Collision Repair Columnists

Steve Fletcher

Serious About Sustainability

As this article was written it happened to be Earth Day. Not surprisingly, on April 22 many were focusing their attention on environmental and sustainability practices.  At the Automotive Recyclers…
Steve Fletcher

In This Together

OEMs need to understand that practices denouncing the use of salvage parts and restrictive data access harm the entire automotive economy. Recently we’ve seen more attention paid to Right to…

Not the Insured’s Fault!

We are currently experiencing a period of turmoil that affects our entire ecosystem, but which should not affect the insured, our client. We have all heard of the “COVID” depression.…

Post Pandemic Success

Investments in people and processes will be key moving forward. These are interesting times we live in. Every day it seems there is another event that triggers further uncertainty in…

Using UV primers in Body Repair

UV technology has been introduced to shops in recent years, bringing great changes for those who have adopted it. Two-component urethane primers have been used for years in vehicle repair.…

Saving Time & Money

Proper spray gun maintenance makes a huge difference. It can be easy for us to blame the materials or the apparatus we’re using when we don’t get the required result…

Education Equals Efficiency

Knowing spray requirements and using quality guns is key. Back in the early 1990s, the State of California came up with a transfer efficiency requirement for spraying coatings and adhesives.…

No Tough Customers

When is customer experience important?  Most of us are finding that the work of repairing cars is much harder now than it was a few years ago. The chaos caused…

An Automotive Coating from Space

Would you be interested in having your vehicle covered with the blackest substance ever created by man? If we refer to the theory of colors, the…

The Changing Face of Insurance Claims

In the first of two articles related to the claims process, J.R. looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic and market conditions are changing the claims process…

A Unified Repair Standard

The benefits of being on the same page when it comes to collision industry credentialling. When we look across the country, collision repair standards continue to…

Collision repair columnists

As Canada’s leading national collision repair and management publication, covering collision repair news, trends and events, we bring together industry experts, so they can share their advice and insights with you, our professional audience.

Body shop

As an auto body shop owner, you know how quickly the industry is changing. Today’s auto body shops have to deal with numerous challenges, which is why our team of expert columnists is at the ready to inform and provide the insight and guidance auto body repair shop owners, and their technicians need. Whether searching for information about auto recycling, automotive paint or any other car body repair shop issues, we have the experts on hand to help you navigate the challenges and uncertainties that are sure to come our way as the industry continues to change, evolve and advance.

Car colors

As most bodywork repair professionals will acknowledge, today’s automotive paints are sophisticated chemical products. Working on modern finishes and paint colors requires more than a simple ability to spray paint a panel. The modern body repair workshop needs to be concerned with how the many products they use will work together to best match the car body color with the replacement part’s color following an automobile collision. Training and practice are key to doing the job right, and today’s body shops need to manage a number of moving parts, including the health and safety of all workers. Safety at work is a key concern, and our team of experts and columnists can keep you informed of changes in the industry that will impact your business.

Auto parts shortage

Thanks to the pandemic, we’ve seen a global auto industry parts shortage that no doubt has impacted your business. This mean that today’s collision repair professionals aren’t simply concerned about damage assessment, or finding the right color code, or how to choose paint color variations that make sense. Instead, one of your biggest challenges is dealing with the auto body parts shortage. Depending on the type of vehicle you’re working on, it would seem that it’s easier nowadays to deal with requests for changing car color than it is to find the parts you’ll need to put the car body back together again.

Future of collision repair industry

With so many challenges facing our industry, our team of columnists is working hard to keep you ahead of the learning curve. One of our columnists, for example, recently addressed the challenges many body shops are facing, based on a survey conducted by the CCPQ (Corporation des carrossiers professionnels du Québec). The study spelled out some of the financial and insurance issues you have to deal with, and recommended a number of steps that could help resolve some of these stresses. The bottom line is that our industry is changing, and quickly. Your day-to-day concerns are not about mundane issues like vehicle color or how to find the color code for the vehicle you’re working on. And as car technologies continue to evolve and advance, you’ll be dealing with more complex issues like EV battery recycling or the calibration of ADAS systems. Rest assured, our team of experts will be there to offer timely advice, when you need it most.