Autobody News June 2011 Southeast Edition

COLUMNS in this issue...Chess — Getting OSHA-Compliant Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 10Espersen — The Value of Service Repair Information . . . . . . . . .p. 16Yoswick — Industry Trends at WIN Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 20Insurance Insider — Allstate Deserves Credit for DRPs . . . . . . .p. 21Schroeder — The Body Shop Garage Opens in Woodward, OK .p. 22Danalevich — Total Loss Fees Are Profits to be Gained . . . . . . .p. 24Amaradio — The Good Old Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 26Evans — Repairing a Quarter Panel, Bumper, and Molding . . . .p. 28

REGIONAL ARTICLES in this issue...Gunder’s Responds to Infinity Insurance Recordings . . . . . . . . .p. 1Florida Bills Will Distribute Liability in Automaker Lawsuits . . . .p. 8AL Auto-Scrapping Bill Curtails Scrap Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 9Hyundai to Expand AL Engine Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 18

Tornadoes Devastate South, Halting LocalAutomakers’ Plants, Inundating InsurersTornadoes ripped across the south-east portion of the US brought de-struction in April and May. States

hardest hit were Alabama, Missis-sippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia

and Arkansas, and now Missouri. Al-abama was the hardest hit in Aprilwith over half of the fatalities. As ofend of April 28 the confirmed deathtoll was at least 250, but that will riseas of the May 22 Joplin monster tor-nado.

“It looked like it was probably amile wide,” Birmingham, AL, MayorWilliam Bell said of the funnel cloudto CNN. Tuscaloosa, AL, mayorWalter Maddox predicted it wouldtake months for the town to recover.

President Barack Obama hadalready expressed condolences byphone to Alabama Gov. Robert Bent-

See Tornadoes, Page 4

Gunder Supporters Release Infinity Insurance’sVoice Recordings, Insurer Apologizes

Allstate Will Buy Esurance and Answer FinancialIn a bid to capture more business fromcustomers who shop online, AllstateCorp. has agreed to buy two popularonline insurance sellers—Esuranceand the associated site, Answer Fi-nancial. Allstate will pay a total priceof about $1 billion– $700 million plusthe tangible book value of the twofirms acquired at close.

Esurance is the third-largestprovider of online auto insurancequotes through its website and a 24/7call center. It sells in 30 states. Overthe past five years, Esurance has morethan doubled policies in force andgrown premiums on average 20 per-cent per year, according to the com-pany, which advertises heavily. It also

sells other personal lines coverages.Answer Financial provides auto

insurance quote comparisons from 20brand-name auto insurance companiesto buyers in all 50 states. The carriersit represents include Esurance, Trav-elers, Progressive, Safeco, Met LifeAuto & Home, Unitrin and The Hart-ford. In July, it reported having324,000 policies in force.

Alltstate is buying the firms fromWhite Mountains Insurance Group,Ltd., a Bermuda-domiciled financialservices holding company with inter-ests in property/casualty insuranceand reinsurance, including OneBea-con.

Barrett Smith, with Autodamage Ex-perts, has released a voice recordingof a call made by a representative ofInfinity Insurance to one of Ray Gun-der’s customers. Listen for yourselfby downloading the WAV file atwww.autobodynews.com.

The recordings have been widelyquoted in the appealed case whichwas recently resolved in favor of StateFarm.

Smith comments: “This type ofunderhanded practice goes on moreoften than most are aware or wouldlike to believe and needs to be cur-tailed, and one sure way is for it to beexposed to the masses and for thosewho conduct themselves in this wayto fear exposure.

“For those of you who know RayGunder and the manner in which Gun-

der’s Auto Center operates, listening tothis recording will likely make yourblood boil... it did mine. This “sup-posed” claim professional is trying theirbest to interfere with and undermine therelationship between Gunder’s and atleast one of its customers. Who knowshow many times this takes place?

Continues Smith, “One has to askthemselves, what type of person hasthe lack of conscience and nerve to lieto a customer about a shop in whichthis claim-person has never dealt withor have first hand information to sup-port what they say?

“The simple fact is she doesn’tand it is apparent she is merely doingas told and reading from a preparedword track intended and designed todisparage Gunder’s good name and

See Gunder Recordings, Page 6

See Allstate, 3

See storm video at autobodynews.com

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REGIONAL

Alabama Auto-Scrapping Bill Curtails Auto

Scrap Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

BASF Single Line Distributors Come

Together for ColorSource Conference . . . 7

Florida Able to Arrest 53 Suspects in

Alleged Staged Car Crash Schemes . . . 14

Florida Bill Will Limit Lawsuits Against

Automakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Florida Shop Licensing Program Survives

Deregulation Efforts by House Bill 5005. 18

Ford Motor Company Expands Local

Support to Atlanta Community . . . . . . . 15

GA Auto Repair Tax Bill Still Moving

Through House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

GA Passes Bill Regulating Insurance

Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Gerber Collision and Glass Acquires

Georgia Shop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

GM to Invest $131 Million at Bowling

Green, KY, Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Gunder Supporters Release Infinity

Insurance’s Voice Recordings, Insurer

Responds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Hail Storm Brings Influx of Repairs for

TX Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Hyundai to Expand Alabama Engine Plant,

Create Over 200 New Jobs . . . . . . . . . 18

Infinity Insurance Apologizes for Gunder’s

Auto Center Customer Recordings . . . . 6

LA Insurance Agent Sentenced in

Fraud Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Porsche North America HQ to Leave Sandy

Springs, GA, for Nearby Ex-Ford Plant

in Atlanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Suspicious Fire At Tulsa Auto Body Shop

Still Under Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Tornadoes Devastate South: Halting

Local Automakers’ Plants, Inundating

Insurers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

West Virginia Insurance Commissioner to

Retire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

COLUMNISTS

Amaradio - The Good Old Days . . . . . . . . 26

Chess - Getting OSHA-Compliant on

Signage, Electrical and Power Tools . . . 10

Danalevich - Total Loss Fees Are Profits

to be Gained, Not Given Back. . . . . . . . 24

Espersen - The Value of Service Repair

Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Evans - Repairing Quarter Panel, Bumper,

and Molding: No Time, No Money . . . . 28

Insurance Insider - Allstate, Founder of

DRPs, Deserves Some Credit for

Improving Repair Industry . . . . . . . . . . 21

Schroeder - The Body Shop Garage Opens

in Woodward, Oklahoma . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Weaver - Shift Happens: The Story of the

Three Transmissions and a Limp KIA . . 17

Yoswick - Industry Trends and Changes in

Future Vehicles at WIN Conference. . . . 20

NATIONAL

AGRSS Promotes Fixing Damaged

Windshields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Allstate Will Buy Esurance and Answer

Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

ARA, Congress to Ensure Flood Damaged

Vehicles Don't Enter Used Market . . . . 31

CCC Announces 2011 Crash Course

in April. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

CIF Makes Donation to Japan Tsunami

Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

National Average for Body and Paint Labor

Rates Up Only Modestly Since 2006 . . 16

School Auto Body Programs Compete for

$50K Makeover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Xirallac Pigment Plant to Relocate from

Japan to Germany Following Tsunami . 30

Contents

Southeast

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

Serving Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and adjacent metro areas, Autobody Newsis a monthly publication for the auto body industry. Permission to reproduce in any form thematerial published in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the publisher.©2011 Adamantine Media LLC.

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

Arrigo Dodge-Jeep-Chrysler. . . . . . . 8Autoland Scientech. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17BASF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Bill Penney Toyota. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23BMWWholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . 14Chief Automotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Delray Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Don Mealey Chevrolet . . . . . . . . . . 14Don Reid Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Equalizer Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Ford Wholesale Parts DealersFL, GA, AL, MS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Galloway Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Garmat USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Global PDR Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . 13GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . 27Gus Machado Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . 22HondaWholesale Parts Dealers. . . . . 30Hyundai Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Kia Motors Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Mazda Wholesale Parts . . . . . . . . . 22

Mercedes-Benz Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

MOPAR Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

NACE / CARS Registration . . . . . . . 11Nalley BMW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Nissan Wholesale Parts Dealers. . . 24Palmers Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Porsche Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Quality Stainless Products . . . . . . . . 8Safety Regulation Strategies . . . . . 12SATA Spray Equipment . . . . . . . . . . 9Scorpion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Serra Mazda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Southtowne Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . 25Subaru of Gwinnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . 26Tameron Hyundai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Toyota Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . 30VIM Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Volkswagen Wholesale PartsDealers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Inde

xofAdvertisers

ley when he approved his request foremergency federal assistance on April28.

In Hueytown, AL, shop ownerJason Wilson was in his business—Jimmy’s Auto—when he heard the tor-nado warning sirens. He gathered hisfamily, including his two children, anddecided to ride out the storm in theshop.

About an hour afterward, Wilsonstood in the parking lot, stunned, look-

ing at the roof of the store. The roofhad been blown off the building asthey huddled inside, he said.

“We was fixing to go home andheard the siren,” he said to Alabamawebsite al.com. “We took cover. It’sabout all you can do. And then it justblew the roof off.”

Wilson, his wife, his father andhis two children escaped without ascratch.

Coats Auto Body and Paint inRaleigh, NC, experienced an intensetornado on April 16 that caused majordamage to the shop.

“Even though the building hasbeen condemned and is now gone,we are blessed,” said Co-Owner

Tana Malerba, “No one was in thebuilding at the time that the tornadohit. We also found a temporary loca-tion six miles down the road fromwhere we were located while we re-

build.”The tornado took

off the entire roof ofCoats brick building andboth side walls of thebuilding collapsed. Thebays and shop floor wereno longer separated from

the outdoors after the storm.One thing that did survive the

storm was the shop’s Garmat spraybooth. The booth did sustain somedamage, but all mechanical compo-nents and the attached mixing roomwere saved despite the all but de-stroyed building that housed thebooth. Between Coats’ employees andlocal vendors, Coats was able to movetheir business to neighboring Garner,NC, within eight days. Malerba saidthe business is just waiting on someoutside vendors to complete theirwork before the shop will be back run-ning at 100%. The Garner locationwill be a temporary home for the busi-ness until they can rebuild their origi-nal Raleigh location.

Insurers also began the dauntingtask of tallying the home and autodamages of their clients on April 29.

Alabama Insurance Commis-sioner JimRiding said that he is reach-ing out to the state’s property insurersto provide a coordinated response tothe storms as soon as possible.

“We want to hit the ground run-ning to deliver an effective responseto all Alabamians affected by these

tragic storms,” he said to InsuranceJournal. “As soon as the companiessettle on locations for their disasterresponse headquarters, we willshare that information with the pub-lic.”

State Farm Spokesperson JimMcCullen said that said by April 28the insurer already had 3,300 claimsin Alabama and the count continues torise, according to Insurance Journal.He said that the company was some-what fortunate in that it already hadteams working in Arkansas in the

wake of a series of tornadoes thatwent through the South Central por-tion of the country in early April and aquick response should ensue.

The dangerous conditions alsohalted production at the Toyota and

Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama asof April 28.

A Mercedes plant spokeswomansaid April 29 that Mercedes had haltedoperations because suppliers were un-able to deliver parts due to the storms,according to the Tuscaloosa News.

A spokeswoman for the au-tomaker also told Automotive Newsthe plant would remain down untilMay 2 following the tornado. Toyotaspokesman Mike Goss said the engineplant stopped work April 27 when itlost power. He said the power couldbe out at least through May 1.

Other automotive factories in theregion, including Hyundai MotorManufacturing Alabama in Mont-gomery, and Honda of Alabama Man-ufacturing in Lincoln, reported nodirect damage from the tornadoes.However, representatives for Hondasaid the automaker is evaluating thestorms impact on their suppliers allacross Alabama, which may affect thecompany’s output later this spring.

Coats Auto Body and Paint434A US 70 Highway EastGarner NC 27529(919) 833-6877


Continued from Page 1

Tornadoes

The front of Coats’ Raleigh location before the storm hit

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama

Inside Coats’ Raleigh location before the storm hit

The front of the building after the storm

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West Virginia Insurance Commis-sioner Jane L. Cline will step downfrom her post on June 30. Acting Gov.Earl RayTomblin announced Cline’sretirement on May 18. He did notname a successor at that time.

Cline says she is retiring after 30years in state government. She hasserved as insurance commissioner for

the past decade. Cline was appointedinsurance commissioner in 2001 bythen-Gov. Bob Wise. She also servedas Division of Motor Vehicles com-missioner during the 1990s. During hertenure Cline oversaw the privatizationof West Virginia’s workers’compensa-tion program and addressed medicalmalpractice and other insurance issues.

