#68 Anson Open House 2026
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[00:00:00] One, two, three, four.
All right guys, welcome back to the All Access Podcast from Dent Repair Now. We're live, well, recording live from Dallas Love Airport. Got Big Mac with me. What up guys? What up? We, uh, had a busy weekend. I really wanted to do a, uh, you know, like DB expo style video at the event. And man, the event was as busy as open house as I've ever been to.
Uh, and then I was gonna try to do it at Craig's house later that night. And that was a crazy busy night. And I said, "Well, Mac, you're up. We're gonna do it at the airport." So here we are. Um, man, we had an incredible trip down. Uh, me and Melissa got in on Wednesday. That's in the gate area. If you're waiting for a Houston hobby, Southwest Flight 39, that did move down to gate [00:01:00] five.
Again, if you're heading to Houston Hobby on Southwest Flight 39, I need you down at gate five. Like I said, we're at the airport, so there you go. Anyways, uh, got on Wednesday, got all set up. We had a 20 group meeting, uh, Thursday afternoon. Uh, one of my favorite things in the world to do is in- person masterminds.
So we had a handful of members down for that, which was incredible. Uh, went out to the cigar bar, had a great time there. Uh, and then Friday was the advanced gluphole class. Uh, we had a full, uh, house for that. Uh, I had my oldest, I believe, my oldest student ever, so shout out Jimmy. 81 years old. 81 years old from Oregon and flew down to get some, some glue pole training because he's trying to get dialed in.
That's, uh, respectable. And man, he, he was, he was on it, doing a good job, asking the right questions. Uh, I was super, super impressed. Um, everybody, everybody had a great day that day. We had some good [00:02:00] barbecue, had hard eight barbecue. Um, and Saturday was the open house. So I wanted to get Mac. I wanted to get Mac's opinion on this because, right?
The, the industry is a whole lot bigger than, than whatever shows up to an open house at Anson. Uh- All right, good for Southwest Pike 3660. We're still in need of 12 bags. These bags will be checked in for free. Please see us here at the podium. I think it is gonna be a completely full flight, limited in space.
So if you're in boarding route six, seven, or eight, please see us here at the podium. We're in need of 10 bags. 10 bags for free. Cut that out. Nope, we're leaving it in. Anyways, actually, I probably will go through and cut some of those big pauses out. Uh, so Mac, it was your first trip to Anson. Uh, let's start off with, what'd you think of Texas?
What'd you think of Dallas? Dallas-Fort Worth. Texas was awesome. Crazy traffic. Not traffic, but the roads here are insane. They are insane. Yeah. If you're flying down, expect [00:03:00] some crazy Uber rides or some crazy driving because there's 14 lanes just, just on the highway. 14 lanes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's passing over each other.
But it's really nice. Weather was great when I got here. I flew in on Friday. Uh- Yeah, Friday night got nice. Yeah. Yep. 70s the whole time. Not crazy hot. Yeah. Pretty nice. Uh, the whole trip was awesome. Great, great time. Anson was absolutely mind blowing at the store. It's like heaven, you know, that's a grown up candy shop.
Den- Dent guy, heaven. Yeah. So what, so let's talk about the shop. Let's talk about the store. What was your favorite part at the store? I think just all of the walls full of push tools was insane. So I could look at, I could spend 14 hours in there and still not see everything. So it was great to see all the tools and then they had panels, you could test tools out in the back of the shop.
So you- Yep, back in the warehouse. ... you could really get a feel for everything. It's easier to get your hands on tools than, uh, buying them [00:04:00] online sometimes and not knowing what it's gonna really feel like, weight on hammers or, you know, the real length of a door tool or something. Just, you never really know how sharp a pencil tip is, something like that.
But in person, you get to try it all out. It was awesome. Yeah, it's like, it's like MTE, like going to shop for tools at MTE. But better. But with, without the crowd. Yeah. I mean, it was crowded. It was busy because it was open house, but I mean, you still had room to walk around. And it's, it's not like jamming in a booth at MTE.
It's, it's, uh, it's really cool. I talked to quite a few people that, that said that exact same thing. You know, it's great to come to the store to come to it and Lord, I have no idea how many items they have in stock there, but the building's like 14 or 15,000 square feet. Easy. The showroom's easily well over a quarter of that.
