"He was a true body man," John Testa says of his father, now 87 and retired.

In 1966, Joseph Testa opened Testa's Auto Body in San Jose, a business operated for the last quarter-century by his sons John and Peter.

"It was pretty much a one-man operation for my father for many years," Peter Testa said. "My brothers and I got involved in it growing up. All three of us took up the same trade."

"We all took turns, starting with the oldest, kind of as helpers working with our dad after school," John Testa said.

"We've since gone and taken some classes, but realistically pretty much everything we've learned, we learned from him," Peter said.

John and Peter's older brother, Roy, now owns and operates two shops in the Lake Tahoe area, while they have maintained the business started by their father, moving it about 15 years ago to its current 7,000-square-foot facility. Although they have had more employees in the past, they currently operate with just one, Marcos Aldama, who does body work and paint prep.

"Peter does some body work and the office part of the business," John Testa said. "I do most of the painting."

Forty-two years in the same neighborhood has helped the Testas develop a lot of repeat customers, some of whom first had vehicles fixed by their father decades ago, he said.

"Most of our work is based on referrals from other customers--word of mouth," Testa said. "They leave here happy and tell their friends. That is what we really rely on."

The shop has also been a direct repair facility for AAA for more than 14 years.

"It's been a good program for us. It's worked out really well," Peter Testa said. "There are not a lot of complications or issues. There are changes from time to time, new requirements. But they've been very fair with us. We'd like to get on another program like that."

That said, the brothers recognize that direct repair referrals by other insurers to other shops have not been good for their business.

"Unfortunately it's dog-eat-dog out there," John Testa said. "I've had potential customers call and ask, 'Are you on this DRP?' If I say no, that's all they want to know. They don't go beyond to ask if we could still do the work and sometimes don't stay on the phone long enough for us to tell them. That kind of stuff is irritating. I think customers in general just need to be a little more educated."

The Testas said that customer education also should include helping consumers better understand their own insurance policy. As repairers, they say, they often feel trapped when wanting to repair a car as if it were their own, but the customer's insurance policy dictates, for example, what parts are to be used.

"It's sometimes hard to make the customer happy in the position we're put in," Peter Testa said. "It makes us sometimes look like the bad guy."

Their most recent equipment purchase was a Becca solvent recycler.

"That's saved us money in the long run," Testa said, noting that it reduced the amount of waste the shop has to have hauled away. "It's more cost-effective for us because we recycle our own paint and thinners."

They said the shop's PPG paint jobber, Center Paint in San Jose, often allows them to buy such equipment at a set percentage over cost.

"That company is also owned by two brothers who are just really nice guys," John Testa said. "It's really nice to be able to talk to the owners running the place. We dealt with a larger jobber before, but you get personalized service with these guys. It's a tiny little store, but they take care of you."

Peter Testa said moving the business to its current location was among the best decisions he and his brother made, not because the location is all that much better but because it allowed them to buy a building rather than continue to pay rent.

"It's basically our retirement," Testa said of the shop's real estate.

But if they could go back and change something, the two said it may have been smart to have specialized in some way.

"It seems like more of the specialty places stay busier by being a little more unique and specializing in that one thing, whether it's restoration or custom work or whatnot," Peter Testa said. "Twenty years ago, there were fewer shops here, and 20 years before that there were maybe six. Now there are thousands in the Bay Area."

Still, the Testas said they are satisfied to keep their business at a relatively small scale.

"There's less stress, and less is better sometimes," Peter Testa said, laughing.

"I think we're happy with things, and we're more in control," John Testa agreed. "We don't have all of the politics that having a lot of employees can bring. And we get our hands dirty. We don't mind doing the work."