Category — Consumer Info

Keeping along the same lines as my last post on cool applications for your mobile phones I came across this cool application many users will be interested in. It’s appropriately called “Help I crashed my car”. Help I crashed my car is a FREE smart phone app that provides you and your family with access to virtually everything you need if you are ever involved in a car accident!

Here is a description of exactly what this is and what it can do for you in case you are ever involved in a collision. “Help I Crashed My Cars patent-pending wireless technology provides you and your family with a one-click automated emergency communication system that contacts up to 3 family or friends, your insurance company, your insurance agent and your preferred body shop. It will even send your shop a map of your accident location so they can respond immediately!

Because of its GPS location technology, Help I Crashed My Car makes it easy for you to locate and contact the closest Police Department, Ambulance Service, Hospital, Towing Company, Rental Car Company, or Body Shop.

Help I Crashed My Car, also provides you with important information on what to do if you are involved in a car accident, what to look for in a quality auto body shop, and what your consumer rights are after you have been in an accident.

Help I Crashed My Car, even provides you with an Accident Report and the ability to take photos at the scene of the accident. You can then send the report and photos to your insurance company or preferred body shop”.

This mobile app is currently in use for Canadians and Americans and takes less then five minutes to download, install and set up which makes set up simple for the user. So where can you get this handy application. You can get this phone app FREE from iTunes app store, Verizon app store, Blackberry app store, Windows Mobile app store, Help I Crashed My Car.com, dozens of Body Shop Websites in North America, as well all Premier Member Websites.

In my opinion it is worth it to get started with the application as you just never know when you might need it. I know the one thing I always have with me is my phone. I do not carry my laptop with me when I travel but my phone never leaves my side. I drive a long distance to work and back and the good thing about this application is it’s free. Here is the link over to Help I Crashed My Car so you can get started as soon as you have some spare time.

PPG’s EC 700 And EC 750 Water Borne Clear Coat

I was able to spray the new PPG clear coat EC700 last week and was really impressed with its overall ease of use and final appearance. My PPG paint representative Rob Festa was in to provide me the technical information on the new clear coat and offered to show me how the new clear works. We used fast hardener on a one panel job and I was impressed on how quickly we were able to complete the clear coat process. This clear is a one visit clear which means it’s back to back. One juicy coat followed by another and your all done. Immediately following the last pass you are hitting the bake button on your paint booth.

This clear cost is specifically designed to go over PPG’s Envirobase HP basecoat. The mixing ratio is 4:1 and uses no reducers. I sprayed a three panel repair with this new clear coat and used medium hardener. I liked the way the EC700 laid down better using a slower hardener selection. I would like to spray and front end job to see how it lays out on flat panels like a hood. Overall I am very impressed with the new EC700 clear coat from PPG.

I will keep you posted as to how the flat panel repairs work out with the slow hardener. This new clear will be more productive as it is a one visit clear coat. This will translate into a few more cars being painted every day.

PPG Hits Another Home Run

There are good paint’s on the market and then there are great paints on the market. PPG Envirobase is great paint. Some of the others are good, and some are not so good. I am thrilled that I use great paint everyday. I would like to thank the great team of Advanced Coatings Technologies for setting our brand new shop up with PPG Envirobase HP and how smoothly the transition went. I arrived at the new store from the old store and everything was in place, the paint was in, the gun washer was up, everything was marked and in its place. Great work Tim and Andrew for seeing this installation to the end. Thank you for going above and beyond the call of duty for us.

I arrived to see the brand new Junair paint booth that was waiting for me; we fired her up and pulled in the first car to be painted. After using the booth for the first time I was impressed by the blowing power of the Quads, those air movement units blow hot air at a rapid rate to dry the water base thoroughly. I am also impressed with how wide the floor filter intake is. There is at least one or two feet of room left on the side of the vehicle when spraying, I like that. So what this equates to is cleaner paint work, less overspray to breathe in everyday and faster dry times for the base coats. This is a booth for the future.

Stampede Pontiac Buick GMC has a fully equipped, modern professional Body Shop for all your collision repair needs. Weather it’s a light scratch or heavy collision; we have the technology to repair your vehicle properly. We repair all makes and models of vehicles and when repairing your GM Vehicle, we use genuine GM parts and accessories… we offer all our customers a LIFE TIME PAINT GUARANTEE to keep you fully satisfied with your paint repairs FOR LIFE.

Whether you are looking for a new paint job or you require insurance repairs from an accident, we will fix your “Baby” right the first time! Motor vehicle accidents happen and we understand the stress involved in having your car in an accident, we will take the stress out of this stressful time. Over the past 50 years we have streamlined our processes to have as little impact on you as possible. We work for you and serve you with the help you need to get your vehicle looking better than new.

Our certified collision and paint technicians take pride in their work, striving to make your vehicle look as good as or better than new. We use the highest quality products and newest technologies to ensure your car is safe and up to standards. With our combination of experience, state-of-the-art equipment and a genuine desire to exceed your expectations, exceeding your needs is our number one goal.

