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AASP-MN Hits the Track to Support Student Scholarships, Raises Funds For Automotive Education The Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Minnesota (AASP-MN) recently raised nearly $8,500 during its 2016 fundraising campaign to support the AASP-MN Automotive Education Fund. The majority of that money was raised at the Association’s 14th annual Race for Automotive Education, held January 12th & 13th at ProKart Indoors, Burnsville, and will fund scholarships for automotive students enrolled in NATEF-certified mechanical and collision repair programs in Minnesota. During the course of the twonight event, 110 racers tore up the
track in state-of-the-art European karts, reaching speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour. Many fans and spectators were also on hand to cheer their teams on. 22 teams of mechanical and collision repair shops and industry suppliers were represented and the competition was fierce. Trophies were awarded to the 1st place and runner-up teams. They were:
Tuesday, January 12th 1st Place – Superior Service Center, Eagan; Runner-Up – St. Anthony Mobil, St. Anthony See AASP-MN, Page 33
VOL. 5 ISSUE 6 MARCH 2016
National AutoBody Research Launches VRS Labor Rate Surveys in Arkansas and New Mexico National Autobody Research (NABR) launched VRS Labor Rate Surveys in two more states; Arkansas and New Mexico. The Arkansas and New Mexico VRS Labor Rate Surveys were both sponsored by anonymous collision repairers in their respective states. The online survey is free for all Arkansas collision repair shops and can be found on the NABR website. According to a NABR press release, the VRS Labor Rate Survey will provide collision repairers in Arkansas and New Mexico with an independent, third-party, trusted survey of state-wide labor rate data. The VRS reports the
true, market-based rate ranges throughout the states of Arkansas and New Mexico, based on shops’ actual prices, not on one artificially defined, singleprevailing rate for all repairers. “There is a significant problem with labor rates in the state of Arkansas,” said the state’s survey sponsor. “The rates insurers pay are not only below the market price but also not sufficiently profitable for shops, who must continually invest in training, tools, equipment and certifications to repair today’s increasingly advanced vehicles. Finally, we have a solution in the VRS, See Labor Rate Survey, Page 67
2016 Midwest Auto Body Trade Show Breaks Records, New Format Brings More Vendors, More Attendees by Janet Chaney, Special to Autobody News
more education and keynote speaker Mike Anderson.” He said the new formula brought more vendors, more attendees and more success. Everything kicked off Friday at 1
Almost 500 people filled the rooms on February 5 and 6 at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa at the 6th Annual Midwest Auto Body Trade Show. The event, hosted by the Iowa Collision Repair Association, was expanded to two days and held on a Friday and Saturday this year. “We took a chance on a Saturday hoping to bring more technicians to the show and it worked,” said Dick Merron, president of the ICRA and trade show Mike Anderson (l) was the keynote speaker and received chairman. “We also brought a standing ovation after his address
p.m., beginning with Mike Anderson’s featuring an I-CAR Silent Auction-A “Write-It-Right, Best Estimating Prac- benefit for students, was another tices” seminar. It was standing room crowded industry room filled with only for the five-and-a-half-hour great conversation. Shop owner Brent Walker, who event. When Anderson started the event, attended the event from Memphis, he asked for a raise of hands and Missouri, said he enjoyed the crowd. asked, “How many people have not “It was all encompassing, you were albeen to one of my classes before?” There was a surprising number of hands that went up and those people were in for an industry turbo-charged session. “The number of people who were new to this class and the trade show was great news,” said ICRA Executive (l to r) Dick Merron, president of the ICRA, and Janet Director, Janet Chaney. Chaney, stand with Chad Holamer and Zort Brown of “That means we are reaching DentSmart. Chad Holamer donated $500 to the ICRA to fund a student scholarship program more people in the industry.” Anderson’s Write–It Right pro- ways in the middle of collision industry conversation, whether it was you gram was a great beginning for this talking with someone, or listening to day-and-a-half program. The closing other people around you; it just took of the seminar was out in the parking lot watching Jake Rodenroth do a live over.” The I-CAR Silent Auction condemonstration of the AsTech2 Collitinued Saturday throughout the trade sion Diagnostics System at work! This led into the Friday night welcome re- show and net almost $7,000 for Iowa Student Education. ception. Three educational breakout sesThe inaugural Midwest Auto See Midwest Trade Show, Page 42 Body Trade Show welcome reception,
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REGIONAL
2016 Midwest Auto Body Trade Show Breaks
Records, New Format Brings More Vendors,
More Attendees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3M Calendar Fundraiser Raises $100,000 in
January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
AASPI Annual Meeting Includes Estimating
Workshop and Officer Elections . . . . . . . . 58
AASP-MN Offers Scholarships, Announces
Annual Meeting & Leadership Conference . 12
Iowa ‘Roadside Birth’ Couple Has Healthy Baby Boy
by Olivia Mancino, KWWL
ABARI Shares Insight about Legislation
the Association Helped Pass. . . . . . . . . . . 50
Phillips - Collision Shop Benefits from Improved Cycle Time, CSI and Closing Ratio After
Joining CARSTAR Network . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Phillips - General Manager of Jost Garage in New Jersey Says Running a Successful
Shop Requires Staying Up With Latest in
Training & Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Yoswick - Attorney Presses Shops to Take the
Attorney General Files Lawsuit in OH Against
Steps They Can to Help Prevent Workplace
Auto Parts Dealer in ME Faces More
Yoswick - Jeff Silver, GAO Report and NHTSA,
Used Car Seller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Scam Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Auto-Lab Plainfield and Jension, MI, Owners
to Retire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
BASF Presents Winner of 2016 Fight Club of
Automotive Design at Middlecott Sketchbattle
Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Avery v State Farm, EPA at CIC . . . . . . . . . 64
NATIONAL
A New Hope for Labor Rates: The Variable Rate
System by National AutoBody Research . . 58
in Detroit, MI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
AASP/NJ Releases Seminar Agenda for 39th
Donation Benefits Fisher House . . . . . . . . 18
AASP-MN Hits the Track to Support Student
CARSTAR Chicagoland Business Group CARSTAR Olathe Donates Car to Single
Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Annual NORTHEAST™ Trade Show. . . . . . 28
Scholarships, Raises Funds For Automotive
Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Danville Area Community College in IL to
ALI Lowers Price of Online Lift Safety Training
Ford Plant in Avon Lake, OH, Adds New
Assured Performance Launches OEM Repair
Consider Cuts, Auto Body Program at Risk . 10
Truck to its Production Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Former Shop Owner in South Dakota Becomes
Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Procedure Compliance App . . . . . . . . . . . 62
AudaExplore and ABRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fire Chief After Business Burns to Ground. . 22
Axalta Develops Speed Light Hand-Held Device. 63
Ambulance Makeover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Work Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Bumpersmith 2.0 Combines Welder &
Iowa 'Roadside Birth' Couple Has Healthy
Darryl Hollenbeck Claims 2016 AMBR Award
Kent Love Chosen to Lead Lakeview, MI,
Fix Auto USA Announces 100th Franchise
NABA Holds Fall Meeting & Schedules
Gas Monkey Garage Show Renewed for
Nagy’s Collision Centers Hosts 2016
Google's Autonomous Tech is Considered
Schaefer Autobody in MO Donates Vehicles in
Historic Meeting Planned to Discuss Proposed
Baby Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Ford’s New Auto Body Shop . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Upcoming Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Symposium in OH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Support of Local Community . . . . . . . . . . 20
Service King Expands in Columbus, OH . . . . 12
Spanesi Americas Distributors Across the
Country Receive Awards and Recognition . . 71
Suspect Accused of Stealing from St. Louis, MO,
With His PPG-Painted Roadster . . . . . . . . 67
Location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8th Season. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Driver Under Federal Law, NHTSA Says . . . 4
Senate Bill That Would Cap Labor Rates
in Mississippi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
National AutoBody Research Launches VRS Labor Rate Surveys in Arkansas and
New Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Body Shop Leads Police on Chase . . . . . . 59
New Name in Plastic Repair: Same Products,
Automotive Recyclers to Nationwide
PARTS ACT Patent Controversy Continues
Team PRP Announces Addition of Three New
Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
WI Man Charged in 2014 Auto Body Shop
Burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
COLUMNISTS
Same Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
in Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
SCRS Notifies Members of Collision
Repair Petition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes
Announces Annual Vendor Awards . . . . . . 63
Attanasio - Best Marketing Techniques to
The Equipment and Tool Institute Redesigns
Attanasio - Marketing Dinosaurs That Should
The Parable of the Crippled Mare: Loss-of-Use
Recruit Top Employees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Be Extinct in 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Attanasio - Say Hello to Our Little Friend—El Niño!
Strongest One Yet Expected this Year . . . . 34
Chess - Kool Tools from SEMA 2015 . . . . . . 44
Luehr - Why Winners Win (Deliberate
Practice) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Phillips - Body Shop Owner & President of
A baby was born outside of Iowa Auto Rebuilders. Credit: KWWL
Taryn Naill delivered her own baby while her boyfriend drove, and eventually pulled over to Iowa Auto Rebuilders to wait for paramedics. Twenty-four hours later, Tyler Hall and Taryn Naill returned to the same shop, this time to express their gratitude to the crew for letting them use their parking lot, and to introduce them to the shops youngest-ever visitor, baby Tylyn Clay. “You know, I never expected this
Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst General Manager: Barbara Davies Assistant Editor: Stacey Phillips Online Editor: Victoria Antonelli Contributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess, David Brown, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy Sisk, David Luehr Advertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Bill Doyle, Norman Morano (800) 699-8251 Office Manager: Louise Tedesco Sales/Research Associate: Cass Heckel Art Director: Rodolfo Garcia
Indexof Advertisers
Freer Auto Body in IL Works Toward
As the sun came up over Highway 20 on the morning of Feb. 11, a new life was born...also on the highway. An Iowa Falls couple was on their way to the hospital, but their little guy just couldn’t wait.
Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Now Recoverable in Texas Total Loss
Auto Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
U.K. Insurers Examining Autonomous
Car Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Vibac Aims for An Even More Productive 2016
with the Release of New Automotive Tapes. . 8
to ever happen in our parking lot, and I don't think it will again, but who knows, we’re always here to help!” said Dick Merron with Iowa Auto Rebuilders. “I was thinking, please don’t let us be that person to have a baby in the car, but sure enough, we did,” said Tyler Hall, laughing. Of course the fast and furious delivery wasn’t planned; the couple had everything set up with a midwife at the hospital. But Taryn and Tylyn are healthy, and that’s what's important. “We’re going to go home and rest I suppose, and introduce Tylyn to the cats,” said Taryn Naill. Naill says riding in the car will always be different now, and that's not such a bad thing. Thank you KWWL for reprint permission.
Abaris Training Resources, Inc. . . . 16 Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 62 Axalta Coating Systems . . . . . . . . . . 5 Blue Springs Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 67 Bob Hook Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Car-Part.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Carcoon America Airflow Systems . 44 Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA). . . . . . . . . . . 43 Charles Gabus Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Classic Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Courtesy Subaru. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Dent Magic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Diamond Standard Parts . . . . . . . . . 7 Eco Repair Systems of North America, LLC . . . . . . . . . . 24 EMM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Equalizer Industries, Inc. . . . . . . . . 32 Erhard BMW of Bloomfield Hills . . . 39 Erhard BMW of Farmington Hills . . 39 Eurovac, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 FBS Distribution Co., Inc. . . . . . . . . 18 Ganley Westside Hyundai . . . . . . . 48 Ganley Westside Subaru . . . . . . . . 61 GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 69 Graham Auto Mall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Hall Volkswagen-Mazda . . . . . . . . . 38 Hendrick Automotive Group . . . . . . 25 Herkules Equipment Corporation. . 34 Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 37 Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 64 Jake Sweeney Chevrolet . . . . . . . . 52 Kelly BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Kia Motors America, Inc.. . . . . . . . . 31 Kia of Des Moines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Kia Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . . 65
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Contents
Larson Electronics, LLC.. . . . . . . . . 28 Laurel Auto Group of Westmont . . . 57 LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Lusid Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Luther Hopkins Honda . . . . . . . . . . 40 Maplewood Toyota-Scion . . . . . . . . 50 Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 66 Mercedes-Benz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Mirka USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Mobile Environmental Solutions, LLC. 12 MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 41 Morrison’s Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Nissan of South Holland . . . . . . . . . 58 Nissan Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 71 O’Reilly Auto Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Orio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Patrick BMW-MINI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Polyvance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Reliable Automotive Equipment . . . 15 Richfield-Bloomington Honda . . . . 46 Rick Case Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . 10 Russ Darrow Automotive Group. . . 26 SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . 35 Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 54 The Sharpe Collection of Automobiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Toyota of Des Moines . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Toyota of Grand Rapids . . . . . . . . . 42 Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 68 U-POL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Valspar Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 VanDevere Kia-GM . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Vibac Tape Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Wesch Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Zimmer Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram . 72
www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 3
Google’s Autonomous Tech is Considered Driver Under Federal Law, NHTSA says
U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for autonomous vehicles on the roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Google of its decision in a previously unreported Feb. 4 letter to the company posted on the agency’s website this week. Google’s self-driving car unit on Nov. 12 submitted a proposed design for a self-driving car that has “no need for a human driver,” the letter to Google from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Chief Counsel Paul Hemmersbaugh said. “NHTSA will interpret ‘driver’ in the context of Google’s described motor vehicle design as referring to the [self-driving system], and not to any of the vehicle occupants,” NHTSA’s letter said. “We agree with Google its [selfdriving car] will not have a ‘driver’ in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years.” Major automakers and technology companies such as Google are racing to develop and sell vehicles that can drive themselves at least part of the time. All participants in the autonomous driving race complain that state and federal safety rules are impeding testing and eventual deployment of such vehicles. California has proposed draft rules requiring steering wheels and a licensed driver in all self-driving cars. If the car’s artificial intelligence is the driver for legal purposes, then it clears the way for Google or automakers to design vehicle systems that communicate directly with the vehicle’s artificial pilot. In its response to Google, the federal agency offered its most comprehensive map yet of the legal obstacles to putting fully autonomous vehicles on the road. It noted existing regulations requiring some auto safety equipment cannot be waived immediately, including requirements for braking systems activated by foot control. “The next question is whether and how Google could certify that the [self-driving system] meets a standard
Free
developed and designed to apply to a vehicle with a human driver,” NHTSA said. Google is “still evaluating” NHTSA’s lengthy response, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. Google executives have said they would likely partner with established automakers to build self-driving cars. Google told NHTSA that the real danger is having auto safety features that could tempt humans to try to take control. Google “expresses concern that providing human occupants of the vehicle with mechanisms to control things like steering, acceleration, braking... could be detrimental to safety because the human occupants could attempt to override the (self-driving system’s) decisions,” the NHTSA letter stated. NHTSA’s Hemmersbaugh said federal regulations requiring equipment like steering wheels and brake pedals would have to be formally rewritten before Google could offer cars without those features. For example, current federal rules require alerts on dashboards if tire pressure runs low. NHTSA said a test would need to be created that shows the vehicle computer is informed of the problem. NHTSA raised the question of whether humans in the vehicles should also be made aware. In January, NHTSA said it may waive some vehicle safety rules to allow more driverless cars to operate on U.S. roads as part of a broader effort to speed up development of selfdriving vehicles. NHTSA said then it would write guidelines for self-driving cars within six months. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the administration may seek new legal authority to allow deployment of autonomous vehicles “in large numbers,” when they are deemed safe, the department said. The process of rewriting federal regulations governing the design, placement and operation of vehicle controls could take months or years. The NHTSA counsel said Google could consider applying for exemptions for certain regulations, providing NHTSA with supporting documents. See additional autonomous vehicle coverage page 24 this issue.
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CELPHY Uploads a Selfie
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Ford Plant in Avon Lake, OH, Adds New Truck to its Production Line
by Michael Sangiacomo, cleveland.com
The new 2017 Ford trucks are now being produced at the Ohio Assembly Plant, Ford announced January 25. Ford officials said the Kentucky plant cannot keep up with the demand
number one trusted choice of tradespeople and fleet customers, from utility companies to construction firms,” said Kevin Koswick, director, Ford North American Fleet, Lease and Remarketing Operations. “The all-new Super Duty will help these customers keep
The 2017 Ford Truck is being produced at the Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, thanks to a heavy demand. Credit: cleveland.com
for the new Ford F-Series Super Duty chassis cab, so the Avon Lake plant has added the truck to its production line. A Ford official said the production will continue as long as there is heavy demand. “Super Duty chassis cabs are the
the lights on, deliver supplies and build a better world for their customers.” The Avon Lake plant, along with the Kentucky plant, will produce F-350, F450 and F-550 Super Duty chassis cabs. It’s not clear whether any new jobs will be created with the new line. The
6 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Ohio Assembly Plant opened in 1974 and employs nearly 1,400 people, making it one of the largest employers in Lorain County. The plant will continue to manufacture the Ford F-650 and F750, Ford E-Series cutaway vans and stripped chassis. The 2017 F-Series Super Duty pickup uses high-strength steel in the frame and high-strength, military-grade, aluminum alloy for the body. “The result is up to 350 pounds of weight savings with additional weight savings reinvested everywhere it counts, giving customers more towing and hauling capability than ever before,” the news release said. “Components such as axles, hubs and brakes are larger and stronger to support work demands.” The truck will be available as a 6.2liter gasoline V8 engine, a 6.8-liter gasoline V10, or 6.7-liter Power Stroke turbo diesel V8. No pricing information for the new trucks is available. The trucks will be up for sale sometime later in the year. In November, the national United Auto Workers settled a contract with Ford in which the company promised to spend $1.5 billion in investments to plants in Ohio. Autobody News thanks cleveland .com for reprint permission.
Attorney General Files Lawsuit in OH Against Used Car Seller
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced in February a lawsuit against a Cleveland-area used car seller accused of failing to deliver vehicle titles to consumers. The lawsuit seeks reimbursement from Champion Marketing Group LLC and its owner, Patricia A. DeCapua, after the attorney general’s office paid out nearly $14,000 to help consumers who failed to receive a title within 40 days of buying a vehicle from the dealership. Champion sold used vehicles, most recently in Cleveland, according to the lawsuit. The Ohio attorney general’s office has received 20 complaints. Most involved title problems. The office helped resolve complaints, in some cases by making payments from the Title Defect Rescission Fund, which helps consumers when a dealership fails to provide a title as required by law. The lawsuit accuses Champion of violating Ohio’s Certificate of Motor Vehicle Title Act and Consumer Sales Practices Act. The lawsuit seeks an end to any violations of these laws, reimbursement to the Title Defect Rescission Fund, restitution for affected consumers, and civil penalties.
www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 7
Vibac Aims for An Even More Productive 2016 with the Release of New Automotive Tapes Vibac Canada Inc., a global adhesive tape manufacturer, has all the backing necessary from both their products and the shops, to keep a strong hold on success for 2016. After proving the potential of Vibac’s masking tape 313 yellow in
Shop & Product showcase, to see if the walk matched the talk. “Everyone says their product is the best. I like to see for myself,” said co-owner John Sr. “As a shop owner I have to make sure everything works as perfectly as possible without redos, so it was a simple test to take a strip of tape along with the competitors and mask a van or trailer and just leave it outside in the summer weather. At 90 plus degrees, direct sunlight, rain, moisture, constant heating and cooling are going to destroy all but the very best tapes. The weak ones break, they sliver, and the glue The Vibac masking tape 313 yellow aiding in the collision transfers and creates a mess repair process that no shop wants to deal 2015, the Montreal-based company with.” introduced two new masking tapesAfter the “torture test,” he con204 orange and 314 blue - at the No- cluded that there was no glue or advember 2015 SEMA Show in Las hesive transfer, and because of the Vegas. Both will hit the market at the lack of issues, the shop’s production end of the first quarter of 2016. “stays high.” John Sr. added that he Autobody News reached out to was impressed with the way the Black Horse Body Shop in Plymouth masking tape 313 yellow stood up to Meeting, PA for the October 2015 the wet and dry cycles in the paint
8 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
booth, and that he was able to remove it without any problems. Rewind to the pre-NACE Shop & Product Showcase, published in June 2015. Autobody News reached out to Beyer Collision Center in
Alexandra, VA, to ask about their experience with Vibac products, and experienced a similar reaction. Allen Andre, 53, body shop manager, said he gets a lot of highend cars in his shop as he is located
near Washington, D.C. Andre and his painter, Donnie Stemetski, adhere to the theory that masking tape is something you should be able to rely on and then forget about. “If it works, it works and that’s the best review I can give you,” Andre said. “The masking tape 313 yellow holds the paper down. We haven’t had one single comeback or re-paint with this tape. Switching to this product about 18 months ago has definitely been a smart move.” With at least two prominent shops singing their praise of the masking tape 313 yellow, it’s safe to say the industry should be excited about the latest Vibac creations. Vibac Marketing Manager, Lion Sedov, characterizes the three masking tapes as “good, better, and best” in the following order: masking tape 207 orange, masking tape 313 yellow, and masking tape 314 blue. “Our yellow tape 313 is consid-
ered the best all-around tape for many different applications that the market demands” said Sedov. “The industry has a need for a variety of performance levels in masking tapes and Vibac is looking to fill the need by providing three different levels of product offerings with an extra punch in creating value to customers on all levels.” The VIBAC Group has been making a wide variety of pressure sensitive tapes since the 1970s, specifically catering to most all automotive applications. In summer 2015, Vibac opened yet another new production facility for high performance masking tapes in Europe with the latest technological advancements. For more information on Vibac products, visit www.vibacgroup.com or contact Marketing Manager Lion Sedov at (514) 640-0250, lion.sedov @vibac.com.
