April 2013 Southeast Edition

The Alabama Automotive Repair Indus-try Society of Excellence (ALARISE) isgearing up for a very busy April withtwo large events coming up.

The first big event is the statewidetechnical schools SkillsUSA competi-tion set for April 24–25.

The ALARISE board of directorsrecently met with Alabama SkillsUSAautomotive collision competition direc-tor Ronnie Smallwood to discuss howbest to support the upcoming contest,and board members quickly learned howvery much their support, contributionsand participation is valued and neededto make the competition a success.

“The Alabama SkillsUSA Auto-motive Collision competition becomesa primary focus for ALARISE,” saidacting president Steve Plier. “In addi-tion to working with the MississippiCollision Repair Association to final-ize details for the April 26th and 27thAutomotive Repair Industry Confer-ence in Biloxi, Mississippi, ALARISEis also turning its attention and effortsto assisting and working to gain the as-sistance of automotive collision re-pairers and collision repair vendors tomake the April 24th and 25th AlabamaSKILLS USA competition a success.”

The Georgia Collision Repair Associa-tion held its March 21 meeting in At-lanta, GA, featuring two guest speakers.

Liz Stein,Vice President of Indus-try Relations at Assured PerformanceNetwork, presented “Using Certifica-tion and Consumer Marketing Strate-gies To Market Your Collision RepairBusiness.”

The discussion focused on howcollision repair businesses who really

have the training, facility equipmentand consumer care can stand out in anindustry that is over saturated with col-lision repair business who do not havewhat it takes but appears as if they do.

Stein discussed using certificationand consumer marketing strategies tomarket collision repair business toshow it has what it takes to repair theconsumer’s vehicle back to manufac-

GCIA Meeting Features Liz Stein and 7th Annual Labor Rate Survey Begins

See GCIA Meeting, Page 44

ALARISE Gears Up for a Busy April: SkillsUSAand First Southern Industry Conference

See ALARISE Gears Up, Page 36

Maryland Legislation Would Block Insurer-Mandated Parts Procurement, WMABA: Yes Maryland Delegate Mark N. Fisher(R-27B) has introduced House Bill1375 regarding replacement parts fordamaged vehicles. The bill wouldprevent insurers from requiring a“specific vendor or process for partsprocurement”—in effect it wouldblock requirements like State Farm’sPartsTrader initiative in the state. Thislegislation is one of the first attemptsto address recent insurer initiativesrelative to parts procurement.

The bill language prohibits anadjuster, appraiser, insurance pro-ducer or employee of an insurer fromrequiring a motor vehicle repair facil-ity to use a specific vendor or processfor parts procurement or other neces-sary material for vehicle repair.

The legislation requires an in-surer to authorize repairs to be madeusing genuine crash parts, prohibitingan insurer from requiring repairs to bemade using aftermarket crash partsduring the five years after the vehicleis manufactured. The insured mayconsent to the use of aftermarket

crash parts in writing at the time of re-pair.

The Automotive Service Associ-ation (ASA) and its Collision Divi-sion Operations Committee haveconducted educational meetingsaround the country, met with insurerrepresentatives and convened othercollision industry segments to discusscrash parts and parts procurementpolicy.

Some collision repair organiza-tions such as Washington MetropolitanAuto Body Association (WMABA)worked closely with Delegate Fisher indrafting the language.

“We are one hundred percent insupport this bill,” said WMABA Ex-ecutive Director Jordan Hendler, toa trade media source. “We have al-ready been in contact with several con-sumer and automobile dealer groupswho will also stand with WMABA insupport of this measure.”

The bill has been referred to theHouse Committee on Economic Mat-ters.

Parts Order in PA Leads to Arrest in Fatal CrashA broken headlight led to the arrest ofa man accused of a hit-and-run acci-dent that left another man dead.

Pacurie Huynh, 29, of UpperDarby, PA, was tracked down via apart ordered to repair the Toyota4Runner he was driving when he al-legedly struck the victim, ThomasQuercetti, 28, on Fourth of July lastyear.

Huynh was arrested Feb. 25 andcharged with causing an accident thatinvolved death and failing to give in-formation, according to the criminalcomplaint.

Quercetti was walking homefrom a friend’s house about 1:30 a.m.on the shoulder of the 100 block of

North State Road in SpringfieldTownship, Delaware County, when hewas struck by a vehicle. Police saidthere was no indication that the vehi-cle tried to stop.

Quercetti, who suffered headtrauma, a broken leg, and a brokenshoulder, and was in critical conditionwhen he was taken to Crozer-ChesterMedical Center, died at home on Feb.20. He had been on life support sinceJuly 4, according to Emily Harris,spokeswoman for Delaware CountyDistrict Attorney Jack Whelan.

The complaint says investigatorslearned in January that evidence sent tothe FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, VA,

See Parts Order Arrest, Page 26

PAINT AND REFINISH TECHNOLOGIESPAINT AND REFINISH TECHNOLOGIESFirst of 2 IssuesFirst of 2 IssuesFirst of 2 Issues

• Custom Painter Stories, p. 25, 28, 30, 32, 34, 40• Companies Talk Tech p. 12, 15• Tips and Tricks p. 16• Training and News, p. 12, 14

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Contents

Southeast

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Melanie AndersonContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, Stefan Gesterkamp, John Yoswick, Janet Chaney,Toby Chess, Rich Evans, Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman, Jay Lukes (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Louise TedescoArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the auto body industry. Permission to reproduce in any formthe material published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2013 Adamantine Media LLC.

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

BASF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 34

Car-Part Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

CCC Information Services . . . . . . . 13

Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

CSS USA, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Don Reid Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

FL, GA, AL, MS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Gray-Daniels Auto Family . . . . . . . . . 5

Gus Machado Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Honda-Acura Wholesale Parts

Dealers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 37

Innovative Tools & Technologies, Inc . 25

Jim Ellis Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers. 33

Lythos Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Malco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Mercedes-Benz Wholesale Parts

Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 12

Nalley BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Nissan Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 36

Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . 43

PPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Preval Spray Gun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Pro-Spray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Rare Parts, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . . 8

Southtowne Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Subaru of Gwinnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 45

Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

VIM Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Walcom USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Inde

xofAdvertisers

www.autobodynews.com | APRIL 2013 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

New Indiana Shop to Follow Lean ProductionA new collision repair shop using leanproduction methods is slated to openin Terre Haute, IN, by November.

Ted D. McClintic and Benedict“Dick” Cobb Jr., with a combined 50years of experience in auto collision re-pair in the Indianapolis market, joinedforces to create MC2 Collision. The newbusiness will construct a new 14,000-square-foot facility near the intersectionof First Street and Springhill Avenue.

The new business will employ 15workers, McClintic said, and expectsto repair 50 to 60 vehicles a month.

Cobb said the new business willuse lean manufacturing methods tomore quickly repair cars. “Short of atotally aluminum vehicle, we will beequipped to fix anything,” Cobb said.

The two-acre property was soldin April by Dorsett LLC for $300,000to Cobb and McClintic. Constructionof the new business has started.

“We thought that this corridoralong U.S. 41 is a crossroads of west-ern Indiana. We think it has a lot tooffer, with a reach of six to nine coun-ties,” McClintic said.

Cobb sold his shares in CollisionSolutions, which has five Indianapolislocations.

“The average repair here is twiceas long as in Indianapolis and it is not

because they don’t do good work,”Cobb said. “They [other collision re-pair shops] are busy and also are stilldoing things the old way.

“Lean manufacturing, thosesame principles, can apply to our in-

dustry. It takes a lot of training, butwhen you successfully convert yourbusiness to that, you cut repair time inhalf,” Cobb said.

Cobb and McClintic said theywill be a referral for Dorsett LLC,which sells Mitsubishi, Kia and Nis-san. Cobb said he also plans to ap-proach Mace Ford about workingwith that dealership.

“The trend is for dealerships to getout of the collision repair business, whichis not their core business,” Cobb said.

MC2 Collision Grand Opening

REGIONALALARISE Gears Up for a Busy April:

SkillsUSA and First SouthernIndustry Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Florida Senate Panel Wants Ban onTexting & Driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

GCIA Meeting Features Liz Stein; and 7thAnnual Labor Rate Survey Begins . . . . . 1

Georgia’s New Car Tax Gets Fixed forDouble Tax on Car Leases . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Gerber Opens New Centers in Floridaand Washington. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Honda Visits Alabama High Schoolwith Message Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

How to Donate to Ray Gunder’s Legal Fund . 4Lexus of Pembroke Pines, FL, Named

2012 Lexus Certified CollisionCenter of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

NC Shop Opens 6th Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Understanding Georgia’s New Car Tax . . . . . 6

COLUMNISTSAttanasio: Blogging for Fun and Profit. . . . 10Evans: Sharing the Love of Custom

Painting with Students at Lincoln . . . . . 40Franklin: The Selling Estimator’s Job

Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Insider: Shops’ Inefficiencies Are

Legitimate Concerns for Insurers . . . . . 26

NATIONAL250,500 Cars Damaged by Sandy in

15 States Plus DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29ABRA Auto Body & Glass in Clinton, Iowa,

Wins Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38ABRA Opens 4 Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Allstate’s Overton Joins Education

Foundation Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Anthony Fisher Obituary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39ASA Announces Details for 2013 Annual

Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Automaker, OEM and Recall News . . . . . . 22Caliber Collision Acquires Two New Texas

Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Caliber Opens 21st Shop in LA. . . . . . . . . 18California Firms Sue Ford for ‘Overinflated’

Fuel Efficiency Claims of Two Hybrids . . 29CAPA Testing Addresses Industry

Concerns on Safety of AftermarketBumper Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

CARSTAR Promotes Rick Miller andMelissa Miller to Leadership Roles . . . . 42

Chrysler Delivers First Shipment ofCompressed Natural Gas–FueledRam Trucks to Oklahoma. . . . . . . . . . . 31

Collision Billing Adds Desk ReviewServices to Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Consumers Rate Best Auto Insurers for ‘13 . 8Dallas Attorney Buys Auto Body Shop

to Redevelop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Edward “Randy” Bevis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Feds Spend $1 Billion on Repair Bill

for Vehicle Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Four Collision Industry Members Join

Education Foundation’s Leadership Circle. 43I-CAR Adds 4 New Online Courses,

Expands Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43ICRA Adds ‘No Free Lunch’ to Tradeshow . 42Indiana Convention & Exhibition Takes

Control of the Future: “What areYou Doing?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Industry Gives $5 Million in Support ofCollision Repair Programs throughEducation Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Industry Gives 1,000 Uniforms toCollision Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Industry Veteran Mike Spagnola Joins SEMA. 47Inspection, Maintenance Bill Introduced

in Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Joe Gibbs Racing Hosts Sherwin-Williams Worshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Keenan Launches Operation Comfort Fundraiser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Louisiana Hail Storm Brings MoreCustomers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Maryland Legislation Would Block Insurer-Mandated Parts Procurement. . . . . . . . . 1

Mitchell Releases 2013 InsurancePredictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

NABC Appoints 3M Sales ManagerRicciotti to Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

NABC Ramps Up Its Social Media Efforts . 37NABC To Take Stock of Future at April

Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37NASCAR Champion Jeff Gordon to Drive

No. 24 Chevrolet with New Imron ElitePaint Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

New Indiana Shop to Follow Lean Production . 3Ohio Driver’s Licenses Blocked for

Some Immigrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Oklahoma Safety Officials Want Texting Ban. 18Parts Order in PA Leads to Arrest in

Fatal Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Post Office Unveils 1967 Shelby Forever

Stamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46PPG Marketing on Demand Website

Breaks New Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14SCRS Donates General Memberships to

245 Collision School Programsthrough Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

SCRS, CREF Ask Industry to SupportTheir Local Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Seidner’s Hires Mike Stacy as CorporateDirector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Self-Driving Nissan Leaf Controlledfrom iPad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

SEMA Exhibit Summit Takes Place April15-17 in Las Vegas, 7 Months Priorto Nov. 5-8 Show Date. . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

SEMA Show Hotels Now AcceptingReservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Sherwin-Williams A-Plus NetworkPartners with Assured Performanceto Offer Rebate Rewards . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Sherwin-Williams Introduces Body Shop Phone App for Consumers . . . . . . . . . . 47

Shop Owners, Managers Asked toComplete Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Used Vehicle Wholesale PricesUp 1.3% in January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

VA Police Make 383 Arrests forInsurance Fraud in 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Van Tuyl’s Firefighters’ Extrication,Tradeshow, and Fundraiser. . . . . . . . . . 35

Vermont Introduces Aftermarket Bill . . . . . 41WIN May 5-7 Conference to Focus

on Recruiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

PAINT SPECIALCollision Painter Enjoys Custom’s

Freedom of Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Custom Painter Aaron Wachholz Paints

Cars, Boats & Bikes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34From Hot Wheels to Hot Rods: Kindig-It

Designer Works for Fun . . . . . . . . . . . . 30How to “Touch Up” A Scratched Car in

60 Minutes and Make $95 . . . . . . . . . . 16Jon Kosmoski—Painting Legend Uses

SATA Guns Exclusively. . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Mitch Lanzini Extends his Art from Toy

Cars to Overhaulin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Preval Wins Prestigious Sherwin-Williams’

Vendor of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12The Art of Atomization: Thermo Regulated

Compressed Air and Atomization . . . . . 15Waterborne Breathable Air Combo System

Available from Martech Services Company. 12


In Lincoln, AL, Honda officials re-cently visited Lincoln High Schoolwith two specially-designed vehicles.

The Odyssey minivan and PilotSUV, models produced at the Japan-ese automaker’s Talladega Countyfactory, are wrapped with photos ofemployees doing things they love todo, from body building to knitting.

The vehicles are part of theplant’s diversity and inclusion initia-tive—What Makes You MakesHonda Better—that highlights thedifferent backgrounds and interestsof its local workforce. The companyis promoting the program in areaschools and at special events.

Honda Visits Alabama HighSchool with Message Cars

The Boyd Group Inc. recently an-nounced the opening of a new repaircenter in Washington and one inFlorida. The Boyd Group now oper-ates 181 locations in the U.S.

The center in St. Cloud, FL, isapproximately 26,000 square feet insize. It was part of the 11 centers ac-quired with The Recovery Roomacquisition in November 2012, butwas closed for approximately a yearprior to the acquisition. It has nowreopened and operates under theGerber Collision & Glass tradename.

“We welcome the reopening ofthe St. Cloud location, which willserve Orlando and Kissimmee sub-urban area customers. This center issituated in an attractive locationwith good visibility for those trav-eling on the E. Irlo Bronson Memo-rial Highway,” said Tim O’Day,President and COO of the BoydGroup’s U.S. operations.

The center located in Stan-wood, WA, is approximately 4,500square feet in size and previouslyoperated as Twin City Collision.With this addition, the Boyd Groupowns and operates 14 repair centersin Washington.

Gerber Opens New Centersin Florida and Washington

Lexus of Pembroke Pines, FL, Named 2012 LexusCertified Collision Center of the YearStandox® has congratulated Lexus ofPembroke Pines in Florida for beingnamed the 2012 Lexus Certified Col-lision Center of the Year.

The national award is based on a12-month measurement of customersatisfaction, sales growth, manager,estimator and technician certification,

facility and equipment requirements,and benchmark achievements. Na-tionwide, there are 233 Lexus Dealerswith 16 dealers realizing the power ofthe Lexus Certified Collision Centerprogram and that competed for theaward.

“At Lexus of Pembroke Pines,we are dedicated to providing our cus-tomers with a luxury customer expe-rience, which includes maintaining

Lexus industry certification bench-mark standards. Being named the2012 Lexus Certified Collision Cen-ter of the Year is an honor and I amvery proud of our team,” said BrianMartin, collision center director.

As the 2012 Lexus Certified Col-lision Center of the Year, Lexus of

Pembroke Pineswas featured in aLexus TV spot-light, which airedon February 11,2013.

Lexus of Pem-broke Pines hasbeen a proud userof Standox® since2009.

“We wish tocongratulate Lexus

of Pembroke Pines on being named the2012 Lexus Certified Collision Centerof the Year,” said Matt Robertson,DPC sales director–North America.“The award is a testament to BrianMartin and his team’s strong commit-ment to providing their customers withquality vehicle repairs.”

A Florida Senate panel has unani-mously approved a bill imposing astatewide ban on texting while driv-ing. But eventual approval by theHouse is far from sure.

The Senate Communicationscommittee voted 9-0 for the bill, SB52. The bill outlaws texting by driversbut exempts police and other emer-gency vehicles.

The proposed law makes textingsubject to secondary enforcement.Police could cite drivers for it only ifthey had been pulled over for anotherviolation such as speeding. A viola-tion would lead to a fine and —if tex-ting resulted in a crash—the driverwould be assessed six points.

The measure has failed fouryears in a row because critics in theHouse have likened it to needlessgovernment intrusion.

Thirty-nine states and the Dis-trict of Columbia already have bans.

Florida Senate Panel Wants Banon Texting & Driving B&R Body Shops in Charlotte, NC,

opened its sixth shop location in thearea. The new, 17,000-square-footcollision repair facility will operateas B&R Body Shop-Northlake.

“There has been substantial de-velopment in this area over the pastfew years as evidenced by the growthin specialty retail, as well as the nu-merous dealerships that have movedup here between Charlotte and theLake,” said Tommy Morgan, ownerof B&R Body Shops. “We have beenseeking a suitable facility on this sideof the city for some time.”

NC Shop Opens 6th Shop

Members of the collision repair indus-try as well as distributors around thecountry are invited to make a donationon the behalf of Ray Gunder by send-ing checks payable to: Brent Geoha-gan, Attorney at law; Geohagan, P.A.,3001 Bartow Road Lakeland, FL33803. Please write in the memo area:“Donation to Gunder’s Legal Fund.”Upon winning his cases, Gunder hascommitted to creating a ‘war chest’legal fund from recovered fees andcosts for repairers to use to fight theirown insurer underpayment battles.

How to Donate to Ray Gunder’sLegal Fund

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Georgia’s new car tax got fixed afterstate lawmakers reached agreementMarch 5 on a deal that won’t auto-matically give big tax breaks to a largegroup of used car dealers, The AtlantaJournal-Constitution reported.

The tuneup, crafted with the helpof representatives of Gov. NathanDeal, will fix unintended conse-quences of a new law that eliminatedthe state’s hated “birthday tax” on carregistrations. A chief problem was adouble tax on car leases.

The changes will go into effectas soon as Deal signs the legisla-tion, which is expected to happenquickly.

As lawmakers rushed last year tooverhaul the state’s tax code, theyfailed to account for nuances of carleases, creating the double tax. Thecompromise solves that problem,which is a big deal in a state where,according to Experian, leases ac-count for 33.8% of all new car trans-actions.

Senate President Pro Tem DavidShafer, R-Duluth, said of the compro-mise, House Bill 266: “This legislationaddresses some of the transitional is-

sues that have been raised. No legisla-tion is perfect.”

Those transitional issues involvedso-called “buy here, pay here” dealers,who typically charge high interest tocustomers with bad credit. Once a cus-tomer defaults on the loan, the car isrepossessed, the dealer sells it againand the cycle continues.

Under last year’s tax overhaul,and in a version of a bill proposed bythe House earlier this year, those deal-ers would have to pay a title tax everytime the car is sold. The dealers didnot like that idea and initially won areprieve from the Senate: They wouldpay 2 percentage points less than thenormal title tax every time they sold acar.

But the Senate had defined buyhere, pay here dealers to include amuch larger group: used-car dealerswho have majority ownership in a fi-nance company making the loan to acar buyer. It also included at least a$74 million decrease in state revenueover the next four years, somethingsupporters considered a tax cut butwhich would come at a time Georgiais still struggling economically.

The House, which was alreadysquabbling with the Senate overwhether the House version of the leg-islation was a hefty tax increase,balked as a result and did not take avote. Negotiations continued, leadingto the Tuesday, March 5 agreement.

Under the deal, the new legisla-tion does not try to define buy here,pay here dealers. It also does not tryto regulate them. Instead, it leaves thedecision to the state Department ofRevenue on whether to create newrules and controls on what so far hasbeen a loosely regulated industry.

If the department does create newregulations, it can then also give thosedealers a larger break — 2.5 percent-age points — on the normal title tax.

The deal is expected to reducestate revenue by about $20 millionthrough 2017, which Senate support-ers touted as a tax cut. It passed unan-imously in the House and won by avote of 42-4 in the Senate.

Mo Thrash, a lobbyist for theGeorgia Independent AutomobileDealers Association, said the compro-mise will be “helpful.”

“In the long run, consumers in

this state are going to benefit from thisnew legislation,” Thrash said. “We’vehad good assistance from leadershipin the House and Senate, and we hopethrough new rules and regulations inthe Department of Revenue, buy here,pay here dealers will be able to be reg-ulated and to assist customers whootherwise could not get financing for amotor vehicle in this state.”

House Majority Leader LarryO’Neal, R-Bonaire, who voiced muchof the House’s criticism of the Sen-ate’s earlier action on the bill, said thefinal compromise eased his concerns.

“It certainly is a first big step to-ward what I needed, which was to geta very clear, concise definition of whatthe buy here, pay here industry is,”O’Neal said. The Revenue Depart-ment will “decide who will qualify fora tax preference,” he said.

The compromise, if signed by thegovernor, will unfreeze the car leasingindustry in Georgia, O’Neal said.

The uncertainty surrounding thedouble tax all but shut down the leas-ing of cars in the state. Now, O’Nealsaid, “we can avoid some of the bigconfusion that was inevitable.”

Georgia’s New Car Tax Gets Fixed for Double Tax on Car Leases


On March 1, Georgia began to switchfrom the annual “birthday tax” oncars to a new type of car tax. Any res-ident buying a car from now on willpay a one-time fee rather than the an-nual tax paid when registering thecar.

Buyers will pay a one-time 6.5%tax. That percentage is scheduled toincrease slightly each year.

Car buyers who purchased a carfrom January 2012 to February 2013can choose whether to continue topay the birthday tax or opt into thenew system.

Car buyers who bought a car be-fore January 2012 are still obligatedto pay the birthday tax. The new lawapplies to all vehicles bought inGeorgia, no matter where they arepurchased.

People who move into Georgiawith a car after March 1 will have topay the new tax on any vehicles en-tering the state when they registertheir cars in Georgia. New out-of-state residents will have to pay halfthe fee up front and will have a yearto pay the rest.

Vehicles passed between imme-diate family members—spouses, par-ents, children, siblings, grandparentsor grandchildren—will pay a reduced

fee of 0.5% of the car’s worth to titlethe vehicle, provided the full one-time title ad valorem tax already hasbeen paid.

People who were exempt frompaying the annual car tax, such as dis-abled veterans, are exempt from thenew tax.

Vehicles that are older than1985, and are not required to have ti-tles, are only affected if the owner de-cides to get a title after March 1.

Vehicles that aren’t titled, suchas boats and trailers, aren’t affectedby the new law.

Parts of the law may still changeas state lawmakers make adjustments.Individuals may use www.newtitle-tax.com to calculate how much thenew tax would cost.

