Auto body repair and collision repair in Kalispell, Montana presents its own unique set of challenges and differs in many ways compared to auto body repair in other parts of the country.
First a little background on me. I migrated to Kalispell, Montana from the Massachusetts in 1991. I was a collision repair shop Manager that worked 50 weeks a year to spend 2 weeks a year on vacation in Montana. I decided to reverse those numbers and live where I recreated.
A couple of things I learned about auto body repair shops in Kalispell, Montana:
- Parts arrived on a freight truck. I thought this was odd. In the more populated Massachusetts, I would call a dealer and they would run the part down to me. Now I had to adjust to having the vast majority of auto body parts delivered to me in a day or more.
- Auto body repair customers were more patient than the auto body repair customers were back east. Customers seemed to be resigned to the fact that parts would take a little longer or maybe they just had happier lives. Customers back east would have eaten me alive if they had to deal with some of our auto body parts delays.
- Auto body repair in Kalispell Montana involved animal/vehicle collisions like I had never seen before. In fact, over the last 20 plus years that I have worked in auto body shops in Kalispell, I have repaired vehicle collision repairs caused by just about every animal of any size that inhabits Western Montana.
- In Kalispell, Montana auto body shops we see vehicles every week that are involved in a deer collision.
- In Massachusetts, we saw vehicles nearly every day that were broken into or recovered thefts.
- In Kalispell, Montana auto body shops, we repaired more vehicles that were broken into by bears than by people.
- Lastly,that’s when you know you are living in the right place; when you repair more bear break-ins than people break-ins.
Gene Dziza, President
Collision Craft
