Dondelinger Chevrolet has been a staple in Brainerd, Minnesota since 1969. Being an integral part of the community, the Chevrolet dealer ensures that service does not stop after the sale. In addition to providing routine service, Dondelinger Chevrolet offers glass repair, paintless dent repair and collision repair — all done onsite until recently.
In 2014, Dondelinger Chevrolet became an Abra franchisee and moved their body shop off-site from the dealership. Their most recent relocation in 2019 allowed the business to expand and double their footprint, all while still in Brainerd.
The Abra Brainerd body shop layout is the quintessential shop floor layout for dealerships looking to maximize efficiency. Their bodyshop features a Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) Side-Load Finishing System, complete with an Ultra XD Paint Booth, dual-bay Ultra XD Closed-Top Open-Front (CTOF) Booth and a REVO Speed accelerated curing unit that can be easily positioned and moved between bays.
“Expanding our paint department has enabled us to produce more,” Wade Arnold, general manager of Abra Brainerd said. “We went from 1.5 paint booths to basically three because of the prep stations. We can now work on more cars at once.”
CTOF Booths from GFS provide dealerships with a versatile, end-to-end finishing environment. Vehicles can be filled, primed, sealed, painted and cured in one location. Dual-bay CTOF Booths allow for two workspaces, separated by a divider curtain, enabling repair work to be confined to a dedicated area, decreasing cycle times.
Another way to improve efficiency and decrease cycle times is by implementing electric IR technology. REVO Systems from Global Finishing Solutions use short wave electric IR to cure filler and coatings quickly from the inside out, offering the fastest curing time in the industry for both prep and paint processes.
As Abra’s Brainerd location has learned, using the right equipment eliminates having to constantly overhaul processes, allowing dealership body shops to be laser-focused on the bottom line and reap the benefits of increased throughput and capital investments.
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Located at GFS’ headquarters in Osseo, Wisconsin, the Center for Excellence is an innovative facility featuring an automotive refinish training center, as well as a separate space dedicated to technical product training.
GFS is continuously searching for talented, ambitious individuals to join our team. We aim to provide our employees with every opportunity to make an impact on the company and find their niche along the way — weather in a production, field services or an office position.