Understanding Georgia’s New Car Tax

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Collision Billing LLC assists colli-sion repairers in obtaining full pay-ment from insurers reimbursing onbehalf of consumers for their billedrepair activities and has now intro-duced desk review services.

The desk review service willallow body shops to send their com-pleted jobs to Collision Billing for re-view to make sure they haveincluded the necessary operationsbased on the repairs being done. Col-lision Billing Services (CBS) utilizesits claims database, which is com-prised of information submitted byits subscribers that documents whatwas paid or not paid on each job, in-cluding labor rates, included and notincluded operations, and manual en-tries.

CBS also uses its comprehen-sive knowledge of the databases toscrub the estimates to ensure properprofitability.

“Body shops are in the businessto repair cars; they don’t want tohave to be a database expert as well,”said CBS President Chuck Gosney.

Collision Billing is headquar-tered in Jackson, MI, and can bereached at http://collisionbilling.com,or 517-489-4280.

Collision Billing Adds DeskReview Services to ClientsInsure.com asked more than 5,600 in-

surance customers nationwide to ratetheir satisfaction with their auto,home, health and life insurance com-panies and 80% of auto insurance cus-tomers said they were ‘completely’ or‘somewhat’ satisfied with their insur-ers’ customer service.

Insure.com awarded its top 2013People’s Choice Award to USAA inthe auto insurance category. The com-pany scored a 96 overall out of a pos-sible 100. Second place was awardedto Erie Insurance (91.7) and Auto-Owners Insurance (88.1).

The survey ranked insurers inseveral categories including customerservice, value for price paid, percentwho would recommend the company,percent who plan to renew, and claimssatisfaction (except in the life insur-ance category).

The top three auto insurers in theclaims handling category were thesame three that topped the overall sat-isfaction rating: USAA, Erie, andAuto Owners.

The lowest ranked auto insurerfor claims processing was Travelers,followed by 21st Century and LibertyMutual.

Price was cited by 42% of surveyrespondents as the most important fac-

tor in auto insurance-buying deci-sions; 21% think customer service isthe most important factor. Satisfactionwith claims, often a pain point, camein as third most important, with 15%.Knowing how many customers wouldrecommend the company or renewtheir policies was chosen as most im-portant by 11% each.

Among customers who say theywon’t be renewing their auto insur-ance policies with their current com-pany, only 8% says it is because ofdissatisfaction with claims.• 62% think their price is too high• 12% think other companies are bet-ter• 10% cite poor customer service• 9% have ‘other’ reasons

Among consumers who made carinsurance claims in the last three yearsand say they haven’t read any of theirauto policy, 61% were ‘completelysatisfied’ with the claims process. Ofthose policyholders who made claimsand say they’ve read all of their autopolicy, 69% were ‘completely satis-fied’ with their claims.

USAA, which sells only to mem-bers of the military and their families,scored five stars for customer serviceand claims in the auto insurance cate-gory.

Ken Rosen, senior vice presidentof claims for USAA, says “the secretsauce is an engaged workforce.”

He says USAA employees aresingularly focused on facilitating thefinancial success of the company’smilitary members. Rosen says insur-ers are judged on “that moment oftruth,” when the customer has had acar wreck.

All levels of employees at USAAare encouraged to speak up when theyspot a problem and to submit ideas forimprovement. For example, an em-ployee originally suggested an acci-dent-animation function for USAA’smobile app. It’s now part of the appand allows members to reconstruct anaccident in animation and submit itwith their claims. USAA also conductsrandom surveys of members after theyhave been on a call with a representa-tive and after they’ve had a claim.

For the full results of the survey,visit insure.com

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New courses now available. Call 800-445-9262 or see the complete course list at chiefautomotive.com/courses/an.

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SEMA Show Hotels Now Accepting ReservationsSEMA showgoers may now securehotel rooms from the official SEMAHousing Services at www.SE-MAShow.com. Available throughTravel Planners, the reservations comewith guaranteed low rates and perks,such as no resort fees.

“We know that showgoers arebusy, and securing a hotel roomshouldn’t be a time-intensive job,”said Peter MacGillivray, SEMA VPof events and communications. “Byusing the official SEMA HousingServices, attendees and exhibitors canrest assured that they are workingwith a legitimate company and pay-ing the lowest rates.”

SEMA began partnering withTravel Planners in 2011 to provideShowgoers with guaranteed low rateson dozens of hotel rooms in LasVegas during the week of the SEMAShow.

Among the benefits of usingTravel Planners are:• Guaranteed low rate—The housingbureau actively monitors to ensurethat they are offering the lowest pos-sible rates. If guests do find a lowerrate, Travel Planners will match orbeat the lower rate.• No hidden fees—Many hotels inLas Vegas advertise lower rates and

charge a “resort fee” on top of thatrate. SEMA and Travel Planners haveworked with hotels to waive suchfees. The price quoted through TravelPlanners is all-inclusive and will nothave other fees added to it.• Exclusive room blocks—SEMA andTravel Planners lock in prime blocksof rooms at host hotels. As a result,rooms may appear to be sold out tothe rest of the world when in realitythey are being held for SEMA Show-goers who go through the SEMAHousing Services.• Extra level of service—Becausereservations made through TravelPlanners identify guests as SEMAShowgoers, the hotel staff provides ahigher level of service and helps di-rect guests to show-related programssuch as free shuttles. Guests also re-ceive confirmation numbers in ad-vance of the Show and can get hotelhelp from Travel Planners staff at theSEMA Show.

To secure rooms through the offi-cial SEMA Housing Services, reserva-tions should be made from the SEMAShow site www.SEMAShow.com andinclude the official housing seal.Travel Planners can also be reached di-rectly at 800-221-3531 or 212-532-1660.

People used to think that blogs werelight and breezy, written mostly bysoccer moms or retired teachers andfeaturing their poetry, baby picturesand long-winded opinion pieces. Butover the years blogs have changed ina big way. Nowdays, experts on cer-tain subjects will go to blogs exclu-sively to see what they can’t findanywhere else on the Internet. Blogshave gone from irrelevant to pertinentwithin the past five years, and todaymore companies than ever (includingbody shops) have one blog and maybeeven more.

For those of you who have beeninside fixing cars too long and don’tknow what a blog is, here is my ele-vator speech. A blog is the morphingof two words (web–log) and in simpleterms, it’s a discussion-based or infor-mational site published on the weband including a series of entries (alsoknown as posts) typically displayed inreverse chronological order.

Until 2009, blogs were normallythe work of a single individual or asmall group, and often covered oneparticular subject. More recently‘multi-author blogs’ (MABs) have de-veloped, with posts written by largenumbers of authors and professionallyedited.

More and more companies, in-cluding body shops, are creating blogsfor many reasons, according to AngelIraola, a blog expert and the owner ofNet Business Consulting & Services(NBCS) in Santa Rosa, CA. Iraola hasbeen designing websites and blogs forhis clients since 2006 and has seen ahuge spike in their overall popularity.

“I used to get 1–2 calls everymonth from people asking about blogsand now I get about 5–6 calls a week.Why are they so in style right nowwith companies of all sizes? Becausefor one, they see their competitorsdoing blogs and they want to keep up.Also, they’re easy and affordable toset up and maintain, moreso than web-sites. In addition, people read blogsnow more than ever and they enjoy in-teracting with other readers.”

To get top search rankings onsites such as Google and Bing, blogscan play an instrumental role, Iraolasaid. “By using meta tags and the

proper keywords, blogs can help com-panies to spread the word and enhancetheir Search Engine Optimization(SEO) efforts. I’ve helped some of myclients to become #1 on Google andtheir blogs are one of the main reasonsfor their success online.”

How can body shops use blogs toget more customers? Iraola isn’t giv-ing away his secrets, he said, but heoffered some basic advice. “Post atleast once every week, otherwise yourblog will become stale and peoplewon’t read it. And change up the con-tent, with articles about helpful newsand tips about driving and cars and in-terviews with your employees andfunny, entertaining stories includingvideos, in some cases. Make it inter-esting and varied and solicit com-ments by doing polls and promotingdiscussion with your readers.”

Laurie Kaiser is the marketingdirector at LaMettry’s Collision, withseven locations in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. Kaiser contracted an out-side firm to create LaMettry Colli-sion’s blog in 2011 after it developedthe shop’s website, she explained.

“They recommended a blog to en-hance our SEO, tell our story and keepengaged with our customers. We alsoattached the blog to some of our socialmedia, such as Twitter and Facebook.We’ve made the content for our blog ateam effort, soliciting feedback andgathering ideas about future blog arti-cles from our employees, customersand even vendors.”

Some of the more popular postson LaMettry’s blog include: Best andWorst Car Commercials for 2013;Why Your Car Gets Poor Mileage inthe Winter; Green Auto Repair:LaMettry’s Commitment to the Envi-ronment; and Congratulations toLakeville High North’s Class of 2012.

Stefanie Almendares is the mar-keting manager at Eur-Asia Motors inSan Francisco, CA. One of the firstthings she did after getting hired earlylast year was create a blog and con-nect it to the shop’s website and its so-cial media.

“We specialize in information andeducation on our blog, because wewant to be an advocate for the indus-try and a source our readers can trust,”

Almendares said. “Sometimes I haveto ask our techs about how to fix cer-tain items, so that I can write aboutthem for our blog. For instance, wewrote a post recently about how longit takes to repair a bumper. I didn’tknow, so I had to learn how a fender isrepaired and how long it takes to com-plete the job, so that I could pass it onto our readers.”

Does Almendares have any tipson how to make it in the blogsphere?

“I post as often as I can and wealways use lots of photos. Our SEOperson told us to use plenty of pic-tures and write alternate text for eachphoto we post. That way, we get morereadership and enhance our searcha-bility.”

Kevin Rains is a second-genera-tion owner of Center City Collision inCincinnati, OH. He delegates the ma-jority of his shop’s day-to-day tasks tohis managers and employees, but han-dles all of his company’s marketing

himself, he explained.“I really enjoy the marketing as-

pect of this business, because it’s al-ways changing with the technology. Istarted blogging way back in 2001 formy church, long before most peopleeven knew what blogs were. Then,three years later I started a blog for ourshop. Now I also publish a blog calledthe Auto Guru Blog, on which I teachreaders about the technology involvedin car repair, so that they know what toexpect.”

How does he know if people readhis blog and has he seen any benefitsfrom it?

“There is no doubt about thepower of blogging, because I haveseen it firsthand. Everything we doonline is there for a reason and SEO isof course a big factor.

“We can’t rely 100% on our blogor our website, because marketing is amix of different things but blogging isa part of that.”

Blogging for Fun and Profit

with Ed Attanasio

Social Media for Shops

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



© 2013 BASF Corporation

But I have no limits thanks to BASF.Preserving the environment is as important to me as achieving my creative vision. BASF knows I won’t compromise on either, and their low-VOC waterborne products deliver. BASF paints offer beauty and performance, so there are no limits on my creativity. Now that’s a breath of fresh air. To learn more, visit basfrefinish.com

For more information, scan the QR code with your smartphone. If you do not have a QR code app, it can be downloaded for free.

Some say the sky’s the limit

Sherwin-Williams recently an-nounced it has awarded its Vendorof the Year Award to Preval, a divi-sion of Chicago Aerosol. This is thefirst time the company has received

the prestigious award, which recog-nizes a small group of supplierswho have demonstrated substantialsuccess in a variety of categories,including double-digit sales growth,high-quality and high-value prod-ucts, ambitious new product devel-

opment and exceptional service andmanagement.

Peter Sedlak, vice president ofMarketing & Purchasing at Sherwin-Williams Co., said Preval was selectedfor the award, in part, because of the

company’s drive to succeed and theunprecedented success of its relativelynew vFan, a portable airbrush systemthat has been enthusiastically wel-comed among professional contrac-tors as well as a number of otherindustries.

The vFan led to a 12% sales gainin Preval’s Sherwin-Williams con-tracts. And despite the rapid growth inthe paint and coatings industry andothers, Preval has maintained as oneof its core business values an unre-lenting focus on quality, value andcustomer service.

“Somehow, the Preval Spray Teamcan separate themselves fromthe pack by out-servicingmost [of their competitors],”Sedlak said.Preval, and its parent com-

pany, Chicago Aerosol, wererecognized with the award atthe Sherwin-Williams’ ven-

dor luncheon in Nashville, TN.“Winning this award from Sher-

win-Williams, one of the biggestnames in the paint and coatings in-dustry, validates all of the hard workthat we have put into bringing inno-

vative new products to the market andsetting ourselves apart from the com-petition,” said Preval President SamAverbuch.

The vFan is used for precisionpaint and material dispensing; touch-ups and surface repairs; surface prepa-ration; and curing. Distributedworldwide, the vFan is used in diverse

markets across the globe, includingthe appliance, automotive, aerospace,arts, bookbinding, craft and hobby,container, converting, electronics,food and beverage, furniture, homeimprovement, life sciences and med-ical, light emitting diodes (LED),

metal finishing, marine, new homeresurfacing, non-woven, packaging,scrap booking, semiconductor andsolar energy and textile industries.

The vFan Airbrush is the only de-vice on the market that converts to anairgun and achieves both 3-inch fanand 1/16-inch hairline patterns. Amaz-ingly portable, the vFan Airbrush canbe used in all environments whenpowered by 150 Feet of Energy,Preval’s innovative, eco-friendlyaerosol compressor unit. Each canis-ter of 150 Feet of Energy contains 7ounces of VOC-exempt propellantthat powers more than 150 feet of lin-ear paint coverage and up to 40 squarefeet of paint coverage. The vFan Air-brush is also compatible with mostworkshop compressors.

In addition to the vFan, Preval iswell known for its Sprayer, a portable,professional-grade, inexpensive spraysystem that is used for countless ap-plications. The Sprayer is disposable,recyclable, easy to clean and where nocompressor is needed. Preval has alsorecently introduced a number of othercomplementary products to the mar-ketplace.


Waterborne Breathable Air Combo SystemAvailable from Martech Services CompanyAs the use of waterborne paints be-comes more popular and, in some areasrequired, the need for clean and drycompressed sprayable air is a criticalprerequisite. The need for proper filtra-tion to remove moisture, oil vapors,gaseous hydrocarbons, dirt, rust, scale,and other potentially dangerous con-taminants is a core re-quirement. Then, if thedew point and relative hu-midity can be drasticallylowered, the user can cre-ate a quality of spray airnecessary to properlyapply today’s top of theline waterborne paintproducts.

Tom Wright, Di-rector of Sales & Mar-keting for MartechServices Company, says “The Model50-WB has all the features of a Qual-ity Air Breathing System, Model 50series system, plus the additional abil-ity to lower the dew point and relativehumidity for spraying waterbornepaints.” Furthermore, Wright states,“It only makes sense that if the air issafe as breathable air, then it wouldalso be superior sprayable air. Add away to lower the dew point and the

relative humidity and you have a com-plete combo system.”

The convenience of having a solu-tion to comply with OSHA regulationsfor proper air supplied respiratory pro-tection, and delivering Ultra Clean &Ultra Dry Air from a single system, iscost effective and efficient. The Model

50-WB can process up to50 SCFM of BreathableAir or 35 SCFM of UltraClean & Ultra Dry Air, orany combination withinthose parameters.

The Model 50-WBis designed to work withyour existing compressedair source to properly fil-ter and monitor the com-pressed air for Grade “D”Breathable Air, plus this

system also provides Ultra Clean &Ultra Dry Air for use in spraying water-borne or solvent based paints.

This system can handle up to twopainters at the same time. The Model50-WB is a 50 SCFM system, and isalso available in an 80 SCFM system.

For more information contactMartech Services Company at 1-800-831-1525, or see their website at:www.breathingsystems.com.

Preval Wins Prestigious Sherwin-Williams’ Vendor of the Year

(l to r) Keith Ramsey, Ken Kamien, Matt Spagat,Sam Averbuch, Bryan Smith, Sheryl Ellenbrock,Shawn Orr and Teresa Chapman


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CSS USA, Inc.

A Smart Solution.The CSS Workstation Feaattures:es:ttuurreatn FtiotatrksWoSS W CSTheTThe CSS Workstation Features:A massive 179 square feet of �ltration area.Two huge input �lters (over 36sf ) clean the air going throughthe Workstation.Four Paint Arrest Filters (140+ square feet) and two ActivatedCharcoal Filters ensure the air going back into the environmentis clean and EPA compliant.

••••

Di!erent Sizes Availabbleebblleelabvails Azest Sient!erDi!D ——Including:g:ingudnclIIDi!erent Sizes Available—Including:13’x11’—Parts, pieces and motorcycles.30’x14’—Any full size vehicle.35’x16’x12’5” tall—As above but also Sprinter vans, small boats,and smaller RVs.60’x16’x12’5” tall—Full size RVs, boats, large trucks, etc.

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LLiigghhttiinngg:gg::ttiinngghhtLiLighting:Four large clear windows provide ample lighting.Additional stand lights can be placed outside the booth.

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The CSS Workstation works the sameand just as e�ectively as a cross-�owpaint booth.

The CSS Workstation is EPA Certified.Ideal for the busy body shop-mobiletechnician-smaller shop with limitedfacilities.

Phone:904.567.3825Toll Free:866.910.0889info@carcoonusa.comwww.carcoonworkstation.com.coontiiootaattksstrrkkwwoonwoncooarc mom.cawwwwwwww.carcoonworkstation.com

55

99mm

by Ed Attanasio

In the automotive paint industry, manu-facturers are eager and willing to helptheir customers in areas such as produc-tion, recordkeeping and cost analysis.But now forward-thinking companieslike PPG are reaching out to help job-bers and body shops in their marketing,advertising and media-buying efforts.

Launched in April 2012 for dis-tributors and body shop customers, thePPG Marketing on Demand websitewas created to perform a wide rangeof marketing functions—website de-velopment, the creation andproduction of advertisingand marketing materials, andother tasks to help clientsgrow their businesses andestablish a presence in theirparticular markets. PPG de-veloped the website in con-junction with Brandmuscle,a marketing software andservices firm based in Chicago.

“We are passionate about helpingour distributors and body shops to suc-ceed,” said Cristina Fronzaglia, man-ager of marketing communications,

PPG Automotive Refinish. “Our goal isto help our customers gain a competi-tive edge with their online and offlinemarketing programs. By teaming upwith Brandmuscle, we’re able to assistour customers in executing the types ofmarketing programs that are oftenavailable only to larger organizations.”

Marketing Director Lori Alba isproud of the program PPG invested infor its customers. “PPG wanted to pro-vide its distributors and body shopswith a user-friendly, web-based toolfor creating marketing materials on-demand,” Alba said. “We reached out

to PPG sales reps, distributors andbody shops to find out what theywanted and needed in order to growtheir businesses. With our researchand experience and their feedback, we

were able to create a site that acts as aone-stop marketing resource.”

Alba has additional insight on bodyshops and their marketing needs be-cause her husband manages a large bodyshop in Ohio.“There are thousands ofshops out there with little timeand limited budgets and evenfewer resources to focus onmarketing and advertising. Weknew we had to create a sitethat PPG distributors and bodyshops could use easily andquickly. By making the naviga-tion straightforward and pro-viding features like a workcenter where customers cansave and later retrieve ads they’ve cre-ated, an asset library where they cangrab images and logos, and an extensivehow-to section, PPG Marketing on De-mand is very easy to use.”

Shops and distributors can createhigh-quality customized ads and othertailored marketing materials with afew clicks of the mouse using PPGtemplates for use in newspaper, mag-azine, trade and broadcast advertising.

“While shops will have access tocreate materials online 24/7, they can

also reach out to the PPG Marketing onDemand support team for personalizedone-on-one help with their advertising,”Alba said. “Rather than guessing whatkinds of advertising to run or using ashotgun approach, the PPG Marketing

on Demand support center can help dis-tributors and body shops by providingrecommendations and helping to nego-tiate the best advertising rates.”

For distributors and body shopslooking to create a website withoutspending thousands of dollars, PPGMarketing on Demand can make ithappen easily and affordably, Alba ex-plained. “PPG customers can create aprofessional site at a fraction of the costof doing it on their own, and we canmaintain it for a nominal monthly fee.”

PPG Marketing on Demand Website Breaks New Ground

Launched in April 2012, the PPG Marketing on Demandwebsite can help PPG distributors and body shop cus-tomers to perform a wide range of marketing functions

By using PPG Marketing on Demand, PPG distributors andbody shop customers can create customized websitesfast and affordably

by Robert Mercier, Walcom Thermo DryTechnology Specialist

The coatings industry is constantly for-mulating new ways to adapt theirproducts to new environmental stan-dards, ease of use, and color match.The atomization of these coatingsthrough the spraygun nozzle is an on-going challenge for paint and spraygunmanufacturers alike and is ever-chang-ing. It only makes sense that the phys-ical application side of the process, i.ecompressed air delivery-spraygunspecifications and spraybooth design,change with it.

A painter is faced with a differ-ent set of circumstances to take intoconsideration, depending on changingenvironmental conditions in order toadapt accordingly each day, espe-cially with the new generation water-borne coatings.

The tools provided to him are anessential part of his success rate andcycle time. The spraybooth is meant toprovide a clean, consistently heated, fil-tered work environment so the techni-cian can prevent contamination of thejob. The demand is the same of the com-

pressed air delivery system. It is equallyimportant to the application process andperformance of the spraygun.

Compressed air used in paintbooths is negatively influenced by lowtemperatures in the winter and by highrelative humidity in the summer. Evenwith adequate booth heating or, in thesummer, coolingdryers, the tempera-ture of compressedair entering thespraygun stock hasa hard time reach-ing 20 °C (68 °F).Remember also thatair expansioncauses temperatureto drop an addition10–12 °C (50 °F–54°F), lowering paintatomization air to atemperature under10 °C (50 °F). With relative humidityunder room temperature ‘dew point,’a micro-mist that mixes with the paintmay be generated. Therefore, the ideal20 °C (68 °F) conditions indicated bypaint manufacturers for satisfactoryresults are not met, with correspon-

ding loss of brilliancy, orange peel ef-fects and poor distribution.

Thermodry Technology heats andmaintains the set compressed air tem-perature regardless of climate/roomconditions. This allows the painter touse filtered, heated and thermo regu-lated compressed air, which maxi-

mizes results by eliminatingenvironmental factors both in thebooth and from external weather con-ditions. The operator can set tempera-ture from 20 °C to 50 °C (68 °F–122°F) for the painting phase and up to 70°C (158 °F) for the drying phase. The

PID retroaction system (proportional-integrated-derived) and instant regula-tion of the heating power at SCR(wave cut) keeps the temperature setby the operator constant. The IPHheating system has the same heatingelement features as the equipment,thus providing both tube heating andinternal temperature control, keepingit constant during the entire paintcycle.

A Heated and Thermo Regulatedair delivery system that maintains 68degree nozzle temperature free of hu-midity and gaseous impurities guaran-tees the technician superioratomization at the spray gun nozzle.This results in faster drying times, bet-ter paint flow out, lower paint con-sumption, and the elimination ofimperfections or die back (loss ofgloss.)

