#13 All Access History GPR
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Gene Fetty: [00:00:00] Hey, what's up everybody, Gene Fetty with the Automotive Appearance Institute back at you with another episode of our all access podcast. Uh, just an audio only version today. I am fresh back off of the plane, like a few hours ago, uh, from a seminar, uh, that I attended in Phoenix. Uh, great time of the year to head to Phoenix for sure.
Uh, the weather was about perfect. So we left, uh, Pittsburgh, uh, Tuesday, uh, Wednesday morning. Uh, I believe everybody woke up to snow on the ground, uh, in the 20s. Uh, and we're We were sitting on our balcony, had our Airbnb, uh, sipping coffee, looking at the blue skies. Um, no humidity, of course, right? It's in the desert.
And, uh, man, like call it upper forties at night and [00:01:00] 70 so 70 or so. Uh, during the day, uh, really like in my ginger, can't stand the desert opinion. This is the perfect time to head to, uh, Phoenix or the desert, uh, Southwest and enjoy this incredible weather. Uh, got to see some, some PDR friends. Uh, we get to see, uh, Dave and Stacy stream, uh, of edgy tools.
Uh, and we get to hang out with the infamous. Dave Shalott, uh, Big Dent Dave, uh, we had, uh, early chat GPR episode, uh, with Big Dent Dave. Big Dent Dave, if you happen to listen, thoroughly enjoyed dinner and drinks. Can't wait to do it again. Dave and Stacey, always a pleasure to see you guys and hang out and talk.
Uh, and the drinks at that restaurant were amazing and the food was amazing. It really was a great week. [00:02:00] The seminar I attended, uh, is for online, uh, course builders. Uh, it was the main, uh, just, or that's why I went, uh, is to learn how to better create a better market, uh, and teach better. online. So that being said, we're coming into winter here in Pittsburgh, which is course creation season.
Uh, definitely keep an eye out on all things auto appearance Institute. Uh, we've got a couple new classes coming down the pipe. Uh, from intro, uh, introduce, introduction to PDR, uh, to, uh, advanced glue pulling, uh, like a full course on advanced glue pull techniques, uh, and maybe even two classes there, uh, one more tailored to, uh, heavy, the heavy hit side, right.
And [00:03:00] dialing in more like what we're going to be talking about at MTE, uh, January 30th in Orlando. mte. live is the website, uh, but, but more on the, the large starting large damage properly uh, and efficiently, uh, and more advanced glue pull finishing techniques, right? Taking your glue pull skills as far as you can take them, uh, right.
So super excited about some of the new classes that are underway. I'm all fired up, uh, from the seminar, uh, seminars are all Always good to go to. You should be growing. You should come to MTE in Orlando, hit the seminars, rejuvenate yourself, get those juices flowing and, uh, you know, be ready to come back and, uh, grab 2025 by the horns and set yourself up for an amazing year.
So, uh, let's talk about, [00:04:00] I was sort of struggling like with, with what to talk about on this episode, uh, and being a glue pole nerd. Um, I think, and I think I have a good section of this in the masterclass, but not, not everybody in the world has bought the GPR masterclass available at GPR masterclass. com, uh, for all things, glue, pull repair, to start you on your journey journey to becoming a glue roo.
Uh, but I think I have a little history of, uh, glue, pull repair. Uh, and it's interesting to me, uh, and hopefully To you, if you're a follower, uh, on, on sort of the origins of glue, pull repair and how, uh, sort of how we got to where we are today. So I started my paintless career in 2002. Uh, so maybe call that 14 years [00:05:00] after PDR really started to make it to the States.
Um, when I went to training. Uh, at the paint bowl in Michigan in 2002. Uh, they showed us glue pull repair. Uh, in fact, I bought the glue pull system, uh, because when it worked, like it was really cool, man. It just popped the dent right out. Uh, I started out with a bridge system. Now don't think like bridge or beam, like a K beam or a K beam junior would be today.
