Thursday, August 16, 2007

Fascination with cars leads to new business in Meriden

by Sara Peterson-Davis

Auto body repair and paint might just be a job to some people, but for Mike Garrison it’s a passion.

“It’s all about the car,” said Garrison, who recently opened High Torque Racing Auto Body and Paint Inc. in Meriden. “For me, it’s always been a fascination with cars. How fast you can make them go and how cool you can make them look.”

Garrison’s fascination with the fast and cool is readily apparent to anyone who walks into his shop at 3245 82nd Street. The first sight that greets visitors is the 1970 Skylark GS Garrison has owned since he was 17.

A member of the Buick GS Club of America and the Buick Performance Club, Garrison has a list of clients waiting for him to restore their classic muscle cars.

He also has a list of jobs from area insurance adjustors, who know his work and send him business.

“My client list keeps me busy with small work and I have another long-term list that will keep me busy for four years.”

Garrison’s goal for High Torque is to strike a balance between the two lists.

“It’s about balance. Doing a good job without taking too long.”

The 5,400-square-foot body and paint shop is a culimination of years of experience on the streets and in the shop for Garrison.

In his younger years, Garrison’s fascination with cars and speed took him to the streets where he raced his Skylark GS.

“All I did was race the streets and on the track, ocassionally,” Garrison said. “I never did very well at the tracks but I always did real well on the streets.”

Today, he races on tracks in Kansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky.

After a stint in the U.S. Air Force, the Topeka native returned home and took a job in a Topeka body shop sweeping floors. Soon he was learning to do body work and paint.

“I was a sponge about this trade,” he said. “When it came to paint and body work, if there was anyone who would teach me I listened.”

Eventually, Garrison rented his own body and paint shop in downtown Topeka.

He eventually closed his shop to work for a local car dealership. Being an employee instead of the boss gave Garrison an opportunity to get something he hadn’t had before - formal training.

Now with his own shop, Garrison is ready to put everything he’s learned into this new business.

“I look at every car as if it were my own,” he said. “I look at it and ask myself, ‘If that was my car would I be happy?’”

In the first two months, Garrison has already hired one employee and is looking for another.

In the shop he has everything from a Ford 1500 Pickup in for some fender repair to a 1968 Chevelle Super Sport 396 4-speed ready for a complete makeover.

“We have a vision for that car,” Garrison said. “We want it to look like new.”

In addition to body and paint work, Garrison plans to add American Racing brand hot rod wheels and tires to High Torque’s offerings in the coming weeks.

In time, Garrison would like to hire as many as 10 employees and add two more buildings to the five-acre site that would house an upholstery and mechanic shops.

“I’ve always thought down the road at the big picture,” said Garrison, who spent three years planning High Torque. “Everything I expected is the way it turned out to be.”