Painters will immediately feel thedifference in terms of faster dryingtime, better paint flow-out, lowerpaint consumption and higher appli-cation speed. In addition, painters canexpect significant improvement in thequality of work when using both wa-terborne and solvent based paints.

The Art of Atomization: Thermo Regulated Compressed Air and Atomization


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1. 25% to 40% reduction in drying time for waterborne and solvent based paints2. Material savings from 15% to 30% due to higher transfer efficiency with maximum coverage3. Reduce cycle times & operating temperatures of your existing spraybooth saving time and energy(additional cycles)4. Clean paint work equals considerably less buffing and faster delivery to your customer5. Simple installation works with your existing compressed air system and 110volt outlet6. Superior atomization with zero impurities equals the “Quality in the finish” your customers deserve

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“We have invested in the Walcom system and our painters can’t imagine painting cars without it. We paint cars faster, with higher quality, and have experienced a signi�cant savings in materials.”

— Jack LamborghiniTotal Care Accident RepairRaynham, Massachusetts

by Robert Keppel,Applied Colors

Ever had a customer bring you theirscratched car and ask, “I can’t pay youto make it PERFECT, butcan I pay you to just make itlook BETTER?”

Here’s a little trick formaking this type of customerhappy, and pocketing a quickprofit. I used to do this at myrepair shop in Beaverton,OR, where we called it theUltimate Touch Up.

First, if you’re going toattempt Touch UP, make sure

it meets the following criteria:1. The car’s paint color is not lightmetallic. No silver, no gold, no light

blue, no light green.2. The damage is not to a hor-izontal surface. Only touchup vertical surfaces, includ-ing doors, fenders, and quar-ter panels.

Here’s how to execute theUltimate Touch Up, step bystep:1. Mix an oz. of the car’spaint with .25 oz. of cat-alyzed clear. Stir.2.Apply to the scratch with a

thick brush. Be sure to fill above thesurface of the scratch.

3. Cure for 10 min. with infraredlamp.4. Spray with water to cool and solid-ify paint.5.Wrap 1000 grit sandpaper around asolid, flat surface. A firmfoam sanding block or acredit card works well.6.Wetsand in an “x” patternuntil the touch up paint islevel with the panel. Be care-ful not to “dig in” with yourfingers and burn the clear!7.Wetsand by hand the entirearea with 1500 grit sandpa-per.8. Remove paint scratches

with electric polisher: com-pound and wool pad.9. Polish with foam pad.

In 60 minutes, you have aflat, hard-to-see repair that thecustomer can live with. Wenever had an unhappy cus-tomer who chose the UltimateTouch Up.

Robert Keppel is presidentof Applied Colors, (www.ap-pliedcolors.com), a Tigard,OR, company that producesthe ScratchOut paint touch

up system. It allows auto body shopsto touch up minor paint damage forhalf the time and cost of using theirprimary paint rack.

How to “Touch Up” A Scratched Car in 60 Minutes and Make $95

Before

Apply paint with brush and cure

Wetsand 1000 & 2000 grit

Compound and polish


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Ohio Driver’s Licenses Blocked forSome Illegal ImmigrantsDriver’s licenses for some young im-migrants who came to the UnitedStates illegally are being blocked byOhio Department of Public Safety of-ficials’ who question whether a newfederal program gives those immi-grants temporary legal status, the In-surance Journal recently reported.

Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehiclesoffices are reaching different conclu-sions about the status of the youngimmigrants because they are not get-ting guidance from the Department ofPublic Safety that oversees the BMVoffice, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealerreported.

State officials say they are notcertain about whether the language ofthe federal program does confer legalstatus.

The federal Deferred Action forChildhood Arrivals program estab-lished last year by the Obama adminis-tration gives immigrants who camehere illegally as children two years oflegal status. That status allowing themto get work permits and Social Securitynumbers is renewable every two years.

Government figures show thatmore than 150,000 young people na-tionwide had been approved for the

program as of January, but some stateshave been issuing driver’s licenses tothose in the program and others havenot.

Carol Apaestegui and JoseMendez, who live in northeast Ohio,came to the United States as immi-grants when they were children andhave been accepted in the new federalprogram. But Mendez was denied alicense in Parma, while officials inCleveland issued a license toApaestegui, the newspaper reported.

“A woman at the bureau told me,‘You’re not even supposed to be inthis country,’” said Mendez, 20, whoworks shining shoes.

Joe Andrews, spokesman forOhio’s Department of Public Safety,which oversees the BMV, said the de-partment’s lawyers are studying thefederal program to determine whetherit “coincides” with Ohio law.

Andrews said the federal lan-guage is unclear and the departmenthas not yet issued any guidance toBMV offices.

Cleveland immigration lawyerDavid Leopold said the departmentis wrong and officials are ignoring thelaw.


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The collision repair world is changingrapidly these days. I recently attendedan autobody association meetingwhere a representative from Toyotaintroduced their new Parts Bridgeproduct. The estimating system withwhich they decide to integrate thisproduct will have exact manufac-turer’s billing prices and technicalservice bulletin information to ensureparts are installed properly. It was sug-gested that this product would elimi-nate most supplements. Suddenly alarge part of the estimator’s job wouldbe reduced greatly.

At the same time, the competitionfor jobs is heating up more and more,and consolidators are buying up manyof the existing shops. The result of thisis sort of a Wal-Mart versus local mer-chants war. Smaller shops are findingit much harder to compete when achain of franchise or consolidatorshops is gobbling up the lion’s shareof the work in an area. How can theyfight back?

When I go around to smallershops, I see a major difference in theway they see the estimator’s role.Often the estimator still has the oldviewpoint that it’s only necessary towrite an estimate when a customercomes in and to get that person toleave the keys for the shop to do thejob. In a chain of corporate-oriented

shops, the estimator usually has a dif-ferent role altogether. I would be in-clined to now call that job a ‘collisionrepair sales representative.’ Yes, theestimator still has to sell the customeron leaving his or her car, but muchmore is often required.

I’ve taken the liberty of writingup an estimator job description thatencompasses most of what could beexpected of an estimator today. It istrue that in a larger shop, front deskpeople and customer service represen-tatives may cover many of the ele-ments I’ve listed. But I’ve found thateven in some smaller shops that arepart of a chain, the estimator may stillhave to perform the tasks of sales, cus-tomer follow-up, seeking customer re-ferrals and more. For independentshops and shops like these, this couldbe a reliable guide:

Collision Repair Sales RepresentativeJob Description• Primary duty: To show a customerthe estimated cost and time of repairand to close the sale with the customersigning an authorization and leavingthe keys to the vehicle.• Add-on sales: Estimator may see anopportunity to offer a specialty item,like running board or other item for ahandicapped person, car seat for achild, animal restraint for a pet, or

tinted glass, special lights, tires, rims,spoilers, etc. for cosmetic improve-ments.• Secondary key duty: Using the cus-tomer information form to discoverfollow-up and referral job informa-tion, like other vehicles in the family(especially young drivers and their ve-hicles), company vehicles at the cus-tomer's work place, and other possiblevehicle repair needed.• Additional key duty: Using the cus-tomer information form to identify datesand times to re-contact the customer andmaintain a long-term relationship. Thiscan include birthdays, anniversaries,confirmations, graduations, and more.Inquiry should also be made aboutmembership in a club, association orother group activity where the shopcould provide promotional items.• Delivery of completed vehicle: When-ever possible, the estimator should de-liver the vehicle to the customer and usethis opportunity to ask again aboutother family, friend and company vehi-cles that may need repair.• Follow-up calls: Keeping the cus-tomer advised of progress on the ve-hicle while in for repairs andrefinishing. Also a follow-up callwithin thirty days after the repair todetermine customer’s degree of satis-faction. If not fully satisfied, customercan be invited to come back and have

repaired area buffed and polished.• Prospecting for customers duringslow times: Calling customers ondates and times of events as noted,like birthdays, anniversaries, confir-mations, graduations, and more. Ageneral follow-up call should be madeat one-year, two-year and three-yearintervals. Call should always includean inquiry about the condition of allfamily and company vehicles.

Why Good Salespeople Are RareI’ve found in many companies wheresales people are highly valued andhighly rewarded, there is often an atti-tude among other personnel that salespeople are pampered too much andpaid too highly for what they do.

It’s been my experience that ef-fective sales people have an unusualtalent and skill that not many people possess. The best sales people are ag-gressive without being offensive.They are empathetic without beingtimid or subdued. They’re able to per-sist in a pleasant way until theyachieve their objective. While manypeople are reluctant to reach out andtake command, the effective sales per-son is never reluctant to step up andask for the job or the order. Withoutsomeone who possesses that forcefulsales element, many shops and com-panies would not survive.

The Selling Estimator’s Job Description

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


Oklahoma Safety Officials Want Texting BanThe mother of a teenager killed in atraffic accident while using a cellphone delivered a tearful plea to leg-islators on Feb. 27 to approve a billthat would ban texting while drivingin Oklahoma, the Insurance Journalreported.

Gina Harris, whose 19-year-olddaughter Brittanie Montgomerywaskilled in a crash in Oklahoma City in2006, was among a group of healthand safety officials, legislators,teenagers and insurance industry offi-cials who rallied at the Capitol andurged lawmakers to approve the tex-ting ban as a step toward making Ok-lahoma’s roadways safer.

“She chose to pick up her phone,”Harris said. “Within a two-second timespan she lost control of her vehicle andhopped all the way across four lanes oftraffic and was hit in her driver’s door.

She did not survive the impact.”House Bill 1503, which would

make it illegal for any driver to “com-pose, send, or read a text-based com-munication” while driving, passedthrough the House TransportationCommittee and, if approved by theHouse Calendar Committee, will beheard on the House floor. The bill callsfor a fine of up to $500 for violations.

Oklahoma drivers can be citedfor inattentive driving, but cannot bestopped or ticketed simply for a usinga cell phone, even if an officer wit-nesses them texting while driving,said Kerry Pettingill, chief of theOklahoma Highway Patrol.

“If we see them crash, then wecan stop them,” Pettingill said.

The Oklahoma Legislature threeyears ago approved a measure thatwould allow teens with a learner’s

permit or intermediate driver’s li-cense to have their license suspendedor revoked from using cell phoneswhile driving, except in emergencysituations, but more far-reaching pro-posals have faced resistance.

Sen. Ralph Shortey, R-Okla-homa City, said he questions whethera ban on texting actually would makethe roads any safer, suggesting driv-ers simply would try to hide the factthat they were using their phones.

“I don’t think this is going to doanything,” said Shortey, R-OklahomaCity. “Saying something is illegal isnot going to change the behavior ofan individual.”

Chuck Mai, a spokesman forAAA Oklahoma, cited statistics fromthe National Safety Council that showat least 24% of crashes involve driv-ers talking and texting on cell phones.

Caliber Collision Centers recentlyopened its newest location in LongBeach, CA, bringing the total numberof locations in the greater Los Ange-les region to 21. The new 11,000-square-foot collision repair facilitybrings the total number of Caliber lo-cations to 123.

“We are committed to addingcenters across the southwest that pro-vide greater operational consistency,laser customer focus and cost man-agement they need to compete intoday’s highly competitive insurancemarket,” said Steve Grimshaw,Chief Executive Officer.

Caliber Opens 21st Shop in LA

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Classic HondaOr lando

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Ed Morse HondaRiv iera Beach

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Headquarter HondaClermont

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Hendrick Honda BradentonBradenton

877-706-2021941-752-2123


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


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Rick Case HondaDavie

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Gerald Jones HondaAugusta

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Gwinnett Place HondaDuluth

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Southern Motors HondaSavannah

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Serra HondaBirmingham

800-987-0819205-949-5460


Patty Peck HondaRidgeland

800-748-8676601-957-3400


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www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

AUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALLAUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALL

, ,, , ,R OEMR OEMR, OEMAUTOMAKER, OEM, OAUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM, OAU OM R AU OM R AUTOMAKER AUTOMAKER, OEM,O AUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM,AUTOMAKER, OEM,O , , M M M,U U U M M MR R R E E EE E E K K K M M M T T T K K K A A A A A A E E KE A A A AK AK AK MA MA MA U U U M M MM M M R K K K O O O AUTOMAKER, OEM, DDNNNNA DDDDANDANDDDNNNNAAAAANANDNNDDAND A C EC C R L A C EC R R R C C C RE RE R R R L L L L L L A A A E E E CA CA AL AL LL LL L L R RECALLAUTOMAKER, OEM, AND RECALL

Autobody News April 2013FLORIDA • GEORGIA • ALABAMA • MISSISSIPPI


Ford Motor Co. is recalling 230,000minivans because third–row seatlatches can rust and fail to relatch.

The recall of the 2004–2007Ford Freestar and Mercury Montereyminivans is in 20 ‘salt belt’ states, in-cluding Michigan, where the vehicleswere sold or registered.

Ford agreed to recall the vehi-cles in the face of a 14-month inves-tigation by the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration.

It includes vehicles equippedwith a third-row seat. Ford said it isaware of 80 complaints but no in-juries or crashes.

In August 2011, Ford becameaware of a customer with difficultylatching the third row seat into itsseating position.

Between January and November2012, Ford and NHTSA continued anactive dialogue on this subject andconducted vehicle surveys and testing.

The recall includes about196,000 vehicles in the United Statesand 33,250 in Canada.

Ford dealers will install newthird-row seat latch striker mountingbrackets, which relocate the seat latchstrikers from the potentially corrodedarea. In addition, dealers will installoverlay panels on the exterior of thewheel wells to prevent entry of waterand corrosive elements.

The states where the vehicleswere registered or sold are: Connecti-cut, Delaware, the District of Colum-bia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine,Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,Minnesota, Missouri, New Hamp-shire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio,Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ver-mont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Ford Recalling 230,000 Minivans for Rust

2010–13 Legacy, 2010–13 Outbackand 2013 XV Crosstrek. The recallincludes 2,819 vehicles in Canada.

The engine may start and run for15 minutes, and the engine may con-tinue to start and stop until the batteryin the key fob dies or the vehicle runsout of gas.

The vehicles could pose a dan-ger if parked in a garage because of abuildup of carbon monoxide, whichcould cause asphyxiation.

Subaru dealers will replace thekey fobs and the recall campaign willbegin by the end of April.

Subaru noticed an increase inwarranty claims in July after a sup-plier had made a change to improvethe key fob in 2011. After issuing atechnical report in December, Subarumounted a new investigation.

Porsche is recalling about 2,263 of its2012–13 911 models because part ofthe exhaust system can fall off.Porsche said the models were the 911Carrera, 911 Carrera Cabriolet, 911Carrera 4 and the 911 Carrera 4Cabriolet equipped with the 3.4 liter,6-cylinder engine and the standardrear muffler exhaust system. The au-tomaker said its internal testingshowed the exhaust systems “do notachieve the required service life” andmight fracture, allowing the end tofall off.

Porsche Recalling 911 Models for Exhaust System

Federal safety regulators have openeda new safety investigation into724,000 Ford Escape, Fusion andMercury models over hundreds of re-ports of sudden loss of engine power.

The National Highway TrafficSafety Administration said it hasopened a preliminary investigationinto the 2009–11 Ford Escape and Fu-sion, and Mercury Mariner and Milan.

The vehicles can unexpectedlygo into ‘limp home mode’ at reducedpower, the agency said. NHTSA andFord have received almost 1,500complaints about the problem. Therewere three crashes and one injury.

NHTSA said it analyzed 123complaints about the cars or SUVsgoing into what’s known as limpmode, in which vehicle speed waslimited to 20 mph. Drivers may in-terpret the limp mode as stalling,even though the engines still movethe vehicles, the agency said. Vehi-cles usually go into limp mode whencomputers detect an engine problem.

Ford made a design change in2009 to address complaints but didnot recall the vehicles.

The Fusion and Milan are nearlyidentical cars with the same engines,as are the Escape and Mariner. Fordscrapped the Mercury brand in 2010.

NHTSA said there have been27,500 warranty claims for the issue.Ford has received more than 1,400complaints about the issue.

Feds Probe 724,000 FordModels for Stalling

Japanese automakers led by ToyotaMotor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.topped Consumer Reports’ annualauto rankings, while Detroit’s BigThree automakers lagged behind.

The magazine unveiled its in-fluential 2013 annual auto ratingsissue in Washington, saying Toy-ota’s Lexus unit was top overallbrand with all of its vehicles recom-mended, followed by Subaru andMazda— which tied for second, andToyota and Acura, which tied forfourth.

All U.S. brands were in the bot-tom half of the rankings. Fewer thanhalf of all U.S. vehicles were recom-mended by the magazine, and mostof those came from General MotorsCo.’s GMC and Chevrolet brands.

The ratings are based on feed-back from 1.2 million owners, Con-sumer Reports testing and otherfactors.

Just 20% of Ford Motor Co.’sFord models and 20% of Cadillacmodels were recommended.

Chrysler also fared poorly. Just25% of Chrysler models were rec-ommended.

Acura, Honda’s luxury brand,was the only other brand to have100% of its models recommended byConsumer Reports.

Japanese Automakers RankHigh in Consumer Reports

Hyundai is recalling certain modelyear 2012 Veloster vehicles manu-factured from July 4, 2011, throughOctober 31, 2011 and equipped withpanoramic sunroofs. The panoramicsunroof assembly may have beenweakened during installation at thefactory. If the assembly was weakendat the factory, the panoramic glasspanel may break while the vehicle isin motion leading to personal injuryor a vehicle crash.

Hyundai will notify owners, anddealers will inspect the sunroof’s in-tegrity and replace the sunroof glassassembly, as necessary, free ofcharge. The safety recall will beginin March 2013. Owners may contactHyundai at 1-800-633-5151.

Hyundai Recalling Velostersfor Sunroof Malfunction

Subaru of America is recalling 50,000vehicles in North America becausethe remote engine starter could mal-function and start the vehicle withoutwarning. The Japanese automakersaid the recall covers 47,419 vehiclesincluding the 2012–13 Impreza,

Subaru Recalling VehiclesThat Can Start on Their Own

Ford Motor Co. plans to recall 7,150vehicles built in November, includ-ing the 2013 Escape crossover, be-cause some models are equippedwith a defective child lock on the leftrear door. Also included in the recallare the 2013 Focus and C-Max cars.

The action marks Ford’s fifthrecall for the redesigned Escapesince the vehicle’s launch last year.

The company will inspect 5,638Escapes that were built in LouisvilleAssembly Plant between Nov. 14–Nov. 24, Ford spokeswoman KelliFelker said.

Ford is recalling 1,223 Focuscars as well as 283 C-Max vehicles.Both of the affected models werebuilt at Michigan Assembly Plantbetween Nov. 17 and Nov. 21.

In some of these vehicles, thechild lock on the left rear door maynot work when the driver tries to ac-tivate the locks. The driver may in-correctly believe that the locks arefunctioning properly, Ford said.

About 5,650 of the vehiclescovered by the recall are in theUnited States, Felker said, addingthat Ford was not aware of any acci-dents and injuries due to the prob-lem.

Ford Plans to Recall 7,000 Vehicles for Child Lock Flaw


Nissan Recalls Five 2013 Models for Air Bag ProblemNissan is recalling five of its 2013models in the U.S. because a faultysensor can permanently turn off thefront-seat passenger air bag. The re-call covers the Altima midsize car, aswell as the Leaf electric car,Pathfinder SUV and the Sentra com-pact. Also covered is the InfinitiJX35 SUV. The Altima is Nissan’stop-selling car with 49,000 sold thisyear. Nissan says in documents filedwith safety regulators that it hasn’tdetermined the number of vehiclesaffected by the recall. Front passen-ger seats have sensors that determinethe passenger’s weight and turn offair bags off if a child is on board. Themalfunctioning sensors can turn theair bags off permanently. Nissan saysits dealers will inspect the sensors inApril and replace them free of chargeif necessary.

Honda is recalling nearly 250,000 ve-hicles worldwide for brakes that sud-denly starting braking on their own.The problem is caused by improperelectronics and wiring in the vehicle-stability-assist system. No crasheshave been reported related to the de-fect. Honda Motor Co. said it was re-calling more than 183,000 vehicles inthe U.S., including the Acura RL,Acura MDX and Pilot models. Morethan 56,000 vehicles were recalled inJapan, affecting the Odyssey, Legend,StepWgn and Elysion models. Alsobeing recalled are nearly 8,000 vehi-cles in Canada, nearly 1,000 in Aus-tralia, about 300 in Mexico and 70 inGermany. The vehicles were producedfrom March 2004 through May 2006.

Honda Recalls 250,000 Vehices for Brake Problem

Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling209,000 FJ Cruiser SUVs becausetheir front seatbelt retractors couldfall off. FJ Cruisers from the 2007through 2013 model years are in-cluded in the recall. Toyota said thedriver and front passenger seatbeltsare mounted on the vehicle’s reardoors. If the doors are closed force-fully over a period of time, crackscan form in the door panel around theseatbelt retractor and the retractorcan become detached. Toyota said ithas received no reports of injuriesdue to the defect.

Toyota Recalls 209,000 FJCruisers for Seatbelt

The National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministrations will investigatewhether 561,000 2004–09 ToyotaPrius hybrids have defective steeringshafts. NHTSA said it will decidewhether to grant a defect petitionclaiming the steering column linkagewas improperly assembled. Toyotahas issued two recalls for steering is-sues in the Prius. In November, Toy-ota recalled 669,000 2004–09 Priusvehicles to replace the steering shaftextension assembly. Toyota said dueto insufficient hardness of the exten-sion shaft, parts that connect the ex-tension shaft to the steering gear boxmay deform if the steering wheel isfrequently and forcefully turned tothe full-lock position while driving ata slow speed. In 2006, Toyota re-called 170,000 2004–06 Prius vehi-cles because the intermediate shaft inthe electric power system can crack,which could result in a loss of steer-ing control.

NHTSA May InvestigatePrius over Steering Shafts

Chrysler is spending more than $1billion to build paint and body shopsfor the Sterling Heights plant in sub-urban Detroit. The projects will add a1 million-square-foot body shop anda 425,000-square foot paint shop tothe plant. Construction is expected tofinish this year.

Chrysler Spends $1B onPaint and Body at Plant

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionnesaid the next-generation 200 has beendelayed until January. The 200 hasbeen a strong seller. Its sales rose 44percent in 2012 to 125,476 units,making it the automaker's best-sell-ing car and fifth-best selling name-plate. Sales through the first twomonths of this year are up 21 percentto 20,292 units.

On March 1, the company saidit had a 68-day supply of Chrysler200s.

Chrysler 200 Redesign to beBuilt in January, 2014

Chrysler is telling owners of about2,500 Dodge Challenger muscle carswith V-6 engines not to drive them be-cause a short in a wiring circuit can setthem on fire. Owners also are beingtold not to park the cars in a garage ornear a structure until the problem can

be fixed. The cars are from the 2013model year and have V-6 engines. Theywere made during the eight weeks thatended Jan. 24. Chrysler didn’t identifyexactly where the short occurs, but saidit’s in a place that most owners wouldnever see.

