Autobody News April 2011 Northeast Edition

AASP/NJ’s NORTHEAST 2011 Show Fills the Aisles at the MeadowlandsFriday through Sunday, March 18–20,body shop owners and operators andtheir mechanical counterparts met at the34th annual Northeast™ 2011 show at

the Meadowlands. Northeast™ is theregion’s largest automotive repair showwith hundreds of booths on exhibit.

Organized by AASP/NJ, sup-

ported by Thomas Greco Publishing,and boosted by official show sponsorBASF, the the show appeared well-at-tended and provided an active ex-hibitor hall along with some veryinformative presentations.

Jeff McDowell, AASP/NJ Presi-dent, said prior to the show, “Despitethe economy, our attendance has beenon the rise over the last two years,”adding, “We are confident that trendwill continue.”

BASF’s sponsorship and the co-location of meetings of CIC, SCRS,NABC, and co-op Assured Perform-ance Network, reflects the heightenedsignificance of the show to repairersin the region as well as the national or-ganizations who chose to hold theirmeetings immediately prior or con-currently with the show.

Along with the latest in equipmentand technology, Northeast™ 2011 of-fered a full slate of educational and

training seminars on topics includingwaterborne paint application and dry-ing, estimating, steering, risk manage-ment for collision & mechanical shopsand technical certification courses fromI-CAR in both Spanish and English.

One of the most obvious en-hancements this year was a well-coor-

dinated social marketing campaignwhich was the second year in whichAASP/NJ used social media to helppromote the show. “Last year, we gota ton of positive feedback from ex-hibitors and attendees who had heardabout the show either through Twitter,LinkedIn or our Facebook ‘Fan’page,” said McDowell. “These socialmedia tools definitely helped generateinterest in the show last year, and Iforesee the response to be even greaterthis year as we up our efforts.”AASP/NJ has also created a YouTubepage (www.youtube.com/AASPN-JNORTHEAST), where promotionalvideos before and after the show areposted.

The weeklong schedule of na-tional automotive repair industry meet-

See NORTHEAST, Page 33

COLUMNS in this issue...Gonzo’s Toolbox—A Quick Diagnositic Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 20Franklin—Get on the Cosmetic Car Upgrade Bandwagon . . . . . .p. 24Hey Toby—Keeping Your Shop Clear of OSHA Violations . . . . . .p. 31Amaradio—Underqualified Repairers Hurt the Whole Industry . .p. 34Danalevich—Shop Strategies for Savings: Business Insurance p. 35Yoswick—Repairers and Recyclers Improve Interactions . . . . . .p. 36Rich Evans—Remaking a 41 Chevy with an English Wheel . . . .p. 37Insurance Insider—DRPs and Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 40

PAINT FOCUS ARTICLES in this issue...Major NJ Shop Switches to BASF Waterborne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 15BASF Sponsors Northeast™ 2011 Waterborne Panel . . . . . . . . .p. 26Drying Waterborne in the Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 27Paint Complaint Does Not Have to Mean an Unhappy Customer p. 42

Autobody News’ Custom Columnist Rich Evans (kneeling) and the red-shirted All Stars try toschool a new blue-shirted Challenger team every week in Speed’s new TV hit Car Warriors. Hardknocks, ego-fueled death matches, and hissy fits abound, and not just from the guys.

Jeff McDowell, AASP/NJ President andCharles Bryant (r), AASP/Executive Director atNortheast™ 2011

REGIONAL STORIES in this issue...Northeast™ 2011 Fills the Aisles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 1Sisk—Attending the Northeast™ 2011 Seminars . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 26Keenan Autobody’s Nine Northeast Locations Focus on Cars,Charity and the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 39

PLUS more than 20 other regional stories

Rich Evans’ Car Warriors Interview by Ed Attanasio isonline at www.autobodynews.com, search ‘Car Warriors’

Rich Evans Fronts Speed’s TV Hit Car Warriors Welcome to the first NorthEast Edition of Autobody News‘Fresher than Fishwrap’ and it’s free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 41

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Publisher & Editor: Jeremy HayhurstGeneral Manager: Barbara DaviesAssistant Editor: Erica SchroederContributing Writers: Tom Franklin, John Yoswick, Lee Amaradio, Dan EspersenJanet Chaney, Toby Chess, Mike Causey, Tom McGee, David Brown, Rich Evans,Ed Attanasio, Chasidy SiskAdvertising Sales: Joe Momber, Sean Hartman (800) 699-8251Sales Assistant: Kristy MangumArt Director: Rodolfo Garcia

Serving New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and adjacent metro areas,Autobody News is a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Permission to reproducein any form the material published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from thepublisher. ©2011 Adamantine Media LLC.

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Amato Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Autoland Scientech. . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

BASF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 28

Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

DuPont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Fred Beans Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Fuccillo Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Global PDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 32

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . 33

Jaguar Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 30

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts

Dealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Manhattan Automobile Company . 8-9

Mattei. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Maxon Mazda-Hyundai. . . . . . . . . . 18

Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 34

Metric Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 22

Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts

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

Porsche Wholesale Parts Dealers . 39

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

PreFab Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Quality Stainless Products . . . . . . . . 4

SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . 13

Scion Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . . 40

Scorpion Coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Sherwin-Williams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Stadel Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 41

Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 31

VIM Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Volvo Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . 23

Inde

xofAdvertisers

REGIONAL

$2.1 Million Returned to DE Consumers

in 2010. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

AASP of Pennsylvania Announced as

Newest SCRS Affiliate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

AASP/NJ’s NORTHEAST 2011 Show Fills

the Aisles at the Meadowlands. . . . . . . . 1

AASP-Pennsylvania Holds Quarterly

Delegates Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

ASA & AAM Continue Opposition to Right

to Repair, Claiming Information is

Available Already . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Assembly Approves 3 Bills Regarding

EVs in New Jersey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Carl Kruger Arrested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Conn. Association Pivots on Total-Loss Bill. 11

Connecticut Set to Begin Final Distracted

Driving Enforcement Campaign . . . . . . 18

DE Department of Transportation Secretary

Resigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

DelDOT Says DMV Wait Times Improving. 17

In NJ, Clean Snow Off or Else You Could

be Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Insurers Contest Crash Tax Proposal in NY. 10

More NY Legislation Targets Auto Repairers. 10

New Jersey Body Shop Owner Sentenced

for $52K Scam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

New Jersey Insurers Advocate Fraud

Fighting Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

New York Gov.’s Budget Details Banking,

Insurance Regulation Merger . . . . . . . . 18

New York Invoice Disclosure Legislation

Introduced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

NJ Commissioner Stresses Need for

Standards for Insurance Regulation . . . 13

NJ Panel Upholds Kyleigh’s Law for Young

Drivers to Display Red Decals . . . . . . . . 4

NY Cell Phone Law Could Affect Insurance

Prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

PA High Schools to Compete in Engine

Build Competition in Carlisle. . . . . . . . . 17

Pennsylvania Auto Safety Report is an “F” . 6

Pennsylvania Ponders Election for Insurance

Commissioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Pennsylvania State Legislator Reintroduces

Teen Driving Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Three Ex-Chrysler, GM Dealers in W.

Pennsylvania Sue U.S. Government . . . . 7

COLUMNISTS

Amaradio - Underqualified Repairers Hurt

the Whole Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Attanasio, BASF - Switching to BASF

Waterborne for the Green Reasons. . . . 15

Attanasio, Global PDR - Global PDR Solutions

& Park Place Bodywerks Hail the Hail . . 25

Chess - Make Sure Your Shop is Clear of

these Glaring OSHA Violations . . . . . . . 31

Danalevich - Business Liability Insurance:

Remember to Review Your Policy! . . . . 35

Evans - Remaking a 1941 Chevy Deluxe

Back-End with an English Wheel . . . . . 37

Franklin - Get on the Cosmetic Car

Upgrade Bandwagon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Insurance Insider - DRPs and Fear—Hope for

a Reduction in the Number of Shops . . 40

Publisher’s Statement - Autobody News:

‘Fresher than Fishwrap’ and it’s Free . . 41

Sisk - AASP/NJ’s Northeast™ 2011 Trade

Show—A Wealth of Information for

Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Sisk - Keenan Autobody Cares about Cars,

Charity, and the Environment . . . . . . . . 39

Weaver - A Quick Diagnostic Can Seem

too Good to be True . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Yoswick - Paint Complaint Does Not Have

to Mean Unhappy Customer. . . . . . . . . 42

Yoswick - Recyclers, Repairers Look for

Ways to Improve Business Interactions. 36

NATIONAL

ABRA Auto Body & Glass Announces New

VP of Auto Glass Division . . . . . . . . . . 20

Airbag Risk Prompts Recall of 144,000

Ford Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

ASA Opposes Proposed Ore. Right to

Repair Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

BMW Brands Plan Increased Use of

Carbon Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CARSTAR Pres., Dan Bailey, to Return to

Own Franchise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Groupon Succeeds in Helping Body Shops

Reach Out to New Local Customers . . . . 6

IIHS: Big Rig Underride Guards Often Fail

in Crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Japan’s Quake, Tsunami Roils US Auto

Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

NSF International Settles Spat with CAPA

by Dropping Suit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

PreFab Ads Introduces Three New TV Spots

for Body Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Progressive’s Snapshot EDR Now Available

in 32 States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Rich Evans Fronts Speed’s TV Hit Car

Warriors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Wade Ford Atlanta Chooses an Alternative

Diagnostic Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Contents

The Alliance of Automotive ServiceProfessionals of Pennsylvania (AASP-PA) has over 2,000 members acrossPennsylvania and Delaware. Each ofthe 34 active chapters holds their own

monthly meetings, and provides twodelegates to represent their chapter atthe quarterly delegates meeting.AASP-

PA held this quarter’s delegates meet-ing on February 12 in Harrisburg.

Items discussed included AASP-PA’s upcoming TechTrain 2011, the as-sociation’s annual training weekend,

which will be held on March 26–27 atthe Grantville Holiday Inn. New in-structors include John Forro with two

mechanical seminars and Tim McDon-nell, David Rogers, and Gary Gunnwith management seminars. Tim Mc-Donnell, Training Manager withMitchell 1, will give the breakfastkeynote. There are 13 seminars sched-uled for the weekend so far.

The association is also beginning

to promote their Big E Trade Showcoming in October at the Valley ForgeConvention Center.

John Kulik (AASP-PA lobbyist)led discussion of the political atmos-phere in Harrisburg. There was agree-ment between members that morelegislative meetings are needed to de-

velop relationships with local legisla-tors.

The Collision Division reportedthatAASP-PA has joined the Society ofCollision Repair Specialists (SCRS).

It was announced that the legisla-tive meeting for Chapter 11 (South Al-legheny) is on hold. The March meeting

for this chapter will have an I-CARtraining class. Another meeting will in-volve an open forum with insurance ad-justers. Discussion ensued about alocation change to a more centrally lo-cated location for Chapter 11 members.

For more information please visitwww.aasp-pa.org.


AASP-Pennsylvania Holds Quarterly Delegates Meeting

www.qsponline.com

888-473-5378314-699-9617 FAX

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Delegates gathered for a round-table style discussion about AASP-PA’s 2011 agenda

Delegates Representing the Pennsylvania Chapters, the third largest automotive market in the U.S.

Saying an age group is not as personalas other information retained aboutNew Jersey motorists, an appellatecourt upheld a state law on February22 that requires young drivers to affixred decals to their cars, according toNewark’s Star-Ledger.

The unanimous ruling from thethree-judge panel so incensed oppo-nents of Kyleigh’s Law, which tookeffect last May, that they vowed animmediate appeal to state SupremeCourt.

The appeals court said the state’sgraduated driver’s license system(GDLS) does not identify young driv-ers any more than they identify them-selves as young merely by being inpublic.

“The governmental interest fur-thered by enforcement of this system ofrestricted driving privileges establishedby the GDLS is safety on the roadwaysof this state,” Judge Jane Grall wrotefor the panel. “The decals which mustbe used by young drivers subject to theGDLS restrictions are suitable means offurthering that interest.”

The dispute centers on a revisionof the system that requires drivers be-tween the ages of 16 and 21 to affixred decals to the front and rear licenseplates of their vehicles.

The decals are supposed to be away for police to more easily identifyprovisional drivers or those with per-mits who are subject to certain re-strictions, such as the number ofpeople allowed in the car with themand the hours they can be on the road.

But opponents of Kyleigh’s Law—named for a 16-year-old Long Val-ley girl killed in a car driven by a pro-visional driver in 2006—insist thedecals are a red flag to police to un-fairly target young drivers and as alure to criminals who prey on teens.

“This is a law we believe placespeople in danger rather than helpsthem,” said Rockaway attorneyGregg Trautmann, who arguedagainst Kyleigh’s Law before the ap-peals court. “While I respect thejudges’ efforts, I think they’re takingan unreasonably narrow view of whatis protected.”

Trautmann said Kyleigh’s Lawviolated the Federal Driver’s PrivacyProtection Act, which forbids a statemotor vehicle agency from disclosingpersonal information or “highly re-stricted” personal information exceptunder certain circumstances.

But the appellate court said a per-son’s age group does not fall underany of those restrictions.

NJ Panel Upholds Kyleigh’s Law for YoungDrivers to Display Red Decals


Groupon, the ‘group coupon’ sitewhere businesses submit daily dealsfor Groupon to market to their largesubscriber base, has had lots of recentsuccess with body shop deals.

Groupon allows businesses tosubmit a coupon deal to their websitethen, if approved, the coupon goes upon the local branch of Groupon’s web-site. If the deal is bought by enoughpeople on that day, then the deal be-comes available to all; if not, no onegets the deal that day.

The body shop does not pay anyupfront costs to have a Groupon,rather the company takes a percentageof each coupon the body shop sells ontheir website.

“Our services have really ex-panded because of our popularity andattractiveness,” Chad Nason,Groupon’s Spokesperson told Auto-body News.

Body shops have found it prof-itable to use Groupon to market sortof general maintenance type servicesto customers. This way they get newcustomers in the door, show them thevalue of their services and hopefullycreate some repeat customers, saidNason.

Some of these body shops areseeing the oil and filter changecoupons as a step in the door for newcustomers and hopefully, their even-tual collision business. Getting cus-tomers in for general maintenance willhelp them to remember your name

when they do need collision workdone, said Nason.

“You’re looking at something (acollision) that people aren’t planningon, so it’s a little tougher [to market],”said Nason, but he maintains thatshops have found that using Grouponto advertise general maintenance canleave a lasting impression for future,unplanned work ahead.Nason also said that Groupon is be-coming a popular marketing tool be-cause local businesses can tap intoGroupon’s large subscriber base,which is broken down into region-spe-cific websites each with their owndeals.

Great Bear Auto Repair andAuto Body Shop in Flushing Queens,New York, ran a deal with Groupon inDecember of 2010. Owner AudraFordinwas admittedly skeptical aboutrunning the deal; she wanted to run adeal that wouldn’t overwhelm herbusiness and had a higher price point.

“It was awesome. They were awe-some; they walked me through it stepby step and helped me create a customdeal that would attract customers andbe realistic for my business,” Fordintold Autobody News.

The deal was for an oil change,tire rotation and charging systems

analysis. Audra said she was ex-tremely happy with the results and iseager to run another deal withGroupon, probably this spring. Shesaid that the customers who have re-deemed were allfirst time customersand she already hastheir repeat busi-ness.

“I will do itagain without adoubt, it brought innew customers andthey weren’t yourtypical coupon-cut-ters just trying to geta deal, they werepeople truly inter-ested in taking careof their cars,” saidFordin.

Glenville TerraceAuto Body inAllston, Massachussetts, ran a dealwith Groupon in June of 2010. OwnerBarry Hynes was also extremelypleased with the results of hisGroupon deal.

“It went really well, we were toldit was going to be busy and we didn’treally take it that seriously and boywere we sorry,” said Hynes, “We def-initely should have prepared for therush more.”

Hynes said that not only did itbring in new customers, but they be-came repeat customers and were ex-actly the clientele Hynes was lookingfor.

“The idea was to get new cus-tomers in, and it did just that. Thesewere the kind of customers we werelooking for ... ones that really takecare of their vehicles.”

Hynes said he would do another

Groupon again in the future if he wasnot so busy already. He did have oneword of caution for shops consideringusing Groupon in the future.

“I would advise any shop that’s

going to do it to really prepare for it.On the day the actual Groupon goeslive online have people ready to an-swer calls because people call in toask questions about the deal. Also beprepared for the rush the next daywhen people come in to use thecoupon—definitely schedule appoint-ments if you can.”

To learn more about running aGroupon for your business visit:www.GrouponWorks.com

Great Bear Auto Repair and AutoBody Shop164-16 Sanford AvenueFlushing, NY 11358718-762-6212

Glenville Terrace Auto Body10 Glenville TerraceAllston, MA 02134617-783-1515

Groupon Succeeds in Helping Body Shops Reach Out to New Local Customers

Great Bear Auto Repair in Queens reported alot of new customers after their Groupon ran

Employees at Glenville Terrace Auto Body in MA were surprised athow much interest their Groupon generated

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety,an alliance of consumer, health, safety andinsurance groups, on Jan. 31 ranked Penn-sylvania as one of the seven worst stateswhen it comes to the adoption of safe driv-ing laws. The group gave Pennsylvania an“F” in teen driving laws and an overall“Danger” rating when it comes to basiclaws. The group rated every state sur-rounding Pennsylvania with a green lightfor legislation that promotes safe driving.

The group’s annual report was an-nounced at the National Press Club inWashington, D.C.Among the speakers wasMarlene Case, of Lower Pottsgrove, whobecame a highway safety activist after her

17-year-old son, Andrew, was killed in acrash involving a teen driver in November2009.

“It’s too late for Andrew, but it’s nottoo late for others,” said Case, as she spokethrough tears to the gathering. “These lawsdon’t cost states any money and only re-quire political leadership.”

The leadership lacking to enact safedriving laws in Pennsylvania has a pro-found effect.

In another study released the sameday, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphiaand State Farm Insurance reported that in2008 more than half a million people,681,000, were involved in crashes in which

a teen driver was behind the wheel.The study said that nearly one-third of

the recently people killed as a result of carwrecks involving teen drivers aren’t evenin the teenagers’cars. Cyclists, pedestriansand occupants of other vehicles comprise30 percent of the people killed in crashesinvolving teen drivers.

Officials said the research shows thatmost of the tragedies are caused by inexpe-rience and are therefore preventable.

Strong graduated driver licensinglaws, which allow teenagers to gain expe-rience under lower-risk conditions, areproven to be an effective prevention meas-ure, researchers maintained. Also proven

effective in states where they have beenadopted are passenger limits in cars drivenby teens.

As Case pointed out, this is not diffi-cult: It just requires leadership.

Safe driving standards and more re-strictive teen driving laws have beenadopted in neighboring states of New Jer-sey, New York, Delaware and Maryland.

Pennsylvania has gotten failinggrades on many fronts recently, and newGov. Tom Corbett says he intends tochange some of that.

This fix is simple. It doesn’t cost any-thing except leadership to enact safe drivinglaws.

Pennsylvania Auto Safety Report is an “F”


Three former Chrysler and GeneralMotors automobile dealers in WesternPennsylvania have joined about 125others nationwide in suing the federalgovernment on the grounds that theirproperty—their franchises—wastaken from them without compensa-tion or due process, according to thePittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Verona Motor Sales, formerlyVerona Jeep, is one of five dealershipsin Pennsylvania and 59 nationwidethat claim they are owed $130 millionin damages because the federal gov-ernment did not pay them when theirfranchises were eliminated, accordingto the lawsuit filed last week in U.S.Court of Federal Claims in Washing-ton.

The lawsuit contends that whenthe Treasury Department forcedChrysler Group LLC to reduce itsdealership network in 2009, it wasdone without due process under theConstitution and protection of statedealer franchise laws.

“Our property was taken ille-gally. We lost untold thousands of dol-lars,” said Bert Molitierno, owner of

Verona Motor Sales, now a used-ve-hicle dealer with sites in Verona andPenn Hills.

The Treasury became involved inthe automakers’ restructuring whenthe government gave Chrysler and itsfinancial arm $14 billion and GeneralMotors Co. $50 billion in bailoutmoney.

In March 2009, PresidentObama’s auto task force rejected aChrysler restructuring plan. Chryslerfiled for bankruptcy in April. A re-vised restructuring plan pared downits network of dealers.

The plaintiffs claim the govern-ment failed to adhere to the Constitu-tion, especially the Fifth Amendment,which concerns public taking. Theclosed dealerships contend that thegovernment must reimburse a privateentity in the event of a public taking.

Two Washington County dealer-ships—in Hickory and Bentleyville—are parties to an amended complaintfiled this month in the Court of Fed-eral Claims that says both GM andChrysler failed to pay any compensa-tion for eliminating their franchises.

That lawsuit claims the govern-ment was behind the dealership cuts.It seeks class-action status and morethan $10,000 in damages per dealer.

“The Chrysler dealers got ab-solutely nothing. Chrysler offered us20 cents on the dollar for our parts,”said Bo Corwin, owner of CorwinSales & Service Inc. in Hickory.

