Southeastern December 2014 Issue

GM Pauses MyPriceLink.com ImplementationGeneral Motors announced on Nov. 10that it had paused its MyPriceLink.comprogram that was launched a week ear-lier. See other cover story this issue.According to GM, the decision wasbased on industry feedback to enhanceand streamline the workflow for allcollision industry partners.

MyPriceLink.com is a free auto-mated “real-time” pricing programthat will provide Genuine GM colli-sion parts to the market that are com-petitively priced “up-front” at theinitial repair estimate.

The company said the repair fa-cilities will have access to GenuineGM Parts at the best available priceand in timely manner.

“For our GM dealers to be morecompetitive in the estimate writingprocess, we are going on the offensivewith our collision parts pricing. Ourobjective is to quote the most compet-itive OEM list price the first time, re-ducing supplements and adjustments,while at the same time improvingcycle time for repairers, insurers andultimately the customer,” said KrisMayer, General Director, WholesaleDealer Channel. GM said it has re-

ceived overwhelming interest and sup-port for its best price forward pricingstrategy from all constituents through-out the collision repair industry.

By providing the price up frontin the estimating process, GM said itcan continue to focus on helping thecustomer, allowing the vehicle to bereturned to pre-accident condition,with original parts, ensuring safetyand appearance.

Since GM announced this newprogram, the company said the work-flow pressures on outside parties hasbrought to light enhanced solutionsand the increased desire for integra-tion opportunities.

In the interim, GM will resumethe publishing of list price untilMyPriceLink.com is implemented.GM expects to have a fully function-ing dynamic pricing process throughMyPriceLink.com by early 2015.

GM said it appreciates the inter-est and support MyPriceLink.comhas received and looks forward tocollaborating with all constituents inthe collision repair industry to imple-ment the new way in which GM listprices will be obtained.

by John Yoswick

The biggest collision industry newsduring SEMA week in Las Vegas lastmonth got all of five minutes at theCollision Industry Conference (CIC).

Kris Mayer of General Motorstook no questions at CIC after the au-tomaker’s announcement that week thatit would be discontinuing the publica-tion of list prices for crash parts, in favorof MyPriceLink.com, a new, online andreal-time pricing system that would al-ways quote “competitive prices.”

Coming just three weeks before thechange was initially going to go into ef-

fect, the announce-ment stunned manydealers, shops andinsurers.

“We know it’sdisruptive. We aretaking that into ac-count. We knowwhat those disrup-tive points are,”Mayer said at CIC.“Every single work-flow disruption thatwe’ve come acrosswe have a possible

by Stacey Phillips and Victoria Antonelli

Autobody News reported in our No-vember issue that the Ford MotorCompany Rotunda Program has rec-ognized Pro Spot International forbeing their 2014 Supplier of the Year.

Our editorial staff recently touredthe 45,000 square foot facility inCarlsbad, CA, to learn more about theinnovative products and equipmentPro Spot is developing, particularly inpreparation for the new 2015 Ford F-150 aluminum body truck now beingproduced. We were joined by TobyChess, who took the opportunity togive the two newest editorial teammembers a lesson in welding. Toby’sintent was not to create expert welders

but to show that with the right equip-ment, training, and attention to detail,anyone can become competent atwelding. See sidebars.

Our Pro Spot tour began with a

Pro Spot Gives Autobody News a Facility Tour

Final 2014 CIC Meeting Includes GM Parts PricingAnnouncement, Human Resources Quiz

See Pro Spot Shines, Page 38

See Final 2014 CIC Meeting, 4

Kris Mayer ofGeneral Motors

announces that thecompany will bediscontinuing thepublication of listprices for crash

parts. Photo credit:John Yoswick

Ashley Olsson, the company’s Director ofCommunications, conducts a tour of the ProSpot plant floor

by Stacey Phillips, Assistant Editor

Nearly 500 collision repair shops acrossthe country have now joined the anti-trust Multi-District Litigation originallyfiled by five states in April against thenation’s top insurers. Over the pastmonth lawsuits have been filed againstinsurance companies in the additionalstates as part of “The Movement” bybody shops to take back control of theindustry. Recent reports have stated thatbody shops in at least 35 states turned inpaperwork by the Oct. 31 deadline.

When Autobody News con-tacted lead attorney John Eaves, Jr.to learn the results of the most recentcourt hearing scheduled on Nov. 14 inOrlando, he reported that the judgetook the hearing under advisement.

“This whole thing is not about usbody shops. This is about the con-

sumer,” said Ron Perretta, owner ofProfessionals Autobody Body in Penn-sylvania. As an active participant in“The Movement,” he said, “What thisis doing is it’s not allowing the bodyshop to fix consumers’ cars properly.This isn’t about us.”

Perretta and Tony Passwater,Executive Director of the Indiana Au-tobody Association and President ofAEII Consulting Services, have trav-eled across the country talking toshops and helping them understand“The Movement.”

“We believe that direct repairneeds to stop. Direct repair is nothingmore than something that was formedto be able to control our industry,”said Perretta. “The direct repair wasnot formed to make it easier, better,quicker for the consumer.”

More Lawsuits Filed in Additional States AgainstNation’s Top Insurers

See MDL and Insurers, Page 8Presorted StandardUS Postage

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33VOL. 5 ISSUE 10DECEMBER 2014

2 DECEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Contents

Southeast

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Stacey PhillipsOnline Editor: Victoria AntonelliContributing Writers: Tom Franklin,John Yoswick, Janet Chaney, Toby Chess,David Brown, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio,Chasidy Sisk, David LuehrAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, SeanHartman, Bill Doyle, Norman Morano(800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama,Mississippi, Virginia, Tennessee, NorthCarolina, South Carolina and adjacentmetro areas. Autobody News is a monthlypublication for the autobody industry.Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News mustbe obtained in writing from the publisher.©2014 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsBox 1516, Carlsbad, CA 92018;(800) 699-8251 (760) 603-3229 Faxwww.autobodynews.comEmail: [email protected]

Allan Vigil Ford-Lincoln . . . . . . . . . . 11Arrigo Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram . . 4BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 43Car-Part.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12CarcoonAmerica Airflow Systems . 19Certified Automotive PartsAssociation (CAPA). . . . . . . . . . . 31

Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Coggin Deland Honda . . . . . . . . . . 36Crashmax Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . 15Crown Automotive Group . . . . . . . . 13DJS Fabrications, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 48Don Reid Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Ford Wholesale Parts DealersFL, VA, GA, AL, MS. . . . . . . . . . . 41

GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 35Gus Machado Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Hendrick Automotive Group. . . . . . 17Hendrick BMW/MINI . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Hendrick Honda Bradenton . . . . . . 30Honda-Acura Wholesale PartsDealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 24-25

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers. . 40Innovative Tools & Technology, Inc. . 29

Jon Hall Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Kernersville Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers. 39Lexus Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 44Mercedes-Benz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Mercedes-Benz Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

MINI Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 43Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . 47MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 27Nalley BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Performance Automall . . . . . . . . . . 33Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . 45Priority Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Rick Hendrick Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . . 9Stateline Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram . 7Subaru of Gwinnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 37Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Valspar Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Inde

xofAdvertisers

REGIONALAmeriCarna Live Car Show . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Carousel Capital refinances Joe Hudson’sCollision Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Classic Collision Reaches Milestonewith 14 Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

FL Added to QuotesPros.com. . . . . . . . . . . 8Gerber Opens Location in GA . . . . . . . . . . . 4Luxury Vehicles Stolen in FL ‘Unlikelyto be Returned’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

NC-based Deb Launches AutomotiveHand Cleaners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Service King Opens New Orlando,FL Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Sherwin-Williams Vision Group Conferenceto be Held in Naples, FL . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

South Florida State College’s Auto Collision Program Receives Accreditation. . . . . . . 8

Virginia’s The Hybrid Shop Carves a Nichein Hybrid Maintenance and Service . . . 22

COLUMNISTSAttanasio - New Product ShowcaseWinners a Big Hit at SEMA. . . . . . . . . . 20

Franklin - Autobody Associations—A Great Source of Marketing Information . . . . . 28

Luehr - Competing with MSOConsolidation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Yoswick - Prevailing Practices, DoingBusiness on Internet, 2-Way Estimating, Steering Suits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Yoswick - SCRS OEM Technology EventIncludes Plenty of Focus on AluminumRepair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

NATIONAL3M™ Automotive Offers Products and Processes for Aluminum Repair . . . . . . 41

ACD Adds Collision Select to AutoLink™Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Acura TLX Earns Top Safety Pick+ Award . 47Alcoa Awards $45,000 Aluminum Welding Certification Grant to CREF for 15Collision Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Attanasio - CAA Gets a New Web Site with More Features and Better Navigation . . 40

Attanasio - Car Giveaways Become Regular Monthly Events at G&C Auto Body . . . . 32

Attanasio - NABC Gives Away Four Carsat Annual SEMA Luncheon. . . . . . . . . . 30

Attanasio - WD-40/PowerNation JeepDebuts at SEMA 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Auto Care Association Releases 2014 Digital Collision Repair Trends Report . . . . . . . 47

CarMax Returns to AutoTrader & Cars.com . 42CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Says They’re Ready for Aluminum Repair . . . . . . . . . 35

CCC’s Parts Shopping throughCCC ONE® Touch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Celette Receives “Best New Tools andEquipment Product 2015” at SEMANovember 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chicago Pneumatic Displays MotorcycleAir Compressor at SEMA . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Enterprise’s ARMS Application HelpsShops Track Cycle Time andBenchmark Performance . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Final 2014 CIC Meeting Includes GM Parts Pricing Announcement, HumanResources Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Ford, Chrysler, and GM Approve DeBeerRefinish Waterbase 900+ Series byValspar Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Four Collision Schools AwardedGEICO Grants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

GM Demonstrated Rail Saver RepairSystem at SEMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

GM Pauses MyPriceLink.com Implementation. 1Hertz Introduces New Web-basedHIRS Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

SI-Car’s 2015 Ford F-150 Trainingand Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

IGA & SCRS Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Mitchell Fourth Quarter ‘14 Industry Trends Report Provides Insights for 2015 . . . . 46

More Lawsuits Filed in Additional States Against Nation’s Top Insurers. . . . . . . . . 1

More Than 2,700 State Farm EmployeesComplete I-Car Training for FordF-150 Repairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

NAPA/Martin Senour Unveil Custom 1966 Mustang at SEMA 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Nissan Introduces Certified CollisionNetwork Consumer Referral Program . . 42

Overview of the SCRS Seminar: CreatingEngaging Consumer Videos forMarketing with Kristen Felder . . . . . . . . 18

PartsTrader Integrates with RecycledParts Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

PPG Launches New Clearcoat and Latest Branded Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Pro Spot Gives Autobody News a Facility Tour . 1Quest Hires Former Martin SenourProduct Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Safelite Renews Annual Contributionto CREF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

SEMA 2014 Entertains, Informs andWows the Crowd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Sentencing Handed Down in AttemptedKidnap Case at Hialeah Body ShopLast August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Service King Raises $112,000 forBreast Cancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Sherwin-Williams Donates $170,000in Products to CREF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Sherwin-Williams’ New Additive. . . . . . . . 10Steeling Yourself for Changes—NewHigh-Strength Steel Poses AdditionalChallenges According to 3M™. . . . . . . 45

Valspar Automotive is Newest SCRSCorporate Member. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Website Connects Collision Shop Owners& Auto Techs: TalentMonger.com . . . . . 43

www.autobodynews.com | DECEMBER 2014 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Service King Raises $112,000 for Breast Cancer Service King Collision Repair Cen-ters and its teammates raised morethan $112,000 in support of the Na-tional Breast Cancer FoundationInc.® (NBCF) during the month ofOctober.

Service King pledged to matchteammate donations to NBCF duringits National Breast Cancer Aware-ness Month initiative. In an over-whelming and inspiring response,teammates from across the countryrallied to raise $56,000 to support thecause.

“The response from our team-mates was truly inspirational,” saidChris Abraham, Service King CEO.“Breast cancer touches countlesslives in so many ways. We are hon-ored to come together as a family andraise funds for the National BreastCancer Foundation and its mission toraise awareness and find a cure.”

Throughout the month of Octo-ber, Service King encouraged team-mates at its locations nationwide toraise awareness by wearing Elimi-nate Breast Cancer t-shirts and pinkwristbands. Service King also sharedmessages of hope with its customersby including pink warranty packages

and mirror hangers in each vehiclerepaired.

Additionally, Service King hon-ored its teammates who had person-ally been affected by breast cancerthrough its “Faces of Breast Cancer”series, hosted on its social mediaplatforms and new blog, The ServiceAdvisor.

“Service King’s dedication andsupport of our mission to help womennow has truly been inspiring,” saysNBCF Co-Founder & CEO, JanelleHail. “The funds raised by ServiceKing will help us provide thousandsof free early detection services forwomen in all 50 states.”

Service King and the NBCF’s ef-forts focused primarily on raisingearly detection awareness. The fundsraised will help the NBCF provide ed-ucation and support services, as wellas early detection services through theNational Mammography Program,which offers free diagnostic screen-ings to under-served women acrossthe country.

To learn more about ServiceKing and NBCF’s partnership duringBreast Cancer Awareness Month,visit The Service Advisor.


In addition to displaying a wide rangeof automotive compressors duringSEMA, Chicago Pneumatic unveileda special addition to their booth − thePatriot MOTOCOMP.

The Patriot MOTOCOMP is acustom motorcycle frame outfittedwith a fully operational variable speeddriven piston air compressor. Createdfor SEMA, it was a joint project be-tween Chicago Pneumatic and PatriotMarketing and built by Eric Bighamof Patriot Customs, located in RockHill, South Carolina.

Bigham said it took 120 hours tobuild. “I’ve always drag-raced and builtcars. I’ve definitely never made an aircompressor out of a motorcycle,” hesaid. “It pushed my thinking ability toits capacity.”

He said the biggest challenge wasin the details of the project, whichcomprised of finding the parts to putit all together and trying to keep it anair compressor but make it look like amotorcycle. He said that eventually he

would like to make one that actuallyrides.

Ellen Steck, President of ChicagoPneumatic Compressors North Amer-ica, said it was a great opportunity to

talk about a compressed air system. “Ithas been a wonderful educational piecefor people who aren’t industry experts,who do use compressed air, and so wecan more easily showcase and high-

light what happens and how the pumpand the motor are connected and howthe variable speed drive functions.”

She said many people were so in-trigued they wanted to purchase it.“We were able to use this as a demon-stration in a bit of an educational modebecause so much of it is exposed.”

In place of the speedometer andtachometer display, the gauges readthe air pressure and oil temperature ofthe air compressor. Baldor ElectricCompany, which specializes in the de-sign and manufacture of industrialelectric motors, donated a 5 HP Bal-dor motor and ABB, a leader in powerand automation technologies, pro-vided the variable speed drive to theMOTOCOMP project.

“Our automotive customers lovecool, custom vehicles,” said Rob Lit-tle, owner of Patriot Marketing. “ThePatriot MOTOCOMP is a visual rep-resentation of Chicago Pneumatic’sdedication to designing innovative,high-quality compressors for the auto-motive industry.”

Chicago Pneumatic Displays Motorcycle Air Compressor at SEMA

(l to r) Scott Barlowe (Patriot Marketing), Dan Little (Patriot Marketing), Rob Little (Patriot Mar-keting), Ellen Steck (President CP Compressors North America), Eric Bigham (Patriot Marketing)

Gerber Opens Location in GA

Out of the 50 states, luxury cars stolenin Florida are the least likely to get re-turned, according to Laura Davisonat propertycasualty360.com.

More than 25 percent of luxurycars taken from 2010 through 2013were never returned to their Floridianowners, the National Insurance CrimeBureau (NICB) said in a report on Oct.23. Cars that go unrecovered are fre-quently dismantled and sold for partsin the U.S. or abroad. Nationwide,about 17 percent of stolen luxury ve-hicles in the period were never found,according to the data.

According to the NICB, luxurycars comprise a small percentage of allthe cars stolen. There were 5,570 lux-ury vehicles reported stolen in the U.S.from 2010 to 2013. Only vehicle mod-els from 2011 to 2013 were includedin the NICB report.

The number of vehicles stolenhas declined 50 percent from the mid-1990s. As of last year, 700,000 vehi-cles were stolen nationwide, accordingto Frank Scafidi, NICB spokesman.CA had the most luxury vehicle theftsin the three-year period with 1,390,about 25 percent of the total, followedby FL with 863, NJ with 570 and NYwith 462, the report shows.

Luxury Vehicles Stolen in FL‘Unlikely to be Returned’ The Boyd Group Inc. announced on

Oct. 21 the opening of a collision re-pair location in Brunswick, GA. Thelocation is 13,500 square feet and pre-viously operated under the name Ad-vanced Collision Center. The BoydGroup operates in 16 U.S. states underthe name Gerber Collision & Glass.

“We are excited about opening thisnew center as it plays an important rolein expanding our geographic footprintand, since it is about 70 miles betweenour locations in Savannah, Georgia andJacksonville, Florida, it bridges a gap inour brand presence as well as offeringanother local option for our customersand insurance partners in the region,”said Tim O’Day,President and COO ofThe Boyd Group’s U.S. operations.

“With Brunswick being one of thebusiest automobile shipping ports inthe United States, we know the peoplethere know and care about their cars,”O’Day added. “We look forward toserving them and assure them they willreceive the same high-quality serviceat Brunswick as in all of our Gerber re-pair centers.”

The Boyd Group is always look-ing to add collision repair locations inCanada and the U.S. For more inforam-tion, contact Kim Allen (847) [email protected]

www.autobodynews.comC

www.autobodynews.com


Hendrick BMW6950 E. Independence Blvd.Charlotte, NC 28227Mon-Fri: 7:30am-6:00pmSat: 9:00am-5:00pm

888.814.1938

Hendrick BMW Northlake10720 Northlake Auto Plaza Blvd.Charlotte, NC 28269Mon-Fri: 7:30am-6:00pmSat: 9:00am-5:00pm

888.286.2651

Hendrick MINI7036 E. Independence Blvd.Charlotte, NC 28227Mon-Fri: 7:30am-6:00pm Sat: 9:00am-5:00pm

866.952.7851

ORIGINAL BMW PARTS AND ACCESSORIES

Original BMW Parts

bmwusa.com

©2013 MINI, a division of BMW of North America, LLC. The MINI name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.

• OE Parts Express• Collision Link• OPSTRAX• Parts Trader

• Collision Link• OPSTRAX• Parts Trader

• OE Parts Express• Collision Link• OPSTRAX• Parts Trader

Deb Group skin care company,headquartered in the U.K. and withNorth American headquarters inCharlotte, NC, introduced a completeline of heavy-duty hand cleaners de-signed specifically for the automo-tive aftermarket industry. KrestoGToffers products formulated to protect,clean and restore technicians’ hands.The KrestoGT line of products willbe available for purchase beginningin January 2015.

KrestoGT hand cleaner containsall-natural, biodegradable scrubberswith no harsh solvents or sharp scrub-ber material. The issue of occupa-tional dermatitis (acute skin problemscaused by exposure to harsh chemi-cals) is specifically pressing in the au-tomotive environment, where workersrely on their hands and often cannotwear personal protective equipmentlike gloves. months away from work.

“The Automotive industry isflooded with a multitude of low-qual-ity hand cleaners,” said Michael Bog-danski, CEO of Deb in NorthAmerica. “The new KrestoGT rangefeatures heavy-duty hand cleaningproducts that are free of petroleumdistillates, contain skin-friendly scrub-bers and VOC compliant ingredients.

NC-based Deb Launches Automotive Hand Cleaners

Carousel Capital announced on Oc-tober 20 that it has partnered withmanagement to recapitalize Joe Hud-son’s Collision Center (JHCC). Basedin Montgomery, AL, JHCC operates23 stores in AL, North FL, and West-ern GA, providing award-winningservices to its customers and insur-ance industry partners since 1989.

