#33 All Access Podcast Live From Anson Open House 2025
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[00:00:00] Hey, what's up everybody? It's Jean Petty back at you with another episode of the All Access Podcast from the Automotive Appearance Institute. And we are recording live today from the 2025 Anson Open House at Anson in Burleson, Texas. The turnout has been great. Christina ordered some amazing weather for today.
Yes. Um, so we're gonna walk around, we're gonna do a handful of interviews. But I figured who better to start with than Christina Seconder. Thanks Jean. Miss Anson herself. So first, thanks for putting this on for everybody. Thanks for having us down. Thank you for coming. You guys are always great hosts.
Thank you. The open house is always an awesome time. Thank you. Um, how did you get started doing the open houses? What, where did that start? I think my first one was in 18. At the old location? Yes. And I don't know when that was in the grand scheme. So this is our eighth open house, so that would've been our second open house.
Okay. Whenever, um, you first [00:01:00] came. So it all started at our old location. People would come in and ask us questions about products that were Dick Craft or you know, all the items that we carry from other vendors. Right. And one item that we had at the time was Mobile Tech rx. Okay. We had an iPod set up in our, our iPad set up in the store.
People could try before they buy. Oh, that's cool. They could sign up, that kind of thing. Right. But we were getting asked questions that we quite frankly, couldn't answer. Right. So got with Eric with Mobile Tech Rx and he was like, let's do like an open house where people can come and ask not just us questions, but can ask everybody else that represents the paintless dirt repair industry, whether it's tools or um, scanning, whatever that might be.
And so that's how it came about. That's awesome. Yeah, and, and it has morphed into. This, it's morphed into, it's gotten bigger every year, which is great. It brings customers in that maybe they shop from us online. They see the vans [00:02:00] out on the road, but they wanna come on a weekend where they can shop and it's not messing up their workday.
So open on a Saturday where they can come in, shop, put their hands on tools, ask questions, and network. Of course. Right. And you bring a lot of the vendors in? A lot of the vendors, yes. Come in. So today I saw we have Keith Constantino from Black pla. Mm-hmm. Uh, John and Sally from Gen Reaper. Yes. Rob. From really quick, Charles from Kim Auto.
Mm-hmm. Like it's, you get a big, big turnout. Mm-hmm. Kiko D craft. Yeah. Kikos here. Den craft's here. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's great to get everybody here for the common purpose of, to help technicians. Exactly. At the end of the day. So That's awesome. So the open house is a great time. There's always food this time.
We've got a great taco truck. Delicious, by the way. Delicious taco truck that I have to say. Yes, for sure. For sure. Uh. What's your favorite part about open house day or open house weekend? 'cause you really sort of turn it into an event. Yes, it does turn into an open house weekend because like you said, there's vendors that come.
There's [00:03:00] customers, technicians that come from all over the world. So it does become a big weekend for us. And my favorite part is the people that come up and tell me about their experiences from the past or. Oh, I've always wanted to come in like, but I finally made it here. You get to meet people. Mm-hmm.
That's awesome. Yeah. Putting names with mm-hmm. Names with Faces is huge. Names with faces. People that have said, I've seen you online, I've seen you on YouTube videos, I've, you know, right. Wherever they've seen anybody at Anson and they can see us on one place. Meet up with friends, maybe you'll get a job out of it.
You know? That's great. Technicians meet up network. One of the first guys I ran into today when I walked in. Sorry, can't remember your name right off the top of my head. We were talking, Hey, I met you here a couple years ago. He's like, man, the crew, the hail company that I'm working for now, I met at my last open house here.
Like it's connections are great. That brings everybody together. Yeah. Connections, networking. It's incredible. Yeah. So now we were talking before we hopped on camera, [00:04:00] and next year is going to be an extra big year. It is. Why is that Christina? It's Anson's 30th anniversary. Wow. So it'll be our 30th anniversary at our open house on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026.
Already dropping it. So Yep. Put that on your calendars. There's no excuse. No excuse. Right. You've got a year to plan. Exactly. Put it on the calendar, mark it out. Uh, and I'm sure that'll be a good throw down 'cause we were here for the 25th anniversary will be. Yes, it will be. We always go big for open houses, but we'll probably go bigger 'cause it's our 30th anniversary.
You have to. We have to. Absolutely. Absolutely. So we are gonna head over and do some more interviews. We've got some raffles coming up real soon. I heard Vinny. On the mic here a minute ago. Yep. And Lee is coming back to get on the mic, so we'll need to, uh, skip out. But anyways, Christina, thanks so much for having us.
Thank you Christine. Thanks for coming on and uh, thank you. We'll see you guys at the next open house since you're not here. Uh, hopefully this gives you a little extra fomo. We'll see you next year. Get it going. Alright, [00:05:00] we'll see you guys on the next segment. Alright guys, so we are still here at the Anton Open House.
And it ran into my good buddy Danny Hacker, uh, Oaks. Actually it was almost staged, uh, right here at the new L two E Premium. That's right. Uh, so I was like, Danny, let's hop on and let's talk about, let's, let's talk about what we got going on here. Yeah, definitely. And what this looks like. Yeah. So we got a lot of new changes, which is really awesome, especially for how everybody's really adapting the glue pole.
Right. And when you adapt a glue pole, you start to see that there's problems or there's issues. That need to be solved. Right. And when it comes to training, especially with a, I. Teaching people how to change the shape of a dent. Yes. By using the new knockdowns or whatever the case might be. Because once you deep dive, you deep dive, right?