Molitierno’s and Corwin’s deal-erships were among 789 dealershipsthat Chrysler cut in May 2009 on thegrounds it had to reduce its network tomeet market demand.

General Motors, which also filedfor bankruptcy in 2009, cut its net-work from about 6,000 to 4,500 in2010.

One of those victims was B.Bodgewic Chevrolet Inc. in Bent-leyville, which had been sellingChevrolets for about 50 years.

Bruno “Chip” Bodgewic de-clined to comment on the lawsuitagainst GM. Bodgewic now operatesas B. Bodgewic Automotive.

Not only did Chrysler pull theplug on new-vehicle sales, but Moli-tierno said the inventory of thousands

of parts for Chrysler vehicles becamevirtually useless because Chryslershutoff the dealers’ national computersystem. The dealership had parts butcould not tell customers whether partnumbers fit their vehicles.

Chrysler gave rejected dealers achance to regain their franchisethrough arbitration, but both Moli-tierno and Corwin said they withdrewfrom the process because they felt thatit was not fair and would have beentoo costly.

“I could see the handwriting onthe wall. It was just racking uplawyer’s bills,” Corwin said of arbi-tration.

Three Ex-Chrysler, GM Dealers in W. Pennsylvania Sue U.S. Government

e-mail:[email protected]

800-699-8251

To advertisecall Joe Momber at:

www.autobodynews.com


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A MEASURE OF EXCELLENCEA MEASURE OF EXCELLENCEA MEASURE OF EXCELLENCE

Manhattan federal investigatorscharged state senator Carl Krugerand seven others as part of an allegedbribery scheme March 10. Amongthose charged were State SenatorKruger and Assemblyman WilliamBoyland Jr., both Brooklyn Democ-rats. Kruger turned himself into fed-eral authorities in Manhattan amidallegations that he was acceptingmoney for political favors. The FBIhad reportedly been investigatingKruger since 2007. The money wasnot reported as part of his politicalcontributions; it was allegedly hid-den away in various bank accounts.

Kruger was also charged withaccepting nearly $1 million throughan alleged middleman, Dr. MichaelTurano of Mill Basin, Brooklyn, butTurano’s entire family is implicated,allege prosecutors.

Since the criminal complaintwas filed on March 10, the New YorkTimes has reported that Kruger fun-neled hundreds of thousands of dol-lars into a Turano son’s bank accountto finance a $200,000 Bentley andpay down a $1.2 million mortgage.

The Turanos, in turn, providedthe senator companionship, and pros-ecutors say the brothers helped con-ceal his payoffs.

Carl Kruger ArrestedThe New York state legislature onJanuary 14 saw the introduction of an-other piece of legislation targetingauto repairers, requesting a host ofnew consumer rights and disclosurerequirements. Introduced by 27th Dis-trict State Sen. Carl Kruger (D), S.1949 imposes extensive new require-ments on motor vehicle repair shopswith respect to disclosure of laborcharges on estimates and invoices, in-cluding the cost of tear down time andthe use of reconditioned parts, and theright of the customer to be furnishedcopies of service records and purchaseorders for parts.

The bill has been placed with theTransportation Committee, providesthat invoices must contain the follow-ing information:● more detailed administrative infor-mation● subtotal prices individually listedfor parts, labor and sales tax● individual identification of all usedor rebuilt parts● actual time required to completeeach operation and an explanation ofhow the labor charge was computed.If flat rate time is used, the name ofthe labor manual used and customer isgranted the right to see pages of the

manual used to calculate the charges● specifically list any warrantees orguarantees provided along with allconditions and limitations of the war-ranty, and what procedure must be fol-lowed by the customer in order tohave the warranty honored. All condi-tions and limitations must also belisted.● indicate any repairs or services pro-vided that deviate from the repair orservice schedule in the owner's man-ual.● a sign on display in the shop, in twoinch letters, stating that customer hasthe right to the above mentioned de-tailed invoice, warranty specifics,copies of service records, parts pur-chase orders and any other documentsrequired by the Commissioner.

No action has been taken on thebill and no committee hearing hasbeen scheduled.

See ajacent story for recent newson Sen. Carl Kruger.

More NY Legislation Targets Auto Repairers

Delaware Department of Transporta-tion Secretary Carolann Wicks hasresigned her position as Cabinet Sec-retary effective March 18, accordingto the Delmarva Daily Times.

“This has been a difficult deci-sion, but one that has been made witha clear conscience and the best interestof the department at heart.” Wickssaid. “I have greatly enjoyed the manyyears I have served the state, the op-portunities I have experienced in myyears at DelDOT will always belooked upon with sincere gratitude.”

Wicks is the eighth secretary ofDelDOT. She began her long career atmore than 28 years ago as a civil en-gineer. She served in several leader-ship roles including the chief engineerfor the department and director ofTransportation Solutions.

As secretary, she was responsiblefor the capital program, managingstatewide transit services, motor vehi-cle services and the maintenance andoperation of 90 percent of Delaware’stransportation system. DelDOT em-ploys over 2,600 transportation pro-fessionals to achieve these goals.

“My only regret is that I am leav-ing a great organization with the mosthardworking, dedicated state employ-ees. The citizens of Delaware arebeing well served by these many indi-viduals, all with the goal of making

Delaware’s transportation system thebest and safest for all who travelthroughout our state,” she added.

During her time with the depart-ment, Wicks was selected to serve onnumerous national and regionalboards and committees. Recently, sheserved as president for the NortheastAssociation of State TransportationOfficials, and is currently serving aschairperson on the Northeast CorridorInfrastructure and Operations Advi-sory Commission.

Wicks has received numerousawards: the Eugene E. Abbott Awardfor excellence in Transportation Plan-ning, the department’s highest honor;AASHTO’s Alfred E. Johnson awardfor excellence in Engineering andManagement; the Outstanding Alum-nus Award and the Presidential Cita-tion for Outstanding Achievementfrom the University of Delaware; andthe Woman in History Award pre-sented by the Business and Profes-sional Women/Dover Chapter.

Additionally, she has the honorof serving as an executive boardmember for the Diamond State PortAuthority and she is a member of theUniversity of Delaware’s Civil Engi-neer Executive External AdvisoryCouncil. She also is a member of theAmerican Association of State High-way Engineers.

DE Department of Transportation Secretary Resigns

Delaware Insurance CommissionerKaren Weldin Stewart announcedthat the Department of Insurance wassuccessful in a variety of actions re-sulting in over two millions dollarsbeing returned to Delawareans.They include the prosecuting ofcomplaints on behalf of consumers,providing dispute resolution througharbitration, agency exams and re-funds to policyholders who had com-pleted an approved defensive drivingcourse from a major insurer.

$2.1 Million Returned toDE Consumers in 2010

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!

Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal tocharge between $365 and $490 to re-spond to auto accidents in NYC hasdrawn fire from insurers. “This feewill likely be difficult for many driv-ers to pay at a time when they arealso faced with the costs and diffi-culties associated with being in-volved in an auto accident,” saidKristina Baldwin, PCI assistant vicepresident for state government af-fairs. “The fee literally and figura-tively adds insult to injury.”

Insurers Contest CrashTax Proposal in NY


The Society of Collision RepairSpecialists (SCRS) proudly an-nounces the addition of its newestAffiliate Association, the Allianceof Auto Service Providers of Penn-sylvania (AASP-PA).

Based in Harrisburg, Pennsyl-vania, AASP-PA is a collision repairassociation with chapters acrossPennsylvania. They are alignedwith, as are a number of other SCRSaffiliates, the national Alliance ofAutomotive Service Providers(AASP).

AASP-PA consists of three di-visions-collision repair, mechanicaland towing. The collision repair di-vision gravitated toward SCRS as

part of their ongoing efforts to findways to add value to membership,as well as being driven by theirmandate to forge strategic alliancesto strengthen the industry.

“SCRS has a national point ofview containing many useful in-sights into the issues affecting colli-sion repairers, and they have arecord of being very active on be-half of the industry,” explainsAASP-PA Executive Director JerrySchantz. “Our decision to affiliatewas based on the fact that our twoorganizations are looking for thesame changes to help our collisionmembers and make our professionstronger. By working more closely

with SCRS it will be easier for ourmembers to stay in touch withwhat’s happening in the industry,which in turn will help them adaptto what’s coming down the road.”

AASP-PA is a long-standing in-stitution in the state of Pennsylva-nia, with roots dating back to themid-1950s.

“Their collective experience,historical perspective and influenceare characteristics we can certainlyleverage to the benefit of our mem-bers,” says SCRS Chairman BarryDorn. “In addition, our partnershipwill help us extend the voice, sizeand scope of the industry in theareas they serve.”

AASP of Pennsylvania is Newest SCRS Affiliate

The Auto Body Association of Con-necticut (ABAC) has gone from sup-porting a legislative measure to changehow total-loss settlements are calcu-lated in the state to “vehemently op-posing it,” according to theassociation’s legislative director BillRomaniello, the owner of All Pro Col-lision Repair in Plantsville, Connecti-cut.

House Bill 5444 was originallyintroduced, and supported by theABAC, to ban insurers from utilizingthe proprietary total-loss valuationservices developed by the major esti-mating system providers, services thatthe ABAC believes artificially suppresstotal loss values.

However, the latest version of thebill not only removes the ban, but alsoremoves the requirement to use theNADA guidebook as a second sourceof vehicle values. Current law allowsinsurers to use the total-loss values pro-vided by companies like CCC, Auda-tex and Mitchell, but also requires themto average those values with the valuesfound in the NADA book.

The ABAC supported version ofthe measure was seeking to restrict in-surers to use only the NADA guide-book, or similar “publicly available”automobile industry sources of vehiclevalues.

The latest version of the measurehowever, only says that the, “insurershall calculate the value of such vehiclefor purposes of determining the settle-ment amount to be paid to theclaimant.” The version has removed allreferences to how an insurer shouldcalculate those values, or what sourcesthey may or may not use, including thecurrent requirement to consult theNADA guides.

“If this version of the bill passes,it will be like the wild west here inConnecticut,” Romaniello said. “Thisversion leaves too much room for in-terpretation. Consumers will be forcedto battle insurers without any referenceline.” Romaniello said the associationbelieves it is essential that the law re-quire the use of the NADA guides.

At a committee hearing on Febru-ary 10, John Parese, legal counsel forthe ABAC, told lawmakers, “Con-sumers, auto sale businesses, auto re-pairers, and municipal taxingauthorities all use and rely on theNADA for establishing vehicle values.It is essentially the only source in theindustry universally used and widelyrecognized as reliable and fair.”

Romaniello said, “With this bill,are they saying that the NADA bookisn’t good enough for insurers to use,but it’s OK for the consumer to be heldto NADA values to use when calculat-ing their taxes?”

Conn. Association Pivotson Total-Loss Bill


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FUCCILLO KIAOF SCHENECTADYA new law in New York may affect

the cost of automobile insurance.The Department of Motor Vehicleadded changes to an already in effectlaw that was established in 2001 re-garding talking on your cell phonewhile driving. Previously driverswho were caught talking on thephone while driving were eligible tobe charged up to a $100 fine. Thenew changes to this law also nowmakes it so that violators will get twopoints added onto their record.

This two points is the lowest in-crement on the state’s drivers viola-tion point system and is by far noguarantee that a motorists insurancepremium will rise, however, it is afactor. If it is a drivers first violationmost likely it will not affect their in-surance at all, however, if a driver al-ready had multiple infractions thistwo points could be what sends themover the edge.

Michael Barry, vice presidentof media relations for the InsuranceInformation Institute said, “It is dif-ficult to quantify whether the state’snew rules—adding two points to thelicense of a driver convicted of driv-ing while talking on a cell phone—will raise anyone’s rates … Autoinsurers examine dozens of variableswhen assessing risk.”

NY Cell Phone Law CouldAffect Insurance Prices

In New Jersey police can ticket anydriver they spot who hasn’t clearedsnow and ice from a vehicle—andthey’re doing just that.

The law went in to effect in Oc-tober and, after a grace period, morethan 1800 citations were issuedstatewide in December and January.

“We are clamping down, the po-lice are out there. We’re taking it se-riously because there’s a seriousproblem,” said Sgt. Brian Polite ofthe NJ State Police.

Polite says fines range from $25to $75 but can go much higher if fly-ing snow causes injury or damage.

“I’ve personally experiencedthe snow coming at me so they haveto do what they have to do, it’s foreveryone’s safety,” said truck driverVictor Pedrosa. Some drivers don’tagree.

“I think it’s ridiculous only be-cause sometimes you might not havetime to clean off the snow,” saidShalona Covington of Crosswicks.

It’s one thing to clean off a car,but truck drivers say it’s not so easyto clean snow and ice from a big rig.

“It’s real hard to get up on topof the trailer and get it off,” saidtruck driver Keith Zimmerman.“You’d wind up killing yourselfgoing on top of the roof.”

In NJ, Clean Snow Off orElse You Could be Cited

CARSTAR Pres., Dan Bailey, toReturn to Own FranchiseDan Bailey has chosen to step downfrom his role as president ofCARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts,the company recently announced. Aftermore than a decade with the companyand an additional 23 years spent oper-ating a family-owned chain of collisioncenters, Bailey plans to take a breakbefore returning to run his ownCARSTAR franchise. He will continueto serve on the Mitchell AdvisoryBoard, the CCC Advisory Board, as anational judge for Skills USA-VICA,and as a CIC participant. No replace-ment is planned for Bailey’s position,which he will leave in the comingmonths. Stacy Bartnik will assume fullresponsibility of franchise services.

CARSTAR new hires will allowCEO Dick Cross to handle Bailey’sother duties. Those hires are CecilJohnson, who will serve as franchisedevelopment executive, and BradRein, the new chief information offi-cer. They will help guide a number ofcorporate improvements being madeat CARSTAR, the company said. Ithas revamped its Business Group Pro-gram, restructured its franchise devel-opment process and plans to launch anew proprietary management systemin its stores later this year.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufac-turers (AAM) and the AutomotiveService Association (ASA) sponsoreda training program for independent re-pair shop technicians in Queens inearly December, 2010.

It was held in conjunction with theGreater New York Automobile DealersAssociation (GNYADA), State SenatorJose Peralta (D-Queens), Chair of theSenate Consumer Protection Commit-tee, and Assemblywoman Audrey Ph-effer (D-Queens), Chair of theAssembly Consumer Affairs and Pro-tection Committee. The event was heldat GNYADA’s Center for AutomotiveEducation and Training.

The Alliance and ASA, along withSen. Peralta and Assemblywoman Ph-effer, say they are working to ensurethat independent repair shops have thetraining needed to repair today’s vehi-cles and satisfy consumers withoutright to repair.

“Automakers are committed tomaking sure that independent repairshops have all the information theyneed to be able to repair any vehicle,”said Matthew Godlewski, Vice Presi-dent of State Affairs for the Alliance.“We know that more than 75 percent ofpost-warranty vehicle repairs are per-formed by independent repair shops,

and it’s in our industry’s best interestthat consumers bringing our productsto those repair shops have good experi-ences.”

Technicians representing nearlyone dozen different New York area in-dependent repair shops attended thefree training program, which was ledby Donny Seyfer, General Director ofthe Automotive Service Association(ASA).

“Our industry has made greatstrides with a voluntary solution toinformation availability concerns.These include training programs likethe event in Queens, as well as othereducation initiatives across thecountry,” said Ron Pyle, Presidentof the Automotive Service Associa-tion. “In addition, repairers have ac-cess to the National AutomotiveService Task Force (NASTF) to as-sist with information availability is-sues. NASTF has been an asset toindependent repairers and has agreat future.”

“Automakers are committed tomaking available all of the informationnecessary for independent repair shopsto repair vehicles,” Godlewski said.“We don’t want, however, a govern-ment mandate that sounds good on thesurface, but is actually an invitation for

litigation to get at automaker’s intel-lectual property.

“The Alliance is very grateful toSen. Peralta and Assemblywoman Ph-effer for their cosponsorship of thistraining program, and for their contin-ued commitment to work with au-tomakers, dealers and repair shops toensure that the needs of consumers aremet,” Godlewski said.

“In addition to the adverse im-pact ‘right to repair’ legislationwould have on automakers, thereare concerns for consumers,” saidGodlewski.

“The way it’s written now, itwould require automakers to re-lease sensitive vehicle security in-formation, such as key codes andengine immobilizer override in-formation. This will compromisevehicle security systems and jeop-ardizing consumers’ anti-theft in-surance discounts.

“Automakers continue to standready to work with New York Stateleaders to ensure that independent re-pair shops are able to serve auto con-sumers. We will continue, however, tooppose any legislation with hiddenagendas that do not actually serve thedriving public’s interest,” Godlewskisaid.

ASA & AAM Continue Opposition to Right to Repair, Claiming Information is Available Already


New Jersey Insurance and BankingCommissioner Thomas Considinesaid without uniform national stan-dards for insurance regulations, the in-dustry will “continue to lobby, andlobby effectively, I believe, for federalregulation”, according to reports madeby Insurance News Net.

Considine said New Jerseysigned on to join the Interstate Prod-uct Regulation Commission to helpstate insurance regulators develop na-tional standards for asset protectioninsurance products, such as life insur-ance, annuities, disability income andlong-term care insurance. The com-pact also provides a central point fordigital filing capability according toreports made by BestWire.

Without standards, Considinesaid regulators “lose a strong argu-ment in favor of state-based regula-tion.”

He said it’s important for NewJersey to be part of the compact be-cause with the size of its insurancemarket, it didn’t make sense to avoidbeing a part of the effort to formulatethose national standards.

Considine discussed a number ofissues facing the state, including its ef-fort to reform its automobile insurancesystem.

Among the changes made to thesystem was to do away with a pro-gram that used subsidies to balanceauto insurance rates across separaterating territories.

That program, called TerritorialRating Equalization Exchange (TREE),was part of sweeping auto reform ef-forts that have been largely creditedwith creating a more competitive mar-ket in the Garden State.

TREE was designed to create amechanism under which policies writ-ten for drivers in high-cost areaswould be subsidized from a pool cre-ated by a fee assessed on all policies.But it was the subject of litigationfiled by a major state-based carrierand industry trade groups, accordingto reports made by BestWire.

Calling that program the equiva-lent of “killing a mosquito with a nu-clear bomb,” Considine said theprogram was implemented as a resultof a drop in the number of policies that

were issued in New Jersey, which heattributed to the “cyclical” effects ofthe economic downturn of 2008 and2009. Considine said he and his staffstudied the program “thoroughly” anddecided it wasn’t worth continuing.

“But that doesn’t in any way,shape or form mean we’re going totake our eye off the ball in our criticalurban markets. It just means that’s notthe situation that’s called for,” Consi-dine said.

Considine also touched on thestate’s decision to move civil insur-ance fraud enforcement out fromunder the purview of the state’s Officeof the Attorney General to the Depart-ment of Banking and Insurance thispast summer, according to reportsmade by BestWire.

While Considine said it is tooearly to tell whether there are anytrends in the enforcement and investi-gations that have been brought, hesaid it has given fraud investigators a“new lease on life” to be in a depart-ment where fraud enforcement is thetop priority over a place where crimi-nal investigations take precedence.

“They feel they are truly a part ofthe mission of the agency,” Considinesaid.

Considine also noted the state hasseen a sizable uptick in the number ofnew insurers entering the market andhas extended new lines of business toeven more.

Last year, the department admit-ted 27 new insurers and extended newbusiness lines to 28 carriers, markingan increase of 8% over 2009. Headded that the department also recov-ered nearly $20.7 million for con-sumers and medical providers duringthe same period.

“Competition is a good thing.We’re a very, very market-driven ad-ministration,” Considine said. “We be-lieve the addition of new marketentrants increases the likelihood thatwe’ll have additional market entrants.”

NJ Commissioner Stresses Need for Standards for Insurance Regulation

www.autobodynews.comCHECK IT OUT!


SHOP & PRODUCTSHOP & PRODUCTSHOWCASESHOWCASE

As almost every body shop managerin this country knows, waterbornepaint is a proven commodity in thecollision repair industry and shopsoutside of California are gradually butdecidedly heading in that direction. Asfederal regulations and air qualitymanagement agencies apply pres-sure designed to nudge more statestowards lower VOCs, some bodyshops in parts of the country will un-doubtedly resist change, while otherswill embrace it for its wide range ofbenefits.

Some multiple shop operatorsdoing business in California havebeen able to leverage their experi-ence in California to adopt water-borne elsewhere across the country.For example, Sterling Autobody Cen-ters announced last year that theyhave implemented waterborne net-work-wide, but that is not yet thenorm. So it’s interesting that a largeNew Jersey collision facility went towaterborne recently not because thelaws mandated the conversion, butbecause they wanted to take the highroad in being green and helping boththeir employees and the environment.

They’re hoping that it will lead tomore business, additional DRPs andan enhanced overall reputationthroughout their communityKeith Hol-loway is the body shop manager atDCH Brunswick Toyota Collision Cen-ter in Brunswick, New Jersey, wherehe oversees the operation of a 43,000square foot collision center and su-pervises 35 employees as they fix230-250 vehicles per month, he said.

