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Letter to the Editor
Friday March 7
SCRS Details Flex Additive Requirements
In recent months, the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) has received an increasing number of complaints from repair facilities reporting that insurers are stating that the addition of flex additives is not required in the refinish of flexible plastic components. In an effort to clarify the need for flex additives, SCRS has contacted major paint manufacturers to determine their specific recommendations regarding the use of flex additives.Beyond the issue of flex additives alone, repairers must check the included operations in their estimating platform to take into account the larger number of plastic replacement parts that are delivered to the repairer unprimed.
Dan Risley, Executive Director of SCRS, reported, “In the past six to nine months, numerous SCRS members have contacted me requesting help concerning the use of flex additives. These callers’ main concern was whether or not the use of flex additives is a necessary step in the refinish process for plastic components.”
According to SCRS’ research, the answer to these questions is complex and depends upon the specific manufacturer and products used during the plastic parts refinish process.
“No blanket response can be made regarding the need for flex additive. All paint system manufacturers recommend flex additives in some part of the plastic refinish process. However, the recommendations depend upon the specific products the refinisher employs in their paint process. Some require flex additive in undercoats and topcoats, some in clear coats alone, some recommend a combination of methods and some not at all,” stated Risley.
SCRS recommends that repairers who are questioned by their insurance partners regarding the necessity of using flex additives provide them with copies of the technical documentation specific to their paint system. In addition, SCRS has compiled the responses received from major paint system manufacturers that may be of assistance to repairers. SCRS members may request a copy of these responses by calling the SCRS office at (877) 841-0660.
Additionally, SCRS contacted ADP, Mitchell and MOTOR for their documentation on the issue of additional labor operations for unprimed (raw plastic) replacement parts. ADP reports in their non-included labor operations that additional preparation or cleaning of new unprimed panels and removal of mold release agents from raw unprimed bumper covers. Mitchell reports in their non-included labor operations the removal of release agents for OEM raw plastic components. MOTOR reports that refinish times do not include removal of mold release agents from new unprimed molded components.
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