Finding Good Body Techs
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Is it just my part of town or are my standards to high? I have found more hacks calling themselves body men than anything else. It seems extremely difficult here to find a quality minded tech. We just made a hire for one guy not long ago, talks the biggest game but his work doesn’t back it up. His plastic sucks & He tries not to fix anything that’s hidden. Just had an 08 jeep crunched in them fender and crumpled up the apron. This guy tried leaving the crumpled up metal and spraying the whole area with undercoating. He left bent metal all over the place.
He seems to be another regrettable hire that will probably be squeezed out the door, anyone else experience this kind of crap??? where do you find good techs???
I hear you,its so difficult these days to find good guys anymore. The good ones are usually looked after by their employers and don’t move around too much, and the ones that are out there are usually unemployed for a reason. I think it is a real problem,where are these guys learning all the bad habits? Are the trade schools not teaching properly? Do you find that when you offer suggestions to help make a job easier,they look at you like you have two heads? This whole deal revolves around sharing advice,knowledge and experiences,good and bad. I have learned valuable lessons from the dumb mistakes I have made, and am still learning new things all the time. Some how we have to weed these hackers out, the majority of us take pride in our work and no matter how much we say we hate this shit,its what we do and who we are. Car guys.
Their are slim pickens here as well my main tech has been with us 15 years 14 continous then decided grass was greener at a dealership that lasted a whole year and back to us.second guy we hired away from a local the local competition 1st car I had him do I handed him a work order and he asked me what that was:laugh: his last shop never gave him one they paid him what they wanted not what the estimate was.He is a little slow in that dept but a top notch tech. I’m working on another tech at a shop down the street right now.
I can’t seem to find anyone who takes pride in their work, this recent guy knows everything already, you cant tell him anything because he’ll argue his conspiracy theory’s and guesstimates to the death. I just roll my eyes and don’t waste my time anymore. Let’s see recently some of his quotes include:
“the reason you feel a low spot in my bodywork is because that’s where two polyester fillers feather into each other.”
Had a beginner ask why he had some shiny edges where he primed (obviously not backsanded enough), his theory:
“its been painted before, thats why the edges shine.”
“UV primer always rings” -> he’s been arguing this for months with me, after a few jobs came out perfect he changed his stance to “it depends on the humidity”
sorry for venting, I just get so irritated with guys like this, seem to keep coming across this type.
you cant tell him anything because he’ll argue his conspiracy theory’s and guesstimates to the death.
“the reason you feel a low spot in my bodywork is because that’s where two polyester fillers feather into each other.”
^ ^
These two had me lmao :laugh::laugh: :laugh:
I work with that guy too.“the reason you feel a low spot in my bodywork is because that’s where two polyester fillers feather into each other.”
ya know jimmo ya really ought to watch for the stacking with those polys:P 😛 😛 but on the flipside if ya got to use poly ta make his work look good that dont say much for the mudwork either just keep in mind a good painter can make anyones work look good;) if ya want to:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:I feel your pain,it always amazes me some of the lame excuses you get. It always made me wonder how you can repair a dent in a panel and miss another right beside it,and do this on a consistent basis,now thats talent. I had a guy like that, I swear he had no feeling in his hands. I also had a painter that thought the shiney spots where he missed sanding was ok, the c-sandpaper syndrome,thats where the panel hardly sees the sandpaper. We have all probably seen or heard some real beauties over time and wonder where these guys came from. All I can say is the new guys are a different breed, you can tell them,but you can’t tell them much. Makes me feel old.
Jimmo,
Great question! Those ready made re-incarnated body and paint guys are hard to find. Years ago I read a book entitled “Self-made in America” by John McCormack ghost written by David R. Legge.