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Danville Area Community College in IL to Consider Cuts, Auto Body Program at Risk
by Carol Roehm, Commerical-News
A shortfall of $3.77 million caused by the state budget stalemate forced the Danville Area Community College (DACC) Board of Trustees to consider suspending low enrollment, high cost programs at its February meeting. At the Jan. 26 board meeting, Donald Smoot, a retired career and technical education instructor, expressed his concerns about DACC possibly suspending some of its career and technical education programming, including the auto body program his son Nathan teaches. “I told my son you have to be aware that your position might be eliminated,” he said. “When you suspend programs, you lose some of your best instructors.” Smoot addressed DACC President Alice Marie Jacobs, “When you cut programs, you change your legacy.” Rather than cut programs, Smoot suggested DACC use its reserves to get through the financial crunch brought on by a lack of state funding due to the months-long state budget impasse. “We need to build career and technical programs,” he said. “I imagine you suspended the corrections program because you had-
n’t been paid (by the state),” he said. “But I can tell you those people need the education because they want to change their lives.” In December, DACC trustees approved suspending a vocational program that the college had offered for at least seven years on a contractual basis for the Illinois Department of Corrections. Five program employees were laid off, effective December 31. The employment of a sixth employee, the director of educational programs, will end January 31. The college hadn’t received payment from the state for the program since July and suspending the program and laying off the six employees saved the college $400,000 a year. DACC still receives about $145, 000 from a Perkins grant, which is based on how many career and technical education students receive Pell grant assistance. Dave Kietzmann, vice president of instruction and student services, said the Perkins grant money comes with restrictions on how the money can be used. A second quarter financial statement of the college’s revenue and expenditures shows a deficit of $3.77 million, which is what DACC had an-
Auto-Lab Plainfield and Jension, MI, Owners to Retire After serving the Grand Rapids and Jenison community in Michigan for over 20 years, Auto-Lab Complete Car Care Centers owners Jon and Donna Stellema have decided to retire. “My wife Donna and I are very thankful to have found a buyer for our two Auto-Lab locations in Grand
(l to r) Retired owner Jon Stellema and new owner Aaron Kenyon
Rapids, MI. We have been franchisees for nearly 20 years and have had a successful experience over those years,” said Jon, retired owner of Auto-Lab Plainfield & Jenison. “We are now retiring and have made the sales transition in a very smooth fashion with help from Auto-Lab Franchising, RUA Associates, and business brokers.” Aaron Kenyon, who is also the
current owner of Auto-Lab Mt. Pleasant and Lansing, will be taking ownership of both locations and will continue to operate both locations as Auto-Lab Complete Car Care Centers. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to grow with the Auto-Lab brand; I’m looking forward to expanding what already has proven to be an excellent relationship,” said Aaron. “Doug Bell, Eric Zager and the rest of crew at the Plainfield and Jenison shops are a great addition to my team.” “We are extremely thankful for the hard work and dedication Jon and Donna have given to their community and to Auto-Lab Franchising over the past 20 years,” said Stephen R. Wilson, president and COO of Auto-Lab Franchising, LLC. “Aaron Kenyon is a great owner and we are really excited to see him transition to taking ownership of these two great locations to keep the Auto-Lab brand and integrity in the community.” To learn more about Auto-Lab, visit www.AutoLabUSA.com. For information on franchise opportunities, visit www.AutoLabFranchise.com or call 248-994-0206.
10 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
ticipated receiving from the state for its general operating fund and as reimbursement for its career and technical education programming. “No money has been appropriated by the state. Until there is money appropriated for this, it is going to show zeros,” Jacobs said of the quarterly financial statement. “That will have a dramatically negative impact on how we finish the fiscal year.” Jacobs said after the meeting the board would be considering the suspension of “low enrollment, high cost” programs at its February meeting. She said the automotive program was suspended before—many years ago—and then it was brought back. “Career and technical education programs are important to our community and the building of our work force,” she said.
Autobody News thanks Commercial-News for reprint permission.
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CARSTAR Olathe Donates Car to Single Mother
CARSTAR Olathe, along with Olathe Mayor Michael Copeland and CARSTAR Brand President Dan Young presented the keys to a 2010 Mazda 3 to a single mother of two on February 16. The donation took place at CARSTAR Olathe, 15060 W. 135th St., in Kansas. The vehicle was donated by Farmers Insurance and was restored by the staff at CARSTAR Olathe and several local businesses as part of the National Auto Body Council’s (NABC) Recycled Rides® program. Christian Brothers in Olathe donated an oil change, mechanical services and an alignment. Keystone Auto and Northtown Mazda donated parts. BASF donated paint and KC Dent Master donated paintless dent repair services. “We’re glad to help a hardworking mom get back on her feet with a decent vehicle,” said MJ Alaga, owner of CARSTAR Olathe. “Our vendor partners were generous with their labor and services in helping us repair the vehicle.”
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Service King Expands in Columbus, OH
Service King Collision Repair Centers announced February 2 continued expansion in the Columbus, Ohio market through a formal agreement to partner with First Impressions Collision, Inc. First Impressions’ single collision repair center is located in Columbus, Ohio. “This is a proud and long-awaited step forward for our team at First Impressions Collision,” said owner Phil Davidson. “Partnering with a leading organization like Service King provides our team the resources and support to continue providing superior repair services to our customers and insurance partners throughout the Columbus community.” With the partnership, Service King has now expanded to three Columbus locations. “Our team couldn’t be more proud to partner with a team like First Impressions Collision,” said Service King Market Vice President Darren DuVall. “Through this partnership, our team now provides three locations in the Columbus area to continue providing high-quality, consistent repairs with superior service. We look forward to a bright future together in Columbus.” The First Impressions Collision facility has the capacity to repair 150-200 vehicles per month.
AASP-MN Offers Scholarships, Announces Annual Meeting & Leadership Conference
The Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Minnesota (AASP-MN) will be awarding scholarships to select students enrolled in post-secondary automotive (mechanical or collision) programs. Scholarship awards will be $1,000 per student. Recipients must be entering the second year of a two-year NATEF-certified automotive program in the fall of 2016. Applications will be reviewed by a committee of industry representatives, with consideration given to scholastic achievement, education and career goals, financial need and written recommendations. Applications must be postmarked no later than March 31. As an added incentive to apply, students who submit complete applications will be entered into a drawing for a night of go kart racing at ProKart Indoors (Burnsville) next January 2017. Applications can be submitted online at www.automotivescholarships.com /AASP-MN. Online submissions give students the opportunity to compete for several different awards, including those offered by the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium Scholarship Committee and over 20 other automotive aftermarket organizations and companies. Specific requirements
for each organization’s awards can be found at www.automotivescholarships .com. The Education Fund was established in 2002 to provide financial resources to support automotive students, enhance automotive programs and raise awareness of career opportunities in the independent automotive service industry. Since that time, nearly $176,000 has been distributed directly to students enrolled in automotive programs through the association’s scholarship program and Skills USA competition. AASP-MN also announced its Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference will be held April 14, 2016, at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, 1330 Industrial Blvd., Minneapolis. This year’s event, with a theme to “Lead the Way,” offers a line-up of seminars that are specifically geared for mechanical and collision repair shop owners and managers and are presented by some of the industry’s top trainers. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to network and socialize with their peers and industry vendors as they showcase new products and services during happy hour. Here’s what’s in store: 8 – 10 am: Mastering the 5 Skills for
Effective Leadership, Richard Flint, Richard Flint International 10:15 – 11:15 am: Help - My Industry is Consolidating!, Brad Mewes, Supplement! 11:30 am – 1:15 pm: Help - AASPMN Membership Meeting &Keynote Address: “No More Excuses, It’s Non- Negotiable,” Sam Silverstein, Sam Silverstein, Inc. 1:30 – 2:15 pm: Building Your Accountable Organization, Sam Silverstein, Sam Silverstein, Inc. 1:30 – 3:30 pm: Increase Your Diagnostic Labor Sales, Kelly Bennett, Business Training International 1:30 – 3:30 pm: Collision Workflow: Better Scheduling = Greater Success, Kent Carlson, Collision Resources, Inc. 2:30 – 3:30 pm: Authentic Persuasion: Communication That Moves Others to Action, Josh Dye, Convene, LLC 3:45 – 4:45 pm: Networking Roundtable 4:45 – 6 pm: Social Hour & Vendor Show 6:30 – 9:00 pm: Group Outing For information, visit www.aaspmn.org or call 612-623-1110.
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New Name in Plastic Repair: Same Products, Same Company
There’s a new name in plastic repair – however, the company and the products have remained the same. Urethane Supply Company, a pioneer in the field of automotive plastic repair since 1981, announced that it has changed the name of its business to “Polyvance.” “The change in name reflects the progression that has occurred in automotive plastics since the company’s inception,” said Kurt Lammon, president of Polyvance. The Alabama-based company will continue to produce its complete line of plastic repair and refinishing products including the following most popular ones: ■ the 6059-C Nitro Fuzer nitrogen plastic welding system;
■ the 3601 and 3611 Bumper & Cladding Coat Adhesion Primer; and
■ the 5700HT Mini Weld Model 7 airless plastic welder. Established by Jim Sparks in 1981, the company was sold to Kurt and
Keith Lammon in 1995. After purchasing the company, the Lammons considered changing the name but soon realized the tremendous amount of work that it would require. “Back in 1981, most of the bumper covers were actually made from urethane plastic,” said Kurt, the company’s
president. “Sparks came up with the original name because he supplied products required to repair urethane bumper covers.” Since most bumper covers are now made from blends of polypropylene, Kurt said they decided to move forward with a name change. “Urethane Supply Company was never a very fitting name for the company,” said Kurt “After all, we don’t supply urethane – we advance polymer repair.” Almost daily people would call in asking to buy urethane foam, ure-
thane sheet stock or urethane to make skateboard wheels. “A name change was long overdue so we made the change to Polyvance because it really speaks to what we do.” They have spent the past six months working on logistics. This included hiring a branding consultant who reviewed what the company focuses on and the direction they plan to take in the future. The company’s official tagline is “Advancing Polymer Repair.” Kurt said Polyvance will still be devoted entirely to helping body shops profit from plastic repair and refinishing through its innovative products, which are all thoroughly tested, as well as training courses. Currently, Polyvance offers an I-CAR® Industry Training Alliance® course on nitrogen plastic welding and Kurt said there are plans to more courses in 2016. Polyvance products are available through paint, body and equipment distributors across North America. For more information, contact Kurt Lammon at 800-633-3047 or visit: www.polyvance.com.
Nagy’s Collision Centers Hosts 2016 Symposium in OH
Nagy’s Collision Centers based in Orrville, OH held a Leadership Symposium on February 24 at The University of Akron Wayne College’s Student Life Building. Nagy’s has hosted Leadercast, also known as Chick-Fil-A Leadercast, from 2011 to 2014. Last year they decided to break away from the simulcast program and move towards a more intimate day of live leadership training with local business owners. Leadership Symposium’s theme this year was “Leadership cannot be taught, but can be learned.” It will include eight hours of live leadership training from local leaders. These leaders include Jon Sommer (Crown Career Development), David Lehman (Mennonite Mutual Co.), Rodd Welker (Eagle Advisor Group), Bruce Hendrick (RBB Systems), Mike McFarren (Spiritual Leadership Incorporated), Ron Nagy (Nagy’s Collision Centers), Eric Graf (Ritzman Pharmacies), Steve Yoder (Kingsway Christian School), and Dallas Steiner (Venture Products Inc.). Sponsors included Nagy’s Collision Centers, Mennonite Mutual, Commercial & Savings Bank, Enterprise, Eagle Advisor Group, Gionino’s and Birdeye.
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BASF Presents Winner of 2016 Fight Club of Automotive Design at Middlecott Sketchbattle in Detroit, MI
Omar Gonzalez won the 2016 Middlecott Sketchbattle Experiment, pre-
sented by BASF. Introduced in 2012, the experiment is Detroit’s first-ever “Fight Club of Design,” an underground automotive industry event developed to identify emerging design talent. The event coincides with the Detroit Auto Show, and is an automotive sketching competition where contestants battle for the championship. Fourteen contestants competed under pressure, in front of an audience in a timed, three-round boxing themed setting.
Omar Gonzalez’s first round sketch featuring BASF Nightfall Blue a 150th anniversary color from South America
2016 Sketchbattle winner, Omar Gonzalez, with his championship belt
“Sketchbattle is an amazing event that enables emerging industry talent to shine. These artists and designers are the future of the automotive industry,” said Paul Czornij, technical
Auto Parts Dealer in ME Faces More Scam Claims
by Tammy Wells, journaltribune.com
A Waterboro, ME, auto parts dealer arrested in January on charges that he scammed a buyer from Illinois on Craigslist may soon face more charges, as several people have since come forward to claim he scammed them as well. Scott Depeter, 43, owner of Airport Auto Body on Main Street, was arrested January 22 and charged with theft by deception, according to York County Sheriff Bill King. When the news broke, King asked that anyone who felt they’d been scammed by Depeter contact the sheriff ’s office. On Monday, January 25, King reported that eight people had contacted Sanford Regional Communications, which provides dispatch services for the sheriff ’s office. “All report they were defrauded in some way by Scott, also known as Thomas, Depeter,” said Deputy Shawn Sanborn, who is investigating the Illinois case. “Complaints were distributed (for investigation) between the York County Sheriff ’s Office and Sanford Police Department, depending on where the offense was alleged to have taken place.” Sanborn said additional complaints
were anticipated over the next few days. The initial investigation began when an Illinois man contacted the sheriff ’s office and reported that he wired $300 to Depeter after answering an ad on Craigslist, but never received the auto parts he ordered. The sheriff ’s office collected numerous text messages from the victim and confirmed that a wire transfer was made, King said. “Depeter came up with excuse after excuse after excuse,” and “finally stopped responding to calls or emails from the Illinois man,” he said. Depeter is free on $350 bail, and is scheduled to appear in court April 26 on the initial charge of theft by deception, a Class E misdemeanor. King cautions that folks should be wary about paying for merchandise by wiring money, as it is untraceable. As well, Craigslist advises users not to pay for items with money-wiring services, and to refrain from revealing bank account numbers and other financial information. The website states that “99 percent of scam attempts” can be avoided by dealing locally through face-to-face transactions. Thanks to The Journal Tribune for permission to reprint this article.
16 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
manager for the BASF Color Excel- each round of the competition. lence Group and Sketchbattle judge. “The use of BASF colors in this Other judges included: Ralph year’s competition presented the conGilles, head of design, FCA - Global; testants with a unique design opportuBregt Ectors, global strategic design nity to convey their dreams in color in manager, Buick; and Kemal Curic, 30 minutes or less,” said Frank design manager, Ford Mustang. Schwartz, co-owner and partner, Mid“It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had, and I was extremely impressed by the audience and judges. It was a pleasure to sketch live for all of them. Middlecott Sketchbattle is a great platform for young designers to make connections inside the automotive industry,” said Gonzalez, a native of Mexico who recently graduated from Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon The 14 design competitors sketch at a table surrounded (UANL) in Monterrey, Mex- by hundreds of onlookers during the 2016 Middlecott ico in the Industrial Design Sketchbattle presented by BASF program. Sketchers incorporated colors de- dlecott Sketchbattle. “The anniversary veloped by the BASF automotive color colors brought the designer’s passions excellence group to celebrate the com- to the forefront, and the judges had a pany’s 150 anniversary in 2015. Four very difficult time choosing a winner, colors were developed–—one for each although Omar’s consistency throughof BASF’s global regions–—Arjean out the evening helped bring him the Silver for North America, Nightfall award.” Blue for South America, Solaric Green More information about the divifor Europe and Fresh Mint for Asia- sion is available at www.basf-coatings Pacific. A different color was used for .com
www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 17
NABA Holds Fall Meeting & Schedules Upcoming Events by Janet Chaney
The 2015 Nebraska Auto Body Association (NABA) Fall Annual Business meeting was held last November at the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, Nebraska. The assocation said it is an incredibly beautiful facility with conference and meeting rooms. NABA President Trevor Emahizer, Plaza Buick-GMC, Omaha, had been a docent at the museum and secured the meeting space. The assocation said the meeting was a great success and tradition was started again for the NABA. The 2016 NABA Fall meeting will be at the Stuhr Museum in October. This summer, NABA is scheduling a Dale Carnegie ‘Igniting Workplace Enthusiasm’ class for the collision industry. This course will focus on the collision industry. Another Mike Anderson estimating class is scheduled for Spring 2017. NABA is working with community colleges in the state, looking to bring students and the industry closer together. NABA banners are being designed to go in the colleges to begin name recognition and create a professional outreach to students. NABA is living its mission of bringing education and information to collision repairers. Visit www.nebraskaautobody.com.
CARSTAR Chicagoland Business Group Donation Benefits Fisher House
The CARSTAR Chicagoland Business Group has had a long history of supporting the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital Fisher House in Hines, IL. For the fifth consecutive year, the 17 individual Chicago-area CARSTAR locations have joined together to collect both money and goods for the charity. For this year’s donation drive, CARSTAR partnered with local
needed supplies. “The Hines Fisher House does so much every day for our veterans and their families,” said Louie Santiago, marketing specialist for the CARSTAR Chicagoland Business Group. “It’s an honor for us to be able to help out every chance we get.” Recognition goes out to CARSTAR West-Hill, who refurbished a fully operational 1930s General Electric Refrigerator, which was raffled off to raise $1,400 for the Fisher House. The refrigerator was given a Chicago Blackhawks theme. The majority of raffle tickets were sold at the CARSTAR West-Hill Christmas Party. Special thanks also go out to the following locations: (l to r) Jim Irmen – Owner, CARSTAR Ideal; Holly Wright – Manager of Fisher House; Stand Craven – Owner, CARSTAR 38th St.; Adam Esposito – Owner, CARSTAR West-Hill; Kerri Bulthius – U.S. 99 Country Radio
country music station, U.S. 99 to promote the drive, which began during the November Military Month. Donation bins were placed in all the participating shops along with a Fisher House Wish List. Cash donations exceeding $2,000 were raised along with 12 bins of food and much
● Julie Maslanka – CARSTAR HY-TECH – Elgin, IL ● Jim and Rob Irmen – CARSTAR Ideal – Arlington Heights, IL ● Stan Craven and Bambi Craven – CARSTAR 38TH STREET – Chicago, IL ● Max and Joanne Schulze – CARSTAR A-Carr’s – Chicago, IL ● Lou and Tony Scola – CARSTAR
Scola’s – Brookfield, IL ● Eric Schmit and staff – CARSTAR Friendly – Roselle, IL ● Teresa Kostick and Staff – CARSTAR All Line – Bolingbrook, IL ● Brian Gore – CARSTAR North Aurora – North Aurora, IL ● Marian Rodriguez – CARSTAR Mundelein – Mundelein, IL ● Adam Espositio, Joe Esposito, Mark Esposito and Staff – CARSTAR West-Hill, Hillside, IL
Hines Fisher House opened its doors on March 1, 2010 and has provided accommodations to over 3,000 guests. A Fisher House is “a home away from home” for family members, caregivers or loved ones of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. It is a temporary residence and is not a treatment facility, hospice or counseling center. By law, there is no charge for any family to stay at a Fisher House operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Schaefer Autobody in MO Donates Vehicles in Support of Local Community
The owners of family-owned and operated Schaefer Autobody Centers officially celebrated the opening of their 10th location on January 14 in Columbia, MO. In conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting
(l to r) Family of Charles Bihomora (including his brothers and parents); Brett Billington, shop manager for Columbia, MO; Charles Bihomora, the recipient of the vehicle; and Steve Schaefer, president and owner
ceremony and open house, Schaefer Autobody donated a vehicle to a local member of the Columbia, MO community. “The selection process began when we reached out to a partner, United Way. United Way introduced us to Love INC, which helped select a well-deserving recipient for the vehicle. Charles Bihomora was one among many wonderful people considered. He
was selected because he is a very driven young man. He is a full-time student who values the importance of family and embraces what it means to help others,” said a spokesperson at Schaefer Autobody. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, the evening was kicked off with the donation of the vehicle to Bihomora. He was surrounded by his family and community members. Schaefer Autobody said they are honored and happy to help their local community members. They also made a second vehicle donation on January 21 to a local marine. The donation took place at their O’Fallon, Illinois shop. “One of the best days of the year for us is when we can honor those who serve our country. We have been given the opportunity to award a US service man or woman a donation vehicle to help make their life better,” said Scott Schaefer, vice president of Schaefer Autobody Centers. Schaefer Autobody Centers worked with Travelers Insurance and the Missouri USO to select the recipient from a number of candidates who had submitted an essay talking about their current needs and how a donation vehicle would help them.