“We are excited to partner withthe management team of JHCC to as-sist them in continuing to build one ofthe highest quality and fastest growingcollision center businesses in the coun-try,” said Jason C. Schmidly, a Man-aging Partner of Carousel Capital.“This investment represents CarouselCapital’s fifth platform investment inthe automotive aftermarket servicessector and we find the opportunity toexpand JHCC among the most com-pelling we have ever seen.”

“We have built our business onthe base philosophy of unparalleledcustomer service. Carousel shares thisview wholeheartedly and its experi-ence developed through many suc-cessful investments in the automotiveaftermarket sector gave us great con-fidence in working with them on thisopportunity,” said Joe Hudson, Chair-man and Founder of JHCC.

Carousel Capital refinancesJoe Hudson’s Collision Center The “AmeriCarna LIVE” Car Show,

presented by Ingersoll Rand andMSC Industrial Supply Co. took placeon the Ingersoll Rand corporate cam-pus in Davidson, NC, on Nov. 29.

“AmeriCarna LIVE” is a carshow to support IGNITE, a commu-nity center in Davidson for youngadults with high functioning autism(HFA) or Asperger’s Syndrome (AS).IGNITE offers activities, skills train-ing and educational workshops thatwill foster social, financial, educa-tional and employment independencefor its members.

Ray Evernham, a formerNASCAR championship crew chief,host of “AmeriCarna” on Velocityand founder of IGNITE, annuallyhosts the event along with auto en-thusiasts from around the East andsome of his NASCAR friends.

For information about the eventthat took place, check out www.AmericarnaTV.com, http://www.facebook.com/AmeriCarnaTV andfollow @AmeriCarnaTV on twitter.

For more information on RayEvernham, follow him on twitter@RayEvernham. IGNITE is a pro-gram of the Autism Society of NorthCarolina. For more information on IG-NITE visit www.ignite-davidson.org.

AmeriCarna Live Car Show

Service King Collision Repair Cen-ters, one of the fastest growing col-lision repair companies nationwide,announced on Oct. 22 that it openeda new location in Orlando, Florida.

This is Service King’s thirdlocation in Orlando and ninth inthe state of Florida.

Located in south Orlando at6163 S. Orange Blossom Trail, thenew location will employ up to 35auto technicians and office team-mates.

“We take pride in the commu-nities where we do business andlook forward to having an evengreater social and economic impacton the Orlando area,” said ScottWard, Service King Regional VicePresident of Southeast Operations.

“We are excited to deliver theService King standard of excep-tional service and high-quality re-pairs our customers deserve.”

For additional information onthis new location and other ServiceKing locations, visit www.ser-viceking.com.

Service King Opens NewOrlando, FL Location

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!



by David Ovalle, [email protected]

On a sunny day, two men — one a white-haired senior citizen, the other a youngerman sporting dark sunglasses and oneearring—walked up to a Hialeah autobody shop. Both carried pistols.

In an instant, the men shovedJorge Verdecia into a black NissanAltima. “Calm down, you’re going todie today,” one man barked.

Visiting from Germany, Verdeciathought the attack was some sort ofjoke—until he was viciously pistol-whipped and one gunman repeatedlypulled the trigger, the pistol jamminguntil one bullet discharged harmlessly.

But what appeared to be a coordi-nated hit, all captured on newly releasedvideo surveillance, unraveled quicklywhen one gunman realized something.“Viejo,” the younger man blurted out.“Old man, this isn’t them!”

The gunmen, Oscar Rua Tor-bizco and Orlando Hernandez, ranoff and hopped into a Ford Explorer.What unfolded was a cinematic carchase—with Verdecia and his son,who had come out of the shop, thevery victims, chasing their attackers.

Gunfire erupted, and soon an off-duty rookie police officer cornered thewould-be hit men on a dead-end

street.“Everything weaved together into

this rather incredible story,” Miami-Dade prosecutor Sonali Desai said.

Both men were convicted at ajoint trial in August. Now Miami-DadeCircuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez

has sentenced 75-year-old Rua to 70years in prison.

Hernandez, 48, is facing up to lifein prison. He was supposed to be sen-tenced Friday, but the hearing was de-layed as his defense lawyers, Bob Pardoand Matthew Meyers, ask for a new trial.

Both men were convicted of ag-gravated assault with a firearm, kid-

napping, armed burglary and fleeingpolice at high speed.

Prosecutors say Verdecia, 56, andhis son, Juliedys Gutierrez, 32, wereinnocent victims. Exactly who the in-tended targets were remains unknown,but the would-be hit was likely drug

related, authorities believe.The two gunmen were

no strangers to crime. Ruaserved 16 years in federalprison for armed cocainetrafficking. He was releasedin 2008.

In the 1990s, Hernandezserved about four years instate prison for armed drugtrafficking and robbery con-victions in HillsboroughCounty.

Witnesses and evidenceat trial detailed the March2013 attack that started out-side the auto body shop on

the 2600 block of West 76th Street.That’s when Verdecia and his son, whoowned the body shop, pulled up in theirAltima to pick up some equipment.

After Rua and Hernandez realizedthey had the wrong people, Gutierrezran back into the body shop—and,bizarrely, grabbed a mop stick to de-fend himself.

Then, he and his father got intothe Altima and gave chase to the at-tackers. “They were very coura-geous,” said Desai, who tried the casewith prosecutor Adam Korn.

At trial, jurors heard that duringthe chase, the elderly Rua leaned out ofthe fleeing Ford and began shooting atthe Nissan — an explosion of gunfireclearly heard on a 911 emergency call.

When Gutierrez and his father re-alized they were being shot at, theybusted a U-turn and zoomed off. TheFord turned around and gave chase.

The gunmen eventually stoppedtheir pursuit, while Gutierrez and hisfather pulled over and sought helpfrom a group of Jehovah Witnesses.

At that moment, rookie HialeahGardens Officer Michael Barilari hadjust gotten off duty when he heard thepolice emergency bulletin.

He spotted the Ford pulling into aShell gas station at 7750 NW 103rd St.

Another chase ensued but endedwhen Rua and Hernandez pulled intoa dead end street near the Palmetto Ex-pressway. As they tried to run off, Bar-ilari arrested them at gunpoint.

The entire episode lasted less than20 minutes.http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article3497681.html

Sentencing Handed Down in Attempted Kidnap Case at Hialeah Body Shop Last August

Oscar Rua Torbizco and Orlando Hernandez begin to approachJorge Verdecia with intentions to kidnap and murder him

After 35 years in the business,Perretta said he has never seen the in-dustry in this state. “I grew up in thisindustry taking pride in what I do,doing safe, quality repairs. That’swhat they’re trying to take away fromus because it’s cheaper to do it thatway,” said Perretta. “But they are put-ting the consumer at risk because ofthe way these repairs are being done.”

Perretta acknowledges that manyshop owners are fearful that the insur-ers will steer work away from them.“They’re scared for their families be-cause if they don’t have work, thentheir families can’t eat.”

However, he said shops have achoice. “They can either do it the rightway or do it the wrong way. There’sno in between. But when they chooseto do it the wrong way, they’ve madethat choice.”

State Farm Responds to MDL“We anticipated the possibility of ad-ditional litigation similar to what hadbeen previously filed, given the dead-line for filing these complaints,” saidDick Luedke, spokesperson for State

Farm Insurance. “State Farm is a de-fendant along with dozens of other in-surers in the litigation relating toissues that have been raised by someauto body repair facilities.”

Luedke said State Farm has excel-lent working relationships with thou-sands of body shops across the countryand they serve millions of customerswho consistently indicate their satisfac-tion with their handling of claims. Hesaid the just-released American Cus-tomer Satisfaction Index from the Uni-versity of Michigan rates State Farmabove all other national insurance com-panies. In addition, he said the companyhas consistently scored well above av-erage in the JD Power auto claims satis-faction surveys. Among the 23 autoinsurers included in the latest survey,State Farm was third, said Luedke.

“As a leader in advancing vehiclesafety, State Farm wants safe and reliablevehicles on the road,” said Luedke. “Cus-tomers are free to choose where to taketheir vehicle for repair. If they choose anindependent auto body repair facility thattakes part in our Select Service programthey receive from that repair facility a na-tional, limited lifetime repair warranty,something they don’t necessarily receive


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Classic Collision Inc., a privatelyheld operator of collision repair fa-cilities in Northern and CentralGeorgia, announced it has acquiredthree additional facilities in thenorth Georgia Market, bringingtheir total locations to 14.

Classic Collision’s Owner andPresident, Manfred Kammererstated, “Our family-owned businessis celebrating our 35th year. Our 14locations employ over 500 citizens.We’ve added five new locations in2014 alone. With the recent invest-ments made relative to our infra-structure, we feel we are well poisedto maintain that pace of growth overthe next several years.”

Kammerer went on to say,“One of the most satisfying aspectsof our growth is watching membersof our team rising to the challengeand opportunities that growth af-fords an organization. Classic Col-lision will continue to pursuehigh-quality locations and people aswe strive to reach our goal of be-coming a top-notch 21st century or-ganization.”

For more information aboutClassic Collision Centers, visit theirwebsite at www.classiccollision.net

Classic Collision ReachesMilestone with 14 LocationsDirect quotes from Florida collision

insurance providers can now be ob-tained through use of the updateddatabase: http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

Drivers statewide will nowhave access to the companies andthe different policies that are beingsupplied in part through the Quote-sPros.com portal. The revised ratesdata that agencies are producing formotorists who obtain a quotationthrough the system is accurate basedon zip code and other driver data.

“The FL companies that are foundthrough use of our system include a listof the top rated agencies that underwriteautomotive protection plans for con-sumers,” said a Quotes Pros source.

The collision protection that isoffered separately from liability pro-tection is normally coupled into afull coverage plan through mostcompanies. One new benefit to mo-torists who use the database to findinsurer price details this year is theinclusion of PIP collision providers.

“Personal insurance protectionand general liability are suppliedthrough companies that are listed in-side of our database to help the pub-lic explore rates packages,” said thesource.

FL Added to QuotesPros.com

South Florida State College’s Auto Collision ProgramReceives AccreditationSouth Florida State College’s Auto-motive Collision, Repair and Refin-ishing program recently receivednational accreditation in the areas ofpainting, refinishing and estimating bythe National Automotive TechniciansEducation Foundation (NATEF) andThe National Institute for AutomotiveService Excellence.

NATEF said the accreditationsignifies that a program meets thehighest standards and speaks to thequality of the program’s faculty, cur-riculum and overall operations. Oneof their goals is to offer local employ-ers the availability of highly trainedentry-level technicians, whose educa-tion has been aligned with industrystandards.

“Accreditation by outside or-ganizations like NATEF gives ourstudents confidence that SFSC iswell prepared to give them the skillsrequired in the workplace,” said TomBush, Chair of SFSC technical andindustrial education. “It also validatesthe good work our staff has beendoing and continues to do.”

To achieve this recognition,SFSC’s program underwent evalua-tion by NATEF utilizing nationallyaccepted standards of excellence in

areas such as instruction, facilitiesand equipment.

This process included an ex-tensive self-evaluation, which wasperformed and approved by the pro-gram’s advisory board after intensereview. It was then sent to NATEF,which reviewed and proceeded withan on-site evaluation by a NATEFteam. Following the successful eval-uation, the program received its ac-creditation for a five-year period andwill require a mid-point review intwo and half years.

“This accreditation is an in-credibly significant facet of the stu-dent’s education and training,” saidDaniel Longnecker, professor ofauto collision repair and refinish-ing. “Students have the opportunityto learn with the newest equipmentand an instructor that meets all ofNATEF Standards. Without accred-itation, you will find yourself witha certificate employers do not re-spect.”

SFSC’s Auto Collision, Repairand Refinishing program said it pre-pares students to transition into theworkforce. Students use hands-onlearning techniques in up-to-date labenvironments.

Continued from Cover

MDL and Insurers

See MDL and Insurers, Page 42


Sherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes will hold its annual VisionGroup Conference at the NaplesGrande Beach Resort in Naples, FL,Dec. 10-12, 2014. The conferencewill provide more than 100 leadingNorth American collision facilityowners and managers with training,top industry speakers and groupbreakout sessions designed to contin-uously improve shop productivity andprofitability.

The conference agenda will featuremany industry leaders and speakersfrom the collision repair and businessarena, including:

Keynote: “Are you on P.A.C.E.?”by G.B. Outlaw who will present anInspire2Action (I2A) message. He saidorganizations must climb their Per-formance Mountain every day for opti-mal performance; requirements arechanging as DRP’s drive performance.As the industry changes, organizationsmust be prepared to keep pace with thechange. As one of the industry’s lead-ing business coaches, specific to colli-sion repair, Outlaw works with manycollision repairers to be sure they arestaying on P.A.C.E. and will share thesetips during the session.

Special Presentation: “The Fu-ture Technology of Repairs,” by Kim

Hazelbaker, Senior Vice President,Highway Loss Data Institute. This isan extensive review of the future tech-nology of vehicles and how repairersneed to prepare for these technologies.The Highway Loss Data Institute col-lects data regarding vehicle safety/re-pairs and the information it assemblesis available for collision center man-agement personnel.

“The Perfect Body Shop” con-ducted by Sherwin-Williams Auto-motive Finishes Business ConsultingServices Managers: Leroy Rush,Steve Feltovich, Judy Lynch, TedWilliams and David Dewalt.

After the keynote speech andguest speakers present, breakout ses-sions will be held in tandem with peer-to-peer discussion groups throughoutthe three-day event. The discussiongroups will give attendees the chanceto review financial performance, de-fine their goals and build implementa-tion plans.

“The theme of this year’s annualconference is ‘The Time is Now.’ Itcombines both a big picture industryview, as well as hands-on best prac-tices sharing, to support and educateour Vision Group Members as theyformulate their specific 2015 businessplans,” said Greg Eisenhardt, A-

Plus® Manager at Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive Finishes. “This is justone of several meetings our VisionGroup members attend and interactextensively with their peers. These areall designed to keep their businessesat the industry forefront.”

Sherwin-Williams Vision Groupmembers are part of the brand’s A-Plus Network. Members not onlybenefit through their Vision Groupparticipation, but are also assisted bythe program’s many business-build-ing opportunities. These include spe-cialized marketing and managementprograms, industry leading businesstraining, loyalty benefits and special-ized programs and services from out-standing contributors.

To register for the upcomingNaples annual Vision Group Confer-ence, contact Francine Schaefer at(216) 332-8524 or [email protected]. For more information onSherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes visit www.sherwin-automotive.com or call 1-800-798-5872.

Sherwin-Williams Vision Group Conference to be Held in Naples, FL

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Alcoa Awards $45,000 Aluminum Welding CertificationGrant to CREF for 15 Collision ProgramsThe Collision Repair Education Foun-dation (CREF) announced on October31 that Alcoa Foundation, the philan-thropic arm of Alcoa, awarded theCREF a $45,000 grant that will spon-sor 15 collision school programs withthe industry-recognized I-CAR Alu-minum Welding Certification. Uponcompletion of the certification, the in-structors will prove their ability to:identify and correct weld defects;properly prepare metal surfaces; per-form proper welding techniques; ex-plain safety issues involved withaluminum welding; and properly setup, tune and maintain a welding ma-chine. The 15 schools will be selectedfrom the CREF’s 2014 Ultimate Colli-sion Education Makeover school grantapplications.

“With aluminum being the sec-ond most used material to build cars,it is important to ensure that the pro-fessionals who will be repairing thesecars have the proper training and certi-fication to ensure the occupantssafety,” said Dan Murphy, Senior VP,Business Development Alcoa De-fense at Alcoa. “By working togetherwith the Collision Repair EducationFoundation and I-CAR, we are able tohelp provide the industry recognized

aluminum welding certification to col-lision school program educators, whoin turn will pass this knowledge ontotheir collision students.”

CREF’s Director of Develop-ment Brandon Eckenrode noted,“We are thankful of Alcoa Founda-tion’s continued support to help traincollision repair educators across thiscountry and their instructor’s efforts toprepare the future professionals of thecollision industry. Not only should cur-rent technicians be prepared to per-form quality, complete and safealuminum repairs but through thisgrant, school instructors can obtaincurrent welding skills that their schoolbudgets might not allow them to com-plete. Through Alcoa Foundation--support and working together with I-CAR, we are truly taking technical ed-ucation within collision repair schoolprograms to a higher level.”

I-CAR Senior Director, SegmentDevelopment – Educational & Inter-national, Bill Stage noted, “I-CAR isthrilled to partner with the CREF andAlcoa to provide this important train-ing to career and technical school in-structors. Aluminum-intensive vehiclerepair techniques are different, not dif-ficult.”

Celette Receives “Best New Tools and EquipmentProduct 2015” at SEMA November 13

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PPG Industries’ whimsical “Toy Store”booth at SEMA showcased brightly-col-ored cars, bikes and even a boat, reflect-ing the latest trends in paint designs andfinishes.

During the show, PPG introducedcustomers to its new EC530 En-V™Performance Clearcoat as well as thecompany’s latest packaging design forits Envirobase® High Performance wa-terborne product.

PPG launched a new look for thisproduct line in October. A modern, mo-lecular-shaped design replaced the waterdrop image they have used since 2007.“With the brand’s broad market accept-ance around the world, we thought it wastime to give Envirobase® High Perform-ance a fresh look that would reinforce itsforemost position in the industry,” saidJohn Outcalt, Vice President of globalautomotive refinish.

He said the structured graphic rep-resents innovation, color and technology.Although the packaging has been up-dated, there were no changes made to thetechnology of the products.

Since launching its two brands, En-virobase® and Aquabase®, in the UnitedStates in 2007, PPG has continued to de-velop waterborne products for the colli-sion repair industry.

The company recently reached amilestone, with more than 10,000 of theircustomers using waterborne basecoatthroughout the U.S and Canada. Water-borne was introduced in the United Statesand Canada to meet the low VOC compli-ance of 3.5 basecoat. Currently, the com-pliant areas include California, Delaware,

Maryland, five counties in Utah and all ofCanada.

Texas, Arizona and13 states in theNortheast, referred to as the Ozone Trans-portation Commission, are working towardimplementing low VOC requirements aswell. “We now have more customers in the

areas that don’t require low VOC usingwaterborne than we do in all of the com-pliant areas combined because it improvestheir productivity,” said Tim Jones, PPG’sWaterborne Segment Manager.

He attributes this to the consistentcolor it offers customers, allowing tech-nicians to complete vehicles morequickly. “We’ve worked very hard tomake sure our colors match our chips,”said Jones. He said when a technicianspulls out the color deck and it matches, itgives them the confidence that when it’smixed together it will be the correct color.

PPG debuted its waterborne tech-nology to the automotive OEM market in1986. The company then acquired ICI’srefinish business, based in the UK, in1997. “Following that integration, weworked to get the best attributes of bothof those two systems and that’s what wenow call third-generation Envirobase®

High Performance,” said Jones.Over the years the company has

been adding clears and primers that areengineered to work with the waterbornebasecoat. Jones said as a leader in water-borne technology, they are working to-ward having the first waterborne fullyintegrated system over the next fewyears. “Having a full waterborne systemwill continue to lower emissions to im-prove air quality,” said Jones. “We wantto be able to offer the collision repair in-

dustry all of the products they need to besuccessful.”

One of these products includes theirEC530 En-V™ Performance Clearcoatintroduced in late October. “EC530 is asignificant expansion of the EnvirobaseHigh Performance system,” said Jones.“This is an excellent, compliant clearcoatfor our waterborne basecoat.”

He said it is easy to use will helpshops improve their productivity andthroughput. “It also consistently providesthe beautiful finish, gloss and appearanceexpected of PPG products,” said Jones.“We believe these are features collisioncenters and their customers will find veryattractive.”

EC530 uses a traditional two-coatapplication process. Offering four re-ducers, it works in a variety of tempera-ture and humidity conditions. It has ashort bake cycle of 25 minutes or can beaired dried in less than four hours. Jonesalso said it doesn’t require polishing anddirt nibs can be buffed after cool down.

