First, we want to clarify for you that there is no such thing as paint made by Toyota, Honda, Chevrolet, Ford, or any other vehicle manufacturer and then sold to anyone outside the production plant. In fact, suppliers such as Martin Senour, PPG, and Sherwin Williams, to name a few, supply repair facilities, including dealerships, with tints and products used in the refinish process. These facilities then use a room known as a mixing booth along with a sophisticated computer program tied into a very sensitive scale to mix the paint for each individual vehicle based on the Vehicle Identification Number, or, VIN. For you, this means that any repair facility with this equipment has the capability to mix the exact color of your vehicle based on the formula supplied by the manufacturer.

The refinish formula provided by the VIN also tells us if your vehicle has a 2-stage or 3-stage refinish process. Most vehicles with common colors are based on a 2-stage process. This process involves applying a base coat of color and a top coat of clear which protects and seals the base coat underneath. 3-stage formulas add a third mid-coat to the process which increases the time, knowledge, and materials required to produce a quality product and tends to be exponentially more expensive. An example of a 3-stage color would be fiery metallic pearl.

Price points also come into play depending on who refinishes your vehicle. Many people hear the ads for companies such as Maaco who offer vehicle refinishing packages starting at around $299.00. Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to refinishing your vehicle, you get what you pay for. The companies advertising like this will not be masking off your vehicle or removing necessary items and, chances are, they will not be performing any of the final stages after the vehicle is repaired such as removing any unwanted particles and buffing the final product. You could receive your vehicle back with unwanted debris in the finish or even with over-spray on the moldings, weather strips or lamps.

Next week, we will go over the actual process involved in the refinishing and go over a little on waterborne refinish versus solvent based.

Your vehicle has windshield washer fluid which is a generally a blue liquid, most people use their washers on a regular basis, but that is not a fluid which needs constant monitoring.

You then have the motor oil. Your vehicle has a dipstick generally on the side of a motor that indicates the level. If you have too much or too little oil your vehicle will give you indications that something is not right. The schedule of your oil change is based on the type of oil you are using. With a synthetic blend, or full synthetic your vehicle can go longer without having the oil changed. The only thing to remember with using those is once you start using them, you can not go back to regular oil.(If you know you are leaking oil check it at least on a every-other day or every-other week schedule depending on the leak.)

Transmission fluid is another important fluid that should be checked on a regular basis, at least once a month. The transmission fluid needs to be checked when the vehicle is warmed up. With some vehicles you will not be able to check the transmission fluid level yourself. In most cases though, you will have a dipstick similar to the engine oil dipstick. Once again the stick will read where the level needs to be. All vehicles do not take the same type of transmission fluid, the type of fluid is based on the type of vehicle you drive, check your manual for specifications.

Brake fluid is generally a small container that is on the side of the motor a bit away from the engine. It typically has a red or black top. That should be checked every other month.

Anti-freeze/ Coolant keeps the vehicle from overheating. That should be checked at least once a month. The type of coolant your vehicle requires varies as well. The type of coolant your vehicle requires may be listed on the radiator cap. Your vehicle has a container that holds extra coolant. It should have a fill line so you do not overfill. Keep in mind if you remove the radiator cap make sure that the vehicle is cool. If you open when hot the built up pressure will push the radiator cap and release any fluid that was in the radiator and pose a safety hazard.

We hope that this article helps you. This information relates to typical vehicles. Some manufacturers may have other or less common fluid types. And, as always, follow your manufacturer’s vehicle specifications.

Let’s look at the difference between OEM, aftermarket, and LKQ parts. OEM, or, Original Equipment Manufactured parts are parts made by the company who manufactured the vehicle. This could be Ford, Honda, Chevrolet, Toyota, or any other vehicle manufacturer. Aftermarket parts are parts supplied by a third party vendor from a company who has purchased the right to the specific designs or molds from the manufacturer and then produced and sold the items themselves. LKQ, or, Like Kind and Quality refers to reusable OEM used parts. These parts tend to come from salvage yards and are taken from vehicles where the part is reusable and fits your car per the manufacturer.

