JT's Automotive delves in import, custom car jobs

JT's Custom Built Automotive technician and manager Mike Archer takes a look under the hood of one of the trucks he's working on Wednesday afternoon.

by Matthew Weaver<br>Herald Staff Writer
| April 16, 2004 9:00 PM

Ephrata auto shop finding business slow

Good news for those area residents with a Mercedes or a Porsche that's on the fritz.

JT's Custom Built Automotive in Ephrata recently opened, and it deals in Asian and European imports as well as domestic cars.

"It took us three weeks to get it open," said owner Jim Thompson, who said he had previously been in a transmission business before getting burned out. "Seven days a week, I couldn't find anybody to hire or nothing, so I slammed the door shut."

Thompson's new business, JT's, employs one person so far — technician and manager Mike Archer.

"It's been real slow, but the kind of cars we're trying to attract are the kind of cars we're getting: the Porsches, Mercedes and Mitsubishis," Archer said. "We do all the high-tech analysis; we have all the latest equipment to do all that stuff. Jim invested a lot of money to get into this place; he bought everything top-notch. So the kinds of cars we're looking for are the Porsches, Mercedes and BMWs."

That's because most of the other shops do the other cars, Archer said.

"The Mercedes and the Porsches and all that stuff, that's classic cars that no one touches around here and no one really wants to," he said. "We have the outlet for all the parts from Seattle, overnight delivery, we have all the technology to do all that stuff. Most of the people we've talked to so far, they ship their cars to Seattle or Spokane to be worked on. So there's no one around here that really does what we're trying to do."

Archer said JT's is also going to work on some custom built cars.

"We can do all the specialty welding — you can weld stainless and aluminum," he said. "We can build you a car from the ground up if you want."

Archer said he has been working on cars since 1974, working in Everett for ten years, and has all the essential credentials.

"There's four steps you take to make sure cars are fixed right," he said. "You diagnose the problem, then you confirm the diagnosis, which means you make sure that that is the problem, then you repair the problem, then you confirm the repair."

Most cars have multiple problems, Archer said, typically caused by one initial problem. Everything else is a by-product of that failure. The secret is to get down to the root of the problem.

"That's the simple way of fixing things," he said. "A lot of people start throwing parts at cars, which gets real expensive real fast, and no one's happy. We want to make sure the customers are taken care of and happy when they leave."

JT's Custom Built Automotive is located at 2060 Southwest Basin St. in Ephrata. Contact information is 509-754-1458.