20 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
This year’s recipient was Marine CPL Chester Nash III. He said he was relieved that his wife and baby would have reliable transportation again while he is serving the United States. “I'm still kind of in disbelief about it, it is a
(l to r) Scott Schaefer, VP and owner, with vehicle recipient Chester Nash III
lot to take in. I’m just very very humbled by it,” said Nash. “We review all the essays and select a winner based on the one we feel is most deserving. He had an accident where his car was totaled and unfortunately he was still making payments on that totaled car, without having a vehicle to drive. It was a real honor and privilege for us to be able to award him this vehicle and it just feels great to be able to do something good for those
who serve our country and for everything they do for us,” said Schaefer. The last few years Schaefer Autobody Centers has donated several vehicles, partnering with National Auto Body Council's Recycled Rides program. To learn more, visit https://www .nationalautobodycouncil.org/programs /recycled-rides/ The company was founded in 1985 by Schaefer’s father, President Steve Schaefer. The family-owned collision center started with one location in Webster Groves, MO and has grown to 10 locations in nearly 30 years. The Schaefer family attributes their business growth and longevity to their focus on customer service, good relationships with most major insurance companies, and providing employees with a positive and rewarding work environment. Schaefer Autobody Centers was awarded the Better Business Bureau (BBB) “2010 Torch Award” for exceptional ethical business practices. In addition to complete auto collision repair, services include dent repair, auto glass windshield replacement, auto towing and bumper repair. For informtion, visit www.schaeferautobody.com or contact the main customer sales and service center at 636-305-8288.
Team PRP Announces Addition of Three New Automotive Recyclers to Nationwide Network Team PRP’s nationwide network of automotive recycling professionals announced the addition of Reno’s Auto Parts in Ohio, TLS Auto Recycling in California, and Mullins Auto Parts in Springfield and Mt. Olive, Illinois. “Welcoming these three new exceptional recyclers to our Team PRP organization is a wonderful start to 2016,” noted Mark Gamble, Team PRP’s executive director. “These businesses further strengthen our network of parts trading and logistics, offering even more for our many repair shop
by Kenneth and Tyler Reno, Reno’s is a full-service auto recycling facility carrying all types of new and used auto parts, while specializing in late model foreign and domestic cars, trucks and
SUVs. Approximately 500-600 vehicles are processed annually. Seventeen employees work at the facility that sits on 25 acres.
cling businesses in Northern California, which processes 400-600 vehicles annually. TLS specializes in recycling quality used auto parts for Toyota, Lexus, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Land Rover and Porsche. The company said they are particularly proud to be known for customer service excellence. With two locations in Illinois (Mt. Olive and Springfield), Mullins Auto Parts is a familyowned company headed by Brent Mullins. Originally started as a small recycling business in 1987, Mullins now offers an inventory of recycled
Mullins Auto Parts
Reno’s Auto Parts
TLS Auto Recycling
customers across the country. We are extremely pleased to have these quality-minded businesses join with us.” Reno’s Auto Parts, founded in 1969, is a family-owned, third-generation business in Hillsboro, OH. Owned
TLS Auto Recycling in Rancho Cordova, CA, was established approximately six years ago by George Trunyan, company CEO. This relatively new and advanced facility is one of the largest automotive recy-
parts and processes approximately 650 vehicles each year on their 12-acre property. The business said it takes pride in its continual growth, its wellmaintained and up-to-date facilities, and its emphasis on eco-friendly practices.
3M Calendar Fundraiser Raises $100,000 in January
The Hire Our Heroes Calendar fundraiser, coordinated through 3M Automotive Aftermarket Division (AAD) and the Collision Repair Education Foundation, started off the year on a strong note with over $100,000 raised in January. The Hire Our Heroes program provides scholarships and tool grants to military veterans and their family members who are studying collision repair. Repair facilities that donated $200 to the Foundation’s 3M Hire Our Heroes program received a patriotic calendar that contains offers worth approximately $1,800 in nocost 3M products, as well as a decal to show their support. Donations were accepted through February, with the goal of raising over $250,000 for the 3M Hire Our Heroes fund at the Education Foundation. Since 2013, the Hire Our Heroes program has awarded scholarships and tool grants to over 150 military veterans and their family members who are studying collision repair. To learn more, visit http://3M Collision.com/Hire-Our-Heroes.
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Former Shop Owner in South Dakota Becomes Fire Chief After Business Burns to Ground by Jeremy Waltner, freemansd.com
In the summer and early fall of 1987, Blaine Saarie was a car enthusiast and an entrepreneur, a brand-new business owner in the Freeman community and the man in charge of Saarie Auto Body. What the 23-year-old was not was a firefighter — and certainly no fire chief. In fact, he hadn’t even given joining the force a second thought, let alone a first.
no business trying to extinguish, using a garden hose to try and do the work a full firefighting team wouldn’t be able to do? He knows better now. He knew better then, too, but he couldn’t help himself. Could you? Saarie eventually left the growing inferno. In fact, he’s lucky to have escaped. He said later that, as he was reluctantly coming out of the burning building after hearing the people yelling at him to get out of there, he heard a loud boom. “Something blew,” he told the Courier after the fire. “Probably another gas tank.”
Impact of fire, Part 1 The fire that destroyed Saarie Auto Body in the late-afternoon, early-evening hours of Oct. 20, 1987 was a defining moment for the young FreeBlaine Saarie was 23 years old when his new business man business owner in more burned to the ground. That prompted him to join the fire ways than one. So devastating department, which led to his assignment as fire chief was the loss that it had the starting in 1997. The 19 years that followed were good power to do in Saarie and his ones for Saarie. Credit: freemansd.com business aspirations altogether. That’s hard to believe now, con- All he had ever wanted was to own his sidering what Saarie has done for the own body shop. Freeman Volunteer Fire Department “What I wanted to do all my life is for the better part of the past three burning up,” Saarie said on that unfordecades, acting as the chief in charge gettable fall evening almost 30 years and leading the force through a host of ago, as he grimly watched firefighters changes for the better. On Tuesday try to contain the flames that would ulevening, Jan. 26, Saarie stepped aside timately turn his building into a 100 to allow a younger chief to step in. percent loss. He calls it “passing the hat.” Saarie was underinsured; he had Things were much different back borrowed $26,000 to start the business in 1987. and had insured the building for that very amount — nothing more. “Young and dumb,” he says. The spark Saarie was there when it happened, While insurance did cover the loss front and center at a bad show, when the of the three vehicles inside the shop that fire ignited and quickly spread. His fell victim to the fire, other casualties adrenaline shoved aside any good reasaw no silver lining — not the records son to get out of there. Instead, common and documents that were lost and cersense told him to stay put. Fight the fire tainly not the tools that melted away, however he could. Save his new shop. some of them Saarie had owned since Imagine what the business owner, he was a child. 23 years young at the time, thought Yet Saarie vowed to rebuild, after seeing the spark from the cutting thanks largely to the vast encouragetorch ignite the gasoline tank he and ment he received from the business others were removing from a vehicle community, a kind and supportive inside Saarie Auto Body — just four banker at what was then First National months old — and quickly race across Bank and the generosity of Tote, Inc., the gasoline’s path and into the flam- a trucking company then located on mable walls. Is it any wonder that Juniper Street that offered Saarie the Saarie scrambled to save his business, use of its space as he began putting tostaying inside the burning building gether the pieces of a rebuild. longer than he should have, trying to “The support of Freeman was unextinguish the escalating fire he had believable,” Saarie says today. “That
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is why I rebuilt — because of the support of the community. It certainly wasn’t that I had the money.” Saarie Auto Body reopened in a brand-new building on the same location in 1989 and he began building his business back up — with much success. The auto body shop grew and evolved in the years and decades to come without anything close to the major setback Saarie had faced in 1987. Car sales and car parts were added to the line of services, and then, later, discontinued. Today, Saarie Auto Body remains a vital part of the Freeman business community and a fixture along the North County Road. A framed reprint of the Courier’s coverage of the 1987 fire hangs on the wall of the lobby.
Impact of fire, Part 2 That Saarie rebuilt and refined his business in the years and decades after the fire is a sweet ultimate outcome born from a bad situation. But the fire resulted in a second defining moment for Saarie that ended up being almost as important as his decision to rebuild Saarie Auto Body.
The fire that destroyed his business led to his decision to become a firefighter. “Without a doubt, 100 percent,” Saarie said in an interview with the Courier last week — eight days before he would step down as chief. “Before the fire, I hadn’t even given that a thought.” Saarie remembers telling thenchief Orville Huber that he wanted to join the force because of the efforts he saw from the firefighters that October evening of 1987 — how they left their jobs and their homes, how they used their energy and their equipment to battle a hot fire, how they managed to bring it under control and, ultimately, save a few things from the inferno. Yes, it was a disaster, “but without them, I would have lost more,” Saarie says. Saarie joined the force in 1991, eventually became an assistant chief and took over as the man in charge of the department in 1997. He remembers his very first call as a firefighter — a “horrific accident” that included multiple fatalities. “Without a doubt, that was a test,” See Fire Chief, Page 24
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Continued from Page 22
Fire Chief
Saarie says. “But everything went as well as could be expected. The fire department did a great job. The ambulance crew did a great job, as always. But it was a very hard situation. I remember talking to the people who were on the scene. I felt like I had a purpose.” The instinct to want to do good for people in trying times is a powerful force and something that was quickly embraced by Saarie. “We want to help people—that’s why I stayed on as long as I did,” he says. “I want to help because I got help when I needed it.”
Being a fire chief The ways in which Saarie has made an impact as chief are many. It is impossible to come up with a detailed and comprehensive list. But here are a few. One of the first things Saarie did as chief was introduce pagers. The Orville Huber era was marked by a phone system that alerted first-responders to calls coming in. The home phone home would ring, the siren would sound and the department would head to the fire station, where the location of the fire
would be written on a chalk board, and off they went. In the early 1990s, the pages were a game-changer and dovetailed with the 911 dispatch setup, also relatively new at the time. Each firefighter and EMT would carry one, with information about the fire coming directly to them from dispatch. Saarie remembers the system being costly and some questioning the expense, but he believed the money the department had on hand should be spent for improvements, and the pager system certainly was that. The Saarie era also included the biggest project ever taken on by the local fire department: the push for a new fire hall in the early part of the 2000s and its construction and opening on the north end of Main Street in September of 2003. Saarie talks about it with an equal sense of pride and exasperation. The project was complicated and comprehensive because of all the work that had to be done, from getting the Freeman City Council on board with the project to raising enough funds to make it a go. The new fire and ambulance station replaced the crammed quarters on the south side of City Hall and was built for just over $310,000 — more than half of which was raised by fire-
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fighters and EMTs. That fundraising, coupled with several years-worth of meetings and discussions with city officials, was taxing. “You can imagine how long it took,” Saarie says. “There were many visits to the council as a group to demonstrate our support. They saw how enthusiastic we were. We were out of room. We needed to move on it.” The project saw a huge boost thanks to a $124,000 state grant awarded by Bill Janklow, South Dakota’s governor at the time. Saarie says he wrote a letter to the governor himself — “bad penmanship” and all. And he remembers getting a call from Janklow’s office three months later. “The lady on the other end of the phone said, ‘Governor Janklow wants to talk to you.’ I said, ‘Yes, I’ll hold.’
“It was him, as free-spirited as ever,” Saarie continues. “One of the first things I said was, ‘Could you read it?’” Saarie also remembers the terms of the deal; that Janklow wanted, in exchange for the state grant, a sugarfree peach pie. “I said, ‘For that kind of money, you want two?’ That was a highlight.” There have been others. After so many years, how could there not be? And there is a perspective on what makes a good fire chief. How could there not be after so many calls? And there is a vision for the future. How can there not be with a new chief coming on board? The Courier will cover all of that when this story concludes next week. Autobody News thanks freemansd .com for reprint permission.
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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 25
The Parable of the Crippled Mare: Loss-Of-Use Now Recoverable in Texas Total Loss Auto Cases by Gary Wickert, Attorney-at-Law
Many years ago, a lawyer argued that the long-standing Texas rule prohibiting recovery of damages for loss of use of personal property, unless the property was a total loss or destroyed, was unfair. City of Canadian v. Guthrie, 87 S.W.2d 316 (Tex. Civ. App. 1932). His client’s one-eyed, underfed mare lived a simple life. One night, however, she was caught roaming the city streets in search of food and was placed in the city pound. Her owner failed to pay her board bill. Thus, she was put out of Gary Wickert her misery. As the Court of Appeals then put it, “when Panhandle Pete’s pistol popped, she petered, for which the pound-keeper paid Pete a pair of pesos.” Her owner protested her death and sued for damages, including $350 for the loss of her services in his occupation of hauling. The Court rejected that claim, holding that although “damages occasioned by the loss of the use and hire of an animal are recover-
able where the animal is injured, no such damages are recoverable for the total loss or death of an animal.” Rather, “the measure of damages in the case of a wrongful killing of an animal is its market value, if it has one, and if not, then its actual or intrinsic value, with interest.” That rule, the owner’s attorney argued, made it “cheaper to kill a mare in Texas than to cripple her.” On January 8, 2016, the Texas Supreme Court in J & D Towing, LLC v. American Alternative Insurance Corporation, 2016 WL 91201 (Tex. 2016), changed nearly a century of law and ruled for the first time that the owners of automobiles and other damaged personal property which are a total loss may recover loss-of-use damages. J & D Towing, LLC (J & D) owned only one tow truck, a 2002 Dodge 3500 purchased in April 2011 for $18,500. On December 29, 2011, the tow truck was rendered a total loss as a result of the negligence of the defendant. The defendant’s carrier offered to settle J & D’s property damage claim for $10,299.12 if J & D retained the truck or $16,715.61 if the carrier retained the truck. Believing the truck was worth between $19,
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000 and $20,000 at the time of the accident, J & D refused to accept the settlement offer. On February 29, 2012, the defendant’s liability carrier settled with J & D for $25,000, the policy limits for property damage. Around March 8, 2012, J & D used that money to purchase another truck and resumed its business. J & D then filed an underinsured motorist (UIM) claim with its own carrier, American Alternative Insurance Corporation (AAIC), requesting compensation for the loss-of-use of the truck. It claimed that the funds from the settlement with the defendant were insufficient to compensate for these damages, rendering the defendant an “underinsured” motorist. AAIC denied the claim and cancelled the policy. J & D thereafter sued AAIC to recover “any and all loss-of-use damages to which [it] may be entitled.” J & D presented to a jury various calculations of the loss-of-use damages J & D claimed it incurred between December 29, 2011 and March 8, 2012. Aggregating the totals of those calculations, J & D asked the jury to award loss-of-use damages in the sum of either $27,866.25 or
$29,416.25, with the difference being whether the jury awarded damages for a nine-week period or a ten-week period. AAIC challenged the availability of loss-of-use damages in its motion for summary judgment arguing that the UIM policy only covers damages that J & D is “legally entitled” to recover from the defendant. Because Texas law did not permit recovery of loss-ofuse damages in total-loss cases, and because J & D’s vehicle was a total loss, J & D was not legally entitled to recover loss-of-use damages. The Trial Court denied both motions. At trial, the only question submitted to the jury concerned the proper amount of lossof-use damages. The jury awarded J & D $28,000. After the jury returned its verdict, the Trial Court held a brief hearing to determine the amount of the credit to which AAIC was entitled in light of the settlement with the defendant’s liability carrier. The Court concluded that J & D’s truck was worth $19,500 at the time of the accident and thus AAIC was entitled to a credit of $5,500 – the amount of the settlement that did not cover the value of the truck
but instead partially compensated J & D for its loss-of-use damages. The Trial Court entered judgment for J & D in the amount of $22,500 plus interest and court costs. AAIC appealed with the issue being whether Texas law in total loss cases allowed recovery of loss-of-use damages. AAIC’s position was that Texas law has never allowed recovery of loss-of-use damages in total-loss cases. The Court of Appeals agreed, reversing the decision. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals, holding for the first time, that “the owner of personal property that has been totally destroyed may recover loss-of-use damages in addition to the fair market value of the property immediately before the injury.” Until this decision, a person whose vehicle was totally destroyed could only recover the market value of the lost vehicle, while a person whose vehicle was repaired could also recover the loss-of-use of the vehicle. Hanna v. Lott, 888 S.W.2d 132 (Tex. App. ? Tyler 1994, no writ); Pasadena State Bank v. Isaac, 228 S.W.2d 127 (Tex. 1950); Mondragon v. Austin, 954 S.W.2d 191 (Tex. Civ. App. ? Austin 1997). One argument against
recovering for loss-of-use when the vehicle is a total loss is if the owner rents a vehicle for two weeks before buying a replacement vehicle, the insured is not really out anything that would justify his recovery of the reasonable rental value for the time it took to buy a new vehicle. The insured can buy a car that has two weeks fewer miles on it, and potentially is two weeks newer and would have a higher resale value. Rental prices generally exceed the depreciation value, but once you’ve crossed that line, it blurs a bright line test. A defendant would argue that he would be paying more than actual damages if liable for loss-of-use, because the plaintiff is getting the free use of a vehicle for two weeks. The law didn’t even make an exception when the owner could not secure financing and was therefore unable to replace the property. Hanna v. Lott, supra. The Supreme Court in J & D Towing, LLC noted that a majority of jurisdictions within the United States permit loss-of-use damages in partial-destruction cases, but prohibit them in totalloss cases. However, the Court noted that case law and treatises have shifted away from the distinction, because the
owner of total-loss personal property may suffer loss-of-use damages to the same extent that the owner of repairable personal property, and that the distinction was “illogical.” The Supreme Court didn’t specify whether the change in the law was prospective or retroactive in nature. However, in Texas, the general rule is that you must read an opinion to see whether there is language in it that limits the applicability of the holding to subsequent cases. If you don’t see that sort of limitation, it is generally assumed that the case applies retroactively. For example, in Guillot v. Hix, a case involving when a cause of action for workers’ compensation subrogation accrues argued by Gary L. Wickert, the Supreme Court specifically stated: Our holding today may bar actions which have not been filed in reliance upon the rules established by our prior decisions. We therefore make our holding applicable only to injuries which occur today and hereafter. Injuries which occurred before today remain subject to the rules in Fidelity, Brandon, and Campbell. Guillot v. Hix, 838 S.W.2d 230 (Tex. 1992). The J & D Towing, LLC decision
should apply retroactively to all pending losses or cases, not just prospectively, because this is not a change in prior law as declared by the Texas Supreme Court. Until now, only appellate courts have weighed in. This was the first time the Texas Supreme Court has ruled on the issue. Thank you to the Claims Journal for permission to reprint this article.
Gary Wickert is an insurance trial lawyer and a partner with Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C., and is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on insurance subrogation. He is the author of several subrogation books and legal treatises and is a national and international speaker and lecturer on subrogation and motivational topics. He can be reached at gwickert@mwl-law.com.
