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Recent Columns
- A New Evolution in Collision Industry: In-Process Quality Control Technology
- Electric Vehicle Repair: No Room for Error
- From the Desk of Mike Anderson: Nissan Launches ADAS Calibration Course
- The Numbers Game: Are You Winning?
- Social Media Strategist Holds the Keys to Your Body Shop’s Online Success
Gary Ledoux
Gary Ledoux is a freelance writer with 48 years in the automotive industry.
He can be reached at mayorclum@yahoo.com
That’s It! He's Had It, Part 1
Social media has changed the way we interact with each other, with our peers, and with the world.
In Reverse: The 1980s – The Formation of the SCRS
Written by Gary LedouxAt the dawn of the 1980s, the collision repair industry was going through some fundamental changes with the advent of business computers, cars with unibody construction, advances in paint technology, repair technology and the introduction of aftermarket parts.
In Reverse: The 1980s – The Advent of the Unibody
Written by Gary Ledoux
The 1970s were quickly fading into the rear-view mirror and the 1980s were approaching with alarming speed.
In Reverse: Collision Repair Shops “ARM” Themselves
From the start of the “modern” collision shop in the late 1940s up through the 1970s, body shops, as a business, were fairly crude by most standards.
In Reverse: The 1980s – “A Time of Awakening”
Those who have been in the collision industry for a long time remember the 1980s as the advent of automotive unibody construction.
In Reverse: The 1980s – Keeping up With Technology
It seemed like we had just gotten over the decline of the hippie movement, and the rise and fall of disco and a TV actor being president of the U.S.
Truck Topics: Shop Profile – Diversified Body and Paint
In 1989, Mark Gibson started painting Peterbilt hoods in his father’s garage - an inauspicious beginning to what would later become one of the premier heavy-duty truck body shops in the country; Diversified Body and Paint Shop located in Denver.
Truck Topics: Hey Buddy … Got a Millisecond?
During the 2nd annual HD Repair Forum event held in Fort Worth, Texas, in March 2019, John Spoto, National Heavy Duty Truck Commercial Fleet manager for the 3M Company gave a fascinating presentation on the effects of a crash and how so much can happen in a very short amount of time.
In Reverse: 50 Years – A Retrospective
Fifty years ago this month, September 1969, I took my first job in the automotive industry.
In Reverse: An Industry in Constant Flux - A 1970s Perspective
The collision industry went through many changes during the 1970s.
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Truck Topics: Need Techs? HD Shops Have the Advantage
Most automotive and HD truck shops—mechanical and collision-repair shops—need more technicians.
In Reverse: The 1970s - Trade Associations Become a Driving Force
Auto body associations had been around since the 1940s.
Truck Topics: The HD Collision Market – Challenges and Opportunities
Most people in the auto collision industry agree that the collision industry was born around 1946.
In Reverse: The 1970s – Part 2 – The OE’s Become Their Own Worst Enemy
The American fleet had grown exponentially by the 1970s.