John Schneider, of Jake’s Body Shop, works on a vehicle last week. He was beginning the process of removing the damaged parts from the car, including the front fender. The body shop has been keeping very busy.

Part of taking care of your vehicle includes getting it fixed when it needs it. That includes not just mechanical work, but body work, when needed, as well.

One local body shop, Jake’s Body Shop on Highway 169 in Blue Earth, asks its customers to be a little patient these days.

“We are probably two to three months out most of the time,” Jake’s shop office manager Tanya Nagel-Hince says. “Although Jake will try and get vehicles in that are undrivable as quickly as he can. Others that just need cosmetic work are down the list a bit.”

Jake’s Body Shop employee John Schneider agrees, but says most of their customers are very understanding and willing to wait to get the work done, because they know Jake’s does good work.

“We could sure use another person in the shop to work here,” he says. “But finding good help is difficult these days.”

Schneider says a young person, who is willing to learn, could learn the trade by just working at a body shop.

That is exactly what he did.

“I started when I was 15,” Schneider, who lives in Truman, says. “I’m 41 now so that is 26 years I have been doing this kind of work.”

He learned the business from a family friend and first started doing detailing, then did paint prep work, then learned painting and finally started doing body work from start to finish.

Jake’s Body Shop’s other shop employee, Mark Baldwin, also learned by doing over the years.

“I was trained as a mechanic and worked for many years at HiWay Ford and then Hanson Auto,” he says. “But I learned body work there and also by working on my street rod and started with Jake (Greg Jacobs, owner) when he first opened up this shop in 2016.”

Another issue that causes some delays is the difficulty of finding all the parts they need.

“It means we have to look around and deal with a lot of suppliers, instead of just getting the parts from one source,” Schneider says. “Sometimes it takes longer than other times.”

He adds that getting some of the chemical-based products they use is also harder than it used to be. Items such as paint, toners, clear coats and paint sealers are more difficult to get, which Schneider says means they spend more time “shopping around” to get them.

Delays are happening in most area body shops, Nagel-Hince says.

“We get calls all the time from people around the area seeing if they can get in because other shops are busy too,” she says. “So it is not just us.”

The staff at Jake’s Body Shop say the number one reason they are so busy is people hitting deer. At times during the year they estimate that 70 percent of their business is from vehicles hitting deer.

“Although quite a few people say the deer hit them, they didn’t hit the deer,” Nagel-Hince says with a smile. “People around Blue Earth really have to keep an eye out for the deer – they are everywhere.”

Despite all the causes of delays, Schneider and Baldwin say they are able to get cars in and get them out fairly quickly.

“These two cars here should be finished up and out the door at the end of tomorrow,” Schneider said, pointing to two cars that looked like they still needed a lot of work yet. “We can work pretty quickly, but sometimes it is like putting a puzzle back together again.”

The staff says Jake has plans to expand the shop and add detailing work, but the issue is both space and getting some good employees.

“We do clean up the vehicles when we are done doing the body work repair on them,” Schneider says. “But we don’t really do any detailing. It would be nice if we could offer that service some day.”