A few other terms commonly used that some might be unfamiliar with are flex additive, blend panels, and car cover. Flex additive is a product added to the refinish procedure that allows for the pliability of the paint on flexible parts such as bumpers and moldings. A blend panel is usually the panel(s) adjacent to the panel being repaired. A blend / feathering process is applied during the refinish operation of the repairs in order to ensure a color match between the repaired panel and the adjacent panels. Car covering is a protective plastic sheeting used to cover the rest of the vehicle which is not being refinished during the repair process. Often, you will hear that your vehicle’s antenna has to be removed in order to not puncture this sheeting and thereby allow over spray to settle on your vehicle.

We hope that this weeks blog has helped to educate you to some of the items you would see listed on your estimate. Often, it is the choice of you, the customer, and your insurance company, by way of your insurance policy, that dictates which parts a repair facility is obligated to place on the initial estimate. Some of these parts descriptions, which may even be listed in your policy, really aren’t explained to you very well by your agent or company.

Virginia is one of several states with a mandatory yearly vehicle safety inspection requirement. In theory, this is a great concept. Ensure that the vehicles on the road are in proper working order. So, one of the first things to ask yourself before you answer that adjuster’s question about your vehicle being drivable is, would my vehicle, in it’s current state, pass a state inspection. This is the most obvious way to determine the correct answer to give your insurance adjuster.

But wait, what if I am not sure what would and would not pass a state inspection you ask. In that case, a few things to consider are the things that we, as a collision repair facility look at during our initial inspection of your vehicle. Make sure all of your headlamps and tail lamps are functioning and the lenses are not broken. Broken lenses can allow moisture into the system and cause bulbs to fail without your realizing it and you can even be ticketed for broken tail lamp lenses. Also make sure that the headlamps are aimed properly as you want to be able to see at night and you don’t want to be blinding other drivers.

Other things to look at are, do you have a driver’s side mirror which will allow you to see behind you? Is the hood of your vehicle buckled to a point that air flow can get under it and cause it to fly up as you are going down the road? Is there undue stress on the hood lock that could cause it to give way suddenly? Is your coolant system compromised, or, can you smell antifreeze when you are standing outside of your vehicle? Is your driver’s door and handles functioning properly from both the inside and outside, or, if your door is hit, can it still open and close properly? Also look at your wheels and make sure that they are all aligned correctly. If one is far enough out for you to be able to see it is not right, you really should consider not driving the vehicle so you do not further compromise the suspension. Does the windshield have more damage then a few cracks or chips form the accident or did any of the other glasses get broken leaving glass in the vehicle?

These are just a few of the things to take into consideration before you answer the question of the drive ability of your vehicle. We want to be able to meet with you and go over the repair plan we will use to restore your vehicle to pre-loss conditions, however, more importantly we would rather you be safe and if your vehicle needs to be towed to us, we will be more then happy to work with you in that capacity also.

He stopped in one evening, shortly before closing. He was very concerned because he needed an alignment before his trip to D.C. We pulled his information and saw where he had an alignment in December. I asked him to take a breath and explain why he felt he needed another alignment. Come to find out, he recently had his vehicle in for the free state inspection from his dealer. While his vehicle passed the inspection, he was told his front tires needed to be replaced because they were worn out and the dealer told him it was due to a bad alignment. They also made it sound like, to the customer anyway, that he needed to have this done immediately or he could risk wrecking his vehicle due to a blow out.

Upon further inspection, we discovered that both the front and rear tires were worn out on both the inside and outside edges. This was not indicative of a bad alignment, but, rather showed that the tires were wearing due to improper inflation. We also let him know that, while he did need to consider replacing all four tires, he was in no immediate safety threat as there was still a good bit of tread on the edges and the center treads were still fine.

The owner pondered why his dealer service writer would have presented these issues to him now and in such a manner as to instill a slight sense of panic in the owner when he was having this particular vehicle serviced by them at regular intervals. Then he realized that they may have done this since his vehicle was now out of the factory warranty. While very little was ever found wrong with the vehicle before, he now felt there was a strong possibility he could no longer trust them to present the truth about the health of his vehicle to him.

