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VOL. 28 ISSUE 3MARCH 2010

Consumer Union Calls for Auto SafetyReforms, Toyota Controversy Heats Up

www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

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Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisherof Consumer Reports, has issued a callFeb. 23 for urgent changes to strengthenU.S. auto safety regulation in the wake ofthe massive recall by Toyota.

The influential consumer advocacygroup said that the U.S. safety regulatorysystem should be reformed to becomemore transparent and that the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administrationshould have more funding and the abilityto impose tougher sanctions.

The group also urged a number ofsafety mandates it said should be imposedon all automakers to address the risk ofunintended acceleration of the kind nowunder investigation for Toyota.

U.S. safety regulators should requirethat all cars have brake override systems,simple controls that turn off the engine in

an emergency, clear and simple labels ontransmission shifters and a minimumclearance between floor panels and accel-erator pedals, Consumers Union said.

Toyota has faced criticism on all ofthose points in the run-up to a sweepingrecall for accelerator-related problems thattotals over 8 million vehicles globally.

NHTSA says five deaths have beenlinked to the risk of loose floormats trap-ping accelerator pedals in Toyota vehicles.Another 29 fatality reports are under in-vestigation.

“Much of the ongoing debate andpublic outcry has centered on why theseissues weren't caught or acted upon ear-lier,” Consumers Union said in its reporton the Toyota recalls and proposed re-forms.

See AUTO SAFETY REFORMS, Page 6

In November of last year and January ofthis year, SCRS National Director andAutobody News columnist, Toby Chess,performed several demonstrations out-lining comparative studies he had con-ducted between randomly selected OEMand Aftermarket Structural Replacementparts. See Hey Toby column last issue.

The parts reviewed included itemssuch as Front and Rear Bumper Rein-forcement Beams, Radiator Core Sup-ports, Bumper Brackets and BumperEnergy Absorbers. In every exampletested, there were significant differencesin both the construction of, and materialsused, in the aftermarket replacement part

which can significantly impact the rolesthat these parts serve in the transfer of en-ergy resulting from a collision. Each ofthese parts also directly relates to thefunctionality and response of the vehicleSafety Restraint System (SRS), andcould have a resulting affect on how theairbag functions in the event of a loss.

The presentation also detailed that inother instanceswhere themanufacturer hadpaid particular attention to utilizing thesamematerials as the OEM, and employedcredible third-party testing, the parts ap-peared to perform much better in subse-quent crash test video demonstrations.

See AFTERMARKET PARTS, Page 56

Unintended Loophole—California’s SB 350by F. Edie Mermelstein, Attorney at Law

California Senate Bill 350, which was in-troduced last year by Senator Yee, is an-other attempt by auto insurance carriersand their lobbyists to insulate insurersfrom financial liability and shield insur-ers from class action suits.

In summary, SB 350, which was lastamended on January 12, 2010 and re-re-ferred to theAssembly Business and Pro-fessions Committee, removes importantconsumer protections that will open thedoor for insurers to require aftermarketcrash parts to be used in the repair of apolicyholder’s auto without the priorconsent of the policyholder.

The insurance industry lobby isstrong and financially powerful. Califor-nia legislators have been seduced by thepower of money. However, in the presentstruggling economy, insurance companies

remain profitable and able to contributeto political campaigns. According to theDepartment of Insurance most recentmarket share report, California’s esti-mated annual personal auto insurance pre-mium revenue was $19.9 billion dollars.The amount insurance companies paidout during the same period were esti-mated at $11.5 billion dollars leaving thepersonal auto insurers with $8.4 billiondollars in gross profits. It is clear fromthese numbers that California auto insur-ers have the upper hand over consumersand the dollars to manipulate the system.

In order to keep the losses incurredas low as possible, insurance companiesregularly manipulate pricing of car repairby establishing direct repair programs(“DRP”) with area body shops. Typicallyin these DRP arrangements, the insurancecompany dictates the labor rate the shopSee UNINTENDED LOOPHOLE, Page 6

SCRS and Others Alert Industry to ConcernsOver Aftermarket Structural Parts, Insurers Act

We continue ourSpecial Paint Tech-nology issue thismonth with articleson:

BASF on NewerRefinish Processes

Federal Govern-ment Pays ForShops To Go Green

FAQs on EPA’s Paint Stripping and Coating Opera-tions

Compressors Affect your Spray Gun and your Paint

Technological Advancements In Overspray Collector

Dan Am-SATA & Jobbers Provide EPA Painter SprayGun Training

Understanding the Waterborne Spray Booth

We conclude our special coverage in next monthsAutobody News

Part 2

2 MARCH 2010 AUTOBODY NEWS | www.autobodynews.com

Not So Mellow

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www.autobodynews.com | MARCH 2010 AUTOBODY NEWS 3

Publisher & Editor: Jeremy Hayhurst

General Manager: Barbara Davies

Contributing Writers: Tom Franklin, Dick Strom, John

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Chess, Mike Causey, Tom McGee

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Serving California, Nevada and Arizona, Autobody News

is a monthly publication for the autobody industry. Per-

mission to reproduce in any form the material published

in Autobody News must be obtained in writing from the

publisher. ©2010 Adamantine Media LLC.

Autobody NewsP.O. Box 1400, Oceanside, CA 92051-1400

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AEGIS Tools Intl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Alldata Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Audi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . .55

Autoland Scientech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

BMW of Riverside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

BMW Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . .39

British Motor Car Distributors . . . . . . . .38

Buerge Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . . . . . .7

Chemco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Completes Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Courtesy Chevrolet San Diego . . . . . . .26

Crevier BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Downtown Motors of LA

(Audi, VW, Porsche) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Enterprise Rent-A-Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Ford Wholesale Parts Dealers

AZ, CA, & NV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Galpin Motors . . . . . . . . . . .22, 30-31, 37

Glenn E. Thomas Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge 25

Global Finishing Solutions . . . . . . . . . .20

GM Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . . . .50

Honda/Acura Wholesale Parts Dealers 52

Hyundai Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . .42

Kearny Pearson Kia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Kia Motors Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . .49

LKQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Mattei Compressors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Mazda Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . .54

Mitsubishi Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .56

MOPAR Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .13

Nissan/Infiniti Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .46

Pacific BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Performance Radiator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Power Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge . . . . . . . . .17

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

RBL Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Replica Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

SATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

SCA Appraisal Company . . . . . . . . . . .16

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

Soft-Sanders from Style-Line, Corp . . .44

Southern Polyurethanes, Inc . . . . . . . . .9

Subaru Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . .27

Suzuki Wholesale Parts Dealers . . . . . .58

Timmons VW-Subaru . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Verifacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Volkswagen Wholesale Parts Dealers . . .57

Volvo Crash Wholesale Dealers . . . . . .53

Weatherford BMW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Wizards Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Inde

xofAdvertisers

Western

Alabama Body Shops See Green after February

Snowfall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Alcohol-Related Teen Fatalities Drop in Oklahoma 57

Amaradio - “Every Man For Himself” . . . . . . . . . . 51

ASA Requests NHTSA to Use its Authority to

Regulate Aftermarket Crash Parts . . . . . . . . . . 50

ASA Urges Repairers to Contact Committee Members

to Oppose Model Parts Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Ask Dale - Parts and Car Sales, City Vehicles,

Standards for Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

ASRW Partnering Program Kicks-Off, Strong

Industry Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

BASF Expands Lean Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

BASF Responds to ABN’s Questions on Newer

Refinish Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

BBB Issues Warning on Company Selling Truck

Bed Liner Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

CAA Glendale/Foothill Chapter Meeting; CAA

Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

CARSTAR Collision Centers Toasts Top Celebrity

Car Crashes, 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Collision Industry Foundation to Auction Donations

for Charity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Collision Repair Students are Well-Prepared for

the Real World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

CollisionBuilder.com Provides Free Websites to

Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Congress Asks Insurers for Toyota Accident Data 46

Consumer Union Calls for Auto Safety Reforms,

Toyota Controversy Heats Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CRA and Toby Chess to Bring Safety Message

to Sacramento . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Dan Am-SATA & Jobbers Provide EPA Painter

Spray Gun Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Data Recorders Now in Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Diamond Standard Parts expedites safety parts

certification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Editorial: Web-Based Management, Is it 2010 …

or is it Really 1984? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Espersen - Proper Repair Strategies and the

Sectioning Mystery.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Evans - Ultimate Vodka’s Shelby Series 1, Part 2. 44

FAQs on the EPAs Paint Stripping and Coating

Operations, part two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Federal Government Pays For Shops To Go Green,

Says GRC-Pirk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Florida Court: ‘No Retroactive Rule on No-Fault

Insurance’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Ford and Hyundai Excel in Brand Loyalty, Toyota

Still No. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Franklin - Help Customers Avoid ‘Jackass Bends’

by Creating Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Georgia House Lawmakers Studying Texting

Ban Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Gesterkamp - Compressors Affect your Spray Gun

and your Paint Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Gonzo's Toolbox - Early Morning De-Light and

Nursing Ingenuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Hand-held Phone Bans Are Not Reducing Crashes,

Distraction is an Attention Problem . . . . . . . . . 47

Honda Adds 437,000 Cars to Worldwide Faulty

Air Bag Recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

I-CAR Announces 2010 International Board of

Directors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

I-CAR Tech - Insulated Rubber Gloves And

High Voltage Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Independent Contractor Withholding: Called

‘Job Killer’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Insurance Council of Texas Says Auto Injuries

Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Kerry Soat Reports on Arizona Glass Legislation

(HB 2463–HB 2464 B & I Committee Meeting). 12

McClune - CAA Members Want “Safety

Before Profit” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

NADA Chair Says Dealers See Industry Rebound . 46

New I-CAR Director for Curriculum Work . . . . . . . . 4

Oregon Posts Ratemaking Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Performance Parts Pioneer and SECO Founder,

John Simmons, Passes Away . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Replacement Safety Certification Labels Gaining

Wider Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Salvaged Airbag Bill, SB 209, Withdrawn by

Maryland State Senator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

SCRS and Others Alert Industry to Concerns Over

Aftermarket Structural Parts, Insurers Act . . . . . 1

SCRS Expands Repairer Education Presence at

SEMA—ASRW will be Mid-week in October . . 24

Sears offering defunct car dealerships auto center

franchises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Shure Manufacturing’s NEW Recycle Cabinets . . . . 43

Soaring Foreign Car Sales Shape Both Detroit’s

and the Aftermarket’s Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Sterling Opens Facility in Oakland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Technological Advancements In Overspray Collectors,

part one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Georgia Collision Industry Association (GCIA)

Takes the Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Toyota Facing Diminished Value Lawsuits as well

as Massive Injury Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Toyota Testifies, Documents Show Savings by

Limiting Recall Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Toyota Vulnerable to Conquests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Understanding the Basics of the Waterborne

Paint Booth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Unintended Loophole—California’s SB 350 . . . . . . 1

Veterans Return to Class—Not Just Older Northeast

Georgians Filling Classrooms at Athens Technical

College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Contents


The Relationship between your Compres-sor, your Spray Gun and the Final Appear-ance of your Paint Finish

After my February column on spray-gunchoices appeared in Autobody News, I wasasked to clarify a point I made on CFMavailability in the shop during peak airconsumption.

CFM stands for cubic feet perminute and a spray gun’s peak perform-ance is depending on proper air volume.Each spray gun is engineered and tuned,just like a carburetor, for a specific CFMconsumption. Some spray guns ask for 8-9 CFM and others want 17 CFM or morefor optimum performance. Less CFMconsumption doesn’t automatically trans-late into a better quality spray gun; it sim-ply means that it could be the betterchoice for your situation. Most manufac-turers’ spray guns will consistently per-form well and do exactly what they aredesigned to do, as long as you providethem with their basic pressure and vol-ume requirements.

How do you know how much CFMyou have available? The following is not a100% scientific answer to that question,there are simply too many unknown (to me)variables in every shop’s situation, but it isa fairly reliable rule of thumb and it beatsbuying highly expensive equipment you arelikely to use only once. Just look at the tagon your compressor for the necessary in-formation and do the following math.

A standard two-stage piston compres-sor produces about 4 CFM per HP (horse-power) and a screw drive compressorgenerates about 4.7 CFM per HP. Multiplyyour compressor’s HP rating by the appro-priate CFM and you get your maximumCFM output. To have all of the potentialCFM available to you, the air should be de-livered to your work area in a 1½–2 inchpipe. Make sure that the connections fromthe compressor to any filter or dryer is alsoproperly sized. Whenever possible, thepipe should be a closed loop system. Themoment you close the pipes in a loopedsystem, the pipe becomes a very effectivestorage reservoir. It also evens out the air

availability to each work station. All ofyour quick-disconnect couplers in the paintdepartment should be 3/8 of an inch in di-ameter. Many shops are still using ¼ inchcouplers or wall regulators with too low ofa CFM rating and can’t figure out why thepaint jobs are not as nice as they hoped for.Leave the rest of the shop on ¼ inch cou-plers. Nobody in your shop is as dependenton CFM as your painter and he deserves toget preferential treatment when it comes toair supply. Most shops don’t have a dedi-cated compressor for the paint department.In that case, you must deduct the air con-sumption of all other air tools that couldpotentially be used at the same time fromthe total CFM produces. By deducting allof the potential air tool CFM consumptionfrom the total volume produced, you get agood idea what type of spray-gun you canconsistently support in your shop. Be sureto consult the air tool owner’s manual forthe actual CFM consumption of each tool.

Following are some general figures forthe most frequently used tools in our indus-try. A standard DA sander consumes about

10–15 CFM and an air buffer 20–25 CFM.A wide-open air blower could use as muchas 35–40 CFM. The length of your air hoseis also a factor in the calculation; you canlose an additional 1 CFM for each 10 feet ofhose over the standard 32-foot length. De-pending on the type and the manufacturer ofyour quick-disconnect couplers, you maylose as much as 7 CFM for each quick-dis-connect coupler the air has to travel through.

One last comment about CFM. Yourair supply is only as good as the weakestlink in the system. If your air volume is re-stricted anywhere between the compressorand the gun, your available volume can’tbe more than the restriction allows to passthrough. For example, if the compressor ishooked to the main line with only a ¾ inchpipe, it doesn’t matter what you do afterthat restriction, you can only access thevolume that passes through that pipe.Whether it’s 100 HP or 10 HP compressorswouldn’t matter.

Last but not least, all pressure regula-tors and filtration systems should be ratedfor sufficient CFM pass-through.

Compressors Affect your Spray Gun and your Paint Appearancewith Stefan Gesterkamp

Paint Management Stefan Gesterkamp is a Master Craftsman and BASF representative who has been inthe automotive paint industry for 27 years. He started his career in a custom shop be-fore turning to collision repair. Stefan graduated from the University of Coatings andColorants in Germany and is the author of “How to Paint Your Show Car.”

In January I-CAR appointed William(Bill) Stage to fill the newly created posi-tion of director of marketing & distribu-tion. Stage will report to John Edelen,president and CEO of I-CAR.

Stage arrives at I-CAR with morethan 20 years of experience in the colli-sion inter-industry and previously servedas I-CAR director of Field Operations,Marketing and Product Developmentfrom 1990 through 1994.

In addition to his previous experi-ence with I-CAR, Stage most recentlyserved as manager, Network SupportServices for AkzoNobel Coatings, a po-sition he held since 2007. From 1994 to2006, Stage was vice president & direc-tor of Field Services for Mitchell Inter-national. Stage also owns SSR CollisionCenter in Alpharetta, GA.

“I am very excited to join I-CAR atthis time to assist in implementing the newprograms developed under John Edelen'sleadership,” said Stage. “The I-CAR staffand volunteers are a dedicated group of in-dividuals committed to improving the in-dustry and I am proud to be a part of theteam.”

In his new role as Director of Mar-keting and Distribution, Stage has beentasked with taking a body of work twoyears in the making to the next level. Therole-based training curriculum known as

the Professional Development Matrix re-aligns the I-CAR curriculum into a frame-work for industry training based upon anindividual’s role and level of experienceand responsibility.

“It’s important to me that we engageevery segment of the industry around this

body of work. Cen-tral to this curricu-lum model is theI-CAR vision thatevery person in thecollision industry,current and future,has the necessaryknowledge andskills relevant to

their position to achieve a complete andsafe repair,” said Stage.

“I’m very excited to serve I-CAR andthe inter-industry at a greater capacity as amember of I-CAR’s leadership team.”

“I want to reassure our volunteersand instructors that they play a key com-ponent in our role-based training curricu-lum, as they administer and delivertraining to the industry,” said Stage. “I-CAR’s history and 30 year legacy wasbuilt by volunteers and instructors manyof whom are still involved with I-CARtoday, it is our vision that we continue tobe defined by the industry that is our fu-ture.”

New I-CAR Director for Curriculum Work

Bill Stage

by Rand Schweizer—Chemco Mfg. Co. Inc.

This is part one of a two-part article con-densed from a longer article by RandSchweizer. You can read the full article cour-tesy of Chemco Mfg at their website:www.chemcomfg.com/ articles/articles-tips-overspray-collectors.html

IntroductionFrom today’s vantage point, the industrialfinishing industry’s technical challenges ofthe 1960s through most of the 1980s werepretty straightforward. Conventional airspray equipment was the predominant ap-plication technology. Most finishers werespraying low-solids, solvent-based coat-ings. Frequently, production painting wasdone in waterwash spray booths that oper-ated for weeks, sometimes even months,

with little maintenance. Over time, thebooth’s water tank would fill with the cap-tured overspray solids. The water-saturatedsludge cake was manually removed fromthe tank over a weekend and productionresumed the following Monday morningwithout a hitch.

Intermittent or batch spray paintingwas generally done in dry filter spraybooths. Typically, these booths wereequipped with either expanded paper (seeFig. 1), accordion-style pleated paper, orspun fiberglass paint overspray collectors.Depending on the finishing process partic-ulars, these collectors were capable of cap-turing 85–97% of the overspray entrainedin the booth’s exhaust air stream. Most ofthe remaining overspray was deposited inthe booth’s back section, on the exhaustduct’s interior walls, and on the exhaustfan blades. Any residual overspray still en-trained in the exhaust was emitted to theatmosphere.

How Do They Work?Overspray is the paint mist produced as abyproduct of spray application processes.As the cost of industrial coatings has in-creased, finishers have worked to maxi-mize their application process transferefficiency. They have a double incentive tominimize overspray. By definition, over-

spray isn’t applied to substrates; therefore,it is wasted. Additional expense is incurredto capture and dispose of this wasted at-omized paint. In spite of the use of highertransfer efficiency spray technologies,such as HVLP, electrostatic air spray, andautomatic rotational atomizers, more than30% of all spray-applied liquid industrialcoatings end up as overspray. During1998, U.S. industrial finishing operationsproduced more than 90 million gallons ofliquid paint overspray.

Recent advancements in collectortesting procedures have produced labora-tory test data that challenge the acceptedrules-of-thumb on how collectors actuallycapture overspray. The arresting process ismore complex than previously thought.Most modern collectors utilize a combina-tion of physical principles to capture andretain overspray from spray booth exhaustair streams.

At the end of the 20th century almostall overspray collectors utilize one or acombination of several types of mechani-cal filtration. Traditional air filtration tech-nology teaches us there are threemechanical filtration processes that maybe used to remove foreign particles from amoving air stream.1. Impingement, also known as impaction2. Interception3. Straining

Impingement is the process by which thelarger (typically 0.10 microns) oversprayparticles are captured. As the overspray-laden exhaust air stream approaches theface of the arresting media, the individualair molecules begin to align themselveswith the openings in collector face. Thelarger overspray droplets have too muchforward inertia to follow the surroundingair molecules as they zig and zag throughthe collector’s staggered openings. Figure2 shows an overspray droplet about to beimpinged on the front face of an expanded

paper collector even as the air shifts later-ally to pass through the openings in each

ply of the media. Depending upon theprocess dynamics of a given spray booths,as much as 80% of the total mass of the en-trained overspray may be impinged on thecollector’s face. An additional 15 to 18%of the overspray is removed as the exhaustair stream passes through the successivestages or layers of the filter media. The re-maining 2 to 5% (the smallest droplets)pass into the exhaust plenum to be de-posited on the fan blades or the exhaustduct. Droplets making it past these imped-iments pass into the atmosphere.

Interception is the primary processutilized in spun fiberglass collectors. It isalso a secondary capturing process at workin many impingement collectors. The ef-fectiveness of the interception process isdirectly proportional to the number of in-tercepting surfaces in the media. Ar-restance by interception occurs whenoverspray droplets make accidental con-tact with a media element while entrainedin the exhaust air stream passing throughthe media pad. Interception requires the in-dividual overspray droplets to remain at-

tached to the filter element for theremainder of the collector’s functional life.Although many overspray droplets are rel-atively sticky, most interception collectorsare tackified—coated with a sticky sub-stance, usually an oil or a pressure-sensi-tive resin by the media manufacturer.Interception collectors are more effectivein capturing larger overspray droplets thansmaller ones. Experience shows thatsmaller fibers are more likely to retaindroplets than larger ones. Additional fac-tors having a positive impact on the per-formance of interception media include theair velocity—slower is better than faster,the depth of the media—thicker media in-creases the probability that a droplet willmake contact with a fiber, and the fiberdensity— the closer adjacent fibers are toeach other the greater the likelihood thatinterception will occur. Figure 3 depicts anoverspray droplet making contact with afiber element as the exhaust air carries itthrough the collector.Read part two in April’s Autobody News.


Technological Advancements In Overspray Collectors, part one

Fig. 1. Expanded paper paint overspray collector.

Fig. 2. Impingement.

Fig. 3. Interception.


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Independent Contractor Withholding: Called ‘Job Killer’Aproposal to require California businessesto withhold 3% of payments to independ-ent contractors amounts to an interest-freeloan to the state from small businesses, theCalifornia Chamber of Commerce haspointed out to state leaders.

“We respectfully urge you to abandonthis proposal,” CalChamber President andCEOAllan Zaremberg wrote in a letter toSenate President ProTemDarrell Steinberg(D-Sacramento), who has been quoted innews articles as expressing support for in-dependent contractor withholding. TheCalChamber also sent copies of the letterto Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger andall state legislators.

‘Job Killer’ Vetoed in 2009An independent contractor withholdingmandate was included in special sessionlegislation last year that was vetoed by theGovernor. The “job killer” proposal(SBX3 17; Ducheny; D-San Diego) wouldhave required a 3% across-the-board with-holding on payments to resident inde-pendent contractors.

Independent contractors are self-em-ployed individuals and businesses, rangingfrom small businesses and entrepreneurs tolarge firms. Examples include: builders,real estate agents, computer programmers,accountants, automotive mechanics, attor-neys, medical doctors, engineers.

As businesses, independent contrac-tors pay more kinds of taxes than em-ployees, such as self-employment taxesand local business taxes; pay incometaxes throughout the year through quar-terly estimated tax payments; and aresubject to penalties for not paying or un-derpaying. Because of recent budgetagreements, independent contractorsmust pay 70% of their taxes by June ofeach year for the next two years.

Threatens Small BusinessIn a year when the Governor and legisla-tive leaders have indicated that job cre-ation is a top priority, independentcontractor withholding “will destroyrather than create California jobs,”Zaremberg wrote.

CalChamber opposition to inde-pendent contractor withholding is basedon the following:

* Independent contractors alreadyhave a greater tax burden than employ-ees;

* Withholding will wrongly forcesmall businesses to loan money to thestate, interest-free;

* Withholding could generate littleif any new revenue for the state; and

* Withholding targets the wronggroup of taxpayers—taxpayers who arealready compliant.

will be paid, the type of parts that can beused in the repair and what type of processor procedure can be used. Although thepolicyholder is ultimately subject to theterms and conditions of the DRP contract,these contractual mandates between the in-surance company and the DRP shop arenot transparent to the policyholder. The in-surance companies continue to have thesuperior bargaining power over both thepolicyholder and the DRP shops.

Often times, insurance companies leadpolicyholders to believe that the work doneat a non-DRP shop will not be guaranteedor the policyholder will have to come out ofpocket. These financial scare tactics recur-rently steer policyholders to a DRP shopsafter being involved in an automobile acci-dent. The policyholder is generally swayedby the financial disincentives andwill opt tohave their car repaired at a DRP shop ratherthan come out of pocket on a repair. In theevent SB 350 passes, once at a DRP shop,insurance companies can require aftermar-ket crash parts to be installed on the vehiclewithout the prior approval of the customer.

Toby Chess, well-known I-CAR pro-gram instructor, Welding Specialist, andformer salvage yard operator, recently dida side-by side testing of aftermarket v.OEM bumper absorbers, bumper rein-forcements and bumper brackets. The re-sults concluded that not only were theaftermarket crash parts he tested inferiorquality, but he raised safety concerns for

automobile owners who have had thesenon-OEM parts used in a repair. [See lastmonth’sAutobody News, or www.autobo-dynews.com for Toby’s article—Ed.]

As a result of these safety studies,GEICO announced that it would no longerrequire the aftermarket bumper parts to beused in future estimates. However, if SB350 passes into law, even if an insurer didrequire the use of one of these inferior af-termarket bumper parts, the insurer wouldstill theoretically be insulated from civil li-ability because SB 350 mandates only anadministrative remedy.

The glaring issue here is that insurancecompanies seem to be dictatingwhat type ofparts and procedures should be used in re-pairing a vehicle. As insurance companiesbecome more and more insulated from civilactions initiated by policyholders and autobody shops, the financial incentive to cutcorners and cheat the system increases. Theinsurance industry practices become a finan-cial risk-reward analysis instead of a com-petitive business decision where qualityservice and consumer safety dictate industrypractices. Unfortunately, unfair and unlaw-ful practices are becoming increasinglymoredifficult to address in the civil arena. Insur-ance lobbyists continue to work hard to ma-nipulate the insurance code and produceunintended loopholes. For safety and fair-ness, these loopholes need to be exposed. Ifpassed, SB 350 will be another boon for theinsurance industry to the detriment of autobody shops and their customers.

Edie Mermelstein can be reached [email protected].

Continued from Page 1

Unintended Loophole

“While the U.S. has arguably the bestautomotive safety net in the world, thesetypes of infrequent problems are the hardestto catch and the most difficult to diagnose,in this case with deadly consequences.”

The recommendations come as theU.S. Congress begins the first of two daysof hearings that will feature a grilling ofboth safety regulators and Toyota on thequestion of why red flags were missed.

Separately, Consumer Reports re-leased its annual ranking of the most reli-able auto brands.

HondaMotor Co. topped the list for thefourth consecutive year in a tie with Subaru.

Toyota was No. 3, although ConsumerReports suspended its recommendation forthe eight models recalled for sticky accel-erator pedals.

HyundaiMotor, one of the automakersexpected to benefit most in the short-termfromToyota's woes, jumped to fourth placefrom ninth a year earlier.

The annual report is considered an in-fluential benchmark among consumers.Many automakers set internal targets tomake the magazine's list of recommendedvehicles since the endorsement is seen asvaluable in advertising and in supportingauto resale values.


Auto Safety Reforms

Re: “What Went Wrong With My Toy-ota?” (letters, Feb. 6):The letter recommending a data recorderin cars like those in airliners to help thediagnosis of problems like those beingexperienced by Toyota owners is right on.But little known to the driving public isthe fact that in many cars computers arealready constantly recording vehicle

speed, throttle position, braking applica-tion, air bag deployment and a host ofother vehicle operating characteristics.

This information is routinely down-loaded by law enforcement after seriousaccidents. If this information were madeavailable to an impartial investigator inaddition to Toyota, the mystery might betaken out of the current situation.

Data Recorders Now in Cars

by Tony Passwater

There is always a lot we all can learn fromthe past … sometimes from the facts thatwere actually experienced, and sometimesfrom just the “fiction” that may be writtenabout it. You may or may not have readGeorge Orwell's 1949 novel, 1984, or evenseen the movie which was released in 1984,but I am sure you have heard references andquotes over the years about the concernsand fears of its main character, WinstonSmith. From the beginning, the quote, “BigBrother is Watching You,” conveys hisfears of a totalitarian government bent ontotal manipulation.

CCC is beginning to roll out its webbased collision repair estimating and man-agement system to our industry. The idea ofa web based platform is not new, in factMitchell pioneered the concept of onlineestimating in the 1990’s, and Audatex hasalso followed a few years back. In fact, inCanada for over a year, their Shoplink ver-sion has been sunset and no longer avail-able. So what is the big deal ?

Web-based products do make perfectsense as it relates to updates for both pro-gram features and data, but what about pri-vacy? Have you ever read the fine printassociated with your current estimating sys-tem, “Terms of Usage” in your contract?

I would assume … probably not.It basically states they (Information

Providers) have the right to do just aboutanything they wish to do with the data theyreceive through their proprietary networkduring your estimate uploads.

If you have a business relationshipthrough a DRP agreement, it has been re-luctantly understood that the claim data thatis processed through the InformationProvider for a specific insurer, will be col-lected, aggregated, and reporting will beresold back to the insurers (and others)about your customers’ vehicles repairs, andalso your performance to their matrix.

