Professional Distributor - S9

PRODUCTS RELATED TO THIS REPAIR
Dent Fix Equipment
MAXI DF-505/220V

For more information visit
VehicleServicePros.com/
21143383

H&S Autoshot

Dual-Spotter Deluxe,
No. UNI-9700

For more information visit
VehicleServicePros.com/20844073

Polyvance

Hot Spot Cordless
Plastic Stapler

For more information visit
VehicleServicePros.com/21039886

capacitive discharge in order to deliver the
necessary power in short timeframes to
avoid overheating the welded material.
Another difference when dealing
with aluminum is that the metal oxidizes quickly. During preparations, the
surface will need to be brushed with a
stainless-steel brush dedicated to only
aluminum repairs to avoid cross contamination, Sponhaltz recommends.
Furthermore, aluminum does not have
the same "memory" as mild steel, so a different technique will need to be utilized
when pulling an aluminum dent versus
a steel dent.
"In order for you to create a new
memory, not only do you have to start
pulling on it with a pulling tool, you have
to also apply heat while you're pulling so
that you give it a new memory," Sponhaltz
says. "There's a whole other tool, and a
whole other bag of tricks you're going to
need to work with aluminum than you
would to work with steel."
As procedures and equipment adjust
according to the metal at-hand, so are
there changes to welding repairs when
handling plastics. Kurt Lammon, president of Polyvance, explains that some
shops may not be performing plastic
repairs whatsoever, as they may perceive obstacles that prevent them from
completing such repairs. A major reason
shops may avoid repairing plastics is the
belief that insurance will not pay enough
to complete the repair. But in fact, shop
owners who initialize welding services

for plastic repair may find they can avoid
facilitating replacements and even bring
more business in-house.
"Unfortunately for the shops, the
profit margin on replacement parts is
not as high as the labor profit margin,"
Lammon says. "They need to look as
much as possible for opportunities to sell
labor, and plastic is a great place to look
for that because plastics almost always
are not structural items. Bumper covers,
headlight tabs, inner fender liners, washer
bottles ... you open the hood and probably 90 percent of what you see is made
of plastic, other than the engine block
itself. There is a lot of opportunity for
plastic repair in collision damage. Shops
just need to be able to have the right
equipment and training to take advantage of that, so they can increase their
gross profit margin overall by doing more
labor and billing for more labor hours."

THE MORE YOU KNOW...
A reason shops may turn to replacing
parts, or subbing work out to nearby
shops, or even turning business away,
may be because they do not have the
right training on the service requested.
Not only that, but should insurance not
allow for the necessary time to complete
a repair, welding may not be fiscally
worth the trouble for the shop. This is
why welding equipment manufacturers
emphasize providing education and training on their equipment and the welding
services such equipment can render.

"We hold several clinics a year
throughout the U.S.," Swanson says. "It's a
clinic to show technicians and shop proprietors how the equipment works. It's a
clinic to review with them what that metal
is, the characteristics of that metal, and
our recommendations on how to work
with that metal, using a lot of what we
know, what OEMs have suggested, and
what I-CAR has suggested." Swanson
continues to say that such education is
not only intended to teach best practices,
but that those armed and trained with
such knowledge can defensibly dispute
insurance time constraints.
"We're giving them arrows for their
quiver," Swanson says. "When that [insurance] agent comes in and they want to be
argumentative over a repair process, now
they (the shop owners and/or technicians)
have something."
Swanson says explaining times and
procedures needed to work with varying
materials can assist in receiving more
time to complete repairs and bill labor
hours, ultimately yielding a more profitable collision repair shop.
It takes many elements woven together in order to successfully handle today's
collision repairs. Having the right tools
and training for the shop can help avoid
subbing repairs or steering work elsewhere. Educating and training can help
a shop ensure more billable hours. Preparing the shop to handle more materials,
more vehicles - old and new - can lead to
more business.

August 2020 I Collision Repair I 9
http://www.VehicleServicePros.com/ http://www.VehicleServicePros.com/20844073 http://www.VehicleServicePros.com/21039886
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