Ernie Nickole Reflects on 50 Years Behind the Wheel of His Shop and Studebakers

by Alana Quartuccio

So many dedicated and passionate repairers in the Massachusetts auto body community have devoted their years to making a living while also trying to make a difference in this industry.

New England Automotive Report continues to catch up with the many faces who have played a role in helping to make the auto body community what it is today. This month, we caught up with Ernie Nickole, former owner of Nickole’s Auto Body in Saugus, whose passion and dedication continue on just as strong as his love for Studebakers. 

New England Automotive Report: What was your introduction to auto body?

Ernie Nickole: I opened my shop in 1970, but as for my actual introduction to the business – there’s a picture of me sanding a brand new Studebaker Avanti at five years old. My father had a Studebaker dealership which wasn’t too far from our home, so I was down there all the time, hanging out with him. 

NEAR: At what point did you know that you wanted to go into the auto body business yourself? 

EN: I studied business at Bentley College and earned my degree. When I graduated, the job market wasn’t that great, and I didn’t care for the opportunities that were offered, so I decided to revisit it in the future. I had a customer base working on cars and was making decent money, so I just kept on doing that work and never went back to pursue what I went to college for. I guess studying business did give me an edge [in being a shop owner], and I have no regrets about going to college. I always liked cars, and with my father and my cousins having also worked on them, I became attached to it. 

When I was about 14, I worked after school at a Pontiac dealership doing a lot of the pain-in-the-neck things that the bodymen didn’t want to do, like putting the wood grain and stripes on. But I was learning. The man I worked for was a nice guy. He always tried to keep everyone happy. I always tried to go after his management style. I was 16 or 17 when the dealership had a fire, and I wound up bringing all the bodymen to work at my small shop in my barn to keep them busy until they rebuilt the dealership. I can’t believe my parents let me open up a shop at that young age, but they did. It was a part-time thing, but it got me through college. 

NEAR: Tell us about your shop. How long did you own it? 

EN: I owned my shop for 52 years. Initially, I started work in what was a horse barn. Once I was out of college, the town knocked on my door to tell me I needed a spray booth and other things, so I made the changes right away. Over a 52-year period, I did eight additions. The building kept getting bigger and more modernized. It went from a horse’s barn to a 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility. That’s what you have to do. One of the things they preached [in college] is that you have to keep on moving. You can’t just be happy with where you are; otherwise, you’ll go backwards. Always look to get more business and get bigger. You can’t just be satisfied. I had a good run. 

NEAR: How did you first get involved with the auto body association (called the Massachusetts Auto Body Association aka MABA at the time)? What role did you serve? 

EN: I was fed up and really upset with the direction the industry was going in. I was pretty vocal about it. I got a call from Vinnie DeSessori at Atlas Auto Body who had heard I was pretty wound up. He was too, and he suggested we meet. We talked, and it was good to learn that I wasn’t the only one. The good thing about participating in an association is understanding that you are not the only guy getting beat up. Others joined us, including Rick Starbard of Rick’s Auto Collision and Manny Gulino of Gulino’s Auto Body. Then there were four of us and that grew to eight. Within about a two-month period, we had 150 people and met at a dealership as our previous meeting spot was now too small. And then Vinnie said, “I think Ernie should be the next president of the north shore area of MABA.” And the group seconded. I wound up putting in 20-plus hours a week for the association. 

One of the things I pushed hard for is education. I remember my speech, and I said, everyone needs to get better at the trade to not only perform better repairs but also to write better. I had said, ‘Right now, the insurance industry is a bit like Hitler. His first order was to burn books; the second order was to confiscate guns. Keep them stupid and keep them powerless. That is what the insurance industry does, so we have to learn from each other.’ We would all talk about ways to handle the issues that the body shops shared. I wound up serving for about a half dozen years and later went on to serve on the state Board of Directors for MABA. 

NEAR: What are some of the highlights or most memorable moments from those MABA days? 