Jones said the industry has alwaysbeen geared for solvent borne products.“Now that waterborne is gaining a higherpercentage of the market, suppliers arealso getting onboard with supplying bet-ter pigments, better additives and betterresins for the waterborne market andthat’s going to be better for everyone aswell,” he said.

PPG Launches New Clearcoat and Latest Branded Image

PPG employees at their “Toy Store” boothduring the SEMA show (from left): StacieToothman, Product Manager Collision; JeffMatauch, Tech. Sales Instruction Supervisor;Paul Stoll, Tech. Sales Instruction Supervisor;and Tim Jones, Waterborne Product Managerat their booth during the SEMA show

During the week of SEMA, Ford,Chrysler, and GM approved DeBeerRefinish WaterBase 900+ series.

Ford’s approval is based on theWSS – M2P100-D specification andapplies to all Ford vehicles. Any coun-try that manufacturers, sells or repairsFord vehicles can now utilize DeBeerRefinish WaterBase 900+ Series byValspar Automotive.

“Valspar Automotive is thrilledto announce the Ford approval. Ded-ication to excellence remains at theforefront of all we do at Valspar, andthis approval is another symbol of ourcommitment to our customers” saidCarl Wierks, Global VP of Valspar.

Chrysler’s approval is based onthe PF-10537 specification and appliesto all Chrysler Group LLC brands.Every Chrysler collision repair centeracross the globe can now benefit fromDeBeer Refinish WaterBase 900+ se-ries coatings.

“Chrysler Group LLC is an im-pressive force in the global automotivemarketplace. After many rounds of ex-tensive testing, Valspar Automotive isproud to announce this approval byChrysler. Our continued dedication tocolor, technology and the trust of our

customers is prominently displayed inthese ongoing Automotive OEM ini-tiatives,”said Wierks.

General Motors has given aglobal approval based on the GMSpecification GMW15406M. Coun-tries where GM vehicles are manu-factured, sold or repaired can nowutilize this series for warranty work.

“General Motors performedmeticulous and thorough testing of the900+ product for global use and we areexcited to report a successful approval.This approval shows Valspar Automo-tive’s continued dedication to our cus-tomers and our products. Valspar’svision is to be the best coatings com-pany in the world; this is another stepin demonstrating our commitment toexcellence in the coatings industry,”said Wierks.

Valspar Automotive’s headquar-ters are in Minneapolis, MN.

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or alternative solution to minimize thatworkflow disruption.”

GM subsequently delayed thelaunch until sometime in the firstquarter of next year, but it initially an-nounced it would happen on Decem-ber 1.

As described by GM, the systemwill allow a shop using one of six sup-ported estimating systems to create anestimate itemizing the GM partsneeded (the parts prices will showonly as “$0.00”). That estimate wouldthen automatically be transmitted tothe MyPriceLink pricing engine,which then sends notice back (gener-ally in less than a minute) to the esti-mating system that the parts priceshave been changed. When the user re-opens the estimate, the parts priceswould be listed.

Alternatively, users can log intoMyPriceLink to manually get partsprices through the website. There’s nocharge to shops for using the system.It operates through OEConnection,which gives dealers access to infor-mation about all parts listed on the es-timate including non-OEM andrecycled parts.

In his 5-minute presentation atCIC, Mayer acknowledged, “there’sprobably some disruption and someunintended consequences in thisprocess,” but he said, “We’re trying tobe open and work through those.”

California shop owner RandyStabler jokingly thanked GM for pro-viding “a controversial topic” for dis-cussion at CIC just as his term aschairman of the quarterly conferencebegins in January. Stabler succeedsState Farm’s George Avery, who con-

cluded his 2-yearterm as chairman atCIC in Las Vegas.Stabler said GM’sunexpected deci-sion “to hold theirdata proprietary” isa good example ofthe need for aforum like CIC.

“Making that de-cision in a silo hassome consequencesthat maybe are not

going to be the best for everyone in thelong run,” Stabler said of GM’s an-nouncement. “It shows the validity ofhaving a forum where the disparate

parts of the industry can get togetherand talk and come up with some poten-tial solutions.”

With CIC being held just twodays after the No-vember 4 election,California attorneyCory King ad-dressed one of thehuman resource is-sues effected bythe vote in severalstates and cities:minimum wage.

King began hispresentation at CICby reminding shops

that minimum wage impacts shops evenif, for example, their technicians arepaid flat-rate and earn significantly morethan minimum wage. Though wage-hour laws vary by state, most jurisdic-tions are covered by federal fair laborlaw which allows flat-rate or commis-sion employees to be exempt from over-time provided two provisions are met.

“One, they make more than halfof their money from flat-rate or com-missions,” King said. “And two, theymust make at least 1.5 times the min-imum wage for all hours worked. Ifyou’re not running this number everypay period, if you ever get audited orsued, you’re not going to be able toprove that you’re not paying your peo-ple overtime because they are ex-empt.”

To do that calculation, shopsneed to be aware of the minimumwage. In last month’s election, votersin at least four states passed minimumwage hikes, joining more than 20 oth-ers that have done so. Workers in SanFrancisco and Oakland, Calif., alsowill see voter-enacted minimum wageincreases; San Francisco, for example,joined Seattle in enacting a minimumwage that rises to $15 over severalyears.

The other data point shops needis the actual clock hours every em-ployee works. That’s why all employ-ees, including flat-rate or commissiontechnicians, should be using a timeclock, King said.

King’s presentations at CIC arestructured as quizzes, with attendeesasked to gauge the possible legal ram-ifications for employers of varioushuman resource issues King lays out.One such question he posed at CIC inLas Vegas: An employee with a state-sanctioned medical marijuana cardcrashes a customer car into the shop’spaint booth.

“And he was higher than a kitewhen he did it,” King said. “Can I firehim?”

About half of CIC attendees indi-cated they thought the shop could firesuch an employee, and King said theyare generally correct. Most (thoughnot all) states with medical marijuanacards protect the holder only fromcriminal penalties.

In those states, King said, youalso do no have to hire a medical mar-ijuana user “as long as you have aquality alcohol and drug policy thatprohibits having measurable amountsof illegal drugs in their system.” (Mar-ijuana is still illegal under federallaw.)

Even in the few states that offercivil protections to medical marijuanacard holders, he said, the law “doesnot allow the employee to possess, useor be impaired [by marijuana] whilethey are on company premises or dur-ing working hours.”

The employee who crashed thecar, therefore, could be fired, Kingsaid.

King’s next scenario: A shopwants to fire a newly-hired and under-performing receptionist. She recentlyrefused to put up the Christmas deco-

rations in the shop office, citing reli-gion reasons. Can she be fired for in-subordination?

No way, King said; that would beseen as religious discrimination. Aswith someone with a disability, Kingsaid, the shop should have talked withthe employee and found a reasonableaccommodation (in this case, foundsomeone else to put up the decora-tions) and moved forward.

But the shop also found the re-ceptionist had left a window open onher computer screen that indicatedshe’d been looking for a job while atwork. Can the shop fire her for that?

It depends, King said, on whatthe shop’s employee handbook saysabout Internet usage. It might say shopcomputers cannot be used for personaluse. But when was she using it? Shecould have been legally looking for ajob while on her break. And does theshop enforce the Internet rule consis-tently with all employees?

“It’s a little dicey to say you’regoing to fire her because you don’tlike what she was doing on the Inter-net even though you allow other peo-ple to do it,” King said.

It comes down to the “smell fac-tor,” King said.


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California attorneyCorey King

addresses theminimum wage

issue. Photo credit:John Yoswick

California shopowner Randy Sta-bler speaks at the2014 CIC meetingheld at SEMA.

Photo credit: JohnYoswick


Final 2014 CIC Meeting

“It smells like you’re coming upwith violation of our computer policyas a pretext for what you’re really get-ting rid of her for, which is you don’tlike her religious affiliation and thefact that she refused to do somethingbased on religious grounds,” he said.

Instead, he said, as with all em-ployees, notify her of how she isunder-performing in her job, explainwhy that is important, and give herthe reasonable assistance she needs tobe successful along with time to im-prove. If she does not, you will havea defendable basis for firing her.


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With the emergence of more techni-cally advanced vehicles, including thenew aluminum-intensive 2015 FordF-150, State Farm® and I-CAR®, theInter-Industry Conference on AutoCollision Repair, announced on Nov.11 that more than 2,700 State FarmAuto Physical Damage Appraisers(ADPAs) have completed the I-CAR2015 Ford F-150 Structural Repaircourse (FOR06).

This initiative, combined withState Farm’s program to encourageSelect Service® repairer participationin I-CAR’s Welding Training & Cer-tification™ program, puts State Farmat the forefront of repair readiness.

“The all-new 2015 Ford F-150 isa significant milestone in the collisionrepair industry, and in order for StateFarm to be well-prepared for this alu-minum-intensive vehicle, it is impor-tant for our staff to learn firsthandabout its repairability before the vehi-cle even hits showrooms,” said ChrisEvans, Claim Consultant, State Farm.“This initiative, coupled with our Se-lect Service® Welding Training &Certification program, allows StateFarm to continue to support qualityrepairs to its policyholders, even astechnologically advanced vehicles be-come more popular.”

State Farm originally sought totrain 2,400 ADPAs, including Auto Es-timatics Inspectors and Property ClaimTrainers. Currently, more than 2,700ADPAs have completed the course, farexceeding State Farm’s expectations.

The FOR06 course is a robusttraining program to properly and ef-ficiently repair the new F-150 vehi-cle. The course covers all topics onaluminum and vehicle-specific repairinformation with instructor-led dis-cussion, education and decision-mak-ing exercises. The aluminum-body2015 Ford F-150 is expected to go onsale later this year.

“Every year roughly 75 new vehi-cles and/or major engineering changeson current vehicles are introduced byOEMs. The 2015 Ford F-150 is a greatexample of this, and it will have atransformative impact on the collisionrepair industry. State Farm’s initiativeis an example of what our industryneeds to do for this vehicle, and thosethat will follow, to be truly prepared,”said John Van Alstyne, CEO & Presi-dent, I-CAR. “This initiative will notonly allow State Farm to work morecollaboratively with collision repair fa-cilities, it will also support performanceof complete, safe and quality repairs forthe ultimate benefit of the consumer.”

In January 2014, State Farm andI-CAR encouraged all of State Farm’sSelect Service® repairers to participatein I-CAR’s Welding Training & Certi-fication program throughout 2014.

This initiative offers these repair-ers the opportunity to easily register forwelding training at newly reduced pricelevels. Since January of 2014, 1,650Select Service shops have gained weld-ing certification, bringing the totalnumber of trained Select Service shopsto just over 5,000.

To learn more about or to regis-ter for the FOR06 course or any of I-CAR’s Welding Certification courses,visit www.i-car.com.

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by Victoria Antonelli

Kristen Felder of CollisionHubstarted her seminar with a jolting sta-tistic; “80 percent of visitors on yourwebsite will watch your videos, butonly 20 percent will read your text.”

Felder always asks body shopowners, “Do you have video on yourwebsite? If the answer is no, does yourcompetitor have video on their web-site? If the answer is yes, then 80 per-cent of that company’s visitors arelearning about their business, butthey’re not learning about yours.”

What does this mean for bodyshops, especially those who have onlyrecently mastered Facebook? It’s timeto break out the camera and open upiMovie, or hire someone who can.

Lee Emmons, video expert andvice president of AP Media, Inc., K.Michael Bradshaw, vice president ofoperations at K&M Collision, Mered-ith Bradshaw, owner of K&M Colli-sion, accompanied Felder on thepanel. Emmons has helped Michaeland Meredith create cutting-edgevideos for their body shop’s website.

“We wanted a high-quality prod-uct, but we also had a budget,” said K.Michael. “The more I looked at it all -the video, the editing, the type of video,where to put it to get the most expo-sure, etc., the more I realized I couldn’tdo it all on my own,” said K. Michael.“I hired Lee, which was a really gooddecision. He’s very professional.”

Felder addresses the fears manynon-tech savvy shop owners have aboutcreating video with a reflection on thefirst one she made during NACE backin 2009.

“You could hardly see it, thewhite balance was off, and I had horri-ble audio, but it still worked,” saidFelder. “CollisionHub grew with no

print media, no advertising, nothing, itjust grew solely on using the internet,using video. But it was the only videoin the industry for anyone to watch, soif you wanted to watch something oncollision repair, or products, we wereyour only option. So the quality didn’tmatter, what mattered was the content.That’s why I always tell shops, ‘don’tworry, just get started.’”

Another major concern amongstbody shop owners is budget. Here are afew aspects to consider when creatingyour video, according to Felder, Em-mons, K. Michael, and Meredith.

■ What is your time mark? Ifyou’re making the video yourself –filming, writing, and editing – howmuch time will you allot to this process?Time is money.

■ Is there another company inyour town that you collaborate withfrequently, i.e. a tire company? If so,is there a chance you could share ex-penses to create a video that benefitsboth parties?

■ Half and half: When Felderfirst started creating videos, she wouldshoot the footage herself, and thenhire someone to edit it. “Editing is themagic,” added Felder.

■ Do you want to hire talent? Ifyou don’t want to be in your video -it’s best to hire actors/actresses or anoutside spokesperson. Employees,managers and technicians come andgo, so including them in a video maynot be the best choice. The best placesto find talent are craigslist or a localtalent agency.

■ Do you want to hire a filmcrew? “Local film schools are the bestplace to look. Many students are eagerto find work and gain experience,”said Emmons.

If you do hire a crew, providelunch on filming days: “Don’t let peo-ple leave, because you’re going to loseyour schedule for the rest of the day,”warned Felder. “Even if you tell every-one, ‘be back at 1pm,’ it’s not going tohappen.”

Finding the right topic, knowingyour audience, and effectively gettingyour point across will all help to makeyour video a success, according toFelder and the other panelists.

Consider the following:

● Whatever method you choose,make sure you have good audio. “Anaudience can handle bad picture with

good sound, but not vice versa,” addedFelder.

● Storyboarding: What do youwant to say and what do you want tobe showing in the background whileyou’re saying it?

● How to pick a topic based onyour audience: According to Emmons,car enthusiast forums, customer testi-monials, auto blogs, discussion boardsand other videos are great places tolook.

● Scripted vs. Freestyle: The na-ture of the topic has a lot to do withthis decision. “A customer testimonial

shouldn’t be scripted, because youwant it to sound real,” said Emmons.“If I’m using legal terms or other spe-cific, factual information, then I defi-nitely want to use a script,” said Felder.All panelists agreed that outlines arenecessary, and if you’re using a script,you should memorize the informationand not read off a piece of paper.

● Time: “You want to stay in thattwo minute sweet spot,” said Felder.The average retention rate on YouTubeis 1:58.

● Location: It may not always beyour body shop, and if it is, make sureit is clean and compliant. It may benecessary to shut your shop down dur-ing production days in order to mini-mize background noise.

● NEVER EVER cancel a pre-production meeting

“The average life expectancy fora video is four years, compared to 72hours for a Facebook post and 12 min-utes for a Tweet,” Felder said. “Wehave become a visual and auditory re-ceptive society, so we want to see it andwe want to hear it, we don’t want toread it.”


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Overview of the SCRS Seminar: Creating Engaging Consumer Videos for Marketing with Kristen Felder

Kristen Felder of CollisionHub gives adviceon creating engaging videos for marketingduring one of her SCRS seminars at SEMA

Kristen Felder of CollisionHub; Lee Emmons,Vice President of AP Media; Michael Brad-shaw, VP of Operations at K&M Collision; andMeredith Bradshaw, co-owner of K&MCollision, discuss the importance of videoin the auto industry

“The 3 Vital Behaviors of the Bestof the Best Shops”There are shops that are located in heav-ily MSO consolidated markets that in-stead of becoming a victim, became abeneficiary! I call these shops “positivedeviants.” When many shops in theseparts of the country are struggling orselling out, the positive deviants are ac-tually doing quite well and in manycases outperforming the consolidators!One of these best of the best shop own-ers told me they have all four big MSOs(Caliber, Gerber, ABRA, Service King)within a five mile radius of his shop! SoI am prompted to starting asking thequestion, what are these guys doing dif-ferently than the independents that arestruggling in the same markets?

After speaking to many positivedeviant shops, and asking them whatthey do to get great results, I got manyof the usual answers that you wouldexpect from a successful organization.Good leadership, high quality work,

good customer service, great employ-ees, bla, bla, bla. But these things any-more are kind of a “given.” Even to bea mediocre business you need to havesome level of these qualities.

So I searched deeper to distill thefindings into what I call the Vital 3Behaviors.1. Culture of Learning2. Participation in a peer group or network3. Measure the Right KPIsAll the positive deviant shops stronglydisplay these 3 Vital behaviors, strug-gling shops don’t!

Vital Behavior 1 - Culture of LearningThese businesses crave knowledge! Ifyou don’t believe me, look at the in-depth I-CAR study on the subject.(Check it out at www.i-car.com ) I-CAR contends that A Learning Cultureis at the very foundation of all the supersuccessful shops they studied. The veryunderstanding of things such as properbusiness management, leadership skills

and process development skills stemfrom the leaders desire to learn.

They seek their knowledge fromsources such as I-CAR, Webinars, andClinics. They typically read booksregularly, and are continuously look-ing for new sources of education.

Vital Behavior 2 - Participation in apeer group or networkSome of the positive deviants are veryinvolved with their associations such asASA, others join franchise organiza-tions, and many get involved in roundtable groups that their paint manufac-turers host.

Shops that feel like they are aloneon an island, can’t and probably won’tsucceed. There is power in numbersfar beyond the sum of its individualmembers. Some of the benefits thatparticipation in a group includes…♦ Mastermind principal – a group oflike-minded individuals with the samechallenges working together to achieve

great things♦ Friendly competitive spirit betweenmembers♦ Accountability to one another♦ Massive knowledge resource. Whenyou are on the island you only haveyour own knowledge, in a group, youcan have everyone’s!♦ Leadership skills – by participating ina group of people trying to better them-selves and their shops, skills such asleadership are enhanced, you learn topresent, become a more professionaland rounded person.♦ You learn to “See beyond you ownwalls” so to speak.

Vital Behavior 3 - Measure the rightkey performance indicatorsThe third vital behavior was MeasureKPIs, but I was reminded by one of thepositive deviant shops that it is impor-tant to measure the “right ones.” Hewas right, there are some shops that


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with David LuehrLean Operations

David Luehr is the owner of Elite Body Shop Solutions, LLC, a collision business consultingfirm 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 ofConstraints methods. Email him at [email protected]

Competing with MSO Consolidation

See MSO Consolidation, Page 33

It’s the Academy Awards, the Emmysand the Tonys all rolled into one ifyou’re a manufacturer of any automo-tive product on the planet. Being awinner in the Specialty EquipmentMarket Association’s (SEMA) New

Products Showcase can be a gamechanger and the beginning of some-thing truly big. And that’s why whenfour collision-related companies heardtheir names at the 2014 SEMA Show’sopening breakfast on Nov. 4 they wereobviously thrilled and even a littleshocked in some cases.

These awards are given to themost innovative and cutting-edge newautomotive aftermarket products inthe industry today, judged by some ofthe biggest names in the automotiveworld. Nearly 2,000 productswere entered into 16 differentshowcase categories to beconsidered for SEMA NewProduct Awards this year.Winners were selected basedon a variety of factors that in-cluded quality, marketability,innovation, technology, con-sumer appeal and more.

The Collision Repair &Refinish Product winner isMalco Products, Inc. for theirQuarter Panel Hemming AirTurboXTool. The two run-ners up in this category are 6 Hands,for their 6-Hands Universal BodyPanel Holder and LumaIII, Inc. fortheir Aurora LED attachment. In theTools & Equipment Product category,Celette is a runner up for their Naja

Evolution 3D Measuring System’ssoftware and LumaIII Inc. is also arunner-up in this category for the Au-rora.