Chrysler Tells 2500 Owners ofChallenger’s ‘Fire Risk’


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Sherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-ishes is proud to announce the As-sured Performance™ Network as thenewest contributor program to its A-Plus™ Network. This partnership willoffer significant benefits to the mem-ber shops in the A-Plus program byoffering them access to the AssuredPerformance rebate rewards programfrom carmakers including GeneralMotors, Nissan, Chrysler and otherOEMs.

The 100% Write Rebate Re-wards Program provides a rebate tobody shops when they repair a vehicleusing 100% OEM collision repairparts as defined by the program. Theprogram is designed to provide an in-centive for the shop to provide thehighest level of fit, finish, durability,safety, and the owner’s sustained ve-hicle value by using new OEM parts.

The program also includes an ex-clusive “Certificate of Authenticity”for consumers verifying that 100%OEM parts were used to repair theirvehicle. As an option, if the vehicledamage is already reported to CAR-FAX®, participating shops can reportthe repair information which will helpin restoring their vehicle’s value.

“We are very excited to an-nounce our partnership with AssuredPerformance,” said Troy Neuerburg,Sherwin-Williams Manager of Mar-keting Business Services. “AssuredPerformance offers a wide range ofbenefits to our member shops, and weare very excited that this partnershipallows us to offer our members accessto the OEM parts rebate program. Wethink it is a great value to our mem-bers, and will help drive higher prof-itability to their bottom line.”

“The 100% Write Rebate Re-wards Program is the first of its kind inthe industry and is valid with most ofthe leading automotive brands,” ac-cording to Scott Biggs, Assured Per-formance CEO. “We are proud to offerthis program to Sherwin-Williams A-Plus Network of Collision Centers.”

The Assured Performance net-work provides rebate rewards andbody shop certification to thousandsof best-in-class collision repair busi-nesses located in nearly every com-munity across the United States. Italso works with the top auto manu-facturers and suppliers in the collisionindustry to deliver a new level of cus-tomer safety and satisfaction.

Sherwin-Williams A-Plus Network Partners withAssured Performance to Offer Rebate Rewards

by Janet Chaney, Exclusive toAutobody News

“Taking Control of Your Future” wasthe motto of the 2013 Bi-Annual Con-vention and Technology Exhibitionsponsored by the Indiana Auto BodyAssociation in Indianapolis, February22–23. This two-day convention was asolid mix of collision repair technol-ogy, education and industry issues.

The freezing rain that hit Indi-anapolis the night before didn’t slowdown this show one bit, althoughMike Anderson, who was scheduledto open the show Friday morning, gottrapped in Toronto by the storm.IABA Executive Director and man-ager of the Convention, Tony Pass-water, took over and gave the event agreat start.

The convention was held at theLincoln College of Technology, a per-fect venue for the event. Over 65 ven-dor booths populated the main halland educational programs were in theclassrooms. The Industry Panel Dis-cussions were built into the Technol-ogy Exhibition. “The success of thisevent was a joint effort between the

Indiana Auto Body Association andLincoln College of Technology in-structors and staff,” said Passwater. “Ican’t thank them enough for its suc-cess.”

The show opened with TonyPasswater delivering the theme “TheFuture Is Not Locked In Stone.” Themeeting moved right into a panel dis-cussion “The Future of the CollisionRepair Industry,” which featured,Nick Notte, Sterling Auto Body Cen-ters, Jim Keller, 1Collision, TimAdelman, ABRA and Erick Bickett,FIX Auto. These industry leaders col-lectively represented MSOs, insurer-owned shops, networks and franchisesspeaking very candidly about theirbusiness models and the future of theindustry.

Discussion centered around thecurrent market shift and action steps tomeet new business demands. A fewpoints from this discussion: There willbe more strategic alliances with insurersand shops; insurers may fund consol-idators; cost of training needs to be ad-dressed with the insurers; MSOs offerinsurers a predictable outcome such asa valuable single point of contact, call

centers, etc; lowercosts; marketing ismore important thanever; insurers look-ing for less cost ofclaim, LAE (LossAdjustment Ex-pense); help carriersreduce LAE; inde-pendent shops usetheir entrepreneurialspirit; shops need to offer a predictableoutcome; shops need to work on theirSOPs and be consistent. The question

asked by one panelist summed it up,“What are you doing to prepare your-self?”

Ray Gunder, of Gunder’s AutoCenter, Lakeland, FL, Larry Cer-nosek, Deer Park Paint and Body,Pasadena, TX, Greg Coccaro, NorthState Custom, Bedford Hills, NY, andWade Ebert, American Auto Body,Springfield, IL, filled the next paneldiscussion, “Taking Back Control ofYour Business.”

Aaron Schulenburg, ExecutiveDirector of the Society of CollisionRepair Specialists, introduced the pan-elists and asked them to talk abouthow they got started in the businessand how things have changed. The en-trepreneurial spirit was truly repre-sented on this panel.

Greg Coccaro recounted how he

Indiana Convention & Exhibition Takes Control of the Future: “What are You Doing?”

Tony Passwater, Executive Director of the Indi-ana Auto Body Association, opens the 2013Bi-Annual Convention and Technology Exhibit

Rich Evans, fabricator, customizer and Autobody News columnist,gets the students’ attention at the Indiana convention (see p. 40)

See IABA Convention, Page 41


Jonathan Phillips, 35, of SummitCollision Center in Lees Summit,MO, is new to custom painting but hasbeen in the production painting side ofthe business for 12 years. Custompainting caught his attention a fewyears ago when he became interestedin learning more about colors, tech-

niques and effects. So he attended afew Jon Kosmoski House of Kolorseminars and practiced his skills ontwo motorcycles and his own ‘99Mustang, which he painted a darkgreen with metallic flakes.

Phillips, who said he’s always hadan artistic eye, took art classes in school.But his career in auto body paintingstarted because of a friend’s need forhelp in his shop. At the time, Phillipswas in the construction business, but hedecided to work for six months as anapprentice auto body painter learning

the trade.When Phillips

was ready to buyhis own spray guns,the Sagola spraygun line was rec-ommended to him.He liked the guns somuch, he ended upbuying three Sagolaguns from Spray-Tech Solutions overan 8-month period:a base 4500 HVLPXtreme, a HVLP3300 Pro sealer gunand a XLT Xtremeclear gun.

“I was totallyblown away by these guns,” Phillipssaid. “I switched to Sagola after seeinghow well they are made on their web-site. They have no distribution rings orpackings that have to be changed.Sagola also offers a digital air gauge

built in the gun. The HVLP Xtreme re-ally lays out metallics beautifully.”

Phillips loves the freedom of cus-tom painting because it has less struc-ture than collision painting and amistake could be turned into a master-piece with the creativity custom paint-ing allows. He also enjoys the

freedom to mix of colors in custompainting as opposed to in collision re-pair where the paint is ‘non-nego-tiable.’

While custom painting is stillmostly a hobby, he continues to paintcollision repairs for Summit CollisionCenter, which also offers frame repair,body pulling, unibody repair and otherservices. Summit Collision Center hasbeen serving the community in KansasCity since 2002.

Collision Painter Enjoys Custom’s Freedom of Expression

... and after custom paint job by Phillips

Phillips’ 1999 Mustang before custom painting ...

Seidner’s Collision Centers, a 13-shop operation based in Los Angeles,CA, has named industry veteranMike Stacy as director of corporatestrategy.

Stacy has more than 40 years ofindustry experience. He launched hiscareer in 1972 before opening hisown collision repair shop in 1981.Stacy later served as zone vice pres-ident for CCC Information ServicesInc., and most recently served as vicepresident of sales and marketing forVeriFacts Automotive.

“Having Mike with his vast in-dustry experience, knowledge and en-ergy will allow Seidner’s CollisionCenters the opportunity to continueour growth strategy to better serve ourcustomers,” said Steve Seidner, vicepresident and co-owner of Seidner’sCollision. “Mike will be an importantpart of our executive managementteam.”

“I have had the great honor ofvisiting many remarkable shops inmy career and I absolutely can’tthink of a better organization to bealigned with than Seidner’s,” saidStacy. “I am honored to be an inte-gral part of Steve and his teams vi-sion for the future.”

Seidner’s Hires Mike Stacyas Corporate Director


Shops’ Inefficiencies Are Legitimate Concerns for Insurers

with The Insurance InsiderInside Insurance

The Insider is a corporate-level executive with a Top 10 auto insurerin the U.S.. Got a comment or question you’d like to see him addressin a future column? Email him at [email protected]

I wrote an article a few months ago fo-cusing on inefficiency within bodyshops. That is, inefficiencies that aremost commonly associated with therepair process. If it takes you sevendays to repair a vehicle and the shopdown the street could have done it infive days, you’ve just cost everyonemoney.

I recognize that all shops should-n’t be painted with the same broadbrush but in my view, if you’re ineffi-cient you’re guilty by association. Be-cause of inefficiencies, insurersunnecessarily spend money every daythat could have been used to lowerpremiums or offset the impact of a rateincrease. Yes, most insurance compa-nies are profitable, but it’s not as a re-sult of all the great deeds and serviceprovided by body shops.

Most shop owners believe thatinsurance companies are penny-pinch-ing Scrooges looking to take controlover the shops and the industry. Thatviewpoint is shortsighted. We try tocontain our losses by working withshops to ensure estimate accuracy(also known as taking control of theshop). And we also try to find way forshops to be more efficient in the esti-mate and repair process (also knownas taking control of the industry). Torecap the obvious, we will do what-ever is necessary provided it is not il-legal or completely unethical.

I’m certain some of our businesspractices are less than ideal but thefacts are the facts. Shops would not beas advanced as they are today if itweren’t for insurance companiesleading them in the right direction. We

try to help make you more efficientbecause when you aren’t, we lose andso does the vehicle owner. So do you,as the shop owner.

How does the vehicle owner losebecause of your inefficiency? The in-convenience of being without their carfor a few additional days is just the be-ginning. It can also lead to an increasein our customers’ premiums. Unfortu-nately, our customer won’t associatethat increase in premium to an ineffi-cient repair industry riddled withunder-performers. They blame insur-ers for the rate increase.

The end result is that any addi-tional unnecessary expense in the re-pair of a vehicle costs us money. Howdo we account for the additional ex-pense? The only way we can. We passalong that cost through premiums.

What do most con-sumers do whenthere is a price in-crease? They lookfor quotes fromother carriers andwe potentially lose acustomer. For some,that’s just free enter-prise, but for indi-vidual insurers,that’s a lose, loseand lost scenario.

There is anotherarea that can have

an even more profound impact on ourmutual customer: customer service.Back in the day, all shops were sup-posed to do was fix the car. Customerservice was something you received ata hotel or from a switchboard opera-tor. Even though the industry hasevolved significantly, shops are stillbetter at fixing cars than at servicingthe customer. That’s where ineffi-ciency and lack of process as it relatesto customer service can be devastatingto an insurance company. And Godhelp us if your manager or estimatordoesn’t like us. It shows in the cus-

tomer service results.I would argue that poor customer

service indirectly costs insurers moremoney than a few days of rental orextra hour on an estimate. While wedon’t like to admit this publicly, webelieve you are an extension of us.Our customers spend more time inter-acting with you than they spend withus. We can deliver outstanding cus-tomer service but if you do a poor jobof it, we are going to pay for it. Inshort: We need you to be more effi-cient.

So that’s a look at what bothersinsurance executives. You may notcare because you have more pressingissues that require your attention be-sides appeasing the ‘rich insurancecompanies.’

The wish of every major insur-ance carrier is fairly simple. First, ahigh-quality, timely and a cost-effec-tive repair should be assumed from aprofessional operation. Insurersshouldn’t have to monitor, correct,scold, chastise or force accountabilityin order to have it done right the firsttime.

More importantly, we wish shopswould value customer service as muchor more than they care about the ac-tual repair. Inefficient or lack of cus-tomer service processes hurts all of us.That’s something that none of us taketo the bank.

indicated a certain brand of headlampwas involved in the accident. The head-lamp is used in the Toyota 4Runner.

Investigators also learned thatone Maryland business supplies theparts to all Toyota dealerships in thenortheastern United States. The deal-ers then order the parts for local auto-body shops. The Maryland businessprovided a list of orders for the partssubmitted from July 4 to Feb. 12.

On Feb. 14, a detective with theDistrict Attorney's Office reviewed aninvoice for a front passenger head-lamp ordered on July 5 by EssingtonAuto Center in Philadelphia from

Conicelli Toyota in Conshohocken.Investigators interviewed the Es-

sington manager, who said the car’sowner paid in cash and provided thevehicle identification number. Thatyielded a 2012 Toyota 4Runner regis-tered to Huynh, whom the managerpicked out of a photo lineup.

On Feb. 25, Huynh was seendriving the vehicle near Routes 476and 30. In custody, he said he was theonly person who operated the vehiclebut denied having been in an accident,the complaint says.

Huynh was in custody with bailset at $500,000.

Continued from Cover

Parts Order Arrest

Dallas attorney Chad West recentlybought a former auto body shop at900 W. Davis St. in the community ofOak Cliff in Dallas, TX, and plans toconvert it into office space for hiscriminal defense practice.

Terms of the deal were undis-closed, the Dallas Business Journalreported.

West is currently renovating the1,432-square-foot building and plansto move his practice to Oak Cliff bythis spring.

“Chad saw an opportunity tomove his practice to a freestandingbuilding and decided to go for it,”said Austin Schenkel, the broker for

The Weitzman Group, who repre-sented the lawyer in the deal.

“This building hasn’t been occu-pied for years and he’ll take it and re-convert it, which is pretty standard forthat area,” said Schenkel, who sits inthe board of the Oak Cliff Chamberof Commerce.

Other Oak Cliff businesses sit inredeveloped property in close prox-imity to the Bishop Arts District. Arestaurant, Bolsa, was originally a gasstation. The Pour House by KesslerTheater was a former auto body shop.

Dallas Attorney Buys Auto Body Shopto Redevelop

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by Melanie Anderson

Custom painter Mitch Lanzini ofLanzini Body Works in HuntingtonBeach, CA, began his career polish-

ing and showing off his toy cars. Asa kid, for Lanzini the Batmobile onTV exemplified hot rods and customcars, and by high school he wasusing cans of spray paint on bicyclesand motorcycles. At 21, he cus-tomized his first vehicle, his ownDatsun truck, that earned him hisfirst magazine cover. Today, Mitch,54, has more than 30years experience inthe business, hasbeen featured onmany more maga-zine covers, and hasowned Lanzini BodyWorks with his wife,Tara, for 20 years.

You could sayMitch was born to bean artist. His grandfa-ther Angelo Lanziniwas a renownedpainter and sculptorin Italy. “Mitchcomes from a long line of artists in hisfamily,” said Tara. “It’s in his blood.His grandfather painted portraits fortwo U.S. presidents and was commis-sioned to paint the Pope’s portraitwhich still hangs in the Vatican today.Angelo’s three sons, including Mitch’sdad, were all artists too.”

Like a typical body shop, LanziniBody Works does collision repair andexterior custom painting work in a4,500 square-foot space. What’s notso usual is some of the other workthey do, like custom painting interior

pieces for a prototype airplane thatwill be featured in the Hamburg AirShow in Germany in March. Othercustom painting and designing jobshave included ambulances, surf

boards, guitars, race cars, bowlingpins, motorcycles, kids’ pedal cars andtheir own line of roller derby skatewheels.

However, building and restoringhot rods is their main line of business.Their two favorite projects are theirown cars, a gold 1933 Speedstar coupeand a purple 1932 Zipper Roadster. The

coupe, Mitch said, is “a piece of rollingart” because many of the parts arehandmade. After working some 300hours on the body, he spent 24 hoursstraight painting it. Over the course ofhis career, Mitch figures he’s custompainted nearly 200 show-stopping cars.

“What I love about painting carsis that it really is a true form of art.”But getting to the painting means hun-dreds of hours of prep time has al-ready been spent. “Even if you’vedone everything right, things can stillgo wrong,” said Mitch. “You’ve put so

much time into a car for so long, andwhen the day comes where you’re ac-tually mixing paint and suiting up togo into the booth, you cross your fin-gers and pray to the paint gods thatnothing goes wrong. Because thereare days when things do go wrong thatdidn’t go wrong the day before, andany painter who tells you he hasn’thad that day is a liar,” Mitch said. “Alittle speck of dust can ruin hours ofprep work. Today’s painters have to bepart chemist and part weatherman be-cause so many things can go wrong.”

His current paint preference isBASF Onyx, and for clears andprimers, he uses Young’s House ofKlear. “The gloss factor of the clearsare amazing and the other products arevery user-friendly, affordable and mixwell,” Mitch said. He also likes theuniversal flattening agent that is “out-standing.” In addition to cars, he usesthe House of Klear products on high-profile artwork he does for an expres-sionist artist because “the clear looksamazing under gallery lights.”

Between 2004–2009, the Lanzinishop was featured in the Velocity net-work TV reality show Overhaulin’

where the concept of the show was to‘borrow or steal’ an old, tired or an-tique car and restore it in one weekand return it as a surprise to its owner.The body and paint work was done atLanzini Body Works, where 25episodes of the popular car make-overshow was filmed.

“It was great to do the show, but

also really challenging because duringfilming, all the other work in our shopcame to a halt, and working non-stopmeant a lot of sleepless nights,” Mitchsaid. “On Overhaulin’, if the car wasready to paint at 2 a.m., you paintedthe car at 2 a.m. We worked throughmany sleepless nights, but as crazy asit sounds, the best paint jobs I’ve donewere done in the middle of the night


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Mitch Lanzini Extends his Art from Toy Cars to Overhaulin’

Mitch and Tara Lanzini

Mitch Lanzini in the paint booth

The Lanzini’s own 1933 Speedstar Coupe

when I was sleep deprived.”When the producers of the show

first approached Mitch with the con-cept and asked if he wanted to be in-volved, Mitch admits he didn’t thinkit was possible to completely restorea car in just one week. He thought theshow would be a train wreck but, ofcourse, he wanted in. The very firstmakeover was a Chevelle and it cameinto Mitch’s shop a mess—a baremetal body full of rust and holes.When the body work was done,Mitch spent all night painting the car,

and when the tow truck showed up at6 a.m., they sent the driver out forcoffee while they walked around the

car with heat lamps. “The paint wasstill wet when the car rolled away,”Mitch said. “It was an intense build.”And that was justthe first of many.That’s when Mitchgot the wake upcall that doing theshow wasn’t goingto be easy by anymeans, and so heasked the produc-ers to rotate film-ing amongst othershops.

Au t omob i l edesigner Chip Foose hosted the show,which ran for five seasons, and hasnow returned for its sixth season.Foose is Mitch’s neighbor, closefriend and also has a shop nearby.“Chip is probably one of my bestfriends and someone I respect morethan most. We always have so muchfun hanging out and working togetherbecause we’re like two little kids whojust love to create things. He’s beenaround cars his whole life too, so wehave a lot in common and a lot of funtogether.”

Some of Mitch’s celebrity cus-tomers include comedian Christo-

pher Titus who had his own FOXshow, and race car driver JimmieJohnson. However, Lanzini Body

Works gives everyone who walks intheir doors the same level of attentionand painting excellence.

“The day I know everything as apainter is the day I will retire,” Mitchsaid. “As of now, that hasn’t hap-pened, and it probably won’t for along time to come.”

Lanzini Body Works Inc.17901 Sampson LaneHuntington Beach, CA 92647Phone - (714) 375-2828Fax - (714) 375-2830E-mail: [email protected]


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A collage of pictures from Overhaulin’

1972 Torino

Two California law firms are consol-idating lawsuits against Ford MotorCo., alleging the automaker has led a“false and misleading” marketingcampaign for its 2013 C-Max Hybridand Fusion Hybrid vehicles, the De-troit News recently reported.

Redlands, CA-based McCuneWright, which on behalf of ‘hun-dreds’ of C-Max and Fusion hybridowners is seeking punitive damagesbecause of potentially overinflatedfuel-efficiency claims, said it willconsolidate with a similar lawsuitfiled by San Diego-based Robbins,Geller, Rudman and Dowd.

“There’s a lot of really unhappypeople,” said Rich McCune, partnerat McCune Wright, which has previ-ously filed lawsuits against HyundaiMotor Co. for fuel-efficiency claims.

The new filing will have betweenfive and 10 class-action representa-tives—Ford hybrid owners who saythat their vehicles are not living up tofuel-efficiency claims.

McCune said the law firm hasspoken to “literally hundreds” of hy-brid owners from across the country,and not just those clustered in colderregions with higher speed limits, twofactors that can significantly diminish

fuel efficiency.The original suit stems from the

experiences of Richard Pitkin of Ro-seville, CA, who purchased a C-MaxHybrid in October. Pitkin says he av-eraged only 37 miles per gallon, lowerthan the Environmental ProtectionAgency rated 47 mpg.

The EPA said in December itwould review Ford’s fuel-efficiencyclaims after Consumer Reports foundthe C-Max Hybrid and Fusion Hybridgot significantly worse fuel efficiencythan the EPA window sticker sug-gests.

Consumer Reports said in test-ing, the C-Max Hybrid’s fuel effi-ciency fell 10 miles per gallon short:It got 37 mpg overall, with 35 mpg forcity driving and 38 mpg highways.The Fusion Hybrid, certified for thesame 47 mpg, got 39 mpg in testingoverall, with 35 mpg city and 41 mpghighway.

Ford has said its hybrid vehiclesare built to give customers a choice:Drivers can operate the vehicle con-servatively and achieve EPA mileageclaims. Or they can drive the car forfun, because Ford hybrids get signifi-cantly better horsepower than com-petitor vehicles.

California Firms Sue Ford for ‘Overinflated’ FuelEfficiency Claims of Two Hybrids

The current estimate of vehiclesdamaged as a result of Sandy is nowset at 250,500 based on claimsprocessed by insurance companies,according to latest figures releasedby the National Insurance Crime Bu-reau (NICB).

The complete list of states gen-erating Sandy-related vehicle dam-age claims in descending order are:New York 150,000New Jersey 60,000Connecticut 8,000Maryland 5,500Massachusetts 5,000Virginia 4,500Ohio 4,000Pennsylvania 4,000Delaware 2,000New Hampshire 2,000North Carolina 1,500District of Columbia 1,000Rhode Island 1,000West Virginia 1,000Maine 500Vermont 500

The figures are for insuredlosses only and may change as addi-tional claims are received andprocessed. Uninsured vehicles dam-aged by Sandy are not reflected inthese figures.

250,500 Cars Damaged bySandy in 15 States Plus DC

by Melanie Anderson

Kindig-It-Designs owner DaveKindig started drawing cars when hewas five years old. Self-taught in allaspects of custom car building, Kindiglaughingly says, “I have a design andengineering degree from Legos andHot Wheels.”

Today, Kindig-It-Designs em-ploys 17 people after 14 years in busi-ness in Salt Lake City, UT. Kindig, 42,is a custom car builder, designer andpainter. “We do all aspects in-house—everything from design, chas-sis engineering, body and paint, sheetmetal fabrication, electronics, audio,graphics and custom suspensions,” he

said. Kindig described his shop as aone-stop custom and restoration facil-ity.