West Virginia Insurance Commissioner to Retire

destroy the confidence the customerhad in selecting Gunder’s. A selectionbased upon their experience in havingtheir vehicles repaired at Gunder’smore than once in years past, and haveearned their respect!

“This so-called claim profes-sional likely considers herself to be ahonest and ethical person who caresfor her family and attends church onSunday; but on Monday, goes to workand does things that she is told….re-gardless if right or wrong and does sodespite her personal, ethical or moralconvictions, just as a mercenary or apaid assassin would go about theirbusiness, hiding behind the corporateInfinity Badge.

“So one has to ask why a largeinsurance company would do this?Simple, because they have an agendato control the collision industry andthey have done so without being heldaccountable and have reaped hugeprofits. Profits that were once the col-lision repairers.

“The very scary part; they andothers who chose to conduct businessin this manner will continue to do soto discourage any repairers whochoose to step up and say no to un-

derpayments for necessary processesand materials needed to properlyserve their clients.”

Ray Gunder adds, “Know thisand take serious heed. As long as therewards outweigh the risks, like a childsneaking cookies, insurers will con-tinue to increase their efforts to profitoff the backs of others’ hard work andsweat while avoiding the liabilitiesthat come with underpaid repairs. Andif you don’t merely submit and allowthem free reign over your business,you too will become a victim of thisvile and unethical practice of lies anddeceit about you and your business.

“Just like slapping the child’s handfor taking too many cookies, or punch-ing the bully in the nose when he comesto take your lunch money, it’s onlywhen the risks begin to outweigh the re-wards that bad behaviors will change.

“Each repair professional outthere needs to make a conscientiouschoice to either become a part of thesolution or remain part of the prob-lem. The choice is yours. Use itwisely.

“As for Gunder’s, we will con-tinue to do our part to instill account-ability and deter insurers fromharming us and our customers. Thereis strength in numbers and togetherwe con conquer these types of prac-tices in a short time frame… regard-

less, you can be assured I’ll continueto “Pound That Rock.” The person orpersons responsible for these slander-ous, outrageous lies (Lisa White-hurst being one of them) will be heldpersonally accountable. I have towonder if she knows the effect herhurtful lies could have the twenty-fivefamilies dependent on work at Gun-der’s Auto Center, all of which arehonest, hardworking, ethical people.Is it okay to hide behind her “InfinityCorporate Badge” and attack anyoneshe’s told by management to suppresstheir voice? Opinions welcome.”

Ray GunderGunder’s Auto Center(863) 688-7897


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On May 3, Infinity Insurance’s Re-gional Claims Manager, Tim Wal-dron, called and spoke to RayGunder of Gunder’s Auto Center inLakeland, FL, and repeatedly apolo-gized for the recent comments madeby an Infinity claims person to one ofGunder’s customers who captured iton a recorder.

The voice heard is that of Infin-ity Insurance Claim Person, LisaWhitehurst saying the followingword track to one of Gunder’s AutoCenter’s customers: “I spoke with ourre-inspector, who went out and re-in-spected the vehicle at the body shop,”Whitehurst said in the message. “Hesaid that this body shop has beenknown to give us issues in the pastwith other vehicles that they’ve re-paired and apparently they are knownfor overcharging a great deal for theamount of damages and trying to addthings that aren’t relevant to, youknow, the repairs. They’re alsoknown for holding the vehiclehostage until all the payment ismade.”

As a result of the egregiousstatements made by Infinity’s repre-sentative, Ray Gunder immediatelycontacted his legal counsel, BrentGeohagan, who promptly sent a let-ter placing the insurer’s claims man-ager on notice and demanding thatInfinity Insurance agree and confirm,in writing within 10 days, that suchwrongful conduct on behalf of anyInfinity Insurance representative willcease and desist immediately with nore-occurrences. In response, TimWaldron, Infinity Insurance Com-pany’s Regional Claims Manager,called and spoke to Ray Gunder per-sonally and repeatedly apologizedfor the recent comments and conductof the claims person and her man-ager and advised Ray that this wasan isolated incident and further as-sured him that the matter would beaddressed and that no such conductwould take place in the future withGunder’s nor any other repairersstating: “this is not the way Infinityconducts its business.” Ray Gundersays he has accepted the apology.

Infinity Insurance Apologizes for Gunder’sAuto Center Customer Recordings

Continued from Front Page

Gunder Recordings

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A Plaquemine, LA, insurance agenthas been sentenced to more than fouryears in federal prison for mail fraudthat cost several of his clients nearly$1.4 million.

U.S. District Judge Brian A.Jackson ordered 67-year-oldWilliam J. Coury to report to federalprison on May 29. Coury will servean additional two years under the su-pervision of federal investigators afterhe completes his 51-month prisonterm, according to U.S. AttorneyDonald J. Cazayoux Jr.

The judge also ordered Coury topay full restitution of $1,375,121.87to his Jefferson Parish victims, whoare listed in court records only bytheir initials.

The former insurance agent ad-mitted he used investment money forpersonal purposes unbeknownst to sixof his clients, who trusted Coury toplace it in annuities or other insuranceproducts.

In his guilty plea on January 27Coury said from at least 1996 through2006, he solicited funds from clientsfor investment in annuities and otherinsurance products but instead keptthe funds for his own use.

LA Insurance Agent Sentencedin Fraud Case


BASF Automotive Refinish an-nounced the completion of its annualColorSource Conference, a three-dayinteractive conference for single linedistributors of BASF refinish paintsand coatings.

During the conference held April27 – 30 in Clearwater Beach, FL at theSand Pearl Resort, BASF re-launchedthe ColorSource PREMIER Programand shared annual objectives in addi-tion to networking and strategic activ-ities.

“Gathering all ColorSource PRE-MIER partners together enables collab-oration and development of strategicinitiatives for continued market growth,”statedDeniseKingstrom, StrategicAc-counts Manager for BASF AutomotiveRefinish. “It provides an opportunityoutside of our day-to-day activities torecognize industry progress, and sharebest practices.”

ColorSource PREMIER distrib-utors are single-line BASF distribu-tors that benefit from a uniqueassociation with BASF, allowing thema competitive edge. BASF Color-Source PREMIER members distributeonly BASF refinish paint products,

and are recognized by the company asimportant strategic partners in the af-termarket automotive refinish indus-try. To learn more about becoming aColorSource PREMIER distributor,please contact Denise Kingstrom [email protected] or 248-632-2420.

BASF Single Line Distributors Come Togetherfor ColorSource Conference

The Boyd Group announced the open-ing of a new repair center in McDo-nough, Georgia, on May 3. The center,previously known as McDonough Col-lision, was recently acquired by theBoyd Group and now operates underthe Gerber Collision & Glass tradename.

The new facility is approximately26,000 square feet in size, with 24,000square feet of production space. Withthis addition, the Boyd Group is nowable to serve consumers and insuranceclients in the county seat of HenryCounty, 30 miles south of Atlanta. TheBoyd Group now owns and operates12 repair centers in Georgia and a totalof 99 in the U.S., including 37 repaircenters that operate under theTrue2Form trade name.

“We continue to execute on ourstrategy of expanding into select mar-kets and growing our network of repaircenters across North America,” saidTimO’Day, President and COO of theBoyd Group’s U.S. Operations. “Thenew McDonough repair center helps usintroduce the Gerber Collision & Glassbrand to an additional Georgia marketand we are very pleased to be able toserve new customers in this location.”

Gerber Collision and GlassAcquires Georgia Shop

General Motors Co announced thatthey will invest millions into revamp-ing a Kentucky factory to produce anew version of the iconic ChevroletCorvette sports car, the automaker saidon May 4.

“It has a completely differentlook. Don’t ask me how or what, butpeople will be really surprised, in agood way,” GM’s North Americanpresident Mark Reuss told Reuters.

GM would not say when the newCorvette would be introduced, but au-tomotive insiders have speculated thatit will make its debut in 2013.

The automaker will invest $131million in the Bowling Green, Ken-tucky plant to retool the factory forproduction of the seventh generationof the Corvette. The company alsoplans to hire an additional 250 em-ployees along with the plants remodel.

Reuss told the plant’s nearly 400production line workers that GM has in-vested $3.4 billion and created 9,000jobs at its U.S. plants since mid-2009,the year it went through a $52 billionU.S. government-sponsored bankruptcy.

GM said the current-generationCorvette will be made in Kentucky forat least the next two model years.

GM to Invest $131 Million atBowling Green, KY, Plant

The cause of a fire at North Tulsaauto body repair shop remains underinvestigation after it was sparked atthe business on April 20.

Tulsa Fire was dispatched to theshop at 1:30 am on April 20 at 46thStreet North and Peoria.

Firefighters were able to containthe non-injury fire from spreadingand most of the damage was to theinside of the shop.

A small window had been bro-ken in the building, leading firefight-ers to believe the cause of the firemay be suspicious.

Suspicious Fire At TulsaAuto Body Shop StillUnder Investigation


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The Florida Senate and House Panelapproved a bill on May 23 that makesit more difficult for injured plaintiffsto win product liability damages fromauto makers and other manufacturers.

The Senate measure was ap-proved by a vote of 80-35 and hasbeen sent to Republican Gov. RickScott for his signature, according tothe Associated Press.

The bills, which have been ap-proved by the Florida Senate and theFlorida House Civil Justice Subcom-mittee, neutralize a 2001 FloridaSupreme Court decision against Fordthat said evidence of the primarycause of a crash, such as driver erroror drunkenness, cannot be introducedin product liability cases.

The bills, SB 142 and HB 201,are aimed at fairly distributing liabilityin cases where manufacturer defectsmay have played a part in a crash.These bills will take actions on thepart of the driver that could have con-tributed to the accident in questioninto consideration when making a rul-ing as well.

According to the new law, juries

would have to “consider the fault ofall persons who contributed to an ac-cident when apportioning damages ina products liability action.”

“Not giving the jury all the de-tails, including a critical piece of in-formation about the driver’scondition, is unfair and absurd,” saidBarney Bishop III, president of As-sociated Industries of Florida, thestate’s lobby for big business, accord-ing to the Associated Press.

“Correcting this inequity willnow open the doors to automotivemanufacturing companies that previ-ously had not considered Florida as abase of operation,” Bishop added.

The legislation on the “crashwor-thiness doctrine” was the focus of alobbying duel between trial lawyerswho represent injured parties andbusiness interests led by Ford MotorCo.

Under that doctrine, if, for ex-ample, “an airbag fails to deploy dur-ing an initial collision and the driversubsequently collides with the wind-shield, the manufacturer may be li-able for damages attributable to the

second collision caused by the de-fective airbag,” according to a staffanalysis.

Democrats have argued the billswould shift medical costs for seri-ously-injured crash victims to taxpay-ers and that manufacturers should beheld accountable for their mistakes.

“See how much they paid tomake sure this happens,” state Rep.Richard Steinberg, D-Miami, said indebate, referring to Ford’s and otherbusiness interests’ campaign contribu-tions to Republican lawmakers.

“What this bill says is, if youdon’t put on a seatbelt, it’s your fault,”Steinberg added. “But if the seat beltdoesn’t work, it’s not their fault.”

But state Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, said the “doomsday scenario”that deserving plaintiffs would goempty-pocketed from the courthousewas unfounded.

“Judges can still make rulingsabout quality and weight (of evi-dence),” he said. “We shouldn’t shieldrelevant evidence from juries.”

The law overrules the decision inthe case of Karen D’Amario, whose

then-teenage son was badly burnedand lost three limbs when the car hewas riding in crashed into a tree andexploded. The driver was killed.

D’Amario alleged her son’s in-juries were due mostly to the explo-sion caused by a defective relayswitch on a fuel pump. The jury sidedwith Ford, which argued the switchwas fine and blamed the fire on thecollision because it ruptured the car’soil pan.

The justices ruled that the jurywas confused by evidence that thedriver was drunk and speeding, in-stead of focusing on the product lia-bility allegation. The opinionreversed the jury’s verdict and saidsuch evidence should be excludedfrom future cases that allege “en-hanced” injuries.

