Inside The Tech Powering Modern Collision Repair

Welcome to another In-Wheel Time podcast.

Well, hello and a pleasant morning to you.

Welcome to the In-Wheel Time car talk show coming up.

Andy and Oya's with a dealership support company called Repairify.

What'd they do?

We're going to find out.

In Jeff's car culture, think of this, regenerating tire treads.

Do you do it?

What?

How does that work?

Howdy, along with Mike out of this World Mars, who's in the studio with us today.

In the house.

Thanks to me.

We always need more Jeff Zucan.

Not in the house.

Chief engineer, David Ainsley.

I'm Don Armstrong.

Glad you could join us today.

And is Andy looking any better there?

We've got a guest here that I want to bring in.

Yeah, please do.

Bring him in out of the dark.

Yeah, bring him in out of the dark.

Is he better?

Let me see.

Oh, my God, he's got a face.

Good morning.

Andy, good morning.

How are you?

I'm great this morning.

Thanks for having me on.

Thank you.

Is it noise?

It's like you make a lot of noise.

Noise.

Got it.

Noise.

Andy, noise.

Perfect.

Hi, Andy.

Hello.

Where are we speaking to you from?

Plano, Texas.

It's down the street.

That's right.

So for those that don't know where Plano is, it's right there by Dallas.

And I know that you probably don't like to be put in the same thing because you're from

Plano, but then later everybody know that exactly where that is.

It's close to Dallas.

How's that?

Is that okay description?

That's perfect.

Okay.

So Andy, you're with the company that is kind of a two for here.

It's Aztec driven by Repairify.

So explain that to us first.

Yeah, Repairify is our portfolio company that has several different companies within it

offering end-to-end solutions for the automotive industry.

I specifically work under the Aztec umbrella, which we're the global leader of OEM diagnostics

and calibration really focusing in the collision space.

Oh my God.

That's a lot to digest this early in the morning.

I have to tell you that.

Okay.

So you are a direct to dealer kind of guy.

Dealer ship body shops as well as independence, but a lot of work in the collision space.

And yes, with dealers as well.

So if I have a wreck, chances are that it's pretty good that I'm going to deal with your

company in a roundabout way.

There's a very good chance.

Yes.

So what exactly do you do in the repair business to help dealerships, repair shops, that sort

of thing get through the day?

Yeah.

So we have a patented device, right?

So like a lot of dealerships obviously have their own technicians and OEM tools that they

use in the mechanical world if you're going in for service and repair.

But in the collision space, it's a little bit different.

So we have a patented device called the Aztec device that will hook up to the vehicles OBD

connector.

And then we can remotely connect that device with an OEM tool, pair it with a brand specialist

that knows that vehicle and we can help perform diagnostics, repairs, initializations, programming

events all over the internet for shops all over the country.

So I mean, does that drill down to parts?

Typically, so if the collision center has replaced a new radar module as an instance,

right, the front radar, and that radar needs to be programmed before it's calibrated, yes,

like we can help initiate that programming event, but we don't directly sell parts in

the collision.

I got you.

So you're the kind of the guy that goes between the car and the part and well, between the

car and the part.

Yes.

Interesting.

Okay.

So is it all electronic based stuff?

Yeah.

So, you know, a lot of what we do, like if we have a vehicle before it's being repaired,

we'll do what's called a pre repair scan.

So we're trying to do a health check of the vehicle, give the our customer the shop an

indication of what active faults might be in it.

If the car had any airbag deployments, like we'll pull the procedures, the necessary parts

that they should be replacing in those procedures and give that all to them in a report.

On a post scan, obviously, we had all that pre repair, pre repair information, right?

But through the repair process, there's a lot of repair induced faults that can happen

just with having headlights disconnected, lights removed, right?

You might be stripping the interior.

So we do a post repair scan to make sure that everything is connected, working, programmed,

initialized, you know, for Toyota's as example, after they're in a collision, you need to

do a seat weight initialization.

So it makes sure that a passenger, you know, it's reading the right weight on the passenger

seat.

Oh, I'm sure that your wife or girlfriend would love that.

It's actually the minimum weight is not necessarily, you know, 500 pounds.

I think it's isn't in a way that activates those sensors period, not necessarily giving

us weight on a scale.

Correct.

It's making sure that that weight is plus or minus a certain value.

