one else will say it… Iwill… Thank you for your continuedefforts. You keep fixing them and I’llkeep telling your stories.

Here’s a hand salute from an oldMarine to everyone in the automotivetrenches. I appreciate every one ofyou… 100 percent. OohRah!


For Your Next Repair Pick Only Original

TOYOTA PARTS!PALMERS TOYOTA

HOURS:Mon. - Fri. 7:30am - 6pmSat. 8am - 4pm

470 Schillinger Road • Mobile, AL 36695

www.palmersairporttoyota.com

Wayne NettlesParts Manager

[email protected]

Call Us Today!

800-475-9091 FAX to Wholesale Desk

251-639-9970Direct Local

800-874-2777DirectWholesale

• We deliver in our own trucks to NW. Florida, S. Alabama and SE. Mississippi• Call up til 5:30pm for next day delivery• Courteous, professional parts people with integrity to help you• Better service + better prices = faster turn time and more profit for you


Think Like a Mechanic

by Erica Schroeder

Airbrush artist Shannon MacDonald,who exhibited her airbrush portrait ofJohn Lennon at the Anest Iwata boothat SEMA 2011, uses PPG’s Envi-

robase waterborne paint to bring herart alive on just about every surface.Shannon’s art has been featured onguitars, drums, motorcycles, boats,cars, planes, helmets and of coursetraditional canvas or illustrationboard.“I use PPG’s Envirobase on every-thing now,” said Shannon, “I love itand it seems to love me.”

Shannon, well known for her life-like portraits of iconic celebrities suchas The Beatles, Sylvester Stallone,James Dean, Jackie Kennedy andElvis Presley—among others, failedart in high school due to differencesshe had with her art teacher. Instead ofpasting macaroni on paper and throw-ing glitter on it she rebelled and wentto the back of the room to study the“Old Masters” (Norman Rockwell,Michelangelo, etc.). Her teacherwould insult her and say, “You willnever get anywhere drawing thosepigs”. Her teacher was referring toShannon’s drawings and paintings ofThe Beatles. After a few yearsof failing art, Shannon’s already pavedroad to go onto college with scholar-ships was derailed. Depressed and ag-gravated, she gave up art and focusedon a “still successful” music career. 15

years later, Shannon was given an air-brush, as a gift. This was the instru-ment in her life that gave her back herart. Her first airbrushed painting wasof John Lennon. She entered the paint-ing in a contest and won first place.Beatles fans saw Shannon’s paintingand wanted more. Her fan base grewrapidly and she began to get invited toBeatles Conventions all over theUSA. Owners of The Cavern Club (aLiverpool club made famous by TheBeatles) discovered Shannon paintingat a Beatles Convention in Connecti-cut. They took the news back to Liv-erpool and said of Shannon’s works,“We were Gobsmacked!” Eventually,so was the UK audience. With only afew years of airbrushing under herbelt, Shannon was declared “TheWorld’s Greatest Beatles Artist” in1998 by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.Shannon says of the art teacher thatfailed her, “My art teacher has to eather words everyday. I will always bethe “main course” in her life. As far asmy art goes, I owe a lot to the air-brush.”

After using mainly PPG solvent-based paints for years, Shannon beganusing PPG’s Envirobase about a yearago and has decided to go totallygreen in her studio.

“I love it now,” said Shannon, al-though she thought she’d never get thehang of using waterborne paint at first,Shannon is now very comfortablewith it. According to Shannon, whenshe first started using waterborne shenoticed a difference right away. Thewaterborne paint would stay just as

she painted it—critical to an artist whopaints with such detail. With the sol-vent, Shannon says, sometimes thefine details would melt and merge abit as it dried.

“As far as changing from solventto waterborne, all I had to do was besold on the product and what it had tooffer. I was visiting ‘Ideal Distributors

& Auto Paint’ in St. George, Utah tomeet with Walter Rapp. While there, Ihad mentioned wanting to try the newPPG waterborne; PPG’s Envirobase®

changed my mind about solvents,”said Shannon, “For me, solvents tendto ‘merge’ with each other in a waythat detail is lost, especially when ap-plying top coats. I am in the detailbusiness! I can’t afford to see hoursworth of work slowly disappear aftertopcoating with clearcoats and/or can-dies. Solvents easily ‘blur’ after topcoating. PPG Waterbornes do not.”

Shannon also appreciates that sheis breathing in less paint fumes withthe waterborne versus solvent.

“If you are a painter that lovesthat 24 hour a day ‘sucking on heliumrush’, you might miss solvent,” saidShannon.

Shannon was also impressed withthe cost savings associated with usingwaterborne and as a custom paintbusiness there wasn’t a lot of cost inchanging over from solvent.

“There was no big cost factor inchanging over; being involved in thecustom paint business is probably lessinvasive then a full body shop changeover. As I move forward I can see theadvantage; I am getting more done ata faster pace which makes way formore clientele and I am using lesspaint. I am saving every day,” saidShannon.

Although waterborne sprayeddifferently, according to Shannon, thetechniques associated with using wa-terborne were actually quite similar tomuch of her artistic education.

She also noticed that with sol-vent, the color that it is in the can isjust about the same as it comes outwhen you spray it; but with water-borne, the color looks a lot differentin the can than when it is sprayed. Socolor matching with the waterbornewas a bit of a challenge because youcan’t really color match by eye,

you’ve got to spray a bit of it to knowwhat color you’re really workingwith.

“I have probably 50 Anest Iwataguns,” said Shannon, who has beenusing their spray guns since 1994. Shecame to be very comfortable with theAnest Iwata guns after relying on the

Airbrush Artist Shannon MacDonald Uses PPG Envirobase to Bring Icons toLife on Vehicles and Just About Everything Else

KILLER (parrot) was created in 1991 byShannon and made his way onto mall backlitduratrans, large street billboards, teeshirts,motorcycles, automobiles, night clubs andmore. This particular painting was done in1994 on a Camaro show car hood. It waspainted with an airbrush using One Shot signpaint kicked with Dupont gloss hardener

MINI-REVOLUTION was created in 2007 for theBeatles’ Hard Day’s Night Hotel in Liverpool,England. (detail done with IWATA Airbrush,electric eraser, and Createx paint)

“LET ME TAKE YOU DOWN” is a 10’ tallFender Stratocaster made of fiberglass. Thesewere made for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Together artists from around the world suchas Peter Max, Yoko Ono, Keith Richards andmany others were featured on Good MorningAmerica. On that early morning’s live fromNYC program, Shannon’s guitar was declaredthe most outstanding of them all. Tony Perkins(weather man) spotlighted Shannon’s guitarthree times during the program to show theaudience the unbelievable detail. (Createdusing PPG, Sherwin Williams, and Createxpaints using an IWATA micron and electriceraser.) © 2002

This is a fine creation establishing the detailShannon can get using an airbrush and anelectric eraser. The new name attached to hercreations is “Hyper-Realism”. This portrait wascreated for the IWATA/ANEST booth sponsoredby ASET at SEMA 2011. (IWATA micronairbrush and an Electric Eraser on white bakedaluminum panel) This was the first timeSHANNON performed for an audience usingPPG’s Envirobase Colors. (She had done soonce before using PPG Envirobase shades ofblack and gray for the ASET producedshow…ULTIMATE AIR AFFAIR) At this point,PPG is by far SHANNON’s favorite paint to usefor both illustration and automotive painting

Iwata Custom Micron series when shepainted her tribute stamp to SylvesterStallone in 1996. Shannon’s processalso differs from a lot of traditionalcustom vehicle painters; she doesn’tbelieve in using templates or tapingoff sections as she paints—she be-lieves that gives her work too muchhard edges.

Shannon says she starts by out-lining what she wants to paint withpencil, then she comes in with thespray gun free-hand. She starts outwith the light colors, so at first it lookslike a sepia-toned painting, then shecomes in with an array of translucentcolor.

Shannon says she prefers to paint

the ‘old-school’ way and doesn’t con-sider herself a graphic artist. Most ofShannon’s work has been labeled‘hyper-realism.’

Shannon also uses an electriceraser, a drafting tool. A tool she callsher “second favorite”. She has been inthe process of working on an air eraserfor a few years now. It will come tofruition with the help of Anest Iwata.Her version will be more like a pol-ishing tool like that of a dentist. It willhave different variables and severaleraser tips of various densities.

“Speaking as the number oneBeatles artist in the world, it’s a heavyride to get to number one—but onceyou’re there it’s almost more difficult

to stay there and fend off all the num-ber twos who want your spot,” saidShannon, “But I’m very lucky to havethe spot I do.”

Shannon is currently working ona Beatles tribute piece that representsand celebrates the 50th Anniversary ofthe last member to join and finalizethe famous quartet, Mr. RichardStarkey (Ringo Starr). She will fly tothe UK to unveil that piece in Liver-pool.

This August, in Salt Lake City,Utah, she will be one of the headlin-ing artists at the event “ASET presentsThe Ultimate Air Affair”.

She also plans to attend SEMAagain this year with ASET (Automo-

tive Spraying Equipment Technolo-gies) and Anest Iwata. Shannon willbe displaying and painting live, aswell as introducing some new SHAN-NON PRODUCTS including her aireraser mentioned earlier in this piece.

Shannon is also teaching bothcustom automotive and illustrationworldwide for those looking to start acareer in airbrushing or for those whoare accomplished looking to take it upa notch. For those interested callShannon’s studio in New Jersey at310-739-4930 or ASET at 800-628-5449.

See more of Shannon’s art, aswell as her music, at www.theshan-nongallery.com.

in this automotive repair business, thiswas my calling. I am one of manymechanics and technicians of anysmall town or big city who might havedone something else with their life,but cars and tool boxes became ourvocation. I may have chosen to be in

this business but quite honestly, itmight have actually chosen me. Can’tsay it’s been that bad of a deal.

I’m sure everyone in the businesshas a story to tell of how they gotstarted, and when I get the chance tohear someone else’s story I’ll take thetime to listen. It’s really fascinating tome how we all ended up here… bend-ing over the hood of a car or truck.

I’m very proud of the auto indus-

try, and I’m proud to be a part of it.Whatever some people may thinkabout the job of a “mechanic” or howthey might try to degrade it, there’s onething to keep in mind…. it’s a neces-sary part of the world we live in. Thiscountry is built on moving goods,products, and people from one place toanother, and without mechanics every-thing would come to a complete stop.

As a tribute to all of the mechan-

ics, technicians out there… a tip of thehat to one and all… your dedicationand hard work should be com-mended. If no one else will say it… Iwill… Thank you for your continuedefforts. You keep fixing them and I’llkeep telling your stories.

Here’s a hand salute from an oldMarine to everyone in the automotivetrenches. I appreciate every one ofyou… 100 percent. OohRah!


For Your Next Repair Pick Only Original

TOYOTA PARTS!For Your Next Repair Pick Only O OriririginananaFor Your Next Repair Pick Onlyly O Oriririgigigiginanana

PALMERS TOYOTA

HOURS:Mon. - Fri. 7:30am - 6pmSat. 8am - 4pm

470 Schillinger Road • Mobile, AL 36695


Wayne NettlesParts Manager

[email protected]

Call Us Today!

800-475-9091 FAX to Wholesale Desk

251-639-9970Direct Local

800-874-2777DirectWholesale

• We deliver in our own trucks to NW. Florida, S. Alabama and SE. Mississippi• Call up til 5:30pm for next day delivery• Courteous, professional parts people with integrity to help you• Better service + better prices = faster turn time and more profit for you

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Think Like a Mechanic

by Erica Schroeder

Airbrush artist Shannon MacDonald,who exhibited her airbrush portrait ofJohn Lennon at the Anest Iwata boothat SEMA 2011, uses PPG’s Envi-

robase waterborne paint to bring herart alive on just about every surface.Shannon’s art has been featured onguitars, drums, motorcycles, boats,cars, planes, helmets and of coursetraditional canvas or illustrationboard.“I use PPG’s Envirobase on every-thing now,” said Shannon, “I love itand it seems to love me.”

Shannon, well known for her life-like portraits of iconic celebrities suchas The Beatles, Sylvester Stallone,James Dean, Jackie Kennedy andElvis Presley—among others, failedart in high school due to differencesshe had with her art teacher. Instead ofpasting macaroni on paper and throw-ing glitter on it she rebelled and wentto the back of the room to study the“Old Masters” (Norman Rockwell,Michelangelo, etc.). Her teacherwould insult her and say, “You willnever get anywhere drawing thosepigs”. Her teacher was referring toShannon’s drawings and paintings ofThe Beatles. After a few yearsof failing art, Shannon’s already pavedroad to go onto college with scholar-ships was derailed. Depressed and ag-gravated, she gave up art and focusedon a “still successful” music career. 15

years later, Shannon was given an air-brush, as a gift. This was the instru-ment in her life that gave her back herart. Her first airbrushed painting wasof John Lennon. She entered the paint-ing in a contest and won first place.Beatles fans saw Shannon’s paintingand wanted more. Her fan base grewrapidly and she began to get invited toBeatles Conventions all over theUSA. Owners of The Cavern Club (aLiverpool club made famous by TheBeatles) discovered Shannon paintingat a Beatles Convention in Connecti-cut. They took the news back to Liv-erpool and said of Shannon’s works,“We were Gobsmacked!” Eventually,so was the UK audience. With only afew years of airbrushing under herbelt, Shannon was declared “TheWorld’s Greatest Beatles Artist” in1998 by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.Shannon says of the art teacher thatfailed her, “My art teacher has to eather words everyday. I will always bethe “main course” in her life. As far asmy art goes, I owe a lot to the air-brush.”

After using mainly PPG solvent-based paints for years, Shannon beganusing PPG’s Envirobase about a yearago and has decided to go totallygreen in her studio.

“I love it now,” said Shannon, al-though she thought she’d never get thehang of using waterborne paint at first,Shannon is now very comfortablewith it. According to Shannon, whenshe first started using waterborne shenoticed a difference right away. Thewaterborne paint would stay just as

she painted it—critical to an artist whopaints with such detail. With the sol-vent, Shannon says, sometimes thefine details would melt and merge abit as it dried.

