The Value of Preventative Maintenance-REBOOT 184

Podcast Show Notes: 

What if one of the most profitable things you could do for your paint department wasn't painting more cars... but preventing problems before they ever happen?

In this final episode reshare of the Keeping It Kleen series, we're focusing on one of the most overlooked opportunities in collision repair: Preventative Maintenance.

Most shops accept a certain amount of dirt nibs, fisheyes, denibbing, polishing, and even the occasional repaint as just part of the business. But what if many of those issues could be dramatically reduced through better maintenance, cleaner processes, and stronger shop habits?

In this episode, I break down why paint contamination isn't just a quality issue—it's a profitability issue. We discuss how rework quietly steals money through wasted materials, lost production time, increased energy costs, and unnecessary stress on your team. More importantly, we uncover the practical steps shops can take to create cleaner paint jobs and more consistent results.

We'll explore everything from booth filters, airflow, compressors, airlines, and desiccant systems to vehicle prep procedures, spray gun maintenance, PPE, and paint department SOPs. You'll also learn why your spray booth should be viewed as one of the most valuable assets in your business and how a structured monthly or quarterly preventative maintenance program can protect both your equipment and your profits.

If you're looking for cleaner finishes, fewer redos, and a more profitable paint department, this episode provides the roadmap.

Key Takeaways:

🔹 Preventative maintenance costs far less than paint rework and can dramatically improve paint quality and consistency.

🔹 Clean paint jobs require more than a clean booth—they require disciplined processes, proper vehicle preparation, and strong technician habits.

🔹 Your spray booth is one of the most important profit centers in your business, and maintaining it properly protects production, quality, and profitability.

 Link to Part 1 of Series: Root Sources of Contamination-Reboot

Link to Part 2 of Series: True costs of Contamination-Reboot

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Transcript

Cleaner Paint With Less Rework

Rick 0:00

This week we reveal the key to reducing those painful costs of rework by minimizing the amount of contamination we allow into our paint booth environment and paint work to begin with by implementing not only an equipment preventative maintenance program, but better spray booth hygiene and prepaint practices that will guarantee cleaner outcomes. Now you've heard the old saying, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, right? Well, this episode truly drives that message home. Welcome to the Mind Wrench Podcast with your host, Rick Sellover, where minor adjustments produce major improvements in mindset, personal growth, and success. This is the place to be every Monday, where we make small improvements and take positive actions in our business and personal lives that will make a major impact in our success, next level growth, and quality of life.

Subscribe, Reviews, And Why It Matters

Rick 1:00

Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to the Mindranch Podcast. I'm your host, Rick Silver. Thanks so much for stopping in. If you're a returning listener and haven't done so already, please take a minute and click the follow or subscribe button and then rate and review the show. When you rate and review the show, the algorithms for Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, and all the other platforms will see that it's valuable and show it to more people that have never seen it before. And hopefully it can help them too. I would really, really, really appreciate your help sharing this word with your friends and family as well. And if you're a brand new listener, welcome. I hope you find something of value here that helps you in your personal or professional life as well. Please make sure to click the subscribe or follow button so you never miss another episode. A

