Collision Blast

Providing FREE Auto Body and Paint Training Videos

Collision Repair Program – College of Lake County – Grayslake, Illinois

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr1t9b2Mxj4[/youtube]

If it is passion you are all about then you want to check out the College Of Lake County.  This college offers collision repair technology and by listening to the students in this video, it is easy to determine that they are very passionate about what they do. If you live in Illinois, be sure to add the collision repair program at College Lake County to your list of programs to tour.  This program is in a NATEF accredited post-secondary (college level) and offers classes during the day and evenings. Make your dreams become reality and feed your passion by training to become a professional collision repair technician.

For more information visit:

C ollege of Lake County 

19351 W. Washington St. 

Grayslake, IL 60030 

 847-543-2905 

or visit their website at: http://www.clcillinois.edu/credit/programs/abr.asp 

For Additional NATEF Certified Schools and Resources Visit NATEF Schools

 

 

 

 

BCC Adds Omni Paint Line Mixing Bank

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Butler Community College, Collision Repair Program has added Omni, a PPG line of automotive paint, into their training program. We already had the PPG line, which is one of the leading paint companies, but PPG’s lower line of automotive paint called Omni, will allow our students to learn how to mix paint, learn to spray paint and how to blend colors at a much lower expense. All of these techniques use the same methods, so it does not make sense to use the top-end PPG paint to practice. We can use the PPG paint when we perform live work, as many dealerships and top quality body shops use.

PPG has been serving transportation coatings since 1928, when they purchased Ditzler Inc. – the leading supplier of OEM automotive paints for automobiles at that time. Since then, PPG has stayed in the front of research and development to provide the most advanced technology and the ultimate high-quality solution. PPG offers a program called CertifiedFirst Network, which allows body shops to provide their customers with a lifetime paint guarantee. You can learn more about this program by visiting their web site.

Omni, also known as Shopline, is also high quality paint, but they do not have the CertifiedFirst Network or offer the lifetime paint guarantee. They do not spend a lot of money on promoting and advertising like PPG does either. And they do not spend as much research on OEM colors; therefore their colors may not match quite as good as the PPG line. However, it is still a high quality automotive finish at an affordable price. It definitely has its place in the market and at our training facility.

I would like to give Danny Hutchins and Car Color in Wichita, KS a special thanks. They provided us the PPG and Omni mixing banks to help us train our future collision repair technicians. They will also supply us the PPG and Omni paint at an educational rate. It’s folks like this that support us and strive to help us make Butler Community College a superior Collision Repair Program. For more information about Car Color you can visit them at http://www.carcolorinc.com/

If you would like to get additional information about how you can train to become a professional collision repair or refinish technician, feel free to contact me.

BCC Students Sneak Away to Visit the Industry

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BCC Collision Repair student, Austin Newman, took these photos while attending a field trip to BigDog Motorcycles.

It’s hard for me to believe this year is almost over. It feels like we are just getting things started and it’s time to take a break. However, my students worked hard and increased their skills tremendously, so they deserve the summer break. I’m already looking forward for them to return so we can start the advanced training that starts during their second year.

This year we learned a lot and had a lot of fun. First year students start off with safety, of course, then they learned how to weld, repair plastic, repair minor body damage, apply plastic body fillers, estimate, basic frame and uni-body concepts, and now they are learning about paint. The second year we will use these basic skills to learn the more advanced skills.

We did get to sneak away a few times. We were able to visit some of the collision repair shops. This is actually an excellent learning tool for the students to see what actually goes on in the work place and helps the students to start building relationships with potential employers. The business managers we selected to visit this year were wonderful with the students. It was awesome that they took the time to spend with the students and by giving us tours of their facilities. I would like to commend Rusty ECK Ford, Big Dog Motorcycles, and Carstar Collision Center for their support and help this year. We also visited Fox Collision; however, they are no longer in business.

One thing that all business managers mentioned was that they are looking for employees with good work ethics, dependability, and a good attitude. They believe they can help new employees improve their work skills, if they have those three things. However, it doesn’t matter how skilled someone is if they don’t show up to work.

Check back for more updates about our collision repair program. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or if you’d like to learn how to become a professional collision repair or refinish technician.

Donnie Smith
316-323-6890