#28 Level Up Training Walk Through The All Access Podcast with The Automotive Appearance Institute
===
[00:00:00] Hey, what's up everybody? Gene Ty back at you with another episode of our All Access podcast from the Automotive Appearance Institute. Uh, guys, I'm tired. It is, uh, level up week or the day before Level up, week starts, which means we have been prepping everything out. Um, it's great. I think we're set up and in fact, that's what most of this episode is gonna be about, is, uh, showing you, uh, what it's gonna be about and what it took.
Uh, but, you know, me and John were talking and, uh, wanted to give you like a little peek into what it takes to set up, uh, a training like this. Uh, or, you know, think about like an advanced skill seminar from PDR College, which by the way, is coming up in October. Somewhere around 9, 10, 11, 12, 10, 11, 12, 13, something like that.
Keep an eye out. Uh, we will be there doing the filming for that. Uh, and I know Bryce is gonna be the headlining instructor [00:01:00] again. But anyways, I have helped those guys set up there before. I've helped work those shows. I've presented there, uh, I've done Kiko trainings, right? We do these trainings and, uh, wanted to give you like a little peek, uh, into what it looks like to set up.
This kind of training or really any, any kind of major training. So, right. Obviously, first off, uh, I'm sure plenty of you have seen our ads, right? So we had to go out and find students to come in, paid advertising, uh, putting the creative together. Uh, you probably saw me sleeping on the, uh, the hood on the, uh, workhorse.
Like any number of things. It all, uh, all of that goes into getting this ready. Uh, but what I really wanna show you today, uh, is as we move into the hard, um, hard prep, right? Like the, the actual get everything together for these classes kind of thing. Um. Anyways, [00:02:00] it's a lot. So we have, uh, two times this week, me and Mac, my son, uh, have been out at the, uh, pull and pay grabbing panels, hoods, and doors, uh, to practice on, right?
So that's go out, that's find them right. It's a junk yard. It's not all good. Find good panels. Uh, pull the panels off. Do all the RNI bring 'em back here, degrease 'em, and scrub 'em up. Polish what needs polished. Uh, it's a ton. Uh, get the, get the studio right behind me. Uh, I would normally, of course be over filming in front of the a AI sign, uh, but right it's classroom set up here for that I.
Uh, we've got the camera rigs ready to go to film everything. I'll give you a little peek at those. And these cool new, uh, wireless HDMI adapters, uh, that we started using a little while ago, uh, that I'm really excited about for the class, uh, and really excited about for. Uh, advanced skills, you know, coming up this fall to, uh, show that [00:03:00] stuff.
Uh, I'm gonna show you some of the goodies that the students are gonna get. Um, Anson was awesome and, uh, stepped up and we've got some great lights from a eliminant to use for the class. We've got the Stinger paddles, uh, we've got the new, the brand new to the Market Collision glue from Dent Slayer to give things a go.
Um. Secure Tech. Uh, mark from Secure Tech sent out some mats and some accessories, uh, for the STU students to use. Uh, it's actually like the first time I saw this, I guess he was at A-A-P-D-R expo and at MTE, uh, and I didn't really get to see, uh, the product. Uh, pretty cool product. Uh, I'm gonna certainly try to put it into use myself and see how I like it.
Uh, I'll show you that in a minute. Um, I'm gonna take you out in the shop. We're gonna show you the, the demo car that we have. Uh, with some ugly rail dents to start. We've got some nasty, sharp shots, uh, and some hoods. Uh, we'll check out the Elem Dent [00:04:00] lights. Also, a couple new tools, new to me that I picked up.
Uh, one because we wanted them and two to have 'em here for the training. So I'm gonna give you a little sneak peek at those one 'em familiar with. And one is brand new. I haven't even plugged it in yet. Uh, we're really excited to see how that works. And I wanna touch base, uh, and go back to. Uh, the shrinky box, the SB four from Keith at Black Plague.
I got to use that a little bit. And, uh, I wanna give you just a quick review on that. Give you some updated thoughts now that I've been able to put it to use and see what I think. So without further ado, uh, let's take a look and see what's going on back here. Uh, I'm trying to do this one run through, so no cuts, no edits.
It's you. It's me. If your audio, it's the microphone. And if you're watching the video, uh, we've got the GoPro set up. Uh, so we're gonna see what's going on. So I'm gonna bring you over here first and show you the camera setups. So [00:05:00] for the class, right, because we really want a lot of hands on here. Uh, but as we get into a bigger class, it's harder to see exactly what's going on.