Malco Products Inc. captured thetop spot with their Quarter Panel

Hemming Air TurboXTool.This tool uses existing airsupply to bend and close up to¾ inch (19.05mm) deepwheel arc flanges of replace-ment quarter panels on latemodel cars. It can replicate ahammer and dolly motion athigh speed and is 80 percentfaster, based on field trials.The cushioned anvil protectsthe panel finish while thehammer rolls and flattens theflange from the back.Mike Janey, creative serv-

ices specialist for Malco,knows the value of this awardand that’s why he’s already

working hard to leverage it. “Justbeing associated with a respectedname like SEMA gives us immediatehelp with things like distribution andname recognition,” Janey explained.“Malco was founded in 1950, butproducts for auto body work is a newmarket for our company, so winningthis award means a lot to us. Our goalis to introduce innovative productsthat make the lives of body techni-cians easier and alleviate repetitive in-juries on the user’s shoulders and

arms, so that they can work withoutinterruption and get the results they’relooking for. Technicians want superiorquality performance that saves timeand labor while also being reliable,safe and easy-to-use and with our

Quarter Panel Hemming Air TurboX-Tool, we’ve answered all of thoseneeds!”

One of the runners up in the Col-lision Repair & Refinish Product cat-egory is 6 Hands with their UniversalBody Panel Holder. Ad-justable to fit any panel, thisdevice consists of three pairsof different length “hands.”After the panel is attached tothe 6 hands, it can be rotatedusing the 6 hands on an X andY axis. This gives the tool theunique ability to allow thepanel to effortlessly be placedin ergonomic positions whileperforming metal work, sand-ing, body work and paintingmore efficiently.

Ben Sapak, the owner of 6Hands in Holland, MI has only beenin business for approximately sixmonths now, so he’s obviously de-lighted about capturing a runner-up

award for his Universal Body PanelHolder.

“As a first-time exhibitor and ayoung business, this award is a shot inthe arm,” Sapak said. “We inventedthis device for ourselves to use in our

restoration business doing custommetal work, because nothing else didthe job we wanted it to. Now a techcan hold onto a panel without damag-


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with Ed Attanasio

SEMA Show Goes On

Ed Attanasio is an automotive journalist based inSan Francisco, California. He can be reached [email protected].

New Product Showcase Winners a Big Hit at SEMA

See SEMA New Products, Page 29

The Collision Repair & Refinish Product winner wasMalco Products Inc. for the Quarter Panel HemmingAir TurboXTool

The LumaIII team was thrilled about their two runners upawards. From left: Owner/CMO Richard Routon, Owner/CEO Kirk Lucas, Owner/CFO Jimmy Zluticky and Directorof Sales Chris Williams

6 Hands captured a runner-up award in the Collision Repair& Refinish Product category for their Universal Body PanelHolder


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With nearly 75 different hybrid vehi-cles currently on the road and morethan 100 models expected to be inproduction by 2016, Matt Curry ofThe Hybrid Shop said education, train-ing and technology are crucial for theexpanding hybrid electric vehicle(HEV) industry.

“There’s a pent up demand forhybrid and electric vehicles,” saidCurry, the company’s Chief VisionaryOfficer. “In order to keep up with thefuture you need to be in the business.”

Prior to launching The HybridShop in 2013, Curry and his wife Judyowned Curry’s Auto Service in North-ern Virginia since 1997. Over theyears they expanded their auto repairbusiness to include 10 shops.

During this time Curry purchasedeight Toyota Priuses to use as cus-tomer shuttles and learn more abouthybrids. After talking to Dr. MarkQuarto, a PhD electrical engineer atGM for 28 years who specializes in al-ternative fuel and hybrid technology,Curry soon realized that HEVs werevery different from traditional auto-motive design.

The Currys sold their retail storesto Monro Muffler Brake in 2013 andopened The Hybrid Shop, which isheadquartered in Gainesville, Virginia.Just one year later they have 39 fran-chises across the U.S. and are lookingat further expansion nationwide andaround the world. They recently at-tended the SEMA show in Las Vegasto continue to educate the industryabout their business.

In addition to selling full fran-chises, the Hybrid Shop offers fractionalfranchises to those who own existingautomotive repair and tire facilities andwant to add a hybrid component. Newowners and their technicians go througha four and a half day training session inWisconsin.

“We teach them how to diagnose,maintain and repair everything on ahybrid vehicle,” said Curry. The fran-chise includes diagnostic tools, train-ing, branding, marketing and salessupport. “It is a comprehensive systemthat teaches them everything abouthybrid vehicles.”

Once a shop is operational, TheHybrid Shop profiles them on theirwebsite, which Curry said generatesmore than 300 leads a month to theirdealer network. “We actively drive

traffic into their stores,” said Curry.“We drive car count revenues andprofits.”

He said that while running hisprior business they always pridedthemselves on their marketing andbranding ability. “That’s what allowedus to grow from one store to 10 in 15years.”

Another main component of TheHybrid Shop is the battery condition-ing that is offered to customers. Work-ing closely with Chief TechnicalOfficer Dr. Quarto, the AR&D teamdeveloped an exclusive technology

only found at The Hybrid Shop thatcan restore a hybrid’s battery to over95 percent of its original performance.

Since hybrid batteries have a 100percent failure rate, Curry said theonly option available has been to re-place the battery at an average cost of$4,000. “We can condition the batteryfor about a third of the price of batteryreplacement so it saves the customersthousands of dollars, it makes the re-pair shops thousands of dollars, andit’s better for the environment.”

Curry said by conditioning thebattery every four to five years orevery 80,000 miles, it will keep the ve-hicle running at maximum efficiency,keep the gas mileage up and the per-formance of the vehicle working prop-erly.

“We are revolutionizing the Hy-brid Electric Vehicle (HEV) industryby making repair and maintenance ascost-effective and eco-friendly as wepossibly can,” said Curry.

The Hybrid Shop received a 2014Stevie People’s Choice Award for Fa-vorite New Products and the 2014 Ste-vie American Business Award.

On Nov. 19, the company an-nounced that a Northern Virginia invest-ment firm that manages approximately$4 billion in assets, has invested in TheHybrid Shop. Funds managed by thefirm now own 38% of the company.

“We are proud to announce thisinvestment in The Hybrid Shop by aleading, multi-billion dollar firm,” saidCEO Dave Crawford. “The fact that amulti-billion dollar investment firmwould want to invest in an early stagecompany serves as affirmation of ourbrand, business model and future po-tential as well as recognition of our

success to-date in our ongoing effortsto achieve a position of innovation andfast-growth in the rapidly-evolving hy-brid and electric space.”

Dave Carney, owner of HillsideAuto Repair, purchased a fractionalfranchise in March as an addition totheir shop. “I think it has provided themost amazing opportunities that I’veseen in the 30 years that I have beenin the industry,” he said.

The Torrance, California-basedcompany had limited industry trainingand didn’t feel they had enough knowl-edge about this growing industry. Aftersending five employees to The HybridShop’s training, Carney said he coulddispatch a hybrid to any one of themand they had the skill sets to be able todiagnose and work on it.

“I’ve never seen such an ener-gized, motivated employee in my en-tire life in 30 years of business asthese employees came back from thishybrid training,” he said. “It was ex-tensive. It was a lot of hands on andthey came back and had a lot of con-fidence.”

Carney has found that business

comes in spurts and the hybrids thatneed conditioning are the earlier oneson the road. He predicts that as thenumber of hybrids increases, they willbe working on at least one per week, ifnot three or four.

“What the Hybrid Shop did for usis it gave us the confidence to ventureinto this area of the unknown,” he said.“My expectation is that a year fromnow, once we get a little experienceunder our belt, we will be the knowl-edge base of everything hybrid in ourcommunity in Southern California.”

Rich Hoffman, owner of Hoff-man Tire Pros in Fayetteville, Geor-gia, purchased a franchise in June.With no prior knowledge of hybrids,Hoffman said that he saw great poten-tial for hybrids in the future. “I like tostay on top of technology and I like tobe ahead of the curve,” said Hoffman,who has owned his business for 38years. “I did some research and feltlike the hybrid was here to stay andthe Hybrid Shop has the advantagethat nobody else has.”

Hoffman estimates that he cur-rently does 35 percent tire work and 65percent service at his eight-bay facility,which he can also use to work on hy-brids. He recently built a 10 foot by 20foot “clean” room for the hybrid equip-ment and to service and condition thebatteries. “Any service facility can dothe job,” said Hoffman. “You just needto have, I feel, a separate place to workon it.”

In addition to the training offeredby The Hybrid Shop, Hoffman haslearned a lot from staying in touchwith other dealers in the network. Thedealers recently met for a roundtablediscussion during SEMA where theyestablished a dealer advisory council.

After hearing many wives’ talesabout working on hybrids, Hoffmansaid, “The hybrid is not as difficult asit sounds as long as you have the train-ing and knowledge and respect whatyou are working with.”

“It’s an opportunity to differentiateyourself from the competition, Craw-ford. He said that with the mandatedCAFÉ standards from the federal gov-ernment, all new vehicle fleets mustaverage 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.“The traditional internal combustionengine as we know it today will not beable to meet this objective, which opensthe door for hybrid technology. Fast-forward 10 years from now and the hy-brid business is going to be huge.”

Virginia’s The Hybrid Shop Carves a Niche in Hybrid Maintenance and Service

The Hybrid Shop team at their booth during SEMA: Jennifer Martin, Marketing Director; DaveCrawford, CEO; Matt Curry, Chief Visionary Officer; and Bob Curry, President


Jerry Damson HondaHuntsv i l le

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Serra HondaBirmingham

800-987-0819205-949-5460

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AutoNation HondaClearwaterClearwater

888-205-2564727-530-1173

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AutoNation HondaHollywoodHol lywood

800-542-8121954-964-8300


Braman Hondaof Palm Beach

Greenacres888-479-0695561-966-5185

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Classic HondaOr lando

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Coggin Deland HondaDeland

800-758-0007386-626-1811


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

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Headquarter HondaClermont

800-497-2294407-395-7374


Hendrick Honda BradentonBradenton

877-706-2021941-752-2123


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


Rick Case HondaDavie

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

[email protected]

South Motors HondaMiami

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Carey Paul HondaSnel lv i l le

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Ed Voyles HondaMariet ta

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Gerald Jones HondaAugusta

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Gwinnett Place HondaDuluth

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Honda Mall of GeorgiaBuford/Gwinnet t678-318-3155


Milton Martin HondaGainesv i l le

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Nalley HondaUnion C i ty

866-362-8034770-306-4646


Southern Motors HondaSavannah

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Patty Peck HondaRidgeland

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ALABAMA FLORIDA FLORIDA GEORGIA

FLORIDA

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ALABAMA FLORIDA GEORGIA GEORGIA

ACURA

Jerry Damson AcuraHuntsv i l le

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Acura of Orange ParkJacksonvi l le

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Duval AcuraJacksonvi l le

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Rick Case AcuraFort Lauderdale800-876-1150954-377-7688


Jackson AcuraRoswel l

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Nalley AcuraMariet ta

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Southern Motors AcuraSavannah

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Flow AcuraWinston-Salem800-489-3534336-761-3682

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Dept. Hours: M-Thu 7-11; Fri 7-6Sat 7-5; Sun 11-5

www.southpointhonda.com

Hendrick HondaChar lo t te

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Leith HondaRale igh

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McKenney-Salinas HondaGastonia

888-703-7109704-824-8844 x 624Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-5:30

[email protected]

Metro HondaInd ian Tra i l

866-882-9542704-220-1522

Dept. Hours: M-F 6:30-6:30; Sat 7-4www.copytk.com

Vann York AutomallHigh Po int

336-841-6200Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat 8-3

Breakaway HondaGreenvi l le

800-849-5056864-234-6481


Midlands HondaColumbia

877-273-4442803-691-8585

Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7; Sat 7-4www.copytk.com

Piedmont HondaAnderson

800-849-5057864-375-2082


Airport HondaAlcoa

800-264-4721865-970-7792

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

AutoNation HondaWest Knoxville

Knoxv i l le800-824-1301865-218-5461

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

Bill Gatton HondaBr is to l

800-868-4118423-652-9545


Wolfchase HondaBart le t t

800-982-7290901-255-3780Dept. Hours: M-F 7-7

[email protected]

Colonial HondaChester

800-564-9836804-414-1960


Duncan’s Hokie HondaChr is t ianburg800-979-9110540-381-3200

Dept. Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30-5:30Sat 8:00-5:00

[email protected]

Hall HondaVi rg in ia Beach800-482-9606757-431-4329


Hendrick HondaWoodbridgeWoodbr idge

703-690-7777Dept. Hours: M-Fri 7-6Sat 8-5; Sun 10-4

Priority HondaChesapeake

757-213-0539Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Priority HondaHampton

757-838-1672Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6; Sat [email protected]

Valley HondaStaunton

800-277-0598540-213-9016


West Broad HondaRichmond

800-446-0160804-672-8811

Dept. Hours: M-Thu 7:30-6:30;Fri 7:30-6; Sat 8-3; Sun 11-3

[email protected]

NO. CAROLINA NO. CAROLINA

SO. CAROLINA

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TENNESSEE

VIRGINIA

VIRGINIA

Hendrick AcuraChar lo t te

800-768-6824704-566-2288


Leith AcuraCary

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Performance AcuraChapel H i l l

888-788-7301919-942-3191

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

Crown Acura of RichmondRichmond

800-523-4411804-527-6865


Karen Radley AcuraWoodbr idge

800-355-2818703-550-0205


Radley AcuraFal ls Church800-550-5035703-824-5785

Dept. Hours: M-F 7:30-6:00;Sat 8-6; Sun 10-5

[email protected]

NO. CAROLINA NO. CAROLINA VIRGINIA VIRGINIA

For more collisioninfo, go to:collision.honda.comairbagaware.honda.comcrashrepairinfo.com


20 years ago in the collision repairindustry (December 1994)The cause and effect of “prevailingpractices” was just one issue addressedby an inter-industry panel at the Na-tional Autobody Congress and Expo-sition (NACE) Forum in Las Vegas inDecember (1994.)

Moderator Meryl Comer openedthe discussion by asking panelists whothey believed is responsible for setting“prevailing practices.”

“I think if you ask some of our in-surer friends, they’d probably say pre-vailing practices are set by the shopsin the area,” California shop ownerJack Caldwell said. “Whatever mostshops do, that sets the pace. And Iguess to be totally honest, I’d have toagree, that’s where it starts. However,prevailing practices can be and aremodified by the guy with the check-book.”

Insurers on the panel agreed thatprevailing practices are their attemptto “mirror” the majority of collisionrepairers in a given area when prepar-ing or auditing estimates, but shopowners criticized the “one-size-fits-all” approach insurers sometimes use.

“It’s important to note that carsare changing,” Texas shop owner JoeSanders said. “We perform operationstoday that weren’t necessary a fewyears ago. Resetting electrical compo-nents, for example. That may haveonly been done in our shop once ortwice a month two years ago. But wedo that routinely now every day. Thatprocess is prevailing in our operation,and I shouldn’t be held back becausethe shop down the street works onolder cars and doesn’t have to do that.”

Most of the questions from theaudience during the forum were ad-dressed to the insurers on the panel.Gerry Westerfield of State Farm wasasked how shops can respond whenadjusters “quote unwritten and undoc-umented company policy for not pay-ing standard P-page procedures.”

“If a State Farm representativecomes to your shop and says, ‘Wedon’t pay for that, it’s company pol-icy,’ take it from me, we don’t havethat policy,” Westerfield said. “So tellthem, ‘I know your policy and that’snot it. Who’s your supervisor?’”

– As reported in Spray Dust mag-azine.

15 years ago in the collision repairindustry (December 1999)Soon there will be no choice. If youaren’t already using the Internet, you’llhave to in order to stay in business.

By 2001, GM will require all ofits suppliers to do business over the In-ternet. Ford has similar Internet plans.Allstate announced last month that itwould soon sell insurance over the In-ternet.

In today’s business world, it’s getonline or go home. To remain com-petitive, collision repair faculties willneed to use the Internet to their ad-vantage.

How will collision repairers beusing the Internet? Parts ordering,for one. You can already tap intolustineparts.com and CarStation.comto order parts. And there may come atime very soon when ordering partsover the Internet is handled regularlythrough brokers. Just as a personlooking for an inexpensive airfarecan go through Priceline.com, a col-lision repairer looking for the bestquality part at the cheapest price willbe able to go through a middleman.

The bad news is twofold. Forstarters, the Internet gives the insur-ance industry a whole new arena tocontrol. With its financial emphasis onprice (sometimes at the expense ofquality), the insurance industry will belooking to use the Internet to find thecheapest parts it can. In cyberspace,look for price to reign over quality.

A second disadvantage to the In-

ternet is that it will be moredifficult for collision repair-ers to keep information abouttheir businesses private. Inaddition to brokering deals,Internet middlemen will becompiling information aboutthe buying habits of collisionrepair shops. They in turnwill sell this information toothers interested in making aprofit on the industry.

– From an editorial inHammer & Dolly by SheilaLoftus.

10 years ago in the collision repair in-dustry (December 2004)The Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS) is circulating a petitionin support of two-way communicationbetween like estimating systems. Thisis the ability to electronically transmitand receive the vehicle owner’s as-signment information, estimate, sup-plement or attachments betweeninsurers and repairers that are using thesame estimating system regardless ofwhether a DRP relationship exists be-tween the companies.

“Two-way communication, asSCRS defines it, would eliminatemany of the inefficiencies inherent inthe current claims handling process,most specifically the rekeying of theestimate,” said Lou DiLisio, chairmanof SCRS.

– As reported in Autobody News.It took nearly a decade, but two of theBig Three estimating providers nowoffer systems that enable shops andparticipating insurers to exchange dataelectronically outside of a DRP rela-tionship.

5 years ago in the collision repairindustry (December 2009)In fining Allstate Insurance $5,000 for“interfering with (a) consumer’s freechoice of repair facility,” the Insur-ance Division of Rhode Island’s De-partment of Business Regulation alsoclarified what constitutes such inter-ference by an insurer.

In reviewing a complaint broughtby Providence Auto Body, the Depart-ment said that “without a legitimatebusiness reason, an insurer may not

take actions that make it more difficultto have the repair done at a (shop)with which the insurer does not have acontractual relationship.”

In this case, the Departmentfound that a combination of actions byAllstate constituted interference withclaimant Dennis D’Ambra’s shopchoice. These actions included:

– delaying arrangements for re-pair of the vehicle (after the shop con-tacted Allstate saying D’Ambra hadhired it to do the repairs) until Allstatecould locate and contact D’Ambraseven days later;

– telling D’Ambra that Provi-dence Auto Body was not “approved”;

– suggesting that D’Ambra takethe vehicle to a drive-in claims centerafter he had already said he wantedProvidence Auto Body to repair thevehicle; and,

–taking 15 days after contactingD’Ambra to conduct an appraisal ofthe vehicle at the shop.

The ruling states that discussionby an insurer about its DRP or drive-in claims center is not in and of itselfan indication of steering.

“However, when the customer in-dicates that he does not need or wantthat information, as D’Ambra didhere, the conversation must stop,” theruling states. “The customer has theright to simply choose a shop andhave the shop ‘handle’ the repair.”

– As reported in CRASH Network(www.CrashNetwork.com), November14, 2009. Almost five years later Okla-homa Attorney General Scott Pruitt lastmonth issued a warning in his stateabout the practice of “steering” by in-surers, in which “insurers strongly pushconsumers to autobody repair shops,”sometimes “crossing the line, makingdishonest statements.”

Prevailing Practices, Doing Business on Internet, 2-Way Estimating, Steering Suits

with John YoswickHistorical Snapshot

—John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a bodyshop 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 [email protected].

During a panel discussion at NACE in 1994, Gerry Wester-field of State Farm urged shops to question any State Farmadjuster claiming to quote company policy “for not payingstandard P-page procedures.”

