RR_v65-3.indd - PPG Industries

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PPG
Repaint Reporter
Volume 65, Number 3
Executive Editor
Tara Strunk
Creative Director
T. Jon Worden
Design Director
Dave Buffington
Design Staff
John Janiec
Kevin Nowak
Mark Francisco
Bob Santoro
Contributing Editors
Ann Donati
Meredith Simpson
Writers
T.G. Morrisey
Gail Driver
Brian Meitz
John Stanley
John Outcalt
Production Manager
Shellie Hill
Contributing Photographers
Jackson Hill
Todd Anderson
Larry Evans
Robin Nelson
William Thomas Cain
PPG Repaint Reporter is published
by the Advertising Department of
PPG Automotive Refinish. Send
comments and questions regarding
this publication to:
PPG Industries
Repaint Reporter Editor
19699 Progress Drive
Strongsville, Ohio 44149
Or, fax to: (440) 572-6880
C o n t e n t s
6 CUSTOMERS
FOR LIFE
Car dealer Carl Sewell
wrote the book on
turning one-time buyers
into lifetime customers.
10
FAMILY MATTER
PPG’s 2005 Platinum
Distributor of the Year
is a family-owned and
family-run business.
16
CROWNING GLORY
PPG helps Crown
Collision Center improve
an already thriving business.
24
COMMERCIAL
ESTIMATING
COMES OF AGE
Penske Truck Leasing
puts PPG’s AdjustRite TM
heavy duty truck estimating
system to the test.
D e p a r t m e n t s
4 Inside Line
Our new GM, John Outcalt, offers his perspective on PPG
performance-based programs.
4 Team PPG
The latest news and information from PPG across the nation
and around the world.
8 “What Have You Done for Me Lately?”
Scotch ®
Performance Masking Tape 233 from 3M can
improve masking productivity by eliminating extra steps.
9 The Power of Precision
The 3M TM
Trizact TM
Hookit TM
II Blending Disc makes deep scratch
and adhesion concerns a thing of the past.
12 Taking Care of Business
The PPG Online Precision Marketing Program for CertifiedFirst ®
Network participants offers valuable customer information
tailored to a shop’s specific location.
14 Tech Talk
The Mottle Effect: What is it, why does it happen and
how can it be prevented?
19 Off and Running
The Sewer Equipment Company manufactures equipment
that holds up to extreme conditions.
20 Training Update
PPG and Harley-Davidson team up to benefit SkillsUSA.
22 (Up-In-The-) Air Guitar
Kojis Signs builds the world’s largest guitar for the Hard
Rock Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.
27 Gallery
A street rod Vette and a do-it-yourself showstopper.

Inside Line
B y J o h n O u t c a l t
G e n e r a l M a n a g e r , P P G Au t o m o t i v e R e f i n i s h
Having spent a year away from
the automotive refinish team as
the General Manager, Insurance
and Services business unit, I rejoin
our refinish team with a fresh
perspective of the
collision repair industry
and the evolving
dynamics that impact
our collision shop
customers. I am now
more convinced than ever
that PPG leads the way in developing
key alliances that will help assure
the success of our distributors and
collision shop customers in the
coming years, as well as offer
insurers and their policyholders
high levels of customer satisfaction
and effective business solutions.
At the forefront of these strategic
alliances are our LYNXSelect ®
and
CertifiedFirst ®
Network programs.
They are proving to offer industryleading
opportunities for PPG
collision shops to build their
businesses and enhance
relationships with insurance
companies, agents and consumers
in their local market.
For example, as a 24/7 national
provider of automotive physical
damage (APD) repair management
services, LYNXSelect is now
efficiently processing claims for
10 different national insurance
companies and handling well in
excess of 20,000 claims a year—
a number that will continue to grow
rapidly. Benefiting from these
claims are some 3,000 collision
repair shops that comprise the
4
LYNXSelect nationwide network.
For those insurance companies
that prefer to handle claims
themselves, the CertifiedFirst
Network is proving to be a viable
asset. Aside from benefiting from
local marketing efforts such as the
Continuing Education for Insurers
Program and exposure through
www.certifiedfirst.com, a site
that has received over 20 million
hits since its launch and over
300,000 searches for bodyshops,
CertifiedFirst Network shops have
enjoyed the benefits of over
$30,000,000 in claims assignments
year-to-date, provided through our
alliances with national insurance
and fleet management providers.
The network of participating
shops is expected to reach 2,000
by year-end.
Self-insured fleets is another
area where PPG is developing
meaningful alliances, such as CEI.
CEI works with the largest fleet
programs in the United States and
is providing tens of thousands of
claims each year to our network
of participating collision shops.
The growing success of PPG’s
alliance programs is good evidence
that these programs are delivering
value to all parties involved: the
insurer, the policyholder, the agent
and the collision shop. If your shop
is not currently participating in
PPG’s performance-based programs,
I strongly urge you to reconsider
and take advantage of them. They
represent the future of where the
collision repair industry is heading.
T E A M P P G
Sam Eisenberg, 4, of Dallas, a leukemia survivor, and twin brother Ethan,
his bone marrow donor; both honored patients of The Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society, were at Texas Motor Speedway in April to help kick off the Charity
Chopper tour.
Year-Long Charity Chopper
Effort Raises $134,000
For The Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society
The Charity Chopper, a
custom built, one-of-a-kind
V-twin motorcycle has been
the centerpiece of a year-long
fundraising effort in 2005 sponsored
by PPG Automotive Refinish, Ray
Evernham of Evernham Motorsports
and Dave Perewitz of Perewitz Cycle
Fab. This unique chopper, designed
and built by Dave Perewitz, and
featuring a spectacular Liquid
Crystal paint finish from the PPG
Vibrance Collection TM
, made dozens
of appearances this year across the
U.S. at custom car and bike shows,
special events and select NASCAR
races to raise funds for The
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Funds were raised at raffles and
auctions, through merchandising,
and during monthly auctions held on
eBay, where NASCAR collectibles
and memorabilia were auctioned to
benefit the Society. Including the sale
of the Charity Chopper in October,
the effort has raised $134,000 for
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Mike Murphy, the lucky new
owner of the Charity Chopper, was
presented with the bike during a
special media event on NASCAR
race day, November 6th, at Texas
Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Garry A. Goudy, vice president,
Automotive Aftermarket for PPG
Industries, along with Ray Evernham
and Dave Perewitz presented a
check for $134,000 to Society
officials. For more information on
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,
go to www.LLS.org. ■
PPG Honors Nine
Companies as
Excellent Suppliers
PPG Industries has presented
nine Excellent Supplier
Awards for superior
performance in 2004. Award criteria
included product quality, delivery,
documentation, innovation,
responsiveness, continuous
improvement and participation in
PPG’s Supplier Added Value Effort
($AVE) program.
Kathleen McGuire, PPG vice
president, corporate purchasing and
distribution, praised the performance
of the award-winning suppliers.
“Their products, services, reliability,
innovation and overall value in 2004
were outstanding,” she said. “We
consider them invaluable business
partners who provide us a significant
competitive advantage.”
On an annual basis, PPG purchases
more than $5 billion in materials and
services from thousands of suppliers.
The companies earning the 2004
Excellent Supplier Award, and the
products and services they provide, are:
• Applied Industrial Technologies,
based in Cleveland, supplies
bearings and engineered products
as well as power-transmission
and fluid-power components to
PPG’s automotive coatings, glass,
flat glass, fiber glass and chloralkali
and derivatives businesses
in the United States.
• Brock Service Painting Company Inc.,
of Beaumont, Texas, provides
painting and related services to the
Lake Charles, La., chemicals facility.
• BYK Chemie GmbH, Wesel,
Germany, provides chemical
additives for the automotive
original-equipment coatings and
refinish as well as industrial and
packaging coatings businesses in
Europe, South America, Australia
and the United States.
• Eckart Aluminum GmbH,
headquartered in Fürth, Germany,
supplies aluminum pigments to
automotive original-equipment
coatings and refinish as well as
industrial and packaging coatings
businesses in Europe, South America,
Australia and the United States.
• EPSCO International, with
facilities in Texas and Louisiana,
provides non-metallic pipe, valves
and fittings to U.S. chlor-alkali
and derivatives, fine chemicals
and silicas businesses.
• Hartman & Hartman, Inc., of
Washington, Pa., provides general
construction services for U.S.
automotive glass, flat glass,
automotive refinish and chloralkali
and derivatives businesses.
• Kerr-McGee Chemical LLC,
Oklahoma City, supplies titanium
dioxide to PPG’s worldwide
architectural finishes, originalequipment
automotive coatings
and industrial coatings businesses.
• Kyowa Hakko, headquartered in
Tokyo, supplies amino acids to the
U.S. fine chemicals business.
• Oxiteno S/A Industria e Comércio,
with facilities in Brazil and Mexico,
provides butoxy ethanol to originalequipment
automotive coatings,
industrial coatings, automotive
refinish and packaging coatings
businesses in South America. ■
Expanded Color Library
Phone Support
We are pleased to
announce that
beginning November
15, 2005, PPG will introduce a
new and improved Color Library
phone service. Part of this upgrade
includes an expanded color team
to assist with color “look-up”
calls and provide faster response
to the large number of calls the
department receives.
PPG will also offer expanded hours
of service, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
SunClean ®
Self-Cleaning Glass
Since 1883, PPG has
learned to love
everything about
windows… except cleaning them!
SunClean self-cleaning glass is a
coated glass product with
photocatalytic and hydrophilic
properties that combine to result in
windows that are easier to clean.
The durable, transparent coating on
SunClean self-cleaning glass is
applied to hot glass during the
formation process, making it an
integral part of the outer glass
surface. The photocatalytic
properties of the glass’ coating are
energized by UV rays to help slowly
break down and loosen organic dirt.
Eastern Standard Time. With the
extended hours and additional
personnel to answer customer
calls, we expect to offer greater
efficiency and faster response
time. Customers should continue
to use the Color Library contact
number at 1-800-647-6050 for all
color inquires.
The upgraded Color Library phone
service is part of PPG’s continuing
effort to offer our customers the
best possible service. ■
The hydrophilic properties cause
water to sheet evenly over the glass
surface, instead of beading. This
sheeting action helps to flush the
surface clean and to accelerate
drying, leaving the glass with
minimal spotting and streaking.
SunClean self-cleaning glass can
be used in standard and energysaving
low-E windows. SunClean
glass is available to makers of
wood, vinyl and aluminum windows
serving the new construction and
remodeling markets, allowing
SunClean glass to be one of the
exciting new options available to
consumers. So put away the bucket
and throw away the squeegee! ■
5