Your leading source for MIDWESTERN Collision Repair News! midwestern.autobodynews.com
www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 27
AASP/NJ Releases Seminar Agenda for 39th Annual NORTHEAST™ Trade Show by Chasidy Rae Sisk
March 18-20 at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ, AASP/NJ has released the agenda for the event which includes 18 seminars and demos as well as over 130 exhibitors on the trade show floor. While every year features a variety of informative seminars, this year’s lineup features several industry favorites, including Mike Anderson, Larry Montanez, Tony Nethery and Judy Gatchell. “There isn’t a show that can match the NORTHEAST show this side of the Mississippi,” said AASP/NJ President Jeff McDowell. “NORTHEAST is a show for repairers presented by repairers. The AASP/NJ Board works tirelessly to bring the best speakers and exhibitors to our region every year, and 2016 will surpass everything that has come before. We couldn’t be more excited.” Educational sessions at NORTHEAST 2016 will begin on Friday afternoon March 18 with “Building and Sustaining Standard Operating Procedures for Collision Repair,” presented by Keith Manich of Automotive Training Institute at 1 p.m. and again at 3 p.m. This seminar will demonstrate the importance of keeping staff adequately informed of operational requirements, plus Manich will discuss the steps needed to create a structured production environment. From 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, “AASP/NJ Presents: Advanced Material Repair in 2016 and Beyond,” will be presented by Reliable Automotive Equipment’s Dave Gruskos, Larry Montanez III of P & L Consultants and Doug Richman from Kaiser Aluminum on behalf of the Aluminum Association. In covering everything repairers need to know when repairing advance materials, these three industry experts will discuss the properties of the materials, OEM-approved procedures, safety considerations, processes and equipment needed for these repairs, and more. “Maximize Your Estimates” is a fee-based course that will be taught by John Niechwiadowicz of QLC, Inc. and Jerry McNee of Ultimate Collision Repair on Friday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and again on Saturday at 3:305:30 p.m. In the second annual installment of this NORTHEAST estimating seminar, attendees will continue learning how to write complete and accurate estimates which capture all billable op-
erations reasonably and realistically needed to repair a damaged vehicle. From 5:30-6:30 p.m., “Effective Training for Shops” will be presented by Tony Nethery of BlueCollar Collision Training who will define what type of body shop training is required and which optional training provides the best investment. Nethery will repeat this discussion on Sunday at 1 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., General Motors’ Jim Mickle will discuss three important areas to repairing and replacing structural components on a vehicle in “GM Structural Repair” which will be facilitated by Flemington Car & Truck Country. Mike Anderson of Collision Advice will present “Positioning Yourself in the Collision Repair Industry” from 7:30-9 p.m.; this seminar is sponsored by Axalta Coating Systems. Anderson will offer a unique look at how collision repair facilities can overcome challenges in today’s market by focusing on sales and marketing, production, accounting, finances and human resources. Attendees will learn how to increase sales, how to attract and retain employees, and how to develop and implement a successful apprenticeship and training program. Anderson will also cover which KPIs shops should monitor, and he will discuss the management tools available to collision repair facility owners and managers. The last educational opportunity on Friday will be “Square One Systems,” presented by Sam and Richard Valenzuela of National AutoBody Research (NABR) at 8-9 p.m. with an encore performance on Saturday at 4 p.m. Through their demonstrations of the Variance Rate System (VRS), NABR will teach attendees how the VRS can help them make more informed labor rate decisions, collect on more not-included procedures, and to actively and confidently respond to insurer tactics designed to keep prices low and avoid paying for not-included procedures. On Saturday morning, March 19 at 8:30 a.m., NORTHEAST 2016 offers two fee-based I-CAR training classes: “2015 Ford F-150 Structural Repair Training Course” (FOR06) will be taught by Peter Fryzel, and Mike Bonsanto will present “Vehicle Technology and Trends 2016” (NEW16). Both I-CAR courses will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Secaucus, located across the street from the Meadowlands Expo Center. Saturday morning will also begin
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with Larry Montanez’s “Increase Profits, Lower Cycle Time/Supplements with Triage Estimating” from 8:30-10 a.m. This seminar will be facilitated by Metropolitan Car-o-Liner who will aid Montanez in explaining how triage blueprinting can increase estimate accuracy and lower cycle time. Montanez will also demonstrate proper repair procedures on a 2016 Honda, focusing particularly in Honda metallurgy and MIG brazing. At 10AM-1:30 p.m., Aaron Clark of Assured Performance Network will moderate “Body Shop Certification and You: An OEM Panel Discussion.” During this two-session seminar, OEM representatives will be available to discuss getting started on an OEM certification program and what to do after being certified. Additional topics include equipment investments, training requirements, difference in aluminum and steel certifications, determining the right OEM program for your shop, and post-certification marketing. On the trade show floor, Collision Hub’s Kristen Felder will moderate “Photo Estimating Comes to the Northeast” to explore the consequences of
photo-only damage appraisals and how the insurance and collision repair industries feel about it. Also beginning at 10:30 a.m., “Competing with the Talking Car - Virtual Steering” will be presented by Steve Feltovich, manager of Business Consulting Services for Sherwin-Williams. Feltovich will explain the various emerging technologies and vehicle changes that will directly impact repairers and consumers, plus he will offer suggestions for using these technologies to maintain competitiveness within the collision repair industry. Gerry Bonanni of Ford Motor Company will present examples of the new 2015 F-150’s improved repair elements in “2015 Ford F-150 Aluminum Repair Information” at 11:45 a.m. with a repeat presentation at 10 a.m. on Sunday. In “OEM Collision Repair Procedures v. Industry Standards: A 2016 Update” at 1 p.m., Larry Montanez will lead a discussion on what has and hasn’t changed in OEM repair standards and procedures since he last discussed this topic at NORTHEAST 2012. From 2-3:30 p.m., Axalta Coating Systems will sponsor Mike Anderson’s See AASP/NJ Seminar Agenda, Page 52
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Kent Love Chosen to Lead Lakeview, MI, Ford’s New Auto Body Shop by Dillon Davis, Battle Creek Enquirer
Kent Love sits in a temporary office adjacent to the sales floor at Battle Creek’s Lakeview Ford Lincoln dealership on West Dickman Road. The Charlotte native doesn’t want to sell you a car though, and he’s certainly not interested in selling you the one you already have. “When you walk out, I don’t want to have to say a word,” he said. “I don’t want to have to talk you into taking your car. I want to hand you the keys and hopefully you’re gonna say, ‘Wow, I can’t believe how good it looks.’ I’ve had that in the past and it’s a great feeling.” An insurance claims adjuster turned body shop administrator, Love was hired in November to manage the dealership’s new auto body and paint operation. Love, 53, was chosen by the Lakeview Ford dealership’s owner, Lincoln owner Vince Pavone, to Vince Pavone recently participated oversee the conin a four-day struction and renoseminar designed vation of the space to help dealers formerly leased by meet or exceed Skokie, IL-based their vehicle customers’ Gerber Collision & expectations. Credit: Glass. Battle Creek Enquirer Gerber vacated the space earlier this year. Rather than lose the body shop arm of the business, Pavone doubled down with an investment of about $250,000 to build a
Ford-certified body shop at the dealership. That includes a paint booth and vehicle hoist, welding and aluminum equipment, new lighting and an epoxy floor finish. That expenditure, however, does not include an additional sixfigure price tag for the installation of an additional paint booth, to be installed by the end of the year. The operation opens Monday with construction slated for completion sometime in February. Pavone said the decision to build a new collision center was a difficult one, given the size of the investment and the additional requirements to make it a reality. The most challenging part, he said, was finding a manager to fall in line with the dealership’s culture—that is, until he inter-viewed Love. “What we saw in Kent is a committed collision center person who had tremendous expertise,” Pavone said. “We saw a person who’s a leader in Charlotte and Lansing in terms of what he’s able to do in the body shop business in advancing different goals. “We also saw somebody who’s community-minded in making investments on his own in Charlotte and Lansing.” Love already has hired one body man and one painter and plans to bring on several others in the not-too-distant future. He said there already are a number of body shops—both good and bad—in the Battle Creek area, but he said there’s enough business to go around, especially if jobs are done well.
WI Man Charged in 2014 Auto Body Shop Burglary by Patrick Leary, TheJournalTimes.com
A man with a history of burglary convictions has been linked to a 2014 break-in at a local auto body shop through a DNA sample, court records indicate. Angel Luis Cruz, 35, of the 2000 block of Gillen Street in Racine, WI, has been charged with attempted burglary in connection to an October 2014 break-in at A-1 Auto Body, 2040 Memorial Drive. Cruz is incarcerated at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution because of a probation violation, according to Department of Corrections records. Cruz missed his initial appearance in Racine County Circuit Court, which was scheduled for January 27, according to court records. Court records also show that A-1 requested a restitution of $677.05 on Jan. 12. According to a criminal complaint, police responded to a burglary alarm at the
body shop on the night of Oct. 19, 2014. A window on the north side of the building had been broken and it led into an office, police said. However, police said they did not believe the window was the method of entry for the intruder. There appeared to be blood on the interior of the window’s blinds, and an officer took a sample of the substance using a swab kit, according to the criminal complaint. Police said they sent the sample to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab for analysis, and it returned a DNA match for Cruz. According to the criminal complaint, Cruz had been a customer of the body shop three days before the break-in. He faces one felony charge of attempted burglary, which could carry a maximum of 7½ years in prison, five years of extended supervision and fines up to $25,000. Thank you to TheJournalTimes.com for reprint permission.
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In a business with its share of frustrated customers, many coming on the heels of a vehicle crash, Love said he expects perfection from his technicians, and he’s already offered it as a challenge to interviewees.
Kent Love, new bodyshop manager at Lakeview Ford shows where some of the new equipment will go. Credit: Al Lassen/For the Enquirer
“I’m finicky when it comes to my technicians – I want perfection,” he said. “I understand they’re not perfect and I am far from perfect, but that’s what I want on the bottom line. If you’re my customer, you come in and you’ve paid a lot of money for that vehicle and you want it back to the pre-existed condition. “I hear ‘It will never be right’ a lot. I’m just thinking, ‘Well, it’s probably going to be better.’ “ It’s a crowded market with options
spanning dealerships and individual shops in Battle Creek, Marshall and Kalamazoo. That competition will especially be the case for Pavone’s new body shop, tucked in among multiple other options on Battle Creek’s Motor Mile. There’s also no shortage of work in the auto body industry. The state reported 4,688 vehicle crashes in Calhoun County in 2014, more than 80 percent of which caused property damage to the vehicle. That figure does not include bumps and bruises—largely cosmetic issues—incurred in day-to-day travel. Love said he embraces the challenge. He said he’s given this new venture a great deal of thought, often bringing aspects of his job home with him—mainly, he said, because he enjoys the work. “I love satisfaction and I love a challenge and that’s the main reason I took this job,” he said. “Just what I felt from Vince explaining what he was looking for excited me. Yeah, we all get in a rut in our jobs, but I love a challenge. This is definitely going to be a challenge for a couple of years at least.” Autobody News thanks Battle Creek Enquirer for reprint permission.
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Social Media for Shops
Best Marketing Techniques to Recruit Top Employees with Ed Attanasio
It’s safe to say that every shop owner in the country is well aware of the enormous need for qualified collision repair professionals—from body technicians, painting technicians, estimators and even front office personnel. With fewer technical school programs in our high schools and colleges and a lack of alternative training programs, we’re not currently creating enough new employees to accommodate the need. With the continual efforts to shake the old “grease monkey” stereotype, and with more young people gravitating toward attending four-year colleges as opposed to technical or vocational schools, the collision repair industry is scrambling to find and retain good people. This shortage of qualified technicians, for example, has led lead to higher wages, benefits and signing bonuses. As a result, the market for good employees is turning ugly. Body shops are either stealing techs from each other or bringing in green people and trying to train them from the ground up. Some
MSOs and mini-chains are trying to do something about it now, and most consumers aren’t aware of this dilemma yet. But, when they have to wait weeks for repairs and prices go up because there’s not enough people out there to fix cars, customers will suddenly be just as concerned as the body shop owners about the lack of good talent. So, here are some suggestions outlining marketing techniques you might want to consider as you pursue top employees for your shop (or shops):
Connect to Your Local Schools For the larger MSOs that constantly need new people to fill their pipeline, working with local high schools, trade organizations and trade technical schools is almost essential. Concentrate on the schools in your backyard and also pinpoint several outside of your immediate area. Certain states are creating more collision professionals, such as Texas, Florida and California, where there are more technical schools
32 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.
and more automotive repair students who will soon be pursuing employment. Participate in mentoring programs, career fairs and other activities and programs that schools offer.
Setup an Employee Referral Program Human Resources departments at large corporations have extensive employee referral systems in place that are their bread and butter when it comes to finding and hiring top people. They offer generous bonuses, including all-expense paid vacations, tickets to concerts and sporting events, etc. for employees who refer their friends and associates. Instead of conducting “cattle calls” and interviewing hundreds of semi-qualified people, why not find top candidates through the connections your existing employees already have? You will quickly find out that good body techs hang out with other good body techs, and it’s the same with painters, estimators, etc.
Train New Employees Yourself If you want to do it right, why not control the process, including the training? Big MSOs like Service King now have a fully compensated 52-week training course developed to prepare incoming technicians for careers at Service King. As part of this program, technicians receive daily on-the-job oversight and training, use a detailed curriculum and progress through a series of competency assessments and succession benchmarks. Technicians are consistently awarded throughout the program and tutored by an assigned apprentice supervisor, to make certain that they’re ready for work when the training is complete. The theory is that if you train them your way, they will stay and be long-term happy employees.
Use Your Philanthropy and Community Service as a Recruiting Tool Shops involved in charity work don’t do it with the idea of landing top employees, but if they can leverage these
efforts, why not? Top people will appreciate a business that helps others, and in many cases, it can lead to eventual employment. Everyone wants to have a purpose and make a decent living, but many people also respect a company that helps its community and does more than just fixing cars.
Use Social Media In this age of online social and professional networking, there is a very good chance that you and your employees are already connected to a wide range of potential candidates. Tap into this potential audience on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter to get the word out. By using as many online tools as you possibly can, you’ll be finding better job candidates at zero cost.
Make the Application Process Easy Some shops use software linked to their web sites, so that candidates can easily fill out online applications or submit resumes fast and drama-free while others use different sites to achieve the same results. If you can make the application and vetting process simple, logically more will apply. Top sites for recruiting and submitting applications and re-
wannabes. It will save you time and money in the long run.
sumes include Simply Hired, Glassdoor and ZipRecruiter.
Respect Every Job Candidate Never disregard an unqualified job candidate, because you never know when that person may reach the point of employment, based on schooling, training or accumulated experience. You also don’t know who this individual might know, so always treat job applicants with respect and leave them feeling good about themselves.
Always Be Recruiting (ABR) Many shops fill a specific need and then put the recruiting efforts on the back burner, but that is a mistake for many reasons. Recruiting is ongoing and never slows down or stops. Just because you’re properly staffed today, what happens when another shop lures away a couple of your top techs? That’s why you have to be recruiting all the time, especially if you have more than one location.
Do an Annual Hiring Open House Some ingenious marketing types at body shops have combined their customer appreciation event with an employment open house, thereby killing two birds with one stone. That way, it’s more affordable for you, and people can use the opportunity to submit resumes, meet with your managers, and even do an impromptu interview.
Devise a Specific Message People don’t like ambiguity, especially when their livelihoods are involved. Applicants want the facts, not some fancy phrases like “We’re on the Cutting Edge” or “Ride Our Wave.” They want to know what the job’s requirements are, 6.41 the training required, the hours, the benefits and the pay. Remember that the inventory of good, qualified people out there is limited, so make sure your message is clear, complete and specific about what you’re looking for. So, devise a message that will attract top people while gaiting unqualified
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AASP-MN Benefit
Wednesday, January 13th 1st Place – LaMettry’s Collision Team #1, Richfield; Runner-Up – Wenzel Auto Electric, Mankato “Members use this event as an opportunity for team-building, and at the same time raise money for a very worthy cause,” said Judell Anderson, AASP-MN Executive Director. “Everybody had a blast!” In addition to the 22 race teams, the event was sponsored by: Autoshop Solutions; Axalta Coating Systems; Kukui Corporation; P.P.G. Automotive Refinish; Peter’s Body Shop; St. Paul Automotive. The Automotive Education Fund was established in 2002 to provide financial resources to support automotive students, enhance automotive programs and raise awareness of career opportunities in the automotive service industry. Since inception, nearly $176,000 has been distributed to students enrolled in automotive programs through the Association’s scholarship program and Skills USA participation.
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Media and Publicity for Shops
Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.
Say Hello to Our Little Friend—El Niño! Strongest One Yet Expected this Year with Ed Attanasio
There are a handful of businesses out there that praise bad weather and celebrate when the big one hits, while most of us cower in fear and prefer staying home. Meteorologists, roofers, storm window companies, and, of course, body shops benefit when storms hit any part of the country. In the East there’s the snow; in the Midwest tornadoes and hail; and in the West there is El Niño—a predictable weather phenomenon that comes around every 10–15 years, affecting weather patterns across the globe. It’s best known in the west because it’s driven by varying water temperatures in in the Pacific. “El Niño” got its name in the 1800s from Peruvian fishermen, who noticed a mysterious warm current that would appear around Christmas. They called it the “little boy” or “Christ child,” but people in the collision industry call it “Our cash cow,” “El Dinero,” or “Overtime.” The strongest El Niño yet is expected to drench the southern half of United States this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). The meteorological phenomenon will undoubtedly bring benefits for some industries, and setbacks for others. The big question is—how will it affect the collision industry and if so, to what degree? The last truly massive El Niño appeared in 1997–98 and was a major boom for body shops throughout the world. However it caused an estimated $35 billion in destruction and 23,000 deaths around the world. David Mello, the owner of Anderson Behel in Santa Clara, CA has a love/ hate relationship with bad weather. “Well, aside from the obvious glee that must be withheld for the sake of political correctness, El Niño is the best thing to happen to the collision repair industry,” Mello said. “There is nothing like unrelenting rainfall to bring our driving errors to the forefront! Limited visibility, fogged up windows, slippery roads and debris in the road all add up to increased accidents and texting while driving always helps, too!” Mello appreciates the added work that El Niño brings, but also realizes
that he will have to adapt to get it done, which isn’t always easy. “My thoughts are that with the onset of El Niño, customers will have to wait longer for repairs until shops can work them in, as we do not have the ability to increase capacity on such short notice. Ramping up staff takes time, and with nearly full employment for collision technicians, shops can’t absorb much of the increase in volume. At our shop, I don’t know how we will keep up with the anticipated demand, because adding a second shift is almost out of the question. In the old days, we could gear up for bad weather, but now it just means more cars in the queue. We can work some overtime, but in the end it’s just more work that we need to get done. But, work is work and this is what we do, so come on, El Niño, we’ll figure it out!” Sal Pannazzo is a veteran of the industry and has managed shops throughout southern California for more than two decades. He experienced the 1998 El Niño firsthand and saw the huge amount of work that resulted. But, things were a little different back then. “In the ‘90s, we could benefit more from bad weather and it wouldn’t impact our production like it does today, because the focus on performance and customer satisfaction wasn’t as crucial back then,” Pannazzo explained. “Now, with the insurance companies that are concentrating so much more on things like cycle times and which parts to use, things like El Niño are a little more difficult to accommodate.” The old days of cramming as many cars as you could into the shop and pushing them out are long gone, according to Pannazzo. “Today’s customers are more educated about our industry and that’s a big part of it. It’s actually made the industry better overall, because now we have both the insurance companies and the customers watching us, grading us and gauging our performance on every repair,” he added. Staffing can also lead to other issues during a weather event such as El Niño, or even the occasional earthquake that hits southern California, Pannazzo said.
34 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
“Good people are harder and harder to find today, so adding staff for El Niño for example, isn’t easy. When you step up your production to meet the need, you have to have the right people in place, or that can make it even tougher to fix the added vehicles,” he added. Pannazzo has developed some strategies to be ready when the weather changes for the worse. “We have had some success doing pre-orders,” he explained. “We assess the damage, write the estimate and order the parts upfront. That way, when they bring the car in for the repair, it doesn’t take as long. We tell some customers that because of the weather, it may take a few more days for their car to be completed and almost everyone is fine with it, because we inform them in advance.” Although El Niño can be challenging, Pannazzo also knows that it can bring added revenue to any shop if
it can handle the deluge of cars. “The types of damage we get from El Niño make for great repairs,” he said. “They normally involve hoods, roofs and trunks and come in at around $2,000 each, so if you can handle the volume, El Niño can end up being a good thing.” Joe Currin is the owner of Dings & Dents in Campbell, CA. He has been performing Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) and minor other types of repairs for car dealerships and body shops for 25 years. In 1998, Currin had so much work from El Niño that it kept him busy for literally six months, he said. “There was no much activity overall during that last El Niño that it was crazy and I did not get much sleep for quite awhile,” Currin said. “Falling tree branches that cause little fender benders and smaller dents are ideal for us obviously. My wife laughs at me when I cheer about the rain, because when I see it, it represents money for me and my business.”
www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 35
36 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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Media and Publicity for Shops Marketing Dinosaurs That Should Be Extinct in 2016 with Ed Attanasio
In all industries there are sworn-by marketing practices that will eventually become archaic due to emerging technologies and other factors. Like anything else, times change and things that were working 10-15 years ago are no longer the best path to take. If you’re still driving a VW Thing, using VHS tapes and have a flip phone, you’re probably lost when it comes to the latest trends. Chances are, you’re also still doing direct mail and advertising in the Yellow Pages. If so, this column is a marketing wakeup call. Here are some marketing techniques that should be retired, right alongside the sea monkeys and liquid paper:
emails getting a 0.12% response rate. But, now the numbers have changed dramatically, and in 2015 direct mail is pulling in 3.7% response rate and many experts claim that email marketing
costs $11 per new client.
