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4 Truck Painting in NY Tips That Will Ease the Process

Truck Painting in NY

Truck Painting in NY is one of the most time-consuming and costly projects to undertake on your vehicle. By the end of this article you’ll know if you can paint it yourself or you should have it painted by a professional. Paint and bodywork have long been seen as an art more than a mechanical undertaking. A good truck painting in NY job is surely the result of many hours spent welding, sanding, and preparing the body for paint. Rather than the popular misconception that a paint job is a single step process, painting a vehicle is a process that involves various steps that lead to the real painting of the truck. Being a good painter needs a lot of patience and some amount of perfectionism because that new, glossy paint job will show the slightest blemish underneath. When it comes to truck painting in NY, any automotive professional will tell you the same thing: it all goes down to the preparation. Whether you’re repairing a chip or re-spraying the entire truck, preparing the paintwork is just as important as applying the paint, and plays an important part in the quality of the final result. To help you prepare like a professional, we’ll guide you through some vital ideas on cutting, sanding, priming, and picking the right paint for your truck, with insider ideas to give your truck a truly professional finish. 4 Truck Painting in NY Tips That Will Ease the Process Step 1: Remove the rust The first thing to do to get a great looking paint job that will last for a long time is to have a solid, rust-free foundation to work from. Rust is a popular term for the process of steel oxidizing and is usually caused by unprotected metal being exposed to liquid or liquid-vapor. Adding salt to the process, as in salty roads in the beach or winter driving in the summer, only extends the process and can quickly turn sheet metal into an ugly, flaking, rusty mess. The worst problem of rust is that once the oxidation process has begun it is very difficult to stop. Even taking away the source of the moisture won’t stop the metal from rusting in a self-destructive way, so, the only decision is to completely get rid of the rust or to stop the process of oxidation chemically. Either way, the rust has to be completely removed or treated or it will return under the paint, leading to unsightly bubbling. The best method to make sure that rust won’t return is to get rid of it from the truck. This can be accomplished by removing the metal just in the rusty area and welding in areas, but extreme cases may need you to replace the whole panel. While doors and fenders are easily replaced by bolting on the new parts, quarter panels and door skins are harder and need special tools like a welder, clamps, spot weld cutter, grinder, and cut-off wheels. Whether getting rid of the metal because of a collision or due to rust, the methods are the same. Cut out the destroyed part, fabricate or buy a patch panel, fit the panel, and weld it in together. The welding process can be a trick in itself because the heat made in thin, sheet metal panels can result in distortion, causing more time spent to straighten the welded-in panels. Coating the panel with a heat-absorbing compound and stitch welding (welding short segments gradually) the panel are two ways to keep the panel from warping while being welded together. More concern about welding is that moisture can be trapped inside any area of porosity, causing more rust issues. Priming the metal in a weld-through primer and sandblasting the area after being welded are two ways to making sure the area won’t rust in the future. Most places of light surface rust don’t need metal replacement and can be chemically treated with a liquid rust inhibitor. Rust inhibitors are found in gel form, such as naval jelly. No matter the brand, all rust inhibitors function in the same manner. Their main ingredient is phosphoric acid, which converts iron oxide (active rust) into iron phosphate, chemically preventing the oxidation process. Parts can be dipped in rust inhibitor, but the more common method is to spray liquid inhibitor on the part from a spray bottle. Depending on the severity of the rust, it can take from two to twelve hours for the phosphoric acid to convert the rust to iron phosphate, which is black. Have it in mind that this process is only effective in areas of surface rust that are not flaking or rusted through. Those areas should be cut out and replaced. It is not until all the rust of the car has either been cleaned and replaced with new metal or treated with a rust inhibitor, that we can call the first step in the painting process complete. Now we have a solid foundation to build on, we can start straightening and filling warped panels and correcting other imperfections. Step 2: Straighten the panels Getting the panels straight is probably the most time-consuming process of automotive bodywork. Most cars have all new metal with no filler, which is why it’s so straight. But nearly all panels need some filler to be made straight. Although some panels may be straightened with a hammer and dolly, others need filler to be perfect. It takes many hours of spreading body filler, sanding, and repeating the process to make sure a panel’s straightness, and, again, some specialty products and tools are needed. First, it is necessary to make use of quality body filler. Cheap body filler may fill the voids and imperfections of the panels of the car, but it will not last as long as quality fillers. Another advantage of quality filler is that it is normally easier to sand than its cheaper counterpart, needing less time to carry out the truck painting in NY job. Step