After DCH Brunswick Toyota Col-lision Center’s contract with anotherpaint company’s solvent product lastyear, BASF’s eco-friendly Onyx HDwaterborne basecoat system won outover several competing paint lines.

“We did some extensive researchand BASF’s Onyx HD waterbornebasecoat had the best performanceand overall value for us. We tookpaint proposals from five differentvendors, but BASF stood out be-cause in the end they offered the bestproduct and service package. Wewent with BASF because we thoughtthey would help us grow, and we alsolearned that the Onyx HD waterbornebasecoat system is compliant with theEPA regulations and the laws that arecoming out in 2011 and 2012. Thatwas definitely something we wantedto work toward, so that’s why wesigned with the company.”

Holloway values BASF’s supportand education. “We’ve been very im-pressed by their service and follow-

through. We’re still testing our water-borne and tweaking the way we’reusing it, and BASF has been by ourside every step of the way. The paintis good, there’s no doubt. But what’sreally pleased us the most is the sup-port they’ve provided, especially fromour BASF Business DevelopmentManager Kent Leonard and TomSmetanka, our jobber with CentralPaint in Trenton, New Jersey.”

It wasn’t an easy conversionfrom solvent to waterborne, Hollowayadmitted, but in the end it’s payingoff. “We’re still in the process to de-termine how compatible our produc-tion process is with the BASFwaterborne product, and so far it’sdoing a very good job for us. It didtake us 6-8 weeks to get our staff upto speed with this product, and ourpainters did have to go to BASF’straining center in Maryland so theycould get acclimated to the productand learn all of the do’s and don’t’sof working with it.”

Learning BASF’s waterborne sys-tem wasn’t a no-brainer, Hollowaysaid. “It’s quite a bit different and thepainters have to slow down to taketheir time with this waterborne. Thepaint is not as fast-acting as solvent,and I’m not going to tell you that it waseasy. BASF has a great product andthe process of applying it took us awhile to get up to speed, but we’renow running very efficiently with thewaterborne product.”

The federal requirements aregoing to get tougher in March, be-cause certain high VOC products willbe banned from use in body shopsnationwide, Holloway explained. Painttechnicians are going to have to get

more certifications for completing theproper courses to satisfy the federalmandates.

“Body shops nationwide will haveto go through EPA inspections toshow that what we’re sending out intothe air is not going to hurt the envi-ronment,” Holloway said. “Theprocess started one-and-a-half yearsago when the EPA started sendingout notices and informing shops thatthat things were going to start chang-ing this March, little by little.”The statelaws in New Jersey aren’t mandatingthe use of waterborne paint (yet), butHolloway is already reading the writ-ing, or painting in this case, on thewall.

“They’re not forcing shops to do ityet, but we want to be ahead of thegame when it goes into effect in 2012.We want to be an innovator in this in-dustry and be able to offer the publicand the insurance companies some-thing many shops can’t offer themright now, which is the benefits of wa-terborne paint. Going green and giv-ing something back to help the planet;those are things we want to be in-volved in.”

Has Holloway seen evidence thatconverting to BASF waterborne willeventually help the bottom line atDCH Brunswick, Toyota? “The wordis definitely out that we’re now offeringsomething different, which positionsus in a better light with consumers.We feature it in our advertising, butpeople in this area don’t really under-stand it completely yet. It’s about ed-ucating everyone about this product.Once they know the all the benefits ofwaterborne, it will gain momentumhere, I believe.”

The DCH Collision Center has reportedtop-notch color matching since they adoptedBASF’s ecofriendly Onyx HD waterbornebasecoat system

DCH Toyota BrunswickCollision CenterLocation: North Brunswick, NJ

Telephone: 888-512-7805www.dchbrunswicktoyota.com

Company At A Glance...

Type: Collision Repair

Facility Employees: 35

In Business Since: 2000

DRP Programs: Two

Number of Locations: One

Combined Production Space:43,000 square feet

BASFCompany Contact: David BrezStrategic Initiatives ManagerPhone: 951-315-1395 (Mobile)email: [email protected]: www.basfrefinish.com

Keith Holloway, the new body shop manager at DCH Collision Center in Brunswick, NJ, was onthe team that converted his shop to BASF’s eco-friendly Onyx HD waterborne basecoat system

Switching to BASF Waterborne for the GreenReasons

The DCH Collision Center paints 230-250vehicles during an average month

by Ed Attanasio


A bill that would make the Pennsyl-vania insurance commissioner anelected position has been introducedin the state’s House of Representa-tives, according to reports made by In-surance Journal.

Legislation sponsored by RepNeal Goodman, a Democrat fromMahanoy City, would change the in-surance commissioner’s job from anappointed position.

Goodman’s proposal limits anelected commissioner to holding nomore than two consecutive, four-yearterms.

It also prevents a commissionerfrom holding a position with an insur-ance company within four years ofleaving office.

“I strongly believe that becauseof the important responsibilities andduties given to the insurance commis-sioner, the citizens of Pennsylvaniashould ultimately choose who isplaced in this position,” Goodmansaid in a legislative memorandumabout the proposal.

The legislation, House bill 941,is a slightly modified version of a sim-

ilar bill introduced during the previ-ous legislative session.

The bill — along with a resolu-tion requiring the legislative budgetand finance committee to study the fi-nancial impact of electing a commis-sioner — have been referred theinsurance committee.

Pennsylvania is not the only statewhere lawmakers are weighingwhether to make the commissioner anelected position.

In nearby Connecticut — whereformer Commissioner Thomas Sulli-van was heavily criticized for ap-proving significant health insurancerate hikes — legislation has also beenintroduced to make the commis-sioner’s job an elected one.

The proposal, by Rep. AndrewFleischman, a Democrat from WestHartford, was introduced in late Janu-ary.

Only 11 states elect their com-missioners. In most cases, chiefinsurance regulators are appointedeither directly by a state’s gover-nor or group controlled by a gov-ernor.

Pennsylvania Ponders Election for InsuranceCommissioner

For the second time in about a month,a Pennsylvania lawmaker has reintro-duced a proposal in the state Housethat would update teen driver laws, ac-cording to the Harrisburg Mercury.

“Sadly, we cannot save everyteenager from being hurt or killed in avehicle crash, but we can improve thechances that they, their passengers andother motorists are safe, just by up-dating our state’s graduated driver li-censing law,” state Rep. KathyWatson, R-144th Dist., said March 1as she unveiled her latest proposal atthe state Capitol.

Watson’s House Bill 9 would ex-pand training requirements before ateenager could take a test for his or herlicense, specifically increasing be-hind-the-wheel training from the cur-rent 50 hours to 65 hours. Ten of thosehours must be at night and five ofthose would have to be during in-clement weather, according to the pro-posal.

House Bill 9 also would limit thenumber of teen passengers to one in avehicle operated by the holder of ajunior driver’s license, those ages 16

½ to 18, with exceptions for familymembers.

“From a variety of transportationsafety experts and medical profes-sionals, we’ve learned that the greatestchance of crashing occurs in the firstsix months after licensure and that in-experience and distractions are thetwo greatest risks when teen driversare behind the wheel,” said Watson,who chairs the House TransportationCommittee’s Transportation SafetySubcommittee.

According to one AAA studycited by Watson, the chances a 16-year-old will die in a crash increase 39percent with one teen passenger; 86percent with two teen passengers; and182 percent with three or more teenpassengers.

Watson’s bill would make it a pri-mary offense for any person to drive avehicle with a passenger under 18who is not wearing a seatbelt. The billwould make a violation of the state’scurrent booster seat law a primary of-fense as well.

“We must ensure that everyoneunder the age of 18 in the vehicle is

properly buckled up and that a policeofficer can pull that car over if a minorisn’t properly restrained, whether inthe front seat, back seat or in a boosterseat for ages 7 and younger,” saidWatson, whose district covers BucksCounty.

The renewed effort marks thefourth legislative session in a row thatWatson has submitted such a proposal.

The bill was referred to theHouse Transportation Committee forreview. Before it is considered for avote before the full House, the billcould be subject to hearings in thecommittee.

Watson, citing Pennsylvania De-partment of Transportation statistics,said fatalities in crashes involving 16-or 17-year-old drivers increased from40 in 2009 to 57 in 2010, a 43 percentincrease.

Watson, who was joined at thenews conference by physicians andtransportation safety experts who sup-port the proposal, said the legislation isnot intended to replace good parenting.

“Parents with teen drivers knowthe facts and they know that inexperi-

ence and distractions can be deadly.This legislation is designed to helpparents and to support them so thatwhen they tell their teens they can’ttake a carload of kids to the away bas-ketball game or homecoming dance,there are real consequences,” Watsonsaid.

Watson’s proposal, which prima-rily deals with updating the state’sgraduated driver licensing law, comeson the heels of another proposal,House Bill 330, which deals primarilywith distracted driver issues and wasintroduced in January by state Rep.Josh Shapiro, D-153rd Dist.

Under Shapiro’s distracted driv-ing proposal, those drivers under 18would not be permitted to use a hand-held or hands-free cell phone andwould be prohibited from text mes-saging.

Adult drivers would be prohib-ited from using hand-held devices andtext messaging but could use a cellphone if a hands-free device was used.

A violation of the proposed lawwould be considered a primary of-

Pennsylvania State Legislator Reintroduces Teen Driving Bill

See PA Teens, Page 17


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Between August and June annually,high school students practice and pre-pare for the big game or the next chal-lenge in their academic careers. For aselect group of teams, their road to thechampionship passes through theCarlisle PA Fairgrounds, June 24th-26th.

In conjunction with the 2011Carlisle GM Nationals, the Hot Rod-ders of Tomorrow engine buildingcompetition will take place at the fair-grounds, making Carlisle one of sixregional qualifying locations.

Regional winners plus two non-winning top time “wild cards” willadvance to compete in the champi-onships, November 1st-4th at theSEMA show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Along with being dubbed “cham-pion,” these student engine buildersare eligible for prizes, sponsorships

and support from se-lect companies aswell as scholarshipmoney to aid in fu-ture education andtraining.

In 2010 more than$600,000 in scholar-ship money wasawarded and 2011expects to match orexceed that total.Thus far, monetarycommitments havebeen made by the

University of Northwest Ohio, OhioTechnical College and SAM, theSchool of Automotive Machinists, lo-cated in Houston, Texas.

The Hot Rodders of TomorrowEngine Challenge began in 2008 with

just five schools as an exhibition andhas grown into a national competitionfor high school students.

In 2011, more than 50 teams willcompete nationwide. The event servesas a forum for the future developmentof today’s youth for the race and per-formance industry.

During each regional qualifyingcompetition, students must properlydisassemble small block Chevy en-gines using only hand tools and followproper disassembly and reassemblyprocedures.

This is a competition against theclock, so time added penalties may beissued. For specific rules and regula-tions visit the Hot Rodders of Tomor-row online(www.hotroddersoftomorrow.com).

“Hosting a regional event for theHot Rodders of Tomorrow is one waywe can foster the growth of the hobbyand the industry,” said Event ManagerRick Marko.

“This competition encourageskids with automotive interests to pur-sue a career in the automotive worldand with the scholarships that are

made available; it insures an educa-tion and an opportunity to follow thatdream.”

In selecting the Carlisle GM Na-tionals as a regional qualifier, the HotRodders of Tomorrow has partneredwith one of the most diverse All-GMevents in the world.

Over 1,400 vehicles from all erasare showcased yearly in Carlisle andoffer the opportunity for not onlyShowfield competition, but also tomeet like-minded enthusiasts ofchrome classics, muscle cars, streetrods, modified customs and high-per-formance models.

Whether you spend a few hoursor the entire weekend in Carlisle, youwill enjoy special vehicle displays thatare second to none.

PA High Schools to Compete in Engine Build Competition in Carlisle

fense, meaning police could stop aperson for that violation alone.

When the Legislature failed topass previous distracted and teen driv-ing proposals, specifically House Bills67 and 2070, by the end of the lastsession in December, some legislatorsvowed to continue the fight when thenew session convened in January.

Watson and Shapiro eachclaimed their bills have widespreadbipartisan support.

The proposals come just weeksafter Pennsylvania received a failinggrade for driving safety legislationfrom a national safe driving advocacygroup (see page 6).

Advocates for Highway and AutoSafety ranked Pennsylvania as one ofthe seven worst performing stateswhen it comes to the adoption of 15overall basic laws the group believesare essential to reducing deaths andinjuries on the nation’s highways andreducing health care costs.

The group determined thatPennsylvania, through 2010, enactedonly 6 ½ of 15 basic safe driving

laws overall and only 3 ½ of the 7laws it proposes for safe teen driving.Pennsylvania received an overall“Danger” rating, the group findingthat the “state falls dangerously be-hind” in adoption of the basic life-saving laws.

Continued from Page 16

PA Teens

While complaints about long linesat the DMV may never come to anend, the state Department of Trans-portation says things are improving.

The average wait for a driverlicense and ID card is about 37 min-utes in New Castle. The averagewait is 20 minutes or less in Dover,Georgetown and greater Wilming-ton. The current wait for a vehicletitling and registration is eight min-utes except at the greater Wilming-ton DMV, where the wait time isabout 12 minutes on average.

DMV Director Jennifer Cohansaid, “We are proposing two newpolicy changes that will respect thedivision’s safety and security mis-sions, while improving overall op-erations.”

Please visit dmv.de.gov formore information.

DelDOT Says DMVWait Times Improving

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’sproposed state budget containsslightly more money for the newagency he wants to create by combin-ing existing banking and insuranceregulatory departments than they nowget, according to Insurance Journal.

Cuomo’s proposed 2011-2012budget recommends $564 million forthe new Department of Financial Reg-ulation, reflecting a net increase of ap-proximately $6.4 million over thecombined 2010-11 budgets of thebanking and insurance departments.

The new DFR would consolidatethe functions, operations and staff ofthe banking and insurance depart-ments, along with related segments ofthe Consumer Protection Board.

The funding increase reflects ex-penses related to the consolidationplus some additional resources toallow the DFR to perform more onsiteexaminations of insurance companies,which the budget projects will resultin savings to the insurance industry byreducing direct-pay examinations thatinsurers currently pay outside vendorsto do.

The DFR’s operations will be pri-marily funded through assessmentscharged to regulated insurance andbanking institutions and organiza-tions. The remainder of the operatingbudget will be derived from licensingand other fees.

Of the recommended $564 mil-lion, the department’s operatingbudget totals $550 million while theremaining $14 million is an appropri-ation for the State Transmitter ofMoney Insurance Fund, which pro-tects funds that New Yorkers elec-tronically transfer via commercialthird parties.

“This consolidation satisfies thedual public policy objectives of betterserving the consumers, businesses andinvestors in the state and making gov-ernment more cost-effective,” theCuomo Administration says in sup-porting documents.

The administration says that allof the existing supervisory, regula-tory and enforcement powers con-tained within the state’s bankingand insurance laws will remain in-tact.

A new Superintendent of Finan-cial Regulation will assume the re-sponsibilities of the superintendents ofthe banking and insurance depart-ments, as well as expanded responsi-bilities for consumer and investorprotection over financial products,services and transactions. The super-intendent also will administer anewly-created Financial Frauds andConsumer Protection Unit (FFCPU),which is supposed to be a centralrepository for consumer financialcomplaints.

This unit will have “broad au-thority to investigate activities thatmay constitute financial fraud or mis-conduct,” including the authority toimpose civil penalties and recoverrestitution for consumers who areharmed by financial frauds.

Under Cuomo’s proposal, the su-perintendent will be someone ap-pointed by the governor, with theconsent of the Senate.

DFR’s main offices will be lo-cated in Albany and New York Citywith smaller offices located through-out the state.

Cuomo first proposed the DFRin his State of the Union message inJanuary. In the speech, Cuomo saidthat the current state bureaucracy isill-structured to police Wall Street anda changing financial services indus-try.

“Our current organization is noteffective because it is not organizedthe way Wall Street works any more,”Cuomo said. “These divisions of in-surance and banking and consumerprotection don’t exist in the market-place and much of the activity is

falling between the cracks of our reg-ulatory entities.”

He said combining the agencieswill improve their ability to protectconsumers while also reducing ad-ministrative costs.

A key trade group for insurers hassaid it supports the attempt to reducecosts.

“We applaud Governor Cuomofor his efforts to reduce state spend-ing,” said Ellen Melchionni, presidentof the New York Insurance Associa-tion (NYIA). “Since the insurance andbanking departments are funded bythe respective industries these entitiesregulate, we look forward to a reduc-tion in the assessments levied on NewYork businesses.”

The banking and insurance con-solidation is one of several proposedby Cuomo. The governor has pro-posed to merge or consolidate 11 sep-arate state entities into four agencies.In addition to his proposal to mergebanking, insurance and consumer pro-tection into DFR, he is also askinglawmakers to approve the merging ofthe Department of Correctional Serv-

New York Gov.’s Budget Details Banking, Insurance Regulation Merger

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The fourth and final wave of the“Phone in one hand. Ticket in theother.” pilot campaign to test the ef-fectiveness of high-visibility enforce-ment for distracted driving will beginthis weekend in Hartford, Connecti-cut, running from February 26ththrough March 4th, according to re-ports made by Consumer Reports.

The program funded by the De-partment of Transportation started lastspring in Hartford, as well as in Syra-cuse, NY, to test whether increasedlaw enforcement and public advertis-ing will help deter drivers from talk-ing, texting, or checking email with ahandheld cell phone when behind thewheel.

The previous three waves re-sulted in over 7,200 tickets given outfor handheld cell phone use and tex-ting in Hartford.

Syracuse police wrote up 6,600tickets. After the first two waves,handheld cell phone use dropped 56

percent in Hartford and 38 percent inSyracuse.

Texting while driving was re-duced by 68 percent in Hartford and42 percent in Syracuse.

The final Syracuse wave willoccur April 7-16th.

Drivers heading through theHartford or Syracuse areas on thosedates will need to be aware that policewill be out in force ticketing driversfor using cell phones behind thewheel.

Currently, nine states, plus theDistrict of Columbia ban handheldcell phone use and 30 states plus theDistrict of Columbia ban texting be-hind the wheel.

In order for a national enforce-ment program to go in effect, all stateswill need to enact bans, but the resultsfrom this pilot will help to providebest practices for police to ticket theseoffenses and to educate other states orcities to enact their own campaigns.

Connecticut Set to Begin Final DistractedDriving Enforcement Campaign

ices and the Division of Parole into anew Department of Corrections andCommunity Supervision; consolidat-ing the Office for the Prevention ofDomestic Violence, the Office of Vic-tim Services and the State Commis-sion of Correction into the Division ofCriminal Justice Services; and consol-idating the New York State Founda-tion for Science, Technology andInnovation into the Empire State De-velopment Corp.

“New York is at a crossroads, andwe must seize this opportunity, makehard choices and set our state on anew path toward prosperity,” Cuomosaid in announcing his budget.

“We simply cannot afford to keepspending at our current rate. Just likeNew York’s families and businesseshave had to do, New York State mustface economic reality. This budgetachieves real, year-to-year savingswhile restructuring the way we man-age our state government. This is thefirst step toward building a new NewYork.”

Cuomo said his proposed 2011-2012 budget eliminates a $10 billiondeficit without raising taxes or bor-rowing.

A three-bill package designed to pro-mote the buying of electric vehiclesby New Jersey residents and busi-nesses through tax credits was ap-proved February 17 by the Assembly,according to reports made by News-room New Jersey.

The package sponsored by nineAssembly Democrats comes shortlyafter President Barack Obama, in hisState of the Union address, pledged towork to put a million advanced tech-nology vehicles such as electric carsand hybrids on American roads by2015.

The bills would:● Provide a corporation business

tax credit or a gross income tax de-duction for the purchase and installa-tion of electric vehicle chargingstations (A-3650). The proposal wasapproved 46-18-13.

● Provide a corporation businesstax credit or a gross income tax de-duction for the purchase of an electricvehicle or plug-in hybrid electric ve-hicle and a corporation business taxcredit for the purchase of an electrictruck or electric bus (A-3651). The

bill was approved 46-18-13.● Urge Congress and Obama to pro-

vide financial support and other in-centives to the states to promote andincentivize the purchase of electricand hybrid electric automobiles (AR-133). The measure was approved 53-17-7.

“It’s clear that electric cars canplay a lead role in tackling some ofour biggest concerns, whether it beour reliance on foreign oil or envi-ronmental and health concerns,”Assemblywoman Connie Wagner(D-Bergen). “These bills will helpsteer New Jersey in the right direc-tion.”

“We should be supportingcleaner energy alternatives such aselectric vehicles to invest in our fu-ture,” Assemblyman Daniel R. Ben-son (D-Mercer) said. “It will mean acleaner environment, a stronger econ-omy and job creation for our resi-dents.”