Florida Bills Will Distribute Liability in Lawsuits Against Automakers

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Alabama state laws have scrap yardowner David Hickman dealing withfrustrated customers when he tellsthem that he can’t take their junk carswithout a valid title. “Lots of timescustomers want to argue with us whenwe tell them they have to have it,” hesaid to Alabama website al.com. “Butthat’s the law, we can’t take a car with-out title.” As of 2010, people sellingcars to scrap have had to have the titlein order to sell. This has caused somefriction as owners of junk cars oftendon’t have an official title in theirname, either because it’s been lost orbecause the car was signed over tothem by a previous owner, Hickmansaid.

The requirement has all but killedthe auto recycling part of the scrapbusiness, according to Hickman.Hickman isn't the only one feeling thepain; the law has affected every linkin the recycling food chain.

Materials from junk cars feedlow-level parts dealers and car crush-ers, which feed auto-shredding opera-tions like Hickman’s. Scrap metalgenerated by the shredders also feeds

mills and manufacturers like SSAB innorth Mobile County and Huron Val-ley Steel Corp. in Anniston.

The title requirement law took abite out of all of those industries, saidGraham Champion, a lobbyist for theAlabama Recycling Association, alobbying association. The recyclersare pushing a bill in the Legislaturethat would ease the title requirementto make it easier for scrap dealers tobuy junk cars. The would hopefullyincrease business for recyclers andbring more scrap metal into the state.

Efforts of the recyclers, however,have pitted them against local law en-forcement officials, who say the newrules would lead to increased car theft.

“They basically want to legalize afencing operation,” said Deputy ChiefJames Barber of the Mobile PoliceDepartment to al.com. “This legisla-tion is outrageous and only serves toincrease crime in our communities forthe benefit of the scrap and salvage in-dustries at the expense of Alabama cit-izens.”

Prior to the enforcement of thetitle law, thieves with tow trucks were

scooping up broken down cars off ofthe street and bringing them directlyto the scrap dealers, said Sgt. MichaelWomack, who polices the scrap yardsin Mobile.

When the police departmentbegan enforcing the title requirement,car thefts fell by 20 percent, basicallyovernight, Barber said. The percent-age of stolen cars that police were ableto recover also improved, he said. Re-quiring a title for a car before it isscrapped allows for better tracking ofvehicles coming into recycler's yards.

Officials from the Mobile CountySheriff’s Office, the Mobile CountyDistrict Attorney’s Office and the Po-lice Department have been lobbyingagainst the proposed law for the pastseveral weeks.

Supporters of the bill say the lawenforcement officials aren’t takinginto account all the safety measuresbuilt into the legislation. The billwould only remove the title require-ment for cars more than 12 modelyears old and worth less than $1,000,said Philip Bryan, chief of staff forSen. Del Marsh, who is sponsoring

the bill in the Senate. The bill wouldalso create an e-verify system to trackwhat cars are being scrapped at thepoint of sale. Before shredding orcrushing the vehicle, scrap dealerswould have to give the Vehicle Identi-fication Number (VIN) to the stateDepartment of Revenue, which wouldcheck to see if it had been reportedstolen. The seller would also have tosign an affidavit swearing that he wasthe vehicle’s legal owner.

Womack said the safeguards inthe bill are inadequate. By the time acar is reported stolen and entered intothe national database, it could alreadybe reduced to an untraceable scrap.

Customers heading to MississippiPrior to the title rule, Alabama recy-cled about 200,000 to 300,000 carsevery year, now many of those carsare simply going to neighboring statesthat have less laws relating to scrap-ping vehicles. Hickman lives inBiloxi, which doesn’t have a title re-quirement. He said he used shredabout 30 cars a day; now he doesthree.

Alabama Auto-Scrapping Bill Curtails Auto Scrap Industry

The other day I was teaching I-CAR’sworkers protection program and I hadthe techs show me their blowers. (I’mreferring to the nozzle blowers on airhoses here, not hand-held dryers.) Ifound 3 illegal ones. I asked the ques-tion “How much is the OSHA fine forthese blowers?” and the productionmanager said it was $7000. I was inArizona, not California, at the time. Iinquired if the shop had been fined andhis reply was “I read your article and Iam in the process of getting OSHA ap-proved blowers.” It made me feel thatall this work is worthwhile. Let’s getstarted on the second installment of thearticle.

Electrical• Check all extension cords for dam-age (repaired with electrical tape andbroken grounds are a big no no).• All high voltage boxes labeled witha DANGER Sign?• All outlet covers installed?• Are all energized parts of electricalcircuits and equipment guardedagainst accidental contact by ap-proved cabinets or enclosures?• Make sure there is a 3 foot barriermarked around all electrical boxes.

Walkways• Make sure that all in ground pullingpots are flush with surface when notin use. Most of the time the covers are

bent and they are out on the floor,which creates a tripping hazard.

• Do you have a spill containmentcontainer (absorbent material in asmall garbage can works, but it mustbe marked and placed in accessiblearea.)

Safety & Signage

• Do you have an OSHA approvedfirst aid kit?

You will also need the proper sig-nage.

Speaking of signage, here are


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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]

Getting OSHA-Compliant on Signage, Electrical and Power Tools


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some of the more common ones thatare needed in the body shop.

Flammable and Combustible Materials• Is proper storage practiced to mini-mize the risk of fire including sponta-neous combustion?• Are all hazardous drums with flam-mable materials grounded?• Are all flammable liquids kept inclosed containers when not in use?• Are stored oxygen tanks separatedby 25 feet from flammable stored gascylinders?

• Does thefacility haveenough fireextinguish-ers as percity ordi-nances?• Are all fireextinguisherscharged andare properlytagged (youalso havesomeone inthe

shop check and sign thetags once a month)?• Do you have a class D fireextinguisher for a magne-sium fire?

Here is a chart of the sym-bols on the fire extinguisherand what materials it can beused.• Are all fire extinguishersfree from obstruction?• Is a fire extinguishermounted within 10 feet of

any inside storage area of flammablematerials?

Power Tools• Are portable fans provided with fullguards or screens having openings of½ inch or less?• Do all power tools have groundedcords?

Batteries• Are batteries stored on a spill con-tainment tray?The next article will deal with MSDS

sheets and safety programs that arenecessary for OSHA compliance.



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Allstate, which has seen its per-sonal lines business shrink, said thedeal lets it expand its service to con-sumers who prefer to buy direct onlinerather than through personal agents. Itallows it to compete with Progressiveand Geico, which have strong web in-surance shopping sites.

“Consumers today expect to havetheir specific needs met by their in-surance companies. Our strategy is tofocus on individual preferences andutilize different value propositions fordistinct consumer segments,” saidThomas J. Wilson, Allstate’s presi-dent, chairman and chief executive of-ficer.

Wilson said Allstate agencies do“an outstanding job of serving cus-tomers who want a local personaltouch and prefer to purchase abranded product.” But Esurance willexpand the company’s ability to servecustomers who are “more self-di-rected but still prefer a branded prod-uct.” Wilson also said AnswerFinancial will strengthen Allstate’s of-

fering to individuals who want to beoffered a choice between insurancecarriers and are brand-neutral.

The move has some Allstateagents concerned.

“Many Allstate agents are view-ing the proposed acquisition suspi-ciously. The company has beenhell-bent on growing its direct chan-nel for years, but only recently has ithad any success,” said Jim Fish, ex-ecutive director of the National Asso-ciation of Professional AllstateAgents, Inc. “Who knows, the successof the Esurance business model andtechnology platform could ultimatelyimprove and transform Allstate’s di-rect channel into a powerhouse.Should this come to pass, Allstateagents would feel more expendablethan ever.”

According to Fish, Allstate isshedding seasoned agencies in favorof larger agencies with more staff.“[S]o adding this acquisition to theagents’ woes, can only create moreangst. Without a doubt, the agentswant Allstate to be successful – butnot at their expense,” he said.

Allstate said Esurance and An-swer Financial will retain their brand

names. Esurance has some 1,7000 em-ployees and 14 regional offices.

Wilson said Allstate would nowbe the only company serving all ofthese consumer segments with uniqueinsurance offerings.

“This transaction is also attrac-tive for our shareholders. Associationwith Allstate will improve Esurance’smarketing effectiveness and it canleverage our world-class pricing andclaim capabilities. This also offers ustwo additional sources of growth andan immediate increase in customer re-lationships,” Wilson said.

Premiums for policies sold byboth Esurance and Answer Financialwere $1.2 billion in 2010. Gross pre-miums written by Esurance were $839million for the year. Esurance had839,000 policies-in-force, including328,000 policyholders at Answer Fi-nancial. The Esurance segment addedapproximately 65,000 policies-in-force during 2010, an increase of 8percent, according to the company.

The transaction has been ap-proved by both companies’ boards ofdirectors and is expected to close in fall2011. The transaction is subject to reg-ulatory and other customary closing

conditions, including review by an-titrust authorities and state regulators.White Mountains Chairman and CEORaymond Barrette said the online in-surance operation Allstate is acquiringhas grown from a start-up to rankamong the top online insurers in 10years. “We have happily invested sig-nificant capital in what we believedwas a unique business. Allstate agreesand can now take it to a new level,“Barrette said.

Continued from Front Page

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Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is ex-pected to sign into law a bill puttingheavier requirements on certificate ofinsurance forms.

The bill will require the forms tobe filed with approval from the stateinsurance commissioner.

Agent groups and insurancecompanies have had longstandingproblems with certificates that areoften used to falsely show proof ofcoverage or amend the coverage toinclude provisions outside the termsof the certificate holders’ policy.

Earlier this year, InsuranceCommissioner Ralph Hudgens is-sued a directive restating that certifi-cates are for information purposesonly and confer no rights on the cer-tificate holders outside the terms oftheir policies.

The directive also remindedagents and policyholders that the in-tentional misuse of certificate isagainst the law.

Following Hudgens’ action,the Independent Insurance Agentsof Georgia and Professional Agentsof Georgia created a joint taskforce to turn the directive into leg-islation.

“This legislation is very impor-tant to our members,” said Gould

Hagle according to Insurance Jour-nal, lobbyist for the Independent In-surance Agents of Georgia. “Itspassage is the culmination of a fullyear’s work.”

The bill, entitled HB66, is spon-sored by Rep. Maxwell Howard andhas been approved by both the Geor-gia House of Representatives andSenate, before being sent to Gov.Deal for his signature.

The bill clarifies that a certifi-cate is a synopsis of coverage as it ex-ists on the date the certificate isissued and is only intended for infor-mational purposes.

The bill also spells out that a cer-tificate is not an insurance contract ora document that alters coverage.

If signed by Deal, the bill wouldmake two substantive changes to cur-rent law.

In addition to requiring thatcertificate forms to be filed with andapproved by the insurance commis-sioner, the new law places certifi-cate holders under the regulatoryauthority of the commissioner sothat any violations would be cov-ered under the state’s insurancecode.

For more information pleasevisit www.ok.gov/oid.

GA Passes Bill Regulating Insurance Certificates

Tampa-area authorities say a five-month investigation into local stagedcar accidents and insurance fraud cul-minated in arrest warrants for 53 peo-ple.

The Hillsborough County Sher-iff’s Office said that search warrantswere served at four medical clinics aspart of the operation. Tampa andFlorida both have very high rates ofstaged accidents for insurance fraudcompared to other regions in the coun-try.

Authorities said the clinicsscammed insurers out of $1 million to$2 million during the course of the in-vestigation, according to InsuranceJournal.

Some suspects are accused ofparticipating in crashes, others of run-ning clinics involved in insurancescams relating to injuries sustained inthe fraudulent accidents. Deputiessaid the charges range from conspir-acy to commit racketeering to filingfalse insurance claims.

The suspects include clinic own-ers and managers as well as generalemployees, massage therapists andparticipants in staged crashes.

The National Crime Bureau

(NICB), the Hillsborough County Of-fice of the State Attorney Departmentand the Florida State Department Fi-nancial Services cooperated in theprobe.

Officials said deputies noticed apattern of questionable vehiclecrashes beginning in September 2009.Undercover detectives then developedconfidential informants and learnedwhich medical clinics were beingused in this fraudulent activity.

Detectives were also able toidentify the recruiters and coordina-tors who would solicit individuals toconduct staged crashes. Then the par-ticipants would be directed to a par-ticular medical clinic to sign blankmedical forms. At the clinics, crashparticipants would be coached on howto describe their injuries or pain tophysicians.

The NICB reported that last yearFlorida had more questionable PIPclaims that any other state, withTampa as the leading city. Statewide,PIP claims increased by 119 percentbetween 2008 and 2010. In Tampa,the number of claims jumped by 491percent. This was the second majorPIP bust in two years in the area.

