Environmentally friendly

When we started the business in 2002 we wanted to be as environmentally friendly as possible and to that end invested in the latest spray booth that saved electricity and gas in vast quantities through the latest computerized systems.

We have also invested heavily in technology that can “cure” primer, paint and lacquer quicker, without any loss of quality such as infra red and ultra violet light. This saves gas and electricity and gives us a quicker repair time so that our client can have their vehicle back on the road same day in most cases or worse case, next day.

Where it is safe, we also wanted to repair instead of replace items like bumpers that are always getting scraped in car parks. The insurance companies have a policy of replacing a bumper (which on average is £800) whereas, we can repair and paint a whole bumper from £199 including V.A.T. and if it is just the corner, we can do this for just £ 159 including V.A.T.

Looking after the team

We passionately believe in looking after our team, everyone that has worked at ooops! for a year is offered FREE BUPA. All of our team are provided with FREE PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) and wear “Air Fed Masks” when painting. Our team have a FREE Health Check every year.This includes Lung Function, Skin care, Hearing and Urine checks. By monitoring our team annually, we know that we are doing our best to keep them fit and healthy. We also monitor the air quality in our spray booth on a regular basis.

The question for our clients is; do they care? Looking after our people is an investment and one that yields dividends in client care.

Does our competition take such strenuous efforts to look after their teams? Do they go “above and beyond” to look after their people? It is only when one’s people are looked after, that they can look after one’s client – this is what we believe, and our focus is looking after everyone that encounters us, manifesting one of our core values – Humanity.

Support for young people

We also support young people in the community, we always have an apprentice and send them to the pre-eminent centre of excellence that is Thatcham for their ATA NVQ 3 qualifications.

Paul is also an advisor and a Judge to Young Enterprise where school children form, trade and then close down their own companies over a school year to gain an appreciation of commerce.

For the better part of 100 years cars have run on cushions of pressurised air encased in a hard rubber shell (also known as Pneumatic Tyres). That could all be set to change as we enter a new decade as research and production of an airless tyre is more vigorously pursued.

Michelin's Airless Tyre: The Tweel

The first and possibly best example is Michelin’s Tweel. First announced in 2005, the Tweel derives it’s name from a combination the words “Tyre” and “Wheel” just as the Tweel itself is a combination of a Tyre and a Wheel, defying the normal wheel hub assembly. The Tweel consists of a solid inner hub which is connected to the axle. Surrounding this is a series of polyurethane spokes laid out in a wedge pattern. These act much in the same way as the air pressure in a normal tyre, absorbing the bumps and smoothing out the ride.

To give the tyre its shape and strength the spokes are secured with a shear band stretched across the outer layer of the spokes. By varying the tension of the band during the manufacturing process you can tweak the Tweel for better comfort or more responsive handling. It is this band that the tread is then attached to.

Advantages

The Tweel

The advantages of the Tweel are fairly obvious even from the first glance. The airless design eliminates the possibility of air leaks or blow outs at high speed for increased safety. And by taking the air pressure out of the equation you are left with more consistent and predictable economy and handling.

The flexible outer band increases the amount of surface area in contact with the road at any given time increasing the levels of grips. This would be particularly useful in off-road situations on rough terrain, and in use in the construction industry on uneven site surfaces.

Flaws

The Tweel is not without its flaws. From the offset, the design and manufacturing methods means they are not adjustable once they come out of the factory. So for better handling or better comfort you need to buy a whole new set of Tweels. An inconvenience, but not necessarily a deal breaker. Day to day most people will not find the need to alter their tyres once they have been optimised for every day road use.

What may be more of a nuisance is that at speeds in excess of 50 mph the Tweels vibrate very badly. This creates an awful lot of noise, which will be uncomfortable for passengers, as well as an awful lot of heat which could become an issue on long distance journeys.

The prototypes tyres are reporting to be yielding a one percent fuel economy against equivalent pneumatic tyres. Not good, but as time goes on this will surely be improved up to a level equal to, and eventually better than, regular tyres.

Initially Michelin are only rolling out Tweels for low speed applications such as construction vehicles, the iBot and the Segway Centaur. Possible military uses are also being explored.

