#80 Quit Buying Knockoff Tools
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Speaker: [00:00:00] One, two
All right. Welcome back to another episode of the All Access podcast from Dent Repair Now. I think, guys, I think this is number 80. We are knocking on 100. It's gonna be here before we know it. I think we're gonna make it before the end of the year. Anyways, back in the studio, still working on the design a little bit, and, uh, I can actually see a couple of screws.
We gotta take care of that. I had these sweet red inserts that went in the, uh, slot wall slats, I guess. Uh, anyways, uh, they were shiny, and the [00:01:00] lights reflected of- off of them like crazy, and it drove me nuts, and it was not very aesthetically pleasing at all. So, you know, what are you gonna do? Anyways, we are back.
Uh, had a great week this week, uh, rock and rolled through some cars, uh, tag-teamed an awesome car with Mac. I'll tell you a little story about that one here in a minute. Um- This episode, I'm gonna try to keep it PG, PG-13, but we'll see. I might have to go back and do some bleeps. Um, I think the topic for this episode is going to be tools, but not just tools, not like, not like a tool of the week episode where the whole show is about tools.
More about knock-off tools and why it is so important to support the people that support us, right? So I think that is the, that is the rabbit hole we're going down. Pretty... No, very [00:02:00] passionate about this. I will try to keep the, uh... I'll try to keep the cuss words to a minimum, and again, maybe go bleep them out, but I can get a little bit fired up about it because I'm passionate.
Anyways, let's, uh, let's take a second and, uh, I sort of screwed myself 'cause I can't get too far away from this mic. Let's talk about the stuff on the background here, um, uh, what it is, uh, what some of it means to me, and, uh, what we're gonna be switching out. Uh, last week, up here... Aha, there we go. Last week up here, we had the Only Dents, uh, or Only Dings shirt, uh, from Stucky Tools.
Uh, we changed that out this week for the Trust Me, I'm a Dent Guy from our buddy Peter over at VIP PDR Tools. We're gonna be swapping out shirts all the time. In fact, I've got so many shirts that I may need to do a row of shirts up here. Um, part of the reason for the background is I wanted to be able to [00:03:00] switch things out and kind of make it my own but, you know, flip-flop around, uh, with some stuff that's cool to talk about and, uh, sometimes maybe things that make sense.
Uh, I love how it looks. I'm super happy with where we're at. Uh, I got the good mic back in the house, so audio should get even better. The lighting is great. We're getting the lighting figured out. Um, anyways, super cool. So let's, let's pop through and talk about what we've got going on back here, right? So VIP PDR Tools, the Trust Me, I'm a Dent Guy shirt.
I love all of Peter's stuff. I really don't think... No, I take that back. The only tool I've ever got from VIP that I'm not, like, madly in love with is he did, uh, an aluminum, a polished aluminum blending tip that was a little too light. I need a little bit more oomph up there. Uh, technically it worked great, and actually I think I may have it on a knockdown now, um, but I didn't love it on the hammer.
[00:04:00] But literally everything else, uh, from the, the slide hammers, the original VIP knockdown to the 2.0s, um- His knockdowns are fantastic. Uh, the carbon fiber window guard, one of my favorite tools. Uh, and lately his... I think they call them his grip tips. I showed you on here. Um, but he has three different ones.
They're cast, and they've got, like, the texture-y grip on them. Oh, I love those things. In fact, that repair that me and Mac tag-teamed on Friday, um, we used one of those tips, the big one, I think it's an eight millimeter, to, uh, really finish out and do a bunch of detail work. Uh, and it was awkward up in the bedside, so, hmm.
Mint. Mint. Then we've got... This is backwards. That's why I keep going the wrong way. Right there, we've got my sweet cup from Matt at Get a Grip. Love that thing, dude. Everybody who comes back here and sees it picks it up and checks it out. And then the UV printer, I think you said. It's all... Like, it [00:05:00] feels like it's on there.
Um, pretty cool stuff. Uh, my mom just recently handed this off to me. This was my dad's badge, uh, when he was a police officer. That was his retirement badge. The plaque's got his in-service dates, and then it's encased in, like, a polycarbonate. I remember he thought it was so cool that they basically put his badge in bulletproof material, uh, and gave it to him as a gift.
Uh, really, really cool to have that and proud of it. And, uh, I miss you, Dad. Uh, then I told you, John, that my Porsche cup would be right there. Uh, snagging a Porsche is on my to-do list for this year. Um, anyways, John knows that. Uh, so I think it was at MTE. I think it might have been at MTE when he brought it over.
He got this from a Porsche dealer, I believe in Germany, certainly in Europe somewhere. So, uh, it's a cup that I don't think we can get in the States, and it's got the Porsche emblem, and it's just a [00:06:00] reminder to work a little bit harder, um, to, to get there. Then over here, we've got my limited edition Robos.
Hmm, we might talk about that later in the episode. A little foreshadowing. Uh, we've got the collaboration Robo. So that has all of the different, uh, materials on. It's got Kiko Ice Blue, the original black Robo. It's got the Dead Center, um, adapter. Uh, it's got Gang Green green, um- Cups, right? To attach to the feet.
