Lexington, KY - Diesel fuel, gasoline and engine oil permeate the air. The compressor in the corner kicks on and removes all outside distractions. Frank Conley and Nick Holzhause are elbow deep in the bowels of a car’s engine. The men smile. What outsiders would consider to be a cacophony, they hear as a symphony. And the strong smells are a bouquet of success.
Conley and Holzhause opened Mechanic Masters, Inc., a small automotive repair shop located in Paris, Ky., on Aug. 1, 2009. The men said they handle pretty much anything on the automotive side, from light-duty cars, to trucks, to tractors, farm equipment and lawn mowers.
“We do everything from oil changes to major overhauls,” Conley said and gestured to a diesel engine they just pulled out of a truck. “We specialize in diesel repair, mostly because we’re just about the only ones that do it in Paris. Anything mechanical, we can handle.”
Their partnership is a natural continuation of a deep friendship, and a mutual respect for and knowledge of what really makes vehicles work.
“Nick’s dad, Jeff, and I have been best friends since high school. We grew up together in the dealership life — working at Lexington Dodge. We were the first two technicians in the state to work on a front-wheel drive car,” Conley said. “Jeff and I almost started our own business years ago, but at that time we had younger children and mortgages, so we didn’t do it, but we did still work on cars together.”
Conley said he was there on the day Nick was born, and when the younger Holzhause graduated from high school in 2004, Conley hired him on at a dealership. By the time Holzhause started thinking of opening his own car repair shop, Conley had been working in dealerships for over 30 years and was ready for a change.
“I asked Nick if he had any idea what he was doing and said if he didn’t mind a partner, I would go in with him,” Conley said.
Holzhause agrees the business is a success in part because of their honest and knowledgeable relationship with each other and with automobiles.
“It works out pretty good, because he’s like an uncle to me,” Holzhause said. “When I get stumped, he can help me work my way through it without getting frustrated. Once you get frustrated with a problem, you look over something simple. And if you have someone else who has been there and can step back and review it, the problem is a lot easier to solve.”
The business so far has been a success. Conley said they started the business with a minimal loan of $5,000 and marketed the shop with advertising that said they would work on anything. And that’s exactly what the two men did. They rented their current building for the first year and a half, have paid off the initial loan and have since purchased that building, three adjacent buildings and the parking lot.
“I’ve had anything from a roto-tiller to a John Deere tractor that wouldn’t fit into the building,” Conley said. “Versatility has helped us out a lot. On days when other garages are slow, there is always something for us to do, because we do just about anything.”
While versatility has certainly helped, with the shop servicing more than 70 cars a month, having a specialization has helped the business grow.
“I had a friend in high school who had a truck, and another buddy who had a Camaro,” Holzhause said. “This diesel truck ate this Camaro alive — just left it sitting. And I thought, there is no way you can make an 8,000-pound truck get up and outrun a Camaro and just eat it up like that. That’s pretty much how I got started in diesel.”
The initial, alluring taste of diesel smoke has paid off in the long run for the business. Holzhause’s expertise and passion for the big trucks fills a gap that might otherwise have stayed empty. But it’s not just the versatility or the specialty repairs; Conley and Holzhause both believe in the power of honest work and honest customer relations.
“I learned pretty much everything I know from my dad and from being in the business, getting underneath other technicians and working,” Holzhause, a fourth-generation technician, said. “You give it one 100 percent. Major, heavy work takes time. It has to be precise; that way, you don’t have anything come back on you.”
Conley agreed, but said there is one thing that he believes does come back on them. “Every time we’ve helped someone,” he said, “it has always come back to us.”
Conley said that if another shop calls and explains a problem and asks for help, that’s exactly what Conley and Holzhause give them. They aren’t afraid of helping others, or of someone taking business away from them. Conley said this is just a part of what they do.
“Of course, I can’t fix something over the phone, but I can at least give them a general idea of what might be wrong,” Conley said. “And I always said I would do that if I opened a business, because I had been blown off by so many other people. I just don’t like to do people that way.”
Plans for the future, they said, naturally include growing the business and learning as much as they can when they can, but the service aspect is something they never want to change.
“I’ve been around cars my entire life, and every day, there is a new challenge,” Holzhause said. “I enjoy what I do. It’s a good feeling.”
Mechanic Masters, Inc. is located at 40 West 20th St., Paris, Ky. For more information, contact them at 859-987-2407.