"In the winter, when most collision shops start getting busy, we end up doing a lot more restoration rather than collision repair work," said Israel, owner of Eurotech Bodywerkes. "And in the summer, when people take out their fun cars, that's when we get buried. It's sort of odd, but it's our market niche."

As its name implies, the shop specializes in European vehicles, particularly Porsches and BMWs, offering collision repair and complete restoration services.

"I started restoring cars in the late '70s and early '80s," said Israel, who was introduced to the trade at Lake Washington High School. "It was more of a hobby that grew out of control. I was just a one-man show, but my customer base kept getting a little bit larger and a little bit larger.

"Eventually, those people were having accident damage on their daily driver cars and wanted me to take care of that in addition to the restoration work. So I had to move into a bigger location and hire some people."

Today the seven-employee company operates out of a 6,500-square-foot facility, kept busy by work that comes into the shop almost exclusively by word of mouth.

"We do a little bit of advertising in the local (car) club newsletters, but that's about it," Israel said. "It seems to keep us busy."

Walking through the shop filled largely with BMW track cars and 1960s Porsches in various stages of restoration or repair, Israel said that unlike most collision shops, his customers' vehicles may be in process for from two months to two years.

"This one has been here two years, but it was a complete restoration, including new chrome, a complete new braking system, a new transmission, new leather interior," Israel said pointing to a nearly completed 1964 Porsche.

"This other '64 Porsche job is much more typical. It came in as a collision job, but the owner decided to have us do more to get it ready for a gathering of early Porsches in Lake Tahoe. That's been here for three months. So it depends on what the customer wants."

As with most shop owners, Israel said the biggest challenge in the business revolves around payment.

"Insurance companies are putting a pretty big squeeze on everybody, and just trying to get paid for the work we do can be tough," he said.

The restoration work offers some alternative to that, Israel said.

"We send an invoice to those customers every two weeks, along with pictures and documentation," he said. "I tell customers we need to get an installment payment a week or so after the invoice. We have an arrangement that if we don't get paid seven or 10 days after, we're going to work on something else.

"But of all the years I've done this, there's only been maybe two times that we pulled the plug on a project. That's pretty minimal, considering how many of those cars we do. Sometimes a project will change in process because of money, but we'll try to come up with a plan so we can get it finished. Nobody has any fun sending something out the door that's not done."

Israel said Seattle BMW and Barrier Porsche have been great vendors to work with. He said he's also shot BASF's Glasurit paint line throughout much of his career.

"I love it. It works really well," he said. "Their color-matching-chip system really speeds up the tinting process. And they have great customer service. Wesco (Autobody Supply) carries it, and they take care of us. We get probably 90 percent of our products from Wesco. They're right around the corner, and they're really helpful to us."

Israel acknowledged that while his shop's mix of work helps smooth out some of the highs and lows other shops face in terms of business, he's not been immune to the current slowdown.

"The economy in the last six months has definitely impacted us and, from what I can tell, has impacted a lot of people in our industry," he said. "I'm sure the $4-a-gallon gas price is keeping people out of their cars.

"I'd like to continue to expand and keep growing and am trying to figure out how to do that with the economy that we're in right now," Israel said. "But the fact that we do restoration and collision work helps keep us more consistently busy during the slow times when there's not as much collision work. Thankfully, the people with that kind of income still seem to have it."