The Dent Reaper purple dial, like it's a collaboration lifter between, at the time, all of the companies they were making tabs or tools for. Uh, then front and center, that white one, we've got the 60th anniversary. Um, so those of you who don't know, Kiko, as a plastics company, has been around, well, at this point, now than more than 60 years.
Uh, but they did that limited edition [00:07:00] 60-year Robo. Uh, very cool. Uh, I... Sure they're sold out by now. And then the ice one, let me grab that
And this is the 10th anniversary Robo. Uh, these were a numbered limited run, and Chris White himself gave this one to me when I started coming on. This is number, you can see it, 11 of 75. So they only ever made 75 of these, and I have number 11. Um, I don't use them. I don't, I don't lift with them. I don't have any desire to lift- But I do cherish them, right?
They're just cool little keepsakes. Then up to, up, up up to the top shelf, I've got my 2019 Mentor of the Year, uh, from MTE. Uh, I don't know who all nominated me for that. I had [00:08:00] no idea I was en- even up for it. I was in the, uh, exhibition hall, and I think it was Derek Yost called me and he's like, "Dude, where are you at?"
I'm like, "I'm up at the whatever, up at this booth." And he's like, "Well, get down here, you got an award." I'm like, "What are you talking about, award?" I didn't even know they were doing an awards ceremony at the time. And, uh, sure enough, got that. Super, super humbled to have that. And then I've got my Dent Reaper bobblehead right there.
The Dent Reaper bobblehead. Uh, just picked that up at Anson at the open house. Thank you, John. My cool little Jamaican love dude. Uh, I'm sure they're not hand-carved, but they say they're hand-carved. Um, I had to get this one because the dude was, like, selling me hard on them. And, uh, he's like, "No, I got one for your wife.
I got one for your wife. I like the beard. The beard is great. That means a lot in Jamaica." Just a sales pitch. But he got me and, uh, anyways, he hand-carved one that said "Boss Lady." [00:09:00] Um, so I had to get the husband and wife pair. I couldn't pass it up. Melissa has the Boss Lady, I got the regular one. Um, just a cool little keepsake.
That's one that'll get swapped out. Uh, and then I have my, uh, plaque from PDR Nation. It was sort of a thank you, um, from the PDR Nation board, the founders. Uh, that was an organization that really held, holds... I guess held because it's been dissolved. Held a near and dear place in my heart. Um, pivotal in my PDR journey.
Uh, kind of sad that, that it didn't make it, it didn't last. But, you know, it is what it is. Uh, then we've got some hats. The hats are definitely gonna get switched out because I think the only thing I have more of than hats is shirts. So I've got a lot of hats. We'll swap those out. So we got some Dent Life.
We got a, I think just a Makita. Yeah, Dent Life, Makita, Dent Craft Tools, and then Dent [00:10:00] Specialist Inc., and the Highland Auto Wash. That's for Dan Neltner from two episodes ago. Dent Specialist is his dent company. Highland Auto Wash is his car wash company. Um, but Dan doesn't say wash, Dan says warsh. I really think he missed a branding opportunity With not calling it the warsh.
Anyways, neither here nor there. So there is a little bit of, uh, background on my background as it were. Um, yeah, they're cool. Uh, I'm looking forward to swapping it out and sorta having fun back there, and I may need to actually extend it. So we're sort of in the middle of a wall. I've got like four feet on this side and maybe another three feet on this side, so I might have to make it a little larger and get a little bit more space.
Uh, we will see as time goes. Um, do you guys have any [00:11:00] solutions for the inserts to hide those screws? 'Cause I don't really have like a wood-colored Sharpie, and if I swap the screws out for black screws, those would look weird too. Anyways, we're thinking about doing like a velvet ribbon maybe in there to get the red and black for Dent Repair Now.
We'll see. All right. Now, uh, if you don't like when I drink on camera, cover your ears
Sorry. Get a little bit of dry throat when I'm rambling and flapping my gums over here. But I've had a few people say something about like, "Man, I can't stand when you drink. I can hear you swallowing and it drives me nuts." You know who you are, and I love you
I wanna talk about tools and innovation and knockoff cheap Chinese tools, Temu tools
I [00:12:00] get it. I really get it that good quality PDR tools can be, I don't even wanna say expensive, but like pricey
And these knockoff tools Are decent from what I've seen. I refuse to buy any. I won't even buy one to, like, show it next to the real tools because I don't wanna give them any credit. I don't wanna give them any fuel. I don't wanna give them any- anything. Even if it's as good as What they say it is, or as good as the, um Real version?
Man, I just can't get it. Uh, give me one second here. All right, sorry about that. I got the phone on do not disturb, but Melissa and the kids can punch through do not disturb with my settings, [00:13:00] and Mac was ringing through. Wanted to make sure he was cool. Uh, he was just offering to come in and help. Uh, I'm actually wrapping my toolbox.
I've got two different color toolboxes. It's kinda driving me nuts, and I'm doing a full, uh, red and black, white, gray digital camo wrap on 'em. Anyways, good kid. He was stopping or calling to see if I wanted him to come and help. Anyways, back to tools, back to the meat of the episode. H- And I keep hearing it, uh, in fact, like, I can't even advise you if you can't afford the tools to, like, go buy the knockoff tools.