A L I F E T I M E of
R E P E A T B U S I N E S S
Dallas car dealer
Carl Sewell wrote the book on
keeping Customers for Life
Like most car dealers, Carl Sewell appears to be his
customers’ best friend—cheerful, at ease, sincerely
listening to what they have to say and just generally
making them feel like a million bucks.
The difference is that, unlike many
car dealers, Carl Sewell probably is
his customers’ best friend. If they
have a flat tire on the way to work,
he’ll send out a service tech to change
it—for free. When they’re having
work done at his dealership, he
doesn’t rent them something to
drive in the meantime—he loans
them a current year’s vehicle. When
he calls them, it’s not to badger
them about coming in to trade up—
it’s to invite them to dinner, on him.
From the outside, it looks like
he’s giving money away. But that’s
not how Carl Sewell sees it.
“It’s all a matter of perspective,”
Sewell says. “And perspective starts
with how you see the customer.
If you see the person who walks in
your door as an opportunity to sell
one vehicle, or do one repair, then
you might see a much larger margin
from that transaction, but you probably
won’t see that customer again.
“If, on the other hand, you see
that person as a potential lifetime of
repeat business, then you’re going to
treat him or her differently,” Sewell
continues. “Just think of it—how nice
would you be to someone if a halfmillion-dollar
business deal was
hanging in the balance? I think you’d
be pretty nice. And in car and truck
sales, every customer is easily worth
a half million dollars of business over
the course of a lifetime. So that’s how
we treat every customer who walks
through our door—as if half a million
dollars were hanging on how well
we accommodated their needs.”
Sewell’s approach is a different way
of running a business—so different that,
with business writer Paul B. Brown,
he wrote a book about it in 1990.
Customers for Life: How to Turn that
One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime
Customer has been published in
17 languages, and has sold more
than 1,000,000 copies.
And Carl Sewell’s way of doing
business was so refreshingly different
that it convinced Steve Pearce,
who had retired comfortably at age
41 after two decades of owning and
operating collision shops, to come
out of retirement and go to work as
manager of the 80,000-square-foot
Sewell Collision Center and the
65,000-square-foot Sewell Lexus
Body Shop. Both shops lie within
three blocks of one another in Dallas,
and both do volumes that would set
most managers’ heads spinning.
“It’s kind of like a cult,” says Pearce.
“And I mean that in a good way. We
have a rule here at Sewell called the
‘Ten Foot Rule.’ If a customer comes
within ten feet of you, you smile,
acknowledge them and ask if you can
help them, if that’s appropriate. And
we have a policy of looking at every
car that comes in, not as the customer’s
car, but as your mother’s car, or your
spouse’s car. You never just do the
requested repair; you always look at
the job and ask, ‘What can I do that
will make this person happy with
their decision to have us do the work?’
And after you’ve done it this way for
a while, doing business any other
way just seems rude. It doesn’t take
long to think of this as the only way
to run a shop.”
Because so much of service depends
on the technician’s attitude, Sewell’s
management team interviews
extensively for every opening, tests
each promising applicant for aptitude
and takes each finalist to breakfast or
lunch to see how they are in a social
continued on page 26
“We have a policy of
looking at every car that
comes in, not as the
customer’s car, but as
your mother’s car, or
your spouse’s car,”says
manager Steve Pearce.
“You never just do the
requested repair; you
always look at the job
and ask, “What can I do
that will make this person
happy with their decision
to have us do the work?”
continues Pearce.
6 7

