By following his father's philosophy, Scott McRoberts, who now runs the business, said Hart Auto Body continues to be one of the top collision repair facilities in the St. Louis area.

 
"This is my life," McRoberts said, who started working at the shop as a kid. "It is what I was born and raised into."

Before the business was McRoberts' life, it was his father Randy's life.  Randy McRoberts and a partner took ownership of the business in 1948 when it was located in downtown St. Louis. In 1970, they relocated it to Florissant and, in 1979, his father became the sole owner, his son said.

In 1991, Randy McRoberts retired from the day-to-day duties of the business, and Scott McRoberts said he took over the responsibilities. 

 
As a kid, McRoberts said he worked for his father in the summers, and by the time he was a sophomore in high school, he was working in the shop part-time during the school year and full-time in the summer. After doing body work for five years, he said he moved into a management position.

"I did hands-on bodywork for five years, which was very important to my dad," he said. "He said that anybody that is going to run this business needs to know all facets of the business. You can't just come in at the management level; you had to do hands-on dirty work so you had a thorough understanding of what it takes to repair a car."

As McRoberts grew into a management position, he said the business grew also.

By 1999, he said he had maxed out production in the 8,400-square-foot building, so it was time to expand. In 2000, he said he purchased a neighboring building and made renovations, which added 6,600 square foot to the shop.

McRoberts said he divided the two shops up with the new building dedicated to body, frame, and mechanical and the old building for prep and paint.

The shops are equipped with two Car-O-Liner frame machines, a Car-O-Tronic laser measuring system, two Garmat 27-foot drive-through, downdraft spray booths, and two Sorbent downdraft prep stations. 

The addition of the second building was necessary to meet the needs of his direct repair programs, along with an increase in staff, he said.

"We now have about a dozen DRPs that we work with," McRoberts said, adding that he employs between 18-23 people including technicians and office personnel. "Typically we run about 85-90 jobs per month, and the average RO is $2,100." However, he said the facility is far from maxed out and could run a lot more volume.

Currently, McRoberts said the No. 1 source of business is repeat customers, followed by direct repair programs, and a recent increase in customer-paid jobs. 

 
Although Hart Auto Body has went through a number of changes and evolved to keep up with the changing industry, McRoberts said one thing that has stayed the same is the owner's presence.

"I'm here every day except for my vacation days," he said.  "I'm here because that is my commitment to making sure the company is run the way my customers want it run. The level of expertise and consistency of the product has to be there, and I think that becomes a problem whenever you don't have ownership there."

Hart Auto Body is also an I-CAR Gold shop, so training the staff is an important part of the business, McRoberts said.

"The training process is ongoing," he said. "I continually make sure employees have a certain amount of I-CAR training so that the whole facility maintains the I-CAR Gold status."

For paint and parts, McRoberts said he uses Diamont R-M paint from Body Shop Mall and orders OEM parts from Weber Chevrolet, Lou Fusz Dodge, and Weir Ford. For aftermarket parts, he said he turns to Keystone, and used parts come from B Auto Parts. 

 
To get his name out there, he said he advertises heavily on 91.5 on Christian radio KSIV and had a business Web site designed, www.hartautobodystl.com.

McRoberts said his latest endeavor is a charity he started called Wheels of Hope. The program is a way to get reliable cars into the hands of people who need a helping hand. Individuals donate cars to participating churches, and cars that qualify are repaired at Hart Auto Body and provided to a qualifying candidate. To date, 21 cars have been repaired and placed with a needy candidate, and six are currently in the repair process, he said.

"I wanted to use this business in a way that could help people," McRoberts said. "There are so many people that if they had a good dependable car, they could get a job, and if they get a job they can break the cycle of poverty. I am talking about the people that want a hand up, not a hand out."