I was just messaging somebody right before the episode who is, um, like, needs to buy tool- wants to buy some tools and just doesn't have the budget to buy the right tools. I, I can't even recommend that he buy the cheap tools I was out with some friends a few weeks ago, and they were talking [00:14:00] about how good the knockoff stuff is.
And they're online all the time. I see, "Man, I'm buying my tabs from Temu. I'm buying this from Temu."
Here's what really matters. Now, I've been doing dance a long time. Not the oldest or not the longest by any stretch, right? Like, some of these guys go back into the, the late '80s. Like, I think Don Cavanaugh might have been '88, '89. I think, you know, Dave Shallot was way back, late '80s, early '90s. Like, there's guys who have been around a long time
My buddy Charlie, who got me into the business, first guy in Pittsburgh, his old tools were torsion springs out of the trunks of cars. And, you know, I've seen tools made out of leaf springs off of Jeeps and screwdrivers that are heat and bent, like borderline caveman stuff. [00:15:00] Now it worked, it got the job done, and certainly at this point, like I could grab this mic stand, right?
And if I can get to the back of the dent, if I can push, right, I could push the dent out because I've got the skills When I started, there were some m- more manufactured tools, right? By the early 2000s, 10, 12, 13 years into, 14 years into the PDR becoming a real industry But they were all sort of like the same, right?
I had the... I think you had like open loop handles and closed loop handles, and that was about it. Uh, hard on your hands. Um, good tools. You know, I'm not knocking the tools. In fact, I think my first Inventure set of tools that I got when I went to Paintball, um, were great tools. Like stainless, strong. Uh, in fact, Mac used one of my old double bends this week to do a fender on an old Explorer.
Um, I actually love that tool. I need to hang that up [00:16:00] here. I've used it so much that it used to be like a rounded head. Uh, it was like, I called it a butter knife, and I've pushed so much that the one edge actually has a flat spot where I like to push. Um, that should hang up here for sure. All right. Noted.
I'm gonna put it up there. I might make that one permanent. Anyways, the tools were there. A- and I even, you know, when I was starting, I went to Harbor Freight, which was in Ohio at the time, and then I went to a place called Metal Supermarkets, and I bought metal, and I was trying to bend my own tools, and I had my measurements down for my open loop handles.
So I can understand looking for, wanting to find less expensive ways to get tools. What I, what I can't get behind is these knockoff tool companies are taking all of the R&D that, that the... And, and really this is a US-based conversation, I suppose, right? [00:17:00] But they are taking the US-based tool companies that are not big mega corporations, right?
These are all family-owned companies that make these tools, and then they're going back to their factories, one can only assume in China, and they're just simply knocking them off. There's no R&D, there's no testing, there's nothing like that. In fact, I know Carl Stuckey had his, uh, it's like the hand guard, if we put it on the tire, and then you can put the tool, uh, on top of that and push off of that so you're not breaking your hand.
The knockoff didn't even take his logo out of the print or out of the, the mold, right? They literally exactly copied his exact mold and just started making them, and instead of, you know, 30 or 40 or 50 bucks, whatever it was, you know, they're $4.99 or $10.99 on Temu, and people are like, "Well, it looks the same to me."[00:18:00]
The R&D that goes into good tools is kinda crazy. Like, I've been fortunate to be in a position in the industry, and I guess I've created that position, where for quite a few years, maybe like 10, 12 years, for whatever reason, I, I think because I give good, honest feedback and I use the tools, I have been
trusted enough to have people send me out prototypes of tools that they're, they're building or they're taking to market to let me put the paces through and find out what I like, what I don't like, where are the weak points, what break, what's the problem. And this is, again, 10 or, 10 or 12 years I, I've been getting this opportunity, and there are a lot of failures in getting [00:19:00] to the product that comes to market, right?
I can remember, uh, working on a hammer with, with a friend. I think I had six different near production hammers before he finally got dialed in on what the final product would be That is somebody taking and assembling and building and working through. And I wasn't the only tester. It's not like I'm some special, um, tool tester machine, but how many of those are they sending out?
And then they're going back and all of these hours that they are spending and putting into production, and then if it's plastic, right, they're, they're getting molds made, they're altering molds. What, what you need to understand is It takes a lot of money and determination and Like trust that you're gonna make some money back [00:20:00] to put all of the effort into this.
Even when I worked with Kika, right, which is a much larger company than a one-person show bringing one tool to market, there were a lot of tabs and designs that we talked about that I got to see that never made it to production because we tested and it didn't work. Or it, it worked and then just didn't sell the way it was supposed to sell, and you've got all this investment into it in order to make things right.
Or right if we look at, um, it was Dent Reaper's hex tabs when they first came out, the new design pulled so good that the shaft size was too small and there were a bunch of broken tabs, right, that everybody was in an uproar about, and then they had to go back and they fixed the molds or changed the molds and made it into a more durable tab.
I can't remember the last time I broke a hex tab. Um, all of this takes time, money, effort, employees, equipment, investments, [00:21:00] and these knock-off companies just don't have any dog in the fight to just come in and knock things off
If we stifle or, or if we s- if we support or don't support the tool companies and we support these cheap knock-offs, we're going to do nothing but hurt ourselves. PDR is a small industry, right? So I don't know the numbers. I, I don't have the-- I don't have access to the, the data that some of these tool companies have.