No, I'm talking about like, do you remember the, uh, ding King bridge puller infomercial from the mid two thousands? Or have you been to Harbor freight and looked at the bridge glue puller system? Um, that was my first system. Uh, it was by [00:06:00] dent out a dent out is still around. They actually still sell. At least last I've looked, they still sell that same bridge system that I started with 20 some odd years ago.
Uh, and they do have some really incredible glue. The dent out red glue is a killer. I mean killer hot weather, glue, hot, humid weather. I think it was born out of Texas actually, but hot, humid weather. Man, that den out red glue is legit. Um, for me anyways, back to the history of my history of, uh, the beginnings of glue pole repair for me.
Uh, it was like the last thing I wanted to do. It was. It was a, it was an absolute last resort. I did not want to glue pull anything. Uh, there was no Kiko 6C process, uh, to figure out how to make it work. Uh, there was no quick move, right? It was just a [00:07:00] screw. Um, I would do anything I could to not glue pull, but that is not where glue pull started.
Uh, I originally, or heard, Originally, and ironically, the internet still thinks this is how you do it. Uh, that, uh, I heard this in a seminar that Terry Siegel, uh, was giving at MTE years ago, uh, and they're doing small damage, they're doing hail damage. Uh, and they were literally taking a glue stick. Like a hot glue stick from Walmart or Michael's or the craft store.
Uh, and they were running a torch over it and getting it melty and sticking it on the panel and yanking and pulling as hard as they could. Uh, then I believe they sort of moved into some bridges and they were trying to get a snap. So he said he would put like a screw gun on the bolt and try to unscrew it really [00:08:00] fast to try to get that pop right.
Like you would get with the squeeze of a mini lifter now, or the slide of a slide hammer. That was the original. Origins of glue pole as, as it pertains to PDR, then sometime around, uh, give or take 1999 back to the 1900s. For you, uh, youngins, um, the last century, anyways, uh, a company called worth, uh, came out with the original, their original, uh, glue poles set up.
It was a. Slide hammer system. Uh, probably if you hunt around at a lot of body shops, there was still the worth, the black worth toolbox, uh, sitting around with the original worth slide hammer, uh, and their glue and a putty scraper and some sort of weird chemical, uh, and [00:09:00] four different types of taps. They had two different materials.
So they had yellow and purple. Uh, yellow was a little bit. Either more rigid or just thicker. Uh, and the purple was, uh, softer, a little bit more malleable. Uh, and then you had round, uh, and I would call it maybe like a two inch, inch, inch and a half, two inch, um, face or an oval, right? Like a football shaped tab.
Uh, those were your two shapes. And you got a slide hammer. I think it was a standard Dupont slide hammer. Uh, the black Anson basic slide hammer. It looks about like what the worth. Slide hammer looked like right, but just a no frills, uh, slide hammer. Uh, and the glue stuck really well, uh, but it did not come with denatured alcohol or rubbing alcohol to take it off.
Uh, they basically gave you a putty [00:10:00] scraper and said, take your heat gun, heat it up, scrape it off the car, clean it. And then there was some sort of solvent, uh, in a can that would, that would help wipe that final mix up
again, born out of PDR. Uh, but they really. Uh, started going after the body shops, right? Sort of probably seeing the bigger picture like Kiko ended up seeing and Cam Otto, uh, right. That there's more body technicians than there are PDR techs.
Anyways, they went after it with that. Uh, not too long after that, too many years after that, probably around that. Oh, two when I. Started getting into the business. Uh, I remember seeing on door ding. com, uh, that somebody, or that, that worth had made some sort of mini lifter. I had no idea what a mini lifter was.
Couldn't picture it. Um, [00:11:00] didn't see pictures for a little while, but everybody was talking about how cool the mini lifter was and the tabs had gotten smaller. They started making smaller tabs. Um, so that's like from literal glue, sticking, like sticking glue to a car, to the worth slide hammer and tabs into the worth mini lifter and slightly smaller tabs.