However, any data you store in your es-timating system that is not uploaded remainsyour information 100%, and remains com-pletely private. Now with any web basedproduct, ALL estimating data has been ef-fectively “uploaded” and stored online andthen naturally subject to aggregation, and re-porting … not just the claims and estimatesthat are through a business relationship DRP,but 100% of ALLwalk-in customer pay es-timates, fleets, and all insurers with or with-out a DRP business agreement in place!Does this sound a little totalitarian?

For the most part, the collision repairindustry is a collection of private busi-nesses. It is well known and acceptable thatprivate businesses are not bound to releasefinancial data … it is PRIVATE for thosewithin the company itself. With the currentestimating data being captured, sales(severity), labor rates charged, paint andmaterial charges, P-Page (Manual Entries)

additions, supplement ratios, cycle days,and a number of other ratios are being ma-nipulated, and in many cases used againstus without any validation or understandingof what it is actually portraying in anygiven market area.With online management systems, the dataincludes all of the above, but adds all Costof Goods Sold figures as well. Costs for allparts and flagged labor costs are just the ba-sics that will now be accessible for “aggre-

gation andreporting”. Somesystems today con-verted to web basedwill even providethe hours actuallyclocked into eachjob by every techni-cian, and the totalgross pay for everytechnician!

I was driving with my 20-year olddaughter the other day, and I was thinkingabout this column. I told her about thebook, 1984, which she had never read (orseen the movie), and explained to her aboutthe online estimating and management sys-tems our industry is rolling out along withthe exposure of the private financial data.

Her reply was, “If you don’t have any-thing to hide, why would it be a problem?”Well… she simply missed the whole point! It is not about “hiding anything,” it isabout having a privately held business re-main PRIVATE, along with the data beingmanipulated and used against us to turn allof us against each other, just about like theRomans did in the coliseum 1500–2000years ago.

I am 100% sure Intuit would not evenimagine that they could justifiably aggre-gate the data in their Online QuickBooksversion, and sell the information to others… why is our estimating and future man-agement system data any different?

Don’t misinterpret what I am attempt-ing to point out. I am not stating that tech-nology should not continue to advance, Iactually believe in the concept of webbased or cloud computing … it is in ourdefinite future.

What has become unacceptable and acorrelation to George Orwell’s 1984 sce-nario, is the power and revenue this infor-mation has provided to the collectors of ourdata, how it is being manipulated, as wellas used against our industry is what is un-acceptable.

For this reason, I urge every one in theindustry to stand up and stop this before itgoes much further. The terms for usage ofour data must not only be very clearly iden-tified in not just the “small print” or forcedupon us without a viable option. Our datashould not be shared unless we allow itbased on very specific criteria, and limita-tions we as an industry, and as an individualprivate business can agree to without the

pressure of “Big Brother” control.It is very clear, we own the data we

generate when using a software program…whether it is installed locally on our com-puters, or stored in a “cloud” on the inter-net. It must be our right to select who getsaccess, what compensation we are entitledto, and not be denied these individualrights.

I just hope and pray that the followingquote from 1984 doesn’t become our real-ity:

“Until they become conscious theywill never rebel, and until after they haverebelled they cannot become conscious.”

Think about it … the past may be ourfuture if we don’t stop it now.

Comments can be sent to Tony Passwaterat [email protected].

Tony Passwater, President of AEII, has ac-tively worked full time within and with theCollision Industry since 1972. He comesfrom a 3rd generation family in the colli-sion repair business. During his involve-ment he has worked and managed hisfamily owned Collision Repair Shop,owned and operated Automotive PaintJobber Store, been an I-CAR Local,Re-gional, National, and International MasterTrainer, and a Vocational Instructor.


Editorial: Web-Based Management, Is it 2010 … or is it Really 1984?

On January 25, 2010, SterlingAutobodyopened a new, 12,000 sf. repair facilityin Oakland, California. This state-of-theart Sterling store is located at 7801 Oak-port Street in Oakland.. Sterling acquired the pre-existingbuilding and renovated both the interiorand exterior, creating a cleaner, brighterand more attractive structure. Includedis a new, more customer-friendly officedesign featuring improved lighting,warmer tones, and retail-like conven-iences. The repair center incorporatesvisual management fixtures of the LeanManufacturing tenants which Sterling isrenowned for in the collision repair in-dustry. Many of the building elementsremain, and new materials were care-fully reviewed for environmental impact.

Sterling Autobody Centers is com-mitted to protecting the environment byreducing hazardous waste and creating acleaner, safer environment for employeesand the Oakland community. This loca-tion features air respirator systems, at-tending to employee safety and comfort,along with the use of waterborne paint.

The new location employs 15 tech-nicians and front office staff and is openMonday through Friday, 7am – 6pm, andSaturdays from 8am – 12pm.

Sterling Opens Facility in Oakland


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Our Epoxy Primer is unique for many reasons includingthat it can be dry sanded the next day after application andit sticks to aluminum. It’s available in black, white and gray.!e restoration shops love the fact that our epoxy not onlydries to a semi-gloss to show where body work is needed,but our black SPI Epoxy Primer can be reduced to replicateany OEM sheen by simply adding urethane reducer invarious ways.

Whether you have a collision shop or a million-dollar cargoing to Pebble Beach, our true polyurethane UniversalClear will easily exceed your expectations. SPI UniversalClear is hard to run, loves high heat and humidity, doesn’trequire baking in the winter, will not yellow whites, buffsgreat even several months after application, has excellentchemical resistance, doesn’t require a flex agent, works greatwith bad air flow and you actually shut the fan down oncethe overspray is gone!

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Federal Government Pays For Shops To Go Green, Says GRC-Pirk ManagementAs an environmentally conscious shopowner, paint supplier or contractor, youmay be eligible for a valuable funding op-portunity. There has never been a bettertime to tap into the lengthy list of govern-ment rebates, tax credits and other financialincentives designed to encourage shops toachieve federal, state and local compliance.

Many key incentives enacted over thelast several years have focused on encour-aging shops to incorporate environmentalcompliance into their operational plans.One incentive in particular relates to Certi-fied Green Investment “CGI”, and is beingutilized by many paint manufacturers andsuppliers.

One of the key provisions of the En-ergy Policy Act of 2005 allows a tax de-duction of up to $1.80 per square foot forcertain environmental improvements madefor equipment put into service since 2005.In certain instances, this deduction may beavailable to someone other than the equip-ment owner for early compliance with En-vironmental Protection Agency rules andregulations.

Intended to offset some of the costs ofqualifying energy-efficient improvementsto commercial buildings, the CGI incentiveallows taxpayers to take an immediate ex-pense for the cost of equipment that wouldnormally be recovered through deprecia-tion over as many as 39 years.

To help you better understand the CGIincentive under Section 179D of the fed-eral energy tax code and how it may beable to benefit a shop, the environmentalprofessionals at GRC-Pirk Managementhave put together the following brief list offrequently asked questions.

What are the requirements of Section 179D?To qualify, energy-efficient improvementsmust reduce total annual energy and powercosts with respect to the interior lighting,spray booth operation, heating, cooling, andventilation and hot water systems by 50%.Partial deductions are allowed. Energy simu-lation and sustainability is required to justifythe CGI incentive; and inspection and testingmust be completed by a qualified engineer orcontractor registered in the EPA jurisdiction.

How much is the deduction?• Maximum deduction is $1.80 per squarefoot for a 50% reduction in total annual en-ergy and power costs (compared to a ref-erence building that meets the minimumrequirements of ASHRAE Standard 90.12001); not to exceed the amount equal tothe cost of energy-efficient commercialbuilding property placed in service duringthe taxable year• Partial deduction is 60¢ per square footfor a 25-40% reduction in lighting powerdensity (50% in the case of warehouses)

Who qualifies?• Building owner at the time of buildingimprovements• Public buildings – the owner may allo-cate the tax deduction to the designer (en-gineer, contractor, architect, environmentalconsultant or energy services provider) forthe taxable year that includes the date onwhich the property is placed in serviceWhat is the eligibility timeframe?

Shop upgrades must be completedafter December 31, 2005 and before Janu-ary 1, 2013

What documents do I need to produce?Current full set of architectural plans thatincludes all specifications• Energy compliance documents for light-ing, HVAC and envelope (Title 24 or IECC)• Recordkeeping File – computer file usedto generate T-24 documentation• Certified Letter of Opinion – RegisteredEnvironmental Assessor “REA” qualifica-tion letter• EPA HAPs 6H Compliance Notification -NESHAP 43 CFR 63 Subpart HHHHHHcertificationWhat do I get from a CGI 179D review?• FTD certificate package—requires fed-eral tax documentation for CGI incentive• Provide review of existing T-24 or IECCto verify compliance with current code re-quirements

• Review building lighting, HVAC and en-velope systems for Federal Tax Deductionqualification• Records Management Agreement for sus-tainability, analysis and certification docu-mentation

How do I claim the CGI incentive?• The tax deduction is taken on the “OtherDeductions” line of the taxpayer’s return• Tax returns may be amended going backthree consecutive tax years

The green movement for miscellaneoussurface coating operations is much morethan merely a trend. Local building codesare mandating that buildings be more effi-cient, and even insurance carriers are be-ginning to demand improvements that willreduce a shops operating cost. Given thegrowing number of incentives available toencourage incorporating certified greenimprovements into a shop facility, it is im-portant to consider any federal, state orlocal incentives available.

Steven E. Schillinger, is President andRobert Morris is Legal Counsel for GRC-Pirk Management in Reno, Nevada

For confidential consultation, call TollFree: 1-888-374-PIRK (7475)

Email: [email protected] orvisit www.ReComply.com.

In the 1940s, in the Spring the MissouriRiver, in the vicinity of Kansas City,would overflow from heavy Winter snowsand Spring rains. The result was seriousflooding of the surrounding land. One fac-tor that made the flooding worse was themeandering nature of the river, and one ofthe worst meanders was locally called“Jackass Bend” where severe flooding wasnearly an annual event. To resolve this sit-uation, the U.S. Corps of Engineers dug astraight new channel several miles Southof the old one called the Liberty Bend cut-off, and dammed up the old channel. Andthey built a new bridge across the new

channel called the Liberty Bridge.I’ve noticed that a number of shops put

their customers through a few “JackassBends” just to get their vehicle repaired.Forms must be filled in and a customer mayhave to wait for an estimator and then waitfor a rental car. The popular buzzword ofthe day is “Lean Procedures,” with a focuson eliminating unnecessary steps and de-lays. Much of the emphasis is placed onlean production, but lean customer process-ing is equally important. Many shops thriveon customer referrals and a customer sub-jected to a series of “Jackass Bends” is notlikely to go out of the way to refer the shop.

A recent survey of health care systemsin other countries noted that countries thatuse a health care data card similar to a creditcard, can keep many doctor visits to just afew minutes. All of the patient’s medicaland physical information is on the card andcan be accessed in seconds. The card is up-dated after the visit, so the patient neednever fill in a form on the next visit. Todaymost drivers licenses have a magnetic striplike a credit card. Using a card reader mayenable a shop to capture much of a cus-tomer’s information from the drivers licensewithout having a form filled out. But thisconcept opens the door to even better time

savings along with a marketing advantage.If a shop acquires the technology to

create a collision customer data card of itsown, the customer can walk away with apiece of plastic that identifies everythingabout his or her vehicle plus all of the re-pairs and parts installations that have beenmade. The next visit will require practicallyno data capturing at all. Will the customerkeep this card in his or her purse or wallet?Possibly not, but most astute shops nowprovide every customer with an accidentinformation pamphlet or booklet to keep inthe glove compartment. It’s a simple moveto add a slot or pocket to hold the data card.

People are naturally inclined to fol-low the easiest path. This strategy alonecan incline most customers to return to theshop to get handled more quickly andavoid tiresome form filling. But there is away to get even more mileage out of thedata card. By adding a master code num-ber to the card and keeping that mastercode along with this customer’s data onthe shop’s computer system, the customerneed not even come into the shop to beginthe process of getting set up for the nextrepair. The code could be sent by e-mail,fax, phone, or entered into a preset area onthe shop’s website. When the customer ar-rives, he or she simply drops off the vehi-cle.

If this was all of the value a shopcould get from providing a data card, itwould be well worthwhile, but this isonly the beginning. The card can now beused for additional sales and marketingadvantages. If a shop also has a vehiclemaintenance division, tires, brakes, airconditioning service, tune-ups and otherreminders can be programmed in. If ashop sells accessories, winterizing prod-ucts and other seasonal items can be pro-moted. Today’s credit cards haveenormous data storage capabilities.These items won’t even begin to over-load the card’s capacity.

Finally, for the shop owner who is re-ally serious about getting the most out of adata card system, there is the added possi-bility of links. The Internet is filled withwebsites that earn all revenue from adver-tisements on the site. A shop can offer pro-motional connections on the card to a localcar wash, car rental facility, automatictransmission repair shop and other relatedbusinesses. All of these advantages can behad by simply eliminating “Jackass Bends”and creating a new channel for data to flow.

By the way, I really hope the currentsnowfalls in the east and southeast don’tcause serious flooding.


Help Customers Avoid ‘Jackass Bends’ by Creating Channels

On Creative Marketingwith Thomas Franklin

Tom Franklin has been a sales and marketing consultant for forty years. He haswritten numerous books and provides marketing solutions and services for manybusinesses. He can be reached at (323) 871-6862 or at [email protected].

After attending the Banking and InsuranceCommittee on the above two listed bills,my assumption that this bill was written byinsurance companies for insurance com-panies was correct. The committee mem-bers were surprised to learn no Auto GlassCompanies were asked to review this billbefore its introduction.

This one fact should require the billsto be removed but it passed this commit-tee, to my surprise. I feel the vote was predetermined before we got there. After lis-tening to the testimony of the insurancecompanies’ representatives, I have a betterunderstanding as to how this can happen.

There are some glaring issues I wouldlike to address to the committee membersand to the rest of the legislative body re-garding these two bills. The insurance com-panies’ representatives made a couple ofmisstatements in the committee meetingwhich I brought to the attention of the com-mittee who quickly asked them for theircorrections. One of the representatives leftthe room and was not heard from again.

As I have clearly stated in the past, thefraudulent practices addressed in this billare already against the law. Some of thepractices listed in this bill are not deserv-ing of a felony and should be re addressed.Some of the members of the committeeagreed with me on this point.

From all of the comments and ques-tions by the committee, I feel there aresome very disturbing misunderstandingsby the committee members I would like toclear up.

HB 24631. The Department of Insurance does

not regulate or oversee Auto Glass Com-panies currently. They do prosecute insur-ance fraud committed in the state by anyindustry. The Auto Glass Industry is notthe “only” industry where insurance fraudis committed.

2. The “Presumption of Innocence” isa very glaring problem with this bill andneeds to be changed or dropped entirely.The way the language reads and the waythe insurance companies representativesanswered this question was “we would notprosecute for mistakes” but the languageof the bill “allows” them to. They want todetermine the definition of a “mistake.”This is wrong and I’m sure unconstitu-tional.

3. The bill takes away “Private Rightof Action” from the insured. This was notdiscussed in this committee meeting but isanother very serious mistake in the lan-guage of this bill. Of course, the insurancecompany wants to go after auto glass com-panies “without” the cooperation of the in-sured’s. If that is the case, why is this billtaking the “injured party” out of the equa-tion? It’s obvious to me; the insurance

companies must have a problem with theirinsured’s cooperating for prosecution ofthese actions because “current law” allowsfor prosecuting these actions. Is it possiblethe insured’s don’t think it’s as big a prob-lem as the insurance company?

One of the committee members madea statement “We pass all of these laws forthe insurance companies but it neverseems to come back to us in reduced pre-miums.” This won’t help either.

4. No Auto Glass Companies wereasked for their input on this bill. No stake-holder meetings as the committee calledthem. I’m not even sure this is legal.

5. Crooks are crooks. This bill will notstop fraud from being committed by autoglass companies who are engaging in fraudor any other company for that matter. As Ihave stated, these laws are already on thebooks and new laws are not going tochange anything with these companies andoperators. Active enforcement of the lawswe have is needed to help police these is-sues.

HB24641. Changing the word “shall” to

“may” gives the insurance companies theright to “not offer” $0 deductible autoglass coverage. One of the insurance com-panies’ representative stated in the com-mittee meeting they would “probablyoffer” a $100 Deductible coverage to theirclients. Some of the committee membersare insured by this company. Were youpaying attention to what was being said?You will no longer have Auto Glass Cov-erage at a $0 deductible. She also stated59% of all of the clients for this companyhave “purchased” this coverage from hercompany. This means 59% of all the in-sured’s of this company will be offered a$100 deductible for their “now” $0 de-ductible glass coverage. This is a lot ofvoters. I would have liked to have askedthe other insurance company representa-tive how many of his clients currently have“purchased” $0 glass coverage from hiscompany but he had left the room

2. In the states where these companieshave the option of offering $0 deductibleglass coverage, they do “not” offer it. Insome states, we have seen where the in-surance companies will actually raise aninsured’s comprehensive deductible on re-newal “without” their knowledge or con-sent. Unfortunately, for these clients theyusually find out about it when they go tohave their “windshield” replaced. Ofcourse, everyone gets their “10 Day FreeLook” period of a policy when they re-ceive it and have the option of dropping itif they didn’t like it. How many peopleread their insurance policies when they re-ceive them on renewal? This happensevery day.

3. This bill does not make “Wind-shield Repairs” “not free” to clients. Wind-shield Repairs are “free,” “no out ofpocket,” “deductible waived,” “call it whatyou want” and paid by all of the major in-surance companies but State Farm.

State Farm does not “waive” de-ductibles for repairs and makes the insuredsubject to their deductibles when obtain-ing windshield repairs. In the state of Ari-zona where we have the $0 deductibleoption, windshield repairs are paid for byState Farm. This bill may have been intro-duced to “eliminate” the $0 deductible sothey can get out of paying for “any” wind-shield repairs as they have in other states.Most of the major insurance companiesrecognize the fact that paying $50 for a re-pair can effectively “save” the windshieldfrom replacement later and have elected to“pay for it” by “waiving a deductible” in-stead of allowing the client to wait for it tocrack out and pay for the replacement at alater date, deductible or not. I discussedthis personally with the head claims man-ager of State Farm and suggested theyoffer the “$0 Deductible Glass Coverage”in all the states and allow their clients topurchase it like Arizona. This would allowall of their clients to purchase coverage tocover their windshield repairs. His answer

to me was “We are required by law to offerit in Arizona, not the other states.”

4. Even in all the states “without” $0deductible, windshield repairs are “free” tothe client and paid for by their insurancecompany (except State Farm). This meanswith the passage of HB 2464, car washeswill still be in the business of windshieldrepairs. Nothing will change in that regardas some of the committee members werewrongly under the assumption it would.Nothing changes for the car washes exceptthe offer of auto glass replacement if that’swhat the client wants, and the insured willbe subject to their deductible.

5. The future of the auto glass busi-ness is becoming increasing more preva-lent to the safety of the vehicles. In fact,future cars will have windshields that ex-tend all the way to the back of the car witha “full” glass roof. The glass is becomingmore of an integral part of the structure ofthe vehicle and obviously, will becomemore costly in the very near future. The in-surance companies are introducing this billto get out of this coverage while they can.They are also counting your ignorance ofthis issue and of course, asking for theAuto Glass Industries’ input would bringthis out in the open as was eloquently ex-plained by Cindy Ketcherside. The imple-


Kerry Soat Reports on Arizona Glass Legislation (HB 2463–HB 2464 B & I Committee Meeting)

menting and adherence to the AGRSS(Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standard)may have to be legislated at a later date.

6. HB 2464 is not necessary for In-surance Companies to quit writing $0 de-ductible comprehensive coverage. It is anoption added to an insured’s policy at acost to the insured. It is not “mandated” bythe current statue. As Rex Altree stated inthe committee meeting, if they wanted toeliminate the $0 Deductible, they have theoption of raising the premium to a leveltheir insured’s might be willing to forgocoverage and accept the risk themselves.HB 2464 takes the “choice” away from theinsured and makes it a “choice” by the in-surance company. This bill only hurts “thepoor” who will no longer have an optionof “purchasing coverage” making suretheir safety equipment is in good workingcondition. This bill is very wrong and putsthe battle of 22 years ago on the tableagain. Nothing has changed since then, “ifit’s not broke don’t fix it”.

7. As for a larger number of claims inArizona, it was mistaking stated by the in-surance companies representatives the $0deductible has something to do with it. Ofcourse, a $0 deductible makes more dam-age “covered” by the insurance companiesbut it doesn’t have anything to do with theamount of damage Arizona has. Our fre-quency of damage is higher in this statethan most states. Arizona, Colorado,Wyoming, and Montana are states with thehighest frequency of damage for rockchips. This is due to “rocks on the road.” InArizona, we have “rocks” in our yards. Iam not aware of any other state that has asmuch “desert landscaping” as Arizonathereby leading to the amount of auto glassdamage. Rocks getting in tires and flyingoff on the freeways are how most wind-shield damage occurs. If you wanted tolower the amount of damage to wind-shields and lower the number of claims tothe insurance companies, you would haveto outlaw “desert landscaping.” I could nolonger tell someone I “rake my rocks” in-stead of my yard.

I would like to make a suggestion tohelp alleviate these bills. The bills need tobe removed and new legislation should bestarted to accommodate the problems andissues facing, not only the insurance com-panies, but the Department of Insurance inits enforcement. As I stated earlier, theAuto Glass Industry is not the only indus-try doing fraudulent actions in the market-place. Any company billing insurancecompanies should be covered by thesestatutes.

The public does not know the battlesAuto Glass Companies and the Auto BodyShops go through in processing billing andclaims with Insurance companies. Some ofthe actions stated in these bills are to givethe insurance companies more teeth in get-ting their “vendors under control”.

If you would first consider, an insur-ance policy is a contract between a policy-holder and the insurance company and notthe vendor it will make this suggestion eas-ier to understand.

Insurance companies “take over” theclaims handling process from the insuredto “contain costs” not to provide serviceand convenience. They know they can pro-fessionally negotiate lower costs than aninsured walking through the door as a “re-tail customer”.

If it wasn’t about money, they wouldhave the insured pay for the damage andreimburse them for the damage “accord-ing” to the policy. They would subtract thedeductible and issue a check to the insured.I have always wondered why when I havea large claim they tell me to get 3 “esti-mates,” bring them in where we negotiatea fair price, they deduct the deductible andwrite me a check. They then tell me I “cango anywhere” to get the work done, but notin the Auto Glass business. The insurancecompanies control everything from whereyou call the claim into to, where and whocan do the work, and of course, they tellus, the vendor, the price.

If you would look deeper into thisprocess, you will see companies havesprung up called “third party billers” whohave taken over the entire “auto glassclaims” process from the insurance com-pany to the point of calling any auto glassvendor who does the job a “sub contrac-tor”.

Some of these “third party billers” arelarge auto glass companies who have al-ready “pre-negotiated” the auto glassclaims with the insurance companies for“all” of the auto glass claims from that in-surance company regardless of what autoglass company has actually done the work.If this was looked into more thoroughly Ibelieve you will find this is “re-insuring”the auto glass claims by pre-negotiatingthe prices for future claims. (Re-Insurance)I also believe these companies should be“licensed” to “re-insure” in the state of Ari-zona for these contracts with the insurancecompanies.

These companies have been created toaccomplish, the avoidance of the existinginsurance laws in every state they work inand to lower the “average cost per claim”to the insurance company. These compa-nies are not regulated by the Departmentof Insurance because most are Auto GlassCompanies, not Insurance Companies. TheDepartment of Insurance has registeredmany complaints about these billing com-panies but is helpless in dealing with thisissue. The answer I get from them is “Weregulate insurance companies, not autoglass companies”.

They are avoiding the customers “freeright of choice” to which auto glass com-pany they use. This is called steering andan illegal action by an insurance company

in the state of Arizona but since it is not theinsurance company doing this action theDepartment of Insurance cannot take anyaction to stop this.

The Department of Insurance mightbe thinking HB 2463 will give them somepower to deal with this issue. These “thirdparty billers” are also known to hold pay-ment for claims for as long 90 days whichwould be illegal for insurance companiesbut here again, the insurance companystatutes do not apply to them. The directnegotiation of pricing with a direct com-petitor should also be illegal under ArizonaState Statutes. I really do not know howthis practice can be allowed to continue.According to this bill, these companiesmay be in violation of “providing re-insur-ance without a license,” they would besubject to a felony count for “each inci-dent” (invoice-job) which would “show apattern of activity” and the “knowledgethey engaged in a pattern of the activity.”

Call any 800 claims number and seeif you are prompted to dial another key tobe directed to their “Auto Glass Claims”administrators. Are there any other keys tohit for any other type of claims?

It is necessary to give the Departmentof Insurance the ability to handle “all com-plaints” when dealing with InsuranceCompanies, Policyholders, and Vendorswho do business with Insurance Compa-nies.

Consider for one moment, you, as theelected official, who has run a hotly de-bated election, are now forced to call youropponent, the “losing candidate,” to getpermission to look at every bill in front ofyou and then argue with him/her on howto vote on the bill. This is what the AutoGlass Dealers face on a daily basis. Nameone other industry faced with this samebusiness practice.

I recommend legislation to allow thelicensing or registration of each company,from all industries, that want to do busi-ness with Insurance Companies in the stateof Arizona. This doesn’t mean you regu-late these industries on how they do theirjobs; free enterprise will take care of that,but put the registration under the Depart-ment of Insurance and allow the Depart-ment to handle all complaints in theinsurance industry whether it is an insur-ance company, a policyholder or a vendor.Only vendors who wish to deal with anddirect bill insurance companies would berequired to register for licensing. All othercompanies who would like to operate re-tail or wholesale businesses “without”billing insurance companies wouldn’tneed to register and submit to oversightby the Department of Insurance. Thiswould keep a free market in place with-out adding more regulation in the busi-ness place “unless” the company wanted


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Autobody News recently attended a 3-hr.evening training session for about 35painters, informally called a “SATA EPAclinic,” held at Sacio Enterprises in SanDiego. The Jan. 20 event was hosted bythe jobber, Tri City Paint, headed by SteveEllis, Sales Manager, and assisted byWayne Morrison and Felipe Contreras.Also present was the local representative,Gerry Carter, from Total Sales & Mar-keting.

The featured presenter was SteveTreutel, national industry relations andtraining manger for Dan Am/SATA, whocovered the theory behind the EPA regula-tions, the compliance requirements, andsome critical, but often overlooked, main-tainance issues for spray guns. The trainingincluded hands-on booth spraying beforethe painters could be certified in the course.

We asked Treutel about trainingpainters in light of the new EPA rule, andwhat refinish companies—including hard-ware manufacturers—and jobbers can do,and are doing, to help them get up to speed.

Steve Treutel ◄ Two things are hap-pening in the collision industry rightnowthat are huge, the EPA rule and water-borne, and I’m not sure which is the larger.

First, the EPA put into the rule what

so many of us wanted to do for some timewhich is basically educating the painter.What we’ve done at Dan Am and SATA isset up a training program with our 39 repsdoing evening clinics on this. We coverhow the gun operates works, volume, air,from HVLP to RP technologies: they allfall into this rule. We teach them how toachieve the very best transfer efficiencyThen we turn around and physically do it.Every student in the class sprays and isgraded on it.

In the past if you tried to hold a work-shop for painters about how to use theirown spray gun nobody would show up.They thought that they knew everythingthere was to know. It’s because everybodylearned by watching someone else, not by

knowing the principles behind the paintingprocess. Now they say “thank you.”

Every paint manufacturer out thereand their brand of waterborne basecoat isworking to make that operate and dry theway they want it to with color match andeverything else. Understanding how thatgun is set up is critical.

Starting with California, now everypaint company is releasing their water-borne nationally, some more effectively

and aggressively than others. But nowyou’ve got the OTC group in the North-east, and the Great Lakes group also,which are working on their waterborne lawfor 2012, only two years away. I think itcould all happen nationally within 5-10years.

That’s a lot of painters—bigger, even,than the California waterborne launch be-cause we’re talking about changingprimers and clears (to match the 1151 rule)and everything that goes with that. Aswe’re doing these evening clinics and I’mworking with our reps we hear that every-body wants to know how soon until I haveto do it? Across the street that shopmight’ve already changed over to water, oris seriously planning for it.

ABN ► So what percentage would yousay are doing it voluntarily?

Steve Treutel ◄ So far, it’s a small per-centage that have changed over voluntarilybut it’s bigger than many people think. Inmany cases it’s a shop that wants to standout from its competition more. For someof them it’s just for marketing; others aresaying “it’s going to come anyway” and Idon’t want to be waiting in line for jobbersand reps to help me.

ABN ► We know about two large MSObody shops that are planning a “flip theswitch” date to transition to waterborne.

Steve Treutel ◄ Yes, there are a lot of


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to operate in the insurance company en-vironment.

Licensing should be limited to a reg-istration of the company’s owners, address,pertinent business information and loca-tion for operating in the state of Arizona.All owners and operators should be re-quired to attend a “Business Ethics, Whatconstitutes Right and Wrong when dealingwith Insurance Companies and Insured’s,Claims Processing and Dealing with In-surance Companies class.” We requirespeeders to attend traffic school, why notcompanies doing business with InsuranceCompanies?

