TIMELINE
Here is a short history of our company and how we came to serve you:
1948- Steve Koester, as a young man, helped his late father, Fred, refurbish a 1941 Willies. As neither of them had the ability to paint their projects, they had to sub-contract that aspect to someone else. At that time, Steve decided that this would provide an honest living for an honest man.
1960-64- Steve worked during the day at Kelley's Body Shop and in the evening drove a wrecker for Hefner's on an "on-call" basis while repairing vehicles in his garage at home.
1965-69- Steve's vehicle repair business increased to the point that he was able to leave Kelley's and work full time at home, but still continued to drive the wrecker on an "on-call" basis.
1970- In February of that year, Steve purchased the OK Garage (located at Koester's Maumee Ave. location) which became Koester's Body Shop, Inc. Steve continued to drive the wrecker at night for a few more years. At that point, Koester's became his primary employment. Steve completed all facets of the business, including body, frame, paint, and clean up.
1970-79- Koester's grew in its capacity at the Maumee Ave. location and had seven employees.
1978-79- Steve purchased property adjacent to the Maumee property to be able to expand the operation. He built the new structure on the acquired property. In September 1979, he opened the expansion with the old building still in operation.
1981- The body shop had continued to grow and now had approximately 15 employees.
1982- On February 10 of that year, Koester's suffered a property damage loss as the result of a fire caused by gasoline leaking from a punctured tank on a "parts car". The fire was set off by an acetylene torch being used by an employee on another car. The fire damage to the building was beyond repair.
1983-present- Koester's now has 50 + full-time employees and is a full service car and truck facility, from vehicle pickup to vehicle delivery. After completing our new facility, we now have 82,000 sq ft of under roof space to service your needs.
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