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Permalink Reply by joseph kinch on November 14, 2009 at 3:18pm

My first job was washing dishes at Mill Falls Restaurant for $2.10 an hour in Newton while going to trade school.
It was enough money to buy my first set of wheels a new kawasaki 175. It cost me a whopping $575.00.
It got me back and forth to school. After a while at the restaurant I was moved up from dishes to salad bar, and with that a raise to $2.75, wow the big bucks.
In my junior year I was able to go on a Co Opp program working at Newton chrysler plymouth for a cut in pay, why? It was what I wanted to do work on cars, and for that I got paid $2.10 an hour. That was 1974

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Silver on November 15, 2009 at 12:11pm

Looking back on a 40+ year career in various aspects of the automobile business, I really feel fortunate to have as many opportunities as I've had. First of all, as Barry Meguiar would say, I'm a "car guy" I'm car crazy, and have been since I was a child. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1966 with a Mechanical Engineering degree. At that time the GM Proving Ground in Milford Michigan did a lot of recruiting from Wisconsin and I was offered a job as a Junior Engineer. Going to work at that 4000 acre country club setting and being that close to product development was like going to heaven.

Anyway, I stayed there for 7 years and got involved with crash safety, restraint systems, child safety, accident investigation and repairability studies. I got to meet and work with people of that era like John DeLorean, Ed Cole, Dave McLellan, etc. When I left, I had worked my way up to supervisor of the crash test dummy lab and helped devbelop a dummy that became the standard of the industry for the next 20 yuears.

I realized I would never be president of GM, so I started looking for a smaller company that could use my background. I ended up joining Blackhawk Automotive in product development and marketing. I had a chance to learn international marketing and found out how things were being done in shops in Europe, and also got involved with collision repair associations here in the US. While working for Blackhawk, the first domestic unibodies were being introduced to the US market in the late 1970's. I was fortunate enough to be invitied to the first organizational meetings which led to the founding of I-CAR. I remained involved with I-CAR and chaired technical committees while helping Blackhawk introduce unibody repair equipment to the US, including MIG welders, benches and measuring systems.

In 1985, I-CAR was going through some rough times, and I had a vision of what it could become. I made a presentaton to the board and was given a chance to step in as interim CEO for a year. What an exciting and rewarding career step that was. An experimental year became an 11 year career step. During the late 1980's and early 1990's I-CAR grew and became recognized as the leading training organization it is today.

Finally, I decided I wanted to own my own business and, of course, the collision repair industry was now my life. In 1996, with the help of my very understanding wife Jeanne, we opened a bodyshop from scratch. Needless to say, the last 13 years have been a challenging learning experience for us, but it has been very rewarding as well, to create a successful business from nothing. We have stayed involved with the industry and have helped shape many aspects of it working with various industry organizations.

I guess the message for those of you just starting out is you never know where it will lead and what path you will take along the way. This is a wonderful industry with lots of opportunity no matter what you like to do. When I started out I had no idea where I wouild be 40 years later. All I know was I wanted to work with cars and enjoy doing it. I certainly have achieved that goal.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Silver on November 15, 2009 at 9:04pm

I forgot to post this at the beginning. I have always been interested in cars and worked in gas stations and car washes in Jr. high and high school just to be around them. Before college I built a couple of hot rods and my town was famous for American Graffitti style "scoop the loop" to show them off.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Fowler on November 16, 2009 at 3:30pm

I painted the first car of my career, a 1939 Chevrolet coupe, when I was 12, going on 13. I officially got in this business in 1968 after graduating from high school, building Funny Car bodies and repairing Corvettes. I was experienced far beyond my years because of my love of cars, my first being a 1959 Corvette. I paid the whopping sum of $995 for it and prompty destroyed it. (That's how I came to learn fiberglass repair and custom painting.)
In 1969, I left the industry to serve in the U.S. Navy and fortunately never had to attend the "University of Viet Nam". I spent my time in the south of Spain and upon discharge, went to work in offshore oil exploration in north Africa and the Mediterrenean Sea. After a total of 6 years away from the USA, I returned and went to school to study mechanical engineering but quickly learned that there was no need to go to college for 4 years to make less money than I could in the auto repair industry right away. I took a job as a production painter at an AMC dealership, but did not find it rewarding and went back to building race cars, streetrods, and restoring vintage automobiles. That was rewarding and challenging but unprofitable, so I bounced around in the industry for 10 years trying to find my niche and figure out what I was going to be when I grew up..
Old age started taking it's toll and arthritis set in from a devastating motorcycle accident I had in 1977, so I finally had to put down my tools and try to make my living with my head instead of my back. After sucessfully managing a dealership shop, and a "Mom and Pop" shop, where "Mom" busied herself trying to avoid paying me for building their business, I made the leap and went on my own.
Until recently, my career has been very rewarding and I can honestly say that I am very happy that I will be retiring soon. I am not encouraged by many of the things I see happening in this industry and believe that small (12,000 sq. ft.) shops such as my own will become a thing of the past. Quality of repair definitely has taken a backseat to economy and I don't want to stick around to see what's next. No, I'm going to stay home and play with my dog, drink beer and fish when I feel like it and build antique motorcycles. You guys can have it.