This bill should also cover the timelypayment of claims by the insurance com-panies and deal with this issue of “thirdparty billing” companies to hold them tothe same regulations in handling claims asthe insurance companies they represent. Ifthey have “pre negotiated” future claims itis important they are abiding by the Ari-zona Insurance Licensing Laws. Thesecompanies should also submit to oversightby the Department of Insurance.

Madam Chairperson, RepresentativeNancy McLain, made comments regardingthe “training of Auto Glass operators” withregards to ethical operations by the Auto

Glass Companies. She asked Rex Altree ifthe Arizona Glass Association had anyinput into its members regarding fraudulentpractices. Rex stated “we don’t” becausethey are all independent business operatorsand we are there for advice or guidanceprovided on a need basis. I believe the Ari-zona Glass Association will offer moreguidance in this direction very soon.

As a manufacturer and trainer for theAuto Glass Industry, my operators aretrained and monitored for their operatingactivities. Even with a close working rela-tionship like my company, it is their busi-ness to run and operate. Some of myoperators have even had issues in theseareas and we have dealt with them accord-ingly.

By focusing the legislation to themain issues the Insurance and Auto Glasscompanies deal with on a daily basis, wecould create a bill and new laws needed inthe state of Arizona. I believe if this is dealtwith thoroughly it will become a precedentsetting law for the rest of the country tofollow and we can get rid of these two billsand truly focus on the problems at hand.

Sincerely,Kerry D. Soat, CEOFas-Break, Inc.480-967-4884Vice PresidentArizona Glass Association

See DAN AM/SATA EPA, Page 23


Glass Legislation

Dan Am-SATA & Jobbers Provide EPA Painter Spray Gun Training

Steve Treutel, right, talks to a San Diego group ofmotivated painters seeking national certification forEPA mandated painting operations.

Steve Treutel reviews protective equipment and ex-plains some of the potential health hazards the EPArules are designed to prevent.

Autobody News was recently able to askHans Kempf, Regional Training Instruc-tor in charge of Course Development atBASF Automitive Refinish, for some ob-servations about recent trends in water-borne and other refinish issues.

ABN ► What is the approximate growthrate of BASF waterborne product sales?Has it plateaued or is it growing steadilyin non-mandated waterborne areas?

HK ◄ Growth continues to be strong in allareas and we expect it will continue to increase.

ABN ► Is consumption ofwaterborne prod-uct becoming more efficient with experienceand training, i.e., do painters and their shopsget cost benefits as they getmore experience?

HK ◄ We have found the learning curveto be very short for both the Glasurit 90-Line and the Onyx HD product lines. Thedegree and type of benefits that are asso-ciated with switching to waterborne areboth shop and technician dependant. It canbe said that at some shops do in fact expe-rience speed and material use efficienciesonce they have completed the transistionto a low VOC portfolio.

ABN ► Is airmanagementmore or less crit-ical with newer formulations of BASF prod-uct?Can yoube specific about how importantair (humidity, cleanliness, and temperature)is to proper application of the product?

HK ◄ There have been few changes in theformulations of our waterborne basecoatover the last several years, which is to saythat things remain the same.

The drying mechanism of all water-borne paints require good airflow, this im-portance increases as the relative humidityrises. BASF recommends a clean and tem-perature controlled environment for all ourpaint systems, not just the waterborneproducts. Just like for higher VOC systems,we have developed products and proce-dures for spraying our low VOC productsover a broad range of temperatures.

ABN ► How involved is BASF with thedata providers and their cost estimates?

HK ◄ Because we understand the impor-tance of accurately estimating material cost,BASF is willing to provide the appropriateinformation necessary for data providers tocreate accurate estimating systems.

ABN ► Let’s just “air” some issues with

current refinish processes and get your ini-tial thoughts:

Color matching and mixingHK ◄ Color adjustment and tinting is anecessary evil in our industry as OEMcolor variations continue to be problematic.

The OEM color palette continues to ex-pand bringing more complex colors that mustbe adjusted at the shop level. So many paintershave had little to no real training that createsan understanding around color adjustment.Certainly, the training centers around BASFColor Tools and information: ColorMax,SmartTrak, SmartSCAN and how to use thesetools most effectively. When colors still needto be adjusted, our training’s approach is todistill color into its basic components that areanalyzed individually and corrected sepa-rately. It also instills into the painter whattoner characteristics to consider when adjust-ing and their effects. This is a straight forward,step by step process that replaces the old con-fusing “trial by error approach” so manypainters have struggled through.

Spray gun operation and cleaningHK ◄ Throughout all of our technicalcourses there is a strong emphasis on properusage of any spray gun regardless of whatbrand. Students are coached with the basics:overlap, distance, speed and proper pres-sure, but also on more effective techniquesof application such as back-blending andproper clearcoat blending. An understand-ing of gun set up and tip/cap choice istaught, which is absolutely critical for anypainter. Through the new EPA regulations,cleaning is limited to using enclosed guncleaners or hand disassembly, both aspectsare thoroughly reviewed with painters.

Spray booth maintenance and managementHK ◄ The properly operating spray boothdefines the heart beat of any collisionshop, but it can also be the “Achilles Heel”as well. BASF training covers the basicsof booth operation and maintenance in-cluding filter change-out schedules, filtermedia requirements, proper velocity test-ing, balancing and troubleshooting.

Clear and primer trainingHK ◄ Although a large amount of effortgoes into proper training of waterbornebasecoats to meet new VOC regulations,clearcoat and primers are also being af-fected by these same rules. Proper instruc-tion into both VOC compliant productsand National Rule is conducted coveringtopics such as: prep and sanding, cleaning,application, film build, equipment, dry

time, productivity and blending/repairing.New products are continuously being

introduced to make our customers moreprofitable. What better way to learn aboutthese than where the expertise really lies,in a BASF training class.

Low VOC, solvent-based productHK ◄ With the established and impend-ing low VOC legislation, it is crucial forour customers to feel comfortable withBASF’s compliant product portfolio. Al-though many application and performanceaspects of these products are superior totraditional solvent based products, peopleresist and fear what is unfamiliar to them,this is understandably just human nature.

Developing an understanding aroundthese products is done to ease this transi-tion. Although BASF continues to lead theindustry’s development with low VOCproducts, many products have been suc-cessful in the collision industry for manyyears already. BASF Training highlightsthese products and presents a digestible ap-proach to transitioning to compliancy.


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BASF has dramatically expanded itsLean educational program for cus-tomers. BASF’s Lean program used tooffer a half-day introduction to Lean,giving collision centers a high-leveloverview of Lean concepts. BASF’sLean education component of VPU nowincludes three additional programs.● Launching Lean (VPU-031) is a two-day workshop that demonstrates funda-mental concepts. This is the first step inimplementing a continuous improve-ment business model.● Lean Implementation (VPU-032) is athree-day workshop centered around abody shop simulation that guides cus-tomers in identifying non-value addedactivities, exploring methods for reduc-ing waste and developing ways to meas-ure success.● Leading a Lean Culture (VPU-033) isa seminar for those considering a leanbusiness model in which customers as-sess their individual businesses and es-tablish a plan for Lean implementation.

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Celebrities can make great customers forcollision repair centers, with frequentcrashes in their cars and clashes with thepaparazzi chasing them.

In their honor, CARSTAR CollisionCenters, the nation’s largest chain of colli-sion repair experts, are kicking off the in-augural CARSTAR’D Awards to recognizethe top of the charts in dings, dents, crashesand collisions. And the winners are.....

10. Nicole Richie: On October 5, 2009 apaparazzo rear-ended her car and causedher to have to go to the hospital for obser-vation in Beverly Hills, Calif. (TMZ)

9. Michael Jackson and family: TheJackson clan made the list twice in 2009,first when MJ’s kids Prince Michael, Parisand Prince Michael II were driving withtheir nanny Grace Rwaramba in Encino,Los Angeles on October 21, and a photog-rapher rammed their security vehicle, andsecond with a hit-and-run incident with aphotographer in London on October 23,2009. (ANI)

8. LeAnn Rimes: Rimes was questionedby the Los Angeles Police Departmentover her possible involvement in a hit andrun car accident August 20, 2009, in Brent-wood, Calif. Rimes reportedly rear-ended

a car that was stopped in the left turn lane.There were no injuries and minor damageto the cars. She also had a run-in with a se-curity golf cart at The Commons in Cal-abasas, Calif., on December 4, 2009.(TMZ)

7. Anne Hathaway: The Devil WearsPrada star was involved in a car collision inLA on December 17, 2009. The star’sboyfriend Adam Shulman was driving thecar when he collidedwith a bicycle onSanta Monica Boule-vard in Hollywood.(RadarOnline)

6. Renée Zellweger: Zellweger was in acar accident in Beverly Hills on August 31,2009. The actress was fine and there wereno injuries—her car was towed away fromthe scene. One of the headlights fromRenée’s car was shattered and one of thecars lost a license plate in the smash.(TMZ)

5. Olympic medalistMichael Phelps: Bet-ter in water than behind the wheel, Phelpswas involved in a three-car accident in Bal-timore on August 13, 2009. Phelps was notinjured, but a woman in the other car wasshaken up and taken to a local hospital, due

to “head and arm pain.” (TMZ)

4. Lawrence Taylor: The NFL legend hadan illegal tackle with hit-and-run on No-vember 9, 2009, allegedly ramming his Es-calade into a 1984 Ford van two separatetimes before driving off. (TMZ)

3. George Michael: The singer was in-volved in a car collision August 14, 2009,in London. In a statement released Aug.

15, Michael claimedthat statements bythe driver thatMichael appeared“dazed” after the ac-

cident and had been “weaving all over theplace” before crashing were false.

2. Weezer: While on the way to Bostonvia Toronto on December 7, 2009,Weezer’s bus slid off the road just outsideof Albany, NY, after hitting a patch of ice.Lead singer Rivers Cuomo was quicklytransferred to the hospital. Drummer JoshFreese explained on Twitter that there are“some injuries, but everyone’s alive and inone piece.” (PerezHilton.com)

And the leading celebrity car crash of 2009made headlines around the world......1. TigerWoods: The world’s number one

golfer was injured early Friday, November30, 2009 when he lost control of his SUVoutside his Florida mansion. A local policechief said Woods’ wife used a golf club tosmash out the back window to help get himout. Tiger took the blame for an “embar-rassing” car crash that gave him cuts,bruises and public scrutiny like never be-fore. Soon after, news of Woods’ havingover 12 alleged mistresses came out.(Perezhilton).

I guess he didn’t think to blame it onunintended acceleration. —Ed.

Surprisingly absent from the 2009 listare top contenders Brittany Spears andLindsey Lohan, who have earned spots onthe CARSTAR’D All-Star list for their pastvehicular performances.

CARSTAR Collision Centers Toasts Top Celebrity Car Crashes, 2009

Buyers who would have looked at Toyotavehicles are now considering other brandsafter the automaker's series of safety re-calls. Analysts from Kelley Blue Book,Edmunds.com and J.D. Power say Ford,Honda, Hyundai and Chevrolet are grab-bing Toyota customers, based on salestracking data and surveys on their Websites. Mazda, Subaru and Volkswagen arealso getting upticks in buyer interest.

Toyota Vulnerable to Conquests


by Bryan Henry, WSFA

Throughout the day on Friday, [Feb. 12]Montgomery, AL, Police worked morethan two dozen accidents. Some of thosecars and trucks ended up at Chico’s Paintand Body Shop.

“We’ve had 5 or so come in over theweekend,” said Wayne Tucker, Chico’smanager.

It’s the same kind of story at RedBazzell & Son Auto Body & Paint. Theseverity of the damage ranged from a bro-ken axle to a car that struck a tree.

The snow on Friday has so far pro-vided a 25% increase in business atChico’s, something body shops typicallysee when a major storm blows in.

“The folks in Montgomery just don’tknow how to drive in a winter storm likethat. We hate it for them,” said Joe Orr,the Estimator at Red Bazzell & Son’s.

The average cost of a storm-relatedrepair job is anywhere from $2,500 to$4,500.

The winter storm did a bang up job ofdelivering up to 7 inches of snow in partsof theWSFA12 News viewing area.Whilethe flakes are long gone, the storm’s callingcard of dented and broken vehicles remains.

Body shop owners told WSFA 12News Friday’s snow was by far not theworst storm they’ve dealt with in terms ofrepairing vehicles. Red Bazzell & Son’ssays it repaired 4,000 vehicles after thehail storms in 1988 and ‘89.

©2010WSFA.All rights reserved. This ar-ticle is printed with the kind permission ofthe station.

Alabama Body Shops See Green after February Snowfall

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Alabama native, SEMA Hall of Famemember, founder of SECO Equipment andSECO Performance Centers, John Sim-mons, passed away on Sunday, February14. SECO Performance Centers is wellknown in the Southeast and has outlets inBirmingham, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, andMontgomery AL as well as Panama City,FL.

“John Simmons was more than mymentor for more than 20 years,” saidSEMA Chairman of the Board RickRollins. “He was like a father that youcould always go to for the answers, andnot the answers that you wanted to hear,but the ones that came from his manyyears of experience, and more importantlyfrom his heart.”

Simmons started his own warehousedistribution business for performanceparts in 1962. He began by selling partsfrom a trailer that he hauled to race trackson weekends. By 1967, Simmons wascommitted to the performance parts busi-ness, but he also owned and operated theHelena Dragstrip. Soon after the track wasclosed in 1967, due to noise, Simmonsand several partners acquired LassiterMountain Speedway, which they ran for10 years.

Simmons joined SEMA in 1969 inwhat was the beginning of a fruitful re-

lationship. Simmons served threeterms on the SEMA Board of Directorsfrom 1978–1982 and he chaired the

SEMA Finance Committee in 1981. Heserved on the Awards Judging Com-mittee from 1984–1986, chaired thePerson of the Year Award in 1987 andalso served as Membership Committeechairman.

In 1980, Simmons was named SEMAPerson of the Year and was inducted intoSEMA’s Hall of Fame in 2004.

In addition to his SEMA efforts, hewas elected and served as a PerformanceWarehouse Association (PWA) Area Di-rector from 1974–1991, served two termsas PWA treasurer and two terms as na-tional director of the PWA. He receivedthe PWA Pioneer Award in 1993 and wasone of the founding members of theAAM/Parts Pro group.

All along the way, Simmons made it apoint to help others grow and succeed intheir businesses, and he always encour-aged people to join SEMA, urging them toget involved. He was never shy about ex-plaining how SEMA could benefit themand their businesses.

“John didn’t have time for the mod-ern day marketing surveys or 30,000-ft.views of what was going on, because heknew,” Rollins added. “He stayed in touchwith what was going on in the streets, onthe race tracks and at the car shows. As amanufacturer sales manager, I made veryfew decisions concerning selling into dis-tribution or running promotions withoutfirst consulting John. I will miss him.”

Performance Parts Pioneer and SECO Founder, John Simmons, Passes Away

Performance parts pioneer and SEMA Hall ofFame member John Simmons is remembered.

www.autobodynews.com

CRA president Lee Amaradio announcedthat Toby Chess will work with the asso-ciation in a campaign to inform key Cali-fornia lawmakers and regulators about theinherent risks associated with the use ofcertain aftermarket safety parts.

Amaradio stated, “I’m pleased thatToby Chess is willing to commit his ex-pertise and research to improve the qualityof structural repairs that affect the safety ofa vehicle. The CRA has been bringing themessage of safety first to lawmakers for thepast three years. They’ve listened, they’venodded, but with a few key exceptions,they’ve voted not to change the status quo.Now it is time for action.With Toby’s helpwe are going to demonstrate why inferioraftermarket parts are dangerous.”

Chess added, “I am committed toprotecting consumers and advancing theexpertise of the collision industry in thearea of safe repairs.”

CRA executive director Allen Woodstated that the CRA has already asked theOffice of Insurance Commissioner Poiznerto sign up for the Chess demonstration. Hesaid that key members in the State Senateand the State Assembly and Congresswould also be invited to view first-hand thestructural differences between high-strengthsteel and inferior aftermarket metals.

CRA and Toby Chess to BringSafety Message to Sacramento

proactive shops that are gearing up theirequipment and they have the plan in place.They understand that new equipment canmake it a lot easier. You can spray waterwith whatever you have today, but it getsmuch easier and better with the rightequipment.

We look at what they have already.You have a primer gun, a sealer gun, anda clear gun, but is it ready for tomorrow’sproduct? Is in good working condition?Just because it’s a good and relativelynew gun, if you haven’t maintained it cor-rectly it might not be working wellenough for the new product. Now theEPA wants to make sure that you have theright transfer efficiency, and that’s im-portant for both shop profitability and theenvironment. If you’re just starting withwaterborne and you don’t keep yourequipment clean, you’re going to havemuch bigger problems than you ever hadwith the solvent.

But guess what, if you do it right, andmaintain and adjust your equipment,things work better. The paint dries the wayit’s supposed to, your color match is cor-rect, and you’re right with the EPA, be-cause you kept your gun clean.

ABN ► So, that isn’t the product’s fault,it’s yours?Steve Treutel ◄ Yes. All of a suddenpainters are learning the hard way that theyneed to keep my gun cleaner than theyever have before. You could have one ofour SATAjet 3000 (HVLP and RP) thatwe’ve had out for 3-4 years. If you boughtit then and you’ve never replaced the noz-zle set, it’s already worn out to some point,and then do you really have the right noz-zle set up or whatever you are going to bechanging to?

For waterborne I like to look at it a lit-tle differently. We do a true evaluation of ashop. Do we have enough air volume to runthe equipment you need. Do you haveenough to run the blowers. Are you plan-ning HVLP? But how much air does thattake? Are you doing overalls or just bumperjobs? Figure out the CFM required.

Then look at the quality of your air.Just because you got a lot of air doesn’tmean it’s clean enough. If you might haveoil droplets or oil vapors. This creates an-other contamination.

Is it breathable? Think about makingyour air breathable quality. Now we canlook at the guns—the difference betweenHVLP and RP technology is how much airdo they use?

If you don’t have enough air forHVLP, it doesn’t matter how good a

painter you are. You’re never going to beable to get the same job that the paint com-pany training center will do.

Typically for HVLP we like to see15–18 CFM and 29 lbs pressure. For RPtechnology you’d be around 10 CFM,about a third less air volume, which is themake or break point. For a shop that hasmaybe a 10 hp compressor serving threeprep people and a painter, you’re right onthe edge. At that point the RP might be thebetter choice. The quality can be main-tained even at the lower volume. That’swhy we have the two kinds of guns and theEPA has said that if you have the transferefficiency, you can maintain high qualityat the lower volume. Nothing wrong withthat.

If you have enough volume, HVLP isa good way to go because you have all theatomization, and shaping of the pattern,and drying with 10 pounds or less at the aircap. There is a lot of tooling done on anHVLP gun to get all that working. With RPtype technology you have a higher air cappressure,which does a lot of the work foryou so RP can actually work very nicelyfor you, especially if you don’t haveenough volume of air to run HVLP.

ABN ► Do all the large shops run, or pre-fer, HVLP?Steve Treutel ◄ No. It’s not always the

large shops that are better off using HVLP.Sometimes they have so many paintersand technicians running air tools that

they’re not really able to run HVLP effi-ciently. Many large, and good, shops useRP.

With the paint companies doing moreconversions, they’re learning more aboutwhere those lines are. They saw shops thatwere kind of right on the edge of not hav-ing enough air, and they allowed them totry it and they found out they don’t haveenough air.

I think we’re seeing our entire indus-try getting smarter about this. As paintcompanies continue to improve their prod-ucts, you’re going to see different nozzlegenerations, increased transfer efficiencyand probably even less air required. You



Dan Am/SATA EPA

The training includes hands-on, in booth, demon-strations and tests.

See DAN AM/SATA EPA, Page 36


Collision Industry Foundation toAuction Donations for Charity

SCRS Expands Repairer Education Presence at SEMA—ASRW will be Mid-week in October

The Collision Industry Foundation (CIF)is planning to continue its success of rais-ing funds through its online EBay Store tobenefit the charitable causes of the colli-sion repair industry by having a 2010 driveto collect items for the online auction. Lastyear, the EBay efforts raised $12,000 to-wards the Blanket the City Detroit project,giving to local food banks in need for the

hardest hit region ofour country.

As a con-tinuation of themany good works

of CIF, the goal of this drive is to fundprojects, new and established, such asRecycled Rides title transfer grants, in-dustry grant assistance, disaster relieffunding, and more.

The CIF EBay Store needs donationsof any item that can be auctioned throughthe popular bidding website EBay such astickets to sports games, hotel stays, mem-orabilia, or any other item that could havevalue. It is not required to be related to au-tomotive; there is no limit to the possibil-ities that can be donated to the program.

The CIF EBay store is perpetual, buta major push for a group of items will bedue by March 31st. To donate an itemplease contact the CIF Admin Office at(804) 427-6982, email: [email protected] (no hyphen).

In a move that will fuel the contest for thehearts and minds of collision repairers be-tween ASA (which sponsors theNACE/CARS events) and AAIW (whichsupports AAPEX and SEMA)—the 2010SEMAPaint & Body Equipment (PBE) areawill be growing due to a new affiliation be-tween SEMA and the Society of CollisionRepair Specialists (SCRS). SCRS will becollaborating with SEMA as the host of RE-PAIRER DRIVEN EDUCATION, which will bepremiering this year within the show and re-sulting in a larger SEMAfootprint dedicatedto the collision repair industry.

“We look forward to working with theSCRS to develop a valuable and relevanteducational program,” said SEMA VP ofmarketing and member services TomMy-roniak. Typically featuring 50–60 sessionsthroughout the week, the educational pro-gram is one of the cornerstones of the an-nual trade-only event.

“As more and more attendees at theSEMA Show become interested in thepaint and body market, it is becoming in-creasingly more important to incorporateseminars targeted specifically to this audi-ence,” said Myroniak. “Working with theSCRS will be instrumental in helping usdeliver value to this growing group.”

REPAIRER DRIVEN EDUCATION atSEMA will feature a wide array of topics

and course selections focused on bringingeducation and information covering rele-vant issues that impact collision repairersacross the nation. In addition to the educa-tional offerings and collaborative work inthe PBE wing of the show, SCRS will beholding their fall board meeting at theSCRS headquarter hotel, the Las VegasHilton. These meetings will be held inconjunction with other industry events,such as the Collision Industry Conference(CIC), to be held at the same location.

“SCRS’longstanding mission has beento educate, inform and represent the collisionrepair professional,” stated SCRS ExecutiveDirector Aaron Schulenburg. “A venuesuch as this certainly provides a stimulatingand exciting environment to build upon theeducational focus of our activity, and we arelooking forward to a bright future of possi-bilities for our industry as we collaborate tobring enhanced collision industry offeringsto the SEMA Show.”

“Responding to our membership’sneeds and desired direction has always beenone of the strong traits of SCRS,” addedSCRS ChairmanBarryDorn. “Through on-going discussions with our membership, it isobvious that there is a strong desire to par-ticipate, and have representation, in thisevent. Partnering with SEMAto significantlyenhance the offerings available to our indus-

try makes a lot of sense, and we are ecstaticto build upon what is shaping out to be a verystrong foundation between SCRS and theSEMA Show.”

“We’re constantly adapting to changesin the industry,” notes Chris Kersting, SEMAPresident and CEO. “We challenge ourselvesto deliver high value to both exhibitors andattendees, all with the goal of providing themwith a show that is current and relevant.”

Manufacturers interested in exhibit-ing at the SEMA Show will be able to ac-cess space rental agreements inmid-March. Attendee registration for theevent opens in May. Updated informationis available at www.semashow.com.

The third annual Automotive Service& Repair Week, ASRW 2010, announcedthat Jerry Burns will return as the eventchairman for the International AutobodyCongress & Exposition (NACE); and MitchSchneider will serve as the event chairmanfor the Congress of Automotive Repair &Service (CARS). The ASRW 2010 eventswill take place Oct. 11–13 at the MandalayBay Convention Center in Las Vegas (nolonger duringAAIW). ASRW will now be astand-alone event specifically created for allautomotive service and repair professionals.Eucational programs are scheduled Oct. 10-13, a Sunday through Wednesday. Exhibitswill be open from Oct. 11–13.

I-CAR announced its 2010 Interna-tional Board of Directors and ExecutiveCommittee following the I-CAR AnnualMembership Meeting in Torrance, CA.

The 2010 Executive Committeeconsists of: Chair Tom Moreland, Ak-zoNobel; Vice Chair Elise Quadrozzi,Crawford & Company; SecretaryDustin Womble, Roger Beasley Colli-sion Center for SCRS; Treasurer BobKeith, CARSTAR; Past Chair RobbyRobbs, NuCon Services Inc.; Member-At-Large Bruce Bares, Hi-Tech Colli-sion & Glass Centers; andMember-At-Large William Brower,Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

“Over 30 years ago, I-CAR wascreated to educate the industry on theproper repair of unibody vehicles. Astoday’s vehicles are complex and rolesin the industry are diverse, it only makessense for I-CAR to pursue a role-basedcurriculum model to better serve thecollision inter-industry,” said Moreland.“The I-CAR International Board of Di-rectors appreciates the work staff, in-structors, and volunteers are doing todevelop, implement, and deliver contin-uous improvement of the curriculumthat is truly relevant and beneficial to in-dustry professionals.”

The remaining directors include:FarzamAfshar, Verifacts Automotive;Terry W. Angell, Warren Tech; RollieBenjamin, ABRA Auto Body & Glass;Bruce Cooley, DuPont PerformanceCoatings; William DeGrocco, GEICOInsurance;Ronald Doerr, General Mo-tors Corp.;Chris Evans, State Farm In-surance Education Foundation Rep;David Henderson, See Progress, Inc.;Joseph Laurentino, Esurance; JohnNorton, Ford Motor Company; SamPezzullo, State Farm Canadian Repre-sentative; Greg Potter, DearbornGroup Technology for Equipment &Tool Institute;Monica Rivers, BMW ofNorth America, LLC; MikeSchoonover, Schoonover Bodyworksfor Automotive Service Association;and James Spears, USAA.

The board of directors sets theoverall strategic direction for the organ-ization and assists in obtaining re-sources in support of the I-CARMission. The board of directors is com-prised of representatives from each ofthe following six industry segments:collision repair; insurance; equipment,tools, and supplies; education, training,and research; vehicle manufacturers;and related industry services.

I-CAR Announces 2010 International Board of Directors

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Special thank you to Nathan Simmons forPresidential duties and success for 2009!Introduction – Welcome all members andGuests: New Board Members for 2010

* Curt Nixon – President* Chuck Reyes – Vice President* Nathan Simmons – State Board Repre-sentative* Krista Lucchino – Secretary* Linda Holcomb – Board Member* Doug Holcomb – Sergeant of Arms* Pam Lucchino – Board Member* Larry Huckman – Co-Treasurer* Chuck Bustane – Co-Treasurer* Peter Mikeloff – Board Member* Kyle Huckman – Board Member* Jason Holcomb – Board Member* Mike Ernst – Board Member* Vatche Derderian - Board Member

Focus for 2010:* Listening to members* Represent each member* Not focusing on frustration* Serve with Honesty, Integrity and Crafts-manship* Execution is key* Move forward* Do not lose enthusiasm* Each member needs take action

Special visitor is Johnathan from A & JCollision, Conway, AR, who was intro-duced and said he was excited to be here.Glendale/Foothill Chapter meetings arevery organized. He will take informationfrom this meeting back with him.

Linda Holcomb: Stated that AB 1200should be overturned… She introducedand brought copy for each table courtesyof J.R. SANDOVAL ENTERPRISES(310) 422-1773, www.jrsandoval.net

South Coast Air Quality Rule 1147NOx REDUCTIONS FROM MISCEL-LANEIOUS SOURCES

For ovens/dryers in your spray booththat use natural gas to transfer heatSCAQMD Rule 1147 applies

After reading Rule 1147 the followingitems need to be addressed by allAuto Body

Collision Repair Facilities that own a SprayBooth with a heater and air make-up unit.

Heaters that use gas heat with gaslines running into your facilities mustmake changes.

ANY SPRAY BOOTH HEATER MFG.PRIOR TO 1986 MUST BE REPLACEDWITH A LOW NOX EMISSION NOT TOEXCEED 30PPMM OR 0.036 LB/MM BTU

You have until July 1, 2010 to com-ply. See the compliance schedule for dateson replacement timetables for all otherdated units

(Also if your burner does not have anidentity plate and you have no way of ver-ifyisc the date of mfg., your unit will haveto be replaced with a low NOx burner im-mediately)

PERFORM COMBUSTION SYSTEMMAINTENANCE IN ACCORDANCEWITH THE MANUFACTURER’S AND/ORDISTRIBUTOR’S WRITTEN INSTRUC-TIONS: Retain records of the maintenanceactivity for a period of not less than threeyears, and retain emission test records onsite, and retain emission test records on site

(Bottom line is, you have to performmaintenance and maintain maintenancerecords.)

ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2011, ANYPERSON OWNING OR OPERATING AUNIT SUBJECT TO THIS RULE SHALLINSTALL AND MAINTAIN IN SERVICENON-RESETTABLE, TOTALIZING, FUELAND TIME METERS FOR EACH GASLINE THAT A BODY SHOP IS USING FORYOUR HEATER

(Bottom line, you have to install anin-line fuel meter on gas line)

NEW MANUFACTURED UNITS. THEMANUFACTURER SHALL DISPLAY THEMODEL NUMBER AND THE RATEDHEAT INPUT CAPACITY OF THE UNITCOMPLYING ON THE SHIPPING CON-TAINER AND PERMANENT RATINGPLATE. THE MFG. SHALL ALSO DIS-PLAY THE DISTRICT CERTIFICATIONSTATUS ON THE SHIPPING CONTAINERAND ON THE UNIT WHEN APPLICABLE.

(Each booth shall have a permanentrating plate)

COMPLIANCE SHCEDULE OF IN-USEUNITS FOR NOx EMISSION LIMITS DE-PEND ON WHEN THE UNIT WAS MAN-UFACTURED THE FOLLIWING ISTAKEN FROM RULE 1147

● Other UNIT manufactured prior to 1986Comply by July 1, 2010● Other UNIT manufactured prior to 1992Comply by July 1, 2011● Other UNIT manufactured prior to 1998Comply by July 1, 2012

Any UNIT manufactured after 1997

Comply by July 1, of the year the unit is15 years oldCurt Nixon: Background on AB1200AB1200 allows an insurer to attempt topersuade a consumer to replace his or herchosen auto body shop with a shop that hasa contractual relationship with the insurer,after the policyholder has made his or herselection, and even if the policyholder hasnot asked to receive any further informa-tion about other repair facilities.

Audience Member: Reps of DOI need tosee action from us, including* Letters* Emails* Both from business owners and con-sumers. No one is taking enough time andeffort to follow through

Nathan Simmons: Call to ACTION on CAA* Major issue is…NEED OF SUPPORT* Fewer than 10 shops wrote in onAB1200* Support/opposition – has a HUGE im-pact* Ethical decision based on informationfrom shops

Cindy Shillito/Katiee Edwards have theState Website password

* Cindy Shillito, [email protected]*Katie Edwards, [email protected] Member: Suggested Broadcastemails

Nathan Simmons: Personal letters get at-tention (Opposition or Support)

Chuck Reyes: 1,000’s of bills are in frontof representatives. They give to staff mem-bers to separate. They determine what isimportant. Then it is given back to the rep-resentative. If it is a form letter it is disre-garded. If letters are personalized they areread. (Even if you cut and paste) Take timeto show your interest and individualized.If you are involved and make it personal itis noticed.

Audience Member from Penske Corp:Certain things they can and cannot do.Cannot put names on own letterhead. Butcan still have a voice. Let’s not be con-trolled by Insurance Companies. If weprocrastinate things will not be changed.They get bored and move on to some-thing else.

Curt Nixon: Took chance before on speak-ing up about issues. Almost lost business.

CAA Glendale/Foothill Chapter Meeting; CAA Survey Results


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Nathan Simmons (right) is presented with a plaqueaward by new president, Curt Nixon.


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(805) 543-4985

Santa MonicaSubaru of Santa Monica

(310) 393-9881(310) 394-4541 Fax

Thousand OaksShaver Subaru

(805) 496-7103

Van NuysSubaru Sherman Oaks

(818) 670-7450

VenturaBarber Subaru(805) 641-2787

AvondaleSalazar Subaru(623) 298-1212

ChandlerSubaru Superstore

(480) 222-6000

FlagstaffPlanet Subaru

(928) 774-9163

PhoenixCamelback Subaru

(602) 265-7004

PrescottTim’s Subaruof Prescott

(928) 445-8044

ScottsdalePower Subaruof Scottsdale

(480) 425-2800

TucsonEmich Subaru

(520) 721-2400

Las VegasSubaru of Las Vegas

(702) 495-2100

St. GeorgeFindlay Subaru(435) 688-7272

The following dealerships are eager to serve your needs. Call your local Subaru collision parts specialist today!

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www.autobodynews.comwww.autobodynews.com

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Western Edition March 2010CALIFORNIA • NEVADA • ARIZONA

by Jim Lang, Aftermarket Insights

Annual 2009 vehicle sales are in, and thepicture is clear. Foreign vehicles (importsand transplants) have gained control of theU.S. new vehicle market. Foreign cars andlight trucks captured 55.8% of dwindling2009 new vehicle sales, up from 52.5% ofthe 2008 market and much stronger thantheir 48.9% share in 2007. This is phe-nomenal growth since 1999, when foreignmodels totaled only 29% of new vehiclesales.”

“Americans purchased 16.2 millionvehicles in 2007. By 2009, new vehicle vol-ume slumped to 10.4 million (down 36%),as foreign cars and light trucks increasedtheir sales share more than one-seventh intwo years. Skyrocketing foreign share ofnew vehicles is reshaping the aftermarket.”

Domestic share of new vehicle vol-ume (not including transplants) plungedfrom 51.1% in 2007 to only 44.2% by2009. General Motors sank from 24% of2007 sales to only 20% of the 2009 mar-ket. Ford held at 16% share from 2007 to2009; while Chrysler saw its share fallnearly one-third, from 13% to just 9%.

GM unit sales dropped 41% between2007 and 2009; while Chrysler sank 51%.Ford achieved a Pyrrhic victory (amongthe Detroit Three), as its volume receded amere 27% from 2007 to 2009.

Toyota passed Ford in 2009 volume,capturing second position, as Hondapushed Chrysler from fourth place.

Reshuffling Foreign Vehicle ShareHyundai and its Kia division sold 735thousand new vehicles in 2009, within 10thousand units of all German carmakerscombined and pulling close to Nissan in abid to take sixth position in total sales. TheHyundai Kia group is on track to pass Nis-san as well as all German carmakers in2010 U.S. volume.

Aftermarket ImpactThe foreign new vehicle surge is a futurewhich has already happened. Its impact onthe aftermarket in the next five to ten yearsis inevitable. Here are just a few aftermar-ket changes coming from this ongoingseismic shift in carmaker sales mix.

1. Manufacturers, Distributors, Re-tailers and Installers which cannot adapt

to the changing mix of vehicles on U.S.roads will not hold their competitive posi-tions.

2. Domestic cars and light trucks willgenerate one-tenth less aftermarket prod-uct share in six years than they do today,and their volume of aftermarket productswill steadily decline.

3. Foreign cars and light trucks willincrease their aftermarket product sharemore than one-fifth over the next six years,and they will generate all aftermarket prod-uct growth during that time.

4. Aftermarket volume will dispro-portionately be captured by product brandswhich are deemed “appropriate” for use onforeign cars and light trucks (imports andtransplants) by Installers and DIYers.

5. Service outlets perceived by con-sumers as “qualified” to repair foreign carsand light trucks will disproportionatelygain market share.

6. Retail Parts Stores as well as partsdistributors which sell brands perceived as“appropriate” by DIYers and Installers foruse on foreign vehicles will disproportion-ately increase their aftermarket sales share.

Foreign Vehicle Aftermarket GainsForeign cars and light trucks will set thecourse of aftermarket growth and develop-ment over the next ten years.

By 2020, foreign vehicles will gener-ate the majority of aftermarket use of many(if not most) product categories.

Domestic Woes Affect the AftermarketOver the past three years, the number ofdomestic cars and light trucks (not includ-ing transplants) sold in the U.S. dropped atotal of over four million units, reflectinglower overall new vehicle sales and plung-ing domestic car and light truck share.

Domestic cars and light trucks sank to44% of 2009 vehicle sales, down from51% of the 2007 market and off more thantwo-fifths from their 78% share of the1998 new-vehicle market.

While January 2010 vehicle salesseemed to show stabilizing Detroit Threevolume, there are some problems in the Jan-uary numbers. For example, despite GeneralMotors posting a sales gain, its January sharewas only two-thirds what it was 11 years ago.

Although Ford is showing salesstrength, its share is down nearly one-third

from 1998; and the future of Chrysler re-mains cloudy. Unless Chrysler can stage acomeback, with the assistance of Fiat,Chrysler's sales could plummet and takethe Detroit Three's combined share into thebasement.

Change Is In The PipelineHowever, things can change rapidly, asshown by Toyota's recent headaches, andthe Detroit Three could stage a comeback.Nevertheless, even if things stay aboutwhere they are over the next several years(or even improve a bit), significant after-market changes are already in the pipeline.

Less General Repair Shop VolumeGrowing legions of foreign cars (importsand transplants) on U.S. roads means thatgeneral repair shops (Service Stations andGarages), which traditionally depend ondomestic vehicles for a majority of theirvolume, could shrink substantially in re-pair share over the next several years.

More Specialized RepairSpecialty Repair Shops (outlets conduct-ing a limited menu of repair) and ForeignSpecialists (outlets focusing on importsand transplants) stand to ring-up big repair-volume gains at the expense of Dealers andgeneral repair outlets.

DIFM versus DIY RepairAs domestic vehicles on U.S. roads growolder, they will generate an increasingportion of DIY volume. At the same time,the Service market will continue expand-ing its product share, bolstered by thegrowth of foreign vehicles, which aremuch more often taken by their owners toprofessional shops rather than be repairedby DIYers.

Foreign Vehicle StrengthWith domestic cars and light trucks losingnew vehicle share, foreign models will ex-pand their portion of the Service market,which will generate most if not all car andlight truck aftermarket growth over thenext several years.

This means all car and light truckproduct expansion for the foreseeablefuture will be generated by foreign ve-hicles (imports and transplants). Theiraftermarket product sales will continue

expanding at an unprecedented rate.

OE Brands And OE DistributionThe strength of OE brands and OE distri-bution will differ substantially between do-mestic and foreign vehicles.

OE distribution and OE brands forforeign cars and light trucks will continueringing-up strong sales; while thousands ofdomestic Dealer closings and declining do-mestic vehicle sales will severely undercutthe domestic segment of the OE channeland the domestic OE brands it distributes.

This will provide opportunities for in-dependent (non-OE) aftermarket distribu-tion and non-OE brands.

Aftermarket ChangesHow well the Detroit Three perform overthe next several years has significant con-sequences for many aspects of the after-market. These changes will widen the gapsbetween aftermarket winners and losers.

From Aftermarket Insight™ by Jim Lang,President of Lang Marketing Resources,Inc., www.langmarketing.com.

Soaring Foreign Car Sales Shape Both Detroit’s and the Aftermarket’s Future

Replacement Safety CertificationLabels Gaining Wider UsageMore body shops are taking advantage ofordering replacement safety certificationlabels online. The Federal Safety Certifi-cation label and the Tire and Loading labelare required by law to be permanently af-fixed at the time of manufacture. The Fed-eral Safety Certification label indicatescompliance with all applicable FederalMotor Vehicle Safety Standards and in-cludes the month and year of manufacturewhich is important for recalls. The Tireand Loading label contains several keypieces of information such as the manu-facturer’s recommended PSI for the vehi-cle’s tires, the maximum weight (“load”)recommended for the vehicle, and the rec-ommended tire size. These labels providethe vehicle owner with valuable informa-tion and should be replaced if damaged orremoved. Body shops also benefit from re-placing these labels with a standard partmark-up and labor rate. All major insur-ance companies accept these labels, soshops are paid to replace the label ratherthan tape the old one back on. Shops canlog on to www.AutomotiveID.com.


Early Morning De-Light and Nursing Ingenuitywith Gonzo Weaver

Gonzo’s Toolbox Excerpted from Scott "Gonzo" Weaver's New Book, "Hey Look! I FoundThe Loose Nut", which provides a Good Laugh for Mechanics of Any Age.For more information, Contact Scott Weaver at [email protected] andsee his website at www.gonzostoolbox.com.

Here’s another true story from my book. Itreminded me that the true sign of a crafts-man is no wrinkles in the duct tape.

A few years ago a nurse dressed in herscrubs came into my Tulsa auto-electricshop early one afternoon. She had just fin-ished her morning shift at the hospital. Shetold me that things were kind of tight at herhouse financially, and she didn’t have a lotto spare for car repairs. I told her I wouldhelp her out as much as I could.

Her problem was that her headlightsdidn’t work, and she really needed to takeher old Datsun (Dats before Nissan) to workin the early morning hours, regardlesswhether or not she got a ticket for having noheadlights. She explained that she had toleave for work at ‘Oh-dark-thirty,’ as weused to say in the Marines, so I was thinkingshe had some sort of lighted route that wouldkeep the prying eyes of the law off her tail.

“I get the picture, Ma’am. I’ll take alook at it,” I said.

Now I’m no car snob but I was gen-uinely suprised at how decripit this has-been automobile she was driving was. It

should have been crushed years earlier, al-though it looked pretty much all biode-graded already—completely rusted anddented up with not much left of the inte-rior. But as it was, this was this nice lady’sonly ride to-and-from work.Yes, she would wait to seewhat I found.

Rather than surveyingthe outside any longer thannecessary, I popped the hoodand got right to work onfinding the problem. It was-n’t that hard to find. At thepositive battery post onthis type of car was a se-ries of fusible links thatpowered up different systems in thecar. One of them was corroded off the ter-minals. It just so happened to be the one thatpowered the headlights.

I grabbed the trusty baking soda andcleaned off the crud from the positive postof the battery. After replacing the corrodedend of the fusible link, I attached it backonto its proper post. One flick of the head-light switch and she was in business.

I went into the lobby and told thenurse, who was waiting anxiously, what Ihad found. I told her that it was going to bea cheap fix, and not to worry about havingto get a car-fix loan (as she had worriedaloud to me). I then asked her how long had

she been driving around with noheadlights.

She told me with an airof satisfaction, “Oh, I had head-lights all the time. I just wantedthe factory ones to work becauseI was getting tired of changing thebatteries in the other ones.” Saywhat?Factory ones? Batteries? What

other ones? Did I miss something?I just stared at her for a few sec-

onds. I thought that by now I was prettygood with electrical systems. What did Imiss on this old Datsun’s electricalschematics that involved alternate head-lights that she was aware of, but I wasn’t?

“Really?” I said. “Can you show mewhat you are talking about?”

We walked out to the car and there oneach edge of the front bumper were two 9-

volt flashlights duct-taped around thebumper with what could have been awhole roll of tape. She walked up to themand pushed the button on each of the rightand left flashlights. Then she turnedaround to face me with both arms outstretched like a TV ad model; pointing onetoe and all. And wouldn’t you know it…she’s got headlights, sort of.

“I just thought it was going to cost somuch to fix them that I have been puttingit off for months,” she said. “But I had tobuy so many batteries I thought it wouldbe cheaper to find out what was reallywrong with the factory ones.”

Now I’ll admit I’ve never seen duct-taped flashlights attached to a bumper be-fore. And I haven’t seen them since... ButI’ll tell you this, if I’m ever in need of anurse in an emergency, who can get the jobdone till the cavalry comes, she is mychoice. Way to go girl. You got my vote forduct-tape engineer of the month.You can order Gonzo’s book, Hey Look! I FoundThe Loose Nut, from Amazon and othersources. Gonzo is working on a second vol-ume now. Contact him at the banner address.


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With all of the new vehicles being devel-oped and introduced every year, your staffmay have questions about how to developa strategy or a proper repair plan for ade-quately repairing a vehicle to a safe andquality standard.

Among the many decisions you willhave to make will be whether to repair, re-place or section a structural component.The answers will depend primarily onwhat the industry currently recommends.

This knowledge will be the most im-portant tool that you and your staff willhave available to them on a daily basis.

Collision business management prac-tices, as well as KPI demands from insur-ers, are often confusing and misunderstoodby estimators, technicians and sometimesthe management team. By obtaining andreferring to manufacturers’ or industry-ac-cepted repair procedures in the pre-pro-duction phase, your staff will have theknowledge necessary to repair the vehicleup front, rather than after or during pro-duction.

Ask yourself this: If we had proper re-pair information up front, could we:● Lower cycle times?● Reduce out-sourcing?● Increase hours per day?● Develop or enhance insurance or cus-tomer relations CSI?● Reduce costly returns?● Improve efficiencies?● Increase overall shop revenue?● Enhance our staff’s knowledge?I am guessing the answer is yes!

How are you currently gathering critical re-pair information?Current information gathering techniquesare often time-consuming, cumbersomeand more often than not, unsuccessful. Es-timating systems offer labor times, partspricing and very limited diagnostic infor-mation, but they do not offer comprehen-sive repair procedures or “how to”information, such as current manufactur-ers’ sectioning and repair procedures.

When asking collision repair shopshow they obtain repair information, I havebeen told:● Technical experiences● Training programs● Co-workers● Dealerships contacts (when available)● Technical manuals● Industry training instructors● Manufacturer-supplied installation

instructions● OE websites● Educated guesses

Most of these sources are time-consumingto research, sometimes outdated or incor-rect, incomplete—and most importantly,not all in one place! The authority regardingproper sectioning procedures and practicesis the vehicle manufacturer. Best practicesshould always be the recourse when a man-ufacturers’ procedure is not available.

The decision to section or replace anentire component on a damaged vehicleshould be a systematic process involving:● Readily available, up-to-date repair doc-umentation from the most reliable and rep-utable source● An educated and qualified staff that un-derstands current Industry repair practicesand theories● A method or process to gather repair in-formation in the pre-production stages● A proper teardown or disassemblyprocess to perceive all hidden damages● A working knowledge of available tools,techniques and talents within your facility● Parts availability● Insurer program requirements (If appli-cable)

With all of these elements in place,your staff should have the critical tools inplace to develop a proper repair plan.

The sectioning mystery doesn’t haveto be a mystery.

Manufacturers publish many proce-dures that we may not know exist when itcomes to structural repair recommenda-tions. Without the proper procedures wecould be setting ourselves up to fail. Re-source the manufacturers repair proce-dures first to determine the best course ofrepair.● Educate yourstaff on industrytheories and ap-plications.● Develop a pre-production planto gather rep-utable repair in-formation in atimely manner.● Develop an

evaluation or disassemblystage, or a method to properlyidentify hidden damages.● Provide your staff withmanufacturers’ recommendedguidelines and current indus-try-recommended repair infor-mation.● Refer to Industry Best Prac-tices if the manufacturer doesnot publish repair infor-mation for a given oper-

ation.While the manufacturers may

not always provide all the informa-tion you need, they provide a lot. Weneed to be aware of the informationthey do provide.

I learn of new sectioning and re-pair procedures every day on allmakes and models. You and your staff cantoo—through effective communication,proper guidance and education. The effortwill help make your business stand outabove all the rest.

Here is the manufacturer’sprocedure for sectioning thefront lower frame rail on a2008 Dodge Caliber:

2008 Dodge Caliber SRT-4—Front Lower Frame Rail1. With vehicle mounted to ap-propriate pulling and 3-dimen-sional measuring equipment,complete the following proce-dure paying particular attentionto body dimensions while fit-ting and welding panels.

2. Remove bumper components, coolingmodule, headlamp, and all other compo-nents for clear access to repair area.

3. Remove front rail cap panel on damagedrail.

4. Remove welds holding lower radiatorcrossmember to damaged rail (if cross-member is damaged, remove completely).

5. Remove welds holding FESM structureto rail (if damaged, remove complete as-sembly).

6. Mark existing rail as follows:a. Right side

i On inner rail, mark at 50mm for-ward of the leading edge of flanged hole in rail.

ii On outer rail, continue markfrom inner rail.

7. Mark replacement part in same location.

8. On left rail, remove bracket located oninner rail.

9. Using a cut-off wheel, reciprocatingsaw, or equivalent:

a. Cut all existing parts on the for-ward side of the scribe line using care notto damage the material that will not be re-moved.

i. Right rail section location: Wheninstallation of new tip is complete, there isa 6mm hole on the inner rail at the forwardedge of the section joint which may needto be recreated or restored.

ii. Left rail section location: Wheninstallation of new tip is complete, there isa 10mm hole in bottom horizontal surfaceof rail which may need to be restored.

b. Cut all replacement parts on therearward side of the scribe line again usingcare not to make any additional damagebut do not discard any material yet.

10. Clean all sharp edges and create aslight taper for weld purposes.

Proper Repair Strategies and the Sectioning Mysterywith Dan Espersen

ALL OEM Information Dan Espersen is ALLDATA® CollisionSM Program Manager. Dan is a Gold PinMember of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) and holds an AA Degree inAutomotive Technology. He has 17 years of experience in the collision industryand 17 years of experience in the automotive industry.

11. From the remaining replacement part,cut a 19mm strip from both the inner andouter rail. Clip off the weld flanges, topand bottom, and dress edges. These pieceswill be the weld-backer.

12. Prepare welding equipment per theweld chart.

13. Install the weld-backers into the frame

rail, centeringthem on cut edge.Clamp and tackthe weld in posi-tion when properfit is confirmed.

14. Weld using askip-stitch methoduntil the fulllength of the jointis completed onboth the inner and

outer rail. To avoid excessive heat buildup,move between inner and outer rail duringwelding.

15. Dress welds without removing anybase material paying particular attention tothe mounting surface of the outer rail.

16. Reinstall bracket removed from leftrail.

17. Either install new or reposition the lowerradiator crossmember and FESM structureand clamp in place and weld.

18. Install new front rail cap panel.

19. Dress the welded area and apply cor-rosion resistant coatings inside and out.

a. Apply etch-primer to the inside of the

frame rail repair area.b. Inside the rail, inject a

creeping wax based rust in-hibitor compound through theexisting holes in the frame en-suring 100% coverage includ-ing the space between theoriginal frame rail and the re-inforcing sleeve; using MoparCavity wax kit (part#68042969M) I Undercoating

kit (part #68042967AA)or equivalent.

c. Apply adurable top coatto the outside ofthe repair area.

Note: UseMopar Cavitywax kit (part #68042969AA) IUndercoatingkit (part #

68042967AA) or equivalent.

©2010 ALLDATA LLC. All rights re-served. All technical information, imagesand specifications are from ALLDATACollision. ALLDATA is a registered trade-mark and ALLDATA Collision is a markof ALLDATA LLC. All other marks are theproperty of their respective holders.

Under sharp and at times hostile question-ing, the president of Toyota's U.S. opera-tions told a Capitol Hill hearing on Feb. 23that even the massive recall by the world'sbiggest automaker may “not totally” re-solve safety problems implicated in acci-dents in the United States that have killednearly three dozen people.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. Presi-dent James Lentz defended the embattledJapanese auto giant's safety record, but con-ceded that the company had failed to meetits own high standards in responding to thecrisis. The company was too slow to respondto the safety issues that have led at least threecongressional committees to begin what islikely to be a long and exhaustive investiga-tion, Mr. Lentz acknowledged.

“Put simply, it has taken us too long tocome to grips with a rare but serious set ofsafety issues, despite all of our good-faith ef-forts,” Mr. Lentz told an oversight panel of theHouse Energy and Commerce Committee.

Lentz insisted that Toyota's engineershad identified “two specific, mechanicalcauses” of sudden unintended acceleration,which has been associated with at least 34deaths, according to complaints filed withthe National Highway Traffic Safety Ad-ministration (NHTSA).

“We are confident that no problemsexist with the electronic throttle control

system in our vehicles,” Mr. Lentz said.“We have designed our electronic throttlecontrol system with multiple fail-safemechanisms to shut off or reduce enginepower in the event of a system failure.”

Toyota President Akio Toyoda, thegrandson of the company founder, will tes-tify Feb. 24 before the House Oversightand Government Reform Committee.

In documents obtained by the DetroitFree Press, Toyota’s leading U.S. execu-tive ‘boasted’ to the automaker’s Washing-ton staff last summer that they had savedthe company more than $100 million byactions which limited any regulatory ac-tion on sudden acceleration to a recall ofequipment such as floor mats, according todocuments turned over to a key U.S.House committee which will hold hearingson the issue Feb. 24.

In the documents, the deal with the gov-ernment was listed among “Wins for Toyota”in an internal presentation by Yoshimi Inaba,chairman and CEO of Toyota Motors SalesU.S.A. in Washington last July 6.

The documents were among thou-sands of pages turned over to the HouseOversight and Government Reform Com-mittee. A second committee will met onFeb. 23 to discuss the Toyota recalls.

“The question this raises is was thebottom line factored into Toyota’s decision

making,” said Kurt Bardella, aspokesman for the committee’s rankingRepublican, Rep. Darrell Issa of Califor-nia. Issa has acknowledged that his familyowns four Prius models.

“Did regulators do their due diligenceonce problems were brought to their atten-tion? Did Toyota raise potential safetyproblems with regulators as soon as theyknew a problem existed?”

Toyota defended its commitment tosafety.

“Our first priority is the safety of ourcustomers and to conclude otherwise onthe basis of one internal presentation iswrong,” the company said in a preparedstatement. “Our values have always beento put the customer first and ensure thehighest levels of safety and quality.”

Toyota has recalled more than 8 mil-lion vehicles worldwide in recent monthsbecause of sudden acceleration problemsthe company and regulators have connectedto entrapped floor mats and potentiallysticky accelerator pedals. A third recall cov-ered more than 400,000 hybrid vehicles, in-cluding the popular Prius for faulty brakes.

Earlier this month, before the hybridrecall, Toyota executives estimated that theunintended acceleration recalls would cost$2 billion in lost sales and cost of extraparts for repairs. Toyota stopped produc-

ing eight models in the U.S. from Jan 26until Feb. 8. Analysts have said the costcould be higher.

Toyota has said repeatedly that nomalfunction in any of its vehicles’ elec-tronic throttle system contributed to any in-cidents of unintended acceleration, whichhas been cited in hundreds of accidents, in-cluding 34 fatalities, according to NHTSA.But the automaker has offered a brake-override software remedy on 2007 through2010 models of the Toyota Camry, Avalon,Lexus ES and IS models. Brake overrideensures that the brakes will slow the vehi-cle if both accelerator and brake pedals arepressed at the same time.

Toyota is making the brake overridestandard equipment on all Toyota andLexus models by the end of 2011 modelyear, but it has refused to offer it on manyof the 5 million vehicles covered by thefloor mat and sticky pedal recalls.

The estimated cost savings of morethan $100 million was among nine pointsthat Inaba’s presentation labeled as “Winsfor Toyota.” In addition to the savings,Inaba made note that NHTSA had foundno defect.

That was before the Jan. 21 recall thatfound a possible defect in the gas pedalsamong 2.3 million vehicles, and the brak-ing recall on Prius and other hybrid models.

Toyota Testifies, Documents Show Savings by Limiting Recall Actions


If one person does it alone it can get over-looked or swept under the rug. It puts pres-sure on the one business. If we standtogether and make our voice heard TO-GETHER then we are most likely heardand something gets done.

What are Top issues to address in 2010?What will be our focus?Tally taken:* Labor Rates: 98%* Education: 2%

Doug: Education/CertificationLaurie: Labor RatesNathan: Labor Rates/Survey GuidelinesPam: Labor RatesKristi: Labor RatesDean: Labor RatesCarlos: Labor RatesSteven: Labor Rates/Paint CappingMaria: Labor Rates/State funding educa-tionLinda: Labor RatesSteven: Labor Rates/Surveys (one rate)Denise: Education on repairs/ what theconsumer expectsMike: Consumer rights/Labor RatesRafi: Sponsored 50% of contributionstonight. Encouraged to keep associationgoingWesley: Labor RatesNelson: Labor RatesSteve: Labor RatesNicolette: Labor Rates/Paint materialsBeverly Hills Coach Kraft: Labor RatesPeter: Labor Rates/SurveysSherwin Williams: Paint Materials/LaborRatesCindy: Labor RatesSam: Labor RatesAnthony: Labor Rates/MaterialsJohn: Labor Rates/Price FixingTim: Survey Reform/Labor RatesStacy: Labor RatesJason: Labor Rates

Chuck: Santa Clara Chapter to togetherand created a commercial. Paid for out ofpocket. Basic context and willing to sell toanyone interested in using it for $50.00. In-sert your body shop information and getyour information out there. Plays onCable/ Satelite TV, runs as PSA (PublicService Announcement)

Linda: Used to use a cassette tape and sentit to radio stations. David Horowitz be-came interested and a panel of Auto BodyShops was created and used on TV. It wassuccessful. Why not do that now? Issuesare the same. Or place something onYouTube, or Facebook,

Laurie: Anonymity is important. Should

be a group as a whole. Educating the pub-lic as a whole rather than one shop.Chuck: Monty Everton posted labor rates.What is normally charged may change percustomer. May become an issue if rates donot match.Any adjustments made other thanthe posted rates must make a concession.

