By Rich Wicks
Imagine having a classic car that you want restored to its original beauty (or better). Who would you take it to? Well, for many such people in southern Minnesota, the answer is Bremseth Auto Body, in Wykoff. John Bremseth is the owner and founder of Bremseth Auto Body, and he tells the story of how his business came about.
John explained that in 1991, his job was “going a little slow,” and it seemed like the ideal time to open his own shop, “So I went and started working out of my garage at home (Rochester)…and for the first three or four years, all we did was insurance work…Then, my uncle and I did a project together. It was a ’61 Maserati.” John said the owner of the Maserati was very happy with the work, and word of mouth soon brought in an E-type Jaguar. After restoring that car, more Jaguars started coming in. John smiles as he recalls, “One of the members of the Minnesota Jaguar Club told me we’ve probably painted more Jaguars than anybody in the state!”
As John’s business grew, he realized he needed to move to another location, so he looked around for commercial buildings available. Someone told him of a building in Wykoff, and he said his initial thought was, “I’m not moving to Wykoff…why would I want to go to Wykoff?” But after he compared the building and tax costs, he started to reconsider. Then he asked himself, “If customers are already coming from the Twin Cities to Rochester, are they going to come another 20 minutes?…Probably.” And that instinct has proven accurate. John moved his business to Wykoff in 2003, and it has grown steadily since.
Word of mouth has continued to bring in customers looking to restore their classic cars, tractors, antique vehicles, and other odds and ends. John chuckles as he says, “We’ve even painted a fish. A friend of mine was moving to California, and he was having us do a bunch of work on his Volkswagen collection before he moved. So one day he calls me up and says, ‘How do you feel about painting a fish?’ So we did it. It’s very artistic work…The trend now in California is painting actual fish, so he wanted it painted with flames and stuff like that. That’s probably one of the most unique things we’ve painted.”
When asked what keeps him in the business, John says, “It’s never about the money.” He goes on to tell of the pride and satisfaction he gets in knowing the shop is doing excellent work, which in turns makes customers very happy. John has many tales of car shows at which vehicles his shop has restored have been singled out for awards and praise. John recalled a customer who came in to see the finished product on a restoration job. “When he got out, he was just glowing,” John recalls, and he said, ‘I never thought I’d have anything like this’.”
John adds, “There’s no normal; every job is different.” He said the amount of work, as well as the cost, depends on the vehicle, and what the customer wants done. To John and his crew, that’s the greatest challenge, but also the reward. In John’s words, seeing a satisfied customer at the end of the day is “the frosting on the cake.” John said he gets referrals from a lot of other shops in the area, especially for specialty work that others don’t care to do. Although he has no plans to retire anytime soon, John is proud of the fact that his son works for him, and will hopefully take over someday.
Bremseth Auto Body has a five-man crew, and John proudly shared that he and most of his current and former employees are military veterans, and some are firefighters. He also pointed out that his shop is unique in that he does not require his crew to furnish their own tools, which he said helps him bring in and keep good help. John says Bremseth Auto Body’s motto is “Whatever comes in, that’s what we work on.” They provide a wide variety of services, including restoration, collision, rust repair, mechanical repairs, loaner vehicles, storage units, paint mixing, headlight aiming, and free estimates. To see high resolution pictures of some of their work, visit the Bremseth Auto Body website bremsethbodyshop.com or Facebook page.
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