8
S H O P C O S T S R I S I N G :
Time to Ask Your Tape,
“What Have You Done for Me Lately?”
In almost every industry, people continually look
for ways to increase performance levels while
lowering costs. In the paint and body shop business,
the solution may be as easy as upgrading a tool you use
everyday to something that lasts longer and/or gets
better results more consistently. Take, for instance,
masking tape.
In today’s changing market,
new paint chemistries and higher
temperature bake cycles place great
physical demands on masking tapes.
In the automotive refinish industry,
applying masking tape accounts for
six percent of labor revenue generated
on repair orders, or $56 on a
typical repair order of $2,000. Since
productivity equals profitability,
consider how much time is spent
performing compensating behaviors
caused by the performance limitations
of low priced masking tapes.
Megan Scherb, masking solutions
business manager for 3M Automotive
Aftermarket Division, explains that
most painters, without realizing it,
have changed their behavior
to compensate for the
limitations of lower priced
tape. She notes, for
example, that before
spraying, painters
typically inspect the
vehicle to ensure the
masking tape has
not lifted since
application. If it
has, they must
spend time pressing
the tape down in
order to prevent paint
blow-by. Compensating behaviors
such as these require extra time that
could be used more productively
on revenue generating activity.
It seems that to save money in one
area (labor) you must spend more
money in another (supplies), but
sometimes the costs for better materials
are minimal compared to productivity
gained, so it’s important to do your
research and compare costs. To illustrate
the productivity advantage that
Scotch ®
Performance Masking Tape
233+ brings to a paint job, 3M has
designed an interactive value analysis
tool. The tool helps the shop owner or
manager understand the value of the
time gained by utilizing the shop’s
specific operating costs. “Masking
tape can have a big impact on labor
revenue while contributing a relatively
small amount to material costs.
Because of its excellent performance,
using Scotch ®
Performance Masking
Tape 233+ may improve masking
productivity up to 10 percent per
repair order by eliminating extra
steps,” says Scherb.
Scotch ®
Performance Masking Tape
233+ is ideal for all body shop paint
masking applications. According to
Scherb, its balanced construction
provides excellent adhesion with clean
removal—even from difficult surfaces
like EPDM rubber moldings,
after contact with moisture
and chemicals or prolonged
outdoor exposure—all
qualities that can contribute
to increased productivity.
For more information
about Scotch ®
Performance
Masking Tape 233+, visit
3M’s Web site at www.3M.
com/automotive or call 1-
877-MMM-CARS (1-877-
666-2277). ■
3M and Scotch are trademarks of 3M Company.
P o w e r P r e c i s i o n
The of
No matter what method is used
for preparing panels for clearcoat and
color blends—traditional DA sanding
discs, wet sanding sheets or scuff
pads—all present obstacles to achieving
a premium finish that results in an
undetectable blend. For example,
scuff pads conform very well to the
panel surface but do not remove all
gloss which can result in clearcoat
adhesion failures. Scuff pads also have
a tendency to leave deep scratches
which may show through on metallic
and pearl colors. Abrasives such as
DA Discs and wet sanding sheets sand
aggressively and remove more gloss,
but do not offer the conformability of
a scuff pad. This lack of conformability
often leaves shiny spots that remain
in the lower areas of the texture or
“orange peel”. To remove this
remaining gloss, the technician will
not only spend additional sanding time
but also increase the risk of sanding
or “burning” through on an edge,
contour or body line. The result is
additional time spent reworking this
previously undamaged area.
3M, the industry leader in abrasive
technology has recently introduced the
company’s most advanced product for
clearcoat and color blending. The
3M TM
Trizact TM
Hookit TM
II Blending
Disc is a foam-backed abrasive disc
designed to conform to the sanding
surface with minimal risk of burn
through on edges, contours or body
lines. The foam backing allows the
disc to conform and sand deep into
orange peel with minimal texture
removal while producing a consistent
matte finish with no “shiny spots,”
something that is difficult to achieve
with traditional DA discs or wet
sanding abrasives. The finish left by
the Trizact TM
Hookit TM
II Blending Disc
makes deep scratch and adhesion
concerns a thing of the past.
The key to Trizact’s excellent
performance is the combination of
its foam backing and unique mineral
construction, which is made up of
micro-replicated, pyramid-shaped
structures. This construction ensures
that fresh mineral is exposed at a
uniform rate, extending the life of
the product while maintaining a
consistent level of cut. Most
importantly, the uniform scratch
pattern left by the Trizact TM
Hookit TM
II Blending Disc allows metallic and
pearl colors to lay down uniformly
resulting in blends that are virtually
transparent which will certainly appeal
to your customer and increase your
shop’s CSI.
For more information about
Trizact TM
Hookit TM
II Blending
Discs from 3M, visit 3M’s Web
site at www.3M.com/automotive
or call 1-800-3M-HELPS (1-800-
364-3577). ■
3M, Trizact, and Hookit are trademarks of
3M Company.
The Process of Precision
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
SANDING LARGE AREAS
1a. CLEAN the repair area with soap and water,
followed by 3M TM
General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner.
1b. Using a spray bottle, apply enough water to
dampen the 3M TM
Trizact TM
Hookit TM
II Blending
Disc before sanding the panel. DAMP SAND the
entire blend area, including bodylines and edges,
with a DA sander. When necessary, re-dampen
disc with water from spray bottle while sanding.
SANDING HARD-TO-REACH AREAS
Remove Blending Disc from backup pad to sand
hard-to-reach areas and edges.
CLEANING
Wipe off blend area immediately.
9

Family Matter
Bill Flannery Automotive
presently serves more
than 100 major accounts
and employs 27 people,
including technician
Wayne Knight, shown
here mixing paint.
Meet the Flannerys—Billy, Gen, Bill and Tracy—
Winners of the PPG 2005
Platinum Distributor of the Year Award
No doubt
that is what
was on Bill
Flannery’s
mind as he
stepped onto
the stage at
the PPG
Platinum
Awards
Banquet in Orlando earlier
this year. Bill, owner of Bill Flannery
Automotive in Bensalem, PA, was
coming up to receive the final,
and highest, accolade—the glass
trophy recognizing him as Platinum
Distributor of the Year. It was the
culmination of a relationship with
PPG that stretches back nearly four
It’s a pretty big deal to be recognized by
your peers, particularly when your peers
are the best in the business.
decades. And it says a lot about Bill’s
business philosophy that, when he
received that trophy, the first thing he
did was turn to his wife, his daughter,
and his son, and mouth the words,
“This belongs to you.”
Running his business as a family
affair is almost second-nature to Bill.
He worked in an automotive partsand-finish
store as a teenager. He liked
the finish business well enough that
he opened a parts and paint store with
two partners. Later, in 1975, he went
to work on his own, working out of
a truck and a trailer. As his business
grew, PPG suggested that he open his
own store.
It was just the push he needed. In
1984, he opened a small store in a strip
mall, and by 1987 he had outgrown
that and moved to a 3,000-squarefoot
facility. By 2001, even that was
too small, so Bill Flannery Automotive
built the 11,000-square-foot location
in which it is currently headquartered,
a facility that sells shop supplies and
tools, as well as paint. That was joined
in 2003 by a 1,000-square-foot satellite
location in nearby Telford, PA, opened
for strategic expansion. Bill Flannery
Automotive presently serves more
than 100 major accounts and employs
THE PPG PLATINUM
DISTRIBUTOR PROGRAM
AT A GLANCE
• Launched in 1994
• A partnership between the best
entrepreneurs in the business and PPG
• Combines the talents of more than 650
single-line PPG distributors
• The size and scope of a 32,000-person,
Fortune 500 company
27 people, three of which are his wife
Gen (who handles payroll, accounts
payable and human resources), son
Billy (operations director) and daughter
Tracy (who handles “purchasing, sales
and anything else that is needed”).
Tracy became an employee of Bill
Flannery Automotive nearly 20 years
ago, when she was in her teens, but
worked at the shop unofficially long
before that. She remembers coming
in during Christmas vacation at age
nine to help take year-end inventory—
a memory that’s a mixture of joy and
family pride.
“My mom, my brother and I are
here because we want to be here,”
Tracy says. “We have three brothers
who have lives outside the paint
business. But Billy and I love this,
because our father showed us that,
at its heart, this is a people business,
and your customers can be like family.
Dad’s a great businessman—he was a
member of the original PPG jobber
council, the fifth Platinum contract
to be signed with PPG, and he’s been
Platinum Plus every year since 1999.
But his real talent is that he is a peopleperson;
he’s always interested in
helping someone else be the best
that they can be.”
That interest in elevating others
led Bill to work with a local highschool
teacher and Skills USA mentor
to help students learn the ins and
outs of the collision-repair business,
sponsoring a scholarship every year.
Two of those former students are
now employees, and several are
now valued customers of Bill
Flannery Automotive.
To be ready with answers when
customers ask questions, Bill and
his staff take full advantage of PPG
training classes, have been to the
Jobber Management Program, and
participate enthusiastically in the
East Two Forum (“An absolute
wealth of knowledge and a truly
invaluable resource,” says Bill).
They also offer their customers
the full range of PPG training.
When asked for the secret
of his success, Bill is quick to
direct the spotlight elsewhere.
Gesturing at his modern showroom,
he says, “None of this would be
possible without the talented
people who make this place run,
and the loyal people who have traded
with us now for a quarter of a
century. They’re the ones who make
this happen.”
But daughter Tracy is quick to
amend that, “Whenever we’ve had
to make a tough decision, Dad has
always—always—stressed that if at the
end of the day you have your integrityyou
have it all. Our customers, our
employees, and even our competitors
know that, above all else, we are going
to be honest and fair.”
After all, when you think of your
customers and your business as family—
how else would you treat them? ■
PPG PLATINUM
DISTRIBUTOR
OF THE YEAR
Awarded annually to the PPG
Platinum Distributor who best…
• Demonstrates a consistent
increase in annual sales
• Has received exemplary
customer-satisfaction scores
• Has met a variety of other
criteria of excellence over
the last year
Employees Jason Shuck
and Bob Sherlock
stocking shelves at Bill
Flannery Automotive.
10 11

