State Asssemblyman Dave Jones takes a CRA tour.
Assemblyman Dave Jones (left) receives a repair process lecture from Lee Gamboa of Gamboa's Body & Frame, Sacramento. This powerful lawmaker spent over an hour on a tour that included details about computerized paint estimating systems. Note how both men are wearing safety goggles.

The CRA is most appreciative for the time that State Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) and his staff took to view the operations at Gamboa’s Body & Frame. Lee Gamboa and Rick Caron of Gamboa’s focused on explaining the ins and outs of estimating the cost of paint and materials and how insurers attempt to underpay the true cost of painting a vehicle. The CRA is making a concerted effort to engage lawmakers in a fact-finding tour of collision repair facilities. If you would like your elected representatives to visit your facility, contact Richard Steffen, CRA’s lobbyist, a rsteffen@pacbell.net; or call 916-524-8046.

Insurance Commissioners office visits Gamboa's body & Frame. 
Newly elected insurance commissioner, Steve Poizner, in a bold move to understand all sides of the issues which he is expected to regulate, sent one of his closest advisors out in the field to see what is really going on between collision repair shops and insurers. In the past when repairers complained about insurers "unfair claims practices," "steering," "capping," "low-balling," "price fixing," "phony labor rate surveys," and all of the other tactics used by insurers to control the collision repair industry, the commissioners were told that there have been no complaints, or the collision repair industry was full of "snivelers" and complainers. The visit was prompted by a letter written to the commissioner from Allen Wood, Executive Director for the Collision Repair Association of California (CRA). In the letter, Woods suggested to the commissioner that he "Roll up his sleeves", visit some shops and find out whets really going on from the people involved in the day to day issues. Poizner sent his Chief Legal Counsel, William Gausewitz. Gausewitz spent nearly two hours touring the facility with Lee Gamboa, Rick Caron and Ken Davis of Gamboa's Body and Frame as well as with Allen Wood and Richard Steffen from CRA. Much of the time was spent discussing the high level of technical knowledge and mechanical expertise that it requires to properly repair today's vehicles. Another topic discussed was the fact that less than 20% of the shops out there are qualified, trained and equipped to perform these types of repairs, yet insurers refuse to pay no more than what they feel is competitive based on the numbers they have taken from the industry as a whole. A fully compliant collision repair facility must have all of the necessary up to date equipment required to work on today's ever changing vehicles, on going technical training is required, technicians are hard to come by and to keep the best of them their compensation must include a top hourly wages, vacation, medical dental, holiday pay and 401K. The shop must provide workman's comp insurance, carry all of the required liability insurance and carry all of the required licensing and meet strict regulatory compliance from environmental management, air quality management, OSHA, Fire department, Consumer affairs, Business license, hazardous waste generators permit, Spraybooth permit, pressure vessle permit and so on, yet some insurers want to pay all shops the same and a lot of the shops don't have any of the expenses that were just mentioned because they refuse to comply. The bottom line is with all of the deception and phony numbers there is not enough margin in our industry to support a class-A, fully compliant shop. If something is not done soon the only shops that will be left and the ones controlled by the insurers and that will not be good for the consumer. We felt the visit went very well, Mr. Gausewitz seemed very interested and asked many pertinate questions. The day after the visit Commissioner Poizner scrapped an ammended labor rate survey regulation and stated that he dosen't feel government should set pricing, but rather the market combined with quality products and services.

Photo:left to right) Rick Caron, Allen Wood and Bill Gauswitz, inspecting a unibody vehicle on the frame rack for structural damage.

  Consumer and shop owner successfully fight Allstate

Please click here to read an article from the Autobody News about how a consumer and shop owner successfully fight Allstate.

  "The Frame Game"

Please click here to read an article from the latest edition of ARBN (Auto Body Repair News) in which Gamboa's was a source of information for.