But let's think about this logically as to what the trade looks like here in the United States. My gut says that there might be
15,000-ish [00:22:00] techs maybe in the US. To get to that number, right, if I take 15,000, which I think might be high, and I divide that by 50, 50 states in America, that is 300 technicians per state in every state, including like little old Delaware or giant uninhabited Alaska or the islands in Hawaii I just don't know that there are 300 people pushing in the, in the States Another way to look at that is, right, I do know the statist- some of the statistics on body shop, and there are about 30,000 body shops in the United States.
Think of how many body [00:23:00] shops a PDR tech supports, right? Like we probably have 10 or 12 that we see regularly here, and we've got three guys. Not two, three. We've got three guys, and we're supporting that many. Even right when you throw into the mix, uh, the seasonal workers, the hail, hail guys, hail techs, sorry ladies, the hail techs that are only working, you know, part of the year and only as needed in catastrophes, it's just not a big industry, right?
And then if we talk about-- If we start talking about tools and you've got your sort of everybody PDR tools and then your smash or bigger tools, well, none of your hail techs generally are gonna buy your smash tools, right? Because they're not doing smash, they're doing hail, and it doesn't make sense to invest $10,000 into, uh, an [00:24:00] amazing elite glue pulling system with pull towers and everything like that if you're not gonna do that stuff, right?
For glue pulling rails, I probably don't need a tower or a K-beam or a elite lifter from Cam Auto. So, so I say these numbers to Dial down what it looks like to sell a tool I've heard, and again, I don't have the data from the tool companies, but on like your run-of-the-mill tools, I've heard that if you sell 1,000 of something, you kinda hit a home run.
1,000 is not very many at all. Like comparatively with tools, like how many... Let's see if Siri knows this. How many Home Depots are in the United States?[00:25:00]
So to put, to put that in perspective, Home Depot has over 2,000 stores, and a home run tool in the, the PDR space is 1,000 pieces. If you were a tool company manufacturing, like you're selling to 1,000 people, maybe it's 2,000 people. Even if you were selling 2,000 of a tool, which I think is a lot You still wouldn't be able to put one piece in each Home Depot, right?
Compared to, right, the Milwaukee tools I use, right? The batteries, dude, they got 1,000 batteries at every one of those. Our industry, as amazing as it is, as special as it, as it is, providing the life that it give, uh, gives us, providing the income that it allows us to make, you know, as [00:26:00] a, as a... So I'm doing that beginner's podcast, um, but-- and I went and saw Mike Seawall.
You know that, right? We got, like, five episodes recorded last week, so it's coming. It'll be dropping soon. But anyways, Mike collected a whole-- has a whole collection of, uh, sayings, of, of sayings that he's picked up off of people over the years, and the one that, that stuck with me that I really liked is, "What other job can you do that can let you make lawyer, doctor, or bank robber money?"
Right? Not much. Like PDR is pretty special. It's pretty amazing what it affords us. There are only a handful of tool companies in the, in the, in the world really, but in the United States, that are continuing to innovate to make our jobs better. If we don't support the [00:27:00] companies that make the better tools for us, they will simply stop innovating.
Because what's the reward if you're not going to be able to recoup your investment into a tool? Why do it, right? That's just-- If you're fixing dents and some cheap knockoff dude comes in and he's doing whole cars for 20 bucks and he steals all of your accounts, why would you do it? You're just gonna stop, because why would you work so cheap that you can't make your money, right?
It doesn't make any sense. It's the same idea with these tools. So let's talk about some of the innovations, like, since I've been in, right? 'Cause I've been around a little while
I suffered, call it like early 2000s. Mac was a baby, so that was '06. '06, '07, I thought I was gonna have to give up my PDR career because I had such bad, uh, it was called golfer's elbow. It was [00:28:00] on the inside here, right? Tennis is on the outside, I believe, and golfer's is on the inside. And when I was going for therapy and, uh, treatments, they were like, "What do you do for a living?
What, you know, what's causing this?" And I had all these simple tools, right? Fixed handles, no nothing. And you're grinding and you're twisting and you're, like, just blowing yourself out all day Right around that time is when A1 started introducing the ratcheting handles. Now, they were not good. Certainly by today's standards, they were terrible.
However, at the time, that innovation of adding a ratcheting handle to a- what would- has always been a fixed handle tool allowed me to keep working and strengthen myself and not continue to wear out my arms. That evolved, right? Then the ta- the Gorilla Tactical handle or whatever they call it, like [00:29:00] that came out, and that gave you more leverage, same adjustability, but now you got more leverage.
And now Anson has the end game, right? That you can adjust your angle without even taking off. All innovations, all simple innovations that make doing twist repairs easier, right? As these doors on vehicle-- the vehicle builds have changed, right? Same thing, because now we have a longer handle with more leverage, we can go with a longer kick.
Once these doors get broader and broader and these body lines come out further and further, instead of having to be over your head and pushing, right, extended like this and blowing your shoulder out, now we've got good long kick tools with long leverage, and it's like nothing to move those out, right? In fact, instead of wearing your arm out, right, we can use our body and make pushes.
Glue pulling? Dude, are you kidding me? That went from like an absolute [00:30:00] last resort. The last thing anybody wanted to do was grab a freaking glue tab. Now it has gotten so good because of companies like Keco and Anson and Cam Auto, right? Where now, instead of glue pull being the last resort, maybe it's a first resort.