Curt Introduces Results From 178 averageresponses to the CAA Survey:

A) LABOR RATE SURVEYS1. Do you believe the current system,whereby insurers conduct labor rate sur-veys to determine the prevailing rate is fairand reasonable approach?Yes 9 (4%); No 164 (96%)

2. Would you support legislation that re-quires an independent third party to con-duct auto body labor rates surveys?Yes 163 (92%); No 13 (8%)

3. Would you support legislation that re-quires a government agency (i.e. BAR, Deptof Insurance) conduction such surveys?Yes 70 (55%); No 57 (45%)

B) STEERING4. Do you believe that “steering” is a majorproblem in the industry?Yes 174 (96%); No 13 (4%)

5. Would you support legislation that bet-ter defines steering for sonsumers, shopsand insurers?Yes 163 (92%); No 14 (8%)

6. Do you believe that the current DRPsystem is the major contributor to steering?Yes 171 (96%); No 7 (4%)

7. Do you believe that “steering” will al-ways be an issue as long as the currentDRP system exists?

Yes 159 (97%); No 25 (15%)

8. Would you support a public awarenesscampaign that educates consumers thatthey have a “choice” and that “steering” isillegal?Yes 169 (97%); No 6 (3%)

C) INSURER OWNED/OPERATED SHOPS9. Do you believe insurers should be ableto own/operate auto body repair shops?Yes 5 (3%); No 168 (97%)

10. Do you believe that “steering” is amajor issue surrounding insurer owner/op-erated auto body shops?Yes 165 (97%); No 6 (3%)

11. Would you support legislation thatwould prohibit insurer owned/operatedauto body shops?Yes 167 (97%); No 5 (3%)


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FAUSTO G.Parts Manager

MARLON L.Parts Manager

CARLOS L.Parts Manager

Audi of Downtown LA1900 S. Figueroa Street

Los Angeles, CA 90007

www.audidowntownla.com

Tel 213.747.7248Fax 213.222.1261

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Tel 213.748.4624Fax 213.222.1278

Tel 213.747.7246 • 213.747.7247Fax 213.222.1272

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CAA Survey Results

D) CAPPING PAINT AND MATERIALS12. Do you believe the current system,whereby the labor rate is multiplied by re-finish hours to determine paint and mate-rials charge is a fair and reasonableapproach?Yes 106 (62%); No 59 (38%)

13. Do you believe a refinish material cal-culator system is a better approach to de-termine paint and material charges?Yes 106 (76%); No 35 (24%)

14. Do you believe either approach is fairand reasonable, as long as the insurer can-not cap?Yes 149 (90%); No 15 (10%)

E) CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION15. Do you support legislation that pro-vides additional state funding for careertechnical education programs in juniorhigh and high schools?Yes 156 (93%); No 11 (7%)

16. Do you support legislation that re-quires students to take career technical ed-ucation courses before graduating?Yes 108 (67%); No (33%)

F) HEALTHCARE REFORM17. Do you support legislation that re-quires all employers to provide health care

insurance coverage for all employees?Yes 60 (36%); No 105 (64%)

18. Do you support legislation that re-quires employers to pay for such cover-age?Yes 37 (22%); No 126 (78%)

G) FLOOD CARS19. Do you support legislation that pro-hibits the resale of flood-damaged vehiclesthat have been immersed in salt water?Yes 152 (95%); No 8 (5%)

H) CRASH PARTS20. Do you think consumers should havethe final decision on which parts, OEM oraftermarket parts, for their vehicles?Yes 156 (95%); No 9 (5%)

I) PRIORITY ISSUES21. From a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being thehighest), how would you rate the follow-ing industry issues in importance:A) Labor Rate Surveys; 9B) Steering: 9C) Insurer owned/operated Auto BodyShops: 7D) Capping of Paint and Materials; 9E) Career technical education; 7F) Health Care Reform; 8G) Flood Cars; 5H) Crash Parts; 7

I) Other issues; ——

Open Floor Discussion:Johnathan: Doesn’t understand why

State Farm wants more lines on estimatesand Farmers wants less lines on estimates.

Linda: Permits and violations-feesfrom $4,000–10,000 each and going up!Out of control. Talk to City and State aboutgetting equipment and annual fees undercontrol

Laurie: License renewal – not lettinggovernment be involved. Posted rates. Notmore fees-pushing BAR to help.

Nathan: Having zip codes defined an-nually not every 5 years. Define rates, notforced rates.

Curt: Wrapping up meeting. Call peo-ple you know and get friends involved. Weneed more people to stand with us.

Chuck: Aftermarket parts have theirplace: Toby Chess (I-CAR) – no $$ but In-surance Companies are demanding after-market reinforcement

Curt: Know the product you are sell-ing.

Linda: Have State quarterly meetings.The more that can be involved with it thebetter! All should go to the State BoardMeetings if possible.

Curt: Chapters need to educate:* Know product* Disclaimer/warranty of aftermarket

* Cannot assume product liability* 4 meeting for this year (Quarterly)* Education is the key* Structure* Ban for Insurance Companies to doLabor Rate Surveys* Come up with ACTION to put things inorder for 2010* Support your Board


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SERVICES Provided by J.R. SANDOVALENTERPRISES, (310) 422-1773, www.jr-sandoval.net

Service call to determine mainte-nance needs: $155.00 (If any work is per-formed a portion of the service call isapplies)

Repair any kind of spray booth orburner, emergency calls accepted Mon-Sat

Install an in-line non-resetable fuelmeter, and digital read-out (Prices mayvary by location) $5200.00

Set up your company with a regularmaintenance schedule. contract prices willvary per location

We can give you a quotation to installa low NOx burner

Independent third party source test-ing available

Testing on your burner to see if it iscompliant with low NOx emissions

Provide you with over-all spray boothcleaning service and maintenanceneeds/or conversions

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need to have guns that do the atomization,but then also have the increased transferefficiency so that the shops are still prof-itable.

Now the painters understand whythey need to do it. If you have a bit of timefor people to relax and listen to you. Edu-cation is becoming, once again, important.All the players are changing how they’redoing their training. They’re taking thetime to explain it.

ABN ► How do you see waterbornemoving across the country. Is it smoothand uniform or is it patchy?Steve Treutel ◄ It’s a little bit patchy.Some companies have especially moti-vated regional people who are moving ag-gressively, and pushing hard for it. Therate of conversions in Texas percentage-wise, is actually quite high. In the trainingcenters that’s what they’re teaching inTexas.If you combine how EPA and water-borne is working hand in hand, it’s agreat opportunity for everybody. Somepeople are just old school, and they’renot goin to want to change. One day,we’re going to look back at this and say“that was huge.”


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Military veterans also are returning toschool, thanks in part to a newly expandedGI Bill that may provide the best veterans'benefits in history.

About 150 veterans or their depend-ents are using the GI Bill to attend AthensTech; another 300 are at the University ofGeorgia and 132 at Gainesville State Col-lege.

Veterans can get not only tuitionand fees, but a housing allowanceunder the GI Bill. New rules also allow

veterans to transfer benefits to depend-ents.

And when state benefits such asthe HOPE Grant and HOPE Scholar-ship factor in, veterans can earn almostas much by going to school as work-

ing.As with older students,

veterans, even young ones,may return to school withstrong work habits that cancompensate for academicdeficiencies.

“Because of the train-ing they've received, they'revery straightforward andhighly motivated,” saidGreg Thomas, an instructorin Athens Tech's auto colli-sion repair program.

Two tours of duty inIraq helped change Jordan

Wooten, a corporal in the U.S. MarineCorps Reserve.

In Iraq, he learned a new attitudeabout responsibilities, he said.

“Everything you do is a big accom-plishment. You're in charge of people'slives,” said Wooten, 22, who finds him-self nowadays making friends with peo-

ple older than he. His military servicehas created a kind of gulf betweenWooten and many people his age, whoare more interested in partying thanstudying, said Wooten, who lives inFarmington.

“I got that out of my system a longtime ago,” he said.

Kelley Smith of Athens, a classmatein the auto collision repair program, alsolearned new habits while serving in theU.S. Navy.

“Everything you do has a purpose,”said Smith, 33. “Here, you might go homeand turn on some crappy TV show.”

College not only is the place to gettraining for a future career, but a good wayto re-enter the nonmilitary world, Wootensaid.

“The civilian world is a differentworld. You have to adjust to it, and collegeis the best place to do it,” he said.

Reprinted with the kind permission of theAthens Banner-Herald. Originally publishedin the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, Feb-ruary 21, 2010.

Veterans Return to Class—Not Just Older Northeast Georgians FillingClassrooms at Athens Technical College

Scott Reed, right, and Jordan Wooten, an Iraq war veteran and cor-poral in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, repair dents on a Mazda MX-6 during a recent auto collision repair class at Athens TechnicalCollege. Photo credit: Richard Hamm



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HONDA INSIGHT HYBRID ‘10

The Better Business Bureau is issuing analert regarding Clearline Coatings Inc., aFlorida-based dealer of epoxy floor cover-ings and truck bed liner products. Thecompany’s owner, Julius Lupowitz, for-merly located in New York, has also usedthe names Ocean Spray Technologies andHammerhead Spray In Liners.In a complaint filed with the BBB, an

Omaha businessman, who applies epoxyfloor coverings, states he was contacted byJulius Lupowitz and asked to “invest” inClearline’s epoxy product. Lupowitz askedfor an initial outlay of $2305 to open anaccount. He was directed to send a cashierscheck, because the company does not ac-cept payments by credit card.A few days later, the Omaha business-

man received a call from a company namedHammerhead. The representative told himthey had six trucks from Seattle whichneeded epoxy liners. All he would need todo was purchase the bed liner product andthe vehicles would be delivered for the ap-plication. The business agreed to purchasethe product based on the promise of trucksto work on and sent an additional $1068 tothe company. He received the bed linerproduct, but the trucks never arrived.In another complaint filed with the

BBB, a trailer business located in Shenan-doah, IA, received a call from “Eddy

Lupe,” offering a distributorship for “theonly clear epoxy product on the market”along with a guaranteed territory of a 150mile radius.The price quoted for this distributor-

ship was $16,000.After Lupe was told thatthe owner was not willing to make thiskind of investment, he then added, “Yourcompany will also be taking over the busi-ness records for another distributor.” Hepromised there would be jobs from thatcompany. The owner then agreed to be-come certified and invest $9,500.The trailer company received the

product, but could not get it to adhere ordry. The complainant states that the prod-uct does not work and a refund was re-quested. To date, there has been no refundand no additional jobs as promised.When confronted by the BBB,

Lupowitz denied he had concocted thephony orders, and said he was unwilling toprovide a refund but would retrain thecompanies in the proper use of the prod-uct. Additionally, Lupowitz stated thatcomplaints against him are occurring as aresult of a competitor who is persuadingbusinesses to file complaints with BBBusing false and misleading information.Lupowitz acknowledged to the BBB

that he does use aliases regularly such as“Eddy Lupe” in his business dealings, but

claimed he did not engineer the set ups asclaimed by these two customers.BBB President Jim Hegarty has in-

formed Lupowitz that the BBB is issuing analert after it learned that in 2006, Lupowitz,while operating a company called OceanSpray Technologies, was arrested in NewYork where he faced charges of grand lar-ceny and scheming to defraud auto bodyshops nationwide. Lupowitz pled guilty to afirst-degree felony charge and was sen-tenced to probation after making restitutionof $54,322. The money was disbursed to 14victims who had been refused refunds.According to the DA, “In order to in-

duce auto body shops to buy his product,Lupowitz, posed as a fictitious owner of afleet of trucks that needed to be sprayedspecifically with his product. This fictitiouscompanywould enter into an agreementwithauto body shops and based on this agree-ment, the shops would then purchase OceanSpray’s product.After receiving the product,the shopwould never hear from the fictitioustruck owner again. Lupowitz would then re-fuse to refund the auto body shops.”Hegarty said, “The BBB has had ad-

ditional contacts with complainants in sixother states regarding Lupowitz and is pre-senting the complaints to the BBB in Or-lando for further investigation of JuliusLupowitz and Clearline Coatings.”

BBB Issues Warning on Company Selling Truck Bed Liner Products

Georgia lawmakers are taking a closer lookat texting while driving legislation pro-posed in the week of Jan. 18. Representa-tives on the House public safety committeedebated the bill.At the end of the hour-longhearing, the bill was referred to a studycommittee for further consideration.At issue was how law enforcement

would be able to determine if a driver istexting or using their cell phone for an-other purpose.State Rep. Amos Amerson urged his

colleagues not to focus on how the pro-posed law would be enforced. Supportersof the bill said its main purpose will be asa deterrent to would-be offenders, whomay be broken of the habit with the threatof a hefty fine and driving penalties.

Georgia House LawmakersStudying Texting Ban Bill

e-mail:[email protected]

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To advertisecall Advertising Sales at:

The dealer owner where we buy most ofour parts for a certain line of cars ap-proached us with a proposition. In returnfor an extra discount on parts, he wants usto pass along customer names as new carsales prospects. Anything wrong with that?

Not for the dealer. He’s entitled to usewhatever information he can dig up. Butwithout the customer’s unequivocal priorpermission it’s a foolish risk for you, nomater what the additional discount isworth. Your knowledge of the customer’sidentity is not your property to use to yourbenefit. In any case, in this age of privacysensitivity, sooner or later a customer willclaim to have been damaged somehow byyour “unauthorized” disclosure. Inciden-tally I know of some DRP’s where even a

first offense in this department will resultin immediate and irreversible termination.

Our competitor seems to have just aboutall the city and county vehicle collision re-pair business pretty well locked up. Doesthis traditionally go up for bids? How dowe go after it?Don’t you have enough in your life to de-press you already? This is highly political,low-profit, low-quality, shop-cloggingbusiness. Unless you like doing $2000 jobsfor $1600, leave it to the guys that fixtaxis.

Try this instead: Go make some goodsales calls on the HR departments of at theone or two non-profit agencies in your areawith the most employees. Provide themwith special cards for them to give their

employees that will produce an automatic$10 or $25 contribution to the agency foreach employee’s car fixed at your shop.

Dale, Settle a bet. My brother says medriving my most expensive car to my shopevery day makes the employees resentful. Isay that good employees are motivated byseeing the material benefits of hard work.

You lose. I hope you bet him the car.

We have been a dues-paying member ofour state trade association for many years.It’s been beneficial learning and sharingbest practices. But recently the associationhas become very aggressive politically,hiring a lobbyist to confront insurers withthe Insurance Commissioner and publish-ing “consumer education” materials thathave an anti-insurer flavor. Is our mem-bership going to cost us business?

Not unless you’re a conspicuousspokesman for the new aggressiveness.But at some point you will have to askyourself whether everyone your dues aresupporting are worthy fellow members of

your profession. If you can’t remember thelast time your association kicked outsomebody for not being up to its standards,what’s the point of being part of it?

We used to belong to a paint company “20group” where we compared numbers threeor four times a year. What are consideredgood basic operating numbers these days?Circumstances and regions vary, of course,but you really need to be at least in the low40’s at the gross margin line to haveenough left over for sufficient retainedearnings to keep strengthening the busi-ness. Nobody on the property should becashing a bonus check for a month below40%. With margins on parts typicallybelow 30%, you need your gross marginon direct labor at 60% or more includingbenefits. Also, if your paint & materialssales are less than 10% of total sales in anyquarter, your estimators need some moretraining. Indirect labor needs to be at orbelow 12% of sales, and rent shouldn’t getmuch beyond 5% of sales unless you’rethe landlord. Get back in a 20-group, butpick critically. They range from pointlessto priceless.


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with Dale DelmegeAsk Dale Dale has been Collision Industry Conference Chairman 1999–2000; a Lifetime

Member (since 2001) of Society Of Collision Repair Specialists. He is a NationalAuto Body Council Founding Member and Director; a C.I.E.C.A. Founding Member,Director, and Chairman. Contact Dale at [email protected].

Parts and Car Sales, City Vehicles, Standards for Associations

Ford Motor Company vehicles accountedfor four of the top five vehicles for cus-tomer brand loyalty, according to recentindustry analysis from Experian Automo-tive. The analysis, compiling industry-wide automotive trends for the thirdquarter of 2009, also saw Hyundai per-forming strongly with gains in overallmarket share and increased new vehicleregistration.

From the second to third quarter of2009, Ford customers continued to showstrong loyalty for the Ford brand. Ford’sFusion, Edge, Flex and Five-Hundredmodels were all within the top five vehi-cles for customer brand loyalty at 61.8percent, 57.8 percent, 57.6 percent and56.3 percent, respectively. Ford Freestylehad the 10th highest brand loyalty at 47.6percent.

Hyundai performed strongly in thethird quarter by gaining 2.2 percentagepoints in overall market share and experi-encing a 30.1 percent increase in new ve-hicle registrations. Ford also sawimprovements in market share, growingby 1.1 percentage points, and in new ve-hicle registrations, growing by 5.1 per-cent for the quarter.

“Given the extraordinary challengesin the current economy, Ford andHyundai showed positive growth,” saidJeff Anderson, director of Consultingand Analytics for Experian Automotive.“Both were able to pick up market sharegains and improve on their customer loy-alty. This gain in momentum should seethese companies well-positioned for suc-cess when the market turns around.”

While Ford had a strong presence inbrand loyalty, Toyota’s new Venza modelwas No. 1 in brand loyalty at 63.2 per-cent. Toyota’s Prius (51.8 percent) andCamry (48 percent) came in at numbers

seven and nine, respectively. When itcame to corporate loyalty, Toyota movedahead of GM to take the top spot. Fordfollowed closely in third place.

Other insights from Experian Auto-motive’s analysis included:● Hyundai’s corporate loyalty rose tofifth overall to nearly tie with Honda atalmost 40 percent loyalty.● The Cash for Clunkers program (July1, 2009, to Aug. 24, 2009) accounted fora quarter of Q3 2009 new vehicle regis-trations. Toyota led brand loyalty amongparticipants, with 41 percent of those whodisposed of a Toyota purchasing anotherToyota vehicle.● Cross-Over Vehicles and Small Car–Economy were the two fastest-growingvehicle segments, gaining 50,747 and49,698 more registrations, respectively,year over year. Full-Size pickup truckssaw the largest decline with 114,613fewer registrations than in the same quar-ter for 2008.

“For several quarters now, the in-dustry has worked diligently to better un-derstand the ever-evolving landscape ofconsumer tastes in vehicles,” said ScottWaldron, president of Experian Automo-tive. “The recent shifts in consumer loy-alty, corporate market share and vehicleclass preferences show that building fu-ture success will come from increasedknowledge of the changes in consumerbuying habits today.”

However, the brands seeing thebiggest upswing in owner loyalty duringthe initial aftermath of the Toyota recallsare Korean and Big 3 automakers, ac-cording to Kbb.com, which also pointedout that brand consideration and loyaltyfor Toyota has eroded. Kia and Hyundaiappear to show the steepest upwardmovement.

Ford and Hyundai Excel in Brand Loyalty, Toyota Still No. 1


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Toyota Facing Diminished Value Lawsuits as well as Massive Injury ClaimsThe huge recalls for acceleration and brak-ing problems are creating an unprece-dented legal liability for Toyota and,potentially, the vehicle owners as well. Theworld’s biggest automaker faces dozens oflawsuits over injuries and deaths attributedto safety problems, with many more law-suits expected. Lawyers and legal expertssaid the lawsuits could be particularly ex-pensive for the automaker if plaintiffs canprove that Toyota was aware of problemsbut failed to correct them.

“This has the potential to be the biggestproduct liability case in the automotive in-dustry,” said Richard Cupp, a professor atPepperdine University School of Law.

Another professor is warning thatToyota owners might have to pay a por-tion of any damages from an accident re-sulting from a known safety defect thatthey didn’t get fixed as directed, and in atimely manner, said Marshall Shapo,who teaches torts and product liability atNorthwestern University School of Law.

In addition to Toyota’s massive recalland related personal injury clams, the au-tomaker is confronted by at least 40 con-sumer class-action cases over the reducedresale value of its cars. The drop in resalevalue of Toyota and Lexus autos could alsoprompt insurers to reduce what they paywhen any affectedToyota vehicle is totalled.

Consumer lawsuits seeking economicdamages for diminished value or lost use ofa recalled Toyota vehicle have been filed in

at least 30 states, mostly in federal court,and could end up costing the world’s num-ber one over $2 billion, saidAnother North-western law professor, Tim Howard, isleading a team of 22 law firms in 16 statesthat are pursuing a class-action lawsuitseeking compensation for lost car value. Hesaid the suit could rival tobacco litigationin its complexity, and all the federal suitswould be consolidated into a single classaction in the next few months, following ahearing before a panel of judges set forMarch 25 in U.S. District Court in SanDiego, Howard said. Toyota’s U.S. opera-tions are based in California.

Howard said that if a typical vehiclewas worth $10,000 before the recalls anddrops 3.5% in value ($350 per car), with 6million recalls in the U.S., the potentialdamages reach $2.1 billion. If a trial attor-ney can prove that Toyota hid its knowl-edge of the defects, punitive damagescould easily double that.

Litigation against Toyota has snow-balled since the biggest recall in its historyfor repairs to ill-fitting floor mats and stick-ing gas pedals it blames for instances of un-intended, sudden acceleration in its vehicles.

Toyota is not the only automaker to facesuch claims, but it is the largest. In 2008,Ford paid up to $500 in discount vouchersper claim to settle a diminished-value case onbehalf of 800,000 customers after a tire re-call prompted concerns about potentialrollover crashes in its Explorer SUV.

Honda is adding 437,000 vehicles to itsworldwide recall for faulty air bags an-nounced in Nov. 2008. Honda, Japan's No.2 automaker, has now recalled close to950,000 vehicles for airbag problemslinked to one fatality and a total of 11 in-juries in the United States.

While Honda’s is not the size of Toy-ota’s, it comes at a sensitive time for an in-dustry struggling to draw customers backto showrooms after a brutal downturn.

The company will replace the driver’sside air bag inflator in the cars because theycan deploy with toomuch pressure, causingthe inflator to rupture and potentially caus-ing injury or death. The total of number ve-hicles recalled since then is approaching 1million. The latest expansion of the air bagrecall includes 378,000 cars in the U.S.,some 41,000 cars in Canada and 17,000cars in Japan, Australia and elsewhere inAsia. The North American recall was an-nounced Feb. 9. The recall affects 952,118vehicles, including certain 2001 and 2002Accord sedans, Civic compacts, Odysseyminivans, CR-V small sport utility vehiclesand some 2002Acura TL sedans.

Honda’s announcement comes at atime of increased attention on automotiverecalls. Though the problems are unrelated,rival Toyota is in the process of recallingmore than 8 million cars and trucks due tofaulty gas pedals. Toyota said it would recallnearly 440,000 of its flagship 2010 Priusand other hybrids due to a braking glitch.

“There is a heightened sensitivity rightnow to anything to do with recalls,’’ saidJohn Mendel, executive vice president ofsales forAmerican Honda. Honda said it isaware of 12 incidents linked to the prob-lem—one death in May 2009 and 11 in-juries. The company said it is not aware ofany problems happening after July 2009.

Honda decided to expand the recallafter a company investigation found thatmore cars might contain defective air baginflators, made by supplier Takata Corp.,based in Tokyo.

The problem, the company found,could be traced to a stamping machine thatsometimes used insufficient pressure tomake the inflators. Honda company de-cided to recall all vehicles using the com-pressed inflator propellant produced bythat machine, it said in a news release.

“It took time to come to that conclu-sion because we had to do many tests,’’said NatsunoAsanuma, a manager of pub-lic relations at Honda in Tokyo. “We haveconcluded this is the cause.’’

Honda’s latest U.S. air bag recall af-fects certain 2001 and 2002 Accordsedans, Civic compacts, Odyssey mini-vans, CR-V small sport utility vehiclesand some 2002 Acura TL sedans.

Honda says owners should take theirvehicles to dealerships as soon as they arenotified by the company in writing. Noti-fication will begin during the month ofFebruary.

Honda Adds 437,000 Cars to Worldwide Faulty Air Bag Recall

A2001 amendment to Florida’s no-fault lawthat requires insureds to notify their insurerthat they intend to sue cannot be appliedretroactively to policies issued before theamendment was enacted, ruled the FloridaSupreme Court. Before the presuit noticeprovision, the law did not require an insuredto provide notice to an insurer before filingan action for overdue benefits. The amend-ment, known as the statutory presuit notice,constituted a “substantive change” to thestatute and thus cannot be applied retroac-tively. This provision states that before filingany action for an overdue claim, the insurermust be provided with written notice of anintent to litigate. The high court’s action re-versed a decision by the Third District court,which had held the notification amendmentto be “merely procedural.”

The case, Menendez v. ProgressiveExpress Insurance Co., Inc., involved Pro-gressive’s denial of personal injury pro-tection (PIP) benefits to an insured whowas injured in a car accident coveredunder a policy that was issued before theenactment date of the 2001 amendment.Justice Barbara J. Pariente wrote, “Inour view, the statute, when viewed as awhole, is a substantive statute.” The pre-suit notice provision is “not procedural”and “should not be given retroactive ap-plication.”

The Supreme Court said that the Legis-lature intended for the provision to be appliedretroactively, however, the court said that evenwhere theLegislature has expressly stated thata statute will have retroactive application, thecourtwill reject retroactive application “if thestatute impairs a vested right, creates a newobligation, or imposes a new penalty.” Thestatute as amended in 2001 alsomandates thatthe payment from the insurermust include in-terest and penalties not exceeding $250.Also,if the insurer pays within the additional timeprovided by the statute, the payment pre-cludes the insured from bringing suit for latepayment or nonpayment and shields the in-surer from a claim for attorneys’ fees.

The insured argued that the amendmentcreated various obligations and burdens thatare substantive and therefore could only beapplied prospectively.The insured also arguethat the statutory presuit notice provision, asa whole, affects an insured’s ability to retaincounsel because there is no longer a right toreasonable attorneys’ fees if the insurer sub-sequently pays the claimwithin the additionaltime prescribed by statute. The Court saidthat the “most problematic provisions” of thestatute are thosewhich impose a penalty, im-plicate attorneys’ fees, grant an insurer addi-tional time to pay benefits, and delay theinsured’s right to institute a cause of action.The ruling could affect other PIP claims.

Florida Court: ‘No Retroactive Rule on No-Fault Insurance’


Imagine it has just rained. There are pud-dles on the ground, and everything iscoated with droplets of water. On a cool,overcast day with no wind, that water willtake quite a bit of time to disappear. Nowimagine the clouds part and the sunemerges. Those puddles will evaporatefaster, right? Now what if a stiff breezekicks up. That water will be gone prettyquickly. Everyone knows if it’s hot andwindy, a puddle of water will be evapo-rated a lot faster than if it’s cool and still.This is the same principle that gets appliedwhen we’re talking about curing and dry-ing the latest in advanced waterbornepaints.

Naturally though, things get a bitmore complicated when we’re talkingabout drying paint under very controlledconditions, such as those on an automatedfinishing line, or in an automotive bodyshop. Modern coatings are incredible ex-amples of chemical engineering. They canbe designed to withstand the harshest ofconditions, while maintaining their desiredappearance much longer than coatings ofthe past. However, in order to achieve thebest possible results with these coatingsand maximize their effectiveness, theyneed to be applied under very specific en-vironmental conditions. This is where themodern paint booth comes in.

Modern paint booths contain moretechnology than most people would ex-pect. Gone are the days of the simple ‘bigmetal box’. New paint booths are designedto provide not only a better painting envi-ronment, but also a more efficient workingspace for the painters. Things like auto-mated temperature control and shadow-free lighting make the painters’ job easierthan ever. Yet there is no one individualfactor that can be singled out as the key toworking with waterborne paints. It’s thecombination of several technologies thatallows you to effectively spray and curemost waterborne paints with maximum re-sults.

Going back to our ‘rain and puddle’analogy, the two things that are absolutelyessential when we’re dealing with water-borne paints are heat and airflow. Granted,you CAN cure waterborne paints withoutextra heat or accelerated airflow, but it’sinevitably going to take much longer. Thisis not something most modern businessesare ‘okay’ with. After all, why spend moretime when you can spend less? This is whyit’s so important to make sure that your

booth is set up properly for waterborne.First, let’s talk about heat. There are

two basic types of paint booth heaters: In-direct-fired and Direct-fired. With an indi-rect-fired air heater, the gas burner is builtinside a large metal drum within the heatunit. The burner heats the drum, and as theair moves over the drum it becomes hotbefore it is forced in to the cabin. The in-herent inefficiency in this design isthe drum itself. Since the drumneeds to be heated first beforethe air can be heated, indirect-fired heat units take muchlonger to come up to optimumtemperature when compared tothe direct-fired variants.

Direct-fired heaters utilize amuch simpler and more effective heat-transfer design. In these types of heaters,the burner is placed directly in the path ofthe moving air. This allows for nearly100% of the heat generated by the burnerto be transferred directly in to the air. Theresult is much better heat-rise, and lowergas consumption over the duration of thepaint process. Direct-fired heaters are gen-erally accepted as the more effective andefficient choice for modern paint booths,especially when dealing with waterbornepaints.

