Collision Center Supporting Multiple Dealerships Relies on Prospray®

Press Release - Aug 24, 2016

Carlsbad, CA, August 24, 2016 (Newswire.com) - Supporting multiple car dealerships while painting a wide range of used cars for resale, Ed Martin All Makes Collision Center in Indianapolis, IN, needs a paint that can perform at a high level. Body Shop Manager Dennis Deaton and his crew rely on Prospray® every day to give them the finished product they require.

Deaton, 61, has been in the collision repair industry for 41 years, 13 of which were spent managing the company’s collision center. The Martin family has been his only employer and he is proud of that. To say that Deaton worked his way up the ladder hardly describes it. He started as a body tech and held that position until 1985. He then worked as an estimator until 2003, when he became the body shop manager at Ed Martin All Makes Collision Center.

“It’s a great company and I love what I’m doing,” Deaton said. “I came here when I was 19 and they gave me a shot, so I’m not planning on going anywhere else. I will probably retire at some point, but it has been nice to work for the same company for so long.”

The Ed Martin Automotive Group was founded 61 years ago by Ed Martin Sr. He was a football star at Butler University in Indianapolis and his parents were both attorneys. In 1946, Ed sold his first car out of his parent’s front yard.

The next day, his parents told him that their front yard was not a used car lot, so the young entrepreneur went to the owner of their local gas station and negotiated a deal to sell his cars there. As his sales grew, Ed decided to open his own car lot, from which he continued selling and wholesaling used cars.

In 1955, Ed Martin purchased an Oldsmobile dealership in Shelbyville, IN, and five years later he became the youngest Ford dealer in the country. Ed passed away in 2005, and today his two daughters and his son-in-law run the business’ 13 franchises in seven locations.

Deaton has been using Prospray since September of 2009, and it has been a wonderful relationship ever since. He liked his former paint vendor and their products, but he needed a more economic solution. “We wanted a quality product at a better price, so we started looking around,” Deaton said. “We were barely breaking even with our current paint and materials and the insurance companies were capping us. So our jobber said, ‘Let’s find a good paint at a cheaper price,’ and two weeks later, he came in here with Prospray.”

Deaton was fairly skeptical until he did a little research on the company and their products. “At the time, it was fairly new to us, but really it was a 27-year-old British company and they had a great track record of being a good quality production paint,” he explained. “We started using it and painted 4-5 cars with the Prospray and we’ve been using it since. Our painters really like it and our customers are thrilled with the results.”

Ed Martin All Makes Collision Center uses the Prospray solvent line’s versatile intermix system that delivers single stage and basecoat finishes from a single set of high-strength mixing toners to provide both domestic and import formulations for a wide range of VOC-complaint applications.

Deaton is very impressed with the accurate color matches he is able to achieve on each and every car that comes through his facility. According to the company’s website, the Prospray European Intermix System is comprised of an array of exclusive toners, balancers, and binders, giving you the ability to mix a full spectrum of color formulations.

“These color matches are dead-on and it’s pretty remarkable,” Deaton said. “We had an old Isuzu Rodeo here in the shop one day − a car that was discontinued more than 10 years ago. But we took one rusted bumper and painted it with the Prospray and man − it came out perfect. We work on a lot of used cars here, getting them ready for sale on our four used lots and we treat them all the same with the Prospray. These vehicles come out looking new, so it really helps us in our used car department.”

Prospray is versatile, and that’s why Deaton and his crew aren’t afraid to apply it to even the most expensive vehicles they repair. “We get $100,000 cars in here all the time, because we work on all of the brands that the Ed Martin Automotive Group sells, like the Nissan GTRs, which aren’t inexpensive. We know that with the Prospray, we’re always going to get a quality job that matches perfectly, so there is a peace of mind with this product.”

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Ed Martin All Makes Collision Center

Indianapolis, IN

(317) 359-4227

www.edmartinhonda.com

Company At A Glance...

Type: Collision Repair

Facility Employees: 10

In Business Since: 1991

DRP Programs: Two

Number of Locations: One

Combined Production Space: 10,000 square feet