That way, if somebody is sitting in that seat and the car gets in an accident again, that

the airbags and seat belts operate properly.

Yeah.

Okay.

How about a 2001 Corvette?

Probably not a whole lot of eight ass technology on that where we're going to have those kinds

of initializations and things that we'd be doing back on a 2001, right, that the more

and more the newer the vehicle, the more advanced the technologies are.

And those are the things that we help.

So what you're telling me is that I'm old along with my old car.

That's what you're saying.

Well, here's the, okay, I mean, just throw this out there.

It has an occasionally occasion thrown a, a traction control and ABS light.

And sometimes it goes off and sometimes it doesn't.

Can you fix that?

Can you tell me what the problem is?

Other than me.

Yeah.

No.

So we would, we would hook up our device and read faults and see what kind of readings

we get.

We can look at live data and we could, you know, that's what we designed to do is to

try and give you guidance to help diagnose those issues at the car.

So I had a friend try to do a, a tune on the car and now the car knocks under certain conditions

and slight throttle.

Would you be able to tell what the problem is with that?

Um, I'm sure we could.

Yes.

Certainly again, we could help.

We do have different levels of technicians that we hook up, right?

So if it's more of a, a mechanical type issue like that, we have a mechanical team.

We could direct that to, I'm not to, my background is not as a technician, but we have a team

of people that I'm sure could help diagnose that or point you in the right direction.

Yeah.

So what is your background?

Anyhow, the world should get into this.

So I'm 30 years in the automotive industry this year.

Um, well, 30 years ago, Andy, they didn't have anything like this.

How's that?

That's right.

Not to put you down, but no, that's right.

We're adapting to change, right?

So, uh, most of my career, uh, has been in the retail automotive space, you know, running

fixed operations, you know, partner, you service departments and retail dealerships, but the

last seven years has been in collision.

Okay.

So you're the body shop guy.

I work with them every day.

Yes.

Well, I mean, in your career, that's, that, that's your background as the body shop guy.

And I have to tell you, I worked for a dealership for a few years and early on in my career.

And I'll tell you that, that was a separate building on the property.

And rightly so, because those guys, that's a whole different world back there relationship

to say the service department where we, you know, do tuneups and blow up motors and stuff

like that.

That's right.

And, you know, unlike the, the service department, that if you're attached to the Chevy dealer,

that's probably fixing 99% Chevrolets that body shop could be fixing, you know, every

make and model.

Yes.

And they did, except for the Corvettes and Corvette even had its own little building

off of the body shop.

They didn't want all that riffraff, well, the riffraff and all of the dust from the fiber

glass contain, you know, making really bad days for the paint guy.

That's right.

Yes.

And today they have special aluminum rooms and, you know, different environments depending

on the car.

So, right.

All right.

So, why would I hire or buy your product as a, as a dealership?

Why would I do that?

Well, to go back to what we were just talking about, right?

Most body shops fix all makes all models.

Yes.

And the insurance companies, right?

You know, depending on how you're set up, but you're going to repair those and most

body shops won't have each individual OEM tool, right?

They won't have a Toyota TechStream.

They won't have a Honda tool.

They may have a aftermarket tool, but aftermarket tools don't always work to read all modules

and all fault codes and be able to do everything an OEM tool can do.

And then outside of just having the tool, they probably don't employ a technician that

may be able to operate each one of those OEM tools because they do operate slightly

differently.

So for a body shop, they can use us because we have the techs, the tools, and the ability

to remotely connect and help you with that service.

Well, interesting.

And how do you, how do you price something like that?

Because they're different size dealerships, different size body shops.

How do you do that?

Uh, so most of our services are just pay when you use us, right?

So you might have our device and use us 15 times a day or you could use us three times

a month.

Um, but you just pay when you, when you use and hook up our technology and we help you.

I see.

And now, and typically how, how does the facility pay you?

Is it like, okay, well, if you want to use our service, you're going to give me, I have

to give me your credit card.

How does it work?

No, most body shops will have an account with us.

And then, you know, part of establishing that account and getting our technology, um, we

have, we, we bill you on net 30 terms, you know, every month based on the amount of times

you use us.

Okay.

I got, I got you.

I'm just trying to get an overall view of this.

So when you go into a facility, a repair facility, whatever it is, how do you approach

them and say, Hey, this is what you need.

