History

A story told by Aaron...

Bienie’s Garage and Body Shop was established in 1957 by my uncle Virgil Bien and my father, Leroy Bien at 1515 S. Main, Ottawa Kansas. In 1961 Virgil built a new facility at 319 west Wilson, where the UPS Building in Ottawa is today.

In 1971, my father, LeRoy built a new facility for Body work at 104 S. Poplar. In 1972 he opened business full time. Bienie’s Body Shop was a full service Body Shop in the repair of cars and trucks. The Facility was unique in that he had the frame machine built into the floor.

In early 1987 Tim had plans to build a new facility just north of my father’s building. Tim opened the new “Perfection Body Shop” in the fall of 1987 at 126 North Poplar, our present location.

The shop was a state of the art facility with many items of repair that didn’t exist in the area before. Equipment such as a downdraft paint booth and the area’s first manufactured frame machine. My father retired but since everyone knew us by Bienie’s, we kept all advertisements current.

In 1988 I joined the shop and worked all aspects of the shop. We grew up in the shop learning all facets of the trade becoming combination technicians. We’re still one of the only shops that still work with lead.

With the changes in the structure of cars Tim made sure that we were always ahead of the game when it came to equipping the shop. He was the first to introduce laser measuring on the frame machine in the area as well as performing alignments on the frame machine. The first to introduce inverter spot welding to replace factory spot welds. Also was the first to have computerized paint mixing.

I took over the business in 2005, and reinstated the Bienie’s name. We expanded the building and our service by adding Light Mechanical services and tires. In staying with tradition we installed the latest in tire mounting and balancing technology. Our Alignment system is done by laser measuring instead of the old electronic scanners that require calibration all the time.

We utilize induction heat in frame repair. Our frame machine is current generation of laser measuring with all current anchoring systems. We’ve added the latest in technology in paint mixing capabilities through Axalta and Spies Hecker.

Bienie’s Body Shop inc., a family owned and operated business, has been in place for over 60 years, with Aaron L. Bien as the owner, it will continue to be a state of the art facility with the history of doing repairs to perfection!