October 2013 The Paint Spot Newsletter

The Paint Spot Newsletter (October 2013) Much to write about this month, so let's rock! As many of you know, my youngest daughter started college in southern California last month. Two weeks into her school she was given a test called her "political compass". She took the test along with all the others in the class and sent me the test as well as the results. Low and behold she is left leaning liberal! As you can imagine, I was less than happy, hell, I was pissed off! I decided to take the test myself and to my surprise I was a left leaning liberal too! Upon reading the first question I knew the test was rigged, but wanted to wait until I had a chance to absorb all that I was taking in. When I took the test, I tried to put out of my mind all that I had acquired in the way of history, work ethic, morality, and parental values that have helped me to be what I am today. Instead, I tried to approach this test from the perspective of my daughters age group, which (other than what us parents have enlightened them about) is void or rearranged of real past history. It was not all that surprising that the results marked me as a liberal. When I finally talked to Cheyenne, I informed her that the questions were prepared for her, the answers were multiple choice, and the graph that she was to be put in was designed by "them" for the sole purpose of categorizing her. Using simple mathematics, "they" were responsible for 75% of the test and she therefore only offered 25% participation...............NOT REALLY! That would be bad enough if it were true but think about this: She was responsible for the answers (her 25%) but not really due to the fact that they were multiple choice. Nowhere did the test allow her to give her own answers! Once I explained this to her, I asked her to explain my concerns to her instructor, which she did. The instructors response was this: "Your father does have a good point, but what you have to understand is, I am balanced and have no political agenda". When I received the instructors response, I told Cheyenne to ask her this: "If you are balanced, then where is the right leaning test"? Answer: "There isn't one". Now since I'm paying $40,000.00 per semester, and since I'm not the kind of guy who excepts bull shit as an answer, here's what I did: I re-worded all 62 questions. The questions are all still basically the same, but the context was rearranged to suit a more common sense answer. It took me a week to accomplish this task, as I had to really think about what I was doing, and I did have a business to keep up with. When I was finished, I tested my questions on the most liberal person I know (this dude voted for O'Bama not once, but twice!) . Based on his answer to the original question, it confirmed he was liberal, but based on him answering my re-worded question.............He was about as Conservative as it gets! I e-mailed the revised questions to my daughter to get her feedback, which I am waiting for now. After that, I will ask that the instructor take the test, hope that she gets the rest of the class to take it, and to "hedge my bet", I will cc a copy of the whole enchilada to none other than............"Bill O'Reily" at fox news! Just trying to keep the honest people "honest". When you hear the term "political indoctrination" know this........It's real, and I have the black and white proof! Other News "Prima Donna" , I'm sure we've all heard this term. It applies to someone who can't be told that he is anything less than perfect (no, I'm not talking about me ) and I think we all know at least one. The one I want to write about has worked for Slix several times, as well as many shops around the Comal, Hays, Guadalupe, and Travis county areas. I will leave his name out for two reasons, he is both "opportunistic" and "unworthy" of mention in my newsletter. I will however, be happy to give you the real deal on this guy should any of you notice "Slix" show up on an application for employment and have doubts. He thinks he is the know all/ tell all of body and paint work and he can't keep his mouth shut, so I'm sure he'll tell you so. He is one who doesn't think twice about treating subordinates less than human, commonly will ask someone to do something he himself would not, or could not do, and never "give back" to less skilled individuals. He is the kind of guy who could walk into a room of 500 complete strangers, and in 15 minutes, everyone would want to beat his ass (now I know some of you know exactly who I'm referring to). Now this is not to say that he can't do a somewhat decent job at body work, because he can. It's just that he will take forever to get it done due to his lackadaisical work ethic, hangovers, allergies, homelessness, overdue unpaid taxes, no drivers license, by-polar, un-couth, rude, lying, cheating, stealing, drunk driving ways..............and trust me, these are all his "good" qualities! LOL! He claims he can "get a job anywhere". Well, allow me to elaborate: No you idiot, you cannot! I know of at least 20 shops where you can't even step foot on the property, much less work at............and now that number is fix'n to jump up significantly! You know who you are, and I don't doubt that many of you reading this are laughing hysterically about me putting this BOZO in his place publicly. That's what you get for being the "no talent","looser","Prima Donna", that you are. Because of your extreme lack of "humility", you will have to give away a "door prize" to even get someone to attend your funeral! :) Cutting and Buffing: As many of you know, I am opposed to cutting and buffing anything. From the shop owners perspective this operation should be a last resort instead of a prerequisite. If