EN: I was pretty instrumental in getting the Mitchell Refinishing Guide enforced via the CMR. We had tried, tried and tried. I remember it coming before the ADALB. There were like 300 people in the room. I had a list of questions for chief legal counsel Victor Fanikos. By the time I was done with my questioning, it passed. Turns out, Fanikos agreed with me. I don’t recall what section of the 212 CMR was involved. He said it was always in there; it just had not been enforced. That cost the insurance industry millions. Let me rephrase that. It stopped us from losing millions. It’s not that it cost the insurance industry millions…they owed it anyway. It just wasn’t on our dime, that the body shops were losing it. I mean they are still fighting the fight – it’s just a matter of the shops saying the law is in there and pushing for it. 

NEAR: What made you decide to retire and why? 

EN: It was somewhat recently, about a year and a half ago. After two of my main guys who did good work left to open their own shop, I spent a few years trying to get some qualified technicians in, but I just couldn’t attract good help. I don’t get it. I paid well, offered Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO and had a fully-equipped shop. I’m not a yeller or a screamer, but I just couldn’t find anyone I’d feel comfortable enough with to let them loose on a customer’s car. I realized 52 years is a long time, and I could see the insurance industry was just getting tougher. I just had enough. 

I interviewed about 35 body shops who all came forward wanting to get into the shop. I could’ve made some decent money with it, but I picked up on one kid who made me feel as though I was looking in the mirror 30 years ago. He’s very conscientious. I noticed he used German paint in his shop, and he was the only one doing that, so that told me he does quality work for his customers. When we spoke, I picked up on a lot of similarities between us. One big advantage he has over me is he’s Brazilian and had a lot of Brazilian people who wanted to work for him. So he walked in with a crew of 12 people. With a crew that size, he could do about two-and-a-half times what I could last year. They are all happy and get along well. They have a family environment, cooking breakfast together and praying on Mondays for a good week. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that in my shop. I’m happy I got him in there. He pays his rent on time. He treats me like I’m his father. It’s a good feeling. 

NEAR: Being in this industry for 50-plus years, what would you say are the biggest changes you’ve seen over the years? 

EN: The biggest change had to be the direction of pay form. Back in the 1980s, you’d negotiate out a claim, and the check went directly to the body shop, not the vehicle owner. You could negotiate your labor rate back then. In 1980, I remember getting $32 an hour, and here we are 40 something years later, and it isn’t that much different. The appraisers and insurance companies actually treated you with more respect back then. Many of the appraisers came up from the trades and knew what it took to do the repair. Now, you get a pile of appraisers from the insurance industry. They put a spaghetti strainer on their head and send them off even though they’ve never worked on a car. 

I had one instance where an appraiser came out, put his fist up to the center of where the dent was. When I questioned what he was doing he said, ‘If the dent is the size of my fist, it’s a two-hour repair.’ And I said, ‘You have got to be kidding me. This car ran into a bent over steel fence post and popped a hole right through the fender. It needs a fender!’ The knowledge just wasn’t there on the insurance side a lot of the time. If an insurance appraiser knew what it took to actually do a repair, I think they’d feel funny about giving someone two hours on a 10-hour dent. 

NEAR: What do you miss the most/the least?

EN: I miss my customers and having a steady flow of money coming in. I do have the rent, which is good. I don’t miss the tension dealing with the insurance industry, and I don’t miss having a hard time finding good help. 

NEAR: What’s retirement life like? Any hobbies you’d like to share? 

EN: I had anticipated my two main guys leaving; I knew they didn’t want to take on my shop as they wanted to open one in New Hampshire, so I decided to put up a garage at my house. I already had a five-car garage that was built into the house, so I put up an open span eight-car garage. I’ve got a lift in there and an air compressor, and I just work on my toys all day. It’s so much fun. I’m building a car right now that’s my ‘Mona Lisa.’ I always get a lot of fabrication work, hot rod restorations, speciality cars. The one I’m working on is a 1953 Studebaker, and I’m hoping to get into the Ridler show out in Detroit, and then possibly take it to SEMA and a few other shows when it’s done. I work on that quite a bit, and it’s a huge undertaking. 