Florida Arrests 53 Suspects in AllegedStaged Car Crash Schemes

Ford Motor Company Fund is con-tributing more than $1 million in theAtlanta area over two years to supportnon-profits and various educationalinitiatives with the addition of$600,000 of new contributions thisyear as part of its Operation Goodwill.

Since 2000, Ford has contributedmore than $23 million to Atlanta areacharitable organizations benefiting thebroader community at large.

Ford has contributed moremoney in more communities over its107-year history than any other au-tomaker.

Ford Motor Company and itscommunity relations arm, Ford MotorCompany Fund (Ford Fund), an-nounced that with the addition of$600,000 of new contributions thisyear, the Ford Fund will exceed $1million in donations during the twoyear period of 2011-2012 to supportcommunity initiatives.

Through its Operation GoodwillAtlanta project, Ford Fund and localFord and Lincoln dealers are expand-ing their engagement with non-profitpartners in areas of community need.

Ford Fund already has con-tributed more than $23 million to At-lanta-area charitable organizationssince 2000. Ford has contributed moremoney in more communities in its107-year history than any other au-tomaker.

“My customers, employees, fam-ily and friends are very proud to saythey are connected to Ford MotorCompany in ways they never imag-ined. It is so nice to see a companygive back to the community and actu-ally get involved on a local level,”said Mike Vigil, dealer at Allan VigilFord Lincoln.

A portion of this contribution willgo to support the Atlanta CommunityFood Bank which provides more than25 million pounds of food and groceryproducts annually to more than 700partner nonprofit agencies throughoutmetro Atlanta and North Georgia.Ford Fund’s contribution will providetransportation and operation assis-tance to bring food to more families inneed.

“We are committed to helpingmeet the growing needs in this com-

munity during these challengingtimes,” said JimVella, president, FordMotor Company Fund and Commu-nity Services. “Ford Motor Companyhas been investing in Atlanta fordecades, and we are committed tocontinuing our role as an importantcorporate citizen in the community.”

Other organizations receivingsupport include Zoo Atlanta, GeorgiaTech, Imagine It! Children’s Museumof Atlanta, Juvenile Diabetes ResearchFoundation and more.

Bill Bolling, Executive Directorof the Atlanta Community Food Bank,notes: “Ford Motor Company Fundunderstands the needs of our commu-nity and has been here to support theAtlanta region for many years. Thecontributions made by the Ford Fundwill greatly benefit citizens of ourcommunity, and we are very gratefulfor Ford to continue this support de-spite tough economic conditions. Fordis a company that truly cares about thecommunities where it does business.”

In addition Ford Fund hasbrought the award-winning teen safedriving program “Ford Driving Skills

for Life” to Atlanta, which provideshands-on skills training for new teendrivers; and the “Ford Partnership forAdvanced Studies” (Ford PAS), a highschool curriculum that provides stu-dents with the academic and 21st–cen-tury workplace skills needed to besuccessful in college and high-wage,high-skills jobs in a global economy.


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The Value of Service Repair InformationWith the ever changing complexity oftoday’s vehicles that confront you andyour team on a daily basis, access tomanufacturer’s repair information isand will be one of the most importanttools you will utilize on a daily basis.Whether you are an Estimator, Man-ager, Insurance Adjuster, Technicianor part of the Production Team,proper repair procedures from themanufacturer will allow you to iden-tify, negotiate and explain key repairplan thought processes. It will also as-sist and manage critical business In-dicators such as cycle times, hours perday, sublet repairs, technician effi-ciencies, overall productivity andprofits.

Many considerations arise whenpreparing a repair plan for your cus-tomers whether they are your Insur-ance Partners, everyday customers, orTechnicians. Issues such as minimalsupplements, factory recommenda-tions correct documentation, cus-tomer satisfaction and a cost effectiverepair are only a few issues that oneneeds to consider.

Questions such as these will con-front you or your staff daily.● Should I section this or replace theentire panel?● How do I handle this Hybrid?● What SRS parts do I need to replaceafter the accident?● Can we reset the Tire PressureMonitoring System?● Does my Technician know how toremove the trim panel on this vehicle?

● Can we repair this suspension hereat our shop?● How can I provide my customers

detailed repair documentation if theyrequire it?

Documentation will be the mostcritical link you will have when de-termining a repair strategy.

So when is the best time to ac-cess or source this valuable repair in-formation? Pre-Production or Duringthe Production phase of repair?

The answer to both of these is‘yes,’ based on your collision opera-tion and processes.

Accessing Manufacturer repair in-formation during the Pre-Productionphase or at the time of the repair plan isan effective way of properly identifyingcritical repair decisions. You noticed Isaid “repair plan” and not estimate?

Often times a certain repair proce-dure may be available and if you don’tknow it, the vehicle can halt in produc-tion due to supplements, authorizations,parts orders, or sublet repairs. When-ever a vehicle is stopped or delayed dur-ing the production process, cycle timeswill increase, efficiencies decline and

overall shop profitability is affected.If thought was given to proper

repair techniques, locations and prac-tices during the repair plan or prior toproduction, these critical performanceindicators would ultimately benefit.

For example:You are developing an estimate on a

2007 vehicle that has structural damageto the front. Do you know if the structuralcomponent can be repaired or should itbe replaced? If you have to replace it, canit be sectioned and where? Without thecorrect repair procedure, you may de-velop your estimate based on prior expe-rience, here say, Industry acceptedpractices or the ever popular guess.

As the vehicle moves into pro-duction, parts have been ordered, theestimate has been sent or uploadedand approved and the technician isdiligently disassembling it. Upon fur-ther examination after disassembly,your technician states that the dam-aged structural component cannot berepaired with the method on the esti-mate due to the fact that he or shethinks the component is made of ad-vanced high strength steel.

Production stops, a supplement isgenerated, approval for additional repairsare pending and parts are re-ordered.

If the proper repair and identifi-cation procedures were accessed fromthe Manufacturer at the time of the re-pair plan, this scenario could havebeen avoided. Now ask yourself,“How much time are you now spend-ing reacting to the estimate that was

prepared incorrectly utilizing the priorscenario” and would you ultimatelygenerate less work for yourself if youperformed repair research prior to pro-duction or when developing a repairplan?

During the production phase, a tech-nician ultimately benefits by being effi-cient or keeping his hands on the vehicle.

Locations of components, testingprocedures, disabling operations, ma-terial identification and overall properrepair procedures are only a smallportion of what today’s collision tech-nicians face day in and day out.

By providing them with accessto Manufacturer’s information, canthey increase their overall productiv-ity and efficiencies?

Ask yourself this question thenext time that your technician cannotlocate a component or remove a cer-tain part without instructions.

If they had access to the proce-dures would they limit or eliminatethese time consuming scenarios?

In summary, vehicle complexity ischanging at a rapid pace and in order tobe current with all of the complexities, weneed to utilize the latest repair strategiesand procedures that are available to us.

A proactive approach, a proper re-pair plan and an awareness and utiliza-tion of published procedures from themanufacturer are effective ways tomanage our time and your team. Thiswill ultimately provide a safe and accu-rate repair to our valued customers. Isn’tthis what we are all in business for?

with Dan EspersenALL OEM Information Dan Espersen is ALLDATA® CollisionSM Program Manager. Dan is a Gold Pin

Member of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) and holds an AA Degree inAutomotive Technology. He has 35 years of experience split between the colli-sion industry and in the mechanical automotive industry.

National Average for Body and Paint Labor Rates Up Only Modestly Since 2006The national average for body andpaint labor rates has risen only mod-estly year-over-year since 2006, ac-cording to figures from CCCInformation Services.

The average body labor rate rosefrom $41.42 in 2006 to $44.67 in2010, up an average of 2.1 percent peryear. The national average hourly ratefor paint materials rose slightly faster,

from $22.26 in 2006 to $25.37 in2010, an average increase of 3.5 per-cent per year. Overall, according tothe U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,the Consumer Price Index for auto-

body work rose an average of 3.44percent per year for that 5-year pe-riod. By comparison, the CPI for allproducts rose an average of 2.2 per-cent per year.


with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’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]

Jo was a new customer referred by anold-time regular. Her little Kia SUVhad a transmission problem thatseemed to be getting the best of thetransmission shop.

The story goes that the Kia wasconstantly in limp mode, and wouldnever shift properly—ever. As alwaysseems to be the case when a simpleproblem can’t be solved simply,somebody started the diagnostics offin the wrong direction. Little did Iknow this was a simple problem.

But, as I see it, each and everytype of diagnostic work that you dorequires a certain step by step proce-dure that you must follow. Missing astep, or completely overlooking astep, usually means you’re going tomiss that simple problem all together.This was no exception.

From what information I couldgather the person who diagnosed it atthe transmission shop wasn’t the

same person who installed it. So afterthe tech put the last bolt in the trans-mission, he set the car out front, andtold the front office, “Got the trans-mission in that Kia.”

The front office considered itdone, and the call went out for Jo topick it up. She didn’t make it aroundthe block before she was back at thefront counter in a “not-so” pleasantmood. You can just imagine the situ-ation at the counter, not happy I’msure.

After some deliberation, andvery little diagnostics the transmis-sion shop came to the conclusion thatit must be a bad transmission. Luck-ily, the ride that had brought Jo therewas still in the parking lot, so she leftthe Kia for them to re-do the wholejob.

A week later, it was supposedlydone. This time a different tech hadinstalled the second transmission. Un-

fortunately, he made the same mistakeas the first tech. When Jo came topick up her car the shop owner tookher for a ride to be sure that the re-pairs were made to her satisfaction. Itwas a short drive.

This time, the owner said he wasgoing to pay for the transmission, andwould even purchase one from thedealership just to be sure it wasn’ttheir mistake in rebuilding it. Buteven the dealer transmission failed toshift properly. The tranny shop was ata loss, they decided to make a fewcalls for some help, and that’s whenmy phone rang.

Now, I’m not one to diagnoseanything over the phone. I just don’tthink it’s a smart way of taking careof such problems, because you neverquite know what you’re getting into.

But the tranny shop ownersounded desperate, and now the repaircosts were coming out of his pocket.

From his frantic explanations of nocodes, no shift, and no idea of theproblem, he kind of put me on thespot, so … I suggested a computer.

Heck, why not… ya changed thetranny three times for Pete’s sake, ob-viously that ain’t it. I probablyshouldn’t have done that, but I thinkhe wanted to try and save as muchmoney as possible without resortingto taking it to another shop.

Well, a new TCM didn’t work ei-ther. Now, the car is finally comingmy way. Jo was a little unsurewhether or not there was anyone outthere who could find the problem, buther friend told her that it couldn’t hurtto let me see what I could do for her.I’ll give it a try.

When the car showed up at theshop I took it around the block onceto verify the condition, and then put itup on the lift. While it was on the lift

Shift Happens: The Story of Three Transmissions and a Limp Kia SUV

See Three Transmissions, Page 25


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Language in Florida House Bill 5005,entitled “Deregulations of Professionsand Occupations,” that would repealFlorida’s law requiring the registrationof motor vehicle repair shops, theMotor Vehicle Repair Advisory Coun-cil, and the regulation of motor vehi-cle repair has been omitted in a budgetconference report.

The Automotive Service Associ-ation (ASA) organized a grassroots ef-fort in Florida to support the currentshop registration law.

The Florida Motor Vehicle Re-pair Act was created to assist con-sumers with matters relating to motorvehicle repair shops. The Motor Vehi-cle Repair Advisory Council was es-tablished to advise and assist theDepartment of Agriculture and Con-sumer Services in carrying out and re-viewing the rules relating to theFlorida Motor Vehicle Repair Act. Thelaw applies to dealers of new and usedcars, trucks and motorcycles; garages;service stations; self-employed per-sons; truck stops; and paint, body,brake, muffler, transmission, mobilerepair and glass shops.

If the bill had been passed as wasoriginally drafted, motor vehicle re-

pair facilities would be deregulated.Before 1993, there were approxi-mately 5,500 consumer complaintsper year related to automotive repair.Resolutions for these complaints wentthrough the state court system, a two-to three-year expensive process. Dur-ing fiscal year 2009-2010, there wereonly 1,743 complaints for the year, a70 percent decrease since the start ofthe program. With the Florida popula-tion increasing 35 percent during thattime, the effective decrease in com-plaints was actually closer to 80 per-cent.