“As far as changing from solventto waterborne, all I had to do was besold on the product and what it had tooffer. I was visiting ‘Ideal Distributors

& Auto Paint’ in St. George, Utah tomeet with Walter Rapp. While there, Ihad mentioned wanting to try the newPPG waterborne; PPG’s Envirobase®

changed my mind about solvents,”said Shannon, “For me, solvents tendto ‘merge’ with each other in a waythat detail is lost, especially when ap-plying top coats. I am in the detailbusiness! I can’t afford to see hoursworth of work slowly disappear aftertopcoating with clearcoats and/or can-dies. Solvents easily ‘blur’ after topcoating. PPG Waterbornes do not.”

Shannon also appreciates that sheis breathing in less paint fumes withthe waterborne versus solvent.

“If you are a painter that lovesthat 24 hour a day ‘sucking on heliumrush’, you might miss solvent,” saidShannon.

Shannon was also impressed withthe cost savings associated with usingwaterborne and as a custom paintbusiness there wasn’t a lot of cost inchanging over from solvent.

“There was no big cost factor inchanging over; being involved in thecustom paint business is probably lessinvasive then a full body shop changeover. As I move forward I can see theadvantage; I am getting more done ata faster pace which makes way formore clientele and I am using lesspaint. I am saving every day,” saidShannon.

Although waterborne sprayeddifferently, according to Shannon, thetechniques associated with using wa-terborne were actually quite similar tomuch of her artistic education.

She also noticed that with sol-vent, the color that it is in the can isjust about the same as it comes outwhen you spray it; but with water-borne, the color looks a lot differentin the can than when it is sprayed. Socolor matching with the waterbornewas a bit of a challenge because youcan’t really color match by eye,

you’ve got to spray a bit of it to knowwhat color you’re really workingwith.

“I have probably 50 Anest Iwataguns,” said Shannon, who has beenusing their spray guns since 1994. Shecame to be very comfortable with theAnest Iwata guns after relying on the

Airbrush Artist Shannon MacDonald Uses PPG Envirobase to Bring Icons toLife on Vehicles and Just About Everything Else

This is a fine creation establishing the detailShannon can get using an airbrush and anelectric eraser. The new name attached to hercreations is “Hyper-Realism”. This portrait wascreated for the IWATA/ANEST booth sponsoredby ASET at SEMA 2011. (IWATA micronairbrush and an Electric Eraser on white bakedaluminum panel) This was the first timeSHANNON performed for an audience usingPPG’s Envirobase Colors. (She had done soonce before using PPG Envirobase shades ofblack and gray for the ASET producedshow…ULTIMATE AIR AFFAIR) At this point,PPG is by far SHANNON’s favorite paint to usefor both illustration and automotive painting

Iwata Custom Micron series when shepainted her tribute stamp to SylvesterStallone in 1996. Shannon’s processalso differs from a lot of traditionalcustom vehicle painters; she doesn’tbelieve in using templates or tapingoff sections as she paints—she be-lieves that gives her work too muchhard edges.

Shannon says she starts by out-lining what she wants to paint withpencil, then she comes in with thespray gun free-hand. She starts outwith the light colors, so at first it lookslike a sepia-toned painting, then shecomes in with an array of translucentcolor.

Shannon says she prefers to paint

the ‘old-school’ way and doesn’t con-sider herself a graphic artist. Most ofShannon’s work has been labeled‘hyper-realism.’

Shannon also uses an electriceraser, a drafting tool. A tool she callsher “second favorite”. She has been inthe process of working on an air eraserfor a few years now. It will come tofruition with the help of Anest Iwata.Her version will be more like a pol-ishing tool like that of a dentist. It willhave different variables and severaleraser tips of various densities.

“Speaking as the number oneBeatles artist in the world, it’s a heavyride to get to number one—but onceyou’re there it’s almost more difficult

to stay there and fend off all the num-ber twos who want your spot,” saidShannon, “But I’m very lucky to havethe spot I do.”

Shannon is currently working ona Beatles tribute piece that representsand celebrates the 50th Anniversary ofthe last member to join and finalizethe famous quartet, Mr. RichardStarkey (Ringo Starr). She will fly tothe UK to unveil that piece in Liver-pool.

This August, in Salt Lake City,Utah, she will be one of the headlin-ing artists at the event “ASET presentsThe Ultimate Air Affair”.

She also plans to attend SEMAagain this year with ASET (Automo-

tive Spraying Equipment Technolo-gies) and Anest Iwata. Shannon willbe displaying and painting live, aswell as introducing some new SHAN-NON PRODUCTS including her aireraser mentioned earlier in this piece.

Shannon is also teaching bothcustom automotive and illustrationworldwide for those looking to start acareer in airbrushing or for those whoare accomplished looking to take it upa notch. For those interested callShannon’s studio in New Jersey at310-739-4930 or ASET at 800-628-5449.

See more of Shannon’s art, aswell as her music, at www.theshan-nongallery.com.

If you’re in the collision industry andare not familiar with the Coalition forCollision Repair Excellence (theCCRE), and you consider yourself atruly independent operator in the busi-ness, you need to look them up (thec-cre.com.)

During CCRE’s legal seminar inPhiladelphia on March 30 and 31,

2012, CCRE Presi-dent Tony Lombar-dozzi repeatedlydemonstrated him-self to be a dedi-cated proponent forindependence inthe collision repairindustry and a valu-

able source of information. Fortunately,he took the time to chat with me so thatI might have the opportunity to sharesome of his wisdom with a wider audi-ence of Autobody News readers. See mycolumn on p. 22 of this issue for moreon the CCRE.

I was curious about how Tonyoriginally got involved with CCRE.Back in 1996, Tony felt that the na-tional collision associations were notlooking out for the consumers’ best in-terest or the benefit of the collision re-pair industry as a whole. So, heresearched CCRE and attended a meet-ing. Tony was impressed with the or-ganization because they represent theportion of the industry that says theyshould be able to operate without third-party influence, and also, the shops in-volved with CCRE are fiercelyconsumer-oriented.

CCRE helps member shops andother shops across the country througheducation. Their legal seminars focuson helping repairers understand whatan insurance policy entails comparedto a repairer’s contract with the con-sumer, and that there is no correlationbetween these two contracts. They alsohold seminars on business manage-ment where they teach collision repairfacilities about the cost of doing busi-ness, property business managementand how to operate a profitable shop inan ethical manner. Additionally, CCREhelps independent shops learn aboutmarketing tactics so that they can com-pete in the industry.

In regards to CCRE’s legal semi-nar in Philadelphia on March 30 and31, Tony notes that this seminar yielded

more positive feedback than any otherseminar CCRE has held, increasingtheir organization by several newmembers.

Tony believes that the informationpresented at the seminar is importantbecause “the majority of this industryhas a misconception about who the realcustomer is.” He goes on to clarify thatmany repairers have been trained to be-lieve that they are just an extension ofthe insurance industry and will not beable to survive without allowing insur-ers to dictate the shops’ business prac-tices. But that is not true.

The collision repair industry is aseparate entity that has nothing to dowith the business of insurance unless arepair facility signs a DRP contract.Otherwise, there is no relationship.Tony notes that without pressure frominsurance companies to accept theirmethodology of how this industryshould work, “we wouldn’t be in thesituation we’re in. Instead of under-standing that we should be doing busi-ness as independent business ownerswith no influence by a third party, weallow insurers to dictate how we’regoing to do business, and that’s a realproblem.”

Tony cites many collision repairconferences as part of the problem be-cause the majority of guest speakers arefrom the insurance industry and theconferences are heavily influenced bythis third-party presence. Collision re-pairers should not go to an event for thecollision industry and be told by insur-ance companies how the shops willneed to do business in the future.

When asked about the most im-portant message of the CCRE seminar,Tony stresses “basically what theyshould realize is no one else is going totake this industry back, except the re-pair shop owners themselves.” The in-surance companies definitely will not

volunteer to relinquish control, so thebest thing that repairers can do is stepoutside the box, understand the CCREconcept, compare it to what they aredoing now and see if the shops arehappy with the status quo. If they areokay, there is no reason to complain.Unfortunately, many collision repairersare afraid to look at the issues becausethey fear what they may find.

According to Tony, “I don’t knowif we have enough time to recover theindustry that we gave away because ittook thirty years to give it away andyou’re not going to take it back in oneyear… The industry remains in a holebecause of the fact—I mean, we’restagnant, but fees paid to body shopshave been stagnant for years—the rea-son we can’t get out of stagnation is be-cause we’re allowing ourselves to begoverned by a third party that has nointerest in making us successful… Peo-ple in this business are beginning to seethat there’s no way out of the box un-less they make changes. Hopefully,

they’ll realize that at a faster pace thanthey have in the past, and you’ll see abig turnaround in this industry.”

Tony believes that a segment ofthe collision repair industry believes inthe system the way CCRE does, and hehopes that those who attend CCRE’sseminars will take the information theylearn, study it, practice it, and networkwith other repairers to encourage themto look into the CCRE Philosophy be-cause it is a better way to do business.He insists that by following the meth-ods learned at the seminar, repairerscan become more profitable whilestreamlining production output.

The problem is that the collisionrepair industry as a whole has beenbrainwashed by insurer buzz wordssuch as “making things lean,” “cycletime” and “rental days.” Insurers havelured the industry into using systemsthat are supposed to increase the shops’accuracy and efficiency, but all of thatmoney saved in efficiency ends up


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2011 Equus

THE LARGEST INVENTORY OF FORD • LINCOLNMERCURY PARTS IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

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Boyd Group Achieves RecordSales in 2011, Acquisitions

Sharing the Message with CCRE President Tony LombardozziTony Lombardozzi INTERVIEW by Chasidy Rae Sisk

See Tony Lombardozzi, Page 46

Tony Lombardozzi

Chasidy Rae Sisk

If you’re in the collision industry andare not familiar with the Coalition forCollision Repair Excellence (theCCRE), and you consider yourself atruly independent operator in the busi-ness, you need to look them up (thec-cre.com.)

During CCRE’s legal seminar inPhiladelphia on March 30 and 31,

2012, CCRE Presi-dent Tony Lombar-dozzi repeatedlydemonstrated him-self to be a dedi-cated proponent forindependence inthe collision repairindustry and a valu-

able source of information. Fortunately,he took the time to chat with me so thatI might have the opportunity to sharesome of his wisdom with a wider audi-ence of Autobody News readers. See mycolumn on p. 22 of this issue for moreon the CCRE.

I was curious about how Tonyoriginally got involved with CCRE.Back in 1996, Tony felt that the na-tional collision associations were notlooking out for the consumers’ best in-terest or the benefit of the collision re-pair industry as a whole. So, heresearched CCRE and attended a meet-ing. Tony was impressed with the or-ganization because they represent theportion of the industry that says theyshould be able to operate without third-party influence, and also, the shops in-volved with CCRE are fiercelyconsumer-oriented.

CCRE helps member shops andother shops across the country througheducation. Their legal seminars focuson helping repairers understand whatan insurance policy entails comparedto a repairer’s contract with the con-sumer, and that there is no correlationbetween these two contracts. They alsohold seminars on business manage-ment where they teach collision repairfacilities about the cost of doing busi-ness, property business managementand how to operate a profitable shop inan ethical manner. Additionally, CCREhelps independent shops learn aboutmarketing tactics so that they can com-pete in the industry.

In regards to CCRE’s legal semi-nar in Philadelphia on March 30 and31, Tony notes that this seminar yielded

more positive feedback than any otherseminar CCRE has held, increasingtheir organization by several newmembers.

Tony believes that the informationpresented at the seminar is importantbecause “the majority of this industryhas a misconception about who the realcustomer is.” He goes on to clarify thatmany repairers have been trained to be-lieve that they are just an extension ofthe insurance industry and will not beable to survive without allowing insur-ers to dictate the shops’ business prac-tices. But that is not true.

The collision repair industry is aseparate entity that has nothing to dowith the business of insurance unless arepair facility signs a DRP contract.Otherwise, there is no relationship.Tony notes that without pressure frominsurance companies to accept theirmethodology of how this industryshould work, “we wouldn’t be in thesituation we’re in. Instead of under-standing that we should be doing busi-ness as independent business ownerswith no influence by a third party, weallow insurers to dictate how we’regoing to do business, and that’s a realproblem.”

Tony cites many collision repairconferences as part of the problem be-cause the majority of guest speakers arefrom the insurance industry and theconferences are heavily influenced bythis third-party presence. Collision re-pairers should not go to an event for thecollision industry and be told by insur-ance companies how the shops willneed to do business in the future.

When asked about the most im-portant message of the CCRE seminar,Tony stresses “basically what theyshould realize is no one else is going totake this industry back, except the re-pair shop owners themselves.” The in-surance companies definitely will not

volunteer to relinquish control, so thebest thing that repairers can do is stepoutside the box, understand the CCREconcept, compare it to what they aredoing now and see if the shops arehappy with the status quo. If they areokay, there is no reason to complain.Unfortunately, many collision repairersare afraid to look at the issues becausethey fear what they may find.

According to Tony, “I don’t knowif we have enough time to recover theindustry that we gave away because ittook thirty years to give it away andyou’re not going to take it back in oneyear… The industry remains in a holebecause of the fact—I mean, we’restagnant, but fees paid to body shopshave been stagnant for years—the rea-son we can’t get out of stagnation is be-cause we’re allowing ourselves to begoverned by a third party that has nointerest in making us successful… Peo-ple in this business are beginning to seethat there’s no way out of the box un-less they make changes. Hopefully,

they’ll realize that at a faster pace thanthey have in the past, and you’ll see abig turnaround in this industry.”

Tony believes that a segment ofthe collision repair industry believes inthe system the way CCRE does, and hehopes that those who attend CCRE’sseminars will take the information theylearn, study it, practice it, and networkwith other repairers to encourage themto look into the CCRE Philosophy be-cause it is a better way to do business.He insists that by following the meth-ods learned at the seminar, repairerscan become more profitable whilestreamlining production output.

