ļ»æHey, what's up guys? Gene Fetty with the Automotive Appearance Institute back at you with another all access podcast. Today, in this episode, we're going to do a little recap of the PDR Expo. I was there last weekend in Vegas. I want to talk about the show a little bit, talk about the competition, the winners, how that went, and then a little bit of my tool score from there.
So without further ado, Let's dive in. So the PDR Expo is in Vegas has been in Vegas for the last couple of years. It is what MTE Vegas has turned into. It went from a mobile tech expo show to a straight PDR show and they're trying to build it. Last year was a pretty small turnout, but it was the first time for this specific show.
This year more than doubled, maybe more than tripled the attendance of what was there from year one. Transcribed great turnout. It's a very nice, intimate show. It reminds me of my first MTEs that I went to back 2010, 2011 when it was smaller, held at the Carib Royale. And you really got to hang out and talk in small groups.
The PDR Expo almost feels like a throwback to those days which is really cool. Vegas, there's always plenty to do. I'm not a big gambler, but I am a big eater. Tons of great restaurants great nightlife, great drinks if you'd like to drink. It's a good time. This year was at the Plaza Hotel. Stay and attend in the same place, like MTE is.
The venue is pretty decent. I think they're looking for maybe a little newer place next year, I've heard but nothing is set in stone. It is a convenient place to get to. It's right at the end of Fremont Street. And that is a spectacle to see for sure. If you've never been to Fremont Street, I highly recommend going and people watching for sure.
So the expo, it's a two day expo unlike the three days at MTE and it's a combination of education and vendors and competition. All in the same room, all going on at the same time. Not as many vendors as MTE, but again, the show is growing. We got to see let me see everybody.
I've talked to Anson had a big booth. We've got some stuff from them that I may or may not be able to talk about. mobiletechrx was there VIP tools dent craft made an appearance. Kiko was there Keith Cosentino and Tammy with Keith's new business, claimconnection. io. And then some other vendors off to the side with some detailing ish reconditioning companies didn't get a chance to speak with them.
I was just in for the one day. And then the competition was there. So it is not the dent Olympics. It is the dent trials which is a multiple dent, multiple repair venue really challenging damage for sure. I normally do get to judge that because I had to make a trip back home for a car show.
Didn't get to hang out Saturday and I missed being able to judge it, but we do have the list of winners here coming up in a second. So that's a little bit of an overview of what the show is. Let's talk about that competition. So you've got two competitions that go on there. You have the dent trials, which is for your seasoned PDR techs.
And then you have the beginners. The way the beginners group work works is you need to be a two year tech or less and your trainer needs to sponsor you to come into the event, right? So it's not just open to anybody. They don't want somebody who doesn't legitimately have a shot at being able to repair the dents to come in.
So you need to be sponsored by your trainer and less than two years into the business. This year, I believe it was Corey Nichols. Thomas Stark came in and got first place and the beginners competition, the dancer, no joke. I know last year there was a pretty good crease. You needed to know what you were doing to be able to fix it.
And second place in that beginner competition is a gentleman named Ben Johnson. I didn't get to meet Ben but I'm pretty sure I got to meet Thomas hanging out with. Cory. Now the dent trials are I believe it's three dents. So it is a shot through the body line on a fender, a deep, more PDR Olympic style dent.
in the door and a pretty good shot in the rail. All repairable damage, but all difficult damage. The fender dent, man, they were pretty deep. The body line was definitely gone and I'd probably call it a, at least a two and a half or three inch deep chop. And then again the doors are that DentOlympic style dent with that tight bottom bordering on stretched, if not actually stretched.
And then the rails are a deep shot. I think 90 minutes is what sticks in my head. Don't quote me on the timeline. But it is three dents in a set amount of time. To get everything done. This year I've got your top five list. And I'm gonna try not to butcher the names too bad. Making a comeback, Mr.
Jean, a. k. a. Zan Vidić, from Slovenia came in and took a first place. Congratulations, Zan. To you I know you take your competition really serious and you are at probably more competitions than just about anybody I know. So congratulations to Jaune, or Zan. Second place is Sergey Fukizi.
