Get out the plastic!

Plastic repair, long seen as a side-line to the real business of panel beating, is becoming more and more important to the repair industry as vehicle manufacturers use more plastic in their cars and insurers see the cost benefits of repair rather than discarding parts. If repairers don't catch on to this trend, warn several experts, they could be left behind.
"Repairers are literally throwing away money if they are unable to perform plastic repairs," said Gary Thomas, head teacher of panel beating at St.George TAFE, Sydney. "If I take a metal panel with a tennis ball-sized dent in it, every repairer would be able to repair it. If I took a plastic panel with the same sized dent, only about 10 per cent would be able to repair it. It's crazy."
Thomas has been holding trade nights at St.George TAFE to show repairers plastic repair techniques. "Every panel beater has the skills to be able to do a plastic repair, they just need someone to show them the techniques," he said.
Leading plastic repair specialist Bradleys Australia has been pushing for plastic repair to enter bodyshops for years. "We have said to many people in the trade recently, if we had walked into their repair shop five years ago and said; 'Look out, within five years all headlight housings and lenses will be plastic', they would have laughed at us and most would have told us where to go, and said 'That's not even possible'," said Terry Rowe, managing director.
"But it has already happened. We are now saying, the next will be fenders and radiator supports."
The use of plastic by vehicle manufacturers is already prevalent in Australia and is on the increase. The Mercedes A-Class has a plastic skin on its tailgate, the new VW Beetle has plastic wheel arch panels. Volvo, Saab, Jeep and several others have plastic radiator support panels. The Ford Ka's bumper section is an example of how a bumper can evolve into a major plastic body section panel, both front and rear. Further developments will include the use of colour-impregnated plastic panels -- Ford recently signalled its intent to use more such panels in the US.
Insurers are understandably keen to push the process, as it not only saves repairers money -- it saves insurers replacement parts costs as well. Thomas has met with the local assessing manager for NRMA Insurance and instructed him about plastic repair. "People will argue over 0.2 of a hour but will let a $650 part get thrown away. When insurers see the cost savings involved in repairing the part, they are more than happy to pay good money for it to be repaired," said Thomas.


:BMS and Lumley combine
Bodyshop Management Systems (BMS) and Lumley Technology have formed a strategic alliance. The companies claim to be able to offer complete one-stop solutions for quoting, e-commerce, work provider interfaces, internet connectivity, TRIM recording systems, job costings, payroll incentive programs, professional business analysis tools, web page job tracking and other information technology necessary for the professional bodyshop.
BMS has a successful track record of improving the performance in hundreds of bodyshops in a number of countries around the world as well as leading the use of internet technology for smash repair solutions.
Lumley Technology is a worldwide supplier of e-commerce-based software systems, packages and technology consulting services to the insurance, funds management and motor vehicle repair industries -- encompassing design and development, project management and marketing and administration.
Lumley Technology is the developer of the VQS for Windows -- Vehicle Quoting System and the complementary RepairCam -- imaging and assessing software.
This strategic alliance will not only deliver the very best technology, but also increase the resources to train and support the rapidly growing number of customer-bases of both companies which have representation in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and soon Cairns, said the companies.