Um, that's the original, uh, evolution of glue from there. Uh, you started seeing, uh, like, And again, I think you can still find this at Anson and maybe even a one. Um, the original call it generic silver with black feet, uh, mini lifter. Uh, and then some other companies started going to get into the tab game.
Uh, so, uh, worth, uh, had some of my old school [00:12:00] favorite tabs. They were red, uh, with rings and small, like you could get down to maybe not quite dime size, Maybe a dime, maybe a hair bigger than a dime, um, nickel quarter. Uh, and then there were the green tabs that came out. Those may have been sold through a one, but don't hold me to it.
Uh, but green, uh, right. Just different plastic, slightly different, um, design on the face. Uh, and at this point, everybody was sort of thinking, uh, that just like sandpaper or sanding, like a mechanical bond, you wanted more surface area. Well, it turns out, uh, that wasn't the best idea. But we're not done evolving through all the different faces and shapes and sizes of tabs.
As these smaller tabs started to come on, right, glue pulling started to get a little bit [00:13:00] better, uh, through dorting. com, right, because we're not even really to the Facebook days, but we're back in the old internet forum days. Uh, I started hearing about people much smarter than myself, uh, actually taking and cutting down like the old worth tabs, the original, uh, for original worth tabs, uh, it was like, well, how do you pull a crease?
Well, take an oval and it's got like a V down the middle and take a knife or scissors, heat it up and cut the shape of the tab, uh, down to a crease, right? Or a short crease or a longer crease. Uh, and, and people started playing around with that. Uh, and then I can remember I know you could get them from Ultra.
It looked like a turquoise worth style tab, uh, round. They were being cut. You can actually [00:14:00] see the cut marks. I don't know what they were using to cut it with, but you could buy pre cut down worth tabs. Uh, probably around this time. So we're probably getting into the mid two thousands, right? Late six, seven, eight.
Nine, 10, somewhere around there. Uh, you're starting to see more tabs and people getting better with glue pulling, uh, like a lot better, but the catch is things are getting smaller, right? So you're the evolution in hindsight, the evolution is starting where, uh, we're heading towards being able to pull. More like we would push, but tabs are not getting bigger yet.
Tabs are still getting smaller for sure. Then, uh, like let's call it fast forward [00:15:00] to 2010 11, uh, somewhere. maybe nine, uh, a company called Atlas tabs comes out. I think Lincoln Farrell was the original founder designer owner of those. Uh, and he has since sold two and I believe the tabs are still available at a one tool at PDR tool.
com. Um, these tabs. Had like hexagon shapes inside of the face. Like there was Lincoln really put a lot of surface area into the face and whatever material he was using, whatever the black plastic was. Pulled hard, uh, and then he went all the way down to, I don't think he went down as far as a nine millimeter, uh, but [00:16:00] probably, uh, 11 or 12, like definitely smaller than a dime, but not, not into the single digit millimeters, at least not yet.
I don't think those for me. up with, if you've ever had a training with me, uh, it's the Fred story. Uh, that's where my original PDR trainer, Fred came into work for us on a hail storm in 2011. Uh, and he was kicking everybody's butt at, at pulling the rails. Like it was just super fast and super clean. And I sort of shook him down for, for some tips and tricks on what he was doing to be so efficient.
Uh, and, and Fred, I guess being a little smarter than your average bear, uh, had been taking fast for rewind back to those worth tabs that lined up with the mini lifter. He had been putting them in a [00:17:00] drill. And essentially turning his drill into a little lathe and turning them down to approximately like call it a nine millimeter size tap.
So he was pulling with the smallest tabs that I had seen and he was using the dent out red glue. Original instructor, I guess he fell in love with that glue back in the day anyways, continued to pull with that glue and learn that glue and love that glue. Side note, tech tip, you don't need to jump around to a bunch of different glues.
You need to master one glue at a time and know exactly how that glue will act, which is what Fred did, which is what he showed me, which is what I did and continued to do even to today. I do not jump around to a bunch of different glues. I kind of find what I like and stick with it and learn all the nuances.