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website at:southeastern.autobodynews.com

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Recently I had the pleasure of beingthe only reporter at a local autobodyassociation chapter meeting. This wasan especially interesting meeting fo-cusing on the new Ford F150 truckand its aluminum body. There was agreat panel of industry experts whosecomments could significantly impactthe success of a shop trying to per-form more competitively and prof-itably. So I was troubled when onemember of the panel asked how manyshop owners were present and onlyabout six or seven raised their hands.This was a room containing an audi-ence of more than one hundred peo-ple. One would think that at least aquarter of the attendees would bemajor shop decision-makers. But Ishouldn’t have been surprised. I’veheard the same question at numerousmeetings with the same low decision-maker count.

The last few meetings I’ve at-tended focused on elements that willdetermine the survival and success ofmost collision repair shops. The focuson new vehicle designs, materials,reparability and management processesprepares shop owners and managersfor a business future that may be ex-tremely challenging. That same focustells these owners and managers whatmessages they need to get out to cur-rent and prospective customers to keepvehicles coming into their shops. Thisparticular meeting provided ammuni-tion for a marketing attack based on thehazards of dealing with aluminum andpotential dangers for vehicle owners ifthey choose an ill-informed and ill-equipped shop to do their repairs. Thatmessage is appropriate for nearly everypotential customer, whether an indi-vidual vehicle owner, fleet manager,dealership principal, or insurance DRP.

The message I’ve heard in manyassociation meetings this and last yearis that technology will now be drivingthe emphasis in shop marketing. Thatsame message says that collision re-pair professionals can now commanda new, higher level of respect. Thedays of thinking of a body shop as aplace where low-paid workers pounddents out of fenders and massagedamaged metal back into place hascome to an end. Vehicle manufactur-ers have raised the bar and a typicalshop today must have certified techni-cians and costly equipment to work oncomputerized vehicles, dangerouselectrical and hybrid systems and ex-otic metal and carbon fiber bodies.Websites and other media that empha-size the old systems and equipmentare missing the marketing boat. Thetime has come to seize this higherlevel of respect for the complicatednew practice of restoring these com-plex vehicles to pre-accident condi-tion.

A much earlier meeting aboutthis time of year was addressed by aV.P. from SEMA. This was whenNACE abandoned Las Vegas to hostthe NACE show in a different city.The executive talked about the newbenefits that can come from a colli-sion shop attendance at and participa-tion in a SEMA show in Las Vegas.The SEMA people were doing all pos-sible to make the show informativeand of value to collision repair atten-dees. Although the V.P. focused onamenities and conveniences for shopowners and managers, there were nu-merous references to new productsand processes collision shop mar-keters could add to their repertoire ofproducts and services. I attendedSEMA that year and saw first hand

what he meant. One lady from a localshop was at the show and she notedthat her shop could immediately profitfrom providing customers with alarmsystems, child restraints, pet restraints,backing-up lights and cameras, spe-cialty wheels and more. She saw away to attract new customers andenjoy greater profits.

While these were autobody asso-ciation meetings that could aid mar-keting efforts, I think the bestmeetings focused on providing whatis most needed for effective market-ing: MONEY! Business analysts gen-erally say about seven percent of grossshould be put into sales and market-ing. I’ve seen only a few shops thatbegin to approach that figure. Seriousefforts to generate new customers cancost serious money. Two recent auto-body association meetings I attendedfocused mainly on how to negotiateeffectively and how to get paid for themany repairs and operations some in-

surance adjusters like to weasel out of.The information at just one of thesemeetings could have paid for somevery high quality on-line marketingand also a live gal or guy in the fieldbringing in business!

The complaint I’ve heard mostfrequently about association meetingswas that there were uninformativeprograms and a tendency to be nomore than a place to come to eat, drinkand complain. What I’ve observed atthese highly productive meetings isthat there is a core group of memberswho want to use this irreplaceableforum to bring in speakers and panelswith truly valuable information. Asso-ciation members who complain abouta declining volume of business andlower profits have failed to seize theopportunity to get these highly desir-able presenters in front of their chap-ter. All it takes is someone willing tomake the calls and arrange the timeand place.


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Autobody Associations—A Great Source of Marketing Information

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for fifty years. He has writtennumerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for many businesses.He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected]. See Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin

The Collision Repair Education Founda-tion announced the winners of GEICO’scollision school grants for 2014: Hillsbor-ough Community College (Tampa, FL);Norwalk High School (Norwalk, CA);Texas State Technical College (Waco,TX); Wilson Tech (Dix Hills, NY.) Eachof the winning schools applied for a grantfrom the Ultimate Collision EducationMakeover program, and each will receive

$6,750 to purchase items off their colli-sion tool, equipment and supply wish listfrom their application. The winners werenamed Nov. 4 at the Education Founda-tion’s industry reception held at SEMA2014. “GEICO recognizes that the colli-sion repair industry needs highly-quali-fied, well-trained and knowledgeabletechnicians to repair today’s car” said BillDeGrocco, Assistant VP at GEICO.

Four Collision Schools Awarded GEICO Grants

ing it. We’re so happy that the judgessaw a need for this tool and by recog-nizing it they’ve given us a whole newlevel of value in the collision andrestoration industries. It’s obviouslyhuge.”

Another runner-upaward went to LumaIII, Inc.for their Aurora, an LED at-tachment that fits snugly di-rectly behind the nozzle ofany spray gun. Lightweightand durable, this battery-op-erated device allows paintersto get an immediate visualconfirmation of the center oftheir spray, saving consider-able time and money onprimer, paint, sandpaper,buffing compound and othercostly alternative illumina-tion solutions. By reducing technicianerrors, the Aurora has quickly becomepopular with several industries, in-cluding collision repair, according tothe company’s web site.

The award will provide a majorboost for LumaIII, a young company

from Wichita, KS that didn’t evenknow if they could make it to SEMAinitially. “We’ve had to pool ourmoney together and even some of ussold vehicles to get to SEMA, becausewe are so confident that this productis needed in this industry,”Owner/CMO Richard Routon said.“People are really embracing the Au-rora, because body shop owners can

clearly see the benefits of it. It’squickly changing the industry, be-cause it saves time and labor andmakes painters more efficient and ac-curate. SEMA was great for us andthis award is a big part of it, because itshows that the industry is recognizing

our product and its role in the collisionrepair industry.”

Celette captured a runner-upaward in the Tools & EquipmentProduct category for their newly re-leased NAJA Evolution 3D software.Taking measurements directly fromOEM-provided 3D CAD drawingsprovides technicians with uniqueviews of the control points in relationto length, width and height, allowingan efficient damage analysis on adatabase of more than 14,000 vehi-cles.

Bastien Dias Da Costa, opera-tions manager for Celette was de-lighted by the award. “We’re honoredto have received such a prestigiousaward for our newest product at ahighly recognized event like SEMA,”he said. “Our software for the NajaEvolution 3D Measuring System hasgained some significant recognitionfor its accuracy and superior graphics.The software is easy to update with di-rect access to our web site and offersusers individual space in the Celettecloud. It’s also compatible with com-puters, desktop computers and laptopsand by adding approximately 9,000vehicles to the database, it’s the mostcomplete in the industry.”


Continued from Page 20

SEMA New Products

The Collision Repair & Refinish Product winner wasMalco Products Inc. for the Quarter Panel HemmingAir TurboXTool

The Society of Collision RepairSpecialists (SCRS) has announcedValspar Automotive as its newestcorporate member. Valspar Auto-motive is a global manufacturer ofautomotive paints and refinish prod-ucts. In addition to providing thelatest in refinishing technology to itsusers, Valspar Automotive makesavailable instructional videos anduser documentation along with on-going training classes on every fin-ish application in its five trainingcenters worldwide.

“We want to support the indus-try that supports us, and we find alot of value in engaging with an or-ganization like SCRS who repre-sents the leading businesses in theindustry,” said Valspar North Amer-ican Automotive Marketing Man-ager Gina Mahan.

“SCRS is a proven and effec-tive voice for body shops, and anadvocate that helps strengthen theindustry as a whole. A healthy, suc-cessful collision repair industry isbest for everyone, and SCRS makesa significant and noticeable contri-bution to ensure this is the case; wewant to be aligned with organiza-tions like that.”

Valspar Automotive is NewestSCRS Corporate Member

Giving cars to the needy is a perfectand proven way for the collision in-dustry to give back. Most of the time,body shops and insurance companieswork together to fix cars and returnthem back to their owners.

Four formerly homeless Las Vegasfamilies visited the SEMA Show lastweek and left as proud owners of prac-tically brand new cars presented bymembers of the National Auto BodyCouncil (NABC) at its annual RecycledRides Luncheon on Nov. 5.

These four families were selectedby Family Promise of Las Vegas, anorganization that has been partneringwith the NABC for the pastseven years to provide at-riskfamilies with reliable trans-portation, so they can beginto rebuild and regain their fi-nancial stability.

NABC’s Recycled Ridesprogram is a unique collabo-ration of the collision industry.Since the program’s inceptionin 2007, repairers, insurers,rental car companies and sup-pliers have teamed up to re-store and donate over 1,000vehicles to individuals andnon-profit organizations na-tionwide.

Collision repair professionalsfrom facilities in Las Vegas volun-teered their time and expertise to re-store damaged vehicles donated by

Allstate Insurance, GEICO, EnterpriseRent-a-Car and Hertz. The local re-pairers included Caliber Collision,Service King and Gerber Collisionand a fourth vehicle was repaired bySouth County Collision in California.

The recipients selected byFamily Promise were:La Cara and Marice Washing-ton and their three childrenreceived a Hyundai Sonatadonated by GEICO and re-paired by Caliber Collision.They both recently graduatedfrom the Family Promiseshelter program and are cur-rently employed and havetheir own housing.Cassandra Waller, a single

mother with two children re-ceived a Dodge Durango donated byAllstate Insurance and repaired byService King. Physical disabilitieslimit her mobility so a Recycled Ridesvehicle will greatly help her to im-prove her quality of life.

Magan and Wayne Sykes andtheir two children received a NissanMaxima donated by Hertz and re-paired by the Van Tuyl Group. This

couple is successfully enrolled in Fam-ily Promise’s Community Partnershipfor Opening Doors Housing Program.

Janiecia Fernandez, received aHyundai Sonata Hybrid donated by

Gerber Collision and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Fernandez is a single motherof two young children and a partici-pant of the Promises to Keep HousingProgram. This vehicle will allow herto devote her time to being a good

mother and working with her chil-dren’s education.

“Each of these recipient familieshave successfully transitioned fromhomelessness into independent hous-

ing through our Family Promise pro-grams,” said Terry Lindemann, Execu-tive Director of Family Promise of LasVegas. “Reliable transportation is thecritical link that enables these familiesto continue on the road to recovery and

we are grateful for the supportand impact that the NationalAuto Body Council has madein our local community.”

NABC Executive Direc-tor Chuck Sulkala is proud ofthe NABC’s Recycled Ridesprogram and the success it’sachieved especially this year.“We’re going to give awayalmost 300 vehicles to peoplein need in 2014,” he said.“With all of these great insur-ance companies, collision re-

pairers, paint suppliers, parts vendorsand other companies onboard, this isa joint effort every year and it’s amaz-ing to see so many people who go outof their way to make this happen.”


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NABC Gives Away Four Cars at Annual SEMA Luncheon

La Cara and Marice Washington and their children withtheir Hyundai Sonata donated by Gerber Collision andEnterprise Rent-A-Car

Janiecia Fernandez and her daughter admire their HyundaiSonata Hybrid donated by Caliber Collision and GEICO

Magan and Wayne Sykes, with their two young childrenreceived a Nissan Maxima donated by Hertz and repairedby the Van Tuyl Group

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G&C Auto Body, with 10 locations inthe Bay Area has always done every-thing over the top, especially when itcomes to its philanthropy and specifi-cally when they give re-furbished ve-hicles to needy families, individualsand organizations. Touched by count-less letters and requests submitted to

G&C through a car giveaway promo-tion, the company gives away cars notannually or even quarterly anymore—but monthly. The Crozat family isfast tracking their charitable efforts

and setting records, but that’s not whythey do it, according to G&C AutoBody’s Owner Gene Crozat.

“There are so many people outthere struggling right now for what-ever reason and these letters touch mysoul every time I read them,” he said.“Things are not going well for them

for whatever reason, but theydon’t give up and they neverlose hope. If we can helpthem by giving them a reli-able vehicle so that their liveswill be a little easier, I feellike it’s our obligation to doit.”

Saying yes to some and noto others is obviously difficultand that’s why Gene tries tosay yes to as many as he can.

It’s a tough job to sift through these re-quests, and that’s why GovindaCrozat, the company’s outreach pro-gram director plays an important rolein reading all of the letters and work-

ing with the other members of theCrozat family as they pick their recip-ients.

It’s a huge undertaking helpingthose in need and making a differencein the communities in which they dobusiness. “We have given away 21cars so far this year and we will be

giving away four more pretty quickly,hoping to hit 24-30 by the end of theyear,” Govinda said. “We created theCrozat Family Foundation to helppeople in need. In addition to giving

away the cars, we also help people bygiving them Safeway, Shell and Tar-get gift cards, as well as occasionalhelp with rent, funeral expenses, util-ities and other needs.”

By partnering with insurancecompanies, the Crozat Family Foun-dation is now giving away more and

more cars. “We have hadthree insurance partners(State Farm, Geico and All-state) all donate cars whichwere fixed by our SantaRosa, Windsor and Petalumatechs on their own time withparts that were also donatedby local vendors. It’s amaz-ing and really satisfying tosee more people and compa-nies getting involved. ther

companies have stepped up to helpG&C in their charitable efforts,Govinda Crozat explained. “We alsohave all of the cars processed throughthe DMV by a company called B&C


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Car Giveaways Become Regular Monthly Events at G&C Auto Body

G&C Auto Body helped Nicole Ruys and her family with amuch-needed vehicle. That’s Govinda Crozat, G&C’soutreach program director on the far right

The Purugganan family received a mini-van from theCrozat Family Foundation

PartsTrader Integrates with Recycled Parts NetworkPartsTrader LLC, the web-based partssourcing, quoting and ordering plat-form supporting the automobile colli-sion repair industry, and Hotlines, arecycled automotive parts network fa-cilitating the sale and purchase of recy-cled parts, have announced that anintegration partnership is underway.

PartsTrader said that the integra-tion will help recyclers more efficientlyidentify options from their inventoriesto satisfy repair shop part needs. Recy-clers will no longer need to manuallylook up interchange parts in their in-ventory, since possible part matcheswill automatically list on the Part-sTrader quoting screen below each re-quested part. Streamlined quoting willallow recyclers to select appropriateparts and add them to a quote with asimple click, enabling them to respondmore completely and promptly to re-quests from repair shops.

“Recyclers are seeing more op-portunities for part sales than they havetraditionally seen with phone sales,”said Ken Weiss, PartsTrader’s Direc-tor of Business Development. “We’reusing technology to solve the challengethat recyclers have faced in addressingthe high volume of quote requests bytranslating their inventory options di-rectly into the PartsTrader quoting

screen.”Integrating inventory into the

quoting process is one of several newfeatures PartsTrader will be releasingin the coming months for all recyclers.These include improvements to thebuilt-in VIN decoding tool, better fil-tering options so recyclers only have tospend time on part types they actuallysell, and reporting that will allow bettersales performance and targeting.

“The human intelligence factor isessential because estimate and inven-tory data are never perfect,” said Weiss.“The recycling professional will still beselecting the part(s) from their inven-tory that they believe best meets theneeds of their repair shop customers interms of delivery time, quality, priceand value-added service.”

Added Betsy Finnell, Co-ownerof Hotlines, “Based on feedback we’vereceived from multiple recyclers in theindustry, we’re confident our HotlinesAutoMatch technology will effectivelyaddress their desire to streamline andautomate the PartsTrader quote fulfill-ment process. Our live Hotlines Au-toMatch service performs a real-timesearch of the recycler’s inventory, dis-playing all necessary information topromptly and accurately quote the part-saving hours of work each day.”

become immersed in the minutia ofmeaningless metrics. It’s important toidentify which numbers will trulyguide your business to success andthen you have to look at them daily,not at the end of the month when it’stoo late, but every day or as often isrequired to make course corrections.

Positive deviant shops know thatyou cannot improve what you do notmeasure. These shops try to get a littlebetter each day, each week, and eachmonth and they know their numbers!

In order for independent shops tocontinue to be successful in today’schallenging marketplace it is criticalthat we learn by carefully studyingthe habits that make best of the bestpositive deviant shops successful. Itis also advisable to study the admin-istrative processes that give the MSOconsolidators the ability to grow atsuch a rapid pace while still perform-ing repair jobs with amazing timeli-ness and consistency. Independentscan in fact remain very relevant withboth customers and insurers, but youmay have to do things a little differentand perhaps a little better.

Registration Services. They’re doingit all free of charge which is excep-tional. They know all of the ins andouts with the DMV, which is so help-ful. When dealing with salvage titles,total losses and cars purchased at auc-tion, we need a company like B&C tohelp us to navigate through the DMV.It can be tricky and there is a lot of pa-perwork involved and Brenda Smithat B&C has helped us tremendously.”

Instead of buying cars randomly,now G&C is acquiring vehicles specif-ically earmarked for particular familiesin need. “We have gone from buyingcars haphazardly at the local car mart tobuying ‘in bulk’ at the surplus govern-ment vehicles auction every threemonths in Davis, CA,” Govinda said.“I purchased six cars at the last auction

and will be attending for the third timein two weeks. We spend an average of$5,000 per car after purchase, repairsand DMV registration fees andthe recipients get safe, reliabletransportation that can lastthem for many years to come.”

“I also purchase cars tofit specific needs,” she con-tinued “I have searched forvans for families with severalkids, wheelchair van for awoman and her handicappedson, nd a construction truckfor a woman who took overher husband’s construction job afterhe fell through a second story roof andbroke his neck. She was going to losethe job if she didn’t have a truck byFriday… literally! They also had a

one-year-old so I made surethat the truck had a rear doorfor easy access in and out ofthe car seat.”

By constantly touting theircar giveaway program onlocal radio stations, G&C isgetting the word out in a bigway. “We receive the requestletters through Froggy 92.9and Hot 101.7 here in SonomaCounty, as well as KWNE in

the Ukiah area,” Govinda said. The airtime is donated by the Sonoma MediaGroup and KWNE. A TV spot is cur-

rently running on KOFY TV and wehave received letters from their view-ers. We also receive some of the lettersdirectly, as people hear about us fromfriends or sources other than the radiostations.”

Fixing cars is easy, but repairinglives is a little tougher, but that does-n’t mean he will ever stop trying,Gene said. “If we can change one lifefor the better, we’ve done our job.Sure, we’re in the business of fixingcars and doing a quality job on everycar we repair, but if we can give a lit-tle back, why not? It’s not all aboutmoney in the end, because you can’ttake it with you.”


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The Perry family now has a car that can make their liveseasier, thanks to G & C Auto Body

Bobbi O’Sullivan (third from right) and her family wereborrowing cars from their friends, but now they have theirown, thanks of Gene Crozat (far right) and his family


MSO Consolidation


Aluminum was front and centerthroughout much of the collision repairportion of the 2014 SEMA tradeshow,including at one of the new features ofthis year’s event: the “OEM CollisionRepair Technology Summit,” hostedby the Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS).

The day-long summit brought to-gether shops, automakers and equip-ment manufacturers to discuss whatSCRS Executive Director Aaron Schu-lenburg called a “topic that affects everysegments of the industry.”

“There is no bigger conversationright now than the changing landscapeof automotive design and how that in-fluences the repair of a vehicle,” Schu-lenburg said as the summit began.

Sessions during the event coveredOEM shop certification programs,changing vehicle designs impactingrepairs, and the increasing use of steelalternatives, including aluminum.