Yes. Yes. And you need more tools to be able to do that. Not only that training as well, training's the key. That's the key. That's key. I've been, I've been a, been big proponent of training. Yeah. Since the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. So yes. I mean, we have the foundational tools, right? Right. Everything from the slide [00:06:00] hammer, the K bar, K beam, junior robos.
All the good stuff and we're about to win some prizes we're gonna make. Yes. We're we're gonna speed this up a little bit. Speed. Hurry up. Go faster. We can't miss that, right? No, but uh, yeah. If you come down onto this top foam organizer right, you're gonna see there's a lot of new knockdown tools. See that?
Right? So now guys are starting to understand, like knocking down, we don't have to be so aggressive anymore. Right? If we can pinpoint those high spots. That's when the magic happens. That's when I started. You taught me that stuff. Right? Exactly. Hey, Danny, read the light. Right. Once we start to understand the lights, it's where the magic happens.
Like I could see it. Yep. Right. But yes, that takes a little bit of a learning curve to really does understand what's high and what's low. Now we have the tools all organized up here to make you more efficient. Especially with knocking down. Yes. Right. Very important. Right? Absolutely. It's the key. You know, if you think about it.
Knocking down or polling the The lows. Yeah. Can sometimes be the easy part. That is the easy part. Generally, yes. Is correcting or rectifying any kind of high spot that you run into. Right? Your [00:07:00] precision in this repair that's right. Comes from knocking down, not from lifting up. That's it, right? Huge. So yeah, we have all that covered.
Now we have everything in our new jewel system that we have, which is awesome. So it keeps everything nice and organized, especially in busy, productive shops that typically got a lot of techs working out of it. Now we can look at it and be like, something's missing. Hey James, you used the system last.
Exactly. Where are my tabs? Where's it at? Right. And also keeping 'em out of the dust. Out of the dust. Yes, exactly as well. Yep. So everything he is lined up from rough out to finish. So you got rough out the finish on the board. Yep. You got rough out the finish in your drawer as well. Right. Little bit of a.
Newer tab technology with the intermediate tabs, thinner face, thicker neck. Right. That just kind of gives you a more focused pull. I really, inside of those, I really like the gear tabs. The, yeah. Gear tabs. Yep. The intermediate. It's a nice move. Yep. So you got a little bit thicker shaft, thinner face. Yep.
More of a broader high spot instead of a sharp. Exactly. And then, and honestly, once you deep dive, do you want a sharp hide? Do you want a more of a broad [00:08:00] hide? You gotta decide what you want. You gotta decide what you want. But it's all here. Start to finish. It's all, it's all there. Yes. Everything. Yeah.
Even these, uh, new dead center super tabs in the ice material. Ooh, I haven't seen those yet. So, so those are really fantastic learning something today. So instead of like, we know, blue has maximum adhesion, right? It's gonna grip onto the panel. Problem is sometimes you might over pole and create that nasty hub we all see.
Oh yeah. Yep. What I like about the ice material. Because of the rigidity. At some point it does release before you get that nasty ice swab. Okay. So I really like those for that aspect. A little bit of a more cautious tab. Cautious tab. Yes, that's right. I like it. It still hooks up though. Oh, of course. That ice material always hooks up hard.
And then another awesome, uh, feature to the premium, it's gonna be lateral tension. Okay. Hold on a second. We gotta pull. Tickets outta here. Uh, see if we're winning. We're gonna do this, we're gonna speed up real quick and we're gonna listen at the same time. What was that number? 6 3 3 0 2 6 0 2. Nope. Not me.
No, we're good. We're good. Alright. So anyways, we're down here. Lateral tension as well to be able to [00:09:00] unlock repairability because we know some stuff is really sharp and really tight, really complex. Before we struggled sometimes it's amazing what lateral tension has done. That's. I think you and Chris, I think you ended up shifting it, but the talk you were gonna do at MT was unlocking repairability.
Yeah. And that, that unlocking repairability is exactly what this does. It's unbelievable. It's, it's amazing. So yes, with the new tab straps, which keep the, the dive limited, I mean almost virtually none. Almost none. Yes. I mean, depending on where you're at, there is some cases you gotta to be mindful of. Yep.
So we have every tab for lateral tension, co glue as well, along with the K powers. So this. Man, this system is stomped. This is it. Like all your runs here, this new gun. That's it. How, how, how was this 500 watts, is that right? Yeah, it gets pretty hot. That's a lot of juice. It's a lot of juice. But what that means for you guys is faster recovery.
You're gonna run through the glue and then it's gonna melt and recover super fast, so you're back in and ready for your next tap. Yep. So if I'm doing smaller stuff, I'm gonna stick with the grape. I'm getting a lot of [00:10:00] lateral tension. Pivot over to the black just so it can recycle fast. Exactly. Yeah. Love seeing.
I love seeing the growth here. I'm telling you, I had serious fomo when you guys dropped this before SEMA last year. I know. It's so good. Like just unbelievable. Yeah. It gives me, as a trainer so much confidence now. Exactly. What about this? That's a vortex. Piece of wizard read here. Do not forget about the vortex.
Cool. Uh, cooler. You know, we're getting into the summer months. It's hot. We don't wanna sit there waiting for glue to dry. This has like a little turbine in it. It's gonna shoot hot, compressed there out one end cold compressed there out the other, and it's gonna speed up that setup time. It's amazing. It's amazing.
Love it. It's like, it's so cool. It's great. Literally so cool. And this ain't, you know, this technology's been around a while. Right, right, right. But it's like, okay, there's a problem. It's just adapting it. Find a solution. Yes. Here's the solution. I like it. Good stuff. I like it a lot. Good stuff. So the tools are awesome.
