With 19 locations spread out across New York State, Carubba Collision has been serving the people of New York’s collision repair needs for over 60 years. Established in 1955, Mr. Carubba’s father started the business. In the early 80s when he passed away, the business turned into two separate businesses, with two brothers – Joe and Samuel – branching off. Though western-New York based, there are 17 locations all throughout New York – from Syracuse to Oneonta to Amsterdam to Elmira to Utica and beyond.
Recently, Randy Pinkowski (Chief Safety Officer/VP of Equipment Procurement and Maintenance) got into contact with Stefano Morreto at USI to put obtain two brand new spray booths – one in the West Syracuse location and one in the Utica location.
“I met Stefano at the NORTHEAST® trade show while I was searching for a booth company,” Pinkowski noted. “He did a really great job explaining what the booth did, and he followed through on every single thing they said they were going to do, which is hard to find in a sub-contractor. All of the expectations were met, for sure.
Pinkowski said he was most impressed by Moretto’s sales pitch, in addition to the cost of the two booths.
“The cost was certainly in line with what we were looking for, and the booths either performed or outperformed other booths we had looked at – and for less money! He also offered up to us a great idea of using a basement-type booth, instead of digging a pit, and that worked out extremely well.”
Pinkowski’s spray booths have been up and running for just about six months now, and is confident that the booths will not only get their use as time goes on, but also make the businesses more profitable.
“Right now, we’re using the spray booths multiple times per day. Our hope is that both locations get to the point in the next year that they’re repairing 200 cars a month – maybe upwards of 300 cars a month, so those booths will definitely get their usage.
“The expectation is that the USI booth outperforms, mainly because of the way the booth works. I think we should be able to get more productive hours out of it, which will improve cycle time and increase our profitability.”
Carubba’s has also taken advantage of USI’s hands-on training that comes along with the purchase of the spray booth.
“USI provided training and the individuals working at the store had no complaints about the operation, and made several comments about the overall ease of operation. We also did some cross-training with other folks who don’t have this booth, and there was definitely jealousy that they don’t have the USI booth. Painters are unique individuals – they know what they like and what they want, and they’re not afraid to express it, and I think that alone speaks volumes about the quality of the product.”
Currently, Pinkowski says about four painters at each location are using the USI spray booth, and as new hires to the company, the ins and outs of the booth were new to them, but they’ve been quick to adapt.
“I’m fairly certain none of them had used this type of booth before. It was all new to them – how it worked, what it does differently – but they’ve adapted very easily. We’ve done two training sessions with USI, and these are hands-on training sessions where the painters actually get to paint something.
“The USI person comes in, just like traditional training should be, shows them what to do, and then they get to do it. The first time, they worked on a bumper that was never going to be on the car. Then, once they gained some confidence, they got to do real jobs.”
Pinkowski has been impressed with the team at USI, and has undoubtedly benefitted from his relationship with USI personnel.
“For ease of communication, we did everything right through Stefano, but there were other people – contractors that came in to do booth assembly – they all did a wonderful job. They were on time with everything, very detail-oriented. The communication was phenomenal. We knew what was going on before it was going to happen, which doesn’t always happen with other suppliers. He exceeded every expectation that we had.”
Overall, Pinkowski has high expectations for his USI Italia spray booth, and is confident it will help his painters and his business.
“Our painters should definitely be able to paint faster, which will benefit us and the painters. I think it’s going to reduce our cycle time, allow us to return vehicles to our guests faster and just make us more profitable.”

USI REFINISH TECHNOLOGY,
Our products save shops money, time and energy and that's why we're one
of the premier manufacturers of spray booths in the world today.

USI Italia spray booths are carefully engineered, thoroughly tested and manufactured
to lead the market for these following reasons:

1. World's Fastest Painting Cycle: With the shortest flash-off and curing times on
the planet. You will never need additional tools in your booth such as blowers of any
kind, IR or compressed air heating systems with a USI Italia booth. By featuring shorter
curing times with the highest flow available anywhere provided by our exclusive turbofan
system, the energy savings are huge and the results are exceptional.

2. Standardized Quality Results: With a USI Italia spray booth, you can rely on the same
excellent results time and time again. Before we introduce a new model to the public,
strenuous testing with a select system of controls is conducted, ensuring that it will
perform at a high level in any shop environment. With all of the latest cutting-edge
products and components working together, the entire painting process is controlled
and fully automated through our Easy Paint System. It takes all of the guesswork out
of the process, because with every cycle, our E.P.S. suggests the most efficient process
with each vehicle in real-time and enables your crew to obtain the highest quality results
in the shortest time at the lowest cost overall.

3. Economy and Superior Technology: Especially ideal for waterborne products,
USI Italia spray booths are durable and reliable while saving collision repairers time,
energy and money by painting more cars with precision performance. Painters love USI
Italia booths because the finished product is exemplary and while enabling them to paint
more cars every day by tapping into our advanced technology.