The second part of the heat issue iscontrol over the temperature itself. Everycoating has unique curing and drying prop-erties. Different paints can require a highertemperature for less time, or a lower tem-perature for more time, or even differenttemperatures over the course of one cure

cycle. These temperature variances can bea nightmare for the painter if they have todo everything manually. This is why somepaint booth manufacturers have developedpre-programmed control panels that arespecifically designed to automate the dry-ing cycle. Some of the more advanced con-trol panels are programmed for specificbrands and models of coatings. This pro-gramming simplifies the operation of thebooth by allowing the user to push a singlebutton to begin the cure cycle, and thebooth does the rest. Automatically con-trolling the temperature of the air based onthe pre-determined times in the cure cycle.This allows for the fastest drying times by

using the best possible cure cycle for thatspecific paint, and gives much better con-sistency with each finished product.

Next, we’ll look at airflow in the paintbooth. While simply increasing the CFMof air moving through the booth does givesome improvement in the drying times, thekey thing to remember here is that wedon’t necessarily just want MORE airflow,

but what we do want is SMARTERairflow. What we mean by

smarter airflow is more controlover the airflow in the cabin.This is accomplished in twoways: with variable frequency

drives and with an acceleratedairflow system.Variable frequency drives

(VFD’s) are electrical control units that areintegrated in to the heat units to provideenhanced control over the motors. VFD’sregulate the flow of electricity to the mo-tors, and allow the motors to run at anyspeed, from 1% to 100%. Typically, elec-tric paint booth motors only operate at100% speed, which requires mechanicaldampers in order to control the airflowgenerated by the fans attached to the mo-tors. By utilizing VFD’s, the motors can beadjusted to any speed in order to controlthe airflow, which drastically reduces en-ergy consumption since the motors areonly spinning as fast as they need to at anygiven time. This control over the motorspeed allows virtually infinite adjustmentsto the air speed in the booth, allowing theoperator to customize the air movementfor optimum performance.

Accelerated airflow systems are verycommon in modern auto body shops, andare becoming more prevalent in industrialapplications as waterborne coatings be-come more popular. These devices cancome in several different forms, includinghand-held compressed air blowers, simplefans, or more advanced booth-mounted airblowers. Regardless of the type of accel-erator equipment, the concept remains thesame: increased airflow on the painted sur-faces. There are two reasons that this in-creased airflow is important: Heatstratification and low-pressure micro-cli-mate.

First, let’s explain heat stratification.This is basically a fancy word for ‘layer-ing’. We all know that warm air rises, andthat in any paint booth, the air near theceiling will be warmer than the air near thefloor. This causes the upper surfaces of thepainted object to dry faster than the lowersurfaces. Accelerated airflow systems aredesigned to mix up the airflow in the boothand force more air on to the painted sur-faces. While some systems focus air onspecific spots for smaller jobs, the moreadvanced systems will turn the wholebooth in to one big convection oven. This

allows for the heat to be distributed overthe entire painted object, and providesmuch more even and consistent curing re-sults.

Next, when we say ‘low-pressuremicro-climate,’ we’re not talking about theweather. This refers to the way the airmoves over the surface of an object. As airmoves over an object in a linear way, evenat high speeds, there is a barrier of slow-moving air between the fast moving airstream and the painted surface. This bar-rier or ‘micro-climate’ is a low-pressurearea that acts as a buffer, preventing thewater or solvents in the paint from beingdrawn out, therefore slowing the dryingprocess. By introducing additional fast-moving air, these acceleration systems cre-ate a controlled turbulence on the paintedsurface in order to break up this micro-cli-mate and draw out the water and solventsfrom the coating. This drastically reducesthe time required to achieve a finishedproduct.

We can begin to see a trend here, al-most hidden amongst the time savingswe’ve been talking about. The benefityou’ll notice when you reduce the time re-quired to cure your coatings is reduced en-

ergy consumption. By minimizing thetime required to dry the paint, the paintbooth is operating for less time for eachjob you complete. The less time the boothoperates, the less natural gas is fedthrough the burner, and less electricity isused by the motors. That is the mark of atruly ‘green’ paint booth. Not only do theyallow for the effective use of environ-ment-friendly waterborne coatings, butthey also require less electricity and gas inorder to complete the same job as a regu-lar paint booth.

So as we can see, in order to minimizethe drying times of most waterborne paintsyou really need both controlled heat andaccelerated airflow. This combination willyield the fastest possible drying times withmodern waterborne coatings, and enableyour shop to push past the slow, cold, wetdays of inefficient waterborne drying andachieve the increased productivity andprofitability that you are looking for, withthe added benefit of knowing that yourpaint booth is helping you minimize yourimpact on the environment.

Understanding the Basics of the Waterborne Paint Booth

by Dustin Henggeler, NNL writerThis article is reprinted with the kind permissionof the Nodaway News Leader, Maryville, MO.

They don’t have desks or written tests totake each week, but you’d better believethese students are learning somethingeveryday. The new collision repair classat the Northwest Technical School [inMaryville, MO], taught by Ron Wieder-holt, gives the students just what theyneed to learn; hands-on experience onreal vehicles.

“What’s so great about this type ofwork is that you’re not working on an as-sembly line, doing the same thing every-day,” said Wiederholt. “You face a newproject every day. Even if it’s the samespot on a vehicle, you will need to do dif-ferent types of repairs in order to get a carlooking new again.”

From fender benders to completerestoration of older cars, Wiederholt’s stu-dents never see the exact same project twiceand are always kept busy. Students come tothe class from as far away as Mound City,Craig/Fairfax and North Andrew, or asclose to home as Northeast Nodaway andMaryville. Adults are welcome to take theclass, too; in fact, two are currently in theclass: one is 63 years old, proof that it’snever too late to learn or pick up a hobby.

Completely needing restored, oneof Wiederholt’s own muscle cars is aproject many of the students are work-ing on with hopes that it will be finished

by the end of the school year. Earlier inthe year, the students also completelyrebuilt a military vehicle that is nowbeing used by local volunteer firefight-ers. And on top of just repairing cars,the students are also constructing andpainting vehicles that they give awayfor those who cannot afford a fully-op-erational car.

Having owned his own auto-bodyshop for 10 years, Wiederholt knows theimportance of keeping up with the timesand does his best to offer these new tech-niques to his class. Learning about thecare and repair of hybrid vehicles issomething his class takes part in, keepingtheir expertise on anything from oldschool to cutting edge.

“The kids in here aren’t your typicalstudents who enjoy science or math, but

enjoy the hands-on experience,” Wieder-holt commented. “When I show themsomething new in here, they’re alwayswide-eyed and ready to learn.”

Though his class can handle 30 stu-dents, Wiederholt has only 15, but theplan is for more students next fall. Andsince this is his first year of offering theclass, it’s hard to say where his studentswill be after graduation. Wiederholtknows that some of his students plan tocome back next year, even if it’s post-sec-ondary. The collision repair curriculum isa two-year program, so future studentsmay plan to take it their junior year if theschool district allows.

Collision repair, a field that couldonly become extinct when we don’t usecars, will be a growth area. Wiederholtmakes sure his students learn everythingfrom the basics of the shop to the varioustechniques any repair project requires ofa Mr./Mrs. Fix-it.

“I make sure that the students knowthat a clean shop is the most importantthing in terms of safety,” said Wiederholt.“I also give them new project partnerseveryday so they can get used to workingwith new people all the time. Studentsneed to know how to work safe as part ofa team, keeping the work area clean andsafe as well.”


DO THE RIGHT THINGENOUGH TIMES,AND PEOPLE BEGINTO NOTICE.

�e Hyundai Genesis—2009 North American Car of the Year.

Hyundai Sales Up More than 14% (year onyear). In 2008 Hyundai became the world's��h-largest automaker, with 7% marketshare in the United States.

See these Hyundai dealers below for all your collision parts needs!

�ink About It

NEVADA

Family MotorsHyundai

BAKERSFIELD

800-868-9727661-837-3358 FaxMon-Fri 8am - 5:30pm

[email protected]

Tuttle Click HyundaiIRVINE

800-428-7485949-472-7430

949-586-5104 Fax949-586-7093 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 7pmSat 8am - 5pm

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Henderson HyundaiSuperstoreLAS VEGAS -METRO AREA

702-565-9643702-564-7756 FaxMon-Fri 7am - 6pmSat 7am - 4pm

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San LeandroHyundai

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510-347-3010510-895-1027 Fax

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SO. CALIFORNIA NO. CALIFORNIA

Collision Repair Students are Well-Prepared for the Real World CollisionBuilder.com ProvidesFree Websites to AssociationsCollisionBuilder.com, in an effort to im-prove communication throughout the in-dustry, is now offering free websites forcollision repair associations. Any and allrecognized collision repair associationsare eligible. Domain registration, hosting,and monthly maintenance are included.

“As an industry, we need to moveforward with our utilization of communi-cation tools,” said David Moore, presi-dent, CollisionBuilder.com. “The weboffers us the opportunity to get our mes-sage out locally and nationally. We can nolonger sit on the sidelines hoping thingswill get better, we have to get involved.”The website consists of a home page,about us page, contact us page and a cur-rent news page. The website’s contentwill be editable using Collision-Builder.com’s EZ Edit feature. This willenable the association to inform membersof current news and events and to keeptheir website updated. Additionally,Moore is offering free consultation/in-structions on how collision repair associ-ations can utilize Facebook and Twitteraccounts to improve member communi-cation. CollisionBuilder.com designs anddevelops websites for the collision repairindustry; offering both custom and pre-designed packages. Visit www.collision-builder.com, and contact David Moore.


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Salvaged Airbag Bill, SB 209, Withdrawn by Maryland State SenatorAfter strong opposition by repairer organi-zations at theNational Conference of Insur-ance Legislators (NCOIL), a model airbagbill, although amended, was still passed foruse in individual states. The model bill es-tablishes criminal penalties for fraudulentinstallation of an airbag; requires shops tomaintain detailed records of airbags theypurchase, sell or install; mandates that a re-pair facility submit an affidavit to a vehicleowner saying that an airbag was installedproperly; and sets forth guidelines regulat-ing the use of salvage airbags. The bill, in-tended to provide a documentation processfor the use of new and salvaged airbags toprotect consumers from airbag fraud, hadbeen proposed in Maryland.

On Feb. 5, theWashington Metropol-itan Auto Body Association (WMABA)sent out an urgent notice to repairers to op-pose this bill, citing many reasons that re-pairers and consumers could be harmed.Many repairers had taken the initiative tocontact their representative if they were onthe Senate Finance committee who washearing the bill first. Though these actionswere taken immediately,WMABAwas un-sure of the response that would be seen inthe bill hearings.

Rep. Robert Damron of Kentucky,who is the NCOIL president, wrote, in anopen letter to WMABA: Although we donot wish to comment on specific Marylandactivity, we do wish to weigh in on somegeneral statements regarding the NCOILmodel law on which the Maryland bill wasbased.

The Model Act Regarding AutoAirbag Fraud, adopted overwhelmingly byNCOIL on November 22, 2009, neither en-courages nor discourages the use of sal-vaged airbags. Rather, in adopting themodel law, legislators set forth a compre-hensive approach to fighting airbag fraud—an approach that acknowledges today’sinstallation, however frequent or infre-quent, of both salvaged and new originalequipment manufacturer (OEM) parts. Thepurpose of our model is to ensure that anyairbag installed in a vehicle is safe.

On Feb. 15, Senate Bill 209, proposedby Senator Delores Kelley (D-BaltimoreCounty) was voted down unanimously bythe Senate Finance Committee to have thebill withdrawnwithout foreseeable reintro-duction.

“This outcome was no doubt the re-sult of WMABA, our lobbyist groupAlexander & Cleaver and our Marylandconstituents giving useful and pertinent in-formation to the Senators, so that theycould make an informed and consumer-conscientious decision,” saidBrad White-ford, WMABA President and owner ofWhiteford’s Collision.

“All of the WMABA membershipshould be proud of the efforts of the asso-ciation to head-off such a possible disasterfor repairers throughout the country, be-cause we all know how bills like these in-crease the chances for other specialinterests to attempt this in other states.”

For more information contact theWMABA at: (804) 789-9649.

Sears offering defunct car dealerships auto center franchisesSears Holdings Corp. plans to expand itsSearsAutoCenter network by recruiting for-mer car dealers as franchisees. Sears said it islaunching the Independent SearsAuto Cen-ter franchise program, allowing auto dealerswho lost their GM or Chrysler franchises tooperate as licensed SearsAuto Centers.

The company said Coleman AutoGroup of East Windsor, N.J., is the firstcar dealership to take advantage of theprogram and will open a Sears Auto Cen-ter March 27 on the site of its formerChrysler dealership.

“Sears designed the new franchiseprogram to help those dealers leverage theirfacilities by building a set of businessesaround parts and services, over-the-countermerchandise, and previously-owned vehi-cle sales,” Sears said in a statement.

The Sears Auto Center franchise lo-cations will provide the same productsand services for automobiles, light trucksand motorcycles that are offered at thenearly 850 company-owned Sears AutoCenters across the country. Sears expectsmany of the new franchise locations to belocated on properties adjacent to pre-owned vehicle and body shop operations.

“This is also a great opportunity fordealerswho are currently selling used cars togain a brand that’s nationally recognized forquality and dependability, a resource for buy-ing high-quality auto parts and supplies, andaccess to a proven business model that has

been tailored to their needs,” Bill Jackson,president of Sears Authorized IndependentAuto Centers LLC, said in a statement.

According to Sears, the franchise ad-vantage includes:• The strength of the Sears, DieHard andCraftsman brands;• The ability to leverage Sears marketing,Web presence and social networking;• Purchasing power on tires, batteries,parts, equipment and supplies; and• Access to the Sears credit card and thecorporate systems and processes.

Last year, as General Motors Co. andChrysler Group LLC went through gov-ernment-sponsored bankruptcies, the automakers began pulling the franchises, withGM notifying some 1,350 dealerships andChrysler almost 800. However, a lawpassed by Congress and signed in De-cember by President Barack Obama set uparbitration for rejected GM and Chryslerdealerships that want reinstatement.

More than 1,550 car dealerships gavenotice that they intended to seek rein-statement through arbitration --triple thenumber expected by the American Arbi-tration Association, which is overseeingthe program. More than half of the 2,789car dealerships eligible to seek reinstate-ment gave notice by the law’s Jan. 25deadline that they intend to do so. That in-cluded 409 of the 789 shuttered Chryslershowrooms.

Shure Manufacturing’s NEW Recycle CabinetsGo Green with Shure’s NEW RecycleCabinets. These cabinets have a largeswing-out door to reveal a 40 gallonplastic receptacle with dolly for recycla-ble materials. Close the steel door toconceal unsightly contain-ers, making your servicearea look clean and moreorganized, while helpingthe environment.

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We’re back on part two of three on ourShelby Series 1 project that we started inthe last issue. We left off last month havingthe car ready for our base color. I chose aHouse of Kolor Orion Silver paint. Now alot of guys think it’s only waterborne thatwe can use in California, but there arecompanies such as House of Kolor thathave additives we can use to make it [lowVOC] compliant. To do that we’re going

to use one part paint, one part KU150 cat-alyst, and two parts KV1 reducer. This

way we can use these familiar custom col-ors and still be compliant with the lowVOCs. Of course this will also work inshops outside California, who want to bemore envorionmentally conscious andsafe.

A word or two about safety becausemaking something compliant doesn’t meanit’s 100% safe. I always wear theMicroFlexMidknight™ gloves for the booth area andthings I’m doing. I can go through 100 pairsor more easily on a project like this, but it’sworth it. I also always use my shoot suitswhich keep me nice and clean and awayfrom the lacquer thinners and other solventsthat can get into the pores of your skin. Ialso use a fresh air system from SATAwhich keeps me safe. I want to be aroundfor another 40 years and still be paintingwithout worrying what any refinish productcan do to me over a long period of time.

We’re going to end up with twobatches in the booth, with applying threecoats of Orion Silver base coat, but beforethat we have to hit it with the sealer. I amusing House of Kolor KS210. It comes in

a white and a black and I mixed 50% ofeach to get a gray color so I can apply sil-ver over top of it. First I apply two lightcoats of the sealer over the surface and theparts. I’m going to apply three coats of theorion silver total. I’m using my SATA gunat 27 psi when I’m applying base color.

We’re getting our silver base on witha topcoat. I like TranStar and I’m using6531 to 2.1 low-VOC clearcoat. For my

hardener I use the 6894HT and that allowsjust a little bit more flow time. It is betterfor what I do—graphics and custom work.I’ve been using Transtar topcoat for about14 years and I’ve never once had it biteme or go wrong. A lot of guys out theremight not apply enough material so don’tskimp. It’s all about how you apply yourmaterial. I’m putting two coats on becauseI know I’m going to go back and sand itdown with 800. I’ve chosen to use a top-coat versus an SG100 (Intercoat clear) be-cause of all the taping. Instead of using theSG100 and having to use the KU150 andthe KV1 to get this compliant—to me, it’sbetter to put a low-VOC clearcoat on andskip the SG100 system.

We get the two coats on and I’m goingto come through with 800 grit 3M wet anddry and I’m going to use the Soft-Sanderblocks and Quick-Cut sanding DAs on theflatter areas. There aren’t many of those onthis car. The Soft Sanders are a huge helpbecause the multiple lengths of sandingblocks fit the body contours. The blocks areall color-coded so as you use them moreyou find out which ones help you most.Obviously they’re saving me a lot of timeand give me a better result. A straight blockreally doesn’t work on this project becauseof all the contours going on. I can use anyof the Style-Line Super-Flex® sandpapersup to 3000 grit. We’re cutting this with 800grit and then we’re going to bring it in anddo a mock-up for graphic layout.

I’ve called in Matt Van Wingerden todo the airbrushing on the project. You mightremember him from his Marilyn Monroeheadliner that we did for the ‘57 Chevy last

year. Matt is very creative. He’s young butvery well-rounded as an artist. He wearsthree hats: having the plotter skills; thegraphic design touch; and the airbrush skills

all in one. I don’t have to sub-source any-thing. He’s a real talent and I’m sure you’llbe seeing a lot more of his work out there.

What we want is the real subtlegraphic layout and Matt’s doing the Ulti-mate Vodka bottle that I explained in thelast column. We want this bottle to look

real and it represents the company, so Mattis my design and concept to place it on thehood in the rally stripes.

Matt puts about 20 hours into gettingthe bottle looking great and we’ve got thecar mocked-up, sanded down with the 800grit and ready for the second color which isgoing to be True Blue Pearl (part numberPBC36.Q01) from House of Kolor.

I used a panel-alignment tool before Itore the car down. I take an 1/8-inch drill bitand drill into the hinge areas of the hood,doors, fenders, the rear hatch; just so I havea reference so I can put those panels backexactly where they were. I know where Iam all the time instead of wasting a lot oftime trying to line things up. You experi-enced guys know what I’m talking about.

I’ve designed my own panel alignmenttool which is just a set of 6 screwdriverswith an 1/8-inch dowel of different lengthsto get into different areas. So you can makeyour own, or I’ll make them available soonfor others. Sometimes we need to make ourown tools, but these tools work for me. I’vesaved a lot of time with them and time ismoney.

So now that we’ve got everythingmocked-up, our graphic design is going to

Custom Cornerwith Rich Evans

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

Ultimate Vodka’s Shelby Series 1, Part 2

Matt Van Wingerden, Air brush artist extraordinaire.

Graphic lay out.

House of Kolors Orion Silver Base coat withTranstar top coat

House of Kolor Orion Silver Base with Transtar topcoat sanded with 3M 800 grit sand paper usingthe Quick Cut sanders followed by Soft-Sanders



include some rally stripes, striped down theleft and right hood right before it meets thefender. We’re going to break it off in the frontto make it look racy and add some check-ered-pattern designs. I collaborated with EdBlinn—with Patron Tequila, the owner—onthe layout. I really want to give them whatthey’re looking for and represent their com-pany and their brand as best we can.

I use Photoshop to mock-up the vehi-cle in a picture to get on the same pagewith the company. When they give me thethumbs up then we need to make that pic-ture real. That’s the way that works for ushere at Rich Evans designs.

We’ve got all the graphics layed outand then we mask everything up ready forthe True Blue Pearl second base color. I like3M tape and masking paper, which is a realgood quality tape that doesn’t leave residuebehind, especially when you’re doing graph-ics. Make sure you pre-clean all your pan-els before you mask them. Using theMicroFlex gloves keeps your fingerprintsoff the car. Use a nice hard mask, appliedtight, so it’s easy to unmask. All of thosesteps really count when you’re trying to putout a high-quality commercial product. Ittakes a little longer but your end results arebetter.

So after tear down, we have twobatches. It could easily be three batchesbut if I do three it could cost another sixhours of time waiting between coats. It’s alittle crowded but I have enough room towalk around and apply the True Blue.

I’m using a 1.4 tip on my SATA gunand my comfort zone is 27 psi so it atom-izes the paint and I don’t have a really highbuild. I might get a two-mill build with thisproject’s six coats, half-triggered to justgive me coverage with the second basecolor.

You want to make sure that you arenot creating more work for yourself anddon’t get a high build on your second basecolor. When you’re doing graphics you canextend yourself for more color, sandingand buffing to make it smooth, where youcan’t feel the lines.

With the left to right doors we’readding the Ultimate Vodka image on andwe got those laid out to where they looknatural and not crowded.

I just used the House of Kolor whitebase color, two coats, with just enough for

coverage. We put on the white before weapplied the True Blue, then re-masked sowhen we’re done with the True Bluegraphic part we can de-mask everythingand add our shadows to give it a three-di-mensional look. It’ll make the UltimateVodka lettering look really deep so that it’sreally popping off that Orion Silver. We’regoing to shadow where the checkerboardsmeet the graphic on the fenders and give ita natural rollover so it looks like it’s rollingunderneath that graphic and disappearing.It’ll be real subtle with a couple of littlehighlights here and there that’ll makesense to separate the blues (where it meets

blues) especially on the front where itcomes around and meets the rally stripe.We want that stripe to go underneath therally stripe to look like they’re really div-ing underneath it. You don’t have tooverdo it to get the look. We’re not goingfor a bunch of wavy effects or anythinglike that. This car needs to look like it’sgoing 100 miles an hour standing still.

We’re using six True Blue coatsthroughout the two batches and then de-masking. You really need to spend yourtime cleaning up making sure everythingis right. Blow off everything, tack it off,walk around, check it and make sure thateverything is blown out before you applyyour TranStar clear topcoat.

I’m going to apply five coats and onetack coat. I like to use the tack coat tomake sure I’m covering it and creating afoundation for my clear that I’m going toapply pretty heavily on. I’m going to comeback and cut two of those coats off so I re-ally want to leave a minimum of 3–3½coats of clear for a protective coat through-out its lifespan.

I have a system when I’m sprayingmy clear with my RP gun, which is a 1.4,and I recommend everybody get an RPgun with a 1.4. I’ve been using one forabout six years and I use it about 35–37psi, about 3 inches away. I usually shoot atabout 3 inches and I like to control theproduct when it goes on and make sure it’sflat. I want to make sure that I’m in controland the paint is not controlling me andthere’s really no room for double lapping.You’ll create a comfort zone for yourself.

A word about keeping it clean. Go toshootsuits.com and pick yourself up a RichEvans shoot suit (ad adjacent). I’m walk-

ing around in a shoot suit all the timethey’re washable, they last forever, and theprice is right. Cleanliness and safety gohand in hand because they show care andattention to detail. It’s nice to walk out ofthe booth and see everything right andclean. You’re happy, you don’t have dirtflying around, and you don’t have to repeatsteps. Once again, time is money.

So five coats of clear, one tack, thatleaves me a lot of room to color, sand, andbuff. For that, I am going to start with 800grit and we will finish this in the thirdstage of this article. I really want to get thesteps and procedures across to you guys so

you can try what I’m doing, or maybeyou’ll come across one or two things thatyou’re not doing that you might try thatmight help you save time.

I’m going to hit some of my flat areaswith the Quick Cut sander with 800 grit.That’s what I start with then I really keepmy focus on the second topcoat (True Blue)and it works those areas down because Iknow they’re going to be two mills higherthan everything else. So as I applied mytopcoat I really pounded on the five coats.Find a system that works for you but 15minutes in between each coat works for me.By the time it’s tacking and is starting to setup, I pile it on again. You know that youhave a window of 24 hours between coatsso some of you guys out there are doingextra by putting 3 coats on, sanding, clean-ing everything up, putting it back in thebooth and putting another three coats on.

Take your time to read up on yourproduct to see what your windows are. Youcan put three coats on, and come back thenext morning, without sanding, and put an-other three coats on. The more you dig intothe product details and the more you useit, the more it will work for you the wayworks for me. It’s worked for me for years.

Breaking out the Soft Sanders, I’ve gotabout five or six blocks that I’m using onthis. They’re different sizes and lengths andthey’ve got 40 grit to 3000 grit sandpaperyou can use. It’s all good for wet sanding.The blocks will take you from A to Zprocesses. They’re a great tool to add to yourcollection; not for everything you do, butthey’re a great tool to have in your arsenalfor time-saving and better quality. Every jobis different every job is a different panel thatneeds to be sanded so these are a great prod-

uct to complement the rest of your toolbox.They’ve saved me a lot of time and money.They pay for themselves on the first job Iused them on. I also just found out that PPGhas adopted them for their training pro-grams, which is a great endorsement.

We’ll talk about the color sanding stepsand procedures next month along with thedelivery of the car. And we’ll see where thisproject goes on tour and see how manythousands of people will put their eyes on it.You always want to make sure that you keepyour quality high and have a good product.

I don’t use or endorse anything I don’tbelieve in. I always thank my sponsors. I can-

not create or build cars without them. Thanksto Chicago Pneumatic™ for my pneumatictools.MicroFlex™ for the safety of the latexgloves that they provide. I want to thankShoot Suits for providing a comfortable safetysuit. Quick Cut Sanders for providing a toolthat is a very efficient product which is wellthought out. House of Kolor for putting outsuch great products. I want to thankTranStarfor such a great topcoat. I look forward to try-ing out some of their new products will bewriting more about those in future. I alsowant to thank 3M for all the support they’vegiven me over the years and the great prod-ucts that they keep coming out with.

Rides of Rich Evans—iPhone AppI have a new free iPhone app game calledRides of Rich Evans that you can downloadthrough iTunes. It’s a fun app. Try to beatthe game. You can google ‘Rich Evans’ or‘Rides of Rich Evans’ to learn more. I’m al-ways trying to put something new out thereand this app showcases a good selection ofabout 80 different vehicles I’ve done. Itshows some diversity, but isn’t everything.We’ll probably add hundreds of more carsto this game over time. It’s also a learningapp to recognize makes, models, and modelyears of different projects that came throughmy shop.

Ready for Transtar top coat Blocking with the Soft Sanders 1000--1500 gritHouse of Kolor True blue pearl. Second batch with clear coat ready for color sandand buff


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The nation’s new-car dealers and the tradeorganization that represents them havemuch to look forward to in 2010 as the in-dustry rebounds after a tough year thatbrought many changes, the incomingchairman of the National AutomobileDealers Association (NADA) said at itsconvention in Orlando, held Feb. 13–15.

NADA is ready to “hit the groundrunning” to tackle a fresh slate of issuesthis year with a new attitude and newagenda that relies heavily on feedbackfrom dealer members, said 2010 NADAChairman Ed Tonkin, a multifranchisedealer from Portland, OR, whose father,Ron Tonkin, led the association in 1989.

After avoiding an “Armageddon” formany in the industry last year, Tonkin saidNADA will now turn its attention to thechallenges ahead: IRS issues like UNICAPandLIFO; avoiding a patchwork ofmileagestandards under the newCorporateAverageFuel Economy (CAFE) requirements; andclosely monitoring Congress to avoid un-necessary and burdensome regulation.

Tonkin said NADA’s work to getdealers exempted from oversight underthe proposed Consumer Financial Protec-tionAgency is an example of how the or-ganization is well suited to representdealers in Washington. He also said lastyear’s restructuring in the industry hascreated a “watershed moment” for au-

tomakers to establish a true partnershipwith their dealers -- an opportunity thatmay not come again.

“Like my dad has said, ‘the birddoesn’t always fly by twice,’” Tonkinsaid. “With new ownership and new peo-

ple in charge, [au-tomakers] have agolden opportunityto craft a new rela-tionship with theirdealers, one basedon a genuine spiritof cooperation.”

And thoughmuch uncertaintyremains, Tonkinsaid dealers should

be optimistic. With expected sales ofnearly 12 million in 2010, rising employ-ment and improved lending, the future isbright, he said.

“We’ve faced difficult times beforeand what did we do? We sold cars andtrucks in bunches,” he said. “Every possi-ble scenario you could imagine we deal-ers have remained the constant. That’sstrength, that’s resiliency and that’s whatAmerica’s new-car and truck dealers areall about.”

More than 15,000 dealers, au-tomaker executives, exhibitors, media andguests attended the NADA convention.

NADA Chair Says Dealers See Industry ReboundAHouse committee has asked five insur-ance companies to provide it with infor-mation by the week of Feb. 22 regardingaccident trends involving cars and trucksmanufactured by Toyota.

The request by the House Energyand Commerce Committee was promptedby a statement Tuesday by State Farm in-dicating that it had alerted federal safetyregulators in late 2007 about a rise in re-ports of unexpected acceleration in Toy-ota vehicles.

