"Reno is a bigger town, and finding the right zoning for a body shop here is really getting hard," Dayao said.

But Dayao and Cheng, brothers-in-law as well as business partners, never expected the often-expensive permitting hurdles they would face in getting the second Gilson Autobody location up and running.

"If we knew what we were going to get into with the city of Sparks, we probably would have thought twice," Dayao said. "They'd OK'd the first plan, and after we had more than $100,000 in the building, including digging the paint booth pit, they said, 'Time out. You need to do this, this, and this.' It was two pages long."

"A fire hydrant cost us $100,000," Cheng said as he ticked off some of the items on the list. "We had landscaping all around the outside of the fence, but we had to put $40,000 worth of landscaping inside the fence."

"They delayed us eight months, during which we were paying rent," Dayao said. "But we're done now and have been open about six months, and we're happy to be here. And maybe it's good that it happened that way because if we'd known up front what it was going to cost, we might not have done it. If it wasn't for our Carson City location, we wouldn't have made it. But this is a good location, and we definitely have the work."

Indeed, the company now has 12 employees at the new 12,000-square-foot location, joining its more than 20 employees at the company's original location. And Cheng and Dayao said they expect to hire even more during the first half of 2008, as they shift the body department at the Sparks location to an additional 5,000 square feet of space they have leased in a building next door.

 
Then in June, they said, an additional 7,500 square feet in that second building will allow the company to also offer complete mechanical services, as it does in Carson City.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to fill that space up," Dayao said with a laugh, adding that the company has come a long way since he and Cheng first opened what was essentially a "hobby shop" in a 2,000-square-foot garage in 1991. But he said the push they received from insurers to open a location closer to Reno, and the number of customers from the area who were driving to their Carson City shop, gives him confidence the business will be there.

Getting the new Sparks facility fully equipped has been considerably easier than dealing with the city and county requirements, the two said. They chose a Chief S21 frame rack, a Chief Velocity measuring system, and Miller welding equipment. A John Bean alignment rack is ready to be set up as soon as the additional shop space is ready, as is a second USI Italia paint booth.

 
Suppliers, too, have been critical to the company's successful start at the new location, Cheng said. The shop sprays Akzo Nobel Sikkens paint purchased through Re-Neva Automotive Paint & Supplies, and NC Auto Parts is another of the company's vendors that "really take care of us," Cheng said.

Gilson Autobody--the company name is a combination of the first part of the two owners' first names--is also part of the Assured Performance Network.

"I don't know that much about it because it's brand new, but it's something that helps save us a little money through 3M and Enterprise," Dayao said. "That's the battle now, to see how much you can save."

One area in which Dayao and Cheng said they didn't want to scrimp on was the design and look of the shop's new offices.

"When we built this, we wanted something that when people walked in, they would say, 'Wow,'" Cheng said.

All new leather furniture and a large flat-screen TV make the customer waiting area inviting and comfortable. The lighting and paint colors are dramatic, as is the custom-painted BMW parked in the center of the large open office area. Glass-walled cubicles give adjusters well-equipped work areas.

But Cheng was quick to point out that a nice office and a shop full of cars are not worth anything if you don't have the qualified technicians to do the work.

"A lot of our success is due to our employees striving to make it happen," he said. "It's getting harder and harder to find really qualified technicians, but we try to take care of them, and the good ones stay."

Part of taking care of them, and the shop's customers, is getting technicians the training they need, particularly as vehicle technology continues to change, Cheng said.

"That's why we send our techs to I-CAR and get them ASE-certified," he said. The Carson City location has qualified for the I-CAR Gold Class, something the owners said they will work toward at the new location as well.

"You're not just a 'body man' anymore, pounding metal," Dayao said. "You're definitely a combination of body man and mechanic because you can't tear down a core support without doing mechanical work. You have to understand that those two come together."

Although Cheng and Dayao will have their hands full getting the expansion of the Sparks location completed this year, they said they haven't stopped looking beyond that as well.

"In the next couple of years, we're hoping to reach a goal of $4 million to $5 million (in sales) a year," Dayao said.

"And we're thinking about building another one," Cheng said. After a pause, he added, "After we relax here a little bit and everything is sailing well, just like in Carson City."