“Our forte is not just street rods,or one style of car,” Kindig said. “Wedo cars from any era. We prefer to docustomizing. We work on late modelvehicles as well as the earlier musclecars and street rods back from theearly ‘30s.” On average, the shop isworking on about 34 cars at any giventime, many of which are long-termprojects.

As a young man, Kindig’s passionstarted with VW Beetles. “Istarted off buying Volkswa-gens and chopping the tops,taking tops completely offand making Roadsters out ofthem.” Playing around withthe early Volkswagen Bee-tles snowballed into biggerand better cars, although hestill loves the VWs because it’s hisheritage. Currently, he has a baremetal finished VW that he’s still work-ing on that he says will be a “radical

piece” once it’s finished, a combina-tion of old and new.

With a life built around cars, onewould think Kindig would have sev-eral custom cars of his own, but thatisn’t so. “That’s the funny part aboutit. I’m like the shoemaker that neverhas time for his own shoes,” he saidlaughing. His only completed customcar is a 1961 VW shortened wheel-based dune buggy. “After 14 years inbusiness, I believe that is first car Iever built and finished for myself. Ilive vicariously my hot rod dreamsthrough others’ wallets since I don’thave time for my own.”

By age 20, he was rebuildingVWs and working across the street

from High Per-formance Coatings.He admired the carsthat were pullinginto that place andthe owner fre-quently borrowedKindig’s forklift.One day the ownerof HPC asked himwhen he was goingto come work forhim, and soonKindig started anew career thatlasted more thaneight years. Hestarted off sand

blasting and ended up traveling acrossthe country helping with marketing,operations and national sales. “It was agood opportunity for me. I saw theworld and met a lot of racers and topbuilders.”

However, Kindig never gave updrawing. Eventually, his renderingstacked up on his office wall caught theattention of those in the industry andhis hobby became a side business,then a career.

“I figured out that working 60hours a week for someone else wasn’t

really cutting it. It wasn’t exactly whatI wanted to do,” he said. The amountof work he had with the renderings,painting cars out of his garage and

selling parts on the side allowed himto quit his full-time job with HPC andstart his own business, and Kindig-ItDesigns was born. It started out of hisgarage with barely 1,000 square feet.That only lasted a little more than two

months before he moved into a 4,500-square-foot space for two-and-halfyears before moving into 9,000 squarefeet. Five years later, the shop addedanother 9,000 square feet. Recently,Kindig signed a two-year lease optionto buy the entire 27,000 square foot

building, of which he subleases 6,000square feet to an upholstery shop andwindow tinting business.

Kindig loves his work, but “It’snot like work. It’s like a good-payinghobby. I go to work every day and I

get to sit in my drawing office if I de-sire to and just sit here and draw. It’sbeen very rewarding. It’s calming, andit’s exciting. When I talk to a clientabout building a car, usually the veryfirst thing we do is a rendering. Withina couple minutes, I’m already driving


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1964 Cadillac Coupe Deville Convertible built for speedskater Apolo Ohno

1932 Ford Tudor

this car up and down the street, imag-ining what it would look like. Youwant to build a car to somebody’s tasteand by adding your flare and playingoff the customer’s taste, I build a car

that’s very unique. Each car is differ-ent. It is something that will be time-less and classic, it will stop peoplewalking through a show. I love to putthe details into a car and a lotof design flavor.”

His favorite project is awhite 1968 Mustang called‘The Boss’ and is well-known in the show industry.

His most famous cus-tomer is Apolo Anton Ohno,a gold medal Olympic speedskater who commissioned

Kindig to rebuild a 1964 Series 62Cadillac Coupe DeVille that was fea-tured on Hot Rod Television on theSpeed Channel.

Currently, the shop is working ona 1953 GM Parade ofProgress FuturLiner Bus, oneof 12 originals. Of these 12originals, nine are still in ex-istence: one burned up, onewas rear-ended, and oneended up being used for partsand is no longer trackable, ac-cording to Kindig. This bus,No. 3 of the series, is over 11feet tall, 8 feet wide and 33feet long and only seats three.The driver sits in the center,

10 feet in the air. The doors are 16 feetlong and the interior includes a stair-case. Most of the structure needs to berebuilt, and Kindig-It used computer-

generated scanned 3D schematics tomeasure all dimensions of the vehicle.

Kindig said these vehicles arevery sought after and that one of theseremaining vehicles sold for $4.2 mil-lion at Barrett-Jackson in 2008. He

added that his shop has received a lotof national attention because of the ve-hicle. The owner of the #3 FuturLineralso found another original and hascommissioned the shop to rebuild itfrom scratch, updating the replicatedversion with a full modern drive train,modern electronics, smoke machineand air driven doors. This one will be

used for tradeshows.One of Kindig’s favorite products

is PPG paint. “PPG is a great productfor us. I am really impressed with theirclear coats, and the way they link upin a baking situation is obviously more

modern. The colors offer good cover-age, and I like the ability to custommix colors and have the backing ofPPG as far as knowledge to makingbalanced formulas.”

Kindig-It Designs has devel-oped two of their own colors, called‘Kindig-It Cool Clay’ and ‘BadTomato.’


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Chrysler Delivers First Shipment of CompressedNatural Gas–Fueled Ram Trucks to OklahomaOklahoma received its first shipmentof compressed natural gas-fueledRam 2500 pickups from Chrysler.The state ordered 242 pickups for theOklahoma Department of Trans-portation.

The state’s order is Chrysler’slargest since it began producing CNGtrucks in October.

Chrysler’s Ram is the only CNG-powered pickup in North Americabuilt by an original equipment manu-facturer. The bi-fuel trucks were builtat Chrysler’s heavy-duty truck plant inMexico.

Gov. Mary Fallin took the keysto one of the trucks from PeterGrady, Chrysler’s vice president ofnetwork development and fleet.

“Chrysler Group is delightedthat we can deliver these uniqueRam pickup trucks today to Gov.Fallin, a steadfast champion in theuse of compressed natural gas vehi-cles in state fleets,” said Grady.

“Through the governor’s tire-less efforts to form a coalition ofstates, 13 Ram Truck dealers havelanded contracts with 19 states tosupply their fleets with the new Ram2500 CNG pickup trucks,” he said.

Fallin led a bipartisan coalitionof 22 states interested in adding moreCNG vehicles to their fleets. Naturalgas is a cheaper, cleaner fuel thangasoline or diesel.

“Converting the state’s fleetto CNG will save taxpayers mil-lions of dollars in fuel costs,”Fallin said. “The use of cleaner-burning CNG fuel is good for theenvironment and promotes Okla-homa-made natural gas which inturn supports the creation of moreOklahoma jobs.

“Our multistate bidding processwas aimed at encouraging automak-ers to provide states with more af-fordable and more functional CNGvehicles.”

The trucks delivered March 6 tothe Transportation Department werepurchased through John Vance Mo-tors in Guthrie. They will be usedprimarily as service trucks on thestate’s roads and highways.

“These are heavy-duty trucksand we have highway crews in everycounty in the state who will put themto work immediately,” OklahomaSecretary of Transportation GaryRidley said.


by Ed Attanasio

He’s an artist, a painter, a car cus-tomizer, an automotive builder, ateacher, the author of five books, apaint manufacturer and the creator ofa stunning finish for hundreds ofbreathtaking vehicles and thousandsof custom motorcycles, includingeight cars and six motorcycles fea-tured at SEMA shows. His name isJon Kosmoski, the founder of theHouse of Kolor® in Minneapolis, MN,and even though he’s 75, the man stillbuilds incredible cars and travelsthroughout the country to teach newand veteran painters how to do it Kos-moski-style.

Kosmoski’s current role and im-pressive legacy in the automotivepainting industry through sevendecades starting in the late ‘50s hasearned him titles of “master,” “leg-end” and “icon.” Companies all overthe world clamor to work with Kos-moski through either sponsorships orother projects, and that’s why SATA,the premier manufacturer of paintspray guns, is proud to say that thisamazing painter uses its products andno other.

Jon Kosmoski established theHouse of Kolor® 57 years ago, longbefore he was a world-renowned cus-tom painter. As a 19-year-old studentstudying automotive repair, Kosmoskirebuilt a ‘40 Chevy Coupe and took itto the best shop in town to have hisbaby painted. “When I got that carback, I wasn’t happy at all,” Kos-moski explained. “The paint job was-n’t what I had expected. If this is thebest car painter in town and this iswhat they’re giving me, I was disap-pointed. I thought I can do better thanthis. So, I took night classes on paintand collision repair and jumped into itpretty quickly.”

Within a short time, Kosmoskiwas known throughout Minneapolis

for his skills as a custom painter. Heloved being creative and producingoutstanding cars and motorcycles, buthe wasn’t enamored with the chal-lenging lacquers and enamels of thelate 1950’s, because he discoveredthat they would easily sun-fade orcold-crack. He experimented and ab-sorbed valuable information like apaint sponge, because Jon Kosmoskiisn’t afraid to learn as much as he canabout any subject that will help him todo a better job.

Kosmoski wanted something su-perior to apply to the numerous carsand motorcycles that were now flyingthrough the doors at the House ofKolor® in the early 1960s. “I startedworking with a polymer chemist toproduce custom paints that wouldn’ttarnish or crack and perform well de-spite all of the other problems I wasencountering with existing products.There was nothing out there evenclose to what I wanted, so I had to in-vent it. I started using organic pig-ments way back in 1963, while mostpaint manufacturers were using onlyinorganic pigments.” With his newpaint and by constantly honing hispainting skills and tapping into hiszeal for creativity and innovation,House of Kolor® became a householdname by the mid 1970s.

In 1996, the House of Kolor®was purchased by the Valspar Auto-motive Coatings Division. Today,

Kosmoski is still involved withHouse of Kolor® in a 12,000 square-foot shop with “Tebo” his electrician,fabricator and mechanic. Jon pro-duces 4–6 cars or motorcycles for carshows and magazine covers everyyear, while traveling worldwide toteach his painting techniques. He’sknown for many things, but has be-come one of the leading experts oncandy paint. One of his true loves ishelping painters to learn what he’sdiscovered over 55 years in this in-

dustry, he explained.“Our unique product line gives

custom painters the flexibility to usetheir creativity and skills to design, in-vent, and create “one-of-a-kind” cus-tom paint jobs that last, Kosmoskisaid. “That’s why I love this business,because creating a one-of-a-kind paintjob requires a combination of techni-cal skill and artistic ability. I enjoypassing all of my knowledge and ex-perience in my training classes, sothat’s very satisfying.”

With a plethora of award-winningvehicles created over the years, Kos-moski cites a handful as his most no-table—all of which starred on theshow floors of SEMA shows over a12-year period. “I would say that my1967 Mustang with a matching mo-torcycle; 1934 Ford 5-window coupewith a 383 in it; 1948 InternationalPickup, which was unveiled at theSEMA Show in 2008, and our 1932Ford Roadster—those are the onespeople seem to like the most.”

After experimenting with a widerange of different spray guns for manyyears, Tony Larimer, the director ofsales & marketing at Dan-Am Com-pany, exclusive independent distribu-tor of SATA in USA, gave a few of hiscompany’s guns for Kosmoski to usein 1999. When he got his hands onSATAjet 2000 B RP (no longer in pro-duction) he quickly became a seriousSATA supporter.

“Tony said try this gun and let usknow what you think,” Kosmoskisaid. “That 2000 RP really turned myhead and I rarely say that about anyproduct! I loved the way it handled al-most immediately. Right then andthere I decided to start using SATAguns exclusively. I used that 2000 fora while, and then when SATA cameout with the 3000, I changed over. The3000 was over-the-top and SATA re-ally stepped up with that gun. Now Iuse the 4000 B RP, their newest gunand it is exceptional.”

To kick off their association in2000, SATA and Kosmoski workedtogether to produce a signature specialetched jet blacks two-gun set. Only500 were produced and they were soldquickly, but you can still find a fewused ones on sale now and again overthe Internet.

Larimer values SATA’s relation-ship with Kosmoski and the House ofKolor® for many reasons. “We’re gladto be associated with Jon because he

uses our guns exclusively and teachesother painters about how to sprayusing SATA guns,” Larimer said.“He’s more than an impressive part-ner, because he’s also my friend of 15years. We talk almost weekly and hispassion for what he’s doing is conta-gious. When people meet Jon for thefirst time, they always come awaysaying wow—what a fascinating anddriven guy and still going nonstop atage 75! He has the energy of six peo-ple. It’s unbelievable.”

Having a visionary like Kosmoskion the SATA team is important, be-cause Jon offers feedback all the timeabout the company’s products andtheir capabilities, Larimer said.

“One of the things I love aboutJon is that he’s an unlimited source ofinformation. Some artist/painters keepa lot of their tips and techniques se-cret, but Jon loves to share his knowl-edge to anyone that wants it. At SATA,we always listen to our painters, sothat we can use their input for our nextgeneration of products.”

Why does Kosmoski covet hisSATAjet 4000?

“I’ve been working with this gunfor almost three years now and it’s abeautiful gun. It gives me a very uni-form pattern and I’ve learned that Idon’t need to apply so much pressurewith the 4000—only about 26–27 PSI.I am a heavy-handed painter by na-ture, when it’s required and the 4000works great when I need to go thatway.

“Also, this gun saves money byimproving my efficiency and usingless paint, while getting a glossier andcleaner look.

“I’ve been teaching painters for35 years now, and I train everyone ona SATA.”

Jon Kosmoski—Painting Legend Uses SATA Guns Exclusively

Jon Kosmoski’s 1967 Ford Mustang got a lotof attention at SEMA in 2004

Jon Kosmoski pictured here with his SATA4000 B RP, the only spray gun he uses on hisaward-winning cars and motorcycles

This 1948 International refinished by Jon Kos-moski was unveiled at SEMA in 2008


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by Melanie Anderson

Customer painter Aaron Wachholz,owner of X-treme Paint Auto Body &Marine in Wyoming, MN, began hiscareer nearly a quarter century agowhen he was in the Navy, painting andrepairing the landing and captainboats aboard the ship. After his stint in

the Navy, he worked at two bodyshops and eventually started doing hisown custom work as well as custompainting new conversion vans thatwere sold on dealership lots.

Wachholz, 43, started X-tremePaint Auto Body & Marine 16 yearsago and now has four employees. Theservices provided by his business in-clude custom painted graph-ics, custom airbrushing andmurals, auto body collisionand frame repair, fiberglassand aluminum boat repair andcustom motorcycle painting.The shop serves the NorthTwin City Metro area withquality collision repair andcustom paint with award win-ning unique designs. Awardsinclude: DuPont Top Gun:2000, 2001, 2002, 2003;Donnie Smith Custom BikeShow: Best Paint 2009, Best in Class2009, Best in Class, 2006; as well asseveral local car and bike show custompaint awards.

Over the years, he estimates he’scustom painted over 5,000 cars, bikesand boats.

“I like playing with different col-ors, filling out different designs andusing my creativity to create some-thing new,” Wachholz said. “I lovecreating something new and different,utilizing unique colors and color com-binations. I take a vehicle and I’ll de-sign a paint job that flows with thenatural body lines on the vehicle. I

like to take the shape and puta paint job to it that enhancesall of the natural shape andcontours of the body.”

On the flip side, what hehates about custom painting isnot always knowing for surewhat exactly the customer hasin mind, because some cus-tomers come in with a vagueidea or concept that he bringsto life. He has a fear of disap-pointing them, although thathas never happened.

He said one of his strangest re-quests for custom painting was aHummer H2 where the customerwanted a two-toned bright pink.

His most famous customer isJesse Ventura, for whom he did cus-tom paint on a favorite bike. Venturais a former professional wrestler whoutilized his skills learned in the ring to

become Governor of Minnesota.His favorite project was a donated

custom paint job he did last year on a2011 Harley Davidson Street Bob for‘Tribute to the Troops.’ The custompaint utilized custom flakes and mul-tiple candy colors. Raffle ticket sales

were over $40,000 and pro-ceeds were donated to educa-tional accounts for childrenof fallen soldiers.

“The bike was phenome-nal, especially in the sun.That was the coolest job I’veever done because it was thefirst time I ever did a custompaint that made a difference

in the lives of people.” Thisyear he’s working on aHarley Davidson street glidefor the ‘Tribute to the Troops’fundraiser and the bike willbe unveiled in mid March.

As far as tips go, hispaint is PPG Vibrance and helikes using stands made byInnovative Tools. He partic-ularly likes the Octopus standwhich allows him to easilypaint weird, odd-shapedparts. “You can clamp itdown at eye level and work all awayaround the object.” He also likes theirhood and bumper stands which makeit easy to paint a panel in the booth at

the exact height and vertical angle heneeds to do intricate hood artwork.Wachholz used Innovative Tool’s Ul-traRack Paint Stand to paint a customhood for Innovative Tools and their

SuperStand Bumper Standfor a custom painted bumpercover that the company dis-played at SEMA.

X-treme Paint Auto Body& Marine5204 260th Street,Wyoming, MN [email protected]


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Custom Painter Aaron Wachholz Paints Cars, Boats & Bikes

Aaron Wachholz with a 2012 Tribute bike

2004 Cobra Mustang

2005 Pugh race boat painted by Aaron

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Aaron airbrushing 2009 Boss Hoss Big block gas tank

by Toby Chess

This past January at the CIC meetingin Palm Springs, CA, Darren Hug-gins, the National Collision Director

for the Van Tuyl Automotive Group,asked me if I would be interested inconducting a fire extrication demon-stration for his tradeshow and fundraiser. Of course I said ‘yes.’ I con-tacted Craig Oliveira, Regional SalesManager of Kent Automotive, andasked him if his company would spon-sor my trip and he said, “Definitely, be-cause Kent was one of the sponsors ofthe event.” I also contacted Progressive

Insurance about getting a couple of latemodel total-loss vehicles for the event.Within 24 hours, they committed toproviding a 2009 Ford Focus and a2011 Hyundai Sonata. Knowing I had

two late model cars, I con-tacted the Battalion Chief forthe city of Arlington, and hecommitted two ladder trucksand two engine trucks for theevent. I was now ready to rockand roll.On February 14, I flew into

Dallas and proceeded to TeamVandergriff Collision Center inArlington, TX. This is a brandnew 50,000-square-foot center(open less than six months). Imet with David Shirley and

his staff and he gave me a quick tour ofthe facility, which included two Garmatbooths and prep stations, a top of theline Car-O-Liner bench system, EVO1,2 & 3, Car-O-tronic measuring system,Hunter alignment rack and ProspotSTR welders. The shop was packedwith repairs and I was wondering howthey were going to get all those carsoutside. When I came back on Friday toprep my two total loss vehicles, the

shop was totally cleaned out and thefloors washed. By noon, 50 vendor ta-bles were set up, plus 3M demonstra-tion areas (plastic repair, vehicleprepping and detailing) were organized.By late in the afternoon, nearly all spon-soring vendors, including national com-panies Hertz, Enterprise, CCC, SummitSolutions, Prospot, Car-O-Liner, MatrixWand, Kent Automotive and 3M wereset up. There were five cars with bigribbon bows on top.

Here is what was so unique aboutthis multi-event which had more than

3,200 attendees: It was a fundraiser forTrinity River Mission and Family Prom-ise of Irving; it was a Recycled RidesGiveaway; it was also a training day fortechnicians and an invitation for studentsin interested in the collision industry as acareer path. Let’s look as some of theevents that made this day really special:

Trinity River Mission is a volun-teer-based community learning center

that promotes literacy, encourages ac-ademic success and develops effectivelife skills among disadvantaged youthin West Dallas, in the belief that edu-cation connects them to life’s possi-bilities. Nearly $25,000 was raised forthis group.

The Van Tuyl Automotive groupsponsors two local vocational schoolswith equipment and training. The twoschools, Texas State Technical Collegeand East Field College, sent 50 stu-dents to be part of this industry event.

Chip Foose is a well-known hotrod shop owner, automotive designer

and fabricator, and star of the realityTV series Overhaulin’ on Velocity.Foose, with nationally-recognized cus-tom painter Charley Hutton, demon-strated their unique skills and talkedwith the attendees about a career in thecollision repair industry.

The Recycled Rides event gaveaway five late model vehicles thatwere donated by Hertz, Enterprise,Farmers Insurance, Grapevine Fordand Westway Ford. The parts were do-nated by the many vendors that sup-ply the Van Tuyl Automotive groupand five of the 15 area Van Tuyl colli-sion centers furnished the labor. I havebeen to number of these giveawaysand they still make me teary eyed. Iwill also say that Darren became veryemotional after announcing the sec-ond family and you could really seepride for his employees who volun-teered their time for the project anddeep emotion for the special needsfamilies. Vandergriff Chevrolet North,Vandergriff South, Vandergriff Toy-ota, Grapevine Ford and Westway-Ford all participated in the giveaway.If you and your shop are not involvedwith the Recycled Rides Program, youare really missing the boat.

Everyone who attended weretreated to a real Texas barbecue.

Lastly, the fire extrication demon-stration and training exercise was areal hit. All of the firefighters were re-

ally appreciative to be able to train onlate model cars that produce new chal-lenges with all the high strength andultra high strength steels. I set off allthe side air bags, seat air bags andfrontal air bags, which everyone in-cluding the firefighters, really enjoyed.

I want to thank Progressive Insur-ance for their donations and CowboyTowing for picking up, moving anddelivering the cars in a most profes-sional manner.

In closing, I hope that the VanTuyl Automotive Group makes this anannual event and invites me back.


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Van Tuyl’s Firefighters’ Extrication, Tradeshow, and Fundraiser

Charley Hutton (l) and Chip Foose inside thebooth

Homer Delgado (l) and Craig Oliveira of KentAutomotive

Toby Chess (l) with the Arlington firefighters’ extrication

Darren Huggins (r), Natl Collision Director for VanTuyl, announces the Recycled Rides recipients

Plier continued, “The need of as-sistance to make the Alabama Skill-sUSA competition a success is hugeand should be a priority for the auto-motive collision repair industry in Al-abama. The critical shortage ofqualified technicians for repairers andassociated vendors in the industry isalarming and growing. To reverse thistrend and to revive interest in this in-dustry that offers many opportunitiesfor individuals that love automobilesand all the work associated to the au-tomobile, the collision repair industrymust step forward,” Plier said.

“The choice is obvious. We mustSTEP FORWARD and LEAD or facethe consequences,” Plier added. “Thefacts are that there is a big need to re-plenish a skilled workforce, that likethe America population, continues toage. There is a need for the industry tobecome involved with the educationsystem to develop apprenticeship op-portunities for those wanting to learnmore about industry opportunities andthere is a responsibility for the indus-try to help educate the public of these

opportunities.”The recent meeting between

ALARISE board members and the Al-abama SkillsUSA automotive collisioncompetition director Ronnie Small-wood brought a dire picture to view.ALARISE board members had previ-ously discussed the possibility of of-fering a scholarship to competitionwinners or offering assistance in thepurchase of a toolset, said Plier, but thegroup soon learned the reality of thesituation: that the first step is being ableto actually hold the competition itself.