I have some other vehicles I’m playing games with to just get everything perfect on them. I’m getting ready to paint my girlfriend’s motorcycle as she wanted me to ‘Gucci it out,’ so it’s got the red and green stripes going on the white base. I made emblems for it and cut them out of quarter-inch steel so the double Gs face each other. She’s always been into cars and motorcycles, so I said let me do this for her. I’m masking it now for the last color, and I’m getting some pinstriping done to it, some graphics and hope to get it to her before the spring comes. It’s definitely going to be different. I don’t think I’ve seen many Harleys with Gucci emblems on them. Skulls maybe, but not Gucci. 

NEAR: Looking back, what comes to mind when you think about the auto body industry? 

EN: I think the guys have a tough run. I feel bad for them. I spent 25 years going to the State House half a dozen times a year with Rick Starbard and Lucky Papageorg. I think the last time I went was for the labor rate increase. We were looking to accept the national average. I don’t think you could ask for anything fairer. They stomped on us. I told every Senator we had the highest labor cost in the country with the lowest labor rate. They wouldn’t believe it. They said it was horrible, and they’d get it squared away. I shut the shop for a week, visited all the senators. It passed in the Senate. Next, it had to go to the House. While waiting for a meeting at the State House, we happened to see three insurance representatives walk into an office, and 15 minutes later, the bill was dead. After two-and-a half years of work. 

It’s filthy the way it works. The insurance companies control the industry, and we can’t fight that. I feel bad for the people in the industry trying to make a living because it’s unfairly being held back. One of the things they do have going for them is that there are so few people who can do quality repairs. They need to just say, ‘No this is the price’ and tell the customer too. I think a lot of people undervalue their abilities. Someone told me a good quality structural technician has the equivalent of a master’s degree. They have to realize their value and what they are entitled to. Toward the end of my business, I was doing a lot of specialty cars. Customers would ask about the cost, and I told them $85 an hour. I hear now that it was probably cheap, but the consumer understands that $85 is reasonable, and the insurance companies do too, but we let them get away with murder. The association needs to try to get these guys to have more pride in their abilities. 

NEAR: What did you get out of working in this industry that you would not have had you chosen a different career path?

EN: I liked the customers. I felt pride, and I don’t know if I would have that if I went to work for someone else. I feel pretty good about what I accomplished in life. I think no matter what I did, I’d have pushed myself to be the best at it. I guess I got a good sense of negotiation out of it. I know my girlfriend doesn’t like to argue with anyone for anything. All I’m saying is that it’s not about being cheap, but if you think you’re overpaying for something, you can get it somewhere else. Over the years, I learned that you have to be able to negotiate, so you don’t get hurt. Another thing is becoming friends with people in this industry. It went from being as though everyone in town was a competitor. We turned that around, and we’re all friends now. If someone runs out of a part, they can go to someone, get it and replace it the next day. 

NEAR: Lastly, anything you want to say to your old colleagues?

EN: If you retire, your blood pressure will drop quite a bit (laughs). It isn’t bad. Just make sure you have something to do, some hobbies. I found myself being a happier person in some ways. It’s nice not having to get up and have to go do something. I have other things that I get up to do now. I go to the gym every morning. I just lost my mother last month, but I visited her every day for years. I worked on the motorcycle today, and I’ll work on the Studebaker on Friday. There’s something to be said about that freedom. There’s nothing wrong with being in the body shop. It’s great. I miss the money, and I miss the customers, but being able to have the freedom to not go there to get beat up by the insurance companies. The customers never gave me a hard time. 

Want more? Check out the May 2025 issue of New England Automotive Report!