Growing up in western NY, I was always a self taught youngster. It seemed I was mechanically inclined at an early age, I started to take apart my bicycles and lawnmowers to see how they worked. I was getting pretty good at fixing things and my interest grew as my toys got bigger. However, when I got my first car at sixteen I seemed to be more interested in the way it looked than how it ran. So I broke out the K-mart “bondo” and started fixing the rust. How hard could it be? Wasn’t pretty, but I wasn’t too disappointed, what did a teenager know anyway? I had to pay a guy to paint the car because the front yard would not do the trick.
Moving forward, I graduated from Alfred State College with an AOS degree in auto collision repair, and I was on my way. Western NY is notorious for rusted out vehicles and I had my fill of rust repair. So onward to Texas and hence my career in the auto body repair field began.
There is no substitute for real world experience, but continuing education is always helpful, especially with so many technological advances on vehicles these days.
Over the years, I’ve worked as: a body tech, painter, estimator, shop manager, shop owner, instructor and in recent years, as an insurance adjuster. I am no stranger to any part of the collision world, but when it comes down to it, my passion will always lie in the repair end of the industry. It is always nice to “see” what you have done and seems to make people the happiest.
After 30 years in this industry, it’s time to take a few steps back and hopefully pass on some knowledge of my experiences to consumers, as well as workers starting in the industry. I’ve made many mistakes and not all of what my views are will be positive but the truth is, it is what it is. My new passion is working online which is enabling me to use modern media to pass this info along. So, hopefully, a few people will find some benefit from this website.