He Meets His Customers by Accident
By Anthony Gadson
Pilot News
GROVERTOWN � A good and dependable auto repairman can be hard to find.
Fred Wilson, owner of Interstate Collision Center, hopes his first solo business venture ends that search for his customers.
He�s just trying to help those in need of his expertise.
�I like to be able to sit down and explain each detail of my estimate,� he said about his way of running a body shop. �For a $3,000 to $4,000 job, there are a lot of details that go into it.�
Wilson�s body shop is located at the U.S. 30 and U.S. 23 intersection, a spot that Wilson is very pleased to have found for his first business.
�I get a lot of drive-by exposure here,� Wilson admits. �People driving back and forth from Plymouth, the South Bend area, North Liberty and Knox are able to see the business regularly.�
Wilson has been around the body shop world his entire life, learning the craft by helping his dad at his body-shop business.
�I�d do the sanding, taping and all the other undesirable jobs that my dad didn�t want to do, stuff a 9- to 10-year old kid would do,� he explained.
Wilson was raised in Chicago, but moved to this area in 1983. At the time, it was an unsettling move for him.
�We moved here with one month left in my sophomore year, which was real tough,� Wilson pointed out. �I went from a school with 1,700 people, to a school with 400.
�If that wasn�t enough of a culture shock, I was a city kid in a rural area with no way of getting around. After I got my li-cense during my junior year, it became more bearable.�
After working with his dad at their body shop � Wilson Auto Rebuilders � he moved back to the Chicago area to refine his skills at body shops there in 1987.
�I met my wife there, then moved back here and rented a home in Plymouth,� Wilson explained. �The move was a joint decision, and we were looking for a good place raise a family.�
Fred and his wife Deneen, a teacher at Menominee Elemen-tary, finally settled down north of Culver, where they still reside. Fred had been working out of Valparaiso at a body shop, before opening up his own business in September 2001.
The travel involved in going to and from his work in Val-paraiso began to take a toll on him and his family, so opening his own business worked out great.
�This is a much better investment with my family, especially since my kids have started school,� he said about his sixth-grade son Tommy and third-grade daughter Emily. �Now if they have a show at school, I just put a sign in the window that says, �Back in couple of hours� and go see them.�
Wilson is also able to spend more time with his children while at work. If they are sick and unable to go to school, they just come to his shop where he has a cot and TV/VCR set up for them.
Emily also gets involved in the shop, where she enjoys working in the office.
�She likes to sit at the desk and, if she sees someone pull in, she gets me out of the shop,� Wilson said about his little helper.
Wilson may need the help from time to time, because he is the one-man work crew. He works the shop, the office and does all the paperwork himself.
Wilson actually has two businesses being run out of the same location. He also runs his used car lot, Americar Auto-motive Sales.
�The lot works out well sometimes, because if a car owner brings their car in and I look at it and discover that it is totaled, then they can look at the ones here,� he said. �I don�t have many because I bought them all myself, so I don�t owe anything to the bank.�
Wilson is hoping his business will be able to grow, through a good customer base, which he knows he can build.
�I just don�t know if the old customers that used to go to our old shop, even know that I�ve opened up my own business yet,� Wilson said. �I�m just trying to let them know that I�m here.�
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