March 2011 The Paint Spot Newsletter

The first thing I d like to talk about is some of the going on s around here. About 3 months ago we had one of our customers call in for what I thought was a routine order for MS-42 clear and MPB base coat. This customer typically orders large quantities about once or twice a year for sculptures that his company designs and sells all over the world. Most of these sculptures are subjected to severe conditions such as constant sun, rain, heat, cold, and salt water. When I met him he had called the 800 number for Matrix and asked for the nearest distributor which happened to be The Paint Spot. He knew what he wanted and told me that no matter where he was in the world MS 42 was the clear that they always used and that it had a global recognition as being the best clear available for that application. That was 6 years ago and he s been buying it ever since.

When he called this time he told me that the job was to take place in the Bahamas and that he would also e-mail us some photos to look at so we could estimate what would be needed. When he hung up we started joking about the need for one of us to go on the trip as technical support. I put together a list of what I thought they would need along with quantities and prices and called him. After I went through my list, he said, Rick, I think you misunderstood, we want you to put together a crew and go to the Bahamas to do all this paint work . He knew that I didn't just sell paint, but that I had a body shop and he s seen several of the Slix custom jobs. I guess that's what I get for joking. Anyway, I put a crew of six together and they left Jan. 22 for the Bahamas (I was not included, too busy). We had five days to complete the entire project which consisted of 23 sculptures of sizes ranging from 3 foot to 19 feet tall, and all were multi colored with complete clear coat. Our materials left two weeks prior to the crew and were supposed to be on board the ship when it set sail for the Bahamas from Miami. Guess what, when they went to start work on Monday, none of our pallets could be located. That s when the fun started. My son got me involved (he was on the crew) and I tracked the shipment to their warehouse where it had been delivered as scheduled, but the Bone Heads that ran the cruise line, and who were also on the ship to over see the project dropped the ball and didn't load it on the ship. Now we only had five days to do this deal, and I am very familiar with Big business and their way of never admitting fault, as well as not paying the bill if everything didn't go exactly to plan. We scrambled here at the paint spot to get someone accountable that would make a decision and rock and roll. After two days of e-mails and phone calls we finally got to someone in upper management who was willing to make the decision to send a plane back to Miami and get the pallets to the ship (the staff on the ship just kept pointing fingers and procrastinating). The materials arrived in Freeport Bahamas at 10:00 pm Tuesday night. My guys got a truck, went to the airport, and worked till 3:00 am off loading the pallets, and hauling over 3000 pounds of tools, compressors, paint, and materials to the top deck and setting it all up. They got up at 6:00 am and didn't stop work for 39 hours; got 6 hours sleep and worked for 20 more straight hours. Now that in itself bothered me, but more than that, for two days the guys didn't even have as much as a piece of sand paper to work with and while they were standing around completely defenseless, the ships crew and even some of the staff (including the idiot that we later found out was the one who dropped the ball) were laughing at them and saying there s no way this project can be finished. My guys were so humiliated that apparently they set out to show them who they were and what they could do. They had also found out that the whole mishap was intentional. It seems that the staff thought that if the materials and tools weren t onboard, our crew would have to leave and when they did, the staff was going to bring the materials to the ship and have their own crew do the job, which also explained why early on in this deal, the cruise line staff was adamant about getting all the product information sheets from the paint spot and even had me give them complete step by step instructions on procedures and sequence. Now realize this, my customer was contracted by the cruise line company, and we were basically hired by and representing my customer. As far as the staff from the cruise Line Company was concerned, our crew was just some random yahoos, and I was just some dumb bastard that sold paint. Well the whole thing blew up in their face. They had no idea who they were dealing with, and my guys finished the entire project, and I mean it came out TITS . The funniest part was when they found out that the last name of one of our crew members (Shawn, my son) was the same as mine, at that point they knew the shit was gonna hit the fan, and I assure you, it did! The upper management replaced the crooks and congratulated our crew on an impossible job not only done, but so well done, they said that even when those sculptures were brand new, they never looked as good as they look now. Since then they have asked us to do the remaining four ships and they have demanded that I be the project manager on them. I have agreed to do the upcoming project scheduled in mid March. I know this will place a heavy burden on both Slix and The Paint Spot for a week, but I have good people here and I don't believe in micro management, they are fully capable of running this place while I'm gone. For what it's worth, I am going to explain that to the staff on this trip. I'm going to tell them that my crew has no need for a project manager and if they want us to continue these projects, we'll only do so if they eliminate the micro management. They know what they're doing, so leave them alone and let them do their job.

Next item: For those of you that may not know ..The Paint Spot is open from 8:00 am till noon on Saturdays. And someone can usually be reached at Slix after that (830) 899-5719 In an effort to be a stand alone company Matrix has for the most part ceased it's comparison to PPG. Some of the original products that were intended to duplicate a PPG product are no longer being produced. The main reason is like I said, to be stand alone, however, some of the products that PPG had were not considered worthy of duplicating or redundant to something already existing and Matrix found itself following their mistakes. When I was told about this, it made me think of The Paint Spot and myself specifically, following one of my competitors (you know who I'm talking about). I wondered if it seemed to all of you that I was pre occupied with that one supplier, so I asked the staff here at the store what they thought. They told me yes, and brought it to my attention, that we are worlds apart from them and the reason that we are is because we don't want customers feeling about us like they do about them. So what started off as my way of getting back at that other supplier by showing them that a paint supplier really could do things differently and we won't go broke trying, has now lead me to this fork in the road where I'm going to leave them behind. The Paint Spot will also be stand alone and rightfully so, nobody is like us and I no longer want to compare or be compared to Hoffmans . I ll not use comparisons between us and them form this point forward (I know what your thinking he probably got in trouble for doing that , no I did not, and I know that on several occasions I was pretty bold and called a spade a spade, but at no point was I worried about a lawsuit, I can verify anything and everything I've ever said and they know it) They can operate as they see fit and so can we, and that's why a comparison is so ridiculous.

