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How to Restore Your Collector Car (Motorbooks Workshop)

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Retail Price: $29.95

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by Mario Goldstein

There are new ideas and research being done within the realm of fasteners when it comes to repairs.

One welcome change that has been observed is in the bumper mounting area now coated fasteners are being used. This means an added replacement expense during repairs but it also means less corroded bolds.

A new trend is headed toward fascia plastic fasteners being used. They are perfect because they are corrosion free and will release then they are suppose to. Continued research and changes like this are going to create a need for new types of fasteners. A good example of this is aluminum panels demanding aluminum fasteners. Again another significant way of reducing corrosion meaning a cost reduction because assembly times are faster.

Routine Uses for Fastener Applications. -any of the sheet metal parts such as body panels, trunk, lid and hood. Usually attached with a Grade 2 screw or rivet. Screws may all look the same but there can be differences in and long and strong, they are as well as the pitch.

-treaded fasteners are most common for assembling bumpers. They have to be high strength as the bumper provides safety to the occupants of the vehicle.

- Steel, plastic threads or plastic clips can be used for the headlight, grille and fascia.

-For interiors fasteners or screws that are threaded are used for the dash board, while the pads may be plastic fasteners of varying types. Door trim panels are normally clips but some are bolts. Be very careful with the plastic clips as many are designed for one time use.

- Steel bolts and screws are for the fiberglass items as well as plastic lips.

-Steering and suspension are crucial to safety therefore demand high strength bolts.

Proper Fastener Management Means Less Profit Loss

You can actually stop your losses and increase your profit by about $50 on every repair done if you itemize the supplemental materials needed in your repairs. Items such as your chemicals, fasteners and even masking tape. That may seem like gouging the customer but actually these costs can mount up to thousands of dollars per year because they are not factored in when doing the estimates. If your shop does about 200 car repairs, a month then you are going to exceed $100,000 in revenue alone just in this one small change. You can actually create a snowball affect just by implementing a small change like this. You can re invest that extra money into other cost saving equipment, which allows you to increase the workload yet cut down the labor expense. The same goes for being astute at keeping control of inventory. You can dramatically cut down on your losses.

Once you have cut these costs down then naturally, your profit level rises. It?s the little things that can really make a big difference in the profit margin in this particular industry. The same with not wasting product is another issue to keep track off. By the same token, though don?t start cutting corners to save money. In the end, it could end up costing you more by having customers returning for repairs and this is damaging to your businesses reputation.