Maybe it's a faster, easier, better way to fix. Hell, I think it's the best way to learn PDR is to glue pull first. And inside of that, right, glue pulling got better, and then Sergio came out with, uh, Cola Fria, right? And cold glues came out. So good to the point now where like I'm able to do lots of lighter rails and lighter damage without any hot glue or push tools.
All innovations in our space because These little independent tool companies have invested in us and made the, the [00:31:00] investment, taken the time to make it happen, to make our jobs easier and safer. Why would you not want easier and safer over harder to do and harder on your body? Like, it just doesn't make any sense to me.
And let's talk about some of these companies, right? Again, these are not corporate monster giants, right? Chris White owns Keco in Oklahoma City. You can go tour the factory. You can go to the lodge and meet the people that work there, right? Uh, Danny and Desiree, um, Benjamin, Scott, Hayden, Cale, Emma. Like, you can go see these people and see where they go to work every single day, working on and supporting and making glue pull better, right?
Anson, right? Third generation. Um, Christina's grandfather started it in [00:32:00] '96, and then Craig took it over, and now Christina's running it, and they are a family business, right? They put on these events. They literally invite people back to their home to celebrate the industry, to back it up. They are at the trade shows showing off their tools, bringing their wares in, helping people design tools and bring tools to market.
Um, the Stockies, right? Carl and Alma in Hilton Head designing lights. I think Carl had the first cordless LED, I think is his patent, right? And then into his lights and his more innovative tools and his cool shirts from last week. Well, Peter right there started with a knockdown. He-- I remember working at a storm in, uh, '18, and he was talking about the little, uh, rubber O-rings that go in the tools and how, like, him and his daughters are sitting at the table putting the O-rings on the tips [00:33:00] to send them out.
Uh, Bonnie at Finesse PDR Tools, right, took it over when her dad passed away. She stepped up, changed her whole career path, and jumped right in to keep that alive. DentCraft, right out of OKC. Sid started that Lord knows how many years ago. His-- Sonia, uh, continues to run it today. An amazing team there. These are all people that back and support the, the companies that are here, right?
Charles with Cam Auto up in Canada. He's got, uh, a whole crew, uh, supports everything, builds his stuff there, uh, employs a ton of people. Ultra, I don't know Steve that well, but like even moved from California to Texas to keep things going, always has made great tools. And then forget about the little one-offs, right?
Like Hudson with Dent Jents and making his tornado tabs and his wedge. Like these are [00:34:00] tools that are made by small family businesses. John Vidin with Dent Reaper and everything he has put together and designed and built to make our life better, right? To make glue pulling better, to make glue pulls stronger, better, cool tool designs that make better, faster, cleaner repairs.
Um, Excalibur Tools, right? Rick Hummer with- coming in with those curved tools to make hood, uh, and top panel repairs even better. The list can go on and on and on for days. Keith with Black Plague, right? He changed how we went after glue pulling, right? He didn't have the first smooth tab, but he added smooth tabs and brought it to market and showed us why it worked and changed the overall design of glue tabs forever, right?
Shane Jacks with the old Jackhammer blending hammer or his edge tool that allowed us to push through edges that, that [00:35:00] has now evolved into a bunch of different designs. Um, Keith's tension straps, the little adapters for, for Porta Powers. These people that are taking their little idea and designing tools and investing in it and making it happen and bring it to us to make PDR better wholeheartedly deserve 150% of our support Again, guys, I'm really passionate.
I'm trying to, like, not get too fired up and start cussing and yelling and being all crazy. I just-- I, I cannot stress enough how important it is to support the tool companies that support us, right? Come out to the PDR Expo in Vegas, right? September 25th and 26th at the Rio, uh, where I'm speaking Friday and Saturday.
Friday on a round table, Saturday on cold [00:36:00] glue. Had to throw that little bit of a spin in there. The investment that these companies make to come to shows like that or to come to MTE is a lot of money. Come out and support 'em. Buy 'em. Quit buying this cheap knockoff BS. I can't stand, I can't stand it. I hate that I, like, walk into a body shop to do a training, or I hate that, um, you know, uh, I- I'm talking to some other PDR techs, and they're like, "Hey, look at this cheap gun, this cheap cordless glue gun I got off Amazon."
Like, buy the gun that supports the people that came up with it and that works better, right? And it's tough. Just freaking do it. Like, is this, is this, like, a hobby? If it's a hobby, buy some cheap knockoff shit. If this is your career that you're building your life on, supporting your family with, working on building the next generation with, buy the right stuff to make it [00:37:00] happen.
And please, for the love of God, support these companies so they can continue to make our jobs and lives easier and better All right, end of rant. I'm just passionate about it. Like, I can really get into some heated discussions about it. Um, just freaking do it. Just support these tool companies that are out there.
Without them, we go back to bad arms and bad shoulders, and this shit's hard enough to do without it, right? So get after it. And listen, I could probably make a list and go through a dozen more small tool companies. I'm sorry if I missed you. You get my sentiment, right? That's what it's all about. So let's talk about this, uh, repair that me and Mac tagged team on this, this week.
