Whats the largest shop you have ever worked in?

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 8:23 pm
The largest I have worked in was a shop that had 12 body men and 8 painters with three Binks heated downdraft booth's.
I cant remember how many cars we would do in a day,,,but it was a lot! We would have cars waiting in line to go in the booth. If you spent more than 30-45min painting a small job, the Mgr wanted to know why. We did high quality work, and we did it fast! (That was Rick Hendrick Chevy here in Charleston)
"The number of parasites in the USA has now eclipsed the number of productive members of society"


Capt Rick Hiott.
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 02, 2010 1:26 pm
Hi Capt. Rick.
Back in '85 or '86 I worked for Jack Dorman on Savannah Hwy. Large shop square footage wise, but small in production. That place was a joke. Mostly car lot work, and what was not, was treated like it was. My first week there I was treated to the thrill of replacing the rocker panel on a 4WD Toyota truck with cardboard and bondo.
Final straw was when I was called into the office to "discuss my ammount of turned work" When I started looking at the ammount of times they were putting on jobs, I told Jack his problem was not in the bodyshop, but the man running the whole shop writing estimates! Come on, stuff like 2 hrs to replace a quarter panel. .5 to replace a fender and align it, etc... Told him if he didn't like how fast I was turning the work to replace me and walked out on him. Two week later I quit and opened my own shop.
He should have stuck to stealing from the drug cartels and reselling his loot!
Just trying to relearn what I did 20 years ago!

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 8:12 am
Ha-Ha-Ha,,,I remember Jack. He had a bad reputation for sure.

That shop screwed up more cars than you can think of!

A few shops here in Charleston will show you "There fake" estimate,,,but not the real one that was written by the insurance company. They will stab you in the back every chance they get! That's another reason I got out of the business.
"The number of parasites in the USA has now eclipsed the number of productive members of society"


Capt Rick Hiott.
www.reelfishhead.com



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PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 1:09 pm
A shop for a a chain of dealerships. Had 9 bodymen, 4 painters and 2 preppers. 2 booths and 2 heated downdraft prep decks.



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:28 pm
biggest shop ive ever worked in had 5 bodymen, 3 painters, 2 downdraft booths one saima one thermomeccanica, still there today Lexus toyota dealer here in Mtl, things have changed since last year now we have 2 painters 4 bodymen and 1 booth, not to mention insurance estimates are more than terrible everything is "included" and you know when johnny pencilpusher calls the shots but is not qualified you will most definatly fail. ohh well nothing much to do about it but leave.
R&R front bumper cover- 1.5
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WTF!!!!!!! everything is INCLUDED!!!!!!!!!!!



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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:55 pm
Big enough for a 5-6 DC10s or 747's thousands of employees, big place easy to get lost in :wink:
Dennis B.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:46 am
Doright wrote:Big enough for a 5-6 DC10s or 747's thousands of employees, big place easy to get lost in :wink:




I guess my small shop, counting myself 3 combination guys start to finish. 1 booth.
MissouriPaintSlinger

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:43 am
My experience is the larger the shop the more they run it like an assembly line. Customers are not people, just numbers on a sheet of paper. I prefer smaller shops in rural areas where you deal personally with the customers, many times you end up on a first name basis with your customers, many jobs come from members of satisfied customers extended families. The business grows by word of mouth from satisfied customers. Years ago I opened up a bodyshop in partnership with another guy who previously ran a shop in Detroit. The shop we opened was in a small town that I was familiar with and knew a lot of people there. My partner has the "big city" attitude of just get the work in and get it out as fast as we can, he was not good with the customers. He just didn't get it that customer relations in a small town shop is critically important. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile to satisfy customers. In his shop in detroit it didn't matter if you alienated customers here and there because the city is big enough that you'll still get more work off the street from people who don't know your reputation. That attitude is the kiss of death in a small shop and he was having a negative impact on our business. We parted company after about a year and I went and opened up a shop by myself. Worked great for the next 25 years. If you're doing body work and paint work in a mega shop with many employees then you might as well work in a factory running some machine, the concept is not much different.

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PostPosted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 11:45 pm
Phil V wrote:My experience is the larger the shop the more they run it like an assembly line. Customers are not people, just numbers on a sheet of paper. I prefer smaller shops in rural areas where you deal personally with the customers, many times you end up on a first name basis with your customers, many jobs come from members of satisfied customers extended families. The business grows by word of mouth from satisfied customers. Years ago I opened up a bodyshop in partnership with another guy who previously ran a shop in Detroit. The shop we opened was in a small town that I was familiar with and knew a lot of people there. My partner has the "big city" attitude of just get the work in and get it out as fast as we can, he was not good with the customers. He just didn't get it that customer relations in a small town shop is critically important. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile to satisfy customers. In his shop in detroit it didn't matter if you alienated customers here and there because the city is big enough that you'll still get more work off the street from people who don't know your reputation. That attitude is the kiss of death in a small shop and he was having a negative impact on our business. We parted company after about a year and I went and opened up a shop by myself. Worked great for the next 25 years. If you're doing body work and paint work in a mega shop with many employees then you might as well work in a factory running some machine, the concept is not much different.

Good Post Phil.

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PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 2:53 pm
Never worked there, but have a good business relationshop with them.....is a shop across the street. They employ about 30-40 people. About 15 bodymen, 3 painters..preppers to go along with the painters and detail guys. 3-4 full time estimaters. 3 heated drive thru down drafts and a trim out bay. 30,000 sq ft building. Just bought another 60,000 sq ft building in the next county over....eventually will be double what they have here.
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