The Yellow Pages: In 2013, I wrote a column declaring what everyone already knew—the Yellow Pages were dead or at least dying. But yesterday I looked at our YP directory here in San Francisco and there were more than 300 body shops still advertising there. I called one shop owner from the directory and he told me he’s spending roughly $1,800 annually to run a small display ad in the book, but he isn’t sure if it works. He keeps doing it, because he sees his competitors in there year after year. So here’s the 411-if you’re still buying ads or listings in any type of phone directory, you might as well go back to fixing cars
T C N I T X E
Direct Mail: Looks at the numbers. In 2012, the Direct Marketing Association reported that an average response rate for direct mail was 4.4% with
is coming in at around 4–5%. For lead generation, direct mail costs the sender roughly $19 per every customer acquired if using direct mail, but with email marketing, it
Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based in San Francisco, California. He can be reached at era39@aol.com.
with an old, rusted frame machine and revert back to using repair manuals again. Take that money and put it into things like email marketing, online ads, social media and new content for your web site or blog.
Phone Work: Shops work hard to keep their customers in the loop and connected during the repair process. That’s a great thing and an integral part to any customer service model, but you don’t need to do it all via voice calls anymore. The Millennials are much more comfortable communicating by texting or emailing, because they’re more efficient and save time. Experts say that if you want to build relationships with your customers live in their world and emulate their habits. Stats show that young people aren’t exactly psyched about the old personal phone call and if you have a teenager you’d probably agree. Some post-40 types may still desire a
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voice call now and again, however so find out what they prefer and use that technique.
Spam: Spam filters are more sophisticated than ever and must be changing all the time to adapt to the tsunami of spam that grows at an incredible rate. But no matter how good spam filters get, some will invariably leak through. The problem is that even shops that properly tag their emails still could be inappropriately tagged as spam and discarded. In fact, your reader may never even know that the message was attempted at all, which is even more concerning. So, learn the ins and outs of how to avoid looking like spam. Here are some quick tips: Make sure the message in your subject line isn’t silly or ambiguous. Mailing to large batches of people at once will increase the odds of being tagged as spam, so break them up. Use a company-issued email address. Sending from a free email account like yahoo.com or gmail will increase the odds of getting tagged, so use a service like Constant Content or Mail Chimp. Avoid large images, intricate graphics and html code in your email and maybe most importantly
spell check everything carefully before you send out anything, because when filters see bad spelling they figure it’s spam.
Keyword-Heavy Content: Writing online content for web sites and blogs that is stuffed with keywords in lieu of worthy and useful information will fail. Five years ago, writers had to adhere to rules like use the company name three times in the opening paragraph, to the point where it became ludicrous and much of the content ended up being illegible. Search engines today will sniff out your keyword-heavy content without hesitation and ignore you. It used to be all about backlinks, but now it’s more about providing top quality content that your readers will be interested in.
Fake Testimonials/Ads: In the old days, you could misdirect a consumer with a bogus offer in order to direct them to your page, but that will not work anymore. Most people (even many seniors) have become online experts, so they can smell that it’s a rat before they move their mouse. In the same vein, fake (or hyped) customer
testimonials are easy to see through and that’s why companies such as Yelp and Angie’s List are losing viewership and users. Customer reviews are still important, but now you need to monitor them a little more carefully, because an obvious fake testimonial can negatively impact your shop. By getting these marketing monkeys off your back, you should be able to invest more money in social media—the hottest form of marketing you’ll find in 2016. If you’re still not onboard with it, just take a look at the numbers. Around the world, there are now more than 2 billion active social media users (growing at a steady pace of 25 percent a year). This means more people now regularly use social media than the entire populations of the United States and China, combined, based on data provided by LinkedIn. So, for those of you who still use a dial phone or root for the Montreal Expos, maybe the time is right to update your life and marketing techniques this year, because “...once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.” –Stewart Brand.
AudaExplore and ABRA Extend Strategic Relationship
AudaExplore announced Feb. 2 it signed an agreement to extend its strategic relationship with ABRA Auto Body & Glass. Since 2010, ABRA has integrated AudaExplore’s Estimating, Central Review, and Consolidator Dispatch services into their operations. The company said it has experienced increased efficiency, decreased cycle times, and an overall improvement in customer satisfaction. The latest renewal comes more than a year before the current agreement’s expiration. “Repairing vehicles correctly and on-time is central to our mission of providing superior service to each of our clients,” said Ed Litman, ABRA’s vice president of procurement. “Securing our relationship with AudaExplore insures that our repair centers will have access to state-of-the-art technology that supports that mission.” Gordon Henderson, vice president of Collision Repair Solutions, AudaExplore, said, “By providing a system that’s highly accurate and connected, we can greatly reduce waste in claims processing activities and help increase overall profitability for customers like ABRA.”
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Shop Strategies with Stacey Phillips - ASSISTANT EDITOR
General Manager of Jost Garage in New Jersey Says Running a Successful Shop Requires Staying Up With Latest in Training & Technology Autobody News talked to Barry Jost, Sr., general manager of Jost Garage in New Jersey, about the fourth-generation family business. Established
by Wesley Jost, Sr. in 1923, Jost Garage started as a Studebaker dealership in Long Island, New York. After several moves, the Jost family settled in Wall Township. Wesley Sr. and his sons, Wesley Jr. and Robert Jost Sr., constructed a new garage. Robert Sr. and his four sons, Bob, Billy, Barry and Bryan, have dedicated themselves to running the body shop and providing excellent service to customers. Now, the fourth-generation Barry Jr. is involved in the business as well.
advancements and driver assistance ad- vances. Metallurgy is a recent phenomenon in auto body repair. We now deal with all of the different strength steels, and of course aluminum. The last few years are all about lean processes, cycle times, parts correctness and complete disassembly. These are some of the new buzz words we hear today.
Can you tell us about Q: new technology that you have incorporated in your
shop and the benefit of staying up-to-date about new advancements in the industry?
A:
We have always done wheel alignments in-house with our Hunter alignment machine. We have four Chief E-Z Liner frame machines, two resistance welders by Pro-Spot as well as three down-draft spray booths. Our latest addition has been the Matrix Wand. It’s a 3D measuring tool that was the bell of the ball at the SEMA show in Las Vegas this past year.
As a fourth-generation busiWhat are the benefits of using Q: ness, can you share some of the Q: the Matrix Wand in your shop? changes you have seen in the industry It provides us an accurate analyover the years? A: sis of any damage, either uniDirect repair relationships are body or full frame. It will also pinpoint A: one of the first changes I re- any suspension damage or engine cramember when I graduated college in dle movement. It’s the most innovative
the late 1980s. Jost Garage has a large DRP conglomerate. It’s about 50 percent of our business. Technology has come a long way as well with all of the Supplemental Restraint (SRS) systems, electronic
product we have seen in quite some time. You can now show proof of any type of structural damage to your insurance partners as well as speed up the tech in repairing a vehicle back to crash worthiness!
The Equipment and Tool Institute Redesigns Website
The Equipment and Tool Institute announced the launch of its updated website www.etools.org. The completely redesigned website provides members with easy access to essential information, ETI event details, ETI Member search, key documents and presentations, an industry events calendar, job postings, and important industry information. Founded in 1947, the Equipment
and Tool Institute is a trade association of automotive tool and equipment manufacturers and technical information providers. For details about ETI, contact Jessie Korosec, marketing and events manager, Equipment and Tool Institute, 37899 12 Mile Rd, Suite 220, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48331. Phone: 248656-5085; e-mail: jessiek@etools.org.
40 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
How do you stay current with We use recycled anti-freeze and Q: A: training and how does it help recycle all of our fluids. We are with cycle time in your shop? 100 percent waterborne in our refinish
A:
department and are very proud of that. We exceed the industry average in recycled parts usage. We also recycle all metals and cardboard, plus we are 90 percent paperless in our office!
Our current partnership with Sherwin-Williams and the professional staff, such as Steve Feltovich, have really helped us stay up-to-speed in this industry, which constantly evolves. We have attended multiple classes and seminars on all of the hot topics. We are engaged in a 20 Group with Sherwin-Williams as well. We also stay active with I-CAR training for our own information as well as to stay in check with our insurance partners’ requirements. We have a state-of-theart mechanical facility that employees multiple ASE-certified techs.
Are there other changes you Q: have noticed in the industry? CARFAX is changing the way A: repairs are being viewed. I’ve noticed that people are more concerned about the repair process since CARFAX has been put in place.
Barry Jost can be reached at (732) 681-0115. If you know of a shop that would like to share its “Shop Strategies,” contact Stacey Phillips at sphillips@ autobodynews.com.
What are some of the ecoQ: friendly initiatives you have incorporated at Jost Garage?
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should know; he recalls the days of the beginning of SCRS in Kansas City. He would drive to KC, stay at Bill Wicklund’s home, and work with John Lofsions Saturday morning gave options tus (SCRS Executive Director), Lirel for attendees: I-CAR New 16, taught Holt, Bill Wicklund, Mel Hunke, Bob by Scott Schuerman of State Farm Jones, Bill Eveland and others: the men Insurance; Collision Diagnostic Serv- who developed the training and associaices, Jake Rodenroth, presented the tion culture the industry follows today. new As Tech 2 scan tool; and Tom After these successful morning McGee, Spanesi-America’s reported sessions, attendees migrated to the Midwest Auto Body Trade Show flagship event, “There Is No Free Lunch.” ICRA President Dick Merron gave an association update recognizing the board of directors for their tireless efforts of putting together the Midwest Auto Body Trade Show. ICRA lobbyist, Scott Weiser, updated the group regarding current Iowa legislation affecting Custom bike builder Steve Bruggenwirth judged the Midthe collision repair industry. west Auto Body Trade Show Community College Refinish Weiser’s guidance at the State Competition Capital in Des Moines, has led Industry Trends, ‘What The Collision the Iowa Collision Repair Association Industry Needs To Know Today.” to success and recognition. Brent Walker attended Collision This year, Weiser invited State Diagnostic Services and Industry Trends, Representative, Assistant Majority “This training was exceptional; it is a gift Leader Zach Nunn, to speak to the to those of us in the rural areas.” Walker assembly. Nunn represents the district Continued from Cover
Midwest Trade Show
U.K. Insurers Examining Autonomous-Car Policies
The U.K.’s biggest auto insurers are mulling turning their industry upside down by shifting liability for accidents from drivers to automakers as a result of the arrival of driverless cars, according to reports by Wardsauto.com. Automated Driving Insurer Group, including 11 U.K. insurers and led by the Association of British Insurers and Thatcham Research, the insurance industry’s research arm, has formed a group to consider issues relating to automated driving, particularly concerning insurance and liability. Other issues include how to cope with vehicles at different levels of automation; how data from individual vehicles will be recorded and used to improve safety and clarify liability; whether changes to existing roadtraffic laws are needed; and what those changes might be. ABI says with 94% of road accidents caused by human error, the development of increasingly automated vehicles has huge implications for road safety. ABI Director of General Insurance Policy James Dalton says the presence of driverless cars on U.K. roads would be life-changing in many ways, and one of the business sectors likely to be most affected is insurance. “Contrary to what some people might expect, insurers are not standing in the way of this development but actively looking to support progress and innovation,” Dalton said in a
statement. “The developments we’ve seen towards increasingly autonomous vehicles are already reaping rewards—with autonomous emergency braking reducing collisions and injuries and helping to bring down insurance premiums.” Dalton said truly driverless cars have the potential to dramatically reduce deaths and injuries on the roads. “The role of motor insurance in such a future will be very different to what it is today, but insurance will be part of the picture,” he says. Thatcham Research CEO Peter Shaw says safety is paramount for both drivers and insurers. “Working with car manufacturers and insurers, we’ll be researching and testing systems, to provide insight and evaluation of the potential risks and benefits at each step of the way towards a world where cars can drive themselves,” Shaw said in a statement. Reports indicate driverless cars are expected to dramatically reduce accidents, cutting insurance premiums up to 80% in 25 years’ time. Insurers could also find themselves dealing with vehicle manufacturers, rather than drivers, as responsibility for accidents moves to those who have designed driverless-car technology, forcing them to re-evaluate their business models. The U.K. government says it will amend traffic laws by 2018 to account for the rise of driverless or semiautonomous cars.
42 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
where the event was held and it was his first introduction to the collision
Altoona Auto Body, a member of the Iowa association. After Iowa business, Anderson delivered a keynote address, ‘Face Your Future’ and received a standing ovation from this record-breaking crowd. Anderson hit the mark with all in the room. He spoke to the souls and hearts of everyone in the room with encouragement and strength, some ‘tough love’ and lots of Community College Hood Refinish Competition. (l to r) kindness. Iowa Central Community College, Scott County Community Over 70 vendors populated College, DMACC and Indian Hills Community College the trade show floor, offering industry. He is a new face to the Iowa door prizes, product demonstrations political arena coming from a military and new information. The floor was background and currently a college buzzing and the booths were full of professor at Drake University. activity. Merron took the roving miRepresentative Nunn was pleased crophone to each booth and announced to meet with this industry, “When I door prizes. Chad Holamar, owner of started my campaign the very first Dent Smart, announced a $500 donacheck I received was from an auto body tion to the Iowa Collision Repair Asshop-the very first!” he said. That was sociation to fund a student scholarship.
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Hey Toby! Kool Tools from SEMA 2015 with Toby Chess
Three years ago, Kye Yeung and I walked the floors of the 2012 SEMA show looking for new products that most of us never get a chance to see. When we made a presentation at the Collision Industry Conference, the presentation became an instant hit among the audience. So, for the third year in a row, we walked the floor at SEMA 2015 looking for things that were unique and would make life in the body shop a little easier. The products we chose to test were made by Dent Fix, GL Enterprises, and Spray Max, Infratech, WRD Glass Tools, Steck, Reliable Automotive Engineering, Collision Edge, Whistler, Time Shaver Tools and Kent Automotive. It should be noted that we are not endorsing these products and there other manufactures that make similar items and you should take some time to search them out. We purchased all but two of the items and we checked them out before we presented at the
Toby Chess is an I-CAR program instructor, Training specialist, and former salvage yard operator. Toby is universally known in the collision industry for his work with first responders and advocacy for body shops and consumers. He can be reached at tcspeedster@gmail.com
SCRS open board meeting and the Collision Industry Conference this January. There is also a video presentation which can be accessed at SCRS.com. Let’s look at our first item—Shunt Pliers from Dent Fix. See Fig 1.
freely through the copper/aluminum electrodes. When two or more pieces of steel are placed in the path of the electrons, the path is interrupted, resistance and pressure builds up and are released in the form of heat—a spot weld is formed. See Fig 2.
does not allow the electrons to pass through the metal. So, to create an electrical path, we use shunt pliers for the first weld. In the past, we used locking pliers to create the path but locking pliers were not designed to carry the current (amperage) that is being used today and it is possible to blow the pliers apart. I know this because it happened to both me and March Taylor. The shunt pliers have a large copper base and huge wire to handle the amps. The pliers allow the path of electricity and once the path is established, resistance forms at the
Fig 1
Over the years I have been looking for a set of shunt pliers, but these are the first ones that I found that I wanted to purchase. These pliers are a must for the weld-bonding process on today’s vehicles. During the spot welding process, the electrons flow
Fig 2
The problem occurs when a barrier is placed between the pieces of metal such as E-coat or adhesive that
Fig 3
Th The Carcoon A W Features: tttur The T Th he C Carcoon Ca C arcoon America arco Amer Am A America eriiica ca Workstation W Workstation orkk ork ksttati kst ati tiion io i nF Fe F ea e eat atures: a tu es: tures: es
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44 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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electrodes and produces a weld. When the second weld is performed the path travels through the first weld and resistance forms at the electrodes and the weld is created. See Fig 3.
be punched out. The smaller size allows for greater access in tight spaces.
8mm x 20mm Slot
Fig 4
Moving on to the next item, a finger sander from Dent Fix. Dent Fix has this small and easy to use finger sander. See Fig 4. This compact sander is ideal for removing squeeze type resistance spot welds and removing the heads of rivets, in order that they may Fig 5
Fig 6
8 mm Plug Hole
Fig 5. With MIG weld brazing, you need surface area and this punch creates an 8mm by 20mm slot. See Fig 6. Another tool from Dent Fix is a LED work light. Fig 6a.
Fig 7
Fig 6a
Another tool is a slot punch from Dent Fix for MIG weld brazing. See
Fig 8
It has a magnet on the bottom, it is rechargeable, it has variable intensity and the most amazing thing is its brightness. See it in action on the SCRS web site. The last item from Dent Fix is a safety product. Question— How many of your
techs use two air fitting for a blower? See Fig 7. This is a huge OSHA violation. Dent Fix has an OSHA compliant blower that will fit into a pocket and it works extremely well. See Fig 8.
Fig 9
The next item is from GL Enterprises and it is called the GOOP Scoop. See Fig 9.
Fig 10
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They come in two sizes and allow the tech and painter to get all of that expensive material out of the bottom of the container, reducing waste. See Fig 10. They can also be used to mix the plastic filler. Another item from GL Enterprises is the Shinners. See Fig 11.
a pot life about 12 hours. We found an epoxy primer in a spray can. It is made by Spray Max and it is extremely easy to use. See Fig 13. It is a 2K system, in other words the spray can has the hardener in the bottom and through an internal mechanical device the hardener is mixed into the primer when sprayed. When the can is shaken up it is ready to spray. It has a shelf life of 4 to 6 days depending on the weather. See Fig 14.
Fig 11
The kit comes with 50 pieces of plastic and there are two holes in the plastic that line up with pegs on the paddle. You apply the paint to the plastic and when the holes and black are covered, you take the sheet off the paddle and turn it over and now you have a clear coat/base coat panel that can be used to check for the correct color. Now you don’t need to add clear or wetting agent to the panel. One step instead of two.
from the bottom to the top. Short wave can heat so quickly that it’s possible cure primer in 15 minutes. This unit is portable and the heating unit is 18 inches long. It’s priced at less than $300. The head can be moved up or down and rotated 360 degrees. It also has a timer. The next product that can be used in conjuncFig 16 tion with the heat lamp is a high-build primer in a spray can from Kent Automotive. See Fig 16. Kye uses this system in his shop for small body repairs. The body tech will spray the primer on (just for small areas) and heat it up with the short wave light. By the time the vehicle gets to the paint department, the primer is fully cured and ready for prep. Moving on to our next item, a glass removal system from WRD Glass Tools. See Fig. 17. This glass removal tool is unique in that it uses a special nylon rope and small battery-powered electric drill.
Fig 17
The rope is reusable and it does not chew up the rubber or damage the paint. See Fig 18. Kye purchased the unit and has
Fig 18
Fig 14
INFRATECH The next item is great tool to speed up the painting process, a short-wave infrared heater from Infratech. See Fig 15. Fig 12
The closest primer that approaches the characteristics of OEM applied Ecoat is epoxy primer. It is a two component system, the primer and the hardener. See Fig 12. I tell shops to put the gallon can on the mixing machine and each day have the painter add the hardener and make a small amount. I apply the epoxy primer with a small foam paint brush ($.60 Fig 13 from Home Depot) to areas that need seam sealer. It is dry in about 30 minutes. The primer has
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Fig 15
Let’s take a look at the benefits of a short-wave heater. Short-wave infrared heats the substrate, not the surface. In other words, the short-wave light goes through the paint and heats up the metal and now the paint cures
46 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
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removed 3 rear glasses with the same rope. I put a video clip of the tool being used and this can be accessed from SCRS.com (see—Kool Tools from SEMA 2015). Next, we have a door skin tool for aluminum from Steck. See Fig 19.
