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Burbank Body Shop Joins The Social Network!

It has been a long time overdue, but Burbank Body Shop has set up it's own facebook page! Though it is still a work in progress, the page will contain before and after images, showcasing the quality of our expert service. We invite you, our customers, to be a part of this. Simply check out the site, leave a comment or two, and if it's not too much trouble, like our page. It's just a single click! And, it will help us, as we try to tackle this new frontier! It will be a way for us to stay in touch with our customers, to keep them updated with the latest news the shop has, as well as coupons and offers we may have, and it will show prospective clients the effort and hard work that we put into our vehicles. 

149 E. Providencia Ave

Burbank, Ca 91502   

818 845-0901

How much would you charge for Insurance fraud?

While refueling my shiny white Lexus at a local gas station the other day, I ran into a station manager who I have known casually for a number of years.

“I have a question for you,” he said:” My cousin asked me if I know a body shop. He had the third seat stolen from his Chevy Tahoe. Insurance company told him they would pay a body shop to replace it. How much would you charge him to cash this check?”

“Do you even realize that you are asking me to commit Insurance fraud and jeopardize my business and my reputation for a few bucks?” I thought:” Which by the way is a federal offence punishable by prison sentence?”

But All I said was:” I don’t even get involved in stuff like that.” End of story, but the reason I am writing about it is because as a shop owner I get propositioned to do something like that on regular basis. In other words a growing number of our citizens see absolutely nothing wrong with defrauding their insurance company.

“They are so big, they can afford it,” they say. But the real question is can we afford it? Can we afford to have such an attitude?”  Insurance companies did not get to be so big and powerful by being stupid or unaware. They are well informed of fraud that is being perpetrated against them on regular basis. They have created special investigative units within their companies to prevent it, but more than that they have included losses from fraud as cost of doing business. How does this affect you, the consumer? To recoup their losses from fraud Insurance companies are cutting costs on repairs by using aftermarket parts etc..., which simply put means your vehicle once in an accident will not be fully restored to pre accidental condition. Can we really afford that? What do you think?

A myth about Bondo

                                                     Rust underneath cracked Bondo

“ I want to make sure you understand,” exclaimed long time Burbank resident Charlie Miller while dropping off his late model Chevy Tahoe at Burbank Body  Shop for collision related repairs:” I don’t want any Bondo on my car and I want all original parts.” Charlie is not the only customer to express this sentiment about Bondo in recent years .What’s wrong with Bondo?

Major manufacturer of automotive related products, 3M developed Bondo to replace toxic lead filler used in vehicle repairs in the past. In the old days craftsmen who used to be called metal men repaired most metal panels on an automobile. They used a process called metal finishing to repair damaged panels. It took time and real skill to repair a panel by metal beating using special tools. At the end of the process lead filler was used to smooth out the panel before it was refinished. It was a laborious and hazardous to a man’s health process. A discovery of putty Bondo filler was a huge innovation in collision repair industry. You can compare it to invention of sliced bread.

Much easier in application Bondo significantly reduces time of repair and exposure to toxic hazards for body men. So what is wrong with Bondo?

Unfortunately because of the ease of application, some of the unscrupulous repairers decided to forgo Metal finishing process and use Bondo as fix it all method… In other words instead of repairing a metal panel first, they would simply fill the damaged area with putty Bondo.  With time and moisture excessive amount of Bondo on automobile cracks hence the term Bondo crack. It has become such a widespread problem that automobile resellers and some sophisticated consumers use magnets to check for Bondo on vehicles. Magnet will stick to metal but not to Bondo.

Just like with fine vine Bondo is great in moderation; abuse it and expect troubles, in other words to avoid problems keep Bondo use to its intended specifications.

Want to learn more check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondo_(putty)

Turning Total Loss into a gain

Insurance Companies have set guidelines for declaring your vehicle a Total Loss. Just in case you are not familiar with the term, the vehicle is declared a Total Loss after an accident if the cost of repairs exceeds usually about 75 percent of the value of an automobile. It is pretty straight forward. For example, if your 2008 Chevy Camaro is worth $10,000 before it hit a fire hydrant on Glenoaks Boulevard and the repair cost after is $ 9,000 it is declared a Total Loss. In such cases your Insurance Company usually will take your vehicle to a junk yard and pay you a fair value to replace it. However when you add a human element to the equation things could get a bit complicated.

