July 27, 2013 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Prepare Your Vehicle for Winter

To ensure a safe and hazard-free winter season, below are four helpful tips geared to prepare the exterior of your vehicle for the road conditions and cold Aspen winter weather:

Headlamp polish/restoration if your headlamps are fading and it is difficult to see.
Wash and wax the exterior of the vehicle to protect the paint of your vehicle.
Aquapel application to your windshield to help improve winter driving visibility.
Clear bra application to help protect your vehicles paint job.

These four steps are geared to keep your vehicle protected from the elements and keep you safe on the road:

1) Headlamp Polishing

Get your headlights polished for safe winter driving — Polished headlamps will significantly increase the light intensity and provide you with a safe driving experience.

Among the most influential safety factors during winter is having visibility. Increasing visibility will help you see the road situation and react faster and safer in terms of breaking or avoiding collision. Headlights fade and lose luminosity because the protective plastic lens gets damaged and the transparency decreases. In fact, it is not glass but plastic that is not immune to the Ultra Violet (UV) radiation from the sun, temperature extremes, de-icers, sand and gravel put on the road.

2) Wax your vehicle to protect your paint

Driving up and down the Roaring Fork Valley on Highway 82, our vehicles are exposed to environmental factors as well as debris on the road. Washing the undercarriage of your vehicle is important to remove build up of ice, mud, rocks, salt and other debris. These items sometimes get caught in the nooks and crannies of bumpers, brackets, wheel wells and splash guards. When this build up of ice, mud, rocks and salt (Magnesium chloride) sit and stay moist they have a tendency to start the corrosion process on anything containing metal and aluminum. This is why it is so important to clean both the undercarriage as well as the exterior of your vehicle frequently throughout the winter season. Having High Tone Auto Body apply a quality wax to your paint helps minimize the amount of time the corrosive mixture can stay on your paint and do damage.
Wax all painted panels and get any body or paint repairs done before winter hits!
The Aspen area is famous for heavy snowfalls and long winters. This means that for several months our vehicles are exposed to moisture that can result in paint peeling and rust. This is especially true if you keep your vehicle out side and it regularly gets plenty of snow on its roof. The roof of your vehicle is always exposed to the elements, and often times the paint peels and the metal is exposed. Given enough time, this exposed metal rusts and causes even more paint peeling.

In order to prepare your vehicle for the winter, it is best to take the time and repair any paint cracking and peeling before the winter starts. When done on time, these repairs are only cosmetic and are therefore significantly cheaper than if rust appears and the repair turns into an auto body repair.

Clear coat and paint peeling gradually grows from invisible specs to large chunks of paint falling off. Preventing this process is the smartest and cheapest way to go.

The image above shows how the layers of clear coat and paint starting as invisible specs, and over time they grow in size and entire patches of paint will delaminate. In order to avoid such defects, it is smart to visit High Tone Auto Body and fix any paint problems before winter comes.

To find out how car paint damages appear, visit this page.

3) Have a Hydrophobic coating applied to your windshield

Aquapel is a coating that can be applied to your windshield to help repel rain, sleet and snow. The water will bead up and race across the windshield out of your viewing area.

It is also beneficial to get new wiper blades installed for the winter season. Clear your windshield free of ice and snow before using your wipers. This will help improve the longevity of your wiper blades.

4) Clear Bra Installation Prevents Rock Chips Damage

With snowfall our roads are regularly treated with sand and salt. During winter the roads really become littered with debris that causes significant paint damage and regularly plays an important role in windshield damage as well. After the snow melts, driving behind a truck becomes as annoying as flying through an asteroid field. Eventually your vehicle will become damaged from sand and rock chips. Bumpers made of steel can rust where rocks and other debris has impacted the painted or chrome bumper, while plastic bumper covers do not rust but they do chip and become pitted and will need to be repaired and repainted. Once the bumper is either replaced or repaired a clear bra installation will help prevent rusting and chipping of the paint.

This is why it is very smart to invest in clear bra installation that will protect your vehicle hood, bumpers, fender tips, etc from rock chips.

The cheapest and smartest way to protect your hood from paint damage and rust spots is to install a clear bra before winter begins. — The cheapest and smartest way to protect your hood from paint damage and rust spots is to install a clear bra before winter.

Proactively investing some time and money to install a clear bra will go a long way in protecting your vehicle. The image above shows how a detailed and proper clear bra installation is done. With such a protective layer, your car hood will be safe from rock chip damage.

Get your car ready for winter today! Please don’t hesitate to call us to schedule your complimentary estimate at (970) 927-4351.

May 5, 2013 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Auto Headlamp Restoration on a BMW SUV

You have probably seen many vehicles where the headlamps are faded, the lens cover seems scratched, hazy or even burned and if you get behind the wheel of that car at night, you will have problems seeing because the headlamps aren’t putting out as much light as when they were new.

Faded headlights can be a big problem for drivers at night, and it can be quite dangerous too. Reduced visibility can pose a significant risk for night driving. This is why auto headlamp restoration is a must for any driver that owns a car with fading headlamps. In areas of extreme weather like we have in the Aspen-Snowmass-Basalt area, with heavy snow and plenty of sand and salt on the roads, headlamp restoration is a smart thing to do.