We talked about training is important. Yeah. I know you guys have an event coming up. Yes. So tell everybody about your event that's coming up. When it is, what's, what's gonna go on. So June 2nd through the sixth, we have another five day [00:11:00] training, which goes through everything GPR, the premium, all the way into GPR Plus, which we're gonna kind of touch on.
Push tools, a lot of reading the light, understanding knockdowns. So June 2nd through the sixth. I mean we have probably like three, maybe four spots available for that. So man, it'd be awesome. Nice. Check it outs. You can't, you can't beat in person. Draining and especially five days getting to hang out with this guy.
And the logic Kiko is pretty awesome. That's right. Cool. Place to hang out. Don't drop a tab, you're gonna lose it. Exactly. Yeah, they new floor looks awesome. It's sweet for sure. Yeah. So guys, if you wanna find out more about kiko kiko tabs.com, check out my boy Danny, and uh, he'll get you taken care of.
Thank you. We'll see you on the next interview. All right guys. So walking around the open house and I ran into my old friend, uh, Eric Garvis from Mobile Tech Rx. Yep. And I was like, Hey dude, you wanna get anything new coming out with mobile tech, uh, that you wanna talk about? And, uh, and funny enough, I don't know if you realize this, we interviewed Christina to start, and Mobile Tech Rx [00:12:00] was one of the key things in starting the whole open house.
Uh, tradition. Yep. There were a lot of people with questions and she said she reached out to you and was like, Hey, do you wanna come up and, and do an open house? And this is number eight already, so, yeah. Pretty cool. If you look back at like, the first invites that were sent out, it was co-branded. It was like Anson Mobile Tech rx Open House Bonanza.
Oh, cool. Yeah. That's awesome. I made it. I missed the first one. I made it to the second one, so very cool. Cool. Very cool. So if you don't know Eric, uh, he's one of the founders of Mobile Tech Rx. Uh, current position is Managing director. Managing director. So same, same thing. Like my email signature says MTRX founder, so, okay.
Nice. I know even though we were, you know, acquired, I still rolled the majority of my shares into digital company. I still do the exact same thing I did before. Nice. Still work with the same engineers and salespeople and support people, so that's awesome. Not, not a lot's changed. That's cool. Well, listen, I'm a big fan of Mobile Tech Rx.
I remember meeting you at [00:13:00] MTE. What year would that have been that you guys brought the, the very rough That was was 10 years ago. That was 2015. Wow. So I see the booth at MTE, I walk over and, and they're like, Hey, you can look but don't touch. 'cause if you hit the wrong button, it crashes the whole system.
But as soon as you started working through, uh, and that was like, there were tons of apps at the time. I looked and I was like. This works the way my brain works. Like this is how we work. You can tell it was software built by technicians. Yeah. For technicians. Uh, and I've been a user since beta, like, yeah.
Forever. So. Yep. That's awesome. Just quick interviews today. Uh, one also I'd like to promote, you guys are doing a whole series, what is it? A monthly show. On the Masters of Recon. Yep. So go check it out. You guys just did the kickoff episode, it was like almost two hours long. Yeah. Great show over on Masters of Recon with Corey and, uh, shoot.
Who's Cory's co-host? Um, why am I trying? Brewer to Blake now. [00:14:00] Brewer Ryan. Ryan Ryan with Corey and Ryan. Go check the show out. Go listen to it. If you wanna go into depth, in depth. With Mobile Tech Rx and everything like that. It's a great show. Great information. But real quick, today you said you've got a couple of things coming out in the pipeline.
What do you got for us? Yeah, good timing to chat with you 'cause we're, you're, you know, you're gonna hear about this first 'cause we haven't yet really started to do any marketing for it. 'cause we're like, oh nice. A couple weeks away from some of these. So first one is Zapier integration. Okay. So for those that don't know what that is, uh, that's a software that you use to connect.
Other softwares, it's like a marketplace of software. So as an app, as a software company, you can go in and put your code in there and set it up in a way to where if you want to get data in and out of your application to go in and out of other applications, you can do it through Zapier. Oh, cool. And so you create what are called Zaps, and that's like saying, okay, if I create, uh, an estimate in Mobile Tech Rx, [00:15:00] then when I do that, I want that to trigger and create.
A new client in my MailChimp account. Oh, nice. And then I wanted to populate the vehicle info and the price and all that stuff. And then when I create an invoice, I want it to, you know, send off an email cadence that request reviews or tries to capture work or, you know, when I create a client in MailChimp, I want it to create the client for me automatically a mobile text so I don't have to go and double enter things.
Oh, nice. And so there's a lot of use cases like that, um, where it's gonna be really helpful. He's already got my gears turning because I'm like, we have some redundancy where we're doing things several times. Exactly. So, yeah. We may have to talk more about that off camera. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So Zapier integration.
Yeah. We're beta testing it now. Um, there's several, you know, probably about 15, 20 people that are kind of putting it through the paces and they've got their computer gurus who've set up their CRMs. Yep. You know. Putting it through all the different flows that they have. And so through that has been really good.
We've improved it a little bit. Have we, as we've gotten feedback. Nice. So we don't wanna release it until it really went through. [00:16:00] Sure. Through that. So I would say we're, you know, it's, what is it? May 3rd today? Yes. May 3rd. Yep. So I think we're looking at before the end of this month. That should be nice.
So it's coming before the end of the month, the Zapier integration. Yep. Nice. And then right behind that is the Blue Driver integration. What that is, is it's a little, uh, device, it's just an OBD two, you know, fits in the palm of your hand, super. And you're going to, you know, plug this into the vehicle, and then from within Mobile Tech, it'll connect via Bluetooth.