Probably screwed that last name up. But congratulations on second place, Sergey. Third place, Damon Sari. Congratulations, Damon. Fourth, Troy Beaumont. And fifth place, Vladimir Polachek. I think I may have got that one right. So that's your top five. Guys, these guys come out, they travel to the venue, they pay to compete.
If you see them online, send them a message, tell them congratulations. They definitely deserve the recognition for going after these dents and competing in front of a crowd of people, right? It's not easy stuff, but absolutely congratulations to all the winners, all the top placers and really anybody who stepped up and did that competition hats off to you, man.
Literally. I got talked into the dent trials a few years ago at Anson and I was sweating it and I did a horrible job. It was bad. But anyways, there we are. So now let's let's talk some tools. What did I see at PDR Expo? What did I pick up at PDR Expo? I'll give you a little bit of review on the stuff that I can.
I don't have everything. I haven't used everything yet. But it is pretty cool. Let's start with these Kiko modular hammers. Now I did not pick them up At the expo, I actually got them at the Texas auto body show. But this is the first show that I saw Kiko have these hammers out. I've got two of them with two setups, but actually looking at the display, you can turn these into all kinds of stuff, like longer, shorter, different ends.
Pretty cool. This first one is the call it the craftsman slash Vaughn hammer redo from Kiko. I'm not normally a fan of round handled hammers with a ball on the end. For years, I resisted them. I really like a hammer handle that your brain can index right by having a flat side. These however, are really comfortable and I'm growing to love these.
So just like that Vaughn slash Craftsman hammer, two different hardnesses on the heads. So we've got the dark blue is the harder side. That would be like the yellow side of the craftsman hammer and the more softer blue is a softer rubber like the red side on the head of the hammer. I always liked my craftsman hammer.
I love my craftsman hammer. I still have it in my box. You could use it a few different ways, right? You could use it as the hammer handle as light. You can get a hard stinging hit from the hammer head. And then of course, you're two different hammer faces. Keiko did a great job on this, right? You've got your two faces, but then they put a nice leather pad on one side.
It almost, I'm not going to tear it apart, but it almost feels like it's pretty thick and set into the head. And then the other side, a steel plate, right? Cause I'm pretty sure this is an aluminum head. a steel plate for that stinging steel impact. Perfect length, right? That craftsman hammer. Again, it's still on my card.
I love it. I really like the leather on the side of here for the impact, right? Even putting this next to the mic, right? Is a pretty blunt dead blow, a little easier on the ears. So that's the short, I don't know, call it 12, 13 inch Kiko modular hammer. killer. I also picked up the longer one, call it, I don't know, 16 inches, give or take the blending hammer with the pivot tip heads.
Now you look at it you're gonna have to go, if you're listening to the audio version, go check out the YouTube channel. So you can see the video. It is the pivot tip heads. And similar to this craftsman hammer, craftsman style hammer, two different hardnesses, right? So the soft baby blue color and the darker, more solid color, soft and more rigid.
This is great and plays off of the old ratchet hatchet from Hayes Freeman designer of the pivot tips the tips, because they're on that pivot head, allow you to reach out and you don't need to be perfect to make a perfect strike. As you come down, if you are slightly off, the fact that the pivot tip is on a ball and socket will allow the head to come down and meet the panel in the right way.
And these pivot tips are right. Going back to my Kiko days, the pivot tips are killer for knockdowns on those like medium medium height crowns. And then the longer length on here really lets you reach out and get a good sight line back to the panel and light. It is, it's super light in the hand and easy to move.
Both of these also have carbon fiber shafts, right? Again, keeping that weight down and making your job a little bit easier and bonus, It looks cool cause it's carbon fiber. Next up and if you're listening to the podcast, you heard us talk to Mr. Hudson Tansy with dent gents with his collaboration on the new tornado tabs from Kiko and the chocolate thunder glue in conjunction with Anson, so I've been back from the show for a week, putting them to use.