Wagner and Benson are joined inthe sponsorship of the package by As-sembly members Craig J. Coughlin(D-Middlesex), Angel Fuentes (D-

Camden), Valerie Vainieri Huttle(D-Bergen), Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer), Kevin J. Ryan (D-Essex),Gilbert “Whip” Wilson (D-Cam-den) and Majority Leader JosephCryan (D-Union).


Assembly Approves 3 Bills Regarding EVs in New Jersey

A New Jersey body shop owner haspleaded guilty to defrauding insurersof nearly $52,000 by submitting fakeinvoices for repair parts, according toClaims Journal.

Prosecutors say DivyakantPatel, owner of J&R Body Mastersin Perth Amboy, admitted to includ-ing fraudulent invoices in bills hisbody shop sent to insurers from Nov.2006 through May 2010. The insur-ance companies defrauded were En-terprise Rent-A-Car, High PointInsurance, Liberty Mutual, 21st Cen-tury Insurance, NJ Manufacturers,GEICO, Allstate, SIA, Mercury, Pro-gressive, Palisades, Ameriprise/IDSProperty and Casualty, Met Life andHanover Insurance. Patel was sen-tenced to five years probation, has topay a $51,946 fine and serve 100hours of community service.

New Jersey Body Shop OwnerSentenced for $52K Scam


www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

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Before my father passed away wespent several years under the hood ofcars working together at my shop. Hewas an old school repair guy. Alwayslooking out for the customer, andwanting to do that little bit extra forthem. You know, adjust that crookedlicense plate, grease the door hingesbefore they pulled away from theshop, that kind of thing.

I usually did the diagnostic work,and he would stick with the mechan-ical repairs. But most of the time hisfavorite thing to do was to entertainthe customer while I figured out theproblem.

The one thing that would givehim fits was the way a customerwould react after I diagnosed theproblem, especially if I diagnosed itquickly.

A quick diagnostic might be finefor some people, but others it wasmore of a matter of pride that their“regular” mechanic hadn’t found it soquickly, or that the customer them-selves didn’t find it so easily. It did-n’t set well with them.

I got the impression that a quickdiagnosis led to some sort of mistrustwith my abilities, or that I didn’t thor-oughly examine the problem to theirsatisfaction. A lot of times it had moreto do with the previous techniciantaking so much time and not comingup with an answer, so they think itcan’t be that simple.

Dad had his own answer for it.He was going to get one of those alu-

minum foil fire suits, a couple of tallcurtains on moveable stands, a discoball, and some strobe lights. His ideawas to pull the car into this “special”diagnostic area turn on the strobelights and hang the disco ball over thecar. Stick the suit on and make somecomment like, “I’m going in…” andthen let the light show begin. After afew minutes, come out from behindthe curtain wall, whip off the alu-minum fire suit hood and say some-thing like, “Whoo that was a toughone.” Maybe then, these types of peo-ple would be more likely to believethe results of a quick diagnosis.

We never tried it, but I thinkabout doing it from time to time.With the advent of the scanners toread and show detailed parameters di-agnosing has taken on a whole newapproach.

A lot of problems are a matter offollowing the diagnostic tree correctlyto get to the source of the problem.(Codes don’t fix cars… codes are thestarting point) Sometimes it’s a quicktrip on the diagnostic ladder, andother times it’s quite lengthy. It reallydepends on the problem, of course.

Trying to be quick and on theright track with every diagnosis iswhat makes the money in the shop.Stalling the results just for the sake ofmaking it look like it was an exten-sive search to find the problem does-n’t make a lot of sense to me.

Then on the other hand, I some-times believe this is one of the many

reasons why a doctor has you wait solong for his 10 minutes of time. Eventhough he may have walked into theexam room, looked at the chart, tooksome quick looks at you, and back outof the exam room in less than 10 min-utes, I’ll guarantee his bill isn’t goingto show a 10 minute charge on it.But, in my business, time is money…and most customers are watching theclock.

Back in the days when my fatherand I worked together, he came acrossan old Bosch injector tester for theearly K and L injection systems. Theold tester was done for. Not only wasit dated, it had several missing con-nectors and the information bookletdidn’t come with it.

I took it apart and rewired it asa large volt meter, with a lightedbuzzer attached to a separate set ofwires. We then rigged up a swingingarm mounted to the wall out of PVCpipe. The pipe contained the wires tothe tester that we mounted on thewall. It was more for decorationthan usable, but it was kinda cool inits own funky way.

Anytime we got one of those“lookylews” (one of my dad’s favoritewords), you know the type, the kindthat has to hover over the hood whileyou’re working on it. Dad would mo-tion to me to wire up the buzzer to thebattery, and use it as a way to find thedraw or short in the car.

His job was to entertain, while Ilooked for the problem. Most of the

time, I’d study the wiring diagrams,determine the most likely spot for theproblem, and find the solution. As Iwould get close to the problem Iwould intentionally ground out thebuzzer on the wall, and it would makea horrible noise.

Dad would make a comment tothe customer as to what was going on.His old school charm was what madethe difference. At times this wholething would get quite humorous. I’dbe lying under the dash zapping thebuzzer and good old dad would beworking his magic with his broadsmile, and his quirky sense of humor.

These days the electronic scan-ners have somewhat evened the play-ing field. To some degree the abilitiesof a good tech are now wrapped up ina good quality diagnostic machine.But it still takes a good tech to under-stand it, and evaluate the informationhe/she sees on the screen.

I still try to diagnose things as fastand accurately as I can. I don’t havethe old buzzer, or my dad’s inventiveconversations with the customers tohelp me with the diagnostics. It’s amemory I’ll never forget. But, I’ll al-ways keep in mind some of those les-sons from my father… “Take yourtime son, you’re good… but they (thecustomer) don’t know how good youare… so you’ll have to prove it to themeach and every time.”

Old school wisdom is still im-portant, and fatherly advice is someof the best

A Quick Diagnostic Can Seem too Good to be Truewith Gonzo Weaver

Gonzo’s Toolbox This is a new story by Scott “Gonzo” Weaver as posted on his website,www.gonzostoolbox.com. See his book “Hey Look! I Found The LooseNut”, which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age. The bookis available at amazon.com. Contact Gonzo at [email protected]

ABRA Auto Body & Glass, basedin Minneapolis, announced thatJim Richardson has been namedVice President of ABRA Glass.Richardson will play an instrumen-tal role in meeting growth objec-

tives in the auto glass division.Richardson was most recently

employed with PPG Industries. Dur-ing his tenure with PPG he served asDirector of Sales, Director of AlliancePrograms and Business Development

and most recently, Segment Managerin their Architectural Coatings Divi-sion where he was responsible forstrategic planning, revenue contribu-tion and resource utilization manage-ment.

“Jim will fill a key strategic po-sition for ABRA. His depth of knowl-edge... and experience as a Six SigmaBlack Belt will be a positive contribu-tion,” said Scott Krohn, ABRA’s Ex-ecutive Vice President of Operations.

ABRA Auto Body & Glass Announces New VP of Auto Glass Division


Automobiles today are sophisticatedand are controlled by a series of in-ternal computer systems, whichmeans the diagnostics require specificsoftware and hardware.

On top of that the basic serviceenvironments have not changed. Theyare still fraught with grime and po-tential hazards that could damage thediagnostic equipment. We now needdigital diagnostics equipment thatwill withstand these normal dailyservice bay environmental issues andtoday ruggedized notebook comput-ers fill that bill very well.

That is one of the reasons WadeFord of Atlanta, Georgia decided toswitch from PDAs to ruggedized lap-tops for diagnostic and reprogram-ming purposes.

Ford no longer supported thePDA application, so Wade needednew durable notebooks to connect tothe cars.

“The reason we needed a ruggednotebook was because of the environ-ment they are used in—where thetechnicians are using them is an openenvironment. They really just need to

be able to be bumped around and notgo down,” said Dave Tackett, Con-troller of Wade Ford.

Initially, the only solution Fordprovided was Panasonic Toughbooks.Despite Toughbook’s excellent repu-tation, Wade Ford felt that the prod-uct was too pricey for them.

So Tackett researched alterna-tives online and talked to others in thefield before finding the Eagle ruggedseries from a 10-year old establishedprovider of rugged portable devicescalled Rugged Notebooks.com.

“I knew there had to be otherrugged notebooks out there besidesthe Toughbook. I had heard of Dellhaving one, but again it was too ex-pensive. Rugged Notebooks’ Eaglepretty much fit the bill for what Ineeded. For the price of one Tough-book, I could get two Eagles!”

Of course ruggedness and pricewere important factors in WadeFord’s decision to choose an alterna-tive solution, but the ability to runFord’s proprietary software programwas also a primary concern.

With Rugged Notebooks Eagle,

the technicians were able to easily in-stall the software, and Tackett simplymade sure it was connected to theirin-house system.

“We have to connect two vehi-cles through a Ford proprietary linkand all the diagnostics, all the repro-gramming, goes through that connec-tivity. So we had to have a laptop tomake the connection, but a regularlaptop wasn’t going to work becausethe technician transfers data around.”

Tackett said there are 4000 Forddealers in the U.S. and all using thesame application. He recommendsthat all of them consider switching tothe Eagle as a lower cost rugged so-lution.

“The price-point was the biggestdeal, and the fact that it was rugged.The only extra thing I purchased wasthe touch screens, which the techni-cians really seemed to like,” ex-plained Tackett. “They like thembecause the screens are quite a bit big-ger than they were on the Toughbooksthat Ford was suggesting.”

But here is the real bottom line.When asked how the Rugged Note-

book Eagle laptops have improved hisefficiency, Tackett had this to say, “Ifwe don’t have them, we can’t dowork. That’s just about as simple as itgets.”

Wade Ford Atlanta Chooses an Alternative Diagnostic Solution

Progressive’s Snapshot EDRNow Available in 32 StatesProgressive Insurance company an-nouced details about their new pro-gram called the Snapshot Discount.The Snapshot Discount is a form ofPay-As-You-Drive insurance whichgives the clients an opportunity todiscount the rates of their car insur-ance assuming they display gooddriving habits. Progressive is the firstauto-insurance company to introducethis concept to the market.

The Snapshot Discount device isplaced in the On Board Diagnostic portusually found on the steering wheel. Itworks by tracking and analyzing theclient’s driving routines for a period ofsix months.

Then it calculates the total dis-count earned by the client. The EDRdevice does not record the where-abouts of the car, or, reportedly howfast the client drives. The device is notequipped with GPS system.

If there was ever any doubt that theauto industry is now a completelyglobal enterprise, Japan’s devastat-ing quake, wave, and nuclear disas-ter is proving that no automaker cango it alone. One week after the dev-astating tsunami the situation is stillcritical and most of Japan’s hugeauto industry is teetering, costing theglobal industry hundreds of millionsof dollars.● On Thursday, March 17, AmericanHonda Motor Co. Executive VicePresident John Mendel sent a memoto U.S. Honda and Acura dealers say-ing the disaster in Japan will disruptdealer orders into May.● General Motors’ Shreveport, La,factory, which builds the Chevrolet

Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups,closed because it ran out of a Japan-ese part that it did not identify. GMsaid March 19 it is cutting unneces-sary spending companywide as it as-sesses the impact of productiondisruptions from the earthquake andtsunami in Japan.● Toyota Motor Corp. and Subaru ofIndiana Automotive Inc. slowedNorth American production to rationtheir parts. Toyota’s initial freeze inproduction has been extended untilMarch 22. In an attempt to limit the fi-nancial losses that will come as a re-sult of the production freeze, Toyotaalso announced its decision to resumethe production of spare parts for vehi-cles already on the market beginningThursday, March 17.● Last week U.S. Customs directed allport operations to begin screening ar-riving Japanese sea and air cargo, in-cluding vehicles and auto parts, forradiation contamination.● At Sonic Automotive Inc., the na-tion’s third-largest dealership group,Jeff Dyke, executive vice president of

retail operations, said Sonic “is pre-pared to supplement our new-vehicleinventory with quality nearly newused vehicles should the manufactur-ing disruptions interrupt new vehicleinventory supplies longer than cur-rently anticipated.”

Automotive NewsWriter LindsayChappell reports that as Japan’s esca-lating disaster comes ashore in NorthAmerica, automakers, suppliers anddealers are preparing for what couldbe unprecedented shortages of partsand vehicles.● While Honda was the hardest hit ofOEMs in Japan, more than 80% ofHonda and Acura products sold in theU.S. are produced in North America,and the vast majority of automotiveparts for Honda automobiles manu-factured in North America are sourcedin the region.● Nissan Americas manufacturing op-erations plan to follow a normal pro-duction schedule for at least untilFriday, March 25. The supply chain isbeing continuously assessed. Nissansaid all North American manufactur-

ing plants will continue to operate onschedule. It does not expect any short-term impact on sales or availability ofcars and trucks. In addition, the com-pany has a 50 days’ supply of vehiclestock in North America or already intransit from Japanese ports.● Autoliv Inc., the world’s biggestproducer of car safety products likeseatbelts and airbags, said productionhad been halted at one of its threeJapanese plants, although all theplants were undamaged. Autoliv sup-plies Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi,Honda, and Mazda.● Mazda Motor Corporation previ-ously announced the suspension ofproduction at its Hiroshima and Hofuplants from the night shift on March14, until March 21.● Mark Fields of Ford said the com-pany was assessing production on aday-to-day basis.

That it was GM—rather than oneof the Japanese automakers, which de-pend on many parts from their homecountry—that succumbed first to theshortage shows how much the indus-


Japan’s Quake, Tsunami Roils US Auto Industryas Yen surges, Autos and parts’ prices likely to climb


try depends on far-flung suppliers. ButToyota and Honda have shut theirplants in Japan until next week as theytry to repair damaged facilities, assessthe state of their suppliers and deter-mine how to restart production safely.

“The modern auto industry hasnever faced a natural or humancalamity on the scale of today’s crisisin Japan,” Michael Robinet, the di-rector of global production forecastsfor the research firm IHS Automotive,wrote in a report.

G.M. said its assembly plant inShreveport, La., which makes a pairof compact pickup truck models,would be closed for at least a week,starting March 21.

The company said it would re-sume operations there as soon as pos-sible, but gave no estimated date fordoing so.

“Like all global automakers, wewill continue to follow the events inJapan closely to determine the busi-ness impact, working across the or-ganization to maximize flexibility,supply the most critical operations andeffectively manage cost,” G.M. said ina statement.

Production at Ford Motor has notbeen affected, but officials are still as-sessing the situation, Mark Fields, thepresident of Ford’s Americas division,said. “It’s literally an hour-by-hour,day-by-day type of thing that’s going

to unfold,” he told reporters at an eventto commemorate the start of produc-tion of the new Ford Focus compactcar near Detroit. “We have to first un-derstand what is the situation there,and then we’ll determine the appropri-ate actions that we need to take.”

So far, all auto plants in NorthAmerica have stayed open despite thetroubles in Japan, although Toyota andSubaru have canceled overtime shiftsto slow production and avoid deplet-ing part inventories.

In Japan, most plants remainclosed. Mitsubishi began bringingplants back up March 16, and twoNissan plants in Kyushu restarted op-erations on March 17, but Nissan was

uncertain whether it could keep themrunning for more than a few days.

Toyota has said its Japaneseplants would remain closed through atleast March 22.

Each lost workday for the car-makers in Japan costs them a total ofabout 37,000 vehicles, Mr. Robinetsaid. He estimated a total loss of morethan 285,000 vehicles, assuming mostplants can be restarted within a week.

Every automaker faces slightlydifferent circumstances. At Volvo, forexample, about 10 percent of the partscome from 33 Japanese suppliers,seven of which were in the catastro-phe area, including one on the edge ofthe nuclear security zone.

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New York Invoice Disclosure Legislation IntroducedNew York State Sen.TobyAnn Stavisky,D-16, introduced New York Senate Bill1218 relating to vehicle repair shop guar-antees. The bill requires that shops pro-vide certain information regardinginvoices and work guarantees. The legis-lation stipulates:● The invoice provided by the motor ve-hicle repair shop in accordance with Sub-division 1 of the bill shall conspicuouslyset forth the terms and time limit of anyguarantee for the repair work performed.

● The invoice shall further contain a state-ment to the effect that complaints regard-ing the functional adequacy of the repairwork performed may be directed to thedepartment, but in no event later than 90days or 3,000 miles of the repair,whichever comes first.● The provisions of this subdivision shallnot be construed to limit or abridge anystatutory or other right or remedy of a con-sumer at law or in equity. If passed intolaw, will take effect January 2012.

New Jersey Insurers Advocate Fraud Fighting LegislationThe Property Casualty Insurers Associa-tion of America (PCI) says it wants NewJersey lawmakers to adopt legislationsthat would enhance fraud-fighting efforts.

The insurers’ trade group, which tes-tified Feb. 3 in support of the bill, says thepending legislation would broaden thescope of information sharing between in-surance carriers and law enforcement. Itwould also make “reverse rate evasion”—in which a resident registers and insureshis vehicle in another state—a violation of

the “New Jersey Insurance Fraud Preven-tionAct,” and provides for additional anti-fraud measures to be added to that act.

“Insurance fraud hurts all con-sumers,” saidRichard Stokes, PCI coun-sel and regional manager for New Jersey.PCI said nearly a quarter of all question-able claims in New Jersey (23 percent)stem from faked or exaggerated injuries,the number of which doubled from 183 in2007 to 379 in 2009, the most recent yearfor which complete statistics are available.


This year many collision shop ownersand managers may be heading to LasVegas for the SEMA Show rather thanto Florida for NACE. But only a fewhave grasped what it means to jumpon the SEMA bandwagon.

In 1993, marketing authors AlRies and Jack Trout came out with abook entitled, “The 22 ImmutableLaws of Marketing.” Number one intheir book is “The Law of Leadership—It’s better to be first than it is to bebetter.” They note that Bert Hinklerwas the second person to fly the At-lantic solo. He did it faster thanCharles Lindbergh, consumed lessfuel and did it more efficiently, butonly Lindbergh did it first and got thefame.

In collision repair, there havebeen many firsts. Those shops that of-fered waterborne paint first got thejump on the later “me too” crowd.Now there is a new opportunity to be

first. In my area, there are only a cou-ple of shops offering “Cosmetic CarUpgrades,” but I predict after moreshop owners take a close look atSEMA, they will all jump on thishighly profitable bandwagon.

Learn From the DealershipsAs the profit per car sold has gradu-ally decreased, new car dealers havehad to get very creative in the waysthey can make a profit.

Most dealerships have a mer-chandise store where they sell everyimaginable accessory and restylingproduct. How profitable are thesestores?

I attended SEMA for the firsttime in 2004. I read that in 2003, salesof specialty parts rose to a record $29billion! From 2002 to 2003, the saleof vehicle body accessories increaseda billion dollars, from $7.3 billion, to$8.3 billion. Audio and entertainment

component sales increased from $3.4billion to $3.8 billion. Even wash andwax product sales increased by $200million.

Performance tires, custom wheelsand suspension and steering enhance-ment sales increased by nearly a bil-lion dollars, from $6.5 to $7.2 billion.We’re not just talking millions, here.We’re talking about BILLIONS! Thisis serious money! Retail sales of theseproducts increased more than twice asfast as the general economy.

Much of the growth came fromsales of parts and accessories for sportcompact cars, but there was also anexplosion in the sale of everythingfrom ten dollar vinyl flame decals to$3000 turbochargers.

Younger buyers are looking forflashy items like custom seat covers,but also performance upgrades. Notevery shop owner wants to get in-volved in engine work, but young

buyers are looking for nitrous oxideinjection systems and performance ex-haust systems to dramatically boostthe horsepower of their small car en-gines.

Nevertheless collision shops caneasily offer custom wheels and tires toadd uniqueness. Window tinting isbig, along with chrome runningboards. If the only time people arecoming to a body shop is when theyhave an accident, the shop owner ismissing out a very big piece of poten-tial business.

Change May Be HardWhat percentage of this revenue coulda shop owner capture with a bit of cre-ative marketing? And more impor-tantly, what would it do for his or hercollision repair business to get thesevehicle-savvy, eager buyers visitingthe shop?

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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] Tom’s columns at www.autobodynews.com under Columnists > Franklin

See Cosmetic Upgrade, Page 29


SHOP & PRODUCTSHOP & PRODUCTSHOWCASESHOWCASE

When most of us think about hail, wethink of stormy weather. But in partsof the country, hail means big moneyfor body shops. When hail-proneplaces like Northern Texas, Okla-homa, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansasand Alabama, get grapefruit-sized orpebble-sized hailstones it can quicklychange peoples’ lives. And it hap-pens every year during hail season,which normally starts in March andcan run all the way through October.

Park Place Bodywerks in Dallas,Texas and a growing enterprisecalled Global Paintless Dent Repair(PDR) Solutions (GPS) have a“stormy relationship” that is bothprofitable and beneficial for both par-ties.

According to Eric McKenzie, 36,the body shop director at Park PlaceBodywerks, his shop did $1.8 millionmonthly in revenues without the as-sistance of any DRP’s. About 98% ofthe 500 cars that Park Place Bodyw-erks repairs every month are high-end luxury brands that the companysells through its 12 dealerships lo-cated in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro-plex, McKenzie said.