Doug Richman, vice president ofengineering and technology for KaiserAluminum, said Ford’s introductionof the all-aluminum 2015 F-150 pick-up is just part of a 4-decade-long ex-pansion in the use of aluminum byautomakers. Over that time, the aver-age vehicle has come to have about400 pounds of aluminum, includingsuch parts as wheels and cylinderheads and blocks. That’s about 10 per-cent of the curb weight of the averagevehicle. It’s gone up by about 7pounds per year since the mid-1970s,but has risen by 14 pounds per yearfor the last three years.

While Richman is quick to notethat steel is not going away, the rate ofgrowth in aluminum use is expectedto be maintained over the next decade,according to a recent study commis-sioned by the aluminum manufactur-ers association. The study, Richmansaid, is conducted every three yearsand relies not on projections but on ac-tually vehicle programs committed toby automakers. It forecasts that by2025, seven out of 10 pick-ups will beall-aluminum, and 547 pounds (or 16percent) of the average vehicle weightwill consist of aluminum, including anincreasing percentage of crash partsand body structures.

“Our experience has been [the

study has] been conservative for 21years,” he said. “For seven consecu-tive reports, [it has] been very closebut conservative.”

The most obvious reason for theshift is the weight savings aluminumoffers as automakers work to meet in-creasing federal fuel efficiency re-quirements. The new F-150 is about700 pounds lighter than its predeces-sor, and 400 pounds of that savings isaccounted for by the switch to alu-minum, Richman said.

But the change also improveshow the truck rides and maneuvers, hesaid. There are also safety advantages.

“Every single vehicle that hasbeen converted to aluminum has hadhigher safety ratings than the steel ver-sion it replaced,” Richman said. “A lotof that is design, but also the energyabsorption capability of aluminum.”

Richman focused much of hispresentation on “repair considerations”related to aluminum.

“Your industry has a great dealof know-how in managing – at leasttechnically what needs to be done –the aluminum side of the business,”he said. “But I’ve heard repeatedlyin conversation on the [SEMAtradeshow] floor that the skillsets todo that work properly may not be onthe shop floors yet. In the case ofaluminum body structure repair inparticular, the skillsets are really crit-ical, because it’s not like weldingand repairing steels body structures.”

Richman offered several keypieces of advice for shops as theyprepare to work on more aluminumvehicles. First, he said, automakerrecommended procedures are goingto be more crucial than ever. Carcompanies can choose from a widevariety of aluminum materials, eachwith its own tempers and character-istics, he said. Even knowing the“number” designating a type of alu-minum isn’t enough.

“When you see a number like‘6061,’ what you need to understand isevery manufacturer of 6061 has a dif-ferent formulation – or in fact multipleformulations – that are 6061 materi-als,” he said. “Just because it says‘6061’ doesn't mean it acts like the‘6061` on the next vehicle you see.They are very different. Be certain thatyou consult the OEM recommendedrepair practices for the specific model,because even within a manufacturer,they have varying practices dependingon the specific design or model.”

Dust management is another cru-cial element of aluminum repair, Rich-man said, even aside from the risk ofgalvanic corrosion if aluminum orsteels ‘contaminate’ the other (see side-bar).

“I want to make sure you under-stand that aluminum dust is poten-tially an explosion hazard,” he said. “Ipersonally don’t ever want to hearabout a shop having a fire or explo-sion with aluminum dust. I know thisisn’t news to you, but I want to rein-force it. There’s lots of stories aboutbusinesses that burned to the groundbecause they didn’t manage this.”

Using the automaker-specifiedjoining process is also critical, Rich-man said, given the impact to alu-minum’s strength in the heat-affectedzones around welds. That’s why useof self-piercing rivets and bonding areoften the process-of-choice in themanufacture and repair of aluminumvehicles. Again, following manufac-turer guidelines for rivets and adhe-sives are critical, he said. Use of theincorrect adhesive, for example, maynot ensure the necessary gap for theadhesive is maintained between thepieces being joined, he said.

Schulenburg said the responseSCRS received to its inaugural OEMCollision Repair Technology Summitconvinced him it is an event that willcontinue.

“This does not end here today.This is the beginning of a very longconversation,” Schulenburg said. “Itwill be ongoing. As technology contin-ues to evolves so should the discussion.This is the first of many ‘OEM Colli-sion Repair Technology Summits,’ andwe’re excited to launch this program.”

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon who has been writingabout the collision industry since 1988. He is the editor of the weekly CRASH Net-work (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com). Contacthim by email at [email protected].

SCRS OEM Technology Event Includes Plenty of Focus on Aluminum Repair

Separate area, dust extraction crucial foraluminum repair safety, not just qualityMost European automakers call for a separate “clean room” – set offfrom the rest of the shop by brick-and-mortar – for repair of aluminum.Though its requirements for Ford F-150 certification are somewhat lessstringent, Ford requires the repair area be curtained off. A separate dustextraction system for these repair areas is also required.

Most shops recognize the need to prevent steel or aluminum dustfrom contaminating vehicle parts made of the other type of metal. But thedust extraction is also critical to prevent a potentially hazardous build-upof aluminum dust which can be explosive. Sixty-eight people were killedthis past August in such an explosion in a factory in China that polishesaluminum wheel rims.

During a session at the Society of Collision Repair Specialists’ “OEMCollision Repair Technology Summit,” in Las Vegas in November, ”MarkAllen of Audi of America noted that aluminum oxide was a key ingredientin the “bunker buster bombs” that the U.S. military used in Afghanistan.

“For a shop to say they can’t afford to designate a certain amount ofsquare footage in a shop for aluminum is not a good statement to make,”agreed General Motors’ Leo Gruzas, who said his company has new alu-minum-intensive vehicles in the pipeline. “Everybody needs to have anarea where they can do that specialized work and to make sure the mate-rials are separated and that everybody stays safe.”


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As the Ford F-150 aluminum-bodiedpickup prepares to roll into dealer-ships around the country, CARSTARAuto Body Repair Experts have analuminum repair consulting and certi-fication-focused program in place tohandle repairs on these and other alu-minum-body vehicles.

For the past year, the MSOs op-erations team has been working withCARSTAR owners around the coun-try to help them prepare their shops

for the demands of aluminum repair,train technicians on aluminum repairprocesses for structural and non-struc-tural jobs and source the tools andequipment needed for aluminum re-pair. This training program will con-tinue through 2015.

CARSTAR shops that are part ofFord dealerships are officially certi-fied in aluminum repair through As-sured Performance and listed as anapproved facility on the Ford website.

Other CARSTAR stores are recog-nized for their aluminum repair train-ing, tools and equipment per the FordCollision Network.

In addition, CARSTAR has itsown internal certification process thatis part of its proprietary EDGE Per-formance Tier 5.

“We have always been commit-ted to leading the industry in havingthe best-trained collision repair pro-fessionals,” said David Byers, CEO

of CARSTAR Auto Body RepairExperts. “This is a fundamental partof our ability to deliver the indus-try’s highest KPIs and customer sat-isfaction. As vehicle technologyevolves, we must continue to pro-vide this advanced training for ourcollision repair team. And, it meanswe can send our insurance partnersand fleet providers a list of readyand capable stores to handle theirrepair needs.”

CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Says They’re Ready for Aluminum Repair

WD-40 Company and PowerNationpooled their skills and resources to-gether to create a custom, off-roadJeep that debuted at the SEMA Showthat wowed people all over the worldfor four days. This amazing vehiclewill go to one very lucky winner inJune 2015 via a sweepstakes spon-sored by WD-40 and promoted onPowerNation’s TV shows.

The custom 1990 Jeep WranglerYJ, dubbed the WD-40® Specialist®

Xtreme Machine, has an aluminumbody and tube chassis and is equippedwith an LS engine, 42-inch tires andcoilovers throughout. Located as a fea-tured vehicle in the hallway outside ofthe North Hall, this Jeep was getting ahuge response during the en-tire SEMA show, which ispretty impressive when youconsider that all of the world’sbest custom vehicles are al-ways there.

PowerNation, a two-hour block of four automo-tive shows that air on NBCSports Network, SpikeTV,the CBS Sports Network,PowerNationTV.com andthe PowerNationTV app, in-cludes “Xtreme Off-Road,”“Engine Power,” “TruckTech” and “Detroit Mus-cle.” The WD-40 SpecialistXtreme Machine vehiclebuild will be featured ontwo episodes of “Xtreme Off-Road”in January 2015, with a sweepstakesto give away the vehicle running Jan.2 – May 31, 2015.

“TV viewers will get to see thehard work and attention to detail that

went into building the WD-40 Spe-cialist Xtreme Machine before puttingtheir hat into the ring to win it via thesweepstakes,” said Tim Lesmeister,vice president of marketing for WD-40 Company. “The PowerNation teamdid a phenomenal job building some-thing that’s both head-turning andunique, and the guys used a lot of ourtop-of-the-line WD-40 Specialist

products in the process.”Ian Johnson, host of Power-

Nation’s “Xtreme Off-Road,”was on hand to sign auto-graphs at the SEMA Show in-side WD-40 Company’sbooth and discuss the vehiclehe helped to create in con-junction with WD-40. “We’reproud and pleased to be work-ing with a major name likeWD-40,” Johnson said. “TheXtreme Machine is truly ex-treme in many ways and wewent all-in with this vehicle.”

WD-40 Brand Manager ShannonEdwards gave a little perspective onthe history of WD-40’s custom vehi-cles, all of which have appeared atSEMA over the years. “This is nowour seventh vehicle and we’re alwaystrying to make the next one the bestone,” she explained. “The WD-40

Specialist Xtreme Machine that webuilt with PowerNation is an amazingJeep. We wanted an off-road vehiclethis year, so we pitched the people atPowerNation and they said yes. Ianwanted to take a stab at it and it was

obviously a smart decision. Of theseven, five have been for charity; ithas been a great program. We’veraised more than $750,000 for chari-ties raised by auctioning those five ve-hicles.”

This year’s vehicle can be wonthrough a sweepstakes, so that anyonewho signs up can walk away with it,Edwards said. “We did it this way, sothat any pros or Joes out there can takethis thing home, if they’re lucky. Youdon’t have to know anyone and youdon’t have to be rich to own the WD-40 Specialist Xtreme Machine andthat’s why we decided to give it awayvia a sweepstakes.”

Once again this year, young bodytechnicians in training worked on thevehicle to make it as spectacular as itis today. “The students at UTI SanDiego stepped up and did a lot of thework on this vehicle,” Edwards said.“We’re happy that they were able tocontribute, because we want to startthese young people in the right direc-tion in their careers in the collision in-dustry. These projects allow us toeducate and mentor these students asthey get some real-life experiencealong the way.”


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SEMA Show Goes On


WD-40/PowerNation Jeep Debuts at SEMA 2014

Before it was the WD-40 Specialist Xtreme Machine thatappeared at this year’s SEMA, it was simply a 1990 JeepWrangler YJ

Under the direction of PowerNation’s Ian Johnson andwith some help from the students at UTI San Diego, thisis the amazing finished product

Ian Johnson from PowerNation partneredwith WD-40 on this year’s SEMA vehicle


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A website application developed by Enter-prise Rent-A-Car 15 years ago has evolvedto become an industry standard to helpshops track their cycle time and benchmarktheir performance against others in the col-lision repair business.

Enterprise’s Automated Rental Man-agement System (ARMS) tracks length-of-rental (LOR) data, which Frank LaViola,Assistant VP of Collision Industry Rela-tions, said can improve a shop’s perform-ance by increasing operating efficiencies,enhancing customer service and streamlin-ing communications with insurance com-panies and customers.

With more than 13,000 users, ARMSwas originally built in 1999 as a communi-cation tool for auto body shops to report toEnterprise on the repair status of a vehicle.The information was then passed on to theinsurance company. Prior to the introduc-tion of ARMS, Enterprise would typicallycall the collision repair center for an update.

“As the number of claims and cus-tomers in need of rental cars grew, it be-came more burdensome for the body shopsand the insurance companies to manage thecommunication,” said LaViola. “When welaunched ARMS, we were ahead of thetime. Now, ARMS has become a main-stream tool for the majority of collision re-

pairers out there.”Enterprise began sharing LOR infor-

mation with collision shops five years agoin response to requests from the industry.LaViola, who has worked at Enterprisesince 1992, said they sat down with theirbusiness partners, individual collision re-pairers and MSOs and came up with a va-riety of ARMS reports.

After tracking data for more than ayear, they have found the cycle time is ac-tually going up. The U.S. average length ofreplacement rental increased to 11 days inthe third quarter of 2014, which was aslight increase over the average third quar-ter LOR for the last five years.

“I think a lot of us would think itwould be going down because there ismore awareness,” said LaViola. He attrib-utes the increase to several factors, includ-ing severe weather conditions. In addition,the number of shops in operation is declin-ing, which he said has been an ongoingprocess. He said there were approximately80,000 shops in the U.S. in 1980 and nowthere are about 34,000.

The complexity of vehicles is also abig factor. “It isn’t like five years ago whenyou could just pound out a dent, and senda car on its way,” he said. “Now you’ve gotsensors on vehicles that require you to onlyuse so much paint. Too much paint cancause the sensors not to work because of

the mil thickness.”The free application can be integrated

with over 20 body shop management sys-tems, including Mitchell Repair Center,ProfitNet, Rome Management Softwareand Summit Software Solutions. LaViolaestimated that 30 percent of shops currentlyhave a management system that trackscycle time. Although he said this is a greatmechanism to measure productivity inter-nally, the challenge has always been the in-terpretation of when the cycle time begins.“Three different shops using the same man-agement system can actually have differentinterpretations of when cycle time startsand ends. Enterprise’s ARMS length-of-rental data helps give shops a more consis-tent measurement of cycle time.”

Enterprise’s LOR has become suchan important part of the industry, accordingto LaViola, because it’s based on the billdates of the rental, which includes the opendate of the rental contract to the last datethey bill an insurance company. UsingARMS, shops are able to upload the dateinto their management system and it willautomatically feed the repair status and es-timated completion dates to Enterprise andthe insurance company.

They’ve received positive feedbackfrom shops regarding the reporting, saidLaViola. Not only has it decreased thephone calls made, it has also taken away a

lot of the double keying that is done. ChrisPohanka, VP of Operations for PohankaCollision Centers of VA and MD, saidARMS has helped him shave off more thantwo days of cycle time.

With 12 locations, Pohanka said theyhave been using ARMS since it was firstintroduced. “Currently, we utilize it to man-age our cycle time by way of the LOR re-port,” he said. “With it, we can identifyopportunities to reduce cycle time. We findit a tremendous tool.”

He stressed how critical it is to havetarget dates entered correctly in the man-agement system so it is seamlessly trans-ferred into ARMS. “This gives a goodindication of the forecasted cycle time andshows what vehicles and files are pendingand which ones are closed,” he said.

One of Enterprise’s goals is to inputthe year, make and model of the car into theARMS application. Since luxury vehiclesoften take more time to fix than domesticvehicles, shops will be able to track cycletime based on their mix of vehicles.

“You can’t improve what you don’tmeasure,” said LaViola. “When I show col-lision repair centers what their cycle timeis, and they start evaluating their processeswithin the shop to reduce that cycle time,that’s when the homerun hits. That’s whenthey’re able to drive themselves to hit thosenumbers and achieve those goals.”

Enterprise’s ARMS Application Helps Shops Track Cycle Time and Benchmark Performance

close look at the assembly process forthe top of the line welding and repairproducts. As one of the manufacturer’sapproved by Ford to supply aluminumrepair equipment for the collision re-pair industry, Pro Spot is also wellknown for its resistance spot weldingequipment. In particular, Pro Spot wasapproved by Ford to supply their Col-lision Repair Program with SP PulseMIG welders, Aluminum Dent RepairStations, Fume Extractors and the SPRRiveter.

Ron Olsson, the company’sfounder and president, an electrical en-gineer, grew up in Sweden before mov-ing to California in the 1980s. With apassion for riding motorcycles, Ols-son’s inventive engineering started bycreating a frame straightening machinefor motorcycles. He soon realized therewere more cars on the road than mo-torcycles and opened Pro Spot in 1986to focus on creating quality collisionrepair equipment for vehicles.

Ron’s daughter, Ashley, the com-

pany’s Director of Communications,explained about the different productsPro Spot designs and builds and gaveus a brief history about the company.She recalled memories of the earlydays of the business and the changethey’ve experienced over the years.

Now settled after moving twoyears ago to its fourth location, ProSpot manufacturers more than 30products. With nearly 100 employeesat their facility, the company owns andmanages its own machine shop, a re-search and development department,a fabrication facility and productionlines for various welders.

Ashley said the benefit of manu-facturing the equipment on-site is theability to maintain the quality of theirproducts. “We’re really big on qual-

ity, we have control to make sure eachproduct leaving our facility providesour customers with the best productavailable.”

This past summer they visitedFord’s Deerborn Plant near the DetroitRiver, where Ford started building carsin the 1920s.

Inspired by Henry Ford, Olssonmodeled some of his own business

practices on Ford’s ideas. “Ford dideverything he could so that there wouldbe no bottlenecks in his productionprocess,” said Ashley. “He had his owntrains, trucks, forests, etc.”

Like Ford, Ashley said her fatheris a true inventor and visionary. “Forexample, we were at Ford walkingaround, an idea came to him and im-mediately he’s drawing out designsfor new equipment on the first sheetof paper he can find,” she said.

Pro Spot has worked with Fordover the last five years in regards tothe F-150. “Ford really considered therepairability in the design process,”said Ashley. “This is huge becausewe’re working with them on the pos-sibilities of creating a collision repairprogram.”

“With Ford announcing they aremaking America’s best-selling vehi-cle, their F-150, out of aluminum,”said Ron. “Any body shop anywhere,wherever they are, is going to be fix-ing a few F-150s every month andsome of them are going to be doing it



Pro Spot Shines Stacey Phillips’s First Welding ExperienceLooking through my heavy mask, I was carrying the torch with shaky hands andholding my breath. Then I saw the first sparks light up the room. I realized at thatmoment that I was actually welding.

With an abundance of patience and his trademark sense of humor, Toby Chessfrom I-CAR Training & Certification, recently spent a good part of his morningteaching Victoria and I how to weld. First, he gave an overview of the type of weld-ing we would learn – MIG weld braz-ing. That’s metal inert gas, heexplained. The advantage of MIG braz-ing is the lower heat input. The wirestypically used for MIG brazing have amelting temperature of 1,000 degrees,which puts less heat on the vehicle’spanels.

After installing the wire, Tobytalked about gun angle. Whether weld-ing steel or aluminum, he stressed theimportance of always holding the gunat 80 degrees.

He gave a quick demonstrationof the weld we were going to do using the state-of-the-art Pro Spot welder we werelucky enough to learn on, and I was ready. Mask on. Gloves up. Glasses down.

After completing my first weld, Toby put it to the test: did it fall apart understress? He said I passed with flying colors. Now I was hooked and wanted to learnmore.

However, I realized it takes more than just skill and training. If done improperlyduring a collision repair, a poor weld can compromise the vehicle’s structural in-tegrity. I may have just welded sheet metal, but what I really learned are some ofthe challenges real technicians face. Realistically, how would a collision repair shophire one? Shop infrastructure and equipment are both important components aswell. I-CAR offers these help with their courses as well as an on-site assessment.

Looking back at my first welding experience, it gave me a better appreciationfor all of the technicians who weld on the vehicles we drive everyday. A proper weldcan save lives. What’s next? I asked Toby. Learning how to weld aluminum... Staytuned.

Victoria Antonelli’s First Welding ExperienceWhen I-CAR-certified instructor Toby Chess told Stacey and me he wanted to teachus how to weld steel, we looked at each other nervously, and proceeded to say howexcited we were. I never thought I’d be taking a welding class as part of my job, butI also never expected to become an automotive journalist, so I guess it comes withthe territory.