A huge tree fell on Brian Hogue’s Ford truck during last year’s storm that temporarily left half of the City of Angels without electricity. “Thank God it wasn’t my house,” said Hogue who came by the body shop to talk about his truck. Insurance Company has declared Brian’s vehicle a Total Loss, but he wasn’t quite ready to send his prized possession to the salvage yard. Aside from sentimental and practical value, Brian just could not visualize having a car note on a new vehicle.

“What would it take to repair it?” inquired Mr. Hogue

“Time and a lot of work,” replied Jorge Mondragon, Burbank Body Shop’s production manager.

“Some jobs are more lucrative than others,” noted Mondragon who began his career over forty years ago sanding cars at his father’s body shop:” But what makes it all worthwhile is when you can make a customer happy.”

Replacing a cab on a Ford truck is not as simple as replacing a fender, but Mondragon has the experience and a know how to do both equally perfect. To replace a fender one needs to simply unbolt it and then bolt it back on. To replace a cab one needs to remove and reinstall the chassis, drive train, complete wiring etc…

Few months later and some blood sweat and tears Brian’s truck was ready to get back on the road. “Yesterday he felt like a kid the day before Christmas,” said Brian’s wife Stacie when they came to pick up the truck.” It looks like brand new,” they exclaimed in unison.

Camaro ZL1 is no longer Corvette’s poor little cousin

Chevrolet people recently announced that the new Camaro Zl1 is now officially a member in the 11 seconds club. A stock ZL1 with an automatic transmission ran a quarter mile in 11.93 seconds reaching 116 miles per hour speed.

"The ZL1 is great at everything, and we're very proud of that," said Tony Roma, Camaro ZL1 program engineering manager: "You can take it to the drag strip and run 11-second quarter-miles all day long. You can also take it to a road course, where it's balanced, handles well, and does exactly what you want."

General Motors officials recently stated that 2012 Camaro ZL1 could accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in four seconds using street legal components.

Taking a phrase burning rubber to a new level the new ZL1 is a throwback to a special-order 1969 Camaro ZL1 that was renowned for its performance on the drag strip.

“We know many of customers will take their ZL1 to the drag strip,” said Gordon Rojewski, driveline development engineer – and who is also an experienced drag racer and owner of a turbocharged, 920-horsepower street car. “Some may just go once, to experience the full potential of the 580-horsepower LSA engine. Others may be more serious, going every other weekend with a set of slicks in the trunk. As such, we set out to make sure the ZL1 would perform for them – on the first pass and on the 100th.”

I had to take a look at a newly constructed ZL1 which would give any corvette a run for its money at a local dealership, Community Chevrolet. 580 horsepower engine and a sleek exterior took my breath away.

Texting and Driving

One would think that creating a law that bans texting while driving is a no brainer, especially considering that texting is a preferred form of communication for our youth. Yet only thirty eight out of fifty states of our country have implemented that law. The latest state, Alabama which will have a ban on texting behind the wheel effective August 1^st, will fine first time offenders $25.00, second timers $50.00 and $75.00 for all subsequent offences. In California where texting while driving ban went into effect on January 2009, first time violators are subjected to a $20.00 fine. All subsequent convictions are subject to $50.00 fine. Note that even though these convictions will appear on your DMV record they will not cost you a point or adversely affect your insurance premium. Are these fines severe enough to enforce the law? How serious is this situation?

Yesterday I went to take a look at the Honda that belongs to the City of Burbank. It was smashed beyond repair. The car was parked while it was hit by a young motorist who destroyed two other vehicles at the same time.” He was going thirty five miles per hour and he didn’t even stop,” exclaimed Tim, city supervisor:” There were no tire marks. The kid swore up and down that he wasn’t texting.”

Fortunately all three vehicles were parked and the young kid walked away unharmed. But how many accidents of this nature end up with fatalities? Are you talking to your children about texting and driving? My twenty year old son likes to text at the dinner table or even while he is talking to me on the phone.  He says he doesn’t text while he drives, but he checks his messages. Do you check your messages while you drive? Is it safe? No!

A cause of a major train wreck in Chatsworth several years ago was attributed to a train engineer texting while on the job.  How scary it would be to think that our airline pilots are texting while in the air? How many more fatalities do we need to stop ignoring potentially life altering dangers associated with texting and driving?

“Now more than three quarters of our states outlaw one of the riskiest behaviors behind the wheel- texting and driving,” said U.S transportation Secretary Ray La Hood. What about the rest of the country? For more information on text messaging law click on http://dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/