Computer-Assisted Alignment
Hardware-driven alignment gear has been around since the ’70s and has simplified wheel alignment quite a bit for operators.
A Well-Rounded Painter
If your customer-service index is high and your marketing efforts are giving your shop a healthy backlog of work, you know that what happens when vehicles reach your paint
department is critical to your continued success. And what goes on in your paint department is highly dependent upon the quality.
of painters you employ.
Small-Business Administration Loans
Ask 10 body shop owners to tell you the most frustrating aspect of running their businesses, and eight of them will probably name the area of financing. It’s no secret that obtaining adequate funding to meet day-to-day needs for working capital, equipment and facilities poses a major challenge.
Strategic Partnerships
No business exists in a vacuum, least of all a collision repair shop.
Tool Time: Common Hand Tools
Can you imagine finishing a weld with a file and emery cloth or sandpaper? Can you imagine prepping a panel for plastic filler with a piece of sandpaper powered only by elbow
grease? Can you imagine removing 25 different types of screws and bolts with a socket and a screwdriver – again, powered by
only elbow grease?
Extinguishing the Flames: Explosions
Explosions, by their very nature, come with no warning – leaving you only to react after the loud noise, after the side of your shop has been blown out, after one of your employees
is on his way to the hospital. That’s why it’s important to do everything you can to prevent explosions.
A Crash Course on Retrofits
As a collision repair specialist, air-conditioning service is part of your job. When your customers bring in their cars for repairs, you want to offer them all the services required.
Spraybooth Gadgets
Extras or gadgets can be added to almost everything sold these days. Even spraybooths.
More Than an Estimate
It used to be so easy to write an estimate. Easy, that is, until the ARMS people announced to the country: "A customer doesn’t need an estimate. The customer is in pain and wants his vehicle made whole again." This tiny piece of information had a huge – and dramatic – effect on many leading
Body Shop Boot Camp
While the collision shop of today is repairing existing vehicles, the cars of the future are off the drawing board and plans for production are underway. Increased use of aluminum and plastics, computerized navigational systems, crash-avoidance computers and sophisticated adhesives are all becoming part of our reality.