Why Auto Headlamps Fade

Headlamp lens (coverings) are made from poly-plastic materials. Not all plastics are the same and not all plastics have the same UV protection added to them when manufactured. But before you go on to accuse car manufacturers for replacing glass-based headlamp lenses, bear in mind that this shift was done so that vehicles would be safer for pedestrians and in collisions. Glass fragments from headlights were responsible for numerous injuries. Moving toward plastic-based headlamp coverings is a smart move toward car safety. Besides plastic is lighter weight and more shapeable for our aerodynamic cars in todays market.

The reason headlights fade over time is because of UV radiation from the sun, oxidation and environmental factors the vehicle has been exposed to. But for our area, the Aspen-Snowmass-Basalt-Carbondale valley, headlight fading has plenty to do with our greater exposure to the harmful UV rays from the sun due to our elevation. Age (the sun breaks down the original protective coating from the manufacturer), magnesium chloride (de-icer) salt, sand and rock chips all play a part in reducing the amount of light being projected through the headlamp lens cover. These factors can cause pitting, scratches and the plastic to turn yellow or even opaque.

Restoring Headlights for Better Road Safety

Here is an example of a vehicle from the Roaring Fork Valley:

This BMW SUV has gone through several winters and the headlights were so faded that the owner had concerns driving at night especially in snowy and rainy weather. After some research on a headlight restoration shop in the Basalt area, they called High Tone Auto Body and signed up for a headlamp restoration service. After the headlamp polish, the difference was dramatic, as you can see on the image below:

Before and After: how headlights should look like — A Dramatic Difference: Professional Headlight Restoration Service

This vehicle started off with headlights that had a significant drop in luminance power. Because of the severe UV radiation and pitting effect of sand, salt and rock chips, the hazed or oxidized plastic of the headlights acted as a barrier that allowed only 60% of the light to come through and illuminate the road. With such a severe fading effect, the driver had a tough time seeing especially at night or in bad weather.

Headlamp restoration desperately needed for this BMW — 2007 BMW with faded headlamps

For severely oxidized headlights it can take up to a half hour for each headlamp to be restored. A step by step process of sanding and polishing is followed carefully to achieve a smooth, shiny and transparent restored headlamp.

Don't wait too long, get your car headlights restoration and save hundreds of dollars. — Despite the oxidized headlamp, this headlight restoration exceeded the customers expectations.

In some cases, owners wait too long before they get a headlamp polish. The polishing/restoration can only be used as a temporary solution but it can definitely prolong the usefulness and life of the headlamp. Once the plastic surface has gone too far without restoration, it will have to be replaced with a new headlamp because the UV radiation and pitting effect of sand and salt creates deep scars in the plastic surface which cannot be fixed with headlamp restoration.

If your vehicle has faded and oxidized headlights, stop by and we will inspect them for you. The sooner you do a headlight restoration the better your chances are of avoiding a costly headlight replacement.

October 29, 2012 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Clean Headlights A Must For Safe Driving

Clean headlights are one of the most important elements for safe driving any time of year. A professional headlight polishing service is one low-cost step you can take to ensure safe driving during the long winter season.

There are plenty of car repair shops and auto body shops in the Aspen area that offer headlight polishing services, but here at High Tone Auto Body, we offer you our two decades of hands-on experience in body work and headlight polishing services.

Why do car headlights dim?

Headlights lens are made of plastic that fades and in time loses its transparency. UV radiation from the sun, magnesium chloride and adverse road conditions all add up to this headlight dimming. The longer you have your vehicle, the more the headlights quality deteriorates:

headlights brightness fades,
headlights lens turn yellow
headlights plastic gets pitted with time
scratches and dents appear on the headlight

Professional Headlight Cleaning

The Aspen area is well known for its heavy winter and driving on snowy roads can be quite dangerous. In such conditions on the road, clean headlights is of crucial importance. Dimmed headlights lose luminosity and make driving much harder. Getting a professional headlights polishing is a lot more than refreshing the looks of your car:

clean headlights drastically improve the driving safety
professional headlights restoration results in like-new lights efficiency
proper headlights cleaning increases durability of the lights

Although there are many do-it-yourself headlight polishing kits, there is a lot more to headlight polishing than having the polishing kit. The technical, auto body repair know-how is a lot more important than the kit itself. Some of the dangers of DIY headlight polishing kits are:

scratching up the paint of the hood and sides
scratching or damaging the front bumper
making new scratches and dents on the headlight
dimming the headlights even more because of poor polishing procedure

In these cases, the DIY polishing adventure can result in hundreds of dollars of paint repairs and badly damaged headlights.

Why Use High Tone Auto Body Headlights Polishing Services?

Our auto body shop has highly skilled auto body technicians that have certificates and years of experience that cannot be replaced by any kit, no matter how well it’s being advertized. Thanks to this training and head light polishing experience, you get top-of-the-line headlight restoration for a safe driving experience and:

great looking clean headlights
Like-new, over 95% headlights brightness after headlights restoration

Below is a short photo gallery of a Toyota SUV getting a professional headlights polishing.

headlight polish services aspen toyota suv polished headlights

headlight polish services aspen toyota suv polished headlights left closeup

headlight polish services aspen toyota suv process of polishing

headlight polish services aspen toyota suv foggy headlight before polishing

August 13, 2012 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Head Lamp Polish at High Tone Auto Body

As your vehicle ages so do the plastics that your head lamps are made of. Head lamps are exposed to UV radiation from the sun, magnesium chloride and adverse road conditions. Head lamps fade, yellow and get pitted with time, which can impair visibility and be a safety issue for you. To help improve visibility we offer head lamp polishing. Please come by the shop and see if this is an option for your vehicle and your visibility!