So I had this dude come in, '24 Denali, and, uh, he was at his bank and not paying attention, pulled out and caught one of the yellow, uh, [00:38:00] blocker bars, blocker beams, you know, the big steel or concrete beams, so you don't wreck into the MAC machine or whatever. And he rubbed the wheel well behind the wheel to the back bumper in.
You know, buckled it big. You can, you can picture the big smash. I, I, I should have got some befores, um, but I was on kind of a time crunch 'cause the dude was pressuring me to work faster. So he comes in for an estimate because it was too bad. We couldn't see enough to, uh, give him an estimate, you know, via pictures or anything, and you could see that it had been worked on.
So he comes in for his estimate. I look at it and I'm like, "Dude, what, what happened here?" Like, I could tell it wasn't DIY, uh, because it was too good and I saw some long remnant glue pull marks. Like, you're not gonna get cheap, shitty knockoff tabs that'll pull like that if you're DIY. And he's like, "Well, here's what happened.
My friends own a car [00:39:00] lot. I did this. I've had PDR done before. They had a guy, went down, and two hours later, this is what he brought me out." And he's like, "Hey, man, I think you need a body shop." And the customer was upset. He's like, "You made this look worse than what I had before. Like, this looks terrible.
It's all chopped up." And, like, it was bad. So I went out and, and I just can't let it go, right? I just- I've talked about sales. I don't know if I've gotten into here, but one of my favorite sayings is from Zig Ziglar when it comes to sales and, and everything like that is if you truly believe in your, if you truly believe in your product or service, it is your moral obligation to sell it So when I see horrible repairs like this that are savable, I am, dadgum it, I am morally bound by my own [00:40:00] rules that I need...
I must fix this bedside. I must restore this guy's faith in PDR, right? I go to bat every day with all of you people on my shoulders because I don't wanna let the industry down, right? So when I see this damage that some yahoo did a horrible job on that I know I can save, have to save it. I must save it. I can't stop.
It's like a sickness. So I had to sell him pretty hard to get him to come in, and he's like, "Man, this..." And he was a little burned. I get it. He's like, "Ah, if you think you can get it, if you think you can get it." So he goes in and he talks to Shannon and walks through the shop, sort of looks at everything, and he's walking back out, and he's like, "Man, I, I wasn't real sure."
He's like, "But you really got a nice operation here. I mean, your shop is beautiful. Everything looks good. You guys are super professional. I'm gonna give it a go." I'm like, "All right. When?" So he schedules it, schedules it, dropped off Thursday, uh, end of the [00:41:00] day for a Friday repair. So I happened to be working the front desk when he came in, and he's like, you can tell it's been chewing on his mind for, I think he was here a month ago before we could get him in.
And he's like, "Listen, dude, if you, if you don't think you can do this, just, just don't do it." He's like, "I'm, I'm so picky about my truck. I'm sick over this. If you can't do it, just don't do it." And I'm like, "Bro, I got this. Like I told you I could do it, I'm gonna do it," is what I said. And now in my head I'm like, "Son of a...
This dude is gonna be freaking brutal. Like, can I do it?" Start questioning myself. So you would think after 24 years, I would pull these cars in and look at them inside under a light and clean instead of like being in a rush and looking at it outside in the parking lot. I pull it in and I put a light on it.
I pull the taillight out. I'm like, "All right, I've got access." And I start pushing it and I'm like, "Man, this thing's like... That dude has this thing locked up." Like, "Son of a bitch. [00:42:00] What did I get myself into?" I'm like pushing it. I'm like, "Ah, man." Well, we were back here Thursday night to record the beginner's podcast, the PDR Life, right?
I'm p-pointing at the cameras that's all set up here. Um, same background. Anyways, and Matt comes in and he's like, "Hey, that bedside doesn't look too bad." And I'm like, "Oh, dude, I don't know. I may have undersold it. This dude's being super picky," blah, blah, blah. And he's like, "Well, I'm here tomorrow." He's like, "We'll just, we'll just tag team it.
We'll jump on it ourselves and get after it." I'm like, "All right, bud, let's do it." So I come in in the morning, I had another job I had to knock out. I played around with that a little bit. We started on it, and then had a waiter, and then did the waiter, and then Mac came in while I was doing the waiter, and he's like, "What do you want me to start glue pulling?
What do you want me to do?" And I'm like, "Hey, we gotta get this edge up. Let's take this apart." And dude, we start tag teaming this thing. Start working through it like piece by piece. This, this other technician had this freaking repair so locked up [00:43:00] and so chewed up. Hmm. Side note, pause, rant is back. If you can't do the job, if you know the job is outside of your skill set and it's important, don't do it.
Be man enough to refer it to a real PDR tech that can do the repair instead of screwing it all up and making yourself look like an asshole. End of rant. Sorry. Mother trucker. That gets me more angry than knockoff tools almost. In fact, I bet he used knockoff tools to screw up the bedside 'cause he's not good enough to buy the good shit to do good work
Ooh, sa. See? I told you this episode could get a little spicy. It got me spicy. All right, I'm good now. Anyways, so Mac starts diving in [00:44:00] on this and doing some glue pulls and bringing the edge up, and I start working and sort of go back to thinking like, uh, when I was at Advanced Skills last year, and Jay Ma, um, Superior PDR, if you're not following him on social, go follow him.