Okay. And then you'll initiate the scan. You'll choose between a variety of scans, like, you know, a light, you know, you know, check engine, light scan or a full system scan or whatever, and it'll send the results back to mobile tech. While it's doing that, you can leave the app, you can go take a phone call, you can go finish your estimate, so you don't, you're not stuck on that screen.
It can kind of do it in the background. Cool. When you're done, all the results will populate. You'll have the actual raw data to look through and all the codes right, dive into the [00:17:00] codes and see what they mean. Um, sometimes we'll have even like fixes or tips on what that code means or how you can resolve it.
Okay? Yep. And then when you're done with the car, you could do your pro post scan. So it's really like, cover your ass, do your pre do your post if you're you. Cause anything, yeah, you're doing pre in post scans, you are way behind times. And this is gonna make it even easier for, for technicians to adapt.
Exactly. And so, well, what's also nice is normally you do a pre and a post. If there is new codes, you know, there, it may take you while to kind of like go line by line and find out which one it is. And so this will do all that for you. We'll basically give you like a good thumb, a big thumbs up, hey, nothing, no new codes.
Right? Or if there are new ones. Will, you know, alert you there's three new, and you know, here's what they are specifically to save you time. And then, oh, cool. Now you have all your documentation in one place and when you want to email a customer, you can attach these if you want to. Right. So it just makes it, you know, a lot of people are doing this now and so it'll help you consolidate it now into one system.
And for anyone that's not doing it now, like you [00:18:00] said, you should be doing it. So you absolutely should be. So, and that'll attach the scans right? Into mobile tech? Correct. So in a, so for us, a lot of insurers. They're like, we're not gonna fight you on scans, but we need to see the scans before we'll pay. So it's almost like it creates a supplement before, uh, you need a supplement, if that makes sense.
Yeah. And then once the car's complete, we have to send in the scans and then they pay us for the, for the scan time. So this will be integrated right in Yep. And put in there. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. When you send it off, you'll have the option to like check, include diagnostic scans, right? Or, or not. So it's up to you.
Oh, cool. Does it, uh, can you clear codes with that as well? So there isn't, this is, is a, the, the product here is Blue Driver. Okay. It's one of our sister companies. Right. There is a blue driver app. Okay. That you're not gonna need to use. You can, you know, ideally you're just in mobile tech and using it.
Right, right. Right. Now, if you want a clear code, you can go and log in to the Blue Driver app. Okay. And it has the functionality in there. Until we are, we are gonna add it into mobile tech too. Oh, cool. So [00:19:00] until we put the clearing in. Right. Mobile tech, you'll be able to do it, but you can do it that way.
Oh, that's great. Yeah. That's super cool. Yep. That's awesome. Good stuff. Shows. And I would say that one's probably a month behind Zapier, so maybe end, end of June. Yeah, sometime in day this season. Zapier. Sometime in June. Blue Driver. Nice. Well, those are two new, exciting additions to mobile tech rx. That's fantastic.
Yeah. Cool. Well Eric, thanks so much for coming on. Yeah, thanks for giving us a few minutes. Thank you. And uh, just in case you still need Mobile Tech Rx, is it mobile tech rx.com? Yep. There we go. So go check it out. Do you guys still offer a free trial? We do, yeah. So if you haven't tried it or it's been used since you've tried it, go check 'em out, sign up for the free trial, hop in and use it.
Uh, we'd run our whole business off of it, so it's fantastic stuff. Thanks again, Eric. Thank you. Cool. Bye everybody. Nice and easy. Thanks dude. Awesome. Let's, alright guys, we are back with another interview. We've got Nick from Dent Vision Tools. That's the, uh, inventor of the shock blocker, sir. And now the zero [00:20:00] Gravity, which I cannot wait to get back and try out.
Good. My favorite knockdown, I think this is number seven or eight for me. Like, oh, geez. Totally. I think you got more than me. You should have all of them. Yeah, yeah. But I don't want take time to change tips. I just, and they're all different colors, so I just grab, I know what tip is on what Nice. And I just grab it and go.
So yeah, buy more shock blockers or zero gravities. But the reason I wanted to grab Nick and talk to him today is he's coming out with a new slide hammer. Uh, and as soon as I picked it up I was like, this is pretty cool. So Nick, tell us what you got going on here. Alright, so our slide hammer stormbreaker, it's something that I really needed.
Uh, I have two torn rotator cuffs, so I'm constantly just was in pain with slide hammering, so I can't remember who I saw. Talk about spring dampening slide hammer your spring up here. It's saving your tab. It's letting it go. A little lot lighter. Um, that was me in your class. Oh yeah. It probably was. Yeah.
And so I was thinking, you know what? I don't really care about my tab. I care more about my shoulder. I want the spring underneath the weight. Start [00:21:00] throwing stuff together and we're come a long way. So we've got a weight up here. We've got our spring down here. So when you get a nice pool, your shoulder can free froze a little bit.
It's gonna save all that pain. You're not gonna instantly stop and pull. We put six millimeter threads on both sides. So hot glue or cold glue on this side or this side? Uh oh. So you could do a, you could switch it. Yeah. Or make it a double head hammer, double-headed, or put it on one side. Whatever you're doing the most is the side.
I'd say to take that shock absorbing side. Yep. The other side's gonna be a regular pool. Um, we went ahead and put a linear polymer bearing in here, so it's very slick, smooth. It is smooth. Um, and as it continues to go, that polymer bearing actually leaves a film, which makes it smoother. So. The one that I've been using for six months is smoother than this one.
