 | Roy "Steele" Chamberlain, primary body repair and paint technician, is I-car trained, certified in PPG paint, a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a bachelor of arts degree in business administration and holds patent number 4,770,155 for his clay target device support for skeet. |
"We can fix anything except broken hearts"
$1.72. That was Roy "Steele" Chamberlain's profit in 1996, the first year of business for Chamberlain Collision Plus Inc.
Chamberlain, a former Marine computer specialist, wasn't new to the business. He had done body-work for 20 years. But that work was for other companies, including a 7 1/2 -year stint at Don's Body Shop in Olathe.
It was in the early part of 1996 that Chamberlain thought seriously about opening his own business. He'd moved around a lot as the son of a career Marine. Steele liked the Raymore area and wanted to be part of the community where residents were encouraging him to open his own collision and body shop.
They did more than encourage Chamberlain; they helped set up his shop with their supplies, tools, equipment and physical labor. Lending a helping hand were Lonnie Billings, Boe Ward, Terry Boring, Dale Stewart, George Christensen, Bob Hodgdon, Tony Barton, Don Newbanks, Nancy Ratcliffe, Larry Swezey, Ron Stevick and other Raymore-Peculiar Sunrise Optimist Club members.
Chamberlain's children - Mike, Doug and Iris also pitched in. "With not much money, God's blessing and talent, construction started," Chamberlain said, "It wasn't smooth sailing. When trying to fasten down the roof, high winds and rain hit. Lonnie and I went up on the roof and almost got killed holding down the roof before the rain ruined the new paint booth."
In May 1996, Chamberlain opened the doors for business with a "going the extra mile" attitude on providing customer satisfaction. Treating customers fairly and giving them value for their money paid off. More than 3,500 customers later, business and profits continue to increase and have forced Chamberlain to more than double the size of his facility.
Today Collision Plus repairs and restores vehicles to maufacturer's original specifications. From small dings to rollovers, master technicians go beyond cosmetic repairs. They look for hidden damages and make sure vehicles have their original strength, body integrity and safety specifications.
So comprehensive are the shop's services that its slogan is "We can fix anything except broken hearts." The "plus" in the company's name refers to the all-over attention every car gets and customer demand for the business to go beyond bodywork.
Collision Plus can bring rusted vehicles back to their former glory. Office manager Inez Barmun said: "Last year, a guy had a lot of rust. The boss made some of the parts out of sheet metal, like a quarter panel that he couldn't find in junkyards. He attached the panel, then sanded it really good before putting on body molding putty, which also sands really smooth. After the car was painted, you would never know the replacements weren't originally part of the vehicle."
The 10-bay facility is a full body and paint shop for any vehicle but buses and semi-trucks. Paint tints - more than 20,000 of them - are made with a computer-matched recipe that requires measuring tints by grams. They are often blended by hand for just the right tint. Once painted and heat-transferred at 162 degrees, a vehicle receives a clear coat of finish baked on for added surface protection."We can paint it and have it ready for pickup the same day. We're so confident about the finish that we tell customers to take their vehicles to the car wash after they pick them up," Chamberlain said. Matching existing paint is one way to make a car look new again. At Collision Plus, however, often customers are told to get a $95 buff and polish to bring back their car's original glow rather than spend a thousand or so dollars for a total paint job. Saving customers unnecessary expense is a point of pride for Collision Plus, which displays a $1,253.25 estimate from one major company for the same brake job that Collision Plus did for $271.50 last year. The $25 diagnostic fee is applied to the final bill if the vehicle is serviced at the shop within 30 days of being diagnosed. While a car is being repaired, a rental car at a special rate for Chamberlain's customers can be obtained from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Once serviced, cars get a nice wash before getting picked up. "After a car is fixed, we clean and vacuum them. We won't send a car out dirty. We make 'em pretty," Barnum said. Not only do damaged cars look new, they look the way they did when they came out of the dealer's showroom. "I love taking a wrecked car and making it perfect - so perfect that not even another body man could tell," Chamberlain said. "But my goal isn't only to make the car look good when you pick it up. I want it to look good 10 years from now." |
