GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A good body repair person can tell what happened to a vehicle in for repair by looking at the damage.
"That one was down in the ditch up in the front, took the bumper and the right fender," Burton Heights Auto Body Shop owner Jim Kilbourne pointed out as he walked around his busy shop floor Wednesday.
"Lost it on the highway. You can see the cement marks on it. Flat tire," he continued, pointing to another vehicle. "We got one here that a tree came down on. You can see the back window's broke out."
He's been dealing with winter weather-related damage to cars nonstop for about two and a half weeks.
"Probably right now we're seeing more suspension damage. Stuff like that, where you're sliding, hitting the curb," Kilbourne, a third-generation body man, explained.
This nasty winter weather has created a backlog of work. When 24 Hour News 8 contacted several body shops Wednesday, they all said the same thing: They're slammed. Business has doubled in some cases. At least once shop is so busy it has had to stop taking jobs.
Kilbourne's not to that point.