Balanced Budget
As more white collars enter the industry, shop owners need to become better business people by learning how to better manage their money.
Streamlining the Industry
Collision repair has been a fragmented and inefficient industry for years — but consolidators are hoping to change all that.
Straighten or Fill?
Many techs look at a job and immediately think about how to fill it, never considering straightening. In fact, some techs believe no job is complete without plastic filler.
The Inventory Ate My Profits
When you stack inventory on your shelves, you might as well be stacking dollar bills. The key is to control your inventory – instead of letting it control you.
No Bonding Allowed
It wasn’t long ago that the only choice a repair technician had to replace a quarter panel, roof or door skin was to cut it off and weld it back on.
Purchasing Power
Before you hand over the cash, rattle off your credit card account number or sign the bottom of a check, be sure you can justify the expense of that new piece of equipment.
S-TRSW Comes of Age
Modern body shop repair techniques have come a long way from straightening a frame with floor pots and pullers and banging away on dented fenders. These days, it’s a matter
of pulling substructures to exacting measurements with the use of high-tech frame machines and of attaching new body parts to
the straightened substructure.
Peak Performance: Maintaining the Equipment in Your Paint Shop
The investment in a state-of-the-art paint department can be mind boggling.
Rains, Planes and Dames
Name: J&L Auto Body Location: Summerville, S.C. Owners: John and Linda Disher Established: 1981 Square Footage: 10,000 Number of Employees: Nine Repair Volume: 12 cars per week (collision) Average Repair Ticket: $2,000 September 1989: The winds picked up. The heavy rains came. The ocean went crazy. Wreaking havoc on lives and properties, Hurricane Hugo stormed
From Wreck to Right
It’s a dark stormy night. You realize that you’ve strayed from the main paved road and are now traveling down a gravel one. The road is soft. Your vehicle isn’t handling well. It’s raining so hard that the car’s windshield wipers can’t keep up, and the ditches on both sides of the road are very