End of lesson. Um, so started working. Uh, and pulling smaller. And I know that, that for sure, uh, Atlas tabs, uh, got smaller [00:18:00] or I started turning them down myself and making some of my own small tabs then while Fred was there, he only had a couple of these. Uh, but there was, I'm fairly certain it was from ultra, uh, some white nylon Delrin, whatever the old knockdowns were made out of the old white generic knockdowns.
Steve at Ultra had been turning, uh, right, they did an injection mold, but he had been turning on a lathe, uh, some smooth face tabs, some smaller ones, uh, even some slightly smaller shafts. And those pulled great. But they weren't mass produced. Like they were sort of hard to get and you maybe even bought them one at a time.
I even made a few, took some old knockouts and made a few of the tabs myself, right on, I had a lathe back in the day, but take note that we [00:19:00] noticed that that smooth face pulled harder. But we didn't think about, we weren't like really thinking about process. That process still hadn't come into play. Uh, but we knew that those had a very unique pull to them, that the smooth faced, small white ultra tabs and the smaller, uh, tabs that were turned down or that Atlas was making, you know, maybe I'll have to go find some.
I think I still have a box of them here somewhere, right? Some smaller tabs. So we're evolving from a glue stick. And to relatively large tabs and then tab size has trended down right over 12, 13 years, tab sizes are trending down then, uh, Atlas, uh, shakes things up and comes out with a new line of Titan tabs.
So he starts sizing up tabs a little bit, [00:20:00] uh, column. They looked like more. Beefed up versions of, uh, the original worth tabs. He had some big ovals, uh, flat. Uh, still with textured face, but a flat face, another one with a convex face for getting down into deeper dents. Um, I think somewhere on my website, I still may have a picture of a Sienna minivan I did with like four, uh, Titan tabs on the quarter panel.
Right? And it was huge hard pulls and getting into larger damage, right? The, the tab size is trending up. Lighting's gotten better. Tools have gotten better. Glue's getting better. We're going after bigger tabs. So we see the, the trend of tab size, start to take that shift around that nine, 10 mark. Uh, this is also, uh, around the time that a little glue company.
or glue tab company [00:21:00] called Kiko, uh, starts to show up in the game. Now I didn't know it at the time, uh, but Kiko is based in Oklahoma city as is Dentcraft, uh, in Oklahoma city. And the first time I saw these little blue golf ball dimple textured tabs coming out, uh, were anytime you would order tools from Dentcraft.
You would get a little sample pack of these Kiko taps. Um, I started seeing them, uh, popping up in, uh, dording. com. People are talking about them. And I think much like, uh, the black material that Atlas used, I think the original Kiko blue material had a little better bite than even the black, right? Then Atlas, uh, they started to be.
a pretty cool little tab, a pretty useful tool. I honestly would order [00:22:00] stuff from Dentcraft just to get the Chicco tabs. Like we're going back that far. I'm not even sure. I don't know. I mean, we didn't, I didn't glue pull like a glue pull today. I'm not sure that I ever had to buy a whole bag of the small original Kiko taps.
But anyways, right, moving through our storyline. Now we've got this new player. Uh, that nobody's ever heard of, uh, moving into the glue tab space and call it nine, 10. In fact, it was nine, it was 2009 because the 10th anniversary of Kiko tabs, uh, was in 2019. I was at that party with Chris White. So two, nine, nine, nine.
2009 Kiko starts to come into, uh, the, the mix
Kiko starts putting out more and more designs of tabs and, uh,[00:23:00]
more different size tabs, larger tabs, uh, maybe not large, larger than his original small tabs. Um,
all right, so more, uh, different size tabs. And, and I want to say even some smaller tabs, right. Coming on down and for me, right. And for a lot of texts, like the evolution is like, what's the, it's not just what's the latest tab, but like glue tab technology is getting better and you're seeing. So I would, I would say that Atlas tabs and Kiko tabs have become my go to tabs at this point, right?