The problem is that the collisionrepair industry as a whole has beenbrainwashed by insurer buzz wordssuch as “making things lean,” “cycletime” and “rental days.” Insurers havelured the industry into using systemsthat are supposed to increase the shops’accuracy and efficiency, but all of thatmoney saved in efficiency ends up


Tameron... One Way, the Right Way



Please call your salesman for details!Please call your salesman for details!

1595 Montgomery Highway • Birmingham, AL 35216

www.tameronhyundai.com

Parts Department:1-800-467-0699

205-443-7651 Direct205-443-7656 Fax

2011 Equus

THE LARGEST INVENTORY OF FORD • LINCOLNMERCURY PARTS IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

• OE COLLISION PARTS, MECHANICAL REPAIRS AND HEAVY REPAIRS PARTS

• SPECIAL PRICING FOR COMPETITIVE COLLISION AND MOTORCRAFT PARTS

• EXPERT COUNTER LOOK-UP WITH MASTER CERTIFIED COUNTERMAN

HOURS: MONDAY - FRIDAY 8 A.M. - 7 P.M., SATURDAY 8 A.M. - 4 P.M.

NORTH MIAMI-DADEHIALEAH LOCATION:1200 W. 49 STREET,HIALEAH, FL 33012

DIRECT: 305-822-8338FAX: 305-825-3018

[email protected]

SOUTH MIAMI-DADEKENDALL LOCATION:15551 S. DIXIE HWY.,

MIAMI, FL 33157DIRECT: 305-234-2668

FAX: [email protected]

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The Boyd Group Income Fund re-ported record sales in 2011 thanks toseveral acquisitions made throughoutthe year that added $94.1 million tothe company’s top line. The companyalso reported a same store sales in-crease of 6%, a more important indi-cator of business conditions.

Brock Bulbuck, President andChief Executive Officer of the BoydGroup, said, “The addition of CarsCollision to our operations had astrong positive impact on our resultsfor the year, as both the performanceand integration of this business con-tinues to meet our expectations. Wealso saw meaningful positive same-store sales growth in 2011 despite theheadwinds from persistent challeng-ing market conditions as well as adifficult comparable period in 2010given a significant hail storm experi-enced in the Arizona market late inthe year. Miles driven continued itstrend downwards this past year due,in part, to elevated levels in unem-ployment and gas prices. However,the merits of our business model andrelated strong industry position andgeographical diversity have proven tocounter this downside.”

Boyd Group Achieves RecordSales in 2011, Acquisitions

Farmers Insurance announced that Cal-iber Collision Centers has been awardedthe 2011 National Multiple Shop Or-ganization of the Year Award for out-standing operational and customersatisfaction management. Under theleadership of Steve Grimshaw, Presidentand CEO and Mark Sanders, Chief Op-erating Officer, Caliber Collision deliv-ered the proactive management andself-discipline required by Farmers tofurther improve Farmers policy reten-tion and customer value. “We wish tocongratulate Caliber Collision on beingnamed Multiple Shop OrganizationGroup of the Year,” said Odom Wu, na-tional director of auto specialty claimsfor Farmers Insurance. “Caliber Colli-sion has consistently provided FarmersInsurance’s customers with excellentcustomer service, and a strong commit-ment to quality vehicle repairs, thusearning them the distinguished honor ofMSO Group of the Year.”

“Thanks to the hard work andcommitment of Caliber Collision’s morethan 2,500 associatese are honored to beawarded Farmers Insurance’s 2011 Na-tional MSO of the Year,” said SteveGrimshaw, Caliber Collision Presidentand CEO.

VehicleOwnersGuide.com an-nounced that CollisionPartsSource.com, a parts e-commerce platform,is now available for free to collisionrepair facilities in the United Statesand Canada. CollisionPartsSource.com creates a marketplace wherecollision repair facilities can list partsthey have on hand for sale or trade toother collision repair facilities orpublish a parts wish list. Parts sup-pliers or other collision repair facili-ties can view shops’ wish lists andsubmit offers via email directly to therepairer from CollisionPartsSource.com for the listed parts. The processis designed to facilitate the commu-nications between collision users ofparts and those that wish to providethem.

Parts such as assemblies that arestill usable but not returnable, uni-side assemblies that are only partiallyused, or parts that weren’t returnedfor what-ever reason and are inshops’ parts rooms can be madeavailable to other repairers.

For more information, or to usethe free module, visit www.Esti-mateScrubber.com or www.Colli-sionPartsSource.com.

Diamond Standard Parts says its Lim-ited Lifetime Warranty from the Dia-mond Standard Brand and its associatedmanufacturers group, Reflexxion Auto-motive and Production Bumper Stamp-ings, exceeds the service parts warrantyon OEM structural bumper compo-nents, stepbumper assemblies and faceplates, and replacement hoods. Thecompany says the warranty on all of itsnew parts exceeds the warranty offeredby the OEMs, who typically offer cov-erage for 12 months or 12,000 milesfrom the date of installation or pur-chase.According to Diamond Standard,state regulations regarding aftermarketor crash parts warranty are typicallygeneral and require insurer or collisioncenter disclosure statements such as:“must disclose estimate is based on useof body parts not manufactured by theoriginal car manufacturer and that war-ranty applicable to the parts is providedby the manufacturer.” One state, for ex-ample, goes a step further and requiresthat “a copy of the part warranty will beprovided with the estimate.” DiamondStandard has published aftermarketparts regulations for all 50 states on itswebsite, diamondstandardparts.comunder the Certification banner.

Diamond Standard Says itsWarranty Exceeds the OEMs

CollisionPartsSource.comPlatform Now Available

Farmers Recognizes CaliberCollsion as MSO of the Year

Sharing the Message with CCRE President Tony LombardozziTony Lombardozzi INTERVIEW by Chasidy Rae Sisk

Last year, as summer approached, Iwrote an article about holding anevent in the summer to bring in newbusiness. I was pleased recently tolearn of an event put on by a shop inmy area. “POWER BABES,” a pro-fessional womens’ networking groupin the vicinity of the shop, meets reg-ularly to explore and discuss issues ofinterest and importance to the mem-bers. The location of the meeting isdifferent each time, and often held at aplace of business of interest to themembers. The marketing lady at thehost shop learned of this group ofabout forty women and invited themto hold their next meeting at the shop.

The current group president ex-pressed an interest in holding a meet-ing that focused on a women’s carcare clinic. It was agreed that themeeting would be held at the shop.Automobile repair people who de-scribe a vehicle problem using the jar-gon of the industry can confuse notjust women, but many uninformedpeople. Several automotive profes-sionals would be invited to speak oncar care issues in their area of expert-ise. To help the women in the groupbetter understand what is going onwhen they need a vehicle repair, theprofessionals would be asked to makedetailed presentations during the carcare clinic. Several did agree to come.

A lot of information for the meet-ing came from “Vehicle MD.” Theywere kind enough to provide everyonewith a copy of their magazine(http://vehiclemd.com). A woman as-sistant manager at an auto parts com-pany surprised the group by providingvery detailed technical informationthey could all understand.And a man-ager from Americas Tire Company

provided a wealth of little known in-formation about tire care. Severalother of the shop’s vendors were in-vited to speak, but had to decline be-cause of the short notice. A localNissan dealership provided a techni-cian along with a no-emissions “Leaf”vehicle from the dealership for thegroup to examine at great length. Theladies had this rare opportunity tolearn many technical details about thisstate-of-the-art vehicle in a way theynever could have without the help ofan expert technician.

The cost of providing food anddrink for a group this size might con-vince many shop owners that an eventlike this could not be cost-effective.But the fact is this was a highly prof-itable venture. The tour of the shopalone convinced many women in thegroup that this was an exceptionallyclean, technically advanced place tobring their car when they needed au-tobody repair. The close personal con-tact with the owner and marketingpeople also convinced many that thiswas a highly ethical, caring place tobring a vehicle. From the viewpoint ofthe shop, follow-up is what made thebiggest difference in cost effective-ness. Photos of the event and keymembers of the group were posted onFacebook and the shop’s website.Comments by ladies attending theevent were recorded by the host — es-pecially comments praising the attrac-tive layout and the shop’s neatnessand cleanliness — and also posted onFacebook and the shop’s website.While this was obviously nice public-ity for the shop, the women runningthe networking group were well awarethat this would also be a big help intheir recruiting efforts to get other

women to join their network. If struc-tured properly, events like this can bea win-win for both the shop and the at-tending group.

Profiles of leading players in thegroup were also captured so acknowl-edgements could be sent to the keypeople and, in some cases, their sub-ordinates and family. This action fit-ted in nicely with the shop’s effort tomaintain broader profiles of repeatcustomers and prospective customers.A while back I wrote about a shiftaway from broadcasting to what hasbeen called “narrow-casting” in pro-motional parlance. Using today’spowerful preference identificationtechnology, advertisers know justabout everything you like to eat, towear, to read, and more. If you canbuild a database with searchable fieldsfor gender, marital status, familymembers, occupation, professional af-filiation, vehicles owned (also by

other family members), pets, socialnetworks, birthdays, anniversaries andmore, you have a tool for perfectly tar-geted promotional calls, mailings, e-mails and invitations.

Because of the professional na-ture of the women in this group, Iwould call this a truly brilliant mar-keting event for this shop. Most ofthese ladies drove recent model, high-end cars. Because most were also veryactive in business, they do a lot ofdriving and given the urban area inwhich they reside, a certain number ofat least small accidents are bound tooccur. Because of most of the ladies’immaculate attire, you could see theycared a great deal about appearanceand so would choose to keep their ve-hicle in spotless condition. All ofthese factors added together amount toa group of the very best prospectivecustomers a shop could hope to at-tract.

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Tom Franklin has been a shop sales and marketing consultant for fifty years. He haswritten numerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many busi-nesses. He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected] Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin


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“Power Babes” Throw a Successful Event

BODYPROS Collision Repair, agroup of Des Moines-based collisionrepair centers, has raised a total of$1,329 for the Iowa Chapter of theLeukemia & Lymphoma Society(LLS) Team in Training during theArena Football League Iowa Barn-stormers’ home games.

BODYPROS Collision Repair,the greater Des Moines area’s onlycollision network, will hold a a 50/50

raffle at all Iowa Barnstormers homegames to benefit the Iowa Chapter ofLLS Team in Training. “What an elec-trifying night, both outside and in-side!” said BODYPROS CollisionRepair’s Christy Jones of the April14 game. “With the Iowa Barnstorm-ers’ first home field win, BODYPROSCollision Repair raised $415 for theIowa Chapter of the Leukemia &Lymphoma Society.”

Iowa Collision Repair Centers Raise $1,329 for Charity

Last year, as summer approached, Iwrote an article about holding anevent in the summer to bring in newbusiness. I was pleased recently tolearn of an event put on by a shop inmy area. “POWER BABES,” a pro-fessional womens’ networking groupin the vicinity of the shop, meets reg-ularly to explore and discuss issues ofinterest and importance to the mem-bers. The location of the meeting isdifferent each time, and often held at aplace of business of interest to themembers. The marketing lady at thehost shop learned of this group ofabout forty women and invited themto hold their next meeting at the shop.

The current group president ex-pressed an interest in holding a meet-ing that focused on a women’s carcare clinic. It was agreed that themeeting would be held at the shop.Automobile repair people who de-scribe a vehicle problem using the jar-gon of the industry can confuse notjust women, but many uninformedpeople. Several automotive profes-sionals would be invited to speak oncar care issues in their area of expert-ise. To help the women in the groupbetter understand what is going onwhen they need a vehicle repair, theprofessionals would be asked to makedetailed presentations during the carcare clinic. Several did agree to come.

A lot of information for the meet-ing came from “Vehicle MD.” Theywere kind enough to provide everyonewith a copy of their magazine(http://vehiclemd.com). A woman as-sistant manager at an auto parts com-pany surprised the group by providingvery detailed technical informationthey could all understand. And a man-ager from Americas Tire Company

provided a wealth of little known in-formation about tire care. Severalother of the shop’s vendors were in-vited to speak, but had to decline be-cause of the short notice. A localNissan dealership provided a techni-cian along with a no-emissions “Leaf”vehicle from the dealership for thegroup to examine at great length. Theladies had this rare opportunity tolearn many technical details about thisstate-of-the-art vehicle in a way theynever could have without the help ofan expert technician.

The cost of providing food anddrink for a group this size might con-vince many shop owners that an eventlike this could not be cost-effective.But the fact is this was a highly prof-itable venture. The tour of the shopalone convinced many women in thegroup that this was an exceptionallyclean, technically advanced place tobring their car when they needed au-tobody repair. The close personal con-tact with the owner and marketingpeople also convinced many that thiswas a highly ethical, caring place tobring a vehicle. From the viewpoint ofthe shop, follow-up is what made thebiggest difference in cost effective-ness. Photos of the event and keymembers of the group were posted onFacebook and the shop’s website.Comments by ladies attending theevent were recorded by the host -- es-pecially comments praising the attrac-tive layout and the shop’s neatnessand cleanliness -- and also posted onFacebook and the shop’s website.While this was obviously nice public-ity for the shop, the women runningthe networking group were well awarethat this would also be a big help intheir recruiting efforts to get other

women to join their network. If struc-tured properly, events like this can bea win-win for both the shop and the at-tending group.

Profiles of leading players in thegroup were also captured so acknowl-edgements could be sent to the keypeople and, in some cases, their sub-ordinates and family. This action fit-ted in nicely with the shop’s effort tomaintain broader profiles of repeatcustomers and prospective customers.A while back I wrote about a shift

away from broadcasting to what hasbeen called “narrow-casting” in pro-motional parlance. Using today’spowerful preference identificationtechnology, advertisers know justabout everything you like to eat, towear, to read, and more. If you canbuild a database with searchable fieldsfor gender, marital status, familymembers, occupation, professional af-filiation, vehicles owned (also by

other family members), pets, socialnetworks, birthdays, anniversaries andmore, you have a tool for perfectly tar-geted promotional calls, mailings, e-mails and invitations.

