Like many businesses at the moment, bodyshops are feeling the financial squeeze, so finding ways to boost productivity and save money are always welcome. During the painting process many repairers waste both time and money by not adopting best practices when it comes to job preparation. To help combat this refinish abrasives and equipment specialist, Mirka, have put together a wide range of online resources to help bodyshops boost their process efficiency and produce work of the highest quality.  

On the Mirka website at www.mirka.com/uk/uk/ there is a comprehensive resources section that features product leaflets, safety data sheets, and machine manuals. It also features a selection of very useful process charts in downloadable PDF format. Each chart is a fully illustrated, easy to follow, step-by-step guide to preparation of various substrates for painting. With clear colour pictures, they show both the actions required and Mirka products to use to achieve the perfect preparation for the job. The process charts cover preparation for Alloy Wheel Repair, Glass Polishing, Headlight Repair, the Mirka OSP System, Panel Repair, Smart Repair and Solid Surface prep. The format of the guides also means they can be easily printed out for workshop display.

Another very useful Mirka resource is the Collision Repair Guides section for sanding and polishing on the Mirka YouTube channel. These concise videos cover a variety of refinishing topics with easy to follow how-to guides on:  

- Fresh clear coat - how to get defects and dust in paint removed with Golden Finish, shows how to speed up post-paint work and get rid of defects and imperfections in a fresh painted clear coat. There are system demonstration videos for both large and small defects.

- Removing dust nibs from clear coat - One-step denibbing on a light coloured surface.

- Nib sanding process - Two-step denibbing process for dark cars to remove dirt nibs.

- How to remove dirt nibs and small defects on a car.

- The Collision repair process using Mirka Iridium.

To view these best practice videos and a wealth of other Mirka automotive refinish videos, search MIrkaUK on YouTube.