Chaney's office is upstairs. If he is not in his office, he will most likely be found in the shop - his first love. He still personally test drives every repair.

When asked how he processes each repair, Chaney laughed and explained: "each highly-trained person jumps in and does the job and the car moves through the process." In all seriousness, Chaney's is an organized and efficient process. Chaney has accused himself of being "fanatical" about procedures in the past and it looks like his attention to detail is still "under development."

The latest and greatest

Efficiency is key to this busy I-CAR Gold Class shop. Cars blueprinted for repair are lined up against the fence waiting to enter the state-of-the-art shop. Four

journeyman technicians use the Celette dedicated bench. In addition to Celette, they have a full-frame World Rack and a Shark Electronic Measuring System. One of the journeyman body technicians finishes the jobs on the Hunter G 111 4-wheel alignment system, which resides in a separate bay on the paint shop side of the property.

Across the parking lot from the body shop is the paint and detail department. The journeyman painter sprays BASF products in the new Blowtherm heated downdraft booth. The detail bay is actually a separate room. Set apart from the paint department by the alignment space, the detail bay stays very clean.

The parts manager works closely with the office to keep the cars moving efficiently through the shop by operating a well-organized department.

Times change

In fact, this whole organization works well together with what appears to be very little effort. However, those of us in the industry know it is not as easy as it looks. Chaney predicted: "We have the beginning of the end." He doesn't mean that in an apocalyptic sense, just the demise of the "old" way of doing business. He has seen where the industry came from and where it is headed.

"We used to do a good job for the customer and insurance company. They sent us work and we got paid," reflected Chaney. "But everything is more complicated now - and will continue to be different for the foreseeable future." In retrospect, he thinks that the industry is not as bad as it used to be. For him, the end of the industry is much better than the beginning.

Thude, who is writing estimates and managing insurance relationships, chimed in: "the only thing we can be sure of is that every day around here is going to be different."

Walt Chaney does have a hobby, though he hasn't spent too much time with her lately. She is a 1963 Piper Comanche, in mint condition - red and white and looking brand new. "The plane is like a great woman or bodyman - never aging!" he proclaimed.

Chaney's Collision Center is a solid business built around Walt and Joyce Chaney's core values - a testament to the collision repair industry of hard work and doing that hard work the right way.

Janet Chaney has served in many facets of the collision repair industry. She is now looking after the best interests of her clients from Desert Hills, Arizona. E-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

* No relation to author