The owner ended up getting a set of new tires put on the front of his vehicle that evening and coming back to see us the following morning to have a front alignment done. While we did need to set his steering wheel straight, the vehicle itself was well within alignment. We’ll be seeing a lot more of this customer’s vehicle and the dealer will be seeing a lot less of it and him.

Bottom line, the perks you can receive from factory dealers with the purchase of your vehicle are well worth embracing. However, at the end of the day, do not hesitate to treat your vehicle like you would your own body. If you aren’t comfortable with the diagnosis from one person, do not hesitate to get a second opinion. Especially from a facility you know you can trust to tell you the truth about what is happening.

The labor hour as known in the repair/service industry is a flat rate labor time used to promote standardization among shops and estimators. These times, provided in several different repair manuals and databases, were derived from time studies performed by the manufacturers. These studies took place in laboratory like environments on new vehicles that had never been involved in any previous repair scenarios. The labor time was derived from the average of time spent performing the same operation three times in a row by one technician with no previous experience performing the operation and with all tools and parts right there with him. This became the flat rate labor time or “book” time.

Now, let’s take a look at the labor unit. By definition, a labor unit is the benchmark used to determine the labor value of an installation or repair. This is the most common terminology used in estimating, especially among contractors because it is not an absolute value. If three people performed the same job and all things being equal, there would be three different completion times. Labor units also take into consideration other factors such as the fact that there are more people involved in a repair process then simply the technician. It also factors such things as administration time, the time of the office staff involved in preparing the repair order, and the general overhead of the facility.

Seeing the difference in the terminology between labor hour and labor unit, the service and repair industry should adopt the use of labor unit on the prepared estimate and the final bills presented to customers. Until then, please remember this the next time you take your vehicle to be worked on and the shop tells you the job is complete in less time then the estimate stated. The time listed under labor hours for your bill is not only the amount of time the job takes to perform, but, also the time it takes for the office staff to prepare the work order, collect and process the bill, and the cost the facility pays for doing business.

Since 1972 the Institute for Automotive Service Excellence or ASE has provided for technicians over 40 tests which would allow them to become “certified”. Passing these exams must be accompanied with at least two years worth of relative experience and must be re-taken every five years in order for a technician to maintain their certification. However, there is nothing provided by ASE for the actual business itself. Add to that, if you poke around the internet, you can find many posts from technicians proclaiming that the test questions themselves are becoming obsolete. This is especially true considering the pace at which the repair industry is changing and growing.

In 1979 the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair or I-CAR was formed. Since then they have lead the collision repair industry in training and certification. I-CAR has also been very proactive in keeping up with the changing standards in the industry and consistently offering new, updated classes. While I-CAR certification is the generally accepted standard for the collision repair industry and they actually, at present, do offer certification for repair centers, this is going to change in the coming months. I-CAR has decided to do away with their shop-wide gold class certification and take a step backwards in time to only providing certifications for technicians.

One would think that our local associations such as the Washington Metropolitan Auto Body Association, WMABA, the Virginia Automotive Association, VAA, or the NAPA AutoCare council would be concerned about pushing for legislation requiring that repair facilities qualify for a standardized certification. However, it would seem that these organizations are more concerned with establishing standard labor rates or ensuring that their members are well provided for then moving our industry forward as a whole.

So, next time you take your vehicle in for service work or collision repair, ask if the shop is certified. Find out if they are using the latest in diagnostic equipment with updated databases. Ask if there are various pieces of testing equipment that could provide their customers with print outs. Is the frame machine or alignment machine a state of the art piece of equipment? Do they have a computerized measuring system or a computerized welder? At the very least, ask if the businesses’ technicians are receiving on-going training. You may be surprised at what you discover and you might re-think where you want to have your work done.

With over 250 years worth of combined wisdom from our technicians, office personnel, and owners. We feel that our friends and customers deserve more than just some comforting words and our expertise during their times of crisis when you would come in to visit during the ordeal of being involved in an accident. We want to take a bit of time each week to share with you some of our knowledge and our experiences.

So, feel free to visit our blog as we post new information and insights. We will strive to pass on our knowledge in a way that you can understand. Our posts may be humorous and entertaining, but, we will always strive to be informative in the hope that we can share with you and allow you to grow with us and build a level of trust in us and our abilities that goes beyond just walking through our door.