The Florida Motor Vehicle Re-pair Act is self-funded by the automo-tive service industry, and helps tooffset much of the cost for the callcenter for all of the motor vehicle re-lated programs. The annual cost of theprogram for 90 percent of the shops is$50 per year. There are more than22,000 auto repair shops in Florida.The program as part of the FloridaMotor Vehicle Repair Act is effective,and successfully arbitrates nearly 70percent of all complaints within 60days. ASA supports the Florida legis-lature’s decision to delete these provi-sions from House Bill 5005.

Florida Shop Licensing Program SurvivesDeregulation Efforts by House Bill 5005

Hyundai Motor Co. will invest $173million in expanding and modifyingan engine plant in Alabama starting in2012, the state said on May 16.

The expansion, which is ex-pected to be completed in the fall of2012, will allow the plant to make theengine for the small Elantra sedanbeing produced at the automaker’sMontgomery, AL, plant.

This would boost production ca-pacity for the Hyundai Santa Fe andthe Kia Sorrento models manufac-tured at the Kia Motors Corp. assem-bly plant at West Point, Ga.

“The enhancements to the engineplant will not only increase our enginecapacity by 300,000 units per year, itwill also provide us the opportunity toimplement new manufacturing tech-nologies,” Hyundai Motor Manufac-turing Alabama LLC CEO Deuk Limsaid during a news conference May 16according to Automotive News.

The investment will also create214 new jobs at the plant, the statesaid according to Automotive News.

In addition to this announcement,a second Hyundai U.S. assembly plantis rumored to follow at some point.

Sources told Reuters that

Hyundai has recently spoken at leastinformally with at least three U.S.states, including Alabama, about plansfor a second plant in the southeast ofthe United States.

Officials in South Carolina andMississippi expressed interest in lur-ing the automaker to place new pro-duction in those states, the sourcesadded.

Hyundai Motor’s chief financialofficer, Lee Won-hee, said that thecompany may consider building an-other U.S. production plant if the mar-ket continued to improve, but that noformal plans are in place, according toAutomotive News.

Hyundai to Expand Alabama Engine Plant,Create Over 200 New Jobs

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Porsche is expected to move its NorthAmerican headquarters, and hundredsof jobs the plant provides the north-ern Georgia suburb it currently callshome, from Sandy Springs to the oldFord plant site near the Hartsfield-At-lanta International Airport in Atlanta.

Porsche is expected to build of-fices where the plant was demolishedand a test track similar to its PorscheSilverstone facility in England.

Fulton County CommissionerWilliam “Bill” Edwards saidHapeville’s mayor and city councilhave been working hard to fill theplant site and it makes good economicsense for Porsche, with the site’sproximity to the airport and interstate.

“This is just the first step,” Ed-wards said to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “South Fulton hasalways been misrepresented as abunch of poor black folks and poorwhite folks. Other people are findingout that it’s a diamond in the rough.”

The move does have its down-sides; Porsche will be leaving the Cen-tral Perimeter business district that hasseveral MARTA rail stops and is closeto neighborhoods favored for housingand schools by employees. The former

Ford plant site, which was closed in2006, currently is not served by a di-rect MARTA rail stop, though the cityhas mentioned arranging a stop fromeither a future commuter rail line orthe airport’s people mover system.

Porsche’s move is likely to takeseveral years, as the office buildingand track would be built from scratch.The company’s current lease in SandySprings is set to expire in 2013.

Porsche has been a major tenantof Lakeside Commons, a 14-storytower in Sandy Springs built in 1998,where the automaker is currentlyheadquartered. Porsche occupiesabout 2-1/2 floors of that building andwould empty about 10 percent of thebuilding if it moves. Currently, thebuilding is 85 percent occupied.

The track would emulatePorche’s three-year-old Silverstone fa-cility in England, which offers coach-ing for drivers on a track imitatingrealistic driving conditions. A Porsche-themed restaurant and special eventsspace accompanies the track.

Jacoby Development bought theex-Ford plot in 2008 and has finishedremoving contaminated buildings andsoil from years of industrial use.

Porsche North America HQ to Leave Sandy Springs, GA,for Nearby Ex-Ford Plant in Atlanta

Georgia House Bill 388 is still alivein the Georgia Legislature. HB 388aims to create a sales tax on servicesof many small businesses.

The bill, if passed, could bedevastating to the automotive serv-ice industry according to ASA—placing additional tax burdens onautomotive maintenance, repair,auto body repair, equipment instal-lation services, brake repair, oilchanges, motor tuneups, and en-gine repair and replacement, toname a few.

Despite the fact that no actionwas taken on Georgia HB 388 be-fore the Georgia Legislature ad-journed, the legislation could beconsidered during the special ses-sion later this summer.

ASA has opposed the proposedautomotive repair tax, and is callingon Georgia independent automotiverepairers and consumers to contacttheir respective representatives in op-position to the legislation.

To view full text of the bill and tosee how to send a letter to members ofthe Georgia state legislature, visitASA’s legislative website at www.Tak-ingTheHill.com.

GA Auto Repair Tax BillStill Alive in House

Although hail that came through cen-tral Texas in late April was much ap-preciated by firefighters fighting firesthroughout the state, local auto bodyrepair shops were unexpectedly inun-dated with work following the storm.

Lines started forming earlyApril 25 at auto repair shops, as thou-sands of cars in Abilene got ham-mered with hail on April 23 and 24.Reports ranged from pea to softballsized hail in the part of the state westof Dallas.

Abilene fireman J. Sanders re-ported the damage done to his sta-tion’s SUV to Abilene’s KTXS News,including a cracked window, crackedpaint, several large dents and it evenhit the GPS antenna.

“I parked it under a mesquitetree,” Sander told KTXS News, “butthe tree is half gone.”

Wade Keeling told KTXS Newshe had already been waiting 4 hoursto get broken windows fixed on histruck with no guarantee he would beseen, “It’s very frustrating.”

Abilene Auto Glass, one ofmany repair shops in town, estimatedthey would see more than 400 carsthe week following the storm.

Hail Storm Brings Influxof Repairs for TX Shops

Current industry trends—and a lookahead at the electric, fuel-efficient andChinese vehicles that could be show-ing up in collision shops in the comingyears—were the focus of one speaker’spresentation at the recent Women’s In-dustry Network (WIN) conference.

Greg Horn, vice president of in-dustry relations for Mitchell Interna-tional, told about 160 attendees at theWIN event in San Diego, that onepositive trend for collision repairershad been the rebound through earlythis year in the total miles driven byU.S. motorists.

“But we’re starting to see the ef-fect of gas prices impact the miles wedrive,” Horn cautioned.

He said that MasterCard Spend-ingPulse, which tracks gas purchasesat hundreds of U.S. locations, reportedin early May that the 4-week averageof retail gas demand had dropped forthe sixth consecutive time.

“So we’re potentially in for apretty significant impact as we get toearly summer in the reduction of acci-dents and repairable cars,” Horn said.

He said insurer data indicated anuptick in claims in the third- and fourth-quarters of last year, boosted in part bysome extensive hail and storm damagein several regions of the country.

Shops also have benefited from asizable rise in the value of used vehi-cles, which allows for higher repair

costs before a ve-hicle reaches thetotal loss thresh-old. Horn said theaverage vehicleappraised in thefirst quarter of2011, for example,had an actual cashvalue of $12,772,up from the same

quarter a year earlier even though the

average age of the vehicles appraisedin 2011 was almost a year older thanthat in 2010.

“So a car is older but worth morein value,” Horn said. “That’s a goodthing for us in the collision repairbusiness because that means we havemore opportunity to repair the cars.We’ll put more in the repair columnthan we will the total loss column.”

The percentage of vehicles de-clared a total loss dipped slightly in2010, and Horn and others expect thattrend to continue this year. Higher gasprices and the vehicle production dis-ruption caused by the earthquake andtsunami in Japan continue to buoy de-mand and prices for used vehicles, hepointed out.

“That 3-year-old Honda Accordis 20 percent more valuable than itwas last September, and the 3-year-old(Nissan) Sentra is up 12 percent,”Horn cited as examples.

Horn also discussed the impactthat increases to federal fuel economystandards are having on automakers.In late 2009, the Corporate AverageFuel Economy (CAFE) requirementswere changed to require each au-

tomaker by 2016 (rather than by 2020,as earlier established) to sell a fleetthat averages 35.5 miles per gallon.

“That is an ambitious goal,” Hornsaid. “A lot of auto manufacturers for


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with Ed Attanasio

Shop and Product Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase

with Erica SchroederShop Showcase

The Right Causewith Mike Causey

Industry Insightwith John Yoswick

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].

Industry Trends and Changes in Future Vehicles at WIN Conference

Greg Horn,Mitchell VP,

Industrial Relations

ScionIQ, a new microcar was to have sold inthe US in late summer, has nine airbags

See WIN Conference, Page 27

“The Insider” is an auto insurancecompany executive who wishes to re-main anonymous in order to speakfreely. This column offers an unvar-nished look at various issues impact-ing the collision industry from theinsurance perspective—Ed.

Who benefits the most from di-rect repair programs? Insurers will tellyou the consumer. Repairers will saythe insurance company. The consumerhas no idea and doesn’t care. They justwant their car fixed correctly andquickly.

In my humble opinion, the shopreceives the biggest benefit. The in-surance company does benefit but notmore than the shops on the program.

Yes, many insurance companiesreport millions in profit every quarter,but do you really think they maketheir money by not paying for thingssuch as block, prime, and fill or forOEM parts? If you believe that, you

should do some research before yousay it. A wise man once said, “Betterto keep your mouth shut and let every-one assume you’re stupid, rather thanopen your mouth and remove alldoubt.”

Insurers aren’t raking in double-digit profits on the backs of the bodyshops. Insurance companies capitalizeon a marketplace that has shops will-ing to provide discounts for volume.You wouldn’t do anything different ifin a similar position.

Do insurance companies profitfrom insureds using the direct repairprogram? Of course they do. Insurersbenefit from the reduction in severityand rental car expense, for example. Ifinsurance companies weren’t makingmoney, DRPs wouldn’t exist.

Do the shops make money fromparticipating in a given DRP? You bet.If shops weren’t making money par-ticipating in direct repair programs,

they wouldn’t be working with thatcarrier.

For every shop owner I see strug-gling to keep their doors open, I canprovide a secondary list of those thatare very well-heeled. Don’t misinter-pret what I’m saying: I don’t begrudgeanyone financial success and inde-pendence. But I don’t have the pa-tience or desire to listen to a shopowner complain about losing moneyas he or she drives to the airport in anew Mercedes for their vacation in theBahamas.

Even though insurance companiesmake a lot of mistakes, DRPs aren’tone of them. DRPs took an archaicbody shop trade and transformed it intothe collision repair industry. Fordecades, the body shop trade didn’tchange. In fact, it has been suggestedthat the early caveman provided thesame level of service that customers re-ceived from shops pre-DRP. I was un-able to validate that, but it’s difficult toargue a lack of differences between thecaveman and the 1970s shop owner.

For those who are long in thetooth, it seemed like yesterday that thebody shop trade with rife with unedu-cated technicians running their ownbusinesses. There was a “mom andpop” body shop on every corner. Thetraining you received as a body manwas from the old guy coughing up alung as he sanded a 10-foot-long quar-terpanel that was supposed to be re-


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with Rick WhiteShop Management

with Stefan GesterkampPaint Management

with Gonzo WeaverGonzo’s Toolbox

with Richard ArnoldJobber Journal

with Dale DelmegeAsk Dale

Mainstream Media

Automakers’ Actions and Analysisby Autobody News Staff

Shop Showcaseby Autobody News Staff

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

with Chasidy Rae SiskCompany Connections

with Chasidy Rae SiskNortheast News

with Chasidy Rae SiskShop Showcase


with Erica SchroederShop Snapshot

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]

See Inside Insurance, Page 27

Kevin Ham looks at his shop—TheBody Shop Garage—in rural Wood-ward, OK, and sees a lifelong dreamcoming true. While it took almost fouryears for the 45-year-old body man toget his own shop running, it’s some-thing that he’s wanted to accomplishsince he was 16.

“I’ve just always known I wantedto have my own shop,” said Ham.

Ham has worked for other bodyshops in the area for the duration ofhis career and really began makingsteps towards having his own businessin 2007. He bought a building on theend of Main Street from his cousin’swife’s grandfather and began thelengthy process of getting the shopready for his business. Ham rewiredthe entire place, installed better light-ing, sandblasted brick pillars and re-painted.