So we have got our Canon Xas, which are our 4K cameras set up. Uh, great Zoom if you've ever been to advanced skills. These are just newer versions of the same cameras. Uh, that they were using there. Instead of 10 80 we're 4K, and this little bad boy here transmits the full resolution, uh, file over to our tv.
So we will be able to sneak the cameraman in, uh, and use the X xas to show exactly what's going on. So we've got a couple of xas, of course snacks, et cetera. Now here. Uh, from Market Secure Tech. We've got some [00:06:00] cool, uh, I guess badges to put on the, uh, put on the mats and we'll show you that those in a little bit, uh, and or your backpack.
Right? Those are always good. Some of the giveaways or the gifts for the students, right? The new Dent Slayer. Hot weather, hot climate, collision glue. I've not used that yet. Uh, but we've got a bunch to use up the Stinger Paddle available at Anson. Uh, just my little gift to the students love this thing. Uh, if you've not used this yet, check it out.
In fact, you can head over to the website. You're supposed to get the cost for free when you get one of these. Uh, but we've got a free class on auto appearance institute.com. Uh, in the course catalog. It's the Stinger class. It's totally free. Check it out. And I give you a whole little mini course on why we use that.
And we got dent texts, right? So, [00:07:00] and since sent some stickers. I'm digging the shock blocker too. Sticker. Pretty cool. Uh, and of course all of the a AI stickers. Um, so that's super cool. Uh, so those are some of the giveaways. Then we have got, these are not giveaways, but because they're so great to use, we've got the new limited mini light.
I know this was a big hit at MTE. Uh, so magnet back there, quarter 20 mount there. So you put it on a tripod. This is nice because it has dual color, uh, here, right? So cool white, warm white, all in one light. Or you can turn 'em both on. Probably hard to see on the GoPro, uh, dimmer. Right to demo down, brighten 'em up, really, uh, huge [00:08:00] upgrade to the pocket light.
And then, uh, I didn't get them here 'cause we're only working on steel panels. There's also a magnetic automatic suction cup mount for these. Uh, they're awesome. And as with all eliminate stuff, right, killer build quality, uh. I've been using my old pro PDR Pocket light for years, and this already feels miles above that.
The reflection's great. You can really see down in deep dense, awesome piece. Thank you Christina and the Anson crew for that. So let's see here. I think let's take a walk out to the shop and see what's going on out there. Nothing else in here. We've got the mats out there, so I'll show you the mats. So here's the studio, here's the classroom.
Right, so plenty of seating. We could actually go bigger if need be. I've got my ginormous eight foot long whiteboard. Love [00:09:00] it. Let's see. Dylan left, left us a joke of the day. Here we go. What did the dent say to the Dent Tech? Don't push me today. Dylan's always good for a good dad joke anyways. She checks, changes that every day.
Sadly, we are losing Dylan. Uh, I think we only have a couple of more weeks of her left and then she's out and we have Sam the new guy. Uh, but we gotta make sure we get Dylan on here. Uh, we'll try to get her on next week's show to get a, uh, maybe a Farewell Dylan episode. Anyway, so here we are out in the shop.
And we have got a whole bunch of panels set up. We'll come back and talk about these tools in a minute. So we've got all of our practice hoods to work on. Got some gnarly dense here, so not, well, you guys can see that this dent [00:10:00] is one of those super sharp. Let's see if we can show you underneath. Yeah. You can probably see that nipple under there.
That dimple. Whew. Kind of glad I'm not demoing on this hood. Uh, but actually they're all about that nasty. So that's one of the types of damage, uh, that we're starting with tomorrow on day one. Is that super sharp, nasty. Don't miss the middle, uh, and really working that up and out and up and out, up and out to spread that metal out and make a, uh, a great repair.
We're also coming over here. I feel like guys like that transition and we've got the old Kia, so, and we've got some, I wish I could show you the, the nipple that's inside of these. Uh, you can probably see the, how good that shadow is. Nasty rail dent. With a pretty good poke up here. In fact, [00:11:00] lemme grab you a light and show you.
So the number one request that we're here from, uh, technicians is they wanna learn sharp, deep dents. Well, kids, that is a sharp, deep dent for sure. That's every bit of, every bit of three inches tall. Definitely deep. On the, uh, price of Dent Matrix to at least double, if not triple oversize, if we're writing it on hail, right.
Nasty, nasty stuff. So here actually have these set up on the roof for the techs to start messing around with. I think I've got a full one, a full load out over here. This, this is the secure tech. Matt that Mark sent out. So this [00:12:00] one is loaded all the way up, right? Case for your tabs. Tabs here. Uh, little like garbage bin if you want to call it the old Altoid tin, uh, for, he calls it his garbage can.