So it continues to get slicker as you use it, which is pretty cool. That's pretty cool. So I'm excited to try one of these out. So what I noticed is the spring makes a big difference, right? Yeah. Like the, so the pool dog, I think was the first one of the spring. Yeah. The Kiko two and a half pound has a spring and the, it's almost like, at least on the Kiko, like you [00:22:00] either have a dead blow, which is like full spring.
Yeah. Or you tighten it all the way up and then you have a hard smack. What I noticed with this is when I picked it up, you get that hard initial impact. Yeah. And then the dampening the, the other ones seem to be dampening the whole time. Yeah, it's spring first and then Wait, so I flip that so it's more on your shoulder.
So it's pretty cool and you should be able to hear that on the mic where you get that impact. And then. There's that, that dampening. I think that's gonna be a pretty cool, I think you were gonna be able to develop a lot of touch with that, I would assume too. Yeah. On top of saving your shoulder, I mean, it's, it's the same whole motion that we're used to, uh, which is what I wanna do.
I was like, I want anyone to have to relearn what they're doing with slide hammer. I want to be something we're very familiar with, so, yep. It came out nice. And then unintentionally we got where you can push down and get a little bit spring impact when you're using this side just to help you move a little bit faster.
Right. I like it. So what's the weight on this? The total weight of the slide hammer is two pounds, four ounces. The actual weight that you're hitting with is one pound, [00:23:00] six ounces. Okay, so middle of the road weight. Yeah. Not too, too heavy. Not too light. Not light. Just straight hail. But not a heavy like blow your shoulder out.
Slide hammer. Hammer. Exactly. Yeah. 'cause I, I do mostly door dang stuff, so I wanted something I could still use. Um, but not something so heavy that hail guys will be pushed away from it. Right, right. Uh, do you have a price point figured out on 'em yet? I am gonna say they're gonna be right around like low two hundreds, like two 15.
Okay. Two 20, somewhere around there. We're right in line with everything. Yeah. And I know these are prototypes. Yes. When are you projecting to have them out? So the only reason it's prototype right now is I'm really just waiting on anodizing on these three pieces. And my springs are coming in. It'll come with two different springs.
Uh, this is the heavier spring. It has a lighter spring. Oh, so you can change that out? Yeah. Oh, cool. Or you can put both springs in there and just have one really hard spring so it will infect how. How hard do you have to pull and stuff like that. Nice. Um, but we're probably looking three weeks, something like that.
Okay. A month. The latest, so So maybe beginning of June. Yeah, something like that. That's what we're going for. That's awesome. And where will they be able to get 'em? Get 'em right here at Anson. Right [email protected]. Nick, thanks so [00:24:00] much. I'm excited to check those out. I can't wait. They come to market and uh, I'll definitely be adding one to my collection.
Thanks. Appreciate it. Cool. Alright. See ya later. All right, so this guy has, oh, it's, it's good. It's recording. Yeah. All right. So I've been trying to catch this guy for like the last hour. Every time I walk over he's super busy. Everybody's checking it out. Uh, our old friend, Keith Cosentino, nice to see you Gene.
Right? Uh, with Black Plague, he's getting ready to demo the new Shrinky box, the SV four. I'm personally in love with it. I think it's a great design, but I wanna hear Keith talk about it and all of that good stuff. So, Keith, off to you, brother. Yeah, thanks. So the SB four is our shrinking box built from the perspective of a technician.
So previously, when I get a shrinking box, it just has the box. But I'm not able to use it right out of the box because there's a couple things that have to happen before I can do it. I've gotta remove all the, uh, primer from the back of the panel. I don't have anything for that at my shop or in my truck 'cause I don't do that kind of work.
[00:25:00] Right. Uh, then I discover the braces or the dents behind a brace. Well, the normal copper or gouging rod that comes with it doesn't get behind the brace. I gotta go to Home Depot, buy a piece of copper. Uh, so I put a piece of copper in with this one already. We're getting in, in turning corners, getting in braces, and then, uh, on aluminum panels, there's a magnet for the ground.
You have to ground it on the bare metal and then shock it in the bare metal With aluminum, the magnet doesn't work. So what guys traditionally do is they put it behind the aluminum and then they put a piece of steel on the outside to make it stick on the inside. Yep. But like, we're doing precision work, I don't wanna scratch this paint or put something on top of it.
So for grounding aluminum, we have this clamp that has a copper electrode. You just move the ground to this and then expose a little part of a brace and then ground it there. So, uh, and then all of that fits down inside of a little case. The other ones don't come with a case. So I have these squids hanging around my shop, and this is just a nice little compact unit in a box, [00:26:00] which is really what one guy said earlier today.
He said, oh, this is like a break glass in case of emergency. Well, that's exactly what it is. That is exactly, yeah. You leave it in that box and you hope as a dent guy, you never open it because shrinking dents is not that fun. Right? But when you have one that's oil can, this is the machine that brings it back.
So when you open the case. You have everything you need to go pre presuming you have a drill. Yes. To work and actually do the job right. Before it's like I literally had to leave a mobile job and go to Home Depot and buy all these things and come back and pretend to play erector set. Right now it's ready to go.
It's all in one. One thing I overlooked. It has a button to energize it so you're able to put it behind the panel, find it like you would with a dent tool, get real comfortable with where it is, and then energize it. I think that's very important. 'cause when it's live all the time, every time you touch it, you're getting juice.
