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Toyota certified collision center spells success in first two years |
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Monday, 05 March 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 He spearheaded the opening of a 36,000 square-foot facility, outfitted it with state-of-the-art equipment and hired trained technicians to complete repairs in a project that could be described as daunting, at best.
Mossy Toyota certified collision center manager Dave Carter chose different words to describe his experience. “I’ve had more fun doing this than I’ve ever had,” he said without a moment’s hesitation.
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Carter
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May of 2005 marked the opening of Mossy Toyota, home of San Diego’s largest certified collision center. It wasn’t hard to shift into production mode after opening day, Carter said. With a “new attitude, new building, new equipment, there was just an automatic inflow of work,” he said. The first year brought sales of $2,036,331 from 967 repair orders. These numbers doubled the following year, with $4,770,830 from 2253 repair orders.
From parts duster to collision center manager
With Carter at the helm of the body shop, he was both enthusiastic and a bit intimidated.
“I was the first person hired for the collision center. It was scary,” Carter said. “Just the unknown. No employees. The building was just a shell. Knowing that we’re going to have to fill the facility in short order with cars and personnel.”
Armed with 25 years of industry experience, Carter, 48, was prepared for the position. He has come a long way since his days of dusting parts bins at Marvin K. Brown Auto Center in San Diego, a job that came at the suggestion of his father, then general manager.
“When I got out of high school, he figured I must have needed something to do,” Carter said with a laugh. It was there Carter cut his teeth in the collision industry and landed his first position in the body shop under the direction of Dave Grund-strom, the current GM at Marvin K. Brown.
It didn’t take long before Carter was hooked on the industry.
“I just saw how successful Dave was and back then he was at a relatively young age,” Carter said. “I recognized it as being a fun business and saw that you could make some decent money.”
Key players and sophisticated equipment from Equip Automotive, Inc.
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This is just one of the 12 Jollifts at the collision center. Finding the right equipment came easy with the help of Brian Gutierrez, of Equip Automotive, a major vendor in providing equipment for the opening of the Mossy Toyota Certified Collision Center.
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Finding the right equipment for Mossy came easy with the help of Brian Gutierrez, of Equip Automotive, who took “a real active part in helping us open,” Carter said.
“He basically was the major vendor for providing all our equipment,” Carter said. “He was responsible for placing the equipment and maintaining and training on the equipment.”
The shop has 12 Jollifts, two Chief Automotive measuring tools, two electron welders and three Miller migs.
General manager Jason Mossy, and Dale Snow, director of fixed operations led the opening of Mossy Toyota. A large part of setting up the paint department is credited to general contractor Clint Walker, of Air Management Systems.
“They were the general contractor for the whole project. Before we were a body shop we were an aquarium manufacturing plant. I still get aquarium magazines,” Carter said with a laugh.
DuPont is the brand used in the shop’s two spray booths. There are two painters and five painters helpers and the facilities include a prep station and a mixing room.
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