ALS takes a special spot in the hearts of everyone here at Collision Center of Andover. The wife of our owner and manager, Ben Lawrence, suffers from the disease, so we leapt at the opportunity to support The ALS Association’s search for treatment and hopefully – eventually – a cure.
More on ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s Disease as it’s better known, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects brain and spinal cord nerve cells. Those afflicted will eventually lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement. This often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis, and for some reason, veterans are twice as likely to develop the disease.
More on the Walk
September each year, the Walk to Defeat ALS occurs along the Wichita waterfront, hoping to raise money to help overcome the disease. Last year alone, the citizens of Wichita helped to raise over $150,000 dollars. The goal this year is $215,000, and with any lucky, we’ll be able to band together to reach it.
Anyone can volunteer for the walk, and there’s no fee for entry. Plus, the route is wheelchair accessible! And activities on Walk Day include something for people of any age! All you have to do is show up on September 22nd and support a great cause. If you do wish to walk, however, be sure to register.
So please consider getting a team together, or walking individually if you’re the lone wolf type. You can even join a preexisting team if your friends have already started one. Who knows, maybe you’ll be directly contributing to a cure for ALS.
Way back on March 14th, 2006, Collision Center of Andover first began offering Wichita and Andover, and the surrounding area, high quality collision repair.
It’s been a great decade or so, and we’re happy to have such an accomplished and skilled team, with technicians like Kyle, who’s been with us since 2008 and is quite possibly the best estimator in the area, and Kenny, who joined in 2007 and has been offering expert body repairs every day since.
A Business Would Be Nothing Without Customers
We’d like to send a special heartfelt thank you to all 12,000 of our customers (that’s right – we’ve had just over 12k customers in 12 years) for helping make Collision Center of Andover all that it is.
Now that we’re Gold Certified, you can rest assured that no matter what kind of repairs are required, from a light repaint to a true reconstruction, Collision Center of Andover is here to ensure that you get your car back from us looking as good as new.
Progress Never Stops
Though we have no immediately plans to open any new locations – it’s difficult enough maintaining excellence at one location, let alone two – we do have plans to make our location here in Andover a bit more spacious.
Expect to find the east part of the building opened up a bit, and we’ll be adding a brand-new paint shop so that we can service even more cars.
Let Us Help
If your vehicle is in desperate need of repair, Collision Center of Andover is here to help, just give us a call today at 316-733-9310, or contact us online.
Collision Center of Andover is extremely happy and proud to announce that as of fall, 2017, we received our Gold I-Car Certification for all the extensive training that we do. This certification is considered the gold – pardon the pun – standard in the industry. It’s a demonstration to our staff, to Wichita, and the industry, that we’re committed to the highest standards of professionalism.
Gold What Now?
I-Car is an organization devoted to ensuring that those who conduct auto repair have the skills necessary to do their jobs, and do them well. I-Car offers extensive training programs to everyone involved in auto-repair.
As more – and more varied types of vehicles – are manufactured, training becomes increasingly important as more advanced safety systems not only make it safer for you, but more difficult for us to repair in the unfortunate event that you’re in collision.
A Cut Above
The I-Car organization states that currently only about 20% of all auto repair shops in the world, let alone our little corner of Wichita, currently meet the requirements for the gold standard. You know that by coming to Collision Center of Andover, you are – quite literally – coming to one of the top collision repair shops in the area.
This rigorous training keeps us up-to-date on any upcoming products or technologies that are in the works, so if you bring you new vehicle to us, we’ll have the knowledge and experience to fix it properly the first time with no mistakes.
The Rise of Aluminum
For instance, aluminum, will soon be a much more common component in many vehicles. Traditionally, vehicles were constructed with a lot of heavy, inefficient steel, but as time and progress has steamrolled ahead, aluminum has become increasingly popular in vehicles.
It was only in 2014 that the first vehicle built entirely out of aluminum was released, the Ford F-150 truck. The switch to aluminum made it almost 700 lbs. lighter. A vehicle that much lighter is far more fuel efficient and produces far less CO2.
Aluminum vehicles are also far safer. When they’re in a collision, the deformation is centralized to where the impact happens, leaving the rest of the vehicle retaining its original shape.
Aluminum Isn’t Perfect
If there’s any downside to aluminum-based vehicles, it’s that they’re more difficult to repair – hence all the training and this Gold I-Car Certificate. It takes hundreds of manhours to master repairing an aluminum vehicle, and it’s something that Collision Center of Andover is great at handling.
There aren’t many Gold classified collision centers out there, so by going with anyone else in Wichita who isn’t certified, then you have absolutely no way of knowing whether they have the training necessary to know how to properly square a frame, use the latest estimatic tools, are aware of the latest painting methods, or how to handle any possible hazardous materials. The list of what proper (and extensive) training can teach you goes on from there.
The bottom line is that Collision Center of Andover is absolutely committed to auto repair, and ensuring that we have the best possible training to do the best possible job. Give us a call today at 316-733-9310, or contact us directly, and we’ll be happy to tell you more about all that’s involved in proper collision auto repair.