Anyways, pretty big organization, I believe is in Taiwan. Um, they work all of their repairs as a team, right? It's like a team repair, so nobody is dying on a panel. Nobody's getting ground out. So, right, Mac was here. I got my other stuff done, and I'm like, "Dude, let's-- we're gonna tag-team this repair," and he's all in, and it's a good way for him to learn how to work on smash work and clean things up.
So he starts working on the edge. I get my waiter done. I come over, and he's like, "Dad, this is really starting to clean up." And I'm like, "Oh, man, it is starting to clean up." And then I grab my better bar 'cause, like, the bottom half on those new Silverado Sierras is tough to get to. I'm like, "Man, we're, we'll reverse fulcrum."
So I grab my better bar from [00:45:00] Jared and, uh, get in and start doing some reverse work, and, like, this thing just starts cleaning up and cleaning up and cleaning up. And we're just... I work till I'm sorta, like, getting a little sore, and then he jumps in and works till he's a little sore, and then I work a little bit more back and forth.
Before you know it The customer's back and waiting because we went from having all day to having until 2:00, to having all day, to not having all day. So it was like a, like a ping pong battle back and forth, um, with, uh, when the customer's coming. So anyways, he shows up and, uh, I'm like, "Man, we need like 15 more minutes before I wanna bring you back and show this.
Like, just a little bit of touch this up here, touch this up here. Put, like, the fender flare back on so it doesn't look so scary when somebody comes to look at their vehicle." And, uh, dude, he comes back... Uh, pause. Rewind. Before he comes back. Cliffhanger. [00:46:00] So when I was on a break, uh, I was on Facebook, just killing a little bit of time, and Hayden from Keco put on his, you know, weekly wins post.
And as I was sitting there watching Mac work on this truck and, like, really kicking ass, really doing hard work, right? It's hard to clean up somebody's mess. He's cleaning up mess. He's doing amazing work. It's making it looking really clean. It's fixing super nice. I'm like, man, my weekly win is watching Mac take PDR by the horns and get after it.
Like, man, I just could not be more proud. That was my weekly win and, and it happened on that truck, and I'm proud of him all the time anyways. But it really, really made... It really made me proud to tag team this repair, especially, back to the story, when I go out and I get the dude and I'm like, "Hey, Nate, come on back.
Let's take a look at your truck." And, uh, I knew, I knew he was gonna eyeball this thing, right? I'm not [00:47:00] gonna get up and run over to the camera, but you know, like this. Like, he understands how to look at a panel. He's not just like, "Oh, that looks great. I can't even see where the dent was. Was it over here or here?"
Like, he knew every wiggle in that truck. I'm sure he's been staring at it and driving him nuts. We've got it up on our quick jacks. Dude, he's laying... Like, he's down on the ground looking up at reflections, looking this way, back and forth, here, stepping back, and he's like "Wow." Like, "You blew me away. I didn't even think this was possible to look this good.
I can't believe that you guys did this." And then, and then, and then what really made my day, like he's blown away. Uh, I'm like, "You can go hang out back up front. You know, give me like, give us like 15 minutes to get this all put back together and polished, and I wanna make sure it's, it's perfect for you."
He opens the door, and he doesn't know that I can... Like, he's not, he's t- literally talking to Shannon, and he's like, "They're amazing." [00:48:00] Like, that was like... And then the door slammed shut Well, he then left us an amazing, long, descriptive five-star review with pictures. Like, man, what a win. And, and I got to do the repair with Mac, like equal 50/50 parts of the repair, working through it.
He got to see, one, how hard it was to go in and clean somebody else's mess up. Two, he was standing next to me when the dude came back. Like, Mac was like, "Man, that dude was pumped. He can't believe how good it looks. That's amazing." Like, we were damn near high-fiving in the shop. Oh, it was freaking awesome.
Like, that was a really great finish to the week. Uh, and just a proud, a proud dad moment, honestly. So anyways, there we go. We'll leave it on a high note there. So now that we've been talking about tools all [00:49:00] week, it's time.
For the tool of the week. This week is the Robo Lifter. Hint, hint, right? I hinted at that earlier. But I'm gonna call this, like, my pimped-out Robo Lifter. Get that nice and close for you. So it's a Robo... I, I think this may even still be my first plastic Robo, uh, that I bought. I have somewhere my original...
And I picked it up on- used on Facebook somewhere. I have my original all-metal body, uh, that's a little top-heavy, that'll want to tip. But I think this could very well be my first, uh, plastic Robo. Like, my handle's all beat up from riding on my cart. Anyways, this is my favorite lifter by far. Uh, but this is my pimped-out version that is on my cart all the time.
First pimp move are these, I believe Keith calls them [00:50:00] the Robo legs from Black Plague. These replace, not the foot, just the leg, replace your Keco fixed inserts. So these allow you to get extension. All right, see if we can get that there. In and out, um, to get a good offset. In fact, we were using this on the truck I was just telling you about, 'cause it was a GMC, so it has the, the molding instead of the bedside that goes straight to the edge.