Uh, you've got all your glues, your tabs, all these new handles- Whole wall of glue. Yeah. Yeah. All these new handles. Uh, I was surprised, right, because that micro hub or mini hub or compact tub, whatever, whatever they're calling it, uh, has just come out and [00:05:00] they've already got all- So many. They've already got a whole aisle- An entire aisle.
full of tools. And they're all fantastic. Yeah. One at them all. Yep. And they're great. Gotta, he's gotta fix some more dance first. Yeah. Um, with that, right, you had, you had a micro or a mini hub, compact hub tool you were looking for. Mm-hmm. And they had one that was close, but not quite. And, uh, we found Craig and whatever and talked to them and they are sure enough- Yeah.
on their way. The owner, you can just go and talk to the owner of the whole thing that's making all the new tools. Yeah. You know, if it's something you're thinking of, they already thought of it. So- Yeah. You can definitely get some insight there. Very nice. Pretty cool. Um, what did you think about the, uh, tacos, man, the taco truck?
Cool. Yeah. Great food there. Really, really good tacos. And they did a raffle while we were there. Yeah. Free entry for the show raffle. And then- Yeah. Uh, Kevin Haywood- Hillwood. Hailwood County. They did another big raffle. They did a bunch of great tools, raffled off. So that was super nice of everybody to pitch in.
All the [00:06:00] brands that sent in tools and donated tools to be raffled off. Yeah. That's pretty awesome. So like, uh, Willie Quick donated tools- Carbon stick. Carbon tech donated a whole hood stand. Yeah, wholehood stand. Uh, Kiko had the K-power mid-range. And the mini. And, and the micro hail, mini hail, whatever you want to call.
They, they donated that off. Uh, lots of shock blockers. Oh, yeah. Oh, you got a free shock blocker. Yeah, free shocker when we walked in. Just coming in. Fantastic. Um, the, uh, what else did they give away? They did a wood, uh- Oh yeah, the two different woods. The breakdown and the fix. Did dentals wood. Yeah. And, uh- Great tools.
The breakdown rod. Yep. They gave away tickets and hotel stays. Oh yeah. MTE was like the biggest one.That was pretty awesome. Yeah. Sheldon, Sheldon and the crew from ... Sheldon and wheels were there. And the MTE crew, they gave away, I think it was two hotel rooms for three nights. Three nights and two- And entrance to the show.
Two MTE tickets. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's a, that's a pretty awesome, um- It's a great deal. ... recommendation. [00:07:00] Plus, uh, Flex packout system. The whole system Oh yeah, the flex pack outside. Yep. Pretty sweet. Did that have a topper? Okay. It had wheels. Two sets of drawers. Yep. That was a nice setup. Very nice. Uh, right and the, the taco truck was free.
Mm-hmm. Um, it was awesome. Like I really love how Anson throws down Christina and her whole team. They just do a fantastic job and right? Shout out to Anson happy 30th anniversary. 30 years old. Big 30. Did you know that? Did you know that Christina's grandpa started that? Very impressive. And then Craig took it over and then Christina took it over after that.
She's the, she's the boss now. Yeah. Running the show. And she has been for years. Blowing it up. It's really amazing. They're getting ready to break ground, uh, on their expansion. That's going to be nice. Um, which is, which is super killer. Can't believe there's enough tools to even make it bigger, but if anybody has them, it's them.
Did you see the, the shipping contenders out there? Yeah. They're all cool. They're more giant shipping containers of tools. They're all because they've outgrown. Incredible. Uh, when we started coming to [00:08:00] Anson for events at this new location, uh, that whole back area that was all warehouse was wide open. It was actually an event space.
Uh, they had a big screen, big TV on the wall, made to host events, and they just kept growing and growing and growing and growing. Filled it out. And I think that was just over four, the last four or five years. Mm-hmm. Really? Uh, the, the expansion has been unbelievable for sure. Um, what tools did you pick up?
I got two hub tools. I got a double bend and a single bend 24 inch, I think, with the T handle hub tool. I didn't have a T handle. For the, was it standard hub? Yeah, yeah, standard hub. Yeah. They don't have a T handle for the micro yet, but when that comes out, definitely gonna get that too. Yeah. But got those two, uh, the VIP leather tips, blending tips.
Oh, the, what, which colors did you get? Did you get the whole set? No, I got purple and orange. Okay. I think. Both the smaller. I think the 10 and 13 mill. That VIP purple tip- Ah, it's the one I wanted- Is, is, is where it's at. I got it for that. And we were, [00:09:00] uh, a handful of us were talking around the, excuse me, the bonfire last night and, uh, the purple tip.
Everybody loves- Yeah. The VIP leather purple tip. Very necessary. It's the go- to. What else did you pick up? Picked up a couple bags of the wizards dice caps, which is my brand new favorite tip ever. It is, push is fantastic. So, so the wizards dice is actually made to, for the tip that it goes on to spin around and give you a flat push.