Like I had phased out all of the other tabs, right. And just, you're not using them very often. They just fall by the wayside.[00:24:00]
Next up is, I believe, uh, our friend, uh, Keith Cosentino starts to come out and this is trending with tabs getting a little larger. He comes out with his original black plague crease tabs. Um, these, Were, and I think you can probably still get them on, on dead rat, dead rat tabs. com. I think they're probably still available.
He came out with some crease tabs, uh, on the small side of them. Uh, he had come up with a design. Uh, I think I want to say it was the like groove cut into the middle of these tabs. Uh, the groove sort of created a, an inverted line. And would let you pull at that point the tightest line creases that you could pull, right?
It was the first real main market crease tab. The [00:25:00] Blem tab may have been on the market by then. Uh, and that was like a great, I don't want to get the timelines wrong, but the Blem crease tab was a great crease tab. In fact, if you still order them, they still pull pretty nice, just not as well as what's available today.
But anyways, Keith comes out with these. I can't remember if it's two iterations or if he started large and went small. I just remember Black Plague being the first like crease series of tabs. So it's small, like maybe half inch up to two and a half or three inch and relatively narrow. And then he had these like big honking crease tabs.
I'm talking like an inch wide and probably four inches long. Flat face, uh, convex face and those things, right? Were maybe at the time, if he beat [00:26:00] Kiko to market on Large tabs or if Kiko beat him with the super tabs, the tabs are now definitely post Atlas Titan tabs are starting to trend up, right? Gloop whole technology is getting better.
Tools are getting better. We're going after larger dents. The tabs start to get bigger. So the black plague original crease tabs in the big size, right? Like they would hook up and it was hard to get them back off the car. But man, you could pull some, you could pull some metal out with those things. I mean, really, really incredible, uh, moves, which takes us to, I may have this timeline wrong, uh, but we're close.
Chris and Keith, forgive me if I flip flop these, uh, but we're, we're in the same region or maybe we'll, we'll talk about it this way. [00:27:00] Let's keep talking about that trend up and Kiko starts to come out with their super tabs. In fact, I if I didn't throw them away in our move to the new shop, I know, uh, as of a year ago, I still had at least one of the original oval super tabs.
So it had that signature Kiko golf ball, temple, dimple texture to them. Um, these were big, I mean huge tabs at the time. Uh, it's the same design center tabs as are available today, but these I want to say came out probably early teens of the 2000s. Um, and we'll take a side note. On those, but they were a bit of a flop.
If you go back and listen to Chris tell the story, uh, a little bit of a flop because [00:28:00] not all PDR texts were attacking big damage, but even still today, not all PDR texts are attacking big damage, but there's certainly more of us that will swing at a smash. Uh, than ever before on the smaller side of things.
And we'll come back and visit Kiko and the big tabs and collision in a minute. As we, as we finish out this little story, the history of Pete or history of glupo repair, as we come back, we go back to our buddy, Keith Cosentino with black plague. Keith comes out with the original, uh, black plague tabs, the gray.
Face taps. Now Keith was, and I can't remember how he came up with it, but he sort of bunked common knowledge or common thought of more texture, more textured face equals more surface area. And he was like, well, what if I made a smooth [00:29:00] face? He's like, why, why do all these have texture? Has anybody tried smooth?
And he did try smooth and I don't know if anybody can find it or if Keith even still has it out somewhere. He did a video where he took, uh, his smooth gangrene or his smooth black plague tabs and put them on the glass so you could see actually what was going on on the backside. And then he took at the time, you know, probably Atlas and Kiko with their texture and it.
Stuck them all in the glass and you could see that Keith's tabs Had a more solid consistent font it was a Big step in the evolution of glue pull repair in my mind His tabs and he went all the way down to a nine millimeter for sure the smooth series tabs pulled [00:30:00] So much better than anything on the market, like, just like when Atlas came to market and his material and design pulled harder than everything before it.
And then Kiko pulled even harder than Atlas. Keith came in with his original smooth series tabs and just took everybody to school. In fact, if you listen to Chris, if you get Chris White to tell you the story, he will talk about how well they were doing. And then Black Plague shows up with their smooth series tabs and just pulls the rug right out from under.