Fig 22. The next two companies have
Fig 22
Fig 19
The new all aluminum Ford 150 has a replacement door skin. A special rope hem flange is used to install the door skin and this is different than a steel hem flange. See Fig 20.
items that are used for estimating and quality control. The first product is from Collision Edge. The Dent Viewer shows the amount of damage via a photograph. See Fig 23. It works in conjunction with the flash on the camera. Note the distor-
ing the extent of damage and panel blending tape. The next estimating tool is from Whistler. See Fig 24. This tool can be used in tear down stage of repairs to determine the amount of damage in an enclosed rail or a backside of a panel that cannot be seen such as rocker panel reinforcement. In the quality control department, welds, repair and corrosion protection items can be inspected. This unit has a 4-foot extension, cables to hook it up to a computer, internal video and single picture capabilities. I used it recently to prove to an insurance adjuster that the body shop had glued the quarter panel as per BMW instructions instead of welding it. The next item that both Kye and I thought really cool was from Time
Fig 24 Fig 20
I folded the aluminum flat like the steel in the picture and then I applied a die check to a piece and the result was a crack along the entire radius. The “Skinner” which is attached to an air tool, is a two-step process. First you come in straight and then repeat the operation at a 45 degree angle and you will have a perfect rope hem flange. Follow the enclosed directions and you will not have a problem. In repairing today’s vehicles, panel gaps are extremely important factor for looks and safety. Reliable Automotive Equipment has a simple solution. See Fig 21.
tion on grid on the top picture. There are two sides, one for light colored vehicles and the other side for dark colored vehicles. The company also has magnetic measuring tapes for show-
Shaver Tools. See Figs 25 & 26. The Worktop Kit has a table with See Kool Tools, Page 52
Fig 25
Fig 26
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Fig 21
Fig 23
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Shop Strategies Body Shop Owner & President of ABARI Shares Insight about Legislation the Association Helped Pass with Stacey Phillips - ASSISTANT EDITOR
John Petrarca founded Providence Auto Body in Rhode Island in 1982. He has been a member of the Auto Body Association of Rhode Island for 45 years and is the current president. Autobody News asked Petrarca about some of the key legislation the association has been involved with as well as what it is like to work in a family business.
plish this, we have had to educate our association, consumers and legislators. As a result of our efforts, we have very consumer-friendly laws that are unique to Rhode Island.
has your primary focus been?
face notice to consumers of their ‘right to choose’ on all insurance id cards and appraisals, and it also must appear on auto body shop signage. We are the only state in the country that requires auto body technicians to be certified. We require every vehicle with more than $2,500 of damage be inspected by a licensed auto damage appraiser. A vehicle 30 months or newer in age must be repaired with OEM parts unless the owner agrees to aftermarket parts in writing. The actual cash value (ACV)
Can you tell us about the antiQ: steering law ABARI helped promote?
of all total loss vehicles must be determined by the NADA or Kelly Blue Book retail value, and no vehicle can be deemed a total if the damage does
based upon usage rather than per hour. Finally, Rhode Island has codified a labor rate survey requirement. Every insurer must conduct a labor rate sur-
How long have you been part We successfully lobbied for a Q: of the Auto Body Association A: very stringent anti-steering law, of Rhode Island (ABARI) and what which requires insurers to print a boldI have been a member of the A: Auto Body Association of Rhode Island for decades. I was origi-
nally a member in 1970. I am currently in my fifth term as president. Over the last 16 years, ABARI has worked tirelessly to professionalize our industry, protect consumers, support healthy competition, and advocate for fair and reasonable compensation from insurance companies. In order to accom-
Providence Auto Body’s owner, John Petrarca, still operates the family-run business he established more than 30 years ago in Rhode Island
not exceed 75 percent of the value without the owner’s written consent. Insurance companies must use one manual to appraise a vehicle in its entirety and must consider fair calculation of paint and material charges
vey and report its results to the Department of Business Regulation.
What is the other significant Q: piece of legislation that ABARI helped pass?
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Continuing with ABARI’s focus A: on consumer rights, last year our legislature passed law requiring
auto body repair shops be designated as Class A or Class B. Class A shops must be certified by at least one motor vehicle manufacturer in aluminum repair; must have all technicians certified; and must give a lifetime warranty on all repairs. The new law also requires that each insurer conduct a separate and distinct labor rate survey for each classification.
Q: ofWhatfocus?is ABARI’s current area Currently, ABARI’s focus is A: educating its membership on the new requirements and assisting
shops as they gear up for the classification process. I am very excited about this new development because as with all of the legislation ABARI supports, this law protects consumers by giving them the information they need to make a proper and informed decision about their vehicle repair. It also forces shops to face reality… aluminum is here, hi-tech state-of-the-art technology is in the average vehicle on the road, and if you don’t stay cur-
rent, you’ll be out of business soon.
After your extensive experiQ: ence with ABARI, what advice can you offer to other associations?
Our association has been sucA: cessful because we have been united as a group, and we have always
focused on promoting legislation that protects consumers and gives them information they need to exercise their rights. Information is priceless, and ABARI’s philosophy has always been that an informed consumer is a step in the right direction. Neither industry (insurance and collision repair) is always correct, and associations should put as much focus on how they can improve their own industry, as they do on improving insurance regulation. However, at the end of the day, just like in our own business, it comes down to our customers. Focusing on legislation that helps to ensure a safe and quality repair, and removes some of the obstacles and hassles encountered along the way have been a very successful strategy for ABARI over the years. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Associations need to stick together and be patient.
Can you tell us about your own Q: experience running Providence Auto Body? I started in the auto body repair A: business 50 years ago. I have been passionate about cars and customer
service since then. Vehicles have changed significantly, but customers haven’t. I believe the key to our success is that we treat our customers like family. If I would not allow my children or grandchildren to drive in a vehicle, I won’t let my customers either. I was the first in the state to offer a Lifetime Guarantee on all repairs, and I believe that a business can achieve perfect customer service. As a result, we have thousands of loyal customers who trust our service and appreciate the hassle-free experience we provide. There are 50 dedicated employees, many of whom I have been fortunate enough to employ for more than two decades, who work hard every day to ensure that our production can keep up with demand.
Is your shop certified in alurepair? Q: minum I have always believed in inA: vesting in state-of-the-art equip-
ment for the quality of the repair and for the speed of production. A year ago, we became the first auto body repair shop in Rhode Island to be certified in aluminum repair by Ford. We are in the process with other manufacturers who certify in aluminum and look forward to many exciting announcements in 2016.
What has your experience been like working in a family-owned Q: business?
We are a family business, which A: is as rewarding as it is challenging. My wife manages our office staff,
and our rental company, and we have been working together for over 30 years. My children grew up working in the business as young adults, and are now both attorneys with law offices next door. They continue on in the company as legal counsel. Taking legal advice from your children was not easy to handle at first, but I have learned to listen, and am grateful I am able to see my family everyday. Of course as with any family business, a unique set of challenges can be present when disagreements arise. However, See President of ABARI, Page 52
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Continued from Page 28
AASP/NJ Seminar Agenda
“Who Pays for What? Survey Results.” Using quarterly surveys conducted by Collision Advice and the CRASH Network, Anderson will discuss how often shops are reimbursed for not-included operations from the top 10 insurance companies. Attendees will receive an introduction to the four negotiation questions, learn about raising awareness of not-included labor operations and materials, and discover how to use these results to negotiate with insurers and much more in this seminar by one of the industry’s favorite speakers. At 2:30-3:30 p.m., Tony Nethery’s “Estimating Following OEM Guidelines” will explore the difference between “normal” repair processes and what is involved to follow OEMs’ methods for a “correct” repair. At 4 p.m., the final seminar at NORTHEAST 2016 will be “The Customer Encounter,” presented by Jody Gatchell of A & J Collision Repair. Gatchell will discuss the importance of being prepared for customer encounters in order to create a memorable beginning to the customer/business relationship. NORTHEAST 2016 will also feaContinued from Page 51
President of ABARI
after working together so many years, you realize how rare it is, and how lucky we are.
Is there anything additional you Q: would like to share about the industry in general?
A:
Aside from my role in ABARI, I have been fighting for consumer rights through my business for decades. We have exposed shops that engage in shoddy repair work, and in unacceptable business practices, and 20 years ago I embarked upon an advertising campaign that began the process of educating consumers about
ture its renowned trade show with over 130 vendors registered to exhibit on the 60,000 square feet of floor space. Some of this year’s exhibitors include: 3M, Access Commercial Capital, Accudraft Paint Booth, AkzoNobel, Albert Kemperle, ASE, Assured Performance Network, Auto Body Distributing, Axalta Coating Systems, BASF, CCC Information Services, Chief Automotive, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, FinishMaster, I-CAR, Indasa Abrasives, LKQ Corporation, Lusid Technologies, Mitchell International, PPG Automotive Refinish, Refinish Distributors Alliance, Sherwin-Williams, Spanesi Americas, Valspar Automotive, VeriFacts Automotive and the Women’s Industry Network (WIN) who will be making its debut appearance at NORTHEAST. “This is, by far, the best NORTHEAST show ever: more education, more equipment and technology, more of everything an automotive repairer needs to succeed in the 21st century,” says AASP/NJ Secretary Thomas Greco, whose company, Greco Publishing, manages the show. “If you’re an automotive repairer, you need to be here.” For the full NORTHEAST Educational Program schedule and to register, go to aaspnjnortheast.com. their right to choose their repair shop, the right to not use aftermarket parts on their new vehicle, etc … It is a wonderful feeling when you encounter people and they tell you, ‘Of course I know I have the right to choose, I listen to your commercials!’ An industry can be changed for the better one customer at a time, but patience and endurance are the keys to success. John Petrarca can be reached at (401) 861-2211 or john@providence autobody.com. For information about ABARI, call (401) 467-7575 or visit www .ABARI.net. If you know of a shop that would like to share its “Shop Strategies,” contact Stacey Phillips at sphillips@ autobodynews.com.
Bumpersmith 2.0 Combines Welder & Work Station
Polyvance’s (formerly Urethane Supply Company), new 6071 Bumpersmith 2.0 offers a nitrogen plastic welding system combined with a foldout bumper workstation. Created by bumper repair guru David Smith, the Bumpersmith 2.0 improves on his original design with a more compact and versatile design, according to a company press release. Polyvance has merged with Bum-persmith to sell and support this new welder. The nitrogen welder features a switch in the handle to help conserve bottled nitrogen gas; only flowing nitrogen gas when needed. The analog control system features outlet pressure gauges and a flowmeter. As a workstation, the Bumpersmith 2.0 folds out to hold any size bumper, from Chevy Sonic to Chevy Tahoe. The bumper pads are notched, allowing both bumpers and headlights to be held down with the included bungee cords. When finished, the bumper pads and supports affix to the sides of the welder for compact storage. The Bumpersmith 2.0 is available for shipment from auto body jobbers or equipment distributors across North America. The suggested user price is $4,395. For information, call Kurt Lammon at 800-633-3047.
Continued from Page 48
Kool Tools
an aluminum channel upright that attaches to a tool box (the one in the picture was purchased from Sears.) You can add custom hooks, trays, dispensers, can holders, etc. to meet your needs. The unit will organize your various departments and you will have a better control of your materials. Well there you have it. Our selection of Kool Tools from SEMA 2015. Kye and I would like to thank everyone that gave us the technical support we needed on the products and a special thanks to Aaron Schulenberg, the Executive Director of SCRS and Kristen Felder of Collision Hub.
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Shop Strategies with Stacey Phillips - ASSISTANT EDITOR
Collision Shop Benefits from Improved Cycle Time, CSI and Closing Ratio After Joining CARSTAR Network Autobody News spoke to Steve Ranck at CARSTAR John Hine in California about the collision center’s decision to join the network in April 2015 and find out how it has benefited the business.
Steve Ranck, CARSTAR John Hine collision manager
John Hine Sr. established John Hine Pontiac in San Diego, CA in 1957 and the John Hine Mazda franchise in 1971. He received the Time Quality Dealer Award in 1991 and his son, John Hine Jr., accepted the same award in 1994. Two years later, Hine, Sr. passed
away at 91 years of age. “He believed in hard work, equality and fair treatment of both customers and employees,” said Ranck, CARSTAR John Hine’s collision service manager, who has worked there for 37 years. “His legacy is our dealership’s dedication to delivering complete customer satisfaction and employee goodwill. I know that the continued success of our dealership lies within every employee’s ability to deliver his/her personal best.” The collision repair shop is located at John Hines Mazda, which is in Mission Valley, CA and run by John Hine, Jr., who had worked with his father since 1971.
way about a year and a half ago and we looked at it as an opportunity to get involved. The way I used to get my business is that I’d meet an adjuster and their boss and then I’d join their program. Everything is done at the corporate level now. We have shops right next to each other that are in the same industry. Years ago, I never used to see that. It’s strange because what happens is that people will come in and shop you to see what you are going to do with their deductible. We currently have seven DRPs with different insurance companies. I didn’t lose any of those since joining CARSTAR.
What prompted the decision Q: for John Hine Mazda to beWhat has the reaction been from come a CARSTAR franchise in 2015? Q: your employees and your customers? Most insurance companies are A: now going to MSOs to do their It’s an exciting new process. We business. I saw the trend moving that A: have 32 employees and a lot of OHIO
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them have been here a long time. I have one employee who started with his dad as a helper 42 years ago. You worry about people when it comes to change. Anytime you rock peoples’ world and change it around, it’s not always easy for them. When we took on this change, we started keeping our team involved in all of the processes. We let them know what CARSTAR is all about, and what they were going to bring to the table. They really got onboard with the change. Since the change, the moral has improved greatly. With our customers, we explain that we are still John Hine with the same employees we’ve had. Then we tell them why we took this opportunity. It has been a positive reaction. We give a lifetime warranty on our workmanship anyway. Now that they see that we’re part of a larger organization it gives them a little more security. And our customers our just wowed by the way our shop looks.
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Can you tell us about the CARQ: STAR branding that you have incorporated into your shop, which is
part of the new look in shops across the country?
We’ve done a lot of CARSTAR A: branding and it was a fairly easy process. Our office was completely dif-
ferent before we joined CARSTAR. When an insurance company sends a client to a body shop, they want it to feel the same way, whether it’s in Texas or San Diego, so name recognition becomes important. In addition to the fresh new paint and CARSTAR graphics, we also rebranded our 60-foot-tall sign that sits right on Interstate 8, where more than 350,000 cars pass each day. The remodeled lobby has also had an impact on the customer experience. Just seeing the CARSTAR “Relax, We’ll Take it from Here” slogan in the office seems to have a calming effect when a customer, who has just been in an accident, sits down with the service writer to start talking about their repair. To add to the professional look, all of our employees wear CARSTAR uniforms. They have even gone so far as to take it upon themselves to coordinate
their dress. One week will be black shirts, the next week red. The appearance of the staff has added to the positive impact on the customer perception of the shop. Also, the uniforms are different from the dealerships’ uniforms. We decided to pull ourselves away a little from the dealership, just to let people know we’re not just a Mazda body shop but that we work on all makes and models of vehicles.
What are some of the changes Q: that have taken place since joining CARSTAR?
We’ve taken advantage of CARA: STAR’s knowledge and experience to revamp our production area for
a better workflow. Going through CARSTAR’s tier process, our shop is a lot cleaner and more organized than what it used to be. For example, we purchased 25 parts carts, which have made a huge difference in shop efficiency. There are no longer parts scattered on the ground. They are able to clean the entire floor every night. The change has been a complete 180 from what the shop used to look like. Not only have the carts made for a much cleaner pro-
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take the car apart and write your estimate. DFR is more than just taking the car apart. Now, instead of taking the bumper off, we take everything off that bumper, including the clips, side maker lights, etc. We do this because we want to know at the beginning of the repair process everything that is wrong with the car instead of at the end. This has helped us tremendously by being more
organized and improving our cycle time.
After visiting other CARSTAR Q: locations, what new processes have been added?
After talking to two other CARA: STAR locations in San Diego and the corporate store in Kansas, we
decided to add a second computer monitor so customers can see the actual estimate being built. We also started mapping the car, which entails showing the damage on the windshield of cars with marker pens. The main advantage is that we bring it to the attention of everyone involved in the repair process so things aren’t being missed. Then the car is disassembled for repair. It is an efficient process because you are trying to catch it at the beginning instead of at the end. Our Area Director of Operations (ADO) manager, Mike Calens, comes in about once a month and helps us evaluate our shop. What CARSTAR does is help you put certain goals into place. If you want to be part of a DRP program, you have to be one of the top elite shops in the industry. They want
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duction area, the end result has also made an impact on the way customers perceive the the shop when they go in the back. We also noticed about a day and a half improvement in our cycle time just by making that change. Another change was incorporating the DFR (dissemble for repair) process. We always called it tear down – you
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you to reach a certain tier level. If an insurance company markets our shop to get more business,we need to have our cycle time, CSI and closing ratio in the right spot.
What are the benefits you’ve Q: experienced as a result of joining CARSTAR?
dures and work with you to get your numbers in the right position so you become more appealing to the insurance companies. When you have been
When working at the same shop for 37 years, there is a tendency A: to do things the same way. You don’t
see new ideas that much. By joining CARSTAR, getting involved in their Edge process and going through the three Cs – cycle time, CSI and closing ratio – it really fine tunes your store. Edge performance stands for Education, Development, Growth, and excellence. It starts with working on your shop’s foundation and culture and then moves in operations, and the CARSTAR Lean process. We did our research and talked to other CARSTAR locations. The first thing you do is ask ‘Did they bring you business?” I talked to two different CARSTARs and was told,’Steve, even if I don’t get one DRP, they are making me a better store.” They come in with their proce-
Javier Zamora, head painter at John Hines
in the same shop for so long sometimes you can get tunnel vision. You don’t see the big picture. Being with CARSTAR, they really looked at our procedures and said, ‘Steve, this is what we suggest.’ Then we tried them out and it works.
Have you encountered any chalQ: lenges and how have you addressed them?
When you have any change in A: your shop, you’re going to have
Freer Auto Body in IL Works Toward Ambulance Makeover
by The Telegraph Staff
A Godfrey auto body shop recently helped give an important Lewis and Clark (L&C) Community College training tool a much needed facelift. In September 2015, Freer Auto Body, of Alton, put more than $8,000 into getting the college’s ambulance prepped and painted for a new wrap to be applied. That amount included new
Credit: thetelegraph.com
front and rear bumpers, running boards, other parts, paint and labor. “We do all of the Roberts Motors auto body work and Sam Roberts, an avid supporter of the college, asked if we would help out with the project. We were happy to do it,” said Tim Freer, president of Freer Auto Body. “Our family does a lot for the community, both in time and money.” In January 2016, Freer Auto Body, now in its 25th year in business, pur-
chased 25 car seats to donate to Alton Memorial Hospital so that every newborn baby has a car seat – a requirement before going home from the hospital. The ambulance, originally donated by Alton Memorial, serves as an integral lab space for Lewis and Clark EMT and Paramedicine students. Inside, it features all the same equipment and supplies one would find on an advanced life support ambulance, so that students learn to work with the same equipment and in the same environment they will experience in the field after they graduate. “It’s a great piece of equipment because our students will be able to utilize the ambulance and run a call as they would in the real world,” said Darla Long, coordinator of L&C’s EMT and Paramedicine programs. “Classroom learning is extremely important, but exposing students to the environment they will encounter as paramedics and EMTs allows them to be better prepared as quality EMS providers.” “In this case, the donation of time and services was definitely a ‘life saver’ for many down the road who will receive excellent care from our graduates,” said L&C Vice President of Administration Lori Artis. Thanks to The Telegraph for permission to reprint this article.
56 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
some challenges to address. First of all, you have to really look at the buy in from your employees. When CARSTAR came in, they focused on our foundation first. They looked at our employees. When our ADO Mike first came in, he took the time to get to know the employees. Now when we implement something new, we do it together. When you being to change and clean up your shop, your employees start to notice and say, ‘Wow, there is something going on here.”
are your upcoming goals Q: atWhatCARSTAR John Hine? Our upcoming goal is to bring A: more jobs into our shop. We are still a relatively new CARSTAR shop,
but our goal is to be their flagship collision center in San Diego. We currently work on about 135-40 cars per month. We can handle a lot more than that. I set up a goal board and every week I post what needs to be done that month. Then we can see how we are doing and track it. We’ve incorporated that recently and we’re finding that it brings everyone together so they are
focused on the main goal of the shop. We also have a production meeting twice a day. This is when all of our employees meet and talk about what they have planned for the day.We keep the meetings under 10 minutes and all the Metal men and Painters attend
What is your advice to other Q: shops considering joining an MSO?
I’ve noticed over the years inA: surance companies are putting a lot of emphasis on MSOs. It makes it
easier for insurance companies to deal with one contact person for a large qroup of shops. But the main reason for joining is that they are going to make you a better shop. With the Edge performance platform and there support with human resources, marketing, insurance contacts, legal, they will be a great partner in your business.
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A New Hope for Labor Rates: The Variable Rate System by National AutoBody Research Autobody News interviewed Sam Valenzuela, president of National AutoBody Research, about the importance of conducting labor rate surveys and the company’s Variable Rate System technology.