The handful of nameplates soldand serviced by Park Place Motorsreads like the best-of-the-best, in-cluding Mercedes-Benz, Lexus,Porsche, Volvo, Jaguar, Bentley,Maserati, Rolls Royce, McLaren(when it hits the U.S. in June of thisyear), Smart Cars and an occasionalMaybach.

GPS was founded eight yearsago, when three different PDR com-panies with more than 45 years in-dustry experience joined forces.After seeing drastic changes withinthe world of PDR and realizing thatthe specialty was experiencing adrop in quality and customer service,these visionaries decided to takePDR to the next level. The movepaid off because, in just a short time,GPS had seen an astronomicalspike in market share and growth,according to company representa-tives.

McKenzie initially found outabout GPS by working with one ofits eventual owners, Scott Dietz,more than nine years ago, he ex-plained. “We had a major hailstorm in 2003 where approximately100,000 cars were reportedly dam-aged in this area. I was an assis-tant manager at another luxurybrand dealership at that time andsome of that company’s largerDRPs wanted us to try some oftheir approved vendors for PDR,

because this particular hail stormwas so big. So we brought in a fewcompanies and gave them a shot,but they basically didn’t do a verygood job. There were some issueswith quality, timeliness and thetechs weren’t available to us all thetime. They would show up on Mon-day, and then leave Thursday af-ternoon, and then we wouldn’t seethem again until Tuesday morning,with cars stacked up out thedoors.”

With these high-end luxury cars,customer service needs to be notjust satisfactory but exemplary dayafter day, McKenzie stressed. “If ourvendor isn’t providing top service,then we logically can’t pass it on toour customers, so it was a struggleto us. With some shops, maybethat’s okay, but with us, it has to beperfect. We gave three or four ofthese companies a shot, all referredby our DRPs, and we couldn’t rely onany of them.”

That’s when McKenzie first metScott Dietz. “Scott became our go-toguy in ’03, because he was so reli-able; his work was quick, accurateand phenomenal,” McKenzie said.“He was with us through October thatyear and we were obviously very im-pressed. He even came back whenstragglers came through, right upuntil the end of the year. After thatstorm, Scott and his partners startedGPS and when I came to Park Place,one of the first things I did was hirethem.

“These techs who really knowhow to do PDR at a high level aretruly craftsmen. When it’s not done

properly, the telltale sign is that youcan still see the dent. The marksfrom pushing on the dent are appar-ent when it’s not done correctly. Youcan either see traces of the dent orin massaging the area they push toohard and can actually push it past thedent and make tool marks. Or theyget into the headliner and damage itor mess up the electrical. We wereexperiencing a litany of these prob-lems until we contracted with GPS.Getting half of the dents out of a ve-hicle just doesn’t make it, especiallywhen you’re working on a RollsRoyce, for example.

Turning the vehicles in and outquickly is a major factor when PDRis performed, especially when thestorms are more serious, McKenziesaid. “With our previous PDR ven-dors, it would typically take 2-4 daysor longer to get the job done. But,with GPS it’s always two days max,with more accuracy and a better joboverall.”

During the larger storms, PDRmeans decent revenue for ParkPlace, McKenzie said. “GPS givesus a healthy percentage of each job,so yes—it definitely makes financialsense for us to work with them. Pro-viding top quality is our first priority,but to make some money along theway is a major bonus.”

McKenzie is not afraid to tellother body shop owners about GPS,he said. “Their quality is excellentand we’ve recommended GPS toseveral shops. I’m in a 20 Group andI’ve recommended them across thecountry and they’re pleased withthem as well.”

Park Place Bodywerks did $1.8 million permonth last year in revenues fixing an averageof 500 cars per month at $3,800

Park Place BodywerksLocation: Dallas, TX

Telephone: 214-443-8250www.parkplace.com

Company At A Glance...

Type: Collision Repair

Facility Employees: 70

In Business Since: 1987

DRP Programs: Zero

Number of Locations: One

Combined Production Space:

87,000 square feet

Global PDRCompany Contact: Bob LombardAddress: 5505 West KelloggWichita, KS 67209Phone: (877) GLBL-PDRemail: [email protected]: www.globalpdr.com

Park Place Bodywerks works on most of the top brands, including Rolls Royce. The quality of theirPDR must be exemplary each and every time

Global PDR Solutions & Park Place BodywerksHail the Hail

Park Place’s Body Shop Director Eric McKenziehas an ongoing relationship with Global PDRSolutions to provide his customers with high-end paintless dent repairs and book revenuewhen the hail storms hit

by Ed Attanasio

I had the recent pleasure of attendingmy first Northeast 2011 Trade Show atthe Meadowlands Exposition Center inSecaucus, NJ, on Friday and Saturday,March 18–19, 2011. For the benefit ofthose who were unable to attend I’ll domy best to summarize some of the pre-sentations here, but all who are ableshould plan to attend next year. It’s avery worthwhile event and a greatvalue for collision repairers.

Waterborne Panel Sponsored by BASFWith pending regulations in theNortheast which will very likely man-date adopting waterborne paint tominimize VOCs, many shop ownershave questions about converting towaterborne systems. Many of thoseregulations will come from the Ozone

Transport Commission, a coalition ofeleven East Coast states and the Dis-trict of Columbia which advises theEPA on regional solutions to air pol-lution. The OTC has adopted a modelrule, which is based on the recentlyadopted Delaware rule. Delaware,which is a member of the OTC, has al-ready set the following allowableVOC content for various refinishproducts: Primer: 2.1 lbs./gal; Clearcoating: 2.1; Base coat: 3.5; Multi-color coat: 5.7; Sealer: 5.4; Single-stage coat: 2.8.

The American Coatings Associa-tion’s Automotive Refinish Coalitionhas urged the OTC to move forwardwith adoption of the Delaware rule,which is based on the California man-dates, for all its member states.

Anticipating this, BASF hosted apanel at Northeast to discuss water-borne paint and the cost of an effec-

tive transition to awaterborne paintsystem. Tom Ho-erner, StrategicInitiatives forBASF Refinish,hosted the panel,directing ques-tions to six indi-

viduals experienced with waterbornepaint: Tom Elder of Compact Kars,Inc.; Tom Smetanka, the GeneralManager of Central Paint; Tom Beck,owner of Future Care; Kevin Hundt,sales representative for BASF; LuigiZucchet of USI of North America,Inc.; and Bob Hickey, sales managerwith SL Marketing Specialists.

Hoerner began by asking gener-ally about today’s regulations forwater-based paint. Hundt respondedthat there are no specific regulations

in the northeast yet, or indeed any-where other than in California, Europeand Canada which are 100% regu-lated. Although discussions during thepast few years have yielded no exactdate, moving to waterborne has be-come a strategic focus and will bemandated eventually.

Asked about the advisability ofconverting to waterborne systemsearly, before any mandates, Hundtpointed out waterborne systems arebetter for the environment, and offermany benefits to shop, such as pro-

viding easier coverage due to heavierpigment loads and being safer, but notcompletely safe for employees.Smetanka suggested that getting one’sshop converted before any mandatesoccur might provide shop owners witha better chance to get help from job-bers and manufacturers and give moretime to understand and perfect usageof the product before the regulationsare passed.

Beck explained that the most im-portant need for a successful conver-sion is the support of one’s localjobber which is aided by convertingearly while jobbers have more time tospend with individual shops. Elder,Smetanka and Hundt all agreed thattraining and everyone in the shop buy-ing into the change are the most im-portant aspects when converting towaterborne. With regard to what im-provements are needed in equipment,Hickey stressed the importance of en-

suring an adequate clean air supplyand a shops compressors’ CFM beingable to handle the demands of theequipment, including the possibility ofextra hand-held blowers. Smetankacited the importance of keeping theshop clean to avoid dust being stirredby the increased velocity of the air, aswaterborne is more sensitive than sol-vent to airborne contamination.

Concerning the importance ofinvesting in extra air movement,Elder and Smetanka agreed that it isabsolutely essential to increase theamount of clean, dry air movementover that required by solvent flashingwhen using waterborne paints. Beckemphasized the consistency that ismade possible by robotic and stan-dardized equipment in factory envi-ronments. Hundt and Hickey agreedon the importance of adjusting tem-perature and air flow while monitor-ing humidity, and Zucchet cited the


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with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,

who works in a variety of fields and subjects, but grew up in a family of NASCARfans. She can be contacted at [email protected].

AASP/NJ’s Northeast™ 2011 Trade Show—A Wealth of Information for Shops

Tom Hoerner

Northeast™ 2011 Waterborne panel (l to r): Tom Elder, Tom Smetanka, Tom Beck, Kevin Hundt,Luigi Zucchet & Bob Hickey (see text for affiliations)


the booth’s cleanliness as equal inimportance to that of air flow andheat.

Hundt said that the education re-quired to convert to waterborne isminimal, while Smetanka pointed outthat the conversion is easier whenswitching from solvent to waterbornewhile using the same manufacturersince the shop will not need to learn anew system. Elder contributed that hehas seen a decrease in the cost of hisbasecoat since switching to water-borne because it requires less paint tocover the vehicle, again due to thehigher pigment loads of waterborne.

Elder and Smetanka praised theexcellent color matches that water-borne paint offers, and Hundt saidusing waterborne systems can befaster than solvents when done cor-rectly. In response to an internet ques-tion about the effect of contaminantsin the air, Hundt stressed the need forclean air. Fisheye-type blemishes arecommon if oil droplet contamination,for example, gets into the air supply.

To make the conversion easier,Elder suggested total buy-in from allemployees since processes change abit and removing the solvent-based

system as soon as the waterborne sys-tem is installed to avoid returning tothe original system when problemsarise. This is sometimes referred to as“Cold Turkey conversion” in Califor-nia. There shops that tried to graduallytransition from waterborne learnedthat it delayed conversion becausepainters sometimes reverted to spray-ing solvent when even minor prob-lems arose. Hickey reiterated thatproper education is important, andSmetanka emphasized the importanceof making sure employees do not fallback to old habits. In conclusion,Hundt offered that converting to wa-terborne may be a little uncomfortablebecause it is a change, but it is not dif-ficult in principle to switch to a wa-terborne painting system. Those thathave done so do not regret the transi-tion.

Requirements for Drying WaterborneHave you ever wondered about dryingwaterborne compared to solvent-based paints in our not-always warmand sunny climate? Do you have tohave a balmy Southern California cli-mate to dry it successfully? The shortanswer is ‘no.’

Panelist Tom Beck, CEO of Fu-ture Care which manufactures spraybooths, led a seminar titled DryingWaterborne: What You Need to Know.Explaining that drying water-basedpaint requires evaporation of the water

within the sub-stance, Beck in-vestigated howevaporation oc-curs under specificconditions. By ex-perimenting with awet towel on aclothesline, Beck

demonstrated that the velocity of airmovement is more important than in-creased temperature when attemptingto dry waterborne quickly; however,his goal is to increase both the veloc-ity of air movement and temperature,especially in the wintertime.

Because waterborne paints areslower to flash than solvent-basedpaints due to the heavier water con-tent, it was imperative for manufac-turers to determine how to acceleratethe speed of evaporation so as to avoidaffecting flash-off time for shopsusing waterborne paints. The temper-ature and speed of air coming throughbooths must therefore be increased.

Warm air is less dense than coldair, allowing the air to absorb mois-ture. Unfortunately, cold air settleslower to the ground since it is moredense, and this leads to an ineffectivemethod of drying paint when using adowndraft air flow which will push airdown over the car in a “tenting” ef-fect, causing the ends of the car to drymuch faster as more air is beingpushed through these small spaces be-tween the vehicle and the walls of thebooth. The hotter air picks up watermolecules from the paint as it passesover the car.

Accelerated drying systems re-duced flash-off time by up to 50% forwaterborne paints, increasing produc-tivity and reducing energy costs. Beckclassifies systems that use compressedair, such as hand-held dryers, as stageone systems which consume a lot ofenergy. Stage two systems do not usecompressed air. Such systems includeceiling fans, booth pods and Jun-AirQADS. The problem with ceilingfans, according to Beck, is that theygenerate static electricity and spreaddust.

Booth pods take a large amountof air in through the top and output itthrough a smaller space, but they donot increase the temperature and do

not eliminate static electricity. Jun-Air’s Quick Accelerated Drying Sys-tems (QADS) push air through asmaller opening and warm the air byredirecting the hot air from theplenum through vents that redistributethe hot air to the level where most ofthe painting takes place.

Beck said the temperature willneed to be greatly increased in a sys-tem that forces air downward in orderto reach the goal of 140°F in bakemode, but since cold air molecules falland warm air molecules settle on topof them, the lower surfaces of the carwill still not reach the necessary tem-peratures for the paint to dry properly.This is critically important as the paintwill move if a clear coat is applies be-fore 100% of the water in the paint isevaporated.

The QADS, by bringing air fromthe plenum through ducts on the sideof the booth, allow all surface areas onthe vehicle to reach the necessary tem-perature to dry effectively. Addition-ally, the QADS contains a ionizationbar which neutralizes static electricitywithin the booth.

Finding an Integrated Balance betweenQuantity and Quality in your Shop Cul-ture: If you don’t have time to do itright, when are you going to have timeto do it over?“Facility Verification and QualityProcesses: What It Means to You” wasthe title of the informative seminargiven by Mark Olson, well-knownquality control speaker and COO ofVeriFacts Automotive.

Olson began by defining a “quan-tity culture” as being one in which

shops focus onthroughput, cycletime and profits,assuming qualitywill take care of it-self. But this is ashort-sighted strat-egy in managingproductivity in

your shop unless you also incorporatea balance of “quality” said the Veri-Facts cofounder.

Olson believes the best culturefor auto body shops is in finding a bal-ance between quantity and quality. Aneffective shop culture needs standardsthat will hold people accountablewhile also empowering people to dothe right thing.

Olson reminded his audience ofthe easily overlooked fact that if thejob is not done correctly, it does not

Tom Beck

Mark Olson


matter when it gets done. A bad jobdone soon is usually just a quickerway of getting to redo it. Constantlyasking technicians questions such as“how soon,” “how fast,” “how much,”or even “when?”, sends the subtlemessage that quantity or speed is moreimportant than quality. There needs tobe a shift to a mindset of commitmentto the process because it is everymember of a shop’s responsibility toprovide quality repair services to theircustomer.

Olson listed the components of apositive repair experience as follows:thorough damage assessment and cus-tomer communication, internal qual-ity control stage checks and peerinspections, and pre-delivery inspec-tion and estimate review.

Expanding on the concept ofthorough damage assessment and cus-tomer communication, it is importantto begin with complete and accurateestimate, said Olson, or the repairprocess becomes hurried and frantic atthe end of the process. Without suchan estimate, the probability of a come-back increases significantly.

Olson even specied that estima-tors should circle the car several timesfrom various distances to fully assessall damage on the car before writingdown a proper and complete first esti-mate. It is also very important to keepin communication with the customerso that shops can managed and exceedthe customers expectations. As such,estimators should walk the floor acouple times each day so that theyknow what is going on with the cus-tomer’s car in case the customer callsto enquire.

Olson repeatedly stressed thatquality control cannot be an after-thought. Everyone is responsible forthe vehicle throughout the entire re-pair process. Peer inspections help re-duce comebacks, and everyone shouldbe willing to point out something notdone correctly.

Olson reviewed VeriFacts’ Qual-ity Measurement Program criteria fora set up and measurement, the vehiclemust be secured in a level position andat least eight points (four in the mid-section, two in the front and two in therear) be measured. VeriFacts also sug-gests using a stage-check verificationin which the technician and a peer in-spector signs off at each step of the re-pair.

Concerning “pre-delivery proto-col,” which Olson defines as a dressrehearsal for delivery to the customer,

it is important to perform a final post-repair inspection, review the estimate,and then do a final test drive beforepreparing the vehicle to be returned toits owner. Olson went on in a secondpresentation to amplify his and Veri-Facts’ ideas, delving into the area of“unknown unknowns.”

What You Don’t Know You Don’t KnowAt the risk of reminding readers aboutformer Defense Secretary DonaldRumsfeld’s infamous speech about“known knowns, unknown knowns,and known unknowns, not to mentionunknown unknowns...” oh, fugged-abowdit....

Most people have run into a situ-ation where they realized that they donot know something important abouttheir industry, but the situation is evenmore unfortunate when one realizesthey were unaware they were lackingthis information (this would be thedreaded Rumsfeldian “unknown un-known.”) Mark Olson, COO of Veri-facts Automotive, also taught aseminar entitled “Repair Quality:What You Don’t Know You Didn’tKnow.”

Olson reminded attendees thatcustomers want their vehicles repairedcorrectly because their cars are im-portant to them. Explaining that whilesome shop owners provide servicebased on what they are paid to do bythe insurance company or customer,other shop owners always do what isright for their customers.

Stressing the importance of qual-ity collision repair and proper docu-mentation, Olson began his overviewof common repair problems and howthey are easily solved. He clarified hisstatement that it both “is” and “is not”about the money by noting out that abusiness cannot prosper if customersare continually dissatisfied.

For most auto body shop owners,according to Olson, these deficienciesresult from being unaware of whatthey do not know. Auto body workersmust know everything about a car atthe beginning of their work, and theymust adhere to the current regulationswhich change so frequently that evenquality shops may be unaware of theirerrors.

For example, most weld-throughprimers state on their label not to weldthrough, and they must be dabbed onalthough they come in a spray can.Luckily, they work well when usedcorrectly. If the weld-through primersare used to weld through, they tend to

cause air bubbles, while dabbing theprimer onto the vehicle, instead ofspraying it, preserves the original e-coat.

When it comes to corrosion pro-tection, technicians must seam seal allwelded joints, even those not sealedby the manufacturer. They should alsouse epoxy under the seam sealers, andit is important to use corrosion pro-tection on all repair areas. Not prop-erly applying corrosion protectionbuilds failure into the repair as rustingwill begin as soon as water touches it.It is necessary for welders to practiceand destroy their welds and reinspectthe quality of their welding. A qualitycontrol process is recommended toprevent such errors.

An area where many shops haveproblems is documentation. All oper-ations must be documented, whetherthey are paid for or not. Shops mustadd non-charged items to the bill be-cause, legally, it was not done if it isnot documented. Post repair marketvalue insurance claims can beavoided by maintaining proper docu-mentation, communicating with thecustomer and making proper repairs.Anything that is paid for but not com-

pleted, improper documentation ofprocedures, and deviation from in-dustry repair standards are all consid-ered fraud; due to this, it is veryimportant to properly document files,properly repair vehicles, correctly in-form customers of repairs, listen tothe customer and continually pursueeducation to stay up to date on proce-dural changes.

Protecting Your Shop Assets and yourPeople from RiskAt the Northeast 2011 Trade Showon Saturday, March 19, JosephChiaravallo of Utica National In-surance presented a seminar entitled

Risk Managementfor Collision andM e c h a n i c a lShops. Definingrisk managementas managing andprotecting assetsfrom all types ofrisk, Chiaravallo

informed his audience that the high-est claim frequency and the greatestpercentage of insurance losses occurin the automotive property-casualty

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See AASP/NJ’s Northeast, Page 30


PreFab Ads Introduces Three New TV Spots for Body ShopsPreFab Ads recently completed three more humorous auto bodyTV commercials, bringing the total spots they now have availablefor licensing by independent shops to 15.

In “Short Cut,” a young couple arguesover the accuracy of their GPS mo-ments before it directs them and theirSUV over a cliff. From the dash of thesmashed car, the GPS informs the un-

hurt but stunned couple that they have reached their destination.In “Young Picasso” a four-year old boypicks up a piece of metal in the drive-way and etches his master artwork intothe side of the family van with the fam-ily dog looking on. The boy then

proudly shows off his artwork to his stunned mother as she exitsthe house.

In “Modern Repair”—a fifteen secondspot—whimsical, vintage-crash footageof Model Ts is contrasted with thequality repair of modern body shop.All spots ask, “Need a body shop?” fol-

lowed with the logo of the sponsoring body shop.These new commercials have already made their debut in over

12 markets across the US, with more scheduled to start soon.

Writer/director Chuck Jessen, of Jessen Productions/San Francisco, cre-ated the PreFab Ads concept for body shops in the late 90s after making“Sledgehammer.” The spot shows a betrayed woman pounding a red Mustangconvertible with a sledgehammer only to realize, when her husband drives upin an identical Mustang, that she is trashing the wrong car. “Sledgehammer”won several advertising awards and was featured on the “World’s Funniest”TV commercials program (see photo below). Jessen licensed “Sledgeham-mer” to hundreds of collision repair shops nationwide, giving birth to the Pre-Fab Ads concept.

According to Jessen, PreFab Ads allows local body shops to run a profes-sional commercial, on an exclusive-by-territory basis, for a fee that is about1/35th of the actual production cost. Jessen feels the combination of high produc-tion values and good American-style humor helps break through the media clutterand build interest and awareness for local body shops in a category people mightotherwise be indifferent toward—at least, until they actually need collision repair.