During the 3 years it took Ham torefinish the shop he continued to work

for another shop in the area and builtcustom hot rods out of the shop-in-progress.

Woodward is a small town ofabout 10,000 with only 3 competingrepair shops in the area, so buzz thatHam was trying to own his own shop

soon started to circulate the town.One year ago, Ham bought the

building connected to the one he wasrestoring to make his shop space big-ger. Then after almost four years of re-

finishing the place, the small businessloan he applied for went through andhe was able to finally get his placerunning.

“Since it’s been going I’ve hardlystopped,” said Ham, “It doesn’t evenseem real.”

The business now sits at about6,100 square-feet, although Ham isalso eyeing another adjacent buildingand may expand there in the near fu-ture. Ham, one other full-time repairman and one part-time repair man,

have seen 6–8 cars each week sincethe shop opened in the first week ofMarch. Ham’s son Kurt also helpswith the shop work.

Ham projects that the businesswill be able to gross about $500,000per year, based on two years of esti-mates and invoices of his own workhe saved while working at anothershop. Ham wanted to estimate howmuch work he could produce by him-self while finding out if owning hisown shop would be financially feasi-ble.

“I’m really an ‘Owner/Operator’—the business depends on my pro-duction too,” said Ham.

The business has really taken offsince it opened, and Ham has decidedthat he won’t be taking any DRP con-tracts in his shop. “I’ve really resistedthat [DRPs]; there’s supposed to be nosteering but as far as I’m concernedthat’s what it is,” said Ham.


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The Body Shop Garage Opens in Woodward, Oklahoma

with Ed Attanasio

Shop and Product Showcase

with Ed Attanasio

Shop Showcase


The Right Causewith Mike Causey


Erica Schroeder is a writer and editorial assistantfor Autobody News in Oceanside, CA. She can bereached at [email protected].

The front of The Body Shop Garage building in1946

The front of The Body Shop Garage today

Ham feels as though DRP pro-grams put the insurance adjuster’s jobon the body shop, and that the qualityof his work is all he needs to rely on tobring plenty of work into his shop.

Ham also feels that the ‘benefits’of a DRP for a shop—the supposed in-crease in business from insurance com-panies driving customers to their DRPshops—isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

“How do they know I wouldn’tget 80% of the business they’re sup-posedly driving to my shop on myown?” asks Ham.

Ham says he is confident in hisabilities and his work as well as hisability to get work into his shop.

“I’ve already got so much goingon, I can’t do the adjusters’ job forthem too,” said Ham.

Ham grew up in Woodward andmet a lot of industry people while work-ing for nearby shops over the years,making finding new customers andvendors for his own shop much easier.

Ham relied on English Color andSupply (see Autobody News May2011) to supply him with all his paintneeds, but they went above and be-yond what was expected.

“They’re people that will reallystand behind you,” said Ham.

Ham buys his paint—BASFbrand—as well as a spray booth and aused frame machine from EnglishColor. They also supplied him withsome items he needed on consignment;a new paint bank, cabinet, scale, a com-puter and paint shaker. Ham thoughtthey were going to provide these mate-rials used but they came through withall new supplies for the shop.

The biggest obstacles Ham raninto while getting his business startedmostly had to do with securing a smallbusiness loan. He applied for the loanin May and was not approved untilNovember.

“I really wanted to get this thingstarted in the summer because I knewthe winter would slow things down,”said Ham. But with thebank loan taking so longHam had no choice but tostart getting the businessrunning in the winter.

Starting in the win-ter slowed a lot of thesupply deliveries Hamneeded and made someof the final building ren-ovations difficult. Capi-tal improvements likepouring new concreteand laying a new roofwere put on hold becausethey are temperature-sensitive tasks.

Ham also found a lotof the local and state coding enforce-ment to be a hurdle for opening thebusiness, but ever since it’s been openHam has had a steady stream of work.

“There’s just been this buzz,”said Ham, “I never thought I could doit—and now I’m getting to do it.”

Ham’s hot rod business has notstopped either. Although he’s been try-ing to focus more on the commercial,

body shop end of the business he’sstill been getting calls and requests forhis hot rod services—the chief reason

for his desire to purchase a third con-nected building and further expand hisbusiness.

“I can’t turn off the hot rod busi-ness,” said Ham, “It’s part of me.”

The Body Shop Garage518 Main StWoodward, OK 73801(580) 334-4071


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(l-r) Body man Steven Ferguson, Body man Hunter Wellman,Kurt Ham and owner Kevin Ham all wore Marines T-shirts topay tribute to our armed forces

The inside of the shop floor area; the Coca-Cola sign on the left wall was in the buildingoriginally and Ham has decided to restore itto preserve some of the buildings history

As an auto body shop owner for over30 years, I understand total loss vehi-cles are a part our industry’s day today business. With the addition ofmore and more electronic gadgets,gizmos, and the installation of addi-tional air bags it is not unusual to havean insurance company choose to totala vehicle, and retain the auction sal-vage, rather than roll the dice on thepossibility of a multi-thousand dollarsupplement and being held responsi-ble for other liability issues. This isusually the standard insurance gameplan unless you come across a naiveinsurance appraiser who does notvalue his job.

Recently our body shop in SantaBarbara, California, was involved inan insurance claim involving a cus-tomer’s 2005 limited edition ScionXB which accidentally ran into ashopping center wall while exiting ashopping mall parking structure. The

driver must have experienced oneheck of a distraction to cause so muchdamage to the right front of his vehi-cle.

Upon closer inspection we dis-covered the right front frame waskinked enough to require replacementof the frame rail. The engine wouldneed to be removed to install theframe rail which resulted in additionallabor placing the car in the total losscategory.

While the appraiser was leavingour repair facility he commented hisinsurance company is very attracted tolow mileage fuel-efficient compactvehicles such as this one. Later thatday, I went out to the Scion and no-ticed there was a tag on the windshieldstating the vehicle now belonged tothe insurance company. I asked myselfhow this could be when the vehicleowner has not been notified or giveninformation on his options of retain-

ing the vehicle or accepting full retailvalue from his insurance company.

Even more intriguing, the nextday I received a phone call from theInsurance Salvage Auction companyrequesting to pick up the Scion. I wassurprised at what felt like a decisionto essentially steal the low mileageScion instead of getting notificationfrom the owner on what he has de-cided.

Soon after receiving the 24-houris-the-vehicle-released call from thesalvage auction company, I contactedour customer and reported the aggres-sive efforts by his insurance companywho seemed to have overlooked pro-viding us with a completed itemizedrepair estimate. Neither did they makea reasonable offer of retail value set-tlement to their insured. The customerresponded he would prefer having hiscar repaired. I advised him to requesta copy of their repair estimate. I also

recommended he do his homework inobtaining some comps on the value ofhis low-mileage vehicle. I advised himnot to be “intimidated” or feel rushedby the insurance company who had al-ready sent him an e-mail declaringthey will “limit their storage fees toonly two days.”

A couple days later, the customerreceived the insurance repair estimateand forwarded the attachment to ourshop where we confirmed the vehicleas a total loss. Vehicle valuation #1was also sent to the insured who askedif I would assist in the settlementprocess.

Upon reviewing the valuation re-port I noted there were several listedcomps, which were not from our area,resulting in a lowering the settlementvalue offered to the insured.

Another major item, to the insur-ance company’s advantage, was therewas no mileage posted on any of the


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vehicles reported. This alone can sig-nificantly reduce the value of the in-surance company’s settlement offer. Ireviewed the posted locations and val-ues with five of the proposed compa-rable listings and discovered fourvehicles had significantly highermileage and sold for almost $1,000more than what was reported in their#1 valuation report.

This got the attention of our cus-tomer and he proceeded with his ownfollow-up on the posted listings. I rec-ommended he speak to the insurancecompany, report his findings, and de-clare several of their valuations notvalid. A second valuation was soon re-ceived allowing for a $1,500 buy backfrom his final settlement cost to retainthe vehicle.

The customer e-mailed the insur-ance company creating a paper trail oftheir inaccurate comps and requestedvaluation #3. About four days later thecustomer forwarded me a copy of anew valuation which provided an in-crease of over $500 from the first val-uation which the insurance companyinsinuated he accepts. Here’s some-thing to think about, calculate howmuch would result if each insurance

company total loss claim was shortedby $500—Gee, what a nice investmentfund that would create.

The customer was still undecidedabout accepting the full insurance set-tlement offer or go with a ‘buy back.”After a few days he came to a decisionto let his baby go to the “Auto Auc-tion Heaven” and accept the increasedsettlement offer.

This month’s article savings mes-sage is about assisting your customerin their time of crises and not being in-timidated by the insurance “SCREWU CUSTOMER CARE HOTLINE.”You have now gained a customer forlife while adding to your bottom linefor teardown, labor, and storage fees.


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I decided to drop it into gear andcheck it against the scanner.

To my surprise, it shifted per-fectly. I’m not kidding—absolutelyperfect. I dropped it back on theground, and went for a ride again. Ididn’t even make it around the firstcorner before it got stuck in limpmode just as it was before, this dangthing can’t pull itself out of a pot hole.

Back up on the lift, and wouldn’tya know it, shifts perfectly—AGAIN!What’s the deal here? I did it severaltimes, just so I could be sure of the re-sults I was getting. After a few trips Ichecked the wiring to the transmissionwhile it was on the ground.

Uh-oh, the main ground to theTCM wasn’t there. How in the worldwas it there when it was in the air?Ah-ha! It’s moving the wire! Yes, itwas moving the wire all right, and afew more than just the TCM groundlead.

The locator page showed theTCM ground wire was bundled withseveral other ground leads that were

all attached to the main chassisground, which wasn’t attached to athing, but was dangling by the batterybox.

Turns out the whole problemstarted when she had her batterychanged at a department store repairshop, and they didn’t have the rightsize to fit the car. They disconnectedthe chassis ground wire, so the tallerbattery would fit.

When I told Jo what I found, thetwo of us pieced together the how andwhy it happened. Her only commentwas, “Well, shift happens.”

All said and done with, the trans-mission shop paid for the entire repair,and gave her back what she spent withthem. Everyone involved was glad tohave the problem solved, and the carback on the road as good as new.

I like this gal, she’s become aregular at the shop these days. What acard! Always has some sarcastic com-ment for me, but at the same time avery understanding nature and takeslife in stride. I’d love to have a coupleof dozen customers just like her.

As she always tells me… “If youcan’t live on the bright side of life…start polishing the dull one.”


Three Transmissions

The danger in focusing on the past isthat we sometimes forget to deal withthe present in a productive manner. Bythis I mean that we want everything tobe as is was and keep thinking thatthings soon will return to the way theywere pre-recession.

I’m not trying to say things won’treturn to our past prosperity but wecannot let it control our actions today.I took a look at my shop recently andrealized that I was putting off neces-sary maintenance on almost every-thing. My mindset was ‘as soon as weget the extra money I will get thatdone’ or ‘I will buy that extra piece ofequipment.’ Without realizing it, I hadput everything on hold.

I was also unconsciously sendinga message to my staff that things weremuch worse that they actually were.This in turn created a trickle down ef-fect that affected the morale of the en-tire shop. I didn’t realize any of this

until I heard some rumors that wewere in financial trouble. People hadbegun to draw their own conclusionsbecause we had tightened up so much.

Yes, we needed to adjust andtighten things up, but we were farfrom any financial trouble. Other thancomplaining about my credit lines get-ting cut nothing I said ever impliedthat we were in any financial trouble.But simply because we had begun towatch everything and make everyoneaccountable people drew their ownconclusions.

The danger is that perception canbecome reality, to many people, so tosay, “don’t worry, we are fine” didn’tseem to boost my staff’s confidence. Ihad an employee meeting to try to killany rumors. That seemed to help butthere was still a sense of uneasinessamongst my staff. This was amazingbecause what concerned them themost was something that I hadn’t even

thought about, which was their futureemployment.

As a leader, I was so focused ontightening up that every time anyoneask to spend money on anything I justcomplained and said ‘no.’ So the resultof my attitude created insecurityamong those I employed. The attitude Ihad taken to belt tightening gave themthe feeling that they may be my nextcut, which was not the case at all. Thisdoesn’t mean that I wouldn’t terminatea deadbeat employee but unconsiouslyI was making everyone nervous andthis was not my intention. I was addingadditional stress to my crew and I wasneither a good leader nor helping themproduce, as they should.