It’s a New Age for Refinish
Years ago, when many of us first got into the collision repair business, 90 percent of the colors we dealt with were direct gloss formulas, with no clear involved. When we repaired a panel, we finished to the nearest edge, and considered the job done.
Today, that’s no longer the case. When you look at current OEM palettes, just about the only direct gloss colors left are gloss white and a handful of reds. Nearly everything else involves a base color—which can be solid, metallic, or tinted clear—with a clearcoat over the top. And that’s not the only thing that has changed.

Blending basics—your keys to invisible repairs

By John Hristias, PPG Industries Australia
The difference between OEM painting conditions and procedures and those used in the typical collision shop have never been as great. OEM metallic and pearl paints are typically waterborne, as opposed to the solvent-borne paints used in collision repair. Many modern assembly plants have used electrostatic spray to apply metallics, which can polarize the metallic materials, and thus change the reflective qualities. And to reduce the amount of topcoat color required, many OEMs now use a colored undercoat, or colored primer, under the actual color. Final color, then, is the result of the undercoat showing through both the topcoat and the clearcoat.

In addition, OEM pigment choices tend to be extremely broad, compared to the range of colors carried in most refinish systems (for example, 50 yellow OEM pigments, compared to the four carried in most premium refinish systems). And regardless of how the vehicle was finished at the factory, color is quite likely to have faded a bit if the vehicle is several years old, or has been continually exposed to the elements. Even armed with the more than 200 tinters that it would take to provide accurate matches to every OEM finish, a collision shop could still see some variability, just because of painting conditions. Little wonder, then, that edge-to-edge blending has, by and large, become a thing of the past.

Assessing the Situation

When doing the estimate on a damaged vehicle, it’s important to note that, when we talk about the “repair area” for a damaged panel, we are just talking about the area of damage itself. We need to consider the area that will be covered by the new primer coat we apply during the course of the repair. As the primed area will in most cases be several times larger than the damaged area, it’s important to allow for this, or you can seriously underestimate the time and materials that it will take to do the job.
Bearing that in mind, here are some things you should consider when deciding how far you should continue to blend a repair finish:
Mentally divide the panel being worked on into thirds (both lengthwise and heightwise). If a metallic or pearl color repair extends into more than two of those thirds, then you should continue the blend into the next panel.

If the finish being used is a solid-color basecoat/clearcoat, the blend can, in most cases, be restricted to the panel being repaired.
If a panel is being replaced, rather than repaired, then the color should be blended into the surrounding panels regardless of the color being used.
The Clear Difference. When we talk about blending, we’re talking about color only. The entire panel (or panels) should be clearcoated to ensure maximum durability of the repair.

Whether the accident is your fault or the other driver’s, make sure you go to an appropriate repair shop and ask for what you require!

1. That fender bender will be a major expense. If the accident is your fault and you have the typical $500 deductible for a collision, kiss your money goodbye. A survey of repair shops in the Washington, D.C., area by Consumers’ Checkbook, a nonprofit consumer information group, shows that replacing a fender on a 1998 Buick LeSabre can cost as much as $982. A new front bumper on a 2006 Mercedes-Benz E-Class can go as high as $1,350.

2. Approved shops are beholden to tightfisted insurers. Auto insurers contract with providers to repair vehicles for a pre-negotiated rate (think of it as managed care for sick cars). And your car could be the victim of cost cutting. Some practices, such as requiring low hourly labor rates and making the shop pick up the rental car tab if a repair takes too long, could tempt shops to cut corners — by, say, neglecting to align the wheels or using plastic filler in a dent rather than replacing the sheet metal. “Insurers have wired the shops to give them so many discounts that, to stay alive, the shops often do the bare minimum,” says Erica Eversman, of Vehicle Information Services, which provides consulting and forensic experts for both insurers and consumers. For a list of independent shops that meet certain quality criteria, go to Assured Performance Collision Care.

3. Not all replacement parts are created equal. Original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts are designed to match precisely and may be safer. But insurers prefer that shops use generic or salvage replacement parts because they’re cheaper. If you cause an accident, you could be bound by wording in your policy to use aftermarket parts or pay the difference for OEM parts. But if someone hits you, tell the shop to use OEM parts.

4. The due date is most likely fiction. Mechanics routinely blame missed deadlines on delays in parts delivery. The truth is that many of them take on more business than they can handle. Before you commit your business to a shop, check the local Better Business Bureau and government consumer-affairs offices for complaints against it.

5. A rented car will cost you. Renting a car for three weeks could cost $1,000 or more. Even if you have optional rental-car insurance (which costs $1 or $2 a month), your daily reimbursement may be limited to the cost of a compact car. If you need a minivan while your car is in the shop, make sure you have minivan-size coverage.

6. Your car needs a shop that speaks its language. Many European cars use aluminum and ultrahard steel that require special equipment to repair. Plus, replacement parts for late-model European vehicles have to be fit with an especially high degree of precision. Shops should be certified by the manufacturer to do the work, meaning they must have specialized training and equipment — and charge higher rates. Insurers won’t necessarily recommend these shops, but they should be willing to pay the tab.

7. The insurer’s warranty isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Insurers sometimes dangle warranties on the parts (for as long as you own the vehicle) to entice you to go to shops in their network. But the body shop’s guarantee is the one that’s important. Nearly all shops will guarantee their work, and parts makers guarantee their parts, making the insurance warranty all but worthless.

This article was reported and written by Mark Solheim for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.