“The meeting with DirectorSmallwood indicated how bad the sit-uation is and how much the industryneeds to step forward,” said Plier. Dis-cussions with Smallwood indicatedthat at 60 days out, he had only re-ceived total donations of $200 and in-terest from two industry members onbeing judges for the competition.However, Smallwood said the mini-mum requirements to hold the compe-tition would equal roughly $5000 and10 or more judges.

Besides monetary donations andvoluntary judges, other needs includelunch and refreshments for contestantsand repair materials and actual auto-mobile panels.

ALARISE board members madea commitment to help with the Skill-sUSA competition by providingjudges and additional monies neededfor competition to occur. Additionally,ALARISE will help state winnerswith travel costs to national competi-

tion later in the year.Alabama automotive collision

repair facilities and collision repairvendors willing to help with theSkillsUSA contest are encouraged tocontact Ronnie Smallwood at 256-476-3727 or [email protected].


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ALARISE Gears Up

Southern Automotive Repair Industry Conference& ExhibitionComing on the heels of the SkillsUSA competition is the first Southern AutomotiveRepair Industry Conference and Exhibition, organized and presented in partnershipwith the Mississippi Collision Repair Association (MCRA). The conference is set forApril 26–27 in Biloxi, MI, at the Beau Rivage Resort Casino Hotel.

The conference will include presentations by Aaron Schulenburg of SCRS,Rick Leos of Toyota Motors, and Florida repairer Ray Gunder and his attorneyBrent Geohagen.

The event kicks off with a Friday night reception and vendor exhibition from6–10 p.m. On Saturday, classroom training opportunities are scheduled between9–11 a.m., and in the afternoon, between 12:30–5:30, industry speakers and apanel Q&A are scheduled.

“The goal of this conference is to have participation from repairers and ven-dors throughout the Southeast and work to make this an annual event,” said organ-izer Steve Plier.

Registration is $25 for association members or $50 for non-members. Dead-line to register is April 10. For information on registration, hotel reservations or tobe an exhibitor, see mscra.net or www.alarise.com.

For additional information, contact John Mosley with the MCRA at (601) 924-2159 or at [email protected] or contact Steve Plier with ALARISE at(205) 623-9307 or at [email protected].

Louisiana Hail Storm Brings More CustomersA late February hail storm broughtout a long line of customers in thecommunities of Harvey and Mar-rero in Louisiana. Body shops in thearea now have plenty of businesswith damaged and pock-marked ve-hicles to fix over the next severalmonths.

“As you can see, all of these lit-tle dents came from the hail storm,”said Fred Reiser from Marrero. “Iwas lucky it didn’t break any of thewindshields. That would have causedeven more damage. I got dents on theroof.”

“Messed it all up,” said CynthiaLaMothe who was visiting a friendin Harvey when her car got peltedwith hail the size of golf balls. “Mywindshield is all broken and the topis all messed up, all around thesides.”

The owner of California Cus-toms Collision Center on ManhattanBlvd., Bruce McKay says hebrought in extra help, including hiswife, to respond to the crush of cus-tomers with storm damage.

“I had three cars that got ham-mered at my own house and I walkedoutside and I saw what everybodyelse saw and I realized the next morn-ing what it was going to be like, so

got on the phone and rallied ourtroops together and got reinforce-ments in the office just to handle thephone calls,” he said.

McKay’s shop and others acrossthe metro area are now working over-time to repair the storm damage. Heexpects his business to fix 200 cars amonth for the next six months.

Customers waiting for serviceknow it will be a slow process.

“Everyone has to wait pa-tiently until they can get to you be-cause it’s all up on the Westbank,”said LaMothe.

“Pretty much is going to be awaiting process,” said Reiser. “Itmight be several weeks before wecan get the cars in the shop.”

McKay recommends that peoplewith damaged vehicles take them to acollision center they know and trustand to avoid the street corner repairshops that always seem to appearafter a storm.

“I would highly recommend topick someone who’s going to behere tomorrow to deal with anyproblems you might have,” McKaysaid. “Giving you a lifetime war-ranty is important, just getting a re-pair you know somebody is going tostand behind.”


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NABC To Take Stock of Future at April Meeting The National Auto Body Council(NABC) is expanding the format oftheir April planning and board meet-ing to accommodate an agenda de-signed to help chart the future of theorganization, which strives to pro-mote a positive image of the automo-tive collision repair industry.

The meeting will take place onThursday, April 18 and the morningof Friday, April 19. It is being held atthe I-CAR Training and Support Cen-ter in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. TheNABC is trying to encourage thosewho feel strongly about the work itdoes to participate in the process, sothe meeting place has been selectedfor its convenient location just 30minutes from the O’Hare Airport,with lodging nearby. There is no reg-istration fee. The meeting will start at8:00 a.m. on Thursday and run until5:00 p.m. Matt Ohrnstein of Sym-phony Advisors, LLC will facilitatefor the first half day, as the NationalAuto Body Council assesses its cur-rent goals, determines where it wantsto be in five years, and charts possiblecourses to get there.

Thursday afternoon will consistof committee sessions providing anopportunity for all participants to be-come engaged in discussions. Friday

morning will feature committee re-ports, with a wrap by noon to accom-modate the booking of afternoonflights.

“Just as our regular board meet-ings have open attendance, so, too,does this very special event,” saidNABC National Director Chuck Sul-kala. “It’s a chance for all to voicetheir opinions, concerns and thoughtstogether with members of the Na-tional Auto Body Council. It’s a greatopportunity to see what we’re reallyall about. We look forward to seeingeveryone there.”

Rooms have been reserved at theHampton Inn in Hoffman Estates lo-cated approximately two miles fromthe meeting site. The phone numberfor reservations at the NABC rate of$79 per night is 847-882-4301.Transportation from the hotel and tothe center will be available from7:30–7:45 a.m. Thursday morning.Room reservations should be made asquickly as possible as the room blockis being held only until March 18.

If you would like to attend orhave questions, contact Chuck Sul-kala at 888-667-7433 or [email protected] or MikeMcManus in the NABC office at 414-408-4957,

NABC Ramps Up Its Social Media EffortsThe National Auto Body Council(NABC) recently announced that it isundertaking its official ‘ramp up intothe world of social media’ by invitinginterested parties to create, share andexchange industry-related informationideas on its revamped Facebook andTwitter platforms.

Craig Camacho, National AutoBody Council board member andchair of NABC’s marketing and pub-

lic relations committee, took the leadon the initiative, which includes re-newing and modernizing the look,feel and message of the NABC’sFacebook page and Twitter feed(@AutoBodyCouncil).

NABC’s Facebook page layouthas been updated to be more attractiveand inviting, including a link,www.facebook.com/NationalAuto-BodyCouncil, that makes it easier forpeople to locate and access.

Relevant content, industry news,thought-provoking riddles and, most

importantly, program updates, arenow listed on an almost daily basis.

Dates for Recycled Rides® andFirst Responder Emergency Extrica-tion (FREE) events will be listedalong with information on other cam-paign initiatives such as OperationComfort, Distracted Driving, In-Lan-guage, the Body Shop Image Awardand the Award of Distinction.

In today’s digital and onlineworld, it’s hard to imagine an or-ganization achieving successwithout embracing the benefits ofsocial media, including Face-book, Twitter, Pinterest and themany other available platforms atthe fingertips of marketersaround the world.“There is no better return on in-

vestment then when you grow youraudience organically through socialmedia and I am excited that the Na-tional Auto Body Council is now po-sitioned to make an impact in thisarea,” stated Camacho, who is also themarketing director and social mediamanager at 11-shop MSO KeenanAuto Body. “If you use Facebook,come check us out and ‘like’ the newNational Auto Body Council pagewhich will also feed into our Twitteraccount.”

The National Auto Body Councilhas appointed Renee Ricciotti, 3Mnational key account sales manager,to its 2013 national board.

Ricciotti has been a member ofthe collision industry for nearly twodecades, helping build the 3M Auto-motive Aftermarket Division acrossthe United States. As national key ac-count sales manager since 2008, Ric-ciotti has put her leadership skills andindustry expertise to work to suc-cessfully build multi-functionalteams to effectively serve 3M’s auto-motive customers.

“It’s an honor to be selected toserve on the NABC board to giveback to the collision industry,” saidRicciotti. “I look forward to address-ing industry issues on behalf of themanufacturers, distributors and storeowners I’ve worked with for 20years. I look forward to being in-volved in great NABC programs likeRecycled Rides and Automotiva-tion.”

Ricciotti joined 3M AutomotiveAftermarket Division in 1994 andhas received numerous awards forher performance, including the 3MGolden Step Award, Brick LayerAward and top sales performer.

NABC Appoints 3M SalesManager Ricciotti to Board

The Collision Industry Snapshot sur-vey remains open for new responses.

Collision shop owners and man-agers are asked to consider complet-ing the Collision Repair IndustrySnapshot Survey, which is co-spon-sored by the Collision Repair Educa-tion Foundation and I-CAR.

Through the survey results, theindustry will be able to view statis-tics on the current state of the indus-try and also to highlight careeropportunities to collision students.Only through the participation of col-lision shop owners/managers can thissurvey accurately reflect currenttrends and information on the indus-try.

An electronic tablet (retail value$400) will be awarded to one ran-domly selected respondent that suc-cessfully completes the survey. Allresponses will be kept confidentialand results will be reported in aggre-gate; respondents will not be con-tacted; and the list will not be sold orshared.

Collision shop owners or man-agers (one per location please) are in-vited to take the survey at this link:https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Collision_Industry_Snapshot_Survey.

Shop Owners, ManagersAsked to Complete Survey


The Automotive Service Association(ASA) will hold its next annual busi-ness meeting April 19-20 at the HurstConvention Center in Hurst, TX. Theagenda will include an open meetingof the ASA board of directors onApril 20. Ron Pyle, ASA presidentand chief staff executive, will delivera state-of-the-association addressduring the Saturday luncheon, and anew chairman, along with otherboard members, will be sworn in. Anopen membership forum will also beon the agenda.

All ASA members are invited toattend the open meeting on Saturday,which will be held from 9 a.m. to4:30 p.m. and includes lunch. The of-ficial registration form for the April20 events, and information abouthotel options close to the meeting fa-cility, will be available on the ASAwebsite at www.ASAshop.org.

The Automotive Service Asso-ciation is the largest not-for-profittrade association of its kind dedicatedto and governed by independent au-tomotive service and repair profes-sionals. ASA serves an internationalmembership base that includes stateand chapter groups from mechanicaland collision repair segments.

ASA Announces Details for2013 Annual Meeting

Keenan Auto Body Inc. has launcheda fundraising drive to raise money forthe National Auto Body Council’s(NABC) Operation Comfort initia-tive.

Operation Comfort was foundedin 2004 and provides opportunitiesfor wounded service members to par-ticipate in rehabilitative, adaptivesports and Automotivation, a pro-gram for wounded service membersto work on cars. The organizationalso provides family financial assis-tance and therapeutic trips.

The goal for the fundraiser is toraise $1.5 million to purchase, reno-vate and fully equip the 30,000square foot training facility that willhouse the Automotivation program inSan Antonio, TX.

“We believe in this program andappreciate the opportunity to giveback to those who have given somuch,” said Mike LeVasseur, pres-ident and chief operations officer ofKeenan Auto Body. “We have movedforward by equipping all 11 of ourlobbies with donation pads and freestanding posters that depict exactlywhat the program is all about. We arealso matching dollar for dollar every-thing that we raise.”

Keenan Launches OperationComfort FundraiserIn four separate transactions,

ABRA Auto Body & Glass, a Min-nesota-based vehicle repair com-pany, announced the acquisitionof two corporate repair centersand the opening of two franchiserepair centers in four states. Thelatest deals increase the totalnumber of ABRA repair centersnationally to 95 company-ownedlocations and 46 independently-owned franchises for a total of141 in 16 states.

The four newly acquired repaircenters are located in Omaha, NE;Wilmington, NC; Lebanon, TN; andClearfield, UT.

“There is no doubt we are in ac-celerated growth mode and are ded-icated to following through on ourlong-term expansion and acquisitionplan,” said Duane Rouse, Presidentand Chief Executive Officer ofABRA. “We are focused on the fu-ture and fully expect to increase ourbusiness opportunities while ex-panding our national footprint innew and existing markets.”

“Not only are we are gaining mo-mentum, but it is full steam ahead,”said Tim Adelmann, ABRA’s Exec-utive Vice President of Business De-velopment.

ABRA Opens Four Centers

Claims Vice President Pam Overtonof Allstate Insurance has joined theCollision Repair Education Founda-tion Board of Trustees. The organiza-tion’s Board of Trustees consists ofindustry members who provide guid-ance in the organization’s efforts tosupport secondary and post-sec-ondary collision students nationwide.The Board selects recipients of the or-ganization’s annual student scholar-ships and tool grants, in addition tothe naming the winning Ultimate Col-lision Education Makeover schools.

“I’m excited to be a part of sucha forward-thinking and well-re-spected group of Trustees,” Overtonsaid. “In this role, I’ll have thechance to influence the industry’s fu-ture and I look forward to that op-portunity and working with such adistinguished group.”

Overton began her Allstate ca-reer in Houston, TX, in 1981. She’sheld several claim positions and lead-ership roles. Her most recent posi-tions include: Vice President,Tech-Cor Research; Senior Manager,Allstate Auto Claims; Claim FieldDirector, Southern Region; VicePresident, Claims Property; and VicePresident, Claims Auto.

Allstate’s Overton Joins Education Foundation Board

Oxford University is testing out a dri-verless version of the Nissan Leafelectric car using technology con-trolled from an Apple iPad on thedashboard. The car is guided by a low-cost navigation system that gauges itssurroundings through small camerasand lasers discreetly built into the bodyof the car and does not rely on GPS.The iPad flashes up a prompt offeringthe driver the option of taking over aportion of the route. Touching thescreen can switch back to ‘auto drive’where the robot system takes over.

The system is currently beingtested at Begbroke Science Park,near Oxford. The next stage of the re-search will work on enabling the newrobotic system to understand com-plex traffic flows and to make deci-sions on the best routes to take, saidDr. Ingmar Posner, who is co-lead-ing the project.

It’s estimated that the currentprototype navigation systems costsaround $7,625 but, “Long-term, ourgoal is to produce a system costingaround $151,” said Professor PaulNewman, the other co-leader.

Self-Driving Nissan LeafControlled from iPad

The average used-vehicle wholesalecost rose above $10,000 in January,the Automotive Dealer ExchangeServices of America reported, butused-vehicle shoppers may soonfind a bit of price relief.

Used vehicle wholesale pricesrose 1.3% compared to last January,in part because so many cars weredestroyed last fall in SuperstormSandy, the Detroit News reported.

But wholesale prices—theprices dealers pay at auction, whichare much less than actual used-carresale values but provide a basis forprice comparison—should soften inthe months ahead, much like theydid during the latter half of 2012,said Tom Kontos, executive vicepresident and chief economist ofADESA in a report.

The average wholesale price ofused cars rose 1.1% to $9,082.Crossover prices jumped 1.7% to$13,568. Truck prices fell 0.2% to$9,961. The average wholesale priceof full-size vans continued to surge;the average price is now $10,116.Mid-size car prices leaped 4.2% to$8,365. January sales of certifiedused vehicles were up 14.9%, ac-cording to Autodata Corp.

Used Vehicle WholesalePrices Up 1.3% in January

ABRA Auto Body & Glass, a Min-nesota-based damaged vehicle repaircompany recently announced theirClinton, IA, repair center has earnedthe prestigious President’s ClubAward for Excellence.

The annual award honors top2012 performing ABRA repair cen-ters across the country for excellencein operations, leadership, customerservice, and overall sales. The Clin-ton ABRA franchise is independ-ently owned by John McEleney ofMcEleney Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Toyota.

Mark Wahlin, ABRA’s VicePresident of Franchise Develop-ment, said, “John McEleney is a fan-tastic business owner whoepitomizes the ideals of leadershipand ABRA values and brand name.We are extremely pleased to presentthis award to him and his entire teamin Clinton.”

For franchise opportunities insmall and midsize markets, contactMark Wahlin, Vice President ofFranchise Development and Opera-tions ([email protected] or763.585.6315).

ABRA plans to continue ex-panding in the years ahead.

ABRA Auto Body & Glass inClinton, Iowa, Wins Award

The U.S. government spends nearly$1 billion annually maintaining its588,000 vehicles, the GovernmentAccountability Office said in an auditreleased March 7.

In the 2011 fiscal year, the ad-ministration spent $975 million onmaintenance.

The report looked at whetherfederal agencies use original or re-manufactured parts to fix vehiclesand found that agencies have differ-ent policies on whether to use them.

Remanufactured parts are gen-erally cheaper. The U.S. Postal Serv-ice said it “relies heavily on theremanufacturing industry to sustainour vehicle.”

The U.S Postal Service’s fleet ofnearly 210,000 vehicles are on aver-age 16.2 years old, while HomelandSecurity’s 48,917 vehicles are fouryears old on average.

The General Services Adminis-tration’s fleet of 200,000 vehicles are3.5 years old on average and need farless maintenance than other fleets.

Some agencies like the FBI,U.S. Postal Service and Customs andBorder Patrol, use in-house garagesfor some maintenance and repairwork.

Feds Spend $1 Billion on Repair Bill for Vehicle Fleet

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Edward “Randy” Bevis, 90, whoowned Bevis Auto Body in Alexan-dria, VA, for four decades, died Feb.16 at Inova Alexandria Hospital. Hehad pneumonia, his daughter JoyGilstrap said.

Mr. Bevis opened his businessin 1949 and sold it in 1989. From thelate 1940s to the early ’60s, heowned an Esso gas station in Alexan-dria.

Edward Randolph Bevis wasborn in Rocky Mount, NC, andmoved to the Washington area as aboy. He graduated from Mount Ver-non High School and served in theArmy in Europe during World WarII.

In 1971, Mr. Bevis, his son, EdBevis Jr., and two other boaters wererescued after being lost at sea offNorth Carolina’s Outer Banks forthree days. Their ordeal was reportedon the front page of The WashingtonPost.

Mr. Bevis was past president ofthe Washington Auto Body Associa-tion. His wife of 35 years, IreneLewis Bevis, died in 1982. Survivorsinclude his wife of 19 years, LoisAnsel Bevis of St. Petersburg, FL,and four children from his first mar-riage.

Edward “Randy” Bevis

The Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists and the Collision Repair Ed-ucation Foundation ask industrymembers to support their local sec-ondary and post-secondary collisionschool programs, students and in-structors. Now more than ever, in-structors need the industry’s help toensure their students are fully pre-pared to work within the collision in-dustry after graduation, SCRS said.

SCRS and the Education Foun-dation suggest the following waysthe industry can help and participate:• Host a collision class field trip toyour business • Volunteer on their advisory board • Mentor a student for potential fu-ture employment • ‘Adopt’ the school’s collision pro-gram and sponsor several minorprojects to help provide a more pro-fessional atmosphere for the students(i.e. new epoxy floor coating, freshcoat of paint on the walls, studentwork uniforms, etc.)

For more information findingcollision school programs near you,and what type of assistance needed,please contact Director of Develop-ment Brandon Eckenrode at [email protected].

SCRS, CREF Ask Industry toSupport Their Local Schools

In 2012, the Virginia State Police In-surance Fraud Program received1,976 notifications of suspected in-surance fraud. 459 cases wereopened, which is almost twice thenumber opened in 2011. They made383 arrests for insurance fraud andother related offenses—a 66% in-crease over 2011.

Court-ordered restitution wasmore than $3 million in 2012, thesecond highest amount of restitutionordered by the courts since 2001.This brings the total of ordered resti-tution since the program began in1999 to almost $18 million. Sus-pected false insurance claims re-ported to the Insurance FraudProgram—both attempted and col-lected—topped $147 million.

Since the program has been op-erating, more than 19,000 referralshave been made to the Virginia StatePolice, 4,574 fraud investigationshave been initiated, and agents havemade a total of 2,468 arrests for in-surance fraud and related crimessuch as arson and forgery. The Vir-ginia State Police investigates sus-pected fraud in property/casualtylines of insurance, as well as sus-pected workers’ compensation fraud.

VA Police Make 383 Arrestsfor Insurance Fraud in 2012 Anthony Francis Fisher, 86, a resi-

dent of Chincoteague, VA, passedaway at his residence on Saturday,Feb. 9, 2013.

Mr. Fisher was in auto body re-pair for many years and was in theUnited States Coast Guard duringWorld War II.

He was predeceased by hiswife, Thalia Juanita WhealtonFisher; and a son, Mark Fisher.

Born on Sept. 6, 1926, inWilmington, DE, he was the son ofthe late Henry Fisher and BarbaraMerkel.

He was member of St. AndrewsCatholic Church on Chincoteague.

He is survived by his children,Anne Arnold and husband, James,of Disputanta, VA, and DeloresKaminski and her husband, Edward,of Northeast, MD; a daughter-in-law, Roberta Fisher of Herndon,VA; two sisters, Barbara Austin ofCarolina Shores, NC, and TheresaSewell of Lewes, DE.; seven grand-children; six great-grandchildren;and several nieces and nephews.

A funeral service was held onFeb. 15, at St. Andrews CatholicChurch. Interment is at St. Peter’sCemetery, Pilottown Road, Lewes,DE.

Anthony Fisher Obituary

I did a little traveling this month. I gota call from Tony Passwater, the di-rector of the Indiana Autobody Asso-ciation, who organizes the bi-annualConvention and Technology Exhibi-tion which was held in IndianapolisFeb. 22–23 at the Lincoln College ofTechnology. See Janet Chaney’s arti-cle on the IABA Event p. 24 this issue.

They wanted me to do an ap-pearance, which is cool, but inter-acting with the students on a projectwould be even cooler. At the end ofthe day, I wanted the students to dothe project and get the experiencewith me guiding and helping. Thechallenge the IABA came up withwas painting a truck and doingsome graphics, some flames. Butthe catch was, they wanted to do itin a five-hour period, and I thought,‘Oh here we go, these guys havebeen watching too many Car War-

rior episodes with 72-hour builds.’But we were able to work it outwhere I thought I could squeeze in apaint job with graphics in a 10-hourperiod, or worse case scenario, a 12-hour period. So, I started reachingout for the tools I would need topull something like this off. I wentto my stencil line. I have pre-drawn

out graphics, such as tribal flamesand traditional flames. I got meas-urements from Tony, which allowedme get the graphics pre-designed,pre-cut and pre-masked before Ishowed up, which would save us alot of time.

On my way to Indianapolis, Iheard there were ice storms and Ithought I’d be cancelled. However, Igot a text that said the show must goon. Luckily, I made it into Indianapo-lis. I was on the last plane in beforethey shut down the airport.

The next morning, I got a ride toLincoln College of Technology and it’sa pretty impressive school. The autobody shop had quite a few completedvehicles. Director of Operations RogerPark showed me around. They were

equipped with spray booths, tools andequipment, frame racks, etc.