I’ve realized now that eventhough times are different they are re-ally better than any of us want to admit.What I mean is that things could bemuch, much, worse. Everything comesdown to how we look at things. The

message we send our employees withour attitude as owners can reallychange how they see things. I starteddoing some much-needed maintenanceand purchased some more key piecesof equipment. I haven’t thrown cautionto the wind because we need every-thing we have done or purchased but Ilet employees know it was happening.

The payoff is already evident be-cause I am watching my staff’s attitudebecome more focused and more re-laxed. I am seeing that no matter howoften told them ‘everything is fine’they needed to see action to feel com-fortable about their future with me. Iwas sending the wrong message by notmoving ahead because I was lookingback all too often. Now, all of myplans are for the future and where weare heading. Because the “good olddays” will only be the “good old days”as long as we allow them to be. Lookto the “Good New Days” Ahead…


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On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin


Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.


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Industry Overviewwith Janet Chaney


Industry Interviewwith Janet Chaney




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]

The Good Old Days

whom it takes four years to get fromthe drawing board to the showroomfloor, are in a state of panic.”

Global automakers, Horn said,are looking at the most fuel-efficientcars they sell elsewhere in order tobring those vehicles into the U.S. mar-ket. Though its late summer debut hasbeen delayed indefinitely by the situ-ation in Japan, the Scion IQ is one ex-ample of new micro-cars coming toU.S. streets. The tiny vehicle, pow-ered by a 90-horsepower, 1.3-liter 4-cylinder engine, will be sold as a4-passenger vehicle even though theheadrests for those in the backseatsbutt up against the back glass. Hornsaid to help the vehicle meet federalsafety standards, it has nine airbags.

“The good news is you’re goingto survive the crash. You’ll suffocateafterwards, but you’ll survive thecrash,” Horn joked.

Similarly, Chevrolet is introduc-ing the Sonic, a less-well-equippedversion of the Aveo, Horn said, andNissan is introducing the $9,000 Micra(on which the radio and air condition-

ing are options). Chrysler will bring inthe Fiat 500, which is four inchesshorter than a Mini Cooper, and Miniis showing a concept vehicle that is afoot shorter than its existing vehicles.

The problem with many such ve-hicles for collision repairers, Hornsaid, is their low values will tend toput them into the total loss categoryeven with only minor damage.

The Ford Fiesta is coming backinto the U.S. market at about $14,000,Horn cited as one example. One of thevehicle’s distinctive features are its longXenon headlights, which stretch muchof the length of the fender and, as Hornsaid, “are about half an inch from theedge of the front bumper cover.” Re-placements sell for $480 each.

placed, according to the handwritten,illegible estimate.

Insert DRP here. That’s when theindustry was transformed. In otherwords, every shop owner in this countryshould personally thank Allstate forstarting what is largely viewed as the in-dustry’s first nationwide DRP. DRPshave done more to change and improvethis industry than any other single factor.

You may dispute it, but shopswithout DRPs are like Sonny withoutCher or the Patriots without TomBrady. Okay, I’m being a little over-dramatic. But the fact remains that ifyou had a toolbox and a cave, beforeDRPs you too could be a shop owner.

DRPs caused the body shop tradeto grow into a legitimate business andindustry. You had to change the way youdid business or you couldn’t compete.Insurance companies were looking forprofessional, well-maintained shops.

Most shops, for example, pur-chased an electronic estimating sys-tem because it was required it as partof a DRP. Why purchase the equip-

ment and software to upload elec-tronic images of the damaged vehicle?If you guessed that an insurance com-pany required it, you are right.

Hopefully, you are starting to seea pattern. The collision repair indus-try doesn’t change very quickly, espe-cially when there is an associated cost.Unless an insurance requires some-thing as part of a DRP, most bodyshops won’t do it.

Before anyone drops to theirknees to praise Allstate, I should statethat the advent of DRPs also spawneda monster called the unethical adjuster.That probably warrants an article it-self. I guess you need to take the goodwith the bad, and to me, the good thatDRPs brought significantly outweighsthe negative impact caused by the un-ethical or immoral behavior of some.

The point of this article was tomake you think about one thing: Whohas benefited the most from the directrepair programs that some shops swearwere the demise of this great industry?The answer is obvious: Body shops.

Collision repairers would still beusing a hammer and chisel is it wasn’tfor insurers demanding a quality, cost-effective repair.


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Inside InsuranceContinued from Page 20

WIN Conference

See WIN Conference, Page 29

Ford Fiesta’s replacement headlights cost$480 each

Challenges—they seem like they’realways coming up. Since I did the CarWarriors TV show, where we were al-ways fighting the clock with only 72hours to build a complete car, it seemslike everybody wants to hit me with atime challenge. My buddy, DiggityDave, you might know him from the

Pimp My Ride TV show, called me upto throw out a challenge.

Dave backed his 2002 Escaladeinto a brick wall and ripped about athree inch tear down the right quarterpanel. He also hit the rear bumper andtore the right molding. Here’s the realproblem: Dave’s got to have his SUVback the following day, which is exactly24 hours, because he’s got a big meet-ing for a new movie he’s doing and hecan’t show up with his ride damaged.

Now he’s asking to get this fixedin 24 hours (seemingly impossible,right?) so I’m thinking how to create aprocess that can make this happen in24 hours. I’ve got to replace the quar-ter panel, the rear bumper and themolding. To top it off, he says, ‘I’vegot zero budget’ so this is a ‘bro deal.’I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do anduse what I have on the table.

Here are the steps and theprocesses that I used to beat the clock.You can judge if I was successful. Thefirst thing I decide is ‘no parts,’ we’vegot to fix everything. I see that I need tocut a window—try to keep everythingas small as possible—especially to cutand replace a piece with another pieceof metal. The metal was actually 20gauge, so I checked the gauge of metalto make sure I was replacing it exactly.

I cut a piece out of the quarterpanel, then cut the ripped area out ofthat so I can flatten the panel. I wasable to get inside it and get the struc-ture part of it straight using a slidehammer. When I cut my panel I madesure that the top and the lower part of

the quarter panel still had a spot weldholding it to the inner structure. Thisway when I come in with the slidehammer the quarter panel is still goingto move, because otherwise I’ll haveto put this up on the frame rack andpull it. I needed to avoid all that be-cause of the time constraints.

This actually worked out prettywell. I got my window in there, cutout the damaged piece of metal. NowI can flatten out the piece that I cut outto use as a pattern. I get another pieceof metal, I use the break and bend it. Iclamp the piece I cut out of the metalon there, scribe it, come back, cut itout. I actually keep them both togetherand use the nibbler to follow around itas close as I can get it and then followup with the grinder. That means it’sexactly the shape and size I need.

If you’re putting your template onthe outside, you’re going to be a littlebit smaller on the inside because wherethat break is. It’s actually going tocause you to be a 20 gauge short somake sure you keep the length at theend if you’re coming from the inside.If you want to use the pattern on the in-side then you’ll be an 1/8th inch longerbecause you want this piece to fit.

So you can either TIG weld it orMIG weld it. You’ve got to take yourtime either way. I’m going to TIG weldit. I’ll actually put it in with the MIGwelder just to get it set where I need itand then come back with the TIGwelder but before that I need to shapethe metal with the English Wheel andflatten it all out. To get it the right shapeyou’re going to need to fit it a coupletimes, go back and forth, fit it untilyou’ve got your contour right.

As soon as it’s fitting as close asyou can get it, you’re ready to tack it in.Take your time as you weld it. Weldvery small areas, keep heat control be-cause you don’t want it to warp and

then you’ve got to watch the rest of themetal. If you see it start to suck in, getyour nail gun and pull out your lowareas. Every time you weld it, check it.This will save you a lot of time and alot of Bondo™. A lot of guys want toslap Bondo™ over it but try to outsmartthe metal. That gives you more seat

time under your belt to where you canutilize this process on another project.

So after getting it welded in, Ihave a little metal finishing to do. I’lldo a skim coat of mud over it just totrue it in, get some of those low spots

because I don’t have a lot of time tometal finish it completely with a file.So I shape it with a skim coat.

I usually never skim coat any-thing any more than twice—once justto get the 36 grit scratches out and anypinholes. Using the 3M DynamicMixing System is key for me. Ever

since I started using it I don’t have anypinholes. I don’t have to mixBondo™, I don’t have to worry aboutthe mixture, don’t have to worry aboutair making the pinholes. If you don’tknow about the 3M Dynamic Mixing


Repairing Quarter Panel, Bumper, and Molding: No Time, No Money










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

System, check it out. It’s a big timesaver and gives you better quality re-sults, less waste, more productivity.It’s everything you need in one gun.

Once I get the body work done,I’m come back in with some PCLPrimer. I’m going to load the primerup and hit it with some 80 grit, 3Mlongboard. Then I’m going to comeback and get rid of the 80 gritscratches with 150. Then I guide coatit again, come back with 400 wet.Now I’m ready for paint.

I’m going to apply the sealer, thebase coat and the clear coat. Whatever

system you guys are using in yourshop, go with that.

I still have the bumper and the sidemolding to fix. I don’t know how manyguys are using the 08115—the panelbonding adhesive—but I love this stuff.Every day I find a new use for it. Thisstuff sands really well, it dries and hard-ens really true, and it’s flexible—so I’musing it as a plastic repair product. Itusually takes 24 hours to cure but if youhit it with a heat lamp you can get it tocure within an hour or two. I know a lotof guys use it for putting quarter panelson, which is a better process, less weld-ing, less work. It’s a better repair at theend of the day because when you’repriming each side of the panel and theinner structure of the quarter panel thenit’s taking the place of corrosion protec-tion, less welding, less sparks, less inte-rior that has to come apart. It’s actually

a stronger bond then a weld. This stuff isamazing. Technology is changing andyou’ve got to change with it. The gunmakes it a lot easier to apply it. I’m usu-ally feeling pretty spoiled by 3M,they’re definitely the go-to for me whenit comes to new products, anything andeverything. 3M just about carries it all.

Getting back to the body work, Ilay the panel bonding adhesive on thedamage area—the bumper—insteadof using Bondo™. This is going to ad-here and it’s not going to shrink. Isand it with 80 grit on the plastic. Ishape it just like the Bondo™. You

want to heat these panels first, shapeit, get its best shape, take all the lowareas out, file it down with some 80.Come back for the cracks and any lowareas, and fill it with the panel bond-ing adhesive. I sand it with 80, feathereverything with 150, then 320 aroundthat. Then back with the PCL flexibleprimer. It’s more a flexible, durableproduct for anything moving. Youwant to make sure you use the rightproducts, especially on a project likethis where I don’t have any extra roomto breathe. I can’t take any chances ofsomething messing up on me.

Next is getting into the paintbooth, getting my color on, come backin with my Transtar clear with the HThardener, zap that on there. I didn’tuse a two-hour clear which is a bitmore yellowish. I apply my threecoats as I always do.

Now we’re down to about threehours before Diggity comes to pickthis vehicle up and that gives me justenough time to put the bumper and thebumper sensors on, apply the mold-ing, and get the tail light back in.

That’s another project, anotherclock, another challenge under my belt.Diggity comes and is just blown awaythat I ‘pulled another rabbit out of thehat’ as he put it. I tell people ‘neverthink negative, always go with the pos-itive.’ Think “hey, I can do that,” putyourself to the challenge. Make sureyou keep your quality because that’s

everything. Make sure you do your fits,stay at your level, ask questions. I’mglad I was able to help a good buddyout, Diggity Dave from Pimp My Ride.

Hopefully, this will help some ofyou guys in similar situations whenyou get into a time constraint or even

if you want to save a few bucks ifyou’re doing this for a friend or familyor somebody that doesn’t have the

money to fix it or if you owe a favor tosomebody, this is a good way to utilizethe money because this job would runabout $4,000 maybe $4,500 by thetime you got done buying the rearbumper, quarter panel, tail light, mold-ing, and all the materials involved in it.

So Diggity Dave came up $4,500 tothe good. He owes me a favor now so I’llhit him up when I’m ready for my favorand maybe I’ll have to put him throughthe same test he put me through. A chal-lenge on the table, race against the clock,at the end of the day, his car’s done in 24hours and I’m on to the next one—that’s

what I live for. Live, breathe and eatbuilding cars, fixing them—never toogood to work on anything.

My daily focus is waking up andhaving something else to work on andalways trying to get the cooler proj-ects. If you don’t use it you lose it,that’s the key to my game. I’m nevertoo good to do something and I expectyou guys to be the same way, alwaystry to better yourself at what you do,everyday try to learn something new.

