Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine - February 2022

Page 30

PRODUCT R&D

TRANSFORMED BY MILWAUKEE

Rob Herrod reflects on just how far workshop tools have come since the ‘70s With a career spanning over four decades, Rob Herrod, the man behind the legendary Herrod Performance, has witnessed countless advancements in the automotive industry. He has also witnessed the evolution of automotive tools as workshops have transformed since his early days as an apprentice mechanic, to now, managing his world-renowned Ford Performance specialist workshop. In 1975, Herrod began his career as a mechanic aged 15. He initially participated in work experience with his father, then left school to embark on an apprenticeship. He recalled the tools that he worked with at this time were limited to “normal spanners and bits and pieces.” “There was nothing really…of what we have now in the way of tools… We had to make do with what we could find,” Herrod said. “If we never had a tool, we had to make a tool. The only thing we had back in 1975, and earlier when I was a kid, was an air gun.” Herrod recounted the first game-changer in his father’s workshop was the purchase of an electric gun for removing wheel nuts. But that came with its own set of challenges – namely, hoses and cords. “It was a nuisance. The cord would break. The cord would twist. And it would always break down and play up,” Herrod said. The move to a cordless workshop has been a blessing for Herrod who said that cordless tools have without a doubt revolutionised the automotive industry. “I have had other cordless tools in the past. And I was not particularly happy with (those tools). They were always breaking down or something,” Herrod said. He says his switch to Milwaukee cordless products has changed that, significantly improving efficiencies for his team.

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Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine February 2022

“We’ve probably reduced, maybe an hour of build on each car by using a Milwaukee cordless tool,” Herrod said. One of Herrod’s biggest challenges during his early days was lighting. Fortunately, that’s a problem of the past. “If I go back to 1975… the grief we used to go through! We used to have a handheld light, with a little cage around it that you put a normal light bulb in… And you’d hang that under the car with the electric lead running somewhere,” he said. Herrod recalled, not only the blinding glare of these makeshift lights, but just how often they would fall and break. “Then you’d have to go hunting for a globe, and you’d run out of globes. And you’d do this all day long, every day,” Herrod said.


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Articles inside

Shopfront

4min
pages 100-102

4WD

7min
pages 98-99

Consumer Law

3min
page 96

HR Matters

3min
page 97

Hand Tools & Diagnositics: Keeping on top of technical nuances

21min
pages 88-93

Trade Talk: Rapid Tune Chief Executive Officer Mark Rippon - Leading from the Front

8min
pages 94-95

Lubricants, Fluids & Chemicals: All the latest on fluids, lubricants and chemicals

24min
pages 78-87

Products

1hr
pages 34-75

Member Feature: ADRAD - Thriving in the winds of change

6min
pages 76-77

Product R&D: Transformed by Milwaukee

3min
pages 30-33

Cover Story: Tridon leading the way in high performance wiper blades

4min
pages 26-27

Technofile: IVS 360 team supports customer with BMW Regeneration Failure Fault

3min
pages 28-29

GUD to acquire APG

18min
pages 19-23

New Year, New Data

4min
page 11

New distribution center for GPC Asia Pacific

7min
pages 16-18

AAAA Report

4min
page 8

Automechanika Dubai 2021 comes to successful end

4min
page 15

Australia’s Next Top Model: The Toyota Hilux

8min
pages 24-25

BAPCOR issues CEO and MD succession update

4min
pages 12-14

Show your apprentices your appreciation

4min
page 10
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