zer
T A K I N G C A R E O F B U S I N E S S
CertifiedFirst ®
Network’s Online Precision Marketing—
moving your customer profiles from ‘guesses’ to ‘knowledge’
CertifiedFirst Network participants
can log on to www.certifiedfirst.com/
participants and gain access to a
Precision Marketing Report tailored
to their specific location. The Report
offers a wealth of information, including
a Collision Repair Potential (CRPI)
map (above) that shows the likelihood
of consumers in the area to use a
body shop.
You probably already know that, in today’s
competitive collision repair market, with its high
capacities and educated consumers, attracting and
keeping customers is practically a full-time job.
You probably also know that you
don’t have to go it alone. With the
CertifiedFirst Network, you get the
quality reputation and high-end
resources of a national network…
working just for you and your
business’ success.
But did you know that, as a
participant of the CertifiedFirst
Network, you have access to the PPG
Online Precision Marketing Program,
a sophisticated e-tool (valued at
more than $1,200) that lets you zero
in on valuable customer information
in the areas where you are currently
doing business or where you plan to
do business?
The Online Precision Marketing
Report is based on the adage that
“birds of a feather flock together.”
In other words, people often choose
to live near others who have similar
lifestyles, beliefs and customs. These
groups of individuals are called
“clusters.” By combining data about
these clusters with specific information
about the collision repair industry,
this report brings you insight into
each group’s collision repair buying
habits. It also lets you see which
clusters are high-use when it comes
to collision repair services, perhaps
because they typically have more
drivers in the family, own newer
model vehicles, or because they
simply tend to drive more miles on
average - resulting in more collisions.
“There are other services—some
of them quite costly—that can give
you basic census and demographic
information about population
movement and household income,”
says Georgina Sweeney, Director–
Refinish Alliance Programs. “But
only the Online Precision Marketing
Report can combine that information
with PPG’s own Collision Repair
Potential Index (CRPI), for powerful
marketplace intelligence that points
to your best business prospects.”
And you don’t have to be a
marketing guru—or a computer
guru—to use this powerful tool. As a
CertifiedFirst Network participant, all
you need to do is go online to www.
certifiedfirst.com/participants and
enter the site with your shop’s unique
user name and password. Click the
in
“Precision Marketing” tab on the
web page that opens, and then click
the line that says “Click Here For
Your Precision Marketing Report.”
That opens on a page with two
options. The first, “Determine
Market Size and Growth,” allows
you to look at an area (centered on
an address, an intersection, or even a
latitude-and-longitude readout from
a GPS unit), and generate a report
that includes:
• a Collision Repair Potential
(CRPI) map
• an estimated sales map
• top customers location by ZIP
code spreadsheet
• a 5-year market growth report, and
• an executive summary that
explains it all
Want to zero in even further?
Click the second option on the page,
“Retrieve Advanced Cluster
Information,” enter a ZIP code,
and you can generate reports that tell
you the top five cluster “types”
living in that area, and an executive
summary providing demographic
information and trends.
Reports are generated as Adobe
Acrobat documents that you can
print out for use in meetings, save for
future reference, or view onscreen
with widely and freely available
software. Click on a cluster name
while you’re online, and that opens
to a page telling you what that
particular
customer group is
like—from income,
age range, education,
employment and
median income, to
lifestyle and leisure preferences.
“If you’re planning your advertising
schedules, the Advanced Cluster
Information will tell you not only
what sort of radio stations your target
customers listen to, but what times
they are most apt to be listening,
and what parts of the newspaper
they are apt to spend the most time
in,” says Sweeney.
The Precision Marketing Report
is designed to work with what you
already know about the area where
you do business. It can reassure you
that you are correctly gauging the
business potential of an area, help
you zero in on particular parts of
that area that are most apt to use
your services, or provide valuable
intelligence—including growth
trends—when you’re considering
relocation or expansion to an additional
location. And the professional
reports provide valuable
substantiation for presentations to
financial partners, zoning or
planning commissions, or other
stakeholder organizations.
“The Online Precision Marketing
Program helps you base your business
decisions, not on hunches, or even
educated guesses, but on measured
and professionally accumulated facts,”
says Sweeney. “The best collision
repair professionals don’t guess on
their estimates or their paint formulas.
They calculate, using professional
Marketing Reports, you can apply a
similar technology when it comes to
market analysis and customer types.”
For more information on Online
Precision Marketing, please call 1-
800-647-6050, option 4 (8 a.m.–5
p.m. EST). ■
The Online Precision
Marketing Report
provides you with
information on the
collision repair buying
habits of potential
customers in your
target market area.
12 13

14
T E C H T A L K
Avoiding the
A ‘mottle,’ ‘blotchy’ or ‘patchy’ type appearance can
sometimes result after spraying a metallic finish,
particularly in lighter colors. So, what is it, why does
it happen and how can it be prevented?
At one time or another virtually every refinish
painter will have come across the ‘mottle’ effect.
It describes the appearance of light and dark areas
within a metallic finish and is also referred to as
‘patchiness.’ These light and dark patches appear due to
the incorrect orientation of the aluminum particles
within the paint film.
It’s a problem that’s almost
impossible to detect at the basecoat
stage since most basecoats dry to a
silky matte finish. That means the
effect doesn’t become evident until
after the clearcoat is applied. Naturally,
at that point it’s way too late to
rectify the problem, and the only
course of action is a re-do which can
lead to serious film build problems.
Cause and cure
There are two main contributing
factors—incorrect thinning of the
paint and the application technique.
The first scenario results from an
insufficient thinning ratio or using
a thinner that’s too fast for the
prevailing conditions—for instance,
when trying to push a job through
quickly. After application the solvents
in the thinner evaporate too rapidly
and the paint film sets so quickly
that it doesn’t let the metallic particles
lay down smoothly, resulting in a
mottle effect.
Using compatible thinners is also
vital. PPG thinners are specifically
designed for use with PPG products
in the correct thinning ratio and
according to the ambient air
temperature. Following these
guidelines can assist in dramatically
reducing the mottle effect.
While working with individual
bodyshops to help them with mottle
control, PPG technical staff came
across the following examples. One
shop was thinning all colors to 1:1.
This was working fine with dark
colors, but with light colors there
was mottle. It was discovered that the
air pressure was around 45–55 psi
which is too high for basecoat and is
a major mottle contributor because it
doesn’t allow the metallic basecoat to
be applied in a wet, even film. After
reducing the air pressure to 25–35
psi, mottle was dramatically reduced.
Application technique is another
important factor in reducing mottle
and it’s here that modern metallic
paint finishes (such as in PPG’s
Deltron ®
and GRS paint systems)
require a modern technique.
Previously, the final technique or
pattern coat may have been applied
over a dry film. However, this can
cause mottle due to the paint film
setting too quickly which prevents
the metallic particles from laying
down smoothly. In addition, because
this final coat tends to be dry and
dusty it can result in clearcoat
adhesion problems and reduced gloss
levels. Applied correctly, the basecoat
will appear very smooth and, when
tack ragged, there will be no or
minimal color on the tack rag.
To minimize the chance of
mottle, the basecoat should be
applied to give an even, uniformly
dull appearance and left for the
recommended flash times between
coats. Proper application technique
is critical when spraying light high
metallic colors. Make sure to
maintain a good 50% overlap and
allow each coat to flash for the
recommended time. Also, make sure
to pick the appropriate reducer for
the size and temperature of the job.
Another method is the
crosscoating technique—this is
where the second coat is applied at
right angles to the first and
immediately following the first coat.
The first coat cannot be allowed to
flash or the cross coat will not be
able to re-flow and orientate the
first coat metallics.
It’s a fact of life that most light
colors will have a degree of mottle
and that repairing light colors will
always be more difficult than dark
colors. However, using the above tips
and the following guidelines should
help to avoid mottling:
• Reduce the paint to the
recommended thinning ratio and,
depending on your equipment,
more thinner may be required.
• Use the specified thinner for the
spraying temperature.
• Avoid using high air pressure—
25–35 psi maximum.
• Allow the paint to flash off
properly between coats. Multiple
coats without a f lash off will
make the paint film very ‘wet’
and cause mottle.
• Don’t spray in very cold conditions.
This will slow down the flash off
time of the paint and increase the
chances of mottle.
• Don’t apply the clearcoat too soon.
If the basecoat hasn’t set up fully,
the clearcoat may cause the basecoat
to dissolve and disturb the aluminum
flakes, giving a mottled appearance.
• Ensure that your spray gun has a
good spray pattern and, when
spraying, overlap the strokes of
the gun the correct amount to
ensure an even appearance. Keeping
the gun back from the job will
make the effective fan width
larger and overlapping the gun
strokes will be easier.
• Develop a technique that works
for you.
• Remember, if you do reduce the
pressure, to make the same
allowance on your spray out card. ■
15