The nervousness and excitementreturned when we arrived at Pro SpotInternational. By the end of our tourof the facilities, I was looking forwardto getting my hands on the state-of-the-art welding equipment. Before Iknew it, I was putting my gear on. Themask and eye protection felt awk-ward, but I appreciated their purpose.

Toby explained the equipmentfurther before we used it, crackingjokes and asking surprise questions atevery turn—just to make sure we were paying attention. I watched Stacey completeher first MIG weld with flying colors, and then it was my turn.

Toby guided my hand, and proceeded to tell me numerous times to slow downas I moved the wire from top to bottom, sparks flying the whole time. That was fun!I did the same one a few more times, and after only a couple of tries, I was able tosuccessfully complete a MIG weld on my own. I couldn’t wait to take pictures of mycompleted weld, and a selfie with my mask on.

“You two are better than a lot of the full-time guys that come in here,” Toby re-assured us.

Next was the Spot Weld. This one gave me a little bit of trouble, but then again,drawing circles always has. Toby patiently worked with me until I came closeenough to completing a small circle with a filled-in spot.

After more pictures and gear removal, we headed back to Autobody News,feeling accomplished and ready for our next challenge—welding aluminum! Thistime I’m going to do my homework first.

Ashley Olsson demonstrates how welder as-semblage begins with aluminum billet stock

Toby Chess is flanked by editors Stacey (left)and Victoria (right), who showed Tobyenough ability to get to the next class

Toby Chess (left) and welding student StaceyPhillips (right) work on her first weld usingPro Spot’s MIG welder.

Victoria Antonelli’s (right) first weldingexperience as Toby Chess casts a critical eye.

See Pro Spot Shines, Page 41


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Sprucing up your web site is like re-modeling your house. You want it tolook nice and you want your visitorsto feel comfortable. You want peopleto come and stay for awhile and findyour address easily and quickly. TheCalifornia Autobody Association(CAA) recently launched a new website for its members and consumersand now www.calautobody.com is theorganization’s new residence online.

CAA Executive Director, DavidMcClune is pleased with the resultand many of his organization’s 1,000-plus members seem to agree. “Our de-veloper, Optima Automotive, did anoutstanding job on our new site,” Mc-Clune said. “It’s easy to use and itdoesn’t look cluttered. The site pro-vides a way for businesses to join on-line, an interactive calendar of events,a consumer advocacy section, chapterinformation, hot links, direct access toregional managers, and a ‘Find a CAAShop’ feature for consumers. Ourmembers have given the site somegreat reviews and once they work withit more, I’m confident that they’lllearn more about it and how they canuse it to be effective within CAA.”

Mark Claypool, President andCEO of Optima Automotive, spear-headed the development of the newCAA site. His company has producedmore than 300 automotive-related websites since opening its doors six yearsago.

“An association web site shouldbe built with the member in mind, firstand foremost,” Claypool said.

“CAA members do the samethings any member of any trade organ-izations does - paying dues and partic-ipating in association and chaptermeetings. But, maybe most impor-

tantly, they run their businesses in thischallenging industry. There’s only somuch time in the day and that’s whythere is nothing more frustrating than apoorly-designed association web sitethat members struggle to navigatethrough. Therefore, making a web site

simple, easy tonavigate, intuitiveand proactive iswhat they deserve,and is beneficialfor member reten-tion and attractionand that was ourmain objective inbuilding a newweb site for CAA.”

Optima alsobuilt the new CAAweb site in respon-sive design. “Re-sponsive design is

taking the web by storm,” Claypoolsaid. “A large percentage of CAA mem-bers are likely to be accessing the CAAweb site from mobile devices - smartphones, iPhones and tablets, for exam-ple. A responsive design web site al-lows the site to be applied at differentbrowser widths. This means that the sitewill automatically be altered based onthe size screen the visitor is using, mak-ing their experience as visually andnavigationally satisfying as possible.”

The site will have a simple-to-usecalendar the CAA staff and boardmembers may use to schedule events,chapter meetings, etc. “This way, offi-cers can easily add events to the cal-endar and keep all of their chaptermembers in the loop,” McClune said.“By constantly keeping connected tothe membership, everyone can be ef-fective and now we have the ability to

continually update the information onthe site, which is huge.”

The new CAA site has a con-sumer section where people can searchfor member shops via zip codes. “Wemade this as easy as we could, so thatpeople looking for member bodyshops can locate them quickly and eas-ily,” Claypool said. “Everything is go,go, go today and if a consumer can’tfind the information they need fast,they’ll move on, so we made this fea-ture as intuitive and easy to access aswe possibly could.”

In addition, CAA’s new site has alink to LinkedIn groups, private to theCAA and also private to each chapter.“These LinkedIn groups make for asimple, affordable way to push com-munications to select members aboutevents, milestones, legislation, etc.,”Claypool explained. “A step-by-stephow to sign up on LinkedIn is providedon the site for members to get set up.Key events and actions can be pushed

through the suggested LinkedIn groupdesignated for legislative purposes.This means that communications willlink members on the world’s-leadingprofessional networking site and alsomakes it possible to save CAA money.Rather than spending a significantamount of money to program this ca-pability into the CAA site, why not takeadvantage of the technology that al-ready exists and take advantage of allof its other residual benefits?”

The new CAA web site went livein October, so that members can offerfeedback as they tweak it. “The site willcontinue to evolve over time with mem-ber input and as times and technologychange,” McClune said. “We want tohave the best site we possibly can, andby developing it using Word Press, wecan make changes seamlessly.”

Visit CAA’s new home onlineand look around. You’ll be impressedby its easy navigation, clean look andnumerous features.


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CAA Gets a New Web Site with More Features and Better Navigation

CEO Mark Claypooland his company

Optima Automotivedesigned the

California AutobodyAssociation’s newweb site that hasmore features thatboth members andconsumers can use

Hertz Introduces New Web-based HIRS ToolThe Hertz Corporation introduced a newweb-based portal, HIRS for Repair Shops.Developed in conjunction with the soft-ware company Information Builders,HIRS for Repair Shops assists shops inmanaging their key performance indica-tors and provides real time rental report-ing. The tool was created to help repairshops reduce in-coming phone calls, givereal time access to customizable reportingand manage Hertz rentals all in one place.

Set to launch in the first quarter of 2015,shops recently had the opportunity todemo the product and sign up for serviceduring SEMA.

“Hertz is committed to growing itsnetwork of neighborhood locations thatservice the collision repair industry,” saidHertz Senior VP John Holt. “Our newHIRS web portal was developed to assistshops in managing their performance andto provide real time Hertz rental reporting.”

everyday.”In order to meet this need, Ron

said the company is focused on sup-plying the necessary equipment tocollision repair shops. “We work withthe technicians, using their feedbackto make sure our equipment is userfriendly,” said Ashley. They designeda special research and developmentarea where engineers can build newthings and test them out.

During the tour, Ashley ex-plained some of the challenges withaluminum during the repair process.“Aluminum doesn’t have a memorylike steel and is also sensitive to heat.The repair process requires a differentapproach. It’s not impossible, it’s notharder, it’s just different,” she said.“These shops are just going to have tolearn a new procedure for preparingthe aluminum.”

“You can’t weld on aluminum thesame way you would on steel becauseon a spot weld pressure and heat cre-ates a resistance,” said Ashley. “Withaluminum, you can’t heat it up becauseit becomes brittle and will break.


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Preparing for aluminum repair is a bigchallenge, considering the investment,shop renovations, new processes andtraining for the repair experts. 3M Au-tomotive Aftermarket Division is help-ing shops better understand what’sneeded to efficiently handle aluminumrepairs, including standard operatingprocesses, tools, training and productsfor disassembly, re-assembly, sandingand paint preparation.

Aluminum has several uniquecharacteristics compared with other ve-hicle materials such as steel. Repairingthis heat-sensitive metal requires use ofadvanced repair techniques and meth-ods. That means updated training andkey equipment. In addition to knowl-edge, the shop must have the dedicatedspace to make the repair within a cleanroom containing separate tools, wheretechnicians perform all welding, bond-ing, riveting, sanding, grinding andstructural procedures on aluminumcomponents. 3M has been workingwith OEMs for several years to vali-date the tools, products and processesfor aluminum repair. Now, shops canimplement 3M’s portfolio of products,tools, SOPS and materials to repair alu-minum-body vehicles.

“The key in handling non-struc-tural or structural aluminum repairs is

to create an entirely separate environ-ment from the rest of the shop toavoid contaminating aluminum withiron oxide components that can causecorrosion. Contamination can lead toadhesion and paint failures, whichtranslate to re-work and damagedparts that impact KPIs,” said ShawnCollins, Technical Expert for 3MAAD. “Most shops create their cleanroom by using a curtain structure orby utilizing a separate room or build-ing. Regardless, aluminum repair willrequire a separate tool cart with an en-tirely separate set of tools, productsand materials used only for aluminumrepairs. Additionally, self-generatedvacuum tools from 3M AAD can pro-vide low-cost dust extraction.”

Separate safety equipment isalso important, as technicians willneed dedicated respirators, eye pro-tection and gloves for aluminum re-pairs.

3M also makes the seam sealers,premium body fillers, undercoats andabrasives that can be used on bothaluminum and steel.

Premium 3M AAD body fillersand glazes contain adhesion promotersand are approved for use on aluminum.For sanding, 3M AAD recommendsthe 3M™ Cubitron™ II abrasives.

Although the aluminum panelbonding process is often slightly dif-ferent than the steel bonding process,the 3M™ Panel Bonding Adhesive isalso compatible and OEM approvedfor aluminum. 3M Panel BondingAdhesive has been used to bond alu-minum panels for nearly 20 years andis specifically recommended by Fordfor the repairs to the 2015 AluminumF-150. Panel bonding adhesives un-dergo extensive testing in order to bespecified by a car maker.

3M automotive Aftermarket Di-vision also now has available Stan-dard Operating Procedures foraluminum repair. Visit 3MColli-sion.com/aluminum for more infor-mation.

For more information about 3Mproducts and solutions for aluminumrepair, contact 1-877-MMM-CARS,contact your local 3M Distributor or3M Sales Representative or visit thewebsite at www.3Mcollision.com

3M™ Automotive Offers Products and Processes for Aluminum RepairContinued from Page 38

Pro Spot Shines

Follow us on Twitter:

@autobodynewsAccept no Substitutes!

from a repair facility that is not part of ourSelect Service program.”

The ‘Movement’Perretta said the next step for the‘Movement’ is to continue encouragingmore shops to get involved. “If theyfeel the way I feel and a lot of others

feel, the only way to stop that is to geton board with us,” said Perretta.

Meanwhile, shops are gatheringdocumentation on the allegations beingmade. “It’s not a matter of what we say.It’s a matter of what we give them andshow them.”

Another trip to Congress is also ontheir agenda. Autobody News reportedon their September trip to WashingtonD.C. in the (last) November issue of the

magazine. The goal is to educate thehouse and senate about the 1963 Con-sent Decree, in hopes of getting the lawenforced by U.S. Attorney Generalnominee Loretta Lynch.

Autobody News will continue tofollow this story and keep readers up-to-date about developments with thelawsuit. More information about ‘TheMovement’ can be found online:www.TakingBackOurIndustry.com


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I-CAR held presentations, discussionsand training focused on the 2015 FordF-150 throughout SEMA 2014. Thecompany also brought members ofFord’s Service Engineering team to theSEMA Collision Repair & Refinishstage to present, “2015 F-150 CollisionRepair Program.”

I-CAR held its 2015 Ford F-150Structural Repair (FOR06) course atSEMA. FOR06 is a six (6) credit hour,instructor lead, course that satisfiestraining for I-CAR collision repair andinsurance roles including AluminumStructural Technician. Students learnmaterial-specific training that high-lights the processes associated withaluminum repair of the Ford F-150.

Since the launch of FOR06 inMay, I-CAR has seen an overwhelmingdemand for both FOR06 and Alu-minum Welding Training & Certifica-tion™. Over 5,500 repair techniciansand 3,300 insurance APDAs completedFOR06 and over 2,200 more profes-sionals have earned their AluminumWelding Certification.

“This really tells us that the in-dustry is hungry for relevant, timely,and vehicle specific training,” saidJohn Van Alstyne, CEO & President,I-CAR. “

I-Car’s 2015 Ford F-150Training and Education

General Motor’s Dealer Equip-ment Solutions has developed theThe Rail Saver Repair System toolfor collision repair technicians.

The company said it was de-signed by an auto body technicianto help fellow technicians effi-ciently repair frame rails and sidemembers from the inside out.

TG Products’ Tim Gerhardsheld a demonstration of the railsaver at SEMA.

“The Rail Saver Repair Systemwas tested and approved by GeneralMotors for use on both full-frameand unitized vehicles,” said the GMCollision Repair Technology CenterManager at GM.

“This product works on steel,high-strength steel, and aluminumbody components. This tool willhelp pin-point the damage locationto ensure accurate repairs from theinside of a frame rail working out-ward,”

For more information visitwww.GMDEsolutions.com or call1-800-GM-TOOLS.

GM Demonstrated Rail SaverRepair System at SEMA

After a 16-month hiatus, CarMax Inc.started posting inventory on Cars.comand AutoTrader.com in October 2014,according to reports by David Bark-holz at Automotive News. Althoughthird-party shopping sites reach a wideraudience than some of the most well-known auto groups according to sen-ior automotive analyst at BloombergIntelligence, Kevin Tynan, the feescan be a deterrent. Dealers vouched itcan cost $3,000 to $25,000 a month toget a prominent online position on Au-totrader.com or Cars.com. Pricing de-pends on the advertising package andthe number of vehicles listed. A deal-ership group executive said tht a storepaid $16,000 a month to list 150 vehi-cles on AutoTrader.com. Barkholz re-ported that Carmax’s net profit andrevenue jumped more than 10 percentin its fiscal quarter ending Aug. 31 vs.the year-earlier quarter, total vehiclesales at the company’s stores open atleast a year stalled at 0.2 percent year-over-year growth. Tynan said CarMaxstopped using these sites during the re-cession, which reduced supply ofavailable used vehicles. More late-models will be coming off leasesshortly so these websites are profitableagain.

CarMax Returns to Auto-Trader & Cars.com

Nissan announced major new enhance-ments to the Nissan Certified CollisionRepair Network program on November10, launching a consumer-focused re-ferral initiative that ties Nissan vehicleowners with Nissan Certified CollisionRepair Providers. To enhance relation-ships between certified shops within thenetwork and Nissan owners, NissanNorth America is launching an On-De-mand-Marketing (ODM) tool. The toolsimplifies marketing for certified shopsthrough a one-stop-shop process thatgrants them access to Nissan owners ge-ographically. Now, Nissan Certifiedshops can send marketing messages viamailer or email promoting their certifiedshop location directly to Nissan owners.The Nissan Collision Repair Networkcombines Collision Shop Certification,consumer awareness and education ele-

ments, along with shop locators to en-sure that Nissan customers can locate acertified repairer. This program assuresthat certified collision shops have theright tools, equipment, training and fa-cilities to repair Nissan vehicles.

“In some cases, Nissan customershave endured a collision repair experi-ence—and the resulting repairs—thathave been controlled by third-partieswho don’t necessarily have the cus-tomer’s best interests in mind,” saidMark Zoba, Collision Parts Manager,Nissan North America. “Nissan valuesour customers and is willing to dowhatever we can to enhance our cus-tomer’s experience. With this program,Nissan is addressing this critical issueby assuring their vehicle drivers areable to select certified shops that areable to properly and safely repair Nis-

san and Infiniti vehicles.”Nissan has teamed up with As-

sured Performance, a non-profit con-sumer advocacy organization and thethird-party administrator for OEMCertification-Recognition programs.

“Nissan’s bold customer referralprogram is the ultimate payoff forshops who are willing to re-invest intheir business and retool and train to en-sure they are able to properly repair thenew generation of vehicles being intro-duced by all of the major automakers,”said Scott Biggs, CEO, Assured Per-formance. “This is a positive step forthe entire industry. No business or per-son should be able to touch a vehicle ifthey are not equipped and trained to doit properly, and customers and insur-ance companies should not be payingfor substandard work.”

Nissan Introduces Certified Collision Network Consumer Referral Program

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Finding and hiring new staff can oftenbe a challenge for collision repairshops. Greg McVicker, a collisioncenter manager in McMurray, Penn-sylvania, recently launched TheTalent-Monger.com website to help shopsrecruit employees based on their spe-cific employment needs.

“The whole premise of our site isthat it’s proactive,” said McVicker.“You can go search for the person youare looking for versus spending themoney to put an ad up and hoping thatsomeone is going to respond to it.”

Working at Budd Baer dealershipand collision center in Washington,Pennsylvania since 2005, McVickersaid one of their biggest challengeswas to find qualified staff while theirfacility expanded. Established in 1975,they re-located in 2010 and added atwo-story addition in 2014. “Throughthat time period I saw the same sce-nario play out over and over againwhere we tried to use traditional meansof recruitment that are somewhat out-dated for our industry,” he said.

In addition to placing ads in thelocal classifieds and advertising ongeneric online recruitment sites,McVicker recalled spending nearly

$1,600 one week looking for techni-cians. After interviewing perspectiveemployees who responded to the ad-vertisements, he found that many did-n’t have the necessary qualifications.

Around that same time, McVickerbecame involved with the Alliance ofAutomotive Service Providers ofPennsylvania. He has been the localchapter President in Pittsburgh since2008 and sat on the board of directorsas the Collision Division Director ofAASP-PA since 2012. Last year hebegan representing the association onthe national board. As he was intro-duced to more and more shops, he no-ticed a recurring theme.

“It became very clear to me thatthis wasn’t just an issue I was dealingwith here in Pittsburgh,” saidMcVicker. “It was an issue that all overthe country shops are struggling andtrying to find and get connected withthose people.”

He said this led to the creation ofthe job search website. “That’s reallythe spirit with which TheTalentMon-ger.com came into existence,” saidMcVicker. “It was a way for us toeliminate the current recruiting processin the industry, save shop owners valu-able time and money and get themconnected with qualified techs.”

McVicker and his two partners,Erin Koen and Alan Shen, hired Im-pere Media in February to design thewebsite. Seven months later it waslaunched nation-wide to the industry.

Auto technicians are able to cre-ate a free profile highlighting their cer-tifications, education and training.Owners and managers can also create afree profile for their shop, which al-lows them to search for potential em-ployees who meet their specificcriteria. Whether they are looking fora frame tech or a paint tech, when theyare ready to contact a candidate, theycan subscribe to the service to gain ac-cess to detailed information.

As the site expands, McVickersaid one of their goals is to reach outto the technical schools to give stu-dents a way to connect with the indus-try. Eventually, the plan is to give techsthe option to relocate, which McVickersaid would give shop owners access toa group of employees they might nototherwise have.

They are also working with in-dustry partners, such as Sherwin-Williams, to help spread the wordabout the site. He encourages both jobseekers and shop owners to check backregularly as TheTalentMonger.comcontinues to expand.

Website Connects Collision Shop Owners & Auto Techs: TalentMonger.comQuest Automotive Products hashired a new Director of Product &Color Management − Hermon Fer-rell. Ferrell brings over 26 years ofindustry experience to Quest Auto-motive Products. His previous rolesincluded Senior Product MarketingManager at Sherwin-Williams. Thisrole, among other senior leadershippositions, has given Ferrell an op-portunity at QAP to oversee colormanagement, color development,all aspects of product managementand new strategic business develop-ments. In turn, Ferrell will focus ondeveloping more forward-thinkingtools and initiatives, leading to cus-tomer-centric product solutions andfaster-to-market processes for QAP.

“Mr. Ferrell’s passion for thisindustry and decades of experienceis a huge advantage for QAP andour customers,” said Mark Flint,VP of Sales & Marketing, Paints &Coatings. “To grasp this industryand these products with such clarityand understanding is a rare thing.He fits our culture and shares in ourgoals.”