Because of the professional na-ture of the women in this group, Iwould call this a truly brilliant mar-keting event for this shop. Most ofthese ladies drove recent model, high-end cars. Because most were also veryactive in business, they do a lot ofdriving and given the urban area inwhich they reside, a certain number ofat least small accidents are bound tooccur. Because of most of the ladies’immaculate attire, you could see theycared a great deal about appearanceand so would choose to keep their ve-hicle in spotless condition. All ofthese factors added together amount toa group of the very best prospectivecustomers a shop could hope to at-tract.

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

Tom Franklin has been a shop sales and marketing consultant for fifty years. He haswritten numerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many busi-nesses. He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected]. See Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin

A Successful Event


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The Department of Energy recently an-nounced a new $14.2 million effort toaccelerate the development of newhigh-tech materials for vehicles thatwill help reduce U.S. dependence onforeign oil and pollution. The an-nouncement specifically named carbonfiber composites and advanced steelsand alloys as targets for the funding.

“By investing in next-generationvehicle materials and components,we are helping U.S. manufacturersimprove the fuel efficiency of ourcars and trucks and ensuring Ameri-can companies remain at the cutting-edge of the global auto industry,” saidU.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.“Lighter, stronger materials will helpimprove the performance of our ve-hicles while saving families and busi-nesses money at the pump.”

The department acknowledgedthat replacing traditional componentswith lightweight materials, includingadvanced high-strength steel, magne-sium, aluminum, and polymer com-posites, allows manufacturers toinclude additional safety devices, in-tegrated electronic systems, and emis-sions control equipment on vehicleswithout increasing their weight.

DOE to Accelerate New High-Tech Materials for Autos

LKQ Corp., the largest provider of af-termarket and recycled collision re-placement parts and refurbishedcollision replacement products in thenation, has announced what it de-scribes as “the strongest warranty pro-tection in the aftermarket category.”

Effective immediately, LKQ saysit will indemnify licensed auto repairshops against injury or damage causedby a defective aftermarket vehicle re-placement product distributed byLKQ. LKQ says its “Promise of Pro-tection” is unique in the auto parts in-dustry offering unparalleled productliability indemnification.

“We have always stood behindour product quality and offer lifetimewarranties for all of our aftermarketcrash parts, that’s not new,” said RobWagman, president and CEO ofLKQ. “Our Promise of Protectiongoes one giant step further by offeringproduct liability indemnification.

“This new program clearlydemonstrates our higher level ofquality assurance beyond the life-time warranty, so our customers canbe totally confident when buyingand using our products in their repairbusinesses.”

OSHA published its final rule align-ing its Hazard Communication (Haz-Com) Standard with the GlobalHarmonization System for Classify-ing and Labeling Chemicals (GHS).The rule, known as HazCom 2012 orthe workers’ “Right-to-Understand”rule, substantially changes OSHA’scurrent standard and affects over 40million employees at more than 5 mil-lion facilities nationwide. Employersmust train all employees on the newHazCom standard before December1, 2013. Now that the final rule hasbeen published, hazard communica-tion procedures must change. Facili-ties must apply new chemicalclassification criteria, replace ALLMSDSs with new Safety Data Sheets,update or replace chemical labels, andtrain employees on the new standard.To help industry professionals under-stand the changes they must make,Lion Technology will offer thePreparing for OSHA’s New GHSRule Web Seminar monthly throughthe end of the year, on May 15, Jun21, Jul 17, Aug 16, Sept 25, Oct 23,Nov 15, and Dec18. More informa-tion: www.lion.com/Preparing-for-OSHAs-New-GHS-Rule.

OEConnection LLC, the parts e-com-merce technology leader for OEM dis-tribution networks, announced todaythat it has been chosen by Volkswagenof America, Inc. (VWoA) to supporttheir ongoing Collision Programs.Under the agreement, dedicated re-sources from OEConnection will con-duct field visits to thousands ofcollision repair facilities and hundredsof Volkswagen dealers throughout theU.S. to promote the VW Genuine Ad-vantage Parts Program. OEConnectionfield consultants will educate and trainVolkswagen dealers and their whole-sale body shop accounts on Collision-Link®, the online parts ordering andfulfillment solution from OEConnec-tion, which was selected by VWoA in2010 to automate its discount partsprogram and help VW dealers competewith aftermarket parts suppliers.

The multi-year consulting agree-ment follows successful collision ini-tiatives in 2011 that led to a markedincrease in incremental sales of Gen-uine VW collision parts. ImprovedGenuine VW parts usage helps Volk-swagen customers have the best possi-ble repair experience and ensuresoptimum occupant safety.

VW Names OEConnection asCollision Program Provider

OSHA Publishes Final “Rightto Understand” Rule

LKQ’s ‘Promise of ProtectionProgram’ has Launched

by 3M Collision Staff

At 3M, scientists and engineers areencouraged to look at things differ-ently to develop new product solu-tions, new technologies and in somecases, new industries. For one suchscientist, the ability to look from a dif-ferent perspective at a major challengefaced by automotive professionalsrevolutionized the industry. It literallyturned the way that vehicles, air-planes, boats and other equipment arepainted, upside down.

“We spent a lot of time in theshop environment, working withpainters to understand their chal-lenges, pain points and everydayworking processes,” said Dr. StephenJoseph, Division Scientist, 3M Auto-motive Aftermarket. “As part of ob-serving the repetitive process ofmixing paint in separate containers,pouring this paint through a paperstrainer into the spray gun reservoirand then cleaning up the spray gun af-terwards, it struck me that there had tobe a better approach.

“For example, why not take the

container of mixed paint and placethat directly on the spray gun, therebyeliminating the transfer step? If thisnew cup that doubled as a spray gunreservoir could then be disposed of,we could also eliminate much of thesolvent associated with gun cleaning.”Dr. Joseph spent many hours buildingprototypes and developing conceptsaround the idea of using just one cupfor both mixing and spraying. Inspira-tion came from a variety of sources.

“Things in everyday life take on atotally different perspective when youare trying to solve a particular prob-lem,” said Dr. Joseph. “Closing thecontainer of mixed paint off with a lidand inverting the spray gun to facili-tate connection was the Eureka mo-ment. It enabled us to develop aproduct design that could be attachedto just about any spray gun and essen-tially eliminate the traditional mixingcups and spray gun reservoirs thatcustomers were currently using. Afterthe relevant patent applications werefiled, we spent a lot of time field test-ing a variety of prototypes to under-stand what was important to our

customer.”One challenge they faced was de-

veloping the cup for the system. While3M invented both a liner-and-cup sys-tem and a linerless system, they de-cided to pursue the liner technologybecause this offered a variety of en-hanced benefits to the customer, forexample the ability to spray upsidedown. The linered system is a closedsystem, during spraying it creates avacuum, which effectively pulls thepaint out of the liner, thus collapsingthe liner. Being a closed system thereis no air vent for paint to leak out dur-ing spraying. You also have the abil-ity to stay 90 degrees to the panelfrom any angle, even upside down,which optimizes material transfer, andhelps to reduce material waste. Inorder to move the project forward, 3Mdeveloped and invested in much of theequipment to manufacture the partsinternally, which ultimately enabledthe product to be launched.

“After evaluating numerous dif-ferent iterations of cups, lids, adapterdesigns and filters, we finally deter-mined the optimum combination,”

added Dr. Joseph. “It took a numberof years to progress from the originalconcept to the launch, but the PPS™System quickly gained customer ac-ceptance throughout Europe and theUS.”

Industry at Point of ChangeWhat set the stage for the develop-ment and rapid growth of the PPS™System technology were several criti-cal issues in the body shop. The in-dustry was transitioning from siphonto gravity fed spray guns, which wasbeing driven primarily by the im-proved transfer efficiency of theseguns with top-mounted cups. Shopowners were looking for more effi-ciency and less material waste andconcerns over solvent use and dis-posal were growing.

Painters were still pouring paintinto separate containers, straining itthrough filters and transferring it intoa spray gun. Following spraying, theyhad to clean the spray gun with sol-vent and either clean or discard theused mixing cups and filters. Theseconventional systems were time-con-


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Matrix System Automotive Finishes, aMichigan-based company that distrib-utes nationwide and in Canada, re-cently launched an entire line of tonersthat deliver 3.5 pounds per gallon orless VOC emissions. This revolution-ary technology offers customers ex-ceptional hiding with ease ofapplication and no need to upgradeshop equipment. Matrix, a division of

Quest SpecialtyCoatings, unveiledits new line at theNACE Show inOrlando, Florida,last October whereprofessional vehi-cle refinisherswere the first todiscover the Matrix

System’s MPB-LV Premium LowVOC Basecoat system. MPB-LV(Matrix Premium Basecoat-LowVOC) sprays like other premium highVOC solvent systems, which makes it“hard to believe that it is low VOC,”Ken Papich, Director of Sales, toldAutobody News. Additionally, theMPB-LV utilizes the Matrix SystemColor Variant Selector System to en-sure a great match every time. Thenew premium low VOC basecoatgives the California and Canadianmarkets, and other regions contem-plating low VOC regulations, the op-portunity to choose betweenwaterborne or low VOC solventbasecoat.

Matrix partners with several re-gional warehouse groups to distributetheir products to jobbers that sell tobody shops and the retail public acrossthe United States and Canada.

“Because of this network, Matrixnow has inventories that are onlyhours, or minutes, away,” said Papich.“This really helps lower the operatingcosts of jobbers and they no longerneed to stock so much product. Wealso have relations with an interna-tional distributor which takes Matrixall over the globe. It’s a great Ameri-can story, as we make all our paints inMichigan and export all over theworld.”

Matrix System Automotive Fin-ishes is one of the industry’s most suc-cessful manufacturers of high qualitycolor, clear coats, primers, hardenersand reducers. Matrix was establishedas a company dedicated to developing

high performance and affordable re-finishing products that perform as wellas or better than the leading nationalbrands. The company’s mission is toproduce high-quality automotive fin-ishes and provide great value to theircustomers. “Matrix products sell forless without sacrifice,” said Papich.

Matrix has been in business for 30years, starting with the production ofpremium clear coats, primers, harden-ers and solvents. “We started whenthere was little competition, as themajor paint brands owned the entiremarket,” said Papich. “We built greatrelationships with raw material suppli-ers, and because of lower operating

costs, produced premium products atnearly half the price of the major com-petitors. We never had to cheapen ourproducts to keep the selling price low.This quest for staying true to our for-mulas paved the way for loyal endusers.” Today, Matrix is one of NorthAmerica’s largest clear coat manufac-turers.

Back in 1997, Matrix introducedthe first Intermix Paint System, calledAccuShade. Since bursting onto thenational scene, Matrix System hasbeen selling its AccuShade® IntermixPaint Systems, FX Series custom col-ors, clears, primers, and reducers toover 350 paint stores and thousands ofbody shop customers. The Ac-

cuShade® Intermix System now leadsthe product line, giving body shops theability to produce over 98,000 colorswith exact formulas. It has been esti-mated that Matrix basecoat colors havebeen sprayed on over one million ve-hicles with accurate color match andexcellent performance.

Like its entry into the clear coatmarket, Matrix was a pioneer as an al-ternative automotive refinish brand.“We were able to save body shopsnearly 40% of the paint cost and pro-vide a consistent income for our job-bers,” said Papich. Today, AccuShadehas evolved to a multi-quality intermixsystems—premium to economy-

priced basecoats, single stage paints,and now the world’s first premium lowVOC solvent basecoat—MPV-LV.

Not all the paints and productsthat Matrix offers are low VOC. Ma-trix sells multiple products for all mar-kets, including international.

“Many people think Californiamust only use low VOC, but a largepart of the state doesn’t require this.We comply by providing accurate in-formation for our distributors regard-ing what’s legal and what’s not.”Moving forward, Matrix is creating“Coast 2 Coast” products that are legalin all of North America. “Our newpaint products perform so well, wedidn’t tell customers that they were

using low VOC coatings because wefelt body shops wouldn’t want to buyproducts they didn’t ‘have to’ or wouldhave preconceived notions that theywouldn’t perform,” said Papich. “So,some of our labels do not feature thescary words ‘low VOC’ but we do pro-vide all the necessary regulatory infor-mation.”

While some may think the currentregulatory environment is complex,Papich doesn’t think so. “If you takethe time to read and understand therules, they are very simple. I only wishthe rules didn’t vary between countiesor states.”

In addition to the Matrix label, thecompany manufactures coatings forseveral other brands and distributors.“Paint manufacturing is a complicatedand costly endeavor,” Papich said.“Smaller distributors and manufactur-ers now contract with us for less than itcosts to make paint themselves, andwith consistent results.”

Papich grew up in the paint busi-ness, working in his family’s paintstore in San Diego, CA in the early1980s as a teenager. He helped growthe family store into two large prof-itable locations. “I always wanted to bein law enforcement, but couldn’t giveup my passion for the paint business.In the early 1990s, we sold our storesto Sherwin-Williams and my dad re-tired. I continued to work for Sherwin-Williams in various roles, my last asthe Regional Sales Manager oversee-ing 21 locations and 140 employees.In 2008, I moved to Matrix and havebeen truly blessed to work for such agreat group of people.” Since 2007, thecompany has doubled in sales and Pa-pich thinks it’s only the beginning.“Matrix is a lean company where weall wear a lot of different hats. I’velearned so much in the past few years,and it’s all been fun. I look forward toour future as Matrix continues to ex-perience record growth globally.

“Matrix has definitely earned ourplace in the market as a premium lineat great value,” Papich added. “Today,we’ve become a viable alternative tothe major brands, without sacrifice.We’re committed to adding additionalfield resources, along with developingstate-of-the-art technology. I see con-tinued global growth for Matrix as westrategically increase market share andbrand awareness. Matrix is a great lineworth looking into. We have a greatstory to tell and can prove it.”

Matrix System Launches World’s First Premium Low VOC Solvent Basecoat

Ken Papich, Matrix’Director of Sales

Company Facts● Founded in 1983, Matrix employs over 100 full-time associates.● Matrix products are manufactured in a 52,000-square-foot modern productionfacility in Commerce Township, Michigan.● Matrix System’s corporate headquarters, warehouse, and training facility are lo-cated in Walled Lake, Michigan.● 1.4 million gallons are produced annually.● 4.0 million dollars of modern production paint equipment.● Bulk resin and solvent tanks are hard piped to mixing tanks.● 16 bulk resin and mixing tanks on electronic load cells hard piped to filling lines.● 7 automated filling lines with batch coding systems and automated labeling sys-tems.