I love the the tornado taps, right? I've tested those 10 millimeters, the first initial run. Now we have seven, nine, 11, and 13 all in the ice material color coded. What size you're grabbing, right? It's a great little bonus there. Great hard pulls this dead center tornado tab face is giving a great tight pull.
And on the last podcast, on the last episode, Hudson was talking about just how fast of a glue the chocolate thunder is not quite my style. I'm not a fast puller. I like to stick more to the six C's Kiko six C's and let it cool down and get that strongest possible pull almost every time. And work the pole to where I want it to be letting this chocolate thunder glue set up.
No, we've been like, call it mid mid to upper seventies this week, high humidity all week, letting this glue set up. As long as you don't let it get to where it gets brittle, man, it pulls like a freaking freight train. So super impressed. Super happy with The tornado tabs and the chocolate thunder glue.
If you haven't tried them out, give them a go, right? Like really solid stuff. We are coming into our cooler season in Pittsburgh. So I think we'll probably be putting the chocolate thunder glue away. I think it's going to get brittle the same way, orange fire or tab weld does in the cooler weather.
But we're going to continue to press on and push through with these tornado tabs.
Speaking of tabs, and I've not had a chance to put these to the test yet because I ordered them from Dent Craft and I just got them in yesterday and I didn't need to glue pull anything today. But these are the new Willy Quick Dent Poppers. Now if you are a child of the 80s, as I am, this packaging makes me want to go find some pop rocks.
I put it in my mouth and go like this. And listen to a pop, maybe even drink a jolt cola and get the full sugar effect like 1983 all over again. Now these tabs, they've got a 13, 11 and nine millimeters. They are a a hard plastic. It looks similar to an ice material from Kiko. And it's a, square faces.
So we know a square face is good because we still get the round shape of our glue, but we get the extra hold on of a square face. The shafts are pretty thin. I don't know that I would call them, and that might step down like a dead center or similar to a dead center. Definitely a thinner shaft than what you would see on a standard, tab, right?
Which is going to help pull a tighter spot into the middle of the tab, and help you pull a tighter high spot into your dent. Everything I've seen online, the people that have used these have been great reviews. I've really not seen anything negative other than a couple people complaining about broken tabs.
It's a consumable, just like all the other small tabs. Not gonna, we're not gonna rant about that. But, we may come back for a rant on one of these episodes about broken tabs, or the people who complain about them. Anyways, these tabs are great. Or at least everything I've heard about these tabs is great.
I'm really excited to put them to use, or to put them to use. It's got a thin face. It's got a little bit of a Almost a con cave face ever so slightly concave face should be a really hard pulling tab. Once we get them and get to use them and put them through the paces, I will come back with a full review on these and let you know exactly what I think.
I believe these are certainly available from Willie quick. I got them at dent craft and I think Anson is carrying them as well. So the really. tongue twister. I'm really excited to give these things a go and see how they perform up next before we get to what was my favorite purchase at the show.
I'm just going to tease this. Go check out the Anson tool porn Thursday post from Craig about the soon to come new handle from them. I don't want to drop details because Craig was doing magic tricks all weekend at the show with this. But I've got one here and it is bad ass. I think there's still two or three months away from production, but go check out Craig's tool porn Thursday video.
I think the hype is going to be real with that one for sure. Which brings us to my favorite score from the show. And that is this for you. Audio people, drum roll. This is the new carbon fiber. Let me hear that carbon fiber window guard from VIP. As soon as Peter handed this to me, I was like, dude, badass.
Like it looks cool. It is thin. I've always used the dent craft clear plastic with the blue felt on back, which is a pretty thin window guard. For ease of sliding it into the door. This is half the thickness of that. He's got a thinner felt on it. He's got the felt starting about an inch up on the panel to make it even easier to insert every door.
I stuck this in this week. I just shook my head and I was like, I love it. I really, I love it. There's just no question. And it is strong man. Carbon fiber, right? Going even back to the carbon tech rod. The first time I pushed a dent with that blows my mind how strong it is. I would venture to say that this is almost as stiff as my metal window guard that I use for laminated windows.
