LRD saves money upgrading paint booth

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Timothy R. Capling
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affaris
The 325th Logistics Readiness Division personnel recently upgraded the vehicle-painting booth here to support the painting of large vehicles, such as aircraft refueling and fire trucks for corrosion control.

The upgrade, completed in May will cut vehicle down time and is projected to save the Air Force as much as $40,000 a year, by providing the service in-house rather than taking the vehicles to an off base contractor, said Howard Funkhouser, 325th LRD and Del-Jen Incorporated transportation manager.

"When we took the large trucks off base to be painted, it took between four to six weeks before we got the truck back," said Mr. Funkhouser. "With these upgrades, we can complete one truck in 10-12 days."

Mr. Funkhouser also emphasized the impact the upgrade would have on Tyndall's sortie capability.

"Now we can get our aircraft-refueling trucks finished up to three weeks faster," Mr. Funkhouser said. "That's three extra weeks we'll have that truck out on the flight line where we wouldn't have had it before."

The work to finish the upgrade was extensive, said Mr. Funkhouser.

"The upgrade cost an estimated $150,000," he said. "That included the new lighting, air filtration systems, sandblasting and re-painting the interior walls, ceiling and doors. The booth is fully compliant with Environmental Protection Agency."

Ed Ammons, 325th LRD and Allied Trades paint and body work specialist, said the upgrade saves time on painting all the regular-sized vehicles as well.

"All of the painting for regular-sized vehicles and for vehicles in accidents is done in the booth too," Mr. Ammons said. "During the upgrade, all of that painting was being conducted down at the research laboratory so we were spending a lot of time transporting vehicles back and forth from here and there."

Mr. Funkhouser estimated with the new booth, they'll be able to paint approximately 14 large vehicles a year and between 30-40 regular size vehicles.