16
CROWNING
GLORY Crown Collision Center, in
St. Petersburg, Florida, does
the sort of business that most
collision shop managers only
At this
dream of. Working out of a 45,000-square-foot main facility
Gulf Coast megashop, with 23 technicians and eight painters, Crown processes over
seven-figure months will 300 vehicles a month, at an average repair value of $2000.
soon be a reality
Monthly parts and labor sales exceed $600,000. And that’s
running just a single shift per day.
So—is Crown’s manager satisfied
with her current production standards?
“Not in the slightest,” says Jackie
Zajac, who has managed Crown
Collision Center since June of 2003.
“By this time next year, I am
certain—absolutely certain—that
this center will be producing over a
million dollars a month in total
sales. And long term, beyond that?
Who knows? We intend to beat all
the facility utilization benchmarks.
I’ll tell you the truth—I really don’t
see a ceiling at this point.”
So what’s the reason for Jackie
Zajac’s enthusiasm?
“PPG,” she says. “For this center,
the sky’s the limit with PPG.”
What makes this story truly
amazing is that Jackie Zajac had
never worked as a collision
center manager prior to joining
the Crown Group.
For years, Jackie had worked
with Crown from the
opposite side of the desk,
managing the DRP program
for Progressive Insurance.
But when she was offered the
position, she readily took it.
Jackie says she made the switch
because, “I consider managing the
Crown Collision Center the
opportunity of a lifetime. This is
one fantastic collision shop, and
one great opportunity.”
17

Crown Collision Center
processes over 300 vehicles
a month, at an average repair
value of $2,000, working
out of a 45,000 square-foot
facility with 23 technicians
and eight painters.
18
That’s something of an
understatement. Crown Collision
is part of the Crown Dealerships Group,
a family of 11 dealerships selling and
servicing 20 car and truck lines,
with most of the dealerships located
on either side of US 19, adjacent to
or near the collision center in St.
Petersburg. Plus, as a DRP manager,
Jackie knew how attractive such a
high-volume facility, accustomed
to working to auto manufacturer
warranty standards, could be. And
with that much of a dealership
presence, insurance carriers could
be highly confident that Crown
would be there for the long run,
ready to back their guarantees.
Another reason for Jackie’s
confidence is PPG Distributor Tim
Morrell, who runs Auto Body Express
in Tampa. Crown was under contract
with another finish supplier when
Tim first called on Jackie, but that
didn’t stop him from pitching in
and helping out.
“Tim and PPG were here, in this
shop, consulting with me and acting
as business partners for two years
before I purchased a single drop of
paint from them,” Jackie says. “I don’t
want to give you the impression
that the product was unimportant
here, because that’s not the case at
all. My painters consistently told me
that, for color match, and for cycle
time, PPG was absolutely the way
to go. And because PPG is a global
company, they met the requirements
of all our OEM warranty work.
So certainly they were attractive,
product-wise. But what truly made
the difference for me was the attitude;
PPG came in here with a partnership
solution. And it was not a cookiecutter
solution. This is a big business,
with unique challenges, so PPG
brought in a variety of people,
including Dave Mitchum, PPG
Business Development Manager,
to look at and analyze the various
aspects of our business. They came
up with not only a plan to help us
attain our specific goals, but the
systems to help us best implement
the plan, such as Throughput
Management and innovative
production models.”
One of PPG’s first suggestions
was that Crown adopt Summit
management software, to streamline
the operation, adopt door-to-door
throughput management techniques,
and identify potential issues before
they can turn into real problems.
Summit’s owner, Frank Terlep, flew
in and provided a customized IT
solution that was specific to the
shop’s needs.
“It’s a night-and-day difference,”
Jackie says. “As a shop manager, I need
to know when a car is tracking behind
the scheduled delivery date. When
a car is late for delivery, you’re past
‘problem’ and well into ‘crisis’—
the customer is unhappy because you
didn’t keep your word, the insurer is
unhappy because there’s an additional
rental expense… as a manager, I want
to know when the car is going to be
late going into paint.”
Having such a system in place
has changed Jackie’s outlook as a
shop manager.
“Some managers don’t really
manage,” she says. “They put out
fires. They spend their time looking
at issues and trying to figure out why
they arose. But with systems in place
to avoid the issues in the first place,
I have the opportunity to network
with insurers and really leverage our
CertifiedFirst ®
Network membership. I
have the opportunity to meet with
and understand the needs of our
customers and how we can serve
them better. And I can turn what
I learn into initiatives that make us
more productive and more attractive
to all our stakeholders.”
One such initiative is Crown
Express, a 12,000-square-foot facility
just a short walk from Crown
Collision, where repairs can be
done while the customer waits.
“On simple repairs, a logical
customer question is, ‘Why do I have
to leave the car?’” Jackie says. “And
we thought about that, and decided,
‘You don’t.’ By implementing timesaving
steps, like pre-painting parts,
we can really expedite things. We have
a comfortable lounge, food and
beverages, and a business center where
a customer can check e-mail while
they wait. Insurers absolutely love
this service because they don’t have
to rent a car. And our dealerships
love it because, often, while a repair
is being done, the customer walks
over to one of our showrooms and
shops for a new car or truck.”
Crown has been working with
PPG to take even further advantage
of certification and training programs
for collision shop personnel at all levels
of the business, and to incorporate
plans that will help make this already
successful business a phenomenal
success. And Jackie Zajac is confident
of that success.
“As far as I’m concerned,” she says
with a nod. “The sky really is the
limit with PPG.”

