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Running a body shop while raising a family

At Day's Collision, Painting and Repair, two generations of youngsters have grown up.

By JANE MADDEN WELCH
Published January 9, 2006

PALM HARBOR - On her 73rd birthday, Marlene Day spent two hours in a warehouse sorting nuts and bolts with her grandson.

The two were helping the family business, Day's Collision, Painting and Repair, get ready for a move last fall to the corner of Alt. U.S. 19 and Florida Avenue.

The business was started by Marlene Day and her husband, Lamar, in 1953. It is now owned and operated by their daughter Pam Day Miller and her husband, Clayton Miller.

"Family has always been a part of the business," Pam said. "My sisters and me all grew up helping Mom and Dad in the office - sanding cars, masking cars, sweeping floors, emptying garbage cans, just like my kids do now."

Marlene and Lamar Day converted a two-car garage on a dirt street in the middle of an orange grove into Day's Body Shop.

"My husband and I, we both loved cars and we didn't want to work for somebody else," Marlene Day said.

For 20 years they ran the shop and raised a family in the heart of what was then rural Palm Harbor.

One Friday in 1973, Marlene was working in the office as usual. Lamar was heading to lunch, but he stopped to ask his wife about payroll. Suddenly, he grabbed his chest and fell to the floor. He died of a heart attack. He was 40.

"I never got married again," Marlene said. "He was perfect for me."

Pam Day and Clayton Miller met at a Jehovah's Witnesses picnic. Just one date later, Clayton boldly stated, "I'm going to marry you." And he did, in 1978.

"We had a very common background on two fronts," said Clayton, a fourth-generation auto body worker. "Secularly, as far as growing up in body shops, and the fact that we were both in the same congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses."

Part of his 33 years in auto body repair was spent working for Pam's uncle at Day's Body Shop.

Marlene tried to run the shop by herself for several years after Lamar's death, but it became too much work. So Marlene sold it to Lamar's brother.

"When my uncle decided to get out of the business in 1997, we were the natural ones to take it over," Pam said. She knew their three children would be involved, too.

Jessica was 16 when her parents bought the shop and renamed it Day's Collision, Painting and Repair.

"I would stay out late in the garage with Dad, working on cars, hanging out with him," she said.

Dusty was 12 and Logan, a newborn. Pam set up a crib in the office and brought Logan to work with her every day. The family lived two blocks away.

Logan, who now attends Palm Harbor Elementary School, got to take apart his first junker car when he was 6.

Jessica and Dusty, both graduates of Palm Harbor University High School, work full time at the shop.

But the family's approach to business doesn't just extend to who works at the shop. The Millers also have a tradition of closing down every afternoon from noon to 1 p.m. so the family can have lunch together.

Three years ago, they built a home next to the one Marlene and Lamar built in 1969 on a large shaded lot. Marlene still lives in that house, just a stone's throw from 1436 Georgia Ave., where the family did business for 52 years until late October. That's when Day's Collision, Painting and Repair moved to 975 Florida Ave., a location Lamar Day had always dreamed about.

"Dad had always wanted to move to the main drag," Pam said.

"We've been looking a long, long time," Clayton said.

In June 2004, the Millers purchased the 31/4-acre lot, for years the site of Yakle Lumber Yard.

It took more than a year to handle the paperwork and get the property prepared. The newly renovated warehouse is 16,000 square feet, triple the size of the old shop. The Millers have painted the "Day colors" - yellow, white and red - on everything: the prep station, frame clamps and racks, spray booth, forklift and even the shop's golf cart. The floor has been resurfaced, a concrete loading ramp built, two bathrooms installed and an explosion-proof paint mixing room added.

Dusty, whose goal is to eventually own the shop, said the new location "gives us much more visibility."

"People sometimes had trouble finding us before," he said.

"Dad would be very happy, I think," Pam said.

[Last modified January 9, 2006, 12:16:15]