Kiko on the small taps, like pretty crazy stuff. Um, and then I want to say Keith made a switch in plastics from gray to green, birthing the gang green tabs, uh, still smooth. Uh, he redid the original crease tabs [00:31:00] and the gang green color. Uh, I got a great bite. Like now Gluepol is becoming less of a, I don't want to do it to it's, it's transitioning now more into a man.
How much is Gluepol this instead of try to get a tool to it, right? We're, we're starting to approach that. Speaking of Gluepol evolutions, right? Let's jump back over to Kiko and the super tabs. Uh, and, and they were not selling like hotcakes. Chris went to a show. Uh, I can't remember if he was in Europe. Or here, uh, but Jonathan, uh, shows up to the booth and goes and buys a bunch of these new Kiko super tabs as he's starting to walk away.
Uh, Chris runs over and grabs them and he's like, Hey, Hey, Hey, what are you doing? Why? [00:32:00] I can't sell these anywhere. Nobody wants to buy these tabs. And you're coming in here and you're buying a ton of them. Like what's the deal. And Jonathan's like, well, Hey, I was a body man before, uh, a PDR tech and, and with these tabs and some of these, uh, techniques I've figured out, he's like, I'm really able to move some big metal, really clean and like, these are awesome.
Well, that, uh, begins a relationship between, uh, Chris and Jonathan that really leads us down the path to, uh, collision, glue, pull repair, right? I think this is probably mid teens, 15, 16, somewhere around there. Uh, leads to the birth of the K bar, the birth of the K beam centipede tabs. Um, what right? Like certainly the foundation of what we would call [00:33:00] modern day glue pull repair for collision, uh, was born out of that, uh, happenstance of, of Jonathan, uh, buying some tabs and Chris seeing it and stopping him and asking questions.
We should all in these trades be grateful for, for the two of them meeting, uh, and the, the universal lining to set that up. So those tabs, uh, get big and right, like start, uh, to make waves into the collision industry. I can remember if you search up, it may, it may be under like JVF tools on YouTube or, uh, Jonathan van in Fontaine, look him up on YouTube for the spelling.
He had a video of what looked like a Volkswagen Euro van, but, but Jonathan's in Belgium. So like there's lots of European vans that look like [00:34:00] Euro vans, uh, where if the, if memory serves a horse had like hip checked the back quarter of this thing and Jonathan set up. I would imagine I'd have to go back and watch again.
I would imagine some centipede tabs on a pull tower and in essence makes one move or one giant move and takes this huge quarter panel smash. Uh, and pulls it back out. Like I can remember keeping that video saved in my YouTube and I'm showing my body shops, like, man, you guys got to watch and see what, what this company Kiko's doing and my friend, Jonathan, and look at.
Like this is crazy stuff. Go find that video. Go give Jonathan some love and go like that video and maybe we'll try to bring it back up and I'll see if I can even find it and put it in the show notes for the show today. But like really incredible, [00:35:00] uh, incredible stuff from there. I start to see
Kiko reaching out and, um, into the collision space, right? I can walk following them, following their content. Uh, I can see how they're moving towards collision, uh, and then not long after that, uh, I remember like seeing Jonathan's videos and then this wild man from Canada. Uh, uh, Charlie, Charles Oyun shows up with, uh, Cam Auto Pro, right?
And he is going straight, huge pulls. I remember watching a video of Charlie, uh, picking the front end of a car up off the ground with one or two glue tabs and some collision glue. Right? Like pick the car up off the ground. Everybody's mind was blown [00:36:00] and it has evolved into right. The collision side today, where now we've got pull towers and huge tabs.
Uh, I don't want to say that it's really bordering on. Repair, but like it is getting close with, with the amount of metal, uh, that can be moved today using glue, pull repair. But as we, as we sort of wrap up the collision side, right, everybody is pretty familiar with what's available now on the collision side.
