Pittsburgh Veterans NYC Secures More Than $300,000 for

On July 18, Pittsburgh Steelers legend Rocky Bleier and the Veterans Leadership Program helped two deserving Pittsburgh veterans receive donated vehicles to provide them independence and the ability to work and take care of their families.

The presentation was made possible thanks to the National Auto Body Council Recycled Rides® program, along with car donors Allstate and Farmers Insurance® and Body by Cochran Collision Monroeville.

The presentation was held at Rosedale Technical College, in conjunction with the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF) industry reception.

Bleier joined the festivities, along with representatives of Allstate, Farmers Insurance and Body by Cochran Collision, shared stories of inspiration and teamwork, and met with the veterans and other guests.

Bleier is a U.S. Army veteran, drafted while playing for the Steelers to serve in Vietnam. He works in the Pittsburgh community to help other veterans in need.

“I am so pleased to be able to be here and present these cars to veterans in need of transportation,” said Bleier, a four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I’m proud to work with Veterans Leadership Program, which identified these veterans and connected them with the NABC Recycled Rides program. It is a tribute to our community that we have organi-

zations like them to take care of our veterans. I am very privileged to be able to help with this program. The NABC does this around the country throughout the year and gives away 300 cars to people in need, like single mothers and about 75% to veterans.”

The veteran recipients, who were selected by the Veteran Leadership Program, included:

Anita Richmond, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was working daily at her full-time job and part-time job as a Lyft driver until her 2007 vehicle experienced extensive transmission issues too expensive to repair. Richmond has since been using public transportation and had to give up her part-time Lyft job.

“This will help me maintain employment and take care of the simple daily things like grocery shopping,” said Richmond. “I am forever grateful for this opportunity and very thankful that it’s been made available to me. It is awesome that this program helps veterans when they need it.”

Ryan Mueller served his country in the U.S. Army Reserve for eight years, and as a combat engineer in Iraq he sustained injuries in combat which have led him to great pain he deals with every day. Through the pain, he walks two miles to work as a cook at a local restaurant, which adds stress on his knees. Mueller is an extremely hard worker and is also enrolled in Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment to help him retrain in a different line of work that would be less stressful on his body.

“It’s been three or four months since I had a reliable vehicle, so I can only take a job that I can walk to,” said Mueller. “Thanks to this, I have a job making twice as much money starting tomorrow because I now have transportation to get there. This will help me move forward in my life, get to work and go back to school to complete my master’s to help other folks in need.”

NABC Recycled Rides is a unique program in which businesses representing all facets of the collision repair industry team up to repair and donate vehicles to individuals and families in need of reliable transportation. Since the inception of the NABC Recycled Rides program in 2007, members of the NABC have donated nearly 3,000 vehicles valued at some $42 million.

Additional partners in the NABC Recycled Rides presentation included PPG, which donated the paint for the vehicles; 1-800 Charity Cars; TOONA Automotive Paint & Equipment and FindPigtails.com, both of whom provided generous gas cards for the two veterans; CREF and Rosedale Technical College, which hosted the event.

Source: NABC

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The number of color coats required to make a refinish repair is one primary consideration for evaluating the throughput performance of a refinish paint system. Yet, as most know, the most accurate way to vet a system’s productivity is to evaluate the entire refinish process – from color identification, right on through to the final clearcoat. As example, PPG’s waterborne refinish system incorporates a host of features designed to speed cycle time performance.

Color ID and Matching Efficiency

The throughput of a refinish system must include its color-matching ability. Afterall, if the color doesn’t match, how fast the repair was achieved won’t matter. In this regard, PPG has heavily invested in ensuring the ENVIROBASE® High Performance waterborne basecoat system delivers color-matching excellence. Its color variance program is one example of this commitment.

Since color variants to OEM prime colors are an everyday challenge for identifying a correct formula, those identified by PPG’s color variance team are quickly incorporated into PPG’s comprehensive color formula database. Formulas are updated daily through PPG’s PAINTMANAGER® XI color software. In the long run, the daily update of the database saves the technician valuable time searching for the right color formula.

Another real time saver is the Chromatic Variant Deck since

it can significantly reduce sprayouts. Comprised of thousands of variant and prime color chips, each chip is sprayed with actual waterborne paint. “The color deck is ‘dead-on’,” says Jeff Smith of Pro Collision, Grand Rapids, Michigan. “If the color is in the deck, there’s no need to do a sprayout, like we always had to perform with our previous system.”

Blending Performance

Given that refinishing most often calls for blending, how efficient a system can perform an accurate repair and eliminate chances for redos is especially critical to achieving maximum cycle time performance. PPG’s waterborne system employs an easy, one-gun process designed to achieve a fast, tight blend and accurate match the first time out. In fact, in a 2-3 coat application, it’s possible to perform a spot repair in less than an hour.

This fast blend process is aided by a very thin film build, enabling the basecoat to dry fast. Only 2-3 minutes flash time is needed between coats and the clearcoat can be applied in 10-15 minutes. The system’s EN-V® Series clearcoat line offers fast bake times as short as 10 minutes.

To ensure color accuracy, the basecoat’s latex particles orient metallic flakes smoothly to accurately match the color travel from face to flop. Painters won’t find any evidence of mottling or halos around the repair, which can appear using conventional basecoats. Any dirt or specks can be easily de-nibbed, further facilitating a fast blend repair.

To summarize, when evaluating throughput performance— from color identification to final clearcoat—the Envirobase

High Performance system covers all the bases to achieve the cycle time performance demanded by today’s high-production collision centers.