ssbasf2.mp4

ssbasf2.mp4

Transcript

00:00Hi Joe O'Brien, we are standing in front of the Stone Soup Stingray, our beautiful 1971

00:25Corvette Stingray, rebuilt by so many hands here in the Motor City and painted by the

00:29wonderful folks from BASF and more specifically, RM. I'm standing here with Mike Freeman. Now Mike,

00:34what is your official title? I'm the market segment manager for the RM brand. Now we've always,

00:38the past couple of years, we've learned a lot about painting as a whole, as an industry, but

00:43the waterborne paints and the folks at Washtenaw Community College, wearing their gear today,

00:47the waterborne paint technology has advanced so much and when we look at this, some like it hot

00:52red on this car, just talk about the process. So this product that we use on this car is our

00:58Onyx line. It's the only paint in the marketplace that you can actually mix as a waterborne or a

01:03solvent borne with a single set of toners. It's our newest technology and it's really the closest

01:09match to what the OEM is using today, right from the factory. And you guys, since I did mention

01:15Washtenaw Community College, one of the things that I love about you guys is working with

01:19VoTech people and vocational schools. That's a big part of what you guys do internally and then

01:24externally as well. Absolutely. We really believe in building the bench strength of the

01:29industry. And so we work with a lot of vocational technical schools, provide them with product and

01:34really try to build the future for the automotive refinish brand and the marketplace. So it's a

01:40very important part of our business. And the paint industry as a whole, I mean, you and I were

01:44talking before this that we're keeping our cars longer, which is a compliment to the quality of

01:49the build. But we look at our car after four or five years ago, okay, maybe I want to paint it.

01:53Maybe I want to do that. Has it become easier for folks or just we're getting higher quality paint?

01:59It's a mix of different things. People are keeping their cars longer, so they want them to look nice

02:03longer. So the quality of the paint coming from the factory is higher. And then when they want them

02:07repaired, they want them to match that factory finish. So the technology on the refinish side has

02:12become very, very important. As we see these really vivid colors that are in the marketplace,

02:16it's important for us to stay up with the times and maintain our relationships with the manufacturers

02:21and make sure that the technology that we're providing to the refinish guys is going to match

02:26that quality that came from the factory. Is it fun too? I mean, obviously a car color like this a

02:31little bit different than the norm, you know, when you guys do this, but some of the crazier colors and

02:36some of the new things that are coming, you guys must have like some little mad scientist shop that we

02:39don't know about. Absolutely. We have a team of R&D researchers down in White House, Ohio, right outside of

02:46Toledo. They come up with a lot of these wild colors, but we're a global company. So we have

02:50global color labs all over the place. We're supporting global OEMs in Asia and Europe, as well

02:55as the United States. But it's a great, great industry to be in. It's very exciting. And plus,

03:00we work with a lot of custom guys, West Coast Customs has a TV show and we're the supplier of

03:05paint for their builds that they do there and they end up on TV every week. So it's a very exciting

03:09business to be in. And it's rewarding too on so many levels, but what you guys do with the community

03:13and helping out Stone Soup and, you know, in a charity like Holy Cross Children's Services,

03:17these raffle tickets are going to go directly to this charity. And when you guys, not only

03:21time, but money involved in doing this, we really do appreciate everything you guys are

03:26doing. Mike, it's an honor. It's an absolute pleasure to be involved with this project and

03:29thanks for coming out today. All right. Let's go get some tickets.

03:31All right. Let's go get some tickets.