"Another reason for expanding our Colorado SkillsUSA testing is to allow twice as many entry-level and second-year students to compete," said Laura Angell, main judge of the collision repair contest. 

 
Students may compete in only one repair category.  Eight secondary and nine postsecondary students were competing in collision repair while 10 secondary and nine postsecondary students were competing in the paint/refinishing contests at the event, Angell said.

Collision repair skills include estimating, frame damage evaluation, welding, sheetmetal dent removal, and plastic repairs.  Painting skills include substrate identification, color assessment, paint code identification, masking, feathering, priming, prep, paint mixing, and paint spraying.

The series of tests will allow Colorado students to compete more successfully at the national SkillsUSA contest, Angell said.
Prior to the hands-on contest, students must take a written test and undergo a 10-minute simulated job interview.  "Our written test is based upon the professional-level I-CAR tests," Angell said.  

 
The simulated job interviews include criteria such as appearance, eye contact, articulation, promptness, and well thought-out answers to specific questions.  "The simulated job interviews alone require about six hours of judging time to complete," Angell said.

 
Overall testing time was about 4.5 hours for written and job interview testing and 4.5 hours for the hands-on shop skills testing.  Contestants were entered from Pikes Peak Community College, Pueblo Community College, Warren Tech at Red Rocks Community College, and Morgan Community College at Fort Morgan.

Angell said the students remained very close in scoring on the written tests and that most were missing the same questions.  Angell's committee will debrief the students to see what went well and to see what improvements might be recommended for next year's contest.  Feedback from contest judges will also be used to fine-tune the testing procedures.

Among the specific hands-on tasks the students were assigned to perform were using a mock-up frame assembly to evaluate frame alignment problems, repairing fender panels with identical dents, checking frame alignments with a trammel bar, performing plastic repairs, masking various parts of a vehicle for paint repairs, identifying primers used on new panels, matching the paint on a scratched fender, feathering the scratch, and spraying the repaired scratch.

Another, more arduous task for the paint/refinishing students was determining which component was left out of mismatched paint used for touching up a painted body panel. "We've had only one perfect answer so far," Angell said.

The secondary winners in the paint/refinishing category are: first place, Daniel Sullivan, Pikes Peak Community College; second, James Fox-Adamsson, Warren Tech; and third, Roy Grauberger, Morgan Community College.  The top three finishers in the postsecondary division are: first place, Kris Waters, Pikes Peak Community College; second, Mark Romero, Morgan Community College; and third, David Unger, Morgan Community College.

In the secondary division of the collision repair technology competition, Kevin Massey of Morgan Community College finished first, Cameron McCreery of Morgan Community College was second, and William Waibel of Warren Tech placed third.  The top three in the postsecondary division are: Fred Golemboski, Morgan Community College, first; Matt Boudreau, Pikes Peak Community College, second; and Duane Senter, Warren Tech, third.

On completion of the skills contest, Enterprise Rental Cars provided each contestant with a backpack stocked with a giveaways donated by industry participants.  Hertz Local Edition donated T-shirts for each contestant.  Angell also said that the enthusiasm exhibited by students for this year's test series has far exceeded that of years past.

The 2008 SkillsUSA collision repair and paint/refinishing contest received support from organizations and companies such as I-CAR, PPG Industries, National Farmer's Insurance, A&H Finishing Products, Chief Industries, ABRA of Colorado,  Hank's Auto Body,  Hertz Local Edition,  AkzoNobel Coating,  3M Automotive Aftermarket Division, Snap-on Tools, Auto Paint & Equipment, American Family Insurance,  Panasonic Solutions,  Kent Automotive, CCC Information Services,  Mahnke Auto Body, Enterprise Rental Cars, Lincoln Welding,  DuPont, Painter's Supply,  Keystone Automotive, and others who donated time and materials for the contest.