I work in an auto body repair shop in Salt Lake City. Two days ago I had to settle a dispute between two of the technicians (named Frankie and Johnny respectively) who work for me. On that day they were repairing a 1998 Lincoln Town Car with a heavily dented steel fender. Frankie had already roughed out the fender and prepared it for the plastic filler. Frankie wanted to apply the metal conditioner to the base metal areas arguing that this would improve the filler adhesion. But Johnny argued that all the paint should first be removed from the damaged area to improve filler adhesion.
Of course I knew that Johnny had the right idea but I did not want to come out and say that because I knew that Frankie would get upset. Frankie and Johnny are both great technicians but there is a bit of ego between them. For this reason I do not often have them working on the same project together. It only leads to problems. On that day I was a little short handed and I needed to get that Lincoln Town Car out of auto body shop to make room for another car. So I made the executive decision to have them work together on the Town Car.
Luckily, Frankie got a call from his old lady. I think they are having marital issues and I do not want to get involved with that. Frankie got off the phone visibly upset so I told him to take the rest of the day off. He seemed to brighten up a little after hearing that. Once he left I told Johnny to remove the paint from the damaged areas of the town car before applying the plastic filler. Problem solved. These are the types of issues I have to deal with working in my collision repair shop in Salt Lake City.
