Gary Ledoux

A native of New Hampshire, Gary Ledoux retired in 2017 after a 48-year career in the automotive industry. For 18 years, he worked in various capacities in numerous car dealerships in New Hampshire. In 1988, Gary began his career with American Honda, eventually serving as the assistant national manager for American Honda’s Collision Parts Marketing Department, and was instrumental in launching Honda’s certified body shop program.  He was very active in the collision repair industry, serving on various Collision Industry Conference (CIC) committees and as a three-time chairman of the OEM Collision Repair Roundtable. Today, Ledoux is a freelance writer splitting his time between his Florida home and vacation property in South Carolina. In the summer of 2018, he published his fifth book, YesterWreck: The History of the Collision Repair Industry in America.

Courtesy of Jeff Levine
Towers Motor Parts, pictured in this circa 1933 photo taken on Main St. in Nashua, New Hampshire, was one of the earliest auto parts jobbers to also carry paint and body supplies. Note the Nash dealer two doors down. The large building to the left with the cupola would soon be razed to make way for Nashua’s new City Hall.
Columns

YesterWreck – The Column #5: The Collision Repair Industry – 1930 - 1939 

Jan. 27, 2025
Paint is now sprayable, insurance companies discover severity, and two “unsung heroes” emerge.
Jay Sicht
FenderBender/ABRN Editor-in-Chief photographed these fine 1920s specimens in the Petersen Automotive Museum's Vault in Dec. 2023.
Columns

YesterWreck – The Column #4: The Collision Repair Industry in the 1920s

Dec. 23, 2024
The auto industry was expanding – and cars weren’t just black anymore.
Photo by Jay Sicht
FenderBender and ABRN Editor-in-Chief Jay Sicht took a photo of this 1905 Cadillac Model A Runabout during a visit to The Vault at Los Angeles' Petersen Automotive Museum in Dec. 2023.
Columns

YesterWreck – The Column #2: The Age of Personal Mechanics

Nov. 1, 2024
The collision repair industry begins to form at the turn of the century as more cars hit the nation's largely primitive roads.