When writing auto repair estimates the auto estimator must add for clear coat. The clear coat takes time to spray onto the vehicle and it is expensive. Therefore, there should be a charge for the time that it takes to mix and apply it and a charge for a cost of the material. The time should be added to refinish labor to accomplish both labor time and material charge. We will discuss how to determine the material charge later in another blog.
Today we are going to explain why you must add for clear coat and how to determine how must time to add. You may be thinking that most vehicles have clear coat; why don’t the guide include the time it takes to clear? This is because not all cars have clear coat, and you should not get paid for an operation that you did not perform. I think it is fair for technicians to get paid for everything that they do, but if we start charging for things that we don’t do is fraud and can lead to a lot of trouble. So if you’re going to add for clear or any other not included operations, make sure it needs it.
If you clear one panel, you will need to mix your clear, tack the surface that your spraying spray the clear on the panel and clean your spray gun. To add for clear coat you add 40% of the time given to paint the panel. If you spraying a panel with 3.0 hours, you would multiply 3.0 x 40% = 1.2. So to paint and clear this panel you have 3.0+1.2 = 4.2 Total Paint Time.
For each additional panel you will need to deduct for overlap then add 20% for clear coat. For example, if the adjacent panel gives 3.0 hours we will deduct .4 to give us 2.6. Now multiply 2.6 x 20% = .5. Add 2.6 + clear time of .5 top get a total of 3.1 paint time to paint and clear the adjacent panel. This same formula will apply to each additional panel. Deduct overlap and multiply by 20 %.
Let’s take a look of the example in the previous post.
Body Labor Paint Labor
Repair Hood Panel 2.5 3.0
Deduct for paint overlap .0
Add For Clear Coat 1.2
Adjusted Paint Time w/ clear 4.2
Repair Right Front Fender 2.0 3.0
Deduct for paint overlap -.4
Adjusted Paint Time 2.6
Add For Clear Coat .5
Adjusted Paint Time w/ clear 3.1
Repair Left Front Fender 1.0 3.0
Deduct for paint overlap -.4
Adjusted Paint Time 2.6
Add For Clear Coat .5
Adjusted Paint Time w/ clear 3.1
Total Labor 5.5 10.4
Vehicle Repair Tools says
May 18, 2010 at 7:57 amOOps ! quite weak in mathematics , going to read the post again after dropping the comment, to make it understand completely. It is a great calculation to save money and time as well.