Quest Hires Former MartinSenour Product Manager



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The Martin Senour Company unveiled acustom-built and custom-painted 1966Mustang during SEMA featuring theMartin Senour Pro//Base™ AutomotiveRefinish System and restored by ChrisCarlson Hot Rods in Mulvane, Kansas.

The unveiling/press conference ofthe Mustang custom coupe named “GoodKarma,” displayed a paint job featuring acustom Martin Senour color “VelvetRed” (based off the new Rod & Restora-tion Color Deck, color code: PCRS36).

“We were very excited to partnerwith Chris Carlson Hot Rods during thecustom development of this truly mag-nificent Mustang,” said Brandon Devis,Martin Senour Director of Sales. “Theattention to detail and Velvet Red color isbeyond stunning. It is truly a testamentto a vehicle that has become an Ameri-can icon, particularly as it celebrates the50th anniversary of its launch this year.”

Chris Carlson Hot Rods practicallydid a complete custom makeover on thetraditional ‘66 Mustang. “One of mybiggest things is that I’m a true customguy. Normally a Mustang renovation isnot a ‘real custom’ project to us. So in thiscase, we wanted to do a full-body systemwithout losing the nice Mustang look,”according to shop owner, Chris Carlson.

“When it came to the exterior mod-ifications we chopped two inches and

extended and raised quarters one inch; apancake deck lid; a frenched-in ‘68 Ca-maro rear bumper; custom fabricated therear roll pan; custom fabricated wheelopenings and side scoops; extended two

side body lines; shortened the cowl 3.5inches; and molded the complete frontclip together,” said Carlson. “We thenadded a hood scoop, frenched head-lights, custom grille, front bumper cutand tucked, custom fabricated innerfender panels; a custom fabricated fire-wall; and finally, a flush-mount wind-shield and back glass.”

For the paint, Carlson said, “Work-ing with the NAPA and Martin Senourguys was a tremendous experience. Col-lectively we chose to finish the car in a

customized version of Velvet Red,based off the new Martin Senour Rod &Restoration deck. We then gave it a dou-ble dose of reflective crystals; plus, aDark Red flake racing stripe.”

The new Rod & Restora-tion custom color programincludes 200 colors madefrom a series of optically en-hanced automotive paintscontaining special combina-tions of highly reflective ad-ditives.

Depending on the projectand what the end vision of thecar is, the Rod & Restorationcustom color program isavailable in three color cate-gories, including: ExactMatch OE Classic, Barrett-

Jackson Modified Muscle Car and Rod& Custom.

The Mustang coupe is named“Good Karma” in honor of Chris’swife, Karma Carlson (it is, after all,really her car – as promised to her byher husband as far back as just theirsecond date, in 1990). She recalls,“Chris said that someday he’d buildme my Mustang. I rolled my eyes – itwas our second date after all – fastforward 18 years and four kids later...Chris drove me to check out a car. It

was a forest green 1966 MustangCoupe, that we bought in 2008. Iloved it! The kids and I made lots ofmemories in that car and every time itbroke down, Chris would have tocome and fix it.”

“It even broke down mid-paradeand had to be pushed the rest of theway by our car club members. We fi-nally decided to park it in the barn untilwe could do a complete custom over-haul on it,” continues Karma. “Lifehappened and six years passed. Chas-ing out the raccoon family and pullingthat car out of the barn was a momen-tous day! I truly can’t believe this is thesame Mustang that I taught my son todrive in, took my daughter prom dressshopping in and hauled home theworld’s largest pinata for my youngerboys. It took 24 years but Chris camethrough on that promise he made to meon our second date, and it’s gorgeous.I love the Velvet Red color; it’s such abeautiful, deep red.”

For more information about MartinSenour paints visit www.martinsenour-autopaint.com or call 1-800-526-6704.To learn more and share in the ‘GoodKarma’ 1966 Mustang custom build, orto Like Us on Facebook, visit:https://www.facebook.com/MartinSenourAutomotive.

NAPA/Martin Senour Unveil Custom 1966 Mustang at SEMA 2014

Good Karma Mustang unveiled at SEMA

Sherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes donated $170,000 in products tohigh school and post-secondary colli-sion school programs through the Col-lision Repair Education Foundation(CREF). The products included mix-ing guns, orbital sanders, polishingpads, conditioning brushes, and muchmore. Instructors around the greaterChicago land area were invited to visitthe Sherwin-Williams training facilityin Burr Ridge, IL and select from 16pallets of products, which will assistcollision instructors in teaching propercollision repair with up-to-date mate-rials.

“Sherwin-Williams AutomotiveFinishes is proud to be working withthe Collision Repair Education Foun-dation to make a difference in our in-dustry by supporting secondary andpost-secondary schools whose stu-dents are currently looking to enterinto the collision industry and make ittheir career,” said Rod Habel, Sher-win-Williams Automotive Finishes’sDirector of Training Operations.

“Thank you to Sherwin-Williamsfor allowing our school to receive somuch of their paint supplies. I knowthat running a collision program canbe a demanding job with all of thebudget restrictions and red tape, justto get a few items at our school, but I

must say Sherwin-Williams has comethrough for us,” said Kenny McMil-lian, Collision Instructor at KennedyKing College in Chicago.

“We had a paint class that hadstarted and for some strange reason thepaint supplies that we needed to teachthe class never got ordered. I startedpanicking and didn’t know how I wasgoing to teach the class with no sup-plies, which was maxed out in the en-rollment. Sherwin-Williams steppedup to the plate and donated the supplieswe needed to teach the class. I am sograteful to the Collision Repair Educa-tion Foundation and Sherwin-Williamsfor helping to support the collisiontechnical schools.”

CREF Director of DevelopmentBrandon Eckenrode noted, “Sherwin-Williams comes through for collisionschools and instructors each and everyyear through product donations and in-structor training. These types of dona-tions are vital for instructors who havethe expectation of providing highlyskilled entry-level students but facesmaller and smaller program budgets.”

Industry members interested inhelping high school and/or collegecollision school programs throughCREF, should contact Brandon Eck-enrode at [email protected] or 847-463-5244.

Sherwin-Williams Donates $170,000 in Products to CREF


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The Independent Glass Association(IGA) has joined the Society of Col-lision Repair Specialists (SCRS).IGA said its goal is to address edu-cation and industry best practices inrelation to automotive glass repairand replacement services at colli-sion repair companies.

“We all share the common goalof providing quality repairs focusedon safety while being fairly compen-sated and without obstruction fromthird-party administrators and theirdiscriminative programs,” said GaryHart, IGA Executive Director.

“With the IGA’s support, weare confident that we can identify alot of the commonalities and poten-tial solutions that will ultimatelybenefit businesses in both industries.We are excited to have the supportof membership from the IGA, andlook forward to their participationwith SCRS,” said Aaron Schulen-burg, Executive Director of SCRS.

SCRS members can apply forIGA membership at http://www.iga.org/scrs. The IGA is extendingSCRS members $50 off any newmembership through December 31,2014 in addition to an IGA newmember discount of an additional$50 off ($100 total savings).

IGA & SCRS Partnership

The collision repair industry is seeingmore vehicles with high-strength steel,posing some new challenges for tech-nicians. As OEMs push to meet futureCAFÉ standards, they are looking tonew alternative body materials thatprovide greater strength to meet crashand rollover standards, while also al-lowing them to lighten the vehicle toreach the 54.5 MPG goal for 2025.

High-strength steel (HSS) partspresent a challenge to body shops andbody technicians for a number of rea-sons, including limited use of tradi-tional repair methods for applyingheat, pulling, hammering and section-ing. To create a safe and crashworthyrepair with HSS parts, technicians nowmust use the proper equipment andtools to limit the amount of collateraldamage to the host panel during paneldisassembly and assembly.

Tips from Branden Loesch, 3MAutomotive Aftermarket TechnicalService Engineer:

“If you walk into a shop today,body technicians are likely using oneof two tools to remove spot welds dur-ing disassembly – either a drill or a diegrinder. There are other methods, likean oxyacetylene torch or plasma cut-ter that may have been used in the pastfor this operation, but we have finally

put those dinosaurs to rest with thedrill or die grinder.

“While die grinder or drill bothwork and get the job done, there aresome concerns and negative impactswhen using them. I see many techni-cians drilling to remove welds on vehi-cles today. This is always a challengingprocess because drill bits do not cutwelds efficiently, and it takes a signifi-cant amount of time to remove all of thewelds in a panel using a drill. They alsohave a tendency to damage the hostpanel, either through over-drilling anddrilling into or through the host panel,or by missing a portion of the weld, re-sulting in tearing the panel when sepa-rating with an air chisel.

“This leads to a loss of strength inthe part and also extended repair timesbecause the technician spends a sig-nificant amount of time repairing andstraightening the flange prior to in-stalling a new panel. Drills and drillbits can also send your material coststhrough the roof, especially on high-strength steel panels that require hard-ened drill bits that have a significantlyhigher cost and tend to have a shorterlife span, which requires multiple drillbits per repair.

“If your technicians prefer grind-ing, you must now be concerned with

heat generation and burning of the hostpanel, which could alter its strength.There are also concerns with over-grinding and spark control/protection.To make a long story short, drillingand grinding can get the job done, butthere is a much better way to do it.”

Enter the 3M™ File Belt Sanderand Cubitron™ II file belts. The3M™ File Belt Sander tool wasbrought into the collision market in2013 to help meet the technician’schallenges with spot weld removaland part replacement on today’s vehi-cles, especially those made out ofhigh-strength steel. The 3M™ FileBelt Sander provides improved con-trol and speed, as well as reduced fa-tigue for those technicians who areusing it in place of drills and grinders.Technicians can now cut through spotwelds, and control their depth of cutmuch more accurately so they do notdamage the host panel during weldremoval. The 3M™ File Belt Sanderis a tool that efficiently removes allthe weld material, which significantlyreduces the collateral damage done tothe host panel during weld removal.

The cutting action of the 3M™File Belt Sander used with 3M™ Cu-bitron™ II file belts have significantlyimproved technicians productivity

throughout the process. The precision-shaped grain abrasive technology usedin 3M™ Cubitron™ II file belts slicethrough high-strength steel and re-move welds much more efficientlythan traditional methods. This newCubitron™ II mineral technology al-lows you to cut welds faster, allowingmore welds to be removed with a sin-gle belt.

Using the file belt solution alsoleaves your technicians with renewedenergy, no longer having to use exces-sive force to get a drill bit or grinderto cut through high-strength steel.They simply have to put the belt incontact with the panel and hold it inplace during weld removal, whichleaves technicians with much less fa-tigue at the end of the panel disassem-bly process. The versatility and designof the 3M™ File Belt Sander allowsyour technician to reach welds in dif-ficult areas that historically have takena significant amount of time to re-move. Now your technician can reachand remove these welds by quickly ad-justing the file belt arm.

Steeling Yourself for Changes—New High-Strength Steel Poses Additional Challenges According to 3M™

Safelite® Group renewed their an-nual contribution of $10,000 to theCollision Repair Education Founda-tion (CREF), displaying its commit-ment to the future of the collisionindustry.

Safelite’s contribution benefitsthe industry by enhancing the Edu-cation Foundation’s ability to offergrants and scholarships to careerand technical schools and colleges.

The $10,000 gift from Safelitewill support the Education Founda-tion’s CREF fund, which allows thefoundation to provide its annual stu-dent scholarships, school grants, andthe annual Ultimate Collision Educa-tion Makeover $50,000 school grant.

“Training is critical for autobody and vehicle glass technicians,”said Jerry Beigel, Senior Vice Pres-ident of Safelite® Solutions, thecompany’s P&C insurance claimsbusiness unit.

“Their craft impacts the safetyof everyone on the road, and weare pleased to contribute to the fu-ture of our industry by supportingthe CREF.”

Safelite Renews AnnualContribution to CREF



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Clean Sheets® Mixing Boards are used by thousands of repair shops to mix epoxies, body !ller, !berglass, plastics, gel, puttyand touch-up paint.•••••••••••••••••••••••• P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Prererererererererererererererererererererererererererererererereveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveveventntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntntnts s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s cocococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococococostststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststlylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylylyly r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r 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Mitchell, a leading provider of technol-ogy, connectivity and information solu-tions to the Property & Casualty (P&C)claims and Collision Repair industries,announced on Nov. 5 the availability ofits Industry Trends Report (ITR) for thefourth quarter of 2014.

The report compares year-over-year data to analyze the key areas ofgrowth within the industry and helpP&C insurers, bill reviewers, payersand auto body repair shops make bet-ter business decisions.

The ITR is delivered in two edi-tions to address timely concerns forthe auto physical damage and casualtyindustries.

In the Auto Physical Damage edi-tion, vehicle repair speed remains ahot-button industry topic becauseturnaround time is a priority for allparties involved. Within that process,bumper covers are the most com-monly damaged part and the first pointwhere an appraiser exercises judgmentto repair or replace.

In the report, Greg Horn, VicePresident of Industry Relations atMitchell, analyzes the labor hours de-voted to repair a bumper and whethertime varies by the make of the vehicleor if bumper price impacts repair time.

According to Horn, the industry“should be devoting more hours to

bumper cover repair because it is ademonstrable win-win-win for theshop, the insurer and the vehicleowner. But the repair must be a qual-ity, durable repair. It also suggests thatwhether you are an appraiser or colli-sion technician, you need to keep upwith the latest repair products and ma-terials. When was the last time youlooked?”

In addition to this trends analysis,readers will find the latest data on av-erage rental car time and used vehiclemarket conditions.

Mitchell offered a webinar, Indus-try Trends Live, on the Auto PhysicalDamage edition of the report. During

the webinar, Horn provided a deeperlook into the trends, information andstudies highlighted in this quarter’s ITRon Wednesday, November 12.

First published in April 2001,Mitchell’s ITR now reaches more than33,000 collision and casualty industryprofessionals and provides visibilityinto data-driven trends in the P&Cmarket. The complete report is avail-able at www.mitchell.com/industry-trends-report.

For further collision repair andproperty casualty industry updates andperspectives, follow Mitchell on Twit-ter @MitchellClaims and @Mitchell-Repair.

Mitchell Fourth Quarter 2014 Industry Trends Report Provides Insights for 2015


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Auto Care Association Releases 2014 DigitalCollision Repair Trends Report

Acura TLX Earns Top Safety Pick+ AwardThe 2015 Acura TLX, a new midsizeluxury sedan, earnd the Top SafetyPick+ award for acceptable perform-ance in the Insurance Institute forHighway Safety’s (IIHS) small over-lap front test, good ratings in four othercrashworthiness evaluations and a su-perior rating for front crash prevention.

In the small overlap test, thedriver space was maintained reason-ably well, with maximum intrusionof about seven inches at the lowerhinge pillar. The dummy’s movementwas well controlled. Its head hit thefront airbag and stayed there until re-bound. The side curtain airbag alsodeployed and provided sufficientcoverage to protect the head from in-truding side structure and outside ob-jects. Measures from the dummysensors indicated that injuries to theleft lower leg would be possible, butthe risk of other injuries in a crash ofthis severity was low.

Introduced by IIHS in 2012, thesmall overlap test is more challengingthan either the head-on crashes con-ducted by the government or the Insti-tute’s moderate overlap test. In the test,25 percent of a vehicle’s front end onthe driver side strikes a rigid barrier at40 mph. The crash replicates whathappens when the front corner of a ve-

hicle collides with another vehicle oran object such as a tree or a utility pole.

The TLX replaces the TL and theTSX in Acura’s lineup. The new cardoes better in the small overlap testthan the TSX, which earned a mar-ginal rating, but not as well as the TL,which earned the top rating of good.

Neither predecessor vehicle hadavailable front crash prevention. TheTLX has two front crash preventionoptions, a warning-only system thatqualifies for a basic rating and anotherthat includes both the warning featureand automatic braking. In track testsof the autobrake feature, the caravoided the target in four out of fiveruns at 12 mph and in all five runs at25 mph, earning a superior rating.

The TLX earns good ratings inthe institute’s long-standing moderateoverlap front, side, roof strength andhead restraint tests. Good ratings inthese tests, a good or acceptable ratingin the small overlap test, and a frontcrash prevention rating of basic orhigher are the requirements for the in-stitute’s highest award for 2014, TopSafety Pick+. The TLX is the seventhvehicle from Honda/Acura to earn theaward. Another three, including theTL, earned Top Safety Pick, whichdoesn’t require front crash prevention.

The Auto Care Association has re-leased the 2014 Digital CollisionRepair Trends report, an online70-page analysis of data compiledfrom primary Auto Care Associa-tion research, federal governmentand independent research datasources. The report highlights thesize and scope of the U.S. colli-sion industry, including the paint,body and equipment (PBE) seg-ment, with a brief analysis of theCanadian collision industry. Italso includes analyses of factorsinfluencing the collision industry,automotive collision insurancecoverage and the Direct RepairProgram (DRP).

According to this year’s re-port, collision repair-related salesby industry repair shops droppedslightly (0.2 percent) in 2013 to$40.1 billion from $40.2 billion in2012. Despite the drop in sales,the industry, since 2009, has man-aged a sustained growth at an an-nual rate of 2.2 percent, with mostof the growth coming from thehigh-priced post-collision repairparts.Powered by Nxtbook MediaLLC™, this digital publication re-

tains both the traditional designand high-quality content of AutoCare Association reports. This on-line production provides addedvalue with many new functionalenhancements.

Users can:● Download Excel-based files,charts, tables and graphs that can becopied and pasted for presentations.● Turn pages with the click of amouse.● View pages in a variety of sizesand formats.● Quickly locate what you are look-ing for through a “word search” fea-ture.● Save material for future referencethrough the “bookmarks” feature.● Print the entire publication.

Copies of the new 2014 DigitalCollision Repair Trends report arenow available at $125 for Auto CareAssociation members and $250 fornon-members. The report can be or-dered by calling member services at301-654-6664 or email [email protected]. About the Auto Care Asso-ciation.

ACD, a national company that fo-cuses in claims management, advi-sory, audit and technology solutionsto the property and casualty industry,announced the release of CollisionSelect to its auto claims workflowmanagement platform, AutoLink™.

Collision Select is an enhancedfeature within AutoLink™, whichallows insurers to dispatch an as-signment to any collision repair fa-cility a vehicle owner chooses.Through ACD’s integrated responsetechnology, the company said a re-pairer can quickly respond with re-quired information eliminating theneed to login to any system. Colli-sion Select accepts any estimatingsoftware and can log digital imagery,video and all file types.

“I’m very excited that we haveadded Collision Select to our Au-toLink™ workflow technology. Ourmission is provide every avenue ofinspection for our clients whether itbe Self(ie) Service™, a traditionalappraisal or documentation from arepair facility,” said Ernie Bray,CEO of ACD. “Our goal is to pro-vide a seamless solution that meetsthe needs of our clients and increasescustomer satisfaction.”

ACD Adds Collision Selectto AutoLink™ Software

Auto repairers often must go to mul-tiple websites, place phone calls orsend faxes to track down and pur-chase the parts needed to completequality repairs. CCC InformationServices recently introduced PartsShopping, a new CCC ONE® Touchfeature that offers repairers the abil-ity to buy parts during the estimat-ing process.

“The introduction of the CCCTRUETM Parts Network in 2013and the parts quoting and procure-ment functionality are key mile-stones in our strategy,’ said JosephAllen, GM of CCC’s AutomotiveServices Group. “The announce-ment extends our efforts, making itpossible for repairers to access livepricing and to buy parts during theestimating process, where criticalbuying decisions are made.”

The Parts Shopping feature isavailable to users of CCC ONETouch at no additional charge. Userscan search for parts, view live pric-ing, add items to their shopping cartand purchase selected items. It is alsoconfigurable by the user, so uniqueterms and parts pricing that may bepre-negotiated with suppliers are au-tomatically reflected for each item.

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Southeastern December 2014 Issue

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Transcript of Southeastern December 2014 Issue