The Art of Professional Car Spray Painting and Bodywork Repair By Mario Goldstein

Anyone who owns a collision shop can tell you that the most costly item to the shop is the comeback repair. Re-do's can be the difference between being successful and losing, and they reflect poorly on the quality standards, not to mention the inconvenience to the customer.

All it takes is one dissatisfied customer and that can translate into bad word of mouth, which means bad reputation. Collision shop managers have to be very alert when it comes to quality assurance so that they have happy customers and as few negative comebacks as possible. Negative comebacks happen when there are such things as...

- shoddy repair work,
- poor paint finish, (dull topcoat),
- grind marks showing,
- paint cracks or runs
- or paint over spray on any part of the car,

but the worst problem of all is the mismatching of color.

Technicians and management usually share the responsibility, and, in some shops, the liability, so that it's a combination of the actual repair work and maintaining proper quality assurance levels. When a mistake happens, it is also a proper analysis of what went wrong, rather than who went wrong, and taking the appropriate steps to keep the problem from re-occurring.

The Characteristics of A Painter:
Paint technicians can be a tricky type of personality, if they aren't treated right, the works suffers, and that is why some shops are now making them share the responsibilities for their work.

Technicians, on the other hand, are the wind beneath the wings, so that it's a partnership between technicians and paint technicians, so that there is no one more important than the other. It is also true that while the painter is worth their weight in gold, they can't work their magic if there isn't a good quality of prep work.

Improper paint preparation is a disaster if it isn't done properly, and if the paint technician isn't as good as required, they won't spot the problem until it's too late. The proper quality standards must be put in place and properly adhered to, or those costly mistakes and comebacks will look like money disappearing out the door.

Anyone who owns a collision shop that has a good reputation knows that while the paint preparation and the topcoat are the end result, it is also the surface preparation that has equal importance. Like when you paint a house, the prep work, sanding, filling, and proper masking all have to be done properly; in fact, many paint companies suggest collision shops must stress proper training with attention to strict guidelines.

The time and attention to quality work that is invested in the beginning will result in less money driving out the door in costly comebacks later. If a shop is to be competitive, it must stress quality. "It is a poor worker who blames his tools", is the old adage, so if collision shop owners keep hearing those types of excuses, then they should really need to do some proper damage control before it's too late

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How to Polish and Buff Your Car Like the Pros - Car Bodywork By Mario Goldstein

There are terms like convex, concave and waffle. These are terms used in the business of polishing and buffing in the auto repair shop. To most people, polishing and buffing the car is something that they do on the weekend, but in the professional world, this function takes on a much different meaning because there are so many factors to consider in creating "the perfect finish", and they require a great deal of training, more than you'd think.

The polishing shop technician has a very important job. For instance, in order to get a good finish that really shines, it is necessary to deceive the eye. This is why a good technician will never use a concentric polisher, because they move in perfect circles. An eccentric polisher is one that moves off center. It has two functions, one is to distribute the compound evenly, by pushing it into the center - this allows the compound even distribution, and it also prevents splattering of the compound and two, it confuses the eye so that the eye doesn't see any light reflected in the lines left by a conventional concentric polisher.

As far as the tools used to get that perfect finish, there is some disagreement among technicians as to what to use, the standard wool or the newer foam buffing pads. Most quality paint manufacturers have good tips on the right way to buff and polish, and you can find them on the net.

The technicians who prefer wool say that it gives the best finish, whereas the technicians who prefer the foam pads claim that they like them because they don't leave bits behind after they go. Although foam pads are new, they are evolving like anything that is new.

A recent test was done with technicians who preferred wool, and several of those technicians said they preferred the newer foam to their old wool pads. Sometimes, a technician can be attached to their way of doing things and they will say that they like their way but they have never tried anything new in years.

They will say things like the pads they tried won't remove wet or dry sand scratches from the panel, and they had to go back to wool to finish the job, but, as I mentioned earlier, old ways die-hard. So they don't like to try new products, like the newer pads that are specially designed to be more like the wool pads, but without the drawbacks.

The three main types of newer foam polish pads are convex, concave and waffle and these types of pads are designed to create a compound pocket that guides the compound toward the center of the pad and not to the outside so it won't splatter. Each of the convex, concave, or waffle pads have their own highly specialized function, but the main goal in all of this is the brilliant finish achieved by the illusion that the eye sees.

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How to Protect Your Car Paint With the Art of Paintless Dent Removal By Mario Goldstein

The ding, the dent, the impression, all of these conjure up horrible images of the collision while thinking of how much this is going to cost you, but, in reality, for the most part, these dings, dents and impressions all have one thing in common - they can be fixed without the expensive paint jobs.

Whether it's the dips from hail, to dings from runaway shopping carts or opening car doors, small, cosmetic blemishes can be repaired in a matter of minutes, when done by a well-trained, skilled professional. Understanding the process will help you to know what to look for in these unfortunate circumstances.

Usually, collision shops don't do these smaller repairs themselves they outsource them to a smaller mobile service or they will offer paintless dent removal as an additional service. Dents from the size of a dime to 2 to 3 inches in diameter and larger can be handled by a qualified professional in anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.

In many cases the dent is so completely gone it will look like nothing was ever there, and in some other instances, all you would see to know that work had been done is a small black plug in the door end. Paintless dent removal is often the best way to retain the integrity of a custom paint job. In the hands of a qualified professional, 10 to 15 vehicles a day can be done with amazing results.

Not Always the Answer
The main concern in paintless dent removal is how much the metal was stressed (stretched) by the accident. The reason for this concern is that if the metal is stretched too much, then pushing it as it's done in paintless dent removal can distort the metal and ruin the paint.

The other consideration in paintless dent removal is the nature of the coating. Its age can make the coating brittle, or simply its condition as it left the factory. The reason that this is a concern for paintless dent removal is that a heat gun needs to be applied, and the above conditions can be very susceptible to heat ruining the coating.

Light is also used to determine all of the intricacies of the dented surface, so that there are no flaws showing when the job is complete.

Training, Techniques, and Tools
It takes more time than you might think to train as a paintless dent removal technician, it takes about 12 months to train to be a good one, and that's because you need to know all about access to the dent. Paintless dent removal technicians need to spend around $3,000 on tools because specialized tools are needed to access difficult areas in different makes and models.

So the next time you have a dent, ding, or crease, think about the paintless dent removal system, and ask if it can be done, if it can your pocketbook will thank you.

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