CANORA - Al Trach and Vic Kseniuk went into business together on September 1 of 1981 when they opened K & T Auto Body in Canora, and recently marked their 40th anniversary of serving area customers with their auto appraisal and repair needs.
“I started in 1974 in Thompson, Man. at Burntwood Ford Auto Body,” recalled Trach. “I moved back to Canora in 1976, and worked at Central Motors and LENHOCO Enterprises for Richard Leniczek, where I met Vic, who also worked there.”
“In 1981, Al and I decided to open our own shop,” continued Kseniuk. “Times were tough at the start, at one time there were three auto body repair shops in Canora. But the partnership worked out well as I did most of the repairs and Al did most of the painting.”
There have been many changes over the past four decades, but one of the biggest has been the changes in technology.
“Today vehicles have more technology, which makes them more difficult to work on,” explained Kseniuk. “Aside from repair work, we deal with rear and side view cameras, lane departure, lane keep and adaptive cruise control. All that needs specialized equipment to calibrate them. We feel that with the price of vehicles so high, customers are demanding a higher quality of repair compared to 40 years ago.”
The skills and training of the two partners have meshed together well over the years. Kseniuk is an auto body repair technician while Trach is trained as a refinish technician. Wade Trach, a journeyman auto body technician, also works at K & T Auto Body full time. Aaron Trach is a part-time employee who comes in when needed and usually does a lot of prep work for them.
“We do auto body repair and refinish work,” said Kseniuk. “We take care of glass installation and windshield stone chip repair. We have completed all of our required training with I-CAR and webinars as required by SGI in order to maintain our SGI accreditation. We purchased all the equipment required by SGI, including a mig-mag welder with aluminum capability and a squeeze-type resistance spot welder. We also have a couple of courtesy cars that are provided to customers who need them.”
The business can handle customer needs that go well beyond just cars.
“We have painted house doors, fridges, dishwashers, airplanes, lawn chairs, trailers and other unique items,” said Kseniuk.
“One of our most memorable jobs was painting numerous John Deere tractors, four at a time for Englow Farm Services when they were still in Canora,” added Trach. “With any painting jobs, a big challenge is keeping off dust and flies, especially in summer."
Running the business definitely keeps everyone busy, with one of the biggest challenges 小蓝视频 keeping up with the ever-changing technology.
“We enjoy meeting new people, everyone that comes in has a story to tell,” concluded Kseniuk.