The Real Cost Of Contamination

Rick 1:45

couple of years ago, I conducted an extensive study that uncovered something most collision repair facilities never fully measure: the significant financial impact of paint contamination and rework. What I found was eye-opening. Every month, shops are losing thousands of dollars to preventable defects, redoes, wasted materials, lost production time, and reduced profitability. The findings led me to create a presentation called The Cost of Contamination, which I've had the opportunity to share at several industry conferences and through published articles over the past few years. In that presentation, I cover three critical areas the root sources of contamination, the true cost of contamination, the value of preventative maintenance. To help spread this message, I also recorded a three-part Mind Wrench podcast series that takes a deeper dive into each of these topics. The reality is, I feel like I've only scratched the surface. This information has the potential to help shop owners, managers, and paint technicians improve quality, increase profitability, and eliminate unnecessary waste. That's why over the next few weeks, I'm resharing all three episodes. If you find value in this information, please share it with others in the industry who could benefit from hearing it. This week, we're wrapping up the reshare of my Keeping It Clean series with the final piece of the puzzle, Part 3, the Value of Preventative Maintenance, where we reveal the keys to reducing those painful costs of rework by minimizing the amount of contamination we allow into our paint booth environment and paintwork, by implementing not only an equipment preventative maintenance program but better spray booth hygiene and prepaint practices that will guarantee cleaner outcomes. Now, as I explained in our first episode, there are three main sources of where the contamination originates from the vehicle, the booth, and the paint tech. And after an extensive study I did on this subject preparing for the series, there were a few things that were a little surprising about the results and a few facts that I expected that were strongly reinforced by the study. As a source of dirt or contamination, the vehicle played a smaller role than I would have thought. As low as only about 10% of the dirt issues recorded were attributed to the vehicle, but a much higher percentage of fisheye contamination. But these concerns can be almost completely prevented by power washing a vehicle before it even enters the production floor, and then again with a complete wash after final prep work is completed, before it enters a booth, followed by a proper wax and grease and waterborne wipe down process of all the surfaces to be painted. But any contamination seen beyond that can usually be directly attributed to poorly maintained air compressor, air filtering components in airlines, things that fall into the preventative maintenance category. Occasionally and randomly, some contaminated air from outside can enter the booth through the ceiling filters. Like if you're next to a greasy burger or chicken joint that's got really close proximity to where your booth draws its air, that can cause a fisheye breakout that can last a few days. But like I said, it is rare and not really something you can prevent. What

What Preventative Maintenance Means

Rick 4:54

we're going to talk about in this episode is something called preventative maintenance and what it really looks like, and why it's not only a necessity for today's collision centers, but it really does pay for itself in a very short period of time. Preventative maintenance by itself is exactly what it sounds like. The maintaining of a piece of equipment that'll prevent it from incurring unnecessary and usually costly repairs, or malfunctioning, or just or stop working completely. This is not a new concept. You've been practicing preventative maintenance on your personal things for years, I would imagine. Think about your vehicles, whether they're owned or leased. You have a maintenance schedule to get your oil changed every X amount of miles or X amount of months, right? And they don't just change the oil and filter. A reputable business will check the fluid levels, the brake padware, the tireware, the battery, and all those other things that if not checked, could cause much more expensive work down the road if not caught, right? What about your furnace or your home heating systems? We don't hesitate at all on this yearly maintenance, do we? No. Because we don't want our furnace to go out in the middle of winter when we need it most, nor do we want a cracked heat exchanger silently taking out our family during the night. This almost happened to me and my siblings many years ago when we were kids, and it was very close. It's just not worth the risk to save a few bucks. Agreed? We schedule our annual physicals, health screenings for cholesterol or diabetes or cancer. We do prostate exams. We schedule dental cleanings and oral exams, as well as our annual eye exams. Aren't those all standard preventative maintenance programs to keep our bodies, our equipment, running year after year after year, and give us early detection of bigger health problems on the horizon? Absolutely. If you're

