Brad Larsen
Forum Replies Created
- Posts
I have put wood blocks or steel plates on the edge of the pot, once it is in the hole and stood on the plates and used my big slide hammer to pull the chain up and set the wedge. It does not take much to set them. Once they are set, make a pull and it will set them even better.
brad
Dennis, I had a black ’63 with red interior. Great car.
If you have a shrinking hammer and shrinking dolly you can try to cold shrink it without heat.
Brad Larsen
Eastwoods or Harbor Freight are your most economic setups (under a hundred dollars). You will also need a bead blaster, which they also have for under a hundred bucks and a oven. Go to a second hand store, the dump, or a appliance repair and get one from $0 to $50 dollars. great setup for small stuff. Pint cans of powder go a long ways. Lots of colors all under $10 a piece.
I listed a step van on craigslist for $4000 and like an idiot I put down my local address and phone number so interested parties could call or come by and see it. I received about a half dozen of these in the mail. All were for a thousand dollars or more than I was asking. All intructed me to keep $4000 and send the excess to their driver in XXXXXXXX who would then come by and pick up the truck. Most of the letters were in broken english and one even said that he liked what he was seeing, even though I had no photo on the ad. I called the police and they said just to shred them. One guy called and claimed I had cashed the check and was demanding money. Another actually had a guy show up and want the money and the van. When I offered to call the police he left and when I followed him in my car, he wandered aimlessly on foot for an hour. He finally went into Walmart and went into the back of the store and then ran away. Two of my checks had the same paper,signature and bank, but different businesses. If you list on craigslist, do not put personal info in your ad. Follow the info when you open an account and it will mask everything from the buyers view so all you get is an e-mail with their contact info. Be careful.
Ding and AAE, thanks to both of you. I make a joke and actually come away learning something. Makes being in this business seem a little less weird.
Brad Larsen
Is that US dollars Dag?
[b]Stone wrote:[/b]
[quote]mmmmmm funny stuff :smoke top drawer :rockwow bare foot in a body shop :ohmy:
dust masks but no shoes :huh:[/quote]
If it were my shop and we were barefoot I think we would be wearing respirators
Jimmo, I have been spending a lot of time in Canada as of late. I really like to watch the news about the USA so I can see what is really gpoing on. Most of our news has spilled over to far right or far left lunacy. I prefer FOX because I am a conservative and do not care for the current administration. It is very hard to debunct anything they say, but they do tend to post more than 50% negative about the left. It would be nice to see a little more positive of anything.
I have got to agree with you. When I see people like Paris Hilton on TV I have to wonder what it is she does. If you have seen her act, you know she can’t act. If you’ve heard her sing, you know she can’t sing, and if you saw her sex video you know she can’t do that either. Kids see that and they want to be just like her. Totally worthless and tons of money.Sends a bad message.
Brad Larsen
Dennis, I agree. If you give any group that bands together free run of the business, pretty soon they are telling you they way it is going to be. This racism thing is a perfect example. Everyone is so scared about being politically correct they shy away from the issue and let employees have a free run.
I tend to let them know it has nothing to do with their race. It is more of a personal attack. Change whatever or find a new job. If it is something that is affecting the business or the crew, something needs to be said. I had a gal working for me a while back that had a stud in her nose. Personally I thought it looked good. When it comes to the girls, the more exotic the better. That is the sexist side of me. Customers made all kinds of negative comments about it. So we had a sit down and asked her how she felt about not wearing it at work. She said “No problem”. If everyone is up to being the best they can and you have open dialog with your crew, you can quickly overcome these problems and make your customers feel comfortable coming to your shop.
[b]Han wrote:[/b]
[quote]He crossed a line and that should be obvious. Demanding them to speak English in his presence
tells of his insecurity and paranoia. Demanding them to change their names is racism.All i ask of my employees is to be sincere and respectful. It’s not about color, business,
status, appearance, culture, education, background, or whatever else. Show respect and
maybe in turn you’ll get some yourself.[/quote]Han, I do not think it was paranoia. He said that they refered to him as a white N*****. Having worked with several groups of mexicans and knowing how to speak spanish, I am here to tell you from experience most will bad mouth you while you are standing right there in there own language. That is until they find out you speak their native tongue, at which point they shut up and get to work. I have some acquaintances from South Africa that do the same thing. It sounds like the employees threw being sincere and respectful out the window.
I do not care what color or race you are, but appearance, background, & education matter to me.Especially the way you dress and behave. I see things like the stunt that Kanye West pulled on Taylor Swift and if it were up to me, that would be the last awards banquet he would ever be invited to.The man is just stupid. I do not want to have unrighteous dominion over my fellow man, but we have all got to work on having a little more class and leave the way you act in the “hood” or “Barrio” or the “Trailer court” at home. Take that hat off and put on your professional hat when you pull into the parking lot at work.
Gentlemen as always: Opinions Please!
Brad Larsen
When I was eighteen years old I had an employer ask me to cut my hair. The whole reason being is he thought my long hair might bother his conservative client base. I told him sure. I didn’t give him a bunch of crap about it. I figured if it was good for the business it was good for my job. I do not get people when they bring up it being their right because blah blah blah….. Why don’t you try making a living at your answer and see how much money you make. Nobody cares. They want to come into a business and feel comfortable with their choice. As a rule the more conservative your people are, the quicker people accept them.
Gentlemen as always: Opinions Please!
Brad Larsen
I thought it was painted! Two drops of black and it would be right on!
[b]lowder wrote:[/b]
[quote]no two shops are the same ,,ideas are different..tech abilities and attitudes toward repairs and procedures..different areas have different work to draw from ..not every one has the same working capital as the shop down the street..there are people out there that have got it figured out ,as to what makes there shop operate and remain profitable . some of them have went as far as putting it in to a markable business plan that can and is being purchased by collision centers nation wide .check with your local and state associations..the deal is to keep working and striving to do your best and increase your business ..make every day better than the last ..learn from your mistakes and your victories ..it does seem at times that we are up against it with the insurance companies.but i have to keep reminding myself that they also have a job to do .and that is saving their companies money.. Our job is to remain profitable.. and to do that we must arm our selves with the knowledge of our business and our estimating systems [ get to know your p-pages ]..with this information in your hand the insurance companies will see you are serious about your business and that you want and expect to be treated fairly.. get to know your local adjusters ask them what they like to see on your estimates and what they would like to have documented ..rather than turning these meeting into a negative lets keep them on the positive side and turn them into more dollars for our shop….. 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 ;)[/quote]Lowder, but don’t you think if shops were a little bit more alike that insurers and the customer at large would tend to do business with those shops? McDonalds is not in the hamburger business. They are in the real estate and commodities business. If they were in the hamburger business they would learn how to make a great hamburger. But they still do very well because their business’ are all based on the same model. People know when they go into McDonalds they are going to get a good product at a fair price. They may not be the best at what they do, but they are one of the best at how they do it. I see no reason why body shops could not do the same thing. Most consolidators are running their businesses extremely top heavy and hardly any two of them look alike because they started out buying existing shops that had no commonality among them. All of them are different sizes and have completely different equipment. Despite having an SOP manual, no two of them are run alike. So they are a cross between the old and the new, but still going rogue. Of course it would help if insurers did the same. Every one of them want to do things in their own way and want you to use their data base of choice, all adding to the overhead or chiseling away at your bottom line.
Gentlemen as Always: opinions please!
Brad Larsen