Online ContestMatrix is offering a “Peel to Win” online promotion to all their body shop customerswho purchase a gallon of Matrix System’s MP-1000 “Coast to Coast” DTM PrimerSurfacer Sealer. To qualify, customers need to purchase a specially marked galloncan of the MP-1000 DTM Primer Surfacer Sealer, peel the sticker, follow all in-structions on the back and visit the Matrix website to register. Winning prizes in-clude iPads, Iwata Air Guns and spray guns, VISA gift cards, mixing equipmentand more. The program runs until September, 2012.

A Decade of Innovation Turns Paint Industry Literally Upside Down

by 3M Collision Staff

At 3M, scientists and engineers areencouraged to look at things differ-ently to develop new product solu-tions, new technologies and in somecases, new industries. For one suchscientist, the ability to look from a dif-ferent perspective at a major challengefaced by automotive professionalsrevolutionized the industry. It literallyturned the way that vehicles, air-planes, boats and other equipment arepainted, upside down.

“We spent a lot of time in theshop environment, working withpainters to understand their chal-lenges, pain points and everydayworking processes,” said Dr. StephenJoseph, Division Scientist, 3M Auto-motive Aftermarket. “As part of ob-serving the repetitive process ofmixing paint in separate containers,pouring this paint through a paperstrainer into the spray gun reservoirand then cleaning up the spray gun af-terwards, it struck me that there had tobe a better approach.

“For example, why not take the

container of mixed paint and placethat directly on the spray gun, therebyeliminating the transfer step? If thisnew cup that doubled as a spray gunreservoir could then be disposed of,we could also eliminate much of thesolvent associated with gun cleaning.”Dr. Joseph spent many hours buildingprototypes and developing conceptsaround the idea of using just one cupfor both mixing and spraying. Inspira-tion came from a variety of sources.

“Things in everyday life take on atotally different perspective when youare trying to solve a particular prob-lem,” said Dr. Joseph. “Closing thecontainer of mixed paint off with a lidand inverting the spray gun to facili-tate connection was the Eureka mo-ment. It enabled us to develop aproduct design that could be attachedto just about any spray gun and essen-tially eliminate the traditional mixingcups and spray gun reservoirs thatcustomers were currently using. Afterthe relevant patent applications werefiled, we spent a lot of time field test-ing a variety of prototypes to under-stand what was important to our

customer.”One challenge they faced was de-

veloping the cup for the system. While3M invented both a liner-and-cup sys-tem and a linerless system, they de-cided to pursue the liner technologybecause this offered a variety of en-hanced benefits to the customer, forexample the ability to spray upsidedown. The linered system is a closedsystem, during spraying it creates avacuum, which effectively pulls thepaint out of the liner, thus collapsingthe liner. Being a closed system thereis no air vent for paint to leak out dur-ing spraying. You also have the abil-ity to stay 90 degrees to the panelfrom any angle, even upside down,which optimizes material transfer, andhelps to reduce material waste. Inorder to move the project forward, 3Mdeveloped and invested in much of theequipment to manufacture the partsinternally, which ultimately enabledthe product to be launched.

“After evaluating numerous dif-ferent iterations of cups, lids, adapterdesigns and filters, we finally deter-mined the optimum combination,”

added Dr. Joseph. “It took a numberof years to progress from the originalconcept to the launch, but the PPS™System quickly gained customer ac-ceptance throughout Europe and theUS.”

Industry at Point of ChangeWhat set the stage for the develop-ment and rapid growth of the PPS™System technology were several criti-cal issues in the body shop. The in-dustry was transitioning from siphonto gravity fed spray guns, which wasbeing driven primarily by the im-proved transfer efficiency of theseguns with top-mounted cups. Shopowners were looking for more effi-ciency and less material waste andconcerns over solvent use and dis-posal were growing.

Painters were still pouring paintinto separate containers, straining itthrough filters and transferring it intoa spray gun. Following spraying, theyhad to clean the spray gun with sol-vent and either clean or discard theused mixing cups and filters. Theseconventional systems were time-con-


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by Melanie Anderson

Matrix System Automotive Finishes, aMichigan-based company that distrib-utes nationwide and in Canada, re-cently launched an entire line of tonersthat deliver 3.5 pounds per gallon orless VOC emissions. This revolution-ary technology offers customers ex-ceptional hiding with ease ofapplication and no need to upgradeshop equipment. Matrix, a division of

Quest SpecialtyCoatings, unveiledits new line at theNACE Show inOrlando, Florida,last October whereprofessional vehi-cle refinisherswere the first todiscover the Matrix

System’s MPB-LV Premium LowVOC Basecoat system. MPB-LV(Matrix Premium Basecoat-LowVOC) sprays like other premium highVOC solvent systems, which makes it“hard to believe that it is low VOC,”Ken Papich, Director of Sales, toldAutobody News. Additionally, theMPB-LV utilizes the Matrix SystemColor Variant Selector System to en-sure a great match every time. Thenew premium low VOC basecoatgives the California and Canadianmarkets, and other regions contem-plating low VOC regulations, the op-portunity to choose betweenwaterborne or low VOC solventbasecoat.

Matrix partners with several re-gional warehouse groups to distributetheir products to jobbers that sell tobody shops and the retail public acrossthe United States and Canada.

“Because of this network, Matrixnow has inventories that are onlyhours, or minutes, away,” said Papich.“This really helps lower the operatingcosts of jobbers and they no longerneed to stock so much product. Wealso have relations with an interna-tional distributor which takes Matrixall over the globe. It’s a great Ameri-can story, as we make all our paints inMichigan and export all over theworld.”

Matrix System Automotive Fin-ishes is one of the industry’s most suc-cessful manufacturers of high qualitycolor, clear coats, primers, hardenersand reducers. Matrix was establishedas a company dedicated to developing

high performance and affordable re-finishing products that perform as wellas or better than the leading nationalbrands. The company’s mission is toproduce high-quality automotive fin-ishes and provide great value to theircustomers. “Matrix products sell forless without sacrifice,” said Papich.

Matrix has been in business for 30years, starting with the production ofpremium clear coats, primers, harden-ers and solvents. “We started whenthere was little competition, as themajor paint brands owned the entiremarket,” said Papich. “We built greatrelationships with raw material suppli-ers, and because of lower operating

costs, produced premium products atnearly half the price of the major com-petitors. We never had to cheapen ourproducts to keep the selling price low.This quest for staying true to our for-mulas paved the way for loyal endusers.” Today, Matrix is one of NorthAmerica’s largest clear coat manufac-turers.

Back in 1997, Matrix introducedthe first Intermix Paint System, calledAccuShade. Since bursting onto thenational scene, Matrix System hasbeen selling its AccuShade® IntermixPaint Systems, FX Series custom col-ors, clears, primers, and reducers toover 350 paint stores and thousands ofbody shop customers. The Ac-

cuShade® Intermix System now leadsthe product line, giving body shops theability to produce over 98,000 colorswith exact formulas. It has been esti-mated that Matrix basecoat colors havebeen sprayed on over one million ve-hicles with accurate color match andexcellent performance.

Like its entry into the clear coatmarket, Matrix was a pioneer as an al-ternative automotive refinish brand.“We were able to save body shopsnearly 40% of the paint cost and pro-vide a consistent income for our job-bers,” said Papich. Today, AccuShadehas evolved to a multi-quality intermixsystems—premium to economy-

priced basecoats, single stage paints,and now the world’s first premium lowVOC solvent basecoat—MPV-LV.

Not all the paints and productsthat Matrix offers are low VOC. Ma-trix sells multiple products for all mar-kets, including international.

“Many people think Californiamust only use low VOC, but a largepart of the state doesn’t require this.We comply by providing accurate in-formation for our distributors regard-ing what’s legal and what’s not.”Moving forward, Matrix is creating“Coast 2 Coast” products that are legalin all of North America. “Our newpaint products perform so well, wedidn’t tell customers that they were

using low VOC coatings because wefelt body shops wouldn’t want to buyproducts they didn’t ‘have to’ or wouldhave preconceived notions that theywouldn’t perform,” said Papich. “So,some of our labels do not feature thescary words ‘low VOC’ but we do pro-vide all the necessary regulatory infor-mation.”

While some may think the currentregulatory environment is complex,Papich doesn’t think so. “If you takethe time to read and understand therules, they are very simple. I only wishthe rules didn’t vary between countiesor states.”

In addition to the Matrix label, thecompany manufactures coatings forseveral other brands and distributors.“Paint manufacturing is a complicatedand costly endeavor,” Papich said.“Smaller distributors and manufactur-ers now contract with us for less than itcosts to make paint themselves, andwith consistent results.”

Papich grew up in the paint busi-ness, working in his family’s paintstore in San Diego, CA in the early1980s as a teenager. He helped growthe family store into two large prof-itable locations. “I always wanted to bein law enforcement, but couldn’t giveup my passion for the paint business.In the early 1990s, we sold our storesto Sherwin-Williams and my dad re-tired. I continued to work for Sherwin-Williams in various roles, my last asthe Regional Sales Manager oversee-ing 21 locations and 140 employees.In 2008, I moved to Matrix and havebeen truly blessed to work for such agreat group of people.” Since 2007, thecompany has doubled in sales and Pa-pich thinks it’s only the beginning.“Matrix is a lean company where weall wear a lot of different hats. I’velearned so much in the past few years,and it’s all been fun. I look forward toour future as Matrix continues to ex-perience record growth globally.

“Matrix has definitely earned ourplace in the market as a premium lineat great value,” Papich added. “Today,we’ve become a viable alternative tothe major brands, without sacrifice.We’re committed to adding additionalfield resources, along with developingstate-of-the-art technology. I see con-tinued global growth for Matrix as westrategically increase market share andbrand awareness. Matrix is a great lineworth looking into. We have a greatstory to tell and can prove it.”

Matrix System Launches World’s First Premium Low VOC Solvent Basecoat A Decade of Innovation Turns Paint Industry Literally Upside Down

by Melanie Anderson

Autobody News columnist RichEvans, owner of Huntington Beach

Bodyworks and award-winningpainter and fabricator, co-sponsoredan exclusive fundraising event heldApril 13 at the Lush Lounge in LongBeach.

‘The Party,’ co-hosted by MotorMedia and Swipe 4 The Kids, raisedawareness and $2200 for America’sBaby Cancer Foundation and theOrange County chapter of JDRF (for-merly known as Juvenile Diabetes Re-search Foundation). The guest-listonly event featured a silent auctionwhich included several unique items,including autographed footballs fromformer NFL stars Vince Ferragamo

and Mike Lansford, autographed gui-tars and luxury watches.

Spinning eclectic tunes for ‘TheParty’ was guest DJ Chris Vrenna,

formerly a drummer forNine Inch Nails and key-boardist for Marilyn Man-son. In 1994, Vrenna won aGrammy for his live per-formance with Nine InchNails at Woodstock.

Racing personality Gor-don “Lug Nutzz” Stewart,

who has covered extreme sports, en-tertainment and the music industry onseveral radio and TV networks, hosted

the party with his own brand of chari-table enthusiasm.

Special guests includedformer NFL stars Mike Lans-ford (barefoot kicker for theRams), former Raiders playerJim Weatherley and LanceZeno of the Green Bay Pack-ers, NASCAR and off-roadracer Felix ‘Nighthawk’Giles, Chef Steve Cassarino,Diggity Dave with MTV’sPimp My Ride, and 11-year-old race car driver BrandonWeaver of Bakersfield, CA.

Custom car designer RichEvans starred in the first sea-son of Speed Channel’s Car

Warriors and has sev-eral other TV credits,including Chop CutRebuild, MonsterGarage and ChopperNation. Rich is cur-rently shooting a pilotfor a new show whichhe’ll produce—a doc-umentary about car buildingaround the world.

“As a car builder, I hope to in-spire and influence the younger gen-eration that working with their handsand learning something new is cool,”Evans said.

Evans, his wife, Patricia, andtheir three children, Dylan, 20, Lytra,12 and Drahcir, 8, have been hostingChristmas parties and other events for

America’s Baby Cancer Foundation(www.babycancer.org) for the pastseveral years at the shop. The kidsvisit with Santa, receive gifts and sitin several designer cars. “Our partiesget the kids out of the hospital for theday and they get the chance to sit inreally cool cars,” Evans said. “We tryto help them get their minds off theirillnesses for a few hours and they lookforward to coming to the shop and

Rich Evans CoSponsors Fundraiser for Baby Cancer Foundationsuming, contributed to volatile or-ganic compound (VOC) emissionsand continually wasted expensivepaint.

Although 3M’s Automotive Af-termarket Division sold a number ofdifferent products to the vehicle repairindustry such as abrasives, maskingproducts and polishing glazes andcompounds, prior to the PPS™ Sys-tem, 3M had essentially no sales in thepaint mixing area of the shop.

Technology = PerformanceIn its basic definition, the 3M PPS™System is a disposable mixing and fil-tering system designed for use withprimarily gravity fed paint spray guns.The PPS™ System eliminated theneed for separate mixing cups and fil-ters, and only the spray gun channeland adapter need cleaning since paintnever comes into contact with the potand collar.

A range of threaded adapters fordifferent spray guns provide painterswith the ability to attach the 3M sys-tem to just about any spray gun.3M™ PPS™ System product attrib-utes include:• Uses the same cup for mixing and

spraying• Disposable liners save cleaning sol-vent and time• Integral paint filter means fewer de-fects• System allows gun to be used at anyangle• Unused paint can be temporarilysaved in a capped liner• Slashes solvent usage for gun clean-ing

The Impact of an InnovationToday, some 60,000 shops in morethan 90 countries use the 3M PPS™System. Annually, an estimated 20million vehicles have some coatingapplied using the 3M system.