you cannot achieve a glass like finish right out of the booth, you need to find out why and fix it. Cutting and buffing is not covered or paid for by an insurance company, so realize that when you do it, you are taking a hit! Even in the custom world, I am less than impressed when I look at a car that has been polished to the point of flawless. I would much rather see the job right after it was unmasked, that is the only way to measure the painters talent. Now, for the perfectionists out there (and the ones who actually do produce sellable results right out of the booth) you know that cutting and buffing just adds that extra effect that is to die for. To do this operation right and achieve good results there are some key things you need to know: For any vehicle that is to be cut and buffed, you need to make sure that the amount of clear taken off during the process doesn't minimize the U.V. protection. This can easily be achieved by using a "high solids" clear, such as the Matrix MS-42. If you are using a lesser solids clear, you need to make sure you put an extra coat on as a "sacrificial" pass. Before you even consider working on a fresh surface do the "finger nail" test. In an inconspicuous area press your finger nail into the clear coat. If you see an impression, DO NOT start the process! It doesn't matter how long it has been since you finished the paint job, if you see the finger nail impression, the clear is not cured, and if you attempt to buff that car, you will achieve bad results. Once you have a fully cured surface you're ready to begin the arduous task of "cutting and buffing". I say it this way because the job is both time consuming as well as expensive when you factor in the loss of revenue due to the amount of time your technician is devoting to something other than what he would normally be doing. For those of you in the Texas area here's a solution: "Lance" from "Pro Mobile Auto Spa" is a professional in the cutting and buffing field, and yes, he's mobile! I've tested his abilities so I can comfortably and whole heartedly recommend his services. The project I gave him was my 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Super Sport. I painted this car over two years ago black with UC Candy Apple red stripes and MS-42 clear. It was a clean paint job that turned heads everywhere I went with it, but it was never cut and buffed and never waxed. I figured it had out lived its advertising life as the "this is what you can do with Matrix and without cutting and buffing" model. Lance turned into a work of art in short order, and man it really looks "tits"! Lance has got an entirely different system for doing his job than what I'm used to seeing, and the results he achieves are entirely different as well (you'd have to see him in action to understand). He has quite a portfolio of concourse to production work to show off for those who are skeptical. For those of you who can see the value in having the "finishing work" subbed out give Lance a call at (830) 730-0492 or (800) 385-8590 or check out the website at promobileautospa.com you'll be glad you did! Color Class: ARD (auto refinish distributors) hosted a class for color blending, matching, and theory last month at their Dallas location. The instructor was Brian Lynch form Matrix, and without doubt, the best I have ever attended. For those Paint Spot customers who attended...........do you agree? Anyone interested in upcoming classes please call or e-mail me and we'll put your name on the list. We used a new after market fender for the "hands on" part of the class, and here's what we did: Wiped it down with MXW-9001 (waterborne grease and wax remover) and primed with MP-200. Sand paper never touched the E-Coated fender! One hour later we tested its sanding ability..........no clogging, and plenty of build. This was done toward the end of the first day, so we couldn't top coat it until the next day, otherwise we would have.

The next day we wiped it down again with the MXW-9001, tacked it, then shot a couple coats of GM Synergy Green, then cleared it with MS-42. A couple of hours later we sanded the front of the fender, applied a couple coats of the MP-200 to simulate a repair. We then sanded the primer with 500, and used a grey scotch brite pad with MXW-9001 for the rest of the freshly painted fender. Brian then applied two coats of the synergy green without any blending agents what so ever to the repaired area and blended it into the rest of the panel. He then top coated the panel with MS-78 clear, and the blend was flawless! The whole project was done in less than four hours total, and it was all done with the slowest chemistry available........."Baking" is almost NEVER necessary! For those of you who know how I paint, you know I have little or no use for "FAST" chemistry and I always say "slower is definitely faster"! Well, there's your proof! This is also a good example of the versatility you can expect from MATRIX............try recoating competitors clears and primers that soon after they were shot! I have attended PPG's classes in the past, and believe me, other than quoting the 'P' sheets from cover to cover and listening to the sales pitch in an effort to push the "flavor of the month" products on you, they added up to a big ZERO in my opinion. This class was truly different and Brian amazed me in his ability to instruct the class. I know how good he is out in the field, but didn't have any idea how good he could be at answering all the questions while never letting the agenda get off base. For those of you who may say "Rick, you just patronize Brian because you're friends", I will tell you this: I did not agree with all that was being said. Specifically, the lack of reference to PPG. I totally