Car Craft adopts Thatchamnet

Western Australia's largest smash repair group, Car Craft, has added a new international element to the range of resources available to its members.

General manager Noelle Simons said the Car Craft Group had linked its 37 members with British-based Thatchamnet, the on-line repair methods and technical information system.

Thatcham, established in 1969, is one of the world's largest automotive smash repair research centres.

Car Craft has been in the body repair business since 1987 and is one of the largest and most successful groups in the industry across Australia. The group has always focused on quality and is currently in the process of building on member benefits that improve and upgrade repair skills.

Simons said vehicle construction changed rapidly and leading body shops no longer relied on traditional methods to repair vehicles.

"New age materials and construction methods are no longer restricted only to high end models," she said.

"We are increasingly seeing mums and dads' vehicles in our workshops that require specialist information to assist in repairing a vehicle to the manufacturer's specifications.

"Car Craft repairers are equipped to offer consistent and quality repairs to the vehicles that are entrusted to them. This includes making sure that they have the correct equipment levels, training and reference tools to provide a comprehensive understanding of the repair requirements of a particular vehicle."

Simons said Thatchamnet did not yet have Australian-built models in its data base, but she believes there are enough European, Asian and Japanese built vehicles on the road in Australia to make Thatchamnet a worthwhile tool for her members.

Thatchamnet is a subscription website where collision repair industry personnel can quickly and easily acquire valuable specialist information on automotive body repair methods.

All Thatcham repair methods are carefully researched in Thatcham's workshop in the UK.