However, officials of two of the fourother companies, Allstate and Progres-sive, that received the request for infor-mation said they have so far found nosigns of a similar trend in claims theyhave received.

The request for the data comes asthree congressional committees gear up tohold hearings soon on the Toyota recallissue.

The House Energy and CommerceCommittee sent the letter seeking the datafrom Allstate, Farmers Group, GEICO,Progressive and State Farm.

It is one of the three committeesplanning hearings on the issue.

The House Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform Committee plans ahearing Feb. 24 and the Energy andCommerce Committee plans a hearingthe next day.

The Senate Commerce Committee hasscheduled a hearing March 2.

In responding to the State Farm data,NHTSA officials said the report was re-viewed and the agency issued a recalllater that month. But a spokesman forAll-state cautioned that it had examined itsrecords and found “there was no apparenttrend” in claims it had “processed thatwould point to a recurring problem.”

Mike Siemienas, the Allstatespokesman, also said that it had a processin place to deal with recalls “because theyoccur all the time.”

Mr. Siemienas said Allstate is in theprocess of responding to the request forthe data from the E&C panel.

Lee Knapp, a spokesman for Pro-gressive, added that the company is cur-rently reviewing claims that may beaffected by the Toyota recalls.

“Right now it's too soon to say howmany customers may be affected, but atthis point there's no indication that it willbe a significant number.”

She added, “We're also reviewing therequest from Rep. Waxman, and if wehave anything that is responsive to that re-quest, we will provide it.”

Congress Asks Insurers for Toyota Accident Data

Ed Tonkin



Distracted driving is an attention problemnot a manual operation problem, so it’s nosurprise to many that laws banning the useof hand-held phones while driving havefailed to reduce crashes, according to re-search conducted by the Highway LossData Institute.

HLDI, an affiliate of the Insurance In-stitute for Highway Safety (IIHS), said itsfindings were based on a comparison ofcrash damage insurance claim rates in fourU.S. jurisdictions before and after the phoneuse bans. The research showed claim ratesremained steady compared with nearby ju-risdictions that have not passed such bans.

“The laws aren’t reducing crashes,even though we know that such laws havereduced hand-held phone use, and severalstudies have established that phoning whiledriving increases crash risk,” said AdrianLund, president of the IIHS and HLDI.

In New York, HLDI noted, there wasa decrease in collision claim frequenciesrelative to comparison states, but that trendbegan “well before the state’s ban took ef-fect.” HLDI added that trends in the Dis-trict of Columbia, Connecticut andCalifornia did not change.

Mr. Lund said, “So the new findingsdon’t match what we already know aboutthe risk of phoning and texting while driv-ing. If crash risk increases with phone use

and fewer drivers use phones where it’s il-legal to do so, we would expect to see a de-crease in crashes. But we aren’t seeing it.Nor do we see collision claim increasesbefore the phone bans took effect.

“This is surprising, too, given whatwe know about the growing use of cellphones and the risk of phoning while driv-ing. We’re currently gathering data to fig-ure out this mismatch.”

Mr. Lund said a possible reason forthe finding may be that drivers are switch-ing to hands-free phones, which presentsabout the same risk as hand-held phones.

“Whatever the reason,” he said, “thekey finding is that crashes aren’t goingdown where hand-held phone use has beenbanned. This finding doesn’t auger well forany safety payoff from all the new laws thatban phone use and texting while driving.”

On January 11, 2009, The NationalSafety Council advocated a total ban oncell phone use while driving, stating thepractice is clearly dangerous and leads tofatalities. The group’s president likenedtalking on cell phones to drunken driving.She said cell phone use increases the riskof a crash fourfold, and that hands-free cellphones are just as risky as hand heldphones. The council examined more than50 scientific studies before reaching its de-cision. For more see autobodynews.com

Autobody News’ Online FeedbackFollowing are some responses posted onthis story as it ran online at a number ofmedia sites, including autobodynews.com.These are anonymous responses, not newssources, and do not represent any kind ofsurvey results or, necessarily, majorityopinion. —Editor● Accidents are not decreasing because thelaw is not enforced by police. Actually Isee police on the road using cell phones asmotorists. Police look at people talking onphones and do not even pull them over.

● This new study result simply can’t be ac-cepted. I question the baseline and quan-tifiable information, and perhaps thelimited span of the time period from whichdata has been grabbed. Regardless, person-ally and from others are many accounts ofhazardous driving behaviors of persons indeep phone conversation or texting. Lawsbelong on the books with stiff penalties forviolations.

● I’m amazed that so many still think theproblem lies in a driver having a cell phonein their hand. It’s the fact that people’sminds, not their hands, are preoccupiedwhen using a cell phone in any fashionwhile also driving a car. The ban needs tobe on any usage, not just texting.

● In July of 2008, California banned theuse of cell phones while driving for all per-sons under the age of 18 years. The Statealso banned the use of hand held cellphones for persons over the age of 18while driving. All cell phone users have toutilize hands-free devices, either corded orcordless, such as Bluetooth, to be withinthe law and avoid fines. That law is a hugejoke! Every day I watch dozens of peoplewith their cell phones glued to their earsand yapping away. There are a number ofpossibilities for their idiotic behavior:1) They don’t care about the law; 2) Theydon’t care if they get caught; 3) Theywould rather pay the fine than shut theirmouth. They think whatever they have tosay is more important than safe driving; 4)They think they can talk and drive but theycan’t chew gum and walk So, brillianceaside, what did the lawmakers think theserocket scientists were going to do to dialtheir cell phones? Not all of them havevoice dial, so here we now have motormouth tethered to the cell phone by theirnew hands-free ear bud and microphonecombo, holding it up in front of him or her,trying to see the keyboard and dial a num-ber. Or holding a piece of paper and a penand the cell phone, while trying to writedown a number that has appeared on thescreen, and must be of utmost importance.

Hand-held Phone Bans Are Not Reducing Crashes, Distraction is an Attention Problem


Ever since the requirement of wearing in-sulated rubber gloves, or lineman’s gloves,when working on hybrid electric vehicleswas introduced in vehicle service infor-mation, there have been questions. Arethese really the same gloves worn by thosewho work with high voltage power lines?Are these gloves necessary or are theyoverkill? Are these gloves only used fordisabling and enabling the high voltage?What does the U.S. Occupational Safetyand Health Administration (OSHA) sayabout the use of these gloves?

This article is designed to answer thesequestions.

Glove RequirementToyota is clear on when insulated rubbergloves should be worn. The vehicle makerstates that the gloves should be worn“whenever working near high voltagecomponents. High voltage components in-clude the high voltage battery, systemmain relay, service plug receptacle andfuse, orange-colored cables, inverter as-sembly, electric drive motors, DC-DC con-verter, and the electric air conditioningcompressor.” In other words, the glovesare not just worn when disabling and en-abling the high voltage battery.

There are several classes for insulated rub-ber gloves, from Class 00 to Class 4, de-pending on the maximum use voltage thatthe gloves can withstand (see the table inFigure 1). It is generally accepted by thevehicle makers that Class 0 gloves are agood choice when working on hybrid elec-tric vehicles, as they are rated at 1,500volts DC maximum use voltage. Class 0gloves are solid black in color.

Why is the vehicle maker service informa-tion limited as to the care and testing ofthese gloves? Vehicle makers expect tech-nicians to follow the instructions and re-quirements from the glove manufacturer.These are commonly printed on the boxand the plastic bag the gloves are shipped

in (see Figure 2). Among the requirementsprinted on the bag label are the use ofleather protective outers, testing require-ments, and protecting the gloves fromchemicals and other contamination. On theoutside of the box, there are precautions tonot store the gloves inside out, folded, or indirect sunlight.

OSHA addresses the testing, use, and careof rubber insulating gloves in the PersonalProtective Equipment Standard 1910.137,Electrical Protective Devices. There aremore details in the American Society forTesting and Materials (ASTM) StandardSpecification for In-Service Care of Insu-lating Gloves and Sleeves.

Glove LabelIn the cuff portion of each glove, there’s anonconductive label (see Figure 3). Aslisted in the table in Figure 1, the label iscolored depending on the glove class. In-formation on the label may include theglove manufacturer, the class, and therated maximum-use voltage. The AC volt-age rating is only listed on the label, sincethese gloves are more commonly usedwhen working with AC voltages. The labelwill also indicate if the gloves are resistantto ozone (Type II) or non-ozone resistant(Type I).

The label may indicate the glove size. In-sulated rubber gloves are not one-size-fitsall. They should be purchased based on the

hand size of the technician who will bewearing them. For some glove manufac-turers, there are only three choices: small,medium, and large. Other manufacturersoffer half sizes, in inches. To find yourmeasurement, lay your hand palm downon a flat surface and measure the circum-ference around your finger knuckles (seeFigure 4). Add one inch to that measure-ment, and that is your hand size for insu-lated rubber gloves.

StorageProper storage is important to help keepthe gloves in good condition. The glovesshould be stored in a location as cool, dark,and dry as possible. The location should beas free as practicable from ozone, chemi-cals, oils, solvents, damaging vapors orfumes, and away from electrical dis-charges and sunlight. Fluorescent light andsunlight are especially harmful to rubber.

The gloves should be stored flat, notfolded, and not in any manner that willcause stretching or compression. Theyshould be kept inside a protective con-tainer or canvas bag. The original box thatthe gloves came in is also a good storagecompartment for the gloves.

Inspection Before UseOSHA requires that the technician who willuse the insulated rubber gloves inspect thegloves for damage before each use, and im-mediately following any incident that canreasonably be suspected of having causeddamage. If the inspection finds any of thefollowing, the gloves should be discarded:

● Hole, tear, puncture, or cut● Embedded foreign object● Ozone checking, which looks like dryrot. Ozone checking is a series of interlac-ing cracks produced by ozone on rubberunder mechanical stress.● Texture changes caused by swelling,softening, hardening, or becoming stickyor inelastic

The gloves should be cleaned as needed toremove foreign substances. If any defect isfound that might damage the insulatingproperties, such as spilled chemicals thatdo not wash off, the gloves should be sub-mitted to a testing facility for testing.

Minor damage to the gloves can be re-paired, but only in the area between thewrist and the reinforced edge of the open-ing, called the “gauntlet area” of theglove (see Figure 5). In this area, smallcuts, tears, or punctures may be repairedby applying a compatible patch. Minorblemishes in this same area may be re-paired with a compatible liquid com-pound. The patched area should haveelectrical and physical properties equal tothose of the surrounding material. Nomore than three patches may be appliedto one glove. Any gloves that are repairedshould be retested by a testing facility be-fore they are used.

OSHA also specifies that an air test shouldbe done in the field before each use, and atother times if there is cause to suspect anydamage. The ASTM standard specifies thatan air test can be done by holding the gloveby the cuff and rolling the gloves gentlytoward the fingers to form an air pocket in-side the glove. While the air is entrapped,check the gloves for punctures or check-ing, listen for escaping air, and hold thegloves up against your cheek to feel for es-caping air. If the glove will not hold pres-sure, the glove is damaged and should notbe used. The air test can also be done witha mechanical inflator. On the higherclasses of gloves, an inflator is requiredbecause the gloves are too stiff to be rolledup by hand.

Remove all jewelry before putting thegloves on. This is a common recommen-dation whenever working in a collision re-pair facility, but is of special importancehere so as to not snag the gloves on rings

Insulated Rubber Gloves And High Voltage BatteriesI-CAR Tech

This article first appeared in the I-CAR Advantage Online, which is published and dis-tributed free of charge. I-CAR, the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair,is a not-for-profit international training organization that researches and developsquality technical education programs related to collision repair. To learn more aboutI-CAR, and to subscribe to the free publication, visit http://www.i-car.com.

Figure 1 - This chart shows the AC and DC voltageratings for each class of insulated rubber gloves.

See INSULATED GLOVES, Page 58

Figure 2 - Requirements for testing and care for thegloves are outlined on the plastic bag and boxwhere the gloves are packaged.

Figure 3 - There is several information on a label onthe cuff of each glove.

Figure 4 - To find the size glove for you, measureyour hand around the knuckle area and add one inch.

Figure 5 - Insulated rubber gloves may be repaired,but only in the gauntlet area.


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The Automotive Service Association (ASA)has written a formal letter to National High-way Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)administrator David L. Strickland askinghim to review why NHTSA does not regulateaftermarket crash parts, and to begin an after-market crash parts regulatory program as soonas feasible.

For yearsASA’s policy for automotive re-placement crash parts has been that consumersshould have notice as to the types of parts usedto repair their vehicles and give written con-sent as to the use of these parts. However, veryfew states have implemented this policy, somost consumers have no conception of the

parts used in a repair. ASA is very concernedwith the quality and safety issues relative to theproliferation of aftermarket crash parts beingused to repair vehicles involved in a collision.

In 2000, ASA met with members of theU.S. House of Representatives Committee onEnergy and Commerce and asked the commit-tee to investigate NHTSA’s role in aftermarketcrash parts regulation.The committee requestedthat the General Accounting Office (GAO) re-view NHTSA’s role in regulating replacementcrash parts.The GAO report on “MotorVehicleSafety: NHTSA’s Ability to Detect and RecallDefective Replacement Crash Parts is Limited”resulted in several important conclusions:

NHTSA has broad authority to setsafety standards for aftermarket crash parts.The Motor Vehicle Safety Act providesNHTSA with the authority to prescribesafety standards for new motor vehicles andnew motor vehicle equipment sold in inter-state commerce—a category that includesaftermarket crash parts. Although NHTSAhas the authority to regulate aftermarketcrash parts, it has not determined that theseparts pose a significant safety concern andtherefore has not developed safety stan-dards for them. The act also providesNHTSA with more limited authority to pre-scribe safety performance standards for

used motor vehicles to encourage andstrengthen state motor vehicle inspectionprograms. Because NHTSA may set motorvehicle safety standards for vehicle systems(like brakes and lights as well as for an en-tire vehicle, the agency could elect to de-velop safety standards for occupant restraintsystems, which could incorporate airbags,under the used vehicle provision. NHTSAhas not developed such standards becauseit has not identified significant problemswith occupant restraint systems that couldbe addressed by state motor vehicle inspec-tion programs. Less than half the states havestate motor vehicle inspection programs.


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ASA Requests NHTSA to Use its Authority to Regulate Aftermarket Crash Parts

I have watched our industry take two stepsbackwards and one step forward for overthirty years. Because of this “every man forhimself” attitude that runs predominatelywithin the collision industry, we are unableto control the repair process even when itcomes to safety. I have heard it said thatmost shops really would fix the cars cor-rectly but they are being hindered becausethey are not being paid enough. I say“Bull.”

Either you fix the cars correctly or youare lying to yourself and risk resembling acrook. Sounds tough? Not really. It’s thetruth. The choice is yours.

We are the ones that know how to re-pair collisions. When something is deniedby the insurer we scramble to figure out away to make enough money on the repairto make it worthwhile. Many shops havemoved safety issues to the back burner andprofit becomes their main concern. Theymove to the damage control mode becausethey still need to make money. If you goagainst the grain and make a stand forsafety issues and the integrity of the repair,

you risk looking like the bad guy when infact you are the good guy, and the real onesqualified to do the repair.

“Cost should never supersede safety,ignorance should never have the powerover knowledge, and intimidation shouldnever be mistaken for negotiation”.

We lack standards and we lack anyform of enforcement from the Powers ThatBe, so we are between a rock and a hardplace. We need to stand up for ourselves,even against the other shops that are notfixing the cars right. I think that we need tomake this “every man for himself” attitudework for us by standing up against thoseshops that are saving deductibles (it’s ille-gal) and putting unsafe vehicles on theroad. I really believe that many repairers“really don’t care” and no matter howmuch they were paid they would still cutevery way possible to put more money intheir pocket.

I recently (before Toby Chess’ ground-breaking parts comparison) got a call frommy quality control manager to tell me thatwe had installed an A/M bumper rein-

forcement on a vehicle (against our com-pany policy) and the customer was on theirway to pick it up. He wondered if I knewabout it. I told him ‘no,’ then I made a fewphone calls to get to the bottom of it. At thesame time I had the OEM reinforcementordered.

As the story unraveled it turned outthat one of my estimators was trying to takethe easy way out so he ordered it himself(we have a full time parts department so es-timators don’t normally order any parts). Itold him to contact his customer and tellhim the vehicle would be delayed becausewe were going to be using the OEM rein-forcement. He then told me the insurancecompany wouldn’t pay and the customerwouldn’t either. The estimator thought hewas doing the right thing because he hadinformed the customer and the customerwas fine with the A/M part. My question tohim was “is the customer an expert in col-lision repair?” I made my point as anycourt would have.

I made a choice to re-repair the vehi-cle the correct way and it cost me money.Was it right that I had to pay to repair thiscustomer’s vehicle the way I knew that itshould have been done? No, it wasn’t rightthat I had to make up the difference, but itwas definitely wrong for us to leave theA/M reinforcement on the vehicle, no mat-ter what the customer wanted. Why? Be-cause we are the repair experts and we holdthe liability. Any lawyer would be able tomake a case against any of us—even withthe customer’s approval because we are“the experts.”

Soon after this incident, Toby Chess’test at CIC made everyone realize that thereis a definite liability involved with using anA/M bumper reinforcement and I felt greatbecause I have no skeletons in my closetbecause we have NEVER used one.

In life we need to stand for something.We need to believe in what we do, andthere are lines that we just will not cross.We need these boundaries in collision re-pair. Who is dictating what the proper col-lision repair standards are?

We have had the Fox guarding theHen house for so long that we think that“cost” is the primary driver for the colli-sion industry, when it’s obvious that“safety” should be. When it comes to“safety,” everyone needs to listen. Safetyis a word everyone understands. Just lookat what Toyota is going through becauseof some un-safe vehicles hitting theroads. But the collision industry putsthousands and thousands of un-safe vehi-cles on the road every year and everyonelooks the other way because it would cost

so much more money to repair them allcorrectly.

I’m talking real safety issues such asair-bag deployment because of inferiorworkmanship. When “used frame rails” arestill being used in repairs even though it’sagainst every manufacturer’s recom-mended repair procedure, and A/M partsthat have not been crash-tested are still al-lowed, it just proves how out of whackthings really are. Someone should apolo-gize to Toyota.

I would like to see the OEM’s do thecrash test with the A/M bumper reinforce-ments to really prove we have a industrysafety problem and put a stop to sellingthese inferior parts to thousands of unsus-pecting consumers and their families. [SeeASA article on facing page—Ed.]

They should be concerned because airbag deployment can be changed so drasti-cally by something as minor as putting toomany welds or not enough welds during therepair (see the Toyota watermelon video).Don’t you think a bumper reinforcementmade out of mild steel will effect air bag de-ployment? Any changes from OEM re-quirements could turn the air bag into adeadly projectile instead of the life preserverit was intended to be. Safety of the vehiclecan never be compromised especially whenyou are the one that carries the liability.

So should those that have knowinglyor unknowingly repaired vehicles in an un-safe manner be held responsible for cor-recting any problems related to safety? Isay absolutely “YES.”

But this would be way too costly. Imean that many shops would need to stepup and re-do hundreds of vehicles. The Af-termarket parts companies could lose enor-mous amounts of money. Those insurersthat have guaranteed these parts wouldneed to step up and take responsibility forthe warranties involved.

But “NO,” there will be some moretests done to say that these parts are safeand everyone involved will do damagecontrol. We will return to the status quo of“every man for himself” and once againnothing will change and un-safe repairswill continue to hit our highways every daybecause money has become more impor-tant than safety.

SAY IT’S NOT SO!


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Action Countswith Lee Amaradio Jr.

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]

“Every Man For Himself”


by Rachael J. Mercer

Steering. Supressed Labor Rates. Cappingof Repair and Refinish Materials.Got your attention? If you’re a collision in-dustry professional, these hot-button top-ics are hurdles you’re facing in yourbusiness as you work to serve your cus-tomers and keep your business profitable.These are some of the tough issues theGeorgia Collision Industry Association(GCIA) is currently addressing.

As Executive Director of the GCIA,Howard Batchelor serves the collision in-dustry and consumers in an effort to “pro-

mote professionalismand consumer aware-ness of the Automo-tive Collision RepairIndustry in the Stateof Georgia.”Since its founding in1997 the GCIA hasworked towardreaching that goalthrough education of

its members as well as collision profes-sionals around the state, while also engag-ing consumers by educating them abouttheir rights.

The GCIA was founded by a group ofcollision industry professionals whowanted to address the issues concerningthe industry, according to Batchelor.“Mainly the group wanted to promote con-sumer awareness concerning the collisionindustry and promote professionalismwithin the industry,” he said.

While the GCIA serves the state ofGeorgia as a whole, its member base is pri-marily comprised of collision repair busi-nesses in the Atlanta metro area. “Oftenit’s hard for people outside the perimeterof metro Atlanta to make it to meetingsafter a day at work,” said Doug Dorsey,Body Shop Manager for Honda Carland inRoswell, Ga. For this reason, people whoare located close to the base of operationsfor the GCIA in Marietta tend to be themost involved members.

The GCIA has tried to address theissue of serving an area as large asmetro Atlanta and the state of Georgia.“We try to meet all over the metro At-lanta area,” said Batchelor. “At one timewe met in the Smyrna Convention Cen-ter for each meeting, but now we movearound so we can make the meetingsmore convenient for collision profes-sionals to attend.”Meetings are held every other month, andthe topics of discussion and education arevaried from month to month. Batchelorsaid, “We try hard to feature ‘hot topic’speakers at each meeting, and often thehotter the topic, the higher the attendanceat the meeting.”

The 6H RuleIn the state of Georgia, one hot topic issueis environmental regulations and compli-ance. The GCIA is working with the Geor-gia Small Business EnvironmentalAssistance Program (SBEAP) to educatecollision shops about a new federal airemissions regulation, known as the 6Hrule. The Georgia SBEAP is a non-regula-tory program of the Georgia Environmen-tal Protection Division that provides freeassistance to small businesses to help themcomply with environmental regulations.Rachel Cochran, Public Affairs Coordina-tor for the Georgia SBEAP, explained therole the GCIA is playing in educatingGeorgia collision businesses about the newregulation and compliance. “The GeorgiaSBEAP is a small program of mostly en-vironmental scientists and engineers,” shesaid. “and we have limited ability to com-municate to 3,000 Georgia collision shopsefficiently on the subject of the 6H Rule.”Instead of mass mailings with invalid ad-dresses and misdirected communication,the GCIA has helped communicate the re-quirements of the 6H rule to its membersand to collision shops in the Atlanta area.The GCIA has also facilitated educationalclasses where its members and other colli-sion industry technicians have been able tolearn about the regulatory requirements ofthe 6H rule.

“The GCIA has hosted two rounds oftraining, where one of our technical staffhas presented an environmental trainingpresentation on 6H.,” said Cochran. “Al-though the presentation itself is fairlyshort, there are always many questionsfrom attendees who are concerned abouthow the new regulations will affect theirbusiness. Because of the GCIA, we havebeen able to reach these people in ways wecould not otherwise.”

Each collision repair technician in thestate of Georgia is to be formally trainedon the regulations in the 6H rule by Janu-ary 10, 2011. For new shops, techniciansmust be trained within 180 days of hiring.New regulations include how to applypaints in a way that reduces air emissions,how to properly clean a spray gun and re-duce air emissions, and more.

“We have a really valuable stake-holder group,” said Cochran. “It includespeople in the collision industry, companieslike Akzo Nobel, Sherwin-Williams, Fin-ishMaster and PPG, and groups like theGeorgia Collision Industry Association.”In addition to its help with communication,the GCIA has assisted the EnvironmentalAssistance Program with staging mock in-spections. Cochran said, “We used the col-lision repair shop of a member of theGCIA, where collision shop owners andmanagers could use compliance checklisttools.”

“For many of these collision shopowners and managers this was their firstforay into compliance regulation,” she said.“This mock inspection setting gave theman better understanding of Rule 6H re-

quirements, and will help them be preparedin the event of a compliance inspection.”

Insurance RegulationBecause steering, the capping of repair andrefinish materials costs and suppressedlabor rates are such hot-button topics, theGCIA is becoming more active in govern-

ment issues. A relationship is being formedbetween the office of the Insurance andFire Safety Commissioner of the State ofGeorgia and the association. In December2008, Commissioner John Oxendine came

to the bi-monthly meeting todiscuss insurance regulation andthe rights of consumers and col-lision repairers as they relate toautomotive insurers.

Batchelor said, “Veryquickly, Mr. Oxendine realizedhe did not know very muchabout the collision industry andits relationship with automotiveinsurers, or the problems colli-sion repairers face. He asked theassociation to help educate himon these issues.”

In 2009, Batchelor andthree other GCIA members vis-ited the Commissioner’s officeto present him with an overview

of the pressing concerns of collision re-pairers. “We gave our presentation, andthen we came back to meet with himagain; we were able to suggest changes tohow insurance companies settle collisionrepair claims, and we offered ideas aboutways to strengthen some rules regulatingautomotive insurers,” said Batchelor. He


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The Georgia Collision Industry Association (GCIA) Takes the Lead

Howard Batchelor

GCIA board at Nov. 09 golf tournament. At left— FoundingMember and current GCIA Board Member, Gene Hamilton;2nd from the right—Founding Member and past executive Di-rector, David Bourne; At right—Current Board Member RustyWalker.

commented that the association is contin-uing to work with Commissioner Oxen-dine and his office to make changes thatstrengthen the automotive industry,adding: “change doesn’t happenovernight.”

Assisting Collision Repair ShopsThe education opportunities that the GCIAoffers are numerous. In addition to theclasses concerning the 6H rule that GCIAhas facilitated, GCIA members have hadthe opportunity to learn under the teachingof Mike Anderson, AAM; the Society ofCollision Repair Specialists (SRCS) hasalso taught a class on lean operations forthe GCIA.

The GCIA offers member benefits—some which are suited to independent col-lision repair facilities and some that arebetter-suited to dealerships. “We offercredit card service agreements, the abilityfor our members to purchase office sup-plies at a discount, to purchase apparel fortheir employees and more,” said Batche-lor. “Another important benefit area in-volves financial planning and successionplanning for repair shop owners—givingthem the tools their need to make sound fi-nancial decisions.”

This year the GCIA is involved in itsfourth annual labor rate survey, in whichmetro Atlanta-area collision body shops

are asked questions about their business.The survey, conducted by a third party, isprovided to about 850 shops, and asksquestions about labor rates, how muchbusiness it takes to cover costs and make aprofit, and more. “Each year more andmore shops respond,” said Batchelor.“And each year, the information we re-ceive is better and better.” In addition tobeing posted on the GCIA Web site, thesurvey results are provided to membersand forwarded directly to the Office of theInsurance and Fire Safety Commissionerof Georgia.

Fostering Camaraderie“One of the biggest benefits to a member-ship in the GCIA is the opportunity to net-work with other shop owners andmanagers,” said Dorsey. “Many times Ican spend time at the bi-monthly meetingstalking with people I wouldn’t come intocontact with otherwise.” Dorsey continuedby explaining that the bi-monthly meetingsgive collision professionals a chance tooffer pointers to each other, and an oppor-tunity to make suggestions to each otherconcerning repair procedures or workingwith customers. “The real-life knowledgewe gain from each other at these meetingscan make business life a little easier,” hesaid. Dorsey has been a GCIA membersince its founding in 1997.

GCIA hosts an annual golf tourna-ment—this year is the 14th annualevent—which gives members who partic-ipate an opportunity to network and meetother industry professionals. In fact,many Georgia collision industry profes-sionals who are not GCIA members par-ticipate yearly. The proceeds from theevent are donated to various charities, andthe location changes from year to year.More information on the upcoming 14thannual tournament is available on theWeb site.

Community Involvement and Consumers’Rights“It is important that the general public un-derstands that the GCIA is not just an as-sociation that represents collision shopsand businesses,” said Batchelor. “We arecommitted to educating consumers abouttheir rights in the event of an accident.”

The GCIA Web site (www.GCIA.org) of-fers information that consumers can use asthey work with their insurance companytoward a quality, complete repair. The Website recommends questions that consumersshould ask their insurer before and duringthe repair process concerning subjects likeaftermarket parts versus OEM parts. “Ul-timately, we as collision professionals arehere to serve the consumers,” said Batch-elor. “Without the consumers our busi-nesses would not succeed. Workingtogether, collision repairers and consumerscan achieve a high-quality repair follow-ing an accident.”

In addition to consumer rights edu-cation, the GCIA has projects through-out the year that demonstrate theirloyalty and support of their customersand communities. One such projecttakes place in the spring each year dur-ing prom season, with a vivid demon-stration aimed to keep teenagers fromdrinking and driving. GCIA will place acrashed car at the entrance to severalhigh schools in the Atlanta area, hopingto show the results of horrific crashes—even if the human losses are not seen.“If it makes a kid take a second thought

about drinking and driving, then [thedisplay] has done its job,” Batchelorsaid.