Well, he likes the way that 3D material prints or pushes so up. Supersmith. That he's using it on push tools and twist tools and- Oh yeah. I use it in doors all the time. You are burning through tips faster than, than anybody I've seen. And they do last, if not longer than a cherry cap, just as well. Yeah.
Under heat, it's the same. They'll both melt, but- Yeah. Fantastic. For sure. Push is super flat and super sharp if you want it to. Yep. If you can get it to land on a line, it'll push really nice. Nice. Smooth, but really nice. And then some little stuff I gotta roll a test of tape. Great to have with you. Yeah, you gotta have test the tape.
On some sharper tools, you can make them a little bit blunter. Yep. [00:10:00] Uh, I think that's almost it. Yeah. Didn't get too much more. Uh, an, an extension for the micro hub. Oh yeah. Handle, because those handles are a little bit short because they're smaller, but another four inch extension. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited for
I was- Should be nice. ... because they didn't have that. Yeah. And now it's out. So I picked, I picked one of those up too. Uh, I picked up some of the new really quick tips. Uh, our buddy Jean was telling me they were great. I didn't know which one he was talking about, so I bought them all. If it looked like a push tip, I picked them up.
Um, so I'll report back on those. Uh, I got some new tips from Peter at VIP. Uh, they are, they're small and textured and he was talking about the whole process. Oh yeah. Very cool. He had to go through to, to get them made. They sound amazing. I can't wait to push with it and give him feedback and I guess once they're out and fully public, I'll let you guys know what I think of them too.
Uh, oh, I got those new, that new leverage bag from Anson. I don't know if you saw it. Oh, yeah the sandbag. It's like a sandbag with like six sections- Fold it up. Uh, where you can fold it [00:11:00] up, you can lay it over things. Uh, it's- Very nice. Very cool. Like, like I've showed you, using something to get leverage off of and, and block out a hole or take up some gaps so you can get a good tip.
Very tough too. It's made out of the same stuff as the big black place. The yellow shot, or the yellow shot bag too. Or the shot bag. Yep. Yep. But just longer and you can fold it up instead of just one bag. Yep. Very nice. Yep. Super cool. I, I also picked up, so you guys know, I've been really digging that Glexo, Diablo, cold glue, uh, and originally they were going up to, I don't know the millimeter size, but like a quarter.
Uh, they now go up to- 32 millimeters? I think I picked up a 32 mil- I picked up the biggest one so that I can put it on one of my more collision style tabs. Fantastic. So a three pack of the glue, three of those big dots was only like 30 bucks. It's not that old. Like it's- And they last awhile. They really do.
The green does last. They really do. Um, so super excited for that. Uh, if you haven't tried it, the best deal going is, you may not [00:12:00] have seen it because you probably would have maybe buy you one. Uh, the mini slide hammer they came out with, they have the black and gold package. I have seen that. So it's three tips, three cold glue tips, the gold mini slide hammer, which does cold glue or hot glue.
Or screw in and ... And the full pack of, uh, Diablo glue tops for 240 bucks. That's just crazy. Yeah. That's a great deal. Yeah. Yeah, I think the glue's 140. I think the tabs are 40 bucks a piece and then the slide hammer's 14, like ... Ed, you get a free slide hammer with this deal practically. Yeah. Yeah. So- Fantastic deal.
I keep two of those on my carts. So pretty fantastic. I keep one, but probably should have got a second. Yeah. So it's very, very worth it. Yeah. Well, we've got a lot of slide hammers. Maybe we'll hand you down one. Um, so hang out, it's always great to see everybody, uh, you know, at the, at the shows.[00:13:00]
What, uh ... Anything else from the show? From the show- Anybody you saw, anybody you got to meet or anything that you hadn't met yet before? There wasn't many I haven't met, but it was nice because it's a smaller show than MTE or, uh, PDR Expo where it's very intimate with the conversations you can have because there's no, you know, you're not bumping shoulders trying to get through the aisle to the next store or anything.
Yeah. You can just, you know, hang out and talk in the parking lot and get some tacos while you're talking. Yeah. It's fantastic. Talk to a bunch of people. Uh- Yeah. Jack Bucknell, John Biden, uh- Dant Reaper. Yeah. Dent Reaper. Shout out. Yep. Yep. Talk to us. I mean, so many people, Stephan. Yep. Uh, oh, I met, um, Matt with Getter Grip.
I think that was my first time meeting him probably. Yeah, man. Matt Armijo. Armagio as he's done in the Dentonards show, but, uh, yeah, Matt Armijo. Yeah. So you found that was the first time you got to meet him. Yeah, I think my first time meeting him. Nice. We talked. It was nice. Yeah. Yep. He makes [00:14:00] fantastic products, so- His umbrella definitely saves me on a lot every day.
