Upgrade Your Shop With These 4 Cool Auto Repair Tools

Every day, collision repair professionals take damaged cars and trucks and make them look and perform like new again. It’s a pretty neat process and has always involved innovative techniques and equipment.

 Lately, though, the cool factor for auto repair tools has increased dramatically. Advanced technologies and new ideas are becoming mainstream, simplifying tasks that used to give technicians headaches.

 By equipping your facility with the latest innovative equipment, you can boost productivity while retaining and recruiting the best personnel available. After all, the best techs want to use the best tools.

 There are plenty of cool new auto repair tools out there. Here’s a quick sample of a few that should be on your radar:

 Worry-free welding

A fully automated spot welding system takes the pressure off the technician. It automatically detects which electrodes and arms are in use and adjusts current level, weld time and clamp pressure on the fly during welding. This makes it easier to properly repair today’s vehicles that are built with a range of advanced high-strength steels and other materials.

 Bonding made easy

Several new adhesives have been developed for bonding aluminum and steel panels on today’s vehicles. To quickly and easily apply the right amount of adhesive, it helps to have a pneumatic dispensing gun. These guns use air pressure to regulate adhesive flow, enabling the technician to apply long, uniform beads.

 Consistent riveting

Riveting is an ideal solution for joining two different types of metals, and its place in the collision repair process will continue to grow as automakers increasingly mix aluminum with steel in new vehicle construction. What makes a rivet gun cool? We like consistency. Look for a pneumatic-hydraulic design that drives the last rivet of the day as hard and as fast as the first. Battery-operated rivet guns may get the job done, but their power can drain during the course of the repair.

 Color matching with confidence

Sometimes it’s not the technology that makes a tool cool, it’s the simplicity. In the paint booth, new film products are taking the place of traditional spray-out cards. Instead of attempting to color match by holding a rigid card against the vehicle, painters can use these flexible films to see how a color looks over contours. After painting the film and applying it directly to the existing finish, the painter can step back and view the vehicle from a distance or invite others to offer their opinions.

 Innovative auto repair tools like these can help your shop be more efficient and make technicians excited to come to work.

To learn more about some of the new equipment necessary to properly repair today’s vehicles, download our guide to structural design technology.