I may from time to time use technical information from PPG, House of Kolor, DuPont, and Sherwin Williams if and when the situation suits. Next: Along with the Stand alone thing, The Paint Spot has grown a lot in the last year, and at this point we can no longer operate in this building. The physical address for us has always been 8049 FM 2673, but several years ago I moved operations to 292 Canyon Bend which is right next door to Slix. This was done out of necessity due to a couple of things. Number one, I wasn't making enough money with this place and Slix was the Goose that laid the golden eggs and therefore had to carry the paint spot, Slix couldn't do that if I was down the road trying to sell paint. So I moved it here and I could paint a car, go next door and sell some paint. Number two, Let's face it, I didn't really know what the hell I was doing! I had to learn, and that took a while (I'm still learning everyday). The investment was also quite hefty, and for someone who never had much and everything I've ever got was earned the hard way; that too took some time. We know what we're doing now, and I think we do it quite well, and that leads me to my point. We are moving all operations back to 8049 FM 2673 in March (first week) and at some point in the near future we'll have a shin dig at that location. We ll put out a notice well in advance (trust me, your not going to want to miss it). Next: We recently had a new customer request an item that we had never sold before. We called the warehouse ordered the item, it came in and we delivered it to him. When he got the bill, he freaked out and said take it back, it's too expensive . Now we put a relatively small mark up on this item, and actually sold it for less than the recommended sell price, but if you ask me, I wouldn't pay that much for it either. I told the driver to bring it back and no problem. In the meantime Suzanne did some research and found the exact item for a hell of a lot less. Now these are the kind of things that are reasons for The Paint Spot taking so long to get where it is. If you just take the Know all/ tell all warehouse s word for it and believe them when they say something stupid like that's what everyone else sells them for (and man I really want to use that competitor comparison thing, but I said I wouldn't) and not actually research the deal, then you can't ever get to where The Paint Spot is. I won't tell you the item (it's a surprise that will be coming out in the next promotional flyer), but I will give you the numbers. Our cost on this item was $32.98 we attempted to sell it for $47.50 which was under suggested sell. Suzanne found them for $7.99 (our cost) and we'll sell them for $15.00. Now do the math, the first deal would have netted us a 44% profit (if it sold) and it pissed the customer off. The new sell price is much less and our profit is 87%. We did this immediately and called the customer with the new price, and he s happy as heck. This is what we're about, and this is what makes us a stand alone company. Sure it's a hassle and it takes motivation and self determination, and a lot of effort, but that's what makes a company a good company and we have no intention of changing or becoming complacent. Next: Plastic bumper prep and refinishing: You won't believe what hoops I see people jump through to get a TPO or POLYPROPYLENE plastic bumper prepped for paint, and all the bullshit products they pay good money for to do it. It boggles my mind to hear the stories of how they do it and in the next sentence, they bitch about the cost. I'm learning new things everyday, and here s one that really hit home (because I too was jumping through some hoops). MP-800 is a plastic parts adhesion promoter. The P-sheet is found in the primer section of the tech book or on your computer in the tech sheet field. (Already sounds weird that an adhesion promoter would be found in the primer section and carry the MP designation, which stands for Matrix Primer )

Anyway, the first step is Wash part with soap and water. Next, clean part with MX-7000 plastic parts cleaner and a grey scuff pad. Wipe parts dry immediately after cleaning. Next, Check to see that the mold release agents have been removed by pouring a small amount of MX-7000 on the part, if it sheets, it's clean, if it beads, repeat steps. Next, scuff/sand according to mfg. specs. Next, Re clean with MX-7000. Next Apply one coat of MP-800 plastic parts adhesion promoter If needed apply MP-850 flexible parts primer/sealer or MP- epoxy primer, base coat, clear coat, and you're done. Next: The next time you have a run or a sag to sand out of a paint job try substituting water for MX-8000 grease and wax remover. The run will come right out! I recently had to repaint the side of a car that my son had painted at Slix. He was trying out a new gun with a diaphragm regulator on it which allowed us to lower the air pressure to about 15lbs. In doing this, if you're not used to it you will forget that when you lower the pressure that much, you need to compensate by decreasing the fluid quite a bit, well he forgot and the clear ran. He had just finished the paint job and came to me to see what could be done (the car had to be delivered in three hours) to remedy the situation. The clear coat had only dried for 45 minutes so I got a block with 800 and used MX-8000 instead of water because I knew water would make a mess. It worked like a charm. It took me less than 5 minutes to get it ready for base coat (including sanding and clean up). I put a little MX-57 in the base coat, put two coats on, then cleared it and delivered the car on time! Later I figured that it was a fluke, or it was because I was working on fresh clear, so I tried at a customers shop (Country RV Seguin, Texas) on clear that had set for at least a week. The result was the same, it sanded out with 5 or 6 swipes of the block, and I mean perfect. Apparently, the MX-8000 won't let the sanding slag stick to the sand paper, and you get a more thorough cut faster than you would with water.