Neatly tucked in the center of town on East Colony Drive, Finishing Touch auto body shop has been making investments for its future through a robust apprentice program and a purchase of a new, state-of-the-art frame rack for repairing vehicles.

Created by Chief Collision Technology, the Phoenix Pulling Rack takes up one full bay in the Finishing Touch garage. Designed to lift 12,000 pounds through a hydraulic pump lifting system, the Chief Rack is intended to support repairs on both full-body and unibody vehicles, from cars to large delivery vans.

Business has been good said Finishing Touch Manager, Matthew Tilden, who decided it was time to make a major capital investment to meet the needs of the company’s growing customer base.

“It’s a game changer,” Tilden said, who’s worked on a Chief rack since joining the business in 1997. “It’s up-to-date, new equipment, it’s quicker and more precise…you can’t fix cars without proper equipment.”

The future of Finishing Touch

Along with its improvements in physical capital, Finishing Touch has begun working closely with the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) to find young apprentices. Through its Collision Repair Program, students visit Finishing Touch to learn what a real, profitable auto shop looks like.

“That was a good investment on our end,” Tilden said, who added three young apprentices who completed the EVIT program to its staff. Josie Sand is a painter’s apprentice who preps, masks and paints vehicles in the shop’s paint department. Antonio Gattuso is a porter/lot attendant who helps with disassembly and reassembly and Dyllon Rieck, who has been at Finishing Touch the longest of the three, is a roving helper and is assigned various jobs around the shop.

The number of young people working in the body shop business is dwindling, Tilden said, leaving the industry in the hands of veterans on the verge of retirement and others who are tackling their second or third decade in the shop.

That’s why Tilden believes it’s so important to promote and teach trades at a young age and take advantage of mentorship opportunities.

“They don’t place a value on trades like they used to. That’s kind of disappearing,” Tilden said. “Everybody pushes ‘Go to college, go to college, go to college,’ and not everybody’s cut out for that.

“You can make an honest living as a body technician or a painter. But that’s not the way kids are pushed today, so the marketplace for available technicians is slim-picking. You gotta grow your own.”

As a young man, Tilden wasn’t cut out for school. Finding employment at dealerships alongside his college classes, Tilden worked his way from a porter to an assistant manager. Learning more on the job than in the classroom, Tilden decided to drop out and become a full-time dealership employee. In 1997, he joined Finishing Touch and never looked back.

Family business

As business picks up at Finishing Touch, Tilden has promoted his son, Laurin Tilden, to assistant manager. After graduating from Northern Arizona University, Laurin spent more than a decade in the car business working at various dealerships and independent body shops in Flagstaff. Last year, the prodigal son came home to join his father at Finishing Touch.

“He’s been a wonderful addition to Finishing Touch, and I don’t say that because he’s my son, I say it because he gets the job done,” Tilden said.

With new equipment and a robust staff, Tilden invites the community to take advantage of its state-of-the-art facility in Fountain Hills.

“If we want to continue to do business as we have for the last 43 years, we gotta make that investment in the people and the equipment and training,” Tilden said. “That’s really what Finishing Touch is all about. It’s a relationship business.”

Finishing Touch is located at 16940 E. Colony Drive. They are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, call 480-837-3355 or visit FinishingTouchAZ.com.