Impossible Repair?

[Nomad]

I have to agree with Puka Pau about the stifling of innovation by rules written in cement. If you wish to follow them, that's fine, but there will be no progress unless someone pushes the envelope. Edison was told by college and university departments that there was no possible way to pull tungsten into a wire for a light bulb filament. He hired a blacksmith, I think, and he went and figured out a way to do it. That's not a license to do something really stupid, but we have to be careful about giving too much credence to authority as they have been proven wrong on so many subjects in the past.

[Dave M]

New Years Eve and here I sit, with wine in hand and wife sick in bed! If we had no rules, laws,codes and regulations we'd still be back in the Stone Age! ROLAGS are there for those that want some guidelines to follow. They are not written in cement, at least not yet. I don't think progress in this business will be decided by guidelines. Progress in my opinion, are new ideas, equipment changes, marketing and advertising ideas, new resins or the general public becoming more aware of our great business! How do "rules" stifle innovation? How do you push the envelope in regards to this subject?

[Nomad]

As I said before, if you or anyone else wants to follow the "rules" that are not yet "set in cement" (enacted into law) then that is just fine and dandy. The ROLAGS guideline are for the most part actually quite good. I see no problem with anyone following them.

New ideas are stifled by strict adherence to procedures even though common sense might say that in some cases work could be done that is not recommended by said procedures. Case in point, if damage on a large expensive bus or motorhome windshield is so low or high that it cannot be seen from the drivers seat, or indeed from inside the coach at all, and a repair is possible but not recommended under guidelines, should you tell the owner to get a $4,000 replacement because some outfit in Pennsylvania says don't fix it?

Or a traveler, or farmer or rancher just wants to get something fixed so it won't get worse, and they'll replace it when they get home or after the season ends and they want to avoid a ticket, are we supposed to tell him no.

How about someone that drives in with a chip close to the line of vision of the driver, and you can tell they aren't rich. In fact they tell you they cannot afford in any way a replacement on their old beater. Do you tell some one like that to take a hike?

Pushing the envelope means doing repairs other people won't touch because of the time or the complications involving the damage. Repairing damage when the official guidelines say don't do it. I find it challenging to attempt something like this because I have to use the brain to figure out how to do the repair and the satisfaction that I get from doing what other people turn away. It is also nice to have a satisfied customer that now thinks you can walk on water, at least in the repair business.

By the way, the lack of rules, laws. codes and regulations is called freedom. We didn't have them back then, that's how we progressed. All regulations are prior restraint, that is, punishing or restraining an action before the action takes place. This has been deemed unconstitutional and was a concern of the founders because of the English licensing laws.