According to Ann Davis from J&J Auto Body in Pocatello, ID, they havejust started running them but are already getting good response to both com-mercials. “The women especially love ‘Young Picasso.’ They think it’s cool.”

Andy Peters at Peters Body Shop in Fort Wayne, IN, has been runningPreFab Ads commercials for years and his community has developed an an-ticipation for the new ones, according to Peters. “We’re having a great re-sponse to the new commercials. People think they’re hilarious,” Peter’s said.

Mark Lamendsdorf from Star Body Works in Medford, OR, echoed thatfeeling saying that they’ve had great response from both commercials.

To view the 15 commercials offered by PreFab Ads, andget more information, log on to www.prefabads.com

850 Battery Street • San Francisco, CA 94111Ph: 415-391-5030

I’ve found shop owners reluctantto make this change in identity.They’ve relied on auto body repairand refinishing jobs as their only busi-ness for so many years, it’s difficult tostart thinking in a new direction. Butit’s becoming more and more neces-sary to do so.

Entering the merchandise mar-keting arena can be scary for a shopowner who’s never had to competein that area. Real advertising, dis-tributing coupons, and possibly evensetting up shop at local swap meetswould be an entirely new set oftasks for a shop owner. The upsideof the activity would be hundreds—and possibly thousands—of newprospects informed of the existenceof his or her business. And biggerprofits too!

Our culture has become moreand more a car culture. People spendan enormous amount of time in theirvehicles. With cell phones, stereo sys-tems, laptop computers and wirelessdevices they can operate in the car,today’s drivers have mobile officesand recreation rooms they can take on

the road. And this doesn’t even takeinto account entertainment systemsfor kids.

This opens up a market for anendless array of products that could besold at a body shop just as easily as ata dealership or any other location.

The shop owner who wants tocontinue to be profitable well into thisnew century will have to broaden hisor her horizons. Bite the bullet. Put inan accessory and restyling counter.Train your desk people to learn the fa-mous waiter and waitress line: “Anddo we have room for some dessert?”

They need to start asking everycustomer, “Is there some accessorywe can sell you to enhance the poweror beauty of your car?” There are bil-lions being made by sellers of theseproducts. Why not be one of them?


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line. The most frequent causes ofloss are theft, vandalism, burglary,wind damage and lightning andpower surges.

Chiarvallo explained it is possi-ble to minimize property loss fromburglary and theft by installing a se-curity system and good exterior light-ing, as well as making sure never toleave cash on site. Minimizing van-dalism entails similar procedures,such as installing security camerasand better exterior lighting and keep-ing the customers’ vehicles securedand locked within the facility. To min-imize loss caused by wind, shops canremove clutter which could becomewind-driven projectiles and installproper door supports. Lightningstrikes can cause loss due to severedischarges or even just loss of power.Shops should install a lightning pro-tection system and establish emer-gency procedures for storm or poweroutages.

The fifth most frequent cause ofinsurance loss accidents in the shopare due to damage to the customer’scar after being struck by equipment.This is often due to a technician’slack of experience in moving cus-tomer vehicles. Luckily, this is easilyremedied by providing the techni-cians with warnings and the neces-sary training.

Although the greatest frequencyof insurance claims occur in the auto-motive industry, the highest averagecost per claim occurs within theworker’s compensation line of busi-ness. The areas of worker’s compen-sation that produce loss mostfrequently are as follows: lifting,pulling and pushing, debris particlesin eyes, misuse of hand tools, slips,trips and falls, and all manner of ma-chinery mishaps.

To minimize injuries due to ma-terials handling, shops must empha-size training and safety. It should bestandard practice to talk with all staffabout the common causes of injuries,observe the staff while they perform

daily tasks, establish work rules, iden-tify hazardous conditions, and developa checklist of conditions that need on-going attention. Decreasing the risk ofeye injuries can be achieved by insist-ing on protective equipment usage,talking to staff about the commoncauses of injuries, observing staff asthey work to monitor safety compli-ance, and identifying hazardous con-ditions in advance.

Shops can reduce slips, trips andfalls by clearing walking surfacesand identifying hazardous condi-tions, and the dangers of hand toolinjuries can be diminished by ex-plaining the threat to employees, es-tablishing rules, and when injuriesdo occur, finding the cause and effectand, of course, making the necessarychanges.

The most common liabilityclaims are for property in the car, cus-tody and control, failure of work per-formed, injuries to the customers onthe premises, falls, and customers andworkers having contact with or beingstruck by objects.

Using Aftermarket Parts: the Shop’sResponsibilityWhat are your legal responsibilitieswhen using aftermarket parts in yourrepairs? What happens when the bestsolution is not using aftermarket partseven though the insurance companyinsists upon it? Is your responsibilityto the insurance company or your cus-tomer?

Attorney Mitchell Portnoi of theLaw Offices of Prince and Portnoi inClark, NJ gave a seminar at Northeast2011 titled The Aftermarket PartsDilemma: Your Responsibility.

Aftermarket parts may have anumber of performance issues de-

pendent upon howthe product is pro-duced, accordingto Portnoi. Some-times, they do notfit properly, andthe durability andweight of the partmay affect other

systems within the vehicle. Corrosionis a particular concern with some non-

certified parts. As such, there is a sig-nificant and developing body of lawrelated to aftermarket parts and theircomparison to original, manufacturedparts. That being said, courts have notprovided much guidance to issuesconcerning aftermarket parts just yet.

In New Jersey, regulations statethat no insurer shall require use of af-termarket parts in repair unless the af-termarket part used is warranted andcomparable to the original manufac-turer’s parts. However, each insurancecompany writes their own guidelinesabout what aftermarket parts they use.Therefore, it is the responsibility ofthe auto body shop to ensure that athird-party warranty is provided thatis associated with the part.

In order to protect both the cus-tomer and shop, it is imperative to seethe warranty and keep it on file. Partsshould come with identification, andthe warranty must identify who is cer-tifying the actual part. If the part is notunder warranty or certified, a NewJersey shop cannot legally use thepart, however, it is unlikely that anylaw forbidding use of aftermarketparts or mandating new parts willoccur anytime soon. Although there is

still some debate about the quality ofaftermarket parts, laws do state thatthe part used must be equal to or bet-ter than the original part.

When an insurance companywill not pay a shop to use the correctpart, shop owners “have a responsi-bility to notify the customer,” Portnoiinsists. New Jersey administrativecode mandates that shops are obli-gated to inform the customer if a re-furbished part is being used. Byinforming the customer when an af-termarket part is being used, the shopowner offers them the opportunity topay any additional cost to use theOEM part.

Legally, shop owners must as-sume responsibility for giving cus-tomers the option of paying for OEMparts in replacement for aftermarketparts because they will be held re-sponsible if the part fails. This is alsowhy it is so important for shops to ver-ify certification or warranties to en-sure that a company is backing thepart.

For further information, contactMitchell Portnoi at 732-396-8900,136 Central Ave, Clark, NJ 07066.Website: www.princeandportnoi.com.

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Hey Toby—Is it true that the fine forusing an illegal air blower is $5000 inCalifornia?

—Jeff from San Francisco

Hey Jeff—I checked with CAL Oshaand they confirmed that fine could beup $7000 for using an illegal airblower. With the poor economic con-ditions that exist today in state fi-nances, more and more regulatoryagencies are now becoming revenuegenerators. Here in California, Gov-ernor Brown has stated that there willbe no new taxes (unless approved bythe electorate and that has about asmuch chance of happening as a snowball in hell.)

On January 6th of this year, traf-fic fines went way up. For example,using a hand-held cell phone whiledriving, first offense: $148. Parkingin a handicap zone: $976 for first of-fense and $1876 for a second offense,

and $436 for failing to stop at a stopsign—the list goes on.

I have been taking a 40-hour online OSHA course and I have beenchecking for OSHA violations in bodyshops as I conduct I-CAR training onsite. What I have seen is unbelievable.


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Make Sure Your Shop is Clear of these Glaring OSHA Violations

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

Toby Chess is an I-CAR program instructor, Welding specialist, and former salvage yardoperator. Toby is universally known in the collision industry for his charitable works,worthy causes, and magic tricks. He can be reached at [email protected]

The typical blower in the body shop is a femaleand male air tool fitting

Respirators not in a secured bag when not inuse

Ungrounded and damaged electrical cords

Exit door blocked and locked during businesshours

Fire extinguisher access blocked by an object

No signage for fire extinguisher

Ungrounded flammable storage containers andnot spill containment equipment

Open solvent container for cleaning a spray gun Grinders without a shield

Let’s take a look at some of the morecommon violations in the body shop.

The next series of pictures weretaken at my friend’s shop about 2 yearsago. He embarked on the lean processtrail and the first thing that we did, wasclean up the shop and make it OSHAcompliant. It took about 2 weeks andthe results of cleaning up in the shophas resulted in 20 percent decrease incycle time in the first six months ofimplementing the lean process.

I have many more examples, butI think that you get the picture. Thenext issue of Autobody Newswill havea shop check list that will allow you togo through your shop and identifymajor potential OSHA problems.


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Ungrounded flammable waste container and anopen lid. Also there is not signage on the wall

Unlabeled bottles

This picture needs not description

No signage, missing electrical outlet cover andextension cord missing its ground

There were parts stored in the 3 foot barrierthat is needed around all electrical panels.Also the signage was missing Today

Refrigerator in paint department, ungroundedflammable storage drum, battery charger, newflammable products, no signage and unlabeledpaint containers

Today

Unchained welding tank and no signage

Today

ings,held for the first time during theshow kicked off on Wednesday, March16 with the Society of Collision Re-pair Specialists (SCRS)’s Board Meet-

ing and Awards Luncheon, held at theCrowne Plaza Meadowlands. Thurs-day, March 17, brought the Collision

Industry Conference(CIC)’s quarterlymeeting and recep-tion to the CrownePlaza leading up tothe SCRS AnnualMeeting and BoardElections on Fridaymorning. The EastCoast ResolutionForum & Leader-ship Conferencewas held off laterthat day at Meadow-

lands and the Assured PerformanceNetwork hosted a member shop meet-ing later in the afternoon.

“We are very excited and thrilledthat industry leadersfrom around the countryare coming to ourNORTHEAST™ showand holding their meet-ings,” said McDowell.“Having the show at theMeadowlands has in-creased our exposure andinfluence locally and na-tionally and I think this isa reflection of that.”


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Continued from Front Page

NORTHEAST 2011

On March 21 NSF International dis-missed its lawsuit against the Certi-fied Automotive Parts Association(CAPA) and Executive Director, JackGillis, which was filed in response toCAPA and Gillis’ letter widely circu-lated on July 28, 2010. In the letterGillis criticized the Auto Body PartsAssociation (ABPA) for its decisionto support the parts certification planintroduced by NSF International.

In the agreement, CAPA andGillis agreed not to, either orally or in writing, make false and defamatorystatements of fact about NSF.

NSF said it believes the recordhas been sufficiently cleared that con-tinued litigation would be a distrac-tion from NSF’s real work in testingand certifying aftermarket parts, andthus would not be in the best interestof the aftermarket parts industry orconsumers.

NSF said it agreed to dismiss itscase against CAPA and Gillis to focuson continuing to grow its business.

“There should be no doubt inanyone’s mind that NSF Internationalis fully committed to supporting theautomotive aftermarket parts indus-try,” said Bob Frayer of NSF Interna-tional.

ASA Opposes Proposed Ore.Right to Repair ActLegislation has been proposed in theOregon House of Representatives thatwould require manufacturers of motorvehicles to make tools, information,software and wireless capabilitiesavailable to owners, owners’ de-signees and vehicle repair shops. Thisalso includes any other means to acti-vate, code or program electronic con-trols, and modules used to diagnose,maintain or repair motor vehicles. Theproposed Motor Vehicle OwnersRight to Repair Act would rely on thestate court system to ensure independ-ent repairers have the information theyneed to repair their customers’ vehi-cles.

ASA opposes this legislation be-cause it says independent repairers al-ready have access to third-partyinformation providers as well as au-tomaker websites to obtain service in-formation. If concerns arise, repairershave the National Automotive Serv-ice Task Force (NASTF) available toaddress issues related to service in-formation, tools and training.

NASTF is a voluntary, coopera-tive effort among the automotiveservice industry, the equipment andtool industry and automotive manu-facturers.

Airbag Risk Prompts Recall of144,000 Ford VehiclesFord Motor Co said it would recallabout 144,000 F-150 models in theUnited States and Canada from the2005 and 2006 model years due to arisk that airbags could deploy becauseof a short circuit.

The automaker said a mistake inthe assembly of the trucks at its Nor-folk, Virginia plant could cause anairbag wire in the steering wheel toshort circuit.

Ford said that it received an un-specified number of complaints aboutthe airbag problem. In most cases,airbags had deployed just a few sec-onds after the trucks were started.

A response to NHTSA this weekfrom Ford said the automaker be-lieves, “the condition does not pres-ent an unreasonable risk to motorvehicle safety. However, to avoid aprotracted discussion with the agencyand to provide repair to those vehiclesmost likely to exhibit the condition,Ford is recalling those vehicles pro-duced at the Norfolk Assembly Plantfrom November 1, 2004, throughJune 30, 2005.”

Ford has now recalled more than1 million vehicles in the first twomonths of this year, more than the600,000 recalled for all of 2010.

BMW Group brands plan to makemuch greater use of lightweight butstrong carbon fiber, says Ian Robert-son, BMW’s global sales and market-ing boss.

“A carbon spaceframe meansless weight, and less weight meansless fuel consumption,” he said in aninterview at the Geneva auto show.

“Carbon fiber is something we’reinvesting in as a company,” he said.The BMW i3, previously known asthe Megacity Vehicle, has a shell thatuses carbon fiber. So does the i8.

“We learned a lot from our expe-rience with Formula One. Across thebrands, carbon fiber is going to be oneof the technologies of the future,which is why we’re investing in it,”Robertson said.

BMW owns part of a plant inWashington state that makes carbonfiber materials, including carbonfiber-reinforced plastic.

Separately, Rich Steinberg, man-ager of electric vehicle operations andstrategy for BMW of North America,said the plant has enough capacity forBMW’s foreseeable needs, but a lot ofdevelopment work is still needed tomake carbon fiber more practical andaffordable for mass-production cars.

NSF International Settles Spatwith CAPA by Dropping Suit

BMW Brands Plan IncreasedUse of Carbon Fiber

BASF was the official sponsor of Northeast 2011 (l to r) AutobodyNews’ writer Chasidy Sisk, James Beck from BASF, and AutobodyNews Co-owner Barbara Davies

The Metropolitan Car-O-Liner/Pro-Spot booth was always busy. (l to r): Mike Demarest, Dave Demarest., Dave Demarest, Jr.

As the financial pressure mounts with theU.S. recession going on three years now,the collision industry is rapidly falling be-hind the technology curve. Many shopsare unable to afford the training and newequipment required to repair today’s mod-ern vehicles.

Insurers are accutely aware of the factthat there are fewer and fewer shopsable and ready to repair many oftoday’s high tech vehicles. The oldmethods of repair will no longer workbut the responsibility to educate theinsurers lies with the collision repair-ers themselves. But how can a shopthat is well-educated and well-trainedcompete in a marketplace where thestatus quo is so far behind the times?We’re implicitly teaching insurers thatit’s still OK to ‘repair’ vehicles theway we always have because to do socosts less.

When we are forced to prove thispoint over and over, it makes the shopthat is doing a proper repair look likea bunch of pompous overchargingprima donnas. The fact is that it costsmore to repair a collision properlythan to do a proforma job and intoday’s marketplace it is also lessprofitable to do it right. Although theoverall ticket average may be higherthe bottom line profit remains lower.

The entire collision industry isstruggling because we have allowedourselves to become “yes men” andthroughout this recession things haveonly gotten worse. How can anyoneagree to repair a vehicle the new tech-nical details of which they know littleor nothing about? Yet many shops aredoing this every day.

The inexperienced adjuster saysyou do it this way and shops say ‘yes,’some to eliminate any repercussionsand others because they think it’s OK.It is never OK to put a used weldedframe rail on vehicle but I am forcedto argue this point weekly. Becausethe wrecking yard has clips availabledoes not mean we should be usingthem. So why do we find it necessaryto have the same argument over andover almost weekly?

The reason is because of under-trained, underequipped body shops.Adjusters are not our problem; insur-ance companies are not the prob-lem—underqualified shops are theproblem.

Eliminate the underqualified, un-dertrained shops and you will elimi-nate the problem. Why? Becausetraining raises the standards bar foreveryone. When the inexperienced ad-juster comes in to a well-trained shopand then goes on to the next one, he orshe is hearing the same thing every-where (s)he goes and he or she beginsto learn something, the supervisorsbegin to learn something, and the ar-gument of repairing the vehicle cor-rectly goes away.

I believe there are many roadsthat lead to the same destination butwith collision repair we first need todefine our destination before we beginour journey. If our destination is tocontrol costs (at all cost) we arrivesomeplace different than where a safestructural repair should lead. If ourdestination is a safe repair that restoresthe integrity of the vehicle’s standardsthen cost alone cannot be the guidance

system to get us there. I believe that the only consistent

credible way to restore the vehicle’ssafety after a collision is to rely onwhat the OEM’s have tested andproven to be deemed reliable meth-ods. Anything differing from therestoration of the vehicle’s structuralintegrity is the wrong road to follow.Everybody needs to use the same mapto arrive at the correct destination witha collision repair.

So where does this leave theshops that may be willing to do the re-pair correctly but lack the knowledgeor equipment to do so? It leaves youon the sidelines of the collision indus-try until you gain the credentials re-quired to repair today’s modernvehicles. Would you head out on across-country trip without knowingwhere you were going or with outknowing your destination? CertainlyNot.

So it’s time to step up and checkyour destination or you will find your-selves lost in the wilderness without amap or compass with no way of evergetting back. This may sound harshbut 50% of the shops will not makethe cut.

Insurers are becoming more andmore conscious of the liability in-volved if the vehicle is not repairedproperly and they are naturally gravi-tating to the shops that are trained andequipped properly.

There are plenty of resourcesavailable for shops interested in mak-ing the cut. VeriFacts, I-CAR, ASE,OEM programs, and ALLDATA forOEM specs come to mind. Join thesegroups in raising the bar, and pass theeducation you get from them along toyour customers, insurance adjusters,and your fellow shop owners.

Support the industry, protect yourcustomers, and don’t get left behind.


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Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans


Opinions Countwith Dick Strom



Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.


with Sheila LoftusYour Turn



Shop Showcasewith Janet Chaney


Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney


Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney


Industry Insightwith John Yoswick


Lee Amaradio, Jr. is the president and owner of “Faith” Quality Auto Body Inc. in Murrieta,California. Lee is president of the CRA as well as an advocate for many other industrygroups. He can be contacted at [email protected]

Underqualified Repairers Hurt the Whole Industry

IIHS: Big Rig Underride Guards Often Fail in CrashesNew crash tests and analysis by the In-surance Institute for Highway Safety(IIHS) demonstrate that underrideguards on tractor-trailers can fail in rel-atively low-speed crashes, with deadlyconsequences.

NHTSA has estimated that about423 people in passenger vehicles dieeach year when their vehicles strike thebacks of large trucks. More than 5,000passenger vehicle occupants are injured.

The Institute is petitioning the fed-eral government to require stronger un-derride guards that will remain in placeduring a crash and to mandate guards

for more large trucks and trailers.Rear guards are the main counter-

measure for reducing underride deathsand injuries when a passenger vehiclecrashes into the back of a tractor-trailer.

In 2009, 70 percent of the 3,163people who died in all large truckcrashes were occupants of cars or otherpassenger vehicles.

Underride makes death or seriousinjury more likely since the upper partof the passenger vehicle’s occupantcompartment typically crushes as thetruck body intrudes into the vehiclesafety cage.

This month, let’s take a look at Busi-ness Liability Insurance needs for op-erating a professional body shop withthe goal of adding profit to your bot-tom line.

Our auto body shop in Santa Bar-bara, California, after several years ofpatronage to a well-known businessinsurance provider, recently changedour business liability insurance carrierto another major player.

The results were a saving ofabout 33% from the previous yearwith similar coverage. Like most ofus, I am guilty of getting too busyduring the day-to-day operation ofour business to review our insurancepolicies and their costs on a regularbasis.

What motivated me to reviewmy policy and getting new insurancequotes was an act of “overeagerness”from my insurance company to rollover my policy.

A few weeks before our policyexpiration date, a large brown enve-lope arrived via special delivery atour office. On opening the envelope Idiscovered a binder containing ourbusiness insurance policy documentspertaining to the next policy term.

My first thoughts after openingthe envelope were skeptical. In yearspast we never received a renewal pol-icy before discussing our renewal in-tentions with the assigned insuranceagent.

I came to the conclusion thatsomeone from our insurance com-pany appears to have placed us on an“Automatic Renewal Mode.”

A few days later I initiated shop-ping for other insurance quotes. Mypreference was to speak to an autobody shop liability specialist insteadof shopping for quotes online, with-out really understanding what is cov-ered.