Can you tell us about National Q: AutoBody Research and the Variable Rate System?
about not-included procedures that insurance companies pay for. By enabling repairers to keep up with the increasing training, certifications, and equipment demands of the new technologies and materials associated with modern vehicles, the VRS supports the growth of the collision repairer and helps ensure the proper care and safety of the consumer.
National AutoBody Research What is the process NABR uses A: Q: (NABR) is an independent, to collect data and how does it third-party research, technology and ensure accuracy?
consulting company serving the collision repair industry. It is not owned by insurance companies, body shops or outside investors. NABR is working to restore the free market to labor rate pricing and to level the playing field for payment of non-included procedures. NABR believes people should be paid what they are worth and be paid for the work they do. In response, NABR developed the Variable Rate System (VRS), an innovative and proven technology, to help collision repairers understand market-based labor rates and assist them to learn more
All VRS Labor Rate Surveys A: are conducted online, free and easily accessible and available 24/7 on
the National AutoBody Research website (http://www.nationalautobodyresearch.com/). The VRS survey is an accurate source available for marketbased labor rates for several reasons, including the survey’s validity, measurement of market labor rates, data integrity, continuous measurement, and reporting of a range of rates. Among other criteria, a key component to a valid survey is that it is easily and equally accessible to all po-
AASPI Annual Meeting Includes Estimating Workshop
On January 30, the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Illinois (AASPI) held its annual meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Lisle, IL. In addition to providing an opportunity to elect the
rific.” AASPI also elected its 2016 officers and directors. Michael Mattson of Accidental Auto Body in Waukegan will serve as the association’s president with Bob Gottfred of Chicago’s ErieLaSalle Body Shop serving as vice president. Doug Fiala of Douglas Auto
Over 40 attendees lauded Cada’s presentation as excellent
Roger Cada taught seminar on enhancing estimating skills
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
association’s new officers and directors, the meeting featured a workshop on enhancing estimating skills and maintaining a better relationship with DRP partners, presented by Roger Cada. According to AASPI Executive Director Michael Lane, “The program was so good that we are going to repeat it downstate later this year.” During his presentation, Cada shared how to better understand the KPIs used by the insurance industry to critique a shop’s estimates. Over 40 collision repair industry professionals attended the meeting, and the overwhelming response lauded the workshop as “ter-
Body in Brookfield was elected as secretary/treasurer. The two directors elected at AASPI’s annual meeting were Nick DePaul of Parkville Auto Body in Bensenville and Mike Randazzo from Randazzo’s Gallery Collision Center in Bradley. Event sponsors were United Fire Group, which sponsors garage liability coverage for AASPI members, and the sponsoring agency, Nicoud Insurance. AASPI 225 E. Cook, Springfield, IL 62704 217-528-5230 www.aaspi.org
58 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
tential survey respondents. This is true for the VRS survey but may not be true for other surveys. The VRS survey asks for collision repairers’ posted labor rates (sometimes called door rates, or walkin rates). The VRS survey measures the true, market-based range of labor rate prices, and then reports those rates through the Variable Rate System. Furthermore, as the industry’s only independent survey of labor rates nationwide, the VRS has no special interest in the survey resulting in a certain number. The survey is only interested in accurately representing the market prices for collision repair labor in any market. Therefore, the VRS uses a high standard for data integrity and does not leave out data, does not change data, and does not manipulate the survey results. The VRS produces a solid market report on labor rates that both repairers and insurers can agree on. In addition, the VRS measures market prices continuously, not just once a year or even once every three to five years. Any time a shop changes
their rates for any reason, they can immediately report their new rates to the VRS, as many times as they want, whenever they want, to ensure the VRS always has the most current market rates available. Lastly, the VRS reports a range of market labor rates in any geographic area, not just one rate. Just like different cars have different prices, and different insurance companies have different prices to insure those cars, shops are different too, and shops have different prices. In reality, in any market for products or services, there is an acceptable range of prices that make up the market, not one singular price for all products. The VRS reports this range, which is a truer, more accurate picture of market labor rate prices.
What is the importance of conQ: ducting labor rate surveys and how can my shop learn about market rates in our area of the country?
Revenue from labor can often A: represent about half of a shop’s total revenue; therefore, the labor rate
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is critically important to the financial success and health of a collision repairer. Repairers have struggled to get paid what they’re worth, and current labor rates are often below true market prices, even lagging behind standard inflation rates. In the Variable Rate System, finally the collision repair industry has a real solution to the problem of inaccurate labor rate surveys, which have plagued the industry for years. To help both your shop and the industry, take five minutes to visit the NABR website and fill out the free VRS Labor Rate Survey for your state. Even though the survey is an important starting point, it is only one small piece of the entire Variable Rate System, which comprises a full suite of online tools to help you understand market prices in your area, understand your cost of doing business, calculate the rates for your individual shop, and receive more not-included procedures and operations. For more information on the VRS, visit the NABR website at: www.NationalAutoBodyResearch.com or contact Sam Valenzuela at sam@ nationalautobodyresearch.com.
Suspect Accused of Stealing from St. Louis, MO, Body Shop Leads Police on Chase
by Nora Farrell, kmov.com
A man was arrested on the night of January 24 after officers said he led them on a pursuit after breaking into a local auto body shop. Christopher Williams, of Bonne Terre, MO, was arrested for three counts of assault on a law enforcement officer, second-degree burglary, theft/stealing, tampering with a motor vehicle, and two counts of resisting arrest. Officers said they observed Williams breaking Christopher into Car X Auto Williams is Service at 3460 charged with 3 South Kingshighcounts of assault on way and stealing a law enforcement tires. When offiofficer, 2nd degree cers attempted to burglary, theft/stealarrest him, he ing, tampering with fled in a vehicle a motor vehicle, that had been reand two counts of ported stolen by resisting arrest. the Maplewood Police Department.
Surveillance cameras showed officers pointing a gun at Williams, who then decided to take off. When police pursued Williams, he crashed the van at North Kingshighway and Laclede Avenue. The suspect was taken to the hospital for injuries sustained in the accident, where he remains under police custody. “We’re just happy to have him behind bars. He’s stolen a lot of tires from myself and our competitors,” said Car X owner John Kelley. Kelly also believes he has stolen from the Car X before. Thanks to kmov.com for permission to reprint this article.
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Fix Auto USA Announces 100th Franchise Location
Fix Auto USA announced its 100th franchise location, a milestone in the growth of the independent, owner-operated collision repair brand. Fix Auto said it launched its franchise model in 2011 in response to a collision repair landscape increasingly dominated by regional and national consolidators, and insurance carriers looking for a turnkey vehicle claims processing solution. “Reaching this moment in a wildly competitive market is cause for celebration,” said Fix Auto President and COO, Paul Gange. “The entire Fix Auto Family played a role in this accomplishment and should be acknowledged for delivering unmatched value every day.” “There’s no question that the brand continues to gain traction because we extend invitations only to operators who exhibit market-leading performance and are driven, passionate, and committed to their businesses,” stated Fix Auto Vice President of Network Development and Marketing, Armin Price. “Maintaining this philosophy as we move forward will reinforce our strong core of independent operators and position us for success in 2016 and beyond.”
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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 59
PARTS ACT Patent Controversy Continues in Congress by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor
During a legislative hearing on February 2, industry leaders testified on the PARTS Act, a controversial bill that would amend Title 35 of the U.S. Code to provide an exception from patent infringement for certain component parts of automobiles, including collision parts. Currently, a vehicle design patent lasts for 14 years. The PARTS Act would reduce that time to 30 months for repair parts. The hearing addressed the costs and benefits of the current time restrictions on design patents for collision car parts. Those in support of the act contend that the current law gives automakers a monopoly on the sale of repair parts and drives up prices for consumer. Opponents of the PARTS Act say it would stifle innovation and lead to lower quality repairs, which could lead to unsafe repairs for consumers. Subcommittee members listened to testimony from two witnesses in support of the PARTS Act: Pat Felder, owner of Felder’s Collision Parts in Baton Rouge, LA; and Jack Gillis, director of public affairs for the Consumer Federation of America. Other witnesses testifying against
the passing of the act, included Kelly Burris, intellectual property attorney, Burris Law PLLC; and Dan Risley, the Automotive Service Association’s president and executive director. Aaron Schulenburg, executive Director of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), said the PARTS Act has been a recurring piece of legislation attempting to carve out exemptions in existing patent law and provide greater opportunity for offshore manufacturers to copy the design of manufacturer replacement parts. “This isn’t about fostering innovation or competition, and it isn’t about consumer options; Consumers simply want what they had prior to a loss,” said Schulenburg. “This bill is about protecting insurer and aftermarket corporate profits. The savings that are experienced from requiring consumers to accept alternative replacement parts do not represent significant savings to the consumer today, nor is there any assurance that further savings would be passed along by the insurers paying for the parts in at least 70 percent of repairs.” He reasoned that advocates rely on data released by supporters to highlight the overall savings the use of aftermar-
ket parts represent, but fail to mention that by the same studies’ calculations, the impact on the individual consumer is merely $19–$24 per policy, per year. “Furthermore, while the exemption would result in more non-original parts being made available sooner in the life cycle of the vehicle, the individual parts costs savings being touted by supporters may not factor in other potentially increased costs,” said Schulenburg. “These include additional labor manipulating the part to fit like the original or reordering delays should the particular copy prove inadequate.” No decision was made during the hearing, which was held in Washington D.C. by the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. “It is our hope that the House Judiciary Committee will continue to recognize the negative impacts such special interest exemptions would have,” said Schulenburg. PARTS stands for Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade, and Sales, and has been debated since 2012. It was reintroduced by Republicans Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the subcommittee, and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in February 2015. US. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sheldon White-
house (D-RI) introduced the act in the Senate. “The consumer has a reasonable expectation that there will be a competitive market for repair parts for their automobile. There certainly is for brake pads. Why wouldn’t there be for a bent fender?” Issa commented during the hearing. “A healthy aftermarket means more affordable parts for everyone.” Ed Salamy, executive director of the Quality Parts Coalition, said the hearing was an important step to spark consideration in Congress. “The Quality Parts Coalition’s sole mission is to get this pro-consumer legislation passed in Congress to protect consumers’ access to competitive replacement parts when repairing their cars after an accident,” according to a press release by the QPC. Following the hearing, Risley said, “A free and open marketplace does not entail enacting a law that states an aftermarket part is equal to an OEM part. This should be decided by the party making the purchase.”
Gas Monkey Garage Show Renewed for 8th Season
Valspar Automotive, a provider of auto refinishing products that offer color matching and performance, is pleased to announce the popular cable show featuring Gas Monkey Garage has been renewed for its eighth season. Star Richard Rawlings and his crew are using Valspar Automotive’s DeBeer Refinish products to help them turn run-down hot rods to fully restored, unique show pieces. Rawlings, the Richard Rawlings, owner of Gas owner of Gas Monkey Garage Monkey Garage and visionary behind the creations, said he is thrilled to continue using DeBeer Refinish products in the show’s work. “Valspar has always taken care of my shop and our paint needs, and they continue to do so as we roll into our eighth season,” Rawlings said. “It’s critical that any paint we choose is easy to use, particularly in the fast-paced environment of our show. That’s what we get from DeBeer.” Rawlings and the crew of Gas
Monkey Garage are using De Beer BeroBase 500, a high-quality basecoat system. “From Ferraris to Trans Ams, the team at Gas Monkey Garage uses Valspar’s DeBeer 500 System and coatings to bring these beauties to life,” said Gina Mahan, brand manager for House of Kolor, Valspar's custom refinish brand. “Although DeBeer is an OEM-approved refinish brand, Gas Monkey Garage showcases its versatility with the incredible builds they produce. We are proud to continue to support such talent and look forward to seeing where Season 8 takes Richard Rawlings and Gas Monkey.” For more information on Valspar, visit www.valsparauto.com and follow @ValsparCo on Twitter.
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Historic Meeting Planned to Discuss Proposed Senate Bill That Would Cap Labor Rates in Mississippi ernmental affairs and lobbying. “He [Carmichael] has agreed to work out a compromise with us. We think this is really positive.” When Autobody News went to print, the meeting was expected to take place in late February/early March. The ASA, which opposes House Bill 2187, also encouraged Mississippi shops to contact their state legislators
cluding glass repairs or replacements, must be made by a particular contracFor the first time in history, Mississippi tor or motor vehicle repair shop; probody shops will sit down with reprevided, however, the most an insurer sentatives from the insurance coalition shall be required to pay for the repair of in that state to discuss the issues surthe vehicle or repair or replacement of rounding labor rates. This is in rethe glass is the lowest amount that such sponse to Mississippi State Senator vehicle or glass could be properly and Videt Carmichael’s recent introducfairly repaired or replaced by a contraction of Senate Bill 2187. tor or repair shop within a reasonable If passed, the bill would geographical or trade area prohibit collision repair shops of the insured.” “When you get these calls to action, it’s so from charging labor rates The Senate bill would important for the local shops to particihigher than the national averadd the following: “In no pate and contact their local legislators,” age. It also stipulates that event shall a motor vehicle shops that seek to charge arepair shop charge labor — said John Morgan Hughes bove the average must have rates above the average nathe approval of the Commissioner of through the ASA’s website www.Tak- tional rate charged for like-kind work, Insurance. ingTheHill.com and voice their oppo- without the express approval of the John Morgan Hughes, the exec- sition to the bill. Commissioner of Insurance.” utive director of the Mississippi Colli“This bill is an obvious attempt by Hughes told Autobody News that sion Repair Association (MCRA), the insurance industry to suppress labor six representatives from the MCRA reached out to association members in rates and reduce their average severity,” and six representatives from the insurearly February requesting they contact said Dan Risley, ASA president and ex- ance coalition will attend the meeting. their legislators in opposition to the ecutive director. “Attempting to classify Each side will come to the table with bill. Within 72 hours of that call to ac- all collision shops as equal demon- eight or 10 issues and share their pertion, the MCRA met with Carmichael strates a lack of understanding of the spective on such issues as labor rates, who proposed setting up a meeting to collision repair industry and the cost of regionalism, emerging technologies discuss the issues and work out an eq- running an actual business.” and the cost of capital investment to uitable solution for both sides. Mississippi Code 83-11-501 cur- repair new vehicles. “This is the first time in Missis- rently states: “No insurer may require “It’s a very different industry than sippi that has ever happened,” said as a condition of payment of a claim it was 10 years ago or even 20-30 years Hughes, who has a background in gov- that repairs to a damaged vehicle, in- ago, said Hughes. “We just want them by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor
Assured Performance Launches OEM Repair Procedure Compliance App
Assured Performance Network announced on January 20 they are launching an application program to document the use of OEM repair procedures for their network of certified shops. The Assured Performance OEM Repair Procedure Compliance App automatically transforms the shop’s estimate repair line information onto an interactive checklist and delivers it onto the technician’s hands via a smart phone, tablet or desktop. Then, the technician can use the simple touch screen functionality and commands to take photos and provide other documentation as they follow OEM repair procedures in the proper repair of a vehicle. According to a company press release, the program only takes technicians seconds to properly document the process followed for every repair. The application also allows management to review and approve the technician’s documentation and see alerts when no documentation is provided. All of the compliance documentation is linked to the original estimate and maintained electronically online in the shop’s dataSAFE as a permanent record. Documenting every repair
with visual proof of compliance provides critical documentation to limit liability exposure. Aaron Clark, former MSO shop owner and Assured Performance vice president of technical compliance said, “This technology-driven solution provides a shop with exactly what they need to manage quality and compliance efficiently. Third-party spot checks may be performed by an untested, untrained, or uncertified individual and can leave huge holes in the documentation, lead to questionable liability coverage, and can be very expensive.” Michael Quinn, executive VP of Assured Performance and also a former MSO shop owner, added, “Experts all agree that effective quality assurance and OEM procedure compliance must be built into the repair process. Now, our Certified shops have a cost effective tool to manage that.” The application will be provided exclusively to Assured Performance certified shops. Assured Performance will contact all of their certified shops and begin rolling out the program and providing instructions.
62 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
to see what the financials look like from our side of the table. We also want to be good faith initiators and look at what they are facing. We think this is going to be a super productive meeting and we are really excited about it.” Hughes said the problem with the national labor rate is who defines it. “Not all shops are created equal,” he said. “My cost of operation could be very different than your cost of operation because of the cost of employment, and the capital investments on type of vehicles that we work on. That’s very concerning for our members. From top to bottom it’s concerning for our small local guy and for some of our bigger metropolitan shops.” Hughes said he often hears from shops that the forces they go up against are much larger than they are and they don’t feel like they can make a difference. He commended Mississippi shops for taking the time to contact 100 legislators in such a short time period, which resulted in a meeting that will benefit the entire industry. “When you get these calls to action, it’s so important for the local shops to participate and contact their local legislators,” he said. For more information, contact John Morgan Hughes at jmhughes44@ gmail.com.
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Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Announces Annual Vendor Awards
Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes announced on February 3 its annual Associated Products Vendor Awards.
The announcement was made at a special reception for more than 300 suppliers, employees and V.I.P. guests at its national sales meeting held at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, FL. Associated Products suppliers honored at this year’s Vendor Awards included: ● DeVilbiss Automotive Refinishing – Sherwin-Williams Brand-of-the-Year ● Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Inc. – Sherwin-Williams Sales Excellence: U.S.
● SAS Safety Corp. – Sherwin-Williams Sales Excellence: Canada
● PPC, Inc. (Powers Paper Company) – Sherwin-Williams Operational Excellence “Our vendor partners are an intricate part in helping us demonstrate the
service excellence that our customers expect,” said Steve Spirko, director of Associated Products Marketing for Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes. “The goal at our almost 200 branches is to meet the needs of our collision repair customer base around the country and bring them greater value. “Our company-trained employees manage the entire supply chain from product development to delivery. A
Spirko noted how the SherwinWilliams controlled distribution strategy provides a real difference as it directly supplies its collision repair customers. “No matter how many locations a customer may have, our direct distribution provides important standardized services—innovative products, training, delivery, consulting and centralized billing—and this drives consistency and cost-effective results. We want to be the one-stop-shop for the automotive repair and refinish industry and our stores make it easy for customers to come in and find, or have immediately delivered, the exact products and services they need to be profitable and productive. “Our vendor partners are important to the ongoTop Row from left: Tim Schmidt - Adam Chafe - Scott ing service and attention to Minor - Rob Lynch - Steve Spirko - Jake Mussay. detail we provide all our Bottom Row: Andrea Perry – Dave Smith – Stephanie collision repair customers Drew – Jeff Bell – Roger Henry – Barry Holt whether they come straight Sherwin-Williams professional directly to the counter in one of our branches manages the collision repair shop and/or or through delivery to their shops.” MSO account, facilitates application For information, visit www.shertraining, and provides on-site consulta- win-automotive.com or call 1-800tive services as necessary.” SWULTRA (1-800-798-5872).
Axalta Develops Speed Light Hand-Held Device
Axalta Coating Systems has harnessed the power of light by developing a light source that the company said may forever change the way body shops achieve refinish perfection. Known as Speed Light, this hand-held device allows even the finest imperfections to be seen, according to a company press release. The right lighting conditions are essential to every stage of the paint repair process. Speed Light’s diode bulbs, more commonly known as LEDs, save energy, last up to 60,000 hours and are cool to the touch. This technology offers clean, pure white light that is ideal for viewing and matching colors and helps body shop professionals detect imperfections, according to a company press release. Speed Light can be used throughout the refinish process to help identify pre-paint defects like pinholes and sand scratches, compare color samples, check color matches and identify flake coarseness. It can also help refinishers spot post-repair issues like coverage and hiding. To learn more about Axalta, visit www.axaltacoatingsystems.com
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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 63
Historical Snapshot
—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in the family and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contact him by email at jyoswick@SpiritOne.com.
Jeff Silver, GAO Report and NHTSA, Avery v State Farm, EPA at CIC with John Yoswick
20 years ago in the collision repair industry (March 1996) The name Jeff Silver is synonymous with I-CAR. As executive vice president, Jeff has spent the last 11 years of his life helping to build I-CAR into the premier technical training organization in the collision repair industry. On his watch, Jeff has guided I-CAR into the international arena, forming coalitions with groups in Canada and New Zealand and opening talks with groups in the Far East. He recently decided to leave I-CAR and start his own collision repair business, but will remain with I-CAR for six months to help make his successor’s transition as smooth as possible. Jeff leaves big shoes to fill. He has done much to improve the collision repair industry, and we wish him well. – From a March 1996 editorial in Auto Body Repair News (ABRN) by Tony Molla, at that time the editor-inchief of the magazine. Molla later spent 15 years with ASE, and last year became vice president on the Automotive Service Association national staff. Silver continues to operate his collision repair business, now a CARSTAR franchise in Mundelein, IL, with his wife Jeanne. This past November, he received the I-CAR Chairman’s Award, recognizing his decades of support for that organization.