Off and
Running
Sewer Equipment Company of America
builds gear to keep things that way
When you’re a world leader in your
industry, you know you’ve done
something right. When you’ve been a leader for
more than six decades, you’ve had time to think about
how to keep things right.
And for more than six decades,
Sewer Equipment Company of
America has supplied municipalities
and contractors around the world with
the tools they need to service and
clean sewer and storm-drain systems.
In a 60,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility in rural
Chadwick, Illinois, Sewer Equipment
Company produces specially designed
power equipment ranging from a
$2000 cable auger, used for
cleaning sewer lines, to a $200,000
hydroexcavator that uses pressurized
hot water to excavate lines for repair.
The company is the world’s leading
supplier of trailer jets—which use
high-pressure water to clean lines—
and one of the global leaders in the
production of truck jets, upfitted to
commercial truck chassis.
“With a product line this extensive,
most of our production is done to
order,” says John Wichmann,
production manager for Sewer
Equipment Company. “That
means we might be building rodding
machines one day and a catch-basin
cleaner or a vacuum unit the next.
And what we are painting can vary
dramatically from day to day, as well.”
Yet, regardless of the size and scope
of that day’s production, the Chadwick
plant applies the same brand of
paint—PPG Delfleet ®
Evolution.
“Our equipment faces a wide
extreme of road and climate
conditions, from Midwestern
winters and salt-covered roads,
to Middle Eastern summers with
blowing sand,” Wichmann says.
“Plus they face the additional
challenges of graywater, blackwater
and sludge, and road-repair and
construction-type environments.
We need a quality finish that can stand
up to those conditions, yet still be
cost-effective enough to help us
stay competitive.”
Months of testing at Chadwick
showed that Delfleet not only
delivered the quality Sewer
Equipment Company expected—
it provided coverage superior to
competitive products.
“That was one pleasant surprise,”
says John Wichmann. “And the other
pleasant surprises were the up-front
analysis PPG and our distributor—
A & B Autobody Supply, of Peru,
Illinois—did for us, and the training
that PPG offers. We’ve already
PPG-certified one painter and one
supervisor, and they came back with
so many great ideas—new ways to
prep welded surfaces, and alternative
drying techniques—that we’re in
the process of certifying two more
of our people. PPG is helping Sewer
Equipment Company to do what our
customers expect: provide durable
equipment that looks great and does
the job, no matter where in the
world we ship it.” ■
According to Production
Manager John Wichmann
(shown above) “…what
we are painting can vary
dramatically from day
to day.” Regardless of
the size or scope of the
day’s production, they
apply the same brand of
paint for every job—PPG
Delfleet ®
Evolution.
19

T R A I N I N G U P D A T E
Cheri Judkins (left),
operations manager
for Harley-Davidson
University, poses
with Don Dunbar, a
SkillsUSA computer
science instructor at
Idaho State University,
who sits astride the
2005 Harley-Davidson
Dyna Super Glide
Custom motorcycle
he won in a raffle to
raise funds for the
SkillsUSA Conference.
20
PPG and Harley-Davidson get all fired up
to raise money for SkillsUSA
Most collision-shop owners and techs are familiar
with SkillsUSA—the nation’s premier
organization for the promotion of excellence in
technical education. In fact, if you’re working in
the collision industry today, there’s a pretty good
chance you’re a SkillsUSA alumnus.
And if you
know about
SkillsUSA, then
you know that
the Super Bowl
of vocational
education is
the SkillsUSA
Championships,
where students
with talent
ranging from
baking and
carpentry to computer science and
collision repair gather to compete
for national honors.
This June, during the SkillsUSA
National Leadership and Skills
Conference, PPG and Harley-
Davidson got together in a very
special fundraiser.
It all started during one of the
planning meetings for the event,
when Cheri Judkins, operations
manager for Harley-Davidson
HOGWild
I N K A N S A S C I T Y
University, offered on behalf of her
company to donate a 2005 Harley-
Davidson Dyna Super Glide
Custom motorcycle, to be raffled
off as a fundraiser. When Cheri
made her offer, Steve Lehner,
of PPG, who was also on
the same committee, said,
“That’s a great idea. I’ll tell you
what—if you’ll donate the bike,
we’ll paint it.”
The result—a genuine
American legend, done up in a
super-trick, color-changing,
faux three-D flame paint
scheme—was enough to quicken the
pulse of any motorcyclist.
It certainly did that for Don
Dunbar, a SkillsUSA computer
science instructor at Idaho State
University. Don, who had toured
the Kansas City Harley plant
earlier in the week, and has
ridden motorcycles for years,
had always dreamed of owning a
Harley-Davidson.
Don had also never won anything
in his life. Still, he bought one ticket
for the raffle (out of the 30,000 sold),
because he wanted to show his
support. And as he videotaped
the motorcycle being
ridden into
Kemper Arena for the prize
announcement at the end of the
awards ceremony, the thing going
through his mind was not, “I hope I
win,” but, “Wow, what a beautiful
bike; I hope whoever wins it will
appreciate it.”
When his name was called as the
winner, Don recalls that he “got so
excited I almost threw the video
camera away.”
As Cheri Judkins said, “It’s always
great when the winner of something
like this is a rider who can really
connect with the Harley mystique.”
And it pleased everyone at PPG to
learn that, for the first week after Don
picked the motorcycle up at High
Desert Harley-Davidson in Emmett,
Idaho, the motorcycle was on display
at Idaho State University’s auto body
shop, where students perfecting their
paint and refinish techniques could
take a good, close look at what a master
custom painter can do with products
from PPG’s Vibrance Collection TM
. ■
AllFired
Up
C R E AT I N G A P A I N T J O B W O R T H Y O F A L E G E N D
The custom paint on the tank and fenders of Don
Dunbar’s SkillsUSA Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide
Custom is the creation of Paul Stoll, instructor at PPG
Refinish’s Seattle Training Center.
Paul, a custom painter for more than 35 years, first
started painting in a vocational/technical training
environment, much like that fostered by SkillsUSA.
He says that he was “fortunate enough to find custom
painters willing to share their secrets in an era when
most custom painters were not,” and that inspired him to
not only learn to paint, but to share his knowledge. With
techniques that betray his Southern California custom
roots, Paul teaches Vibrance custom painting classes
around the country for PPG.
Here are the steps he went through to create the colorchanging
True Fire paint scheme (all products available
through your PPG jobber or distributor):
• Obtain OEM body parts in e-coat
(electrodeposition primer).
• Seal e-coat with DAS 3025 Sealer.
• Apply three coats DBC Black Basecoat DMD 1683.
• Apply two coats Vibrance Liquid Crystal Glacier VM4104
(this finish will change color, from emerald to blue,
depending on the angle at which the light strikes it).
• Apply one coat DBC 500 Base Clear to protect work.
• Apply flame motif using airbrush in the True Fire
method created by custom painter Mike Lavallee:
a base of DMD 618 Moly Orange, DMD 639 Chrome
Yellow and DMD 1684 White, with candy topcoats in
Vibrance Radiance ®
II DMX 213 Red, DMX 211 Orange
and DMX 210 Yellow.
• Hand-cut mask of Harley-Davidson logo to create faux
metal appearance with Vibrance VM4201 Liquid Metal.
• Apply DC 4000 Clear atop all work.
• Sand with 600 grit paper and a dual-action (DA) sander
to level topcoat.
• Apply two coats of DC 4000 for final gloss.
Total hours for job = approx. 100
Retail value of similar paintwork = $6500.00
If you are a PPG certified painter who’d like to become
hands-on familiar with the technique used to create this
effect, as well as the products, you can learn from Paul
or one of his peers in the PPG Vibrance Collection Real
Fire class. For details on how to enroll, contact your PPG
distributor, look online at www.ppgrefinish.com, or call
the PPG Faxback service toll-free at: 1-800-450-2654.
21