Resilient Technologies Honeycomb Wheel

In the last few years however a competitor product has come forward. Resilient Technologies has developed their own “Tweel” using a honeycomb layout for the spokes instead of Michelin’s wedge. The company is reportedly looking at a 2011 push for these into the commercial and industrial market and are currently being tested by the US military. Consumer use models still seem to be a long way off.

Whatever happens, the next few years should certainly be interesting for advancements in tyre technology. This is one tech that is definitely worth looking out for.

Paul started the business in 2002 because he saw a motor industry that was not trusted and saw the opportunity to transmogrify the industry into one that was trusted. To this end, his new team came up with a set of values that would create a culture of trust and this formed their strap line …trust us to make it better!

To Paul, trust is a three-legged stool and if all three legs are not as strong as each other, the stool of trust falls over. The first leg is all about competence and whether it is trust in a partner or trust in a colleague, if someone is not competent in their role they do not have a hope of being trusted. Secondly, one has to co-operate in order to be trusted, there has to be at the very least, excellent two-way communication. Thirdly and the hardest leg to attain and if you think about it, the people you really trust have humility in their dealings with you, they do not talk down to you, they treat you as an equal. These are the people that we really trust.

Paul wanted a culture of trust with a trust worthy team giving trusted service to our clients, who would trust us enough to recommend us to their friends.

With this background the team came up with the following values that we re-visit every year and after seven years they are still as relevant, they are:
Integrity, Pre-eminence, Humanity.
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Dan, our apprentice is just finishing his two week “Block Release up-skilling” at Thatcham Training Centre. Thatcham is funded by the Insurance Industry and is the premier Training Facility in the U.K. it has all the latest technology for the Apprentices to practice with and their Tutors explain the latest techniques. Dan is our fifth apprentice and has been told he has a good chance of winning Apprentice of the Year; we are passionate about helping people help themselves into a rewarding career.

Other than recruiting Apprentices, we do sometimes recruit qualified people from within the industry, I am afraid the Bodyshop Industry does not have enough qualified personnel. If someone wants to join our team from another Bodyshop they need to have ATA that is Automotive Technician Accreditation. Then we have to give them a thorough induction that involves not only the technical aspects, ensuring they are up to speed with our latest technology and innovative processes but also client relationship management or more succinctly how to serve! Read More Here

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I came across and interesting article in this weeks’ Economist, about Renault’s bold plans for a range of zero-emission electric vehicles.

There are mixed opinions on whether the trend will catch on as rapidly as Renault is proposing, but with plans for “leased” swappable batteries and national recharging points as abundant as petrol stations, it’s a definite possibility.

Take a look at the images below of these new concept cars, and decide for yourself as to whether you will be swapping the petrol pump for a 3-pin.

Read the full article here

If you must smoke, eat, drink, talk, text or twitter, do not do it whilst driving – please!

My seventeen year old daughter is about to join our driving fraternity after passing her test. I have discussed with her that although everyone thinks it is “cool” to belong to the most mobile society in the world the price we pay for this “pleasure” is a stubbornly high number of road deaths. On average (when not in recession) 3,200 people die on British roads each year affecting tens of thousands of friends and relatives. I have pleaded with her to focus only on driving when driving. Read More… Read more »

Bill owns a company that manufactures and installs car wash systems. Bill’s company installed a car wash system in Frederick , MD. Now, understand that these are complete systems, including the money changer and money taking machines.

The problem started when the new owner complained to Bill that he was losing significant amounts of money from his coin machines each week.

He went as far as to accuse Bill’s employees of having a key to the boxes and ripping him off. Bill just couldn’t believe that his people would do that, so they set up a camera to catch the thief in action. Well, they did catch him on film!

That's a bird sitting on the change slot of the machine.

The bird had to go down into the machine, and back up inside to get to the money!

That's three quarters he has in his beak!

And you thought you had seen and heard of everything by now!! !

And to think the phrase ‘bird brain ‘ is associated with being dumb. Not these birds.

We have just given a facelift to our favourite car ever, a beautiful 1938 Jaguar SS 2.5 L Drop Head in Old English White.

Read the full story and all the photos on our site:
> www.ooops.net/restoration/jaguarSS1938