It has the molding at the edge. So we were using it like this. Now we get it set up, right, like this. So we had one leg long and one leg short to get into that offset of the bed and out onto the regular part of the bed, and pull the edge where the other idiot dent guy didn't move up[00:51:00]
He doesn't know any better. Maybe he should come to a class when I do a glue pulling class. Maybe he should pay me to learn how to do it right. Anyways, uh, these things are great for there, right? For, for making those adjustments. Um, also, uh, and we will be talking about them, it'll be a tool of the week one of these weeks, Keith's super straight tabs use a different adapter, right?
And they're a little different design. These help you to get a better grab with those. And then this orange adapter in the middle is from our old buddy Jonathan, right? It's JVF Tools It was always sort of a little bit of a pet peeve of mine, um, that the edge of the adapter is just a little sharp. I mean, it's, it's n- it's nuanced.
It's like, I don't like this design of tail light, I like that design of tail light. I like when they put the LED accent here, not here. You know, it's nitpicky, [00:52:00] but it's one of those things that's nitpicky. Like I'm allowed to be nitpicky. Jonathan makes this adapter for the Robo. Uh, it's slightly larger, so it's a little better, little bit easier to get on the tabs, and I believe they said it's tumbled.
Uh, so all of your sharp edges are not sharp. They're all rounded over and nice. I'm certain that that costs more money because it's another step. Um, but it works well, right? So that thing, that adapter is great. I love it. Um, it's a pass-through. I always use the pass-through because I can get on the crease tabs, I can get on centipede tabs.
Uh, we can just make it happen. Uh, so that's my pimped-out Robo, right? Robo by Keco. Amazing. All the rotation, strong, can hold tension. Fantastic. If you're gonna pimp your Robo out though, you gotta get everything. So make sure you get yourself a [00:53:00] set of crease feet to go with your pimped-out Robo, right?
Crease feet, same body, same tool, multiple uses. And I always love showing this because nobody ever notices. The crease feet are offset. Let me just grab you one. The crease feet are offset, so you see how that's not in the middle? I gotta work on... I need another camera person. See how that's not in the middle?
If you are using a skinny tab, like seven millimeters, face this end of the tab, and that makes almost a zero point, uh, of contact. If you need to go wider, flip it around and attach this side and make this your inside. Gives you a little bit more space, so you can like walk up a centipede. And then an underrated add-on that I think everybody should own is the precision plate right there, right?
This weird, goofy horseshoe-looking thing. [00:54:00] That pins down all the metal and combined with like a dead center tab allows you to pull ridiculously sharp. Uh, in fact, that plate, oh, I think I was in Connecticut. I was doing a presentation for the Auto Body Association and selling kits and everything like that, and this one dude, I think his name was Bob, almost positive it was Bob I made a mistake when I was knocking dents in.
I didn't look for glue, and I put-- I hit this, and I hit right on a hard piece of glue, and dude, it put a nasty, sharp, like, pit in. And I'm like, "You idiot," right? Like, head smack. Well, I'm live demoing. I can't just be like, "Oh, let's-- I don't wanna fix that, that there. That's too hard." I'm like, "Well, let's show you how good this system is."
And I took my robo, and I popped off the kidney feet, and I put on the precision plate and got my dead center tab, and I went in and, and Bob was [00:55:00] like, "There's no way you can even fix that dent." He goes, "I'll tell you what, if you can fix that dent, I'll just buy a whole system. I'm thinking about it anyways, but that'll definitely sell me on it."
Wouldn't you know? I placed that tab perfect, followed my 6C process, sent it 'cause you gotta rip those things up, rip, flip that sharp little dent inside out, tapped it down to flat, and Bob bought a system that night, right? Like, this precision plate is way, way underutilized, and it's not very expensive, right?
To add onto your robo. Even the robo's not expen- Like, I mean, I guess it's a little, gets a little pricey when you trick it all out, but all of this is amazing stuff, right? But, like, a base robo under 150 bucks, add the feet, like, it will pay for itself in no time. And there's, there's great example, right?
Like, these tool companies are trying to make our life better, right? [00:56:00] So Keith coming up with the robo legs for the robo, right? Jonathan improving this. But really Keco coming into the mix and instead of fixed feet, one hand everywhere, ball and socket feet to contour to different areas of the, the car. Now, instead of having to reach my hand here, I can go like this and pull comfortably.
Serves my point perfectly. You want better good tools, support the tool companies that support us. It's just a mutual friendship, right? It's a little, little like circle of life. Dents are hard, hard to do with tools. We need better tools. They make better tools. We can fix harder dents, so we can make more money without wearing ourselves out.
That was a good episode. I thought this was gonna be short, and, uh, it's almost an hour, and I'm mobile in the morning, so I gotta go pack up some tools and go grab my mom for Sunday dinner. Thank you so much for listening. Uh, [00:57:00] tried to keep it low-key on the meat of it, not get too spicy, and then I got a little spicy at the end.
Sorry about that, but it's how I feel. It's me. It's what I do. Don't forget that, uh, PDR Expo is coming up at the Rio, September 25th and 26th. Speakers, get your room, get out there, support the tool companies that are going out to help us get better. Guys, thanks so much. I-- Dude, I'm so close. I'm like... I looked.
We need less than 50 people to break 5,000 on Facebook followers. Go follow us if you're not. Please check out the information. Check out the short-form videos we've been doing lately. All right. That is it. End of show. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you all on the next [00:58:00] episode.