I use it every single day. Literally, literally every day. Yeah, every day. Yeah. Fantastic. I mean, it was great talking to everybody. Christina, Craig, uh, Cade, Vinny, everybody at Anson. The entire Anson crew. Yeah. The entire answer. Hudson, he's basically in there. Yep. Yep. Pretty awesome. We even got to have a, uh, late night, what was that, about midnight or so?
About midnight waffle. We get, we get to have the ... So Hudson, if you listen, shout out, know how much you love Waffle House. So we were out, uh, and coming back kind of late and everybody was hungry and I'm like, "Well, there's a Waffle House." And it was a resounding yes. And we walked in and I'm like, "This, this just doesn't feel right without Hudson."
So I sent him a text and I'm like, "Hey," uh, or actually sent him a selfie from the table and he could see the menu and he's like, "What are you doing?" He's like, "Oh, I'm come on my way. Where is it? Tell me which one." And I'm like, "Are you for real?" And he's like, "Yep, I don't mess around with Waffle House." Left the bar in the middle of a conversation.
No Waffle House. Yep. [00:15:00] So, uh, we got to have a Waffle House, late night dinner, uh, with Hudson, which was always good. We got to have the late night hotdog at QuickTrip last night. Yep. That's always a winner. After the Dyers. Yep. It was great. So, so after the show, right, uh, we got to go back to Craig's house.
Unbelievable. That is a cool place, isn't it? Unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Super great night. Super fun. Great food. Yeah. Very, very nice. Always great foods to it. Some Heim barbecue, which is always, always a winner. Um, got to hang out around the, uh, the fire pit. Yeah. Craig got a new, uh, new grill. On top.
On top of the fire. On the windshield awesome. Super cool. Yeah. Like a graded- Yep. Grilled top for the fire. So that's always nice, you know. Excuse me. Little bit of a smaller crowd. Yeah. Definitely cuts it down a little bit. But you really get to sit down and have conversations and- Everybody knows everybody.
Nobody's, nobody's working. Everybody's just hanging out and having a good time and- Karaoke was done. Made it to the karaoke stage of the night. Yes. [00:16:00] Yeah. We did the ... So Freddy, Freddie Jonker, Yonker, uh, from Netherlands came over. That was his 60th birthday. Uh, we got to, you know, celebrate his birthday with him.
And then he intro- introduced us to the, uh, hail dance around the fire. If somebody would have peeked in from, uh- Yeah. From outside, they would have- Glad they have lots of land there. Yeah. They would have thought we were doing some, uh, crazy cult stuff or something, but ended up dancing around the fire doing the hailing.
That's interesting to say the least. If, if we end up with an amazing hail year across the board- It won't be as crazy if it works. It's going to be, it's going to be Freddy's ... Freddy's doing. So Freddie, we're hoping and Freddy, happy birthday to you. It's your brother. Yeah, happy birthday. Uh, we got to see him right when we were leaving the, uh, leaving the hotel.
This morning. Yep. Um, what would you tell somebody who's, who's in the business, whether they're a veteran or, you know, a newer tech like [00:17:00] you, what do you get out of coming to an event like this? Well, definitely it's good to know that your net worth is based off of your network. So the more you get out there and you network with people and make these connections and make these relationships and then you go to Anson and you make a friendship with one guy and he introduces you to his friends in Vegas.
Right. And then those friends at MTE in a couple months after that- Right. You got more friends and then connections all over the country and, you know, you're going out to, going on vacation in Georgia and you got a guy down there, you meet him for dinner and- Right. Right. Now you got a friend down there.
You got friends all over the country. It's definitely helps build your relationships and your network all across the country. Your name gets out there and it's fantastic. Yeah. You know, it's just great relations with everybody. The tools are fantastic. Yeah. That's great. But of course the relationships are so much more important and it's very nice to do there because it's super intimate.
Yep. And super easy to talk to everybody and you're not in a rush throughout the day. Good couple hours to sit around, hang out, talk to people. Yeah. [00:18:00] Definitely nice to have some connections. It's low key. It's like a, it's a low key event. For sure. Um, guys, I can't recommend that enough to get out to events- Yeah, absolutely.
and network and build your network and ... Where'd you hear the network? Your network is your network. I've probably heard it on some podcasts. Yeah. Well, I'm sure that Liv is gonna pull that clip out- Yeah. ... put it on social media so- Hope so. And, uh, you know, clearly the Texas is rubbing off on them. It dn't take too long.