And I promise you, the first time you touch it is not exactly where you wanted it to go. For sure. Right? Because it, same way you start dent, you search, search, search, search, search, search. Okay. There I am. I'm where I wanna be. [00:27:00] This is the same thing. You have to be in the right spot. Yes. So we've got this one, uh, sanded off and prep.
So you guys wanna come over here and watch this? We, I got him on audio so you see what you need to see? Yeah. Need a light? Yeah. Go over there with Keith.
I'm working. Yeah, that's perfect, gene. Right there. There. That's great. Yeah. So this one is set up, uh, with the copper. The copper has an insulator on the outside, so if you wanted to go into a panel and turn a corner, we've got this so you can bend it just like a dent tool. So if I'm an a fender, if I have the straight rod kind of coming at it, it's really awkward.
Like you wouldn't do a dent with a straight rod on a fender. But with this we have this little curve. You can just come in there and hit it nice and comfortably while you're watching on the outside. Yep. This little adapter fits a tiny piece of this carbon rod because it's, it moves more easily on the back of the metal.
The copper will try to skip to it a little bit, micro weld itself, and that's just what [00:28:00] it does. You have to fight it a little bit. So if you have an open spot, we put a little piece of carbon in there, but you can use the copper there if you want, right? Either way. So for this one, we'll just make it easy and go with the rod.
So we take that adapter out. Put this guy in and on the SB four, it's got two different modes. It's got a time mode where it's only hot as long as I push this button. And it has a power mode, which is, you select the level of power and then it's hot as long as you're holding the the button down. Um, I think the time mode is really more for figuring out the machine.
Once you figure that out, you'll stay on power mode and. In the twenties is where it starts very low. Almost won't do anything very safe. I prefer to start there and then work up because you can burn it if you start high and go low. Always. Yep. So we'll start nice and low, anything that super stretch
rubber because you never wanna use rubber. [00:29:00] Gotta make sure the ground is actually grounded. So, um.
So that's so low. I can't see anything in the panel, so we'll just go up from there.
So to 48% power.
I don't know if you can catch the reflection right in front of my finger here. Can you see that in frame? Just experiment. Yes. So if you keep it moving, you can kind of see it dancing around like a tip of a tool. And if I hold it in one spot, intentionally making a mistake, you'll see it lift up there and burn the paint.
So you have to keep moving with it. Or you can just tap the button. Also pretty safe. And each tap is one little [00:30:00] zap, right? You have one zap at a time. So what I'll do is I'll work the dent until it's oil canned, and when it's high, I'll go in and I'll zap each little low pit. And then when I've got about all of them, I'll go to knock it down again, and I'll find it's a little stronger than it was the last time, but it'll still flop down.
Yep. Push it back up and repeat the process. 2, 3, 4 times. Is that about what you experienced? Yeah. 2, 3, 4. Depends on how stretched it is, right? Yes. Yeah. But it's, uh, I wanted to showcase this on the show because the tool is, it's just so much more versatile than like the original ones. What we didn't cover is the very best part of it, and that is when you scan the front of it with your phone right here, you get to hang out with Gene again.
That's right. We do like, what is it, like a 20 minute video or something? Yeah. You did amazing video. With multiple camera angles, because honestly, if you get one of these boxes and you haven't used it before, what do you do? You call one of your friends exactly, who hopefully told you about it. You say, Mike, what do I do?
How do I use this shrinky box? [00:31:00] Yeah, we just, we've got a special guest on the episode today. Well, Mr. Mike Toledo with my broken microphone. Actually, I do wanna know how to do this because I was using it and I wanted to know the settings on this and like what you think about this. So yeah, this is great.
So walk through that. So, so we were just talking about this. So I think when you turn it on natively, it's around 20%. So I think that's where it lands. I think it holds when you turn it off and on. But 20 is default, default setting. So that's where I always start, which I did here on a demo. Can't see anything.
So then you go up 30, 40, 50 until you start seeing it. And right when I start seeing it is where I like to stay. I know guys like Bryce Kelly, they go really high in the power and they just tap it and he says it's just faster. I would rather be safe and take a little more time and not risk burning it.
'cause at a hundred percent if I hold it for a half a second, it's gonna burn. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I go usually in between 40. And 60% [00:32:00] is where most panels go. But I first work the dent until it cans. Then it's high. I leave it high, and I try to zap every low. Like I'm using a dent tool, like I'm still trying to work it.
After I get as many lows as I can, I go to knock it down. And go flat again, and I'll find it's a little stronger before it flops down. Is there a voltage setting as well, or is it just the power setting? I mean, the power setting is a voltage setting. Okay. If you notice this number to the right, what that indicates is that voltage coming into the machine Okay.
Is not adjustable. It's just a reading of voice scanning from Okay. So you make it easy, just one setting. Yeah. It's just up, down. So there's really nothing to screw up. So 40 to 60%. Kind of just do a, a little tap to see, or a little roll just to see if it's, if it's moving, if it's moving, you kind of leave it there and kind of get like a meet and greet with the wand.
Yeah. If I a little meet and greet and if I can see, I can see where right around here. Yeah. Uhhuh, that's pretty low. Yeah. As I'm moving You almost can't see it. Yeah. If I stay stuck [00:33:00] there goes.
Yeah, right there. Let's put a lock on that. But even at, what are we at 48, if I hold it, one, two, it, it's gonna come close to burning 1, 2, 3. Those are not burning, but they're real close. They're right on the border here.
So you can hold it hot and tap it. That's pretty safe. Yeah. 'cause the tap is fast, but it's not as accurate. Or you can, you can turn, you can go like you're talking about Mike in a pattern. But it's when you stop, it's when you get in trouble. You, you don't like know when your kids used to. Right. With a marker pen.
