January 9, 2007

Campbell Business all in the family

Cupertino Body Shop owners hand over the keys to the second generation

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

Little did Larry Cooper know when he opened Cupertino Body Shop more than 38 years ago, that it would become a staple of his family and that shortly after his first great grandchild was born he would pass it on to his children Russ and Nancy.

Larry Cooper happily passes the keys to his daughter Nancy Yeager and son, Russ Cooper to the auto body shop he has co-owned in Campbell for 38 years.

But that’s indeed what has happened. The body shop, which originally opened in Cupertino but stayed there only about six months, moved to Sunnyoaks in Campbell in 1968 and to its current home at the corner of Winchester and Hacienda in 1970.

It started out as a partnership with George Fritz, who retired last year and sold his share to Larry’s kids Nancy Yeager and Russ Cooper. Fritz lives in Santa Cruz. He and his wife bought a motor home and plan to explore the country.

Larry sold his half to Nancy and Russ, but he’s staying on as a consultant. “Nancy even had business cards made up with my new title: consultant,” Larry said. “I plan to stay around for about a year.”

Russ and Nancy officially began running the business on Aug. 1.

Entire family
In fact, the entire family is now working at the shop, from Fran--Larry’s wife of 47 years, who helps with the filing, to Russ and Nancy’s sister Lori Militante, who helps with the billing. New to the office is Erica Wiley, Nancy’s oldest daughter and the mother of Fran and Larry’s first great-grandchild, Lucas Wiley, who Uncle Russ laughingly refers to as “The Boss.” Nancy plans to help Erica take over the smaller tasks and clerical work so Nancy can work full time on estimates and dealing with the insurance companies.

The shop does all kinds of bodywork and collision repair including accident related mechanics, painting, frame straightening and insurance work—the shop works with all the insurance companies. It’s even seen some celebrities.

Jose Tejeda and Skeen check out a truck brought in for body work.

“Once we did a car for Willie Mays,” said Larry, “it was a fancy Mercedes. We’ve also worked on cars for football players, Sharks players, the Campbell Police Department—the occasional police car and fire department cars and vans and coaches from Westmont High School have brought their cars in.”

While he doesn’t come out and say how much he enjoys the business, it’s quite apparent that he has enjoyed his many years at the helm of Cupertino Body Shop. It’s also apparent that the reason Cupertino Body Shop has been in business so long is because of Larry’s customer philosophy. “ It’s all about making sure our customers are happy. That’s what keeps people coming back, and that’s how you establish relationships. We do lots of return work. People come in and say, ‘oh my gosh I’ve been here too much.’”

The only cars the body shop doesn’t fix are the ones that get totaled. When the cost of repair is more than the value of the car, typically over $10,000, it doesn’t make sense to fix it, say Larry and Nancy. However, it depends on the damage, Larry added, higher end cars are more expensive, the parts are more expensive, he said. “We’ve fixed a couple for $12,000,” he said.

The walls of Cupertino Body Shop are filled with pictures of the sports teams the shop supports such as Quito Little League, Campbell Little League, Campbell Bobby Sox and Nancy’s son’s team, the Blossom Valley Pony Baseball.

The shop works on any every make of car; it started out that way to establish the business. “Once we had a customer who picked up his car on Friday night and brought it back on Monday. He’d had another accident over the weekend,” said Larry.

“We meet all kinds of people, and we see all kinds of things on the cars. We’ve gotten cars that still had blood on them from injuries. But more often we see bits of hair from deer that have run into cars,” Nancy said.
Getting started

Larry moved to San Francisco in 1960 after he’d served as a crew chief on airplanes for the Air Force. He took a job with his father, who owned an auto paint shop. He had married Fran, a Cupertino native who graduated from Fremont High School, in 1959. The couple moved to Campbell in 1963. Larry got a job with Courtesy Chevrolet doing painting and was there four years when the union went on strike.

He and Fritz already had opened their own shop and worked there part time. When the strike happened, they decided to open full time. Russ started as an apprentice in 1984 to make extra money while attending De Anza College. The former Westmont football star gradually learned all phases of the business including estimating.

Jose Tejeda prepares a damaged pickup truck for painting.

Nancy came aboard in 1986 as a “temporary” secretary, and “I’ve only been here for 20 years,” she said. She now handles most of the estimates and also works with the insurance companies. “I was working for Wells Fargo, and dad needed someone to answer the phones. Over the years, the work grew to include billing and whatever paperwork needed to be done. My days are fairly full, even now when most of what I do is estimating. I love working here, especially now with the entire family here. It’s really fun.”

The shop has hired three men to work with Russ in the body shop. Alan “The-Alanizer” Skeen is the frame technician and body man. Jose Tejeda is the detail man and also prepares the cars for painting and sometimes paints too. Jeff Stephens works as a body man and as a welder. Russ does everything from estimating to painting. He also oversees everyone’s work, he doesn’t talk much, but he really works hard.

Orchards to cars
The area has changed dramatically, Larry said. When they first opened in the area, the only things around were orchards. Kaiser wasn’t built across the Hacienda for many years. “There were no traffic signals, although there was a four-way stop sign at Winchester and Hacienda. There was no traffic at first, it was about a quarter of what it is today.”

Just like Cupertino Body Shop which has grown from a small auto body shop into a full-fledged family corporation.

Cupertino Body Shop is located at 3016 Winchester Blvd., the corner of Winchester and Hacienda. It’s open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Saturday and Sunday. To reach the shop, call (408) 379-4440.