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When you’re painting a substantial number of luxury cars every month in eight locations and many of them are top-name brands such as Bentley, Jaguar, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin, you need to use the finest equipment and products available. By working with the best companies, hiring the best people and committing to best practices, Global Collision in Colorado is very happy with Garmat USA, a leading manufacturer of ecologically responsible, competitively priced, and code compliant paint booths, paint mixing rooms and vehicle prep areas.

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Global Collision’s Chief Financial Officer Tim Bator respects the Garmat booths for their reliability, versatility and easy maintainability, he told Autobody News.

“We’ve established a great relationship with Garmat over the years. We have their downdraft booths and their regular paint spray booths in all of our locations. In the past eight years, we’ve purchased a total of 16, so we’re obviously committed to Garmat and appreciate their quality, service and support.”

The 3000 Series spray booths that Global Collision uses are Garmat’s top-of-the-line downdraft spray booths. “We wanted superior airflow and the best lighting we could find. With ten foot-wide doors and a 27 foot cabin, it’s easy to get even large cars in and out of the booth.”

Being proactive about maintaining and regularly servicing his Garmat equipment is a big endeavor with so many locations, but Bator knows the importance of doing it right. “You’ve got to take care of your paint booths, just like you do with your car. We perform our scheduled maintenance on all our paint spray booths on a monthly basis, to ensure the longevity of the equipment. We expect 20-25 years of service out of these Garmat paint spray booths, so it’s a big investment and we want to protect it.”

FCC Collision Centers, a multi-shop operation with three locations in Mountain View, Milpitas and Sunnyvale, CA, started in 1975 when Adam Piper decided to start his own business. A repairman at the time, he purchased the locations in Milpitas and Mountain View and ran those until 1996.

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Then he decided to sell both of those locations to now-infamous group called M2 Collision Care Center, while maintaining ownership of the buildings the businesses were in.

Then in 2005 M2 went bankrupt and since his two sons, Matt and Jason, were working at other collision repair centers in the area, Adam asked them if they’d go into partnership with him on the two stores. Now Matt currently manages the Mountain View location and Jason manages the Milpitas location; they both manage the new Sunnyvale location.

“We worked really hard the first couple of years to build the businesses back up,” said Jason. M2 had burned some bridges in the industry before going out of business and the buildings also needed some repair, so the trio worked hard for the first few years to get the business to where it is now.

During the economic recession in 2008 and 2009 the Pipers had to ride the slow economic wave just like the rest of the industry.

From the moment I came across the Body Shop of Athens’ online, I could tell there was something special about this shop. Their offer of insider tips, latest news updates and the detailed description of the repair process hinted at a shop dedicated to educating the customer and keeping current in the industry, but I had no idea how dedicated owners Carl and Carla Colquett also were to their Georgia community and the environment.

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In November 2008, the Body Shop of Athens in Athens, GA, was the first in their market to convert to a waterborne paint system. They also recycle all paper, plastic, cardboard and metal materials, providing recycle containers for each employee, and they have three separate dumpsters to accommodate their efforts, including one that is made of recycled materials itself. The Body Shop of Athens volunteered to be the first shop inspected in their area for 6H compliance, and Carla sat on the EPA/EPD Stakeholders Federal 6H Rule Committee for the state of Georgia, representing the collision industry segment. Carl and Carla also support local green energy expos by hosting a booth to explain waterborne paint and recycling.

The shop shows its community efforts in many ways. In addition to sponsoring and donating to many organizations, such as Junior League of Athens, Athens Area Cancer Auxiliary and Business Network International, they also sponsor their local Boy Scouts and Food 2 Kids organizations. They participate in Toys for Tots as well and are in collaboration with the State Police for free child seat safety checks at their shop. They offer free meeting space in their conference rooms to the community, and they subsidize space for the International Office of Women to the World, where Carla also serves as a board member.

A1 Grand Auto Body of Garden City Park, NY focuses on family oriented business onquality repairs. This emphasis on quality dates back to owner, Brian Hogan’s early interest in auto body repair. When customers hand their keys over to Hogan, he wants them to know and be confident that they are putting their vehicle in the hands of a man who has been working on cars for most of his life and whose passion for automobile restoration guarantees their car will leave the shop looking much better than when they drop it off.

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When his staff is short-handed, Hogan is always eager and willing to pick up the tools to help restore his customers’ vehicles. His children are following in his footsteps as he did in his father’s. Hogan’s daughter, Ariel, works in the front office, and his son, Joseph, will begin working for his father later this year as part of a work-study BOCES program.

In fifth grade, Brian Hogan would take a bus to his father’s shop after school in order to sweep the floors and park cars. The ten-year-old found the job very exciting. A year later, he learned to sand body surfaces, and this was followed by his first real project.

At the age of thirteen, Brian Hogan purchased his first car, a Cutlass Supreme, for $50. He spent a lot of time on that car, ultimately changing the color three times. Hogan recalls, “I made it my perfect first car. That was my project car.” Since then, Hogan has owned hundreds of cars. One of his best memories is helping his son restore a 1999 Ford Mustang with front-end damage to the point that it won Best in Show at a competition in Commack, NY. He also rebuilt a Chevy Corvette and an early-model Mustang for the Fraternal Order of Police as touring vehicles for their anti-drug and anti-DWI campaigns, complete with custom paint jobs.