or displayed an association emblem on their shop. Some associations were able to put the spotlight on labor rates, and the rates went up slightly in the local area. However, parts discounts to insurers got out of hand, and despite the increased labor rates, shops lost money on parts and many began to go bankrupt. It is also assumed that those same shops were not run well financially to begin with and the parts discounts were the “last straw.” It was also difficult, if not impossible, to recover costs for paint and supplies. Despite the bankruptcies, more shops opened up. To compete with the established shops, they not only offered parts discounts, but also kept the labor rate artificially low. Things got bad—and then got worse for many. According to the veteran shop owner writing the 1969 article, to stay in business, he borrowed $50,000 to stay afloat, not knowing how he would pay it back. From 1964—1969, trade associations became stronger and insurance companies began to accept and even work with the associations to make the industry better. But things did not
get better for all shop owners. Many were poor businessmen and could not control their own businesses or finances. Technicians left for better working conditions. Owners suffered. Despite the best efforts of emerging industry leaders and organizations, another hallmark of the industry in the 1960s was an undercurrent of unrest. It seems owning a body shop during this period was politically tough. The shops fought with the OEs, insurance companies and one another. They had what seemed like a multitude of small local auto body associations that didn’t always work together. Shop owners were looking for answers. The business, as it was in the 1960s, was simply not sustainable. In the post-WWII economic boom, car sales skyrocketed—as did the number of collision and mechanical shops to serve them. This created a lot of competition between shops, which spawned a rather odd phenomenon—the super-cheap service. On the collision side, it was the $29.95 paint job. The concept undoubtedly attracted some work to the shop, but many shop owners thought that the concept was illegitimate and
gave consumers a poor impression of the industry. Harry Wright, president of the IGOA, railed against those shops, both mechanical and collision. He purported that shops were promising ridiculously inexpensive jobs, only to either turn around and charge the customer two to three times as much or do virtually nothing for the cheap, agreed-upon price. He noted that garages that continue this practice continue to “denigrate the automotive repair business and put the industry in a negative light.” The IGOA and other associations continued to fight this wherever and whenever possible. The 1960s also saw the increasing involvement of insurance companies, spawning another trend that continues today to a certain degree—the shop owner who “has had enough” and gotten out of the business. Stories like this one started to pop up all over the collision trade magazines: “After running a three-man body shop for over 25 years, Linwood King of Raleigh, North Carolina was tired of the insurance companies harassing him for parts discounts, asking him to lower his labor rate, asking him to cut corners
and driving customers from his shop. Rather than fight anymore, King stopped doing body work as his main source of business and stopped dealing with insurance companies. Instead, he turned to mostly mechanical work with some small body jobs on the side—small enough that they were customer-pay and did not involve an insurance company. All work was done for cash, on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.” Most had a similar story—it was tough to get started at first. But after things evened out, the shop typically had a smaller volume of business but made more money with less stress, and the owner could sleep at night. Throughout the ‘60s, industry leaders called for shop owners to clean up their businesses and make them more pleasant and aesthetically pleasing to customers, as well as workers. Many owners stepped up and modernized their shops, bringing them out of the ‘60s and onto the edge of the 1970s.
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