Let's rewind a few years back. And Kiko, right, got tired of taking it on the chin from Black Plague with their smooth tabs and started their own smooth line of tabs, but he got smart. They got really smart and they started to introduce and play around with dead center technology where just like forever, everybody said tab faces have to have texture, uh, for from [00:37:00] inception, uh, essentially the shaft size of the tab.
stayed standard. Like it's this size cause it fits every, uh, slide hammer, mini lifter out there, right? It's, it's this size shaft. Well Kiko started playing around with the idea of as the tab face gets smaller, Maybe so should the shaft and instead of a thick faced tab, they started thinning the face of the tab out to allow a more funny name dead center pull to the middle of the tab, right?
To be able to allow you to pull sharper. Uh, and tab size, right? With that, with those changes, um, with making the shaft smaller. Now you can make the face smaller because it wouldn't make sense to make the face smaller than the shaft, right? So it opened up an evolution there. I think I want to say the [00:38:00] dead center tabs came into the market in 17, but didn't like really gain traction till like maybe late 18, uh, Uh, and it was 18 before I found them.
Uh, we had a hail storm and, uh, a hail guy came in and starts running circles around everybody on these roofs that were, it was light damage. So we were glue pulling a lot of the roofs. This dude's running circles and I'm like, man, what's, you know, what are you doing different than everybody else? And he pulls out this little tab with this little shaft.
And he's like this, and I'm like, those are going to break. And he's like, I'm telling you, man, try them. And he gave me a few dead center tabs game changer off to the races. Um, everybody that I interned then showed the dead center tabs to, right. Would order bags and bags of them and go to town. And, uh, just un, unbelievable the difference in that technology and how that works out [00:39:00] after that.
Right. Probably the, the latest, I guess the latest technology move, right. From dead center technology. Oh, and Kiko went from just the round tabs to a dead center crease tab set up, uh, that allowed really some pretty tight line creases. Still my favorite crease finishing tabs, hands down are the Kiko dead center crease tabs.
Uh, my friend, John Videne comes to market through Kiko. Uh, it comes out with the, the dent reaper tabs. Licensing the dead center technology, right? So you can get the smaller face, the smaller shaft and get that pull. He stuck, stepped it up, pun intended, uh, one step higher and he created a step down in the face of the tab.
Uh, it's called edge flex technology. That allows essentially that dead center move where the [00:40:00] tab really like almost holds on and flexes up to the center of the face by thinning out that face extra around the edge. Uh, John was able to exponentially increase the holding power, the, the dead center style pull, uh, into the face of the tab, right?
Allowing an even sharper pull. Fast forward and play off of that. Right to today, Hudson Tansy in partnership with Kiko has come out with the tornado tabs where he has taken a standard head or a standard shaft size at the head and spun it down in the shape of a tornado. Good marketing Hudson and the shape of a tornado, uh, to give like a different.
Type of dead center pull those tabs pull an even sharper high spot, right? [00:41:00] So it's all these little nuances moving through just making things even better and then I guess the the current cool thing in glue pull repair is Uh, the evolution of lateral tension, right? Which is actually just old school metalworking technique and like backing up and undoing what, or how the damage went in.
Uh, but an evolution of, uh, I really call it like the third dimension of glue pull repair, where all of these tabs have been put on low spots and you pull them, reverse them back out and knock down the high spots and call it a day. Well, anytime a panel is hit or metals hit, it doesn't just travel.
Straight in and out. It travels in and out and then laterally as well. Right? So if we're looking at the side of a car and the door gets it, it doesn't just go straight in it to some degree moves in from the right and from the left into that impact point. Well, there's [00:42:00] a whole new. Set of ways to pull lateral tension, right?
I think Charlie from, uh, cam auto was the first guy to really bring tabs in. Uh, I can't remember exactly what they're called, but, uh, big hook with a face that would hook over the edge and get into a jam. Uh, and then you started seeing like Kiko coming out with their lateral tension beams, the threaded rod that pushes.
