STATS: Website: corrosionfree.com Cost: contact Corrosion FREE to become a dealer; two pack of 14 ounce aerosol cans retails for $29 Uses: Preventing rust Training Required:: In-person training and continual support available for Corrosion FREE dealers
The Shop:
Chickasaw Garage in Chickasaw, Ohio, is a family-owned shop that has been in business for more than 80 years. The five-bay shop employs six, including two ASE-certified technicians. The shop is heavily focused on maintenance, which is what originally drew the shop to offering a rust-proofing service to its customers.
“We live in a rural community where people hold onto their vehicles for a long time,” owner Ted Heitbrink says. “We saw that a lot of these vehicles had to be scrapped not because they weren’t working right, but because they were so rusty.”
The shop began getting inquiries about rust proofing, so Heitbrink began researching companies that offered it.
How It Works:
Corrosion FREE’s Rust Cure Formula 3000 is a vaseline-like substance that comes out in a fine mist when sprayed onto a vehicle. When applied to the surface of a vehicle, the product helps prevent rust with a re-application every 18 months.
When a customer purchases the rustproofing treatment, the staff hooks the Formula 3000 up to the spray machine—which was purchased through Corrosion FREE as part of the set-up—and hoists the vehicle into the air. The technician can then use the spray machine, which works just like a paint gun, to begin covering the underside of the vehicle. Heitbrink says that the product is dripless and that a little goes a long way. As soon as the underside is covered, the vehicle is lowered onto the ground so that the rest of the surface can be covered.
Heitbrink says that the rest of the vehicle is then sprayed on the ground with a separate applicator, a fogger gun that atomizes the product and includes a wand to spray hard-to-reach areas like open holes and frames, fenders and panels. Depending on the vehicle, Heitbrink says rust-proofing takes about two hours.
The Review:
The shop has used Corrosion FREE for a little over a year now and is very pleased with the results, Heitbrink says.
When the shop made the decision to offer a rust-proofing service to its clients, it began researching companies that offered this. Heitbrink says that the shop received samples of products that they used on their own vehicles.
“We liked this one the best,” Heitbrink says. “Plus, the company is very personable and great to work with.”
Another reason the shop choose Corrosion FREE was that it doesn’t make a mess like others on the market and requires reapplication every 18 months, versus the standard 12 months.
The service has been a big hit with Chickasaw Garage’s customers. Heitbrink says they do an average of five rust-proofing services per week and that customers have driven as far as two hours to the shop to get the treatment.
The ROI:
To become a dealer for Corrosion FREE, Heitbrink had to purchase the spray gun equipment and has to order the Formula 3000 every 3–4 months. Heitbrink usually purchases six 15-gallon kegs each time he makes an order. Heitbrink says that by the time he put the order in for the fourth keg, the equipment had paid for itself.
The shop does an average of five jobs per week. Depending on the vehicle, the cost to the customer is between $139 and $159. Apart from the cost of ordering new kegs, that money is all additional revenue for the shop. The shop is also a dealer for the aerosol cans. Customers can purchase the 14-ounce cans in the store for personal use and touch-ups between jobs.
Heitbrink says that along with the additional revenue, it’s also brought in new customers to the shop that said that they originally came into the shop because it offered rust-proofing.