  Gamboa's - Sacramento Area Green Business

Gamboa’s Body & Frame
11324 Point East Drive
Rancho Cordova, CA 95742
(916) 638-3015

"Meeting the criteria for the green business program was a lot simpler than I thought, we were already environmentally compliant, we already had measures in place to conserve energy, water and supplies, all we had to do was make a few reasonable adjustments to qualify. It really made us take a deeper look at our business and find more ways to control unnecessary waste of products and energy. Most of the adjustments that we made were ways to save the company money that we never thought about before. The G.B. program really shows your commitment to doing the right things and that your company is serious about preserving our natural resources and the environment." – Lee Gamboa

Please click here to read more about the Sacramento Area Green Business Program

  Workers protection is of utmost importance

Each year we perform exposure assessment to determine the level of occupational exposure to contaminants ensuring that we have appropriate control measures in place and that we have provided the correct level of personal protective equipment for our employees. Marisela Bonilla, Industrial Hygienist from Cal/OSHA provided the service as part of Cal/OSHA's consultation service. The areas tested were welding, painting and noise. technicians can be exposed to harmful and toxic fumes when welding and we wanted to ensure that we provided the proper amount of ventilation. Painters are exposed to toxic chemicals in the painting and mixing areas, those areas were tested for ventilation and in the body shop employees are exposed to very loud noise as a result of grinders and panel cutters. The audiometric testing will be the basis for our hearing conservation program.

  Gamboa's receives a pollution prevention award at the 11th annual BERC P2 awards!

On September 22 we received a pollution prevention award from the business environmental resources center (BERC) for measurable waste reduction, on-site recycling, inventory control, alternate product usage and the elimination of wash water discharges by designing a wash water recovery system which reuses the water as irrigation for landscaping. The award was presented by Roger Dickenson, the chairman for the Sacramento County board of supervisors. Other recognition came from Senator Dave Cox from the first senate district, Member of Congress Doris Matsui, US Senator Barbra Boxer and The director of the Cal/EPA Leonard Robinson. Gamboa's received publicity in the form of articles and advertisements in the Sacramento Business Journal for several weeks leading up to the event. GBF is a leader in our industry when it comes to Governmental compliance, regulatory agencies often look to us for guidance and advice on what it would take or how to approach other businesses to help them get on the road to compliance. Lee Gamboa is a member of the Cal/EPA's Auto body and paint pollution prevention advisory team. "We promote P2 through training and awareness, no body has a problem with it, it's the right thing to do, in fact we encourage our employees to implement P2 at home as well, by adjusting their sprinkler timers, not fertilizing before it rains, sweeping instead of hosing sidewalks, etc. Knowing how to properly handle hazardous substances at home is a huge part of protecting our environment, our employees understand that household items such as left over latex paint, pesticides, household chemicals, etc. are all pollutants and need to be disposed of properly and not poured down the drain or allowed to enter the storm drain system. We accept used motor oil and spent coolant from our employees as an additional effort to ensure the wastes are properly recycled."

Click here to view the report from Cal/EPA.

  SCAM ALERT! 
With an eagle eye for dents and a few tools, free-lance roadside repairers offer low cost repairs. They'll be in a local shopping center parking lot and they'll say, "Hey I can fix that for you real cheap." They'll claim that they work for local well known collision shops and that they do this on the side. Most of the repairs that the roadside repairers do are incompetent and consist of globs of "Bondo" slathered all over the dent, then the repairer sprays gray primer on the repair and covers it with little black dots of black underbody coating which hide the ripples and waves of the in proper repair. When questioned about the unfinished look, the repairer tells the vehicle owner to "just take it to a collision shop and they will sand it down and paint it," usually giving an unrealistically low price. It is reported that a lot of these scam artists are part of an "extended family."

Sometimes it is reported that the scam artists use intimidation and wont leave until owners agree to the repair, they can also ask for money to go buy paint and materials and never return. A lot of the victims are elderly that think they are saving money or avoiding filing an insurance claim, only to be ripped off. Our advise, if its too good to be true, you can bet that it probably is. We have seen these repairs come in on high end cars (Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, SUV's) and said that they were told if they brought their vehicle here we would smooth out the repair and paint it for $50, not the case, the improper repair creates more damage and can be over twice the price to repair than it would have been originally.

Look around, you see them every day, cars and trucks driving around with gray primer over waivy bondo and black speckles to hide the lumps, bumps and waves.