Meet Your Merchant: Couple returns to auto paint business

Debi and Dan Timmons know auto paint - they've been in the business for nearly three decades.

The Timmonses ran a Carson City auto paint store for 27 years, selling it in 2007. About three years later, they decided to go back into business and opened All Auto Paints in December.

Their new shop now offers all the paints and tools needed to put a new coat of color on a car or piece industrial equipment. They also do custom matching and paint mixing on site.

"This is where you get the paint if you want to do it yourself or if you're a body shop," Debi said.

After selling their original business, T&H Auto Paint, three years ago, Debi, 52, figured she'd find work doing administrative work for a law office. But the job market didn't improve and neither did her prospects of finding a full-time gig.

Meanwhile, Dan, 56, continued to work at T&H for another two and a half years - part of the agreement when they sold the shop - until he and his wife decided to go back into business for themselves.

"We kicked it around and thought about what we want to do," he said. "This is what we had done our entire lives."

Using some of the money they made after selling T&H, Dan and Debi opened their new store on South Carson Street near the auto dealers.

Dan and Debi Timmons got their start in the automotive business in 1976 after moving to South Lake Tahoe from Southern California. Dan sold automotive parts and Debi sold automotive paints.

They moved to Carson City in 1980 when Dan got a job with Napa Auto Parts. A couple of years later they opened their business.

There have been plenty of changes to the automotive paint business over the years. Instead of acrylic enamel paint, it's now urethane. There are more laws regulating paints and their accompanying chemicals.

"Times have definitely changed," Dan said. "It's for the good, too. The EPA is there for a reason."

Of course, the technology is different.

They have machines that can fill spray bottles, a task that used to be done by hand. Their computer system now includes a database of recipes for paint combinations to match various makes and models of cars. And they hope to add online sales.

What hasn't changed, though, are the lessons of running a business for three decades, the most important being the value of good customer service.

"When it really comes down to the nuts and bolts, you're going to go back to the place that's nice to you," Debi said.

And despite the changes in technology, the Timmonses still rely on their eye instead of a machine when matching paint colors.

"We had the machine, but it's never right so you have to tweak it anyway," she said. "So why not just do it the old way like we always did?"