How Bongard Collision Centre revolutionized their productivity in just a month.

In the 28 years Jack Bongard has been repairing cars in central Ontario’s Durham Region, he’s seen a lot of technological advances. He also has enough experience to know he should trust his tried and true equipment.

But there comes a time with every piece of equipment when you have to consider replacement. For Bongard, owner and operator of Bongard Collision in Ajax, Ontario, that time came when he saw that payments on a new spraybooth would cost him less than the maintenance on his tired existing booth.

Bongard had just begun researching the plethora of different booths on the market when a paint representative (Perry Gummerson) recommended he call Roger Turmel of AutoQuip Canada, distributor of Garmat spraybooths in Canada as well as other shop equipment.

“First we start by producing CAD [computer-aided design] drawings to fit the equipment within their facility and we ran through several flow scenarios to find ways to maximize their efficiency and production,” Turmel said.

The next step for Bongard was to find the perfect booth for his shop.

Luckily, with a little help from his painter and the people at AutoQuip, the decision was an easy one to make.

“I got several quotes and went over them with my painter Gord Wry—he knows that Garmat is the Cadillac of booths,” Bongard said.

In the end Bongard decided to go with the high-end Garmat 3000 Series Downdraft Spraybooth, which excels in airflow, lighting and numerous standard features to make a paint tech’s life easier. For Bongard, it was the perfect choice for his shop.

The next step for Turmel was to help Bongard get the proper building and environmental permits. This meant planning the logistics of the installation including coordinating all the sub-trades: electrical, gas, concrete pit work, roofers, and fire suppression systems.

Meanwhile, Bongard had to make room for his new spraybooth by selling the old one. He was in charge of the sub-trades while the team from AutoQuip instructed the purchaser’s team on how to safely tear down and transport the old equipment.

Soon afterward the contractors came in to cut the concrete and dig the pits. It took them about a week and a half. That’s when the real work began for Turmel’s team.

“Throughout the process of the installation, we worked with Bongard and scheduled all the contractors, the electricians, the gas fitters, and the roofers to coordinate everybody so everything came in on time,” he said.

“Most shops only have one spraybooth or possibly two, but the reality is when they shut down their spraybooth they are no longer able to paint for a period of time while the new equipment is being installed, or it reduces their capacity significantly—so the timing is critical. Everything must be planned and organized well so we can get the equipment in and running as soon as possible.”

After the booth was installed there were still a number of smaller tasks that had to be done to get the booth fully operational, (they still had to install the fire suppression systems and airline work, for example). However, the decisive battles had been won.

Overall the spraybooth installation took about one and a half weeks and concrete work was about a week and a half. The full renovation was 100 per cent completed in just under a month.

Already Bongard Collision is enjoying the fruits of the labour.

“In every aspect, it is above and beyond what we had expected” said painter Gord Wry. “The airflow alone starts to dry the DuPont Cromax Pro waterborne base coat before we even get to put the fans on. This is one of the cleanest booths I have painted in,” he added.

“It has almost eliminated my wet sanding and polishing time. If you’re painting six to eight cars a day and you don’t have to polish them, that saves a lot of production time.”

They still need some time before it becomes clear exactly how much work flow has improved, but the team at Bongard is already seeing improvements.

It took a month and a lot of work, but it’s proved to be well worth it. It’s a decision that’s paid off particularly well in their case.

Bongard Collision Centre has been an industry exemplar for decades now. After all that time leading the collision repair pack, this recent makeover ensures they’ll only strengthen their position in the years to come.