understand that Matrix wants to get away from comparisons to competitors, but with respect to PPG I feel it is essential that you all know your options. A PPG formula can give you a Matrix formula when you subtract 105 from it. I use this information almost daily, but especially when dealing with Vibrance, Luminescence, and some of their custom colors. Having Dupont and House of Kolor information can also shorten your search time for a Matrix comparable. So Brian, loose the pride, Matrix "is what it is" and you should embrace the fact that Kent chose such an outstanding company like PPG to model his base coat after. There's plenty of pride to be had by knowing that Kent actually did more with the PPG system, than PPG themselves could (would) do. Furthermore, every Matrix user already knows that PPG has never had a primer or a clear that could even come close to Matrix, those comparisons only apply to color. Speaking of PPG VW LB5B light blue is a problem color, in that, the "prime" formula is not correct. Because the Accushade data base follows PPG information ( not always, but often) this particular color had the wrong information right from PPG themselves. I have come across it several times in the past couple of years, and this time I finally figured out what the deal is. The real "prime" or "Standard" formula is the "yellower than standard" formula! Now to tie in the last segment with this one, I actually saw a can of PPG (DBC) "Prime" mix at a customers shop. Their mix was identical to my MPB "Standard" mix, which was sitting side by side and also didn't match the car. The only difference between the two was, "Hoffman's" can had the "get out of jail free" sticker on the lid, and "The Paint Spot's" didn't . You know, the one that say's.........hey stupid, if this don't match it's your problem!!!!!! Under the "Whatever it Takes" theme, these kind of issues just means Rick has to do some work to figure out what's wrong, and make it right, so here's what I did: Because this particular customer buys mixed paint from us and has no mixing equipment, I printed all the formulas for this color in a one ounce unit measure. I then poured one pint of every toner that could be used to mix any of the variances. I took all the toners, a scale, and mixing cups out to the shop and based on a visual of the car mixed the variance I thought best based on what I saw and what the formulas were telling me. I got real lucky, the first one was the right one........"yellower than standard"! So I multiplied the one ounce formula by 16 and mixed him a pint right on the spot.

Now here's how I knew that PPG's info was wrong, I had kept previous formulas of that color from the past four years in a 2003 PPG chip book and when I looked at them, they were all the same yellower than standard. I also had "dabbed" that mix on the actual chip, and it matched perfect! Here is a prime example of how Matrix runs their business compared to PPG: I called the color department at Matrix and a very proactive person by the name of "Chris Butler" took my information and made a change to the Accushade data base reflecting my findings! Right then on the spot! For all to see the next time this color needs to be mixed! I have PPG jobbers on my mailing list, any bets on how long (if ever) it takes them to update their data base? They're the ones who created the problem in the first place, but it was Matrix who fixed it. Hey Brian...........are you sure you don't like the comparison thing? LOL ! 2nd Location: The Paint Spot has added a second location in Buda, Texas. This location is in addition to the Canyon Lake store, and will help us service our northern customers more effectively. We are just getting the new location up and running and should be operational the second week of October. Initially we will stock the Matrix and North Star lines, but will focus the majority of attention on the Matrix MPB-LV system. Many of you have expressed interest in low voc technology, but have been scared off due to all the "horror" stories surrounding "Waterborne". There are statistically more companies switching back to solvent based paint than there are considering water based, and most are aware of the "gimmicks" of changing only the binder and claiming that the product is now "Low V.O.C." Matrix, on the other hand, completely redesigned ALL of the toners as well as the binders in a compliant, true "LOW V.O.C." formula. You'll never know you aren't spraying MPB or MSB. So if you are serious about "going green", you only have one "real" choice...........MPB-LV ! Point of Sale (credit card machines and services) I don't know about you, but we get at least 10 bull shit calls per week telling us how much money we could save by switching services. Just dealing with the high pressure sales people costs us money, so let me enlighten you. "Melissa Carter" at Elite Merchant Solutions is a no nonsense, cut to the chase, no ups/no extras type girl. You get the absolute best deal globally right from the start, and that includes........no increase later after you're "hooked". I would know, we've been with her for a couple of years! I say this because we now have to add a second machine for the new location, and we aren't into getting "screwed"! I also make it a point of giving ya'll every cost saving tip I come across. She's from California, but don't hold that against her, she couldn't possibly be a Democrat..........she's way too honest and possesses a rarity for a Californian....... "common sense" (sounds more like a Texan)! Tell her Rick from The Paint Spot referred you. If you sign with her we'll give you a free kit of MS-78 clear:) :) :) :) Contact info: melissacarter@elitedatacorp.com phone: (818) 815-3603 or cell: (501) 258-8001