Cranston Collision
📍 Cranston, RI
With more than 100 vehicles awaiting repair at any time and a shop expansion in the works, Cranston Collision needed equipment that would increase production and deliver the high-quality finishes their customers have come to expect. A pair of Ultra XR Paint Booths from Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) and local distributor Collision Center Design has given Dennis Gamba the tools to help Cranston Collision discover their full potential.
Please tell us your story and introduce your business.
“We’re a family-owned business. My father, Dennis Sr., started the business, but he has since stepped back from the day-to-day operations. He now works more ‘on the business’ than ‘in the business.’ We have been at this location since 1996, and we finished an expansion with a new building on this property in 2021. We started aligning with insurance companies in the early 1990s, when direct repair programs (DRPs) began, and since then, we have been growing at a steady pace. We were the first shop in the area to be certified by most car manufacturers. We’ve gotten where we are because of fast cycle times. We’re very aggressive in the way that we write, blueprint and disassemble vehicles, and we’ve come up with workflows that are outside the box. We’re doing things the right way.”
How did you decide on GFS equipment?
“We had a 30-year-old paint booth, which was our original booth from our old building. A new booth was long overdue, but for a long time, finding good technicians was very hard. After the pandemic hit, a lot of shops closed, and people started shaking loose, so we were able to add several new technicians. With the additional staff, we were in a better position to invest in a new paint booth. When my dad buys something, he only buys the best, and he buys two of everything. We’re a high-production shop, and for the volume that we do, GFS was the logical choice.”
How has your GFS equipment benefited your business?
“The Ultra Paint Booths are very efficient, and the paint jobs are very clean. The booths are insulated well. The airflow is incredible. The control panels are very intuitive. And I like the results we get from curing with REVO Systems versus a traditional paint booth bake cycle. With a traditional paint booth bake, you’re baking from the top of the paint down. The paint on the top is cured but the bottom is still wet, so you have material vaporizing through, and that’s why you get that dieback. With REVO Systems, you’re warming the metal first. You’re drying from the bottom up. By the time the top is dry, the bottom is already done, and it stays like a wet gloss. There is no dieback.”
The Benefit of REVO Systems
“When I looked at the cost savings from decreased energy and increased production, REVO Systems was a no-brainer. To use REVO Systems on a car to dry your body work or puddy or primer, and be done with it in three or four minutes instead of 20 to 30 minutes, that’s phenomenal. Or if a technician gets dirt on his paint job, it’s a three-minute fix with REVO Systems.”
— Dennis Gamba Sr., Cranston Collision
What is the plan for the future of your business?
“Opening the new building gave us room so that we could grow personnel. We have successfully grown the size of our business. Now, we’re trying to grow our processes and get everybody in the loop, so that we can move through the number of vehicles that we need to move through to make our investment in a new building profitable. Once we have our processes down, I don’t see how we couldn’t do 10 to 12 repair orders a day.”
