Plastic repair: money in your pocket

Plastic repair: Special report

Long seen as a peripheral activity, bodyshops cannot ignore the cost advantages of plastic repair any longer -- especially as more insurers realise the savings to be made.
Plastic repair is now a vital part of many forward-thinking bodyshops as products and techniques become easier to use and plastic panels increase their hold on the cars of tomorrow. If repairers don't catch on to this trend, warn several experts, they could be left behind.
"Repairers are literally throwing away money if they are unable to perform plastic repairs," says Gary Thomas, head teacher of panel beating at St.George TAFE, Sydney. "If I take a metal panel with a tennis ball-sized dent in it, every repairer would be able to repair it. If I took a plastic panel with the same sized dent, only about 10 per cent would be able to repair it. It's crazy."
Thomas has been holding trade nights at St.George TAFE to show repairers plastic repair techniques. "Every panel beater has the skills to be able to do a plastic repair, they just need someone to show them the techniques," he said.
Robert McClymont, director of leading international adhesives group U-POL Australia agrees with Thomas: "Many repairers out-source their plastic repairs at present, which means that they sacrifice potential income for their businesses, and after all they are in the business of repairing, not brokering repairs (if they used this principal for all their repair work, they wouldn't need a workshop -- maybe just a holding yard, a desk and a phone!)."
Plastic repair specialist Bradleys Australia has been pushing for plastic repair to enter bodyshops for years. "We have said to many people in the trade recently, if we had walked into their repair shop five years ago and said; 'Look out, within five years all headlight housings and lenses will be plastic', they would have laughed at us and most would have told us where to go, and said 'That's not even possible'," says Terry Rowe, managing director.
"But it has already happened. We are now saying, the next will be fenders and radiator supports."
Techniques, materials and methods have changed since plastic repair first became available to the smash repair industry. Panel shops should take another look at what is on offer say the experts.
"Interest in plastic repair is slowly building. Many repairers had bad experiences with early repair systems and have been reluctant to try again, however the products and systems available today make plastic repairs very simple," says McClymont.
The use of plastic by vehicle manufacturers is already prevalent in Australia and is on the increase. The Mercedes A-Class has a plastic skin on its tailgate, VW's New Beetle has plastic wheel arch panels. Volvo, Saab, the Jeep Cherokee, the Land Rover Freelander and several others have plastic radiator support panels and other plastic elements. The Ford Ka's bumper section is an example of how a bumper can evolve into a major plastic body section panel, both front and rear. Further developments will include the use of colour-impregnated plastic panels -- Ford last year signalled its intent to use more such panels in the US.
Insurers are understandably keen to push the process, as it not only saves repairers money -- it saves insurers replacement parts costs as well. Thomas has met with the local assessing manager for NRMA Insurance and instructed him about plastic repair. "People will argue over 0.2 of a hour but will let a $650 part get thrown away. When insurers see the cost savings involved in repairing the part, they are more than happy to pay good money for it to be repaired," he says.
Plastic repair is now being actively advocated by insurers. A draft contract between UK insurer Allianz-Cornhill and UK repairers requires evidence of at least one trained plastic repair operative, with appropriate equipment levels in place at all times for bodyshops in its approved network.
NRMA has initiated a series of plastic repair courses in New South Wales in conjunction with TAFE and Paul Pemberton, claims and assessing manager said to a group of Preferred Smash Repairers recently; "With the percentage of plastic car panels ever increasing, it is critical to be able to perform plastic repairs. Plastic repair simply means more money in your pocket".

Plast 'X' from U-POL
U-POL provides a full range of adhesives, aerosols and accessories suitable for any plastic repair. The range includes a preparation kit comprising of a plastic cleaner and an adhesion promoter and full instructions. The plastic repair kit includes bonding films and adhesives for semi-rigid and rigid plastic as well as a specially formulated filler. The paint kit comprises of a cleaner, adhesion promoter, primer filler, texture coat and colour coat aerosol. The U-POL product range comes with an easy-to-use visual instruction leaflet with tips on plastic type identification and reshaping and drilling of damaged plastic sections.

Enquiries, tel: (02) 4731 2655, fax: (02) 4731 2611email: u-pol@pnc.com.au.

Complete plastic solution from Bradleys
Bradleys Australia offers the popular plastic welding system. Billed as the 'complete turnkey system', the kit includes a professional heat source, wall chart, test kit, 18 different materials and lugs and full operating system. Also from Bradleys is the Plastic Fix manual -- a complete illustrated step-by-step how-to guide for automotive plastics. The author ran a successful headlight and bumper exchange and has now published everything he knows about plastic repair including how to cost and how to quote.

Enquiries, tel: 1800 040 007.

SMC filler from U-POL
U-POL has introduced a new fibre-reinforced bonding filler for SMC, fibreglass, composite and all other rigid plastics. The new filler is a flexible, high-adhesion filling compound specifically designed for the rapid, simple repair of cracks, holes and scratches in rigid plastics. The compound contains carbon fibre reinforcement which gives structural strength to repairs. Once hardened the repair may be sanded and coated to restore the original finish. The filler is available in black or white and is sandable after approximately 20 minutes.

Enquiries, tel: (02) 4731 2655, fax: (02) 4731 2611, email: u-po.@pnc.com.au

Fusor adds to range
Maintaining its claim as the leader in adhesive technology for automotive body repair, Lord Corporation has released four new Fusor products to its versatile automotive and truck repair product range.
The Red Power Mixer is an advanced static mixer that mixes two-part adhesives better, faster and with less waste. The shorter length mixer nozzle brings the work area closer to the operator, reduces gun back pressure and allows better dispersion and bead size control.
To meet the ever increasing OEM use of rigid plastic parts in both trucks and cars Fusor has released T22 - T23 - T24 truck and car installation adhesives for repairing, sectioning and installing Rigid plastic, SMC and GRF components such as hoods, body panels, fairings, spoilers, wind deflectors, cab extensions and headlight buckets. These new products will also bond wood or primed steel and aluminium to rigid plastic, SMC and fibreglass. Dispensed from a 300ml twin cartridge pack they are easy to gun and have work times varying from five to 60 minutes.

Enquiries, Australian Warehouse Distributors, tel: (03) 9553 1977, Fax: (03) 9553 1225, email: stork.awd@bigpond.com.au.