After switching to the 3M PPS™Paint Preparation System, customersreport as much as a 70 percent reduc-tion in the use of cleaning solvents,which translates to a reduction of anestimated 46.2 million gallons of sol-vents. This reduction in solvent use di-rectly reduces global VOC emissionsand promotes a safer and healthierworkplace since operators are exposedto smaller amounts of solvent vapors.These 46.2 million gallons of solventreduction translate to more than $330

million in solvent cost and solvent dis-posal cost savings over the pastdecade.

In addition, the PPS™ Systemminimizes paint transfers, allowingoperators to mix smaller quantities ofpaint or to easily switch colors be-tween repairs without disposing of thepaint. This can help reduce the amountof paint required for a job by as muchas 2 to 4 ounces per mix, leading tosignificant cost and waste reductions.

As a result of its success in theautomotive market, 3M has expandedthe product line into other industriesthat use spray guns, such as aerospace,marine, woodworking and signage,where customers are looking for solu-tions to help them manage their VOCemissions, improve efficiency and re-duce waste.

A Decade of Awards – New ProductAdditions Are on the HorizonIn the last decade, the 3M™ PPS™Paint Preparation System has col-lected major awards from industrygroups, environmental organizationsand design leaders from around theworld.• In the U.K., Awarded 2002 Product

of the Year by “Bodyshop Magazine”and “Auto Trade”• In South Africa, Won the 2002 “In-novation Award” from “AutomotiveRefinisher”• In Spain, Named the “Best NewProduct” for 2001 by Galeria de Inno-vacion Motortec• In France, Won the Bronze Trophyin the Garage Equipment section ofthe auto exhibition Equip Auto• Selected by the Design Council in2002 as one of its Innovation Stories• Won the 2002 Horner’s Award forPlastics• Received the 2006 SAE Interna-tional Environmental Excellence inTransportation Award

The development of the 3MPPS™ product family has continuedthroughout the decade, with the addi-tions of new cup sizes – including the3 oz cup for the EPA Rule 40 CFRPart 63 – Subpart 6H – and comple-mentary products like the 3M Accus-pray™ System and the 3M™ PPS™Sun Gun™ Color Matching Light.Additional product and solution an-nouncements are planned for 2012 tocontinue the industry innovation andexpand the 3M platform.


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

Genesis 2012

QUALITY IS ALL WE THINK ABOUT. THAT

AND QUALITY.

MISSISSIPPIGEORGIAWilson Hyundai

JACKSON800-486-6871

601-914-4200601-914-4292 Fax

Mon-Fri 7am - [email protected]

SouthTowne HyundaiRIVERDALE

770-473-8730770-471-6835 Fax

Mon-Fri 8am - 6pmSat 8am - 4pm

www.southtowneatlanta.com

ALABAMASerra HyundaiBIRMINGHAM

800-426-4351205-853-7530 FaxMon-Sat 8am - 5:30pm

FLORIDAHyundai ofOrange ParkJACKSONVILLE

904-677-8967904-777-9643 Fax

Mon-Fri 7am - 8pmSat 7am - 5pm; Sun 9am - 3pmwww.hyundaioforangepark.com

THESE DEALERS ARE GENUINE WHOLESALE PARTS SPECIALISTS.

ALABAMA

Palmers ToyotaMOBILE

800-874-2777800-475-9091 FaxMon. - Fri. 7:30am - 6pm;

Sat. 8am - [email protected]


by Melanie Anderson

Autobody News columnist RichEvans, owner of Huntington Beach

Bodyworks and award-winningpainter and fabricator, co-sponsoredan exclusive fundraising event heldApril 13 at the Lush Lounge in LongBeach.

‘The Party,’ co-hosted by MotorMedia and Swipe 4 The Kids, raisedawareness and $2200 for America’sBaby Cancer Foundation and theOrange County chapter of JDRF (for-merly known as Juvenile Diabetes Re-search Foundation). The guest-listonly event featured a silent auctionwhich included several unique items,including autographed footballs fromformer NFL stars Vince Ferragamo

and Mike Lansford, autographed gui-tars and luxury watches.

Spinning eclectic tunes for ‘TheParty’ was guest DJ Chris Vrenna,

formerly a drummer forNine Inch Nails and key-boardist for Marilyn Man-son. In 1994, Vrenna won aGrammy for his live per-formance with Nine InchNails at Woodstock.

Racing personality Gor-don “Lug Nutzz” Stewart,

who has covered extreme sports, en-tertainment and the music industry onseveral radio and TV networks, hosted

the party with his own brand of chari-table enthusiasm.

Special guests includedformer NFL stars Mike Lans-ford (barefoot kicker for theRams), former Raiders playerJim Weatherley and LanceZeno of the Green Bay Pack-ers, NASCAR and off-roadracer Felix ‘Nighthawk’Giles, Chef Steve Cassarino,Diggity Dave with MTV’sPimp My Ride, and 11-year-old race car driver BrandonWeaver of Bakersfield, CA.

Custom car designer RichEvans starred in the first sea-son of Speed Channel’s Car

Warriors and has sev-eral other TV credits,including Chop CutRebuild, MonsterGarage and ChopperNation. Rich is cur-rently shooting a pilotfor a new show whichhe’ll produce—a doc-umentary about car buildingaround the world.

“As a car builder, I hope to in-spire and influence the younger gen-eration that working with their handsand learning something new is cool,”Evans said.

Evans, his wife, Patricia, andtheir three children, Dylan, 20, Lytra,12 and Drahcir, 8, have been hostingChristmas parties and other events for

America’s Baby Cancer Foundation(www.babycancer.org) for the pastseveral years at the shop. The kidsvisit with Santa, receive gifts and sitin several designer cars. “Our partiesget the kids out of the hospital for theday and they get the chance to sit inreally cool cars,” Evans said. “We tryto help them get their minds off theirillnesses for a few hours and they lookforward to coming to the shop and

Rich Evans CoSponsors Fundraiser for Baby Cancer Foundation

About the CharitiesAmerica’s Baby Cancer Foundation was founded in 2000 in Long Beach,CA as Sebastian’s Baby Cancer Foundation by Bernard and Antonia Hicksfollowing the loss of their child, Sebastian, at the age of 19 months. Se-bastian was born with cancer of the neck and brain and during his shortlifetime, his parents realized the desperate need for research, aid and edu-cation for families faced with baby cancer. ABCF is devoted to childrenand their families suffering from child-related cancers. Cancer is a leadingcause of disease-related deaths among children in the United States andincreasing every year. In addition, the number of cases of babies beingborn with cancer is on the rise. For more information, see www.baby-cancer.org.

JDRF has worked to improve lives and cure Type 1 diabetes for thepast 40 years through research funding and advocacy. Its mission is todiscover, develop and deliver advances that cure, better treat and preventType 1 diabetes. Last year, the foundation dropped its formal name of Ju-venile Diabetes Research Foundation because 85% of those in the U.S.with Type 1 diabetes are adults. JDRF is an organization for all ages andall stages of the disease. For more information, see www.jdrf.org.

Patricia & Rich Evans with friends

11-year-old race car driver, Brandon Weaver

DJ Chris Vrenna and emcee Gordon “Lug Nutzz” Stewart

suming, contributed to volatile or-ganic compound (VOC) emissionsand continually wasted expensivepaint.

Although 3M’s Automotive Af-termarket Division sold a number ofdifferent products to the vehicle repairindustry such as abrasives, maskingproducts and polishing glazes andcompounds, prior to the PPS™ Sys-tem, 3M had essentially no sales in thepaint mixing area of the shop.

Technology = PerformanceIn its basic definition, the 3M PPS™System is a disposable mixing and fil-tering system designed for use withprimarily gravity fed paint spray guns.The PPS™ System eliminated theneed for separate mixing cups and fil-ters, and only the spray gun channeland adapter need cleaning since paintnever comes into contact with the potand collar.

A range of threaded adapters fordifferent spray guns provide painterswith the ability to attach the 3M sys-tem to just about any spray gun.3M™ PPS™ System product attrib-utes include:• Uses the same cup for mixing and

spraying• Disposable liners save cleaning sol-vent and time• Integral paint filter means fewer de-fects• System allows gun to be used at anyangle• Unused paint can be temporarilysaved in a capped liner• Slashes solvent usage for gun clean-ing

The Impact of an InnovationToday, some 60,000 shops in morethan 90 countries use the 3M PPS™System. Annually, an estimated 20million vehicles have some coatingapplied using the 3M system.

After switching to the 3M PPS™Paint Preparation System, customersreport as much as a 70 percent reduc-tion in the use of cleaning solvents,which translates to a reduction of anestimated 46.2 million gallons of sol-vents. This reduction in solvent use di-rectly reduces global VOC emissionsand promotes a safer and healthierworkplace since operators are exposedto smaller amounts of solvent vapors.These 46.2 million gallons of solventreduction translate to more than $330

million in solvent cost and solvent dis-posal cost savings over the pastdecade.

In addition, the PPS™ Systemminimizes paint transfers, allowingoperators to mix smaller quantities ofpaint or to easily switch colors be-tween repairs without disposing of thepaint. This can help reduce the amountof paint required for a job by as muchas 2 to 4 ounces per mix, leading tosignificant cost and waste reductions.

As a result of its success in theautomotive market, 3M has expandedthe product line into other industriesthat use spray guns, such as aerospace,marine, woodworking and signage,where customers are looking for solu-tions to help them manage their VOCemissions, improve efficiency and re-duce waste.

A Decade of Awards – New ProductAdditions Are on the HorizonIn the last decade, the 3M™ PPS™Paint Preparation System has col-lected major awards from industrygroups, environmental organizationsand design leaders from around theworld.• In the U.K., Awarded 2002 Product

of the Year by “Bodyshop Magazine”and “Auto Trade”• In South Africa, Won the 2002 “In-novation Award” from “AutomotiveRefinisher”• In Spain, Named the “Best NewProduct” for 2001 by Galeria de Inno-vacion Motortec• In France, Won the Bronze Trophyin the Garage Equipment section ofthe auto exhibition Equip Auto• Selected by the Design Council in2002 as one of its Innovation Stories• Won the 2002 Horner’s Award forPlastics• Received the 2006 SAE Interna-tional Environmental Excellence inTransportation Award

The development of the 3MPPS™ product family has continuedthroughout the decade, with the addi-tions of new cup sizes – including the3 oz cup for the EPA Rule 40 CFRPart 63 – Subpart 6H – and comple-mentary products like the 3M Accus-pray™ System and the 3M™ PPS™Sun Gun™ Color Matching Light.Additional product and solution an-nouncements are planned for 2012 tocontinue the industry innovation andexpand the 3M platform.


THESE DEALERS ARE GENUINE WHOLESALE PARTS SPECIALISTS.

by Steven Feltovich, Manager ofBusiness Consulting Services,Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes

“What can we do to improve the cus-tomer experience and our own prof-itability in a fiercely competitivemarket?”

Faced with demanding customersand aggressive insurance companies,body shop owners around the worldare forced to confront this questionevery day.

Leaders in the collision repair in-dustry say that an accurate estimate is

critical to the suc-cess of their organ-izations. In fact,nearly every shop Ihave worked withover the past yearhas emphasizedthe importance ofthe estimate or, as

they commonly referred to it, the“blueprint” for damage repairs.

Many shops have moved towarda more comprehensive damage as-sessment process, which consists of

initially identifying all of the damage,both visible and hidden. This ap-proach provides tremendous value interms of cycle time reduction alone.There is so much lost time and moneyin the redundant steps asso-ciated with traditional visi-ble damage estimating.Consider the amount oftime consumed by orderingparts multiple times per re-pair order, writing supple-ments, reschedulingdelivery dates, extendingrental car provisions and re-allocating technicians tovehicles they can work on.Ultimately, this creates anenvironment of internal friction with-out any positive energy being directedtoward process improvement.

Some might refer to the im-proved process as “blueprinting,”“damage analysis,” or “repair plan-ning.” Regardless of what you decideto call your comprehensive damageassessment process, the fundamentalsremain the same.

So, let us set out on our journey

in search of how to achieve estimatingexcellence. We will begin by answer-ing one significant question. “Whydoes traditional estimating still exist ifit is so ineffective?” You can probably

come up with several answers to thisquestion on your own. Many of uswere taught to do it this way. Man-agement within some shops wouldclaim that their customers expect a tra-ditional estimate. Some would saythat insurance companies demand atraditional estimate as the preliminaryestimate. Often, we simply fear the at-tempt to try something new. Manypeople in our industry have proventhat these obstacles are not insur-mountable and there is a better way toassess collision damage.

The real winners in collision re-pair are implementing and refining the“blueprinting” process. This processis designed to lower the shop’s overallcosts while increasing productivity.Does it work? Absolutely. The ob-jective here is a 100 percent completedamage assessment before loading thevehicle into the production area.

The result is phenomenal:• More customer confidence in theshop’s capabilities• Reduced cycle time, predictabledelivery dates• Increased technician touch timeper day• Less administrative work

All of these benefits are achiev-able with a process-driven damage as-sessment program in place. Thecorrect process will reduce the com-mon errors, variations and redundan-cies which are inherent in traditionalestimating activities.

When I am involved in a facilityanalysis to determine the root cause ofscheduling problems, I frequently findthe cause to be directly related to aninaccurate initial estimate. Since jobsare scheduled into the production areabased on labor hours and the parts that

are needed, inadequate estimatesprove disastrous for shops using esti-mates as a guide for workshop sched-uling. If the estimates are half rightwith what you consider to be a week’sworth of work you will have actuallyscheduled two weeks of real work intoa one-week time slot. This createsbottlenecks and fires within your busi-ness that consume you and your staff,slow production and stop your busi-ness from ever moving forward.

Due to the weaknesses of tradi-tional estimating, we have become anindustry of excess capacity in order tocompensate for the flawed estimatingpractices ¾ more facility space andequipment than we really need. Andwhy do we need that extra space?That’s right, so we can park all ofthose dead cars in it! You know thosedead ones which are waiting for parts,supplement approvals and/or availabletechnicians. How much does it costyour business to park and store thosedead vehicles on the expensive realestate of your available productionfloor space? In some cases, the vehi-cles are even parked on the frame ma-chine for a day or two due to adeficient estimate.