What they had lined up for mewas a 1998 green Dodge Dakota. Ireached out to Vintage CollectionPaint Line by Cumberland Productsbecause they have a flat black paintthat we would be using on this proj-ect. I envisioned a two-tone flame de-

sign with a flat black look. When Ishow up, the truck is sanded in 800grit and now I am having to back-track a little bit and rethink this. Italked to Bruce Barlow from Vin-tage Collection Paint Line by Cum-

berland Products—this product isover the top, and easy to use. Theywere willing to provide this productto me. I asked Mike English, Tech-nical Manager, if we put down theflats, are we able to clear over it, andwhat timeframe we had to clear overit? The answer was ‘yes,’ we couldclear over it and we had 24 hours. Iwas jazzed about that because itdoesn’t throw a wrench in the proj-ect. I met with the top 12 studentswho were going to work along withme. They also had bleachers set upfor the other students. I started withthe basics and interacted with the stu-dents, and asked them what theywere thinking. I said we could utilizethe lines on the truck and make itlook real cool. We had to take fewmore parts off the truck. I brought outthe flames and I had them lay themout and get creative. I also gave thestudents some ideas and then let them


Sharing the Love of Custom Painting with Students at Lincoln

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

with Sheila LoftusYour Turn

Opinions Countwith Dick Strom

Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney

Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

Rich Evans is the owner of Huntington Beach Bodyworks and an award winning painter andfabricator. He offers workshops in repair and customization at his facility to share his uniquetalents. For contacts and design samples visit www.huntingtonbeachbodyworks.com

See Rich Evans at Lincoln, Page 45

and his brother borrowed $500 andstarted fixing cars, primarily foreigncars. They built a successful state-of-the-art collision center based on theircommitment to their customer and ex-ceptional work. This shop is now aMercedes-Benz Certified CollisionRepair Center serving New York’sprosperous Westchester County.

Ray Gunder described his lovefor the business and in the late 1960’s

started his ownshop, which is nowGunder’s AutoCenter, a large andsuccessful colli-sion center. Ray’swife, Deannie, andtwo adult chil-dren, Travis andJodi, work withhim to carry onthe 40-year Gun-der tradition.

Wade Ebert’sDad had a particu-

lar love for Corvettes. He started fix-ing them but one day he noticed, “Allmy friends grew up and are drivingstation wagons.” That was the begin-ning of American Auto Body. Ebertsaid “I decided to take a shot and workwith my old man.” He is now the sec-ond generation at American.

Larry Cernosek from Pasadena,TX, graduated from college with a de-gree in marketing and communication.

However, an injuryhalted his career.When he received a$3,000 settlement,Cernosek bought a$2,000 pickup andstarted towing cars.That was in 1975.He now owns DeerPark Paint andBody and CernosekWrecker.

The speakers onthis panel were allindependent shopowners and broughta different messageto the audience, rep-

resenting the backbone of the independ-ent collision repairer. A few key pointsfrom this discussion: Understand whoyou are and what you want to do; Youhave to rely on yourself to makechanges in your business; Know yourown labor rate; Do not rely on the in-surance estimate—it is not the blueprintof repair; Meet your legislators; Meetyour Insurance Commissioner; Chargefor procedures; If you don’t ask youdon’t get; You’re going to have troubleswallowing a warranty when you don’tget paid for the procedure.

Gunder has taken an aggressivelegal approach in Florida to get com-pensated for the work his shop per-

forms. Greg Coccaro’s lawsuit withProgressive ended this year in Greg’sfavor. The Texas Insurance Commis-sioner personally visited Larry Cer-nosek’s shop because he wanted tomeet the man who sent in so manycomplaints to his of-fice. American AutoBody was awardedan out-of-court set-tlement by StateFarm in 1999.

At the end ofthis discussion,Schulenburg askedthem one last question, “Are you moresuccessful today?” Each man said‘yes’ but all said it is not any easier,although personally they are satisfiedwith what they do. Ebert’s reply en-capsulated the speaker’s sentiments:“There is great satisfaction in know-ing wholeheartedly that you work forthe people that put the keys in the ig-nition.”

In addition to these two informativepanel discussions, this convention of-fered technical training classes by I-CAR, Car-O-Liner, Chief, Matrix and

AllData. Rick Leos from Toyota gave aclass introducing Toyota’s ground break-ing Predictive Estimating System. MikeAnderson spoke on “Outsell Upsell andClose.” Rich Evans, well-known TVstar of Car Warriors and other shows,

packed the house with his ‘Vehicle Cus-tom Layout and Design’ demonstrationwhich was of particular interest to theyounger collision students attending.

George Avery, Claims Consult-ant with State Farm Insurance, and

Dale Sailer, VP Business Develop-ment with PartsTrader, gave an up-date of that pilot program. AaronSchulenburg commented, “One ofthe problems the industry is havingmay be because this is a mandatoryprogram.” State Farm does requireSelect Service shops to use Part-sTrader. The program is not yet sys-tem wide. The pilot program is stilldeveloping in five different areas ofthe country.

Over 600 people attended theshow. The Indiana Auto Body Asso-

ciation hosted anOpening Party Fri-day evening. Thejuxtaposition of thetwo powerful indus-try panels reflectsthe challenges andopportunities thecollision repair in-dustry faces. Pan-elist Jim Keller of

1Collision shared his thoughts: “Inspite of the ice storm that hit Indy thenight before, the show traffic wassolid and the diverse industry-relatedpanel discussions, seminars, and pre-sentations were very enlightening.”


Continued from Page 24

IABA Convention

Great crowd at the Indiana Convention

“Thank you for beingpioneers in the in-dustry and comingto Indiana,” said

Andy Tylka to theTaking Back ControlPanel. Tylka owns 3shops in Indiana.

Tim Adelman,Executive Vice-President ABRA,talks about CAFEStandards, ABRA’sshared manage-

ment approach andthe importance ofmarketing andstaying close toinfluencers

The Indiana Convention Trade Show Floor. Over 65 vendors partici-pated, showing wares to over 600 attendees

Vermont State Rep. Bill Botzow (D-1)introduced House Bill 362, a bill thatregulates the use of aftermarket partsin automobile repairs covered by in-surance. The bill has been referred toVermont’s House Committee on Com-merce and Economic Development.

The language of the bill includesthe following provisions:• No insurer shall require the use ofaftermarket parts in the repair of anautomobile unless the aftermarket partis at least equal in like kind and qual-ity to the original part in terms of fit,quality and performance. An insurerthat requires the use of aftermarketparts shall consider and be liable forthe cost of any modifications that maybecome necessary when making a re-pair.• All aftermarket parts manufacturedafter Jan. 1, 2014, shall carry suffi-cient permanent identification so as toidentify their manufacturer. Suchidentification shall be accessible tothe extent possible after installation.

• Aftermarket parts may not be re-quired by an insurer in the repair ofautomobiles placed in service duringthe two years immediately precedingthe claim report and which have30,000 or fewer miles recorded on theodometer.• An insurer shall identify clearly onthe repair estimate all aftermarketparts installed on a vehicle, if any. Ifaftermarket parts are installed, the in-surer shall disclose to the claimant inwriting, either on the estimate or on aseparate document attached to the es-timate, the following information inbold-faced, capitalized font no smallerthan 12-point type: “This estimate hasbeen prepared based on the use of non-original manufacturer parts. Parts usedin the repair of your vehicle by otherthan the original manufacturer, alsoknown as aftermarket parts, are re-quired to be at least equal in like kindand quality in terms of fit, quality andperformance to the original manufac-turer parts they are replacing.”

Vermont Introduces Aftermarket Bill

Recently, state Sen. Carlos Uresti(D-19) introduced Senate Bill 888 inTexas—legislation making extensivechanges to the current state inspec-tion and maintenance program forvehicles.

Under the existing state inspec-tion and maintenance program, ve-hicles are inspected every year.

The bill includes provisions re-quiring that the state inspection andmaintenance program must apply togasoline-powered vehicles betweenfive and 25 years old. This wouldchange the initial inspection fromtwo to five years for passenger cars

sold in the state and not previouslyregistered in Texas or another state.

If this bill becomes law, it willtake effect September 2013.

The Automotive Service Asso-ciation (ASA) opposes Senate Bill888, which will harm consumers andthe environment.

ASA urges Texas independentrepairers to contact their legislatorsand ask them to oppose Senate Bill888. To send a letter and view the fulltext of the bill, visit ASA’s legislativewebsite at www.TakingTheHill.comand click on the “Track State Legis-lation” tab in the left menu.

Inspection, Maintenance Bill Introduced in Texas


Joe Gibbs Racing Hosts Sherwin-Williams WorshopThe next A-Plus™ Network EcoLean™Level 1 workshop from Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes will beheld April 30 and May 1 at the Joe GibbsRacing (JGR) facility near Charlotte,NC.

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one ofthe premier organizations in NASCAR,currently fielding three NASCAR SprintCup Series teams, four NASCAR Na-tionwide Series teams, and a driver de-velopment program. Its driver lineupconsists of Denny Hamlin, KyleBusch, and Matt Kenseth in the SprintCup Series and is owned by Joe Gibbs,a three-time Super Bowl winner as headcoach of the Washington Redskins anda member of the Pro Football Hall ofFame.

JGR has competed in NASCARsince 1992, winning three Cup Serieschampionships, and four NationwideSeries owner’s championships, alongwith more than 175 NASCAR races,including three Brickyard 400s and aDaytona 500.

These Sherwin-Williams exclu-sive EcoLean Level 1 workshops aredesigned to educate attendees aboutmaximizing profitability by improv-ing productivity and eliminatingwaste throughout their facilities. Theprogram is offered to collision center

owners and dealer managers.“The EcoLean curriculum was de-

veloped specifically with collision shopoperators in mind. This upcomingCharlotte workshop, held onsite at aNASCAR championship team’s head-quarters, allows attendees to really seelean production in action,” says TroyNeuerburg, Manager of MarketingBusiness Services at Sherwin-WilliamsAutomotive Finishes. “Through it theywill learn practical processes and usefultips on lean production’s application incollision repair and methods to maketheir collision shops more efficient,productive, and subsequently moreprofitable.”

The EcoLean 1 workshop cur-riculum includes:• Principles of reducing environmen-tal waste• An overview of lean production, andits practical application in collision re-pair• Approaches to making the collisionfacility more efficient and consistent• How to build a lean culture from theground up

To register online for the upcom-ing Charlotte A-Plus UniversityEcoLean Level 1 workshop, go tohttp://www.regonline.com/Regis-ter/Checkin.

CARSTAR Promotes Rick Miller and Melissa Miller(no relation) to Leadership RolesCARSTAR Auto Body Repair Expertshas promoted field service managersRick Miller and Melissa Miller (norelation) to leadership roles within itsfield service and operations depart-ment.

In addition, CARSTAR also re-cently appointed Dean Fisher asvice president of service and opera-tions for the U.S.

Rick Miller, who joinedCARSTAR in 2007 as a regionalservice manager and most recentlyserved as director of field servicesand operations, has led the imple-mentation of the CARSTAR ServiceEDGE model across the country.

With his promotion to assistantvice president of the department, hewill manage the execution of strate-gic business initiatives for theCARSTAR stores, guiding the com-pany’s team of regional service man-agers and leading stores as theyembrace key programs.

Previously, Miller worked withCarter & Carter International in Eu-rope and North America since 1998.He started his collision career in Ger-many as a refinish apprentice thenmoved back to the U.K. to manage

dealer body shops and import recon-ditioning centers.

Melissa Miller has been pro-moted to director of field services andoperations. She joined CARSTAR in2004 as a project manager in Fran-chise Integration, after working as theoffice manager and marketing direc-tor in her family’s collision bodyshop —Randy & Bob’s CARSTAR inChicora, PA,—from 1999 to 2004.

She served as regional servicemanager for Pennsylvania in 2006and was appointed senior regionalservice manager in 2009. She is ac-tive in the Women’s Industry Net-work (WIN) and serves on thecommunications committee.

“Our field service team membersare the connection to our store own-ers, and their leadership, experienceand expertise in working with our net-work are essential to our success as anorganization,” said David Byers,CEO of CARSTAR. “We are proud topromote two members of our fieldservice team who have consistentlydemonstrated the commitment to ourstores, a passion for the industry and atrue understanding of what it takes tosucceed in this business.”

The Society of Collision Repair Spe-cialists (SCRS) has donated 245memberships to secondary and post-secondary collision school programsthrough the Collision Repair Educa-tion Foundation, a $73,500 value.Through the general membership do-nation, each school will receive a win-dow decal, membership certificate,access to SCRS member informationand all association communications.

SCRS Executive Director AaronSchulenburg noted, “Supporting ourindustry’s education system is an in-tegral part of our association’s mis-sion to educate, inform and representthe collision repair professional. It isour hope that the schools and instruc-tors will take advantage of the infor-mation and resources, to help educatetheir students on the activities takingplace within the industry, and that thestudents will foster an appreciation forthe support structure that exists withinthe industry, once they enter the work-force.”

Collision Repair EducationFoundation Director of DevelopmentBrandon Eckenrode noted, “I wouldlike to thank SCRS for their supportof the Collision Repair Education

Foundation and the secondary andpost-secondary collision school pro-grams that our organization works to-wards assisting nationwide. Manycollision instructors are facing limitedbudgets and through working togetherwith industry organizations likeSCRS, we can show the educators ofthe industry’s future professionals thatwe care and are looking to keep themcurrent on industry information. Ilook forward to working together withthe SCRS Board of Directors on help-ing to inform their members of wheretheir local collision school programsare located and how they can get in-volved in supporting the collision stu-dents and instructors.”

Industry members that are inter-ested in supporting secondary andpost-secondary collision school pro-grams through the Collision RepairEducation Foundation should visithttp://collisioneducationfoundation.organd contact Director of DevelopmentBrandon Eckenrode at 847.463.5244or [email protected].

SCRS Donates General Memberships to 245 Collision School Programs through FoundationAn industry issues luncheon called

“There is No Free Lunch” will kickoff the Midwest Auto Body TradeShow, the Iowa Collision Repair As-sociation (ICRA) recently announced.

This luncheon, which will beheld on March 28 from 12 p.m. to 1:30p.m. at Prairie Meadows in Altoona,IA, will address insurance-mandatedparts procurement programs and theproposed Iowa Senate Bill 42, whichis requesting an interim study onDRPs.

Iowa Senator Brad Zaun, whointroduced the bill, and ICRA lobby-ist Scott Weiser will speak at theluncheon. The parts procurement dis-cussion will include insurance repre-sentatives, collision repairers andparts managers.

After the luncheon, the tradeshow will open at 2 p.m. and run till7 p.m. Space has been added to fa-cilitate more than 60 vendor boothsthis year. Product demonstrations andeducational classes will be held onthe stage in the same room as thetrade show.

The educational sessions willcover such topics as:• Social media• OSHA hazard communication/global harmonization rule

• Plastic repairShow specials, gift certificates,

special attendee show discounts anddoor prizes will again be offered atthe show. Also, new car models willbe on the floor for attendees to pre-view.

“The grassroots approach withour members and vendors has provento be a tremendous success for thisindustry event,” said John Arnold,vice president of ICRA and owner ofArnold’s Body Shop, Davenport.

Added Mark Martin of AnkenyAuto Body, “This is a very dynamicshow, and with everyone in the roomfor the entire event, it creates a greatatmosphere for all the participants.We all look forward to coming back.”

“This is a great venue for our in-dustry to get together and learn moreabout what we do,” said Dale Wilgen-busch, ICRA president and co-ownerof Avalon Body Shop in Rickardsville.“There is always so much to gain atone of these events.”

The luncheon costs $25. Con-tact Janet Chaney at (480) 720-2565with any questions.

ICRA Adds ‘No Free Lunch’ to Tradeshow



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Certified Automotive Parts Associa-tion, (CAPA) provides aftermarketparts that have been certified by CAPAto be comparable to the car companybrand part. The claim is based on thenotion that if an aftermarket part usesthe same materials, construction fea-tures, dimensions and geometry as thecar company brand part, then it can beexpected to perform in a comparablemanner to the car company brand part.

Approved by CAPA’s TechnicalCommittee in 2010, the CAPA 501Bumper Parts Standard, like all otherCAPA Standards, is based on compar-ative testing of an aftermarket part tothe car company brand counterpart.

In addition to requirements formaterial composition, mechanicalproperties (strength), construction fea-tures, fit and appearance, the CAPA501 Standard also includes a series offull part dynamic crash tests. Test partsare mounted to a vehicle simulator andare crashed into a fixed, flat, rigid bar-rier at 5 mph. After the crash, highspeed video and detailed graphs of theimpact force and deceleration are usedto compare the performance of the af-termarket part to the car companybrand part. In addition, the amount ofphysical deformation is carefully ex-amined and compared.

“While this testing is extensive

(and the complete procedure is publi-cally available), CAPA’s Board andTechnical Committee wanted to insurethat all performance characteristicswere compared in detail to the carcompany brand parts,” said JackGillis, Executive Director of the Cer-tified Automotive Parts Association.

“Because of industry concernsabout the safety-related aspects ofstructural parts, CAPA raised its ownbar—we requested that the highly re-spected Insurance for Highway Safetyconduct a series of high and low speedcrashes. The sole purpose was todemonstrate the parts meeting theCAPA requirements will, in fact, per-form in a comparable manner to thecar company brand part in both highand low speed crashes. While this mayappear to be an overly comprehensiverequirement—crash testing is complexand costly—CAPA is committed to re-assuring both consumers and the col-lision repair industry about theperformance of the parts it certifies,”added Gillis.

While CAPA 501 Bumper PartsStandard provides the industry withconfidence in the use of a CAPA Cer-tified bumper part, only one manufac-turer has chosen to submit their partsto CAPA for Certification. ProductionBumper Stampings Inc., (PBSI) a U.S.

based manufacturer and member ofthe Diamond Standard Brand Group,has 29 CAPA Certified front bumpersrepresenting over 40,000 parts avail-able in the U.S. market. “Going for-ward we anticipate the market willdemand that even more of our bumperproducts become CAPA Certified,”said Mike O’Neal, President of PBSIand Diamond Standard. “As the onlymanufacturer certified by CAPA tomeet the CAPA 501 Standards, we areprepared to meet that demand.”

“Unfortunately, the market is giv-ing aftermarket manufacturers whoproduce structural bumper parts amixed message,” stated shop ownerand CAPA Technical CommitteeChairman Mike Schoonover. “In spiteof bumper sawing demonstrations andvideos of ‘exploding’ energy ab-sorbers, shops are still using non-CAPA Certified bumpers and otherstructural parts—regardless of therisks. As long as our various industriesaccept the cheapest parts, there’s re-ally no reason for those manufacturersto produce high quality CAPA parts,despite the stated concerns about po-tential safety issues. The good news,for those shops concerned about re-ducing repair costs and protectingtheir customers from poor qualityparts, there is a CAPA alternative.”

CAPA Testing on Safety of Aftermarket Bumper Parts

Four Collision Industry Members Join EducationFoundation’s Leadership CircleFour collision industry members havejoined the Collision Repair EducationFoundation’s Industry LeadershipCircle through their $1,000 personalcontributions to the organization.

Domenic Brusco of PPG Auto-motive Refinish; Bill Lawrence ofLC Automotive Group; Tim Morganof Spanesi Americas; and Tim O’Dayof Gerber Collision & Glass have do-nated $1,000 personally to the organ-ization. Monetary donations to theCollision Repair Education Founda-tion assist in the organization’s effortsto support secondary and post-sec-ondary collision repair students andtheir school’s collision programs.

Domenic Brusco, PPG Automo-tive Refinish, Senior Manager of In-dustry Relations, said, “I bothprofessionally and personally believein the purpose, vision and especiallythe staff and Board of Trustees of theFoundation, and it gives me greatpleasure to give back to an industryand business that PPG supports andin which I have been blessed withmany great opportunities.”

Bill Lawrence, owner of LC Au-tomotive Group noted, “The Founda-tion’s effort to enhance technical

education and to link qualified gradu-ates to employment in our industry isa critical component of developing askilled work force for today and thefuture. My businesses and I are com-mitted to the Foundation’s work andwe are happy to contribute to its ef-forts and successes.”

Tim Morgan, Managing Directorof Spanesi Americas, said, “As aproduct of technical education my-self, back in my day it wasn’t such a‘hi-tech’ field to learn as it is today.Schools and educators are faced witha big challenge to make sure they pre-pare students to enter this industryemployable. My donation is a smallpart of what is really needed to makeour students learn, grow, and succeed!I hope others can step up and help forthe future starts today.”

Tim O’Day, President & COO ofGerber Collision & Glass said, “Ger-ber Collision & Glass supports the Col-lision Repair Education Foundation,but a critical part of the Foundation’sdonor base comes from individuals. Iam proud to show my personal supportfor the Education Foundation as ithelps to attract talent into our industryand educate our future employees.”

I-CAR® says a study has confirmedthat training has a direct impact onperformance, including improvedtouch time, cycle time, and CSIscores and that I-CAR training con-tinues to lead as the industry standardfor performance and knowledge.

To deliver on this industry need,I-CAR has added four additional on-line courses to its course catalog: Sta-tionary Glass (GLA02e), MechanicalSystems Analysis (DAM03e), Dam-age Analysis of Advanced Automo-tive Systems (DAM07e), and WindNoise and Water Leaks (WNW01e).

John Van Alstyne, I-CAR CEO& President stated, “To fully servethe growing training needs of theInter-Industry, I-CAR has developedonline and virtual instructor-ledclasses which are convenient, effec-tive, and essential,” he continued,“That said, as our customer focusgroups have told us, quality instruc-tor-led, Live training with effectiveinstructors remains the preferred wayto learn for many, and the only wayto learn when working with more ad-vanced or complicated subject mat-ter. Therefore, Live training remainsan I-CAR priority for the ultimatelearning experience.”

I-CAR Adds 4 New OnlineCourses, Expands Training


by Mitchell staff

Mitchell, a provider of technology,connectivity and information solu-tions to the Property & Casualtyclaims and Collision Repair indus-tries, recently released predictions fortrends related to cloud computing andbig data analytics that could affect theinsurance industry throughout 2013.

Focusing on trends expected toimpact an ecosystem that includes re-pair and body shops, insurance com-panies, claims adjusters and payers,Mitchell is forecasting experiencesworkers’ compensation, auto casualtyand auto physical damage profession-als could undergo this year.

“In today’s fast paced, competi-tive business landscape, there is in-creased pressure on the insuranceindustry to think creatively about theservices they offer and how thoseservices are delivered to maintain acompetitive edge,” said Erez Nir,CTO at Mitchell. “Cloud computingstrategies have been popular in the IT-focused environment. We have em-braced cloud computing at Mitchell,in the way we deliver software-as-a-service to our customers as well as inhow we consume our own businesssystems. Beyond the core competen-cies our industry has, in part due to thecomplexity and change 2013 willbring, we expect the industry to con-

tinue to deploy various cloud and bigdata strategies to help overcome busi-ness and technology challenges.”

