THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410280299
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Business
SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Two automobile businesses have set up shop on the east and west sides of town. Al Smith's Body Shop has expanded and moved most of its operations to 900 Portsmouth Blvd., where it also will get into retailing. Audio Crafters, which sells and installs car stereos and alarms, is now at 420 W. Washington St.
AL B. SMITH, 48, opened his own body shop when he was 22 and a Vietnam veteran. He operated Custom Body Shop in his native Portsmouth between 1968 and 1984, when he moved his operation to Suffolk and began working for auto dealer Mike Duman. Smith now lives in Suffolk.
He worked there for the next 10 years, the first as a Duman employee and the rest as Al Smith Body Shop, a self-owned business within the dealership.
Smith is still involved with Duman and maintains about a fourth of his body shop at the 2300 Godwin Blvd. facility.
About two years ago, both Duman and Smith realized their businesses were doing so well that both needed more space.
So Smith has moved 12 of 16 employees to the 12,000-square-foot building on six acres on Portsmouth Boulevard, freeing up space on Godwin Boulevard for Duman's car sales.
Smith's employees include William Lee Goodwyn, who has been with him for 17 years.
In addition to doing body work at the new site, Smith also will sell some used cars and used parts. His spaces include a showroom for cars, a parts department and three offices.
Renovations, still under way, cost about $35,000, he said. The building needed a new roof and heating system. ``We need to do about six or seven more months' work on the building,'' he said.
The large building was reportedly used in tractor manufacturing in the 1940s. Later it has been a mechanics' shop, car sales, and a motorcycle sales and service business.
Smith did not always want to do body work. In fact, he had decided not to do it.
``My father was an auto painter and I hung around with it all my life. But I couldn't find a job,'' Smith said.
He took a temporary position with King Dodge in Portsmouth in 1967 and in 1968, he decided to open a body shop. He has been doing the same work ever since.
Hours at Al Smith's Body Shop are 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and some Saturdays by appointment.
DAN E. MITCHELL has opened Audio Crafters at 420 W. Washington St. in a building formerly used by a thrift bread store.
Audio Crafters sells and installs vehicle stereo and alarm systems. It is not a new business, though it is new to Suffolk.
Mitchell, 30, opened the first Audio Crafters with two partners in his native Parkersburg, W.Va., in 1987, keeping it going until 1991, when he moved to Chesapeake and worked for someone else.
About a year later, Mitchell opened another Audio Crafters with a partner in the Greenbrier area.
He closed that one recently and decided to open under the same name in Suffolk. Suffolk would afford him an opportunity to offer more product lines, he said. ``Plus Suffolk is a growing area.'' Retailers in the larger cities already had many product lines tied up. For example, Sony is now available to Mitchell at his Suffolk location.
Mitchell is the sole owner of the Suffolk store. He has two other employees. All do the same thing: sales and custom installation of stereos and alarms. Audio Crafters also sells pagers.
Mitchell rents the former bread store building. Only minor renovations were done before he moved in; some by owner Ted Drake, and some by Mitchell. The building was very well-suited to his needs, said Mitchell, who lives in Virginia Beach.
Among car stereos he carries are Pioneer, Blaupunkt, J.L. Audio, Precision Power, Linear Power, Fultron and Petras. Systems start as low as $99 and go as high as customers want to go.
He sells Viper alarms, which start at $179. Panasonic and Motorola pagers start at $19.95. He offers activation services on location.
Mitchell and his employees offer a special service that they believe draws customers from many areas. When people spend big bucks on their vehicles and their stereo equipment, they want the speakers, which often don't fit neatly into back seats and door panels, to look custom fitted.
Mitchell builds panels and platforms from wood, fiberglass and vinyl to hold the components.
Alarm systems allow customers to protect their investments with systems that speak to those who get too close, or that sound alarms and horns, or flash strobe lights. ``It's a deterrent,'' Mitchell said during a loud demonstration of all the bells and whistles on his own car.
Some systems detect motion. Others are activated by glass breakage.
Mitchell got into the business after a stereo system he paid to have installed in his car was done improperly. He thought he could do better.
Hours at Audio Crafters are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Al B. Smith operates his body shop at its new site on Portsmouth
Boulevard. The business includes a showroom for cars, a parts
department and three offices.
Dan Mitchell's Audio Crafters, which sells and installs vehicle
stereo and alarm systems, is new to Suffolk. The building formerly
housed a thrift bread shop.
by CNB