Air Guitar
(Up-In-The-)
Doing the impossible puts
one small Louisiana signmaker on the map
It sounds like a tall tale. And it
is. But it’s true.
To break into the big time, all one
Bunkie, Louisiana signmaker had to
do is do what their competitors had
said was impossible. They did…
and now they have a world record
to prove it.
“We’re a small, south-central
Louisiana sign company,” says Todd
Ducote, shop foreman and designer
for Kojis Signs. “We have about 70
people working for us; we were the
sort of company that got most of its
business putting up signs for fastfood
restaurants, that sort of thing.”
That’s fairly steady work. But it’s
not all that Kojis wanted.
“We have always had our eye on
the casino business in this part of the
country,” Ducote says. “But we had,
historically, found it impossible to
break in. There were a select few
big sign companies of national
prominence that the casino
organizations did business with,
and while we would bid on every
job we learned about, it seemed
as if we never heard back.”
Then, last year, they did hear back.
Hard Rock Café International, Inc.,
the global phenomenon with Hard
Rock Cafés, Hotels and Casinos in
more than 40 countries worldwide,
was building a new hotel casino in
Biloxi, and wanted a sign worthy of
its reputation: a neon-lit, aluminum
guitar, realistic down to the smallest
detail. And they wanted it in headlinemaking
proportions, 112 feet tall
and almost three times as large in
surface area as the then-record holder
for the largest guitar in the world
(also on a Hard Rock property).
Just as the folks at Kojis feared,
first consideration went to a major
signmaker, very well-known and
justly well-respected throughout
the industry. But then the call came.
“Hard Rock told us that the
signmaker they were considering
was saying that the radiused curves
necessary to do a faithful rendition
of a guitar would require special dies
that would cost upward of half a
million dollars—just for the dies,”
Ducote recalls. “And they also said
that Hard Rock’s deadline for delivery
of the sign—July 5, 2005—would
be absolutely impossible to meet.”
The door had opened, just a crack.
“We did some experimenting in
our shop, invented a tool that would
create the types of bends needed,
and showed the results to the people
at Hard Rock,” he says. “They
said, ‘Okay, can you meet a July 5
deadline?’ We said we would, and
we got the job.”
Before construction could begin
on the sign, Kojis had to construct
an addition to their shop—an 180foot-long,
27-foot-tall addition, just
to have the space to move and work
on the various pieces of the giant
sign. That began in December of
2004, concurrent with computeraided
design of the sign itself. On
January 27, 2005, work on the
actual sign began.
“To give you an idea of the scope
of this project, we had four of our
painters—Calvin Johnson, Sherman
Black, David Holsomback and Chris
Marcot—working for six months,
straight, just to do the paint and
body work. We had to design the
sign to withstand a light Category
Five hurricane, and because of the
soil composition in that part of the
country, we designed twelve 90-foot
concrete piles for the guitar to stand
on. There were suppliers involved
from four countries—the United
States, Canada, Mexico, and the
hand-drawn neon guitar strings
were brought in from Italy. And
we finished the guitar with $42,000
worth of PPG DBU Basecoat/
Clearcoat paint.”
Why PPG?
“It’s almost all we shoot,” says
Ducote. “We have never, ever, had
a problem with PPG finishes; PPG
makes just an awesome product.”
In early May, two months away
from deadline, Kojis Signs’ internal
projections were showing that their
competitor may have been right on
at least one of their two objections—
at the rate they were going, the
guitar was going to be late for its
delivery date. Kojis management
called a company-wide meeting,
explained the situation and the
importance of keeping their
promise, and employees agreed to
work seven days a week, 10-13
hours a day, Father’s Day and the
Fourth of July included, to pull the
job back on schedule.
That worked. On July 5, 2005,
the guitar arrived for installation at
the Biloxi construction site. And
The Guinness Book of World Records
is expected to certify Kojis Signs’
creation as the largest replica guitar
in the world.
So—did this change things as far
as Kojis getting future casino work?
“The phone has not stopped
ringing,” Todd Ducote says with a
laugh. “It might say ‘Hard Rock
Casino,’ but that big guitar is one
exceptional billboard for Kojis Signs,
right in the middle of our most
valuable prospects. So yeah—I guess
you could say ‘we’re in.’” ■
Kojis Signs designed twelve
90-foot concrete piles as a
base for the world’s largest
guitar, engineered to
withstand hurricane force
winds. The design obviously
worked, as the guitar was
still standing after Hurricane
Katrina, which produced
winds up to 184 mph.
Kojis Guitar Survives
Hurricane Katrina
Recent news reports have been filled with television footage of the destruction
caused by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast. Rising up amidst the rubble,
still standing, was the world’s largest guitar. According to Todd Ducote,
shop foreman and designer for Kojis Signs, “Quite frankly, we were amazed.
The sign frame and column were designed to withstand winds of up
to 180 mph. At the height of the storm, the winds were 184 mph. In fact,
there were sustained winds of over 100 mph for seven hours straight. At
one point the base of the guitar was under eight or nine feet of water.”
The Hard Rock Casino was completely destroyed. Plans are underway
to rebuild the casino, with an opening scheduled for November or December
of 2006. The only real damage to the guitar was from flying debris. The guitar
will be taken down and shipped back to Kojis to be refinished, then
reinstalled at the casino site.
“We’ve received hundreds of calls from all over the country from people
who saw the guitar on TV, who called to congratulate us,” says Ducote.
“We designed the guitar and its foundation to withstand hurricanes, but
we never imagined it would be put to a test like this one.”
22 23

AdjustRite TM
gives heavy truck estimators a
much-needed electronic advantage
Penske Truck Leasing of Norcross, Georgia, employs 14 techs,
working in three 74-foot drive-through service bays, a 74-foot
prep bay, and a 73-foot downdraft paint booth.
Comes of Age
The shoulder patch worn by Penske Truck
Leasing techs displays the company logo—its
name over a checkered f lag—surrounded by three
words: Quality, Service and Performance.
Those are not just empty words.
Like all Penske companies—from
its numerous auto dealerships, to
OEM-supplier firms, to worldfamous
racing teams and
commercial truck repair
locations—Penske
Truck Leasing is known
for 24/7 professionalism
and efficiency. That’s
why, when they went
looking for an up-to-date
computer tool that would
allow them to estimate heavy-truck
body repairs, they had high standards.
And nothing on the market seemed
to meet those standards.
“Penske was not alone in that
regard,” says Cristina Fronzaglia,
manager of fleet marketing programs
for PPG Commercial Coatings.
“For some time now, students,
including bodyshop managers and
in-shop estimators attending our
Commercial Estimating Class have
been asking for an automated
estimating tool that incorporated
the logic and methods taught. These
types of programs have been
available to their colleagues in
passenger-car and lighttruck
repair for years.
So finally, to better
serve our PPG fleet
customers, we decided
to offer it ourselves.”
Stu Orr, an estimating
professional with 15 years
experience with insurance carriers
and another 15 providing review
services has traveled to PPG business
development centers around the
country teaching PPG’s Commercial
Estimating classes. He was also the
author of a DOS-based PC estimating
tool that could be used on the heavyduty-truck
end of the business. PPG
contacted Stu and worked with him to
develop AdjustRite, an exclusive PPG
online-based estimating tool. Key
features of the new program include:
It is specifically designed for
fleet shops, not a passengercar
collision shop program
that has been modified for the
fleet market.
Produces fair, accurate and
competitive estimates
Easy to use—simple pointand-click
functionality
Prepares neat, easy-to-read,
professional documentation
for each estimate
Employs logic to account for
often missed labor items. For
instance, if a tech is replacing
a fender that contains a
headlamp module, AdjustRite
logic automatically calculates
the necessary time to re-aim
the headlight
Keeps superior records as
well as allows the addition
of pictures
Incorporates detailed parts
information
Creates shop worksheets for
the parts department and
shop technicians
Less time estimating and more
time repairing—increased
productivity
To give AdjustRite a thorough
real-world trial, PPG beta tested it
with several fleet companies,
including Penske Truck Leasing.
“Penske has had a longstanding
relationship with PPG through our
various companies,” says James
Svaasand, general manager of business
ventures for Penske Truck Leasing.
“Ten years ago, when we were
operating our first truck bodyshop,
we realized that the electronic luxuries
we were accustomed to in our other
businesses just weren’t there in this
industry. So, of course, we were very
interested when PPG took the lead
in developing this tool. They’ve always
been a valued partner to us, and this
experience just reinforces that lead.”
One bodyshop manager who has
made good use of the new tool is
Brad Keiter, who manages the Penske
shop in Norcross, Georgia. And for
Keiter, who began working on heavy
trucks in the military in 1978,
AdjustRite has been “a good, consistent
way to estimate—a great tool that
we desperately needed.”
24 25
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
“It’s a real, usable electronic tool,”
says Keiter, whose busy shop employs
14 techs, including two full-time
box technicians, working in three
74-foot drive-through service bays,
a 74-foot prep bay, and a 73-foot
downdraft paint booth. “And the
beauty of it is that it is online and
fully editable. The logic incorporated
in the program is a real help when
you’re generating a large, 20- to
50-line estimate. On something that
size a person might overlook
something, but AdjustRite doesn’t.”
Keiter, who has done more than
150 estimates using the new tool says,
“This is an online incorporation of all
the things I learned when I was
certified by PPG as a heavyequipment
estimator three years ago.
As far as I’m concerned, this ingrains
PPG even more deeply as a partner
to our business. They’re not just
supplying paint—they are helping
us to generate revenue.”
To try AdjustRite for yourself, go
online and register at www.
AdjustRite.com. Or for more
information, call 1-800-516-5149.
And let your carrier colleagues
know that an insurance adjusters’
version of the program will be
available within the next year.
The AdjustRite onlinebased
estimating system
takes into consideration
every detail of a repair,
including often missed
labor items to produce
a fair, accurate and
competitive estimate.
Try AdjustRite for
yourself. Log on to
www.adjustrite.com
and receive
5 free estimates!