Soon afterwards, I scheduled anappointment at our shop with a busi-ness insurance liability specialist.Within 24 hours I was presented aninsurance quote which was approxi-mately 33% less than my long timeinsurance company.

When I realized the annual sav-ings I felt some bitterness as a resultof accepting the rates from my long-time insurer for so many years.

Based on my business insuranceshopping experience I highly recom-mend reviewing your insurance pol-icy at least 60 days before the renewaldate. With some preplanning and re-search you should have sufficienttime to choose the best value for yourspecific insurance coverage needs.All it takes is allowing some time toacquire comparative insurance quotesinstead of proceeding with the habit-ual “automatic renewal”.

The following policy options canbe used as a preliminary aide to helpyou understand your business liabil-ity insurance. At a minimum, yourbusiness should have the followingprotection;

● Business property insurance:Protects your business by funding re-pair or replacement of damaged phys-ical assets.

● Building coverage: Protects yourbusiness against financial losses re-sulting from claims of injury or prop-erty damage caused by you or youremployees from your products andservices.

● Workers Comp Insurance: Pro-tects you and your employees to sat-isfy medical needs in the event of anaccident or injury.

● Business Auto Liability Insur-ance: Protects you from liability cre-ated as a result of damaged incurredto another party’s vehicle and bodily

injury.

● Business Crime Insurance: Pro-tects your business from fraud, theft,forgery or robbery.

Optional Insurance● Business interruption coverage:Allows you to continue to receive in-come while your Auto Body shopcontents are being repaired or re-placed.

● Employment Practices Liability:Protects you from employment re-lated offenses against you.

● Umbrella liability: Adds addi-tional coverage over and above yourprimary policy.

● Machinery and equipment break-down: Covers loss of Business in-come resulting from equipmentdamage.

Remember, there is no such thingas a one-size fits all business insur-ance coverage.

I highly recommend you steeraway from the “automatic renewal”mode and discuss your shop’s insur-ance repair needs with an experiencedinsurance specialist who is knowl-edgeable in understanding and ex-plaining the variety of available autobody shop insurance coverages.

Remember, your business hasspecific needs which may changeover time. As a result of reviewingyour policy with an auto body shopinsurance liability specialist annually,it will provide you peace of mindabout your insurance coverage andwill continue to fully protect your andyour family’s assets.

The choice is yours, either pre-plan your shopping several weeks inadvance of your renewal date or gowith the status quo and see whereyour business liability insurance jour-ney takes you!


2011 Juke

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Business Liability Insurance: Review & Research Before You Renew!

with Rick WhiteShop Management

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Mainstream Media

Automakers’ Actions and Analysisby Autobody News Staff

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with Ed AttanasioShop and Product Showcase

with Ed AttanasioConsumer Callout

with Walter DanalevichShop Strategies for Savings

with The Insurance InsiderInside Insurance

with Ed AttanasioCustom Corner

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Walter Danalevich, AAM, has been the owner of Santa BarbaraAuto Refinishing since 1979. Contact him at:[email protected].

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Mel Hunke said he’d like to eliminatethe “wedge” between collision repair-ers and auto recyclers.

“We used to work together reallywell,” Hunke said of the two indus-tries. “But once insurers stopped pay-ing for clean-up or repair time onrecycled parts, they basically said,‘You two fight it out.’ And we’ve beendoing it ever since. That’s the wedgethat was driven.”

Hunke, a former shop owner whonow represents the Quality Replace-ment Parts (QRP), a coalition of autorecyclers in nine states, was speakingat the third “Recycled Parts Round-table,” held in Las Vegas. The gather-ings, originally organized by QRP butnow open to anyone, bring togetherrepresentatives from all segments ofthe industry to discuss and work to re-solve issues related to recycled parts.

“We need to blow out the wedgeand put our relationship, our corebusiness-to-business process, back to-gether in a way that benefits every-one,” Hunke said as he opened themost recent roundtable.

It was clear by the end of thehalf-day meeting that many of the twodozen participants – primarily ownersof shops and recycling yards – learnedthings that could help them eliminatethat wedge. Here are some of them.• Photos could help. A Texas shopowner at the meeting asked if recyclerscan make photos of the parts they haveavailable. Photos, he said, can help ashop confirm the color and conditionof the part. It also could help recyclerswith better quality (or more accuratelydescribed) parts compete with thoseselling lower-priced but lower-qualityparts, because the shop could see, forexample, that the lower-priced part hasrust along the bottom edge.

Several recyclers at the meetingpointed out that yards meeting the Au-tomotive Recyclers Association’s Cer-tified Automotive Recycler programtake as many as two dozen photos ofvehicles before dismantling. Althoughfew recyclers have photos of individ-ual parts available, these “Gold Seal”recyclers can provide those vehiclephotos upon request to the shop.• Consider more part types. One po-tential win-win-win for recyclers, in-

surers and repairers could result if re-cyclers helped make shops aware ofparts they are likely to need in a repairbut that are not typically purchasedfrom a recycler.

“If you buy a fender, hood andbumper from me, but you also needthe windshield washer jug and batterytray and all the other stuff recyclersare currently crushing, we can amor-tize our overhead and dismantlingcosts over more parts, and you can in-crease your alternative part usage andsave totals,” Hunke said.

A representative of one multi-shop operator at the meeting said hiscompany is working with recycledparts vendors on just such an effort sothe collision repair business can main-tain insurer-required levels of recycledparts usage without having to usestructural or other types of recycledparts it would prefer not to.• Understand and use part grading anddamage codes. Those at the meetingagreed that too few recyclers andshops recognize and understand thecodes that have been standardizedwithin the industry to grade recycledparts and identify the type and loca-tion of damage on those parts. Educa-tional and reference materials on thesedescription systems are available atthe “Standards & Codes” section ofthe ARA website (www.a-r-a.org).• Understand estimating issues relatedto recycled parts. Industry consultantand former shop owner Mike Ander-son said at the meeting that he serveson an Automotive Service Associationcommittee that recently updated the“not-included operations” chart it cre-ated for recycled parts (a similar chartis available for new parts as well). Thecharts summarize what operations arenot included in each of the “BigThree” estimating system times andthus may need to be added to an esti-mate when using such parts.• More data would help. Participantsat the Recycler Roundtable meetinghave agreed that some data collectioncould help shops and recyclers workbetter together – and perhaps help in-fluence insurer practices. Work hasbegun, for example, on a survey tobetter understand the expectations ofshops, insurers and recycler in terms

of recycled parts use to help each seg-ment better meet more of those ex-pectations. They survey is likely toask shops, for example, how valuablethe availability of photos of recycledparts would be.

One meeting participant also sug-gested that a statistical case study lookat whether insurers could benefit fromaccepting lower values for salvage if itincreased the availability, pricing anduse of recycled parts.

A study could also look at howinsurer-mandated use of particular re-cyclers or the “lowest-cost” part neg-atively impacts shop efficiency.• Spend some time at each other’sbusiness. Recyclers and shops at themeeting who had taken the time tovisit the recycling yard they purchasefrom—or the body shops they sellto—agreed it was time well-spent. It’sa great way to see things that each sidein the transaction may be doing or notdoing that negatively affects the other.

Ordering parts ahead of deter-mining if a vehicle is a total loss—orordering the same parts from multiplerecyclers to see which arrive first or inthe best condition—are examples ofshop practices that negatively affectrecyclers, those at the meeting dis-cussed. Recyclers’ dismantling prac-tices, or failure to accurately describepart conditions, cost shops time andmoney. Time spent at each other’sbusinesses can help shops and recy-clers work better together, those at themeeting agreed.• Understand the value of the GoldSeal designation. Recyclers at themeeting said shops could help them-selves and the industry by just askingthe recyclers they deal with, “Do youhave the Gold Seal designation?”

Gold Seal is earned by recyclerswho meet the ARA’s Certified Auto-motive Recycler requirements and alsoconduct ongoing customer satisfactionsurveying. A description of the pro-gram requirements, and a list of GoldSeal recyclers nationwide, is availableat the ARA website (www.a-r-a.org).

Among the benefits to a shop ofusing a Gold Seal recycler is that thoserecyclers are required to use the ARApart grading and damage codes. Everypart from these recyclers includes a

Gold Seal tag that includes a toll-freenumber a shop can use if a part arrivesnot as it was described.

“Last year alone, we kicked threeGold Seal recyclers off the Gold Sealprogram because they didn’t meet thecriteria,” a recycler who serves on theprogram’s oversight committee said atthe roundtable meeting. “There wascomplaints against them from shops,and we removed them.”

Many of the shops at the meetingacknowledged they needed to go backand ask the recyclers they work with ifthey have the Gold Seal designation.

Participants at the meeting alsoagreed that more needs to be done toidentify in the parts locating serviceswhich parts are from Gold Seal recyclers.

The industry also needs to work,they agreed, to help insurers under-stand that just as “certified non-OEMparts” are better than non-certified,that there are cycle time and otherbenefits to be gained from using partsfrom Gold Seal recyclers.

Janet Chaney of Cave CreekBusiness Developer said the goal ofthe Recyclers Roundtable is to con-tinue such discussion between repair-ers and recyclers and to bring in othersegments of the industry as needed.

Chaney, who serves as the adminis-trator of the roundtable, said the next meet-ing is being planned for April 16 inconjunction with the United RecyclersGroup (URG) event being held in Denver.

For more information, emailChaney at [email protected]

Recyclers, Repairers Look for Ways to Improve Business Interactions

with Ed Attanasio

Shop and Product Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase


The Right Causewith Mike Causey


John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in thefamily and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).Contact him by email at [email protected].

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This month is a current project I’mworking on which is a 1941 ChevroletDeluxe STD two-door sedan. This isfor some of you fabricators out thereand other body men who know thatsometimes you can’t just replace partsor parts aren’t available. This 1941Chevy was rear-ended and the impact

damaged the deck lid, the left quarterpanel, the bumper filler and the floor.So I’m having to repair this deck lidbecause there aren’t any deck lidsavailable, or at least any metal deck

lids. Chevys of the ‘40s offer a fiberglass one but this customer wantsmetal. You know some customers aredifferent, some will play off the fiberglass. Sometimes you can look forused deck lids and I put my feelers outthere and I could not find any useddeck lids for this ‘41 Chevy. The prob-

lem is the ‘41 Chevy is the only yearthat those deck lids would fit, espe-cially for the sedans. From ‘42 to ‘48they’re all interchangeable. So thatnarrows the options a lot .We’ve got a

vehicle that doesn’t offer this deck lidas a match for any other year.

The best way to start this processis to take the deck lid off and strip it allthe way down to metal, so there’smaybe 65–70 years worth of bodywork, bondo, paint, etc. I strip all themetal off inside and outside. From that

point we’re going to depick the skinfrom the frame and there’s specialtools out there for that. You can findthem through Eastwood and differentspeciality companies like VIMTools.These guys carry specialty equipmentwhere you can go back and pull thingsapart without damaging them toobadly. Next I drilled the spot welds outthen depicked it with a depick tool toroll that edge back out. I take my timeon this. I don’t try to get into it toohard because these panels are 70 yearsold and they’re going to be brittle andhave rust in them. If you’re too roughyou’re going to have to go back andrepair them.

The process I used takes a littlebit of time so you’ve got to be patientwith it. After removing the skin fromthe frame, I hammer it out roughlywith a hammer and dolly. Use a sandbag if you need to. Try not to stretchthe metal too much. Just try to rough itinto its shape because metal does havememory. I used a selection of MartinHammer tools and dollys. If you guysaren’t familiar with Martin Hammersgo to their site at www.martin-sprocket.com. They’ve been aroundfor years and even have books that tellyou how to hammer and dolly andshow you different techniques. Theyhave a variety of hammers, a varietyof dollys, spoons, you name it—theyhave it. Their tools will help you to getthrough a process like this.

I’m going to start with the frame,and hammer it out to get it as close as

I can. Then I’m going to take it backto the vehicle, bolt it on, and makesure I’ve got that frame fit as best as itcan. I’ll make my adjustments asneeded. Then get the latch on it nowto make sure it latches, because then Ican see everything without having toskin everything. I spend a little bit of

time reinforcing, welding, and repair-ing which will pay off in the end.

After that’s completed I drill two1/8th-inch holes in the left and righthinge so I know that this structure willgo back exactly where it needs to go.I don’t want to spend a half-hour tomaybe 2 hours trying to adjust it andget it back where it was. Now to rein-stall it I insert two 1/8th inch dowelpins in there, put your 3 bolts on eachside, tighten them, and you’re rightback where you were. I call it a mockup.

I’m back on to the skin now. I’llhammer and dolly it, slapstick it a lit-tle bit, get it as close as I can. I’mgoing to go use the English Wheel totry to even out the metal. You want todo this as a slow process because youdon’t want to stretch the metal, youjust want to get it back to where itwas. You want to make sure all yourhigh and low damage spots are mostlygone. Start working from one end tothe other with the English Wheel, rollit, tighten it a little bit, go backthrough the same process again, rollit some more, make sure you’re notputting too much pressure on. All youwant to do is just even it out, and thepanel should take its shape back. Youwant to use the flat side of the Eng-lish Wheel, the flattest wheel you canget, the ones without any radiuses onthem. A slight radius basically. So it’sa back and forth motion, the more youuse the English Wheel the moreyou’ll get comfortable with it. Just










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

Remaking a 1941 Chevy Deluxe Back-End with an English Wheel


another tool. Woodward is a sponsorof mine, so check out www.wood-wardfab.com. They have affordabletools from hammers to EnglishWheels to shears. All their stuff is af-fordable. They have 36-inch throatsor 24-inch throats on the EnglishWheel. You can make that work untilyou start stepping it up and doing big-ger panels like roofs and bigger fend-

ers on bigger cars. You can thenupgrade to something else.

After I’ve spent about an hourand a half using the English Wheel,I’ll pull the skin out, lay it on thestructure that’s bolted to the car. Thisway it’s easier for me to see how it’sgoing to fit. Then I clamp it up, butnot too much pressure with the clampbecause too much pressure will bowthe structure and it could twist onyou. When it’s sitting right withouttoo much pressure on the clamps youcan remove it from the car and set itup. The next step is like putting on aregular door skin. We’re going to rollit back. Some pieces break off on theedges just because it’s been brittle sosave those smaller pieces. I foundsome cracks where I need to roll it. Ido the next step with a TIG welder.Some people use a torch. I don’t havea flame, but I TIG those areas whereit allows me to roll that edge over tothe frame. Then I can take the piecesthat broke off, clamp them there andTIG them back on. Then hammer anddolly the welds flat. With a TIGwelder you don’t have a lot of buildup as long as you get your settingsright.

I don’t weld it in place because Imight have to shift the skin around alittle bit. I reattach the deck lid to thehinges, set it down, check the gaps toget them right, and do whatever align-ments I have to do to massage the skinconnected to the frame. Then I put thelatch in to make sure the handle fits.The handle has an alignment partwhere it has to go through a hole, so Imake sure that’s centered and shut.

Then I can massage it a little morewith the hammer to get it closer to fit-ting perfect.

Now I go outside of the deck lidand find the low and high spots, markthem out and work from there. I canpull some of the low spots out, evenout your high spots and then you canstart filing at that point. I’m thinkingnow how far I want to take it and re-

member, we all need to make sure weget paid for our time.

I’ll put a skim coat of Bondo™on it, shape it, and try to keep thatBondo™ under an 1/8th inch. Goingfor 1/16th inch would be better, 1/8thinch at the max. Spend a little moretime, use a uni-spotter, nail gun, pull

out those lows, if you have to heat alittle bit, then heat it and shrink it,keep that metal tight.

I may have to split some panels ifsome work has been done before onthe back. Not a surprise. This car’sbeen around for awhile. I can split thepanels, get the gap a little better. Mockup is key, before you even start shap-ing. Once I have the gaps I’m prettymuch home home free.

Then it’s left to primer block,mask and blast, you’re ready to go.So those are a few little tips for theprocess I use. Metal finishing versustaking the easy route and just puttinga fiberglass deck lid on. Take sometime. Learn and work the metal. It’sall about seat time, that’s howyou’re just going to better yourself.My daily focus is to get up every

morning and learn something newand try to better myself, it’s all I cando.

That’s basically how I run myday in a nutshell. You have to lovewhat you do, and I love what I do.Anyone else working on these ‘40smight want to look up a companycalled Chevs of the 40s. They’ve gotat least an inch thick catalog. Visit

them at www.chevsofthe40s.com.They’ll give you a free catalog.They’ve got parts that I wouldn’t haveeven known they had.

Often I’ll come across a projectwhere I have to reach out and spend alittle time on the computer. Checkwith friends and find out where

they’re getting parts or if they’veworked on these types of cars. I evenwent to Gene Winfield to see if he hadany contacts on digging up a deck lidand all the way back to South Dakotato where my brother lives to see if heknew about any deck lids. I must havespent about two days searching for adeck lid and with those two days Ihave pretty much knocked out thisdeck lid. I’ve got about 19 hours intothe whole process and, again, I wanteveryone to make sure they get paidfor that. If it’s an insurance job, make

sure you get paid for metal time, forfabrication time, all of the above be-cause it is a learned skill and it doestake time as well as taking us awayfrom other projects. Cross your T’sdot your i’s, be smart about it, havefun with it. At the end of this build,we’re going to add a little two-tone,put the color back on it while it has itsdown time.

The owner wanted to do a few al-terations and that’s what make it fun.With this project I also found a lot ofproblems, the striker used housescrews to hold it on, the lower bumperfiller had about 50 self-tappingscrews. I welded all the holes and putnut inserts on and marked them outevenly. It just makes for a cleaner job.You’re not getting paid for this, butyou’re practicing to get better, andthat’s what we should all do every day.When I see something wrong, I justtake the time and fix it. Do what ittakes to make the job better than whenit came in and fix other people’s prob-lems that they overlooked. That makesyou a better tech and keep on goingguys. Better yourselves.

Check out my new show CarWarriors on SPEED, 6pm PST and9pm PST every Wednesday night. It’sthe hottest car build competition showthat’s ever hit the airwaves. If you’venever thought about what you can doin 72 hours, this show will show youwhat can be done in 72 hours. Trustme, what can be done will blow yourmind. Got to my fanpage on Face-book, Rich Evans Designs, become afan and you’ll be able to stay up todate with everything I’m doing andthe projects I’m working on day inand day out.

Talk to you guys next month.

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Keenan Autobody is a multi-locationoperator comprised of eight shops inPennsylvania and one in Delawarewith a combined staff of 115 employ-ees. Keenan has three locations inClifton Heights, PA, in addition totheir corporate office.

Keenan East, the retail center inClifton Heights, is 8500 square feetand employs 17 workers. TheirWreck-O-Mended center spans13,000 square feet and has 11 em-ployees while the Aluminum RepairCenter contains 3000 square feet. This

center is staffed from the other shopsas they generally only work on 2 or 3aluminum repairs per month.

Keenan utilizes all of the latestequipment, such as the Car-O-LinerEvo-system and the latest inverter-type resistance spot welders. They are

factory authorized inBMW and certifiedby Mercedes. Addi-tionally, they areASE certified, I-cargold, as well as aCIC Class A facil-ity. All of Keenan’sshops are VeriFactsVQ shops and are in

compliance with Envirosafe. Keenanis affiliated with ASA, CIC, SCRA,NABC, Fix Auto and DuPont Per-formance Alliance. Keenan processesinsurance claims according to CMSstandards and they participate in up to21 direct repair programs at each

shop. Additionally, they offer a na-tional life-time guarantee, ensuringthey will take care of any problems inthe future no matter where the cus-tomer moves across the country.

Keenan’s operating procedure isunique because they utilize their own10-step production process in whichthey define Administrative, Blueprint-ing, Parts Ordering/Sublet, MirrorBatch/Returns, Release to Production,Body Department, Paint Department,Reassembly, Detail and Final QualityCheck.

According to Vice President,Michael LeVasseur, Keenan’s successresults from their positive corporateculture and their involvement with theindustry and the community. Keenanis very involved with many locals

charities, such as a charity golf outingwhich they have participated in for 13years. The proceeds of this event ben-efit the Philadelphia Ronald McDon-ald House. Keenan has also taken partin the Guest Chef program for theRonald McDonald House whereKeenan employees make food andserve it to the families of children inSt. Christopher’s Hospital, and duringthe holidays they participate in theadopt-a-family program to providegifts for these families.

In 2010, Keenan’s Middletownand Edgemont shops were involvedfor the first time with the First Re-

sponder Extrication Event which ben-efits firefighters, police and EMTs.During this event, professional train-ers instructed emergency serviceproviders on the proper ways to ex-tract people from cars in order toavoid explosives and ensure safetypractices. Keenan plans to participatein this event annually.

Keenan also participates in Recy-cled Rides by refurbishing a salvagedvehicle to like-new condition so that itcan be donated to a needy family. Theyalso provide totaled vehicles for use as

exemplars on the ef-fects of a DUI acci-dent to display infront of local highschools during promseason. Keenan con-tributes to local char-ities, such as MADD,the Children’s Can-cer Network andFamily Community

Services of Delaware County, and alsosponsors several local sports teams.