Uh, now we've got. Offset beams, uh, like the JVF retention, uh, which allows you to pull out and stretch laterally and compress recompress a panel if you need to recompress a panel like the opposite of lateral tension. Um, Kiko just came out with their plastic tab straps. Uh, speaking of straps. There, uh, is a line of straps, uh, from Black Plague and Anson that they're actual nylon straps that let you [00:43:00] conform to the car that don't create any extra damage.
Unbelievable what you can do with glue pull today, right? Coming from like, if we, if we go back, coming from a literal glue stick. Where we're Terry and the original like PDR guys were literally glue sticking with a glue stick and pulling to today where we have processes in place and tabs and technology that allow us to pull on a frame machines and pull, not just.
In and out, uh, but pull laterally and actually begin to unfold metal. It is unbelievable to me what proper process and proper repair path with all of the tools that we have available today. It's unbelievable what you can do. Like that's [00:44:00] just, it blows my mind. So guys, I hope you enjoyed my little or our little walk through, uh, the history asterisks that I'm aware of.
Um, of glue pull repair and I hit my date line as best as I can. Uh, if you've got a date that I'm wrong on, send us a DM, shoot us an email, let me know where it is so I can get my story straight. If you would like to see what's possible with glue pull repair, if you're not glue pulling, if you're thinking about glue pulling, uh, we have our first live glue pull repair webinar.
Uh, coming up on Thursday, January 9th, starting at 7 p. m. Eastern. This is a completely free webinar, but seats are limited. So make sure you go pre register. Uh, you go to our website, auto appearance institute. com forward slash webinar, uh, to sign up, to make sure you get pre registered to get on that [00:45:00] list.
Uh, we're looking at a couple of different softwares to do the webinar, but once we have it, registration will be there. If you are on our list, I will pre register you so you have your seat in that class. If you are ready to learn, glue, pull, head over to GPR masterclass. com and look at our full, um, masterclass on glue pull.
It is everything you need to know soup to nuts to get started in glue pull to start doing large damage, uh, to learn how to finish off small damage, right? Like we really walk you through everything you need to know to begin glue pulling. MTE 2025 is coming up. I've got three sessions that I will be doing on Wednesday beginners day.
We're going to have a glue pull 101 for new technicians, right? We're not going deep. Uh, we're not getting crazy, but if you are a new tech, [00:46:00] I'm going to get you started, set you up for success with glue pole repair on Thursday. If you are a more advanced tech or you are just looking to level up your game, uh, Thursday morning on education day, I'm going to have advanced glue pole repair, learning to use glue to unfold large damage.
Super, super excited to bring that to you guys. Uh, those are totally free. Show up, first come, first served, uh, the, the Thursday event. Uh, we'll probably go to standing room only. So get there early. Speaking of standing room only Thursday afternoon, we are doing another shop owners round table. Uh, myself, Matt Moore, uh, Corey Klinefeldt, Christopher Ray, and Dave Detlaff are doing a round table, taking your questions, uh, about shop ownership and [00:47:00] business growth, uh, and what that looks like last year.
It was my. most well attended event. Uh, it literally was standing room only. They even put extra seats in the room. Do not miss out on that. With that, keep an eye out because we're going to be doing, uh, probably some podcast episodes or some live streams, uh, to help get the questions dialed in so we can give you the best possible answers at the expo.
So check that out. Guys, follow us on social media. We are at auto appearance Institute. Everywhere that we social media at that is where you can find us. Thank you so much for listening. Uh, if you're in a podcast app. Uh, go leave us a review that will help us show up better. Uh, if you're finding value from this, uh, podcast, I would love to hear about it.
If you have ideas on show topics, or if you need help through a repair or would like me to live recorded on the podcast, walk through one of your [00:48:00] repairs and maybe see what you did, right. What you could do better. Uh, send over some repairs. We would love to see it. You can send us a DM on any of the social media apps or email us at admin at auto appearance institute.
com and myself or Dylan, we'll get back to you and get you set up guys until next time, have an amazing week.