KEEPING
CUSTOMERS
FOR LIFE
Want to put Carl Sewell’s
principles to work in your
shop? Here are Steve Pearce’s
top three recommendations
for getting started at earning
customers for life:
Hire the right people
“You aren’t looking for
‘qualified;’ you’re looking for
‘exceptional.’ Interview as
many people as it takes to
find the person with the
capabilities, the character
and the vision to think this
way, day in and day out.
Staff your shop with nothing
but that kind of person.”
Treat them like family
“The ‘them’ here refers to
your customers and your staff.
If you go the extra mile for
them, they’ll reward you
with a loyalty that money
can’t buy.”
Read the book
“Customers for Life contains
lessons that you can put to
work the moment you set the
book down and step out into
your shop. It’s like a graduate
degree in doing business the
right way.” Customers for Life
is available anywhere books
are sold (ISBN 0-385-41503-6).
26
Lifetime of Business
continued from page 7
setting (as Carl Sewell says, “If we
don’t like them or find them pleasant,
how will the customer?”).
Once hired, Sewell technicians
have a work environment that is
rarely seen outside of race shops—
painted floors in most work areas,
tile floors in the paint prep area, air
conditioning in every part of the
shop and everything neat and wellmaintained,
with no grease or grime
anywhere. There are no quality
inspectors; everyone is responsible
for his or her own work.
And if a job has to be re-done,
the tech re-does it—and does not get
paid for the job.
“That’s not punishment,” says
Pearce. “That is a provision that allows
a person to be proud of what they do.
Motivated people like the ones we hire
here would feel badly about making
the company pay for their mistakes, so
they are more than willing to do the
job again on their own time, often
with guidance from another tech or a
supervisor who is willing to help them
learn to do an operation correctly. In
fact, it is usually not the customer
who asks us to re-do a job; it’s the
tech who did the job. And when they
come to us and say the job’s not
right, or they damaged a customer’s
car, we’ll give them the materials
they need, but they provide the
labor to make it right.”
Because the atmosphere is so
supportive and so invigorating, Pearce
reports that the Sewell shops have
almost no turnover and a long waiting
list for every position. As he says,
“We pay well, but dollars aren’t
everything. In this business, no matter
where you work, you’re going to spend
a lot of time in the shop. A comfortable
and clean working environment, being
surrounded by people with a can-do
attitude… that means a lot. It makes
you look forward to coming in every
day. And nothing makes Carl Sewell
happier than changing people’s lives
for the better—that goes for the people
who work with him, as well as the
people who do business with him.”
Pearce says that his techs also like
the fact that they are empowered to
please the customer.
“If someone brings a car in with a
crumpled front fender, and we notice
that they also have a taillight that’s
out, we will put a new bulb in at no
charge. If the car’s running on fumes
when they drop it off, we’ll put some
gas in so they don’t have to stop on
the way home and be late for dinner,”
says Pearce. “We’ll do detailing that
we know the insurance doesn’t cover,
just because it makes it nice for the
customer when they pick the car up.
Because collision work is generally
done by insurance allowances, rather
than shop estimates, we usually can’t
beat our own estimate. But we can do
work that we see is needed and not
charge for it. That lets the customer
know we’re truly grateful that they
came here.”
All four of Sewell’s shops use
PPG products exclusively. “That’s
no accident,” Pearce says. “One of
Carl’s principles is, ‘You can’t give
good service if you sell a lousy product.’
So first and foremost we go to PPG
for the quality, and for the fact that
they’re like us; they stand behind
their work and they’ll make things
right if the results aren’t what’s
expected. And the PPG Roundtable,
the CertifiedFirst ®
Network, their
continuing education programs?
Those things are all so much like
Carl’s way of doing business that
you’d think he invented them.”
It all adds up, bottom line, to a
way of doing business that works.
And Steve Pearce reports that, for the
customers, it’s kind of like a cult as well.
“I constantly hear from people who
buy here and get their service here
because their parents came here,”
he says. “My folks said, ‘I don’t care
what kind of car you get, as long as you
get it from Sewell.’ I can’t count the
number of times I’ve heard that.” ■

Street Rod Vette—
From Pieces to Perfection
This 1956 Corvette sat in pieces in
an Oregon barn for nearly 20 years
before being purchased by Jack
Barnett of Apollo Beach, Florida. Then
Barnett transformed the former basket
case into “SRV” (“Street Rod Vette”)—
the show-stopper you see here. “After
fabricating the chassis, I chose Time
Machines of Hudson, Florida to serve as
my custom shop,” Barnett recalls. Working
to Barnett’s designs, Time Machines made
approximately 100 body modifications,
from the molded and frenched head lamp
rings to the in-body molded tail lamps--
Do-it-Yourself Showstopper
Besides the obvious—the fact
that it won 2005 Street
Machine of the Year at the
Goodguys 8th PPG Nationals, last July in
Columbus—Roy Pigford’s 1966 Nova is
exceptional for two reasons. The first is
that the chopped and low-slung Chevy is
Pigford’s first foray into the hotly contested
high-performance street-machine
world. And the second is that
Pigford, owner of Roy’s Body Shop, in
Pasadena, TX, did 99% of the work
himself. The Nova, which Roy’s son once
drove to high school, rides on a custombuilt
frame and ’84 Corvette suspension
pieces, and is powered by a 383 LT1
so many body mods that Barnett says,
“Nothing remained original.” Time Machines
even fabricated a remote-operated hood
and stainless engine trim for the nitrousbreathing
C5 Corvette LS1 V8. Corvette
Torch Red from PPG’s Global Refinish System
added a show-winning finishing touch.
The SRV was picked as a Fabulous Five
winner at the 2005 Goodguys event in
Jacksonville, was a finalist for Street
Machine of the Year at the 2004
Goodguys PPG Nationals, and The Speed
Channel selected it as Best of Show at
the 2004 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. ■
Lingenfelter. For finish, Roy applied a
PPG Lexus Maroon and Ferrari Sandstone
basecoat/clearcoat paint system, with
the two hues divided by custom airbrush
graphics. When he won, Roy called it,
“One of the best days of my life.” But
we bet any day he goes cruising in
this stunning ride is a
close second. ■
G A L L E R Y
27

PPG Industries
Attn: Refinish Group
19699 Progress Dr.
Strongsville, OH 44149
Forwarding Service Requested
ATTN: PAINT AND BODY SHOP PRESORTED
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©2005 PPG Industries www.ppgrefinish.com
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