Collision repair is changing. Most vehicles entering body shops today are comprised of various materials – whether they be different steels, aluminums, or plastics. Depending on the vehicle types entering your shop, you may find opportunities to complete collision repair services on new materials than you have in the past. From major welding jobs to pulling dents, the goal of the shop is to retain business and service any vehicle that comes their way. Understanding the nuances of some of these materials that make up the vehicles on the road and in the bay, as well as the different types of equipment and tools needed to complete such repairs, can help a shop avoid turning away customers and instead help to establish more business.
Steels, aluminums, and plastics – oh my!
Body shops have handled steel for decades. However, today’s vehicles are made of more than just one material. The most prominent material on the rise in vehicle construction is aluminum.
“The repair of aluminum [is] going to keep on being a strong trend in the marketplace where shops will have to become not only aware of it, but also more knowledgeable on that aspect,” says David Swanson, director of business development, Dent Fix Equipment.
Materials awareness as it relates to repair is important for many reasons, the primary of those being that welding equipment and procedures vary depending on the material at-hand.
“In the past, everything was close to 100 percent steel,” says Eric Sponhaltz, national sales and marketing manager at H&S Autoshot. “Steel car equals a steel repair procedure.”
Sponhaltz continues speaking to the mixed materials technicians face today.
“The present and future [is comprised of] mixed metals. [For example,] the advent of aluminum, [there is also] high strength steel that’s entering the mix of cars; the reason for that is they’re much thinner and much easier to work with, but they require a different tool and a process than your traditional mild steel,” Sponhaltz explains.
As the awareness of varying materials becomes more prominent throughout the industry, an information gap may still exist regarding the tools and equipment that shops can utilize to handle the different materials pulling into their bays. Not only may different equipment be needed, but welding procedures themselves will be adjusted accordingly per the material being repaired. Sponhaltz explains some of the differences to keep in mind when repairing aluminum and high strength steel versus traditional mild steel.
“That repair process is different because at least in our world, aluminum acts completely differently than steel,” Sponhaltz says. “It contaminates easily. It breaks down easily. It corrodes easily. There are different procedures and techniques that have to be used in an aluminum repair than those [used] in a steel repair. High strength steel and aluminum in vehicles are thinner metals, so they’re going to melt at lower temperatures, and the welding technique is going to be affected in putting the car back together.”
Sponhaltz advises that a traditional steel stud gun will not be the answer for a technician welding a pin to an aluminum panel to pull a dent, as the heat applied from the gun will likely burn a hole through the panel of aluminum. H&S Autoshot utilizes a technology known as capacitive discharge in order to deliver the necessary power in short time frames to avoid overheating the material being welded.
Another difference when dealing with aluminum is that the metal oxidizes quickly. During preparations, the surface will need to be brushed with a stainless-steel brush dedicated to only aluminum repairs to avoid cross contamination, Sponhaltz recommends. Furthermore, aluminum does not have the same “memory” as mild steel, so a different technique will need to be utilized when pulling an aluminum dent versus a steel dent.
“In order for you to create a new memory, not only do you have to start pulling on it with a pulling tool, you have to also apply heat while you're pulling so that you give it a new memory,” Sponhaltz says. “There’s a whole other tool, and a whole other bag of tricks you’re going to need to work with aluminum than you would to work with steel.”
As procedures and equipment adjust according to the metal at-hand, so are there changes to welding repairs when handling plastics. Kurt Lammon, president of Polyvance, explains that some shops may not be performing plastic repairs whatsoever, as they may perceive obstacles that prevent them from completing such repairs. A major reason shops may avoid repairing plastics is the belief that insurance will not pay enough to complete the repair. But in fact, shop owners who initialize welding services for plastic repair may find they can avoid facilitating replacements and even bring more business in-house.
“Unfortunately for the shops, the profit margin on replacement parts is not as high as the labor profit margin,” Lammon says. “They need to look as much as possible for opportunities to sell labor, and plastic is a great place to look for that because plastics almost always are not structural items. Bumper covers, headlight tabs, inner fender liners, washer bottles … you open the hood and probably 90 percent of what you see is made of plastic, other than the engine block itself. There is a lot of opportunity for plastic repair in collision damage. Shops just need to be able to have the right equipment and training to take advantage of that, so they can increase their gross profit margin overall by doing more labor and billing for more labor hours.”
The more you know…
A reason shops may turn to replacing parts, or subbing work out to nearby shops, or even turning business away, may be because they do not have the right training on the service requested. Not only that, but should insurance not allow for the necessary time to complete a repair, welding may not be fiscally worth the trouble for the shop. This is why welding equipment manufacturers emphasize providing education and training on their equipment and the welding services such equipment can render.
“We hold several clinics a year throughout the U.S.,” Swanson says. “It’s a clinic to show technicians and shop proprietors how the equipment works. It’s a clinic to review with them what that metal is, the characteristics of that metal, and our recommendations of how to work with that metal, using a lot of what we know, what OEMs have suggested, and what I-CAR has suggested.” Swanson continues to say that such education is not only intended to teach best practices, but that those armed and trained with such knowledge can defensibly dispute insurance time constraints.
“We’re giving them arrows for their quiver,” Swanson says. “When that [insurance] agent comes in and they want to be argumentative over a repair process, now they (the shop owners and/or technicians) have something.”
Swanson says explaining times and procedures needed to work with varying materials can assist in receiving more time to complete repairs and bill labor hours, ultimately yielding a more profitable collision repair shop.
It takes many elements woven together in order to successfully handle today’s collision repairs. Having the right tools and training for the shop can help avoid subbing repairs or steering work elsewhere. Educating and training can help a shop ensure more billable hours. Preparing the shop to handle more materials, more vehicles – old and new – can lead to more business.