And you hold it in the corner and it just starts bleeding out. Yeah. Then you go to the line, we don't want that bleed out. That's the burn. So the, it's just being quick, whether it's quick with a button, quick with the action, or keep [00:34:00] moving or quick with the movement. So what I look for is like you start turning the juice up and uh, start turning the juice up and you can see the tip.
It's when you start, it starts leaving like the smallest high spot. Yeah. Like when it's leaving a little trail, that's where I find like I get my maximum shrinking with, without burning the paint. Yeah. Maximum, uh, reward versus minimum risk. Exactly. Exactly. And then it's just rinse and repeat how many times you need to do it.
No. No. 'cause I have the, I have the other one, right? Yeah. And, and I was using this one, but I was, I didn't know it. So familiar. So. I wanted to make sure I was using it right. So I was just kind of getting a heads up on yours, so Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for asking. It's a great little machine. Perfect. So, so you have a button on here, so I'm gonna just for yours, right, so you have a button on here where most of 'em don't have a button, like, 'cause it's like.
Hitting and sparking everything and every, and then Yeah. But this controls up. Yeah. The, [00:35:00] the, the couple, they're all great machines that are on the market. Uh, the one that has no button, it's just a different technique. And for me it was a little harder to use 'cause I don't know where I can set it down. I don't want it to shock something.
Yeah. I, I want to be able to find it. I'm a little more timid, finding my spot, and then I wanted to turn it on. So the, the cam auto has a button. I think it's amazing machine as well. Uh, this one just has a lot more accessories and it's coming in at a lower price point. And did you already mention that they have, he has that little copper wire?
Yeah, we talked about the copper wire to be able to get in. That was awesome. That was awesome. That was great. Like I know Joe Garcia, he did something a long time ago with his own box back in the day, his homemade stuff. Oh, he had, he had a copper. Did he thing going in there? Yeah. So then when you came out there, I was like, Joe, I mean, did you see, did you see.
You see Mr. Shrinking boxes, right? And he's like, what are you talking about? I was like, look. He's like, oh, that's freaking cool. Yeah, that's what you need. In fact, uh, there's a, there's a guy named Clint Kidder who is a, a master with shrinking boxes. He's, he's up in, uh, Washington, I believe, and he [00:36:00] sent me a video the other day where he had, uh, this is out right?
He had a dent right between a big brace, deep in the brace. So he took a whale tail cut, sandpaper out to match the whale tail, glued it on there, went in and prepped it. That's we do. Yeah, we do that too. And then he took the same whale tail and put it right here, taped up the whole thing except the tip of the whale tail, and went in and did the shrinking with.
The whale tail itself. That's a pretty good idea. Yeah, that's a really good idea, huh? You took it to step two, next level. So there's the tech tip. Maybe you like throwing those out. I thought that was great. No doubt. Well, thank you very much for the, uh, thanks for the drop. Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for the, thanks for the cameo.
Another legend. I didn't know your interview. Sorry. It's all good. It's all good. It's all good. Good deal. Well, Keith, thanks so much for showing us this. My pleasure. And again, rightly, you can always check out the video, the full length video we did there. You, we've got an event or you've got an event coming up here at Anson in October.
Yeah. So let, let's talk about that for a second before we head out [00:37:00] excited about this. Well, it's called the PDR College Advanced Skills Seminar. Uh, I should know what number this is, but I don't. Yeah, I don't know. It's six or seven, something like that. We've done a lot of 'em, uh, around annually. I think we might've missed a year or here or there.
Uh, but the idea behind the advanced skills seminar is bringing the people with amazing skill sets and PDR from around the world all into one place and letting them teach what it is they do for four days. So it's a, it's a place that you come if you're already. A technician that's proficient, you're already working.
You have clientele, you have people, and, uh, expanding your skillset will return more money for you because you have a place to do it. If people are newer, we, we actually kind of encourage them to maybe wait to come to it. Right? And so you can really use that. I'll never say no, of course. Uh, but gen, but it's a, it isn't a cheap seminar and it's not a short seminar.
It's a long one. Uh, and it's high level stuff that we're doing. So you kind of [00:38:00] need a baseline to be able to apply a lot. Absolutely. Uh, but every year we have some of the same instructors and some new ones. This year we have Bryce Kelly as the headline trainer. He just keeps getting better every year. If you, if you haven't seen any of his videos, look up Central Florida Dent Repair on YouTube and it'll break your mind.
Unbelievable. Yeah. If he didn't show the process, you would be fairly certain It's fake. Exactly. But because he shows, but he shows it all. He shows it all. And, and what he does is amazing. And what's really interesting is it none of it is, uh, out of this world techniques, it's just good solid technique.
Like he just thinks it through and he makes it happen. He does, he does push the boundaries. Uh, but he can show you what he does exactly. He can teach you what he does. Yep. And I'm not saying you could be him. But you, you at least knowing what he's supposed to do. You know what I compared it to the other day is a race car driver.
You're trying to learn how to drive a car fast. They ride with you and they go, okay, a little faster here. A [00:39:00] little harder here. And then you ride with them and it's 10 times faster. Right. They tell you exactly what to do. It doesn't mean you can do it. Right. Right. It's hard to implement when you're, when you're actually trying to do it.
But there's race car drivers and there's race car engineers. And they're different roles on purpose. The engineer built the car the best. Right? But he can't drive it the best. Nope. Someone else has that skill set. And that's Bryce. So can you be Bryce maybe. Right? But you still, if you want a coach to go around with you, you want the best coach, the fastest guy Absolutely.
