The $665 Question
What’s dirty paint work cost you each month?
Play It Safe: “Culture of Safety”
Establish a “culture of safety” in your shop and insist your techs wear
(and properly use) safety equipment. Their families will thank you.
Roll With It Baby: Save Labor Time, Use Less Product and Get Build in Fewer Coats.
Sound good? Even if you use roll-on primer on only one car per day, you’ll still save roughly $3,000 a year.
Innovative (and Cool) Stuff for the Paint Shop
During the recent NACE show in Las Vegas, I made the rounds of the paint manufacturer’s display booths. (It’s nice to have them back at NACE, by the way.) My topic for this article is new paint technologies, and I was able to speak to someone knowledgeable at each of the booths. I simply asked
Renewing the Passion
People who’ve been writing bids, banging sheet metal and shooting color for most of their lives can end up indifferent and disgruntled. The “trickle down effect” may be just what you need to rekindle their love of the industry.
Painting Plastic Bumpers
To successfully paint plastic
parts, it’s no longer necessary to name the plastic first. Whether
thermoplastic or thermoset, today’s parts can be treated uniformly.
Letters
Dear Georgina: I enjoyed reading your article on paint judgment times [Editor’s Notes, March, pg. 6]. I see more and more insurance adjusters’ estimates calling for blend within the panels on repaired panels. Allstate and Farmers have been the worst for taking advantage of this. Once Allstate wanted to repair a quarter panel for 12
Gunning for You: HVLP Gravity-feed Spray
Becoming the industry’s “gun of choice,” HVLP gravity-feed spray guns save you money and do most of the work for you. I recently visited autobody paint shops in far corners of the country. Every single one was using gravity-feed spray guns, most of them high volume, low-pressure (HVLP). How did this style of spray gun
Paint Predictions & Amp; Educated Guesses
Which way is the wind blowing auto paint these days? I recently asked the major paint manufacturers what trends they saw on our near and far horizons. And because refinish paint technology tends to follow original equipment technology by several years and at a lower level of sophistication, they were able to make some pretty
Have You Hugged Your Air Compressor Today
The heart of any body shop is the compressed air system. Often mistreated and misunderstood, the air compressor is usually taken for granted – until it ceases to function. The cost of metal men not being able to sand and painters not being able to spray paint mounts really quickly when no one has any