Because Keenan hires fromwithin, they offer room for advance-ment and career paths. They focus ondeveloping their employees’ skills and

are engaged withtheir work force interms of educationand training. Ac-cording to Craig Ca-macho, Keenan’sMarketing Director,they “enable em-ployees to be theirbest, to do theirbest”. Keenan be-

lieves that with strong leadership,their company is able to come to-gether and make a business.

Keenan East714 East Baltimore PikeClifton Heights, PA 19018(610) 622-0555www.keenanautobody.com


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Chasidy Rae Sisk is a freelance technical writer from Wilmington, Delaware,who works in a variety of fields and subjects, but grew up in a family of NASCARfans. She can be contacted at [email protected].

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Let’s start with a simple question:What does “DRP” really stand for?

Conventional wisdom says that“direct repair program” is the correctanswer. While that is the literal mean-ing of the acronym, the non-officialtranslation could easily be, “Don’t re-move, please.” I can assure you frommany years of experience in the insur-ance industry that this is more truethan most people care to acknowledge.

Many body shops have lost con-trol of their business. As a result,many of those shops spend a lot oftime hoping, begging and pleadingthat they aren’t removed from theirDRP lifelines.

When the insurance companysays, “Jump,” the shop shouts, “Howhigh, how many times and should Igive you a discount for allowing meto jump?”

This isn’t conducive to a market-place that allows all the stakeholders--repairer, insurer and vehicleowner--to benefit.

Before anyone shouts “Amen,”there are different ways of losing con-trol. Yes, it is true that the insuranceindustry has assumed some controlover a portion of the body shop indus-try. The control was attained becauseshops allowing it to happen, and be-cause of the ever-evolving market-place. That marketplace has seen adrop in claims, double-digit total losspercentages, customers cashing out,$1,000 deductibles on the rise, anddamaged vehicles being shipped over-seas faster than they can be rolled offan assembly line in a Detroit manu-facturing plant.

The end result is a drop in thenumber of repairable vehicles, leavingmany of the 35,000+ repairers in theUnited States in search of work. Inother words, low demand and highsupply equals shops desperate forbusiness.

Even though I am referring hereto the U.S., international shops haveexperienced very similar problems.Australia and the United Kingdomcome to mind. In fact, in the U.K., thelow supply caused a large percentageof shops to go out of business.

Although neither industry wouldopenly admit it, many insurers and re-

pairers have been anxiously awaitinga mass reduction in the number ofshops for varied reasons. High-qual-

ity, ethical body shops want the bot-tom-feeders to go out of business. Thebottom-feeders invest very little intheir businesses – yet they are (un-fairly) treated the same as the Tier 1shop. In most cases, the Tier 1 shopand bottom-feeder have the exactsame labor rate in a given direct repairprogram. How is that fair or good forbusiness?

Insurers need to find a way to dif-ferentiate the high quality shop fromthe bad. That is one reason why insur-ers like the idea of a shrinking num-ber of body shops. There are so manyshops that they have a hard time iden-tifying the high quality shops. In ad-dition, a reduced number of shopswould better assist them in controllingthe customer’s experience and repair.

There are many shops around thecountry that have resisted the DRP se-curity blanket and have remained au-tonomous. This doesn’t make theautonomous shop any better or worsethan the DRP shop. It’s simply a dif-ferent way of doing business. It’s okayto be different. In fact, in this worldwe celebrate and promote diversity.And, at least in the United States, ifyou don’t promote and encourage di-versity, you can quickly find yourselfon the receiving end of a lawsuit forbeing discriminatory.

DRPs play a vital role in the in-dustry whether you care to believe it

or not. They promote competition, canreduce cost (which ultimately benefitsthe consumer) and can positively im-

pact the customer’sexperience. Don’tbe hypocritical byquestioning myopinion if you areone of the manyenrolled in a DRP-type health careprogram. If you arecurrently enrolledin an HMO or PPOprogram, pleasedon’t send me anyhate email on howstupid I am. In theimmortal words ofForest Gump, “Stu-pid is as stupiddoes.”

While I was joking about “Don’tremove, please,” the fact is many

shops do operate in total fear. Fearthat at any given moment they couldlose a significant amount of theirbusiness and revenue. While this maynot be fair, shops that heavily relyupon DRPs benefit the most fromthese relationships. In the end, it is adecision made on an individual levelas to what is best for that business.Just be careful that the oxygen thatthe direct repair program is providingyour shop isn’t your only source ofair.

Otherwise, you risk having theplug pulled when you expect it theleast.


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DRPs and Fear—Hope for a Reduction in the Number of Shops






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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]

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I’ve been a publisher for about 30years and one of my guiding princi-ples is that publishing is not aboutpublishers. I also believe that editorsshould be felt but not heard, but I’mgoing to break my rules on this onespecial occasion only.

First, a genuine welcome goesout to all our new readers in the North-eastern United States. We have justmailed our first issue to 8,200 autobody shops, jobbers, suppliers, anddealerships in New York, New Jersey,Pennsylvania, and Delaware, so ifyou’re reading this, you’re on our list.

Autobody News now goes bymail to 30,000 body shops and otherkey players in the industry throughoutthe U.S. every month in our four re-gional editions.

Of course before we could mailall those copies we had to verifywho’s doing what in your four stateregion. We pay a lot to print and mail

our newsmagazine, and the Post Of-fice doesn’t always get your addressright. Also, you might be surprisedhow many “body shops” in the yellowpages do nails and skin and not paintand quarter panels.

With all the turmoil and disloca-tion in the industry in the last fewyears, even professionally provideddatabases are out of date. A lot of

shops from the available database listsare no longer answering their phones.But our database isn’t obsolete. Weknow who and where Northeasternbody shops are and what they do be-cause Annebritt and Kristy from ouroffice literally called them all to verifythat they’re involved in collision repairand that they are still doing business.

Of course they got their share of“I don’t cares” and hang-ups and eventhe odd “we don’t need any more&*$@ mail” but they also got a lot offriendly and funny responses fromshop operators and owners. Here are afew that come to mind.

Are you still doing business at XYZaddress?● I hope so. It’s where I drove today.There are a bunch of other guys whodrove to the same address as well.● Have been for 40 years. Never gotthe urge to move it all somewhereelse.● Why? What have you heard?● Yes, but not as much of it.

Are you still doing body work, orare you a body shop?● What did you do now? [We couldsee the hands on hips.]● Yep. If you can wreck it, we can fixit. ● Yes. We can fix anything exceptbroken hearts.● All day, every day. If I didn’t loveit, I’d be a doctor.and our favorite:● No, I’m a red brick sh** house!(Followed by her own hystericallaughter.)

With such a receptive and (ahem)witty audience we’re excited to belaunching this, the fourth regional edi-tion of our newsmagazine, and look

forward to providing our new readersin the Northeast with the same in-depth national and regional news thatwe’ve been providing to shops in ourother three regions, for over 29 years.

Our Western Edition goes to8,500 body shops in CA, AZ, and NV.Our Southwest Edition is mailedmonthly to 6,500 body shops in TX,OK, LA, and NM. Southeast goes to5,400 in FL, GA, MS, and AL. Butyou don’t have to be on our mailinglist in one of these states to read Auto-body News. Anyone can read any ofour editions, whether or not they gethardcopy, by going to autobo-dynews.com > current & back issuesand selecting the regional edition theywant to see. As we think of it: it’sfresher than fish, and it’s free.

Some have asked if we’re crazyto be expanding when much of the in-dustry is still in a recession, but inthese challenging economic times, ifyou’re not moving ahead, you’refalling behind. Those shops and busi-nesses that have survived over the last24 months are in a unique position tobuild on their brands’ strength and geteven stronger. That’s why we’re ex-panding into the northeast now.

We are learning from our adver-tising clients that they want to take ad-vantage of dislocations caused bydistressed businesses and positionthemselves as new leaders with newproducts and services for the industry.In short—like them—we have de-cided not to participate in the reces-sion.

Any publication that competesfor your valuable time and attentionneeds to speak for itself, but it may beof some interest to know where Auto-body News came from..

Our paper was started by LetaAmick in California as a “very re-gional publication” in 1982. JoeMomber, our advertising sales man-ager, started working with Leta in thespring of 1996. When Rich and Deb-bie Neubauer bought Autobody Newsfrom Leta in 1999, Joe stayed on andworked with them until 2003.

Barbara Davies (a New Jersey na-tive and marketing advertising spe-cialist) and I bought the paper from


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Autobody News: Fresher than Fishwrap and it’s Free

Tech Notes

National News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

Regional News in BriefWEB WINDOW: - www.autobodynews.com

with Jeremy HayhurstPublisher’s Page

with Karyn HendricksShop Showcase

with David M. BrownShop Showcase

Shop Showcasewith Jeremy Hayhurst

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

California Autobody Associationwith David McClune

Collision Repair Association of CA.with Richard Steffen

Insurers Excel at Steeringwith Richard Steffen

Year in Quoteswith John Yoswick

Transition Planningwith John Yoswick

Mainstream Media

My Turnwith Joe Momber

Jeremy Hayhurst is a former geologist, university science publisher, and now newsmagazineowner who started working in a body shop in high school. Contact him with your ideas andsuggestions at [email protected]

Annebritt and Kristy (r) made thousands ofphone calls to body shops in the Northeastand got their share of comedians on the line

Sean Hartman and Joe Momber (r) havemany years of automotive, collision, andadvertising expertise between them See Fresher than Fishwrap, Page 43


Strategies for preventing customer dis-satisfaction—and dealing with it when ithappens

“The paint on the repaired panelsdoes not match the rest of the car. Theshop says it cannot be made to match.I find this impossible to believe.”

These words, an actual commentwritten by a customer of a U.S. shop,are not exactly what you’d like to seeon the comment cards or customer sat-isfaction indexing (CSI) reports youreceive. That’s why it seemed surpris-ing that the shop owner said he wasactually pleased when his CSIprovider faxed him a copy of the cus-tomer’s gripe.

“Yeah, of course, I always dreadfinding out that we blew it with a cus-tomer,” the shop owner, who askedthat his name not be used, admits.“But on the other hand, I’m not therein the shop all day, every day, any-more. I might not have known that thiswoman left so unhappy with us. Be-cause (our CSI provider) lets us knowright away about negative comments,I was able to call this lady and let herknow that I would be getting thistaken care of for her.”It wasn’t an easy or inexpensive fix.The shop owner said he personallypicked up the woman’s car andbrought it to the shop to be resprayed.“On paper, that job was a money-loser, no doubt about it,” he says. “Butthat woman has actually referred atleast two more jobs to us in the coupleof months since then. This is someonewho left here unhappy, ready to showanyone who’d listen what a lousyjob—at least in her mind—we haddone, but now she’s telling peoplehow great we are.”

This shop owner’s experiencepoints out that addressing an unhappycustomer’s concerns effectively can beevery bit as valuable as working toavoid having unhappy customers in thefirst place. Studies show that if you ad-dress a customer’s concern quickly, thatcustomer can become one of your mostloyal—even more loyal than someonewho left satisfied in the first place.

Here are some general guidelinesand tips for customer complaint reso-

lution based on interviews with shopowners.

Skip the excuses. It’s easy to fallinto a pattern of trying to explain awayproblems (“The parts weren’t avail-able,” “We didn’t know about that,”“Our technician missed that.”)

An explanation later is fine, but itshouldn’t be the starting point. Andthe explanation should never sounddefensive.

“One of my estimators agreed torefund $100 to a customer, but he didit with such a lousy attitude the cus-

tomer still left unhappy,” one shopowner said. “If you do something fora customer, do it willingly even if youdon’t think it’s owed. Don’t do it be-grudgingly. Do it with a smile on yourface and allow them to feel that you’redoing it because it’s the right thingyou do. Either way, you’re out the$100 today, but if you do it right,you’ll keep their business long-term.”Start with empathy. While an apologyis important, it’s critical that the cus-tomer also feels that you understandthe position they are in.

“I have my staff say somethinglike, ‘Oh, thank you for letting usknow about this,’” one shop ownersaid. “‘I’m sorry for the inconven-ience this is causing, but let’s see howwe can make this better for you.’”

Decide on a solution. Make asuggestion for a solution and ask,“Fair enough?” Or ask the customerwhat he feels is fair. In any case, makesure employees have the power tomake a decision quickly. One studyfound that 95 percent of complainingcustomers will return if their com-

plaint is resolved on the spot, but thispercentage plummets if the customerhas to wait or jump through anyhoops.

Assure them you’re changing.Let them know that not only will theirproblem be fixed, but that you are tak-ing action to see that similar situationsdon’t occur in the future.

“Customers like thinking they’vehelped you and future customers,” oneshop manager said.

Go beyond resolution. Create a“story” for the customer to tell by fix-

ing the problem in a memorable way.Make another concession they werenot expecting. Give or do somethingextra. The cost of giving somethingaway is usually much less than thecost of losing a customer’s futurebusiness and the business of all thosehe tells his story to.

One shop with three locations inIllinois actually has a budget line in itsannual expenses fund that office staffcan use “to soothe things over withcustomers.” A customer who brings acar back because of a problem may re-ceive a couple of movie passes or acoffee shop gift certificate they canuse at the near-by mall if the shop willneed the car for an hour or more.

“If we’ve really blown it, we’llsend them a restaurant gift certificate,particularly if it’s a repeat customer orone referred to us,” the shop ownersaid.

It’s important, too, to look fortrends in the complaints your shop re-ceives in order to make longer-termadjustments and corrections. Gettingto the root cause of problems isn’t al-ways easy. One technique that canhelp you get to the root of a problem isthe “five why’s;” you often have toask “why” at least five times to get tothe root of a failure.

Here’s an example:Why was Mrs. Jones not satisfied withour service?Because her car wasn’t ready until aday later than we promised.Why was her car delivered a day late?Because we were waiting for a part.Why wasn’t the part here?It didn’t get ordered until the car wasready to go.Why didn’t it get ordered sooner?Because we didn’t know until thenthat we actually had the wrong part.Why didn’t we know we had the wrongone?Because the technician didn’t check itwhen it arrived.

After five whys, you usuallybegin to see what needs to be fixed.This can be time-consuming, but CSIcan help you spot trends, allowing youto focus your attention on the areasthat seem to account for the mostcomplaints.

Paint Complaint Does Not Have to Mean Unhappy Customer

with Ed Attanasio

Shop and Product Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase


The Right Causewith Mike Causey


John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, who has a body shop in thefamily and has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988. He is the editor of theweekly CRASH Network (for a free 4-week trial subscription, visit www.CrashNetwork.com).Contact him by email at [email protected].

12 principles for solving customercomplaints1. Apologize. Let them know that you’re sorry they’re unhappy.2. Remain positive. Don’t argue with them or sound defensive.3. Empathize with them. Let them know you understand how they feel.4. Listen. Don’t interrupt. Give them a chance to tell you everything.5. Ask questions. Confirm that you have a full understanding of theirneeds.6. Be an ambassador for your company. Let them know that you willpersonally handle this situation.7. Don’t blame others or pass the buck. Admit that you (or the com-pany) was wrong. Don’t dwell on causes or excuses.8. Respond immediately. Do whatever you can do to get the problemfixed as quickly as possible. Delays work against you.9. Try to establish or maintain some rapport with the customer.10. Use humor when possible. Making people laugh puts them atease.11. Agree on a solution. Make sure it is acceptable to them.12. Follow through. Make sure things get done how and when you saidthey would.

the Neubauers in the summer of 2007just as the recession was starting tobite into the collision industry. Wesoon experienced the market’s ‘unin-tended deceleration’ before we real-ized that that is pretty much thedefinition of a collision, and we weretruly in an accidental industry. Shortlyafter that we met Joe Momber and hecame back to work with us. Now wehave another sales executive, SeanHartman, an upstate New Yorkerwho’s a trained service tech, workingwith Joe—who’s from Michigan.

Another question we got is whywe’re doing a new print publication—on real but environmentally friendlyrecycled paper—instead of being an-other on-line source trying to jam youremail with yet another e-subscription.Of course, we offer email subscrip-tions as well, but more on that later.

It’s no secret that generalnewsprint has been on the decline al-most everywhere as more and morepeople get their news from targetedon-line sources, but we believe in

print, because we believe in the edito-rial process. We’re in an age of instantnews via the internet, tweets, andblogs of all stripes, as well as newmedia hubs providing video, chat, andother social networking. All have theirplace, but what many readers need andwant is an editorial perspective thatsifts the information for what’s mostimportant. That’s why Autobody Newstries to survey all our sources to dis-till and condense information that youmight not see elsewhere. After all, youcan read the same wire story from avariety of sources, but you can’t as-semble them into a convenient formatonline unless you know what you’relooking for. We know you’re busy, theselection of content is as important asthe content itself, and we try to keepour content succinct and to the point.

We also believe in the power ofadvertising, especially in print. It’sthose companies who are financiallyviable, have products and services thathave been successful for many years,who are able and willing to advertisethat you should be doing businesswith. If a company cannot afford torepresent itself in print, and has budg-ets and cash flow appropriate only for

email blasts, it likely will have otherproblems that you don’t want to learnabout after they become your supplier.

We’re not talking about the sizeof the business here. A small companywith a good product has every chanceof success as its “cream rises to thetop.”

Similarly, a small news magazineor media source can be as useful as abig one, if it sticks to its mission andmakes a genuine effort to be original.There’s no shortage of unique mediaperspectives in the collision industry.And therein lies the dilemma for thenews business.

Every media outlet wants tocover the news as fully as it can, to becomprehensive and be the go-tosource for its readers, but this leads toa lot of redundancy where you see thesame content on different channels,sometimes at the same time. Are youever surprised when CNN, FOX, andMSNBC have the same event on si-multaneously?

Collision repair is fundamentallya local industry, since no one takestheir damaged vehicle further thannecessary for quality repair. When youcombine that with local state regula-tion, local market conditions, and thebusiness environment your shop is in,you need to know what’s going on lo-cally.

As Autobody News grows we’reable to leverage our contacts to givereaders a better snapshot of what’shappening nationwide, from the grassroots up. What happens in other states,especially with legislation and activi-ties of shop associations coast tocoast, is also relevant for informedshop owners and managers. That com-petitor down the street may be a muchcloser ally than you realized.

Every month in Autobody Newsyou’ll see coverage of the hardernews: the legislative back and forth,insurance-related actions, OEM autodealerships and their parts distribution

methods, and parts makers—whetherOEM or the Aftermarket. We also pro-vide technical content including infor-mation that many other publicationsdon’t, such as I-CAR’s Advantage On-line, and ALLDATA’s All OEM Infor-mation column.

We have profiles of body shopsin our Shop Showcase stories, andother businesses in our Company Con-nections articles, and we combine thetwo in our Shop and Product Show-cases, where shop owners and man-agers talk about products that haveimproved their businesses. Of coursewe also cover the business aspects ofrunning a body shop.

We have a long-standing group ofcolumnists who are some of the bestin the industry. Check out TobyChess, Rich Evans, John Yoswick,Tom Franklin, Chasidy Sisk, LeeAmaradio, Tom McGee, Dan Es-persen, Gonzo Weaver, WalterDanalevich, and many others for theirongoing insight.

We cover the auto body associa-tions as much as we can, because webelieve they’re good for shop ownerswho should join them and supportthem more. A bundle of sticks is muchharder to break in half than an indi-vidual stick broken one by one.

We hope you like and supportAutobody News with your valuabletime and attention, because it’s yournewsmagazine, and without your in-volvement as a reader, writer, or con-tributor there wouldn’t be much pointin producing it. We want to hear whatyou want to see. In the unlikely eventthat you don’t like it, we want to knowabout that as well.

As a regional publication, there’salways need for more local contentand we are expanding our contributorsto get more of that than any othercomparable collision publication.

We will add to our mailing andemail list continuously as we are con-tacted by shops and people not alreadyon it. Turn in your friends who are notgetting Autobody News. They’ll thankyou for it.

Or, get us your and their email fora convenient way to review our twicemonthly HTML newsletter. It’s aquick and easy way to stay on top ofall four editions at once.

Autobody News has mailed toevery operating shop we know aboutin our other regions for as long as 29years. We hope your business willthrive for at least the next 29 andwe’re here to help that happen.


That means you’re one of the 30,000 body shops, parts dealers, suppliers, and vendors on our mailing list.

We’d like to send you our unique coverage on a regular basis, so just go to our website, www.autobodynews.com, and register your email to see news from other regions.

You can also download or read any of our four regional editions in our pageturner format. Don’t forget to check out our columnists from the menu Or, see us onFacebook, www.facebook.com/autobodynews

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our columnists from the menu Or, see us onOr, see us onOrcebook, www.facebook.com/autobodynews

Publisher and editor, Jeremy Hayhurst,Founder Leta Amick, and General Manager,Barbara Davies


Fresher than Fishwrap

Autobody News April 2011 Northeast Edition

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Transcript of Autobody News April 2011 Northeast Edition