3 Tips for Fleets in New York to Successfully Navigate the Evolution of Technology

Technology has changed many things for business owners and Fleets in New York over the past few decades. Whether we talk about fleet management tasks such as how accounting is handled, or we’re talking about the look and feel of trucks. The new fleet trucks in New York come with the latest technology that were installed to increase the performance and the efficiency of the trucks. This article is all about providing you with tips to successfully navigate the evolution of technology for fleet trucks. Like we stated, technology in fleet trucks have increased a lot. Now they are designed with location tracking, mapping, and many more similar features. It becomes harder to navigate but provide a more effective solution for fleet management and deliveries. So let’s dive into some of the tips that will serve to be useful as your fleet transitions its brand to being technologically advanced. 3 Tips for Fleets in New York to Successfully Navigate the Evolution of Technology #1 Fleets in New York are adapting to the change Now it is no secret; technology is evolving very fast and that’s not only in fleets in New York but in a very single thing. New accounting systems are being used which allow you to easily accept payments and you can also save customers data on a cloud-based system or locally using software. The first thing you need to do is learn to adapt to these changes. It’s all for the good of your business growth as you tighten up your fleet’s operational practice. The technological features that are out on the market for trucks contain so many add-ons that can be installed in your fleet’s trucks. For example: Camera systems Driver Scorecards Dynamic Routing Collision Mitigation Trailer Tracking Electronic Logging Devices Record Keeping Each one of the above-mentioned features are items that have helped better manage in-office tasks and monitoring drivers are on their routes. That means, it’s time for everyone to get with the program! #2 Learn the technology As technology advances, the systems get a little more complex every time. Consequently, you need to feed your brain with information about technology to then train your team later on. It is not hard to learn the new systems. It also takes very little time to learn fleet technology. Most brands offer free training for their systems because they want to make it an easy transition for you. Make sure you are trained in using all the settings and configurations. Even if you are not planning to use it right away, it is always a better option to learn as much as you can so that you know how to use each feature when the need for it arises. There are always guides and videos online to help you out too. #3 The back office No doubt, there are many things that you need to learn about fleet trucks technology but do not forget about the back office. Along with the trucks, there are many new technological options and updates that you should know about to improve how the back office runs. That includes new payment methods to collect payments, digital communication with drivers, business texting services to manage and archive the conversation history with clients, drivers, and staff, making the entire process paperless, etc. Now, you can save everything on cloud-based systems and manage all of your customer’s data in a matter of clicks. It’s imperative that fleet managers learn about all the latest technology and stay updated. It is going to save you a lot of time! Writing everything on paper is a thing of the past and takes a lot of time to keep organized. Cloud-based systems will make all tasks easier while also saving you time, storage space, and expenses. Final words To conclude, this was all about improving operations through the latest technology for Fleets in New York. Make sure you follow all the provided tips to successfully navigate the evolution of technology for Fleet Trucks. As technology continues progressing, the day-to-day work will get simpler and revenue will increase by a lot because of it. So, make sure you adapt to the technological world we are living in to deliver better performance and a more structured brand.

5 Reasons Video Systems Help Reduce Costs for Fleet Managers

Fleet managers are regularly looking for solutions to optimize their fleet operations and productivity. To remotely track, monitor, and control the movement the fleet, video systems, and video analytics hold the key for improving the operational efficiency of fleet companies.