15 years ago in the collision repair industry (March 2001) A report published by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) was a mixed bag for those hoping for more government oversight of non-OEM crash parts. While the report indicates that some non-OEM parts are “clearly different from their OEM counterparts,” it also said limited testing leaves it unclear whether such parts pose significant safety concerns. “Although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has the authority to regulate aftermarket crash parts, it has not determined that these parts pose a significant safety concern and therefore has not developed safety standards for them,” the report states. The report also says that NHTSA should have an oversight program to
detect defects in non-OEM parts, but that “NHTSA’s ability to identify and recall unsafe aftermarket parts is limited” by its “database [which] hampers it from identifying trends in defects.” The report clearly states, however, that the GAO “saw aftermarket crash parts that were clearly different from their OEM counterparts.” “Obviously there is a need for NHTSA to gather significantly more information in order to look at the safety implications of these crash parts,” Congressman John Tierney (D.-Mass.), said of the study. —As reported in The Golden Eagle. It’s unclear if NHTSA took further actions on the non-OEM parts issue, but the manufacturers, distributors and certifiers of non-OEM crash parts has subsequently stepped up tracking and other systems to assist in the recall of a non-OEM part, should one be deemed necessary.
10 years ago in the collision repair industry (March 2006) The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the plaintiffs’ request to hear Avery v. State Farm. Michael Avery and the other plaintiffs filed a petition for the court to hear the case on the basis that Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier should not have participated in the decision since State Farm contributed to his election campaign. The U.S. Supreme Court said nothing about why it decided not to review the case. —As reported in CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com), March 12, 2006. In 1999, a court ruled in favor of Avery and other consumers in a class action lawsuit against State Farm over its use of non-OEM parts, awarding them more than $1 billion. In 2005, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned that verdict. Though a decade has past since that Illinois Supreme Court ruling, the decision is still making headlines. In 2011, Avery's lawyers petitioned the court to reconsider its Avery ruling given what they said was new evidence of the degree to which State Farm was involved in the 2004 election of Justice Karmeier to Illinois’ top court. Within a year of his election,
64 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
Karmeier was among the Justices on the Court that voted to overturn the $1 billion judgment against State Farm. A lawsuit over that issue continues.
5 years ago in the collision repair industry (March 2011) An Environmental Protection Agency official, speaking at this month’s Collision Industry Conference (CIC), said that even though the deadline has passed for shops to comply with new federal refinish and paint stripping regulations (sometimes referred to as 6-H or NESHAP), any business that has not complied should not avoid doing so. “Some folks think if they hang back and don’t submit the paperwork that somehow EPA isn’t going to know about them,” Deborah Craig, an EPA compliance officer said. “They don’t want to shine a light on themselves by submitting something late. Our recommendation is that you just move forward as quickly as possibly to come
into compliance. Give the regional EPA folks a call. Ask for help in filling out the forms. Talk to folks in your trade group for assistance. A lot of the paint suppliers have really been offering such excellent customer service by helping you comply.” – As reported in CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com), March 28, 2011. The federal air quality regulation imposed a number of requirements on body shops, including mandatory training related to the regulation for painters every five years at a minimum. So painters that underwent that training five years ago as the regulation went into effect—but who haven’t gone through the training again since that time—are due to take it again this year. More information is available on the EPA website (http://www3.epa.gov/ collisionrepair/).
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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 65
Lean Operations
Why Winners Win (Deliberate Practice) with David Luehr
There are two traits that I most commonly witness amongst the most successful collision business leaders I work with. First they tend to work with a coach or mentor and secondly they engage in what is called deliberate practice. I was first introduced to the concept of deliberate practice not on the shop floor as you might expect, but instead on the tennis court. When I began playing tennis regularly just a few years ago I was completely hooked and would play and practice a lot, but felt my progress was slower than I would have liked. I was introduced to a coach that was unlike many of the other tennis professionals I had previously met. I thought this guy hated me! There were times I hated him, but in just a few months got me out of my rut and soon I was beating players that had been playing tennis for twenty years or more! What was it that made me improve to the point that I was beating far more experienced players? It was the not the amount of practice that mattered, it was how I practiced that mattered! This may come as good news to many of you that scientific research has proven that your natural born talent has much less to do with your success in life than many think. The real secret to success at any endeavor whether sport, business, music, or whatever lies in a person’s dedication to practicing the specific skills they have not yet mastered in a deliberate manner. This was great news to me as a tennis player, because trust me, I have very little natural athletic talent! The bad news is that deliberate practice can be tough! I’ll come back to that in a minute. I am sure many of my readers can relate to what I am about to say. In past years I have been amazed how I would hire a person to work in my shop that says they have been in the business for twenty years or more and they have absolutely no more skill than the guy working next to them that has only been working in the trade for five years! What is up with that? For the most part, it is because in many trades it takes about 5 years to become proficient at your job, and then people take their foot off the gas and coast. It is like learning
David Luehr is the owner of Elite Body Shop Solutions, LLC, a collision business consulting firm based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a 30 year veteran of the collision repair industry. David is an expert in Body Shop Operations and specializes in Lean, and Theory of Constraints methods. Email him at dluehr@msn.com
to drive. A person first goes through a cognitive phase where they have to think about everything before they do it. “Okay now I have to press the gas pedal, and then turn on my turn signal etc.” You have to think about everything until it becomes a habit. Then a few years later you learn enough skills that you can drive the car all over town and without thinking about anything. The problem then is that people become complacent and quit learning new advanced driving skills. This same driver that has now become comfortably proficient at driving is still a very long ways away from the skills that would be required to professionally drive a race car. So back to the bad news. While my more experienced tennis opponents were still practicing the old skills they had already mastered because it’s fun, I was over on the next court over looking like an idiot and not having much fun trying to learn new skills that I was horrible at! But like the great Zig Ziglar famously said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well.” Well I was quickly becoming the master of sucking at tennis! At least that is how it felt. For anyone to become truly great at anything, I am convinced that we have to learn to be okay at sucking at the things we have yet to master. The lessons I have learned from the tennis coach has translated into my business and my life in many enriching ways and it will yours too if you are willing to challenge yourself. The journey to truly superior performance is neither for the faint of heart nor for the impatient. The development of genuine expertise requires struggle, sacrifice, and honest, often painful self-assessment. There are no shortcuts. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book titled, Outliers, he indicates that it takes as much as 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to be considered an expert in a particular field. So how does one engage in deliberate practice and how does it translate to the automotive repair business? It is easier to know how to engage in deliberate practice when we are talking about sports and music, but it is a
66 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
little bit different when advancing your business skills. I believe a great deal of the skills that I am considered an expert in was simply due to my own curiosity and drive to be the best. For example many of my clients consider me an expert in the use of CCC One’s estimating and management software. What many of my clients don’t know is that I have spent many late nights discovering how to adapt this and other management systems to many different shop environments. I have made every mistake there is to make, tested various methods to perform many tasks in CCC One and I believe I still have more to learn! While some shop managers perform their daily duties and tasks exactly the same way every day, I perform every task with the intention of trying to do it better than the last time. Even if I am just doing the dishes! When it comes to some skills, deliberate practice is simply performing the duties
you already have, but changing your mental approach to always want to perform it better. I have often said that the curious will rule the world, perhaps this is why. Here are a few business related skills that coaching combined with deliberate practice can greatly improve your chances of becoming the best in your field, or at least in your shop. ■ Holding crucial conversations and holding people accountable
■ How to sell a repair job to a stubborn client ■ How to sell an idea to a stubborn boss
■ How to speak with charisma in front of your staff or in front of crowd
■ Getting your people to buy into change initiatives
The Right Parts. A Perfect Fit.
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By developing new skills and working on those things that are sometimes un-
comfortable, you can actually change your mental mapping for how you approach things in life. You could quickly find a new lease on life and begin to live a more fulfilling life or at least you may find yourself in a similar situation as me with my tennis game. Beating a lot of opponents, but still feeling like I suck! Perhaps I should change my mental approach and look at it in a more positive light?
Darryl Hollenbeck Claims 2016 AMBR Award
Acclaimed custom car builder and painter Darryl Hollenbeck won the 2016 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) award at the Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS) held at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, CA January 29–31. It was the third time Hollenbeck has painted an AMBR winner, and the first time he captured the prize with his own car—a PPG-painted 1932 Ford highboy roadster. The GNRS started in 1950 and is the longest running indoor car show in the world, and the AMBR, a towering eight-foottall trophy, is considered the ultimate recognition for a roadster-style hot rod. This year a field of thirteen outstanding cars—built by the elites of the custom car world—competed for the prestigious award. In the end, the judges
named Darryl and Terri Hollenbeck’s classically-styled roadster the winner, giving Darryl another honor to add to his long list of accomplishments including AMBR wins in 2013 and 2005. Hollenbeck and his colleagues Dan Webb and Cory Taulbert built the car at Vintage Color Studio, the custom shop Hollenbeck owns and operates in Concord, CA, and where he has been using PPG products exclusively for more than 25 years. Hollenbeck then painted the car himself. He came up with the roadster’s unique color, dubbed “Rotten Avocado Green,” applying a custom mix created with the PPG ENVIROBASE® High Performance waterborne paint system along with Single-Stage DCC9300 from the DELTRON® refinish system.
Continued from Cover
Labor Rate Survey
an independent survey and complete technology to help shops price their labor profitably and prove through documentation what the real market labor rate is for any area in our state.” Richard Valenzuela, CEO of NABR, added, “We’re very pleased to bring the VRS to Arkansas and to be working with a shop who cares enough to sponsor the survey for the good of all Arkansas shops, the collision repair industry, and for the ultimate care and safety of the consumer.” “For years, collision repairers around the country and here in New Mexico have struggled to get paid what they’re worth for the work they do,” said the state’s survey sponsor. “The low rates insurers pay do not reflect real market prices, but we the shops have never been able to prove that. Now, with the VRS, we can. And the system also includes the pricing tools to help us set an educated, wellinformed labor rate, based on a variety of factors including our cost of doing business. Finally, we have a solution in the VRS, an independent survey and complete technology to help
shops price their labor profitably and prove the real market rates.” Valenzuela added, “We’re excited to bring the VRS to New Mexico and help repairers in that state get paid not only true market rates but sufficiently profitable rates. Ultimately, it is the consumer who benefits, because the right labor rates enable shops to invest in the people, training, tools, equipment, and certifications necessary to repair modern vehicles, which in turn helps ensure vehicles are repaired right and consumers are kept safe.” New Mexico just began their Labor Rate Surveys and so a chart is not yet available. Other states currently running the VRS Labor Rate Survey include Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Utah. Any shop may request a free, noobligation demo of the VRS. To inquire about the VRS System, or to sponsor a VRS Labor Rate Survey in your state, Contact Sam Valenzuela, President, National AutoBody Research: 913-226-6550 / Sam@National AutoBody Research.com or visit their website: www.NationalAutoBody Research.com.
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Laurel BMW of Westmont
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INDIANA
Basney BMW
South Bend 800-274-8504 574-273-5075 M-F 7:30am-6pm parts@basneyimports.com www.basneybmw.com
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Erhard BMW of Bloomfield Hills
Bloomfield Hills 800-626-9787 248-642-0443 www.erhardbmw.com
Erhard BMW of Farmington Hills Farmington Hills 888-834-8635 248-699-3003
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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 67
Industry Insight with John Yoswick
—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in the family and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contact him by email at jyoswick@SpiritOne.com.
Attorney Presses Shops to Take the Steps They Can to Help Prevent Workplace Violence The mass shooting in San Bernardino, CA, in December in which a health department employee (along with his wife) shot and killed 14 of his co-workers at a holiday party occurred just 80 miles from business attorney Cory King’s law firm. So a month later when he was scheduled to discuss human resource issues at the quarterly Collision Industry Conference (CIC), King knew workplace violence was a logical if unpleasant topic on which to focus. “It’s a new topic for CIC, but it’s an unfortunate reality of our society today,” King said. He offered a number of steps employers can take in order to help avoid violence in the workplace. The first, he said, is a good written policy that prohibits fighting, verbal threats, threatening conduct, horseplay (arm-wrestling, strength contests, etc.) or the possession of any weapon or ammunition on company property. “That has been a strict policy we have espoused even though I am a cardcarrying lifetime member of the NRA,” King said. “Typically, at least in the past, the best way to stay safe in a workplace has been to prohibit weapons in the workplace.” Even horseplay, he said – “slapfights” or someone pretending to drive toward another employee with a car to scare them – can start out as fun but can escalate quickly.
Written Policy Is Not Enough The next step is consistent strict enforcement of that policy, he said. Make it clear both in the policy and in your interactions with employees that anyone found to have been engaged in any of those activities is subject to discipline, up to and including termination. Such consistency includes not excusing the employee with a gun in his vehicle because you know he’s leaving for a hunting trip after work, King cited as an example. “Or don’t just think: ‘Oh, that’s Johnny; he has to blow off steam every once in a while. We’re just going to let that go,’” King said. “If you’re being inconsistent in these policies, you’re not going to have credibility.” Does that mean a no-weapons policy applies to company owners as well?
King said it does, but some companies have shifted to a policy that allows employees who are legally-authorized concealed-carry permit holders to carry firearms at work. The policy just needs to be consistent for owners and employees, and consistently-enforced. But as he does each time he speaks at CIC, King cautioned that his presentations are not Cory King legal advice and that it’s always important to understand your particular state’s laws. In terms of this topic, for instance, he said some states that allow concealed or even open-carry of firearms now have laws prohibiting employers from having noweapon policies at the workplace.
Take Every Threat Seriously Another key step to working to prevent workplace violence, King said, is treating every threat seriously. “It’s like being at the airport. You don’t joke about bombs when you’re going through the [security] line,” King said. “Same thing in your workplace. You take it seriously. You would rather make the mistake of embarrassing somebody than having someone end up dead on your watch.” He said businesses also should work to establish a good relationship with local law enforcement to help ensure they respond if you make a “keepthe-peace” request. “If you have a volatile employee, and you know that when you fire or discipline them, that they are going to have a problem with it, that they may get angry or violent, don’t wait for that to happen,” King counseled. “Call the police and say, ‘Look, we are terminating Johnny at 2 p.m. today. Johnny has a violent temper. We will take our appropriate precautions on our end to make sure we keep the situation calm, and we’re going to escort him from the premises, but just in case, can you have an officer onsite in case Johnny has a problem and it escalates?’ I’ve yet to hear of a local law enforcement agency that would not say, ‘Of course we will have someone there. Thank you for letting us know.’ They would
68 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com
rather deal with that than have to deal with a really bad situation.” If warranted, King said, a restraining order also can be obtained against a potential violent employee. Certain conditions have to be met in order to get a court to do this, however, he said. There has to be an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or harm to an individual, and the person must have immediate access to a weapon of some kind. “You need to be willing to put that in a sworn declaration,” King said. “But if it’s bad enough that you are truly fearing for your life or the life of someone else, and that person has made threats directly or indirectly and has the ability to imminently carry out that threat, you can and should talk to a lawyer about your options for getting a restraining order.” Such restraining orders will be served on the person by the local sheriff, he said, and usual involve confiscation of firearms by law enforcement until a hearing can held 21 days later.
Remain Vigilant Lastly, King said, the other step shop owners can take to help prevent workplace violence is what he called “situational awareness” or “constant vigilance.” He said shop owners should think about, for example, how well they control access to the building or property. “Do you have 15 doors to the shop all of which are open all the time and anyone can just walk in from the back alley without you even knowing they are there,” King asked shop owners to consider. “Always be aware of what’s going on in your shop,” he said. “Know how your employees are getting along. Find out if someone is being a bully or threatening people. Don’t let the first time this type of situation comes up be the first time you’ve given some serious thought about what it is you are going to do. You have an obligation to do so in order to protect your employees.”
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651-639-2120 651-639-2192 Fax M-Th 7 am - 8 pm F 7am - 6pm Sat 8 am - 4:30 pm
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888-229-2336
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513-782-2846 Fax
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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 69
AUTOBODY MARKETPLACE ® Cosmichrome Spray a chrome finish in your paint booth. - Patented System. - Guaranteed not to turn yellow. - Used by GM, Andretti Autosport and West Coast Customs.
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SCRS Notifies Members of Collision Repair Petition
In February, 2015 CNN’s Anderson Cooper aired an episode that spotlighted lawsuits addressing industry tactics to steer customers and pressure repair decisions relative to parts and operations in a way that produces unsafe and unsatisfactory repairs. This special became highly discussed in the industry, and stimulated many to reach out to SCRS. During the last week of January 2016, a new petition began circulating among repair facilities that addresses many similar allegations, highlighting an event from 1963 when “US Attorney General Robert Kennedy sued the [insurance] industry to prevent them from forcing body shops to cut corners at the risk to public safety.” The petition pleads for the federal government to “enforce the 1963 Consent Decree for the safety of the American driving public.” The petition was seeking 100,000 signatures by February 24 and can be found at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/enforce-safe-car-repairs-save-lives. SCRS was not involved in the drafting. For information about SCRS, visit www.scrs.com, call 1-877-8410660 or email info@scrs.com.
ALI Lowers Price of Online Lift Safety Training Course
The Automotive Lift Institute (ALI) has lowered the price of its Lifting It Right online lift safety training course from $29 to $24 per person. The interactive course, hosted by NASCAR legends Richard and Kyle Petty, teaches vehicle lift operators how to properly use car and truck lifts in dealerships, independent shops, fleet maintenance garages, vocational schools and other facilities. ALI, the trade association focused on vehicle lift safety, introduced the online course in 2014 in cooperation with dealer services provider KPA. It is the latest evolution of Lifting It Right training ALI has offered in various formats for more than 25 years. “We have been very happy with the success of the Lifting It Right online course over the last two years,” says R.W. “Bob” O’Gorman, ALI president. “This course has helped us train nearly 12,000 lift operators on proper lift use and maintenance procedures for safer workplaces. We noticed a spike in sales when we ran promotions to lower the course price by $5, so in the interests of making the program as affordable as possible for everyone, we have decided to lower the price to $24 in 2016.” For information, visit www.autolift.org or call (607) 756-7775.
Spanesi Americas Distributors Across the Country Receive Awards and Recognition
Spanesi Americas recently recognized individual distributors for their 2015 contributions and accomplishments during its distributor sales and training meeting. Among those recognized was Texas Distributor Chad Neal of Paint Works in Tyler, Texas.
Karl Kirschenman (right) from K2 Consulting Group accepts the 2015 Spanesi Americas Sub-Distributor “Rookie” of the Year award
“We were very happy to recognize Chad Neal for his contributions and accomplishments during 2015 to the Spanesi organization,” said Timothy Morgan, managing director of Spanesi Americas. “Chad and his organization earned the Spanesi 2015 Top Distributor of the Year award for their sales accomplishments. Not only did Chad earn the top sales award, but he also was recognized for top sales during the second quarter, top sales during the fourth quarter, and most
improved distributor 2014-2015.” In addition to these awards, Neal also won a sales contest for top sales during the sales period July 1 to December 31, 2015. As the winner of this sales contest, he was awarded a trip to Italy for two people. California distributor Tim Williams from Williams Collision Equipment was recognized for top sales during the third quarter. “We are very fortunate to have Tim on the Spanesi team,” said Morgan. “Obtaining the top sales award during the third quarter is an accomplishment that shows the tremendous experience that Tim brings to his local market and Spanesi.” During the meeting, Spanesi also recognized Florida distributor Steve Smith of Automotive Collision Equipment – Florida as “Distributor Rookie of the Year” and Great Lakes Sub-Distributor Karl Kirschenman of K2 Consulting Group as “Sub-Distributor Rookie of the Year.” “Spanesi has continued to grow in both sales and in customer support during 2015. That growth is not possible without having a sales team that includes talented individuals like Steve Smith and Karl Kirschenman,” Morgan said.
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Waikem Mitsubishi MASSILLON
800-225-0281
(330) 478-0900 (330) 478-9957 Fax M, Thu 7:30am - 8pm Tue, Wed, Fri 7:30am - 5:30pm Sat 8am - 4pm mmiller@waikem.com www.waikem.com
Eden Prairie Nissan Eden Prairie 952-567-2150
(952) 567-2197 Fax M-F 6:30-7
parts@edenprairienissan.com www.edenprairienissan.com
www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS 71
72 MARCH 2016 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com