Coaching Offer For Shop Leaders

Rick 6:43

running a collision shop, whether second generation, third generation, or original owner, grinding every day, putting out fires, chasing KPIs, working in rather than on the business, and wondering why progress still feels slower than it should, let's take a little pause right here. As a longtime industry supplier, performance coach, and host of this podcast, I've worked inside this industry for over four decades, and I've learned a few things the hard way. Tools and tactics absolutely matter, but mindset drives everything. How you think shapes how you lead, how you hire, how you grow, and how you show up when things get messy. That's where one-on-one coaching makes the difference. You get focused conversations, real accountability, and guidance tailored to you and your shop, not generic cookie cutter advice. The collision repair business has changed dramatically in the last few years. The technology, the tools, the equipment needed to repair today's new vehicles, customer expectations that vary by generation, OEM certifications and repair procedures, ADAS calibrations, electric vehicles, and the ever-growing national technician shortage, it's a lot, isn't it? It can be absolutely overwhelming and very challenging on where to focus first, right? If only I had someone who could help me find clarity in all the chaos. If only there was someone that could help guide me through the changes I need to make so I could create a successful business and increase my net revenue. If only I had a coach that could help me without getting in my way or trying to run my business for me or costing me a fortune. This is where I can help. The goal is simple. Help you make consistent improvements, build sustainable culture, gain better profitability, and shave years off the learning curve. If you're open to adjusting how you think and how you lead, book a free 15-minute discovery call with me right now. No sales pitch, no blue sky promises, just an honest conversation to see if it's a fit. You have absolutely nothing to lose but everything to gain. Secure a spot now. Then why

Why Skipping PM Gets Expensive

Rick 8:41

do so many collision shop owners hesitate when it comes to committing to a preventative maintenance program for their most expensive pieces of equipment in the shop? Just for reference, today's booth equipment can cost anywhere from a hundred grand to two hundred and fifty grand for a quality proven piece of equipment, you know, not the stuff you'd order from the back pages of a magazine or a catalog. So it's always the largest investment a shop owner will make. Wouldn't it make sense to protect that investment with a preventive maintenance program? Listen, no disrespect, but would you spend a hundred grand on a really nice automobile like a Porsche or a BMW or Mercedes? And then just totally skip the maintenance through an authorized dealer and instead just occasionally get the oil changed at a you know $9.99 quick oil change place in a strip mall because it's more convenient and cheaper? No in hell you would, right? As I mentioned in my previous episodes in this series, I've personally worked with hundreds of shops over my career, and you'd be amazed at the number of booths out there, even one or two year old booths, that go unprotected, uncared for, and unmaintained month after month after month, eroding the lifespan of the motor, the bearings, the electrical controls, and the other main components of the booth until one day something just stops working or malfunctions. Then guess what? A 911 call goes to the servicing distributor. And when I've asked owners point blank why they don't have a preventive maintenance plan in place, they just say, well, it's too expensive, and you know, they just come in and disrupt my workflow every time they change the filters. It's just a pain in the ass. I've heard comments like, you know, you know how those booth guys are, they're just trying to get rich off me, right? Really? Some of these owners do have the Porsche BMW or Mercedes. And guess what? They do have the scheduled maintenance done on their car. And I'm pretty sure that car isn't generating income for them, right? You know, like the booth is? Like I've said before, and I even did a podcast episode on this uh a while back, and I'll tell anyone that asks the booth or the prep decks are realistically the cash register of the collision shop. Nearly every single vehicle needs to pass through the booth or the prep deck before you can ching the cash register, right? Nobody gets paid until the job is completed, which means successfully painted and delivered, period. There aren't many professional businesses out there that can successfully function with a malfunctioning cash register. It's just that simple. And the collision shop is really no different, but it's just never thought of in the same way. With that in mind, how long do you think your business would still be profitable for the month if your cash register goes down? One day, two days, a week? Any idea what that costs you in lost production? Well, if you listen to my last podcast in this series, the true costs of contamination, you would know that every booth cycle is worth about five thousand one hundred forty seven dollars of missed RO opportunity. That's based on a national average RO value of five thousand one hundred forty seven dollars. Now depending on how many booth cycles per day you average, it's just simple math in there, right? Two cycles a day that's ten thousand two hundred and ninety-four dollars. Four cycles a day that's twenty thousand five hundred eighty-eight dollars per day, and it goes on and on. Now, if you do know what your monthly gross profit and more importantly net profit is, it probably doesn't take too many days before you're in the hole for the month. But if you don't know those KPIs, you may be going backwards after day one, right? Now the easiest way to avoid the situation completely and protect your investments, your essential equipment, you know, like your booth and your compressed air systems, is by implementing a solid preventative maintenance program from your local qualified booth distributor. The cost for a year protection on most of these yearly programs would be less than your losses on two booth cycles. Think about that for a minute. A whole year's worth of protection for what it would cost, less than what it would cost if you lost two booth cycles of production.