Ultimately, our customers and in-surance partners are the victims of ourbroken and failing practices. We mustimplement a comprehensive damageassessment process designed with onegoal in mind—get it right the first time.This requires getting the parts, numberof labor hours and costs for materialsright the first time and every time.

One recent trend that I’ve ob-served is some shops have begun tomake their frame repair pulls beforecompleting the final damage assess-ment. This arrangement provides out-standing accuracy in the areas of partsorders, labor times and other associ-ated products and services needed tocomplete all of the repairs. Theremust be a higher level of awareness ofthe estimate’s importance and its im-pact on our business. The estimate di-rectly affects the following listeditems:1. Revenue2. Profits3. Negotiation Practices4. Workshop Scheduling and Load-ing5. Repair Processes6. Cycle Time7. Workshop Flow

seeing the cars. My wife and I are veryinvolved with America’s Baby Can-

cers Foundation be-cause the childrenwho die of this dis-ease are very youngand don’t get to see aglimmer of a longlife. We want to bringsome happiness intotheir lives. We wantto support them, en-courage them andmake them feel spe-cial.

“I do as muchcharity as I can to help bringawareness about disabilitiesand diseases,” said Evans.“People don’t recog-nize or slow downenough to pay atten-tion to certain dis-eases until they or aloved one get it. Forme, I try to get moreinvolved and learn asmuch as I can aboutthe body and the dis-eases that affect us.Fighting cancer

makes me feel grounded andappreciate life more.”

Phillis Lane, co-founder andPresident of America’s Baby Can-cers Foundation, attended ‘The

Party’ which was held over theLong Beach Grand Prix weekend.“Rich and Patricia Evans are onceagain providing America’s BabyCancer Foundation the opportunityto broaden awareness of what is alittle discussed disease that affectschildren. Our organization and thefamilies we help are most apprecia-tive of their support.”

Co-host of the ‘The Party,’ Swipe4 Kids, is a brand new program thatgives 50% of merchant electronicservice fees towards endowing art,music, sports and educational en-hancement programs at local schools.For more information, see:www.swipe4thekids.com.


Genuine Mazda parts are specifically designed, engineered and tested for Mazda vehicles. Customers and repair professionals prefer the quality and satisfaction that only comes from genuine Mazda parts.

Sam Galloway MazdaFort Myers

877-872-1232239-454-5500Fax 239-274-2460Mon - Fri 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Dean McCrary MazdaMobile

800-304-3326Fax 251-300-3433Mon - Fri 7:[email protected]

Serra MazdaBirmingham

205-661-5878888-448-7278 Toll Free

Fax 205-661-5879Mon - Fri 7:30-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Give your customers what they deserve... The Best.

Order your Genuine Mazda Parts from one of these parts specialists in your area.

ALABAMAFLORIDA

2012 GT-R

Genuine Nissan and Infiniti OEM Wholesale Parts are superbly crafted to strict quality standards. The following dealers proudly stock genuine parts. Call your local distributor today!

Shift into Genuine Nissanand Infiniti OEM Parts

Coral Springs NissanCORAL SPRINGS

954-752-9595954-753-3226 FaxM-Sat. 7-7; Sun. 9:30-4

[email protected]

Gainesville NissanGAINESVILLE

888-786-0076352-371-7101 Fax

M-F 8-6; Sat. [email protected]

FLORIDA

NFL alumni Jim Weatherley and Chef Steve Cassarino

Felix “Nighthawk” Giles

Chef Steve Cassarino with Rich Evans

Collision Repair Estimates—Excellence Now Required

Steven Feltovich

ing. He also makes sure to explainwhat aftermarket parts are before usingthem in his repairs, and most cus-tomers refuse aftermarket parts, evenwhen their insurance companies forcethem to pay the difference. Robpointed out that the CCRE seminar isall about independence. Collision re-pair shops do not work for insurancecompanies, and documentation willhelp shops get paid which is their right.The forms will get a shop halfwaythere, but you have to truly believe thatyou deserve to get paid for your work.

On Saturday afternoon, a panel oflawyers were brought to the front ofthe room to answer attendees’ specificquestions. The panel consisted of JoeTalarico of NY, A. Brent Geohagan ofFL, John Parese of CT, Erica Evers-man of OH, Robert McClallen of VT,William Bensley of PA, and Ashly VanEarl of LA. The panel answered manyquestions from the audience pertain-ing to contracts, writs of replevin, mit-igating damages and so forth.

Several key points were made

and reiterated during this session:● Because shops are the consumers’only advocate, it is a conflict of inter-est for a shop to have a contract withthe insurance company.● Though collision repair facilities donot work for insurance companies, in-surance companies have completelybought into the mentality that they do.This allows shop the opportunity to usethis incorrect belief to their advantage.● The insurer’s estimate is a hypo-thetical, educated guess that can beused as a guideline, but the repairer’sinvoice represents the cost of the re-pair and is the final answer.● Class actions do impact insurancecompanies. If every shop reports theirloss through a class action or through acredit reporting agency, the total amountwill show the insurer’s debt to repairers.

When the seminar wrapped up,attendees seemed reluctant to leave,but everyone walked away with avast amount of new information andideas for how to run their collisionrepair facilities independently. AsTony Lombardozzi stressed repeat-edly throughout this seminar, theylearned that “there is a better way todo business.”


CCRE Seminar

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by Steven Feltovich, Manager ofBusiness Consulting Services,Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes

“What can we do to improve the cus-tomer experience and our own prof-itability in a fiercely competitivemarket?”

Faced with demanding customersand aggressive insurance companies,body shop owners around the worldare forced to confront this questionevery day.

Leaders in the collision repair in-dustry say that an accurate estimate is

critical to the suc-cess of their organ-izations. In fact,nearly every shop Ihave worked withover the past yearhas emphasizedthe importance ofthe estimate or, as

they commonly referred to it, the“blueprint” for damage repairs.

Many shops have moved towarda more comprehensive damage as-sessment process, which consists of

initially identifying all of the damage,both visible and hidden. This ap-proach provides tremendous value interms of cycle time reduction alone.There is so much lost time and moneyin the redundant steps asso-ciated with traditional visi-ble damage estimating.Consider the amount oftime consumed by orderingparts multiple times per re-pair order, writing supple-ments, reschedulingdelivery dates, extendingrental car provisions and re-allocating technicians tovehicles they can work on.Ultimately, this creates anenvironment of internal friction with-out any positive energy being directedtoward process improvement.

Some might refer to the im-proved process as “blueprinting,”“damage analysis,” or “repair plan-ning.” Regardless of what you decideto call your comprehensive damageassessment process, the fundamentalsremain the same.

So, let us set out on our journey

in search of how to achieve estimatingexcellence. We will begin by answer-ing one significant question. “Whydoes traditional estimating still exist ifit is so ineffective?” You can probably

come up with several answers to thisquestion on your own. Many of uswere taught to do it this way. Man-agement within some shops wouldclaim that their customers expect a tra-ditional estimate. Some would saythat insurance companies demand atraditional estimate as the preliminaryestimate. Often, we simply fear the at-tempt to try something new. Manypeople in our industry have proventhat these obstacles are not insur-mountable and there is a better way toassess collision damage.

The real winners in collision re-pair are implementing and refining the“blueprinting” process. This processis designed to lower the shop’s overallcosts while increasing productivity.Does it work? Absolutely. The ob-jective here is a 100 percent completedamage assessment before loading thevehicle into the production area.

The result is phenomenal:• More customer confidence in theshop’s capabilities• Reduced cycle time, predictabledelivery dates• Increased technician touch timeper day• Less administrative work

All of these benefits are achiev-able with a process-driven damage as-sessment program in place. Thecorrect process will reduce the com-mon errors, variations and redundan-cies which are inherent in traditionalestimating activities.

When I am involved in a facilityanalysis to determine the root cause ofscheduling problems, I frequently findthe cause to be directly related to aninaccurate initial estimate. Since jobsare scheduled into the production areabased on labor hours and the parts that

are needed, inadequate estimatesprove disastrous for shops using esti-mates as a guide for workshop sched-uling. If the estimates are half rightwith what you consider to be a week’sworth of work you will have actuallyscheduled two weeks of real work intoa one-week time slot. This createsbottlenecks and fires within your busi-ness that consume you and your staff,slow production and stop your busi-ness from ever moving forward.

Due to the weaknesses of tradi-tional estimating, we have become anindustry of excess capacity in order tocompensate for the flawed estimatingpractices ¾ more facility space andequipment than we really need. Andwhy do we need that extra space?That’s right, so we can park all ofthose dead cars in it! You know thosedead ones which are waiting for parts,supplement approvals and/or availabletechnicians. How much does it costyour business to park and store thosedead vehicles on the expensive realestate of your available productionfloor space? In some cases, the vehi-cles are even parked on the frame ma-chine for a day or two due to adeficient estimate.

Ultimately, our customers and in-surance partners are the victims of ourbroken and failing practices. We mustimplement a comprehensive damageassessment process designed with onegoal in mind—get it right the first time.This requires getting the parts, numberof labor hours and costs for materialsright the first time and every time.

One recent trend that I’ve ob-served is some shops have begun tomake their frame repair pulls beforecompleting the final damage assess-ment. This arrangement provides out-standing accuracy in the areas of partsorders, labor times and other associ-ated products and services needed tocomplete all of the repairs. Theremust be a higher level of awareness ofthe estimate’s importance and its im-pact on our business. The estimate di-rectly affects the following listeditems:1. Revenue2. Profits3. Negotiation Practices4. Workshop Scheduling and Load-ing5. Repair Processes6. Cycle Time7. Workshop Flow

seeing the cars. My wife and I are veryinvolved with America’s Baby Can-

cers Foundation be-cause the childrenwho die of this dis-ease are very youngand don’t get to see aglimmer of a longlife. We want to bringsome happiness intotheir lives. We wantto support them, en-courage them andmake them feel spe-cial.

“I do as muchcharity as I can to help bringawareness about disabilitiesand diseases,” said Evans.“People don’t recog-nize or slow downenough to pay atten-tion to certain dis-eases until they or aloved one get it. Forme, I try to get moreinvolved and learn asmuch as I can aboutthe body and the dis-eases that affect us.Fighting cancer

makes me feel grounded andappreciate life more.”

Phillis Lane, co-founder andPresident of America’s Baby Can-cers Foundation, attended ‘The

Party’ which was held over theLong Beach Grand Prix weekend.“Rich and Patricia Evans are onceagain providing America’s BabyCancer Foundation the opportunityto broaden awareness of what is alittle discussed disease that affectschildren. Our organization and thefamilies we help are most apprecia-tive of their support.”

Co-host of the ‘The Party,’ Swipe4 Kids, is a brand new program thatgives 50% of merchant electronicservice fees towards endowing art,music, sports and educational en-hancement programs at local schools.For more information, see:www.swipe4thekids.com.


Genuine Mazda parts are specifically designed, engineered and tested for Mazda vehicles. Customers and repair professionals prefer the quality and satisfaction that only comes from genuine Mazda parts.

Sam Galloway MazdaFort Myers

877-872-1232239-454-5500Fax 239-274-2460Mon - Fri 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Dean McCrary MazdaMobile

800-304-3326Fax 251-300-3433Mon - Fri 7:[email protected]

Serra MazdaBirmingham

205-661-5878888-448-7278 Toll Free

Fax 205-661-5879Mon - Fri 7:30-6; Sat 7:[email protected]

Give your customers what they deserve... The Best.

Order your Genuine Mazda Parts from one of these parts specialists in your area.

ALABAMAFLORIDA

RX-8 2012

2012 GT-R

Genuine Nissan and Infiniti OEM Wholesale Parts are superbly crafted to strict quality standards. The following dealers proudly stock genuine parts. Call your local distributor today!

Shift into Genuine Nissanand Infiniti OEM Parts

Collision Repair Estimates—Excellence Now Required

Steven Feltovich

See Collision Estimates, Page 46



CALL 800-699-8251



[email protected]

800-699-8251









[email protected]


write us!write us!







800-699-8251




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going to the insurers in the form of un-derpaid services. Collision repair facil-ities never see that added profit.

Meanwhile, shops continue to billat the same rates that they have beenbilling for quite some time. If a repairshop adds a $50,000 piece of equip-ment to their overhead to enable themto be more efficient and repair morecars, the insurer reaps the benefit ofthose savings by forcing the shop to ac-cept a lesser value for their services.Usually in business, the business ownermakes an investment and gets a returnon that investment, yet that is fre-quently not the way things work in thisindustry due to third-party interference;however, without this influence, colli-sion repair shops can work on less carsand increase profitability.

When I questioned Tony aboutwhy many shops seem indifferent orunaware of these issues, he told me“what’s happened is, most of theyounger people in this business havecome up through the ranks believingthe insurance industry is their partner.

They don’t know there’s another sideto this business.” Frequently, industryevents and meetings discuss makingbusiness decisions with their “insur-ance partners”, propagating this incor-rect attitude toward the repairers’relationships with insurance compa-nies. Many collision repairers are nevermade aware that there is another sideto this industry and a better way to dobusiness which is removing the third-party influence from the equation.

Through their direct repair pro-grams, insurers teach repairers thatthey will always have work and neverneed to advertise which makes it seemlike the insurance company has a rightto be involved since the shop has anagreement with them; however, theserepairers are never exposed to the otherside of the collision repair industry, andwhen they try to learn about shop inde-pendence, they are threatened with los-ing their place in the program. “That’scalled big business intimidation,” Tonypoints out.

Too often, repair shops do not ex-plore the option of independence be-cause fear is the largest thing drivingthe collision repair industry. Shops fearthat they will be blackballed or steered

against if they take a stand toward in-dependence. They fear losing work orgoing out of business completely, butTony insists that there will always bework and these shops are failing to re-alize that their services are needed.They are taught by insurers that theywill be rewarded for behaving as theyare told and punished for going againstthe grain. The most important thingthat independent shops have to learn isthat they need another way to markettheir business.

