Profiles of success
GOING THE DISTANCE CARSTAR MSO Johnny K of Edmonton has come a long way. By Jeff Sanford
Johnny Kloeckes, AKA Johhny K, at CARSTAR Ellerslie. He’s come a long way since his days growing up in a plywood shack.
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t was the week after the massive fire in Fort McMurray when Edmonton-area CARSTAR owner Johnny Kloeckes spoke with Collision Repair magazine. The interview was scheduled to discuss his three successful decades in the industry, but the talk quickly shifted to the epic events north of Edmonton. The terrifying blaze had swept through the small city of Fort
larger-than-life personality is also someone who overcame real adversity in his early life. Today Kloeckes has the humbleness that a poor upbringing can instill. Life started dirt poor on a farm outside of a small town in Saskatchewan called Frenchman’s Butte. His mother, grandmother and two sisters made up the family. His father was often away
Kloeckes pioneered the customization movement in the city two decades ago. Back then they called him Johnny K. Locals still call him that today. McMurray just days earlier. A chaotic evacuation saw streams of cars race out of the city and then south down Highway 63 through a hellish firescape. Several of those vehicles showed up at Kloeckes’s shops damaged from the disaster. “We had four assignments in one shop. Six altogether. Ash and debris damage, melted mouldings. Some of them were driving through ditches to get out, causing mechanical problems,” says Kloeckes. “We’ll fix them up. We’ll have to ionize them to get the smoke smell out.” Those in need found themselves in good hands. Kloeckes pioneered the customization movement in the city two decades ago. Back then they called him Johnny K. Locals still call him that today. “It’s not Johnny Kloeckes, it’s Johnny K,” he says. But the jovial,
driving a truck. When his mother fell into a hard partying life she ended up fleeing the family. It was up to Johnny and his two sisters—one younger and one older—to step in and take charge. “Over the years we didn’t talk to her a whole lot. She was into a bad lifestyle,” says Kloeckes. Grandmother was not well and so “It was up to us from an early age. We were really poor,” he says. Sometimes his birth mother would return to contact the kids. Kloeckes has a flash of memory of his grandmother hobbling behind the group down the street as Mom took the kids away. When the family finally moved to a slightly larger town it was to live in a tiny plywood shack. Local neighbours would help take care of the kids. The hard, dark life of drinking and partying was never far away. October 2016 collision Repair 43