Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – P&D Body Shop, Inc. in Presque Isle has been pounding out dents and making vehicles look like new again for 35 years.
According to owner George Dionne, he and former business partner, Leighton Parlin, opened P&D Body Shop, Inc. April 1, 1973. “Gerald Johnson was renting a body shop that belonged to Presque Isle Volkswagen – where Irving is now – out behind the dealership, and we bought him out and rented the building,” said Dionne. “We bought his equipment and stayed there until the early 1980s.
“The ‘P’ in P&D stands for Parlin, and the ‘D’ is for Dionne,” he said. “We do windshield installation and replacement, as well as auto body repair.”
In 1983-84, Dionne and Parlin bought a piece of land and put their current building up on South Street.
“We liked that location because it was close to Main Street and it was available,” said Dionne. “The building we put up used to be on Skyway Industrial Park as a military building that was torn down. They were acquired by the Northern Maine Fair Association, which sold them.
“We bid on one, got it, and put it up,” he said. “We put a new roof and skin on it, and everything else was new like the wiring, but the physical structure itself used to be a military building.”
After having worked in the freezer at Potato Service for a number of years, Dionne decided he wanted to make a career change that led him to the world of auto body.
“In 1965, there was a program under the Manpower Development Training Act where you could take a one-year course at Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute,” he said. “It was an auto body course, and the following year, it became part of their curriculum. I thought that would be a better opportunity for me.”
Technology has changed a great deal over the last 35 years, and P&D Body Shop, Inc. has kept up with the times.
“The equipment has changed a lot,” said Dionne, who bought Parlin’s share of the business in September 2003 making him the sole owner of P&D Body Shop, Inc. “We used to have plots on the floor to pull stuff and now we have frame machines and 3-dimensional measuring equipment. We used to write estimates out of a book, now we do it with a computer program.
“We used to use lead in the panels and then smooth them out, and now we use plastic body fillers,” he said. “A lot has changed. The paints and primers are far superior today than they were back then, and the finished product lasts longer.”
In addition to Dionne, there are two others employed at P&D Body Shop, Inc. including Dionne’s son, Adam.
“Adam’s been working with me since 1992,” said Dionne. “He’s the best man I ever had. I’ll be 68 in June and I’ll want to cut back, so Adam will be running it then. It’s become a family business.”
Dionne said the auto body shop has a lot of repeat customers.
“We also get their referrals,” he said. “Business is good, and customer service is very important to us.”
Located at 10 South St., P&D Body Shop is open from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 764-1626.