Um, a tab set up. A tip set up some knockdown holders. Uh, I don't know that I'm gonna use them on the car all the time, but they're meant to like set on a panel. I'll give you that protective surface. I think I'm most excited about this though. Uh, so I wore an apron for years, uh, when I was doing a ton of production and uh, I think I'm gonna be back in the production world pretty soon and we'll probably be going back to that.
This is an armband, right? Throw your armband on. You can keep a couple tabs. Your little alcohol shooter, a uh, knockdown right here, you know, like right on your arm. Super excited for that. So we're using these in the class this week. [00:13:00] Uh, look back, listen back, keep listening, uh, for an update on, uh, on thoughts on those thoughts from us and thoughts from the students.
But, uh, pretty cool. A pretty cool tool. I don't know that I condone setting stuff on cars, but on the flip side, as a tech real talk set stuff on cars all the time, I'm normally just putting a microfiber down, kind of digging this just yet to be decided. Initial thoughts, kind of dig it. Kind of dig it. Over here we got the new Eliminant X factor lights on the DNE stands with.
The never loose 'cause. You gotta have the never loose again. Shout out to Anson on these. Uh, I'm excited to put these into use and, uh, see what everybody thinks. So this car, right, while we're talking about stuff, this car, the old Kia, [00:14:00] uh, I got tired of just having panels. Uh, I don't like to destroy rental cars.
I went out and bought this gym specifically for teaching and, uh, showing exactly what we can do and we can be way more aggressive. Um, this is the first class we were teaching here with a car that doesn't matter, and we can be as aggressive as we want. So as the week progresses, I'm excited to see what, uh, what kind of damage the students get into.
But like all, uh. All the, everything's on the table for this. Like I don't care if we go Kiko style and flip the car over, we probably won't do that. 'cause that was a pretty good idea. Kiko also, if you haven't seen that video, head over to Kiko Body Repair Products. I know it was on Instagram and dude, they fricking glu a tab onto the rail and flip the car over like.
The process works for sure. Ah, so [00:15:00] over here, right? We got all the tools laid out, right? My tools, max tools, John's tools, the collision cart, everything like that. Ah, let's see. How about, uh, right, we saw the hoods. We saw that. Why don't we talk some tools? Let's get you set up here to talk about. What is going on?
So you guys have, uh, if you've been following any of my repairs or, or anything like that, uh, even watching the, the live streams, uh, more to come after this week, really dig them. Uh, just too busy this past week and this is training week, but when we're back into repairs, keep an eye out for the live, uh, live streams.
Super stoked about that. But I have absolutely been in love with. My K power, the full size, you know, call it four foot ish K Power. That thing has been [00:16:00] awesome. The ease of setup is fast, easy to move around. It flips outta your way. Uh, now I know other tools can do that too, but it's just, it's so fast and so easy.
I kept going back and forth and back and forth on the little baby K power. So I can't remember if this is a K power junior, K power mini. I'm gonna call it the little K power. Uh, anyways, this super stoked for it, uh, because I have been using that K power so much, also running into some more complex repairs, uh, all LA.
Kelly, uh, or even, uh, I saw a video that, uh, Geddes arison, I think it, I think that's how you say his name. Geddes shared, uh, with tension going in multiple directions to unfold some of these gnarly hits. Multidirectional tension, uh, is just where it's at. Like it just changes [00:17:00] everything. So I wanted this to be able to sneak into places.
I'm also noticing or paying attention to like. A lot of Danny's, uh, demos and Danny's repairs with Kiko that he's really bringing feet in close, uh, to the, to the low and pulling harder. I think it's just increasing power, exponential, you know, it's a, it's a power increase is what it is. So I wanted to get this where I could sneak into tighter places and.
Again, pay attention to the Kiko pages, um, with the accessories that I bought over, I bought at the end of the year for the, the K power. Uh, with that, we can turn this into like a mini screw drive port of power to help get into places and you can actually push metal, right? Put a big foot on here. They have the kidney shaped foot.
They have a big ca. Bar type foot where you can get in and move a ton of metal. Uh, [00:18:00] and because this is so short and so stout, like tons and tons of drive, uh, right. Run it like this with your handle or screw gun is what I use all the time. Another upgrade they did is I should have, if I was thinking, if had I prepped more properly for this podcast, uh, I would have grabbed them.
Uh, but anyways, the feet that go onto, lemme turn this screen on so I can see the feet that go onto the K Power on My Knot. I'm sure mine is a version one. I got it at MTE 24. So I've had it for not quite a year and a half, uh, maybe 14, 15 months. Anyways, the feet on mine are hard, uh, hard edge, uh, sharp corners, right, which is a little scary around cars.
