88 Miles an Hour Back to 1966: A WMABA Time-Travel Tune-Up
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” The flux capacitor has been installed in Hammer & Dolly’s DeLorean, and we invite you on a journey “Back to the Beginning.”
While we may not need roads, it’s sometimes helpful to remember the roads that got us here. WMABA celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018 and is quickly approaching its 60th anniversary, but before WMABA, there was…WMABA! Though the association established to serve the interests of collision repairers in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC areas – and expanded to include West Virginia in 2017 – was officially founded in 1968, organizers first kicked things off in 1966!
Although WMABA’s founders are no longer around, the legacy they established carries on, not only through the association itself, but also throughout these very pages! Hammer & Dolly recently obtained a copy of “The Hammer & Dolly” (Volume 1, No. 2), a newspaper written and distributed by WMABA’s leaders, dated February 1967. While the association would ultimately go on to hire a professional publisher to produce their official magazine a few years later, it all began in a world not typically known for its literary prowess – with a group of collision repairers who were passionate about “driv[ing] home the realization that the body shop owner is an important, essential and respected member of the local business community.”
These bodymen set out to establish a platform that would allow WMABA to “make our members aware of the real problems that threaten and suppress our industry, to seek solutions to our problems through collective educational effort, to encourage fair business practices and principals, [and] to encourage that all repairs be made in the best interest of the motoring public with particular emphasis on those repairs that concern safety.”
Despite the decades that have passed since Steve Horvath, Lee Farrish, Sam Laddon, Patrick Hannagan, Charles Whittaker and Arthur Rein stepped outside of their wheelhouse to produce the original iteration of what would eventually become one of the industry’s best-known trade publications, their mission lives on in the content we print each month…and even in the topics that continue to be revisited! Although evolving technology has forced collision repair procedures to advance by leaps and bounds, this blast from the past clearly shows that the industry of today is not so very different from that of its predecessors.
Evidence of this can be found on the very first page which broadcasts the topic of WMABA’s next meeting: “a panel discussion on problems of our industry that arise in our dealings with the insurance companies and independent appraisers.” Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? But it continues to hit home as these 1960s-era repairers sought clarification on the accuracy and fairness of labor time guide manuals, the differences between adjusters’ estimates and those provided by shops, the importance of quality repairs and even concerns about “the prevailing labor rates!”
And “Great Scott!” Labor rates certainly looked a lot different back then as evidenced by the laments about this “touchy subject,” as it was then deemed. “If the hourly rate is not increased to keep pace with the increased costs, they are going to be out of business,” the column’s writer predicted, seeking to discourage shops from accepting “the old hourly rate of $5 to $6.” Further, he applauded the MIC Corporation for recognizing the increase in operating costs and raising their rate to $7.50.
Well, “things have certainly changed around here!” After all, according to WMABA’s 2021 Labor Rate Survey results, respondents were charging an average of $48.26 hourly for body labor with a range of $42-60. But is that really such a positive change? Based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, $7.50 in 1967 translates to $60.88 in 2021, a number on par with the upper end of our 2021 range. In today’s dollars, that $7.50 equates to around $74. At the same time, the investments in tools, equipment, staff and training has significantly impacted the cost of doing business, so by the time those expenses are paid, it’s easy to see a “heavy” difference in a shop owner’s take-home profits.
Still, then as now, repairers recognized that nothing would change for the better without the basis for their business – the customers hiring shops to repair their vehicles. A full-page feature was dedicated to tips for handling unhappy customers, offering sage advice which certainly still applies today. “A wise auto body shop owner studies his complaints carefully. He looks for patterns…for weak spots in his organization which occur regularly. Can much of the blame be put in one area – a single man, equipment shortages, space needs, poor scheduling, inconsistent pricing? Complaints from customers can often lead to better shop management practices if each problem is solved immediately after it crops up.”
And the publisher of “The Hammer & Dolly” sought to address business concerns in “The Problem Column,” a space provided for shops to write in with the issues they faced and obtain guidance, similar to today’s “Ask Mike” column (see page 32) which highlights some of the largest topics impacting shops around the country and strives to help them improve their businesses.
“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything!” When a handful of repairers ventured outside their four walls with pen and paper to write, edit and publish an eight-page newsletter which was distributed in the three states WMABA served at the time, it’s highly unlikely that they imagined what they were really doing: establishing the groundwork for an enduring legacy that has lasted for nearly 60 years and now reaches thousands of repairers all across the nation.
Yet, their message rings true even today as they insisted that readers were not the only one. “The shop owner is not alone in facing the competitive conditions in the industry; there are others in the community and throughout the nation who have the same problems,” Publisher Lee Farrish wrote in celebration of WMABA’s one-year anniversary, as he also challenged repairers to evaluate their cost of doing business, to base charges on their costs and to stand together for what is right. “When a member of the association speaks out, it is not as a single voice calling out in the dark, but as a representative of WMABA, which represents a substantial part of a great industry.”
And what makes collision repair such a great industry? YOU! As you flip through the pages of this month’s edition, remember that you are part of the lasting legacy that WMABA’s forefathers began, and now it’s your turn to take up the mantle and continue the fight to better the industry for yourself and the future generation. After all, “Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!”
Want more? Check out the January 2026 issue of Hammer & Dolly!