Man, Peter, home run, dude. I know he did a limited run of these. I think retail price on these is one 25 or thereabouts. Go order one yesterday from VIP PDR tools. com. I think that's the website, but anyways, this carbon fiber backer is nuts, dude. Why? I get geeked about tools too often. As simple as it is, I'm totally geeked out about the new the new window guard from VIP.
So that's the tool hall, a little bit of the expo. Coming up this week this episode drops on Monday. I'm not sure how many days September has 30, 31, 30, it's got 30 days. Thanks for the tech support, babe. 30 days. So this podcast drops on September 30, on Monday, on October 4, In Burleson at Anson, we have a glue pool repair training in person full day nine to five hands on dropping all of my glue pool repair knowledge to you in a day.
I've got a couple of seats left. If you're thinking about it, just go. I promise I'm going to teach you something. I've had brand new technicians that I teach a ton. I've had 20 plus year technicians in my training that like before we're done with the slideshow portion of it. They're like, this was worth the price already.
And we hadn't even glue pulled anything yet. We're just teaching and talking theory and it's already there. Glue, pull training. com is how to get to the webpage to sign up. It's only 700 bucks. If you're a PDR tech, the stuff I teach you at that show or that class and you're doing big damage, anything, will pay for itself on the first car.
I promise. Come see us. We're also throwing in a 100 Anson gift card free lunch. Who doesn't want a free lunch? I know I like food. And access to our online course, all about tension, pulling how to use tension to unfold metal and get it going. So make sure. You go and check that out.
If you can't come see us in person, we always have our online training, our glue pull repair masterclass gprmasterclass. com takes you right to that page. Study at your own pace. That is basically the information I could teach you if I came out and we spent a week together and all we did is work on glue pulling with exactly perfect damage the whole time where I can teach.
So go check that out. I think you can get into that for under 500 bucks. In fact, I'm certain you get an under 500 bucks and you get lifetime access to it. You really can't beat that. Come learn how to glue pool with me, right? Again, what are you waiting for? Get after it. Thanks for listening. Make sure you're following us on social media.
We are at. Auto Appearance Institute across the board. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and LinkedIn. I'm not really LinkedIn. But if I did LinkedIn, that would be our handle to get there. Guys, reach out. Send me a message. Shout out to somebody that found that slide hammer. Maybe it may have been Jared Kirk, maybe.
I have to go back and look at my messages. I get a lot of messages. Shout out to whomever sent me the link to the ultra slide hammer that, or that Hudson was talking about. That's a pretty sweet slide hammer. Might have to add that to my arsenal of glue pole repair tools because again, can you ever have too many tools?
I don't think I just need a more space maybe looking at all these carts of glue pole tools behind me. I don't know, but Melissa's not shaking her head, so we're okay. We can still continue to get tool. Oh, there's the head shake. It's all good. So auto appearance institute. com for all things auto appearance Institute.
Keep an eye out for next week's episode. I'm hoping to grab an interview with Christina second year of Anson. If we get through the class and have a little bit of extra time if we don't make it for next week we do have a guarantee that we're going to talk to her and she's going to give us the history of ants and how her grandfather started and moved into Craig and how she took over.
I've heard the story before. I'd love to get it out here to the masses. And you might want to bring some Kleenex for that one. She can be a little bit of a tearjerker. So guys, that's it. Thanks so much for listening. Episode three. of the all access podcast with the Automotive Appearance Institute is in the books.
I'll see you guys next time.
Wait. I forgot to mention the coolest thing, like total surprise inside of the tornado tabs, Hudson has hid this little tiny mini baby cow. It's like The cutest fricking little thing ever. I love how he's done his branding. I love the cow from twisters and everything. And then I cut the bag open and dumped it out of my cart and there is this little baby cow.
So head on over to our Instagram to see a picture of said baby cow from Hudson and tornado tabs. All right, not really. We're done. See you guys next show.