Two days they got me. Got himself a sweet hat. He's gone to Morgan Wallen in a couple next weekend. Next weekend. Going to Morgan Wallen in India in a couple next weeks, so- Fantastic. Gotta get that hat. Oh, it's coming back. Don't worry. And it'll be in Texas next year. There you go. Yep. Absolutely. You and Jack Bucknell with your hats.
Oh yeah. Yeah. Me and John. Yeah. Oh yeah. John Biden's nice one yeah. He's all Texas up. I did try on a pair of those Fish Skin boots. Did you find some? They're pretty nice. Yeah. Might have to get a pair before the next trip down. Some good going out boots. Well, there you go. I gotta get a nice pair myself.
There it is. I like it. Um, so guys, we're doing, uh, at PDR Expo, [00:19:00] uh, myself, uh, Dave Shalot, Kevin Bird, John Yeager, Brandon Schmidt, Daniel Brom. There's, there's a whole big, uh, group of us. We're doing a little talk on how networking, right? Like maybe we should, maybe we should name it your network as your net worth, uh, something like that.
But anyways, we're gonna have a round table on, I believe, Friday at PDR Expo. Uh, keep an eye out for details for that. I know I sent my video. I know a bunch of us sent our videos in. Uh, so they'll be starting to promote that soon. Uh, I'm going to be doing, uh, they've sort of changed the education, um,
or they're testing out a new education platform at, at the expo of more hands-on. I don't even know if you know this. So then we're gonna have a live car in the room. We're gonna have two hours- For a class. For a class. That is so much better. Uh, they're bringing a camera operator in to shoot and grabbing a couple of people out of the [00:20:00] class and teaching them live in the class.
Oh, that's fantastic. To show everybody, show it off to everybody. Really excited for that change, uh, and education. Absolutely. Uh, so that is gonna be Saturday morning in Vegas. I'm pretty sure last year Vegas was a problem because classes weren't long enough. Yes. And then they go and switch it to this.
That's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. So if you were at any, in any way disappointed last year, they definitely heard you. Yeah. And they made the changes. So that's fantastic. Yeah, they wanted, they wanted more education, they're investing in education. Education's great. And in those classes, the 10 minutes before and the 10 minutes after, you, you're also networking- Yeah.
creating relationships, talking to everybody around you. Just, you know, sit by somebody you don't know, talk to them. Yeah. It'll definitely be worth it. Yeah, absolutely. At all of the shows. Yep. So we've got, right, PDR expo coming up. I think that's the next event. Uh, speaking of which, I think we're gonna be able to get Sheldon on an episode of the podcast, uh, and get it out there and talk about the show and everything like that.
Uh, I also talked to Steve from Cam Auto. Uh, wanted to catch [00:21:00] in yesterday.. And, uh, we couldn't tell. Vivia. Please report back to the Southwest account for a very important idea. All right. Sorry about the interruptions. Again, we're live here. Um, oh, that's what I've got coming up next is the, the Cam Auto event.
Yeah. Two weeks. And two weeks. Two weeks. We're working and rolling on that. Driving up to Montreal to give that a go. Super excited for that. They're win. Uh, I think there are still tickets available up there. Yeah. Uh, as a- Uh, to, to be a spectator. Yeah. Spectator. So I'm doing glue pole only, uh, which I'm super excited for.
Um, PDR Expo's coming up. Uh, I think we talked to Nick from Dent Vision Tools. I think we're gonna snag him for a podcast episode. Oh, nice. So hopefully over the next, you know, couple of months, we're gonna get some good guests, uh, to do virtual interviews. Uh- Really cool. Um, unless somebody wants to sponsor us to fly me out to do live ones, which I'm also totally cool with.
Uh, but anyways, we are getting ready to board the plane, but I [00:22:00] wanted to get this episode put out, uh, for you. Mac, any words of advice? Uh, just, uh, you know, if you have the time, get out to every event possible. And if you hear about it, it is definitely worth it, you know. Everybody might be talking it up, but it lives up to the hype.
Every moment of it was fantastic. Well, I say make the time for it. Yeah. Make the time. Make the time to go. You definitely can. And invest in yourself. Make the time. I've been even, you know, guys like Stephan, like they flew in yesterday morning. Yeah. And they flew back this morning. I flew Fri- I left at lunchtime on Friday.
Yeah. I could've knocked a dealer out in the morning- Right. ... and, you know, get on the plane and it's Sunday. I'll be back in time for work on Monday. Still get to go see Live tonight. Absolutely. All right guys, I will see you on the next episode and again, Anson, happy 30th anniversary. Absolutely. I think that's amazing.
And thank you all for a great, amazing weekend. We, well, maybe I will see you on the next episode. See you guys. One, two, three, [00:23:00] four.