I want to thank 3M for their prod-ucts, especially what I call the ‘Bondogun’: the 3M Dynamic Mixing Sys-tem, and the panel bonding adhesive.

Tune into Car Warriors everyWednesday night on Speed channel,go to my Facebook fan page, RichEvans Designs, and stay up with meon my daily challenges and projects.We’ll talk to you next month!


“In a couple years when thosecars are valued at about $10,000, rear-ending someone and having the bagsblow and the windshield and both ofthose headlights go? You’re not goingto be fixing a lot of those Ford Fies-tas,” Horn told the audience at theWIN conference.

Automakers also will continue totry to shed weight from vehicles in aneffort to meet tougher fuel economystandards, Horn said. That’s whyshops are already seeing increased useof exotic alloys, titanium and alu-

minum. BMW cut 50 pounds from its5-series by making the engine cradleout of plastic, Horn said.

“This is going to change how weput cars back together,” Horn cau-tioned. “The B-pillar for the Volkswa-gen Passat comes from the factorylaser-welded in. Most techs would openthe doors, look at the number of welds,drill out the welds and try to weld itback in. Volkswagen does not allow forthat. In the collision repair environment,their requirement is that you use adhe-sive bonding to put the two pieces, theinner and outer B-pillar, back together.Because it’s a boron-alloy steel, if youweld it back in and you apply too much

heat to it in the MIG welding process,you can actually weaken the structureof that metal, throw off the pillar airbagsensors, and potentially cause some se-vere harm to the passengers in a subse-quent collision.”

Horn closed his presentation witha look at some of the vehicles thatChinese automakers—a number ofwhich have plans to enter the U.S.market—currently produce. Horn saidGreat Wall Motors is predicting a U.S.launch in 2015, following the modelused by Kia some years ago, withsales in several states and entry intothe rental fleet. The company will usefeedback from that limited launch to

make improvements before selling ona broader scale.

Horn said the expected low cost ofearly Chinese vehicles in this countrywill likely lead to more totals than re-paired vehicles. But the success of anyof the Chinese automakers here willlargely be dependent on their ability toset up the replacement parts infrastruc-ture that is needed, Horn said. SterlingMotors and Daihatsu, he said, failedlargely because a lack of parts availabil-ity led to repair delays and total losses.

“The folks that have the best in-frastructure for supporting their brandwill be the Chinese brands that sur-vive going forward,” Horn said.


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Rich shows Diggity Dave the cutouts he did torepair the quarter panel


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ALABAMA

Palmers ToyotaMOBILE

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Bill Penney ToyotaHUNTSVILLE

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Delray HondaDelray Beach

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Xirallic® pigments from Merck createglitter and sparkle in automotive coat-ings and provide a distinct shimmer toenhance color intensity and color pu-rity. Xirallic® pigments are suited forexteriors due to their additional layer,which provides improved weather re-sistance. The only place where Xiral-lic is made is in Onahama, Japan,about 45 km from Tokyo ElectricPower Co’s Fukushima reactor, whichwas closed soon after the March 11magnitude 9.0-earthquake.

The shutdown of the plant af-fected many of the world’s auto mak-ers, including Ford, Chrysler,Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota and GM.Previously Chrysler told dealers thatthe company plants to limit orders forvehicles in 10 different colors that em-ploy Xirallic pigment. Ford had al-ready told dealers it could no longertake orders for F-150 trucks and othermodels using “tuxedo black” andthree shades of red.

The plant will be one of the firstJapanese parts facilities that will moveelsewhere as a result of the disaster.Germany’s Merck said May 10 it willshift production of Xirallic pigmentsfrom Japan to Germany.

Tsunami and radiation damageforced Merck to halt production inMarch. Operations at Onahama re-sumed May 8. Regular productionoutput is expected by June. It willcontinue until Merck has readied itsplant in Germany.

According to The Nikkei, timingand location for the new site have yetto be determined.

“Our top priority is to ensure assoon as possible an uninterrupted sup-ply of Xirallic pigments to our cus-tomers around the world,” said PeterHalas, Head of the Pigments and Cos-metics unit at Merck.

These parameters no longer fit aplant 35 miles from the Fukushima re-actor, and in a town, where tsunamiwaves as tall as buildings were ob-served.

Xirallac® Pigment Plant to Relocate fromJapan to Germany Following Tsunami In April CCC Information Services

Inc. announced the availability of its2011 Crash Course, titled “ChangingExpectations of the Connected Con-sumer.” In addition to an analysis oftraditional market trends, the docu-ment developed by CCC Lead Ana-lyst Susanna Gotsch focuses on newtechnology’s ability to provide trans-parency to the companies and cus-tomers doing business in the auto-physical damage industry.

“Peoples’ willingness to bemuch more transparent as potentialcustomers, means they expect theirdemands/needs at a minimum will bemet,” said Gotsch. “But companiesthat go beyond simply meeting de-mands to delight their customers willsee their efforts rewarded. A com-pany demonstrating that it knows acustomer’s needs/desires, meetsthem, and exceeds them, is creatingan experience that the customer willwant to talk about with family andfriends.”

In addition to the Adobe® PDFversion of 2011 Crash Course avail-able on the CCC News and Insightpage, Gotsch presented a CrashCourse webinar on April 21st.

For more visit www.cccis.com.

CCC Announces 2011Crash Course in April

You can help your local secondaryand/or post-secondary collision pro-gram receive a $50,000 Makeoverthrough the Collision Repair Educa-tion Foundation's 2011 Ultimate Col-lision Education Makeover schoolgrant. The application is available todownload online and must be post-marked by August 31, 2011. Thewinning school will be announcedduring SEMA 2011.

In 2009, the non-winningMakeover grant applicant schools re-ceived close to $200,000 in productdonation. Yes, the non-winners!

Through the Makeover's appli-cation, the schools must list an item-ized $50,000 wish list and throughthese lists, the Foundation can seekout industry supporters and compa-nies to donate these requested itemsfor the schools.

Over 50 schools from across thecountry applied for the 2010Makeover grant.

In total, 35 schools each re-ceived an average of $5,000 in prod-ucts, supplies, and equipment for atotal value over $175,000.

Please contact Brandon Ecken-rode at [email protected] or 847.463.5244.

School Auto Body ProgramsCompete for $50K Makeover

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The Automotive Recyclers Associa-tion (ARA) is calling on Congress toreview implementation and enforce-ment of the National Motor VehicleTitle Information System (NMVTIS).As many of the nation’s waterwayshit historic crests, thousands of motorvehicles from Illinois to Mississippihave been submerged under these wa-ters.

Now more than ever, it is essen-tial that NMVTIS be fully imple-mented and the underlying statuteenforced to help prevent the unknow-ing sale of these flood-damaged vehi-cles.

NMVTIS, a national electronicsystem that provides consumers withvaluable information about a vehi-cle’s condition and history, can play acrucial role in helping ensure thatthese flood-damaged vehicles are notsold to unsuspecting consumers in theused-car market.

“After Hurricane Katrina, theDepartment of Justice (DOJ) reportedthat truckloads of flooded vehicleswere being taken out of Louisiana toother states where they were driedout, cleaned, and readied for sale tounsuspecting consumers in states thatdo not brand flood vehicles”, saidMichael Wilson CEO of the ARA .

“NMVTIS must be fully imple-mented and utilized now so that sim-ilar events are not repeated, and flooddamaged motor vehicles can be effi-ciently tracked before unsuspectingconsumers purchase these vehicles”,Wilson added.

Flood damaged vehicles are con-sidered ticking time bombs, slowlybeing eaten away as water corrodesonboard computers and other vitalcomponents like airbags systems.These vehicles are deemed unfit byinsurance companies, but too oftenare given token repairs and sold to un-suspecting consumers.

NMVTIS helps prevent vehiclehistories from being “washed” or con-cealed because it serves as a nationalrepository of vehicle brand informa-tion. Fully implemented, NMVTISwill have data from every state andwill be queried before any state issuesa vehicle a new title, making it ex-tremely difficult to wash a “flood”designation from a motor vehicle.

Such fraudulent and unsafe prac-tices can only be stopped if all statesparticipate fully in NMVTIS and all“individuals” and “entities” that arerequired to report to the system areheld accountable. “Regrettably, DOJhas limited resources to do this. Con-

gress should intercede and permit in-dividual state enforcement agenciesto work more closely with DOJ toidentify and implement efficientmethods to increased participation.

One way to enhance the pro-gram’s success is to allow the finescollected from NMVTIS violators tobe directly allocated back into theprogram and its law enforcement ac-tivities. Only with sufficient resourcescan DOJ and the appropriate state lawenforcement colleagues target allbusinesses/individuals whom are op-erating under the radar and fulfill theirobligations under the statute”, Wilsonasserts.

Since 1943, the Automotive Re-cyclers Association (“ARA”) repre-sents an industry dedicated to theefficient removal and reuse of “green”automotive parts, and the proper re-cycling of inoperable motor vehicles.

ARA represents the interests ofover 4,500 auto recycling facilities inthe United States and fourteen othercountries around the world. With pro-grams such as the Certified Automo-tive Recycler Program (CAR) andother partnerships, ARA memberscontinue to provide consumers withquality, low-cost alternatives for ve-hicle replacement parts.

ARA, Congress to Ensure Flood Damaged Vehicles Don't Enter Used Market

The Collision Industry Foundation(CIF) is proud to announce its dona-tion of $1,650 to the American RedCross to benefit the victims of theJapan tsunami from the donationsmade through the Collision IndustryConference (CIC).

The donations were collected atthe CIC meeting held at the Mead-owlands Expo Center in New Jerseythis past March after industry mem-ber Toby Chess suggested a collec-tion for those in need.

“It’s always heartwarming tosee people, even in these hard times,reach out to help others who havelost so much” said Bill Shaw, Presi-dent of the CIF Board of Trustees.

Relief and clean-up efforts are on-going in Japan due to the catastrophiclevels of devastation that resulted fromthe earthquake and subsequent tsunamiback on March 11, 2011.

CIF Makes Donation toJapan Tsunami Relief

As shop owners and techs know, carmaintenance isn’t just under thehood. A cracked windshield is asafety risk. It can impair the driver’svision and put passengers at risk.

Most automotive safety expertsrank the windshield as the third mostimportant safety component intoday’s vehicles, behind seatbelts andairbags. Laws require seatbelt useand prevent tampering with airbags,but there are no laws that govern re-placement windshield installation.

The Auto Glass ReplacementSafety Standards Council (AGRSS)promotes safe auto glass industrystandards, which an auto glass tech-nician should follow. Consumersshould ask these questions before areplacement windshield installation:• Will the old adhesive be removedfrom the vehicle frame? If the adhe-sive isn’t removed down to the adhe-sive manufacturer’s recommendedlevel, the fit may not be tight and thenew adhesive won’t bond correctly.• Will the technician wear gloves tokeep from contaminating the glass?If oil and dirt get on the edges, thenew adhesive (called urethane) maynot bond correctly.• Will the new urethane adhesivestand up to the high deploymentpressure of airbags? The best avail-able manufacturer equivalent ure-thane adhesive should be used, notbutyl tape. Ask for adhesive made byDow, Sika or the original car maker’sadhesive supplier.• How long does the urethane adhe-sive need to set until the vehicle canbe driven? Every urethane has a“safe drive-away time.”

AGRSS Promotes FixingDamaged Windshields

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FLORIDA GEORGIA

Bartow Ford Co.BARTOW

863-533-0425863-533-7758 Fax

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Bill Currie FordLincoln Mercury

TAMPA800-752-8203

800-844-2455 [email protected]

Don Reid FordMAITL AND/ORL ANDO

407-644-5111407-645-4971 FaxM-F 7:30-5:30; Sat 8-4www.donreidford.com

www.fordparts.com/donreidford

Greenway FordORL ANDO

800-773-5078407-515-6454 Fax

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Mike Davidson FordJACKSONVILLE904-725-3060


Sam Galloway FordLincoln Mercury

FORT MYERS888-578-8883


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Sun State FordORL ANDO

407-299-3673407-293-5606 Faxwww.sunstateford.com

Allan Vigil FordLincoln MercuryMORROW/ATL ANTA888-902-1453

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Bobby Jones FordLincoln Mercury

AUGUSTA706-738-8000

706-261-8004 [email protected]/bobbyjonesford

Autobody News June 2011 Southeast Edition

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