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Permalink Reply by Sheila on November 16, 2009 at 10:02pm

Cleaning cars for the sales lot at 16. Spent a few years floating through line work, restaurants and college. Then came back for 1998,99 and 2000 in the body shop as a tech and estimator.Now I have moved onto estimating and office work. I do a bit in the shop if I need to. My dad is certain there is no way a person can succeed at running a shop(ours anyway) if they don't also do some of the bodywork themselves. If I ever dressed 'up' for work, well, lets say that isn't the way it is. I need to be ready to do the "real" work at all times. I don't think my techs would be to thrilled to have a 'pencil pusher' for a boss. I get enough grief for the time I spend in the office. I am a MI licesnced unibody tech.

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Permalink Reply by Kristen R. Felder on November 17, 2009 at 8:29am

Sheila... I hear ya! That was my Dad's philosophy on running a Body Shop. We did it all.... Dad installed phones all over the shop so we could take calls from customers and adjusters while working.
It's good to know I'm not the only one with that background :-)

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Permalink Reply by Bill Terry on November 18, 2009 at 9:43am

I worked for my Dad in a Body Shop starting at age 14, that was 1964, until I was 23.
Dad would take in anything to paint, refrigerators, Horse Trailers etc.
I was the one up inside the Horse Trailer with a dust mask on a Grinder and wire brushes to try and get as much of the rust out as possible so we could paint it.
Became the Body shop Manager at the Locale Buick Dealership at age 23 (got a lot of looks) but made it through that. Ran two more Dealership Shops up until age 38 and then I opened my own shop and that was 22 years ago. It has been Good and it has been Bad but overall I LOVE IT.

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Permalink Reply by ED COVINGTON on November 18, 2009 at 1:05pm

I grew up in my dads body shop. Started getting paid for what I did when I turned 14. The first car I ever painted was a 1957 chevy, which we purchased for 45 dollars. I drove that car all threw high school. That paved the way to me painting all my buddys stuff from school. The love for the industry just kept growing. When I turned 21 years old a local dealership came calling. I went to work for them in 1991 and by 1996 was general manager. Then came the large independent shop calling. With the need of being on my own I went to work for them in 1999. It has been a great move. I became manager of that shop in 2003. Now we have two shops and loving every minute of it. If you like a challenge every day this is it.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Silver on November 22, 2009 at 6:09pm

I would be interested in hearing from some of the younger people reading this what their impressions are of this diverse group of responses.

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Permalink Reply by Rachel Johnson-Gulbrandson on March 5, 2010 at 11:12am

Jeff,
Hey its me rachel from ICAR... how are you doing? I hope all is well. I look forward to hearing from your wife about WIN.... take care
Rachel Johnson-Gulbrandson

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Permalink Reply by CARNER-LORENZO on January 31, 2010 at 10:17pm

2004 Shell oil - claims Florida S F Cat Team

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Permalink Reply by Richard Sauro on March 1, 2010 at 2:20pm

First job was also washing dishes at Cabots ice cream in Newton Ma I was a freshman in high school and I don't remember the pay but it was not more than 200.00 a week I know that for sure. My second job was more in line with Collision repair I was in my second year of high school and the footbal coach wanted me to play but I was working at Luby Ford in the Auto Body shop and was not going to leave the job to play. I remember my Auto Body instructor explaining to all the senior, none of whom where working in shop that I was on my way and what where they waiting for, anyway that was 1978 and allot has changed since then, but I still enjoy the challenge of doing repairs

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