Tony believes that collision repairfacilities across the country should beconcerned with redirecting the way theindustry is run because if they look athow bad this industry is compared tohow it was fifteen years ago, they willsee a major and disturbing difference.Instead of asking about the past, pres-ent and future of the industry, many re-pairers only ask what the insurancecompany wants them to do so they willcontinue to receive work, but at thisrate, all that many shop owners will beleft with is the real estate that they own.Tony recommends researching manu-facturing industry statistics and look-ing at the collision repair industrywhich is at the bottom.

With inflation, the monetary valueof a repair has decreased over time, butno one accounted for the disparity thiscauses. Many repairers believe thatthey cannot raise their rates because theinsurance companies will not allow it.Tony warns, “If inflation changes andbegins to escalate, you’ll see a lot ofbody shops go out of business. Becausewe’re too far behind. We can’t beateconomics.” This is why he advises re-pairers to do their research and planahead.

Though the CCRE would like tofund consumer education commercialsin the future to inform consumers aboutthe issues in the industry and their ownrights, CCRE refuses to be influencedby any third party. The insurance in-dustry has influenced every aspect ofthe collision repair industry, helaments. “Everybody’s got their handsin our pockets except us.”

State Farm and two smaller North-west-based auto insurers continue tobe among the best at taking care oftheir customers after an accident. Andsome of the other larger, best-knowninsurers – including GEICO, Allstate,Farmers Insurance and Safeco – areamong the worst.

That was the finding of the latestsurvey of businesses that interact withauto insurers on behalf of vehicle-owners every day: Oregon collisionrepair shops.

“Collision repair shops on a dailybasis see how various insurance com-panies take care of Oregon driversafter an accident, so we feel it’s worth-while to ask how they rate the variousinsurers,” said Barbara Crest, execu-tive director for the Northwest Auto-motive Trades Association (NATA),which conducted the survey of Ore-gon shops. “We believe their viewswill be helpful to insurance companiesand consumers.”

About 600 collision repair shopsthroughout the state received the sur-

vey, which asked them to grade theTop 22 auto insurers in the state interms of how well each company’s“policies, attitude and payment prac-tices ensure quality repairs and cus-tomer service for Oregon motorists.”

This is the sixth time the associa-tion has conducted such a survey since2004. Crest pointed to a number ofitems of interest in the findings of thelatest survey:

• Repairers have consistentlygiven the same three companies agrade of B or better all six times thesurvey has been conducted. StateFarm has continued to hold on to thetop spot, receiving an overall grade ofB+ again this year. Two Northwest in-surance companies, Oregon Mutualand Mutual of Enumclaw, maintaineda grade of B to again finish just belowState Farm. State Farm is the largestauto insurer in Oregon: Mutual ofEnumclaw and Oregon Mutual areranked 12th and 13th, respectively.

• Only two insurers, Allstate andLiberty Mutual, saw their grades im-prove from the previous survey. All-state improved from its last placefinish last year with a D+ (its gradesince 2008) to a C- this year. Thathelped Allstate nudge up past GEICOand Farmers, whose grades dropped,making them the only two to receive

D+ grades this year. But Farmers,GEICO, Safeco and Allstate remainedas the four lowest-ranked insurers asthey were last year.

• Other insurers seeing half-gradedrops this year were Oregon Mutual,Travelers, Unitrin, Country Compa-nies and 21st Century (formerly AIG).

• California Casualty is the mostimproved insurer over the years thesurvey has been taken. In 2004, thecompany earned a C- and was ranked16th among the insurers. It has im-proved over the years to this year’s C+and fifth-place finish.

• One-third of shops gave Farmersa “F,” the most failing grades receivedby any insurer. (By comparison,GEICO, the second-to-lowest gradedinsurer received half as many Fs asFarmers.) State Farm received an “A”from nearly-two thirds of shops, twicethe number of second-place finisherOregon Mutual.

• In most cases, the grades given aparticular insurer from shops involvedin that insurer’s direct repair program(DRP) were higher than those given byshops that are not part of that insurer’sprogram. This was particularly truewith Safeco and Farmers; their DRPshops gave them grades of B- or betterwhile non-DRP shops gave these sameinsurers grades of D+. But even Pro-gressive and 21st Century direct repairshops gave those insurers only averagegrades of C+ or lower.

“Collision repairers say the in-surers receiving the highest grades –which includes both larger andsmaller insurance companies – do thebest job of taking care of Oregon driv-ers after an accident,” Crest said. “Wehope consumers will take these ratingsinto account when choosing an autoinsurer, and that insurers that receivedlower grades will work to improvetheir performance.”

More than 70 shops throughoutOregon responded to the survey.




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8. Production Efficiencies 9. Finished Product Quality10. Customer Satisfaction and Refer-rals11. Insurance Company Relationships12. Organization’s Reputation13. Employee Compensation/Morale

At this point, you will begin tounderstand the motivation that someshops have for pursuing accurate, es-timating excellence. Perhaps the timehas come to change our old habits andbegin to design and implement somenew “lean” processes, starting withthe estimating tasks and activities.You will soon come to find that yourentire operation can be transformedby simply taking control of the esti-mating process—this is truly the“blueprint” for profit improvement.

Removing the obstacles to im-plement a comprehensive damage as-sessment process is not easy. If itwere, every collision repair shop inthe country would have already em-barked on this new frontier. But intoday’s marketplace, an effective es-timating process is no longer a “wish

list” item. It is a crucial component inorder to gain a substantial competitiveadvantage and remain a profitable or-ganization. Several shops are nowposting a 40 percent decrease in theirkey-to-keys cycle time, which is pri-marily attributed to their new damageanalysis procedures.

Without adequate and appropri-ate training for the body shop man-agement staff, estimating vehicledamage will continue to be a disor-ganized and underutilized tool. Ourresearch and experience confirmsthat the collision repair industrylacks the skill and knowledge base inregard to estimating: only three per-cent of the front-line estimators havehad any formal training within thelast five years. However, with train-ing and some exposure to a morecomplete process, it is far more likelyto yield positive results—for the col-lision repair center, the insurers andmost importantly the customers. Thecollision repair industry has manytraining resources on this subject.You’ll find them advertised in thetrade press, and promoted by suppli-ers and automotive associations whoare willing and ready to help your or-ganization improve.


Collision Estimates

Insurer Report Card in Oregon Ranks State Farm #1, Farmers andGEICO Replace Allstate at Lowest Rank


Tony Lombardozzi


on Facebook

going to the insurers in the form of un-derpaid services. Collision repair facil-ities never see that added profit.

Meanwhile, shops continue to billat the same rates that they have beenbilling for quite some time. If a repairshop adds a $50,000 piece of equip-ment to their overhead to enable themto be more efficient and repair morecars, the insurer reaps the benefit ofthose savings by forcing the shop to ac-cept a lesser value for their services.Usually in business, the business ownermakes an investment and gets a returnon that investment, yet that is fre-quently not the way things work in thisindustry due to third-party interference;however, without this influence, colli-sion repair shops can work on less carsand increase profitability.

When I questioned Tony aboutwhy many shops seem indifferent orunaware of these issues, he told me“what’s happened is, most of theyounger people in this business havecome up through the ranks believingthe insurance industry is their partner.

They don’t know there’s another sideto this business.” Frequently, industryevents and meetings discuss makingbusiness decisions with their “insur-ance partners”, propagating this incor-rect attitude toward the repairers’relationships with insurance compa-nies. Many collision repairers are nevermade aware that there is another sideto this industry and a better way to dobusiness which is removing the third-party influence from the equation.

Through their direct repair pro-grams, insurers teach repairers thatthey will always have work and neverneed to advertise which makes it seemlike the insurance company has a rightto be involved since the shop has anagreement with them; however, theserepairers are never exposed to the otherside of the collision repair industry, andwhen they try to learn about shop inde-pendence, they are threatened with los-ing their place in the program. “That’scalled big business intimidation,” Tonypoints out.

Too often, repair shops do not ex-plore the option of independence be-cause fear is the largest thing drivingthe collision repair industry. Shops fearthat they will be blackballed or steered

against if they take a stand toward in-dependence. They fear losing work orgoing out of business completely, butTony insists that there will always bework and these shops are failing to re-alize that their services are needed.They are taught by insurers that theywill be rewarded for behaving as theyare told and punished for going againstthe grain. The most important thingthat independent shops have to learn isthat they need another way to markettheir business.

Tony believes that collision repairfacilities across the country should beconcerned with redirecting the way theindustry is run because if they look athow bad this industry is compared tohow it was fifteen years ago, they willsee a major and disturbing difference.Instead of asking about the past, pres-ent and future of the industry, many re-pairers only ask what the insurancecompany wants them to do so they willcontinue to receive work, but at thisrate, all that many shop owners will beleft with is the real estate that they own.Tony recommends researching manu-facturing industry statistics and look-ing at the collision repair industrywhich is at the bottom.

With inflation, the monetary valueof a repair has decreased over time, butno one accounted for the disparity thiscauses. Many repairers believe thatthey cannot raise their rates because theinsurance companies will not allow it.Tony warns, “If inflation changes andbegins to escalate, you’ll see a lot ofbody shops go out of business. Becausewe’re too far behind. We can’t beateconomics.” This is why he advises re-pairers to do their research and planahead.

Though the CCRE would like tofund consumer education commercialsin the future to inform consumers aboutthe issues in the industry and their ownrights, CCRE refuses to be influencedby any third party. The insurance in-dustry has influenced every aspect ofthe collision repair industry, helaments. “Everybody’s got their handsin our pockets except us.”

State Farm and two smaller North-west-based auto insurers continue tobe among the best at taking care oftheir customers after an accident. Andsome of the other larger, best-knowninsurers – including GEICO, Allstate,Farmers Insurance and Safeco – areamong the worst.

That was the finding of the latestsurvey of businesses that interact withauto insurers on behalf of vehicle-owners every day: Oregon collisionrepair shops.

“Collision repair shops on a dailybasis see how various insurance com-panies take care of Oregon driversafter an accident, so we feel it’s worth-while to ask how they rate the variousinsurers,” said Barbara Crest, execu-tive director for the Northwest Auto-motive Trades Association (NATA),which conducted the survey of Ore-gon shops. “We believe their viewswill be helpful to insurance companiesand consumers.”

About 600 collision repair shopsthroughout the state received the sur-

vey, which asked them to grade theTop 22 auto insurers in the state interms of how well each company’s“policies, attitude and payment prac-tices ensure quality repairs and cus-tomer service for Oregon motorists.”

This is the sixth time the associa-tion has conducted such a survey since2004. Crest pointed to a number ofitems of interest in the findings of thelatest survey:

• Repairers have consistentlygiven the same three companies agrade of B or better all six times thesurvey has been conducted. StateFarm has continued to hold on to thetop spot, receiving an overall grade ofB+ again this year. Two Northwest in-surance companies, Oregon Mutualand Mutual of Enumclaw, maintaineda grade of B to again finish just belowState Farm. State Farm is the largestauto insurer in Oregon: Mutual ofEnumclaw and Oregon Mutual areranked 12th and 13th, respectively.

• Only two insurers, Allstate andLiberty Mutual, saw their grades im-prove from the previous survey. All-state improved from its last placefinish last year with a D+ (its gradesince 2008) to a C- this year. Thathelped Allstate nudge up past GEICOand Farmers, whose grades dropped,making them the only two to receive

D+ grades this year. But Farmers,GEICO, Safeco and Allstate remainedas the four lowest-ranked insurers asthey were last year.

• Other insurers seeing half-gradedrops this year were Oregon Mutual,Travelers, Unitrin, Country Compa-nies and 21st Century (formerly AIG).

• California Casualty is the mostimproved insurer over the years thesurvey has been taken. In 2004, thecompany earned a C- and was ranked16th among the insurers. It has im-proved over the years to this year’s C+and fifth-place finish.

• One-third of shops gave Farmersa “F,” the most failing grades receivedby any insurer. (By comparison,GEICO, the second-to-lowest gradedinsurer received half as many Fs asFarmers.) State Farm received an “A”from nearly-two thirds of shops, twicethe number of second-place finisherOregon Mutual.

• In most cases, the grades given aparticular insurer from shops involvedin that insurer’s direct repair program(DRP) were higher than those given byshops that are not part of that insurer’sprogram. This was particularly truewith Safeco and Farmers; their DRPshops gave them grades of B- or betterwhile non-DRP shops gave these sameinsurers grades of D+. But even Pro-gressive and 21st Century direct repairshops gave those insurers only averagegrades of C+ or lower.

“Collision repairers say the in-surers receiving the highest grades –which includes both larger andsmaller insurance companies – do thebest job of taking care of Oregon driv-ers after an accident,” Crest said. “Wehope consumers will take these ratingsinto account when choosing an autoinsurer, and that insurers that receivedlower grades will work to improvetheir performance.”

More than 70 shops throughoutOregon responded to the survey.


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Insurer Report Card in Oregon Ranks State Farm #1, Farmers andGEICO Replace Allstate at Lowest Rank

INSUREROverall Grade*

(followed bygrade in 2011)

Non-DRPShops**

DRPShops**

State Farm B+ (B+) B A-Oregon Mutual B (B+) B A-

Mutual of Enumclaw B (B) B A-USAA B- (B-) B- n/a

California Casualty C+ (C+) C+ n/aTravelers C+ (B-) C+ n/aUnitrin C+ (B-) C+ B

American Family C+ (C+) C B+The Hartford C+ (C+) C n/a

American Commerce Insur. C+ (C+) C n/aLiberty Mutual C+ (C) C BAmeriprise C (C) C n/a

Country Companies C (C+) C n/aNorth Pacific C (C) C n/aEsurance C (C) C n/a

Progressive C (C) C C+Nationwide C (C) C- n/a

21st Century (formerly AIG) C- (C) C- CSafeco C- (C-) D+ BAllstate C- (D+) C- n/aGEICO D+ (C-) C- n/a

Farmers Insurance D+ (C) D+ B-

n/a = Insufficient responses from shops in the DRP to assign a grade.* Based on responses from all shops. ** Based only on responses from shops participating in(or not participating in) that insurer’s DRP.

© 2012 by Northwest Automotive Trades Association



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May 2012 Southeast Edition