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.

Gary Ledoux Collection
A popular 1955 trade journal. Trade journals were localized in the 1940s and 1950s.
Columnists

YesterWreck – The Column #7: The Collision Repair Industry – 1950 - 1959

March 19, 2025
It was America’s Eisenhower-decade; life was pretty good for most people and the collision repair industry, as we know it today, began to evolve.
Adobe Stock 271125229
World War II accelerated the development and production of special aviation and industrial coatings, as found on this B-17 'Flying Fortress,' that would later fit peacetime applications.
Columnists

YesterWreck – The Column #6: The Collision Repair Industry – 1940 - 1949 

Feb. 27, 2025
WWII brought massive changes to American society — and the collision repair industry.
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.