The mobile tech industry has opened many doors and enhanced
a great many careers in its silent, but steady evolution. Take Bill Gast, for instance, of Paint Medic Express in Troy, Ohio. “I joined the Air Force right out of high school specializing in aircraft and support equipment as a painter. When I got out in 1990,
I thought, ‘What can I do with that talent?”

     Bill loved his job in the Air Force, but as a civilian, there weren’t many AC-130 gunships or F-22s requiring cleaning and maintenance. He went through half a dozen jobs over the next three years until he answered an ad in the paper for a painter with a company called Pro Paint Plus in Cleveland, who was expanding their territory into the Dayton market. “I honestly didn’t know the mobile tech industry existed,” Bill says, “I didn’t know there was a comparable business in the private sector.”

     Since 1993, Bill only looked back once. Diagnosed in 2006 with soft tissue muscular sarcoma in his upper left arm, scaling back was his only option. “It was a trying time that makes you really reevaluate your life, especially when you have two kids. They give you the reason to live.” Although they can’t say for sure, he believes the cancer was the result of exposure while in the Air Force. “We worked all day with powerful chemicals in paints, coatings, and lacquers; and we were exposed on anongoing basis to methyl ethyl ketone.” This powerful solvent is used in processes involving coatings and vinyl films, gums, resins, and cellulose acetate. “No one knew then that it was harmful to your health and we never used respirators or gloves, or other safety equipment like they do now.” It wasn’t until 2005 that the EPA concluded that continued exposure to these chemicals without safety gear can be harmful to your health.

     In 2001, Bill went solo and bought a Chevy Cargo van with an air
compressor and a generator. He invested in the DuPont paint system and although he now runs Sherwin Williams, he still has a soft place for DuPont. “Over the years, I believe I have used all the paint systems out there. I think DuPont has the best color-matching system and is the easiest to use. It lasts forever and doesn’t harden when you reduce it. Unlike PPG’s paint system, DuPont has a longer pot-life once it’s been mixed.”

     Since Bill does a great deal of work for used car dealerships these days, he says Sherwin Williams’ Ultra® and Dimension® paint systems are best for the type of applications he does the most. “You don’t need an expensive paint system to make used cars look good. Sherwin Williams is a cost-efficient product for correcting chipped and peeling paint, or for fixing dings.”

     Although he isn’t completely out of the woods with his cancer, Bill feels great. He is moving forward this summer with integrating his Paint Medic Express business with that of a longtime friend of his, Mike Henderson. The merger will take him from a one-man show to nine units. “We are also looking for a building in Kettering, so we can expand our  retail business with a fixed location where people can bring their car and leave it if necessary.” Winter weather can get rather nasty in the Dayton/Troy region, so a fixed location will be a big asset when salt and sand does damage to cars on the roads.

      “I believe there is a big gap between the car lot and body shop business, and straight retail business,” Bill explains. “If you have key scratches, bumper dings or paintchips on your car, the average car owner doesn’t realize a mobile tech can fix it cheaper, faster, and more
efficiently than the body shop.” It isn’t profitable for a body shop to do small surface work, and Bill feels a properly trained mobile tech is more motivated to do quality work. “It isn’t about slapping some paint over the marred surface. It must be properly prepped so it doesn’t rust, peel, or crack later.”

     It seems to be the mobile tech’s mantra… training, training, and more training. “Many of the jobs I do could have been prevented with better prep work. You have to know what you are doing or you can do more damage than was there in the
beginning.”

     Bill’s future business partner, Mike Henderson met Mark Olguin of Blending Colors Systems in San Diego at the Mobile Tech Expo several years ago. “We were so impressed by Mark’s demonstration and what a fantastic airbrushing system he had, that we went to San Diego for a week’s training in 2005. We brought the first Blending Colors System to Ohio, and have even
taken it across state lines into Indiana.” The training is progressive and extends into 3-months and 6- months so the tech gains a lot of hands-on experience out in the field.

     When Mike and Bill officially merge this summer, they will have four base-coat/clear-coat specialists and five airbrush specialists covering
all of Dayton and parts of eastern Indiana, within a 50-mile radius that includes the area north of Cincinnati. “The car industry has been hit hard here in Ohio,” Bill admits. “GM closed and our huge, luxurious CarMax dealership is sitting on mothballs, but it seems to be coming back some. The good news is that since people are keeping their cars longer, they are taking better care of them. This is good for our business.”

     Eighty-five percent of Paint Medic Express business right now is wholesale, but he is confident the other 15% is a retail market he has
yet to reach. “We will target them once we have a building, and not only that, but we will be running several paint systems including Sherwin Williams for the economy jobs; DuPont for the high-end jobs, and Blending Colors for airbrushing.”

     For a man who left the Air Force wondering how to put his talent for painting MiGs to good use, life is still flying high for the Paint Medic Express!