These. Man, they rounded these off. Nice. They're, there's not a sharp edge on here. Uh, so great [00:19:00] little upgrade. I might have to, Dan, if you listen to this, can I buy just these feet? I might have to email them and see if we can do just that. But anyways, excited about that. I just saw these at the Northeast Show last week, uh, when Hayden was in the Kiko booth doing a demo and caught that these were nice and rounded out.
So super excited for. The new baby K power, the lowercase K power maybe. Uh, anyways, super stoked for that. Uh, we will definitely be putting that into use this week. Um, we just did, man, I, we should have got video. It came in late Friday, like a favor for a, a service manager at a dealership. Louie came in. A brand new Lexus, tx, something good size, SUV.
Anyways, aluminum fender punched right in between the headlight and the wheel. Gnarly stuff and aluminum. Uh, pretty [00:20:00] cool tension setup, not with the K power, but a cool tension setup. Nonetheless. Took the vertical beam from the perfect pool, jacked the car up, put the vertical beam on the floor under the tire.
With one of the, the grabber hooks, and then used one of the little LTT beams from Kiko. So the body line went, it, it comes straight down the car and then curves to the bumper, right? So not a 90, but forward and then down. And it was hit from the forward and threw the down. So what we did is we took a ed new yellow edge strap from Black Plague to the edge of the, we had the bumper off to the edge of the fender.
Following, like put that perpendicular to the body line angle anchored down to the perfect pole beam on the ground. Lots of tension there. And then we took that LTT beam back up onto the body line where it travels horizontally. And we were able to pull, you know, on the gauge, a quarter inch of tension.[00:21:00]
And the every, even John was here Friday. Every we had, they pulled the fender in, we're all looking, and we're like, uh, I don't know when he sent me the pictures. I didn't know it was aluminum. I was like, yeah, I think we can get it. When he said it was aluminum, I almost told him to not have the car come in, like I almost just pulled the rip cord.
But we set that tension up, pulling straight back on the body line with the LTT and down forward on that, the, the downturn body line with the edge strap and the perfect pole. Man. Huge, huge release. Left tension on there were like three good, sharp creases through it. Came up now. It was a big repair. It needed a fender kind of style repair, tension changes at all.
Like I couldn't believe how far in like two hours we got that. Uh, really incredible stuff. So tension is where it's at a tension. I'm excited about tension and I'm really excited this week to talk and teach tension. Speaking of glue and, [00:22:00] and tension and everything like that. Uh, so I could also use the JVF tool, right?
The short version of that and roll that out of the way. Those feet are big. Keith's straps are big. I've got hy a pair of those, tech eight 10 tech, eight 12, uh, collision guns from Anson, you know, like the a hundred dollars glue guns. And they're good. And they pump out more glue than anything else I had until now.
I think you guys probably saw it earlier, uh, when we walked out into the shop, uh, I guess if you're listening, you didn't see anything, uh, but you knew I was talking about a new tool. This is the new JVF high volume GPR Pro Glue Gun. So this Mamma Jamba. Is, uh, 500 watts. So 120 volts. So us plug, [00:23:00] right, us plug into the wall.
500 watts. Uh, but it's not just 500 watts. It has a fricking tank. Let's turn this back on. It is a tank. On the backside of here, I believe that Jonathan said we can put, or that it will, it will hold five sticks of glue. Look how much, look which room that is. I believe it'll hold five sticks of glue, but it's not like setting up five glue guns.
This will melt, melt five sticks of glue at the same time, like. Five, five hole sticks, melted, squirted out on whatever you need. He told me that once you switch to this gun, you're not going back. He might be right. Uh, certainly on the collision side of things. Um, [00:24:00] anyways, digital display, you can dial your temperature up and down.
Now this was pricey. Uh, this was not a gift. This was, both of these tools were purchased by me. These were not. Gifts by any stretch. Uh, this shipped from Jonathan, I think was right around $750 us. Uh, but if you're being serious about work and serious about tools, I. Uh, that's what you gotta do, right? You wanna have the right tools for the job.
It's got a magnet on the bottom. Uh, again, not that we condone putting it on the car, but it can, it will hold in place and it's got a, uh, rack now in the directions it says, do not lay this on the side. These vents have to be open 500 watts. This thing has to be pumping out some serious, serious juice. So anyways.
Reports to come, right? I'm certain I'm gonna love this. I'm also certain I love, I'm gonna love this, but I haven't tried it yet. Uh, [00:25:00] but I will let you know just how well this performs. Maybe even next week. I'm hoping to do a lot of, uh, tension and big polls in this class. So we will see. Now, last but not least, tool, tool-wise, I told you I'm not gonna go grab the box 'cause you've seen it already.