What A Strong PM Plan Includes

Rick 12:50

Now, a good preventive maintenance program should include some things like a monthly or quarterly filter service with visible records for 6H compliance, semi annual or annual sealing filter service, air makeup intake filters and mix room filter service, pit cleaning service, inspect and replace color correct booth lights, tighten replace belts, exhaust van cleaning, quarterly or annually multi-point inspection of all internal systems, and an annual deep cleaning service, including booth coating, and lastly full reporting of all maintenance activities and status updates. That's what a good program would consist of. Now

Painter Hygiene That Makes PM Work

Rick 13:32

just to be clear, as I explained in my first episode of the series, root sources of contamination, the booth environment can be responsible for a good portion of the dirt and contamination that ends up in a paint finish. Probably a good 40% at least. And a preventive maintenance program will drastically minimize that number, but the painter still has control or influence over 50% of these issues with contamination that cause reduce. So best results to drive down that amount of free work, financial loss, as well as keeping the booth environment clean as possible, both inside and surrounding areas outside, is to make sure your paint techs are, number one, on board and part of the preventive maintenance program. And number two, utilizing a good SOP guide to improve the current hygiene practices and then keep them on track with those improvements. Having a freshly cleaned and balanced booth with fresh filters will not produce a super clean finish if the painter is jumping in and out of the booth to do a little sanding on the next job between coats of base. Or he has filthy, dusty parts racks in the booth with two years of overspray buildup on them with parts laying on them that he's spraying. Or is wearing a crusty old spray suit that hangs out on a hook by his toolbox, or maybe wears his baseball cap that's full of sanding and bondo dust, right? Maintaining the air compressor and air filtering systems downstream, the airlines and the hoses and the desiccant system are all part of a maintenance program too. But the contamination protection for your paint finishes can be negated by your paint text not properly prepping the panels with both solvent wax and grease and waterborne cleaner, not taking proper care of their spray guns, which really need to be fully torn down and cleaned quite often. Or something as simple as being sure not to use colognes, perfumes, hand lotions, deodorants, and those kind of personal care products that may contain chemicals that create fish eyes. Look, the bottom line is this when a shop doesn't follow a good preventive maintenance program, and the paint team doesn't follow excellent cleanliness practices inside and outside the booth, not only does the shop lose money on extra paint material usage, wasted energy resources, and lost production, but the paint tech also loses about $625 in lost wages and production every time he has to redo an average RO. If we didn't even talk about the impact to the most important piece of this puzzle, the customer experience, from my humble perspective, it would be a wise investment of resources to couple a top-notch pre-paint hygiene routine alongside of a good preventive maintenance program for all your booths and prep decks.

Series Wrap And How To Reach Me

Rick 16:13

Feel free to contact me if you need any additional information on this. I'm always happy to help. Well, that's a wrap on my three-part series Keeping It Clean. Hopefully, if you listened to all three episodes, you now have a solid, comprehensive understanding of where all that dirt and contamination comes from in your paint jobs, how to eliminate or at least minimize it at each root source, as well as what the actual cost of rework is, how it financially impacts not only the shop owner, but the paint tax as well. Capping it off today with explaining exactly what preventive maintenance is, why it's important to not only producing cleaner paintwork, but extending your equipment's useful lifespan. Coupled with improvements in your paint department's prepaint process, can really turn your booth into more of a clean room that's capable of producing car after car after car for years to come without the money wasting hassle of redoos. Well, that's all I had for you today. Thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate your support and I hope you have a great week. I can always be reached at www.ricksilover.com, where you can find all my social media links, podcast episodes, blog posts, and much more.