As the heat and humidity blasts Pittsburgh this summer, Mike Palm isn’t sweating over temperature fluctuations in his paint booths.

Consistent temperatures in all spots of the Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) paint booths at Bowser Collision of Murrysville have helped the Chevrolet dealership produce clean, high-quality paint jobs to get repaired vehicles back to customers faster.

“There are no temperature swings” in the Ultra XL Paint Booth or Ultra XP1 Paint Booth, said Palm, head painter at the 17-employee shop. “I’ve been in paint booths where it is 60 degrees in one spot and 90 degrees in another. There are no hot or cold spots in these booths.”

Painting more than 12 hours some days, Bowser Collision needed reliable equipment to meet the demands of their numerous direct repair programs (DRPs) with insurance companies. And they wanted an extended-height booth, for repairing Sprinter vans and high-roof vehicles of fleet customers.

Bowser Collision repairs six to 10 vehicles a day between the two GFS paint booths and an Ultra XS Paint Mix Room — purchased from BCI Equipment Specialists in 2022. A bulk of that work is performed in the Ultra XL Paint Booth, which offers plenty of room for parts-off painting when not working on extended-height vehicles.

“I can put a bunch of parts in the booth and still put out a quality paint job,” Palm said. “I’m not bumping into things while I paint. I have put five or six different bumpers in the booth at the same time and have never had any issues with color transfer.”

Even on the hottest days in Pittsburgh, Bowser Collision doesn’t miss a beat, thanks to adjustable blowers on the GFS paint booths.

“With the blowers, everything dries evenly,” Palm said. “You can change the time on the blowers. If I want 10 minutes on the blowers instead of six minutes because it is hot and humid, I can adjust that, and we can keep rolling.”

COMMITMENT TO QUALITY

What has made Bowser Collision of Murrysville successful?

“We just do the common things — being courteous to people, returning phone calls, keeping people updated while the car is in the shop, staying on top of extra parts that need to be ordered, being proactive in setting up rental cars, anything we can do to minimize the downtime of the car for the customer.” — Derek Severns, Collision Center Manager

“I treat every car I paint like it’s my own. We have to hold ourselves to a higher level. It’s our name on the building. It’s our name on the car. We need to treat every vehicle that comes through the shop with that same quality.” — Mike Palm, Head Painter