Uh, I got to use the new shrinky box. From Black Plague pdr.com, right? Keith Constantina. It's the new SB four great tool. So it doesn't work on voltage. Uh, I've used the power PDR since version one. I, I was an early adopter on that. Saw how important it was to be able to shrink. Um. And I think I have version two now.
And now I have the shrinky bot, the SB four. Anyways, uh, it doesn't work on volts, it works on percentage. Uh, it holds nice and steady. My old, uh, power PDR would sort of bounce and creep and move and you always had to be paying attention. Um, this holds steady at your percentage. My favorite [00:26:00] part. Hands down is the momentary button.
So put your stick in. Uh, it comes with graphite, comes with copper load, whatever kind of, uh, electrodes you want in. Go in, you can start feeling around, get where you want to be, and you don't have juice until you press and hold the trigger. As soon as you let go of the trigger, it's dead again. Right? It's, it's a lot more easy to control and, uh, be.
Cautious with, I suppose, um, easy to adjust the, the power up and down. Literally just click buttons up and down. Um, the ground is also cool, so I, we, we actually shot a how to video for block plague, like when you scan the QR code on the front, I believe that will take you to where you can get to our video that we made for Keith, uh, on, on how to use it, but set proper settings.
One thing I didn't think about that's actually really cool is on the ground. Uh, on the old ones, it's just a whole magnetic head. [00:27:00] Uh, this one comes with a clamp, which is cool for aluminum, but even cooler is the grounding rod for the ground. On the, the magnet, uh, sits is offset from the magnet and it's just a copper sharp pen.
Uh, you can go. And you don't need to grind off this whole big area for a ground, you can actually grind just a tiny little area. Uh, so you're removing less paint from the backside. And anytime you can do that, like that's an improvement or a, a better repair anyways. Very cool. So, uh, initial thoughts were, it was cool in actual use.
Putting it to use, shrinking with it. Uh, it's, it's fricking awesome. Not that I expected anything less. From Keith. Uh, I know he's a picky guy. I know he puts out great stuff. Um, but yeah, that, uh, the SB four is definitely guru glue root approved. Uh, even though we're typically not gluing, uh, stretch dense [00:28:00] would be a bad idea.
But anyways, still glu ru approved, right? We would put that stamp on there. Maybe I'd need to sell these guys a guru approved, uh, stamp. Uh, I'm hoping the glue gun. It ends up being guru approved. And it's orange, right? It's already halfway to our a a i colors. So guys, uh, again, short episode this week. I think we're still knocking on half an hour 'cause uh, I can talk, yeah, 28 minutes.
Um, if you didn't get signed up for the Level Up class, you're not making it. It's too late. This, we will be started likely before you listen to this episode, uh, or certainly at the shop getting things up to get started. However, head over hop on our email list to be ready for the next one. Uh, speaking of other trainings that, uh.
PDR College Advanced Skills in October. Uh, I guess head over to pdr college.com and check that out. I'm excited to be there. Uh, excited to see you there. Uh, coming up here, uh, to be date to be determined, [00:29:00] but very soon we're gonna be doing a two day advanced glue poll. Um, not so much advanced finishing PDR.
More advanced starting damage, uh, advanced bigger damage. Um. Moving metal, proper setup, uh, and going deep and, and increasing finished techniques, uh, but not getting too crazy, uh, more geared towards really good body men with, uh, glue pull. So I. Date to be determined soon. Uh, and I think I only have one or two spots left for that.
That's a small class. Uh, and I've only got one or two spots left in there. But keep an eye out on the website. Certainly. We'll announce it on here. We'll drop it out to the email list. Uh, that'll be a two days right here at Dent Repair. Now at a a i here in Canonsburg, uh, pa, just south of Pittsburgh, pa. Go follow us on socials at Auto Appearance Institute all across the board.
If we're there posting, that's [00:30:00] our handle. You can find us. Hey, uh, we're looking for some reviews on the podcast feeds, so if you listen to Apple or on Amazon or Spotify, go leave us a review for the, the podcast here. Let us know what you wanna talk about. Let us know what you think about the show. And uh, of course, you can always find our entire catalog.
Of training and everything like [email protected]. Guys, thanks so much. I need to go home and rest up and get ready for a long five days of training here. Uh, super stoked for it. I'm sure we'll be dropping some content through the week, uh, showing you what's going on, hopefully giving you a little bit of that fomo, so next time we can see you here.
Until next week, I'll see ya.