Informational PresenceThe GCIA Web site was developed and ismaintained by a GCIA member who nowhas his own marketing and consultingbusiness. Richard Arnold, owner of KeyConcept Services, began working on theoriginal GCIA Web site in 2000. To keepup with changing technology and to ensurethe GCIA Web site is at the forefront of in-dustry information, a new site was devel-oped and unveiled in the spring of 2009.“For an industry web site, the GCIA Website stays very up-to-date,” said Arnold. “Iam always looking for hot topic stories thatwill generate conversation or provide in-formation to GCIA members, collisionprofessionals or consumers.”

The GCIA Web site offers consumersprint outs about their rights,and gives them the opportunityto find GCIA member collisionrepair shops. It provides colli-sion repairers with schedulesfor training and opportunitiesfor seminars and classes, andgives GCIA members informa-tion on upcoming meetings,their locations, speakers andtopics.

The GCIA is excitedabout the opportunities forgrowth and education that areahead in its 14th year of organ-ization. For more informationabout membership, visit theWeb site at www.GCIA.org or

contact GCIA Executive Director HowardBatchelor. If you are a member of theGCIA, now is a great time to really get in-volved as the association works to achieveits goals. Any association is stronger withmore members who are active and pas-sionate about its principles, and the GCIAis no different. The next opportunity formembers to really get involved is at theMarch 18th meeting at the Crowne PlazaAtlanta. From 6:30–9:30 that night, theGCIA will hear from several of the candi-dates who are running for the office ofGeorgia Insurance Commissioner—justone more way the association is workingto benefit collision professionals and con-sumers alike.

Rachael J. Mercer is a freelance writerbased in McDonough, Ga. She can bereached at [email protected].


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Last month we started this FAQ sectionwithout adequate ex planation about whatit was or where it came from. That was atechnical mistake when we shortened thearticle to fit the space available but neg-lected to include these comments at theend of the article. Please see last month’sAutobody News for the first part.

The Federal 1990 Clean Air ActAmendments required states to establish aSmall Business Environmental AssistanceProgram (SBEAP) to provide technical,administrative, and regulatory support forsmall businesses. The SBEAP staff serveas a liaison between the regulatory agen-cies and small business. The SBEAP doesnot have regulatory enforcement authority.Confidentiality is maintained when repre-senting the interest of a small business.

What does SBEAP do?The SBEAP provides free, confidentialtechnical assistance to small businesses inyour state to help them come into compli-ance with federal and state air emission re-quirements, using a variety of assistancemethod.The types of assistance providedthrough the SBEAP include:

● Informing businesses of requirements inthe Act that apply to them as well as anyapplicable dates● Maintaining a list of affected industryfor information distribution● Disseminating up-to-date informationabout the Act to the small business com-munity, including easy to understand pub-lic information materials● Helping small businesses deal with spe-cific technical, administrative, and com-pliance problems● Making necessary referrals● Providing training opportunities

16. How does the rule apply if you canexempt out from the targeted HAPS butstill have MeCl used for paint stripping,thereby subjecting you to the rule?A: This is a tricky question. §63.11170says that you are subject to this subpart ifyou operate an area source of HAP andyou perform one or more of the activitiesin (a) (1) through (3) – i.e., • Strip paintusing MeCl • Spray apply coatings tomotor vehicles • Spray apply target-HAPcontaining coatings onto plastic or metalsubstrate parts. The rule says[§63.11170(a) (2)] that you can petition foran exemption from this subpart if you candemonstrate that your automotive coatingsdo not contain target HAP. This says thatyou can petition for an exemption from thesubpart (not just the coating provisions) ifyou do not use HAP containing vehiclecoatings.

Would this also exempt you from the

other parts of the subpart, i.e., the MeClrequirements?A: No, this probably could have beenstated better. Our intent was that the peti-tion would exempt them from the require-ments associated with that specific sourcecategory.

Alternatively, if you are a shop thatcan show that you do not use HAP con-taining coatings in the vehicle painting, butyou do use MeCl, does the fact that youuse MeCl override the exemption that youcould receive, and would you still be sub-ject to all the provisions of the subpart –including those associated with the coat-ing e.g., certified painters, filtered spraybooths, HVLP guns or equivalent, non-at-omized gun cleaning? The issue is whethereach of the 3 activities and related GACTcontrols addressed in §63.11170 (a) can beconsidered separately, or (as the wordingof the rule seems to indicate) if any of thethree activities is occurring at your shop,are you subject to the entire rule’s provi-sions? We think the intent of the rule wasto consider the different categories of prac-tices (i.e., MeCl practices vs coating prac-tices) separately. However, the wording of§63.11170 says “you are subject to thissubpart if you … perform one or more ofthe activities in paragraphs (a) (1) through(a) (3) of this section.” Are we reading thewording correctly that if you are in for anyof those 3, you are in for all of them?A: We intended the applicability and re-quirements for each source category to bedistinct.

17. Where is the documentation for sub-mitting to EPA?A: Typically companies that are subject toother hazardous air pollutant rules simplysend a letter to the local or state air agency,or to EPA (depending on which has the au-thority for the rule), and conveys whateverinformation is necessary. Some states aredeveloping templates that might be usefulfor those subject to the rule. Also, EPA hassome example forms that can be found at:http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/area/arearules.html#imp.

18. What is a new facility? [move loca-tion, name change, owner change]A:According to the rule (§63.11171):• A new sourcei. Commenced construction after Septem-ber 17, 2007 by installing new paint strip-ping or surface coating equipment ANDii. The new paint stripping and surfacecoating equipment is used at a facility thatwas not actively engaged in paint strippingand/or miscellaneous surface coating priorto September 17, 2007iii. Note that if you purchase and installspray booths, enclosed spray gun cleaners,paint stripping equipment to reduce MeCl

emissions, or purchase new spray guns tocomply with this rule at an existing source,these actions would not make your exist-ing source a new source.• An existing source is a source that isnot new or reconstructed (reconstructedsources are generally those that have re-placed components to such an extent thatthe fixed capital cost of the new compo-nents exceeds 50% of the cost that wouldbe required to construct a comparablenew source and it is technologically andeconomically feasible for the recon-structed source to meet the relevant stan-dards)

So is an existing source that moves to anew location a new source?A: No, unless they “replace componentsto such an extent that the fixed capital costof the new components exceeds 50% ofthe cost that would be required to constructa comparable new source and it is techno-logically and economically feasible for thereconstructed source to meet the relevantstandards”

Is an existing source that is bought outby another company a new source?A: No, unless they “replace the compo-nents at the existing source to such an ex-

tent that the fixed capital cost of the newcomponents exceeds 50% of the cost thatwould be required to construct a compara-ble new source and it is technologicallyand economically feasible for the recon-structed source to meet the relevant stan-dards”

19. How does this rule apply to an indi-vidual company painting their own ve-hicles?A: There are two kinds of vehicles to beconsidered here.• If the vehicle that is to be painted is in-tended to remain at the facility indefi-nitely after refinishing (e.g., miningequipment, fork lifts, farm equipment)then that refinishing is considered to bepart of the facility maintenance and is notsubject to the rule. [§63.11180(a) (2) and§63.11180]• If the vehicle that is to be painted is onethat does not stay at the facility indefinitelyafter refinishing (e.g., delivery trucks), thecoating of that vehicle is subject to therule.

20. What does the phrase “records ofany assessments of source compliance”mean in §63.11177(h)?


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A: Intended to be any documentation usedby the source to determine whether theycomply, and whether any changes have oc-curred over the previous year that mayneed to be reported.

21. How will enforcement agencies findthose cash businesses that don’t havebusiness licenses, etc?A: Typically those facilities will be foundthrough complaints from neighbors, byemployees who inquire about safety re-quirements, and by competitors who areconcerned about the cost of unequal en-forcement.

22. What are the penalties for not com-plying with the rule?A: The penalties depend on several fac-

tors, such as the gravity of the offence,the economic benefit that the businessgained by not complying, the company’sefforts to come into compliance, the sizeof the company, the actual or potentialharm that the offence caused, how longthe offence occurred, etc. Under theClean Air Act EPA is allowed to assesspenalties of up to $32,000 per day per vi-olation. The implementing agency hasdiscretion when assessing penalties.States have their own policies that guidepenalties. EPA can still enforce if the statetakes delegation, but we work together.EPA also has the option to pursue viola-tions as criminal offences – generally ifthe offence involves intentional environ-mental crimes.

23. If paint contains Cr+3 rather thanCr+6, will that affect whether it is con-sidered to contain the target HAPs? [Afull answer still coming…]


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2010 ASRW Partnering Program Kicks-Off,Strong Industry SupportASRW 2010 reports strong industrysupport for this year’s events via theASRWPartnering Program (APP). TheAPP is designed to foster industry par-ticipation by partnering organizationssupporting the many segments of theautomotive service and repair industry.APP participants promote unified in-dustry involvement, while strengthen-ing their respective groups andmemberships.

The ASRW 2010 events will takeplace Oct. 10–13 at the Mandalay BayConvention Center in Las Vegas (nolonger during AAIW). ASRW is astand-alone event specifically createdfor all automotive service and repairprofessionals, enabling even more in-dustry segments to join under the um-brella. The high-quality educationalprogram is scheduled Oct. 10-13, aSunday through Wednesday day pat-tern; the comprehensive exhibits willbe open from Oct. 11-13, Mondaythrough Wednesday. ASRW currentlyfeatures the International AutobodyCongress & Exposition (NACE), spon-sored by theAutomotive ServiceAsso-ciation (ASA), the only event of itskind designed for the collision repair

professional; the Congress of Automo-tive Repair & Service (CARS), alsosponsored by ASA, the premier eventfor automotive service professionals; aswell as Auto Glass Week, dedicated tothe automotive glass professional.

“NABC has been a proud sup-porter of NACE and an active partici-pant in the ASRW Partnering Programsince its inception. Through the APPwe are able to promote the event, at-tract new attendees, and grow ourmembership all at the same time,” saysChuck Sulkala, NABC executive di-rector. “Our presence at NACE is vitaland allows us the platform with whichto highlight our community awarenessproject, NABC’s Recycled Rides –benefiting families and service organ-izations in need throughout the UnitedStates.”

The ASRW Partnering Program isintended to grow ever-stronger by en-compassing even more industry organ-izations and involvement. Should yourorganization wish to learn more aboutthe advantages and be considered as afuture APP participant, please contactPamela Miller, APP facilitator, today [email protected].


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Diamond Standard (a U.S.-based manu-facturer of high strength steel reinforce-ments, front steel bumpers, high densityfoam energy absorbers, full assembly stepbumper systems and bumper brackets) hasaccelerated the time frame for full certifi-cation of safety parts.

One or more worldwide recognizedcertification firms capable of ANSI stan-dard writing and certification auditing andmonitoring continuous part quality will beinvolved in the process.

Diamond Standard, as a supplier ofparts that replicate the safety and damage-ability characteristics of the OEM part, isconsidered to be the standard for safetyand damageability. Diamond Standardparts are dynamically and destructivelythird party tested vs. OEM service partswith test results validated by formerCrashworthiness experts from the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA).

One of whom, Jim Hackney, co-au-thored “New Car Assessment-Five StarCrash Rating-Vehicle Safety PerformanceCharacteristics.”

As pointed out by Mike O’Neal, pres-ident of Diamond Standard and Re-flexxionAutomotive, “The presentation atCIC and industry alerts by Diamond Stan-dard for five years show a problem exists

with safety parts from manufacturers whosubstitute both non-OEM material andparts manufacturing process to provide‘replacement’ parts. It’s on the manufac-turers, period. They provide zero backuptest and material data to large and smalldistributors who rely on them to provide acomparable part.”

The good news for the industry inlight of the current developments is qual-ity Diamond Standard Safety parts areavailable from Keystone locations nation-wide (www.keystone-auto.com/loca-tions.html). A special master data base forDiamond Standard parts has been filedwith CCC and expansion to other estimat-ing systems such as Audatex is imminent.

The Diamond Standard policy onsafety part replacement is OEM or Dia-mond Standard for the assurance that a re-pair using these safety parts will restorethe collision management system topredamaged condition when properly in-stalled.

For more information, visit:www.diamondstandardparts.com.

Diamond Standard Parts expedites safety parts certification

www.autobodynews.com

As a result of these studies, theAuto BodyPartsAssociation (ABPA), who representsmore than 150 manufacturers, distributorsand suppliers of aftermarket crash parts,has taken what SCRS views as a responsi-ble first step, stating to their members thatif sufficient testing is not available theyrecommend “discontinuation of the pro-duction and sale of these part types as wellas immediate notification to the estimatingsystems to eliminate these parts from theirdatabase.”

These studies were performed afterreceipt of concerns from various members’shops that there has been an increase in uti-lization of these aftermarket structural re-placement parts in the claims settlementpractices of certain insurance carriers.SCRS urges the collision repair industry tounderstand the magnitude of this issue, andto heed warning as well. SCRS recom-mends that collision repair professionalsuse exceptional caution when performingrepairs to consumers vehicles, and to onlyuse parts that will perform with the sameexpectation of quality and safety, bothupon installation, and for the life of the ve-hicle. SCRS also recommends that repairfacilities understand the liability associatedwith utilization of inferior parts, and toavoid being unduly influenced to utilizeany replacement part that has not under-gone credible independent testing to en-sure it meets quality and safety basedstandards.

“This is a serious issue, that has notreceived enough attention from the indus-try in the past,” reiterated Chess. “Theseparts are critically affecting the structuraldesign of a vehicle in its post-repair state.I think the ABPA has shown their leader-ship through their release, and we need tohold their members, the people and organ-

izations that manufacture and supply theseparts, accountable for the quality andsafety of their product. The OEMs put a lotof money into research and developmentto ensure that the end product operates re-acts and sustains damage in very specificway.Any replacement part made availableto the market should be required to havethat same expectation of performance.”

“This issue is concerning on so manylevels,” stated SCRS Executive DirectorAaron Schulenburg. “Obviously our mem-bers have to understand the liability impli-cations they have when making criticalrepair decisions such as part selection. Theproblem with many of these parts is that avisual inspection at the shop level oftencan’t uncover significant differences, likematerial or alloy variances. We can’t visu-ally see the difference in weight, or thatone part is .25 mm thinner than another;especially when the two aren’t side by sidefor comparison. It should also not be theresponsibility of the shop to make a deter-mination on which part is equivalent, ornot. If it is not quality, if it is not safe, itshouldn’t even make its way to the market;but they are. We have too many examples,even with current internal ‘quality assur-ance programs’ in place, that they arebeing manufactured, sold, and utilized, de-spite not meeting the most basic of re-quirements such as material composition.”

“Most importantly, there has to be away to address the individuals who alreadyhave parts that have now been deemed ‘in-ferior’ on their vehicle. It is not enough toaccept that suppliers will deal with theissue on case by case bases if, or when,there is a problem. If the process and in-frastructure are not in place, to support theability to notify consumers when a prob-lem has been identified, then we need tosignificantly fix that infrastructure beforemore parts are sold. If there is a parts prob-lem generated from the OEM, there is anelaborate recall process in place. Every

consumer is notified and their vehicle iscorrected. These critical safety partsshould not be treated with any less ur-gency. This is an issue that requires aproactive solution, rather than reactive; themotoring public deserves more,” Schulen-burg added.

SCRS has made the presentations pre-pared by Chess available on their websiteat www.scrs.com. [Toby’s article on thesubject can be read at www.autobo-dynews.com.] We encourage every mem-

ber of the industry to ensure you are fa-miliarized with this issue. It is importantfor the repair industry to understand thesubject matter, and it is also SCRS’ hopethat the insurance industry will exhibitequal concern over the seriousness of anissue that impact both industries, and thecustomer base we each serve. This willcontinue to be an area of significant focusfor the association in the upcoming year,and will continue to share information onthe subject as it develops.


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Genuine Mitsubishi replacement Crash Parts are close at hand through the followingquality dealerships. They o!er exceptional customer service, wide selection of in-stockparts and the experience necessary to ensure your repairs proceed smoothly.

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Tech Notes

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

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

with Jeremy HayhurstPublisher’s Page

with Karyn HendricksShop Showcase

with David M. BrownShop Showcase

Shop Showcasewith Jeremy Hayhurst

Hey Toby!with Toby Chess

California Autobody Associationwith David McClune

Collision Repair Association of CA.with Richard Steffen

Insurers Excel at Steeringwith Richard Steffen

Year in Quoteswith John Yoswick

Transition Planningwith John Yoswick

Mainstream Media

My Turnwith Joe Momber

Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

[email protected]

In a recent February 4th announcement,the California Autobody Association(CAA) called on the California AttorneyGeneral’s office to research the affects ofconsumers receiving unsafe structuralsafety parts in their repairs. This will bean on-going development as CAA assistsin their investigation.

“CAA and its members are very con-cerned about the structural integrity of allrepairs. We are starting to get calls frommembers and asking questions about howthe recent developments on safety parts aregoing to affect their business,” said CAA

Executive Director, David McClune. “One member was quoted as stating

that “safety before profit” has to be themoniker of the collision repair industry.Those insurers that are still utilizing theseparts in question must put the consumer’ssafety first.”

In the meantime, a number of insur-ance companies, including GEICO and Es-urance, have issued statements regardingthe non-use of structural aftermarket safetyitems such as bumper reinforcements,brackets, and core supports. This quick re-action from these insurers is exactly what

the industry is demanding and these insur-ers should be commended. We hope otherinsurers will follow these carriers lead torequire OEM-only or recycled OEM forthese types of safety parts.

It has been the CAA’s position foryears that there has been a lack of traceabil-ity and the repairer needs to have the abil-ity to track these structural aftermarketsafety parts in the event of a recall. In orderto protect the consumer, we believe that atracking mechanism is needed to identifythese parts for the consumer’s benefit.

Therefore, the CAA has put together

an upcoming Special Industry ProjectMeeting with other associations, insurersand other related parties that will focus ondeveloping a way that collision repairerscan track the usage of structural aftermar-ket safety parts and match these to the con-sumers repaired vehicle. These kind ofstandards should be mandated through leg-islation and CAA has been exploring leg-islation this year in California that wouldaddress these specific issues.

Invitations are already being sent outon this Special Industry Project Meeting toall impacted parties.

CAA Members Want “Safety Before Profit”


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The Insurance Council of Texas has re-ported that the number of people injuredand killed in automobile accidents inTexas has continued to decline since 2003.Both fatalities and injuries are down morethan 20 percent since the Texas Depart-ment of Transportation took over recordkeeping of state traffic reports seven yearsago. Texas Department of Transportationstatistics show the number of injury acci-dents and fatal accidents in the state havedropped in five of the last six years.

A spokesman for the Insurance Insti-tute for Highway Safety (IIHS) said Texasis following a national trend. “Nationally,crash rates have fallen to historic lows,”said Russ Rader at the IIHS. Safer vehi-cles and roads, higher safety belt use and,currently, the economy are contributing tothe lower injury and fatality rates, accord-ing to the IIHS. Several new auto safetyfeatures not only minimize injuries in ac-cidents, but help drivers in avoiding somecollisions. More vehicles on the road todayare equipped with electronic stability con-trol systems that can help prevent loss ofcontrol and roll-overs. Other safety fea-tures on newer cars include side airbags,lane departure warnings, forward collisionwarnings and active head restraints.Whilecrashes and injuries have gone down, autoinsurance rates have remained stable in

Texas due to increased medical costs andthe expense of repairing new vehicles, theICT says. The National Association of In-surance Commissioner’s (NAIC) most re-cent report lists Texas as 19th among statesin auto insurance premiums.

The Texas Department of Transporta-tion (TxDOT) defines a reportable motorvehicle traffic accident as any crash in-volving a motor vehicle on a road way, re-sulting in the injury or death of any person,or damage to the property of any one per-son to the extent of $1,000.

Since the passage of Oklahoma’s gradu-ated driver’s license law in 1999, the num-ber of fatality crashes involving 16- and17-year-old drivers has dropped from 75in 2000 to a low of 39 in 2008.

The numbers include wrecks thatkilled teens and others where a 16- or 17-year-old was behind the wheel of at leastone of the vehicles involved.

Although the 2009 totals are notavailable, officials say preliminary data in-dicates there were 38 fatal crashes lastyear involving drivers ages 16 and 17,which would be a new low.

“This is really good news,’’ said AliceCollinsworth, spokeswoman for the Okla-homa Highway Safety Office. “We’re veryhappy to see statistically that the GDL ishaving the effect of saving lives.’’

The total number of crashes involving 16-and 17-year-old drivers dropped from 11,837in 2000 to 7,597 in 2008, Collinsworth said.

The data released this month involveda study of drivers ages 16 to 17 who wereinvolved in crashes after the creation ofthe graduated driver’s license, which law-makers passed in 1999 and amended andstrengthened in 2005.

The law as of 2005 allows 16-year-olds who have had a learner’s permit for sixmonths to obtain an intermediate license, ifthey have passed a driver-education course,

have at least 40 hours behind the wheel,have no traffic convictions and have passedthe driving skills examination.

With the intermediate license, a 16-year-old can drive except during the hours between11 p.m. and 5 a.m., or any time when accom-panied by a licensed driver who is at least 21.

At the age of 161/2, after six monthswith an intermediate license, teenagers canobtain unrestricted licenses if they have noconvictions on their driving records.

Without driver’s education, teens gothrough the graduated driver’s licensephases but must wait a year longer beforetheir intermediate license becomes an un-restricted license.

Scott Watkins, Highway Safety Of-fice director, said the study shows the lawis having the intended effect.

“This is great news for Oklahomans,’’Watkins said. “Our goal is to make ourroadways as safe as possible for people ofall ages, and the statistics show that thegraduated driver’s license is saving lives.’’

The new highway safety report showsthat, from 2000 to 2008, 16- and 17-year-olds made up 3 percent of the licenseddrivers in the state, but drivers from thatage group accounted for 7.1 percent of thecrashes reported in Oklahoma and were in-volved in 4.7 percent of fatal crashes.Source: The Oklahoman, newsok.com

Insurance Council of Texas Says Auto Injuries Down Alcohol-Related Teen Fatalities Drop in Oklahoma

Oregon Posts Ratemaking DataThe Oregon Insurance Division will begiving consumers access to all of thedata that regulators receive when eval-uating rate change requests. The divi-sion posts insurers’ rate filings on awebsite and gives the public a chanceto post comments. The Oregon divisionreviews rates for individual policies,plans for employers with 2–50 em-ployees, and portability plans.

The rate filings give informationabout what insurers spend on salaries,broker commissions, marketing andadvertising, and other administrativeexpenses, officials say.

or watches, etc., potentially damaging thegloves.

Protective Leather OutersInsulated rubber gloves should be protectedwhile being worn with protective leatherouter gloves. OSHA excludes the limiteduse of Class 00 and Class 0 gloves fromthis requirement. That is because for mostindustries, these lighter gloves are usedwhere high finger dexterity might beneeded to handle small equipment andparts, and leather outers might be too bulky.

For most work on hybrid vehicles,however, leather outers are highly recom-mended by the glove manufacturers andvehicle makers. The leather helps preventcatching the rubber gloves on sharp sheetmetal parts and frayed wiring, possiblypuncturing the rubber.

The leather outers should be exclusivefor this purpose. Do not use the leather out-ers as general use gloves. The leather out-ers should be sized and shaped so that therubber glove is not deformed. The top ofthe cuff of the leather outer should beshorter than the rolled top of the insulatedrubber glove by at least 13 mm (1/2 in).

The leather outers should be inspectedjust as often as inspection of the insu-lated rubber gloves. They should not haveholes, tears, or other defects that affecttheir ability to give protection to the insu-lated rubber gloves. The inner surface ofthe leather outers should be inspected forsharp or pointed objects.

Care should be taken to keep the out-ers away from oils, greases, chemicals, sol-vents, and other materials that maydamage the insulated rubber gloves. Thisalso goes for the insulated rubber gloves.

Insulated rubber gloves are availablefrom some manufacturers in kit form,which includes the leather outers and acanvas bag for storage.

Testing at a Testing FacilityInsulated rubber gloves are tested beforebeing sold, but that’s not the last test. Thegloves should be tested every six monthsby an official testing facility. Once thegloves are removed from the plastic bagthey were shipped in, they start to deterio-rate. So even if they are used only once,they will require retesting in six monthstime. If the gloves were purchased, but notput into use for several months, retestingmay be required before the gloves are evenused for the first time. OSHA states thatthe gloves may not be used if they haven’tbeen tested within the previous 12 months.

Find the nearest testing facility bydoing an Internet search for “glove test-ing.” The testing is not done differently de-

pending on the facility you find. TheASTM standard includes requirements thatevery testing facility must follow. Thestandard requires that the testing facility:

* wash the gloves.* do a preliminary inspection similar towhat is done in the field.* do a more detailed inspection which in-cludes turning them inside out and may in-clude inflating them with air.* make any necessary repairs.* do an electrical test.

Note in the table in Figure 1 that theelectrical retest is at a higher-rated voltagethan the initial test. The gloves are electri-cally tested while filled with water and im-mersed in a water bath. The test voltage isapplied between one and three continuousminutes.

Once the testing is completed, the testfacility may note the date of the test di-rectly on the gloves. Employers are re-quired to certify that the gloves have beentested in accordance with the OSHA re-quirements. This can be done by noting theresults and dates of the test in a log, or bynoting whether the test dates are printed onthe gloves. The test facility we contacteddoes print the test dates directly on thegloves and maintains seven years of re-ports, which can be provided to the repairfacility if ever needed.

ConclusionClass 0 insulated rubber gloves, or line-man’s gloves, are required wheneverworking near high voltage parts on an elec-tric or hybrid electric vehicle. There arestrict requirements for using, protecting,storing, inspecting, and testing of thesegloves. If you are a technician assigned todo work on one of these vehicles, becomefamiliar with the glove requirements.

There are, of course, a lot more pre-cautions that should be taken when work-ing near high voltage parts on an electricor hybrid electric vehicle beyond just theinsulated rubber gloves. The I-CAR courseElectric And Electric Hybrid Vehicles(ALT01) discusses these safety precau-tions. Vehicle makers also provide safetytraining for hybrid vehicles. Toyota, for ex-ample, offers instructor-led trainingcourses “Toyota Hybrid Collision Repair”and “Toyota Prius Collision Repair” atthree training sites in the U.S. For more in-formation on this training, visit www.cr-rtraining.com.

We would like to give thanks to KimSchneider, an independent electrical con-tractor based in Philadelphia, PA, for hisassistance with alerting us to the multipleissues with these insulated rubber gloves.


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ASA Urges Repairers to Contact Committee Members to Oppose Model Parts ActThe National Conference of InsuranceLegislators (NCOIL) Property and Casu-alty Insurance Committee Spring 2010meetings will be held Friday, March 5,through Sunday, March 7 in Isle of Palms,SC. The Automotive Service Association(ASA) has asked repairers to contact statelegislators who serve on this committeeprior to the meetings regarding an after-market parts model act that is on NCOIL’sagenda. The Property-Casualty InsuranceCommittee meetings commence Fridaymorning.

ASA asks repairers to contact com-mittee members in opposition to theModel Act Regarding Motor VehicleCrash Parts and Repair. This model acthas several key provisions that are harm-ful to the automotive repair industry.

These provisions include the currentlanguage on certified replacement crashparts and their equivalency to OEM parts,the lack of required written consent by theconsumer for the use of replacement crashparts as well as other concerns and lan-guage in Section 6, Choice of Repair Fa-cility.

To contact your state legislators whoare on the committee regarding this pro-posed NCOIL model act, please go toASA’s legislative Web site at www.Tak-ingTheHill.com. The letter is found in the

“CurrentAlerts” section.A list of state leg-islators serving on the committee follows:Chair: Sen. Ruth Teichman, Kan.Co-Vice Chair: Sen. Jake Corman, PA.Co-Vice Chair: Rep. Steve Riggs, Ky.Rep. Kurt Olson, AlaskaAssem. William Barclay, N.Y.Rep. Greg Wren, Ala.Assem. Nancy Calhoun, N.Y.Sen. Larry Teague, Ark.Sen. William J. Larkin Jr., N.Y.Sen. Joe Crisco, Conn.Sen. James Seward, N.Y.Rep. Perry Thurston Jr., Fla.Sen. Keith Faber, OhioRep. Rich Golick, Ga.Rep. Jay Hottinger, OhioSen. Vi Simpson, Ind.Rep. Robert Godshall, Pa.Rep. Ron Crimm, Ky.Rep. Brian Kennedy, R.I.Rep. Robert Damron, Ky.Sen. David Bates, R.I.Rep. Ted Edmonds, Ky.Rep. Charles Curtiss, Tenn.Rep. Chuck Kleckley, La.Rep. Craig Eiland, TexasSen. Dan Morrish, La.Rep. Hubert Vo, TexasRep. Marc Corriveau, Mich.Del. Harvey Morgan, Va.Sen. Alan Sanborn, Mich.Rep. Kathleen Keenan, Vt.Rep. Mike Colona, Mo.Rep. Virginia Milkey, Vt.Sen. Buck Clarke, Miss.Sen. Bob Dearing, Miss.Sen. Dean Kirby, Miss.Rep. George Keiser, N.D.Sen. Jerry Klein, N.D.Rep. Don Flanders, N.H.Sen. Carroll Leavell, N.M.


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