percent of blends or panel paints ?
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how often do you blend adjacent panels and how often do you just panel paint? ASE says to blend all colors for perfect match including white and black (I agree). A few insurance co’s wont pay to blend unless the the color doesnt match, doesnt matter what color or where on the car we are painting.
I make spray out cards for every job. I have to show the manager to convince him it needs blended. Then the bodyman will remove hardware on the, to be blended, panels. Once the car is in the booth and taped up the manager will take a pic to show the ins co. we are blending. Sometimes (most times) I and the bodyman still dont get paid for the extra work. Whats funny is these same insurance co’s (and others) are now requiring us to be ASE certified!!
Most estimates my manager writes doesnt include blending, even for ins. co’s that will pay to blend, well, at least the repair orders we get (a different issue). The company I work for has multiple shops throughout the city and my manager says nobody else has problems matching colors by panel painting. I’d say 30% of the repair orders have blend time, 70% are panel paint, even silvers and pearl whites.
I did a job this week, a silver 2010 suv, replace the left fender, repair bumper. I made a spray out, too dark on the flop (side tone), I tinted with a little white and was closer, manager said not to blend, it’s customer pay and they will decide after the vehicle is done. Customer decided to pay to get door blended, I got 1.0 to now blend both the fender and door. 2 times sanding, taping, covering vehicle, clearcoating, baking, and rubbing. what a waste of time and money!!!!How do you convince a manager or insurance company that we have to blend ??? http://www.refinishnetwork.com/components/com_kunena/template/blue_eagle/images/emoticons/bethrs.gif
We blend every colour except solid black. If someone wants a butt match it has to be approved by me first, or I won’t do it.
If your boss ok’s the blend and you and your bodyman don’t get paid, that is a big issue. Whether or not the insurance pays the shop, the shop should be paying you. I wouldn’t put up with that for long.
Sounds like a position I wouldn’t want to be in…
Every color needs to be blended into adjacent panels for an exact match, even solid black in some cases. I have had solid blacks with 6 different varients. Only bumpers are panel painted but they never match 99% of the time.
I have been painting cars since I was 16 years old and am 61 now. It use to be that we were allow to blend any adjacent panel to match but it is different now with all the ecconomy problems we are having. Insurance companys are taking advantage of the situation knowing there are not enough jobs to go around thaus letting the shop to take it or leave it but they just wont pay. Insurance companys are like dogs, they puch the limit to see how far and how much they can get away with and if the shop manager gives them a leed way then next time it will be worse. We as painters only have one solution to the problem of not getting paid for panel blending, quit and go to the next job. In this bussiness nothing is lost when we quit we just change place of employment, I know I have done it at least 20 times in my lifetime.
[quote=”Shadow888″ post=26893]I have been painting cars since I was 16 years old and am 61 now. It use to be that we were allow to blend any adjacent panel to match but it is different now with all the ecconomy problems we are having. Insurance companys are taking advantage of the situation knowing there are not enough jobs to go around thaus letting the shop to take it or leave it but they just wont pay. Insurance companys are like dogs, they puch the limit to see how far and how much they can get away with and if the shop manager gives them a leed way then next time it will be worse. We as painters only have one solution to the problem of not getting paid for panel blending, quit and go to the next job. In this bussiness nothing is lost when we quit we just change place of employment, I know I have done it at least 20 times in my lifetime.[/quote]
That is really unfortunate if it is that way in your area but it’s not the norm.We get blend time on every insurance job and an extra panel if needed on a tri-stage.In our paint shop we just go ahead and blend the next panel.Blending is so much faster then spending time on a spray out/tinting and risking a mediocre butt match forcing a redo which destroys your profit margin.With customer pay jobs they always choose blending vs a butt after the risks are explained in full.
Ya never had an issue getting blend time. I reality it should be full paint time. the blend time of 1/2 the base refinish came from the lac days when you could just melt the color in and buff it out. Now a days the process to prep for a blend is the same as it is to refinish a panel.
I’ve been at this shop 10 years (been in production shops for 32). When I first came there I tried to convince the then manager and some adjusters about full paint time on blends because of the time prepping, they agreed but said the time allowed comes from above them, also about buff time ( I actually got some buff time for a few years).
This shop is close to home, 10 minute drive. I’d hate to quit , who knows if the next one would be the same situation. All I know to do, is when The manager complains about color match, I tell him it should have been blended, but then my reputation could eventually be in jeopardy. His should be if it isnt, don’t know why the employer keeps him on, his numbers have to be in the toilet unless he’s writing double sheets. My average f.r. used to be about 110 before this manager, now it’s about 70, but in fairness, he came here in 2009 when the economy tanked.
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