Off is In, On is Out

We've all seen those lists of what's "in" and what's "out." These are lists that usually include TV shows, movie stars, fashions and diets. If we put one together for our industry, it might look something like this: Computerized color retrieval systems are in, microfiche is out. Air-supplied respirators are in, general spray painting respirators are out. High-volume, low-pressure (HVLP) spray guns are in, suction feed spray guns are out. Base coats/clear coats are in, single-stage top coats are out. Painting parts off the car is in, painting parts on the car is out.

The first few items on the list are pretty much givens for most industry observers. The final item, however, can be hotly debated. In many shops, replacement parts such as fenders, hoods, deck lids, bumper covers, spoilers and other bolted-on items are "cut in," "jambed" or "trimmed out" (inside surfaces painted) off the vehicle. The exteriors are then painted after being installed so that all exterior painting is done at the same time, and the repair is blended into adjacent panels. Those shops cling with Super Glue-like persistence to this theory.

Just ask Dave Dunn, founder of the Masters School of Auto Body Management in Santa Barbara, Calif., and owner of Dave's Auto Body Shop in Galesburg, Ill. Dunn and his Masters School instructors espouse the benefits of painting parts off the car whenever possible-and they get strong pushback from students. "They say, 'That's not the way we've done it,'" Dunn reports.

Wanted: Open Minds

"A lot of shops are old-school," says Mike Johnson, manager of Acme Body & Paint Co. in Jamaica Plain, Mass. "People think they know everything and they don't want to listen to anyone else. To stay ahead in this business you need new information. You need to keep an open mind, take courses, check with suppliers for what they recommend."

Fortunately, his boss and shop owner, Chuck Sulkala, has the requisite open mind. When Sulkala hired Johnson three years ago, the new manager questioned Acme's policy of masking everything and painting virtually all parts on the car. "I told him that was standard procedure and the only way insurance companies would pay for the repair," recalls Sulkala. "Mike persuaded me to let him try it, then he got the insurers on board. In the beginning, everybody in the shop said, 'We can't do it that way. It's going to slow us down.' Now, we paint almost everything off the car. In fact, we won't guarantee a job if the owner instructs us to mask off the part. We do much better work now than we did four or five years ago," he says. "That's because the job is better-looking, with no rough edges, no evidence of masking."

Increasing Profits

But there is another, more important advantage to painting parts off the car, and it has to do with the Holy Grail of every autobody shop-profits. "In our class on repair processing techniques, we emphasize that this is one area where you can definitely improve cycle time and save material," Dunn says. And that, of course, means increased profits.

"If you paint parts separately, you are putting the primer in the gun once, you're putting the paint in once, and you're putting the clear in once, and you prepare and mix all those materials once-instead of twice," says Bill Wynkoop, owner of Auto Rehab Crash 1 in Rockford, Ill. What's more, the sanding step is eliminated. So you're using less material-paint and sandpaper-and you're eliminating most of the leftover material that is thrown away when the part is painted twice. That, in turn, means a reduction in the amount of biohazard material generated by the shop.

Wynkoop may be the country's most enthusiastic practitioner of painting parts off the vehicle. His 1-year-old, 30,000-sq. ft. shop is built around the concept. His facility has a straight, assembly line design. In the front part of the shop is an area measuring about 10x30-ft. where parts are mounted on portable racks. They move from there into an outsized 24x38 ft. spray booth where they are primed, painted and cleared. At the end of the paint cycle, the racks are placed in another area measuring about 10x30 ft., and from there they are installed on vehicles.

Seven Cars at Once

With the large spray booth, Crash 1 painters can work on parts for up to seven cars at once. "In many cases," says Wynkoop, "the car itself never enters the paint shop." The concept obviously is working. He says Crash 1 runs at 300 percent efficiency and retains 62 percent to 68 percent of its total materials costs.

Acme's Johnson is nearly as enthusiastic about the off-the-vehicle concept as Wynkoop. "You're saving labor and material," Johnson says. "Say you're doing a fender. If you paint the jamb, then hook it onto the car, you then have to mask it off, paint it, then deal with the overspray on either side. That means you have to re-sand and usually mask again. If you paint it off the car, it's all done in one step."

Many times, the metal shop doesn't want to work with a part that's already been painted for fear of chipping the finish when it's installed on the car. Dunn counters that today's paints are better than those of yesteryear and are therefore less likely to chip. "And," he asserts, "a good metal man should be able to put a part on the car without damaging it."

Plastic parts in particular, such as front and rear bumper covers, usually are painted off of the car because they are difficult to paint uniformly on all surfaces. Parts with crevices and recesses require different cleaning procedures and flexible adhesion products that are not required for sheet metal parts. It's often difficult to install a bumper cover, then "flex" the clear coat and not allow the flex additive to affect adjacent sheet metal panels.

Goal: No Jambing

Most experts concede, however, that there are times when an on-the-car repair is the only way to go. "Painting parts off the car isn't practical for every job, but it is for most," Dunn admits.

Says Wynkoop: "Since back around 1990, our goal has been to do no jambing at all. But once in a while a technician will say he's more comfortable with jambing a part, so we'll let him go ahead and do it. Usually, though, if he's installing an already painted part and he scratches it, the painter can easily spot it in." Even with the need for an additional small repair, Wynkoop points out, off-the-car painting is still a more productive method.

Dunn says he agrees that any slowdown in the metal shop due to handling a pre-painted part can be more than made up in the paint department. "That's because, essentially, the painters are working at twice their normal efficiency when they paint off the car."

The bottom line is that shops interested in maximizing profits by painting parts off the car will remain on the "in" list for a long time to come.