And here's why you need us.

There's lots of different ways to do that.

You know, I think one of my, one of my tricks, right?

And the trade is, you know, I like to find a car on the lot that has an airbag deployment.

Um, because one of the value ads that we do when a car has a deployment is we go into

the repair procedures for those vehicles, right?

Like car one may just require an airbag and a module, but car two might require airbag

modules, seat belts and car three might have programming events and a combination of all

those different parts, right?

So a repairer might just look at that deployment and go, Okay, I'm going to order a, an airbag

module and they order that and start making repairs.

And then at the end of the repair, they find out they need these five things and maybe

it takes another week to do it.

So for us, we can give you all that information up front.

So you're ordering those parts and repairing it in a timely fashion.

Um, so you're not finding out these things at the end.

Well, this sounds almost kind of like a windshield repair with a, you know, a very late model

car that's got all sorts of sensors in it because when you change the, from what I understand,

when you change the windshield in it, you got to go back and program all that stuff

that's in the windshield.

That's correct.

So any car with a windshield camera that has a windshield replaced is required to have

a windshield calibration after a camera calibration after that windshields replaced.

So we do have a glass customer we do business with that uses us anywhere from five to 700

times a day.

Holy, that's a lot of windshields, buddy.

It's a large company, but you know, they're, they'll try and calibrate it with the, with

the technology they have at the car, but it might be a 2025 or a 2026 year model vehicle.

They have the target, but they don't have the software on the tool they're using so

they can plug in the Aztec device and we can hook up that OEM tool and fill in that gap.

Wow.

That's impressive.

That's very impressive.

I, I now I'm kind of getting the hang of it when you bring it down to my level, which

is windshields and I don't know anything about windshields.

All I have a friend that actually installs windshields and he was trying to explain to

me all of the stuff that, and it seems like they're putting more and more stuff in those

windshield modules.

Yeah.

And you know, it's interesting as well that the quality of the glass may determine if that

windshield is even going to pass or fail that calibration, right?

Because the optics in the quality of that glass matters now with this camera technology

that's, that's in there because you used to have OEM, then you used to have aftermarket

and then you used to have Chinese from what I understand.

Yep.

And so you're saying that the chances are that Chinese glass that's the cheapest for

you to get might not be the cheapest after all.

Well, correct.

And we run into that even in collision, right?

Because we'll have a customer, let's just say that the vehicle owner put in one of those

inexpensive pieces of glass.

The glass shop may not have calibrated the camera after it was replaced, you know, and

then six months from now, now that car is in a collision and that collision event is

requiring a camera calibration.

So the body shop will go to perform that work and now the dash is lit up like a Christmas

tree and it's failing the calibration because of the inexpensive piece of glass, right?

It's like, so yeah, all these things happen and it's, it's hard repairing vehicles.

Wow, just real quick.

How can you determine that it's the cheaper glass versus the module itself?

Well, more times than not, as we work through these scenarios, we know, because we do so

many glass celebrations, what brands cause most issues right now.

Look, we're always looking at this.

Number one, was the camera installed correctly?

We go to that first, right?

Because maybe it's off-center in the bracket.

Okay.

And as a rain sensor, was the rain sensor accidentally damaged and you've got a bunch

of, you know, gel up on that glass, right?

Like, look at some of these preliminary things first, but if it's mounted correctly and the

rain sensor's not broken, then more than likely, Mr. Customer, you've got to put a different

windshield in it.

We've got to try it again.

Oh my gosh.

Andy, I could sit here and ask you questions all day long because there are so many different

questions.

So if we have dealers that watch this show and how do they get ahold of you?

How do they find out about your product?

So they could go to our website, Aztec, A-S-T-E-C-H dot com.

And there's links in there that they can use to create an inquiry and we would follow up

with them.

Oh, that's awesome.

Well, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn, you've got my name, Andy Noyes, message me

directly, right?

And I'd be glad to respond and help people.

You have been truly an educator in the making of here.

You had no idea.

I had no idea about any of this and it's truly fascinating.

Great stuff, Andy.

The best of luck to you.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

You did the same.

All right.

Andy Noyes, I'm trying to get my jaw up off.

I know.

There's so many questions.

Yes, there are.

And there's not near enough time.

That's correct.

All right.

Just ahead, Jeff's car culture, regenerating tire treads.

