A recent Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) Quick Tip video about tinting to a blendable match led to an industry-wide conversation that resulted in updated positions from AkzoNobel and BASF and updated I-CAR curriculum. 

The video starts with Mike Anderson, owner of Collision Advice, stating a recent question he received from a repair planner. 

“They said that they actually had a tint labor operation on their repair plan and then also a line for blending and they said that the third-party payer kicked their estimate back and said, ‘You can’t have both tint and blend on an estimate or repair plan.’”

Anderson goes on to say in the video that every paint manufacturer states that when tinting, you are tinting to achieve a blendable match. 

Danny Gredinberg, Database Enhancement Gateway administrator, provides details on how the process works in the video. 

“The process of tinting first starts with retrieving that color code and once you pulled up the color code information in that computer you’re going to have multiple variances and even depending on the variance you’re going to have to do some adjustment to that color to make sure that it matches what’s on the existing color of the vehicle,” Gredinberg said. “So once you’ve made those adjustments using different toners, different hardeners, different additives then you’re going to make spray out cards and you’re going to be doing it in different environments. You know you’re going to use sunlight color correction lighting and this is all commonly done in a separate operation away from the vehicle.” 

He says the last step is to go back to the P-pages, where all three information providers state tinting is not included in the blend refinish time. 

During last week’s open SCRS meeting in Denver, Aaron Schulenburg, SCRS executive director, said the video sparked conversation in the industry that led to change. 

“Through filming this video, we ended up interacting with a number of the paint companies talking about the process of tinting to a blendable match, and about some of the things that come out of the repair facilities and the challenges they’re facing,” Schulenburg said. “And as a result, we had two companies who have actually updated their documents relative to this.” 

AkzoNobel and BASF both released position. The updated positions can be found here. 

“The video itself actually led to conversations with technical team members who updated documents as a result, which then led to an updated I-CAR curriculum to answer for those updated documents, which all just led to this circular give back to the industry,” Schulenburg said. 

Ralph Leija III, BASF North American training manager, said the company is always open to having conversations from the repair shop perspective. 

“We don’t have a fixed position,” Leija said. “We do until we know, but we’re proactive and always looking back at the industry and giving back to the industry. For instance, we collaborate, we listen, we assess and as long as it’s still within our parameters, we adjust accordingly.”

Gredinberg asked how long it took for the statements to be released after the conversation started.

The positions were released in less than a month after starting conversations with the companies in early June, Schulenburg said

I-CAR also updated its color theory curriculum to say, “Color accuracy at the vehicle maker level relies on maintaining tight tolerances to original color specifications but variations do occur as a result, paint makers develop formulas for these color variants. In addition, many factors including inconsistent color film thickness during the application process. Environmental factors like weathering, special effect pigments and prior repairs can cause color variation. Therefore, tinting of the color may be required before the blend procedure to achieve an invisible repair.”

Bud Center, I-Car Director of Technical Products and Curriculum, said the curriculum change was covered in an I-CAR Repairer’s Realm video.

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Photo screenshot from SCRS Quick Tips video/SCRS.