This book intrigued me because John is in the haircutting business. At the time it was written in 1990, the beautician and haircutting industry roughly paralleled the body shop business. I saw a lot of high school drop outs in both fields. Many applicants moved from shop to shop. Both fields were listed very low on any list recruiting students on occupational vocations. Many students had pretty much self taught themselves after they got thru the basics at some trade school, whose only real interest was getting them a student loan and then moving them thru the system with as little effort as possible, and they were being taught by individuals who could not make it in the real world, making the old maxim, “Those who can’t do, teach!” so very true.
This is the same system I came up thru back in the late 1970’s. John McCormack turned his industry upside down and inside out. In the opening passages of this book John warns us that “The fundamentals of this book work only if you work.” He continues with,” The purpose of this book was never to make success look easy for you. It was to make success possible for you.” John and his wife have the ability not only to see success in others, but to help them see it in themselves. They turn losers into winners and winners into superstars.
I grew up in this industry. My dad was a collision tech, painter, manager, and owner his entire life. I entered into it full time when I was twenty one. That was thirty years ago. I also have been a body tech, painter, manager and shop owner. For four years I taught at one of the better trade schools in the country, while running my own shop and offered to teach for free because I knew the kids deserved better. We produced half a dozen VICA champs at the State and National levels. One student went on to the International VICA finals and a second recently opened a state of the art collision shop that is second to none in this country. ( I personally do not take credit for that. This student of the business worked much harder than I and passed me by.) I fully understand that you can not create something bigger than yourself. If you quit growing or slow down, others who are more ambitious will catch and pass you.
John’s book made more of a difference than anything else I have used over the past thirty years. It made me go from being “dependent to independent to interdependent” (Read Steven Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on this one) . It made me take my eyes off of myself and put them on another person. I am of the opinion now that I don’t care if you graduated from Yale or you graduated from jail. I don’t care where you have been, only where are you going. And foremost I am of the opinion that there are no bad crews, only bad leaders.
Very few shop owners want to take the time and money to train techs. The main reason being is because techs still jump from shop to shop. That doesn’t need to be the case. Talk to them and make the connection and they will stay. This book will help show you how to do that.
As always gentlemen: Opinions please!
Brad Larsen
I hear what your saying Brad. One of the most difficult things at our shop is all we can ever find is the older techs that have no desire to learn anything new. Their satisfied arguing that repairs done 20 years ago should still be done the same way. Our shop owner will pay for, and has offered every tech the opportunity to take advantage of any training course under the sun. I seem to be the only tech who’s ever interested in attending and trying to consistently improve the quality of my work. I don’t see many technicians out their that seem to have the slightest passion for the industry anymore… To most its just a paycheck.
continuing education should be a condition of employement. If the techs do not want to better themselves then maybe they dont belong. its a part of most other industries why not ours. If the shop supplies the proper equipment and pays for employees education and is a positive place to work for then the good techs will come. it may take some time to get the right team togeather (read trial and error) so dont give up hope
Exactly! The last few shops that I ran, continuing ed was required. We went off of the training format that CIC came up with several years back. First year techs had to have certain classes, three year techs a few more, five year a few more and seven year or journeyman a few more. If a journeyman body tech came to work for us and did not have the required certs, we would hire him at less than the going flat rate and give him so long to get up to speed, and at which point he got a raise.
I have people tell me all the time that certs do not mean squat, because hacks have them. But at the same time I have had 20 year journeyman with no certs come to work for us and tell us about all the things they can do and all the tools they have. And then show up at work that first day with their lunch box full of tools and are very picky about what you give them.
Out of the many people I have hired over the last twenty years the top performers had years of experience, lots of training , lots of tools , a positive attitude and could show you all four. Very seldom have I seen a great tech with three (or one or two) out of the four.
Brad Larsen
[b]ding wrote:[/b]
[quote]continuing education should be a condition of employement. If the techs do not want to better themselves then maybe they dont belong. its a part of most other industries why not ours. If the shop supplies the proper equipment and pays for employees education and is a positive place to work for then the good techs will come. it may take some time to get the right team togeather (read trial and error) so dont give up hope[/quote]
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