What?

Yeah.

It's a show of all this morning.

Mars has driving destinations to the Blue Bonnets after this break on the In-Wheel Time

car talk show.

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Time now for Jeff's car culture, regenerating tire treads.

Yep.

What?

Yeah.

Well, science has designed these things to regenerate your tire tread.

Regenerative tires signifies a major leap forward in automotive industry.

This groundbreaking technology is underpinned by the concept of self-replenishing tread.

That can only be significant implications for driving safety, cost effectiveness and the

environment.

You say, what's behind the science, Michael?

Well, regenerative tires are essentially self-renewing with the capacity to continually

regenerate their tread.

This is made possible by smart materials that have the ability to change their properties

in response to external stimuli, sort of like you, Don.

This fascinating field of research extends just beyond tires with the potential applications

of wide range in this industry.

Several patents have been granted in relation to the tire generation technologies, reflecting

the significant strides being made in this area.

These patents cover a variety of technology and materials.

Who are the pioneers?

Well, several companies are leading the way developing the regenerative tires.

For instance, Goodyear has a recharge concept.

It represents a bold vision for the future of tire technology.

There's a report out in popular mechanics that these tires are designed to replenish

their treads using a special compound that is released over time.

So Michelin has been making strides in this field also, a regenerative tires.

There's a news article in Rubber News.

Michelin researchers have won a patent.

Wait a minute, in Rubber News, there's a publication called Rubber News.

On Rubber News.

Yeah.

Not the synthetic ones, but not the ones that you get at the Shamrock Station.

No, no, no.

And those are extra large.

Michelin researchers have won a patent award in this innovative technology and uses special

tread blocks that expand the tire wear down by the maintaining the optional tread depth.

So that's pretty important because what you're going to do is it gets lower.

It's going to regenerate more.

The potential impact of this is main benefits of regenerating tire potential to enhance road

safety by maintaining optional tire tread depth.

These tires could improve grip and performance in a variety of driving conditions.

Environmental applications or implications, I should say, in addition to their potential

benefits, drivers regenerative tires could also save significant environmental benefits.

Actually have be part of the significant environmental benefits.

So in other words, what you're saying is that we could go from a 16 inch tire to a 22.

No, good thinking, but no.

There are challenges, though.

While the concept of regenerative tires is certainly exciting, there are several technological

challenges that need to overcome before they could actually become a reality.

So they're out there.

They're doing all kinds of technology and engineering and it's all good stuff.

I don't see it in my lifetime, but go for it.

Well, I think that they're trying to do away with wheels, as we have known them,

and the wheel is actually the tire.

Yeah.

And, you know, if we had flying cars, we wouldn't have tire problems.

So there you go.

True.

Mars, what are you doing down there, Mars?

I'm shuffling.

We know because we could hear.

We could hear all of the paper movement down there.

Oh, can you?

Sorry.

You can.

That's all right.

I thought I was.

So because Jeff and I ended up getting behind.

That's all right.

Well, now's not the time because we want to go to take the Texas Blue Bonnet tour.

You know, you brought that up last week and I got to thinking about it and I got to looking

at the best time to do that.

And it would be coming up in the March and April, typically, but we've had a really warm winter

and a lot of moisture up in the hill country.

It's definitely two weeks of a freeze.

Well, yeah, but that wasn't enough to really slow things down that much.

It slowed me down.

It slowed me down a lot.

So anyway, so I figured out that there was five of the best places that you might go to find

some Texas Blue Bonnets and obviously the hill country is going to be where most of them

are going to be found.

The peak bloom is usually late March to mid April, but you're going to have to do a little planning

because depending on where you're at and where you're going to have to go to go see this.

Now, if you are going out there to take pictures, keep in mind a lot of this is private property.

They don't mind you taking pictures of it.

Some of them don't mind you actually having your children or whatever out there in it,

but try not to trample it because there's going to be people coming behind you.

And it really works better.

Soft or light early morning, late afternoon, if you're going to go do this.

Now, the one that you will all look at is the Willow City Loop.

And now this is near Fredericksburg.

It's a 13 mile scenic road in the Texas Hill Country.

It's one of the most famous or the most photographed Blue Bonnet destinations

because of the quantity and the rolling hills.

And it mixes really well with the Indian paintbrush,

which is going to be the little oranger colors.