The broad industry and specificpredictions from the company’s coreAuto Physical Damage, Auto Causal-ity and Workers’ Compensation divi-sions include:

Large-scale trends:More attention will be given to lever-aging complex data sets: The ability toincorporate data from multiple sources,such as different areas of a business orbusiness lines, and combine them withexternal data sources to enable moreintelligent decision-making will be-come central to business operations. Inaddition to addressing the complexitiesof big data (e.g. volume, velocity anddata management), companies will ex-plore how to incorporate ancillarysources and more sophisticated combi-nations of data sets to get an edge onthe competition.

The demand for cloud computingwill increase: In 2012, adoption ofcloud platforms and services contin-ued to increase along with interest in asingle environment and partner forcloud computing technologies. In2013, insurance carriers will begin toconsolidate cloud computing vendorsand realize the benefits of workingwith a single provider, such as stream-lined and accelerated deployment of

new offerings, reduced operationalcosts, and improved data exchangeand information sharing.

Micro trends:Recycled parts prices will decrease: Wewill see a softening of salvage vehiclevalues globally in 2013. As the Euro-pean debt crisis continues to outpaceour own, the Euro will further softenagainst the US dollar. This will make itmore expensive for Europeans to pur-chase US-based salvage vehicles, re-ducing demand. An additional factorimpacting salvage values is the in-crease in the annual rate of new carsales, expected to hit 15 million for2012. Combining these factors with the250,000 total loss vehicles expectedout of Hurricane Sandy will depresssalvage car values in 2013. For con-sumers, this means that there will be anincrease in the availability of recycledparts for vehicle repairs at a lower cost.

The average industry cost to repairauto collision damage will increase.This will occur, in part, to the softeningof salvage values, putting more border-line vehicles in the ‘repairable’ columnrather than ‘total loss’ and an overall in-flation of labor, parts and paint in 2013.This will also occur from an increase inthe cost of raw materials (such as paintmica and chemicals) as well as plasticsand steel prices. In addition, we expectto see an increase in average hourly

body shop labor charges if the economycontinues to recover in 2013.

There will be a rise in healthcareePayment solutions: More carriers willuse ePayment systems to gain a com-petitive advantage. They will work withthe provider community to be betteraligned with changes in healthcare reg-ulation that promote eBill, eRemittanceand ePayment through electronic fundstransfer (EFT). ePayment systems pro-vide the capacity to substantially lowertransaction expenses, decrease the bur-den on adjusters and call centers, andenable similar benefits to accrue tomedical provider trading partners.

There will be increased attentionon keeping out-of-network costs down:Despite increased efforts to direct in-jured workers to network providers,many state regulations or employerprograms offer the flexibility to useproviders of their choice, which putsworkers’ comp insurance payers in thechallenging out-of-network territory.Therefore, such payers will leveragethird-party negotiation services to settleout-of-network claims. Tapping into anoutside team of skilled negotiators willhelp workers’ comp insurance payersand providers reach mutually benefi-cial agreements. The negotiationprocess will be accelerated, and insur-ance payers will achieve an average of30–40 percent success rates in negoti-ating out-of-network charges.

Mitchell Releases 2013 Insurance Predictions

turer specifications.The second guest speaker was at-

torney P. Kent Eichelzer who gave abreakdown of shop owner rights anddiscussed what documentation shopsneed to keep to protect their businessand interests.

2013 Annual GCIA Labor Rate SurveyGCIA also begins its 7th Annual LaborRate Survey. The purpose of this surveyis to provide Georgia collision shopowners with prevailing rates for laborand material so all can be paid fairly.

This year, the GCIA is expanding

its survey coverage area. More colli-sion businesses outside the metro At-lanta area are getting involved withthe GCIA. Therefore, the survey mail-ing will go to all major metropolitanarea across Georgia, including Macon,Augusta, Savannah, and Columbus.

The survey is available online andit only takes a few minutes to com-plete. The survey is at: http://www.csi-complete.com/gcia/survey.aspx

The GCIA is asking its membersto study costs of doing business andenter the amount needed to covercosts and generate a profit. Do not in-clude any rates that may exist betweenrepair facility and any contracted cus-tomer such as a fleet account or insur-

ance DRP program.Shops that have more than one

location are asked to complete a sur-vey for each location.

Shop identities will not be pub-

lished with the results of this surveyand will remain confidential. Namesare only needed to track demographicsand ensure that only one survey is castper repair facility location.


GCIA Meeting

Southern Automotive Repair Industry Conference and Exhibitionset for April 26-27GCIA members are invited to attend the Southern Automotive Repair Industry Con-ference and Exhibition April 26-27 in Biloxi, MI.

The event is being organized by two other regional associations, ALARISE (Al-abama Automotive Repair Industry Society of Excellence) and the MCRA (Missis-sippi Collision Repair Association).

The conference will be held at the Beau Rivage Resort Casino Hotel.Guest speakers will include Aaron Schulenburg with SCRS; Rick Leos with

Toyota; Florida shop owner Ray Gunder and attorney Brent Geohagen.

Caliber Collision Centers recently ac-quired and opened two new locations inKilleen and Harker Heights, TX.

“We are proud to announce ournewest locations with our acquisitionof Quality Paint and Body,” said Steve

Grimshaw, Caliber Collision Centers’Chief Executive Officer.

Caliber Collision’s new centers are lo-cated at 415 Avenue F and 5300 East Cen-tral Texas Expressway, Killeen, TX. Thenew Killeen Downtown location on Av-

enue F is just over 25,000 square feet andthe Harker Heights location on East CentralTexas Expressway is 16,000 square feet.

“Our two new Texas locationsbring Caliber Collision’s total numberof locations to 125 as we continue to

provide greater operational consis-tency, single-minded customer focusand client cost management in everycommunity we serve,” added MarkSanders, Chief Operating Officer forCaliber Collision Centers.

Caliber Collision Acquires Two New Texas Locations


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SEMA Exhibit Summit Takes Place April 15–17 inLas Vegas, 7 Months Prior to Nov. 5–8 ShowSEMA Show exhibitors may partici-pate in the SEMA Show ExhibitorSummit, a unique conference de-signed to help them improve perform-ance at the upcoming event.

Taking place in Las Vegas, NV,on April 15–17—seven months priorto the actual SEMA Show—the Ex-hibitor Summit is the ideal place fornew and established exhibitors tolearn how to maximize the return ontheir investment.

SEMA 2013 takes place Novem-ber 5–8, in Las Vegas, NV. For details,visit www.SEMAShow.com.

“The summit is the best place forour team to connect with exhibitors andexplain the many programs and serv-ices available to them,” said PeterMacGillivray, SEMA VP of eventsand communications. “During the sum-mit, there are no distractions or inter-ruptions. We’re able to spend qualitytime and give exhibitors a really clearunderstanding of the different resourcesthat are available to them.”

MacGillivray notes that a key as-pect of the Exhibitor Summit is thatworkshops and individual meetingsare conducted by SEMA staff andshow organizers. “It’s important to us

that exhibitors know who to contact,and that their contact is someone whoknows and understands our show,” hecontinued. “Since the Exhibitor Sum-mit takes place seven months beforethe actual event, we’re able to buildon the relationships as they executetheir plans for the show.”

Topics addressed during thesummit include cost-effective ways toset up a booth, resources available totarget buyers, value-added programsand more. Participants may sit downin one-on-one sessions where Showexperts evaluate and analyze the ex-hibitor’s unique needs to help reduceexpenses, and they are able to tour theconvention center.

To make it easy and affordable formanufacturers to attend in the summit,SEMA and its hotel partners offer a lim-ited number of hotel rooms for the sum-mit at no cost to participants. All mealsat the Summit are included as well. Par-ticipants are responsible for travel to andfrom Las Vegas and incidental hotelcharges. Certain conditions do apply.See www.semashow.com/exhibitor-summit, or can be obtained from KatePeterson at [email protected] 702/216-5831.

WIN May 5–7 Conference to Focus on RecruitingThe upcoming Women’s IndustryNetwork (WIN) Educational Confer-ence will focus on recruiting talent tothe industry.

“We know attracting talentedpeople to the collision repair industryis a hot topic,” said Tina Clark, co-chair of the WIN Conference. “Un-derstanding the myriad sub-issuesrelated to recruiting, such as how toattract the best talent, and legal con-siderations during the interviewingand hiring process, enables our mem-bers to be smarter employers, man-agers and employees.”

This year’s WIN EducationalConference is scheduled for May 5-7in Phoenix, AZ.

WIN recently announced thekeynote speakers who will present atthe 2013 WIN Conference.

The general session of the edu-cational conference will feature au-thor and motivational speaker SusanFowler, who will present the confer-ence theme, “Empower the LeaderWithin.” Fowler has more than 15years of advertising, sales, productionand marketing experience, and en-courages finding the balance and con-nection among professional, personaland spiritual lives.

Day two of the conference will

feature Barb Moses, who will present“Empower the Leader Within by theObserver Becoming the Observed.”

“We are proud to unveil the 2013WIN Educational Conference themeand agenda,” said Jessica Voss-Kehl,co-chair of the conference planningcommittee. “Conference attendees canexpect to be inspired and educated onempowering the leader within them-selves, as well as how to help supportand develop the leaders in others. Theycan also anticipate engaging dialogueon careers, hiring and retention in ourindustry, along with hearing what thefuture holds with our emerging trendsand technologies panel discussion.”

To help welcome new women tothe industry, WIN is offering severalscholarships to attend the conference.

WIN is offering six Student Con-ference Scholarships to students en-rolled in a secondary or post-secondarycollision repair technology program.Each scholarship recipient will receivea one-year WIN membership, paidWIN Conference fee, and free hoteland travel to the conference.

WIN is also offering scholarships toemployees of collision repair busi-nesses, including technicians, officeemployees and administrators.

run with it. There was no reason forme to do it for them. It was aboutthem doing it.

So, we get started and I am feelingpretty good about the pace we’re at. Allthe students at the Lincoln College ofTechnology were really into the proj-ect and excited about it. I gave them alittle direction and let them get in-volved hands-on so they can walkaway and say, “Hey, I did that.” We’repacing pretty good. Five hours in, wehave it masked and ready for color. Thestudents are working well together.These guys are getting creative, run-ning flames over the shaker scoop anddown the sides, in the back. I broughtsome reverse stencils so we could putmy Rich Evans Design series logo onthe truck. They made their way into thebooth and get it all masked up, tightenup a few places to get the maskingdone right. We’re using SATA sprayguns with 1.3 tip. Using Vintage flatblack paint, we walked around it twoand half times. I let each individual stu-dent get a little bit of spray time in toget a chance to put some color on it.

We’re now about 8 hours in and we’recalling it quits for the day. We have a24-hour window with the clear to comeback and clear over the flat black withno sanding necessary.

In the morning, the students de-mask it, go back around it and pre-clean it, sand out the blowthrough thatcome underneath the tape with 800grit, and tighten up the graphics andget it masked up. With a 1.3 RP gun,the goal is to walk around it with threecoats. But we’re in a time crunch,nearing about 10 hours in, and I hadto jump on a plane in a couple hours.We were able to walk around it threetimes in 25 minutes because theheated booth allows you to move a lit-tle more quickly. Students mixed theclear, and everybody worked together.In 12 hours, we got a flame job, a two-tone complete paint and re-assembled.

The facility and the staff werephenomenal. I had a great visit andinteraction with the students, the up-coming next generation into the in-dustry.

I’d like to thank IABA for havingme come out, and special thanks to theguys from Vintage Paint! For more in-formation about Vintage, go to:www.cumberlandproductsinc.com.

Continued from Page 40

Rich Evans at Lincoln


NASCAR Champion Jeff Gordon to Drive No. 24Chevrolet with New Imron Elite Paint SchemeFour-time NASCAR Cup Serieschampion Jeff Gordon will drive theNo. 24 Chevrolet SS featuring a newImron® Elite “Real Truck Paint”theme design in the spring race at Tal-ladega Superspeedway on May 5,2013. A preview of the new Imron®Elite design will be revealed in theirbooth #90225 at the Mid AmericaTrucking Show being held on March21-23 in Louisville, KY.

Gordon’s historic NASCAR CupSeries career started 20 years ago atAtlanta Motor Speedway as the youngdriver burst onto scene in the rainbow-colored Hendrick Motorsports No. 24DuPont Chevrolet. The following sea-son, Gordon started to take the motor-sports world by storm. Now, 20 yearslater with four championships and 87career victories under his belt, Gordonwill race the commemorative No. 24Imron® Elite Chevrolet only one timeat the Talladega Superspeedway. Gor-don, Hendrick Motorsports andDuPont Performance Coatings are cel-ebrating their 21st full season to-gether—the longest current runningdriver/owner/sponsor partnership inNASCAR.

Gordon was successful winningthe final race of the 2012 season in the

silver 20th Anniversary paint schemeon the No. 24 Chevrolet and is hopingfor a repeat in the Imron® EliteChevrolet at Talladega.

DuPont Performance Coatingsproducts have been a constant duringthe storied career of Gordon and Hen-drick Motorsports. The new Imron®Elite paint scheme uses the popularflame design with DuPont™ flatblack and specially formulated neonyellow, orange and red high glosspaint finishes. The unique design wascreated by NASCAR’s first officiallylicensed artist Sam Bass.

DuPont Commercial Finishes,featuring an array of Imron® prod-ucts, has earned more commercialand OEM approvals than any otherpaint manufacturer. When it comes tolasting appearance, Imron® Elitedemonstrates superior impact resist-ance and retains its gloss and mirror-like finish keeping heavy duty truckand fleet assets in service longer, andrequire less finish maintenance overtime. Imron® Elite finishes are usedon the OEM production line as wellas in aftermarket repair and mainte-nance, allowing “repair-in-kind” ca-pability to achieve an original factoryfinish that lasts.

Post Office Unveils 1967 Shelby Forever StampThe United States Postal Service isfeaturing the 1967 Shelby GT500 aspart of its new muscle car Forever®Stamp series.

Created by award-winning artistTom Fritz under the art direction ofCarl T. Herrman, the GuardsmenBlue with Wimbledon White stripesShelby is one of five stamps in theU.S. Postal Service’s Forever® stampscollection.

“The ‘67 Shelby GT500 is one ofthe most celebrated muscle cars in theworld,” said Tracey Smith, CarrollShelby Licensing president. “CarrollShelby’s father was a postal workerand allowed him to ride around on hismail runs, so we’re excited to see oneof his automobiles being featured insuch a prestigious collection from theU.S. Post Office. It’s a beautiful tributeto the legacy of Carroll Shelby and hiscontributions to automotive history.”

The ‘67 GT500 featured on thestamp honors the original musclecar manufactured by Shelby Ameri-can. Powered by a 428-cubic-inch,355-horsepower Police Interceptorengine, the monstrous Shelby fea-tured a rear spoiler, grille-mountedheadlights and rocker panel stripes.With only 2,048 built in 1967, theShelby GT500 is both exceptionaland rare.

The 1967 Shelby GT500 is oneof five vehicles featured in the MuscleCar Forever® stamps series, whichwere unveiled at the Daytona 500 byracing legends Richard and KylePetty, and U.S. Postmaster GeneralPatrick R. Donahoe on Feb. 22. TheMuscle Car Forever® stamps are thethird issuance in the “America on theMove” stamp series from the U.S.Postal Service.

“The ‘67 Shelby is as legendaryas the man who built it, so I wanted tokeep with the traditional paint schemeand iconic look of one of the mostpopular muscle cars of all time,” saidFritz. “It was a tremendous honor tobe the artist chosen to create the Mus-cle Car Stamps. Now my work will beamong the special Forever® stampsthat people will collect and pass downfrom generation to generation.”

Industry Gives $5 Million in Support of Collision Repair Programs through Education FoundationThe generosity of the collision indus-try in supporting its’ future profes-sionals was displayed in 2012 as over$4.9 million was donated to collisionschool programs and students throughthe Collision Repair Education Foun-dation. This level of support wasmade possible through 175 totaldonors in 2012. In addition to therecord amount of support, the colli-sion industry surpassed the $10 mil-lion mark in total giving through theCollision Repair Education Founda-tion since 2008, when the organiza-tion began its philanthropic focus.

Through both monetary and in-kind product donations, the 2012 Col-lision Repair Education Foundationdonors helped to provide studentscholarships, student tool grants,school equipment and supply grants,several Ultimate Collision EducationMakeover school grants, and muchmore.

“It is a true testament of the in-dustry’s generosity and support thatthe Collision Repair Education Foun-dation provided over $4.9 million in2012 and the fact that over $10 mil-lion has been provided since 2008,”said Clark Plucinski, Collision Re-pair Education Foundation Executive

Director. “As 175 total donors pro-vided this level of support in 2012,imagine the potential of what could beprovided with even more involved.Collision school instructors need oursupport now more than ever to helpprepare their students with a technicaleducation that would best preparethem for entering the collision indus-try upon graduation. The collision in-dustry should be celebrating thesesupport numbers as I am not aware ofany other technical industry thatshows this type of support for theirschool programs. It is only throughour industry donors that are we ableto announce this level of support andwe look forward to having an evenbetter 2013!”

For additional information aboutthe Collision Repair Education Foun-dation, visit CollisionEducationFoun-dation.org.

Inter-industry organizations andindividuals who are interested in sup-porting the Collision Repair EducationFoundation in 2013 and providing as-sistance to collision schools and stu-dents should contact Director ofDevelopment Brandon Eckenrode [email protected].

Industry Gives 1,000 Uniforms to Collision StudentsThrough the sponsorship of Bar’sProducts, CARSTAR, Cintas, FordMotor Company, I-CAR, PPG Auto-motive Refinish, and Sterling AutoBody, 1,000 Cintas collision studenttechnician uniforms will be distrib-uted to secondary and post-secondarycollision students through the Colli-sion Repair Education Foundation thisspring.

The student technician shirt proj-ect also helped raise $10,000 for theFoundation’s Collision Repair Educa-tion Campaign fund that helps pro-vide student scholarships, schoolgrants, and the Foundation’s UltimateCollision Education Makeover grant.

These technician uniforms willbe distributed to students who appliedfor the Education Foundation’s springscholarship/tool grant opportunitiesand also to all auto body and refinish-ing students competing at the nationalSkillsUSA event in Kansas City thisJune.

Collision Repair EducationFoundation Director of Development,Brandon Eckenrode commented,“What started off as a fun project backin 2009 has grown into a life-chang-ing program that provides collisionstudents with a sense of pride, profes-sionalism, and belonging. To date, theEducation Foundation has provided

nearly 10,000 Cintas technician uni-forms to collision students nationwidethrough the support of industry spon-sors. Instructors share stories with usthat these uniforms provide their col-lision students with a new level of re-spect around school and other schooldepartments are jealous of the supportthat the collision program receives.On behalf of the Foundation staff andthe students that we are able to pro-

vide these uniforms to, thank you tothe sponsors of our spring 2013 tech-nician shirts and we look forward todistributing even more in the comingyears.”

The Collision Repair EducationFoundation will be providing anotherrun of 1,000 technician uniforms thisfall which will be provided to studentsattending NACE, SEMA, and 2013 Ul-timate Collision Education Makeoverapplicant schools.


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Sherwin-Williams Introduces Body Shop Phone Appfor ConsumersMore than 5.3 million. That’s howmany vehicle accidents there were inthe U.S. in 2011, according to the Na-tional Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration. If you were involved inone of these, then you know the con-fusion, stress and potential trauma thatcan occur right after a collision.

Now Sherwin-Williams Automo-tive Finishes introduces anew Body Shop App forconsumers to utilize in casethey are involved in a trafficaccident. The new mobilephone application providesusers with all kinds of infor-mation and contact access.

The new app will pro-vide immediate access to the user’sfriends and family contacts, insurancecompany or agent, vehicle identifica-tion data, local emergency services(police, fire, ambulance, and hospi-tals), geographic location of the acci-dent and even tips of what to do ifinvolved in an accident. It is capableof retrieving the contact informationfor nearby towing services, Sherwin-Williams A-Plus™ Network bodyshops, and car rental locations.

“Any time you’re in an accident,it’s a very stressful occasion. Fortu-

nately, most drivers now have theircell phones with them. This new appwill supply drivers with the data andcontact information through their cellphone to make the entire post-acci-dent process go as smooth as possi-ble,” says Troy Neuerburg, Managerof Marketing Business Services atSherwin-Williams Automotive Fin-

ishes.According to Neuerburg,

this mobile phone app alsocan help drivers prepare anaccident report and sharephotos from the scene of theincident. The new app is freefor consumers and can bedownloaded for iPhone users

at Sherwin-Williams iPhone App or forGoogle Android users at Sherwin-Williams Android App, or by going towww.sherwin-automotive.com.

Using GPS data, the Sherwin-Williams Body Shop App is compati-ble with most smart phones anddevices, including Blackberry,iPhone, Nokia/Symbian, Google An-droid, Palm, and Microsoft Windowsmobile platforms.

For more information, visitwww.sherwin-automotive.com or call1-800-SWULTRA (1-800-798-5872).

SEMA has hired industry veteranMike Spagnola to fill the newly cre-ated position of VP, OEM & ProductDevelopment Programs. Spagnolabrings with him 40 years of specialtyauto parts experience, including morethan 20 years of product developmentand project vehicle work.

Spagnola will oversee the newSEMA Product Development Centerlocated adjacent to the SEMA head-

quarters in Dia-mond Bar, CA.The building hasa history of serv-ing as a vehicletechnology cen-ter, giving SEMAthe opportunity tooffer these serv-ices without hav-

ing to start at ground zero.Whilebased in Southern California, theseprograms and services will be avail-able to SEMA members everywhere.

“The SEMA Product Develop-ment Center is going to be an amaz-ing resource for SEMA members,”Spagnola said. “I’m excited to be apart of the expansion.”

“We’re excited to have Mikejoin SEMA in developing servicesthat help members with product de-

velopment and OEM initiatives,” saidChris Kersting, SEMA Presidentand CEO. “SEMA’s vehicle technol-ogy and OEM programs, led by JohnWaraniak and Bill Wolf, haveproven to be extremely beneficialover the years.”

Spagnola’s experience includesretail, distribution and manufacturing.Most recently, he served as Presidentfor Street Scene Equipment where hemanaged the company’s day-to-daybusiness for 16 years. His project vehi-cles have been featured on the coversof more than 50 enthusiast magazines,and honored with more than a dozendesign awards from various OEMs.Spagnola has also completed six yearsof service on the SEMA Board of Di-rectors, a position from which he re-signed effective with his new role as astaff member.

“Through the use of new tech-nology and partnerships, manufac-turers can develop products faster,more accurately and less expen-sively than ever before. Programssuch as SEMA’s Technology Trans-fer, Rapid Prototyping and VehicleMeasuring Sessions can all be en-hanced to help our member compa-nies make and sell more products,”said Spagnola.

Industry Veteran Mike Spagnola Joins SEMA

Mike Spagnola

April 2013 Southeast Edition

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Transcript of April 2013 Southeast Edition