By Steve McLinden
For 42 years, Read’s Auto Collision has been the go-to auto body shop on Fort Worth’s west side, serving three generations of customers with an ethic of perfection and trust that keeps bringing them rolling back in.
Owner Valerie Dennington estimates that 70 percent of her trade is repeat business, and a sizable part of the balance comes from word-of-mouth. In recent years, several grandchildren of Read’s inaugural patrons have been taking their own cars to the shop for an all-new generation of dents and dings.
While Read’s, at 3317 South Cherry Lane just off Interstate 30, has been in business at the location since 1974, it has changed owners only twice. Dennington said she retains the Read’s name because it has come to stand for reliability over the decades.
The busy shop, chock full of repair jobs on a recent muggy, 90-degree Thursday afternoon, makes do with five full-timers and one part-timer in the form of Dennington’s co-owner spouse, Gary, who comes in to help on occasion when he’s not engaged in his other sundry enterprises.
The couple used to serve as a response team for the disaster-restoration firm Service Master before buying into Read’s. Before that, Gary Dennington was a vice president with BankOne Corp., but the company moved him around so much he sought a more permanent gig and finally settled the family in Tarrant County, Texas.
As autumn rolls in, the fallout from a catastrophic hailstorm that slammed the area in March is largely in the shop’s rearview mirror, although the post-storm frenzy remains fresh in the minds of Read’s crew.
The shop lobby was “standing-room only” just after the storm hit, with customers scrambling to get estimates, Valerie Dennington told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram the day after the hailstorm. Not only that, the Denningtons also had dozens of transient paintless-dent (PDR) workers, who had arrived overnight from around the country, lining up in hopes of landing a months-long gig. The owners finally picked one team from Missouri which turned out to be a “great hire” and has returned to Read’s from time to time to work on assorted jobs, she said.
The shop itself incurred sign damage and a twisted gate that staffers speculate occurred when a small tornado associated with the storms dropped down just a few blocks away, said Read’s General Manager Michael Hanks. With the overflow of post-storm work, Hanks moved from the office back to the shop to the very familiar roles of painter and body worker.
Hanks has been in the business a total of 36 years, including 16 years at Read’s. As a teen, he got his start as a floor sweeper at a body shop in nearby Euless, then slowly picked up the various aspects of the trade by osmosis, later settling into his painting specialty.
“I did leave the business for about two and a half years, but people kept asking me to paint and fix things for them,” he said. “So I thought well, I might as well go back to body work; I guess it’s in my blood.”
There isn’t a job at Read’s that Hanks can’t perform exceedingly well, said his boss. The shop will paint practically anything ranging from antique bed frames to motorcycles, Hanks said.
Dennington said she characterizes the shop’s relationships with insurers as a positive one, adding that its honest reputation makes adjusters and other insurance reps comfortable with its repair quotes and work-hour estimates.
“They know we are not slapping extra stuff on the bill,” she said. While not an insurer “preferred shop,” Read’s still gets insurer referrals because of its long-held reputation for reliability and a lifetime guarantee on its work, the owner said. “They have been working on my family cars for over 20 years!” writes one Google reviewer.
The Better Business Bureau is also a good resource for new work because of the shop’s A+ rating.
Work comes from all over the region, including such communities as Weatherford, Granbury and Mineral Wells, which are 40 to 50 miles away. One customer who moved to Oklahoma still drives her car to the shop for repairs, the owner noted.
The Denningtons live in Colleyville, which is about a 45-minute commute to the shop, and Valerie Dennington has driven numerous cars owned by Colleyville High School students to Reid’s for body repairs.
The owners have two children, a son who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and a daughter who attends the University of Mississippi. In fact, Valerie would be leaving the next morning for the approximately nine-hour drive to Oxford, Miss., to watch the Ole Miss Rebels football team attempt to upset the Alabama Crimson Tide for the third straight time.
The Read’s shop office is clean and clutter-free but remains “no frills” to help keep overhead low to pass along the best prices to customers, Dennington said.
“After all, you’re not coming here for a massage,” she said.
The effervescent Dennington has found little downside in being a female owner in a male-dominated business. Occasionally, a male customer will ask to speak with a man in charge, she said, but having a female on point, on the other hand, is a relief to women customers who might otherwise feel intimidated when contacting a body shop, she said.
Read’s is open 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and will open on Saturdays when busy or when a customer can’t come by at any other time, Dennington said. Shop tools of the trade include an EZ-Liner II frame machine and two downdraft paint booths.
It’s become increasingly common for customers to become frustrated with large body-shop chains and bring their cars to independents, Dennington said. At least 10 recent customers retrieved their vehicles from Service King after experiencing ongoing frustrations and brought them to Read’s, she said.
Helping with the brisk workflow at Read’s is master body worker Ricky Tolley, who started in the trade at 16 and has been at for it 36 years now.
“He literally does the work of three people,” gushed Dennington.
To express her thanks to her crew, Dennington will often surprise them with donuts in the morning or Sonic Drive-in food and drinks in the afternoon.
“We even have Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner here with everyone and we cater a lunch every Friday,” she said. “We are truly a family.” •