Now this is usually the peak bloom in this area is usually late March through early April.

And again, stay on the public roadways and respect the private property in this area

because a lot of it is where you can go.

And they know you're going to come there to look.

So then moving on down to Mule Shoe Bend.

Ah, Mule Shoe, Texas.

Yeah, yeah, this is the Colorado River near Spicewood.

Now this is up around the Austin area.

It's famous for its dense blue bonnet fields that overlook Lake Travis.

Now the park's open meadows, they actually create this really nice backdrop.

You know, they've got the water in the background, the wildflowers together.

So it's great for families.

Got some easy walking trails.

And again, be careful with the private property.

There's a lot of parking along the roads and it really fills up on the weekends.

So the weekdays are a lot better if you're going to that area because of its proximity to Austin.

Now you can also go down to Ennis, the Blue Bonnet trails there.

This is known as the official Blue Bonnet City of Texas.

Now they've got more than 40 miles of maps.

That sounds like a chamber of commerce bunch of BS.

Yeah, well, yeah, it could be.

Well, it is.

That's a PR.

They got 40.

First of all, Ennis is up north.

Yeah.

Well, they got out of South of Dallas.

South, South of Dallas.

Yeah.

You said going down to Ennis and I'm thinking.

Well, depending where you're at.

So 40 miles of maps driving trails through all of these wildflowers.

And that's one because there's so much of it now.

It's located south of Dallas and North Texas is a favorite when the bloom starts spreading

across all the pastures and roadside fields because it is pretty wide open out there versus

some of the Hill Country that's got a lot more trees and stuff in it.

Now there is actually a Blue Bonnet trails festival that takes place in April.

Check the calendar for the exact dates for this year.

Now you can also go to Brenham over in Washington County, midway between Houston and Austin.

Now this is got a surrounding country side, creates a lot of really nice picturesque scenes

that you can use with some barns and some fences and a lot of sweeping Blue Bonnet pastures literally.

Now this has got a close proximity to Houston and it's not far from Austin.

So you get a lot of traffic out there on the weekend.

So be sure and plan your trip to visit some of these.

The last one I'd like to show because there's a lot more of them is the Lady Bird Johnson

Wildflower Center.

Now this is a place that you can actually go in Austin that showcases the Blue Bonnet displays.

Now they actually set it up with plans for people to come in and look at these instead

of just being out in the natural hillsides and around.

So it's very cultivated and it's protected.

So but it's great for families and easy access for photography.

So if you're looking for some of this Blue Bonnets this spring,

there's lots of places you can go and see.

This is a few of them that are more well known.

So plan your trip accordingly.

Well, I think that most of us are ready to get out in the yard.

But you know, it's just not quite there yet.

No, it's really damp.

Well, it is today and it's supposed to turn cold tomorrow.

And yeah, it's just not just not really good right now.

No, not yet.

But since you got to do a little planning,

if you're going to get out on the weekend because of traffic and things.

That's a good point that you both made.

Yes, you got to get out there.

You got to you got to put your toe in the water of the yard work and to get all that.

And yes, you got to put a plan together.

So getting your toe in the water is making the plan.

Your toe in the water.

Get your toe in the water.

You got shoes on.

We got shoes on.

Take them off.

You don't ever take your shoes off.

You live near Beaumont.

You could take them off.

That would be him.

Yep.

Okay.

Well, thank you both.

That's wonderful stuff.

Inmultime Cart Talk Show will continue right after this.

Quick break.

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Houston, get ready.

Team Gilman is hosting a mega car meet at the North Complex.

Accra, Mazda, Subaru.

We're collaborating with the car meet network so you know it's gonna be crazy.

And that's not all.

We're gonna be raffling off six cars to be sold at $1,000 each.

See below for more details.

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Inside The Tech Powering Modern Collision Repair

About this episode

Repairify

OEM diagnostics

OBD connector

programming events

radar module

pre repair scan

post repair scan

seat weight initialization

Chevrolet Corvette

traction control

ABS light

fixed operations

collision

service department

body shop

fiber glass

OEM tool

Toyota TechStream

Honda tool

airbag deployment

airbag module

windshield calibration

aftermarket

regenerative tires

Goodyear

Michelin

tire tread depth

car meet

Mazda

Subaru

Request an Explanation

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