To tell you, here's how I go the fastest to get you as close as you can get to Bryce Keller. So, and I've seen Bryce teach a bunch of times. And it's always, you always learn and take away something. Always. Yeah, because he's evolving too. Every year he's bringing new tools, new techniques, so he's our headline trainer.
Then we've got a good friend of yours, John Vich. Yep. How you say his last name properly? Vich. Yeah, Vich. Yeah. Yep. He's, he's won the Dental Olympics and similar competitions 10 times. [00:40:00] 10 time winner. Yes. I think nobody's won that many times. No, I think that we were just talking the other day. I think the closest is four or five.
Yeah, so he's. He's more than double anybody else. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've won it 11 times, but that's in my mind. Right, exactly. That's real. So he, I mean, to do it, to repeat it that many times, you have a special. Skillset or a special method. Yep. You can win once or twice if you're really good. But to win that many times, yes, he's the best and against some of the best in the world.
Exactly. It's, it's, yeah. Yeah. So he's gonna come and teach what he does in that realm, and I'm sure more, more things. That's a pretty small, it's a small piece, a deep, deep dent, but it's the fundamental building block of the entire tree. It really is. So, it really is. So if you can do that, you can extrapolate that idea out of our big panel.
So I'm excited to learn from John. Uh, and then we've got a technician from Taiwan. Jay Ma. You may. Oh, nice. You may know him on, I don't know, on social. So he, uh, he, I think he was originally trained by Mike Toledo. Okay. And, um, he's now in Taiwan. He's running an amazing business. [00:41:00] And he's got a great social, so I wanna learn how he does his social, number one, right?
But here's a really unique thing about his repairs in Taiwan, they cannot take the panels off the cars, huh? The car will lose 20% of its value if it's taken apart. If they notice the panels come off. Huh. So every, that's crazy. He does big ugly smashes and he leaves 'em all on the car. Wow. He's, he does a lot of Kiko product.
He's a revolving on Kiko and he's doing crunch Teslas like crumpled lift dates, all with a panel on the car and beautiful results. That's crazy. That's exciting. Jay Mos coming out from, I'm gonna have to go check him out. And then, um, on the soft skills side. Have you, have you heard of Billy Wak Safety?
Yes. Yeah, I know Billy. Yep. Yep. So, uh, Billy is the guy that you use when you have a situation, uh, where the insurance company and the body shop can't come to terms on a price. Yep. Billy's a licensed adjuster, so he does something called, uh, the appraisal clause, [00:42:00] right where the buy shop wants 10 grand. The insurance company says it should be five.
That a customer invokes his appraisal clause and that requires both parties to hire an independent appraiser. And those two will negotiate. That's Billy on your side to negotiate. Right. And he'll help that customer get everything that they owed. Nice. Right? Yeah. 'cause he's just looking at the real facts.
The car needs this and it just needs it or it doesn't. Right. And he gets that estimate approved. Uh, he also does some other thing, diminished value claims. Yeah. But, but the reason we're having him come to. Speak to us is to really understand what this resource is and how will you help our customers utilize it to basically help us get paid, right.
And how to handle the adjusters when we are not handling, hiring out with a, with an appraiser, a third party, right? How to, how to have those conversations, how to win those conversations when you're getting bullied around a little bit. Right. Uh, so, and that happens more and more. The higher your tickets are, the more you kind of get bullied by the adjusters.
No question. And we need all the tools we can get. So we're, we're [00:43:00] attacking the skills and we're getting the knowledge to put 'em to use and get paid. And there's some other things we got going on there too. And the, the schedule's still, uh, being developed for the, the entire. Four days, but that's the root of it.
It's gonna be here in this building. So if you look around, this is a nice big warehouse. That's a great warehouse space. There's literally every tool you want is here. Yes. And then some in, in years past, we have done completely hands-off training. This year we're gonna do some hands-on training, so there'll be stations that we can show different techniques and different styles.
Oh, nice. The attendees be able to get their hands on tools. And, and actually try these things that they're learning with the coaches right there to say, no, no, not, not quite like that. A little bit more like that. Oh, nice. Well, that's exciting. It's really great. And what are the dates? October, I believe it's the eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th.
That's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Or whatever. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday falls around there. It could be seventh, eighth. Yeah, but it's, it's right there. Something right around there that it's that weekend. And tickets are [00:44:00] not available yet? Not yet, no. Anywhere to sign up to be on the list.
'cause I know it'll sell out. Yeah, it will probably, by the time you see this, if you go to pdr college.com, there should be a box put around there somewhere. Put your email. We always launch by email first, so if you're in the, on the PDR College, uh, email list, you'll get an opportunity to sign up first.
Nice. So head on over to pdr college.com. That's gonna be a great event. Keith, thanks for showing us the shrinky box. My pleasure. Very cool. And I'm really excited, uh, to come and hang out at Advanced Skills and get that going as well. It's gonna be great. Thanks for coming with us. Sure thing. Thanks Gina.
Alright guys. So just a little peek into the open house with great interviews. Uh, this is always one of our favorite events to come to. It's nice, it's social, it's great. Don't forget next year, May 2nd is the 30th anniversary of Anson will be the open house. I'm certain that's gonna be a bigger event than this.
Uh, and they go bigger and badder every year Anyways, so that's it. Thanks so much for watching. Uh, you can follow us at Auto Appearance Institute across the board [00:45:00] on all social media. Check out our whole catalog of [email protected]. Uh, go check out the shrinky box. Go check out Anson Dent Vision Tools Mobile Tech Rx Kiko.
Right? It was a good one, guys. I'll see you on the next episode.
