Mobile Painters vs. Body Shop Painters
3/1/2008
As a contributor to what I consider to be the finest publication in the collision repair industry, BodyShop Business, it pains me to read some of the articles published in it, such as “Mobile Painters vs. Body Shop Painters” [December 2007, pg. 56].
If the author, Tom Kronenwetter, truly believes what he wrote, then he
lacks the experience or knowledge of collision refinishing needed to
compare the two processes.
Those who have worked at a dealership body shop know the problems with
mobile painting. Those who haven’t may have no experience with mobile
painting, so I would like to enlighten them.
As any painter in the modern-day collision repair industry knows, OEM
finishes are impenetrable by solvents used in the context of
refinishing. Therefore, no technique, proprietary or not, can be
successfully used to spot repair a panel. If the entire panel isn’t
properly prepared and clearcoated, the new finish is doomed to fail,
regardless of how good it looks as the mobile painter is driving away.
The reason most paint manufacturers don’t recommend melting the paint
within a sail panel is due to this type of repair’s ultimate failure.
The sunlight quickly destroys the very thin layer of paint at the edge
of the “melt” or “blend.” I put both of those terms in quotes because
neither is correct. The new finish doesn’t melt the old finish, and it
certainly doesn’t blend into it. It merely lays on top of the OEM
finish, just waiting to be destroyed by the elements and leaving the
telltale noticeable edge.
Having run a dealership body shop for nearly 13 years, I’ve seen more
than my share of mobile paint jobs – most notably from the auctions
where our used car department purchased off-lease and early trade-in
vehicles. The auctions had a body shop and a mobile painter on the
premises. Nearly every vehicle we bought had the bumpers refinished
using this method, and we had to eventually repair or replace most of
these bumpers. Most couldn’t be repaired because of the need to strip
off all the mobile paint, something not economically feasible.
I’m not saying that mobile painting has no place in the world. What I
am saying is that it has no place in our industry. To make the
comparison between body shop painters and mobile painters is offensive
and demeaning to talented and hard-working collision re-pair
technicians.
While I’m sure Mr. Kronenwetter is good at what he does, he must have
been exposed to some pretty horrible quality collision repair if he
thinks he can produce a product in a parking lot comparable with that
of a quality body shop. I offer Mr. Kronenwetter a challenge: Confront
your local auto body association and offer to compare your best parking
lot work against the work of a quality body shop chosen by the
association. Judge the quality of the repair at the time it’s completed
and then one year later. If a blind comparison reveals comparable
quality, I’ll personally write an article praising the process, as I
have done in the past on paintless dent repair.
John Shortell, president
BodyShop Solutions
Mansfield, Conn.